Twilight Sparkle lay down with a book she had read a thousand times before in front of a fire she had lit a thousand times before. It had been fifteen years since the author of this book had died, leaving a seven year old filly for his wife to raise. Luckily, the mare had friends to give her support. Twilight opened the cover and read "Discovering New Lands: the Autobiography of Bright Star". At the end of each chapter was a picture, an idea Twilight had just moments before the book was published.
Flipping through to her bookmark, a photograph showed Bright Star losing to Rainbow Dash by "point zero three seconds" in the finals of a tournament Flight Camp had put together. The next picture showed Bright giving a bouquet of flowers to a teenage Fluttershy. In a side note, it was mentioned that, despite Bright Star's future wife's friendship with the cream colored mare, she still felt a savage pride when she learnt the romance had been short lived. Guilt had caused her to give Fluttershy several apologies.
After graduation, Bright Star worked in the rainbow factory for half a year. After getting caught up in a hurricane, he was pronounced dead. During this time, Bright had traveled from village to village in a far off country, teaching his culture and learning the village's. It was one such visit that inspired Zecora to travel to Equestria. Twilight and her friends, at this time, had been invited to the Grand Galloping Gala after many bribes and fighting. Bright Star had discovered his love of exploration, though a personal vow had brought him back home to Cloudsdale some twenty years later.
Ten years before Bright Star had returned, the ponies you have come to know as "the mane six" had arrived in Canterlot for tea with Princess Celestia. There, the monarch explained rather tentatively that the six elements of harmony could only be bound to mares who had retained their virginity. The moment the mare lost her virginity or magic made her a "he", the magics were no longer bound to that pony. Rainbow immediately gave her position as bearer of loyalty due to her coltfriend's proposal. Rarity said she had no plans, and so she would keep her element until she met "mister right". Twilight Sparkle, on the other hand, had internally sworn that she would be celibate for the rest of her life, so she could serve her princess as long as possible.
To keep herself from ever falling in love, Twilight created the perfect stallion. If she decided what she wanted, she could only fall in love with that stallion; or so her logic decided. "Let's see, he's gotta be smart, if I do fall in love, I want someone I can talk science to. I wouldn't mind somepony who could show me the world, maybe a pegasus? Coat color... pure white! He can't be too scrawny, but he can't be too buff, like Bulk Biceps. And I guess, maybe blue eyes? No wait, purple... Oh, I know! Left one blue, right one purple! And he has to be really nice, and be able to cook." Twilight had given many more specifications, both physical, mental, and even financial, and before long, her "perfect stallion" could have passed for a novel.
During a Best Young Flyer Competition which Rainbow's son, Chromo Blitz-Dash, had entered ten years later, Twilight accidentally bumped into a white flank as she was getting refreshments. Looking up, and apology forming on her lips, she saw the strong, muscular face of a stallion looking back at her. A face who's left eye was blue and right eye was purple. "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention," the stallion's voice apologized. The voice was exactly as Twilight imagined. "My name is Bright Star."
Twilight Sparkle's dream romance had come true. After three years dating, they married. Their "honeymoon" was a ten year trip around the world, in which the mare encountered many cultures with odd appearances, behaviors, and foods that Bright Star quickly learnt how to make. After much discussing, the two decided that a foal would not slow their travels, and thus this story's main protagonist was born.
Since birth, Millennium Star ("Mills" for short) had traveled with her parents. Sometime after her seventh birthday, she found an interesting artifact: a pure white harp with the inscription "GRAVE". Days later, her father became ill and died. Mills and her mother made their way back to Ponyville, where Twilight retook residence in the library and Mills entered the public school system. Bright Star himself only wrote up to Mills's fifth birthday, but Twilight made preparations to finish "Discovering New Lands" as soon as she returned from the journey.
Ten years later, Millennium Star had decided to follow in her parent's hoofsteps and explore the world. Her first journey was to find out where her harp came from.
Equestria. Land of the ponies. Wide open and free, few residents remember the history even as myths. Nopony considered the purposes of a diarchy, let alone the origin, yet Princes Celestia and Princes Luna sit upon their thrones. Nopony except for the archaeologists. Often seen as mere treasure hunters and thrill seekers, an archaeologist's goal is to uncover the truth of their past. This noble goal has brought an expedition twenty strong to the Equestrian Badlands to the south east of Canterlot. With the temperature raising as high as one hundred twenty degrees Mahrenheit during the day and as low as zero degrees during the night, with as little as five inches of rain per year, it's a surprise that any life can live at all, let alone an entire civilization. And yet, the expedition has received help from the Groep zebra tribe from the very moment they arrived. From warm blankets at night, to cool and silky clothes during the day, to daily meals, if it weren't for the Groep, the expedition would have suffered casualties on the first day.
The land was packed hard and cracked, baked and reddened by a scorching sun. Cacti stretched their thorns out of the earth, hoping for what little precipitation was allowed to them. Underground were the rodents, sporting dark brown coats to blend into the shadowed earth below. Above ground, mostly empty, hid the deep red ruby cobra, which often slithered the cracks, looking below for a tasty hamster and above for a swooping hawk. The kingfly, a large bug that grow to the size of a fully grown pony's hoof, with six legs, three pairs of wings, and pincers that can rip off chunks of flesh, were commonly eaten by riding salamanders, so named due to the Groep's use to protect themselves safe. The female kingflies, however, only grew to one quarter the size of the males, had no pincers, and spent their lives pollinating the blood blossom. The blood blossom was considered to be bad luck to be picked, unless you brought it to the funeral plains within three days.
The Groep tribe itself was known to take any strange ponies that came across them and imprison them. Blindfolded and restrained, the prisoners were eventually released when the Groep's migration brought them to over the Macintosh Hills to Dodge Junction, where the tribe traded with the ponies and returned their captives. After trades, the Groep traveled back to the Alabaster Sea, where they would find a vaartuig and sail to their native lands. Then they would come back, and follow their ancient route all over again. Even though the Groep's themselves forget what began their nomadic tradition, the expedition was sure that if they were given permission to inspect their funeral grounds, they could discover the ancient beginnings. The Groep vehemently refused.
Negotiations continued for nearly a decade, with little progress; under the watchful eye of the Groep, they were allowed to visit a pyramid in the grounds. When the valedictorian of a Ponyville high-school named Millennium Star joined the expedition, having belonged with the Groep as a child, they were willing to allow a small group of archaeologists into the funeral grounds under the condition that the young Millennium Star oversaw the entire operation, ensuring that their peculiar exhumation rituals were performed, and each spirit was thanked, blessed, and returned to the lands of the dead, with none of their spiritual possessions missing. Needless to say, the expedition agreed to allow Ms. Star lead, simply because it was their only chance of discovering a truth never known by modern pony, zebra, or even griffon.
"To Lightning, I wanted to explain about –"
"Caramel, he's my best friend, not someone marking my essay."
"Okay, Mills, how about this? My dearest –"
"I'm not even letting you finish that."
"Oh, come on, I thought you loved him."
Millennium Star was a light grey alicorn mare, with a gray and purple mane. Her left eye was blue, and her right eye was purple. Her cutie mark was an unrolled scroll with a large red X. Upon her head was a slightly dusty crown befitting a born princess, and upon her desert robe lay a sewn patch depicting a blood blossom, proving she had permission to visit the funeral grounds. "That's something you say in person, not in a letter." Her cheeks bright red, Caramel Peaches couldn't help but think about how cute her best friend was.
"Wait, you haven't told him yet?" Caramel was a unicorn named for the color of her coat and had a dark brown mane. Her cutie mark was a roughly cut gem. She, too, had a blood blossom sewn to her robes.
"I tried to, but the idiot had to go to those stupid tryouts."
"Okay, okay, so how's this? Dear moron, how are you? Never mind, I don't care."
"Hahaha! I don't think I could get away with that!"
"Are you sure? I think it would be hilarious! Not to mention it would show how close you two are that you can casually insult him."
"I don't even casually insult you."
"You call him an idiot all the time."
"Yeah, but he is an idiot. He can't even read the mood."
"Oh, Mills, you're relying on a colt to read the mood? That would be like asking a dragon to breath ice!"
"And yet, there's an entire colony of ice dragons in the northern mountains."
"Pfft. I never thought you would believe in some myth, Mills."
"So did I, but staring one right in the face kind of makes you rethink what you know."
The two ponies had been climbing to the top of the pyramid. The top looked almost like it had been chopped off thousands of years ago. When they reached the top, they found level ground, besides an ever deepening hole where their excavation took place. A mere week ago, it was discovered that no zebra had ever been buried anywhere near it. The previous expedition teams had never seen the graves of the Groep, and so had nothing to compare it to. That, along with the stories that that was where the disturbed spirits of their ancestors went, was all the convincing it took for the Groep to allow the excavation. "I was right there the whole time, Mills, and I didn't see any dragon, ice or otherwise."
"You were looking the other way."
"You were staring at some icicles!"
"They were caused by the dragons breath!"
"Horse apple. It was cold and we were near death."
A red colt with a white mane and a deep scar on his right hind leg suddenly called out "Enough chit chat, ladies, it's time to work!"
"Yes, Foreman!" the mares called in unison.
The work was arduous. They had to take the dirt off in small amounts, for fear of ruining some ancient hidden artifact. Their decision to dig their way down was made when they failed to find any kind of opening or hidden door, and the top was already leveled off, anyways. For a unicorn, this work was all the easier, since they could work with their magic to lift off just the right amount of dirt. In fact, if half the team hadn't been unicorns, they certainly wouldn't have made it this far in this mere week.
"I've found something!" Millennium called out. "It almost looks like a harp, but the strings are going the wrong way!" Bringing it to the very center of the site, she handed it to the Foreman.
"Let's see, let's see. The head is shaped like a boar's head, the column looks like it's covered in scales, and a long furry tail arcs back to be the body, knee, and neck. The tail is stuffed in the boar's mouth. The boar's left tusk is chipped, and the right has the word "CODA" carved in it. The 'harp' has six strings, four of which being held by the creatures limbs, attached to the column rather than the neck. Front left: segmented and bristled, ending in hook. Front right, ends in digits with sharp claws. Hind left: thin, ending in large pads. Hind right: thick at the top, thin at the bottom, ending in a webbed foot. The other two strings seem to be held by the wings of the creature, curled in to line up with the limbs. Left: thin, spotted, and slightly fuzzy. Right: scaled, yet ending with feathers." Running a hoof through the strings revealed how out of tune they were, but whether it was the way the strings were set or the apparent age could not be answered.
"Stop, please, Foreman. It's making me sick."
Putting a hoof on the strings to cease the vibration, saying "I know what you mean." The whole team, who had been listening the Foreman describe the harp, breathed a sigh of relief , silently saying that they had felt it too. "I'd say it almost looks like Discord, just different animals."
"Perhaps, after we return, I can ask him about it."
"Actually, I would think that you would want to return to the Kingdom of Ponyville and visit Lightning."
"What do you mean, sir?"
"Your voice tends to carry, Princess. As does Miss Caramel's."
"Ah." Her face reddening once again, she asked "But, what of the Groep?"
"We've been allowed to visit this pyramid before, now we just have permission to dig here. Besides, we've already redirected the entire team here anyways, and it'll probably take a few years to get to the bottom. You can go, we'll be fine without you. You've already helped us so much."
"Well, yeah, I guess." Looking down and pawing the ground, Millennium said "Then, I'll be taking my leave."
"Of course, Princess. Just make sure you come back and finish the job."