Equestrian Prehistory

        A tarnished crown lay in the box. It was gold with a purple gem in the center. The three recognized it immediately. “Princess Celestia’s crown? What is it doing in this pit?” Twilight said, shocked at the sight of something so out of place.

Dusty spoke up. “No, no no no. Our princess couldn’t have had done something like this. Perhaps it was stolen and thrown in. Look, it’s damaged, as if it had been disrespected prior to being thrown in. But why keep the box?”

“I remember a story about a lost crown. It’s a legend, from long before Equestria was founded, and before our princesses ruled. It takes place long before Discord’s reign of chaos.” Twilight said. “But I thought it was a work of myth. Maybe it’s true. Let’s go back to the library!” She said, the magnitude of the find getting lost in her excitement to read a book.

“You would happen to have a book about this in your expansive collection, wouldn’t you?” Dusty asked. The three walked away from the site and toward the town. Ponies greeted them as they walked by. The archeologists had made quite a few friends in their stay in Ponyville, many of them excited that their small town was the focus of such scientific interest.

Twilight led the two through the main thoroughfare in town. “Everypony here is wondering what you found. There are rumors spreading that you found a new species of pony, or even aliens!” She chuckled at the thought, the grimaced that she laughed. “We know what happened now. Maybe ponies wouldn’t be so excited if they knew.”

Dusty started “Twilight, scientific inquiry calls for the truth, but we have more investigating and discovery to accomplish prior to announcing the find. Namely your legend. Of course, connecting a myth to what we found can be dangerous because the two are only anecdotally linked. But perhaps your legend can also be enlightening as we can find a period of pony history contained in a story. Myths have a basis in reality.”

“Myths can also be dangerous.” Shorty stated. “Sometimes they are created out of whole fabric, and can lead generations astray, robbing ponies of advancement and knowledge out of fear of angering the gods. Of course, we have real goddesses to anger. Thankfully, they are long on patience.”

“She’ll help us too. I’ll have Spike send a letter. Maybe she can enlighten us. But now I’m scared. Why would her crown be at such a site?” Twilight said.

They arrived at the library. Twilight knocked and Spike opened the door. “Rarity! So nice too… Oh, hi Twi.” He said dejectedly. “Rarity said she was going to bring over some gems as payment for me helping her with her new line of gents suits. That was embarrassing too. She had me parade around like a model!” The three stifled laughs at the imagined thought of Spike strutting for show.

“Are you still modeling for Rarity?” Shorty said, pointing at the bow tie around Spike’s neck.

“Uhh, no, I just thought… A guy can’t look good sometimes?” He scoffed.

“Spike, can you take a letter? We have something important to tell the princess.” Twilight said.

“But we already sent a friendship report yesterday. I’m going to get claw cramp again!” He whined.

“This isn’t a friendship report. It’s very secret though. You have to keep this confidential until these two have figured out what is happening. Can I trust you to keep a secret?”

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” He said. Pinkie Promises were serious business to Spike, especially after hearing stories of what Pinkie Pie did when discovering Applejack’s lie. That was something he never wanted to see.

Twilight narrated the find and Spike diligently wrote, becoming more somber as his quill moved across the parchment. Finally at the end of the letter, tears had formed in his eyes. “That’s awful Twi! How can ponies do such a thing to each other? I know firsthand that dragons are mean, but Ponies? And what does the crown mean?”

“We don’t know, Spike. That’s why we must inform the princesses. And we need to find a book, the one with the story of the crowned jewels missing and the battle?”

“That’s one of my favorite stories!” Spike perked up at the thought. “Hey, that’s just like the find. Do you think…”

Twilight interrupted “Yes, we do, I think… Ooph!” She grimaced as a book hit her in the head.

“I found it!”

“No… kidding.” Twilight said angrily. She shook the book off her head, opened it with magic, and started reading. “In a time before nopony knew time, before ponies knew of the truth of the rising of the sun and moon, there was destruction and fear. An evil queen ruled over terrified ponies. They knew that to draw the ire of their queen meant certain death. But some ponies turned their fear to courage and challenged the queen. They marched by the hundreds, torches held in their mouths to show they were no longer afraid, and breached the castle walls.

“They defeated the guards, who were outnumbered. The marched right to the throne itself, only to find the queen missing. In her cowardice, she had fled the castle upon hearing of the revolution, not even having the decency to save her guards, and taking the armies with her. The revolutionaries scattered, looking for the queen, finding ponies hiding in fear of the flames. Some ponies just wanted to be left alone, some didn’t want to participate. Suspicion controlled the revolutionaries and anarchy reigned. Innocent ponies were hurt and died in the confusion. Some ponies wished for the order of the evil queen because they knew that it meant peace, even if it meant imprisonment in their own land.

“After years of such rule, the queen returned, determined to regain her throne. She returned in an ornate cart, pulled by the strongest generals. The ponies of the land were astounded that she would dare go through the public streets so brazenly! But she did. One by one, the leaders of the old revolution left their houses and took up their torches, determined to have their revenge. But the queen had grown more powerful in her leave. With a word and a thought, she stopped them, and ordered her army to attack, and kill, anypony who resisted. But her generals did not follow her order. They had conspired during their absence to destroy the queen, for they were tired of being used as a personal guard. They protected the ponies of the land, not the queen. ‘We can have a new queen.’ They said. ‘Not a new land, not a new society. We are them, not you.’ And the generals and their army turned on the queen. In the battle thousands of ponies died, innocent and guilty, fighting and not fighting. The land was burned. Ponies were massacred. The innocent and the guilty were thrown into pits, dismembered, maimed tortured.”

Shorty spoke up. “That’s just what we found.”

“Shh!” Spike said with an annoyed look.

Twilight continued. “After the battle, dozens of ponies had the grim task of collecting the bodies for burial. Perhaps they could find some dignity in death after being denied in life. One group came upon a mangled body, but this body was larger, and more beautiful, even in death, than other ponies. Some ponies in the group were astounded as they recognized the body of their queen. Then they were angered. She was not immortal! She had lied to them, the ultimate lie! She could die as a common pony! So they treated her as a common pony. They dragged her to a grave, took her crown, and prepared to throw her in with the rest of the dead that would be burned to prevent the spread of disease.  But to one pony this was not enough. ‘A traitor, she is! She deserves the punishment of the treacherous!’ Before the others could act, he took a sword from a dead warrior and beheaded the powerless queen. Then he threw her defiled body to the pit.

“Another found an empty jewel box, perhaps it was kept as a memory by a soldier, nopony knew. The pony put the crown in the box and tossed it in the pit. ‘May this be the end of our terror.’ he said. ‘From this time, nopony else will wear the crown of tyranny.’

“The ponies finished burying the dead, burned them, and left a simple memorial of their tears and sweat at the site.”

Twilight choked up. “The story goes on to say how they founded a new land. I can’t finish. It’s too much.” She trailed off in tears.

“This isn’t the same story I thought I knew.” Spike said sadly.

A knock at the door startled the four. Twilight opened it to find two royal guards and behind them Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. “We left at the moment we received the letter. And we heard you, Spike. This is not the same story we knew either. Perhaps it’s time to reevaluate our knowledge of Equestrian history.” Princess Celestia said stoically.