Chapters Dust cleared from a large explosion on the Apple family’s farm. If Rainbow Dash hadn’t been standing next to the barn, some ponies might have thought she had overdone it with a sonic rainboom again. Three little fillies who wanted to be archaeologists and one large old earth stallion with a brush for a cutie mark, who was a real archaeologist, started clearing the dust from a pit. “Cutie Mark Crusaders Archaeologists! YAY!” the fillies shouted in unison as they dove into the pit.
Applejack turned to the real archeologist. “Dusty Brush, it sure is strange findin’ an old pony burial ground on my farm. I’m just grateful it ain’t somethin’ sinister. I was sure Big Macintosh had found somethin’ bad when those bones showed up when we dug out our new cider cellar.”
A filthy Sweetie Belle peeked out of the hole. “Hey look, I found something! I think it’s a… skull? Eww!” She, Applebloom, and Scootaloo backed away from the new find in uncertainty.
“It isn't going to hurt you. That pony is already dead. And that’s not even bone any more. It’s a fossil!” He reared in excitement at the find. “That’s wonderful Sweetie Belle! A skull is a terrific first find. So much can be learned from the skull about what happened to a pony during his or her life.” He hopped down into the pit. “I hope the whole skeleton is preserved. Little is known about the history of Equestrian natives in this area. A find such as this can expand our knowledge greatly.” He picked up a brush in his teeth and gently swiped at the skull, uncovering more. He then dropped the brush in with a shocked look on his face.
“By the name of Celestia, this poor lady-it is a female-seems to have been… “ He abruptly stopped, reminded of his company. “Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, I think you three should leave for a moment. I need to speak with my assistant.” His assistant, another earth pony named Short Rule, who had a square ruler for a cutie mark gingerly stepped into the pit.
“Aww, that isn't cool!” Scootaloo said, frustrated. “We were helping really well!”
“And we didn't even break nothin’!” Applebloom said desperately.
“You were a big help, all three of you. I do appreciate it, and I will welcome you back here, but there’s something here that maybe you shouldn't see at the moment.”
“But they’re dead already! We aren't afraid of that!” Sweetie Belle said with a crack in her voice.
“That’s not it. I can explain later, but there’s something here that I need to discuss because even I don’t understand it.” Dusty Brush said.
“C’mon girls, I’ll take you back to the house for fritters and cider. I think Dusty here would like some later as well. Would you Dusty, and you too Shorty? For dinner maybe?”
“I think we’ll take that offer. You do make some of the best fritters in Equestria, so I've heard.” Short Rule nodded in agreement. “But I think our work here isn't close to complete.” She said.
“Alrighty, fellas, I’ll be seein’ ya in the evenin’ then.” Applejack smiled, tipped her hat, and walked away, with three little fillies sulking behind her, muttering their frustrations about never getting a cutie mark.
Dusty turned back to the skull. “Does that look like I think it does?” He asked Shorty, knowing she agreed already.
“It does. That looks like a severed vertebra. This poor lady was beheaded. There isn't even a body around.” The two stood there silently. “This is absurd. Aboriginal Equestrians were never known to be so savage. There must be an explanation for this. We need to go deeper.” Shorty said.
“Do you think we are seeing something less significant than we are? Perhaps an accident?” Dusty said.
“Probably. This is an anomaly. The evidence is overwhelming for a more peaceful history. You and I spend years learning and teaching this.” At least I don’t want to believe something so sick she thought.
They spent the next eleven days digging and brushing, investigating and staring at obscure small pony bones. Finally they reached the bottom where no more bones could be found. Steps holding different types of fossils in various formations were about, and throughout the pit, one thing was constant: an ashen residue and small wood pieces.
Shorty and Dusty stood at the bottom, hardened to their find and taking in the scene with a scientist’s impassive eye. Twilight Sparkle stood at the lip of the pit, looking down at the two. “it looks like this whole thing caught on fire! Did something go wrong?” She asked innocently.
Dusty gulped and his voice stopped short. Shorty spoke up in response. “I… This is something horrible. It looks like a massacre, a war crime!” She said, horrified.
“You’re digging in the middle Pleistocene layer, right? At that time, Ponies, as well as other Ungulates, were fairly dispersed and low in population. War was extremely rare and unlikely. So how did this fire happen anyway? Did the explosion go wrong?”
“The residue is part of the site.” Dusty said as he regained his composure. “This isn't a ceremonial ground. Twilight, you have quite a bit of knowledge about, well, everything. I would like a third set of eyes here, and perhaps a unicorn’s magic couldn't hurt. Do you see what Shorty and I see?”
Twilight trotted down the ramp and looked around carefully. “The fossils all appear to have been scattered and abused. And everything is burned. This isn't a ceremonial ground. It’s a mass grave!”
“I thought you might see that. Come over this way.” Shorty gestured with her head toward a corner. “We found this too. We can’t open it without destroying it. Perhaps your magic can be far gentler than our hooves.”
Shorty was looking at a small, ornate wooden box. It seemed preserved rather well, as if with lacquer. “It doesn't fit with the known decorations of the period, but it certainly appears to be in the right place archaeologically. It was embedded in some very stubborn dirt.” Shorty laughed a short laugh, but the scene made her keep a sad demeanor.
Twilight looked at it sternly, concentrating. “It doesn't have a lock. I can do this.” A purple glow surrounded the hasp, and then the lid. It lifted on its hinges and then the hinges fell off. The lid slipped to the ground, separated from the box. “Feathers!” Twilight cursed.
Dusty chuckled. “Don’t worry about that, dear. The box will be fine. It’s the contents I’m interested in.” The three looked in to the box and gasped at the sight. A golden glow erupted and then died down as their eyes adjusted. Then Twilight saw what made the glow. “Oh dear Celestia! How can this even be possible?” She said in shock.
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.
Princess Celestia's Offer
The princesses stood in their regal glory, manes flowing supernaturally, and blocking the light coming through the door. But their countenances softened and Celestia lowered her head to Twilight. “My student and good friend, I'm so happy to see you, even if our meeting is under less than ideal circumstances! Now, please raise yourselves, this is no time for bowing.”
The ponies in the library raised from their bow of reverence and Dusty spoke first, interrupting Twilight in a greeting. “Oh, your majesties, what is it that we don't know?”
“War!” Luna shouted in the royal Canterlot voice. Then she blushed as Celestia glared at her.
“War.” She said again, quieter this time. “Ponies and others have been relatively peaceful for centuries, with the worst of skirmishes being fought with pastries, vegetables, and mean looks. As long as my sister and I have been alive-quite a long time indeed-war has not existed.”
“It hasn't always been that way. This find had proven that.” Shorty said flatly.
“True. And now we know that it is far worse. Early Equestrian history was not recorded very well. We have only had mere shards of bone, ceremonial cloth, and crude petroglyphs to go with the myths.”
“But what if the myths are true? The terrible stories of violence and death! What if this is not just a lone find, an anomaly?” Twilight asked, exasperated.
Celestia stood silent for a moment, then said gravely “I know a way to find this out. It requires a great deal of magical talent and courage. Few ponies are capable, and I have faith you are capable. My dearest student, Twilight, I ask of you a great favor. A favor you may turn down at no cost, blame, and without shame. But it is very dangerous. I know you are capable of what I will ask you.”
Luna interjected, her royal austerity interrupted by a rare show of fear “Are you asking her to use the...pool?”
“Dear sister, I believe there is no other choice.”
“I concur, however, the idea is rather radical.” Luna said quietly.
Twilight, fearful and hopeful, said “I have taken your tasks before, I'm sure I can do this.”
Celestia interrupted “Before you accept, there is something about magic you don't understand yet, as it takes years of learning, and dare I say the experience of death itself to control.”
Twilight's mouth was agape. “Death?”
“Do not fret Twilight, your studies will allow you to understand much, but there are some things that must be experienced.”
“Death?!”
“I am not suggesting that.” Celestia smiled “The experience I speak of is different. But first, I have a story. Do you ever wonder how magic is even possible? By all known physical laws of the universe, it should not exist, and yet it does.
“Magic is a manipulation of the universe at the smallest scales possible. Everypony is capable of it, in different ways and strengths.” She began using magic to show scenes of ponies and others doing things such as cloud manipulation and earth moving.
“Death is one thing that is unavoidable for all, even for seemingly immortal being such as us.” She showed scenes of cemeteries.
“But death is not the end. Every living thing is connected at the smallest scales of the universe. On the smallest scales, the quantum levels, distance and time have no meaning, so everything exists together, in harmony, you might say.” Celestia showed scenes of particles bouncing around.
“The magic that all living things contain becomes connected at these levels. When somepony dies, their magic lives, full and strong, because of the lack of time and space. It is effectively an afterlife.” She showed scenes of ponies from what seemed to be all times of history interacting, all joyfully.
“Somepony with a special talent for magic can access this and see, hear, and experience the thoughts and lives of beings from the past. Using a series of spells, and special locations, you can do this, Twilight. There are means of doing it.”
Twilight gave it thought. “How is this dangerous?” She asked.
“You must be willing to quite literally lose yourself. This pool that we speak of is the method. But it has never been used for what we wish to do, and rarely suggested, as it is very dangerous. But the truth of our past must be known.”
“Why can't you, Princess? Your magic is so much more powerful.”
“Because, Twilight, I would be using my magic to keep you alive. I will be your heart, brain, and lungs during this task. And being somepony else's means of life is not easy, harder than what you will be doing. It will take most of my considerable magical ability, and quite a lot of my physical energy.”
“How does this pool work?”
“It is a magical gateway to all of time, it is enchanted to be used as a means to take over the life of another, which is why we protect it. But it appears to be nothing more than a normal pool. A spell must be cast to use it properly.”
Twilight was silent. “I want to think about this. It's scary, but important.” She said.
“As I said, there is no shame in turning this down.” Celestia said.
“How long do I have to decide?”
“As much time as you wish.” Luna said.
“We will be waiting to hear from you, yea or nay.” Celestia said. With that the royal sisters departed with their guards.
Twilight had been so caught up in the excitement that didn't notice Spike was crying, until he hugged her foreleg. “I can't lose you! You don't really want to do you? You're like the only family I have!” He sniffled.
Twilight hugged him. “Spike, I'm scared too, but I don't even know if I want to yet.”
“Why is it so important for ponies to know about our past? It will only scare them to know that we were so violent.”
“Ponies already know that. Our history has been false. The importance of this find is in knowing that we value life now far more than we did at that time.”
“Why does that matter? We aren’t going to devalue life anymore.”
“Nopony knows that Spike. This is why we have history; so we can understand the past and learn from it.”
“Are you going to do it?”
“I just don’t know, Spike.” Twilight trailed off, slowly shuffling off to lay by the fireplace.
It was time for thinking. If I don’t do this, ponies are in danger of believing a lie. If I do, ponies could be crushed by the truth.
