(@Crimson Lionheart POOT POST HERE) It was a nice summer day at the Canterlot Beach, and Circuit Breaker was enjoying it a lot. He and his friends were visiting the beach and have fun, while his adoptive father, Rugburn, was catching waves.
Many of the girls were playing volleyball on the beach, all divided into teams of two. At the moment, the score was neck and neck with Rainbow Dash and Applejack being two captains of the opposing teams. Meanwhile, Crimson Lionheart was having a blast surfing with Rugburn. All the while his adoptive mother, Winter Rush, was busy underneath an umbrella relaxing and reading a book.
"Wait, what?" Crim suddenly stopped and relaxed on his surfboard. Not far from the two of them, a glass bottle floated past the two of them. Right as the bottle floated past them, it caught a wave that was beginning to break and it got carried into the shore.
Circuit was busy building a sandcastle when he noticed the bottle hit the shore. "Guys," he said, as he turned to face it, "You'll never believe what just washed ashore..."
The others turned around to see a lonely glass bottle, sitting on the sand with a piece of paper inside. It was remarkable that nothing leaked into the bottle and ruined the paper. However, this was more then enough to grab the attention of the others. All of the girls turned around to see what had happened, just as Applejack lobbed the ball into the air. But just as the their attention changed, the ball fell back to earth and knocked into the back of Rainbow's head. "Hey! Watch it!" Rainbow Dash grumbled before the girls stopped their game and went to approach them. Winter however, didn't noticed what was going on. She had merely drifted to sleep underneath her umbrella.
Rarity nudged Circuit with her arm. "Why don't you open it? You seem the most interested." Meanwhile, Rugburn and Crimson both washed into shore with their surfboards and were both walking towards the group
"Good point, Rarity," he said. He opened the bottle and read it aloud: "To whomever may find this Message: By the time you read this, I will likely have been dead for many years, perchance decades or centuries. Therefore, rescue would be a futile effort. Nonetheless, I have discovered something that may greatly interest you. Whilst sailing toward a Chinese harbour to trade goods, my attention was piqued by a potentially uncharted Island. Against my better judgement, and without enough food to return to England, I altered course. Much to my astonishment, I would appear to have unearthed the fabled Ark of the Covenant, alongside plentiful jewels and gold. Alas, my rations have depleted, and thus, I write this Message as my body succumbs to starvation and dehydration; in the hope that my Discovery is not for naught, and that another may retrieve it in my stead. Upon the opposing side of this parchment, I have written the co-ordinates to the Island. If you wish to fufill my dying wish, then I bid you good luck in your journey, and may Providence be with you. Signed, Archibald Apple-Pie Written on this, the ninth of November, in the year of Our Lord one-thousand, eight-hundred and seventy-one." Everyone's eyes widened upon hearing this. If the message was not a hoax, then they had just stumbled upon the most important archaeological discovery of the modern era....
The eyes of the girls went bright with surprise. The name at the end of the page along with the date seemed to stick out like an elephant in a room. Applejack looked profoundly surprised at the name, although Pinkie Pike couldn't contained her glee. Although, maybe not for the same reason. "I can't believe it!" Pinkie happily exclaimed. "That sailor has the same last name as me!" Applejack merely rolled her eyes with a chuckle. "Maybe this might explain how the two of our families are both related, sugarcube" The year 1871 was a landmark year within history, especially in Europe. The German Empire was declared in the Palace of Versailles after completely decimating the French Empire during the Franco-Prussian War, the Great Chicago Fire burnt vast portions of the city & Orville Wright, one of the Wright Brothers, was born the same year. However, that year seemed to trouble Crimson. But as the girls were ogling at the letter of a deceased family member, Crim's mind was sharply on one thing only. "THE ARK OF THE COVENANT!?" Crimson cried out. "The same one with the 10 Commandments!?" Now his eyes were lighting up as he rushed over to the girls and quickly investigated the letter. Stories of a undiscovered landmass, jewels and gold already seemed to overwhelm Crimson. But with an item as fabled as the Covenant, if it was to truly exist, would make the discovers the most important people in history. Crimson was almost drooling with amazement before eventually, he was snapped out of it by one of the girls.
"Hey, Earth to Lionheart! Do you copy?!" Rainbow Dash was waving her hand in front of Crim to grab his attention. "Ark of the Covenant... what is that?" asked Sunset Shimmer, who just so happened to be a sentient horse from a parallel dimension and, understandably, wasn't too familiar with holy relics of human religions. "Oh, it's nothing, Sunset," replied Twilight Sparkle, who shared her name and appearance with a fellow resident of Sunset's home dimension who would occasionally visit, "just one of the most important and sought-after artifacts in human history."
Eventually, Crim did snap out from it. However, his excitement was seen all over his face and he looked like he had just met his favorite celebrity, or better yet, all of them at once. "Let me sum this up with you girls, since Sunset seems curious about it." Twilight told the rest of them. "In the Old Testament of the Bible, the ark served as the visible sign of God's presence to the Israelites. The Israelites would rally and vanquish their foes when the ark was brought to sites of battle, and death came to those in the presence of the ark who were enemies of God, betrayed their allegiance to God, or who simply forgot about the ark's immense power. The ark is said to contain numerous sacred relics, including the tablets of law from God that Moses brought back from Mt. Sinai " Crimson meanwhile, couldn't believe it what a discovery they had stumbled upon. "What's next!? The Crown of Thorns? The True Cross? THE HOLY GRAIL!?" Meanwhile, underneath her umbrella, Winter was starting to snore...
However, Crim's loud words woke her up. "You okay, Crim?" she asked with concern. "So this Ark is a major part of the Abrahamic scripture?" asked Sunset, to clarify. "Yes," replied Twilight, "If this message is telling the truth, then this opens up the proverbial floodgates for research and historical insight. No telling what could happen..."
Winter yawned loudly before rubbing her eyes and sitting upright. "What's this all about?" "Oh nothing, mum" Crimson sheepishly chuckled. "We just so happened to find the location of the Ark of the Covenant" "Ah...." She said before scratching her head. "What was that again?" Twilight merely rolled her eyes. "Since we have the letter, I suppose we will investigate this further, but I want to take the letter home and see if this is genuine and not a fake. If this is a legitimate letter, then we might have made the greatest discovery in human history."
"Sounds cool," said Rugburn, "but I think we'd have to be most cautious with it. Remember what happened to the Nazi dudes in the first Indy movie?" "Good point," agreed Fluttershy, "we wouldn't want to end up... like that." The scene Rugburn had mentioned gave her nightmares as a kid.
Then, the excitement that had been built up in Crimson suddenly died down. He certainly didn't want to end up like that. "Oh....yeah, forgot about that" Crimson told the others. Twilight took the note from Circuit. "As I've said, I still need to perform some tests on the authenticity of this letter. It might take a few hours. I'll let you know tomorrow."
"Please do," said Rainbow Dash, excitedly, "I already feel like Lara Croft!" "You don't exactly have her figure, dear," said Rarity, as a friendly joke. Rainbow Dash didn't seem to enjoy it, however. "Ha ha ha... Fake laughter, hiding real pain."
Twilight nodded with a grin. "Well, I'll best be heading off. If I get home early enough, I could maybe even get results tonight. Of course, that's pushing it." The rest of the girls waved Twilight away, while Crimson felt like he was going to be a great explorer. Like Rainbow Dash, he was already feeling like Lara Croft, yet he wasn't exactly the feminine type. Yet alone a female. Maybe Indiana Jones or Nathan Drake suited better...
---- "Well, I got the test results back. The note is definitely from the late 19th century," explained Twilight. Fluttershy gasped. "You... you mean...?" "Yep. It's 100 percent legit."
Flutters then quickly pulled out her phone and started to text everyone about Twi's findings. "It's real! Come to Twilight's house, quick! - Flutters"
