Chapter one: beneath our hooves
Shuffling papers with the help of her horn, the talented and purple, Twilight Sparkle begun her weekly organization of her library's documents. They recorded who took out books, when they returned them and the title of the book. She read down the list at a whisper "Carrot Top took out a book on gardening, taken out on May 18th, returned May 29th" The mare stamped the paper and put it in a large pile with the others. "Apple Bloom took out a book on cutie marks, taken out on May 21st, returned on June 3rd." She stamped the document with approval and set it aside. Reach for the next paper without hesitation, Twilight noticed something odd about it, it was a map. "The mines of Ponyville? I don't remember this..." she paused and thought. She could recite all the books from A to Z, why was it even with the books? It should be rolled up and stored with the other maps in the box beside the Equestrian history and geography. Confused by this, she thought of one dragon she could think of who would know about this. "SPIKE!" She shouted and heard a response almost instantly. "AH!" He awoke from his slumber with a startle, he stumbled down the wooden stairs to Twilight's side. "W-what is it Twilight?" Spike said, still half asleep, "have you ever seen this map before?" The Unicorn asked him "no, I haven't, why Twilight?" Spike replied scratching his head and looking around the library. "It was in my documents for the take outs and returns, could you put it back with the other maps please? Be careful though, it's quite old" she handed him the map and he walked over to the Equestrian history and geography section to put away the map when he got curious and stopped to look at the map. "The mines of Ponyville" he said under his breath and tapped his chin as he looked across the crinkled and damaged map and found out it wasn't your everyday map. It had details about Ponyville he had never heard of. "Hey Twilight!" He caught her attention, distracted her and made her drop her work and the papers scattered across the floor. Twilight replied frustrated and with gritted teeth "yes Spike?" The purple dragon just laughed nervously and returned to his point "this map has detailed drawings of tunnels under Ponyville, have you ever heard of them before?" Spike asked "no, I haven't" she walked over to him and took
the map out of his hands and read the map carefully. At the top was about a paragraph worth of text and then a detailed drawing of some Ponyville buildings and then below them lots of inter-winding tunnels. The text read as the following.
The Mines of Ponyville Believe it or not there is an assortment of tunnels, ravines and caverns underneath our town of Ponyville. They were created when miner ponies were searching for the elusive, yet precious, material known as Galaxium. It was swirled with dark and light blues, grays and blacks. Along with fiery shades that together resembled a galaxy. It was abundant under Ponyville and the mines were a reason why Ponyville was such a successful settlement in its early stages. But the miners began to get greedy as it got harder to find the Galaxium. Tearing each other apart over a gem! After this, legend has it, a pony claimed the Galaxium was theirs and they were stealing from them. The ponies ignored them and the pony got furious! It was said that the pony used a huge magical force to cave in the entrances for good and disappeared. It is said you can still hear the miners endlessly looking for their goal of finding Galaxium.
"Just a legend" Twilight said and began to roll up the paper "oh come on Twi! You can't turn down an adventure like that! Maybe there's more to then we think!" Spike said and waited for a response "no Spike, the tunnels most likely don't exist, this was probably created by some crazy pony and the map just ended up here Spike." Twilight looked down at Spike and he said "what about the history that could of happened in the mines?" Spike caught Twilight's attention "I suppose..." she said quietly "but we would have to dig up somepony's floor and that would be just plain rude!" Twilight told Spike and walked off to her remaining work. Spike decided to give up and put the map with the others. Yet he saw something that started a spark of hope inside him. He ran over to the map and his prediction was right. "Twi! Look!" He turned around as opened the map to its fullest lengths with a smile. "What?" Twilight left her work again and walked over to the map skeptical and frustrated with Spike's unrelenting pestering. "How convenient" Twilight said and put her left hoof to chin "an entrance is under Sweet Apple Acres!" The mare said and she got a little excited, the Apple family would surely let them find the entrance in there fields. It was unmistakably Sweet Apple Acres, you could tell by the mass of apple trees and the barn. "When should we leave?" Spike asked "think about all the possibilities that could be in the caverns and mines! Treasures! Relics hundreds of years old! All the possibilities!" Twilight beamed and sighed with joy and fell to the floor. "Twilight, when are we going?" Spike leaned over and asked her again "oh right!" She popped up and focused. "We must gather up supplies food, water, paper, a shovel, pencils, and..and...an-" she was cut off by her assistant "whoa Twi! Slow down! I got this." Spike got to work bringing all the stuff they need for their upcoming adventure.