The Scepter That Stole My Heart
Princess Twilight Sparkle stood proudly at the front of her mirror, reflecting her whole self. Beams of pure sunlight illuminated her royal chambers. She still couldn’t believe on what transpired through the whole day; The Princesses being captured and nearly tortured by Discord’s thorny tentacles, drinking a highly unknown (and extremely disgusting) substance that Zecora gave her, finding out that strange box on the forest…
Oh well.
At least she was safe and sound at her very own room in the Canterlot Castle. Without further adieu, she trotted to the left, revealing a large rectangular box in front of her. On the lid, there was a note that said ‘Property of Princess Twilight Sparkle.’ Under the aforementioned note, another annotation laid besides it. It said ‘Spike, do not open. I’m serious.’ Approaching the box and lifting it up with her magic, she said,
“So what do we have here? Hmm… Hopefully Discord gave us a clue on how his magic works by creating this thing.” Twilight said while unboxing an unknown object.
Lifting a golden rod out of the box, she stared at the mighty object in her sights.
The golden plated scepter she found back at Ponyville. She thought she would bring it back to Canterlot for further examination. After all, it was a stick with her face carved on it, how could she not bring this back with her?
Twilight started examining the mystic object from bottom to top, feeling the very cold metal in her warm furry hooves.
“What kind of precious stone could this be? A ruby, perhaps?” she asked to her self, questioning on what was the type of jewel that was located on the lower part of the scepter.
She trailed off to the actual body of the rod, admiring its truly magnificent features. She ran her left hoof through the body of the scepter, trying to get a better grip on the staff itself. She was now moving to the most important part of the scepter: the gold colored facet it carried.
Staring narrowly into its demonic eyes, she quickly found herself deeply attracted to the scepter. Not caring about the experimentation or anything of the sort anymore, the lavender pony started explicitly stroking the rod upside down with her hoof. She stroked its round form, giggling with delight.
“How kind of Discord that he made this little present for me. I certainly can’t believe how much importance this scepter has created for me.” she started. Not caring about who could possibly hear her by now.
Shifting to the side, she also pulled out the majestic cape Discord had created, and pulled it over her back. Her body was enveloped in the warmth it brought, and Twilight shuddered in delight. Clutching the scepter in her hooves, she strutted around the room, in a regal manner.
“Presenting Her majesty, Queen Twilight Sparkle!” She called to herself, “The greatest leader our wondrous land has seen in centuries!”
She gazed upon herself once more in the mirror, admiring the apparel that Discord had made for her. However, as she glanced at her bare head, she let out an audible cry. She had forgotten her crown.
She desperately started searching for her beloved crown. Crawling under the bed was no use, only accumulated dust could be found laying on the floor. Inside her wardrobe wasn’t any use either, no crown could be found.
Twilight realized that the crown wasn't in the room with her.
Pulling the cape off of herself, she placed it back into the box, with the scepter on top. Quickly placing the lid back on, she rushed out of the room towards the last place she remembered leaving her crown.
"I need that crown!" She yelled, causing several guards to stare at her, quizzically.
Meanwhile, Spike wandered the maze-like halls of Canterlot, searching for the purple lunatic. He clutched a roll of parchments in his claws, continuing his hunt. He came across Twilight's chambers, hoping she was inside. When his knocking received no answer, he opened the door, gazing inside.
"Twilight? Are you in here?" He called, but again remained answerless.
Throwing the door wide open, he came into view of the entire room. It was unnaturally clean, even more than the maid could have possibly done in one of her shifts. This was Twilight's room after all, it had to at least show one sign of obsession with perfection. Not losing any second, he stepped inside, looking for any traces of where the mare could have gone. Instead, his eyes landed upon a box. Not the one that Twilight had found at the Tree of Harmony, but a completely different one. It was black and featureless, yet it piqued his interests.
He approached the box slowly, fearful what Twilight might say if she caught him looking through her belongings. He approached the box, interested in what it might contain. It could contain her deepest secrets, or simply be a box full of books. It could be full of embarrassing pictures, or full of extra dresses. Would he open it, or ignore it like he should? Like a proper dragon?
He opened it.
Gripping the edges of the lid, he slowly opened it, looking away as he did so. Ignoring the warning Twilight had left, he lifted the lid away, slowly gazing at the contents. He caught a glimpse of two solid colors: gold and purple. He was going to continue scanning such objects, before a certain mare caught his attention.
"Spike, what are you doing?!" She yelled, furious at her assistant, "Didn't you read the note?"
He glanced at the warning on the lid, before sheepishly looking back to Twilight. She had found her crown, and was currently wearing it on her head. Quickly gazing back to the box, he saw what Twilight was so mad about. It was the scepter that Discord had conjured for her, along with the cape. Before he could question her scepter, the box was torn away from him by Twilight, who was nearly fuming from the sheer anger.
"Twilight! I-" Spike tried to reason with the infuriated mare, but was abruptly cut off.
"Out." She said, simply. "Spike, get out. Now.”
In fear of what Twilight may do to him, Spike quickly obeyed, scurrying out of the room. She slammed the door shut, purposely hitting him on the way out, and went back to her own little world. Throwing on her cape and gripping her scepter tight, she was a proper queen now that she had her crown.
"You look so marvelous, Queen Twilight." She said to her reflection in the mirror. She folded her wings against her sides, and hid them under the purple fabric of her cape. She spun around, examining herself in great detail.
Swiftly shifting from one position to another, she found herself laying down on one of the most expensive couches you would ever hope for. It was coated in extremely soft fabrics, making her body seem to sink down.
“Oh… Scepty! My love for you can not be described in words!” she continued, while holding the staff upright in her bare hooves.
Quickly fidgeting from her present position, she guided herself towards the enormous mirror in the room.
While contemplating her whole self on the gigantic mirror, she started to drift off into profound thoughts rather than lively enjoying her out of the world experience with the scepter and her royal costume. She was slowly starting to lose the whole sense of doing this deal.
She frowned to herself, knowing that Spike would probably tell Princess Celestia about the scepter, and with her consequently bad luck it would probably be taken away from her; there was also a high chance that her whole attire could be taken as well! It could ruin her very own reputation as a princess of Equestria! And she could even possibly lose all respect towards her! And every single of Canterlot’s paparazzi ponies would be interviewing her about the incident at hoof, and spreading rumours that could destroy her reputation! All because of a senseless and stupid scepter that had her head carved on it!
“No, Princess Celestia can’t be that cruel with her unique star student!” she kept repeating inside of her mind.
“Maybe she can…”
“W-what? Who’s there?!” replied Twilight, fearing as if somepony could’ve overheard her idiotic mumbling of thoughts.
“I’m over here, Queen,” the same voice replied to the lavender pony.
Twilight immediately froze in place, hearing the unknown voice, which resembled the voice of a certain Draconequus. Not knowing what to do, she recurred to her previous actions, thinking she was just hearing things...
“You better watch my fabric, Your Majesty”
Twilight paused again, now knowing that it wasn’t her imagination. She looked around once more, hoping it wasn’t a prank by one of her friends. Twilight was truly puzzled.
“Hey Queenie, are you deaf? Down here!”
This time, Twilight had a good sense of where the sound was coming from. It seemed to emanate from her…
Scepter?
The scepter, the one Discord had made for her, was actually talking. This was clearly impossible, scientifically of course. There was nothing for the sound to emanate from, nor was its mouth moving. In an effort to find the orifice from which the sound came from, she found herself attracted to the scepter’s soulless eyes once more, and she felt her mind numbing...
Not caring much about the numbness in her head anymore, she headed for her unique and gorgeous-looking couch, trying to forget the events that just transpired a while ago. Inches away from the purplish furniture, she started to hear quick paced hoofsteps coming down from the hall and rapidly approaching her quarters.
“Maybe I’m just imagining things again! Yes, that! Hopefully this time it’s my imagination! Yeah…”
Just when the door suddenly slammed open, revealing two princesses and a dragon, each holding their own scepters. They conversed among themselves, which resembled a harsh, screeching sound.
Twilight's ears couldn't handle listening to the constant talking of the other scepters between themselves, and she turned back towards her own. After looking back at the scepter, she gasped seeing as the head on it wasn't of her…
It was that of Discord.
She recoiled back, dropping the scepter in the process. When it impacted the floor, it caused a screeching noise despite it being fully carpeted from one side of the room to the other. Out of the commotion, Twilight heard Princess Celestia say something to her, but she couldn't decipher it. She also heard Princess Luna’s voice, as well as Spike’s boisterous voice. They were yelling something at her, but she couldn’t tell what it was.
Her mind once again felt numb, feeling dizzy as ever, she fell towards the carpeted floor, next to the newly face-shifted scepter. Slowly opening her violet eyes, she could spot a tall white blur accompanied by a blue one in the background, next to the entrance of the room. Next to the nearly undistinguished tall blurs, a small purple-green blur could be distinguished from the pair, this one being smaller and chunkier.
“S-spike…? P-Princess C-celestia? Luna?” said Twilight, bringing a hoof to her sight, rapidly waving it in an attempt to dissipate the blur-like figures. No result.
She took a glance to her right, trying to find a way to get back on her hooves… instead, finding the very same scepter that caused all of this. It was lying on the floor, showing no movement at all, its head was turned in the opposite direction. Just as when she was going to stand on all fours, she clearly saw the scepter move it’s apparently lifeless form to her side… showing a certain Draconequus’s face engraved onto it. She wanted to escape but she couldn’t, she felt her body completely frozen in place.
“Play time’s over, Queen.” the staff articulated, making the whole room undergo in a spiral wave, distorting it completely. Twilight felt as she was going inside a whirlpool, quickly becoming dizzy and nauseous.
In the meantime, The Royal Pony Sisters and her loyal assistant were watching the mare constantly staring at the elongated scepter, not knowing what else to do. She has been staring at the staff for over half an hour already, and showed no signs of stopping.
“Twilight! Twilight! Snap out of it already!” Spike kept yelling at the mare, but apparently she couldn’t hear a thing coming from him.
“Why does she keep staring at that cane?” asked Princess Luna, confused about the situation.
“It’s not a cane, sister, it’s a scepter.” responded Princess Celestia, both watching the scenario in front of them. “And I’m highly unsure of what’s going on here.”
“Well, she is surely out of this world. Uh, is that cane— I-I mean scepter… that hypnotize-looking or is she like in some kind of trance?” continued the dragon.
“That must be it! And she hasn’t blinked in nearly half an hour as well…” said Luna, cringing at the thought. “She has to be hypnotized. Sister, try and cast a conscious awareness spell on her.”
“If you say so, Luna” quickly responded Celestia, flashing her horn at the hypnotized mare. Twilight’s body was engulfed by the golden aura of Celestia’s magic, which dissipated after several moments. She blinked several times, and shook her head, breaking out of the trance.
“Wha- where am I? Princess?” She mumbled, shaken by the hypnotic trance. Twilight glanced at the princesses, who slowly inched closer to her. Celestia gently placed her hoof on Twilight’s back, watching as she regained consciousness once more.
“What happened? Why is Princess Luna here? Why is Spike here? What’s going on?” Twilight wasted no time on asking the obvious to the Royal figures in front of her.
“You were staring at that scepter for half an hour, Twilight,” reaffirmed Spike.
“W-what s-cepter?! There’s no sce-” Twilight got interrupted by the inanimate object in front of her.
The gold plated staff that caused all of this ordeal…
“Not you again! You aren’t going to get away this time!” exclaimed Twilight as she brushed the scepter at her side with her magic, ignoring completely that there was also a tinted window besides her.
The troublesome scepter was launched by an incredible force that it flew through the air, going right besides the Princesses. It continued its trajectory along the room, heading towards the window; shattering it in many small pieces, and consequently plummeting to the ground far below.
“... Uh, that could be easily fixed!” said Twilight, worrying about the consequences of her inane actions. Celestia surely would get mad at her for acting in such an informal manner. Let’s not forget about Luna! She may even lose all respect for her!
“Just… taking these pieces and gluing them together should work!” continued the mare, picking random glass pieces and trying to join them together. Failing miserably, she sighed and gave up, not willing to humiliate herself further.
“I’m sorry, princesses! I’m so sorry! I promise this won’t happen again!” she said, earning a weary look from the trio.
"It's quite alright, Twilight." It was Luna who spoke now.
“Twilight, we were worried about you, not some insignificant window.” continued Spike, trying to lighten up the situation.
Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, happy that they weren't angry at her. However, there was still a problem at hoof. The shimmering baton was nowhere to be found.
"Where did the scepter go?!" Twilight exclaimed, noticing its disappearance. Realizing that she unknowingly threw it out of the window, she rushed to the shattered remains of it, and looked towards the ground. While a pile of glass was present, the scepter was nowhere to be found. Twilight felt her blood run cold, as the potentially dangerous object was now missing.
Twilight turned around, prepared to disappoint the princesses once more.
“I don’t know what to say, princess… This time I’ve truly failed you. The scepter is now gone!”
“What do you mean, ‘gone’?” Luna inquired.
“I don’t know, Princess. It just… disappeared!”
Luna approached the shattered window, with Celestia not far behind. Peering at the ground far below, the scepter had indeed vanished.
“What was that thing’s importance anyway?” asked Spike, confused whether if the scepter was indeed useless or if it held any importance at all.
“It is—it was a scepter, Spike.”
“It was still a rod, Twilight,” Spike gave a drowsy look towards Twilight, “I still can’t believe you were staring at that thing for nearly an hour!”
“I was? Hm… I can’t remember much about it”
“I’m glad that you’re fine, Twilight. If you didn’t wake up, we were going to try to forcefully remove the scepter, and its control over you.” said Celestia, “Try and get some sleep for the rest of the day, Twilight Sparkle.” continued Luna, Twilight nodding to her affirmation.
With that, Celestia and Luna left the room, leaving Spike alone with Twilight. The mare sighed, something weighing down her mind.
“Fine, but we’re both cleaning up this mess...”
Spike’s features instantly fell, as he went to go find a broom to clean up the broken glass on the floor.
Meanwhile, a pompous prince strutted down the hallways of the grand Canterlot Castle, carrying a new treasure with him.
“I wonder who could be so kind enough to make a scepter with my likeness on it! It’s simply delightful, and so marvelously accurate!”
He inspected every surface of its majestic golden exterior as he walked, loving the ‘present’ made for him. What went unnoticed, however, was the reflection of a draconequus in the blood-red ruby…
The End
