Chapter Two
Vision
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A grinning Spike clutched his prize as he skipped through Ponyville's streets. The pitch-black smoke lazily drifting in the precious stone held him transfixed, and his feet carried themselves of their own accord. In his claws, he grasped not a mere diamond, but a black sun that emitted dark rays in all directions. What may have been alarmed voices were only a dull buzz in his ears. His grin widened. He thought he must be quite the sight to the simple Ponyvillians, holding a magic gemstone that emanated anti-light.
As Spike approached the Carousel Boutique, all became clear. After nearly two years of frustration, he had the solution. Like the diamond in his hands, Rarity was a gleaming gem, a prize. He just had to reach out and take her. He looked up for the first time since he had first touched the diamond, and the Boutique's door stood before him. With the diamond hidden behind his back and its will filling his thoughts, he entered.
Rarity gleamed white in a beautiful contrast to the diamond's black glow. She sat amidst a sewing machine and piles of fabrics, hard at work on some dress or other. This time, he could not fail. It would be the exchange of one exquisite jewel for another. He took a deep breath and cleared his throat.
Rarity's head snapped up. “Why, hello there, Spike. What brings you here?”
“You, of course, fair Lady Rarity,” Spike said with a bow.
Traces of the diamond’s dark mist crept from behind Spike and tickled Rarity’s cheeks, leaving a pink tinge behind. “Spike, darling? Are you feeling all right?”
“I always feel all right around you.” Spike whipped the diamond out from behind his back. “I present to you a gift.” A goofy smile played across his face as her jaw dropped.
Rarity’s eyes opened as far as they could. The diamond filled her dilating pupils, and she took it, cradling it in her forehooves. The blackness that Spike basked in bled through the sunlit room until it enveloped Rarity. “Why, Spike... this is—this is—”
Spike ran an affectionate claw down a facet. “The best, most radiant gem in all of Equestria.”
Rarity inhaled sharply. “The cuts... perfect! Not even Canterlot’s finest jewelers could create such a marvel.” She tapped it with her horn. “Incredible. Not a fault to be found, all the way to the core. It's magnificent.”
Spike clutched his chest. “Not as perfect as your heart.”
“And it's...?”
“All yours.”
Rarity glanced at the diamond, which somehow glowed brighter than before. “But it must be worth an absolute fortune! I can't possibly accept such a gift.”
“To me, you're worth every bit.” The words gushed from his mouth, as they had since he had entered the boutique. He was not sure if it was him or the diamond talking, or perhaps a bit of both. Vaguely, he wondered why he did not care. “I would travel the length and breadth of Equestria just to find the perfect gift for you, most perfect of ponies!”
“Oh, Spikey-wikey!”
Spike's daydream might as well have been a premonition. Rarity lunged forward, tackling him to the floor. She smothered him with kisses. His face burned, and his scaly body prickled. It felt even better than his dreams. Just as the diamond promised, she was melting in his arms. He clutched her like a trophy that had always been rightfully his.
Rarity beamed down at him and nickered. “Oh, Spike! Most wonderful of dragons! With this diamond, I can create the centrepiece for my ultimate design. I can see it now: I will be on the front page of every fashion magazine from Vanhoover to Manehattan!”
He glanced at the diamond and winked at her. Silently thanking the diamond, he gave his cheek an affectionate rub. Red lipstick smeared across his wrist. “Rarity, for you, it'll be a piece of cake.”
“Mmm,” Rarity purred. “Speaking of cake, would you care for some? I had this most delectable cloud cake delivered the other day.”
The happiest shudder of Spike's life hit his body. “Y-you mean like a date?”
She nodded.
“Hmm… It's getting a bit late, and Twilight will be expecting me back in the castle.” (Rarity's expression almost broke his heart.) “I could only book today off—which I used to find that diamond. You know, new home, lots to organize and all that. Who knew getting settled into a magic crystal castle of friendship could be so much work?”
Rarity shook herself. She stepped back and batted the air with a forehoof. “Oh, of course. Right. I... understand, dearest. It must be so hard after what happened to Golden Oak.”
Spike shrugged and heaved a sigh of relief. Thank Celestia she managed to avoid breaking down. “Eh, not as much as you'd think. Twilight's got backup records of everything Tirek blew up, and Princess Celestia had no problem sending her replacement books. Refiling them is a pain, though. Sometimes, I almost wish he'd blown up the basement, too.”
“Oh, you will return soon, won't you?”
He scratched his chin. “If I work extra fast... how does tomorrow evening sound?”
Rarity giggled like a schoolfilly. “Do come back! Edward and I will be waiting.”
“Edward?”
“This lovely diamond, of course.” She grabbed the diamond and caressed its smooth top before patting it. Her forehoof made a satisfying clacking sound.
“I think that diamond is a she.”
“What makes you say that?” Rarity asked, giving the diamond a quizzical look.
“You'll see what I mean.”
Rarity waved. “Hmm... very well. Ta-ta!”
Spike winked again, spun on his heel, and headed out the door.
* * *
Princess Twilight Sparkle paced around a circular room in the interior of her new castle. Wooden bookshelves occupied every inch of available wall space, leaving room only for the staircase leading up to her bedroom and the door on the opposite side that led to the castle's lower levels. A small mountain of books lay at the foot of the staircase. Twilight had her face buried in a lengthy checklist.
She levitated a quill to it, grabbed a book, marked its corresponding entry on the list, and filed it on an empty shelf. As she was about to file a second book, she noticed Spike strutting down the stairs.
There was a strange air of confidence about him that she had never seen before. He wore a goofy, almost haughty smile. Spike neared the bottom of the staircase, gave an exaggerated stretch, and knocked over the stack, sending books spilling across the floor.
Twilight jumped back. “Spike! Could you be a little more careful, please?”
Spike stopped at the foot of the stairs. He carelessly looked at her, sighed, rolled his eyes at the books, and then shrugged.
Twilight's ears flattened. “I'm trying to organize the library in time for Ponyville's first annual reading week, in case you've forgotten.”
“Oh, right. Sorry.” He picked up a tome, glanced at the spine, and tossed it over his shoulder. “Maybe you should've moved the reading week back a month.”
Twilight's flared nostrils expelled a puff of steam. “No! It needs to be next week, and that's final. You and I both know all the kids start taking their summer vacations after a couple weeks. If reading week is during vacation time, nopony will actually be here to read! Is that what you want, Spike? A reading week where nopony reads?”
Spike held up his hands. “Okay, okay, calm down. You'll be fine. Now, if you'll excuse me...”
Twilight cocked her head. “Spike? Are you all right? You're acting different than usual.”
“I'm fine.” He flashed her a grin with too many teeth. “I'm gonna go see Rarity.”
“Uh, Spike? Your day off was yesterday. These books won't file themselves, and we've got to prepare. Once we're done here, we have to set up the entrance hall with tables and more bookshelves.” Twilight stomped a hoof on the ground and struck a stoic pose. “With the library gone, this castle needs to have maximum browsing and borrowing efficiency.”
Spike rolled his eyes. “Are you kidding? You've got magic. You don't need to give me an easy job just so I can feel useful. Just wave your horn and do some alicorn magic to sort everything in ten seconds.” He folded his arms and glowered at her. “Sometimes, I think you forget your power. I'm going where I'm needed.”
Twilight's head spun. “What in Equestria are you talking about? I need you here. This is my first royal decree for Ponyville. Not everypony loves reading as much as I do.”
“You can say that again.”
“And,” Twilight said, shooting a determined glance at Spike, “something like a kingdom-wide—”
“—Village-wide.” Spike twirled an index claw above his head. “Ponyville’s not exactly the biggest ‘kingdom,’ you know.”
Twilight stamped a forehoof. “A kingdom-wide reading week would give everypony just the encouragement they need to make it part of their daily lives. If it succeeds here, Princess Celestia may expand the decree to encompass all of Equestria, and even the Crystal Empire.”
Spike made an exaggerated stretching and yawning motion before he reached to his side and drew an invisible sword. “That’s great and all, but my lovely Rarity grows lonely in my absence!”
Twilight clapped her face with a forehoof. “Oh, no... not this again. Spike, I really think—”
A thump came at the door. Twilight and Spike stared at it. The door burst open, and a disheveled Rarity, wearing saddlebags, charged through.
“There's my lady!” Spike bounded forward, his arms spread wide. “You've read my mind! I wanted to start our date early, too, so I—”
Rarity snorted and galloped past him before skidding to a halt in front of Twilight. “You two have some explaining to do!”
Spike staggered backward. He clutched his heart, and his lip quivered. “R-Rarity?”
Twilight looked back and forth between Rarity and Spike. “Can somepony please tell me what's going on?”
Rarity wheezed and swallowed a lump in her throat. She magicked the saddlebags open. A jet-black diamond floated out and settled on the floor between her and Twilight. She pointed an accusing hoof at it. “This little... treasure Spike gave me yesterday!”
Twilight stooped and eyed it intently. “I've never seen anything like this before. What is it?”
Spike, all bravado gone, slouched over. “You seemed a lot happier with it yesterday. And after I did all that work to find it...”
“Hold on a minute.” Twilight gave him a sharp glance. “Spike, what did you do?”
Spike sighed and sat down in front of the diamond. “I spent all yesterday searching for the perfect gift for Rarity, and I found that. Well, it kinda found me, but—”
Rarity gave him a glance identical to Twilight's. “'Found you'? Whatever do you mean?”
“The gem kinda shot up through the ground. It was really weird.” Spike’s eye twitched as he looked at the diamond. “When I held it, I felt like I could do anything.”
“As did I.” Rarity held a hoof to her muzzle and gasped. “I think this diamond is cursed!”
“Cursed?” said Spike and Twilight in unison.
Rarity nodded. “Most certainly. It was next to me last night when I was asleep. I had kept it in a most darling little purple lock box, you see. I had picked it up during our trip to Manehattan. The food there was much more expensive than I thought it would be, so my budget was tight, but I simply couldn't resist. There it was, sitting on a pedestal in the window of this quaint little establishment. Such an oddity in a metropolis like—”
Twilight threw her wings and forelegs out. “Rarity!”
“Oh, sorry, dear. Where was I? Oh, yes. That vile, wretched thing!” Rarity pointed a quivering forehoof at it again. “I didn't think anything of it at the time, but it had this strange sort of glow about it. When I was asleep, I had a dream. But it was nothing like I'd ever dreamed before. I was the greatest fashionista Equestria had ever known.”
Twilight could not help but give her a bemused smile and arch an eyebrow. “And this is different from your usual dreams... how, exactly?”
“Patience, darling. I was just getting to that.” Rarity brushed one her mane's innumerable stray hairs back into place. “This was much more vivid. At first, everything was perfect, as usual, but then I realized it came at an oh-so-terrible price. I'd done things. Nasty things. Horrible things to earn my position. And on my head sat a crown... with that vile diamond as the centrepiece! It didn't just feel like a dream, Twilight. It felt like a vision—a prophecy.”
Rarity looked as mortified as Twilight felt.
Spike stood up and took several steps back. “I-I just thought it granted wishes or something. At least, that's what it seemed to be like when it talked to me.”
“Talked?” Urgency and concern strained Twilight's voice. “Are you sure?”
Rarity raised a hoof. “It spoke with me, too.”
“Spike...” Twilight's voice went deadly quiet. “Why didn't you mention this diamond to me sooner? Why didn't you tell me—or Rarity, for that matter—that it could talk?”
Spike's gaze met his clawed toes. “I don't know. I should've told you. I should've been afraid. But the diamond wouldn't let me. When I held it, nothing mattered but what I wanted.” He chanced a glance at Rarity before staring at his feet again.
Twilight took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to dispel her nervousness. She opened her eyes and focused on the diamond at her hooves. “Let me run a few tests.”
A concentrated beam of light shot from the tip of Twilight's horn. When hit the surface, some kind of negative energy field canceled it out, sucking up the magenta energy like it were being sucked through a straw. “Okay, so a standard probe didn’t work. Let’s try a bigger one.” She frowned and fired a larger beam. This one ricocheted off with a reverberating warble and sizzled past her ear. It hit the crystal behind her and bored a perfectly circular hole through it. Rarity and Spike jumped back, then stared at the thrumming diamond.
“Oh, are you okay?” Rarity said.
Twilight shook herself and nodded. “This thing somehow has a mind of its own; I did not fire a destructive spell at it. I've just never seen magic like this before. Did this gem occur naturally? Are there more like it? If it's pony-made... who made it?”
Spike scratched his head. “Starswirl the Bearded?”
“I don't think so. I've read every book of his I could get my hooves on, and none of them say anything about creating magic gemstones.”
Spike kept staring at the diamond, and his stomach gurgled. “Uh, heh, sorry. I haven't had breakfast yet.” He gave Twilight a sheepish grin, spun on his heel, and bolted downstairs.
“So, what do you make of this?” Rarity asked.
Twilight reached for the diamond.
Rarity would have blanched if her face could show it. “Careful, dear!”
“It’ll be fine. You and Spike are okay, relatively speaking, so it’s safe to say it won’t melt my hoof. I need to touch it and see what happens for myself.” Twilight picked up the diamond and examined it. An odd, electrifying sensation shot up her foreleg and into her body. Something was inside her head. She gasped and almost dropped the diamond, but instead placed it back down gently. “I can't say.”
Rarity shuffled her hooves and sidled away from the diamond, which now crackled with little black lightning bolts. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Yes, I'm glad you asked.” Twilight's horn shimmered, and she summoned two pillows and two stacks of books to the centre of the messy room. She pointed to a pillow. “Sit down and search through those books on magical artifacts. I'm going to see if I can find anything in my books of ancient spells.”
Rarity nodded, and they sat down on the cushions. Twilight grabbed a book at random from the stack, placed the diamond beside her, and started to skim. She was through most of the book—which contained nothing regarding enchanted diamonds—before she looked at it again. A maelstrom of black fog swirled at its core.
Your books will not help you solve this puzzle, young Princess Twilight.
The words came from a cold needle in the back of Twilight’s mind. The hairs on her neck stood on end.
You do not know what I am—it matters not. But I can show you something. I can give you a taste of what you might become.
Twilight tried to respond with her mind, but she could not figure out how to form her thoughts into coherent words and project them.
Regardless, the diamond understood. Your ascension has already begun, Twilight Sparkle. You have succeeded where many before have failed. Do you think this mere hamlet is the extent of your regal destiny? You can achieve far greater knowledge—and far greater things. All you have to do is take them.
Twilight's eyes widened as the fog within the diamond filled her vision, blotting out her surroundings.
* * *
Twilight blinked and shook her head. Then she gasped as her vision returned. She was not in her castle anymore; she was in the throne room of Canterlot Castle. She looked down and nearly screamed again. Not only did she sit in Princess Celestia's throne, she also wore her regalia. Already knowing what she would find, she reached a trembling forehoof for her head and found not her small crown, but the massive tiara that should have been on Celestia's head.
There were no thrones to her left or right.
“Your Highness.”
Twilight nearly leapt out of her coat. Celestia stood—no, kneeled—before her. Twilight scrabbled backward on the throne. “P-P-Princess Celestia! I can explain!”
Celestia chuckled and gave her that same warm smile Twilight had seen so often over the years. “Whatever for, Twilight? You have finally done it. After all these centuries of searching, after so many tests, my work is finished. Your success is complete. You have truly learned everything I have to teach and so much more. The burden now rests on you, Twilight Sparkle, to lead us. I am now free to abdicate.”
The word sounded absurd coming out of Celestia's mouth. Twilight clapped her right ear several times to make sure she had heard correctly. “A-abdicate? What do you mean?”
Another chuckle. “Come now, Twilight. You know full well what the word means.”
Twilight looked around again. “But... only one throne? What about you? What about—” the breath was momentarily stripped from her lungs “—my friends? Where are my friends?”
Celestia rose to her full, impressive height. Even from her perch on the throne, Twilight felt puny compared to her. Celestia's expression remained neutral as she said, “They've gone and fulfilled their greatest dreams and live happy, revered lives throughout Equestria. Ever since you six filled the diary's pages, you realized the truth: That diary—and Ponyville—were two of many stepping stones across the river of destiny. You had not reached the far bank. You had to continue. And continue you did. You studied harder than you ever had before, and you have learned all there is to learn.”
“No... this is wrong... all wrong...” Twilight shook her head. “I'm the Princess of Friendship, of Ponyville. I rule alongside my friends, not over them.”
Celestia nodded slowly. “For a time, yes. For a time.”
“But—but—”
Celestia's eyes flashed a vibrant shade of teal. “Once you discovered your true purpose, you pursued it, consuming all knowledge until the day you were ready. Today is that day.”
A numbness in Twilight's chest crept its way through the rest of her. “There's no reason for us to stop being close friends!”
“You gave them reason enough, my former student.” Celestia's voice was no longer solely her own. It bore the fierceness of another. “You abandoned your friends to achieve your ends, but what does it matter? The experiences you shared and the lessons you learned are still within you and your friends. They live happy, fulfilling lives. Your dedication has earned you the thing you have desired for most of your life: Graduation from my private apprenticeship, with honours.”
The throne room shimmered around them as Celestia advanced with long, determined strides. “Remember, knowledge is power, and you now have more than enough to rule in my stead for as long as you desire. Now I must depart, for I am long overdue for a rest. Equestria is in your hooves, and your hooves alone. Perhaps you can visit your friends sometime when you have a break from your new royal duties. A good time would be a royal tour of the country. The subjects love it, and you get all the free cake you can eat. Hah!”
Twilight slumped back in her throne. “No... no! Not like this!” She loosed an anguished scream, and the black fog returned, consuming the world around her.
* * *
A panting Twilight opened her eyes. She lay on the pillow, flat on her back. Spike and Rarity stood over her, both with worried expressions.
Spike knelt down and gently shook her. “Twilight! Twilight! Are you okay?”
Rarity gently pushed his arms away. “Of course she's not okay! Why else would she have screamed?”
Trembling, Twilight looked at her friends with wide, aghast eyes. “W-what happened?”
“I was poring over the books just like you asked, and I paused to ask how you were getting along. You didn't answer, and then I noticed you staring at that wretched diamond—quite blankly, I might add.” Rarity tossed her head and snorted. “I tried to get your attention, but you didn't respond. It was like your mind was somewhere else. So I ran to fetch Spike, and as soon as we'd returned, you screamed.”
Twilight slowly sat up and hunched over. “The diamond spoke to me. I saw something... It felt so real.”
You don't need them. You have only had a taste of the greatness that lies before you. Seek it out!
Twilight stared at the diamond. “Did you hear that?”
Spike shook his head. “Hear what? What did you see?”
Twilight heaved several deep breaths, trying to distance herself from what had just happened. “I...” The idea of abandoning her friends to rule Equestria for herself made her want to retch. “I don't want to talk about it. This is far beyond anything I've ever heard of.”
“A diamond that speaks and makes others see things. Is it possessed?” Rarity asked.
“I don't know, but what I do know is this is serious.”
Rarity pawed at the ground. “Then let us be rid of this awful thing at once!”
“Yeah, I'll just bury it.” Spike made a point of stepping into Rarity's field of vision and flexing as he spoke.
“No, Spike. Didn't you say the diamond found you?” Twilight magically wrapped the diamond in a bundle of scrap paper and stuffed it into Rarity's saddlebags, which lay on the floor beside them. “If we put it somewhere, it'll only be a matter of time before somepony else finds it, and then who knows what'll happen? This diamond tries to trick you into seeking what you want most... at any cost.” She gave Spike and Rarity hard stares as they exchanged glances. “We need to get the girls and head to Canterlot before it can do any real damage. After what it tried to do to Rarity and me, I know it’s enchanted with dark magic. Beyond that, we still have no idea what we’re really dealing with. Only Princess Celestia can help us now.”
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