My shiny new tower

the agency

“Ugh, just leave me to die. I think-bleugh!” I grabbed the can that had been put next to me yesterday, I had gotten sick from drinking the ‘coffee’ too much.

The agency mare wiped the sweat from my brow. “Oh, don’t be so dramatic, your just one signature away from going and getting yourself a wife and leaving me to my retirement plan! Sign here.” she gently pushed a paper beneath the pen on my hoof, which she had taped to it.

As I shakily wrote my name one last time she jumped up and ran over to her desk, grabbing a stamp and slamming it over the outlined box. She turned back to me, smiling. “You have no idea how much you have just made my life easier, your on your own till my replacement gets here, have fun! Happy wife hunting! WEEEEE!” she quickly galloped out the door I had entered, leaving me there in a woeful state.

The shiny new tower

“SPIKE! WHERE IS THAT PRINCE?! I thought you said he would be here an hour ago!” I was chucking all the rocks I had stored up in my room, not even checking which ones they were. “I don’t want to be a princess without a kingdom for ever!”

Spike dodged the last rock. “I don’t know, but if you don’t stop throwing rocks at me, so help me, I will break this tower down and make you rebuild it yourself!”

I stopped mid-throw, considering the possibility of weather or not he could possibly do it. Doing the math in my head, I lowered my hoof and tossed the rock back into the box. “You’re lucky that I have to wait for a suitor to get rid of you.”

his glowing red eye shown up to the window as he took off his amulet, allowing his full size to show. “NO. I AM NOT LUCKY TO BE IN YOUR SERVICE, THE LAST TIME I WENT TO THE MARKET, YOU COMPLAINED ABOUT THE TYPE OF HAY I HAD GOTTEN YOU.”

I turned back to the window, glowering at his eye. “THAT’S BECAUSE YOU GOT LOW FAT HAY! I’M NOT ON A DIET! You’re just an inconsiderate dragon.”  I opened my book back up to the last page I was on, trying to ignore his gaze. Due to the fact that he was blocking off the light, I turned back to him, levitated a rock to me and shot it right at his eye, forcing him to either take the hit and lose an eye or shrink back to his other form. Thankfully he chose to shrink and dodge the on coming attack rather than take the hit. “I’m not fat.” I took a quick look at my figure to confirm so, making double sure that I was n no way retaining fat.

A grumble from outside confirmed that spike had been angered, and would soon try to find a way to get back at me for today. My mind wandered as I began to read my book again, this time I had decided to study dark magic and it’s properties.

The book was made by some mad stallion who used live test subjects, of course, this had been written before the reign of the two sisters, a dangerous time of constant conflict between the tribes, and also it had a section on a ‘Crystal Empire’ somewhere not shown on any maps and never heard of. The ponies there were supposedly so in tune with the magic there, they had taken up its characteristics as a result. Of course, this part concluded with a discovery of another type of dark magic, emotion manipulation.

It was similar to mind magic, but with a different intent, to strike the emotions of the victim in a negative way, causing darker emotions to surface. This part was not written like the rest, which had been nearly indecipherable, it was clean and efficient, like somepony else had taken over the writing of the book. But the next chapters I skimmed over resumed the chaotic hoof writing of the mad stallion.

I skipped to the last page ad finally was able to discern the partial identity of the author, it mentioned of a singular event of deadly consequences, the blood moon. His name had been scorned from history and magical practice when he had gone rouge and used on of his nephews in an experiment that had destroyed his mind and later killed the child. He had given the poor lad an uncompleted version of the memory search spell and had made him perform it upon a crazed lunatic for further shattering of the nephews mind.

The worst was later in the book, when he had used his own in an experiment of which he had the stallion find and become affiliated with a magical object. using a magic that he had invented himself, he did something no pony had ever though possible, he corrupted the purpose of the item, and in turn, his son. He displayed no remorse in his writing other than the fact that he had to get rid of the ‘subject’. Thankfully the writing stopped on one page in the back, blood was lightly splattered over it, staining the pages with his blood, mid way with one of his writings.

The book had impossible to destroy since, and had ended up in the care of the two sisters, sealed away in a vault till I had found it and asked to read it. I had been fascinated with trying and re-purposing dark magic to better suit ponies to benefit them for a while now.

“Twilight! You have company! Your sister in law wants to talk to you!” spike called from outside.

I was so surprised that I dropped the blood soaked tomb, eliciting a scream from it. The wail was deep and haunting, chilling me to the core.

“Princess!” spike threw in one of my rocks from earlier, closely followed by him vaulting through the window. “You need to stop reading that damned book! So help me, I will throw it down the bottomless pit myself if I have to!” he quickly grabbed the book and put in his satchel that I had crafted with a bit of magic to make it hold even more than it was supposed to.

The door quickly opened and Cadance came in, fear plastered across her face. “Twilight! What happened?! Who’s here?!” a spell ready at her horn, brightly light up.

I facehooved. “Ugh, I have to tell everypony who comes here, the book screamed! Not me! Geese, even spike can tell the difference by now! And it’s only when I drop the damn thing!” I stood up and moved over to where I was standing in front of Cadence, making ready for our little routine every time we met.

After we did our little song and dance routine, we sighed and sat there reminiscing about our days before we were sent out to become rulers of the countries. Cadence spoke first.

“You ever wonder what our life would be like if we didn’t have to deal with the towers and the P.R.A.?”

I nodded and sighed deeply again. “Yeah, sometimes I wish we didn’t have to do these stupid things, and just find our own stallions.”

Spike crossed his arms and leaned on the wall. “Now, where would I be without a job? I would be so bored about just picking around my hoard and constantly trying to get another dragon for some eggs! Gosh, I always wanted to try my hand a children, but you have managed to put me off of it for another hundred years!”