Walking through town with a hard hat and headlamp on, I pulled along the cart that Aj had lent me. I waved to ponies as I passed them and they waved back, smiles and all. I was currently headed outside of Ponyville towards the old abandoned warrens of the Diamond dogs.
After what had happened with Rarity and the Diamond dogs, Twilight had sent a letter to Princess Celestia and explained what had happened. Understandably the Princess had sent a platoon of guards to relocate the diamond dogs. After all they had ponynapped and enslaved one of the elements of harmony, needless to say she was pretty mad, though I doubt she showed it. Still the following weeks after Rarity had returned home, guards were seen coming and going, and after that we never heard anything from the Diamond dogs.
It had been explained that the Diamond dogs had been deported from Equestria back to the badlands. Princess Celestia didn’t mind so much that they had come into Equestria illegally, what she cared about was that her guards had found several other ponies who had been ponynapped as well and forced to mine for gems. The Diamond dogs weren’t able to take anything with them, and the guards didn’t bother to confiscate any of the gems. I guess there wasn’t a big need for them, except for Rarity and her dresses, but I think that was another reason why the Princess didn’t bother to have them taken.
When the guards had cleared out, I had taken the liberty of scouting the place out. The diamond dogs had dug most of the tunnels and left most of the tools used to dig for gems, of course the tunnels were still dangerous since the dogs weren’t much for building support beams. It took me ages to get Twilight to agree to do structural scans on the tunnels. Even then she had taken the liberty of making me a map with markings that identified which tunnels were safe and which weren’t, then she cast several detection spells on the unsafe tunnels to ensure I wouldn’t try and sneak in.
Even then She insisted she come with me just to be 100% sure that I was safe. I let her come along, mostly because I couldn't stop her, but also because it would only make it more difficult if I fought her. Eventually we came to an understanding. I needed gems. It was an unavoidable truth. My growth and development had been greatly stunted by my lack of a steady diet of gems, of course Twilight didn’t want me consumed with greed like the last time I was, and so she kept most of my gems secured and away from me.
The more gems I ate though, the more mature I started to become. It seemed that not only had my physical growth been stunted but my mental growth had been as well, with a steady and regulated intake of gems, Twilight had ensured that I grew to a decent pony friendly size, and didn’t obtain the mentality of those teenage dragons I had run into during the migration.
I now stood just as tall as Twilight and I had the mental capacity to manage my own hoard now, of course Twilight still tried to help me regulate my gem intake, but it was unneeded and I actually found it a little funny to watch her freak out as she tried to check and recheck how many gems I would eat.
Coming up to the warrens I pulled Aj’s cart aside and inspected the entrance to the tunnels. Diamond dogs were scavengers, but they weren’t completely stupid. They understood the need to trade and come up for air, and so they would normally build large entrances into their tunnels so that a large number of dogs could come and go at ease. An added bonus was that they had tracks lined up near the front of the entrance so that they could brings gems out.
Approaching the cart I gave it a small push, before I jumped in and rode it all the way into the first intersection of tunnels. Once the cart had stopped I hopped out and checked the maps that I kept under my hard hat. Taking note of where I was I quickly planned my route and began to push the mining cart towards my destination. Taking two left tunnels, one middle tunnel and finally a third left tunnel I came to the end of the track to find a large waiting stack of gems.
As fast as I could I began to load them into the cart, occasionally licking a few of them to see how they tasted, needless to say, I was happy with the results. It was as I was loading the gems into the cart that I noticed a particularly odd gem. It was pink in nature, and it appeared to be already cut. Where most of the gems here were rough and fresh from the earth, this gem looked like somepony had found it, cut it into a circle and then had it stolen.
Curious, I gave the gem a small lick like I had the others and immediately my mouth watered. It was hard to explain but this gem was single handedly the best gem I had ever tasted. Immediately the thought of shoving it into my mouth and eating it right then and there passed through my mind, the prospect was so tempting, and Twilight would never know that I had eaten one of the gems I found.
Twilight and me had an agreement. I could eat gems and manage my own hoard so long as I was completely honest with her about how many I had eaten and when and where I had eaten them, it was one of the major reasons why Twilight wouldn’t let me go hunting for gems by myself. Somehow, I don’t know how I did it, but I managed to resist the urge to eat the gem right then and there. I think it was because I didn’t want to lie to Twilight like that, and also because she might be able to tell me what kind of gem it was.
Putting the gem under my hard hat so I could find it easier, I returned to putting the rest of them gems in the mining cart, however all the while my thoughts were directed at the gem currently resting next to my spines. Why did it taste so good? Could I find more? Would it be better eaten by itself or baked into something? Those were just some of the things I had on my mind. Reaching down and touching the ground I turned to see that I had already collected all them gems that had been piled here. Looking inside the cart I noticed that it was nearly full, but it could hold more.
Shrugging I decided that it was best to just head back home for now, I’m sure I had been here for a little over an hour and I knew Twilight would freak out if I stayed out for much longer. Sighing I got behind the cart and began to push it back towards the entrance of the mine. I had to check Twilight’s map several times just to make sure I was headed in the right direction. Pushing the cart up and out the entrance of the mine, I quickly headed for applejacks cart and began to transfer the gems from the mine cart, to the apple cart.
Humming I removed my hard hat and made sure to turn the headlamp off, before I tossed it and the map into the cart, along with my prized gem before I headed back to the castle. As I walked through town, some ponies gave me space, while others openly followed me wanted to chat. Those among them being the cutie mark crusaders, who wanted to know about my trip into the mines.
“Come on Spike you gotta let us come with you one of these days.” Scootaloo said as she buzzed around on her little scooter.
“Scoots you know if I do that, I’ll have the girls breathing down my neck, and once that happens I can kiss the mine goodbye.” He said as he gave her a frightful look.
“Well...what if we only followed you to just outside of the mine.” Sweetie Belle asked, trying to give me puppy dog eyes. I only shook my head.
“You have to have your sisters come to me and tell me personally it’s alright.” I replied laughing. “I’ve gotten in enough trouble in the past before because you three like to tell half truths.”
“Ah come on, Spike, we didn’t get ya into a lot of trouble, you're just exaggeratin .” Applebloom chimed in.
“You three told me that your sisters said you could go to Zecora’s hut in the Everfree, if you had someone go with you.” I said giving them all a hard look.
“And we did, we had you go with us.” Scootaloo said trying to be cute.
“You never told me, they said it had to be an adult.” I deadpanned getting them to blush a bit, and causing me to laugh. “Look it’s alright girls I’m not mad, but I’m not risking losing my mine privileges,”
The girls seemed to deflate a bit but the nodded and moved on. I wished them well and told them I’d try to hang out with them later, before I continued towards the castle. Unhitching myself from the cart I opened the door and called inside.
“Twilight I’m back!” I yelled my voice echoing off of the crystal walls. I didn’t wait for a response as I immediately headed for my newly acquired gems, making sure I grabbed the one that tasted better than the others.
A little under a minute passed before Twilight came out with a checklist held in her magic. I had to roll my eyes just a bit but if she didn’t do this I wouldn’t get my gems. “Hey Spike, you weren’t gone that long today.” She said as she eyed the cart full of gems.
“Yeah I know, but I found a pile of gems that other day so I figured why waste the time digging up new one’s when these were already laying there. I’ve saved time and I can help out around the castle now that I’m free,” I said beaming.
“Well as much as I would appreciate your help, I’m afraid there isn’t a whole lot to do today, in fact after I made my rounds around Ponyville, I was going to stay inside for the rest of the day and curl up with a book.”
“Eh I guess that just means I can go hang out with the crusaders like I promised.” I replied while shrugging with indifference
“Well I hope you have fun but for now, we need to sort through these new gems of yours.” Twilight replied with a chipper tone. I only sighed, but let her do her thing.
Half an hour later all of my new gems were accounted for and locked away from me, a safety measure to ensure I didn’t fall prey to my greed. I was just about to leave, not having realized I still held onto the gem I had seen before, thankfully Twilight noticed.
“Oh and one more...huh that's odd?” Twilight said as she snatched the gem from my hands. Looking down at where the gem had been I flexed my fingers as I realized the mistake I almost made. Looking at Twilight I saw her examining the gem closely.
“Oh yeah I wanted to ask you about that one. I found it in the mines like that and I wasn’t sure what kind of gem it was, but it tastes better than any gem I’ve ever tasted before.” I said as I eyed the gem with growing desire which I quickly pushed back.
“It’s a Rose Quartz, but this one looks like it’s already been cut. Maybe the Diamond dogs stole it from somepony.” Twilight said not even paying attention to me.
Sighing I tugged on her mane lightly getting her attention. “Like I said, I found it in the mines and it tastes better than all those other gems,” At this Twilight gave me a hard look.
“Spike have you been sneaking a few gems when you’re down in those mines?” She asked in a threatening tone.
“No Twilight, I only licked them to see how they tasted, I told you in the past about this remember.” She paused but seemed to accept it after awhile, those she still gave me a suspicious look. “Anyways I was hoping you could tell me why this gem is sweeter than the others”
“I honestly don’t know, I can’t taste the gems like you can Spike however just from holding this in my magic, I can feel a small magical energy coming from this. Maybe somepony tried to enchant this, and they failed, or they succeeded, and the magic’s faded over time.” Twilight said as she looked over the gem one more time.
“So is it safe for me to eat?” I asked as I eyed the gem hungrily.
“I don’t see why not. I mean the magical energy stored in the gem doesn’t seem to be dangerous so I don’t see why you couldn’t eat it after all a lot of the gems you ate before you started using that mine had small enchantments on them and you turned out fine.” Twilight said as she tossed the gem up in the air.
Rushing forward I quickly caught the gem and eyed it more. So many ideas of what I could do with this gem raced through my mind. I could bake it into a cake or a cupcake, or maybe if I ground it into a fine powder I could use it as a sugar substitute, it was certainly sweet enough on it’s own. After awhile though I decided it would be best to simply eat it as it was, adding it or anything to it would only take away from the flavor.
My mouth was nearly watering as I thought about how sweet it would taste. I could practically taste it and I hadn’t even brought it to my mouth yet. Not wanting to put the moment off any longer, I quickly began to plunge it towards my mouth.
“AH!” Twilight and I called at the same time as a sudden flash of bright light blinded the both of us. In my startled state I dropped the gem before my vision was covered in white.
00000
“AH!” I yelled in surprise as I lifted both a hoof and a wing in front of my face.
The room was quickly filled with a bright flash of light that blinded me. I suspected Spike had been blinded as well, he had been holding the gem and was about to eat it when...when the gem shone with light? As I blinked several times to try and regain my vision I heard a thump nearby which sounded like something heavy hitting the ground.
“Spike!” I called as I looked around. I couldn’t really see, my vision was blurred and I had white spots in my eyes from the sudden light. “Spike are you okay? I heard you fall.” I said again.
“Twilight? I didn’t fall, I thought you fell.” Spike replied panic quickly seeping into his voice.
“Maybe you knocked something over?” I asked.
“Maybe you knocked something over.” Spike retorted in annoyance.
There was the sound of something being sucked through a small space before a new voice spoke up. “Sorry...did it flash you guys? It always flashes people when I show up. I’m so sorry are you two alright?” The voice said sounding embarrassed.
Immediately I was on high alert as my horn charged. “Who’s there? How’d you get here?” I asked as my head turned from left to right.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down alright, put the horn away please, I know blinding you guys wasn’t really my smartest move, but I couldn’t just let your dragon friend eat me now could I? If you’ll just calm down, let your vision clear, and let me explain, I’m sure we can smooth out any misunderstands. Deal?” The voice asked. He sounded young, but something he said didn’t sit right with me. Nonetheless he did make an excellent point.
“Alright I’ll let you explain, just no pony move until my sight clears up.” I said as I slowly released the built up energy in my horn. “Spike you still okay?”
“Yeah Twilight, besides being blinded and freaked out that some kid showed up out of nowhere, I’m good.” He said causing me to nod, it seemed I wasn’t the only one who thought our guest was young.
“Good, now before anything else, my names Steven. I already know who you are so no need to introduce yourselves.” The boy said.
I thought over his name as I blinked several more times, my vision clearing up just a bit more and more. Steven was an odd name, but certainly not unheard of, after all there was a serpent living in the Everfree named Steven. As my vision began to clear up I began to see our mysterious guest. I was a bit surprised however, when I saw that he was a human. The portal to the human world shouldn’t have been activated, and yet here was a human child standing before me. His skin was a slight pink, while his mane...no his hair, was a curly brown. He stood slightly shorter than spike, and he wore a pink shirt with a yellow star in the center and blue shorts as well as what I think were called flop flips on his feet.
“Hi!” He said as he waved a hand at me a sheepish smile on his face. “It’s nice to meet you.”
I only blinked and stared at him…
And continued to stare at him.
“Hey!” Spike yelled causing me to turn to face him, as I was finally broken out of my trance. “He stole my gem, he’s hiding it under his shirt!” Spike said as he pointed at Steven’s stomach. Turning to look at Steven’s stomach I did indeed see the bottom of the Rose Quartz that Spike had brought home. I quickly charged my horn again but Steven quickly raised his hands and back up.
“Whoa, hey what happened to letting me explain? Because I swear there is a perfectly good explanation for why I have this gem.”
Turning to Spike I saw his angry expression, clearly he was not happy. I growled and stomped my hoof. “You’ve got thirty seconds to explain why you’re stealing from Spike before I decide to hit you with a stun spell.” I warned my horn glowing brightly for a moment before it returned to it’s regular illumination.
“Okay this is going to sound really strange but it’s not his gem because it’s me. I’m the Rose Quartz!” He quickly said as he raised his shirt to reveal the gem embedded in his stomach right where his belly button should have been.
I was intrigued and my horn stopped glowing. “Explain this further please, but if I think you’re lying I’ll blast you” I said with a hint of warning.
“Okay so kind of hard to explain, but this body that you’re seeing…” He slapped his arm to emphasize his point. “This isn’t really flesh and blood, this is a light construct that the Rose Quartz is projecting so that I can talk to you. The gem in my stomach, that’s actually me, that’s where my soul would be located.” He explained, my horn glowed softly in disbelief.
“Here, I’ll show you if you want. I can change my body shape and even look like animals. I can make myself taller or shorter, younger or older.” He said as his body glowed briefly before he grew to Spikes height. He then began to alternate between short and tall, sometimes being so tall he nearly matched Princess Celestia’s height, and sometimes so short that he nearly sat on the floor.
“Okay...so I believe you, it’s kind of hard not to when the proof is staring me in the face, but why did you wait so long to...materialize? And why did you blind us?”
“Well I couldn’t show myself earlier because as far as I can tell, I’ve been trapped underground for....a really long time. I kind of need light to make my body, and torch light doesn’t really help me all that much, as for why you two were blinded, I’m really sorry about that, but when I suddenly materialize like I did, it tends to force all the light I’ve stored out all at once.”
Suddenly realizing I was letting my fascination get the better of me I turned to see what Spike’s reaction to Steven was. It was not pretty. There was anger, shock, disappointment, sorrow, and hunger. Turning to me he saw my apologetic look before turning away, grabbing a handful of gems from the pile we had just sorted through and stuffed them in his mouth before he found a couch nearby and, for a lack of a better word, flopped on it.
Turning my gaze back to Steven I began to ask him more questions. “So who made you? Was it Starswirl? Do you have any information that he might have left behind?”
Steven held his hands up and again began to back away. “Easy with the questions, one at a time, and maybe you can answer a few of mine as well?” He asked smiling again.
“Oh, um yeah sure.” I said blushing a bit and looking away. “Um I guess go with my first questions. Did Starswirl create you and if not who did?”
“No Starswirl didn’t make me, though I did know the guy, strange guy, asked me the same thing when I first met him.” Steven said as he thought back. “Honestly I’m not sure if someone did create me. I remember having a mother, but then one day something changed and so did I. I’m not exactly human, but I don’t think I was created. My turn, what’s happened in the past….let's say thousand years? At least I think I’ve been gone a thousand years.”
“Oh well lets see do you want big events or are you talking about everything?” I asked before I could go on a tangent about all of the discoveries.
“I’m hoping more for things concerning the Princesses, Equestria’s well being, if you’ve ever gone to war or if any new peace treaties have been made.” He said that last one a spark of hope in his voice. I decided to start from the beginning.
“Well after the defeat of discord…” I looked at Steven trying to figure out if he knew who discord was, he he didn’t seem confused I continued. “Princess Luna was consumed by her jealousy with Princess Celestia, and she became a villain and tried to plunge Equestria into eternal darkness.”
“What?” Steven asked concern and disappointment on his face.
“Um...yeah Princess Celestia had to seal her on the moon for a thousand years. Anyways after that, there were a few treaties between Equestria, Saddle Arabia, Griffonstone and Zebafrica. Nothing of note happened until a few years ago when Princess Luna returned, but she was purged of the evil that had consumed her and is now back on the throne with her sister. Discord broke out for about a day before he was sealed back in stone, oh and the Changelings attacked Canterlot. The”
“The Changelings did what!?” He yelled startling both me and Spike at his sudden anger. Up until this point he had been calm and hadn’t raised his voice other to try to calm me down. The sudden change in his tone was scary, especially since it had come from a child.
“They attacked Canterlot during a Royal wedding. They kidnapped the bride and their queen pretended to be her while she sucked the love out of the groom.” I said bitterly as I remembered the day.
“What happened to them?” He asked as he lowered his volume, though I could see he was still very mad.
“They were pushed back when the bride escaped and freed the groom from the Queen changelings mind control. They combined their magic to push the changelings out with pure love and sent them all flying to the badlands. We haven’t seen them since.”
“Great, just great.” He said as he began to pace around the room. “All those years of hard work, down the drain because Queen Thorax can’t learn to keep her temper under control. Now I’ve got to go find them and start all over.” He said speaking more to himself than to anyone.
“What...what do you mean you have to start all over?” I asked as I began to get worried.
Turning to me he seemed to catch himself as he stopped pacing and took a deep breath to calm himself. “I mean now I have to go and find all those changelings round them up and help them grow in numbers...again.” He said with a deep frown on his face.
I’ve never summoned a spell so fast in my life. With a small poof noise and some smoke Steven’s body disappeared as his gem hit the floor with a clack. I quickly grabbed it in my magic as I charged my levitation spell with a magic suppression spell. “SPIKE!” I yelled worry on my face. “I need you to send a message to the Princess Immediately!”