Crystal Collar Chronicles

Twilight Sparkle’s hooves echoed through the dark cavern. Her notes indicated that the artifact was here somewhere, but it didn’t specify its exact location. Finding the cavern complex was difficult enough, nestled as it was in the mountain range north of the castle. The entrance to the complex was even worse, and required a complex spell from Star Swirl the Bearded’s wing of the Canterlot library, a type of magic that…

Spike interrupted her mental musings. “Is it much further? It’s not cold down here, but honestly, I’m bored.” He kicked a rock down the rough stone path, and it clattered into the darkness. “I know this is important and everything, but I don’t understand why I’m here.”

“You know you’re my #1 assistant, Spike. Just like in the castle, I may need your help. This is King Sombra’s magic after all, and who knows what might happen. It’s one of my duties as Princess to try to clean up any magical residue around the castle.”

Twilight’s horn glowed and pushed back the darkness once more. Something twinkled at the edge of the light.

“That must be it!” Twilight yelled, and started galloping towards the glint in the shadows.

She levitated Spike onto her back almost as an afterthought, and within moments she reached a set of broad stone stairs leading up to a dais. In the center of the stone circle laid a plain rectangular golden box.

Twilight paused for a moment, and looked around. It felt… too easy. “Spike, do you see anything here that would prevent me from opening the box? Am I missing anything?”

Spike clambered down from her back, and looked around carefully. “I don’t see anything, Twilight. No tripwires, weight triggers, or anything else. Maybe you’re being paranoid?”

Twilight just glared at Spike, and said nothing. Instead, she tried to levitate the case off of its stone resting place. There was a black and green spark, and her magic was cancelled, the same way it was when she tried to teleport out of the trap in Sombra’s castle. She looked around again, and then reached forward with her hooves. There was another black and green spark, but nothing happened that she could tell… and then she had the case.

As she started to open it, whispers in the back of her mind stopped her. They seemed to urge her to wait until she reached her home at the library, that it would be better to analyze it there. Twilight nodded to herself, considering it reasonable, and levitated Spike back onto her back. “It’s time to go, Spike.”

Spike looked surprised. “It’s time to go? Already? But we haven’t verified...” He was interrupted by a loud *POP* as Twilight teleported them both out. And not just out of the mountain, either. Somehow, she had teleported them to Ponyville, to the Golden Oaks Library. Spike felt a little strange, as if the teleport was different somehow.

“Twilight! That was the furthest teleport you’ve ever succeeded on! That’s amazing!” Spike climbed down and shook his head, trying to clear the fuzzy feeling from his mind. “How did you do it?”

Twilight trotted over to her writing desk, and placed the golden case upon it. She didn’t respond to Spike’s question at all, and even knocked a few quills off of the desk in her hurry to put it down.

Spike gave her a strange look. “Are you alright, Twilight? You’re acting a little weird.” He thought that she normally wouldn’t be so careless with those quills. “You know, Quills and Sofas won’t have another shipment for days, and we’re already running low.”

Again, she didn’t answer. Instead, she opened the case. There was another flash of green and black magic. Twilight shook her head, and looked inside.

Inside the case was an exquisite crystal collar, lying on a black velvet insert. The collar was transparent with a pale green cast to it, and had no visible clasp or hinge. It was made of one piece, and looked as if it was carved from a single gemstone. It sparkled, and those sparkles were reflected in Twilight’s eyes.

She turned to Spike, acknowledging him for the first time. “You know what, Spike? You’re right. I’m sorry. Can you clean this up for me? That teleport really took a lot out of me. I’m exhausted, and I should go rest up. After all, tomorrow’s another day!”

Spike looked out the window. “It’s… only afternoon. Are you sure you’re okay, Twilight?”

The alicorn just nodded. “Yep! Totally fine. Just really tired. And hey, maybe you could go get me some more of those quills? After all, they’re about to run out.”

Spike just nodded uneasily. “Sure, Twilight. I’ll take care of it.” He gathered his pack, and walked out the door, casting one final uneasy glace behind him.

True to her word, though, she did go upstairs to her bedroom. Sleep was the furthest from her mind, however, as she levitated the collar along with her. When she reached her bed, she lay down on it, and started focusing her magic on it, trying to find out what exactly it was for, and what it could do. Deep inside, something told her that this was wrong, that she should destroy it as she agreed to do, council with the Princesses, but something else seemed to whisper inside her head that power was there for the taking. Power that could help her and her friends.

She rotated the ring around and around with her magic. She could sense there was power inside it, power that could at the very least act as an amplifier on her own powers. Thoughts of Trixie and the Alicorn Amulet went through her mind, but this magic felt completely different. It didn’t even feel like Sombra’s shadow magic. This must be something completely separate from both of them.

As she studied the collar, she could feel as if it were studying her in return. When she completed her observations, she felt that the collar seemed to approve of her, and she suddenly received the impulse to put it against her neck.

She stopped herself, and put the collar back in the box and closed it. “No,” she thought. “This is wrong. I’m going to take this to Canterlot tomorrow and destroy it.” She slipped the box under her pillow. She felt tired, both from her long-distance teleport and the activities of the day. She stretched her wings out and rested on her bed, closing her eyes. Moments later, she was fast asleep.

That night, she had some wild dreams. It started off fairly simply, as she dreamt she was walking through town, talking to all of her friends. After a while, though, some of them started to complain of problems. Roseluck was complaining that her belly stuck out just a bit too far. She focused on her, and it retracted, making her trim and fit. Twilight was shocked, because she knew that normally this was temporary, but here, right now, it felt permanent.

She kept walking through town, and she bumped into Cheerilee, who lamented on how being a unicorn would make it so much easier to control her class. The Princess focused, and suddenly the school teacher had horn growing out of her head! Cheerilee was thrilled, and started making things levitate. Twilight knew this sort of magic was far beyond anypony, but she continued along, feeling excited with her new-found power.

Lyra approached her, and talked about something called ‘hands’. She knew what the mare was talking about from her time through the mirror, and she focused on her. Moments later, the pony was reshaped into a human, who squealed in pleasure, just as all the other ponies around her screamed in fear. Lyra ran away, causing a commotion as she did so.

Twilight didn’t know what was going on, and reached up to rub her neck, where something felt like it was hanging there, and found the crystal collar. It was around her neck as if it belonged there. As she began to panic, she woke up.

Twilight Sparkle woke up suddenly, shaking. She’d had a nightmare of some kind, but couldn’t remember it. She had a headache, and she looked at the window. The sun was already up, and Spike hadn’t arrived to wake her up, which she was grateful for. She quickly got up and stretched, trying to remember what those dreams were.

She levitated the box out from under her pillow, and studied it for a moment before opening it. There was another greenish-black spark, and it startled her slightly. Looking at the collar, it appeared unchanged from last night. She decided that before she took the collar to Canterlot, she’d study it for a while. After all, she might be able to discover something useful from this.

A few hours later, Spike came in. “Oh, you’re up!” he said, surprised. “I mean, I guess you did get an early night… anyway, Quills and Sofas will have a new shipment this evening, and I should be able to get some more then, for tomorrow. So, what’s your plan for today?”

The dragon then saw what the alicorn was working on. Twilight had the collar out of the box again, on what appeared to be a tripod with a velvet covered plate on it. She had five or six different magical devices floating around it, and four different books open on her desk. One eye was squinted closed as she peered through a golden hexagram worked with runes of some kind.

Twilight glanced up at Spike after a long moment, giving her assistant a smile. “Oh! Hi, Spike. Sorry, just really focused here. I think I’ll be here most of the afternoon, and probably the evening. Can you just either make some food for lunch and dinner or run out and get something? I’m just not going to have time to do much else but investigate this.”

Spike looked a little concerned. “Uhh, Twilight, aren’t you supposed to tell the other Princesses about this? I mean, that’s what you told me, right? Shouldn’t we just go to Canterlot?”

The purple alicorn shook her head. “No, no. I need to gather information before we go, so that I’ll be informed when we have a council about this. I don’t want to go in empty hooved.”

Spike nodded. “Alright, Twilight, if you say so. I’ll go clean up and work on brunch.” He left the room, but Twilight never even noticed, as she returned to her studies.

Those studies yielded amazing results. Her first tests tried to detect a link between the artifact and Sombra, but there was no direct link. This item was older, before Sombra, and linked to something else. It seemed to be a device that specialized in change, although she wasn’t sure what type. As she thought about it, a memory was almost jogged involving her dreams last night, but it slipped out of her mind before she could focus on it.

As she continued her studies, the whispering in her mind grew more insistent. Her resistance slowly broke down even further, and by evening she had decided that it needed more study before taking it to Canterlot. After all, this could be a device of incredible importance. She barely noticed when Spike brought in a plate.

“Oh! Great, I’m hungry. I was hoping brunch would be ready soon,” said Twilight.

Spike gave her another worried look as he set it down next to another plate on her bed. “Uh, no, Twilight, this is dinner. It’s already evening.”

Twilight looked up at the window, finding it already dark, and she gasped. “Wow! Well, you know what they say about time flying when you’re having fun! If you could just take the first plate, Spike, I’ll eat dinner. Sorry I missed brunch.”

Spike nodded, smiled, and took away the brunch plate. “That’s fine, Twilight. Just please get some sleep, okay? We’re heading to Canterlot tomorrow after all.” He paused and looked at her intently. “We are going to Canterlot tomorrow, aren’t we?”

The princess shook her head as she moved over to her bed, shoveling hayfries into her muzzle. “Probably not. I have some more research to do before we go. Another day or two at most, though.”

Spike sighed. “Alright. But no more, okay? I’m worried about you, and we need to wrap this up. After all, we need to go back out there and search some more.” The dragon turned and left after receiving a nod of agreement from his friend.

After Spike left and she finished eating, she got back up and studied the collar some more. She’d gone through almost every test she could think of, but she felt there was something missing. Some last thing she needed to test out. A fleeting impulse went through her mind to put the collar on.

Twilight blinked. No, putting the collar on would be foolhardy. It didn’t appear to be inherently dangerous, but she hadn’t traced its origin yet, so who knew what could happen? But picking it up and rotating it around, she saw that there was no catch. There was no way to open it, no way to put it on. This made the mare more relaxed about it, and decided to bring it closer to her neck. After all, there was no harm in that, right?

She looked in her mirror, with the collar extended in front of her neck. Something in her mind suggested that she bring it closer, against her neck, to see best how it would look there. She hesitated for just a moment, but the whispers in the back of her mind were rather insistent, and she ended up doing as they asked.

There was a flash as the collar touched her fur, and then suddenly it was around her neck. Twilight immediately panicked, and tried to teleport away from the collar, across the room. The collar went along with her, staying around her neck, even as she popped from place to place. Further teleports didn’t get rid of it either, and she ended up in her room on her bed, yet again. She noticed she wasn’t as drained from these rapid teleports as she normally was, but the necklace really bothered her. Pushing on it with her hooves made no difference either. Then the whispers in the back of her throat became full, understandable voices.

“Relax, Twilight. We are here to help you,” they said. The voice in her mind was quiet and raspy, the sound of scales against silk.

“Who are you? What do you want? Could you please leave?” Twilight mentally asked, in even more of a panic.

“We are the Crystal Collar. We are here to help the bearer, which is you, Twilight. We could leave if you truly wished, but then who would possess our power? We have judged you and found you worthy. Perhaps… give us a chance?” As the voice spoke, she could feel herself relax. Whether that was the words or the influence of the collar, she couldn’t say, but at least she wasn’t panicking.

“Hmm,” Twilight thought, “the collar has a point. If I give it up, who will find it? Trixie? Discord? Someone even worse? No, I think I should probably guard this. I mean, who else could be trusted?” After considering this for a few minutes, she addressed the Collar mentally again. “Alright. But I am keeping a mental eye on you. And if I tell you to go, you must go immediately. Alright?”

“Agreed,” the Collar whispered inside her. “It will all be as you wish. All we ask is that you keep us to yourself. You do not wish us to be stolen, do you?”

Twilight agreed with the Collar. “No, not at all.” She was beginning to feel much better about the situation, completely missing the fact that if she hadn’t been able to get the collar off, how would anyone else?

By this point, it was getting rather late. She’d spent all day studying the collar, and was exhausted and cramped up. She stretched her limbs and wings, hearing the crick-crack of the cartilage, and felt better. Still tired, but relaxed. She decided she’d call it for the night and continue studying the collar tomorrow. She climbed into bed, the collar still around her neck, and fell asleep almost immediately.