Love Conquers All

Star Shine was sitting in his incomplete observatory, he had told Twilight he was going to star gaze, to calm his nerves of course. While he loved watching the stars at night, that wasn't his prerogative this evening. He had something very special to attend to, so special that he had to lie to Twilight.

He looked up at the stars, now was the time. Star Shine closed his eyes and flashed his horn three times, the signal. He opened his eyes, and a pegasus was standing before him. This particular flying equine was wearing a black robe to conceal their appearance, such unsavory acts would not be appreciated. As to why he wasn't wearing the robes, he was a unicorn and had already cast a concealment spell. The pegasus didn't have the same skill.

"I have the item you requested, sire" The mystery pony bowed and  took a small box off of his back and placed it before Star Shine. Star Shine nodded in recognition.

"You have done well, Whelp. Perhaps you will be able to find solace in the forthcoming empire." Star Shine pulled the box closer and waved his cohort away. "Away with you, I have business to attend to." The pegasus simply flew up and into the sky, his robes flowing behind him.

Star Shine turned his gaze from the sky and to the box in front of him. This was it, this was the culmination of so much time and effort. He horn glowed the dull gray of his eyes, the box lid opened. It was filled with power, it held so much potential, it was his destiny, it was beautiful.

--

Three little fillies were sitting outside, they were attempting to get their cutie marks in stargazing. It was one of the few activities that the three had yet to try, and hey, they had vowed to try everything. So their they were right outside of Carousel Boutique with Twilight's telescope that they had...urm....borrowed.

Since Scootaloo had been trapped on a cloud all day until her brother found her, the Crusaders decided to make up for lost time that night, they often did that when one of them was away for a day. Sweetie Belle was currently using the telescope.

"I think that constellation is The Phoenix." The small unicorn chirped.

"Nu-uh, that's The Ram." Applebloom protested from behind the unircorn.

"No way, that' totally Canis Major." Scootaloo was sitting behind the other two Crusaders with Twilight's book on constellations.

"What do you know, you dodo?" Sweetie's insult started a torrent of insults and protests from the other two, which eventually lead to an all out filly brawl. Said brawl lasted until the ball of hooves and hair hit the telescope, knocking it to the ground.

"Uh oh.." Scootaloo, who was in the middle of almost chomping down on Sweetie's tail looked up. The three untangles themselves and trotted over to the fallen device hesitantly.  "If we broke this thing, we're in serious trouble.." The CMC worked together together to right the telescope.

After they did, Applebloom looked through it. "Well, it ain't broken." She looked around with it, but something across town caught her gaze. Three flashes came from the still under construction observatory. "Well, if that's not strange." The country filly commented. "There are some weird lights comin' from that new buildin'. I wonder what they could be.."

"Umm..Cutie Mark Crusader Mystery Solvers!" The other two nodded and they galloped off towards the new adventure.

--

Star Shine marveled at the gem in his hooves before him, it was as clear as the most perfect diamond. Yet if one looked into it, they could see every color in existence. Some even said one could see all of creation if the gem was looked into for long enough. Such a thing was not easy to acquire, nor was the process short.

Star Shine had sent his best men on the quest to find this artifact of power two years ago armed with all of the knowledge he had accrued from his and Twilight's 'study dates.' Oh how he loved the oblivious Element of Magic for her role in her own demise. She had just hooved over all of the knowledge on a silver platter.

But his luck didn't stop there, oh no. As of now, the Elements of Harmony were no longer of concern to him. he originally had a plan to get rid of each of them, well, all of them except Twilight, He wanted her to witness her defeat. Now though, Rainbow Dash was incapacitated in the hospital and most likely drugged out of her mind, and Pinkie Pie was in police custody awaiting trial for kidnapping. It was very fortunate for him.

"Hey, isn't that Twilight's coltfriend?" Star Shine's dull gray eyes shot open, the voice had came from behind him. He quickly and quietly put the gem in the box and closed the lid.

"Yeah, it is, maybe he can tell us what that constellation is. I think his special talent is lookin' at stars." Fillies, he knew the voices from their earlier visit from the library to get a book about stars. Twilight had called them the 'Cutie Mark Crusaders.' Or something to that effect. Star Shine put on the friendliest smile he could manage and got up, then turned around.

"Hello girls. What brings you out to this part of town so late at night?" The three fillies, one of each race, started to talk over each other, very loudly at that. "Slow down, one at a time.." The girls immediately stopped talking. What could he say? His voice was enchanting. Quite literally. Some time ago he had put a charm on his own vocal chords that made them resonate with a very weak unidentifiable hypnotic spell. Weaker minds, like these fillies, would succumb to it more easily than minds like Twilight Sparkle's.

"Well, we were outside of my sister's shop stargazing." The unicorn spoke first.

"But, we couldn't tell what one of the constellations was." The southern sounding earth pony chimed in.

"So we argued and knocked over our telescope, then we saw some lights flash from over here." The orange pegasus finished up. "Then on our way over here, we saw some pegasus land then fly away.." Star Shine struggled to keep his cool, these three fillies knew, they knew more than they should. He had to get rid of them. Now.

"Do you want me to show you what that pegasus gave me? It is a very special gem." He grinned with a hint of madness. he had the perfect subjects to test the brand new item on.

"Ooh! A gem? My sister really likes gems, maybe I can tell her about it." The unicorn filly squeaked out whilst grinning.

"Perhaps..." He trotted over to the box and opened it. The three adventurous fillies gathered around, wide-eyed at the gem before them.

"Wow.." All three commented at once.

"Do you know what this gem is?" The three shook their head, so Star Shine continued. "Thousands of years ago, before Nightmare Moon, before Discord's reign even, the royal pony sisters carved out their home in Mount Canterlot. In the center, to their surprise, rested this very gem. The two quickly realized its unique property...it could drain the very essence from any living being." the three fillies stumbled away from the gem, horrified. The colt grinned and continued, circling the fillies. "When Discord rose to power, they found a use for it, they drained almost every last drop of energy from the God of Chaos. Seeing as they were merciful and kind however, they left him just a small amount of power. This left him as nothing but stone for thousands of years." Star Shine went over to the box and lifted the gem out with a hoof. "Celestia then realized that the gem could never fall into hooves that would dare do them harm. So, Celestia tasked her student at the time, Cloudy Skies: My ancestor, with hiding the gem. And so he did. He went all across the world looking for a place to store the artifact. He finally found it deep within the crystal caves of Chimeran Wastelands, on the complete opposite side of the world. But now, I found it, and I have it." He let out a small chuckle as the fillies cowered in fright.

Star Shine's horn glowed with an ancient incantation that would power up the gem. The all powerful gem glowed brightly and hovered out of his hooves. It was ready.

The three fillies ran as soon as he finished his story, but nothing could escape the gem. Three multicolored, nearly translucent energy streams shot out of the gem and started after the Cutie Mark Crusaders. The streams, guided by Star Shine's will, quickly grabbed onto the fillies and pulled them back to the now glowering colt.

"Now I can't have you running off and telling somepony else, can I?" He felt his magic, melded with that of the gem's, enter the three fillies' very soul. It felt marvelous. Then he started squeezing the very essence out of them. Their souls flowed through the streams and into the gem. Their struggles started to die as their energy was absorbed into the crystal...bit now, he was going to do something Celestia never could.

The last inklings of energy trickled throughout the bodies of the adventurous little ones. The amount was so little that he could feel their bodies hardening into stone. but he wasn't going to allow that defense mechanism to kick in, oh no. He drew the last bits of spiritual energy into the crystal, taking their physical forms with it.

Star Shine's plan was so close to coming to fruition, but first, he had a hospitalized mare to visit.

(Man, I come back with a bucking boom, don't I?)