Love Conquers All

(Discord's Note: Rejoice readers! He's back! Now, sit back, conjure up some cotton candy clouds and watch the drama unfold! Oh wait...only I can do that..)

Twilight Sparkle sat in front of her bed, she was watching her coltfriend sleep. The unicorn had just gotten the letter about not trusting him, and she wasn't taking it lightly. Luna may not know a lot of the modern ways, but she was more than qualified to spot treachery. So, Twilight had taken it upon herself to watch Star Shine.

Her eyes fell upon his saddlebag. He had barred her from ever looking in it, Twilight had respected his wishes as he had respected her request to not look in the chest in the far corner of the room. He didn't need to know about Smarty Pants. She may have promised not to look in his bag, but Luna's warning weighed heavily on her mind.

Her horn glowed with the purple magic she was accustomed to and the bag was gently pulled over to her. Twilight was hesitant what if she saw something she didn't want to see...then again, that was the point wasn't it? TO find something incriminating? To find something that would prove Luna right? A thought nagged at the back of her mind....did she want to find something to nail him as a traitor of her trust or the trust of the kingdom?

Twilight opened it with a flick of her hoof. Inside of the bag, nestled within the folds of a black cloak was a small wooden box with the words 'Potentia Absoluta' It was High Draconian, a very early dialect...perhaps even Pre-Discordian. Twilight knew some of the language from her studies in the Canterlot Royal Archives. These Specific words were used a lot in Draconian texts.

Absolute Power

Twilight didn't like the look of this.

--

Pinkie was laying on the plush velvet couch in the lobby of Carousel Boutique. Rarity had told the police that she would take her in and watch over her. Pinkie appreciated being out of the cell, it wasn't happy at all in there! Just gray, gray, and more gray. She did however like Carousel Boutique, its pastel walls and ceiling always made Pinkie smile. The mannequins weren't bad either, Pinkie often let her imagination run wild with thoughts of them coming to life when Rarity wasn't around and improving upon her designs. It was a silly thought, then again that's all Pinkie's head seemed to be filled with. Silly ideas.

The pink mare sighed and looked around the darkened store. The Mannequins weren't moving and designing like she had hoped they would. No sounds of three little fillies deciding how to get their cutie marks echoed throughout the building like she had wished. Worst of all, Dash wasn't out of her head...but secretly she was okay with that.

Rarity had said that she wanted to start daily 'therapy sessions' with Pinkie. While Pinkie enjoyed the thought of talking with Rarity more, she didn't like the thought of Rarity prying into her past or thoughts. Nopony needed to go there, not even Pinkie.

"Pinkie.." Pinkie looked up to see Rarity on the stairs. The unicorn was wearing a white robe with royal purple trim, she let out a rather ungraceful yawn. "What are you doing up this late? You were supposed to be asleep hours ago." It was true, Rarity was letting Pinkie stay here out of the pure generosity of her heart...but only with some rules. one such rule was a predetermined bed time.

"Sorry Rarity...I couldn't sleep." Pinkie sat up one the couch. "I guess I just have a lot on my mind.." The unicorn came down the stairs and over to the couch. "Don't worry, I didn't go outside." Rarity sat beside Pinkie.

"What's on your mind?" Rarity's horn glowed light blue as a brush was brought over to her and started to brush her mane.

"Just..stuff." Rarity made a motion for her to go on. "Do you ever wonder if the mannequins come alive when you're not around?" Pinkie was too busy looking at one of the still mannequins to see the look of bewilderment that Rarity gave her. "Like, what if they help you on your designs and you just don't know it?"

"I'm sure I would have seen evidence of sentient mannequins if there were such things." Rarity looked at the mannequin as well, they always creeped her out at night: The way the moonlight shone off of their off-white bodies just seemed unnatural. "What makes you think of such things, dear?"

"Well, back on the farm we didn't have many toys or anything to play with. So we had to use our imaginations..mine has always been more wild than most other ponies'." Pinkie hated talking about the farm, it always brought back bad memories.

"I've heard you mention this farm in your cutie mark story...want to talk about it?" Rarity was prying and she knew it, but the sooner she could get to the heart of Pinkie's problem, the sooner she could fix the earth pony and get her back out in the real world.

"It was a rock farm...just a little outside of The Badlands.." That was something new, Pinkie never said that in her original story. Rarity had only heard of The Badlands, it was a terrible place that no pony should ever go. No life could be sustained in the terrible lands...what was a family doing out there? "My family had been there for generations, a lot of the stone used to build Ponyville and Las Pegasus came from our farm. My great-great-great Granny Pie started it."

"So you grew up there?" Pinkie had opened up and Rarity wasn't going to let her stop.

"Yeah, sorta. My two sisters and I...Inky and Blinky..we worked in the fields all day. Moving rocks and stuff like that. Then after Dashie's Rainboom and I started throwing parties...my parents sent me here to live with the Cakes because I didn't work as hard.." Pinkie's overall visage started to fade from its usual bright colors.

"How are your sisters? Do you ever hear from them?"

"Inky lives up in Manehatten as some kind of mural painter and Blinky lives on the rock farm still. We haven't talked since I left.." This gave Rarity a brilliant idea.

--

Twilight had been staring at the box for minutes. She was hesitant to open it, the words on the lid had made sure of that. 'Words of Power' as they were known in High Draconian. Dangerous things.

"I must know.." Twilight cautiously opened the box with a hoof. Inside was the most beautiful gem Twilight had ever seen. It was clear, yet it shone with a myriad of different colors. It seemed so familiar, yet so distant. "Where have I seen this before...?"

"Oh, my dear nosy Twilight...You really should have listened to me." Twilight looked up to see Star Shine towering over her,his horn glowing. "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you..?" That's when Twilight felt a bolt of pure magic hit her chest.