Learning Magic

Chapter 8: The Tragedy

It was five minutes before ten and Rarity had just walked into the guest room. In the middle of the room, there was a small table with tea on it, various cushions surrounding it. Due to the private nature of the meeting, there were no guards. Rarity quickly stepped closer to the table and pulled out her flask with medicine from Zecora.

I’m terribly sorry, princess, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

She then poured the content of the vial into Celestia’s tea. Shortly afterwards, Celestia herself walked into the room, her mane blowing in an invisible breeze.

“Good morning, Miss Rarity, what did you wish to discuss?”

“Good morning, Your Highness, it is simply horrible. Words can’t even begin to conceive it.”

Celestia sipped her tea as she listened to her.

“It started last week. I was simply minding my own business, when suddenly...”

Rarity needed to speak no more, for Celestia collapsed in front of her and started to snore lightly. Rarity then waited for five more minutes, until an explosion could be heard from the other side of the castle.

Right on time.

Hoofsteps of guards were heard outside of the room. Rarity could only pray to... well, Celestia, that they wouldn’t remember to check here. Fortunately for her, they didn’t.

Good. Now careful, careful...

Rarity started to levitate the limp body out of the room and through the next few corridors.

All the guards are gone, this is almost too easy.

Soon, she stood in front of the vault with the Elements of Harmony. It looked just like the last time she saw it – old, dusty, massive door with a single hole in it. She slowly inserted the still-sleeping-Celestia’s horn into the lock and gave it a light magical push. There was a click and the door opened. In front of her was a casket with the Elements, which she slowly opened, and then focused on the Element of Generosity.

This better work.

She focused and imagined the golden necklace down to every last detail, then she simply went directly inside of it. There were many different rays of colour as the elements started to give their energy to Rarity.

What?! This is wrong! I only wanted my element, not all of them!

She, however, couldn’t stop the spell anymore. Soon, she passed out from the pain that started to focus in her horn.

———

Rarity woke up about five minutes later. Everything was silent, except for Celestia’s snoring.

Ugh... What happened?

Rarity stood up and looked at the Elements.

This... This can’t be true!

Her movements got more rapid and her heartbeat got faster. In front of her were lying all the Elements, but the gemstones were dim and lifeless, looking not unlike the gems she used for her dresses.

This is horrible! I have destroyed the Elements! But... What is this?

As she was looking at one of the necklaces, she saw her reflection on the golden part. While she looked stressed and a bit messy from lying on the dusty floor, it was nothing compared to how her horn looked like. While the shape remained the same, there were now light blue veins coursing through it, giving off a faint glow.

This is bad. This is terrible! This is the worst possible thing! I need to get some help and quickly!

With a blinding blast of light, Rarity disappeared from the castle.

———

“You did what?!” Twilight screamed.

Rarity teleported into the library mere seconds ago and this was, considering that she just told Twilight that she drugged Celestia and destroyed the Elements, quite a calm and collected response.

“Let me explain please.”

“I’m listening.”

Twilight looked puzzled. Her eyes inspected Rarity from head to hooves and her face kept a sceptical expression, but she didn’t look angry, just surprised that her friend teleported in front of her and told her such, in Twilight’s opinion at least, nonsense.

Does she think this is some kind of prank? Oh dear Twilight, you are in for one big unpleasant surprise.

“Well, first of all I set several ‘Big-bangs’, as Pinkie calls them, to explode ten minutes after ten and placed them as far from the guest room as possible.”

“Explode? They could have hurt somebody!”

“Don’t worry, while they make a lot of noise, they don’t really do any damage. Pinkie used them to prank you several times after all.”

“Yeah, I remember them. But why would you do that?”

“To draw the guards away, of course. I then went to the guest room. I know from my previous visits that the princess leaves her guest waiting for a few minutes and that there is always some tea. So I simply poured the ‘Sleeping drops’ Zecora gave me into her cup. I knew that someone as powerful as a princess won’t be put to sleep by a regular dosage, so I gave her twenty times more.”

Twilight had finally realized that Rarity wasn’t joking. Her eyes widened and her pupils dilated, while she looked at Rarity like she just found her burning a book. Surprisingly, her voice wasn’t filled with anger; it was very quiet, as if she feared to speak loudly.

“Twenty times the regular dosage... What if she’s hurt?”

“Don’t worry about that, Twilight. I asked Zecora about what would happen if I accidentally took too much of it and she assured me that I’d just have a headache.”

“Why?”

“I’m getting to that. I then waited for the explosion and went to the vault with Elements of Harmony. I inserted Celestia’s horn into them and pushed a little with my magic. The lock recognised the horn and unlocked. I have only wanted to sap a little magic from them! They had enough of it to free princess Luna and imprison Discord – what harm could there be if I took some of the magic for myself? Nopony would even notice!”

“Rarity, how could you?! The Elements are our most powerful artefact that had protected Equestria for millennia! To steal even a little for yourself... How could you be so selfish?!”

Tears started to form in Rarity’s eyes and her lips began to quiver. It’s one thing to know something, but it’s a whole different thing when your friend yells it at you accusingly.

She’s right. Some bearer of Elements I turned out to be. Generosity being my element? What irony.

“Twilight, I– I– I’m so sorry! I failed at every step of your training and wanted to impress you by going to that horrid competition! After I lost even that, I just wanted to show them all that I’m not some pathetic fool. Can you ever forgive me?”

Twilight seemed unmoved by Rarity’s speech. If anything, she seemed to get impatient.

“What happened after you opened the lock?”

“I... I wanted to take some of the magic from my necklace and then, with my newfound power, teleport both me and the princess back into the guest room and pretend she passed out minutes before the explosion. She wouldn’t suspect anything and everything would be fine again. However, after I started to leech the magic, all the Elements connected and gave me all their magic. I couldn’t stop it! And when I woke up, they all looked like ordinary gemstones and my horn was like this. So I teleported here.”

Twilight took a step back, her eyes filled with disbelief.

“You... You teleported here all the way from Canterlot? That’s impossible!”

“Is it? But I’m not even tired.”

“You must be as powerful as princess Celestia, maybe even more! But that doesn’t matter now. We have to go back into the castle and ask the princesses to fix this mess.”

“But I can’t! They’ll banish me for what I’ve done!”

For the first time that day, Twilight smiled.

“Don’t worry Rarity. I’m sure that if you explain yourself and apologize, the princesses will forgive you. Nobody was even hurt after all.”

“I hope so, Twilight, I certainly hope so.”

And so, they vanished in a beam of light.