The Ruby of Balanceby OtterFeelingsChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 1The Ruby of Balance by Gabriele Hall “OtterFeelings” Chapter 1 As I sit here at my desk, I contemplate the outcome of that faithful day many many years ago. I wonder if she succeeded, or if everything that I live in, everything that I see around me that is good, is really just an illusion to mask her failure. I am not sure whether or not she succeeded, but either way, I think it is impossible to tell which it was. The Ruby of Balance was the most powerful stone in Equestria. It was the balancer of good and protector from evil. Keeping bad from corrupting the good and darkness from spoiling the light, the ruby was balance. It was nothing more than a beautifully formed gem, created out of the molten rock from the volcano at the end of the Everfree forest. It was said to be so remote, so dangerous and mysterious, that not even the bravest of dragons dared set foot within miles of it. Ten thousand years ago, an evil alicorn named Shade Heart stole the Ruby from its place at the center of Canterlot. He tried to destroy it in the volcano to give power to the darkness, to let evil be allowed to infiltrate the purity of ponies of every stature. He assumed throwing it into the volcano would destroy it. But he was mistaken, as the ruby is incapable of destruction. It simply remained dormant at the heart of the volcano. It was not destroyed, so goodness could still prosper and be the shining light. However, due to it no longer being in Canterlot in the sacred statue, evil could corrupt the ponies of Equestria. It has remained in the heart of the volcano for millennia, allowing evil to grow in power. And although Shade Heart failed to ever gain power from this grievous act, his actions millennia ago continues to cast a shadow over Equestria. But there was hope for the return of the Ruby back to Canterlot. It was said that only the purest of heart, the strongest of the strong, the bravest of the brave, and the kindest of the kind, could retrieve the Ruby from it residence in the molten core of the volcano. The shadow that was cast over Equestria might finally be able to be cast out. And it was with this knowledge, limited as it was that I, a young earth pony who was bored with life as an apprentice to a printer, set out to retrieve the Ruby. Only I never did retrieve the Ruby, as before I was about to make my decent into the volcano, something stopped me from even attempting to do so. The volcano was in a fit. Molten rocks, red hot with energy, flew sporadically over the edge of the rim. The edges of the volcano were lined with jagged outcroppings of rocks that seemed to form barrier. It was as if they were attempting to say,” don’t even think of trying what you’re thinking about doing.” The sky was extremely dark and rough from the constant puffs of steam and soot being blasted skywards by the angry volcano. The depths of hell were probably calmer than the seen on top of the volcano at the end of the Everfree forest. I stumbled and clinged on for dear life multiple times while trekking up the volcano. It was harder than I expected when I first set out to journey to the volcano. In hindsight, I should have expected about as much, it was a volcano rumored to be cursed by the most powerful alicorn to ever live. Not to mention breathing in such air was like trying to breathe up a burning smokestack. I spent many hours, so many that I lost track of time, desperately trying to reach the summit. Desperately trying to pear into what only one other pony in history had ever seen. The heart, the core, of the volcano where the Ruby of Balance had been stored away in for ten thousand years. Despite many times feeling like it was an impossible task; I managed to reach the summit. The joy I experienced, or rather, pure relief that I had done what no pony would even consider possible, was incredible. It was an emotion I had never had before, and one I know I shall never have again in my lifetime. But this memory does not require me to explain the trials and tribulations after this point. It is unnecessary in the most basic sense of the word because my story would be one of inaction on my part, and heroics on another’s. What is important are the events that I saw after I reached the summit. What I care for you to know is not what happened over the next decades after that night on the volcano, but instead the most tense filled, longest moments of my life that happened in the span of a few short minutes. A few short minutes that affected all of Equestria for the rest of history. I looked out across the jagged ring of rock that acted as a wall around the base of the inside of the volcano. I thought to myself what a magnificent, yet at the same time, horrifying, sight that was the inside of the volcano. It was beautiful in the strangest of ways; the dark red hue of the lava had a glowing radiance that was breathtaking. But something else besides this marvelous wonder of nature caught my attention. It was a flash of purple on the opposing side of the interior. I looked in awe as not one, not two, but six ponies rose one by one over the horizon that was the rim of the volcano. At first my reaction was one of shock. Why, if for ten thousand years, no pony had ever set foot within a hundred miles of the god-forsaken place, all of a sudden six of them appear? I wasn’t furious, I was so in shock that I had no true reaction to seeing a pink pony bouncing over the edge. After observing them from behind a small rock wedged at the crack of a crevice, I noticed that two of them were pegasi, two were unicorns, and the other two were normal earth ponies. What an odd grouping of ponies, I pondered. I watched intently as the purple unicorn led the way down to the very tip of the rim in the interior. She gazed intently into the flaming liquid rock, and shook her head. I noticed one other in particular, a light bluish one with a mane that had all the colors of a rainbow. I had much time to think on my journey to the volcano at the edge of the Everfree forest. My thoughts traveled from everything to whether or not I was really the pony who could rescue the Ruby of Balance, and forever banish the corruptible darkness and evil in Equestria, to whether or not there really is a blue fruit. I came to realize very late into my trek, that something about what I was trying to do was wrong. That maybe I shouldn’t be doing this. That maybe I was not the pony that was the bravest of the brave and the kindest of the kind. These thoughts tormented me constantly. And if it were not for the slim hope I had that maybe I really was the pony of the prophecy, I would have turned back and headed back to Appleloosa. But upon seeing these six ponies, something about them told me that it was one of them, not I, who was the pony of the prophecy. I didn’t know it at the time, but one of these ponies would attempt to rescue the Ruby of Balance. Actually, I did know that one of them would try; I just had a hard time accepting that it wasn’t me who was the pony of the prophecy. That my place was to watch, to bear witness to whatever might occur on that volcano on that day so many years ago. From behind my hiding rock, I watched with great intensity the actions of all six of the ponies. One by one they would look over at the boiling lava then quickly turn away in fear. A yellow Pegasus with beautiful pink hair was so scared in fact that every time the volcano let out even a bubble she would jump behind one of the large rocks, whimpering in fear. I knew that the time was approaching. The time when one of them would take the dive straight towards the center of the volcano, and either retrieve the Ruby or be burned alive before they even made contact with the liquid rock. The prophecy says that all who try to retrieve the Ruby from the volcano and are not the purest of heart, the strongest of the strong, the bravest of the brave, and the kindest of the kind, will be destroyed. But the pony that is all of these things will retrieve the Ruby, and will be spared from the lava within. And if the Ruby is not retrieved by the end of the ten thousandth year, then great changes will happen in Equestria. But if it is recovered, then it shall make its way back to Canterlot, and darkness and evil will never exist in Equestria again. I looked on with great anticipation as a pony was selected by the group as the one to try to retrieve the Ruby of Balance. Although saying she was chosen is debatable. It seemed like this one, the light blue pegasus from earlier, had needed no insistence to try. She had the confidence in herself and in her friends, to try to rescue the Ruby. I thought about doing a silent prayer. But at this point any attempt to help her was futile. If she was truly the pony of the prophecy, then she did not need any help, her destiny was set. But if she wasn’t, well, it would have been too late to stop her from trying. I have often heard that on a somber day, when everything hangs in the balance, crows and other birds will appear and sounds will be amplified. As well, all things will stand quiet as the moment of truth unfolds. Well on this occasion the birds were not there, due to the soot laden atmosphere. As the pegasus prepared herself to plunge into the liquid rock, everything was quite, a deathly silence fell over the volcano. Flugel horns could have been playing behind me, but they would have fallen on my deaf ears. Every fiber of my being was on seeing if this light blue Pegasus was really the pony of the prophecy. A pony one who would live in the history books as the pony that vanquished the evil from Equestria forever. And so, after saying what could be the final goodbye to her friends, the pegasus dove. Face first straight towards the blazing inferno that was the heart of the volcano she plunged. And as I prepared to take my last glimpse of her right as she was about to hit the certain death that was the lava, a rainbow burst out from behind her like nothing I had ever seen before. The loudest boom that I have ever known blasted air and soot in every direction for miles around the volcano and surrounding area following the colour blast. I had to blink to force the crud out of my eyes. But before I could reopen them again, I blacked out. Chapter 2The Ruby of Balance by Gabriele Hall “OtterFeelings” Chapter 2 The smell of smoldering coal brought me to my senses. Had days passed? Or was it years since I was on the volcano? Or was it really just some lucid nightmare that had been a bit too realistic? Reaching for my nose, I could feel cuts, and blinking my eyes a second time brought pain immediately. They were swollen and blinking made it feel like some pony was driving a million little pins into my pupil. I decided that if the pain was this real, then the events of my “dream” must have been too. I slowly arose out of the makeshift cot and stumbled over to the wash bin. A new smell soon hit me after I finished washing my face, which did little to ease the hotness in my face. It was the smell of Apple pie, freshly baked and ready to be eaten. At least I knew I was in Appleoosa again. But it was very weird, as I could remember nothing after some blue Pegasus had dove into the mouth of the volcano. I never thought to try to figure out whose cabin I was in. I ate the apple pie swiftly, not realizing until after how starved I had actually been. I moved over to the edge of the cot, and through myself over the side. Thoughts about the Pegasus, and the Ruby flew wildly in my head. Did she fulfill the prophecy and bring the Ruby back to Canterlot? I wanted to know the answer, badly. I knew I didn’t have the strength yet to go to Canterlot and find out myself. But I knew that by looking out my window, I could probably tell whether or not she had succeeded. I peered with hesitation outside the roughed up and opaque window. Damn it. It looked like I was going to have to head outside. So I gradually lifted myself off the old cot and walked feebly over to the wooden door. With a last deep breath, I opened the door and looked outside. Shade Heart gazed into the fiery depths of the volcano. His heart was not evil. Evil was his heart. He smiled coldly and smiled as he remembered the joy he would have once the Ruby had been destroyed. He looked around at the surrounding forest. It was so quiet and pristine. Everything that he hated and despised. Shade Heart took a deep breath and for the last time gazed into the Ruby. It was then he had a momentary lapse of consciousness in which his mind became engulfed in something foreign to him. As he stared intently at the Ruby, a feeling of happiness rang throughout him. In the back of his mind, he truly understood what casting the Ruby into the volcano would do. He felt regret, he felt sorrow. These were two emotions that had been absent in him for a long time. He had hardened his heart, forcing any thoughts of remorse seep out of him, and be masked by hatred and fear. But looking into the Ruby let those thoughts start to creep back. Shade Heart was able to remember the happy times in his life, even if they were far and few between. A smile so miniscule that no pony could ever see with their naked eye quivered across Shade Heart’s face. A small tingling sensation ran throughout his spine and down to the tips of his hooves. The sensation startled him. He snapped back to reality. Had that feeling, that tingling, been what he had never had? Was the Ruby showing him what love feels like? Could the Ruby have cracked open a small section in the evil encrusted shell around the alicorn’s heart? When I looked outside, a rush of warm and musty air smacked my face, forcing my eyes shut. The wind was hot and dust was getting kicked up and blown around in the swirling wind. It ways on these days that I felt regret about living in Appleoosa. It might have the best apple pies and some of the nicest ponies in all of Equestria, but dang, the summers were nasty. I dreaded looking outside and finding my world to be different. But to my relieved surprise, nothing looked much different. Actually, nothing looked different at all. There were a few ponies strolling down the street engaged in some sort of important discussion. The sheriff was inspecting one of the new buildings that must have been set up during my trip. Even Braeburn was hard at work greeting the newest settlers who had arrived in the train. Everything looked the same, but not everything felt the same. Maybe it was just me. Heck, it definitely could have been me, as I still had no clue of how I was even back here in Appleoosa. I couldn’t remember anything after that Pegasus had dove towards the heart of the volcano. What had changed, or at least what I felt had changed was something deep inside me. It was like the wind, I knew it was there, but no matter how hard I tried to figure out what it looked like, I still couldn’t see it. And this change didn’t feel right, something about it, something I couldn’t place my hoof on, felt very wrong. Doubt ran like wildfire in Shade Heart’s mind. He wasn’t sure if he was doing the right thing. He wondered if throwing the Ruby of Balance, the most powerful gem in Equestria, into the Forever Red Volcano would not do for him what he thought it would. Second guessing himself was a thing Shade Heart hated to do. He saw it as a weakness, when in reality it is a conscience check. Feeling under immense pressure, he clenched the Ruby, forced his eyes shut so as not to see what he was about to do, and threw with all of his might, the Ruby into the volcano. The instant he felt the gem release from his grip, he screamed out in agony. Realization of the act he had just committed brought him to his knees. Fear was present inside himself. But it was a fear he had not experienced before, because this fear was terror, of what he had done to himself by throwing the Ruby into the volcano. His heart told him to dive into the volcano, to rescue the Ruby. But his head was not stupid. He knew full well that trying to dive into the volcano would be instant and unavoidable death. Remorse filled his heart, but nothing he could do could change the implications he had caused. He had plunged Equestria into darkness, and no pony would suffer the consequences more than Shade Heart. He collected himself, as best he could, and wept all the way down the volcano. Every attempt he made to gain composure failed. Shade Heart knew that he would never fully recover from pain he had inflicted upon himself. He went into hiding off in a remote place in the Everfree forest. Never wanting to show his ashamed face again. But luckily enough for Equestria, and unbeknownst to Shade Heart, his action was not a permanent one. Although he did not know that one day a pony would dive into the volcano, and try to rescue the Ruby he had tried to destroy. Shade Heart was never heard from again after his grievous action. The knowledge that he was the one who had thrown the Ruby into the volcano was only discovered hundreds of years after he had passed on, when another young alicorn stumbled upon his shack and read his memoirs that were stashed away. When I arrived in Canterlot, I was most certainly out of place. Every pony acted with such dignity and here I was, a teenage earth pony from Appleoosa, trotting down the streets in nothing more than a fedora. I was awkward among all the upper class ponies. But my mission was not to try to fit in. I decided I would do that later. What was paramount to me was to see whether or not the Ruby had made it back to the center of Canterlot and returned to its statue. I had asked many ponies on my way to Canterlot, yet no pony seemed to have been able to tell me anything about it. In fact, no pony even knew what the Ruby of Balance was. This was quite disturbing to me. I thought little of it however as I made my way to the center square. My heart pounded and my lips when cold. My whole body tensed as I got closer. The hair on my mane stood alert, and and saying I was sweating would be an understatement. The Ruby being in the statue is what I wanted to see. It is what I desperately needed to see in order to achieve validation. But I would have no such relief. Chapter 3The Ruby of Balance by Gabriele Hall “OtterFeelings” Chapter 3 The Ruby was in the center of the statue, right where I had been told it should be. But before relief could wash over me, I heard a mare scream. A lone gunshot echoed for what seemed like days off the walls of the magnificent Canterlot homes. Silence, a very eerie one, ran cold over the shocked onlookers. The faint clopping noise of the royal Canterlot guard could be heard in the distance. At the same time, cries from a wailing filly made the spines of all the ponies near the court where the Ruby was quiver. All the adult ponies knew what had happened. Some did want to believe it, others simply could not, and some young enough colts were startled and bewildered by the whole situation. A pony I did not know was dead. The family of this mare would be beyond emotionally tormented, as their lives would be changed forever. I never did see the one who murdered her, or his exact motives, but I know what his actions were. His decision to take another’s life was pure evil. And although the mare’s family would never be the same, with many of them having their lives ruined, none of them could possibly have been more devastated than me. For I wasn’t distraught by the death of the mare herself, I was in shambles because if she was murdered, then that meant that the Ruby of Balance wasn’t rescued. This meant that ten thousand years since it had been cast into the volcano had passed and evil had permanently taken hold of Equestria forever. Yet, I was fascinated and intrigued at the same time. Because although a pure act of evil had been committed by murdering this mare, there was the Ruby of Balance, in its statue in the center of Canterlot. So I was left pondering the situation that I saw in front of me. Was the Ruby of Balance not actually in its statue, and instead the evil had placed an imposter there as to mask its actual victory on the volcano? Or was the Ruby really there, and this murder was justifiable? Neither answer made much sense to me, nor to this day I am left pondering here at my desk which reality is true. The young alicorn rolled her eyes across the page of the ancient text. Words in weird patterns were spilled out on the page. It all seemed so boring; there was nothing special about it. She saw it as just an old useless diary that some pony had written long ago. Yet as bored as she became, she realized that no matter how many times she thought about putting the diary down, she never quite could disregard it, and toss it onto the shoddy old desk. It was boring, she literally felt as though death of boredom was possible, and it was happening to her right then. Alas, she flipped yet another page, and had more dust fly into her eyes. Maybe, she pondered, the book was so boring and seemingly useless, that it was interesting because of it. So for hours upon hours, in a centuries-old rundown shack, a young and promising alicorn turned page after page in the interestingly boring diary. The account was one of remorse and sorrow. The writer had obviously been in a great deal of pain when he was writing the diary. The pain itself though, the young alicorn noticed, was not that of a physical pain, but one of mental pain. Tales of what could have happened, what he should have done, all down to the most finite detail, made up the composition. Hindsight is a beautiful thing, such that had obviously had greatly affected the alicorn. So on and on the diary told of what the alicorn should have done, and what he wished he hadn’t. The whole diary carried out in this fashion, all except for the last page. The entire diary had been the alicorn talking about the past, and regretting it. But on the last page, the young alicorn observed, was a hopefulness shown by the writer towards the future. Although he had spent the rest of his life distraught after what he had previously mentioned as “The Mistake,” he had ended it with a slim period of optimism. He believed that one day; a pony would come and would correct his mistake. Despite all of his errors and wrongdoings, the writer had hope that one day things would be right, even when he knew he could never see that happen. The young alicorn sighed when she read the last words on the page. The last dusty and rotting page. She slowly shut the back of the hard bound diary and began to turn away. As she did so, a slight black mark standing out against the dark green cover caught her attention. She was confused because she hadn’t remembered seeing it when she first closed the book. She spun her hooves around to get a better look. The black mark looked like it was part of a word, as there was cobwebs and dirt covering most of the cover. She gently blew the debris off and took a close look at the letters. In a very hard to read cursive, she made out what she believed to be as “volcano.” This word had nothing to do, as far as she could tell, to do with the diary, yet she had the strange feeling that the two were connected. The letters were faded and hard to make out. She tried to read the words again, but before she could readjust her eyes to the beginning of the word. But before she could do so, the letters, like invisible ink, vanished from the cover. There was no trace that black letters were ever there. Stunned and confused, the young alicorn tried to read the letters again. But no matter how much she strained, and how many times she tried to see the letters, they simply were not there. Frustrated more than ever, she flung the diary across the shack, smashing it into a pile of decaying jars. I wandered through the streets of Canterlot. I possessed no sense of direction or destination. I was extremely upset, and the rays of sunlight, practicing choir and any of the other things that should have cheered me up, or made me smile, simply made my mood worsen. I had a dilemma on my hands, and no idea how to solve it. The air was fresh, yet my mind was stale. Should I go back to the volcano, and try to determine definitively for myself the real identity of the Ruby? Or was it best just to stay in Canterlot, and continue to aimlessly trot around with questions swirling in my head. Although the murder of the pony had not physically affected me, it left an imprint in my head. I had not emotional ties to the murdered pony, yet her death was important to me because it was evil, the exact thing the rescuing and returning of the Ruby was said to vanquish from Equestria. I needed an answer, and I knew that doing something yourself is sometimes the only way to prove something to yourselves. Well I sure as hell felt this was one of those times. I had nothing with me in terms of possessions with me other than a saddle bag with a few measly bits in it. I scraped together my money, and bought all the necessities I could afford, which was a small amount of bread, some carrots, and a canteen. I felt ready to go, at least as much as I could ever, still feeling extremely down at that point. The young alicorn walked away from the shack. Ringing in her ears was the word “volcano.” her entire brain was concentrated on that word. It made no sense at all to her but she understood, in some weird way, that it was of the utmost importance. It was so deeply engraved into her conscience that getting back to Canterlot became secondary to her, nothing more than an afterthought. She had traveled into the Everfree forest to spend some time in deep meditation, in order to think about her role in the universe. But the constant sounding off in her head of “volcano” was a bit more “deep thought” than she could handle. Walking slowly through the Everfree forest, she lost her sense of direction. It would be expected, sense she couldn’t concentrate, either voluntary or involuntary, on anything but the “volcano.” Feeling no end in sight, and at the point of madness, the young alicorn screamed out in frustration, and collapsed to the ground. She was utterly lost. As she blinked in and out of consciousness, she felt a slight tug on her mane, one that appeared to originate from inside her. She breathed heavy and tensed up. Before a final blink of her eyes, an energy she couldn’t describe boiled up inside her, and her ears were filled to the max with a final uttering of the word “volcano.” Unconsciousness for the young alicorn then ensued. Oh how she had come to hate that word. She was quite certain it was going to be the death of her, right in that instant. “Volcano.” it was terrible and the very nature of it now seemed evil to her. Anything she would give to get it out of her head. It had become pure torture for the young alicorn. And so, deep in a crazed-induced sleep, she gave herself into the word. Yet as soon as she committed herself, everything became clear to her. The word did not want her; it wanted to simple relay a message. She did not understand it fully, as that was not the intent, or the purpose of the word. It was so simple; she could have driven herself insane just by being angered at herself that she did not realize the simple task that was right in front of her the whole time. She realized that the “volcano” was a clue, better yet an instruction. Hours, or maybe minutes passed before the young alicorn regained her conscience. Without and second thoughts, not even to ponder the strange occurrences in her dream, she started off. Relentlessly and without any chance of being stopped, the young alicorn headed off for the volcano. She didn’t know why she had to go there; she just knew that it was something she was required to do. The diary, she figured, had something to do with this mission that had been given to her. She just did not know how it had anything to do with the volcano. Yet along she went. Back in the shack, the liquids, both ancient and beyond spoiled, oozed and dripped out of the jars. The diary absorbed them all. A rotten fish smell engulfed the entire rundown old shack. The pages of the diary were already extremely frail. More than once the young alicorn had torn a corner of a page, despite great delicacy, in the process of flipping them. So the liquids were death for the diary. Page by page, section by section, pages disintegrated into nothing more than a fine powder, which were blown away through holes in the shacks poorly constructed walls. The binding gave away, and the whole diary collapsed in on its self. The greatest and most important diary in the history of Equestria had been reduced to mere nothingness by oozing liquids in a rundown shack in the middle of the Everfree forest. Yet one page remained. Or rather, a single cover remained. Tumbling down to the dirt floor, the back cover of the diary landed face down in the muck. The wind howled outside, and a strange eeriness filled the shack, even though there was nopony there to experience it. As this happened, the young alicorn made her way to the volcano, hell-bent on getting there. Back in Canterlot, the long lived and beloved queen took her last breaths. And in the middle of the dirty floor of the long abandoned shack of Shade Heart, on the back cover of his diary, the word “volcano” appeared in a black cursive font, waiting for some pony to read it. Chapter 4The Ruby of Balance by Gabriele Hall "OtterFeelings" Chapter 4 The gates to the entrance of Canterlot were enormous. They sprung up into the sky, as if they were trying to push through the clouds. Massive marble beams supported the intricately laced railings that formed the rest of the gate. I knew that when I passed through these marvelous doors, a new path would lie ahead of me, one of which I did not know where it would take me. The royal guards did their usual inspection, to make sure I wasn’t up to anything that I shouldn’t be doing, and then gave the signal for the gates to be opened. For such massive doors, they sure did swing open fast. I took a deep breath in. keeping calm was my main focus. I needed to relax, focus on my mission ahead of me, whatever it might turn out to be. I exhaled exuberantly, which earned a clearing of a throat from one of the guards. Not wanting to cause any trouble, I quickly reared up, and then proceeded to gallop down the gravel path which came up to the gates. I ran for a while, although I’m not entirely sure why I did. I assume it was because of my great anticipation. Mountains, very jagged ones at that, lined the surprisingly rundown path. I would have assumed that these pathways would be at the very least well maintained. But I guess there were other, more imperative things to be done in Canterlot than worry about some rundown old path. I stopped when I reached the valley, where the mountains turned into rolling hills, and looked back. I was actually quite surprised at how far away from Canterlot I already was. I wasn’t even breathing hard, even though I must have been running for at least a few miles. My anxiousness must have been toying with my body’s ability to let me know that I should have been exhausted. Turning, I looked at awe as the sun became a beautiful backdrop against Canterlot. The shimmering of light, as the sun set, caused the whole city to seemingly glow. Glistening in the magnificence of the sun’s radiance, Canterlot looked peaceful, as if ignorant to the fact that there was a great danger that was lurking, just waiting for a chance to tear it down. I wanted so badly to be convinced that at this moment nature’s brilliance, the Ruby must be in its statue in the center of Canterlot. Unfortunately, my brain knew that wasn’t true. Or at least if it was, then I had no way of being sure. I wanted answers. In fact, I downright needed answers. I had an unquenchable thirst to find out for myself, whether or not the Ruby had been rescued. Taking one last look at the beautiful rays of sunlight falling on Canterlot, I sighed. I gained a new determination at that moment, one even greater than I had previously ever had. Doubt had been my driving force ever since the Ruby had become the epicenter of my life. But now, a new force entered me, one that I can’t fully explain. But a force that I knew would allow me to overcome whatever obstacles that I might face. Although I may not have known much at the time about what I was about to do, one thing was clear to me. I was going to have to overcome what I would soon learn as unthinkable challenges. But looking back at what I had to do, I could never be gladder that I took them on, even when I had doubts that plagued me constantly. Celestia looked hesitantly out across the vast expanse of darkness. The valley, which acted more like a huge crevice, splitting the mountain in two, in the Everfree forest, was quite intimidating. She scanned out below into the valley, straining desperately to see something in the endless darkness. Even in the daylight, this valley would have been hard to navigate from above, but at night, there was no chance in heck that one could decipher what lay below in it. Gulping, realizing that she had no other way to get to the volcano, the young Celestia took a cautious step forward down the slope. She had to feel her way around for the most part, not trusting her hoofs to make a blind decision. Chills of the night ran down her spine. Something seemed odd about this place. Well, of course even more so than the fact that it was a vast, unknown slope of land. The feeling of watching eyes leaned heavily on the young alicorn. She wanted to scream, turn around and flee in terror, screaming off into the dark. Yet at the same time, an insatiable urge of curiosity drove her onwards, further down the slope. The howling wind and wet, moist air made her tingle with anticipation. No doubt lingered any amount about the presence of a pony, or at least a creature of some kind. Despite not knowing what exactly or who exactly it was watching her, Celestia wanted to confront it. She stopped in her tracks once she heard the coarse breathing. It came from a bush, or at least what Celestia perceived as a bush; she didn’t quite know for sure, as she could not see well enough to make out a definite shapes. The breathing was loud, but it did not appear to be menacing. She thought of it more as sighs of exhaustion. Curiosity was imbedded in her genes, and it would not allow her to do anything but investigate the strange sound. Taking deep breaths, and gaining composure, wanting to be sure that nothing would startle her, Celestia moved towards the bush carefully. She did not want to startle whatever it was behind the bush. If she did, she would either scare it off, or, worse, it could attack her, which would probably end very badly for the young alicorn. When she felt she was right next to the bush, she softly called out, “hello, anypony in there? Do you need help?” Her eyes burned brightly as she waited for a response. She patiently waited for a response, one that every second seemed less and less likely to come. She called out a second time, trying to convince herself that the animal had simply not heard her the first time. She spoke even more softly this time, practically at a whisper, “Hello? Are you all right?” No response could be heard. The breathing had faded away since she had first asked, and now she couldn’t hear it at all. Compassion immediately turned to anger. She demanded an answer to why it hadn’t responded. She was angered with herself as well. Why hadn’t she done more? And if she had done more, would it had really have mattered? Desperate for closure, she convinced herself that even if she had gotten an answer, even if she had helped the seemingly injured animal, it wouldn’t have mattered. The young alicorn turned away, disappointed. She stepped away from the bush, and figured the next thing to do was to continue on her way down the slope. Moving down the slope safely once again became her number one priority. She had officially put that episode behind her; she was ready once again to look forward to her task ahead of her, getting to the volcano. The mountains were gorgeous against the scarlet blue background that was the mid-morning sky. Once again, this beauty of nature did not resonate with me. When normally I would be stunned, I was instead just pushed further into my thoughts of the Ruby. Even my dreams were filled with thoughts of the Ruby, whether or not it was rescued, the same thing over and over ever sleepless night. Sure, I might have closed my eyes, and to observers I may have seemed at peace, but in reality I was constantly going over the situation in my head. The previous night had been no different. It was turning me into quite a physiological wreck. But the madness’ one positive was that it had a way of always motivating me more, encouraging me to get rid of it. And I knew full well the only way to do that was to seek answers to my ultimate question. Stretching my aching calves, which in reality did very little to relieve the pain, I got up from my makeshift bed. Although a bed is quite an overstatement, for all I slept on was a thick cotton blanket and I rested my head on my saddle bag. I gathered up everything that I had taken out of the bag the previous night to make it more comfortable to rest my head on, and began walking to the slope that led into the valley. When I arrived there, which was only a few hard paced trotting minutes away, I gazed out across the shadowed valley. I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like at night, probably pitch black, I guessed. Well there was only one way to get to Ponyville, so I could go on to the Everfree forest and reach my destination. The slope was steep, so much so that it would be better to call it a cliff. Figuring out how to get down became my biggest obstacle, let alone trying to cross the dang valley, which I would say looked more like a pit of darkness at this point. Standing at the edge made me feel like I was hanging off a cliff, and I was about to fall off into nothingness. But this was the only way to get to Ponyville, since I didn’t have any balloons lying around. I bit my tongue, a little too hard, and started my way down, very slowly.
Chapter 1The Ruby of Balance by Gabriele Hall “OtterFeelings” Chapter 1 As I sit here at my desk, I contemplate the outcome of that faithful day many many years ago. I wonder if she succeeded, or if everything that I live in, everything that I see around me that is good, is really just an illusion to mask her failure. I am not sure whether or not she succeeded, but either way, I think it is impossible to tell which it was. The Ruby of Balance was the most powerful stone in Equestria. It was the balancer of good and protector from evil. Keeping bad from corrupting the good and darkness from spoiling the light, the ruby was balance. It was nothing more than a beautifully formed gem, created out of the molten rock from the volcano at the end of the Everfree forest. It was said to be so remote, so dangerous and mysterious, that not even the bravest of dragons dared set foot within miles of it. Ten thousand years ago, an evil alicorn named Shade Heart stole the Ruby from its place at the center of Canterlot. He tried to destroy it in the volcano to give power to the darkness, to let evil be allowed to infiltrate the purity of ponies of every stature. He assumed throwing it into the volcano would destroy it. But he was mistaken, as the ruby is incapable of destruction. It simply remained dormant at the heart of the volcano. It was not destroyed, so goodness could still prosper and be the shining light. However, due to it no longer being in Canterlot in the sacred statue, evil could corrupt the ponies of Equestria. It has remained in the heart of the volcano for millennia, allowing evil to grow in power. And although Shade Heart failed to ever gain power from this grievous act, his actions millennia ago continues to cast a shadow over Equestria. But there was hope for the return of the Ruby back to Canterlot. It was said that only the purest of heart, the strongest of the strong, the bravest of the brave, and the kindest of the kind, could retrieve the Ruby from it residence in the molten core of the volcano. The shadow that was cast over Equestria might finally be able to be cast out. And it was with this knowledge, limited as it was that I, a young earth pony who was bored with life as an apprentice to a printer, set out to retrieve the Ruby. Only I never did retrieve the Ruby, as before I was about to make my decent into the volcano, something stopped me from even attempting to do so. The volcano was in a fit. Molten rocks, red hot with energy, flew sporadically over the edge of the rim. The edges of the volcano were lined with jagged outcroppings of rocks that seemed to form barrier. It was as if they were attempting to say,” don’t even think of trying what you’re thinking about doing.” The sky was extremely dark and rough from the constant puffs of steam and soot being blasted skywards by the angry volcano. The depths of hell were probably calmer than the seen on top of the volcano at the end of the Everfree forest. I stumbled and clinged on for dear life multiple times while trekking up the volcano. It was harder than I expected when I first set out to journey to the volcano. In hindsight, I should have expected about as much, it was a volcano rumored to be cursed by the most powerful alicorn to ever live. Not to mention breathing in such air was like trying to breathe up a burning smokestack. I spent many hours, so many that I lost track of time, desperately trying to reach the summit. Desperately trying to pear into what only one other pony in history had ever seen. The heart, the core, of the volcano where the Ruby of Balance had been stored away in for ten thousand years. Despite many times feeling like it was an impossible task; I managed to reach the summit. The joy I experienced, or rather, pure relief that I had done what no pony would even consider possible, was incredible. It was an emotion I had never had before, and one I know I shall never have again in my lifetime. But this memory does not require me to explain the trials and tribulations after this point. It is unnecessary in the most basic sense of the word because my story would be one of inaction on my part, and heroics on another’s. What is important are the events that I saw after I reached the summit. What I care for you to know is not what happened over the next decades after that night on the volcano, but instead the most tense filled, longest moments of my life that happened in the span of a few short minutes. A few short minutes that affected all of Equestria for the rest of history. I looked out across the jagged ring of rock that acted as a wall around the base of the inside of the volcano. I thought to myself what a magnificent, yet at the same time, horrifying, sight that was the inside of the volcano. It was beautiful in the strangest of ways; the dark red hue of the lava had a glowing radiance that was breathtaking. But something else besides this marvelous wonder of nature caught my attention. It was a flash of purple on the opposing side of the interior. I looked in awe as not one, not two, but six ponies rose one by one over the horizon that was the rim of the volcano. At first my reaction was one of shock. Why, if for ten thousand years, no pony had ever set foot within a hundred miles of the god-forsaken place, all of a sudden six of them appear? I wasn’t furious, I was so in shock that I had no true reaction to seeing a pink pony bouncing over the edge. After observing them from behind a small rock wedged at the crack of a crevice, I noticed that two of them were pegasi, two were unicorns, and the other two were normal earth ponies. What an odd grouping of ponies, I pondered. I watched intently as the purple unicorn led the way down to the very tip of the rim in the interior. She gazed intently into the flaming liquid rock, and shook her head. I noticed one other in particular, a light bluish one with a mane that had all the colors of a rainbow. I had much time to think on my journey to the volcano at the edge of the Everfree forest. My thoughts traveled from everything to whether or not I was really the pony who could rescue the Ruby of Balance, and forever banish the corruptible darkness and evil in Equestria, to whether or not there really is a blue fruit. I came to realize very late into my trek, that something about what I was trying to do was wrong. That maybe I shouldn’t be doing this. That maybe I was not the pony that was the bravest of the brave and the kindest of the kind. These thoughts tormented me constantly. And if it were not for the slim hope I had that maybe I really was the pony of the prophecy, I would have turned back and headed back to Appleloosa. But upon seeing these six ponies, something about them told me that it was one of them, not I, who was the pony of the prophecy. I didn’t know it at the time, but one of these ponies would attempt to rescue the Ruby of Balance. Actually, I did know that one of them would try; I just had a hard time accepting that it wasn’t me who was the pony of the prophecy. That my place was to watch, to bear witness to whatever might occur on that volcano on that day so many years ago. From behind my hiding rock, I watched with great intensity the actions of all six of the ponies. One by one they would look over at the boiling lava then quickly turn away in fear. A yellow Pegasus with beautiful pink hair was so scared in fact that every time the volcano let out even a bubble she would jump behind one of the large rocks, whimpering in fear. I knew that the time was approaching. The time when one of them would take the dive straight towards the center of the volcano, and either retrieve the Ruby or be burned alive before they even made contact with the liquid rock. The prophecy says that all who try to retrieve the Ruby from the volcano and are not the purest of heart, the strongest of the strong, the bravest of the brave, and the kindest of the kind, will be destroyed. But the pony that is all of these things will retrieve the Ruby, and will be spared from the lava within. And if the Ruby is not retrieved by the end of the ten thousandth year, then great changes will happen in Equestria. But if it is recovered, then it shall make its way back to Canterlot, and darkness and evil will never exist in Equestria again. I looked on with great anticipation as a pony was selected by the group as the one to try to retrieve the Ruby of Balance. Although saying she was chosen is debatable. It seemed like this one, the light blue pegasus from earlier, had needed no insistence to try. She had the confidence in herself and in her friends, to try to rescue the Ruby. I thought about doing a silent prayer. But at this point any attempt to help her was futile. If she was truly the pony of the prophecy, then she did not need any help, her destiny was set. But if she wasn’t, well, it would have been too late to stop her from trying. I have often heard that on a somber day, when everything hangs in the balance, crows and other birds will appear and sounds will be amplified. As well, all things will stand quiet as the moment of truth unfolds. Well on this occasion the birds were not there, due to the soot laden atmosphere. As the pegasus prepared herself to plunge into the liquid rock, everything was quite, a deathly silence fell over the volcano. Flugel horns could have been playing behind me, but they would have fallen on my deaf ears. Every fiber of my being was on seeing if this light blue Pegasus was really the pony of the prophecy. A pony one who would live in the history books as the pony that vanquished the evil from Equestria forever. And so, after saying what could be the final goodbye to her friends, the pegasus dove. Face first straight towards the blazing inferno that was the heart of the volcano she plunged. And as I prepared to take my last glimpse of her right as she was about to hit the certain death that was the lava, a rainbow burst out from behind her like nothing I had ever seen before. The loudest boom that I have ever known blasted air and soot in every direction for miles around the volcano and surrounding area following the colour blast. I had to blink to force the crud out of my eyes. But before I could reopen them again, I blacked out.
Chapter 2The Ruby of Balance by Gabriele Hall “OtterFeelings” Chapter 2 The smell of smoldering coal brought me to my senses. Had days passed? Or was it years since I was on the volcano? Or was it really just some lucid nightmare that had been a bit too realistic? Reaching for my nose, I could feel cuts, and blinking my eyes a second time brought pain immediately. They were swollen and blinking made it feel like some pony was driving a million little pins into my pupil. I decided that if the pain was this real, then the events of my “dream” must have been too. I slowly arose out of the makeshift cot and stumbled over to the wash bin. A new smell soon hit me after I finished washing my face, which did little to ease the hotness in my face. It was the smell of Apple pie, freshly baked and ready to be eaten. At least I knew I was in Appleoosa again. But it was very weird, as I could remember nothing after some blue Pegasus had dove into the mouth of the volcano. I never thought to try to figure out whose cabin I was in. I ate the apple pie swiftly, not realizing until after how starved I had actually been. I moved over to the edge of the cot, and through myself over the side. Thoughts about the Pegasus, and the Ruby flew wildly in my head. Did she fulfill the prophecy and bring the Ruby back to Canterlot? I wanted to know the answer, badly. I knew I didn’t have the strength yet to go to Canterlot and find out myself. But I knew that by looking out my window, I could probably tell whether or not she had succeeded. I peered with hesitation outside the roughed up and opaque window. Damn it. It looked like I was going to have to head outside. So I gradually lifted myself off the old cot and walked feebly over to the wooden door. With a last deep breath, I opened the door and looked outside. Shade Heart gazed into the fiery depths of the volcano. His heart was not evil. Evil was his heart. He smiled coldly and smiled as he remembered the joy he would have once the Ruby had been destroyed. He looked around at the surrounding forest. It was so quiet and pristine. Everything that he hated and despised. Shade Heart took a deep breath and for the last time gazed into the Ruby. It was then he had a momentary lapse of consciousness in which his mind became engulfed in something foreign to him. As he stared intently at the Ruby, a feeling of happiness rang throughout him. In the back of his mind, he truly understood what casting the Ruby into the volcano would do. He felt regret, he felt sorrow. These were two emotions that had been absent in him for a long time. He had hardened his heart, forcing any thoughts of remorse seep out of him, and be masked by hatred and fear. But looking into the Ruby let those thoughts start to creep back. Shade Heart was able to remember the happy times in his life, even if they were far and few between. A smile so miniscule that no pony could ever see with their naked eye quivered across Shade Heart’s face. A small tingling sensation ran throughout his spine and down to the tips of his hooves. The sensation startled him. He snapped back to reality. Had that feeling, that tingling, been what he had never had? Was the Ruby showing him what love feels like? Could the Ruby have cracked open a small section in the evil encrusted shell around the alicorn’s heart? When I looked outside, a rush of warm and musty air smacked my face, forcing my eyes shut. The wind was hot and dust was getting kicked up and blown around in the swirling wind. It ways on these days that I felt regret about living in Appleoosa. It might have the best apple pies and some of the nicest ponies in all of Equestria, but dang, the summers were nasty. I dreaded looking outside and finding my world to be different. But to my relieved surprise, nothing looked much different. Actually, nothing looked different at all. There were a few ponies strolling down the street engaged in some sort of important discussion. The sheriff was inspecting one of the new buildings that must have been set up during my trip. Even Braeburn was hard at work greeting the newest settlers who had arrived in the train. Everything looked the same, but not everything felt the same. Maybe it was just me. Heck, it definitely could have been me, as I still had no clue of how I was even back here in Appleoosa. I couldn’t remember anything after that Pegasus had dove towards the heart of the volcano. What had changed, or at least what I felt had changed was something deep inside me. It was like the wind, I knew it was there, but no matter how hard I tried to figure out what it looked like, I still couldn’t see it. And this change didn’t feel right, something about it, something I couldn’t place my hoof on, felt very wrong. Doubt ran like wildfire in Shade Heart’s mind. He wasn’t sure if he was doing the right thing. He wondered if throwing the Ruby of Balance, the most powerful gem in Equestria, into the Forever Red Volcano would not do for him what he thought it would. Second guessing himself was a thing Shade Heart hated to do. He saw it as a weakness, when in reality it is a conscience check. Feeling under immense pressure, he clenched the Ruby, forced his eyes shut so as not to see what he was about to do, and threw with all of his might, the Ruby into the volcano. The instant he felt the gem release from his grip, he screamed out in agony. Realization of the act he had just committed brought him to his knees. Fear was present inside himself. But it was a fear he had not experienced before, because this fear was terror, of what he had done to himself by throwing the Ruby into the volcano. His heart told him to dive into the volcano, to rescue the Ruby. But his head was not stupid. He knew full well that trying to dive into the volcano would be instant and unavoidable death. Remorse filled his heart, but nothing he could do could change the implications he had caused. He had plunged Equestria into darkness, and no pony would suffer the consequences more than Shade Heart. He collected himself, as best he could, and wept all the way down the volcano. Every attempt he made to gain composure failed. Shade Heart knew that he would never fully recover from pain he had inflicted upon himself. He went into hiding off in a remote place in the Everfree forest. Never wanting to show his ashamed face again. But luckily enough for Equestria, and unbeknownst to Shade Heart, his action was not a permanent one. Although he did not know that one day a pony would dive into the volcano, and try to rescue the Ruby he had tried to destroy. Shade Heart was never heard from again after his grievous action. The knowledge that he was the one who had thrown the Ruby into the volcano was only discovered hundreds of years after he had passed on, when another young alicorn stumbled upon his shack and read his memoirs that were stashed away. When I arrived in Canterlot, I was most certainly out of place. Every pony acted with such dignity and here I was, a teenage earth pony from Appleoosa, trotting down the streets in nothing more than a fedora. I was awkward among all the upper class ponies. But my mission was not to try to fit in. I decided I would do that later. What was paramount to me was to see whether or not the Ruby had made it back to the center of Canterlot and returned to its statue. I had asked many ponies on my way to Canterlot, yet no pony seemed to have been able to tell me anything about it. In fact, no pony even knew what the Ruby of Balance was. This was quite disturbing to me. I thought little of it however as I made my way to the center square. My heart pounded and my lips when cold. My whole body tensed as I got closer. The hair on my mane stood alert, and and saying I was sweating would be an understatement. The Ruby being in the statue is what I wanted to see. It is what I desperately needed to see in order to achieve validation. But I would have no such relief.
Chapter 3The Ruby of Balance by Gabriele Hall “OtterFeelings” Chapter 3 The Ruby was in the center of the statue, right where I had been told it should be. But before relief could wash over me, I heard a mare scream. A lone gunshot echoed for what seemed like days off the walls of the magnificent Canterlot homes. Silence, a very eerie one, ran cold over the shocked onlookers. The faint clopping noise of the royal Canterlot guard could be heard in the distance. At the same time, cries from a wailing filly made the spines of all the ponies near the court where the Ruby was quiver. All the adult ponies knew what had happened. Some did want to believe it, others simply could not, and some young enough colts were startled and bewildered by the whole situation. A pony I did not know was dead. The family of this mare would be beyond emotionally tormented, as their lives would be changed forever. I never did see the one who murdered her, or his exact motives, but I know what his actions were. His decision to take another’s life was pure evil. And although the mare’s family would never be the same, with many of them having their lives ruined, none of them could possibly have been more devastated than me. For I wasn’t distraught by the death of the mare herself, I was in shambles because if she was murdered, then that meant that the Ruby of Balance wasn’t rescued. This meant that ten thousand years since it had been cast into the volcano had passed and evil had permanently taken hold of Equestria forever. Yet, I was fascinated and intrigued at the same time. Because although a pure act of evil had been committed by murdering this mare, there was the Ruby of Balance, in its statue in the center of Canterlot. So I was left pondering the situation that I saw in front of me. Was the Ruby of Balance not actually in its statue, and instead the evil had placed an imposter there as to mask its actual victory on the volcano? Or was the Ruby really there, and this murder was justifiable? Neither answer made much sense to me, nor to this day I am left pondering here at my desk which reality is true. The young alicorn rolled her eyes across the page of the ancient text. Words in weird patterns were spilled out on the page. It all seemed so boring; there was nothing special about it. She saw it as just an old useless diary that some pony had written long ago. Yet as bored as she became, she realized that no matter how many times she thought about putting the diary down, she never quite could disregard it, and toss it onto the shoddy old desk. It was boring, she literally felt as though death of boredom was possible, and it was happening to her right then. Alas, she flipped yet another page, and had more dust fly into her eyes. Maybe, she pondered, the book was so boring and seemingly useless, that it was interesting because of it. So for hours upon hours, in a centuries-old rundown shack, a young and promising alicorn turned page after page in the interestingly boring diary. The account was one of remorse and sorrow. The writer had obviously been in a great deal of pain when he was writing the diary. The pain itself though, the young alicorn noticed, was not that of a physical pain, but one of mental pain. Tales of what could have happened, what he should have done, all down to the most finite detail, made up the composition. Hindsight is a beautiful thing, such that had obviously had greatly affected the alicorn. So on and on the diary told of what the alicorn should have done, and what he wished he hadn’t. The whole diary carried out in this fashion, all except for the last page. The entire diary had been the alicorn talking about the past, and regretting it. But on the last page, the young alicorn observed, was a hopefulness shown by the writer towards the future. Although he had spent the rest of his life distraught after what he had previously mentioned as “The Mistake,” he had ended it with a slim period of optimism. He believed that one day; a pony would come and would correct his mistake. Despite all of his errors and wrongdoings, the writer had hope that one day things would be right, even when he knew he could never see that happen. The young alicorn sighed when she read the last words on the page. The last dusty and rotting page. She slowly shut the back of the hard bound diary and began to turn away. As she did so, a slight black mark standing out against the dark green cover caught her attention. She was confused because she hadn’t remembered seeing it when she first closed the book. She spun her hooves around to get a better look. The black mark looked like it was part of a word, as there was cobwebs and dirt covering most of the cover. She gently blew the debris off and took a close look at the letters. In a very hard to read cursive, she made out what she believed to be as “volcano.” This word had nothing to do, as far as she could tell, to do with the diary, yet she had the strange feeling that the two were connected. The letters were faded and hard to make out. She tried to read the words again, but before she could readjust her eyes to the beginning of the word. But before she could do so, the letters, like invisible ink, vanished from the cover. There was no trace that black letters were ever there. Stunned and confused, the young alicorn tried to read the letters again. But no matter how much she strained, and how many times she tried to see the letters, they simply were not there. Frustrated more than ever, she flung the diary across the shack, smashing it into a pile of decaying jars. I wandered through the streets of Canterlot. I possessed no sense of direction or destination. I was extremely upset, and the rays of sunlight, practicing choir and any of the other things that should have cheered me up, or made me smile, simply made my mood worsen. I had a dilemma on my hands, and no idea how to solve it. The air was fresh, yet my mind was stale. Should I go back to the volcano, and try to determine definitively for myself the real identity of the Ruby? Or was it best just to stay in Canterlot, and continue to aimlessly trot around with questions swirling in my head. Although the murder of the pony had not physically affected me, it left an imprint in my head. I had not emotional ties to the murdered pony, yet her death was important to me because it was evil, the exact thing the rescuing and returning of the Ruby was said to vanquish from Equestria. I needed an answer, and I knew that doing something yourself is sometimes the only way to prove something to yourselves. Well I sure as hell felt this was one of those times. I had nothing with me in terms of possessions with me other than a saddle bag with a few measly bits in it. I scraped together my money, and bought all the necessities I could afford, which was a small amount of bread, some carrots, and a canteen. I felt ready to go, at least as much as I could ever, still feeling extremely down at that point. The young alicorn walked away from the shack. Ringing in her ears was the word “volcano.” her entire brain was concentrated on that word. It made no sense at all to her but she understood, in some weird way, that it was of the utmost importance. It was so deeply engraved into her conscience that getting back to Canterlot became secondary to her, nothing more than an afterthought. She had traveled into the Everfree forest to spend some time in deep meditation, in order to think about her role in the universe. But the constant sounding off in her head of “volcano” was a bit more “deep thought” than she could handle. Walking slowly through the Everfree forest, she lost her sense of direction. It would be expected, sense she couldn’t concentrate, either voluntary or involuntary, on anything but the “volcano.” Feeling no end in sight, and at the point of madness, the young alicorn screamed out in frustration, and collapsed to the ground. She was utterly lost. As she blinked in and out of consciousness, she felt a slight tug on her mane, one that appeared to originate from inside her. She breathed heavy and tensed up. Before a final blink of her eyes, an energy she couldn’t describe boiled up inside her, and her ears were filled to the max with a final uttering of the word “volcano.” Unconsciousness for the young alicorn then ensued. Oh how she had come to hate that word. She was quite certain it was going to be the death of her, right in that instant. “Volcano.” it was terrible and the very nature of it now seemed evil to her. Anything she would give to get it out of her head. It had become pure torture for the young alicorn. And so, deep in a crazed-induced sleep, she gave herself into the word. Yet as soon as she committed herself, everything became clear to her. The word did not want her; it wanted to simple relay a message. She did not understand it fully, as that was not the intent, or the purpose of the word. It was so simple; she could have driven herself insane just by being angered at herself that she did not realize the simple task that was right in front of her the whole time. She realized that the “volcano” was a clue, better yet an instruction. Hours, or maybe minutes passed before the young alicorn regained her conscience. Without and second thoughts, not even to ponder the strange occurrences in her dream, she started off. Relentlessly and without any chance of being stopped, the young alicorn headed off for the volcano. She didn’t know why she had to go there; she just knew that it was something she was required to do. The diary, she figured, had something to do with this mission that had been given to her. She just did not know how it had anything to do with the volcano. Yet along she went. Back in the shack, the liquids, both ancient and beyond spoiled, oozed and dripped out of the jars. The diary absorbed them all. A rotten fish smell engulfed the entire rundown old shack. The pages of the diary were already extremely frail. More than once the young alicorn had torn a corner of a page, despite great delicacy, in the process of flipping them. So the liquids were death for the diary. Page by page, section by section, pages disintegrated into nothing more than a fine powder, which were blown away through holes in the shacks poorly constructed walls. The binding gave away, and the whole diary collapsed in on its self. The greatest and most important diary in the history of Equestria had been reduced to mere nothingness by oozing liquids in a rundown shack in the middle of the Everfree forest. Yet one page remained. Or rather, a single cover remained. Tumbling down to the dirt floor, the back cover of the diary landed face down in the muck. The wind howled outside, and a strange eeriness filled the shack, even though there was nopony there to experience it. As this happened, the young alicorn made her way to the volcano, hell-bent on getting there. Back in Canterlot, the long lived and beloved queen took her last breaths. And in the middle of the dirty floor of the long abandoned shack of Shade Heart, on the back cover of his diary, the word “volcano” appeared in a black cursive font, waiting for some pony to read it.
Chapter 4The Ruby of Balance by Gabriele Hall "OtterFeelings" Chapter 4 The gates to the entrance of Canterlot were enormous. They sprung up into the sky, as if they were trying to push through the clouds. Massive marble beams supported the intricately laced railings that formed the rest of the gate. I knew that when I passed through these marvelous doors, a new path would lie ahead of me, one of which I did not know where it would take me. The royal guards did their usual inspection, to make sure I wasn’t up to anything that I shouldn’t be doing, and then gave the signal for the gates to be opened. For such massive doors, they sure did swing open fast. I took a deep breath in. keeping calm was my main focus. I needed to relax, focus on my mission ahead of me, whatever it might turn out to be. I exhaled exuberantly, which earned a clearing of a throat from one of the guards. Not wanting to cause any trouble, I quickly reared up, and then proceeded to gallop down the gravel path which came up to the gates. I ran for a while, although I’m not entirely sure why I did. I assume it was because of my great anticipation. Mountains, very jagged ones at that, lined the surprisingly rundown path. I would have assumed that these pathways would be at the very least well maintained. But I guess there were other, more imperative things to be done in Canterlot than worry about some rundown old path. I stopped when I reached the valley, where the mountains turned into rolling hills, and looked back. I was actually quite surprised at how far away from Canterlot I already was. I wasn’t even breathing hard, even though I must have been running for at least a few miles. My anxiousness must have been toying with my body’s ability to let me know that I should have been exhausted. Turning, I looked at awe as the sun became a beautiful backdrop against Canterlot. The shimmering of light, as the sun set, caused the whole city to seemingly glow. Glistening in the magnificence of the sun’s radiance, Canterlot looked peaceful, as if ignorant to the fact that there was a great danger that was lurking, just waiting for a chance to tear it down. I wanted so badly to be convinced that at this moment nature’s brilliance, the Ruby must be in its statue in the center of Canterlot. Unfortunately, my brain knew that wasn’t true. Or at least if it was, then I had no way of being sure. I wanted answers. In fact, I downright needed answers. I had an unquenchable thirst to find out for myself, whether or not the Ruby had been rescued. Taking one last look at the beautiful rays of sunlight falling on Canterlot, I sighed. I gained a new determination at that moment, one even greater than I had previously ever had. Doubt had been my driving force ever since the Ruby had become the epicenter of my life. But now, a new force entered me, one that I can’t fully explain. But a force that I knew would allow me to overcome whatever obstacles that I might face. Although I may not have known much at the time about what I was about to do, one thing was clear to me. I was going to have to overcome what I would soon learn as unthinkable challenges. But looking back at what I had to do, I could never be gladder that I took them on, even when I had doubts that plagued me constantly. Celestia looked hesitantly out across the vast expanse of darkness. The valley, which acted more like a huge crevice, splitting the mountain in two, in the Everfree forest, was quite intimidating. She scanned out below into the valley, straining desperately to see something in the endless darkness. Even in the daylight, this valley would have been hard to navigate from above, but at night, there was no chance in heck that one could decipher what lay below in it. Gulping, realizing that she had no other way to get to the volcano, the young Celestia took a cautious step forward down the slope. She had to feel her way around for the most part, not trusting her hoofs to make a blind decision. Chills of the night ran down her spine. Something seemed odd about this place. Well, of course even more so than the fact that it was a vast, unknown slope of land. The feeling of watching eyes leaned heavily on the young alicorn. She wanted to scream, turn around and flee in terror, screaming off into the dark. Yet at the same time, an insatiable urge of curiosity drove her onwards, further down the slope. The howling wind and wet, moist air made her tingle with anticipation. No doubt lingered any amount about the presence of a pony, or at least a creature of some kind. Despite not knowing what exactly or who exactly it was watching her, Celestia wanted to confront it. She stopped in her tracks once she heard the coarse breathing. It came from a bush, or at least what Celestia perceived as a bush; she didn’t quite know for sure, as she could not see well enough to make out a definite shapes. The breathing was loud, but it did not appear to be menacing. She thought of it more as sighs of exhaustion. Curiosity was imbedded in her genes, and it would not allow her to do anything but investigate the strange sound. Taking deep breaths, and gaining composure, wanting to be sure that nothing would startle her, Celestia moved towards the bush carefully. She did not want to startle whatever it was behind the bush. If she did, she would either scare it off, or, worse, it could attack her, which would probably end very badly for the young alicorn. When she felt she was right next to the bush, she softly called out, “hello, anypony in there? Do you need help?” Her eyes burned brightly as she waited for a response. She patiently waited for a response, one that every second seemed less and less likely to come. She called out a second time, trying to convince herself that the animal had simply not heard her the first time. She spoke even more softly this time, practically at a whisper, “Hello? Are you all right?” No response could be heard. The breathing had faded away since she had first asked, and now she couldn’t hear it at all. Compassion immediately turned to anger. She demanded an answer to why it hadn’t responded. She was angered with herself as well. Why hadn’t she done more? And if she had done more, would it had really have mattered? Desperate for closure, she convinced herself that even if she had gotten an answer, even if she had helped the seemingly injured animal, it wouldn’t have mattered. The young alicorn turned away, disappointed. She stepped away from the bush, and figured the next thing to do was to continue on her way down the slope. Moving down the slope safely once again became her number one priority. She had officially put that episode behind her; she was ready once again to look forward to her task ahead of her, getting to the volcano. The mountains were gorgeous against the scarlet blue background that was the mid-morning sky. Once again, this beauty of nature did not resonate with me. When normally I would be stunned, I was instead just pushed further into my thoughts of the Ruby. Even my dreams were filled with thoughts of the Ruby, whether or not it was rescued, the same thing over and over ever sleepless night. Sure, I might have closed my eyes, and to observers I may have seemed at peace, but in reality I was constantly going over the situation in my head. The previous night had been no different. It was turning me into quite a physiological wreck. But the madness’ one positive was that it had a way of always motivating me more, encouraging me to get rid of it. And I knew full well the only way to do that was to seek answers to my ultimate question. Stretching my aching calves, which in reality did very little to relieve the pain, I got up from my makeshift bed. Although a bed is quite an overstatement, for all I slept on was a thick cotton blanket and I rested my head on my saddle bag. I gathered up everything that I had taken out of the bag the previous night to make it more comfortable to rest my head on, and began walking to the slope that led into the valley. When I arrived there, which was only a few hard paced trotting minutes away, I gazed out across the shadowed valley. I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like at night, probably pitch black, I guessed. Well there was only one way to get to Ponyville, so I could go on to the Everfree forest and reach my destination. The slope was steep, so much so that it would be better to call it a cliff. Figuring out how to get down became my biggest obstacle, let alone trying to cross the dang valley, which I would say looked more like a pit of darkness at this point. Standing at the edge made me feel like I was hanging off a cliff, and I was about to fall off into nothingness. But this was the only way to get to Ponyville, since I didn’t have any balloons lying around. I bit my tongue, a little too hard, and started my way down, very slowly.
