This fanfiction is intended to be a proof-of-concept for ideas that could be used for in the future for Hasbro's My Little Pony franchise; therefore, the author of this work hereby grants Hasbro Inc. and its affiliates and licensees, including but not limited to DHX Media, express, written permission to use, create derivative works of, sell, claim as their own intellectual property, and in general take any action they see fit with all and any content of this fanfiction, including, but not limited, to narration, dialog, story elements, story events, names of characters, names of fictional locations, names of fictional objects, fictional properties assigned to objects that exist in real life, character traits and backstories, worldbuilding elements, lyrics, and fictional magic spells. The author of this work relinquishes all and any intellectual property rights for all and any content of this fanfiction work to Hasbro Inc. and its affiliates and licensees, including but not limited to DHX Media.
"A mountain covered with storms, you say?" Rarity asked, astonished. "I've never quite heard of that, but there are two things that do come close."
"What're those?" Twilight asked.
"Well, star emeralds are found in mountains that get frequent meteorite strikes. They're actually less valuable than the mountain rubies you're after for that very reason: the meteorites have useful metals in them that can be mined, and they're a great deal less likely to harm a pony than the hazards that mountain rubies present: they grow in mountains that get frequent earthquakes. Tunnels can shift or cave in at random, and it's incredibly dangerous to go into those mountain caves to mine the rubies out-only unicorns who know how to wink out ever do so!"
"Wink out?" Twilight asked.
"Sorry-I'd forgotten that you'd never met a unicorn before today. Winking Out is probably what you would call 'teleporting'. It's not an easy spell to master; I've never even attempted it, myself."
Twilight rubbed her chin. "Couldn't they cast the world-teleporting spell and take the rubies to Ponyland? It'd get them out of the caves, and they could easily sell the rubies there and get diamonds so they could come back to Unicornia!"
"Actually, that's another thing that astonishes me about your story. You see, I've been trading in gems professionally since before I left my parents' home, and I've never heard about this teleportation spell! If the four of you weren't here with no horns and accents that I'd never heard before, I shouldn't have believed it."
"We can hardly believe we're here, ourselves," Shining Armor chuckled. "We'd always hoped one day to explore other worlds, but...well, we didn't expect it'd be this soon!"
Twilight swallowed hard. Now was the moment of truth, and it wasn't clear whether they'd have enough diamonds to afford to buy the mountain ruby they so sorely needed. "What you said about mountain rubies being much more valuable than star emeralds..." she hesitated.
"Well, much is a relative term. Carat-for-carat, assuming the same color and clarity, I'd say that mountain rubies are about two-and-a-half times as valuable as star emeralds, on the whole," Rarity explained.
"...Yes, about that...what's the ratio of worth between rainbow diamonds like the one I showed you, and mountain rubies?"
"Well...again, assuming the same color and clarity...I'd say about one to fifty."
Twilight took a deep breath. "Just in case we don't have enough to exchange for a mountain ruby...can you take credit for a mountain ruby for whatever the difference turns out to be? I think we have fifty rainbow diamonds between the three of our saddlebags, but just in-"
Rarity's eyes suddenly became as wide as saucers, and she spat her tea out in a fine spray. "You've 'ow many doiamonds?!" she blurted. In a second, a servant entered the room to clean the spat-out tea off the wooden floor with a mop. Rarity shook her head a moment to try to clear it. "I'm sorry, you shocked me so much, I lost my accent for a moment!" After taking a deep breath to compose herself, Rarity continued, "I don't think you understand: I didn't mean it takes fifty diamonds to equal the value of one ruby; I meant that fifty rubies equals the value of one diamond!"
Twilight's head spun. "It...it's the other way around back in Ponyland!"
They were all silent for a few minutes as they thought over the implications of this. "Hold on a second," Shining Armor thought aloud. "I think I have a guess why the relative values are so different! Rarity, you say you've never heard of storm-covered mountains with diamonds, but you have heard of meteorite-pounded mountains with emeralds and earthquake-prone mountains with rubies?"
"Yes..."
"I just realized there's a pattern, here-you use rubies to get to Ponyland, but rubies are rare in Ponyland. You use diamonds to get to Unicornia, but diamonds are rare in Unicornia."
"What're you getting at?" Twilight asked.
"The pattern is that the world that you use the gems to get to doesn't grow that kind of gem-I bet the reason that mountain rubies are so rare in Ponyland is because they can only be imported."
"And you think it's the same thing here:" Rarity continued, "Rainbow diamonds are rare because they never grow on Unicornia-they only exist when they're imported?"
"And," Shining Armor thought aloud, "What do you want to bet that star emeralds never grow in Cumuland?"
"It wouldn't surprise me," Rarity agreed. "In fact, you might not believe this, but this is the first time I've ever seen a rainbow diamond for myself, despite the fact that I've been in this business for years-I sent Zephyr Breeze to go find his retired jewelcrafting master to have a look at the diamond you brought, because she hasn't seen one, either!"
Shining Armor whistled. "She's spent a lifetime cutting and setting gems, and she's never seen a rainbow diamond before?"
Rarity nodded. "That's just how rare your diamonds are on this world. If you've honestly got fifty, then I don't think there's enough wealth in this whole business to pay for them all!"
"Listen," Twilight insisted, "The price for rubies back in Ponyville is so high, just one of them would be enough to pay our family's whole debt and free us from Filthy Rich's control forever-given the relative prices of gems in our two worlds, I think we should trade gem-for-gem instead of sticking to the market prices."
Rarity seemed to reel from this thought. "I can't help but feel like I'm badly cheating you...!"
"We're cheating you just as much!" Twilight insisted. A wave of relief swept over Twilight as she realized that they were finally home free-they'd not only have a way home, but they'd come back with much, much more wealth than they'd otherwise have needed! Once again, the question popped up in Twilight's mind, What are we even going to do with that much money?! I was having a hard time spending a few gold coins, but now, I could almost buy Ponyville! How can anypony even spend that much money?!
She felt a hoof nudging her on her back, and turned around. It was Applejack. She whispered into Twilight's ear, "Fluttershy needs to talk to you."
Twilight silently left the room, overwhelmed, but still feeling very relieved. She found Fluttershy huddled in the bathroom in a corner, trembling.
"Are you okay?" Twilight asked.
"No, I'm not okay!" she whimpered back. "This is the 'ome of the two ponies who were the meanest to me!"
"You mean...when you were in school, Rarity and Zephyr Breeze picked on you?"
"'orribly!" she sobbed. "Just 'earin' their voices again makes me want to cry! If they knew 'ho I was...I don't even want to think about what they'd do to me!"
Twilight could hardly believe her ears. "Rarity...? Are you sure this is the same Rarity you're thinking of? I mean, she's been nothing but polite and nice to us since we got here. She gave us tea and a meal, and she's helped us a lot by letting us trade our diamonds for rubies. It's hard to picture her being mean; she seems so nice!"
Fluttershy sniffled, and Twilight saw a few drops fall out of her hood. "That's the worst part about me curse," she sobbed. "Just by being 'round me, other ponies lose all the stuff in them what makes them good and nice and kind...no matter 'ow nice I try to be, no matter 'ow nice they are to each other the rest of the time, the moment they see me, everything that's good in them is just...gone...!"
This thought turned Twilight's stomach: Fluttershy had also been nothing but nice to her-she'd saved her life and her brother's life, and despite being terrified of other ponies, she'd stayed with Twilight and had led them to a city full of other ponies. She was very kind and very brave, but despite all her virtues, Fluttershy was a corruptive influence-completely against her will. It was no wonder she had kept away from civilization!
Fluttershy continued, after a few sobs, "This 'hole town is better off without me! Whenever I'm 'ere, they turn all mean because they start to 'ate me!"
Hate...Twilight thought about the message Applejack had written in her journal. How does hate start? It starts with the wrong assumptions about another pony. What if Fluttershy really wasn't a corruptive influence at all, and she was just assuming that she was? "Listen," Twilight began, hesitating. "...Would you believe me if I told you that Applejack and I hate each other?"
Fluttershy said nothing and held perfectly still, only blinking through eyes squinted half-shut with fear.
"She and I...we didn't see eye-to-eye on a few things...that's sort of how it started. Except we didn't really start to hate each other until we...well, we made assumptions about each other. I started assuming everything she said or did to me was meant to hurt me, because...well, she did a few things that hurt, even though she didn't mean them to hurt. And she assumed everything I did or said to her was meant to hurt her, too, because a few things I did hurt her by accident, too. Eventually we both starting saying and doing nasty things to each other on purpose-each of us became what the other assumed she already was...
"I didn't even realize all this until last night-Applejack stole my journal while I was still in Ponyland, but after she read it while she was keeping watch last night...she read about all the times where I accidentally hurt her, and all the times where she accidentally hurt me. She had only ever seen them from her own perspective, but when she saw what they looked like to me...she realized that she didn't need to hate me anymore. She couldn't hate me anymore, once she really got to know me by reading my journal. And if you showed yourself to Rarity and Zephyr Breeze, I don't think they'd be able to hate you anymore, either."
Fluttershy made a sound like she was about to cry. "Please don't make me show myself to them!" she sobbed.
"Make you?" Twilight gasped. "I...I didn't mean I was going to make you do anything! How could I make you? You saved our lives!"
There was a long pause in the conversation at this point. Fluttershy broke the silence after a few moments: "That's not the most important bit... You can't trust those two with your diamonds! They'll take them!"
"Take them?" Twilight swallowed hard-the relief she'd felt with the promise of mountain rubies turned into twisting, crushing fear. "She-she'd do that? She told us that diamonds are worth much, much more than rubies here-would a pony honest enough to tell us that really steal all our diamonds?"
"She stole the most precious thing in the world from me! She stole me teddy bear!"
"...Teddy bear?" Twilight asked. Fluttershy must've been very young when this happened, Twilight thought.
"I never felt safe around other ponies unless I 'ad it with me," she whimpered, "And Rarity and me brother thought it'd be all in good fun to take it from me! And everypony else just laughed at me...that's when I knew...they all 'ated me, and everypony 'ho looked at me would 'ate me, and I knew any grown-up 'ho I could've run to to ask for 'elp would 'ate me, too!" She couldn't hold back the tears, anymore, and began sobbing uncontrollably.
Twilight picked up a box of tissues from off the bathroom counter and slid it towards Fluttershy. Fluttershy gasped for a moment, looked down at the box, then looked back up at Twilight, then back down at the box, then began to cry even harder than before. It was as if Fluttershy had forgotten what the tissues were for!
Now Twilight felt guilty that she'd been so happy and relieved a minute ago, while Fluttershy was stuck in the dark, miserable and terrified. But then she remembered Fluttershy's warning that Rarity wasn't to be trusted-was that Fluttershy making assumptions about Rarity's intentions, again? ...But what if she was right about her?
"Listen," Twilight said softly. "If Rarity really is trying to steal our diamonds, then we need to get out of here quick without her catching on that we know. Did you tell Applejack that we can't trust her?"
Fluttershy nodded, tears dripping down her snout.
"Okay...I'll send Shining Armor in here so you can tell him, too, and I'll tell him to take his saddlebags with him-if she was telling the truth (she must've been from the way Flim and Flam were reacting), then we only need one rainbow diamond in order to be able to trade for more than enough mountain rubies to get back home. If I send him with his saddlebags, then he'll be able to sneak some diamonds, or even a ruby to you-you can hide some gems in the pockets of my raincoat. She won't know you have them, so we can sneak them past her."
Fluttershy nodded in her understanding of the plan.
Twilight slipped out quietly and snuck back to the room where she'd left Shining Armor and Applejack. They weren't there; a servant was there who very professionally said to her, "Your brother and friend have joined madam Rarity in the gemstone vault in the lower level; I can escort you there."
"Please do," she answered as politely as she could. She followed the servant downstairs, and saw that Shining Armor and Applejack were loading their saddlebags up with precious mountain rubies behind a huge iron door with enormous locks that slid bolts several feet into the wall, and that they had already emptied their saddlebags of the diamonds. It was getting harder and harder to believe that Rarity had any intention of cheating them at all.
In a corner, holding up a magic lantern, was an aged pink unicorn mare with a giant pink diamond for her cutie mark, standing next to Zephyr Breeze and examining one of the rainbow diamonds. It glowed blue in the light of the lantern, with many other colors glittering alongside it. "What fortune you've brought me, my old apprentice!" she finally declared. "Oh, I'd always hoped I'd live to see one of these diamonds!"
"I could hardly believe it myself, Master," Zephyr agreed. Twilight noticed that, even though he was excited, he wasn't really smiling.
She didn't know what to make of that, but she quickly remembered her plan with Fluttershy. She whispered to Shining Armor that he should see Fluttershy and take a pair of saddlebags with him. He shouldered his brim-full saddlebags and climbed out of the vault.
"Twilight," Rarity said, "This is Diamond Rose; Zephyr was her apprentice at jewelcrafting. She taught him everything he knows about the trade!"
"You're the explorer who found these in Ponyland?" Diamond Rose asked, awed at Twilight and eyeing her forehead.
"Y-yes...well, my brother was with me every step of the way; I couldn't have explored Rainbow Mountain alone!" Twilight stammered.
"Oh, child, you and your brother have made an old mare very happy!"
Twilight blushed. "I honestly didn't realize how rare rainbow diamonds were in Unicornia until less than an hour ago!"
"Master," Zephyr said, still not smiling, "I want you to have one of these."
"Oh-! I couldn't! It's five years' wages-"
"And we have dozens more," he insisted.
"We can certainly afford a gift like this," Rarity agreed, "Married for just three months, and we're already one of the richest families in Canterlot!"
"Oh my...! If I'm honest," Diamond Rose admitted, "There was one thing I'd always wanted to do with one of these stones, if only I could get my hooves on one..."
"My tools are upstairs in the workshop," Zephyr told her. "They were your tools once, so if you want to come out of retirement for one last piece, they'll be familiar to you."
"Bless your heart, you wonderful colt!" Diamond Rose said, beaming. Zephyr made an attempt at smiling back with a slight bow of respect, and with that, she hobbled off up the stairs.
Twilight watched her leave, and watched Fluttershy step aside and pull Shining Armor's saddlebags to the side to get out of her way as she exited the gem vault. Shining Armor politely asked if he could help her up the stairs, and she accepted his offer gratefully, telling him how wonderful he was to have found these diamonds.
Twilight turned around and asked Zephyr Breeze, "If you don't mind me asking...you haven't smiled much today, even though you've just made one of the biggest gem deals in history. May I ask...why?"
He shook his head. "It's nothing you've done," he sadly answered, "It's something I've done, ten years ago today."
"Zephyr," Rarity whispered. "There's no need to discuss it!"
"I feel I need to get this off my chest," Zephyr sobbed, "It's a sad, sad tale-and...as you have asked, I'll tell it." He paused a moment and dabbed his eyes with his handkerchief. After he'd composed himself a little, he continued, "I had a sister, once."
Twilight immediately thought that this was the story of Fluttershy, and hoped that, if Fluttershy heard it from her brother's perspective, maybe she'd change her opinion. "It's all right," Twilight softly answered, "Go ahead. Tell your story."
After taking a deep breath, Zephyr continued, "She...had autism of a sort, but I hadn't realized it at the time. Her comfort-item was her teddy bear, and even long after she should've outgrown her attachment, she took it with her everywhere. As a colt, I thought it would be funny to take it from her while we were at school on the playground; I thought it was a harmless prank, but...but it destroyed her!" He began to break down at this point.
Nuzzling her husband in comfort, Rarity continued the story. "The fault is mine, too; I helped him steal it. After we did...Fluttershy ran away crying, and we never saw her again. At first, we thought she had only run away from home after we took her bear...but then we found her hoofprints going into the river...and no hoofprints coming out. The poor dear...she drowned herself..all because of our prank!"
"She was an absolute angel!" Zephyr howled. "She was so sweet, so kind, so gentle...! Oh, Fluttershy, I hope you're in a better place now...!"
Twilight mind raced. Have we been guided to town by a ghost?She turned around to look at Fluttershy, and she was shrinking back into a dark corner and pulling Shining Armor's saddlebags with her into the shadows. No...she can't be a ghost-she was warm to the touch while we were sleeping in the cave, and she was eating grass like the rest of us living ponies on the way here. She's alive, no doubt about it! Besides, shouldn't I not be believing in ghosts, anyway?! Twilight turned back to Zephyr and Rarity, saw they were both crying now, and then turned back toward where Fluttershy was hiding. She looked at Applejack, and could tell that she was just as much at a loss to what to do as Twilight was. Fluttershy's terrified, and these two generous, kind unicorns don't know the truth and are hurting so much...if I tell them, Fluttershy will just get more frightened, but if I don't tell them, they'll go on thinking that their sister is dead!
Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard Fluttershy's voice mumbling something from her dark corner. Rarity and Zephyr heard it, too, and immediately gaped in her direction. "Have I gone mad?!" Zephyr gasped.
"I hear her, too!" Rarity whispered back.
Fluttershy's voice became louder and faster. It seemed like she was reciting a poem or something-then Twilight realized what was going on: Fluttershy was so desperate to escape this situation that she was saying the spell to take her to another world! "Don't do it, Fluttershy! You don't have to run!" Twilight shouted.
Rarity and Zephyr were now staring at Twilight.
"I-I can explain," Twilight told them, but then she turned back to where Fluttershy was. "Fluttershy, they don't hate you at all-they never did; you don't need to be afraid of them! They're very sorry, and they're never going to hurt you again!"
There was only silence coming back.
"It's okay, Fluttershy," Applejack said. "You can come out, now. You don't need to be afraid."
There was still no answer, no movement.
"Did she complete the spell?" Twilight wondered aloud.
Shining Armor descended the stairs. "What's all the fuss about?" he asked.
"Was that...was that my sister's ghost?" Zephyr asked, pale as a sheet.
"Fluttershy is Zephyr's sister," Twilight explained to Shining Armor. She turned back to Zephyr and continued, "Your sister didn't drown herself; she really just ran away from home," Twilight explained. "She's been living like a wild animal in the forest ever since she ran away-she was never in any danger from predators because she can communicate with them and make friends with them; in fact, she used her magic to save the three of us from a bear when we came here from Ponyland, and then she led us back here to Canterlot so we could find a gems dealer to get a ruby," Twilight explained.
"She was in our 'ouse the 'hole time?!" Rarity gasped.
Twilight nodded. "She was too afraid to make herself known-she thinks there's something about her that makes everypony who sees her hate her. That's why she put on my cloak and never took it off or even took the hood down, so nopony would see her..."
Rarity and Zephyr looked at each other in disbelief. Twilight could guess what they were thinking: they now actually had a chance to make up for the worst mistake of their lives! She could relate; she'd learned a lot about regret in the last few days-from realizing her own big mouth had put her family in danger to mistakes she'd never known she'd made until she'd read Applejack's entry in her journal, there were plenty of things she'd wished she could take back. But she knew these were nothing compared to Rarity's and Zephyr Breeze's regrets: she had never believed she had caused anypony's death!
Twilight fished a lantern out of her saddlebag, shaking it clear from the precious rubies that now filled her bags. Slowly she walked toward the shadowy corner where Fluttershy had hidden. "Listen...Fluttershy...nopony hates you. Nopony ever did; they just made the mistake of thinking that picking on you was fun-and it's a mistake they'll never make again! I don't know whether you're still there, or whether you completed the spell and are on a different world, right now...but if you're there, please don't be scared. You can come out, now. You can be a family with your brother and your new sister-in-law; they won't hurt you again!"
Twilight lifted her lantern and shone it on the dark corner...and only the shattered remains of a star emerald were there. Twilight gasped. "Shining Armor, did you have star emeralds in your bags?"
"I...figured we should take a few back with us, just in case we ever wanted to explore Cumuland..."
"Fluttershy used one-she's in Cumuland now."
There was silence for a few moments. "We have got to go get her back!" Zephyr insisted.
Twilight looked at Applejack and Shining Armor. "She...she saved our lives! We've still got enough time to help her and get back to Ponyville! We've got about 24 hours!"
Shining Armor nodded. "Applejack, you don't have to come with us."
"Yes, I do! She saved my life, too, and it was my stupid wish to get eaten by a bear!"
"You wished to get eaten by a bear?" Rarity asked.
Applejack blushed. "It's a long story."
"Does Fluttershy have my saddlebags?" Shining Armor asked, looking around.
"She must," Twilight thought aloud, "I don't think she meant to take them, but..."
Shining Armor shook his head. "No. Not her! She's no thief."
"There's something I need to get first," Zephyr shouted. He bolted up the stairs, shouting behind him, "Get ready to depart for Cumuland; I'll be back in a few minutes!"
Twilight dropped her saddlebags and raced after him. "Where are you going?"
"To Fluttershy's grave marker!" he answered. "There's something there we need to get! You can come along if you like," he added, panting.
They raced through the streets of Canterlot. Most of the businesses were closed, and the sun was sinking lower and lower in the sky. Twilight still had a difficult time getting used to being in a city so huge, but she stayed close behind Zephyr, who knew his way.
Within minutes, they were out of the city and drawing close to a large, grassy cemetery full of flowers. One grave marker had something on it that reflected the light of the setting sun so brightly that she couldn't tell what it was; it was to this marker that Zephyr galloped. As Twilight got closer and closer, squinting all the time, she saw that it was a glass box that had a teddy bear inside. "That was her comfort-item?" Twilight asked.
Zephyr nodded. "It's the only thing of her that I had left; I enshrined it here and kept it in this glass box to keep it safe from the elements," he explained, trying to open the box with his horn magic. "It was taking this away from her that started this whole mess; if I can mend it by giving it back to her-! Oh, why won't this blasted box open?" he growled.
"Let me," Twilight suggested. "Stand back."
Zephyr did stand back, and Twilight focused a bucking kick at a corner of the box. The glass shattered, but the teddy bear was undamaged. Twilight blushed a little. "Earth pony strength," she explained.
Zephyr quickly used his magic to levitate the teddy bear out of the smashed glass, and immediately galloped back to his home and jewelry shop. "I'll have to call someone at the cemetery to take care of that glass, but we must hurry!"
The run back to the shop felt faster, but it was getting darker and darker every minute as they ran. A few stars were visible in the purple sky by the time it was in sight.
As they tromped back into the shop, Zephyr used his magic to pull an umbrella out of a stand by the door, and also slung a sword in its scabbard over his back. As he whispered a few words to a servant, Twilight saw Shining Armor wearing her saddlebags and Applejack wearing her own saddlebags. Rarity was standing next to them wearing a beige trench coat and a beret, and holding a star emerald and carrying a purse. "We've packed a few diamonds along with your rubies so we can get back to Unicornia after we're there," she explained to Twilight. "Any idea what we'll find in Cumuland?"
Twilight raked her mind to try to remember what she'd read about it in her research. "Most of the ground is actually clouds."
"Clouds?!" Rarity gasped. "Can a pony walk on clouds?"
"In that world, yes," Twilight explained. "I've read something about rainbow bridges, too, but I'm not sure what it meant."
Rarity swallowed hard. It was clear that she and Zephyr weren't used to adventuring, but they were determined to find their sister back and make their family whole again, and accepted the risks. "Is everypony ready?" she asked.
"As ready as we'll ever be," Applejack answered.
Rarity held the emerald up and began reciting the magic words:
Magic gem with magic might,
Unleash your magic, lovely light!
Through airless space be safely hurled
My party to another world!
With that, the five of them vanished, and small fragments of the emerald scattered across the floor. A servant quickly moved into the room to carefully sweep the pieces up and store them in a jar for Zephyr to use for something else-if he came back.