Stereoheart

by FimFan14

Nine: The First Lie

"Twilight, I need to ask you something, but you can't tell anypony."

Twilight Sparkle froze in place, the books she was re-shelving similarly losing all motion. Stereo hadn't ever asked her to do this before; nopony really had. What could he ask that warranted secrecy? "Yes, Stereo?" she said calmly.

"You know Aquaflow, right?" Stereo said.

"You mean the colt you met the other day?"

"Yeah, him." Stereo confirmed. "He has... he has non... unicorner... something?"

"Uh... okay," Twilight said slowly. "What are his symptoms?" She continued, casually restarting her task of re-shelving the books in her library.

"His magic pool has been empty from birth..."

thump

Several books previously held up clattered simultaneously onto the ground.

"Non unicórnis piscinam!?" Twilight asked urgently.

"Um... yeah, that sounds right!" Stereo affirmed.

Books began to fly off of shelves once again, destroying Twilights attempts at tidying and reorganizing. She came to one particular book that she held in front of her face. "It's just as I thought..." she said thoughtfully.

"What?" Stereo asked, just as urgently as Twilight had before. "What did you find?"

"Non unicórnis piscinam is associated with decreased longevity, lowered immunity, and clinical depression." Twilight explained.

"And the cure?"

"There's only one known cure, a restricted spell called ‘the magic of friendship.' The powered unicorn would channel magic straight into the disabled one, effectively jumpstarting him. But, there is a danger."

"What's that?

"If one of you isn't sincere in your friendship; if one of you is greedy or grudging, then he will get all of the magic, saving it all for himself, and if he's the previously disabled unicorn, he'll strip the magic from the other."

"So, in effect," Stereo said slowly, attempting to clarify for himself. "If Aqua was selfish, and used me for my magic, I would end up being the one with the condition?"

Twilight nodded solemnly. "And the spell is absolute. If you lost your magic, you would know that the other unicorn had every intent on keeping all of the magic. There are no accidents, the spell is definite on its judgement."

"Wow..." Stereo muttered in awe. Can I borrow that book?"

"Sorry Stereo, but this book can only be read under Celestia's authorization."

“How about Luna?” Stereo asked.

“That could work, but she’d need to make it a royal order before I give it to you,” Twilight explained. It’s far too dangerous for foals like you to be playing around with; you’re in enough trouble with your magic as it is, with that necklace still clinging like a part of your body.”

“Fine, then,” Stereo grumbled. “Are you at least gonna come with me to tonight’s concert? The crusaders say that they’ve been practicing really hard.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be there,” Twilight said. “I wouldn’t miss the chance to see them maybe earn their cutie marks!”

---

Stereo was indeed in a tough situation, at least he had decided. Decreased longevity... a quick dictionary search had revealed that it meant, in essence, a decreased life-span. But by what? Five years less than average? Ten? Thirty? And lowered immunity... what if he died from pony pox or the flu? Or clinical depression... that was a sickness right?

On the spot, Stereo made up his mind. He was going to send a letter to Princess Luna. Levitating a scroll and quill from his bed-side table, he began to write;

Dear Princess Luna,

I would like to tell you about something that I think is important, to me anyway. You probably have way more important things that you think are important, but that's besides the point. My new best friend has a disease called Non unicórnis piscinam. It means that he can never use magic, and Twilight said that it decreases immunity and life span. It also gives them clinical depression. We have a book with a spell called 'The Magic of Friendship,' and what it does is...

"No."

Stereo jumped half a mile off of his bed, startled by the sudden voice.

"Luna?" he said, once recognition set in.

"Ah, It's good to see that this small amount of time hasn't reduced our ability to recognize our voices."

"How can it Luna," Stereo responded. "You were my only friend back..." he suppressed a shudder. "...up there."

"Yes, of course," Luna replied. "But enough idle conversation, we know what we want, and we will not authorize it's use."

"Why, Luna?"

"It is far too dangerous, I can see it ending badly, and my prediction is definite."

Stereo suppressed his anger, a skill he had gotten good at. He wasn't angry by nature anyway, unable to raise his voice at others unless certain conditions were met. Personally, this only happened to him once. The result was a cutie mark. But concerning his friends, and especially his brother, it could happen very easily. If someone directly threatened or harmed them, then he would see red... literally. It often made him things he would think twice about doing other times. He kept struggling in this particular situation, however. Nopony was threatening anypony else here... so why was he so... argh! The whole situation was so frustrating!

"Calm our emotions, nothing is to be feared!" Luna said softly. "Your friend is very unfortunate, and maybe one day you can help, but you need to focus on helping yourself right now. That necklace needs to go, in the next week if possible!"

"Why this week?" Stereo asked curiously. "And did you just speak normally?"

"No matter why, but the sooner the better." She responded. "We must leave, and to answer our other question, desperate times call for use of the term 'you.' I know you'll do what's right, Stereo." She then disappeared. By that point Stereo was resigned to the fact of what would happen regarding Aqua.

---

”I’M GONNA SING IT VERY LOUD!”

The first stanza of the cutie mark crusaders song was finally through... after the most aurally painful few seconds of Stereo’s life.

Gotta remember to teach Scootaloo a few singing techniques, Stereo thought. Before her confidence deafens the entire town!

Stereo noticed Applejack hiding under her hat – she had the right idea. It was painful. As the chorus came on, however, there was a little improvement – Apple Bloom wasn’t a half-bad singer, and he could just make out another voice; another heavenly voice. That can’t be Sweetie...

It in fact was, the filly with the most beautiful singing voice was his friend, or at least he thought, Sweetie Belle. I have to hang out with her more... was a casual thought that innocently sashayed through his mind. As she left, though, he was stuck listening to Scootaloo.

---

“Hey girls!" Stereo's cries were heard by the trio of cutie mark crusaders as they were walking home after an 'awesome performance.'

"Hey Stereo!" Scootaloo said, the first of the three to talk. "Whaddidya think of my awesome singing?"

"You were pretty good," Stereo said, feeling bad for lying through his teeth. "But come see me later about it," he decided to finish on that sentence, before quickly moving onto another topic.

"Uh... Girls..." He said nervously, shuffling his hooves in an absent minded way.

All three crusaders looked at him strangely, before the obvious loudmouth of the group spoke up, pushing his agenda forwards.

"Yeah?" Scootaloo said.

"I... uh... I need your help."

Sweetie quickly saw the awkward look on his face, jumping to a conclusion.

"It's okay if you need our help," she said. "No need to be embarrassed!"

"What... no! It's not anything like that, I just need your help doing something that's good, but bad."

"How is that possible?" Applebloom asked. "The way ah see it, ya either doin' the right thing, or the wrong thing."

Stereo thought for a while... he could end up saving a life, could, but he was told not to. He would betray a friend, for another. For once, his sense of justice and righteousness put him in a dilemma that was of logic, contradiction, and morality. But he had to make a choice.

"There's this restricted spell book, and it could let Aquaflow recover from his magic restricting disease."

"That sounds promising," Scootaloo said. "Whaddaya need us to do?"

"I need you to help me steal it."

Comments

[FimFan14]

>>NyxLover

I prefer not to say anything. Rest assured, the secret of the necklaces will be revealed shortly.