My Little Pony: The Gemstones of Magic

by RamenVA

6 Ruby's Disastrous Past

Twilight and the others led Ruby’s brothers and sisters toward the hospital.

Pazzy was talking to Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie about all of the tricks he learned in the hope to show Rainbow one day. From the sound of it, Rainbow sounded pretty impressed by Pazzy, even gave him a noogy with a side of “Good Job squirt!” Safire and Emi were talking to Rarity and Fluttershy about Emi’s latest fashion line and the shoot that she has scheduled for next month. I could hear Rarity begging them to take her along, and even design a dress for Emi to wear during the shoot. Apple Jack was trying to calm Rarity down, but wasn't succeeding.

“So,” Twilight began, walking beside Onyx. “Do you know why Ruby won’t use magic?”

“It’s… not a story for me to tell,” He said with a frown.

“Apparently it’s not anyone’s story to tell…” Twilight whispered under her breath.

“Anyways, Princess Celestia told us about the mess Ruby’s made since she got here.”

“Yeah… where do you want me to start?”

Onyx smiled. “We got all of the details already, don’t worry. Anyways, you have to understand, Ruby can be a little… hard to work with.

“I figured that out the minute my brother came telling me she ran away.”

“Yeah… well, Ruby’s been through a lot for someone her age.”

“I’ve been through my fair share of things, but nothing bad enough to make me hate magic all together.”

Onyx gave Twilight a perplexed look.

“What?” she asked him.

“Ruby doesn’t hate magic all together.”

“Then why is she-“

“She just hates herself using magic…”

“But… that makes no sense…”

They all finally reached the hospital and went in toward Ruby’s room. When they entered, they saw Spike asleep on the edge of Ruby’s bed, and Ruby wasn’t in it.

“Spike!” Twilight yelled, causing the baby dragon to fall onto the floor.

“Ow!” He said, getting to his feet, rubbing his face. “What’d you do that for?”

“I told you to watch Ruby!”

“But I am! She’s right…” Spike looked at the empty bed and gave out a sheepish laugh.

“Nice work Spike,” Rainbow Dash said sarcastically.

Twilight groaned out of frustration and ran toward Shining Armor’s room to see if he knew where Ruby was. To her surprise, when she entered his room, Ruby was there. She was asleep on the side of Shining’s bed, his hoof patting her mane.

“Oh, hey Twilly,” He said with a smile.

Twilight sighed and walked over to Shining and Ruby.

“We thought she ran away again,” Twilight said.

“Nah. She came in here last night to check on me. We talked a little bit, and she fell asleep. I didn’t see the point in waking her up.”

“I see,” Twilight said with a smile. “Well, I guess we can come back later.”

“We?”

“Ruby’s brothers and sisters are here. Princess Celestia sent them to help me convince her to learn magic.”

“Yeah… Twilly, about that. Ruby told me… why she doesn’t want to use magic.”

“She told you! Why?! How?! What!”

“Well, she said I reminded her of her older brother.”

“But no one’s better than the original,” Onyx said behind me, walking into the room

“Onyx?” Shining said. “Is that really you?”

“In the flesh,” he said with a smile.

“Wow! You’ve changed quite a bit. But, I don’t remember you having a little sister. I mean, besides Emi that is.”

“A lot has happened since the last time we saw each other.”

Ruby started to moan and move around. She opened her eyes slowly and then opened them quickly when she saw Onyx. She jolted up with a gasp and then fell when her injured wing gave out.

“Ruby!” Onyx and Shining said. Onyx ran to her side and helped her up to her feet.

“Wh-what are you doing here…?” she asked.

“I came to see you kiddo,” Onyx said with a smile.

“Us too!” Pazzy said, flying into the room, landing next to Onyx. Twilight’s friends followed them in as well.

Safire and Emi walked into the room as well and stood behind Onyx. Emi looked over at Shining Armor, and when he looked at her with a smile, she turned away with a frown, blushing slightly.

“But… why?” Ruby said, still confused.

“Ruby, you can’t run from it forever,” Onyx said, putting his hoof on her shoulder.

“I… don’t know what you’re talking about…”

“Yes you do. Ruby, I know you’re scared, but you and I both know that you can’t avoid using magic.”

“Oh yes I can!” She shrugged his hoof off of her. “I guess you guys wasted your time coming here, because there’s nothing you or anyone else can say to make me use magic!”

“Ruby, listen,” Twilight said, walking up to her. “I know that using magic can be a bit scary sometimes, but I know you’d be really good at it. I mean, the fact that you knew how to make a tornado or how to control animals or how to make your horn disappear! That was stuff that took me a long time to even master, and you did it! Ruby, you have the potential to be a great magic user, I know it.”

“I thought that way… a long time ago… but things are different now…”

“But why Ruby? Why don’t you want to use magic?”

“It’s because of me…” Onyx said, facing Twilight with a frown.

“What do you mean?”

Onyx faced everypony and raised his hoof. He moved the part of his mane that was covering the right side of his face. When he moved it completely, everypony gasped. There was a long red scar that went down Onyx’s right eye. Luckily, he was still able to open his eye, but it was a very serious scar.

“What… happened…?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yeah. That’s one nasty scar,” Rainbow said.

“It was my fault…” Ruby said, a tear rolling down her cheek.

“No it wasn’t,” Onyx said, wiping away Ruby’s tear with his hoof.

“Yes it was! If I just listened… if I could have controlled it… you wouldn’t have…”

Ruby started to cry even more, and Onyx brought her into his arms.

“So… can someone please tell us what’s going on?” Apple Jack said, confused.

“I can…” Emi said, walking forward. “It happened back when we were all gather to Princess Diamond. You see… we are all the carriers of the Gemstones of magic.”

“The Gemstones of Magic?” Rarity said.

Emi nodded. “I can’t go into detail about them, but they are the reason why we are all together like we are. As you can see, Ruby was born as an alicorn, which of course is a very rare occurrence. Ruby was supposed to be a Princess of Equestria a long time ago, just like you Princess Twilight. But... that all changed on that fateful day. The first day Ruby started to learn magic.”

“I can’t believe it!” Young ruby yelled in glee, jumping on her bed. “I finally get to learn magic like you big brother!”

A younger Onyx smiled at the philly jumping on her bed and used his magic to bring her back down to the ground. “Don’t get too excited kiddo, you’re gonna be doing basic stuff today. Nothing complicated."

“Yeah, but that’s how you started, right? I’ll be the greatest unicorn that ever lived!”

“Don’t you mean alicorn?” Onyx pointed at her wings.

Ruby fluttered her wings and said, “Oh yeah, heh.”

Onyx and Ruby walked out of the room toward the courtyard. They were in a beautiful castle, similar to the one in Canterlot, but not as big. The castle was completely white and had gem’s scale the outer walls.

Ruby and Onyx got to the courtyard, where Princess Diamond was waiting for them. Ruby flew to her side and they got into a hug.

“Are you ready my dear Ruby?” Diamond said, with a smile.

“As ready as I’ll ever be!” Ruby said with great enthusiasm.

“Has she read the book I assigned?” Diamond said to Onyx.

“Yeah, at least three times,” Onyx said, rolling his eyes.

“I see.” Diamond look down at Ruby’s smiling face. “You’re a very eager little philly, aren’t you?”

Ruby nodded. “I want to be a great ‘alicorn’, just like you Princess Diamond!”

Diamond chuckled and took a few steps back from Ruby. “Alright then, let’s begin.”

With Onyx watching on the side, Ruby attempted the spells that she learned from her books. She was getting them all right on the first try, and that made Diamond and Onyx very proud of Ruby’s speedy progress. They practiced til the sun began to set on the horizon.

“Alright,” Diamond said, walking up to Ruby. “That’s enough for today Ruby.”

Ruby was panting, exhausted from the hours of magic using she just did. But she revived herself and flew up to Diamond with a frown.

“But I’m not even that tired! I can keep going!” She said.

Diamond shook her head. “You have to understand something about magic Ruby. You learn magic through trial and error, and you must learn it at a steady pace.”

“But I’m not like other unicorns! I can learn the difficult spells! I mean, the simple ones are like breathing to me.”

“Ruby!” Onyx said, with a stern voice.

Ruby looked over at Onyx, and his serious expression made her give up her pursuit to continue the argument with Diamond. She landed onto her hoofs and started to walk toward her room, Onyx right behind her.

“Don’t worry kiddo,” Onyx said, patting her head. “You’ll learn some more stuff tomorrow.”

“But… I’m ready now…” Ruby said sadly.

She flew up and rushed to her room, slamming the door behind her. Onyx sighed and started to walk toward his own room.

Ruby sat on her bed, thinking about what Diamond told her.

You learn magic through trial and error, and you must learn it at a steady pace.

Ruby scoffed and sat up. “I’ll show them! I’m going to be the best alicorn that ever lived!”

Ruby walked over to her book case full of magic books, and used her levitation magic to get an advanced magic book from the top shelf. She opened it eagerly and began to read. A smile appeared on her face when she saw all of the amazing spells that were inside of the book.

“That’s the one!” Ruby said, stopping on an elemental spell. “‘This spells enables the user to be able to wield the four elements: water, earth, wind, and fire. They will be able to bend these elements to their will.’ Cool!”

Ruby grabbed the book and rushed out of her room toward the courtyard. She placed the book on the floor and started to read the instructions on how to perform the spell.

“Ruby?”

Ruby turned around to see a sleepy Emi and Safire walking up to her.

“What on earth are you doing?” Emi asked.

“Just watch!” Ruby said, with a smile.

“Is that… a spell book?” Emi said. “Ruby, what spell are you about to cast?”

“You’ll see! It’s gonna be awesome!”

“Oh let her,” Safire said. “Maybe she’ll turn herself into a dragon or something.”

Emi glared at Safire.

“What? You don’t think that'd be funny?” Safire said.

Emi shook her head.

“Okay, I got it!” Ruby said, getting into the center of the courtyard.

“What is going on…?” Onyx said, walking out behind Safire and Emi. “Ruby?”

“Great! Onyx you’re awake!” Ruby said with a smile.

“What’s… huh?” Onyx saw the advanced spell book on the ground near Ruby. “Ruby!” he yelled. “What do you think you’re doing?!”

“Just watch!”

Ruby closed her eyes and chanted, “Elements of water, earth, wind, and fire. Bend to my will, bend to my desire!”

Ruby’s horn started to glow a bright red and a wall of light appeared around her. She grunted as she tried to keep the flow of magic stable.

“Ruby!” Emi yelled. “Onyx, do something!”

“If I try to stop her now, she might get hurt…” Onyx said, trying to think of a way to stop the spell.

Ruby started to float into the air, and the wall of light turned into a sphere of light that surrounded her. The ground started to shake and then a large amount of water blasted out of the ground and created a ring around Ruby’s sphere. The ground the water came out of then created a second ring. A gust of wind came through the courtyard and created a third ring around Ruby. Rocks and water were being thrown around the courtyard by the strong gusts of wind. Ruby's eyes opened and they shined a bright red, and that’s when Onyx had enough. Onyx started to run toward Ruby.

“Onyx!” Emi said, about to run after him, but stopped when a gust of wind blew her back.

Onyx dodged the flying rocks and gusts of wind that were thrown at him, determined to get to Ruby. He then used his own magic to create a barrier around himself, to levitate to Ruby.

“Ruby!” he yelled. “You have to stop! You can’t control a spell like this!”

“Yes… I can… watch… me…” Ruby said slowly and with strain.

Her horn sparked and the torches that surrounded the courtyard started to flicker. Then the flames from the torches created a ball of fire above Ruby. The ball then turned into a fourth ring around Ruby, but in the process of doing this, Onyx was too close. The fire ring broke through Onyx’s barrier and struck him in the face. With a loud agonizing scream, he fell back toward Emi and Safire.

“Onyx!” Safire and Emi screamed, running to his side.

Onyx was holding his face and groaning in pain. Ruby saw this and a tear fell from her cheek.

“Big… brother…?” she whispered.

In that instant, a bright white light engulfed Ruby’s sphere, and then the entire courtyard. When the light disappeared, Ruby was on the ground, her spell broken. She moaned as she started to regain consciousness.

“What… happened…?” she said, getting to her feet.

Ruby turned around and saw Princess Diamond standing behind her. Ruby got excited, but her excitement was cut short when she saw the unpleasant look on Diamond’s face. Ruby was about to say something, but decided against it, bowing her head in shame.

“Princess Diamond!” Safire yelled.

Ruby turned around to see Safire and Emi over Onyx, who was on the ground, writhing in pain.

“Onyx needs help!” Safire said.

Ruby’s eyes widened when she realized what she had done. Without a word, Diamond walked past Ruby and toward Onyx.

“We need to get him to his room,” Diamond said.

Safire and Emi nodded and tried to help Onyx to his feet.

Ruby stood there, watching them carry the injured Onyx back into the castle. She thought back to everything that just happened, putting together the pieces and realized that the ring of fire she created hit Onyx in the face.

“He was right…” she whispered. “I… couldn’t control it… I… I’m… sorry… Onyx… Big brother…”

Ruby rolled up into a ball and broke down into tears, vowing that she would never learn magic ever again; afraid to hurt someone she loved again.