Otto hadn't slept. He hadn't eaten either. His eyes were bloodshot, he'd be feeling the ache of hunger if his mind didn't race with paranoid panic. He couldn't explain Starlight's attempts to play him like this! What was she up to in the Crystal Empire that she'd want to stay there longer, and not tell him why!? It broke his heart, but deep down he'd always assumed she'd turn on him: It was foolish to assume that a pony would fall in love with another pony, after knowing them only for a few weeks. He cursed his foolishness: She'd used him! Taken his knowledge of the Haycart Method while enjoying his food, his bed and his money; now she'd buggered off with some other pony and left him! ...But no, she said she was coming back... Why would she do that?
Nothing, nothing he did would settle his mind. He'd tried drinking, even though it was the middle of the morning, and most ponies would've been having their breakfast right now: His breakfast was a bottle of 1842 Veneigh Brothers Canterlot Red. Normally, he'd never have condoned such a wasteful use of such an expensive and rare vintage, but right now, he didn't give a damn. It was that, or the cans of cheep beer he had stashed in his fridge, behind a leftover slice of cake he'd been saving (with some of the best icing sugar he'd ever tasted)... Okay, so he did eat SOMETHING that day.
The only comfort had been the amulet. Its ruby glowed warmly at his neck and gave him strength in place of his loss of appetite and sleep. The amulet seemed to clear his mind, it helped him to decide what needed to be done...
...And so, he sat in his study, in darkness as he'd left all of the lights in his house off, trying to get on with some paperwork under the single, solitary light of a table lamp: Whether or not Starlight ever came back was one thing, but the Zealots were another, and they were plotting against him. He knew it! Deep in his heart, he could tell: Them, Princess Celestia, the Elements of Harmoney... Paver Goldstreets...
A pencil snapped in Otto's magic at the thought of her. His first mistake in all of this mess! Why didn't he just kill her?!?! If had to go down the cursing route, why didn't he just make the shoes run her into traffic, or make a necklace which would choke her once she wore it? Why DANCING!?! ...He'd wanted it to look like an accident, it wasn't HIS fault! It was Paver! She was crafty, and deceitful: She's surely tricked him into thinking she was stupid so he started taking risks! ...He still remembered the look of terror on her face as she fought vainly against those red shoes of hers. A cruel part of him smiled at that vengeance, before remembering her showing up out of the blue, ready to throw his plans into a tailspin! ...He was going to make her suffer for making a fool out of him: He who was the mayor of the greatest city in Equestria, the wearer of the Alicorn Amulet, and the heir to one of the largest arms industry in the entire kingdom! He'd been far too complacent with her until now. He... He...
...He'd crashed, having been going on no sleep and very little food, he'd been struggling to remain conscious, until now, when he fell asleep with his face on his desk. His sleep was dreamless, a brief respite from his troubled mind.
The front door opened, and Otto jerked up: He'd been asleep all day, it seemed, and there was only one other pony who had a key to his house.
"Otto? Otto?!" Came Starlight's voice from downstairs. Switches flicked on, and light flooded in from the hallway. Quickly, Otto was on his hooves and quietly crept to the landing.
"You're back sooner than I expected?" Otto growled, his eyes locked on Starlight at the bottom of the stairs.
"Oh, err... Yeah." She winced. "I managed to arrange the surprise I wanted to get for you a bit quicker than expected. So I came home early!" She looked around as she produced a large package from her saddlebags, seeing Otto for the first time as he slowly descended the stairs. "Otto, sweet Celestia, you look awful. What's happened?"
"Don't try and twist this!" He suddenly barked, causing Starlight to flinch. "What were you doing in the Crystal Empire?! Why are you keeping secrets from me?! What are you hiding!?"
"I, wait, what?" This took her for a loop and she backed up, Otto snatching the package from her magic with his own, amulet-enhanced telekinesis. It was at this time she noticed the red glow of his horn, and the amulet around his neck. "Otto..." She said with a tremor. "...How long have you been wearing that?"
"Oh, I'm sure you'd like to know." He hissed. "I was happened upon by rioters after you left. Putting it on guaranteed nopony would try to steal it from me. I never felt so powerful in all my life! Everything fell into place! It helped me discover exactly what I needed to do... And it opened my eyes to your sneaky, lying nonsense!"
"Sneaky lying..." She stammered, her eyes suddenly going wide. "Wait, you've been wearing that thing for more than a WEEK?!" She attempted to approach, but the fire in Otto's eyes stopped her. "Otto, you need to take off that amulet."
"I'm sure you'd like that, wouldn't you?! That way you can have the amulet, and the ritual spell, all to yourself! THAT'S why you stayed in the Crystal Empire!" He paced on the stairs, quivering. "You, you're planning to turn on me!"
"No..."
"...You want to get rid of me! I LOVED YOU, and you claim to feel the same, but you betray me nonetheless!"
"That's not true!" She cried. "Otto please! Take off that damn amulet! Can't you see what it's making you do?! This is insane! That thing is making you insane and paranoid!" She continued to back up, Otto never taking his eyes off her.
"And the worst thing of all?" He continued, ignoring her words entirely. "I feel for it! I was convinced that you cared about me, and that you loved me. How could you after but a month?! I was so stupid!"
"No!"
"Stupid and naive! You took advantage of me and took what you needed. You, a homeless, penniless, treasonous wretch! You tried to trick me! Traitor!"
He lunged at her, eyes burning and teeth bared. He crashed against a blue aura, the shielding magic of a crying Starlight, and slid off it harmlessly. He grabbed the nearest object in the hall, a vase on a table, and hurled it at her, which was blocked. Again and again. Starlight, for her part, had no choice but to flee. She ran to the door, her horn glowing as she tore it open: She wanted to try to talk him down, or at least pacify him, but she couldn't bring herself to fight back, and so she ran. She ran out the door and into the night.
With his companion fleeing for her life, Otto relented. His anger broke down, and he turned to the box she'd left with him. He greedily tore open the brown paper wrapping and opened it: Inside was a number of books, papers, bottles, and five large, black crystals. There was also a large bundle of fabric and two notes: One was a receipt for 'Royal Standard Vexillography', and the other was a little letter. Otto took the letter, and began to read.
Hey SheildButt,
Or should I say Prince ShieldButt now? I wanted this to be a nice surprise for you if your transformation into Alicornhood was a success. I knew about you complaing about how bad Manehatten's flag is, so I'd managed to find a sympathetic designer in the Crystal Empire to make you a new one! If you're going to be a grand prince of a grand city, you'll need a grand new flag to go with it!
Lots of Love,
GlimGlim. X.
Quietly, he laid down the note and unfurled the fabric bundle. It was a large, white flag, with a black trim around its edge; in its center was a black shield with crossed swords, Otto's cutie mark. The only difference was that, upon the shield, there was a white flaming torch: The very same as that held by the Manehatten Statue of Harmony.
A sudden spark inside him screamed things he didn't want to hear: THIS was the surprise she'd been planning?! A new flag for his fiefdom?! No coup, or secret affairs or assassination plots? She'd had a flag professionally made for him... And a letter, congratulating him for becoming an alicorn, and telling him that she loved him... It, it even had a little kiss x on it... She'd given them both pet names...
Otto's legs gave out from under him, and he collapsed onto his rump. He'd ATTACKED her! He'd attacked her, and she hadn't even done anything! He quivered, and felt like crying. How could he be so gravely mistaken?! So stupid?! He'd acted like a jealous boyfriend, becoming possessive and vicious over nothing. And now, Starlight was gone. Perhaps she'd been right. Perhaps he was suffering under the amulet. Perhaps it was time to take it off. Perhaps...
...No. No! He scowled. This was EXACTLY what she wanted him to think! Of course she wanted him to feel guilty and take off the amulet! That way she could steal it for herself! He sneered at the notion: He'd do no such thing! The sneaky mare, he wasn't going ever taking off this amulet, and her gifts couldn't make him! His grief was yanked away, leaving him with only anger: She'd come crawling back, surely. And if she didn't... It wasn't his fault she tried to keep things from her. She'd served her purpose, well, mostly.
Otto went to the box again, looking through the contents he'd ignored previously. His mouth went dry as he studied the books and the papers: This was it. This was the spell! The spell which was going to finally transform Otto into an alicorn!
He had to try it, he couldn't resist its temptation. Quickly, He packed up the box and took it into the attic. He hadn't been up there in years. Many of the things therein had been there since he moved. If he looked hard enough, he could probably find anything inside the boxes here; books, treasure, magic objects good and bad all stored away. But again, nopony ever came up here, so it was the perfect place to test out the spell.
Tirelessly, he got to work: Reading through his books under candlelight, he began to draw out the pentagram in chalk which he needed for his ritual, setting the channeling crystals at each end of a five pointed star set into a circle.
By the time he was finished, he was standing the centre of a pentagram, made with a deep red 'ritual reagent' which had come in a large jar, and that Otto strongly suspected was actually blood mixed into some kind of pasty paint. Looking at it all instilled a sense of unholy dread into Otto, but those thoughts were quickly suppressed by his own ambition, and by the temptations of power brought on by the amulet hanging around his neck.
He knew the spell he had to cast with his horn, and the words he had to say as he did it:
Corona mea magicae
Et sanguis per crystalla,
Et fecit magnalia Dei
Per cornua, et ecce cornu meum
Propter tormentum et cruciatum,
Cum mea nemo aequalis
Hoc coronatur meo,
Et princeps in aeternum.
One thing which made Otto very nervous was a large note written into one of the last books he'd been provided with: The spell had to be maintained throughout the entirety of the transformation. At no point could Otto falter in his magic or terminate the spell... Well, he could only assume that nothing good would come of it.
Bah! He couldn't let fear slow him now! Not when everything was laid out and ready for him to meet his destiny! He was going to become an alicorn! He WAS! He grit his teeth, stepping into the circle, his horn started to glow red and bright, and he began to chant:
"Corona mea magicae
et sanguis per crystalla,
et fecit magnalia Dei
per cornua, et ecce cornu meum
propter tormentum et cruciatum,
cum mea nemo aequalis
hoc coronatur meo,
et princeps in aeternum."
For a brief second, nothing appeared to happen. He kept the spell going, but he could definitely FEEL something, a hot sensation in his chest. Looking down, he saw the Alicorn Amulet glow brightly around his neck, a burning like pain where it rested. One by one, the crystals around the circle began to glow red as well...
Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain crack his spine, and he let out a cry of pain! He kept the magic going still, his horn getting brighter and brighter, hotter and hotter, as did the amulet. He felt movement in his back, setting sweat on his brow and his heart racing. All the time, so much pain, getting worse and worse! His head, his legs, everything burned with pain as he felt his body change: His horn grew longer, as did his legs...
...Then, a blood curdling howl of agony stole the air from his lungs as the skin on his back exploded with blood and muscle. A pair of large, skeletal bones of wings stretched out from the large gashes which had ripped open on his back. They too glowed red, intensified by the fact they were soaked in his own blood. Out they stretched, totally against Otto's will until they were standing up on end.
A painful, cold itchiness spread up from his back, giving him new feeling in the bony wings as nerve ending errupted from his nervous system and tied themselves to the new limbs, wrapping around the bones like vines and fusing to them. The process was quite quick, though it felt like an eternity for Otto, who had to live with the pain of the ordeal.
Flesh started to grow on the wings, covering them and giving Otto autonomy over their movement. Then came skin, and fur, wrapping around the wings and concealing the muscle and blood therein. Finally, there was feathers, each growing at a rapid rate, each feeling like a needle piercing out of him before fully forming.
...The magic suddenly gave out on its own, and Otto fell to the floor, realizing that tears streamed down his face from his eyes, which were red and bloodshot, having been glowing intensely through the whole terrible procedure. Blood from the transformation and the ritual splattered on his face.
He lay there for what felt like another eternity: He couldn't stop crying from the pain, even if it was now quickly fading, he continued to quiver on the floor, his newfound wings hanging limply at his side: He could see one from the corner of his eye as he lay there: Its feathers an off white, like his fur.
He couldn't quite believe it at first, a part of his mind convinced they were somepony else's wings, even though nopony else lay with him in that room: He was alone; they were HIS wings! He was an alicorn now.
Gradually, he started to experiment. The wings twitched as his brain adjusted to their presence. In time, they moved as he made them move. Quickly, his mind was realizing the truth, like learning how to walk again. It still felt far quicker than it should have: Even Twilight Sparkle needed help to fly at first... The amulet... Could it be that he was being assisted in his mastery of his new limbs by the Alicorn Amulet's influence?
Climbing to his hooves, his movements with the wings on his back became more fluid, exaggerated. He flapped them where he stood, the quivering slowly stopping; the strain from his ordeal suddenly collapsing in the face of curiosity; curiosity giving way itself to excitement; excitement playing host to euphoria which sat on its shoulders. Otto nearly jumped out of his skin when his hooves slowly started to lift from the ground as he continued to flap his wings, as was their strength. His legs shaking now with the excitement of his reality, he jumped onto a large pile of boxes, and jumped from them, flapping his wings and gliding: He was FLYING!!!
It lasted for only a second before he landed on the ground again, but it was all he needed. Tears streamed from his face, but they were joyful tears. He couldn't help but laugh aloud, the pain a distant memory: Otto had done what King Sombra never could; he'd cast off his unicorn form as a snake would cast off old skin. Now, he wore the finery of princes, his body the divine form of the Gods. Soon, he would discover what power that form would give him; but for now, he needed rest: The adrenaline had worn off, and the strain of his transformation was beginning to make itself known...