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// (8-4) Pieces Of The Puzzle 
// Story: The Ruler of Ponies and Men 
// by Boopy Doopy 
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“Ugh, this is so boring!” Rainbow Dash complained. “We’re never gonna find this last piece!”
“Not with that attitude, we won’t,” Rarity responded. “We’ve just got to keep positive. I’m certain we’re close to it by now.”
“We’ve been out here for over a week,” Rainbow countered. “The other ones took us a week altogether combined! It’s probably not here!”
“Ah don’t know. Ah think she’s right, Twilight. It’s probably not here.”
“All of the other pieces were where Sombra said they would be, so I don’t see why this one would be any different. Hold on…”
Quickly, the alicorn lit up her horn and sent a beam of magic stretching outwards for quite a distance in the Smokey Mountains. It was a kind of radar she could use to detect if anything magical was within range, and after pausing for a moment, concluded that nothing out of the ordinary was near the group, much to her annoyance.
“Where could her last piece be?” the mare asked, half to herself. “It doesn’t make sense for it to not be here! All her other pieces were where he said they’d be.”
“Maybe he misremembered?” Rarity suggested.
“I doubt that. Like I said, everything else was where he said it was, so I doubt he’d just misremember one of them. This is so annoying!”
“Maybe somepony was climbing here and saw it and took it back to their home because of how pretty they thought it looked and passed it down to their great great great great great grandfoals and then some super sneaky robber came in and stole it for-”
“Okay, Pinkie, I doubt that’s what happened,” Twilight interrupted. “Fluttershy, Rainbow, will you two fly up with me and try to see if you can spot it? I know it's a long shot, but...”
“Not a problem,” they both said at the same time, quickly raising their wings and taking off with the alicorn, high above the mountains to see if they could see anything abnormal.
“Nothing out of the ordinary over here,” Rainbow called as she looked over one section of the sky.
“I don’t see anything either… Fluttershy? Have you found anything?”
“Nothing… um… actually, what’s that over there?” She used a hoof to point in the direction of a river running down the side of one of the mountains, something shiny flickering in the sunlight along it.
“I don’t know, but it looks worth investigating,” Twilight decided, turning around to call out, “Follow me girls! We’re going to one of the rivers farther away! We think we see it!”
It wasn’t a long time before all six were standing on the water’s edge, the river flowing at their hooves. It turned out what the group spotted was indeed a piece of Amore, one that was resting beneath the water, deep down. How deep it was, they couldn’t tell, but judging by how dark the water was, they had to guess at least a few dozen feet, possibly more.
“That… looks like it’s going to be trouble trying to get… let me think…”
“I don’t see how you think that,” Rainbow replied. “I could probably swim down there in a second and grab it.”
“As amazing as you are Rainbow, I’m not sure you can. Give me a minute to try to think of a spell I could use though.”
“Haha, that sounds like a challenge, and you know I’m not one to turn down a good challenge!” As she said it, she stretched her wings and started taking deep breaths to prepare her lungs to dive into the water.
“That definitely wasn’t a challenge. Just give me a minute to- hey!” Before she could finish, her friend was jumping in and quickly swimming down, disappearing from view.
“Ugh, why does she have to be like this? If she would’ve given me a minute, I could’ve found a spell! She could drown or get decompression sickness if she’s not careful!”
“Oh, I hope she’ll be alright,” Fluttershy anxiously said as the group quickly watched her disappear, the only evidence that she was still down there being the shining piece of Amore getting covered up by the size of her body.
The group stood staring at the river for a minute, then two, then three, the five on the ground getting more worried with each passing second.
“Oh, why does Rainbow Dash have to be such an idiot sometimes?” Twilight asked, her voice on the edge of panic as she started to light up her horn. “We have to go down there and look for her!”
Just as she said it, the pegasus flew up and out of the water, flopping on the grass next to them and taking deep loud breaths, holding the glowing piece of Amore in her hooves, the stone in perfect condition despite the elements it faced after a thousand years.
“I… I… ah… I got… the piece…” Rainbow Dash gasped out, setting it down next to her as she lay on her back, closing her eyes. "It was... very deep down... but I got it... ah..."
“Why do you always have to act so crazy, Rainbow? You’re gonna hurt yourself one of these days, you know that? And then you’ll… what’s that?”
Suddenly, to everypony’s surprise, the pieces of Amore they had collected began to glow and reassemble themselves. It was unexpected, even for Twilight, and within just a moment, the pieces of stone that were the princess became a solid stone statue, one that stood tall above everypony, nearly as tall as Princess Celestia was. She had her wings outstretched and an expression that looked shocked where she stood, one that was unnerving to the six ponies before her.
“You… you said she was still conscious in there before, right Twilight?” Rarity asked nervously. “Can she- can she see us now? And hear us, too?”
She didn’t answer immediately and had to shake her head to refocus herself. “Well,” she answered, “if she can’t, she'll be able to in just a moment.” With that, the mare lit up her horn to change her back, using a spell she spent the last week practicing for this moment.