//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4: A Diamond Disaster 
// Story: The Last Alicorn 
// by moviefan-92 
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Chapter 4: A Diamond Disaster

Twilight had to admit, it was much nicer traveling with a friend by her side. It made her miss her friends back home in Equestria, and she, not for the first time, began to wish that she had asked them to come along with her after all. She shook off the thought though, knowing that her friends were doing what they could for the ponies of Equestria.
As far as company went, Micro Chips wasn’t too bad. He was funny at times, and very inquisitive. Twilight attempted to teach him how to control the magic he had, but was very cautious, not knowing how a human wielding magic could result in if they weren’t careful.
“Do you think you could supply me with more if I run out?” he asked one day, or night as it still was. “You produce your own magic, but I have to fill this device up in order to use it.”
Twilight gave him an apologetic smile. “I’m not sure if that’s a good idea. Alicorn magic is very powerful. Having too much magic can actually corrupt you if you don’t know how to fully control it. Maybe when you learn how to use it properly, I’ll fill your device up a little more.”
Micro Chips sighed. “I suppose that makes sense. Well, thanks anyway, princess.”
She chuckled. “Come on, Micro Chips, were friends. I told you to call me Twilight.”
“Oh, right. Sorry, prin… I mean, Twilight.”
For the most part, their time together was uneventful as they continued their journey to Tirek’s kingdom. Whenever they settled down to sleep, Twilight always closed her eyes and hoped that when she opened them again that the sun’s morning light would be shining down on her. Unfortunately, that never happened. Nor did she ever hear Luna answer her when she called out to her in her dreams. There really was no doubt that the princesses were gone, but Twilight still held out hope that they were still alive.
Finally, Micro Chips announced that they had entered Tirek’s domain. Twilight should have realized that for herself, for she noticed a big difference in the land upon entering it. It seemed that the stories were true; Tirek’s kingdom was devoid of life and magic. It was a dead desolate place, and it made her wonder how anycreature could live under such conditions. But at least they were close to getting some answers. That was some good news.
But the good news soon gave way to bad as the sound of approaching obnoxious laughter was heard. Twilight was not overly worried about this, but Micro Chips seemed to think otherwise.
“You better hide before you’re seen,” he told her.
Twilight cocked her head to the side. “Why? Who are they?”
“Who knows, but they could be working for Lord Tirek. If they see you, there’s no telling what they will do to you. I’ll see what I can find out from them, I doubt they’ll hurt a nobody like me.”
The sound of the laughter was getting closer, and voices could now be heard as well. Twilight glanced at Micro Chips in concern before deciding that he knew what was best and teleported away.
Micro Chips was left alone on the road, and he turned to face whoever was coming. But, much to his surprise, it wasn’t humans that came wandering down the road, but a trio of diamond dogs. Gray and brown in color, they resembled a cross between humans and dogs, and were rather unpleasant to look at. And while not all that intelligent, they were known to be brutes.
“Well, well, well,” said the head diamond dog, “look at what we have here. And what would a lone human be doing here? Looking to steal from our diamonds.”
Micro Chips wasn’t surprised that the diamond dog’s immediate thought was that he was after their diamonds. As their name suggested, diamond dogs had a very one-track mind. So much for getting any answers about Tirek from them.
Holding up his hands, he gave them a reassuring grin. “Not at all. I’m merely a magic scholar here doing some magic, uh… scholaring.”
“Is that so?” the head diamond dog said, moving close enough so Micro Chips could smell his foul breath. “Well, lets just take him to Iron Will and see what he thinks.”
“Yeah,” the smallest of the trio agreed. “If anyone can get to the truth, it’s the boss.”
Before Micro Chips could protest, he was seized by the largest of the three and thrown over his shoulder. The three diamond dogs then took off with Micro Chips as Twilight came out from her hiding place and followed after them at a distance.

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)

The diamond dogs’ camp wasn’t much to look at. It seemed to consist of a band of travelers, mostly consisting of diamond dogs, but there were a few humans as well, and even a couple Equestrian ponies.
The apparent leader of them all was a large, dark blue colored minotaur, who was currently speaking to a group of diamond dog pups. Talking in the third person, he came across as an overbearing spokes person as he flexed his large muscles for them.
“When somecreature tries to block, show them that you rock!” he bellowed loudly. “Iron Will doesn’t let anycreature push him around, and neither should you. How else are you to protect your herd from thieves. Especially dragons. They would just love to get their hands on your diamond stash and gobble them all up.”
The little diamond dogs yipped in protest, and Iron Will grinned, looking rather pleased with himself. His attention was soon diverted from them as the trio of diamond dogs arrived with Micro Chips, pounding futilely at the back of the one who held him.
“Put me down, you beasts!” he yelled, trying to sound braver than he felt. “Or else I shall unleash my magic upon you!”
The head diamond dog turned to him. “Don’t make us laugh. We all know that humans don’t possess any magic abilities.”
Getting up from his spot, Iron Will approached them. “Ah, Rover, Fido, Spot, what have the three of you found this time.”
The larger diamond dog, Fido, placed Micro Chips on the ground. “A thief come to steal our gems.”
“But we caught him before he could,” said Spot, the smallest of the three.
Dusting himself off, Micro Chips put some distance between himself and the three of them as he approached Iron Will. “I am no thief. I tried to tell them that I’m a scholar of magic, but they wouldn’t listen.”
The minotaur let out a sigh. “Iron Will apologizes on behalf of his men. Unfortunately, they are more brawn than brains. As an apology, please join Iron Will as his guest for dinner.”
At the mention of food, Micro Chips’ stomach began to growl. “Oh, well, that sounds great actually. I am quite hungry.”
“But of course you are,” Iron Will replied. Turning around, he cupped his hands over his mouth. “Hey, Sunset Shimmer, hurry up and get dinner started!”
One of the humans, a girl around Micro Chips’ age with amber colored skin and streak of yellow in her bright red air came marching over. Her turquoise eyes narrowed in irritation as she placed her hands on her hips and threw the minotaur a dirty look.
“I told you,” she snapped impatiently, “I’m not your servant girl. I’m not even a member of you band of misfits. We just happen to be traveling in the same direction and are camping together for mutual benefit.”
Iron Will just snorted, looking bored. “You should consider staying with Iron Will and his men. You would be much better off than continuing your traveling artist career as Flanker, or whatever your street artist name is.”
“It’s Flanksy!” Sunset snapped. “And for your information, I’m actually getting quite popular. My art is gaining more and more recognition and appreciation.”
Micro Chips’ eyes widened in surprise. “Wait, you mean you’re Flanksy? I’ve heard of you, and I have a great appreciation for you work.”
Sunset smirked at Iron Will. “See, he knows. Be happy to give you an autograph if you want.”
Micro Chips nodded enthusiastically. “Oh, that would be great. I can’t wait to tell everyone that I met thee Flanksy. Sunset Shimmer’s your real name?”
She gave him a nod. “Having an alias really helps keep the fans off my back.”
Iron Will just grumbled. “Artists and magic scholars wannabes. This is the company Iron Will is forced to put up with.”
Feeling that he was no longer in any danger, Micro Chips pointed at the minotaur. “Ah, but I am no magic scholar wannabe. I have studied magic for most of my life. In fact, I have even begun learning how to use it.”
Rover, the head diamond dog, scoffed at this. “The human is delusional. He was blabbing about using magic when we found him earlier too.”
“Yes,” Iron Will agreed. “Quite delusional. Everycreature knows that humans cannot use magic.”
Holding out his hands, as if putting on a performance, Micro Chips announced to the entire camp, “Ah, but I can. You are looking at the only human who has learned how to use magic.”
Rover walked right up to him. “Prove it.”
Waving away the diamond dog’s foul breath, Micro Chips pulled out his magic storing device with a confidence he hadn’t felt before. “Alright then, I will. You dogs like diamonds, right. Then I shall perform a gem summoning spell. Behold!”
He opened the device, and magic flowed out. The camp occupants’ full attention was on him as the magic swirled around him, wondering if he could actually pull off what he claimed he could.
Micro Chips allowed the magic to swirl around before fully unleashing it. The magic flowed outward in a burst of colors, and then… was gone. Micro Chips was left standing in the middle of a crowd with his hands in the air as if he had just performed an amazing feat, with absolutely nothing to show for it.
The snickering began from the diamond dogs, and began to spread to the rest of the camp, leaving Micro Chips feeling rather embarrassed. The only one not laughing was Sunset, who had a cringy look on her face as she very obviously pitied him.
“Iron Will is unimpressed,” the minotaur told him. “Now, if you are done fooling around, perhaps we could-”
He was cut off as something bounced off his head. Looking down, he saw that it was a gem, and a rather big one two. Reaching down, he picked it and studied it. Rover walked over as well, giving the gem a curious look. “Where did that come from?”
Sunset pointed. “Look. Over there, look.”
The others turned to where she was pointing, and saw a large gathering of gems floating through the air over to them. They all glowed with the magic Micro Chips had unleashed as they floated past the camp and deeper into the forest. Everyone stared, completely flabbergasted as Micro Chips rejoiced in his success.
“He did it,” said Spot in disbelief. “He actually did it.”
“Impossible,” Iron Will insisted. “Humans can’t use magic. How is this possible?”
“Who cares,” Fido told him. “Lets get those gems before get away.”
He along with nearly everyone in the camp hurried after the gems as they floated away. The only ones to remain were Sunset, Iron Will, Rover, and Micro Chips. Sunset glanced at him with a smirk on her face.
“Ok, I’m impressed,” she told him. “A human who can use magic. Now I’ve seen everything.”
With that, she walked off to elsewhere in the camp. The compliment went to Micro Chips’ head, increasing his good mood all the more. It was short lived however as he was picked up by Rover.
“That was a clever trick, human,” the diamond dog told him.
“Indeed,” Iron Will agreed. “A human who can use magic to summon gems. Lets put that talent to some real use.”
Micro Chips didn’t know what that meant, but had a feeling that he would soon find out as he was carried along, and soon they came to a cave. Micro Chips could see several gems embedded in the cave walls and floor, and suddenly had a feeling as to why they brought him here.
Rover clamped a metal cuff attached to a chain around Micro Chips ankle, then wrapped the chain around an enormous boulder and locked it with a lock. “That ought to hold you, magic man. We’ll be back for you in the morning.”
“Yes,” said Iron Will. “Until then, use your magic to bring forth more gems from the cave. It will save us a lot of digging and searching. When we come back tomorrow, Iron Will expects to see a large pile of gems here for us. That is the cost of our hospitality.”
“Bye, bye, magic man,” Rover mocked as he and Iron Will walked off, leaving Micro Chips chained beside the cave.
He glared after them, but despite the situation, he couldn’t help but feel deeply satisfied. He had proven himself with his use of magic. His lessons with Twilight had been worth it. He now had much better control of the magic he had. And while he didn’t like that he was going to have to waste what he had stored up on forced manual labor, he set to work on summoning forth more gems from inside the cave.
It wasn’t long before he had a large pile of precious stones in front of him. It towered over his head, even when he was standing up straight. This would surely satisfy Iron Will and Rover enough for them to let him go come morning.
But then something happened that he didn’t expect. He heard movement in the forest as something approached. At first he thought it was Twilight coming to find him, but, much to his disappointment, a big green blob of slime came sliding out of the forest.
“Wait,” he muttered as he stared at the slime, “is that… a smooze?”
The blob of living slime barely glanced at him, and instead turned its attention to the large pile of gems. A tongue crept out of the hole that seemed to be a mouth of the slime and licked what served as lips. Then a slimy tentacle reached out and scooped up a bunch of gems. It shoved them into its mouth, and swallowed them whole.
“It eats gems,” Micro Chips muttered. “I thought only dragons ate gems.”
The smooze continued to ignore him as it continued eating the pile of gems. Then, suddenly, it began to grow at an alarming rate. The more gems it consumed, the bigger it grew. It was already several dozen times its original size, and Micro Chips suddenly found himself a rather perilous predicament. Chained up as he was, he couldn’t get away from the smooze, and as it continued to grow, its slimy body began to flow over him. If it continued to grow like this, then he would drown in its slime!
“Hey, smooze, stop!” he shouted as the slime reached his chest, and it hadn’t even finished half of the pile yet. “Hey, come on, I’m going to drown!”
The smooze ignored him as it continued to eat. Micro Chips realized that it wasn’t going to stop. Grabbing at his device, he sent a blast of magic at it. But, much to his horror, his magic had no affect on it. The smooze didn’t even spare him a glance as it continued to eat.
“The magic isn’t working,” Micro Chips said as he began to panic. The slime had now reached up to neck. “HELP, TWILIGHT!!! WHERE ARE YOU?!?”
A few seconds later, there was a flash of light as the alicorn appeared. She quickly assessed the situation, taking note of Micro Chips’ predicament. Her horn glowed with magic, and all the gems floated up into the air. A few seconds later, all the gems the smooze had consumed came popping out of its body, and the smooze began to shrink.
When the last gem left the smooze’s body, it reverted back to its original size. Twilight then sent a beam of magic at the cuff around Micro Chips’ ankle, and it opened, setting him free. He quickly scurried away from the smooze, and Twilight let the gems fall from the sky. The smooze gave the two of them a curious glance before it went right back to gobbling up the gems once again.
Micro Chips didn’t care about the gems, and apparently neither did Twilight as she turned away from them and began walking away. “Are you ok?”
Micro Chips nodded. “Yeah, thanks for that. I thought I was a goner.”
“Smoozes are relatively harmless, but they can be a little bothersome when they get too big like that.”
An embarrassed chuckle escaped Micro Chips. “Yeah, I noticed. Seems like my use of magic keeps getting me into trouble. Speaking of which, did you see what I did earlier? I cast a spell to summon gems, and a whole bunch came to me. That’s why they chained me up over there, they wanted me to gather more for them.”
Twilight smiled proudly at him as she fluttered in the air overhead. “Congratulations. It seems you’re getting the hang of using magic. But why didn’t you just cast a spell to free yourself after they chained you up?”
Micro Chips blinked, and an embarrassed blush stained his cheeks when he realized that he should have done that instead of wasting his magic in gathering more gems for his captors. “Oh, yeah, I guess that would have been the smart thing to do. Guess I had a little lapse in judgment.”
“Leaving so soon, magic man?” a familiar voice asked.
Micro Chips turned in surprise to see Sunset Shimmer leaning against a tree. She was by herself, much to Micro Chips relief, with no sign of Iron Will, Rover, or anyone else from the camp. Had she maybe been coming to free him?
The smirk on Sunset’s face quickly vanished to become a look of wonder as Twilight came down and landed beside Micro Chips. Her eyes grew as wide as saucers as she stared at alicorn in amazement.
“I don’t believe it,” she said in awe. “Is that really…? Are you really…?”
Twilight seemed to decide that the girl was no threat, and gave her a smile. “I’m Twilight Sparkle. It’s nice to meet you, miss.”
Sunset was still staring at Twilight in disbelief, but upon being addressed, she shook her head. “I’m Sunset Shimmer. It’s such an honor to meet you, princess. I’ve got to tell you. It’s always been a dream of mine to meet an alicorn one day.”
In response, Twilight spread her wings, very obviously showing them off. “Then today’s your lucky day. Is it everything you’ve hoped for?”
Sunset nodded. “Everything and more. Are the other alicorns like you? Do you know Princess Celestia? What am I saying, of course you do. I’ve admired her ever since I’ve heard the stories of her greatness.”
A chuckle escaped Twilight. “I know exactly what you mean.”
Micro Chips looked back and forth between Twilight and Sunset. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say that the two of them had just become best friends. But then what Sunset had said about Celestia registered to him and he turned to her. “Wait, do you know about Celestia?”
Sunset scoffed at that. “Probably more than any other human in the world. I loved the stories of her deeds as a little girl, and tried to learn as much as I could about her and the other alicorns. I know all about Princess Celestia, Luna, and Mi Amore Cadenza.” She looked back at Twilight with shining eyes. “There were rumors that there was a fourth, but I heard next to nothing about her.”
Twilight chuckled. “I’m still relatively new. I’ve only been an alicorn for a few years, so it’s no surprise that I haven’t been heard of yet outside of Equestria.”
This didn’t seem to deter Sunset in the least. “New, old, it doesn’t matter to me. It’s still an honor.”
Micro Chips began to feel a little put out at how Twilight and Sunset seemed to become instant friends while he’d had to earn Twilight’s friendship, and a twinge of jealousy ran through him. He tried to push the feeling aside though as he reminded himself that Twilight was the Princess of Friendship and that it was only natural for her to make friends wherever she went.
Clearing his throat, he puffed out his chest and held his head up high. “Well, now that you’ve realized your dream of meeting an alicorn, you can go back to being a traveling artist again. As for us, we have a mission to accomplish.”
Much to his surprise, Sunset simply smiled. “Great, let’s go.”
Micro Chips did a double-take, not sure if he heard right. “Wait, what?”
“I said let’s go. I’m going to help you out with whatever you’re doing.”
That had not been the response Micro Chips had been expected. “But you don’t even know where we’re going.”
Sunset just shrugged. “Do you think I care? As you said, I’m a traveling artist, I can go wherever I want.”
“No way!” Micro Chips snapped, not liking the idea of having to share Twilight’s attention with someone else. “I forbid it! Do not force me to use my magic on you!”
Sunset laughed at that. “As if your magic could compare to an alicorn’s.” She gave Twilight a smile. “Why are you traveling around with this guy anyway?”
Before Twilight could answer, Micro Chips spoke up. “For your information, we’re on a quest to Lord Tirek’s castle to find out what happened to the other alicorns. Now, if you’ll excuse us.”
With his chin raised, he waltzed by Sunset, not even sparing her a glance. The red and yellow haired girl just rolled her eyes as she began heading in the opposite direction, motioning for Twilight to follow her. “Well, I wish you luck getting there, because you’re going the wrong way.”
Micro Chips froze. He looked all around him and suddenly realized that he actually had no idea which way to go and that he had simply been heading in some random direction.
Trying to maintain whatever dignity he still had, he turned around and hurried after Sunset and Twilight, quickly passing them so that he was in the lead.
Sunset chuckled. “I’m sorry, but you were going the wrong way.”
“Well…” Micro Chips muttered, not even looking back, “it was a shortcut.”
Sunset and Twilight just laughed as Micro Chips tried to will away his blush of embarrassment.