//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: The Ruby of Balance // by OtterFeelings //------------------------------// The Ruby of Balance by Gabriele Hall “OtterFeelings” Chapter 2 The smell of smoldering coal brought me to my senses. Had days passed? Or was it years since I was on the volcano? Or was it really just some lucid nightmare that had been a bit too realistic? Reaching for my nose, I could feel cuts, and blinking my eyes a second time brought pain immediately. They were swollen and blinking made it feel like some pony was driving a million little pins into my pupil. I decided that if the pain was this real, then the events of my “dream” must have been too. I slowly arose out of the makeshift cot and stumbled over to the wash bin. A new smell soon hit me after I finished washing my face, which did little to ease the hotness in my face. It was the smell of Apple pie, freshly baked and ready to be eaten. At least I knew I was in Appleoosa again. But it was very weird, as I could remember nothing after some blue Pegasus had dove into the mouth of the volcano. I never thought to try to figure out whose cabin I was in. I ate the apple pie swiftly, not realizing until after how starved I had actually been. I moved over to the edge of the cot, and through myself over the side. Thoughts about the Pegasus, and the Ruby flew wildly in my head. Did she fulfill the prophecy and bring the Ruby back to Canterlot? I wanted to know the answer, badly. I knew I didn’t have the strength yet to go to Canterlot and find out myself. But I knew that by looking out my window, I could probably tell whether or not she had succeeded. I peered with hesitation outside the roughed up and opaque window. Damn it. It looked like I was going to have to head outside. So I gradually lifted myself off the old cot and walked feebly over to the wooden door. With a last deep breath, I opened the door and looked outside. ----- Shade Heart gazed into the fiery depths of the volcano. His heart was not evil. Evil was his heart. He smiled coldly and smiled as he remembered the joy he would have once the Ruby had been destroyed. He looked around at the surrounding forest. It was so quiet and pristine. Everything that he hated and despised. Shade Heart took a deep breath and for the last time gazed into the Ruby. It was then he had a momentary lapse of consciousness in which his mind became engulfed in something foreign to him. As he stared intently at the Ruby, a feeling of happiness rang throughout him. In the back of his mind, he truly understood what casting the Ruby into the volcano would do. He felt regret, he felt sorrow. These were two emotions that had been absent in him for a long time. He had hardened his heart, forcing any thoughts of remorse seep out of him, and be masked by hatred and fear. But looking into the Ruby let those thoughts start to creep back. Shade Heart was able to remember the happy times in his life, even if they were far and few between. A smile so miniscule that no pony could ever see with their naked eye quivered across Shade Heart’s face. A small tingling sensation ran throughout his spine and down to the tips of his hooves. The sensation startled him. He snapped back to reality. Had that feeling, that tingling, been what he had never had? Was the Ruby showing him what love feels like? Could the Ruby have cracked open a small section in the evil encrusted shell around the alicorn’s heart? ----- When I looked outside, a rush of warm and musty air smacked my face, forcing my eyes shut. The wind was hot and dust was getting kicked up and blown around in the swirling wind. It ways on these days that I felt regret about living in Appleoosa. It might have the best apple pies and some of the nicest ponies in all of Equestria, but dang, the summers were nasty. I dreaded looking outside and finding my world to be different. But to my relieved surprise, nothing looked much different. Actually, nothing looked different at all. There were a few ponies strolling down the street engaged in some sort of important discussion. The sheriff was inspecting one of the new buildings that must have been set up during my trip. Even Braeburn was hard at work greeting the newest settlers who had arrived in the train. Everything looked the same, but not everything felt the same. Maybe it was just me. Heck, it definitely could have been me, as I still had no clue of how I was even back here in Appleoosa. I couldn’t remember anything after that Pegasus had dove towards the heart of the volcano. What had changed, or at least what I felt had changed was something deep inside me. It was like the wind, I knew it was there, but no matter how hard I tried to figure out what it looked like, I still couldn’t see it. And this change didn’t feel right, something about it, something I couldn’t place my hoof on, felt very wrong. ----- Doubt ran like wildfire in Shade Heart’s mind. He wasn’t sure if he was doing the right thing. He wondered if throwing the Ruby of Balance, the most powerful gem in Equestria, into the Forever Red Volcano would not do for him what he thought it would. Second guessing himself was a thing Shade Heart hated to do. He saw it as a weakness, when in reality it is a conscience check. Feeling under immense pressure, he clenched the Ruby, forced his eyes shut so as not to see what he was about to do, and threw with all of his might, the Ruby into the volcano. The instant he felt the gem release from his grip, he screamed out in agony. Realization of the act he had just committed brought him to his knees. Fear was present inside himself. But it was a fear he had not experienced before, because this fear was terror, of what he had done to himself by throwing the Ruby into the volcano. His heart told him to dive into the volcano, to rescue the Ruby. But his head was not stupid. He knew full well that trying to dive into the volcano would be instant and unavoidable death. Remorse filled his heart, but nothing he could do could change the implications he had caused. He had plunged Equestria into darkness, and no pony would suffer the consequences more than Shade Heart. He collected himself, as best he could, and wept all the way down the volcano. Every attempt he made to gain composure failed. Shade Heart knew that he would never fully recover from pain he had inflicted upon himself. He went into hiding off in a remote place in the Everfree forest. Never wanting to show his ashamed face again. But luckily enough for Equestria, and unbeknownst to Shade Heart, his action was not a permanent one. Although he did not know that one day a pony would dive into the volcano, and try to rescue the Ruby he had tried to destroy. Shade Heart was never heard from again after his grievous action. The knowledge that he was the one who had thrown the Ruby into the volcano was only discovered hundreds of years after he had passed on, when another young alicorn stumbled upon his shack and read his memoirs that were stashed away. ----- When I arrived in Canterlot, I was most certainly out of place. Every pony acted with such dignity and here I was, a teenage earth pony from Appleoosa, trotting down the streets in nothing more than a fedora. I was awkward among all the upper class ponies. But my mission was not to try to fit in. I decided I would do that later. What was paramount to me was to see whether or not the Ruby had made it back to the center of Canterlot and returned to its statue. I had asked many ponies on my way to Canterlot, yet no pony seemed to have been able to tell me anything about it. In fact, no pony even knew what the Ruby of Balance was. This was quite disturbing to me. I thought little of it however as I made my way to the center square. My heart pounded and my lips when cold. My whole body tensed as I got closer. The hair on my mane stood alert, and and saying I was sweating would be an understatement. The Ruby being in the statue is what I wanted to see. It is what I desperately needed to see in order to achieve validation. But I would have no such relief.