Chapter One
A simple heating spell was enough to make a warm pot of tea in seconds. The unicorn levitated the already heated tea pot which had floral designs and and tiny crystals that shine on the lid. Warm tea was poured into two cups which had similar design as the tea pot. The scent of lavender quickly filled up the kitchen as the unicorn finished pouring tea to both cups. She levitated the tea cups and the pot on a silver tray and trotted away from her kitchen, with the tray hovering before her, to her living room where another unicorn was sitting on a chair and was staring at the levitating book in front of her while her forehooves rested on a table supporting her head. The unicorn displayed a serious face and she didn't seem to notice the approaching pony.
"Have some tea first Twilight dear, you simply must try out this exquisite lavender tea that I found in Canterlot." Said the white fashionista pony as she set the tray on the table.
"Thanks Rarity, this should help me rest my mind for a while." Said the librarian as she levitated one of the cups and placed it near her muzzle to invite the aroma of tea in her nose before taking a quick sip.
"You really should take some time off from your studies. Look at you; you already have bags under your eyes already. And just look at your mane." the white unicorn exclaimed with a concerned tone while magically gripping one of the streaks of Twilight's messy and somewhat frizzy hair" That is unacceptable. I know! You should come with me and Fluttershy on our next spa day, they have the best hooficures here in ponyville and I am amazed on how their mud baths are able to relieve so much worries," Rarity squealed in excitement as she recalled her usual visits in the spa and how relaxing it can be. "And not to worry dear, I will cover all the charges.
"Oh Rarity you don't have to do that. I just wasn't able to sleep last night after studying this book."
"Twilight, as a dear friend I insist that you join us."
“Thanks Rarity. It's just that I stayed up the whole night with this book thinking that this was one of Princess Celestia's tests. And now I found out that this actually was not from her which made me even more confused." Twilight said while she gave the book one of her confused looks.
"What is it with that book that somehow made you stay up all night?"
"Well you see this book has information about plenty of magical spells that I never heard off, but what actually kept me up all night was these mysterious gems that are somehow they described as magical." Twilight said while flipping the pages of the book until she reached page with an image to show to Rarity. The picture that was in the book were a group of gems that were arranged to form a pattern similar to Twilight's cutie mark, but instead of one large star in the middle, in the center of the pattern were two large gems, one was light blue and the other was dark purple, and instead of five smaller stars in the surrounding area, there were only four smaller gems which had different colors with each gem in the book. "I was hoping that you could help me with this Rarity."
"I'm honored that you thought of coming to me for help but honestly, why go to me for help, magic is your expertise dear not mine."
"Well you are my closest friend that can also cast unicorn magic, plus this concerns gems too and who better to ask about gemstones than you Rarity."
Rarity couldn't resist letting out a sheepish grin with a light blush caused by Twilight's compliment. "Oh stop it darling, you're embarrassing me."
"Anyways, do these gems look familiar to you?" asked Twilight once again showing the pages where there were multiple images of the each gem being shown with some words surrounding the images.
Twilight released her magical grip as Rarity held it with her own. "Hmmm," she pondered as she placed a hoof on her chin with a serious face. The drawing of the image wasn’t bad at all. The images were well detailed and even the color of the gems in the picture was perfectly colored. The shapes and details of the gem looked very similar to the common gems that she used for her dresses yet years of experience was able to help the expert eye of the fashionista to spot the tiniest difference between the magical gems and the gems that she used. After carefully observing the image, she coursed her eyes towards the bits of text written all around the page surrounding the image. The writing of the texts was a bit hard to read since it had bad hoof-writing and some of them even used a different language. She tries to read what some of the inscriptions say, some of them were understandable since the writing was similar to the Equestrian language, Ignis, it read, and she trained her eye to find another readable word, Nix, although she didn't understand at all the meaning of these words.
"Well, do you know what they are?" Twilight asked, breaking the silence
"They don't seem to be different from the gems that I use, yet a minor detail, compared to the normal gemstone or crystal, these magical gemstones have..a...umm..how do you say this umm.." Deep in her thoughts, she raised her hoof in chest level while making circular hoof gestures in the air as she searched for a suitable word to fit the description that she was trying to say. "Ah! I know. They have a certain kind of coloring or shade in the gems."
Out of all the possible words to question and to show confusion about what she had heard, "Huh?" Was the only word that came out of the intelligent unicorn's mouth as she sat the dumbfounded to Rarity's description for she lacks knowledge to know how a gemstone usually looked like.
"Not to worry I'll explain. You see darling, the normal gems that I find and use have a certain type of shade of color" Rarity explained. She then stood up from her chair and trotted towards her gem box which was a chest that was purple in color and had golden linings. She opened the chest and levitated out one of her gemstones, which seemed to be a sapphire, and levitated it towards Twilight. Rarity closed the chest and trotted back towards Twilight, while the gem was still in hovering, to continue her explanation. She raised the book and pointed at the image of a blue gemstone. "Now as you can see, both the gems are similar in shape and in color it is difficult to tell the difference of both gemstones. Yet if you look close enough, you can see how the gem’s shade of color is darker in the inside and it becomes lighter in the outer parts.
Twilight's eyes narrowed as she focused on the floating gemstone in front of her and the image beside her. “Oh, I see.” Her words were like a whisper, yet it was loud enough to be heard.
"Wait. The book says that the gems shattered into thousands of shards and was hidden around Equestria and even outside the country." Twilight said thinking about what Rarity had explained, "That means that the gems are common and that you should have seen at least one of these when you were searching fo-.
Rarity raised a hoof signaling Twilight to stop as she took a sip from her now lukewarm tea. She placed the cup back down on the tray and cleared her throat for her to continue her explanation. "You have already used the gem finding spell before, am I right?" Rarity said before levitating the book.
"Well, yeah, during that diamond dogs incident"
"Well based on this book," Rarity pointed a hoof at the description below the image and showed it to Twilight. "These magical gems are magically enchanted to be hidden from the gem finding spell. Usually how a gem finding spell works is that it simply detects the materials of the gemstones and makes it visible to the caster's eyes.
"Oh, so that means that there must be some sort of enchantment casted in the gems to be prevented from being detected by the spell. But why would somepony want to hide these gems?" Twilight took a moment to theorize answers for her question.
"That I cannot answer dear." Rarity sighed as she flipped through more pages of the pictures of the gems "Such a shame that I never found any of these after years of searching for different gems and crystal. Just look at how the shade of this red gem can perfectly match my designs. I have been to many hunts for gems, yet the finding spell only finds the common gems and I never really explored to find other gems, so I never did encounter this kind of stone."
"Wait, wasn't Spike mostly with you when you went searching for gems?" Twilight asked after recalling that Spike was always with Rarity in her gem hunts.
"Yes he was. He was the one who usually digs up the gems, but he also consumes some of them after digging them up."
"Maybe he would have already dug up at least one of these gems." Twilight pondered.
"Or maybe ate one." Rarity added making her giggle in a lady-like manner.
Twilight couldn't help but also let out a small giggle to Rarity's comment, "Yeah, he might have."
"Anyways, there are also these writings on the images that I can't quite comprehend." Rarity said while levitating the book to Twilight, "Do you understand any of them?"
Twilight surrounded the book with her own purple aura taking it with her own magical grip. The words Ignis and Nix crossed Twilight's eyes in the image beside the gemstones. "I've already tried to find a reference for what these words mean, but I don't have any book that can help me define these words."
"Darling, if you are really that worried about the book then I think its about time for you to tell Princess Celestia about that book. I'm sure she can find a way to help you with it."
"Maybe I should, she might have not sent the book, but I doubt that she would not know anything about it." Twilight said before taking her last sip of her tea. "It's settled then, first thing tomorrow I pack up for Canterlot. Oh and would you like to go with me? I'm sure that your expertise would help."
"Oh I would love to dear," Rarity said while excitement was shown on her face, but it faded away to disappointment when she faced her work desk filled with sketches and fabric. "But I have to accomplish plenty of orders by next week. It is all for Hoity Toity and I just cannot miss out this opportunity. I am sorry I cannot accompany you, you understand, right?"
"It's alright Rarity, I know how important it is to you." Twilight said as she levitated the book back to her saddlebag and noticed the sky turning orange when she looked out the window
"But if ever you need help with those gems again, I am always available for any assistance."
"Thanks Rarity, well I better head home now and prepare for a big trip tomorrow." She said as she made her way to the door of the boutique.
"Alright then, farewell dear, and good luck on your trip tomorrow" Rarity waved her hoof goodbye across the room as Twilight opened the door.
"Bye Rarity, good luck on your work." Twilight said as she bid farewell to Rarity and stepped outside to the now orange glow of the dusk.
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Twilight opened the door of the library and was greeted by a dragon humming a tune while he was preparing a dish in the kitchen. As soon as she trotted in, she spotted her number one assistant in the kitchen finishing up a daffodil sandwich for the lavender unicorn.
"How's my number one assistant doing?" Twilight asked, informing Spike that had returned.
Spike walked out with a freshly made meal for the seemingly tired unicorn and set it on the table. "I'm doing great. Here's you dinner, a nice daffodil sandwich just the way you like it."
"Thanks Spike, aren't you going to eat?" Asked Twilight to the dragon as she levitated the sandwich off the plate.
"I already did, just a bowl of gems."
Twilight immediately took a bite from the sandwich and after a few chewing, she swallowed the bit of sandwich when she asked, "Speaking of gems, by any chance have you seen this kind of gem yet?" She levitated the book from her saddlebag and showed the image of the gem to Spike.
"Isn't it just a normal gem? I see that every time." Spike said in a confused tone since he was not sure why he had been asked that question.
After swallowing another bite, she explained to Spike, "No Spike, this is a magical gem. Somehow Rarity said that it had a difference from a normal gem."
"Well in that case I never actually noticed any difference in the gems I dug up."
Twilight chewing her final bit of sandwich and finally swallowing it before saying, "Well I guess there is only one pony left to ask. Spike, take a note."
Dear Princess Celestia,
I wish to inform you that I am currently having problems regarding the certain book that I mentioned to you in the last letter that I sent. With your permission, may I visit you tomorrow at Canterlot and ask advice from you in dealing with this problem?
Your most faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
The dragon then finished off the letter and rolled it up into a scroll. He opened the window of the library and engulfed the scroll with his magical letter-sending flame immediately to be received by Princess Celestia. The unicorn, on the other hand, went to the table once again to continue studying the mysterious gems.
After a few minutes of closely examining the pages and the pictures of the book, she let out a loud yawn signaling her to finally go to bed after having to go through more than 24 hours of being awake. She fought back with her sleepiness as her head and eyelids became heavy and her magical aura on the book started to flicker and slowly disappear.
Spike returned to where Twilight was after he had received the response from the Princess. He expected the unicorn to still be in her usual studying spot reading about that mysterious book. As expected, the lavender unicorn was present with the book, yet what was unexpected was that she was using the book as a pillow rather than a reading material. Spike walked closer to Twilight to wake her up and tell her about the letter of the Princess, yet when his claw was already near her shoulder, he had second thoughts about his actions and simply backed away his claw. The letter was important, yet it was not that urgent to wake up the tired unicorn. Instead of proceeding to wake her up, he instead settled the letter beside Twilight's head and ran back upstairs. He returned again quickly to the sleeping unicorn but this time with a blanket to be able to protect the sleeping librarian from the cold night.