//------------------------------//
// Chapter 30. A gem around his neck. 
// Story: The Choice 
// by Not_available_now 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 30. A gem around his neck.


                Martin, Spike and Twilight were sitting at the table, eating together. Spike had a steaming bowl of sulfur stew in front of him, Twilight had the perfect daffodil sandwich and Martin had a couple of slice of bread.


                They ate in silence, mostly because Martin was a bit tired, Twilight was thinking a lot and Spike was simply enjoying his meal.
                
                After they were done eating and they had cleaned up Spike laid on the couch. He started to have some stomachaches and could not walk anymore. Twilight did the dishes while Martin looked at the bookshelves, looking for anything to read.
                
                He grabbed a book and looked at the back when he heard a sound and something hit him in the back of his head.


                “Ow!” He yelled as he turned around, seeing where the thing came from. “Who threw that?” He only saw Spike clawing at his stomach and Twilight rushing into the room, a wet towel still in her magic. He stumbled against the bookcase and knocked out quite a lot of books.
                
                “What happened?” she screamed as she quickly scanned the room for anything abnormal.
                
                “Something hit me in my head.” Martin said as he rubbed the spot where he was hit.
                
                “What? Where?” Twilight said as she looked around Martin for anything that might have hit him. She dug through the pile of books on the ground and dropped the wet towel on the ground.


                Martin looked around the room and saw that next to Spike was a letter on the ground, a seal that resembled the sun on it. He heard a burp and something else hit him in the face. It dropped onto the other scroll. It was another scroll, only this one had a seal with a moon on it and Martin’s name on it.
                
                “Hey, Twi. I think that I found something.” He said as he held the scroll up high.
 
                Twilight’s head poked out of the pile of books and grabbed the scroll with her magic. She opened it and quickly read the contents.
                
                When she finished she dug some more through the pile until the finally uncovered the small gem on a keychain. “Here, I found it!” She said as she examined the small gem.
                
                Martin put the scroll with the moon on a shelf. “What is it?” He said as he walked over to her and kneeled down next to her.
 
                “It is a gem, sent to me by princess Celestia, which absorbs all the magic of the pony,” She looked at Martin. “Or human who wears it.” She floated the scroll in her magic as she put the gem around her neck. As soon as the gem sat around her neck, the scroll fell to the ground. She tried to pick it up, but to no avail. She couldn’t get the scroll to levitate again. Only after a lot of effort and more than just one bead of sweat on her face was it that the scroll slowly started to float again.
 
                She pants a bit before finally being able to talk again. “But it isn’t for me.” She said as she clumsily pushed the necklace of her head with a hoof. “But for you.” She put the gem around Martin’s head.
                
                “Why?” Martin asked her as he looked at the gem. Twilight just pointed to the destroyed floor. “Ooh, this is also capable of holding back my corrupt magic?”
                
                Twilight nodded. “This is supposed to hold your corrupted magic in check until a better solution is found.” She started floating the books back into the bookcase. “The gem will collect the magic, make it harmless and slowly give it back to the atmosphere.”
 
                “Wow, but how much can it store. Because seeing from the floor, it needs to hold a lot.” Martin said as he grabbed a couple of floor crumbs.
 
                “It will get rid of the cleaned magic fairly quickly, so that shouldn’t be a problem.” She said as she put the last of the books in the bookcase. “You should just keep that on and everything should be fine.”
 
                “I hope that everything will be fine.” Martin said. He turned around, looking at Spike who looked at bit better than before. “Maybe you should take a look at Spike here. He looks a bit pale, or as pale as a dragon can look.”
 
                Twilight jumped up and rushed towards the small dragon. “Oh, Spike. Are you all right? Are you feeling a little warm?” Twilight floated over a thermometer and stuck it in Spike’s mouth.
                
                Spike spat out the thermometer. “You do know that I am a dragon?” He said, sounding very un-sick like.
 
                Twilight smiled sheepishly and teleported the thermometer away. “Uhm… Sure. I knew that. He, He, but are you all right?”
                
                Spike nodded. “The princess sent two letters and that gem, but the gem was a bit bad on my stomach.”
 
                “And why did it hit Martin?” Twilight said, more motherly than Martin expected.
 
                Spike cringed a bit and now it was his turn to smile sheepishly. “Uhm… good aiming?”
 
                Twilight sighed and smiled at Spike. “Aim a bit lower next time.” She patted Spike on the back and walked over to the kitchen to get a glass of water for Spike.
                “Did she just say to aim lower? Does she know what there is?” Martin asked, a bit worried about Twilight her plans for his small Martin.
 
                “I think she does and when push comes to shove I’ll root for you.” Spike said as he slowly came of the couch and followed Twilight into the kitchen.
 
                Twilight came out of the kitchen, carrying a plate with three glasses of water. She gave a glass to Martin and one to Spike. The laid the plate on a desk and sat down onto the couch.
                
                Martin and Spike joined her and they talked about a couple of small things, mainly the floor that needed to be fixed. What nobody noticed was the small bolt of magic that shot towards Martin’s gem; its origin a bit chaotic.