//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: One Heart's Destiny // by Robobrony //------------------------------// Chapter 10 Heart Wing and Rainbow Dash made their way across the stone bridge to the massive doors that led into the castle, as they approached, the doors swung in on their own to let them through. They stopped, only for a moment to look at each other gave a determined look and nodded. They faced forward and entered the castle. They found themselves in a hallway where the walls on each side of them had a strip going along the walls that was letting off a white glow to provide illumination. They followed the hall a ways, it led them to a very large and spacious room. There were entrances to other hallways on the sides of the room, and at the center was a large crystal, it was wide at the center and narrowed at the top and bottom, it was letting off a bright white glow to light up the room as it slowly rotated. Heart and Dash looked on in astonishment. “WOW, this place is amazing, look at the size of this room, and that crystal.” Dash commented. Heart agreed. “I’ll say, but what’s up with that crystal?” The two slowly approached the crystal to get a better look. Once they got closer, it suddenly lit up more for a moment. When it did, Heart and Dash had to cover their eyes for a moment with their forelegs. The brightness subsided and the two were free to look on again, but when they looked again, there were two ghostly looking figures before them. “I….I don’t believe it, what……what’s going on here.” Heart was now confused as he looked upon the two figures. “Heart, what is it, who are they?” Dash asked in worry. “It’s my parents. Mom, dad, what’s going on here, how are you here?” The figures were his parents as alicorns. Heart’s father spoke. “Greetings son, if you are seeing this, then you have finally come home, were sorry we couldn’t be there with you to tell you all that needs to be said. There is much that must be told, so please listen.” His mother began. “Son, you are a prince, this castle was your home, your father and I ruled over a great kingdom in peace and happiness, but terrible events have occurred that destroyed that peace, and our kingdom.” His father continued. “As you know by now, your mother has the ability to receive visions, one day, she received a vision that a terrible demon of pain and misery would arise and try to destroy everything and rule over the world. We would be unable to stop it permanently, but we would be able to seal it away temporarily.” His mother went on. “In my vision, I saw that in the end, it would be you and six other individuals that wield a great power who would defeat the creature once and for all. We know that the great power is six magical artifacts called the elements of harmony, but even they won’t be enough.” His father continued. “I ordered the best magic crafters to forge armor that would increase the power of the elements of harmony, your mother saw in her vision that you would one day befriend them, she didn’t see who they were or where they were. If the bearers of the elements are there with you now, I wish to give you our thanks for being there for our son since we are unable to.” His mother continued. “I also saw that we would not be able to be there for you when the time came, the best we could do was to take steps to make sure you had all you needed to make sure you could win the fight that is to come. While we are unaware of the location of the elements of harmony, we have in this castle a mystical gem that has been in our kingdom for generations that is believed to be where the elements of harmony came from, we hope that, with it, you will be able to obtain an element of harmony of your own.” His father continued. “In order to seal the demon as we mentioned earlier, we will have to give up our alicorn forms. Your mother foresaw this as well, upon sealing the demon, he will cast a terrible curse on you as revenge, a curse that will seal your heart and close off your magic. This curse will also affect a town where we will take refuge, causing it’s citizens to forget us and lose their belief in magic, as well as making it impossible for them to be happy. It will also remove your cutie mark, hiding your true lineage. That’s right son, your cutie mark is not a sign of your special talent, it is the mark of your birthright, you are the prince of Ponytopia. A once great kingdom that thrived and had access to great magic, but by the time of you viewing this, that kingdom now lies in ruins, it is just beyond the large stone doors in front of this castle.” His mother continued. “As an extra precaution to make sure that you will have the power you need to stop this demon from taking over the world and thrusting it into eternal misery, several unicorns under us have volunteered to give up their magic and seal it away in an orb for you to retrieve to increase your magical abilities. You will be so much stronger my son. I know this is a lot to take in, but you must have faith in yourself, and believe you can do this. Upon the end of this recording, this crystal will give you a map of the castle so you can find the vault where all we have left you to make sure you can stand up to the demon is. We believe that at the time you see this and receive our last gifts to you, the demon will break free from the prison we put him in in one year. Always remember that we love you son, and we will always be proud of you.” His father continued. “Be brave son, no matter what, we will always be with you. Take care.” The recording ended and the figures faded out. A beam of white emitted from the crystal and struck Heart in the head. He didn’t move, his head was now filling with knowledge of the layout of the castle, but after everything he just heard, he didn’t react to it. Heart Wing looked on at the crystal with tears in his eyes, he couldn’t believe all he heard. Rainbow Dash was worried for Heart Wing. “Heart Wing, are you ok?” Heart never took his eyes away from the crystal. “Yeah *SNIFF* I’ll be fine, I just can’t believe all I’ve heard, I’m actually descended from royalty, and now I’m expected to save the world from a demon, it won’t be the first time, but this demon sounds a lot more powerful than the last one we were up against.” Dash nuzzled Heart to try and comfort him as she spoke. “Hey, don’t worry, from what it sounds like, your parents left you some killer stuff to make sure you could win. And besides, you won’t be doing this alone.” Heart Wing looked upon Rainbow Dash as he smiled. “I know Rainbow, I won’t be fighting alone, I’ll have friends by my side when the time comes, and you.” The two shared a kiss. Heart then broke the kiss and spoke. “Come on, let’s go find this vault and get this armor my parents left for us.” The two then headed down a hallway to their left, each hall they went down had a strip along the walls letting off a white glow for illumination so they could see. Heart led the way through a series of halls and stairs that went down. After a while, they finally came to a large stone door with a pony face with no eyes carved into the door. Heart Wing approached the door. The eyes of the pony carving flickered to life and was glowing light blue. A female voice spoke from the carving, just like with the statues out in front of the castle. “HALT, PLEASE PRESENT CUTIE MARK!” Heart Wing did as before, he turned his flank so the door could see it and levitated the part of his cloak with his magic so it could see it. The door scanned his cutie mark and spoke again. “CUTIE MARK RECOGNIZED, ACCESS GRANTED!” The door then opened out to allow entrance to the vault. The two entered into the vault and found it was a very large room, there was gold bits just laying around in huge piles along the walls. “Whoa, Heart, check it out, I’ve never seen so many bits before in all my life, if this place is yours, than you are loaded. You won’t have to worry about money for a long time.” Dash said as she eyed the piles of gold. Heart seemed a little skeptical at Dash’s statement. “I don’t know Rainbow, I suppose I could just take what I need so I can get a place for myself, but I don’t feel right about having so much money like this if I didn’t earn it. Besides, I’m sure there may be others back in Equestria who might need this more than me. Not only that, but how would we get all this back to Ponyville in the first place, it would take too long to pack it all in the bag.” Rainbow agreed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Something then caught Rainbow’s eye in the center of the room. “Hey, what’s that thing?” Rainbow spotted a simple crystal orb glowing white on a stone pedestal with a red cover under the orb. Heart Wing and Rainbow Dash approached the crystal. “I think this is the crystal my parents mentioned that has all that magic that’s supposed to give me a power boost.” “Well, what are you waiting for, go ahead and use it.” Rainbow urged him on. Heart Wing gave a determined look. “All right, here goes.” He approached the crystal, he moved his horn down and touched it to the crystal. At the moment of contact, the crystal shone even brighter, Rainbow had to shield her eyes from it, the glow slowly started to fade out. Heart Wing just stood there a moment after the glow was gone. Rainbow approached Heart Wing. “Are you ok, do you feel any different Heart Wing?” Heart Wing looked at Dash as he answered. “I think so, I definitely felt a surge of magical energy as the magic entered from the crystal into me. It was kind of weird, but I do feel more magic within me.” Heart then noticed off to the side, a long stone table also with a red cover over it with several identical objects sitting on it. “HEY, I bet that’s that armor my dad mentioned that he made for us.” The seven pieces of armor had two holes in the front for the legs and one hole for the neck to poke out of, three of which had two other holes on the side for wings. In front of each one was a helmet, three of which had a hole in the front of them like it was meant for a horn. They all were a simple white color with lines along the back where the armor opened up so some pony could put it on. “Cool, this armor look pretty neat.” Dash commented. “I can’t wait to try it out, but let’s wait till we get back.” “Good idea, let’s get these in the bag and find that gem my parents mentioned.” Heart Wing then levitated the armor off the table as Dash opened the bag, Heart placed the armor in the bag and Dash closed it. “Before we start looking for it, I want to also go ahead and take some of the bits here so I can get a house for myself back in Ponyville. How much does a house usually cost Dash?” “About five thousand bits.” “All right then, let’s get some in the bag.” Heart then gathered a good amount of bits together and put it all in the bag as well. “Now to find this thing.” It didn’t take long, the gem they were searching for was at the very back of the vault. It wasn’t as large as the crystal they found in the center of the room they first entered from, but it was just a little bigger than Heart. In front of it was a book stand with an old book sitting on it. “I think this is it.” Dash said, she approached the book and read the title out loud. “The gem of harmony. Wow, I’ve never heard of this thing.” Dash then opened the book and began to read what it said inside. “The gem of harmony, it was made ages and ages ago as a means to protect the world from any dark and dangerous evils or magic. The gem itself is not capable of doing such a feat, but it is capable of granting a pony a powerful gem that can focus the magical positive energy in one’s heart. When one touches the stone, they will be granted a power gem that will allow one to focus the positive energy of what their heart best represents. As the records show, there was a great threat to the world, six ponies were fortunate enough to be granted these stones of power by the gem of harmony, one of which was instrumental for the six to work, that one was magic. It was the magic stone that was capable of focusing the others into a powerful beam that can banish the darkness. The other five were kindness, laughter, loyalty, generosity, and honesty.” “It was through these six elements that make up a strong bond of friendship that the six ponies were able to banish and destroy the great evil that threatened the world, if other elements were discovered from the gem, it would only increase the potential of such power, so far though, only six elements of harmony exist.” Heart and Dash were impressed. “Wow, that is incredible, but from what it sounds like, it is highly unlikely that I can get an element of harmony from this thing. What do you think Dash?” “You won’t know unless you try.” Rainbow smiled as she answered. “Besides, I’ve got a good feeling about this, just go up there and touch the gem.” Heart smiled. “Like I wasn’t going to? Come on Dash, my parents wanted me to come here and find all this, it’s only right that I try.” “Glad to hear it.” Heart then walked up to the gem and placed a hoof on it. Once again, the two were met with a blinding light from the gem as it glowed, Heart Wing found himself beginning to glow as well, Dash simply watched on as the scene unfolded before her. The glowing died down and Heart and Dash were now able to see again. Heart Wing pulled his hoof away from the gem and looked at Dash. Heart felt something now around his neck. He undid his clasp so he could remove his cloak and get a good look at what it was. With his cloak off, Dash and Heart saw that Heart was now wearing a gold necklace with a white crown shaped gem and a small black heart shaped gem on it, it was shaped just like his cutie mark. “No way, it worked, you’ve got an element of harmony just like me and our friends! This is so sweet!” Rainbow was very happy for Heart Wing. “So what element does it represent?” Heart put his cloak back on and smiled at Dash as he answered. “Trust, it’s the element of trust, don’t ask me how I know, but as the necklace appeared, one simple word came to mind, trust. I think I know why, because even though I was under that curse, I trusted each of you as you were helping me with my problem, and after the curse was lifted, I gained more trust in each of you, I trusted Twilight to be my magic teacher, and, even though it wasn’t in the way I expected, she did help me with that by giving me those magic books so I could learn. I trusted you to be my flying coach and you didn’t let me down. My element of Harmony is trust.” Heart stated with confidence. “So now all that’s left is to get back to Equestria and do what we can to prepare for this big demon that’s supposed to appear in a year.” Rainbow stated. “We’ll definitely have to tell Luna and Celestia about this.” “No argument here, but I would like to stop by the library here in the castle to see what kind of books they have first, there may be a spell there I can use to get us home faster.” “A library?” Rainbow asked in confusion. “How do you know there’s a library here?” “My parents gave me a layout of the castle at the end of that message they left, remember, come on, the sooner we get there and see if there’s a spell to get us home faster, the faster we can get home, maybe even surprise our friends with an early return, they won’t be expecting us for another three months.” Rainbow Dash smirked at that. “That’s a great idea, what are we waiting for, lead the way.” Heart and Rainbow left the vault behind, as they exited, the vault closed up behind them. Heart Wing led the way through another series of halls and a few stairs that went back up, eventually coming to a pair of white wooden doors, Heart used his magic to open the doors and entered the library, it was yet another large room with many many shelves full of books, there was enough room in there for the two to fly around in and get a look at the place from above. “Man, Twilight would faint if she saw all these books.” Rainbow commented. “She’d go nuts with so many books around.” Heart chuckled a little at Rainbow’s comment. “Come on, let’s see if we can find where the magic books section is.” Heart Wing and Rainbow Dash then took to the air and flew about rather quickly so as to minimize the amount of time they would have to search for what they were looking for. It wasn’t long before Dash found the section, she called out to Heart. “HEY HEART WING, I THINK I FOUND IT!” Heart Wing flew to where Dash was, sure enough, the section she was standing before held many magic books on its many shelves. “Nice work Dash, you’ve got a real sharp eye.” Heart nuzzled Dash in gratitude. Dash smiled as she nuzzled back. They then began to search the section for a book that may hold a teleportation spell. Dash’s keen eye soon found a book that might help. “Hey Heart, what about this one? Spells of teleportation, this might help.” Heart smiled again. “Nice work again Rainbow, this is sure to have what I hope to find.” Heart and Dash nuzzled each other again. Heart levitated the book out of Dash’s hooves and floated it in front of him, he opened it up and began scanning the pages. “Let’s see, simple teleporting, phasing through objects, bringing an object out of sight to you, AH HA, here we go, long distance teleportation, this spell will allow the caster to teleport anywhere they have been regardless of how far away the location is. This is perfect, and it looks easy enough.” Rainbow felt a little skeptical. “Are you sure you can do this, it doesn’t sound simple.” “Trust me Rainbow, I wouldn’t try this if I wasn’t one hundred percent sure I could do this.” Rainbow smiled confidently at Heart Wing. “All right then, boy are the others going to be in for a surprise when we show up sooner than they expected.” “They sure are, let’s go somewhere where we have plenty of room so I can cast the spell.” Rainbow Dash then got a thought. “Hold on Heart Wing, before we go, I kind of want to see that place that’s beyond those big doors we first saw when we got here. Is that all right?” “Actually, I kind of forgot about that, I want to see it too. Let’s go.” Heart Wing and Rainbow Dash then left the library with the new book in the bag. Heart and Dash made it back to the first room they came to and made their way back out of the castle to the area where they first appeared. They went up to the large stone doors and Heart Wing used his magic to open it up. The doors led into a short tunnel as they could see the other end of the tunnel a few feet away. They came out the other end of the tunnel to be greeted with a tall stair case made of stone going down. From their point of view, they saw before them a large city of stone and wood, no trees, no grass, just buildings of stone and wood, all utterly destroyed and in ruins. The sun was shining brightly, but the place looked like it was in the middle of the desert. Heart Wing was stunned. “Oh man, look at this place, its completely destroyed.” “I’ll say, your folks weren’t kidding when they said the kingdom was ruined, uh…..I mean.” Rainbow Dash soon realized that she made a mistake with her statement, she was afraid that Heart would get upset at seeing the kingdom he would’ve had in ruins like this. “It’s fine Rainbow, I don’t know what this place was like when my parents ruled it. I’ll probably never know, but it doesn’t matter, because I have friends, and most of all, I have the love of a great mare.” Heart Wing smiled at Dash as he said this. Dash smiled back. “Come on, I’ll cast that spell and we can finally get back home.” Dash smiled at Heart Wing, they headed back through the tunnel back to the area they arrived in and prepared for the teleport. The girls will be very surprised to see them so soon, and to learn that Heart Wing and Rainbow Dash are a couple. Plus all that other stuff they found out in the castle.