//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Mining For Generosity // Story: Equestria Quest // by Iwano Imagination //------------------------------// This was my first time making somepony mad at me for a “hollow reason”, besides Luna. I packed up with my saddlebag and left Sweet Apple Acres immediately. I was upset too that my Dissonance took over me while I was asleep. How did it control me that easily? I shook my head of all the questions and replaced them with plans—plans of controlling myself of this stupid Dissonance. Why should I be so negative? Before I’d entered Equestria, I’d known that my Forbidden within me will be identified in this world as Dissonance. My Forbidden were seven, while my Dissonance were six—the same number as the Elements of Harmony, except they were the negative opposite of them. Illusion, Malevolence, Deceitfulness, Faithlessness, Greed and Sadness were the exact opposite of Magic, Kindness, Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity and Laughter, respectively. The origins of my Negativity happened a long time ago—five years ago. But that was another story. Right now, I was walking through Ponyville on the way to the Carousel Boutique for Rarity. I hoped she would accept me to sleep in the boutique for tonight. According to my watch it was 8:26 AM. The sun was about to rise up in the horizon. I knew Celestia was doing that—she was the Princess of the Day/Sun, after all. I was thinking if Princess Celestia might find out that my Dissonance was slipping from my chained pocket, causing a chaos that I would never fix. I used my magic again to make a block of ice appear… and it worked this time. Maybe my magic won’t work when somepony was mad at me for “letting” it out. It was weird, but serious. I left the block of ice where it was. Snips and Snails passed by, noticed the block of ice and started licking it. But got their tongues stuck after a few licks. That cheered me up a bit. “That’s terrible!” Rarity exclaimed. She and I were having tea on a fancy table and seating down on fancy chairs inside the Carousel Boutique. “I never knew your Dissonance was that, well, bad.” I told her everything that has happened in Sweet Apple Acre’s orchard. Pouring that story out made me feel better. The Carousel Boutique, in which Rarity makes dresses for customers and friends, also doubled as her home. Rarity did most of her designing in the main workroom on the ground floor of the building. The room was stocked with materials and supplies such as mirrors, dress form mannequins, and movable screens. In the upper floor was Rarity´s bedroom. “I know right?” I said with a bit of feminism, just to feel a little bit friendly to a dramatic pony like Rarity. I took a sip of my tea from my cup—lotus? “That’s why I need you girls to help me. I need you all to influence me with goodness and all your Harmony.” Rarity seemed to be really concerned for me. “Why didn’t you tell that to us when were in Canterlot? Well, Princess Celestia did tell us that.” I was prepared for that question. “If I just simply say that to you mares, all of you won’t take me seriously. So I have to cloud my true motives and identity with my messages and riddles.” “Which were proven to be true?” “Yes.” “Well...” She sipped her tea. “You can stay in my boutique as long as you want—” Her expression then became serious for a minute. “But do not—and I mean do not—mess up my work.” She didn’t have to tell me that since she was an intricate fashion designer and a skillful seamstress. Her boutique’s full of pony manikins and rolled up clothing. One mannequin from my far right was dressed up in pure red, rose themed clothing. Its details are accurate from the gown to its collar—the whole thing was embroidered with roses. Its rims were decorated with small rubies. As a Pokémon Trainer in the Pokémon World who admires Grass-types, I immediately liked it. Nature was awesome. “I see you admired my latest dress.” Rarity noticed me staring at the rose dress. “You know? I always named my dresses, but I never thought of a name yet for that yet,” “What about Scarlet Streak Bloom?” I suggested. Rarity put her hoof on her chin in thought for a minute. “Hmm… That would be a nice name. But I’ll think about it.” She sipped all of her tea and stood up from her chair. “I’ll be going outside Ponyville with Spike and collect more gems for my next dress for awhile. You just behave yourself here—” “Can I come with you, too?” I asked. “I can become easily bored in mere seconds,” “Sure! You can come!” Going out with a small dragon pulling a cart for carrying gems and a fashion pony outside Ponyville didn’t help me clear my mind of what Applejack might think about me back in the orchard. I just looked down on the ground while walking with the two, feeling depressed of the look Applejack gave me. I brought my saddlebag with me, by the way—I’d never go anywhere in Equestria without it, except in some occasions, though. “Um, Iwano, are you okay?” Spike asked. I snapped out. “Uh, yes! I’m feeling okay, Spike. Thank you for asking,” I hesitated. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked again. He and Rarity seemed to have no animosity towards me, unlike Twilight and Applejack. I was quite glad. “I’ve been noticing that you’ve been really depressed even fetching me from the library afterwards. Why looking glum?” “Applejack gotten mad at Iwano for eating the whole orchard’s apples last night,” Rarity explained for me. “So he decided to run away and never to show his face to Applejack.” Hearing that made me a little depressed again. “The WHOLE orchard’s apples last night? In ONE night???” he said in amazement and in doubt. My stomach rumbled and I felt that I was going to burp. Oh, I hadn’t burped yet. I then abruptly gave out a belch as loud as forty tubas combined! The ground rumbled and my two friends were in shock. In Ponyville, the citizens were terrified of the belch and panicked shortly. I believed my belch lasted for twelve seconds. When I stopped, my two friends were agape to me. “Uh, excuse me?” I said. After walking a few more yards, we stopped by a barren land of grey soil with bedrocks in its area—this reminds me of that episode whereas the Diamond Dogs kidnapped Rarity into becoming their “gem detector”. I really was disgusted of that episode! But Spike did save the day, though I believe. I seemed to get an uneasy feeling that this place was exactly where those Diamond Dogs kidnapped Rarity. I suddenly got worried. “Excuse me, Rarity?” I anxiously asked. “Are you sure this place is safe? I mean, the Diamond Dogs might come out of nowhere and—” “Kidnap me again? No they won’t,” she finished and answered my question. My eyes widened. “How’d you know that I’m going to ask that and how sure are you?” “I just know darling and I can just act like a lady if I had to. Now, would you two mind helping me find some gems?” “I’ll be humble to—” “I’ll do anything for my Rarity!” Spike interrupted me and began bowing down to her, which made Rarity knit her eyebrows—lover dragon. I just rolled my eyes. “Hey, Rarity,” I said. “I can also use my magic to find gems.” “Well, that would be very helpful!” And then we began. I walked around the area for gems. Every now and then, my horn would blink gold yellow—the color of my magic aura. This indicated that a gem was beneath me. Unlike Rarity scanning for gems and Spike digging for her, I would be doing both. We’d been going on for an hour or so now. I didn’t even check my watch. So far I found ten topazes, fifteen rubies, eleven emeralds (I was keeping one in my saddlebag, which made it ten now), fifty-five diamonds, eight amethysts, nineteen sapphires, seven peridots and twelve onyxes. I still need more! I really want to please the beautiful Rarity—wait a minute! Dang it, Iwano, I thought to myself, don’t you dare fall in love with her! Besides, Spike might get jealous. I doubted that dragon was going to turn me into ashes, though. I saw Spike with a chuck load of diamonds on his arms, which made him wobble and unbalanced him a bit awkwardly to the cart. I suddenly felt like something was literally biting my heart. Was I jealous? And I thought I knew who that jealousy was inside me—Wolfredoom, my Forbidden of Envy. Dude don’t you dare, I told him inside my thoughts. Look, I believe Giganaut was the one who forced my Greed into eating the apples in the orchard. So, tell him he’s in trouble and don’t you dare influence me, even if I felt like it. After that, I heard no response. That was good, but was Giganaut listening? I then went back to gem-finding. I walked around the area again. When I was walking a few paces away from the duo, my horn began to glow brighter—a big gem probably nearby? I bowed down a little near the ground and started walking in random directions to find that strong signal. To me, I look awkwardly like a metal detector. Spike found it weird but Rarity was glad for me to help, even if it means being all weird. A thought hit me. If I can’t find that gem that’s been giving my horn a very bright glow, maybe I can use my magic. “Rarity! Spike!” I called out to them and they stopped. Spike was about to eat a bulky sapphire behind Rarity, but I didn’t told her. “Check this out!” I closed my eyes and began using my magic in my whole surroundings for any gems. In my Aura Sight, I can see many more gems underneath us—a lot! They became visible in my vision. After locating all of the gems, I used my imagination…I opened my eyes and the ground began to shook. “Not again.” Spike held on to his sapphire. “What in pony blazes are you doing, Iwano?” Rarity anxiously asked, but I ignored her. I was motionless and exerting my powers into all the gems underground. The shaking stopped and there was silence. Rarity and Spike looked around for anything unusual to happen. “Okay, Iwano,” Spike said with a grin. “Joke’s over. Let’s just get back to—” A diamond shot out of the ground in front of Spike which made him about to trip into his behind. Then a topaz shot out behind Spike and hit him, though it stopped him from falling down and hurt him a bit. Later, multiple gems shot out of the ground like a gunshot. It took a few minutes for all the gems to completely be in midair—all the gems around us underground were all gone and all of them were in midair. Rarity stared at the gems above her. They were like multiple colored stars sparkling by the sunlight, making a constellation of iridescence. Spike was fascinated not just because he was in gem heaven but the sight was beautiful as well, though he was drooling. Iridescence. I closed my eyes again and placed all the gems near the cart, because it won’t take the weight of five hundred and seventy-four gems—I counted them with my Aura. I opened my eyes and back to normal. It was easy to do all of this if you’re a Leader of an imaginary world and have experiences with magic and Aura. Using my magic to do that didn’t even break me a sweat! I was awesome! “That was fantastic, Iwano!” Rarity said as she and Spike ran to me. “I never knew you are very talented with your magic!” “Yeah, he’s even more talented than Twilight,” Spike added. I blushed, but was I really more talented than Twilight? “Uh, let me make more carts for these gems,” I said. “Make more carts?” Spike repeated in question. “How can you—oh…” It looked like he read my clever expression. “What is it, Spike?” Rarity asked. “You’ll see.” He pointed at me as I closed my eyes again. I used my magic again effortlessly and conjured, out of nowhere, ten more carts. After that, I levitated all the gems into the carts. Spike and Rarity were even more awed of how I just simply used my magic than my Enter with Colors performance. I now opened my eyes. “You are the most helpful, most talented and most creative alicorn I’ve ever met!” Rarity complimented, her eyes sparkling at me. I frowned. “What about Twilight? Isn’t she the most talented alicorn to you?” “Well, what I mean is that both you and Twilight are my most talented friends,” she rephrased. My heart was in a marathon around the borders of Equestria—my heart was pounding! Did she just say “friends”? All I can do is give a big smile and blushed a lot. I felt a strong happiness. I think I was in love with her… But I already placed my heart on just one pony. Oh Glob, not again! “Are you going to even pull these carts?” Spike asked enthusiastically. I see he wants me to do much more. “Of course, Spike,” I answered. “Just watch how the king of Imaginundia can do!” I flew up and conjure two long ropes that circled around me. Then, the ropes attached themselves into all the cart’s handles together—the carts were now instantly aligned like a train with the ropes. I flew down between the first cart’s handles and used my magic again to conjure reins attached to my back for me to pull the carts. The first cart instantly turned into the front of a carriage’s seat—for Rarity and Spike to sit on. I looked at Rarity and Spike. I bowed down. “This is all I can do to help, Rarity.” “You’ve done more than that, Iwano. You impressed me!”