//------------------------------// // Forced Reconciliation // Story: Diamond Dice // by Write Holiday //------------------------------// "Princess." Shining Armor walks into the room, and bows. "Shining, we need to talk about that." "What do you mean?" "You are my brother, I do not want you calling me princess, nor do I want you to bow every time you see me. In fact I don't want anyone to do that." "Listen, you can't have no one do that, you're the ruler, you're going to get both praise and hate. As for me, I'm not going to give myself special privileges. You may differ, and you may be the princess, but my duty is to respect and defend you. I will not have that compromised." Twilight looks at him, stunned. "As I was saying, princess, you have company." He walks to the side and her five closest friends walk in. "Hi Twilight." They say in unison. "Oh, hey girls." "How ya' been sugar cube?" Applejack asks, looking around. "Fine, thanks. Why are you all here?" "Well, we heard about the Princess, and we figured that you'd be the new one seeing as though Princess Luna is busy for the next year or so." Fluttershy says, staring at the board. "How did you all know that she was busy?" Applejack hands her the paper that was passed out through all of Equestria. "Wow. So everypony knows now." "Um, excuse me but what is that?" Fluttershy asks, pointing to the board. Rainbow looks over and sees the turtle piece and the fallen veterinarian. She begins to tear up and walks out of the castle. "That, that's a chess board." "But, who do you play chess with?" "Well, I uh, hey, where's Rainbow Dash?" "Darling, you didn't hear. Tank passed." Rarity says. Twilight freezes. She looks back at the board and runs over. The pieces are still the turtles and veterinarians. "I killed him." She whispers to herself. "What was that?" Applejack asks, walking behind her. "I killed Tank." there is a loud thump and a streak of colors. Rainbow stands over Twilight, tears in her eyes. "What do you mean?! How, how could you have killed him? He had a heart attack, it was his time." Rainbow sits next to Twilight, allowing her to get back up. "What do you mean?" "Well, this chess board decides what happens with, everything. I roll those dice below it on top of it and the pieces will transform and move. At the end, what ever the outcome is, it happens in real life." Rainbow stares at her, her eyes dry. Twilight begins to back up. "Rainbow, I swear, I never meant to hurt him. What happens depends on the numbers, Celestia told me that this is the way to rule. I didn't know that this would happen." "Sugar cube, she-" "You killed tank!?" Rainbow stands up quickly, resisting the urge to fly at Twilight. "Rainbow, I-" "Why would you do this!? What did he ever do to you, huh!? All those great times we had, all those days we helped eachother and this is how you choose to rule? I've done nothing but be a good friend and the first thing you do as Princess is kill my friend?" "Rainbow, you have to understand, it's all fate. I don't choose what happens, it's all luck." "Then keep your luck out of my life!" Rainbow flies out of the castle. "I... I didn't, please." Twilight looks at the others. "You all understand, right?" "Twilight, I think we need to leave. We'll be back... eventually." Applejack leads them out of the castle. Rarity and pinkie follow closely behind, but Fluttershy looks back. "Fluttershy, please." She looks down, then follows the others. Twilight stands there, thinking about everything that just happened. Did she just loose Rainbow's friendship? Had the rest decided to give up on her? She walks over to the chess board. She is ready to just kick it and destroy it, get rid of it. However, seeing as though she most likely just lost her friends, she really can't do much more damage. She picks the dice up, ands throws them on the board. 20. The pices begin to transform and move. "No, oh no, please, not this. Sh-Shinning Armor! Get the guards ready!" ... "I can't believe she killed him." "Rainbow, ya' got to forget about her. She isn't worth it." "But I never thought that she would kill something I love." They walk into a hotel in Canterlot, and each have their own rooms. They all say good night and head into their rooms. Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Applejack's are next to each other on one side, and Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are on the other side. Fluttershy hears Rainbow crying in the room next to her. It breaks her heart, she knows what she is going through. She decides to try and make her feel better, so she walks in. She stops at the doorway, and opens it. Her heart drops, and she shakes. "R-Rainbow?" She walks over, and panics. "HELP!" The door handle shakes, but doesn't open. "Fluttershy, leave." Rainbow weakly says. Fluttershy looks at her, then the door. She can't see the door anymore, it's just a black mass of shade. She backs against the wall, staring into the abyss. "leave." She looks over, Rainbow is sitting up with colors in a liquid form flowing from the bed. She is grey except for her Rose eyes. Fluttershy looks at herself in the reflection of the window, she looks just like Rainbow. "You're not welcomed." She looks back at the bed which is now a giant pawn piece. "We are all just pawns of Princess Sparkle."Nightmare Moon flies from the roof and kicks the pawn. The piece falls forward, and everything goes black. "Fluttershy!" Applejack kicks the bed, forcing Fluttershy to wake up. She looks around the room, scared. "Fluttershy, darling, you look awful, what happened?" Rarity asks. Rainbow Dash walks in, rubbing her eyes. "What are you guys-" She is interrupted by Fluttershy flying at her, hugging her. "Rainbow, it was you, you're the pawn." She begins crying into Rainbow's coat. "Moon. The Moon is here, you have to run. Go, please." Rainbow looks at the others, and nods towards the door. The three friends walk out, and close the door. Rainbow studies them for a second, then asks, "Ok, what's going on?" "We, well, we have no idea. She started screaming in her room and we could hear glass breaking, so we walked in and everything happened." "So you're telling me that she is acting like this because of a bad dream? She's had bad dreams before but never to the point of saying nonsense and crying. A pawn? What does that even mean?" Rainbow slowly opens the door and peaks in. Fluttershy is crying on her bed, hugging a pillow and lying down. "It's ok, it's a dream. Don't worry angle, Fluttershy will protect you. I'm here, we'll be ok. Twilight doesn't mean it, it's all fate. It's ok." Rainbow closes the door. "Alright, so Fluttershy has gone mad, I've been targeted by the moon, you two are tired and need rest, and Pinkie is... where's Pinkie?" They look around in the hall, and find her door. Rainbow opens the door and is greeted by a red-eyed hyper pink pony. "Hi Dash I love this place this place is great I found some sugar in the corner and I had all of it it wasn't too much but it was still-" "Pinkie! Have you gotten any sleep?" "I did but it was only for ten minutes and it was kind of boring to sleep and-" "Did you have any nightmares?" "Well I had a dream where the world was made of cake and everyone kept saying 'the cake is a lieeeeeee' but I didn't care and I kept eating it and then Nightmare Moon gave me thousands of pounds of cupcakes and she told me to ask you for help to make them and-" "Ok, I'll leave now, thanks." "Oh but I didn't tell you the best part where-" Rainbow closes the door and walks back to the others. The clock on the wall says it is midnight, but Rainbow knows she can't sleep. "Ok, I have to go and see Twilguht. You two get some sleep." "Alright RD, night." "Good night Rainbow Dash." Rarity and Applejack head back into their rooms. Rainbow slowly enters Fluttershy's room. "Angle, I didn't mean it. Please forgive me, please, I just wanted to play with you, please forgive me." "Fluttershy?" Fluttershy looks at Rainbow, her eyes red from crying so much. The closer Rainbow gets, the more Fluttershy shakes. "Don't hurt me, please!" "Fluttershy, it's me, Rainbow Dash." "S-she died, R-Rainbow Dash d-died, you're not her. No one is her, she's dead. I didn't mean it! She had it coming to her! And Angel, he, he told me to!" "Just, try and sleep. Goodnight." "Sleep? What is sleep anymore?" Rainbow walks out of the room, closing the door loudly, hoping to snap her out of it. She can still hear the rambling, it's useless. She sighs deeply, and walks to the castle to meet up with Twilight.