//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: Runeplate: Gemstone Hunter 
// by FaustiusRune 
//------------------------------//

	Slowly opening her eyes, she finds herself in darkness. Ugh... Where... where am I? She tried to lift herself up but the sudden headache and muscle pains bound her to the ground she's lying on. Sore throat keeps her from speaking, probably from few ounce of liquor and too much talks with everypony she have enjoyed with at the dome. Nauseous, blurry visions, and a feeling of she needs to hurl; she turn her head around to know where she is exactly, but unable to tell if she's still in the dome, Canterlot or Ponyville. She close her eyes, resting to regain few strength. In her pitch black view, she feels her surroundings with her hooves, the area is sparkling in her mind. She lightly tapped her ground with a hoof, a sudden circular wave spreads from it. The wave echoed throughout the place. It wasn't clear for her, she tapped it again. She gains a black and white vision of the place throughout the repeated tapping, gaining a colorless but clearer view. Observing her closed-eyed vision, she sees two ponies. She can tell one of them is Runeplate.

She's waking up. whispers by the mare. Runeplate slowly walks toward her, lift her head and forces her to drink a tonic. It was bitter, but the vision is barely clearing up. She's regaining few strength from it, enough to lift herself without help. Slowly regaining a clearer view of her surroundings, she find herself in a crystallized place with only a lamp lighting the area.

"Quite a party you enjoyed last night, huh. Forget about that now. Let's start with the tutorial, shall we? Question: Where do you think you are?"
"Uh... What?" massaging her pulsing headache away on her forehead.
"Asking again, where  do you think you are?"
"I-I can't think straight right now..." Rarity silently mumbled.
"A crystal mine, right under the castle. It used to be home of greedy unicorns who dug all these tunnels to find a treasure in vain."
"Rune, I think you need to give her more rest."
Ignoring the other mare's request "Question Two: Why are you here?"
"Rune! Give her a rest, will you?"
"There is no time. I'm behind schedule."
"Don't rush everything. Those gems won't be going anywhere." he suddenly looks at her dead in the eyes. "The remedy will cure her hangover in no time." He snorted and walked away. Leaving the mare and Rarity alone in the rough and rocky cave. "I'm really sorry about his actions lately. The treasure does await, but he can't."

"Water..." Rarity barely spoke that single word due to her sore throat, but the mare understands her need. She reached for a jar filled of it, smeared a pinch of dust on the mouth piece and slowly placed on Rarity's mouth.
"Drink this nice and slow. I've put a curing powder for your sorethroat. Where are my manners, I'm Sand Nitens."

After taking the last drop for the water jar, she gasps for air and questions Sand about him. "Why is he doing this to me?"
"We're preparing you for something. It won't be long but you are now having a contract with him."
"Contract?" she suddenly held Sand on her shoulder, asking for sympathy "Whatever it is, no... You must get me out of here. I beg of you." but Sand slowly put her hooves down and closed her own eyes showing that she can't do anything.
"I'm sorry, I can't do anything about that." she stood up and walked away, but before she disappear from Rarity's sight "Rest for now. I'll brew up more of that remedy in order for you to regain full body strength."

Following the mare's advice, she lied down on the rocky ground she claimed as bed.

Seemed few hours have passed by her sleep. She wakes up, lift herself up and tried to believe that she was dreaming. Rubbing few dust from her sleepy eyes, she looked around. No, it wasn't a dream. The crystal stalagmites and stalactites are the same, only crisper and clearer than last time. She can't seem to find the two ponies who held her down in the cave, but she hears voices through the tunnels. A dim light reflected from somewhere is her only guide in the darkness. Slowly walking around, afraid of tipping from the half-cured nausea, she searches for her way out. She followed the light around the networks, only to return in circles, perhaps several dead-ends. Left and right in the tunnels, there seems no way out. Few moments of walking lost around the tunnel networks, the light that guides her around gets brighter; seeing another cave opening from afar, she takes a peek inside.



She sees the two ponies, along with something dark in color and glowing with runes. A small rocky figure is smoothing the floor flat by pounding and scratching; while Runeplate's carving few runes around the room with the beam of light from his horn; On the other side of the room, Sand Nitens is straightening few scrolls and seemingly reviewing few spells.

Sand sighs and re-rolls the scroll, takes another one and reads, but Runeplate's reason of why is he doing this to the innocent unicorn mare is bugging her concentration over the scrolls' spells. "Nice 'making up' for your mistake. You probably got her traumatized. For all we know, she's digging out right now."

"She won't escape. I made this place a labyrinth maze. Walls will silently grow to give unauthorized entries a way back to the entrance."

After a moment of scroll reading, she turns her head to Runeplate through her shoulder, and sees him talking to the golem in an unknown language. Noticing the glare from her, he looked back at her "She's here." he the looked on the cave opening "Rarity, you seemed fully recurperated. Come in, I'll tell you all you need to know."

Slowly emerging from the shadow, mane and coat are dusty and her body is tired from seemingly endless walking, Rarity posed back to her lady-like gesture, trotting in and taking a seat the golem made for her. "Glad that you came to your senses, assuming if you'd make any right now."

He glared at her with serious eyes, "No time must be wasted, Rarity. If you want to get out of my hold, sit down there and listen to me."

He raised a hoof to Sand Nitens, signalling her to prepare something as he's about to start. "Prepare for a long tutorial. Prepare yourself for lessons of your lifetime. Listen very carefully since I won't repeat anything." Sitting beside the rocky figure, Rarity felt that she's watching the past showmare's boastful performance again back in Ponyville few months ago.



"I assume you stopped studying magic after graduating from Ponyville High and never bothered learning higher levels. Pursued your dreams in fashion, make a name to the nobles, big timers, and royalties of Equestria." he made a big step closer to Rarity, "Your passion for fashion consists of jewels and precious stones, am I right?" She nods. "Now, another lesson. Mana." Mana is theorized as an energy within one's body; living, undead and even lifeless like my golem. It's a phenominal energy that supports magic-- magic of all ponies and of all races. Even Sand Nitens, an earth pony from the east desert, who's able to manipulate the mana within her body. Sadly, there are limits. Only gifted earth ponies or pegasi can use mana but only within the range of their specialty, such as Sand cannot use any basic level like short-distance teleportation... but, she's able to use top-level dust manipulations and illusion with powders easily..." Sand scoffed, taking it as an insult.

"...but unicorns and alicorns can learn basic magic easily. Telekinesis, light telepathy, short-distant blink, lesser magic missiles, the list can go on. But, what sets our talents in magic from anypony is the top-tier specialization within ourselves. Fancypants can summon dark entities like his butler, Slendermane. Starswirl the Bearded can travel from place to place through pausing time, and he's also a pioneer in chronomagic. The two princesses can move such large bodies of the cosmos. For all we know Celestia can send the sun down to burn everything, or Luna make the stars rain down and devastate as she please. I know they won't do that, I'm just implying the possibilities."

He pointed his hoof to Rarity "Unicorns with such abilities, just like you. Did you know there's more in your magic than what you knew? You can actually multiply the micro-crystals of any gems, in exponetial speed but with limited quantity. You can make a near-exact duplicate of any gem you like, just like a spell in superior alchemy... Remember that drill you used against me? I took it back to my suite to study on, after we cleaned up your shop. It's all composed of common and rare gems from your shop, and the kind of duplicates that can fool an average appraiser. Fascinating, really, and you're not utilizing that ability at all... and no, I'm not teaching you how to decieve, I'm teaching you that there's more to know about your ability."

"This is why I don't want to learn more kind of magic. I don't need such power. I'm a fashionista, for Photo Finish's sake, not a magical barbarian. I also do not want to decieve my clients with false items on their dresses neither."

He walks few steps toward Rarity."I-I just..." he closes his eyes, slightly snarls, and walks away from her.

He looks at her, "Stand up from your seat." He points her to an engraved magic circle in the middle of the cave. "Stay there." He lit his horn and stamped a rune down from his hoof. A stalagmite consisting of rocks and crystals creeped up between them. Runeplate puts down a gem familiar to both of them.

"Is that the Warlock's Bloodstone?"

"Yes."

Gazing on the stone, she feels an uncomfortable feeling that something is not right. "Why did you bring it he--" gasping from sudden suspected intention by the gray stallion "You wouldn't?!"

Runeplate stamped another rune after her mumble, and before she can react to it, four small blocks of rock below Rarity locked her hooves in place. She tried to struggle out of the locks but the rocks are bound solid to the ground.

"I thought you're just a marshmallow with fanaticism in fashion but you're smart, too. The myth is true. I transferred the warlock's soul into another soulstone and offered it as a dinner to the dragon in Simaren Square. It's where boats and airships which tried to cross the perimeter, without a trace, never returned." he chuckled shortly, "It's amusing, really. I made it out alive. They should rename it the 'Sea Dragon's Nest' since all those boats and ships were just destroyed by the nesting dragon there." he laughed short after again, "It's where I took the Deep Sea Emerald, too."

He positioned himself on smaller circle, in front of the stalagmite holding the bloodstone, and Rarity. He took a deep breathe and shouted a commanding call for his assistant. "Sand... Where's the manequinn?" He walks out of the cave room.



"Manequinn?" whispers to herself. The word stiffens her body, and of fear of death storms in her mind. What if the tranfer fails? What if he may not be able to return my soul back to my beautiful body? Will I be his slave forever? What if... *gasp* ...the manequinn is ugly!? Recollecting herself from a dreaded thought, she tries to struggle again her way out. Snapping few spikes from the stalagmite, she needles down few shards, trying to at least chip the stone locks to give her hope of escaping. All but bounced here and away, and few slight cut her legs.

"Rarity, your new body-- Huh?" Seeing the wounding struggle of the white mare, he rushed and shouted to Rarity. "Rarity! Stop it! Don't hurt yourself."

Alerted by his voice and approach, she dropped all the levitated spikes away. "Sorry... I... I just want to go. I don't want to die." but her plead were only exchanged by a hard slap to her cheek.

"Do you know what you're doing!? You may kill yourself through bleeding; you may also compromise my hideout with the smell of your blood. I don't want any blood nor wound in this place!" She has never seen such anger from a pony before. His voice echoed every word throughout the tunnels. The volume of his rage strucks fear, even Sand Nitens haven't speak for her in that moment. He snorted in rage, then trots away from her. He breathes heavily after all the shouts to the scared mare. She wanted to cry, but her mind tells her not to, that it may only induce more anger to Runeplate. "Sand. Prepare the manequinn on that circle. Let's get this over with once I regain my concentration. Heal her while I'm gone." With a dim glow from his horn, he unlocks the stones holding Rarity's hooves. Rarity falls tired and racing her breathing for air.

He stopped for a moment, looking back to Rarity. "If you want to return to a bloodless corpse by the time we return here," finally walking out of the room, "...please, do tell after the ritual. I'll slit your neck myself."




Silence throughout the room, Sand takes a peek on the tunnels to see if he's gone with the shadows. She sighed and approached Rarity. She find her weeping on the ground. Her sympathy for the sad pony made her drop few tears. She pulled Rarity up and gave her a hug, wishing this could calm her down. "I'm sorry. He always lose himself when he gets angry or when something... well, someone he cares about get hurt."
"He cares... about me?"

She releases her hug and wept a tear to Rarity's eye. Brushed her mane to its usual side "Actually, yes." the generous mare paused for a moment and looked at her eyes. "I'll tell you a little secret. We're tomb raiders. We find the rarest of all gems just like the six gems he gave you. But the remaining six are the most difficult, even his item-finder spell didn't give him clues of the whereabouts." She reaches a nearby bag full of pouches, plants and herbs. "He gets frustrated over the set that he brought mercernaries on his missions. Most of them died in the process of finding the first half of the set. One group had betrayed him and took a rare soulstone in attempt to sell it for themselves." She takes a mortar and pestle, poured few powders and herbs on the bowl. "That event had ended my life." She starts pounding the bowl's content. "Well... only my body." she shrugs like it was nothing and continued mixing.

Rarity lays her back on a wall near Sand. "How are you still living?"

She smiled at her, "I'm fused to this manequinn." she took a jar of water and poured on the bowl of mixture. Rarity looked at her, trying to believe what she said. She put down the bowl and looks back at her. "Here, I'll show you but this might be a scary reveal. Promise me, don't shout, don't get too startled. You don't want Mister Angryhooves comes back with a flaming mane, do you?" followed by a silent chuckle. Rarity smiles back, takes a deep breath and nods.



She opened up her chest's skin: no blood, no guts, nothing can be seen but a boulder shaped like a chest with a hole in the center, supposedly where the heart should be. The hole is surrounded by small faintly glowing rune letters, followed by few more letters on the four sides of her chest. Within the hole, a red orb pulses a bright glow surrounded by more runes on its surface. Rarity's eyes widens and sparkles in amazement. Instead of fearing the sight of flesh, she feels fascination to the beauty of the orb. She grins a wide one, first time in Sand's point of view. Not what Sand had expected after opening herself to her... literally.

"It's beautiful. It's glowing like a newborn baby Ifrit. Calm, yet so full of life. So... lovely."

She closes the skin back and rubs it clean. "That stolen soulstone saved me, along with his rune expertise. It was unethical to transfer a soul to an inanimate object, they say-- but thanks to him, I'm still alive." She grabs the bowl up and reaches it to Rarity. "Drink this. It will instantly heal your wounds. It will leave scars but this will have to do."

Rarity took a deep breath, hoping for a better taste than the last medicine. She made one gulp of the potion, same bitterness with a pinch of itchiness on the throat. She coughs the scratching sensation, and sticks her tongue out in disgust. Sand Nitens finds it amusing, otherwise, and laughs out loud. Rarity chuckles slightly back.

Sand calms herself with a deep breath and put a hoof on Rarity's cheek. "His actions can be harsh most of the time, but believe me: He doesn't want you to get hurt."
"I believe you." likewise, putting her hoof on Sand's hoof.

She stands up and rubs herself off of dirt and starts trotting outside. "Alright, time to check Runeplate. See if he calmed himself down. You rest your body and mind for the transfer."



Those words about believing in Runeplate gave her confidence and relief with hope. Now, she feels determined to help Runeplate, only if he agrees to her planned proposal.






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