//------------------------------// // A lesson in conspiracy // Story: Darkrim And The Elements Of Harmony // by Lunaexcelsior //------------------------------// Darkrim awoke with a start, sweat beads coating his forehead. He gasped as he looked around the room, fearing that he might still be dreaming. However, the diamond walls reassured him that he was awake. “Man, I have to stop taking afternoon naps,” Darkrim thought to himself as his breathing slowed down. Just as he calmed down, Darkrim heard a knock on his door. He sprung up from the bed, pointing his horn at the door, only to be greeted by a small purple dragon, holding his claws in the air. “Dude, it’s just me,” Spike said in fear. As he heard Spike’s voice, Darkrim straightened up and blushed. “My apology, little drake,” Darkrim said awkwardly “You just caught me at a bad time.” “I can see that,” Spike said as he lowered his claws “Anyway, Twilight wanted me to tell you that she is ready for your first lesson in magic. So, when you’re ready, we’ll leave.” “Let me just put on a few things and we’ll go,” Darkrim said as Spike rolled his eyes. The prince took out his horseshoes and pendant and put them on. “Now I’m ready,” Darkrim breathed in deeply. “What about the cape?” Spike asked, pšointing at the starry night cape in the corner of the room. “Let’s just say that, from my experience, capes and magic don’t really go hoof in hoof,” Darkrim said and shook his head from a sudden memory of his earlier days. “Tell that to Trixie,” Spike mumbled under his breath. “Whom?” Darkrim asked. “Not important,” Spike waved it off, surprised he had heard him “Come on. It’s best we don’t leave Twilight waiting.” “Lead the way, my dragon friend,” Darkrim said as he let Spike take the lead. Once they exited the castle, Darkrim noticed how much of an eyesore he was in this world. Everypony seemed so vibrant and colorful and naught one had a flaming mane like his. In fact, as he walked by, Darkrim noticed that many ponies looked at him strangely. His appearance was more than unusual and his flames took quite a few ponies by surprise. As they walked through the streets one purple pony with a berry cutie mark peeked through a window. She breathed in the fresh air and watch onto the sunny street below. Among the crowd of similar ponies her eyes fixated on a particularly strange dark coated stallion. She rubbed her eyes, before confirming that she was in fact, seeing a fiery maned unicorn. Darkrim noticed her staring and waved hello to her. She slammed the windows shut and retreated back into her house as quickly as she could “That’s it Berry. No more poison joke juice before bedtime for you,” she mumbled to herself. “They sure know how to make a stallion feel welcomed,” Darkrim sighed. “Don’t feel too bad,” Spike waved it off “For the longest time they thought that a zebra was a filly munching witch. Once they see you with the princess, they’ll change their tune.” “As you say,” Darkrim replied and shrugged. The duo walked for a short time, before arriving at an apple farm. Darkrim looked puzzled. Before he could utter a single word, Darkrim noticed an orange mare approaching them. “Howdy there, your highness,” Applejack greeted Darkrim with a firm hoofshake “How y’all doin’?”. “Well, all things considered, I’m not too bad,” Darkrim laughed awkwardly “Say, have you seen Twilight?” “Sure thing! C’mon, I’ll talk y’all to ‘er.” Applejack said and led them through the orchard. As they walked, Darkrim looked around. There were all sorts of apples surrounding him. Green apples, red apples, yellow apples, and even some he couldn’t recognize. “You guys sure love your apples,” Darkrim joked. “Of course!” Applejack responded proudly “To us apples aren’t only for eatin’, but they’re a way of life. Heck, we’re even named after them.” Darkrim snickered. Applejack raised an eyebrow at him. “Sorry, I just never heard of a such strange name,” Darkrim let out a laugh escape. “Said the pot to the kettle,” Applejack responded smugly. Darkrim’s laughter instantly disappeared. “Touche,” he responded and nodded his head. As they continued their walk, a clearing came into their view. Darkrim could clearly see poles with apples and pumpkins stacked on them. Weird contraptions made to look like various enemies, all built out of wood and held together by ropes, were scattered all around this clearing. In the middle of this chaos, stood the purple alicorn, surrounded by study papers and designs for these contraptions. Twilight was working overtime, just to make everything perfect. She barely even noticed Darkrim, Applejack and Spike coming up from behind her. “Heya Twilight,” Applejack yelled, causing the purple alicorn to jump up a bit “Yer, um, student is here.” Applejack said confusedly. “Well, I wasn’t expecting you for another ten minutes, prince,” Twilight said and watched over her papers “but seeing as I am almost done we can begin our lesson.” “Sounds good to me,” Darkrim said and rubbed his hooves eagerly. “Great! Applejack, will you be watching us?” Twilight. “Nah, Ah have to help Big Mac with the applebucking. Yall have a nice study session,” Applejack said and waved at her friends. “She seems nice,” Darkrim said to Twilight. “Yeah, Applejack’s a real sweetheart,” Twuilight laughed awkwardly as she prepared some oranges. Darkrim shone his horn eagerly. “So what’s our first spell? Offensive? Defensive?” he asked as a glint of excitement blasted into life in his eye. Even his flames became to flicker quicker. “Actually, neither,” twilight responded “After doing a thorough analysis, based on what princess Luna told me, I thought it would be for the best that we start with this spell and then work from there,” Twilight said and handed Darkrim a piece of paper. As he read over the parchment, Darkrim’s excitement dropped significantly and his flames dimmed down. “This is an apple transformation spell,” Darkrim said, almost disappointed. “Not just any old apples transformation spell,” Twilight said proudly, “This is a spell, handcrafted by the great Trottinsky himself, guaranteed to improve your beam precision and make you a bit more focused on your target during a battle.” “An apple transformation will make me do that? Please, even little fillies can do those,” Darkrim smirked, much to Twilight’s annoyance. “Well, if you think it’s sooo easy, why don’t you try it out?” Twilight rolled her eyes and sat back. “Really? Aren’t you supposed to tutor me?” Darkrim asked, realizing that he may have gone a bit too far with that comment. “You have all the instructions you need in the paper I gave you, so fire away hotshot,” Twilight said with slight spite in her voice. “Me and my big mouth,” Darkrim thought to himself as he bit his lip and read the parchment. “In order to turn an apple into an orange, you must first clear your mind of all your thoughts and only think about an orange. After that, focus all of the energy in your body into your horn and blah blah;” Darkrim stopped and tossed away the parchment. The instructions seemed too long and he had to act quickly. The banished prince closed his eyes and began to concentrate his energy. The only thing he visualized was an apple turning into an orange. As he did so, he unleashed a red beam of magic straight out of his pale blue horn and directed it towards an apple. He smirked slightly, and picked up the apple with his magic. Still concentrating, Darkrim began to morph the apple. Sweat beads erupted from his forehead as he tried to control the unstable substance. However, the apple wasn’t giving up. Darkrim felt every single molecule within the apple resisting the change. He tried to focus even more, but instead only grew more and more frustrated. “Come on you stupid apple! Change already!” Darkrim yelled internally, causing him to increase the power of his beam. The slight increase of power suddenly made the apple explode, causing its juicy innards to erupt all over the place. Spike took cover as Twilight put up a magic barrier, protecting her from the succulent onslaught. Darkrim stood, panting, and covered in the remainig of an apple he tried to morph. Twilight placed down her shield and walked over to him. “Even fillies can do it, huh?” she asked and smirked. “Clearly, I was in the wrong. I will not question your judgment again,” Darkrim joked as he shook himself clean. “Good,” Twilight replied “Now, let’s go over what you did wrong and what we need to work on,” Twilight said and took out a piece of paper and a quill. Darkrim let out a heavy sigh. “First off, whenever you want to do a spell, any spell at all, READ the parchment in its entirety!” Twilight scribbled down on a paper and exclaimed “Never, and I mean never, toss it away. Even if it’s a mile long scroll, you must read it and understand every word of it. Magic is a precise art and thus you need every bit of information you can get,” Twilight emphasized. “I understand,” Darkrim lowered his head like a scolded colt. “Second, while you did start off strong and, admittedly, I was impressed by your eager nature,” Twilight smiled “You seemed a bit nervous and frustrated by the end. Right?” “Yeah, I allowed my emotions to get the better of me. It seems to happen a lot lately,” Darkrim sighed. “Trust me, when it comes to magic, sometimes that can be a big advantage,” Twilight said “However, you must learn to control your outburst and your frustration. Let me show you,” Twilight said and walked over to Darkrim. He observed closely as Twilight closed her eyes and began to breath in deeply. She began to be much calmer than Darkrim had ever seen her. It was like she began to detach her spirit and body as her horn glowed a bright purple color. As the beam gently flowed out of her horn, like a serpent enticing its prey, so too did it had begun to entice the apple in its figurative grasp, gripping it tighter and tighter. All the while, Darkrim tried to find any sign of stress or frustration on Twilight’s face. Aside from a few twitches of the nose here and there, Twilight seemed as cold as ice and in complete control over her emotions. The beam slowly picked up the apple, filling every pore of the fruit with its mystic glow,m as small sweat beads formed on Twilight’s face. However, no sign of struggle showed on the princess’s head. She felt every molecule of the apple changing, control each and every process and rearranging it. Before too long, the apple’s previous form was entirely destroyed and, instead, an orange took its place. Twilight felt that the transformation was completed and retracted her beam, before opening her eyes. Both Darkrim and Spike began to clap loudly. “That was amazing!” Spike smiled. “If I had a hat I’d take it off for you, my dear Princess;” Darkrim clapped. Twilight blushed a bit from the compliments and cleared her throat. “Anyway, that is how you turn a an apple into an orange,” Twilight said. “I want to try again!” Darkrim exclaimed, but suddenly felt his stomach roaring “But maybe after a nice lunch.” “Well, no sense of working on an empty stomach;” Twilight said “C’mon, I’ll buy you a hay burger.” “Sounds delicious,” Darkrim said as the three of them left for The Hay Burger. Spike munched on some gems, Twilight bought for him on the way, as Darkrim and Twilight discussed over their meal. “I’m sorry if I came off as a bit too strict back there,” Twilight apologized as she ate some french fries. “Nah, you had every right to be strict. I was being a bit disrespectful,” Darkrim said. “Still, it takes quit the pony to admit his mistakes,” Twilight said. Darkrim smiled a bit and continued to drink his shake. “Can I ask you something personal?” Twilight said to Darkrim. “Like what?” Darkrim responded. “Well, if we’re going to make this arrangement of ours work, I have to know at least something about you,” Twilight explained “And I just have to ask; Why did your father banish you from Tartarus?” “Didn’t Luna tell you?” Darkrim asked, since he knew that Luna saw that memory of his. “Well, yes and no,” Twilight said awkwardly “She mentioned a light pegasus, but I barely understood it.” Darkrim took in a deep breath. “Well, if you have to know,” he began “It all became during the reign of Dormius when the light pegasi ban was accepted. King Dormius considered the light pegasi to be a subspecies, a lower class, since the dark magic in our kingdom has the potential to physically hurt them. Terragon wished to change this, but he couldn’t fully lift the ban. Instead, he loosened it, allowing them to enter into Tartarus, but banning them from fraternizing with Tartarian ponies.” “That’s horrible!” Twilight said. “It was the only way. The nobes were firmly against even such a change, but Terragon had to do something. It wasn’t much, but it was neough for me to meet her. My dear, Beatrice,” Darkrim said and sighed nostaligcally. “So, your father banished you for fraternizing with a light pegasus? That’s seems a bit too cruel, don’t you think?” Twilight said, visibly disgusted. “Indeed, but, at the very least, I understand why he did it,” Darkrim said and took a bit out of his burger. “What do you mean?” Twilight asked. “Well, the stability of our kingdom is pretty much awful,” Darkrim said sorrowfully “Ares has gone mostly rouge, taking with him a lot of our military. New groups like the ‘liberation’ movement are rising up and getting people riled up against the leading monarchs. If such a scandal had gone unpunished, I could guarantee you that a huge wave of rebellions would tear Tartarus completely, just to get to the throne. It’d be worse than when Furia died without an heir,” Darkrim said with tears gleaming in his eyes. Twilight was silent. In all her life, she had never known that such a catastrophe was tearing Tartarus apart. “But, mark my words twilight, I will make sure that Tartarus becomes as stable as it once was,” Darkrim spoke with pure determination in his eyes “And I know I can do it. You know why?” “Why?” Twilight asked, although she already knew the answer. “Because I have both you and Luna by my side,” Darkrim said. “And I will make sure that you return to your throne,” twilight said and extended her hoof. Darkrim firmly grasped her hoof as he finished up his meals. Just as they began to leave, Darkrim noticed something, just outside the corner of his eye. He turned around to see a white maned pony, reading a black book. It wouldn’t be anything weird, except he was reading the same page for the entirety of his stay. The pony turned his head towards Darkrim and winked at him. Darkrim shook his head in disbelief. As he opened his eyes, both the pony and the book were gone, as if they evaporated into the ether above. His heart almost stopped as Clotho’s word rang through his ears. “A black book will reveal its truth”