Diamond Dice

by Write Holiday

Fate at play

"Fluttershy! Fluttershy answer the door!" Applejack knocks continually until the door swings open. "Fluttershy? Are ya' in here?" Applejack hears a faint noise upstairs. "Fluttershy?"

"Sh-she died." Fluttershy says through sobs.

"Are you talking about the princess?"

"Yes!" Fluttershy begins crying even harder now.

"It wasn't Twi', it was Celestia."

"I-it was?" Fluttershy looks back at the slip of paper. She reads it again and looks at Applejack concerned. "If Twilight is the princess, we won't ever see her again."

"That's why I came over here, to ask you what you know about why she left."

"I don't know why she went there, I just wanted to visit her and she asked me to bring her-"

"Ok, alright. You don't know, got it. Thanks." Applejack leaves as fast as she entered.

"I wonder what that was about. Angel, do you-"

"Fluttershy!" Pinkie's voice comes from out her house. "Did you read this?!" Fluttershy meets Pinkie outside, and explains what she knows. "You really carried rocks there?"

"Well yes, but Pinkie, if Twilight is ruling, she will stay in Canterlot."

"I know! We have to do something!"

"Why are you yelling?" Pinkie looks around and back at Fluttershy.

"I don't know! So what are we going to do?" Rainbow flies In between the two of them, startling Fluttershy.

"I have a plan."

...

Twilight stares at the chess board, thinking back at what Celestia showed her. This is how she will rule? With luck? She picks the dice up and tosses them across the board, 17. The dice fall through the board and the pieces begin to transform. The Pegasi on the left turn to glass, resembling flames. The pieces on the right turn to glass pieces of wind. There is a sudden howl of wind through the castle, and out the window is a tower of smoke coming from Las Pegasus. After a short, 5 minute game of chess pieces playing against eachother, the glass wind king pice is taken over. The howling stops and the smoke out the window fades away.

"Princess!" Shining Armor runs into the main room, bowing quickly.

"Shining, please, don't call me that, don't even bow. You're my Brother."

“We'll talk about it later, but a giant fire in Las Pegasus had just occurred." She looks back out the window.

"I'm aware. Were there any casualties?"

"Yes. Four died in the fire." Twilight stares, looking where the smoke was.

"That'll be all brother."

"But-"

"That'll be all." Shining Armor bows and leaves. She just killed four ponies. With the power of luck, four possibly innocent, beautiful ponies just lost their lives. She looks at the dice on the floor, can they do any good? Is there any combination that does something good for somepony? What if she can directly focus on one pony? She picks the dice up, and begins thinking of one of her closest, most personal friends. The dice roll across the table. The pieces begin to transform, then move.

...

"Help!"

"Rainbow?" Rainbow Dash flies into Fluttershy's house, placing Tank on the table, tears in her eyes.

"Fluttershy, please, do what ever it takes. Please!"

"Dash, what happened?"

"His heart, it isn't beating. I lied next to him but he wasn't breathing and his heart wasn't making a thump sound, please do something... please." Fluttershy looks at the tortoise, not knowing where to start. She tries CPR, shocking him with static electricity from slippers rubbed on a carpet for a long time, even the hiemlich maneuver. Nothing works.

"Dash, I'm sorry, it's been two hours, I can't do anything more. I wish I could try more, but I've exsaughsted all options. I'm sorry." Rainbow sits there, staring at Tank. Not moving, not talking, just still, staring.

"Where?" Dash whispers.

"Where what?"

"Where will we bury him?"

"How about under your house?" Fluttershy asks, not knowing many better places.

"...I'll get the shovels."

...

Twilight sits, confused. The pieces to the left turned to glass animals, the king being a turtle, and the right pieces turned to veterinarians. Eventually, after a long, two to three hour game, the king turtle took the king veterinarian. The pieces rest into place, and the dice settled on the ground. Twilight looks around, finally realizing that Equestria, all of it's residents, plots of land, all of it from the ground to the sky, is hers. And this board, these dice, they were the decision makers. They were fate.

...

Rainbow and Fluttershy sit silent in the cottage, not having anything to say to one another. Fluttershy tried to help Rainbow with words, but all she did was stare at the ground, no tears, not blinking, just staring.

"Why?" Rainbow was the first to speak. "Fluttershy, why? Why did he have to die?"

"Well, Rainbow, death is a part of life. I have owned too many animals to count, and I can tell you that this just happens. It's sad, no, tragic, but it happens, you can't stop it."

"But, I loved him."

"RD, I know you did, and trust me, I know what it's like to lose a pet, but give it time. Eventually you'll see that it was just his time." The awkward silence continues. "Hey, I have an idea. You said you had a plan to go and see Twilight, right RD?"

"Yeah... ok, I see what you mean, I'll get the others." Rainbow cracks a small, forced smile, and walks out.

...

"Here Twily, you deserve it."

"What is it?" Twilight asks, still a little filly. She opens the box, and pulls out a stuffed animal. It has buttons for eyes, a brown mane and tail, and blue and white polka doted pants. "Thank you!" Twilight hugs Shinning Armor. "I'll name him Smarty Pants."

"Oh, and more thing." He pushes the box towards her. She opens it, and five dice fly out. They fly onto a chess board and catch fire. She trips trying to back away, and accidentally throws Smarty Pants into the fire. Shinning Armor runs to save her, but is lost in the flames. Twilight begins coughing, panicking. She looks up only to see the faces of her parents in the smoke. The roof above her begins to crack, and falls.

"No!" Twilight sits up, breathing heavily. She looks around her room in the castle, everything is there. She gets up and walks over to the bags she brought here. Her hooves shake as she opens one up, and pulls out Smarty Pants. She heads back to bed after glaring at the board with the dice under it, and cries herself to sleep.

...

"All aboard!" The five friends walk onto the train just before it leaves. They take the back cart so they can have it to themselves.

"So RD, why so glum?" Fluttershy looks over at Applejack and crosses her hooves.

"Tank died." Rainbow whispers.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." The others nod in agreement."

"Darling, it'll be ok. You have all of us here to help you through it." Rarity says, trying to be optimistic.

"Yeah, I mean if Gummy died I wouldn't know what to do. But I would know that with the friends I have, nothing would make me down, I'd celebrate him with his memory." Pinkie says. This causes Rainbow to smile, just for a second.

"And besides, it was only Tank, it's not like one of us died." Rainbow snaps her head over to stare at Applejack.

"Only, Tank?"

Fluttershy holds Rainbow down. "Rainbow, wait, she didn't mean it like-"

"Only! Tank!? What if Winona died!? Huh? What if Bloomberg was chopped down, what if your only non-pony friend just stopped breathing, no warning, no question, no nothing! Not even a goodbye! What if you only HAD one animal friend!? What, what if..." Rainbow Dash puts her head into her forecloses and sobs, unable to talk anymore. Fluttershy signals them all into the next cart over and follows.

"Excuse me Applejack but what was that?" Rarity whispers.

"Well I didn't realize she'd explode because of it."

"How? Even I saw that and I have trouble keeping my sister in my house."

"I didn't think that far ahead." They each go into an argument, and Pinkie leans over to Fluttershy.

"I think you should go in there."

"What? Why me?" Fluttershy asks, scared of making the situation worse.

"Because you know about animals more than any of us. You can at least make her feel a little better. I'll try to have some sort of cheer up Rainbow party, but for know you can make her feel a bit better." Fluttershy thinks about it, then nods and walks in. Rainbow is now sobbing on her bed, lying down.

"Um, Rainbow?"

"F-Fluttershy?" Rainbow looks up and pulls her close, still crying. "I miss him, I miss him so much. I love him, I still do, he may be gone but it feels like he's here next to me."

"I know, it isn't easy loosing something you love, especially an animal."

"But, the thing is, I don't know my parents. I'm not sure who they are, where they are, anything about them. And yet I'm more upset about Tank than not knowing my parents."

"Well, I think that's because animals are more susceptible to danger than us. We at least know when danger is threatening us, but animals souly depend on either their instincts or owners, they don't know as much when it comes to danger." Rainbow sits there, still hugging Fluttershy. She let's go and lies back down, still silent. Fluttershy gets up and goes into the other cart. "Excuse me but how long until we arrive at Camterlot?"

"Two more hours." The ticket collected responds.

"Ok, thank you." Fluttershy walks to a bed in the cart next to Rainbow's, and falls asleep.