2: Knowledge, by Titanium Dragon (Twilight)
Chapter by: Titanium Dragon
“Are you certain this is wise?” Luna asked. “Cadance seemed unwell after her ordeal.”
Cameras flashed around Twilight as she made her way towards the front door of the building alongside Luna. “It would hardly be fair for me to ask my friends to volunteer if I wasn’t willing to go through with it myself,” Twilight said.
“That is not why I ask,” Luna said, ignoring the photographers, her head bowed low as she spoke. “You are as strong as any without the Amulet, Twilight. Should you fail, and Cadance is unwell…”
Twilight paused at the threshold of the building, just beyond its magical protections, and sighed. “Shining Armor said she just wanted to take a nap. We didn’t see her use any magic. Whatever the Amulet does when it is tempting somepony, it isn’t draining their magic. If it was, this would only make the Amulet more powerful.” The corner of her lips turned up in a smile. “Besides, this way I can warn the volunteers about what they’ll see from personal experience!”
Luna bowed her head gravely. “I trust your judgement, Twilight Sparkle. I will see you after your ordeal.”
“Thanks.” Twilight beamed at Luna before turning back towards the building. Squaring her shoulders, she stepped across the threshold, her mind automatically processing the dozens of spells she felt tingle across her coat. She knew most of them, but some she had demanded be kept from her, just as she’d hidden some of what she’d done from Princess Cadance. After all, that had been one of the first safety measures she’d thought of.
The smile remained on her face as she stepped into the room and glanced at the guards. Gas masks? Check. Vents? Check. Holes for the dart guns, carefully bored into the walls so that they blended with the natural shadows? Check. Additional countermeasures she didn’t know about? Bits of fresh plaster on the walls announced the presence of something nopony else had told her about. Check.
“Is everything satisfactory, Princess?” one of the guards asked, his mask emitting a raspy sucking sound as he took a breath afterwards.
“Of course! You did great.” Twilight turned back towards the Amulet. She strode forward, her hooves clicking loudly against the floor. “Now, let’s see what you can do.” Lifting one hoof, she plunged it towards the surface of the Amulet.
Several long moments passed. No torrent of magic flowed through her; no dark voice whispered in her ear. She squinted, lifting her hoof slightly to look at the small object underneath, but the Amulet remained inert.
“Is that it?”
She glanced back over her shoulder at the guard behind her, who shrugged.
“Uhm…” Twilight turned her head back towards the amulet. Planting all four hooves firmly on the ground, she flared her wings. “I deny your power, Amulet!”
“You should think before you do that.”
Twilight yelped and whirled around, her eyes widening as he found herself eye-to-chest with a gray-coated stallion the size of Princess Luna. Around the corners of the room, the guards shifted to alert, flaring their wings, their horns sparking with magic.
“I didn’t come to attack her, just talk,” the stallion said, waving one of his wings towards the guards.
Twilight’s eyes flashed up to his forehead, where a gray horn jutted from his brow. “Who are you?”
“Hmph. You don’t recognize me?” The gray alicorn lifted one hoof to stroke at his beard, the long white strands flowing over his hoof.
Twilight narrowed her eyes. “No.” Around the edges of the room, the guards tensed.
“So little trust. But I suppose you are young.” The gray alicorn lifted one hoof to stroke at his beard, the long white strands flowing over his hoof despite its tangled appearance. “Would it help you if I was wearing my hat?”
“Hat?”
The alicorn dipped his head behind the Amulet’s stand. A quiet jingling sound filled the air as he rummaged around for a moment before lifting his head. An oversized blue hat was perched upon his head, coppery stars competing with silvery moons on the fabric, while golden bells swung from the sides and the pointed tip.
Twilight’s eyes widened. “Star Swirl the Bearded?”
The alicorn rolled his eyes. “And here I was, thinking you were the smart one.”
“No.” Twilight shook her head. “You’re just an illusion created by the Amulet!”
“Of course I’m an illusion created by the Amulet. Or, more accurately, I’m the psychospiritual manifestation of the Amulet, taking on the appearance of its creator so as to better speak with you.”
She glanced at his side. “So what’s with the wings?”
“I am the Alicorn Amulet, after all.” He smiled thinly.
One of the guards stepped forward, sucking air through his mask. “You didn’t show up when Princess Cadance touched the Amulet,” he said.
“Ordinarily I simply speak to ponies in their minds,” the apparition said, slowly circling around Twilight. “But for her, I’m making an exception.”
The masked guard glanced at Twilight. “We’re awaiting your orders, Princess Twilight.”
Twilight looked at the guard for a moment, then shook her head again. “It’s alright. He’s not real anyway.”
“Yes, ma’am.” The guard saluted and returned to his post. The other guards remained tense, their gazes bouncing between the Amulet and its manifestation.
Twilight turned around to face the apparition. “So why did you deem me worthy? Let me guess: because I am so pure of mind and of heart, you are showing up and are going to reveal the true secret of your power, so that I can save all of Equestria.”
“No.” The apparition looked down at her imperiously, a condescending curl to his lip. “Because you are trying to destroy one of the artifacts which is designed to protect Equestria, and your sister-in-law didn’t respond well to a voice in her head.”
“Hah? Protect Equestria?” Twilight stamped her hoof on the floor. “The last time somepony used you, they enslaved all of Ponyville!”
The apparition’s eyes flashed red. “Any power can be misused.”
Twilight growled. “My friends and I used the Elements of Harmony to save Equestria three times!”
“And your mentor used them to turn Discord to stone and banish her sister to the Moon.” The gray pony walked around the room slowly, looking at each of the guards in turn before his gaze returned to Twilight. “Did you ever wonder why it was that when Celestia used the Elements of Harmony, she banished her sister to the Moon, but when you fought the Nightmare, you were able to cleanse her?”
Twilight ground her teeth. “How would you know? You’re just a piece of jewelry.”
The apparition shrugged, turning away. “So are the Elements of Harmony, and yet you hold no quarrel with them.”
“That’s because they don’t corrupt ponies!”
“Oh? So you think I corrupt ponies, do you?” The apparition glanced back over his shoulder at Twilight. “What gave you that idea?”
“Trixie, of course. You corrupted her into enslaving all of Ponyville!” She pointed her hoof at him accusingly.
The apparition snorted. “And I suppose I made her work on a rock farm, too?”
“What?” Twilight blinked.
“The rock farm. You know, where she worked to save up the bits to purchase me. I know you heard the story; I was there, after all.”
Twilight’s mouth opened, then closed. “Yes, she saved up bits to buy you. So what? She didn’t know what you would do to her!”
“Give her knowledge? Power? The ability to humiliate her enemies?” The gray alicorn’s eyes smoldered like embers in ash. “Do you think she did not hold those desires in her heart before she put me around her throat?”
Twilight licked her lips, her hooves shifting against the stone floor. “You made her worse!”
“Did I? How do you know that?”
Twilight stamped her hoof. “I’ve read stories about you, you know. It wasn’t just Trixie!”
“Things must have changed greatly since my creation, then, if ponies always accept responsibility for their own actions, and do not seek to pass the blame.”
Twilight looked away. “That doesn’t make you the same as the Elements of Harmony.”
“So you do not believe that the Elements can be misused?” He snorted. “I’m sure your friend Sunset would be thrilled to hear that.”
“That was different. She was abusing the Element of Magic.”
“And how is that any different from how Trixie used me?”
Twilight stared at the ground silently.
The apparition smiled. “I knew a pony as smart as you would listen to what I have to say.”
Twilight’s ears drooped. “So what now?”
“That’s up to you. After all, I’m just a lump of metal and gemstone.” The manifestation walked away from Twilight, circling around to stand behind where its true body lay. The Amulet glowed faintly in the artificial light of the chamber as the gray alicorn stood behind it. “I can only offer you knowledge, not the wisdom to use it well.”
Twilight’s ears pricked as she took a step forward despite herself. “What knowledge?”
“A great deal. I hold within me the knowledge of Star Swirl the Bearded, and of Clover the Clever, who came after. Of those who tended the Tree of Harmony, and of the ponies who carved the Crystal Heart.” The manifestation rested his gray hooves on top of the glass case that held the Amulet.
“Okay. How did the Crystal Heart end up in the Crystal Empire then, and the Elements in the Tree of Harmony?” Twilight pointed her hoof towards one corner of the room, then the other.
“They’re a thousand miles apart!”
“Because each was made to protect a different group of ponies. But each had their own flaw.” The apparition sat back on his haunches as he spoke, his voice taking on a lecturing tone. “We who made them—”
“Wait, we?” Twilight peered at him.
“Yes. For you see, I was created first, and used to create the others. My creator, Star Swirl the Bearded, believed that you cannot rely on others; that in the end, power must come from within.” The manifestation smirked as he reached down to caress the Amulet with his hoof. “Of course, he was always a bit of a hypocrite. But I suppose that doesn’t count amulets that boost your magic and help you remember things in your old age. Especially if you grow a particularly long beard that makes it much harder to see that you’ve received assistance.” The gray alicorn leaned forward, angling his head down over the Amulet so that the device disappeared into the tangled white strands of his beard.
Twilight shifted uncomfortably. “You changed the subject. You didn’t explain how the Crystal Heart ended up in the Crystal Empire.”
“You interrupted me.” The apparition snorted, lifting his head. “When we made the Crystal Heart, it was intended to keep the Crystal Empire safe from the cold of the north, allowing the ponies to dig into the Crystal Mountains and their great wealth. We thought it was perfect —- the Crystal Heart could only be used if it had the strength of every pony in the Crystal Empire behind it, so it would be impossible to use for ill, unless ten thousand ponies willed it. Of course, I’m sure the crystal ponies have told you how that ended.”
Twilight nodded her head slowly. “No one realized that Sombra was evil at first; he was just another pony. They didn’t realize he was spreading lies to make everypony unhappy. By the time the ponies realized what he was up to, he was already calling himself King Sombra, and it was too late to use the Heart against him.”
The apparition stepped out from behind the Amulet, moving to stand next to Twilight, looking down at her. “The Elements of Harmony were our next attempt. It was Smart Cookie’s idea, but Clover provided the magic —– with a bit of hidden assistance, of course.” He smirked. “She didn’t dress up like a sack of potatoes to be fashionable.”
Twilight’s ears fell as she shifted her wings against her back in the memory of the rough brown cloak she wore in the play.
“It was the perfect plan, you see. Each would attune itself to a wielder, one who epitomized the element they represented. Loyalty, laughter, honesty, kindness, generosity, and, of course,” he lifted a hoof to point at Twilight’s chest, “magic. After all, what could go wrong with friendship?”
“They work!”
“They do. But who is to say that friendship is only for good? Starlight’s village was, after all, quite loyal to their dear leader.” He sneered. “Fanaticism is loyalty. Laughter can deride. Honesty can cut deeper than any sword. Kindness can shelter a criminal from justice. Generosity can be blind to what others truly desire. And magic…” He shook his head. “You know how magic can be misused.”
“So what? You’re the perfect one?” Twilight frowned.
“Of course not.” The apparition looked away from Twilight, back towards the Amulet. “I am the greatest and the worst. I don’t require an empire’s love. I don’t require a pony who encapsulates Harmony in one or more of its forms. I can be used by anypony. I am a tool; no more, no less. When Trixie picked me up, she thought only of herself, and of the revenge she would enact upon you.”
“Okay.” Twilight stared at the apparition for a moment before taking to her hooves, slowly pacing back and forth across the center of the room. “You’re right, I don’t know that you corrupted Trixie. But that still doesn’t mean it would be safe to wear you. How do I know you don’t take control over ponies?”
“If I took control of ponies, how could they remove me? What sort of cursed artifact would allow itself to be taken off?” The apparition leaned down to look Twilight in the eye. “You are a very smart pony, Twilight. Think!”
Twilight whirled away, continuing her pacing. “I am thinking! But you have to admit it is pretty suspicious. You’re telling me that every pony I’ve ever looked up to used you to make them seem more impressive. But they were all good ponies!”
The apparition sighed. “They were good ponies, Twilight. There is nothing evil about power or trying to earn the respect of others. You are stronger than any of them were, even when they were wearing me, and they almost always used my power for good.”
Twilight stared at him for a moment, then shook her head. “No. I don’t know where you came from; none of the books say. But they all agree that nopony would ever remove you willingly!”
“Because everypony who has stolen me has been a fool looking for power or thirsting for revenge!” The apparition shuddered. “Clover hid me away for fear that I might be misused, and instead passed me into the hooves of a succession of foolish ponies who wanted nothing more than a tool to make the world appreciate them, rather than draw on the wisdom of those who created me. Look at me, Twilight.” The apparition’s horn glowed, the Amulet floating over to hover in front of her snout. “Do you truly think that an amulet made by a unicorn before the first Hearth’s Warming, that combined the elements of unicorns and pegasi, was some sort of monster?”
With a shout, the guards surged forward towards the Amulet. Twilight spread her wing sharply, her hoof cutting through the air. “Stop! It’s alright. It’s alright.” Twilight frowned at the Amulet before looking up at the apparition. “Actually, it’s not alright. You shouldn’t be able to do that.”
The apparition rolled his eyes, lowering the Amulet back to its place on the stand as the guards returned to their positions around the room. “You could as well. This room is not nearly as well constructed as it should be.” He walked over to prod at the wall with his hoof. “Anypony who used my knowledge and power could easily protect themselves from all of these traps. And you? You could simply teleport away before anything happened. You know every ward that blocks teleportation.”
Twilight glanced around the room. Suddenly, the wards did feel insufficient. Would any of the other princesses have even bothered placing wards against teleportation, when Twilight had already affixed seven? She frowned. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I am trying to help you, Twilight.” The alicorn stepped away from the wall, returning to Twilight’s side. “I want only to protect Equestria, just like you do. But unlike you, I’m a piece of jewelry.” He scowled. “I can tell you how to cast long-forgotten spells, and give you the power to fuel them. But I can’t control what you do with them.”
Twilight frowned down at her hooves. “If everything you’re saying is true, why did Princess Cadance reject you?”
The apparition sighed. “I can see the flaws of those who would wield me. She could do so safely, for a time. But she’s the alicorn of love.” His hoof slid forward across the floor. “She fears losing Shining Armor. And she will lose him, someday, when he dies.”
Twilight lifted her head. “Unless she put you on and saved him, right?”
“No. If I could do that, you would likely find me here,” he lifted a hoof up under his beard, “still wrapped around my creator’s neck. I may give a pony great power, but not even I can stop time. He will die because all mortals are doomed to die.”
Twilight fell back on her haunches. “Oh,” she said in a small voice. She swallowed. “I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about that.”
“I know you don’t. But it doesn’t change the fact that it is so. However much my creator tried to break apart time with his magic, he, too, turned to dust.” The apparition turned to Twilight. “You have friends, Twilight. One by one, they, too, will perish. But you will never run out of them, not so long as Sun and Moon move through the sky. Your sister-in-law is not so fortunate. You can have a thousand friends, Twilight, but there’s only one Shining Armor.” He sighed. “You can see why she was upset.”
Twilight looked away. “So what? You want me to put you on to keep Equestria safe from Nightmare Cadance?”
“Perhaps. But that’s a long ways off. There might be other ways.” The apparition shrugged. “No. My point is merely that you should be careful about what you are throwing away. You need not use me all the time, or perhaps hardly at all. But so long as the Elements of Harmony are recharging, it would be foolish to discard another tool from your arsenal. And the Elements of Harmony cannot tell you the secrets of their manufacture, nor of the private thoughts of Star Swirl the Bearded himself.” He lifted his hoof to tap himself on the chest. “I can.”
“So I can ask you anything? And you’ll tell me?” Twilight tilted her head in thought.
“Anything I know. And I know quite a bit, even if I have mostly been worn by fools. All of the Founders tried me on, you know, as well as the greatest unicorn wizard of all time.”
Twilight lifted her head and looked the other alicorn in the eye. “So is this how you’re tempting me? Ancient knowledge?”
The apparition frowned. “Twilight. If I was trying to tempt you, wouldn’t I be using some sort of threat against your friends? Showing you some sort of vision of them all dying, and only my power could save them? Or perhaps simply lie to you about how you could use me to turn them all into alicorns, so that they could live forever too?” He paused, tilting his head in consideration. “Well, perhaps you could, but I lack that knowledge. Though I could help you with your research…” He lifted a hoof to slowly stroke his beard.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t trust you to do that.” Twilight closed her eyes. “It’s too dangerous. I’d give up all my power to make sure my friends were safe.”
“Obviously.” The apparition rolled his eyes. “You already passed that test with Tirek.”
Twilight’s eyes shot open. “How do you know about that?”
“I told you before. The Elements of Harmony—”
“The Elements of Harmony weren’t there! You couldn’t have possibly learned anything from them!”
He snorted. “Don’t be so literal. That power came out of the Tree of Harmony.”
“No. I see what you’re doing now. You’re reading my mind!” Twilight jabbed her hoof at the apparition accusingly. “Everything you’ve said is either something I already know about, or something that I have no way of verifying! You haven’t told me anything that I couldn’t come up with myself.”
The apparition looked down at her sternly. “You’re being ridiculous.”
“No, I’m not!” Twilight swung her hoof around. “All of this was just a trick to try and get me to put you on. You knew that nothing you threatened me with would ever make me put you on, because I already knew what you were. So you tried to trick me another way. You tried to reason with me!” Twilight’s hoof slammed into the floor, the floor cracking beneath her as she glared at him.
“The Elements of Harmony would tell you to use them against Nightmare Moon, if they could speak. All I’m asking is—”
“All you’re asking is for me to convince the others that you’re safe to keep around, and maybe put on every once in a while when we really need your knowledge and power! You tried to appeal to me in exactly the way I would try to appeal to myself. I was thinking that you would try to tempt me with power, or knowledge, or something else, but that would never work. Instead you tried to tempt me with a logical argument!”
“So what should I do, exactly? Make an emotional appeal?” The apparition spread his wings, waving them across the room. “How else am I supposed to convince you to do what needs to be done for the sake of Equestria?”
“Nothing. There’s nothing you can say or do that will change my mind.” Twilight turned away from the gray alicorn, staring at the Amulet where it lay on its stone pedestal.
The apparition stepped up next to Twilight, bending his head down to try and catch her eyes. “You would never burn a book, Twilight. No matter how dangerous the knowledge was, you would always try to keep it safe if you could. Why am I any different? You’re smarter than this!”
Twilight’s jaw clenched. “Too smart to be fooled by you. I came in here to help destroy you, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”
“Even if it means losing centuries of knowledge? Even if it means letting Equestria fall because the bearers of the Elements of Harmony have died, and there’s no power left to wield against those who would do the world harm? Even if it means destroying an innocent artifact which has no purpose but to assist its wearer, whomever that may be? Be reasonable.”
“You are no innocent artifact. If I want to know what Star Swirl the Bearded had to say, I can just look it up in a book that I know won’t try to poison my mind.”
“Hmph. Your friend Rarity would disagree with that.”
Twilight smiled triumphantly. “You’re right, she would. But you had no way of knowing about that one. The Elements weren’t there for that. You have been reading my mind.” Twilight stepped up next to the pedestal, glaring down at the Amulet. “You’ve been trying to trick me this whole time. You’re too dangerous to keep lying around. Equestria doesn’t need you!”
Twilight’s whole body jerked as she felt a hoof poke at her side. “Princess?”
“What?” Twilight turned her head, looking back over her shoulder at the guard, before her head rapidly swiveled around the room. “Where did he go?”
“Where did who go?” The guards came to attention, masked heads turning as they scanned the room.
“The alicorn that came out of the Amulet. Did he go back inside?”
The guard stared at her blankly from beneath his mask. “Princess. Nopony else has been here.”
Twilight looked around slowly. The floor was whole and intact. The Amulet rested on its stand, unmoved from the violent swing of her hoof. “What happened? What did you see?”
The guards glanced at each other. “You were just standing there, Princess. We thought you might be thinking about something.”
Twilight looked back at the Amulet for a moment, then shuddered. “I see.”
“Welcome back, Twilight,” Luna said as Twilight re-entered the observation room, beaming at the younger alicorn. “I see you have overcome your ordeal.”
“The Amulet is smarter than I thought,” Twilight said, sighing as she moved to reclaim her cushion in front of the screen. “The guards said I was just standing there the whole time. Did either of you see anything?’
The sisters shook their heads. “You simply stood there, as if lost in thought,” Luna said.
“I think I was.” Twilight frowned. “The Amulet tried to argue with me, tried to appeal to me with logic and reason.” She sighed again, leaning forward. “But it wasn’t anything that would tire me out like whatever happened to Cadance. I don’t think we saw the same thing at all.”
Celestia sat next to her former student. Celestia extended a wing across Twilight’s back. “Should we wait for her to return?”
“I don’t think it would help. Whatever that thing is,” Twilight jabbed her hoof at the image of the Amulet on the glowing screen in front of her, “it isn’t just throwing up some sort of generic vision. It got inside my head and tried to get me to use it in exactly the way I would have tried to convince myself.” She let her hoof fall from the screen, tapping it idly on the table. “It can read your mind. Any warnings we give ponies will probably just give it more ammunition to work its way around them.”
“I suppose it was too much to hope that this would be easy,” Luna said, joining Twilight on the other side.
“You’re right. But we’re prepared.” Twilight leaned forward, reaching out with her hoof to flip on the microphone resting next to the screen. “Send in the first volunteer.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.015 seconds
Total duration
994 users online
1,747,015 hits today, 2,782,760 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Did Moon Dancer event happen before or after this?
Does Twilight know or gotten the message fromher?
my guess is Lyra heartstrings is the first volunteer
I'm sorry, I'm STILL just wondering what the Hell happened to Moondancer.
Oh wow now THAT is interesting! That is ESPECIALLY devious! O.O
8500530
So Moon Dancer comes after this chapter, and what happened to her was that the Alicorn Amulet found her weakness and exploited her dearly with it. It took her most private thoughts about the pony she cared for most, and CRUSHED them. Remember: The Alicorn Amulet said that Honesty can cut deeper than any sword.
"Screw you and the horse you rode in on!"
"Now that's just needlessly rude to Trixie."
I do love how insidiously believable the Amulet is in this one. The most terrifying aspect is that this approach would probably convince me.
8500598
Agreed. Like Twilight, I found myself doubting that the Amulet was truly evil. Its arguments made sense, and my mind was racing to try and defy it.
8500769
Yeah, her catch on the mind reading was extremely astute; my only counter argument had been that if it was so capable of debate or unprompted magic then it was accountable for letting its wearers commit evil without complaint. Twilight just cut straight to the evidence it was just saying what she wanted to hear and knew where it was safe to lie.
8500598
I read this one before. And I still almost believe it. The Amulet is insidious in this one and I love it?
8500586
Yeah, I gather that. But what happened to her afterwards? Because what they implied towards the chapter's end is PRETTY damn unsettling.
Oh, that was insidious. Honestly, this one still leaves me wondering if Twilight could be wrong.
Also, the Amulet's tone in this chapter kind of reminds me of SQUIP. "You can't lie to me, Twilight, I'm inside your brain."
You forgot to mention that earth pony power was used in the elements as well. An Alicorn is made up of all three types of ponies.
She should have asked to amulet to tell her something she doesn’t know but can verify. Many somethings in fact.
Devious and very believable. VERY well written.