Jewel Of Nightmares

by Darksonickiller

A Friend Indeed, A Plan They Need

Chapter 3
A Friend Indeed, A Plan They Need

As Rainbow dealt with her new situation she now found herself in, Twilight and Starlight were busy pouring over every book, scroll, and tome they had on runes and jewels.

“Okay so this set on left spike ‘A’ is to limit the amount of magical energies the jewel can use at any given point in time.” Twilight sighed as she mapped the jewel out on a bit of parchment, “Or at least that’s what it looks like, I can’t find anything on most of these runes. Maybe every third to fifth is one that has been documented.”

“Well if that’s the case, then that would explain why it didn’t stay open for too long.” Looking at another part of the jewel Starlight took notes on the runes while comparing what could be referenced, “And right side ‘A’ has a similar set, but differs half way down.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked as she walked over to add to the map of the jewel.

“Well halfway down it does restrict how much is used, but right here is a whole new set.” Pointing to the change, Starlight brought over a book showing the different set, “Right here it seems like the runes go from limiting how much magic the jewel can use, to syphoning off the excess magic like they keeping it from storing anymore.”

“But why?” Twilight asked pondering this new information as they looked back and forth, between the jewel and the books.

“Because the first pony to ever have it wanted to ensure the jewel could not take anypony into another world.” A booming voice called out to them followed by a flash of light as Princess Luna came into the room, “I got your letter Twilight, and I feared this to be true. I always called it the Jewel of Dreams, but years after I first found it I was searching through a dense forest and came across this.” Passing to them an old torn up journal Luna continued to explain, “The pony who once owned this also owned that jewel, though much of the journal is missing somethings were still there. This jewel will take a pony into another world, one so hostile and near inhospitable, that no normal pony could live there for long.”

Looking through the journal Twilight let out a faint groan, “Princess…” She hesitated to say as she held out the section of the book they needed, “this page talks about them discovering runes in that world, but then it skips over to them detailing some kind of dragon pony hybrid that kept chasing them.” Looking through the pages Twilight noticed something odd about the ink, “I’ve never seen a red ink before.”

“That’s because its mixed carefully with the original owner’s blood.” Luna replied as she lowered her head and looked away.

Continuing to read through the pages with an odd mix of disgust and confusion upon her face, Twilight soon came across the passage that explained the need for that.

*This damned bitch doggs me night after night, even going so far as to use the sister of the jewel to draw me back into this world. My only saving grace is that I learned each drop into this world is never the same place, and once I have my bearings straight I easily make my way back home. But each time I have less and less of this journal when I do, so I’ve been careful enough to leave behind pieces that would be of use to any creature who could be foolish enough to tamper with the jewel.

Sadly however I know this part won’t be among those left behind as that bitch is wising up to my tricks, making me require a new plan to deal with her. How I wish I could use my magic or even fly in that accursed world, for some reason despite being able to feel the energies in the air I can’t tap into them. The runes are quite capable of tapping into them or more accurately drawing them in for use, which makes me wonder if a race once lived there and knew the reason behind why they could only cast in this manner.

Even flying is a problem as I need two things to make it possible to even get over large distances quickly, I need hight and a strong gust of wind equal enough to knocking me over. And even then I’m limited to gliding for however far the wind will take me, making it almost seem faster to just walk or run if the situation calls for the latter.

For the time being however I’m glad she’s still a little confused and tracking down the pages inked in my blood, they carry the strongest part of my scent that drives her wild from what I’ve seen. So crazy that she almost stuck around to fight her so called counterpart just to try and get at what she assumed was me, it was a risk to do that, but I’m glad I did it just to know how to trick her for a time. One thing I can be grateful for to her dragging me into this world so much, is the runes I continue to discover and come across.

Each so unique and different, the native language of whomever left them behind is difficult to decipher but more than helpful. As I’ve learned how to mix them with the magic of my world to make something stronger to bind the jewel, once I get back to the sister jewel I’ll apply the first of the runes at the temple. It will make it impossible for her to ever get near it ever again and drag me or any creature there again, then I’ll carve the next several sets into the jewel to ensure that it can’t be easily activated.

At best I’ll only be able to restrict its use for so long, not sure how long as of yet, as these are untested combinations and could have very volatile effects. And the last thing I need to do is destroy the jewel, I attempted that once and it nearly blew up the room I stored it in. As far as I know I’m the only pony who can access the realm of dreams, so maybe I’ll dump it off there in the darkest part where no creature could access it. With a little luck it may go unnoticed for all of time.*

“So that’s why you named it as you did, but you had no clue what it really was when you first found it?” Twilight inquired as she read through what bits of the journal remained.

“Correct.” Luna replied as she turned the page to what shown to be an inkblot of sorts, “After I came back to Equestria from my banishment, I dug up this old journal from my old private archives. I soon learned of that creature there.”

“No offence Princess Luna, but that’s just a drop of ink between two pages.” Starlight said as she tilted her head to try and make out what it appeared to be, “Looks like a cloud to me.”

“According to the original owner of this journal, that is actually a parasite with no solid form.” Luna explained as she turned the page containing information about it, “As you can see even the original owner had an encounter with this creature, stating how it uses a small part of itself to track its target. It latches a small piece onto the unsuspecting host and then follows something that emanates from that piece, what it is they never did discover but clearly it can track that piece between worlds.”

“I call it a parasite because of how it feeds off its host just enough to live, yet unlike a normal parasite it doesn’t feed to a point of killing the host. One thing I can document about it, is that this creature is rather powerful enough to alter the mind of its host making them seek out dark areas. This only happens as the creature gains further control over the host, and if the host is perceptive enough to realize this change then they can fight against the thoughts and urges the parasite creates.” Twilight read aloud to everypony in the room before looking at Princess Luna, “So when it latched onto you, you had no way of knowing and because you often work during the evening. There would have been almost no change to your prior thoughts.”

“That is correct, it was clever enough to notice my jealousy for the love and affection the subjects gave to my sister.” Looking down at her hooves she turned away in shame, “It pushed those thoughts to create the idea of making an eternal night, and in turn changed me into Nightmare Moon.”

“That explains why the writer even goes into detail of how to kill the parasite.” Twilight replied as she continued to read.

*My first encounter with this blasted scurge granted me much insight, while it hates light in all forms and grows stronger the darker things tend to be. It is similar to other creatures of that world, the sunlight in my world kills it off, though it takes constant interaction with the light to make it happen. I wouldn’t have the capability to keep up with the sun long enough to make that happen.

So instead I created another way to deal with it, by combining a rune from both worlds I managed to create a stone that shines like the sun in even the darkest of caves. The only downside to it comes from the runes themselves, the size of the stone, and the amount of time needed for it to work. The larger the stone, the more time it has to sit out in the sun to work later.*

“Isn’t that surprising” Starlight giggled as she rubbed under her chin, “a source of solar powered light in the form of the rune.”

“Yes, but it states that too large of a stone and it may never get enough of a charge.” Twilight replied as she held out the pages, “Too small of a stone and it won’t have enough of a charge to last longer than an hour at best.” Turning through the pages of the journal Twilight groaned, “So this goes into detail of monsters and creatures we’ve never faced, and it even mentioned a sister jewel to allow a way back from that world. So we have a way to get Rainbow back here, but it doesn’t seem to mention how.”

“That is true.” Princess Luna chimed in as she turned the pages to an image of what they could only assume to be the sister jewel, “The pages following were torn out as a means to help confuse whatever was chasing the writer, so we can only assume that those pages are in the world Rainbow Dash is in. Giving her a chance to know how to come back.”

“If she can ever find the pages.” Starlight added before covering her mouth in a faint tone of shame, “Sorry, it's just that we have no idea where Rainbow could have landed or even where the pages are hidden.”

“Which is why we are going to spend as long as we can studying this journal to find a way to help Rainbow Dash from where we are.” Twilight replied as she flipped through the book till she found a few sets of runes and descriptions, “And we are starting right here.”

Comments

[fanreader999999]

Loredump

[Rainbow sparkle1]

Dude, this is pretty decent so far, though all the typos are bugging me, causing me to reread a few sentences multiple times, but otherwise this is pretty good

[Darksonickiller]

10489188
Glad you like it. Can't wait to hear what you think when you finish it