Chapter 4: Let's Go In The Garden
"Well, if this doesn't jog her memory, I certainly don't know what will," Rarity said as she led the group under an arch into an expanse of well-trimmed greenery and cobble paths. "This is the garden where I found Mistmane’s flower. There's no other like it in Equestria, save for Mistmane’s latest works in the Crystal Empire."
Spinel's eyes went wide the moment she stepped foot in the garden. "A garden...yes, we used to play in the garden..." she murmured in a trance-like state.
"'We?'" Pinkie asked, following the Gem as she looked around at all the well-kept flowers and shrubs.
"I think it's coming back to her," Twilight said, turning to Princess Luna. "Use the spell."
Luna nodded as a pale blue glow emitted from her horn. A glow of similar color flashed in Spinel's eyes. A smile seemed to come across her face, and the world around them changed.
The sky overhead became a black void full of silver speckles. They were under some sort of glass-like dome. There were pristine white paths going this way and that, and mysterious pillars floated alongside the paths. Plants of various shapes and sizes were in neat planter box-like gardens. There was even a fountain and a few small ponds with lily pads. A few butterflies flittered about. At the far end of the garden was a structure with a small floating prism on a pedestal. Behind them was an elevated platform with a series of stairs winding up to the top.
"My word," Rarity muttered in awe. Pinkie watched one of the butterflies pass with a grin.
"Worry not -- it is only an illusion," Luna told the others. "Her memories are being projected outwards over reality. This should help make them more vivid to her, and hopefully give us some sense of what this could possibly mean."
However, as soon as the illusion had formed, Spinel's face fell. Tears dripped from her eyes. "No," was all she said, and the illusion flickered into new existence.
The plants were browned and dead now, the pristine white now dirty and dull. Grass and vines grew rampant over the paths and up the pillars, and the lily pads were skeletons on still pools that reflected the void above. The fountain no longer flowed, and any other signs of life were gone. The ponies all gasped and recoiled.
"What happened?" Pinkie asked.
"Spinel, where are we?" Twilight asked the Gem, slowly approaching her.
"Back...where I never left," Spinel murmured. Her voice turned fond. "This was...her garden. Our garden. We used to have so much time, playing games, Pink and I. She was always so alone on Homeworld, but here, we could play for as long as we wanted. Until..."
"Until what?" Pinkie asked.
"And who is this Pink?" Rarity asked.
Spinel drooped, and the garden illusion returned to its former life. But this time, the group wasn't alone. Spinel was there in the illusion, as giddy as could be, but there was another, much taller Gem as well. Her hair was like a light pink, messy afro, and she had regal-looking attire. In her stomach was a pink diamond gemstone, facing sideways with its point upwards.
The scene played out, showcasing Spinel performing all sorts of tricks for the towering Gem, who laughed and applauded. Pinkie applauded along. Spinel, on the other hand, watched on as if she were sickened.
"Pink Diamond...my Diamond. I was supposed to be her best friend and make her happy...but I wasn't what she wanted." Spinel's fists clenched. "She wanted a colony all her own, more than anything...more than me. Then one day, it came true -- the other Diamonds, Blue and Yellow, gave Pink her very own planet." Spinel relaxed and smiled fondly. "I was so excited - a brand new place for us to play."
"So...what happened?" Twilight asked.
Spinel looked down. "You guys like songs?" she croaked.
Pinkie opened her mouth with a loud gasp to say something, but Twilight beat her to it. "I don't think now's the best time, Spinel." She flashed an apologetic smile to her frowning friend.
The scene shifted to Pink Diamond walking away towards the other end of the garden, and the illusion Spinel following after her loyally. Each time the tall Gem would halt Spinel and turn back around, Spinel would follow her again. Finally, with a sigh, Pink stopped and knelt down to her.
"'Spinel, how about we play a little game?'" Spinel asked, Pink Diamond's mouth moving as she spoke. "'Just stand right here, and remain very still.'"
"'That sounds like fun,'" the illusion Spinel replied. She promptly did as she was told as Pink continued leaving.
"It's what she wanted," Spinel said, drooping slightly. "That's all I ever wanted: to see her happy, to make her happy. If this was what she wanted, so be it..."
The group watched Pink walk up the stairs to the elevated platform to a flat, crystal pedestal on the top. In a wide beam of light, she vanished skyward. Rarity gasped, covering her mouth.
Meanwhile, the illusion Spinel remained standing, a wide grin on her face. "And there I am," Spinel said bitterly, watching herself. "The playmate who doesn't know she's getting played. I stayed in this garden for thousands of years, waiting."
"Thousands?" Luna and Twilight muttered at the same time, looking at each other in astonishment.
The stars blurred overhead as if time were sped up. Slowly, the garden progressed into its overgrown, deathly state, and the illusion Spinel became overgrown with it. Her look was staring to falter from joy.
"And stupid little me...all I could think was: 'Was I doing this right? Is this how it works?'" Spinel continued. The illusion Spinel's face was shadowed by doubt. Spinel walked past her, past one of the dead pools, towards the prism on the pedestal. Pinkie followed loyally after her.
"Then, in the end, I didn't hear it from her. I didn't even hear it from one of her Gems..." The prism opened and a pink, angular screen flickered to glitching life. The illusion Spinel perked up. She was covered in smudges and her legs were captured by vines, but she was still standing tall.
Both Spinels watched the message that played out on the screen -- one with shocked stupor, the other with bitter malice. Twilight blinked in surprise. "It looks like the forms in that mirror world I visited with Sunset Shimmer," she muttered to the others. Pinkie shushed her loudly, waving a hoof in her direction. Tears were brimming in her eyes, which were locked onto Spinel.
"Pink was gone. She had a son on Earth she gave her form up for...and made all these new friends..." Spinel growled, clenching her fists tightly. "Isn't that just swell? The one thing I was made to do...and...and..." She couldn't finish.
The memory Spinel pulled free from the grass and vines holding her captive and ran to the message. She fell to her knees just as the message ended and the prism shut once more.
"And I just let her...drift away...just like that..." Spinel was struggling not to cry now as she sank to her knees. Her form glowed pink and she bowed her head. Her gemstone slowly rotated back upside down and her heart-shaped pigtails turned loose once more. Her nose and shoulder pads sharpened.
When she retook form, the ponies were blinded as the illusion shattered. They were back in the normal garden in Equestria, and Spinel was back to the form she had upon her arrival. She looked back at them with grit teeth, tears streaming down the lines on her cheeks like trains on tracks. Her eyes were red once more with understandable rage.
Even if Maud Pie and the whole Pie family had been in danger, Twilight and Rarity didn't think Pinkie Pie would've moved any faster than she did the second she regained her vision. In less than a second, she was upon the Gem, hugging her tightly and sobbing. Spinel limply wrapped her noodle arms around her, and finally the faintest hint of a smile returned.
Twilight and Rarity wiped at their own eyes, and even Luna had to brush away a tear. "That is truly a tragedy," the moon princess muttered.
"Spinel...how long..." Twilight began.
"Six thousand years." The Gem shut her eyes as PInkie continued to cry.
"My dear word," Rarity gasped, looking ready to faint.
"You poor gemstone!" Pinkie wailed. Spinel patted her on the head.
"Well, I can see now why you were so fit for revenge, in a state of mind like that," Luna said, stepping forward. "Though it feels like the right course of action, I can tell you from personal experience that revenge will not settle anything. What's done is done."
"Maybe I was being hasty," Spinel sighed, wiping the tears away. "But...I was made for her. I was her playmate. I was supposed to make her happy...and she just leaves me like that?"
"What she did to you was wrong," Twilight said, approaching her along with Rarity. "But others don't deserve to suffer because of it. She's...gone. Yes, she had other friends and did other things, but so can you."
"I don't exactly have experience in making new friends," Spinel admitted with a sigh.
"Then fate has brought you to the right place," Luna said, smiling at Twilight, who nodded in return. "For you are in the presence of Equestria's princess of friendship herself."
"Princess?" Spinel wrinkled her nose in confusion.
"It means she's the leader of that sort of thing," Rarity explained. "I guess in your world it would be...the Diamond of Friendship?" She shrugged.
"You'd really help me? Even after attacking you guys and everything?" Spinel asked, looking up at Twilight.
"We will!" Pinkie practically screamed before Twilight could say anything. She was still crying, but the fountains of tears had died down.
"But first, please stop your machine," Twilight said.
Spinel nodded, getting to her feet. Pinkie still clung to her for dear life, and the Gem had to smile at her affection. She let the pink pony hold on as she and the others left the garden.
Fluttershy and Zecora had arrived when the group returned, and with the others' help had amassed a wide assortment of ingredients for potions. The area of decay had expanded in their absence, but only by a foot or so. However, it was still spreading. Zecora was studying it closely when they approached.
"Such destruction for a machine without a wing. Is this the being who caused such a thing?" she asked, looking at Spinel. The Gem hadn't bothered to shapeshift back to pony form. Pinkie finally released her and nodded to the zebra.
"Is she...safe?" Rainbow Dash asked, eyeing the Gem suspiciously.
"She's calmed down now," Twilight said. "She's been through a lot."
"Then can you please shut this thing off before it kills everything?" Applejack asked, gesturing up to the drill.
Spinel nodded and stepped up. She extended her pinkie out and into a horn shape. Once again, she blew a foghorn-like note, this time up to her machine. The drill lifted out of the ground, the legs spinning in reverse until they turned and locked back together in the ring around the bottom. A dying whirring sound emanated from the drill as it retracted back into an aperture.
"Thank you, Spinel," Fluttershy said softly.
"Yes, now that you have stopped the spread, we can make the ground safe to tread," Zecora agreed, and quickly got to work sifting through her collected ingredients. Fluttershy and the others turned to Spinel, who was looking away embarrassed.
"So what's your deal?" Rainbow asked, leveling an accusing hoof at her.
"Long story short: she was made for another Gem to be her best friend and to make her happy, then this Gem tricked her, and she was abandoned for six thousand years before learning by some sort of weird hologram that the Gem she was made for was gone and had moved on. I think she came here, like, right after that," Pinkie explained at a rapid pace, gesturing this way and that.
Rainbow Dash and Applejack looked surprised. Fluttershy gasped and covered her mouth. She gently fluttered over to the Gem and gave her a hug. "You poor Gem," she muttered. Spinel smiled at her softly and patted her on the head.
"So...what about me?" the Gem asked, looking to Twilight.
"Don't worry: I have the perfect pony in mind to help you make friends," Twilight replied with a confident smile.
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Aw that's butts. I always hate losing something I worked hard on!
Also this is just my opinion, but I feel that Spinel calmed down way too quick there. Even in the movie she punched a rock before going limp. :O
Aww, I wanted to see what they thought of "Drift Away"
10003439
Yes...kind of bummed about that myself.
Man, even now, that situation with Pink still pisses me off.
My lord, I don't think I've ever wanted to hug a fictional character as much as I want to hug Spinel.