The Ruby of Balance

by OtterFeelings

Chapter 4

The Ruby of Balance
by Gabriele Hall "OtterFeelings"
Chapter 4

The gates to the entrance of Canterlot were enormous. They sprung up into the sky, as if they were trying to push through the clouds. Massive marble beams supported the intricately laced railings that formed the rest of the gate. I knew that when I passed through these marvelous doors, a new path would lie ahead of me, one of which I did not know where it would take me. The royal guards did their usual inspection, to make sure I wasn’t up to anything that I shouldn’t be doing, and then gave the signal for the gates to be opened. For such massive doors, they sure did swing open fast.

I took a deep breath in. keeping calm was my main focus. I needed to relax, focus on my mission ahead of me, whatever it might turn out to be. I exhaled exuberantly, which earned a clearing of a throat from one of the guards. Not wanting to cause any trouble, I quickly reared up, and then proceeded to gallop down the gravel path which came up to the gates. I ran for a while, although I’m not entirely sure why I did. I assume it was because of my great anticipation.

Mountains, very jagged ones at that, lined the surprisingly rundown path. I would have assumed that these pathways would be at the very least well maintained. But I guess there were other, more imperative things to be done in Canterlot than worry about some rundown old path. I stopped when I reached the valley, where the mountains turned into rolling hills, and looked back. I was actually quite surprised at how far away from Canterlot I already was. I wasn’t even breathing hard, even though I must have been running for at least a few miles. My anxiousness must have been toying with my body’s ability to let me know that I should have been exhausted.

Turning, I looked at awe as the sun became a beautiful backdrop against Canterlot. The shimmering of light, as the sun set, caused the whole city to seemingly glow. Glistening in the magnificence of the sun’s radiance, Canterlot looked peaceful, as if ignorant to the fact that there was a great danger that was lurking, just waiting for a chance to tear it down. I wanted so badly to be convinced that at this moment nature’s brilliance, the Ruby must be in its statue in the center of Canterlot. Unfortunately, my brain knew that wasn’t true. Or at least if it was, then I had no way of being sure.

I wanted answers. In fact, I downright needed answers. I had an unquenchable thirst to find out for myself, whether or not the Ruby had been rescued. Taking one last look at the beautiful rays of sunlight falling on Canterlot, I sighed. I gained a new determination at that moment, one even greater than I had previously ever had. Doubt had been my driving force ever since the Ruby had become the epicenter of my life. But now, a new force entered me, one that I can’t fully explain. But a force that I knew would allow me to overcome whatever obstacles that I might face.

Although I may not have known much at the time about what I was about to do, one thing was clear to me. I was going to have to overcome what I would soon learn as unthinkable challenges. But looking back at what I had to do, I could never be gladder that I took them on, even when I had doubts that plagued me constantly.
-----

Celestia looked hesitantly out across the vast expanse of darkness. The valley, which acted more like a huge crevice, splitting the mountain in two, in the Everfree forest, was quite intimidating. She scanned out below into the valley, straining desperately to see something in the endless darkness. Even in the daylight, this valley would have been hard to navigate from above, but at night, there was no chance in heck that one could decipher what lay below in it. Gulping, realizing that she had no other way to get to the volcano, the young Celestia took a cautious step forward down the slope. She had to feel her way around for the most part, not trusting her hoofs to make a blind decision.

Chills of the night ran down her spine. Something seemed odd about this place. Well, of course even more so than the fact that it was a vast, unknown slope of land. The feeling of watching eyes leaned heavily on the young alicorn. She wanted to scream, turn around and flee in terror, screaming off into the dark. Yet at the same time, an insatiable urge of curiosity drove her onwards, further down the slope.

The howling wind and wet, moist air made her tingle with anticipation. No doubt lingered any amount about the presence of a pony, or at least a creature of some kind. Despite not knowing what exactly or who exactly it was watching her, Celestia wanted to confront it. She stopped in her tracks once she heard the coarse breathing. It came from a bush, or at least what Celestia perceived as a bush; she didn’t quite know for sure, as she could not see well enough to make out a definite shapes. The breathing was loud, but it did not appear to be menacing. She thought of it more as sighs of exhaustion. Curiosity was imbedded in her genes, and it would not allow her to do anything but investigate the strange sound.

Taking deep breaths, and gaining composure, wanting to be sure that nothing would startle her, Celestia moved towards the bush carefully. She did not want to startle whatever it was behind the bush. If she did, she would either scare it off, or, worse, it could attack her, which would probably end very badly for the young alicorn. When she felt she was right next to the bush, she softly called out, “hello, anypony in there? Do you need help?”

Her eyes burned brightly as she waited for a response. She patiently waited for a response, one that every second seemed less and less likely to come. She called out a second time, trying to convince herself that the animal had simply not heard her the first time. She spoke even more softly this time, practically at a whisper, “Hello? Are you all right?” No response could be heard. The breathing had faded away since she had first asked, and now she couldn’t hear it at all.

Compassion immediately turned to anger. She demanded an answer to why it hadn’t responded. She was angered with herself as well. Why hadn’t she done more? And if she had done more, would it had really have mattered? Desperate for closure, she convinced herself that even if she had gotten an answer, even if she had helped the seemingly injured animal, it wouldn’t have mattered. The young alicorn turned away, disappointed.

She stepped away from the bush, and figured the next thing to do was to continue on her way down the slope. Moving down the slope safely once again became her number one priority. She had officially put that episode behind her; she was ready once again to look forward to her task ahead of her, getting to the volcano.
-----

The mountains were gorgeous against the scarlet blue background that was the mid-morning sky. Once again, this beauty of nature did not resonate with me. When normally I would be stunned, I was instead just pushed further into my thoughts of the Ruby. Even my dreams were filled with thoughts of the Ruby, whether or not it was rescued, the same thing over and over ever sleepless night. Sure, I might have closed my eyes, and to observers I may have seemed at peace, but in reality I was constantly going over the situation in my head. The previous night had been no different. It was turning me into quite a physiological wreck.

But the madness’ one positive was that it had a way of always motivating me more, encouraging me to get rid of it. And I knew full well the only way to do that was to seek answers to my ultimate question.

Stretching my aching calves, which in reality did very little to relieve the pain, I got up from my makeshift bed. Although a bed is quite an overstatement, for all I slept on was a thick cotton blanket and I rested my head on my saddle bag. I gathered up everything that I had taken out of the bag the previous night to make it more comfortable to rest my head on, and began walking to the slope that led into the valley. When I arrived there, which was only a few hard paced trotting minutes away, I gazed out across the shadowed valley. I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like at night, probably pitch black, I guessed.

Well there was only one way to get to Ponyville, so I could go on to the Everfree forest and reach my destination. The slope was steep, so much so that it would be better to call it a cliff. Figuring out how to get down became my biggest obstacle, let alone trying to cross the dang valley, which I would say looked more like a pit of darkness at this point. Standing at the edge made me feel like I was hanging off a cliff, and I was about to fall off into nothingness. But this was the only way to get to Ponyville, since I didn’t have any balloons lying around. I bit my tongue, a little too hard, and started my way down, very slowly.

Comments

[OtterFeelings]

1793542 The diary was destroyed, except for the back cover. The story is being told from a first person point of view. The pony speaking in the first person is actually recalling memories from a long time ago, and telling them as a story. The third person are flashbacks that are completely seperate from the first person narratives. The two seperate storylines work to parallel each other.
Hope this clears up any confusion.