All that Glitters

by Starsong

Chapter 9

In a black, featureless void, Dusty sat with Ruby Horn. The unicorn seemed distracted, featureless. Dusty was beaten and bruised but somehow suddenly calm.

“What... happened?” he uttered.

“You gave me control of your mind,” Ruby replied, slow, as if trying to make the meaning sink in. “As I have explained countless times before. Your greed took over. You gave yourself to me. And all you have to do is look through this little window to see that I've given you everything that you wanted.”

“I don't understand...”

The unicorn pressed a hoof to his head. “Of course not. It's not like you grasp this state of flux. It's not like your tiny pegasus brain could comprehend the nature of magic the way I have. Your friend's love of treasure was what brought my consciousness into being. What let me set my plan into motion. By invading the past, you made a connection to this timeline, thereby altering...”

Dusty groaned and held his head. “Stop. I'd rather you just strangle me some more.”

“Mmp. Try explaining a closed temporal loop to an idiot. Maybe this is my punishment for my hubris.” He waved his hoof at a space nearby Dusty and another window appeared. “Think back.”

The pegasus leaned over towards the four-paned window, a small slot through haze and time.

A ruddy red pegasus colt dived, pushing a brown unicorn filly out of the way of a rock slide. The debris deafened them to their own cries as they fell into a pinched nook. A boulder pinched his wing and the two of them sat panting for breath. A little bit of fresh air pushed in a gap in the rocks, through which they could see the red filly staring back with wide-eyes.

“Garnet,” gasped Ivory. “Dusty's hurt. You have to dig us out.”

The young garnet stared, and then looked down at the pile of treasure that they'd unearthed together. She looked at them again, and down, and the guilt seemed to plague her forever before she took it and ran.

“Garnet!”

“It's okay,” said Dusty, laughing a bit. “She's just scared.”

“Shut up. It's not okay. She can't leave us to...”

“We'll be fine,” he said, wincing as a jolt of pain shot up his wing. “We can breathe, and someone will come to investigate the slide. We're going to make it out okay.”

“Dusty...” Ivory huddled down in front of him, tears in her eyes. “If I could use my magic...”

“You wouldn't have saved me last time.” he pat her on the horn. “It's my turn this time, okay?”

Dusty shook his head as the window dissolved. Ruby still looked away, towards that forbidden view as he shrugged his shoulders.

“She chose riches over you, and you forgave her in an instant. Ivory still hasn't let it go, but you... do you think yourself kind? Or do you know the real reason?”

“It's just the kind of person she is,” said Dusty, looking down. “A phase. She was young. It...”

“Look again,” sighed Ruby, “and maybe you'll understand. This is your window. This is why I chose you, and why you have let me in.”

The pegasus turned around and wilted a little inside as he looked into another memory. It was one he considered fondly. So why was he afraid of it...?

Back when he'd first gotten his cutie mark. Back when he believed in the height of adventure and treasure for the sake of treasure, Dusty had dragged a young Ivory away from their hometown and into a collapsed ruin he'd found in the forest.

“I still don't know why you wanted me to come with you,” Ivory muttered.

He smiled and pushed his way through vine and rubble, down into the depths of the temple. “Why not? It's awesome, and no one else is brave enough to come. Every adventurer needs a sidekick.”

The filly rolled her eyes. “It's just that no one ever invites me anywhere.”

“They're probably just afraid of you,” said Dusty, which made Ivory flinch. He shrugged. “You just come off as a bit too serious and dangerous at times.”

She raised an eyebrow. “And what do you think I am?”

“Cool enough to come into a lost temple with me. Come on. It's right over there! That idol... I bet the Canterlot museum will pay like, a million bits for it.”

Together they came upon a pedestal where sat an intricate bracelet, a scene of ponies carved into sodalite and bone. He picked it up and looked around, expecting a trap. But nothing.

“Alright, let's get out of here,” said Ivory, shivering. “This place gives me the creeps. Hey, don't put that on... what are you...”

He'd felt compelled to do it when he picked it up. And when he had... the feeling was indescribable. Worse than the torments that Ruby had put him through. He fell to his knees and began trembling. He shook his hoof and cried and bashed the bracelet against the floor, but couldn't get it off.

It squeezed tighter, and another appeared around each of his hooves, and around his neck. He choked out a sob.

And as soon as Ivory realized what was going on, she leapt onto him and began spraying magic wildly. It only took a few solid hits before the bracelet snapped into place and fell to the floor, inert and useless; disenchanted.

He stared up at her, tears in his eyes. They didn't speak the whole way back, though he did remember their inevitable conversation.

“Thank you for saving my life.”

“Whatever. My magic is wrong. At least I was able to use it...”

“Hey, there's nothing wrong with you. If I ever get into trouble again, I want you by my side, okay?”

“Really?”

“Yeah. And believe me, I plan in getting into a lot of trouble!”

“... thank you.”

Dusty stared as the window faded again. Ruby waved his hoof.

“You see? You figured out that by accepting her and her faults, she would bend to your every whim.”

“Stop it.”

“You grew addicted to her admiration and her friendship. But it wasn't enough. You see, I was able to control Garnet because she wanted everything in the world. All that glitters would have been hers, but then I found you. You don't care about the treasure. Dusty, you want everyone in this world to love you. And if you found a way, you would do anything to make that happen”

“Shut up!”

Ruby turned and laughed darkly. He did not even have eyes anymore; only the two torches of flame that, for him, burned eternally. “Even you have to appreciate the irony. Everyone always hated me... hated my ambition, my presence. They hated what I wanted to do, attaining the power of every kind of pony out there. And it's the same power I'm going to use to control them all. Oh, yes, they'll love us. Every last one.”

Dusty reared back and then charged the unicorn. But instead of contacting, he just flew straight through.

“You're wrong,” he said.

“Am I? Or are you just unwilling to admit it to yourself? It doesn't matter. You will never know suffering as I have. I won't fail again, and you will never know what it feels like to be betrayed by your own people. Betrayed and burned. Do you know what that is like!?”

The fires seemed to seep from his eyes until all of his body was burning, dripping and burning fire, whole and furred and skeletal and dying all at once. “To live in that moment forever. Oh, but they're dead now. Dead and long gone and I'm about to get what I want. And I have you to thank for it.”

The horrifying image faded and left the rugged unicorn to gesture towards the darkened window again. “Come. See through my eyes. See your dreams come true.”

Dusty stifled a withering cry. He knew it was true, in some way. That bit of longing inside of him at times flared up, at times became his entirety. And it had lead to this. He'd tried to fight it, but in the end he couldn't defeat himself.

He walked towards the window and everything started to fade to black.

And then, white.

The two shades twisted amongst each other and then finally he blasted backwards across the voidscape, falling at the bottom of a pile of ponies.

Ivory pulled him to his feet. “Don't tell me that you're believing all this crap.”

Dusty groaned and looked around. Instead of blackness, he saw lush, soft grass and flowers springing up beneath them. A small patch of solace in the bleak landscape. He saw Ivory and Bruce and even Garnet and Galebright straightening themselves up.

“How did you get here?” Dusty blinked. Ruby growled from the darkness.

“I'd like to know the same thing myself.”

Ivory shook her head. “Well, when I figured out what was going on, I sort of snapped and tried to pull this geezer out of your head. I'd heard of some mind-effecting spells and thought if I just improvised, I could make it happen. Well, since I'm all backwards...”

“The genius shoved us all inside your head.” Garnet frowned. “I did not imagine it would be this depressing.”

Ivory stuck her tongue out. “I'm guessing all the mares in bridles are somewhere behind one of those doors, back there. Don't go wandering off.”

“Gross!” Garnet gagged. “Do you think I'm back there, somewhere.”

“Oh, undoubtedly,” Ivory mused.

Before they could chatter any longer, Ruby roared an unpony roar that pierced the very corners of Dusty's mind. “Enough of this! I may need one of you to fulfill my destiny, but the rest of you are expendable. You have made a mistake coming here.”

“I think the mistake is yours,” said Ivory. “Because it's not your head. And I don't care how powerful you are, you can be evicted.”

“I...” Dusty stared at the grass-void.

Ruby chuckled. “Oh, yes. You invited me in. Are you going to get rid of me so easily?”

“It's true.” Dusty looked away from his friends. “I'm sorry. It's all...”

Ivory pushed him up. “Who cares? Whatever stupid reasons you had, it doesn't matter now. Just get rid of this loser so we can all go home.”

The red unicorn twisted up and unleashed a rain of magic upon them. Dusty leapt forward and spread his wings, feeling the magic sear but weaken as it soaked into him. Ruby would not risk killing his host. Garnet and Ivory erected shields that deflected some of the rest as he readied a second volley.

“Don't bother fighting. Your fate is inevitable.”

“Could you be more of a walking cliché?” Dusty spat, glancing over his shoulder. “You two. War buddies. Pin him down.”

Ruby laughed long enough for Galebright and Bruce to pincer him with unnatural speed, jumping and pinning him down. He prepared a spell but found it quickly countered by Garnet.

“You spent a little too much time with me,” she laughed, tickling his nose with sparkles until he sneezed. “With you like that there's no way you can surprise me. I'll counter everything you throw out before you can even think it.”

Dusty smiled proudly. “You shouldn't have made the mistake of letting me know this was my head. My room, my rules.”

The red unicorn stared. “You couldn't figure that on your own. Good gods, how dumff—”

Galebright clenched a hoof over his mouth and glanced at Dusty. “You are the weirdest bunch I've ever seen. But what do we do now?”

Dusty tapped his forehead in thought. He had the moment he needed to put it all together. Then it dawned on him. Ruby may have been inside his head, but it was the artifact that was sustaining him. It was what kept his mind and then implanted it into whatever poor pony he could penetrate. Which was, of course, on the outside of his mind, in a realm where none of them were awake.

There was only one thing he could think of.

“Bruce, I need you to buck me in the face.”

The earth pony stared dumbly. “What?”

“Your girlfriend can keep the guy down...”

“He is not my boyfriend!”

“She is not...”

“Whatever.” Dusty waved a wing. “I'll concentrate all my thoughts on displacing the magic. Ivory, I need you to zap me as hard as you can when he kicks.”

Ruby let a muffled groan and glared. Dusty rolled his eyes.

“Of course it's going to work. When you put your whole scheme together you were only thinking of rudimentary magic. Even with studying the princess you couldn't possibly gather all of the power of all three ponies acting in cohesion.” He nodded at his friends. “Do it.”

Of course his friends would never question his strange wisdom. Bruce came first and turned, twisting onto his hind legs and using his momentum to send his boot-clad hoofs for Dusty's skull. Ivory sent a blast of magic and the two forces coalesced into one hell of a headache, which Dusty forced through himself until he was trembling. For a moment he didn't think it would work, but something in his mind clicked and the actions of his friends magnified.

Somewhere far away, the artifact popped off of Dusty's head and shattered into pieces. One by one, the ponies began to fade and the darkness began to splinter until only he and Ruby were standing on broken shards.

“Well, congratulations,” Ruby spat as he pried himself up. “You've broken your mind and my device, but I'm still here with you. And I'm not going anywhere.”

The unicorn reeled back and a thin wire of magic encircled Dusty. “I was willing to play nice, but it looks like you're just going to have to sit in the corner while I take you over completely.”

Several coils of the magic came about Dusty, along with that searing heat. Then he flexed his wings and they burst off in an instant. Ruby blinked.

“How did you...”

“Ivory ended up shoving a lot of magic in me by accident,” he said, laughing. “And without your weird horn thing...”

“It's a casing, you idiot.”

“Without the casing... your power is dwindling. I may not be able to cast a single spell in the outside, but in here, if I focus, I can concentrate it all on one point.” He spread his wings and tipped his head towards Ruby. “And I think it would be perfect right there.”

Ruby looked about frantically as particles of white light began to form around him. “No. I will not be bested by a brutish pegasus! I will kill us both before that happens.”

“You died a long time ago,” said Dusty. He took to wing and swooped around the unicorn, bringing the inherent magics inside of him around Ruby like a whirlwind. “Let it go, Ruby.”

“Never! I.... never.... agh!”

The magic and anti-magic and all the inherent thoughts of him and his friends enveloped the unicorn in a sphere, and the sphere shrunk and shrunk until it was but a spec, and then evaporated.

Dusty landed on the platform and looked around at the splintered portions of his mind. “Alright, guys. One bad guy defeated. Now if I'm lucky, I have enough juice left to fix this place up. It'd be nice to go back.”

He spread his wings wide and flew up, out, over, through the seams of his mind as if weaving his own thoughts together. The gaps seemed to seal on its own, and maybe like removing an infection, the removal of Ruby was enough to set it in motion, letting his friends help, just a little, to bring him back together.

#

He awoke, hours later, on the airship bound for Equestria. Galebright had the helm with Bruce, and both Garnet and Ivory were fussing over his body. At least until he started to wake up.

“Two fillies... I could get use to this again.” he grinned, bleary eyed. It was a line he knew he could only have delivered after returning from the brink of death and got away with. An opportunity he seized with pleasure.

“And he's gone?” Ivory asked, looking into his eyes. “Not even a tiny bit of the crazy unicorn left in you?”

“I don't know.” Dusty shook his head aside and tapped one of his ears. “I think the two of you might have left a little bit behind.”

Garnet punched him in the side. “I am never,” she hissed, “doing that again.” she looked away. “But... thank you. When you took him away from me, I felt such a burden being lifted...”

“Sorry, but believe me,” said Dusty, “that was not what I intended to do at all.”

“Nonetheless.” Garnet nodded. “Perhaps the three of us should sit down and talk this out, once this is all wrapped up.”

“Maybe.” Dusty looked up at Galebright. “What's she still doing here? I thought the camp needed her.”

“Iron Wing can take over for her,” Ivory echoed, as if she'd heard the speech several times. “In the meantime she feels a responsibility to see us safely back to Equestria, and to give a proper update to the Princess.”

Dusty frowned. “She's at my wheel. Flying my airship.”

He tried to stand up, but it just hurt too much. Ivory and Garnet eased him down to laying again.

“I know,” said Ivory. “Besides, she is way more gentle than I was.”

Dusty gave her a weary look, and then looked around the ship. The deck was in tatters. Bits of clouds still clung to the rail. A mess of furniture was half-lodged and parts of the prow looked ready to burst off. A bit of the balloon had to be patched as well.

The pegasus just sighed and hid under his wings. It was going to be a long flight home.