Crystal White

by Lovinlife

Book 1: Chapter 10: A New Plan for a Book

The musty fog that clouded Shining's mind still had not lifted even as he and Soul walked down the hall towards the Princess' throne room. While Soul weakly held his head down, letting it flop around with his steps, Shining tried to hold his head up and walk with authority in his paces. Each of their uncomfortable ailments proved to be too superior for them, however, and their path wobbled here and there on weakened strides. Shining's breathing was difficult, but not impossible. He hated the risks, but his duties had to come first. But he fully believed that Twilight was right and he needed rest; he felt that now.

"So, what is wrong with your sister? I don't mean to pry if it's personal, but I don't know what I've done to cause her to act that way. She's usually all quiet and shy." Soul asked Shining curiously.

Shining knew what was wrong. Twilight would hate for that information to be shared, but he figured that he could let Soul know what it was. Maybe he could help her. "She's still hurt over mom and dad's deaths. She took it hard, like me, but she couldn't get over it, like I could. Even Spike seems to have gotten over it, from what I've seen. And don't tell her I said that."

Soul glanced down at the cobblestone floor, which felt cold against his hooves as they strode over it. "I'm sorry. But I don't see how that could cause her to go against the Princess so often. She's not the type to lash out from anger."

The pair turned a corner in the hallway and passed two guards who immediately saluted their leaders as they moved on. Shining saluted the pair back, yet Soul just continued onward as if he didn't notice them.

Shining wasn't sure that he should go any further in letting out Twilight's secrets. He decided that changing the subject would be better for him should Twilight ever find out. She had her ways. "You obviously don't know my sister as well as you may think." Shining chuckled a fake laugh. "One time, she put a very strong sleep potion in my water because I had found something of hers that she didn't want found; don't ask. Turned out, the recipe she used called for a dangerously heavy dose of tranquilizers, and apparently, I almost never woke up."

"Dear Celestia." Soul breathed out, surprised to hear about the lavender unicorn’s darker side. "I can't see her doing that.”

Shining laughed a bit louder as they reached a crossroad in the halls, moving off from the main one in different directions. "It wasn't the first, nor will it be the last time she does something like that."

A battle cry, as if from older, medieval times erupted out of nowhere, and Shining found himself knocked down from a weight now on his chest. Looking up, he saw Bright Wing on top of him with eyes wide with pure ferocity in them.

"Murderer!" Bright's right hoof crashed into Shining's cheek and his jaw popped with a sting of pain from the force.

Surprised, Shining couldn't think of what to do, so he just thrashed about, trying to free himself from the attacker’s weight. It didn't work, and Bright managed to strike him a few more times before Soul pulled the ballistic pegasus off of his commander with his magic.

"Bright, just calm down!" The unicorn tried to talk sense into the pegasus, but this evidently didn't work.

As Shining got to his hooves, Bright screamed out the top of his lungs. "He made that stupid plan! He didn't even fight in the battle, from what I've heard from the guards! He got my coltfriend killed!"

"Rock's dead?" Shining asked, surprised.

Bright turned quickly back to the stallion. He spat out, "Like you ever cared."

"Enough." Soul harshly spoke with a controlled tone. "There's been enough yelling in my ears for today, so everypony can just knock it off, and let's be sensible about this." His words, though quiet, resonated in the hall like a haunting.

With a syncopated clicking of rushing hooves over the stone floor, the pair of guards Shining and Soul had passed by before came running over to the military leaders. "Sirs, what's going on? Are you alright? We heard sounds of a struggle."

Shining turned his entire body with authority once again to the pair. "We're fine, but I can't say the same for him. Bright Wing here has just attacked me for no reason except for anger, and I want him arrested for it."

Both Soul and Bright looked to their commander. Soul was more surprised. "Shining, you heard why he..."

"You deserved it. I'm not feeling guilty at all." Bright added.

"Enough." Shining overrode Soul's yell, barking out like a rabid dog. A deep silence filled the hallway with an awkward and uncomfortable feeling. The hum of Soul's magic was the only sound that made it all bearable. Shining finally continued, "He assaulted me, and the last time I checked, assault was against the law."

Faced with such an argument of politics against a situation of emotion, Soul softly sighed. It pained him that he couldn't do anything to help. "Yes sir." He said, a little unearnest. "You two, get him to the cells, and pray to Celestia they're full."

Shining didn't like that statement, but he kept quiet about it.

"What should we do if they are full?" The unicorn guard asked as his magic pulled the silent but fuming Bright Wing over to him.

"One of you will get me." Soul said, almost like he was telling a secret.

"Yes sir." They saluted and made their way back down the hallway.

As they did, Bright Wing called back to Shining. "I guess you really don't care about morals. You're just trying to cover up your..."

Shining tuned him out and only turned back to Soul. "Let's just get this done. My headache is coming back." He yawned rudely.

~~~

Twilight finished her crying soon after the two stallions left to go play their war games. Shining's leaving broke the rose-colored glasses that had once covered her eyes in the sweetness of harmony. She didn't feel an ounce of doubt as to who he would help more, should both need him. The other was loyalty to Celestia. Twilight now felt alone in her struggle to understand, and to not just let it go.

The depressed unicorn was laying down next to Spike on her brother's bed, which was colored with two shades of blue and purple. Her mind flashed with images of fire, troubling thoughts of everypony's lives being lost while this fight gets worst. Along with many that shouldn't even be repeated to anypony else...especially to Soul Flasher and Celestia...maybe she should add Shining to that list too.

But by thinking such things, was she willing herself to still be Celestia's personal student? Her wild imagination created an image of her learning all the most powerful spells, and succeeding in blowing up the planet. Her doubts and fears could hold her back, but history had a nasty habit of repeating itself. Her mind only told her that enough family members were in direct service to the crown...or was she missing something else?

"Spike? Am I doing the right thing being here?" The doubtful unicorn asked the dragon, who raised an eyebrow in confusion. A look that Twilight didn't like. She instantly knew that she wasn't going to get an answer she would've liked.

"Huh? I don't know what you mean." He had a blank look on his face that said the same thing to Twilight.

Twilight figured that this was better than nothing though, and was just happy that Spike just listened when she was in need of an ear. She nodded anyway, "I would have to agree with that." She figured it was best to just confuse him than to bring him into this whole mess of hers. He was still too innocent for its hold. Her hoof rubbed the colored blanket along the seams where the two blues and two purples met.

"Twilight." Spike's worry-filled voice called to her, bringing her thoughts back under control again. "I don't know what's wrong with you. You're acting like everypony you love would just leave you." He paused there for a moment. A rock in deep concentration, before he began again. "But what happened to Mom and Dad wasn't your fault. You didn't have any control of your magic then."

The little dragon could always read his older sister like a book, even if he didn't know it himself. It served her well before, and it continued to do so now, as Twilight felt a little better. The fabric of guilt was folded away for now, until the next time it would surface from the closet of her mind. She didn't know what it was about the helpful little dragon that always brought her out of the deepest caverns of negativity, but she loved him dearly for it and so much more.

Twilight smiled and gave her little brother a little scratch behind his ears. "Thank you. You always know how to cheer me up."

"Of course, I couldn't just leave you like that." Spike pointed out like it was no problem at all. It wasn't, but it meant so much to the friendless unicorn. The pair pulled into a deep and meaningful hug that could've lasted an eternity. The atmosphere of the room was now one of comfort and happiness.

They stayed that way for a few seconds, just letting the family ties string them together. While not by blood, it was by emotions, and that was enough for them to feel that they were siblings.

Twilight unfortunately let go first. While this was a feeling that she wanted to keep going, and possibly show with her brother, she knew that there were some things that needed to get done. It was back to her admittedly chopped up plan. She thought about what had gone wrong. The book, the Princess, everything had happened at the wrong time and Twilight now had to do something new to be able to move on with her plan. Celestia knew about the book, what it held, and now knew that Twilight wanted it. Twilight hoped that Celestia wouldn't know about those reasons too. The smoldering sense of failure extinguished any confidence that she had had put into, and it took away the sense of accomplishment that the unicorn had felt over the past year with learning spell after spell after spell after spell and so on to build up and train her magic for that one book. The one book that could make all the hard work she put into her personal studies behind Celestia's back worth it.

"Today should've gone a lot better." The unicorn mused over the events in her head over again, but couldn't think up one problem. Until she looked back to Spike and the book. She stopped her pacing and looked at her assistant with wide eyes. "But I had you leave that book by her door." She face-hoofed herself in frustration while an irritated growl rumbled from her throat. "Stupid. Stupid."

Spike pointed something out to her. "But if we hadn't left the book with her and had just taken it with us, we would've been in a lot of trouble for disobeying."

"True." Twilight's mood got a bit brighter as this positive thought came out. "Maybe we aren't in that much trouble with her after all."

"And if you think about it, you haven't really broken any laws or any of the Princess's rules of the castle. Except maybe the book one. You could still be in good graces with her." Spike spoke with confidence about the situation.

Twilight thought about it. Maybe Spike could be right, or maybe it was a fool's hope behind a fool's dream. She shook her head. "After today, I don't think Celestia will be trusting me with the more advanced spell books in the library ever again." She started to pace once again, as her mind worked hard to think up a solution. Rethinking on what she knew and analyzing what she has seen and heard, but only one thing was certain to her. "We need to get that book back.

"You're going to try again?" Spike questioned. He was a bit surprised at the thought of Twilight still trying.

"I need to perform the ritual spell. I just have to." She finally said sadly.

"Twi." Spike spoke, as the unicorn who went back to looking at the multi-colored bedspread. She had the same one. "I still don't think a necromancy spell would help. Something could go wrong. Can't you just say goodbye like everypony else has?"

The unicorn turned back to the dragon. She stood far over the spikes on his head. It was like the king on the throne looking down on his subject, about to ridicule them for doing something wrong. The light created a shadow that darkened the bags under Twilight's eyes. She hasn't been sleeping well. Her gaze was firm and Spike had to take a few steps back just so he could escape that gaze, but Twilight followed him with her eyes and wouldn't let him go. Spike knew to watch out when Twilight gave that look. Finally, after the few seconds that had passed that felt like an hour to the dragon, Twilight spoke with a mix of harshness and softness in her tone: "I can't help but feel guilty over the last fight I had with Mom and Dad. The very last thing I said to them before I walked into that test room was 'don't come to visit if I make it.' In my gut, I knew I was wrong to say that, but I was so angry over their constant persistence of proving the family's worth. Now I know I have to at least try to make things right. If it doesn't work out, I may not be able to move on like the others have. Scratch that, I know failing isn't an option. I have to tell them I'm sorry."

Spike listened to that speech and slowly sighed, a bit down at his vain attempts to help his sister. "I understand, Twi, but what can we do now? The Princess will be watching the library now."

“If it's still there, she could be keeping it somewhere else now." Twilight said, back to her thinking voice and train of thought.

"That's true." Spike couldn't disagree with that. "But we can't keep looking at this is a negative way, or else we will never get anything done."

"I know I'm being a pessimist right now, but that doesn't mean that I'm always that way. Plus, it seems to help keep my thoughts together and help me think better through the details." Twilight began to pace the room once again, all other things were aside for now. "Well, what if I called her back with some information that was just damaging to Celestia?" Twilight asked in a tiny, innocent voice that hid nothing. "She would have to deal with that on top of everything else, she'll be swamped." She saw Spike's face darken with fear in his features. The dragon looked conflicted, and Twilight could understand why. What she was suggesting was no short of treachery. Looking back on it too, Twilight even wondered if it was all worth it. Personal redemption of one's own mistake or the secure notion of not going to jail because of an angry princess?

"Twi, you do remember what I said about being in the Princess' good graces, right?" Spike repeated the statement hopefully. Twilight nodded in assurance. "Then why can't you just go up to her and tell her about your plans for the book? I'm sure she would help you or help with everything else."

With not even a thought on her mind, the purple unicorn suddenly shot across the room and pressed her muzzle against Spike's snout. His gaze filled hers, as she didn't allow the dragon to turn away from her shouting: "What!? Are you crazy? She'd throw me out for sure. No...we must do this in secret." That was just how moving forward had to be done. Maybe Spike didn't understand that not everything could be told to other ponies. Twilight calmed down enough to open the bedroom door and walk out into the barracks hallway. Her legs were all shaking uncontrollably. Spike hurried to catch up.

Twilight took a glance at Spike and saw that he was quite scared at what she was proposing. She knew it wasn't a good idea for Spike to be doing this, he was just a baby dragon. Maybe that was for the best. "Spike." Twilight continued, her voice as shaky as her hooves. Maybe it was better if she didn't try this idea either... no, that was just fear talking, and fear never got anypony anywhere. "I won't make you do this if you're not comfortable with helping me too much." She could see the dragon's eyes light up at what she was saying. "Why don't you just find out where 'you-know-what' is while I do what I need to do?" It was certainly best to not talk about the details in the open.

The talons on Spike's fingers clicked, as he rubbed his hands together. "I-I think I would like that a lot better."

"Okay." Twilight nodded while smiling at her best friend. "Than meet me in my room later." And with that said, the two parted ways. Spike headed towards the central wing of the castle while Twilight headed for the underground tunnels.