That's a lot of words, but feedback so far has been great. I hope to have another chapter up next week as well!Sunday Update and LiiOR Deleted Scene - Trust and Temptresses · 5:10am Aug 19th, 2013
Howdy, readers. Thanks for all your support so far on LiiOR! I think the time has come to finish this story, while it's still focused on Spike and Rarity as was originally intended. This next chapter should cap off Sir Fancypants' visit, and the one after that will be epilogue. I've already got a rough draft for another Sparity story, but I'll be giving Bon Hadescream some love first.
I'm setting a very ambitious goal: have the next chapter of LiiOR out by the 23rd of August. I really hope I can make that deadline, since this chapter is coming together much more easily than the last one. However, in the meantime, check out another scene that fell on the cutting room floor below!
This scene for LiiOR is also from the chapter "A Reunion". I used some parts of it, but felt that much of this scene simply distracted from the main point. I wanted to focus more on Sir Fancypants encouraging Rarity instead of telling her about a marital problem that he and Fleur went through.
Putting the scene after a page break, so if it doesn't show below just click the "Read More" link.
Without further introduction, Deleted Scenes Theater presents:
Love is its Own Reward
Trust and Temptresses
Sir Fancypants sipped at his tea and regarded her with a raised eyebrow. "My dear, I did not mean to imply that we are cogs in some grand machine. Just because we find a place that brings us joy and work that rewards us, we are not bound with invisible chains to toil away for all time. We are always changing and adapting. Sometimes that means we desire to pursue a different place in the world. The beauty of Equestria is that we are free to do so." The old soldier chuckled softly. "Besides, I've seen temptresses. They're far less beautiful than you, because they're all rotted on the inside." His book fluttered, and before he could reach out with a hoof to still the pages, it was open to a page filled with strange writings and symbols that seemed to wiggle beneath a steady gaze. He glanced up to the fashionista. "I think we both know that a certain little dragon would be happy to hold a place at your side, and you would do your very best to be a worthy partner for him."
She traced a hoof around the edge of her tea saucer. "I would try. Those writings... they aren't dragon-runes."
Sir Fancypants shook his head. "No. Ah... in the pursuit of technomagery, we unicorns seek to understand the nature of the world and better control it. This is a noble and worthy goal which the dragons also pursued." He cleared his throat. "However, there are certain forces that can... well, they guarantee power without all that hard work and research. The catch is that you never truly gain power, you merely channel theirs without understanding."
The mare tilted her head to the side. "Like the Elements of Harmony?"
"No, no, well... sort of. There is a key difference. The Elements might be thought of as a tank. Crewed properly, they can overwhelm many enemies, and if you ever looked deep enough you could fathom their workings. In truth, they are powered by their bearers, much like a tank requires a crew to operate." He ran a hoof over the curious page. "The things of which I speak are entities themselves, and whatever power they loan out always comes with a touch of soul-rot. To consort with them is to invite ruination, and yet... ponies still do it. Just as the dragons did, long ago." He caught the mare's eye. "Or did you think that Nightmare Moon was purely caused by the dementia of Her Lunar Majesty?"
Rarity shivered. The stallion reached out and touched her hoof. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be bringing things like this up, not today."
"I'll be fine." The mare forced a smile. "You... you've beaten these kinds of things, yes? They can't be that horrible."
"Indeed, and that's how I know you're not one of them." The old soldier leaned back. "Besides, it took two of them and a wagonload of chem-gas to get me." Noticing how her expression brightened, he continued. "Wasn't that long ago, I suppose. Thought they had me in the perfect setup, a classic divide-and-conquer scenario. Snatched me up, left Fleur a clue to my location, made sure she got there just as the drugs kicked in."
"They made you fight her?" She asked, breathless.
"Oh, heavens no. The two old crones were about to get their claws into me when she tore through the door, surrounded by more levitating blades than anypony should see in a lifetime." He sipped at his tea. "They thought she would see me and think I was willfully complicit. Figured that she'd try to put a blade through my heart before anything else, matter of honor and all that. But, my dear, here's the lesson that you can take from me. Always make sure there is a bond of trust between you and your beloved, a bond so strong and so long built that it cannot be broken by a few arguments and an unfortunately timed kidnapping."
The designer thought quickly. "The two of you were on the outs before all this happened?"
"I had made a terrible mistake, and I didn't want to own up to it." He admitted. In truth, they had both dropped the ball and neither wished to bend, but this fine young mare did not need to know everything. "Certain unsavory parties saw this as an opportunity to destroy the both of us. However, they did not understand love, and so they could not predict what happened." The stallion reached down and turned the page. On the next leaf was a photograph of himself and Fleur, snuggled tight in front of a large bonfire.
Rarity sighed. "She knew you had to be innocent?"
"Heavens no. She just missed with the first blade, and I caught her eye before she could ready a second. It was a rather bad situation to be in, mind you, and really there was no explanation I could give in the short amount of time I had that would redirect her anger." The stallion winked. "Mind you, the two temptresses were cowering behind whatever cover they could find, but I was so drugged I could barely move, or think. All that remained was a sliver of my mind, just enough for me to say one word."
"Her name?" The designer asked, thinking of a romance novel she had read, where the heroic knight had known his love was under an evil spell because she spoke his name with such passion.
"Help." Sir Fancypants chuckled. "My dear, I'm a practical stallion. Still, that was the only thing that could have saved me. I saw her eyes change, and she realized that, despite all the evidence they had planted on me, I was asking her for aid. She was my refuge, my peace, just as she had always been. Nopony else could offer what she gave freely." His eyes had turned slightly glassy. After a pause, he blinked a few times, then continued. "Fleur is really a brilliant girl, but she has lived her life with discipline. That extends to her mind, to the point that she focuses on one line of thought, often to the exclusion of all else. It's how she can hold all those odd positions as long as the photographers need, and how she can shrug off temptations that would trip anypony else up. You must understand, this was a very precisely-planned attack on us."
"It's certainly not the kind of marriage trouble that one reads about in the papers." The mare brushed her mane aside. "But you came through it."
"Because we trusted each other, enough that she was willing to give me the benefit of the doubt. Now, of course, we talked after she was done with the other two." He coughed, and nervously adjusted his collar. "And I am quite certain that she would have put me down in cold blood if I had not been able to assuage her concerns. Finding your husband between two other mares is almost never a good thing, mmm. But, in the heat of the moment, she trusted me. That's when love is truly tested, when anger and betrayal burn brightest in your eyes. The only thing that will save you in that moment is knowing that your steel has been hammered well and is free from impurities. Of course, we both had quite a bit of anger to work off after that." He tapped the photograph of the bonfire again. "And as it turned out, Her Majesty had quite a few enemies that needed to be put to rest."
"What started your first argument, though?" Rarity asked. "Just... out of curiosity."
He winced. "Drapes. A pair was rather old, and I ordered some new ones without asking Fleur first." The stallion smiled bashfully. "I picked the wrong color, and she was planning to do something completely different with the window anyway. It wouldn't have been a problem if I had bought them from the home improvement store, but I had issued a special order..." He pressed a hoof to his face again. "Sorting all that out was worse than getting drugged. At least the drugs gave me a pleasant buzz while they tried to destroy my mind."
The designer smiled. "Trust in the dark times. I'll remember that, Sir Fancypants."
He nodded, happy to shift his concentration to something more productive. "Not merely trust, my dear. I seized the moment. When the time came, I was strong enough to say one word, and that word changed my fate." He swirled the tea in his teacup. "We think of dragons as ageless creatures, but time passes at the same rate for all of us. A moment to a pony is the same as a moment to a dragon. While we might think of a decade as a long time, a dragon might think of it as a short while, however that decade is full of the same number of moments for both parties." The stallion sipped at his tea. "I have never sought to live long, but to live well. It is the better choice, I think. My Sergeant used to say that he was not born to live forever, that was not his family's creed. He was born to be forever, to shape history with his acts. Even if his name is forgotten, his acts remain, for without him history would be very different. That is his immortality. He made his moments count, and when the crucial ones came, he seized them."
"The dragons have a saying for that, don't they?" Rarity asked. "It's... carpath... oh, dear me, I've-"
"Carpag Dieum. Sieze the day." The stallion smiled. "To merely exist forever is boring. If you wish to live, you must act. Better to live for one day, than exist for a thousand."
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