//------------------------------// // Chapter 30: Back home and the final date // Story: A New Starting Point // by Lunar Flarion //------------------------------// Once Flare had gotten back to the castle he knew what he wanted to do first and foremost, he went straight up to Prim’s room to see her. He told the guards where he planned to go and they nodded and told him that they would tell the rest of the family that he had arrived and where he was now. Flare smiled and went on down the familiar hall in search for the pony he loved. With a single knock on the door, he heard her voice. “Coming!” Prim shouted as she opened the door. “Hey, Prim,” Flare greeted with a smile. Prim’s ear twitched at the voice and she looked right into his eyes for a moment. Her jaw dropped slightly as she stared on. Now Flare was getting rather uncomfortable. “I’m back,” Flare said, his grin grew awkward. Prim’s mouth closed and the air stood still. Flare could hear his heartbeat in his ears at that very moment. It was the only noise for a few seconds, till a sharp and maybe happy scree hit his ears. He fell backward as the small mare lunged forward and wrapped her hooves around his neck and gave a firm squeeze... did I say firm? I meant she squeezed so hard Flare turned a darker shade of blue than he already was. Flare gasped for air as the mare started to ramble. “I can’t believe you’re here!” Prim squeaked with joy,” It’s only been a week but it felt longer than that!” Flare wanted to agree, but the mare’s hooves and grip proved a challenge for such a task. Instead, he nodded as the mare nuzzled him with affection. Flare couldn’t lie, though the pain he felt was bad, he rather enjoyed the love and affection Prim had given him. When she let go of his neck and he got a deep breath, Prim pushed her head against his and kissed the tip of his nose. She was in near disbelief that Midnight would actually get Flare back, even though she hated the thought, somewhere deep inside her she felt as if he had died by a beast of the woods. Yet, here he was, in the flesh and alive. Flare reached around her with his hooves and pulled her into his own hug, though much more gentle than what she had given him. She accepted this hug happily as her wings wrapped around him and pulled him in just a little closer. The two felt the sound around them fade away as they joined into their own little world together. Prim adjusted her head to lay on his shoulder while Flare’s laid on her’s. The two didn’t hear the sound of hoofsteps that approached them. At least Prim didn’t. Flare’s eyes snapped open and he looked to where the hoofsteps’ origin. There walked a mare he knew as well. Midnight. She held a smile as she looked upon the two, though it fell a bit into more of a sad or guilty frown as she saw Flare’s reaction to her presence. She stopped and spoke, a little cheerful tone could be sensed from her voice,” I told you I’d find him and get him back here.” Prim’s head snapped up and she looked at Midnight with a small blush. However, the small mare nodded and thanked her sister for doing so. Midnight couldn’t help but replace her awkward smile with a sincere one as her sister gently nuzzled her coltfriend’s chest. However, she had to break this up for she had some news to tell Flare... Though she waited for a bit as the two went back to enjoying each other’s company a little bit more. The two seemed to love it, though they did not notice it. Yet finally, it was up to Midnight to break it to tell Flare to follow her. She cleared her throat and said,” Flare, I need you to follow me for a briefing.” “O-oh... right,” Prim muttered as she looked at Midnight,” That...” Midnight looked at her with a small grin,” I won’t take him too long, don’t worry.” “One more thing before he goes?” Prim asked hopefully. “As long as it is short,” Midnight replied. Prim nodded and looked at Flare. In an instant, faster than Flare could’ve reacted, Prim lunged forward and planted her lips against his and gave him a deep kiss. Flare was caught off guard but managed to quickly recover and enjoy the kiss for the few seconds that it lasted. Midnight just snorted as the two pulled away. Prim nuzzled Flare’s cheek once more and whispered to him softly,” Meet me in the Living Room, I wanted to have another date... this time I made it.” Flare whispered back,” I’ll be sure to make it there, at what time?” “Seven o’clock pm, sharp,” Prim replied,” Now go with Midnight, it is important.” Flare nodded and go up to follow the eldest sister. He nuzzled Prim goodbye as he followed the mare. He felt that they had no exact destination, that Midnight simply wanted to talk to him about something important. So he waited for her to start up a conversation. Minutes had passed and the two continued to walk in silence, they had walked down two halls and seemed to have been heading for another room. The silence made Flare feel awkward and unnerved, after being in a coma for seven days with his mind empty of noise, he didn’t want to go back to an awkward silence, he didn’t like it when other ponies were silent when they could have started up a conversation. Yet the silence continued, continued until the two found a balcony that fasted the whole kingdom. Flare propped his front legs on top of it and stared out whilst Midnight simply watched on. “I first off want to apologize for the decision to banish you,” Midnight said out of nowhere, this broke the forever present scream of silence. “It’s alright,” Flare responded as he looked back at her,” You and your parents were afraid and I can’t really blame you for that. You started to question if I was safe to keep around, and you all feared for Prim’s well-being.” Midnight looked dumbfounded,” How did you know?” “You may be a guard, but I can still read you like an open book,” Flare chuckled as he told her. Midnight sighed,” I should’ve figured.” Midnight walked over and sat down next to the small rail that stretched around the balcony’s platform. “So what is this thing of great importance you wanted to talk to me about?” Flare asked as he looked at Midnight. Midnight shuffled a bit at the eye contact, but told him,” You are liable to get a Medal of Protection from us, it is one of the highest-ranking medals we give out to civilians when they have shown true courage in protecting others. You repelled an army, cut the head off of the snake if you will.” “Hm, so you made me follow you to a balcony to tell me I won a medal?” Flare asked with a smile. “Yes,” Midnight replied dryly,” Is something wrong with that?” Flare just chuckled and shook his head,” I don’t need a medal for what I did.” “What?!” Midnight shouted, this wasn’t normal for ponies to deny such a high honor, but she then realized... this was Flare, and he wasn’t normal. “Yeah, I don’t want nor need it,” Flare shrugged,” And if you have anything else to tell me, I’d like to hear it now.” “Hm... right,” Midnight muttered, then spoke aloud,” Flare, I want you to be the Royal Protector of my sister, you will get armor to hide your identity and a good amount of pay for doing so. Not only that, you will be with Prim 24/7. You will dawn the armor whenever she leaves the castle but not go out into public unless it is a public event, then you will follow her while wearing the armor. Other than that, you won’t have too, you can just carry around a dagger and watch out for her when she is in the castle or just use your old disguise whenever you and she ever go out.” “Wow... that is a lot to take in...” Flare muttered as he took a second to process it,” So you’re telling me that you would like me to be Prim’s personal guard?” “Give or take, yes,” Midnight nodded. Flare’s head fell as he started to think about this. The ups and downs where there, he most likely wouldn’t get any downtime, yet he could spend it with Prim. The other downside is that he didn’t know how Prim would react to this if he were either to accept or deny it. Yet, he couldn’t help but feel that it was the right thing to do for him to accept this job. “I’ll take you up on that offer,” He said as he offered his hoof for a shake. “Good,” Midnight replied as she shook his hoof,” I’ll get the paperwork for you to sign and have you sent down to the blacksmiths’ armor shop to have them make your armor. Other than that, I’d like for you to walk around the castle again, my parents want to see you first though.” “Alright,” Flare said,”Where might they be?” “Most likely in the throne room being complained at by a noble,” Midnight replied,” I’ll see you later.” With that, Midnight got up and left Flare to watch the moon as it slowly rose in the sky. He wondered what exactly did those potions do? If it is true that they only made it to where the guards could leave then wouldn’t Star have put her city in danger by letting them leave? Though that was her problem, and he knew the potion wasn’t poison, she didn’t look or act the type to do so. Where was he? Right, he had to head to the throne room to meet the king and queen. --- The walk there wasn’t too long, Flare did see that the castle was more heavily guarded than the last time he was here. Most guards had new armor and spears, serrated, an interesting choice to say the least. Some guards, though their eyes so that Flare couldn’t see them, did give him some looks, he felt some look at him with a burning gaze while some other’s looked at him as he passed by. He would always look at the guards as he walked by them. Bad memories started to surface back from the underground, though the guards didn’t have serrated spears there, their armor made them look almost twice as big then they normally were. Not only that, you couldn’t see their faces nor their eyes, something to do with an enchantment. He found himself lost in thought once more and quickly cleared his mind. Normally, Solar and or Light would have said something about his thoughts, Solar something snarcky while Light something analytical. Once again, Flare found himself in thought, yet he wasn’t too far in so he was able to rid the thought quickly from his mind. Just in time too, since he nearly walked past the hall that led to the two monarchs. --- He entered the room, or, just like back at the other castle a long corridor. Thankfully, this corridor was light and didn’t have a bat alicorn that waited in the dark for a small jumpscare. He looked down the corridor and saw the two monarchs, both sat on thrones equal to each other in height. In front of them was a white bat pony mare who seemed to on a rant about something. Flare sensed that he wasn’t needed yet so he started to leave. However, he stopped when he saw Honey look at him and gently move her head, she had asked him to move forward. Flare did so, albeit slowly. As he did so, Moon also noticed his presence and looked down at the mare. “I believe we will have to cut this meeting short, Mrs. Chill,” Blood Moon’s deep voice echoed. “Oh, alright,” Mrs. Chill said,” Sorry for the long rant, when might you be available for another talk?” “Next week on Thursday,” Honey answered. “Okay, I’ll mark it down~,” Mrs. Chill responded with a sing-song voice. She turned around and jumped at Flare, who stood right behind her. “Oh, hello!” Mrs. Chill greeted,” Are you Lunar Flarion?” Flare looked at the two monarchs with a questioning look. They nodded and Flare answered. “Yes, I’m Lunar Flarion,” Flare replied,” Nice to meet you.” “Nice to meet you too!” Mrs. Chill replied,” I have to go, I hope you have a good day now!” Mrs. Chills left the room. Flare shrugged, she seemed friendly. “Hello again, Flare,” Moon’s voice echoed once more and it was aimed at him, it was not cold, yet he couldn’t feel any joy behind the welcome. “Your majesty,” Flare replied. “Hello~!” Honey smiled in her normally cheery nature, her more bubbly personality clashed slightly with Moon’s much colder one. “I heard you would like to speak with me?” Flare asked. “You’ve heard correctly,” Moon replied. “Dearie, please don’t be like that,” Honey replied,” Be a little happy.” “Fine,” Moon’s tone gained at least an emotion, of what, Flare didn’t know. “Where was I?” Moon asked,” Ah, yes, Flare, we would like to give you a formal apology for our decision. At some points, we need to realize that fear shouldn’t run us... but we let it.” “Yes,” Honey continued,” You should have been at least rewarded for fending off the wolves, if not saving us from the iron shackles of our own dungeons.” “I don’t want a reward,” Flare replied,” I didn’t do it for one, I don’t expect one. Thank you for your offer, but I must decline.” “Hm... you aren’t the first, but you are rare, not many ponies would deny a reward for their efforts,” Moon complimented. “The reward I got from it is Prim being okay and not hurt. To me, that is more valuable than a medal or another object that can be lost,” Flare said. “Your love for our daughter makes us happy,” Honey smiled,” You already have my blessing for marriage!” This caught Flare off guard, and if he were to have a drink, he most likely would’ve spat it out,” What?” “Don’t pretend like we don’t know~,” Honey giggled,” You two do seem to like the idea of marriage, and you already have my blessing~!” “I should’ve guessed,” Flare replied with an awkward smile. He turned to look at Moon, who looked back at him with a steely gaze. “I’m still thinking about it,” Moon stated,” Though you have shown to be a good stallion at heart, I believe it too early to say if you have my blessing, I’ll make my decision in a day or two, by then prepare for my call.” “Yes, sir,” Flare nodded,” Is there anything else you need of me?” “No,” Moon responded,” You may leave, I take it you know the castle has changed, feel free to explore.” “Will do,” Flare nodded as he left the throne room. --- Flare had walked around the castle, he walked by more guards than he would’ve like to, but he couldn’t blame them for putting this many guards on duty. He first went to find Night, he felt it was at least fair for all the sisters to know that he was here. So he went to her bedroom and knocked. When the door opened, Night let off a squeak and greeted him happily. She told him that she was glad he was here since Prim had been down and had covered most of it up with her research about the past of the kingdom. This had gotten Flare interested and he made a mental note to talk to Prim about this whenever they were together, just not during the date... it might be the final one, one that is checked off till something important. Night then went on to tell him that his arrival back into town and him now allowed to be free had really ruffled some non-existent feathers of some bat ponies. He wasn’t bothered by this and simply told her that as long as they didn’t hurt Prim or anypony else, he couldn’t care less. Other than a few minor things, Flare left her room and waved her goodbye, he had been in there for around 2 hours at least. He decided to find an old friend, Shattered Moon... “Hey, Midnight told me you were back!” Or that old friend would find him. Flare turned around to look back at the Lieutenant. He had grown a little bit, that was for certain. Flare walked over and Shattered offered his hoof, to which Flare gave it a firm shake. Now, it was time for a little bit of catch up with his old pal. “How have you been?” Flare asked. “I’ve been all right,” Shattered said,” Though Midnight is a little bit feisty right now.” Flare’s eyebrow raised,” May I ask why? “Heh... well, you know how we went to our room after the wedding?” Shattered said with an awkward grin. Flare took a moment to piece together what Shattered was saying. Then it hit him,” Didn’t Midnight’s heat start early this year?” “Exactly,” Shattered said. Flare smacked his lips,” I’m not sure if I should be happy that you’re gonna be a father or worried that you are going to be a father.” “Hey!” Shattered smiled and jabbed Flare’s shoulder,” Not cool!” Flare smiled,” Heh, but still funny.” The two gave a hearty chuckle at the joke. Another chuckle, Flare felt happier. “Other than that, nothing much has happened to me,” Shattered shrugged,” The guards been decked out in new armor, new weapons and such to prevent another attack. We also found out the reason the Wereponies got past the defenses.” “How did they?” Flare asked. “They poisoned the water supply at the checkpoint with a sleeping elixir, knocked the guards out cold.” Shattered grimaced,” Cheap tactics... but I hate to say this, but it worked, they caught us off guard. That’s why the guard now has a well under the checkpoint for fresh water, and to make sure that the water supply can’t be tampered with. Not only that but the guards have been supplied with large amounts of water jugs to use to refill any canteens they have.” “It seems like you’ve got this down,” Flare mused. “I hope we did, I don’t want another attack like that again for as long as I live,” Shattered replied. “Heres hoping,” Flare agreed. The two went on to talk about Flare’s experiences in the Razorwood Forest, how he survived, where did he live etc. Flare told him how he did so, he stayed at a house far into the woods which had food. He would go out for food, but that was rare since he didn’t want to be caught by the trappers, nor did he actually need to eat. He told of how the forest was laid out, how certain parts are more dangerous than others and how these parts would shift every other day. he told about how he met a timberwolf, even though he was far from any of their territory. He also told him on how the forest seemed to be alive as if it could hear him. That was when Shattered told him about how the guards don’t remember much after they picked him up. He said that the guards only remember finding him somewhere deep within the woods. To Flare, the potions’ secret had been revealed, memory alteration potion. To Shattered, Flare simply told him that was what had happened, he didn’t know if Star was nearby, so he didn’t want to take a chance to tell where her kingdom lie. They talked back and forth, soon they had stepped away from what had happened in the forest to what the future might hold. Both had a positive outlook on the future, Shattered believed that the future would hold better fruit and goods for them if they remained fair and just, and Flare felt the same way. The topic had started to change once again, once more they talked about something new, even referred back to a topic they had been talking about. At this, a few more hours had passed as they chatted away. --- To Flare, the day was kinda fast and slightly confusing. It had been a while since he had been at this castle and with all the new changes, it looked as if it was going to take Flare a little while to get used to them. He and Shattered had just departed, and he now headed to his bedroom. He wasn’t sure if anything had changed if they ever went into his room. He hoped they didn’t since he thought he had left behind another old friend of his. This became more apparent when he opened the door and a skull came up and slammed into his chest. He let out a gasp of air as the horn narrowly missed his throat, but the skull didn’t seem to care as it nuzzled him. Flare gathered his thoughts together and smiled,” Hey buddy, long time no see, huh?” “Rrrrrrrruff!” the skull agreed as it backed away to look Flare in the eye. “Sorry I didn’t bring you along...” Flare said as he scratched the nose of the skull. “Ruff ruff!” The skull barked angrily at him. “Hey! In my defense, they got me to leave before I knew what was going on!” Flare retaliated the skull’s hurtful statement. “Rrrrr,” the skull growled. “Don’t you give me tone young sir lady!” Flare growled back,” I’ll go get a newspaper!” The skulls red eyes opened up into near perfect red spheres as it whimpered softly. Flare stood up and looked at the floating skull. “What?” Flare asked. “Ruff!” The skull replied, its look of fear disappeared and was replaced with a deadpan expression. “Oi, watch your language!” Flare chastized the skull. “Ra raa ra ra!” The skull replied in a mocking tone. “Someday, I’m gonna make you eat those words,” Flare replied as he narrowed his eyes. “Ra ra, ra ra ra ra ra ra~!” The skull mocked once more. “Fine, be that way,” Flare groaned as he made the skull disappear back to wench it came. He forgot that that skull could be rather sassy. He rubbed his temple and sighed as he entered his room. Inside... well, the inside of the room definitely had changed. The covers were moved around, crumpled pieces of paper were strewn across the floor. His pillows had been moved around to face the doorway and so on. He could explain the pillows and covers, but not the paper... unless the blaster had secret hands or learned how to crumple up pieces of paper with its jaw. Either way, it wasn’t the blaster that did it. Somepony had been in here. Flare reached down and picked up a crumpled up piece of paper and unfolded it. It had been written on, and Flare knew the pony who had written on it, for her writing style was rather obvious, it was Prim. He read the paper to find out what she was writing about, but only found a few notes on something called the Solar Empire and its collapse. Now his urge to ask her grew stronger. “What time is it?” Flare muttered as he looked at the clock. Instead of finding out the time, he just looked up and saw that the clock was unplugged. He could hear the blaster laughing now. He plugged the clock back in, when it turned on, it appeared to have reset itself. He groaned in dissatisfaction and went off on a not so magical journey to find a clock. ---After a long 10 minutes of looking for a clock--- The clock read 3:45 pm as Flare found it. He had three hours and fifteen minutes before his date. Yet, there wasn’t much to do around the castle. He had already chatted up with old friends, most likely the seamstress and cook were busy so he couldn’t talk to them at the moment, and he didn’t want to bring the blaster back out. So Flare opted to do something he hadn’t done before. He decided to go and try out the maze. He remembered that he was found in the middle of it, yet he never saw the middle and he barely ever saw the inside of the maze. He closed his eyes and focused on the entrance of the maze, his horn glowed lightly, then started to grow brighter, till there was a sharp crack and he felt the world around him morphe and change until he felt the soft grass under his hooves, a much better feeling than the cold floor of the castle. He opened his eyes to find himself where he wanted to be, under the bright moon and in front of the maze. For the next few hours, he was going to find his way in and out of this maze. He looked at the outside one more time before he started walking into the maze. The walls were high, high enough that at the angle the moon was at, the inside of the maze was near pitch black. The only light came from the entrance, and soon that started to fade as well until it completely disappeared when he rounded a corner. There, the maze already branched off into two different directions, straight ahead and to the side. Flare pondered for a moment on what path he should take, it was too early on to find a pattern of the maze, so he marked the intersection with a thin piece of his metallic needle and went down the path to the side. He reached the end of that path and it turned straight, like the other path in the maze. Once again, he summoned a large metallic needle, but this time, it was a different color, a light green. He placed it firmly into the ground and followed the path. Soon, as he reached another branched path, he found the pattern. If you find a branched path, the path on either side will go to a one-way path then branch off themselves. This wasn’t too hard to find out, but Flare still had difficulty navigating the maze. When he found a branched off path, he went down the one that seemed to lead closer to the middle, but then the maze broke its pattern, in the middle of the path was another opening, another path leading away from the one he was on. He had to summon another needle and place it down, then he followed the path. Time seemed to warp in the maze, Flare felt as if he had been in the maze for nearly a few minutes, yet, little did he know he had been in there for an hour, he had tried to find the center for an hour. He had yet to reach it, though, through much trial and error, he managed to find a path that hadn’t ended in a dead end itself. He followed the path and felt like he had walked in circles when he saw another path opened on the side of this one. He did what he had been doing and placed down another needle. He wished he had brought a watch with him so he could check the time so he isn’t late for the date. He grumbled as he walked down the path. He then found himself standing in an open area, there was only one exit to it, he had found the center of the maze! He couldn’t help but jump as he looked around. Several different types of flowers lined up and against the wall, all different colors, all different types. The walls here were definitely higher than at the start. “Now that I found the center of the maze, I can just backtrack and exit the maze to kill more time!” Flare stated to nopony. With the center found, he began to backtrack slowly through the maze as he removed any and all needles he had placed along the way. This took him another hour to do so, all the needles had been collected, and he felt great for having gotten to the center of the maze and back to the start. He didn’t know how much time he had left, so he teleported back to the castle, right where he had found that clock. He appeared in the room and looked down at the clock and it read 5:56. He had about an hour to kill since he had already conquered the maze, he might as well go and tidy up his room and set his clock back to the actual time. He used his magic and picked up the many crumpled up pieces of paper and teleported them to a nearby trashcan. He fluffed up the pillows on his bed and laid them at the hea of his bed and straightened up the covers. Now, that the room was cleaned and Flare killed a total of 10 minutes. Flare groaned and he laid down on the bed and waited for the time to go to the Living Room. --- Flare walked into the Living Room with a grin on his face. He didn’t dress out, Prim really didn’t say anything about it. All she said was to meet her in the room. Yet, as he walked in, Flare didn’t see her. What he did see was the large TV turned on with what looked to be the selection screen of a movie. He walked over and sat on the couch and wondered if he had gotten here before Prim or if Prim went to go do something and would be back. Either way, he waited for her. -In the Kitchen- Pop! The bag of kernel popcorn popped its final pop. A large bowl had been set to the side and an eager mare sat and waited for the popcorn to finish popping. Once it did, she quickly grabbed it and opened it, the freshly popped popcorn poured out into the large bowl and nearly filled it to the top. She wasn’t sure if Flare liked salt on it so she grabbed the salt shaker and the bowl of popcorn and speed-walked back to the Living Room, she had hoped she wasn’t too late. When she got to the Living room, she found the door slightly cracked open. She nudged the door open and walked in. “Hello,” Flare greeted Prim with a smile. “Hello~,” Prim greeted back,” I have popcorn~!” “Nice,” Flare replied,” So, what do you have planned for tonight?” “Well...” Prim sat next to him on the couch,” I planned to watch a movie with you~!” “May I ask what the movie is?” Flare asked. “Well, I went through a bunch of old movies,” Prim said and scooted closer to him,” And... well I found a movie called The Bloodied Ring, I think it’s a horror film of some kind!” Flare furrowed his eyebrows,” Are you sure you want to watch a scary movie?” “Of course!” Prim replied,” I may not like lightning and I may be shy, but I love a good horror film!” Flare felt like he should have facehoofed, but Prim had started to talk once more. “So, do you like horror films?” Prim asked as she nuzzled his cheek. “Eh, I like them as long as they are good,” Flare admitted as he returned the nuzzle. “Well, I never watched this one before, so we’re both going in blind.” Prim explained,” So we can both bond over that fact we know nothing~.” “And maybe a blanket since it might get cold in here?” Flare asked as he summoned a blanket. “Well, I do have you to keep me nice and toasty,” Prim giggled,” But blankets work too.” Flare chuckled and laid the blanket on top of both of them. Even though the blanket was big, Prim and Flare had to move closer together to get completely under its soft cover. Not only did the soft blanket cover Flare’s back, but a gentle leathery wing accompanied it as well. Flare placed his hoof next to Prim’s as she started the movie. Flare looked at Prim who watched the screen intently, he couldn’t help but chuckle at how she watched the screen like a hawk. After the old-fashioned intro ended, the real horror started and Flare turned his head to watch as the movie unraveled. The movie went a little like this, a grave robber dug up a body of a noblemare and stole her vaubles, sealed back up her tomb, and sold the valuables on in the market. Among the valuables were a golden pocket watch, a pearl necklace, and finally, a ruby red ring the robber called the Bloodied Ring, just to give it an interesting name. Along comes a stallion looking for the perfect ring to give to his lover when he proposes to her. So, the robber sells the stolen ring for 200 bits and the stallion pays for it. He later goes back to his house with the ring inside a makeshift ring box. “Two hundred bits for a ring!?” Prim gasped,” That is way too much! Why did he even pay for it? He could’ve gone down and bought her a nice tungsten ring for 50 bits!” Flare preposed a counterpoint,” Maybe the stallion was running out of options, maybe the store was closed and he wanted to propose to her the next day!” Prim booped his nose in defiance,” That still doesn’t a count to the horribly high cost! Ruby rings like that are only around 100 to 130 bits!” “Maybe it was a very rare type of ruby,” Flare shrugged as he kissed her nose. “Well, let’s just keep watching the movie,” Prim replied with a smile. The stallion had placed his ring down onto the counter in the kitchen and went off to bed. Even though he turned off the lights and left, the camera still stayed focused on the box. Flare couldn’t help but smile as he saw a figure’s body flicker in the corner of the room. “I bet you there is gonna be a jumpscare right about... NOW!” Flare said. Just as he said the word “now” a full body of the dead mare appeared on the screen. She was pale, her eyes were blood red, and she had a black and white mane, a common horror trope back in the underground. Prim jumped a little then chuckled,” I should’ve expected that!” “I wish most movies in the horror genre didn’t rely on jumpscares like that,” Flare sighed,” But that is what I think.” “Well,” Prim replied as her hoof wrapped around his,” Sometimes they do it to keep the audience on their hooves!” “Hm... that’s fair.” Flare shrugged as they continued to watch the movie. The movie cut to morning, right as the stallion had gotten out of bed and got ready for his big day. He grabbed the ring and walked out of his house... and was nearly hit by a runaway cart. Flare had to admit, he didn’t see that one coming. Even though the stallion just had a near death experience, he still held high hopes and walked into town to find his fiance. On the way, the stallion seemed to look as if he felt he was being followed since he looked back every couple of seconds or so. Till finally, the stallion walked onto a bridge. Flare had a feeling he knew where this was headed. The TV echoed a low crack as one appeared on the bridge’s surface. Then a few more, until the stallion finally noticed it and ran. However, the bridge gave way and the stallion fell into the rushing water under it. “Uh oh...” Prim said with a sad tone. “Not the best way to go...” Flare agreed. The scenes switched to the shore of a small lake where the ring had washed up. “Oh, it’s going to be one of those,” Flare said with a surprised face. “What, the movie where the cursed object gets passed between different hosts?” Prim asked. “Yup,” Flare nodded. “Oh! I like those types of movies!” Prim replied excitedly. The rest of the movie was what you would expect it to be, the cursed ring was passed on to different hosts, each one met their end in dramatic or gory ways. Near the movie’s end, both Flare and Prim had grown tired. Flare had opted to lay on his stomach to rest his head on the couches hoofrest. Prim had taken the blanket and wrapped herself into a small bat burrito. The movie had gotten boring and it was getting late. Prim gave a muffled groan as she unwrapped herself. She held up her head to keep herself from sleep’s grasp. She looked over at Flare, who seemed to be moments away from sleep himself. That’s when an idea sparked. She grabbed the blanket and drapped it across her back then slowly crawled up to him. Flare noticed this movement and looked back to see Prim crawling towards him. With clear confusion, he asked,” Eh... what’s up doc?” “Get on your back,” Prim ordered with a smile. “Why?” Flare asked as he saw the blanket shift slightly. “I have an idea~!” Prim chirped happily. Flare simply stared at her as he rolled over onto his back. Prim smiled as she crawled up and laid down on top of his body, the blanket now draped over the two of them as Prim’s muzzle was mere inches from Flare’s. She rested her body against his as she let her hooves wrap under and around him. She purred softly as she snuggled close to his chest. “So soft and fluffy~,” Prim purred. “I guess it was inevitable,” Flare replied as he gently brushed her mane. Prim smiled as he did so. He continued until the mare fell asleep, however, he would stay awake for another hour or so, his eye a deeper shade of red than it was before. In that forest, he had to keep one eye opened at night, just in case. He wrapped his hooves gently around the mare. When he finally went to sleep, he felt as if his body became lighter and warmer. With the last bit of conscience, he looked down at the Prim, he knew he had found the one.