//------------------------------// // 23 The hardest hits, come from the least expected corner // Story: Blood Curse Boutique // by Rarity Belle //------------------------------// Only after princess Luna had spoken her words against the vampric unicorn would there have been something. A sly grin was given by her while her eyes had focused on Rarity. A grin that took its shape out of the sight before her and irradiated pure delight. A grin that came forth out of the shocked reaction which Rarity had given. She just stood there as if she was turned into stone by the mythical gorgonies. The mare could only have blinked with her eyes while the gears in her mind turned and twisted. She tried to make a connection for herself, but never succeeded on it. “Why... why did you told me all of this your highness. What was the point of knowing what I know now. What was the purpose of the revelations you threw at me? Y-You wanted to see me crumble before the lies you spoke? You wanted me accept them as, as the truth?” Rarity managed to bring out. She followed them up by giving a powerful flap with her wings. It wasn't meant to lift her into the air but to move fresh air into her face. Fresh air that would have prevented her to faint on the spot. A desperate attempt in a lifeless situation without any light from the outside. Luna gave a little chuckle to the words spoken by the pony before her and she tucked her own feathered wings against her body. “The reason we told you all of this, is because you as a vampony, have the right to know the secrets of your kind. So few are still alive and new ones are even rarer. You truly are, a rarity upon the face of these lands.” “That doesn't help me as much as I thought it would... But why me? Why not somepony else that could have been turned,” countered Rarity. She had spoken directly against the words of a princess. Something that she never had done before, ever. “Life works in mysterious ways, lady Rarity. Most of the time neither my sister nor myself know just why certain events happen. Why the life of a young and promising filly has to be abruptly ended while the elder keep on living? Greater forces than the sun and moon are at hoof for that. That is our best guess for your situation. At least that we can give you in a form that you can still understand it,” replied Luna before she glanced out of the window. “Unless you would like to question your every belief, we shan’t discuss the matter further.” In her eyes had the princess caught the land in the beautiful coverage of night. A sight she was used to see every single one but every night there were differences to see and noticed. Paths that remained hidden within the light of the day would reveal themselves in the light of night. Calmly did she breath through her nose as the moon on her crest piece gently glowed up. It seemed like she was absorbing the powers from something. Rarity noticed the effect happening but she made the - possibly - wise decision to not make a remark on it. She didn't wanted to receive more unpleasant surprises. The story that was told by Luna was still being processed within the mind of the mare. The vampiric unicorn tried to wrap her head around it but she didn't seem to be able to. That too was the reason of why she didn’t dare to ask further. No further explanation would have been asked, because she didn’t dare to. “Glorious night, the secrets and fears hidden in the day, are ever so present here for us. We can feel them, sense them... become them, even,” whispered Luna with a softness in her tone. After that she let out a deep sigh left through her nose. Her eyes closed themselves from the world before the crest piece lost its touch. Rarity tilted her head lightly as the new information was something to be processed and possibly, lost within the vortex that were her thoughts. ~~~~                 Their meeting had been going on for hours and in the end would the day have arrived again. Which thus allowed the sun of the elder sister to shine down the windows in a matter of minutes. “You seemed to be fairly shocked and rather tired as well about all of this, lady Rarity. But please, make yourself at home in the lunar wing of the castle, for the time being. A room has been set up for you for the upcoming day. We desire our rest as well after this conversation,” the mighty princess of the night said. Her head was turned away from the window and aimed towards Rarity. Who heard the words as they were. Again, she wouldn’t have dared to argue against them. The vampiric unicorn only could give a slight nod before she turned herself around in order to leave the room. Her wings gave a couple more flaps and she made gentle but hopping leap into the air. After that were they curled back around her body. With a charge of her horn, she picked up her cloak and just let it rest upon her back. The batpony guards gazed upon both the mare and their princess. In their ears they caught the sound of fangs retracting. Though it was very soft, almost inaudible. Any normal pony wouldn't have been able to hear it. Though even with the help of their greatly developed ears, not even they could judge from which mouth the sound originated from. Did they came from Rarity’s? Or from Luna’s? Worry took over the eyes of some guards while others tried their best to hold their nerves. The unicorn mare came closer to the door which got opened by itself once again. The eyes of Rarity lost their red coloring and slowly returned to their normal looking, sapphire blue state because she wanted to look a lot more natural. Her mind was just thinking about the words spoken against her and the questions that were never answered. The guards gave the unicorn a regal salute as she left the room under the soft clatter of her own hooves while a deep sigh left her nose. The mare on the throne only smiled like the devil she housed inside of her while her head turned itself over to the moon. “Time has come to be lowered again... To disappear for the waking hours, but every day has to end at one point, and thus fall back into the night,” she mumbled in herself before closing her eyes and thus locking the cyan blue rims off of the world once again. ~~~~                 Rarity had found her way into the lunar wing of the castle. There she was both stunned and amazed by its design that was inspired by the night. It stretched from something as simple as a calm and cloudless summer night, to the vast darkness and emptiness of space itself. But as her eyes glared through the main hallway, her attention was caught by a door which had the cutie mark of the nightly princess encrusted in it. When she looked further, she saw that there were two batpony guards standing on either side of the door. Their eyes were being kept straight ahead into the hallway. They almost appeared as if they were statues of stone. Another interesting fact happened to be that both of them happened to be mares. It was something that was quite the curiosity, because most of the guards were in fact, stallions. Rarity began to trot slowly over to the mysterious door while she lowered her head a bit. Though what she didn't knew, was that the guards had heard her long before she even came into their field of view. In secret they just waited for the unicorn to do the moves she desired to make. They both stood still as stone and it only intensified the illusion of them being statues to the mind of Rarity. And as true icing on the cake, not even their breathing animation was seen not heard. With the passage of a long an almost dreadful minute was Rarity only half a meter in front of them and she kept switching her eyes between them. And all of the sudden did one of their wings spread themselves like blades. The wings blocked any further entrance to the door for those who wanted to enter. The one with a green and yellowish tint in her eyes spoke in a mild, seducing, female voice. “State your name, rank and intention.” The vampiric mare jumped a bit back at first before she blinked a couple times with her eyes. All while she tried to formulate her sentence during a gulp. “R-Rarity, tailor, willing to look around?” Rarity eventually managed to bring out. The bat pony who had just spoken then narrowed her eyes as she continued to question the unicorn. “Last name?” she said in that same tone. Though a bit more of a commanding undertone could be made out. “W-What?” “Your last name, lady, what is it?” she replied with a patience that was wearing thin. “My last name? I, I don’t have one sadly. Suppose that Belle would be a good surname.” “Well that is an unexpected turn of events,” the other guard spoke up. She released a small giggle afterwards. She let her maroon red eyes fall upon the unicorn before she lowered their lids to the halfway point. The other guard just started to stare at Rarity in a seducing manner. “What is so funny, if I may ask?” the unicorn brought out in a confused tone. “Forgive my recruit here, it is her first night on the 'watch of the princess',” the green and yellow eyed guard spoke. “Youngblood, shut it.” “Yes ma’am,” replied the mare named Youngblood after a little shock that set her eyes back to normal again and let her giggle die down faster than Rainbow Dash could take off. “Thank you, as for you miss Rarity, Belle, we can not give you access to the bedroom of the lunar princess. It is a private quarter after all. Yet the word has reached me that you stay here for the upcoming day. Head back a little and then go into the hall on your left, in there you will go in the room that is on your right after three doors,” the guard said while the motions were made with her head. “Alright then, and thank you for your help,” said Rarity. She made a polite bow before the guards to show her gratitude. The unicorn then proceeded to make her departure to the pointed room. She disappeared out of the eyes of the bat pony guards within seconds. Both of the guards tucked their wings in again and let them rest against their bodies as a grin took place on Youngblood’s face. “What is so funny this time?” the other mare asked. Her wing was taken out of the blocking move and tucked back against her body. “Oh, nothing, just, just a little inside joke.” was the only reply that came out of her mouth. “Care to share?” “Not if I wish to keep this position,” replied Youngblood. She then tucked her own wings back. “Ah.” And then the silence between the two of them returned as their duty continued. A duty that was of considerable honor but had high levels of pure boredom. ~~~~   Rarity had followed the instructions given to her clearly and found herself in front of an old wooden door. One that looked like it hadn't been even touched in nearly a decade. She didn't knew what to expect on the other side of the door and rather didn't found it out either. Though she had to enter it in order to get sleep. The very first rays of the sun had revealed themselves already to the face of the land. Her hoof made its way over to the knob before it was turned thus unlocking the door. She would only have been moments away from revealing the secrets within. She flung the door open and allowed her eyes to fall upon the room. A small shock went through her entire body. Her eyes had fallen upon the thing which housed in reality. Her eyes were fixed upon a dreadful thing. Something she didn’t expected to have found within the castle of the two sisters. Yet she was staring at a coffin. A coffin that was standing on a table with a white sheet under it as candles illuminated the area. On each of the walls was there not a single window to be found. The casket itself appeared to be big enough to hold a mare that was as big as Luna. In her mind had she had made the connection already but her eyes didn't want to believe the sight. The mare didn't had the desire to sleep in a casket to begin with. She never had it and probably never would by the way she lived her life. But she had to on the other end. For it was given to her by a royalty of Equestria. And no one doesn't look a gifted horse in the mouth, as the infamous idiom always spoke. Rarity closed the door behind her with a soft thud. She would have had a better look around the room that was given to her. For on each of the walls were there paintings to be seen. Paintings that had been distorted through the gears of time and didn't seem to have been maintained in decades. The images they once carried were simply gone or unrecognizable which gave her already a feeling of something not being right at all. “And then she wants me to sleep here... a, possibly, haunted bedroom. Thanks Luna, you’re a real help,” the mare mumbled before she made her way over to the coffin and opened its lid with care. She had expected the dreadful stench of a decaying, or even a decayed body for that matter, to leave it and was prepared for it. And if there wouldn’t have been a body, surely a dozen bats would have come flying out of it, right? Yet when she took a couple sniffs with her nose, there was something rather unusual that entered the nostrils. Something that she had never expected to smell from a coffin no less. Where her nose smelled the odd scents, it were her eyes which fell upon the velvet red fabric inside of the wooden container. The scent of roses did their turn though her nose as she smiled upon the smell. After a rather quick jump did Rarity found herself inside of the thing and made herself comfortable before she closed the lid. With that action had she sealed herself her off from the world. A small giggle managed to leave her mouth as she thought about it being her true funeral coffin. A thought that was meant to be a sick joke. Though it could have been the grim reality if she wasn't careful. Much time to think wasn't granted as the sun began to shine ever so brightly over the face of the land. A little something which allowed the unicorn to fall into a deep slumber, even if it was in a small and confined area. Just as the myths spoke, she finally dared to sleep within a coffin of the deceased. Whether it would be liked or not, was something that would be revealed by the following night. ~~~~   A peaceful sigh left the mouth of the ivory unicorn while her eyes opened themselves ever so gentle. Only to be rubbed by a pair of warm and soft forelegs. The white fur made its way  into her eyes with care and removed almost every bit that wasn't supposed to be there. Then they left the eyes in order for the mare to gaze upon the room she was in, it was a room she knew all too well, but wasn't one of her own. No, she had awoken in the room of her sister, or better said: in her sister’s bed even. But what truly caught her attention was the mane that was visible on the very top of her eyes. She couldn't remember having it and as her hoof went up there to inspect it before a shocking revelation was made. Rarity was not the Rarity she used to know anymore. For the terrifying fact was that she had been turned her sister from the looks that could be seen. Her eyes shot open as wide as they were allowed. Straight after it was her head dropped back down in the pillow. All while her mind wondered just what had happened or could have caused the troubles. Troubles she perhaps knew well enough. Though on the hallway outside of the room could there some rumoring sounds be heard. The sounds were of somepony or something that was moving through the darkness of night. She wanted to scream or at least make her presence known to whatever it was. Yet for some reason did no sound left her mouth. Instead she pulled up the blankets over her head and went back to sleep with an unknown peace. The sound of the door that was leading to her room was heard opening and a set of hooves gently clattered on the ground did their turn before fading away. Rarity thought that the creature had left. Though her thoughts got crushed the very second that the blanket were removed by force. Within an instant she stared right into the bloodred rims of herself. Or better said, her other self. It was in that moment that the pure terror struck her. For she remembered and regretted the very night with every fiber of her body. Because it was the night she had fed from a pony she never even dared to do it from. But her hunger and desires got the control of her body and let the deed happen. There was nothing that could be done before the fangs of the vampiric and dream-haunting Rarity sank themselves into the neck of the sleeping filly. The image of her nightmare drained her bit by bit and with every bit that was swallowed, there was something that happened. For each swallow destroyed a little bit of the dreamworld. It made parts become black or they got filled with a deep purple mist before everything got turned into nothing but the eternal darkness. A darkness one would love to escape from... but she was never allowed to do so. She had to suffer. ~~~~   A loud thud did its turn through the room of the coffin and some sailor cursing left the mare inside before the lid finally got opened and she sat upright, rubbing her head gently in the hope that the gotten pain would leave soon. “Son of a..!” Rarity growled in a soft tone to herself. She would have left the coffin as a whole not much later. With the sound of bones being snapped back into their respectable places filling the room while a loud moan left her body did Rarity manage to stretch herself from having the day spend in the coffin. The mare then proceeded to make her way over to the door. “Not the best slumber I have had, but I suppose it has to do...” While she left the room did her eyes fell upon the window near the end of the hallway and she couldn't resist walking over to it in order to have a peek to the outside world. So said, so done. Because in no time had the mare found herself gazing out of one from the many windows which the hallway itself had to offer. Her eyes gazed upon the darkness of the land which was the perfect time for traveling. Rarity removed herself away from the window and left the hallway before she turned back to the main part of the castle. A part where she walked out of it in its entirely before she found herself in the middle of the outside world that was simply known as of Canterlot. Her blood levels were still good and her thirst was something to be lived with as it was. Without a second thought she began to move through the near empty streets of the capitalistic town as the thoughts haunted her once again. Those spoken words kept coming in the hardest of hits as no matter how much she either tried to process them or forget them, they kept hammering themselves right back. The mare thought she was going insane because of them, for they hammered and drilled themselves into her mind more than the scents of Sweetie’s cooking arts. Her mind kept itself busy with that as she started to make her way back home, back to Ponyville, back to her ever so loved boutique and home. “I wish, I never left home,” she mumbled under her breath. Her eyes closed themselves under the slow trotting. With the moon still standing high upon the skies, it continued to crawl over the darkened skies. It would continue to guide those who needed it. Whether they knew it or not. ~~~~                 Back in their camp on the outskirts of Ponyville, Agneta was trying her utmost best to wake up Axel again. After she had found him in the alleyway were the vampiric unicorn had dropped him off, she wanted him to wake up again ever so badly. But his body needed a lot of time to recover itself from the gotten injuries and he only released a gentle moan every now and then. His body was rebuilding and replenishing the blood that he had lost due to Rarity’s thirst slowly but surely. Yet the oddest thing of them all was the fact that she hadn't noticed his scars. “Please Axel, d-don’t die on me! We, we have so much to do, so many places to go. Please,” spoke Agneta through her tears. Her near golden rims stared at the body of the stallion. She continued to give him gentle slaps in the face while her pleads continued on. It truly was the last thing she wanted on the face of the lands and she had everything over to get him back. The mare couldn't take the stress on anymore. The built up tears made their way down her cheeks while she placed her head on his chest. She cried more than she had ever done in her life. She was afraid of losing him. Losing the only thing she had gained in her nomadic and simple life. For minutes she laid on his chest while crying and silently praying for his life before she felt a hoof that wrapped itself around her gently. “Huh, wha..?” she spoke through her sniffles and rose her head gently up before turning it into his direction. Agneta stared right into the yellow rimmed eyes of Axel who had gave her a faint smile. But that soon disappeared as he coughed a couple time before he spoke up. “H-Hey there.” The happiness that started to rush through the mare at that moment, was enough to make her tears of sadness stop and to be replaced with tears of utter happiness as she wrapped her own forelegs tightly around the neck of Axel. “I thought you were dead!” she spoke with a shaky voice as they nuzzled their cheeks together. “Heh, there is a lot more needed, to get me out of the picture, you know that right?” he spoke weakly while stroked the horn of Agneta carefully. The hoof made its way down the pointy object and down to her warm and friendly face before he stroked through her pink colored mane. “Yeah, getting stabbed by a Manticore’s tail didn't do you all too much. Hey, can, can you sit up right again?” Agneta spoke after she had released a slight shiver from the horn rubs. “Can try,” he spoke under a gentle chuckle before another cough was heard. The unicorn mare let him go and Axel tried to sit upright again while he coughed a couple times. “Guess you can,” she replied with a smile before she sat up straight as well. ~~~~   Many minutes passed by as he tried to remember just what happened, but all of his memory was just vanished from his mind. It didn't matter to Agneta as she had her Axel back and he was still alive and in one piece. More she didn't need to know. Yet their luck was about to be turned right back into the bad side with the arrival of somepony neither of the two knew. But one thing was for certain, it forecast trouble by the lot. “Can I, help you?” Agenta asked all the sudden as a blue coated unicorn mare found herself standing before their campfire. Her arrival almost went unnoticed as they were too busy with snuggling and comforting one another. But once the mysterious mare was noticed, it was hard to get her out of their minds. “Hey, if ya here for food, get your own,” replied Axel while he narrowed his eyes to the mysterious mare. Something about her seemed fishy and he wouldn’t take any chances. “What Trixie requires is not something of physical earth. She requires something of mental earth. What happened to you?” she spoke in an ominous tone while looking over to the stallion himself. “W-What?” Axel asked in clear confusion before blinking a couple of times and shaking his head. “Your neck,” the mare replied almost without any form of sympathy for either of them. It was clear that she had spotted something which both of the nomads hadn't. Not yet at least. “Who do you think you are to begin with!?” Agneta shouted out to the unicorn as she lost herself. Without a warning given to the travelers did the horn of the mysterious mare charge itself up. She let their warm and pleasant campfire to burst in a hellish eruption of fire that shot right up into the skies. Only to form the face of the mysterious mare in its full glory for a few seconds. “Trixie is the one that asks the questions here. Now tell Trixie, what happened to you.” the -not so- mysterious mare spoke up through the fiery mouth. And then her horn and the fires died down. The two travelers looked at one another at first and gulped in fear for her. The pony against them was obviously one who possessed a lot of power and that was something they didn't. “W-Well, w-what was it that you r-required to know again?” Axel spoke after seeing the powers she had and a change of mind of his own. “Your neck,” the mare spoke up in a certain  and powerful tone. ~~~~   The stallion brought a hoof over to his neck. He felt the scars that were being made within it and let out a shiver. His hoof lowered itself and he allowed a deep sigh through his nostrils. “Ah, yes... Uhm, a-allow me to start by the beginning. We, ventured from Trottingham to these plains and just before we set up camp, we came across a mare that didn't spoke that much at us so we didn't spoke back. Quite curious if you ask me,” he said with a voice that was hinting towards fear. But the blue coated and mysterious unicorn was not interested in his tones for it were his words that caught most of her attention. She nodded gently towards them and released gentle ‘hmm’ and ‘aah’. “And just how, did this pony looked like, if Trixie may ask?” she asked to the both of them. Her eyes switched between the pair at a constant rate. “N-Never saw a face. Just this, cloak. This black cloak with, with those piercing red eyes... S-Sorry, more, more I can’t tell you, because, there is nothing else that I can truly remember about it all,” answered Axel before he shook his head. “Trixie knows more than enough. She has everything she needs to know. The game, is on,” she replied to them with a menacing grin upon her face. The mare turn turned herself around from the two of them and she walked away just like that. "Trixie makes the suggestion to leave this town for what it is." Just as mysterious as she came, she went back into the darkness of the night. Both Agneta and Axel looked upon her departure with a set of blinking eyes. Of course had the unicorn seen the scars in his neck but didn't wanted to talk about it and then the other mare appeared on the scene. It was something that didn't truly add up in the mind of the mare. However, she discarded from her mind as she had her beloved Axel back and still alive. The mare shook her head a bit before there was a sigh of relief that left her. The stallion on the other end blinked a couple times as he couldn't figure out just how the events had walked. But he didn't even want to knew it, if he had to be honest. The two of them looked upon one another with a curious gaze in their eyes before they blinked at the same time. Neither Agneta nor Axel had any idea of that what happened to them. All they knew for certain was that the town in the distance held secrets. Secrets that weren't good for anypony that lived in there. Mysterious, lies and deceptions laid within its pretty looking borders. Confused and willing to rest had the two put their campfire out and just went to bed. Their days were long and nights were short but there would be an exception being made as the events were good enough for that. The two of them snuggled up against one another in their tent. They bid their goodnight's before they disappeared into their realm of dreams and possible nightmares.