Diary of the Necromancess

by Sebbaa

Chapter 9: Prancing in the Rain

Chapter 9: Prancing in the Rain

Rarity brewed up another pot of tea and asked if I wanted to have some cookies with it, which of course I declined. We continued our conversation when she sat back down.

“So your first date didn't go that well, but you continued seeing each other, am I right?”

I nodded. “I went to her office the very next night. I told myself that I just wanted to know that tale of her cutie mark, she didn't want to tell, that I just liked to talk to her out of academical interest the way I like talking to Twilight.”

.oOo.

The way the soldiers in the guards post began whispering, when I entered the premises, told me that gossip about me and the captain had already spread. One of them had probably heard from our visit to the tavern last night, or was even there.

I acted like I had not noticed, walked right up to the Lionheart's office and knocked. “Enter,” she grumbled from the inside, expecting somepony else I think, because when I came into the room the angry scowl on her face quickly made room for wide eyed surprise.

“You?”

“Yes me! Captain Lionheart, I have to talk to you.”

She quickly remembered her position, cleared her throat and got up her act. “Ah yes, of course. What can I help you with, Miss Sapphire?”

I grinned slightly at the sight of her acting all captainly and turned towards the door. “Follow me captain! There is something unusual in the gardens I have to show you. Time for your nightly round!”

She raised an eyebrow, but followed me nonetheless. Only when we had left the palace and were walking along the twisting paths running through the trees and hedgerows of the palace gardens side by side did she speak up.

“So, we are here, what is it you wanted to show me?”

“Captain Lionheart, do you see this? There are two mares taking a romantic walk in the park in the middle of the night!”

“What? Where?. . .oh.”

I looked at her with a mischievous smirk. “And I can't say I blame them. It's the perfect night for a walk, the weather is nice and the moon is almost full.”

Lionheart rolled her eyes. “Sapphire, I'm on duty.”

“I know, that's why I'm calling your captain and accompany you on your nightly rounds.”

“Whatever! What do you want?”

“I merely wanted to thank you. You know, for holding my mane when I was sick, walking me home, getting me into my bed, watching over me until you were sure I was alright.”

She blushed at me mentioning the last part. “I'm surprised you remember any of this. You were pretty drunk last night.”

I chuckled. “Oh I don't! But you just confirmed my suspicions.” They were pretty well founded suspicions though. I have a certain good spirit in my house who had told me when I and the captain had entered, and when she had left.

“You didn't? I did? Oh. . . well, you are welcome.”

I shook my head. “I still feel like I should show my gratitude properly.”

“It's alright, anypony would have done the same.”

“No I insist! So, I will treat you for dinner!”

“What?”

“This time I will choose the place! I don't know where yet, but I will have a suitable location until the end of the week. So captain, are you free next weekend?”

She stopped dead in her tracks. “Another date? Didn't you hate the last time? I messed everything up!”

An amused smile crept to my lips at her bashful sight. I shook my head, leaned over to her a gave her a kiss on the cheek. “No you didn't,” I whispered into her ear. The look on her face was priceless.

I didn't wait for her to form a coherent reply, instead I turned and started to walk to the library. “I will pick you up Saturday at dusk then. Wear a dress!” I said, as I walked off and left a very bewildered captain of the guard sitting in the middle of the garden.

.oOo.

“Did that second date go better then?”

I shook my head and shrugged. “None of us got sick that night, but it was still an awkward affair, as was when she took me to some party she called a rave, as was when I took her to the theater.”

Rarity rubbed her chin with a hoof. “But you two still kept seeing each other.”

“Yes, I know!” I leaned back and threw up my hooves in defeat. “That's the crazy I have been telling you about. No matter how bad our dates went, I always enjoyed them. You know, we always had fun. And now I'm no longer able to deny it, I'm in love! And I know Lionheart has serious interest in me too.”

“But darling, that's wonderful.”

“No, it's madness Rarity!” I leaned forward again and slammed my hoof on the table in frustration. “Madness!

“I'm a sorceress! I should stand above such mundane matters. It distracts me from my research, it weakens my resolve.” I shook my head violently. “I can't allow myself such weakness!”

Without warning Rarity grabbed my head in her hooves and forced me too look her in the eye. I had not seen a pony look at anything with that much determination, since I had witnessed Fluttershy stare down a hobgoblin.

“Now listen to me, and listen to me closely, Sapphire.”

I nodded, or I tried, but her hooves were like a vice.

“Love is the most wonderful thing there is. There is nothing that a pony can't do for love. It's a power that has banished windigos and moved mountains. It is no weakness!”

“ok,” I whimpered in my best imitation of Fluttershy.

“And you will pursue this love with all your heart, all your passion! You will not sleep, you will not rest until you are in your lovers hooves! You will overcome your petty fears, your lonely desires. You will forfeit everything you are, and then emerge a new mare at your lovers side, better and stronger than you were before.”

“ok”

With that she finally let go of me, sat back and took a sip from her cup of tea, as if nothing had happened. I rubbed my face with my right hoof, trying to get some feeling back into it. “I didn't know you could be this forceful, Rarity.”

A faint smile came to her lips. “Let's just say you are not the only dominant spirit around here, darling. So, how will you go on with your courting of Lionheart?”

I lifted the tea pot with my magic and poured myself another cup. “I think the next step would be to kiss her on our next date and confess my love, but there are some real practical problems with that.”

“What problems could there be? Don't tell me you are shy. You have been hiding it so well!”

I felt a definite blush come to my face, as I lifted my cup to take a sip. “I'm not shy!”

Rarity chuckled and waved my rebuttal of with a hoof. “Then where is the problem?”

I finished drinking and putting the cup back down before I answered. “I don't know how ponies kiss.” That stunned her, she just looked at me at a loss for words. “I suppose they do kiss, because there is a word for it, but I don't know if that means the same as human kissing. I fear my research on inter-pony relationship have been more than lacking.”

She blinked and quickly recovered; a dangerous gleam came to her eyes, the kind she got when she saw a pony with an interesting fur color and gulled her into her shop, just to wrap her in fabric and needles to start with a new dress without warning. “That's it? Well then, that's hardly a problem at all, let me show you.”

I had come to fear that look on her, for it had cost me a fortune in bits already. I couldn't help but buy every dress that came into being that way. I drew back from the table, laying my ears on involuntarily. “Show me, wha. . .”

My protest was silenced by my best friend locking a hoof behind my head, drawing me into an embrace and planting her lips firmly onto mine. Instead of pushing her away, I felt myself responding to the kiss; parting my lips when I felt the hot touch of her tongue upon them, letting it slip into my mouth. Her tongue began exploring it, while I began exploring hers. I briefly noticed that her taste was quite pleasant; the aroma of the tea we both had been drinking lingered on her tongue, yet so much sweeter, because she drank hers with sugar, and well. . .what I suppose the inside of a pony's mouth tastes like. Words fail to describe it, just go and kiss somepony, and you will know!

Eventually she slowly drew back and ended the kiss, a dreamy expression in her eyes, but the satisfied smile of a pony who loved it when a plan came together on her lips.

I raised a hoof to my mouth and cleared my throat, trying to collect myself, but from the burning heat on my face, I knew that it was a lost cause. “Alright, that's pretty much how I remember human kissing, besides from the obvious anatomical differences of course.”

“Of course.” Rarity sat back and picked up her teacup again.

“Say is it considered proper behavior for a lady to just kiss somepony out of the blue?”

She giggled. “Everything to help a friend in need, dear.”

“Huh. . .I'll take your word for that.” I shook my head and took a sip from my own tea. “Maybe we could train some more later? Will have to wait though, I just remembered there is another, much more serious problem.”

Rarity leaned forward and rested her chin on a hoof. “Another problem dear? And what might that be?”

I raised up my left leg and waved it. “However can I possibly explain to her that I'm a creature from another world turned pony with a skeletonized leg to top it off?”

That of course managed to kill the mood unfailingly, and my host sat back with a frown. I lowered my leg again and looked at her expectantly. Her yaw moved as she tried to think of anything, finally she shook her head. “Just tell her the truth, you might want to do that before the kissing part though.”

I let my head sink. “I suppose you are right.” I stood up from the table. “Thanks for your help Rarity. I will let you go back to your beauty sleep.”

She stood up to and we embraced in a friendly hug. “I wish you the best of luck dear. Let me know how it went.”

“Of course I will. Good night Rarity. See you soon.” And with that I left and headed back to my house, my mind racing, constructing possible scenarios in which I told Lionheart who I was, none of which ended with the two of us kissing.

.oOo.

I furious pounding on her door yanked the fashionista from her well earned rest once more. After ignoring the disturbance for several minutes, she finally gave in, put on her bathrobe on the walk and hurried for the door.

“Rarity, I need your help!”

“Is this becoming some kind of habit? If so I might reconsider being a friend of yours.”

I put on an apologetic smile and my best puppy eyes. Me being soaked from head to tail contributed on wearing her down, and eventually she couldn't let me stand in the rain any longer. “Uhg, alright, come on in.”

She walked into the kitchen and began setting up the kettle. I stayed in the hallway and put off my wet socks, before drying myself off with a towel, that came floating towards me in a blue aura. I wrapped myself in a simple white bathrobe, offered to me when I entered the kitchen. Rarity was already waiting for me at the table with a steaming pot of tea, and a bottle of rum.

“It's madness Rarity, madness!”

“Please, darling, sit down and calm yourself first.” I did as she asked mechanically, my shivering body moving without my initiative. Rarity poured me some tea, and added a generous dash of rum to it. “So, the date didn't go well?”

I lowered my head to drink directly from the cup, trusting neither my magic nor my quivering hooves to lift it. I felt the liquid burn down my throat, all the way down to my stomach, from where a welcome feeling of warms began to spread almost immediately.

I shook my head. “No, it went way better than I had any hope for. It's still madness Rarity, madness!”

She blinked in surprise, then a smile spread on her lips and she leaned closer. “So you did kiss? Tell me everything from the start!”

I took another sip from the tea, and a deep breath to collect myself. “Alright, we actually met earlier this night. . .

.oOo.

I had it all planned out perfectly. A picnic on top of the Canterlot Falls. It was the perfect place; the view there is breathtaking, no pony ever comes there at night, and the soothing rush of the falls would put Lionheart in a calm mood, much more receptive for disturbing revelations. I wore no dress this evening, no cloak, only my socks to hide my disfigurement from common sight. It would not hide the fact that I was hiding something from Lionheart though, so she would be prepared at least for something.

I had it all planned out; then it started to rain.

We had just laid out the blanket and food, when the sky darkened in a matter of minutes and thick drops began to fall. We rushed to repack everything and sought shelter under a rock overhang.

“I'm sure it's just a short downpour. Will be over in a view minutes,” I said, hoping to lighten the mood.

But Lionheart shook her head and looked up to the clouds with a grim expression. “There was no rain scheduled for tonight, and I don't see any pegasi.”

I bit my lower lip. Of course she was right, there was every reason to be worried; only somepony from a world where the weather is completely random would hope for it to change on its own.

“I don't like it, something is not right.” Lionheart took a step out of the shelter. “I have to go to the palace and report for duty, I'm sorry. Can you make it back home on your own?”

I was grinding my teeth, this was not how I had planned this out, yet I didn't want the situation to slip out of my hooves either. On a whim I reached out for Lionheart with my hoof. “Please wait, there is something I wanted to tell you!”

She turned around to face me. “Can't it wait until tomorrow? The guard might need my help.”

A vision ran through my head, a vision of me breaking down at Rarity's doorstep, crying in tears, because my brilliant plan had failed. I started to panic. “No it can't!”

Lionheart sighed. “Alright, what is it?”

I took a deep breath and it all just poured out of me: “I'm not really a pony I came from another world two years ago and have been turned into a unicorn by the Elements of Harmony when they were trying to heal my skeletal leg oh and by the way my left foreleg is only bones because I was cursed by a necromancer sorry I never told you but I wasn't sure how you would react and how do you even tell somepony something like that.”

When I had finished I stood there, my chest heaving, trying to catch my breath, and I looked at the mare I loved with dread, hoping she would understand.

She took a deep breath. “I understand.”

“You do?” My heart made a jump.

“I understand you don't want to be with me anymore.” And my heart shattered and died.

“You know, its fine, I understand.” The sad look in her eyes made room for an angry scowl. “But you really didn't have to come up with this nonsense story about coming from another world. You could have just told me. I think I would have earned at least this much.” She turned to leave, her hoofs splashing hard onto the muddy ground.

I trotted after her, tears flowing down my cheeks. “No wait please! I'm not lying.”

“Yea, of course not. How could I have been so stupid,” she murmured without even looking at me, then with one powerful beat of her wings, she took flight.

I sat down on the soaking ground, my hind legs giving away underneath me. “What can I do to make you believe me?” I cried, but even if she had heard me, she chose to ignore me.

I watched from tear stained eyes, how sje became smaller and smaller in the distance, as she headed towards the Castle.

I stomped on the ground with my hoof and staggered to my feet. I wouldn't let it end this way, I couldn't! I gathered my arcane powers, focused on the vanishing speck in the distance, I could no longer live without, and rose onto my hind legs. “Transversalis!” I shouted and crossed my forelegs in front of my chest.

The brief sensation of being pulled into every direction, the rushing of my own blood the only thing I could hear, as I traveled through the limbo, a flash of light, then I appeared in the middle of the rainy sky right before Lionheart.

And I immediately realized that this had been the most stupid spell I had ever cast. “Oh. . .” was all I managed to say before gravity took me and I started plummeting towards the earth with a startled scream. I tumbled in the air, flailing my legs in vain, my vision spinning between sky and earth, sky, earth, sky earth, skyearth, ever closer coming earth. My mind was racing, I was too panicked to concentrated for another spell, so I closed my eyes and braced for impact.

Powerful hooves grabbed me and held me tight, a few flaps of mighty wings ended my fall until I stopped in midair. Only then did I open my eyes, and I looked into the wide, yellow ones of a terrified sarosian.

“By Celestia's flowing mane, what are you doing? You would have died, had I failed to catch you!”

I cried, torn between sorrow of losing the one I loved and relieve of still being alive. “If have to tell you something!” I sobbed.

“Didn't you tell me enough already?”

“I love you!” I shouted the words, shouted over the rain, shouted over the wind, shouted over my own doubts. Lionheart just looked at me at a loss for words.

“That's what I really wanted to tell you, but I had to tell you everything else first. I didn't make that up, I didn't lie to you, because I love you!”

I looked up at her face, my throat sore, my chest tight. She stared at me wide eyed, hovering in midair. Thick drops of rain were falling all around us, soaking her mane, dropping down from her snout. Then without saying anything, she pressed her lips onto mine and kissed me.

It was a clumsy kiss, too rash, too forceful, and yet it was the most wonderful kiss I ever shared. While even more tears flowed from my cheeks, I felt the knot in my chest vanish, and an exhilarating warmth spread through all of my body. When Lionheart drew back from the kiss, she was smiling at me, and it was I who was at loss for words. I just smiled back at her, flung my hooves around her neck and held her tight.

We slowly descended to the ground, and she let me down in a street of upper Canterlot. My hooves were shaking, and I would have stumbled to the ground if she had not held me.

“Easy there Sapphire. You OK? Can you stand?”

“Yes.” I swallowed. “Just give me a second.”

I noticed her trying hard not to look at my left leg, where my sock had begun slipping off, glimpsing at it again and again. “So,” she began, brushing her wet mane out of her face. “Everything you told me is true? Creature from another dimension? Cursed by a necromancer?”

I bit my lower lip and nodded. With a brief burst of telekinesis I slipped down my sock and undid the bandages hiding my leg. “Everything is true. I'm not a real pony, just a freak with an undead limb.”

I let my head sink. “Now that you know, I wouldn't hold it against you, if you don't want to see mehmpf. . .”

I was silenced by her taking my face in her hooves and kissing me again, before I could finish my pitiful speech. This time the kiss was softer, longer, full of longing and need. I wrapped my hooves around her neck and responded in kind, feeling my lips quiver as I did. When we eventually separated, we were both breathing hard, our faces flushed.

“So I take it you don't mind then?” I said, finding some of my usual self confidence again.

“I wouldn't mind if you were a tentacily monster, because I love you too, you stupid mare!”

I had to chuckle and drew her into an affectionate hug. “Well, I would be your tentacily monster, and yours alone.”

After just holding each other for a few moments, we somehow did remember how to stand on our own legs and separated again. Lionheart cleared her throat. “Alright then, that's really great an all, I mean really great, but I still have to get to the palace and report for duty.”

The happy butterflies fluttering in my stomach died instantly, and a sad frown came to my lips, but I nodded understandingly.

“Are you OK to make it home on your own?”

“Please, I'm still a master sorceress! I could teleport all the way home if I had too.”

“Alright then! I will come and see you tomorrow. Take care.” We shared one more brief kiss, then she wheeled around and jumped into a running start. A few seconds later I lost sight of her over the roofs of Canterlot.

.oOo.

“That's. . . quite a tale!” Rarity marveled as my story had drawn to its end. She took a sip from her cup of tea, but noticed that it had gotten cold. Irritated, she sat down the cup and looked at me again. “But however did that go way better than you expected?”

I threw up my hooves in the air. “Because she loves me Rarity! She loves me!” The sudden outburst made me lose my balance, and I flailed my legs unbecomingly not to fall over. I took proper seating again and composed myself, before taking a sip from my cup as if this slip had never happened, only to find that my cup was empty.

“That's wonderful dear! And I'm happy for you, so don't mind me asking, why did you come here instead of going home?”

“Oh well. When Lionheart was gone I felt this uncanny happiness come over me. I felt so light, like all the worries of the world had just fallen off me and I could just dance. So I did! I pranced through the streets of Canterlot, pirouetted on my hind legs through puddles of rain. It's summer, the rain is not so cold that I was feeling it right away, so I just started out homewards on my hooves.”

“Alright, I get that. But that still doesn't explain why you came in here shouting about madness!”

“Oh yes, I remember! It's madness Rarity, madness!”

“Yes yes, but what is?”

“You know, while I was walking home, I could think of nothing but Lionheart. Nothing but being with her, kissing her, and then about having sex with her.”

Rarity took a moment before she answered to that. “OK, that's quite understandable. I guarantee you it's a completely normal reaction.”

I leaned forward and put a hoof on the table, gesturing with the other one widely. “No, you don't get it. I fantasized about having sex with her the way I had sex with my lovers in Bosperan. But I was never in love with any of them. It was always just about power, how I could use them to feel good and powerful myself.”

She eyed me for long moments, gauging if I was messing with her, before she replied. “OK.”

“No, it's not OK. You don't understand. I love Lionheart, I don't want any harm come to her, I want her to be happy. Yet. . .” I shook my head and looked to the side, out of the window where it still rained. The next words I spoke much quieter, more to myself than to Rarity. “All I can think of is seeing her cower at my hooves, of whipping her lovely flanks till they are bloody and relish her cries of lustful agony.”

“OK!” Rarity said, letting out a long breath she had been holding. “Now I understand!”

“You do?”

“Yes. As I told you, you are not the only dominant spirit around here.” She walked around the table and put a hoof on my shoulder. “Let me reassure you, that it is not a strange thing to be thinking. Well, it might not be considered normal by general Equestrian standards, but its not that uncommon either.”

“It is not?”

She shook her head. “Actually, there are quite a few ponies here in Canterlot who share the same preferences.”

“OK, but what should I do about it? How can I tell this to Lionheart? What if she hates it?” I bit my lower lip. “I don't want to mess this up.”

Rarity sat down at the table again. “Don't worry. There is a pony who can help you, a good acquaintance of mine. She owns a shop in central Canterlot. It's in the shopping district, but it's a little place in a back ally, very unassuming from the outside. It's simply called 'Silken Mane's` Silken Mane is the owner. Lovely mare, very gentle and caring. Go to her and tell her Rarity send you, tell her about your problems. She will help you!”

I gave her slow nod. “I will do that. Thank you Rarity.”

She waved it off with her hoof. “It's nothing darling, I'm glad I could help you.” She leaned forward, and the smile on her face made room for a concerned frown. “But what is that about this rain now? Has something happened in the castle?”

I shrugged. “Could be. If one of the princesses is upset it could affect the weather. But I have no idea what could have upset them. I will ask Lionheart when I see her. Should I come by tomorrow and tell you what I learned?”

“That would be great dear! Thank you.”

I stood up. “So, see you on the morrow then?”

She drew me into a friendly hug. “See you tomorrow.”

Author's Note:

As always special thanks to Daring-Do Books for his help with editing.

Comments

[Darkly Hooves]

Augh, cliffhangers.