Nuada was still running through the Everfree forest at top speed, behind him was the rage lusting form of Cinder breaking through trees hot on his tail. Telling her, as he ran, that they couldn’t get married right now was a mistake, it seems. “Someone help me!” Nuada cried.
Clearing the treeline by town, Nuada barely noticed as he ran by ponies, and market stands. Dodging by Applejack with not even a wave, Nuada managed to duck Cinder’s tail as it grabbed at his hair. Nuada’s new GXP communicator beeped repeatedly, the image of a stone golem in a tuxedo appeared in the watch as Nuada kept running.
“Hi this is Nuada, sorry to be rude but I’m in a bind right now, please make it quick,” he said leaping over a cabbage cart only for now cooling Cinder to barrel right through it.
“MY CABBAGES!”
“Keep running, take the third door on the left.” A dry English voice answered, like the voice of a veteran butler.
“But that’s somepony’s house-.”
“Fifth door now.”
“Well I needed to see Rarity anyway,” Nuada said as he tossed open the door to Rarity’s and ran in.
“There’s no hiding Nuada-!” Cinder screamed as she burst through the oddly resilient Doorway, pausing in confusion upon realizing she couldn’t smell, hear, or sense him at all in the posh parlor.
“Where the buck is he?!” Cinder screamed angrily, her curse lighting one of the curtains on fire.
“What is the cause of such strong language? What if my dear little sister had heard?” Rarity huffed as she descended the stairs and put the fire out on the drapes with her magic, “My poor drapes, whoever you are you’ve…Cinder?”
Rarity had not seen the succubus since Nuada had taken her with him. The other girls had spent some time with her when they went through that vile forest to visit but sadly Rarity had been too busy with her fashionista work, so knowing her only from what her friends have said, Rarity was perplexed as to why Cinder was in her shop, beings she clearly wasn’t the sort of mare who cared for fashion from her third-pony perspective on her.
“Have you seen that stupid sexy idiot Nuada come through here?” Cinder demanded of Rarity, who frowned and flicked her ears in thought.
“No, and while I was upstairs, I heard nopony, or nobody rather come into my boutique before you did.” Rarity informed astutely, getting Cinder to blink and begin to steam and simmer again.
“What?! But I saw him come in here!” Cinder shouted, getting Rarity to recoil slightly, only for Cinder to begin roaring in fury and proceed to begin tearing her store apart!
“S-stop! Stop this instant!” Rarity demanded as she tried to grab Cinder in her magic, and yelped in pain as the demoness practically ignored her attempt to restrain her and ripped out of Rarity’s magic like it wasn’t there, which gave Rarity some backlash. The dressmaker whimpered as she sat on her haunches and held her head to try and mitigate the magical migraine, she’d not experienced magic backlash in so long she forgot how painful it was. “Ouch, ouch, ouch.”
“Ouch?” Cinder calmed down slightly in worry, the last month with Nuada and the girls had made her a little more aware of how soft others were.
“Dear you gave me a touch of backlash, ouch. Wait right there.” Rarity left the front area of the boutique and headed for the kitchen to put her horn on ice.
It was now that Cinder let her actions catch up to her, and looked around the scorched and demolished parlor, feeling like a total heel for what she did to somepony’s home and livelihood, as well as hurting them just because she wasn’t mindful of her anger and her strength.
*sniff* “W-what use could Nuada have for a dumb, useless brute like me?” Cinder demeaned, whimpering and sniffling as she laid down on the floor, curling around herself as if to shrink away from reality.
This was what Rarity returned to with fresh painkillers in her stomach and a cold compress tied to her horn, ready to ream the succubus out, only to stop in the Doorway in consideration upon realizing the strong mare was actually crying on her floor. Her good nature, as well as her romantic side latched onto this, connecting the dots from earlier, and realized; Cinder was in Love! It was the only explanation in her mind, for why a mare would be so desperate to find her stallion and be so irrational about it, her novels said it was so.
“Oh dear...stallion troubles.” Rarity uttered as she trotted to the shivering mare, and prodded her shoulder. “Cinder, Cinder you get up this instant! No self-respecting mare should make such a pitiful display of herself.” Rarity hypocritically chastised, since she waxed dramatic about the smallest things in public all the time.
“I have no self-respect. What mare with no idea how to even take care of a house, or cook, or clean normally can ever even consider themselves bride material?” Cinder wept more openly as Rarity frowned empathically down at the mare, realizing she indeed did have a problem, but just crying about it wasn’t the answer.
“Get up mare, I as a true Lady would be remiss to leave you to suffer. I have two things for you at the moment, advice, and ice cream.” Rarity stated with full seriousness, and Cinder sniffled as she looked up at the white mare.
“W-what’s ice cream?”
“I never want to go back to Tartarus, never.” Cinder affirmed as she shoved another spoonful of heavenly delight that was practically naughty into her mouth, the frozen dairy product steaming and hissing when it hit her hot mouth, the contrast so good to her that it helped calm her down and all kinds of fuzzy, relaxed feelings she wasn’t used to, but welcomed all the more for it.
“I haven’t even been there and I can sympathize if they don’t have ice cream. It’s a must for a mare to destress, even if it is rather risky on the flanks and barrel.” Rarity informed as she had her own huge tub of ice cream that she daintily snacked upon, having to use her hoof with her spoon since her horn was still sore.
“Succubi don’t have that problem,” Cinder said taking a large bite, squeeing slightly, “we have limited shapeshifting abilities and we can convert food into magical energy. If you ever meet a fat succubi, she’s doing it because whoever she’s seducing, is into big mares.”
“Oh I see.” Rarity said with a light blush, “so now that we’re both calm, could you share what happened?”
Cinder sat her tub of ice cream down gently on the end table and started down sadly. “It’s embarrassing for me to explain.”
“Well my dear please take your time and go slow, I’m here to help.” Rarity said slightly amused that such a open individual would be so shy about something.
“Well so you know how I have less than a year to convince Nuada to actually marry me or I lose all my powers right?” Cinder asked.
“So I heard.” Rarity said slightly frowning.
“Well I started trying to figure out how to do that with Nuada. You know what he likes, favorite foods, what kind of girls he’s into.” Cinder explained, “I was being really selfish thinking I could just seduce him like I’d done so many times to others.”
“What happened?” Rarity asked curious as tears started to form in Cinder’s eyes.
“I actually fell in love with him. I’m not sure when it happened but I know when I realized it. We were helping rescue Sparkle in her world from some really crazy space robot alien things.” Cinder explained, “and Nuada started to show how strong he was. We had been testing the enemy and found out, they couldn’t really hurt us, but Bestla and I could not hurt them either. Even a full strength buck to one barely dented it.”
“For clarity, how strong is your buck?” Rarity asked, knowing her dainty kicks were like a breeze compared to Applejack’s hurricane.
“Um full strength I can knock over a tree about 6 hooves across.” Cinder said thinking. Rarity gasped slightly, to knock over a tree like that is some serious power, and Nuada, she was told, wrestled this mare into submission.
“Well Nuada realized that they couldn’t hurt him if he used his light shield skill, and started to literally walk up to them and cut them in half with his light sword. Like he was only cutting vegetables for dinner.” Cinder explained.
“My word, he cut them in half?” Rarity asked, shocked to hear such violence from someone who had been such a gentle pony just a few weeks before.
“I’ve seen how peaceful Equestria is, but in Tartarus if you’re not ready to kill the other demon, you’re going to get killed. Nuada apparently knows this quite well as he just marched through there without even really trying.” Cinder said giving Rarity as sad look, the tears had started to fall and quickly turned to whisps of steam on her cheeks. “The thing about Succubi is we’re biologically attracted to power. It’s like ponies finding a well toned Stallion with long hair attractive.”
“Oh my that is rather true isn’t it?” Rarity said thinking of her Prince to be Blueblood.
Cinder smiled a little catching a taste of lust off of Rarity, “So we came back from that only a few days ago, and I realized that not only was he strong, he was kind, gentle, patient, hard working, honest, darn right sexy. I’m not even talking about his muscles~....” Cinder cooed, waving a hoof at her flushing face which began to start melting her ice cream a couple feet away.
“Ahem yes,” Rarity said interrupting as the other mare got a far off look in her eyes, “Nuada from what I’ve gathered is quite a catch.”
Rarity held her tongue about her own opinion, which was he could use some more aristocratic training to match his noble pedigree. But as per her romance novels she knew better than to insult a mare’s stallion, especially in this situation.
“Yeah, and then today, he was talking about some chores he had to do before he had free time, and I thought well why not help out, and that didn’t go so well.” Cinder said going back to eating her ice cream.
“Why, what happened?” Rarity asked.
“I realized I don’t know how to do anything. I just barely figured out how to use my fire and heat to clean in my panic. Aside from that, I literally can only fight and seduce ponies.” Cinder said breaking back out in tears, “I want Nuada to actually like me and he has no reason to!”
“What nonsense is that?!” Rarity demanded, getting Cinder to reel back in surprise at the unexpectedly outraged Rarity, who glared at Cinder reprovingly. “You are an amazing mare! You don’t know how to cook, clean, or whatnot? Learn! I’ll even help! Physically you’re everything every mare wants to be, as well as stronger than any earth ponies...save maybe Big Mac or Applejack, can hope to be. If you’re still around, it’s because Nuada is interested.” Rarity insisted, and Cinder perked up with hope.
“Do you really think so?!” Cinder asked gleefully, and Rarity nodded with a smirk and a tiny little giggle at Cinder’s complete turnaround.
“Certainly! Why, with your brawn and amazing good looks, and my knowledge of how to be a lady, I’m certain that we can turn you into a true warrior-bride yet!” Rarity gushed in excitement, realizing she might be able to coach Cinder into becoming a real-life version of one of her favorite romance novel series’ heroine; a warrior princess who courts a commoner stallion yet has no clue how to appeal to him.
However, Rarity’s enthusiasm was curbed when Cinder wrapped her in a painful squeeze of a hug. “Thank-you-thank-you-thank-you~!”
“Cinder! Ponies...are...squishy!” Rarity squeaked out, getting released abruptly by a blushingly embarrassed demoness who chuckled nervously.
“Sorry...so...where should we start?” Cinder asked, before twitching her ear and instinctively using a back hoof to scratch it like a dog.
“...First; manners….”
“Manners are hard.” Cinder slumped down on the floor.
“Tut-tut, my dear you can’t just slump. A true lady doesn’t slump, she sits daintily.” Rarity said demonstrating, “now then if you’re that tired we can stop practicing the prance for a little while and we can talk about eating proper table manners.”
“That I can handle.” Cinder said with a grin.
<hr>
“Cinder stop that right now.” Rarity said with a blush.
“What I was eating a carrot.” Cinder said sliding the carrot out of her mouth. Whole.
“My dear that was not the proper way to eat a carrot. I’m not sure what that was but it wasn’t the way of a lady.” Rarity said blushing.
“Well then how does a lady eat a carrot?” Cinder asked confused.
“There are two ways, the relaxed manner you take small dainty bites like so.” Rarity took a very small bite off the tip. “Or in formal situations a lady is expected to cut her food into small bites and eat with a fork.”
As Rarity demonstrated, Cinder sighed and took a small bite, “why such small bites?”
“This way you can eat a little quickly and then you can talk without having your mouth full.” Rarity said taking a small bite.
“Again, why do I need to mess with my mane?” Cinder asked in confusion as Rarity had it curled in places.
“Why Cinder, as lustrous as your usually wild mane is, it’s far too feral a style for a lady. In situations involving dress, or finesse, you must look the part.” Rarity insisted, and Cinder looked at Rarity perplexed.
“But you have your hair like that all the time from what Twilight’s told me, and that’s even when you’re out doing things that are really not all that fancy-sounding.” Rarity sighed at Cinder’s naive observation.
“Are you sure? I thought wedding dresses were supposed to be white.” Cinder asked the fashionista as she was being measured, fighting an urge to add a bit of junk in her trunk as Rarity insisted on the dress fitting her ‘base’ shape and not have to be ‘filled out’ like Cinder at first suggested.
“Absolutely darling. White would just clash horribly with your blood red fur and your fiery mane, not to mention your ram horns. I believe you’d bring out the beauty in black, rather than the wonder of white.” Rarity insisted, demonstrating a strip of white and black cloth in comparison to their coats. “I’d look fine in white, but since my fur is white, I’ll need to add accents. You, however, need just black with your natural colors-.”
A loud thud in the front room caused both mares to jolt, and the two looked at each other before trotting to Rarity’s still-trashed front room to find a large chest in the middle of the floor, and Rarity opened it to gawk and gasp at the insides. “What? What is it?”
“Traditional Neighponese silk clothing! I’ve never been able to get my hooves on them before!” Rarity squealed in joy as Cinder looked at the note on the top, quirking an eyebrow and pointing it out to Rarity, who then pouted and put the kimono she was examining back inside before slamming the lid.
It was then that Rarity’s front door sprang open and a furred figure fell through it, rolling into the large trunk. Looking over the trunk was the still dog-formed Nuada, who was reading the note that was on the side of the trunk.
Cinder tasted Nuada’s unique scent on the Diamond Dog, and smirked at Rarity who was leveling quite the glare at the dog. Cinder followed suit, glaring at Nuada.
Nuada looked up and saw Cinder and Rarity glaring at him. “Dog or not, you’re still mine Nuada.” She looked him over, eyes glaring sultrily. “Especially if that tongue does what other demons say it can.”
“And I looked in the chest, that’s not enough to forgive you with, I expect a few shopping trips with you as my mule will do.” Rarity huffed. “And you will allow me to try and copy your fur’s texture if it’s wonderful in any way.”
With a sigh Nuada resigned himself to his fate, glad at least Cinder had had time to calm down. “This form is temporary, and any wedding will be a while away.”
“That’s fine, I’m sure we can work something out.” She said in a sultry voice, turning back to Rarity with a joyful expression. “Now, we were talking gowns?”
“Oh yes darling! I think a nice black gown rather than white would go with your natural color. Especially if we emphasized the shape of your body rather than hide it like a mourning gown.” Rarity said as she and Cinder trotted to the intact stairs, leaving Nuada to sulk in his misery.
“Stupid Tenchi….”
In the next room over Rarity and Cinder broke out into fits of giggling. “I can’t believe he couldn’t tell we weren’t mad!” Cinder gushed.
“You picked up quickly Cinder, I’m so proud!’ Rarity snickered, the two new friends leaning against each other as they enjoyed their mirth. “Keep it up Cinder, soon; you’ll have Nuada practically begging for more.”
“But I don’t get it still, why do males like being abused?” Cinder asked curiously, and Rarity shrugged.
“Cinder, the stallion mind is a thing we mares may never understand. I mean, really, I keep leading Spike on and he keeps coming for more. I mean, it’s sweet, but...I have no idea what’s going through his mind.” Rarity shrugged. “So I can only assume from my own experience and my novels that stallions are simply attracted to strong mares.”
“Well I have that down, I just need to keep the right attitude!” Cinder beamed, and Rarity nodded in affirmation.
“No go out there and march your stallion back home for being inconsiderate.” Rarity ordered, and Cinder saluted like Rainbow is prone to, and fake-stomped out to the parlor. “They grow up so fast….” Rarity sniffed with pride.