//------------------------------// // Loving Shadows // Story: Creature of the Night Episode 2- Pure of Heart // by CreatureofTheNight //------------------------------// Those words echoed through the small cottage, Twilight's factual claim that she's from the future. Pure could only have her jaw dropped as Twilight slowly waved her hoof in front of Pure's face. "Oh Sweet Celestia, I think I broke her" Twilight said quietly. She let out an embaressed sigh and said "Well, honestly, I'm glad it's kind of just...out there." "So that explains it" Dueling said entering the room. "How you knew about my kind. You know me in the future don't you?" Twilight tenitively nodded. "What did my mother do?" That caused Twilight to grow very quiet. "That has to be why you're here right? There's some sort of Vampire Invasion, or Kingdom in Darkness, or something nightmarish like that with my mother being the culprit" The as a matter of fact way he was saying that unnerved Twilight a bit. In her timeline, Dueling's mother was dead. She's starting to realize why... "Well, out with it, I don't know how long before Pure recovers from the shock" Dueling said poking his friend. Twilight then asked "Well, before we do. How are you so accepting of this?" Dueling just smiled and showed his fangs "Oh yeah, vampire." relented the purple alicorn. "I'm not here for that. There's...an event that's going to happen. I think I might have gone back a little to far. I'm here to watch it, to get answers." She put her hoofs up. "Because I really, really, really, don't want to destroy the space time continuum, please don't ask me what it is!" A bit of laughter came from the much more handsome Dueling of the past, Twilight couldn't get over that, clean him up and any pony in her right mind would go for this colt. Dueling said "I'm pretty sure space and time are kind of shattered at this point" Finally there was a gasp that came from the stunned Pure, she looked at Dueling and simply said "You are magnet for weirdness you know that?" "But you keep me around anyways" responded the cheeky vampire pony. The pink unicorn groaned "Yes, yes I do" She rubbed her temple with her right hoof "Though that doesn't make it easier" "So..." Pure began to start but Dueling filled her in on what he already asked "Okay, so why are you here then?" There was a defeated sigh as she said "Look, I'm not going to lie to you. There is a big, and by big I mean blood fued type of big, between Princess Celestia and Dueling who goes by the name of Creature in my timeline" Before Dueling could even ask "I can not tell you why, because I have a feeling there's a reason for the name change." "Am I around?" Pure said quietly, but Dueling noticed the tone in her voice. "I... I have to know..." Deciding to somewhat lie, "Well you're in Creature's / Dueling's heart." Twilight said quietly "In my timeline he stated that the reason he never turned you was because you'd be miserable and he..." Dueling was motioning his hooves to get Twilight to stop talking. "He would never try to make you miserable" Pure turned her head "Dueling, don't think I didn't see that. What were you cutting her off at?" She said with a little glare. "Something you need to tell me?" Dueling looked at Twilight than at Pure. This was going way faster than he had planned. He was waiting for a full moon, a large picnic blanket, candles, and just finally confessing everything. Dueling said "I...need to talk to you privately." He looked at Twilight "Unless THIS is what she needs to see..." Twilight smiled knowing where this is going and kept quiet watching Dueling and Pure go into the kitchen. She could barely hear them, but only saw their shadows glowing in the light. When she gets back, she needs to study on how to read lips. She'd love to see every word that was being said. The shadow of Dueling kept talking and talking, she could see the shadow of Pure turning her head almost like she was embarrassed. She couldn't tell if it was a joyous or shamed embarrassed, but given the conversation earlier it was probably the former. Eventually Twilight saw the shadows embrace in a hug, look deep in each other's eyes and kiss. Twilight could only just beam for multiple reasons, and then a sense of dread filled her to the core. She just saw the happiest moment in Dueling's life which means soon... Dueling and Pure came back, noticeably closer with each other. Dueling looked at Twilight and asked "This happen?" Twilight smiled "Even if it didn't, I wouldn't want it to change." She looked at Pure with a smile as Dueling kissed her cheek. "But it did" Pure noticed a quiet look of concern on her face. "Dueling, we do need to address the elephant in the room" Dueling paled as Pure responded knowing Twilight's concern, somewhat. "I'm not like you, I'm not eternal. I'm...well I'm mortal." She looked away "Plus there are a lot of things you told me that vampires can't do, like have fillies or colts. Stuff couples normally do would be...well for fun." She said kind of coyly, but subtle enough that it got both Twilight and Dueling to blush. "But lets not kid ourselves. The fact I'm not there in the future means...I died..." Dueling sighed wishing they didn't have to address this topic and said quietly "I know, Pure I know" He pulled up and sat down on a chair next to Pure. "It was one of the reasons why I didn't want to tell you how I felt. I didn't want to get to close to you" However, Dueling slowly smiled as Twilight looked on noticing the same blissful look that Creature has whenever he remembers Pure on his face. "But, I've come to realize. That won't happen for a long, long time, and I'll enjoy every second I'll spend with you. I know we can easily fix this situation right now but...Twilight's right." "Sadly, she is" Pure said with a defeated smile "I would hate being immortal. Seeing all my friends die, over and over and over again. Always having to make new ones, but knowing you'd just outlive them. The only thing I'd have would be you" She admitted. "Eternal, not immortal, there is a difference" Dueling pointed out. "Still, I get your point" Dueling looked at Twilight who had the look of concern on her face. "Listen, Twilight. You can probably go back now..." "I umm...can't" Twilight said quietly "The uh, thing that I'm supposed to watch hasn't happened yet." She grew quiet. "I can't say what it is, but I'm very happy for the two of you" Pure giggled in excitement "I'm so happy too. I'm also taking your advice Twilight. I'm taking you and Dueling to meet Princess Celestia!" The sense of dread on both of their faces just filled the room. Back in the present, Creature paused as he had to land, seeing a shadow. He followed the shadow across the land as fast as he could. The thing was moving faster and faster until he stopped, staring face to face with a shattered fountain. He held his head, remembering how hard Luna blasted him into Twilight's castle. "Great...now I'm having memory jogs" He paused as he looked at the fountain, shattered by the hands of time and from the looks of it blunt force. Wrapped by nature's cooling embrace as the moon shinned down upon it. Creature sighed "I used to take Pure out here when she let me live here. It was romantic, but I was to worried to just tell her how I felt" He laughed "I remembered that when I finally did have the guts to tell her. We went to this fountain and we..." His eyes closed "A magical night for the two of us...it was right after the day I met Princess Celestia for the first time." He paused as he looked behind him and said "So, you went looking for me did you?" "As a matter of fact I did" Said...of course...Luna as she descended. "Still convinced what happened was an accident, and not a cold blooded murder that I witnessed" Creature said bitterly. "You know that's what is the worst part about this." He said his anger boiling over. "Even in death my mother still finds a way to spite me!" He held his head, stress and head trauma hitting him at the same time. "Every time I think about that mare, I want to go back in time to snap her neck over and over and over again, then find new ways to end her" Creature said bitterly. Luna cringed at that level of hate. As much as she and Celestia didn't get along back in the Nightmare Moon incident, she never wished her dead, banished maybe, but dead? Luna shook her head and looked at Creature "My sister is...not taking your escape well..." "Well she'll hate this even more" Creature said defiant "Twilight has gone back into the past because Celestia and I can't talk like reasonable grown adults" Luna's eyes widened as she put her hoof under her chin "That is...most troubling..."