//------------------------------// // 8 - The Book's Ending // Story: Rarity Reads a Trashy Romance Novel // by vamparity //------------------------------// Wicked Strike, true to her name and her promise, dragged the late prince's legendary sword, Excalimare, out from Solemno and let it drop to the floor like it were a cheap toy. It clanked against the hard marble floor. She swiveled an ear to hear it echo down the great hallway of the throne room. She found the sound satisfying. A wet thud and few more clinks followed as Solemno's lifeless and armored body rolled off the throne it had once claimed as its own, leaving it empty. Wicked Strike regarded it for a moment. It was so small in the large hallway. It was difficult to accept something so small could lead to such trouble, she thought, but she figured the allure of its fantasy and promise was quite large. She rose her hoof to stare in quiet wonder as the purple haze soaked it black. It had traveled from Solemno's wound, through the magical sword, and into her, somehow. She could care less how or why. She could hardly care as it tainted her entire arm, its tiny magical fingers clawing it from the inside in pain, her vision taking a purple hue. Stumbling toward a nearby wall, she punched it with her ruined hoof. It left a hole. She could no longer feel it. She no longer wanted to feel anything. She dragged herself down the steps of the throne, headed to an outside balcony. She could feel the simple breeze of a calm night brush through her hair. She shut her eye in a pain that she desperately tried to ignore. She continued to drag herself, knowing all she had to do was climb over the edge and she could be finished, with everything. "Wicked!" The voice boomed down the great hall and hit her. She ignored it and the growing pain, using her good hoof to drag her further to her goal. "Wicked, is that you?" A frantic clatter of hooves drowned out the question, running toward her location. She had made it out through the door and into the night air. It was so peaceful and beautiful, she thought, she could not help but cry because of it and nothing else. "Wicked, you're hurt!" Two white hooves seized her, stopping her crawl. A pony was over her, holding her back. She was so close. The ledge was a few hooves away. She closed her eye hard, to prevent the tears from spilling. "Your arm! We have to get this out of you!" She could feel a unicorn's magical touch envelope her hoof, lifting it upright, as if it were reaching for Luna's moon. She wept openly. "Stop it!" Wicked Strike shouted. "I'm finished, okay? Ya need to get your hooves off of me. Wouldn't want them to get dirty." "I will do no such thing!" The magic aura grew in intensity, shifting through hues as it clashed with the dark energy. "Fair Desire, you listen here! It's in me now. Nothing I or you can do, can do anything about it. I've accepted it. I will not allow it to hurt you, not anymore--now let me go!" "No, you stupid mare!" Fair Desire grabbed the oddly cold body and held it close, in a fierce embrace. "I love you." Wicked offered to the night, staring into the moon. Fair Desire held her horn on Wicked's forehead, magic sparking out of it and engulfing both ponies into a thick white shell of energy. The energy shrank into a ball around Wicked's hoof, trapping the dark magic inside of it. Wicked watched the wild magic swirl the air around them, to see Fair Desire struggling to contain it, unsure what to do next but keeping it within her magical grasp, never wanting to let go. Wicked raised her hoof and pointed it to the sky. Her eye found the moon high above. She kept it in her vision and mind as strongly as she could hold onto anything in her rapidly fleeing consciousness. And she kissed her. In that moment through the magical chaos, they saw into each other's thoughts. The white ball of magic rocketed into space, vanishing, leaving the two to collapse into each other. As they came to, they found themselves in a hug. "I get it, you stupid pony," Fair Desire softly spoke, looking beyond the stars. "Never let me go, ever again." --- Rarity closed the book. The world felt larger than it had ever felt before. And somehow, against it all, she felt no smaller in it.