//------------------------------// // Chapter 17 // Story: Lesser Light: My Time in the Limelight // by soothsayer //------------------------------// Twenty minuets of listening to Sweetie gush about her new cutie mark was enough to drive anypony insane. A noticeable twitch had developed in one of Narci's eyes, "Look Sweetie, I'm really happy for you but in all your excitement have you considered what it means?" asked Narci flatly. Plopping down on her rump Sweetie raised a hoof to her chin. After several minuets she gazed back at her new cutie mark and then resumed her posture. "Well it is a microphone, so it must be a singing cutie mark." she answered with surety. Waving her hoof gesturing to the ruined room Narci shot Sweetie a sharp look, "Are you sure your special talent is singing?" With the evidence on hoof Sweetie started to reconsider her earlier statement as she formulated a hypothesis that matched the perceivable phenomenon, "Well it's a microphone held by magic, so perhaps I have a magical voice?" "I don't know what it is but something about your rock crushing voice is familiar," said Narci placing her own hoof to her chin mirroring Sweetie's earlier posture. "If you heard it again would it help?" asked Sweetie wanting to help her friend help her. Shrugging Sweetie desided to try again anyways, "Ahem! do rE Me FUs Ro DA-". Sweeties eyes filled with painful tears as Narci's hoof plunged into her mouth. The force of the growing harmony sent waves of energy up Nacri's foreleg as it resonating up the appendage into the fillies body. All it all it made her fill tingly like her whole body had been asleep. After extricating her hoof Narci gave Sweetie an apologetic smile, "I'm sorry about that Sweetie. You weren't on the receiving end of your magical voice." Laying her hears back Sweetie snorted. "I get my cutie mark and my friend doesn't even want me to use my special talent. I think she is just jealous." She thought. Looking off to the side she didn't see Narci scoot closer. Using her uninjured wing she reached out and lightly touched Sweetie's mark. This caused an involuntary shutter to cascade down the unicorns' spine, causing her to gasp, "What was that?" "What? This!" coyly said Narci as she stroked the mark again causing yet another gasp to escape her victims lips. "Stop that! It's uncomfortable." said Sweetie realizing all to late that it came out louder than she had intended. Narci pulled her wing back and dropped her head. She couldn't bare to see her look so sad so relented, "You can do it again if you want," muttered Sweetie. Narci shook her head, "I'm sorry Sweetie. I should keep my hooves and wings to myself. It's just something I do sometimes." "So you have a habit of touching ponies even thought they don't want to be touched or you have some kind of strange fetish were you have to touch somepony with your wings?" asked Sweetie who was now genuinely curious. "What's a feti-never mind." said Narci deciding not purse that line of questioning, "I just do it, ok." Sweetie could tell that Narci was hiding something but she didn't want to push it so she asked a less personal question, "Why did I feel funny after you touched my cutie mark?" Lifting her head up Narci looked at Sweetie with a serious look, "You mean you don't know. You don't have a dictionary or encyclopedia entry for it?" "No." answered Sweetie. Opening her mouth to speak Narci was suddenly at a loss of words so she shut her mouth only to reopen it again. She mimed talking fore several more moments before she could work up the courage to fight against the blush that was teasing her flesh, "Ponies who have no knowledge of magic believe that a ponies cutie mark is a universal erogenous- you do know what erogenous means right?" Sweetie didn't have Narci's fortitude as she blushed at the thought, "Yeah, I know what erogenous means." she answered with a hint of discomfort in her voice. "Well they think that it is an erogenous zone and that is more or less true. It is far more than that though. A cutie mark isn't just a mark that is physically visible it is a mark that is tattooed on your very soul. So if somepony touches your cutie mark it's like they are touching your very soul. It is the ultimate sign of humiliation or-" answered Narci as Sweetie spoke up. "Trust!" they spoke in unison. The revelation unnerved Sweetie to the point that her ears started to twitch nervously. Gulping she said just barely louder than I whisper the only reason she could think of, "So the reason you touched me like that is because you want to be my very special somepony?" Leaping to her feet Narci reared up on her hind legs and crossed and uncrossed her forelegs rapidly, "No! No! No, that's not it," she squeaked. Sweeties light blush was replaced by a deeper shade of red and her soft eyes took on a harder edge, "What? So if you weren't doing it because you trust me were you doing to humiliate me!" she shouted as she threw Narci's words back in her face. Narci continued to cross and uncross her forelegs, "That's not it either!" "Why then?" "BECAUSEIDON"TMAKEFRIENDSALLTHATEASLYANDEVENWHENIDOIDON"TKNOWHOWTOKEEPTHEM!" blurted Narci as she covered her mouth with both hooves and silently hating herself for spilling one of her secrets. Sweeties rage was washed away like a log down river as Narci fell back to her hooves and then to the floor. The sound of Sweetie closing the distance between them Narci felt that she needed to get away so she shot up to her on her hooves and started to run away. Sweeite followed in pursuit. Without realizing it Narci placed her hoof on the chasms wall and started to run up the face heading for the top where the bridge had once stood. She was almost to the edge when she heard Sweetie call out not in anger but in surprise, "How are you doing that!"