//------------------------------// // Chapter: 6 – Rarity // Story: Picture Perfect Pony Zero: Mothering Bell // by ReifuTD //------------------------------// It was the smell of smoke that broke Rarity from her shock. She didn’t know how long she stood there. But it couldn’t have been longer then few of a few minutes. Ash flakes floats by Rarity’s face. They tickled her nose and nostrils. She could see a orange glow up ahead from the laurel grove. The first thought that popped into her head was “The grove was on fire”. Her second thought was of the bell for some deep unknown reason. Rarity rushes at a run for the flaming grove. She frantically searched through the flames. The Camera Obscura vibrated like mad. Rarity thought the flames took the forms of moaning mares. She thought they took the form of hope burning away. The image of the ghostly Rainbow Dash appears before her. “Mother Bell it’s over here!” The ghost calls out. Rarity fallows the ghost pony until she spots the blue bell. She reached out for it with her magic. The burnt stick broke with the bell attached when Rarity’s magic failed her. The mare had to dash closer to the flames then she would have liked, grab the hot and smoldering stick with her mouth and spat the thing away from the fire where she could stomp it out with her hooves. “That bell must mean something to you,” A male voice speaks from behind Rarity. The mare spins around to see the stallion in the stag mask. The living one not the one from the shrine who's dead possibly twice over. Rarity takes a defensive stance readying to fight or flight. “I have no interest in hurting you now,” The stallion told the unicorn mare, “The Camera Obscura is more effective at exercising the spirits around here than I ever thought it would be. Most of them appears to be gone.” Rarity takes the bell up with her magic. She puts it into her pocket as she runs into the manor. “Urgh!” Superior Gem huffed as she scrubs the blood off the floor. “Got to clean before the children wakes up!” The ghostly mare fades away before Rarity could make a snap shot. The unicorn mare finally opens the hatch in the floor. The prebroken spider webs sway in the air. Rarity’s hooves creaked the wooden steps as she put her weight on them. She gasps at the sight of the mummy. The mummy made the Camera Obscura’s light turn on. She takes a picture. In the photo a little glow appeared over the dead pony’s pocket. Rarity grimaces as she checks the dusty corpse’s body. She takes a piece of paper with the numbers 3514 written on it. The Camera Obscura’s light turns on again. She waited for Rarity to see her before speaking. “If you want to know everything use those numbers to open the real safe.” Smilie Cloud answers before she disappears. Rarity knew what she was talking about. But that was something at had to wait for later. To see the room the unicorn lit her horn. It flickered a little bit. The evening has been taking a toll on her magic and she hoped it will hold out. It was a green colored box the size a little larger then a pony’s head. Rarity didn’t want to look inside and didn’t need to. All she needed to do was to take it up stairs. She puts the Camera Obscura in her pocket so she could take the box up into her magic and walked up out of the cellar. The creature must have been attracted to the head or something. Rarity had to drop the box and pull out the Camera Obscura from her pocket. She dodges the Mini Stag’s antlers and fires the Camera Obscura causing the thing to flinch. She slowly walks over to the box stepping backwards as to keep her facing the Mini Stag monster. Rarity kicks the box across the room and toward the stairs with her back hoof. Her flinch in movement caused the Mini Stag to lunge at her again. Rarity hits the thing with a Zero Shot. Allowing her to dash for the stairs taking the box’s cobwebbed covered handle in her mouth. Once the Mini Stag recovered, it runs up stairs to chase Rarity. In the mean time, Rarity reached the pentacle room. She spat the box into the pentacle circle her mouth full of the cotton like material. The mare opens the summoning book. The Mini Stag thuds against the door. Rarity attempts the cast the spell but with her magical exhaustion and the noise of the thumping door her first try fails with a flicker of her horn. The second try was more successful with her horn giving off a blue spark. The Dullahan appears in the circle. It bumped it’s headless neck against the box sensing what’s inside. Rarity realized she had to flip the latch on the box with her magic. When the Dullahan’s head pulls out it was of a beautiful mare. Her flesh returned to her body. Even the color of the mare’s pelt (yellow) could be seen. “My baby, have you seen my baby?” The mare asks. “Over here hon,” Rarity opens the door allowing the Mini Stag to rush into the room. The Mini Stag freezes at the sight of the yellow mare. The three legged mare walks up to the Mini Stag and nuzzles it with her muzzle. “Mommy?” The thing spoke up as it turned into light and adsorbs into the mare. The mare herself turns into a dried mummy and falls to the floor with a thump. The attic now free, Rarity walks up stairs. The cries of the infant could be heard. The light of the Camera Obscura turns on as she walks up to the crying infant the light thumping with each step like her heart beat. “Oh no!” Rarity gasped as she took the infant’s body into her magic. It was dead, the body long cold. It’s undead spirit continued to cry. Rarity takes the Zero Shot of the infant which caused the crying to stop. It took a moment for Rarity to compose herself. “This ends tonight!” She grits between her teeth. “What ever it is, I need to do to end this madness I will do it. This horror needs to be removed from the world.” Rarity looks at that music box device. There were two of them in this room. The attic it’s self extend from one side of the house to another with machines in both corners. Both appeared to be in working order. She remembered Soul Dirt’s note about how to get rid of the Stag. The being she now knew as Caesar Stag the pony lord who killed the goddess Faust. The bastard behind all of this horror. That plan was better than nothing. Rarity puts the music box barrel in the device with a click. The same was for the other device. She checked the times on the devices clocks with her pocket watch. They said the same time but she reset her watch to be more in sync with the devices. “One more barrel left to find,” Rarity remarks looking at her pocket watch. “I only have two hours before the Summer Sun starts.” With nothing else to do Rarity heads back to Superior Gem’s office. She heard the voices of children as she walked down the west wing hall. These were random voices of the past and she didn’t have time to investigate. Rarity walks to the safe. It still made her horn itch. She opens the hinge of the safe. She grabs the panel in the back that only a unicorn could hold in her magic. Underneath was a number panel. She pushed the numbers with her magic. It took a couple of tries before the device clicks. The door swings out letting loose an earthy smell. Rarity takes a breath and attempts to slide into the small hole. It was a tight fit and made the mare feel fat but she got through. Her horn light reflected off the crystals. They were light blue in color. Warms crawled over the gems. Spinning them and making them bigger. At the end of the cavern she could see a skeletal corpse of a unicorn trapped in the blue gems. From the bits of mane and dress Rarity could tell it was a mare. It was Superior Gem. This cavern must have once extended farther out but it appeared to have had collapsed. Rarity thought of the sink hole out the back of the manor where the bell tower used to be. Rarity takes a picture of Superior Gem’s corpse. “What are you doing in my farm!” Superior Gem shouts appearing behind the white pony. Rarity steps out of the way and the ghostly mare was stunned a little bit at the sight of her own body. Then enraged, she suddenly leaps at Rarity. The specter was stabbed by her horn. Memories flows into Rarity’s brain causing her to lose track of reality. At the time there was still a tunnel. An exit was near where the bell tower had collapsed the ceiling in. The small filly was stealing gems when Superior Gem found her. The filly froze from its institutionalized fear. Superior Gem spots the red glimmer of the ruby colored broach. “Thief!” Superior Gem shouts tossing the small foal into the wall with her magic. “I raised you and you repaid me like this.” The filly curled in a ball sobbing in pain. “What do you have to say for yourself,” Superior Gem snaps. “I hate you!” The filly shouts as she cries, “I want to be free!” “Shut it!” Superior Gem kicks the poor creature in the mouth causing her lip to bleed. “You’re my bitch, you do as I say,” Superior Gem shouts at the filly. A long cracking groan came from a wood beam. The filly rolls out of the way as the ground caved in. “Daughter stop!” Smilie Cloud shouts. “Mother?” Superior Gem gets off of Rarity.”Y-You’re dead!” “You are too sweetie,” Smilie Cloud answers. “No, no no!” Superior Gem shouts. Rarity holds up the Camera Obscura. Smilie Cloud seen this and nods her head. Rarity does a Zero Shot. Superior Gem screams as she fades away. Afterwards when Rarity looked away, Smilie Cloud was gone. A glimmer catched Rarity’s eye. It was a music box barrel. Rarity puts it into her pocket and crawls out of the cavern back through the safe hole. She picks up the tools and headed up to the tower to fix the music box device. The orange glow of the burning laurel grove flickered in through the window. Dull gray ash could be seen falling in front of the black ground of the sky. Rarity walks over to the music machine. She takes it apart, she knew how clocks worked. Rarity learned how to maintain her own clocks and watch just like she learned to maintain her own sewing machine. The last thing the mare did was set the time on the machine’s clock by looking at the clock on her pocket watch. Satisfied she put her watch away. Then the tools back into their box and headed back down stairs. The outside was snowing ash heavily as Rarity walks up to the Mothering Bell with one of Photo Finish’s croquet mallets in her magic. She floats it into her teeth and with a great swing of her head she hits the bell. It rang loudly, she pulls her head back again and let’s loose another ring. Then a third ring.