//------------------------------// // The Proposal // Story: My New Life // by Ark125 //------------------------------// My New Life Chapter 53 - The Proposal "Dad?" I asked. The alicorn in blue armor walked up to me. "Hello Mom." He leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. "You are looking lovely today." "Who are you?" I asked. "It's me, Nightshade." "Nightshade?" "You probably don't recognize me with my helmet on." He took his blue helmet off and his long purple hair spilled out. "How about now?" I looked at him closely. "It is you." I hugged him. "Oh Nightshade, I missed you so much." "I missed you too, Mom. I haven't seen you for almost twenty years." I held him back. "Twenty years?" "That's right." "You mean... We never found you?" "I'm afraid not. But don't worry, I was well taken care of." "By who?" "I'm sorry to break up this sappy reunion, but I believe that I was about to kill these brats." He raised a long, red sword from the ground and held it at the necks of Starfire and Moonbeam. "You leave my sisters out of this." Nightshade said, taking a step forward. "Take another step, and you'll be an only child, son." Black Heart pressed the blade against their throats, causing them to scream. "Don't hurt them! Please!" I yelled. I stood up and walked forward with my head lowered. "I'll do whatever you want, just please spare them." He smiled. "That's exactly what I wanted to hear." He gestured to his side. "Come here and I will spare your children's lives." I walked towards him. "Mom, wait." Nightshade said, grabbing my tail with his hoof. I looked back at him with tears in my eyes. "Son, please find them a good home. I don't think I will be coming back this time. And I'm so sorry we didn't find you." I flicked my tail out of his grasp and went to stand by Black Heart. "Excellent." He withdrew his sword from my children and it disappeared. "Now, if you will excuse us, we have some important things to take care of." He summoned a portal and motioned me to step in. "Mom! I promise that I will make all of this right!" Nightshade yelled. "Please. You would need a miracle." Black Heart sneered as we stepped through portal. "Welcome to your new home, my dear." Black Heart said as we came out the other side of the portal. I gasped at the room I was in. It was not a dungeon cell, but a fully furnished bedroom. There was a fireplace with a table and sofas. A canopy bed with end tables and a very large closet. "Where are we?" I asked as I looked back to Black Heart, but I did not see him. All I saw was a human with long black hair wearing black clothes. "Black Heart?" "Luna, do you not recognize the human form of your husband?" The human said. Now that I looked at him a bit longer, I did see that it was Pure Heart's face and body. "Why are you in human form?" "Well it's kind of the norm to be human in this society. Have you not noticed your own body yet?" I took a second and realized that I was standing on two feet and had hands. "What the-" I ran to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. "I'm... Human." I poked and prodded my face, pulling down my eyelids and such. I felt my hair and found that it still flowed with its ethereal quality. I then ran my hands down the curves of my body and pulled at the bottom of the blue garment that covered my chest. "What happened? What am I wearing?" "You shifted forms, obviously." Black Heart said from the doorway, his foot up against the wall as he leaned back with his arms folded, staring at my image in the mirror. He stepped in and stood behind me. "You tend to do that when you go to a different world as well as gaining clothes. In your case, a blue t-shirt with blue jeans." "Different world?" "That's right. We are in the human world." "But how?" "Magic. Something you used to know. It doesn't really matter, though, for your magic would have not worked here anyways. As you may remember, humans can't use magic." "But I'm not human." "Ah, but you are. When we passed through that portal, your DNA was altered. The same thing happened to Twilight Sparkle years back, if I remember correctly." "Then you are stuck here, too." "Wrong. I was protected because I was the developer of the spell." He put his hands on my shoulders and then let them fall down my body. "Not that there is anything wrong with your body." I elbowed him in the stomach. "Keep your hands to yourself." I walked out of the room and sat on the bed. "Fine, fine. Though, you won't be so apprehensive for much longer." He said as he sat on the bed next to me. I turned away. "Why I am here? Aren't you just going to kill me?" "Kill you? Why in the world would you think that I would want to kill you?" "Your blood lust for one. And two, your a homicidal maniac." "Oh come now. Do you really think I enjoyed those things?" "Yes." "Well, you are mistaken. I would never do those things." "Then why did you?" "To tell you the truth, I did it for you." "Excuse me?" I turned to him. "Yes, I did it all for you. Ark may have had different motives and Pure Heart may have never actually loved you, but that does not mean that I don't love you." "You kidnap my children, you destroy my husband's soul, you hurt my friends and family, not to mention you had me chained up to a wall, and you have the gall to say that you did it all for me? That is one hell of a way to show it." "Okay, I had nothing to do with your husband's soul be destroyed and your son being kidnapped. That was all Ark. But yes, I did kidnap you, chain you to a wall, and hurt your loved ones. I will admit my guilt for those." He scooted closer to me. "But that was just to earn the trust of those fools I call minions." "Oh shut up. I know that this is all just a big lie. You probably have some ulterior motive to all of this." He shook his head. "I do not. I simply wish to help you see that I am not a bad guy. Don't get me wrong, I am sin incarnate, but I am also a very lonely person, hoping for a friend." He reached out to stroke my hair, but I smacked his hand away. He got down on one knee. "Luna, I want to ask you out on a date. Just give me a chance to show you how great it is to be evil again and also a chance to see how good of a guy I am." I stared at him, for a long time. Then I took my hand, and smacked him across the face. "That was abhorrent. I nearly vomited I was so disgusted. I would never go out on a date with such a vile man. And I definitely never want to be evil again." He rubbed his face, and began to laugh. "Oh well. I tried to show you my good side, but you seem to have a thing for bad boys." He stood up and turned. "Very well. Seeing as you will not go out on one date with me, more than your precious husband ever had mind you, I will have to go to plan B." "What are you talking about?" I said rolling my eyes. "We will skip the dating process entirely and go straight to marriage." "Marriage?! Are you mental?! I just refused to go on a date with you! How on Earth do you think that I would accept your marriage proposal?!" "Well you do seem to like the idea of going straight to being engaged, what with your last husband and all." "Hah! I would rather die than marry the likes of you!" I turned completely away from him. "Not even for the lives of your girls?" He asked. My eyes grew wide and I turned back to him. "What are you talking about? You set them free, remember? And knowing my friends, they have put them under the highest security." "Not even a legion of alicorns could stop what I can do." "What?" "You see, before I showed up in that room back at your old castle, I slipped your girls a special mineral. Something of my own design that I am very proud of. I call it a Heart Geode. With a single word, the granules that I fed them will discard their protective casings and become vulnerable to liquids. Once saturated, its atoms will begin to multiply, spreading like a cancer but becoming twice as deadly." "You're bluffing!" "Am I?" He took a small bag out of his pocket and summoned a frog. He reached into the pouch and took a pinch of red dust out of it. "Here you go fella." He opened the frog's mouth and sprinkled the dust on its gums. He then took a water bottle out of his pocket and murmured something, I was unable to hear what he said. He poured the water in the frog's mouth and the frog began to hop around like normal. "Hah! It did nothing." I sneered. "Shh, watch. It takes a moment." Looking back to the frog, I saw that it seemed to be moving slower and slower. Then it suddenly fell in midair and shattered on impact with the floor. Black Heart walked over to the remains and picked up a small red crystal. "Did you know that some animals' organs continue to function even after death?" "Yeah, so what?" "His heart is still beating." He held the red crystal out in the palm of his hand and I gasped. The crystal was in the shape of a heart, and, though it was stone, I could still see the blood pumping through the ventricles. Then it too turned to hardened. He looked at the stone for a moment. "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a heart?" He licked it once. "One." He licked it again. "Two." He licked it one more time. "Three." He finally bit down on the stone with a loud crunch. "The world may never know." Red liquid began to drip out of his mouth. "Mmm. Delicious. It's like rock candy with a gooey center." I watched in horror as he swallowed and licked his lips. "You disgusting creature." He wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "Come now. It was not to disturbing. You know, in some countries, they eat frog hearts while they are still beating." He stepped up to me, and brushed a lock of hair out of my eyes. "I can just imagine how wonderful your girls' hearts would be. Horse hearts are a delicacy I hear." "You sick bastard." "Maybe. But it will happen, unless you accept." I thought for a moment, and then sighed. "Fine. I will marry you." "Hurray for me! I'm the happiest lad in all of the South Pole!" "In where?" "Oh, I was so caught up in all of this that I forgot to tell you. We currently stand in the most harsh and unforgiving environment in all of the world, Antarctica." "Antarctica? I believe Pure Heart told me about this place before. He said that is was the one place he never wanted to visit because it was so incredibly cold." "Indeed it is. The temperature outside is currently -17 degrees Celsius." "Then how is it that I am not shivering?" "This castle is very well insulated plus I placed a barrier around the castle that keeps out the harsh winds. You should be nice and toasty. I personally find the cold invigorating and the wendigos absolutely love it. And you will grow to love it as well as me." "I don't care if I am being forced to marry you, I will never love you!" I yelled, turning away from him again, but this time lying face down on the bed. "Oh, Luna. You will see. It will be easier to love me after our wedding." He laughed as he opened a portal and walked through. I began to cry into a pillow on the bed, when I heard footsteps behind me. "Quite a predicament you have, isn't it?" I turned to see a man with red hair standing up against the wall. He wore a black suit with a red tie. "Who are you?" "It's me, Kron." "Oh great. Just what I need, one of Black Heart's lackeys babysitting me." "Actually, he doesn't know I am in here. He thinks I am running errands." I stared at him in confusion. "What? Then why are you here?" "Well, to tell you the truth, I never liked Black Heart, Flash Fire, or Ark to begin with. Flash Fire one day just came into our hive and took over, saying that if we didn't do what he said, he would burn us all alive. Of course, he had those two psychopaths with him, so we reluctantly agreed." "Why would you care about what happens to me?" "I don't. I care what happens to your children. Anyone that hurts children I consider to be the scum of the Earth. No, they are worse than scum." "Wow, you must really love children." "I should, since I have one." He said, walking away. "You have a child? What does he think of you doing such horrible things?" "I don't know. I haven't seen him for awhile." He went and sat down on a couch, putting his face in his hands. "He was cast out as a reject because his mother was a unicorn. That was around two years ago." "I am sorry to hear that. But don't you think your anger should be directed towards your own people instead of mine." He shook his head. "No, it was your people that placed an execution order on us changelings, and that is why I had to take refuge with them in the first place with my foal." "What about his mother, could she not of taken care of him?" "No, she died shortly after child birth. After that, I had to take care of the foal. But then I was confronted by the royal guard. They said they knew I had a changeling foal and demanded that I give him to them. I escaped them and ran to the changelings for refuge and was confronted by King Metamorphosis. He said he did not want such an abomination in the hive and we ended up fighting for power. I won in the end." "I wondered what had happened to Metamorphosis." I pondered as I crossed the room and sat across from Kron. "Yes. But Chrysallis did not know that my son was a halfling until a few years after my succession to King. When she did find out, she sent him away, making him think that she had killed me and that there was no place for his kind." "And you just went along with it?" "I had to, for my son's safety." "Why in the world would you stay with Chrysalis, then?" "Because she may seem evil, but underneath her exoskeleton beats a heart of gold. She only sent my son away for the good of the hive. I just hope that one day, she will see Nix as one of us." "Nix? Is that his name?" "Yes, though the rest of the changelings called him Disgrace." "How horrible? Why didn't you stop it?" "Because he had to toughen up." "Wow. You have a strange way of showing affection." "Indeed, but I digress. If you want to make sure your children are safe, I suggest you do as Black Heart says." "But you said earlier that he is worse than scum." "He is. That doesn't mean he is stupid. He has every situation covered. If you make one move, he has ten strategies to counter it. Any way you look at it, you lose in the end." "Well that's just perfect." I said, tears starting to well up. "Hey now, I know for a fact that your husband didn't like you to cry." He said, sitting next to me and patting me on the back. "Don't you worry about anything. Chrysallis and I have your back." "That's right, dearest." Said another voice from behind. I felt a hand placed on my shoulder. "Chrysi! How long have you been standing back there?" Kron asked, running his hand through his hair. "The whole time. You and I will talk later. But right now..." Chrysallis sat next to me. "I want to let you know that my husband is right. We will be right behind you. And we will do what we can to aid you." I thought for a moment. "Do you think you can get a message to my sister?" They looked to each other. "I suppose we could." Kron said. "But it will have to be short." "Alright." I searched around the room and found a desk. I walked over and opened a drawer. Inside was stationary and a small tube. "Where are the quills and ink wells?" I asked, opening the other drawers but finding nothing of use. "They don't use those in this world anymore." Chrysallis said, walking up next to me. She reached into the first drawer and pulled out the tube. She pulled off the end, exposing a point. "They use pens." "Pens? Interesting. I wish I had more time to research this culture." I took the pen and tried to write with it, but ended up only making squiggles. "Curses. I can't even write legibly." "Let me." She took the pen and sat down at the desk, taking out a new piece of paper and placing it on the desk. "Tell me what you want to say, and I will write it." "How do you know so much about using this human form?" I asked. "I have dabbled in this form in our world before. Now, speak." "Oh, right. 'Help. I am fine but am being forced into marriage. I am being held captive in Antarctica of the human world. Signed - Luna'." I watched as Chrysallis scribbled down the words. She then turned to me. "You need to sign it so they know it is you." "But I can't, I still don't know how to write with these hands." "Well we need some type of identifier so they know it is you." "I don't... Wait!" I reached into a pocket of the jeans I wore, hoping I still had it. "Got it!" I pulled out the letter that Pure Heart wrote to me. "Only a few know about this letter, so it should let them know it is me." I handed it to Chrysalis and she folded it up with the note. She handed it to Kron, who placed it in a pocket inside the black jacket he wore. "Alright, I will send this personally to Princess Celestia by magic once we are back in our world." "Thank you." I wrapped my arms around Chrysallis' neck in a hug. "You are quite welcome." She patted my arms and I let go. She stood up and straightened out her lime green dress. "Now then, off with you." She said to Kron. "Yes, I have a few things to attend to before Black Heart will open the portal again." He waved as he quickly left the room, closing the door behind him. "Well, now that we got that settled, we need to prepare you for the wedding." Chrysallis said, clapping her hands together. I gave her a stunned look. "What? But I thought you were opposed to all of this." "I am, but that does not change the fact that this is going to happen. Black Heart will make sure he marries you, one way or the other, so why fight it? It is best to just accept your fate than try to change it." "You are wrong. You can change fate, I know that for a fact. Pure Heart changed his fate so that he wasn't banished to the sun." "Yes, and look where that got us. He is gone and Black Heart is here. If he had banished Ark to the sun instead of destroying his body, then none of this would be happening. As far as I'm concerned, that old prophecy is still in effect, and it will be until he is sent to the sun." "We can't send him to the sun! Pure Heart is-" She grabbed me by the arms. "Luna! Open your eyes! Pure Heart is gone! His very existence has been wiped out! He is never coming back because there is nothing left of him!" I looked into her eyes and saw the stone cold truth in them. I began to cry. She took my head and placed it on her shoulder. "There, there. I'm sorry that I said those things." "No. It is all true. I just can't accept it. I mean, if he is really gone, then why can I still feel him?" I said, placing my hand on my heart. "You will always feel him, in your heart. The love he had for you was so expansive, that it was feeding our entire hive, and it had been for weeks and it continued to do so." "Wow, that's a comforting thought." I said, wiping a few stray tears away. "What I am saying is that fake love doesn't even feel like a grain of rice for us. His love for you was real, and it was without end. That is saying something coming from the queen of a race that feeds off of love." I sniffled. "So he really did love me?" "Yeah, a lot of help that is now." She said, shrugging her shoulders. "Then there is still hope." I said defiantly. "What part of 'soul erased' do you not understand?" "Don't you see. He loved me, and I loved him." "So what?" "Love overcomes all. It travels any distance and can conquer any obstacle." "Luna, you are over romanticizing it. Love is merely an emotion. It has no power." "Then why do you feed off of it?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "We feed on the positive energy that specifically comes from love. It is all science." "What I am talking about is magic, not science." She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I am tired of all this sissy crap. Let's get you ready for this wedding." Future Nightshade's POV "Where did they go?" Eclipse asked. "The human world." I said, holding my crying sisters. "Shh. It's okay. Big brother will take care of you." I rocked them back and forth causing them to fall asleep against my shoulders. We had gotten back to Canterlot and reported what had occurred to Celestia. Vapor Sky, Cloudlight, Celestia and I currently were in Celestia's study, talking about what was to be done, the rest having gone to check on their loved ones. "Well that is no problem. We just need to use the mirror." Cloudlight said. I placed the sleeping toddlers down on a cushion and shook my head. "I'm afraid that is impossible." "Why is that?" Celestia asked. "The mirror was shattered a while ago. Ark destroyed it while controlling my dad's body." "Then how did you get to Equestria?" Cloudlight asked. "I used one of Black Heart's portals." "You mean he can create a portal between worlds at will?" Celestia gasped. "Indeed. And it was no easy feat to get through one. I had to start conjuring the time travel spell beforehand and just when he opened it, I jumped through and let the spell go." "How did you even infiltrate his fortress?" "That was the hard part. I had to pose as one of his henchmen for a year before I was able to get close enough to him." "Interesting." There was a sudden whooshing sound as a scroll appeared in front of Celestia. "Who could be writing to me at this time?" She took the scroll in her magic grasp and opened it. "What does it say? Who is it from?" I asked. "It's a message from Luna. She says that she is fine but that she is being held in Antarctica and is being forced to get married." "Married to who?" Cloudlight asked. "It doesn't say but I have a pretty good idea as to who." "Black Heart." I said. She nodded. "We have to stop that wedding." "I agree. But how are we supposed to get to the human world?" Vapor Sky asked. "Hmm." I tapped my chin with my hoof. "Celestia, who sent that note?" She looked at the note and flipped it over to check the other side. "There are no distinguishing marks on it. I don't even know if it was her who wrote it." "What's that?" Vapor asked, pointing at a paper on the ground. Celestia looked down and picked up the other page. "It's another letter. But this one seems to be addressed to Luna." "Who is it from?" "Pure Heart." Vapor gasped. "May I see it?" Celestia gave her the paper and she read it over. "It's the letter that Pure Heart gave to me to give to Luna if something happened to him! It is her!" "Well now that we have established that it is my sister, what was your idea Nightshade?" "Well, whoever sent that letter had to come through a portal to get back to our world. Obviously it was not my mother for she possesses no magic at this time and so would be unable to send the letter in the first place. And since there is nothing on the paper that says who sent it, we will need to prepare a tracing spell." "Excellent. Let's start there." Vapor said. Celestia shook her head. "It's not as easy as it sounds. It will take a few hours to set up such a spell." "She is correct." I turned to Celestia. "I will prepare the spell myself." "Nightshade, it takes more than one pony to cast such a spell." Celestia said. "And when it is ready to be cast, I will ask for your assistance. Until then, I want you to concentrate on getting your husband out of the crystal. We will need his help later on if my plan is to succeed." "What do you want us to do?" Cloudlight asked. "Go back to your room and rest. Take a bath and relax for a bit. You will need all your energy later on." "But..." Vapor started, but I stopped her. "Vapor Sky. I remember when you would play with me and my sisters when I was young. I remember how you would take care of us when our parents were out on a business trip. Please, just let me take care of things for once." She looked into my eyes and nodded. "Okay. At least let me take your sisters for now." "Very well. Make sure you keep a close eye on them, though. If anything about them changes, let me know right away." "Got it." I lifted my sleeping siblings onto her back and kissed them both on the head. "Don't worry girls, I will make everything better." Moonbeam yawned and opened one eye. "I love you, Nightshade." She mumbled. I chuckled. "Love you too." She closed her eye and went back to softly snoring. Vapor Sky and Cloudlight exited the room and Celestia followed, but stopped at the door. "Are you sure you don't need my help?" "I'm positive. Go and break out your husband." I said, shooing her out the door. She nodded and closed the door, leaving me alone in the dark study. "Now then, let's get to work." I told myself.