//------------------------------// // Generosity // Story: Crimson Mare // by Sphinx_Herald //------------------------------// Nova takes a deep breath as she walks through the forest. Anger burns in her veins, though she can’t quite recall why. The scent of smoke wafts up to her nose as she leaves a trail charred hoofprints through the forest. Every few seconds a flame flares up on her wings or back, or a small red bolt of electricity arcs across her feathers. She doesn’t know where she’s going, she doesn’t care. The leaf covered branches block out most of the sunlight making it almost as dark as night. Even through the darkness she can catch glimpses of something moving between the trees. But she ignores it, if it’s smart it’ll stay out of her way. Eventually, the sounds of running water reaches her ears. After a few more seconds of walking she comes to a thin creek cutting through the forest. Nova sits down letting out a sigh she touches she cool ground, though it quickly heats up. The tree canopy is thicker here, making the surrounding area even darker. Oddly, the river seems extremely clear, to the point that she can see the reflection of the trees in the water. She takes a few more deep breaths to try and calm down. However, her anger just flares up again, fires spring up around her and more bolts of energy spark across her fur. When she exhales, a stream of black smoke rushes out of her nostrils. She shakes her head and walks up to the creek. Her reflection stares back with startling clarity. No demon, no ghosts, no monsters, just her. Her crimson coat a bit cleaner than she remembers as is her dark red mane. Her eyes are sore and a little puffy as though she has been crying lately, but she can’t remember. However, her golden eyes glare sharply back glowing with an orange hue, anger burns behind them. Though now she can place it, she tell what she’s angry at, herself. She can’t stand the sight of her own reflection. She scoffs at her own reflection, a few embers floating on her breath, and turns away. “Why can’t today just end?” “What’s wrong, Birthday girl?” Nova whips around to face her reflection again, which simply grins back. Her anger flares again and fires burst up around her. “Everything! Everything is wrong! Everything about today is wrong, and I just want it to be over.” “Since when does a monster like you deserve anything?” “I’m no monster!” Nova shouts back stomping her hoof. Red cracks spread out across the ground from where her hoof struck, but she doesn’t notice. “I doubt Aura would say that. I doubt Celestia would say that. You don’t even think that’s true.” “Don’t you dare bring her into this! If you mention her again--” Her reflection just chuckles back. “What, you’ll do what? You’ll kill me, like some monster?” Whatever was holding Nova’s anger at bay snaps. “Just leave me alone!” she screams. A ball of fire forms around her, burning bright and hot. In an instant the sphere expands with a blastwave of destructive energy pushing it along. The fire roars and rips across the ground, flinging the chunks of rock and dirt away from the center. The blast quickly dissipates in the open area, turning the pressure wave into a wall of flaming at the edges of the newly formed crater. Nova sits at the center of the crater for several moments, taking deep, calming breathes. She opens her eyes and looks around. Even though she sits in the center of her newly made clearing it is darker than before, the large plume of black smoke blocking out the sun. She spots movement around the edge, something moving through the fire. Before she can investigate the remains of the creek cuts through the flames and starts running down into the crater. It flows over the rough, charred ground going around the large boulders and rubble the explosion had blasted loose. She watches it flow downward until it starts pooling at her hooves. Now, she can’t see anything, as if any sort of life the creek held is now gone. She sighs and gets to her hooves, but before she can leave she notices something gleaming in the water halfway up. Curious, she approaches it, forgetting about the creature in the fire. In the water is a small box that had managed to survive the blast. It is a simple metal box, no ornate designs or decorations. While the box had survived, it seems that the blast had snapped the clasp that held it closed. She goes to pick it up when she hears something moving along the lip of the crater. She looks up in time to see what can best be described as a bat pony leap out of the fire. The creature is pony shaped, though it’s hard to see it thanks to its dark coat. Two large bat-like wings spread out to its sides, the fire wrapping around them. Before she can react, a row of sharp teeth tear into her throat. Nova gasps in the hot dry air as she jolts awake. It takes her a moment to realize she’s still alive and that it was a dream. After a minute she manages to compose herself to the point where she’s breathing normally. She looks out toward the entrance, the horizon is starting to turn orange as the sun begins to rise. He killed me? It seems I did. Why did you kill me?! She feels what she can only describe as a ‘mental shrug’. I don’t know, that dream was all you. More importantly, I hope you like sleeping on rocks. She blinks a few times as her barely-awake mind works to interpret what he said. She looks down at her cloak, which she had been using as a blanket, and finds it is now nothing but ashes. Inside the town hall the bulletin board stands in front of Nova. She rolls her right shoulder as she looks over the job offers. Her eyes close and she twists her shoulder slightly more, getting a loud snap out of it. Her mind flashes back to the nightmare, something about it was... wrong. Shrugging off the uneasy feeling she opens her eyes and starts looking over the job offers. Her ears flick to the side when she hears someone come in, but she continues to look over the offers. Farm hoof at the Apple orchard, I doubt she wants me working anywhere near her home. “Nova?” She turns to the voice, to find the little purple dragon standing next to her. “Hello, uh…” “Spike, my name is Spike.” Isn’t that a dog name? Is he a pet or something? She shakes the thoughts out of her head and looks back at the bulletin board. “Alright, hey Spike. How’s Twilight?” “She’s alright, she just went to the Everfree Forest actually.” He follows her gaze to the board. “Looking for a job?” “Yeah, kinda. You know, I doubt you came here to talk with me, so maybe you should get on with whatever you came here to do.” Spike huffs and crosses his arms. “Well, actually I did come here looking for you. Rarity wanted me to ask you to go see her.” Nova raises an eyebrow and turns to face him again. “She did, why?” The dragon shrugs and starts walking away. “Sorry, but you want to get rid of me, I wouldn’t want to distract you any longer.” He pauses at the door and turns back to look at her. Nova groans and starts heading for the door. “Fine, sorry for trying to get rid of you, now what did she want?” Spike shrugs again, turning to fully face her now. “She didn’t tell me, sorry. But, she did say it was important. Nova rolls her eyes. Well, that’s helpful. “Guess I’ll ask her when I go see her in that case. Thanks for telling me.” With that she heads out the door, closely followed by Spike as he heads back to the boutique as well. Thankfully, on her few mail routes she did before winter she had managed to memorize the path to Rarity’s. The two walk in silence, Nova doesn’t mind it as she is mostly trying to ignore the dragon. Soon the blue building comes into view, and Spike runs ahead of her. He heads inside as soon as he gets to the door. Nova walks in behind him, looking around at the many dresses that glitter throughout the shop. She closes the door, ringing the small bell above it. “~Coming~,” Rarity calls from one of the other rooms. She walks in from one of the back rooms, one that seems to be where she makes her designs. The unicorn freezes and seems to pale slightly when she sees Nova. She glances behind her shoulder and out the window before looking back at her. “Hello, dear, thanks for coming,” she says forcing a smile. “No problem,” Spike answers from next to Nova, in a slight daze. Rarity blinks a few times, as if she’s just realizing he’s there. “Oh, uh, thank you Spike. Um, would you mind giving us a moment, dear? I wish to talk to Nova in private.” She gives Spike a smile, a real smile. “Sure thing?” he says uncertainty and heads over to the kitchen, casting a few glance behind him. Once he’s out of sight Rarity turns back to Nova. “Again, thank you for coming.” “Yeah sure, wasn’t exactly doing much anyways,” Nova says with a shrug. Probably wouldn’t have gotten a job anyways. Rarity shifts uncomfortably and looks back outside like she’s expecting someone. After a minute Nova clears her throat. “Uh, not to sound rude, but why did you want to see me?” Rarity sighs and looks at Nova again. “Well, my sister, Sweetie Belle told me about what happened in the forest.” At the words Nova’s eyes become sharper, more aggressive, but she doesn’t say anything. “She told me about how you fought off those wolves and gave her and her friends time to escape.” Nova relaxes some, relieved that the filly didn’t tell her sister the whole story. “Oh, that. Honestly, it was no problem, just glad I could help,” she says trying to hide her injured leg a little. “That may be, but I still wish to thank you for what you did. And I absolutely must repay someway.” “Well, thanks, but really I didn’t do that much, it was all Applejack.” She starts trying to make her way for the door, but Rarity quickly cuts her off. “Not from what I heard, fighting four timberwolves at once can’t possibly be something easy. You saved my sister, I insist on repaying you. I know! How about I make you a dress, free of charge of course?” A nervous laugh escapes Nova’s throat and she scratches the back of her neck. “I, uh, I don’t think I’d anywhere to put one back home. But, it’s a nice--” She stops when she sees Rarity’s shining eyes. Something about them just tell Nova she won’t accept ‘no’. Guess I could just send it to Scarlet, I’m sure she’d love a new dress. Nova takes a deep breath and let her shoulders slump down a little with the exhale. “Fine.” Rarity smiles and trots over to the back room, ushering Nova to follow her. Nova enters into the room filled with fabrics and threads of all colors and textures. Mannequins along the far wall, two of them wearing unfinished dresses. “So, is there any particular color you’d like it in?” Rarity asks as she trots up to the shelf of fabrics. “Purple?” Nova says, not too certainly. The unicorn look back at her, an eyebrow raised at her. “Are you sure?” Nova shrugs, “Yeah.” For a moment Nova thinks she hears her mumble something under her breath, but she simply ignores it. Rarity looks over her fabrics for a few more seconds before levitating a tape measure off her desk. “Alright, I have an idea, but I’ll need to make some measurements.” Nova tense, but stays still as Rarity starts taking measurements of Nova’s proportions. “Quite the interesting cutie mark you have,” Rarity says as she measure the length of Nova’s hindlegs. Nova looks back at the pentagram, a small circle running around it with what appear to be letter written inside. She scoffs and focuses back ahead of her, at nothing in particular. “May I ask how you got it?” “No.” “You don’t like your cutie mark?” Rarity asks. She continues her measurements, but soon realizes Nova doesn’t plan on answering. She sighs and decides that a different topic would be better. “You must be rather brave to fight four timberwolves at once.” “Didn’t really have much of a choice, I didn’t know what they were until they were trying to bite me.” “Still, that doesn’t change the fact that you choose to stay behind and fight them while Applejack and the others got to safety.” To Rarity’s displeasure Nova simply shrugs. “Well, I wasn’t going to let them get eaten. Besides, the wolves weren’t that bad to fight.” “But, surely you must have been afraid while fighting the big one.” Again, Nova shrugs as if it was nothing. “No, just more challenging.” “How so? I’d imagine it would be rather hard to hurt it.” “Didn’t need to, it was slow, I only needed to fly circles around it for a while.” Rarity bites her bottom lip and glances over at the door. She sees Spike standing patiently outside, looking around idly at the dresses on the mannequins. A blue macial field covers it and swings the door shut. Rarity sighs and sets the tape measure down beside her. “I suppose there’s no point in trying to trick you.” Nova turns around and furrows her brows at the mare. But, doesn’t say anything and lets Rarity continue. “My sister told me what happened out in the forest, what really happened. She told me that you didn’t run from the last one, that you shot fire at it. Later, I asked Applejack and she told me the same. So, is it true?” Nova takes a step back, not quite expecting anyone to ask her that bluntly. But, it lasts for only a brief moment before it wears off. She sighs, finding herself more annoyed than angry that they told Rarity. For a moment she thinks of simply lying, but what good would it do? “Yeah, it’s true.” Silence falls over the two, neither one too sure of what to say to the other. Rarity glances back at the window then the door again. After two or so minutes rarity speaks up again. “So, what are--” “I can’t tell you. Trust me, the rest of your friends want to know as well.” Rarity nods thoughtfully. “Let me guess,” Nova says. “You used the dress as an excuse to see whether or not they were telling the truth?” Rarity nods in response. “So, you don’t actually plan on making me anything?” “Well, of course I do. I don’t care what you are or what you can do, you saved my sister, and for that I’m eternally grateful. The least I can do is make a dress.” Nova stares at her, a smile creeping over her mouth. For once, perhaps she can take pride in one of her actions. Well, at least not everyone hates me. After a moment a thought comes to Nova. “Do you know any fire-proofing enchantments?” Rarity looks at her slightly confused, but quickly catches on. “Uh, I’m afraid I don’t, but I believe Twilight does.” “Okay, in that case I have a better idea than making me a dress.”