//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Blood Curse Hunters // by Rarity Belle //------------------------------// Words couldn’t be vocalized by the vampony. Just the sheer power with which the werepony had exclaimed her view on the situation, made Rarity cautious, terrified even. The vampony was afraid to even go near her one and only friend. It was a great reality check for her which showed that the world was still spinning. Realization had broken through though, she couldn’t anything other than to give Fluttershy her right. In more ways than one, she happened to be just that. A wolfish grin went across the muzzle of the beast with strange delight. It had managed to corner Rarity where she wanted and Trixie didn’t knew what came next. Anything could have happened if those two immortal titans had gone at each other’s throat. Trixie knew that if a battle would come between them, the winner would have taken it all. Not to mention the horrible memory that would have lasted until the day the other came to pass. So the unicorn made the decision not to meddle herself among the trouble of the wolf and the vampony. Trixie left them for what they were, to preserve her own. She left the entire throne room as a whole without a sound. Her mind had become clouded and required peace. The massive lock that Rarity had placed around her free-thinking mind was still as strong as ever, but the hundreds of thoughts of pure anger that Rarity had allowed to escape, became too much. Thoughts of murder, devastation, terror, all of those horrible things. Yet it was so easy at the same time. One glance was given back to the pair immortals by the unicorn. Trixie gave only one glance back and realized just how easy it was to murder one of them. How easy it was to murder the pony she had called ‘mistress’ for over a year. A dark thought clouded her mind while her horn charged just a bit. Among the darkness did the light finally shine, but never enough to get their attention. Ominous and haunting through the dark hall, leading away from the scene. One spell and it would all have been over. One spell that could have ended it all. One more step was made by Trixie in the hallway. One step that was more of a stomp against the stone. She would put her hoof down before she met those eyes again. Those haunting, sapphire blue eyes met her straight gaze. The sheer silent dominance that they screamed was more than enough for her to stand down. To release whatever arcane power she held around her and be a good mare. In the end, that was all Trixie wanted to be. ~~~~ A growl came from Rarity as the first response to Fluttershy. With Trixie out of the chamber, the cost of collateral damage didn’t matter anymore. The room could be redecorated if needed, she wanted to do that even. But the wolf, the sheer audacity of that dreaded wolf to call her out the way she did, it required a lot of nerve to do that. “After everything I’ve given to you, after every soul I allowed you to devour, you still have the guts to tell against moi that I didn’t help you?!” Rarity growled to the wolf. The battle of immortal titans was about to erupt. “Not in the way you told me too,” returned Fluttershy cold. Rarity noticed how the pattern of speech returned to a much more normal and understanding one. Changes were about to happen, that much was true. But how far would the changes have gone for the both of them? How far would the changes of Fluttershy have gone in the matter? The vampony had to remain cautious, for those claws at the end of each hoof could deliver a nasty cut. It would have been a shame if Fluttershy’s neck found itself at the end of her fangs. “Then do tell me, loud and clear, in which aspect I appeared to have failed you, darling, because whether you like it or not, you have awoken my curiosity and I yearn to know.” High words from a long dead mare, Rarity truly seemed to live in her own little world. Though she didn’t care that much for it. Fluttershy let out a low tuned growl and stood up from the steps instead. She then wandered through the room, looking for a place cast in shadows. Only there could she have revealed the truth to Rarity. Only there could she remind herself who she truly was. Shrouded in the shadows, Rarity knew what would happen next to Fluttershy and she straightened her wings against her body, forming again the tail of a dress. Amidst the darkness, Fluttershy let out a cry of pain while the claws retracted in her hooves. Her entire wolfish appearance was reverted back to the shy and timid pegasus she was born as. Bones snapped, teeth cracked and tormented whimpers echoed through the room. It was a true pain to watch and a torture to live through. But it was the price that Fluttershy had to pay whenever she changed. At least her victims had some time before she would have opened the hunt on them. “So, what now?” Rarity asked of her with raised eyebrows. She spoke only when Fluttershy had sunk through her legs. The pain she lived through couldn’t be endured by her body. Everything went white behind the eyelids of Fluttershy. Everything that she had endured followed up by the question, it all had become just a bit too much for her. But even through her pain, even though tears were already building up beneath her eyes, she found the strength to speak. She found the strength to speak and would place Rarity on her place once more. “Now, Rarity? Now I am going to tell you how I feel about the whole situation,” the pegasus returned in her shy voice. The pegasus that Rarity had known since she was a filly, had returned. “I feel insecure about all of this, the way things are handled, you, Trixie, but this animal inside of me... It wants to keep slaughtering, it wants to be kept fed. If not, I, I don’t know what will happen to me, to us, to Equestria...” Fluttershy was worried, that much was obvious, but she never came out of the shadow shrouded spot. She liked it in there, nothing seemed to be able to get her, certainly not her other self. Rarity just rolled her eyes in response. She had heard the conversation time and time again, just slight variations with each eruption the pegasus had. It was nothing new for her nor for Fluttershy. A low toned hiss was released through her mouth before the answer came. “I have aided you, numerous times with your condition, remember? It’s not my fault that you don’t have the guts to go to Twilight, and ask her for books about lycanthropy! You know that I can’t go outside, I can’t just go knocking on Twilight’s door as I please! Imagine it, she would look like she’s seen a ghost. She actually has, on numerous occasions, but that’s a different point. You have the condition, you should find something to aid you. I do the best I can to do that, but ultimately, it comes down to you.” Whether Rarity realized it or not, she was wheezing because of her words. The sheer amount of insanity that she spoke, terrified Fluttershy to her core. In return, did the vampony have a point or two. But again did her haunting eyes set themselves on the pegasus, locking her friend in a battle that couldn’t be won, no matter how much she tried. Doubts went through Rarity, doubts about whether or not she could have kept on pressing the matter. To throw one last hoof of salt in the already torn open wounds. In the end she decided not to, it was best to leave her. Fluttershy would have risen back on her hooves. She placed each of them firm on the stone floor after which her wings would have stretched a bit. She had returned for the worse, everything made sense and none at the same time. The pegasus was terrified for everything that had happened so far. She had heard the words of Rarity clear as day, but still she doubted them. She couldn’t believe that her friend spoke like that against her. The tears would then have been wiped away, she wouldn’t show to the vampony that she was afraid, or scared. But her nature couldn’t be hidden from anyone. Fluttershy would have always been Fluttershy. A glance to the world outside was given by her eyes. She noticed why she was allowed to revert back to her pegasus form –to her original form– because the full moon had disappeared from the skies above. It had already set itself behind the trees and hills. Dawn would be soon upon them. The cursed and terrible dawn that Rarity dreaded so much. Fluttershy loved it though, it was in that moment of the day that she would have been one with nature. It pleased her to know that she had lived to see yet another sunrise. But Rarity, Rarity remained a mystery for her. Even after a year living together as immortals, she still doesn’t know how things came to be. But that, didn’t matter at all to her anymore. She would have departed soon, sooner than Rarity could have predicted. “It is time I take my leave, the full moon as lowered and, I don’t think I’m that great company to you,” said Fluttershy with her timid voice before she headed to the doorway. Rarity remained silent while the pegasus left. There was nothing else that could have been said though. Everything that she wanted to say had already been spoken. Time would have revealed whether or not Fluttershy came to see reason. Whether or not they both did that, not Rarity, but Trixie. Still, while she watched the pegasus take her leave, Rarity felt the urge to say something crawling up. “Fluttershy,” she started. The pegasus kept on walking with flat ears. She had heard the very tone in which Rarity spoke and it was enough for her heart to skip a beat. She thought that the unicorn had finally come around, turned back to the mare she was. But to avoid any humiliation, she continued to walk straight ahead, eagerly anticipating whatever set of words would have come next. “Your mane looks like a mess from my position,” spoke Rarity before her wings spread. The eyes of the pegasus were shut firm while another set of tears was ready to roll out. Had Rarity just said that to her? Instead of all the other words that could have been spoken, she made the decision to say those? It almost broke the heart of Fluttershy. It was a wise decision that she kept on walking. Nothing good could have ever come if she halted anyway. Without a further word would Fluttershy have left the castle, leaving Rarity with the half eaten carcass of a unicorn. ~~~~ With the rising dawn was Fluttershy still strolling through the woods. Her eyes wandered off the given path for just a moment and glanced over to the rising sun. The way the gold colored light made its way through the trees had a mesmerizing effect to her. It just felt good to wander there, even if the wind was chilly. Winter had just passed them, spring was about to show its face to all of them. But even the wonderful looking dawn couldn’t change the mind of the pegasus. The words that Rarity had said to her, didn’t add up. Had the vampony truly helped her in ways she didn’t knew? Or had she just been lying everything together? It wouldn’t have been the first time that such a thing happened of course. Either way, Fluttershy was at a loss of thought. Nothing made sense to her any longer and she just sat down on the moist forest floor. With her eyes closed and her wings slowly spreading, the pegasus just sat there like a beacon of serenity. How long she would have been sitting there? It didn’t matter to her. Her cottage would be waiting eventually and she would have gotten home one way or the other. While she sat there, Fluttershy felt the hidden scars across her stomach ache once more. ~~~~ Rarity’s eyes continued to stare to the unicorn carcass for a few more minutes before the first light of dawn managed to reach her room. A hiss of fright was then released through her throat and the mare made her way over to the throne. With gentle steps did she made her way up before seating herself on the throne. An animated exhale was released while she watched over the room she called her home, the one room that stood equal to the bedroom of the boutique. The one room where she could have done anything, and gotten away with it. With Trixie roaming the castle somewhere she couldn’t be bothered with, Rarity began to think back. Back to times where things were a lot simpler. Back to times where she was just a normal pony, without much care about the world. Everything had changed of course the moment Twilight Sparkle came knocking at her door. “Oh how much I despised that moment ever since,” muttered the mare to herself before the eyes were closed. The wings wrapped back around her body to shape the nightgown and Rarity allowed herself to travel back on memory lane. She allowed herself to relive the past two years in great detail. From the moment on which she had been turned, to the point where her boutique burned to nothing more but a crisp. Her entire life, consumed by the very flame that raged in her heart. Ever since that event, Rarity had gone colder, caring less about the world and the ponies that dwelled on it. “A life is destroyed just so easily, just take away one little thing dear to that being and you are suddenly the one pulling the strings,” she said to herself moments before the eyes opened. In her ears she heard the pleas for help given by her victims. How they cried for mercy moments before the fangs sank into the flesh, moments before she could taste their blood again. But among the many crying voices, there was also the voice of a being she despised. A being which she rather saw leaving than coming. The words spoken by the old vampony queen Shiva, the being that brought her there on that dreadful day long ago. The blood moon hadn’t been forgotten by Rarity. “How could I have been so foolish to even assume you were a separate entity. It’s all just a big game between you two, isn’t it?” Rarity had become angry at the world. Everything that lived, was and would be seemed to anger her. Her emotions hadn’t been held in check by anypony and she let out a deep, annoyed hiss that went through the entire hall. She wanted to not just kill somepony, but gut that pony, torture it before slaughtering it again. The order didn’t matter to her, she wanted to see blood being spilled for nothing other than her own anger. Out of nowhere was a hoof slapped against her face. A hoof that slapped her hard enough to realize what she was thinking about, to which lows she had descended to. A few blinks were made before she stared at her own, ivory furred hoof. Rarity had slapped herself in order to return to the path of right. “W-What?” Rarity questioned to herself. Confusion had struck her eyes greatly while she watched everything, all while she recalled her mind. Silence would have taken her over in the moment. Just the silence of the day while the dawn continued to crawl through the windows. The dawn of a new day had come, and she would remain awake for it all. That very same hoof that had slapped her mere moments ago was then brought to her chin in order to stroke it. Ideas came forth from the depths of her mind, memories were unlocked that took place after she claimed the castle as her home. The time she spent there was luxurious, with a servant that would have done her every whim, blood was always there and she had a friend coming over every full moon. The first couple of months did it seem like heaven to her, but when the months grew shorter, so did her tolerance level. Rarity was never a mare that changed much in her personality at all, yet she noticed now, a full year later that she had changed and not for the better. A deep sigh was then released through her nostrils, one animated by just the muscles before the eyes went shut again. The thoughts were cleared from her head before she took a gander to the outside world. From her shadow covered throne did she saw how the world was awoken once again. That calm dawn that would have felt so pleasant years ago, now only made her scared. A flash came by and in an instant she found herself looking again to the hoof. With her eyes she saw how it had molten from the bone. All the flesh, veins and muscles had just vanished. It was a terrifying fright that she didn’t wanted to relive at all. The burning pain that went through her body was just as bad as when she first felt it. Terror would have struck her again before she shook the hoof. Only then did it change back to the way it was, the one she had gotten used to. “Okay, I, I’ll admit, I’m a little bit scared now,” the vampony confessed to herself. She didn’t wanted to do it, but she told the truth to herself. The truth that came hitting the hardest of all for her. A shake with her head was given before she fixed her position atop the throne. Perhaps she would have taken the thing down to begin with? Another shake with the head was given.