Lakeside

by Steadfast Bulwark

Flowery Confessions

Rain beat heavily against the skylight above as the pair entered Lakesides garden. Having briefly seen the gardens the night before, although at the time the room was lit only by a small set of candles brought by Scyphos, Rarity had failed to see why it had impressed Twilight and Fluttershy so. However in the pale light of day flittering in through the massive glass ceiling, obscured even as it was by the dark clouds, Rarity finally saw the garden's beauty.

To her left an arid wind brushed against her cheek as it blew over the many species of cacti and other desert plants that thrived in such conditions. On her right lay the polar opposite, quite literally. Tiny snowflakes fluttered down seemingly from from nowhere onto a pristine blanket of snow broken only by the toughest of plants native to such environments.

However neither of these sights caught Rarity’s eye, instead it was the center of the room which commanded her full attention. A vast field of white flowers.

“Beutiful, aren't they.” Constance said as he stepped up beside Rarity. She only nodded in reply, not wishing to tear her gaze from the flowers.

“Affectus Flores.” Constance said suddenly. The strange words causing Rarity to look to him in confusion.

“Mood flowers.” He said with a nod towards the flower beds. “A rare type of flower which changes it’s colour based on the emotion of whomever touches the petals.” He shook his head slowly with a chuckle. “Surprisingly not the best flower choice for Hearts and Hooves day.”

“Why do you say that?” Asked Rarity.

He glanced over to her. “I tried to set up a stand in Fillydelphia to sell a few bouquets.” He looked away and shuddered slightly. “Lets just say I'm not welcome there anymore.”

Rarity face deadpanned. “I see.” She said simply.

Hoping to change the subject to something less strange, Rarity motioned towards the flower bed. "Where exactly did you find these marvelous flowers?"

There was a twinkle in Constance's eye as he looked towards Rarity. "Ah now that's a story." He smiled warmly as he walked forward and sat down just at the edge of the field of flowers. A cool wind began to rustle the petals as Rarity moved to join him at the field's edge, feeling her cheeks growing warm as she settled in close to his side.

Constance glanced over to her and smiled as he leaned forward to grasp a flower stem in his mouth. Taking great care not to touch the petals, he plucked it from the Earth and offered it to Rarity, who with a gracious smile, took it in her magic. To her wonderment, the white petals slowly changed to a light pink.

"It was about three years after I met Scyphos when we decided to mount our own expedition into the Crystal Mountains." Began Constance, silently making note of the flowers colour. "We put the word out and after only a week we had twenty of the craziest ponies you had ever seen." He shook his head at the memory. "I'm not kidding, about half of them wrote down on their job applications 'Mentally Insane.'"

Not quite sure how to take that statement, Rarity remained silent.

He chuckled. "Anyway our merry band trekked up into the Crystal Mountains with two carts of supplies and whatever gear we needed on our backs. After about a week, we reached the intended area and set up base camp."

"What were you looking for?" Rarity asked when Constance had paused.

“At the time, we didn't know. Scyphos and I.” He said, growing suddenly quiet. Rarity glanced over at Constance and saw a far off look in his eye. “Perhaps we were looking for answers...”

Rarity thought his tone of voice and word choice were rather odd. “Answers to what?”

He blinked and turned to her suddenly, placing a big smile on his face. “We were craving adventure!” He said happily, seeming to have not heard her question. He brought a hoof up to lightly stroke his beard. “Im sure of it now. We just wanted to go on another adventure.” He dropped his hoof and shook his head. “Don't get me wrong, I love owning this mansion and never having to worry about money, but it can become dreadfully boring.”

While pleased to see his mood return to normal, Rarity couldn't help but ponder the sudden change that came over Constance. However before she could raise the issue, Constance once more settled into his story.

“Getting back to the story. Once we had set up camp, One of the mares we sent to scout ahead came back with news that a massive blizzard was heading our way. Bad news for us since we were camped out on a mountain side.”

"What did you do?" asked Rarity.

Constance seemed to gather his thoughts before replying. "Well we had two option. The first was to dig into the mountain and pray the blizzard didn't bury us or double back and seek shelter inside a cave we passed on the way up."

"Tell me you chose the cave?"

Constance cast her an amused look. "Oh without a doubt. As the storm blew in we practically sprinted back down the mountain and crammed all our gear as well as ourselves into that cave. Which I may add looked bigger when we passed it the first time."

He chuckled lightly. "So the blizzard hits and , of course, blocks the entrance with snow and ice, leaving us trapped inside. Somepony gets the bright idea to start a fire using one of the carts as kindling." He shook his head with another chuckle. "At the time it seemed like a great idea."

He casually glanced towards the ceiling where the rain continued to hammer against the glass. "No sooner than it was lit, the floor crumbled beneath us."

Rarity gasped and brought a hoof to her mouth. "Oh my!"

Constance nodded sadly, still gazing up at the ceiling. "When I finally came to, I found myself alone in a large cavern. At first it was too dark to see anything but after awhile I noticed a strange glow off in the distance. With nothing left to do, I headed towards the light."

He paused as his ears perked up slightly but Rarity was too engrossed in his story to notice.

"I don't know how long I walked, but after what felt like an eternity, I reached the source of the strange glow." He once more looked to her. “A circle of stones, each giving off a soft white white, and at their center, stood a mare bathed in golden light.”

“A mare?” asked Rarity in disbelief.

He closed his eye and sighed. “I heard an angelic voice in my head asking me my name. I was so overcome that I couldn't answer. The voice asked me again, in a softer tone. I answered and the mare smiled at me. Filling me with a sense of peace I had never felt before. She then walked towards me.”

He opened his eye and Rarity could see tears steadily forming. “She took my hoof in hers as the light surrounding her enveloped me. I heard the voice tell me everything would be alright." He blinked as a single tear slid down his cheek. "Next thing I knew I was lying in a field much like this one with Scyphos standing over me. The others were scattered about the field but thankfully none of us were seriously hurt. After rounding everypony up we poked around for a bit but didn't find anything worthwhile so we gathered some flowers, climbed back to the surface, and continued on our way.”

He wiped the single tear away and chuckled. “Sadly or as some would say, fortunately. The rest of the expedition was uneventful, no point in even mentioning it. Suffice to say we broke even and made it safely home.”

His story finished, Constance smiled at the look of sheer amazement on Rarity’s face as she tried to process what she had just heard.

"Did any of the others see the mare?"

Constance shook his head. "No. I was the only one. Everypony assumes I was hallucinating the mare, due to the fact I had hit my head during the fall.”

“Nonsense!” exclaimed Rarity, taking his left hoof in hers. “I've had my share of extraordinary encounters, many of which would seem impossible!” She locked eyes with him. “I firmly believe your encounter was more than an hallucination, Constance.”

"The truth is, I myself discounted it as an hallucination. Until that is I found something proving otherwise."

"What proof was that?" asked Rarity.

"You see while I believed it was an hallucination, I couldn't clear it from my mind. Throughout the rest of the expedition and for several weeks after we had returned home, it was all I thought about."

"After several sleepless nights, I had an epiphany." He held his left hoof up in front of him. "I remembered that when the mare took my hoof in hers, she gave me something in that moment, something I didn't realize at the time. It was like a veil had been lifted from my eyes. I looked down and in my hoof, I found what she had given me."

"What was it?" asked Rarity in a whisper.

Constance looked to her and, very gently, placed his hoof on the pendant clasped around her throat.

Rarity gasped. "The pendant?!"

Wordlessly, Constance nodded without dropping his hoof.

Rarity felt her heart flutter in her chest. "You gave me such a precious treasure?! Why?!"

Constance smiled warmly at her. “I knew in my heart that the golden mare was beautiful beyond measure, but no matter how hard I tried I could never picture her in my head. It wasn't until I picked up the newspaper one day that I finally remembered.

“What did you see?” Rarity asked in a whisper.

Constance's grey eyes bore into her as he replied.

“A photo of you.”

Rarity found herself too overcome with emotions to speak. She merely lifted her own hoof and placed it over Constance's.

Constance looked as if he wanted to say something more but the sound of voices, steadily growing closer caused his ears to perk up once again. With another warm smile, he lowered his hoof from Rarity's cheek and turned towards the source of the voices.

"I was wondering when you three would finally wander over here." Constance said with a playful smile towards Scyphos, Applejack, and Fluttershy, the latter failed to notice the pair, busy as they were chatting about their surroundings.

Scyphos made careful note of the deep blush on Rarity's face as well as the colour of the mood flower still held in her magic, which was a deep red. "Forgive me, I hope we are not interrupting?"

Constance stood up. "Not at all." He said, smile still in place. He gestured towards Rarity who was still sitting on the ground, too overcome with emotions to speak. "I was just telling Rarity about our second expedition into the Crystal Mountains."

A look of understanding passed over Scyphos face but was quickly hidden. "I see." He said with a quick nod. "That explains much."

“Explains what?” Asked Applejack. Breaking off her conversation with Fluttershy. She noticed Rarity still sitting in the grass with a wide eyes expression as her own turned quickly to worry. “Uh...Rarity, you ok?”

Rarity’s blinked rapidly as she returned to her senses. “Hm...what…?” She stammered, a deep blush spreading across her face. She raised her eyes up and saw Constance looking down on her. Rarity's blush deepened even more as a small sigh escaped her lips. “Quite fine.” She answered dreamily.

Applejack and Fluttershy exchanged looks. “Are ya sure?” Asked Applejack, scratching the back of her head. “Cuz you look a tad flustered.”

Before Rarity could reply, Constance began to chuckle softly. “I'm afraid that's my fault.” He said casually, offering a hoof to Rarity, which she eagerly took, and helped her to her hooves.

“I'll confess that the story I was recounting may have been a tad bit, shall we say, scandalous?” Constance finished with a smile and a wink.

Fluttershy’s face immediately became flushed as she covered her mouth with her hooves with a quiet meep while Applejack nodded in understanding. “Should've known. Rarity usually looks like that after hearin a story like that.”

This seemed to snap Rarity out of her flustered state. “That's only because I can truly appreciate such a story.” She remarked as she turned to face Applejack, shuffling closer to Constance as she did so.

Applejack held up her hooves defensively but with a smile. “I hear yah Rarity, I hear yah.”

“If you would all pardon the interruption.” Interjected Scyphos as all eyes looked to him. He casually pointed a claw up towards the skylight. “But it would seem the rain has stopped.”

Sure enough, as the three friends turned their eyes up, the clouds parted of their own accord, letting the sun stream downward.

“Well ain't that somethin.” Whispered Applejack as she shielded her eyes with her hat.

“Truly spectacular!” Said Rarity.

“Pretty.” Whispered Fluttershy.

“HAHA!” Exclaimed Constance with a loud clap of his hooves, startling all but Scyphos. “At last!” He swung out his left hoof as if he was tossing back an imaginary cape, and struck a pose that Rarity would happily admit was rather dashing. “The tour of the grounds can begin!”