Blood Curse Hunters

by Rarity Belle

Chapter 121

A couple days had come to pass by after the events in the castle that stood in Everfree. In the Canterlot gardens had Fluttershy in her pony-form, the three hunters and princess Luna gathered themselves. The three had gathered themselves in a more private and secluded part of the garden and were all looking at the fountain that stood there. It was relaxing to see how the waters streamed down from there, but everypony knew the gravity of the situation. This wasn’t just any old trip to the gardens to meet the princess. No, this was the trial of Fluttershy herself.

Princess Luna had revealed herself as the vampony that she was and thus appeared more bat-like in appearance than normal. It was a secret that she had kept high and far away from the public eye. Only the Night Guard and those questioned by the organization would come to know what she truly was. Not even Celestia would have known what Luna truly was, at least she hoped that.

The princess had listened to the entire story as it was told by the hunters, Fluttershy constantly agreeing with their words. It was sad to hear that Rarity had departed from the world of course. On the other end, it was also a relief to hear. Because now, Luna could re-establish herself as the queen of all vamponies. But a thought gnawed at her mind. The vamponies had been living in relative harmony in the years without a queen. Maybe it was better for them to be left queenless, to make sure that they would survive in a fashion that they saw fit.

“I do believe your stories to the letter, and I’m both mortified and saddened by the fact that Rarity is gone. But you, Fluttershy, I’m more surprised about your being. You, of all, becoming a lycan and managing to live your life as you did. It was a marvel of nature indeed.” She had paid her respects to Rarity some time ago already, as she felt the death of the mare. Which helped her in a way to solemnly collect her mind on the case of Fluttershy.

That same Fluttershy sighed deep and tore herself away from the fountain. She wasn’t relaxed by it, she was terrified by it. She was terrified for whatever fate would come next. “It’s no marvel, princess, it’s the greatest curse that has ever fallen upon me. I’m glad, that you were able to mask the moon tonight, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to talk. Thank you, for that. But, what will become of me?”

The three hunters had remained silent, and would do so until the princess needed them again. But that same princess cracked a toothy smile. “You’ll be living your life as you see fit. Establishing the Night Guard again was perhaps the greatest mistake that I’ve made in recent years. All the pain and terror that they reigned, that you three brought forth to the world alone. It will be disbanded first thing in the morning. You four will be free to do what you desire, although I’m afraid I will never be able to feel that anymore in my life.”

“Luna?” a voice echoed close by. A voice that everypony knew well enough to recognize in just one instant. It was too close for the comforts of the vampiric alicorn, but she still reverted back to her more ‘normal self’. And around the corner she then appeared, as majestic and prideful as ever. Princess Celestia stood there, looking over the five of them with a curious glance in her eye. “So this is where you brought them. And Luna, there’s no need to hide what you are. I am fully aware of it.”

“W-What? What are you talking about?” the princess of the night stammered out. Luna pretended to not have a clue what her sister spoke about. But the stern glance in Celestia’s eye gave everything away. Her elder sister knew exactly what she was speaking about. So with a deep sigh would Luna have let the facade fall down. There was no need to keep it hidden from her, from anypony for that matter. “How long?” That was the only question she asked, with a spiteful glance in her own eyes.

Celestia smiled a bit and stepped further to the fountain, passing Fluttershy who turned back around to face the mighty princess herself. A thoughtful groan left the mare moments prior to her eye shutting. “When was the first time that I sensed it? Much longer ago than I would like to admit to you. The moment that she took control of you, that was when I began to notice the changes in you as well. I had hoped that, after your return, you would have been the same as before, but she gave you a deadly gift. I knew it, because our sisterly connection, Luna. No magic, no nothing. It gives much more away than you would like to admit, as I’m sure that you know a couple things about me that you rather don’t spill to anypony else.”

There did the princess of the sun had the princess of the moon. “And you let me do this?” Luna questioned to her sister. A twinkle of her own curiosity filled her eyes. It was amazing to see how her sister would have talked her way out of this, but the answer was one that might have been difficult to get. If there was even one that could be spoken.

Celestia had opened her eye again and taken a look to Fluttershy. A smile came to her face, completely ignoring the words of her sister. It would be one of the many secrets that she would take with her until the very end of time itself. Her eyes had fallen upon the yellow pegasus and at the same time, also gained a saddened expression. “I wish that I had something to counter your condition, Fluttershy. Your lycanthropy is not something that can be reversed, I’m afraid.”

“I, understand it, your highness,” the pegasus returned with a saddened tone. She had hopes that her condition could be cured by something. “But, isn’t there something to, keep the beast...in check?” A question that was fairly asked by her, and one on which Celestia did have an answer.

A gentle smile came to her lips. The princess of the sun made her way closer to the pegasus and laid a wing over Fluttershy’s body, engulfing her in the harmonic of the princess. “I’ve managed to make contact with Zecora, with whom you have a couple of previous encounters, and she said that she could try and make something that will, when you change, to be more in control. I do hope that this is going to help.”

While all those answers were nice and such, the main question that still remained. It was one that tormented Sweetie’s mind more than any other question she had up to that point. The one question that she wanted to have answered. She shifted her attention to the princess of the sun, determined eyes and all. “Why?” was all that she asked.

Celestia knew that the young unicorn spoke to her and let out a deep exhale, inaudible for everypony though. She didn’t knew what Sweetie wanted to know, but there were thoughts pointing her in a particular direction. “Why, what, my faithful subject? What’s troubling your mind so much?”

Sweetie huffed and took a step closer to the princess. Her emotional grief was readable in every feature of her body. “Why, did she had to die? Why couldn’t she be cured, helped? No, she had to die, for what reason? Who are you to say that who lives and who dies?”

It was in that moment that Sweetie had managed to lock Celestia in an impossible situation. The princess of the sun didn’t have an answer on the matter. The wing was lifted off of Fluttershy and she turned her whole to face Sweetie. It took guts to ask those kinds of questions to an alicorn of her status. But the look in her eye gave it all away. The look in her eyes spoke the one answer that Sweetie had never hoped to hear.

“You don’t know,” was all that she said. Her heart felt like shattering, stop beating altogether and just be done with it. Unfortunately, she didn’t have control over the matter at all.

Maybe Luna could have provided some insight on the matter. Something that has been troubling her own mind for quite some time at that point. The princess of the night stood by her sister and Fluttershy left the two for what they were. The two alicorns next to each other, the clashing harmonics wreaked havoc in her mind.

Luna sighed deep, shutting her eyes in the process. Her words had to be formulated with care or Sweetie could explode in front of them all. “It’s a twisted curse of fate. The fabrics of reality are woven in such a manner, that we do not understand them, not even my sister and I. We’ve wondered for years why some pass young but have good in them, while other grow old with evil nestled inside them. We can’t make the decision of the greater powers. Rarity’s, unfortunate death, had been postponed twice already. Perhaps the greater powers thought that the third time was the charm, and they were right.”

That was the explanation with which Sweetie had to do it, as unbelievable as it was. She didn’t receive any answers at all and just was expected to roll with the matter as it was. Unbelievable, that was what she thought that it was, and in a way, she was right about it.

“You’re dismissed, hunters, disbanded and no longer serving the Night Guard, what you do now is up to you, but you have fulfilled what you set out to do, and I’m proud on that,” added Luna. Her eyes had a gander at each of the three. She also gave them the option to leave.

An option which they gladly took. The three hunters had seen and done the unbelievable and just wanted to go, go back home and sleep in their own beds once more. Even if it meant for Sweetie that she had to face her nightmares once more.

Celestia’s eye fell on Fluttershy, who calmly nodded. They had some further business to discuss with one another and would leave shortly after the hunters went. That left only Luna who stood in the garden. In just a moment for herself, she would come to reflect all that happened in the past couple of months.

The alicorn approached the fountain and had a look at the water that laid dormant in it. The reflection in it told her more than enough. “History is doomed to repeat itself, the proof lays in the road of the past...” Everything that had happened over the past years were to blame for it. The moment that Rarity was turned had been marked the beginning of her downfall.

Even though the Night Guard had been disbanded, lycans and vamponies were still at large. Not even she knew what would happen, but it couldn’t worse than with the Night Guard doing its job. It was a tough call indeed. And in that moment, Luna reverted back to the vampony that she was. A soft hiss was given by her before she shook her head.

“Many stories have ended this night, too many...” Luna mumbled to herself, tugging her wings back against her body and looking up to the skies. And just in that moment, she would have paid her respects to Rarity. Her head bowed, her eyes went shut, silence took over the fountain whole. “Rest now, my queen, your hardship is over.”

~~~~

Rarity’s death didn’t went unnoticed of course. In the parental house of the mare sat her mother at the fireplace. The darkness that had engulfed the building was something to be quiet about. Her husband had already gone to bed but Pearl remained seated there. She sat in a chair with next to her, the diary that she once found atop her desk. The diary that belonged to Rarity and explained what had happened to her, to her eldest daughter.

The fires cracked in the fire place and the mare only saw one thing that she could do. There was nothing else that she wanted to do. Even though she didn’t wanted to throw Rarity out of her life whole, Pearl had to get rid of the diary. The dreaded and burned book spoke too much of the horrors that she had become.

A hoof reached for the burned book with tears streaming down her face. A deep sigh followed with a tremble. Not even a last time looking through the pages was given by Pearl. No, instead she laid it in the fires and began to watch it burn. Just watch it being consumed by the flames.

Half her daughter’s life, gone up in flames for the second time. Words couldn’t be spoken by her, the grief and sadness that she felt were too much. All she could, was to cry. Cry for as long as the book would burn in the flames.

The saying goes that those who are ignorant, are blessed. And in this case, it truly was that. Those who didn’t knew, would never come to know. Pearl’s tears only began to stream more intense when a morbid thought clouded her every judgement. A thought that would make her sob in silence.

The story of Rarity was over, there was nothing more to add, but all the more to forget...

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