Love Trancends

by mlpserenity

An Unlikely Alliance

Rarity breathed deeply and exhaled, “How long it has been.” Rarity trotted slowly through the empty road that led from Fluttershy’s house to the main hub of Ponyville. Her movements were steady and calculated as she went. The years were certainly catching up with her and she found herself stumbling a bit on occasion. Of course she immediately righted herself, lest Spike begin to smother her with worry. Now she tries to take her step, like many more aspects of her life, carefully. Her life recently consisted of hospitals, pills and Spike’s worry. While once her world was filled with delightful scents of perfume, dragon musk and nature’s splendor now the smell of sanitation, clearance laundry detergent and dragon musk dominated. The latter never really changed and for that she was thankful. “I love that dragon, but I am a grown mare. I should be able to take a nice relaxing evening stroll if it tickles my fancy. I’m not made of glass.”

As Rarity spoke to only the night, a familiar sense of dread engulfed her. A presence she had not felt for years since the one and only time it had invaded her mind; The Nightmare. All but ready to trot quickly from the perceived direction of the ominous air, she stops at the sound of a groan. It sounds like a pony, but moreso a pony in pain. Bound by her good nature, she moves to help this pony in peril. Surprise is what she finds as indeed the body of a pony is before her, lying on its side. A unicorn mare with a red coat and an orange mane lay there, but the intrigue and uncertainty came from what floated above her. A black cloud was the the best way to describe the entity and it simply floated above the mare. That feeling of despair hit her again, only it felt much closer than before.

A new party spoke, “Useless. Why is it so hard to find a good body to inhabit.”

I know that voice. It cannot be… “Nightmare Moon” Rarity gasps quietly and is frozen on the spot.

The cloud shrunk and expanded as if in surprise, “Who is- Oh, you. My, the years certainly have caught up with you haven’t they.”

“How can this be?”

“Don’t be too surprised dear. It will take a lot more than what happened to purge me from this world.”

“We defeated you.” Rarity attempted to speak with confidence, but her voice slightly wavered at the presence of her once captor.

“You simply drove me from your mind.”

“Why are you here? And who is that mare?” Suddenly anger began to well up inside her and she stepped toward the cloud, “What have you done to her?”

“I have done nothing. She simply has such a weak body that I was only able to get this far before that body began to grow weary. Honestly your kind has so few worthy candidates for my power.”

“You stole her bod-”

“Ones like you!” The cloud dove at her and engulfed Rarity.

She could feel Nightmare Moon begin to try and enter her mind. She thought of her husband, friends and family while her horn began to glow. No! Not again! Her horn shined brightly before a pulse fired the cloud away from her body. Rarity’s body wavered and she was forced to sit. Oh my. That took more out of me than I foresaw. Rarity breathed heavily to attempt and recover from her spell. An annoyed groan reminded her she still had an opponent before her.

“Blast it! Why are you and your friends always an annoyance to my existence.”

“Why are you here?”

The cloud sighed loudly, “If you must know I am attempting to recover some of my power, but that process is cumbersome without a host to aid me. The shock of expulsion from your mind did leave me severely weakened so I have been resting.”

“Why have you emerged now?”

“It felt as if I had recovered enough power to be able to control ponies. However it seems that only applies to low level ponies. You, it seems, will require more.”

Though winded from repelling the cloud with her magic, Rarity spoke with determination,“You will never control me. Not again.”

“Sadly it seems you may be right. That body may house a great spirit, but it does not appear to have long left.”

To this Rarity could only slowly lower her gaze as that sad fact she had known and pushed aside was thrown before her once again. “I know”,Rarity said quietly. Her life in Ponyville had been wonderful, particularly since the arrival of Twilight and her now husband Spike. Rarity had spoken to Twilight before about the subject of her passing long before Spike and worried of how devastated he would be. Twilight had voiced her own troubles with this subject given that she too had contemplated how the passing of those she loves, especially Pinkie, would hurt since it would linger for her now immortal life. Sadly the conversation produced no desired solution and that it would be simply up to Twilight and Spike themselves to deal with that reality when it came about.

“Tell me, have you an heir? A spawn of yours would surely inherit at least some of your tenacity and power. She would be-”

“No. I do not.” Rarity raised her head to face the cloud, “And if I did, you can be sure I would not let you near her or any other pony. In fact…” Rarity reached into her saddlebags and pulled out a parchment that seemed to be sprinkled with pepper across the whole page. Spike had voiced concern several times that he was unable to communicate with ponies long distance without the aid of Twilight or Celestia. So they created this igniting parchment. In the process of its creation, it is littered with the ash produced from Spike burning a separate parchment. This allowed the sender to write what need to be said, ignite the paper and it would be sent to Spike like Celestia would. This paper was distributed among his friends and family so that they would be able to communicate to him from anywhere.

“What are you doing?”

“Getting assistance. Surely you do not think that I would simply leave you to your own devices? You must be dealt with.” As she began to write the cloud assaulted her once again. Rarity ignited her horn to repel her once more, “You know that will not work.”

“Perhaps not, but it will eventually drain you enough. Don’t think I did not see the toll your first spell had on you.” Nightmare spoke with confidence, but knew that Rarity’s spell had weakened her as well. It was a gamble, but she could only hope she would be able to subdue Rarity before she lost all that was left of her power and vanished from this world. A back and forth proceeded for few minutes until the last clash resulted in an extremely exhausted Rarity laying on her stomach and a cloud that seemed to be trying it’s best to not dilute into the air. “Dammit.”

Through deep and slightly ragged breathing Rarity spoke, “You… will not… win.” She tried to lift herself, but her body was not able to produce the strength needed. She attempted to lift her quill and parchment to her, but she found herself unable to muster her magic. No. She looked to her opponent and could see the appeared to have stabilized its form, though still quite transparent. No. I won’t let her have my body again. Rarity strained to either lift herself or conjure her magic with little yield. Please. Please work. Rarity looked to the body of the mare that seemed to have become paler than she had been at first glance. Tears began to form and roll down her cheeks. Please don’t let it end like this. Her thoughts turned to her husband whom she knew was at home fraught with worry for her. Spike… I’m sorry.

“Looks like you win.”

Through tear stained eyes she looked back to the cloud and indeed the once hazy yet stable form was once again threatening to vanish. “I won?” Spike.”No. I failed.”

“Ugh. What do you mean? I have barely any power left to barely hold my spirit to this world.”

“I cannot move.”Rarity spoke with tears now flowing without resistance, “My magic is drained. I am not in the best health as you mentioned before. One night alone in the woods will surely do irreversible damage to the years I had left. Years I promised myself I would try to hold onto for Spike as long as I could.”

“Spike? Hmm… ah yes the small lizard who joined ranks with your friends to defeat me.”

“He’s a dragon.”

“Pathetic looking dragon if you ask me.”

“You would change your opinion if you saw him now. He’s grown into quite the adonis.”

“I suppose if you're into that sort of thing.”

“That I am having this conversation while possibly becoming very ill is quite depressing.”

“That my last words are to be exchanged with you is not exactly my ideal scenario either. However, perhaps we can aid each other.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let me inhabit your body and I will empower you to be able to leave this forest and return to your Spike.”

“Absolutely not!”

“Stubborn as I remember. Wasn’t Spike important to you? Did you not want to give him as many years as you could?”

“Of course I do, but to even allow you to continue on inside me, let alone at all, is unacceptable.”

“Who has to know?”

“I will not put those I love in danger to get home safely tonight and not get sick. Those few years I might gain would be weighed by my guilt.”

“Few years? I see. I believe we have a misunderstanding. What I am offering is beyond the scope of simply a couple of years.”

“What?”

“If you will indulge me, I offer you a not insignificant portion of my power to sustain our life for.. well.. I cannot say for how long definitely, but for sure a couple of decades.”

“Decades?” That much longer with Spike?

“Yes.”

No. It’s a trick. “You will simply try and take over my mind.”

“Even if I do attempt, which I cannot promise I will not, to have the strength to even attempt so would be very far into the future since to sustain your body in prime condition would take a large portion of my power that I would be accumulating.”

“Prime?”

“Of course. Do you think I would want your aged body? Of course not.”

“Why should I trust you?” I am not seriously considering this, am I?

“First, I am very serious that I have no other option and my time is soon to expire so I am quite desperate. Second, I would essentially be a prisoner within you and would be willingly giving myself up to you and your friends to do with as you please. Finally, you have clearly shown propensity to combating my take over so you should be able to repel my attempts quite well.”

Rarity looked to the side, thinking about how she should proceed, “I do not trust you.”

“That much is clear. However my offer is more limited in time it seems.”

“Why is that?” Rarity turned back to the cloud to see it smaller in overall volume and almost fully transparent. “Oh.”

“Yes, my time seems to be up.”

“You seem strangely calm.”

“Panicking would only exacerbate my finality. Still, choose. You haven’t long.”

Rarity closed her eyes in contemplation. Is it so wrong to desire to be with Spike longer? To delay the tragedy he will have to bare alone? Is wanting to live so wrong? Why is it okay for Fluttershy to use magic to be able to be with Discord eternally, but this racks me with such guilt? Discord is of course not evil anymore, but still...Ugh why am I even trying to rationalize this. This is a purely selfish endeavor and I know it. Still… I just want to live for Spike longer. Can that truly be so wrong? “Nightmare I- What?” The cloud was gone. “Well I suppose my choice was made for me.”

Was it? From in here you were going to choose this option so I decided to expedite the process.

Frantically Rarity looked around t find the source before she realized, “You!”

You were taking too long. Besides you were going to take my offer from the looks of things so it's not a big deal.

“You…”

Conceding to my reasoning are we?

“You can read my thoughts?”

Of course. Well not all of them. Those which you keep even hidden to yourself are difficult for me to decipher or are completely blocked for me.

"I cannot believe I allowed this."

Why? There is no shame in desiring life.

“I have put my friends and loved ones in danger.”

Look, I was not lying before. If you concentrate a little you can see my inner thoughts as well to see for yourself. You are essentially in full control. You simply have an extra passenger aboard is all.

Rarity sighed and tried to lift herself. She did so with great ease to her bewilderment, “How?”

You know how. Now I suggest we make our way to your home. Apparently that dragon yours can be quite the worry wart.

Rarity was about to leave before she remembered. She attempted to light her horn, but found that she still lacked magic power.

I did not offer power in that regard. That would drain me completely. She will be fine by the way.

“We must take her back home. Where is she from?”

Quite a ways away. Traveled by train, but distance was my only goal so I cannot remember.

Rarity lowered her head under the pony to attempt and put her on her back. That too was done with ease.

Enjoying it aren’t you.

“Quiet you. We need to at least get her to the clinic.” Rarity began her journey to the clinic carrying the unconscious mare with little to no strain.

Sigh. I forgot how much of a goody two-shoes you were.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

How do I know this story won't die after only one chapter? Whenever I read an incomplete story that looks like it's going to continue, I add it to my favorites. I don't want a story to sit there forever.

[Hillbe]

Is this on the lines of the "Crazy Future" comic?" "I'll call her Sparity"

[forrest yuchnitz]

awww i wanted to see nightmares reaction to what spike looked like now

[DragonPony]

Great chapter I have to say. I can't wait to see Nightmare see Spike. I honestly think Rarity would confide in Spike what has happen and tell him all the truth. He is her husband and he honestly put her above all things. We have to remember..... Spike is a dragon a creature of greed. He wouldn't want something. somepony, that is his to go away. So if something can keep her around with him he will be all for it. He will worry but he will overall be more happy at having Rarity still in his life over everything else. I can see Nightmare as well even telling Rarity she can now have children with Spike due to her having her power inside of her which would be a huge thing for the couple. I think Spike would be willing to do anything and everything he can to keep his wife by his side and Rarity will see that undying loyalty that Spike is known for and know no matter what happens he will always be there for her.

[RazDelacroix]

While I hope that any child begotten will not be named Sparity, out of personal tastes, I await further chapters with some eagerness. Good luck with the story!

[spoonlol]

I like where this is going, I'll keep an eye on it ;-)