Iron Mare Revised - Act I - 07 - There is a Season

Act I:
“Charade You Are”

Chapter Seven:
For Everything a Season



Rarity practically leapt out of bed, her eyes bolting open as she belted out a banshee like shriek of panicked terror.

“Ms. Belle, are you alright?” came Kili’s concerned voice and Rarity turned to see him sitting across from her, apparently having been reading a book. Rarity took several, gasping breaths, looking around the room and regaining her bearings. She was still in the cave, the nightmare having evaporated from view. Finally regaining her composure, she answered the question.

“I’m alright…” she said, more to comfort herself then to answer Kili’s question. Kili raised eyebrow.

“Are you sure you're alright? You look terrified,” he said, getting up from the cot he was sitting on and walking over to sit at the end of hers. Rarity simply nodded, waving a hoof dismissively as she sat up.

“It just a dream Kili...a really intense dream,” she said, involuntarily running a hoof through her mane. Kili’s expression betrayed her suspicions that he didn’t believe her, but he instead simply shrugged.

“Alright then. Are you ready?” he asked. Rarity raised an eyebrow.
“Ready for what?”

Kili simply responded by briefly looking towards the large pile of disassembled machines and missiles in the corner. Rarity’s expression fell, her mind quickly reminding her that she was, in fact, still captured. She sighed. The sight of her name plastered over every single one of the missiles seemed to only remind her that, in a strangely warped way, it was her own carelessness and selfishness that had landed her here in the first place. She let her shoulders sag.

“How am I going to do this?” she muttered quietly, more to herself. Kili shrugged, standing up and walking out of her line of sight.

“Well, whichever decision you make, we’ll have to have a full stomach if we’re going to achieve anything,” he said, and Rarity turned to see him pulling open a drawer, reaching in and pulling out what looked like a can of soup. He quietly popped the soup can open with a claw, reaching down to pull out two, very beat up and old looking wooden bowls.

“Hot or cold?” he asked, looking towards Rarity expectantly.

“What?” she asked, not understanding the question.

“Do you want the soup hot or cold?” he repeated, holding the can up. “Because I’m having mine warm if that’s okay with you.” he continued as he poured the soup into the pair of bowls. He held a bowl up towards her, and she took it in her hooves.

“Thank you,” she murmured, only now realizing it had probably been a good two days since her last proper meal. She quietly brought the soup to her lips, taking a tentative sip. Her face twisted into an involuntary grimace at the extremely salty flavor

“They made sure that it’d last didn’t they?” Kili chuckled, taking a sip of his own. Rarity simply smacked her lips in an effort to make the sheer overwhelming saltiness go away.

“Well if I wanted a salt lick I could have just asked…” she said, her horn glowing softly in an attempt to at least heat the cold soup up. She winced as she felt a sharp pain go through her skull and her magic faltered. “Dammit!” she spat, setting the soup bowl down on the table. Kili looked up from his soup.

“What’s wrong?” he asked expectantly. Rarity simply crossed her forelegs.

“Now I can’t use my magic, dammit,” she said bitterly, rubbing her temples. Kili simply shrugged again, returning to his soup.

“Maybe you just haven’t been getting enough rest. Not to mention that you’re still technically in post-surgery recovery,” he motioned towards the glowing diamond in her chest. “Don’t worry though, you’ll most likely be able to regain the use of your magic by the end of the day. If my calculations are correct.”

Rarity simply exhaled sharply through her nose. “I don’t have time for your sarcasm…” she muttered, taking the bowl and setting on the small table next to her cot, not wanting to admit that he was most likely right. She should have taken into account the obvious mana drain that would occur within the first twenty-four to forty-eight hours of enacting the gem, not to mention that heating magic, while appearing simple to the untrained eye, required quite a bit of magical finesse to pull off properly. Mostly because one had to vibrate the individual molecules in order to heat up anything. With the thought of the mana generator in her mind, her thoughts drifted back to the various ways she could potentially use it. It was powerful, that was for sure. If anything, the amount of power going through the gem was most likely around three gigajoules per second. Probably enough to run her heart for fifty lifetimes...or there abouts.

Or something really big for five minutes… she mentally added absentmindedly. The idle thought however, coupled with the sight of a large stockpile of military weapons, just waiting to be used for something, almost instantly sent the gears in her head turning. Her eyes narrowed slightly and she got up, looking around for something to sketch. “Um...Kili did you ever hear what happened at my birthday a few years back?”

“I assume you ate cake, right?” Kili answered, a touch of confusion in his voice.

Rarity couldn’t help but chuckle slightly at the rather befuddled answer, “Well, that is true for the most part, but I also tried out a demo a brand new automaton. Suffice to say that, quite frankly it was a disaster. Oil got everywhere and I lost my television in the chaos.”

“Well how did that happen?” Kili asked, a chuckle in his voice. Rarity shrugged.

“I don’t know, I was really drunk at the time,” she answered, quickly focusing her attention on finding a piece of paper to sketch on. "But that's not the point right now, what's important is that I have had another wondrous burst of inspiration for what to do with this equipment." She motioned towards the pile of armaments in the corner.

"But what does that have to do with your robot?" Kili asked matter-of-factly, reaching into the draw to take out a pen and paper, holding it out for Rarity to see. Rarity halted, surprised at the sudden appearance of the paper, but was quick to take it from him. The idea was still forming in her mind, and she knew full well that the best way to properly create anything, was to get every possible idea for it down on paper as soon as possible, and then picking and choosing the best elements of each sketch. After a quick test to see if the pen still had any ink, she set about sketching, only now answering Kili's inquiry.

"Well, the problem with that flawed automaton is that, at first, there was no proper way for me to power it without a total malfunction, which I assumed caused the birthday fiasco..." She continued to sketch, occasionally scratching out a design she wasn't fond of in order to draft up a new one, more often than not one that was completely new. "Until that is, I had the breakthrough that created our little friend here," she pointed towards the gem in her chest.

"Let me guess, you want to use the gem to power your robot?" Kili asked, standing up to look over Rarity's sketches. "Because that doesn't really look like a robot," he said, motioning towards one of the sketches. "These look more like some kind of power armor from a children's tv show. I mean am I right in assuming that's a helmet and not just the head right?" He pointed towards a rough sketch of the helmet. Rarity nodded.

"Yes, Kili, that's a helmet," she then pointed her pen towards another sketch. "In fact, this is all part of my grand scheme, Kili," she beamed, smoothing out the papers to reveal her main sketch. "Gaze upon genius!"

Kili looked at the drawing with wide eyes, "You're seriously going to build this? How?"

“With that box of scraps,” she answered, pointing a hoof towards the pile of missiles and material.

"But why?" Kili asked, his voice confused. Rarity simply smiled mischievous grin.

"They wanted us to build them a weapon right? Well, we're going to give them one...to be used against them," she stood up, walking over to the pile of materials. "If you are willing Kili, come and help. Not like I'm going to be able to build the path to our salvation by myself." She tried to levitate a toolbox, only to feel her magic falter again. She lowered her brow.

"Still no magic?" Kili asked, stepping over to pick up the toolbox. Rarity nodded.

"Yes, apparently so… but no worries, I can still build without it. Just might take a little longer..." She glanced over towards the workbench, walking over to sit down. Kili set the toolbox on the table and sat down next to her. She glanced towards him, and he replied with a simple smile.

"Need anything else?" He asked. Rarity paused, not sure how to react to the sheer willingness he had to help her. "Well… you could pass me that box of scrap electronics and that pair of goggles..." she said, motioning towards the box of scraps and the goggles. Kili nodded, handing her the box and goggles and Rarity set about taking out the various scraps to see if she could fashion a makeshift welding torch.

"Hmmm… okay we have something I can work with..." she muttered, lining the pieces out on the worktable. "I'll need a gas tank or some other fuel source for the torch, since, until either this evening or tomorrow afternoon I won't be able to do much with my magic. See if they gave us one," she said, and Kili got up, rummaging through the pile of tools they had been provided with. Rarity meanwhile, continued to cobble together a makeshift welding torch for her to work with. She heard Kili let out a frustrated sigh.

"What's wrong?" she asked, turning away from her project. Kili stood over the pile, hands on his hips.

"They didn't give us a welding torch," he said, sounding frustrated. Rarity raised an eyebrow.

"Seriously?" she asked as she trotted over to the tools, and indeed, there was no welding torch. "What kind of idiots are they that they ask us to build them something but don't give us a welding torch. I mean who-" she halted, spotting what looked like an upside down gastank. Her shoulders dropped and she looked at Kili, eyebrow raised.

"Kili that's one right there," she said, pointing towards the cylinder. Kili simply blinked, before sheepishly reaching for the tool.

"Well, I'm a physicist, not a mechanic, so I can't be blamed..." he said self-consciously. Rarity simply shook her head, a bemused smile on her face.

"I'll let it slide," she chuckled. "Since I didn't see it at first either." She took the torch from Kili, only to discover that the welding end was heavily damaged. She sighed, "Guess I'll be building a welding torch after all..." She took it to the table and set about repairing the welding as best she could. Within a few moments, however, she had managed to create a makeshift torch out of the spare parts, attaching it to the rest of the torch.

"There we go," she beamed as she set the torch alight, the bright glow from the torch shining bright in the otherwise dank cave. "And out of a box of scraps no less," she said, full of pride. Satisfied that she had something she could properly weld with, she set about to work, with Kili lending help wherever and whenever he could.


/////////////////////////


Rarity couldn’t help but smile as she wiped the sweat from her brow. “I can’t believe how much we’ve gotten done already!”

Before them were the half-assembled chunks of the suit, a complete helmet and one or two pieces of the legs. Kili simply nodded.

“Well, there's an old saying from where I come from: 'There are miracles if you believe,'” he said, taking a seat next to her. Rarity chuckled.

“A rather greeting-card like sentiment I'll say," she said, leaning back in her chair. "Never been one to put much stock in miracles,” she then chuckled, looking down at the gem in her chest. "But maybe I should start,” she finished with a bit of a laugh. There was a quiet pause between the two of them, both quite tired from their hours of labor on the suit. While they had managed to create much more than they had expected from the pile of missiles and machinery, there was still hours, if not days of work to be done before the suit, even in its most basic form, could be even considered close to complete.

A quiet grumbling from Rarity's stomach reminded her of the fact that, besides the sip of soup she had had, neither of them had really had a proper meal. “Kili do we have any more of that salt flavored soup left?” she asked absentmindedly.

“I thought you didn’t like it,” Kili replied with a chuckle.

“Oh rest assured, I loathe it, but food is food and it’s been what, eight or nine hours since we ate?”

Kili glanced down at his old wrist watch, “Most likely ten by my watch.”

"Well then I think now is as good a time as any for dinner, am I right?" Rarity asked and Kili nodded. They carefully cleared the worktable, being sure to hide their work as best as possible, since there was no knowing if their captors might catch wind of their scheme. Kili then pulled out two more soup cans, popping them open.

"Want to try and see if your magic is back?" he suggested. "I mean its worth a shot right?"

Rarity shrugged, "Might as well..." She set about lighting her horn. "Not as if it'll work-" she was cut off by the sound of the soup rapidly boiling. Her eyes widened and a look of childish glee mixed with relief washed over her face.

"Ahahaha!" she laughed, before noticing that soup was about to boil over. She quickly toned down her magic and the soup stopped bubbling, now properly heated. She then gently poured the soup into the pair of bowls Kili had set up and the pair set about to eat, now deeply enjoying the incredibly salty, yet warm, soup. As they ate, Rarity took a moment to appreciate the fact that, even here in this dark cave, she had a friend who stood by her. Of course, if all went according to her plan, she wouldn't have to worry about remaining here, eating overly salted soup much longer. Still, it would probably be a surreal moment when she and Kili eventually parted ways. She wondered where he would go. She had a home, money and another friend to return to, but who did he have? It was then that Rarity realized that she knew next to nothing about the diamond dog who saved her life, and she felt it would at least be courteous to attempt and learn more about him.

“Kili, do you mind if I ask you a personal question?” she finally asked, voicing the main thought in her mind. Kili paused for a moment, seeming to mill the possibilities in his mind for a few moments before speaking.

“No I don’t mind at all Ms. Belle, ask away.”

“Well, it’s just that you’ve mentioned your family quite a bit lately, which is understandable, but never really went into any real detail…” she trailed off, sensing that she might have chosen an overly-sensitive topic. She half-expected him to get angry or flustered, but instead, he simply sighed.

“Well, I was kind of expecting this question...” he answered, idly rubbing the back of his neck.

“It’s okay...If you don’t want to answer that’s fine…” Rarity said, diverting her attention elsewhere.

“Oh no, it’s alright, I’ve been meaning to tell you...we’ve just never had the opportunity I guess. Let’s see, we have my wife, Nalla, and my three children, Alexander, Markus and our little princess Sarah,” he let out a sigh, his voice obviously quite emotional. “Sorry… I just... I just miss them alot,” he finished, wiping a tear from his eye.

Rarity quietly stood up and sat down on Kili's cot, gently putting a hoof on his shoulder, “It'll be alright Kili. We're gonna get out of here and I promise that you'll be able see them again.”

Kili sighed, looking down with a very somber look in his eyes. “That is what I’m afraid of," he replied cryptically. "But no point dwelling in the past," he said before Rarity had a chance to comment. "Let's make sure the sketches are safe and let’s both try to get some sleep, we’ll need our energy for tomorrow I fear.”

Rarity simply nodded, not wanting to press the issue. She walked over to her own cot and set about preparing for bed, making sure to stuff the notes and drawings under her pillow.

“The good news is that we did a lot of work today. I think it'd be best that we have a good nights rest before we continue work tomorrow… right Ms. Belle?" It seemed whatever darkness was plaguing Kili had left him, as he began clearing his cot which he previously used as a makeshift desk. “I pray you have pleasant dreams tonight Ms. Belle.”

Rarity smiled softly, lying down on her bed. “I hope you have a good night as well,” she replied, quietly rolling over and falling into a deep sleep.


/////////////////////////


Rarity slowly opened her eyes, deeply refreshed after her noticeably dreamless night. She let out a yawn, stretching her forelegs as she did so. First thing she noticed was that any dull aches in her chest that might have lingered since surgery had faded away, and now were almost completely gone. Sure there was still a noticeable throbbing every so often when she bent her chest at an odd angle, but asides from that, it was as if nothing had happened. Her ears caught the sound of snoring and looked to see that Kili was, in fact, still asleep. Content that she was as alone as she could get, she stretched again, before quietly reaching under her pillow to double check and make sure they hadn’t had any uninvited guests snooping around.

Ah...there we are, she smiled as she saw that, in fact, the papers were still there. She heard a snort and almost instantly covered the sketches with her pillow again. It turned out to only be Kili, who was rubbing away the sleep from his face.

“Oh, it’s you,” Rarity said, relaxing somewhat. “Just checking to make sure nopony decided to snatch away our sketches in the middle of the night.”

Kili chuckled, “Well, they don’t normally come into the room at night, at least from my experience, but that’s an understandable fear.”

“Yes it is,” Rarity said, standing up and trotting over to the work table. “But we might as well keep going. They expect us to be working Kili...can’t disappoint them can we?”

Kili nodded, following her to the work table. Rarity spread the sketches out on the table so that they could see which part of the suit to tackle next. The plan was to build it in stages, with each piece being assembled separately, so that, if interrupted, they could hopefully pass off any pieces as something relating to the missile. Their concentration however, was shattered by a loud clang coming from behind the door. Both Kili and Rarity whipped their heads around to look at the door, Rarity’s heart flipflopping in panic. There was a series of loud, barking shouts from behind the door in some foreign language, and Rarity looked over to Kili in fear.

“What are they saying Kili?” she asked, only to see Kili shake his head, his face looking equally worried.

“I have no idea! It sounds like Guoxian, but I don’t speak Guoxian!” he replied, his voice worrisome. Rarity bit her lip.

“Well we can’t let them see these…” she said, motioning towards the notes. They stared at each other awkwardly for a few seconds before another loud knock and a shout snapped back into reality. “Stall them, I’ll burn the notes!” Rarity said, not paying attention to Kili’s baffled response as she dragged all the scraps of paper and sketches into a large pile, all the while attempting to commit an important detail from each sketch before setting it alight with her magic.

Kili meanwhile, was already at the door, apparently trying to placate whomever it was on the other side of the door. Rarity meanwhile, had only managed to get three or four pages destroyed before the door was forced open, revealing the same griffin Rarity recognized as the one who had nearly drowned her a few days before. Rarity also noticed that his right wing was bandaged, as if it had suffered a fracture. His golden eyes darted between her and Kili, burning with intense suspicion.

“What is going on in here?!” he barked, his accent only seeming to get thicker with the anger in his voice. Kili took a step forward, putting on a brave face.

“Wh-what do you need to know?” he asked, making sure to look humble in front of the large griffin. The griffin simply growled.

“The Master wishes to know what is this delay?” he barked, looking directly at Rarity. She swallowed dryly, doing her best to keep herself from panicking as she subconsciously did her best to hide the remaining sketches. However, the sight of the griffin’s eyes focusing on the large gem in her chest only made her feel all the more frightened.

“What is this?” he hissed, stepping close to Rarity to better inspect the gem. “Has this been what’s been taking up your time?” There was a tense pause as the griffin simply glared at her, as if awaiting a response. Rarity’s mouth simply opened and closed as she tried to find a plausible explanation for the obviously suspicious gem in her chest. “Well? Are you going to tell me?!” the griffin shrieked again, causing Rarity flinch.
Before she was able to properly respond, the griffin turned towards Kili, quickly walking towards him and grabbing him roughly.

“What about you? Do you know what that’s for?” he asked, pointing a claw towards Rarity’s chest. “Because they most certainly do NOT look like what The Master has ordered!”

“I-uh-well-I-” Kili stammered, obviously not prepared for the sudden, incredibly aggressive line of questioning. The griffin cut him off with a harsh slap.

“Tell me!” he barked, readying himself for another slap. He paused, balling a fist and giving Kili a sharp punch. “Is no one going to tell me what that thing is?!” he shrieked once more, awaiting a response. None came. Grinding his teeth, the griffin pulled Kili up from the ground.

“Alright then. If no one is going to tell me what I want, I guess I’ll have to make them tell me!” he growled, shoving Kili to the floor violently before quickly putting a claw under his throat.

“Ms. Belle, if you do not tell me within the next thirty seconds what that thing in your chest is, I will personally cut your friend’s throat,” he hissed, and emphasized his words by dragging his claw across Kili’s neck so that it broke the skin somewhat. Kili let out a brief cry of pain before the griffin clamped his mouth shut.

Rarity was too frightened and unsure of herself to say anything. She feared that if she gave away the true purpose of the diamond, this psychopath might tear it out of her chest and give it to whomever his master was, so that they could use it to make even more weapons. But if she didn’t say anything, that would mean dooming Kili to a terrible death.

“Ten seconds.” the griffin said, readying his claw for the death blow. Rarity’s breaths were now shallow, her mind still trying to come to a decision.

“Nine.”

“It’s j-just a device to keep me alive…” she finally answered, her voice shaky despite her best efforts. “I sw-swear.”

The griffin’s eyes narrowed and Rarity braced herself for whatever horrible torture was sure to come next. Instead, his eyes cooled somewhat and with a small smile crossed his peak.

“Well...that wasn’t so bad was it Ms. Belle?” he said in a cool manner, the complete polar opposite of how he had been moments before. “However, I still have a few more questions for you and this time, if you don’t answer…” he trailed off as he lifted his talon and began to stalk closer to her, poised to strike. It was mere inches from Rarity’s neck when a voice boomed from the doorway.

“HERZLOS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” it barked and the griffin instantly retracted his claw, his entire body tensing up in fear. He spun around, his eyes darting to the door fearfully.

“What have I told you about using those methods on her! I need her intact!” the voice boomed and in walked a rather unexpected sight. He was a tall, noticeably lean creature who stood a good head and shoulders above everyone else in the room. His head looked quite a bit like a jackal’s, but his eyes were strangely, placed at the very tip of his muzzle, right next to his nose. His hindlegs looked quite similar to a diamond dog’s, but his forelegs looked more like that of a monkey’s, complete with four fingers and a thumb. Strangely, this applied to his cat-like tail as well, as it had an identical hand on it’s end. On each finger, thumbs included, was an ornate ring, each one a brilliant, exotic color. They seemed to glow with some kind of energy. The creature walked into the room slowly and deliberately, exuding an aura of authority and domination.

The griffin, who moments before had apparently been dead set on cutting Rarity open, was now bowing repeatedly, spewing out a stream of apologies and obviously trying to explain his actions. The creature simply held up a bejeweled hand, and the griffin instantly fell silent.

“Herzlos, I wish to be frank,” he said, his deep voice resonating through the room. The griffin nodded rapidly, bowing his head again. “Tell me Herzlos, do you actively enjoy my punishments?”

“N-No Lo-Lord an-and Ma-Master...” the griffin replied, his voice having lost all venom and was now sounding more like a fearful child than the menacing monster from before.

“Herzlos, I keep you around because you are incredibly skilled at all tasks I give you yes?” The creature asked, his voice condescending.

“Y-Yes L-Lord and M-Master…” The griffin said, his voice quivering.

The creature let out a long sigh. “Then why must you always anger me so?”

“Lord and Master I was simply-” the griffin was silenced mid sentence as a dark purple aura surrounded his head and a ring on the figure’s left hand glowed the same color. There was a strange pause as the pair simply stared at each other, with simple indifference in the creature’s eyes while the griffin’s eyes were wide with fear. There was a sudden, sickening crack and the griffin was released, his talon instantly moving to caress his beak as he let out a muffled squawk of pain.

“Hopefully the dislocated jaw will teach you manners and obedience Herzlos,” the creature said, straightening himself up a bit before motioning towards the door. “Now get out of my sight before I decide to permanently end our working relationship.”

The griffin nodded rapidly, still holding his dislocated jaw in place, quickly scampering out of the cave and out the door. As soon as the griffin left, the creature turned to face Rarity and Kili, with neither of them having said anything, each too shocked to really say anything.

“I am very sorry you had to see that Ms. Belle, but alas, griffins at times only understand power, and quite frankly, he needed to be reminded who holds it,” he stated simply, finishing with a large, fanged laden grin.

“Who.. who are you?” Rarity asked fearfully, her vocal chords finally loosing up again. Although this creature hadn’t done anything to hurt her physically (at least not directly), the fact that he could simply snap a griffin's beak seemingly telekinetically was certainly threatening.

“Oh I have many names, Ms. Belle. My soldiers call me Lord and Master, Kili’s people call me The Blue Death and your own government, well they would mostly likely refer to me as a terrorist. But as for you dear, you may call me Ahuizotl.”

Rarity didn’t answer, honestly just too fearful to attempt to make a comment. This ‘Ahuizotl’ was obviously not one to be toyed with and it was obvious that he controlled his men with an iron fist.

Ahuizotl however, seemed to notice her unease, as he smiled again, waving a hand. “Now dear, no need to fear. I myself, am not angry at you. You simply took some time to insure your condition doesn’t worsen, which I respect, but I must admit that I am, still, the slightest bit disappointed that you did not inform me of this new project of yours, and that, admittedly, I expected a result from your main task much earlier. However, Ms. Belle, I do wish to know how does that gem work and how does it relate to these?” He asked in a very business like manner, all while reaching over Rarity to pick up the burnt sketches.

Rarity felt her stomach twist at the realization that she had completely forgotten the existence of the sketches, her mind having been too focused on Kili.

“The-they don’t re--relate at all, ju-just getting ideas down is all.” She stammered, putting on her best innocent smile in an attempt to make the half-truth just a little more believable.

Ahuizotl meanwhile, only arched an eyebrow at her and without looking away from her, lifted his left hand again, the same ring as before glowing dark purple and Kili was wrapped in the purple aura and bragged beside Rarity. Without having said a word, Ahuizotl refocused his gaze on Kili.

“Kili, how does the gem work? And how does it relate to the plans?” he asked simply, his voice dropping an octave.

Rarity turned to look at Kili fearfully, unsure of how he’d respond to the question. In KIli’s case, he seemed to be equally fearful, but there was a visible aura of defiance in his eyes, which became more obvious when he answered Ahuizotl’s question, “What gem? What plans?”

Ahuizotl’s eyes narrowed. “Open defiance will get you nowhere dear doctor,” he growled, and his hand tightened into a fist.

Kili turned to face Rarity directly this time, “Don’t worry Rarity, he needs you. He just enjoys rattling his saber.”

“He’s right you know…” Ahuizotl was quick to reply, looking towards Rarity. “About me needing you,” he then looked back to Kili, his eyes now practically burning with anger as he placed right hand, balled up into a fist, up against Kili’s chest, simultaneously physically grabbing him with his left hand to hold him still. Taking a deep breath, he narrowed his eyes, “But now that you are here he is now no longer needed.” With that, there was a muffled popping sound and Kili let out a sharp gasp. Ahuizotl let out a sigh and released Kili from his grip, and Kili slumped to the floor.

“No!” Rarity cried out, instantly flying to Kili’s side, yanking a sheet off the cot and attempt to stop the bleeding from what looked like a small, ring-sized hole in his chest.

“Ms. Belle,” came Ahuizotl’s authoritative voice. Rarity looked up at him, tears welling in her eyes. As he was about to leave, he turned his head back to the sobbing pony, “I don’t just rattle my saber, I also enjoy using it.” And with that he left the room, the door locking behind him. As soon as it shut, Rarity refocused her attention on Kili, who was still in her arms, a small pool of blood forming beneath him.

“Hold on Kili, please just hold on, I’ll get you patched up in a jiffy,” she said in a panic, forcing the scrap of cloth she had torn from the cot into the wound to hopefully stop the bleeding. However, instead of allowing Rarity to work, Kili brushed the cloth asides and out of her magic, before shaking his head.

“It’s okay Rarity,” he said, his voice shallow. “My time is just at it’s end”

“No! No-no-no it’s not, you need to stay with me,” Rarity said, tears falling freely from her eyes. “Come on, think of your family Kili. Don’t you want to see them?” she sobbed. Kili simply shook his head again.

“You don’t understand Rarity...my family’s dead. The Blue Death killed them,” he coughed up some blood, looking up towards her a sad smile on his face. “Be good…” he whispered and Rarity nodded, now practically sobbing.

“I promise I’ll be good!” she cried, tears dripping down her face.

Kili nodded slightly. “And another thing…”

“Yes?” she asked, holding his head up in an effort to at least prevent him from drowning on the blood that was quickly filling his mouth.

“D-don’t waste your life Rarity...whatever you do...don’t waste it,” he said, his voice pleading.

Rarity nodded. “I sw-swear Kili I w-won’t,” she sobbed. At those words, a peaceful smile crossed Kili’s face.

“Good,” he whispered, letting his head go limp, “I’ll tell the family you said hi.” And with that, he let out his last breath, his eyes closing, the same peaceful smile on his face. Rarity blinked, her tears now completely blurring her vision.

“Kili? Kili?!” she whimpered, shaking him slightly. However, her mind already told her that he had passed and with that realization, she broke down completely, the sound of her sobs filling the room.



“To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born,
And a time to die;
A time to plant,
And a time to pluck what is planted;
A time to kill,
And a time to heal;”
- Ecclesiastes 3:1-3 NKJV