Princess Twilight entered Ponyville General with some trepidation. It wasn’t that she was injured, nor knew anypony in need of care. Hospitals didn’t generally make her nervous, even one as large as Ponyville’s; as the regional hospital for the surrounding towns, it was nearly as large as the hospital that served Canterlot. But when the administrator of a hospital requested the presence of a princess on an urgent matter that they refused to elaborate on, that would tend to put anypony on edge. It didn’t help that her teatime with Rarity had been cut short for this.
Nothing seemed amiss as she trotted to the administrative office. The passing doctors and nurses nodded and waved, with the occasional patient greeting her as well. There didn’t seem to be more patients than usual, or any sense of urgency. This was probably good news for the topic at hoof. Probably.
Administrator Patch was chatting with the secretary as Twilight arrived. He cut off the conversation with a nod and urged the princess into his office, closing the door.
“Princess Twilight,” He began, “Thank you for coming. It’s a pleasure to have you here.”
“The pleasure is mine,” she replied. “What can I do for you, Mr. Patch?”
“Well, you see, we’ve been having a bit of trouble with the disposition of the recently departed, specifically in regards to their placement and storage, in which the absence of certain cadavers may have been noted.” Patch said.
Twilight blinked, went back through the sentence, and blinked again. “You’re missing dead bodies.”
“...yes, Your Highness.” he sighed.
“When?” Twilight prompted.
“Well, the occurrences have been over the last twelve years, give or take.” Patch replied, hesitantly.
“Over a decade!” Twilight shouted. She cleared her throat and said in a more even tone, “And how many over that period?”
He sighed again. “Most of them.”
Twilight took a moment to take a deep breath before continuing. “Why are you only reporting this now? This is serious, it could be a necromancer!”
“We have reported it before, Princess. Numerous times. I believe the last response we got from the guard was ‘stop pulling our legs’.”
Twilight would have to talk to the guard about that, but there were priorities. “Are there any bodies in the morgue right now?”
“There should be one. The poor fellow had been in and out for months visiting his brother, who’s a nurse here, and then he fell down a flight of stairs one day. At his home, of course. We don’t have any stairs in the hospital.” Patch elaborated.
“That’s… very sad.” Twilight said. “Is there any pattern to when they disappear?”
“Sometime early in the morning, before the Sun is up. If we set someone to watch, though, nothing happens.” Patch said.
Twilight nodded. “I’ll stake out the morgue with a cloaking spell tonight. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.”
“You are most welcome, Princess.” Patch said, with a little bow.
“One more thing… How in Equestria have you kept this quiet for so long?” the mare enquired.
“That wasn’t our intention, it just seems that nopony is all that interested in it. We had some press coverage back when it began, but now ponies just see it as another weird thing about Ponyville.” Patch said, shrugging.
It was Twilight’s turn to sigh. “Yeah, that checks out.”
For the first hour, watching the darkened outline of a magically preserved corpse had been disturbing. Then the boredom set in, taking away even the semblance of interest that was required to be uncomfortable. She couldn't even read to pass the time, because the book would have to be visible, blowing her cover.
It was a little past 3 a.m. when Twilight felt something. It was a scanning spell sweeping the room, a subtle one that even her alicorn senses barely picked up. Clearly the perpetrator was a skilled unicorn, but Twilight's cloaking spell was better, and a few moments later, a head peaked around the door frame, only a shadow in the darkness. Then the unicorn entered, stepping quickly over to the body.
Just as the suspect reached out with their aura to touch the corpse, Twilight decloaked and cast a powerful shield spell around the invading unicorn. In the glow of her horn, Twilight and the thief regarded each other through the shield. The pony was wearing a full body black stealth outfit, covering face, hoof, mane, tail, and everything in between. It was either a mare of average size or a small stallion, but that was all Twilight could discern. Then, faster than Twilight could react, the culprit flashed a piece of jewelry on her wrist. It glowed with power, and the shield spell burst like a soap bubble. The dim light from the hallway also blinked out, and Twilight had to light her horn to see; but she knew it was too late; she had heard the bang of a teleport.
The body snatcher was gone, and so was the body. Twilight scanned the room, but as she expected, she couldn’t trace the teleport spell. There was nothing to go on, and the adversary now knew she was watching. She'd missed her chance.
Then something caught on the edge of Twilight's senses. She paused. She sniffed. Her brow furrowed, and she sniffed again. Then, perplexed, she teleported away herself.
Twilight rematerialized at the doorstep of the Carousel Boutique. She needed to confirm something. She would apologize for waking up her friend in the middle of the night, but she needed to check now, while the scent was still fresh in her mind. She knocked, paused, and then knocked again. A minute later, Rarity answered the door.
"Twilight! Are you aware that it's three in the morning?" Rarity was, as expected, a little miffed.
The alicorn responded, "I know, I'm really sorry about this, Rarity, but I need to smell your perfume from yesterday."
"You need to smell my perfume. At three in the morning." Rarity did not sound amused.
"Yes. It’s very important." Twilight said resolutely.
Rarity looked at her for a few seconds before opening the door further and stepping back. "I suppose it can't hurt at this point; I'm already wide awake."
Twilight smiled. "Thank you, and I'll make it up to you." She said.
"Yes, you will." Rarity retorted.
Twilight entered the building, and as she passed by Rarity she caught a whiff of Rarity's scent. She stopped walking. "Oh, you’re still wearing it?"
Rarity paused and sniffed her own leg. "I suppose I am. It’s a rather strong scent, and I haven’t had a chance to bathe yet this evening.”
Twilight stepped close and took a deep sniff, causing Rarity to shuffle in discomfort. “It’s very distinct. What’s it called?”
Rarity preened. “It’s called 'Kiss of the Moon Flower', and it's imported from the Far East."
"So not many ponies would have it?" Twilight asked.
Rarity paused before answering, slowly. "A few here and there, maybe, why do you ask?"
"Oh, just a potential necromancer I'm trying to track down.” Twilight responded, “It's also why I'm up so late: You see, there are bodies being stolen from the morgue, and-"
"On second thought, Twilight," Rarity interrupted, "I would rather not hear the details. It sounds ghastly."
"It is pretty disturbing, yeah. In any case, I have what I came for, so I'll just leave you to your beauty sleep." Twilight turned to leave.
"Goodnight, dear." Rarity said, smiling and taking the door in her magic to close it after Twilight was through.
But Twilight stopped halfway through the door, turning to look over her shoulder as she asked with a furrowed brow, "Were you awake when I got here?"
"As it happens, I was. I’m working on a rush order, but I think it’s time I turned in for the night to get a fresh start in the morning." The unicorn said.
“That sounds like a good idea.” Twilight replied.
Still, Twilight didn't move. Something was off. Her magic sense was itching, like… She cast a general detection charm, and it immediately pinged back, signaling that it found the thaumic aftershock of her own teleport. But it was mixed with another spell of similar power nearby. She couldn't quite tell what it was from the charm, but it could have been a second teleport. Maybe.
Twilight turned around, sizing up her friend warily.
"Is there something wrong, darling?" Rarity asked.
"Would you mind… if I look around your house a little?" Twilight slowly put together.
Rarity paused before answering, "whatever for?" She took a subtle step to the left, blocking the path back in.
"I have a hunch, and you know me and hunches; if I don't go after it now it'll just drive me up the wall." Twilight forced a smile to try to put her friend at ease.
Rarity visibly tensed. "Twilight, I do know how you are with hunches, especially woefully incorrect hunches. It's better to nip them in the bud rather than let them drag you all over the place. I must insist that you go home and we both get some rest. If you like, you can come look around to your heart's content in the morning."
Twilight stood there, staring at Rarity, her fake smile beginning to ache. Rarity stared back with a disapproving frown. This continued for over a minute.
Rarity broke first. "If you really need this, I'll let you look around, a little. But only if you promise not to move things around."
Twilight thought about it for a few seconds, then answered, "I promise."
Rarity paused a moment longer before slowly stepping aside so Twilight could enter.
Twilight walked around the lower floor, starting with the boutique area, before moving on to the kitchen. Rarity trailed along behind her, silently. Twilight really wasn't sure what she was looking for.
Then, as they were entering Rarity's work room, the fashionista let out a gasp. Twilight glanced at her, but Rarity's expression was neutral, as though she hadn't made a noise at all.
Twilight examined the room carefully from the center. Nothing seemed out of place on the shelves, and she knew that the chaos on the worktables was normal. Just as she turned around to leave, however, she happened to look down. The ornamental carpet below her hooves was crooked. The work tables were the exception to the very strict rule of immaculate perfection that was Rarity's decorating scheme. Twilight stepped off of the rug and reached out with her magic-
Rarity made a kind of strangled noise between a cough and a gasp, before quickly exclaiming, "You promised not to move anything, remember?"
Twilight stood there a moment, looking at Rarity. Then she yanked the carpet to the side.
There was a trapdoor underneath.
Rarity tried again, "Now see here, Twilight, this is an invasion of my privacy, and I must insist you leave it alone."
Twilight wasn't listening. She examined the hatch with her eyes and her magic. It was rune-sealed, an advanced magical lock that she wouldn't be able to easily get through without knowing the correct runic password.
"What's in there?" Twilight asked bluntly.
"Nothing important, just some old dress designs that shouldn't see the light of day." Rarity retorted dismissively.
Twilight’s frown deepened. "I'm not sure I believe that."
"Well you are going to have to, because it's true!" The white mare declared.
Twilight and Rarity stood staring at each other again. The tension was palpable.
This time Twilight spoke first. "Rarity, please tell me you aren't a necromancer."
Rarity looked affronted. "I can assure you that I am not a necromancer."
"And you haven't been taking bodies from the morgue?" Twilight prodded.
This time Rarity hesitated before replying, "I have not."
Twilight looked back towards the trap door. "I want to believe you."
There was a long pause. Rarity's expression shifted from indignation, to fear, then to intense contemplation, and finally to sadness.
"Twilight," she began, "I… have something I need to tell you."
"Yes?" Twilight prompted.
“You aren’t going to like it.” The unicorn said.
Twilight braced herself. “Are you a necromancer?”
“I am not a necromancer.” Rarity repeated. “But I have… I have been taking dead bodies.”
Twilight stood very still. She waited for Rarity to elaborate, but the unicorn had fallen silent.
Twilight forced herself to speak. “Why?”
Rarity grimaced. “Do we really need to do this?”
“We really need to do this.” Twilight confirmed.
Rarity paused again, then… “...I eat them.”
“You what!?” Twilight recoiled instinctively, looking at her friend in horror.
“This is why I didn’t want to tell you.” Rarity complained.
Twilight was freaking out. “You really expect me to not react to you… you claiming to eat ponies!?”
“Only dead ponies, Twilight. I’m not harming anyone.” Rarity tried to reassure.
“Why? In Celestia’s great wavy mane, why?” Twilight shrieked.
Rarity closed her eyes and sighed. “Because I was foolish.”
“I’m going to need more than that, Rarity!” The princess demanded hysterically.
“I’ll explain, just, calm down a little, please. I don’t want to wake up the whole town.”
“Calm down? Calm down!?” Twilight started pacing. “How could I possibly calm down when one of my best friends just admitted to being a cannibal! How am I ever supposed to calm down from that?!”
“Twilight, breathe.” Rarity instructed.
“Rarity, so help me-!” Twilight responded.
“Breathe.” Rarity pressed.
Twilight stopped pacing and took in a deep breath, almost let it out in a scream, but caught herself and let it out through her nose. She took a few more deep breaths. She had to admit, grudgingly, that it worked, even when she wished it didn’t.
“Explain.” Twilight said.
Rarity sighed again. “I need to show you something first.” She looked pointedly at the trap door.
Twilight moved back, giving Rarity a wide berth as she came forward and set her horn to the door. The horn and several runes glowed blue, and then the hatch swung open. Rarity entered, and after a few more deep breaths, Twilight followed.
The stairs led deep. A large room opened out around them as they descended, lit with sconces along the walls. Twilight became increasingly amazed as they went. The room was piled high with valuables, many of which looked positively ancient. There was one corner where the dead body lay on an ornamental table, but it was surrounded by so much stuff that Twilight almost missed it.
“This…” Twilight couldn’t believe her eyes as she came level with one of the pieces. “This vase dates to 600 years ago, at least!”
“Ah, yes,“ Rarity replied conversationally as she looked through some of the priceless artifacts, “I remember the stallion who made that; rather handsome, even splattered in clay as he was.”
Twilight almost stumbled down the final steps at that, “...Who are you?” she whispered.
“I am Rarity, fashionista extraordinaire! But I have had other names in the past. My original name…” Rarity stopped rummaging through the piles to gesture at a wooden stand on which rested a diadem of precious metal studded with white jewels. “...was Princess Platinum.”
“The Princes Platinum? The Co-founder of Equestria? The one in the Hearth’s Warming story?” Twilight squeaked.
“Yes. Unfortunately, that story is a mostly accurate depiction of me. I was so selfish and short-sighted back then; and it took long after the Windigos for me to really learn where that sort of attitude gets you.” The unicorn sighed.
“So… how are you…?” Twilight tried to ask.
“Still alive? That is a tale of tragedy and woe.” Rarity moved to a different pile, where she continued searching for something. “I once spied an immaculate collection of enchanted jewelry attended by a sorceress in a marketplace. I wanted it all, but although I could afford the price she asked, my desire to keep my gold was as strong as my desire to have the jewels. So instead I offered a gamble; a demonstration of magical prowess. Should I win, I get her entire stock for free, should she win she gets her asking price without having to give up a single earring.”
Rarity paused and closed her eyes. “I was so naive, thinking that the little I had learned from the royal mages would be enough to best a practiced enchantress. I lost. Much worse than that, instead of providing her winnings as I was obliged, In my hubris I reneged on the deal, thinking that my status as royalty would shield me from the consequences. That day, she could have walked away with her weight in gold. Instead, I walked away with a curse.”
Twilight was fascinated, but also confused. “A curse… of immortality?”
“Not directly. I was cursed to hunger for the flesh of my fellow ponies.” Rarity casually stated.
Twilight took a a few steps back. Rarity didn’t seem to notice as she kept searching for whatever it was she was trying to find.
Rarity continued, “The desire gets stronger the longer I let it go unsated. If that weren’t enough, If I delay too long, I start aging ever more rapidly, losing years in but a few weeks. It was actually Clover… dear, dear, Clover. I never did treat her with the respect she was due… It was she who solved my problem, as she did so many times; she hypothesized that the curse, although giving me a desire for living flesh, wouldn’t be able to tell if I ate dead flesh instead. She organized means for me to… obtain, corpses of the deceased. Victims of fire or trauma, soldiers lost in battle, when necessary I would even gnaw older bones dug up from a grave. As intended by the sorceress, I was a monster; but I succeeded in harming nopony… At least, not through my curse. There are a great many actions I wish now I could take back.”
Rarity opened up a drawer and continued to rummage and speak. “Satiating the curse fixed my rapid aging, but it was years before I noticed that it took my age, not just back to what was natural, but rather all the way back to the point at which the spell was cast. I was immortal.”
“Wow. That’s… a lot to take in. Does Celestia know?” Twilight asked.
“I wasn’t on the best of terms with the Princesses at the time - completely my own fault, of course - I was afraid they wouldn’t understand, so I made a point to disappear every few decades, move to a completely new place, set up a new life.”
“And now?” Twilight queried.
“And now, I suppose I’m just used to keeping it a secret.” Rarity replied.
Twilight started to pace as well as she could in the crowded room. “Well, now that I know, maybe I can help you! I mean, I’m a princess myself, so I could help you - ergh - arrange your meals. Ooh, maybe I could grow artificial pony meat, so you don’t have to worry about the pony having been alive in the first place! Or… Rarity? Rarity, what’s wrong?”
The unicorn, still facing away, was slouched over, trembling above the top of the cabinet she was searching through. Twilight approached, and saw a vial of orange liquid in Platinum’s hoof, as well as tears on her face. She was crying.
“I’m… I’m so used to keeping it a secret; I forgot who I was talking to.” The unicorn wept. “I was going to erase your memory! I was going to erase the memory of the dearest friend I’ve ever had, for my own benefit! I haven’t changed; all this time and I’m still the same selfish brat!” At the last word, she flung the vial at the far wall, but Twilight caught it in her magic and brought it back over for examination. It did, indeed, look like a memory draught.
Twilight hesitated, her eyes to Rarity, then the the vial, then back again. Her mind tried to process what Rarity was about to do to her… But she shrugged that all off. Her friend was crying. She could only do one thing. She placed the vial carefully on a shelf across the room, and then she hugged her fellow princess. “We’ll get through this,” Twilight told the weeping mare, “I promise.”
The two of them stayed in that embrace for over an hour, Twilight holding Rarity as she cried. Eventually, the tears stopped. Rarity finally looked up at Twilight, her cheeks covered in running makeup.
“Would-” Rarity sniffed and started over, “Would you like some tea, dear?”
Twilight smiled gently. “Sure, let’s have some tea.”
Twilight and Rarity sat at the unicorn’s dining room table, two cups and a teapot between them. Rarity had wiped her ruined makeup off with a towel, but she still looked like she had been crying.
“So,” Rarity said, “I’m guessing you have questions?”
Twilight nodded. “A lot. Let’s see, where to start… Right. I’ve met your parents. If you’re really over a thousand years old, then how are they here?”
Rarity took a sip before answering, “You met my daughter and her husband. Cookie knows who I really am, Hondo thinks I’m a distant niece who wanted to be adopted into the family, and Sweetie Belle genuinely believes I’m her sister.”
“Alright,” Twilight said, “Does anypony else know?”
Rarity shook her head. “You and Cookie Crumbles are the only living ponies who know. I was considering telling Sweetie when she got older and was better able to keep secrets.”
They both paused to taste their chamomile.
Twilight pursed her lips. “And I suppose your cutie mark story was a lie.”
Rarity sat back and thought for a moment. “I honestly can’t remember what I told you about my cutie mark; I have it written down somewhere or other. My real cutie mark story is rather short. I was raised a princess and always loved court fashion. One day, I was inspired to be a trend-setter, and got my mark. I didn’t actually learn how to make clothing myself until much later.” She paused. “Although, there is one detail you might be interested in. I was inspired by a painting. Would you like to know what it was a painting of?”
“Go on?” Twilight leaned forward.
“It depicted a pegasus performing a sonic rainboom. Quite the coincidence, don’t you think?” Rarity smirked.
Twilight thought about that for a minute, before saying, “When it comes to cutie marks, I’m not sure there are coincidences.”
“Perhaps.” Rarity took another drink.
They spoke for a while longer, but they both began exchanging a long series of yawns, and both agreed it was time to answer the call of their beds. They said their goodbyes just as the sun rose. Twilight headed back to the Golden Oak and up to her room. It was only as she tucked in to her bed that the alicorn realized she didn’t know what she was going to tell the hospital. I'll figure it out later, she thought, closing her eyes and drifting off to some very strange dreams.
