Bride of Aidoneus
Written by C. Phillips
8/2/15

Marked Mature for mentioning of blood.
Aidoneus © Me
Rose Desire © Me

Rose had fallen asleep in her tent and she mostly didn’t dream except for this night. This night Aidoneus was looking at her for a long lingering moment and Rose returned his look.

“My little death.” Aidoneus whispered to her.

“Yes.” Rose said to him. “What do you need?”

He started to grow skin and fur on his face. “What I need is not what I can get too often.” He said as he used his claw to reach into his hollow chest cavity and he pulled out a gray mass.

“How long has it been that way?” She asked as she looked at the gray mass.

“Far too long.” He growled as he turned it in his paw then he put it into his chest cavity again.

“I’m a reaper. I don’t bring back lives. Your heart hadn’t had blood running thorough it for over two hundred millennia.” She whispered.

“I am not asking for you to give me life back.” He said. “I’m asking if you can help me.”

Rose approached Aidoneus. “A long time ago, you tried to invade my dreams trying to feed off my need for vengeance and power. You were disguised as a unicorn with a beautiful chocolate colored coat and black as night mane.”

“I can look like him again.” Aidoneus transformed into the unicorn that she had described.

“You seduced me, gave me pleasure I never thought possible. I thought it was your unicorn magic... Did you ever love me? Or were you just playing with me? Now here you are again. What, I ask you, do you want?”

Aidoneus smiled in his pony disguise and looked at her his eyes were a deep blue. “At first I thought I was toying with you manipulating you to do my bidding, I needed you to become death...”

Rose stopped as she looked at him. “And?”

“I didn’t know that my heart, as gray and lifeless as it had been; wouldn’t have enough beats in it to make me fall in love with you.” He stated. “I shall never forget the way you made me feel. Now though, I have resigned myself to stay within the confines of Tartarus and visiting ponies in their dreams feeding from their fears and insecurities. Then I stumbled upon your dream…”

She nodded. “I am a fool to let you still be here too. You haven’t told me what you truly want Aiden.”

“I desire you.” He whispered.

She shook her head. “No Aiden, you’re not going to do this to me again. I had true feelings for you, they weren’t made to be thrown away as you did.”

“I know what I did, I know it was wrong. I have no regrets.”

“You don’t have regrets? You? What about me? I regret meeting you. I regret that you took advantage of me when I was most vulnerable. I regret having shared my bed with you.” She sighed. “I regret falling in love with you.”

Aidoneus reached out to touch her mane. “You… loved… me?”

Rose moved her head away from his paw. “Leave me Aiden, leave me to my regrets and pain. I’ll never be your death. Find some pony that is younger and more naive than I am.”

He gave a slow nod. “Rose Desire. Remember I’m eternal.”

“I know, I will have knowledge of you until I draw my dying breath.” She whispered.

He grinned suddenly. “Then you’ll truly be mine.”

She sighed. “For a demon you sure are optimistic.”

He looked away and started to chuckle. “There is something I need to ask you...”

“Now you finally get to it. The real reason you’re here.” She whispered.

“Of course. I didn’t come back just to chat about old times.” He muttered as he looked back at her his disguise melted from his face leaving a skull and his piercing blue eyes again. “I have a proposition for you.”

She looked at him warily. “Go on...”

He turned towards her and slowly kneeled. “I love you. Be my bride, you make me truly happy. I need you by my side. You and I will rule Tartarus together.”

Rose Desire stumbled back away from him. “Wh… what?”

“It took me a half of a millennia to realize what I had been missing. I was never truly happy until you were in my life. Of all the millennia that I lived; nothing… ever made me happy, yes I have felt joy at watching souls suffer in the pit of vipers, but you caused my heart... to beat. Something that had stopped beating all those hundreds of thousands of years ago.”

“So you do regret...” She said softly as she looked at him. “You are a lying, evil, manipulating, monstrous creature of Tartarus… What can you say that will make me want to be with you? How am I to believe that I had made your heart beat? I saw it… It was a gray mass, a stone, cold in your paw.”

Aidoneus looked into her eyes as she spoke and he put his paw into his chest cavity. “I shall prove it to you.” He whispered as he grasped his heart in his paw again. “Being in your presence has already made it beat more.” He pulled it out and showed her.

Rose gasped when she saw it, what was a grey mass was starting to turn purple and reddish as well as beat in his paw.

“You should be the one to hold my heart. You should keep it and hold it. It is better in your possession than in mine, for as long as it is close to you, it will beat. You are the bearer of my heart. Please Rose… be my wife.” He said softly.

She stared at his heart as it started to beat stronger. She put her hoof up to it hesitantly. “You want me to keep your heart?”

“Yes, the closer it is to you. The closer I am to you. If you hold my heart… I wish that you only become my queen of the underworld, my wife forever eternal.” He said. “Be my bride. The bearer of my heart.”

“Aiden…” She whispered as she shook her head.

He looked at her and saw that she was hesitant. “I’ll let you think about it. My love…” He then slowly disappeared from her dream.

Rose awoke from her dream and sat up slowly. “I really need to stop eating pickled carrots before bedtime.”

++

It was another long day and Rose Desire closed her newest journal of archived information. She leaned against her desk and sighed deeply. She looked over at her bed roll and made a face. She didn’t want to go to bed. Bed meant dreaming and dreaming meant she’s have to face him again.

“Archivist?” Some pony was at her tent entrance.

She smiled at the opportunity to not have to go to bed. “Please come in.”

A young pony in a delivery outfit trotted into the tent and looked at her. “Miss archivist. I was told to bring you this package.” He placed the box on the desk in front of her.

Rose Desire looked at the plain brown wrapped box. “Who is it from?”

The delivery pony shrugged. “I don’t know. I just deliver the mail.”

She gave him some bits. “Thank you young pony.”

He nodded. “Thank you ma’am.” He smiled and left the tent.

Rose looked at the package as it sat on her desk. “I wonder what it is.” She looked closely at it to see if it had a return address on it. There was nothing on it except for her name written elegantly. To Royal Archivist: Rose Desire. Handle with care.

She untied the twine on it and then tore the brown paper from it. There was a plain box under the paper and she opened that box and looked inside. She gasped, turned pale and closed the box. “No.”

She opened the box again hoping what she saw wasn’t what she thought she saw. She shook as she peered into it. There was a box within, it was a black box with carvings upon it. The main carving was of a heart. Written upon the box was an inscription: You possess my heart, please handle with care. She reached in and lifted the carved box out and set it on her desk. She pushed the packaging off her desk and she just looked at the carved box. “This cannot be it. He didn’t really. Did he?”

She looked at the lock on the box and was relieved that she couldn’t open it. She felt a chill along her spine and she carefully pushed the box away from the edge of the desk. The candle she had lit suddenly blew out and she sat in the darkness her eyes wide.

“You’re avoiding sleep.” Aidoneus said.

Rose turned around in shock as she looked at him. “And you ventured out of Tartarus!”

“Yes, I did.” He nodded. “It is so strange being in the corporal realm, it weighs me down.” He looked around her tent. “Quaint living arrangement you have here Rose.”

“It’s my travel tent. I use it to do my archivist work I am not a reaper in my daily life Aiden.” She whispered to him.

“Reaping doesn’t pay the bills.” Aidoneus started to laugh, it sounded hollow and deathly in the physical realm. Dogs from miles away started to bark and babies awoke in fright.

Rose shivered at his laugh and she felt her head start to ache. “Why are you here?”

“I have come to take you back, my bride. Have you thought about my proposal? I assure you, it wasn’t the pickled carrots you ate.”

She shook her head. “No… Aiden.” She swallowed hard as she looked at the box on her desk and back at him. “The box. Is that your heart?”

“Yes, you possess my heart. I have told you that you have to possess it to keep it beating.” He reached out to her and lightly touched her soft mane. “You’re as soft as I remembered you to be.” He stumbled slightly. “I feel weak.”

“You hadn’t been out of Tartarus in centuries Aiden. I don’t think you should have come here. What if some pony sees you?” She went to over to him and placed her hoof on his chest. “Sit down.”

He touched her arm lightly with his paw as he sat. “You’re treating me as an equal.”

“Of course.” She whispered as she looked into his eyes. “I treat you equally and…” She stopped talking as he pet her arm with his paw.

“I risked coming here so I can take you back. I knew you were going to avoid sleeping. So I had to show you how much I care for you. My love…” His breathing became labored suddenly. “I am willing to risk being discovered just to show you that I… need you back, I’m so weak.”

“Of course you are. Your magic doesn’t work in the physical realm, you do not have your heart in your chest to make blood flow through you.” She said. “I’ll accompany you back to Tartarus, just open the portal.”

He nodded slowly. “Yes… I will.” He waved his paw and the portal opened. Rose helped him up and led him to the portal. Before she went into the portal with him she grabbed the box with his heart. As soon as they went through, the portal closed.

When Aidoneus stepped into Tartarus he regained all his powers instantaneously and he picked Rose up off the ground. “Aiden! Put me down!” She yelled out as she held the box tightly to her.

“Rose Desire, you do care about me.” He seemed to smile as his fangs grew larger. “Does this mean you will be my bride?”

“Put me down first Aiden. Please.” Rose gasped.

He looked around and placed her on the ground. “Anything for my love.”

Rose look at where he placed her, the ground was red and she lifted one hoof and the red clung to her hoof and oozed slowly from it. “Is this… blood?” She cautiously asked.

Aidoneus looked at the ground and turned around a couple times as he looked at it. “Should I have brought you someplace better? Maybe next to the pit of vipers? I thought the scenic rivers of blood would have been more romantic and to your liking.”

She gulped and lifted her hooves one after the other. “I don’t find rivers of blood romantic.” She shook one of her hooves and blood splattered over Aidoneus’s flank.

He looked down and sighed. “I am not sure what you want?” He put his paw down and wiped the blood from his flank. “I think maybe we should go look over the lake of suffering? It has a beautiful blue sheen to it.” He went towards her and she backed away.

“Aiden, this is fine.” She said as she looked at the rivers. “They are red… looks really nice.”

“You do understand me Rose.” He suddenly waved his paw and roses appeared. They were fresh and looked beautiful in contrast to the horrible surroundings. “Beauty for my love.” He whispered as he handed them to her.

Rose blinked at his gift and took them hesitantly. “Thank you.”

“Be my bride. Marry me.” He kneeled in front of her again. “You already possess my heart. So please possess the rest of me.”

“You are not going to give up are you?” She asked him.

“Giving up was never an option.” He said. “I’ll bring the end of the world if you ask of it. I will kill for you if you wish it. I will tear out hearts of all of your potential suitors and feed them to Cerberus if you desire it. I am not going to give up asking you to be my bride.”

“You make it hard for a gal to say no.” She started to laugh despite herself.

Aidoneus held up his paw. “I will give you everything you’ve always desired. Riches, power, you can command my armies of demons. You just ask and I will give it to you. I truly love you and I will not throw away your love for me. I know you love me Rose… If you didn’t then my heart wouldn’t be in your possession.”

Rose looked at the box that she held, she lifted it up to her ear and listened to it. His heart was beating within the box strongly. She then looked down at him, his white skull and his clear blue eyes. She wasn’t ever afraid of his visage… She didn’t know what it was about him. She did love him and she had no idea why. She swallowed hard and let out a sigh as she smiled. “You don’t have to give me anything or do anything for me. You’re right, I do love you.”

He touched her gently on her cheek. “You… love me. I knew you loved me.”

“Yes.” She closed her eyes as he touched her cheek. She opened them slowly. “I’ll be your bride, I’ll marry you Aiden.”

He stood up slowly still touching her cheek. “You… will be my wife?”

She nodded as she looked up at him. “Yes Aiden.”

He looked at her and his eyes seemed to soften, his harsh skull kept its shape but his eyes softened and watered a little. “Rose… You’ve made me very happy.”

She nodded as she stood as tall as she could and gave him a kiss upon his skull where his lips should have been. “It will be best that next time I kiss you, you have some lips for me to kiss.” She smiled.

“Yes my love.” Aidoneus nodded.