POV Cait
"Wake up," I say to the still comatose Rio.
After we had killed the Lich, Rio had vanished, but not long afterward, a massive explosion went off that annihilated the moon. Like the entire damn thing. We sent several ships to investigate, as I was certain it had to do with Rio. And we found him. Or what was left of him. It was bad. All that remained of Rio was his head and parts of his chest. Everythin' else was gone. We still don't know why his abilities didn't save him, or at least heal him up. But thankfully, he seemed to be healin'. If a bit slowly.
Piece by piece, he was regeneratin'. Assisted with the best technology we had and magic. Lots and lots of magic. But even after his body was fully healed, he stayed asleep. Nothin' we did got a reaction out of him. We didn't know what was happenin' to him. Loona said it might be a soul damage issue, but she can't tell for certain. It had been over 2 months since we found Rio. We got desperate enough that we asked for the only other member of his species we know of to help. She was on her way. I could only hope that she would have good news.
During those two months, some occasional strange things would happen. Like he would heal rapidly for a few seconds, and then the next second, his flesh would turn black and start necrotizin'. Every time, he wouldn't so much as move a muscle or make a sound. He nearly gave Loona a heart attack when he suddenly lost several fingers. But all of the effects wouldn't last long. It still confused the hell out of all of us. Even Curie, with all her medical knowhow was at a loss for what was happenin'.
As I was thinking about trying the poke test, I heard the sound of a door openin' and turned around to see Loona and Cadenza. Cadenza looked eerily similar to Rio. The only difference being the fur and mane color.
"I hope you can help us, cause we are runnin' out of ideas," I say.
"I hope I can help as well. It's the least I can do," Cadenza says calmly.
She approaches Rio and casts several spells. I didn't know some of the spells, but others I recognized. Once she was done, she looked at Rio with confusion, and as I was about to speak up, she suddenly cast something else. I say cast, but I wasn't sure if that fit, given it didn't seem like any kind of magic I knew of. Once she was done, she looked surprised and a little happy, I think.
"Well?" I ask.
"It's good news. And some bad news, I guess," Cadenza replies.
"Bad news first," Loona says.
"He's under a curse. A really strong one at that," Cadenza says with a serious tone.
"And the good news?" I ask.
"The cure is easy to get," Cadenza replies happily.
"Well? Out with it, what is it?" I demand.
"It's a Sleeping Curse and the cure is True Love's Kiss," Cadenza says all too happily.
Loona and I look at each other as if to say, 'Is she serious?' Then we look at her with heavy doubt.
"Really? What is this a fairly tail?" I ask.
"While I admit it may seem silly. But it should be noted that all legends, myths, and yes, even fairy tales, often have a kernel of truth in them. And I can assure you I am deadly serious on this matter," Cadenza comments.
"How can you be certain?" I ask.
"I am a bit of an authority on these things. I am the alicorn of LOVE after all. I am the closest thing to the physical manifestation of love you can find outside of a god or something like that," Cadenza replies.
"Okay, so where are we supposed to find True Love's Kiss? And what does that even mean?" Loona asks.
"True Love's Kiss is self-explanatory. A kiss from someone who truly loves the other," Cadenza replies.
"Okay, then, who will do it?" Loona asks with a surprising amount of force.
I raise my eyebrows at her reaction, but get completely distracted by Cadenza's response.
"I'll do it," Cadenza replies as if it were the most obvious answer.
"Wha? What?! What do you mean by you? Are you suggestin' that..." I say, but don't finish the statement.
"Yes, I love Rio. And I intend on pursuing him as a lover," Cadenza replies with a slight blush.
"Bu-But you just met him!" I complain.
"True, but I have fallen for him. He is well-mannered, kind, generous, honest, funny, smart, a great listener, and knows how to cook, clean, build, etc. Not to mention, he has a position equivalent to mine and has a stable job with more than enough to support me and any future kids. He also saved my life and further saved the lives of my people. He could have easily not gotten involved, but he didn't hesitate to help me and my kingdom. Heck, he nearly suffered a fate worse than death to save me. Then, after suffering such a fate, he didn't complain or demand anything; instead, he helped us rebuild and only left after he was certain we would be okay. And he will live as long as I, if not longer, so I don't have to be worried about outliving him, and I hear he might even be able to make others immortal, so perhaps our kids wouldn't have to die either. We also have a 100% compatibility rating. With means we are soulmates. Oh, and it helps he is f*cking hot," Cadneza says with complete confidence.
Loona and I are made speechless by her statement.
"Huh, when you put it like that, I suppose it's not that crazy. But what's up with that 100% compatibility? Where'd you get that info?" Loona replies.
"As I said before, I am the Alicorn of Love. I preside over love in its many forms, but I mostly focus on romantic love. I can perceive the compatibility of beings with each other. Depending on the rating, it determines how successful a relationship will be. 100% is soulmates and is very rare. I myself have only seen 17 in over 300 years. After that, is 99% to 80%. These are the forever couples. Those who would spend the rest of their days together in happiness, and can get pretty close to being soulmates. They will never betray each other or cheat or anything like that. Next is 79% to 50%. These are the more normal relationships, those that you might spend the rest of your days with, but after the honeymoon phase, you run into struggles and will slowly lose that spark unless you work very hard to keep it together. They work, but just aren't quite perfect. After that is 49% to 20%; these are the friends with benefits category, the kind where there is rarely any commitment, and you wouldn't want to be around the other for long. It's often just strict physical attraction and nothing more. Anything below 20% is the kind where you often find each other repulsive or someone you deeply dislike," Cadenza explains.
"Okay, and you're saying you are 100% compatible with Rio?" I ask.
"Yes, I quadruple checked my results. I am positive that we are meant to be. And he is also the highest rating I have gotten for myself. The highest I had gotten before was only 70%, which is fine, but not the greatest. Of course, I was desperate then and still am, and tried to give it a shot. But I got shot down right away. Do you have any idea how hard it is being a 300-year-old virgin? The number of jokes I have heard about it has not been few. I haven't even had a boyfriend since I was a foal. I haven't even kissed anyone," Cadenza says with a slightly desperate voice.
Both of us grimace at the thought and agree that it wouldn't be a pleasant experience.
"It also helps that I can cure Rio regardless of my feelings," Cadenza comments.
"What?" I ask.
"True Love's Kiss. Think about it literally, and I meet the criteria. I am the closest you can get to true love or pure love. Thus, any kiss I give would have such effects," Cadenza explains.
"Why didn't you just say that?" Loona asks.
"Well, I wanted to be upfront about my feelings with his other suitors," Cadneza says as if it were obvious.
"WHAT!?" Both Loona and I scream.
"What? I thought that was obvious. Why else would you two be mad when I mentioned I would kiss him? And you are also both the ones who try to stick around him the most. I mean, you've been with Rio the longest out of us, and I highly doubt you wouldn't have realized your feelings for him at this point," Cadenza says to me.
"Well... I... Um..." I try to speak but find myself at a loss.
"And she steals Rio's bedding and clothes," Cadenza says while pointing at Loona.
That bomb causes Loona to turn bright red. She stutters and tries to deny it, but it was painfully obvious.
"Lastly, you both have 100% compatibility with Rio," Cadenza says with that same calm tone.
She drops yet another bomb, causing both of us to break.
POV Cadenza
"Huh, they fainted," I say with a smile.
I then go to make a happy skip over to Rio, but trip over and faceplant on the floor.
"Damn new legs. How the heck does Rio walk with these things? They're so long and unwieldy," I complain.
I struggle to stand up again and see a massive smudge on the floor from my makeup.
'Damn it, I spent 3 hours getting it perfect.'
I took out a pocket mirror and went to see the damage. It was bad, but instead of wasting time fixing it, I just cleaned up the worst spots and moved to give Rio a kiss.
'His lips are so soft.'
I gave him a soft kiss and then moved away to wait for the curse to break. It was very obvious that it worked as he started to move in his sleep, and then he groaned, and his eyes flickered.
"Ugh, did anyone catch the license plate number on that truck?" Rio jokes.
"Hehe, no, but welcome back to the land of the living," I reply.
"Huh? Princess Cadenza, what are you doing here? And what happened to you? You look like you lost a battle with a wall," Rio comments.
I smiled and started a conversation I was very scared to have.