//------------------------------// // Prodigy Finale // Story: Why Bother? // by Discorded SheepcityUSA //------------------------------// “Years passed. Many more refusals from Amore about my requests to be a princess came after that. Of course, she continued to try and teach me humility and not to be that uncaring and reckless again. She NEVER forgot about that incident with the Minotaurs. I hadn’t used that sort of magic for a long time after, and she was still horrified that I’d relapse at any minute.” Luxure said with a bitter eye roll. “B-But um, didn’t you?” Fluttershy pointed out while wincing a little bit. Luxure paused for a moment of reflection, her expression changing every few seconds. From surprised, to attempting to offer a rebuttal but stopping, to finally looking down in resignation. “…You’ve got me on that one. I guess she did have a pretty good reason to fear me,” Fluttershy shook her head. “No no no, you’ve got it all wrong! She couldn’t have been scared of you! She was scared FOR you! I may not have known her myself, but what I do know from what you’ve told me is that she cared about you so much, and she didn’t want to see you make a big mistake like that!” Luxure’s ears drooped slightly. Of course she’d thought about this over her imprisonment plenty, but she’d always chalked that up as her being too optimistic. Who wouldn’t be terrified of someone like her? At the same time, who wouldn’t be terrified of seeing someone they considered their own child ruin her life? Hearing someone else say that to her face made her begin to think that maybe she actually was right. “…Nevertheless, to say our relationship wasn’t what it once was would be an understatement,” RRRRR. RRRRR. With a groan of annoyance at being awoken, Rosemary rolled over in her soft and warm bed and looked over at the nightstand at her side. On it was a framed picture of Amore, an oil lamp to keep her room illuminated if she were reading, and a bright pink crystal that was fashioned into a necklace. This particular necklace had been what woke her up due to the bright flashing pink light coming from it and its nonstop vibrating. Barely processing what was happening, Rosemary repeatedly tried to tap her hoof on it, only to miss her mark several times. At last after several seconds she managed to land her hoof on the crystal necklace, and in response to this, the crystal glowed much brighter and emitted a small beam of pink light which contorted itself into a real-time image of Amore looking back at her. “Rosemary. Are you awake?” the magical hologram of her mother asked her. “With how loud the holo-gem is, how could I not be?” Rosemary mumbled with a tinge of hostility toward her mother. “Alright, out with it, what do you want?” “I hate to bother you this early, believe me I do, but this is very urgent,” Amore said, taking a deep breath, appearing to be very stressed out. “From your studies, how much do you know about dragons?” “Hmm,” Rosemary thought to herself about this and adjusted her frown as she thought. “Not much is available to me about them. I know they eat gems and are greedy assholes but that’s about the extent of my knowledge,” Amore sighed a little at this. “That is what I was afraid of. At least you are aware of their diet. Listen to me Rosemary. I ask you this because there is a monumental threat to our kingdom residing in the mountains,” As Amore said this, her hologram head moved to the side and beside her showed another hologram, this one spinning slightly, of the snow-covered mountains of the Frozen North. “I don’t even need to take three guesses as to what’s up there,” Rosemary replied, looking at the hologram closely as it zoomed in on a cave in one of the higher points of the mountains. “I’m afraid so. It’s a newly discovered species as well. Invulnerable to the cold unlike others, and has magical breath that can freeze anything. An ice dragon.  It took several guards that were out on patrol of the north this morning. There isn’t much a dragon would want a pony with a crystal body for, except…” Amore did not want to finish her sentence. Taking a moment to let this sink in, Rosemary’s eyes widened quite largely and she looked down at the ground in disbelief. The grotesque imagery that filled her head regarding what that dragon wanted with those crystal ponies made her shiver. Trying her best to compose herself, she shook her head and brought her attention back to Amore. “You realize that those ponies are most likely dead by now,” she responded. Amore sighed and gave a sad nod. “It is most likely. If there is even a sliver of a chance that they are still alive though, then we must act. And we can’t allow this to happen again regardless. Our empire is not safe as long as this ice-dragon lurks here,” she replied, her ears folding back a little. “Listen to me, this is possibly one of the biggest threats to our empire yet so-“ “Yeah yeah, smack the lizard, save everypony I can, I know the drill. Talk to you when I get back,” Rosemary said with a groan, reaching her hoof toward the crystal to turn it off. Seeing this, Amore tried to act quickly. “Wait wait, be careful! Dragons are resi-“ before Amore could get another word in, Rosemary had already tapped her hoof on the crystal, making the hologram retreat into the crystal and silencing Amore. “Don’t get what she’s so worried about. I’ve faced worse, surely.” Rosemary said as she finally stood out of bed. As she did so, the crystal vibrated yet again with the same intensity as before. “UUUGH!” Rosemary exclaimed in disgust. Having had enough of this, she opened her bedroom window and quickly tossed it out of her sight. “Hmph. Now without any interruptions maybe I can get something done about our little reptile problem.” “Yaaaaa know, maybe I shouldn’ta’ thrown that crystal out,” Luxure said with her speech slurred slightly as all the drinks she had ingested were clearly taking a toll on her now. “Buuuuut me playin’ the tough girl wanted ta prove mahself, soooo I took it alone,” “O-Oh?” Fluttershy’s face had begun to turn red and her eyes were having a little trouble keeping focus. At Luxure’s urging, she’d already drunk quite a bit in her time at the bar herself, and was definitely feeling the effects. “Did you at least beat the dragon?” Luxure leaned back on her seat as far as she could go and looked up at the ceiling. “Weeeeeeell lemme tell ya. There was pain. Soooo much of it.” The one thing Rosemary had actually dreaded when going to face the ice dragon was not the beast itself, but having to enter the Frozen North for the first time since she was a child. The awful memory she held of nearly freezing to death there immediately came rushing back to her the moment the snow hit her face. The cold was still just as harsh and unforgiving as she’d remembered, not a single thing had changed from the frozen wasteland in all those years. She hated it. She hated every single step she took in this vile blizzard and every single snowflake that hit her face. Reliving the memory and the feeling of helplessness it brought her back then infuriated her to no end. “Focus Rosemary. You’re not a filly anymore. You’re a grown mare. A grown mare with incredible magic power and no weakness!” she growled, gritting her teeth and trying to remain as pumped as she could. This was a big deal. If she did something as big as defeat a dragon, Amore would surely recognize her as her equal at last. Prompting to keep her mind on her resolve instead, she trekked her way through the snow, using her magic the best she could to keep herself warm. Given the magical nature of the Frozen North’s unending blizzard though, it only helped so much. As expected, the path to the dragon’s cave was long, and given how everything in this horrid excuse for a land looked the same to Rosemary, repetitive. Eventually, Rosemary made her way up the mountain that supposedly housed the great beast. The entrance was littered with gemstones growing from the ground, and decorating it was the heavily damaged armor that Rosemary immediately recognized as belonging to the members of the empire’s guard.  Taking a few moments to stare intensely at the armor, she took a deep sigh, her breath visible in the cold air of the Frozen North. Not hesitating even at the disturbing sight, Rosemary trotted inside the cave, barely able to see even a few feet in front of her. Once she could hear the heavy snoring somewhere deeper in the cave of the dragon, she stopped and glared out into the darkness. And she whistled, and the sound was amplified off of the cave’s walls, echoing throughout. Knowing full well it would wake the dragon from its slumber, she truthfully wasn’t worried all that much. She had faced many a monster in her time, this wasn’t much new to her. Of course that’s not the way the Empire would see it, they’d lost several guards to this thing and feared plenty of the other threats she’d gone on to defeat. After several seconds, what she expected to happen, happened. The ground beneath her hooves shook with each footstep the dragon took, slowly creeping out of the darkness toward her. Eventually it made its way enough into the light where she could see its features. Light blue and shining scales, enormous dark blue horns, and claws that looked to be even much bigger than herself. It stood on all fours and was barely able to fit in the cave it resided in even with its quadrupedal way of standing. The creature stared down at her for a moment before leaning its neck down and meeting the mare at eye level, snorting notably frigid air from its gigantic nostrils. “I don’t take kindly to those that interrupt my power naps,” it growled in a distinctly deep male voice at her, baring its several rows of razor sharp teeth. “And I don’t take kindly to brutes snorting in my face. Clearly we have a problem here,” Rosemary said to it, clearly unwavered by the size and appearance of the monster. Unamused, the ice dragon narrowed its bone-chilling, slitted eyes at her. “You are the champion of the Crystal Empire aren’t you? You expect to face me without any weapons or armor? How foolish are you?” “Oh yeah, a lot of good that did the guards you’ve eaten. I’ve beaten things like you under the same conditions before. Other ponies might see you as a big eldritch horror, but you’re not special to me. Get it? You’re on the same level as a purse snatcher for all I care. So let’s just make this easy for both of us with you leaving so I won’t make you my new pair of boots,” Rosemary said defiantly to the dragon. Very subtly so she was sure the dragon wouldn’t see, she put up an invisible barrier to absorb any blows the dragon would deal her. This was the part she enjoyed most if she ever fought. The look on her opponent’s face when they realize her magic is keeping her safe is always a rather priceless one. The dragon only shook its head out this, making a ‘tsk’ sound. “That’s a shame. Your kind really is special to me…specifically…” before the dragon finished, its nostrils flared up with some kind of blue smoke coming from it as it smirked. “…That you’re delicious!” it roared as a stream of a bright blue mist erupted from its mouth straight at Rosemary, who didn’t move a muscle. That is, she hadn’t expected for that mist to get past her shield. It happened so fast that she almost didn’t know how to react. The ice breath of the dragon hit her skin at full force, and no amount of magic she could muster could keep her legs from freezing over with ice almost immediately. Her heart skipped a beat when she realized she wasn’t safe anymore. ‘What?!’ Rosemary screamed inwardly as her eyes darted downward to her frozen limbs, unable to move them. How could this have happened? That shield should have been impenetrable, nothing should have been able to dissolve it. Beginning to panic on the inside, she glared back up at the dragon, trying to seem as threatening as she could given her circumstances. “Oh you’ve made a big mistake you dumbass gator with wings!” she growled. Not wasting a moment due to seeing how dire her situation could get now, her eyes glowed a bright yellow and shot beams of magic out at the beast. This was pure magic going straight for the ice dragon’s abdomen, this thing was toast. Proving her situation even worse than she could have imagine, the beam of magic did not affect it at all and only faded out when they made contact. The dragon appeared to be unsurprised at this and it looked back down at its prey with a devilish smirk. “Ohoo my. You REALLY don’t know, do you? Your magic can’t hurt me,” it growled, releasing more of its ice breath on Rosemary; the ice beginning to creep up and engulf her body ever so slowly. Rosemary would’ve been shaking in fear and rage if the ice were not present on her.  ‘NO NO NO NO THIS IS NOT HAPPENING!’ she inwardly screamed again, continuing to fire magic from her eyes fruitlessly at the beast. As the ice covered her more and more, she could feel that very familiar and unpleasant feeling of cold come back from being frozen all over. Her desperate struggles to move against the ice was in vain and she could feel it begin to cover her face as well. The pain it was causing squeezed out a horrible scream of agony from her. “AAAAAAAAH!” “Uuugh, why do they always scream? I prefer my food frozen and quiet, is this too much to ask?” the dragon didn’t let up on continuing to freeze the young mare as he spoke. After a few moments of her screaming dying down, Rosemary just stood there, scared stiff. This cold was so much worse than anything the Frozen North could do to her. Though she was cold, it felt like her skin was burning. This monster was making her feel the worst pain she’d ever felt, but she felt helpless too. Gone was the unstoppable badass with no worthy adversary that she’d thought herself to be, and replaced with that same terrified little filly that Princess Amore found shivering in the snow. Without her magic, this is what she was reduced to. ‘…No’ the young mare thought, her teeth gritting behind the ice now covering her entire face. She was angry. No, beyond angry. Infuriated is the better word. This was not how she was going to go out; feeling like nothing but a helpless little kid again. ‘…No, no, NO DAMN IT!’ The dragon picked up the pony-shaped block of ice that the intruder had once stood and licked his lips. “Yummy,” he said as he opened his gaping maw and was fully prepared to toss her into it. Before he got the chance, he noticed the ice now had a few cracks in the area of the pony’s eyes that were growing ever bigger with every second. “Huh? What in the-“ he mumbled when he shut his mouth and tried to get a better look at it. Only for the ice around the pony’s eyes to break completely. They were glowing an eerie shade of green that bounced off the crystals in the cave and lit it all up with the same shade. The dragon was quite startled by this and dropped the pony back on the ground, causing the rest of the ice to shatter and release her from its frozen grasp. She didn’t look afraid like she had before. She looked enraged. Her horrified screaming face had been afraid with the most angered frown the dragon had ever laid his eyes on. With the pony directly into the eyes of the dragon, over time the dragon’s eyes turned green as well, his body slumping over and his jaw hanging open. It looked as if he was a corpse that was still standing upright and appeared void of any kind of thought of his own. Not saying a word, the pony lifted her hooves into the air, and several crystals outside the base of the mountain grew upwards with it. She then pointed to the cliff outside of the cave in a commanding manner. The dragon did as his mind instructed him and walked out of the cave and out on to the edge of the cliff, his feet shaking the ground with every step. Once the dragon was just perched on the edge of the cliff, the pony muttered only a single word, of which her voice had a deep, unpony echo to it. “Die.” And with that, the dragon fell to the ground below, nothing heard until he collided with the pointed crystals down below with a loud “SHRNK” After seeing the beast fall to his certain death and staring out at the entrance to the cave, the pony quickly realized what just happened and shook her head to get herself together. “W-What did…” her eyes widened when she walked out of the cave and stared down at the carnage below. Not wanting to believe what she was seeing, she covered her mouth and shuffled her way back into the cave, taking several deep breaths as she sat against the wall. “O-Oh shit oh shit oh shit,” she mumbled and tried to get herself together. She tried to reason with herself. That dragon had eaten several of the empire’s guards and was about to eat her too. He was only a menace that would have continued if she didn’t, it was self-defense. But she used mind manipulation magic. Only this time she actually killed something with it. The dragon was totally helpless when it was under her control; she could have just forced it to leave. Her arms and legs were free. She didn’t have to do it. All these thoughts raced through the young crystal mare’s head at this point. She couldn’t make them go away, she couldn’t reason with herself over this. The one indisputable thing in her mind that she knew is what hurt her the most. There was no way she could go back to the Crystal Empire now. Not like this. Amore already distrusted her enough as it stood. If this were to ever get out, Amore would… “…No,” The pony said to herself. “No no no, this is wrong. I-I’m the one that protects this empire, if I hadn’t done that it would have just come back and eaten more of us. It’s not fair that I’m the only one that had to get my hooves dirty while MOTHER stays all squeaky clean and polished!” The pony growled and angrily kicked at the dirt beneath her hooves. “I’m u-unclean” she said, staring down at her hooves. “Things have to change! I-I can’t fucking do this anymore mom!” She yelled with tears forming in her eyes, slamming one of her hooves against the wall of the cave. The walls shook in response and sent a few crystals to the ground. Her breath was getting much shallower now; she was still freezing cold from the ice she was encased in. Taking note of this, she quickly used her magic to summon a fire to keep herself warm. As she warmed up and let her heart and lungs be a little more at ease, the young crystal pony was left to her own thoughts. Her mother, the empire, the dragon she’d just killed. Though this was the last thing on her mind, she knew she’d never be royalty after this. Amore would continue to send her on these missions to protect the empire until something potentially even more dangerous than an ice dragon came along. Then she’d kill that too. She didn’t want this. She couldn’t just stand by and let Amore keep doing this to her. After so many years of devoting her life to the princess and the empire’s ponies and Amore still not trusting her after all she’d done. The crystal pony’s body tensed up and she gritted her teeth, the tears in her eyes flowing freely down her face now. She’d officially had enough. “AAAAAAnd that my fine yellow feather friend is how the illusion was s-shattered,” Luxure remarked with a goofy smile on her face as her upper body swayed back and forth drunkenly on her barstool. “So what’d ya think B-Buttershy?” When she looked at Fluttershy, she had an equally drunk and oblivious smile on her face, complete with half-lidded eyes. “Heh heeeeh, nice sthory Lux,” Fluttershy replied, tongue now hanging out. “I know, might’ve never felt so alone even when in the heart, but makes a nice conversation riiight?” Luxure said, putting a foreleg around Fluttershy’s shoulder. “Sayyyy, waddya say we get just a few more drinks eh? Night’s still young, ya know?” Fluttershy nodded her head with practically her entire body moving along with her, falling off the barstool, and landing flat on her face on the bar’s floor. The only words she could let out were a few low and drawn out groans. “Ooh, we’re doing this now? M’kay,” Luxure said, intentionally doing the same. Both of them now drunkenly laying face down on the floor, Luxure raised her hoof to the sky in what looked like an act of enthusiasm. “To crippling depression!” she shouted. “Yaaaaay…” Fluttershy mumbled, her speech being muffled by the floor.