“Are you ready?”
Rainbow snickered at Rarity’s question, wondering how Rarity could even ask her that.
“Are you?”
Rarity rolled her eyes, and Rainbow grinned at that. This was nice; it was a nice break from their conversation earlier, and from the like million hours that Rainbow spent avoiding that conversation.
Besides that, planning on how to take down an obnoxious, leg-chomping cragadile was loads more Rainbow’s idea of fun than talking about feelings. She did make a promise though, and her and Rarity would talk feelings until there were no more feelings left to talk.
After they executed their awesome plan, that is.
Rainbow turned to look at Rarity, who gave her a thumbs-up and a nod of confidence, though the unicorn looked anything but confident herself.
“Are you worried?” Rainbow’s smile was halfway between teasing and comforting.
“Can I be honest?”
“Of course,” Rainbow didn’t have to think twice to answer that question.
“I am worried,” Rarity spoke softly. “I understand how ‘recklessness’ is, and I— I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Rainbow didn’t know what to say, especially cuz Rarity’s fears weren’t entirely groundless. Her ears perked up though as she thought of something that might make Rarity happy.
“You think I’m gonna leave Twilight and Spike without saying goodbye?” Rainbow snickered and flicked a hair across her bangs. “Those dorks’d be lost without me, I ain’t gonna abandon ‘em.”
Rarity giggled into her fist, and Rainbow beamed at that good sign.
“Good luck, then.”
“Won’t need it,” Rainbow flashed a dazzling grin before turning on her hooves and diving headfirst into the water.
Rainbow ignored the chills going up her spine as she held her breath under the water and her mind flashed with images of the last time she was down here, barely an hour ago. She tried to ignore it anyway, but that got harder and harder with each second that she swam deeper and deeper, until she was sure she couldn’t hold her breath any long.
Then she saw it; the cragadile resting at the floor of the pond.
Rainbow grit her teeth to keep from gasping and cautiously drew her bow, her hands trembling. She wished Rarity could have done this part instead, but it was pretty obvious from their last encounter that Rainbow could outswim the cragadile, and Rarity couldn’t.
It had to be Rainbow, a fact that didn’t bring any comfort to the trembling pegasus as her nose wrinkled with the desire to breathe.
Now or never.
Rainbow released the arrow, and for a fraction of a second the cold aura it left in its wake was a welcome relief from the muggy water and air of Haysead Swamp. It was not quite as refreshing to the cragadile it hit directly above the eye, icy shards exploding out of the arrow and skewering the beast’s flesh.
A red fog emanated from the creature’s brow as it turned its eyeless face toward Rainbow Dash, the pegasus releasing another arrow that she hoped would fell the little bugger before it could even fight back, but her hopes were crushed along with the arrow in the cragadile’s jaw, its fangs breaking through the rune on the arrowhead and dispelling its enchantment before it could activate.
Oh well, at least she had the monster’s attention now, and Rainbow wasn’t stupid enough to stick around and wait for the cragadile to chase her before she dashed upward toward the surface. Besides, she could tell by the displacement of water and the dull growl getting closer and closer that the beast was definitely chasing her.
Which was perfect.
Rainbow instinctively turned to make sure the monster was behind her, and she nearly choked when she saw it closer than she expected, its jaws wide open as blood caked across its injured eyes and brow, with pegasus blood still painting its teeth.
Rainbow’s breath hitched, and for the quickest of seconds she stopped moving as her mind was seized by the painful memory of her leg being caught in the cragadile’s fangs, her inability to breathe immediately coming to her attention as she opened her mouth and slimy water poured in.
Her pause had been so brief, barely a second, but it was more than enough time for the cragadile to close the distance and slam her jaw down on Rainbow’s leg once more, if only it had been a little bit faster than Rainbow.
Rainbow wasn’t about to let Rarity, Twilight or Spike mourn her. Her grave wasn’t going to be a random puddle in the middle of a swamp so far south of her hometown that it wasn’t even on the maps sold there.
She wasn’t ready to die.
Rainbow propelled herself with her wings and tucked her legs under her, rocketing up to the surface and past the threshold, taking a huge gasp of air that was accompanied by a furor of water all around her.
“Rainbow Dash!” Rarity’s cheer was even more a breath of fresh air than the literal one Rainbow just took, and she grinned down at the unicorn and winked, signaling her to take the lead from here.
When the cragadile exploded out of the pond with its mouth open wide to try and catch Rainbow in its jaw, Rarity fired an arrow right into the beast’s tongue that easily pierced it and caused its tongue to wither to ash in seconds.
The cragadile slumped to the ground, unable to move a muscle through its rapidly growing injuries.
“Was that it?” Rainbow sneered, flying above the pond and the body of the cragadile.
“Do you want to take a closer look?” Rarity said teasingly, getting a smarmy chuckle out of Rainbow in return.
Rarity walked over to the cragadile, and Rainbow watched from above and couldn’t help the sinking feeling in her stomach. That thing was definitely dead, but what if it wasn’t?
“Be careful, Rarity,” Rainbow caught herself saying, her cheeks turning bright red as she heard the words leave her mouth.
Rarity looked up at her and an amused smirk flashed across her face until she saw Rainbow avert her eyes, then the smile vanished.
“Thank you, darling,” Rarity said calmly. “Watch my back?”
“You got it,” Rainbow nodded with a big grin, notching an arrow into her bow and leveling it at the definitely dead body of the definitely dead cragadile.
Rarity inched toward the beast’s body, axe in hand and sword hovering beside her. The closer she got, the more Rainbow swore the damn thing was gonna come to life any second now and try to sink its teeth into her.
Rarity stepped closer.
And closer.
She tiptoed right next to the beast and gave it a dainty kick in its muzzle, quickly recoiling and jumping back in anticipation of the beast’s inevitable attack.
Which never came.
Rarity walked up again and kicked a little harder this time, Rainbow’s eye twitching because she was sure the thing was gonna come back to life. Rarity kicked it again, and again, and again until she was practically stomping on the carcass of the dead monster.
“I think it’s had enough,” Rarity said amusedly, sheathing her weapons and looking up at Rainbow with her hands on her hips.
“Are you sure?” Rainbow bit her lip and refused to lower her bow.
“Not certain how I could be more sure.”
“I dunno,” Rainbow said hesitantly, cuz she wasn’t sure either, “open up its mouth?”
“I am not doing that.”
“Fine,” Rainbow sighed and gently lowered herself to the ground, only putting away her bow after a few more seconds had passed and Rarity had kicked the cragadile once more for good measure.
“I think we can call this mission a job well do—“
Rarity didn’t even scream as the fangs of the definitely dead cragadile sunk into her shin and shredded the skin like paper, her eyes simply widened and a pitiful whimper left her lips.
Rainbow screamed Rarity’s name but she barely even heard herself much less think Rarity could hear her.
With a flick of the cragadile’s neck, it brought Rarity crashing to the ground, her face hitting a sharpened rock on the impact that split her cheek open. Rainbow ran toward her and drew her trench knives as Rarity managed to grab a thick gnarled root to keep herself from being dragged underwater.
But the cragadile had no interest in taking in Rarity anywhere, which it established by opening its maw wide and releasing Rarity’s shin, only to clamp down on the thigh of her other leg, an act that brought a bloodcurdling scream from Rarity.
Rainbow jumped on the cragadile and started viciously stabbing at the oozing, cakey messes that used to be eyes, fresh blood pouring out with every stroke, but the cragadile seemed entirely unfazed as all it did was dig its teeth further into Rarity’s body, an agonized wince leaving the mare’s lips.
Rainbow drew a different knife from her belt, one that was coated in several blue runes, and rolled off the creature’s head in order to get a clear hit on its stomach, sinking the blade in-between the rock-hard scales covering the cragadile’s belly.
The knife exploded a second after, and Rainbow gasped in horror as a cloud of black and red smog hid Rarity from her view.
“Rarity!?”
“I’m alright!” Rarity said wearily. “I think you got it!”
Rainbow blew the smoke away with a buffet of her wings and saw that her explosion had separated the beast into two halves, the chompy half no longer connected to an incredibly bloodied Rarity as she stood to her feet and wobbled on busted legs away from what was NOW definitely, absolutely a corpse.
“How did that happen?” Rainbow asked desperately as Rarity handed her the healing tape.
“I honestly have no idea,” Rarity replied haggardly as Rainbow applied the tape to her injured shin, Rarity slopping a truly absurd amount of her health goop onto her thigh.
“Wait, what the—” Rainbow’s eye caught a glint of something and before Rarity could react, Rainbow snatched something that was buried in the unicorn’s thigh. Once she had it in her hand, she could see it looked like a charred black stick, or maybe a splinter.
“What the hell is that thing?” Rarity said coldly. Rainbow didn’t have much of a head for magic, but even she could feel pure malevolence radiating from the tiny object, and she couldn’t imagine how much worse it must’ve felt for someone as sensitive to that stuff as Rarity.
“I don’t—” before Rainbow could muster any kind of reply, the stick vanished, dissipating into black vapor that soon vanished with the wind. “Welp. That’s terrifying.”
“Perhaps,” Rarity breathed a very slow, very soft, very overwhelmed sigh. “But at least it’s over now.”