//------------------------------// // 95. Why // Story: Azure Edge // by Leaf Blade //------------------------------// As she sat on her knees in the snowy foothills surrounding Canterlot, Rarity didn’t hear the pony frantically calling out to her until she was right in front of Rarity’s face, kneeling before Rarity’s with her hands on Rarity’s shoulders. “Rarity! Rarity, answer me!” Rainbow Dash yelled, and Rarity forced herself to snap to attention. “Rainbow Dash?” she said weakly. “What are you doing here?” “I saw smoke coming from the Moon District,” Rainbow said, looking and sounding incredibly frazzled, “I had a bad feeling and went to check up on the library, and it was—” “Gone,” Rarity said coldly. “Yes, I know. I saw it.” “What the hell happened?!” Rainbow screamed, roughly helping Rarity get back to her hooves. Rarity walked away from Rainbow, barely processing her question. What had happened, indeed. “Rarity?” Rainbow’s voice softened, but not out of concern or gentleness; Rarity could hear a simmering panic in her partner’s whisper. “What happened to the library?” Rainbow’s voice cracked, and Rarity blinked away the stinging tears forming in her eyes. “Did Twilight—” “She’s alive,” Rarity said distantly, and she had no idea why. When Rarity had found out the truth, the first thing that crossed her mind was that she wished Twilight really had been killed in that library, yet here she was giving Rainbow a glimmer of false hope. “That’s—that’s great!” Rainbow ran up to Rarity and clapped her on Rarity’s shoulders from behind. “That’s awesome!” Rainbow gasped. “But wait, she’s probably in danger, right? We gotta help her!” “No.” That was Rarity’s only response; a cold, bitter, no. “What?” Rainbow hissed. Rarity said nothing. She didn’t turn back to look at her friend, see the anger that she knew was in Rainbow’s eyes. “What do you mean ‘no’?” Rainbow asked, her tone a mix of incredulity and fury. “Where is she, Rarity? What happened to her?” Rarity said nothing. “She needs our help,” Rainbow insisted, “doesn’t she? What about Spike? Where is he?” … “Rarity!” Rainbow Dash shoved Rarity, and now Rarity reacted, turning on her hooves and stomping up to Rainbow’s face, giving her a glare that would put a dragon’s to shame, but Rainbow didn’t budge. “Why the hell are you keeping this from me!? Twilight and Spike are my friends, and you’re supposed to be my partner! What the hell gives?!” Rarity glared, still unable to conjure a single word to respond with, and Rainbow glared back, unwilling to take Rarity’s silence as an answer any longer. Rarity took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. She took a few steps away from Rainbow Dash, holding up a finger to signal that she would speak to Rainbow in just one moment, once she had collected her thoughts. “You’re right, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity said weakly. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, you’re right. I’m being a mite selfish, aren’t I?” This time Rainbow was the one that was silent, and Rarity looked back to see her crossing her arms and puffing up her cheeks, which brought a smile to Rarity’s face; that gesture meant that Rarity was correct, and Rainbow didn’t want to say it. Rarity appreciated her friend’s rare moment of tact. “Did you see the dragon?” Rarity asked the first question, the most important one that needed answering. “The one that burned down the library?” “Y-yeah,” Rainbow said hesitantly. “I saw it flying away from here,” Rainbow pointed to the mountains the dragon disappeared behind, “but I couldn’t see it too well, and I was kinda hoping it wasn’t what I thought. It really was another dragon, huh?” “I caught it, as it was flying away from the library,” Rarity explained, painfully dragging the memories of everything that had just transpired out and into the open; if she was going to tell Rainbow the story, Rainbow deserved to know everything. “I tracked it here, though it was a simple matter since the dragon was badly ill.” “Ill?” Rainbow cocked her head. “What do you mean? I didn’t even know dragons could get sick.” Rarity shook her head and let out a bitter laugh. “It had magic exhaustion,” she explained, “it was in no position to fight when I approached it.” “Funny,” Rainbow scoffed, “I don’t see its body anywhere.” “It didn’t fight back,” Rarity ignored Rainbow’s comment, and she grabbed the onyx blade—still coated in the dragon’s blood—with her magic, hovering it in front of her, “even as I stabbed it, over and over again, it didn’t fight back. It didn’t even try.” “Because it was sick?” Rainbow put her hands on her hips and frowned, creasing her brow. “That doesn’t make any sense. I tell ya, if it was my life on the line, doesn’t matter how sick or shitty I felt, I’d fight tooth and nail no matter what!” “It’s funny, isn’t it?” Rarity threw her sword to the ground, and she could see the pensive glare in Rainbow’s eyes that told her she needed to reach her point quickly. “It doesn’t make any sense, that it didn’t fight back.” “Yeah,” Rainbow said curtly, “and it makes even less sense that you couldn’t kill it. What happened? You didn’t let it go just cuz it begged, did you?” Rarity wanted to be angry at that comment, to make some smart remark about Rainbow’s own shortcomings in reply, but she buried that urge. It wouldn’t be right to throw her vitriol at Rainbow, and what did it matter anyway? “It couldn’t beg,” Rarity shrugged, “it couldn’t speak. Every time it tried, it—” Rarity recalled the groan it made that sounded distinctly like her own name, and she shuddered at the implications. She cleared her throat. “Someone stopped me, from killing the dragon.” “Who?” “Spike,” Rarity said, and she couldn’t bear the look of confusion on Rainbow’s face that quickly turned to horror. “That little idiot!” Rainbow said desperately. “Doesn’t he know dragons are dangerous!? I know he has that doll and everything—” “Funny how much that doll looks like Twilight,” Rarity interjected, “isn’t it?” “What?” Rainbow balked. “What does that have to—” Rarity stared at Rainbow—stared through her—and let the realization slowly dawn on her. The dragon’s magic exhaustion, its unwillingness to fight back, Spike trying to save it, and Twilight’s similarity to Spike’s doll; enough clues for anyone to put them together and realize the grisly truth. Rainbow said nothing as her face changed from confusion, to recognition, flickered briefly with horror and then rage, before finally settling on an icy, bitter expression. Rarity paced back and forth, more than willing to allow Rainbow all the time she needed to process this. Rarity hadn’t gotten any time at all to process any of it, and oh how she wished she did. But then, what would have changed? All the time in the world couldn’t have eased this ache in her heart. As Rainbow processed and Rarity paced, Rarity went over everything in her mind once more. Where had she gone wrong? Could she have slayed the dragon if she was quicker, stronger, sturdier? Or did she simply not want to? Of course she wanted to, it was her mission to slay dragons, and dear stars, she certainly hated them enough. Yet, when a weakened and bloodied one was sitting right in front of her, she did nothing. She couldn’t bring herself to deal a killing blow. She stabbed it with the onyx blade, a weapon she had seen was quite proficient at killing dragons earlier that same evening, yet she chose not to activate its enchantment. Had she done the right thing? She thought about the first dragon she’d slain, remembered the horrified townsfolk; she thought about Baltimare, and how she didn’t hesitate to slay that dragon. So why was her gut turning inside out? Why now? Why did that damned monster still hold onto a piece of her heart? Rainbow let out a quivering sigh, after what felt like days of waiting. Rarity was eager to hear what she had to say, and for the blessed reprieve from her own internal torture session. “What the fuck.” Rarity wanted to laugh at that, and even cracked a slight smirk, but Rainbow’s face held no humor. She was angry; furious even. “I can’t believe this,” Rainbow whispered, and even though she knew Rainbow was no dragon, Rarity could swear fire was ready to pour from her mouth. “Can’t believe there’s been a damn dragon in Canterlot this whole time. Right under our damn noses. “She hates Slayers, her son looooves dragons,” Rainbow hissed, “why didn’t we ever put it together!? What is wrong with us!? What the hell’s her problem!? Thinking she can just waltz into our damn city like it’s no big deal, just hide out wherever she damn well pleases!? “And what about her son, anyway!? I guess he’s not in any goddamn danger, is he!? He’s probably totally safe with that goddamn monster, RIGHT!?” “Yeah,” Rarity shrugged. Nothing else to say. Rainbow screamed—shrieked—into the night sky, picking up Rarity’s bow and throwing it at the mountainside. If there were loose rocks or bricks laying around, Rarity was sure Rainbow would be throwing them too. “You raise an interesting point though,” Rarity said, Rainbow turning around and staring through Rarity with utterly exhausted, almost lifeless, eyes. “Why didn’t it ever do anything? It didn’t interact with the other people of Canterlot unless they came into the library, never once acted anything less than friendly toward you or me or the others. Why?” “Who cares?” Rainbow spat. “What does it matter now?” Rainbow sighed bitterly and walked slowly back toward Canterlot. “All we need to do now is tell Queen Celestia about this garbage, and hope she doesn’t have us expelled from the Slayers for being so damn incompetent.” “No,” Rarity said bluntly, and Rainbow stopped in her tracks. The two mares looked at each other cautiously, and Rarity spoke first. “We’re not telling her anything.” Rainbow blinked. Her eyes narrowed, and her scowl hardened. “Why.” It wasn’t phrased as a question, and Rarity had no idea how to respond. “You can’t—” Rainbow cut herself off with a bitter chuckle, affecting a dangerously frantic half-smile at Rarity. “You’re not gonna cover for that thing, are you? You can’t honestly think that it’s good—” “I still have nightmares, Rainbow Dash!” Rarity snarled, stomping toward Rainbow and forcing her to step back and recoil. “What the hell do you think this thing is for-” Rarity clawed at her dragon fang necklace “-if not to remind me, every damn day, what those things are capable of!? What happens when we screw up—when I screw up!?” “Then WHY!?” Rainbow shouted frantically. “Why the hell aren’t you gonna tell Celestia!?” “I don’t know!” Rarity screamed, tears falling down her face. “You don’t know!?” Rainbow scoffed. “That’s it?!” “I don’t know,” Rarity walked away from Rainbow again, pacing back and forth and desperately running her hands through her mane in a vain effort to calm herself, or collect her thoughts, or do anything other than panic. “Rainbow, Rainbow,” Rarity muttered frantically, “it didn’t do anything. Not once, not once did it ever try to— to do anything, to hurt anyone!” “And?” Rainbow sneered. “Why?” Rarity asked desperately, her hands falling at her sides. And again, it was Rainbow’s turn to go silent. Her lip quivered, like she was thinking to say something, but couldn’t bring herself to. Rarity could see the gears turning in Rainbow’s eyes, and she knew her partner could come up with no answer. Rainbow’s sigh was heavier than all the weapons in Celestia’s armory as she looked up to the night sky, maybe begging the stars to give her some answer. But there were no answers, because there was no information. “So where do we go from here?” Rainbow asked, her gaze still fixed toward the sky. Rarity allowed herself a slight smirk, seeing through Rainbow’s posturing to the real purpose of her gesture; Rainbow still trusted her partner’s judgment, and Rarity was determined not to betray that trust. “Honestly?” Rarity gave a strained chuckle, releasing the tension that had been building in her body for hours until she was about ready to collapse. “We need to track down that dragon. Whether we kill it, or talk to it, that can come later. But we can’t just let it go.” “I wanna know why,” Rainbow grumbled. “So do I,” Rarity whimpered. Rarity gathered her equipment with her magic and walked past Rainbow, giving her partner a firm clap on the shoulder. “But first thing’s first, darling. You and I need to get some damn sleep.”