Fluttershy snarled at Sonata Dusk, glaring burning daggers at the smaller dragon as Fluttershy took a slow, steady step toward her.
Fluttershy would need to be careful; she didn’t know exactly what kind of magic Sonata was using, but inside the cramped tunnels of the Big Thunder Mine, Sonata had a severe advantage due to her smaller size and whatever magic was allowing her to manipulate the earth itself.
“I’m not going to let you hurt the people I care about,” Fluttershy growled, trying to keep her emotions under control, but she was furious. She was already having a bad week, and nothing puts one into a sour mood quite like someone raising an army of the dead in order to attempt a bloody campaign of genocide. That just wasn’t very considerate at all.
Haha, Fluttershy make jokes so her mind doesn’t snap under the unbelievable weight of thinking about the atrocities Sonata Dusk was talking about committing haha.
“Geez,” Sonata groaned and rolled her eyes, “you’re such a buzzkill. You don’t have to get all snarly just cuz I’m talking about killing a couple ponies. Couple hundred, or thousand, ponies. You know they don’t care about you, right?”
“You don’t know anything about my friends!” Fluttershy barked, lunging at Sonata and attempting to slash her entire face off with a single claw strike, but her attack never reached her enemy.
Sonata warped the tunnel around Fluttershy, constricting her in a narrow chokepoint; it knocked the wind out of her, and she helplessly batted her claw at Sonata, who was standing just out of reach.
Fluttershy squirmed a little bit, but she couldn’t move, and she couldn’t wrap her mind around how Sonata’s magic worked either; it didn’t make any sense the way the physical boundaries of the tunnel warped around Fluttershy, but Sonata was still standing in a perfectly unwarped section of the tunnel.
Fluttershy didn’t have the head for this kinda stuff, and she sighed in frustration and self-pity.
“Honestly,” Sonata huffed, puffing up her cheeks. “I have no idea why you’re so willing to stick your neck out for ponies. You know they do nothing but try to butcher and maim us dragons, right? Like have some self-respect, girl!”
“It’s not ‘ponies’ that’s the problem,” Fluttershy said, still struggling to find any slack in the tunnels constricting her. “It’s the system of hatred that they’ve put into place.”
“That sounds like ponies to me,” Sonata snarked.
“My point is,” Fluttershy huffed in frustration, “a system can be dismantled without the need for a straight-up genocide!”
Sonata Dusk just blew a raspberry, and Fluttershy’s eye twitched. What was wrong with her?
Fluttershy closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and when she opened her eyes she could see Sonata starting to shiver. Dragons may have been insulated from extreme weather, but that didn’t protect them from magic, and Fluttershy wasn’t above using her magic to drop the temperature of the room to below freezing if it meant disrupting Sonata’s concentration.
And sure enough, as Sonata rubbed her arms in an attempt to get warm, Fluttershy felt her bonds loosening, and her natural nimbleness allowed her to squirm right out of Sonata’s trap with only the smallest of openings, jumping out of the constricting tunnel to lunge at Sonata, who disappeared just before Fluttershy could make contact with her.
Fluttershy blinked and took a look around. The tunnel was back to normal at least, so Fluttershy could breathe easily about that, and even stretch her wings out a little bit. But she could still feel Sonata’s presence in the air, or at least… somewhere around.
Underneath her?
Fluttershy looked down, and she could see a faint motion in her own shadow, almost like rippling water. Fluttershy would have been quite impressed with Sonata’s magic if she didn’t despise the wretched little creature so much.
Fluttershy was curious though, if Sonata’s hiding place would protect her if the room temperature dropped below zero degrees. Fluttershy would be fine, it was her magic after all, but it would sure be interesting to see what happened to Sonata.
“Alright enough already!” Sonata screamed, jumping out of Fluttershy’s shadow and hovering right in front of her, little icicles hanging from Sonata’s eyes, nose, and mouth. “Look if you’re so sure it’s ‘the system’ that’s bad-” Sonata blew another raspberry, moving her fingers to make the most sarcastic air quotes Fluttershy had ever seen “-then what’re you gonna do about it, huh?! Do you have a plan, or just a bunch of lousy platitudes, huh!?”
“I, um,” Fluttershy faltered, and her weakening concentration was slowly making the room rise back to a normal temperature. “Um—”
This whole time, Fluttershy had been viewing herself as powerless. She was just following what her adopted parents, or her magic teacher, or Twilight or Rarity said. She never really took the time to think for herself. Even now, she was fighting for ponies because she didn’t want anything bad to happen to Rarity or Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie or Spike. Applejack she was kinda ambivalent about.
But the truth in her heart was—
“I want to protect ponies,” Fluttershy said sternly, locking eyes with Sonata Dusk. “I want to protect them, because I want everyone to live in a world where they don’t have to be afraid, and I could never forgive myself if I allowed that world to be born in a bloodbath. So I’m going to stop you, Sonata Dusk. Because I believe that’s the right thing to do! That’s where I draw the line!”
Fluttershy lunged at Sonata, and while Sonata tried to close the walls in around Fluttershy again, Fluttershy was able to chomp her fangs down on Sonata’s back legs, goring them as Sonata squealed in pain.
“That’s some interesting magic you have, Sonata Dusk,” Fluttershy growled, her voice muffled since her mouth was kinda full, and every movement of her teeth dug her fangs deeper into Sonata’s tiny little legs. “What will be really interesting is seeing you try to concentrate on it through the pain of me ripping your legs off.”
“Waitwaitwait!” Sonata screamed, waving her arms frantically with tears in her eyes. “Truce! Let’s have a truce! I really don’t wanna lose my legs and I promise I won’t attack you anymore! I’m a lover and not a fighter anyway!”
Fluttershy had absolutely no reason to trust Sonata, and every reason to just crush the little bastard in her fangs right then and there.
But she loosened her grip. Sonata flew out of Fluttershy’s mouth, laying on the ground and whimpering as blood poured out the holes in her legs, fresh blood still dripping from Fluttershy’s fangs.
“You’re so strong,” Sonata cooed, looking with horror and awe at her shredded legs.
“Yeah, I guess I am,” Fluttershy sighed, and a soft teal light glowed from her antlers and covered Sonata’s legs, sealing the wounds and repairing them to full strength. “Alright, Sonata Dusk. Let’s talk.”