//------------------------------// // 270. Fifty Pounds // Story: Azure Edge // by Leaf Blade //------------------------------// Rarity stood in the light snow, beside the twisted wreckage of the iron wagon that she had so recently been trapped inside, which she had torn asunder with her own magic, staring down Blueblood, the man who had kidnapped and nearly murdered her. Frankly, she was quite displeased. She reached out with her magic and covered Blueblood’s armor, aiming to tear it from his body. If she took a bit of his skin in the process that would also be fine. She pulled against the armor in her magic, as she had done to previous soldiers so effortlessly, but this time she felt a tug against her magic and the armor didn’t budge. Rarity took a closer look, and saw that the man and his armor were coated in a thin aura of yellow magic. “You didn’t think you were the only one with access to the old magic, did you?” Blueblood chuckled mockingly, and Rarity’s cheeks turned red as her brow furrowed and her glare intensified. She had, in fact, assumed she was the only one. “We’re supposed to keep it a secret, but at the moment I suppose it can’t be helped. Not like you can blab from the bottom of the river anyway, and I promise you I never make the same mistake twice.” Rarity braced herself, but to her surprise Blueblood didn’t grab her, he grabbed the pieces of the iron wagon, melding them back together in the blink of an eye. A painful throb seized Rarity’s heart at the sight of the accursed thing. For a moment, she felt as if she were back inside it, and her body reacted accordingly, screaming for her to run away. Her body felt numb, and she realized too late that it was due to the yellow magic that now covered her. She only realized what was happening as Blueblood used his magic to throw her inside the wagon. He slammed the door on her as she tried to escape, and her eyes widened and her breathing quickened as panic started to set in. She was sweating now too; it was damn hot inside this thing, and the unrelenting fear and panic that assaulted Rarity’s mind and made it impossible to think straight weren’t helping. “LET ME OUT!” Rarity screamed and slammed her hands against the door. “LET ME OUT OF HERE!” “You should have stayed in the river, Rarity,” Blueblood disappointedly clicked his tongue. “It would have been a far more painless death than being cooked alive.” “BLUEBLOOD! LET ME OUT! PLEASE!” Rarity shrieked, pounding her fists against the door of the wagon. What was she doing? She still had her magic, didn’t she? Why couldn’t she just— It was so hot… Rarity fell on her hands and knees, and she could almost see sweat falling off of her in pools. She wanted to vomit, being trapped inside this sunforsaken wagon again. But she wasn’t trapped, she had magic. She just needed to use it. She tried to focus, tried to channel blue light into her horn. She was crying now, and whimpering. She couldn’t hold herself up with her own strength. She couldn’t see past the blurring of tears and sweat in her eyes. It was so hot. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t… The door opened, and Rarity barely had the strength to lift her head and see Blueblood’s hand as it reached inside and grabbed Rarity by her mane, dragging her out of the wagon and face-down into the snow. “If you were a dragon, I wouldn’t have thought twice about killing you,” Blueblood said as he yanked Rarity to her hooves, slamming her against the side of the wagon. “But since you’re a pony, and such a pretty one at that, I’ll give you another chance. Perhaps you’d like to take me up on my offer of being a trophy wife? Doesn’t seem like you’re much of a Slayer, after all.” Rarity didn’t respond. She just stood there, back against the wagon and hair being roughly held in Blueblood’s fist, eyes blurring with tears. She barely even heard him. So he started hitting her, punching her hard in the jaw, and then in the nose, slamming her head against the wagon and then down into his knee, before kicking her hard in the knee and causing her to fall to the ground, where he started kicking her in the head until blood spurted from her nose and mouth. How did she let this happen? How did she become so weak? She fought a dragon with her own hands, all on her own! She had seen countless battles and overcome them all, and now she was folding like a wet napkin to some asshole. As if in answer to her question, Rarity found herself back on the shore of the Luna Bay, sitting with her hooves in the delightfully cool water right beside Rain Shine. “Uh, what is happening?” Rarity asked, and then groaned and put her head in her hands. “Did I die? Ugh, I’ll never forgive myself if I let—” “Shush,” Rain Shine put a clawed finger up against Rarity’s muzzle. “You didn’t die. My magic is living inside you, so I can feel you as if you were my own flesh and blood. I felt your suffering, and so I reached out to you. When you return to the world of flesh, barely any time will have passed.” “Is that ‘feeling me as if I’m your own flesh and blood’ thing a normal side-effect of this magic sharing thing?” Rarity asked, aghast at the implications. “Or is this just a ‘you’ thing?” “It’s a skill that I possess,” Rain Shine answered, and Rarity sighed in relief. “Others can learn it if they wish, but it does need to be learned. Does that answer satisfy you?” “It does,” Rarity nodded, pouting and putting her cheeks into her hands. “What am I doing wrong? I thought I had a handle on this, but then as soon as that wagon reappeared, I just completely lost it.” “Yes, trauma will do that to a person,” Rain Shine said softly, and wrapped her comforting slithery tail around Rarity like a side-hug. “Trauma?” Rarity asked, and then laughed it off. “Please, I’m not ‘traumatized’ or any such thing. I just—” “Is that so,” Rain Shine said drolly, staring down at Rarity with a bemused glint to her eyes. “I— well— uh…” Rarity paused. She felt sick. She had never, in her life, considered that she might have been traumatized by the things that happened to her. And looking back on it now, seeing an entire village get destroyed because of her negligence and having the screams of families and children as they burned to death or were crushed under the weight of their own falling houses burned into her memory? One could consider that a traumatic experience. Meeting the love of her life and coming home one day to see her house burned to the ground and her whereabouts uncertain, only to realize that she had turned into what Rarity had considered a monster, and then nearly killing her in a fit of fear and rage? Also not a good time in Rarity’s life. Even things that seemed to matter so little in the long run, like almost being killed by timberwolves, or the way that dragon in Baltimare begged for its life before Rarity executed it, or the sheer terror that gripped her heart during her battle with Lightning Dust, especially when Fluttershy went missing. And quite frankly, the thing with the wagon… maybe it was just recency bias, but it somehow felt more sickening and horrifying in Rarity’s memory than any of those things. And on top of it all, realizing the entire world she thought she lived in was a lie to satisfy the pointless hatred of a bunch of horrible bigots, and the woman she had put all of her faith and trust in turned out to be propagating that lie for her own bigoted ends. She wasn’t the woman Rarity thought she was. Rarity wasn’t the woman she thought she was. God… Rarity wasn’t okay, was she? “Well,” Rarity hummed. “Fuck.” “You’re carrying so much more trauma than you ever have been,” Rain Shine said, “you can’t expect to operate the same way you had before.” “Hmmm,” Rarity grumbled and crossed her arms. “I don’t like that.” “Let me explain with a metaphor,” Rain Shine said, and the environment around them melted away. The landscape transformed into a mountain trail, with Rain Shine in a very attractive pony-adjacent form, and jogging the trail alongside Rarity, both of whom were dressed in absolutely adorable athletic wear. Rarity hadn’t realized until she saw the autumn leaves all around the trail how much she desperately missed the other three seasons that weren’t winter. “Imagine if you will, us jogging up a mountainside trail,” Rain Shine said as the pair were doing just that. “I think I can imagine it,” Rarity laughed softly, her eyes being drawn to Rain Shine’s ass as the two ran. Rarity was listening intently, but she could look intently at the same time. That’s called multitasking. “Now imagine us both carrying fifty pounds of weight on our backs.” As Rain Shine spoke, Rarity didn’t have to imagine it, she was just suddenly carrying fifty pounds of weight, and while it was a struggle for a moment, she quickly got used to it and resumed her jog. “Okay, this isn’t so ba—” “Now,” Rain Shine said with a knowing smirk, “imagine every mile or so, another fifty pounds is added to your weight.” Rarity croaked and huffed as the weight on her back doubled, but she re-centered herself and resumed her jog. It wasn’t so bad. “Every mile,” Rain Shine said, and another weight was added, Rarity feeling her knees buckle but she forced herself to remain upright and to keep running, despite the searing pain that was starting to creep along all of her body. “Forever.” Another weight was added, and Rarity’s entire body resoundingly rejected it, refusing to move for a solid fifteen seconds or so before she was able to force it to keep going, Rarity huffing and puffing and panting and sweating, but still going! “Are you running the same speed with two hundred pounds?” Rain Shine asked. “That you were at fifty? If so, how does your body feel about that?” “Is there any way to get rid of this weight?” Rarity gasped, sweat pouring off her body. Even in her cute sports getup, she still looked a travesty with her hair and makeup drenched in sweat. “Sometimes,” Rain Shine sighed and stared into the distance for a moment, before returning her gaze to Rarity with a delicate smile. “But the race never stops, and there’s never time to catch your breath. You’ll never be able to rid yourself of all of it, so what matters is how you carry it.” Rain Shine put her arm around Rarity, and Rarity did the same for Rain Shine instinctively, the two jogging along together arm-in-arm, and Rarity could feel just the smallest hint of reprieve from the weight that had been crushing her back just a moment ago. “This is where the real strength of collective power lies,” Rain Shine said. “One person carrying two hundred pounds is difficult, but if we’re all carrying that weight together, then it’s so much easier to run.” Rarity ran alongside Rain Shine in silence for a moment, taking the time to really consider her words. She even stopped trying to check Rain Shine out, which was a CHALLENGE. “I think I understand,” Rarity said, her words dripping heavy with guilt. “What I don’t understand, is why you’re helping me so much. After everything I’ve—” “I’m not helping ‘you’, I’m helping ‘us’,” Rain Shine said with a charming smile. “Every move we make in this world is never just a move made for ourselves, but for every person who relies on us. I tend to consider my choices with the gravity that deserves, and I encourage others to do the same.” “I see,” Rarity nodded and closed her eyes. “Thank you, Rain Shine.” “You’re welcome, Rarity,” Rain Shine laughed sweetly. “Now, do us both a favor and stop getting your ass kicked.” “Will do,” Rarity laughed in turn. She opened her eyes and sure enough, it was like no time had passed. Or maybe she’d just gotten a concussion and passed out or something, who knows. The point was, she summoned a barrier to stop Blueblood’s hoof from connecting with her face, and it forced him to stumble back. Rarity drew herself up, forcing herself onto her hooves and staring down Blueblood with eyes stained with tears, stinging from sweat, and bruised from the beating he’d given her. But burning with fire nonetheless.