//------------------------------//
// RUINS 
// Story: Child of Harmony 
// by Shilic 
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There wasn’t much left of the ruins of Cloudsdale. Clouds, as a building material, had plenty of advantages, but durability was not one of them. Even the densest of cloudstone would dissipate if struck with enough force.

Thus, when the city had fallen from the sky, most of it simply vaporized on impact.

Flurry Heart strode through what little remained, mostly the shattered and waterlogged remnants of personal belongings. Shards of vases, broken foal’s toys, books too ruined by water damage to even make out the title… It more resembled a damp garbage dump than the remnants of one of Equestria’s greatest cities. She made a pointed effort not to focus on any of it for too long. She couldn’t afford to be distracted.

There weren’t any corpses. There weren’t many left untouched anymore.

Within the center of the ruins, the only intact building stood, albeit in a heavily damaged state: The Cloudthedral, one of the city’s oldest buildings. Once, it was a place of worship, somewhere for ponies to give revenant thanks to Harmony. Now, thanks to its many magical reinforcements, it was the only part of Cloudsdale left mostly in one piece.

The building had created a small crater when it had impacted with the ground, partly burying it and blocking the lower entrance. Luckily, being a pegasus structure, the doors weren’t the only way in. Stretching her wings under her cloak, Flurry took flight, making her way through one of the open windows.

The inside of the Cloudthedral wasn’t particularly well lit, with the only light coming in through the numerous holes in the roof and walls, but it wasn’t so dark that Flurry needed to light her horn just to see. The interior was in just as much a state of disarray as the exterior, the elaborate architecture a ruined husk of its former glory.

Flurry narrowed her eyes as her gaze fell upon her target, perched on the altar at the far end of the main hall, head bowed. It resembled a cross between a pegasus and roc, but in the loosest sense. Easily twice the size of Flurry herself, with four wings, two monstrously large shadowing the smaller ones covered in razor sharp feathers, all of them a hideous mix of all the colors of the rainbow. The creature raised its head, swiveling its neck to lock its slitted crimson pupils with Flurry’s own.

The creature unleashed a monstrous screech, launching itself into the air, a sickly looking rainbow aurora flaring to life behind it. It threw itself at Flurry, talons at the end of its front legs extended.

Flurry waited until the creature was just about to reach her, before flapping her powerful wings and pushing herself out of the way of the oncoming attack. At the same time, she lit her horn, pulling her crystal rapier from its sheath and launching it through the air, piercing a hole in the larger of the creature’s right wings. It let out a pained squawk, flapping its wings desperately in an attempt to regain its balance.

Not wanting to give the beast a chance to recuperate, Flurry pressed her advantage, diving towards it. She drove her rapier through the other large wing, destabilizing the creature further and causing it to screech in pain as it attempted to bat the needle-like weapon away. While it was distracted, Flurry’s horn began to glow even brighter.

With a flick of her head, Flurry fired a massive beam of magical energy at the creature, tearing through its larger right wing, cutting the majority of it off completely. Now fully destabilized, the rainbow beast lost control, careening into the floor of the Cloudthedral and skidding into the wall. Flurry landed herself, pulling her rapier back to her. She took a step forward, keeping her guard up. 

The creature let out another ear piercing screech, pulling itself up and pouncing at Flurry. She dove to the side, but was slightly too slow, one of the beast’s talons tearing a gash through her cloak and across her side. With a wince, Flurry landed into a roll, propelling her rapier towards the beast’s eyes in hopes of blinding it. It raised a leg to block, but Flurry drove her blade through the gaps between its talons, striking through its left eye.

With yet another screeching roar, the creature raised a leg to its eye, blood running down its face. It spread its smaller wings out, and they started to glow. With another screech, it fired several of the feathers from the wings, knife-like projectiles flying towards Flurry at great speed.

Flurry’s horn flared again, erecting a yellow shield of magic in front of her. She was too slow to block the first two feathers, which stuck into her chest, but the others simply bounced off her defenses, falling to the ground limply. Now protected from the hail of projectiles, Flurry took to the air again and dove forward, at the same time driving her rapier through the creature's other eye.

As it opened its mouth to cry out, Flurry launched herself towards the creature’s face. Reaching into her cloak, she pulled out a small crystal orb and jammed it into the beast’s mouth, kicking its jaw shut to both force it swallow and to propel herself away. It swiped at her in mid-air, catching her with the back of a talon and knocking her away, causing her to crash into the wall and slump to the ground. 

The creature opened its left eye, its sclera now as red as its pupil. It let out another screech and lit its wings again, preparing to fire more feathers at the now downed Flurry. The battered alicorn looked at the beast, scowled, and lit her horn.

In an instant, dozens of crystal spikes emerged from the creature’s belly, skewering it from the inside. It froze, eyes going wide, before slumping to the ground, dead. The rainbow color drained from its body as it turned into a red dust, which quickly lost its shape and fell apart, scattering across the Cloudthedral’s floor. 

Flurry ignited her horn again. The crystal spikes receded, dropping the now harmless looking orb to the ground. She struggled to her hooves, inspecting her injuries. Slamming against the wall had caused some minor bruising, but the Cloudthedral’s cloud walls had worked in her favor. In fact, she had probably done more damage to the wall itself than vice versa, the cloudstone having deformed slightly with an imprint in the shape of Flurry’s body.

She plucked the feathers from her chest, wincing slightly. The fabric —strengthened by the enchantments layered into it— had prevented them from piercing too deep, but they still hurt to remove. Lastly, she looked to the gash on her side, a line of blood catching in her coat. She’d gotten lucky; an inch deeper and she might not still be standing.

She pulled her magical flask from her cloak and pulled off the lid with her magic, tilting her head back and letting the warm, sickly sweet liquid pour down her throat. She wasn’t quite sure what the golden, glowing healing elixir was made of, or how it refilled itself while she slept; the mare who had given it to her had chosen not to explain those factors. Not that it really mattered in the long run. As long as it kept working.

She felt its effects almost instantly, the aches of battle subsiding and a feeling of relief flooding her body. She swallowed the last of the liquid, and sighed, letting herself relax for a brief moment. As she tucked away the now empty glass flask, she noted that her injury had stopped bleeding, leaving only a thin scar, joining the many others only barely visible under her coat.

Flurry walked through the dissipating red dust, eyes scanning the floor. She found her crystal orb; she picked it up with a hoof, dusting it off and stashing it away in her cloak. Sitting a short distance away was her rapier, which she grabbed with her magic, cleaning the blade of dust and blood before sheathing it.

A glimmer of light caught Flurry’s attention; she turned, spotting the target of her search. A six sided, blood red gem. She picked it up with her magic, inspecting it with a blank expression. She pulled out a golden medallion, drawing the gem closer to herself at the same time.

The gem slotted into a depression at the top of the medallion with a light click, causing it to flash red briefly. Each of the four other gems set into the medallion flashed in turn: Orange, pink, purple, blue. Only one space remained: a larger slot in the center, the shape of a six pointed star.

Flurry stared at it for a while, and then sighed, tucking the medallion away in her cloak. She looked up, above the altar her fallen foe had perched on. There, painted in colored cloud, was the image of a featureless, glowing alicorn, body emanating a rainbow glow. With a scowl, she turned away from depiction, taking to the air and leaving the Cloudthedral, and the ruins of Cloudsdale, behind.