“I seriously thought I was going to have a heart attack, Aerylla,” Rarity said as they walked toward the researcher’s academy.
“Well, at the very least, I would have been here to revive you,” Aerylla joked, poking Rarity in the side. “For what it’s worth, I think it went rather well.”
“I thought so too, until he started talking about me and the monsters having something to do with each other! Now I’ve promised to help fight the most aggressive kind there are and I don’t even know what they look like, let alone how to fight them! What am I going to do?”
Aerylla put a hand on Rarity’s shoulder and gently pulled her to a stop. “What you’re going to do is take a deep breath, relax, and remember that we’re here to help you out. You’re not alone, and if you have to fight monsters - mind you, that’s an if - you’re not going to be doing it by yourself. You have a village full of people who have been trained to fight monsters in one way or another their entire lives to back you up, we just need you to lend us your strength as well. Does that make it seem a little less overwhelming?”
“Quite a bit, actually…” Rarity admitted. She laughed sardonically. “You would think after all I’ve faced, this would be the least of my worries… but somehow this is so much more frightening than any of the monstrosities I’ve faced in the past.”
“Oh?” Aerylla queried. “How so?”
“How do I put it?” Rarity pondered for a moment. “All of the foes I’ve faced in the past have made wide range threats against a large populace… worldwide threats… the I’m going to shroud the world in eternal night or I’m going to steal all the magic from everypony in Equestria. This is just so much more…”
“Personal?” Suggested Aerylla.
“Yeah…” Rarity conceded. “Here I’m facing the very real possibility of being eaten alive or ripped limb from limb by some massive creature…” she trailed off with a shudder, staring off into space as she seemed to just disconnect from reality for a moment. Aerylla shook her shoulder gently.
“And we’re here to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Rarity smiled genuinely. “Thanks. I needed that.”
“Anytime.”
They resumed walking, with the academy fast approaching, and Rarity was struck by the similarity of the feelings the building gave compared to universities back home. It exuded an air of both sophistication and stuffiness; in a way, it reminded her of high class social events back home. For a moment she expected a sense of longing, one of emptiness, one of being out of her element and missing from where she belonged. To her surprise, what she felt was freedom. With a slight amount of anxiety, she approached the academy door and followed Aerylla inside.
She was immediately assaulted by a permeating aroma of musty paper, stale coffee, and various laboratory chemicals, and she suppressed a gag at the overwhelming smell. Ahead of her, she noticed that Aerylla had stopped abruptly. I wonder if she feels alright? Perhaps the smell is making her feel ill?
“Aerylla, are you feeling-“
Rarity’s concern was cut off as Aerylla stretched her arms wide and inhaled deeply, then exhaled loudly with a nostalgic sigh.
“Ah, this smell always takes me back to my school days! Doesn’t matter how often I come here, I can always count on this to put me at ease.” She turned around, a large grin adorning her face, only to see Rarity looking at her very oddly. “Uh, is everything alright?”
“Oh, yes, everything is perfectly normal! Fine!” Rarity said a little too quickly. “Ehehehe, I was just thinking… how my friend Twilight would be right at home here as well! She absolutely adores books and research, you see, and I’m sure she would share your sentiments exactly!” Rarity grinned rather lopsidedly, hoping that her excuse didn’t sound too forced. Not that it was a lie anyway, Twilight would have been thrilled to be here, after all.
“Okay! Sorry to get a little nostalgic there, anyway. Cyradel’s lab is farther in, just follow me.” She started down a main corridor, passing by multiple windowed doors. Rarity glanced in as they passed, seeing various setups of laboratory equipment, often involving the remains of dead monsters and some entire bodies of what she hoped were dead ones; if they were dead, they were extremely well preserved. But then, why would that last one have been shackled… a shiver ran down her spine as a realization hit her, and she stopped cold. “Aerylla?”
“Hmm?” Aerylla stopped and turned, seeing Rarity looking back at the last door with a terrified look on her face.
“Do they keep… live monsters in here?”
Aerylla nodded. “Occasionally. At times, they have hunters trap monsters for study. When they do, they bring them here, keep them tranquilized and heavily tethered, study them, then either release them or kill them, depending on how much of a threat they were beforehand. I wouldn’t worry about the ones you see in here; they keep them heavily sedated, so they won’t wake up as long as they’re here, and in the unlikely event they do, they’re still restrained. In addition, most captured monsters flagged are lesser threats. Not all monsters are major threats, you know, otherwise we’d just be out there killing them left and right like evil barbarians. We only cull the ones that are a direct threat to us and leave the rest alone.”
“I’m glad to hear that. Nothing good would come from wanton violence and needless bloodshed, I’m sure. That being said, I’m sure there are a lot of threats out there.”
“Mhm,” Aerylla agreed. “Cyradel’s lab is just ahead, let’s go.”
They continued on, reaching a large solid door that was plastered with signs, inscribed with multiple variants of Keep Out!, No Entry!, Restricted Access!, No Visitors: This Means YOU!, and many more. Rarity eyed the signs warily. “Do you really think we should be going in? It really seems like she’s busy and doesn’t want to be disturbed.”
Aerylla laughed heartily. “Cyradel? That’s her every minute of every day. Doesn’t this seem like a little overkill for just a simple do not disturb notice? Does it make you think of how any other person might act?”
Rarity thought for a moment, then giggled uncontrollably. “This is just like my little sister’s door!”
Aerylla smirked in satisfaction and pumped her fist in the air. “Hah! I knew it! It’s not just me that thought that! Nobody else knew what I meant, but maybe they just didn’t have siblings growing up. Well, shall we disrupt the moody teenager?”
Rarity grinned widely. “I think we shall.”
Aerylla opened the door wide and walked in, calling out loudly and in an overly cheerful voice, “Good morning, Cyradel!”
A young wyverian was standing over a long counter at the far end of the room, working with multiple vials of liquids of varying colors and viscosities. She did not look away from her work, and barely moved an inch at Aerylla’s entry. She sighed heavily. “Morning, Aery,” she drolled unenthusiastically. She waved a hand behind her without moving from her work. “Newest medical research is in the usual place. If you want some coffee there should be some left on the desk over there. Unless I drank it all, then there’s not. I forget. Feel free to make more. Wonderful weather we’re having, isn’t it? At least, it was when I went outside last. I think that was last week Thursday, sometime. I think it was sunny. Well, it’s been lovely chatting with you, but I really must be getting back to work, busy busy. Take care, won’t you? Yes, well, best of health and all stuff.” With that, she fell silent and went back to work.
Rarity leaned close to Aerylla. “I thought you didn’t like being called Aery,” she whispered.
“Only by Sydreol,” she whispered back. “All my friends call me that. You can, too.” She winked, then turned back to Cyradel.
“Love you too, Cyr! I take it you don’t want to meet my patient, who woke up this morning? I brought her with me, you know.”
There was a clinking of glass, and several vials fell on the ground and shattered, unnoticed by Cyradel as she scrambled around. She made a quick move forward, but clumsily fell to the ground, discovering that she must have temporarily lost feeling in her legs from inactivity due to standing in one place for so long. Cursing as she stood up, she limped slowly to the pair.
“That was dirty, Aery. You should have said right away that you brought your patient with you! You know I’ve been dying to meet her!" She turned to Rarity. “I’ve been dying to meet you!”
“Uh, so I heard.” Rarity said awkwardly. She held out her hand. “My name is Rarity.”
Cyradel grabbed it readily and shook it violently. “Cyradel, the pleasure is all mine! So, where are you from? What are you? Why do you share a link with the monsters? Did you cause them to go crazy? Can you control them?”
Rarity held up her hands defensively. “Hold on now! One question at a time! First off, I’m a unicorn from a place called Equestria; it’s in another dimension-“
“Another dimension? You came from another dimension?” Cyradel exclaimed excitedly.
“Yes, we had a… rather unfortunate mishap somehow with a portal and it sent me here. I would love to go home, but I have no idea how to do so. If you have any idea how to send me home, please, let me know.”
“No idea! But I’ll definitely look into it, and if I can figure anything out, you’ll be the first to know.”
“I appreciate that, thank you. Anyway, as I was saying, I was sent here in an accident, so I have no idea why I have any sort of link with any monsters, or what this link might even be. No, I didn’t make them go crazy, and no, I can’t control them. I just randomly showed up here and had no idea about any connection until Aery told me about it when I woke up.”
“Rarity,” Aerylla said, “maybe you should show Cyr about that thing that you can do.”
“The thi- oh. Right.” Rarity nodded, while Cyradel looked at them both with a mixture of apprehension, confusion, and childish excitement.
Without any effort whatsoever, Rarity’s horn glowed blue, and the coffee pot, along with three mugs, the cup of sugar cubes, the dish of creamer packets, and for good measure, a package of likely stale donuts all floated over in a blue aura. With her magic, she poured them each a cup of coffee, then simultaneously floated donuts to each one of them, enjoying the flabbergasted look on Cyradel’s face as she did so. “Sugar or cream in your coffee, Cyr?" she asked sweetly.
“Buh.” Cyradel responded eloquently.
“I’ll take that as a maybe. Aery?”
“Two sugars, please.”
She floated two cubes into the cup, then floated it over to Aerylla. She then turned back to Cyradel. “Cyr, this is called magic. All unicorns can do it.”
Cyradel recovered from her stupor. “It’s damned amazing! And what’s more, that’s what’s making the energy signature.”
“What?” Aerylla and Rarity exclaimed simultaneously.
“Can’t you feel it, Aery?” Cyradel questioned. “The signature emits a quite distinct field into the atmosphere surrounding it if it’s strong enough; usually we need special instruments to detect it, but pure enough or strong enough sources can be detected without them as long as you are sensitive enough and know what to look for. I’d figured you’d be able to tell it right away. She’s positively radiating it! Not even the monsters give off this much of the energy! I think it’s safe to say we know exactly what kind of energy they have now!" she clapped her hands excitedly. “Our first breakthrough, and you just got here! I mean, I have no idea how the monsters may have come in contact with your magic, but still!”
Rarity stood dumbfounded. “That’s impossible,” she whispered.
“I’m sorry?” Cyradel looked at her curiously.
“That just… can’t be possible,” Rarity explained. “Equestrian magic doesn’t work like that… not with living things… You’re sure these monsters were actually giving off the signature, right? Not reflecting it, or getting exposed and letting it off, but actually giving it off?”
“Right,” Cyradel confirmed. “No doubt about it. There is no change in strength, no fluctuation in field, it follows them where they go. The ones that give off the signal are their own source.”
Rarity shook her head. “Then it couldn’t possibly be magic like mine. Hmm…” She spied a chair by the desk and had an idea. “Aery, bear with me a moment, ok? Just relax, this is going to be really weird, but I’m going to be really careful. Ok?”
“Uh, o…k?” Aerylla said, with a very confused and somewhat frightened tremor in her voice. “What are you-?”
Her words were cut short as Rarity concentrated extremely hard, enveloping Aerylla in a strong blue glow and lifting her completely from the ground with a startled high pitched squeak. Rarity could hear Cyradel laughing hysterically as she floated Aerylla across the room to the chair, where she let her down gently and released her from her magical grasp. Three women gasped for air, one from mental exhaustion , one from holding her breath throughout the ordeal, and one from laughing so hard she had run out of air and collapsed on the ground. They regained their breath, and Aerylla glared at Rarity.
“What on earth was that for?" she demanded.
“A demonstration,” Rarity said. “Cyradel, can you detect any magic on Aery at all? Anything?”
Both Wyverians' faces showed a moment of understanding, and Cyradel inspected Aerylla. “I can’t, honestly.”
Rarity nodded. “I just exposed her to a huge amount of magic and it didn’t leave a trace. That’s how Equestrian magic works with living creatures. It acts on them, but it doesn’t stay in them. It takes very specially cast spells for magic to stay with a creature, and that only lasts a short time; other than that, the only times I’ve seen magic transferred to a living creature have been when it has been literally siphoned from one creature to another directly, in close proximity, either by a special device or by a creature specifically made to do just that.” She shuddered thinking about their encounters with Tirek in the past.
“Well, shit. That puts a wrinkle in my theory. But it doesn’t mean that it’s impossible, it only means that we don’t know how it may have happened.”
“Fair enough,” Rarity conceded. “So, what else would you like to know?”
Cyradel pulled over several chairs and grabbed a large notebook and pen.
“Everything.”
**********
Rarity and Aerylla stretched as they left the academy hours later.
“Well, she’s very… thorough.” Rarity said at length.
“Yeah, sorry, she’s always very excitable when there’s something new for her to learn,” Aerylla apologized. “She’s still very much a curious child in some ways.”
“Hah, it’s not a problem,” Rarity laughed, “I just didn’t think I was that interesting. I mean, I’ve always been one to talk about myself, maybe a little too much, but I didn’t expect anyone to be that interested in me. Well, at least it wasn’t just about me, I was able to tell her a lot about Equestria, too.”
“I learned quite a bit as well,” Aerylla admitted. “Your world must be practically overflowing with magic if the sun and moon are both moved individually by your leaders.”
“It is,” Rarity agreed. “It permeates virtually every aspect of life. It’s surprising to me that it doesn’t even exist here.” They reached a home at the far end of the main pavilion and stopped. An awkward silence followed, and Rarity looked at Aerylla somewhat uncomfortably. “So, this is where we part ways?”
“For now, yes. This is the house that you’ll be staying at; I suggest that you get settled, then check around town and meet some of the people that Leonys had mentioned. If you have any questions feel free to come and ask, as I’ll be catching up on some work back at the clinic. Lastly, try not to push yourself too hard, ok? You did just recover from a major injury, you know. Oh, and try not to do too much magic at once and freak people out. Best to introduce it slowly.”
“I’ll bear that in mind. Thanks, Aery. For everything.” Rarity gave a heartfelt smile and hugged Aerylla, who seemed caught off guard at first, but welcomed the gesture after a moment. Aerylla smiled back, then waved as she made her way back toward her clinic.
Rarity watched her new friend leave, then turned and entered her new home. It was what she would describe as rustic, or possibly in other terms messily decorated, and she knew that she would have her work cut out for her in making it work in her style. But in terms of livability, it was very comfortable looking. There were a couple of beds, a suitable bathroom, a small kitchen area, plenty of shelving, a large storage chest, and weapon and armor racks as well. Rarity walked through the house, taking in her surroundings and stopping to appreciate the generosity that Leonys was showing her in allowing her to stay here free of charge while she found a way to earn money. With this thought in mind, she made her way back out to the street and set out to begin searching for work.
So, of all the options, which would be the most likely to suit me? It sounds like I could possibly help at the smithy, the shop, the restaurant, or… be a hunter. I know I can cook things ok, and I’m a decent salespony, but I’m a craftswoman at heart, so… I guess I should start at the smithy? I mean, it’s definitely different from sewing, much more physical, but I was able to make weapons and armor already, right?
With that in mind, she made her way toward the sound of clanking metal and the orange glow of the forge. As she neared, she saw a wyverian woman at the anvil, blacksmith goggles pushed up on her forehead, her face smudged with soot and hammer in hand, engaged in what appeared to be a vehement discussion with a human man. On occasion she shook her hammer at him menacingly as she spoke, and Rarity’s ears pinned back as multiple obscenities were uttered as she waited patiently for them to finish.
Finally, Rarity saw the man wander away and heard him mutter, “Gods damn it, Reneris. Yer stubborn as all hell, you know that?”
“FUCK YES, I DO!" she shouted after him. She snorted loudly and spit in his direction, then went back to hammering on her anvil.
Rarity blinked for a moment at the display, then plucked up her courage and approached the anvil. “Uh, pardon me, ma’am?”
Reneris looked up, looking extremely angry at being disturbed. “The fuck do you want?" she demanded.
“U-Um,” Rarity stammered, “My name is Rarity.” She bowed politely. “I’m new in the area, and I was told that I may be able to find work here helping you out at your-“
“Hell no!” Reneris spat out, cutting Rarity off mid-sentence. “I ain’t got time to sit here babysitting some prissy-ass bitch who just wandered in here from fuck knows where cranking out some shit gear that a two year old could hammer out, then shell out my hard earned cash to reward her privileged ass for it!" she spit on the ground. “Leonys likes tellin’ everyone to come ask me for work, whether they can make shit or not. Fuck off.” She then went back to hammering, acting as though Rarity wasn’t even there.
Rarity stood motionless for several long seconds as her brain caught up with what just happened, then she abruptly turned one hundred eighty degrees and walked away briskly, her cheeks burning red as she fumed in anger and embarrassment. It wasn’t for about thirty seconds that she heard the laughter to her side.
Looking around, she spied Sydreol, leaning on a post watching her every move. She walked over stiffly. “And what do you think is so funny?" she demanded.
“As if you didn’t know,” Sydreol cackled. “Watching Reneris rip someone a new asshole is always hilarious, especially when they have no idea it’s coming. And you,” he pointed at Rarity comically, “had no clue.”
“Well,” she folded her arms and pouted, looking in Reneris’ direction, “you’re right about that. What a mean-spirited woman.”
“Nah, that’s just what she wants you to think.” Sydreol said.
Rarity looked at him in confusion. “What do you mean by that?”
“What I mean, my little unicorn lady,” he said, “is that if you know how to approach her at first, she’s just fine to deal with. Once she gets to know you, you’re fine. Just don’t approach her the wrong way.”
“How did I approach her the wrong way?” Rarity exclaimed. “I was perfectly patient and polite!”
Sydreol deadpanned. “You were perfectly patient and polite.”
“Sydreol, I don’t follow.”
“Please, just Syd. And listen, with Renny, you can’t be pleasant and polite. You have to be foul-mouthed and rude just like she is. Get in her face. Shove other people aside. Show no manners. It’s all about you. If she wants to be nasty to you, be nasty right back. That’s how you get in her good books. Show her you’re not a pushover, that you can stand your ground. If you want her respect, you have to earn it. That’s how she sees it.”
“Ugh,” Rarity sighed, “I don’t think I’m going to get far then. I don’t think I have a foul-mouthed or nasty bone in my body. I don’t recall any times that I’ve gotten so upset that I’ve sworn at somebody…”
“Oh, I bet you have. You just don’t remember it because it was in the heat of the moment,” Sydreol prodded.
“I doubt it.”
Sydreol grinned devilishly.
“That look is very unbecoming, you know. What is going on in that twisted little mind of yours?”
Sydreol held up his hands. “Hey now! I just have an experiment in mind. Something simple, ok? Just close your eyes for a minute.”
“That’s all? Ok, you better not pull any funny-“
Sydreol reached down with one hand and very matter-of-factly squeezed Rarity’s butt.
Her eyes shot open in an instant.
“YOU LECHEROUS LITTLE PIECE OF FUCKING SHIT!” Rarity pulled back her fist and punched him straight in the face. “I trusted you for a goddamned second and what do you do? You grab my ass! Some fucking experiment that was! Try another experiment and I’ll rip your nuts off and shove them down your throat!”
Sydreol held his bleeding nose with one hand and gave Rarity a thumbs up with the other. “Experiment successful!’ He gasped in pain. “You do have foul-mouthed and nasty bones in your body! Many, many of them! Especially in your fist!”
Rarity’s posture relaxed and she lowered her fists as she realized exactly what Sydreol’s intent had been. “Oh. Oh I see.” She helped him stand up straight, looking at his nose. “I’m so sorry, Syd, I didn’t realize what you were trying to do.”
“That’s kinda the point. If you had, it wouldn’t have worked.”
“I hope I didn’t break anything… Are you ok?”
“Oh, don’t worry about it, this is nothing compared to what the monsters do when I’m hunting. Besides,” he grinned, “it was worth it, you’ve got a nice ass.”
Rarity leveled a deadly glare at him. “Don’t press your luck or I’ll follow through on that threat.”
“Hah! There you go! Last bit of advice, bring the gear you made to show Renny. She loves seeing stuff other people made. Even if it’s not the best quality, regardless of what she says, she loves seeing people putting effort into making their own equipment. And from what I’ve heard, yours is really good quality. That should really seal the deal for you.”
Rarity smiled. “Thanks Syd. Aside from grabbing my ass, I guess you’re not so bad.”
He gave her a thumbs up. “Hey, I’ll take it!”
**********
Rarity approached the forge with her bag slung over her back, kitted out in her jagras armor and equipped with her bone weapons, with a grim and determined expression on her face. Reneris was sitting beside her forge with a cup of coffee and chatting with someone as Rarity neared, and she took notice of Rarity almost immediately, and not with fondness. She stopped her conversation and scowled.
“Hey, looks like ya found someone else’s shit to wear! Even fits ya! Good for you! Yer ma would be proud for the first time in her life, I’m sure. Now piss off, I’m busy.” She made to turn away, but Rarity didn’t give her the time.
“Oh, get over yourself, bitch. I tried being nice and polite, but apparently that doesn’t work around here, so we’ll do it your way. You want me to be rude? Fine. See the shit I’m wearing? I made it. In the middle of the Celestia fucking jungle, after I melted a jagras’ face off with acid berries and then beat its head in with a fucking rock. Then I cut its skin off with its own fucking claws. You ever do that before? No? Just sit here with your little hammer and hit shit, I bet. Do you know what I did before I got here? What my job was? I was a fashionista. Sorry, you probably don’t even know what that is. I was a fashion designer. A seamstress. And then I got stranded out here.
And I made these,” she pulled out her blades, holding them for Reneris to see, “out of that same Celestia damned jagras! And I used my wimpy-ass prissy little seamstress’ tools to make them! And you know what?" she held her dual blades with her magic and shook them, not caring that Reneris’ eyes went wide with surprise at the floating blades as she continued her tirade, “These killed a deer just fine, and this,” she said, shaking her sword similarly, “cut a velociprey almost in half, right before another of the four that were attacking me almost slashed my arm off!” For added effect, she held up her gashed armguard, with her stitched up wound still visible below. Reneris looked at her arm and blanched, then back up at Rarity with wide eyes. Rarity continued with vigor. “So, miss full-of-piss-and-vinegar, I will not ‘fuck off’, I just want to talk about trying to make a Celestia damned living here!”
Rarity finished, taking a deep breath as her adrenaline was now flowing freely and her heart was beating unbelievably fast. Reneris was openly gaping at her, the friend she had been talking to was slowly clapping, and far behind she could hear Sydreol’s voice yell That was epic! amidst hysterical laughter.
Reneris’ mouth soon closed, and her lips turned up into a shrewd grin as her eyes leveled with Rarity’s. “Looks like someone’s got a spine after all,” she said at length. Rarity relaxed considerably, but Reneris continued. “Don’t let it get to your fucking head, lady. I’ll help ya out, don’t mean you’re my best buddy now. Still, that’s some impressive shit ya got there, especially if that’s the first gear ya made, and ya made it out in the middle of nowhere. Actually using it to take out monsters ain’t no easy feat either. So, what is it you wanted from me then?”
Rarity motioned toward the forge. “I was hoping to find some work. I need some way to earn money now that I’m going to live here, and since I’ve always been a crafter by trade, and I was able to make these, I thought this might be a good start.”
Reneris shook her head. “Yes and no.”
Rarity looked at her in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“You’re welcome to use my forge. Well, scratch that. Don’t you dare touch my forge. There’s a smaller forge next to it for scraps and stuff; you can use that one. You have skill, I’ll give you that, and I’d love to see that skill grow. But, I’d die of old age before you could make any weapons or armor that would be worth selling comparable to what I make. Don’t take it too hard, wyverian blacksmithing is an art centuries old, you’re not getting close to it.”
Rarity bit her lip. “So, basically if I make anything, I’d be doing it for my own use or for practice.”
Reneris nodded. “I doubt you’d be able to sell any of it, though you could always try to see if Faan would be interested in anything. Oh, there is one downside though. I’d say you should try to use machalite ore to train with. It’s malleable, easy to work with, and durable enough to make quality weapons and armor. But it’s also in short supply at the moment. With all the problems with the crazed monsters, nobody wants to bother gathering it. I’d check with Faan if she’s seen any around, but your best bet is trying to gather some yourself. You can head around outside the village and see what you can find; quite often gathering materials can be more profitable than you would realize, and it should be safe enough if you stay close by the village.”
Rarity nodded. “That does make sense, honestly, and gathering materials would be a lot more practical for me short term while I don’t really have any other options. Reneris, do you happen to have a small sample of machalite ore? I should be able to find it easier if I know what I’m looking for.”
“Sure,” Reneris said, rummaging around in a scrap pile. Shortly she produced a small chunk of greenish ore. “Barely anything there, but that’s the stuff you’re looking for. One more thing. Or a lot more things, I guess you could say. We got a lot of gear here, like newbie training stuff that we keep on hand. Leonys tells me to keep sets to give to hunters that come through, ‘get them started on their way’ or some bullshit like that. Whatever, I don’t care, but if you’re going outside the village, that’s close enough to hunter territory to want protection. So you’re takin’ a hunter set. And a pickaxe, can’t mine shit without that. That’s on the house, since you’re gonna be helping out anyway.”
“Really, there’s no need for me to take a full set of hunting-“
“Shut your fucking face. You’re taking it and that’s that. You should already know how dangerous shit is out there, you really want to walk out those gates without something to protect yourself? Hunter or not, you need weapons and armor. Period. Now take your shit and get out of here.” She looked past Rarity, back at Sydreol, who was still watching with interest at a distance. “And get laughing boy back there to help you carry it all, there’s a lot of shit.” She leaned over and yelled at Sydreol, “HEY FUCKWAD, GET OVER HERE! WE NEED YOUR BRAWN, IT’S THE ONLY THING YOU’RE GOOD FOR!" She leaned back and grinned at Rarity. “There, help is on the way.”
“You know, Reneris,” Rarity said with a shrewd smile of her own, “I think I rather like your style.”
“Of course you do,” Reneris said, puffing out her chest slightly. “I’m just that fucking awesome.”