“So, what do you think we might find around here?” Rarity asked in an attempt to break the awkward silence that had plagued their entire expedition so far.
“Hell if I know.” Lycadran said curtly. “What part of ‘unknown origin’ confused you? It means we don’t know anything about it.”
“Ok, fine. Just thought you might have your own ideas. Guess you don’t have a clue. From how forceful you were just now, I guess I can just safely assume from now on that’s usually the case.” Rarity responded dryly.
Lycadran said nothing, but glared at her angrily.
“Rowrity, are there any aberrants around here?” Cinnamon interjected.
Rarity pulsed her horn a few times while they had paused. “The coast is clear, no aberrants in the vicinity for now.”
They moved on, pressing through the forest, stopping occasionally to check for monsters and verify their surroundings. The forest met a mountainous rise on its border, and the group passed through the forest keeping close to the mountainside as they went.
“Hold on.”
Rarity paused for a moment as they walked.
“Is it an aberrant?” Lycadran pressed.
“No, I didn’t even check… I’m just… feeling something. Something in the air is different, it feels… charged somehow.”
“I don’t feel anything.” Lycadran said skeptically.
“Me neither.” Cinnamon said, looking at herself. “Am I supposed to feel something?”
“I don’t know… I feel something… in my horn? Magic?” Rarity said in confusion. “Why?”
She pulsed her horn.
“Tch!" she gasped through clenched teeth and instantly clutched her head in searing pain.
“What is it?” Cinnamon asked in worry.
“I… I don’t know,” Rarity gasped through waves of pain. “I sent out a pulse and got such a massive feedback loop of magic that it felt like it was going to blow my brains out. I’m not doing that again around here.”
“Why would it do that, though?” Lycadran asked.
“I don’t know, I’ve never had that happen before,” Rarity said, looking around. She squinted. “Wait, do you see light up ahead?" she pointed to a cluster of rocks far from them along the base of the mountainside.
Lycadran followed her direction. “Actually, I do,” she said, impressed. “Let’s go, but we’re going to have to keep our eyes open. If you can’t check for monsters, we’re going in blind.”
They crept through the forest, watching carefully as they went. Approaching the mountain from the forest, they found that the light was coming from a decently large cave, and the cave appeared to be very newly formed; rocks were still tumbling from edges and showed signs of a recent explosion, and cracks and broken remnants were scattered everywhere.
However, the most telling piece of evidence of what happened was the thing that had led them to the cave, and was now giving off light.
There was a massive wall made up of nodes of dragonfire crystal. Large nodes of crystal, taking up almost the entire cave. And they were all shining extremely brightly. All except for a very large chunk of recently exploded crystal that now had left a crater in its absence in the wall.
Guess that explains the magic feedback. This must be the source of all the underground links to other nodes that Cyr mentioned… this thing would fuel nodes across the whole region…
“What’s that thing at the back of the cave?” Lycadran asked in a genuinely frightened tone.
Rarity was snapped out of her thoughts. “What thing?”
“Look past the crystal. There’s some wavy, colorful thing that’s shifting back and forth back there.”
Rarity stood and squinted, catching just a glimpse. She couldn’t be sure, it almost looked like… but she had to get closer, had to be sure…
She moved toward the cave. The object moved out of her sight momentarily; she had to climb up to see it. She needed to see it. She began to scale some of the rocks. She was vaguely aware of some noise behind her.
She crested the entrance of the cave, and the shimmering object came into view. She had no doubt now as to what it was, and she knew that Cyradel’s theories were all now confirmed.
She was looking at a giant dimensional rift into Equestria. A dimensional rift that had been hidden at the back of a sealed cave, feeding magic into dragonfire crystals all this time.
It was at this time that she finally heard the screams that had been coming from behind her this entire time.
“RARITY! FOR FUCK’S SAKE GET DOWN FROM THERE, THERE’S A TOBI KADACHI COMING FOR YOU!”
**********
With a panicked gasp, Rarity looked behind her just in time to see the snakelike maw of the tobi kadachi closing in toward her. She released her grip from the ridge, dropping under the beast’s bite and hitting the ground in a roll before coming to a stop.
“Shit, you idiot! You almost got yourself killed! What was so important up there?” Lycadran demanded.
“A portal back to my home, asshole!” Rarity snapped. “Now help me kill this thing!”
Lycadran’s jaw dropped, then her face steeled into determination.
“Alright, Rarity, let’s go.”
“Did… did you just call me by my actual name?”
“You’re fighting for your home. I can respect you for that. Get over it.” She unsheathed her great sword, and Rarity followed suit with her switch axe. Cinnamon scampered up beside them with her sword, and the three prepared as the tobi kadachi jumped down from the ledge, spreading its legs wide and using the membrane between to glide toward them.
It neared, then leaned back, slowing its approach and taking advantage of the oncoming winds to gain a little altitude. Then, with lightning speed, it leaned forward, rocketing toward them and landing in a flurry of claws and fangs.
They dove out of the way, Lycadran to one side, Rarity and Cinnamon to the other, narrowly avoiding its attack. It rounded on them, focusing its attention on Lycadran and swiping its tail at Rarity and Cinnamon as it did so. Rarity ducked under the tail, though Cinnamon was short enough to not have to; they began their attack, Cinnamon taking one side and Rarity, the other.
Rarity slashed with her switch axe, earning a gash in the kadachi’s leg and a swipe from its tail. She dodged once again, but as she recovered from her roll she noticed something odd. The monster had several large old wounds on its back and side, apparently from a fight with another monster. It would have to have been quite a large battle, and with an extremely aggressive monster to have left such large wounds… a memory clicked into place and she smirked. She ran back in to resume her attack.
“Cinnamon!" she yelled, swinging her switch axe at the kadachi’s tail. “Remember when we first met?”
“Yeah?” Came a delayed response as the felyne finished her own dodge and attack. She jumped away for a moment to recover. “What about it?" she dashed back into the fight.
“This is the kadachi that saved me from the anjanath!" she swung again, leaving another slash in the tail and eliciting a screech from the kadachi. She looked up toward the kadachi’s head. “Thank you, kadachi! You are trying to kill me now, though, so…”
She hacked at its tail again with all her strength, leaving a deep cut.
With a hiss, the tobi kadachi jumped in the air, spinning in a somersault to lash its tail at Lycadran, hitting her away forcefully, and as it spun it twisted its body to land facing Rarity as it came down. It hit the ground nimbly, taking no time at all to resume attacking after its jump.
Caught off guard, Rarity found herself facing the furious snake-like jaws of the tobi kadachi. Blood ran from its face from wounds inflicted by Lycadran, but that did not seem to slow it at all. It bit at her quickly, and she stumbled backward, avoiding a full bite but sustaining multiple lacerations to her arm as she backpedaled. She rolled away, and the monster swiped at her with its claws, catching her tail and slicing off half of it, leaving a jagged line of hair where her lustrous tail had been. She gasped and drank a potion as fast as she possibly could. Her arm healed, but absolutely nothing else happened.
“You son of a bitch,” she growled. “Do you have any idea how long it will take for that to grow back in?”
The tobi kadachi screeched in response, raising its own tail high in the air and shaking it back and forth quickly. It then dashed across the ground with alarming speed and ran up the trunk of a tree, where it clung tightly.
It hung off the tree, apparently only watching them, until Rarity noticed that its furry scales were beginning to glisten with sparks.
“Shit.”
Jolts of electricity could be seen dancing off the kadachi’s scales, and it started glowing a characteristic yellow.
“Dammit, it’s an aberrant now!” Cinnamon cursed. “Who knows what it can do!”
The tobi kadachi raised its tail threateningly again, shaking it rapidly, its eyes trained on Lycadran. The area darkened slightly, and they looked around in confusion. A slight movement caught Rarity’s eye, and her attention snapped to Lycadran.
“LYCADRANMOVE!" she barked immediately.
Without hesitation the hunter leaped to the side, hitting the ground hard and rolling to a stop. Moments later, with a crackling boom, there was an eruption from a miniscule and nearly imperceptible storm cloud that had formed, discharging a massive bolt of lightning straight down where Lycadran had been.
“Holy fuck, it can make lightning?" she gasped from the ground, looking back at the charred spot the bolt had left. She got to her feet and looked up at the kadachi in the tree, hissing at them and seemingly preparing for another magical bolt. She ran toward the tree and beckoned Rarity over.
“Rarity, you’re smaller and lighter than me. Get over here.” Lycadran linked her hands together and lowered herself to the ground. “I’m launching you. Knock that fucker down.”
Rarity stared for a moment, then nodded resolutely. She checked her switch axe; about half the charge was stored. That should be enough, I think. She triggered the switch and felt the weapon shift in her hands; as always, it felt exhilarating to feel the clicks and shudders as it changed form. She held her sword to the side, took a deep breath, and ran toward Lycadran. She placed her hoof in the hunter’s clasped hands and felt Lycadran heaving her upward with all her strength. Rarity pushed off as Lycadran reached as high as she could, and she soared toward the tobi kadachi.
With smooth precision she slid her sword behind the kadachi’s shoulder blade, lodging it deep behind the bone. It screeched, spasming violently under her blade, but she held fast, dangling from the handle close to the kadachi’s body. It lost its grip somewhat, skidding down the tree and scrambling with its claws to try to keep hold. Rarity pulled herself upward, holding onto her sword tightly, and activated the elemental discharge. The charge emptied, sending explosions down the blade into the kadachi, rending its left front leg from its socket and sending the beast crashing to the ground.
Rarity, having freed herself from the kadachi when its leg separated, leaped back and landed safely as the monster tumbled from the tree, watching it hit the ground in a jumble of scales and screeches. The monster righted itself, hissing ferociously, its leg hanging uselessly as it limped toward them with murderous intent. The three readied their weapons once more.
It was then that another roar filled the air; taking all by surprise, a massive form came crashing toward them.
“Anjanath!” Cinnamon shouted, darting away quickly, out of the path of the incoming monster.
The trio scattered, and it immediately became clear that they were not the intended target of the newest intruder to the area. The anjanath immediately attacked the injured tobi kadachi, grabbing it in its massive jaws and giving a crushing bite; with its already serious injuries, the kadachi stood no chance, and was soon dead, its yellow glow flickering out.
Cinnamon and Rarity looked at each other knowingly.
“Guess he had a score to settle.” Rarity said in a hushed voice. Cinnamon nodded.
However, with its nemesis defeated, the anjanath was now free to turn its attention to the other inhabitants of the area, and it turned its eyes to Rarity.
“Oh, shit.”
With a bellowing roar, it rushed toward her, missing her by only the narrowest of margins. The anjanath eventually came to a stop and turned, roaring once again as it did. However, a roar echoed in return, one that was not the anjanath’s. And it caused the anjanath to freeze in place. The roar was somewhat a mixture of a roar and a screech, and Rarity could feel a tingle of magic permeating the air. Strong magic. She watched as the anjanath looked around in confusion, backing up in fear. Something was coming, and she didn’t want to be around for it.
“Fuck, we need to move, and NOW.” Lycadran ordered.
“What’s going on?” Rarity asked.
As if in answer to her question, a tree nearby was ripped from the ground, pulled straight up into the air. It floated there for about ten seconds, then fell back to the earth with a crash. Her eyes widened.
“Shit.”
“Yes, shit. Big time shit. It’s an ibushi. I don’t know what the hell an ibushi is doing here, but we don’t want to be here with it. Let’s go!”
**********
“So, let me get this straight,” Cyradel massaged the bridge of her nose. “Not only did you find a gigantic deposit of magic-laden dragonfire crystal, you also found a tear in the dimension fabric that led to your home, and you could feel tangible ambient magic in the air? And while you were there, a tobi kadachi, an anjanath, and an ibushi showed up?“
Rarity nodded. “That sums it up pretty well, yes.”
She looked at Rarity, mulling her words over carefully and struggling with whether or not she wanted to say them. She decided she had to at least bring the topic up.
Rarity picked up on her unease. “Cyr, what’s wrong?”
“I just was thinking… if you found a way back home… technically, there’s nothing tying you here any more. This isn’t your world, it’s ours… so you could always-“
Rarity closed the distance between them quickly and slapped Cyradel soundly across the face.
“Ow… what the hell?”
“That was for suggesting that I would even consider leaving you! What the fuck, Cyr, I thought you’d know me better by now! I’m not ditching you, whether I’ve got a clear path home or not! This is home to me now, too, and I’m going to protect it with my life if I have to. And it sounds like I have to, so let’s get to it! So come on, get back to what you were doing, thinking of shit!”
Cyradel rubbed her painful cheek but smiled. “Thanks, Rares. I needed that. Anyway, I guess we should get back to the topic at hand - where the cave was discovered. While that area is not heavily explored, it is hardly unknown. The ecosystem of that area is not exactly conducive to large amounts of wildlife, so it is unusual for large monsters to be seen there.”
“So the magic is attracting them.” Rarity said bluntly.
“Exactly. It likely is pulling any monsters that are aberrants, which means that anjanath was probably an aberrant, too.”
“Figures. Predictable, really. So, what now?”
“We brainstorm. A lot. We can’t have monsters that powerful this close to the village. Any way to kill or drive them back…”
“More would just come in their place, though,” Rarity pointed out. “We need to find a way to neutralize the magic stored in the crystals somehow. We can kill aberrants. Stopping the creation of new aberrants and preventing the attraction of more should take priority.”
“Pfft,” Cyradel dismissed derisively. “If we knew how to do that, we would have neutralized the monsters to begin with.”
“Right…” Rarity dropped her head.
“But,” Cyradel continued, “I do agree that dealing with the source as a priority makes more sense.”
Rarity beamed.
“Getting rid of the crystals would be an obvious option, but how to do it safely is not so obvious.” Cyradel surmised. “Overloading them would cause an explosion that would probably blow the entire mountain apart, and possibly extend to the village, depending on how much energy is stored. Using physical explosives is probably just as dangerous, as it basically would just create millions of miniature magic grenades waiting to go off. Tiny shards: not dangerous. Rocks the size of your hand or head: extremely dangerous.”
“Dammit!” Rarity pounded her leg with her fist. “So what exactly do we need then?”
Cyradel’s shoulders sagged. “I guess what we need is something to safely drain magic from something? But nothing even remotely close to that exists here.”
A spark went off in Rarity’s brain. “Not here, no…”
*********
“Wait, remind me again, what the hell are we doing?” Sydreol stared at Rarity and Cinnamon as the three of them walked back toward the dragonfire cave. “By the way, what happened to your tail?”
“Shut the hell up, Syd.”
“It looks nice!" he said quickly. “Just sayin! Looks nice! Very rugged! Very outdoorsy.”
“I said shut the hell up.”
“Ok, but I still want to know what we’re doing.”
Rarity groaned.
“We’re going to the cave. When we get there, make a mad dash for the rift in the back. No matter what happens, what shows up, get in that rift.”
“Ooookay…” Sydreol drawled slowly. “And once I’m in said rift… what will I be seeing-slash-doing?”
“You will be seeing colorful ponies, hopefully. Or a draconequus, or a manticore, or hydra, or changeling, or Celestia knows what else. But if you see a big castle, head for it. If the dimension portal spit me out somewhat close to Miliesu, maybe this rift will lead somewhat close to Ponyville as well.”
“Ponyville?” Sydreol said incredulously.
“I don’t make fun of your shit, you don’t make fun of mine.” Rarity said with a deathly serious stare.
“Got it!” Sydreol quickly amended.
They neared the cave and carefully crept toward the entrance. Looking around, they didn’t see any monsters in the area, and there were no signs of the ibushi ripping up trees at the moment, either. Stealthily moving out of the brush, they quickly dashed forward, scaling the wall and slipping inside the cave. They stole to the back of the cave right up to the rift, looking around cautiously before stepping closer.
“That seemed almost too easy,” Sydreol said with a relieved sigh.
A grunt and snort from a deep, shadowed corner of the cave behind them announced that a waking creature agreed. Rising from its slumber, glittering and glistening in the light from the dragonfire crystals, an astalos peered at them in anger for awakening it. It roared fiercely before beginning to make its way toward them.
Rarity wasted no time. She grabbed both Cinnamon and Sydreol and yanked them toward the rift, using all her strength to throw them each into the shifting portal. She chanced a look back over her shoulder and saw the astalos charging her, ready to strike. With a panicked gasp, she jumped into the portal herself, praying that they weren’t going to be transported into the middle of somewhere populated, because she knew what was going to be following them.
**********
Rarity emerged onto an open, and thankfully unpopulated field, nearly crashing into the backsides of Cinnamon and Sydreol, who were both standing in awe and wonder, taking in the scenery.
She jumped up in a frenzy, pushing them as quickly as she could. “Run, you idiots! It’s following us!”
“Wait, what?” Cinnamon gasped. “The astalos?”
“Yes, the astalos! Move!”
Acting on hunter’s instinct, all three immediately split moments before the rift began swirling, then spitting out the massive astalos onto the ground. It looked around, bewildered, before bellowing a roar that echoed around the surrounding area.
Rarity’s head wheeled around at the reverberating sound, and her ears fell back at what she saw. What she had initially hoped had now become a horribly dismal reality: they had been transported relatively close to Ponyville. She could see Twilight’s castle rising in the distance, and the houses dotting the horizon were clearly visible. If she looked hard enough, she could probably see her own house from here.
Undoubtedly, with a roar like that, ponies were going to come to investigate. She prayed that nopony would get hurt. She also prayed that this was not an aberrant, but given recent events and information, she highly doubted she would be that lucky.
“Alright,” she said, unsheathing her switch axe, “if anypony comes out here, we need to make sure they don’t get hurt. They have no clue what these things will do, and have never come close to fighting anything this aggressive or dangerous.”
“Got it,” Sydreol acknowledged. “Quick note, Rares. If you can, you may want to save this thing’s wings, if you can. They’re damn beautiful, and I don’t have any. They’d be fucking sweet for your armor stuff.”
Rarity’s eyes roamed the glittering wings, reflecting green light like glass.
“When it’s stormy out, they turn rainbow-y.” He added.
Her eyes widened.
“New rule. Nobody touches the wings.”
“Complicates things, but hell, we can do it,” Cinnamon grinned. “I like a challenge anyway. And hey, we have plenty of open space!”
“That’s good!” Sydreol yelled, ‘cause these things charge, and big ugly here just got his bearings back!" he gripped his hammer tightly and watched as the astalos turned its attention his way.
Lowering its singularly horned head, the astalos began to charge at Sydreol, picking up speed as its claws dug into the soft earth. Sydreol, however, made no effort to move, but apparently dug his own feet into the earth as well.
“Um, Syd?” Rarity called. “What are you doing?”
“Not now, Rares.” He yelled back.
Realization hit her. “You’d better not be planning what I think you’re planning!" she yelled.
“Shut up, Rares!”
“It’s gaining speed, you moron, it’s too fast!”
Sydreol didn’t respond.
The astalos closed the distance to Sydreol with astounding speed, and Rarity held her breath in fear. Sydreol, however, had already sprung into action, and with his power greatly stored, swung his hammer overhead with blinding speed, catching the astalos the instant it entered the space in front of him. With a crunch its head met the ground, and the momentum it had gained carried the rest of its body up and over, rotating it in an almost comical way. It slammed into the ground, its breath heaving laboriously as it lifted its armored head from the ground.
“Whoa.” A raspy female voice punctuated the air from above, and Rarity’s heart sank into her hooves. “That… was totally awesome. But!” The air of awe vanished from the voice and accusation took its place. “Human! Other weird looking alien things! What are you, where did you come from, and what are these monsters you brought with you?”
Rarity turned, seeing with mixed emotions that all five of her friends and both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, were looking on, all in various forms of readiness for battle, if one could call Fluttershy’s anxious shaking being ready for battle.
She steeled her nerves. Now was not the time to be emotional, now was the time to give orders. She knew what this thing could do, she knew what her friends could do, and she knew why they had traveled here through the rift. She also knew that any second this astalos would be getting over having its head mashed into the ground and it would not be happy.
“Rainbow Dash!" she snapped. The pegasus gave a jolt at being called by name, clearly not expecting to be known. “Introductions later, we kill the monster first!”
“Wait a minute…!” Twilight stared, dumbfounded. She took several steps forward, ducking her head down and squinting for a better look. “Rarity? Is that you?”
Rarity looked at her crossly. “You should know! You did this to me!" she barked.
“I ain’t complainin’! Great work!” Sydreol called out.
“Shut up, Syd!" she turned to the group. “Yes, it’s me! I’ve been stuck in their world forever, explanations later. We have to kill this thing and it won’t stay down for long. Twilight, I want you, Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna to nail it with whatever magic you guys have got, ok?”
“Wait a minute!” Sydreol yelled. “Celestia? Isn’t that the one you keep yelling every time you swear? Is she the one with the sun on her butt? So that’s her right there? She can move the sun? So then the other one is the one that does the moon then? Holy shit!”
Celestia’s mouth dropped open and she stared at Rarity.
“You… use my name to swear?”
Syd, I’m going to kill you.
“No! No, everypony has gotten used to using your name as… more of a reverent manner, and he means that it usually gets mixed in when I swear at monsters… like… ‘Sweet Celestia, that damned monster…’”. Rarity smiled overly widely, putting on a facade that only the most gullible would believe.
“Well, I’m glad that’s all it was, then,” Celestia happily said.
Rarity shot a scathing glance at Sydreol that told him instantly to shut up.
“Keep it short, Rowrity! It’s getting up!” Cinnamon shouted.
“Ok, fast version! AJ, kick shit at it, flat out kick it, whatever! Pinkie, use your cannon! Just use actual things that will hurt it, not food! Rainbow! Can you gather clouds and make lightning bolts-“
“Lightning won’t hurt these!” Sydreol shouted.
“Shit!”
The astalos righted itself, pulling itself up to its full height and letting loose a tremendous roar.
“Instant version! Fluttershy, stay far, far away, it will smash you to bits! If anypony gets hurt, immediately notify one of us! And nopony touches its wings!”
“Why not?” Applejack called.
“BECAUSE I WANT TO MAKE ARMOR FROM THEM SO JUST DON’T TOUCH THEM!” Rarity screamed. “NOW LET’S GO!”
“Armor?” Fluttershy squeaked.
Rarity hoisted her switch axe, ignoring anything else going on with the group of ponies now behind her. She dashed in, sliding under the wing that the astalos slammed down at her and slashed at its leg wildly, leaving cuts in its armored, plated scales, but nothing deeply wounding.
Should have brought my hammer. At least Syd has his.
She could hear the noise of battle surrounding her; usually with only the three of them, it didn’t seem particularly noisy. Loud, of course, yes, and there definitely was a lot going on, but there were sounds of battle, and then there was noise.
She could hear the fizzling crack of spells hitting scaly plating, thunderous boom of Pinkie’s cannon, and the triumphant cheers of Rainbow at how ‘bucking awesome’ everything was.
While she was underneath the astalos, Applejack happened to slide underneath as well, obviously intending to follow Rarity’s lead at attacking its leg. The two made eye contact for a short moment, then Rarity stepped aside with a brief smile.
“You know,” she said, “I think you’ll be a lot more effective on these scales than I will be. Care to take a shot?”
“You bet your fancy britches, I do,” Applejack countered. She reared back and kicked hard, sending cracks throughout the entire plate she hit; she tapped it once more with her hoof and it shattered, leaving the flesh uncovered underneath.
“All yours.” She bowed.
“Thank you kindly,” Rarity said politely. She hauled her switch axe back and swung it viciously, digging it deeply into the astalos’ leg, leaving both herself and Applejack with lines of blood splattered across them and eliciting a blood-curdling screech from the draconic monster. It flapped its wings and flailed its talons wildly, hitting both Rarity and Applejack as it did and sending them rolling.
Rarity recovered quickly, her armor having protected her from most of the injuries, but her breath hitched in her throat as she saw Applejack laying with blood seeping from her shoulder and side, her breathing shallow. She raced over, pulling out a hi-potion and making Applejack drink it.
“Gah! That stuff tastes terrible!” Applejack complained.
“Yes, well, I’ll tell Faan to work on flavor next time. Right now I just want you to not die, ok?" she looked at Applejack’s wounds, expecting them to be fully healed already. They were not. They were healing, but much slower than she would have liked. She looked around, her mind racing for options. She couldn’t leave Applejack, but she also couldn’t stop fighting or they’d all be dead soon. Her eyes landed on a yellow quivering mound.
Bingo.
She carefully picked up Applejack and rushed over.
“Fluttershy!”
The mound squeaked in surprise and fright before realizing who it was. “R-Rarity?”
“Yes, I need your help with Applejack. Can you be our medic? I have medicine, and it works wonders, but it’s healing her much more slowly than it should. I can’t just watch her. Can you keep an eye on her for me?” Rarity handed her a large amount of potions and hi-potions, along with bandages from her bag. “Just watch her, if she stops healing, give her another potion, if she needs bandages, use some.”
“Um… ok…” Fluttershy almost whispered, looking completely lost.
“Thank you! Love you lots, Fluttershy!” Rarity turned to leave, but then thought of one more thing and turned back.
“Uh, if you need to get our attention, here. Throw one of these. Then cover your ears.” She handed all her sonic bombs to Fluttershy. “I hope you don’t need them, but there’s no chance you’ll ever catch our attention without them.”
She turned and ran back into the fray, leaving a very bewildered pegasus behind her.
When she returned, the astalos was limping from its injured leg, but was still fighting strong.
“It shouldn’t charge any more,” Sydreol yelled, “but watch out! It can still send out lightning bolts, and shoot electrical beams from its tail!" he resumed attacking, focusing on its head and neck, attempting to crack its scales sufficiently enough for Rarity to do some extremely deep cutting damage.
“This fucking sucks!” Cinnamon swore. “My sword is barely doing anything on its scales, and I don’t have the power Rowrity has to punch through them!”
“Can you go help Fluttershy, Cinnamon? She’s the yellow one over there!” Rarity shouted. “One of my friends is injured, she’s healing slowly, and I think Fluttershy has no clue what to do. I gave her potions and quick instructions, but she seemed completely lost. I think she’d be forever grateful for the help.”
“On it!”
A screech drew Rarity’s attention back to the astalos, and she looked back just in time to see it throw its head forward, spewing a pair of sparks. The pair separated in opposite directions, and then both erupted into full towers of electrical energy that traveled along the ground, zigzagging erratically; contrary to what Sydreol had described, these were not lightning bolts, these were long lasting pillars. She suddenly heard a scream and the sound of an electrical zap, accompanied by the acrid smell of burning feathers, and a moment later a firm thud impacted the ground.
Please let them be okay…
Her eyes searched the ground, landing on a blue form crumpled a short way away. Dammit, Dash, of all of them, you’re supposed to be the one that can dodge lightning the best!
She rushed over, scooping up the pegasus and quickly bringing her to their now growing medic station. She deposited Rainbow wordlessly, then immediately went back to the fight with grim determination.
“Um, Rarity? Kinda running out of rocks and sticks I can shoot at this thing over here…” Pinkie called. “We are in a field, you know.”
“FOR THE LOVE OF CELESTIA, LET ME ATTACK THIS THING!” Rarity screamed.
Celestia beamed. Luna rolled her eyes.
Rarity pulled off her bag and threw it at Pinkie. “Here! Anything in here that says ‘bomb’ on it, shoot. Do not shoot potions. Do not shoot anywhere close to where somebody is standing or flying. DO NOT SHOOT ITS WINGS.”
“Okie dokie loki!” Pinkie smiled widely.
Rarity had almost made it back to the astalos when she heard Pinkie’s cannon fire. A moment later a massive explosion triggered underneath the astalos, knocking it sideways, earning a cheer from all around.
Shit. Wish I carried more than one of those around. Not that I keep a cannon to fire them with.
Sydreol ran up to its neck quickly, hammering as hard as he could at a place he had been working the armor plating away from.
“Rarity! Over here! I’ve got an exposed area!”
She ran as fast as her hooves could carry her to where Sydreol stood, not even slowing as she used her momentum to bury her switch axe deep into the area; she pulled it out and hacked again and again; her weapon’s charge was finally starting to fill, but at this point it probably didn’t even matter, so she kept using her axe without stopping.
As her arms began to tire slightly, she swung once more, and to her surprise, her axe bounced back at her, as if striking something hard. She inspected her weapon, ensuring it looked fine, then tried again; it once again bounced back.
What the…
“Rarity?” Twilight called out from above her, “why is it glowing?”
“OH, COME ON!” Rarity wailed. She stared at where she had been attacking it, and realized that, of all the aberrant abilities they had seen, this one was the worst yet.
Under a lime green glow, the wounds were healing and the scale plates were reforming.
“Twilight!” Rarity screamed. “I need you to go get the Staff of Sacanas! Now!”
“The Staff of…? The Storm King’s?” Twilight said in confusion. “B-but… that’s back in Canterlot… and it’s locked up…”
“I DON’T GIVE A CELESTIA FUCKING SHIT HOW YOU GET IT, WE NEED IT NOW, SO GO GET IT OR WE’RE ALL GOING TO BE DEAD, CELESTIA DAMMIT!”
Celestia blinked.
Luna laughed joyously. “Do not worry, sister! I’ve been using your name in curses for eons now! ‘Tis nothing new!”
“Told you!” Sydreol yelled.
“Syd, remember what I told you when you grabbed my ass?”
“I’ll shut up now.”
Twilight bit her lip and vanished in a flash of purple.
“Everyone else, regroup!” Rarity yelled, prompting everyone else to run to see how Applejack and Rainbow Dash were doing.
Applejack was sitting up, wounds gone but still apparently regaining her strength, while Rainbow was awake and stretching her wings, and her singed feathers were slowly turning back to their regular color, one by one.
“Is it dead?” Applejack asked.
“No.” Sydreol stated simply.
“Then why y’all not attackin’ it?" she asked in alarm.
“It’s healing itself,” Rarity said. “Any attacks now would be wasted energy. I guess now’s as good a time as any to give a quick update as to what’s going on, since the monster’s incapacitated for the moment, though Twilight will miss out and have to find out later.”
All eyes turned to her expectantly.
“I’ve been trapped in Sydreol and Cinnamon’s world for this whole time, and there are monsters like this throughout their entire world. We’ve been fighting them off, and trying to figure out a mystery that’s made them much more powerful somehow, making them glow and giving them new abilities. We figured out that it’s ultimately because of a weakened boundary between our dimensions because of our reckless magic disturbances, and our magic leaking into their world and empowering their monsters.”
“So… all of the things we’ve had happen in the past decade…” Celestia said, “the wars, the villains, the magic imbalances, the elements, everything… destabilized a dimensional boundary so much that it completely disrupted another world?”
“Yes.” Sydreol said flatly, looking her dead in the eyes.
“Oh. Oh dear.” She looked down thoughtfully. “Celestia fucking dammit, indeed.”
“Pfft…” Sydreol snorted, then laughed as hard as he could, falling to the ground. “Don’t worry about it, Princess Sunbutt Lady. You didn’t mean it, you couldn’t have known it, and I’m not exactly the most serious guy here, if Rares hasn’t clued you in yet. Nobody back home would hold it against you. In fact, they’d probably all thank you since it meant we got to meet her, so all’s ok.”
Celestia raised an eyebrow at the nickname, but smiled nonetheless. “Thank you for your consideration. We had no idea that our problems could reach past our own world. So, I assume that’s why you sent Twilight for the staff?”
Rarity nodded.
“Equestrian magic is the reason it can heal. If we can drain it while we’re fighting it, we can keep it from healing. We just found the portal back here, and I wanted to come and see if we could get the staff immediately. Our main goal is to remove the magic from a crystal deposit right next to the portal; that seems to be the source of the magic distribution to the monsters.”
“Rowrity, why are your friends taking so long to heal?” Cinnamon asked.
“Long?” Fluttershy looked at Cinnamon oddly. “Applejack was nearly dead! She had huge wounds, and they’re completely gone now! What do you mean ‘long’?”
“She means that those potions usually work in seconds.” Sydreol said, keeping a close eye on the astalos behind them. “When we use them, we could be at death’s door, and be back in the fight after probably ten or fifteen seconds, assuming we use the right one.”
“Sheesh…” Applejack mused. “Guess that’s mighty useful if you’re fightin’ beasts like them every day.”
“It definitely helps to have strong medicine,” Sydreol agreed. “Rarity would have been dead from blood loss her first day in our village if it weren’t for Cinnamon’s help getting there and our doctor getting her the appropriate medicine to immediately stop the bleeding. If it hadn’t worked instantly, she wouldn’t have lasted.”
“I have no idea why it took so much longer to heal them, though…” Rarity said. “Maybe just because of their physiology? That’d be the obvious reason, at least.”
“Whatever it is, it’s the least of our concerns right now,” Sydreol said in alarm. “Our large friend here is back in commission.”
“Dammit, Twilight! Hurry up!” Rarity yelled.
“Well, we can at least start softening it up again, Rares. C’mon!” Sydreol hauled his hammer up behind him and ran back to the astalos, with Rarity trailing behind.
Screeching, the astalos began another charge; Rarity broke off to the side, but Sydreol kept running full on, intent to meet the beast as it reached him. However, before its charge concluded, it changed its method of attack. Rather than a charge using its regrown horn, it turned to its side, slamming its enormous clawed wing down into Sydreol’s path, scoring a direct hit on him before he had any time to react to the shift in attack. With a deep guttural sound, he rebounded from the monster’s wing and slumped to the ground.
All Rarity saw was red, but it had nothing to do with blood coming from Sydreol.
Fuming, she screamed in anger, gripping her switch axe tightly and running as fast as she could toward the astalos.
“Somepony get him to Fluttershy!" she yelled. Without looking back, she ran to its still grounded wing, her hooves pounding up the glass-like scales as she climbed it like a hill toward the astalos’ back. She slammed her switch axe into its back again and again; tough scales or not, they took damage, and with enough hits, they would inevitably crack and give way.
The astalos thrashed wildly, and though she attempted to find a handhold of some kind, there were none to be found among its smooth black scales. She felt herself being flung through the air, but then she suddenly stopped.
“You know, you’re a lot heavier like this,” Rainbow grunted, holding Rarity under the arms with her hooves. Her wings still had some black feathers interspersed throughout, and it was obvious she was flying with difficulty, but she gave Rarity an approving grin. She dove back toward the astalos, placing her right back where she had been. “Give it Tartarus.”
Rarity nodded with a grin, resuming her swings and watching as scales in multiple places shattered and fell away. With satisfaction she also noticed that her sword’s charge was completely full. Oh, I am going to have fun with you, you bastard.
She felt the astalos beginning to writhe once again in an effort to shake her off, but she felt something else this time; a firm pressure enveloped her from all sides, tethering her to the monster. She looked up and saw Celestia and Luna above her, concentrating their magic on holding her in place. She resumed her attack with renewed vigor, only to be stopped moments later by a familiar voice.
“Rarity! Now what?”
Twilight hovered nearby, holding the staff with a very bewildered look on her face.
“Wonderful! Now, use it to drain all the magic out of this thing!”
Twilight looked at her blankly. “How?”
“What do you mean, ‘how’?” Rarity yelled. “You’re the princess of Celestia damned magic! Figure it out!”
Twilight looked hurt, but quickly gained an air of determination and flew down closer to the astalos. She held out the staff purposefully.
Nothing happened.
She inspected the crystal, praying there wouldn’t be any cracks or damage that would explain why it wasn’t working. There were none.
She pointed the staff back at the astalos, waving it around frantically to no avail.
“Twilight, do something!” Rarity screamed.
“I’m trying!” Twilight responded in desperation.
The astalos swung its tail in Twilight’s direction, causing her to dive out of the way. She dodged downward, yet the tail followed her; the astalos seemed intent on knocking her from the skies. She rolled back upwards, coming back toward Rarity, and the beast’s tail managed to clip her, narrowly hitting her wing, but in doing so it also hit the crystal on the Staff of Sacanas.
With a crackling hum, the crystal sparked to life while Twilight lay on the ground in pain, still holding the staff. Though the blow she took had only been a glancing one, wings were fragile, and hers was broken and mangled. She stared at the pulsing energy in the crystal, then pointed the staff at the astalos once more.
The staff crackled and sputtered, and the aura surrounding the astalos slowly funneled from the rear end of the monster and into the staff. Rarity looked backward, let out a cheer of victory, then redoubled her efforts.
With no magic to strengthen its scales, they quickly cracked under Rarity’s axe. She felt her heart racing, and felt herself pulsing with energy, as though lightning was coursing through and around her body. In a smooth motion she sliced through the last of the scales, triggered her axe to morph into its sword form, and continued her slashing without cease. Jolts of energy flowed down her arms, energizing the sword further; she slashed once more, the momentum of her swing spinning her as she finished, but as she finished her turn, she had raised her sword high, stabbing downward into the now scaleless area of the astalos’ back.
It roared in response, but she didn’t hear it over the explosions of the discharging weapon that she was triggering, all overfull from her energized state. The last of the charge finished unloading and her sword switched back to axe form, pushing its way from the astalos, and Rarity used the lift given to push herself off, jumping backwards from the beast in a flip, landing clear of its flailing limbs and tail.
She gazed around, looking to see what other openings she may have, or what the others may be attacking. What she saw were faces staring at her from every angle, agape and unbelieving.
“It’s not dead yet!" she yelled. “Be shocked later! Did anypony find or make a weak point?”
Applejack shook herself from her stupor.
“I kicked scales off its chest.”
“Good enough for me!” Rarity ran back, still glowing and giving off jolts of energy of her own, with her switch axe still full of the elemental discharge left from its overloaded state.
**********
Back closer to the medic station, a group of astonished ponies were gathered as Rarity continued her assault on the astalos.
“Are we all in agreement that nobody ever pisses Rarity off?” Applejack asked.
A chorus of ‘yeses’ answered.
**********
Rarity approached the astalos, and it was obvious the beast was already near death. Without its magic to empower it, her previous strike had been close to a deathblow, and now it feebly tried to stand and limp away as she neared. She was not going to let that happen.
It attempted to slam a wing at her, but its reactions were dulled and its speed slow; she easily avoided the attack and continued her advance. When she reached underneath the monster, it lifted a leg and slashed at her with a claw, but its movement was sluggish and off balance; she stepped to the side easily and countered with a slash of her own, severing several of the beast’s talons and eliciting a pained screech from it.
It stumbled, unable to keep its balance, and fell to the ground with a loud crash. Rarity walked over, finding the area Applejack had mentioned, and readied her axe. Focusing all her rage, all her energy, all her magic, all her strength, she pushed everything she had into her strike.
With blinding speed she struck, sinking her axe deep into the soft flesh that had been exposed, and she could feel that whatever she had stored up in her was flowing through her hands, into the axe, and out into the astalos. Every bit of stored up energy discharged at once, ripping loudly through the monster from where her axe now rested, and with one final violent shudder, the astalos ceased all movement.