Episode 189: Dancing in Hell
Typhon’s daggers got to within mere centimeters of Blueblood’s throat. The Soul Reaper Captain had barely seen the Arrancar move and was only partially in the process of trying to leap back, and never would have made it in time if not for a streak of crystal red that slashed across his vision. A clash of noise accompanied the sight of a pair of thin, crimson spikes of crystal that shot out of Rarity’s whirlpool of blood, impacting with Typhon’s daggers just enough to redirect them and buy Blueblood the millisecond extra he needed to Flash Step away.
Typhon’s eyes, burning hot with hate, never left Blueblood, but from his back a bubbling pulsation beneath his flesh was followed by an eruption of organic matter that flew out of him. This fleshy growth twisted and hissed into the form of a tangled mess of dozens of snake heads attached to long, ropey bodies. Some were black, others white, a few more ashen gray, but all hissed and flew with incredible speed to whip at Rarity, Cozy Glow, and Sunburst. All three had to leap in different directions while the snakes impacted with ridiculous strength, shattering large chunks of the stone cliff outcropping they stood on.
Rarity saw Typhon streak towards Blueblood, and quickly noticed that the mass of snakes growing from his back was multiplying, splitting like the heads of a hydra. She didn’t know how many he could produce, but felt confident in assuming it would be a lot. She immediately summoned the towering red gates for her army of knights, but knew she had to act faster than they could deploy. She rushed after Typhon, while generating a circular storm of crystal blades from her whirlpool. Snake heads came at her like a living forest of flesh and fang, and she used her flying wheels of crystalline swords to slice through the mass.
She heard Cozy Glow cackling madly as the girl spread her chains around her, tearing into snake heads recklessly while Sunburst flew above on jets of flame. He raised his palms towards Typhon and started emitting twin, narrow streams of fire that cut through mountain rock like hot knives. Typhon readily swayed like a dancer through the flames, even as one of the beams cut through the mass of snakes still stemming from the Arrancar’s back. Shockingly, rather than this killing the snakes, the severed mass started to pulsate and froth with ichor, growing a bulbous body and twisted limbs, as it rose on its own as a hydra-like thing that thrashed it’s heads about. Multiple snake maws opened and sickly yellow Cero beams started firing out, forcing Sunburst to fly upward to evade. Cozy Glow had to cross multiple chains in front of her, splitting Ceros apart as they exploded around her.
Meanwhile Typhon caught up with Blueblood on one of the narrower parts of the mountain cliffside. Blueblood had raised his Zanpaktou by now and spoken the release for his Shikai, “Look upon the world’s treasures; Uncommon Vision!”
Bright light shone forth as the swarm of invisible glass daggers rushed forward and cut at Typhon. The Arrancar’s body jerked about in a spastic motion almost like a video image that was corrupted, but this was Typhon’s combat style, his arms working in flickering motions like a mad spider’s limbs. Blueblood’s daggers, despite being nearly invisible to the naked eye, were being plucked out of the air like butterflies. His eyes widened, “What the-!?”
“Fall, Soul Reaper,” Typhon said with the deathly tone of a cobra eyeing it’s prey. His back burst with a fresh wave of flesh, and this growth sculpted itself into the horrifying visage of a twisted worm with a face that was nothing but spinning circles of serrated teeth. This slammed forward faster than lightning, scattering Blueblood’s Zanpaktou daggers. From above, Rarity came down like a crimson bolt of light, slamming her crystal rapier down through the worm’s body. She then extended a swift and merciless string of crystal spikes from the rapier and into the worm, generating a cascade of blood red crystals sprouting all over it’s mutated length. She sent this towards Typhon as well, hoping to penetrate his main body with her invasive crystals, but he was wise enough to rip the worm from his back before the crystals reached him.
His eyes narrowed at her, and he came at her, more pulsating motion under his skin now not just appearing on his back, but his arms and legs as well. She sensed a growing, potent and unwavering reiatsu from him, but by now her army of knights had deployed in the sky above and she grabbed Blueblood and with all due speed yanked him away from the mountain cliff as she sent the mental command for her knights to rain down destruction.
Rows and rows of knightly crystal constructs opened fire with bows or cannons, all potently charged with Rarity’s spiritual energy. The mountainside was engulfed in a firestorm of ruby explosions, engulfing Typhon in a haze of destruction.
Now mounted on her pegasus construct, Blueblood seated behind her, Rarity flew in a slow arch to survey the bombardment. Cozy Glow and Sunburst were still engaged with the terrible growth of hydra snakes that Typhon had spawned earlier, although she noted it looked like Cozy Glow was have more fun just plucking heads off with her chains than seriously trying to fight, while Sunburst was trying to systematically immolate the whole thing.
Either way, they were still busy, while she could sense Typhon’s power increasing, even as his body was obscured by her army’s relentless barrage.
“Interesting,” she heard Typhon’s voice ring out, “You, too, spawn your power in the form of an army...”
There was a distinct rumble of noise, and then from the mass of smoke, dust, and residual energy from her army’s attack, Rarity heard the sound of a thousand howls, hisses, and roars. She felt her mouth go dry as she saw rising up a grotesque sight. Typhon raised himself up, his upper torso and head still very much the same, with his halo behind his back emitting an aura of wafting black ash. His arms had grown long and the chain-like tattoos on his body wrapped around them, dripping blood as they emerged like barbed tendrils of flesh. His legs extended into twin masses that merged together to form a long, segmented snake’s body that was easily several dozen meters long. Along the length of this body flesh pulsated, and then spawned forth monstrous creatures of many heads, limbs, and fangs. Each bore a resemblance to something reptilian or worm-like, although they were countless in variation from slim, whip shaped bodies to hulking brutes as thick as brick houses. In mere seconds Typhon had spawned an army of nightmare creatures akin to the snake hydra or worse, some of them sprouting wings to take to the skies.
“I have hardened my minions’ flesh in the fires of Hell, girl. Can your toy soldiers compete?”
Blueblood, being very polite even under dire circumstances by not holding Rarity in any ungentlemanly manner as he sat behind her, whispered, “My lady, did you see or hear him release his Zanpaktou?”
It was a pointed question, and Rarity found herself frowning deeply. She hadn’t heard Typhon speak any command phrase to invoke his Zanpaktou. Did that mean this was not his Resurreccion form? Was this just something he was capable of doing at a base level?
Typhon saw her expression and while he did not smile, there was a hint of satisfaction in his rasping tone. “I see you are confused. Your little friend, Cozy Glow, has not told you we Arrancar who survive in Hell’s depths are not like our brethren who are still free. Cerberus and I have spent millennia carving out Hell’s secrets in the bowels of this wretched place. We are not like the Sinners who only fight and struggle pointlessly among themselves. Hell has a voice, for those with the will to listen.”
“Absolutely fascinating, darling, but as much as I’d love to converse with you on that topic, there’s still the little issue of you trying to kill my good friend here,” Rarity replied, patting Blueblood’s hand, which caused the Soul Reaper noble to make a rather boyishly adorable choking noise. “Now, I presume you have no intention of quitting the field?”
Typhon's response was a deadly smirk, and with a gesture, his massed army of horrific monster spawn rushed into the sky to charge straight at Rarity’s own massed force of constructs. Blueblood gulped, and said, “Rarity, the Gate remains nearby. If we can but keep him distracted, we might make a retreat of this.”
Tactically that was a sound plan. Rarity was not awash with any particular pride or hubris-filled need to prove anything to Typhon. She just wanted to keep Blueblood safe and get to Tartarus intact. She doubted it would be that simple, however. Thus far Typhon’s spawn had proven to be just as swift as their creator, and it took all of her skill and speed to keep up with them. She didn’t doubt her knights could hold their own, but in terms of numbers it looked like Typhon could spawn more volume than she could summon. She could keep replacing fallen knights, but she’d already seen Typhon could replace his minions almost instantly.
In terms of a battle of attrition, she might be at a disadvantage. If they were to make a retreat through the Gate to the Third Layer, it’d require a hefty risk.
She shouted to Cozy Glow and Sunburst, “Make for the Gate! Now!”
“Huuuuuh!?” Cozy Glow made a face as she wrapped both her chains and hands around the throats of several snake heads from the hydra creature, seeming to very much enjoy tearing one head off after another as blood spattered her face, “But we’re having so much fun!”
Flames flew down around her, intense jets that incinerated the rest of the hydra as Sunburst flew by and grabbed Cozy Glow up, throwing her over his shoulder, “Playtime later, run time now!”
“Gah! Put me down you nerd! I wanna rip and tear!”
Despite her half hearted struggles, Sunburst jetted more hellfire from his feet and flew along like a living missile towards the gate, dragging Cozy Glow along. That just left Rarity and Blueblood to deal with Typhon and his wave of minions rushing right towards them.
There was no outrunning the speed of the oncoming horde, so Rarity instead swept her blade in front of her and with a single mental command, ordered her army of knights to form a spherical formation around her, summoning her pegasus knights to get as close to her and Blueblood as possible. In a mere blink of an eye the constructs moved in streaks of red, each knight slamming shields and weapons together as they formed a tight phalanx formation in the shape of a flying sphere that covered her from all angles. Cannons poked between shields, archers and cannoneers alike forming a second layer to the sphere as the front line knights ready blades and spears.
Typhon and his forces slammed into the formation like a singular tidal wave of howling flesh, and there was a wet and terrible cacophony of tearing flesh as crystal construct met with flesh born nightmare. Claws and teeth of immense power slammed into crystal shields, some cracking, others shattering, but each time the knights struck back hard with crimson blades and spears of glittering crystal. Blood and ichor began to rain from the sky as flesh was cleaved, and joining the rain were shards of crystal as knights were pulled from formation and ripped to broken pieces by the swirling mass of howling monsters.
Rarity had kept her own Fullbring’s gate at the center of the formation, so as knights were destroyed, she could send forth replacements. The cannons and archers waited for her commands, firing only when she saw openings that would allow her to briefly open the shield wall to send out powerful blasts and barrages of explosive shells and arrows. As she suspected, Typhon could replace his losses just as fast if not faster than she could, for she saw him slithering around the battle, more and more monstrosities spawning from his long snake body. She for a moment thought he intended to just try to wear her forces down, but Typhon soon demonstrated that he’d merely been testing her.
With swift gestures he barred his daggers at the top of her sphere formation, and ran their edges along his tongue. Power filled the blades as his blood crackled with bright pulsations of yellow energy that started to warp space around him as he flung the dagger’s forward, and Rarity felt a massive spike of spiritual power.
“Oh bugger all,” she muttered, realizing she’d grown a tad complacent by the fact that Typhon had been raining so much on spawning creations like she did. Fortunately she’d kept her pegasus knights close for just such an emergency, and sent them flying upward as she focused her power. Crystal energy blossomed among the mounted knights that flew up, forming a giant circular shield of thick crystal that they all bore together as Rarity formed it just in time.
“Gran Rey Cero Con Colmillos!” (Fanged Royal Hollow Flash)
Typhon’s words accompanied his daggers turning into beacons of raw yellow energy that then fired double Gran Rey Ceros in the shape of gigantic carving blades of power. This technique decimated the front line of Rarity’s knights, demolishing the top of the sphere, and would have continued inside to the center of the sphere and ripped the formation apart from within. Fortunately Rarity’s quick thinking had sent her pegasus knights up with that massive, thick shield of crystal that met the spinning energy blades and slammed into them before they could fly down further.
Even so, Typhon had unleashed a specialized version of two Gran Rey Ceros, containing so much power that had they impacted with a city, there’d be no more city. Rarity’s crystal shield was powerful, infused with a fair portion of her spirit energy, but even it started to crack after a few seconds of contact with the spinning energy blades. She strained, face pinched and sweating as she shot up a score of crystal spikes to slam into the shield and reinforce it alongside her knights, pouring power into it. Even so, she felt the crystal cracking further.
She was exhausted by the journey through Hell thus far. Her mouth was a sand trap of thirst. Her belly rumbled with hunger she couldn’t satiate. And she was bitterly angry, despite how hard she was trying to keep her composure. Things had seemed to be going so well, just the other day. She and her friends had been building something new with the Coalition. Hope had seemed on the horizon, with the summit talks.
Then Zero Division had ruined everything. They’d created this terrible place, and consigned her to it, and Rarity was... tired of trying to be gracious about it all. Right now, she kind of wanted to do as Cozy Glow said, and get a little more violent.
Power seeped into her from somewhere she couldn’t define, and she heard a clink of chains, and almost something akin to a whisper of smoke and flame somewhere in the dark corners of her mind. She’d been generous her whole life. Perhaps now it was time to take what she deserved.
Something changed in her crystal shield, and the pegasus knights bearing it up under the brunt of Typhon’s tightly focused Gran Rey Ceros. Hellish violet light filled them, turning her constructs from noble red to a menacing dark purple that flickered with embers of hellfire. Suddenly the energy blades broke apart and Typhon had to catch his daggers as they flew back at him. At the same time, a number of other knights among Rarity’s sphere formation also turned dark purple, small hellflames alighting in their helmets. This surge of strength tore through a number of Typhon’s monsters, and the ones that were firing Ceros into the formation found their beams being deflected by the knight’s shields.
“Hmm?” Typhon seemed more intrigued than annoyed, “She’s attuning to Hell this quickly? Most Sinners take years.”
Rarity didn’t fully understand, but she felt stronger now! She grinned, thinking perhaps she didn’t need to retreat after all-
“R-Rarity... what is this...?”
Blueblood sounded ill, and in pain, and she glanced back towards him. She blinked. Some of her chains binding to Hell had wrapped around Blueblood, and she saw the chains flowing with spirit energy that was being drained from his body and... going into her!?
“What in the world?” she breathed, horrified. She tried to pull the chains off of him, but they wouldn’t obey her, and kept draining Blueblood of his spirit energy. He was breathing heavily, looking faint as he looked at her with confusion.
“I am... rather embarrassed... as this is not what I was thinking about... when I fantasized about us and being tied up.”
She felt like giving him a hard smack on the head, but was too busy trying to figure out how to make her chains release him to worry about his stupid comments! She pulled at them, and then tried to mentally focus on them to command them to stop. Thus far, nothing was working.
“Blast it all, why won’t these come off!?”
Rarity didn’t have time to consider much else, for a wave of explosions on the outer edges of her knight's sphere formation drew her attention. Typhon had entered the fray more personally now, and was flying a crisscross pattern over her formation while slashing big gaps in her line with his flickering daggers. In his wake he’d gathered his army of monstrosities and hurled them at the gaps in her formation where the monsters’ bodies would begin to implode and burst in gouts of destructive energy.
There was nothing for it, it was time to make a run for it. Since the shield she’d created had become reinforced, and she suspected it was with Blueblood’s spirit energy to some degree, she had her pegasus knights slam the shield towards the gaps in the sphere’s formation, then gave her army a general command to charge in and attack. As the knights broke formation and started to swarm forward, using the huge crystal shield as a wedge, Rarity turned her own pegasus construct around and had it fly with full speed towards the Gate upon the island in the middle of the acid lake.
She saw Sunburst already there, still holding an irate Cozy Glow. He was looking her way, eyes worried, and shouting something Rarity couldn’t hear.
Behind her she heard the overwhelming clash of noise as Typhon’s spawn and her knights became one giant, bloody melee of pure confusion and chaos. She hoped it’d buy her just a few seconds to get to the Gate in time!
Typhon’s voice called out, echoing loudly with a tone of interest and a sincere promise, “Run, then, ‘Rarity’. Run away with your Soul Reaper and the arrogant child to her depraved club house of Sinners. Know that I shall ever be watching, and waiting in the lowest layers. Hell itself has noticed you. Will you hear her voice, I wonder?”
Rarity didn’t slow down, barely even gave Sunburst and Cozy Glow a glance as she, still holding a drained Blueblood, flew past them and through the Gate to the Third Layer.
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Sunburst had no real idea what to make of the situation. The moment this Rarity girl had shown up in Hell, things had started to feel off. Cozy Glow was acting off, for one. He was used to her being playful and a little sadistic, but he’d never seen her get... competitive before. Oh, she was being nice enough to Rarity, but Sunburst wasn’t blind to the undercurrent of tension that his dubious partner in survival was not so subtly demonstrating.
“Hmph, I swear the next time you try to drag me away from my fun, Sunburst, I’m gonna pull out my flaying chains,” Cozy Glow said with a childish huff as he set her down. They were on an ash-covered plateau of stone amid sharp mesas, the air thick with sulfuric fumes from lava floes burning deep down the rocky crevasses. The heat here on the Third Layer was oppressive, the air hard to breath, but Sunburst had long forgotten the pain on his scarred lungs.
“We can afford to die as much as we want, Cozy,” he reminded her, “But Rarity’s friend doesn’t have the luxury of us playing footsie with Typhon or his limitless spawn.”
“Pfft, who cares about pretty boy?” Cozy Glow groused, her chains rattling around her like agitated wasps, “For a Soul Reaper Captain he seemed pretty useless back there. Hey! Pretty boy! Why didn’t you use Bankai, huh!? Ain’t that your big, go to super move?”
Blueblood was coughing and sputtering, laying against a small boulder that Rarity had set him against. She’d finally gotten her chains off of him, having figured out they were responding to her emotional state. Once she calmed down enough to focus, they withdrew from Blueblood. But he was pale... well, paleer, his white marble skin now waxen. His eyes fluttered, barely conscious, and it was clear he was struggling to stay awake. Even so, he somehow managed some composure and croaked out, “Bankai... too cumbersome for... a mobile fight. Would have... hindered my lady’s efforts, more than helped...”
Rarity was stroking his head, and turned a furious glare towards Cozy Glow, “You have no room to criticize him at any rate. You barely helped in that encounter!”
“Oh I’m sorry, would you have preferred to deal with that huge ass hydra thing as well? Me and Sunburst kept it busy, thank you very much. Also, you’re the one who wanted to chicken out and scram before the fight even got good! I was still warming up when you were all like ‘Oh no, my dress is getting dirty, and my boy toy is being sucked dry of his soul! Better skedaddle!’”
“Why you little...!” Rarity stood and turned like a living thunderhead towards Cozy Glow, with a mass of dozens of sharp implements of crystal death forming around her as she walked forward. Cozy Glow just grinned and her multitudes of dark iron chains rose up in preparation to strike.
“Hold it!” Sunburst stood between the two ladies, arms outstretched, “Much as I might actually find some catharsis watching you two get this pointless posturing out of the way, I need you both to tone it way the Hell down and chill out.”
“Uhhh... why?” Cozy Glow asked, “Me and Rares could rip each other to shreds all day and night and be perfectly fine by the end of it. It’ll be fun. I need fun, Sunny! It’s what keeps me going.”
Rarity made a somewhat unladylike grunting noise and crossed her arms, eyeing Sunburst, “I am not the one being antagonistic here.”
He looked her, and she coughed, glancing away, “Well, perhaps a skosh antagonistic, but she’s being far more so than I am.”
“You’re both acting like drenched cats hissing at each other and I’m tired of it. We’re not even home yet, and I’m already dreading having you two living under the same room,” he said, giving Cozy Glow a harsh look, which she met with her attempt at an even stare, but he kept glaring until her nose started twitching and she scrunched her face up, very much now looking like a twelve year old rather than a crazed hellion.
“Oh fine, if you’re gonna be like that, I’ll ease up! I’m just mad because I wasn’t expecting Typhon to show up like that! Dude never ever leaves his cozy lower layers with his buddy Cerberus. Would’ve been fun to fight it out proper, but yeah, Rarity probably made the right call to beat feet, at least if she wants to keep Captain Wheezealot alive. Seriously, pretty boy is going to be a liability.”
“Well he’s my liability,” Rarity stated flatly, “And anyone who tries to touch him is going to get impaled with enough crystal to make them barf red for a week. Am I clear?”
“Crystal. Heh, get it, ‘crystal’? Eh? Eh?” Cozy Glow waggled her eyebrows, and Rarity sighed, sagging as she returned to Blueblood. She found he had passed out during the conversation, but was still breathing. She stroked his head again and with careful skill formed a red crystal construct in the shape of a comfortable palanquin to carry him on, floating it beside her once she laid him down upon it.
Sunburst watched her, slowly walking up. Having now seen her fight against Typhon, he had to admit he was extremely impressed. He said as much, finishing his statement by adding, “Him and Cerberus are essentially Hell’s strongest residents, besides Cozy Glow. You held up pretty well back there.”
Rarity shook her head, wiping sweat from her brow that did little as more sweat simply appeared in this sweltering Layer, “I was being pushed about, mostly, having to work to simply keep up. At least until...” She looked at her chains, and Sunburst gave an understanding nod.
“You’re Sinner powers. They manifest differently for everyone down here. It’s rare for them to directly involve the chains. What happened, exactly? It looked like you were... draining him,” Sunburst nodded towards the unconscious Blueblood.
Rarity’s breath hitched briefly, but she composed herself, “It was as if I was stealing his power and somehow... amplifying it through my own. Converting it into some manner of ghastly strength inside my constructs.”
“It certainly helped deflect that big attack Typhon threw at you.”
“I’d rather not have it if the cost is draining my friends...” Rarity said, trailing off as Sunburst saw her eyes flicker with pondering thoughts, “Although if it’s possible to drain my enemies instead?”
Cozy Glow chuckled from nearby where she’d sat down on a bigger boulder, “Didn’t take you long to consider the benefits, huh? Just got to figure out how to make your power do what you want. Sinners like us get our strength from adapting to Hell’s nature, it’s tortures, and the manner in which we fight back. That’s the key there. Fighting back. Hell grinds you down. By resisting that pull towards oblivion, our power forms.”
Rarity remembered her feelings in the moment her chains started to drain Blueblood. She’d been feeling utterly lost, angry, and nearly defeated by her stress and how much things felt like they’d been going wrong. And the thought of ‘taking’ from others to fight back had crossed her mind, a desire to stop being generous and just take for a change, instead of being taken from...
She gulped, “I’m... not sure I like the implications.”
“Gee, who would’ve guessed?” Cozy Glow said with a roll of her eyes and hopped off the boulder, “Well whatever, you have your moral struggles or whatever. That’s enough of a breather. Let’s get moving.”
“Is Typhon likely to give chase?” Rarity asked, glancing back the way they had come. After going through the Gate to the Third Layer, they had moved at full speed for a few minutes until Rarity found a spot to land and get her chains to release Blueblood. In that time frame they’d crossed miles of this hostile, jagged terrain of ash covered, hot mesas and plateaus
“Nah,” Cozy Glow said, “He let us go. Trust me, he wasn’t even going that hard at us back there. More like he was just testing you out. That and I’m pretty sure he really does want your Soul Reaper pal dead, but the dude’s patient. He’ll wait it out, let you come to him eventually. That or he’ll sick Cerberus on you. The big guy likes to come up to the higher layers more often than snake boy does.”
As they got moving again, rapidly covering the terrain heading... Rarity was so turned around she had no idea how they were navigating, but she did see a long ridge of dark stone in the distance, like some vastly larger plateau. Her mind turned towards Typhons words. “What did he mean? That he and Cerberus had been uncovering Hell’s secrets? That it has a voice?”
Cozy Glow looked at her, flipping along with her chains without stopping. “Beats me. Those two were in control of the lowest layers long before I was born. If there are secrets down there, they don’t let anyone else get close enough to find out.”
Rarity nodded, frowning, then something Cozy Glow had just said caught her attention, “Wait, what do you mean by ‘long before you were born’?”
In response, the little girl with the half burned face looked at Rarity with her one good eye gleaming strangely, “It means Hell is my home. I was born here.”
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She felt adrift in a gray sea of fog, listless, an uncontrolled mote of dust that occasionally clung to fleeting fragments of memory. A mother’s warmth, doused by flame and pain. A great serpent's jaws, dripping venom into her screaming mouth, burning like a thousand flames. Her essence stripped out of her, like blood dripping from open wounds. A girl, her hair akin to the fire of a setting sun. The garden, the hidden sanctuary, where the stone was pressed into her hands by a dying woman with bloodied lips.
“Stay hidden. Don’t let others notice you. Strip their memories if you must, but be the wallflower... quiet, quiet... until Sunset finds you...”
Whose words were those? Where was her stone!? She’d lost it. Had she forgotten it? She felt a hot glow in the depths of the fog, a terrible pain that she didn’t want to look at. Yet her eyes were drawn down, down, spiraling to something primal and hellish. Eyes looked back at her, flame and hatred, and so much pain, screaming in a voice. Her voice-
“AAAHH!” Wallflower shot up in her bed and fell out of it, grunting in pain as she blinked bleary eyes at her surroundings. The guest room in Discord’s “shop”. Yeah right. This wasn’t any shop as far as Wallflower could tell. Just some weird headquarters where all the weirdness in Canterlot City seemed to gather, Sunset Shimmer and her friends at the very center of it all.
“Uggh...” She sat up and rubbed her head, taking a deep breath. Her dream was already fading from her thoughts, but that didn’t bother her too much. It didn’t feel to her like it’d been a very good dream. While she wasn’t really sure if she was a guest or prisoner here, she hadn’t been told she had to stay in her room, and she was getting hungry.
Wallflower poked her head out the door, glancing left and right down the hallway, seeing no one. What time was it, anyway? How long had she been out since the whole incident with that... dragon? God, how had things gotten this bizarre? Padding quietly down the hall, going right out of habit, she peeked into several rooms, trying to get her bearings. Storage closet. Bathroom. Another guest room. Some kind of creepy room filled with shelves of unmarked jars?
“The heck is with this place?” she muttered, passing another room that was empty except for a big wooden chest in the middle of it that Wallflower felt very distinctly that if she touched it, something bad would happen. After another few more rooms with no sign of a kitchen, she finally heard voices up ahead.
Slowing, moving even quieter, she crept forward to a sliding paper and wood door that was already partially open. Inside she heard talking, recognizing the voice of Sunset and her friends. Well, some of them, at any rate.
“Just sayin’ we can’t, and shouldn’t, keep it ta ourselves fer long, Sunset.” This was that farm girl. Applejack? Wallflower was pretty sure that was her name.
“I know,” Sunset’s voice responded, “I’ll do it myself, if need be.”
“Sunset, you’re still injured, and got to focus on communing with your Zanpaktou or whatever it is you’re doing,” this was Rainbow Dash’s voice, “Leave talking to Rarity’s family to me and AJ. We’ve known Rarity the longest. It’ll be easier, coming from us.”
Had something happened to that refined girl, Wallflower wondered? She’d seen the damage outside. It’d looked like this place had gone through an earthquake. Had someone gotten hurt, or... worse? Sunset’s voice had that heavy quality that made Wallflower swallow in reflexive sympathy. The girl sounded miserable.
“Yeah... thanks, guys. I... just let them know, we’re going to get her back. Somehow.”
There was a pause, and the sound of someone getting hugged. “Dang straight we will, sugarcube. Hell ain’t gonna hold our Rares forever. We’ll tear the whole thing down from top ta bottom if that’s what we gotta do.”
“Hell yeah... er, I mean, huh, you know that phrase feels weird to say when you know Hell is a real place and you met the jerks who made it,” Rainbow Dash said, her words only making Wallflower raise an eyebrow.
She wasn’t sure what anyone was talking about, and carefully moved forward to take a peek, but it just so happened that’s when a hand touched her shoulder and a pleasant if smugly teasing man’s voice said, “It’s not polite to eavesdrop, my dear.”
Wallflower shrieked and nearly bolted, but ran into Applejack as the girl walked out. Applejack, holding Wallflower, looked over the girl’s head at the man who’d snuck up on her. “Discord, ya enjoy makin’ a’ habit o’ frightenin’ folk fer fun?”
Discord spun his cane and whistled innocently, “I beg your pardon, Miss Applejack, but I don’t just do it for fun! ...It’s also stress relieving.”
“Everything alright out there?” asked Sunset, and Wallflower took a few deeply calming breaths as she shot a less than effective glare at Discord, and then nodded thanks at Applejack.
“Um, thanks, I’m okay now.”
Applejack gave her a sympathetic look and nodded, guiding her into the room where she, Sunset, and Rainbow Dash had been talking. Thankfully this turned out to be the kitchen, and Wallflower’s stomach started to rumble a bit at the thought of food. Rainbow Dash was sitting on one of the counters, while Sunset was leaning across from her near the oven. Both looked to Wallflower, then at Discord as he came in behind her and Applejack.
“Hey, Discord, what’s the haps?” asked Rainbow Dash, “Heard from Screwloose that you were putting the screws to that Bubbles chick?”
Discord frowned slightly, “I need to remind Screwloose not to gossip so much. But yes, I’m finished interrogating our prisoner. Ditzy Doo is in the process of... delivering her to a location where her erstwhile mistress can find her.”
“Is that a good idea?” asked Rainbow Dash, “Letting her go back to her freakin’ creepy as heck masters?”
“Trust me, it’s better than giving Minty cause to come back looking for her, and I’ve gotten all I can of use out of Bubbles anyway,” Discord said with a shrug. As he talked he moved about his kitchen with expert speed and familiarity, arms moving swiftly to throw open the fridge, a cupboard, draws, and in a few moments he’d thrown together a plate of turkey, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches plus a bowl of goldfish crackers that were shoved Wallflower’s way without him even looking at her.
She gulped, mouth watering, and quietly sat at one of the stools at the kitchen's central island counter and started eating while shifting her eyes about the room. She was totally lost about what anyone was talking about, but if Wallflower was good at anything it was being quiet, listening, and generally being ignored.
Sunset did glance at her, eyes showing worry, but her attention then went to Discord, the girl’s face became so hardened and serious it was like she’d flipped a switch in her mind to become a different person. “What did you learn, exactly? Will it help us get Rarity out of Hell, or assault the Soul Palace?”
Discord chuckled with a dry smirk, “Eager to storm Heaven itself I see. Well, I did learn a few things of potential use in that regard. Bubbles does have detailed knowledge of the Soul Palace’s layout, so when the time comes, I should be able to put together a solid plan of attack. Entry, however, is a totally different matter. You saw the golden pillar the Zero Division used to arrive here. It’s called the Tenchuren, and it’s one of a few highly restrictive means of entry. Clearly we can’t access it, and while I might make a replica, that process would take me years, if not decades, given the pillar’s rather unique composition and materials.”
Applejack huffed, crossing her arms under her chest and tapped her foot, “Skip the details, Discord, n’ just tell us if ya got a’ way fer us to get in or not.”
“I don’t, but Starlight Glimmer does...” Discord’s eyes flashed, “The Queen’s Key she stole from beneath Central 46 is our only true chance of entering the Soul Palace to take the fight to Zero Division.”
There was a heavy silence that descended on the group, and Wallflower felt even more out of place as the only sound to be heard was her shoveling a sandwich into her mouth and chewing. Maybe if she just took the plate and bowl of goldfish crackers she could edge out of the kitchen without anyone noticing? But the food, while satisfying her hunger, was also making her thirsty. She was considering how to best get to the fridge to fish around for a drink without drawing attention to herself when Sunset spoke up, “I’m sorry Wallflower, you probably don’t need to be listening to us go on about this stuff. Are you feeling alright?”
Wallflower froze like an animal caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. All eyes were on her now and her main impulse was to either flee or hide. She chewed the last of her bite of sandwich instead, swallowed hard, and stammered, “I-I...um, yeah, I feel... okay?”
Discord in particular was looking at her with a shrewd expression that made her eleven kinds of uncomfortable. He stroked his thin white beard and said, “I shall be frank, you’re something of an anomaly I have not accounted for, Miss Wallflower. Your past records are muddled, at best, and the fact that Dragons of the Beast Realm have attempted to abduct you speaks volumes of your ties to matters well beyond the ken of a simple high school girl.”
“I really have no idea what any of that was about!” she blurted, shaking a little, feeling her palms get sweaty, her mind having a building presser behind her eyes, “I’m not involved in any of this weirdness! I just want to go home.”
“Ah, but you don’t seem to actually have a home,” Discord said, “No record of a permanent residence. Just where have you been staying?”
“At... at my house. My... family...” she searched her mind for memories. She’d been in plenty of houses. Plenty of homes. Places where people didn’t remember her being because the stone took those memories. The stone she was given to by... her mother? In the garden. The secret place by the school. When was that, exactly? How long had she been...?
There was a warm hand on her shoulder, firm and comforting. Wallflower looked up to see Sunset’s eyes looking into hers with a simple, supporting warmth. “It’s okay. I think that magic stone of yours has done some things to your head, Wallflower. But you’re safe here. We’re you’re friends, or we can be, if you let us.”
“Yup!” said Rainbow Dash with a nod and flashing a grin, “If you’ve got some kind of mysterious baggage in your past, then trust me, you’re in good company here! We’re all pretty chill with the strange and unusual.”
“An’ on top o’ that, if yer worried ‘bout more o’ them dragon-folk stormin’ after ya, then no better spot ta hole up then here,” Applejack said, before giving a bit of a wince and adding, “Recent holes n’ the roof not withstandin’.”
Discord gave a bit of a grousing sigh, leaning on his cane, “Screwball assures me she’ll have the hole in the roof, and every other floor for that matter, repaired in due course before the night is done. Now, as for you, Miss Wallflower, I can see that you are somewhat befuddled, and as Sunset has said, I concur it is likely tied to the Equestrian artifact you had in your possession. Unfortunately the lady who has taken custody of said artifact is... indisposed at the moment, so further investigation may have to wait.”
Wallflower recalled the purple girl with glasses, and frowned, “Do you think she, or any of you, might be able to figure out what’s wrong with me? Why my memories are so disjointed?”
“If anybody can work out magic related shenanigans, it’s Twilight,” Sunset said, although a glint entered her eyes as she rubbed her chin, “Although I’m not half bad with working out magical theory myself. Or at least, I used to be. It’s been a hot minute since I last really delved into magic. I wonder if we showed up at Twilight’s manor if they let us check out the stone?”
“Ain’t the Quincy likely ta be a tad jumpy?” Applejack asked, but Sunset shrugged.
“After today, I think we’re officially allied, or at least non-hostile with each other. Can’t hurt to see if we might be allowed to see the stone. Just a shame Twilight’s busy in Hueco Mundo with her whole team. But... I don’t know, maybe her family might be willing.”
“No offense, Sunset, but last time we talked to any of Twilight’s family, they were hanging us out to dry with Grand Fisher,” Rainbow Dash said, but Sunset held up a hand.
“I know, but didn’t Crystal Prep’s Dean, Cadence, help us out a little during the Everfree incident? I don’t know, I figure it’s still worth a shot. I’m not starting my training with Hokori no Hikari until tomorrow, so we’ve got some time to kill. I want to work out a more solid plan of action for handling Zero Division, but I want Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight to get back from Hueco Mundo before we pin it all down. Sounds like we’ve got no choice except to get to Equestria as fast as possible, either defeat or talk down Starlight, and get that Queen’s Key.”
“And we don’t actually have a clue right now how things are going in Equestria, because your journal is either broken, or Princess Twilight’s is,” said Rainbow Dash, hopping off the counter, “Well whatever, let’s go hit up our Twilight’s house and see if we can’t bully someone into letting us see Wallflower’s magic rock.”
“Ask politely, Dash, not bully,” Applejack said, and the other girl smirked.
“Tomato, tomaato.”
----------
Rarity wasn’t entirely sure what she’d been expecting from Tartarus, but the entrance alone left a certain colorful impression.
The rough, blanketing heat of the Third Layer only got worse the further into it they had traveled, and now ash feel like dark motes of snow, covering the broken terrain of gray crags and mesas in a thick carpet. Curling smoke fumes of heat waves rose from the cracks in the ground as streams of lava flowed through the jagged canyons, and tainted the air with a terrible haze that was impossible not to breath in. Rarity’s throat was already parched beyond belief, but now every breath was a minor torture. She was sweating so profusely, skin grimy with ash, that she didn’t think she’d ever feel clean again. Her stomach knotted with hunger, a growing agony in the pit of her gut that she, with dread, understood would only get worse with the passing of days.
Now, straight ahead of her, was an overhanging maw of black stone jutting from an uneven rock face that curved scores of miles in either direction. The edifice of rock was rough hewn, but clearly carved, shaped by intent to resemble a leering face with broken rows of sharp teeth. From the face’s eyes poured streams of magma that joined a large river that flowed from the face’s mouth, and deep into the cavernous throat of stone Rarity saw the river of lava continue into the plateau’s dark depths. The face itself was adorned with graffiti of the most visceral and grotesque fashion, apparent blood and other bodily fluids used by the hands of maddened painters to depict every human horror imaginable. Rarity couldn’t even remotely desire to recount the vulgarity on display, be it in the simple curses and blasphemous phrases painted in some of the ‘tags’, or the actual pictures, some of which were entirely too well drawn and finely detailed to be worthy of depicting some of the acts she saw on display.
Beside her, Cozy Glow took a deep breath and let it out with a satisfied smile, “Aaaah, home sweet home. Hell’s own wretched hive of scum and villainy. Welcome to Tartarus, Rarity. Well, the front door, at any rate. The locals all like to add their own flare to it. You can feel free to add a tag or pic if you like, someday, when you’ve really settled in and this all feels like home.”
Rarity flinched slightly at Cozy Glow’s words, not looking directly at the child. She was still processing the notion that Cozy Glow had been born in Hell. Rarity had not pressed her for details, and by the look Sunburst had given her, it was probably best not to for the time being. Just what had this child experienced while “growing up” in an environment like this? Looking upon the profanity of the graffiti upon the mere entrance to her “home”, Cozy Glow’s life here could not have held much, if any semblance of good influence.
“I think I’d rather gouge my eyes out, but yes, thank you for the warm welcome,” Rarity said, trying to keep herself composed while resting her hand on the crystal palanquin she had floating beside her that still bore an unconscious Blueblood. She’d checked his breathing and pulse with what little medical knowledge she had from a first aid class, and he at least seemed stable, just exhausted. She was worried the lack of food and water was going to affect him even worse than her. She knew Soul Reapers, and indeed spirits in general, didn’t need food to survive, but it helped maintain their levels of reiryoku. Without sustenance, Blueblood was likely to get weaker, and being drained by her newly awakened Sinner powers had in no way helped.
A problem to address once she’d established a stable position for herself, which required making the right impression in this new environment. With a breath to steel her nerves and straighten her back, she flipped her sweat soaked hair and kept a hand on the hilt of her crystalline rapier, having never deactivated her Fullbring since the fight with Typhon. “At any rate, let us get to it.”
There were several charred stalagmites that rose from the lava flow, and between them had been strung lengths of chain in what appeared to be a ramshackle construction of a bridge that led into the cavern’s interior. Rarity had little trouble leaping from stalagmite to stalagmite, bypassing the need for using the makeshift bridge, which she noted was so heated by the lava that even if someone did use the bridge, the metal chains would burn them. Even entering Tartarus, it seemed, was a painful act if one didn’t have powers to make doing so easier.
The nature of this place only revealed itself more the further down the vast cavern tunnel she went, seeing more grotesque graffiti and depictions of debaucherous acts of violence and lust painted upon the walls, or even the very ceiling. Then she noted the cages. Strung at seemingly random points along the walls of the lava river were dozens of black iron cages of varying sizes. Some were empty, but others were most certainly not, and Rarity paused on one stalagmite to stare in mute displeasure as she saw some people were packed into the cages, some wailing from pain as the heat of the lava river did to the cages the same as it did to the chain bridge, heating the metal to the sizzling level of an oven top.
“What is this?” she said, lips twisting in a mixture of affronted disgust and anger.
Sunburst sighed heavily, flying upon jets of flame as he hovered next to her, “The gang fights are pretty constant in Tartarus. Being strung up in the cages for awhile is a pretty common punishment for the losers of such fights.”
“It's horrific,” she said, immediately moving towards the cages with every intent of opening them to free those trapped within. Cozy Glow didn’t precisely stand in her way, but she flipped upon her chains across the ceiling like some bizarre cross of a spider or marionette, and hang upside down to look at Rarity sidelong.
“If you let them out you’re not doing them any favors. Losers like this would just get punished harder by those that slammed them in there in the first place.”
“Then that is about to change,” Rarity stated bluntly, and with a gesture she summoned her whirlpool of blood. In seconds she generated a small cloud of crimson sickles that spun with flashing streaks of red. Cage bars were sliced apart like little more than butter. For a second the prisoners within screamed as they fell towards the lava, but then red crystal platforms formed under them, catching the burned people safely.
Confused eyes of uncertainty mixed with relief started at her from many faces, although Rarity noted with an unsettled feeling that many other faces held nothing but dead eyed, empty stares of souls already broken by their circumstances. However, be they broken or grateful, hopeful or confused, Rarity repeated this gesture all the way down the length of the tunnel, jumping along and creating more crystal platforms as she diced cage after cage.
By the time she reached the end of the tunnel she had linked the platform together and was carrying along a group of nearly a hundred burned, exhausted Sinners behind her while Sunburst and Cozy Glow moved with her. Cozy Glow was giving her a strange look, one Rarity couldn’t quite read, while Sunburst continued to hover nearby, eyes concerned.
“Guess this is one way to make an impression,” he said, “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
Rarity took a deep, seething breath and said, “I’m doing what’s right. Even in Hell, I’m not about to forget how to do that.”
There was a tittering giggle from Cozy Glow, “This oughta be a good show. Chill, Sunburst, and let’s just watch how she handles this.”
The flow of lava led into what Rarity could discern was an enormous but unevenly shaped space within the heart of the plateau. The lava was stemming from some manner of vent in the ceiling of the cavern, situated in the very center, falling down into a small lake that bubbled as the main river streamed down towards the tunnel that Rarity was emerging from. Around this lake of lava were nearly a dozen big growths of rock, some the length of four or five football fields, and one of which jutted out right next to the cavern entrance. Upon these rock formations were tightly packed shanty towns, built from rock, or roughly hewn sheets of iron, built atop each other so closely that it was like looking at an ugly put together collection of random lego blocks. Torches and bonfires burned among the shanty towns, dotting the buildings with pin pricks of hellish light. More chain bridges spanned the gaps between the rock formations, or rose higher to connect to the walls or ceiling where more makeshift shacks hung.
Rarity couldn’t gauge how many people lived here, but from the constant string of noise, the screams, shouts, and even the nose of several small explosions from an island shanty town further in, she felt like she was looking at some kind of chaotic semi-warzone where thousands of violent people were packed together like sardines. Sardines that considered carving each other up to be an acceptable way to spend a Tuesday evening.
The people that Rarity could see were almost all either clothed in tattered rags, or a combination of bone and leather armoring that must have likely been harvested from their fellow Sinners. It reminded her of some of the “wasteland warrior” style films that Rainbow Dash had sometimes forced them to watch for movie nights, with enough spikes, skulls, and rough leather in view to put the extras in those films to shame. She almost appreciated the conservative style of Cozy Glow and Sunburst, now.
Her arrival had not gone unnoticed. While there were many residents of Tartarus who only peeked fearfully out of their shacks before disappearing inside once more, or others who seemed to have such broken spirits that they just huddled in corners and alleys, there was a veritable army of rough looking individuals who were crawling out of the woodwork to gather near where Rarity was lowering her crystal platforms to deposit the prisoners she’d freed.
“Hehehehe! What’s this!? What’s this!?” chattered one broad, barrel of a man with a shaved head and bearing a bandolier of sharpened bone across his broad chest. He carried a big cleaver over his shoulder, a big sharp square of metal with a handle that looked like someone’s spine. He towered over Rarity, and leered at her with undisguised carnal interest that made her skin crawl. “Never seen skin that smooth and pretty!”
There were howls of laughter and rude jeers from a collection of equally rough looking men and women from behind the man, rattling weapons. From nearby another group, headed up by a whipcord of a woman with bronze skin and wearing what looked to be a blood stained toga that was frayed at the edges, leaned on a staff that looked like it was made of stone, but pulsated with blood that dripped from the eyes of it’s carved skull at the tip. “Now who told this little piece of meat she could free all of these worthless flesh rags? Hey, Cozy Glow, who’s the new screamer?”
Cozy Glow had landed a distance away, her chains rattling as she giggled, her one eye glowing with violent mirth, “Not telling. Why don’t you introduce yourselves? Give her the traditional Tartarus welcome.”
Rarity could see there was a sneering look in the bronze woman’s eyes, and the big burly man didn’t look particularly happy to see Cozy Glow either, with the bristling air of rivals who knew better than to actually challenge the top dog on the pile. Instead, judging from the ugly glares they sent her way, they were more than happy to vent their hate and frustration on what they considered to be an easy mark.
The man strode forward first, hefting his cleaver and licking his lips with a long, rough tongue, “Heh, always fun to introduce myself to a new bed warmer. Hello little lady, I’m-
Rarity really didn’t care, and was well past done with the farce. Streaks of red light glinted, the sickles she’d kept formed and floating near the platforms moved with incredible speed. The big man blinked in brief confusion, noticing the sickles of blood red spinning behind him, not realizing that they’d gotten there by going through him.
“The fu-?” the giant man fell apart into bloody chunks, coughing a pool of blood as his pieces splattered upon the floor. Behind him his gang paused, some mouths gaping open. Rarity, eyes hardening to a cold, diamond edge, drew her crystal rapier and made a gesture. More sickles formed, along with larger scythes, disgorging from her whirlpool of blood in a torrent. She sent the weapons spinning in lines of crimson death among the big man’s gang, and within a mere second or two half of them were in no better condition than their boss was.
A few managed to rush her, one sprouting spikes of bone from his flesh, another’s eyes pouring out a black liquid that sizzled like acid. Rarity wasn’t particularly interested in giving them the chance to make use of whatever Sinner powers they might have, especially if they were weaker than their boss, so with barely a glance she sent forth crystal veins into the ground that then erupted upward in a field of tall spikes that impaled dozens at once, any that had escaped her initial barrage of scythes and sickles.
She did note with some interest that even when utterly dismembered, these people, none of them died. They groaned and screamed in pain, but even while in pieces their bodies still twitched. She could see that in some cases they were slowly being pulled back together by an invisible force, and she heard the rattling of Hell’s chains. The large boss man seemed to be getting reconstructed the fastest, but even then Rarity guessed it’d be an hour before he was intact again.
Plenty of time to deal with any other challengers. Ignoring the carnage she’d just created, she turned to face the tall, bronze skinned woman with her staff, her own gang having backed up from the sight of the violence Rarity had just unleashed.
“Introductions!” Rarity said, like a teacher addressing a classroom, “My name is Rarity. Miss Rarity, to anyone who wishes to be polite and get on my good side. Now I don’t particularly care what any of your names are. What I do care about is respect, and being afforded it. Are any of you intending to be disrespectful like this lot have been?” She gestured with her rapier towards the pile of shredded Sinners, and the swarm of her scythe and sickle constructs floated dangerously towards the other, intact gang, almost all of whom recoiled back slightly.
The woman with the staff of stone narrowed her eyes, smiling through grit teeth, “Pretty damn cocky for a newcomer-”
Rarity sighed, and moved. The woman saw the danger coming and tried to raise her staff of stone, the skull at its tip lighting up with some manner of oily green smoke the properties of which Rarity could only guess, and didn’t care to find out. She was faster, much more so, than this individual, and her crystal rapier flashed a line of pure red through the woman from top to bottom before more than a trickle of that green smoke had poured out.
She turned and walked away from the confused woman, sheathing her rapier a moment after the gang leader split in half down the middle from skull to crotch.
Rarity ignored the gasps and shouts of the gang behind her, sensing none of them were daring to come nearer to her, and several had flat out run off.
Her heart felt a little sick inside. She hated violence. She deplored everything about this situation. She wanted to be home, with her friends, enjoying a nice meal, some cool, clean water, and a relaxing night of watching movies together. Hell, she’d even take fighting Hollows over dealing with this... godawful place.
But she couldn’t afford to be bowed. She couldn’t afford to break. This was all... only just beginning for her, but she swore she would not let Hell win, even if she had to wade through miles of muck and blood to escape this place and return to those she loved.
The very people she’d freed from the cages were looking at her with a mixture of horror and uncertainty, as if they weren’t sure if their lot had improved not or not. Given the nature of this place, she could imagine they maybe were thinking they’d just been claimed by one potentially just as bad or worse than their previous captors. Rarity tried to muster a smile for them, but it was difficult, and she walked pas them to approach Cozy Glow and Sunburst.
“I want these people cared for,” she told Cozy Glow, “Can your Legion do that?”
Cozy Glow shrugged, “Taking in a hundred strays? Not easy, but I might be able to make use of them. Besides, you just gave a better show than I was expecting! Heheh, not like those two were top gang leaders or anything, but rumor of this is gonna spread fast. Solid first impression.”
“I didn’t do it to impress you, only to make it clear I’m not to be trifled with,” Rarity said, still feeling a little sick inside, but managing to keep her composure as she glanced at Blueblood. He’d awoken on the palanquin, his head raised weakly as he looked at her. She feared he might look at her with disgust or fear at her violent display, but her heart... warmed a little to see him just give her an understanding not of support.
Cozy Glow chuckled at her, “Well you’ve probably given the scrub level gangers plenty of reason to avoid you. The bigger boys and girls on the totem pole will take notice, but long as they know you’re with me, you probably won’t get directly hit in the streets. Anywhos, c’mon Sunny, let’s get Rarity and her boy toy, along with all these fresh workers to Legion HQ! I like to call it the Clubhouse!”
Rarity suppressed another sigh, “Not workers, Cozy Glow, people. We are to take care of these people.”
The girl gave a slight groan as she hung her shoulders and dropped her mirthful look to throw an eye-twitching scowl at the crowd in question, “I’m not taking in anyone who isn’t going to be useful to me. Before you jump on a high horse, Rarity, these losers are still getting a better deal than anything they’ve got a right to expect, so either shut up and accept my ‘generosity’ here, or you can have fun looking for a place for this lot yourself.”
It rankled her a little, but Rarity had already considered that prospect, and knew Cozy Glow was right. While she may have demonstrated her own power, in the short term, Rarity was exhausted. Her spiritual energy wouldn’t last forever without rest, and she couldn’t afford to try to make a go of this alone. She still... needed to use Cozy Glow, and Cozy Glow still clearly thought she had a use for Rarity. With Blueblood’s life also on the line, she couldn’t take the risk of doing everything by herself.
She clenched her jaw and nodded, “Very well... to your ‘Clubhouse’, then.”