Rarity’s hoof came to rest facing the trail labelled “Den of the Bone Dragons”. She stepped forward hesitantly, nervously glancing further down the path.
“Bone... dragons?” She felt herself trembling at the images her mind produced based on the name. She didn’t want to advance down this path, but after remembering the names of the others, she decided that maybe this was the best option. So, steeling herself, she began the long journey down the path, into the ever deepening darkness of the cavern.
As she descended, she noticed a small noise coming from the path in front of her. she couldn’t make out what was causing it, but it made her all the more wary. The fact that there were dragons down this path was bad enough for her, but the thought of something else made her very uneasy.
The noise itself, however, made her somewhat confused. It sounded almost like the squeaks of a newborn bird, or some other, small animal. ‘What could be down here to make such a noise? Could it be?’ She paused for a moment, a sudden, terrible thought crossing her mind. ‘I’m walking into their den, what if this is their nursery? Oh dear, that’s... unpleasant.’ With an ever growing hesitation and apprehension, she continued slowly down the path.
As she rounded a slight curve in the path, Rarity found the source of the noise. She was taken aback by what was causing it. Small, white plant-like beings were hopping about on the path in front of her, every movement punctuated by a small squeak. Were it not for the dire surroundings and her apprehensive state of mind, Rarity would have found the little creatures adorable. A small smile appeared on her lips as she walked over, bending down to get a better look.
“Well, how did you little darlings get all the way down here?” She asked, in a sweet, cooing voice, similar to how she spoke to Opal. Like Opal, the creature gave no verbal response. Instead, as it hopped close to her, it took a nip at her hoof. She recoiled, clearly in far less pain than she appeared.
“Ow! Why you little brute!” With that, she gave the small creature a swat with the hoof it had tried to bite. As she struck it, it exploded in a puff of white dust, scattering about the path in front of her. Rarity peered down at the dust for a moment, piecing together what had happened. She frowned. “Well, let’s not do that again. It is most unladylike to take a life, even if the life belongs to such a simple savage as that.” Turning her nose back up in the air, Rarity gingerly stepped around the plant creatures, making her way further down the path.
Luckily for her, the plant creatures seemed content to hang about their small section of path. As she escaped from their torment, she breathed a sigh of relief, hanging her head. Several of the plants had nipped at her again, but she had managed to get by without further injury. She lifted her head with a smile, ready once again to make her way down the path. Her smile vanished and her breath caught in her throat as she found herself face to skull with the creature she had forgotten existed in this cavern.
The bone dragon chuckled as it lifted itself to its full, imposing height. Just a head and neck, it was still terrifying for Rarity to watch a reanimated skeleton dragon leering down at her, the wear of time and elements evident all along what she could see of it. The bone wasn’t clean, nor whole, giving the monster a new element of fear. Rarity couldn’t move. She didn’t know what to do. This was no dragon she had ever seen, and it most certainly wasn’t like her little Spikey-Wikey. This was a true monster. And it was eyeing her with a sinister hunger.
Rarity was petrified. She didn’t know how to react to such a beast, let alone how to fight back. She didn’t want to run, as she might lose the path and be lost in the cavern for who knows how long, but she didn’t want to risk conflict.
Unfortunately, the bone dragon made up her mind for her. A sudden, unnatural bulge travelled up the neck of the dragon and into its mouth, still bearing a sinister smile. With a roar, the dragon let loose a ball of flame, aiming right for the small, stark white filly. She came to herself just in time, and leapt out of the way. She narrowly dodged the ball of fire, but not all of her was unscathed by the flame. Turning to glare at the dragon, Rarity flicked her tail furiously. It was then she noticed just what the fireball had hit.
“MY TAIL!” She cried, whipping about to stare in horror at her tail. A decent section of her tail had been burned off, leaving what was left blackened and smoking slightly. The smell of burnt hair permeated the cavern. Rarity didn’t move. Her entire form was rigid with untold rage. Behind her, the bone dragon let loose a gravelly laugh. At that sound, something inside the fashionista’s mind snapped. She slowly turned about to face the dragon, her eyes obscured under her mane.
“You have made a grave mistake.” She said, loud enough for the dragon to hear her. It cocked its head in amusement. Without a moment’s hesitation, Rarity lit her horn and charged forward, leaping into the air and loosing a bolt of magic at the dragon. Taking the bolt to the side of the head, the dragon lurched, losing its precious balance and toppling over to the side. As it crashed into the dirt, Rarity landed gracefully next to it, panting in rage. She strode over, the bone dragon struggling to rise.
“I should finish you off, but a lady never dirties her hooves in that matter.” With a small huff, she turned and continued down the path, leaving her adversary confused and defeated in the dirt. As she passed out of sight of the dragon, she paused and shuddered, reeling from what she had just done. She looked back momentarily. “A lady doesn’t normally resort to violence, but it couldn’t be helped, I suppose.” With that, she continued down into the darkness.
Unknown to her, the bone dragon, after it had recovered enough to rise back up and watch her go, had slithered back into the ground, where its body - and its other two heads - were waiting. The middle head gave it a look of disgust.
“What happened?” It asked The head that had been above, the one on the left, sighed and shook itself.
“A pony happened. I attempted to burn her alive, but she dodged out of the way. I did manage to singe her tail, and all of a sudden, she came at me with the rage of a dovah. But she spared me. I am ashamed.” The head on the right roared in anger.
“Ever since that Havalon arrived, you have become even more of a coward than you were before. Very well, since you are so incompetent in the face of a single, little pony, I shall deal with her.” With that, the head shot upwards, tunneling through the earth in search of Rarity.
__________
Rarity, now very deep inside the cavern, was staring down into a deep, black pit that lay in front of her. She could hear the strangest noises coming from below, almost as if there was somepony down there with a loud camera. But, heeding her better judgement, she stepped around the pit and quickly trotted away. After the past two encounters, she didn’t want any more trouble as she continued her trek.
She had barely taken ten paces down the path when the ground in front of her erupted, and a second bone dragon appeared out of the dirt. It raised itself to its full height with a roar, turning to leer down at the now petrified filly in front of it.
“So you’re the little devil that gave my brother so much trouble!” It began to laugh as Rarity quivered with fear under its gaze. “I cannot believe this. My brother lost to something so pitiful and pathetic as you.”
At that, Rarity forgot all sense of fear, unbelieveable hurt by the cruel words of the dragon in front of her. Her eyes filled with tears and she turned, trying to hide her face. “H-how c-can you say so-something like that?” She stammered through her increasing sobs. The dragon merely rolled his eyes.
“Just like I said: pathetic. That’s all you are.” In an instant, Rarity was facing him, the tears flowing freely from her eyes and a look of deepest sorrow and hurt on her face. The dragon was taken aback, and felt something strange within him. He began to feel very sympathetic for the filly in front of him. He didn’t know where these feelings were coming from, but they were growing ever stronger with each passing moment. ‘Maybe I was wrong to have called her that. I mean... well...’ His thoughts trailed off as Rarity spoke to him.
“Is it true? Am I really that... pa-pathetic?” She sobbed. The dragon shook his head, now trying desperately to console her. Rarity shook of the motion. “No! D-don’t lie to me! It’s... it’s true. I am pathetic. I mean, look at me.” She whipped her tail around to show the dragon, her flow of tears still not dried up. “Look at me! I... my tail. My be-beautiful tail...” She broke down, unable to go any further. The bone dragon, now lost for words, desperately raked his mind for something to comfort the young filly. Unfortunately, he could think of nothing but insults and cruel taunts, so instead, he slithered back into the dirt from whence he came.
Rarity waited until she was sure the bone dragon was gone, then turned about, a smug smile gracing her features.
“Works every time.”
__________
“You what!?”
The right head of the bone dragon was now kicking himself mentally for being such a gullible idiot. Upon arriving back at his body, he had realized just what he had done. He had been played for a fool, and that little filly was getting away, out of their grasp. He couldn’t believe his own mistake. But there was nothing to be done about it.
“Look, we still have a chance. She’s not far off from the end of the tunnel, but we are far closer.” The left head was saying, shaking the right from his thoughts. “If we get in position, we can still catch our prey.” There was a nod from the other two. As one, the three heads tunneled straight up, dragging their body with them in chase of their prey.
__________
“There it is!” Rarity cried, a wide, relieved smile gracing her features. It hadn’t been too long since she had encountered the second of the bone dragons, and now, she had her way out. The Element of Generosity was floating some distance down the path, beckoning her over with a soft blue light. Overcome with joy, she trotted forward, ignorant of the faint rumbling below her. It was only when the ground beneath her began to shake did she give pause.
“What in the-” She got no further as she was flung backwards off her hooves by a massive form rising up from out of the earth. There was an earsplitting set of roars accompanied by a loud crashing as the bone dragon, in all its unholy might, came to rest between Rarity and the Element of Generosity. The filly, who had been flung a decent distance, was now resting in a small impact crater she had made, her mane and coat filthy and disheveled. She rose up groggily to see what had caused her flight. Upon seeing the bone dragon, she felt very light-headed.
‘No! You mustn’t! If you lose consciousness now, that brute will surely be the end of you. You must fight!’ Shaking herself, Rarity rose up to her full height - which wasn’t at all impressive by bone dragon standards - and strode fearlessly up to the behemoth in the path.
“Stand aside, you ruffian.” She called up to the heads. All she got in response was a laugh. She frowned, lighting her horn gently as she focus on the spell she would need. “I said, stand aside. You have made a thorough mess of my mane and tail, and unless you wish to keep your unlife intact, I would suggest getting out of the way.”
The three dragons paid her no heed, instead choosing to laugh at her threats. “Can you believe this?” The head on Rarity’s left was saying. “This little pony thinks she can beat us!” More laughter rang out in the cavern.
“Really, what’s she gonna do, pretty us to death?” By this time, Rarity was having second thoughts about her plan, wanting nothing more than to end their unlives as slowly and painfully as possible. But she shook herself, focusing on the spell she needed.
‘Fifteen seconds. Just hold on, Rarity.’ She gritted her teeth as another bout of laughter followed a particularly rude comment about her flank. Through all their conversation, her horn had been growing increasingly brighter. One of the heads finally took notice of the increasing light. He looked down at her.
“What are you doing?” He growled. Rarity didn’t bother with an answer, still focusing. “What’s with the li-”
“Solar flare!” Rarity cried, unleashing the magic in her horn. There was a sudden, blinding burst of light that turned the entire cavern to solid white. The dragons cried out in agonizing pain, their eyes being pulverized by the unbelievable power of the light. Rarity, squinting and smiling smugly, dashed underneath the body of the bone dragon, running up and grabbing the Element from its place. The magic in the necklace recognized her, and sealed itself around her neck.
At the same moment, the white of the cavern was shattered, and the room appeared in front of Rarity. She hurried inside, not wanting to be stick around for when the bone dragons recovered. As the door sealed behind her, Twilight and the others came trotting up to her.
“Ya’ll look a fright, lemme tell ya.” Rarity glared at Applejack, who was doing her best to stifle giggles. “But ah see ya got yer Element. Hope it weren’t too much of a hassle.”
“Oh no,” Rarity purred, her voice thick with sarcasm. “It was an absolute bundle of fun. In fact, I think I want to do it again of course it was a hassle!” Applejack took a quick step back under the glare of the now off-white filly. “I’ve been bitten, burned, scared out of my life, insulted, robbed of half my tail, flung through the air like a rag doll, and look at me! Ugh...” She turned about to face Twilight. “Please, darling, tell me you can help fix me up?” Twilight nodded, and the two of them trotted a distance away. As they set to work fixing Rarity up, Twilight pestered her with questions. Eventually, she got the whole story out of Rarity.
“And so I used that Solar Flare spell you taught me a while ago to blind them and make my escape. I think you would have been proud.” Rarity beamed, running a brush through her mane. She had gotten it from Pinkie, remembering not to ask where the thing had come from. Twilight, on the other hoof, was frowning, trying hard to piece together the spell she would need to repair Rarity’s tail.
“Why didn’t you just use the Undead’s Bane spell? That would have vanquished the monster. Celestia knows we don’t need any more undead running around. Gives Spike way too many ideas.” Rarity blinked, her face blank.
“You know, I keep forgetting you taught me that spell, Twilight.” She admitted, smiling sheepishly. Twilight returned the smile with a shake of her head, her horn alight as Rarity’s tail began to grow back. Once it had reached the original length, Twilight cut off the spell. Rarity gave it a tentative flick.
“Ah... good as new, darling. Thank you ever so much!” Rarity hugged Twilight quickly, before trotting over to the door. “Now, what say we open this up and see what’s on the other side?” Twilight nodded, following her friend and calling the other four over. With a quick test to find the latch, Twilight gripped it and pulled. Once again, the door swung open to reveal yet another new and wondrous sight.
“Dibs.”