//------------------------------// // Finishing the Job // Story: Painted Mirror // by Lord of Turtles //------------------------------// “You again!” muttered Rajrishi as he pushed at the coil holding him down. “Indeed it is cretin. Fate has forced us upon each other again it seems, except you're tragically alone this time.” She paused and reared up some. “You are alone, are you not?” Raj grunted and wormed an arm free. “Yeah, I am. You don't have to worry about Twilight hurling you across time zones again.” “Shame. I was looking forward to expressing my gratitude towards her.” She chuckled lightly and added. “It was hardly that far brother. A hundred miles at the most.” “Is that all? I'll have to tell Twilight she's been slacking.” He shifted under the huge snake. “Still friends with the ponies I see. Shame that.” “I'm not interested in your judgments.” He looked around for something to help him get free and found nothing. “So you're what killed the dragon, right? You poisoned her in her home.” “Correct. Game is scarce enough without a daughter of Bahamut frightening everything off, much less the clutch of mewling drakelings she intended to lay. Killing her was necessary.” Slitherscale shrugged as much as something without shoulders was able. “Do not tell me you are in an ire over that? Do you side with all things over your own kin?” “Not my kin snake.” Raj spat back. “Say that as much as you want brother, it shall never be true. You are marked as his by blood and breath as surely as I. It is undeniable.” She said, certain of her statement. “Sure, whatever.” Raj pushed at the coil again but it refused to budge. “What now? Are you going to kill me for wandering in here?” “Perish the thought brother.” Her coil lifted off of Raj's stomach and he shimmied back. “Were you any other being, I would see you die screaming, but you are my kin. Above everything else Briarus despised quarreling among his children. Hands should never fight hands, so he declared. And I show loyalty to my progenitor. Begone from here brother, with my hopes that you come to your senses.” She rose up high and stared him down, tongue darting. Raj looked at her for a moment and considered his options. He strung Crescent over his torso and clicked his flashlight onto his belt, his other hand resting on his ax. He backed away a few steps, keeping his eyes on the wavering snake. Just as Raj was beginning to think he might be able to escape without a fight, he was blinded by a streak of blazing color that rushed down the tunnel and ran headlong into the Naga. The creature drew back, hissing a curse as its coils writhed. Rainbow Dash hovered in the air and shouted “Yeah! Take that you weird cave monster, Rainbow Dash is here to kick your plot!” She clapped her hooves against one another and flashed a cocky grin. The Naga's eyes lit up and she drew back to strike “What is this? Another one?” Raj jumped forward and snatched at the Pegasi's tail, yanking her out of the thing's path at the last moment. The Naga sailed past, recovered, and launched itself again at the confused pony. Raj reared a leg back and snapped it up, driving his foot into the Naga's chin and fired its head straight into the ceiling. The length of it shuddered as thin lines of dirt cascaded down from the ceiling. It wobbled weakly as it let out a dejected hiss like a deflating balloon. “Outside the tunnel.” Raj said flatly as he sprang over the Naga's body, Rainbow Dash's tail still in his grip. He ran down the lair, dragging her along like a particularly uncooperative kite as the Naga slowly recovered its wits. The massive snake called out “Ponies again brother? I shall lay this ones bones on your doorstep!” Slitherscale dove to the ground and started slithering after the pair. He reached the end of the tunnel and hurled Rainbow up through the opening “Go find the Wonderbolts.” He ordered and turned around, ax out. The Naga was rushing forward, its form blurred into shifting hues of brown to mimic the tunnel. It glided up the sheer wall and dove towards him. Raj hopped to dodge its rush in and slashed, opening a red gash along its side. The Naga barely took notice of the hit and undulated its coils at him, buffeting him off balance. The thing spiraled around him and closed, attempting to crush him. Raj got his feet back and sprang straight up, one ax burying in the root ceiling. He pivoted off the blade and swung himself forward, barely clearing the circling mass of snake. He landed in a sprint, heading for the incline back to the surface. “I keep offering you kindness brother, but you spurn me at every turn. Why?” He heard the Naga's scales whisper against the ground and he dropped on instinct. The beast's uncoiling tail swung over him and crashed into the wall, shaking the whole of the tunnel. Raj bounced up to his feet and continued towards the entrance. He cried over his shoulder “Your kindness involves killing a lot of people I like.” He scrambled up the incline and drew his other axe. He spun as the Naga coiled up the wall and into the open. In daylight, it reverted to its white scales and fully opened its mouth, its whole head splitting to reveal a puffy maw slicked with metallic venom. Somehow, that didn't impede its ability to talk. “You still favor ponies over your own kind. Folly, nothing but folly brother.” “Stop calling me that.” He shot back. “But it is truth. The Hecatonkheire despised the Faustmare more than anything, and his children were bred to destroy her pathetic works. Your hands were made to crush equine necks, just as my poison is for burning their blood. That is the purpose Briarus instilled in all his children.” “Briarus is dead snake. What he wanted doesn't matter. It never did.” “You believe their lies as well. You are not ignorant, you are brainwashed! By that purple unicorn no doubt. Fear not brother, I will save you from these foul little monsters. But first, where ” She looked around for a moment before they both heard a tearing scream from above. Neither had time to react before one of the Wonderbolts flew in, leaking a white contrail, streaked in and planted a hoof directly against the side of the Naga's face. It was understandably surprised by this turn of events and staggered from the sudden hit. Just as its eyes were starting to line back up another Wonderbolt sailed in and smashed her right on the brow ridge, another one landing against the side of her head an instant later. The Naga pulled its head back into its coils and writhed, trying to guard itself. It snapped and bit at the circling pegasi as they darted in, smashing into Slitherscale's face and hood. Their speed afforded them damage, letting them hit hard enough to slough off scales with each strike. Rainbow Dash appeared next to him, sweaty and out of breath. “Hey Raj, I found the 'bolts. What is that thing anyway?” she grinned wide, cocksure as always. “A naga. Big, venomous snake. Has a striking range of about six meters, stay at least twice that away.” He said as calmly as he could. Dash rolled her eyes. “Pfft, how am I supposed to hit it if I'm that far from the thing.” “You're not. Stay here.” Raj pulled his bow and nocked his one remaining arrow before rising to firing position. “Wonderbolts! Make a hole!” The team of pegasi complied and backed off immediately. Raj lifted his bow and screamed with effort as he drew back the impossibly taut string. He had a bare instant to aim before he was certain his arm would fail him and he loosed, the string whipping forward so fast it carved a neat sliver of meat out of his forearm. He felt a stout pop as the arrow broke the sound barrier, the air around its flight path distorting heavily. The supersonic projectile didn't punch into the Naga, it simply passed through thing like it wasn't even there, entering and exiting a handful of times as it ripped through its layered coils of scales and meat. The shaft sailed through another hundred or so meters before it struck a stone and shattered to fragments, the head buried deep in the rock. The reaction from the snake herself was immediate. She started hissing and rolling, unsure what had just happened. The Wonderbolts formed into a phalanx around Raj, guard still up. Raj dropped his bow and pulled both of his axes. “She's not dead yet, stay sharp.” “Yes sir.” Fleetfoot rasped as she hoofed the dirt. The Naga lifted herself up, red blood staining the dirt. “You... you traitorous... vile little monster. You and your ponies both. Look what you've done to me!” She writhed madly, the ragged wounds in her hid standing out against the white scales. “Beaten to shit's a good look on you snake. I like it.” Raj smirked. “Let's see how much of that smarm you have left after I've devoured your pony friends traitor!” Her mouth split open and she rushed headlong at the group. The mob of them scattered, flowing around the attack. The Wonderbolts darted in and struck at her body, bruising flesh and breaking scales. Raj slashed at her mouth and head, keeping her attention as the pegasi wore her down. Every time the Naga turned to snap at one of the harrying ponies, Raj would make her pay for it with a slice into her coils. It was fast and frenetic, but it overwhelmed the Naga with action and targets, keeping it from focusing enough on any one person to land a telling blow. Meanwhile Rainbow Dash hovered over the fight, eyes wide with glee as she took in the sight of her idols fighting a monster. A low keen of excitement bubbled out of her and her hooves kicked at nothing, sheer joy robbing her of her voice. The Naga did not fail to notice the dancing, midair pony. The creature coiled itself close and sprang out, sweeping the area around itself with its tail to earn some breathing room, the rapid motion warding the Wonderbolts back as the tail swept Raj's legs out from under him. Then, quick as a whip, it launched itself straight up at Rainbow Dash. She saw the snake coming and did the worst thing possible, she froze, eyes wide and breath hitched in her throat as her gaze disappeared down the Naga's puffy gullet. Silver Lining was feeling particularly fast that day. In the end that's what saved Rainbow Dash's life. The veteran Wonderbolt zipped towards the striking Naga with alarming speed, smashing herself into the back of its hood with tremendous force. The snake let out a croon of alarm as it was only just pushed off course. The snake landed on the forest floor heavily, hissing with rage. Silver Lining flapped her wings to get away but the material of her suit had snagged on the burred edges of the Naga's scales. She'd hit it so hard she'd managed to get herself stuck. Fleetfoot and Misty Fly bee-lined in to try and free their teammate, but the Naga was able to easily defend that one point from their attacks. Raj ran in and started swing at its lower section, hoping the get its attention long enough for someone to free the trapped Wonderbolt, but it was able to slither itself away from his strikes while still dodging the two in the air. A few of Silver Lining's seams popped free and she started tearing at the rest of her outfit. Having none of that, the giant snake reared up, held for a moment, and then rocketed itself towards the ground back first. Silver Lining screamed in terror before she was silenced by a harsh thud as the Naga crushed her into the ground. Raj had a flash of memory back to when that happened to him and was all but certain the pegasus was dead. “Hoof in Mouth!” shouted Misty Fly as she dove down to help her fallen comrade. Slitherscale moved to strike at the distracted pony but instead took a flying haymaker to the jaw from the remaining Wonderbolt. Fleetfoot bounced off of the hit and settled over her fallen comrade, stance set as Raj worked his way over to the group. Slitherscale slid back, content to take a breather for a moment. Raj worked some mental math, trying to think of a way they could handle this down a Wonderbolt. He'd just settled on a plan that involved retrieving some lost arrows when he heard a raspy voice yell “Hey you!” drawing the attention of everyone in the Everfree. Rainbow Dash had recovered from her stupor and was pointing an angry hoof at the scaly beast. “You think you can beat up on the Wonderbolts like that? Think again!” she reared back and started zooming towards the monster. “I'm gonna teach you to-” Whatever threat she was about to make was lost as the Naga swung its tail up and smacked her out of the air. Rainbow made a choked little sound as she pinwheeled through the air and rapped against a tree hard enough the shake a scattering of autumn-turned leaves from it. She flopped to the ground and groaned, rolling listlessly. The Naga's mouth split open and she laughed, long and loud. Raj rushed over and stood over a listless Rainbow Dash, desperately hoping she could recover. He glanced back to the Wonderbolts and saw Misty Fly tightening a tourniquet around Silver Lining's leg, Fleetfoot standing in a similar position as he was. They both eyed the Naga, suddenly very aware of how precarious their situation was. Slitherscale quieted and grinned. “Do you see now brother? Do you see what these ponies have made of you? You stand over one of them, just as the other does. You sacrifice strength to guard the weak when an enemy stands before you. Foolishness.” Fleetfoot spat “Defending the injured is noble you filthy monster!” “Indeed it is snack number two. You are correct.” Raj blinked in surprise, unprepared for such agreement. “But you don't do that by idly standing, you do that by attacking!” At that she took to the ground and started in at Raj at a breakneck pace. Within an instant she was striking, mouth gaping and fangs snapped out. In that moment, Raj had a crystalline flashback to another fight, one that was months ago. Reflex took over and he dropped his axes, his hands coming up and reaching forward. The Naga lost Raj in the horizon of its opening jaw and felt a thrill of victory. It knew he was too close the dodge, too soft to endure a bite. It shivered with anticipation for the sensation of its fangs tearing into meat and then the throbbing pulse as it emptied venom, but neither sensation came. Instead it felt a painful pulling in the roof of it mouth, like the muscles there were being twisted. Realization hit her and all ten of her eyes widened in shock. The vile traitor had caught her by the mouth, his hands gripping onto her very fangs. Raj squeezed his black digits onto those slick daggers again, twisting them around with creaks of straining bone as his feet slid on the root heavy ground. He twisted and pulled the thing's head down, forcing the fangs up until he activated the glands and jets of poison shot out in mercury streams. Every plant the poison touched immediately started to wither and die. Rainbow scrambled to avoid the liquid death and marveled at the wave of corruption that started crawling up the exposed tree. After a few seconds, the poison ebbed to nothing as the sacs were emptied, leaving the Naga dizzy. Raj screamed with exertion and drove a knee into the gap between the Naga's teeth hard enough to crack its jaw. The thing hissed and rolled, dragging Raj with it. He kept hold of those fangs and kicked into its open mouth, boot sinking into soft flesh with each strike until he managed the land on something hard. With that leverage, he started to pull. Slitherscale started to scream in panic, it's tongue lashing uselessly at Raj's torso, until after a few seconds he heard a wet tearing sound and yanked the Naga's fangs free alongside fist sized chunks of bone and gristle. Raj thought Slitherscale was screaming before. He was wrong, now she was screaming. She started to roll and writhe, flinging Raj free of his perch as blood streamed from the ruined holes in her mouth. She tried to yell threats at them, but they were lost to a wet murmur. She slither-limped away, more injured than she could handle. He considered going after her, but then glanced around at the barely recovering Rainbow Dash and the still-preoccupied Wonderbolts. He thought better of it and called out “If I ever see you again I'll kill you snake. That's a promise from family.” The Naga gurgled something back as it made its way back into the woods. As soon as he couldn't see it anymore he ran over the Wonderbolts. “Fleetfoot.” “Sir. Silver Lining's alive but in bad shape. I'm going to send Misty Fly to take her back to town.” “Both of you go. It'll be faster and she needs the help.” “Sir?” she asked with a glance back at Rainbow Dash. “I can handle it. Don't worry. Get her out of here.” Fleetfoot nodded and got on the other side of Misty Fly with Silver Lining laid across their backs. The two flapped and took off towards town. Rainbow staggered up to her hooves and shook the cobwebs out of her head. She looked up to see Raj standing over her sternly, glaring down at her. She shied away from his gaze and sniffed once. “Um... I uh...” “Can you walk Rainbow?” he asked flatly. “Yeah, yeah I can walk.” “Good. Now I got one last thing to do.” He started towards the dead dragon. Rainbow looked up and wiped her eye. “Wait... what? Is that, is that it?” “Yeah, that's it.” “You're not going to yell at me for what happened to Silver Lining? For getting hit? For, um, for freezing up.” She trotted after him. Raj sighed. “No Rainbow. What would be the point of that? If anything, I'm going to yell at Luna the next time I see her for insisting I bring you along.” “What? But she didn't-” Raj silenced her with a hand on her head. “Rainbow, look. You are a civilian, completely untrained. Frankly, you did better than most civs would do in this situation, but any civilian would have been a liability. You're fast and have good situational awareness, but you have garbage instincts and you get lost in your own head. That makes you a good flier but a bad fighter. I should have told you to head back to Ponyville the moment the Naga showed up but I wanted you somewhere I could keep an eye on you, so that's on me. I'm sorry.” Rainbow looked startled by the apology and stared up at him for a long moment. She bit her lip and shivered before saying “Train me.” “What?” “You heard me. Train me, teach me how to fight. I don't want to be a liability the next time this happens.” “Rainbow, you're a small talking horse with wings. I don't think CQC would translate very well.” “I don't care, I want to be able to do what you do. Fight like... like a human. Like you.” Raj was silent for a bit before sighing “I'll think about it RD. Now, you may want to get some distance. I don't think you'll like this part.” The color drained out her face. “What? Why?” “There weren't any eggs in the tunnel when I looked. Which means she never laid them. If she never laid them, they might still be viable in her egg sac.” “Whoa, you're not thinking of doing what I think you're doing, are you?” She asked, staring at the dead beast with revulsion. “Probably, yeah.” He spun an ax and moved towards the enormous corpse. *        *        * The door to the library slammed shut and Twilight looked up from her book. “Ah, Raj is that you?” “Yeah, yeah it is. How many towels do we have?” He shouted from the front room. “What? Plenty. That doesn't matter.” She started trotting down the steps, a piece of paper held in front of her face. “Listen, I read your note and I think you mis-wrote some of it. I know you ate the macaroni salad, but what's this about a dragon and saving-” Her sentence died as she rounded the corner and finally saw Rajrishi. From head to to, he was completely covered in thick, orange gore. Much of it had gone dry but heavy patches clung to his arms and chest. Tucked under his arms were a trio of what looked like ovoid bowling balls. Oddly enough, what stood out the most had to be the dangling, foot long spikes tied to his belt with a piece of cord, oddly familiar but in a way she couldn't exactly place. She gaped, mouth working uselessly for a few moments before she blurted out “What!?” Raj shrugged. “I had a hell of a day Twilight. Hell of a day.”