Cold Scales

by Konatra

Deep Dark

It was not exactly in her plans to suddenly commit to a strict training regiment by an alien but odder things have happened to Spines as of late. She never even agreed to this but Ivy seemed...very scary, she had an aura of domineering strength that clearly outclassed whatever power she had, which only made her think about why was she in that container, the androids remarked how her crate was not a normal part of their manifest.

Well, Spines had little time to ponder as she narrowly avoided another swipe of the poisonous claws of Ivy. She wanted a first-hand experience of just how tuff her new 'toy' was. Once again she dodged another swipe but she knew she was not taking this seriously, every time she peered into those crimson eyes she saw a devious joy that said she could die at any second if she felt like it. "Your reflexes are too slow," Ivy said, suddenly getting well within Spines' strike zone.

Seeing an opportunity the dragon tried to swipe at the pale creature she aimed at the chest for a clean hit but only an inch away from contact she was gone. Spines had zero time to react as her body was slashed by dozens of thin slices around her form, she could feel the claws penetrate right through her scales but only very thinly like a paper cut. The second Ivy was gone she seemed to appear to her left with her claws outs looking pretty fresh with new blood, her blood. The last thing Spines saw before passing out from the poison in her claws was Ivy's eyes as she slowly licked her blood with a very statistic smile. "Not again." She was getting tired of knocking out.

But knocked out she was not as Ivy appeared behind the falling dragon and delivered a solid strike on her head which was enough to snap her out of her fading mind. "Now's not the time for that!" She declared while holding Spines up from her fall. "It's clear you'll never be able to hang around the big leagues like this."

A question rises inside of Spines, something she was keeping in the back of her head until now. "Is there even a point to getting stronger anymore?" With this Ivy frowned. "I mean, the world is safe now right? All the Void were cleared off the planet and there's not even a trace of them anywhere near, it's a big universe after all." A look of disappointment grew on Ivy, she let go of her grip on Spines and let her fall to her knees.

"Sorry to tell you this luv, but you're in the presence of evil you couldn't hope to comprehend now. You're a part of this story just like the billions of others out among the stars all fighting for the unified right to keep on living. Whether you know it or not your little world could burn in a matter of moments if the eye of our enemy is focused here." Her gaze dark.

Spines sat in her low position trying to comprehend such information, just how bad is it out there? "But...all that stuff happened like millions of years ago right? Who's to say that anything you guys know even exists anymore?"

Ivy didn't seem fazed by this comment. "Trust me, you'll find that the more you know out there the less you know, one of those things being time and space itself, this world has been untouched by real war for a reason...for all we know it's only been mere moments for them out there. The point is you can't afford not to be strong anymore, were it not for Tendrix and our technology your world wouldn't stand a chance to just one individual Void, the truth is Spines, you should be scared." Her tone grew deeper and her stance tighter. "In fact, you should be terrified of what's out there." Something in her red eyes shifted oddly...in a way Spines couldn't really describe, it was as if...a deep abyss was just revealed to her. Spines tried to get up but her knees buckled. "You should also be afraid of those you walk with now." Her mouth unhinged. her body opened up pores unseen before and sprout out sickly-looking white tendrils. They all stared at her as her body folded around more and more in ways she didn't think were possible until Spines was staring right into some unholy abomination too horrid for words.

In words as cold as the void itself, it spoke to Spines. "GODS WALK AMONG YOU" If her bladder wasn't already replaced with a cyber organ she would of swore she had pissed herself just now. She forced herself to blink to not see the horror, and when she did it was gone and Ivy was back looking rather bored still looking down at the flabbergasted dragoness. "Get what I'm trying to say?" She smiled sweetly. Spines began crying.

___

"What...is it?" Dusk couldn't help but shudder seeing the Androids once again stab the writhing flesh with a spear with a high electrical current. It's been days now and no matter how much work the Androids do in the town the cage system set up for this...thing, never seems to change. Finally, Dusk had enough and needed to know what in Solaris' name was going on.

"The remnants of the enemy that is continuing to regenerate at a fast rate" The Android on guard said simply as it drove another prong into the flesh. Dusk winced at the flash of light.

"Is there no plans to destroy it...or at least get it out of the town?" He knew the solution must of been more complicated than it looked but he needed to know what was holding them up.

"We are in the process of building a foolproof safe method of transporting this mass of flesh to our furnaces to safely dispose of it for good, until then we cannot afford the chance of chunks escaping and creating new forms. Dusk just gave a simple nod and left, he did not want to hand around that thing for too long.

Things were slowly getting back to normal all things considered despite the...everything else going on. It was hard talking to the occupying forces however, they were kind to all and respected the authority of Dusk but when pressed on hard questions they would divert the conversation. It was to be expected and he didn't want to anger any of the powers that may be watching, notably the unseen Queen. Dusk didn't want to be left in the dark like this so he went to the only place he could think of to get answers, Canterlot.