158. The Butcher of Bitsburgh
Rarity and Fluttershy had been hiking through the woods nearby Bitsburgh for some time now; it was around the middle of the afternoon when Rarity had realized the two had barely spoken during their whole trek.
No, that wasn’t quite right.
They hadn't spoken at all.
They walked a fair distance away from each other as well, and every time Rarity looked over to make sure Fluttershy was still nearby, she was always taken aback to see Fluttershy surrounded by yet more friendly forest critters.
It started with just a few birds, but had quickly gotten rather out of hand, with Fluttershy now making lively conversation with skunks, raccoons, squirrels, even wolves and spiders!
She was certainly an odd one, that Fluttershy.
But the other thing that struck Rarity each time she looked over, was that Fluttershy was remarkably beautiful.
Fluttershy’s long, shimmering pink hair was a lovely contrast to her pale yellow fur, and Rarity hated how right she was about how well Fluttershy would glow in that mint green dress Rarity had bought for her.
The soft pink tint of her wing feathers, the way she carried herself with grace and serenity, the delicate way her fingers moved when she lifted her hand so that a bird or butterfly may perch atop it; Rarity had never met anyone remotely like Fluttershy, and Rarity was baffled and frustrated by how much affection she had for the dear, despite… everything.
But all of those charming features were nothing, just dust in the wind, compared to Fluttershy’s most stunning attribute: her smile. Even several feet in the distance, partially covered by the forest foliage, Fluttershy’s smile was as radiant as it was contagious; it lit up the entire forest and made Rarity smile like a doofus every time she saw it.
Rarity hated it.
Fluttershy looked in Rarity’s direction and gave a bashful smile and wave. Rarity looked away, but she couldn’t dismiss the smile on her lips no matter how hard she tried, and now her cheeks were burning with shame for blowing Fluttershy off like that.
What is the matter with you, Rarity? She’s not even a pony! She’s just wearing a disguise!
Wait.
Rarity suddenly felt a pang of guilt and dread resound in her gut as that thought crossed her mind.
‘Just a disguise’? ‘She’s not a real pony’?
Perhaps Rarity was thinking too hard about this, but those phrases sounded all too familiar to things that Rarity had heard whispered about her own womanhood, with regards to her being trans of gender.
And the fact that Rarity was taking that abuse and pushing it onto someone else made her sick, and no actually it didn’t help at all that Rarity happened to be aware that Fluttershy was also trans like her! That actually made the situation quite worse!
But again, perhaps Rarity was merely overthinking. After all, Fluttershy didn’t hold her pony form in nearly the same regard that she and Rarity held their gender.
Did she?
Rarity had no idea.
And there was only one way to find out.
“Fluttershy?” Rarity asked gingerly as she approached Fluttershy, gasping and stopping in her tracks as all of Fluttershy’s little forest critter friends instantly dispersed. “S-sorry about that.”
“Don’t be,” Fluttershy said with a thin smile. “The creatures of the forest are skittish on the best of days, especially when it comes to hunters. Not your fault.” Fluttershy looked directly at Rarity and gave a heartfelt smile, and Rarity managed to respond with a polite, reserved smile rather than the smitten, giddy one she almost bore instead. “Now, there was something you wanted to ask me?”
“Ah, yes,” Rarity ducked under a branch or two to make her way directly next to Fluttershy; if the two were going to walk and talk, they may as well have been walking side by side. “I was wondering, how do you consider your pony form? What is it to you?”
“What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked.
“I mean—” Rarity struggled to find the right words; the last thing she wanted was to offend Fluttershy or to hurt her feelings. “The ponies of Equestria would consider it a mere disguise. But I have reason to believe that’s not how you think of it. But I don’t know, and I’m curious to learn the truth.”
“Hm, I’ve never really thought about it,” Fluttershy pondered, looking up to the sky and tapping her chin. “It was originally just a means to an end, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t proud of it and the way that I look in this form.”
Fluttershy looked down at herself, spinning around and giggling at the way her dress twirled around her body, which brought yet another damned smile to Rarity’s lips and at this point she didn’t even bother to fight it.
“I guess you could say,” Fluttershy pinched her dress between her fingers, “it’s like an outfit. An expression of who I am, who I want to be and believe myself to be, but not an accurate reflection of my entire self. This ‘pony’ you see before you is the real me, just not all of the real me. Does that make sense?”
“It does,” Rarity nodded, deep in thought.
So yes, to discredit Fluttershy’s pegasus appearance on the basis of it being ‘fake’ or ‘merely a disguise’ would be an abhorrent thing for anyone to do, but especially Rarity since she understood perfectly where Fluttershy was coming from.
But those thoughts would need to be put on hold, for something else very suddenly took precedence as Fluttershy tightly gripped Rarity’s shoulder and brought her thoughts and her walking to an immediate halt.
“There’s a dragon in these woods,” Fluttershy whispered, and the hairs on Rarity’s neck stood on end. Rarity wanted Fluttershy to say she was simply talking about herself as a joke, but she could tell by the ice-cold tone in Fluttershy’s voice that she was deadly serious. “She’s watching us right now.”
“Hm,” Rarity kept walking so as to avoid suspicion from their little stalker. “Do you think she knows that we’re aware of her?”
“I don’t know,” Fluttershy said. “But I know it’s not just her. There’s a group of ponies following her movements, about twelve or thirteen of them I’d say.”
“Are the ponies hunting the dragon perhaps?” Rarity asked, her eyes darting around to see if she could find a trace of their pursuer, but to no avail.
“No, I think they’re working together,” Fluttershy said. “And I think they’re hunting us.”
Rarity stopped. She put her hands on her hips, took a deep breath, and sighed.
“You know,” she said loud enough for anyone watching her and Fluttershy to hear, Fluttershy’s ears flattening against her head as she clung worriedly to Rarity, “if you’re going to try and stay hidden, you could at least not do such an awful job of it.”
Rarity was waiting for a reaction; a barrage of arrows or knives from the trees, or some kind of magical attack perhaps? She had planned on blocking it with her shield, or trying to use her barrier spell again, but—
—there was no response.
Until an athletic looking pegasus dropped out of the trees in the distance, just within Rarity’s vision; the pegasus looked right at her and grinned, and a quick glance over to Fluttershy, who nodded in confirmation, told Rarity everything she needed to know; this was the dragon Fluttershy was talking about.
As the ‘pegasus’ walked into view and Rarity got a better look at her, Rarity couldn’t help but frown. She had the look of a real ruffian about her, with dirty sea-green fur and a mane of golden hair slicked back in a particularly douchey-looking way. She was lean and fit, and didn’t seem to lack for confidence judging by the shit-eating grin plastered on her face at all times.
Quite frankly, she reminded Rarity of Rainbow Dash a little bit. But meaner.
The most notable thing though was the woman’s outfit; she was dressed in what would seem at first glance to be fairly normal armor— hide armor by the look of it, with several ivory accessories adorning her arms, legs, and neck. But Rarity knew better; she recognized that so-called ivory.
Dragon fangs. The woman was decked out with a great many of them, and Rarity had a hunch that her hide armor was made from dragons as well— a suspicion that only grew in intensity when Rarity turned and saw the sickened and ghastly look on Fluttershy’s face as the woman approached.
“Your perception’s something else,” the woman laughed and crossed her arms, cocking her head as she looked Rarity over. “Normally dudes walking through these woods don’t see us coming until we’re already making our move.”
“Yes, well,” Rarity shrugged, “I suppose we’re not really in the business of making ourselves an easy mark, hm? Also we’re not dudes.”
“Yeah, whatev—” the woman paused after rolling her eyes. Something about Rarity caught her attention, and Rarity somehow felt gross just by being under the woman’s gaze. “Oh you’re a Slayer huh?”
“So what if I am?” Rarity asked. “And who are you, anyway?”
“I’m Lightning Dust,” the woman said, proudly pointing her thumb to her chest. “You can call me the Butcher of Bitsburgh, everyone else does.”
“Oh no,” Fluttershy whispered under her breath, hand over her mouth as she took a step back.
“Fluttershy?” Rarity asked quietly. “What’s wrong?”
“She’s a dragon hunter,” Fluttershy said grimly.
It took Rarity a moment to put the pieces together; it was true that armed groups of ponies who weren’t Slayers often cropped up to hunt monsters in the Slayers’ place, and as long as they didn’t attempt to extort towns or ponies for ‘protection’ money, the Slayers left them alone.
But dragon hunter groups didn’t tend to survive for very long, for obvious reasons. But if they had a dragon working for them, then Rarity surmised their prospects looked far more favorable.
“Why?” Rarity asked, mostly out of genuine curiosity and absolute bafflement; she couldn’t understand why a dragon would want to hunt its own kind like this.
“Easy money,” Lightning Dust shrugged. “Bitsburgh is like this perfect storm of easily attainable creature comforts, but also being outta the way enough that Slayers don’t come by too often. A lot of dragons trying to escape from the Slayers and the Dragon Lords come here looking for refuge.”
Lightning Dust grinned eagerly, revealing her sharp, gleaming fangs.
“And they find me instead.”
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Boy, THAT'S not an ominous title or anything.
Shouldn't it be just transgender?
Oh. That's, not good.
That's worse.
Lightning Dust.
The dragon slayer.
SHE'S the Dragon.
10131479
nope, "trans of gender" is just a silly jokey way of saying transgender. kinda like how ppl sometimes say "home of sexual" to refer to being gay
the absolute lass
I actually have to feel sorry for Lightning Dust. She has royally fucked up. She will not have to fight only Fluttershy and Rarity, but if she hurts them, Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie, Rainbow, Shining Armor, and Big Mac will join the fight. She will fight three dragons, and four professional Slayers. She fucked up.
10131484
I have never heard anyone say "home of sexual" in my life.
10131506
huh, wild. i hear it all the time! i guess that's kinda the downside of using fun colloquialisms in ur writing, they don't always translate across regions or even social spheres
10131503
if i am doing my job correctly, u will extremely not be feeling sorry for lightning dust by the end of this arc.
10131509
If it's any consolation, it doesn't take away from the scene.
10131509
Very well, I will wait and see. Though, if she does harm Fluttershy and Rarity, she will at least be getting her ass kicked.