160. Lightning
“Okay, look,” Lightning Dust said casually, raising her arms above her head. “It’s been cool chatting with you guys, or whatever, but we don’t make any money unless we rip all the pearly whites out of your little yellow friend’s head.”
Rarity took a defensive stance in front of Fluttershy, who hid timidly behind her; regardless of Rarity’s rather errr, conflicted feelings toward dragons, she wasn’t about to let Fluttershy be murdered, especially in some random forest by some horrid self-proclaimed butcher.
“Fact she’s got feathers is pretty good too though,” Lightning Dust chuckled. “And honestly, getting to kill a Slayer in the process? Just a bonus! I’m sure your armor will fetch a nice price, and frankly I’m pretty sure I know a guy or two who’d buy your severed head!”
“Well I’m afraid your butchering days are at an end, Lightning Dust,” Rarity affected a radiant, confident smile. “We’re going to stop you right here and now.”
“It’ll be interesting to see how you pull that off,” Lightning raised her hand and twitched a couple of her fingers, “when you’re dead.”
At Lightning’s command, that barrage of arrows Rarity had been expecting was released from the snow-dripped trees all around her and Fluttershy, but not a single arrow reached either, as before Rarity could even properly process what was happening, all of the arrows had been tossed aside by a strong gust of wind, and Rarity now had her back to an enormous yellow dragon.
Also, while it was hardly the first thing on Rarity’s mind, it was nice to see that Fluttershy had discarded her dress to the ground sometime before transforming, rather than allow such a beautiful garment to become a casualty to her sudden increase in size.
“Fluttershy can you handle them?” Rarity didn’t wait for an answer as she charged toward Lightning Dust, though Fluttershy’s roar as she whipped around and slammed her tail through a tree, and the accompanying scream of a hiding bandit, was more than answer enough.
Rarity threw her hand-axe at Lightning Dust, who merely bobbed out of the way, conceited grin on her face as if she somehow believed she had seen through Rarity’s attack; she wasn’t prepared for Rarity to grab the axe in her magic and drive it right into the soft flesh of Lightning Dust’s shoulder, the disguised dragon letting out a pained grunt as the axe effortlessly tore through her armor and drove a bloody gash into her skin.
Lightning Dust merely scoffed at her axe wound and pointed her fingers at Rarity like a gun, a stream of lightning bursting forth from them that Rarity was just barely able to defend from with her shield.
But when she raised her shield to defend herself, Rarity briefly lost sight of Lightning Dust, and when she lowered her shield, Rarity was aghast to see Lightning had disappeared— only for a snicker directly behind Rarity’s ear to alert her to Lightning Dust’s new position.
Rarity felt Lightning’s fingers on her neck for a fraction of a second before electricity was pumped directly into her body, Rarity letting out a pained scream as she was fried by Lightning’s attack.
Rarity stumbled forward, disoriented, and was only brought back to reality by the crushing weight of her own axe being dug into the flesh of her back just below her neck. Rarity spun around and tried to swing her sword to take off Lightning Dust’s head, but the dragon was far too quick and easily evaded her attack.
Lightning prepared to shoot another bolt of electricity at Rarity, so Rarity raised her shield with a coy half-smirk on her lips. Lightning just laughed as she suddenly appeared directly behind Rarity.
“You’re so predictable,” Lightning scoffed, her fingers crackling with electricity.
“Is that right?” Rarity chuckled and grabbed the axe buried in her back with her magic, tore it out of her body and threw it directly into Lightning Dust’s forehead, causing the woman to stumble backwards from the impact. “I think you may be mistaken on which of us is too predictable!”
Rarity swung her sword, and if Lightning had ducked even a half-second slower, Rarity would’ve taken her head clean off, but instead only cut a few hairs from her mane.
Lightning jumped back and grabbed the axe out of her forehead, blood pouring from the wound down her face, and she lunged forward with the axe, aiming to bury it in Rarity’s body again. Rarity simply grabbed the axe in her magic and yanked it downward, causing Lightning to bow awkwardly and leave her vulnerable to a kick from Rarity’s hoof directly into her genital region.
Lightning Dust fell on her hands and knees and let a pained wheeze escape her lips.
“Okay, wait, this sucks,” Lightning groaned.
Rarity wasn’t interested in entertaining the butcher’s banter, so she moved to plunge her sword into the dragon’s head, but even with her injuries Lightning was still unbelievably fast, and practically disappeared before Rarity’s eyes.
“Guess this is my fault for underestimating a Slayer,” Lightning growled bitterly, and she put a hand over her face and began to tear off her skin like it was withered paper, revealing shining scales underneath.
Rarity didn’t know if she could interrupt a dragon’s transformation sequence, and she wasn’t sure if it was a better strategy to charge in or play it safe; she wasn’t feeling as reckless as she used to though, so she decided to play it safe, raise her shield, and prepare her attack for when the dragon revealed itself.
Lightning Dust was… huge. Like, obviously, she was a dragon. Rarity thought her to be roughly the same size as Fluttershy, though her body shape was much more in line with the type of reptilian dragons she was used to, rather than the noodly snake body Fluttershy had.
She had shimmering green scales and a golden mane, but the most mesmerizing thing about her were her enormous leathery wings, which she outstretched to show off how they crackled and shimmered with golden lightning.
She reminded Rarity quite a lot of Twilight Sparkle’s dragon form, and Rarity suddenly found herself feeling rather nauseous.
Rarity had no time to dwell on that however, as Lightning Dust’s increased size did little to reduce her speed, and she snapped at Rarity in an attempt to take Rarity’s head off with her jaws, though Rarity was able to jump out of the way.
Before she could come up with a battle plan however, Lightning Dust’s laughter rang through her ears as the dragon flared out her wings and a storm of lightning came down on Rarity, tearing her flesh and frying her blood as she fell to the ground with an agonized scream.
Lightning Dust came down on Rarity’s position with her claw, but Rarity was able to roll out of the way by some miracle, though before she could even stumble fully to her feet, she found herself under the intense pressure of Lightning’s electrical attack once again, wheezing and gasping for air as her burned body writhed on the grass.
Lightning Dust cackled and stomped her enormous claw on top of Rarity’s back, Rarity attempting to scream but all that escaped her lips was a bloodied gurgle. She tried to squirm out of Lightning’s grasp, but her body refused to move.
She refused to let this be the end of her. She refused to meet her demise in a damn backwater forest to some lowlife murderer. She refused to die before she could return to Twilight Sparkle and the others.
Rarity’s prayers were answered by a torrential gust of wind that Lightning Dust had to steel herself to keep from being blown away by, and even still it moved her massive body a few inches away; though Rarity found herself curiously unaffected by the sudden weather.
But of course Rarity wasn’t affected; she wasn’t the target of the spell.
Fluttershy came tearing through the forest and launched herself between Rarity and Lightning Dust, flaring out her wings and snarling at the green dragon, as she gently wrapped Rarity up in her tail and bathed her in a comforting light that dispelled her injuries.
Lightning Dust unfurled her own wings with a sneering ear-to-ear grin, bringing a storm of lightning down on Fluttershy and Rarity, though between Fluttershy’s nimble movement and her mastery of wind magic allowing her to deflect Lightning Dust’s attacks, she was able to escape deeper into the forest, with Rarity being dragged along for the ride as she was still curled up in Fluttershy’s tail.
“Where the hell are my incompetent lackeys?!” Lightning snarled as she stomped through the forest, narrowly missing Fluttershy and Rarity who had turned invisible thanks to Fluttershy’s magic.
“They’re not that incompetent,” Fluttershy said once Lightning Dust was out of earshot, breathing heavily. Now that Rarity had a moment to take stock of the situation, she gasped at the horrid condition Fluttershy was in.
Cuts and scrapes lined the dragon’s massive body from her face to her paws, all just little cuts but there were so many of them that the dragon’s yellow fur was stained pink with her blood, and she was gasping for breath. Rarity had a bad feeling that the bandits did more than simply cut her.
“What happened to you?” Rarity asked, biting down on her nails. “Are you alright?”
“I’ll be okay,” Fluttershy nodded, and though she was clearly exhausted, Rarity had no reason to doubt the sincerity of her smile. “I’m a pretty good healer. But these bandits are anything but incompetent. They use poison, and they hide their tiny bodies in the foliage to make it nearly impossible to find them at my size.
“And if I try to transform, then they outnumber me thirteen to one. Quite frankly, my healing and wind magic, and my ability to detect nearby life, makes me quite a formidable enemy to them. Dragons who don’t possess my unique skillset likely weren’t as lucky.”
“That’s horrible,” Rarity sighed and clutched her head. She was overwhelmed; she wasn’t prepared to fight a damn dragon of all things, much less so to do battle with a dragon who happened to lead a small but well-equipped and well-organized band of ponies.
“I’m sorry.”
Rarity and Fluttershy both apologized in unison, and both of them immediately clammed up as their cheeks blazed a bright red once they noticed.
“Why are you sorry?” Rarity chuckled.
“I let them lead me away from you,” Fluttershy said. “I was trying to avoid that exact thing, so once I realized, I had to find you as quickly as possible.”
“I hope it wasn’t my fault that you let your guard down,” Rarity said bleakly, her face turning paler than usual.
“No, no,” Fluttershy shook her head and gave a gentle, good-natured laugh. It was impressive to Rarity— no, it was incredible to her that Fluttershy could still smile and laugh so honestly in the shape she was in. “Like I said, these enemies know what they’re doing.”
“So you came back,” Rarity said softly, slowly realizing the gravity of Fluttershy’s gesture, “just for me?”
“Of course,” Fluttershy said casually, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you, Rarity. I’ll protect you. I promise.”
That was… a lot.
Rarity just stared wide-eyed at Fluttershy for a moment, but then she closed her eyes and centered herself; she could deal with all of that later. Right now, she needed to deal with their enemy.
“I’m at a severe loss without my bow or my knives,” Rarity groaned. “And without Celestia, or her magic for that matter. I still have the onyx blade. If I can hit her with that and activate its enchantment, that will kill her. But I have to actually hit her with it first.”
“I can help,” Fluttershy said.
“That would be excellent, darling,” Rarity smiled confidently and pumped her fist. “If you can give me an opening, I can deal the final blow.”
“Oh, yeah, sure,” Fluttershy nodded. “But I meant, I can help you with your magic.”
“What do you mean?” Rarity asked, though she had a sneaking suspicion crawling in the back of her mind that she knew exactly what Fluttershy was getting at.
“I can share my magic with you,” Fluttershy said timidly, covering part of her face with a wing but not enough that Rarity couldn’t see the bright pink blush on Fluttershy’s cheeks. “Um, if you want to that is. The procedure is a little, um—”
“We would have to kiss,” Rarity said flatly.
“Um, yes.”
Rarity took a deep breath.
She only needed to ponder it for a second.
“Fluttershy,” Rarity stood up and spoke with trembling nerves, “please share your magic with me. Please kiss me.”
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OK, WOW, you are a psychopath.
Pity.
And you won't. Because Dusty made her last mistake. She pissed off FLUTTERSHY.
Invisibility! Gotta love it.
That sounds super gay. Which, is presumably the idea. And hey, better than Kiss Players. shudders
Wouldn't it be bitch in this case? Although, considering that she's going to be dead soon, hopefully, I don't think it matters much.
10134453
ngl, fluttershy's line about how she only survived thanks to her very specific skillset was kinda just me marveling at how useful all of her abilities are from a writing standpoint
bastard is SO much more fun to say tho :3
10134464
... Good point.
I was wondering if Rarity had brought some of her weapons with her. It's a very good thing she has the deathcursed sword, because I doubt they could beat Dust otherwise.
10134464
Yeah, between her wind mastery, invisibility, and life detection, the suite of specializations that you gave Fluttershy aren't particularly good at offense, though wind can manage some nasty attacks, while those same specializations are perfect for stealth.
Fluttershy, kiss me you glorious fool!