Azure Edge

by Leaf Blade

92. Forty

Rainbow Dash’s hands were still trembling as they gripped the mug of cider sitting on the Hunter’s Haven bar in front of her. The bar was dark and empty, except for her, with most of the Slayers in the Haven hounding Tempest Shadow, Spitfire, and Coloratura to give them details of the dragon fight.

It almost made Rainbow want to laugh; that all these ponies were begging to know more about what dragons were like in person, or how it felt to fight them, like it was some grand heroic thing to go up against those monsters.

Because most ponies in Hunter’s Haven hadn’t seen one up close. They hadn’t spent the night digging bodies out from ruined homes, or watching families weep as their children, parents, siblings, and lovers were snatched by fire, or collapsing stone and wood, right before their eyes. These ponies hadn’t seen an entire community experience the worst night of their lives.

They had no idea.

Rainbow was hoping to try and forget some of the things that went on in the last hour or so by drowning herself in cider, but every time she went to take a sip, her stomach just turned; really uncool of her stomach, to be honest.

“How are you holding up?” the weary voice of Captain Spitfire chimed in behind Rainbow.

“If I never have to touch another dead body in my life,” Rainbow answered flatly, “it’ll be too soon.”

“Yeah, that’s fair,” Spitfire sighed, her trademark humor completely absent from her voice; she just sounded like what she was—tired. “Mind if I join you?”

Rainbow shrugged, and so Spitfire sat down at the stool next to her and ordered a drink.

“Y’know, it’s funny,” Spitfire gave a single chuckle, but it was colder than the stone of the bar, “the mission was technically a success, we should be celebrating right now.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow scoffed, “congratulations, you only had to dig up three dead children today. Mission accomplished!”

“I hate to say this,” Spitfire groaned, and a painful smile stretched across her lips as she ran a shaky hand through her mane, “but only three dead kids is a success, when dragons are involved.”

Rainbow bowed her head against the bar, digging her nails into her scalp like she was trying to claw the horrid images out of her brain.

“I can’t believe this,” Rainbow whispered. “I can’t believe how gruesome this whole night was.”

“You get used to it,” Spitfire said drolly, taking a sip of her beer.

“Yeah?” Rainbow scoffed. “You still remember the first time you saw a dragon?”

“Like it was yesterday,” Spitfire replied firmly. “Me and my squad were doing a pretty banal routine flight, happened to run across a dragon who’d been hiding out in the woods. I’m the only one who went back home that day, and only cuz Celestia found me cowering in the woods and killed the dragon.

“She just swung her sword and sliced the damn lizard’s face in two with a single stroke. It was amazing, but…”

“But that’s not the memory that sticks with you,” Rainbow said coldly, feeling the urge to vomit welling up inside her.

“Nah,” Spitfire gave a pitiful chuckle, “nah, what sticks is the memory of Fire Streak getting ripped in half, of Wave Chill having his chest torn open by the dragon’s fangs, of Rapidfire being burned to goddamn cinders right in front of me.

“And I remember running away before seeing what happened to Blaze and Lightning Streak, but I got a good look at Blaze’s charred corpse. I don’t think Lightning left one. I remember cowering—weeping—underneath a tree, torn between praying the dragon didn’t find me and praying that it did and I could just die with the rest of my friends.

“When Celestia found me, all I could do was apologize. Over and over and over again, that’s all I could think to say, ‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry’. And y’know what she had the gall to say? ‘It wasn’t your fault’. Like, she’s right, but… but I bailed on my team.”

“You would’ve died if you hadn’t,” Rainbow said helplessly. She’d never seen Spitfire be anything less than excited and brave, and seeing her stony expression as tears rolled down her cheeks was excruciating.

“Maybe that would’ve been better,” Spitfire shrugged. “I definitely know that’s when the traditional ‘Slayer’s recklessness’ kicked in for me. Speaking of the recklessness, I hear you’ve got it now. How’re you holding up?”

Rainbow let out a shrill, high-pitch laugh that echoed in the empty bar.

“Not great!” Rainbow flashed a manic grin and slapped her palm on the bar, and even she couldn’t tell if she was trying to suppress her feelings or was genuinely cracking up.

“Don’t do anything reckless, okay?” Spitfire said, gently putting her hand on top of Rainbow’s. “We need you here. I know it’s selfish, but I need you.”

“I need you too,” Rainbow said, putting her other hand on Spitfire’s. “So right back at’cha, okay?”

“Okay,” Spitfire nodded with a little half-smile. “How ‘bout we make a deal; when we’re like eighty or something, we challenge each other to an honorable, life or death duel, and neither of us are allowed to die until then. Got it?”

“I don’t know if I’ll make it to eighty,” Rainbow sighed, and she thought about how she was only in her twenties, but she already felt like she was eighty. “How ‘bout— if we’re still feeling really reckless by then— forty?”

Spitfire bit her lip, but she put on a smile and pulled back her hand, clapping Rainbow’s shoulder.

“Yeah,” she said with a weary smile, “forty sounds good to me. Let’s do our best to not have that duel, okay?”

“It’s a promise,” Rainbow said with a smile, the first genuine one she’d had all night.

Author's Note:

gotta say, as someone who is easily invested in all of the mlp background characters, getting a grab bag of them to be Characters Who Were Gruesomely Murdered feels bad!

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!