Catpone Cerberus

@Lucid_Nightlight Quasi would be unable to understand what Ruby was thinking, as all her thoughts were now in her native language, but her emotions were quite the different story. There was the usual, but there was also something else coming to the surface, pain, the type of pain that told about some kind of suffering most likely in the past, and as Ruby drifted off to sleep, it got lot worse, leading to her start moving and pulling the chains in her sleep, she was in state of distress, and whatever it was she was thinking about, it had a strong effect on her mentally, and it wasn't a positive effect, this was beyond just losing a fight.

@Lucid_Nightlight Ruby just grunted as a response to Quasi's words as she took as good of a position as she could, the injuries were surprisingly small, so they would heal relatively quickly, not that they really were a concern to her, she was mostly just tired. She would let out a small growl when Quasi touched her, but she wouldn't do anything even if he didn't back away from that and went ahead with the 'hug' regardless, she was too tired to to care, not that she could do much in chains regardless. "I know how to escape, I just don't know where, there isn't any doors around that would indicate clear exit." she was still planning to kill the queen, but she had realized she needed to get out of here first. "Now shut up." her tone was...different, it lacked something. Regardless of if did like Ruby said or not, she would close her eyes, she may have had a superiority complex, but part of being the best was to understand when was the time to rest.

@Illiad Easle Ædriga started sniffing the air again, walking around a bit as she followed the scent's direction before pointing to the direction they had came from "Go there." she again inhaled her lungs full "Go away, no here." the scent was weak enough to indicate that whatever had been there had left the area. There was no prints on the ground anywhere besides their own, so whatever it was either didn't leave obvious footprints or knew how to hide them.

@Lucid_Nightlight The male indeed didn't understand what Quasi was say, either that or he ignored it, regardless he didn't do anything to stop whatever Quasi was planning. The attack on the tail went mostly ignored, but losing an eye made him angry, it didn't make him flinch necessarily, but it got Ruby free because the bigger dragon threw her to a wall hard enough for the wall get damaged before going after Quasi. It took Ruby a second to gather her surroundings after getting slammed to a thing for second time, it didn't help that she hadn't been able to breath for moment there, but she was quickly back in the fight, her body had been through worse. She didn't say anything when Quasi gave her his spear, in fact, if she wouldn't have taken the spear, one could think that she didn't even notice he was there, not a surprise by itself probably, but her demeanor seemed to have changed altogether, somehow she seemed even less happy than she had been before. Her thoughts would mirror that too, or more precisely, the lack of them, there was nothing redundant going in her head, just pure hatred, hatred that was far beyond what there had been before. She went along Quasi's plan though...kinda, she didn't throw the spear, that would have been useless, instead she waited for the right moment and then jumped into the bigger dragon's mouth with the spear. The bigger dragon again grabbed Ruby and threw her away, causing her to yet again get slammed to the ground, but she had done what she had planned to, the spear was now sticking out of the male's mouth, and he seemed to have trouble to get it out. Ruby got up quickly again, though she was visibly getting tired, a simple spear wasn't enough to take the bigger dragon down, but it hurt enough for Ruby to do her next plan, and climb on the bigger dragon's neck and slowly but surely start digging into his scales, the spines on the dragon's back were painfully digging into Ruby as she did this, but she didn't let go, and if Quasi was still distracting their opponent, he didn't have time to roll over to crush her, so he would eventually collapse when Ruby got through his scales and cut his spine and arteries from the neck. If she did get crushed, she would climb back on and continue. Quasi would need to get his spear from the fallen enemy's mouth himself, as Ruby didn't bother do it..or anything in that matter, as she just jumped back on the ground and started limping back to the chambers, ignoring everything and everyone. She didn't even seem to care about the injures she had gotten, it of course wasn't clear how badly she had been hurt from just looking at her, but what was visible was that she was limping, and it also seemed that she was bleeding from somewhere in/on her lower body, as evidenced by the small amount of blood dripping down from there as she walked, though the source was hard to spot since she was also covered in blood of their enemy.

@Lucid_Nightlight "Territory." Ruby simply pointed out before they were brought into the arena, it really wasn't anything more complicated than that. "I hope he has enjoyed it." she commented "Worthless male." the latter was said under her breath and was targeted at their opponent, and when the fight started, Quasi would find himself ignored by both dragons, he obviously wasn't the bigger concern for the opponent. The fight would start slowly, Ruby and the male would stalk each other mirroring each other's movements, while also having some sort of conversation in their native language, most likely insults considering the tone of voice, and any attacks from Quasi was met by a counter attack that didn't seem to take much effort. The fight would eventually pick up pace, and unlike with the previous opponent, Ruby was seemingly aiming for more lethal strikes, the throat and neck to be exact, and she seemed to be doing fine job, though it seemed that she had trouble to sink her hits deep enough to hurt the bigger dragon, something that most likely wouldn't surprise Quasi if he had tried to attack already, since the enemy's scales were not only as tough as Ruby's, but also thicker than Ruby's because of the size difference. Something went wrong though, it wasn't clear what, since Ruby moved around so much that it was really hard to keep up on what she was doing, but suddenly she was hit, and that hit caused her to stagger enough for the bigger dragon to just grab her and slam her to the ground. It was quite a powerful hit, and the sheer force of the slam was so great that it was really a testament to her body's durability that she was still alive after it. This didn't take away her fighting spirit, as she struggled and threw insults in her native language at the male while he held her down, but it was pretty clear that she was in trouble, as the opponent put more and more weight on her, eventually leading to her gasping for air between insults as it was getting harder to breath, it seemed that this species really liked to cause pain and suffering to their enemies.

@Lucid_Nightlight "Survival." Ruby simply stated "That is what I fight for, it is the purpose of life." she added, seemingly ignoring most of the speech "What happens if someone you care about betrays you? Will you just let it go because you care about them?." "Would you be willing to kill your mother if she stole from you?" "Or would your emotions stop you?" "You tried to use me being here as proof that I'm not what I claim, but do you want to know why I am here?" "I'm here to plan a revenge, a revenge against my mother, plan the best way to get her worthless head hanging on the wall of my cave she stole from me."

Doesn't need to be stronger necessarily, just bigger...it's easier to just explain what kind of situation I'm thinking of. The opponent would be a bigger dragon from Ruby's species, how they were caught? no idea, maybe they're there willingly? anyway, the fight would start by it looking pretty good for Ruby, Quasi would be ignored by both because like Ruby, the other dragon wouldn't see him as much of a threat, since with even Ruby having bit trouble to get through the opponent's scales, a spear, even enchanted one would be like poking a bear with a long needle. But then Ruby would make a mistake, as even she isn't perfect, and with the opponent being not any less intelligent as her, they would use it to their advantage, and Ruby would end up being crushed between the ground and the opponent's leg/claws in a way that she can't free herself since even strongest of dragons can't lift several times their own weight that easily.(this would also have mental effect on her due to a certain memory but I'll mention about that bit later in this.) This is where Quasi would finally come in, the bigger dragon would be focused on Ruby, insulting her and so on, so Quasi would have a change to do something, not to defeat the dragon necessarily, but at least free Ruby, they could then together finish the job. Now, this wouldn't necessarily work as impressing Ruby, since acknowledging Quasi's effort would mean admitting that she needed help, but it would help a bit (there won't be anything that Quasi could do that would make Ruby immediately fall in love, it will be a process of slowly warming up regardless of what happens, since when she says she don't feel certain emotions, she truly believes it (for most of them)) and it could be the trigger for Quasi learning about Ruby because... Like said, getting crushed and thus trapped would bring up a rather painful memory to Ruby's mind (it won't be revealed what exactly happened in any point, but the effects it had to her will come apparent.) and she would act bit different after the fight. Instead of celebrating or anything, she would just start walking back towards the chambers even before the guards would come, being lot less talkative, and even when she would speak, she would be lot less prideful and sound just lot more tame, she of course would deny this if asked about, but this is when Quasi could see bit deeper behind the barrier that is her act if he reads her mind. If you want a situation where Quasi could truly prove himself, he would need to fight someone alone too, since there Ruby wouldn't really be able to come up with a excuse to dismiss his efforts with. The general "rule" with Ruby is "show don't tell", what I mean is, talking about friendship or emotions or such, it will only annoy her, but doing (or saying) things that show one cares about her without literally saying "I care about you", that makes her warm up slowly but surely, even if she doesn't really show it that clearly necessarily.

"Yes, though the tricky part is that the mistakes need to be genuine mistakes, if you make mistakes on purpose, it becomes obvious." Jenna agreed "You start making mistakes in making mistakes so to speak." she sat down on the bed and dropped on her back, looking at the roof "It's a fine balance, don't be too perfect, but don't screw up too badly either."

"For army it tends to be true now that you mention it, there usually is something wrong if they're around." Jenna realized "But the police effect is weird." "I have noticed it quite a lot, because I live in more shadier part of the city, so sometimes when they're around I feel like walking alone is illegal or something." her tone was humorous "Funnily enough the shady people make me less nervous than a police car does."

@Blitz Boom "As unexpected as it may be, I hope that too." Ruby admitted "Because as little as I care about the survival of weaklings, I'm not fan of my mother's actions." "I don't know if it's spite or something else, but I want the last thing she sees be the weakest of her blood standing over her while she takes her last breath, and if that means I have to ensure the survival of my sibling, then so be it." "But for me to be able to ensure that, he first needs to trust me, because he's inexperienced, but won't listen anything I may teach him if he's in state of fear." Charir didn't really mind Leviathan, as long as she didn't do any sudden moves, from the two females Ruby was the bigger threat, so maybe bit stupidly he ignored the lesser threat, though his attention got away from threats altogether when he saw Leviathan doing her magic, because while he felt fear towards Ruby, he was still just a kid, and his curiosity took over when he saw something he had never seen before. ----------------------------------------------- "Matches the description." Nada simply agreed, she obviously didn't know what they were called, but what Ziggy explained sounde like what she was talking about. What came to the Elements of harmony, she didn't know much about them, she knew they were a thing but she hadn't yet fully understood what exactly they were. "They tried to get me when the forest started to get overrun by them, but I managed to avoid them until they were gone." "And it's not just the town that has weird tales, Equestria as a whole is quite the odd place, it was before I went to hiding, and based on pony history, it hasn't really changed, though I have barely gotten past the few years after I went to hiding, so I can't say much about the current day." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scarecrow waited for moment longer before answering, being able to sense Bellflower he could tell when she was really gone "Firstly the feather, that's expected, my wings look, feel and work like they're covered in feathers, but they're not, they are made of the same black growth that you can see on my hind legs, it just has taken the form of feathers, a form that it loses when separated from me." he took the two jars and offered one to Lyriel as he spoke "And for the rest.....there's something I didn't mention when I told about this place, I can feel something in this place, a presence, a powerful one in that, which the ghost and our companion can also feel." "This presence frightens me for reasons I don't know, and as it turns out, that mare, Bellflower as she was called, she is the source of that presence."

@Lucid_Nightlight "You sound like a pony." Ruby dismissed, she wasn't one for sermons about emotions and friendship "The lack of emotions is not a choice I have made, it's my nature." "I don't know if we truly lack the ability to feel certain emotions, or if we just never feel them because there's no need for them, but it's something we all lack." "There's only one egg, so we don't have siblings, fathers are either chased away or killed when they have filled their purpose, and mothers....I sometimes wonder how we are still around, because though we are superior to other creatures, we really don't bother making sure our bloodline survives." "You would have died very quickly if you would have hatched to one of us." "So we don't need love, compassion, and other such emotions, they would only make us hesitate and thus lose us our lives."

@Illiad Easle Ædriga would wake up not long after Ætheron had moved to the entrance, she had been aware of what was happening around her for bit earlier but hadn't been fully awake before now. "Good Morning." she would say, though the word 'good' would need bit more practice, she then inhaled her lungs full of morning air, seemingly noticing something before sniffing the air curiously and following a scent until she ended up sniffing the ground around the camp, far enough that it was just outside of the area that the fire illuminated during darkness. She didn't recognize the smell but it seemed that whatever it was was gone, so she turned to Ætheron with calm expression "No here now, here night."

@Lucid_Nightlight "You're not wrong." Ruby admitted before the other Ruby left, she had asked only out of curiosity, since she wondered who were on the other side if all of them had been put here, were they just some random dragons? She looked thoughtful when the other's were taken away, why would they put her in a team right after she had shown that she does great alone? and where were the others taken? would they end up fighting each other? What was the 'queen' planning? "Simply put, if your society is anything like ponies, you would call my upbringing abuse." "Our homelands are brutal and unforgiving, you either kill or be killed, you either survive, or you don't." "This is true from the moment we hatch, there is no rulers, no hospitals, nothing related to civilization, only nature in its harshest form." "There is a reason why nobody has heard of my kind before, any outsider that finds their way to the homelands will be killed before they even realize they are in danger." she sounded proud of her homelands, like she believed it was the best way to live.

"Too bad better senses isn't something you can learn." Jenna said as she settled in. "Experience just means I have made more mistakes than you." she pointed out as she took her phone and started writing "What makes humans and dragons special in the animal world is how we teach others so that they don't need to repeat our mistakes to learn something." "But sometimes mistakes can be helpful, meeting you was a result of a mistake, and sometimes mistakes may distract our enemies." she put the phone away "Talon is a full of individuals lot smarter than we combined, but that can sometimes go against them, if we make a mistake, it may be overlooked because they think I wouldn't make such mistakes."

"I know." Jenna said with a smile before looking at the mostly empty streets around them "It's weird..." she started "...police and military has the purpose of keeping people safe, but seeing them never makes me feel safer." there wasn't any specific reason why she brought it up, the trucks had just brought it to her mind "And I hear that many people even when they haven't done anything wrong get the feeling like they have when they see a police around." "We humans are weird."

@Illiad Easle Ædriga had no reason to stop Ætheron, so she just watched for a moment when he went to sleep before returning to her book, scanning it through to see if there was anything she had missed. She would then put the book close to Ætheron's stuff and bury her leftovers away from the camp, there wasn't a lot of leftovers but enough to attract scavengers so it was better to bury them. She stood awake in thought for some time longer but would eventually also lay down to sleep.

@Lucid_Nightlight Ruby ignored the last words of the Icewing, she wasn't here to impress those weaker than her. She didn't cause trouble for the guards, walking back without a fight, it wasn't time to cause trouble yet, she wanted to see how things worked here first, rushing things would only make leaving harder. She looked at Quasi like his question was weird "As hot as I need it to be, though after certain point I will burn myself." "Ice is very easy to turn into steam, if he had breathed water my fire would have been lot less effective." though water breath would be very much useless in combat until you fought someone who was literally made of fire "and I don't drink". she faced the other Ruby (assuming she could move her head) "Was that lizard someone from your acquaintances?"

@Illiad Easle Ædriga didn't flinch this time because she saw that Ætheron was going to touch her, she wouldn't protest, though she wouldn't react strongly in a good way either, because comforting touch wasn't something she was experienced before, so for her it was just a touch, though in a way it still communicated the right message since any non-painful touch was a surprising and thus a pleasant experience. Ætheron was right about her not understanding what he had said that well, but it wasn't only because she was lacking understanding on words, but because something in the tone got her by surprise so she forgot to even try to translate it, there was a difference between a friendly tone and...well, this, she didn't know the word for it because she had never experienced it. She would also allow Ætheron's hug, though it wasn't hard to tell that she wasn't really sure how to feel about it or how to react to it, part of her enjoyed it a bit but other part of her felt nervous being so close to another creature.

@Lucid_Nightlight "I won't." Ruby only responded as the frost breath was met by her hot fire breath, creating steam, which combined with Ruby's smoke made a visual block between the two, and before it was gone, the Ice dragon would hear "Predictable, predictable,predictable." as Ruby suddenly came from his side, jumped, and while leaping over him, she grabbed his wings and pulled them in direction they weren't meant to go, breaking them. Sure wings weren't used in this fight in the first place, but it still hurt when they got broken, and that was what Ruby was trying to do, cause pain. Ruby would only use her breath to counter the ice breath of the other dragon, and though she would get hit by it few times, it wasn't hard to melt it away when you were able to breath fire. In this fight Ruby used her smaller size to her advantage, moving a lot and unpredictably, going over and under her opponent, every time slashing or slamming him when she did, she too got hit some times, but the bigger male wouldn't get the change to penetrate her scales, so all it would be just blunt hits that at worst may crack a bone, but nothing less than one breaking in two would slow Ruby down. She would do this until the bigger dragon would be too much in pain to stand, her exact strategy would change based on her opponents actions, but she never aimed for lethal hits, only those that were the most painful. When eventually the bigger dragon would collapse, still alive, Ruby would move around him like a predator stalking its prey "Pretty little thing looks all proud, but isn't really special." she would taunt with insulting voice "I will keep your head as a prize!" she imitated, before returning to her normal voice "Well, I won't, you're not worth it." she would then proceed to finish the job, but not quickly nor cleanly, she made it as long as painful as possible, and though this was partly for her own entertainment, she was also sending a message, and when the time was for the final blow, which was breaking of the neck, she didn't look at the Icewing, no, she stared at the assumed queen, right to her eyes, as she said something in her own language.

@Blitz Boom Ruby did notice the bitterness in Leviathan's comment, but she just acknowledged the words with a nod and didn't otherwise react, she knew Leviathan didn't approve of her kinds way to live, so there was no point in making that a conversation. "I didn't ask for specific insults so I wouldn't be able to tell you regardless of you asking or not, but if they are anything like what I was called, they are just different ways to say how useless and weak he is." Ruby explained even though Leviathan didn't ask "They are the most insulting ones for our kind as you may have guessed." and probably the only ones that would stick, since for example insults relating to what they looked like didn't do much because the opinions of others didn't matter to them since everyone else than they themselves were wrong. "And he isn't scared, because he can't sense me as clearly, the food is filling his senses" "He isn't stupid, so he has most likely realized that I won't kill him, but because of his upbringing, his fear of me is instinctual, and I can tell you, getting rid of such reactions isn't easy." she would know, there was lot of things she had to get rid of to be able to live as a pony. "And don't take that as me praising him, our kind just generally isn't stupid, even the youngest ones, bit narrow-minded maybe, but far from stupid." the thing about hating everyone, or in Ruby's case, almost everyone, was that you could easily critique your own kind even when you saw them as the superior species, because you hated them as much as you hated everyone else. It wouldn't take long until Charir had finished his food too, leaving only the slightly damaged pelt and bones like Ruby usually did, but he didn't bury them, not because he usually wouldn't, but because he was too scared to leave the cave to do so, and instead he backed away and laid down, he wasn't going to sleep, but after such meal it was good to rest a bit, though resting didn't mean he didn't keep his eye on Ruby. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nada smiled at Agni's reaction, simple lighthearted things like that were nice after everything that had happened. She again listened without interrupting, she didn't really know anything about different spirits or golems but they didn't sound like the most unbelievable thing out there. "I don't know if they're actually intelligent but the way they move is not normal for plants...though then again Lyriel spoke with them so there hast to be something...anyway, I don't know if they eat ponies, I have never seen them catch anything, but they have tried to catch me few times, especially lot during that one time when the forest was overrun by them until they suddenly vaporized." "I have also seen these giant flytraps that let out some kind of gas and seemingly hunt meat." --------------------------------------------- Bellflower seemed surprised that the creature could write, but other than that her expression didn't change "Yes, in fact, it's more than my brother needs for his tests, I didn't expect the feather to turn into..." she looked the now closed jar from closer "...whatever that is." she looked towards Scarecrow in a way that indicated she expected him to explain but Scarecrow just shrugged. "I'm done here, so until any of you have something you want to ask or say, I'll wish you good luck in the game and will leave you alone." and so she would do if there was nothing more, the ectoplasm was already next to Scarecrow so that was not a worry either.

@Lucid_Nightlight So this place used lot of locks, a good sign, as that would mean less magical seals, and they were easy to break, but at the same time, it meant she had no idea what way was out, it would be a tough fight to get out, and would take bit more observing to figure out, but hey, at least she could have fun while in here. "Bigger they are, more fun they are." Ruby said with a grin, she didn't really care for the history of the place, because she agreed with the speaker, this was more fun. She looked at who she assumed was the Queen in a way that told that she looked down on her, oh it had to annoy her so much, this small dragon looking at her like she was nothing. She waited for the fight to begin. (how big is the Ice dragon about?)

Both can be the case at the same time, it will just take some warming up to both directions, She's somewhere between 150 and 200, almost 200 like she herself says, 50 years is their full maturity, so in human years it would be something like 25 - 30 maybe? she can live for several thousands of years so it's hard to translate to human years. She has lot of things figured out, but she also has things to learn, so young-ish adult? Arrow isn't her type either, and like said, romance would only work with dragons (but more greed based attachment works for other creatures). There isn't necessarily a one specific thing but, here's few points. Firstly, regarding this You're right, it didn't work, because while Ruby appreciates bravery and confidence, she doesn't like cockiness, there's a fine difference. Using her for example, she has very high view on her abilities yes, and she does not fear a fight that could kill her, but she's not stupid, that's why for example she hasn't tried to take over Equestria, she doesn't fear the ponies, she thinks they are weak, but she realizes that she would be absolutely destroyed by the magic ponies control. This is also why she is in Equestria in the first place, she realized that needed to gather her strength to strike back. In fact, seeing someone fight around their weaknesses, use their head to solve their situation, that is more impressive to her than someone who's just physically strong and who blindly fight everyone and everything. Also, trying to prove that one is better than her, that won't work, because there's 2 outcomes, either they will show that they are not and she starts despising them more, or they actually are and she doesn't want to stay around them because that would mean admitting defeat. The fact is, that Quasi probably won't impress her when it comes to strength, but if he shows that he can use his head, he could get some respect. I'd say we should use his mind reading as help, he would through that learn more about Ruby (when in right situations (hint, spying her dreams tells a bit.)) and from that could figure out what strings to pull to get her emotional guard down (works only if they are alone and she doesn't hate him at the moment.) because ultimately what Ruby is now is an act, a front, because while she is rather emotionless by nature, she is hiding great emotional pain, and if someone gets her truly believe that they care, that is a way for warming up. To give an example, in other RP Ruby is in, she has started to take a liking to a female dragon that's lot smaller (and several hundreds of years older), because she has managed just that. There's also the whole saving one's life trick, since even if Ruby would have hard time accepting and admitting that she needed help, she couldn't deny the feat, though it must be done in a way that it doesn't feel forced if it's done (for example the hole thing from the old one was kinda forced.) and it doesn't need to be literally life saving, just saving her from a helpless situation. and lastly, speaking of using one's head, to return to this a bit there obviously can and should be situations where Ruby can't win, but they can be done more smartly than by just adding magic, for example, let's take the capture scene, the original didn't have really anything wrong with it other than there wasn't really any chance for Ruby to tell something was wrong, but it's a one where I can quickly come up with different approach for. Instead of having the darts enchanted with anti-Ruby's-scales magic, they could have realized that the darts don't stick, and then figured out a other way, like turning the thing causing the sleep into gas and making her inhale it, or sacrificing one of their own to get one of the darts to stick inside her mouth. The end result would have been the same, there just would have not been need for the enchantment. Do you get what I'm trying to say? (It's late, my writing is probably pretty rambling-like)

@Lucid_Nightlight Ruby stayed quiet when the guards arrived, she didn't care if they were working for the other Ruby, they were guards, and to learn enough to escape, she needed to pay attention to everything and anything. She would walk on her own legs, head high, "Let's see if this one can actually put up a fight." she would secretly check everything she could with her senses, how many guards, how many weapons, how many locks, where they were, and when they would enter the arena, she would look for way out and what would be the thing stopping her if she was stupid enough to just fly, where was this 'queen', as she was most likely watching, how was she protected? this was a scout fight for her. That of course didn't mean she wasn't going to have fun, arenas were made for shows, and she would create a show, she just wanted to see who she was fighting first.