Catpone Cerberus

"I'll be okay, but I won't stop you from walking me home." Jenna said yawning "I'll just get my stuff from inside and we can then go." she would the do just that, locking the door after her when she exited "I'm ready." she would close and lock the gate as normal when they left, it was mostly quiet outside, only signs of life being some drunks here and there and few military trucks heading towards the direction of the school.

"I mean I warned you." Jenna pointed out "And there's now two groups if you forgot, though group is kinda a understatement.." she calmly said as she opened the door to the room, it was a rather small room with one double bed, a table with a chair and mirror, a bathroom and a mini-fridge. There was also a coat rack next to the door. "But honestly at this point it doesn't matter, as long as you keep low profile there shouldn't be problems for you, I can always find you if we separate, I have gotten quite familiar with your scent after all." "Though I wouldn't call myself an expert, I still make mistakes."

@Illiad Easle "Sibling, sister, brother." Ædriga quietly repeated after Ætheron had told about the word sibling, she was starting to understand the concept, but for her they were still pretty useless words as for her sibling was just a stranger that happened to share blood with her. She shook her head when Ætheron asked about her mother, "mother yes, good no" the change in her expression showed she really didn't remember her mother with joy, she gestured Ætheron to wait a second as she started gathering small stones and sticks, building a pile with the rocks and putting the stick around it, some upright like trees and some laying on the ground. She pointed at the rocks "Cave, I eat, I sleep." she then made herself look bigger and pointed at herself "mother" before destroying the cave. She then dropped the act as she continued "Mother hurt I, dragons hurt I, no friends, I go away, I come here." "Big fly, no sleep, no food, I here, sleep, no food." "I hurt..." she pointed at the injuries she had gotten from getting crushed "....you come, friend."

@Lucid_Nightlight Research as they may, they wouldn't find what ponies didn't already know, she was tough and strong, she was violent and hateful, she could transform to a pony, and she was not from Equestria. Even if they somehow managed to figure out where she came from, that would be where the trail would end, as there was no written history, or written anything about her or her kind, and they couldn't even ask anyone because they wouldn't be able to understand the language, not that they would get an answer anyway, since they all tried to kill everyone on sight. Even if they would have somehow captured someone from her lands, and somehow got past the language barrier, they would not talk, and would fall into feral state before revealing anything, and even if they read their minds' deepest corners, there wouldn't be anything useful that could be used against them, these dragons had so high view of themselves that they never thought about weaknesses or anything else that indicated that they could lose a fight. Also, nobody in her homelands knew anyone called Ruby. "I will not be called Shiny, and this is the one and only time I respond to it, you may be a queen for your kind, but for me you're you're just one more lizard among the others." "You can keep the name Ruby though, it's only my name in this awful language, and until we go our separate ways, I shall be known as 'Sventar' (killer)" the ways she said it indicated it was a word in her language. "And I'm not planning to help anyone with anything, but I will make whoever this 'queen' as the attackers called her is, wish that she had never met me ." "And what comes to your question, we call ourselves just dragons, but, our more peaceful eastern relatives call us what in this language would be 'Death-Bringers'." She ignored arrow, she didn't need a pony to talk for her.

Though it will also be apparent in my coming post, yes. (though the part about helping probably won't be so much to her joy.) Regarding the arena though, let Ruby actually show what she can do few times (or in other word, let me describe the/a/few whole fight(s) where she can actually kill the opponent.) because with previous fights it has been clear you have made them as inconvenient to Ruby as possible without straight up killing her (the fact that literally everything happens to be enchanted and that everyone seems to be able to sneak on her regardless of not only her normal senses but her 'shiny-sense' and her over 100 year experience in a land where everyone tries to kill you...it's quite conveniently inconvenient don't you think?) This cannot even be explained by them knowing what to expect, because as will be mentioned in my next reply, there really isn't really that much to know about Ruby, and I don't believe "she's stronger than most dragons" tells enough for literally everyone get the best magical anti-Ruby enchantments available to their gear. I know she can be considered OP in some context, but that's because I focus on character-based RPs rather than combat based. (And it's hard for me to balance "too op" and "absolutely useless weak thing" in PvP and thus I don't like PvP) Also, what is your plan for relationships (friendship romance whatever)? Because while I know Ruby is and a-hole, if you are planning for her to actually warm up to anyone in the group, everyone treating her like the jerk she is isn't the way, since it only gives her more reason to act like that (and eventually leave because she doesn't deem it worth her time to tolerate it for bit of treasure, especially if things seem to always go wrong, because remember, she has plans for the future, jobs like these are just a side-thing.) (Just as side note, if you want romance, it will only work with another dragon (no matter on gender or size) but for close friendship it is possible to happen with other creatures too, assuming they earn her respect and don't constantly make her want to kill them.) Lastly, I don't know if you were planning to, but you don't need to tell me what's from the books and what's not every time, this way you will also avoid spoiling me in case I will read them some day, because as long as it makes some sense for the story, I don't care where the idea comes from. (for example, red dragon named Ruby isn't most original and unheard of thing out there, so it's not unbelievable that she would meet someone with the same name.)

@Lucid_Nightlight When the attack started, Ruby would show just how little she cared about the others, as she would move behind Quasi in a way that he was between her and the attackers, and used his unconscious body as a shield until she either got close enough or the attackers came close enough for her to attack them. She attacked aiming for their necks and heads and though she would eventually come to the effects of the darts, she would get few hits in before that.

@Lucid_Nightlight There wasn't much for Quasi to find from Ruby's conscious mind as she quietly walked with the others, there were really only three types of thoughts in her head currently besides some meaningless random ones now and then, thoughts about how she hated everyone, not just the group, but everyone they had met, thoughts about how much she despised Equestria and wanted to go back to the homelands, and lastly were what were basically status reports to herself, as she thought about what she sensed. This wasn't a place or time where Quasi would be able to find out about Ruby's secrets from her head, he would need to get her when she was alone with no dangers around. What came to emotions, it was exactly what it looked like from outside, annoyance, hate, despise....her mind was as unpleasant as her outside, only positive emotion that seemed to be around was her pride that had been bolstered by the realization that she was immune to the weapons that had been used against her, if she had any emotions she was hiding, she was hiding them so well that even she herself didn't know about them, all that was certain was that she wasn't happy. It also didn't help that Quasi stared at her while he read her mind, as evidenced by the fact that her thoughts were soon replaced by 'Get out of my head.' followed by various insults relating to Quasi's inferiority.

@Blitz Boom Ruby just nodded, her brother was exactly why she even brought it up, though they shouldn't underestimate him, he is part of her kind after all, even the weakest of her kind were a formidable foe for unprepared, and what they lacked in strength and skill, they made up with speed and agility, that's probably how he managed to escape the homelands in the first place, outrunning the bigger dragons. "We don't have names in the same way you do, we earn them rather than are given them, though sometimes the earned name is a negative one." "If using our way of naming, he would be called 'Red' as he's too young to have gained name for himself. My name for example was 'Charir kethend' which translates to 'Red gem' or as you call it 'Ruby', red, because I'm red, and gem because I tended to steal gems, though it was not on purpose." "But I'll ask him if he was called anything that wasn't an insult." she would then do just that, presumably, as there still was no way to tell what she was actually saying. After getting a response, she looked at Leviathan again "As I thought, just insults, but I suggest we call him 'Charir', as it makes sense to him, and it sounds like a name for those who don't speak our language." -------------------------------------------------- Nada just nodded thoughtfully, she had never really thought about it, she had kinda just accepted that all kind of creatures exist and that she will never know where they all came from, especially when they seem to be the only creature like that rather than part of a species, since that suggested they weren't a natural creation."Nature can make quite weird things too though, like Timberwolves, I mean, I know it's the forest's magic that creates them, but I'd consider that nature." "Or those clearly intelligent vines that seek out living creatures, or poison joke." the forest in general was very weird, maybe the whole forest was handiwork of a draconequus? that would make sense. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bellflower looked at the 'bird' , then at the ground where the frozen tracks of the mare were, and then back Scarecrow and the 'bird', she knew why it was hiding, but the friendly smile never left her face. As to be expected, Scarecrow had no visual reaction to any of this, nor did he show any reaction to what Lyriel had said, he just turned to look at Bellflower, who started speaking when he turned towards her "You are very unique creature Scarecrow, your kind doesn't usually mutate like you have, and my brother would like to study why you are like you are." "It will be only tiny pieces from here and there, you won't even notice them missing." "If he finds something, will it be shared with me?" "Yes, we know that those like you have a desire to move on, and thus we wouldn't keep such information from you." "Then go ahead." he opened his wings and just stood there, waiting for Bellflower to do her thing. If Lyriel was one to notice such things, she would be able to notice few things that didn't seem normal. First, Scarecrows voice, there was something different about it, a level of anxiety that hadn't been there before, it was small yet noticeable change, the rest were small actions of his body, his wings and hind legs tensing up, as they were the closest thing to a muscle in his body, and him looking just generally uneasy, or at least as uneasy as someone like him could look like. Bellflower wouldn't even need to get close to take what she wanted, she just calmly levitated the empty jar and a small knife to Scarecrow and took tiny pieces into the jar with the knife, and like she had said, they really were small, she also scratched one of the bone-spikes that grew out of him to get bit of them into the jar too. Lastly she pulled out a small feather from his wing, but was surprised when it turned into a shapeless blob the moment it connected with the smaller pieces of the growth already in the jar. Assuming she could do this without Lyriel interrupting her, after finishing she would levitate the ectoplasm jars next to Scarecrow and smile at him "Thank you for your cooperation, it's always nice when these things can be done peacefully." If the 'bird' tried to intervene in any way, he would find that any attempts to grab on either the knife or the jar would be stopped by Bellflower calmly holding it in place with her magic until she was done. If Lyriel intervened, anything less than straight up attacking her would just cause her to focus on Lyriel while continuing on taking the samples, assuring that everything was fine.

@Illiad Easle Ædriga looked at the drawing as she thought about the information, it was true that family trees wasn't something she was familiar with, but it didn't really take genius to figure out what lines coming from parents and connecting may indicate. She then drew her own line, first drawing a dragon, under which she wrote "I" since she didn't know how to write her name yet due to Æ not being in the book, she then drew a line upwards that split in two, on top of which she drew a bigger version of herself on one side and on other side she drew a featureless dragon-shape. She then drew another featureless dragon to the other side of the bigger her, and connected it to it in a way that it was still separate from the previous line, and from the new line she drew a line downwards and finished it with yet another featureless dragon. She then pointed at the last featureless dragon and asked "Brother or sister? If..." she pointed at herself "...is sister, if...." she pointed at Ætheron "...is brother?"

@Lucid_Nightlight "I'll break that piece of metal in two if you start testing my patience." Ruby warned the dog "And I take orders from none of you." she emphasized the word 'none' "I'm here because I'm paid to help part of the local dragon population to win a war, I haven't killed you, because I assume you're considered part of the 'good' side, but that doesn't mean I won't do it, gems are just gems, and if you test my patience enough, I'll rip you all to pieces and go back to more important things." "I am well aware that I'm not most pleasant company to be around, but you three are even worse."

"I may be but you should start taking notes." Jenna pointed out "You became as much of a part of this as I am when you first decided to come with me, and it's important that you can stay alive even in a case we end up separated." she stopped outside the hotel "But that topic aside, the moment we step in, we're just two random tourists." she would wait in case Oliver had something to add regarding the topic, and when he was done if he had, she would lead him inside. Getting a room was rather simple, and Jenna booked their room with the name Jennifer. They would be directed towards the elevators as their room was in the second floor.

Jenna would stay like that for some time, but as the sun set and the moon started to come out, she broke the silence "We should probably head home for the night, I need to prepare things for tomorrow and you should probably talk with your parents about what's coming." Though she didn't think Oliver's parents should have any say in what Oliver did, they were still his parents and it was better to keep then informed rather than make them worried about him when things start to go down.

@Illiad Easle There wasn't any obstacles, but Ædriga noticed the smell of meat had gained the curiosity of some other creatures, but they didn't seem to be interested in taking on a dragon right now, so she didn't warn Ætheron, wild animals didn't really scare her like dragons or other such creatures did, because animals were predictable, and easily readable, while the latter were more complicated and thus more unpredictable. Ædriga would pick only pieces of the manticore, not really caring for smaller animals when there was something bigger to eat, and would take a amount comparable to her own size, bit more, she had injuries to heal so eating a lot was important, because while her kind's bodies healed fast, it took lot of energy. She would eat most of it before staring studying, eating smaller pieces as she did, she was starting to be done with this book, she had gotten mostly everything she could out of it, some of the things she would need to learn from hearing it to be used, but she understood the basics, it would just take some use to master them. There was few things she wanted to ask about though, and one of them she remembered when she saw the page with words relating to friendship and family, she lifted the book up in a way that Ætheron would be able to see it and pointed at 'sister' and 'brother', "What is?" the concept of siblings was unknown to her, so she didn't understand the meaning even with the pictures.

@Lucid_Nightlight Hitting a moving target with liquid from distance wasn't the easiest thing out there, and at best few drops would hit Ruby, not that she noticed even if it may or may have not been enough to damage her scales since the scales didn't have the capability to feel pain for obvious reasons. 'You actually didn't' Ruby would have said if the convenient dragon hadn't flown away, because it really wasn't smart, in fact, it didn't make any sense, not fearing death didn't put her in disadvantage in any sense of the word, because it had no effect on her fighting capabilities, what it could do, was get her killed because she refused to back down, but that isn't a disadvantage, it's just deadly stubbornness. "You say it like I was the one who started it." Ruby pointed out "It's not my fault that me pointing out reality angered you."

No I haven't and probably won't for a while if ever considering it's not available anywhere in my country.

@Blitz Boom Ruby wouldn't bother chasing the creature, not because she thought it wouldn't be back, but because she didn't think it to be worth it, as she believed the opposite, that it would surely be back. She would let out few warning growls after it though, just to send a message. She would then proceed to disarm the traps and burn the ropes, before lazily making her way back, checking the nearby area in case there was more traps build. Assuming the trapper didn't attack her, or something else big didn't happen, she would soon enough be back at the cave, and would start speaking the moment she saw Leviathan "Watch your step when leaving the cave, the one who is most likely behind that trap you found knows where we are, they were building traps not far from here...." she put the support back on her leg while she spoke "...I didn't bother to chase them when they ran away, but they will probably be back soon enough." "The traps still used rope but don't let your guard down, that may be exactly what they want, because I don't believe that even the stupidest creature would think they would catch someone like me with a simple rope-trap, just based on my size." it would have to be quite a strong trap to do anything to someone of her weight. She would then say something to her brother, most likely something in the same lines as she had said to Leviathan, judging from the smaller dragon's reaction, who after glancing into the woods for a moment continued with his eating. Ruby too continued her meal, but she was more guarded than she had been earlier, because while she didn't see the hunter as a threat to herself, she knew that it was always better overestimate than underestimate when you didn't know who you were against. That may have seemed bit contradictory when considering that Ruby saw everyone as weaker than herself, but it really wasn't, because while Ruby considered herself the strongest, she knew there was those more powerful than her, for example the pony princesses, they were weak, but because of their magic, she had no chance against them. If something happened however, she would react appropriately. ----------------------------------------- "Genetics may not work like that, but there still is pony hybrids where the other half is not equine of any kind." Nada pointed out "And they have some kind of parents too....most likely." "Though now that you mentioned Draconequui, it could be the weird hybrids are their work, what I understood from your history, it wouldn't be too uncharacteristic for them." "But if that's the case, it brings up few questions I don't necessarily want to know the answer to." mostly, if they were a combination of two creatures, what happens to the minds of the two creatures combined? would it combine into one mind? would they share the body somehow? or would one of them be erased? ------------------------------------------------ "They tend to do that." Bellflower said "Don't get me wrong, I feel sympathetic towards you and wish I could help you, as I understand how it must feel like, it's like losing a part of yourself, but it is very much expected." "Pegasus lose their wings, unicorns lose their magic, such is the game of Draconequus, they take away what you want to lose the least, but they are not evil...per se, they just find it entertaining to torment creatures." "They also tend to keep their word when it comes to returning what they've taken, so don't worry, it won't be permanent." Meanwhile... "I follow the stallion, not that it matters, his family has tried to get rid of me since I first appeared, so if there was a easy way, I wouldn't be here." the mare explained "I know why I haunt them, as I myself cursed the bloodline, but I made that decision because something else stopped me moving on." "If they knew what it is that holds me here, they would have no reason to hide it from me, because they want me gone as much as I want to leave this world." the same tone continued "And no, Bellflower does not protect the brother, quite opposite actually, she's a newcomer, haven't been here for long, can't say exact time, may be a month, or a year, or a decade, all feel the same to me...." Scarecrow gave a understanding nod, he knew what it was like when time lost its meaning "...and she hasn't used her powers since our meeting as far as I know, but I have also avoided her best I could, because she's the only thing in this world that I fear." The last sentence would be proven the moment Lyriel and Bellflower came to view, as the mare would immediately break back into freezing fog and float away.

@Lucid_Nightlight Ruby looked amused, Quasi had made a mistake by giving a warning, as he would quickly find Ruby holding the other end of the spear "I don't depend on it...." her next words came out with flames "...I utilize it." she didn't attack quasi other than annoying him with her flames, only real attacks she did, were counter attacks, and as Quasi would find out if the fight went for too long, every counter attack would be worse than he would able to do to Ruby with his attacks, and that was when he got and attack in, because even if he got the spear out of her grip without it breaking, she was quite effective at blocking and dodging, especially if he tried the same thing more than once. Ruby was grinning the whole time, she enjoyed it.

Ruby is also intelligent, don't forget that. Factually a fight would end into Ruby's advantage, because armor can be taken away, weapons can be broken, and quasi is not fire proof. (also Ruby isn't kidding when she says she needs to be killed for her to be taken out.) But Ruby won't go on full on assault, as you will see in my reply when I get it written.

@Illiad Easle While Ætheron was doing his thing, Ædriga wasn't done with the manticore either, she cut into the neck a bit more, taking out one of the vertebra, she then cleaned it up using her fire and tongue, before making a rope of sorts out of plantation she could find and making a necklace out of the vertebra, and putting it on her neck, her first trophy. This probably wouldn't take as long as dismembering the whole creature, so she would spend rest of the time watching Ætheron curiously with her trophy hanging on her neck. She looked happy when Ætheron praised her, she didn't understand all the words, but she was good at reading small differences in tone, expression, and general small details that told about one's intent without words. She also tried to smile again, but it still didn't come naturally, so the result was what it was, though at least it was clear that it was supposed to be a smile.

@Lucid_Nightlight "Pack is a pack no matter how big it is." Ruby stated, seemingly ignoring the question and the talk after it "a pack, a herd, a nation, it's all the same, several individually weak creatures gathering into a group to survive." she hadn't ignored it though, as came apparent in her next words "The concept of troubled past is not something that exists for my kind, we call it life." "The life at the homelands is harsh, and some are too weak to handle it, they rarely survive." "And I will tell this now, I despise you, all of you, and though it's refreshing for someone to actually realize what I'm capable of, I seek no respect from anyone, and very few deserve it from me." she then faced Arrow "You claim to be strong, but what would happen if I snapped the little horn of yours off your head? No teleportation, no magical armies, no magical nets...what would you be without your magic?" she turned back towards the newcomers "And what would you be without your weapons?" "You all are powerful, I don't deny that, but strength is not the same as power, a king hiding inside walls while his men fight for his kingdom is powerful, but would anyone of you call him strong?"

"Show up?" Jenna questioned "If you're talking about our ally, they won't, we only interact through text, as I have surely mentioned at some point." "And if anyone else shows up, we run." "Also, before I forget, don't use my, or your name inside the hotel when people are around, if you for some reason have to identify yourself, use one of the fakes I gave you, and for my name...you'll hear what to call me when I order the room."

Jenna didn't say anything and just hummed in agreement, sitting next to a warehouse made into a bunker wasn't necessarily the most romantic place to be, but she enjoyed the moment, especially because of what was coming, she still wasn't too optimistic about the whole thing.

@Lucid_Nightlight Because of the small size of the crab, Ruby wouldn't even have known it was there if Arrow wouldn't have said something, not that she did anything about it, but the kitten looked interested, where it had been all this time? no idea, but it was somehow on top of Ruby again and was poking the crab to see what it was. "Pack animals." Ruby said in contemptuous tone "Also Arrow or whatever your name was, I'm not going to eat your crab, I'd barely notice it if it walked into my mouth and down my throat, so there is no satisfaction for me to even try to eat it." she then returned her attention toward the dog "I come from somewhere where it is kill or be killed, everyone for themselves and so on, you either kill, or you die." "I don't really care who you are or were, as long as you don't make things harder for me." "My point being, why are you saying this all to me specifically?"

@Illiad Easle Every time it was Ædriga's turn with the small animals, she would disappear for a moment and soon launch from other direction catching the prey and breaking its neck, and sometimes she would smell the air before one was spotted, disappear into the forest and soon come back carrying a carcass. Her quiet movements and smooth landings told of her hunting skills, she may have been small and cowardly, but she was still a predator. This would show even more when they found the manticore, Ædriga nodded at the plans and would go to the planned direction as told, but when Ætheron attacked, and thus gave her to signal to attack, instead of coming from the opposite side from Ætheron, she dropped from above the beast and started digging in in its neck until she would be either thrown off or she managed to break it, or in this case cut it since it was too big for her to easily twist. She would probably get hit by the manticore's tail, but it didn't seem to penetrate her scales and after it had hit her once, she would grab it with her hind legs thus making it's use lot harder. This was a tough fight though, so Ædriga would need Ætheron's help to take the creature down. She seemed to enjoy taking on the bigger creature, and after she was either thrown off or the beast was dead, even though she looked like somewhere hurt, she seemed genuinely joyful.