open Life in Canterlot Castle

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

Somnus put the hamster in his ball. And walked to the yard.

"It should be fine, there's a place I can put him where he can't get away from. I usually put him there when he wants to watch the guards train, which he really likes to do."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,420]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"Whatever you say." Ruby said nonchalantly, she didn't honestly care about the hamster's safety, even if she did respect it to certain extend, she just wasn't going to stand getting complained at for someone not looking after their pet.She followed the guard to the yard, "We probably should inform other guards here about this, both so that they don't intervene, and so they don't accidentally get hit by my flames."

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"I'll just lock the door to the training yard,  problem solved."

Somnus stopped at the door to the training yard. Fluffball stared at Somnus, probably demanding another peanut or something.

"Ready to get absolutely destroyed out there?"

Edited October 10, 2018 by Lucid_Nightlight

[Catpone Cerberus 23,420]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"Just a second." Ruby replied as she walked to the side, dropping her saddlebags of before walking to the practice area and transforming to a dragon. She opened her wings and stretched every part of her body letting out a roar of pleasure and breathing little bit of flame from her mouth towards the skies, "It feels so good to be out of that uncomfortable form." she looked at the guard "Now I'm ready to play with you." She wasn't obviously going to go with full seriousness, after all, if she did, she would have gone for the kill. 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

Somnus put Fluffball in his special spot, which was in a place where he could not be hurt. The bat pony put a bunch of peanuts in the hamster's ball. Fluffball happily began eating while Somnus went up to Ruby.

"3...2...1... GO!"

Right when he said this, he immedietly wacked Ruby on the top of her head with his staff. The fight has begun.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,420]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Ruby grunted annoyed, that was dirty, but she didn't think anything about it and just charged forward headbutting the pony with her horns, which she had six in total, four bigger closer to top of her head, and two smaller ones on her snout. She was noticeably faster than one would expect dragon like her to be.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

Somnus' armor absorbed most of the impact, but it still caught him by surprise. She was fast, but so was Somnus.

He began to fly at her, fly back, and back at her again while hitting her multiple times with the staff.

"Think you can catch me?"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,420]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Somnus' hits didn't do any real damage to Ruby either, a stick didn't have that much of a piercing power even if it was enchanted, so it made what were basically a dragon equivalent of bruises, though they weren't visible, not that the purpose of a play fight like this was injuries. 

Ruby just observed patiently as the guard hit her some times, it was just as she predicted, a pattern, because no matter how much a creature like pony, or a dragon in that matter tried to do something randomly, there was always a pattern, so, Ruby just figured out the pattern in her head, and just caught the pony with one of her legs as he went for the next attack and slammed him down "Already did."

Edited October 10, 2018 by Catpone Cerberus

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

He was gonna feel that one in the morning for sure. He quickly got up, plunged the staff into a rock, now he had a something similar to a warhammer. Since the rock was now part of the weapon, the enchantment would apply to the rock.

"I hear that most lizards have soft underbelly, I wonder if that applies to dragons."

Somnus swung the hammer at her ribs.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,420]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Ruby tried to dodge, but just barely didn't make it, so the hammer hit her chest, but she didn't show any reaction, even though it hurt a bit, and it actually cracked  some scales a little bit, she just wasn't one to show it that easily, and due the hammer being another blunt weapon, it didn't penetrate. She used the moment of stillness that was caused by Somnus' now heavy weapon meeting her hard chest armor, and she just simply kicked him away with her foreleg as she replied to his question "It's actually opposite, the areas around our vitals are more heavily armored than rest of our body..." she sent a wall of flame towards the guard in attempt to blind him for a second ".....never really understood why it's other way around with other creatures." as she said it, she had started to charge towards the guard in attempt to hit him with her horns.

Edited October 10, 2018 by Catpone Cerberus

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

When Ruby charged at him, he took another hit, which the armor took most of the impact like the last time he got rammed into. Knowing this new information, he swung his hammer at her back.

"Maybe next time you won't tell me how to fight you."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,420]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Yet again Ruby moved a bit due her attempt to dodge, but the hammer contacted the area a bit to the side from where her spine was, and though she didn't let out any noises to indicate pain, her body's reaction showed that it had hurt, and some damage was actually visible on the scales, but one part being more heavily armored didn't mean the another was weak by any means, as it still was harder than steel. Again using the moment after the impact to her advance, Ruby slammed Somnus with her leg, a move was very similar to someone crushing an insect, then throwing him few ponylengths away.

"It wouldn't be any fun if you didn't know how to hurt me, even if it's just practice." after all, what was point in fighting if it didn't leave any marks, and not only that, it didn't matter if she got injured, because as long as the injury wasn't on something that doesn't heal, like her eyes, it would heal in few days at worst due her kind healing quicker than many other creatures.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

Somnus flew a few feet back until sliding across the ground. This one actually hurt quite a bit, but he stood back up.

Perhaps he should fight using strategy instead of brute force.

"Mobility is pretty important, I'm glad to have it. Too bad you won't be so fortunate."

Somnus made a really hard swing at her leg.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,420]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Ruby roared when the hammer made contact, bone may have cracked a bit,  but it didn't snap or break thoroughly, mostly because they were so thick that it would require several hits or bigger weapon, there was drop of blood coming from under the scales, it had broke the skin under them. She out of reflex kicked the guard with the leg he had hit, but right away she grabbed him with other one from his leg and quickly pulled it to opposite direction of what it was meant to bend "Leg for a leg my little pony." her tone was...joyful.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

SNAP! That was obviously a break. While a leg may be broken, his wings were fine.

He flew up grabbed a dark cloud, brought it down, and used it to strike the dragon with lightning.

"Looks like I'll temporarily out of commission. Oh well, I still get paid."

After saying this, he used one hoof to swing his hammer at Ruby's head.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,420]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"Sorry about that" Ruby said sarcastically as she moved her head to meet the hammer with her horns, because failed dodge could have made things worse, it wasn't hard enough hit to do damage to her head, but this time she couldn't use the moment after the hit to her advance because it did stun her for a short second, but she did pull herself back a little so the guard couldn't get an another hit to her head.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

Seeing that she was stunned, Somnus used this to his advantage.

"I hear that wings are pretty thin. This is only going to hurt... a lot."

He went behind her and swung the hammer at one of her wings.

"That's for breaking my leg!"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,420]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Somnus' assumption was indeed right, the bones in the wings broke more easily, but they also healed faster. Ruby didn't have time to dodge this time either, and the hammer made contact and broke a bone, she let out a another roar, loud enough to be felt through the air. She then moved forward and suddenly jumped towards the batpony, slamming him in the air with her whole body. 

Edited October 11, 2018 by Catpone Cerberus

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

Somnus was knocked back, but he got up quickly. Now that her wing was broken, he had a flight advantage.

"Being a bat pony allows me to do the same things as a normal pegasus. 1,480 years of training can give a guy some pretty useful tricks such as this one."

He flew up into the air and started to fly in a circle. It wasn't long until a small tornado formed, touched the ground, and went towards Ruby.

"You might wanna fly away... oh wait, you can't!"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,420]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Ruby landed her jump and looked up towards the pony, "What a fool, little wind doesn't bother me." she sank her claws into the ground holding her place, "In fact..." she started breathing fire towards the tornado, turning it into a fire-tornado of sorts, and more fire she spew, hotter it got. She just wondered how far the guard would let this go, since it was starting to get dangerous to him as Ruby got angrier more she was in pain, after all, she was a closer to an animal than a pony, and not only that, raging fire tornado in a castle training yard probably wasn't the safest thing for his hamster, or anyone in the castle in that matter.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

This whole time, Somnus was holding back. Seeing that Ruby was doing something so dangerous like making the tornado into a fire tornado made him decide that he had to actually do something.

"Ok, this is getting out of hoof."

The bat pony flew down and used the hammer to hit Ruby in the ribs at full force.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,420]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Ruby wasn't showing her full capabilities either, because that would have meant ignoring the no kill part, in fact, if she wouldn't have hold back, Somnus most likely wouldn't have survived after Ruby caught him the first time, after all, in real fight she wouldn't have let her enemy go alive.

She stopped her fire breathing when she saw the guard coming back down, and she managed to move enough to slightly reduce the power behind the hit to her chest-armor, but it was still a reasonably strong hit, but Ruby didn't give away if it hurt by reacting. Again she used her advance, but this time Ruby didn't just slam the guard, or throw him away, and instead she grabbed him and threw him against the ground and held him there, because she recognized that it was starting to go bit far, and she could really just lose it at any moment now "Cease attack!" "We need stop, I'm really fighting my instinct to kill you, and it may not take a lot for me to lose it now." "And neither of us probably wants me to go full animal."

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"Yea, it's probably time to stop. I was this close to putting the head back on the stick and using it as a spear."

Suddenly the door to the training yard was kicked open. It was Arrow and he was holding a bunch of spears with his magic.

"Get off of him, dragon!"

Somnus looked over at Arrow with a look that said 'really?'

"The fight is already over. You don't need to do anything."

"That's unfortunate. I was was gonna launch a whole bunch of spears at her. It was gonna be so cool!"

Slightly annoyed, Arrow walked away. As for Somnus, he got out from under Ruby and grabbed Fluffball, who was still eating peanuts.

"Well, I guess we're off to the infirmary. I won't lie, I'm actually impressed."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,420]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Ruby just stared at the guard that had came through the door, it was called training yard, yet the pony came with arsenal to a war, though it was getting pretty close to that so she didn't blame him.

She lifted her leg to let the guard free, and then proceeded to check her wing, hoping that it wasn't bad enough to stop her from transforming back to a pony, and it wasn't, so she transformed, and all the injuries transformed with her, taking the appearance of bruises and wounds on her pony-body, though the leg that had gotten hit had swollen a bit. She flinched as the pain from the injuries took over her body, her pain tolerance was noticeably lower in the pony form. "You aren't the worst fighter either, though in real situation I wouldn't have let go after grabbing you the first time, so the fight would have been lot shorter." she walked to her saddlebags and lifted them on her back, flinching again as it hit the area where her wings would have been "I guess that's my hint for fighting my kind, don't get grabbed, it's certain death." she almost lost her balance when she gave weight to the hurt leg "I guess I join you in the infirmary for a short while, but I won't be there for long, I just need analgesic."

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

Somnus started to limp down the infirmary which wasn't very far, luckily for him. Walking was visibly painful.

"I really hope they don't give me a needle again. I hate needles."

Edited October 11, 2018 by Lucid_Nightlight