open An Arrow to the Wing (1x1 with Catpone Cerberus)

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

The cat climbed on Ruby and played with ear.

"When we leave town, I'd like to see if I would be able to take your kind on. Is your kind really stronger than Equestrian dragons?"

"I've never knew that prey could actually hurt someone. Well, you're prey to me, I don't eat anyone that is able to speak with words. Like bears, those don't speak. Have you tried roasted bear, Ruby?"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Ruby didn't seem bothered by the cat, the only indicator that she even noticed was the movement of her ear as it reacted to the small amount of pain caused by the cat.
"I don't cook my food." She stated coldly "And for strength, I have killed 20 local dragons since I came here, all of them bigger or same size as I, none of them even a slight challenge, they were slow, predictable and weak." 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

"A challenge then. Local dragons are easy. If you're a deadly one, I wanna face you. No killing of course."

"Do you go for the eyes? That'd stop them?"

Arrow laughed.

"No, a large dragon breathing fire and moving around is dangerous. They're movements are harder to predict."

"Go behind them."

"Their tail is very strong. Getting hit with that isn't exactly fun. The wings are pretty weak. Taking out the wings is a good idea, but that doesn't neutralize the threat."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"Predictable, like I said."  Ruby coldly stated "I have grown up somewhere where everyone I met were there to kill me, and hiding was impossible, we can sense everything from fear to threat, it doesn't matter if you blind me, it doesn't matter if you hide, it doesn't matter if you cripple me, I will always win." only way for her to 'lose' was to die, retreat or surrender were not an option for either side.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"Seems I'd only win in an actual fight if that's the case, and I don't plan on killing you."

Eventually they'd make it out from Canterlot.

"Does your kind feel emotion?"

"Mine does. Love, anger, fear, and other emotions too! Right now..."

Quasi whispered.

"Ruby scares me!"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"Why whisper? I can hear you...and smell." Ruby stated before answering the question "And for emotion, yes and no." "While we do feel things like anger, hate, and other such emotions ponies see as bad, they aren't necessarily the same thing as what you'd consider them to be." "There is also emotions we do not feel, Love, compassion, empathy, guilt...things like that, emotions that could make us hesitate." "We also don't feel happiness, we do get amused and can be content, but you won't be seeing me jumping around laughing and smiling." "Expect when I'm acting, I can pretend to feel pretty much any emotion." 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"Huh, well I'll probably have to keep an eye on you then."

"Yeah that sounds scary."

Quasi thought about this. Not able to feel emotions like love, empathy, and joy? Would be worth living for him if he was like that?

"Do you ever wish you could feel these things?"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"Do you ever wish to live without them?" Ruby asked "My guess is no, because one doesn't wish for something they don't know anything about." "Besides, having seen those emotions in action, I don't see anything good about them, they only cause problems and limit one's capabilities." quite heartless opinion maybe, but then again, in the metaphorical sense, she didn't have a heart. 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"Many do, some for a moment, some for a while. These emotions show us that we aren't mindless things. They also hurt sometimes. I know Somnus carries his own weight. Even so, if we didn't have these feelings, we wouldn't be us."

He smiled.

"So, now that we're out of Canterlot, let's learn how strong you really are."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Ruby looked like she had pretty much switched of her hearing when the sermon about emotions started, she didn't want to hear it, she had heard it too many times when living with ponies, both in written and spoken form, she couldn't stand it.
"So you really want to do this?" She asked surprised when the challenge was said, she grinned as she continued "If you insist, though, be warned...." as she was speaking, she started transforming, though it looked less like a pony turning into a dragon, and more like a dragon breaking out of a pony "....I'm not good at being gentle." her voice also changed, and though her pony-voice was still there a little bit, her voice got deeper and notably more rough/hoarse/gruff, and also lot more intimidating, her cold yet soft and feminine pony-voice was lot more pleasant compared to her real voice.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

Quasi, intimidated, stayed out of this.

Arrow didn't bring out a weapon, in fact, the blue unicorn took off armor and hoof protection too. Arrow wasn't strong looking, he seemed like the average stallion. However, the unicorn looked at Ruby like Arrow did this many times.

"Well? You gonna attack?"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Ruby didn't attack, she wasn't that predictable, nor that stupid. Instead she created a huge cloud of black smoke, enough to hide her whole body, sure it wouldn't stay around for long since they were outside, but it lasted just long enough for her to quietly move behind Arrow before trying to grab him, she didn't necessarily expect it to be this easy, it would be very disappointing if it was, but someone had to do the first move.

Assuming Arrow managed to avoid the first 'attack', he would find that Ruby hadn't been lying about herself, she was quite a lot faster and more agile than the local dragons, and she was using lot more brain along the brawn that a stereotypical dragon. He would also find that same tricks wouldn't work against her more than once or twice, and if he for example teleported a lot, Ruby would start predicting where he was going to end up, and more he teleported, more accurate her predictions were. This showed one of the reasons why Ruby was a dangerous opponent, adaptation, it would take some trial and error some times, but she would always figure out the weakness in her enemies' strategy, was it a pattern, an overlooked flaw or any other type of weakness, if she wasn't killed, she would win.

Speaking of which, last thing Arrow would find out was that there was only one way this battle was going to end, his defeat, no matter if it was through Ruby managing to grab him and stopping him from continuing, from him giving up, or because Quasi came to intervene, Ruby would not admit defeat in any situation, because like said, she either died or she won.

Quasi in other hand, assuming he was watching, would probably notice Ruby's movement and how she looked more like a predator playing with its prey before the killing blow rather than a dragon fighting an enemy. Not that it really was far from the truth, because Ruby was playing, being forced to use only one type of attack as her other attacks would be too lethal, and ponies were prey to her.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

The pony knew that hiding in the smoke wasn't a good trick. A dragon's sense of smell was better than a pony's sense of smell. And while long distance teleportation wasn't that good for Arrow, the unicorn was pretty good at short distance teleportation.

Arrow teleported into a tree, and watched for a moment, but only for a moment, the pony knew that the dragon would smell him if he waited too long.

Suddenly Arrow would appear under Ruby and uppercut the dragon with immense force, although Arrow looked like a normal pony, the unicorn had unnatural strength!

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
As strong Arrow may be, he wouldn't be able to do much by punching Ruby from under her, since that's where the strongest of her scales were, and with her scales being harder than steel, even if it would hurt a bit for Ruby, it would hurt his hoof lot more, since it was not too different from hitting a brick wall or something similar. He would also need to be quick, since Ruby would spot him second after he appeared, and thus he would have only seconds before Ruby dropped her whole weight on him.

This was a losing fight for Arrow, sure he would most likely be able to hit Ruby now and then, and maybe even hurt her a bit, but she could take lot of beating, having been hit by dragons lot larger than her, while Arrow probably wouldn't be able to take more than few good hits from Ruby due to the relative weakness of a ponies' bodies. Arrow would also most likely hurt himself a bit every time he struck Ruby due to the hardness of her scales.

This fight wasn't going to have a clear winner, sure just due to the fact that Ruby refused to lose, she would declare herself winner no matter what, but this would most likely be quite a even fight since neither was allowed to kill each other, Arrow was clearly a powerful pony, but Ruby wasn't just talk either, she had taken down dragons bigger than her, both local and her own kind, without getting any real injuries, and while Arrow had magic on his side, Ruby was great at adapting her fighting style and would eventually find the one to overcome the teleportation if the fight didn't end sooner.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

Next thing the unicorn know, weight was being put on him. Thankfully Arrow made a quick teleportation. Sure, he's been crushed before, but it still hurt.

Arrow stood on a tree and shook his hoof.

That's one tough dragon. I should probably get my staffs.

Out of a tiny bag came out one staff. He'd teleport over the dragon and hit her with his enchanted weapon. He'd then teleport away and hit somewhere else. Did he do this for long? No. Everything had a pattern, and if figured out, he'd take a major hit.

"Don't break my leg, okay? I need it! Seems like something you'd do."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Arrow's hits would succeed every time even if he teleported close to Ruby, after all, it wasn't like she was just standing in one place, she too was moving, and regardless of her size, she was quick, and maybe surprisingly to Arrow, she hadn't used her wings even once. What came to the comment, Ruby seemingly didn't even acknowledge it, sure she could break his leg, or neck which she preferred, but injured or dead pony would be even more useless than healthy one.

If Arrow continued to manage to dodge her hits, Ruby would indeed just stand in place, but not before lighting the ground on fire under herself, leaving Arrow only two places to attack, in front of her, or on top of her, both of which would end in him getting hit by something, in front of her, she would obviously be prepared to hit him the moment he appeared, and on top of her...well, if he managed to somehow avoid the sharp spines sticking upwards from her neck and back, he would be thrown off pretty quickly, how far depended on where he was.

This may seem like unfair tactic, and it might be, but in her eyes, if Arrow could bring in weapons, she would also be allowed hers to even the battlefield, it wasn't like she was trying to burn him, it was his own fault if he went into the flames. 

The kitten had somehow made it's way next to Quasi, and was seemingly rooting for Ruby, or it just liked the action, hard to tell. 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

Looking at the fire, Arrow smiled and gliwed his horn. In front of Ruby was magic in the form of pony legionnaires, Arrow stood in the front of them.

"Special attack!'

"JAVELINS!" He shouted. A barrage of magical spears would fall upon Ruby, and if hit, they wouldn't injure her, but they would hurt.

"Engage the target!" The many magical non-sentient ponies charged at Ruby.

"Try and get passed that."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Ruby of course would attempt to dodge what was thrown at her, some of them hit, but pain only fueled her to fight more, what didn't kill you, gave you even more reason to kill it, even if she wasn't allowed to kill. 

For the first time she would use her wings, but not to fly, as instead she created a burst of air that sent the fire from the ground to every direction, and put it out from under her, she didn't want to cause a big fire, yet at least, she had treasure to collect first. 

So, if she couldn't catch Arrow when he attacked, or force him to attack her from other ways, there was other ways to deal with him. (her next actions depend on the terrain) 

If there was a forest nearby, she would chase Arrow until she was close enough to it to get in and disappear, and Arrow would find that as big and bright colored Ruby was, she knew how to hide, and she wouldn't come out until Arrow either called it quits or he got close enough to her for her to attack him before disappearing again.

If there wasn't any forest, Ruby would take more offensive route, making unpredictable movements and attacks until she either got Arrow or Arrow got tired, after all, using magic also took stamina, and with arrow using both physical and magical attacks, he would get tired faster than Ruby, even when ignoring the fact that Ruby just had better stamina than ponies did. 

When it came to the magical ponies, if they didn't disappear after the fire, she would kinda just ignore them, they were made of magic, so there wasn't anything she could do to get rid of them, so she didn't bother with them. 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

Arrow's magical ponies disappeared and Arrow retreated into the forest. While out of view, Arrow would wait for Ruby in the woods. Arrow put pepper on himself, this worked with dogs to hide scent. Well, so he read.

Under the crunching of leaves, Arrow walked around, waiting.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Arrow was now on Ruby's turf, a forest, the exact terrain where Ruby had spent most of her almost 200 year long life, and sure, pepper may hide his scent, but there was nothing else that smelled like pepper in a forest, not that Ruby needed to smell Arrow, since she knew exactly where he was without even risking of being seen. She moved silently both up in the trees and down on the ground, sometimes going in the middle, and would now and then pop out from somewhere to attack Arrow before disappearing back into the woods.

She was wondering about how long Arrow was going to keep this up though, they had a mission to do, and even if she didn't care about it outside getting the chance to kill and the pay she was going to get, she really didn't care for this type of meaningless waste of time.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

After taking a few hits, Arrow raised his hoof and magical ponies would emerge and fire arrows in every direction at the red dragon. This was all a trap.

A magic net would then fall.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
The net would be quite a fast one or Arrow would need control it a bit to actually catch Ruby, since she wasn't stupid enough to stop at any point, but assuming it was the case, Ruby would not give up, she would struggle, dig down, anything to get out, and if all that was impossible, she would not give up, she would start pulling and pushing the net until either it or she broke, it didn't matter if her scales started to bend, if her bones started to break, she didn't care even if she started to bleed, and whole time she would stare Arrow down, not saying a word other than declining any potential offer for them to end the fight with her as anything else than the winner. It was either victory or death, that how she had lived her life, and that's how she would end it, she would not let any lesser being make her feel inferior, not anymore.

If the net worked like a normal net, things would continue the same.

 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

Arrow watched for a moment, but decided to end the fight.

"Okay, I'll surrender, you're gonna get hurt struggling!"

Quasi walked over. "A pretty hollow victory, really."

"Well, that was a good fight. You would've been my most dangerous dragon yet have we fought to the death. Second most, really. There's another. Not your kind, he's the Equestrian type, however he's extremely deadly and powerful. I don't think even that shy pony could take him out. Ever gotten that stare?"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"If we fought to the death, it wouldn't have taken this long." "When you're evolved to kill you're always disadvantaged when you're not allowed to do so." "Blocking your magic would probably given more realistic results since I couldn't use most of my abilities due to them being lethal." Ruby said, it was foolish to judge someone's capability to kill after a fight where killing was not allowed.

 "And no, I haven't gotten targeted by any 'stare' but assuming you're talking about that yellow one that's part of the friendship-princess's group, I have seen it in action, and it's nothing else than a mind-control trick to activate one's fear response." 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"Maybe, one of us would clearly go down. Maybe you, maybe myself. You're nothing like the 'roar I'm big and scary!' You actually are smart."

"Rainwings are pretty deadly, just... too nice to actually fight usually. The can produce a venom that shoots from these fangs and could easily go through Ruby. Venom is painful and deadly, but they typically sleep in the middle of the day, eat fruit, and carry sloths for pets. Rainwings like sloths. The rest of the tribes are more violent and made to fight. You ponies are more organized as society than dragons."

"Totally organized, humans are better at this, along with other worlds. There's so many universes, some have talking animals. One particularly has humans and canines that speak. A dangerous group of jackals are rumored to have entered our world."

That kinda freaked Quasi.

"Wow, good thing we gave Ruby here to protect us."