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

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

@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.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

Quasi looked into the dragon's mind.

Was there a way to help the dragon? What was she feeling? Was she mad at Quasi? What did she think about the actions he took?

He thought about what choices would've been better.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

@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 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

Quasi saw that Ruby was suffering. And when the nightmare was causing her stress, he decided to do something. He tried shaking Ruby awake.

"Ruby, you're only dreaming! Wake up!"

Quasi didn't like watching this.

"What did they do to you?"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

@Lucid_Nightlight
It wasn't hard to get Ruby to wake up, because being used to staying on guard for danger, smallest of things woke her up even if she was tired, and when she did wake up, Quasi was lucky that they were chained up because otherwise he would have gotten hit by the claws of an angry dragon, it was never a good idea to wake up a dragon, especially not if they were having a nightmare.

"What do you want?." she then muttered sounding annoyed, she had missed most of what Quasi had said since it took few seconds for her mind to wake up fully even after a very short nap. "Who have done what when?"

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"You were freaking out. You dreamt in another language I don't understand, but your emotion seems to give me the impression this was your past. What did they do to you, Ruby?"

Certainly someone did something, right?

"Was it your mother. I'd say that makes me wanna kill her, but I'm thinking that would take away your satisfaction... and I'd probably die."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Ruby didn't look pleased, but she seemed to be thinking about something, again in her native language, though the familiar 'get out of my head' would appear if Quasi tried to read her mind now, though could anyone really blame her. "It really isn't any of your business, but I have a feeling you won't leave me alone before you get what you want, and with these..." she pulled the chains "...I can't exactly kill you to make you quiet." her act was now lot more clearly an act, it wasn't like she could deny her own thoughts, even if she didn't like it when others went into her mind.

"You're stupid if you think I'm going to tell you anything you could use against me, I'm not fooled that easily by the whole caring act." "But since we have nothing better to do and you most likely won't let me rest...." "...My mother is indeed blame for it, but not directly, she's just the one who's actions lead to it, and she's the last one alive." her eyes burned with hatred. "You want to know why I don't fear death? It's because I have seen it eye to eye, and I have learned that it's far from the worst thing that can happen." "You really have time to think about things when you lay starving in a ravine unable to move due to injuries." "That was the one time I was naive enough to believe that someone would care, I should have seen it coming, I wasn't there alone...." her demeanor told that she was getting into the more unpleasant part, though she hid her true feelings about it lot better now that she was awake "...made the mistake of leaving me alive after that, it was days until I was done with him." she stared into nothingness "I would have liked it to go for longer, but you can keep someone alive and awake for only so long." She was mainly feeling hatred as she spoke, but it was lot stronger and deeper than the hatred she felt towards everyone, and she was pulling on the chains hard enough to slightly damage whatever was the weakest point, herself, the chain or the wall, didn't matter, one of them was damaged, but only slightly, not enough to really change anything about anything.

 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"So that's why you are this way, always upset and angry. Events in your past hurt you. Seems to me your heart hasn't turned to stone, just got broken. I don't blame you for not trusting others, but don't let those that want to break you win. Something was stolen from you, and not just a cave. They stole trust and peace from you. They took it right from your talons and left you with anger and hatred."

The dragon looked at his own life and how things went for him.

"I didn't have these things stolen because, I was fortunate to have people love me, though my care for myself was a possession taken from me around my hatching. You aren't content, you aren't happy with your life and I don't blame you at all, so much has been done to upset you. You say these wrongdoings are normal, but they aren't. Maybe they're common, but they are wrong. If you take a look at a society, people are happy, trading some metal or paper or something else for other things. Everyone has a nice safe place to sleep; And all you gotta do is make some good choices."

The dragon sighed.

"Even so, I know you want to go and return to your land one day. A place I wouldn't last a second in, but I do care for you and I'd live my life there to stay near you, Ruby."

Guards were approaching and talking.

"I sure feel bad for the white one, this fight will be more like an execution, he doesn't stand a chance."

The guards took the dragon out. They took Ruby out, but only so she could watch, maybe they were trying to see how she'd react to spectating.

Quasi would face a dragon several times bigger than him. Seemed like a Nightwing, his scales were dark.

"Kill the dragon."

When he said it. Several spears would float and chase Quasi.

"An animus."

Quasi ran, planning his attack. Probably wasn't immortal like the legend Darkstalker, but was definitely a dangerous opponent. Quasi was fast, dodging the spears as if testing them. He'd also try to read his mind looking for whatever the dragon was thinking, maybe there was a counter.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

@Lucid_Nightlight
As to be expected, Ruby just rolled her eyes, it didn't matter what was said, all the nonsense talking went mostly ignored by her, if she wanted to hear about things like this she would ask a pony, this was especially a case in her current state, she was tired and in pain, she was very easy to annoy.

Ruby just took a comfortable position and watched, from outside it didn't seem like she felt anything else that tiredness, but her mind was running.

This situation was...weird, to say the least, they had been captured, then all of them had been brought here, Ruby had been in a fight, and everyone else but her and Quasi was taken somewhere else, and there had been another fight, now, there was yet another fight, there had been 3 fights in what she assumed had been an hour, and if the others were moved, why were they brought here in the first place? Either the Queen was losing her mind or this wasn't all what it looked like...execution, maybe the guard had been more right than they thought, maybe all this was just a front for a public execution, but she had ruined it by her actually taking down the executioner, then they had sent one of her kind, assuming he would take care of them easily, but even that failed, so now they were again dealing with them one at the time...it may have been bit far fetched, but it was enough for Ruby to start planning her escape.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

Quasi moved fast. He then moved in front of the dragon and ducked, one spear went into the dragon's leg, other spears hit the wall so hard they shattered, another hit Quasi in his side missing any vital organs.

Given the situation, the animus dragon reversed the enchantment on the spears and they'd nolonger chase Quasi, but... Quasi was injured.

Quasi kept fighting, attacking the Animus the spear he had the entire time. With no choice, he plunged the spear into the dragon's neck and pulled it back out.

"You've won your prize... never... grow... old..."

The animus was dead.

They'd take Ruby back in and then Quasi. They took the spear out and left him.

"Is... is it bad...?"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"I don't know your kind's biology, so I cannot tell you, but since you walked back, I'd say it's not lethal." Ruby stated coldly "Speaking of not dying, while your opponent ended up being quite pathetic, and while the trick was rather basic, I am surprised you pulled it off, maybe you're not as useless as I first thought." the expectations were zero so it didn't meant that she suddenly liked Quasi, but considering what Ruby was like, even the weakest praise was praise. 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"Still hurts. And at least that's something. The compliment I mean. We need to escape. I think they plan to keep us here until we are killed."

A note was there.

We've escaped, while we didn't want to leave you, they planned to execute Myra for refusing to fight. Find the taven to the west! It hasn't gotten taken over yet.

- Arrow

"How serious are your injuries? Would you bleed out if you turned into a pony? Wouldn't the chains be too big to hold you then? And then you can break mine! Take my wing rings off me too so I can fly."

Quasi focused for a second.

"According to their minds, the guards in this room will go off duty, we will have only a few minutes to escape. The door is made of wood, I cannot walk through fire, but if I focus my fire around the lock, we should be safe. Thankfully they aren't paying much attention, but maybe you should take the lead, I'll read your mind to get the information I need to follow. That will keep us as quiet as possible."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"I knew it, everyone talks talks and talks but when things get hard they run." Ruby said mostly to herself after seeing the note, she seemingly ignored what Quasi was saying, not that she ever looked like she didn't ignore everything, and after he was done would simply say "No need for any of that, I told you I know how to get out, only thing I don't know is the direction." she would then whisper something in her native language at the chains holding her forelegs in place, before pulling them hard, this caused some kind of magical explosion that broke them both apart, the explosion itself didn't make a sound, but the metal breaking apart did.

After this she simply broke rest of her chains, they may have been thick, but they were still only metal. As she was breaking her own chains, Quasi may notice that she hadn't made it out unscratched from the self-caused explosions, as there was small chunks missing form where the chains' locks had been, as in, most of her scales were missing from that area, and in their place was painful looking wounds, that didn't seem to bother her at all.

When she was done with her own chains, she would move to Quasi's, at which point she would comment "I'm insulted that you think few chains could hold me." she would free Quasi and his wings, and the head to the door, not waiting for Quasi to free her wings, he would need to either do that while she moved or wait until they were outside, the door itself, wasn't really a problem, Ruby's claws and horns had evolved to kill her own kind who had scales harder than steel, so a wooden door wasn't really something she had trouble breaking down, especially considering it was really only the area around the lock that needed to be broken.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"You act as if you wouldn't have left the guys. Plus, this was the best chance they had for everyone including us to survive. And it isn't like you're staying, and you have things easier than they do."

He felt his point was a fair one, though at this point, he was use to Ruby, plus he really liked this one.

"Aw... you're insulted? My poor baby!" He said playfully. "We could leave through the arena itself, but there are many guards, the numbers would overwhelm. There is also the throne room." Quasi would use his fire to melt the restraints on Ruby's wings as he ran with her.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"I would yes, but I have never said I wouldn't, I said quite the opposite if you remember." Ruby pointed out, her comment had been less about them leaving and more about them leaving after everything they said. "And watch your tongue, I can still kill you if you get annoying." Ruby wasn't really a playful type, especially not when she was tired and had just been woken up from a nap.

The annoyance of the tiredness would also be notable if they at any point faced a guard, as she would deal with them as quickly as possible, not even necessarily killing them, though if that was lucky or unlucky was arguable since they would most likely have life-long injuries after that.

"I don't think you can just fly out of the arena, the wing-restrains were way too easy to remove for that to be a case." "I guess we'll see where we end up." Ruby kept going through doors, breaking the locks with the same spell she had used on her chains if they were more durable, she used her extra sense to figure out what doors led to dead ends and what lead to rooms with more doors.

 

Edited September 9, 2020 by Catpone Cerberus

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

Eventually they'd be led out and the throne room would be in sight. The Equestrian dragon guards were all killed and the guards from this land stood guard protecting Queen Ruby and their spears pointed at the Equestrian dragon.

"Ah, Sventar and her... friend? Dragon that she's paid to be with? No matter, I'll admit, white nightwing, you killed an animus and made it look relatively easy. Now, Sventar, we will punish this false queen ourselves."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"If it was that easy to take back the throne, how did you lose it in the first place?" Ruby questioned, bit perplexed by the architectural decisions made in this place "And though I do want to kill them, what do you need me for? You seem to have things under control." honestly the whole situation was bit weird, she was told she was going to help in dragon civil war in Equestria, she was then sent to kill armed dogs and now she was helping with a coup in a land she didn't know existed, it didn't help that she was tired and in pain. "Is any of this even related to Dragonlord Ember in any way?" she had a feeling she was being tricked, she just didn't know by who.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"She works for Fironia. She was promised her own land if she got rid of the Skywings. Obviously, she failed. And she caught me off guard. I was overly confident and underestimated the Fironians. They want to take out anything that may threaten them. They have jackals too, surprisingly they are deadly. Ember is on our side. I will soon send word that our land has been reclaimed."

"Fironia will prosper! We will take over!"

Quasi rolled his eyes.

"I can see that. And yes, Ruby... aka Sventar, I agree. Something is wrong here. How did they know where to capture us? How did they know about you? Did they plan to execute you or to use you?"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"They could just have tried to hire me if they wanted my help, but instead they made themselves my enemies by capturing me." Ruby said "And you're the one with the ability to read minds, maybe use that to see if any of these lizards know anything." she faced the other Ruby "Inform Ember that there's a traitor or traitors somewhere, and I suggest you to go through your troops too, this is why I prefer doing things alone, nobody can betray you if there's nobody to betray you." she would then out of nowhere strike the 'false queen' to the throat in a way that would leave her to slowly suffocate to death "I can still stop you from dying, all you need to do is to think about everything you know so that Quasi here can read it from your mind" there was no way to save the dragon, but she figured she could try to get something out of her before she died

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

iouQuasi took a look into the dragon's mind.

"She's wondering why the rescue jackals are taking a while."

Multiple jackals would suddenly run up and open fire on Ruby using AK47's to keep her focus on him while another jackal would run up from the other side with c4 strapped to himself. Seeing this, Quasi quickly attacked the jackal as he exploded on Quasi.

For a moment Quasi could only hear loud ringing. When everything was clear, he looked at Ruby.

"You alright?"

The dragon tried to stand, and immediately fell. His right front leg was completely missing.

Queen Ruby took the dragon and stuck a talon in the wound making it worse and killing them.

"Guards, go get a medic, I keep his wound stable."

She'd take a curtain off the wall and tie it around his leg... well... what's left. She clearly wasn't just like the other Ruby, she was a lot more caring about others.

"Why would you do that?"

Before he could answer, Quasi was out, but alive. Thankfully the curtain wrapped around the wound helped.

"Once the medics come, I wanna show you something, Sventar."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

@Lucid_Nightlight
 

The jackals with the ak's wouldn't get too much of Ruby's attention since she didn't consider them a threat, in fact, all attention they would get was a wall of flame hot enough to melt anything that was not metal and most likely cause the gunpowder in the bullets to ignite before they reached the barrel, thus breaking the guns. She didn't really pay attention to the others while she dealt with the dogs, so she wouldn't notice Quasi until after things calmed down. (I'm bit confused about who lost the leg.) though her reaction would be as nonexistent as always, one really couldn't tell what she was feeling without being able to read her mind.

Ruby shook her head for few seconds, the gunfire and explosions really took a toll on her ears, she would need to start looking into a muffling spell if her enemies would always be this loud. "You really need to put more security if it's this easy to come to the throne room." she part-muttered as she checked for injuries, luckily nobody had hit her currently unprotected legs, that could have hurt. 

"Show me something? Don't say you're going to give a speech about friendship and emotions too."

 

 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

A couple dragons would tend to Quasi and his missing leg.

"The dragon will probably live. Good thing too, given the prophecy and all."

"Good."

Queen Ruby would lead Ruby to a hatchery.

"I didn't wanna show you anything, I just wanted to get you to take care of the dragons and protect them."

The small dragons would look at them.

"QUEEN RUBY!" They'd say happily. It seemed she regularly visited them and was quite nice to them.

One dragon would look at the non-queen Ruby.

"Did you killeded the mean dragon?" The tiny little dragon was referring to the fake queen.

"You must be going all over the place Sventar, if this were a story, I'd eat the one leading it."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

@Lucid_Nightlight
The hatchlings wouldn't get much attention from Ruby, only acknowledgement from her would be her showing her freshly bloody claw she had used to strike the dragon's throat after it was asked if the 'fake queen' was gone. "Why did you bring me here and what's your point? What you are saying makes no sense." first she said she wanted to show something, then she said she didn't, and instead wanted Ruby to protect someone? then she talked about eating someone?

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"Must be one of the slow dragons. Let me explain this in your language."

"Me want big dragon to watch hatchlings. While big dragons boyfriend recovers."

She knew they weren't actually in that kind of relationship, she just wanted to annoy Ruby. At the same time, a young dragon would attempt to climb Ruby.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Still didn't explain the eating comment, "And what if I say no?" "I'm not your underling." she didn't give the Queen the satisfaction of getting under her skin, as hard as it was in Ruby's current tired state, she was actually surprised none of the hatchlings said anything regarding her physical state, after all, she had two chucks missing from her legs and she was covered in blood, though latter wasn't as visible since she was already red, it most likely wasn't something a hatchling saw every day. "Even if you paid me for it, I have no idea what to do with a hatchling that wouldn't be considered an attack by you, since seeing the happy state of these ones, my way would most likely be considered abuse." 

What came to the hatchling trying to climb her, if they got a grib in the first place, she would shake them off in surprisingly gentle manner, at worst she would push them away, again surprisingly gently, because while Ruby despised the small dragons around her, even she didn't go low enough to actually harm a hatchling if she could avoid it, though for her it was less because of morals and more because that would be very weak thing to do..