open Rise of the Stars roleplay (1x1 with CatponeCerberus)

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Ember was quiet for a moment before responding "The thing is, that's not really the thing, it's just what I tell everyone to avoid them getting too nosy." Ember admitted, sitting down on her bed "All the violence and death have an effect yes, but it's not the one I let others believe it is, it's kinda the opposite." she let out a sigh "You know how I speak of my pony-half and Dragon-half separately? That's because there really is two halves." "What you see is what I'd call my pony side, it is what I'm comfortable with, but then there's the dragon, I have these...urges, violent, bloodthirsty urges, which I just learned, are most likely inherited, as Cinder too has them." "I've managed them well enough, really loosing it only once back when the events that lead me to this career path took place." "But the war... so much death....it was horrible, but also it was so.....enticing." she sounded like she was disgusted by her own words "I...I need some time to suppress it again, that's why I need the break." as she spoke, she looked at Arrow, not only to show that she was being genuine, but also to see his reaction "But her voice...." at this point she started to break a little "...I feel so awful...I know I'm not really needed there but...I feel like a monster." 
 

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"Yeah the surface world is awful." Vix agreed "But we all can make an effort to make it better, be it something huge like leading a nation, or something as small as showing compassion to those gone unloved, the important part is the effort." "We may not be able to get rid of evil, but we sure can be a thorn in its side." 

 

 

 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"You're not a monster. And this is Quasi's fight and he already has an army to help him fight it. I stayed because I want to help you fight yours."

As long as Ember allowed him, he'd stay with Ember and help to consol her.

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"The evil we face in this war will die."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight

"I know." "But I can't stop second-guessing myself" Ember admitted "I'm scared, of myself." "My mind is a mess, I don't know what to do." she wasn't good with emotions, so she was bit all over the place, but she had opened the gates, so she couldn't really stop, her eyes had started to tear up, but she was keeping her composure relatively well "I feel like I'm going to lose it." 

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Cinder was the one to respond to that one, her voice being eerily low "In the blood of their victims shall the tyrant drown, as their demons rise to seek their due." Vix looked at her concerned "Are you doing aright?" "Oh, I'm fine, just fine." 

Edited May 8, 2022 by Catpone Cerberus

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

Arrow could tell that the distress was too much. She had a therapist but what she truly needed in Arrow's mind was a friend.

Arrow walk towards Ember and hug her.

 

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One or the navy dragons would walk towards Quasi.

"We've tricked the enemy into thinking we'll be landing on another beach. There will still be defenses but not as many."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Ember didn't fight the hug, in fact, at first she barely reacted, but after a moment or two her last walls collapsed and she broke out crying, she was a quiet crier, but it was still easy to tell it had been long time coming, Arrow was right, she may have had a therapist, but professional help didn't replace emotional connection, sometimes instead of practical solutions, one just needed a shoulder to cry on, though who would have thought that the shoulder this half dragon found was that of an ex-dragon hunter. 

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Vix took his shield and scythe, his staff being on his back, readying his muscles a bit, it had been a while since he had been in actual fight "What kind of defenses are we talking about?" "Danthe and I can try to get me close enough to deal with them."   

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"You'll never be a monster. A monster doesn't care like you."

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"Machine guns mostly I'd suspect. Artillery may not be practical especially with dragons. Danthe should be able to survive I'd imagine. As should I. Strong scales and all that. The rest of you, there's a bit of a risk. Anti-air machine guns are also possible, it would make sense. Swords and spears for close quarters possibly. Even without those, their claws and teeth are deadly along with fire."

"Dragons in this world are mostly infantry, we're a little big for automobiles. We make up for it with out flight and strength. Our drones help with air supremacy and replaces jets."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Ember didn't respond verbally, but she did press herself slightly harder against Arrow, she didn't really know how she would have responded or really even how she was supposed to react, as this was the first time in quite a while she let herself to break down, eventually though, she started to calm back down, and after she calmed down enough to speak, she quietly said "Thank you." it hadn't magically fixed her problem, but it felt good to be able to let out some pressure. 

---------------------------------
"Sounds manageable." Vix stated "Danthe, how'd you feel giving me a ride?" Danthe, still steaming, or well, at this point smoking, just grunted "That's a yes."  Cinder didn't say anything, which concerned Vix slightly, he had known her for some time, having met her before the first war, and had never seen her so quiet, usually she always had something to comment, and that stare, it sent cold shivers down his back. 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

Everything he told her, he genuinely thought. He cared about others but, he liked Ember the most though. He'd say something to try and raise her mood a bit.

"I'd say you need a drink but honestly, I've been down that road, not actually helpful. I woke up in all kinds of places. Dumpsters, Dumpsters on fire, refrigerators, and in the middle of Tartarus. They're still trying to find out how I got there. That was years ago, sometime before Tirek ran around causing trouble."

 

 

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"The first time Darkstalker caused trouble, the Nightwing Kingdom was so scared they fled to a volcanic island. He took control of his father with animus magic, made him cut his tongue out and tear himself open. His dad wasn't good but, it terrified many."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Ember let out few post-cry shaky laughs, "I'm curious how you got out."  "I have had my own drink aftermaths, usually a fight or something catching fire, but once I woke up in middle of nowhere, wearing a bird outfit, with bunch of birds just staring at me. Still no idea what that was about." "I started to limit myself after I had enough enemies to make carelessness like that dangerous." she sounded slightly happier right away, though there was still sniffing and shakiness as was to be expected from someone recovering from crying.  

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"That is terrifying." Vix admitted "Let's hope he doesn't get any similar ideas with Ruby." he thought for a second "I understand if you don't want to think about it, but, since you know her best from us, what could possibly make Ruby that terrified? she doesn't seem like someone easily scared." 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"Bird outfit? That's a new one. Enemies weren't a problem for me, they were all dead. Surprisingly enough, I've never really had a bounty on one of Ruby's kind. Maybe because they typically stay in one land. Now that I think about it, how has Ruby stayed under my radar during my time of freelance?"

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"Doubt he will. He wants Ruby alive I'm certain. When he first met Ruby, he said he wanted her to feel fear. This was a clone of Darkstalker but maybe he was brought back with the memory of the clones along with his own. If that's true, killing him twice must've angered him further. But why did he hate Ruby in the first place?"

"Gladia took Ruby as a threat. She had reason to. She probably made the clone with a hatred towards Ruby. I think Gladia feared Ruby. Do you think the nightwings will find Ruby as weak after this?"

"Dragons here have an interesting way of thinking. They're barbaric in some ways but are understanding in others. In a way, Darkstalker cheated. That's probably not the word they'd use but, I think it boils down to that if you take away the layers. More than anything, it tells more about Darkstalker than it does about Ruby. I can see in their minds, the dragons on the ship. They want to kill Darkstalker and get their queen back. Though, I feel Ruby's pride has taken a hit."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Ember raised her head so that she wasn't talking into Arrow's fur "The problem with taking down big names in the criminal underworld is that there's always someone who wants revenge." she pointed out, she wasn't really on the mood to talk about work, but she decided to mention it anyway "For Ruby's kind and Ruby herself, I'd say it's not that surprising, nobody knew they existed before Ruby appeared, even the princesses had no idea, and Ruby acted like a pony well enough to not cause suspicion before she did." "It could also be that there simply wasn't any of their kind in Equestria during your time, Ruby moved next to me only few years ago, and...Enduur?.. and her family stayed hidden until they ended up here." she thought for a moment, "Can I ask you something? You said Arrow isn't your real name...What is?" she looked him into his eyes when she asked it, her eyes had a...soft look in them, a look that contrasted with her usual tough-professional demeanor. 

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"Let's hope it's just her pride." Vix said with concern, Danthe finally spoke between all of her anger, though if it added to the conversation was another question "Darkstalker coward, real dragon fight Ruby, no capture." Vix though about something "What if Ruby was not the target?" "The wedding attack was clearly aimed at you, and I remember hearing it's you who killed Darkstalker, not Ruby." "If it is only about Ruby, why the message? wouldn't he want to avoid starting a war if it was just about making Ruby pay?" 

 

 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"Morning Star. My name is Morning Star. My grandfather suggested it, he was a dragon hunter also."

"I'm guessing your name is still Ember?"

-----------------

"Possibly. Ruby pushed me into a wall before she disappeared. It could've been meant for me."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"Morning Star." Ember repeated quietly, both to see if it rings any bells and to remember it better "It's a nice name." "I'm just Ember, or well, on paper my full name is Ember Blaze, but nobody has ever used the latter part, it's there just to make it sound more pony like." "Is there a reason why you stopped using your real name?" Arrow had introduced himself as such to everyone, so while she understood it could have been sensitive topic, she couldn't help her curiosity,

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"So she probably noticed it..." Vix said thoughtfully, guess Ruby did care for Quasi even if she didn't really show it, you didn't take a hit for others if you didn't care. That made Vix realize something, Quasi had been really calm this whole time....he decided to say something "Your highness, I feel that someone has to say this, whatever we find, it's not your fault." 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"I needed to keep the name to accept what happened. It was a way to move on. At this point, I know myself as Arrow, and it's who I want to be. My name on my grave shall be Arrow."

--------------------------------------------------

"I should've noticed and stopped her. Had I done that, she would be safe."

 

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"Understandable" Ember stated "I hope me asking didn't bring up any unpleasant memories." she was bit conflicted, she wanted to know more about Arrow, and not just because of their...physical proximity, but she also didn't want to open any old wounds "Just say if you don't want to talk about your past but...did you...hate dragons back then? when you hunted them?" she was very aware of the relationship between dragons and ponies in the past, being an obvious half-dragon among ponies, she didn't ask it to judge Arrow, she just wanted to know.  "You can be honest." 

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"And you would be in her place." Vix pointed out "It was a trap, neither of you realized it before it was too late, nor did any of your guards or any of us." "Remember that she decided to push you away, she made the choice to protect you, to blame yourself and to wish to be in her place is to undermine her choice." "Instead focus on making sure that it was not for nothing." it wasn't exactly the soft, comforting words one may have expected, but he had had similar talks with Enduur, and was thus used to dealing with stubborn dragons. 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"No, I never hated anyone not even the ones I killed. The ones I killed were the ones that were a danger to others. I've met some pretty nice dragons back then and even done bounties for the Dragonlands to hunt down criminals there especially dangerous."

"The reason I hunted dragons is because everyone else was afraid to handle them. The average pony would be killed if they tried."

------------------------------

 

"Darkstalker will fall. I want to put an end to Darkstalker forever."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight

"Huh. Guess we are even more similar than I expected." Ember said thought fully "I'm sorry, didn't mean to assume anything, I just...ponies haven't always been this nice towards dragons." she let out a sigh "I'm bad at this, I investigate others for living but I just keep missing with everything I say to you....do you have anything to ask me? would be only fair." she was known for her deadliness, not her charisma.

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"Third time the charm, as some say." 

 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"Weirdly enough, I have nothing to ask. Even if I did, you have a right to keep your secrets. But you can always tell me if something is upsetting you."

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"It'll take time to find Ruby I think. It's upsetting. Who knows what pain Ruby is feeling. If we save her, it will take time for her to heal. The trauma even more."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight

Ember thought for a second "Did I ever tell you about all the trouble the crows caused me when I was young?" she looked at the crow that always followed her, it was sleeping in a corner of the room "Or all the trouble I got in in general?" 

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"We need to be careful when we get to her, no doubt Darkstalker has made sure freeing her won't be easy even without him in the way." Danthe again spoke "*If she is in pain, I can find her, the magic in me is drawn to suffering.*"

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"I don't think you have. Whats up with that anyway. Are you able to turn it off?"

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"I'm certain. Imagine not eating and being unable to die. Then getting your horn cut off... what else..."

Quasi couldn't finish his words. It was too much.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight

"Nope" "No idea why but for my whole life an army of crows has followed my every move, it has to be something to do with who- or whatever my biological parents are or were, Cinder has snakes following her." Ember explained "So imagine this, you are half-dragon in Equestria where dragons are not liked due to believes about them being always dangerous, and to add to that, you have a murder of crows following you everywhere." "You also have a habit of lashing out at those who purposely annoy you." "That was me." "The weird scaly pony with army of black birds following her every move." "I got in trouble a lot, even if I didn't do anything, since my more aggressive nature got every pony blaming me every time." "Then the crows started defending me, at first it wasn't bad, they just swooped in and scared others away, but then one day things escalated.....I'm just happy no lives were lost, it was....crows are terrifying." "So, that's the story why I became homeschooled."  

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"I assume you know something I don't." Vix noted, he hadn't understood those parts of the message, so he wasn't sure what Quasi meant by 'unable to die', sure he had heard the warning but it wasn't like you just instantly died when you became hungry, one could last quite long while starving. "For the horn, if we are to be optimistic, at least that grows back eventually, it's humiliating yes, but not permanent." he didn't believe what they would find would be pretty, but he didn't want to give Quasi thoughts about the possible horrible things that they could find. "Though it's probably extra bad for Ruby since she had clearly taken care of her horns, no doubt she is proud of them." 

 

 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

"Crows are odd, quite cute when tamed. Have you considered seeing some sort of doctor? Maybe that Zebra that lives in everfree? My parents actually dumped me in everfree once when I was a baby. That's why they're in jail and that's why my grandfather took care of me. I'd probably be traumatized if I could remember it."

He looked thoughtfully.

"They could've dumped me at a some station, fire department, or hospital. Or an orphanage, they really didn't think that through. I know a yellow pony who lived in an orphanage, well he just looks like a yellow pony. He's part draconequus oddly enough. Not related too Discord though. He was turned to stone for the duration of the war, turns out Gladia is his mother. He turned himself to stone, afraid he'll be tempted to aid her. He's fine now though."

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"I've heard her speak in her language, calling for help. She's afraid. I just don't think Darkstalker is nice enough to feed her."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Ember didn't have time to respond verbally to the question since Arrow continued right away, but gestured a sort of 'obviously' gesture as a response, she had seen doctors, witches, witch doctors, even animal experts, yet the best she had gotten was something along the lines of 'maybe they just like you'. 

For Arrow's little story she gave a sympathetic look, she would have joked a bit about the fact he specified 'once', but she felt she had misspoken enough already. "My parents, whoever they are, at least had the sense to leave me at someone's door." "And I can partly relate to this...yellow pony, not literally of course, but I'm doing something similar right now, staying out of a conflict because I worry I may end up hurting someone i don't want to." 

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"So that's what she said, I noticed she spoke something between the lines in that message, I just don't understand the language." Vix remarked, he hadn't asked about it then as he assumed there was a reason he was not told what was said, he sighed "That ending haunts me, I've never heard a dragon whimper like that." Like Cinder and Danthe, his impatience grew, but unlike them, he didn't get angry, he got worried.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"You're not the kind to do that. You care too much to harm someone that is innocent. I hear Quasi has ocd, could that be the issue? He says he gets all these intrusive thoughts and worries and sometimes he'll have to do something to... 'undo' that thought. He's learned to cope with the issue though with the help of his caretaker when he was little. Her name was Mira. I hear she went crazy and tried to harm Ruby, so Quasi killed her."

"Whatever it is, I obviously couldn't tell you what you have going on, I think I know someone actually who could help you, Placidus. He works at a hospital in Ponyville and is also a psychiatrist and therapist. He's might be near actually, I heard he's been trying to study dragons so he can know how to treat them medically. If you'd like to speak to him maybe we can set something up for you."

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"Ruby may not agree but, I think we should have her medically treated. And, probably get Ruby therapy."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"While another opinion never hurts, and I wouldn't mind at least seeing if he's any help. at this point it has been figured out pretty well, there's a solid theory on what it is and like I said, I have been able to handle it relatively well my whole life." "Only thing now would be to find a way to get rid of it altogether, which may be impossible." Ember explained, before taking a deep breath, she hadn't really talked about it much to anyone besides the therapist and her adoptive parents, so it felt bit weird "Like I mentioned before, it's believed to be linked to my dragon half, some kind of faulty gene caused by whatever weirdness allowed me to even exist." she was well aware hybrid like her was an oddity, since there should be no way for a dragon and a pony to have offspring together, for obvious reasons "The gene that gives dragons the predatory instinct, it's...hyperactive." "Apparently Cinder has found an...alternative way to satisfy it, but that's not really a fitting solution for me....not my kind of thing." 

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"Medicine can have unexpected side effects, also, as you said, she probably won't agree, and forcing anything on her would do more harm than good." Vix pointed out, he didn't necessarily disagree, well, he did on the medicine, but therapy would have been good for all of her kind, the problem? good luck finding a therapist that can win their trust enough to be of any use. "I think what she needs is you." "And I don't mean just telling her how much you care or how she's great, that's worthless to their kind, how can you appreciate such words if you don't know how it feels to genuinely feel that way?" "What I mean is, be there for her, she wants to stay silent? be silent with her, she wants to talk? listen, and if you disagree, don't tell her she's wrong, instead tell her why you think differently." "She cares about you, as hard as it may be to notice, she just doesn't know how to express it, and if she feels like you shut down her attempts to connect, she'll get frustrated and become even more closed up." "This goes for everything, if she tells you that she feels like she has failed at something, don't say she hasn't, she'll see that as you lying, instead tell her why it's okay to fail." he didn't know Ruby that well yet, and no doubt Quasi knew her better, but living with three of the same species, two of which have problems with self-image, he had learned how to approach such matters with them, and that understanding was part of the reason why he had been accepted as part of the family. "If she makes it out of this, she'll need someone who's willing to understand her, otherwise she'll grow even more bitter against the world than she already seems to be." the reason he was so worried was because he had seen first-hand what the feeling of powerlessness does to a dragon, granted Enduur and Danthe had been like that quite a bit longer than Ruby, but then again, that also meant that they had gotten used to it enough to get over it. In fact, Danthe was a good example, she had ripped her own wings off because she had felt they made her more powerless.