“You sure do look funny!”
Rarity glowered sleepily up at Applejack. “What did you say?”
“Nuthin’. Jes admirin’ your mane.”
This produced an even worse scowl. Rarity could feel the state of her grooming without even looking, and the state was dire. Her mane felt wrong—normally, Rarity liked to stay within a few minutes’ trot of a mirror so she could check if her coiffure looked wrong, but this was so dreadful she dared not even look.
Applejack’s amusement served as a mirror of sorts, but a most unwelcome one.
“Stop it,” said Rarity.
“Aw! All right. Sure do sleep late, don’tcha?” said Applejack. She began to nuzzle at Rarity’s saddlebags with her trail-dusty muzzle. “Ya got any breakfast in there?”
“Don’t touch!” shrieked Rarity.
Applejack jumped back. “Yiii! Well all right then, consarn it! You din’t have to yell!”
“Not until you’ve washed up!” demanded Rarity. “In fact, I have packed so carefully and thoroughly, that perhaps we had better leave the revealing of the contents of my bags to me, hmmm? Oh, don’t sulk, Applejack, you’ll understand later. We were all too tired to retire in a decent civilized manner last night. It shall not recur!”
Applejack stared at her lover, in disbelief. Rarity’s mane didn’t seem funny anymore—it twisted in ragged curls off her head, but the formerly elegant unicorn stared fiercely, smudges of dirt on her face heightening the peculiar drama. Applejack met the stare.
“Ya brought a four-poster bed or somethin’? It’s too early in the mornin’ for unicorn crazy…”
That tore it. Rarity bared her teeth. “Some ponies have the foresight and ingenuity to maintain standards, even in the wilderness!”
“Is that so? Is that so? Missy, th’ wilderness got its own standards, and it don’t need no help maintainin’, either!”
“Immaterial! It is my pleasure and my duty to bring suitable, nay, necessary luxury to the wilderness, and no matter how heavy the burden, I will not fail…”
From under a nearby tree, a miserable voice was raised: Rainbow Dash.
“Will you quit FIGHTING?”
Both Applejack and Rarity glanced that direction, then looked at each other, abashed.
“Sorry, sugarcube…”
“No, no… I fear I have been simply veHEment…”
Applejack blinked. “Still look like a mare ta me. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that! Everythin’ in its place, huh?”
Rarity smirked at the adorable yet maddening fumbling with vocabulary. ‘He-ment’. So typical. In fairness, she’d emphasized it oddly, which was doubtless Applejack’s bad influence. She looked up at the wide-eyed earth pony, who shifted her back hooves awkwardly as she tried to find her gentleness and be less argumentative—‘ornery’, surely, would be the word she’d favor.
“Rarity, hon? Ya laughin’ at me?” Applejack bit her lip, glancing nervously over to where Rainbow Dash and Twilight lay. They weren’t watching, apparently—it was hard to tell, for the tree was some distance away.
Rarity studied her marefriend further, not speaking. The touch of disapproval and dominance pushed Applejack, second by second, farther into an entrancing bashfulness that was most feminine. Or, perhaps, thought Rarity, it was she who felt masculine—travelling with her bit in her own saddlebag all day long, and then sleeping by it—my, yes, the proximity effect was not to be denied. Rarity felt outrageously he-mare. Her eyes narrowed in a predatory way, and her lip curled into a dangerous smile as she looked up at Applejack.
“Ya mad? I’m sorry. You’re smilin’… sorta…”
“Ssh,” said Rarity, and beckoned with a wave of her horn.
Applejack gulped, and fell silent, her eyes a question. She lowered herself, to listen more closely to what Rarity told her.
“Lie with me,” whispered Rarity. “I know what I want for breakfast.”
Her horn glowed. The saddlebag opened. The bit lifted furtively out of it, glinting softly in the dawn light.
Applejack’s eyes went very wide. “Aw, hell naw!” she hissed. “You crazy?”
“Lie with me right now,” said Rarity, softly, naked hunger in her voice. That voice could be pitched into an amazing array of tones and expressions—but Applejack had never heard such a sexy contralto throb, and her legs quivered as she met Rarity’s commanding eyes.
“Um… in th’ mornin’? Ain’t like I never… er… listen, you hush! We ain’t alone here…”
“I don’t care.”
“Well, ah do!” whispered Applejack. “I have to! It’s nice me bein’ sexu’ly inspiring an’ all, but come on, darlin’, don’t be so heartless…”
Rarity bared her teeth, her eyes flaring with animalistic hunger. Applejack’s legs quivered worse.
“Oh my,” she said, and looked around frantically. “Dammit, Rarity. Playin’ dirty, givin’ me looks like that… meet me behind that hill over there in five minutes, hear what I’m sayin’?”
Rarity glanced that direction. “No, the big rock near it—and right now.”
“That’s too consarned close!” hissed Applejack.
“It’s a rock. It will reflect sound away…”
Applejack bared her teeth in turn. “You best not be plannin’ to make sound…”
Rarity smirked again, wickedly. “I shan’t need to. It can reflect your sound. Your little, repressed cries of ecstacy.”
“Like hell I will. It’d be cruel. Y’all playin’ so dang dirty, Rarity—stop lookin’ at me like that! Ya gone all stalliony on me, all right. What’s got into you?”
Rarity shrugged, elegantly. “You bring out the best in me, darling…”
Applejack bit her lip. She glanced again at Rainbow and Twilight, seeing no sign of movement. She glanced at the hill, and the huge rock that would totally obscure their bodies from view.
“Th’ rock. Five minutes. If ya cheat and come early, I’mma buck you not in the way you like.”
Rarity’s smirk grew fangs of wicked delight. “Assumptions!”
“Promise!” hissed Applejack, desperately.
“Very well… you go. Now.”
“Oh my,” whispered Applejack, and got to her hooves. She announced, “Gosh—I’mma take a piss…” and Rarity winced at the gaucherie, but her eyes didn’t leave the country pony’s fine rump as she trotted, a spring in her step, off toward the hill—only to veer aside with a laughable display of faux sneakiness, and duck behind the rock.
Rarity waited, smiling—and then took the bit very slowly and carefully between her teeth. She had no intention of making a sound, for Applejack wished a degree of secrecy—but among her own fetishes was the indulging of voyeurism, and if she was being watched, nothing pleased her more than to put on a show.
She knew a certain pony who’d enjoyed voyeurism before—and knew that Applejack did not understand perversion nearly as well as she or the other pony understood it.
Perhaps Dash was even kinky enough to get off on the situation—but regardless, she’d asked for it, and Rarity did not take competition lightly. Applejack wasn’t going to be the only pony fucked this morning. Rarity’s rival was going to feel inadequate whether Applejack liked it or not.
Five minutes later, Rarity rose and walked deliberately toward the big rock, daunting unicorn bulk jutting from between her hindlegs and slapping her belly gently with each step…
“You don’t speak, little Lulamoon?”
Trixie stared straight ahead.
“We… understand our methods may have been distressing…”
No response.
“You were delightful. It was appreciated.”
Nothing.
Princess Luna sighed. “I see we are at an impasse. You are clever, Trixie Lulamoon. How to battle royalty thousands of years your elder? How to defeat a creature that can turn any thought, any action to her own ends? And so you do not act, you do not think. Were you to starve and die without lifting a hoof, you would indeed win. Would you not?”
No response.
“She would not want you to perish before your time…”
Not even a tear. Trixie’s gaze was stony. Luna caught her breath.
“Oh, you’re good…”
The alicorn Princess paced, talking as if to herself. “We don’t know whether my suggestion holds, that your Twilight would wish you to make the best of things…”
A quick glance told her that Trixie had not risen to the bait, had made no demand that Luna cease using her beloved’s name. Trixie Lulamoon was fixed, unwavering in her contemplation of nothing, and showed no sign of hearing.
“Or,” continued Luna, “whether you are correct that she would value your freedom and faithfulness above all else, and would wish you to die alone should you not have her. It is, admittedly, a romantic notion, and perhaps she is immature enough to hold it. Do you think it healthy for her to cling to what she shall not have, in her pathetically short blink of a lifetime?”
Trixie didn’t respond, and Luna added, “Do not misunderstand—I consider that tragic. Know that if you two did not undertake a suicide pact, one of you will inevitably survive the other. She has lived a more comfortable life, where you have lived the life of a Lulamoon out of her proper time, so it’s likely that she would survive you. In that event, should she also cling to the memory and refuse to love again?”
Trixie’s eyes showed pain, but that was all. She couldn’t help her emotions, but she was damned if she would let them lead to actions or thoughts to aid Princess Luna. She made no response.
“She is surviving you now. If you like, I could smite you out of existence at a stroke, and she can survive you quite literally. Do you wish this? Is loving me so painful that oblivion appeals, my pet?”
Trixie continued to deny all thought, all feeling. The words became meaningless noises, apart from the gentle tears they provoked—and Trixie allowed those, knowing she was only a pony trapped and doomed to a choice of terrible fates.
Luna sighed. Her voice softened.
“Poor little kindred. I’ve controlled your mind, and now you take it back from me, you give me the choice: love you as a mere puppet knowing it is a hollow victory, or allow you to perish rather than serve me. Truly you are worthy kin to my beloved Lulamoons—you are brave, and your loyalty is unshakable, and it is not to me. Do I need to bind you, little one? Will you destroy yourself in some manner, left unattended? How deep does your rebellion run—what acts could your Twilight bear, were she to know of them? Do you understand that were you to perish by your own acts… I could give you back?”
Trixie whimpered, just for a moment, before stubbornly going silent again. It had been a horrific suggestion. She took a moment to reflect on how unthinkably evil her own private Nightmare Moon was, that she would contemplate such a cruel act…
Luna was crouching directly before her, and tears were in her eyes as she pleaded.
“No, Trixie. No! I am sorry I even expressed the thought. It is unworthy of me. You may believe that or not, but I will tell you words of truth right now, and I will honor them: I will not do that. Do you understand? No matter what happens to you, Twilight Sparkle will never be tormented with the reality of your fate. I think she will get over you, but if she does not, she does not. She will never suffer the grief of confronting your corpse. It will be a gentler, more peaceful memory of you that fades. I swear I will never disturb that memory.”
Trixie struggled to stay silent, to fight back the flood of thoughts and feelings stirred up by the wicked Princess and her mind games. It had been important to Luna never to lie to Trixie—she was depending upon the building of a relationship that contained an important kind of trust. Trixie understood that, instinctively, even as she rebelled and refused to extend the relationship. She fought to blank her mind, to not engage in any way with the Princess.
Luna watched her, and continued to speak with great earnestness while Trixie was off-balance. “I will say more than that. If freedom is the only gift you’ll ever let me give you, I give it without caveat. I confine your body, and I have enjoyed its gifts—but I shall not restrict your mind again. Do you hear me? I will not tamper with your mind. Now, more than ever, I long to win that mind over, to see you serve me willingly. Until that day, Trixie Lulamoon, there will be no more demonstrations of mental compulsion… I will reason with you, perhaps even plead and beg. Were I to see you charge at the rock wall, I would beg you to desist, in genuine horror. You are a wondrous creature, Miss Lulamoon: you should not perish unloved.”
Princess Luna gulped, looking distressed. “If I may say it…”
“You may not,” said Trixie, and coughed, for her throat was parched and dry.
Luna glowered. “We never said we would take back-talk, girl. Darling impossible perfect Lulamoon… you are not perishing unloved.”
Trixie returned to her truculent silence, staring at nothing. Luna sighed.
“We shall return. In time you shall not have strength to dash yourself against the rocky walls, even if you wished to do so. We shall heal any lesser woes you inflict. Would that I could heal my own… oh, Trixie! I did not want to kill you. I could have done so at any point, you’re but a mortal pony. Please be with me. I miss your kind—there is only you now, and we are estranged.”
No response.
Princess Luna walked off, her head hanging low, and eventually the pool of light she brought with her was lost in the darkness.
Fluttershy paced the floor of Pinkie’s bedroom. “Do you think they’re going to be all right?”
“You’re worried too, huh?”
“We shouldn’t have let them go. I’m not saying you were wrong!” added Fluttershy. “I’m only saying, they should never have gone. What if it’s dangerous?”
Pinkie considered this. “Well—she does have the bravest ponies around to take care of her! And Rarity is there too.”
“That seems like a terrible idea as well,” said Fluttershy. “Rainbow Dash and Applejack and Rarity traveling together? I can’t believe Rainbow Dash agreed to go. What if she finds it hard to be around them?”
“Maybe you have that backwards—Rainbow Dash could make things really uncomfortable for Applejack and Rarity. I kinda wouldn’t blame her,” said Pinkie. “That would be pretty typical for her.”
Fluttershy nodded. “I guess if they can stand it, it’ll be okay? It’s just a matter of what they can stand to be around.” She dropped her gaze, licked her lips. “Um.”
Pinkie Pie blinked. “You okay, Fluttershy?”
“Why do you ask?”
“I like it when you look at me, your eyes are so pretty. It means I notice real quick when you won’t look at me. You’re totally looking away, how come?”
Fluttershy pouted, and met Pinkie’s gaze again. “I’m sorry. I was just… wondering what you can stand to be around.” Her wings lifted.
“I don’t get it. I love being around you being sexy, Fluttershy. It’s the best!”
Fluttershy dropped her gaze again.
“All right,” said Pinkie. “What is it?”
“I’m so foolish. It’s probably a bad idea…”
“What is it, Fluttershy? Whatever it is, I can handle it, but you’re making me really worried!”
Fluttershy gulped. “Would it ruin me for you if… I was with a stallion?”
Pinkie froze. She didn’t even blink for a minute, and Fluttershy began to cry. “I’m so sorry, Pinkie dear, pretend I didn’t even say it…”
Pinkie said, “If this is you, telling me you’re done with mares… I guess I should be grateful that I had some time with you at all…”
“No!” cried Fluttershy, trotting over and hugging Pinkie. “It can be only you, I am so sorry to have brought up whatever terrible thing happened to you that made you hate males! I…” but she broke off, for Pinkie had shoved her aside, and stood, stomping her hoof.
“What is it with ponies that nopony can possibly understand this? Even you! You are not very clever, Fluttershy! I expected better from you!”
“I promise I’ll never make you think of it…”
“Why do you all assume something happened to me? That I hate stallions? Do you have any idea what it feels like that ponies think I got broken into being the way I am? I don’t know how to put this to you, Fluttershy, but my sexy feelings were always about vag and girls and stuff! Okay, okay, listen. Let me try and put it in a way you can understand. You’re a girl pony and I always thought you were straight as anything. I bet you have a big straight streak, and that is totally fine. Well, imagine a big, fat pony cock, okay? How’s that grab you? How does it feel having a big fat pony cock pressing into you?”
Fluttershy looked sulky. “Never mind. I only want you. I’m sorry I even brought it up.”
“Well if you want me, listen!” said Pinkie. “Now pretend you’re a guy pony. He’s got a pony cock too, he likes mares. Crazy about them. What do you think his feelings are about a big fat pony cock pressing into him?”
Fluttershy blinked. “Gosh. You know I’ve watched some of them do that with each other…”
“Not that kind, Fluttershy, a straight colt. How does he feel? I mean a totally straight colt who gets nothing out of boy parts at all. How does he react to ye olde big fat pony cock penetrating him?”
“Um…” said Fluttershy, having spent much time being frustrated and pent up. “Well…”
“I guess you haven’t seen as many straight colts as I have—I’ve always been able to hang out with them ‘cos I’m kind of like them in some ways, we can play pranks on each other, we can even crave vag together. I’ll tell you how he reacts—he freaks out, it doesn’t feel right, maybe he even hurls if he’s too off guard because that way of being sexy just does not work for him. Now, listen. Does that mean he hates males?”
That stopped Fluttershy. “I guess not…”
“Do you have to ask HIM if males did bad things to HIM to make him not be attracted to penis?”
“I’m so sorry, Pinkie Pie. I didn’t mean to make you upset!”
“I’M NOT…” began Pinkie, and then facehooved. “Okay, maybe I’m a little upset, but only because everypony in the world seems to think I had to be MADE into a raging lesbian. Like something super awful had to break me into loving vag that hardcore. What can I even tell you? I always craved mares, even before I knew you could do stuff with them. I don’t know why—it’s just me. I even tried playing with colts a couple times and it was real squicky and weird—and then the night came when I lost my virginity for real and I knew what my tongue was for…”
Fluttershy’s eyes were wide. “With a mare?”
Pinkie Pie winked. “Three wild pegasus fillies. Huh… no wonder things turned out as they did… and life has been beautiful ever since.” Her eyes softened. “Especially once I found you, Fluttershy. You’re a dream of fillyness. Or mare-yness.”
“Or… motherliness?”
Pinkie stared. Fluttershy returned her gaze bravely.
“Maybe I’m the not-clever pony,” said Pinkie. “You’re… not breaking up with me, are you?”
Fluttershy shook her head.
Pinkie licked her lips. “Exactly why are you talking about being with stallions, Fluttershy?”
“I think you know. I think when we played that way, you could tell.”
“I need you to spell it out for me,” said Pinkie, unsteadily.
Fluttershy didn’t drop her gaze at all. “I love you, Pinkie. I want to stay with you all my life, and I want to have your foal, more than anything in the world.”
Pinkie’s eyes swam with tears. “Fluttershy…”
“And we are both mares—so I will need help. Is that okay?” said Fluttershy, seriously.
Her answer came in a rush—a pink earth pony rush, a fierce hug that knocked the breath out of her frail pegasus frame, the joyful trembling of her lover’s body—and in a word.
“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes…”
Fluttershy petted her, gently, her eyes softly closed in bliss. After a while, she felt Pinkie stir, and looked at her inquisitively. “Yes?”
“I hope I don’t have to… okay, hear me out, Fluttershy. I can still be, like, one of the guys, right? I mean, I don’t have to be sexy at him or anything, do I? That’s your job, right? To get him to squirt in you?”
Fluttershy looked puzzled. “My job is to be sexy?”
Pinkie beeped her nose with a hoof, playfully. “More like your calling! No, what I mean is… well, I get to keep on being me, right? I don’t have to be any different?”
“I don’t even understand what you mean,” said Fluttershy.
“Okay!” said Pinkie. “You remember when Cranky Doodle Donkey came to town? And I ruined his toupee, and he was being a big sourpuss so I climbed a flagpole and asked the whole town to find a toupee for his big bald head? Was that a ladylike thing to do? Something you would do?”
Fluttershy shook her head. “Never!”
“Or when I startled Spike until he had hiccups, with Dashie’s help… or put ink on a telescope Dashie was using, she’s just as good as a boy to prank, and she totally gives it back as good as she gets! Please tell me there doesn’t have to be some stallion out there that I can’t prank and kid around with. It would be horrible to have to act all mushy to a guy, ew!”
Fluttershy blinked. “That’s right—you’ve always done that, haven’t you? And some of your roughest jokes have been on boys, though I heard that one day you pranked Twilight and Rarity and Spike all in the same day.”
“And Applejack!” added Pinkie proudly. “Me and Dashie painted all her apples plaid. She’s like Dashie, counts as a boy for pranking. You can prank her really rough!”
“Gosh,” said Fluttershy. “What was Rainbow Dash doing with a telescope?”
“Spying on somepony, of course!”
“Do you prank everypony?” asked Fluttershy curiously.
Pinkie’s gaze dropped, shyly.
“Almost…” she said, and snuggled into the embrace of Fluttershy’s wing.
“Ssh!” whispered Applejack, from behind the rock. “Nopony saw ya?”
Rarity smirked, around her grip on the magic bit. “Who’s c’nting?”
“Consarn it, I don’t want you to be rude…”
“L’ve is n’ver rude,” said Rarity. “Mmmmm….”
She snuggled in between Applejack and the rock, her hoof reaching down between Applejack’s legs to fondle her pony breasts.
“..hhh!” gasped Applejack. “Mmmm…”
“Sing f’r me,” suggested Rarity. Applejack bared her teeth at her, and clamped her jaws shut stubbornly—but wriggled her bottom against Rarity’s crotch.
“V’ry well,” said Rarity softly. “Th’n, relax…”
For a moment, the thought crossed her mind to ram her erection into Applejack eagerly. It would surely cause her annoying beloved to cry out, even shriek loudly—but it would also do harm, and Rarity wasn’t sure which would be worse—the physical damage she might cause, or the rage of the country pony at being forced to let out sexual wails from behind the rock. For whatever reason, she was clearly determined to be furtive, and Rarity decided to humor her, or at least give her a fair chance to have it her way.
Rarity shifted her hips, and her horn glowed as she freed her ponycock from being pressed against the top of Applejack’s croup, and moved it into position, poised at Applejack’s quivering entrance. She wiped it against Applejack’s labia, and her lover shuddered in total silence, winking against her, vagina parting expectantly. Though Applejack refused to cry out her pleasures this time, she plainly was ready for them.
Rarity grinned around the bit—and pressed forward, with mocking, maddening slowness.
Applejack’s body shuddered, hard, as the end of Rarity’s stallionhood entered her, prying her wide. The unicorn’s arousal was so great that she barely fit, and earth pony body squirmed in sensuous agony, sturdy hips wriggling to try and ease the penetration. But it wasn’t just a matter of tolerance—fascinated, Rarity paid close attention, for Applejack’s vag had clenched almost immediately, and she’d gone incredibly slick inside. The feeling of spasms and shivers was unmistakable. Applejack had come from the moment she’d been entered. Some aspect of the naughty, furtive sexplay turned her on—either it was the mischief factor, or the helplessness and being at Rarity’s mercy, or possibly she was just livelier in the mornings.
Rarity pressed deeper and deeper, savoring every moment. It felt like a quickie—hasty sex snatched from the edges of an inappropriate situation. Was that what turned Applejack on so? Regardless, thought Rarity, there was no question that it drove her stallion mad with arousal. She swelled unbearably stiff as she sank deeper and deeper into the frantic, silent depths of her erotic victim.
Applejack was thrashing her head about as quietly as she could, making only the faintest rustling sounds as her mane swept the grass. Tears leaked from her tight-shut eyes, her nostrils were flared, her ears laid straight back—one forehoof pawed the air helplessly, shuddering with the force of her continuing orgasm. She fought to keep her breath even and subdued, and Rarity grimly did likewise as her hips continued to press forward.
Finally, Rarity bottomed out in Applejack’s marepussy, seeing her lovely ears thrash briefly in shock as that massive bulk nudged gently but firmly against her womb. She still made no sound—not with her voice—but faint squelches came from elsewhere, as her vagina went ballistic and delivered wild spasms against the intruding hardness.
Rarity briefly considered being more naughty, and giving a couple good thrusts—she was certain she could get a wild squeal or even cause Applejack to pass out. Her vision blurred, for her excitement was so overwhelming—Applejack was seconds from bringing her off, the earth pony mare felt obscenely good, sexy beyond imagining. That vag felt like it was trying to jerk her off—how could even so athletic a pony work such unthinkable feats of eroticism, all without training and discipline?
In the end, Rarity just held her position and allowed her orgasming lover to coax her over the brink. She kept perfectly still, didn’t thrust or nudge, went hard as carved marble against Applejack’s hysterical quivering womb—and blasted.
“…gnn!”
Rarity controlled herself with savage, practiced willpower, even as her come gushed violently into Applejack, and she remained utterly silent. It was the earth pony whose eyes rolled back in her head, whose forelegs kicked the air—and whose voice was forced into one quiet, strangled vocalization. It was Applejack who cried out—faintly—and then it was just her body, stiff with her effort to suppress reaction, fevered with the intensity of its orgasm, shuddering all over in silence as Rarity lovingly nuzzled her neck.
Rarity hung onto the bit for a while, allowing Applejack to get control of herself again—then patted her heaving side to signal her intention and warn her partner, and released the bit. Quickies weren’t about lingering, and stealing sex from public spaces required shrewdness—that, Rarity knew well. Applejack kicked her hindleg a little bit as the stallion cock withdrew, but didn’t make a sound. She looked back at her lover, frazzled and sweet and anxious next to Rarity’s poise and smugness. Neither spoke. Rarity’s foreleg cradled her body, possessively.
Applejack stirred, as if to rise, and then froze, ears perking up.
“That’s weird. Where are Applejack and Rarity?”
It was Twilight’s voice. Applejack’s heart pounded. Then…
“Oh, behind that rock pretending they’re not fucking!”
Dash’s voice was bitter.
There was a dreadful silence for one second… two… three…
“CONSARN IT!” raged Applejack.
“Stop it, will you calm down?” hissed Rarity, furious.
“Let me go, damn it! This is all your fault!”
“OW! Don’t kick! How dare you? How dare you throw a childish fit after I complied with all your silly requirements? You were the one who squeaked! And what is so wrong with that?”
“You got a lot of nerve an’ no damn sense! Why did I ever listen to you?”
Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash stared, horrified, at each other. The lovebirds were screaming, raging, as suddenly as a bomb going off. It was difficult to tell which pony was angrier. Fire clashed with ice, and each grew worse by the second.
“Rainbow, come on! Run this way, we’ve got to give them some space!”
Dash gulped, and took off at a dead run, following Twilight away from the painful scene, leaving just dust, the sound of receding hooves, and one anguished parting pegasus cry…
“…sorry!”