Author's Note

I hope that this chapter leaves clear that I'm not doing a "Re-do" of Canon with game characteristics... this is totally AU. Give me some thoughts on this battle, as I can't get better without some input.

Chapter 4

Questing with Rarity had ended up being a quite demanding routine, as both Apples had to constantly protect the unicorn when things turned sour, as the mare was more of the supportive kind.

It had been a struggle at first, but as they delved deeper into the forest, their teamwork began to increase in efficiency.

“Hoo-wee! Those Cursed fire bugs were certainly a challenge.” Said Applejack as she bathed herself with the contents of a magical bottle, quickly hearing the 'ping' that notified her that her ailment has disappeared and she was back to normal.

“They're certainly difficult to deal with...” Added Rarity as she drank her magical restoration potions, her bar increasing with each one. “I'll need to say that I'm deeply thankful for that save there, McIntosh.”

“Think nothing of it, Miss Rarity.” Answered Mac, who was at the moment serving as the sentinel of their group, his guard high as the mares took their time to fix themselves. “I myself am amazed at how dexterous your hooves are, Miss Rarity. The monsters didn't ever noticed it when you took those items from them.”

“Oh, it comes with the job, dear. My career as an enhancer forced me to touch a little from the thief's... I might not have the best attacks or defense, but I'm quite useful in my own ways.” With a effeminate giggle, the unicorn batted her eyes at the teenage colt, who smiled back at her before he put his attention were it was supposed to be.

“Rarity the thief... never pegged you to that career...” said Applejack, which immediately caught the attention of the unicorn, who blushed lightly when she saw the tiny smirk on her friends face, as she had been caught ogling the derrière of an engaged colt. “Though, I'm glad that you're increasing so fast your level... sooner or later you might learn a offensive attack... which could be useful.”

Rarity frowned, deep in thought for a minute before she nodded.

“Indeed, it would complement my set of abilities to gain an offensive attack.” She looked at her level, and frowned... feeling slightly inadequate due to the 49 that floated upon her. “Though, I must admit that I'm quite surprised by how much you two have grown in just a few months...” The unicorn looked at Applejack, who held a proud 72 over her head, while McIntosh has a recently updated 75 upon him.

“Don't fret Rarity. We'll have you up in shape before you could say...”

“Incoming!” Bellowed McIntosh, who quickly ran toward them and covered them with his magic, increasing their defense as a huge Bigfoot appeared in front of them, the debris of his impact barely doing any damage to the trio.

They didn't talk, already doing their jobs on their team as Applejack went to the offensive with her beads, inflicting some damage to the legs of the simian monster, who roared in pain as he tried in vain to swat away the beads from him, only to cut his hands in the process.

McIntosh then ran toward him as his attention was fully focused upon the beads, his glaive shining brightly and taking a purple hue as Rarity enchanted it and enhanced its properties to increase the damage.

The teenage colt hit the struggling beast like a train, taking out the air of it and causing extra damage as the Bigfoot impacted against the trees demolishing them in the process, their splinters inflicting extra damage.

Such an attack left the beast dizzy, an golden opportunity that all the team capitalized.

McIntosh quickly channeled defensive magic on the mares, as Applejack prepared to launch a chain attack toward the dizzy beast, accumulating magic on each bead to increase the sharpness of their edges, while Rarity quickly stripped the beast of any valuables that it might posses. Quickly yelping in fright when a hand tried to capture her.

“Done, finish it!” Screamed Rarity urgently as she dashed away from the enraged simian, his attention completely put on her and the huge ruby that she now held on her back.

“Cutting Storm!” Exclaimed Applejack, as her beads suddenly began to gyrate around her as she jumped beside the beast, mauling and cutting with quite too much ease, destroying the already weakened defense and turning the simian into a gathering of specks of light and finally loot.

They remained still for a moment, waiting for a possible renaissance that gladly didn't happen. Which gifted them with an small windows of rest before they were attacked again.

“That's the fifth one that attacked us on this part of the forest...” Added the palomino mare as she quickly began to collect the loot from the battle, “Gives a nice amount of loot, but it doesn't do much for our experience...” She locked at Rarity, who examined closely the ruby, “Is it fake too?”

“No, this glorious and quite handsome baby is quite real. That makes it the third Ruby in our inventory.” Offered the unicorn as she finally put the ruby on her inventory, smiling broadly. “One for each one of us, I guess... its fair after all... so, do any of you need a potion?”

“I'm good here...” Declared McIntosh as he walked up to them, smiling slightly. “What of you, Applejack?”

The alluded mare just trotted toward them, “I might need a magical restoration potion after that... Cutting storm takes a lot of my magic...” Quickly accepting the offered potion, Applejack chugged it with gusto as they walked toward their next area, hoping to find better monsters.

They hasn't even reached the next area, when to their dismay a horde of Chimera pounced upon them.

The horde…

“Horse Apples!” Screamed Applejack as she saw three of those beasts jump against McIntosh, who battled against them desperately, trying to evade being poisoned in the process. Rarity screeched in fright as other two tried to maul her pretty face with their wicked claws, while the palomino tried her best to shake her own attackers from her.

All of them noticed that the Chimeras keep preventing them from regrouping, apparently using their own strategy against them, which could only meant that this horde had been tailing them for quite a while.

Applejack surrounded herself with her beads, creating a cutting shield around her as she tried to recover some of her breath, her health bar being of a dark yellow. She studied her opponents, who were now walking in circles around her, testing now and them her barrier and getting cut in the process. She looked at Rarity's direction and frowned in worry, as she saw the mare was put under a severe poison ailment that was slowly consuming her life with each passing second.

McIntosh too wasn't doing very well at the moment, his life bar had turned purple, revealing that he was deeply poisoned at the moment. But despite that, he had already killed two of his attackers, while the third one used his ailment against him.

This fight might be their last one this day, as she suspected that sooner or later the Chimera wings would activate and whisks them away from this place. When, to their surprise Rarity began to emit a purple glow that of all things, seemed to temporarily stun the monsters with quite precise rays that the mare shot from her horn.

The palomino looked at the unicorn and saw that McIntosh kills had increased the mare's level by three, as she now held a proud 52 above her head.

Taking her chance, the palomino quickly made use of the window that Rarity's new ability had offered, as she diced, cutted and chopped with glee at the immobilized beasts, making sure to kill each one as viciously as she could, momentarily angry at how close those creatures had come to defeat them.

She saw her weapon shine a bright blue glow, another of Rarity's enhancements that seemed to have been improved by her new level.
In the end, the enhanced beads culminated the battle, all of them increasing their level thanks to the experience accumulated, but the lack of sparkling spheres of light told them of an incoming renaissance, which left them with a few precious seconds to prepare themselves.

Applejack quickly chugged potion after potion to restore herself, watching careful for her partners as they too did their best to fix the damage of the first battle. Sadly, none of them had managed to turn their health bars green when a huge Chimera materialized in front of them, over it floating an sign that proudly stated:

The Horde: Papa Chimera.

Unlike their last beasts, this one didn't cared about strategy. Fast and nimble, it ran toward Applejack and with a swat of his paw, send the palomino flying against the closest tree, her armor shining lightly of blue before the impact, her health bar barely standing at the moment in a horrid maroon that was slowly turning into red, as the mare was critically hit over and over by the creature, who had followed her the whole time with feline glee.

Then, there came the paralyzing ray again, which seemed to force a change of status on the beast, each new ray making it slower and less powerful. Thankfully being enough to take its attention from the now dizzy Applejack, who's armor was titillating, a warning that it was about to recede and change into an Shield, this was also a quite dire discovery as they found the mare was still there instead of teleported to the hospital, which meant that this was one of those battles that you couldn't escape of.

The beast ran toward the unicorn, who hasn't stopped firing her new technique, her magical pool getting drier with each new shot, increasing the effects upon the now enraged beast, who now wasn't even half as fast as it initially was, which offered an enraged McIntosh the chance he was looking for, his whole body covered in a crimson aura as he battled against the beast with total abandon. Taking huge gaps of life from the monster while almost taking little amounts of damage himself due to his condition.

Rarity ran toward Applejack, and quickly doused the still dizzy downed mare with health potion after another, stabilizing the mare from her bleeding.

“What the hay happened?!” Asked Applejack as she shook her head, the dizziness disappearing with each new bottle, her attention quickly captured by the interchange of punches between her beau and the magical beast. “Is that crimson aura yours?”

Rarity for her part, was also drinking magical potions with desperate need, refilling her depleted and abused magical pools as fast as she could.

“I'm afraid not, that's Rage... he lost it when we saw the beast pummel your life bar away with each new hit...” Chugging one last big bottle, the mare glared back at the Papa Chimera before she added, “I must admit that I was quite close to Rage myself, but thankfully, I managed to held some control of my mind and use my new ability against that monster.”

Then, with a mighty roar, McIntosh was tossed aside with a powerful hit, the beast preparing itself to reproduce its earlier attack on the teenaged colt, which put the mares into action, as Rarity began to abuse her new attack, giving Applejack the chance to charge up to the beast, interrupting the attack by putting the beads around its muzzle, forcing it to kneel on the ground in pain as the whip sharp edges cut easily his quite hard skin... when to their surprise, a scream interrupted them.

“Hold him still!” Ordered Mac, who had shed his armor and turned it into a shield that peacefully floated on his back, while his croup glaive accumulated huge amount of magic from its surroundings, forcing the teenager to grind his hooves on the ground as hard as he could, digging himself so deep on the land that his pasterns and fetlocks were covered by dirt. Applejack nodded, she instinctively shed her beads, throwing them at the monster into an improvised magical net who forced the stunted beast to remain still.

Slightly surprised, she quickly saw the name of the attack and smiled, seeing that it was a collaborative technique in the making. Rarity fueled her magic on to the net, increasing its efficiency as McIntosh screamed loudly and simply rushed at top speed toward the struggling monster, the teenager leaving after him a magical trail as his glaive cut the air unnaturally.

Then, with a white flash, the teenaged colt stood at the other side of the monster, who to their horror simply vanished as their lasts foes, which meant that the battle was still far from over.

“MAC MOVE YOUR HIDE HERE!!! QUICK!” Screeched Applejack, all of them dreading their upcoming battle as they consumed their lasts bottles of magic.

Warning!!! warning!!! boss approaches!!!
Warning!!! warning!!! boss approaches!!!

With a deafening roar, a slightly bigger Chimera appeared, upon its frame it held flashing red letters:

Mama Chimera.

Unlike his mate, Mama Chimera wasn't fast, she was simply a juggernaut. Her defenses and hide being impossibly strong and durable, her roar apparently being able to affect their statuses. As they became slower when she had appeared in front of them, her glare sending chills upon their spines.

Thankfully, despite their new ailment, they were considerably faster than the bellowing beast, who attempted to crush and bite them with all of her might.

“What do we do?” Asked Applejack, as she jumped aside of a crushing paw that would have flattened her on the ground, the debris causing some damage in the process. The answer to her question came with a shoot from the ray of Rarity, whose body was now covered in a crimson coat.

“We fight it, and we crush it!”

Unlike McIntosh who had become nearly invulnerable and stronger by Rage, Rarity seemed to have become faster, her spells even causing more damage in the process.

McIntosh was the first one to notice it.

“Her attack, is causing damage now!” And indeed, Rarity had once again increased her level. As the mare now stood proudly on an 57. Her new attacks now not only affecting the enemy status, but also taking a quite considerable chunk of its health bar. “Cover her, Applejack!” Ordered the male, as he quickly donned his armor and offered his defensive magic upon the mares.

The palomino nodded, her beads once again forming a cutting dome this time around the trio. Its defensive power increased due to Mac's magic coursing through her body. Enraged, the beast soon tried to pounce upon them, only to be brutally hit on its face and recoil back, struggling to recompose herself for a few valuable seconds.

“Did you see that?!” Screamed Applejack, seeing a window of an opportunity on the beast attack, as it was rendered temporarily vulnerable to a front attack.

“Its neck! The weakness is its neck!” Confirmed McIntosh who then, stopped sharing his magic and prepared itself when he saw Rarity lost her crimson coat. “Hit her on the eyes, Rarity... blind her!”

With a nod, the mare charged her magic while the earth ponies closed their eyes, preventing the huge flash of magic to affect them as the now roaring beast was.

“Now, the collaborative attack again!” Ordered Mac, who had quickly discharged his Shieldmore and only attached his glaive, quickly accumulating magic while Applejack and Rarity quickly created a powerful net around the monster, who struggled in vain to escape to no avail.

Then, with another flash, McIntosh inflicted a quite powerful slash on the beast neck, leaving badly hurt the Mama Chimera behind him, who recovered quickly and batted a paw toward him, hitting the uncovered colt with brutal force tossing him aside, his body skipping painfully on the forest ground before he finally clashed against a tree, where he remained still, his body turning gray.

“MAC!” Screamed the girls, Applejack trying to keep the now crimson beast from them, as the monster had recovered quite too fast from the attack.

“We need to use a Phoenix Down on him, and quick!” Said a frantic Applejack, as she saw his bar dangerously close to be completely empty, a counter now firmly set upon the downed body, obviously saying how long they had to use the miraculous potion before his state turned permanent.

“How dare you... you, MONSTER!!!” snarled angrily Rarity, whose body was once again covered in a magical coat, this time of a golden hue.

“Rares... what's that!?” Asked Applejack, who then grunted painfully as her beads dome was simply crushed under the enraged monster attack, the palomino cringing painfully due to the magical backlash crying painfully as she felt to her knees.

“LET MY FRIENDS ALONE YOU HORRID BEAST!” Exclaimed Rarity, her protective gear and clothes simply tearing themselves apart into tiny shards that soon showered the now surprised monster, tiny specks of cutting purple light cutting its body over and over until the beast, to the duo relief, roared one last time and disappeared, leaving orbs of light where it used to stand, signaling and end to their battle.

Rarity simply stood there, completely naked and exposed as she breathed hard, her legs trembling under her as her magical pool had been utterly and completely depleted after that particular attack. But regardless of how exhausted she felt at the moment, the unicorn quickly made use of a Phoenix Down, turning the gray colt to normal, his health bar now dangerously set on 1. The mare felt exhausted, her hooves ready to collapse at any moment, only being sustained by a magical feeling that still managed to keep her going.

Which was when a quite battered Applejack immediately saw on the mare left buttock her Cutie mark shining proudly.

“Rarity, you unleashed your unique move...” Whispered Applejack, before the mares suddenly squealed and the colt grunted as a powerful rush of power coursed on their bodies

You've reached a new level!
You've reached a new level!
You reached a new Plateau, Congratulations!

Applejack gasped as she suddenly found herself slightly healed due to the increase of her level and plateau, as a proud 81 hovered upon her head. She saw McIntosh, who thankfully was now out of danger as his increase in level had put him away from the dreadful blood red, as his health bar proudly stood now on a brownish yellow, thanks to the 82 that he now had.

Rarity on the other hand, was a surprise, as the mare now proudly stood at 71.

“Hurray!” Giggled the unicorn, before her eyes rolled up on her head and she simply fell to the ground, unconscious.

Applejack to her surprise with a quick move of her hoof suddenly found all of the loot collected, and her party partners at her side, her hoof shining slightly. She looked at her buttock and as she expected, her cutie mark was shining brightly and proudly.

“How... convenient.” She said, before she put herself beside her partners and with a quick use of her Chimera wing, all of them left the forest.