Fleshpoundity: Element of Generosity

Twilight Sparkle groaned. Not because her mane was a mess, no, that didn’t bother her that much. What was bothering her was that nopony, not even Princess Celestia, was taking her seriously when she was trying to say the world was in grave danger. She huffed again. At least the Summer Sun Celebration preparations seemed to be going well, if Applejack’s food and Rainbow Dash’s skill with cloud-wrangling – even if she was lazy – were anything to go by. Up next was the decorations for the town hall, which, according to Twilight’s checklist (she did so love checklists), was being overseen by a mare named Rarity. Spike followed along obediently, a content smile on his face, equally from how tasty Applejack’s apples had been and how silly Twilight looked.

As she approached the door to the Town Hall, a massive, hatred-filled bellow erupted from within the building. The force of the cry actually stunned her for a moment, physically preventing her from moving forward for a few seconds. Shaking her head violently, she ran forward and burst into the Town Hall. What she found, nothing could have prepared her for.

What was in the Town Hall, was, in the simplest terms, well… not a pony. Spike’s well-being was completely shoved from her mind as she tried to comprehend the sight before her. The creature was bipedal and at least eight feet tall, probably closer to nine, easily three times Twilight’s own height. Jagged bits of metal crudely fashioned into something akin to a visor protruded from its face where its eyes should have been, covered in a dark, reddish-brown substance that could have just as easily been rust as dried blood. The beast’s skin was pale and ragged, sharp blades sticking out of its shoulders and back, almost as some sort of twisted measure of self-defense. The two most striking features about it, however, were its… they weren’t hooves, they weren’t even hands, Twilight had no words for what they really were. Two massive, spiked gauntlets that seemed like they could hardly have any purpose other than tearing flesh from bone. Perhaps most of note was the apparatus embedded in it’s chest – glowing bright red and hissing softly, the noise almost drowned out by the fell creature’s yelling. It seemed to be a pump of some sort, but exactly what it was doing was something Twilight didn’t want to waste time thinking about. The beast had a crate suspended in the air over its head on one of its… flesh blenders, most of what would presumably have been its fist buried inside. With a great yell and a mechanical shriek, the box exploded into shards of wood and fabric and assorted fragments of party favors. For a few moments, Twilight could only watch in awe as party favors and decorations flew around the room and landed perfectly where they would be expected to go – banners hung up on balconies, tablecloths perfectly centered on tables, it was almost like magic. Another roar brought her attention back to the creature before her. Whatever this thing was, it was clearly not friendly. It was beyond that, it was absolutely horrifying.

Her brain, choosing to operate independently of her body for a moment, flashed a single thought through her mind before she could move. We’re screwed, leg it! Twilight Sparkle screamed and turned for the door. In her terror, her magic failed her, and she found herself fiddling with the latch on the door with her hooves. Cursing their lack of dexterity, the unicorn looked back over her shoulder, seeing the hulking monster walking towards her, the pump on it’s chest glowing bright yellow now. Placing herself between the monster and Spike, Twilight closed her eyes and braced for the end. She put her hooves over her head even though she knew full well they would do little to stop the impending assault. I’m going to die I’m going to die I’m going to di-

“O… kay?” it growled at her. Well, it wasn’t exactly a growl, its voice was just so low in the first place that it was impossible for it to speak in anything but an incredibly bass growl. Twilight dared to peak an eye out from behind her hooves, still cowering at the door. It… appeared to be smiling, or at least the bits of exposed muscle moving behind what remained of the being’s lips seemed to indicate that.

“W-what?” Twilight’s voice faltered, uneven under the eyeless gaze.

“Are… okay?” it growled again.

Unable to form any sort of response, Twilight simply nodded. The creature made its smile facsimile once more and stood back up, before gesturing at its own chest.

“Ra… rity.”

“You’re Rarity?” Spike asked from underneath Twilight, confusion overriding any fear the unicorn would have expected to hear in his voice. “I thought you would be a pony.”

Rarity shook her head. “No. Not pony. Fleshpound.”

“What’s a Fleshpound?” Spike asked.

Rarity only shrugged and gestured to herself once again.

“Okay, well then,” Twilight laughed nervously, “It was nice to meet you, uh, Rarity, but it… well, it seems like you have everything under control as far as decorations go come on Spike let’s get out of here before it decides to kill us again.”

“Before she tries to kill us,” Spike corrected, “and I think if she wanted to she already would have.”

“She? What do you mean, Spike, that’s a monster!”

“She’s a lady!”

“… what.”

“Look at her, Twilight! She’s beautiful! Have you ever seen a prettier mare in your entire life?”

Twilight facehoofed. “Spike, for the life of me, I will never understand draconian beauty standards. Let’s get out of here though.”

“But… mane,” Rarity objected, waving a gauntlet in the general direction of Twilight’s frazzled mane, “Need… fix?”

“What? Oh, no, really, it’s fine,” Twilight tried to deflect the offer, laughing nervously again and grabbing for the door handle behind her.

“Not fine,” Rarity growled back.

“Come on, Twi, why not spend a little time getting to know her?”

“Al… right… I guess it couldn’t hurt,” Twilight mumbled out awkwardly. As, admittedly, terrified as she was, Spike had a point. Whatever a ‘Fleshpound’ was, Rarity clearly could have killed them both easily already. “I’m normally not a stickler for my mane, but this is a little absurd. Let’s… go, then.”

To say Twilight Sparkle was surprised that nopony else seemed to notice or care about the fact that a so-called Fleshpound walked among them, Rarity’s massive footsteps shaking the ground near Twilight as she trotted along in her shadow. Soon enough, the weirdness continued to escalate as the unicorn, dragon, and Fleshpound walked up to what appeared to be a clothing store.

“Welcome… Carousel Boutique… home and business,” Rarity gestured to the building with one gauntlet and herself with the other. “Make… dresses.”

“But how?” Twilight asked before she could stop herself, quickly bringing a hoof to her mouth.

Rarity looked down at her, remarkably aware of Twilight’s location for lacking eyes. She cocked her head to the side, thought for a moment, and shrugged. She gently tapped the door with one drill, and it swung open calmly. Scrunching down to fit inside, Rarity waddled in, then turned around and bent over to look back out the door. “Please… come.”

Twilight obeyed.

Within Carousel Boutique were dozens of dresses rivaling or outright exceeding the quality of the highest-end clothing stores in Canterlot.

“This is amazing,” Twilight breathed, “I’ve never seen so many beautiful dresses. You made all of these?”

Rarity nodded and grunted, moving to draw back some curtains, exposing a small pedestal surrounded by mirrors.

“Makover,” she growled, but her tone pitched up slightly. Twilight could almost call it excited.

“I don’t really think that’s necessary,” Twilight objected, but Rarity seemed to be having none of it.

An hour or so of whirlwind dress changes faster than should have been possible with the extremely non-dexterous gauntlet blender hands Rarity possessed, Twilight finally found herself back to normal.

“Well,” Twilight laughed, “That was a bit of fun. It was a great pleasure to meet you, miss Rarity, but there are some other things I need to take care of to make sure Ponyville is ready for the Summer Sun Celebration, so I really must go.”

“Nice… meat… you,” Rarity replied, waving a drill in the air as Twilight trotted away.

“The night… will last… FOREVER!” Nightmare Moon cried from the balcony, surveying the ponies in question before throwing her head back in an evil cackle. A roar interrupted her. “What is that?”

Rarity was bellowing in fury. The yellow glow on her chest changed to red, and the blenders on her hands spun up. Taking one, two, three giant steps forward, the massive impacts shaking the entire building, Rarity bent her legs and launched herself directly at Nightmare Moon. For just a moment, Twilight thought she saw genuine terror on the dark Alicorn’s face before the great dark blue horn began to glow and she dissipated into a cloud of starry smoke. Just in time, too, as one of Rarity’s massive drill-gauntlets rocketed through the area Nightmare Moon’s chest cavity had been previously occupying. Landing gracefully on the balcony, Rarity turned and looked at the smoke as it flew away, shouting in anger as it flew out of her reach. She stomped around for a few moments on the platform, then the red glow on her chest changed back to yellow.

“Sorry,” she growled down to the crowd, “Could… not reach… in time.”

“It’s fine Rares, you tried,” Applejack reassured her. “You’ll get her next time.”

Rarity jumped back down from the balcony, the wooden floor protesting loudly at the sudden, heavy impact. “Into… Everfree.”

“Of course!” Twilight yelled. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity all looked at her in alarm. “Sorry,” she said quickly, “I just remember reading about an old castle that Princess Celestia used to live in that was abandoned many centuries ago, that was supposedly somewhere where the Everfree Forest now is.”

Applejack smiled at her. “Well alright, let’s go!”

Rarity smiled and nodded, and the other girls followed suit.

“You have to trust me, Twilight. Let go.”

Twilight hung at the end of a chain of ponies, dangling off the edge of an incredibly tall cliff. Applejack had her forehooves in her own, Pinkie Pie in turn held Applejack’s tail in her mouth, and Rarity had Pinkie’s tail clamped firmly between her feet, with one of her drills buried in the ground as an anchor. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, for their parts, were completely absent.

“I’m not letting go!”

“Twilight,” Applejack’s voice was stern, but comforting. “You will be fine. Let go.”

Twilight Sparkle swallowed heavily, and let go of the orange mare. She screamed as she fell – about ten feet, caught deftly in the waiting hooves of Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. The two Pegasi lifted her up and back to safety at the top of the cliff as Rarity hauled the other two ponies up to steady ground.

“Well, that was exciting. I guess I could have just taken your word at first, Applejack,” Twilight offered, with an apologetic chuckle.

“Friend… safe… good,” Rarity growled. Twilight still found it a little unnerving that nopony else seemed at all uneasy around the beast, but given their nonchalance, she made her best effort to do the same. It wasn’t always particularly easy, especially when a Manticore, of all things, appeared.

Much like with most things, Rarity solved this issue by bellowing at it. It had roared to assert its dominance, and her newfound Fleshpound friend had put it in its place. For how dangerous and territorial Twilight had heard the creatures were, she had been shocked at how quickly it had turned tail and run. Then again, Twilight didn’t want to guess what one of those blenders would do to a living thing if they connected. Fluttershy had been quick to fly off to help comfort the beast, and, when chasing after her expecting to find a tattered body, they instead found her playing with it like an oversized kitten. Pinkie Pie had helped lead them through a terrifying forest, singing a catchy tune and laughing maniacally as Rarity exploded trees left and right. When they came upon a distraught sea serpent missing half of his beloved moustache, Rarity reached behind her and ripped one of the metal spines from her own back, releasing a rather significant amount of blood that didn’t seem to bother the hulking mare at all. A test of loyalty in which Rainbow Dash was offered the job of her dreams… that really nopony else participated in, that one was pretty much entirely Dash.

At long last, the group had made it to the abandoned castle in the Everfree. One punch from Rarity splintered the mighty wooden doors. A few minutes of banter and Twilight Sparkle utterly losing her mind over trying to find the sixth Element of Harmony, she had apparently figured something out. Soon, the ponies floating at about head-height with the behemoth Fleshpound, bearing new necklaces representing their cutie marks. A burst of rainbow light shot forth as Twilight called upon the Elements of Harmony and…

“It… it didn’t work,” Twilight gasped, out of breath from the exertion of the spell. “That should have worked… why didn’t it work?”

“No, look – she’s tired too!” Fluttershy said as loudly as Fluttershy might have said anything, “She’s weakened! Twilight, you can get her n-”

A primal roar of unbridled rage erupted from behind them. Turning, Twilight barely had enough time to roll out of the way as Rarity ripped past her in a full-on sprint. Nightmare Moon looked up, breaths shallow and ragged. That blast hadn’t killed her like she had been expecting, but it had left her winded and wounded, and absolutely not in the condition to get out of the way of the charging beast.

“No…” she whispered weakly.

The flesh blender connected with Nightmare Moon’s chest with enough force to lift her off her hooves. It tore through her enchanted armor like tissue paper, burying itself in the mare’s chest cavity with a sickeningly moist crack. Nightmare Moon coughed, blood flying from her mouth and splattering across Rarity’s face. For her part, Rarity didn’t seem to care at all. She brought her other gauntlet up, ripping into Nightmare Moon’s side. Blood flew across the room, and Twilight thought she saw a leg go flying before she looked away. Another bestial cry left Rarity’s tattered lips, and a wet smack rang out through the room. Twilight looked up, seeing Nightmare Moon’s mangled corpse lying on the cold, blood-spattered stone.

Rarity turned around and raised a drill to the sky, spinning it quickly to clean some of the viscera off. The red glow faded and the device on her chest regained it’s normal yellow color, and she shook her head as she turned back to her friends, golden pendant hanging triumphantly around her neck.

Behind her, a soft pop drew the attention of everyone in the room. A much smaller, lighter blue Alicorn stood in the eviscerated rib cage of Nightmare Moon, eyes wide and pupils small, looking utterly horrified. For a moment, Rarity began to charge again, only to be stopped by the sudden appearance of Princess Celestia.

“Well well, my little ponies – and large Fleshpound – I see you’ve met my sister, Princess Luna.”

“Your what?” five little ponies asked simultaneously. Rarity roared in shock.

This was going to be the start of a wonderful friendship, Twilight Sparkle could tell.