She found what she expected in Hotaru's facade- stupidity.

Ampere was glad for it too, because that meant salvation sung in her sweet song of war. A tune which Hotaru invited her to sing so hastily, too eagerly, as if she had been waiting for the music to start long before this day. Let it not be forgotten though, as Hotaru slung vapid insults with such fervor she was practically spitting like a rabid dog, that Ampere did not start the song. She made a point to be diplomatic, to graciously offer the pink queen a clear and easy out for a wrong she had committed. That she slapped it away with her bravado and a sneer was not on Ampere. If a song she wanted to sing, then so be it.

Ampere was ready, but Hotaru dawdled with her tongue. Try as she might to slip her ears into the folds of her mane, Ampere could still hear the addling drone of the unrighteous cunt. Fortunately it was so idiotic it only distracted in so much as it annoyed. That she tried to belittle Ampere's efforts here simply because she was weak, only drew a playful simper to dark lips, because that proved Hotaru's imprudence, not Ampere's ethics.
Her threats sounded empty, a lone phrase searching through a dark cavern for comfort, echoing back on itself and holding onto its ghosts for shaky strength. She is afraid Ampere thought with a touch of arrogance and humor. She should be.

Yet Hotaru wasn't afraid. That knowledge was reflected in the metal that encased her and all her audacity. Ampere's teeth glimmered beneath the curl of her lips.
Hotaru moved suddenly then, betraying the weakened condition she seemed to nurse beneath the cloak, which she cast away as fearlessly as her rationale. There was no time for anything else, because they were coming- they.

A flash of blue was Ampere's gaze towards the wolf that ran in tandem beside Hotaru. The sneer already on Ampere's face deepened into a snarl. This bitch, this bitch not only stole from them, slung mud, responded to diplomacy with a sword, but was also fighting with her companion. Yeah, fuck her.

Silver flashed as Ampere's collapsed shield was pulled from her backside, humming with an electric pulse granted by magic. Like a flower under a Tallsun day the metal bloomed into a broad barrier, exalting the sun with it's engravings. It sunk, heavy, into the snow on Ampere's right side, just managing to block the wolf's bite.

Ampere was out of time.

A wiser horse might have chosen to shield themselves from the sword. That was where her training flaked off like dried paint to reveal the ugly color underneath. Titles and practice painted Ampere a warrior, but she was a bundle of emotional wreckage underneath, too rough around the edges to dry evenly. She refused to harm a hair on that unfortunate creature's head, even if she risked her own hide in doing so.

Die for the wolf? Maybe, but not today.

Being much shorter than Hotaru it was easy for Ampere to duck her head, offering only the dark swell of her curled nape and the tide of mane that crested it for Hotaru's violent drink. Her thirst was deep, her blade sliding through muscle and hair with a ragged ease. Agony trumpeted from Ampere as her body writhed against the hot flare of pain. Blood pooled against the horn's base where it entered, and spilled from where the force had caused the horn to also exit, though the blade had had yet to leave.
The momentum came too on Hotaru's hooves, her body colliding against Ampere's bowed head. Ampere's senses, nearly useless under the siren of pain, were jostled by the impact. Muscles in her neck were strained and she scrabbled in the snow for purchase. Luckily the distance between them hadn't been great, so Hotaru hadn't the room to garner enough might to knock Ampere over.

Somewhere amid the cacophony of destruction that was Ampere, a tendril of fevered rage swung freely, like an electrical line gone loose in a storm and floating like a life raft. This physical torture, this assumed misstep so early, was fuel for her fire. Teeth grit together, biting back the anguished shrieking still outpouring. The movement renewed determination, her striking jaws sending a reverberation of sanity along the panels of her skull. Furiously Ampere reached for her blade, down in the snow where she'd dropped it at landing. Ampere's magic pulled on the metal, whipping it up and forward in an attempt to puncture Hotaru's right side. Near the elbow, where the skin was thin against ribs that caged vital organs. Hotaru didn't need two lungs, one would suffice.

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1/4
799/800
SORRY I GOT TOO EXCITED I GUESS AND HIT ENTER BEFORE, meant to say in my OP this setting is Orangemoon in Frostbreath Steppe, either during/directly after Hotaru's thread with Mesec in the same location. The day is drawing to a close.

CHRIST HAD TO CUT OUT SO MUCH x.x