"I won't let you," Ampere seethed. She was still reeling over all of the honesty Megaera had finally revealed, but that last statement had been clear enough, and Ampere bit onto it and held down, hard.

Leave?
Over my dead fucking body Sunspear.

Over the course of their conversation Ampere had steadily backed away from Megaera, and now she used her position as a physical blockage, purposefully standing in the path Megaera would need to walk down in order to head to the pillars that heralded the bridge. Of course, Megaera didn't have to rely on just her feet, but neither did Ampere, and sure as a horse shits, she'd block the airways too - the evidence was in the taut way her skin pulled over her bunched muscles, in the way her mouth was such a tight line the edges wrinkled and the lips pulled up over her teeth in a snarl. Ampere's ears slid against her neck, and her wings gently spread at her sides, ready.

Megaera thought her fire had gone out? She thought the fight had left her?
Ampere would remind her otherwise; she had a box of matches curled up inside a fist and the Sunspear's name was written on it.

Ampere hadn't been able to save Gaucho, so she'd be damned if she let Megaera slip away just as easily, even if it broke whatever friendship they had. Sometimes holding onto something was worth ruining it a little bit.

"I don't think it's the herd that thinks so very little of you, so stop dragging them into it when this is about you. Failure? Tell me who's used that word other than you?" Blue eyes flashed like lightning in a brewing storm as Ampere's head tucked defensively. She knew this was going to hurt like hell. Megaera and she were a lot more alike than they realized; both fought like wild animals back into a corner, even if the world was wide open around them. Both depended on their violence to outlast their opponent's, because they were both small and they were both a hard sort of strength that came from taking blows instead of giving them really good. Against someone like Gaucho, Ampere knew one kick could be devastating, so all she had to do was twist and turn him around until he was panting and she had won, but with Megaera she'd be fighting her own reflection; if she wasn't already tired now she sure would be when this was done.

Megaera would be too though, and maybe that exhaustion would be enough to get her to stay.

It was only a maybe, but it was worth it, so Ampere lunged. The sand kicked up around her, loose in some pockets and nothing but hard red earth in others. She could hear the ocean roaring to the right of them, distant, but loud enough to invigorate. Kygo was there, on the shore, nestled in a tree as he waited out the drama, too afraid to get involved even as he felt the rush of Ampere's wrath humming through their bond. It was something violent, but heavy with something else too - not just red with rage, but more purple, or violet, something touched by grief too. Ampere was furious, but she was also in mourning, and not just for the Sultan they're already buried, but for the Sultana trying to bury herself.

Teeth flashed as Ampere aimed to bit at Megaera's neck, trying to drive the mare back, deeper into the desert where she belonged. In order to reach Ampere's front feet lifted faintly off the ground, and she used them as she heavily landed back down, attempting to rake them down Megaera's front legs in the process.

"Don't fool yourself," Ampere panted with the quick rush of her motions. "You want to be here, you just don't think you deserve to be."

She knew, she felt the same way once, or twice.
She'd worn the golden crown once, and she'd lost it too, but she was still here. Besides, Ampere had run away often enough to know it fixed jack shit, so Megaera didn't need to go through all those same motions. Ampere had done it, lived it, and learned from it - time to give Megaera that lesson.


[Directly from this thread: http://helovia.net/showthread.php?tid=25291
In the Dragon's Throat, near the bridge and the sea, some sandy areas but also hard rocky areas. Challenging for Megaera to stay, or I guess since she's already an Outcast, to be a prisoner.]