Hespera hears the mare pick her poison, and for that she is glad. She would much rather fight a willing opponent than one still sleeping on her hooves.

Together they come, to dance their dance of tired muscle and to spill their blood. They are partners, daring and dashing, trying to cut one another's throat while keeping in time for the music that will not wait for them should they fall behind. This will be first time she enters the dancing hall in Helovia, ready to pick the one who will be her downfall. Excitement makes the once-goddess glow, as well as a hunger to win, and she adds an extra dose of passion to the movements she tries to enunciate with grace and ease.

Hespera lets show a tight smile, the clipped one men put on when their friend beats them at their own game, when her pronged silver horn catch the rushing black pegasus in her left flank. There is no appreciation, no glow of warmth to her heart, no rush of burning pride that she has managed to put down her horn to that ebony flank. She is still learning to feel in this crazy world. It is difficult to comprehend all the little emotions, all the small sensations, when it came rushing up to her unwanted, unasked for. Pulling back the tines of her silver horn from the coarse hairs, she shakes her head briskly, dislodging a few stray drops of crimson blood. They fall to the earth and stain the blackened rocks with splatters of russet. Then the unicorn steps on them, and they are gone.

Wings batter at the air, and one of Ampere's wildly flailing hooves strikes out, catching her in the right shoulder. With a grunt of surprise and pain, the black mare drops onto all fours, shoulder twinging a protest, hooves skidding a little over the rough rock. At least it's not wet- then it would be truly terrifying footing.

Above, Ampere screams, and startled, Hespera throws her head up in alarm, eyes seeking out the flying mare. Otienu screeches back, but his own sympathy bursts through to Hespera, wild and fresh and brisk to her anger. Stunned by the raw pity pulsing through their bond, the unicorn is momentarily distracted. Perhaps, without her companion, she would have been smited on the head and collapsed upon the ground until a liquid pool of obsidian and ebony was all that was left of her shaggy form. Lucky for the fresh-faced mare, so new and naive to Helovia, and to true, physical battle, the silver griffon's alarm, different to the soft waves of pity, alerts Hespera to the coming danger. It is too bad she had not fought a pegasus before- she was unaccustomed to how to fight a flying opponent. When she had sparred with Lace, they fought on the earth, quick, sleek and feral as two bull elk preparing to meet in the rut.

Now, with hooves soaring at her head, what was she to do?

Forcing herself to think quickly, the mare drops her head, so Ampere's hooves scrape along her poll. Luckily, the wound is light, her crest and poll mostly protected by her thick, wild mane. More unluckily, the tip of a hoof catches on her forked horn, thrusting her head downwards unwillingly. Though struck a touch dizzy from the blow, she throws her head up abruptly once more, hoping to scrape at Ampere's vulnerable stomach with her lightning-shaped horn.

The burnt scent of lava scorches her lungs as she inhales and exhales; the earth is molten, and even the stone beneath her feet is faintly warm, perhaps from the heat as she maneuvers closer to the deadly edge of the blue volcano.

Hespera's small, delicate ears pin to her skull, baring her teeth in a savage grin. Otienu chirrups, wheeling back into the air. Seeing the effect he had on the mare, he wishes to go back to her- this time to claw at the mare who won't land for what the griffon thinks would be a fair fight. The wind rushes in his ears and murmurs in his feathers as he picks up speed, beak parted, claws extended, rushing towards the mare's neck, ear-tufts pinned, hoping to claw at the left side of her neck- he comes in perpendicular to her left side. Below him, Hespera's afraid. From the way Ampere tried to avoid him the first time, she doesn't doubt that she would avoid hurting Otienu. Nonetheless, the unicorn dislikes her heart of hearts charging into the fray; it would be all too easy for a stray hoof to send him plummeting to the earth.