Mr. 7 sprang at the unicorn, all his fangs moving upwards and downwards in stabbing motions, but Rarity dodged lithely to the side. Although the spider landed with surprising grace, Rarity was perfectly positioned to blast him with the burst of magic she'd been building on her horn. It hit one of Mr. 7's mid-legs with great concussive force, and the spider buckled; Rarity ran up to the leg and bucked it hard enough for a sickening brittle CRACK! to reverberate throughout the cave.

"I'LL SQUASH YOU LIKE THE OVERSIZED BUG YOU ARE!" she bellowed.

From where he dangled on his stalactite, Lero swallowed wrong in shock. If someone had told him yesterday that Rarity would be fighting a giant spider... he'd have believed it. She was an Element of Harmony, after all; they got into a lot of weird stuff. But he'd have envisioned her performing either as a long-range sniper or else serving as live bait; leading the spider to where her other friends could pull off an ambush.

But THIS?! This was bloodlust. And not the apathetic, coldblooded indifference of a professional killer-for-hire, nor the controlled, tranquil icy anger you saw in some action films. No, this rage was the nuclear mushroom cloud variety. When men spoke of matadors flapping their crimson capes at bullfights, of standing between mother grizzlies and their cubs, of tossing rocks at wasps' nests... whenever men muttered, "Hell hath no fury," THIS was what they referred to.

"YOU WERE GOING TO EAT HIM!"

Rarity was snapping stalagmites out of the cave floor with her telekinesis, hurling them at Mr. 7 as javelins.

"YOU WERE GOING TO EAT LERO!"

Mr. 7 was nimble enough to dodge one stalagmite, two, three, but then he put too much weight on his newly-broken leg, and fell flat. Rarity wasted no time lobbing more stalagmites; two of them embedded right in the sides of Mr. 7's thorax, while amputating part of his rear-most left leg, cutting it off at the... did you still call it a 'knee' when it was a spider?

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Rarity took a running start, leapt onto Mr. 7's head, clamored onto his back and stabbed him there with her horn. Lero couldn't help frowning; although the horn pierced the spider's exoskeleton, it was like stabbing a rhino with a butter knife. But then Leo saw what looked like a jet of flamethrower fire erupt from the horn, into Mr. 7's insides, cooking him alive from within. The arachnid's legs spasmed and jittered about with no sense of unity.

She sprung back atop Mr. 7's head, trying to trample his skull into jelly... a rapid-fire quickstep, her hooves like four jackhammers drilling away at once.

"DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE...!"

Part of Lero's brain was trying to convince himself he must be dreaming, that any second now, he'd find himself back in front of his old TV set for another round of Sesame Street Fighter II... because it was too difficult for him to make any sense of what he was happening.

That Rarity would be fighting to save his life, yes, Lero could understand. He'd have done the same for her. But this shrieking, wild-eyed, foaming-at-the-mouth frenzy? This whole rabid rampage?! What... had Mr. 7 taken a train down a train down to Ponyville and written an unfavorable review of her Summer Lineup? Had he burned down the Carousel Boutique? Gotten Sweetie Belle hooked on witch weed?

Just what was she DOING, all the way out here in the first place?!

"Whoooaahh... waaaaah!"

The spider thrashed his head about like a bucking bronco, throwing Rarity to the ground right in front of him. Striking like a snake, the spider lunged forward and scored a deep, long bite, right on the unicorn's neck.

RARITY! Even if Lero could no longer shout the word with his voice, he could shout it in his mind. Rarity's body was like a breathing rag doll now, unable to offer resistance as the diabolical arachnid dragged its broken body closer, and wove its web around her. One final victim Lero had lured into the evil spider's parlor... and for it to be a sweet girl like Rarity... always so generous and accepting of him in her own way... it was all he could do to cry silent tears.

But why... WHY had Rarity come here at all?! the part of his mind which clung to logic still demanded to know.

Perhaps Rarity had come here WITH Rainbow as an Elements of Harmony venture? Rainbow must've decided the spider was a Discord-level threat and flown all the way to Ponyville to fetch her friends... they'd decided to linger outside, waiting for Rarity to soften Mr. 7 up for them and... and any second now, Dash and Applejack and Twilight and all the other Bearers would rush in to finish the spider off! He gazed towards the cave entrance, but there was no one. No other pony. No backup.

For whatever mad reason, it was only her.

Lero looked down, and saw Rarity's horn gleaming brilliantly through all the wrappings that Mr. 7 was hurriedly weaving over her. Mist poured into the cave; thick, obscuring fog, at the speed of a flash flood. Instead of distributing evenly throughout the cave, the fog avoided Lero, as though he were being blocked off by invisible walls.

The fog darkened to a truly ominous grey. Raw arcs of electricity crackled visibly within the fog, no, the cloud! This was a thundercloud! He was hanging right in the middle of an actual thundercloud, watching lightning churn and roil and expand bigger and brighter! When all the lightning blasted Mr. 7, there was a shrill, pig-like squeal from below... and a disgusting, acrid stench billowed up towards the cave roof and into Lero's nose.

The cloud flew out of the cave, returning back to the sky from whence Rarity had summoned it from. Mr. 7 was now a charred, blackened crisp, exuding smoke from his carcass. Rarity's horn glowed again, and the bit of silk connecting Lero to the stalactite broke. He was floated gently to the floor, right next to Rarity, so that he and the unicorn were face-to-face. Only, he couldn't actually see her face; there was too much cocoon.

One more time, Rarity's horn shone, but much fainter. Lero almost couldn't see its glow. A small cut opened over Rarity's mouth and nose, permitting the mare to breath. He watched her breath, in and out, laboriously. He still couldn't see anything of her eyes, though; she hadn't cut that part of the cocoon away.

A few times, Rarity's mouth would close thoughtfully, as though she were about to speak. Though he waited patiently, it seemed Rarity was just too weakened for words. In the end, Lero watched the unicorn's breathing settle into a steady rhythm, indicating she was sleeping.

He followed suite, and slept himself.

Lero awoke to noises. Hooves clacking on the cavernous floor, the shimmer of unicorn magic, the tearing of silk.

Rarity was standing upright. However much time had passed, her body had recovered from the effects of Mr. 7's venom. How Lero wished the same would hurry up and happen to him, but Rarity, bless her, had only suffered one bite. Mr. 7 had pumped so much of that stuff in Lero, he wouldn't be surprised if it now made up 15% of his bloodstream.

She'd set his back against the floor. He watched her rip the last of the cocoon off his body, thank God. Life was no fun as a mummy.

"Oh, Lero!" The first of many, many tears trickled from her eyes. "Look at you! Just LOOK at you!"

Lero bent his head down as best he could, to regard his torso, arms, and legs. He was still too paralyzed to move a thing below his neck... even a number of his facial muscles felt rather frozen. But yes, he'd certainly seen much better days.

"This is all my fault!" she sobbed. "All of it!" She lifted his body up with telekinesis, so she could envelope him in a fierce hug, throwing her face into his chest, so all her tears and snot could soak into his shirt.

"I'm SO, SO, SO SORRY!"

Lero gaped at her. He couldn't believe the earnestness, the self-conviction in her voice. Under normal circumstances, he'd have had a few questions for her, such as: Why?! What are you apologizing for? Sitting in your Boutique and letting Rainbow and me go fly out here?! Not making my pants thick enough for all the thorns I didn't know I'd be falling through? Building the humannequin? Was the mannequin in cahoots with Mr. 7? Just what's going on?!

"Oh!" Rarity exclaimed, suddenly aware it wasn't wise to be rough with an invalid's body. Guiltily, she lay him back down. "I'm sorry for that. How much pain are you in?"

Quite a lot. He tried to tell her. Instead, the most he could coax out of himself was the faintest, faintest ghost of a moan.

"Darling? Say something to me! Hate me if you want, but please answer me!"

Lero tried again, barely louder: the feeble wheeze of a dying old man with failing lungs.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Lero stared at her pointedly and exhaled in a sad way.

"Wait, you CAN'T speak, can you?! You can't move either! Oh, CELESTIA, no!" She was blubbering worse than ever. "Was it the fall? The spider? Oh, Celestia, I'm never going to hear your beautiful voice again and it's ALL my fault! WHHHYYYYYYYY?"

Pity stabbed Lero's heart. Perhaps it was only to be expected that after all Rarity had put herself through, she would be emotionally overwrought, and not be thinking clearly. She'd just suffered a lot for his sake. He would've liked nothing more than to hug her back, dry her tears, and let her know what a hero she was for saving his life. But Lero could only blink his eyes at her.

"Hold on... did you just blink at me?"

Blink.

Sniffling, but getting herself back under control, Rarity levitated some small rocks off the cave floor. "How many pebbles am I holding up?"

Blink, blink, blink, blink.

That's right! You're aware! You can still think!" She dropped the four pebbles. "Oh, I'm so happy, I... Okay, Lero, how about... one blink means yes, two means no, alright?"

Blink.

"Please, darling, I... I have to know... can you find it in your heart to forgive me for the awful, awful thing I've done?"

Because they hadn't decided on a blink-amount that meant - What the HELL are you even talking about?! - Lero settled on one blink.

Rarity's breath hitched. "You forgive me? Oh, Lero! Your goodness knows no bounds!" And she dove forward, locking lips with Lero's own.

Lero's world stopped. In the moment of that kiss, all the human's senses heightened to a supersensitive pitch, while his mind cleared completely except for two words:

Logical Explanations.

Yes: logical explanations. Ever since he'd fallen into that giant bramble patch, he'd been having to come up with a LOT of those logical explanation things, hadn't he? Between Dash going AWOL, Rarity coming to rescue him, none of Rarity's friends ALSO being there, ESPECIALLY not Dash... Rarity's EXTREME mood swings... Lero had been inventing logical explanations left and right, to explain and excuse and...

...and rationalize the ever-increasing insanity of a world he thought he knew. But now came this kiss. And there was no way for him to reinterpret a kiss like this. It was the sort of kiss sailors got from their sweethearts.

Both when they set out to sea: Never forget how much I love you!

And when they returned from their voyage: You've finally returned to me at long last!

Rarity's managed to be both at once. It was long and deep and brimming with passion. There was bottomless joy and relief, love and devotion channelled into this kiss; Lero felt it all against his lips. But it had come from... RARITY!

Rarity was pleasant, Rarity was kind, Rarity was neighborly, but Rarity had never been interested in Lero that way, any more than Lero, himself, had been interested in bedding Diamond Dogs! And now here Rarity was, gazing down at Lero with the misty eyes of a soulmate!

...It was like landing in an alien world all over again. Nothing familiar to cling to.

Rarity pulled back. Then she whispered to herself: "Control, Rarity, control... he's as delicate as an egg right now." Then she knelt down.

"Lero, I... I simply must know how badly you've been hurt." Lero felt his body levitated to Rarity's eye-level. Telekinesis removed his all clothes. Rarity was ignoring how many times Lero was blinking twice.

The human remembered what it was like standing naked before each of his lovers for the very first time. For all of them - Dash, Twilight, and Lyra - before things had gotten steamy, they had all taken a moment to first observe his body, as one might first observe the landscape of a foreign planet. But Rarity's gaze was different. Hers was the look an artist would give a dear, familiar masterpiece of hers... a masterpiece that had been vandalized.

She turned her sad eyes upon him. "I'm no doctor, but I do know a little healing magic. Please, let me do this for you."

There were bruises, cuts, bramble thorns that Lero hadn't had the chance to yank out of his body, (all made worse by how tightly Mr. 7 had cocooned him.) Rarity started with one of the thorns, pulling it out with telekinesis, then setting her horn against the wound and channeling magic into it so it would close properly. Her healing magic felt very soothing. Every now and then, she would lay a tender kiss upon a wound or bruise before setting her healing horn against it.

"Feel any better?" she asked, when she was finished.

He blinked in the affirmative. He did feel better; quite a few steps further from Death's door.

"I'm glad. We need to get you to a hospital. There should be one in Bramblewood Town. Now how to bring you there without jostling you...? Ah! I know!"

First, she cast a spell on both herself and Lero. He recognized the particular tingle of this spell: it was the cloud-walking spell. Next, she aimed her horn towards the sky and brought some clouds down, pushing them together into a platform. She levitated Lero gently onto the platform, then hopped on herself.

"Up we go!" she said, and with another shot of magic, their platform rose into the sky, higher and higher, until they were back at the same part of the upper atmosphere he'd been in with Dash.

"There!" she said, pointing down at the town. Right down there, do you see?"

He couldn't, because he was at a bad angle. He was also remembering, very vividly, what free-fall felt like. Even Rarity could see the panic on his face.

"Oops! Almost forgot!"

And she magicked a set of safety belts over Lero's body. Also made of cloud.

"Now we'll just float down to Bramblewood Town as softly as a sunbeam, and... oh wait! Er, one more stop! Just one!"

Softly as a sunbeam, they floated down to the banks of a picturesque river. The water was clear and clean-looking, and there was no one else to be seen.

"Forgive me, my darling, but fighting that spider has left me unbelievably filthy!" She lifted a foreleg, grimacing at a mud stain. "I'm not even fit to be seen in public, let alone bring you before a doctor! Please indulge me, I swear I'll be quick!"

Lero blinked a yes. Truth be told, he was rather relieved: at least THIS part of Rarity's personality hadn't changed! The unicorn hopped in the river, humming a tune as she cleaned herself. She even magicked a small raincloud over her head to act as a shower, and then expertly conjured a brisk, warm breeze to serve as her blow-dryer.

From where she had left him, a few feet away on the cloud platform, Lero tilted his neck, watching all the mud caked on Rarity's body dissolve away. There was so MUCH of it! What kind of places had she gone through to accumulate it all?! Certainly not by cloud travel!

She glanced over her shoulder and spotted him staring at her.

"Lero!" she exclaimed, with a very flattered and flirtatious grin. "The state you're in, and all you can think to do is ogle me as I bathe? You're incorrigible, my love!"

Then she waggled her flank for him. Had he the ability, Lero would have screamed in shock, as he watched one last splotch of mud slide off Rarity's coat, revealing the rainbow-thunderbolt underneath.