Ideas for "Infinity's Edge"by CaldoricChaptersExplanation, and some things to come.First ideaChaos in Canterlot! (Use later, possibly before a Gala.)Explanation, and some things to come.As I've said, this will contain potential future stuff for "Infinity's Edge," formerly "Idle Holding Pattern." Anything that goes in here will be unpublished at first, for obvious reasons. Things that don't make the final cut, for various reasons, will probably be posted, but with a label saying "this is not canon, but it could've been," sorta like deleted scenes on a DVD, usually without reasons why they were cut, because SPOILERS! Others, once the finalized versions are added to the main story, will be posted as they originally were written, with their own label. As such, here are a few freebee previews, for your entertainment! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ...I continued galloping through the forest, chastising myself all the way. Yes, galloping. Of all the times to be stuck with hooves instead of hands, this was the worst! Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck! I screamed, internally. I was silently cursing my luck, my poor forward planning, my abilities in general, and Timberwolves everywhere. Yes, Timberwolves. How they had such a good sense of smell, or any sense in general, I'll never know. And so, I raced on, my only hope lying in the possibility that I could get back to base before they got me. I didn't care whose bright idea it had been to have us training during Timberwolf mating season, but whoever it was had something coming to 'em. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ...I was just reaching up to pick another apple when I heard a dog barking nearby, and coming closer. "D'arvit!" I swore, positioned myself in the tree's uppermost boughs, and cast a discreet visual distortion spell about myself. Not a moment too soon, as the dog had leapt up against the trunk, and was yapping it's head off in my general direction. "Whoah, there, Winona! What'd ya find, girl?" A voice asked, and it's owner came into view. While her distinctive orange coat was only a marginally more welcome sight than that of her elder brother, it still wasn't welcome at that particular moment. She looked up, squinted, and then shrugged, apparently not seeing me. She turned around... only to deliver a terrible, swift kick to the trunk of the tree, which shook everything like a leaf in the wind. It would seem that I made some sort of sound at that point, or otherwise gave myself away, because she looked almost directly at me and said, clear as day, "alrighty, there, pardner, if'n ya come down here right now, we can hash this out peaceful-like, an' ah won't hafta get violent, ya hear?" She then turned to the dog, and said, "good work, girl." The dog looked at her, barked once, and went back to staring at me. "I swear," I said, panicking, "I've already paid for these in advance! Time and a half, rounded up, as always!" There was a pause, and a confused look passed over her face like an errant cloud as she parsed what I'd just said. "Wait, yer... YER STEALIN' APPLES?! OH, THAT'S JES' GREAT!" she exclaimed, highly outraged. "THE HAY'S WRONG WITH YOU?" "Wha- no! No!! I just told you, I'm paying for them, time and a half what your normal rates are!" I sighed, and facepalmed. "But, if it helps, I'll come down. Promise you'll hear me out before tryin' t'kill me?" "Ah'm not so sure 'bout that," said the offended mare, calming down a bit. "Pleeeeeeeeeease?" I begged. She groaned, and rolled her eyes. "Fine, if'n it'll get ya down here, then yes." She then performed some wierd action, accompanied by the words "cross mah hart 'n hope ta fly, stick a cupcake in mah eye." I blinked a couple times. "Uh... alrighty then." I said, perplexed, but I clambered down nonetheless. I received a wallop to the back of my head for my troubles, which nearly made me drop the few apples I was holding. "Now, start explainin' yersel' afore I crack ya a new 'un!" She demanded. Massaging the point of contact, I did as she wanted. "Alright, alright, keep your hat on," I began, "I set this up, like, a week or two ago with your sister. Y'know, creamy-yellow coat, reddish-pink hair- er, mane, large bow?" Applejack glared at me, unconvinced. "Yeah, um... See, she said that, as long as I made sure to pay for them, I could help myself to a few whenever I needed, as long as it wasn't too frequent, and I didn't take more than ten at a time." "Uh-huh. Yeah, ah'm not sure ah believe y'all on that. Here, lemme jes' double check with mah sister." She turned her head, and (as she probably would have put it,) "began a-hootin' 'n a-hollerin' fit t'beat the devil," or something. "APPLEBLOOM?? YOU GET--" she began, but was quickly interrupted by a new voice. "Yes?" Asked the newcomer, walking out from behind a nearby tree. "What'sa'matter, sis? Ah heard ya hootin' 'n a-hollerin' clear o'er in the treehouse, so ah came as fast as ah could!" Then she saw me, and her eyebrows shot up. "Oh, hey there, Storm! How'sit going?" Applejack was taken aback. "Wait, ya mean ya actually know this guy?" "Eeyup!" Said the smaller mare, which caused me to flinch a bit. I'd had a tendency to ever-so-slightly drag out the first part of the word myself before arriving, but it'd been getting too close to their pronunciation for comfort, lately, seeing as I still tried to distance myself from certain aspects of this world. Old habits, eh? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Pass me that d20, will ya?" I flicked the indicated die in Twilight's direction, and she caught it expertly with her magic. "Thank you," she said, politely, as she pulled it behind the screen, and began rolling up another monstrosity to set on our hapless characters. "I still can't believe I let you eggheads talk me into this..." Said Rainbow Dash, leaning back in her chair and crossing her forelegs. "You know what I think, Skittles?" I replied. "I think you can't believe you're enjoying this game." She glared at me. "JUST SHUT UP AND PLAY, NOOKWHIFFER!" Said Karkat, from across the table. Yes, he talks loudly, and is always cranky. "4CTU4LLY, 1T'S MY TURN," interjected Terezi, who was sitting next to Rainbow Dash, and rolled her dice. "TH4T'S 4 T3N, 1 B3L13V3, WH1CH M34NS... F1FT33N D4M4G3 TO TH3 HYDR4." "D8mmit!" Shouted vriska, slamming her fists on the table as Tahu facepalmed. "I really h8 you, Terezi, you know th8?" "444WWW... DO 1 SM3LL T34RS 1N THOS3 C3RUL34N 3Y3S OF YOURS?" she smiled. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ More to come... First ideaI knew it was going to be one of those days when I heard a spitting sound behind me, followed by the sensation of something wet and viscous colliding with the back of my head. I flicked my right ear once, then ever so slightly pinned them both back. This mustn't register on an emotional level... I thought to myself, taking a slow, deep breath. My temper, at an all-time high whenever I took this form, was threatening to burst loose. Grabbing a handkerchief from my cloak as I turned around, I wiped the back of my head as best I could. I looked the offending unicorn in the eye, fixing him with an impassive, thousand-yard stare as I noted both the knife he was levitating and the look on his face. Time slowed to a crawl, and my perspective shifted into third person, hovering over the two of us as I planned. «First, distract target.» I thought, and saw myself flick the handkerchief in my opponent's face. «Then deflect his blind stab, & counter with cross to left cheek: discombobulate.» I watched as my corporeal form brought his hooves down, hard, on the other's ears. «Dazed, he will attempt a wild haymaker: employ left elbow block, and horn shot. Block feral left, weaken right jaw. Then, fracture.» I winced as an uppercut to his jaw fractured the bone, and lifted the unfortunate stranger onto his hind legs. «Crack ribs, traumatize solar plexus; dislocate jaw entirely.» Two body blows, and a right hook to the jaw hinge, brought this fight all the closer to an end. «Kick to diaphragm...» My mental avatar finished with an upward surging of wings, and a Sparta kick to his opponent's chest, sending him crashing backwards. «In summary: ears ringing, jaw fractured, horn and three ribs cracked, four ribs broken, diaphragm haemmorraging. Physical recovery: six weeks. Full psychological recovery: six months. Capacity to spit at back of head: neutralized. Thank God for the Night Guard training...» My perspective returned to normal, and I put my plan into action. I flicked the handkerchief forwards, obscuring the would-be assailant's view of myself. In response, he sent the knife surging at me, a little wide. I ducked and moved left a bit, bringing my right foreleg up. I deflected the errant blade with my hoof, then drew it back in the same motion, delivering a solid punch to the left side of his face. This was followed by me rearing up and bringing my hooves down on his ears. As expected, he tried a heavy swing at me from my left. I raised my left foreleg to block, then sent a jab at his horn to dispel his magic. It connected harder than I would have liked, but it caused him to drop the knife, so no complaints there. I smacked aside his feral swipe on my right, then sank my left hoof into his jaw. Taking a step forward for power, I delivered an uppercut with my right hoof (accompanied by an audible*CRRRACK!*) that lifted him onto his back legs, where he momentarily balanced. Standing up on my own hind legs, I swung my right hoof into his ribs, my left flew up and connected beneath his ribcage, and then followed with a savage hook to his right cheek once more. I crouched for an instant before flaring my wings, disturbing the cloak about me, and showing what lay beneath for the merest moment. With a strong downstroke of my powerful wings, (coupled with a jump,) I was lifted into the air, which let me sink both my hindlegs into the poor sap's soft underbelly. He went flying with and even louder *CRACK* than before, and the two of us landed simultaneously: him in a bruised and bloody heap, and myself on all fours, facing away. I had to hide the slight look of satisfaction on my face. I'd unfortunately let some of my pent up anger slip into that last blow. "He should get to a hospital, ASAP," I said, then picked up my handkerchief and walked off. The crowd around us parted, and I heard whispers from among them. "Who is this guy?" "Where did THAT move come from?" "Did I just see him wearing Night Guard armor?" Etc, etc. I carefully flipped my hood up over my tufted ears, and continued walking. As I reached the edge of the crowd, I stopped, and turned my head back a little. Speaking loud enough to be heard by everyone, I said, "Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy, and good with ketchup," then sidestepped the knife that had been thrown my way by the injured unicorn. "Who are you?" Someone asked, and the crowd went quiet. "An Alchemist," I said, and trotted off to the grocery store. This was why I hated going into town on food runs. Chaos in Canterlot! (Use later, possibly before a Gala.)"Oh, come on, Midge," I said, swinging my leg over the top of the banister, "liven up! Neither of us have done this before!" "Which is exactly why we shouldn't do it!" The multi-winged changeling replied, nervously. "We're here at Princess Luna's personal invitation! We shouldn't be doing this!" "Ah, pffft," I scoffed, waving a clawed hand, "Celestia practically told us to come here and try this while we waited. Besides, it's fun. Aside from maybe falling off, what could possibly go wrong?" I mentally winced at the accidental tempting of fate I'd just done, but thought nothing of it. Seeing his continued hesitation, I continued. "Well, then, looks like I'll just have all the fun to myself!" With that, I placed my entire weight on the banister, and allowed myself to slide at speed down its helix-shaped curve. "W-- wait for me, you crazy idiot!" Called Midge, and I heard him come sliding after me. I couldn't help it. I gave out a long, loud whoop of joy as I whizzed down, down, down, laughing all the way. At one point, I glimpsed a red and gold figure on a landing as I whirled by at speed. I'm sure he was surprised, judging by his belated "What-- hey, you! Both of you!" The elaborate brass pole that the stairs spiraled around abruptly gave a shudder, and I saw the newcomer drop past me, hopping off at a lower level with much clanking and shifting-metal sounds. I soon came to a stop with a hoof pressed against the small of my back. "Ayeup, lad," an Alicorn (whom I didn't recognize,) said, with a disappointed grin and a slight, yet noticeable, "British" accent. I was wondering where the other fellow had gotten off to, but I pressed on. "Allo!" I said, snarkily. The Alicorn seemed temporarily taken aback at my insubordination, as Midge slid to a stop just in front of me. The unknown Alicorn leaned closer to me and, catching a whiff of the alcohol that'd been spilled on me earlier, asked: "Been drinkin, 'ave we?" "Just a nip," I said roguishly, rolling with it, "popped down to the pub for a pint! Bit of all right!" I then put more snark into my next few words: "Going to arrest a man for that? Going to detain a blighter for enjoying his whis-KEY?" I raised my voice shrilly on the last syllable. "Enough," the Alicorn snapped, all joviality now vanished from his frame. I had one of those moments where I could feel the world about to turn, and the direction it went from here hinged directly upon what I did next. Usually this happened when I decided to take a stand for myself against my mother and her (usually) stupid rules. So, I did what I always did, and fought back. "Bangers and mash!" I retorted, stunning both Midge and the Alicorn. "Bubble and squeak! Smoked eel pie!" My voice became a bit louder with each item I randomly selected. "Sir!" Demanded the Alicorn, thoroughly incensed, his accent becoming definitively thicker in his anger. "Haggis!" I all but shouted in his face. This, it seemed, was the straw that broke the... ah, I mean... that was the last straw. "Roight, tha's it!" He snarled as he snagged my arm, accent thicker than ever. "Dismount t' bannistah!" He pulled me off said guardrail, Midge meekly following suit, and he began leading us down the stairs in the normal manner. I, however, was far from beaten, despite having my arm twisted behind my back in the Alicorn's magical field. "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts!" I shouted, as loud as I could, with a bit of sing-song to the words. "Here they are, standing in a row!" My arm was twisted sharply as the Alicorn muttered something dark about "fookin' toorists..." "Big ones, small ones! SOME AS BIG AS YOUR HEAAAAAAAD!" I thrashed wildly on the last bit, nearly dislocating my shoulder in the process. Midge and I hadn't been too far from the bottom of the stairwell when we'd been stopped by the mysterious Alicorn, so we reached it without trouble. Well, any more than I had been kicking up. We passed a few groups of various sentient beings (ponies, Bionicles, and even a few covenant,) all helping to set up for a big "to-do" of some sort. My money was on a royal ball, if I knew anything about royalty... We soon arrived at the dungeons, with me being generally rambunctious and annoying. The Alicorn tossed us both in the first available cell, then locked the door with his magic. He still seemed quite "hacked off" at us, as proven by his next few words. "Now," he said, accent still thick, but not as much as before, "you fookers stay 'ere, while aye go an' git t' Princesses. Got 'nuff t' do wi'out t' loiks a ya wand'rin about." He then stalked off, brow furrowed with determination. "Well," I said, once he was out of earshot, "that was fun!" I'd taken up a chipper tone that clashed horribly with the circumstances, meaning I was a bit nervous. Midge just stared at me, momentarily dumbstruck. "Are you bucking insane?" He eventually asked. "D'you know who that was?" "Nope!" I exclaimed, my falsely chipper demeanor cracking slightly. I then turned my attention to the door. "That was Prince Nova!" he said, aghast. "Nova Corona Solaris Blast, Toa of Fire, leader of the Toa Jörmun!" "Uh huh, sounds like a nice guy..." I muttered, distractedly, before... "Wait, you mean... That Nova? The Human-turned-Toa-turned-Alicorn?! Oh... D'arvit...!" I swore. Concentrating as best I could, I focused as best I could on my right forearm, willing the "glamour" covering it to... well, dispel, I guess. I was still new to the whole semi-changeling shapeshifting thing. My arm was gracious enough to work with me this time, and I was rewarded with the sight of flipping "scales" moving from the elbow downwards, extending beyond where the tips of my fingers had been. It was not unlike the effect used for Mystique in the recent X-men movies, including the soft pattering sound as the shift occurred. Doing this revealed my shame, my Hordika arm, which had been hidden beneath the guise. Unfolding the main wrist, I deployed the Shard Blade, and embedded it deep in the door's locking mechanism. With a sharp jerk, I twisted the appendage and shattered the rectangular device like so much rock candy. The amount of sheer satisfaction I got from that simple act of violence was enough to scare me. "Get rekt," I muttered half-heartedly, before turning to Midge. He had a foreleg over his face, shaking his head. "Are you always like this?" He asked. "Breaking out of cells and stuff, with general disregard for doorways in general?" "Nah," I replied, "this is only my second time." "You've kicked down doors since I first met you!" "One time! That was one time!" I then sighed in frustration. "Ya kick down one damn door on a lark, and nobody lets you forget it." "For good reason!" "Hey," I said, leveling a clawed finger in his direction, "at least I didn't come crashing through the wall like the fuckin' Kool-Aid guy." "True, but--" "Forget it, let's scram." I interjected, and hauled the door open. As Midge (reluctantly) followed me out of the cell, I could have sworn I heard him mutter something about "lots of trouble," but I ignored it. Trouble, after all, seemed to be my middle name nowadays. After a few minutes of sneaking around, we moved past yet another guard. This time, though, he noticed us, made a sound of general alarm, and gave chase. Moments later, we had a run past (and aggro'd,) enough guards to form a small crowd, all yelling and shooting off spells. Quite predictably, all shots missed the two of us, though Midge wasn't having as much fun with this as I was. In fact, you could almost hear my laughter over the thunderous cacophony of armored hooves clattering against the marble floors behind us. We came into what would be the "top right" part of a T-junction, with an additional crowd of guards showing up directly opposite us in the "top left." Hanging a sharp left into the perpendicular hallway, I saw there was a closed door at the end, which Midge blasted open as we drew near. The door opened onto a very wide (about 25 feet) hallway with a grand total of ten doors on either side of its 100-foot length. All of them were open. Taking a second to apprentice what was probably about to go down, I yelled "Split up, and take a door!" then swung right. Midge went left, looking scared and confused. As I had suspected, each of these doorways seemed to connect to another within the hallway at random, and never the same one twice in a row. Several times I found myself either running alongside Midge, dodging/leaping over/chasing one or more guards, or sidestepping folks who shouldn't even be there (Mike and Sully, the Scooby Doo crew, Deadpool, and Vezon, just to name a few!) I had to avoid running into duplicates of myself a few times as well. One memorable moment came when I found such a duplicate rushing straight at me with an expectant grin. Without thought, I leapt forward Superman style, above chest height, as he home-run slid under me. Landing with an action roll, I came up running (if a little winded.) A few seconds later, I encountered a similar situation, and I grinned. As the duplicate before me went to leap, I attempted to pull of a slide of my own, confident that I'd pull it off. I was right, of course. After everyone ran together in a big pileup, signaling that the hilarity of the situation had outlived its usefulness, I grabbed Midge and absconded down the hall to the single door at the far end.
Explanation, and some things to come.As I've said, this will contain potential future stuff for "Infinity's Edge," formerly "Idle Holding Pattern." Anything that goes in here will be unpublished at first, for obvious reasons. Things that don't make the final cut, for various reasons, will probably be posted, but with a label saying "this is not canon, but it could've been," sorta like deleted scenes on a DVD, usually without reasons why they were cut, because SPOILERS! Others, once the finalized versions are added to the main story, will be posted as they originally were written, with their own label. As such, here are a few freebee previews, for your entertainment! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ...I continued galloping through the forest, chastising myself all the way. Yes, galloping. Of all the times to be stuck with hooves instead of hands, this was the worst! Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck! I screamed, internally. I was silently cursing my luck, my poor forward planning, my abilities in general, and Timberwolves everywhere. Yes, Timberwolves. How they had such a good sense of smell, or any sense in general, I'll never know. And so, I raced on, my only hope lying in the possibility that I could get back to base before they got me. I didn't care whose bright idea it had been to have us training during Timberwolf mating season, but whoever it was had something coming to 'em. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ...I was just reaching up to pick another apple when I heard a dog barking nearby, and coming closer. "D'arvit!" I swore, positioned myself in the tree's uppermost boughs, and cast a discreet visual distortion spell about myself. Not a moment too soon, as the dog had leapt up against the trunk, and was yapping it's head off in my general direction. "Whoah, there, Winona! What'd ya find, girl?" A voice asked, and it's owner came into view. While her distinctive orange coat was only a marginally more welcome sight than that of her elder brother, it still wasn't welcome at that particular moment. She looked up, squinted, and then shrugged, apparently not seeing me. She turned around... only to deliver a terrible, swift kick to the trunk of the tree, which shook everything like a leaf in the wind. It would seem that I made some sort of sound at that point, or otherwise gave myself away, because she looked almost directly at me and said, clear as day, "alrighty, there, pardner, if'n ya come down here right now, we can hash this out peaceful-like, an' ah won't hafta get violent, ya hear?" She then turned to the dog, and said, "good work, girl." The dog looked at her, barked once, and went back to staring at me. "I swear," I said, panicking, "I've already paid for these in advance! Time and a half, rounded up, as always!" There was a pause, and a confused look passed over her face like an errant cloud as she parsed what I'd just said. "Wait, yer... YER STEALIN' APPLES?! OH, THAT'S JES' GREAT!" she exclaimed, highly outraged. "THE HAY'S WRONG WITH YOU?" "Wha- no! No!! I just told you, I'm paying for them, time and a half what your normal rates are!" I sighed, and facepalmed. "But, if it helps, I'll come down. Promise you'll hear me out before tryin' t'kill me?" "Ah'm not so sure 'bout that," said the offended mare, calming down a bit. "Pleeeeeeeeeease?" I begged. She groaned, and rolled her eyes. "Fine, if'n it'll get ya down here, then yes." She then performed some wierd action, accompanied by the words "cross mah hart 'n hope ta fly, stick a cupcake in mah eye." I blinked a couple times. "Uh... alrighty then." I said, perplexed, but I clambered down nonetheless. I received a wallop to the back of my head for my troubles, which nearly made me drop the few apples I was holding. "Now, start explainin' yersel' afore I crack ya a new 'un!" She demanded. Massaging the point of contact, I did as she wanted. "Alright, alright, keep your hat on," I began, "I set this up, like, a week or two ago with your sister. Y'know, creamy-yellow coat, reddish-pink hair- er, mane, large bow?" Applejack glared at me, unconvinced. "Yeah, um... See, she said that, as long as I made sure to pay for them, I could help myself to a few whenever I needed, as long as it wasn't too frequent, and I didn't take more than ten at a time." "Uh-huh. Yeah, ah'm not sure ah believe y'all on that. Here, lemme jes' double check with mah sister." She turned her head, and (as she probably would have put it,) "began a-hootin' 'n a-hollerin' fit t'beat the devil," or something. "APPLEBLOOM?? YOU GET--" she began, but was quickly interrupted by a new voice. "Yes?" Asked the newcomer, walking out from behind a nearby tree. "What'sa'matter, sis? Ah heard ya hootin' 'n a-hollerin' clear o'er in the treehouse, so ah came as fast as ah could!" Then she saw me, and her eyebrows shot up. "Oh, hey there, Storm! How'sit going?" Applejack was taken aback. "Wait, ya mean ya actually know this guy?" "Eeyup!" Said the smaller mare, which caused me to flinch a bit. I'd had a tendency to ever-so-slightly drag out the first part of the word myself before arriving, but it'd been getting too close to their pronunciation for comfort, lately, seeing as I still tried to distance myself from certain aspects of this world. Old habits, eh? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Pass me that d20, will ya?" I flicked the indicated die in Twilight's direction, and she caught it expertly with her magic. "Thank you," she said, politely, as she pulled it behind the screen, and began rolling up another monstrosity to set on our hapless characters. "I still can't believe I let you eggheads talk me into this..." Said Rainbow Dash, leaning back in her chair and crossing her forelegs. "You know what I think, Skittles?" I replied. "I think you can't believe you're enjoying this game." She glared at me. "JUST SHUT UP AND PLAY, NOOKWHIFFER!" Said Karkat, from across the table. Yes, he talks loudly, and is always cranky. "4CTU4LLY, 1T'S MY TURN," interjected Terezi, who was sitting next to Rainbow Dash, and rolled her dice. "TH4T'S 4 T3N, 1 B3L13V3, WH1CH M34NS... F1FT33N D4M4G3 TO TH3 HYDR4." "D8mmit!" Shouted vriska, slamming her fists on the table as Tahu facepalmed. "I really h8 you, Terezi, you know th8?" "444WWW... DO 1 SM3LL T34RS 1N THOS3 C3RUL34N 3Y3S OF YOURS?" she smiled. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ More to come...
First ideaI knew it was going to be one of those days when I heard a spitting sound behind me, followed by the sensation of something wet and viscous colliding with the back of my head. I flicked my right ear once, then ever so slightly pinned them both back. This mustn't register on an emotional level... I thought to myself, taking a slow, deep breath. My temper, at an all-time high whenever I took this form, was threatening to burst loose. Grabbing a handkerchief from my cloak as I turned around, I wiped the back of my head as best I could. I looked the offending unicorn in the eye, fixing him with an impassive, thousand-yard stare as I noted both the knife he was levitating and the look on his face. Time slowed to a crawl, and my perspective shifted into third person, hovering over the two of us as I planned. «First, distract target.» I thought, and saw myself flick the handkerchief in my opponent's face. «Then deflect his blind stab, & counter with cross to left cheek: discombobulate.» I watched as my corporeal form brought his hooves down, hard, on the other's ears. «Dazed, he will attempt a wild haymaker: employ left elbow block, and horn shot. Block feral left, weaken right jaw. Then, fracture.» I winced as an uppercut to his jaw fractured the bone, and lifted the unfortunate stranger onto his hind legs. «Crack ribs, traumatize solar plexus; dislocate jaw entirely.» Two body blows, and a right hook to the jaw hinge, brought this fight all the closer to an end. «Kick to diaphragm...» My mental avatar finished with an upward surging of wings, and a Sparta kick to his opponent's chest, sending him crashing backwards. «In summary: ears ringing, jaw fractured, horn and three ribs cracked, four ribs broken, diaphragm haemmorraging. Physical recovery: six weeks. Full psychological recovery: six months. Capacity to spit at back of head: neutralized. Thank God for the Night Guard training...» My perspective returned to normal, and I put my plan into action. I flicked the handkerchief forwards, obscuring the would-be assailant's view of myself. In response, he sent the knife surging at me, a little wide. I ducked and moved left a bit, bringing my right foreleg up. I deflected the errant blade with my hoof, then drew it back in the same motion, delivering a solid punch to the left side of his face. This was followed by me rearing up and bringing my hooves down on his ears. As expected, he tried a heavy swing at me from my left. I raised my left foreleg to block, then sent a jab at his horn to dispel his magic. It connected harder than I would have liked, but it caused him to drop the knife, so no complaints there. I smacked aside his feral swipe on my right, then sank my left hoof into his jaw. Taking a step forward for power, I delivered an uppercut with my right hoof (accompanied by an audible*CRRRACK!*) that lifted him onto his back legs, where he momentarily balanced. Standing up on my own hind legs, I swung my right hoof into his ribs, my left flew up and connected beneath his ribcage, and then followed with a savage hook to his right cheek once more. I crouched for an instant before flaring my wings, disturbing the cloak about me, and showing what lay beneath for the merest moment. With a strong downstroke of my powerful wings, (coupled with a jump,) I was lifted into the air, which let me sink both my hindlegs into the poor sap's soft underbelly. He went flying with and even louder *CRACK* than before, and the two of us landed simultaneously: him in a bruised and bloody heap, and myself on all fours, facing away. I had to hide the slight look of satisfaction on my face. I'd unfortunately let some of my pent up anger slip into that last blow. "He should get to a hospital, ASAP," I said, then picked up my handkerchief and walked off. The crowd around us parted, and I heard whispers from among them. "Who is this guy?" "Where did THAT move come from?" "Did I just see him wearing Night Guard armor?" Etc, etc. I carefully flipped my hood up over my tufted ears, and continued walking. As I reached the edge of the crowd, I stopped, and turned my head back a little. Speaking loud enough to be heard by everyone, I said, "Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy, and good with ketchup," then sidestepped the knife that had been thrown my way by the injured unicorn. "Who are you?" Someone asked, and the crowd went quiet. "An Alchemist," I said, and trotted off to the grocery store. This was why I hated going into town on food runs.
Chaos in Canterlot! (Use later, possibly before a Gala.)"Oh, come on, Midge," I said, swinging my leg over the top of the banister, "liven up! Neither of us have done this before!" "Which is exactly why we shouldn't do it!" The multi-winged changeling replied, nervously. "We're here at Princess Luna's personal invitation! We shouldn't be doing this!" "Ah, pffft," I scoffed, waving a clawed hand, "Celestia practically told us to come here and try this while we waited. Besides, it's fun. Aside from maybe falling off, what could possibly go wrong?" I mentally winced at the accidental tempting of fate I'd just done, but thought nothing of it. Seeing his continued hesitation, I continued. "Well, then, looks like I'll just have all the fun to myself!" With that, I placed my entire weight on the banister, and allowed myself to slide at speed down its helix-shaped curve. "W-- wait for me, you crazy idiot!" Called Midge, and I heard him come sliding after me. I couldn't help it. I gave out a long, loud whoop of joy as I whizzed down, down, down, laughing all the way. At one point, I glimpsed a red and gold figure on a landing as I whirled by at speed. I'm sure he was surprised, judging by his belated "What-- hey, you! Both of you!" The elaborate brass pole that the stairs spiraled around abruptly gave a shudder, and I saw the newcomer drop past me, hopping off at a lower level with much clanking and shifting-metal sounds. I soon came to a stop with a hoof pressed against the small of my back. "Ayeup, lad," an Alicorn (whom I didn't recognize,) said, with a disappointed grin and a slight, yet noticeable, "British" accent. I was wondering where the other fellow had gotten off to, but I pressed on. "Allo!" I said, snarkily. The Alicorn seemed temporarily taken aback at my insubordination, as Midge slid to a stop just in front of me. The unknown Alicorn leaned closer to me and, catching a whiff of the alcohol that'd been spilled on me earlier, asked: "Been drinkin, 'ave we?" "Just a nip," I said roguishly, rolling with it, "popped down to the pub for a pint! Bit of all right!" I then put more snark into my next few words: "Going to arrest a man for that? Going to detain a blighter for enjoying his whis-KEY?" I raised my voice shrilly on the last syllable. "Enough," the Alicorn snapped, all joviality now vanished from his frame. I had one of those moments where I could feel the world about to turn, and the direction it went from here hinged directly upon what I did next. Usually this happened when I decided to take a stand for myself against my mother and her (usually) stupid rules. So, I did what I always did, and fought back. "Bangers and mash!" I retorted, stunning both Midge and the Alicorn. "Bubble and squeak! Smoked eel pie!" My voice became a bit louder with each item I randomly selected. "Sir!" Demanded the Alicorn, thoroughly incensed, his accent becoming definitively thicker in his anger. "Haggis!" I all but shouted in his face. This, it seemed, was the straw that broke the... ah, I mean... that was the last straw. "Roight, tha's it!" He snarled as he snagged my arm, accent thicker than ever. "Dismount t' bannistah!" He pulled me off said guardrail, Midge meekly following suit, and he began leading us down the stairs in the normal manner. I, however, was far from beaten, despite having my arm twisted behind my back in the Alicorn's magical field. "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts!" I shouted, as loud as I could, with a bit of sing-song to the words. "Here they are, standing in a row!" My arm was twisted sharply as the Alicorn muttered something dark about "fookin' toorists..." "Big ones, small ones! SOME AS BIG AS YOUR HEAAAAAAAD!" I thrashed wildly on the last bit, nearly dislocating my shoulder in the process. Midge and I hadn't been too far from the bottom of the stairwell when we'd been stopped by the mysterious Alicorn, so we reached it without trouble. Well, any more than I had been kicking up. We passed a few groups of various sentient beings (ponies, Bionicles, and even a few covenant,) all helping to set up for a big "to-do" of some sort. My money was on a royal ball, if I knew anything about royalty... We soon arrived at the dungeons, with me being generally rambunctious and annoying. The Alicorn tossed us both in the first available cell, then locked the door with his magic. He still seemed quite "hacked off" at us, as proven by his next few words. "Now," he said, accent still thick, but not as much as before, "you fookers stay 'ere, while aye go an' git t' Princesses. Got 'nuff t' do wi'out t' loiks a ya wand'rin about." He then stalked off, brow furrowed with determination. "Well," I said, once he was out of earshot, "that was fun!" I'd taken up a chipper tone that clashed horribly with the circumstances, meaning I was a bit nervous. Midge just stared at me, momentarily dumbstruck. "Are you bucking insane?" He eventually asked. "D'you know who that was?" "Nope!" I exclaimed, my falsely chipper demeanor cracking slightly. I then turned my attention to the door. "That was Prince Nova!" he said, aghast. "Nova Corona Solaris Blast, Toa of Fire, leader of the Toa Jörmun!" "Uh huh, sounds like a nice guy..." I muttered, distractedly, before... "Wait, you mean... That Nova? The Human-turned-Toa-turned-Alicorn?! Oh... D'arvit...!" I swore. Concentrating as best I could, I focused as best I could on my right forearm, willing the "glamour" covering it to... well, dispel, I guess. I was still new to the whole semi-changeling shapeshifting thing. My arm was gracious enough to work with me this time, and I was rewarded with the sight of flipping "scales" moving from the elbow downwards, extending beyond where the tips of my fingers had been. It was not unlike the effect used for Mystique in the recent X-men movies, including the soft pattering sound as the shift occurred. Doing this revealed my shame, my Hordika arm, which had been hidden beneath the guise. Unfolding the main wrist, I deployed the Shard Blade, and embedded it deep in the door's locking mechanism. With a sharp jerk, I twisted the appendage and shattered the rectangular device like so much rock candy. The amount of sheer satisfaction I got from that simple act of violence was enough to scare me. "Get rekt," I muttered half-heartedly, before turning to Midge. He had a foreleg over his face, shaking his head. "Are you always like this?" He asked. "Breaking out of cells and stuff, with general disregard for doorways in general?" "Nah," I replied, "this is only my second time." "You've kicked down doors since I first met you!" "One time! That was one time!" I then sighed in frustration. "Ya kick down one damn door on a lark, and nobody lets you forget it." "For good reason!" "Hey," I said, leveling a clawed finger in his direction, "at least I didn't come crashing through the wall like the fuckin' Kool-Aid guy." "True, but--" "Forget it, let's scram." I interjected, and hauled the door open. As Midge (reluctantly) followed me out of the cell, I could have sworn I heard him mutter something about "lots of trouble," but I ignored it. Trouble, after all, seemed to be my middle name nowadays. After a few minutes of sneaking around, we moved past yet another guard. This time, though, he noticed us, made a sound of general alarm, and gave chase. Moments later, we had a run past (and aggro'd,) enough guards to form a small crowd, all yelling and shooting off spells. Quite predictably, all shots missed the two of us, though Midge wasn't having as much fun with this as I was. In fact, you could almost hear my laughter over the thunderous cacophony of armored hooves clattering against the marble floors behind us. We came into what would be the "top right" part of a T-junction, with an additional crowd of guards showing up directly opposite us in the "top left." Hanging a sharp left into the perpendicular hallway, I saw there was a closed door at the end, which Midge blasted open as we drew near. The door opened onto a very wide (about 25 feet) hallway with a grand total of ten doors on either side of its 100-foot length. All of them were open. Taking a second to apprentice what was probably about to go down, I yelled "Split up, and take a door!" then swung right. Midge went left, looking scared and confused. As I had suspected, each of these doorways seemed to connect to another within the hallway at random, and never the same one twice in a row. Several times I found myself either running alongside Midge, dodging/leaping over/chasing one or more guards, or sidestepping folks who shouldn't even be there (Mike and Sully, the Scooby Doo crew, Deadpool, and Vezon, just to name a few!) I had to avoid running into duplicates of myself a few times as well. One memorable moment came when I found such a duplicate rushing straight at me with an expectant grin. Without thought, I leapt forward Superman style, above chest height, as he home-run slid under me. Landing with an action roll, I came up running (if a little winded.) A few seconds later, I encountered a similar situation, and I grinned. As the duplicate before me went to leap, I attempted to pull of a slide of my own, confident that I'd pull it off. I was right, of course. After everyone ran together in a big pileup, signaling that the hilarity of the situation had outlived its usefulness, I grabbed Midge and absconded down the hall to the single door at the far end.
