My Life on a Cassette Tape

Double stumbled backwards, avoiding another attack from the thing. Darting forward, he delivered a high kick to the thing's face, obscured in shadow from the still dimly lit castle halls. Narrowly avoiding one blow, he set himself unintentionally to get struck with another, flinging him backwards with electric shocks of pain coursing through him. His limbs still felt fuzzy, the effects of the artifact still holding him fast, slowing him, and making any chance of using it to his advantage seem all the more a double edged sword that could also render him useless if he didn't do it right.

"I hadn't expected so much fight coming from you lot." A deep booming voice came from the figure as it confidently approached Double who still lay on the ground breathing heavily. "But in the end, your efforts are for naught. It would've been better for you if you hadn't been so inclined to so violently resist us."

"Yeah, well you all made the choice for us, so screw you too." Double spat back, pushing off the ground, zipping through the gap between the hulking mass' legs. Tumbling to his feet, he turned, removing the artifact from its lanyard, holding it firm in his hand, ready to activate it if needed. Pushing up, he charged forward, diving into a power slide as the massive thing raised a leg and went for a roundhouse kick, exposing itself quite nicely.

Thrusting a fist upward as he slid past, he connected his blow, feeling the meaty squish he had hoped for - it was either that or have something awkward to explain to Thyme once this was all over with. Twirling around, he faced his opponent who was bent over slightly now, huffing in pain. Double smirked, darting forward, Delivering a haymaker straight to the slab of muscle and sinew's jaw, causing it to stumble backwards slightly. Double struggled to catch his breath, raising his fist in a taunting battle stance, a cocksure smile on his face as he relished the good few hits he had managed.

The thing swiped a burly fist across its cheek, spitting on the ground as it turned to face Double. "A troublesome lot... but I've had worse. You might think yourself capable of beating me, and even if you are, the Emperor is far beyond even the upper limits of your potential. He has ascended beyond the alicorns and now sits even above the gods. Your hope is that of an ant against the boot of a soldier - if even that much."

"You talk a lot for a guy who just got punched in the dick." Double shot back, darting forward, leaping into a drop kick, the height difference aiming his blow between the hulking beast's legs. His opponent reacted with what Double felt was uncharacteristic swiftness, catching the kick with a hand before slamming him into the wall like a bat of meat and bone. his world became a whirl of confusion and pain as he was smashed against the floor and wall repeatedly before slipping out of his grasp, flying down the hall and slamming against the door.

He definitely had a few things broken, but he could worry about that later. Right now he had to worry about the massive figure that was barreling down the barely lit hallway like a bull. Rolling to the side, hissing against the pain, he let his enemy plow through the doors instead of his far softer body. Standing up, he flinched at the pain, stumbling a tad bit. Apparently one of the broken things he had put thought to was a leg. Putting a hand against it, he assessed the damage, even while watching his foe, pushing the door off of him. It wasn't a compound fracture, so that was good, the pain seeming more in line with a hairline fracture, at least based of Double's thorough catalog of pain from various broken bones in the past.

This pain would cost him, he knew. It would slow him down, despite how necessary it was - telling him what state he was in. If only he had some pain killers, a way to take the edge off or numb the area. It then struck him; he focused and activated the artifact, watching as the foe stopped mid turn as the world froze. Pushing forward against the pain, he smirked as his leg already began to numb as he moved.

Reaching his foe, he planted a hefty punch to his opponent's groin, and then looked up. Shrugging he jabbed his fingers where the thing's eyes glinted in the pale light. He then slapped him across the face. A bit of disarming harm inflicted, he grabbed the thing's one hand and pulled it back around behind the beast, grabbing the other arm and repeating the arrangement, even as his legs went fully numb. Walking was troublesome, but doable - the lack of sensation made each step a gamble, but the lack of pain granted back equal amount of mobility that it might've otherwise taken. All in all, he'd have a disadvantage, but he wouldn't be too limited in comparison to dealing with a broken bone.

Tying the beast's hands behind his back, Double smiled, before kneeling to tie his foe's shoelaces together, only to find no laces, only boots. It was disappointing, but he could deal with it, undoing the mammoth's belt, tying it securely around the guy's legs. Now he'd be pantsless and tied. Perfect!

double began to slowly walk away, releasing the artifacts effect as he felt the numbness travel towards his pelvis. Occasional bits of pain filtered through his numbness, but not enough to truly hamper him. As time resumed around him, the howl of pain followed by a dull thud behind him gave him a smile. Moving as quickly as his dulled limbs would let him, he made it to the end of the hallway, opening up the door, scanning the room quickly. It barely took the briefest glance to find what he had feared.

The ponies he had met at Cress' place were in here, their names, however, having escaped him. He vaguely recalled they were somehow important, but he never was good with recent history. Moving in quickly, he helped the ponies, releasing them from their chains as they groaned in pain, most of them missing some limb or another - likely the ones that the doctor had. The purple mare was missing an arm; a griffon - who Double didn't recognize at all - was missing an arm; the orange eart pony mare was missing a leg, as was the pink earth pony; the white pony seemed alright, and then he remembered she was a unicorn, and flinched at the idea of her missing her horn - in someways that felt worse than just an arm or a leg; the two pegasi were missing a wing - no make that the three pegasi. The third pegasi, along with other ponies, were shackled to a different wall. Oddly enough, the three ponies here seemed almost like versions of Periwinkle and Cress - as well as the yellow pegasus mare - except they had the colors swapped. Odd to be sure. The Cress clone was missing an arm, while the Periwinkle clone was missing a leg, and the pegasus mare was missing a wing.

The assortment of which limbs were missing seemed random, but certainly intentional. Fortunately, despite their amputations, they seemed healthy. They were breathing, and a quick press against their neck revealed a strong heart beat in each. Activating the artifact, he quickly typed out a message on his phone to the new numbers in his phone.

Need help, found em all. third level, third hall down on right

Unpausing time, he pressed send with a sigh. Beyond his broken leg, things seemed to be going quite well. Helping up one of the ponies that lacked a leg, he huffed.

"Come on, let's get out of here." He said, thoroughly ready to find someplace to flop down and take a nap. The only reason he didn't crash was adrenaline and the need to finish off this most eventful chapter in his life... at least so far. He certainly could hope life would be simpler after this, but things rarely were.

"We aren't going anywhere." One of them said, giving him pause.

"What are you talking about, we need to leave!"

"No pony escapes the Empire - not for long." Another confirmed. Casting a glance down the hall, he saw the faint glint of a smile on the face of his enemy. Oh fuck.