POV Rio
At the start of the third day, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The storm still raged. Cadenza was still in her trance-like state. The rebels had mostly stopped trying that hard to breach the palace. From what I could gather, they had been pouring almost every troop they had into taking the Thestrals Tribal territory. The issue still remained that both sides were at an impasse. We couldn't go on the offensive as we lacked the manpower. But vice versa, the rebels couldn't capture the Princess nor eliminate her allies.
Which should mean that some form of negotiations or perhaps a desperate ploy, but so far, nothing has happened. Perhaps it was too early. Or perhaps that is what they want me to think. But what I was more curious about was when the storm would let up. Creating and maintaining a storm of this level is not easy and would exhaust even the best mages. It was as I was looking at the storm that I thought I saw something in the storm, but even with my Hoshigan, I couldn't find what I saw.
'Hmm, perhaps it was debris.'
CRASH
The palace shakes, and the loud roar of something is heard down the hall. What I saw over there was a massive creature that seemed to be a bipedal horse, deer, human, or dog hybrid. I ran as fast as I could, as it was literally tearing the soldiers to pieces.
[Image Here] (Minor Gore Warning)
I arrive right as it cleaves through yet another guard, and I catch its attention with a well-placed flashbang.
"SCREEEEECHH!!!!!"
The screech was deafening, but I still attacked it, but was caught off guard when I heard several more screeches from down the hall, and I felt the unmistakable sense of teleportation magic. Followed by even more screeching and the sounds of flesh being torn. I used my Pipboy to pause time for a second to calm down and think about what to do.
'Okay, so someone has clearly bypassed the anti-teleportation wards the palace should have, or they disabled the wards. Either way, from what little I can tell, this thing is far stronger than an average guard, but they should be able to defeat it as long as there are not too many. But what's the objective? They can't take the palace like this. Unless this is just a distraction, and they are going after the real target. As long as Cadenza is captured, they win.'
I unpause and equip my lightsaber before quickly igniting it and cutting the beast in half.
"Go assist the others! I'll protect the Princess!" I order before flying towards the throne room.
As I approach the throne room, I am stopped again, but this time by a massive Earth Pony wearing some heavy plate armour.
"I can't let you pass me!" yells the Earth Pony as they swing a massive Zweihander.
I duck under the slash and counter with a slash at his neck. He is very strong but not that fast, so his head goes flying, which I found a bit odd.
Stab
I look down in confusion as I see the Zweihander sticking out of my abdomen. The body of the enemy was still moving around and moved to cleave me in half, but instead of killing me, I shattered into a million crystal fragments. The Earth Pony seemed confused and nearly fell backwards in confusion. Meanwhile, I was behind them, trying to figure out what trick or gimmick the enemy was using to stay alive.
'Oh, he's a dulahan. And the armour makes him immune to his normal weaknesses of light and fire. Smart.'
Of course, they made a slight mistake. I grabbed a stick of C4 and aimed for the now exposed hole of their neck and shoved it as far as it would go. Thanks to a Sneak Attack, they couldn't respond until I was already away from them. They tried to figure out what I did, but I simply grabbed a detonator out of my inventory.
"Bomb Voyage!" I say with a smirk as I press the button.
BOOOM
The armour shatters into fragments, and the body is obliterated. I don't stick around and keep going. Even if they would still survive that attack, it would take them hours to repair the damage, or they would be stuck as a head on the ground. However, I only made it two more rooms before being stopped again. This time, by what I could only describe as a massive version of the creatures I fought previously. As soon as I saw it, I had less than a second to dodge its sneak attack.
After dodging the attack, I went to cut it, but my lightsaber bounced off the hide and barely singed a single hair.
'Lovely.'
The creature retaliated with a stab of its stinger-like tail. It was at this time that Loona appeared out of nowhere and attacked the creature in her Feral Form.
"Go! I'll handle this thing!" Loona yelled, and I didn't hesitate and flew as fast as I could past.
"Thanks! And blink!" I yell and drop a few flashbangs as Loona closes her eyes.
This time, I make it to the throne room just in time to see a stranger attempting to approach Cadenza as Cadenza tries to focus on the shield and her foe at the same time. The intruder looks at me and sighs.
"For the love of! They seriously couldn't keep you occupied for even a minute! Gods, they are a bunch of worthless imbeciles!" says the intruder with a frustrated tone.
I let her rant and monologue while I start preparing my strategy.
"Well, I suppose we have to fight... Is what I would say if I hadn't prepared for this. You see, you have two choices. Fight me and possibly save the Princess. Or save everyone else in the palace from the several dozen bombs my followers have placed all throughout the palace. Which should be going off in about... 10 seconds... Oops, I meant 5, or maybe not..." She says and keeps stalling while I quickly freeze time with Chrono Collapse and look for the bombs and see them.
'7 bombs all filled to the brim with Gunpowder and unstable gems. 2 in the med bay. 2 in the guard quarters. 2 near the shield array. 1 near the entrance to the city. Ignoring the last one, I have 6 bombs to get rid of.'
Said bombs were mere moments away from blowing up, from the looks of it. I wouldn't be fast enough. Not unless I made a risky ploy. I used my once-per-day Changeling Shift and hoped I got what I needed from the transformation. My form shifted from quadruped to bipedal. Then I grew clothes. It was a red suit with a lightning bolt insignia on the chest with smaller little bolts coming off from the side of the hood. It was right at this time, the 15 seconds of time stop ended, leaving me with a fraction of a second to activate my speedster time.
(AN: Play Time in a Bottle by Jim Croce on YouTube if you want the music. You can also listen to the instrumental version if you like. I won't include the lyrics, so be aware. )
The explosion slowly reaches towards me. I pop my neck and start to run as fast as I can to the first ponies. The first were those in the medical bay. Getting them away was not too bad, as I could wrap them in the beds and hurl them far enough to avoid the explosion. It worked as the med bay was right next to the outdoors, which made it easier to launch them just far enough away to avoid severe injury.
The next area with a bomb was the shield array, and I was incredibly lucky that the bombs hadn't detonated yet. I had a few fractions of a second to move them. So I grabbed both bombs and ran as fast as I could to the outside of the shield and tossed them up into the storm. I then ran back into the shield and back to the array to make sure there weren't any other traps. When I found none, I ran towards the guards' quarters where the bombs had already gone off, and the blast had nearly reached the nearest guard, who had woken up with a fright and was looking at the door away from the bomb.
I counted 22 guards that were in the estimated blast radius. And with no windows nearby, I had to run and grab each guard two at a time and run them far enough away from all the dangers. I couldn't just place them anywhere, as there were beasts all over the palace. So I put them with the injured guards I had thrown outside earlier. It was extremely close as the explosion was getting closer and closer to the various guards. Even with time near a standstill, I had to really work my rear off to avoid any deaths. The issue wasn't the explosion itself but rather the many pieces of shrapnel that were flying much faster than the explosion itself. But with a little luck and effort, I managed to get the last guard outside away from the blast.
The next place I ran into was a hallway full of guards fighting the creatures. I had a little bit of time, so I ran onto the walls and moved a spear up a bit to stab right into the beast, and moved the claw to the left to avoid hitting a guard. Another beast was about to grab a guard, and the guard had a broken leg and couldn't escape, so I put a Molotov Cocktail or two in the place where the guard that I had just moved used to be. Then I moved over to a beast that was roaring at some guards, and I tossed a grenade into its open mouth. The next beast had a guard and was in the process of ripping them in half. I ran towards them and punched specific pressure points in a sequence that should cause it to release the guard in pain. The last two beasts were running towards the guards' rear, and they didn't seem to notice they were coming. So I grabbed a forbidden frisbee and tossed it in their direction.
After doing similar things throughout the palace and saving those I could, I ran back to the throne room and saw that the intruder hadn't gotten to Cadenza yet. In fact, they looked confused that I was gone and looked concerned. I took this chance to look over the intruder and perhaps try to defeat them. They were a Unicorn with purple fur and a silver/glossy white mane done in a drill pattern. What was unique was the curved horn. It reminded me of that famous saying about curved swords. The odd part was that the mare had a brown cloak similar to what I used when trying to hide my...
'Hmm.'
I lift the hem of the cloak and see underneath. Not to check if she was a boy or a girl, but because I wanted to see if she was hiding wings. She wasn't.
[Image Here, Just Imagine With A Cloak And Obviously No Wings]
I shrugged my shoulders and poked her face. The flesh on her face started a massive ripple effect, and then I followed by yanking her tail, kicking her front leg and flicking her horn. I then stood there wondering if I should try anything else.
'Hmm, should I? I don't know, that seems a bit rude. Then again, she is trying to kill me. Eh, sure, why not?'
I got to her back side and grabbed the 2076 Word Series Baseball Bat and wound up with a truly massive swing. Then I let er loose right between the legs. She might not have any jewels there, but it wouldn't feel good. Then I move to her front and let time resume.
CRACK CHEEERIING!!!!
The mare goes flying as the Bats' effect is triggered. Her head snaps back at the same time, and it causes her to do a very comedic spin.
"Oooh, that's gonna cause some real nasty whiplash," I comment.
"W-What?" asks Cadenza.
"WHIP! LASH!" I say with emphasis.
The intruder lands in a pile around 30 feet away with a quiet squeal.
"Uh, you... Asss... What did you do!?" says the intruder as she slowly tries to get up, but her shaking legs show she isn't doing that well.
As soon as she gets up, I enter speed mode as a dagger comes from behind me and aims for my back, and a magic spike aims for my leg. I move my leg and dodge the dagger, and move a few feet to the right.
"Tsk Tsk Tsk! Tyring to sneak attack a speedster, for shame," I say and mocking tone.
"Grr! You think you have won? As we speak..." she starts, but I enter speedster time and beat her up again.
CRACK CHEEERIING!!!!
"Wow, twice in a row, I must be extra lucky today," I quip while spinning the baseball bat off the ground.
"You dare laugh at me!? Show yourself, cowards!" she screams in anger at the non-existent voices.
I don't give her anymore time and beat her up until she is defeated. I don't kill her as I need the info she has. I have a feeling she is the mastermind behind this rebellion. And if we capture her, it should make disassembling the rebels that much easier. Or if she isn't, then she should know who is in charge.
To Be Continued...