//------------------------------//
// Leap Before You Think! 
// Story: One Thousand One Ways to Thwart a King 
// by enigmaMystere 
//------------------------------//

	The second that word was shouted out, Twilight suddenly feels a new presence appear in the world. A presence that feels unlike anything she had ever felt before. A presence that is unlike anything and anyone save for one Alicorn Princess that she had grown to know over the years. Dainn felt the presence too and, rather instantly, he could tell something about what was coming felt... different. “...what did you do? WHAT DID YOU DO?”
A loud bark suddenly filled the castle, and the doors leading into one of the legs of the castle suddenly slammed open, revealing…
…a white wolf, with red markings that appeared no bigger than Twilight herself.
Dainn looks closer at the odd beast a moment, trying to take in its features, from the clean mat of the fur to the odd red markings that almost seemed to glow unlike any tattoo he had ever seen before, and, just to make things even more interesting, an odd disk, one on fire, hovering over the wolf’s back like a shield.
He swiftly turns to Twilight, pointing at the newcomer with a fierce glare on his visage. "Are you fucking kidding me? That's a wolf! You're throwing a wolf at me! What the actual fuck is a damn albino bitch going to-"
For Twilight, the world suddenly appeared as a Papyrus scroll, sepia tone and still.
And, maybe it was just her honed senses towards magic or maybe it was just from the bird’s eye view she had of the absolutely strange oddity currently happening, but she was suddenly aware of a massive calligraphy brush, big enough to fit only in the hand of a god, suddenly appear over Dainn. With conviction, force, sternness and no shortage of annoyance, the Brush just made one fine, straight, clean stroke across the tyrant’s chest.
After the brief instant it did, time suddenly resumed, the world returning to its former technicolor and animated self. The tyrant finds himself flung from a sudden impact to his chest, smacking him first into the street and then through a house, causing it to collapse on top of him.
He pushes rubble off his body, coughing and clutching at his chest. "...what was that brush? Why did I freeze?"
Once the tyrant seemed to be dealt with, if only for a moment, the white wolf, using its keen nose, suddenly started sniffing about. A moment later, the wolf looked up to Twilight on the balcony, smiling and panting happily. It was actually oddly cute considering this was the same wolf that just sent Dainn flying by….
...actually, what did happen there?
“You look a bit confused! Allow me to explain!” Twilight looked down to the wolf, thinking for a moment perhaps the dog could speak after all. Instead, she noticed a little green glowing light hopping up from underneath the dog’s shield and landing on its muzzle. “Allow me to introduce myself, m’lady. My name is Issun, a wandering artist and an envoy for the gods.” The little green light bounced up and down on the wolf’s head, prompting it to shake itself a bit. “And this wonderful girl you see here is Amaterasu! Guardian of Nippon, the user of the Celestial Brush Techniques and the Sun Goddess in wolf form!”
"...but Princess Celestia's in Canterlot." She furrows her brow slightly. "In both worlds."
“Eh… Different worlds, Different Gods and goddesses m’lady. Trust me, WE KNOW. Why, back in our world, there’s a deity for just about everything! Lightning, Thunder, Rain, The sea and the Sky… Oh and of course there’s the Princess of Peaches~.” … Twilight could almost tell the little green light was drooling a bit. “She’s QUITE the looker I tell ya, one in touch with the wonders of nature! A deep valley between two lofty peaks~~~... Hehehehehehehehehe~!”
Amaterasu just placed a paw over her muzzle as if to show annoyance.
"...I think three of your gods fall under Celestia's jurisdiction."
Amaterasu let out a bark, surprising Issun out of his little perverted trance. “OH RIGHT RIGHT, uh, explanations for later. For right NOW though, are you the one that summoned us cutie~?” He pauses a moment, as though to consider his words. “Well I mean, I IMAGINE you’re a cutie. It’s kinda hard to see you from down here.”
Before Twilight can respond, her eyes widen and she leaps down from the balcony, scooping up the two of them in her arms just in time to avoid a mighty blast of light that tears the road to pieces.
"Are you two idiots done talking with each other?" Dainn spits, pulling out his staff and exposing the blade. "I want to end this as quickly as-" He stops mid-sentence, eyes narrowing for a second before he growls, pointing a finger at the alicorn's bust. "You! Get the fuck out of there!"
After a second, a voice echoed out from behind it, “Well aren’t YOU grumpy? What crawled up your backside and died?” Issun asked. Dainn could almost make out the mischievous grin in his tone.
"I own her, as soon as I take over this wretched place!" He sneers at them. "And I have some warbeasts that would be happy to have a bitch of their own." His horns light up, and he fires another beam at them.
The beam was mere seconds from colliding with the bust…
Until once more the world became as a Papyrus scroll, this time the brush drawing two horizontal lines between the beam of light and the bust. And when time resumes once more, Dainn watches, both impressed and annoyed that his beam of light suddenly slowed to a crawl and flat out stopped in mid-air, allowing Twilight to fly away from the blast, before it finally resumes four seconds later, and Amaterasu to rush out after Dainn before as such as well.
And judging from the bared teeth, she did not look happy.
His eyes narrow and his body glows golden, allowing him to dart past her teeth and grab her around the waist. "So much for that." He flings her straight up into the air, grinning in triumph.
However the world once more freezes, the Brush creates a spiral like shape around Dainn. And when time resumes, he is sent flying upward by an almost hurricane worthy gust of wind. “AAAAAGH!” He was once more eye level with Amaterasu, her teeth bared angrily. “What are you going to do, bite m-” That time the Celestial brush wasn’t the one that interrupted him. Instead?
WHAM!!!! It was the shield floating behind Amaterasu’s back, reacting to a jerk of her head, and slamming the horned jerk upside the head, effectively spiking him like a beach ball back through the castle's walls and down to the ground in the throne room.
“UUURRRGH…” Looking a fair amount dazed, he slowly got up stumbling about before lifting his head to the still falling wolf. “YOU LITTLE BITCH I’M GONNA-” He was frozen mid-sentence once more by the Celestial Brush… However, this time it drew up to four circles over Dainn’s head, ending each illustration by drawing straight lines into the top of each one. When time resumed, Dainn found himself surrounded by four highly colorful, but highly volatile looking explosives.
"...oh fuck me." He smacks them all away with his staff, aiming at least one towards the wolf.
On the balcony once more, Twilight watches this all with a tub of popcorn and the tiny man that came with Amaterasu. She offers him a popped kernel. "You sure we don't need to help her?"
“Nah, she’s fine.” The cricket says, as he nibbles on his one piece of popcorn. “She’s taken on DEMONS scarier than THAT jerk. You ever hear of the Queen of the Spiders?”
“...no?”
“Heh, well now no-one else will either.”
The explosives all go off at once, filling the throne room with flames. Dainn, whom looked just about fed up with this crap, scanned about the room, impatiently seeking his quarry. “WHERE ARE YOU, YOU LITTLE BITCH?! MY BEASTS CAN FORGET OWNING YOU! YOU’RE NOT WORTH THE TROUB-”
The world once more becomes a papyrus scroll, the Calligraphy pen seemingly drawing paths from the open flames to the tyrant. And when time resumed?
He drowns in the fire. He cannot see through the heat of the fire. His world is fire, his reason is fire. All he knew was fire, and it consumed his very being. He is fire. All hail the fire.
"FUUUUUU-" He makes a blind grab and takes hold of the wolf, holding her against his burning fur. "-UUUCK YOU!"
Amaterasu let out a yelp, but in a few seconds it barely even mattered. She thanks the Gods of the Celestial Brush Technique. Sure, they were often tiring as hell, but mastering their techniques had always been worth it. With one last decisive stroke, this time aimed at the tyrant's eyes, he was sent flying once more, crashing through the throne.
And when he landed, he looked up as his vision started to fade. There Amaterasu was, growling angrily, teeth bared.
“Hahahaha~! ATTA GIRL, AMMY! Now let’s finish this up so we can go home!” Issun called from the balcony.
“WH-WHAT ARE YOU?” A now blinded Dainn shouted out, panic in his voice. “HOW ARE YOU CAPABLE OF THIS?”
Issun hopped up and down. “A little lesson bucko, for the future.” He grinned. “The next time you want to spout sexist limerick about… Make sure you don’t say it in front of a literal GODDESS~.”
The last thing Dainn remembered hearing was Amaterasu growling viciously before her those knives embedded in her maw tore into his Jugular. He would have been dead in seconds….





“Zero!”
Had it not been for this very cruel twist of fate.
His hands move to his throat as he collapses on his knees, gasping for air.
"...wow," Twilight responds, seeing how he looked, "she must've done a number on you, huh?"
He glares at her, hands moving to his side just to ball up into fists. "...just say the fucking spell so I can forget that bitch."
She just shrugs and crosses her arms. "Hero!"