'It tastes like lima,' was the first coherent thought in Celestia's mind as her eyes shot open to the magical rejuvenation of the Senzu bean that mashed between her teeth.
In mere seconds, the crippling pain left her body as the rejuvenated Alicorn sat up. With a small pop, she reassessed the injuries she was certain included a shattered spine, mangled wings, and completely dislocated foreleg. Even the burns from the explosion were gone.
“Intriguing,” she muttered, turning her head towards her groaning sister as Fizzlepop likewise was assisting the princess of the night in chewing.
A loud pair of crashes and a burst of dirt signaled the arrival of both Twilight and Cadance as they smashed through the crater-rim head first. Both groaned in barely conscious pain.
“Ugh...” Luna shook her injuries off as the Senzu she consumed did its work. “Brutality. Thy name is a woodwind instrument. Cadenza, Sparkle, art thou conscious? Or perhaps alive?”
“Hubeu...” Twilight managed to groan. Fizzle turned to them, wincing at their injuries before stepping forward.
“Here, I've got this,” she sighed, shaking her head before stuffing a bean in Twilight's mouth. “I kind of thought he was joking with the 'one of you might die' part. But after seeing what he just did...”
“In our brief dialog with him,” Luna shook out her wings, frowning that the regeneration didn't come with a free auto-preen. “He spoke about not hiding his energy.”
Celestia glanced at her sister.
“Hiding his energy?” she asked. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Everything,” Piccolo alighted amongst them. Both Celestia and Luna flinched. Twilight and Cadance, still coming around, barely reacted. Piccolo gave the group a casual eye before he continued.
“Your regular senses are slow and easy to fool,” he stated academically. “You can't avoid my attacks so long as you're reacting off your eyes and ears. Homing in on my energy will give you better warning.”
“Even attacks from our blind spots?” Luna asked.
“ESPECIALLY attacks from your blind spots,” Piccolo rumbled. “Once you can sense my intent, you should be able to keep pace with the action. If only a little.”
Celestia spoke up.
“And just how might we go about sensing this energy?” she asked. Piccolo raised a brow-plate.
“You're like, a million years old-”
Celestia pulled her head back in shocked offense.
“-you haven't figured something that basic out?”
For a moment, the changeling suddenly let his eyes drift off to the side. Then he grunted in annoyance.
“I don't CARE if it was uncalled for, Kami. She's older than YOU.”
More silence.
“No, they'll figure it out on their own! They're BIG magical talking pastel horses, Nail! They'll take their licks and learn like ADULTS!”
During another round of seeming silent comment, the princesses gave each other a fresh round of worried glances. Luna rolled her eyes, twirling a hoof around her ear while making a goofy face. Then suddenly, Piccolo's eyes snapped back to them with an irritated grunt.
“Yeah, I have to deal with something real quick. Take thirty and think about how to sense my energy. We'll recommence then.”
Then he shot into the sky, yelling at the air.
“I don't CARE if they're cute and cuddly! Cute and cuddly doesn't stop an angry Saiyan's fist!”
They all stared as he departed, eyes trailing him as he cleared the highest tower and disappeared as his cape blended in with the snows of Mount Canter. Cadance was the first to lower her eyes, brow line furrowed in concentration.
“I worry about him,” Twilight commented as her own head followed. “We haven't known him for ten minutes but...”
Celestia held up a hoof.
“Do not worry about it,” she advised. “His eccentricities are not our concern.”
“Sister,” Luna interrupted. “I have eccentricities. But even at my most mad, I was of one mind, be it one that was filled with jealous rage.”
“Still,” Twilight cut back in. “About that energy sense. I think it would be a good idea to figure it out.”
“But how, fair Sparkle?” Luna asked. “He didn't give us any clues to it.”
“But he did,” Celestia interjected. Luna cast an inquiring gaze upon her sister.
“Pray tell?”
“He spoke as if it were simple enough that a child could understand it,” the elder princess pointed out. “The act must be surprisingly simple, perhaps even as simple as summoning our magic.”
“If it were THAT simple,” Luna frowned. “Shouldn't we have it figured out by now?”
Celestia shook her head.
“Sometimes even the most simple solutions can pass one by,” she spoke sagely. “It is a common trait of learning to miss a detail that would make things simple if another, more prominent detail is presented first.”
Celestia turned a motherly smile on Twilight.
“Isn't that right, my former student?”
Twilight nodded sheepishly, remembering a few occasions where the 'simple' solution came in late. Not entirely satisfied, Luna turned to Cadance.
“And what do you th-”
She paused, noting the alicorn of love hunched forward, her eyes closed with a look of concentration on her face. After a moment, she spoke.
“I think...” she began. “I think... I think I've got it.”
“Thou has?!” Luna exclaimed in excitement. “Do tell!”
Cadance furrowed her brow harder, her ears twitching ever so slightly.
“It's...” She began. “It's like a tingle. It feels like the tingle before a storm. It prickles at your fur somewhere between the sense of touch and warmth... Piccolo is like. He's like a small sun, above us. Getting warmer... Brighter... more electr-”
Cadance's eyes snapped open, pupils small as pinpricks.
“DODGE!” She shouted, taking flight.
Luna bolted out of the crater, Celestia going the opposite direction.
“What?!” Twilight gasped, looking back and forth at the two and then up where Cadance went.
The blazing ball of doom was not what she expected.
“GAH!!!”
“AHAH!” Piccolo boomed from above. “Somebody's starting to get it! The rest of you need work.”
Rolling to a painful stop, Twilight coughed up some dust, turning to glare at the changeling.
“You gave us thirty minutes!” she shouted. “What the hay!”
“Seconds,” Piccolo corrected. “I gave you thirty seconds.”
Then he paused, looking to the side.
“I know I only said 'thirty', Nail. Why in the world would anyone assume it was half an hour of down time after two minutes of ass-beating?”
“Twilight!” Cadance shouted, looping high and diving for the dirt. “You're holding STILL!!!!”
Twilight blinked, glancing at her sister-in-law, then back at Piccolo, who was no longer there.
“She's right you know,” his voice all but spoke into her ear. On a panicked reflex, Twilight struck out with her hind legs, trying to smash the object of her terror.
“Ole'!” Piccolo swept his cape clear as he round-housed Twilight across the field. A guard near the back wall dove for the ground as she smashed a hole into it.
“I'm okeh!” she shouted.
With a burst of dust, Piccolo left his previous strike, lancing upward. Cadance's eyes widened as she felt the force coming. In a desperate move, she flapped her wings to contort herself out of the way.
“Good!” Piccolo's hoof just barely grazed a feather. “There may be hope for you after all!”
Cadance grit her teeth, trying to flow from one motion into another as she felt the power surge in a different direction. Piccolo's rear leg just barely missed taking her horn off, and yet another burst of power signaled the changeling rolling from one miss into another strike of opportunity.
Cadance held onto that feeling for everything it was worth, flapping and twisting like an airborne ballerina as whistling cracks exploded in her ears. This sequence went on for six or seven iterations before she suddenly realized she was running out of angular momentum. The next surge wouldn't miss, and in a move of desperation, she shoved her forelegs in front of the blow and flashed up a shield.
“NOW WE'RE TALKING!” Piccolo yelled, smashing the shield hard enough to shatter it without slowing down and hammered right into the block. Cadance exploded backwards, but felt where she was going, flexing her body so as to place her hooves below. She hit the ground with a thunderclap but managed to remain standing as furrows dug themselves around her hooves.
After a few seconds to let the sensation of stone-shattering numbness leave her hooves, the pink princess gaped up at the changeling, eyes wide and breathing hard.
“Better,” Piccolo shouted. “Dodge when you can; deflect what you can't; block only if you must. Take a breather while I go crack a few other skulls.”
And then he exploded in a new direction.
Celestia and Luna, who'd halted as they watched the exchange that Cadance had just participated in, cast glances at each other at the difference this 'energy sense' made. It was of course, obvious that Piccolo wasn't striking at anywhere near his full speed, but it was none-the-less impressive to see the warnings Cadance was internally reacting to in action.
“We must master this quickly!” Luna snapped, immediately trying to pick up that touchy-warmy-lightning...y sensation her niece spoke of. With little to work with, she only picked up a sensation more akin to an imminent lightning strike. It wasn't much to go on, but Luna seized it none-the-less, yelping and diving as Piccolo slammed into the ground next to her and smashed his hoof into the spot she'd just vacated. She couldn't pick anything out of the continuous flow of raw power, only seeing the changeling begin rapidly stomping forward like a locomotive.
Lacking any logical options, Luna started throwing herself along in a continuous roll, momentum saving her from smash after smash. There was no time to pick anything out. The sensation was everywhere.
Suddenly it wasn't.
It was behind her and her next roll hesitated.
A moment later, the princess of the night was punted, though the blow seemed to have nicked her in the side rather than buried itself deep into her organs.
“By the tides,” she blinked in shock even as she slammed into her sister like a bowling ball.
Shaking off the collision, Luna glanced down at her sputtering sister.
“Why didn't thou dodge?” she asked. Celestia only glared back, perturbed at the lack of appreciation for catching her younger sister's wayward flight.
Then Luna's head shot up, the prickling on her spine rapidly approaching lightning strike.
“FLEE!” She bolted forward, clearing her sister's field of view to reveal a series of arching energy rounds homing in on her position.
Full panic took over and the day princess rolled onto her belly, hooves scrabbling in the churned up soil for any kind of purchase. A few false-start kicks and she managed pull forward. And not a second too soon.
The spot behind her exploded, then a spot next to her exploded, and pretty soon Celestia was desperately sprinting through a veritable mine field of incoming energy bombs. They felt like tiny suns, each vying for her attention to make them set. Jinking as one sun all but singed her mane, the princess put on a burst of speed, transitioning from a sprint to a full gallop, something she hadn't done in centuries.
Nearby, Piccolo continued to launch blasts into the sky, raining a hailstorm of death at the galloping princess.
“That's right!” he shouted. “Dodge! Dodge, dodge, DODGE! Don't stop! Don't wait! Move your cake-eating ass and get some cardio in! And don't think for a second I can't figure out who eats the cake in this group! I saw the fat jiggle the moment I hit you the first time! It may be spread out to hide it, but I know a lack of muscle tone when I see it!”
The explosions continued to erupt around Celestia, clouds of dust and dirt peppering her from every direction. If the muck had been shiny, it might have been a sight to behold.
Unfortunately, it was composed mostly of dirt, rocks, and grass clippings; not ice, water, or gemstones. And pretty soon Princess Celestia, regent of the sun and custodian of the day, looked more like a professional hoofball player than the leader of a nation.
Another jink to the side and Celly began to get her wits about her. Her wings opened, flapped, and she took off like a shot.
Unfortunately, she neglected to account that the energy bombs were coming in from above.
'BOOM!'
“C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!” Piccolo shouted.
Princess Celestia pulled herself out of a fresh crater, spitting out a rock.
In the back of the field, Twilight slowly stumbled out of the hole in the wall, shaking off another probable concussion.
“Okay,” she gasped, steadying herself on the guard standing there. “You can do this Twilight. Just pick out his... energy from background. No problem. If I'm guessing this right, it's probably a trans-exothaumic reaction. Those are simple to sense, right? Normally nopony bothers with those because exothaumic reactions might was well be background radiation... right?”
The purple princess glanced at the guard she was learning on. He blinked mutely and shifted a hoof back.
“Right,” she stumbled away from the guard's personal space. “Sorry.”
Then she stumbled back onto the field, muttering as she went.
“So if the trans-exothaumic reaction can be felt as a... tingling sensation somewhere between touch and heat, then it means that it's emitting electromagnetic radiation that is somehow triggering nerve endings in the body! And if that's the case, then that prickling sensation I'm feeling that's blooming into a wall of fire is-”
Twilight's eyes shot up about the same time the blast collided with her face. The guard behind her cringed.
“DODGE! NERD!”