//------------------------------// // Close Combat // Story: The Olden World // by Czar_Yoshi //------------------------------// A Flame District tunnel rattled as Valey kicked off a wall and bounded around a corner, legs burning from exertion. So much of the corridor was taken up by pipes that the engineers who built it had installed a mesh cage separating ponies from them, preventing anyone from touching them like a tunnel within a tunnel. It was like racing down a pipe made of pipes, the walls, ceiling and even floor leaving no trace of the rock below. And it was just as hot as could be expected when some of those pipes contained steam or worse. Beating wings sounded from behind her, accompanied by a flash of her cutie mark, and she ducked just in time to avoid losing an ear to a spear thrust, scooting forward along the ground. Over her lowered head vaulted a pegasus who immediately jammed the spear crosswise into the tunnel walls, blocking her path and forcing her to jump to clear it. The pegasus clearly knew that was her only option and hovered, ready to rebuff her if she leapt or slam her if she stopped to move the spear. More pegasi charged and soared up behind her, promising a quick end if she spent so much as half a second to think... but thanks to her cutie mark, she had slightly more time than that. Her eyes fell to the bottom of the tunnel. It was just as laden with pipes and cables as the sides, the flooring made from detachable grate sections so that a maintenance pony could remove it to get below if need be. Some generous architect had left just enough room between the floor and the pipes that a slender mare could crawl there to fix things without the entire floor being removed... or to escape being stabbed and foalnapped. And Valey didn't need time or tools to get through grates. Flash! A light strobed, knocking her out of the grate and onto the pipes below with a painful landing, but it hadn't been fast enough to eject her from the shadows where she would get punted back to the top. Her hooves struggled against the round, uneven pipe floor as her back scraped the ceiling and her cutie mark blazed, and she surged forward, a spear stabbing down where she had been and nearly impaling her tail. Another stab, again barely missing. Hooves pounded atop her, causing the grate to vibrate harshly against her back as a pony ran ahead of her. Her cutie mark constantly burned to the extent it should have slowed time; apparently that ability had a cooldown if mortal danger was constant. This wasn't working! On instinct, she threw herself to the side, dodging another stabbing spear, and- HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! Valey yowled as if her life depended on it. In her dodge, she had stepped on a boiling pipe and not had the maneuverability to instantly dance off, leaving one of her forehooves a seared, blistering mess. Snarling against the pain, she jerked herself back to the center of the passage and dared a second of rest. She had to; it felt like it would fall off if it so much as touched anything that wasn't ice water. With a thunk, a spear impaled the pipe in front of her inches from her head. She eyed it widely; it had been led, and if she hadn't stopped moving because of her burn, it would have turned her into a bat kebab. As it was, the spear was doing a perfect job of blocking her path. "All right..." Gritting her teeth, Valey stared upwards. A mare stood immediately above her, readying a final stolen Defense Force spear to finish her off as she lay prone. "I'm done. This is not happening! Hraaaugh!" She flipped on her back, using her good wing to propel her spin, and slammed her three working legs into the grate like fuzzy piledrivers. With the popping of bolts, the section above her burst from its frame, flying upward and sandwiching the stabbing mare heavily against the ceiling. Valey erupted after her, seizing the grate and twisting in midair before bucking it as a giant iron projectile back at the mess of pegasi chasing her down the hallway. It struck two with a clang, wedging itself awkwardly with its corners catching in the mesh walls, temporarily blocking the way. Valey landed, seething, on three hooves, facing the nimble stallion in front of her who had tried to lead his shot. She straightened her hat with a flick of one ear. He was visibly sweating. "I'm getting out of here," Valey croaked, her voice a mix of its natural raspiness, suppressed pain and fiery determination. "I don't care how bad you or Selma or Herman or anyone else wants my head or how awesome you lard barrels think you are. I'm me! I've never been beaten before..." She touched the black moon glass in her pendant from the castle with the tip of a wing. "And I sure don't intend to start now that I've got something actually decent to fight for. Now get out of my way!" She coiled her hind legs. He saw, and prepared to catch a jump... but Valey read the tension in his muscles, knowing he was calling a bluff and preparing to intercept low. So she sprang even higher, targeting the ceiling well in front of him. Clang! She flipped over in midair and kicked off it, heading back toward the ground. Clang! She kicked off that, bouncing back toward the ceiling, repeating the move like a black and green pinball of doom as he tried frantically to read where she would be when she reached him. Up... down... up... down...! Smash! At the last second, Valey headbutted, and there was nothing his flailing forelimbs could do to block it. His guard broken, all it took was two rapid-fire blows for him to go down in a heap. Valey snatched his fallen spear and leapt clear of him just as the grate behind her broke; the chase was on. It took all of three limping steps for more reinforcements to appear, this time a trio of pegasus mares from ahead. All were armed with flash clubs, and all looked ready to cost her the precious few seconds' lead she had on the squad behind her. Why did the corridor have to be so cramped!? With a yell, Valey didn't even give them time to react, snapping her wings out and surging forward on three legs. The two foremost swung at her, one's club glancing harmlessly off her pendant, the other striking her square in the head, earning some complimentary stars for her vision. Valey didn't flinch, separating a path between them with the haft of her spear and tripping forward, catching the foremost two around the chests with her wings. "Raaaaaugh!" She dove, shadow sneaking and slamming them both into the grate. One dropped their flash club; she kicked the ignition with a hoof, blasting herself mid-sneak. The recoil ejected her from the grate inside the tunnel, but the two mares she had shoved were trapped beneath the floor. Not waiting to see if they would copy her move of kicking out the grate, she slithered forward on her belly like a waterfall, slipping between the last mare's legs before she could react to the attack and slamming her good hoof into her barrel. The mare wheezed, eyes bugging, and arched her back. Valey struck again, unbalancing her and flipping her off her hooves, then leapt, coming down with a final blow to the prone mare's stomach. "That's for earlier," she rasped as the mare curled into a ball, holding herself and tearing up while heaving for breath. If they thought it was funny to hit the same spot twice in a row, well, they could see how much they liked it happening to them. The attackers were still coming behind her. The way ahead was clear. Valey ran for her life.