//------------------------------// // 6-10: Fifteen minutes to death // Story: Pound and Pumpkin Tales 2 // by Never2muchpinkie //------------------------------// Above all of them the clock began counting down the time to their defeat. The six children stared at Mayhem uncertainly. Mayhem sat smug on his throne. “Well, come on, then. You only have fifteen minutes. Do you really have the time to wait? Come on and attack.” “Argh!” said Pound. “We have to do something. “Pumpkin!” “Right!” she said as they put their hooves together, shooting a bolt of lightning at him. “Is that all?” said Mayhem, lifting a claw and flicking at the bolt as it neared him, sending it into the ceiling. Peppermint blinked. “Did he just…” She shook her head. “Gotta be prepared for anything with this thing.” She stretched her front leg toward him. Mayhem summoned strings out of his claw, which wrapped around her hoof and pulled against it, stopping her momentum. He grabbed her leg and began strumming a melody on the strings. "Jerk!" Tree Leaf turned into a bird and flew over Mayhem, then as he headed downwards turned into an elephant. Mayhem released Peppermint’s hoof and made a circle in the air. A black energy went streaming upwards, engulfing the colt. “Tree Leaf!” Flurry called out, her breath catching. Tree Leaf’s momentum slowed, but beyond that it seemed to have no effect on him. Mayhem caught the colt, throwing him forward. Tree Leaf turned back into a pony. “How’d he do that?” Mayhem chuckled. “I sent you into space. Low gravity. “You’re going to have to try harder than that.” He felt something pulling hard at his leg. “And I’m afraid that’s not hard enough.” He easily lifted his leg, pulling Masky out of the ground and sending him flying as their shadows separated. “Well… we knew it wouldn’t be easy,” said Flurry. “Yeah,” said Pound. “So what now?” “I have an idea. It’s stupid, so he probably wouldn’t expect it. I just need one of you to get his attention.” “Got it!” said Peppermint. Flurry walked up to Masky and whispered into his ear. He nodded. Peppermint extended all of her limbs and her head, sending all five of them towards Mayhem. “Oh, no,” said Mayhem. “A spider.” He lifted his arm and a giant newspaper appeared, swatting away her legs and head. “Now!” said Flurry, her horn glowing. Her aura appeared around Mayhem as she tried to simply lift him out of the throne with her basic levitation. At the same time Masky went underneath it, pulling the throne into the shadows. “Can’t sit on a throne if there IS no throne!’ said Flurry. Mayhem’s top half popped off, and a spear appeared in his hand, throwing it towards Flurry. She quickly hopped out of the way, which was all the distraction he needed to head towards the ground and slam it. Masky came flying out of the shadows along with the throne. His top half rejoined with his bottom half. “Still not good enough, I’m afraid.” Pumpkin growled. What did it take to hit this thing? “Pound! Cutting air!” Pound nodded, touching hooves with her as they sent out countless wind shards towards him. To their surprise their attack was on target, and Mayhem was filled with holes. “We… we got him,” said Pound, blinking. “But… it doesn’t really amount to anything, does it?" replied Mayhem. Before their eyes the holes repaired themselves. “One more time!” said Pound, this time shooting out a stream of water, focusing it around him and encasing him in a bubble of it. Mayhem just shook his head. “Are you trying to suffocate me?” He took in a deep breath. “I’m afraid that’s not going to work.” “Pound, can we combine spells?” asked Pumpkin. “I don’t know. What did you have in mind?” “Let’s add some fire and burn him.” The two of them focused, and the temperature of the water got hotter and hotter until it began turning into steam. When their spell faded Mayhem was sitting there wearing a spa robe. “Ahhh,” he said calmly. “Well, that felt nice. I could just fall asleep right here.” Flurry tapped her hoof on the floor. “Peppermint!” She built up energy in her horn. “Launch me!” The filly nodded. She hopped atop Peppermint’s outstretched hoof. The twins made a small tornado with their air powers. “Finally getting serious, huh?” said Mayhem, laughing. Peppermint extended her leg backwards and slingshotted Flurry forwards at high speed. She hit Pound and Pumpkin’s tornado, increasing her speed still further. Mayhem lifted a single claw. “Go ahead and shoot. Do you really think momentum is going to help you?” Just before she hit him Flurry teleported behind him, shooting all the energy she had gathered. She panted as she landed. As the smoke cleared she grinned as she saw the result of her attack. The top half of the throne, as well as the top half of Mayhem, was gone. “Oh, WOW!” said Tree Leaf. “You really got him!” Just as they were about to start celebrating Mayhem’s tail lifted and snapped, and both him and the throne were restored. Peppermint let out a pained groan. “Again?” said Pumpkin. “Did it really have no effect at all?” Mayhem clapped. “Nice teamwork, but I’m afraid you’re still not doing good enough. Really, the truth is that you’ll never do good enough. Why don’t you just give up now, and save yourself the embarrassment of a humiliating defeat?” “No!” said Pound strongly. Flurry gathered up power in her horn again. "This time I'll destroy the whole thing!" As she fired Mayhem said, "If you can actually hit it." He lifted an arm, and the space around them grew very heavy, forcing Flurry and her spell to the floor. Once her spell dispersed the gravity effect faded. “Flurry!” Masky whispered urgently. “I have a plan that I’m sure will beat him. I just need all of you to get his attention for a little while so I can set it up.” Flurry nodded. “Got it.” “Darn it!” said Pound. They had already used up seven minutes of their fifteen, and they hadn’t been able to do any damage. “He really is incredible.” Mayhem smirked. “Thank you. Thank you. Glad to see you realize the truth.” “Pound, what are you doing?” Flurry said angrily, grabbing him and getting in his face. “Don’t praise this monster!” “Flurry!” said Pumpkin. Flurry stared into Pound’s eyes, and said as quietly as she could, “Distraction.” Then she pushed him away. “Get you head in the game!” She trusted Pound to tell his sister. “And what about YOU?” she got in Tree Leaf’s face next, once more whispering the word. “Are you gonna praise him too?” Mayhem shook his head. “Aw, look at the cracks forming in your so-called teamwork.” Pound whispered in Tree Leaf’s ear. For a moment he looked nervous, but then he nodded. Flurry charged up energy in her horn, firing it at Mayhem. The draconequus yawned. “This again?” He lifted a single claw, flicking the energy away. The ground began shaking as Tree Leaf turned into an elephant and charged Mayhem. “Oh, no,” Mayhem replied in a bored tone. “Whatever shall I do? I might actually have to use TWO fingers to stop this.” Tree Leaf jumped at Mayhem as behind them Pumpkin cried out, “Now!” Right before Mayhem attacked him Tree Leaf turned into a bird and swerved out of the way, only to see a bolt of lightning right behind the colt. Mayhem’s eyes widened, seeing that the twins had hid their spell behind Tree Leaf’s bulk. The bolt struck Mayhem dead-on. “Yes!” Pumpkin hopped in the air and pumped her hoof. Her triumph was short lived as Mayhem inhaled and appeared to eat their lightning attack. The draconequus burped. “Why, what a shocking lunch. “That was a nice little trick you pulled, but you need to do a little better than that to beat me.” He leaned forward in his throne and said, “Is that it for your little tricks, then?” Flurry had an anxious expression on her face, like she was waiting for something. Where was Masky? She thought he would have attacked by now. They had all done as he asked. “And just where did your little shadow buddy get to?” Flurry let out a cry of frustration. “What, did you think I didn’t know you were just a distraction?” He closed his eyes for a moment. “I can read your thoughts, but it seems pointless. It’s clear that you have no idea where he is. But I do.” “What did you do to him?” Pound asked. Mayhem pointed upwards at the clock still ticking down. “Why would I bother doing anything to him? Time isn’t up yet.” “Then how do you know where he is?” The draconequus chuckled. “It’s obvious, isn’t it? Where he is… is far away from here.” “What are you talking about?” asked Peppermint. “Come on! You haven’t figured it out yet?” He looked smugly at them. “He left the game.” “Left the game?” asked Flurry. “You sent him home?” Mayhem shook his head. “Oh, boy! I guess you really don’t get it. Masky is GONE, you fools! “He saw how much greater my power is than yours, and made the intelligent choice. He pretended to set up an attack by having the rest of you act as a diversion, but he actually took the opportunity just to bail on you.” The five children all felt a chill go through them. Mayhem began snickering, before it erupted into hysterical laughter. “This is priceless! All of you preached teamwork and working together, but he sure showed his true colors as a grade-A coward.” “No!” said Pound. “He wouldn’t… he wouldn’t do that.” Mayhem got his laughter under control. “Ah, you poor naïve child. Did you really think you were friends just because you fought a few baddies together? He was only going along with you because he had to. Didn’t he tell you from the start he wasn’t interested in sticking with you guys? “If YOU, Flurry, hadn’t emotionally blackmailed him with your water works he would have left you right at the start. “Honestly, I think it’s going too far to call him a coward, when he was the only smart one among you. Only idiots fight a battle they know they can’t win.” Mayhem was getting immense pleasure out of their hurt expressions. It sure spiced things up from their boring bravado and heroic speeches. “Friendship is magic, huh? Well, he sure didn’t believe in you guys, that’s for sure. “To think that after such touching experiences that he would give up on you.” Flurry looked around, hoping to see Masky come out of the shadows and tell him that he was wrong, but he didn’t. All the shadows around them were stationary. She felt a few tears come down her eyes. The colt had thrown himself in front of an attack and nearly died to protect her. He, along with the others, had helped her to become more comfortable with her identity, and gave her courage and confidence. She had really thought that she had done the same for him, inspiring him to fight alongside her no matter what the odds. Mayhem could see they were all being truthful. It was clear in their minds. Though he doubted he needed to read their minds to discover the truth. They weren’t exactly good at hiding their emotions. They kept fighting, but their hearts clearly weren’t in it anymore. To think that Masky ditched them to save his own skin was so disheartening that it was difficult for them to even formulate attack plans together. If Masky really hadn’t abandoned them it only meant that Mayhem had done something to him, which wasn’t a better prospect. Their time just seemed to race by. Mayhem looked up at the clock. “Well, it’s almost time, kiddies. Just twenty seconds left. “You haven’t been able to fight at your best since that shadow kid left you behind. You see what happens when you depend on others? Like I said before he was the only smart one among you.” Now there was only ten seconds. At this point the five children weren’t even trying to attack anymore, too forlorn to have any hope left for a final charge. Mayhem chuckled. “Five, four, three, two-WAH!” A heavy weight suddenly slammed into the draconequus, and he went flying, landing hard on the floor of the castle. All of them gasped as Masky came out of the shadow of Mayhem’s throne. “Got you at last!” he said victoriously, giggling as he trotted over to his friends. “Masky!” said Pound. “Where did you…” Flurry slapped him hard, tears streaming down her eyes. “W-where were you? Y-you had us all worried!” “You didn’t really abandon us, did you?” asked Peppermint. Masky flushed, rubbing his cheek. “I’m sorry, everyone. I know I made you worry, but I needed all of you to think that I fled. He was reading all of our moves, and I knew if I told you about my plan you’d look too hopeful and anxious.” “So that was it,” said Flurry. “You had to wait until he forgot about you, and waited until the last second when he was the most assured of his victory.” Masky pointed at the clock, which had stopped on one second. “We did it!” “Yeah!” said Peppermint, hopping a few times. “We got him off his throne right in time, so now… now we can all go home.” The twins slapped their hooves together, cheering. Masky turned toward Mayhem, who was framed in shadow. “Alright, you jerk. We beat you at your dumb game, now let us out of here!” “You,” said Mayhem quietly. “You… YOU!” Mayhem’s body turned a glowing red, streams of fire erupting all around him. “How dare you! How dare you ruin my fun! I’ll destroy you for that!” All of them quickly got in position around the colt. “And what do you think THAT will do?” Mayhem extended his arm to the right, and Masky suddenly felt something tugging at his back hoof. With a yank Mayhem pulled the colt through a portal, grabbing the colt around the neck. “Oh, no!” Flurry charged up her horn. “Don’t move!” Mayhem said dangerously as he put his claws to the colt’s throat. “Unless you want his head to come off.” The draconequus had gotten his cool back. “But you see… unlike ME, he wouldn’t survive that. Want a demonstration?” Flurry didn’t know what to do. The glow faded. Masky tried to sink into the floor, but Mayhem had too good of a grip on him. The draconequus slowly stroked Masky’s face. “And how shall I punish you for ruining my enjoyment? Melt your face off? Break your bones? Blow you up? There's so many possibilities.” Masky shivered, wondering if he was about to die.