-The Volcano, Middle Tier, streets, Teatime-
I was considered a cowardly stallion at times, I’d personally like to think of myself as being more of a genius than my compatriots. I was quite prepared for many eventualities and was quite paranoid about someone being out to get me.
Usually there were people out to get me, the local government of wherever I was for the most part and they had good reasons for that.
This time my paranoia paid off quite well. It may have caused an argument, but I still managed to get Dispel Grace to exit the establishment first and I had Shocking Awe in front of me exiting the place, one that causes poor mental states depending on what you drink.
Given that I was to exit the place last, I saw everything that occurred as we left and thus had enough time to use Shocking as a living shield. When you’re in my line of work, you always have an exit strategy!
I seldom cared if my exit strategy is usually at the expense of others.
A fire immediately started up, an incendiary trap had been placed at the entrance. That didn’t seem well enough, but then the air started to compress the fire and accelerant to a single spot from all sides. Dispel Grace was at the center of what would be the ensuing explosion.
I would have survived such an explosion personally, but I would have used far more energy in doing so instead of just using the brutes known as Dispel Grace and Shocking Awe to take the full brunt of it for me. They made fun of me, but I was far more efficient than they at taking a sudden attack.
The buildings of The Volcano, also known as Huoshan or Fire Mountain, are all lava proof. As such they are also, by extension, fire proof and highly explosion resistant.
“Agh, my eyes!” That was all Dispel had to complain about once the deafening noise of the explosion had passed.
Despite Dispel’s armor turned pitch black, even then his sword was still quite pristine. Shocking had been mildly scorched. I was completely fine.
I had protected myself quite well and had come out of this attack completely unscathed by lifting Shocking in front of me and covering the spaces around his body with a magical barrier.
The effort I expended in my personal defense was minimal, I just had to protect my ears from being blown out. Due to being point blank, Dispel likely avoided the shockwaves blowing out his ears.
Walking out into the streets I glared at our attacker as I tossed Shocking off to the side. It was a three tailed fox. A mischievous creature going for lethality? I must have annoyed them greatly somehow, I tend to do that just by existing.
“Ow… that stings and my ears hurt… I want to do it again!” Giving Shocking a disdainful glance, I turned to our enemy with a flat look.
“I’ll take care of this, you two go back to my ship and clean yourselves up. I’ll deal with this ruffian personally.” I turned to the fox who took a stance and lit up two of her tails, with a fan held by her third.
“You?! Hah, what can you do aside from get mauled by that fox?!” Let’s find out shall we Shocking, also just because you were deaf now does not mean you had to yell! Still, it didn’t help that I was surrounded by idiots.
“I don’t know who you are, I could care less like I do for the seasons~.” Ah yes, the classic heart song with a mechanical lilt. It seems my magic will be boosted for a time, I shall take full advantage of it! “I get attacked all the time, especially for many various and quite valid reasons~.”
I took a few steps forward, I leapt into the air and with a majestic flare of my horn I started summoning the pieces of my most fantastical machine. It’s a large mechanical pony made of reinforced metal, built to be tough and take incredible impacts. It could survive ‘The Volcano’ erupting.
“So let me start off by saying, ‘Bad Show’, you’re a poor sport~!” The front two legs and chest of my machine assembled and I landed in the seat in the chest with windows to my front, left and right, the barrel and rear legs started to connect next and it would soon be followed by the head and tail in rapid succession. My ‘Clockwork Special’ was going to be let loose upon the world! “For it is pure danger, a brilliant brain, that you did court~!”
The fox launched the two enhanced fireballs struck and the completed machine didn’t even rock back from the impact or the increased wind from the fan. I started to march the machine forward.
“My machine, it ticks, it tocks, it even walks~! A greater thing has never been seen, why it’s guaranteed to knock you out of your socks~!” I slammed down the left hoof of my giant golem that I controlled from the inside. The fox went flying from the force of the impact, I didn’t even need to hit her directly to hurt her. “Tick, tock, the time for your end is quite near~! What did you think your fire was going to do to this lovely machine my dear~?”
I thrust the right hoof forward and activated the piston punch and a yak interfered in the blow, with a shield of all things, the extended hoof pulled back and the fox was perfectly fine. The yak however went flying over the surprised fox’s head, the fox watched as he flopped onto his face a good six hundred feet away. I calculated that he’d be a problem again in another minute.
“It’s armored, it’s great, there is so much more that my magnificent machine can take~!” I chuckled audibly as a dragon came at me with a flaming sword. I blocked it with right hoof and then swung that hoof outwards to embed the dragon into the nearby wall with a sickening crunch much to the fox’s apparent distress. The dragon was of some importance to her, I laughed in her face. “Did you seriously think that I was someone, with only a simple trap, that you could actually break~?”
The fox started backing away from me, with all her tails between her legs. She might finally be realizing just how much trouble she’s actually in. I was the one that was going to win!
“My compatriots think I’m weak, or maybe even somewhat meek, but let me tell you that’s simply just not true~!” The machine marched forward and a griffon bounced off the machine, I ignored that and kept marching on the fox that thought she could take out an elite such as myself with such a paltry attempt. “You know I’m glad, I’m angry and even a little bit mad, so be prepared for me to turn you into a binding icky glue~!”
The end of the machine’s left hoof opened up and a rapidly spinning drill popped out, I then launched it at the wide-eyed multiple tailed fox. She leapt to the side narrowly avoiding it as it dug a furrow through the street.
The shield bearing yak did the same thing a few seconds later as the drill popped out of the ground and exploded violently in the air. The yak blocked all the shrapnel with that shield of his, a pity that.
“It’s dark, it’s late, it might even be fate~! Is there something my magnificent marching machine cannot take~?” I laughed uproariously. “My machine, it gives a tick, it gives a tock, it may someday even talk~!”
The griffon rammed the machine, the left hoof grabbed him by the throat. I slammed him into the ground off to the side harshly and back first. The nose of my clockwork golem let out a blast of steam from the nose and its glowing yellow eyes lit up the street as it marched forward. The yak tried to ram me with his shield and just simply tossed him away with the right hoof to the lower tier of the city.
“I’m a genius, an inventor, why I never even needed a mentor~!” I slammed the ground with both the front hooves and the shockwave knocked over the retreating vixen that thought they could take me on. “There’s no one that can match my wit, some may try, but they soon learn that they only need to quit~!”
I marched forward and was about to stomp down on the fox when a… is that a sea pony?! The sea pony slid by like a snake and took up the fox before I could crush her. That sea pony, she seemed highly familiar to me. The cat with the splitting tail that was with her was also vaguely familiar and I just couldn’t put a hoof on why.
“You won’t escape me, no not my wrath, you’ve certainly earned my ire so be prepared to soon expire~!” My machine stomped forward spewing more steam from the nose, unimpeded by anything as it followed after the cat and the sea pony trying to help the fox. I made the eyes of my machine spray a wall of fire in their general direction that they barely evaded, I still scorched all three of them. “Soon you won’t be, there is no path, you won’t escape me and to some horrible afterlife you’ll retire~!”
“Excuse me, but I believe you’re attacking my crew~.” It was that parrot, what was her name again? No matter, I remember her face and she was my eternal rival. “I hope you know, Teatime, that I seriously really dislike you~.”
“Oh it’s you, the strange one with quite the beak, is it trouble with me that you do seek~?” If a yak, a dragon and a griffon couldn’t stop my machine, then what does this little slip of a parrot think she can do to stop me? “I’ll have you know that my machine has no weaknesses in its build, I’m sure you know I’m quite enthused or maybe even thrilled~?”
“You think it has no weaknesses, well I’d like to say that’s where you’re wrong~!” The parrot pulled a bow from her back, did she seriously think arrows would be able to deal with my machine? “I’ll ruin both it and you, then I’ll even finish out your own damn heart song~!”
“My machine, it ticks, it tocks, it even walks~! It’s armored from here to there, there’s nothing with which to it that anyone could ever compare~. What do you think you can do when others with their strength couldn’t, as you know if you get hurt… then I simply won’t care~!” I grinned down at the black feathered bird and she scratched her side lazily and completely unafraid of me and my mighty contraption as it encroached upon her. She started to move backwards and she pulled out a stick of gum and started chewing it. Gum at a time like this? Her priorities were entirely off. “Why you seem rather aloof and even bored, why such an attitude is leaving me quite floored~. What do you seriously think you can do with that dinky thing, especially with the trouble I’m about to bring~? You can’t touch me or my machine, making clockwork constructions it is my special talent and I’m the best there’s ever been. Don’t you see you stupid bint, there is simply just no way that you can win~!”
To prove my point the head opened up revealing its cannon. Sure it might not get many shots, but the shots it does fire are devastating.
I fired three shots in rapid succession and much to my surprised she dodges each one, but the large bouncing cannonballs hurt her friends when their impacts hit the ground and sent them sprawling. I’m kind of sad that they didn’t get directly hit by them, what’s the point of going bigger if you don’t hit anything other than buildings?
“You think that you’re the only one who’s an engineer with all your fancy toys~? I can just as easily break your things just like any of my friends that are boys~.” She took another stick of gum into her mouth without spitting out the previous wad and continued to chew as she backed up and I continued to march towards her. More steam poured from the nose of my machine as I waited for her to get to the point. “The big flaw in your machine shows up every time it lets off a hiss, why as an engineer myself if I didn’t show you the problem then I’d be quite remiss~.”
What was she talking about? What problem, my machine was perfect!
“Now watch as I engineer you’re defeat with some gum, a bow and with what I know~.” She spat a large wad of gum into her right talon as she held up the bow with her left and placed the gum against the string. “All it takes is a hum, only a single seed of preparation I will show and you’re machine is soon going to blow~!”
She fired the wad of gum at the face of my machine, I blinked. That’s it, that’s all she was going to do?
“As a stallion of such mechanical prowess let me know right here, what will happen if that steam vent of yours wasn’t nearly as clear~?” Considering the parrots words for a moment my eyes widened, no… that… could it… it would… oh no… “When the pressure backs up it’ll build to overload, which is why I’m not sorry, Teatime, that your machine is about to violently explode~!”
I sat there for a moment as I tried to mentally deny her words and what just happened.
“Your machine, it ticks, it tocks, it even walks, but isn’t all this just deliciously quite grand~?” The parrot cross her arms and sung smugly. “That thing, it’s big, it’s strong, even built to last, but this birds name who you ignore took it down quickly and just as planned~.”
The smug smile on that beak… I would remember this moment as my entire machine started to shudder.
“No… no, no, no… noooooo, this can’t be happening!” The steam tried to release. The gum stuck in the nostrils of my ‘Clockwork Special’, which I could see from my seat, didn’t even bulge or budge.
The head started expanding and with the building pressure going throughout the neck to the rest of the machine… I didn’t even get to use the tail combat options!
I quickly wrapped myself in a barrier of magic, my world was chaos for a few seconds and my shield spell failed almost near instantly.
My world was pain and I growled as I sat up, burnt, beaten and battered by the explosion of my grand machine.
Looking behind me I saw four smoldering metal pillars and a mass of scattered parts, I turned back to see the parrot coming towards me. I will not be captured so easily!
“You may have defeated my machine, but I’ll be back with worse!” I always saved enough magic for one teleport spell, always have an exit plan I say!
I cast my spell and disappeared before she could even reach me, I think I heard her shout in frustration as I deftly evaded capture again.