Mecha stood in his forge, hammering away at a hot piece of iron, unsure as to what he wanted to make it into. Maybe a replacement for the sword he chipped during the gauntlet, or something decorative for the shop? Maybe even start on the loose armor he'd wanted...
He was broken out of his thoughts when Twilight Sparkle wandered into his forge, her newly acquired pet owl resting on her back. Spotting him, she smiled and said, “There you are Mecha! There are people looking for you all over town.”
Raising an eyebrow, Mecha put the iron back into the smelter before turning and asking, “Really now? What do they want?”
Lightly shrugging her shoulders, Twilight replied, “They didn't really say, but they mentioned being fans of yours from something called the gauntlet.”
Paling, Mecha rushed forward and grabbed her firmly by the shoulders, saying, “Were they deer?!”
Caught off guard by his reaction, she said, “Yeah, why?”
Eyes widening, Mecha looked past her, before running back into the backroom. Gathering up his gear, he cursed when he heard Twilight tell him, “Hey, here comes some now!”
Running out, Mecha grabbed the white-hot piece of iron before bolting out of the forge. When he saw the deer, he noticed that they'd pulled out their weapons, and were waiting for his approach. Swearing once more, he threw the glowing metal in their general direction, running through the opening it created.
Plan in mind, Mecha ran towards the train station, until he was stopped half-way by twenty bounty hunters, all wielding swords of varying length. Coming to a stop, Mecha quickly armed himself and stood on his rear legs, saying, “Do you really want to try this?”
Smirking, the deer responded all responded by charging Mecha, ignoring the crowd that had gathered to watch the battle. Taking a deep breath, Mecha stepped forward and swung his blades, knocking away several attempts to skewer him, all in lethal places. Apparently, the bounty was good dead or alive, and they planned on taking him in dead.
Twisting around another strike, Mecha brought the side of one of his blades on his attacker's wrist, knocking the blade onto the ground, before he twisted around his opponent, leaving a light gash in his side, before trying to run from the fight. He made it all of five feet before two deer jumped from the alleyways, attempting to ambush him. However, Mecha had expected this, and slid underneath their attempt to clothesline him on his knees, swords outstretched and cutting the tendons in their legs, causing them to collapse.
Leaping back up, Mecha continued his flight, reaching the train station where he threw a bag of bits at the ticket booth, before he jumped onto the train's roof. Turning, he watched as his pursuers rushed past every other pony, and also leaped onto the leaving train, facing him. Grimacing, Mecha got into a loose stance, preparing for the attack to come. He didn't wait long, for shortly after the train reached full speed, the deer charged, surrounding him in a circle before swinging at him.
Bending down to avoid the first swipe made at him, Mecha lashed out with his blades, tasting flesh with his steel as he cut into the chest of his closest attacker, before jumping over a low swinging blade. Turning to face the source of the most recent strike, Mecha swung at the deer, who caught his blades with his antlers, before getting kicked in the face by Mecha, freeing his blades and knocking his opponent of the roof. Suddenly, everything went dark as the train entered a tunnel, halting combat as everydeer and Mecha waited to regain their sight, wind to loud to fight by hearing alone.
When the train exited the tunnel two minutes later, the fight resumed with Mecha punching the deer he wounded earlier in the chest, knocking him off balance, and losing his weapons off the side of the train. Moving quick, two deer on opposite sides of Mecha swiped at him at the same time, weapons bouncing off his as he blocked with two swings of his own weapons, settling back into his original stance.
Taking a deep breath, Mecha started to swing his swords around him, building up speed before swinging out at the deer closest to the edge, who blocked at the cost of being knocked him off balance, at which point Mecha gave him a sweeping kick to knock him off the train, before he turned and crossed his swords so he could catch the three blades heading towards his head, and pushed forward forcing the deer back. Rolling his shoulders, Mecha side-stepped a downward slash before he lashed out with both blades, cutting into the sides of the deer, all of whom started to step back, trying to regroup.
Feeling a surge of power in him, Mecha stepped forward and spun, his blades releasing a wave of power that cut through the deer's swords, and lightly into their chests. Looking between him, their broken blades, and their bleeding chests, the deer quickly came to a decision and jumped off the roof of the train. Waiting a few minutes to make sure that there wasn't any bounty hunters left on the train, Mecha hopped into a passenger car, saying to himself, “I've got to learn how I do that wave thing!”
LINEBREAKER
Mecha stood in Canterlot, slowly making his way towards the palace. After all, it's not like any bounty hunters would be here, was there?
He got his answer halfway to the palace in the form of four deer walking towards him. Cursing at his luck, Mecha ran towards them, stunning them when he jumped up and ran along a wall past them, before landing and charging towards his only hope at this point. Glancing back, he noticed that the four were charging after him, slowly catching up due to their longer legs.
Looking forward once more, Mecha saw a blockade of seven deer in his way, and had no side streets to run down to avoid them. Fortunately for him, somepony had left some crates in the street, which he leaped onto, using them as a stepping stone to access the roofs and a clear path to the palace. Well, a clear path until some nearby deer noticed him, and climbed onto the roofs as well.
Swearing, Mecha took a chance and jumped across the street, barely making it, before putting on as much speed as he could. Nearing the palace, Mecha noticed that he was cut off from the gate due to all the deer in the way. “Wrath's throwing knives, where did all these deer come from?!” he cursed, turning towards the upcoming palace walls. Taking a quick estimate of the height, he sighed to himself, saying, “This is why I didn't want to leave Ponyville,” before he took a flying leap, his stomach brushing against the top of the wall.
Coming to a halt, Mecha cheered in joy, as he felt certain that the deer wouldn't risk following him into the palace grounds. Turning to the doors, he made his way over, whistling, until an arrow whizzed by his head. Turning around, he saw dozens of deer charging towards him from the gates, the guards letting them pass through unhindered.
“Oh come on!” Mecha yelled, running once more. “How big a bounty did Astrum put on my head that everydeer would be willing to cause an international incident over it!”
“It was at 150,000 bits last time I checked!” replied the deer at the front of the herd, having heard his question.
Blinking Mecha idly wondered if he could turn himself in for the money, before shaking his head. Turning down a random hallway, he entered the first door he could find before anydeer behind him turned the corner.
Slamming the door shut, Mecha was breathing heavily, before he looked up to see Shining Armor behind his desk, staring at Mecha. “Can I help you?” he asked, curious as to his friend's presence.
Jumping behind the desk, Mecha hid underneath it, saying, “If anydeer asks, I'm not here, got it?”
Before Shining Armor could reply, a deer burst into his office saying, “Did an Earth Pony with a mechanical leg come through here?”
Raising an eyebrow, Shining Armor replied, “Er... no...?”
Nodding his head, the deer said, “Thanks!” before running out into the hallway.
After hearing what sounded like forty deer run past his office, Shining Armor pulled Mecha out from under his desk, asking, “What the heck is going on!”
Shaking with adrenaline, Mecha quickly told Shining Armor about his week away from Ponyville, and the bounty on his head, before concluding with, “...so I came here in hopes that I could get Celestia or Luna to deal with the bounty on my head!”
Stunned at the information he'd just received, Shining Armor grabbed his gear and suited up, saying, “We need to grab Solaris and head towards the center of town, the princesses are their giving a speech about the upcoming gala.”
Nodding his head, Mecha waited for Shining Armor before they ran out of his office, and asked, “What's up with the security around here? I mean, I jumped over a wall, and there's forty deer running around, and yet you're the first guard I've seen besides the two up front!”
Sighing, Shining Armor said, “Most of the palace guard are out in town with the princesses, and the two in front aren't actually real. We just put two statues in place to make it look like we're guarded constantly.”
Blinking, Mecha said, “That's just sad dude,” before they rushed into Solaris's office.
Looking up, Solaris saw the serious looks on Shining Armor's and Mecha's face, before saying, “Give me a sec to gear up,” and started gathering his gear. Rushing out the door with his two friends, Solaris asked, “What's the situation?”
Running out the doors, Shining Armor filled him in, before glancing behind him, saying, “Drats, they've spotted us,” pointing out the herd of deer following them.
“Ignore them,” Mecha said, “If we can get to Celestia and Luna, it won't matter.”
Unfortunately, the deer in front of them made it so that it did matter. Surrounded, the three got up on their hind legs, standing back to back. “Got any plans?” Solaris asked, turning his sword into a scythe.
“Just one,” Shining Armor told him, shifting his sword into a spear.
“And that is?” Mecha asked, drawing his two swords.
“Make enough noise to attract the rest of the guards while not dieing,” Shining Armor said.
And with that, the three leapt into action, Solaris rapidly swinging his scythe above his head, before cutting into the chests of the deer in front of him, while Shining Armor used the length of his spear to his advantage by cutting each deer near him lightly without getting into his opponents' range, and Mecha was fighting in his usual way of dodging and quick strikes. Leaping back, Mecha rolled over Shining Armor's back and quickly struck at the deer about to slice into Solaris's side, whose horn glowed before a fireball formed at its tip, and was launched at a nearby deer, exploding and knocking him away.
Taking his cue from Solaris, Shining Armor used his magic to form a suit of armor around him, allowing him to get close to his opponents without risking harm, whilst he dealt more powerful strikes due to having less distance to cover. Mecha, lacking magic that he could actively use, reached into the pockets on the hood he'd worn since he left his forge in an, unsuccessful, attempt to hide his identity, and pulled out an extremely small grenade. Raising it to his mouth, he bit the cap before yanking it, lighting the grenade which he quickly threw behind him, knocking out the deer approaching him from behind him.
This battle of blades, magic, and explosions continued until Mecha felt something familiar... and grinned, before spinning and releasing a now familiar wave of black energy from his swords. However, the deer in front of him had seen him fight the wendigo, jumped to the side as it sped by, digging into the wall behind them.
“Neat trick!” Solaris told him, before using a concentrated burst of magic fire to get some distance between him and the deer. “How'd you learn to do it?”
Tightening his muscles, Mecha focused on the energy inside him, focusing it into his blades, causing them to gain a pitch black glow around them. Swinging at his next target, he said, “Still learning how! Far as I can tell, it's battle stress!” as he cut through one of the blades wielded by the deer.
“Useful though,” Shining Armor replied, stepping back as he swung with his spear, using his magic to extend its tip.
“Considering the fact that it can cut through a wendigo's arm, I'd say so,” Mecha said, the glow around his swords slowly flickering out of existence due to his lack of ability to hold it.
Blinking, Solaris used his magic to bring out another blade at the other end of his scythe, before asking, “You fought a wendigo? Dang, that must've sucked!” before slicing off several deer's horns.”
Snorting, Shining Armor said, “That's putting it lightly, I'm surprised Mecha is still alive!”
Laughing, Mecha said, “You and me both!” as the glow finally flickered out, leaving him with two normal blades to fight with, although they were still quite effective.
They fought in silence for anther five minutes, the metal of their blades flashing whenever they caught the sun, cutting through the air. They were standing back to back to back once more, still surrounded by the bounty hunters, when suddenly a voice rang out, yelling, “What is going on here!”
Everypony and deer turned to face the source of the voice, one princess Celestia. Looking around, Mecha pointed towards the bounty hunters and said, “They started it!”
Eye twitching, Celestia walked towards him, and asked, “And what,exactly, is it?”
Realizing that it wasn't the time for jokes, Mecha gulped and said, “Trying to collect the bounty Astrum placed on my head.”
It was here that Luna made herself known, saying, “And why doth thou have a bounty on thine head?”
Licking his lips, Mecha told his royal friend, “Because I killed his pet aboleth Fluffy, and then survived the gauntlet.”
Looking between him, the two captains, and the deer surrounding them, Celestia took in a deep breath, before saying, “All you deer, leave know before I send you flying home myself. And furthermore, should even one of you return and try to hurt one of my citizens again, I'll make sure you'll regret it.”
This had its intended effects, as everydeer scrambled over each other, trying to avoid her wrath. After five minutes, there wasn't a single trace of them anywhere, allowing everypony to relax. Turning to face the three stallions, Celestia said, “Explain everything from the beginning please.”