Yona was rushing as fast as she could, with you in tow, riding on her back. She was almost like a bull, just heading towards her target at breakneck speeds.
“Yona, do you think you can reach the portal door before Jimmy fully comes to?” You asked.
“No, Yona not going up stairs.” Yona let out as she began to change directions and run down the carpet between the video poker and slot machines, heading towards the entrance of the casino instead.
“What?! Why?! Is it not actually up there?! Dammit, Jimmy!” You cursed under your breath. Of course the exit wasn’t really up there. Though, you couldn’t think of a reason why Jimmy would lie to her like that in that scenario, seemed pointless unless he had something waiting up there to kill her. But then, why didn't it kill her?
“No, Jimmy tell truth, but that not why Yona not go up!” Yona exclaimed as she continued her beeline towards the entrance. “Something happen! Yona didn’t try to leave. Yona try to find something to help fight Jimmy. But then, Yona find-WAGH!” Suddenly, Yona trips forward as a blast is heard from behind. You look up to see a slot machine flying in mid air, turned to utter scrap, as it flies towards the front doors and lands right in front of them.
“What in the?! Dammit! Yona, come on! We gotta go!” You said, smacking your forelegs on her back to try to hurry her along.
Yona said nothing as she got back up, and prepared to shove the broken machine with her horns. But she stops when she notices that parts of the machine were melting and seeping into parts of the door, effectively locking it. “Oh no, not good!” Yona said as she tries to shove away the stuck machine. “Strange machine stuck! Yona canAAAHHH!” Yona steps back in fright as Jimmy lands onto of the machine, staring at her with a wicked grin.
“Going somewhere?” Jimmy said with a low hiss. His form, it was grotesque. He was a roided out and pus filled version of his human form, pupils glowing yellow, with some of his original characteristics still apparent, like his tail and spiked back.
“That Jimmy?!” Yona screamed in horror, caught off guard by the horrid beast as Jimmy jumped down from the machine and slowly approached her.
“That’s right, Yakko. And you're stealing my property. I don’t know how you managed to fool me, but you screwed up coming back here.” Jimmy said as he huffed, and then punched his fist through a slot machine beside him, still staring at her. “Even if you give him back to me, I’m still going to hang your head on my wall. Provided I don’t turn it to pulp first.”
You could see Yona stepping back away from him, caught in the throes of fear. Shit, she had to move, she had to get away from him! “Yona! We have to go, if we stand around, he’s going to kill you!”
Yona gulped hard, she stepped back further as Jimmy began to approach menacingly. Yona looked to her left, then her right. Anywhere she ran, Jimmy was going to be sure to follow. So she closed her eyes, and suddenly darted forward, head down, towards Jimmy. She let out a frightened battle cry as she tried to take him down.
“Yona! Wait, no!” You called out to her, knowing Jimmy wasn’t stupid enough to fall for it.
And he wasn’t. Jimmy timed a counter attack, waiting for Yona to approach him. The moment she was in arm’s length, he smashes her head with a cross punch of horrific proportions, sending Yona spinning off to the side and through his bar counter, causing her to hit the shelf behind and come to a stop. You end up flying from the sudden change of momentum, and get caught by Jimmy. “Welcome back, Anon. You’ve been a bad little colt. And do you know what happens to bad little colts?” Jimmy asked with an almost reassuring fatherly tone, filled with malice. However, he didn’t wait for you to answer. He just swung you by your hindlegs like a club, and smashed you into the ground. “They get punished!”
“GYAAAGHHHH!” The pain! The way he swung you around, with your body already broken, was agonizing. The impact to the floor only added to it as you swear you heard some sort of crack in your jaw.
“I’ve come too far to lose to this old song and dance. Time to just get rid of the trash and get back on schedule.” Jimmy said to himself as his eyes began to glow brightly. He was preparing another of his murder beams.
Dammit! This was it! Unless you acted, he was going to kill Yona. Despite your body being broken, and your face leaking blood from your damaged nose, you flung your head back, and swung it forward to bite into his hand. Unfortunately, his form betrays his true body, as you bite into an unbreakable carapace, nearly breaking your teeth.
Jimmy heard you scream in pain once more, and shook you in his hand as he laughed. “Idiot! Did you think you could bite through perfection?! Why don’t you just relax and enjoy the shWQDS” Suddenly, Jimmy is headbutted and is knocked back as he loses his grip on you. You fly up, yelling in fright. But as you come back down, you suddenly find yourself on the comfy back of the yak known as Yona. Though, after the punch to her face, she looked battered, her horn must have been smacked by that same punch, as the left one had twisted and cracked.
“Yona not waste time too. You mess with yak, you get yak fight!” Yona shouted towards Jimmy.
“Yona?! Why?! Forget him, we gotta get out, quick! There’s no way we can fight him!” You were serious. Even if you were scared, the best course of action was just to escape. Jimmy was too powerful to fight without some sort of powerful magic or artifact.
“N-no way out. F-front door blocked, a-and can’t go u-up stairs.” Yona said, her entire body shaking in fear. Despite her will to fight, she knew she couldn’t actually win. Seems she just wanted to go down fighting rather than to let Jimmy have his way. “Y-yona stand ground.”
“Why?! Why can’t we goNGHHH!” You’re suddenly cut off by a monstrous and ear-splitting scream as Jimmy lets out a bloodthirsty roar.
“YOU! You think you’re smart, don’t you?! You think you can tangle with me?! Fine then! I was at least willing to melt you into goo in one quick blast. But now? I think I’ll rip you limb from limb and cook you for later! Nobody, and I mean, NOBODY IS GOING TO GET IN THE WAY OF MY PLANS!” Jimmy shrieked as he jumped towards Yona in one swift and powerful jump, shattering the ground under him.
Yona let out a terrified scream and decided to bolt as Jimmy landed where she was. Surprisingly, despite her earlier stance and protests, she began to run for dear life towards the stairs as Jimmy wildly gave chase, pushing anything in his way away as he began to gain on Yona. Yona quickly turned and started going up the spiral stairs as Jimmy crashed towards the wall near it due to his uncontrollable speeds. When you both reached the second floor, you could see the strange water tank with the weird shark-like creatures, poker tables, roulette wheels, and the like.
You wanted to ask her why she suddenly ran up here if she said she couldn’t. But you didn’t want to distract her, not with Jimmy on both your ta-ils? You look backwards, and he doesn't seem to be chasing you at all. Okay, good! Just keep going, Yona, just keOH SHIT! Suddenly, Yona comes to a halt as Jimmy jumps through the floor in front of you. Tearing a Craps table in half.
He lands and takes the time to look over at the both of you as he waggles a pus-filled finger. “I don’t think so. A little late to try running up all those stairs, huh?”
SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!
Yona was frozen in fear. And could you blame her?! There was no escape now. Jimmy was blocking the only way up, and going down would be too slow to escape his pursuit.
“...Now then, I have a world to conquer. So let’s cut right to the end.” Jimmy says as he begins to laugh madly, his fist turning into huge claws as he prepares to slice Yona to ribbons. Yona ducked and screamed right as Jimmy prepared his final strike. But right when he was about to bring his claws down on her, there was a sudden violent explosion from the next floor up, breaking his attention. “What?! What’s going on?!”
The hell?! What WAS going on?! “Y-yona? H-hey, Yona, what was tha-WOAH!” Suddenly, a fiery ball of death crashes between the two of you and Jimmy. Jimmy is sent falling through his hole as you and Yona fall back down the stairs. You both fall all the way down in daze, with you falling off of Yona and onto your side. What the hell was that?! Was that Discord?! Or… Something else?
“Yona! Hey! Yona! What happened?! Snap out of it!” You yelled out towards her.
Yona shook her head, hearing your words, and suddenly snapped to attention. She quickly wasted no time in picking you up and rushing towards the front door again in an attempt to move the slot machine. “No time! Fire coming!”
Fire?! Wut?! “Fire?! Is that why we couldn’t go upstairs?! Yona, why is there fire?!”
“Yona don’t know!” Yona said as she started to try to shove the melted machine away. “Yona not leave Anon behind, and Yona knew she not be able to come back if Yona leave. Yona try to find something to help fight Jimmy, Yona open doors. But then Yona open one door and fire everywhere! Yona ran, and tried to save Anon before fire spread.”
There was… Fire in a door? What?! Shit, you could smell the casino starting to burn, as the walls above started to dance in the wave of the heat of the flames, as the fire began to crawl down. Some more debris began to fall as well, causing fires all around the first floor. You could only look at Yona as she did her best to shove the machine away.
Suddenly, there was a roar. It was Jimmy, but.. Where was he?
In an instant, Jimmy jumps right onto the machine once again, the force of his jump smashing through what was left of it as a shockwave sent you and Yona back along the floor. “YOU! WHAT DID YOU DO?! GYAAAGH! MY CASINO! IT’S GOING UP IN FLAMES!”
Dammit, he was fucking pissed! He stomped over to the both of you before either of you could move. He managed to grab you both by the neck as he lifted you both up, screaming in rage. “TELL ME! HOW?!”
Yona choked, she tried her best to answer him. Y-yona… Yona open d-door, anMPHF!” Suddenly, Jimmy let you both go as he stepped back, and began to cackle. As if he had just heard everything he needed to hear.
“Opened the door? Haha. The door, of course! Hehaha! Discord, you idiot! She found you, huh?! HUH?! That’s how she got back here! What, did you sense me smashing up your little prodigy?! HM!? DID YOU FORGET?! YOU CAN’T INTERFERE! ANOTHER TROPE PLAYS INTO MY HANDS THANKS TO THIS STUPID YAK!” Jimmy suddenly began to shake in mad laughter as he pointed up towards the flaming spirals of the spire. “YOU BROKE THE AGREEMENT, DISCORD! YOU ATTACKED MY HOME WHEN YOU ARE TO STAY OUT OF MY AFFAIRS! I WIN! YOUR POWERS ARE MINE! AHAHAHAHA!” He then gripped his hand, and looked towards the both of you. “Well, Anon, change of plans. Turns out I don’t need you anymore. I’m just going to turn you both into chairs and let you burn as I begin my conquest as the new spirit of chaos. Can’t say it’s been fun, because it really hasn’t.” He then pointed his fingers at you, then snapped. Both you and Yona flinched, actually expecting something to happen… But nothing did. “What?! Where’s my power?! DISCORD! THIS ISN’T FUNNY! WE HAD A DEAL!”
Discord, that mad idiot. Did he really make that kind of agreement?
But this flame...
This fire...
It was so familiar...
You started to chuckle, since now it didn’t even matter. No, not because Jimmy had won, because he hasn't. But because you suddenly realized you had an ace in a flaming hole. The fire behind a door? Oh… yes, you knew what this was, and you quickly had a way to turn it into your advantage once you realized how powerless Jimmy suddenly was. “Haha… Jimmy, you poor stupid bastard. Discord didn’t break anything.”
“What?!” Jimmy growled as he looked back towards you with murderous eyes. “What the fuck do you mean?! Do you not see my place burning to the ground?! It had to be Discord, who else could do this?!”
“You can… You did this.” You answered, giving him a cocky grin.
Jimmy’s eye twitched, he was filled with further rage and now terrible confusion. “Are you joking?! I didn’t cause this! Why would I burn down my own casino?! I might just kill you for that!”
You scoffed at his words. “You’re right, you wouldn’t. But Yona burned it down.”
“Anon?” Yona said your name, confused as to what you were getting at.
Jimmy scoffed back at you. “Is this a trick? A joke?! I don’t think you realize your dear old ‘pops’ is breaking the deal here. I made sure EVERYTHING was in my favor, ergo, everything should be MINE!”
And then you laughed as you pointed at him. “Exactly! Jimmy! Exactly! You tricked him into giving up everything he owned aside from my stuff, and his powers. And guess what! You won this fire in the bet too!”
Jimmy was astonished. He won the fire?! He couldn’t comprehend what that meant. “What the hell are you talking about?!”
“Oh, just saying that this fire was started by Discord a long long long time ago. It was a train fire. I can’t remember why he was playing with trains, but I do remember the fire rampaging through the rooms he just lazily trapped it in. Ergo, Jimmy, the fire is now under your ownership. Meaning…” You stopped to let him fill in the blanks.
“The fire is... Mine? No! It can't! Because... I can’t…. Leave. NOOOO! I… I’M GOING TO DIE! NO! NO! NO!” Jimmy suddenly fell to his knees as he transformed into his mutant changeling state, unable to focus, as he smashed his hoof on the ground. “THAT BASTARD! HE KNEW! HE FUCKING KNEW! HE WAS WAITING FOR ME TO OPEN THE DOOR! NO! NOOOO!”
So, it seems he couldn’t leave the casino then. He was trapped here. And since the fire was still growing, covering practically everything, you all were going to die… Unless.
“Oh, Jimmy… Poor little Jimmy. All that power, all that arrogance, so much perfect planning… And yet just like any human, you’re afraid of death.” You started to laugh madly. “Holy shit, how does it feel to still get your ass kicked by mlp charaDFGFG” Suddenly, Jimmy jumped onto you and started to press down on your neck with his hoof.
“Shut it! Shut up! SHUT UP AND DIE!” He screamed out as he began to try to choke you. But just as quickly, Yona gets up and smashes him away with a head butt, and quickly gets you onto her back as she steps away from Jimmy. Though, at this point, there wasn’t much place to run. You were all surrounded by flames.
“A-Anon… Are you okay?!” Yona said, fear and hopelessness lacing her tone.
“Yeah, thanks, Yona. Hey, hey! Don’t sound like that, okay? Trust me, I got the winning hand here.” You looked over at Jimmy, who was standing back up, looking at the both of you with a death glare. He was defeated, he couldn’t focus, and knew it was the end of the line. So... “Hey Jimmy, give up yet?”
Jimmy began to lowly growl. He just stood there, angry, yet defeated. You almost expected him to say something like ‘at least we all go together’. But he was too afraid to actually die, it seemed to terrify him. “Shut up! SHUT UP! There has to be a way! There’s always a way!”
...There it is! Your opening. “There is… I have no way of saving us, neither does Yona, and you can’t save yourself. I know death terrifies you. I’d even guess from watching all that media, that you believe Hell is waiting for you after you die. So… Here’s the deal. Give the house back to Discord.”
“What?! NeveNGH!” Jimmy is suddenly cut off as his tail is burning from an ember of flame. As he’s putting it out, you continue your offer.
“Yeah, never, right. Look, Jimmy, unless you give it back to Discord, we are all dead. Don’t tell me to call him on the codec. I refuse to even try until you agree to give the house back.” You offer him. “That’s my final offer, so you better decide quick.”
“No… No!” He cried out as he put out the fire on his tail, then hugged it pathetically. “I was so close! I did everything right! I had complete control! How, how did I not see this coming?!”
Yona’s fear had slowly begun to leave her as she heard your words. She knew what you were doing, and believed in your ability to do it. She looked towards Jimmy, realizing why he had lost, and began to speak out through her own experience. “Yona not understand trope thing, but Yona know there are things nocreature see in future. Jimmy wanted to be evil, so Jimmy do evil things, not knowing that good always win in end. Jimmy's biggest mistake is not having friends to believe in, to trust. Jimmy truly thought Yona hate Anon, but good friends can’t hate friends. That what Jimmy can’t see, that friendship is only way to good life, not evil.”
“Y-You..Ngh, Ano- NGH...GNGGGHHHH! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!” Jimmy just fell forward, clutching himself, screaming in his own failures and hopelessness.
“It’s over, Jimmy. You lost, period. If you don’t make a decision now, we’re all dead. Whatever punishment Discord is going to have for you, you at least know he won’t kill you.” Boy, did you want to kill him though, you could feel your own murderous anger bubble up. But you had to let it go. You couldn’t kill him now, and once Discord shows up, you were sure he was going to deal out his own punishment for him before you could do anything anyway.
“Ngh….mnnngh! DAMMIT! FINE! IT’S A DEAL! CALL HIM! CALL THAT IDIOT! I DON’T WANT TO DIE!” Jimmy whined as he cowered in place. He knew he lost, and he could only shake in fear of what punishment Discord held for him.
That was it then… You raised your hoof to your ear, and made the call.
Jackpot!