All around us, the clouds that made up the building blackened and crackled with electricity and rumbling thunder. The King stood before me, absolutely seething. His fur stood straight up, his wings unfurled from his body, giving him quite a threatening appearance. What kept his whole visage of anger together was his eyes. The darkness that broiled beneath them was now out in the field. If looks could kill, I'd be dead several times over by now. I stood up despite my wounds, pushing Alamo and Zola behind me, the two still pretty roughed up from their previous beatings. The King only stepped towards me, shaking violently in his rage.
"You beat me."He whispered out, but the whisper held no gentleness or quiet tone, but something ferocious and out for blood.
I summed up a breath as I stared him down."And you promised you'd let me and friends go."I narrowed my slitted eyes down at him."A deal's a deal, King."
He looked up to stare into my dicolored eyes, his teeth grinding the stub of a cigar in his mouth to ash. He spat out the remains, and slowly stepped back, but none of his anger gone."Brutus. Lady." At his word, the two were right by his side, but they too shared an uneven and nervous glance getting in the vicinity of the angered pegasus.
"I did promise that you and your friends would be leaving Los Pegasus..."He said, turning around on his hooves and walking back towards the stairs that exited out of the storage room, his two cohorts following behind him.
"But I never said how you were going to leave."
I looked up. Just before he stepped on the first step that led up, the King stomped his hoof down, sending a boom that sounded like a hammer through the entire room, shaking it."I hope you enjoyed your stay at Los Pegasus..."He cackled before leaving, his laughter long echoing in my ears.
Before I could fully understand what he meant by that, a piece of the ceiling fell right in front of me, making me jump back in shock from the suddenness. Slowly, the entire room of blackened storm clouds was falling apart, all to the command of the King. One far wall seemed to be eating away at itself, slowly dissipating until I could feel a breeze from outside and see the open sky, the morning sun just rising over the horizon. Normally, I'd be breathtaken by the view, but survival instincts kept me from that small pleasure.
"C'mon you guys, wake up!"I shouted, shaking the two to consciousness. Alamo only grunted in reply, waving me off with the words "Ah don't wanna go ta school today, momma...". Zola barely uttered a response, only her shallow breathing giving me any sign that she was still alive.
I frantically looked about for any chance of escape. The magical chains still held me to the wall, at least until it dissipated as well. A sudden crash jolted me, and I looked out to see one of the shelves had caused the weakening cloud beneath it to give way, sending it careening down through the open air and to the streets of Applewood below. I was running out of time, and fast.
"Guys, please..."I slapped Alamo a little, his one good eye fluttering open for just a minute. Good, that was good. Semi-consciousness. I did the same with Zola, only having to slap her a little harder. She stirred with a mumble of foreign words that I couldn't understand."This is no time to take a nap!"I shouted, shaking them both a bit more."Unless you wanna take a nap a few miles below on the concrete, wake up!"More shaking, more awakened responses from the two.
"What is it...?"Zola was the first to get up on her own, slowly stumbling up on her hooves."Ohh...when did I get hit?"She rubbed a massive bruise forming along her forehead, wincing at the sudden shot of pain from touching it.
"No time!"I screeched, pointing at a collapsing wall that allowed furious winds from this high up in altitude to hit us. Zola immediately awakened, her eyes widening.
"Get up, Alamo, do not be slow!"She leapt over me and shook him awake harder than I did, adding a few good slaps for measure.
"Whuh...?"He looked around, a tad dazed. He would see both the urgent expressions on mine and Zola's face.
"...Why are we in a storage room? And why is Oddjob chained up? And...why do Ah feel so sore?!"
"King. Go Fish. Beat him. Room Collapsing, we die."I gave him the short explanation, still pulling at the unmovable chains that held me. He got back up to his hooves, shaking away the last pieces of sleep that clung to him. He jumped in his skin when he realized what was going on."Nopony beats the King, Oddjob! Why'd you go and do that?!"
"He said he'd let us go!"I screamed back in reply, hopelessly still pulling.
"Yeah, let us go from our lives!"
"You could have mentioned that!"
"I was unconscious after trying ta save yer sorry flank!"
"The gesture is much appreciated!"
"Yer welcome!"
I was almost in hysterics, frantically pulling. I motioned towards the exit, for Alamo and Zola to get out of the blasted place, but Zola shook her head unwillingly."There is nothing left for me here. I will only run into the King if I leave, I fear."
"Ah just can't let an idjit like you die...it'd unbalance the smartness in the world or something."
"Hardy-har-har."I sniped back, rubbing my temples, something I had come to do whenever I was stressed. I pulled my hands down my face, feeling the various wounds the thugs had inflicted on me. Fortunately, they were already healing. I could feel that hyperactive healing factor already working it's magic, sending electrical courses of life back into my beaten body. I pulled my hands away, only to find that they were covered in my sticky green blood. Man, they really did a number on me. One last time, I grabbed at one of the chains that constrained my neck, only to find a completely different outcome this time. When my bird hand and bear paw made contact with the magical chain, it sizzled, it popped. I recoiled away at the sound, only to see flecks of my green blood melding in with the magic, thinning out the chain.
Bingo. I cracked a wide grin, new fangs already replacing those that had been knocked out. I gripped the chains once more with my self-bloodsoaked hands, squeezing as tightly as I could. The chain sizzled and crackled underneath the acidic effects, releasing me of one hold. I repeated this on all five chains, tearing them off easily now that they were weakened. Once I was free, I gave a mighty shrug and stretched my body.
"Oh yeah...that feels good."I cackle, wiping the blood off of me just as multiple holes began to fill the floor, giving sign that the room was just about done.
"Now can we go?"I scooped up the two smaller equestrians in my arms and dashed off, narrowly avoiding the crumbling ceiling and jumping over the holes that pattered across the ground. I felt like I was in some platform game, or even like Indiana Jones making his way out of a booby-trapped temple. Fortunately, there was no giant boulder.
I dashed up the stairs just as the sound of crumbling entered my ears. I risked a chance and looked around, seeing nothing but open air where a solid room had been seconds before.
"Close enough for ya?"Alamo whined, freeing himself from my grip and dropping to his hooves to walk beside me. I let Zola back down on the floor as well and the three of us made our way back up the stairs. We were in some sort of hallway, a basment system underneath the casino. I could hear the faint sound of hoofsteps and laughter above.
"Everyone okay?"I breathed out in relief. Now all we had to do was get off this forsaken floating deathtrap without being spotted.
"A little banged up, but I am no mere crying pup."Zola answered.
"Meh."Alamo shrugged, rolling his shoulders until his neck cracked.
"Good, I..."
All three of us fell short, as just down the hall, Brutus guarded the only seeable open way out, his arms crossed and his eyes boring down on us with a death glare.
"...Lemme handle this."I pushed the two behind me, stepping forward and holding out my hands in sort of a boxing stance. I motioned for the thug to come at me, waving him over with a taunting grin. I was still sore from my healing body, but I was more than ready for a little tussle. Besides, I had to get the bloke back for knocking me unconscious.
He snorted a little, sending a roll of heated steam from his nostrils. He stomped at the ground twice before leaning over, charging at me with full force, every one of his footsteps shaking the floor beneath us.
"C'mon big guy..."I whispered as he neared closer and closer.
Time seemed to slow down, much to my advantage. I didn't know if it was either adrenaline fueling me and changing my perception or that weird trick I pulled earlier in the card game, but I was glad to finally be on the winning end of a fight. I pivoted forward, twisting on my heels, my bear paw reared back, clenched as tight as it could be. The moment Brutus came into striking range, I twisted my entire body with rapid spinning force,putting all of my weight and momentum into that single blow. A powerful left hook crashed directly into Brutus's face, and with my slowed-down sense, I could make out everything of that punch, it was perfect. The moment my knuckles made contact with his grey-furred face, a ripple was sent across his features. His cheek cracked, his jaw unhooked itself, and his eyes crossed. I pushed hard with my fist, sending him careening into the nearby wall, his body rebounding off of it with a sharp crack.
All at once, things sped up to normal speed. Brutus stumbled away from me, obviously dizzy from the blow. before I could go in for a finishing strike, he was already on the ground, coughing through a shattered jaw of broken teeth and sputtering blood. I cracked my knuckles and waved down at him before moving on.
"Have a nice day."I grinned at him, the three of us hauling it out of there as fast as we could.
With Zola's aid and knowledge of her workplace, we made our way up countless flights of stairs, arriving within the main casino floor in minutes.
"Come, we must make haste."She pointed at the exit through the lobby doors."Any time we spend is waste."
Alamo and I nodded, following right behind her. God, I was ready to get out of here. Unfortunately, luck, or fate, or whatever higher form of being you believed in, had different plans for me. We paused as everything in the room grew quiet. Every card stopped shuffling, ever voice silenced, ever poker chip was placed down without a clatter. We all slowly turned our heads to the table area, the King staring us down with a haze of blackened clouds forming around him. The darkness spread through the entire casino until not an inch of of pure white cloud remained. Every patron looked around in fear, switching between the trio of odd characters that was us and the the King that controlled Los Pegasus.
A few seconds passed. Seconds turned to minutes, and minutes spanned into a countless stretch of time before anything else happened. But when it did, all hell broke loose.
The King unleashed a scream. A scream that sounded straight out of a horror movie, not that of the victim, but a scream that sounded like a carnal monster just ready to devour its prey. He zoomed off, dashing straight through the cloud of the building and into parts unknown. Seconds later, screams, and the rolling roar of thunder.
We all dashed outside to see crowds of panicking ponies all fleeing from a tempest rolling around the center of the floating city. Every last inch of Los Pegasus was becoming a storm cloud, arcing out lightning and broiling with black anger. And in the center of the storm, commanding it all, the King hovered in the air, still screaming.