The Wheel and the Butterfly
A Dan X Pinkie Pie saga
Part 17 Sunset Shimmer Vs. The Dazzlings
Chapter 159 Elise Vs. Aria Blaze
-o~Just a few minutes earlier ~o-
Elise smiled as Aria’s fist sailed towards her, a telegraphed haymaker thrown hard and wide. Blocking and even grabbing the arm was easy. Before Elise could do anything with the arm though, Aria’s second fist flew out, a quick jab aimed at her face. Elise was quick and deflected it with her other arm. However, Elise felt Aria’s first arm twist and her own hand slip as it encountered the spiked bracelet Aria wore.
Elise kicked towards Aria’s knee, but the ‘pop-star’ turned her leg so Elise’s foot hit Aria’s thigh harmlessly. Elise’s smile disappeared, Aria was good and fast, a dangerous combination that meant Elise was in for a real fight.
“Beautiful,” Chris interjected again. “Aria Blaze is a skilled martial artist! That’s why the Dazzlings don’t travel with body guards!”
“I can see that!” Elise said as she blocked another blow aimed at her face.
Aria chuckled as Elise and her exchanged several punches and kicks, each one deflected or blocked by the other woman. “Hey, you’re pretty good for a hotel worker!”
Elise managed to snatch one of Aria’s arms again and quickly pulled her closer, kicking at one of her feet to get Aria unbalanced enough to turn and get into a choke hold.
“Clcckkk!” Aria uttered as her airway was cut off.
Elise tightened her grip and smiled again. “You have no idea!”
Aria jerked her head back.
‘POW!’
Pain shot through Elise as the hard part of Aria’s skull collided with her nose. Her eyes began to tear up as a reaction to the pain. Disoriented, Elise’s grip loosened and she soon felt spiked points being jabbed into her arms as Aria wrestled herself free.
Aria’s wide, slightly crazed smile remained on her face. “Maybe you’re not as good as you thought!”
“GRrrrrrAAAAAH!” Elise replied with a series of punches and kicks as blood began to trickle down her nose. Aria blocked and deflected, moving backwards as Elise kept the purple-haired woman in strike range.
Chris watched as the two women took their fight down the hallway, watching as pictures and even light fixtures were torn from the wall to be used as impromptu weapons. Weapons that broke easily as each woman took turned their bodies and blocked taking blows to conditioned body parts.
Soon the hallway was a mess of broken picture frames, broken glass, and fist and foot sized holes in the walls. Soon the girls were covered in bruises and tiny cuts as fists, feet, and myriads of foreign instruments were used to deliver blunt force trauma.
“Oh, dear…” Chris uttered as he placed his, now vulgar, bellhop cap back on his head and cautiously followed the flurry of combat that turned the area around it into a wreck of debris.
Amidst the flurry of attacks, Aria pivoted to her side and released a kick that caught Elise in the abdomen.
Elise felt the wind being knocked out of her as she herself was knocked back several feet. “Oooff!” She looked up at Aria with a glare on her face. “Oh, that is it!” She announced as she reached into her grey jacket and produced a sword with a black wrap handle in a black scabbard. Elise quickly pulled her ninjatō from its sheath.
Aria gasped excitedly as she quickly backed off, putting a few more yards between her and Elise. “A ninjatō?!” Aria exclaimed as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a red vial. “I’ll go get mine!” Aria threw the vial against the hotel wall, breaking it and releasing a red powder that hung in the air.
“ELISE!” Chris cried as a he broke into a sprint.
“Oh no you don’t!” Elise exclaimed as she placed her scabbard back in her jacket and took a few steps forward.
Aria smirked as she reached into her pocket and produced a silver lighter with a blue and red flame on it. “I thought you’d say that…” In what seemed like one smooth motion, the lighter was opened and lit, Aria tossed it towards the red cloud of mist just an instant before Elise reached it and Chris dove for Elise’s legs.
‘THUD!’
‘PHWOOOOOOOSH!’
Elise fell to the ground as the air right above her suddenly ignited into a brilliant fireball that scorched the hotel walls.
Elise and Chris quickly scrambled to their feet as they both felt something too hot and too close for comfort. Elise quickly took off her flaming jacket and threw it to the ground, the sound of metal clattering was heard as a few large medieval weapons and firearms fell out.
Chris pulled off his fiery cap and shook it hard until the flames died down, leaving a smoking hole on the top of the hat.
“Thanks Chris, that was close.”
“Well, she certainly sticks to her theme,” Chris replied. He examined his hat. “Hey, do you think this has more collector’s value now that it was burnt by a fire Aria Blaze caused?”
“Aria!” Elise hissed out as she bent down to pick up her sword. She looked down the hallway. She heard a ‘Ding!’ and broke into a sprint, Chris close behind.
Elise turned a corner just in time to witness a pair of elevator doors closing. Aria smiled smugly and waved as Elise dove, an instant too late from stopping the elevator.
“DAMN IT!” Elise cried as she reached into her grey pants and pulled out a boxy, heavy looking gun that she raised, supporting the massive rectangular barrel with her left hand. She held it point blank at the elevator door.
“What’s the heck is that?!” Chris exclaimed as he rounded the corner.
“It’s a melt gun,” Elise informed as orange lights on the device came to life as it began to ‘hum’ louder and louder.
Chris’s eyes widened in with the concern of one who had seen one to many crazy devices in his life. He ducked his body back into the hallway, only leaving his head to peer out. “Oh…”
‘HmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMM!’
“It melts things!” Elise exclaimed over the loud hum right before a concentrated beam of orange light hit the elevator door.
“Yeah! I pieced that together because of the name!” Chris shouted back.
Elise averted her eyes as the elevator door began to turn red, then orange. It began to sag as solid metal turned to liquid that dripped to the floor below. Soon a hole formed in the center just large enough for someone to crawl through. Elise quickly shut off the device causing the orange beam to cease. She reached into her trousers and dove through the fresh, red hot hole.
“HONEY!” Chris called out in alarm as he watched his wife disappear into the elevator shaft. Chris ran towards the elevator. There was a ‘pop!’ like pressurized air be realized and the distant sound of a ‘click!’
Chris peered through the hole as Elise zipped upwards on a thin metal line in the cavernous shaft. “JUST A SECOND, HANDSOME!” Elise called out. “JUST NEED TO MELT AN ELEVATOR!”
Chris pursed his lips as he stared at the steaming melted metal that now formed a hole leading into almost pitch black nothingness.
“I think I’ll just take the stairs…” he uttered to himself.
-ooo-
Aria frowned as she the elevator began to hum as it continued to ascend to the top floor.
Huh… That’s new… What the heck is up with all this weird clicking and humming? Beads of sweat began to appear on Aria’s forehead, causing her to fan herself with her hand. AND WHY IS IT SO FREAKIN’ HOT ALL OF A SUDDEN?! Geez… You’d think a swanky hotel like this could keep the elevators cool or… Why are my feet so hot? “Oh, no…” Aria uttered as she looked down and realized the beige carpet below her had started to turn black in the center. Aria quickly dove to the front corner of the elevator by the buttons and began frantically hitting them. The floor buttons all lit up as the heat inside the elevator increased and the floor began to sag in the center, pieces of it falling down in gloopy hot orange masses.
‘Ding!’
Aria practically dove through the elevator doors as they opened on the seventh floor, she broke into a sprint, frowning as she noticed only hotel rooms and a plate glass window at the end of the hall awaited her down the way she was going. She ceased her running. Damn! Wrong way! I’ll need to double back before…
“Nowhere to ruuuuun~!” Sang a voice darkly.
Aria turned to see Elise approach with a slasher smile on her face, sword at the ready.
...Before that happens!
Aria turned reached up towards her hair, removing one of the five pointed spiked stars from around a ponytail as she sprinted towards the window. She threw the star and it sailed neatly through the air before smashing through the window making a little hole. She quickly reached for a second star.
“HEY! STOP THAT!” Elise cried as she reached into her pocket, pulled out her pen and clicked it three times. Elise tossed the pen as Aria sprinted ahead, twin purple pony tails flapping behind her.
Aria retrieved the second star from the other ponytail and glanced behind her, she tossed the star and turned.
The star hit the pen midair.
‘BOOOOOM!’
The pen exploded on impact with the star rocking the hotel with Aria mere yards away from it. Aria jumped and raised her knees to her stomach as she closed her eyes and covered her ears, bending her elbows inwards in front of her face. She allowed the blast wave to propel her through the damaged window in front of her. Glass shattered as her body was thrown through it.
Aria felt the heat of the explosion behind her, and twisted in midair, shielding her eyes as glass flew about her. With her free hand she removed a third star from her hair, this one attached to a long length of coiled cord and a square device with a switch. One of her pony tails spread out in all directions in the fiery air as she began to fall. She quickly aimed for the floor above her that was beginning to get further and further away as gravity took hold of her.
With a flick of her wrist, the star sailed through the air, trailing a cord behind it. It smashed through the plate glass window on the eighth floor. Aria waited no more than an instant to watch the cord start to slack then hit the switch as she grabbed the cord with her other hand. She felt her body jerk back as she was suddenly pulled upwards and forwards. Holding tightly to the device in her hands she closed her eyes and raised her arms in front of her. One again, glass shattered, giving way to the weight of her body as she was pulled through it. Aria let go of the cord and let gravity pull her to the carpeted floor below. Glass cracked under her boots then body as she rolled back into a standing position.
Her hair a mess, her face and bare arms now covered in cuts that seeped blood, she smiled and casually walked back to the cord dangling under her star which was now embedded between the hotel wall and ceiling. With a grunt and a hard pull, her star was free. Aria quickly grabbed the half of her hair that was flowing freely with one hand and brought the star to it with the other. Soon her ponytail had been restored.
Aria broke into a sprint down the hall, running down its length before rounding the gentle curve in the center. Turning the corner, she could easily pick out Adagio standing in front of the open hotel room as she conversed with a hotel worker with fiery orange-and-red hair. Next to the hotel worker was a short man wearing a black t-shirt that read ‘JERK’ in big bold letters. He regarded Aria with an amused smile. Aria paid no mind to either, instead homing in on the woman with a mass of orange hair which was being stroked by a pink haired bellhop as if it were a fluffy animal.
“Dagi! I need my Ninjatō! Both of them!”
Adagio sighed and turned, trudging back into the hotel room. “Yeah, yeah…”
Dan smiled happily at Pinkie. “This is fun!”
Pinkie smiled back. “I know, right? We should come here more often.”
“What now?!” Sunset Shimmer exclaimed in an exasperated tone.
Adagio shouted from inside the hotel room. “This happens almost every time we stay somewhere! Why do you think we left such a huge deposit? Didn’t you get the memo?!”
Aria turned towards Pinkie. “Why are you getting all cuddly with Adagio’s hair?” she asked as she cocked an eyebrow.
“Because it’s the fluffiest thing ever!” Pinkie said in a giddy tone.
“Okay… but… Touching the guest’s hair is probably against policy… I’m guessing… I mean this is a pretty weird hotel.”
Pinkie giggled. “Sorry! It’s my first day.”
“Yeah, lot of that going around…” Aria said.
A rustling could be heard from inside the room. “Seriously!” Adagio cried out in an annoyed tone. “Why do you have so many weapons?!”
“Hey!” Aria shouted into the hotel. “Better to have ‘em and not need them than need them and not have them!”
Adagio shouted at Aria. “Do not compare your pile of death here to condoms! Condoms are much smaller and easier to pack! Plus people don’t get seriously injured when I break them out… usually.”
Dan turned and raised an eyebrow at Sunset. He pointed behind him towards Aria with a thumb “Is it bad I’m starting to like this girl a little bit?”
Sunset gritted her teeth. “YES!”
Dan rolled his eyes. “Oh, lighten up. You act like this whole day has been one huge series of time wasting events.”
“It’s been exactly that!” Sunset snapped.
“I meant, for me!” Dan said as he motioned to himself. He folded his arm across his chest. “You really need to not be so selfish and work on thinking about other people.”
Sunset smacked both her palms against her face and shook her head. “Shoulda just torched the place…” she uttered.
“Hey! You came to us!” Dan protested. “So when you think about it, everything that happened so far is really your fault!”
Sunset sighed heavily and began to massage both her temples with the tips of her index and middle fingers. “I swear I’d set you on fire right now if I had that magical ability to do so.”
Dan rolled his eyes. “Right, like there’s a world in which that could happen.”
Aria shot Dan and Sunset a slightly confused look but then focused on Pinkie, taking note of the ill-fitting uniform. “Do any of the bellhops have uniforms that fit?!”
Pinkie gave Aria a slightly pensive grin. “Well… they did.”
“They all shrink in the wash, or somethin’?”
“Oh, yeah! That!” Pinkie said as she pointed towards Aria. “Let’s go with that!”
Adagio finally returned carrying two swords in wooden-grain scabbards with cherry-woodgrain and brass handles.
“Thanks, Adagio!” Aria said excitedly as she quickly pulled both swords out, one in each hand. She turned and began running back down the hallway she just came from.
“STOP EXPLODING THINGS!” Adagio demanded.
“WASN’T ME!” Aria replied.
Adagio sighed heavily and smacked a palm against her face, dragging it downwards. “Now what has that little idiot gotten herself into?”
“Hey!” Sunset cried. “Stop changing the subject!”
The sounds of women shouting at each other and metal hitting metal could be heard from down the hall as Adagio shot Sunset a glare. “I told you we’d pay for everything! Don’t get uppity about it!”
“I don’t even care about that!” Sunset cried.
“Oh…” Adagio said, flinching slightly as Pinkie returned to stroking her hair. “Then what is your problem?”
Sunset took a deep breath of air and let it out, as if she was expelling negativity from her body. “I just want to talk to you about moving your concert at the ice rink to another day.”
“Oh!” Adagio said her eyes growing slightly wider. “Well get bent, then,” she said as she casually stepped back into the hotel room and started to shut the door.
“Awww…” Pinkie uttered in disappointment as Adagio’s hair left from her grasp.
“WHAT?! HOLD UP!” Sunset cried as she thrust her foot between the hotel door and the frame.
‘THUD!’
“OW!” Sunset cried.
Pinkie gave Sunset a wide eyed smirk. “You are not having good luck with doors today!”
“Shut up!” Sunset cried as she tried to pry open the door. “I’m just trying to talk to people!”
Adagio glared through the crack in the door as Sunset tried to pry it open. “Well we’re not talking about this! I already had to rearrange our concert schedule and change the concert date here once I’m not doing it again!”
“Look!” Sunset said. “I just want to explain this! Can’t you open the door?”
“NO!” Adagio cried. “I’ve already dealt with enough stress because my bandmates are crazy morons! I’m not compounding it be having to rearrange the concert schedule again!”
Sunset narrowed her eyes as she continued to force open the door. “Look, either we do this the easy way where we talk about it, or the hard way where you’re forced to move the date!”
Adagio gave Sunset a very serious look. “Oh yeah? We’ll just have to see what Aria has to say about that!”
“Hey!” Aria’s voice rang out from down the hall. “What the HELL lady!”
Pinkie grinned pensively as she looked down the hall and turned towards Adagio. “Yeah, I think she’s a bit busy at the moment…”
‘CLACK! CLACK! CLACK!’
Everyone collectively froze as the sound of gunfire echoed through the hotel floor.
“ELISE!” Chris’s voice called out. “Wait! STOP!”
Dan raised an index finger. “Also… she’s possibly dead.”