05 - Turning Tides
Ch. 05 - Turning Tides
“You...you HURT MY FRIEND!”
Painwheel turned around, cross as the one on her back. The pegasus, the unicorn, the pegicorn, or the horses. Any would make for a suitable next target. If the vexing pink one wanted the first opportunity to die, Painwheel would be more than happy to oblige. She prepared to shove a Gae Bolga spike into its face.
Instead she turned to meet the business end of bright, multi-colored cannon.
Where did it get...?
“Yo ho ho!”
The unhappy memory was cut off as the cannon fired, knocking Painwheel on her back with a spray of balloons, confetti, streamers, and a solid hunk of fruit cake. “UGH!”
Twilight Sparkle turned to her pink friend. “Pinkie Pie! Stop!”
“But...Twilight...” Pinkie panted, using her party cannon as support. Her expression was one of exhausted anger and disappointment.
“No Pinkie! This isn't helping!” This situation escalated too much, too quickly. Way too out of hoof. She needed damage control, and she needed it now. Pointing her horn towards the creature, Twilight fired off another spell.
The creature regained its footing and battlefield sense, and moved its blades up defensively again. But it didn't impact its blades with concussive force this time. Twilight didn't have nearly enough energy to keep playing that game. Especially when the monster could just block.
Instead, the entire body lit up, popping magically out of existence. Twilight had opted for a teleport spell.
Twilight took to the air and flew above the roofline, looking West. Sure enough, she could see the figure of the creature falling and flailing some meters in the air, many blocks away. It had enough sense to start hovering...
...and then it spotted Twilight.
Fearfully the alicorn dropped back to the ground. Should have at least taken cover if she was going to look. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
“Okay, everypony,” she said, sweat beading down her face. “Good news, bad news. Good news, it's not here anymore.” She touched down, looking around to her friends. “Bad news, I kind of just tipped it off where it is in relation to us, so it'll be flying back in a matter of minutes. Probably one or two at max. Sorry.” She put up a nervous, guilty smile.
“Oh...ow! ...that's just...ack...great...” Rainbow Dash said, clutching her bleeding side. She winced. “Now...what?”
Fluttershy sat next to her, attempting to minister to her injured friend. “Oh no, oh no,” she said, trying to brush away Dash's hooves so she could see the wound. When Rainbow reluctantly complied, Fluttershy stuck her face close. She looked queasy. “Oh no, this is not good. Not good. This is just horrible!” She was panicking now.
She turned to face over her shoulder. “Rarity! I need bandages! ...please.”
“Oh! Yes,” said Rarity, looking around her. She spotted some scattered, tattered scraps of fabric. The fashionista looked upon her (now largely destroyed) supplies with a troubled expression, but she shook it off. Her horn started glowing, and suitably large pieces flew off. “Yes of course. Use these!”
Applejack walked over, watching the cloth sail over her head. “Okay, so we're about to be attacked again,” she said nervously. “What do we do now, Twilight?”
Before Twilight could answer, a voice came from behind. “Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo, seeing that the situation was at least for the moment calm, tried rushing towards her idol, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle right behind her.
First thing's first. “No!” Twilight said, lighting up her horn again. Instantly the Cutie Mark Crusaders were enveloped in a violet bubble.
“What the hay!”
“Aah!”
“No! What are you doing?” Scootaloo shouted, trying to paw her way out of the bubble to no success. She couldn't even stand, what with her two friends sitting on top of her. “Let me out!”
“No, it has to be done,” Twilight said, trotting over and pushing the bubble, sending it rolling. It went about a meter, then rolled off level ground and onto the beginning of a gradual slope.
“WAAAAAAAH!” the three fillies screamed as their magical hamster ball gained speed and rolled away from the battlefield.
Twilight sighed in relief. The spell would last long enough to take the kids away from the fight. “That's one thing settled,” she mumbled, turning back around to survey what they had at their disposal.
Not a lot. Rainbow was wounded, so she was out of the fight. And Fluttershy would be too timid – and frankly too weak – to engage the monster. Especially since it was well beyond taking direction. Although maybe her other skill could be useful...
In the direct confrontation to come, that left Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight herself. Those four against what Twilight was now realizing was a killing machine. A creature endowed with many horrible, lethal weapons. It was an alien being to Equestria, and it could not be more contrary to Equestria values.
And thus far, they'd botched the first contact beyond belief.
Twilight shook her head. No more. No more running in blindly. No more working at cross purposes. And definitely no more underestimating their opponent. If they were going to survive, and contain the threat, they needed to stop assuming the could just “handle whatever”. They had to work in concert.
Twilight and her friends needed a plan.
“Well, sugarcube?” Applejack said. “What are we doing?” She glanced over at her ailing friend, worried. “Ah know it were my rashness that got us into this mess. Ah gotta make it right. Just tell me...” she looked around, seeing Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and even Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash listening in. “...just tell us where you need us to be. What do we need to do?”
And with a little mental gymnastics, Twilight realized she had the makings of a plan.
Painwheel hopped down on the roof of a building. She ran to the side, peaking over. But she didn't see ponies. No, what lay in the street baffled Painwheel almost to the point where the rage she'd maintained all the flight back over began to subside. “What the...?” She jumped over the side, landing and running in.
It was a cake.
She inched towards the pastry, stealing glances around but spying nothing. Finally she stood over the cake, one only maybe a foot high. On the surface was scrawled a message.
Surrender now, and we can definitely be friends. How about it?
“...you...” Painwheel said, staring at the cake. She clenched her fists, beginning to shake turbulently. “You think this is some kind of joke!?” Painwheel brought the Buar Drive up over her head, spinning loudly. “GO TO HELL!”
“Have it your way.”
The pink one – Pinkie Pie – popped up from the nonexistent depths of the cake. In her hooves was the same cannon as before. Pointed right at Painwheel.
The human girl paused. How...how did she...? Painwheel's Buar blades stopped spinning. Where...where did she come from? The cake, she thought, the cake's too small...how?
The cannon went off, knocking Painwheel back. But it didn't really have enough mass as a projectile to send her to the ground. What it did do...Painwheel had trouble understanding. All she could see was colors floating in front of her vision. It took seconds, and one fearful swipe with a spike, for her to understand. It was the pop that did it.
She looked around at the sea of balloons floating around her.
“You know,” came a voice from somewhere beyond the balloons – a voice that caused Painwheel to jumped, “we've really come into this party under poor circumstances.” The voice started traveling around, to the point where it was hard for Painwheel to tell where it came from. “But if you just say you're sorry, we can...”
“Like hell!” Painwheel yelled, throwing spiked punches left and right. Using the Gae Bolga parasites in a fight was painful, and the last few days were long. She really hadn't wanted to use them, given their extensive use before. But when tired, pissed off the no end, and surrounded by balloons, Painwheel's priorities shifted.
Now she wanted the pink one and all her little friends dead. Now if only the STUPID BALLOONS WOULD GET OUT OF HER WAY.
Enough is enough, she thought. As effective as an assortment of needles were against balloons, they weren't popping fast enough. At least not fast enough to justify the pain of pushing them out of her flesh for every attempt. Painwheel adjusted her Buar Drive, spinning it. She then spun herself in circles, using the blades to fan away the balloon cloud. In time, Painwheel staggered dizzily to a stop, looking around. Despite her discomfort – indeed, Painwheel felt again like vomiting – the balloons were cleared away.
The Pinkie Pie froze mid hop, ceasing a giggle fit to see she'd been spotted. Gravity seemed to remember its job, bringing her falling down to the ground. “Oh...he he...looks like you found me,” she said, putting on nervous smile. “Guess hide and seek is over...”
Painwheel charged the bitch. “KILL!”
She started off with a swing of the Buar, followed by a jab with her right arm, spikes poking out. Then came more swipes, more punches, a kick, and a hard swing with all four blades formed into one massive hook, planting itself in the ground.
Not even one managed to hit the pony.
“Whoa!” Pinkie Pie said, hopping back from the Buar. It retracted, and she hopped in place. “Better be careful, or you'll hurt somepony with...”
“GRAAAH!” Painwheel growled, trying to hit the pony again. She was shoving enough spikes and blades towards the pony that surely, by shear probability, one of them would connect. But no, the pony just ducked, sidestepped, jumped over, or retreated just at the right moment.
“Ugh...why!” She planted her hands on the ground, drop kicking out and sending spikes from her feet like spears. It was pain. No connect. “Won't!” She spreads her legs, bending over backwards and tucking the Buar between her legs to shoot for those pink legs. Pure agony. Missed entirely. “You!” She sends both fists forward, firing as many spikes as she can in a wide spray. Mercilessly unpleasant. Whiffed like an amateur. “DIE!” The pink one tried to jump over Painwheel's head.
Oh please, Painwheel thought, realizing the optimal course of action given the situation. Anything but that...
She raised her leg, kicking it straight up. Of course it wasn't high enough to hit the pony. Instead, Painwheel grabbed her leg by the calf muscle...and bent it back as hard as she could. She felt, rather than saw, the huge spike fire from the back of her knee. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!”
In the torturous second before she clasped her eyes shut, Painwheel saw the pony tumble in mid-air, allowing the spike to sail harmlessly by in her wake.
Bullshit! You whore!
Painwheel rolled over on the ground, snapping her leg back into proper alignment. Amid the pain, she nearly despaired. How could this be? It wasn't fair. How did the Pinkie Pie always know where she was coming from?
Despair was a luxury Painwheel learned before not to consider indulging in. It would just be taken away somehow anyway. She rose unsteadily to her feet, letting her pain whip her once again into a frenzy. Pain. Pain. “PAIN!” she screamed to the sky, the straps over her mouth stretching as she forced it open. Her Buar Drive spun as near maximum velocity, kicking up dust around her. Waves of energy – her energy – rising with the smoke.
“Yeah,” said Pinkie Pie, giggling. “That'll happen if you WHA!”
Painwheel charged forward, shoulder checking the pony. Not pausing, Painwheel dashed over and grabbed her staggered opponent. She held the pony by the neck, raising it to the sky. It squirmed in Painwheel's grip, but she just tightened and the pony stopped, choking. “Shut up!” The human prepared to slam the pony to the ground.
Then a rock flew out and slammed into Painwheel's arm, forcing her to drop the Pie.
“Fuck!” she yelled, gripping her arm. “What the hell was that?” She turned her head to the direction from whence the rock came...and took a burnt, blackened chunk of metal right in the face. “FRAAGH!” The hit sent her rolling on the ground, clutching her face.
“Direct hit! Good work, darling!”
Painwheel forced herself to her hands and feet, looking over. The unicorn and the pony with the hat stood on the sidewalk several meters away. The unicorn's horn glowed bright, with several small objects suspended in air by the light of the unicorn's aura.
The orange one – Applejack – looked mighty pleased with herself. “Shoot, weren't nothing.” She cocked her hat, eying the human and exuding a confident, knowing air. The human and the pony locked eyes, and the pony winked.
Painwheel growled. Unbelievable. No...incorrigible. They were laughing at her!
She charged. The Pinkie Pie was clearly a lost cause. But Painwheel could take her rage out on the others.
But she only got a meter before the Applejack reared back and bucked another missile at her. Painwheel felt it smack against her chest. “Ghargh!” she grunted, before another missile shot out, and then another. Painwheel had to stop and block, first impotently with her arms, then by putting her Buar in front.
It almost seemed to work, and then one block of wood shot between the blades and hit Painwheel in the knee. Trinity be praised, as well, because it was her bad knee. “Hrraagh! Son of a bitch!” Her eyes were growing moist from not just the agony in her knee, but the collective pain she felt over her entire body. And with all the pain, she wasn't getting any closer to the source of it.
Painwheel stared at them. She clenched her teeth so hard she might have cracked her jaw.
I...hate you, she thought. I hate you so much.
“We've got her on the ropes, Applejack!” Rarity said, rummaging through the pile of refuse she salvaged from the bizarrely inflamed cart nearby. “That will teach her to ruin my fresh supply of Manehatten fabric! And also for hurting Rainbow Dash, of course!”
“That's great, Rarity,” Applejack said, attention fixed on the scoundrel. “Just keeping setting them up, and I'll keep knocking them out.” There really was nothing to worry about now. After those hits – and what the monster did to her own knee (yikes!) - that varmint wasn't getting anywhere near them. Sure, they'd underestimated it before, but watching Pinkie Pie dodge using her Pinkie Sense gave Applejack a pretty solid idea of the monster's capabilities now. It might be able to fly, and on a good stretch it can move when it needs to, but when the chips are down, the thing is deadly up close and useless at range.
And then the creature dropped its defense and stood up. “What the hay is it doin'?”
Painwheel hated using them. By far the most painful of her moves...was the one that involved dislocating her own knee and running a spike through it. No contest there. But near everything involving the parasites hurt. And that included the stingers.
She clenched, keeping her arm raised and level. Skin bulged on her forearm, the pressure building slowly. Instinct told Painwheel to abandon the tactic because of the unpleasantness building to a fever pitch. But then again, her instincts told her to do a lot of things she ended up not doing. Running headfirst into dangerous situations, deliberately pushing spikes through her flesh from the inside, picking a fight with a Skullgirl when Painwheel had no obligation to do so. Even continuing their little brawl, despite the punishment she'd endured.
But there was something else instinct recommended that Painwheel highly agreed with: kill. Instinct tended to flip-flop frequently.
Finally, the pressure spilled out. A large, unattached stinger exploded (painfully of course) from her wrist, flying out at the orange one.
“What in Sam Hill!?” Applejack screamed, dropping to the ground. Her hat, buoyed by wind resistance, hung above her. Hung and floated just in time to get hit by the stinger, embedding both in the wall behind. Applejack's forelegs, thrown over her head, touched her pate and found it hatless. Examination above revealed her stetson's location.
Applejack stood corrected. The monster could attack at range too.
“Oh my word!” Rarity gasped, looking from the pinned hat to Applejack and then to the monster. Rarity gasped again. “Eek!” she said, diving to the side to avoid yet another stinger.
Unfortunately their position offered no cover. Painwheel decided to up the ante. She began squeezing her fist again, with greater ferocity; it resulted in a corresponding rise in pressure, greater than before.
Applejack and Rarity eyed their opponent, tracking her. Applejack in particular jumped from hoof to hoof, ready to dodge out of the way. Which way would it come? Left or right?
Instead, Painwheel aimed up when she fired. And instead of only one stinger, she fired five. Configured to spread over the area, arcing so they would fall from above.
“Oh that just ain't fair!” Applejack said, watching the stingers reach their apex. When they started coming down, Applejack grabbed the now paralyzed Rarity around the shoulders and pushed her along to the only safe place: forward.
The two mares slammed to the street many paces away from the building, hearing the impact of the stingers on the sidewalk. Applejack sat up, panting. Then she noticed bare, filthy feet come into view. She looked up. Beside her, Rarity looked up too, releasing a gasp.
Painwheel stood before them, tightening her arms so they would release their spiky contents upon her attack. She had them right where she wanted them.
“Whoops! Can't have that!”
A voice from behind made Painwheel jump. Oh no...
“Here's frosting in your eye!” Pinkie Pie shouted, planting two cupcakes right into the human's eyes.
“What? AAAAAH!” screamed Painwheel, clutching her face. Her mask, thankfully, had glass lenses over the eyes. Ripping the cake part away did little to remove the frosting, so she began wiping at the lenses frantically. Just as she started to see again – albeit in a cloudy manner, because frosty wreaked havoc on the lenses – the force of a speeding car slammed into her chest, sending her flying. “Ooof! Ugh!”
“Now like I was saying earlier,” Applejack called from somewhere unseen by Painwheel, “How do you like them apples!?”
Landing. There's another pain to add to her list. That and being bucked in the chest, of course. “Damnit...” she groaned, clutching her chest. She fought back the desperate urge to cough. Luckily the impact hadn't collapsed her sternum, or she'd be dead. “Damnit!” She rubbed at her lenses again, finally clearing away the last of the frosting. At least she could see. And she wasn't stopping. She gasped, “Is...is that...all you got?”
“Not yet!”
Painwheel looked up to the sky. A rainbow trail shot from the roof of a nearby building...followed by two more winged ponies. All three began circling overhead. “What?” Painwheel said, staring at it.
“We're...just...getting started!” Rainbow Dash called, wincing. But despite her pain, she displayed that cocksure grin. “Come on girls! Let's blow this monster away!”
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It's pretty good so far. I'm interested to see how the climax of the battle will happen.
I've actuallly been thinking of doing a Skullgirls fic myself. Using Big Band. Never got around to it.
Noooooo! Painwheel must live! also I just now saw her name was Pain-wheel and not Pin-wheel.
4017192 I make those sorts of mistakes all the time. Like for years, I thought the D in the Disney logo was some kind of esoteric symbol that didn't mean anything. It was only more recently I realized it was Walt's stylized way of writing the letter, which looks like an oval with a line down the middle.
Now you can never unsee it.
This is really good, can't wait for more.
Glory to your story
I just can't wait for more chapters
plus it sorta helps when you use my favorite character.
4017242 by the trinity that was painful!......*reads next part*
For a girl who's supposedly been fighting for a while, she doesn't seem to have learned anything about it.
I realize you're trying to keep the Mane 6 alive, but doing so by having Painwheel change targets at every distraction just makes P.W. seem stupid. Some of these distractions (the rocks, for example), are even things that she'd be likely to ignore, as the pain they add is insignificant compared to what she's already suffering. Nevertheless, you have her release the dangerous opponents to chase down minor inconveniences. Multiple times.
And that's without even mentioning how P.W. conveniently and repeatedly forgets she's fighting 6 opponents.
4017128
I've been thinking of one involving Peacock and her apparent fourth wall-breaking abilities...
Look I...I know this is an old story, and I know that you probably resolve this in the future, but... You've got the pain of Painwheel down, but the fight so far is actually insulting. She's beaten the Skullgirl. The Skullgirl in combat, and you're telling me that not only are the Ponies laughing and taunting at her, but that she's also somehow flailing around all over the place like someone from a slapstick comedy.
It's a trait of Pony crossovers that I often don't like.