Prologue

"Well shit.."

My hands tightened their grip around the white-hot knuckledusters as sweat dripped off my exhausted forearms and sizzled onto the metal. The super-heated weapons hissed and whined from the perspiration making contact with the searing surface. I raised my fists to my face, ignoring the soreness in my muscles as they screamed for rest. The air in front of my hands was a hazy mirage of heated atmosphere, Through the shimmering air I could see my opponent, it’s large bulky form hulking over everything around it. It’s metal body shimmered as steam and arcane energy rose from between the cracks in it’s shell. The golem’s once reflective, mirror like face was now dented and matted dark brown from intense heat and pressure. The runes that had previously glowed atop its forehead, now only faintly flicker every so often as they could barely be seen through heavy scorch marks.

The metal giant stood still, unwavering and solid like a mountain made of pure silver. The being barely seemed to notice its crippled, melted right arm as it seemed to stare me down with an expressionless flat face that radiated a feeling of robotic like destruction and automatic coldness. I shifted from one foot to the other, leg and shin armor clanking together as I danced off my adrenaline. Whatever this thing is made of, it damn sure is strong. Hit after hit, punch after punch, even after a direct heat dump into it’s right arm, effectively melting it, had only shown to slowed down the golem slightly.

I've been fighting this thing for over an hour now, my whole body feels like lead after dodge and catching the devastating attacks the beast dished out. luckily I was able to lure it out of the town and into the fields just outside the city limits. My mind raced as the construct remained still, holding its position like it was heavily calculating the situation. I wouldn't be lying if I said my nerves were shot to shit waiting for this thing to make a move, my pacing only got more erratic and quick the more time passed by. I have no clue how the golem got into town, much like the rest of the monsters, but I had only been able to respond to the attack about five minutes after it happened. For if it wasn't Twilight frantically knocking on my door and speed yelling the situation, I don't think there would be much of a town to live in. The girls had managed to trap it in a magick bubble, suspending its rampage for a short time in order to call for assistance.

A loud hiss escaped from the back of the golem, accompanied by a large plume of steam rising from the metal shell, it was about to attack. My thoughts were cut short by its sudden movement, It’s digitigrade legs dug into the ground as it lunged forward, the golem’s still functional left arm had peeled back to release a deadly looking meter long blade that slashed at the air in front of me. I quickly rolled to the side, narrowly escaping a vicious slice at the space where my head had been.

My hastily roll had, surprisingly, given me a superior fighting position. The golem had over extend its attack, effectively putting me into its flank and blindspot. Not wanting to waste anytime, I sprung up and launched a volley of punches into it’s weak back plates, the armor heated up and began to deform rapidly as my knuckledusters did their job to melt the plates. However, as soon as I could do any significant damage, The construct’s entire upper half rotated around to face me, sending a blast of scalding hot steam into my face.

I yelped and jumped back, swearing as I blocking my face while staggering backward. Suddenly, my entire body rocked sideways and went airborne as the golem slammed with the force of a freight train. I kicked up dirt and debris as my body crashed hard into the ground, digging a shallow trench from the impact and landing me a few meters away from the fight.

"F-fucking Christ" I groaned through gritted teeth, my left arm was limp and my shoulder painfully throbbed. Dammit, I think my arm is dislocated.

Unfortunately for me, I was correct. Looking down at my shoulder, I could see it bent and misshapen in a rather ugly fashion, any attempt to move it was met with a jagged, sharp pain that rocketed up from my shoulder and into my neck. What little armor I was wearing had only slightly damped the collision I suffered. The ground I was currently laying on shook and trembled from the mighty foot falls of my enemy, I looked up to see the glinting armor of the golem slowly making its way toward my injured form. I struggled to rise to my feet, But as I did he was on me in a flash. Grabbing my neck and hoisted me up twelve feet above him. I punched and attacked his arm, but to no avail, It seemed as if he had somehow shifted the heaviest plate armor to his left arm, preventing me from doing any real damage besides scorch marks.

My struggles ceased as my eyes widened and caught sight of the golem’s entire face opening up to reveal a pit of rotating serrated blades saturated in blistering arcane energy. The energy reach out like a telekinetic tentacle and started pulling my head into it’s maw.

no, no, NO, NO! I roared internally, struggling against the energy by launching another attack of punches. In a panic I began heating my weapons exponentially, causing them to soften and lose shape, the knuckdusters turned molten as I just began to dent its arm. My fists turned into a blur trying to break the hold it had on me as I kicked and yelled.

The magickal tentacles reached out again and tugged harder at me, desperately trying to suck me in for another time. At this point I realized If I don't do something now, I'll be dead as a fucking door nail. My thoughts flew at the speed of light, thinking of ways to escape as i inched closer and closer to death. Then it clicked,

Another Heat Dump.

No, I cant do it, after the last one that took out it's arm, I don't think I have the energy to do it again.

The buzzing and whirring of millions of blades drawing near made me second guess my capacity for a heat dump. Drawing a deep breath, I closed my eyes and latched my hands onto my attacker's forearm, my chest burned and my hair stood on end as I drew from deep within me. I could feel intense power rising from my sternum to my collar, from there it only got hotter as it traveled down my arms and into my hands. The flow became greater and more excited as the metal around my hands began to glow, hiss, and pop. Then, with a sharp and deep exhale, I forced an extraordinary amount of heat and power that transferred from my body, directly into the golem.

With a thunderous boom, I was dropped and thrown back, the explosion causing the construct's entire arm, shoulder, and a quarter of its upper body to violently erupt and melt, spraying molten shrapnel in every direction. The golem groaned, it's legs crumbling as it tried to recover from the blast, only to have it stagger, then fell forward with a terrible bang as it crash into the ground. My vision became blurry and grey, the plopping sound of molten metal that rained down from the sky all around me filled my ears as I stared upward, fighting off unconsciousness.

"Jaaake!"

I perked up at the sudden noise, turning my head to the distant voice, I could make out two forms galloping toward me at break neck speeds.

"Jaake!"

"JAKE!- oh my Celestia, Jake!"

Two sets of hooves scampered over to my side as my vision turned purple, my upper body was gently being lifted into a sitting position by a set of minty green hoofs. the first thing I saw was Twilight, eyes wide and a face full of concern and worry. Her horn blazed to life as she began a medical scan over my body, washing over me with a white, soothing glow that tingled my bones.

"What the Buck is wrong with you?!" the voice holding me up said, I craned my neck to see my best friend, Lyra, looking at me with a wild, heated glare.

"Besides my arm? I'm feelin' pretty chill" I said as I cracked a toothy smile at her, which only resulted in her face hoofing with her free foreleg.

"We had it under control doofus, it was in a containment shield and the Royal Battle Mages were only two minutes away." Her green muzzle scrunched up angrily.

"Well it looks like two minutes wasn't long enough, the bitch broke free before the Mages even got here." My eyebrows furrowed in return to her pissed gaze.

"Ugggh! we could have re-contained it! you didn't have pull that stupid stunt and try to lure it away. YOU" She pointed her hoof at me "Were supposed to evacuate or hide anypony who got caught near it, and what do you do? Ya run up to it, punch it in the back of the head, and call it a 'oversized shinny dildo'."

She let go of me and raised two of her hoofs in a confused manner,

"like seriously dude, what the buck was going through your head!?"

I smirked a shit-eating grin, "besides his fist? I thought it was pretty funny."

Her shoulders dropped as she let out a exasperated grunt-sigh followed by mumbling under her breath, "half brained great ape". I turned to Twilight, she was still busy looking me over, scrutinizing my body with an intent, clinical eye that replaced her previous panicked look.

"So Doctor Eggplant, whats the diagnosis?" Twilight shot me a brief icy glare before returning to a surprisingly calm demeanor.

"Well the good news is, besides heavy bruising and a dislocated shoulder, you're fine."

I raised an eyebrow, "That's the good news?"

"Wanna hear the bad news then? From the looks of it, you depleted your reserves, and it doesn't like like they will be back to normal for a few weeks at most. You'll need at least a week of bed rest before you should even attempt any small power excursion."

I groaned heavily and threw my head back in annoyance. A week? I don't got time for that shit, what if another attack occurs? plus I need my power for work.

"Fuuuuck! what the hell Sparkle, I can't do anything? for a week?"

"Yes, that is correct."

This time I grunted louder and cradled my face within my hands, the heat from before still radiated heavily from them.

"This is such bullshit."

"well Maaaybe" Twilight started, "if someone hadn't sunk their entire reserves, TWICE, then you wouldn't even be in this situation." Her face and tone scolded me like an annoyed mother.

"ugh, whatever, I killed the thing and that's all that matters, now help me get up you nerd." Sighing once more, Twilight used her magic to lift me up and onto my feet. I wobbled a little but was soon stabilized on my own.

"Welp, I guess we should go back to town and tell the Mage's about the melted hunk of metal over there." Lyra motioned to the smoldering wreck of the golem behind us.

The three of us started walking out of the fields and toward Ponyville, me limping slightly as I walked along side them.

"Hey Twi."

"Yes Jake?"

"I'm going to need a new set of knuckledusters...I kinda..melted them, again."

Twi face hoofed while Lyra chuckled alongside me.

Author's Note:

hey look, a new story! had this idea floating around my noggin for the past week, decided to make a story out of it. As always, leave a comment about what you think of the story if you like, suggestions and corrections appreciated. Thanks! /)

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