Chase the Ace
Edited by:
PieisGood4U
BlazinBlade7
dialgex
Thanks guys, your a big help.
----------
Iron, Summer and I looked at each other, then back at the monstrous creature, then back at each other.
“So…does this sort of thing happen a lot round here?” I asked
“No, no it does not.” Summer responded, still staring in horrified curiosity at the monster.
The beast was swaying about, trying to get used to its new body. I know how that felt, getting used to an entirely new body could be a bitch. It was actually sort of funny though, watching this giant creature flail about trying to find its balance.
“We should probably start running soon” I suggested
“I don’t think so, if this beastie manages to get out of here and reach the ponies…” Iron didn’t need to finish that sentence. I could imagine the devastation the beast that had once been Redtooth could cause.
“So we need to stop it right?” Summer and Iron both nodded. “Alright then, I’m going to try something stupid. Something so unexpected that not even whatever-the-hell-that-is will see it coming. The last and potentially most dangerous solution to any conflict.”
Iron and Summer leaned forward slightly, eager to hear what my final devastating solution was.
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to use…diplomacy!”
I wasn’t looking at them but I heard the sound of a hand and a hoof colliding with respective faces, followed by simultaneous exasperated sighs.
Double face palm. I must be doing something right.
Ignoring my companions disapproval of my plan, I stepped forwards and spoke to the flailing monster.
“Hey beastie! I come in peace…kind of. Just wondering if you wouldn’t mind telling me your intentions. Maybe you would like to rant about how your plan will allow you to take over the world and slay everyone? I hear villains love that shit.”
The beast ceased its flailing, holding completely still as the snakelike heads observed me. Come to think of it I wasn’t overly sure that this thing had ears, I might have just wasted my breath.
I was about to back off then all of the heads opened their maws, revealing their razor sharp teeth. Forked tongues, as black as the creatures new skin, darted forward and licked at the air. After the tongues retreated the beast began to hiss, a terrible sound that seemed to invade my eardrums. Strangely the hiss seemed to be forming words inside of my skull. It sounded almost like it was trying to talk.
“Sssssslay”
I wasn’t sure if that was an answer to my question or just a general statement about its disgust at my existence. I didn’t have much time to contemplate its answer as the beast began to lumber forward, moving surprisingly swiftly for such a large creature. I was certainly surprised, barely having time to realise what was happening before a colossal leg collided with me, sending me flying backwards.
“Shiiiiiiiiiiit!” I cried, as a sailed over Summer and Iron, before landing in a heap at the other end of the throne room. Summer and Iron quickly rushed over to make sure that I wasn’t dead. As I struggled back to my feet I could hear a gurgling hiss coming from the creature as it watched my efforts to regain my footing. I think it’s laughing at me…that sadistic fuck.
“I’m afraid that negotiations have broken down, it’s time for some thrilling heroics.”
“And what exactly is the plan here? How do we take that thing out?” Iron asked
“Erm…stab it? A lot?”
Summer and Iron looked at each other, then back to me.
“Sounds good to me.” Summer replied
“Yeah, finally you made a plan I can agree with.” Iron added
Seriously, screw you guys. My plans are perfectly fine….except for when they’re not.
Evidently, the horrific snake monster thing had not been raised to have very good manners as it decided to interrupt our conversation with a very rude bull rush, each of its heads hissing in fury. Iron grabbed Summer and threw her out of the way, before following her himself. I was left to dive in the opposite direction, hoping to split the monsters attention between us. This left the monster in the middle of the throne room, hunting for targets, with Summer and Iron concealed behind pillars on one side and me cowering on the other.
I poked my head out for a quick glance and, once satisfied it wasn’t looking my way, began to signal to Iron. I have never been overly familiar with how military personal manage to communicate with hand gestures, I’m not even sure if a world where most of the inhabitant have hooves even has a system of hand gesture communication, but I tried my best. I think Iron Will understood my intentions, or some garbled version of them, as he nodded and passed the message on to Summer. Looking back to me, he raised his open hand and began to lower the fingers one at a time. As soon as his hand made a fist we both broke from cover, dashing as fast as possible towards the throne.
And the impaled spears that had been left there.
We had barely made it a couple of yards before I heard the hiss of the beast recognizing our movements. It’s thunderous gait began to rock the floor beneath us, as if we were caught in the middle of an earthquake. The huge steps it took would allow it to catch us in mere moments and I dare not look back to observe it’s progress. Any loss of speed now could spell death, I just hope Summer understands her part in the plan.
Just as I felt the ground reverberate below us, as one of the colossus paws impacted mere metres away from me, there was a bright flash and an acrid stink filled the air as a supercharged bolt of electricity struck the beast in the side. It stumbled away from the unexpected assault, losing its footing and collapsing against the nearest pillar, which shattered underneath it’s bulk, burying the creature in rubble. Iron and I swivelled round to observe this, stunned by the force of Summer’s sneak attack.
“Did we get it?” I asked hesitantly.
In response to my inquiry the remains of the pillar, each broken piece a cylinder of stone larger than Iron, began to shift as the beast clawed its way out. Judging by the muffled hissing and the scrabbling of its bulky frame, it was not very pleased about now. Iron looked at me in a judging fashion.
“What? What did I do?” I asked, honestly confused
“You jinxed it. If you have to ask if the monster is dead, then the monster is almost definitely not dead. Got it?”
“Erm…Yeah” How did Iron Will know about monster slaying? I’ll have to ask him later, but for now we have an awful lot of running to do.
Iron an I took off running again, desperate to reach some form of weapon before the once-dog could fully recover. I wasn’t entirely sure how effective the spears would be against such a huge creature though. They might be useful in giving it a small itch, but that was about it. Still beggars can’t be choosers.
We reached the throne just as the beast shifted the last of the rubble of its form. We tried to ignore the sound of it getting to its feet as we yanked the spears from their place in the throne. I had to leave Iron to it as the dogs, in their eagerness to kill me, had managed to get those spears good and stuck. My feeble efforts to remove them were quickly brushed aside by Iron and I contented myself observing the creature. Thank the gods that Summer had had the presence of mind to conceal herself after her attack. The beast was pissed from being blindsided like that and would be swift to return the favour to its attacker.
It eventually gave up looking for the mysterious disappearing mare and instead searched for us. Its search didn’t take it very long, we weren’t exactly hidden as we retrieved our new weapons. Iron handed me a spear that he had managed to dislodge and began pulling at a second for himself.
“Iron, not to hurry you or anything but we’re about to have some company”
“How soon?” He asked, still yanking at the spear.
“Right about…now” I shoved Iron Will to one side, noticing that he managed to take his weapon with him, before diving the opposite way. The once-dog smashed into the throne that we had been standing in front of a few seconds earlier, obliterating it entirely and destroying many of the pots that had been concealed behind it. The beast noticed that it had not only missed its foes but also spilled some of the foul liquid. It roared in rage, the hiss of the snake heads combining with a far more bestial sound that originated from deep within the dogs body. A predatory growl.
Iron Will and I weren’t about to wait for it to charge us again. Instead we took the initiative, leaping forward to jab at the beast with our spears. I managed to stab my weapon into the monsters thigh, whilst Iron buried his in its gut and was forced to leave it there before the huge paws caught him.
Backing off, we surveyed the damage that we had managed to do to the beast. The injury I caused to its leg would certainly slow it down whilst the stomach wound that Iron had achieved might even kill it, given enough time.
I expected the beast to attempt another furious charge to repay us for the injuries but I got something entirely different. That strange gurgling laugh emanated from the snakeheads once more. As the beast let out its dark chuckle, one of its paws reached up and grasped the spear implanted in its stomach and, with a swift yank, removed the offending object, allowing blood as black as night to pour forth from the wound. Now I was totally confused. Had the beast just caused greater injury to itself by removing the spear? Why would it do that?
I got my answer all too soon.
The black blood pouring from the wound abruptly ceased as the skin around the opening began to shift and move. For a moment the entire skin of the once-dog appeared to stretch and expand before it settled again. When the beast’s skin had finally ceased its convulsing all traces of the wound had gone and, after a quick glance, I saw that the wound in its thigh had also closed up.
It could regenerate injuries. That’s just not fair.
The once-dog looked at the spear that had caused its gut wound, before letting out a deep chuckle and casually snapping the weapon between two of its fingers. I realised that if we were going to have any chance of taking this thing down we would need some bigger weapons.
“Iron, I want you to take Summer and leave”
“What? I ain’t leaving you to fight that thing alone kid!” He replied hotly.
“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine, but I need you to go and get some bigger weapons. We’re going to need some proper ordnance to stop this beastie”
“Are you thinking of…”
“Oh hell yeah” I sent him a murderously cheerful grin which he happily returned. He appeared to have thought of the same thing I had.
“What about you though?” He questioned
“I’m probably the fastest and most agile out of the three of us, I’ll keep him distracted. You’ll need Summer where your going anyway”
“Alright, best of luck kid, don’t die. Summer! With me!” He charged off.
“What in Tartarus is going on!?” I heard her shout.
“Kid says he’s got a plan, told us to leave him”
“What? Oh Celestia, he’s going to die isn’t he?” Damn Summer, you wound me deep.
Iron’s response, and subsequent explanation of my plan, was lost as the door slammed shut behind them. Leaving me alone.
Well, alone except for the massive hell beast in front of me.
“Hey, wanna play a game? How bout a quick round of Chase the Ace?” I offered.
The once-dog didn’t seem to take to kindly to this, as it simply roared and charged at me once more. I immediately dove out of the way, allowing it to smash nothing but the air where I had been.
“Okay, how about poker?” I threw my spear at it, the weapon sailing through the air to impale into the monsters back. The weapon did little more than annoy it but, at the moment at least, that’s exactly what I was trying to do.
“Get it? Poker? With the spear? Poke-er…?”
It turned and charged me again, forcing me to leap out of the way once more.
“Oh fuck you, I’m funny”
The once-dog seemed to take offence to this statement as it charged at me once more, but this time far more slowly. I realised that if I tried to roll out of the way of this one then it would be able to stop and grab me whilst I recovered from the dive. Instead I was forced to run away, the monster following close behind me.
My strong goat legs allowed me to cover the ground swiftly, each step bounding me forward. I discovered that the most efficient way to move was not the movement of each leg in the running that I was used to as a human, but rather to kick with both legs, essentially bucking the ground and sending me flying forward in a huge leap. My legs seemed to move underneath me automatically, allowing me to land in the perfect position for another leap.
So this is what it feels like to run like a rabbit.
Not that I was complaining of course. The huge stride of the once-dog chasing me was all the incentive I needed to take every advantage I could get to escape from it. As I ran, or bounded, I wondered exactly how long I would be able to keep this up for. Hopefully long enough for Iron and Summer to get back and save my furry ass.
I led the beast on a merry chase around the room, leaping over the rubble created by its earlier fall and occasionally bouncing off the walls to increase my turning speed. At one point I attempted to zigzag in between the pillars, hoping to slow my pursuer down with the swift turns. However the once-dog had no concern for such impediments and simply smashed right through them in its anger, forcing me to abandon this strategy as I feared for the structural integrity of a throne room with no pillars to hold up the roof.
One unfortunate side effect of my bounding way of movement was that it caused the pouches around my waist to bounce about uncomfortably. The large pouch containing my stolen dynamite kept jumping up and smacking me in the ribs.
Hold on a sec…dynamite.
If I wasn’t running for dear life I would have taken a time out to face palm at my own stupidity. How could I have forgotten about the dynamite?
As I shot past one of the few remaining pillars I reached out and removed a torch from its bracket. Retrieving a single stick of the blasting powder from my bag I carefully, or as carefully as I could whilst travelling faster than any human had ever travelled on foot, lit the detonation tape poking out of one end of the red cylinder.
Huh, I wonder how long it takes to blow up?
With a careless shrug I tossed the bomb over one shoulder and carried on running, now trying to escape both the monster and the blast radius. A few seconds later I was nearly knocked me off my hooves as a concussive blast hit me, followed by my ears ringing. I hit the side of my head, attempting to restore my hearing, as I scrambled to my hooves. The first thing I noticed was the sheer amount of dust that had been kicked up by the explosion.
The second thing I noticed was that I couldn’t hear the beasts footsteps anymore.
Did I get it?
Cautiously I approached where I had last seen the once-dog before the explosion, wafting one hand through the air to get rid of some of the dust and covering my mouth with the other. As the smoke cleared I noticed a figure in front of me, prone on the floor. It was definitely the monster and it definitely wasn’t intact anymore.
It looked like one of the snakeheads had caught the stick of dynamite I had thrown, evidently there was still some dog in there. Every single one of the heads had been taken completely off by the explosion, leaving a dozen bloody stumps behind. I felt myself overcome by elation. I’d won! Wait until Iron and Summer see this!
“Hah! Suck it! Regenerate that one bitch!” Feeling confident I approached the corpse, giving it a swift kick. I began to laugh, the adrenaline overcoming my disgust at the blood. It started off as a nervous giggle, slowly escalating until I was laughing like a madman.
I scrabbled up the corpses bulk until I was standing on its chest, staring down at where its heads had once been. Still laughing, I began to do a little jig, hooves thudding into its unmoving chest. I couldn’t believe I had actually survived that, not only survived though, but won. And on my own as well.
My celebrations were tragically cut short as the ground beneath me began to move, causing me to flail about to keep my balance.
Oh crap, is the cavern collapsing?
Too late I realised that I wasn’t standing on the floor and thus, it wasn’t the floor that I felt move, but rather the chest of the colossus I was standing on. A ragged wheeze escaped from the beasts headless stumps, as if it was trying to draw in air without the need of a working throat system. The chest began to beat in a steady rhythm and, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed movement coming from its previously limp arms.
I could only stand there, my body unmoving but my mind screaming at me for my stupidity, as the arms evolved from random twitches to suddenly leaping forward and grabbing me. They clamped around my body and held me tight, my arms pinned to me side.
The beast clambered to its feet, still holding me tight in its grip. Its breathing was still laboured and it remained completely headless. How is it even working without a head? Is it a bit like a chicken, that it doesn’t need much of a brain to operate?
Clearly my mind had broken from the fear, now just reduced to resigned curiosity about my fate. Iron Will had been right, I totally jinxed it when I gloated over the body.
So this is how it ends? Ripped to bits by a mutated dog monster whilst trapped in a world of magic where ponies are one of the main forms of sentient life.
I pondered my predicament.
I honestly didn’t see it coming.
The beast skin began its rippling again, signalling its regeneration trick. It was different this time though, the skin rippled but when it reached the devastated necks it stopped, simply healing all outside damage. Blood spurted out of the necks in a geyser, shooting forward and splattering everything in the surrounding, including me. I shook my head to clear away the worst of the blood and, when I managed to focus on the beast again, saw that all of its heads were back to normal. Well, as normal as a multi-headed snake hound can be.
The heads all looked at me, trapped as I was in between its paws, and grinned a feral smile. The centremost head leaned forward, its mouth opening to an obscene size. It’s tongue flicker out outwards to taste the fear of the meal before it. Those razor sharp teeth glittering in the light of the fires. It hovered over my head for a moment, swaying side to side as it considered its prey, before shooting forward.
To envelop me in darkness.
Stats
Page generated in 0.027 seconds
Total duration
904 users online
494,795 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
uh oh
YESSS! NEW CHAPTER!
And cliffhanger >.>
And thus has ended the tale of Ace, The Satyr Who Thought He Was Lucky! Coming up next week: BOZO, The Not So Great But Very Much Edible Diamond Dog! Stay tuned for more!
1066691 What day of the week?
cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/20366038.jpg
You suicidal? Got a light? Light the other sticks of dynamite.
Hey that rhymed.
In the action business, when you don't want to say you ran like a mouse, you call it 'taking cover.' It's more heroic.
*slow clap*
Well, you tried.
-Glassed
cliffhangerwhyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
1091653 i laughed pretty hard at poker, though i thought it was funnier before he explained it
poker huh.... well hes a magician not a comedian.
That probably wasn't the best time for Ace to give not-dog a peace of his mind.
2613048 Geh. Why?
"Let it be known that while it is an option none of the enemies respond to diplomacy" It's the do plomacy button ( game grumps)
Epic Battle! After consumption more of the stuff than own body mass in years i see how a creature like this can come to life...
Damn impressive! 
Genius idea 