My Little Wuxia: A Canter-Kong Wedding

Uncle winces a bit, tossing his cane at the changeling's face and doing a quick spinning kick, calling over to Cast Dice. "WATCH OUT!" The unicorn's horn glows it's normal silvery color, and he fires off a burst of fan-shaped magic, smacking as best as he can into the insectoid creature chasing her.

It takes all of Whisper's resolve not to gag as the magnet sinks into the changeling's chest with a sickening squelch. In her panic she razed the thing all through the changeling's insides. So much for saving the changeling. She stands frozen in place for a moment, looking at the corpse of the changeling he just killed. Reality comes crashing back down to her. She begins to cry, still frozen in place. Today had been traumatic, and just as she had started to feel better, this had happened. After all she did to try and help this evil beast, it was dead anyway. But that wasn't why she's really sad. She's horrified because she had just ended a life. Evil or not, Whisper was a singer, not a killer. She'd never imagined ending anything's life except for the occasional insect she accidentally stepped on. It's too much for her. She simply lays down on the floor of the building and cries.

Plow sighs as he flips himself over yet again, shaking his head. Either he's really out of practice or the ponies he fights with normally are holding back.

"Thanks Marshal."

Or these guys are just better fighters. He ponders that a moment, and rushes back towards the marketplace. If the guards were better than regular ponies, then-

And the entire place is overrun. Nuts.

He rushes foolishly into the fray, ignoring his own safety as he lashes out at changelings to reach the trapped guards.

"LEAVE!"

Lucy swings wide, trying to catch another changeling, their sheer numbers making it difficult to miss a changeling, although ensuring that Plowclaw's efforts are at best mediocre.

"MY!"

A balled claw lashes out to impact a a chest carapace.

"FRIENDS!"

He swings his torso around to ram a shoulder into another changling, trying to clear the path.

"ALONE!"

Nobody is going to be alone for long. There's enough changelings for that. Plow turns at bay, snarling as he adjusts his grip on Lucy. There's no chance for a foolish griffon, outnumbered and surrounded, but he couldn't just leave them. He couldn't.

"Oh, I know it's behind me, thank you!" Dice shouts in response to Uncle's warning, taking almost too long to realize what he meant, throwing herself to the ground as what appeared to be a glowing fan flew towards her from Uncle's position.  Momentum carried her further, until she skidded to a halt, headbutting the changeling that was battering fruitlessly at Uncle's forcefield.  

Standing up again, she grabbed the largest fragments of Uncle's cane- hooking the curved end into her jacket (in case the old stallion was attached to it, it could be fixed later) and holding the other in her mouth, striking and then prodding (with the pointy splintered end) at the nearby foe for good measure.  The griffon's bellows could be heard not too far off"Hear that?  Sounds like we're not the only ones putting up a fight- I think we should go see who that is."  But she didn't move yet- not wanting to create an opening for either of the changelings they were fighting, and not going anywhere without Uncle.

The rubble on top of Marhsal rumbles, then falls over away from the pony, cracks all over his now-dull sugary surface slowly mending themselves. "Ouch. Well, not trying that again." He watches as the griffon goes off on several more changeings in a full rage, and shakes his head. "There are worse ways to go about that. Like this," he says to nobody in particular.

He then picks five good pies from his pack, and bucks them all high into the air with one swift motion. As each comes down, he spins and kick out with a different leg and sends it flying into a different changeling soemwhere in the fight. The first two strike at two changelings harassing some innocents, one making a small mushroom cloud and the other slamming the target into a nearby building. The next pie kinda dribbles off the changeling it hits...who then goes into dry heaves as it smells the rotten pastry. The fourth pie hits a bug fighting a guard. Huh, chocolate, the changeling thingks as it tastes the sweet filling, and then get tackled in its distraction.

The last pie never comes down. When Marshal looks up, he sees it had hit a changeling at random it the air, and also strangly has a screaming white unicorn filly riding on it... The filly seems to be doing well for herself, and quickly gains control and flies her ride into the palace.

Wierd.

Marshal nimbly leaps to a higher position and gets sight of all his fighting companions, wanting to make sure they're alright, and to get a general size-up of the situation itself.

Pie Rolls:

A conjured fan flies over Dice's head, straight towards the face of the changeling chasing her. It leaps into the air with remarkable speed - but not quite enough, as the conjured weapon catches it on a hind leg and turns the deft leap into a faceplant in the making.

Marshal leaps up, and hurls his first pie.

---

"Who says a girl can't really have it all?~" The changeling queen laughs with cruel glee. A thundering explosion in the distance only seems to punctuate the effect. Behind her, unnoticed, Twilight creeps towards Cadance, still stuck.

---

"...and I'm really unhappy that there's an angry griffon with a hammer tearing towards you at 340 miles per hour." "Wait, wha-"

CRACK!

"Well that's two times today I've been happy to see your ugly mug. You're making this a bad habit." "How'd you know he was flying at 340, anyway?"

---

"Quick, go to him while you still have the chance!" hisses Twilight, burning away the sticky goop. Without a word, the princess gallops for her groom.

---

Dice's head and momentum proves a surprisingly worthy adversary for the changeling hammering on Uncle's forcefield. It bounces off with a satisfyingly surprised look, flailing its legs and wings to try and right itself.

---

Cadance pants as she reaches Shining Armour, throwing her forelegs around him and closing her eyes. Her horn crackles, and a heart floats into the air and to the unicorn, breaking the spell.

"Wh... where... what? Is the wedding over?"

---

Even through her tears, Whisper starts to pick up a scent. A strange scent. A strong one, like ozone. It floods her senses, driving out the smell of blood, and draws her attention towards the palace. Outside the clamor almost seems to die down in anticipation.

---

"My love will give you strength." Shining Armour's horn starts to glow, as does Cadance's as the two horns are brought close together. An arc starts to crackle between the two, and finally they touch. A blinding glow begins to fill the room, and Chrysalis turns in horror.

---

The castle blows brilliantly, and an anguished "Noooooooo!" punctuates a sparkling wave of energy sweeping out in several arcs, forming a cohesive sphere that seems to start pushing the changelings away for a brief, wonderful moment. Then it flickers, and melts away. A second blasts out, this time a mesh, expanding in an attempt to cover the city, before crumbling away into fine ribbons.

Finally, a third emerges, this one much smaller, and covering only the palace itself.

Rocker and Snowpea start struggling anew against their bonds. "Quick! We need to get to the palace!"

Uncle pants a little bit, horn tingling from the rush of magic sliding by him, causing the Unicorn to quickly turn towards the castle, his horn glows and he summons another fan of magic, calling out to Dice. "Quickly, we must head to the castle at once. It's the only safe place it seems!" Uncle rapidly rushes, nervous and already leaping into the air to jump his way over, the ground dangerous.

Pingcode wrote:
---

"...and I'm really unhappy that there's an angry griffon with a hammer tearing towards you at 340 miles per hour." "Wait, wha-"

CRACK!

"Well that's two times today I've been happy to see your ugly mug. You're making this a bad habit." "How'd you know he was flying at 340, anyway?"

---

The castle blows brilliantly, and an anguished "Noooooooo!" punctuates a sparkling wave of energy sweeping out in several arcs, forming a cohesive sphere that seems to start pushing the changelings away for a brief, wonderful moment. Then it flickers, and melts away. A second blasts out, this time a mesh, expanding in an attempt to cover the city, before crumbling away into fine ribbons.

Finally, a third emerges, this one much smaller, and covering only the palace itself.

Rocker and Snowpea start struggling anew against their bonds. "Quick! We need to get to the palace!"

"Hold on, hold on!"

Plow grunts as he turns to the duo, using his claws and beak on the sticky substance to free the guards.

"Bleh! Ugh!" Unsurprisingly, he doesn't find this to be the absolute best solution. "Ptoo! Yuck! He probably remembers how fast I was going the last time I got a ticket. Blegh." Plow does his best Mr. Yuck impression, minus the crosses for eyes.

"You guys get moving. I'm gonna try to..."

He looks around. The numbers are too great. This is the time when you really should retreat. Really.

So he launches himself into the air, gets a decent distance up, and takes a deep breath.

Meta:

"EVERYPONY GET YOUR PLOT TO THE CASTLE NOW! THIS IS NOT A DRILL, THIS IS SERIOUS! TARGETS OF OPPORTUNITY AND HIT AND RUN TACTICS ONLY! MOVE MOVE MOVE!"

He then drops himself on the nearest changeling that has a victim, trying to rescue the pony. Because following your own advice is for leaders, not heroes.

Especially stupid heroes.

Marshal taps the side of his head, trying to get the ringing out of his ears. He watches Plow, not ten meeters away, go back to punching bugs. "Alright, featherbrain," he says, not hearing his own words. "You're coming too." With that, he launches himself at the griffon(now done punching any nearby changelings) and onto another building.

"We need to get to the castle to regroup. Stay out here and you'll get yourself captured sooner or later." With another kick, he leaps to the next building and the next. Every jolt knocks the wind out of Plowclaw, but on the fourth of fifth, about halfway there, Marhsal finally sets him down. His hearing finally returns a bit as he looks back from this new vantage point at his allies now directly below(in various directions).

"We get everypony out, or nopony. You know what that's all about."

Whisper, still shaken, stands up and looks at the changeling she just killed. Even in her distress, there was a thought in her mind. It was partially why she was so distressed, a sneaking suspicion that these changelings might be more than what they seemed. The shell looked insectoid, but there was hair under it, and real red blood in the wounds. They had pony-like structure in many respects. Could her suspicion be correct? She grabs some of the tools nearby and begins attempting to peel the shell away from the face of the dead changeling, still distressed but curiosity is taking over.

Whisper slowly cuts through the changeling's mask, and slowly peels it away, that same greenish film falling away and leaking green fluid all over the floor. Perhaps it's a wish to dispel the fear of the unknown, perhaps it's just curiosity. Whatever the reason, the shell provides little resistance once the softer parts are cut away, and it falls to the floor, like a mask - save for the horn, which stays stubbornly fixed.

The face she discovers underneath is surprisingly serene, were it not for the eyes staring blankly forwards. It was difficult to see when she was operating before, but here at the head, around the roots of the almost white coat, there's signs that this creature was once a deep red. A touch confirms horse hair - it's easy enough to tell. The facial structure, though...

Just as she leans in to make a closer check, out of the corner of her eye, she notices.

The eyes had moved.

And they were fixed on her.



---

The guards glance at each other and nod. "Good Luck." "Let's hope it's back to domestic disturbances tomorrow, eh?"

The rest of the ponies are shaken from their stupor by the bellowed orders, and before long the street is a veritable of stampede, herd mentality taking over and those still able to run starting to coalesce together into a single mob of ponies rushing towards the palace. It's very hard to miss from any direction, especially from before

Changelings swoop down and tackle stragglers off the edges, and what few guards are still standing try to fight them off, but it's a struggle and nopony seems to dare slow down. You can easily count maybe three, four - not too many. Most seem to be falling back to consolidate their gains and form up into proper groups now.

Spoiler:

She steps back quickly. The sight before her is quite disturbing. All signs show that this... this thing was a pony once. How it got this way is unclear, but it probably has something to do with the way these things drain ponies. The thought sickens Whisper, but she manages to get a hold on herself this time. Yet her mind wandered back to how this could have happened. Did he have family once? Did they miss him? Do they have any idea what happened to him? No, she thinks. I can't think about that. It only makes this worse. I need to keep going. This information could be vital. There may even be a way to reverse the process if we study it, I hope. I need to get out of here.

Whisper grabs the chitin removed from the face as well as a small sample of the green goop and some the white hair. Then she steps outside to find anyone who can help.

conantheghost wrote:Marshal taps the side of his head, trying to get the ringing out of his ears. He watches Plow, not ten meters away, go back to punching bugs. "Alright, featherbrain," he says, not hearing his own words. "You're coming too." With that, he launches himself at the griffon(now done punching any nearby changelings) and onto another building.

"Hey! Let go! I've gotta get back in there. There's still ponies back there! Let go! HEY!"

conantheghost wrote:"We need to get to the castle to regroup. Stay out here and you'll get yourself captured sooner or later."

"I can still fight! Let me back in there!"

conantheghost wrote:With another kick, he leaps to the next building and the next. Every jolt knocks the wind out of Plowclaw, but on the fourth of fifth, about halfway there, Marhsal finally sets him down. His hearing finally returns a bit as he looks back from this new vantage point at his allies now directly below(in various directions).

"OOF!" Dagnabbit, how can a pony-

"GAH!" STOPPIT!

"*Rawrk!*"

Plow settles for a quiet groan as he gets his breath back after that.... 'rescue'. He shoots an annoyed glare at Marshal.

conantheghost wrote:"We get everypony out, or nopony. You know what that's all about."

"No. I don't. If you want everypony out, then let me get back in there. I can get some more ponies out... we can.. I... there's gotta be something we can do. There's..." Plow shakes his head and grumbles. "They can handle themselves. That's why we were working together. We need to get in there and save the ponies that can't. I..."

"I guess that'll be easier if we're all together, though. Fine." With an annoyed grunt, Plow tries to figure out what to do.

Init:

Uncle catches sight of the rest of the group from his leaping, including Cast Dice a few ways behind him. "Everypony, be careful!" The unicorn calls out, summoning another ethereal fan in front of his face, still leaping around well enough to try and catch whatever changelings go after him.

int:

Init:

Marshal gives Plow a long and hard stare, almost to the point of rudeness, but breaks his gaze just short of that. "That works. We need to regroup, preferably as we finish off this new batch. If we live that long, that is." He flashes off the roof to the ground, ready for the fight to come.