Pucci (3rd person)
An echoing bang bounced off the decrypted wall of the main chamber as a large portion of stone landed with a small dust cloud at the bottom of a long staircase.
This staircase led up to two thrones- one small, one big -that loomed over everything else in the room; above them were two banners depicting the sun and moon. Behind the thrones, Pucci threw chunks of rock behind him, using Made in Heaven to break further into the filly-sized hole it made in the back wall.
His hooves were littered with deep cuts, scraps, and unsightly chipping- blood sprinkled his work section. The astronomer's muscles ached from the digging and his previous run, and each stone Pucci lugged made him wince in pain, yet he did not stop.
"I'm sure…it's somewhere…around here." He huffed between labored breaths, "Why would…something so important…not be…close to…the princesses?" Another hiss of pain escaped passed his teeth as a particularly sharp stone stabbed into his fetlock. Sure, the assumption was ridiculous, but what other choice did he have? He wasn't the second coming of Daring-Do or anything.
He'd searched as much of the castle's first floor as he could- ignoring places likely not to hold important magical artifacts -before his injured flank made its presence known to Pucci. Luckily, he found some old cloth in one of the rooms he explored and used it to haphazardly bandage his wound, as unsanitary as it may be. But the past few hours of idiotically walking around aimlessly through the many halls of the old castle yielded no results. So to fix this, Pucci decided to throw preservation laws to the wind and start breaking walls and floors to find some hidden compartment that held the book.
And, still, nothing.
Pucci released a sigh of defeat and hung his head. "If I were a unicorn, finding this damn thing wouldn't be as hard." He grimaced. "I'm wasting my time. There has to be some way I can find it?" Pucci put a hoof under his chin in thought. Where would a magical book be kept?
The first idea was in the castle's old public library, where Celestia used to keep most of the castle's tomes, but that was unlikely. One, it used to be a public area, and there would be no good reason to keep a powerful magic artifact there. Two, any books that remained and somehow survived would be ruined by the elements, reducing them to unreadable garbage with a missing roof. He was lucky the room he was in at the minute had remnants of a roof; the broken windows and glass roof led to minor snow build-up and dim light flooding the main room.
Okay, so the library is a no-go. Then maybe Pucci could find Celestia's old room and snoop around there? As wrong as it sounded, there were rumors of secret paths and entrances in the Canterlot castle back in Canterlot, so what's to say there aren't any in here?
"It's not like I have many options here," Pucci said, getting off the floor and to his damaged hooves with another wince. "A stallion should never do something so perverse, but it's for a good cause." He justified, ignoring the blush he felt on his face. Why was he getting so worked up? He was going to break into the ex- princess's old bedroom, snoop around for any secrets, probably find something, and steal it to satisfy his selfish revenge campaign.
…
Okay, that sounded worse than he thought.
Nonetheless, he shook his head of those thoughts and focused on his reason for being here. With a limp, Pucci left the throne room and began his search for one of the castle wing's tower entrances; it was common knowledge that a pony of royalty would live in the tallest point of their home.
Along the way, Pucci couldn't help but feel slightly unnerved by his surroundings. Any corners and hallways were all but pitch-black voids with no amount of light. Small noises echoed down through the halls like the forest that it resided in. Spider webs and dust covered every surface. And the scattered debris littering the ground made Puccis already injured hooves worse. By the time Pucci was in a long hall full of old pony armor and weapons, he wished that his backpack wasn't out in the woods, so he could've used his flashlight to avoid knocking over several suits when he reached the end.
It was a shame the palace wasn't reconstructed or cleaned, at the very least. Despite its condition and age, one could see the love and care that went into every detail; the palace's beauty would have rivaled any other in its time.
Unfortunately, Pucci didn't care for scanning every square inch of the castle remains, for he had arrived at a large wooden door with rusty hinges. He knew this was the entrance to the staircase due to a faded sign above it saying: 'Royal bedroom solar'.
Pucci approached the old door and placed his hoof on its surface to move the wooden barrier aside, only to find it wouldn't move an inch. Pucci then tried using his whole body to move the door, pressing his should against the rotted oak and pushing with all his might. He groaned and strained, his back hooves scraping the stone floor and veins appearing on his forehead, but soon gave up his effort with his already weak body.
"Alright, you want to play that way?" Pucci asked the door with an angered look. What in all Tarturas was this thing made out of?! Summoning Made in Heaven, his stand reeled back its left hoof and shot it forward, easily punching the door into splitters.
After a small huff of satisfaction with his small victory, Pucci stepped over the scattered splinters and rusty hinges and made his way up the spiral staircase. But with every step, Pucci felt a growing anxiety build up inside himself like something horrible was waiting for him once he reached the peak. It had gotten so bad that Pucci almost fell backward when his quaking legs gave out; luckily, he used Made in Heaven to prevent his fall and possible death.
It was rough, but Pucci eventually 'ran the distance' and arrived at a similar-looking door at the top. Instead of being caked in solid rust, this door was more worn and chipped, a yellow coat of faded paint covering its surface. Another sign hung from a bent nail with the words: 'Celestia's room: stay out!' imprinted on a sun-shaped piece of wood.
Taking a calming breath, Pucci reigned in his nerves and steeled his resolve. He grabbed the brass handle of the door and pushed forward; this time, the door opened without trouble, letting Pucci walk in and close the door behind him.
Inside, Pucci took a moment to take in his surroundings. The room itself was mostly bare-bones, the only things that had remained were a large bed, a fancy-looking dresser with a broken mirror, an empty bookshelf, and a turned-over ponynequin lying next to a window. The canopy bed sat opposite the large mirror, its backboard facing away, and had a purple silk curtain shielding anypony from looking inside. The dresser wasn't anything of note, white with a golden outline, and six wide dressers underneath the mirror top. And the ponynequin was larger than the average pony, covered in dust and cobwebs, hiding the cracks and holes strewn about its body; it was probably where Celestia kept her regalia. Pucci walked past the bed until he reached the down ponynequin, looking down at it with a solemn look. Beyond that, the only other things in the room were a dead silence that filled Pucci with unease and…deep chuckling?
Pucci's eyes widened as a loud breaking sound alerted him to turn around to the bed. But before he could turn to see what had happened, a large fist slammed into his side, electing an audible crack from Pucci's chest and a scream of pain. The strength of the owner's fist was great, sending the grown stallion sailing through the air and flying out the window, shards following Pucci as he fell through the air.
"W-What the-?!" Pucci shouted, coughing up blood as he felt his broken ribs shift, a particularly large shard of glass sticking out of his back. Every second that passed, Pucci's body crept closer and closer to the other tower.
He tried to summon Made in Heaven to his fall, but the stand flickered and wavered weakly. "S-Shit, why isn't i-it working?" Puccis wheezed out. Suddenly, a figure appeared before him, overshadowing Pucci with its overwhelming size. They had a set of large pointed horns, a big upper body, and a pair of hands, one of which was COMING RIGHT AT HIM!
Pucci guarded his face with his forelegs just before the fist careened into him. On contact, Pucci's forelegs nearly broke under the force and flew back until he crashed into the other tower's wall, breaking off a few chunks of stone as he cratered into it. Letting out a pained yelp, the world around Pucci's mind began to fade from the waking world as pain flowed through his body like a raging river of agony, his eyes rolling back into his head and blood spilling from his mouth. Unfortunately, the figure didn't let up as it landed on the wall next to Pucci, using its fingers to dig into the stone and resting a hind hoof on the wall to maintain a standing position. Gripping the collar of Pucci's ruined winter coat, the figure let out a mighty roar and flung the half-conscious astronomer away from the tower wall and to the glass roof of the throne room.
The glass broke instantly under Pucci's combined weight and velocity, shattering to hundreds of pieces as Pucci crash-landed on the bottom of the stairs that led to the thrones. Dust and dirt shot up from the floor, creating a cloud around the motionless Pucci. A few silent moments later, a weak moan passed Pucci's lips as his eyes cracked open.
He tried to move but cried out as a burning pain flared in every muscle of his body. "I-I must have passed out for a moment." He thought, too weak to even move his mouth. "Who was that? There's no way I didn't notice them with their size."
With a bit of effort, Pucci pushed himself onto his back and faced the sky, snow gently falling onto his beaten form. From what he could feel, all but a few of his ribs were either broken or fractured, his left hind leg was definitely broken, and a fracture in his skull was giving him a concussion. Darkness edged his vision, and the taste of copper flooded Pucci's tastebuds, and a painful ringing noise muffled every other noise around him. To say he wasn't feeling too hot was an understatement.
"I guess that's what happens when you get dropped from several stories up." He chuckled, coughing up more blood in the process.
Suddenly, a loud crash filled the room's air from the direction of the thrones and nullified some of the ringing in Pucci's ears to tolerable levels. Tilting his head back slowly to see who caused the noise, Pucci had to squint his eyes to avoid getting blinded.
Standing atop the now crushed thrones was a sizeable male minotaur about a head and a half taller than Pucci. He had reddish-brown fur, two pointed horns, and green eyes that pierced through the astronomer with rage and disgust. His stance practically radiated with pride, almost as much as his full suit- minus helmet and gauntlets -of gold and silver armor, his log-sized arm folded with his head held high. A red cape with white frills flapped in an unseen wind, and a long silver battle axe resided beneath it.
He stomped his left hoof into the small throne's remains and somehow made his already straight posture more straight. " Be grateful, dog! You are about to be executed by the 8th Tierra muerta general under the Command of the 4th commandment Dio Morningstar! Accept your fate like the mutt you are!" He said with a booming voice that echoed loudly off the throne room walls.
Pucci tried to give a response, but all that came out was a weak groan. "So he's the one who did this to me." He thought with disdain, "I'm not surprised, it was a matter of time before that stallion rids this world of me."
A growl came from the minotaur, his eyes narrowing angrily as he watched the injured Pucci struggle to flip him onto his stomach. Pathetic moans and whimpers escaped Pucci's throat every time he moved, but he miraculously got up into a lowered position, albeit shaking like a leave. It was taking all of Pucci's willpower not to black out right then and there, but the darkness returned to his vision in full force, his minding swimming as his body swayed from side to side.
"YOU DARE MOCK ME WITH THIS PATHETIC SHOW?!" The minotaur roared, his arms now at his sides with balled fists. "MASTER DIO PROMISED ME A STRONG OPPONENT! BUT ALL I SEE IS ANOTHER PATHETIC PONY GROVELING AT MY HOOVES, LIKE A PATHETIC DOG!" He stomped his left hoof again in anger, veins bulging on his forehead and steam shooting out from his nostrils.
Not hearing what the minotaur said with his worsening state, Pucci ignored him in favor of not falling down. "I originally came here to fuel my revenge on DIO, but I lost sight of what I needed to do. All of this…needs to be for her own good." Pucci's hind legs buckled for a second, but he quickly corrected himself, spreading all his legs into a half-assed defensive stance. "I shouldn't be so selfish- sister always said that -especially not toward somepony like Moondancer. She and I are not strong, especially her. Unknowingly, I had brought her into this mess because of my foolishness and put her against something she and I can't hope to fight against. But I intend to correct that mistake. All I need to do is make sure she's safe, and that stallion is the only thing standing in the way of that goal. I don't care how many times I get hit, how many bones I break, or how much blood I lose. All of it will be sacrificed to protect my assistant, my friend!" With every last ounce of energy he could muster, Pucci summoned Made in Heaven behind him, a snarl enveloping his features.
"COME AT ME!" Pucci shouted back with a raspy voice, blood and spit flying out of his mouth.
Hearing Pucci's challenge, the minotaur smiled sadistically and pulled the silver battle axe from his back, wielding it with both hands. "If you're so willing to die, fine!" He cackled. The minotaur crouched down and, with an animalistic grunt, jumped off the ground and into the air, his battle axe already above his head.
Pucci tried to mentally command Made in Heaven to protect him but was shocked to see his stand's body began to flicker and fade in and out. A pit formed in his stomach as the minotaur was getting closer and closer, trying his best to have Made in Heaven do something! It was too late, unfortunately, as the minotaur was only a few meters above Pucci with a bone-chilling expression full of gleeful bloodlust. Pucci closed his eyes, struggling to move out of the way, only succeeding in falling onto his injured side with a pained yelp.
"DIE!" The armor-cladded monster roared.
"I don't think so, dude." A mysterious voice said before a deep, bass sound filled Pucci's ears, followed by a cry from the minotaur.
The next sound was a loud crash and metallic banging, and opening his eyes, Pucci saw the same minotaur that was about to kill him was now on the other side of the room. Groaning and rubbing his now bleeding head, the minotaur rose from his crash site- the staircase that was now severely broken due to his landing -and glared at something behind Pucci, battle axe still in his grip.
"Who dares to attack a Tierra muerta general?! show yourself!" He demanded.
Pucci angled his head in the direction of approaching hoofsteps that were coming from the dimly lit entrance of the throne room. Coming out from the shadows, a unicorn mare with white fur and a two-toned, long wild blue mane and tail stepped out. She smirked in a cocky manner, adjusting her purple-lensed glasses and a set of ear-phone resting on her neck.
"Sorry, bud, this little troublemaker is coming with me." She chuckled, getting an angry growl from the minotaur. "Can't punish a corpse now, can ya?" Walking until she reached Pucci, she presumably looked down at his battered body with a grimaced that formed on her face before returning to her previous smirk. "Don't worry. I got this." She said.
"W-Who are you?" Pucci quietly spoke, his vocal cords feeling like they were being strangled.
The mare's horn lit to life with a red color aura, the same as that surrounded her glasses, and pulled them down to reveal her crimson-colored eyes. "That names Vinyl Scratch." She smoothly said with a wink. "You go nighty-night now. I'll take care of big and mean for ya, dude."
At the mare's word, darkness finally gripped Pucci's mind.