Valey and Herman stared each other down, the wind building in pitch above them, Herman glaring murderously at the enchanted band that Valey twirled from her hoof, the axe it controlled laying dormant and useless on the floor. Dior had snuck Starlight over to where Shinespark lay, but still couldn't move her, trying gently and slowly and clearly going to take a while. Green energy crackled all over Valey's body, and her tail lashed as she circled into place, standing between the yak and her friends.
"What am I gonna do, huh?" Valey asked, crouching. "Know where you're about to strike? Are you... what, going to lure me into melee and try some sort of feint? Blast me with glowey stuff? Sure, sure... you've been watching me and stalking me all this time and think you can read me like a book..." She threw the pendant's connection wide open, engaging it fully. "Then try and read this!"
With a whoosh of flame, Valey's mane and tail shortened slightly, the tips bleeding with color until they turned a soft crimson pink. Patches of her coat lightened to a brighter shade of gray, and the cutie mark on her left flank sparked with energy before disappearing... and resurfacing in a flash of light, this time in the shape of an ear next to a jagged, vibrating line. Another flash lanced from Valey's eye, leaving the affected iris sky-blue, glinting in the atrium's relative darkness. The energy died away; its job was complete: the pony standing opposed to Herman was half Valey and half someone else. When she grinned, it was unmistakably confident.
"Ever fought a mare with two cutie marks before?" Valey asked, gently pushing back the confused, second conscience that was suddenly trying to use her mouth and limbs. "You can try to learn everything about me you like, but it won't matter. I can change. And the only thing you'll know for sure... is that I have the element of surprise!"
She kicked forward, wings spread, the blizzard's cold a forgotten memory, targeting Herman's weak point where Shinespark had stabbed him and preparing to drive him back. They needed to take their fight down a rung on the atrium's concentric balconies; having Herman with a straight path to Dior was a recipe for trouble. Her forehoof reared back for a flying punch...
Flash! Time stopped as her cutie mark burned. She had been trying to dive low and go beneath him, but there was danger that way. She saw his own leg moving preparing to crush her, and grinned. "From below? Then I'll go..."
Holding her course, Valey jumped slightly, then returned to skidding along the ground. Herman's feinted stomp turned into a face-height punch that would have turned her chest inside-out had she dodged up, and she turned on her back at the last second, seizing the opening and slamming all four legs into his wound, pushing against the ground for force. Yes! The impact sent him staggering back several steps, and Valey took advantage of the stun by hooking around a foreleg, converting her momentum to upwards, kicking his chin as she rose.
In truth, the element of surprise was all she had, alongside a somewhat-intimidating appearance. A cutie mark that let her pick out individual sound pitches, once used for music appreciation, wouldn't be much help in a battle. As the fight wore on, Herman would realize she wasn't doing anything new, too. She had to stall, be mysterious, and rely on reads like that one to stay safe, since a single blow from Herman's mighty hooves would leave her crippled, if not kill her outright.
"All right, you...!" Valey spun back around, preparing to dive-bomb Herman, silently reassuring the voice in her head saying it was scared. But he was already moving, stomping back to where his axe had fallen. Its telekinetic control was gone, but that did nothing to stop him from lifting it in his teeth.
"Gruuuoh!" Herman ignored Valey, charging along the balcony to where Dior, Shinespark and Starlight were waiting. Instantly, Valey dove.
Spinning like a torpedo, she kicked off the atrium wall, angling herself so that a strike would push Herman off the edge. She soared at his side... and dropped to the ground, sliding on her belly as he whirled, sending his axeblade in a singing circle right where her head had been. Valey felt the wind shred her flattened ears as a large chunk of her mane became disconnected from her body, but she still had her momentum and Herman was unbalanced from his spin.
Pow! She planted her forehooves, swinging into a rising kick targeted straight at the leg Herman was using as a pivot. It went down, taking the yak with it in a hairy crash, and Valey stalled just long enough not to get crushed as he fell, shoulder-slamming him and giving them the extra boost they needed to topple through the railing and fall to the level below.
Surrounded by glass shards and polished metal pipes from the broken railing, Valey kicked off Herman as they plunged, propelling him towards the ground and giving herself a precious extra second of airtime. Her wings wrapped around a straight, sharp pipe; if she could end this now...
She dropped like a lightning bolt, impromptu spear aimed straight for the scorched wound on his chest. But she wasn't fast enough: a cloven hoof shot out, catching the pipe, and Valey had to flap sideways with all her strength to avoid being skewered on her own weapon. Her cutie mark warned her that Herman was about to throw it, and she flipped to the ground, hooves skidding on slippery, broken glass as the projectile flew over her head.
Herman stared her down, using his axe as a crutch as he got up. They were beneath the lip of the upper balcony, and Valey crouched, using the shadow of a garden of tall, ornamental plants for cover. Neither had any words to say.
Then Herman swung his axe. "Graaaah!" It smashed through a marble support pillar, causing the balcony above them to wobble dangerously. Herman readied an upward swing, targeting the floor itself.
"Nope! You're fighting me, not them!" Valey lunged forward, and the swing converted into a shot at her head... which was feinted a grand total of three times, and almost certainly would have hit had she not stayed completely out of range. But that just let Herman attack the ceiling again, and with a splintering of stone and steel, it groaned and began to collapse.
Valey's second cutie mark made her ears twitch, the perfect pitch detection letting her make out every frequency of rock splitting and steel rending as the upper balcony distorted, and she had to shake her head to get all the unnecessary information out of her mind. She readied herself to dodge as a bite-shaped chunk of the walkway above prepared to fall directly on her head... then paused. Her cutie mark wasn't warning her about it quite as much as it should have.
Her wings buzzed, and she flew straight up, hooves extended toward the collapsing ceiling. Herman lunged sideways with a swing that covered the area she was about to dodge to. Breathing a sigh of relief, she grabbed the ceiling and shoved. As heavy as the stone was, it was also thin, and a plate broke free just light enough not to crush her. Straining and angling, she flipped it and plowed it into Herman, using the broken floor as a shield.
Crack! It sent him staggering back, shattering against the point of his one horn. Valey pressed her advantage, sensing that the immediate counterattack would be weak, as he couldn't swing the axe over his head. Balling her forehooves, she somersaulted and slammed them against his spine.
He didn't buckle, instead whirling and catching her with his axe. But the quarters were too close for him to hit with the blade, and all he did was strike her with the haft, throwing her into the floor. Valey used the shadow of a piece of rubble to swim, breaking her impact and saving her from everything but a very sore line across her chest.
Rubbing the injury, impatiently trying to calm the cry of fright in her head, she flew out, pulling away from Herman, ready to return the battle to neutral and come at him with a fresh approach. She hovered, surveying the atrium and trying to come up with a battle plan... when the wind reminded her that it was still there.
She was caught and tossed by a gust from the crack in the ceiling, and with a deafening boom the fissure expanded, a new crack running all the way across one side. The wind rolled her to a stop at the foot of a staircase back to the level where Starlight and Dior were, its message delivered.
"Hnnngh..." Gingerly, Valey climbed to her hooves, but nothing was broken. Hopefully Arambai would arrive before the roof was completely destroyed, because the harsher the weather got, the bigger Herman's advantage. Herman himself was staring straight at her, clearly wanting the way up for himself. But he was crouching, not advancing, watching her while he busied himself with something else... the axe's control band! Had it fallen down when the floor collapsed?
"Nope!" Valey lunged, preparing for another assault. Herman cracked his hooves together, the band not yet properly affixed, readying to strike back. The axe in his jaw swung straight down her path, then at the last second angled to cover the band instead.
Valey rolled the other way, keeping her distance. She grumbled inwardly; he had left his wound open. If she had taken the risk, she could have hit it... but no, better not to take risks. She had to stay alive. Right then, she was living for a lot more than just herself.
Herman yanked his axe out of the ground, already whirling into another swing. But he had made a mistake: they were standing underneath an intact part of the next balcony up. Valey grinned, almost let the blow connect, and then was gone in a ripple of shadow.
There wasn't much room to work with, and it only took a single step for Herman to put the hoof holding the band out of her reach. But again, he didn't cover his wound, and this time, Valey was ready. The axe stabbed down next to his hoof, and before he could withdraw it from the cracked and crumbling floor, she was at his chest, standing on two legs and pummeling the injury like a jackhammer with gritted teeth and a furious smile.
Each hit only made him wince for an instant, but the blows were less than an instant apart. Both hooves flew, burnt and healthy alike, and Valey grinned through the pain of her residual injuries, taking one step after another as she steadily forced him away from where the axe lay buried. These punches weren't like the flashy ones she had given Neon Nova back in the Blueleaf generator, designed to see how many a single pony could take before folding: every single one packed all the power she had to give it and more, kicking up a breeze as the onslaught refused to stop.
"You're not invincible!" Valey ground out as her burnt hoof gave way and she continued her assault at half speed. "Fat and hairy, but Sparky got through you! So did Selma pushing you off that dam! There's a limit to what you can take, and whatever it is... I will find it!"
Powwww! Herman caught his balance enough to punch at her, and Valey had to spin to duck the flying hoof, breaking off her attack entirely. Her forelegs felt like mush, and she found she could barely stand... and soon, there was nothing to stand on at all.
The floor gave way again, cracking where Herman's axe lay embedded in a fault line, further weakened by their stomps and the intensity of the last attack. As they tumbled, Valey wrapped around him, swinging past his back with a death grip around his throat, and caught the control band with a hind leg before flipping away.
She landed on her chest, propping herself into a sitting position with her wings. She was reaching her limit, too... so it was time to expand her capabilities. Hoping it wouldn't explode, she strapped the control band around her own forelimb, flexing it appreciatively.
Herman charged, swinging with her bare hooves.
"Uhhh..." That band had better work! To Valey's surprise, it did; the axe soared to her aid as an un-angled projectile, its edge missing completely but still driving its considerable weight and spiked ornamentation into Herman's side. He grunted, struggled, and tripped, teetering before falling over.
"Hah!" Valey crowed, gingerly limping toward the next railing to put distance between her and Herman as she figured out how to manipulate it. Was this how unicorns felt with telekinesis? Did she have to move every aspect of it herself? Or was there some functionality involved that would let her give it a location and it would obey? From its behavior earlier, she suspected the latter.
Chop him! The axe swung back... but it was far too slow, and Herman moved out of the way, ignoring it entirely and running toward her, tilting like a derailing train. Valey's cutie mark flared; he was going to veer sharply, but she had no idea where...
With a burst of panic and determination that was at least half the other mind in her head, she called for protection, and the axe came, dropping in from the sky to shield her. Herman charged straight into it with an effect like a frying pan to the face, fell back, and roared.
Swing... no, block! Herman recovered far too quickly, beyond enraged as he raised a hoof to tear at where Valey sat. She tried to stay limber, but knew her mobility was decreasing after what she had just put her forehooves through. But the axe was reliable, swishing just past her face in a tight arc to intercept the blow. Valey grinned, blocking again: Herman couldn't feint now, or else the blocks would become attacks that would hit him in turn.
He was far enough away; she turned the next slash into an attack, imagining she was ten times her size and able to put power into the stroke with her own hooves. As tired as she was growing, the blade sang with deadly wind, and this time it was Herman openly blocking, faced with an autonomous floating weapon just as big as he was.
"Take... that!" Valey flapped closer, abandoning walking and hanging from her wings instead, connecting the dots that the telekinesis grew stronger the closer she was to the weapon. "And that!" The axe whirled, backing off for strike after strike, and Valey figured out how to aim the blade as it clanged and sparked off Herman's blocking hooves and horn. The two titans exchanged blows, Herman and the axe, until one block connected awkwardly and Herman crashed down on his shoulder. Valey prepared for a decisive blow...
And then her cutie mark burned. A trap? Of course. She couldn't see anything brewing from Herman as he struggled to get up, but flipped away just in case.
Not one second later, with a roar like the explosion of the dam, the atrium's domed roof failed. It split in a spider web, huge, deadly chunks raining down. One piece fell like a giant glass skewer, severing cleanly through the floor where she had just stood, detaching that segment of the balcony from its supports and sending Herman toppling to the ground floor.
Well, that was good for her, but if the building was about to be gone, it could also get very, very bad. Valey glanced around for her axe, preparing to fly back up and check on Dior and the others. It would take Herman longer to climb up, and if they were in danger of getting crushed... There the axe was! Trapped under a fallen slab of metal. Valey commanded it to rise, danger tingling all around her, and huffed as it shook, not quite able to throw the metal off...
Then, out of nowhere, a hoof-sized piece of roof struck her beating wing, sending a shock of pain rippling through it and knocking her into a dizzying, unintended spiral. "Oh, come on!" she started to yell, before clamping her mouth shut, trying not to lose her lunch.
She crashed painfully on the frozen surface of a fountain pool on the atrium floor, snow flurrying down all around her. Her wing flexed, spasmed... and was definitely in 'use at your own risk' mode. The same wing she had strained in the Flame District, at that. Valey growled, then screamed in frustration, more debris falling around her, her forehooves barely able to keep her upright in a sitting position.
The snow parted, and she saw Herman limping towards her, ready to kill.
"Uhhh... nope!" Her cutie mark warned her of a much more immediate danger, and she twisted her torso, flipping up onto her hind legs and nearly losing her balance before throwing herself away. A moment later, a glass-and-iron meteor struck the fountain, shattering the ice and sending a spray of tiny, lethal crystals into the air. They painfully peppered Valey's side, the cold quickly numbing the cuts and a number of bruises inflicted by bigger chunks, but Herman wasn't so fortunate. He took the blast right to his face, and was left with one eye held painfully closed.
Valey set her teeth in a grimace, getting back onto her hind legs, good wing extended for balance. Willing the axe to her, she watched as Herman approached and nothing happened. She was nimble enough to dodge, still, but didn't trust herself to nail an upright landing...
Another chunk of roof was falling straight for her, and she leapt for safety. Herman read her movements, dodging back himself this time, and it exploded harmlessly against the ground, leaving a pock-marked crater chipped in the once-lavish marble flooring. Valey staggered back upright, having realized the last major tool in her possession: she could see where the roof was about to fall.
With a crash, a huge beam of steel tore straight through the floor next to her, revealing what was below: a hole overlooking the rising snowfields; a portal straight to the certain death of the outside world below. She stepped nervously; that would be doom to fall in. Why couldn't Arambai show up, already!?
Valey danced in a circle, still trying to summon the axe, concentrating as hard as she could to block out the terror in her head and analyze the dips and spikes in her danger perceptions. Where was the next bit of roof going to drop? It was... there!
Clumsily, nearly tripping on the mounds of debris partially disguised by snow, Valey danced at an angle to it carefully chosen in hopes that Herman would back away from where she had been, moving directly into the danger zone. But he didn't: completely throwing off the lethargy he had been sporting since reaching the ground floor, he charged, putting himself on a collision course with Valey. She wasn't able to catch herself, only roll. They collided.
"Aaaaaaaugh!" Herman's hoof scooped her off the ground before she could even come to a halt, flinging her into the air in a vicious arc as Herman leapt and whirled. He threw her against the ground so hard she bounced; her injured wing gave a spasm of pain, her head exploded in dizziness. Her cutie mark was burning, he was pouncing again, she was still suffering sensory overload due to being two ponies in one body...
She rolled into the hole.
Valey's rubbery forelegs caught the edge, her back half dangling below, yanked and jerked as her tail and hind legs were seized by the wind. There was no way she could drag herself back up; her good wing flapped uselessly at her side. Herman landed with a crunch in front of her. Snarling, Valey shut her eyes...
And her increased clarity of hearing made out the one sound she wanted to hear more than anything else: the metallic song of an axeblade on the wind. She grinned, fighting to hang on, the jagged edge of the severed floor scraping against her belly. "Hey, Herman. Don't look behind you."
Herman looked. There was nothing.
"Very funny," he snorted, raising a hoof to smash down on her legs-
While his back was turned, Valey let go.
Herman stepped back in surprise just in time to avoid the axe that plunged down after her. She flipped mid-drop, just before the opening, as the axe spun past her, and she was outside.
The buildings of the skyport were shaped like huge mushrooms, their domed tops supported by thin, central stalks. Valey had come out near that stalk, after busting through over a meter of stone, steel and maintenance space, and was nearly blown away by the wind... but the underside was coated in giant icicles, and with a flick of telekinesis, she spun the axe horizontally, shearing through the bases of several before it finally caught and became wedged. She grabbed the haft with one forehoof, converted her momentum, felt her shoulder pop as she swung wildly, lashed out at a falling icicle with her tail... and caught it, wedging herself against the axe in a crouch.
"Grrrrr..." A snarl built in her throat as the axeblade shifted, but she had a weapon, a spear of ice nearly as long and thick as she was. Fighting through the cold, she hugged it to her side with both forehooves, pointing it straight upward, coiled her legs against the axe haft beneath her, extended her wings, and sprang. "Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaugh!"
Herman didn't even have time to step back in surprise as she erupted back up the hole, spearing straight for his chest. The icicle hit the wound, penetrated, and kept going, Valey's momentum pushing it as far as it would go, even knocking the yak back with the fury of her final charge. He reared up, and blinked once in surprise.
Valey held the base of the icicle. Her hooves were frozen, her cutie mark was burning, and with Herman, she didn't move... until the next ceiling fragment fell. With a shattering her enhanced ears heard perfectly, a wicked spear of glass backed by a hammerlike clump of metal dropped straight and true, piercing Herman's back exactly opposite to her icicle. Impaled from the top and bottom at once, he stood... and Valey flipped away, jumping off him just in time as the floor gave out and sent his corpse plummeting to the wastes below.
"Ugh... ugh... heh heh heh... urrrrrgh..." Valey took two steps, then collapsed in the shelter of a remaining section of balcony, completely spent. "Yeah... We... got him..." She closed her eyes. "Guess I really am unbeatable, after all."
After a minute, she opened them, the snow coming down heavily all around her. "Sorry, Sis," she whispered, putting a hoof to her pendant. "I know you don't get what's going on..."
She sighed. "But, hey. I can protect my friends. Maybe I'll finally get out of this stupid city, and can see about doing something to get you back for real. To get both of us. In the meantime... shhhh. Go back to sleep. Stuff's gonna get better. Eventually."
The connection faded as she closed down the pendant, and with a flicker of burning green energy, her eye and cutie mark returned to normal. The bright patches on her coat faded to their usual black, and the rose disappeared from her tail... but her mane didn't grow back where she had lost it to Herman's axe. Oh well. She tried the band around her forelimb, but it was dull and unresponsive. Maybe the axe had had enough, too.
"Ohhhhhh bananas I am hungry," Valey moaned, hugging herself and then rubbing her belly. "Wish this thing didn't do that. Still, better than a whole bunch of other nasty prices magic could ask..."
She sat up, the snow completely obscuring her vision. The roof pieces had stopped; either the storm was in a lull, or there was nothing more to knock down. "Guess I've gotta climb out of here now, huh?" she said to no one in particular.
A small gleam caught her eye, and she crawled over to examine it. It was the sound stone she had kicked over the edge, and it was still glowing. Scooping it with a shaky hoof, she held it to her muzzle, still breathing heavily. "Yo! Is this thing on?"
"That you again, Valey?" Arambai's gruff voice replied, sounding badly out of breath. "If you can hold on a little bit longer, we're almost there!"
"Yeah... think you missed the boat on that one, gramps." Valey leaned back again, groaning in pain as her back cracked and her shoulder finally popped back into place. "Herman is gonzo. I kicked his rear. Sealed his coffin. He got dunked on. But if it's fine with you, I really could do with a care package before you run off to beat up those soldiers he was going on about."
"What do you need? And where are you? We just arrived, and only see... Shinespark! What happened!?"
"Down at the bottom, gramps." Valey sighed, closing her eyes again. "As for what I need... a ride outta here, for one. I can barely move. Preferrably to some place nice and warm with a bunch of cute massage mares who could do something about ow ow ow cramp! That really hurts..." She grinned lazily into the stone, not even batting an eyelid as she acted. "My super sore muscles. Oh, and I want a sandwich."
"A sandwich."
"You got it, gramps." Valey set the stone aside, exhaling and staring out into the snow. There was a warm glow in her cutie mark that muffled the dangerous tingle from the storm, and despite being battered and horribly bruised, she felt better than she had in a very long time.