//------------------------------// // Day You Almost // Story: The Olden World // by Czar_Yoshi //------------------------------// Flaaaashhhhh! A jet of flames burst from Meltdown's largest fan faster than any air could move, billowing into a cloud and engulfing the jagged train of ice streaking toward her. Puddles stomped the ground, sending up a pillar to throw herself out of the way as the flames roared past, singing the splintered planks of the frigate deck. Her magic was the only reason their arena hadn't combusted by now, she guessed, but it didn't look like it would last long by any standards regardless. The sea wind blew in her face; Meltdown was before her. It was abundantly clear that her flamethrower only worked when going with the wind; the few times she had beaten her adversary for a positional advantage, the tool had been useless. But Meltdown was strong, and jumps Puddles needed an ice lift to make the armored mare could perform without even trying. And her stomach hurt! Sooner or later, she was going to slip up and reach her limit... She threw up an ice wall to make more time to think of her next move, but Meltdown's very proximity forced her to keep up a constant stream of energy just to support it. The wind kept the air from getting dry, which was the only thing preventing her from running out of ammo... With a crack, a floorboard broke beneath her hoof, having taken too much damage from various blasts and slams. Puddles rolled, making it unsteadily to her hooves, the wall dropped, and Meltdown instantly charged. "Back!" Puddles formed another pillar, a clenched talon-fist at the end, and sent it corkscrewing toward her foe, bursting out from beneath the deck and burrowing in again as it punched the ground in wave after wave on its path forward. Meltdown ducked, running through the corkscrew's center at her... but it had done too much damage to the floor on either side of her, and that gave way, dropping her into the next level of the ship. "Nnngh..." Rather than pressing her advantage, Puddles held herself, glancing around for options. Beating Meltdown seemed impossible when her ice could be so easily vaporized. Was it time to risk capture, or... "Well well... Hakkkth... Well!" a voice coughed, and Gazelle dragged himself up next to her, grinning and bleeding, though he had somewhat cleaned his wound. "Someone's looking run a little ragged, aren't they? Need a paw? I know you know things I want no one else knowing, but this is going nowhere and..." He coughed again. "As engaging as this finale is, could you hurry up and lose?" Puddles frowned. "Well yourself, cathorse. I'm a little busy, here. Go back and enjoy your precious carnage." "Excuse you, I'm not bloodthirsty." Gazelle narrowed his eyes. "I just know a thing or two about looking for sport in the appropriate places and enjoying chasing my goals, and this has crossed the line into something I want nothing to do with. Now... Nnngh... What will it take for you to stand down and surrender? Come now, I'm bargaining, here." "Really?" Puddles raised an eyebrow. Gazelle grinned painfully. "Of course! Name your terms. How about we don't send-" He was interrupted by Meltdown rising through the broken deck in a shower of splinters, one of her fans bent and dented and the others blowing at full force. "Gazelle, I'm taking damage," she panted. "What are you doing?" "Parlay!" Gazelle winced. "Trying to finish this, in case you hadn't noticed!? Why are you starting another fight after I went down? We were supposed to be saving the Varsidelians!" "Hmmph. Funny. That's what Puddles was doing, too." Puddles backed up, bumping against the ship's railing. "Do I frighten you, little ponies? Afraid I might say something about Stanza to the wrong ears, or spill the beans about old Goraldi? Because I'm willing to barter too, here. It wouldn't be hard to silence me on what happens beneath the ground in the Empire forever... Care to hear my demands?" Meltdown's fans spun dangerously. "Speak, speak," Gazelle requested. "Tell us." "First off..." Puddles winced and hugged herself. "No going back to Izvaldi. I want to disappear off the map as far as Chauncey is concerned. Wallace can find me, and so can Valey and her friends, but not him. Second: no more experimenting. I'm tired of having my flanks stuck with needles day in and day out, filled with substances that could kill the wrong kind of god." Gazelle pursed his lips. "You're asking a lot. You know how hard it is to get live windigoes, don't you? Where will Chauncey get a replacement?" "And why do you care?" Puddles growled. Meltdown gave Gazelle a suspicious look. "Why do you care?" "Oh... no reason. Good point." Gazelle shrugged. "Maybe I am feeling bloodthirsty, after all." He lunged, and was met with a fist of ice he had to back off to dodge. Puddles jumped backwards, landing on the railing. "Haha! Hope you can fly if you want to catch Puddles, then, because... wheeeee!" With a hiss of ice, Puddles hit the water, freezing a wave and sliding down the surface. Crags and platforms appeared around her as she walked, no time spent on making anything pretty. Immediately, Meltdown landed behind her, rocking the growing iceberg and forcing her to freeze her hooves in place to avoid falling off. "Hey, get off!" Puddles growled at her, tapping a hoof. A spiraling pillar of ice rose from the sea as Meltdown took a stance, another hollow tube like her cannons earlier but this time twisting into the neck and head of a dragon. Gazelle hit the ice too as Meltdown's fans spun up, and Puddles focused the dragon on them, preparing to spew a rapid-fire barrage of ice. Fwooooooosh! Meltdown's fans ignited, blazing backwards with trails of jet propulsion. She dug her hooves into the iceberg, hitting it at an angle until she was pushing the whole thing, Gazelle and Puddles along with it. The dragon's first shots missed, then it collapsed as Puddles grew too far away from it, the immense force of Meltdown's heat pushing them at a rapid pace. Puddles blinked, gasped and watched the frigate drawing away in the distance. "You want to run? Then we're running to shore," Meltdown growled, pushing the iceberg along. "You're under arrest in the name of Garsheeva! You can't run, especially not on my ground." "Uhhhh..." Puddles gulped, considering throwing herself off the iceberg. She could make a new one, but with her engines Meltdown could make any jump, and she had no fast means of propulsion on her own... "Meltdown, dearest?" Gazelle waved in her face. "Just in case you can't see from that location, you are about to hit another boat." Puddles gasped and crawled to the tip of the iceberg, reducing its height so it would be easier to see over. That just caused the weight to unbalance, sending cold seawater sloshing over Meltdown's hooves, and with a hiss of steam, her propulsion cut out. The iceberg started spinning, and all three of them quickly saw the prow of the Immortal Dream bearing straight in their direction, seconds away.