//------------------------------// // Chapter fifty four, Furious Fights: The Limit Breakers (x3). // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -The Volcano, Upper Tier, outside the coliseum, Arizona- “Why did you push Pom so harshly?” Guessing Ollie apparently caught the end of my training session with Pom where I forced her to dodge and counter for her life. The fact that Pom can block full strength hits from me was telling, much less take several of them when they aren’t even effectively blocked. “Quick question, were you born and raised by the ‘unicorns of light’?” I stared Ollie down as she stayed silent and looked away slightly rubbing at her left foreleg, the floating book next to her head didn’t comment on the sudden change in her demeanor from perky to pensive. “I’m a lot smarter than I look. So to prove my point that I’m not all brawn, did the key glow when you stole it?” “Yes…” Ollie answered swiftly, so a unicorn that trained in dark magic was a key bearer that was raised by the unicorns of light. I knew she stole the key, because they weren’t going to give it to a unicorn who wanted to prove that not all darkness is evil. I haven’t met the unicorns of light yet, but I was quite sure they’d be of a holier than you attitude, a bit snobbish and were completely reactionary to dangers like a shadow leak. The exact kind of thing that drove Ollie to be who she was in taking a proactive approach to dealing with a world ending problem. She was seeking out the key bearers, well she found Pom first and then the rest of us all in one place. I think I preferred Ollie as a bearer to any other unicorn in the short time I’ve come to know her, she befriended Pom and got her out of her valley. So that was one of the greatest accomplishments I’ve ever heard of, as talking that lambkin out of her comfort zone must have been quite a challenge. “Then you should see that of the only two keys left that we need, one is for Tianhuo and the other… it’s going to inevitably belong to Pom. Pom is going to be a key bearer and she needs to be able to defend herself when her beasties can’t. She’ll need the ability to fight alongside them and us, she wouldn’t stand idly by while her familiars are tanking everything for her sake. Need I remind you that some of them are still puppies? They are fairly intelligent puppies, but still little puppies!” I looked around and didn’t see anyone near us, Paprika was probably hugging someone and Velvet was likely trying to keep her under control. “She doesn’t need to be a true warrior or even a fighter, but she still needs to be ready for it. Not many of the previous bearers come back from sealing the shadow horde off alive and the rare survivors usually go into seclusion with what I’m guessing is survivor’s guilt. Only one or two bearers barely survive this whole process of collect the keys and do the sealing, Pom won’t survive being alone for long afterwards if she even survives at all on the backs of our broken bodies keeping her alive.” “Why her? Can’t another…” Glaring at Ollie, I put a hoof on her withers and stared right into her eyes. “It would be her wouldn’t it… but she’s so innocent though! We can’t possibly drag her into… no… I think see it now… I’m horrified by it, but I do see it. She would be the only lambkin that would be fit to hold that key.” Ollie started giving me a slightly defeated look. “I think we’re all being set up to die.” Might as well tell her how I saw things honestly. It’s why Velvet, Paprika and I were pushing the envelope constantly with one another now. We wanted to live through this when we absolutely knew it was coming, we were preparing for the day where we would have to fight for the fate of the world. We’ve gotten to the point that Velvet can beat Paprika. Our alpaca is a world class damage sponge that doubles as a lovable and huggable punching bag. Even Paprika knew that we had to break our limitations wide open, she was toughening up alongside us in her own unique way. Ollie, Oleander, just stared at me. The book was also staring at me too, what an odd feeling that was. “I think… I think we’d all be suicidal by the time we’d need to deal with the shadow horde if things didn’t turn out the way they currently are. If we had never met…” It was hard for me to actually put into words. “If I didn’t have friends, then I’d be living in the shadows of my mother’s accomplishments once I set out on my own to explore the world and would be recklessly brave to a point that I’d think I could face the shadow horde all by myself. I still want to find my mother or at least find out why she specifically took the key of the lambkin, but I’m not going to live in her shadow because I have incredible accomplishments that are all my own.” “What about your wives, how would they be suicidal?” Ollie was taking this seriously and Fred was dead silent. “Paprika and Velvet knew each other long before I came along, Paprika just wanted Velvet to love her and Velvet kept pushing her away because her birth parents don’t approve of her being gay and a few other personal hang-ups. She’d continue to hurt Paprika terribly and would still think she had something to prove to her parents and would have also faced the shadow horde alone.” I didn’t like what I was about to say next. “Paprika, the loveable happy alpaca you’ve been seeing, well she wouldn’t be as loveable if Velvet died fighting the Shadow Horde. If Paprika never met me, while also never receiving love from what is supposed to be her soul mate or at least one of them considering our herd, she would instead be fighting the shadows with the wrath of a broken heart until her possible doom. She’d be crying the entire time, because she would know she’d be losing who she was in the process of giving into an unquenchable fury that would never end. I know Paprika, she’d willingly die with a broken heart and I can imagine the tear streaks in her fur as she’d face the shadow horde down. She might even win, but she would never recover from the loss of her innocence.” “That explains the three of you, but what of Pom, Tianhuo and me?” Ollie seemed a bit disturbed by my train of thoughts. “This seems rather elaborate and well thought out to be something off the top of your head.” “Pom would still be stuck in the valley if you hadn’t convinced her to leave after we met her, she’d likely see the place of her birth decimated and then the shadows would corner her in her valley to slowly crush her against a corner she would not escape from and she would go down flailing in fear. Tianhuo would defend her home with loyalty and honor to the very last.” I gave Ollie a pointed stare. “And as for you… you would probably destroy your soul if you thought you could save the world by doing it.” “You should know that souls are sacred, YOU BETTER NOT DO SOMETHING THAT STUPID OLLIE!” The book glared at the unicorn, it is still an odd feeling to know that the book demon can do that. “I don’t want to go back to being what I was… alone and tucked away doing nothing on a shelf sealed by magic. Put in throwing my own soul into it alongside hers if she actually ever does that. I’d use whatever pieces of myself I don’t destroy to prop up parts of her own in the process, at least some parts of Ollie will live… THE BEST PARTS HOPEFULLY!” “We’re only talking theoretically here, and that would only be the ultimate last resort Fred. When nothing else would save the world but a sacrifice made from the heart.” Ollie just admitted that she’d actually do it too, I’m actually quite scared for the unicorn as much as I was for Pom being dragged into this. “Of course I would use the wishing spell first… and if that doesn’t help things, then I’d use my soul as fuel as I will have lost any magic to use by that point and would only have my very being to give to the cause.” Ollie closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead, she then turned back to me and the silence stretched for a few seconds. “So you’ve actually planned for it?” I was a little surprised. “One doesn’t set out to save the world without looking at all their options, and I mean absolutely every last one.” Ollie’s perky demeanor started to come back. “I’m positive it will never come to me having to destroy myself. There’s always a third or even a fourth option if you look hard enough!” “That’s why we all need to be strong enough to take on a large army individually, so far my herd has taken on a small one together at Haven’s Patch. I still have oddly specific nightmares about it.” We weren’t ready, not yet at least, but we were getting there. I hoped to be ready enough for us all. “Paprika got seriously injured there, that was even with the sun up and going full blast at the shadows. We weren’t strong enough then and we still aren’t now, Pom needs to step up a little to at least hold her ground even if she can’t push forward alongside those that will be doing all the fighting on the… front lines…” “So you plugged a leak?” Ollie gave me a tight smile, I must have had a haunted look on my face. The front lines, those nightmares of fighting shadows until I was all torn up husk of my former self fighting to the last against the darkness alone in a wasteland. “Tell me all about these nightmares, maybe it’ll help you feel better to get it out of your system. We might need a therapist by the time we’re done saving the world and I’m thinking about getting into it, even if I’ll never have a special talent for it thanks to Fred.” After I finished talking to Ollie about my nightmares, Velvet, Paprika and I were going to be relaxing for the rest of this day. Come tomorrow… I’d show everyone who’d watch just what Velvet and I were capable of. We were wives, we were rivals and we were both key bearers on a quick path to destruction… and we would be ready for it. If we weren’t ready, then at least I’d go out in a blaze of glory trying. I would at the very least try to make sure that Paprika and Velvet survived. I don’t care how broken I’d be by the end of it, I would not let those nightmares become reality! -The Future That Never Was, Front Lines, ???- I had caused all this, well not me personally, but I still technically had a hoof in it. The barren wastelands around me were silent, it was only a minute ago that the world was saved by the actions of Oleander and Fred. Here I stood at the site of a broken mountain, split in half by the force of those two shredding their very existences from the tapestry of life to save what was left of our world. Those two were the best of friends, then became something more. Their love and souls powered the end of the shadow horde. I would make sure that Fred and Ollie were remembered, that their sacrifice wasn’t in vain for those of us that still lived, we would never forget this. I sat there alone, not hearing or seeing a sign of life all around me. I might be the only survivor… someone who wishes they had perished with all their friends, family and comrades. My name is Starlight Glimmer and I am a unicorn that will begin to record the end results of something that a future version of me had set into motion. It all started when a future self of me disrupted a simple Pegasus race. That future version of me was a fool of the greatest sorts, given she was the one who destroyed everything! She didn’t understand cause and effect as well as I did, because I just lived through it! I was not her and I didn’t know entirely why what she did destroyed our world, but that Starlight was definitely behind all this! I heard a gasping noise, my ears shoot up and I made my way over to a body that hadn’t been devoured by the shadow horde. The likes of Sombra, Tirek, Chrysalis and so many others hadn’t survived them. What I came upon was a cow… wait, a cow had survived our assault?! What was she made of to survive all that we went through?! As I looked her over, she was in dire straits and eventually managed identify her as Sergeant Arizona. She was missing her tail, one of her eyes looked to have been ripped from the socket, her front right leg was missing to the shoulder, her left hind leg was half gone, her horns were broken down to nubs, her body was a mess of bites and claws marks… yet she was still alive. “Commander… Starlight… did we… agh… do it?” She looked so young and she just coughed up an ample amount of blood, she was even lying in a puddle of it and bleeding out. Yet she still had the strength to sit up. Again, I wondered how she was still alive. “Yes… we saved the world… what’s left of it anyway. Hopefully Luna can fix some of the damage that has be done.” I wasn’t going to sugar coat it, Sergeant Arizona Arid was a mess and a half. Yet she clung to life with a ferocity that I’ve seen a scant few times before. “Thanks to GODLESS locking them out of the world, there are no other gods that can hear us or even save us now.” “If you have… enough magic… I need you… to do something…” Her talking was wracked with coughs of agony and flecks of blood flying out of her mouth. “Stop talking and save your strength you idiot!” I put my hoof behind her head as she fell backwards, I could save her… I had to save her! I didn’t want to be the only one to survive this! I don’t even know if Jaded held Manehattan, but I’d get us there and then we could see about getting the world back on its hooves. “I might live… I might not… but do me a favor and send some of my memories to my past self… at least… an idea…” I had already stemmed the blood flow with coagulation spells and stopped her internal hemorrhaging, she will definitely live a little longer than she thinks she will. “A dream of being a super cow… and some nightmares… of the things that… might…” I might have used a lot of magic getting Oleander into position, but I still had enough left to save one life as a certified combat medic! A shadow fell over both of us and I went to protect Arizona as she fell asleep. She wasn’t dead, but she was close to it. I had saved her life and I wasn’t about to let her die out here to… an alpaca? The alpaca’s fur, what little of it there was, was stained, dirty, unkempt, dilapidated, her ragged body was covered in horrible scars and she had tear streaks that seemed like they could never be cleaned away beneath her closed eyes. When she opened her eyes, I could see that she was blind. Those glassy pupils started turning into two hearts. She slowly made her way to Arizona, limping towards her with a frown marring her face. She took Arizona up in her hooves gently and then turned to me; she tilted her head as if she could see me with fresh tears spilling from her eyes. We soon start traveling together towards Manehatten and hoped to find a place of refuge still standing. Jaded may have lost her mother, but she was a strong beacon of hope for everyone to gather around. We needed that guiding light of hers now more than ever before, and for Manehatten to still be there when we arrived. I would never see the blind alpaca smile, but she would remain forever dutiful to the broken cow. A cow whose request I would eventually manage to carry out. If another version of me could physically travel back in time to ruin everything, then I could easily figure out how send a few memories or at least an idea back for a friend and fellow survivor. We would never see the results of my magic, but we still hoped everything worked out for the best. As another world out there might be saved before it could get nearly as bad as ours did. -The Volcano, the next day, Upper Tier, mountainside- The air was tense and the crowd wasn’t even in the arena for this. Instead, the crowd was sitting on the mountainside a ways above the coliseum. All the injured patients had been moved somewhere safer at Arizona and Velvet’s request. The two were going to show the world just how strong they were and would do some free demolition so the coliseum can be rebuilt from the ground up while they were at it. A few longma scoffed at the idea that the fight would really get that bad, they’d soon find out that the precautions were warranted and that the married herd mates didn’t pull their blows in the slightest. -Arizona vs Velvet- The second the fight was announced, Arizona was already ramming her rear hooves into Velvet’s face with a forward flying buck. Velvet’s long slender right hoof was also ramming into Arizona’s forehead at speeds indescribable. The referee was launched away from the two just from the shockwave of them hitting each other, he didn’t think this fight would be as bad as they said it would be. He quickly learned to keep his distance from the two. The animosity in their eyes for each other alone was rather staggering to see for a pair of married lovers. The two went flying away from each other, they both went tumbling across the arena. Velvet was the first to get herself into a position to take initiative as she managed to control her tumble to stop on her hooves. She kicked off with he left hind hoof and started skating across the parts of the stone flooring that were still flat straight for Arizona as if it were made of ice. While she did this she brought her right foreleg across her chest while zigzagging forward. A blade of ice extended from Velvet’s right hoof and she swung it outward as she slid straight at Arizona. Only she was soon stopped cold when Arizona grabbed the blade of ice and snapped it cleanly off of her hoof and swung it about in an attempt to club Velvet with her own weapon. Velvet slid backwards by pushing off with her front left hoof and rolled to the side to avoid nearly getting skewered by her own ice blade being thrown at her like a javelin. Arizona was upon Velvet slamming a right hoof into the left side of her face, Velvet retaliated by stabbing her left hoof into the cows chest multiple times. The minor damage they dealt to each other wasn’t even bruising for how powerful the hits looked to be. “Do we need to kick this up a notch?” Velvet stated with a smile, the air around her grew colder as she turned to the left slinging her right hind leg into the left side of Arizona’s neck. “I might think this warm up is cooling down far too much.” “Stop sandbagging Velvet and give me a real fight!” Arizona groused right back at her while grabbing the leg that struck her neck with her left foreleg. The cow got into a standing position, pulled Velvet towards her and kicked her harshly in the belly with her right hind hoof. “I know you’re holding back your best stuff you rowdy reindeer!” “Of course I am my beautiful bovine!” Velvet, having been flipped entirely on to her back and to the ground. She kicked her left hind leg up into Arizona’s chin, this let her pulled her other leg free from the strong cow’s grip. “I want you to work for the pain you want and deserve. As you very well know, love hurts!” Velvet rolled backwards several times and away before Arizona’s right hoof could strike her. The ground erupted where Arizona’s hoof struck sending cracks throughout the entire arena that was already pretty badly damaged. Heaving up a large chunk of stone with one hoof, Arizona got her other hoof on it and then launched it forward at Velvet. Velvet crossed both her hooves in front of her and a snowflake barrier popped up in time for the stone to shatter upon impact with it. Swiping her left hoof over her head, seven large icicle shards formed. Thrusting her right hoof forward, Velvet sent them flying at a charging Arizona. Arizona dodged the first three, one sharp pointy bit of ice broke against her left shoulder and her tough hide, she deflected one off of her right horn and then ducked the sixth while reaching into her red bandana scarf at her neck. As she dodged the last icicle, Arizona swiftly flicked her left hoof and the sound of a whip cracking was heard. With a quick spin, the rope wrapped around the icicle gained momentum. The icicle was spun around while gaining momentum to be unleashed right back at Velvet at three times the speed when Arizona flicked the rope to release it. Velvet tried to make a strong snowflake barrier and was sent sprawling when her own icicle burst through her barrier, only being blunted by the barrier before it struck her directly. She quickly rolled to the side after coming to a stop to avoid a thunderous left hoof coming down on top of her and into a standing position where she promptly bucked Arizona in the chest, then turned around to glare at her. Arizona snapped the rope forward and Velvet smiled at her, the cow looked confused for a second before Velvet formed a snowflake barrier formed around the rope whip before it could lash out and hit her. “Rope-a-dope…” Velvet hopped backwards and sharply pulled the snowflake barrier with her before discarding it into thin air and she held her left leg up as Arizona came sailing towards her. “Oh, you are so going to pay for…!” Was as far as Arizona got before her neck was clotheslined and Velvet forced Arizona downwards with an impressive show of strength. “Slam!” The arena shuddered and quaked as one of the walls collapsed when Velvet hopped and threw her entire body into it. Everyone watching the clearly visible shockwave was stunned beyond belief. The fact that the reindeer could create as large a crater as she did was incredible to most of the watching longma. When the dust was mostly cleared, they were even more surprised to see Arizona pulling her face away from the stunned reindeer and then bucking Velvet harshly in the face sending her flipping backwards out of the crater with a bleeding and nearly broken nose. The cow looked only vaguely battered by the attack and most of the arena was destroyed by having her spine shoved into the flooring to create a twenty foot wide crater. She stood up and marched up out of the crater towards the blushing reindeer. “You just have a very kissable face Velvet, too bad it won’t stay that way at the rate we’re going.” Arizona commented dryly as she threw a left hook and then jabbed with her right and kicked with her left hind leg. “It’s a good thing for you that I’ll still love you, even if I have to beat your beautiful looks ugly.” “Please… as if your rugged form isn’t quite delectably adorable as well.” Velvet complimented right on back as she blocked the first two attacks and took the kick in the chin while smashing Arizona in the udders with a kick of her own. The cow grunt as she bent over slightly. “Just don’t permanently mar my floof. Paprika sees a lot in us and we see a lot in each other. Can’t we just say we’re a perfectly balanced herd? I’m the beautiful wife, Paprika is the cute wife and you… are just a brute, but those lovely muscles of yours are quite attractive I assure you!” “I’ll show you brute!” Arizona crouched down pulling her right hoof behind herself hiding what she was doing to it with her left hoof. Said left hoof was soon pressed against her right bicep, she launched forward spinning. “I’ve almost perfected this technique… Little… Mach… Righter!” In slow motion Arizona’s hoof glided through the air as she spun forward, her hoof lit up with a small flame the first quarter of her spin. The flame increases from red to yellow, then halfway into her spin it turned orange. At three quarters of the way the flames coming off her hoof turned blue, then white before the blow hit the snowflake barrier. When Arizona’s hoof passed through the snowflake barrier, like it was made entirely of melted butter thanks to all the friction heat being generated, Velvet quickly created another thicker barrier closer to her. A spark of black came out of the shining white fire of Arizona’s burning hoof when it connected with the second more curved igloo barrier. A bright light blinded everyone, when they got their vision back and the tornado of dust from the attacked died down they saw that a little more than a quarter of the coliseum was gone. Not the arena, the coliseum as a whole. The ground, where the missing portions of the coliseum used to be, was now partially covered with small streaks of glass and tons of rubble. Despite the power of the attack, Velvet came out of the attack only slightly burnt much to the disbelief of everyone watching. She was sitting at the back edge of a single unmarked circle of stone, from the looks of it most of the destruction seemed to have flowed entirely around and behind her in a very wide cone. -Pom- “I survived… full strength hits… from her?!” I honestly felt far less weak than I previously thought I was. It was actually kind of a confidence booster to see someone, who’s been said to have hit you with full force several times, pull off an attack so powerful that it destroyed an entire portion of a building just by the force of the attack being redirected into the surroundings. I thought Velvet was sane, poised and graceful, someone that was easy to talk to. Now I could see that she was just as insanely powerful as Arizona was, if in a completely different way. The only likely reason why Paprika had lost to Velvet, is that the reindeer had somehow figured out how to attack the alpaca’s large amount of stamina directly. Once Velvet completely drained her, Paprika couldn’t keep fighting despite her incredible defensive abilities as a fluffmancer. I admittedly had some limited capability, but I wouldn’t make a very good fluffmancer. “Yes, when you have a little confidence Pom, you are quite beau… I mean you can do so much more than when you don’t.” Tianhuo was always so nice to me despite my cowardice, I didn’t mind her coddling me or hugging me like this. “Your familiars and friends all believe in you to be who you want to be. The strength is there, you just need to find it on your own terms and not that of others, even though they are just trying to help you in their own ways. I will support you no matter what you choose to do with yourself, just know that I will personally protect you if you ask me to.” While I wasn’t feel as weak as I thought I was, I was still quite honestly terrified of Arizona and her raw physical strength. I’m also glad that I was friends with her, Velvet and Paprika. Ollie had explained a lot of things to me and I was terrified of the prospect and slightly intrigued by the idea of being one of the six key bearers. Arizona didn’t care if I never became a warrior or a fighter, she cared that I could effectively defend myself and those I cared for. I think I was the only lambkin in this day and age that might even be willing to try being the bearer of the lambkin key. I wasn’t brave, honestly don’t think I would ever be, but I could be a tiny bit more confident and try to fight for what I wanted to be like Tianhuo suggested… besides a good friend I mean. I didn’t exactly feel like a good friend at the moment since everyone wanted to help me, but I was working on it and would eventually figure out a way to repay their kindness. I should be able to figure myself out while I watched as the two titans clashing below us. I certainly wasn’t going back to the valley anytime soon, which was the one things I was absolutely certain about. Big Mama suddenly slapped my face affectionately with her tongue and then did the same to Tianhuo. -Velvet vs Arizona- “I can see why you say you almost perfected it…” Velvet said wide eyed as she looked at all the destruction behind her, slowly her eyes slid into a lustful look as she turned back to Arizona. “It’s quite an elegantly practiced attack now, for being all raw power and no finesse at all that is. How’s your hoof Arizona dear? The friction from that attack has to be quite… oh, I see. Clever… no damage to you personally then?” A smiling Arizona flicked off the bundle of smoldering blackened heat resilient ropes off her right hoof and her right hoof was perfectly fine. The ropes, however, disintegrated entirely into piles of ash the second they hit the last bits of undamaged flooring left in the arena. Said ashes were blown away by a soft wind. “You lightly burnt some of my floof, so expect retribution to come swiftly and without pause. I think you deserve some pain, but also something sweet now that you’ve got me all hot and bothered.” Velvet sauntered forward and pulled Arizona into a cuddle, she licked the tip of Arizona’s nose making the cow blush. They suddenly were kissing each other fiercely, they didn’t care an iota about their audience watching them do so. They were just fighting one another with their tongues now, one could almost see their indomitable spirits beating the snot out of one another. Eventually Velvet backed off, she looked entirely reluctant to do so. “You know how to make my heart race, so please, keep it up. Now, if you will let me get back into position, I’m bringing out my Hop-kido fighting style. If you can keep this pace up when I go airborne, I have something special that I’ve been saving just for this special occasion and you love.” Velvet walked away with her tail held up high and her butt waggling for Arizona as she looked over her shoulder and once she turned around, Arizona waited patiently for her to start things back up. It seems Arizona had manners to wait for combat to start back up, she motioned politely to Velvet and the reindeer nodded. Velvet leapt into the air and with a kick of all four hooves she shot towards Arizona and landed a full four hoof stomp into her blocking legs. Even blocking the attack, Arizona was sent skidding backwards and off balance, she wasn’t allowed to regain it either. Velvet shot forward following up her attack fiercely with several wide sweeping swings of her legs as she skipped to and fro in the air. Blow after blow landed on the blocking cow who stood her ground and tightened up her defensive stance. Arizona tried to rope Velvet out of the air, she dodged out of the rope with flamboyant twirl. Arizona tried to whip her out of the air, Velvet deflect with a small snowflake barrier. Arizona tried to countering her with her bare hooves, but Velvet jumped off the air out of her reach and Arizona couldn’t jump high enough to catch her air hopping wife. Velvet was just bouncing off the air too fast for Arizona to get a decent hit in, the cow wasn’t very good against flying opponents and it showed quite clearly. Velvet launched one legged bucks, slaps, jabs and each blow was roughing up Arizona as she clenched her muscles to block each blow as the reindeer twisted and turned in the air with an impossible acrobatic grace. Velvet was poetry in motion as she danced circles around the cow in the air without touching the ground for the solid minute that she kept up her assault. Despite all the blows being landed, Arizona was far more resilient than Velvet and was weathering the attacks from the long limbed reindeer fairly well. Arizona’s reach and control of the battle wasn’t great at the moment, but seeing a shift in her eyes. It looked like she had an idea and she bided her time. She looked to be waiting for Velvet to perform the right kind of move. Velvet spun and launched a horizontal twirling axe kick for the back of Arizona’s head, Arizona leaned and took the blow to her neck and then tilted her head to the right catching Velvet’s right hind leg in the crook of her neck before she could kick away. Velvet’s eyes widened when she flailed at the air unable to get out of the grasp of Arizona’s neck. Arizona quickly released her and then leapt backwards and swinging the back of her skull into the reindeer’s belly to send her rolling across the ground in a painful looking manner. As soon as Velvet got her hooves under her, she jumped quickly and then again to narrowly avoid Arizona launching a rope whip at her with her left hoof. Velvet didn’t see the second one coming from Arizona’s right before it smashed into her spine with a sharp crack and splash of blood knocked her from the air and through a wall beneath the nearby bleachers. “Hey, Velvet! You okay?” Arizona called out as a good number of walls and an entire section of empty stone bleachers toppled down on where she had sent her wife sailing. She looked at the small amount of blood on her rope whip and shrugged. “Yeah, she’s fine.” The rubble of the recently toppled portions of the coliseum shifted, a large spike of ice shoved a few good large chunks of it away. Velvet pulled herself out from under the spike and started marching forward with a slight limp and a determined look on her face. “It’s time I showed you my trump card, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it Arizona. It’s as much a blunt instrument as you are!” Velvet sat down crossing her rear legs and then she held out both her hooves. “I’m going to show you that I’ve surpassed the need for ice shaper water mastery of ‘mass’, with just my wind mastery of ‘control’ alone. Just be aware that I can’t do this for very long as it’s going to take a lot out of me, especially in this warm environment.” Arizona wait patiently for something to happen, five seconds later Velvet rose up and was encased in a block of dark colored ice in the shape of a heart. The cow tilted her head, curious as to where her favorite reindeer was going with this. Lighter colored ice started to sprout from the dark heart shaped ice with a nearly completely frozen solid Velvet in the middle of it. The light colored ice started to take shape of the reindeer’s floof and chest and Arizona looked up at the quickly growing construction with excitement. It was seamless in shape once formed, with little veins of dark ice spreading from the chest to the head and all the way back to the tip of its tail. It was a giant Icy Velvet with a flesh and blood Velvet for a heart, the ice sculpture shifted and spread its legs out as it looked down at Arizona and flicked its tail. “Bigger isn’t always better Velvet.” Arizona commented dryly, the statue mouth made motions as if talking. “You do realize that you can’t exactly talk like that right?” The large ice sculpture slapped its right hoof to its forehead, the meditating Velvet in the chest of the statue frowned slightly. The ice statue pointed to Arizona and made a gesture with its front left hoof for her to come at it with everything she had. “Gladly!” Arizona screamed as she launched forward avoiding the large sharp edged tip of right icy hoof and launched a power hoof strike to the leg that caused the ice to crack slightly. Seconds later the ice repaired itself. “Okay, so it can repair itself. This might take a bit of doing and you’re probably going to sleep for a week after this is over with Velvet, but I won’t simply lose to you because of this!” Even as Arizona shouted at Ice Velvet, she avoided getting stomped on by the front right leg and darted toward the other leg to buck it. She cracking the ice on it even worse and it slowly started to repair itself. Icy Velvet slowly turned towards Arizona as she ran from her to do something, the large ice body was not exactly fast, but quite durable and hard to damage. The reindeer driven ice statue held up its legs and they cracked when a pillar was swung into them, the pillar was pulled back on the rope it was attached to and swung back and around for another blow. Only the statue swung outwards deflecting the pillar and making Arizona’s rope lose its grip on it. The statue then crouched and swiped outwards at Arizona with its left hoof, the blow connected and sent Arizona smashing through several walls and the emptied medical area of the coliseum which imploded inward on the cow. Icy Velvet smirked a bit, a few seconds later the chin of the monstrous reindeer statue was hit with a large piece of rubble that made it stumble backwards a bit. The cracks among the ice structure were worsening and another piece of rubble struck the chest causing even more cracks to form, they weren’t repairing as quickly due to the structural damage and Velvet’s quickly weakening magical strength. The Icy Velvet was starting to chip, but it wouldn’t be enough to bring down the statue quite yet as it moved towards Arizona in long strides. The statue inhaled, after the billowing of oxygen filled its hollow belly it exhaled a storm of cold air at Arizona that froze everything it touched. “That’s really c-c-cold of you Velvet!” Arizona flexed shattering the ice forming on her body, she reached for her bandana and then slung her left hoof forward to wrap around the mouth of the icy colossus and then pulled it shut. Arizona pulled on the rope and Icy Velvet started to move forward. The icy Velvet took a step or two forward and the rope slackened, it thrust its left hoof at Arizona. Arizona leapt onto the hoof to start running up it until the statue flailed it up upward, this sent the cow flying up into the air where she was knocked even higher by the other hoof hitting her smaller form. The cow landed with a grunt on the highest part of the coliseum still standing. She slowly stood up and glared at the condescending look that the Icy Velvet was giving her with its lifeless round orbs and slapped her front hooves together making a thunderous sound. Arizona started wrapping some heat resistant rope around her left hoof and started gathering some regular rope with her right as she ducked under a left swing by Icy Velvet and then leapt over the next. Each swing taking a portion of the building beneath Arizona’s hooves. Twirling a quickly made lasso overhead, Arizona launched it and managed to get it around Icy Velvet’s neck. “I’ve always wanted to be a super cow you know!” Gripping the rope with both hooves Arizona started pulling, the way Velvet’s head rotated it seemed like she was just rolling her eyes and didn’t expect Arizona to be strong enough to lift the weight of the living ice statue. “Kind of strange that I’m fighting a giant ice statue of one my wives with a dark heart of gold. Makes me feel like I’m living the dream!” With the strongest yank she could manage, the statue lifted off the ground and looked horribly surprised. “Flying… Little… Mach… Lefter!” Spinning around to the left, Arizona leapt forward towards the airborne statue coming at her and her tiny hoof connected with its neck. “Rope-a-dope…” The enter statue suddenly acted like it was clotheslined and the explosion from Arizona’s left hoof hitting it blew apart the entirety of Icy Velvet’s head, that wasn’t the end of Arizona’s attack though. Arizona jumped off the chest of the headless body of ice, going high up into the air as it fell towards the ground. Doing hundreds of somersaults as she felt towards the heart of the statue, she eventually stopped while bringing her two forelegs high above her head when she came close to the block of ice above the heart. “Slam!” Hooves coming downwards in a hammer cataclysmic hammer blow, Arizona slammed down her forelegs with her full earth shaking might. The buildings around The Volcano shuddered, the lighter colored ice went everywhere and the dark ice heart split in half and some of the remaining parts of the coliseum still standing collapsed. Velvet fell to the ground slightly in shock as Arizona landed right next to her. “You know, I would say sorry for breaking your heart… but I’m just going to lick up this gooey and rather tasty caramel center in the chocolate.” Arizona’s words made Velvet’s face turn completely red with embarrassment. “Can you still fight?” “With you? Always!” Velvet started coughing and she looked a bit sickly for a moment. “I just don’t think I’m going to be able to use too much more ice though, I’m running close to empty and my body is starting to heat up too much. The heat of The Volcano isn’t exactly good for my health.” Velvet slapped her left foreleg against the ground and statue of herself formed thrusting a left hoof uppercut into Arizona’s chin knocking her upwards. She sat up and slapped the statues backside and another budded out of the head of the first to punch its right hoof into Arizona’s gut. Velvet brought both her hooves down on top of the butt as she stood up and a third statue budded out of the second, but it was just shaped like Velvet's rear that stomped its hind legs into Arizona’s skull. Arizona heaved herself up and rammed her slightly rattled skull against Velvet’s floof and sent her rolling away. Velvet got up and started twirling, but she couldn’t do more than create a tiny dust devil of cold air. She started panicking when Arizona grabbed hold of her. “To win this, I only need one good hit Velvet .” Arizona stated as slammed a hook across Velvet’s cheek making it immediately bruise, then she took a moment to start gasping. “You’re on your last legs and I’ve taken everything you’ve dished out so far.” “I could say the same to you!” Velvet slapped Arizona across the face twice and took a blow to the chin that knocked her head back. She took a few steps away rubbing at her aching chin. “You’re not exactly in the best condition yourself, but at least you don’t have to fight with everything getting so… warm.” “True, but I’m sweating baskets and you must hate the smell by this point.” Arizona rushed Velvet and struck the left side of her face and then her left hoof was blocked from hitting Velvet’s right. “Au contraire, I love the smell of a well fought battle Arizona!” Velvet launched several thrust into Arizona’s temple, nose and chest with both her forelegs that made the cow back off. “How about a finisher…. I can’t keep this up much longer.” “On three?” Arizona offer, Velvet only nodded in response. “One.” “Two.” Velvet spoke as she and Arizona brought their heads back. “Three!” The two slammed their heads into one another and an explosion of dust kicked up throughout the remains of the coliseum. Quite a few in the audience were watching and waiting for something. “Winner…” The referee announced, even as he saw that the two figures standing. One started to fall and the other was wavering on their hooves. “Arizona ‘Earth Shaker’ Arid, of herd Paca La Perm!” Arizona was badly bruised, her face was bleeding in several spots and she was barely standing, but she was smiling as she raised a shaky hoof. “You’ve always… had a tough skull... my super cow…” Velvet whispered out after Arizona stumbled her way over to her, Arizona looked to the crowd taking in the cheers and then slowly dropped down onto her side and she laid her head on Velvet’s floof and cuddled up to the reindeer. "My floof... better not be... covered in snot... upon waking...” "My everything... is so numb... Velvet." Arizona quickly passed out.