//------------------------------// // Chapter Seventy One, GODLESS GODDESS: At the end of the day... // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Manehatten, Slope to the bay 11:26 PM, Nightmare Rage Vs. Jade- A flash of lightning struck out towards the sky, rain was falling in a storm and two figures seen in the flash could be seen crossing each other’s paths in the air. Jade struck the wall of the building on the right side of the street after narrowly avoiding the angry nightmare pony we'll call Nightmare Rage with a dot for a horn and razor sharp bony wings. Upon reaching the corner of the building she was wall riding, Jade kicked off the wall and went skates first through one of the many windows destroyed by Blade’s screech and into an office building. Crashing bodily into tje office, Jade bounced off the cushioned chair and smashed the nearby door open with her right shoulder while trying to maintain her forward momentum. A horizontal beam ripped through the wall behind Jade making her stumble away from the doorway as it started rapidly moving towards her. She pumped as much speed out of her skates as she could. Looking to her left Jade saw Nightmare Rage was having problems turning her head while she was flying sideways trying to catch Jade in the beam. Jade jumped up and the beam swept underneath her, then it came back her way and she slid under it. She then started to dart left and right to avoid the rubble from collapsing roof that was threatening to crush her, bits of it struck her head, back and shoulders as she made her way for the holes at the end of the hallway. Nightmare Rage flew to catch up and began firing rapid fire blasts of energy that trailed after Jade and were getting closer to the cat by the second. Jade crouched down upon getting close to the end of the hallway and looked towards nightmare. She leapt for the window and towards a first floor girder in a construction site as the roof collapsed inwards on itself behind her. At the same time a second Jade seemed to have bud off of the first and leapt to the side out a different opening towards a confused Nightmare Rage. She swung her left arm out and slapped Nightmare Rage across the face with a wide swing of her yo-yo. In response the Nightmare Rage sped up and slashed at Jade with a wing. Only to meet air when the second Jade dispersed into motes of light before Nightmare Rage could hit her. Jade, having put some distance between them, leapt off the girder having grinded along it to build up speed and landed on back the sloped street. She soon ducked under a girder that rammed into the street at an angle in front of her. Nightmare Rage flew up and then twisted into a sharp dive. A glow started building up on her head, she got into chasing position where she fired a beam at the street and pulled her head back sharply. Jade skipped to the left sidewalk to avoid the beam and the flying chunks of the street being ripped up and swiftly took a carrot dog cart to the lower torso that made her yelp loudly in pain. Flipping her onto her back, Jade went skidding down the center of the rain slicked street on her elbow pads and the heels of her skates. Her tail was barely staying off the street and her elbow pads were quickly wearing away. Jade rolled to the right and avoided several sharp spikes of earth from where Nightmare Rage nearly smashed her skull in by striking the sidewalk with what looked like the barest of taps. The painful scrapes she took from doing so hurt quite a bit and it wasn’t a second later before the alicorn was on her again. Jade grit her teeth and then she found herself being pushed up onto her skates by a second Jade kicking her between the shoulder blades. The second Jade quickly fired a magic missile over her shoulder that did little to slow down the incoming mare. The first Jade quickly gained her balance and then started pushing herself forward and then she leapt onto the edge of the sidewalk and started to grind along it to pick up speed. The second Jade spun and was sliding down the slope backwards, she ducked under the left wing swipe of Nightmare Rage. She tossed the yo-yo up and it wrapped around the base of the mare’s right wing. With a sharp yank Nightmare Rage slammed into the street face first and the second Jade stomped her right skate down on her head. Any fur Nightmare Rage had on her belly, throat, chin and parts of her legs was quickly disappearing due to road rash from the friction of being forcefully dragged down the slope at high speeds. She slung her right wing forward and the clone Jade immediately dispersed. This allowed Nightmare Rage to kick off the ground and take to the air again, she began to fly after Jade who managed to put some distance between them. Jade leapt from grinding the sidewalk over the street with a quick twirl and into the port to start moving towards a large number of cargo containers. Nightmare Rage growled and flickered, but couldn’t manage at teleport thanks to the damage Fizzlepop did to her horn and all the flicker had done was speed her up. She roared in frustration as she caught up to Jade jumping up onto the edge of a smaller cargo container. A large cargo container immediately levitated and slammed into the one Jade was on and she leapt over and away from it, a second cargo container was slammed down in front of her and she barely veered out of the way. Looking above her as several shadows sailed overhead, Jade eyes went wide as multiple cargo containers came at her from all sides. She darted to the right as a cargo container came at her from the right, it hit the ground, bounced and then was caught in a magical aura and flew right towards her back. Jade pushed forward to avoid two dropping on her from above and then veered hard again as another one slammed down in front of her coming from the left. She went into a slide to avoid the one redirected back at her and then she leapt and curled up to go over a contain sliding along the ground at her. That’s when another a container with both ends open came at Jade. Unfortunately Jade uncurled at the wrong moment and slammed roughly against the inside wall of the container and was carried with it as it went flipping end over end with her inside. When it came to a stop Jade groaned in pain and tried to pick herself up when she heard an ominous creaking noise. Clone Jade, with the same grimace on her face that the original currently had, immediately popped into position. She grabbed Jade’s right hand, pulled her into a standing position and then took a strong grip on her arm with both of her hands as the container began to crumple around them. Swinging Jade around, the clone released her and sent her sliding out of the container and then dispersed. A pressure wave of the container finally imploding sent Jade sprawling into a roll and she looked back at the container and winced at the sight. A flick of her ear and Jade was quickly rolling to the left and was launched forward as the cement of the port was shattered by Nightmare Rage slamming into the ground where Jade used to be. Flipping end over end in the air out of control, Jade righted herself with a mid-air jump before she hit the ground and was skating for the edge of a nearby pier. She leapt onto it and avoided another chasing beam of raw magical force as she grinded along the edge towards the sea. Jade looked at a large shadow in the distance, wiping at her fur and hair that were wet with the heavy rain. Lightning flashed sporadically and the wind was blowing harshly. Jade's body was not only being battered by Nightmare Rage, but by the storm as well. The Abyssinian’s night vision was particularly good as she could see the shadow moving through the darkness and the rain coming for her wings spread wide ready to deal a deadly blow from behind. The cats breathing was uneven and one could see the palpable amount of fear on her face as her injuries were mounting up. Jade shot off of the pier and onto the choppy waves of the sea, she immediately tapped the unused hourglass at her waist and sped up as soon as she hit the water. Nightmare Rage followed and wasn’t hindered by the weather at all, she was most likely the cause of it. A bolt of lightning nearly struck the Abyssinian making her fur stand on end as her legs rapidly pumped to keep her above the waves that threatened to pull her down. Jade was having problems with keeping her balance on the water as it was not flowing in any single direction or was calm like a lake, the turbulent seas threatened to swallow her as a wave almost crashed down right on top of her. The waves became less of a problem as Jade’s acceleration quickly picked up and it kept her ahead of the various crashing waves and more importantly the deadly alicorn aiming another lightning bolt at her backside. A quick follow up beam of magic glanced off of Jade’s left hip making her hiss as she kept pushing herself through the turbulent rolling waves, all while kicking up sprays of water in her wake. The cat turned and veered to avoid several powerful blasts of magically aimed lighting from the storm that lit up the entire area and hurt her eyes, she had barely managed to stay on her skates and not fall over into the sea from. There were also blasts of magic that were highly inaccurate and weak beams of energy that swept through the waves trying to knock the cat down. Nightmare Rage’s eyes narrowed as she backed off and studied the direction Jade was heading with some minor hint of intelligence before she shook it off and went back to mindlessly attacking the cat. There was a large pony shaped shadow coming up quickly for Jade and she looked behind her, then jumped to the top of a forming wave barrel and started to push along it. Jade looked a little surprised that her grind function was activate as she kept pushing and she zoomed straight toward the island in the bay well ahead of the Nightmare Rage with a weak grin on her face. Proud that she had made it this far. Leaping off the rough seas onto land, Jade's hourglass shattered upon impact with the ground getting bits of glass in her right leg as she shot by several bushes heading towards the statue, she grinded on the rail between the steps leading up to the building beneath the statue and came to a stop. While she caught her breath, she looked above her at the smiling mare holding a giant stone slab in her left hoof and in her right hoof a stone torch. It was the statue of friendship and harmony, Liberty. A force slammed into the ground behind Jade knocking her off her feet and launching her towards the base of the giant pedestal, she quickly reached into her pack and pulled out the gunbai and pointed it upwards while looking above herself. Nightmare Rage gave the gunbai a dispassionate look as she stalked forward and was about to take advantage of the cat’s inattentiveness, only for Jade to swing the gunbai downwards and nothing seemed to happen for a moment. Leaping forward Nightmare Rage covered half the distance she had knocked Jade, when something massive slammed down on her entire body. Liberty’s slab just flipped itself out of the mare’s left hoof and crushed Nightmare Rage. Jade exhaled in fright and squeaked slightly as the end of the slab had landed an inch from her face. She slowly stood up and looked at the slab wondering if that stopped Nightmare Rage. The huge stone slab shook, small cracks spread throughout the center of it and Jade immediately skated around the side of the building. Another shake and a larger crack formed, a third shake and the entire slab had cracks running throughout it. With one final push Nightmare Rage erupted from the slab decimating it entirely into a pile of pebbles, rock and rubble. A short magical pulse went out and Nightmare Rage’s head immediately turned to the right to see Jade waiting for her at the corner with her right arm hidden behind the corner. She immediately charged, she fired several blasts of magic which the cat dodged while trying to stay in place. Nightmare Rage smiled at the fact that Jade was no longer running, she seemed to be in fact waiting for her to get into striking range. She gladly obliged as she drew back her left hoof and swept both her wings back to herself launch forward while preparing to strike with them as well. As Nightmare Rage’s hoof swung forward, Jade smirked and hopped backwards revealing her right arm stretched a fair distance away. With the snapping sound of a rubber band, Jade shifted her hips about and brought burning fist forward to collide with the left side of Nightmare Rage’s face launching her out to sea. Afterwards Jade, screamed out in raw agony for next ten seconds and it was hard to tell that she was crying in the dark night and thick rain as she clutched at her right shoulder. Her right arm looked mangled, it was now bent at several unnatural angles. Like a rubber band, Jade had stretched her arm too far and she was now paying for it. Stowing her rubber chicken away in her pack with her left hand, Jade moved towards the pedestal's entrance clutching at her right shoulder while gritting her teeth. Jade looked up at Liberty’s pedestal as she skated towards the entrance facing the sea and jumped onto the rail leading up the stairs. She had a death grip on her right arm as she shot up three sets of hoof rails rapidly in succession until she stopped at a door. Looking around for something, Jade closed her eyes and kicked out with left foot and wince as the wood cracked, she pulled back her leg and kicked again. The splintered outwards and it's fell most of the way off it's hinge. Jade skated out of the entrance to the base of the statue’s rear hooves. Jade reached back into her pack and looked out into the storm for a shadow figure, not seeing anything as she pulled out a book like object. Then she noticed a loud noise of something that sounded like a mass of rushing water and turned to see a huge tsunami building up and at the top of it was Nightmare Rage acting as a force of nature unto herself, probably using the peak of what Pegasus magic could do. Pulling back her left arm, Jade heaved the book like object at the left rear hoof of the statue and it sunk into it. Slowly the massive giant of stone, art and symbolism, shifted and then lowered its body and head to look at Jade judgingly. “I’m sorry for doing this Liberty, statue of friendship and Harmony, but please… help me protect the city from that tsunami and stall that nightmare for at least a minute or two. I beg of you, I swear I’m sorry about what happened to your slab!” The statue lowered its head to Jade while closing its glowing eyes, it slowly smiled warmly and held out its left hoof and motioned for Jade to get on it. “My sister might be mad at me after this, but it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.” Quickly acquiescing to her gentle request and hopping onto the offered hoof, Jade was lifted up and held to the crown on the statue’s head. Once Jade was safely inside the crown, Liberty opened her eyes and turned to glare at the alicorn creating a city destroying tsunami of water. The wave started to roll forward at the current height of Liberty’s neck, the statue took up a golf swing position with the torch held in her right hoof and she narrowed her eyes at the wave. When the wave was about to destroy her island, Liberty two rear hooved steps forward off her pedestal and swung her stone torch in an upwards arc with both hooves. The entire waved dispersed by collapsing in on itself and a figure flew upwards having been hit by the giant stone torch’s upward swing. Liberty raised the giant torch shaped mace high above her head and brought it vehemently down on Nightmare Rage’s small form, smashing the mare into the ground of her island. Liberty kept pressing her weight down on the torch to keep Nightmare Rage under it, the torch shuttered violently several times and didn't seem to be taking damage. A glow started to cover the torch and moved up Liberty’s right hoof, the magic started to wrap around and encase her whole body. The statue took its left hoof off the torch and held it up to the crown with a sense of urgency. Liberty turned and lowered Jade back to the pedestal before the magic covered her entire form. What followed was the most disturbing show of strength Jade had ever witnessed, as Nightmare Rage lifted Liberty and proceeded to throw her with the most impressive use of levitation ever displayed. Thankfully Nightmare Rage tossed Liberty out to sea instead of at the city, the sorrowful looking statue’s glowing eyes could be seen as she disappeared over the horizon. Jade just stood there at the top of the pedestal staring in horror with her ears dropped in shock, she quickly started backing up and fell onto her butt trying to think of what to do next. That's when Nightmare Rage landed on top of the Liberty's pedestal with her. Those silver slits were promising to end Jade’s life this night, but the mare was notably missing her horn entirely. There was only bits of bone with skin slowly growing over her bleeding forehead, she didn't seem to be able to use magic anymore. Her draconic wings were also hanging limply at her side and they looked to be a sickly grey color. That meant Nightmare Rage couldn’t fly either, the only way she could have gotten up here is if she jumped. Nightmare Rage was weakened, but she wasn’t beaten, her muscles flexed and she started to slowly approach Jade with a limp. Jade pulled out her yo-yo and tossed it down and pulled it back up, it slapped into her left hand. Adding to her show of bravado, she growled at Nightmare Rage and flicked her tail angrily. Jade wasn’t looking too hot, but neither was Nightmare Rage and they moved to attack one another at the same time. Jade rolled to the right and slammed the yo-yo up into Rage’s chin, then brought it down on the healing wound on her forehead to make her whinny in agony. She stumbled dizzily and Jade got in close to start kicking her face as hard as she could, suddenly Rage sped up caught Jade’s left leg in the middle of a kick for her neck and twisted it. Jade spun to the ground and her face slammed into the cement face first. Blood, snot and tears spilled from her face, the only sound of pain that escaped her lips was weak mewl. She rolled out of the way of a right hoof slamming down to create a crater into the stone flooring sending cracks everywhere, but it didn’t cause a shockwave. The Abyssinian screamed in agony as she had to roll over her broken arm, through her tears she launched the yo-yo for the mare’s throat. Rage’s left hoof came up and caught the yo-yo, said yo-yo grinded against her left hoof for a second and then stopped spinning entirely. The mare slammed her right hoof into her left and the yo-yo splintered into broken pieces. “Do you have any idea…. how long it took me to get Marie and that image of a top hat right?!” Jade ignored the pain she was in as she unhooked the string from her fingers, her eyes flared in anger. She roared and used her right foot, her left leg seems to have become badly sprained, to jump forward and slam a left hook across Nightmare Rage’s face. Nightmare Rage actually staggered and she tried to retaliate only to get dazed even further by a sharp backhand, Jade popped her claws and swung them downward shredding through Nightmare Rage’s right ear and her face. “She looks adorable with a top hat!” Jade screamed as her tail wrapped around the mare’s front right leg, Jade kicked her in the chin with her right leg balancing precariously on her pained left. Nightmare Rage flipped onto her back and Jade proceeded to straddle her and started to rapidly punch and claw her face and front legs with her left arm. After several nasty blows, Nightmare Rage raised her right hoof blocking Jade’s next attempt to claw her. With a swift thrust of her left hoof to Jade’s chest, Rage sent the now yowling cat bouncing across the empty pedestal. A whimpering Jade tried to get up, but she was too broken and beaten from that last hit. Being alive was agony at the moment and Jade was just struggling to stay conscious, she could see that Nightmare Rage slowly walking towards her. “You know… I’m glad I wore protective gear today, saved me at least some agony.” Jade said while gasping and clutching at her chest, she was a mess and Nightmare Rage wasn’t any better. The only difference here is that the mare was still mobile. Nightmare Rage didn’t respond and kept walking towards Jade. “Do you think you’ve won? Do you even think anymore? I honestly can’t tell.” Jade coughed and bled on the stone as the rain poured around the two combatants, Jade shifted her neck and fired a tightly compact spray of blood slammed into Nightmare Rage’s left leg. That had effectively hobbled Nightmare Rage judging by the snapping sound from the impact. Nightmare Rage, continued to walk with a three hoofed gait. Jade looked to the sky and saw a single clear patch where the storm currently wasn’t raging, she could see the stars and a sparkle appeared in her eyes. A smile tugged at her lips, she tried to laugh and only coughed up bits of precious life fluid onto the rain soaked stone beneath her. “I hope… I hope my friends get here before I bleed out, you tagged me… a few times before I could disperse my clone. I’m so tired of running…” Jade smiled. “At least... I got to see the stars one last time if the last part of my plan doesn’t pan out…” That made Nightmare Rage pause and tilt her head curiously, her silver slits seemed to have some intelligence in them as she looked over her shoulder at the stars too. After a second she ignored the stars and continued moving forward with clear intent. Not having time to avoid the attack, it came swift and mercilessly out of nowhere, only serendipity led the attack to landing the final blow. Something green went down, the victor of the battle was finally decided. . . . . . . . . -12:00 PM- . . . . . . . . “One green… five pound… rubber… ball…. travelling at… something like… I don’t know… above mach four maybe?” Jade weakly stated as she laid her head against the stone as the storm slowly started to fade, the vast night sky opened up before her eyes in all its splendor. “I am so… freaking glad… that I used the End of Immortality on you… before I introduced the concentrated Poison Joke. At least I wasn’t stupid enough to let you actually ascend. Checked… all over the… city… to make sure that my unicorn toy didn’t get stuck anywhere… Fizzy will love it…” Jade turned her sight downwards. At the edge of a deep crater, was a somewhat scorched rubber green ball dripping water and beyond that was a reverted Stochastic Labor in a pooling water that was currently being stained by her injuries. “Totally… worth it...” Jade eyes started to slide shut. “I’m just…. just gonna… pass out now…” -?- At exactly twenty three hours, fifty nine minutes and fifty nine seconds after it was set in motion, the green ball that has stayed in motion for that amount of time came from the sky from out of nowhere like a comet. It collided with Nightmare Rage before she could kill Jaded La Perm. Even then, Jaded La Perm still might bleed out though... “Bamf!” Never mind, she’s fine.