The first blast had been easy to dodge for Jade. The magical build-up had been all too obvious in giving away the red unicorn’s intentions. All it took was a few quick steps to the right, and the beam of destructive energy flew over Jade’s shoulder and into something behind her, which exploded into tiny shrapnel, raining bits of whatever it was down onto her sprinting body.
The next few shots had been harder, and Jade was forced a couple of times to leap over them, the discharge of energy singeing her stomach and legs.
Jade cursed fluently as a particularly accurate beam blew away the street under her, sharp fragments being propelled into upper body and creating several lacerations on her green coat. She could feel their sting, but she forced herself to keep running, drawing the crazy unicorn’s attention away from the bystander that had been standing at the edge of the giant crater.
How the crater got there, Jade didn’t even want to guess.
She dived through the window of a house, glass shattering and peppering the carpet inside with tiny, sharp pieces. Pieces which Jade immediately landed in, causing another stream of swears to escape her mouth.
She got up, wincing as the glass fell from her many cuts, red droplets following their descent. A terrified squeal brought her attention to four huddled figures, hugging each other in a corner of the room. The ponies looked at her in terror, eyes wide with apprehension.
Shit. Jade thought furiously. These houses are still inhabited. I should probably-
A shrill grinding sound was heard as one of the walls crumpled and collapsed, leaving a veil of drywall dust clouding the hole. A beam of crimson magic cut horizontally through the fog, searing the air around it.
Jade ducked under the beam, rolling to the side as it started to slant diagonally to intercept her. The arc of energy slammed into the ground, igniting the carpet and instantly melting the larger chunks of glass still lying on the floor. Jade launched herself up just enough to clear the beam, twisting in the air and landing smoothly on her hind legs behind the swath of the arc. She started to grin in momentary victory, until she remembered the family cowering in the corner.
As she turned to face them and shout a warning, the beam cut across the rest of the room, colliding into the screaming, huddled forms with a visceral snap. A haze of blood sprayed onto Jade, and she watched, horrified, out of the corner of her vision as the four ponies were eviscerated in seconds, the arc of light swishing around in random patterns and decimating what little lingered of their bodies, painting the three remaining walls a dark, wet crimson.
The beam fizzled out of existence, only for a soft glow to take its place and surround the house. Jade galloped for the back door, bucking it off its hinges and escaping into the back alleys, just before the glow solidified and collapsed in on itself, crushing the house to dust.
Jade had little time to admire the power of the unicorn, before a new arc of magic blasted through a house to her left, cutting it in half easily, and setting it on fire. The unicorn’s attacks seemed to bleed raw energy, as if the crazy pony had too much of it, and was trying to use it all at once. Despite this, she seemed to be barely slowing down, timing each of her strikes and blows perfectly and seamlessly, weaving an effortless streak of destruction.
And it was all aimed at Jade. Great. Just splendid.
She darted into another house, grimacing at the fresh screams floating through the air behind her. She could stop for nopony; her mission, and the VIP’s were too important. She climbed up the stairs of the house, slamming the window open and climbing out onto the roof. The rough shingles provided good grip as she scaled up to the top, getting a good vantage point on her target.
Despite her height and element of surprise, the arc of magic that ripped through the roof at her hooves proved that her plan had backfired rather quickly. Jade scrambled back, tripping on the apex of the roof and tumbling down the other side. Rolling at the last second, she leaped off the crumbling house and through the upstairs window of the next building, again landing in a pile of shattered glass.
“Bucking hell!” Jade shouted, limping through the hallway she had landed in with renewed energy. “Enough with the glass, for Faust’s sake!” This unicorn was good, she’d give her that. But that didn’t mean she had to like it.
She stumbled down the stairs of the building, running through a door leading to a spacious garage. She looked around the room, which consisted of hanging canvasses splattered with various colours and designs, and many tables, all cluttered with paintbrushes and pencils.
Jade jumped when she heard hooves alight on the floor above hers, walking slowly and calmly to the stairs she had just descended. Jade weaved quietly through the room, stepping tenderly around the cans full of brushes and the hanging art that adorned the garage, careful not to make a sound. If the unicorn didn’t know where she was, she couldn’t-
Creeeeeaaak.
As soon as she heard the groan of the door opening, she dove into cover behind a fresh canvas, still dripping paint, and held her breath. She lay on the floor in an uncomfortable position, waiting for a hint of a sound beyond the insolated room. Just when Jade thought that she couldn’t stand still any longer, the door slammed shut, creating a clanging echo throughout the garage.
In the quiet, Jade could hear every step that the unicorn took, the clop of hooves resounding in the enclosed area threateningly. Slowly and silently, Jade stood up, crouching low and moving around the room to counter the unicorn. She froze when she heard a small ‘tsk-tsk’ sound from the other side of the garage.
“You can come out little pony,” a quiet, elegant voice broke out. “I know you’re in here… I followed your trail…”
Jade looked down, panicked, and saw that the cuts on her chest and legs were bleeding quite profusely, leaving a tiny trail of red from where she had lain behind the canvas, and around the corner. She winced at her stupidity, and kept moving on three legs, using the other to try and staunch the flow of blood.
Again she heard the voice. “All I want is to know how you seem to know all of my moves before I use them.” it explained condescendingly. “It gets quite annoying to watch a mere earth pony dance around my magic like it’s a game.” The voice spat the phrase ‘earth pony’ as if the very mention of the race made it filthy.
Jade glowered at the floor beneath her current hiding spot. It annoyed her to no end that even in a completely different time period, the different races were still segmented by the same status-quo, put down and stepped on. She could never stand these ponies, and it took all her will-power not to yell out something offensive to get back at the unicorn.
She darted in between two tables, glancing quickly to the side and seeing her target with her back to her, looking underneath tables and poking at canvasses. Jade grinned, and looked ahead again, moving stealthily toward the door.
“I could always just destroy the entire room you know.” Jade grimaced at the thought, but kept tip-toeing to the exit. “You’re only alive right now because I’m having an absolute blast searching for-”
Bleep!
Jade froze, and looked in horror down at her watch, which was now proudly displaying a line of holographic text across its crystal screen.
Jump charge capacity: 25%. Minor time manipulation enabled.
“You’ve got to be bucking kidding me.”
“Ah! There you are!” the tone was sickeningly jovial. “Now if you’ll just stay still…”
Jade was already moving by the time the attack came her way, sliding across the smooth cement and knocking over a table full of paint and brushes. The cans of coloured dye rang deafeningly on the hard floor, spinning and spilling their contents all over, dousing Jade’s hind hooves as she scrambled back up, only to hit the deck as another shot flew at her, this time blowing a hole in the wall.
“Come on,” cooed Lady Lulamoon, obviously enjoying herself immensely. “You can’t dance forever pretty!” She readied a new spell, and fired, the beam starting to curve in the air, following the earth pony with deadly accuracy. Jade lunged off a table at the last second, but the beam still grazed her left front hoof, sending her tumbling to the floor amidst a puddle of art supplies and blood.
Jade screamed, clutching her hoof to her body tightly. In her long career of Time-Jumping, she had been shot, stabbed, burned, flayed, tortured, beat, imprisoned, and scarred. Nothing compared to the sudden, splintering pain that cycled through her hoof and blackened the skin, blowing nerve endings and spreading across her leg slowly, moving up. And this had been nothing but a glancing blow.
Lady Lulamoon smiled in relief. “There! Now wasn’t that easy?” Jade didn’t answer, instead yelling in pain as the spell burrowed beneath her skin, adapting to fit its task and causing indescribable agony. Getting jerkily to three of her hooves, she moved towards the ragged hole in the wall with determined purpose. Lady Lulamoon just laughed, trotting after her with all the time in the world.
Jade gasped as the spell moved into her knee, digging through the cartilage and muscle, steadily travelling towards its goal. Her heart. Her vision began to blur around the edges, her breathing came quick and halting. But Jade’s will-power remained locked onto the one chance at survival, her one viable escape route.
An escape route that promptly shuddered and sealed back up, the chunks of wood and concrete flying back into place flawlessly, leaving no cracks in the wall, all the while surrounded by a crimson glow. Jade reached out in disbelief, finally reaching the wall and laying her good hoof on the sealed section.
Her thoughts grew muddled as the spell spread, clogging her veins and restricting her blood-flow. She became light-headed and slid down the wall dejectedly to her knees, whimpering in torment. Damn it…
Lady Lulamoon sauntered over, nudging the kneeling pony lightly, giggling sadistically as she keeled over on the spot, gasping for breath. The little ground-pounder had put up quite the fight, she had to give her that.
Jade rolled into a vague sitting position, propped up against the wall. The blur at the side of her vision was encroaching inwards, covering her world. S-stop it… she pleaded with herself. Stop giving up… she moved her hooves one by one, just to make sure they were all still there. She was very aware of the looming red shape leering down at her, waiting for her to draw her final breath.
Then, something shiny on Jade’s hoof caught her eye. Shaking her head as much as she could, given her current state, Jade cleared her vision somewhat, peering dementedly down at the blinking watch strapped to her hoof.
If she had had enough energy, she would have face-hoofed.
Right. She sighed inwardly, laughing a little at herself.
Lady Lulamoon frowned. What reason did this pony have to laugh? She growled deep within her throat and bade her magic to work faster. As much as she wanted to enjoy this, she still had some old acquaintances to take care of, and this pony stood (or lay rather) in her way.
Jade raised her hoof up to her eyes, squinting both at the exertion, and at the blurry, dancing dials on the machine. As much as she could make out, it was currently about 4:30 PM, and her charge was at 26%. It would have to do.
The lower-left dial on the watch stopped spinning. Slowly, it moved backwards with a quick ticking sound, landing about three minutes earlier. If Jade was lucky, the watch would have enough energy to carry the action out.
Lady Lulamoon was confused now. Was the time of day really that import to this pony? Doing some mental math, she estimated the current time to be about four o’clock. An hour since she had entered the time-frame. Deciding that an hour was far too much already, her horn began to glimmer, preparing a spell to finish off the concentrating pony.
She never got to use it.
With a slight pop, and a smug smile, the green earth pony winked out of existence, leaving behind nothing but a trail of blood and paint. Lady Lulamoon blinked.
She screamed.
A feral screech of rage and confusion echoed through the garage, emanating from the furious unicorn standing in front of what used to be her victim. Now it was only a multi-coloured puddle on the concrete.
Lady Lulamoon broke down, wailing and stamping on the area that used to hold the bloody ground-pounder. Again and again she brought her hooves down, cracking both them and the cement beneath them, splashing globs of paint all over herself in her blind rage.
Then, she ceased to exist.
***
Jade warped back into reality in the hallway just outside of the door to the garage, this time appearing on ground level, but stumbling all the same. She leaned up against the door tiredly, closing her eyes and trying to ignore the throbbing pain in her leg, and the light-headedness that washed over her as the malicious spell set back to work attacking her heart.
She hoped she had the right time. Otherwise this would just be a waste of time and resources. And Sigma hated wasting resources. Wow, she thought to herself suddenly. I really am getting tired if I’m worried about upsetting Sigma.
She grinned a bit, before she heard the sound of smashing glass and subsequent loud cussing from the floor above. Right on time.
The blurriness that had been held off momentarily by the rush of adrenaline had come back with a vengeance, clouding back into her sight almost immediately. She pressed harder into the door, both for stability, and for a distraction against the pain coursing through her. Then, that too began to fade away.
She found herself fighting to keep her eyes open as the spell reached her heart. She no longer felt the agony she should no doubt be feeling, and instead a contented feeling of grogginess settled over her.
Jade had just wrenched her eyes open for a third time, when a fuzzy green shape came hurtling around the corner, limping slightly. The blurry form came to an abrupt stop a couple of meters in front of her, almost tripping over her own hooves.
Jade grinned sloppily at the hazy green blob, a trickle of blood seeping out of the corner of her mouth and running down her neck.
“Hey sexy,” She greeted, slurring a bit as her heart slowed even more, and the feeling of sleepiness rose. She leaned against the door, motioning lazily with her good hoof. “Don’t go in here. It’s not as cool as it looks.”
The blurry form said something to her, but it was lost somewhere in the comfortable blankness that was becoming Jade’s entire world.
And then her heart stopped completely.