Shadow of the Pony

SHADOW OF THE PONY

Author: Digit

Chapter 3

"Ooohh..." Spike groggily moaned as he slowly stood up, popping his back. He looked up at the strange shadows, eyes firmly locked on him, not moving. Spike took note that there were two this time, instead of one. He heard the rumbling yet again and turned around, just in time to see the next idol collapse.

*zzzzzzZZZZZ-CRACK!*

Just as last time, the large statue, which looked close in similarity to that of the second colossus, glowed, and abruptly exploded, leaving behind wreckage of the idol. Spike looked up to the skylight, its rays shining through, giving light to the Shrine.

"D-Dormin?" Spike stammered. He really didn't know what to expect. And then, the god finally spoke,

"Thy next foe is... A giant canopy soars to the heavens... The anger of the sleeping giant shatters the earth..."

Of course, Dormin leaves with a riddle and not saying what in the world the next colossus is, but instead tells about canopies in the sky. Spike snorted in irritation. He then turned towards the entrance when he heard the sound of hooves beating against the ground.

"Dormin! What did you do with-" Rainbow Dash started, until she noticed Spike, in which she stopped in her tracks.

"Spike! Are you alright?" Rainbow asked, closely observing the small dragon, without a scratch on him. He did, however, look a bit tired. Even Rainbow Dash knew that with Spike being as small as he is, it's hard killing these large creatures, and can get very exhausting. Even if Rainbow Dash couldn't figure out the reason why Spike can and will kill these things, she still tried to look after him, being the only pony in the immediate area to comfort him.

"Hey, Rainbow. I'm fine, it just happened again." Spike groggily replied to Dash. Rainbow took his gesture towards the mysterious teleporting, even if there was no magic around here.

"Do you need to rest? You look tired." Rainbow asked. She looked over to find that Spike was already dozing off, until he shook himself awake.

"N-nuh! I can keep going..." He slowly trudged to Rainbow and climbed onto her back, and he lazily lifted up the sword, letting the light from above point in the direction to go. Rainbow, being very, as she would describe it, "Twilight-like", didn't start going into a full-on sprint. Instead, she slowly walked out of the Shrine, hearing Spike finally falling into a deep sleep on her back. Remembering the direction of the next colossus, she quickly circled the building until she got around to what was close to the other side of the Shrine, and walked down yet another, this time different, naturally formed bridge leading across the large canyon with water flowing at the bottom. Rainbow looked around the land once more, having not seen all of the views before arriving the first time, and yet, there was still much more to discover.

"N...nuh... Rarity..." Spike mumbled in his slumber. Everypony already knew Spike's crush for Rarity (even Rarity, but she didn't take it seriously), so it wasn't a surprise to Rainbow that he was saying her name or other things about her in his sleep.

Rainbow, having lost what direction she had to go to, lifted Spike off of her back and gingerly placed him down on the soft grass. Stretching her limbs and laying down, Rainbow stared up into the clouds, wishing she could just fly up there and rest, instead of being down here, grounded until she finds out where her wings ran off to. But for now, Rainbow had to stay on the ground, helping Spike stay alive, while helping herself as well, which is a bit harder than you think, especially when large beasts with the potential to destroy you in seconds are roaming around the land.

Rainbow Dash sighed, feeling a bit woozy herself. She felt her eyelids grow heavy as she stared into the beautiful blue sky. Whether she wanted to or not, she fell asleep, feeling no regret in it whatsoever.

...

"Huh. A bridge. Seems easy enough." Rainbow Dash said as she looked over at the stone bridge, which had a large chasm below. Backing up a few feet, she then ran as fast as she could and jumped the gap. Feeling something rumbling, and Spike yelling "The bridge is falling!" She ran faster. She bucked Spike off of him to the other side, while trying to jump off as well, but she was already falling.

"Rainbow!" Spike yelled over the ledge. Rainbow Dash tried to fly up, and remembered.

No wings.

She turned towards the fast flowing river seconds away from her face, and-

"AAH!" Rainbow Dash gasped as she shot up, breathing heavily. She took a moment to control her breathing, quickly realizing it was a dream.

"You okay Rainbow?" Asked Spike, who was sitting up and staring at her with concern.

"Yeah! I'm fine. Just had a bad dream." She responded, breathing heavily.

"What was it about?" Spike asked intently while standing up.

"Don't worry about it. We should get a move on, right?" Rainbow Dash said, getting up and regaining her breath.

"Okay then..." Spike shrugged before hopping on her back. He drew his sword and redirected it so the beams came together. Once the direction was clear, Rainbow Dash started to gallop towards it. They went around a large rock formation, almost looking like a mountain, when they found a path with fallen pillars stretching over the top.

"What's with these pillars?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I dunno, it almost seems like something was here, like a city or something." Spike guessed.

Rainbow Dash kept walking through the path, until they came upon a large pond.

"I think that's where we find the third one, huh?" Rainbow Dash asked.

In the middle of the pond, there was a large, stone pillar-like structure shooting out, with a large platform on the end. To the side, a large spiral slope led up to the top.

"Up there huh?" Rainbow Dash asks as she swam along the pond. Looking down into the water, Spike and Rainbow Dash were awestruck at the sight of a sunken and ancient city lying underneath the water. It was very faint, but the two could see buildings around the large structure they were swimming to, and were tempted to swim down and discover more. Both didn't need to say anything to agree on the fact that some things are worth keeping a secret.

Finally swimming up to the slope, Rainbow Dash shook all the water off and started galloping up the slope. She stopped when the slope ended, as there was a disconnected pillar across from them. It seemed to be part of another destroyed building, with a ledge on a large boulder connected to the end of the pillar.

"Alright, on the count of three, I'm going to launch you over there, okay?" Rainbow Dash asked, stepping back. She looked at Spike and after he nodded vigorously, she turned back around and started counting.

"One..." She took many steps back.

"Two..." She braced herself for a fast run.

"Three!" She dashed to the end of the slope, bucking Spike off and he let go, although he was yelling as he soared through the air. Smacking against the wall, he gripped the small ledge of the stone block.

"That's all I can do for now!" Rainbow Dash called over.

"What? Why?" Spike asked after he stopped pulling himself around the ledge.

"I can't grip that ledge. You're on your own." She responded. Spike nodded and continued moving along the ledge until there was an indent blocking the way. Spike turned around to the platform far away, only to clutch the ledge tighter.

"It's too far!" He called out.

"No it isn't! Besides, you have an entire deep lake below you, if you fall, you can come up and try again." Rainbow Dash reassured.

"Really?" Spike turned back to the platform. "O-okay..." He grasped the wall and braced his feet against it. With one hard leap he flew across the air, with his eyes closed, hoping he wouldn't fall. His worry was soon met with a hard slam into something hard, along with rolling along the cold floor. He opened his eyes and smiled.

"Did you see that?! I made it!" He said standing back up.

"Yup. You sure did." Rainbow dash said, smiling back. "but you still have a colossus to kill." She finished, in a more serious tone. Spike frowned at that and gulped.

"Oh yeah..." He muttered, looking on top of the platform above him. There was apparently a large, broken rock up there, along with a big stone tablet a few feet away from it. Spike jumped up and latched onto the small platform above him, and heaved himself onto the top of the large "canopy".

"Now what?" Spike called to Rainbow Dash. He then heard some shaking. As he turned around to find the source, he gulped in fear. The "broken up rock" was unfolding into a large stone creature. It had a very long sword at the end of its hand, and used the sword to help himself up. Standing up, Spike could see the armor around its arm leading to a way to climb up onto its head, where he guessed was the vital mark. The creature turned slowly to face him. Upon seeing him, the colossus attempted to move forward, and Spike heard a loud clang at its feet. He looked at where the clang was, to see that the colossus's foot had come into contact with the tablet in the center, and the tablet didn't even scratch.

*FWOOSH*

*SMASH*

Spike was just in time to dodge the large sword coming down on him. Spike could hear Rainbow Dash yelling in rage at the colossus, but was too stunned to understand what she said. Seeing that its sword was stuck inside of the platform, Spike jumped up and ran across the large sword, as if upon instinct. However, the mighty sword was removed from the ground while Spike was still halfway up the sword, and he tripped, falling to the ground on his back. The colossus roared, obviously sounding annoyed.

"The armor it wears seems brittle..." Dormin called from above. Rainbow Dash must have heard, for she stopped yelling. Spike ran away quick enough to miss the large sword that was now impaled to the floor.

"Spike! The armor on its arm!" Rainbow Dash called out. Spike looked up at the arm holding the sword and indeed noticed that the armor was loose.

Spike ran towards the edge of the platform and stopped. He turned and thought to himself, How am I going to knock that armor off without getting myself killed? Spike started to panic as the colossus started to walk over to him from the far side of the platform.

*CLANG*

That sound! Spike thought. He looked back down at the tablet that had appeared unscathed when the colossus stepped on it, and the fact that it lightly bounced off. Spike smiled as if he had an idea. He waited for the colossus to come over towards him, and it slammed its sword down as spike jumped to the side to dodge it. He then ran in between its feet and ran over towards the stone tablet. Spike turned around just in time to see the colossus pull its sword out of the ground and it turned around.

"Hey! Over here! Fresh meat!" Spike yelled to it. The colossus swung its sword back and started to thrust it down towards Spike. Seconds before impact, Spike, yet again, jumped to the side away from the tablet.

*CLAAAANG!*

The sound ringed in Spike's ears when he turned around and saw the armor on its arm fall off. Seeing this, the colossus roared in anger. It lifted its sword again and smashed it down near Spike, not hitting the tablet. Spike ran up the sword as fast as he could, while Rainbow Dash cheered him on from over at the slope. Spike tripped when the sword was pulled out of the ground, and tumbled off the side of the sword, yet swiftly caught the edge of it. He didn't hesitate to pull himself back up and run to the colossus's arm, where he grabbed on it and pulled himself onto the break in the armor. He pushed himself against it to regain his grip. The colossus kept roaring.

Getting back up, Spike grabbed on to the back of the colossus's arm and slowly made his way up onto its shoulders. Running over to the head, Spike discovered the mark, and gripped his sword. He grabbed onto the colossus's head firmly, and lifted the sword up. With all his strength, he plunged the sword into the large beast's head, causing blood to spurt out. The colossus roared and attempted to shake Spike off. But he kept his grip and stabbed yet again. The mark slowly faded away, and Spike groaned in annoyance. The colossus took this as an advantage and thrusted Spike off of his head.

Spike screamed as he fell off the mighty beast, and, by a stroke of luck, landed on its sword. However, he hit quite hard, and it knocked the wind out of him. The colossus shook its arm to shake Spike off, but he wouldn't let go. Regaining his breath, Spike lifted his sword as the beam of light reflected off of it. It traveled as a beam toward the colossus's midsection, which wasn't covered in armor.

"Waah!" Spike yelled again as he fell off the sword. If he wasn't half terrified for his life, he was certainly annoyed. The colossus didn't hesitate to swing its sword down at Spike, but it was getting smarter. Instead of stabbing it into the ground, it swung it side to side. Spike ducked just in time to miss the sword passing above his head. When the sword passed again, he prayed to himself and leaped upward. The sword broke at least four ribs, at least, that's what it felt like to Spike, and knocked the air out of him. Yet he was still holding on.

Spike, aside from his wounds, reluctantly crawled across the sword, getting farther and farther while the beast kept shaking. At the colossus's hand, Spike mustered all of his strength to leap from the sword to the colossus's waist. Hitting the stone sent searing pain through him, and tears formed in his eyes. Yet he still stood and took out his sword. Shakily, he stabbed the colossus in the stomach, where the mark was. After the third stab, the final roar was heard.

The colossus slowly collapsed and fell to the floor of the large stone platform they were on. Spike did the same and lost all consciousness before the colossus even hit the ground. Even in his sleep, he could feel the pain of the black appendages tearing through his body.

"Sp......thi....."

Um, may I ask, does anybody feel like being a proofreader?

Until next time!

-Digit