Chapters After many grueling weeks of travel, a very thoroughly exhausted cyan pegasus pushed a yellow figure on a cloud into the forbidden lands she was looking for. She slowly pushed Fluttershy along the ancient looking bridge with an interesting design choice of curved pillars going down from the bridge just to straighten out and support both the bridge and the previous pillar. Each pillar was made up of many different blocks shaped just right to form the unique and sturdy bridge Rainbow Dash now flew alongside.
Upon reaching the end of the bridge's path a part of the wall slid open for Rainbow to enter the massive building. once Rainbow had made her way through the doorway it slide shut behind her. Inside the door, there was a spiral ramp leading around a big chamber, at the bottom of the chamber was a shallow pool. Walking down would take Forever, thank goodness I can fly thought the prismatic pegasus, before taking off a bringing the cloud with her. At the bottom she settled down next to the pool of water and looked into the next room, only to flinch in surprise at the length of the next room and its contents.
The long room had giant statues along both sides. Not statue was exactly the same as another, there were some similar looking statues of serpents and two-legged beasts. At the end of the room was an altar of sorts, which Rainbow gladly pushed Fluttershy to just above the cold stone where she would be more comfortable, since pegasi are more comfortable on/in clouds than on the ground.
Once Rainbow had set down for a breath she heard a noise behind her, turning around she saw bipedal figures made of smoke clawing their way out of the ground and toward her. Realizing that if she did not stop them that they would hurt Fluttershy, she flew toward them with only the goal of protecting her friend in her mind.When she had crossed half the distance between her and the smoke creatures her element started to glow with a brilliant light that sent the beings of smoke retreating back to when the came from.
After they had left her element's glow dimmed until it was no more. Once the light from her element had diminished itself a strange voice made itself known to the cyan mare,"Thou doth not possess the ancient sword?," Rainbow could not understand the language she heard instead, the words translated themselves into her native language inside her head.
"What sword?... Wait! Are you the Dormin Twilight told me about? The one that can control the souls of the dead," Called out the confused and startled pegasus.
"Thou art correct we are the one known as Dormin."
"She sacrificed her life to save my own. Please, I need you to bring her back to me," Begged Rainbow Dash while looking up toward the pillar of light the voice seemed to come from.
"That ponies soul? Souls that are once lost cannot be reclaimed... is that not the law of mortals? With that necklace of yours, however... it may not be impossible"
"r...Really?," The blue pegasus had hope-filled eyes.
"That is of course, if thou manage to accomplish what We askest."
"What do I have to do?"
"Behold the idols that stand along the wall... Thou art to destroy all of them.," before Rainbow could charge toward the first idol the voice continued,"But those Idols cannot be destroyed by the mere hands of a mortal."
"What are hands?," interrupted the cyan mare.
"Umm, let's just say hooves, okay?"
"Sure, continue please."
"In this land, there exist colossi that are the incarnations of those idols. If thou defeat those colossi the idols shall fall."
"Okay. kill these creatures and I get my fillyhood friend back, easy."
"But head this, the price you pay may be heavy indeed."
"It does not matter! I will make up for my mistake!"
"Very well... Focus on your necklace...and head to the place where its light gathers...There, thou shalt find the colossi thou art to defeat.," This punny creature will die to the first colossus thought the entity knownas Dormin with amusment.
After Dormin finished talking to her Rainbow looked once more at Fluttershy's peaceful face. She stepped out side the Shrine(That was the best she could call it) and focused on her necklace, like Dormin had said to, only nothing happened. Recalling what had caused it to glow last time, she tried focusing on protecting her friends. Within seconds her element began to glow, as she turned different directions she noticed the beams of light came together in one direction, which she quickly took of in.
While Rainbow was heading toward the first colossus another was stepping out of the Shrine leaving Dormin with a sense of deja vu.
Author's Note
Where the sigils are and how much damage dealt with them will be based on normal difficulty.
I will try to keep these chapters coming out at good lengths.
Rainbow trotted towards what seemed to be the place of her first foe. The beam from her element was not changing where it was pointing. She was interrupted by what sounded like a sword being unsheathed and galloping hooves. Taking flight she narrowly avoided losing her head, she only lost a little bit of her tail. Glaring down at her assailant she was confused by what she saw, a creature with strange looking limbs that held the sword she almost died to while having four regular hooves.
Curious she asked,"Who and what are you?"
"I does not matter to you for I must kill you," came the solemn reply.
"What if I told you I was hunting colossi?," questioned the cyan pegasus.
"Why would a colossus hunt its own?"
"I am not a colossus."
"How can you not be, I have not seen your kind before."
"I have not seen your kind either."
"Sorry, but I am in a hurry. Goodbye, flying horse creature."
"Okay, see ya.," said Rainbow before she sped away. Towards the first colossus. Not realizing that the other she just met was going to the same place.
When she came to a gap in the cliff side she noticed what looked like the remains of some sort of building with vines hanging in places that formed what looked like a way up so, she flew upward. At the top she settled down for a small rest, only to start to feel the ground beneath her shake violently. Rainbow looked around for the cause of the shaking only to see what she could only guess was the colossus.
The first colossus was a tall two-legged creature carrying a massive club made of stone. The colossus did not seem to see or acknowledge her. The creature had fur almost covering its whole body where there was not fur in looked like stone and pieces of building where scattered along the back of it. The face of the colossus had two blue swirling orbs to represent eyes, the rest of the face had the appearance of a mask in the shape of a monkey's face. The legs of the colossus ended in hooves even though it had the face of a monkey.
Rainbow, being the brash pony she is decided to ram the colossus in the back. She flew up a ways before coming back down almost triggering a sonic rainboom. Using the speed she had gained with gravity's assistance she hit the colossus with such force it went flying into a wall of the canyon they were in. She heard a voice yell, "What are you doing here flying horse?"
"Trying to kill this mountain of a monster. You?"
"I am here to slay this beast, as I was told to by Dormin."
"Dormin, I met them they told me to kill the colossi as well.," before they could continue their little chat the colossus dislodged itself from the wall. The eyes of the giant were no longer blue, they were now orange.
"Focus on your element to reveal its vitals.," said Dormin in the pegasus's head. She focused on her nature of loyalty, bringing forth yet another glow. Pointing her element toward the colossus she saw a glowing symbol on the top of its head but, when she had done that the colossus went to hit her out of the sky with its huge club.
Just before it could hit the pesky flying blue thing an arrow lodged itself in the shoulder of the colossus, making it veer just enough to cause it to miss," You're welcome flying horse.," called out the other hunter.
Realizing she had almost died she called out in return,"Uh, thanks.," thinking about what she had seen, "Um, there is a glowy thing on its head.,"she said while pointing toward it, "I think that is where we should stab it."
"Since you can fly why don't you stab it?"
"Um, do you see anything with a sharp enough point to stab with on me?"
"No. How would I get up there?"
"I think you can climb the back of it while I distract it."
"Okay," was the reply given by the two-legged hunter as it made their way to the back of the oblivious giant. Rainbow flew up to the face of the giant, and realized its eyes were almost as big as her.
In order to make sure the colossus was focused on her she decided to buck it in the face. Once her hooves had made contact she flew just out of the reach of the colossus. The two-legged hunter jumped and grabbed hold of the fur on the back of the giants left leg. Once they were sure they had a solid grip they began to climb the swinging appendage.
The giant was trying to chase after the little blue thing that had just hit it when it felt something giving a slight tug on the fur on its back. Stopping, it tried to shake off the thing on its back. Rainbow figured that the colossus was mow focusing on the other hunter. She thought for a second and decided she would shine element on the beast to get its attention.
The thing on its back was not falling off why was it not falling? The flying blue thing shined that light again. It was always only one attacking it.
She had gotten its attention again, for a second. the giant really did not seem to like the idea of something climbing it. At the top the two-legged hunter could clearly see the vitals that Rainbow Dash had seen and mentioned. Grabbing hold the hunter raised their sword and plunged it into the glowing symbol, hearing the giant cry out in pain along with a black substance spurting out. The hunter stabbed one more time before losing their grip of the fur, falling off. Seeing this Rainbow flew forward and caught her fellow hunter.
The other hunter went to hand her the blade, "Finish this, flying horse", The hunter said solemnly.
"Okay!", grabbing the handle with her mouth she flew up and plunged the sword into the giant, killing it. After pulling out the sword out she gave it back to the hunter it belonged to. Neither noticing the black consuming the giant beast or the tendrils coming toward them.
"That was eas-hurk", before Rainbow could finish her sentence the black tendrils had struck and entered into her body. She looked to the hunter for assistance only to see them in the same predicament. After the tendrils had finished entering both of them they passed out.
Author's Note
Yes, they have not told each other who or what they are, yet. That is in the next chapter.
I Just realized as of this chapter this story has hit 2,222 words. This amuses me.
Once names had been dealt with both hunters took mount (just Wander really)and made their way to where the light from Wander’s sword was pointing. As they got closer to where the colossus was supposed to be both hunters began to hear a rumbling sound. Making their way down towards some water both hunters looked around for the beast they were hunting. “Where do you think it is Wandi?”
“I don’t know Dash, the light points toward that wall. Does that mean we went the wrong way?” Before Rainbow could reply a loud rumble was heard and the wall Wander gestured to blew open showing a four-legged giant making its way out of the cave it had been in.
“Well, now we know where it is!” Called out the rainbow mare as she took flight to get a better view of the massive creature. The colossus turned its head toward Wander and began to walk towards the small hunter riding their horse.
Looking at it from above, Rainbow could almost mistake this creature for a small patch of field if it weren’t for the giant bone-like structures sticking out of its back. Looking at the side of it she could see what almost looked like fungus was growing off the side of the giant, but she had a feeling it was out of Wander’s reach. Flying to the front of the monster Rainbow noticed it had a broken horn (Which has no importance, I just wanted to point it out because I like it).
What Rainbow hadn’t seen Wander was able to, on the bottom of its feet were glowing marks. Out of curiosity Wander pulled out their bow and tried to shoot the glowing spot on the front left hoof (The right for the creature).
When the arrow finally hit its target the monster lowered itself down as if recovering from a wound. “Over here! You can climb up!” Shouted Rainbow, trying to get the attention of Wander and pointing to the fungal-like growths. Looking at where the mare was indicating, Wander urged their trusty mount, Agro, to run to the side of the colossus.
Jumping from Agro to the colossus, Wander grabbed on while it stood back up. Climbing onto the hard surface Wander could see that they needed to climb along the beast to reach the top. While climbing Wander could feel the strength of their grip on the fur slowly draining. Thinking quickly they made the way to where the center of its back. While standing on the less shaky part of the creature, Wander could feel their strength returning slowly.
Rainbow watched from above suddenly feeling useless without her element showing her where the weak spots were. Determined to not be useless she flew as close as she could to the colossus to see if she could just find them. She didn’t see anything different on the sides. Flying close to the head she saw a very faint symbol from before, it seemed almost like the symbol wanted them to attack somewhere else first (that feeling is definitely coming from the symbol, and NOT from the writer). Swooping to land near Wander Rainbow Dash saw a slight glow.
When Rainbow had landed Wander had almost dropped their sword. “Careful!” Called out the shaking hunter. Rainbow pointed toward the back end of the colossus and told Wander that she thought a weak spot might be there. After debating with each other why there would be a weak spot there Wander walked to the area in question and found there to be a symbol.
After Wander had dealt with the weak point Rainbow had talked about they started to make their way to the head, where the final point lay. The colossus seemed to know Wander’s planned route and waited for a moment where Wander would not be expecting to be thrown around and fall off. As Wander was falling they suddenly remembered that a blue winged horse was helping them when their decent was slowed down to an easy landing.
Wander gave Rainbow Dash their sword to finish off the giant goat-like creature that was now walking to step on them. She flew up and began a steep flight toward her target, the symbol on the head, when she got closer she pointed the sword in front of herself and plunged the cold metal into the head of the colossus. Getting up from her quick landing, Rainbow made her way to Wander to try to get away from the incoming tendrils she could see coming out of the final blow. The tendrils came out and struck both frightened hunters knocking them unconscious.
Author's Note
So, this is the second colossus. I tried to do less POV jumping with this one, it just feels like a short chapter.
Sadness, that is all Rainbow could feel. She was the cause of this. She was why Fluttershy lay peacefully dead in front of her. She could only feel true sorrow. This was her fault, and she had to make it up. She should have noticed what Fluttershy had.
Rainbow and the Wonderbolts were incorporating her little cloud stunt into their next show, an order for commercial storm clouds had been sent to Cloudsdale. The clouds they received seemed like what they had ordered. The day of the show Fluttershy, having lived with parents that had worked in the cloud department, realized that the storm clouds were of industrial strength instead of the commercial quality in the order. In order to save Rainbow, and multiple spectators, she flew right into the clouds and discharged them. When the paramedics arrived, all they could do was ease her passing. The other Wonderbolts had left Rainbow to grieve while they went to find out how they had gotten the wrong order.
Rainbow had heard from Twilight of a place where an entity dwells that can control mortal souls. All she had to do was bring Flutters to it, easy. First things first, she could not let anypony join her. The tales Twilight had told her of the many dangers she would have to face both, getting to and at her destination. She had to fix her mistake, she had to undo what she caused. Her only companion for this journey would be; Fluttershy.
Before she could continue her plan she needed two things from Twilight, the elements Rainbow and Fluttershy represent. She hoped their elements would bring her strength and help bring back Fluttershy. In the middle of the night, Rainbow took Fluttershy from where she lay and placed her on a cloud, for both the comfort of Flutters and easier method of travel for Rainbow.
Author's Note
This is a little bit of prologue, just so you know what happened and why RD is heading to meet Dormin as well as show that she brought her element with her.
Wander is part of this story, I am not replacing them with Rainbow.
This story was a thought I had, please don't get too mad about how this is going.
At the Shrine both Rainbow and the other hunter lie unconscious with two smoke figures only half the height of the ones that had attacked Rainbow before looking down at the prone form of each hunter.
Stirring, Rainbow got up only to see a familiar sight, the room in the where she left Fluttershy. Hearing a noise she turned to her side to see the other hunter experience the same confusion. She did not have long to stare before she saw one of the statues begin to glow and crack, the other hunter had seen this as well. After enough cracks appeared the base of the idol it exploded.
"Thy next foe is...... In the seaside cave... It moves slowly... Raise thy courage to defeat it", came Dormin's voice.
"Hi Dormy", called out the rainbow maned pony.
"You lived?"
"Yes she did, with my help", stated the other hunter as they were getting up and dusting them self off.
"Please refer to us as Dormin, not Dormy."
"Okay. I will not call you anything but Dormin."
"We thank thee rainbow one. Can you leave your necklace here with your friend?" Rainbow looked to the other hunter, getting the message from her eyes they checked their dead friend and went outside to wait. "We would like to look deeper into what magic it posses."
"I'm not sure I want to." Said the prismatic mare.
"You need not worry, it will not be harmed." She hesitantly took off her element of harmony and placed it on Fluttershy's cloud. After Rainbow checked on Fluttershy, she made her way out of the shrine."Thanks for both helping with the first colossus and leaving me to talk to Dormin."
"You're welcome, winged horse."
"Okay, I have to put my hoof down. If we are going to work together we should get on a name-to-name basis. So, what is your name?"
"Call me Wander"
"Okay Wander, I'll call you Wandi. My name is Rainbow Dash, you can just call me Rainbow or RD."
"Okay, Dash. It will be nice to call you by a name instead of flying horse."
"Yeah, that bugged me more than you. Onto the next colossus then?"
"Yes, onto the next colossus."
Author's Note
It will be nice to call you by a name instead of flying horse
It is also nice to be able to type a name instead of flying horse, just sayin'
This is just a short chapter to establish names and nicknames, or maybe an excuse to type shorter names.
Can you guess what Wander will eventually call Dash, hmmm?