//------------------------------//
// Persistence 
// Story: Rainbow Dash Around the World 
// by MagicS 
//------------------------------//

Claude had to let go of his spear and jump off the back of the alligator at the last second before it fully turned over and pulled him underneath its bulk and into the swamp water. He still ended up in the water, but not helplessly carried and drowned under the monster.  

And now it was just Rainbow Dash, right above it, with her sharp and jagged wooden stake in hoof. Claude hadn’t surfaced but she could see him swimming safely away, and she knew the other hunters were paddling over to the monster as well, but right now she was the only one who had a chance to attack it while it was vulnerable. When it had fully rolled over onto its back, she saw the yellow scales of its underside. So much thinner. It might as well have been defenseless.

Rainbow Dash tightly gripped her weapon in her hooves as her eyes narrowed at the throat of the monster. It was the most sensitive spot, she had the speed to attack it, she knew she had the strength to drive her weapon deep into it.

Her hooves shook as she froze there in the air. A moment of hesitation as she thought about what she was going to do. It was a monster. Not an animal, she had seen that with her own eyes and with what her instincts were telling her, but she still hesitated.  

Could she kill this thing with her own hooves? Even knowing what it was and what it had done?

Could she do that?

That moment of hesitation may have been short, but it was all it took for her to lose her chance. In the middle of its roll the monster raised its other claw up out of the water and brought it towards her. Rainbow Dash didn’t know how it knew where she was, but it didn’t matter, she had to fly back to evade the massive claws. By then the monster had fully turned around and was no longer showing its exposed belly and throat to her, but the hard armor of scales all across its head and back. As she looked down at it, she swore she saw one of its red eyes glaring up at her like a piercing laser.  

Rainbow Dash clenched her jaw in frustration and the alligator monster strongly moved its muscular tail back and forth so it could start to propel itself away. The motion sent waves of water at the pursuing hunters to make it harder for them to catch up to it. It was clearly trying to get away once more. However, a trail of red followed it. That powder turned liquid was still giving its location away and it didn’t look to be thinning out anytime soon.

“After it! After it, all of you!” Claude yelled as he stuck his head up out of the raging water.  

One of the hunter canoes reached him and he climbed inside it. Seeing he was safe and the pursuit was on once more, Rainbow Dash flew ahead to keep right over the alligator monster. It couldn’t outrun her, that was for sure, and she could make sure that the red marking it wasn’t fading away and it wasn’t pulling any tricks. The trail was easy to follow since it looked like it was a gigantic red algae bloom in the middle of dark and green water.  

Or more like blood in the water if she wanted to go in that direction.  

The problem was though with that how much the monster was disturbing the water, and how fast it swam, the other hunters might never catch up to it like this. They just couldn’t go the same speed Rainbow could as she flew. Up ahead was a denser area of the swamp as well, with trees choking the water everywhere. Rainbow didn’t think the alligator could hide or easily travel through there and yet it was still going for it at full speed. It must’ve had a way to swim through those waters and that would make it even tougher for the ponies to pursue.

“Tch,” Rainbow Dash clicked her tongue and instead of just matching the alligator’s pace she flew in front of it to get its attention.

She could see its red eyes even through the water at this point, it wasn’t deep enough to completely mask itself. As she looked at those eyes she wondered how she even hesitated in the first place. Murderous, monstrous eyes, so unnatural and completely unforgiving. This was no mere animal protecting its territory and trying to feed itself, it was a beast that terrorized everything in the swamp.

It looked up at her. She knew it did even as its head didn’t even move. It saw her.  

But for now it didn’t slow down, still attempting to reach the next part of the swamp.

“Where do you think you’re going?!” Rainbow Dash yelled and flew down closer to the surface of the water. Close enough where it could try eating her. Close enough where she could even reach her hoof an inch or two below the surface and touch it. “Bet you haven’t had a pegasus to eat before, you going to throw away the opportunity to eat something as awesome as me? If you’ve got any taste in that big dumb mouth of yours I’d say you should follow me!”

She grinned. “Or you could just be some big, cowardly, animal that can’t do anything about a couple of ponies. If that’s the case then please, keep on swimming away.”

The alligator monster exploded in rage and came at Rainbow Dash, its claws and tail tearing apart the surface of the water while its great jaw opened up for her. A deep and rocky growl emerged from the black hole at the back of its throat as the jaws clamped open and shut in their hunger for Rainbow Dash.

“That’s more like it,” Rainbow said and flew back from the deadly jaws. She started circling around, drawing the alligator away from the trees and back towards the lilypad field so the other hunters could catch up to it.

She wanted it to tire itself out so she intentionally slowed herself down a couple of times to give the alligator the illusion that it may have actually been able to catch her. It lunged at her out of the water a few times but its massive jaws always came up a little short. She could see its red eyes glaring hard at her. Now the hunters had again reached it as well, and they spread out on their boats around the monster before they started pelting it again with rocks and spears.

“Don’t let up for a single moment!” Claude commanded as he chucked another bag of red powder out onto the monster.

Rainbow could feel the frustration coming from the monster, it was in pain and having more trouble than usual getting rid of these pests. She chose to join in now too and correct her earlier mistake. The spear that Claude had driven into one of the monster’s joints was still stuck there, not pulled loose from when it rolled over. Rainbow swiftly flew down across the monster’s back and grabbed the weapon, tearing it out and flying back overhead. Now she stared directly at its red eyes too as they wavered right under the surface of the water.  

But the monster turned its head away from her now, ignoring her entirely and going for the other hunters surrounding it.  

Rainbow Dash frowned, maybe it had realized that she was just messing with it this whole time and it couldn’t catch her? She’d make it regret that but she also had to be sure it didn’t harm the other ponies. She was the only one with the speed and ability to go around getting ponies out of danger. And right now the monster seemed to recognize Claude as the one who had been giving it the most trouble. Its red eyes zoned in on him and its powerful tail propelled it straight to the canoe Claude was now using.

Claude realized he was in danger too and he and the other hunter in the canoe started to paddle away. They weren’t nearly going to be fast enough to get anywhere safe.

“Tch, maybe shouldn’t have taunted the monster so much...” Rainbow Dash ground her teeth together as she flew with spear in hoof to reach Claude’s canoe.

She came alongside the monster and saw its red eyes zeroing in on its new target. Soon the monster could open up its mouth and either swallow the canoe whole or smash it to pieces. Rainbow saw her new opportunity though, she took a deep breath and pulled her hoof back with the spear still tightly gripped in it. That red eye might as well have been the bullseye on a dartboard. It was underwater but she was sure she could hit it.  

With a powerful throw she launched her spear directly at the red eye.  

At the same time the monster suddenly turned again, possibly in reaction to her throw. The spear ended up sailing into the water but instead of hitting the monster’s eye it only impaled itself into the flesh and scales behind it. But now the monster was no longer going directly for Claude, not with its mouth at least. As it swam past it brought its claw up out of the water and smashed it into the canoe, sending Claude and the other hunter flying into the water.  

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash shouted and flew down to try and rescue them. “Are you alright?!”

Claude—treading water—stuck his hoof out and pointed behind her. “Look out!”

Rainbow Dash turned around to see the massive tail of the alligator monster whipping out of the water at her.  

“Aw crud,” Rainbow frowned right as the scaly tail hit her and knocked her into the water.