Kydo & Slick
By Slickdash
-Intro-
All of Equestria was quiet; there was too much excitement for loud noises, not enough time to talk. All over the vast land Phillies prepare for another day, a small white unicorn prepares costumes for a school play, terribly sad at the fact her designs weren’t “fabulous.” Another unicorn, this one a wondrous shade of magenta waits with bated breath as she sits in a waiting room, preparing for the entrance exam of the Equestrian academy of magic. A sad little Filly trudges through a farm field moving rocks from north to south and east to west, her main long and lifeless. And finally a little yellow Pegasus sails through the air on a cloud of butterflies after falling from a great height.
In the mountain range on which the grand kingdom of Canterlott stood, there leant a stallion, his mane and coat were both red as the dawn. Just past his forelegs hung two grand wings, revealing him to be a proud and large Pegasus. His gaze stared into the sky in the far distance, three Filly's fly through the sky, aiming to spear themselves through rings made of cumulous clouds. A basic flight school race. The leader of the race was a female Pegasus, though from this distance the only reason the stallion knew this was due to the fact he would recognize his own sisters, rainbow slipstream that followed her whenever Dash flew fast. Suddenly with unbelievable speed Dash rounded a corner, her pursuers fast on her hooves. One of them lost his grip on the wind current and flew face first into a pillar of cloud, but Dash still went on with no remorse. The stallion smiled to himself, “That’s my dash!” he murmured to himself.
The stallion turned away from the beautiful sight of his sister and moved off towards the edge of the clearing he stood upon, jagged and giant sheets of rock surrounded the path, he had been lucky to have found a slight break in the formations to catch a glimpse of that surprising sight. His sister. Flying like she had been doing it for as long as he had. As he moved further into the dark valley, a faint rumble began, accompanied by the sudden shaking of the ground. At first it sounded like a stampede was fast approaching, “But what they hey would a bunch of cows be doing up here?!” He thought to himself. But as the sound grew louder and closer faster than any cattle, the stallion grew disturbed. He began to break out into a reasonably paced canter, trying to distinguish what it could be over the sound of his hooves and his own beating heart, suddenly loud and boisterous. Rocks on the ground began to move across the ground, scuttling as if little grey bugs or crabs.
The Pegasus built up speed as he unfurled his grand wide wings, ready to fly out and escape. The saddle bags on his flanks were heavy and meant he’d need to build up speed before flight. He hadn’t wanted to waste his energy so soon, but this was different. If this noise was as dangerous as it sounded then conserving energy was the least of his problems. The cliff faces stood resolute, pebbles of rubble began falling down them as the noise grew to a tumultuous roar. Confident in his current speed the stallion began to beat his wings, immediately pushing himself strongly a good four feet of the ground. His wings pulled back up to beat a second time with a grand “Swoooosh.” And as he prepared to push himself high above this dangerous plain and soar among the clouds...
CRACK! With an agonizing contact that smashed the stallion back into the ground, a rock, the largest yet to fall slammed into the poor buck and sent him back down. Skidding a few more feet before coming to a halt the stallions saddle bags were sent flying, and the contents were sent scattering across the valley’s floor. A few carrots, an apple, a pencil, paper, and an envelope sealed with a gold wax crest broken and clearly read, and finally a framed picture of a small smiling filly her hair scruffy and unkempt and made of all the colours of the rainbow. She stood dwarfed by the red Pegasus next to her, but both were happy. Rainbow dash was looking out of the corner of her eye, up into the face of her brother a look of sheer admiration in her great pink eyes. The Stallion looked up to see the picture sail away through the air. Without a noise he stood back up and with the speed he was known for, began to run with all his might after the picture, if he could get that at least he would be happy. Then he could get the hell out of there. Following it as it flew through the air the Buck jumped as high as he could, and with his teeth, caught and clenched the frame hard. Without waiting to come back to the ground he flung his wings out trying to catch the wind and sail away.
For a moment he began to soar upwards reaching only a 3rd of the height of the steep rocky mountains, before...
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHHHHH!” his wing buckled under the strain of the wind and its beating with the rock. With a terrible crunch the bones in the wings shifted dreadfully and the outer half bent away pushed by the wind. Now the Buck fell, from a terrible height and landed awkwardly on his right rear ankle. He collapsed straight into the ground, and with his face hitting the it with such great force, he unceremoniously let go of the picture. Unable to stop himself from staring, he watched as the frame flew forwards approximately 5ft away from his outstretched forelegs. The rumbling was a terrible ruckus now, as the ground literally tossed everything around like rag dolls. But oddly the stallion and the picture stayed where they were, unperturbed by the shaking and roaring of whatever terrible thing came this way. The stallion began to rise, not knowing how he would now escape, unsure how the hell he was going to even survive this ordeal. But he didn’t let that bother him. If he was to die, he would do so with pride, if he couldn’t die with Dash by his side, then he would at least die holding that damn picture!
He took a tentative step forward on his bad ankle, testing its resilience. He regretted it immediately with a sickening ‘crunch’ the already fractured bones completely broke away under the large Bucks weight. With yet another scream, he fell once again, still no closer to his beloved picture. He lay there, fear enveloping him completely. Slowly his thoughts wandered to his sister’s race, had she won? Of course she did! She wouldn’t lose to a bunch of mugs from that snooty flight school even if she could only move one wing. The irony of his thoughts hit him, and he laughed, looking to his right appendage. It jutted out at a terrible angle, and hurt tremendously even with the tiniest movement. He thought of his home, that quaint little cloud home made of Cumulous, Cirrus and Cirrostratus clouds. So much work to make that little patch of sky just outside of Ponyville home to him and his sister when she finally came home from school. He was supposed to pick her up to finally come home after the term had finally ended this weekend, so close. Now all this! All this over a stupid request from that damned Princess Celestia! Why the hell couldn’t her guards have gone to find this stupid black oil that is apparently so precious to sick and dying ponies!?! It wasn’t worth HIM dying for! What about Dash?
Empowered by his thoughts, the stallion looked up. Looking at the picture from here made it look like Big Macintosh was the one standing besides rainbow. The stallion stared for a moment, the two did look alike, except for their mane the two could probably be twins (minus the wings of course) and that made the stallion think. Would Big Mac look after rainbow for him? Mac was his closest friend, and surely that friend would look out for the little Filly if she eventually came back to an empty home, wouldn’t he? The buck was sure he would. The rumbling reached its tumultuous climax as the ground, stones and rocks all moved in unison. True rubble was falling now, and they came to ground like the world’s deadliest rain. Among the rumble there was a tinkling noise as well, and as he looked above, into the tremendous blue sky he saw the cause of all the commotion. A rainbow. Round and circular, it was spreading out from the rough direction of little Dash’s race, with a smile that numbed all pain, he realised that Dash had actually done the one thing he could never do with his large, powerful yet heavy body. She had moved at a speed powerful enough to break the sound barrier. It had to have been her, no one else could make that kind of spectacle except for his little show off of a sister.
With pride welling up in his heart, not caring for the consequences of her actions and what they had done to himself, the stallion reached for the picture. Tears welling up in his dark blue eyes, blurring the scene before him, he whispered two words “Wow kiddo.” SMASH! A rock the size of a small Filly smashed into the ground, engulfing the picture in a cloud of smoke. Hampered by his obliterated ankle, the Buck could merely look on as the dust cleared and revealed the top half of the picture crushed by the rock. The glass of the frame was splintered and cracked, the paper picture inside was torn in a way which completely eliminated anything above Dash’s head. All that could be seen was dash looking up lovingly at a headless Buck. The sight broke the stallion’s heart, he began to drag himself forward. Trailing his twisted wing and shattered ankle with him. As he came close to touching bronze coloured frame, a destructive crunch sounded followed by overwhelming, maddening pain! Another rock had fallen but this one had collapsed onto the stallions back, crushing him instantly. In the few seconds he stayed conscious after this he looked at that beautiful young faced Filly one more time. “Dash... kiddo... I’m sorry I didn’t....” and with that his eyes closed and he grew still.
Over all of Aquestria miracles happened, a homesick country pony living in a bleak city saw a rainbow guiding her home. A pretty pink pony felt joy for the first time in her life, and in that moment devoted to making all others feel the way she did at that moment. A rock, on the lip of a cliff not far from a dying stallion split open to reveal hundreds upon hundreds of shimmering jewels, to the delight of a fabulous white unicorn. Animals were calmed by a quiet and happy yellow Pegasus as they hid from the great explosion of colour and sound. A purple unicorn, in the middle of the exam of her life time, jolted by fear showed some of the most stupendous magic seen in Aquestria for decades, and in doing so earned a loving friend and assistant. And not far from Ponyville, or from the cliff ranges around Canterlott, their soared a triumphant rainbow coloured pony. Going faster than any one before her, even her brother and in that moment she thought of the grand stallion, how proud he would be. Only 2 more days to wait before term ends and she can see this great surprise his letters described. Everywhere there was happiness, everypony was having their own day of destiny.
But in a valley. Far away from prying eyes, far less likely to be found as a young Rarity scooped her gems up with magic and trotted down the path leading away from the dark mountain centre. There lay a stallion, red from head to hoof, buried. The avalanche had finally concluded, and the damage made the land unrecognizable. He lay buried under the rubble completely except for a small hole in the rocky layers, situated over the Bucks eye. Light shone over the lid but caused no stir in him. High above the valley, on an overhanging ledge of rock –battered and nearly destroyed by the sonic rain-boom- a vein of black liquid began to drip down, into the vast quiet valley.
Drip, drip, drip, drip. Echoing over the grand chasm, the drops spattered the rocks above the stallion, and slowly ran down their sides, one trickle slowly found the hole in the rocky ground, a long sliver of black oil began to dangle from the lowest point of the rock. Before snapping and dropping onto the closed red lid of the Pegasus. The drop stayed there, until joined by another, and then another. The drops accumulated for a minute, before slowly trickling over the curve of the lid and seeping in. The oil, almost consciously, moved over the crack over the eye, waiting a moment and then seeping into the eyeball itself.
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