//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Journey To Gallopoli (Part I of III) // Story: The Tale Of Colossus // by Always Shipper6 //------------------------------// The first diamond dog that got to me was quickly disposed of by a kick from me. It flew to the side and hit a tree, and didn't get back up. I grabbed the next two that got near me by the head. This seemed kind of cruel, but I wanted to get my point by. I eventually started squeezing their heads, and they began to whimper. Thankfully Scarlet wasn't here to see this. I heard a crunch as blood began to fly through the cracks in my hands. I dropped the two now dead Diamond Dogs and their now deformed heads. The others backed off, and one began throwing vials at me. Of course, they just broke on me when they hit me. The dogs stood there smiling, but when nothing happened, they started looking at each other. I laughed. "Gas, really. You think I could be taken down by that. I can't even smell." The dogs growled and charged again. Yet again I went on a killing spree. One got close to me, big mistake. I put my foot on his chest and pushed him down. I began to apply pressure on his chest. He began to grab at my foot and try to move it off. "Sorry bud, not this time." I pushed my foot down, crushing him. I lifted my foot up to see that his ribs were hanging onto my feet. "Oh, come on." I began to shake my foot. "Stupid Diamond Dog corpse, get OFF!" I flung the corpse off, which happened to hit another Diamond Dog, knocking him out. One Diamond Dog got the smart idea to come up behind me. It jumped on me back, trying to grab onto my neck. "Hey, you're not my necklace, so get off." I grabbed the Diamond Dog and slammed him on the ground, hearing his spine break. I grabbed another one, and repeated the process from before, just grab and throw. "Man, this is too easy. Might as well run while you can!" I hate to say it, but I was having so much fun fighting. Just seeing your enemies run in fear, its so...satisfying. I went back to fighting, killing Diamond Dogs in any old fashion. The good o'l foot stomp, the back breaker, and so much more. "Okay guys, time for one of my favorites." I run to a decently thick tree and rip it out of the ground. "Batter up!" A dog jumped in the air at me. I swung the tree as hard as I could, and watched as the dog spun into the air. Eventually, the force of him spinning around so fast ripped his body in two. "Ohhh, that's a home run!" Eventually, there was only one left. "Please, d-don't hurt me. I surrender, I surrender!" He was cowering by a rock, shaking like a little baby. I had to scare him. I walked up to him, looked down to his level, my face covered in blood from the Diamond Dogs. "Aw, wittle puppy too scared to fight a big o'l monster like me ain't cha?" The dog nodded like crazy. "Well," I relaxed my body which released a lot of steam, and the howling sound. I looked down to see a yellow stream going down through the grass. I laughed. "Ha, you pissed yourself! Oh man, that's pathetic. Anyways, as I was saying. I'm letting you go. That way, you can go get reinforcements, then I can kill them as well." I laughed again. The dog ran for his life, and I turned around and looked at what I did. Parts of D-Dogs all over the place. Some were even hanging from the trees, some being hung by their own intestines. "The dogs laughed when I said I could do that. However, when I literally pulled out their intestines and started strangling them with it, it wasn't too funny." I began to laugh, but it was different. It wasn't my normal laugh, it sounded like something else, something I don't even want to describe. I shook my head a bit to calm down, then began to look for Scarlet. "Scarlet? Scarlet, where are you?" I began to walk out of the clearing. "O-Over here Colossus." I turned around to see her walking out of the bushes. She looked around at all the gore, and then to me. She instantly went from her usual black coat, straight to a greenish color. "E-Excuse me for a minute." She ran over to a nearby bush and proceeded to throw up. She walked back out, but didn't look at anything except the ground. "Okay Colossus, lets go, before I throw up again." "Okay, but first do you know somewhere I can clean myself?" I said while looking myself over. She nodded. "Yea, follow me. While you clean off, I'm going to let my stomach settle." She started walking off and I followed. Eventually we came out to a clearing. It has a nice big lake, wait a minute...this is the same spot I bathed in last time! "Ha, so I'm here again." I said as I got into the lake. Scarlet looked at me. "You've been here before?" She said. I nodded as I began to wash all the blood off. "Yes, when I first came here. I didn't know what I was. The moon was lighting up the night sky just like every other night. I was giving off a faint glow, and as I walked I heard water. Well, I followed it, and this is what I found. I decided to step in, and to find out, the water actually felt really good." I said as I remembered that very weird night. Scarlet looked up into the sky. "So, you mean you can feel things?" I stopped and looked at her. "Yes, I can feel stuff touching my ski- er I mean metal. I can feel pain, I don't know about pleasure, but I do believe I can. I've felt anger, happiness, sadness, almost all of it." My eyes began to turn blue. "Colossus, your eyes, their blue?" I snapped back out of my thoughts, and my eyes changed back to normal. "Sorry, my eye color seems to change when I'm in a certain mood." I said while staring down at the lake. Scarlet nodded. "Anyways, are we almost to our first checkpoint?" I looked back over to Scarlet. She floated out a map from her backpack. "Um, yes. We're about maybe a 15 minute walk from it." She said as I began to walk out of the lake, clean as can be. "Okay then, lets get moving." I looked over to her, and She nodded, then rolled up the map and floated it back in the bag. We walked for a little while until we came to another clearing. By now the moon was beginning to rise, and the stars were beginning to show. It was a nice, cool night out, and we were setting up camp. "Hey Colossus, hold this." Scarlet held up a stick. I bent down and held it up for her so she could finish making the tent. "And done! Thanks for the help Colossus." I nodded as she got out her sleeping bag, and I found a nice tree to sleep under. "No problem. Goodnight Scarlet." The world began to fade. "Goodnight Colossus." With that being said, I fell asleep. I awoke in a dark room. Wait a minute, I'm a human again! I watched as my world turned white. I saw my mom and dad standing over my body in the hospital. I tried to holler to them, but they didn't hear me. "Max, please come home. Mom and Dad miss you so much." Mom started crying at the edge of my bed. My dad, trying to act tough, walked over and patted my mom on the back, hiding tears of his own. I tried to walk over to them, maybe touch them to let them know that I'm here, but as I got close something blocked my way. It was like an invisible wall. I tried to holler at them, but to no prevail. After a while a doctor came into the room. "M'am, visiting hours are over. Please leave the room now." My mom nodded and stood up, my dad putting his arm around her on the way out. I tried to get in front of the door to stop them, but they just walked right through me. I began to run after them, but it seemed like they got further and further away the faster I ran. Eventually my world was black again, then I heard a familiar voice. "Colossus, come on now. Wake up, we have to get moving." It was Scarlet. My world was then filled with color again as I opened my eyes, finding her to be looking up at me. "Come on, we're already behind schedule." She began walking. I stood up and stumbled around. "Oh, okay. Late. Yea, got it. Lead the way." I said while gaining my balance. She nodded, and we were on our way again. After a while of just nothing but walking, I got bored. "Hey Scarlet?" I said. She looked at me while walking. "Yea?" She smiled at me. "How did you get that mark on your flank?" What can I say? I was curious. Scarlet laughed. "Oh, you mean this thing. Well, it's a long story. Well, not really that long, it's just boring." Scarlet began to look up towards the sky again. I shook my head. "Well, that's fine. It's something to help the time go by." I said. Scarlet nodded. "Well, it was back when I was in school. I was maybe 6 or 7 years old. It was one day during school, we had someone come in and show us what their culture was like. We've had Gryphons, earth ponies, pegasi, unicorns, and even donkeys. Today was different though. Today we learned the zebra's way of life. Zebras had always intrigued me since I was a little foal, and I was ecstatic knowing I was going to meet a real live zebra. The bell rang, we all got into our seats, and the teacher welcomed our special guest in; and in walked a zebra. I had the biggest grin on my face, so big it was almost creepy. She began to talk about her culture, teach us a little of their language, and finally what got me this." She gestured to her cutie mark. "Zebras are known for their spell in alchemy, or 'potion making'. I still remember it like it was yesterday. The zebra pulled in a big black cauldron, along with some herbs and other things. She tossed a few things in, then began to stir. After a while a puff of green smoke flew into the air. She offered for one of the kids to try it, and one raised their hand. The colt walked up to the front of the class and drank the potion. For a few seconds, his mane and tail color changed. It went from blue, to green, to red, then back to the normal blue. The whole class clapped for the young stallion. He walked back to his seat and sat down, his hair color still changing. Now the zebra pointed to me in the class, so I walked up to the front. She said she wanted me to help her make a potion. I just felt like running around the room hopping going 'yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes'. However, all I did was smile and nod. So, there we were creating a potion. She told me what to do, and I followed. Eventually, after helping her create a few potions, she let me do one on my own. I did it perfectly, and before I knew it there was a bright flash behind me. I looked and I saw this on my flank." She gestured to her cutie mark again. "Finding out my specialty is in alchemy made me the happiest foal in the world." "Wow, that was a pretty touching story. Makes me wonder how jealous all the blank flanks were." I said while looking around. Scarlet laughed. "Yes, it was one of the greatest days of my life." She smiled as we kept walking. "I was always wanting to know what my special talent was. My parents, they thought I'd be a great writer, like they were. However, they were still surprised that my special talent was alchemy. I remember seeing their faces. At first, they looked saddened. Knowing that I wasn't meant to be a writer. I remember after though. They were the happiest I've seen them in a long time. Their little Rose, meant to be a talented potion maker. It was a first in our town. That means my cutie mark was super special. My store wasn't visited very often, mostly by travelers and merchants, but it got me by. However, here recently, due to the Diamond Dog attacks I haven't been getting much business. So, I've decided to move my business to somewhere close, hence us going to Gallopoli." Scarlet said. We walked out into a clearing. "Well, here we are. Our next stop. Come on Colossus, help me set up the tent." She began to pull out the camping supplies again. I simply nodded and began to help. We stopped for the second time that night. Today was uneventful, just a calm walk through the woods, just talking as friends should. The night tonight wasn't as good as last night. The moon was out, but the sky was clouded up to where it was obscured. It kind of saddened me, not being able to see the night sky. The way my body glows at night wasn't going to be happening tonight, but my eyes still proved to be a good source of light. We finished setting up camp again, and I found a nice tree to sit under. I sat there staring up at the sky. I began to whisper. "Mom, Dad. I hope you're okay. If anything, I will find a way home." My eyes turned blue. "Mom, I hope you can deal with Dad's shenanigans while I'm away. Also, Dad, I hope you can deal with Mom's ranting. I know how bad it gets when you two argue over the remote. Your wrestling shows, mom's drama shows. I've only been away for what? 3 days now? I don't know, I haven't been keeping track. Still, I hope I see you guys soon. I miss you both, and I love you." I lowered my head and slowly fell asleep. Images of my parents and memories of the good times we've had on my mind.