//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Journey To Gallopoli (Part II of III) // Story: The Tale Of Colossus // by Always Shipper6 //------------------------------// I awoke with a startle. Apparently the sky decided to screw Scarlet and I over and start raining.The tent fell down due to the weight of the rain that gathered on top, so I was stuck being her shelter. She was about as tall as my thigh, just a tiny bit shorter. It was fun, being Scarlet's umbrella. Of course, I am 8 foot tall as well. I sat there, my body curved up into a ball, holding Scarlet. There was a strike of thunder off in the distance. "Hey, think we'll be okay, as in me not getting struck by lighting." I said as Scarlet got herself comfortable. "I think we'll be okay." She said as a lightning bolt struck a tree nearby, making it split in two. "Or at least I hope so." Scarlet said as I moved around a bit, getting comfortable myself and eventually falling asleep. Eventually we both woke up, the clear night sky above our heads. I sat Scarlet down on the ground, and we looked at our stuff. "Well, the tent is ruined thanks to the rain, so what will we do for shelter now?" She huffed as she looked over to me. I shrugged. "We could always use me?" I curled myself up into a makeshift shelter. "Or I could just rip up trees and make one." I said as I stood up and began to grab onto a tree. Scarlet shook her head. "No, what if you make it and it falls down on us?" She said as she walked over to me. "Wouldn't it kill me, and crush you?" I let go of the tree that I was currently getting ready to rip out of the ground and sighed. Scarlet pulled out her map. "Well, seems like we're actually ahead of time. We should be to Gallopoli within the next day or so, unless weather decides to stall us again." We both heard thunder off in the distance. "And that seems very likely." She put up her map and began to walk. "Come on, lets try to cover as much ground as we can." "Alright, lets move." I said as I began to follow her down the trail. "Well, seems like were lost." Scarlet huffed as she threw the map down. Due to it being night out and Scarlet not being able to see, we got lost. I could see perfectly fine due to my eyes, but I didn't know the way around, I just followed. "Now what are we going to do?" She said as she looked to me. "I don't know, maybe look for a sign or something to show us the way?" I saw some smoke off in the distance. "Hey. what's that?" I said as I pointed to it. "I don'y know, I can't see a thing because its so dark." Scarlet huffed in frustration again. I picked her up, and she let out an 'Eep', which was almost as cute as Fluttershy's. I began to walk through the forest, walking closer to the pillar of smoke. After a while, I came up to an old looking shack. It was made out of wood, but had smoke billowing out of the chimney. I saw that there was a candle lit inside, and Scarlet began to fidget in my arms. "Put me down and let me go see who's there." She said while squirming in my arms. I nodded and sat her on the ground, and she walked up to the door. I stood back in the forest until she nodded and told me we were good to go. She slowly walked up to the door, inspecting if there was anything suspicious or not, and of course, there wasn't. She walked up to the door and knocked three times. Eventually an old looking stallion opened the door. His brown hair was beginning to fade to white, and his coat was a light blue. He smiled at Scarlet as she introduced myself. "Hello sir, my name is Scarlet Rose, and I'm wondering if you can lead us in the right direction. You see, my friend and I got lost on the way to Gallopoli and we need to find our way there." She said as she pulled out the map and showed him where it was. The stallion inspected the map and nodded his head. "Yes, I can lead you there. Say, you said you and your friend correct?" The stallion said as he looked around. Scarlet began to sheepishly rub the back of her head with her hoof. "Well, ehehe. You see, he's not exactly normal." She said as the stallion nodded his head. "He's tall I can tell you that much." The stallion nodded again. "A-Are you sure you can handle seeing him?" Scarlet said as she looked back into the forest at me. "Why of course! There's nothing that I've seen before that has scared me. I'm not like those other ponies in Las Pegasus or Canterlot. Their just too stuck up for me. That's why I decided to move out here with my son, but he eventually moved out on his own after my wife passed away." He said as Scarlet motioned for me to come out. "Well, it's now or never." I said as I strolled out of the forest. I began to walk up to the house, releasing steam from my joints. The stallion looked at me wide eyed, then smiled. Wait a minute, he smiled. That's not what I expected. I expected him to do something along the lines of scream-in-panic-and-lock-us-out-of-his-house kind of reaction, but that didn't happen. I walked up to his door, him still smiling like crazy. I stopped and relaxed, releasing steam and the howling noise again. I looked down to him, and said the first thing that came to my mid. "Hey, what's up?" The stallions pupils shrank, and his smile grew. "My son actually did it. I said it was impossible, but he did it!" The stallion ran outside and began to look me over, then sighed. "Well, my son. You did do a good job with your so called 'lives work', but it still has some major flaws." He ran back inside. "Please, come in. I have something to mention to your...friend here." We both cautiously walked inside. The inside of the house was much different from the outside. Also, the smoke I saw wasn't from a fire. it was coming out from somewhere's down stairs. The stallion walked over to us and proceeded to hand Scarlet a cup of tea. "Please, take a seat. My name is Tik Tok, but most people call me Ticky." We both nodded. "I see your friend here, Colossus if I'm guessing correctly." I nodded. "Seems to be a golem without a master if I'm correct. If so, then that means." He had a hint of sadness in his eyes, then turned back to normal. "Anyways, I'll deal with that later. You see Mr. Colossus, my son was my apprentice before he went out on his own. My specialty is clocks, as you can tell from my cutie mark." He turned and showed us his cutie mark, and it was just a clock background with the clock hands on it. "I specialize in clocks yes, but my hobby is creating things like you." He gestured to my entire being. "My sons creations were things of evil, always used a certain book to make them come to life. Don't know why he did, but I guess the thing finally got to him." The stallion stopped walking and sighed. "Anyways, if you two would please follow me, and Colossus." I looked to him. "Please, step over into that corner." I crawled into the corner, and watched him pull a lever. Instantly, clamps came down and grabbed onto me. I tried to get out, but to no prevail. He looked to Scarlet and smiled. "Please follow me. I assure you, I plan no harm. In fact, I plan to help you." They began walking down the stairs as I was lowered into another room. It looked like a basement, but mainly a workshop. I heard Scarlet and Ticky walking down the stairs. "Now you see, Colossus was made to be a prototype, but as seeing as he's the only one, that leaves him able to be upgraded. The upgrade will take a day or two of constant work, but once I'm finished he will be a whole new golem." The wall I was currently against glided down, until it was flat on the ground, almost like an operation table. Ticky and Scarlet made it down the stairs and looked to me. "It's okay Colossus, he's here to help." She said as she sat down in a chair and picked up a nearby book. Okay, so I'm getting an upgrade...I'm okay with this. Ticky walked over to me. "Ready for your operation?" He said as he lowered a welding mask onto his face. I nodded. "Alright, lets do this." I said as he began to work on me. Three days passed, and constant work was done on me. I felt him change parts, add new parts, and thankfully none of this hurt. However, it was boring just staring at a grey ceiling for three days straight. Eventually the day came when I was finished. "Alright, done." Ticky said as he sat down the torch and took off the mask. "I must say, my son made a good golem, but not as good as you are now. Your good enough to fit inside large houses now. Your a total of 6 and a half feet tall, a new shield arm." I sat up on the table and looked myself over. I looked awesome. Instead of that shiny silver I was before, I am now a shiny black. I must say, the black definitely makes me look more badass. I looked at my new right arm. Before it was just plain, but now it had a giant shield on it. It was an oval shape, attached to my elbow. I bent it, and the shield broke in two, almost like it was meant to when I bent my arm. I did it again, acting like I was going to bash someone, and it stayed as a whole when I moved my arm. The stallion smiled at me. "I see you've already noticed something special with your new shield arm. You see, the shield is built for protection, but it's kind of annoying when you move your arm and the whole thing comes along correct?" I nodded. "Well you see, this shield is able to break down, as in when you're relaxed, it wont bother you when you bend your arm. However, when you're in combat, it stays perfectly together as you move your arm around." I nodded and moved my arm, still messing around with the shield. "Also, if you take a look at your left fist." I lifted it up, and noticed small spikes coming out from the knuckles. "Those spiked retract when your not in combat, but when you are they come out whenever you close your fist." Ticky said as that was the final offensive thing he added. I noticed that my body was now all connected. "Ah, looking at your now covered joints are we." He said as we walked over to me. I nodded. "I made the titanium thicker, but in addition I had to make you shorter so it would work." He said as he looked me over. "Well, thanks Ticky. I'm sure your son would be proud to see the new version of me." Ticky sighed and shook his head. "No, my son would be jealous. He was always trying to outdo me in everything. You see, my son doesn't like losing. that's one of the main reasons he left to live on his own, he was always losing to my machines I created. I kind of regret letting him leave, but now that he's...you know...anyways, I guess you all can leave now. You can just leave this old stallion to live out the rest of his days in seclusion." Well, that's not going to happen. After he did this to me, he deserves to live out his last days wandering the world, seeing the sights, and other things. I looked to Ticky. "Nope, you're coming with me and Scarlet. You've helped me in more ways than one, so now I'm going to give you a chance to be able to go out and see the world. Even though your life is coming to a close. It's best to go out fighting than just sitting here letting your life rot away right?" Ticky looked up to me and smiled. "Alright, I'll go. Just cause I want to see how you do out in the field." He said. Scarlet looked to me and smiled. "You know, you just made an old stallion very happy." She said as Ticky ran off to get some stuff. We began walking up the stairs, and out of the house. "Yea, I know. It's best to live life to the fullest, rather than just letting it rot away by doing nothing." I said as we walked out of the house. We waited a bit, but after a while Ticky walked back out, covered in armor and a greatsword on his side. I looked over to him. "Wow, looks like the old mans still got some fight left in him." Ticky looked to me and smiled. "Oh, you have no idea." A/N: Okay, this chapter was done with slight editing, so if you see any errors, please let me know and I will correct them as fast as possible.