//------------------------------//
// Infinite Shapes Most Dreadful - Part 4 
// Story: Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot 
// by Equimorto 
//------------------------------//

The dream Rainbow paused and stood alert. "Not rea- Wait." She turned towards her right. "There. Something is coming towards us."
"It sounds big," Pinkie said, turning to that same direction as the sounds grew louder. "Really big," she added, a bit of worry entering her voice.
The real Rainbow readied her sword at her side and stood in front of the other two. "If things get too dangerous, prepare to run. It doesn't seem to be moving that fast."
The trio didn't need to wait much longer to see what they were dealing with. It emerged from the trees at the edge of the clearing they were in, slowly making its way towards them.
The main body, a deep blue tending to black, looked like that of a centipede, only large enough for two ponies to comfortably stand side by side on it. They couldn't see the exact length it stretched for, not with the way it coiled partly on itself, but it looked a bit shorter than a sea serpent. All its many legs were like those of an eagle or other similar bird, only coloured red and bent at the midpoint to allow it to more easily grip on the trees it snaked its way past.
On the front, in place of a head, were dozens of dark green snake-like protrusions each ending in a crab claw. Some of the claws appeared to have an eye inside of them, though the ponies couldn't tell if that was or wasn't true for all of them. On the back end of the creature was instead a tail like that of a scorpion, rising up to just below the treetops.
Only in place of a stinger on its end there was a torso. The two arms attached to it ended in lipless mouths with long sharp teeth, and a pair of small wings like those of a dragon was attached to each wrist. Where the head should have been, there was a swollen, pulsating spot, surrounded by a net of veins that dug into the rest of the torso. And a single hole was in the middle of it, rhythmically opening and closing at a pace slower than the creature's likely heart's beat.
"What is that?!" the dream Rainbow yelled upon seeing the creature.
Pinkie grimaced at her side.
"Nightmare creatures can get pretty ugly," said the regular Rainbow, keeping her sword ready. "This one seems like it's trying to get out of here."
"Should we stop it?" Pinkie asked.
Rainbow pondered the situation, while the nightmare slowly approached them. "We should try. It'll be a lot easier to stop this thing here than it would be if it got out into the real world, and this one doesn't look too dangerous. You two hang back and be careful, I don't want you to get hurt."
The other Rainbow, obviously, did the opposite of what she was being told and stepped forward. "I'll distract it while you go to strike."
Rainbow huffed, but didn't complain. "Make sure it doesn't catch you."