//------------------------------// // Round Two // Story: Rainbow Dash Around the World // by MagicS //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash followed a trail of red through the waters of the swamp. Alone she flew over the dark water, the red coloring from the powder being the only thing even remotely colorful in this place of browns and greens. It stood out so easily that it was impossible to miss. The alligator monster may not have even fully realized how easy of a trail it left behind as it tried to swim away from the hunters. She was able to make good time following it too thanks to her ability to fly. Even though this thing was trying to hide deeper in the swamp there was no way it could get away from her like this. She had a spear in her hooves, though she knew she wouldn’t be able to end the monster so easily. It was still a good thing to have. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of her face. There was a lot riding on her right now, a lot that she had convinced Claude to trust her with. Hopefully she could get to the monster soon and get things started back up, quiet times like this were always the most anxious to her. It didn’t help that the entire rest of the swamp was dead quiet too. That monster tearing through here had silenced everything. “Where are you?” Rainbow Dash said as she followed the red. “It hasn’t been that long, you couldn’t have gotten too far away.” Her eyes scanned ahead but darkness and the swamp’s natural fog made it difficult to see how far the red trail went in the water until she was practically on top of it. She was slightly worried that she was going to fly right on top of the monster without noticing first. At some point the red trail should turn into a big red blotch on the water though to signify where the monster was. And that’s if it wasn’t even just poking out of the water in places in the first place. “Maybe I should shout for it? Would it come after me or would it try and run away some more?” Rainbow thought. She couldn’t imagine such a vicious monster didn’t want to get revenge on her and the hunting party. A simple animal would’ve just had its fight or flight reflex activate and kept running when it got hurt. But not this thing. According to the others it healed faster than normal anyways, and was extremely territorial, there was no way Rainbow Dash could see it not wanting to attack and eat everyone after a moment of rest. “Stupid monster… you need to get angry and follow me again...” There was a big role for her to play but it wouldn’t come up as anything unless she could find and bait the monster again. She had seen the way it looked at her, how badly it wanted to eat her, if she could grab its attention again she was certain it would try to chase her once more. She was extremely thankful that the red powder—or red paste, however you wanted to call it now—was working as intended. Just like Jules had said it showed absolutely no signs so far of dissolving or disappearing. It was leaving a trail through a heavily wooded area of the swamp now, even though Rainbow had no idea how the big alligator monster would’ve gotten through here. Finally, the red trail in the water started to get wider and wider, more of it was congealed together and just sitting there in the water. She had to be getting close. “Hey, dumb alligator! You oversized luggage! Where are you?” Rainbow Dash started shouting to the swamp as she continued to follow the red. Ahead, she was fairly sure she heard the water rippling. “There we go,” Rainbow grinned. The red was now totally covering the water all around her like a layer of moss. But where was the gator? It must be here, right underneath, hiding from her. Probably waiting for her to fly over the wrong spot so it could try shooting out and taking her by surprise. Some of the trees around her shook and shifted, ripples of water coming from their trunks, and a few bubbles came up past the red paste in the water. Rainbow Dash meanwhile kept on edge, the spear in her hooves and her muscles tense and ready to move at a moment’s notice. The red had an unfortunate side-effect. She couldn’t see the piercing eyes of the monster through the water anymore. Perhaps the monster thought that gave it an advantage when its claw came right out of the water, going for Rainbow Dash as water and the thick red paste fell off it. If it did think that it wasn’t taking Rainbow Dash’s sharp reflexes into account. She flew over the sharp claw and watched as it smashed into a tree and tore it to pieces. Below her, the water was frothing as the monster rose up entirely out of it, knocking other trees away with its body, head, and tail as it glared up at her. “Found you,” Rainbow said to it. An angry growl, almost a roar, came from the alligator as it opened its jaw and jumped up at her. She flew back just as the jaws came snapping down with a resonating sound that shook the leaves on all the trees around them. The monster’s tail came up and slammed back down onto the water behind, sending waves in every direction as the monster launched forward towards her. Of course it had no chance to actually catch and eat her, but she needed to keep low and let it think it did. That’s why there was a happy grin on her face as she flew down low to the water and started darting through the trees while the alligator chased her. She was more than fast enough to escape from it if she really wanted, but she kept in view of it the whole time as she led it away. Led it towards the trap she and the hunters had set up. The monster of course had no problem pushing through and uprooting all the trees around it, devastating the swamp in its rampage. Most ponies probably couldn’t avoid it the way she could, the thing was relentless now that it had chosen to get her. It was proving how it traveled through the denser parts of the swamp though: sheer brute force. Even then it also seemed surprisingly limber and flexible how it swam through the crowded waters and practically crawled over the mud and tree roots buried below. This was exactly what Rainbow Dash wanted though, that thing to chase her in a blind rage. All the way back to the hunter’s hideout. If it ever looked like it was getting wise or giving up she planned to poke and antagonize it with her spear until it chased her again. But right now it looked like that wouldn’t be needed. The monster really wanted to eat her. Rainbow Dash’s grin grew wider as she looked over her shoulder, her vision pretty much entirely taken up by a gaping maw full of teeth. “Heh, come on already! You’re letting me get away again!” A few more roars came from the monster after that taunt. In just another couple of minutes of flying and evading the monster, Rainbow Dash was coming close to making it back to the rest of the hunting party. It would be time to spring the trap soon and this monster wouldn’t know what hit it. She saw the dense trees ahead where her allies were, it was even denser than the swamp forest the monster was tearing through right now. Thought it wouldn’t stop the beast it would at least slow it down for what they needed. The monster’s jaws snapped shut again just an inch behind her tail, its claws pushed two trees out of its way and waves of water were blasting out across the swamp from its body as it pursued her. Rainbow Dash stopped paying attention to it and instead looked ahead. Her eagle eyes narrowed as she tried to pick out her allies and see if things were ready in the area ahead. They had good camouflage still since they wanted to avoid the attention of the monster, but Rainbow knew exactly where they were all supposed to be. Before it might’ve been impossible for her to see them, but this time she could, all of them wearing their mud and leaves and attached to the various trees. Good. Rainbow Dash flew towards a specific spot with the alligator monster right behind her, she was hoping her plan would work and that she wasn’t going to let Claude and the rest down. They had all put a lot into this and if things didn’t end here the hunting party was going to be in a pretty bad spot. Rainbow brought a hoof up to her mouth and whistled loudly. It was likely they could all see and hear her and the monster coming anyways, but the whistle was still the signal for them to be on alert. “Let’s do this,” she muttered to herself. The hunters in the trees had their own special jobs right now. As soon as they heard Rainbow Dash’s whistle, they pulled on ropes tied around the trees and lying in the water, lifting up nets that were hidden in the waters of the swamp. The alligator monster would have to go right through those as it tried to catch Rainbow Dash. The nets of course wouldn’t stop it, but they would momentarily tie it up and slow it down for the next phase. Rainbow Dash flew in a set course, so the monster wouldn’t come near the other hunters, and went right past two trees that had a net hidden in the waters between them. The giant alligator roared as it followed in after her and Rainbow Dash heard the sound of it tripping in the water and snapping the trees next to it as it powered its way through, an angry roar came from its throat as it struggled to get its claws clear. More and more ropes and nets were waiting for it but the enraged beast never stopped going for Rainbow Dash. She looked back and saw its red eyes piercing through the darkness of the swamp at her and its massive mouth chomping up and down. “Last line!” Rainbow Dash yelled out. “Everyone get ready!” She was approaching the true trap now. What she and Claude had decided would be the finishing blow to the monster. Through the trees and the darkness she saw Claude on a raft with several other hunters and numerous bags of both the red powder and the four bags of Gator Powder. Their eyes met and he nodded to her. Rainbow Dash grinned and whistled loudly once more to the hunters in the trees. Right behind her a line of criss-crossing ropes was raised out of the water, they would’ve been right at the mouth and face of the beast as it reached them. “Get the bags ready!” Claude shouted to the hunters with him on the raft. They grabbed the bags of red powder while he hefted up all four bags of Gator Powder. As Rainbow Dash flew by them she put the shaft of the spear into her mouth, Claude tossed the bags of Gator Powder up to her and Rainbow Dash flew up to the tops of the trees, still where the monster could see her but where it would have to lunge up a little to reach her. At that point the beast also hit the last few ropes that had been pulled between the trees. One of the ropes went right into its mouth and caught along the back of its jaw where it had difficulty biting through, others stuck right across its nose and down by its neck. It could still snap them all momentarily, but now Claude and his hunters had their opening. While its eyes were focused on Rainbow Dash—who mockingly flew just right above its jaws—the other hunters lobbed the opened up bags of red powder at it. The powder completely covered it, turning into the sticky paste at once as it come in contact with the water and wet scales. It was like it had gum all over it now, further slowing it down and tying it up. Lots of it even got into its wide open jaws and made it even tougher for the monster to bite down and threaten anything. The entire top half of the monster was red with the special powder and it was struggling to move in the dense swamp now. Its claws and tail smashed out at anything as it flailed in anger and roared. Rainbow Dash flew in front of its eyes to make sure it saw her. And she winked at it. In a fresh new rage the monster put all the strength it had into jumping out of the water at her and trying to swallow her whole. Rainbow Dash could see the black hole of its throat there in the center of her vision as its tooth filled jaws opened wide around her. That was exactly what she wanted. And this time without any hesitation in her she chucked all four bags of Gator Powder straight into the monster’s mouth.