//------------------------------// // 5. Giants // Story: Radiance // by flamevulture17 //------------------------------// [Giants] Twilight ran as fast as she could. Her panicked heart rate and panting made it difficult to call out for help, only to be reminded that her help needed help. She could barely see the ground in front of her as she galloped away from the building with the tall being. As she approached the boat house, Rainbow came running outside. “I told you you needed backup!” she laughed as Twilight stopped to take rest. Rainbow started looking around. “Where's the monster? Let me at 'em.” Twilight tried to control her oxygen intake in order to secure a healthy breathing pattern, that would in turn normalize her blood pressure. Even though control was one her many strengths, she would never fully develop the ability to override her natural instincts. Hyperventilation never did good to anypony, and overreacting at every unexpected thing that she encountered would only make things worse. “I don't think it was a monster,” she said. “What?” Rainbow grimaced. “Then why did you scream like filly?” “Was it really that loud?” Twilight's face went red. “Uh hu,” Rainbow nodded. By now, Twilight's fears had subsided altogether. Her initial shock and awe was just a precaution, hence the lack of control over natural instinct. Or was it a reflex? Which would fall under the same category. It wasn't the first time she ran away screaming, nor was it the first time her fears had been transformed into curiosity. However, in this case, it was the first time both seemed to happen simultaneously. Thinking back no more than couple minutes ago, she had never seen a creature quite like that before. The strange being appeared to take the form of a tall, skinny diamond dog with clothes on in place of fur. Though, the height may have been defect that caused the height difference than a typical diamond dog. However, it couldn't have been a diamond dogs. They don't live in houses. If anything, it was a giant. An dark creature depicted in ancient tales of myth and legend. There weren't any pictures to illustrate those legends, but this tall creature was the closest thing to a giant. Any words to describe what she saw were just not enough. The more she thought about it, the more curious she became. She wished she had never gotten scared in the first place. “Heellooo, Equestria to Twilight?” The stomping of hooves snapped her out of her thinking. “Huh?” “We're not safe with that thing running around,” Rainbow stated. “We should take it out before it eats us.” “I told you, it wasn't a monster.” “Then what attacked you?” “I wasn't attacked.” Twilight sighed. “I was just... scared. That's all.” Rainbow Dash stared at her unicorn friend with a blank face. One of those words was not in her vocabulary. Nothing frightened her, or at least, nothing in Equestria. This place, however, was uncharted territory... as far as she knew. She remained strong in the face of her enemies. Although in this case, Rainbow fought to keep the uneasy chills that ran down her spine locked up within, no matter how hard it tried to escape her body. “Fine. If it wasn't a monster, that what was it?” Twilight blinked. What exactly was it she saw? “I don't know. I never seen anything like it before.” Rainbow grunted. She rarely heard Twilight say those words, for she was the smartest egghead ever to walk Equestria, except for maybe the Princesses and that Star-something bearded guy she keeps talking about. “Maybe I should do some recon to make sure there aren't anymore of those things out there,” Rainbow suggested, trying to rid herself of the boring job of watching over Cadence. Watching the Princess sleep was a new level of boring, not to mention creepy. She really needed to do something. She needed to stretch her wings and fly around. “Those 'things' are not 'out there',” Twilight twirled a hoof in the air. “They live in there.” She pointed to the building behind her in the distance. Rainbow's pallid composure sank a bit more. Whatever scar- … attacked Twilight lives close by. To close for comfort. They might attack again at any moment. “Is that where the sound came from?” she asked, holding her gaze fixed on the building. “I'm not entirely certain, but it's highly possible.” “Come on, Twilight. Where else could that sound come from?” Rainbow questioned. She then grinned devilishly as she narrowed her eyes even more. “Imma check it out. Give 'em a piece of my mind.” Before the loyal pegasus could take off running, she was pulled back by Twilight's magic. “NO!” she shouted with a roaring whisper. Rainbow was mildly surprised at the outburst. “I know I was scared the first time, but we need to be ready next time around. I want to try my luck at calling for help again, but I don't want you attacking that thing in its own home. It will send the wrong message and put us in more danger than just being here. Just wait until we're in a better position to defend ourselves if that giant turns out to be hostile. I'm in no position of fight, and neither are you.” The glossy look in Twilight's eyes in the dim light from the boat house was beyond serious. “Come on. We should check on Cadence.” *bang* *bang* The familiar sound made Rainbow tense up again. Her defensive instincts kicked in, but before she could take off running for the second time, Twilight stopped her from taking a step. “Let's not stay out here any longer that we have to,” Twilight reassured her with a nervous look. “We need all the energy we can get. Lets not worry too much about what's happening out here and focus on our survival.” Twilight walked past Rainbow, leaving her to reconsider her options as she stood by herself. The pegasus' glare softened while staring at the structure with monsters living inside. She loathed the idea of having to stay within range of her enemies. These 'giants', as Twilight labeled them, can't possibly be that dangerous. She recognized those new sounds were the echos of doors slamming shut. She and her friends have heard worse of worse sounds. After staring at the building for while, she obeyed her friend and followed her inside. Heck, she didn't even know what these giants looked like. “A pony?” Lucas nodded. “Are you just trying to distract me and make me forget you're problems, or did you hit your big head on the door and your in candy land?” Stanley huffed. “N-no seriously, i-it was right there!” Lucas stuttered. “Right here! It was weird.” “Ha. Ha. Ha.” Stanley said, unamused. “Maybe you should call a therapist and get that head of yours screwed back on tight.” “It was purple, too.” That very statement made Stanley genuinely chuckle, but used that to fake a loud comedic laugh. “Oh man, that's too good.” Stanley wiped an imaginary tear from his eye. “A purple pony is the weakest excuse you can come up with for falling on your ass. It still doesn't change that fact that it's your fault Kate's in a coma, or did you forget that she is hurt because of you. You should have been driving the boat like you were told.” “You know what, it doesn't matter. Blame me all you want.” Lucas was now angry. Stanley's tantrum from earlier was beginning to drive him nuts. He hoped his cousin knew better than to stay mad at him for doing him a favor – if you could call leaving him behind with Kate on purpose a favor. “If you're gonna be like this all night, I'm outta here!” With that, he stepped outside into the cold night and slammed the door, almost breaking windows on either side. *THUD* “Fine! See if I care!” Stanley shouted from inside as another door violently echoed its impact across the walls. *thud* Lucas sighed heavily. It was then that he noticed he locked himself outside without a jacket. He was now stuck outside to endure the extreme uncomfortable sensation of damp shoes and goosebumps. He didn't want to go back inside now. All he could think about now was what he had done to upset Stanley and that weird pony thing that made it worse when it freak him out. The wind outside was a light breeze, but it was still freezing against Lucas' skin. The storm must have passed overhead by now and moved on further west. He cursed the storm for screwing his day up. Not only was Kate's fishing boat left stranded on a beach, but apparently his way of handling the wreck had infuriated his cousin. All he tried to do was remain calm about the situation. It was the first time something had seriously gone wrong with Kate's boat. There had been a few defects here and there, but this one took home gold. He knew exactly what to do in the event something major happened to it, but recently he started to care less about private property that didn't belong to him. The fishing boat was Kate's property and he vowed not to do anything but drive it for her, but since she was unconscious right, he'd wait till she wakes. IF she wakes. Actually, his whole plan from the start was to wait for her to wake up before doing anything about it. Besides, he would never hear the end of it when she found out what happened to her boat. She's go absolutely crazy and point the finger at him. Somehow, everything was his fault. Although, considering how poorly he treated her mere minutes before the incident, he'd face major pay cut, if not the loss of his job. He was actually glad Kate hit her head. It gave him time to think what he would say to ensure she wouldn't replace him. Lucas buried his thoughts about Kate and Stanley for a while. He turned to focus on the weird creature that knocked on their front door. Of all the things he's seen in his life, an animal knocking on their door like a civilized person was definitely not one of them. Maybe it happened elsewhere with trained animals, but not to him and not this far in the wild. For what he could recall, the pony also screamed in a human-like voice, though it might as well been his imagination. He wanted to believe it was a hoax. Some stupid prank by some stupid kids. However, the more he thought about it, the more he wondered why kids would come all the way out here past their bed time to fool him with a fake pony. He'll never understand the younger generations after that stunt. He stepped towards the edge of the porch where the light was replaced by its polar opposite. As he gazed out into the darkness, he could see the boat house across the yard shining with a single light. Strange. The floodlight in the boat house doesn't turn on by itself. Well, it does, but it was motion sensitive to anything larger than a house cat. Lucas knew the local wildlife consisted of deer and such, but they never came out this far, and he was sure they didn't own a cat. He took it upon himself to investigate and maybe take his mind off things. Lucas walked on the muddy dirt path in front of the station, which then shifted into soggy grass after a couple meters. The squishing sounds under his feet whipped up a smell that resembled the rotting pollen flowers. The further from the station he got, the colder it became. With each breath he took, a puff of steam was expelled from his mouth. It was as if he swallowed ice cubes that melted instantly on his tongue every time he exhaled. He hugged himself and constantly rubbed the goosebumps creeping all over his exposed skin. He really wished he never took off his jacket. His pace was slow. Sluggish even. He would often trip up on the smallest imperfection of the wet soil that sank beneath every step. It wasn't until a distinct sound stopped Lucas dead in his tracks, only making in halfway. It was difficult hear anything over the white noise swirling in his ears, but he couldn't ignore his keen sense of sound. It came directly from the boat house. They were voices. Muffled voices. Faint, but very real. Lucas' neural activity skyrocketed. There's someone in the boat house! Either strangers have taken shelter there or were just passing by with a pit stop, they were still trespassing on their property. This was unacceptable. Confirming his own suspicions, people have invaded their land and were quite possibly the ones responsible for the pony prank they pulled on him. Lucas backtracked slowly, trying to make as little noise possible. The only thing he wanted to do go up to those trespassers and kick them off the property, literally if may be. But first, he needed was his trusted Remington hunting rifle by his side to ensure dominance and appear more intimidating. In order to convince those intruders that if they wanted to keep their heads, they'd better have some good reason for being so stupid. When Lucas reached the dirt road, he jogged the rest of the way. He didn't bother with the porch steps and jumped over them and made his way to the front door. He firmly grabbed the silver doorknob and tried twisting it. It wouldn't budge. Resisting the urge to bang on the door to vent his frustration, he sought to find another way inside without alerting Stanley. With the only option in mind, he stepped away from the porch and ran around to the driveway where he left his truck parked close to the building. When he spotted his target, he climbed on top of the vehicle and prepared himself to jump. Without a second guess, he lunged his body forward to the drainage pipe that ran down the side of the wall and quickly secured a grip around the cold metal tube. Shortly after climbing to the roof, he pulled himself over the top of the roof and carefully crawled his way on the coarse shingles, scraping his hands and knees to increase traction. With no balconies built into either of the walls, he'd have to enter his own living quarters through the window on the second floor. As he positioned himself above where his room would be, he stopped at the gutter and leaned over the edge of the roof. Immediately recoiling by pushing away from the edge, he felt a sudden sensation churning in his stomach His heart pumped faster with every second as he tried to regain his balance. He took a deep breath in an effort to exile the panic flowing in his veins. It was at that moment when he couldn't believe how foolish it was to try such a dangerous stunt like this. Maybe putting up with Stanley's out of control antics was a better fate than having to dangle off the roof. C'mon you coward. You got yourself into this mess. Now man up! Lucas yelled at himself in his mind. For a minute, his muscles were stiff. They refused to listen to his commands. Unlike the dangers of the sea, the dangers of falling were far more daunting. The sea was his calling card, whereas heights gave him a bad case of vertigo. He was so caught up in his anger that he had forgotten about his childhood phobia before it was too late. Finally snapping out of his shell after remembering why climbed on the roof in the first place, he shook off the chills and took one long breath. With his mind screaming in terror, he crawled over the edge. Closing his eyes, he propelled his body down as he held tightly onto the wet gutter and kicked his window open with a foot. Gaining momentum like child on a swing set, he used his legs to pick up speed. With near perfect aim and coordination, Lucas released his grip and launched his body inside, landing directly inside the room with a wobble in his step. Without stopping to praise himself for his acrobatic abilities, he rushed straight for the closet. Sliding the screen open and turning on the single light bulb inside, he grabbed his personal hunting rifle hanging from the wall where it always was if he ever needed it. Today was that day. Making sure it was fully loaded, he grabbed a couple more shells from the shelf and slid the door closed. Before making his way out of his room in a heartbeat, he grabbed his raincoat from the wardrobe and slipped it on. With that taken care of, he left the room and practically sprinted down the hall, skipping every third step as he bolted down the staircase. He reached the door to the lounge where his employer and employee were settled, and without pausing to second guess about what he was about to do next, he kicked the door open, almost breaking it in the process. “Those little brats better have a good reason for pissing me off,” he growled, shoving everything that got in his way. “What the hell are you doing!?” Stanley cried to get his attention, startled by the sudden entry. He stepped back in shock, assuming the man had murderous intentions. Lucas ignored him and continued to march through the lobby with a loaded rifle in his hands and a boiling expression on his face. Nothing in the world could stop him from completing his mission. A mission of vengeance. Vengeance which would redeem his anger. Those intruders would pay for what they did. As he pulled open the door to the lobby, Stanley started to chase after him. “Where are you going!?” he yelled at the crazed man. Once again, Stanley heard no response other than incoherent mumbling and the fading footsteps on the porch as Lucas walked out of the house once again. This confused him more than ever, but he had no time to think if Lucas was on a mission to kill someone. Sure, Stanley was still mad at him, but this is just insane. This never happened to the man before. “Dammit Lucas,” he muttered under his breath as he snatched a flashlight from a cabinet in the lobby and ran outside. It was too dark to see anything, except for the boat house across the field in front of him. Stanley could barely see the silhouette of Lucas, but the moment he sighted his insane cousin with the flashlight pointed at his back, he took off sprinting. Running as fast as he could, the out of shape navigator finally caught up to Lucas as the man silently walked towards the boat house. “What are you-” “Shut up,” Lucas interrupted with a whispered shout. “Turn that damn thing off.” “Not until you tell me what's going on!” Stanley growled, refusing to lower his voice. “Shush!” “Listen to me. This is insa-” Lucas quickly turned to the young man following him and shoved him back. “I said shut up!” “Shh!” “But this is important!” Twilight said, almost shouting She had trying to tell Rainbow about their eminent predicament for the past several minutes. “We don't know where-UMMPH.” Without letting her finish, Rainbow Dash suddenly pulled Twilight close and covered her mouth with a hoof to keep her from saying another word. The airwaves went silent. “Something's coming,” Rainbow said with a tone that could scare foals out of their fur. Her guard was beyond maximum alert and her wings were ready to be put to good use at the first sign of trouble. The purple mare clinging to her chest appeared genuinely worried for no more than a few second, but when she listened for any noise in the stillness night air for longer than ten, she pushed away from her jittery friend and brushed herself off. “Stop horsing around, Rainbow. This is serious!” Twilight scowled. “I have no idea where we are. I don't know what I saw back there, but I don't think we're in Equestria anymore. We can't stay here, but we can't just leave. We need to make sure Cadence is okay before we do anything.” Rainbow ignored her. She readied her body in a defensive stance and darted her eyes around the dark and mucky environment that sat a few yards the boat house. “I don't believe the creature in that building is dangerous.” Twilight continued. “If it lives in there, it must intelligent, or at least sophisticated enough to understand basic thought. If there's more than one of those things and has realized we're in trouble, they might help us. I admit, my first impression wasn't great, but that's because I didn't know what to do. In fact, I think the creature was just as frightened as I was when I ran off. Maybe I scared it, too. I have to go back.” The blue pegasus continued to listen for everything that wasn't her friend's voice. For an ambitious adventurer and athlete, Rainbow learned to be acutely aware of her surroundings while drowning out certain sounds that were distracting. In this case, Twilight's rambling. Throughout her experiences on so many excursions alongside her circle of friends, she has been an expert at detecting impending danger like it was second nature to her. Her skills came in handy every time. “Are you listening to me?” Twilight leaned closer to Rainbow. “Shh!” The lavender unicorn sighed. “I told you a hundred times already, there aren't any monst-” Twilight was cut off by a faint voice outside. Her ears twitched when quieter voice followed less than a second later. She immediately charged up her horn with magic and stepped backward to closely guard Cadence. The alicorn continued to sleep like a rock. She was vulnerable without the security of her unicorn protector. What bothered Twilight the most was the yellow light on the ceiling that lit the interior of the entire boat house, essentially serving as an invitation to the outside world. They were completely exposed anything that may be lurking behind the walls. This thought shattered any hope of remaining hidden for their safety. No good would come out of her careless deeds. Rainbow remained in the shadows behind wooden crates with her battle ready stance, but instead of backtracking with Twilight, she slowly and silently crept ever closer to the end of the wall. She was ready to spring into action at any moment. For a minute nothing happened. It was quiet. Too quiet. Enough to hear the heart drum to the beat of alarm bells that went off in their head. Out in the darkness, a small streak of white light throbbed back and forth across the grass that appeared to get closer and closer. It took some convincing to get Stanley to stop talking. To be more accurate, Lucas pointed the rifle at him long enough to scare him into submission. Not that he enjoyed it, but it was the only way to silence his cousin's unending chatter once and for all. There was simply no time to argue for another hour about stupid things, for their voices would give away their position. Stanley didn't stay mad for long. In fact, his anger had almost completely vanished. The grave threat from Lucas made sure of that. As far fetched as it was for his own cousin to go so far as to point a gun at him, he wouldn't be surprised if it happened sooner. To make up for his previous ranting behavior that caused the heated mess to run wild in the first place, he yielded to Lucas' authority by believing him. He wasn't sure whether or not Lucas was doing the right thing, but he'd tag along to see what exactly prompted the man to act so strangely. He swallowed the lump in his throat and walked beside Lucas, cautiously sneaking to the boat house. Because the pair couldn't see a thing, Stanley was glad to have brought a flashlight along with him, something he never left home without. By the time they got within a dozen yards from the boat house, it was then that Stanley finally realized what Lucas was on to. Knowing how the lights worked within the dock, something must have tripped the motion sensor to the light. Although Lucas neglected to mention what exactly took shelter in the boat house, it mattered more as to why he would go through the trouble to come out here by himself to take care of it without so much as a clue how to deal with wildlife. He can't even deal with himself. The closer the two approached the wall of the structure, the slower their pace dragged along. The wall obstructed their view of most of the interior, but it was a way of sneaking up on the unsuspecting interlopers with basic stealth skills. Stanley constantly thought to himself why Lucas would even care to do something like this. Why not just leave it alone? Was it rage that compelled him the do it? Was it something he said? Or is he faking it? Lucas' thoughts were unchanging, only focused on one objective. He fiddled with the rifle in his hands, checking the chamber to see how bullets were ready to fire. *click click* He winced at the sound. Even though it was a quick ping, it was deafening in the freezing silence that clashed with the slow coastal breeze. He noticed how close they were to their destination, only to realize one other thing that gave away their position. “Turn that off,” Lucas whispered. “But I can't see,” Stanley replied. “I don't care. Shut it off now.” *WHOOSH* Before Lucas could turn and point the gun at his cousin again, a quick gust of wind blew right by his face and the light beside him suddenly dropped to the floor. “OOF!” Stanley uttered as he was thrown back some unknown force. “GOTCHA YOU MONSTER!” yelled an unfamiliar voice. “ARGG! Get your damn hands off me!” Stanley pushed off his assailant and struggled to get back on his feet. Lucas reacted by snapping his head around in all directions and pointing his rifle in every direction. As he whirled around in circles a couple times, had found nothing. All was silent again. It was truly too dark to see anything. He really wished he hadn't said anything, and now that Stanley was tackled to the ground by one of the intruders, he could really use the flashlight right about now. “Show yourself, you damn kids!” Lucas shouted to sound terrifying. “I'll kill you all!” Lucas looked back at Stanley getting up off the ground. He let his guard down as he lowered the rifle to reach for the flashlight, but as he did, he was hit from behind as something slammed into his back with a powerful blow and violently shoved him directly into Stanley's gut. The hunting rifle slipped out of Lucas' hands and both men fell over onto the wet bed of grass on top of each other. “And stay down!” shouted the same voice that attacked Stanley. Stanley and Lucas untangled themselves and shuffled around on their backs in pain. Before they could get up to continue the fight, another swift whoosh sound brushed over there heads. They looked around in attempts to find who it was that attacked them. They saw a fuzzy figure fly around in the air within the black mist. After doing a few more aerial maneuvers, it landed at the directly in front of the flashlight that shined right in their face, revealing nothing but the shape of their attacker. All they could see was the dark silhouette of a small quadrupedal creature. The unique contour was unlike anything they had even seen in the animal kingdom to the best of their knowledge. Lucas was slow to recognize the form, but he then realized where he's seen it before. Only this one was different. It spread its feathered wings as a show of aggression towards them. With his rifle out of reach, all he could do was lay there powerless with his eye fixated on the pony. Stanley was on the verge of having a cardiac arrest. The very sight of the horse-like creature was like something out a dream because the first thing he noticed were the appendages that stretched out from either side of its body. As impossible as it sounded, he couldn't ignore the pain it inflicted on him, despite it being almost half his size. If both of them weren't mistaken, it was some sort of winging animal with a bad attitude. “Don't you ever hurt Twilight again,” the creature said, growling. A talking winged animal. Apparently it was angry about something. The defeated sailors looked at each other. If they could make out the detail in each others' shocked expressions, they'd be more confused than children trying to learn how to file taxes. As they faced the talking animal again, they stared at it as it stepped closer with an intent to kill. Instead of paddling backwards, Stanley and Lucas were chained to the ground by shock and began trembling. The creature lifted a foreleg. “You giants better watch your back!?” it said with a female voice. “No Rainbow! Stop!” another voice called out from behind. A second creature of the same size appeared as it ran from inside the boat house and galloped towards them. It positioned itself between the winged creature and the humans. “Why did you hurt them?” it said. “Somepony had to.” “NO!” the wingless one shouted. “No you didn't. You put yourself at risk when all of this could have been avoided.” Stanley and Lucas continued to stare at the ponies absolutely dumbfounded. Their faces said it all and their bodies responded by staying frozen and bruised. However, they listened to every word the small animals had to say as they communicated with each other in perfect English. The wingless one sounded annoyed with its companion. “Now apologize.” “What? You can't be serious, Twilight. They were gonna-” “Now!” “Fine, my bad,” she heartlessly muttered. “Not to me.” The wingless creature turned to the two men laying on the ground, and pointed in their direction. “To them.” The winged pony looked at Stanley and Lucas for a moment before snapping back to narrow her eyes at her friend. “Like that's gonna happen,” she said in a flat tone. With that, she flew back towards the boat house, leaving the wingless creature alone with the injured men. As the airwaves became quiet once more, the humans were beyond baffled. Stanley was convinced he's lost his mind and Lucas wanted to believe it was all fake. Being neither a figment of the imagination or a prank, the creature in front of them sighed deeply. “I-I'm sorry for what happened,” she said, trying to keep a calm composure. The pony stepped closer to them and was now inches from their shoes. It stuck out a forearm. “Are you alright?”