//------------------------------// // Chapter XVI // Story: A Dash of Shyness // by TM2 Dinobot //------------------------------// Chapter XVI Words. There were no words. No sound the mouth could produce, no thought the mind could contemplate, no horror the soul could imagine could ever approach the epitome of that moment. Time itself stood almost completely still for the two fillies as they started at death itself rising from the forest floor. The very personification of nightmares, Hades' greatest son, the warlord that had faced a thousand battles and won. Dash felt light headed. She needed to remember to breathe, but her body refused to obey. She could no nothing but gaze upon the lonely mountain before them, her mind refusing to cement reality. This simply could not be happening; it was a farce or a nightmare. Or she was dead. Death would be preferable to living in a world where such a monster still existed. The Jackal she could wrap her mind around. The predators, the bullies, even the death of her own mother. She didn't like them, but they were true; they shaped the world into what it was. But this? Him? He was a legend, a metaphor. Something reverends screamed fire and brimstone about in worship service. Celestia and Apollyon, the last battle, the final judgment. How, how could he be real?! Fluttershy watched and studied. No shivering; no tears. The terror that should stab its icy talons into her heart never materialized. She felt no fear, nor joy, nor happiness, nor sorrow. She felt... nothing. Had it come from facing the great beast before? Had he already done his worst? Unable to bring up any emotion, standing there with an empty heart and an open mind, she did the only logical thing she could think of. She began to study. Burnt red scales, once as golden red and the sunrise itself, now lay cracked and dulled, their iridescence long since lost. Parasites had moved in, sucking the blood from the cracks, sliding in-between the scales. Several had become infected, swollen with puss. Weeping lesions interwove with moss and mildew, leading to a dappled dance of death. The underbelly had long grown over, roots struggling to take hold, binding him to the ground from so long on his belly. The claws, once visages of legend, now hung cracked and broken. Age had turned the ivory talons of death into dark rotted reminders of former glories. The jackal, so recently crushed beneath the titanic paw, was already being consumed by the carrion eaters living in the hollow, rotting nails. A rumble filled the tree tops, a cracking sound of snapping limbs. The wings of death stretched, able to beat out a hurricane and blot out the sun herself. Twitching just a little, they gave a flap, sending dirt and grime falling from the sky. Fluttershy could see star light through the holes in the membranes, high above. The veins stood out on the paper-thin wings, now used for little more than regulating heat. His flying days were long over. The tail didn't twitch. It never moved, just laying there without a reaction. Once so expressive, so versatile, it lay like a limp rag, unable to move for all the gold in Equestria. Trailing her eyes along his back, Fluttershy spotted a massive crater just forward of his rear legs. Scales were snapped, torn and rent, many missing all together. The stench of gangrene poured forth, seeping down into the minor lesions and infections along his sides. Once, not so terribly long ago, something had broken his majestic back. This titan was paralyzed from the legs down. That was not to say he was defenseless. The head pivoted at the end of a massive neck that swung around at impossible speeds. Always watching, always listening, always sniffing, the head stood out far and above as the most dangerous of a dragon's weapons. The stood as round as an Airball field at the base, constantly on the move. Razor spines and healthy scales armored the snake-like appendage, working down to the head. That terrible head. Yet there was a subtle shake, an inability to keep steady, like a new born foal on its first legs. The teeth. Every pony always looked at the teeth first, longer than Princess Celestia herself. Once serrated and sharp as crucible steel, they now combated dry rot and disease from within. Dull as they may have appeared, a crushing blow from one would still snap any enemy into pieces. Drool slid down the fangs, picking up the blood seeping from the gums and through the cracks, dripping off the ends before slapping the forest floor far below. Some were missing entirely, more evidence of the terrible incident that crippled his back. The nostrils flared, billowing smoke from the caldron chamber deep inside. The heat radiating from his belly kept the ponies well warmed on such a cold night; the temperature in those idle nostrils must have been enough to burn anything. Fluttershy couldn't imagine the full force of fire. She easily believed the legends about melting flesh from bone and transforming fertile land into glass. Finally she focused on the eyes. White and frosted by cataracts, he'd been blind for such a long time. That in no way indicated stupidity or helplessness. Unseeing though they may be, those eyes still held an intelligence and wisdom second only to the Goddess herself, and an evil surpassed by none. His eye might not work, but he still saw all and knew all. Fluttershy knew something too. Her eyes worked just fine, and while she may not have centuries or even years of experience behind her, she got straight A's. She was a smart filly, at the top of her class. And she knew death when she saw it. After bringing so much of it to others, the great equalizer was finally giving him a last call. He had seen his last sunset. Apollyon was dying. "Rainbow Dash." The words would not sink through to the trembling blue pony. Was Fluttershy crazy? She'd bring ultimate wrath down on them both! How could she even possibly speak in his presence? "Rainbow Dash." Fluttershy spoke gently, prodding her friend. Dash finally looked over at her friend, but still unable to peel her eyes away from the titanic terror before her. Her neck ached from looking so high up for so long. Finally they snapped away, instantly meeting with those of her friend. Fluttershy just smiled. "I don't... How can you...?" "It's alright." Fluttershy reassured her. "Alright?! Fluttershy, RUN!" Dash spun in place, ready to bolt. Fluttershy tackled her, landing on her bad wing. "Rainbow Dash, no! You must never run from a dragon. Run and they will have no choice but to chase you." "How do you know that?!" Dash crawled to her feet, heart about to beat out of her chest. She had to get out of here. "I read it in a book." Fluttershy said shyly. "Of course you did." There they stood, two ponies in the worst place in Equestria, next to the nightmare of legends. Nothing moved, nothing made a sound. Not that close to the dragon; not that dragon. The only thing they could hear was the occasional plink plink of rain on the canopy and the deep rumbling breathing of the mountain next to them. There was no where to go. Even if they left the danger zone of this catatonic demon, a feat that would require walking miles, they still had no idea where they were or where to go. So they gave into the inevitable, sat down and tried to rest. They didn't sleep. They couldn't sleep. Thought itself was barely possible this close to pure evil, let alone letting their guard down entirely. Dash tried to figure a way out, a path that would lead them home. She'd never been on land; she had no idea where any cities were, or farms, villages or hamlets. She could tell north by the starts, but what good did that do her without being in the air? Ground bound as she was, Dash would have been just as lost in the middle of an open field. The dense, impenetrable forest didn't make the matter any worse. Fluttershy lost herself to thought, reliving memories long ago. Things she thought she'd blocked out, images she'd refused to see. The smash of teeth, the crunch of bone, the flay of flesh, the spray of blood. She could still feel the warm trickle down her cheek; still feel her eyes quiver in disbelief. She remembered floating away on a cloud of pink and blue. But mostly she remembered her mother, the last look of kindness and mercy on her face, and her final words. "I love you." "Huh?" Dash asked, coming out of her daze. "'I love you.' Those were the last words my mother ever spoke. And she looked right at me when she said them. For years I thought I'd made it up, or that I was remembering wrong. The psychologists my father sent me to sure tried to convince me of that. But no, I remember. That was what she said." Fluttershy stood and faced the dragon. "Just before he ate her?" "That... Fluttershy, I don't get it. How can you be so calm?" Dash stood next to her friend. "If I was able to see cancer I'd buck it right in the teeth with everything I had. But you, you're actually facing the... thing that killed your mother. How can you be so kind?" "You think this is kindness, Rainbow Dash? You take my lack of screaming and shouting as forgiveness? No, I've lost yet again. I will not have revenge, or vengeance, or a screaming fit. There's no reason to now." "What do you mean?" "Dashie, look at him. Really look." Fluttershy gestured to the growling fortress before them. "He's dying. He took something from me, some pony I can never get back. Just because he could, because he had the power, because she was there. But look at him now. All that power, all that strength, all those years and where does it get him? Celestia's greatest nemesis, and he's dying, alone, in a jungle three thousand miles from his home. And no one will know about it but two little ponies." Fluttershy sighed. "Come on, let's go." The clearing was not a small one, now that they began to walk away. Trees that had once lived here were trampled flaw. Flash and scorch marks pocketed the ground, turning the earth to glass that crunched beneath their hooves. This site, unnatural in its devastation, had once been the site of a great battle. Possibly the same battle that had paralyzed the great dragon, toppling him where he now lay. Yet even now there was hope. Life returned, little tendrils of green reaching through the radioactive glass. No forest as wild as this one is so easily tamed, not by an alicorn and certainly not by a dragon. The Everfree Forest would bow to no creature. It cared not for stature or power to intention. It was all consuming, unstoppable. Everywhere it went life spread in its path. Ponies could attack it, dragons could hide it, but no force could stop life. Not even death. Fluttershy observed the ferns that refused to be held back. They would go on, they would live and breed and die. That did not mean they never existed. Indeed, to that fern every day it was alive was a very important day. She would survive. Dash would survive. They would get out of this forest and return home. Like the fern every day was important. "I'm not going to die here." Fluttershy set an edge to her voice. Her statement was fact. "Huh? What do you mean?" "I escaped this forest once before. And we're going to do it again, together!" "Yeah!" Dash smiled, looking into her friend's face. Fluttershy was right, they were survivors. No matter what it took they'd make it home. "Hey Fluttershy? I was thinking." "What about, Dashie?" "Well, you said to never run from a dragon, right?" "Oh yes, it is a very bad idea." "But didn't your mother tell you to run?" "Yes." "So how did you outrun the Apollyon?" Fluttershy stopped and Dash ran into her rump. Fluttershy didn't notice, she was busy trying to remember. Cocking her head she replayed her mother's death over and over in her mind. How did she outrun Apollyon?" "She didn't." The sound came from the deepest pit on the darkest star in the emptiest speck in the galaxy. It was a sound of crushing rock, a warbling cough of a blizzard in an avalanche. Icy and cold, every word dripped of stolen magic, a generation of unseen things that would melt the soul. It was a voice not heard in centuries, an echo of the past that only three ponies remaining alive had ever laid ears to. One of them was currently locked away in the moon, the other dying at home. The third could not raise the sun fast enough for Rainbow Dash's comfort. The unholy screech of words sent chills down her spine for one solid minute. Once she finally got her legs under control she was able to turn. Apollyon was huge. Really. Bucking. Huge. As far as the pair had walked from his main body, he only had to crane his neck a bit to meet them face to face. Now it was Dash's turn to relive her bowels. The ultimate predator, he was impossible to fight, impossible to kill and impossible to outrun. A fact made all the more poignant because Flutttershy somehow had. Now she was face to massive face, once more within striking distance of those incredible jaws. His breath did indeed burn, but the stench of the beast up close stank of rot and death. It was a punch to the gut to breath in the disease filled air. Still, even now Fluttershy kept her head. The monster leaned in close, sniffing hard. Fluttershy's mane whipped back and forth in the artificial breeze. She could just reach out and touch the snout of the animal. Then he pulled his lips back into a most terrible vestige with a smile. "She escaped."