//------------------------------// // Chapter 12 // Story: A Fear that Came to Pass // by ChingKittyCat //------------------------------// Twilight lost her balance as soon as the colossus started to move. She gripped onto the grassy hill-head of the colossus with her hooves. She clenched her teeth, focusing. She climbed upwards. Most collosi have a weak spot on their heads. While she had no idea what this one looked like, considering she was at the very top of it, she just guessed it was here. She kneaded the grass as she crawled. Hoping to find an obvious difference in the grass. A certain soft spot, whatever. She could feel the colossus start to bend, and move. She soon found herself working against gravity, as the colossus dipped it's head forward. Twilight's saddlebag had slipped off of her body, and falling down to the ground all the way below. It didn't matter right now. She focused on her opposition. The Collosi, while rather slow, had a major amount of strength within it's size. It was a power house. One single swat from a hand (or hoof, or paw) of a colossus, and you'd be either in an emergency room, or coffin. So, if she planned to 'defeat' this thing, she needed to be extremely careful, and agile. That shouldn't be too much of a hassle. Twilight's horn sparked as the beast put it's head back up to a regular state. She cast a spell, as a blue, snake like magical energy surged through her horn. It peaked out, and then shot into the hill. A large, blue, almost cyan, symbol appeared. It looked like a large wind symbol. Two swirls along a straight path. It was directly smack dab in the middle of the hillside. Twilight just needed to get to it. She narrowed her eyes, quickly tossing herself forward and onto the symbol. Furrowing her brow, she let loose one of the more powerful magics she had access to. A spear of dark magic shot through the symbol, and most likely directly straight into the colossus. A large roar could be heard as the spear was removed. As soon as it was pulled out, a toxic spray of a strange black steam shot out from the colossus. A hand perked up from the west side of the hill, as Twilight knew what it was going to do. The hand swept and swiped across the natural formation, successfully knocking Twilight off. Twilight was pushed off by the hand, and was quickly plummeting. She flailed her hooves, swiftly picking out a spell. What one, what one?! Teleport! Teleport! Twilight popped out of existence, before returning into existence. Once more atop the hill. She sighed, rushing over to symbol once more. Charging up the dark magic spell she had used before. The spear of hatred levitated close to Twilight's face as she jumped onto the symbol. The spear thrusting downward, digging deeper into the hill. The symbol suddenly flickered out. A mist of blue fluttered about, before quickly snaking off in the air. Down the hillside, and most likely to the next weak spot. Twilight withdrew her weapon, releasing the black geyser from the gigantic creature once more. Two hands appeared, holding onto the southern part of the hill. Obvious grumbles of pain could be heard. Twilight's spear dissolved as she switched back over to regular magic. A magenta rope latched onto the left thumb of the left hand. Twilight was soon dragged off of the hill, and was found dangling by her horn off the side of the beast. At this point, she got to see what it looked like. It was a humanoid colossus, with a surprisingly small head. It had four arms, two up higher, and two lower down. The torso itself was rather rugged looking. Made of either rock or steel. She honestly could care less right now. The torso had a waistline, obviously sticking out. As the colossus walked about on it's strange, peg-like legs, Twilight looked about the body. Twilight let go of her current attachment, linking over to the belly. She whisked herself forward, skidding forward to the place she had linked. She promptly stopped herself once she was close enough. Dropping down onto the stuck out waistline. It was about three hooves wide. Twilight would have to be careful. She put one hoof on the stomach, as she worked her way around the waistline. Eventually, she found her way to the rump of the beast. Just as luck would have it, the symbol was upon the back of the colossus. Just a bit up higher. By the neck, actually. Twilight rolled her eyes. Her large spear appearing once more. Being a unicorn was extremely useful at times. Instead of doing an extremely tedious task of actually scaling the back of the titan, Twilight simply levitated the weapon up high enough. Twilight thrust the magical weapon into the fleshy surface that the symbol was upon. Another screech echoed from the colossus. Without giving it a break, she withdrew it, before digging it into the colossus once more. The arms wrapped around backwards, grabbing Twilight. Catching her by surprise. Twilight had used a lot of magic. So by this point, she would have to plan out her attacks properly. The weapon retracted to it's master, flying to her side as she was raised up to the face of the beast. It was obviously angry. It's small eyes glowing with red fury. Twilight nervously laughed, as she squirmed in the tight grip of the creature's hand. A sudden line appeared across the colossus's face. The line parted, revealing a small mouth. Twilight tossed herself in the hand, as a familiar blue mist flew itself into the mouth of the colossus, and directly onto the roof of the mouth. Twilight smirked as she was put closer and closer to the mouth. Her weapon close, she readied herself. Once close enough, she shot a beam of the dark arcane into the roof of the colossus's mouth, making it retaliate back. A hand reaching to cover it's mouth. Twilight laughed hysterically, as purple smoke started to peak from her eyes. The weapon shot into the closing mouth. Sticking straight up as the jaw closed. The weapon was forced into the roof by the creature's bottom jaw. Making it screech, dropping the unicorn. A familiar Pegasus stallion had caught Twilight. His name was Roaring Gust. He had a bluish sort of coat, along with a slightly more bluish mane. Spiked. Since she had been caught, she saw no need to teleport. Plus, by the looks of it, this creature was already done. The rocks and boulders attached to it were crumbling and rumbling. Black sprouts started to spray from every part of the colossus. Bursting with poisonous colossus steam. The arms were starting to fall, as the colossus itself attempted to keep its balance. It dropped down to it's knees, before falling flat on it's face. They were nearly hit by the thing falling. Luckily, Roaring Gust decided not to die today, and moved out of the way before it could smush the two. That was rather quick. Even gigantic and lumbering creatures were no match for this purple pony. With this new magic diversity in her hoof, she could defeat anything! Twilight rejoiced as soon as she returned to the ground. A wide smile upon her face as she looked back upon her most recent enemy. She just single hoofingly defeated a COLOSSUS. How cool was that?! Might I add, in less than an hour was the beast fallen. Actually, in less than ten minutes! All thanks to that handy spell. Wait, when did she learn that spell? Last time she had checked, she didn't know that sort of weapon conjuring spell. Whatever! It worked, and she saved everypony from certain doom! Twilight puffed, wiping the slight bit of sweat off of her forehead. She took a second to stop laughing, as she turned back around to look at her group mates. They looked.. Less than pleased, to say the least. They all had these scowls and glowers on their faces. "What's with the faces?" Twilight asked, breathing in and out. She was slightly out of breath from her awesome battle. They just stood there. As if she knew why they were glaring at her. "You used bad magic, Twilight." Log Chucker stated. What the Tartarus? 'Bad' magic? No magic was bad. All magics were used for good reasons. She used her magic for good. Not evil. "What?" Twilight laughed, making the group obviously more disgusted. Twilight seriously wondered what they were talking about. "Your eyes, Twilight. They have dark magic smoke coming from them." Quill Scratch spoke up, worming his way to the front of the group. Dark magic? Wait, she had used dark magic! BUCK! Twilight poked her horn, smacking it. A tiny little black spark flew from the tip of her horn, and down to the grassy ground. Twilight was horrified. The purple smoke had retracted back into her oculars at this point. She stamped a hoof on the landing place of the black spark. No. No dark magic allowed. Even if it was useful. No dark magic. Even if it was useful. Twilight sighed, disappointed and shamed by her arcane choices. The group seemed to ease once she noticed what she had done. "Sorry. Something just came over me. It was the strongest magic I had access to." Twilight apologized. She was comforted by a group hug by her acquaintances. Twilight calmed herself, embracing her companions. Friendship was more powerful than dark magic. She knew this. Nothing could stop the magic of friendship. The group had spent a little bit by the colossus corpse. Just to see it off. Which, after a couple minutes, crumbled into stone dust. They had only stuck around to see the colossus fully disappear. After that, they had started to move on to Manehatten. That creature's untimely death was unfortunate. Twilight had retrieved her saddlebag from underneath the dust. Luckily, it wasn't too badly damaged. It was basically fine. Though, in death, comes life. The ashes of a colossus can sprout Gray Leeches. Which were usually found in mines. They were actually used as tools. They drank the sweat of a worker. Instead of blood or magic, like other leeches. If you were a smart spelunker, you'd bring a gray leech down in the mines with you. If you didn't want to drown your co-workers in your disgusting body fluids. A colossus usually made two of those things upon death. Twilight's mind was not on the gray leeches. Currently, she was thinking about her dark magic usage, and how she could limit it. Maybe she could teach Quill Scratch how to do a magic blocking spell? Nah. He probably couldn't. Most unicorns couldn't. Twilight rubbed her temple with a free hoof. How was she going to deal with this asinine magic? It was only going to annoy her more. By Celestia, she needed help. Seriously. How was she going to get rid of it? Could she get rid of it? Who knows. Maybe there was a magic sucking demon that could get rid of this magic that was probably rooted in her by now. Maybe there was no way to get rid of it. Maybe dark magic was a disease that came with it's own array of powerful spells. Spells that provided strange pleasure and joy when using. You could call it a useful drug, actually. Sooner or later, it would find its way into the majority of her life, instead of the minority. It would happen, inevitably. Hopefully she wouldn't give into the soothing and fulfilling after effects of the darker element. Normally, if she had used regular magic to get rid of that colossus, she would be having one hell of a horn ache. To the contrary, this drug was providing a decently nice feeling to her horn. Instead of the burning after effects of regular unicorn magic. There seemed to be cons and pros to this magic. She would just have to magnify the cons. Magnify them. A lot. A whole ton. Right now, the pros were outweighing the cons. What were the cons.. Alright. It was forbidden by Celestia, and frowned upon. That was really about it. Though she did look up to Celestia, she kind of didn't appreciate the whole 'go hide in the corner with your tail between your legs' thing. That was a foolish action, to try to limit Twilight. This was HER battle, and if Celestia thought she wasn't going to fight it, she was WRONG. Now she was just being sour. Twilight looked forward to sitting in Manehatten, waiting for a most likely dead mare to arrive and show them the directions. How long would they wait? Years? Twilight had better things to do than sit and wait for a dead mare. She would wait two weeks. Tops. Then she would stomp off to the Crystal Empire, and end this battle. Then she would tell Celestia to remove the dark magic, and she would go back to her old life. Friends, and getting rid of gods and threats to Equestria. The usual. Everything would be normal. Normal. Normal. Normal. Twilight would make everything better. She didn't care what she had to do. She would free her friends, and end the war. Then go back to ponyville, rejoice, and then, the next day, she would act like it never happened. She would smile as Pinkie Pie jumped and bounced over to Golden Oak's Library. A silly getup on, with a basket of letters in her mouth. Twilight would open the door to her library, as Pinkie would do a song and dance. Talking about a party. Then, when it was time to party, Twilight would dance until midnight, with all of her friends. Joyful and drunkard like laughter all through the night! Yes. That's what she needed to get. Dark magic stood in the way between her goal, and her. She wouldn't allow that. Now she had a reason to get rid of it. To despise it. Good. That's exactly what she needed right now. No sarcasm intended, that's actually what she needed. The group had now wandered upon the railroad. The railroad lead directly into the city, so if they just followed it, they would be fine. Plus, they couldn't get lost at this point, really. If they did, it would have to be an extremely stupid mistake. Twilight hoped that they wouldn't make that idiotic of a mistake. Twilight took a quick glance behind them. No train coming out from the tunnel. The tunnel being the one that cut through the small cluster of mountains known as Equine Mountains. If they wanted to, they could just head through this tunnel, follow the tracks, and end back at the Neverfree forest. On the opposite end, closer by Hollow Shades. They wouldn't be doing that. Also, hopefully, she could actually take the train instead of walking. Her hooves will die if she had to walk all the way back to Ponyville. Twilight wondered.. What were her friends doing right now? Hopefully they weren't suffering. That would be horrid. She would save them. They just had to wait. How long? Twilight didn't know. A while. Hopefully soon. She didn't want her friends to be tortured for much longer. She didn't want her friends tortured at all, actually. That would be preferred. Manehatten was just ahead. Hopefully, the wait wouldn't be too long until Rose Dust's coffin showed up. Twilight hoped she was still alive. Or else this group would wander around Equestria like chickens without heads who were very slow at running or walking.