//------------------------------// // From Stalliongrad, With Love // Story: Hold Your Color // by Quillery //------------------------------// Hold Your Color by Quillery Suggestions, Editing and Pre-Reading by : Siyray, Willsons, Izraill Z, BabySkittleMonster, Legion222, Dreamshadow, edensbane, amacita Chapter Ten From Stalliongrad, with Love Outside was chaos. Panicked dock workers ran in every direction, trampling over each other as they ran from the source of the trembling earth. Smoke and ash erupted from the nearby buildings as they crumbled into dust while huge chunks of concrete and metal flew threw the air. Dash skidded to a halt outside as she watched everything descend into madness around her. Her father stepped beside her, his face set in shock. “What in Equus—” “Look out!” Before Dash could react, she felt herself be yanked by her tail from behind. She landed with a thud on the ground, just as a metal girder crashed into the ground where she and her father once stood. It pierced the slab of rock like a toothpick in pastry, and Dash felt her chest hammering away at her insides. Edweena stepped forward as she let go of Dash and Khroma’s tails. “It looks like our friends learned a new trick.” She pointed down the main road of the dock. Dash’s eyes widened. The area at the far end seemed devoid of color and light. Despite the afternoon sun, a thick blanket of shadows covered everything in sight. At its center, a single, towering shape stood out. Its head was the size of a small house. Its eyes blazed like red suns, as it swung an enormous, black appendage through another nearby building. The warehouse buckled as if it were tissue paper. Another chorus of screams echoed in the distance, as everypony nearby ran as fast as they could from the shadow monster. “So,” Ditzy said. “Any ideas?” “Bah,” Aurora grunted. “I’ve danced with wyverns bigger than that.” “Aurora…” Khroma intoned. “We are dealing with something far worse than a whelping.” Aurora glared at him. “Oh? Please tell me of your vast experience of creatures worse than back home, dear brother. Perhaps a domestic argument? Or maybe child rearing?” She turned to Dash a moment. “No offense dear.” “None taken,” Dash said, rolling her eyes. “What I am saying…” Khroma said, growling. “Is that a dragon’s movements are easily predicted. This monster, we have no idea what it is capable of.” His gaze narrowed on Aurora. “And do not think for a second that my ability to fight is lessened due to raising my daughter. She was just as much a fighter as you were growing up. I managed to keep up with your tracking, didn’t I?” “Fah! I let you keep up. If not for that, I would have had the gryphon hours ago!” Khroma went for another retort, when Dash slapped a hoof to his mouth and at the same time, glared at Aurora. “Will you two grow up!? You’re the adults here, and you’re bickering like a bunch of pre-school foals! We have a colossal problem here, and we can do without your stupid sibling rivalry right now!” “Dash is right,” Ditzy said. “You two can pretend the world cares of your differences later.” Aurora gasped. “Ditzanya! You have never spoken to me like that before!” “You were never an idiot before. If you haven’t noticed, like your niece has pointed out, there is a massive shadow monstrosity tearing apart this dock, and it might be the only lead we have to finding the Prism. So can we stay focused here?” Aurora sputtered a few disjointed responses, and Dash couldn’t help but chuckle. Edweena flapped her wings and lifted into a hover. “We need to get that thing’s attention so it doesn’t risk hurting any innocents. Considering it might not like seeing us again, Miss Dash, a few flybys might be a good start.” Dash nodded. “Yeah, that sounds like a good start. A thing that big, it won't be very fast.” She looked to Ditzy, Aurora and Khroma. “Me and Edweena will tick it off, you guys try and cut it down to size.” “Absolutely not,” Khroma said. “I’m not letting you put yourself in more danger than I already have.” “Save it, dad. I’m not your little filly anymore. I can take care of myself.” Khroma froze. His head slouched ever so slightly and he descended into silence. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His eyes opened again and he looked deeply into Dash’s eyes. “As you wish, my dear. Just be careful.” Dash scoffed and grinned. “When am I not careful?” She glanced back to Edweena with a nod, and they took to the sky with a pump of their wings. They flew across the docks straight towards the shadow creature. Its attention was focused on another building crushed under its massive legs, and it was in the process of moving on to another. “Hey ugly!” Dash shouted. “Did you miss us!?” The monster halted, and turned its massive head towards the approaching fliers. As soon as its eyes met theirs, it let out another primal roar. On its back, Dash noticed the ‘flesh’ boiling like black water. Her eyes widened, and she swerved away. “Edweena! Look out for its back hair!” At that moment, tendrils of black erupted from the shadow, flying towards them. Dash skirted just outside of its range, but Edweena was still heading towards it, too late to escape its reach. She shrieked as she thrashed her claws. Many of the tendrils snapped at her flesh, but any that go too close to Edweena’s talons were severed like ribbons and evaporated into dust. She banked hard into a hover and gained altitude to get out of range. She shuddered as she drifted towards Dash. “Ugh, that was certainly a…” She grimaced. Dash shot her a deadpan stare. “Please tell me you weren’t going to say ‘hair raising experience’…” Edweena smiled weakly. “Sorry. Writer, remember? Puns sell.” Dash rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue. “Remember, focus. Don’t make me give you the same speech I did my dad.” “Right. So, getting too close is a bit risky. Any second thoughts?” “Well, if we expect it trying to swat us like bugs, we can probably dodge ‘em pretty good. Just a bit of warning was enough for you.” Edweena shrugged. “I suppose. But I don’t know how long I can keep that up. I’m already injured, plus I’ve been flying for my life most of the afternoon.” Dash smirked. “Then you’re lucky I like my power naps. I’m more than ready to go.” She beat her wings, winding up for a dive. “Just try to keep up.” She let out a cry of joy as she dropped into a dive, aiming for the monster. The beast kneeled as it watched her approach, its back beginning to boil again. Dash bobbed and weaved in the air as she dropped, anticipating the monster’s next move. As she expected, a swarm of tendrils emerged from the monster, and lunged straight towards her. She smiled at its predictability, and she ebbed naturally with her evasive dive. The tendrils nipped at her as he passed, but none struck her soundly as she tilted her wings up sharply and wrenched into a hasty ascent. Glancing back, the monster roared at her as it stretched its limbs as far as possible to chase her in her climb. Some tickled at her hind legs, but their grasp was short lived as she shot out of range just as quickly as she entered it. The monster, so focused on Dash, that it failed to noticed three shimmering trails, one blue, one gold and one white lancing towards it. They roared past in a torrent of wind and dust as they rushed past the monster, slicing into its sides. It let out an agonized roar, and its front legs trembled as it struggled to remain standing. The contrails banked out wide, far out of reach as they slowly spun around for another go. Dash smiled. “Way to go, dad! Just a few more of those! We got him on the ropes!” She saw the buildings quake as the monster struggled to stand. Its tail coiled into a single massive limb and sweeped through the nearby buildings. The remaining tendrils dug themselves into the ground. Dash gasped as she saw the light cast from the sun be drained from the very ground, and be replaced with a pervasive shadow. The monster began to rise, as it grew larger. The gaping wounds from Khroma, Aurora and Ditzy’s attack began to knit themselves back together. Dash groaned. “You gotta be kidding me! That’s not even fair!” “I think our foes have little regard for fairness, Miss Dash,” Edweena said as she appeared at Dash’s side. “We may have to rethink our plan of attack.” “We can keep doing that all day, but if we don’t get a decent hit, that thing will just keep getting bigger.” Edweena looked to the sun. “The question is, how is that thing getting stronger in the presence of the sunlight? It is a monster of shadows, how can it spread its influence on such a clear day?” Dash’s head lurched as she glanced at the sun herself. “No…” she breathed. “It can’t be…” “Can’t be what?” Dash’s eyes darted away. “I mean… maybe this thing is just more powerful than we thought…” Or that Celestia is out for the count, and that thing is just a ball of light, and nothing else, she thought. Edweena shook her head. “Regardless, we need to think on how we can get a decent hit then. You seemed to be able to distract it quite well. We just need to expose a vital spot.” Dash looked at the beast again. Considering its new size, she assumed it could only have gotten slower. “I guess I can try again. But what kind of weak spot does a giant shadow monster have?” Edweena shrugged. “I’d say try the head, but you are right, we don’t have much of an idea. Start with the classics, I suppose, and improvise.” Dash smiled. “I love improvising.” She and Edweena split off and prepared for another dive at the creature. It beat the ground like a drum as it awaited a new attack, lashing at nearby buildings with its tail. New tendrils formed from its back and neck. They were much larger this time, and they coiled back like snakes, waiting to strike. Dash shook her head as she started to pull sharp corkscrews in the air for her descent. “Now come on. That’s just lazy.” The strikes came, like the previous time. Dash modified her trajectory in reverse, throwing off the tendrils just as easily as before. They lashed at every spot she was not, and when they tried to correct, she was well past them. Edweena dove between them. The held her wings firm and cleaved them through the black limbs and severed them just as before. Dash was surprised a gryphon of her age was as dexterous as she was. Perhaps she really had accompanied the real Daring Do on a few adventures after all, and was not as bookish as she led on. They prepared to escape the monster’s reach again, just as Khroma and the rest were preparing their second pass. They banked hard and pulled up, spiraling upwards to keep away from the grasping monster. It lashed out at them, chasing them up into the sky, growling for vengeance. Dash slowed as they rose out of reach, and spun around in her hover to watch her dad’s next strike. She blinked. The tendrils were still coming. She allowed a moment to release a panicked breath, before her wings reacted. She felt herself peel backwards into another dive, just before she was grabbed. She shook her instincts back, looking back for her partner. “Edweena! Look out!” Edweena hadn’t turned back yet. She looked down towards Dash’s voice, frowning. Her eyes kept turning, falling on the black grasping coils surrounding her. She flared her wings wide, but it was too late. She lashed her claws at them as they closed in, but she could not get them all. Many grabbed onto her legs and yanked her down closer to more, which in turn bound her arms. Dash righted herself in the air and halted her expeditious retreat. She climbed high and climbed hard, racing towards Edweena. “Hang on! I’m coming!” She held her hooves forward, and her wings extended as far as they could. Her eyes locked on to the tangle of darkness that held the gryphon down. They quivered as Edweena fought against them, but they only tightened further as she struggled. Dash drifted to the side, lining up her strike. She took a note from Edweena’s fighting style, and braced her wings for impact. The use of the muscles of the upper wing as a weapon was not an uncommon trait for pegasus warriors, which Dash was not. She was a sprinter, and her wings had to be as slim as possible to keep up her requirements for speed and agility. That bulky layer of cartilage would have been helpful in absorbing the massive blow against her primaries as she collided with the black cords that held her friend. Her attempt, at the very least, was a success. She felt her wing cleave through just as Edweena’s had. There was an ooze-like quality that crawled over her wing, but it managed to cut through with little trouble. The only thing she wasn’t counting on was the jolt of pain that lanced through her sides as she passed through. Her vision blurred immediately, and began to darken. She saw glimpses of buildings and solid earth fast approaching from the bits of clarity she could see, as everything started fading away. She felt herself being jerked back into the air, and her consciousness started to waver back. She looked up, and saw Edweena carrying her away from the shadow. “A valiant attempt,” she said, smiling. “But a gryphon’s wings are a bit more resilient for such attacks. Best not to do it again without some practice.” Dash shook her head, trying to alleviate the dizzying feeling that tugged at her stomach. “Well…” she groaned. “Somepony’s got to save your feathery butt.” “And I thank you for that.” Edweena grunted and heaved Dash up. She got back to her own rhythm and started flying on her own again. “This little friend of ours is learning plenty of new tricks that are making this difficult, isn’t it?” Dash looked down at the monster. It was still getting bigger as it drained more color and light from the area. “Sure… little.” Another rush of wind blazed past, as the three trails of light sliced past the monster. It roared again in pain as larger wounds were dug out of its shadowy flesh, and it stumbled sideways into another warehouse. It struck its wall with an earth shattering quake and fell over into the rubble. The tendrils that remained from its back still writhed in the air above it. After a while, they decided to dig out the concrete that weighed its body down. “Ugh. What they’re doing works, but only for a bit. We just need to hit it way harder in one go.” “Well, perhaps if you added your attacks to theirs?” Dash blinked. Then she smiled. She started rubbing her hooves together as her smile widened. Then she started to cackle. “Or…” she said, looking up into the sky. “I could do something way more awesome.” She glanced at Edweena. “You keep him busy just a bit longer. I totally got this!” She pumped her wings and started to climb. Edweena, the monster and the docks all shrank beneath her as she went higher and higher. She noticed in the distance the flock of guards they had seen earlier, finally approaching the docks after the several minutes of commotion. Dash laughed to herself. Better late than never, she thought. Higher and higher she climbed as Canterlot grew further away. Despite her height, she could see the glowing trails of her dad and the others as they beelined and prepared for another strike. Dash followed their trajectory as she climbed, and spotted the column of fire and smoke that pointed out the rough location of the monster. The shadowy influence was spreading, and that pushed Dash to fly even harder. She whirled around at a height she deemed sufficient, after dozens of successful past attempts and years of practice. She took in a deep breath of the clean, glacial air, tilted her wings forward, and began her dive. The cold air wind nipped at her wings almost immediately. The sky roared around her ears as she dropped, beating her wings as hard as she could. Her eyes watered as she stinging cold assaulted her, but she narrowed on her target. She wasn’t going to miss. She couldn’t miss. Not now. Within seconds, the city was in full view as the misty air faded behind her. The pillar of smoke had grown, and she tilted her wings ever so slightly towards it. Any sudden change in her descent, and she would spin out, or worse, rebound off the air cushion pressing against her from every direction. The corona of light formed around the hoof tips as she pressed harder downward. Her hooves clamped together from the force, and her wings began to struggled with each flap. The spiraling smoke was drifting nearer to her, filling her lungs with dust and ashen debris. She took a final breath of clear air and held it, discarding all other necessities save for pushing herself harder. The world below seemed to slow. Every moment, every breath passed by scrutinized by every single one of Dash’s senses as time bled into a crawl. The shadow monster was swatting at the air around itself as she approached. Edweena was still buzzing around the beast, doing all she could to keep its attention on her. Whatever she was doing, it was working, as it was turned away from Dash as she approached. Coming from behind, Khroma’s group was approaching for another strike. Dash leaned back, easing off the smallest amount of speed. Her wings protested as pain lanced at them from the extra wind resistance, but she bit her lips through it. The timing had to be perfect. Otherwise… things would get messy. The blazing lights of their contrail sped towards the beast. Their marks were true, their speed incredible. They shone like stars as they approached , and Dash felt in awe at their precision, their speed, their synchronisation. Dash almost felt skies break under her as they passed under her, only a few hundred meters from their target. The beast was still busy with the pestering gryphon. One hundred meters, fifty meters. Nearly there! Warning bells rang in Dash’s mind. The beast’s tail was swinging in the air savagely. It crushed the bits of rock and rubble behind it, knocking over what standing structures remained in the vicinity. Then, the massive beast spun around, despite its size. A whirl of dust erupted from the impossible maneuver, knocking Edweena out of the air. Dash’s mind clamoured in panic as her dad was charging headlong into it. It growled hungrily as its mouth twisted into a wicked grin. The approaching trails didn’t waver a moment. They were still going, despite the preparedness of their foe. Dad, no! Dash’s mind screamed. Don’t be an idiot! The beast reared its tail and its many spiraling tendrils, readying for an attack. The blue light split off from the others, racing ahead and facing it head on. Moments flashed by, as the incoming rainboom forming at her hooftips began coalescing into existence. Her focus on her father waned as her ability to keep her eyes open faded. Her dad, only meters away from the monster, sheared to the side as the monster took its first prepared swing. The beam of blue light bounced off its sides, and spiraled away towards the wreckages of the warehouses. Dash’s heart screamed. Tears beaded at her eyes and were sucked away from her speed. The two remaining lights of Ditzy and Aurora took its chance. They dropped low, and sliced at the monster’s front legs. It howled in pain as it collapsed again onto its knees. It hung its head down as it trembled. The darkness around it started to boil again, as its size continued to grow. Dash screamed as she snapped her wings to her side, finding her target. She spiraled out, flying like an orbital harpoon, straight towards the monster’s neck. The air pressure around her hummed loudly in her ears as she reached the apex of her dive. Her body screamed at her as she could go no faster. She felt herself being squeezed tighter and tighter from every direction. The corona of light crackled with energy at her hoof tips, threatening to burst. When it finally came, there was a burst of relief as the air around her exploded in a ear-shattering snap. She launched forward in a wave of new speed, as the Rainboom roared from Dash’s body, as the color invaded the air all around her. What color there was, that is. Panic quickly set into Dash’s mind. The cascades of light that raced across the sky were different than she remembered from her previous attempts. The feeling of warmth and energy she usually felt rushing through here was replaced by a half feeling. A feeling of cold, of sadness that gripped at her mind, body and soul. It felt alien. Her skin crawled with a frigid cold as she watched the colors leave her body. The purple, the blue, the green. All that remained was gray. An endless sea of gray. And then, there were only darkness and shadows. Questions? Comments? Feel free to send me a mail Either here on Fimfiction Or at quillerypenfeather@gmail.com Im on Tumblr! Follow me for additional information of upcoming stories, as well as my day to day ramblings about life, writing, and of course, ponies.