Cold Scales

by Konatra

Hollow Soul

It was a quick meal, but extravagant at every bite. Very quickly the food was gone and only bones remained, each licked clean by her tongue. Spines made a satisfied moan and patted her belly. "Thank Solaris's flank meat exists." She muttered as her eyes began to close. A good meal usually meant sleep didn't it?

Even though she felt so fulfilled a feeling of guilt still tinged deep inside her soul. 'I really hope I can tell the other guys someday...' She shook her head. 'No, no...no one else can know about this. I was lucky Butterscotch understood me but the others are not like him.' She laid her head on a smooth rock she considered soft. 'They wouldn't understand...'

Still even after all of this, she felt like a freak. Spines knew the importance and all that but it felt like a taboo. The conflicting thoughts frustrated her. "Dammit..." She decided just to forget about it for now and just enjoy this gentle peace the forest would kindly give her.

...Crack! Spine shot up, dazed and confused to see a nearby log snapped in two. Small chunks of wood landed all over the place. The air suddenly became thick and frigid, almost as if she were in a room filled with freezing sludge.

Before she could make a coherent thought a black figure rushed just out of the edge of her vision. She turned to see nothing but a noise similar to a family cicadas singing on the hottest summer day. Her vision blurred and her breathing almost stopped entirely. She felt sick to her stomach as a sudden throbbing in her head made every sense in her body unbearable. 'w-what the hell is thishhhh.' Even her thoughts were slurred.

Even with all these disabilities, her high draconic instincts overpowered this haze for a moment and without thought or reason lifted her arm and let out a blind punch into the air. To her surprise, the random attack seemed to predict the sudden leap of the hostile creature, almost as if her body knew where to hit.

The blow her fist made could have easily shattered thick stone but this thing didn't even seem fazed. But for the one moment it was steady Spines was able to get a good look at it. Terrifying could not even begin to describe it. This being was as if a nightmare from a filly's dream came to life. Its form seemed to defy all conventional laws of reality. It stood up over towering her, tall as six feet with two arms and legs similar to her but each limb and torso could only be at least three inches thick and slender.

Just looking at it caused a headache since it seemed to have no conventional form in the 3D world. Like if a child drew in a coloring book and just scribbled in a bunch of dark lines. Yet the lines kept moving freely and without a noticeable border. Such a being shouldn't be able to exist.

Spines let out a scream but was silenced the second its claw-like hand impacted her chest. It tore through her stomach with a bit of effort but made fatal damage nonetheless. Her eyes shrunk, the overwhelming pain threatened to drive her insane, yet even still she looked up to see its face.

Much like the rest of the body, the face had no borders on where it started or ended, but the eyes glowed a sickly purple. The mouth was just a bunch of jagged lines that made out sharp pointed teeth. The terrible noise was coming from its mouth. It was laughing at her, that much she could guess.

'It hurts so much!' Blood stained the dirt path, coming from both the wound and her mouth. Her instincts fired up once more as she grabbed the knife out from her belt and threw it at the face of the nightmare. Such a strong throw could easily kill something of its size but the knife just passed through the nightmare as if it didn't even exist. Its laughing got louder.

Spines had no energy left, nothing worked...it was over. She just begged Solaris that this thing would never come to Ponyville or ever leave the Everfree. 'I'm sorry everyponyI'm so sorryplease forgive me...' Everything started going black. The last thing she would see is this abomination's face...the thought made her sad.

SWISH! The noise stopped and was replaced by a jutted gagging effect. The claw retracted and the sudden pain that came with it boosted her adrenaline some so some color returned and death took a step away from her.

Three sharp black tendrils shot through the nightmare's chest, arm and head. A second of silence took over until the tendrils pulled back violently and at the same time causing a lot of damage to the nightmare. It turned and both it and Spines saw...another creature.

It was larger than the nightmare, around seven feet at least. This thing was all white and bipedal just like Spines and her attacker. Yet this one had a body frame more similar to Spines. That is until you reach the featureless face. No eyes, ears or mouth, much like a mannequin at Elusive's tailor store.

The tendrils were attached to its back with three more that were next to the unknown being. The nightmare hissed and rushed at sound speed to the newcomer but the other three tendrils shot out at even faster speeds and tore through its formless body. The nightmare lurched back and turned to escape but the white one was suddenly over it and in one swift motion tore its head off.

No blood of any kind formed, actually the headless body dissipated entirely and just ceased to exist. The white one looked at the head which was still thrashing around and crushed it with no effort.

Spines saw the whole event that lasted a little over eight seconds and marveled over the victor. Such power with no effort. It seemingly pleased with its work turned around and walked back deeper in the tree line.

Without thinking, Spines raised her hand shouting. "H-hey!" The action hurt her chest a lot which caused Spines to grunt and clench her side. The white thing turned and started walking back. Her courage in speaking to it diminished at it looked down at her. She gulped in some of the blood. "If you aren't with them..." She shuddered. "Then can you please help me?" Her voice whimpered. Her eyes looked into its blank face for a second but flinched when a tendril shot out of its back into her wound. She gasped in shock and horror but was surprised when it didn't hurt at all. In fact her face cooled down suddenly and all the pain was gone. She saw the tendril pop out of her chest leaving a black substance on her. Spines noticed that the wound was gone without a trace.

Once again it turned and walked away. Suddenly Spines got up and waved her hand. "Excuse me?" It stopped and slowly turned its head. Spines shrunk once more. "...Thank you, you saved my life." It continued to stare. Spines breathed in hard. She was terrified but something in her wanted to reach out and talk to this person. "...what...what is your name?" It tilted its head, almost in a bemused fashion. It said nothing and let an awkward silence grow. "...my name is Spines..." Still nothing. "Do you have a name?" Nothing. "Do you know Equestrian?" At this moment she knew it could see since she felt its unseen eyes stare right into her soul. "I...I could teach you if you wanted?" Once again her voice shrunk. Where in the world had that suggestion come from? "Can you understand what I'm saying?" Another long silence.

Then its head moved up and down once. The universal sign of confirmation. Before Spines could say anything it raised its arms and pointed right. The path home. Spines looked at the trail and back but it was gone. She gasped and looked around. Not a trace or sound it was just gone.

"Okay...okay...I'm going home." Picking up her weapons she made the long hike out of the Everfree. Not a single moment she felt safe.

Author's Note:

I want to know what I can do to improve. Give me any suggestions you are willing to share please.

Comments

[FamousLastWords]

I like the steady updates you got going on.

[Konatra]

8335502
I hope to keep it this way. 1 chapter per every 1-2 days would be a good goal to keep.

[GrimmWolfDragon]

Great chapter. Keep on Spines character development, and maybe have her friends find out about her condition.

[Dont Forget Me]

I like it so far, keep up the good work!!!!

[Pyro The Reader]

Confrontation!

[Chadbunger]

so spines is the female version of spike?...okay
keep up good work