The attack came just before dawn.
One moment I was sleeping peacefully, then ponies screaming and a roar pulled me back into the real world as those sounds bypassed my brain completely, grabbed my adrenal glands and just squeezed.
I was on my hooves before I was even aware that I was awake.
Two... things were in the camp. They looked like a mix of wolf and lizard with a gazillion teeth, their tiger patterned skin shimmering slightly in the flicker of the fires.
Oh, and they were about five times the size of a pony.
As I watched, a guard flew at one of them, spear in hoof. She jammed the spear into it's side and it roared, twisting like a serpent and it's tail hit her with a bone crushing impact I could hear from where I was and she went flying out of sight.
The closest monstrosity snarled and then charged towards a fallen unicorn. He looked unconscious.
Celestia, I hope he was unconscious.
I moved.
Jumping over Dee even as she was waking up, I snatched my spear up and threw myself into the air to land between the thing and the fallen stallion. Letting out a hiss that would have made a changeling proud, I spread my wings wide and planted one end of the spear into the ground, stomping my hoof down on it as I leaned the other towards the charging predator.
It did something I never would have expected.
It skidded to a halt, but it wasn’t fast enough and my speartip slammed into its chest from the impact. It let loose a ear piercing roar and backed away, clawing at it's chest before it managed to grab the spear with it's jaws and rip it free.
I bared my teeth at it and hissed, spreading my wings wider.
If it attacked, I'd have little choice but to try a spell. It might work or it might knock me out before it did.
Then Amber hit it from the side.
Her spear pierced it's hide but she didn't stop. Her shape blurred into something with a lot of legs and claws and she swarmed up it's side, clawing and biting and stinging as she went.
The monstrosity went nuts, turning and snapping for her.
I ducked beneath the sweeping arch of it's tail and dove for my spear. Energy crackled like lightning across the other end of the camp and part of my brain not busy with staying alive idly noted that somepony must have woken up Tempest.
Another two members of the legion charged the beast as I snatched my spear up in one hoof as I came out of my roll. The unicorns kept their distance out of tail swipe or claw range, but their swords came in on sweeping arches towards it, slashing and stabbing.
"Focus on it's legs!" I yelled and jabbed towards the closest eye.
Then the thing was suddenly covered in a purple glow and yanked off its feet. Amber scrambled for purchase, but the energy field seemed to be impervious and she slipped down the side, falling towards the ground.
Green fire rippled across her and her wings buzzed as she landed between me and the beast, snarling at it.
The monster was lifted into the air and I turned to watch Midnight stride through the camp, the other predator floating in her magic above her, soon to be joined by it's friend.
Midnight looked...
Imagine in your mind the goddess of magic. The creator and controller of one of the elemental forces of the universe. Beautiful and terrible in all its power. It could create wonderful playful illusions and bury continents in clouds of burning ash.
Now imagine said goddess being absolutely furious.
That was Midnight right now.
Her steps were steady and slow and her face was calm in a way I never seen on a pony before. But her eyes... her eyes glowed with the colour of her magic. Not a lot, but enough to pick out against the darkness of the camp. Her horn glowed a bright purple, almost too brightly to look directly at after the darkness of the night and lit everything around her up in a sphere of light that almost seemed to sizzle the grass as she moved past it. And her mane was moving, shifting slowly like in a slight breeze.
"Page," she said as she got close.
Her fury wasn't directed at me. It still chilled me to the core. It almost didn't sound like Midnight at all. It was like liquid nitrogen and burning fire both at once.
"Princess," I said and leaned a bit against my spear, suppressing a sudden instinctual need to bow to her the way everypony else was right now, "Thanks for the save."
She blinked at me and then looked up, almost like she had forgotten the two monsters floating there. She then sighed, "At least they weren't magic resistant this time," she said and then the things were just... gone. There was a flash of light and then they were no longer there.
Gulp.
Note to self, no pissing off Midnight or Twilight.
The almost physical crackle around her faded away, as did the light in her eyes.
Now she mostly looked tired.
Then she set her jaw and looked around, raising her voice, "Everypony, see to the injured! Guards, return to the perimeter in case there are more!"
"One fell outside the camp," I said and turned to look towards the forest, remembering where the pegasus had gone flying, "She's going to need help."
A deep hiss from Amber made me pause as she got in my way, "Let somepony else handle it, sir," she said firmly, "There may still be more. And you need to lay do-"
"Amber, I-"
"No, she's right," Midnight said and stepped up next to me, "You told me we had a responsibility to these ponies," she said quietly, "And you're right. They depend on us and you are injured."
"I'm fine, my horn barely even hurts right now."
Well, not more than yesterday anyway.
"That's not what I'm talking about."
I blinked at her and then looked down at myself. The entire length of my right foreleg was covered with blood from a cut on my shoulder.
When did that happen?
"Let's get you patched up, sir," one of the guards said as she collected her sword with her magic and dug through one of her pouches to pull out some medical supplies.
"I...yeah, okay," I admitted and sat down. Now when I was aware of it, my entire leg was hurting.
"Wouldn't be a good look if I let the boss bleed to death on our first real outing, wouldn't it, sir?" the unicorn... Dark Glow. Her name was Dark Glow... said with a smile as she started to swab my shoulder clean with quick steady motions.
"Might cost you a raise if that happened, yes," I admitted and tried not to flinch at the stinging sensation.
Then just not use the magic on the enemy? How about accelerating a tree to mach 10 and throwing it in its face, or powering up allies instead of weakening foes?
10452560
Well, while I agree that Midnight could have used telekinesis to hit stuff with trees, it is important to note that doing so would take a lot longer than a teleport or an offensive spell, simply due to the need to rip the trees from the ground and countering their inertia. For example, when the 2-headed Wyvern attacked, they only had a matter of seconds, and the creature was already moving towards them. She would have needed to pull a log from the barricade, lift it up, and then accelerate it, all of which would probably take longer than the Wyvern needed to trample them.
On the topic of powering up allies, I doubt it would be even slightly feasible. Any living creature is effectively millions of microscopic cells, you can't just make everything tougher, as that might mess with say, chemicals moving through cell walls. Even if you could selectively strengthen just the pony's muscles, you then have the following potential problems:
1. Throwing off all the pony's muscle memory as they are now stronger than they are used to
2. Now their heart probably is pumping more blood, potentially driving their blood pressure to dangerous levels
3. Now they probably are exerting more force than their ligaments and possibly even their bones can handle.
And that is just for one pony. Applying strength enhancement to a group would require the ability to track millions of separate issues, if not billions.
10452608
Telefrag them, then. Select sufficiently large object (or collection of small objects), teleport to general area of target. We know it's rapid (Twi panic-teleports stuff semi-frequently) and fatal.
10452560
A good mindset to have. Although, I would pick something smaller than a tree. Stones would be lighter and harder, making perfect bullets.
Why he always gotta be powerless and need his ass saved
10452655
He wasn't powerless. He did hurt the creature, it just was a creature that is too large for 1 normal pony to take down without magic, which he doesn't have.
Also, there have been several times where he has won by himself, or at least didn't really need saving:
- He got Sunset Shimmer back to Equestria, and got the Element of Magic back (He did most of the work, anyway)
- When he visited the Castle of the 3 sisters, he dealt with 2 of the 3 timberwolves personally
- When captured by the Jungle hive, it was entirely his efforts that saw the hive turn against its queen and free him and the other ponies.
- When the Storm King's troops attacked, he held his own in the fighting, and without him, Luna wouldn't have been able to cast the sleep spell that won the battle.
10452702
And he blew up Tirek. Can't forget blowing up Tirek.
10452713
He may be just above a normal unicorn but he is not powerless
10452702
I mean in this particular story. 68 chapters so far.
Page: Uhhhh Midnight? Quick question: What did you do to those monsters??
Midnight: Oh I teleported them to no one in particular~! Not important.
Page: Oh ok......wait wut?
MEANWHILE...CRYSTAL EMPIRE SHIPPING HQ NOW HAS A MONSTER PROBLEM...
Discord: AHHHH! Curse my karma! EEP! *ducks under a table as the monsters attack* I'msorry!I'msorryMidnight!I'msorry!I'msorry!I'msorry!I'msorry!I'msorry!
Cadance: Why do they have so many razor sharp tee--OH SWEET CELESTIA! Don't come this way! AHHHH!
Elsewhere, a great and powerful magician was making her way. Grumbling to herself.
“Another town heard of my reputation, and that means another town blacklisted me. Stupid princess Sparkle Butt, hope she...”
Just the two large creatures appeared with a magical pop right in front of her.
“...Mother Bucking Bitch!” Trixie said before a deafening roar could be heard.
Looks like that creature encountered a bat pony before, methinks.
10452843
Aye. Rarely doth one forgets "stabby & other pointies 101".
Meaning they've either learned through being attacked by batponies or trained.
*Deep evil laughter*
Finaly Midnight start to understand. In time... She might actualy learn to understand Luna and Celestia after all...
Page adneraline fuled = dangerous
Amber getting angry because of it = terrifying
Page cant use magic do to overstrained horn/magic network. Page now down one leg full use do to shoulder cut... Hes going to need to take a backseat or when Luna and Chrysalis/Skitter get there hooves on him to Snu-Snu him into submission his soon to be brused pelvis will have him bed riden for a month...
Wile the mare continue to ride him
10452608
Shields. Resistance to magic dont let you walk trough em
10452560
Pretty mutch my idea. But i preferred accurate killing blows over brute force.
10452617
My idea seem more magic effectiv. Your is most certainly more badass
10452619
Quite the delight to readers like you get simpel but very effectiv ideas Brohoof for versatile solutions (^-~)/)'(\(°.°)
10452843
10452901
Yeah, those tigersaurs are even more dangerous than the rexosaurus or the raptoriods they've encountered earlier--these guys are intelligent!
10452702
Very good overall summary 👍
10452713
Indeed. That was one fine firework
10452746
Dont you mean chapter? In this story he did quite something
10452780
PRICELESS
Love you comment section additions.
10452824
Huh... Neat
One more reason to not send a valentine card when Heart and Hooves day comes around
10452843
Who knows... Perhaps Batpony pray on em? Taking a sip on the Predator than waiting 3-5 months for em to replenish the blood and again getting a drink.
Personaly i think Jungle Thestrals work like Changelings. Only more bloody and less cocoons and violence instead of pleasure ~
10453000
Well... Lucky Page hes surrounded by mares keeping the Dinos from snacking on him... After all the mares all want a piece of him afterwards
Chrysalis--》 [♡-♡]/) (~.~) (\|^.~| 《--Skitter and others
Sounds like Midnight and Tempest had a quiet moment interrupted.
"It just screamed. Screamed and screamed and screamed... untill it didn't anymore." -Rainbow Dash
I've actually experienced that feeling once, when you've got so much adrenaline and other stuff your body dumps into your system when you're in a life or death scenario and get wounded without noticing. Yeah it is not fun when you come back down to earth, I think it actually hurt more than it would have otherwise. Though I am willing to admit that my reaction may not have been the best.... I started screaming and crying like a baby
Why do I have the feeling the monster was not trying to stop because of spear but because of Page.
11343447
Because of a instinctual fear of the bat pony's. They where feared in the past and this is pointed to be there origin
Smart Raptors or magic resistance t-rex, both are painful encounters.
I'm waiting for a moment like this for the pager which shows strength, he's the alicorn of the story but damn, that doesn't help in these situations, even his magic is only 2 times greater than a medium pony and even tempest seems to win him on it.
11662807
To be fair with correct aplication that 2x strenght would be more than enough, but they don't have the imagination to do it...
11657789
Smart raptors are worst. If they are smart that is, mostly because they are group hunters, like wolves.
Chimera!!!!
I wonder if Dark Glow could be related to Cozy Glow.
🦉 Who?
Is she even in this timeline?
🦉 Who?
Probably, I dunno.
CG: And now for your complete destruction! Won't that be fun?
Midnight can kick ass , she just needs training in body and mindset.