//------------------------------// // Radiack // Story: Beasts and Beings - Stories of Equestria's Inhabitants // by Strongbolt Stonewing //------------------------------// A Radiack is a small, fluffy creature with two pointy ears and a little pink nose. Strongbolt, that's a bunny. Oh, yes of course. Radiacks are quite the opposite. They're tiny, scaly creatures with small holes for ears and serpentine snouts. They have very spiny bodies, making their skin rather lumpy. It is within these 'lumps' that small patches of radioactive substances are kept. I'm not exactly an expert on science, so I guess Shiera should probably explain... Radiacks usually reside deep underground, where they can easily find clusters of highly atomic elements to eat. The radiation pulled from these elements is stored within the lumps of the Radiack's skin. Enzymes in a Radiack's stomach can remove the unstable atoms from the eaten element and transfer them through the blood to the beast's spikes. From there, a chemical called Quarkosene can be implemented, this causes a huge increase in thermal energy among quarks, making the nuclei decay and emit deadly radiation. Here's what I heard: Radiack eat rock. Radiack take energy. Radiack use energy. They are very complex creatures and were hunted to near extinction during the era when biological and chemical research was- Shiera, what language are you trying to speak? Nobody understands nor cares about the necessity for advancement in biochemical science! Um... sorry? Thank you! Now, Radiacks are very rare creatures. There are only four currently in captivity, but various re-population programs have been set up to... well, re-populate. If you'd like to adopt a Radiack call this number: 0700 - IWANTTOADOPTARADIACK - 459. Charitable organisations aside, the only time we've ever seen a Radiack was when we visited the Los Pegasus Zoo of Marvelous Creatures. Open all year round from 8 to 6 and 11 to 5 on Sundays. Their enclosures are built of 2 meters of solid concrete, reinforced with lead. They can only be seen through a long, solid tube of Plexiglas. They are magnificently dangerous creatures. The radiation they emit can spread across a one hundred metre radius in a matter of seconds. So if you do see a spiny lizard: MOVE. And whatever you do, don't frighten it, that's what sets off their Quarkosene injection. Strongbolt? Yes, Shiera? Do you think any of our readers actually understood anything we've wrote in this chapter? ... ... Definitely not.