"Wait...what?"
Rainbow flipped through the first couple pages and double checked that she hadn't missed anything. There was the Table of Contents, the Intro and then Chapter 2, no Chapter One. Maybe the Intro was Chapter One? Yeah that had to be it, the page numbers were in order as well. She shrugged and kept on reading anyway, the Intro had been promising but that was just the Intro, where was the good stuff.
An hour later Rainbow was huddeled in the corner of her room with the lights blazing and a flashlight turned on in her hooves, light streamed in from the after noon sun through the windows. "J-just a s-s-story Rainbow, pull y-yourself together. It's Mythology, it's not real, nothing with six legs, blood red fur and suction cup fingers will come out of your closet and steal all of your blood before devouring you whole. Rainbow stopped shaking. "Actually, now that I say that out loud, that does sound peetty ridiculous. Come on Rainbow Dash Pull yourself together!"
Rainbow turned off her flash light, closed the blinds to her windows and picked up the book from its place on the floor. "Lets start again shall we?"
~~~>In the Book<~~~
Have you ever thought about making an animal? Or perhaps designing your own pet? What about creating a monster that would kill all peaceful life and destroy the ecosystem. How about all three. Mortuus Diebus, also known now-a-days as Dead Days was what we would call a mad scientist. He had not been treated fairly as a colt and he had the worst of luck as a Stallion, so he wanted to have his revenge on the world for treating him unfairly.
His plan was to create the ultimate predator, a monster that could kill withoit being killed, and then when the world was about to take his creation away, reproduce. The scary thing about this was, he had found a way to accomplish his goals. Of course, no pony who knew him would have guessed that he was trying to kill the world, and he didn't tell them. If they asked him he would just say it was for an experiment. He even managed to get Stsrswirl the Bearded to help out-
~~~>1029 years ago<~~~
Mortuus poured over his ingenious plans and made sure that everything was in order. He had one shot at this. The Squaks and Growls coming from the various cages around the room didn't help his cituation though, they were blasted loud. Mortuus magicaly lifted the designs up and pinned them to the facility wall where he could check them if he needed too. The procedure would start as soon as his 'friend' came to help.
Mortuus looked around the room and made sure that he hadn't missed anything, but everything was in order. Mortuus was absolutely certain that his experiment would work, as long as Starswirl showed up. He was the key to all this. What Mortuus was planning to do required top notch machinery and magical capabilities of almost Alicorn level, as both Alicorns were unavailable and wouldn't help he was left with the next best thing.
Mortuus' lab was located in the middle of a desert, why? That way if any of his experiments went wrong it wouldn't hurt anypony, not that they would care if any of those Zebra types got hurt. The REAL reason why he had constructed his lab in the middle of no where, was because he didn't want any of his experiments to be found out. He would be executed for what he was about to do.
Just as it turned midnight Mortuus heard a knock on his laboratory doors. He kept himself from sprinting over to the door in anticipation, this was it! Mortuus reached the door and pushed it open to reveal Starswirl the Bearded and his magnificant cape.
"Starswirl! You made it! Come in, come in. We wouldn't want you to bake outside before the project starts now would we?" Starswirl chuckled and strode into Mortuus' Lab and behind him he carried a sack of sorts. "I'm sorry but I must ask you to leave your bag inside the confined room, any unregistered Organisms in the Lab may contest with the results and cause a major problem. I hope you understand."
"Of course, I expected as much. There how's that? Now, when shall we begin and what would you like me to do? Your letter was very vague." Starswirl stated as he examined the various animals and critters locked in cages around the white washed wood of the lab.
"Oh we shall start as soon as possible, all I need you to do is wait right there." Mortuus put on his best smile as he carefuly maneuvered the magic inhibitor over Starswirls horn.
"Hey! Wha- what are you doing!" Starswirl struggeled the with the ring that was firmly piched onto his horn. Inhibitors were very uncommon and absolutely illegal, he hadn't expected this from what he considered his friend!
Mortuus laughed at Starswirls struggles before hitting Starswirl with a Paralysis spell, that certain spell had taken him half his life time to learn, then again, this plan had taken longer than that. now immobilized. Starswirl slumped to the ground and could only move his eyes as he watched Mortuus levitate his body over to a chair with straps coming from all over the place. Mortuus slipped the straps onto Starswirls limbs and even one across his forhead just under his horn. Now came the fun part.
He brought down a complicated device that had been surprisingly simple to construct, of course that way have only been because he was a genius. The Device resembeled a hose and was conected to Starswirls horn and the machine in the middle of the Lab. Starswirl was terrified and curious as to what Mortuus' plan was, both Alicorns knew he had come here, and Mortuus wasn't enough of a fool to simply keep him here. What was his plan?
Meanwhile Mortuus was humming happily to himself as he secured the final strap and stepped back to admire his work. Nodding silently to himself he walked over to the Mainframe and got down to business.
"Now Starswirl, if you are as terrified as I hope you are, I imagine you must be wondering what I'm going to do to you. Correct? Oh don't worry you don't need to answer." He chuckled to himself as he funneled his magic into the various machines around the room and turned everything on. "But you don't need to worry, I, don't intend to harm you, I just need your abundance of magic, and these helpful critters." He gestured around the Lab. "Oh if you feel the floor rumbiling, don't worry, that's just the dragon." Mortuus pulled on his lab coat and put on his dark glasses, didn't want to go blind right?
Mortuus did a quick system check before flipping on the Mainframe which powered up with a buz. "Now Starswirl, you maaay or may not feel a slight tingle." Mortuus pushed the Phase 1 button. Starswirl would have screamed if he could. "That is the feeling of your magic being drawn from you, unpleasant right? Anyway now begins the fun part." He pushed the Phase 2 button.
At first nothing seemed to happen, but gradually the animals around the room quieted down and seemed to go into a deep sleep. Then as all the animals stopped moving altogether wisps of purple and blue energy coursed through the cages and up the wires conscting them to the Machine in the middle. "Splendid! Now we shall unleash all the power stored inside, mind your eyes Starswirl, it could blind you." Mortuus shrugged when he realised he had positoned Starswirls chair facing the machine, oh well. He clicked the Phase 3 button.
Mortuus watched as the machine started to glow and vibrate as the energy coursed through the metal frame. The viewing glass walling the one side of the machine started to super heat and vibrate violently. Mortuus started to worry that it would fail. However, the machine seemed to stabilize at this point and just thrum with a deeper energy then before. Eventually the light got too bright for even his Darkened glasses and he wondered what Starswirl must be feeling right now.
The machine then shut off instantly. No cool down, no warning, just off. The light disappearing with the noise. "Well that was interesting." Mortuus gently pressed the key that would open the Machine and release his final creation.
The machine unfolded with a soft hiss and steam pooled out of it, the heat finally being released. Inside revealed what looked like an egg. Mortuus' shoulders slumped in disapointment, he had wanted a mammal, one at the age of an adult too.
It twitched.
Mortuus took off his glasses and took a more careful look at the creature, it wasn't an egg, it was just curled into a ball. Mortuus stepped closer and saw that the newly made creature had fur and feathers. Perfect. It also had two large ears, good. Two wings sprouting from its back in between its four legs, correct. It had a long tail that ended in a fin that could be used for either guiding or fighting, just what the doctor ordered. However, what surprised him was that the creature had three main toes on each paw with a fourth at the heel. It also had a big glowing spot in the middle of each wing that looked very intimidating. As well as a spot on each side of it's flanks, as well as two on each side of the tail fin.
"Interesting...I wonder if I should wake it up." As Mortuus reached his hoof forwards to poke the Creature awake it opened its eyes. Mortuus jumped back as he gasped in surprise, the eyes had no pupils or irises. In fact, they looked exactly like the spots decorating its body. It lifted its head and looked over at Mortuus, he noticed that it didn't appear to have a mouth, that was wierd. It then shifted its body and blended into the machine, it was a Chameleon!
"Sweet Celestia! You are better than I had ever hoped you wound be! Come to daddy my little Dae-" Mortuus was cut off when an unseen claw popped out of the creatures fourth toe and slashed his throat. The creature had mistook his playful gesture as one of a challenge.
"My...L-little...Dae...de...sol." Mortuus cluched his throat as he stumbeled towards his main frame and hit the emergency button labeled as repeat. He fell down to the floor and gurgled as his blood splashed past his hoof and onto the floor. The creature newly Christened as a Daedesol slinked up to him and a slit appeared in its mouth. The Daedesol opened its mouth wider than should be possible by unhinging its jaw and bit down over Mortuus' head. Promptly snapping his neck and ending Mortuus' life.
The Machine whired into life again and started producing more Daedesols, all the while Starswirl sat in the confines of his chair and listened to everything going on around him. He would be able to heal his sight as long as he got that blasted ring off his horn. The problem wasn't IF help was coming, but WHEN. Would he still be alive when somepony came?
~~~>In the Book<~~~
The rescue team found Starswirl unbound and blinded as Mortuus Diebus lay in his own blood. Nopony knows what the so called Daedesol looks like, as the only witness to its birth was killed by it. Ponies have searched the Desert for this beast but no reports of it have ever been spotted. There wasn't even any charts or sketches of the Daedesol, just the possible capabilities. Starswirl, however, claimed that he had been cut free from his bonds by something which he had assumed was the Daedesol but couldn't have been sure.
The only fact that is know about this creature (if it exsists) is that it has wings and is capable of flight.