Beasts and Beings - Stories of Equestria's Inhabitants

by Strongbolt Stonewing

Xagon

Phew, this is it. The big one. The chapter we've all been waiting for...

Of all the creatures we've listed, the Xagon is by far the most horrific, most terrifying, most dangerous beast of them all.

Strap in. This is gonna be a good one.

A Xagon, pronounced 'Zagon', is a gigantic dragonlike creature whose body is composed entirely of carbon based rocks. Some, less rare variants, have bodies formed from coal or graphite.

The more dangerous type, the one we came across, has a body made of crystals and diamonds.

Like Cragadiles, the Xagons use a form of magic binding which stems from their hearts to keep themselves together.

Unlike the Cragadiles, however, the magic stretches through to the very atoms in the Xagons carbon shells, making it incredibly strong. Even my brick could break it... at first...

Since it's body is made of some of the hardest natural materials known to pony kind, which are made even harder thanks to the magical binding, the Xagon is capable of storing even the most corrosive and explosive of substances inside its body.

This means it is capable of utilising two very powerful, very uncontrollable abilities. The first is spitting a destructive acid which it stores within its stomach and the second is igniting this stomach acid using magical flames.

You know how a dragon breaths fire? Well, Xagons breath explosions. Flamethrower like rays of destruction that can obliterate just about anything.

To sum them up, Xagons are gigantic, dragon-shaped crystal monsters that breath acid grenades and are powered by flaming magic. Now, I know what you're thinking: these guys could destroy our world. And to be honest, they probably could.

But luckily, the regular, far smaller coal and graphite based Xagons do not have these abilities as their bodies are too feeble. Also, there have only been three diamond Xagon sightings in recorded history and they were rumoured to have gone dormant centuries ago.

None of these Xagons are remotely near Equestria, of course. However, the closest to us would've be in the infamous Mount Hekstum of the Badlands.

This, reader, is where our story begins...

Well, not OUR story, that began in high school.

This, reader, is where THIS story begins.

All through our foalhoods we were told stories of the perilous Mount Hekstum and all the adventurers who had lost their lives seeking the treasure hidden within.

One of the main reasons we began travelling was to explore Mount Hekstum, and to be honest, it was probably the scariest adventure we've had.

I don't know about you guys, but I really want to hear this story and the suspense is killing me.

What are you talking about? You're in the story! How can the suspe-

Shiera! Please! Stop! Stalling!

Alright, alright... sheesh, keep your shirt on...

I'm not wearing a shirt... I'm not wearing anything. We don't normally wear clothes...

It's a figure of speech you rambunctious oaf. Now, if you want to hear the story, why don't you just tell it?

That's a good idea, Shiera. Perhaps you're smarter than I thought.

Oh brother...

During our exploration of the Badlands, Shiera and I stumbled upon what we believed was Mount Hekstum.

How do you 'stumble' upon a mountain? It's not like you can just trip over it, I mean, it's a mountain...

Shiera, do you mind?

Oh, sorry.

As I was saying, we had 'found' what we believed to be Mount Hekstum, at long last, our lifelong search-

We were only out there for three days...

Our LIFELONG search, was at its end. Well, nearly... we hadn't actually been inside yet...

We didn't even know if there even was an inside...

We only kinda realised that the stories we were told might have just been myths when we were at the mountain base.

The one thing those stories certainly didn't tell us was that Mount Hekstum was actually a volcano.

But believe me, that doesn't compare at all with the main attraction...

Which you woke up.

My brick fell out of my bag!

And straight into the Xagon's mouth, at which point you screamed: "Brick! No!"

Not my best idea.

Soon after, we stood face to face with an enraged Xagon, glaring down at us with its flaming eyes.

That's when we realised: ponies didn't die at Mount Hekstum because they hunted treasure, they died because the treasure hunted them!

Suddenly, all the tales made sense.

Then it hit home: we were looking at the most dangerous creature we had ever encountered. So, as one does when staring into the face of a beast, we ran like tourists to a gift shop on Black Friday.

The Xagon was clearly larger and faster than us, so it caught up pretty quick. And it could fly.

We ran in opposite directions and kinda got separated.

I guess the Xagon just saw Strongbolt as a meatier meal-

What's that supposed to mean?! It's muscle! Not fat!

You keep telling yourself that, dear.

Anyhow, the Xagon chased me across the conyon nearby, blowing holes through every wall and creating craters the size of elephants. Soon after, it quickly cornered me, at which point I thought: well, if I'm gonna go out, I'm gonna do it the same way I came in... kicking and screaming.

It's not the most reassuring sight, seeing your husband swallowed whole by a giant diamond monster. And for a moment, I honestly thought he was dead and even gave a few tears.

This is the awesome part. As it turns out, the Xagon's throat was wide enough for me to fit through unharmed. However, I soon came into the beast's stomach, where pools of acid bubbled below me. I flew above it, kicked a few walls and tried to squeeze through a couple of tubes with no luck.

All the while making the Xagon shudder and shake on the outside.

Then I saw it: a collection of luminous rocks bundled together, floating ominously, attached to a number of similar veins. This was, of course, the heart.

Now, the heart of a Xagons is much like its skin: still quite tough to break, so he couldn't do anything to it with his bare hooves...

However, when I took a closer look, I realised there was something wedged in between the crystals. By some miracle...

Miracle?

...my brick had survived! I pulled it out swiftly and with a manly bellow I thrust it forth again, shattering the heart into a thousand pieces!

Suddenly, the Xagon stopped, the flames in its eyes extinguished and it crumbled to the ground in a heap of rare, valuable gems. And in the midst of it all, Strongbolt's hoof stuck out from the pile, and in it, his brick.

I'd say Xagon Slayer is quite the necessary title.

In one day, we had discovered the truth of Mount Hekstum, found and defeated a Xagon...

...which, for the record, makes me the first person in over a thousand years to do it...

...surprisingly enough we had all lived through it and we stood upon one of the greatest treasures we would ever see...

My brick!

No! The diamonds!

Oh, yeah, those were pretty nice too.

We were rich. We were safe. And we were at the end of another great adventure.

Now that, dear readers, is what you call a story!

Comments

[Valhuir]

And that is why they can afford to write this book! :D

[defunct321]

Thought for sure you'd fit in a Micheal Bay joke in after reading about how it breathes explosions.