//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 - The Rare Trio. // Story: Ark: Friendship is Survival // by Pomp-Neigh //------------------------------// -INSTALLATION: THE ISLAND- Twilight and Applejack's eyes are currently twitching as a particular pair of flyers had informed them of their recent excursion. "I'm s-sorry… could you repeat that, Spike?" Twilight questions angrily. "Me and Rainbow kind of wandered off, and…." The young dragon sighs, "We fought some giant bird thing. It reminded me of a Roc from back home." "An Argentvis," Helena responds as she starts to project a holographic imitation of the aforementioned entity. "Here on The Island, they are arguably the apex flyers of the skies. Aside from the Quetzalcoatlus, they are also the largest flyers on this Ark and are very dangerous. Don't take this the wrong way, but small prey like you two are practically a dinner bell for those things. They do, however, make for amazing tames. I used to have one too. Oh, how I miss you, Athena." "We can explain that to them after I give Spike a proper scolding." Twilight comments with a narrowed expression. "Don't think yer' out of this one, Rainbow…." Applejack says, which causes the pegasus's ears to fold back onto her head. "Ah' specifically told yall not to wander off, yet ya' still did. Do ya' even know what would've happened if ya' died?" "They'd return here, thanks to me." "Exactly, you'd- wait... what?!" Applejack exclaims in shock upon taking in Helena's words. This also causes Spike, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight to turn their gazes towards the AI. Pinkie Pie and Rarity were in the background collecting resources as Helena had revealed to them the inventory section of their implants. Fluttershy was currently taming a large flock of Dodos as Helena also showed that certain species could be passive tamed. However, the pegasus became enraged when the Ai told her about other taming methods. "Yup, you heard me right. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not telling you to get yourself killed. However, the technology of the advanced humans is so incredible that you can be brought back to life, provided your implants are intact, and your data can be found within the Ark. When you were all injected here, I made sure to add your implants into the Ark's database. You're all essentially immortal; however, let me be the first to tell you that it still hurts if you get killed. A lot." Everyone's mouths were hung agape by this revelation to which Rainbow Dash manages to recover and says: "Wait a second… you're telling me that even if that big bird killed Spike and me, we'd come back?" "Yup!" Helena replies happily. "You'd, of course, lose whatever you had stored within your inventory at the time via your implants. It's just a matter of going back to reclaim your effects, if that's possible. Trust me when I say that I've dealt with some pretty frustrating deaths." "Hey, Helena! How does this look?!" Pinkie Pie calls out, which causes everyone present to turn towards a beaming pink pony in addition to Rarity, both of whom wore a prideful expression. "Behold, darlings! Our new home! For the time being, of course. Pinkie Pie was such a dear for helping me gather the materials we needed, such as thatch, wood, and fiber, while yours truly handled the design of this house for us. It's, of course, only temporary until we find a proper home for us all, but it has all that we need. "Woah!" Spike shouts incredulity. "You've all been busy while me and Rainbow were away," "No kidding, you already built a rather large house for us, and we've only been gone for a little under half an hour. How'd you build that so fast?" Rainbow Dash inquires. "Once again, It's all thanks to your implants," Helena answers as she takes the time to inform the two flyers about everything they had discussed in their absence. As this goes on, Fluttershy was tending to her flock, which amazingly started from a single Dodo to nearly thirty individuals. Helena had shown the pegasus how to create a feeding trough to make her job much easier in feeding them all. Spike suddenly gets an epiphany as he wonders about an essential part of Twilight and Rarity's very being: Magic. He pondered as to why his unicorn love interest and adoptive sibling - even mother - were both physically performing tasks, to which he questions: "Hey, why aren't you two using magic?" "Well… it's a little complicated, Spike," Twilight responds, clearing her throat for a lecture, "We can use magic, but we have to be conservative of our reserves less we run out. Helena and I deduced that Discord used that material she mentioned before from her story, Element, and turned it into the magic particles that are constantly present within the very air of Equus. According to our hypothesis, what we call the 'Magic field of Equus' is, in fact, the barrier-like dome that all of the Arks are shielded by—keeping those who live on them locked within. Discord fused the Element with that very barrier, thus enabling all upon the installation to draw from that source to perform our magic and refuel our magic reserves. In short, Rarity and I can't refill our magic reserves since Element isn't present in the air on this installation. Fortunately, Helena has a plan." Twilight then turns towards the AI and gives her a nod. The AI then starts to project a strange object, although it would seem that Twilight and Applejack were already familiar with it, likely due to Spike and Rainbow's absence. "What you see before you, loves, is an artifact. Designation: The Artifact of The Hunter. It hums with an energy pulse similar to what Discord had done to your Ark's barrier and atmosphere. Therefore, I can safely say that should we eventually procure an artifact, which we will need to do once you become strong enough, Rarity and Twilight can both revitalize their magical capacity." "Not to derail the subject or anything, but can you tell us about those weird levels we saw?" Spike inquires. "Oh, yeah! All of those creatures Spike and I were looking at had these weird, what can I call it, identification? There was something like 'Wild Female Brontosaurus Lvl 150.'" "WHAT?!" Everyone aside from Spike and Rainbow exclaims in unison which then causes a series of reactions. "Oh my gosh! You saw a Brontosaurus? I always wanted to meet one; Helena showed us some of this world's wildlife!" Fluttershy shouts happily. "A 150?! Love, that's the highest level any living creature on this Ark can achieve naturally before you can tame them and make them stronger. Aside from you all, of course. Survivors like you work differently, and I'll explain why that is momentary," Helena comments. "Ah' heard those things are gigantic!" Applejack exclaims in disbelief. "Oh, they're big, alright! Spike and I saw them; they're so big they could probably smash Ponyville," Rainbow Dash responds. "Heh, If you think the Brontosaurus is a giant… you ain't seen the Titanosaur." Everyone looks at the AI with questionable expressions until Fluttershy, in particular, says: "Oh my, you never showed us this Titanosaur… how big is it?" "What I showed you was the non-rare listings of creatures on this Ark. The Titano is in its category along with two others." Helena emits three projections of multiple entities, all of which immediately strike awe and fear into the ponies. The fear comes from one of these three entities. "The largest of the three is also the strongest creature on this Ark; I'd even be so bold as to say it could fight one of the three guardians here. That, my dear survivors, is the Titanosaurus. So massive that it's practically the equivalent of ten to even fifteen Brontosauruses combined, maybe even more than that. It's simply a mighty creature who knows no fear and none of the other creatures dares to hunt or challenge its power." "The ruler of the skies and the second of the rare three: Quetzalcoatlus." "I mentioned this one earlier to Rainbow Dash, but it is simply a huge flyer. No other flyer dares to hunt it, not even the Argentavis. Its size alone allows survivors to live on its back by building a small home if they wanted. It can also carry off most creatures on the Ark. Granted, the drawback to its incredible strength for something that flies is that it can't fly all that fast. You pegasi would leave it in the dust. Heck, I'd say you're the fastest things on this Ark that can fly. I've seen how fast you, in particular, can go, Rainbow, and you're even faster than a Ptera. That alone makes you the fastest flyer on this Ark." "Ah, yeah!" Rainbow exclaims in pride. "Score one for the Dash!" "Great… now ya' filled her head with even more ego than before." Applejack says with a deadpan expression. As this goes on, Pinkie Pie, in particular, gets very nervous when she looks upon the third entity. With a shaking body and a twitching mane, she points a hoof towards the entity and says: "That one is making my Pinkie Senses go insane!" "Ah yes, Discord told me that you have that ability of yours. Oh! I can't wait for the day you all see a Jerboa; they can sense changes in the weather just like you can sense danger." Of course, upon hearing this, Fluttershy's eyes were practically filled with stars. The AI suddenly shows a caution sign as she explains the third entity. "Now, my dear survivors… this last monstrosity is the undisputed apex predator on this Ark… even in a few others. My friend Mei-Yin, who I'll happily tell you more about later, is the only one in the history of this Ark ever to tame one. And I say tame loosely since its fury is never truly contained even then." Spike and all but one of the ponies swallow a lump in their throat as they look on in fear towards this apex predator. Fluttershy, in particular, takes on a determined expression and walks up to the creature's holographic form. "What's this apex predator called?" The yellow pegasus questions. "The Giganotosaurus, or as my friend Mei would call it: The Demon King." "I don't care how brave you might think you all are, especially you, Rainbow Dash. None of you, and I mean absolutely none of you are to confront this beast." "Wh… what do we do if we ever run into that brute?" Rarity questions in fear. Helena removes the projection and turns back to answer the unicorn's question. "You run... you pray… and despite how cruel this might sound: if you are with a group, your main objective isn't to outrun the Giga... you outrun the survivor behind you."