Ocellus should’ve been able to use her changeling senses to probe out into the jungle, feeling at the emotions of dangerous predators and leading her group to safety.
She should have been able to do that. Unfortunately for her, the emotional senses she had relied on for her entire lifetime just weren't working.
As night descended on the jungle, and the sweltering heat of the sun finally passed beyond the horizon, hundreds of voices split the night. Primal screams were joined by guttural howls, the yammering of strange primates, and other things Ocellus's experience had no names for.
In other circumstances, the variety of strange life would be thrilling to her: there were so many different forms to try! She would be a much better negotiator once she had tried a few dozen different species. Maybe she would finally understand how the Zecrin thought.
"Ocellus?" Someone jostled her shoulder—Sandbar, eyes wide. "I think there's something coming out of that cave." He gestured off to one side. She followed his gesture.
She had been so lost in thought, she didn't even notice the heavy footfalls echoing from deep below. Now she did, rumbling through her whole body. Whatever lived in here, it was big. Seconds later it emerged, bursting out of the trees, spreading a set of multijointed, glowing jaws.
"Run," then, much louder, "Run!" She picked a direction at random, one that would take them further away from the beast. She couldn't stop to think, other than to see if her friends were keeping up.
They did, barely. Yona led them, somehow light on her hooves instead of just trampling everything the way she would've expected. Something to do with her bracelet? The others followed in her wake.
The beast had seen them. It didn't seem interested in letting them get a clean getaway either, and stomped after them. It had six legs, each one wider than her whole body and ending in sharpened bone-claws instead of simple hooves. Where the trees ahead were too thick, it slashed through cleanly, raising a droning hum of angry insects to the air all over again.
But it didn't care. Its hide was a mat of overlapping bony plates, with openings only around its eyes. And it glowed, with a bioluminescence that rippled from its four-jointed mouth all the way to a barbed tail.
Now that would be an interesting form to copy, if only Ocellus's magic still worked. A useful one to remember too, given how many overlapping physical abilities it had.
Ocellus scanned the jungle ahead of them, searching desperately for somewhere too small for this creature to follow.
She was already exhausted, and knew her friends would be too. They couldn't keep up a pace like this for much longer without being overwhelmed.
There was nothing. The crater continued to slope downward, suggesting they were headed vaguely in the right direction. But who knew how much further they would have to keep running before they came to the ruins of the old city. Kilometers, more?
There was only one mercy—of the many predators Ocellus saw emerging from their rest in the purple light, all took one look at the creature following them and thought better of getting involved. They didn't have to fight off an army to get deep into the ruins. But could they survive against even one creature?
The monster opened its jaws wide, letting loose another terrible roar. Only this one came with a blast of blue flame, brighter and hotter than most dragonfire. Ocellus screamed: "Jump left!"
The others didn't hesitate—anypony who did would've been burned to a crisp. The ground sloped a little steeper there, turning in a curve down towards the deeper jungle. Ocellus screamed, struggling for purchase against a muddy slope. It gummed up her fancy armor, clogging her access to any tools she had brought.
Not that it mattered—she wasn't a warrior, not like some of her friends. Changelings survived through stealth, not killing.
If she hoped the ground would take them all the way to the ruins, she was disappointed. After a few seconds, the slope leveled into a wide clearing, with all the shrubs and trees stamped down flat. For all she knew, it had been made by a creature just like this.
The others rolled to a stop all around her, coming to rest in the center of the clearing. There was no easy exit—the walls on all sides were steep and muddy.
Sandbar was the first on his hooves, spinning in a desperate circle. His eyes got wider as he saw what Ocellus had already figured out: they could never get out in time.
"What do we do?"
Before she could answer, the monster following them appeared at the top of the slope. It looked down on them, trapped at the bottom, and opened its jaws again.
Ocellus couldn't read its emotions anymore, but she didn't need to. She had been hundreds of different creatures in her time, and communicated with many of them. She could guess how an animal would act.
Her hooves darted to the satchel on her back. She found the magnetic canister there, then twisted it open with all her might.
She felt the effects pass over her, unseen. Suspended in that capsule was a chunk of anomalous black stone, taken from the ancient throne of her queen.
As soon as it made contact with the air, all the magic around them stopped. The plants stopped glowing, a cloud of insects just winked out of existence like they'd never been there at all.
Maybe they aren't real. Do the trees summon them for defense?
Most importantly—when flames erupted from the monster's mouth, they extended only a few inches before choking off with a flash of black smoke. The monster's bony coat stopped glowing too, and its expression soured. What had been an enjoyable hunt for the monster was now deeply confusing for it. What had spoiled its fun?
It turned its eyes on the black rock. Like all magic-users, even animals, it felt the wrongness of that stone. Anger flashed on its face, targeted directly at her.
It jumped forward, claws digging deep into the mud as it charged down the slope for them.
Ocellus was frozen in terror. Her wings buzzed, but couldn't generate the lift to get her airborne. She could not fly away, not with the chaotic magic of the crater stealing her strength.
It was a good thing she wasn't alone.
Gallus charged forward, raising the sword in both claws. As he did, his wings suddenly found their lift, and he took off again. Not very high—but high enough that he could work the sword. His whole body seemed to glow, empowered by the blade.
Yona chose the same moment to charge forward along the ground, targeting the creature's other side. It chose her as a target, twisting its whole head in her direction. It lashed out with one terrible claw—fast enough that Ocellus could never have reacted in time.
Neither would Yona, normally. But something was strange about the way she moved. She blurred through the air, leaping above the strike, and raking her spear along the creature's bony hide. It did no damage, and the spear could find nowhere to penetrate.
But while it was facing her, Gallus slashed at its other side. The glowing sword cleaved clean through those plates of bone, exposing a chunk of pulsating purple flesh beneath. He shoved the sword all the way in, and the creature howled.
It thrashed madly then, waving its heavy limbs through the air all around it.
Sandbar backed away from the fighting, standing beside Ocellus. His hooves fumbled on the grip of a human projectile-weapon, but ultimately he lowered it. "Can't get... clear shot," he whispered. "Not sure it would do anything against that much armor, anyway."
Ocellus nodded. "Just don't make sudden movements. It's focused on them. There might be an opening.
As it turned out, one wouldn't be necessary. Smolder hadn't attacked the creature the way the dragon normally would—instead, she stood directly in front of it, holding a crystal staff outstretched in both claws. At its tip glowed a huge red stone, one larger than Ocellus's head.
Despite the dampening effects of the thronestone, it still glowed. These artifacts would be weakened with the stone exposed, but they were far too powerful to be extinguished.
"Be still!"
The command was sudden and overwhelming. At once, the entire battlefield stopped moving. Gallus landed a few feet from the beast, sword bloody in one claw.
Yona was in the middle of a dodge-roll, and so she continued rolling, all the way down the hill. Her spear stuck in the mud, useless.
Sandbar froze too—and even Ocellus felt the pressure against her mind. She struggled forward, reaching for the open capsule she held. She could force her way through it. None of the others showed that capacity, at least not now.
Most importantly of all, the monstrous beast froze. Its claws stopped thrashing, and it stopped reaching for Gallus with its multi-jointed jaws. Even on this alien world, from a creature Ocellus had never seen, she recognized fear.
Until moments ago, it believed it was an alpha-predator of the jungle, unrivaled in its dominion. Now, for the first time, something compelled it.
"You will leave us, monster. You will turn around, and forget you saw us. And if you see us again, you will do all you can to help, rather than threaten us. Go."
Thankfully, the scepter allowed its wielder to give commands to individuals, rather than all who heard it. Otherwise their group would've split up, wandering madly.
The beast turned at once, lumbering back into the jungle. It crested the muddy hill in a few seconds, then vanished over the ridge, its tail smacking once against a tree before it vanished from sight.
Smolder waited a moment until it was gone, then lowered her arms. She dropped to one knee in the mud, panting visibly from the effort. Like every artifact, they could not generate continuous power unto themselves. She provided some of the strength required.
"You guys can stop holding still," she said, exasperated. "I'm not using it anymore."
"Right." Gallus turned, sliding the sword back into its sheath. "You could've blasted it with that thing before we risked our lives."
Yona stood, shaking herself violently. Mud rained down all around her, and Ocellus retreated a few steps back, dodging the spray. "Yona thinks this whole trip was silly now. Why not turn that staff on the leaders here? They order their tribe to treat the galaxy so harshly—you could force them to be kind!"
Smolder removed a cloth from her satchel, wrapping it delicately around the staff. "I wish. It's only permanent when you use it on a dragon. Anyone else with a strong mind can resist it. Not animals, but—something tells me the most powerful spellcasters on this planet aren't going to be easy to control."
"And we would be breaking their scriptures," Ocellus added. "The entire reason they're peaceful with Equestria. If we attack them, there's no reason for them to follow their own rules in the future. Could get real ugly."
Yona sighed. She yanked her spear from the ground, spinning it rapidly to shake the mud away.
Ocellus considered sealing the capsule again—then she hesitated. The jungle was dark now, and she heard only the occasional cry of terror from the wildlife. They weren't closing in around them anymore.
The crater doesn't have no magic, it's wild magic. The local wildlife depends on that power for defense. Without it, they'll be much easier to fight.
Instead of switching it off, Ocellus just lowered it back into the satchel, still open and exposed. At the same moment, Sandbar lifted one hoof to his helmet, and switched on the headlamp.
Right, weak pony night vision. No more bioluminescence.
"I think I see buildings that way." Gallus pointed off in the direction they'd been moving before, down the crater. "Come on."