//------------------------------// // King of the Mountain! // Story: Hunters and Ponies. // by Vorki //------------------------------// It was another cold day in Tundra. Everything was covered in snow, and it was still snowing. The land was pretty desolate, not much could grow in the bitter cold. A few herds of Popo could be seen traversing the frigid and harsh land. However in the centre of it all stood a mountain that touched the very clouds. The mountain is a magnificent sight, it is almost completely made of ice so when the suns rays hit it they cause a unique light show. As the herd of Popo came to the foot of the mountain, a terrifying roar shook the earth and in a blink of an eye a white figure pounced at the herd. It was a Barioth. A fearsome predator of Tundra. It pinned down one of the Popo and began to bite and tear at it with its saber teeth. Some of the other Popo tried to defend their fallen friend but the Barioth didn't give up its meal so easily. It whipped the charging herd with its tail knocking them back and slamming them into a nearby ice wall. After the problem was taken care of, the Barioth began to tuck into his meal but before long another roar echoed down the mountain. The Barioth stood up sharply and began to drag its meal away, as if to hide it from something. It found a nearby hole and stuffed its meal inside. Once the meal was safely inside, it looked around nervously. It was hard to imagine that such a ruthless and skilled predator would hide a meal because of a roar. After having a look around, it began to slowly make its way to the foot of the mountain, seemingly unaware of the huge figure creeping up from behind. Meanwhile about a of quarter way up the mountain, two figures were observing the whole ordeal from a crack inside the ice shelf. One of them was wearing armour that appeared to be made out of stone, with an intimidating horned helmet, to boot, and on his back was a huge heavy looking sword that easily spanned his body length. He also seemed to twitch every now and then. The other figure wore what appeared to be a large yellow coat, and carried a huge bowgun which looked like a, sniper rifle. He also had a pair of goggles on and wild yellow appendages stuck up on his hat which resembled thick hair. "Ohhhhh boy! Vex found Burg with a Popo again, thing are going to get ugly" the stone guy said. He was looking through a pair of binoculars and twitching slightly. "Five crystals says Vex get the Popo" said the other figure, who was looking through the scope on his bowgun. "Three says Burg bites him" said the stone guy confidently. "Oh! You're on" replied the sniper with equal confidence. After a brief hand shake they returned their attention to the scene at the base of the mountain. In another world similar to that of Earth, a group of ponies were gathering in some strange ruins. A lot of equipment had been set up and preparations were almost at a close. One of them wore a spectacular wizard hat, that was covered in bells, which chimed as he trotted around. One of the ponies approached him. "Are you sure about this Star Swirl? It's risky and there's no telling what might happen if it all goes wrong." The wizard turned to the pony, with a smile on his old face, and put a hoof on his shoulder. "Now now Grey Mist! Everything will be fine, you have my word". He gave a slight chuckle "besides that's the fun part, you never know what might happen". He gave another chuckle and raised his voice so everypony could hear him. "Everypony! Everything is set. The fail-safe rift spell will now be armed, so stand clear and brace yourselves." Star Swirl was joined by a few unicorns and their horns began to glow. In the middle of the ruins was a large circle with strange markings, which were chiseled out around it. A strange energy began to crackle in the centre as sparks struck randomly at the symbols. Once struck, they lit up for a brief moment before the light faded. After a few minutes the energy began to take shape. It was a small blob at first, but it soon began to expand. The unicorns, that were helping, looked exhausted and a few had passed out from the sheer magnitude of magic. "WE NEED TO KEEP GOING!" Star Swirl shouted, as he too was struggling like the rest of them. The magic was now taking a new form as it began to grow a pair of dragon wings, with mean looking spikes on the tips. Next it grew a tail, which had nasty looking thorns growing out of it. It then grew a pair of strong legs and the body began to show signs of some sort of plating. Then, finally the head emerged. It bore a resemblance to that of a dragon, but it didn't look like anything anypony had seen before. The magic then solidified and the form turned to stone. Gasping for air, Star Swirl and the remaining unicorns desperately tried to catch their breath. What now stood before them was a statue of a terrifying dragon. One of the unicorns took a closer look. "Why that form?" she said, still trying to catch her breath. "I don't know, but isn't it amazing, just look at it" Star Swirl said, with wide eyes. "Just look at its wings and that tail, it must be such a proud dragon, but we did what we came to do and that's that". "Sorry! But what did we exactly do? I mean, we could have just made a statue. Why go through all of this?" said the mare, who stood at the dragons legs. "Well! You see child, this is not an ordinary statue. It is in fact a beacon" Star Swirl replied. "A beacon......but what for?" said another unicorn. "Well you see, with the return of Night Mare Moon fast approaching, the princess has requested a fail-safe" he said, as everypony began to gather around him "When it senses danger, that Equestria cannot protect itself from, it will activate and call for help. When the call has been answered, it will bring them here and contain them until needed." With that, Star Swirl gave the order to pack up and go home. Their job here was done and they left the statue of the dragon inside the ruins. The Barioth was still oblivious to the huge monster who was stalking it from behind. The monster was perched on a small ledge that was above the Barioth. It prepared to strike, retracting slightly and lowering it body to the ground. It took a step forward and was now directly above the Barioth. The monsters size, however, was its downfall. As it moved closer to the Barioth the ice suddenly cracked when it threw itself at its foe. The crack, that the ice made, gave the Barioth ample warning as it evaded the massive monster with ease. The monster was now in full sight and what a sight it was. It was in fact a Tigerex. One of the most powerful and feared monsters in all of Tundra and was now bearing down on his foe as he towered over him. With powerful claws he took a slash at the Barioth, but missed, but not before crushing an ice boulder into tiny shards. It was immediately obvious that he was very strong and his appearance only complimented that fact. The Barioth however lacked strength but made up for it with speed as it dodged each slash with relative ease. It waited until the Tigerex showed signs of fatigue. It saw an opportunity and leapt onto the Tigerex's back and began to bite into its orange and black scales. However, the Tigerex seemed unfazed by all this as the Barioth's fangs only just punctured his hard scales. The Tigerex then tried to shake off the Barioth but found that his attacker was well anchored to him and was using his claws and fangs as hooks. After a few attempts to shake it off, the Tigerex realized that it was pointless and it tried to slam its attacker into a wall. The Barioth, who was cunning as well, let go as the Tigerex rammed his own body into the wall. The wall splintered and cracked under the force and weight of the Tigerex. It gave a slight wince, since the Barioth was supposed to be the one to hit the wall. The Barioth gave a small growl, as if to smirk at the Tigerex's attempt. This was a big mistake, as the Tigerex gave an ice shattering scream and turned to look at the Barioth. Its eye were now a bright blood red and steam poured from his body. He was mad, very very mad. With alarming speed he threw himself at the Barioth who was still dazed from the scream. His entire weight came crashing down onto the unlucky Barioth. He then made a vicious slash and made a deep wound on the Barioth's chest. The Barioth gave a scream as blood poured from its wound as it tried desperately to push the Tigerex off. The Tigerex was not yet finished. He bit down on the Barioth's neck and thew it into a boulder, which shattered on impact. The Tigerex gave a triumphant roar as the Barioth could barely stand up. The two beasts stared at each other for a while. The Barioth then gave up, he was wounded and didn't have the strength to take on such a fearsome foe. So he limped away and clumsily climbed up to a cave on the side of the mountain and disappeared inside. The two figures had witnessed the whole thing and the sniper looked very smug and gave a hearty laugh. "The King of Throne Mountain, the Tigerex, known as Vex, prevails again and you owe me 5 crystals" he said while giving the stone figure a good slap on the back. "No! I owe you two, because Buerg bit him" he said, determined to get the last laugh. "Awwww your no! fun" he said, as he accepted the two transparent crystals and put them into a small shoulder bag. Suddenly, a feminine voice came from further within the crack. "I see you two never change, but then< why would you!", she said with a upper class tone in her voice. "Glad to see you too, Catherine" said the sniper, in an annoying tone. "Know this Issac and Tich, it will be almost impossible for me to be glad to see you", she shot back. "But I did not come here to exchange insults with such simpletons", she sighed. "Oats has a job for us so I would stop being so childish and make your way to the bulletin board". With that she walked gracefully away. The two figures just looked at each other, shrugged, and followed Catherine into the crack. They kept their distance.