//------------------------------// // It Ate Everything // Story: Vile beast // by ZheTwidashLover //------------------------------// Author´s note: I know this is supposed to be at the end and not at the beginning, but I have to tell you that this chapter isn´t much like the rest of the story. Thank you. Sweet Tooth was not having a very good day. The day had started nicely, waking up at his wife’s side and kissing her on the forehead so as to not wake her. Sweet Tooth got up every day at four in the morning, he made a batch of pancakes for himself and his wife, ate his and put the rest in the fridge. He then went to the Canterlot Castle, where he worked a 14 hour shift, 4am to 6pm, making cakes and other delicious confectionery worthy of a king, or a princess. He alone made at least four diffrent types of cake every day, most of the time more than one of each. Six other bakers worked under him at the royal bakery with him, all making the same amount of the sweet treats each day and most of it went to the same pony, a certain white alicorn. Alicorns apparently have much higher metabolism than other creatures, so much in fact that they can eat dozens of cakes a day without it showing. All employees in the bakery were sworn to secrecy, never allowed to tell anyone that their beloved goddess of the Sun was a glutton, the biggest in Equestria. Because if it were to get out that the princess ate dozens of cakes a week, there would surely be some mares –and a few stallions- that would stop at nothing to learn how she does it and they would not take her being an alicorn as a valid reason, not all, at least. While alicorns could eat and eat and eat almost nonstop without getting fat or it showing on them in the least, they could also go days and weeks without food and water. Luna´s return also told of them being able to live at least a thousand years without either, which was good because Celestia was not getting any cake today and would most likely be a bit grumpy without them. Sweet Tooth went into the royal bakery before the sun was up so it was still pitch black when he opened the door. He fumbled with the light switch for a few seconds and held a hoof in front of his eyes to shield them from the bright light. He lowered his hoof and took in the sight of his bakery in ruins. Everything from flour to already baked cakes was either spilled or missing large chunks of delicious confectionery heaven. Sweet Tooth´s left eye twitched and he promptly fell on his side, fainting. He didn´t rouse until Ginger Snaps -another baker- shook him awake. “Are you all right? I just arrived and saw you lying on the ground and the… the bakery in ruins and… and I don´t know what to do, I just… just.”´Sniff.’ She had tears in her eyes now and that did not go over well with Sweet Tooth, he hated crying mares, hated them. So he did what any sane pony would do. He hugged her. “Shhhh. It´s ok, I´m ok. And we can fix the bakery. Just don´t cry, please, don´t cry.” Sweet Tooth was lucky his wife wasn´t there because while she was not so overly jealous that she wouldn’t allow him to be alone in a room with another mare, she would think something of him hugging some other mare like that, perhaps a threesome? A noise from inside the bakery disturbed them from their huggytime and they both turned towards the sound. They saw nothing of note other than a mixing bowl lying on the floor in front of the freezer, spinning like somepony had ran into it. They looked at each other and then forward again and gulped. Sweet Tooth went ahead and Ginger Snap followed close behind. Sweet Tooth cautiously peeked into the freezer which happened to be open –most likely the work of the same ponies who destroyed and/or ate everything in the bakery- and watched for movement for just a moment before slowly inching a hoof forward and taking a step inside the freezer. It was colder then Sweet Tooth was expecting, like it had only been opened a few minutes prior rather than sometime the night before. There was light in the freezer, but it was the biggest freezer outside of the port towns so finding somepony or thing in there would be a challenge for any pony, even a unicorn baker who knew the freezer better than the recipe for simple chocolate cake. Sweet Tooth levitated a sack of flour –regrettably one of the few still intact- and ripped it open in front of the only way in and out of the freezer, covering the floor in flour so he could at least tell the princess what species the thief was if he escaped somehow. Sweet Tooth stepped forward, slowly at first but gaining confidence with every step he took until finally he could muster enough to call out, “Get out here thief! Before I call the guards!” Sweet Tooth shook for a few seconds from fear. After a few moments he finaly stopped shaking, aside from a brief shudder every now and then. A noise to his left, between two rows of frozen cakes with bite marks revealed a shadow over six feet tall where the lights just happened to be out. The shadow moved out of sight and into the next row of half eaten cakes. Sweet tooth was a bit frightened at the thought of a minotaur being who he was after, even a small one in comparison. He didn´t see any horns so maybe the minotaur had been banished or otherwise disgraced, forced to look to other places for the simplest of things, like food. But it´s chest didn´t seem as broad so it could be a teenager or a big pre-teen. Knowing that it was probably not an experienced fighter gave Sweet Tooth enough courage to run after it. After all, you don´t mess with a bakers bakery. Sweet Tooth had spent too much time thinking and lost the shadow before he even found him. He braced himself as he readied a spell all unicorns in the castle staff had to learn to some degree, a tracking spell. Much like sonar, but it resonated through the dimensional plane and no un-enchanted material could cancel it out. And like sonar it came back with information about his surroundings, revealing a hole, or gap, in the map near the entrance to the freezer. Sweet Tooth heard a gasp from the entrance, followed by a scream piercing the thundering silence. He felt a bit dizzy, more so than usual after a spell like that but he didn´t let that stop him and sprinted towards the entrance and Ginger Snap. When he got there but a few seconds after the terrified scream, he saw Ginger Snap lying unconscious on the floor. Sweet Tooth could sense a broken shield spell through his horn, the feeling known by every unicorn in Canterlot who gave a damn after the changeling invasion. Ginger Snap opened her eyes slowly, a tired look giving away her fatigue after just a small shield spell. Sweet Tooth cast a light revitalizing spell on her that gave her the energy to stand up on shaky legs. Sweet Tooth was a bit light headed after that simple spell but shook that of since more important matters were at hoof that demanded his full focus. “It wasn´t like anything I have ever seen before.” Sweet Tooth´s head snapped towards Ginger Snap at the sound of her voice. “Except maybe a big, tailless monkey.” Ginger Snap looked past Sweet Tooth into the freezer with a distant look in her eyes. Sweet Tooth also looked but couldn’t find what she was looking at, until he looked in the flour, where some kind of footprint laid in the middle of it all. While no expert, Sweet Tooth could make out a relatively large footprint with four stubby toes. FIVE. There was one more at the edge of it, so small he almost missed it, it looked like more of a burden then anything else, like something that’s good for nothing other than hitting a door or a table foot. “Did you see where it went?” Sweet Tooth asked. “No, I blacked out after it hit my shield. I was still casting so the hit... went through the connection and... It felt like it broke my... skull instead of the shield.” Ginger Snap said in between breaths. “It felt like dying.” She whispered as an afterthought, tears forming in her eyes for the second time that day. Sweet Tooth hugged the distraught mare in an attempt to calm her and let himself think of what to do about this “monkey.” He was disturbed from his thoughts when a thud echoed through the room, the starting place right behind him. Ginger Snap apparently saw what he didn´t and backpedaled out of his grip and charged her horn. Sweet Tooth turned around and saw a giant fist. In reality the fist wasn´t that big, but it was right in front of him so to him it sure seemed like it. Before he could react, the fist made contact with his muzzle at speeds he couldn’t comprehend. As he fell into unconsciousness he saw a frying pan hit the creature in the back of its head, and then everything went dark, only the sound of metal ringing, until that too died out and everything went silent.