//------------------------------//
// Prolougue 
// Story: The Parasite 
// by aggedane 
//------------------------------//

                                                                         Prolougue

The Doctor stood at the console of the Tardis, before him, coiled around the central Time rotor lay a tendril of the Parasite know as Axos. It had been crudely hardwired into the drive systems of the Tardis linking the two together, Axos had become a Tardis and the Tardis had become a part of Axos.

The engines whined and groaned as they struggled to create a stable time vortex for the huge bulk of Axos to travel through. "Come on you must take the load!" cried the Doctor in frustration "you must", this was his only hope of saving earth, if the Tardis couldn`t remove Axos from the planet then its parasitic claws would absorb all life from it, leaving nothing but a lifeless ball of rock in its wake. In desperation he channeled more power into the engines pushing them dangerously close to overloading, the engines screamed in protest and with a final juddering groan the ship took off taking Axos with it.

"Your sacrifice was in vain Time lord" echoed the monotone voice of Axos "you are joined to us forever in this loop of time" "our fate is yours". After the Tardis had taken off, Axons had materialised within the console room and pinned the Doctor to it, preventing him escaping, if Axos was to be forever trapped then it would ensure that its jailer would be trapped with it. "Not if i can break through this time loop" grunted the Doctor as he desperately strained to reach the emergancy drive override lever. The Axons had him securely pinned and it took all his strength to strech his arm so the tips of his fingers just brushed the lever, with a final grunt of effort he flung the lever over. The entire ship heaved as the crude links were violently severed allowing the Tardis to break free from its parasitic hitchhiker and make its escape.

Axos was drifting, the violent disconnection from the Tardis had paralysed its nervous system leaving it drifting helplessly through the same points in space and time in a never ending loop. "Emergeny""emergency" came the same monotone voice "nervous system crippled", "fuel systems exausted", "activate suspended animation cycle". All across the ship systems began to enter suspended animation, temperature dropped rapidly, brain activity reduced to minimum levels and the heart reduced its pulse rate to less than one beat a year. Axos could survive like this for millenia if it had to and indeed it had in the past as it travelled the vast distances between stars. However this time there was no prey to be found at the end of its journey, only an unending torturous loop and a slow demise as its last remaining energy reserves were eaten away by the passage of time. Its only hope of escape and indeed survival would be if an outside source interfered on one of its passings through the loop. Fate being the fickel being that it is provided just that in a form that non would ever have expected, it came in the form of a little naive Alicorn looking up at the heavens from her new home in Canterlot Castle.

Systems slowly began to revive themselves, something had roused Axos from its slumber. "investigate" "sensory detectors picking up unknown energy build up" "investigate". Outside the ships protective Chitin a slight glow had begun to form around it, slowly it grew in intensity until the entire ships midsection was encased in a briliant Violet coloured band which proceeded to constricted to fit around the ship locking it in securly in place, from the band streched a chain of violet energy that seemed to anchor itself to a nearby planet. "Emergency" echoed the voice, fear starting to creep into in monotone anouncments "hostile energy source detected" "absorb, proccess and adapt". The violet band had secured itself and with slow deliberate movements, the connective chain began to carfully alter the trajectory of Axos. Inside Axos its unique biology began analysing the energy that had captured it, biofilters screened the sampled particles and sent messages containing newly generated adaptations to glands embedded in the chitin. "Adaptation complete" announced the voice, suddenly the grip of the band weakened and began to slip off like water running over grease, the chain pulsed with energy as if attempting to reinforce its hold but it was no use the band could not regain its grip, slowly the band slid entirely from the shell of Axos and dissapated into vaporous wisps of energy leaving Axos to once again drift through the void. Only this time it would remain in this time stream, the event that had just unfolded had been enough to disrupt the time loop. Axos was free.

"Attention" came the voice "disruption in time loop detected" "sensory systems detect viable nutrition planet" "inteligent life detected". Now was the time to feed, after its long imprisonment Axos had grown weak and could not afford any confrontation, if it was going to gain access to this desperatly needed fuel source it would require a non violent approach. Using its last reserves of strength Axos pushed itself towards the planet on a landing course, as it traveled it began to transmit a distress signal using both radio frequencys and telepathic fields. "Axos calling surface" "fuel systems exhuasted" "request immediate assistance" "Axos calling surface".

Deep in the Everfree Forest a pack Timber Wolves howled and whined while manticores growled fearfully, they sensed a change in the atmosphere, they could smell something foul and unknown on the wind and it terrified them. With a briliant flash the night sky became day for an instant before returning to Lunas beautiful night, what followed next was a deep rumble as Axos touched down in the center of the Forest. Upon landing thick long Tendrils deployed from under the body of the ship and began to burrow deep into the planets crust anchoring it to the rock, the main body submerged itself into the dirt to both conceal its true size and provide some protection for itself. Now it would wait until the natives of this world came to investigate and when they did it could begin the first stage of its plan.

Axos had come to Equestria and soon the nutrition cycle would begin