//------------------------------//
// Toxic Mist 
// Story: Twilight's book of the most dangerous creatures in Equestria 
// by The Psychopath 
//------------------------------//

Spike was busy noting down all the new books Twilight had received for her library in a recent shipment. It was always necessary to catalogue everything in-case a book went missing in the future or hadn't been delivered with the rest. It had been about an hour since the crate had been delivered, and three since Twilight left for the market, so she was due any second now.

The little dragon look up, bemused, when the door slammed open by an overly excited Twilight. "Yes, it's here," he sighed.

The lavender unicorn teleported right in front of him and levitated all the books around her, each passing book obscuring her face and revealing a bigger smile to Spike every time her face was freed.

"I can't wait to read these and add them to the library. 'Cosmic science and the astral bodies they are tied to' with all twelve, one thousand two hundred page volumes! 'Astral magics of forgotten civilizations' by Ripe Ofver!" She hugged the book close to her chest and moved on, but the magic merry-go-round stopped when an unusual book caught her eyes. "What's this?" She wondered aloud.

The book in question was a hard cover colored a golden brown, but the insides were a sickly, bright green with words written in a deep, nigh blackened yellow. The unicorn looked more closely at the strange material and shrugged it off. It would be a unique addition to her library, but the title was even more odd.

" 'Spiral Tooth's catalogue of monsters and specters'. Who is 'Spiral Tooth'?" Twilight asked rhetorically.

Spike shrugged. "Maybe there was an accidental mix up and the pony's information is in the book?"

Twilight scratched the back of her neck. "I don't know if I should. I mean, it's not mine."

"But If you don't do that, you'll never be able to return it." Twilight opened her mouth to interject, but Spike stopped her. "Just putting flyers in Ponyville won't help. There might be information in there that could help us find it. Plus, there's also the possibility that it was purposefully sold."

"But there's only one, and I didn't order it."

Spike pursed his lips. "Ah...Well..."

Twilight sighed. "Fine. I'll look in it. I might learn something new, too." 

She flipped through the first few pages until reaching one with an illustration made with the same golden lining coloration. The name read 'Zak', and the illustration was just a still pool. Twilight passed her hoof over the drawing and jumped back and dropped the book in fear when the lines started glowing. Whilst Spike went to Twilight's aid, the illustration poured over the ground like mist and showed a slimy pool bordered by swamp grass and dirt.

"What in Equestria?" Twilight spoke almost inaudibly. "This is amazing. The author had a Portrait Plusle," Twilight cheered in amazement.

Spike stared at er blankly and silently. "Pretty sure you made that up."

"No. I'm serious! They are EXTREMELY rare and are even harder to make! There's only a few in the world. This must be an amazing pony to have such a thing in their possession."

Words appeared above the writhing pool, describing its name and many other features which Twilight started reading aloud.

"The Zak lives in the swamp lands bordering the tip of the frozen north as well as the large islands to the far west of Equestria. While they have been seen elsewhere, these are unnatural occurrences and must be taken care of as quickly as possible to avoid imbalance."

"What does that mean?" Spike wondered. 

"It probably has to do with the local ecosystem." She refocused on the words in the air. "A Zak is a semi-sentient puddle similar to mercury, and much like mercury, it will infiltrate your body through the skin and kill you in mere seconds due to the amount. I've discovered that it drains all minerals and liquids from a body once it has been killed, turning it into dust to feed the lands around it."

The two saw what looked like a giant bird poking the ground in search of insects while the liquid slowly ebbed towards the bird's feet. Mere seconds after contact it dropped dead and was engulfed by the Zak before receding back into its pull and growing slightly, visibly pushing the dirt away during the growth.

"The Zak expands with every meal it has had and can, theoretically, grow infinitely. The best way to destroy one is to throw phosphate and sulfur, and cave salts into an explosive ball. It will become so aggravated at not being able to digest the substance that it will focus entirely on it then suffer the explosion, at which point it implodes upon itself and vanishes."

Twilight and Spike blinked several times.

"Yeah. I don't get it either."

"At least he's honest about it," Spike said.

Twilight nodded in agreement. Without her input, the pages flipped further away, and some sort of bubble surfaced from the Zak. The text changed as well, depicting more information once again.

"Hmmmm. It says that this is a "Zakander: Parasite of the Parasite."

The bubble rose up more, showing itself to be an inflated creature with multiple eyes in a horizontal ring on its body. The eyes were puny and had no features, but it didn't remove the creepiness. It jumped up momentarily to spit some of the Zak at Spike, scaring the little dragon and causing him to tumble onto his rear. It had a gigantic, circular mouth that it used to suck in lots and lots of air so it could float around like a balloon. Meanwhile, hardened, crystallized shards of mercury floated in the air around it and served as its tentacles.

"Much like how Zak is a parasite to living creatures it infests, the Zakander inhabits the Zak and uses it to live and thrive. Were it not for this weird octopus things, I think that my theories on the Zak's expansion would become absolute. I learned that the liquids they spit out were indeed Zak, but the creatures have such an immunity to the liquid that they can ingest it and use it without fear. The second the Zak enters their bodies, they use it. Their tentacles are also invisible and are used to carry hardened shards of the liquid as weapons. Plus, seeing those things floating around like they have psychic powers is pretty intimidating."

Twilight and Spike coughed.

Spike reluctantly commented on what Twilight had just read. "I think he was trying to make a joke."

"I'm not seeing it."

"Feels like someone without humor trying to force a joke somewhere. So, what else is in there? That can't be it."

"You just need to pop these guys with something sharp. They're basically like giant balloons."

Twilight flipped through several pages then arrived at another illustration depicting a giant, dead tree. She didn't understand what it was until the projection was created.

"The Uyt...The ubte...The U-Y-B-Y-E-T-K-R. Mostly found in the Zebra lands, the uybyetkr is an amorphous creature that places its young upon trees where the grow and grow and devour all the bark. There is a benefit for the tree, however: The creature's hide takes the appearance and consistency of bark, but it is much tougher and protects that tree much better. In return, the uybyetkr gets a place of warmth and life to live off and it's the best way to ambush unsuspecting prey."

The bark of the tree pulled off of it and showed itself as a bizarre, practically flat monstrosity with a chest and stomach lined with purple, outward facing spines, all dripping in an equally bright poison. It had a yellow eye on one of its 'branches' and on its back. Twilight was certain there were more, but she couldn't find any. Every extension of its body was made to wrap around the tree branches of its respected tree, and it would grow more as time passed, as indicated by the information.

"The poisons on its stomach serve to protect its home and the sap it drains from the tree but also have the added use of being like teeth, something I learned the hard way. The poisons on its 'teeth' have varying results; From paralyzing something to outright causing it to melt into a fleshy slag. The outcome usually depends on both the size and endurance of the victim. The Uybyektr has several 'mouths' hidden on its stomach which it usually uses to drink the sap it is draining from the tree, letting it nibble vast quantities of anything that comes too close to it or its home." Twilight tapped her chin. "Well, that was interesting. I can't say I was expecting something so...strange. You'd think it drinking the sap would eventually kill the tree."

"Hey wait, the text is scrolling down," Spike pointed out.

Twilight turned back to the floating letters and widened her eyes. "Whats written here? Mmmm...P.S. I've often been tasked with hunting and killing these things by farmers, which isn't too hard if you have good armor, but I still find that they would be more useful to the farmers alive than dead. Several biologist colleagues of mine have noted that the uybyektr's saliva has an acidic effect on many strains of fungus and bacteria, as well as having a flavor that deters most worms and beetles from nibbling on the fruit."

Spike grinned. "Hey, you should bring one to Applejack. Then you'd be able to see if that's true."

"And risk getting kicked into the sun? No thank you."

Spike raised his claws and displayed an air of innocence. "It was only a suggestion."

"What else is in here?" Twilight wondered as she flipped through the page.

She arrived at a red page with the words 'Star monsters' on it. She tilted her head confusedly.

"What are 'star monsters'?" Spike wondered.

"I don't know, but we're going to find out."

She skipped a few pages that didn't interest her then arrived at one that she kept a secret from Spike, and, with a mischievous smile, let the book display the illustration inside. The light became a twisted formation of rock and stone whose most notable features was a large base and an arc jutting out in front of it in a manner similar to the Ponderer sculpture.

"What's that?" Spike asked.

Twilight giggled. "You'll see."

A white horizontal line glowed along the top of the structure while a ball of the same color light pulsated left and right until stopping when it noticed the young dragon. The body crackled and gittered as it broke out of its slumber and stood up. It was still made of stone, but its body inflated until it was at least ten meters tall, practically dwarfing Spike. Two drooling mouths, both vertical, opened and closed individually on the sides of the main mass of stone. The center of the creature had the aspect of melting wax, but it became clear why it was like that when the light added details. A toxic smog emanated from that spot, causing everything in a large area to instantly rot and decay. Its five limbs all had uneven shapes, were placed seemingly randomly on its body, and were transferring the gasses from it body away from it.

"Wh-wh-what in Equestria is that monstrosity?!" Spike stuttered.

"The Gh'n Jaka. This creature is classified as two-star danger level from four, and it barely passes as a star creature at all. Its movements are sluggish, it is dim-witted, and its rocky body, although appearing to be dense, is surprisingly soft. I classify this discovery as a two-star because of the toxic gasses this thing emits, and with its limbs it will catch the gasses and toss them in every direction away from it. This foul toxin is so corrosive that any natural thing and pony-made object will shrivel and poof into dust. Only magic and magic imbued items can kill it...that, or you stab it hard when you discover it before it wakes up."

"Some of these things have weird names," Spike noted.

Twilight scrunched up her lips. She agreed, but she didn't want to ignore anything. "I don't know much else about these things as I only hunted and killed one. At least they aren't titan or hecatonchires class. Ha ha ha..."

"Did he really just write 'Ha ha ha'?" Spike sighed.

Twilight glared at the text with narrowed eyes. "I would say so...I'm starting to want to rescind my comment about this author being 'amazing'."

"You think there's more?" Spike asked.

"Why yes. I do. I believe it's a few hundred pages long."