Set two weeks after first chapter.
It was mid-day now, the heat of the day when ponies were supposed to be out talking, swimming in the refreshing cool lakes or being told to work in the blazing heat, getting their skin boiled off. Today though instead of enjoying the day, many were trying their best to not fall into tears. Their city wasn't the best one but it was theirs... and now it was gone, ravaged by the monster that had come only three days ago. And it was far from being the only one to suffer this, at least five others had suffered the same, if not worse fate.
Entire blocks were gone, fires raged throughout the city, entire families were dead, and all the ponies had to go on was a giant black monster that left giant four-toed footprints behind. So Princess Celestia had sent her sister to try and help since they couldn't use the elements of harmony anymore, and she couldn't very well leave the castle since she was used to the demands of the modern ponies.
After the first two cities Princess Luna realized how much her sister had relied on the elements of harmony, and how inexperienced their armies were. As soon as she had arrived, she'd been mobbed by the survivors of the attack and had to string together a relief effort to help those left behind.
Then she got notice of the next city that had been destroyed, and so on and so forth. This one though seemed to be the newest and by that logic it would lead them to the monster. But right now she had a relief effort to start on.
She and the captain of her guard were walking down the remains of one of the hallways of the city hall. Despite most of it being gone, it was at the center of the city, and offered decent shade from the summer heat. Right now she was listening to Blade who was giving her a summary of the city's immediate problems, that was derived from the documents he held in front of him with his magic. "The pipeline was crushed during the attack, so there's no water supply. The malls that housed a majority of food also got burnt down by the fires, but a few of them are still standing and there might be some left in them. There's also the issue of where many of the ponies are going to stay, since many of their homes were crushed."
Nodding she paused for a second to rip a chunk of the ruined hallway's ceiling, since it was close to falling down into the hallway and would probably smash somepony. "Well for the water issue we should get a few pegasi to redirect the clouds over the city, then get some ponies over to those warehouses to find anything that's left. We could also use a few of the unicorns to re-arrange the rubble into temporary housing."
Pausing in the shade offered by one of walls, from the baking sun she muttered under her breath. "We will have to talk with our sister later about this summer heat." Blade let the corner of his mouth turn upwards in a grin, but quickly banished it when Luna glanced backwards at him. "Has there been any word of the monster?"
Shaking his head he replied, "Uh no your majesty, from the patrols that have come back so far none of them have seen any sign. Though two of the patrols haven't come back yet."
Sighing Luna resumed walking down the hallway, abandoning the cool respite offered by the wall. "We don't see how hard it is to find a beast that is supposed to be over twenty stories tall."
Jogging after Luna, Blade said. "Well from what the patrols reported the monster hid its tracks by walking in the ocean and lakes, basically any large body of water."
Luna rolled her eyes, before turning a corner that led to the main office where the entire building seemed most intact. "We are not blaming thee Blade, we art just annoyed right now. If thou wouldn't mind we would like to be alone right now, so please hand us the reports while we think."
Bowing to Princess Luna, Blade dropped the reports on the desk and walked back out the way they'd came, to help set up some of the housing. Luna meanwhile walked around the desk and sat down in the mayor's chair, which was several sizes too small but was still better than walking.
Kicking back her hooves and leaning back in the chair, she let her fatigued muscles relax, almost moaning from the pleasure of laying down. Though there was work to do. Giving a little huff, she started shuffling through the papers about all the damage that had been done to the city.
She had been reading it for about fifteen minutes and had just reached the casualty list, when she heard the clip-clopping of hooves hitting the stone floors. Looking up from the papers she saw Blade running full speed at her. Lifting one of her eyebrows she got up out of the seat to see what had him in such a hurry when she saw over his shoulder one of the patrol ponies was behind him too.
She waited for them to skid to a stop in front of her and catch their breath before asking, "Please tell me some good news."
Panting in front of her, he noticed the sweat dripping off of his muzzle before Shade shook his head. "I wouldn't exactly call it good news."
"What do you mean?"
"We found the monster, but it's attack-- err getting ready to attack another city."
Luna's eyes snapped open at this and she started running down the way they came, the summer's blazing sun completely forgotten and instead replaced by the icy tendrils of fear wounding their way around her spine. "And the ponies?"
"The pegasi split up, as you can see Peanut came back." Luna threw glance over her shoulder, briefly wondering why one of her guards was named Peanut, then shook her head to rid herself of that stupid question. "The other Pegasus went ahead to the city to warn everypony."
Stopping at another bend in the hall, Luna looked at the gaping holes and instead opted to jump out the hole instead of running the rest of the way out, through what was left of the main entrance. Waiting for the two ponies to jump out after her she asked, "And what city did you all see it heading to?"
As they jumped out Peanut came out in front and motioned for her to follow, with his wing. Spreading them out he launched himself into the cloudless, dry skies, with the Princess following close behind. "Well its not heading to one particular city."
Luna's pace faltered, before she gracefully recovered and came up by his side. "Then how do you know its heading to a city?"
He grimaced as if that would answer her. "Well it's following a train-line and they flow into a half-dozen different cities. At best it will be heading to a tiny hamlet that already evacuated."
"And at worst?"
"At worst? It's heading to Las Pegasus." As he said that she felt the gaping maw of dread swallow her soul whole. All those ponies, all of the innocents about to be set upon by something only heard in the oldest of myths. With that in mind she grabbed Peanut with her magic and double timed it to the train tracks.
00000
This land wasn't familiar at all... normally it'd have met some resistance from those insects with their many metal toys, or had met that metal insult that was supposed to be a replica of itself. But no all it had met was miles and miles of seemingly endless wilderness, a few settlements and some three-headed creature that looked like a baby version of its nemesis.
Growling it increased its pace, it had spent too much time eating, and sleeping and too little time wreaking vengeance on those that had left in ice for all those years. But it would rectify that. In its gut it could just feel the many, little insects ahead of it.
As its huge weight shifted from foot to foot, it landed in a large patch of mud, and yanked it back out glowering at it. It looked at the offending landscape, and blasted it with its nuclear fire-breath. With that done it continued on its pace to wherever this metal line was heading.
When it disappeared in the distance a bird looked away at it then took off in the opposite direction as fast as it could, as if it knew the reckoning that would happen soon. As it flew into the sky, it passed over the monsters footprint, big enough to encompass many normal schools, and leave enough room for a bus to occupy each of its three clawed toes.