//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: The Dead of Winter // Story: My Little Pony - The Age of Dinosaurs // by StrangeBehavior //------------------------------// Three days later at the exact time we left off, we find the raptors waking up and settling in to their new routine nicely. However, they are growing impatient with the lack of suitable prey, and the unusual predators made of wood. They had mostly been feeding on small animals, but had caught a lucky break with a deer or a freakish looking mammal that we know as the manticore. The manticore satisfied their predatory instincts for challenging prey for a short while, but they only found one and the others were located deeper in the forest, where the environment would serve against them all, except Pounce. They searched for food and were bitterly frustrated when the small mammals were less in the numbers active. Frost had managed to locate a lone squirrel, and it foolishly placed itself in a position where even a six-foot tall Utahraptor can sneak up on it easily. The poor rodent couldn't stand a chance against the predator's weapons as the beast violently ripped the squirrel's head off and swallowed it whole. He let out a haunting primal screech that in Ponyville, made the ponies shudder in fear, as the carnivore then proceeded to eat what remained of his easy prey, swallowing the tiny carcass and the only thing that remained of the poor rodent, was a furry tail, soaked in its owner's blood. Frost, still not satisfied, went looking for more food in the snow covered forest, and as he left, the wooden paw of a Timberwolf crunched in the frozen water. The wood carnivore was a youngster who was only as tall as Frost's knee, though he had never seen a Utahraptor before, he knew that he should stay clear of it, unless his pack is with him. The young Timberwolf sniffed the squirrel's tail, and using his wooden jaws, swallowed the blood-soaked tail, and then walked back to his pack. In Ponyville, Twilight was in her castle, trying to piece together the identity of their unknown visitors four nights from before. The dung found was undeniably from the owners of the footprints, but it's contents were chewed up plants that don't exist from Equestria, and a closer study on the plants were, oddly, tropical flora that has adapted to lie dormant in winter. Fluttershy had earlier confirmed that the creatures seemed to have been nocturnal and their footprints told the pegasus that it had characteristics like a bird. Twilight had a daunting thought as she saw all the pieces as a whole, she thought that their mystery visitors could be similar to the feathered creatures that attacked her friends before! But, to confirm her suspicions, she needed to see the mystery creature and one of the feathered creatures at the same time… Pod sneezed hard as he rested in the cave his pack have used as a shelter. He had eaten before and as such, wasn't hungry and lied in the cave, guarding the several small corpses the young Velociraptor had caught from scavengers who are looking for a free meal. Hours later, Frost and Red-Claw emitted calls through the forest letting the other members of the pack to know it was time to return to their cave. One by one, the raptors returned to rest for the night, and also to seek shelter from an oncoming blizzard that the pegesi have scheduled to strike tonight. The raptors did not know that these mammals controlled their own world, if they had, they would have a very big reason to steer clear of the equines, and avoid them at all costs. Twenty-three minutes later, Red-Claw noticed there were only five raptors accounted for. She got up and said, "Where's White Tip?" and the other raptors looked around and saw that the Dromeosaurus was right, White Tip was nowhere to be found. Pounce scoffed as she said with the blizzard well under way, "Most likely got lost, either way, she's dead till we find a body." Pod finished grooming his feathers as he said, "I'll have to agree with Pounce, the desert crawler wouldn't have lasted a minute in this weather." Red-Claw looked outside the cave as the wind whistled loudly, she noticed White Tip's offspring looked sad at the thought that her mother is most likely dead. One of the unfamiliar emotions kicked in inside Red-Claw's mind, but unlike before, she did not fight it, the Dromeosaurus sat next to the young Velociraptor and placed a wing over her back and continued to look outside at the blizzard… Ponyville was particularly empty for the reason that everyone prepared for the blizzard, due to it being scheduled to last far past noon tomorrow, so the streets were empty and the windows were boarded up. Twilight, as she looked outside the window, quietly said to herself, "Wow, the weather ponies sure didn't hold back with this blizzard. Even a winter animal would have trouble out in this storm." No one is outside anywhere in a twelve-mile radius… No one, other than White Tip. Twilight's comment was very much right on the nail, because an animal like a Velociraptor would suffer in this blizzard. White Tip was calling as loud as she could, trying to find her pack, but the winds blocked her calls for help. Her feathers could not keep her warm enough in this blizzard, she lived in the desert and it was much warmer than modern deserts are. To say she was suffering would be an understatement, White Tip was slowly freezing to death would be a more correct statement. She wandered blindly through the cold winds, more dead than alive. White Tip felt her legs give out and her live ebbing away, until a light of hope regained what strength the raptor had left. Her light of hope was literally a light out of the edge of the forest she stayed within, she regained the use of her legs and a little warmth as the Mongolian predator knew through instinct what it meant. White Tip thought in her increasing mind; Light means warmth, warmth means life, life means food! I must seek shelter there! The raptor crashed through the low branches and severely cut her left leg, but she trudged on like a mad-raptor to the source of the light, Fluttershy's cottage… As soon as she heard the branches snap, Fluttershy saw through the weaker winds the shape of a creature similar to the one that attacked her home nearly five days earlier. However, she saw it limping, like it hurt its leg, her compassion wouldn't allow the poor creature to die out there in this weather. So the pegasus grabbed her winter gear and hurried outside, knowing the storm would pick up again very soon, and as she got closer to the animal, it collapsed from exhaustion, hunger, and her cuts that started to get minor hypothermia in its hands and feet. The last thing the creature saw as it closed its eyes was Fluttershy running up to it. Fluttershy said in a caring voice, "Oh you poor little thing, you have clearly been suffering from this terrible weather." Fluttershy brought the Velociraptor into her home and immediately began operating on the unconscious carnivore. Two hours later, Fluttershy succeeded in getting White Tip in a stable condition and will make a full recovery, it was only in its unconscious state that the animal care-taker got her first good look at White Tip. She knew immediately that it was one of the feathered monsters that showed up earlier in the week, but it was smaller than the one she encountered. When operating on it, she learned it was female, with the many physical similarities to birds and through its 'dinosaur-parts'. Fluttershy knew it was an animal completely unknown to her, but looking over White Tip's whole body, she can't help but point its numerous similarity to birds. Fluttershy cringed in fear when she saw the Velociraptor's signature weapon, the three-inches long claw on its feet, the pegasus didn't even want to guess what those scary looking claws are for. Fluttershy then proceeded to feed the other animals in her house and as she did several minutes later, White Tip started to wake up… Elsewhere in Equestria, Discord was taking a nap in a tree, dreaming about causing delicious chaos like he did a thousand years ago. He was woken up by his body suddenly shaking violently, usually a sign of a magical imbalance. He said after yawning, "Well that can't be right. Something is amiss obviously, but the troubling thing is I don't know what is causing it." He placed his bird claw on his chin as with a snap from his lion paw, a big graduation cap labeled 'My Thinking Cap' appeared on his head. The Lord of Chaos remained in thought until an unusual and loud cry rang through the air, then he saw something huge fly over his head and saw it let out a haunting call as it passed. The large flying animal caught him by surprise as he turned into a turtle shell as it missed hitting his head by mere inches. As he peeked out of his shell, Discord saw the silhouette of what passed by him and knew it was going in the direction of Ponyville so he'd thought to tell his friends tomorrow about this massive winged creature. And with a flash of light, he was gone… White Tip quietly looked at her surroundings and knew she was in the cave of the pink-headed creature Pod told her about. The Velociraptor noted that the dwelling was very warm and comfortable, a kind of place she could sleep comfortably for as long as she wanted. However, White Tip's instincts were telling her she was trapped by the mammal that seemed to have dinosaur wings, but a voice suddenly said, "Well, what are you suppose to be? A freakish ostrich?" The raptor looked around the cottage and found a small, blue and green bird as the source of the voice as it spoke again, "Well can't you talk…Oh right, you can't with that thing over your mouth…" That last part made White Tip realize that her mouth was shut by a muzzle on her snout. The Velociraptor shook her head violently as she tried to take it off, and she only succeeded when she tried to pull it off with her dinosaur hands and to her surprise, slipped off easily. The animals in Fluttershy's cottage shrieked and squawked loudly as the thing keeping the carnivore from ripping them apart is off. The Mongolian predator hissed as she crept up to the best prey in the house, Fluttershy herself! Fluttershy heard the commotion and guessed that her patient got the muzzle off. She thought, Oh Fluttershy, your so stupid, you should've tightened the muzzle, it was for its safety that you should have done it. Wait, it's stalking me?! As soon as the pegasus mare turned around, White Tip got Fluttershy's legendary skill in its full force. "No! Bad monster! You do not attack other ponies or animals! Especially in my house!" White Tip didn't understand a single word her rescuer said, but Fluttershy's stare made the raptor step back in absolute fear, like staring into the jaws of a massive Tarbosaurus from her old home in the Cretaceous Period. The Mongolian meat-eater was too focused on Fluttershy's stare to watch where she was stepping, and stumbled on to her left leg. White Tip screeched in pain as her bandaged leg landed on the hard wooden floor, and it was then that the bird remarked, "Never seen 'The Stare' do that to anyone before…" White Tip mocked the bird loudly, "Well you try to walk with your leg bounded by a white thing, little snack…" The bird then said, a little surprised, "Well, well, well, you can talk! I'm surprised you can speak bird speech, so I ask again, What are you suppose to be?" White Tip thought, Bird speech? These things are called birds? What an unusual coincidence, the birds I've seen look different than this bird. The predator then remembered the tiny bird's question and was surprised at came out of her mouth, "I'm a Velociraptor, my name is White Tip…" she stopped herself and was puzzled by what she called herself. What?! What did I call myself?! Velociraptor? What is that? I never called myself that before, so why now? The bird replied, "Velociraptor? Can't say I have heard of a creature called something like that before. But, in the matter of personal names, my name is Frank." Fluttershy suddenly spoke up with, in White Tip's mind, dinosaur speech to the bird called Frank, "Mr. Bird get away from that feathered creature, it's dangerous." White Tip lurched back as what she just heard, she thought an impossible thought, that the mammal just spoke dinosaurian?! Frank told the pegasus what White Tip just told him, though it was tricky to say what the predator called herself but managed to get out the one thing Fluttershy can understand, 'raptor'. Fluttershy was now more convinced that this creature was somehow connected to birds, she knew that raptor meant bird of prey. She has handled predatory birds before, but none of them can't fly, have teeth, and had a menacing claw on each foot. It was getting very late so she put a new muzzle on the raptor's mouth and reluctantly tightened it so the dinosaur couldn't get it off this time, it was so the carnivore couldn't do anything while the pegasus slept. White Tip tried to get the muzzle of like before, but couldn't as easily as before. As she tried and failed for an hour, she tired herself out and collapsed into slumber. Fluttershy knew that White Tip was dangerous, but couldn't help but think the female Velociraptor looked harmless as it rested on the makeshift bed for her to rest and heal from her procedure earlier. She yawned and headed to her bed upstairs, she got under covers and fell fast asleep. Celestia couldn't sleep, the disturbances have been keeping her from sleeping for the past two days. She looked out the window of her study, trying to find out why these powerful forces are happening now after the Tirek incident. She gasped, What if Tirek's rampage earlier in the year is the reason these surges are happening! It could be why these alien creatures are starting to appear in Ponyville… Her thoughts were interrupted by an animalistic groan coming from the gardens and heard a loud thud coming from the same place. Without thinking clearly, she headed to the gardens to investigate, the nightmares she had were not helping the princess calm herself down. Ten minutes later, the ruler of Equestria found her way to the source of the sounds she heard and could not comprehend what she is seeing now… Lying down on its side was a massive, horned animal with a smaller one nudging the motionless giant, the small animal letting out panicked growls as it continued to nudge the giant one. Celestia, cautiously, walked up to the gigantic creature, but it felt really cold near it, the princess now knew this huge beast was actually dead, most likely from the cold temperatures of winter. As she saw the smaller animal, she immediately noticed that it looked just like the dead creature, but the size of the eyes, and overall shape made Celestia realize that the small animal is actually a baby, and the dead animal must be its parent. The baby stopped nudging its dead parent and stared at regal alicorn, and Celestia stared back, only the wind was heard for a minute as the two stared into each others eyes. Celestia saw that the baby animal was greatly distressed and also noticed the poor thing looked very cold and hungry, its ribs can be seen on its skin. Celestia first thought it was a dragon of sorts, but quickly realized it was a different animal altogether, she saw its animalistic expressions and felt her compassionate heart ache and melt, the baby was essentially crying and lonely in its eyes. Celestia felt tears forming in her eyes, memories of her parents flooding in her mind, her legs numbed up and she collapsed, that was what one gaze at the baby animal did to Equestria's level-headed ruler in a minute. The baby walked closer to the alicorn, but its instincts made it go back to trying to wake up its dead parent. Celestia couldn't take seeing such a heart-wrenching scene anymore and then said, "Stop…She's gone, little one…" The little creature stopped calling its mother and looked into the alicorn's red eyes, wet with tears, as the princess turned her head and headed back to her room, hoping the baby will seek shelter. What Celestia didn't know about these animals, is that they are the infamous dinosaurs, known affectionately as Triceratops, one of the very last species of dinosaur to have lived on Earth. The baby was a male, usually he and his mother would be with other Triceratops, but they got separated from their herd when they first arrived in Equestria. Because they lived in a much warmer climate, the winter in Canterlot was basically killing these two slowly and they suffered for it. Luckily for Celestia, Triceratops was a plant-eater, much like herself or a cow, so even if the adult was alive, she would be relatively safe. Like birds, baby dinosaurs imprint on the first thing they see, or in this young male's case, the first thing to care for him. His changing mind already told him to follow the strange winged creature, knowing that it seemed to care about his safety. As Celestia entered back into the castle, the little Triceratops already followed her in as the doors shut. The princess walked back into her study and proceeded to lie down, when she suddenly heard a low growl come from inside the room she was in! She looked behind her and saw the baby dinosaur as it wagged its tail weakly due to starvation. The alicorn gasped as she realized the poor baby was beyond hungry, she looked around frantically for something to eat, and she levitated the only thing she could find, a bowl of assorted fruits. Celestia placed the fruit in front of the sheep-sized dinosaur, hoping it will do for now, and much to her relief, the Triceratops ate all the fruit after sniffing it for half a minute. The fruit's nutrient rich contents were more than enough for the baby to not be hungry anymore, it burped and then walked right beside the alicorn. She flinched when she felt the dinosaur's skin touch her own, and was shocked when the baby lie down right next to her and nudged her affectionately. The Triceratops youngster then fell asleep on the spot, and our alicorn princess, smiled warmly and rested her right wing over its back. She then learned that despite being in the cold, the baby was incredibly warm to the touch, like her sister Luna when they were little. Celestia couldn't help but feel motherly to the orphaned youngster and whispered softly, "Sweet dreams, my little one, I'll see you in the morning…" It was here where Celestia adopted the dinosaur as a beloved pet, with her pet phoenix, Philomena, looking at the dinosaur with curiously as her owner subsequently fell asleep next to her new pet, not realizing how significant the baby really is… In the morning inside the Everfree Forest, Pod wakes up and yawned at the sound of Frost and Pounce tearing apart the carcass of a bear they had killed. Pod spoke to the larger raptors, "So, you got a kill?" Frost hissed loudly and Pounce snarled as the Deinonychus replied, "We killed it first, it's ours! Go get your own kill!" Pod rolled his eyes and started to think that now's a good time to forget White Tip since she most likely froze to death. His thoughts were interrupted by Red-Claw saying out of the blue, "She is not dead, White Tip is alive. I know she is…" Slightly unnerved at her statement, the Pyroraptor asked, "What makes you say that?" Red-Claw answered, "I found her footprints with the young raptor, they lead out to the miniature cave outside the forest. Where that mammal you spoke of dwells, and her prints were fresh." Pounce said rudely with a chunk if fat in her jaws, "So what, the desert crawler could have died further up." The Dromeosaurus retorted, "No, in that cave I saw a light on and White Tip's silhouette was visible, she is most likely sought shelter there." "The cold winds could've easily played tricks on your mind, made you see things you should know are not there." Pounce backlashed, the raptors stopped when Frost loudly tore out the lungs of the dead bear. Then the Utahraptor, said, "The desert crawler is indeed alive." Pounce was shocked as she asked, "What makes you say that?!" Frost's eyes narrowed as he said, "We raptors are smart, these large mammals are certainly smarter, they have the ability to seemingly create caves with warmth to protect them from the weather. If she got into one of these caves, she can certainly survive last night, and if she is still alive, she is still a member of the pack. Every member serves an important role, no matter how small, she simply needs to return to us to fulfill that role." Pounce stood there and let the larger raptor's words sink in as Red-Claw smirked a dinosaur smirk as she thought, Even the big raptor knows that important fact. I just hope White Tip returns safely. The blizzard still whistled on as the dinosaurs impatiently wait for the storm to die down. Fluttershy had unmuzzled the female Velociraptor in preparation to not only feed her, but also give her pain killers to help ease the predator's pain from her leg. White Tip was about to lash out at the pegasus, but then remembered her terrifying stare and so held herself back from that urge. Fluttershy gently pushed a plate of an unusual meat-like substance to the Velociraptor, the dinosaur realized the mammal was feeding her and sniffed the food skeptically, White Tip noted it smelt decent, and took a carnivorous bite at it, it tasted okay, but beggars can't be choosers. She ate the food and then felt her stomach getting fuller with the food she thought wouldn't be enough. In seconds, she felt stuffed as Frank said, "Delicious isn't it? A good chunk of that will fill the belly of even the hungriest meat-eater." White Tip had to agree with the bird on some merits, "It's filling, but I prefer real, raw meat. The taste is too much for me." Frank replied, "If that's the case, why don't you wash it down with some water. You look like you need some bad." The Mongolian predator agreed, and followed Frank to the water as Fluttershy fed the other animals. After getting a much needed drink, White Tip wandered around the cottage until Fluttershy walked up to her and said something in mammalian, which the carnivore cannot understand. Frank essentially translated for Fluttershy, "She needs you to see her friend, Twilight Sparkle. So Fluttershy needs you to follow her into Ponyville." White Tip didn't quite understand, but had got the message to follow the one named Fluttershy to meet this other 'pony' named Twilight Sparkle, she snickered at the name and then followed Fluttershy into Ponyville. It was three hours since the blizzard ended, and Ponyville was back at its normal routine, until Fluttershy came in, being followed by a mysterious creature they had never seen before. White Tip saw that the residents of this 'Ponyville' were staring at her, she let out a low, crocodile-like purr which made some of the ponies back off from getting too close. Frank shook his head and said to the raptor, "You shouldn't do that you know. The citizens of Ponyville do not like seeing things they don't understand, especially if that thing hisses at them." White Tip muttered loudly, "It's their fault for getting too close." The Velociraptor then saw Fluttershy look back at her, making her tense up and proceed to a glistening castle shaped like a tree. As the pegasus knocked on the door, White Tip saw a small purple reptile open the door and then they spoke in that mammalian dialog she cannot understand. Frank told the carnivore that the purple reptile was a dragon named Spike, White Tip stared at the baby dragon then a primal urge surfaced that she couldn't understand. She bared her teeth and hissed at the dragon quietly, for some reason, just seeing the dragon made the dinosaur angry. Fluttershy gestured for White Tip to follow her inside the crystal tree, and then the doors closed shut behind the raptor. Twilight was reading a new letter from her former mentor, she was a little excited that Celestia had found a strange new animal in Equestria and is going to show it to her two days from now. Fluttershy came inside and said to her friend, "Hello Twilight, I'm here to ask you to help me with something, i-if you can that is…" Twilight turned around and replied, "Of course I'll help yo…" She stared at the creature behind her friend, jaw opened and shouted, "W-w-what the heck is THAT Fluttershy!" "Well, I was hoping you can help me with that Twilight. I found her outside last night, the poor thing was hurt and cold, so I couldn't just leave her to die. I couldn't understand her language though, but Mr. Bird here told me what she called herself was a…" The pegasus paused, trying to translate what Frank said, since it was difficult for him to say, but have managed to say it correctly. She finished, "A V-vel…ocir…rap…tor? Yes, Velociraptor, that's what Mr. Bird said she called herself…" Frank landed on Twilight's head and tweeted something to Fluttershy, "Oh?! She has a name? What is it?" Frank told her what the Velociraptor said her name was, "White…Tip? My, what a lovely name…" Twilight moved closer to White Tip and said, "Velociraptor? I've never heard of such a creature, if you didn't know what 'she' was, then it must be a new species. This Velociraptor has the feathers of a bird and yet seems incapable of flight…" The alicorn moved too close for White Tip to feel comfortable and snapped her jaws just inches from the princess' nose, Twilight yelped as the dinosaur hissed and hunched over and put her arms out, displaying the feathers in them, making her look larger. Fluttershy immediately recognized that White Tip must have felt threatened and what she just did is how any animal would do if it felt that its personal space was invaded. She told her surprised friend, "Umm, Twilight…You must have gotten too close for White Tip to feel comfortable…" The alicorn princess looked at her friend and said sheepishly, "He-he-he-hee… Right, okay…" Hours later, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash came to the castle with three young fillies who call themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders. They heard from Spike that Fluttershy and Twilight were studying a new animal that was apparently called a 'Velociraptor'. Already, Rainbow Dash and the pegasus filly named Scootaloo liked the name Velociraptor, it sounded as awesome as an eagle and it sounded very fast too. Spike took them to the room in the castle where this 'Velociraptor' was being studied. Pinkie Pie was jabbering all the way, "…Are you all excited to see this new 'Velociraptor'? 'Cause I know I'm super-excited to see it too…" The two other fillies, named Apple Bloom (Applejack's little sister) and Sweetie Belle (Rarity's little sister), were equally curious about the new creature. Apple Bloom interrupted, "Uh, yeah, Pinkie, I'm mighty curious about this, vel-osi-rapper too. Maybe it can help with the three of us get our cutie marks!" Scootaloo excitedly added, "Yeah! Maybe it can help us get our cutie marks! We could be the Cutie Mark…" The CMC were going on excitedly, until Rarity interrupted them as she pointed out, "Honestly you three, your all still obsessing over that, even now with this new creature we all know next to nothing about? Let's try to understand what it is exactly before we jump to conclusions alright?" Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and added, "Rarity does have a point, I'm just as excited to find out what it is, but lets wait till we actually see this Velociraptor, then we go all excited okay." They all followed the little dragon into the room, breaths being held, and when they saw the Velociraptor they were told about, they were all nervous, especially Applejack. For the Velociraptor they saw, though it was the size of a turkey, looked just like the big feathered monsters that attacked Applejack days ago. Scootaloo spoke first and said, "Aw man, I was hoping for something cooler looking…" Meanwhile out in the Equestrian Sea, the same pirate ship was sailing along nicely, though the crew were still shaken up after seeing that huge flying creature several nights ago. Unfortunately for them, they're in for a nastier surprise today. The ship thudded hard against something in front of it, and when several crew members investigated what it was, what they saw…made their faces blue with faces looking ready to panic… They saw a gigantic sea turtle, which is the prehistoric sea reptile Archelon, but it was floating motionlessly with its entire lower half bitten off by something big. A few of the pirate ponies threw up with green faces at the horribly gory sight, as well as the captain. But then something huge shot up out of the water on both sides of the ship, the pirates panicked when they saw that the thing was the jaws of a massive monster, with over seventy-five huge teeth running on each jaw. The captain took his hat off and placed in over his chest as with one chomp, the sea monster's massive jaws tore the (comparatively small) ship apart with screaming pirates falling into the dangerous waters, and what was truly frightening thing was the bite of the monster could smash through bones and metal, easily…