Another day, another visit to the Ponyville school by the local librarian. When Twilight walked in, the class greeted her loudly, just like before. Unlike yesterday, she was fully ready and prepared today. She smiled as she opened up her book and recreated the morphing orb. Cheerilee couldn't help but start sweating again through some sub-conscious fear.
"So then, what did you think about the monsters from yesterday?"
The students each took turns in talking about their viewpoint:
"They were awesome!"
"They were scary."
"They were intriguingly complex and evolved." The small filly adjusted her glasses.
Everypony turned around and stared at her in confusion and disbelief.
"What?"
Twilight was amused by the reactions but still shook her head in disappointment. "Never mind about that. How about I tell you about the Geradin?" Twilight suggested with a very low and dark tone. Her eyes bolted from one student to another to add to her attempted 'creepiness'.
"Is that, like, a lava beast?" a little orange colt asked.
"Nope. Let me show you."
This time, Twilight was going to go to greater lengths to add realism to the orb's transformations. It slowly descended onto the floor, dragging everypony's eyes with it. The silvery orb exploded into a mound of sand all over the floor around Cheerilee's desk and the entrance, but going no further than the front desks of the students. A few of them were disappointed by the rather bland demonstration until they all heard a type of high-pitched scream akin to broken class scraping against a chalk-board. The sand burst upwards, revealing a very strange creature. The creature was colored like the sand, but it wasn't made of the substance entirely. Some of its parts were made of stone, most notable parts being its fingers; Eight in total.
Giant bracelets, slowly rotating around its wrists, possessed stems that came out randomly from any inner area and into the creature's said wrists. They seemed to be made of a black stone that hadn't been carved to be smooth, so several portions popped out, were uneven, or were simply 'raw', as some sculptors would say. The outer surface of this jewelry was just as tan as the sand and possessing asymmetrical shapes. The final trait of this jewelry were the strange runic symbols carved into the black, inner surface.
As for the rest of its body, the Geradin looked to be mostly made of sand rather than stone, and the sand perpetually slid down with a notable 'hissing' noise. Some portions, as mentioned prior, were also made of stone, but only the head was made entirely of it. This head seemed to be plastered with a face of eternal worry. It was made from the same black stone as the bracelets, setting it aside from the tan-colored rocks that comprised the rest of its solid body parts. The eyes had no pupils, but the mouth was open and possessed some sort of dark abyss within it. It did not have any ears, however, and the head seemed to spike up randomly with what appeared to be a miniature mountain range, from which the sand poured like a slow, volcanic eruption.
"The Geradin." Twilight announced proudly. "This being is a monster of the eastern deserts, but more specifically, the Sorpion deserts. Many hundreds of ponies have seen it, but only thirteen have ever survived an encounter. It is said that this creature protects a certain area of the desert for some crrrazy reason. It tends to make a low-toned, ghostly wail while it moves, so take that as a queue to make a wide berth if you hear it.
Many scholars and researchers haven't been able to figure out if this creature is carved and animated by magic, or a real creature. Whenever a piece of it chipped off, the piece would disintegrate into sand. However, a few of the scholars recognized the runes on the bracelets. They are of an ancient language known as the 'Vectma'. It has just been recently discovered, and soon, we'll be able to understand what the bracelets say."
"Maybe they say 'stay outta mah sand'!" a colt joked.
"Yes, well, those bracelets, along with its hands, seem capable of controlling the desert. It has been seen creating gigantic sandstorms and sending them randomly everywhere. The only real way to get rid of it is to throw some water. Any amount will have it fleeing. That being said, the more water you use, the more time you have to flee the area. Being in a desert, it is a tough choice to make. If you dilly-dally, and the water dries out...BAM!"
"Ms Twilight, these beasts seem absolutely terrifying," Cheerilee said as she stared at the creature in concern.
"There's more where that came from."
"Really? Like?"
"The Yusimon."
The orb morphed once again, dragging all the sand within it, then rising into the air and exploding into a beautiful cosmic tapestry. There, some sort of creature began to approach. It looked like some sort of spider, although the two front legs had three metallic claws that formed a sort of pyramid when put together. The creature rose up violently, opening its mouth to reveal that it, in fact, had two of them: One within and one without.
The Yusimon's body looked like that of a millipede with six legs instead of dozens. It was of a sickly green color and seemed to be expelling fumes of some kind around it. The head was indeed that of a spider, showing off ten beady black eyes.
"Um, Twilight, what is that thing? It doesn't seem that scary," one of the students asked.
The foals in the classroom weren't too impressed by a six legged, millipede spider.
"Oh really? You know about the great plagues, right?" Twilight said with an annoyed grin.
"Yeah..." Cheerilee's pupils shrunk. "You don't mean to tell me that--"
"Yes. It is the cause for forty percent of the world's population dying off on multiple occasions. This beast was confronted by the thousands of creatures that remained, mainly minotaurs and giants, and was finally sealed away within the Astral Crypt; a place made to seal it for all time and to never let it or its diseases to run rampant ever again. The magics meant for opening were purposely destroyed, and that's a good thing. If we were to open it up again, the diverse diseases and toxins that have piled up and evolved in that place would flow over our world like a tidal wave.
This creature is the reason why there are colds and many other heavily weakened bad viruses floating everywhere, but, don't worry; we've found ways to counter many of them. That's what hospitals are for. All in all, the Yusimon is NOT something that should ever be seen directly."
The orb morphed again into what looked like a white transparent white cloth with a torn hole made to look like a mouth. Everypony leaned forward in confusion. What was so special about this one?
"Before you ask me about it, just know that these creatures can take over your body and eat your soul. These are Clothlings. Yes, I know, it's a weird name." Twilight shrugged. "Clothlings are, supposedly, the energies left by evil spirits that were captured by the underworld's minions. All these negative energies form into this cloth, and they hunt for a new body to inhabit in order to cause mayhem and other horrible things. I won't go THAT far in detail, but they ARE very cruel.
When a Clothling comes near you, it immediately gets into your body. They are relatively weak, but when you start to feel like your body isn't answering anymore, then you are lost. The only way to be saved is to be immersed in pure light or have a very strong willpower. Once they capture your body, they eat your soul and take your memories which they use to sink into your life and torture those that are close to you. It isn't too hard to destroy them or trap them in your mind once you know they are there, or you have the aforementioned willpower."
Usually, once they are created, the Clothlings just wander aimlessly for a night, and once the sun comes up, they are burnt away."
"Then how come the princesses don't keep the sun up forever?" a filly asked.
"For several reasons, but one related to them is that, eventually, when the moon has to come back up, thousands of them will spawn at once. So, inadvertently, the princesses destroy evil creatures without actually knowing that they are there."
"Cool," the same filly said.
"Now then, for the last monster of the day; here is the Vesuvius Vulcan."
The cloth started to vibrate and soon exploded into a ball of searing hot flame and magma. It showed the heart of a volcano, with the rocky walls red with heat. There was a creature in the lava with strange growths all over its body which seemed to be absorbing the molten rock. These growths looked like a veiny extension of the body of sorts, and the creature sitting in the pool was not friendly looking at all. It had four eyes, and the eye in the middle was protruding out like an antenna. The mouth was pushed forward and was drooling what appeared to be flaming saliva.
The arms were triple-jointed and very long, even ending in six digits for each hand. It only had two, but it also seemed to have four legs made for swimming through large deposits of magma, as much as anypony could tell, at least. The coal black toes of each foot had the appearance of a drill, with a hole at the end of each. This was certainly where the 'propulsion system' -as absurd as that sounds- of the Vesuvius Vulcan was. As for the color, the giant had the same flaming orange as the molten rock in which it lay, as well as several bumps and lumps on its skin.
"These creatures love extreme heat and actively search for volcanoes big enough for their bodies. The problem is, they cause volcanic eruptions when they find a suitable home." Twilight scratched the back of her head while looking downwards with melancholy. "They ARE the reason for the fertility of the grounds, however. The only problem is, once an eruption occurs, they are likely to follow the trail that might lead them to inhabited areas. They usually only feed on rocks and other mineral deposits, which means they'll attack houses to eat them, causing lots of destruction on their way to their new home.
This doesn't mean that they will ALWAYS leave the volcanoes once installed in on, but they will inevitably. The Vesuvius Vulcan are also a reason why volcanoes 'slumber'. Once they reach the end of their life-time, they start to freeze up. Thus, the volcano solidifies and keeps anything from getting through it ever again. It's rare, but, other Vesuvius Vulcans can find the volcano and light it back up. There are other times when the volcanoes simply become dormant naturally, forcing the Vesuvius to search for a new one to live on."
There IS an extremely rare variant of them called the 'Gigantis Vesuvius Vulcan'. They inhabit super-volcanoes, making them an extreme threat. It usually takes them awhile until they manage to dig deep enough into the body, but, once they are at the breaking point, the eruptions are terrible and devastating. These variants live for extreme amounts of time, much like their homes. Going to about one hundred thousand years at most while the normal Vesuvius only live a century."
Twilight finally closed the book and dissolved the orb.
"Well, that's it for today," Twilight said. "I hope I can see you again tomorrow."
"Sure. If the students want--"
"YES!" they all shouted loudly, nearly breaking the windows in the class.
"Wow. Well, you got your answer," Cheerilee added with a smile.
"See you all again tomorrow, then."
Once the librarian was gone, Cheerilee checked around her seat and desk for anything that might be out of place, only to see a cloth floating towards her. She yelped and slapped it away. Apparently, the students pulled a prank on her. She didn't appreciate this at all, but she couldn't yell at or punish the students for a simple prank.
"Just you wait. I'll pull a good prank on you all," she thought to herself with a menacing grin and teeth clenching. "Surprise quiz!" she shouted.