Corruption 2: Advent of Darkness

by LordLycaon

Monsters and Masters

Twilight whistled a little tune as she walked through Ponyville, keeping her mind off of the looks she got from the other ponies as she trotted through town. She levitated her to-do list in front of her. She had already taken care of most of what was on it. She had spoken to Rarity about decorations, had Rainbow Dash and the other weather ponies agree to keep the weather nice on the day of the party, made sure that Fluttershy would have her animals ready for a petting zoo (Pinkie Pie's idea), and had given the local copier the details of the invitations that were to be made and delivered to everypony in town. The unicorn sighed at that last one. Why Pinkie didn't just meet with the local newspaper to have her big party advertised for everypony to see, she had no idea.

She rolled down the list to the last thing she needed to do. She now had to go talk to Pinkie Pie about the remaining details for the party. After that, she'd have the rest of the day to herself. With a nod, she rolled up the list and stored it away in her saddlebag and made her way to Sugarcube Corner. All the way, however, she felt as though she was being watched by someone. And it wasn't the other ponies in the town.

-o-

A trio of pairs of eyes followed the pony that they had been sent to find with readiness glinting in each eye. The pony trotted obliviously through the town, past others until finally arriving at their destination, the town library where Twilight Sparkle made her home.

"O-o-oh!" said a raspy voice. "This make it better! We get two preys for one!"

"Yes, yes," said a deep, throaty voice. "We get Key, and little unicorn! We get double rewarded!"

"Burn them?" said a third, stuttering voice said. "Have playtime, yes?"

"Yes, playtime," the deep voice replied with a heavy chuckle. "We play with ponies. Make ponies talk. Bring unicorn to masters."

"Fun!" the raspy voice said excitedly. The owners of those all followed the pony with gleeful grins. They were going to have fun soon.

-o-

Spike sighed in boredom as he went through his portion of the big to-do list. There was little else to do around the library lately, and most of the things on the list had already been crossed out, thanks to efficiency with which Twilight and Flash seemed to work with. The two ponies had cleared a good two thirds of the list off. Just when he finally came to something that wasn't crossed out, he heard the sound of the front door opening.

"Hey, Spike!" called the voice of Flash Sentry. "I'm back! I've got the groceries!"

"Just put them in the kitchen!" Spike called back. "I'll sort them out later!"

"You got it," Flash replied as he headed for the kitchen and began dropping things off onto the nearest counter. He left the kitchen then and headed into the main library to look around for a little while. He wasn't really that big a reader. He never really had the time for it, plus his own general lack of interest in literature. Twilight had been trying to get him to read a few of her favorites, and some other popular ones that she had. As it turns out, Flash Sentry was very good at procrastinating.

As he walked, he heard what sounded like something banging against the front door. When he went to investigate, the door practically exploded as a huge form charged in. He only barely managed to avoid being tackled by the massive beast that had broken into the building. The creature rolled across the floor until it hit the far wall and scrambled to its feet. Flash stared at the beast before him with wide eyes.

It had the body of huge, bulky lion with crimson eyes and huge teeth that looked sharper than razors. Its tail was a hissing snake with beady red eyes, and on its back was the head of a… goat? Silly as that may have looked at first, Flash easily saw the malice that burned in the goat head's own red eyes. Whatever this thing was, it meant business.

"Okay," the pegasus said as he took a few careful steps back. "Wasn't expecting company today." Suddenly, the lion head opened its mouth and spat out a stream of white-hot fire at the young stallion, who yelped in surprise as he flapped his wings to evade the fire. He flew off to the left and hovered there, staring at the burning ruin that was once a bookshelf. "Oh, Twilight won't be happy about that."

"Flash!" Spike called as he ran down the stairs. "What the hay is-?" The baby dragon froze the instant he saw the huge lion-snake-goat-hybrid monster. "Uh… I'll just go do a… thing." He immediately sprinted back upstairs then, but was blocked when the monster pounced up onto the stairs in front of him. The young dragon chuckled nervously. "Er, nice kitty?" The beast roared at him, and raised its paw to swat him away, but it was suddenly tackled by an orange blur, throwing the creature off balance and tumbling down the stairs past Spike.

"Spike, go get Twilight!" Flash ordered. "I'll hold off Fluffy here!" Spike nodded unquestioningly and sprinted off to find the purple unicorn mare. Flash returned his focus to the beast, which was already back on its feet and glaring at him with hatred and an unsettling hunger. "Right. Hold him off. I didn't really think this one through." The lion snarled at him. "Problem, Fluffy?"

"Pony!" the lion head growled in a deep baritone voice, catching Flash completely off guard. "We hunt you! You tell us where Key is! You give us Key!"

Flash just stared at the beast for a few seconds before shaking his head. "Wait, key? What key?"

The goat head bleated angrily. "Etna Key!" it shouted. "You tell us where Etna Key is! Then we eat you!"

"Well, that's inviting," the orange pegasus replied. "I've never even heard of an Etna Key before. What makes you think I know where it is?"

"Mastersss say you know!" the tail-snake hissed. "Tell usss!"

"Masters?" Flash asked with a raised eyebrow. "Who-?" Before he could finish his question, the monster charged at him faster than before, its lion's maw open and burning. He was only barely able to evade the attack, flying off to the right and hitting the ground harder than he had intended. He looked back up at the beast, which had jumped down from the stairs and landed with a loud thud, the wooden floor cracking under the monster's weight. Flash took several steps back as the monster approached him, impatience evident in its infernal gaze.

"You tell us where is Etna Key!" the lion head roared furiously. "You don't tell us, and we kill you! Eat your heart!"

"You're not exactly inspiring cooperation here, you know that?"

The monster roared angrily again and once more charged at the orange pegasus, who braced himself for the attack. Just before the beast could tackle him – or worse – its heads glowed purple for a split second, and it collapsed right in front of him, all three heads snoring loudly.

"Flash!" called the voice of Twilight Sparkle. The unicorn mare, followed by Spike, galloped over to the stallion, who released a sigh of relief and sat down with a relieved grin. "Are you all right? Spike said you were in trouble, but he didn't say anything about a chimera!"

"A chimera, huh?" Flash replied with a curious look. "Well, that sure sounds a lot more respectable than 'Fluffy.'"

"How can you joke about something like this!?" Twilight shouted at him. "If Spike hadn't found me at Sugarcube Corner, and if I hadn't been able to cast that sleeping spell on the chimera, you would've been…" She trailed off. Flash didn't need her to finish. He knew what she was going to say. He was about to apologize when she spoke again. "What's a chimera doing here anyway? What did it want?"

"It said something about something called the 'Etna Key,'" Flash answered as he stood back up. "I don't know what the Etna Key is, but it seemed to think that I knew where it was. It also said something about having masters, but it didn't say much else."

"Etna Key?" Twilight thought out loud. She turned to the chimera for a few moments, then faced Spike, who was already cleaning up the remains of the bookshelf that the chimera had destroyed. "Spike, write a letter to the princess. She may know what this Etna Key is and what it's for." The baby dragon saluted and hurried to do as he was told. Twilight turned back to the chimera, then to Flash. "Think you can help me get this thing out of here and into the Everfree? I really don't want it waking up in my house."

"Sure thing."

As the two ponies dragged the chimera out of library and back to the Everfree Forest, Twilight's mind kept going back to this Etna Key that Flash had mentioned. What was it? What was it the key to? And who were the beast's masters? She was beginning to have a very bad feeling in her gut. And that feeling was rarely wrong.

Comments

[Hello 1234]

Next chapter plz