Tick-Tock The Bet is Up

by Black Hailstorm

Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Hunt Begins

“I’ll track him all across the planet if I have to”

Princess Luna, the Princess of the Night. The Master of the Moon stood before the steel stallion watching him, both with curiosity and interest. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the fact that the stallion had tried to take down a pack of timberwolves when she had appeared, or if it was because the magical disturbance she and her sister had briefly felt faintly coming from him and this...female hybrid?

Kevin had regained his composure now that the princess had introduced himself, taking a quick glance at Discord and grinning the stallion was glad to see the draconequus helpless, incapable of spouting irritating things that made him want to pound the bizarre being into the very earth itself.

“So Princess,” Kevin said trying not to sound rude when he spoke the word of formality. “You mind if I have my girlfriend back, thanks for helping us and all but we really do need to get out of here.”

“Your marefriend?” Luna asked, glancing at the female hybrid still bound in her magic. “But of course” and with that the princess of the night slowly returned the dragon/pony hybrid into Kevin’s arms, which immediately wrapped themselves gently yet firmly around Gwen as he propped her head up with one arm and kept the rest of her body up wrapped in the other.

A slight groan, and the sudden flip of an aero tail accompanied by movement from the hybrid let the small group know that their friend was waking up from her deep slumber.

Slowly emerald light green eyes fluttered open. The moonlight hitting the dracony just right as her bright orange red hair lay loosely on her face. Brushing a few strands of hair away Kevin couldn’t help but smile at Gwen as her eyes slowly opened, then focused on him.

“Hey there sleepy head” he said softly. “Finally up huh?”

Gwen rubbed her eyes, looking around she scanned her surroundings. They were in a forest, that much was for sure, but she knew for a fact that this forest wasn’t Bellwood’s she’d seen it get demolished when Count Down dragged Way Big along the turf’s vicinity like he were nothing more than a toy being dragged across the ground.

“Where are we?” she asked as she tried standing, only to quickly come to the realization that she now towered over her boyfriend, who’s head was up to her chest, and his appearance now that of an equine.

“More like what are we?” Kevin said upon Gwen's confused reaction. “From what Discord over there” he motioned to the frozen dragon still laying motionless on the ground, “has told me we’re in Equestria. A-”

“Alternate universe” Gwen finished for him. Snapping her amethyst fingers a gauntlet appeared leaving a pink glow in it’s wake. Around her wrist the gauntlet held an ancient stone with encryptions on it.

Gwen let a sigh of relief escape her lips. “It’s still here” she said, feeling a bit more at peace that the charm was safe.

“So...who’s this?” she asked directing Kevin’s attention to the dark alicorn directed in front of her.

“Princess Luna, she saved our life earlier just a few seconds ago” Kevin said turning his attention back to the dark alicorn that had been waiting patiently.

“I see” dropping down to all fours, seeing that it would be better in her new form Gwen carefully took steps towards the alicorn. “Thank you for saving us” she said sincerely.

“It was not a problem, we simply saw you needed help and acted upon it” Luna replied warmly, a small gust of air sweeping between the two as silence took its place once the appreciation had been given.

Just as Princess Luna was about to speak once more a shadow cast itself over them. Looking up into the dark night sky (along with Discord who somehow managed to move his eyes upward) the group saw in the distance a bright red dragon following a pegasus into the night. Luna watched carefully, pondering why a dragon would be following a pegasus, especially around this area, but she immediately dismissed it as being nothing more than a coincidence or other more private matters between the two.

Kevin and Discord did the same ignoring the presence that flew up in the night sky, but Gwen’s eyes remained on the dragon. Call it ‘women’s intuition’ but something about that dragon made the dracony hybrid feel...off. Like it was a presence she had felt before.

“Excuse me Princess Luna?”

“Yes Gwen?”

“Dragon’s don’t usually wear clothes in this world do they?” she asked her eyes still firmly fixed on the slowly moving target.

“Well, no only a few dragons that have retained their intellect and aren’t driven by instinct or avarice do. And that’s only on rare occasions, why?”

Gwen didn’t respond she was now squinting trying to get a good look at something that had caught her eye. Kevin immediately noticed the look.

“Gwen...what is it?” he asked his gaze now following hers as the dragon began to disappear out of their view.

“It’s just, something about that dragon. Feels, wrong. Like we’ve met before and-” she paused, a small light had glinted on the dragon’s side. Using her newly heightened vision Gwen, could just barely make out a mask poking out a small bag that lay close to the dragon’s hip. Another glint from the moonlight just before the dragon disappeared over the thickness of the forest, made Gwen’s eyes dilated in confusion and horror.

“Gwen? Gwen what’s wrong?” Kevin turned to face the mixed look of confusion and horror on Gwen’s face as she stared at the sky void of both her target of interest and whatever she had managed to see in that split second.

Discord who’d remained silent the entire time and incapable of movement suddenly began twitching, before stretching his limbs and breaking free of his short-lived paralysis. Letting out a small grunt of both joy and annoyance the ancient dragon began doing stretches Kevin had only seen performed on TV.

“Feeling better?” Princess Luna asked, which only ordered a nod from the dragon as he continued to stretch.

Kevin’s slight distraction of Discord’s sudden movement, made him and the others oblivious to the fact that Gwen was no longer standing in front of him but was now heading in the direction of the dragon and the mare in the sky.

“Wait Gwen where are you going!?” Kevin asked running up ahead and cutting her off from moving any further. “And what did you see up there that had you so worry stricken?”

Luna and Discord had now joined the two.

“Oh yes, do tell. My old eyes can’t handle farsights like you young folk these days” Discord commented, Luna simply nodded her assurance that she was interested in hearing what the hybrid had to say as well before they all remained silent, waiting for Gwen to speak.

“It’s Darkstar” she said biting her bottom lip, much to the confusion of both Discord and Princess Luna but to the anger of Kevin.

“What?!” he exclaimed. “Why is he here?!”

Gwen raised a thoughtful paw up as she contemplated only one course of reasoning. “It must have been Count Down.”

“Yes but why send him here!?”

“How should I know Kevin? Look, it doesn’t matter we need to go stop him before he drains the life out of every living being on this planet.”

“Whoa whoa whoa” Discord said both hands up in a motion of silence. “Drain everyone on this planet? Now I may not know who or where you guys are/from, but you can’t tell me a dragon” he said scoffingly, “A dragon has the power to absorb magic, right?”

They nodded. “That’s exactly what we’re telling you” Kevin replied.

“We do not understand. Who is this Darkstar you speak of and why do you say this dragon can absorb magic. No dragons have such a power, as far as we know of” Princess Luna stated.

“Well this dragon does” Kevin answer adding “princess” to the end just to make it sound a bit more courteous.

“Explain yourselves. Did you bring this dragon here in an attempt to take over Equestria?” Luna asked her tone now dropping all warmth and changing into a reproachful one.

“No, no you don’t understand. Darkstar is not a dragon from your world. He’s from ours” Gwen watched their reactions to see if they were following. The looks they were giving her told the dragon hybrid she hadn’t lost them yet so she continued.

“Ok it’s simple, obviously I get the feeling you guys have dealt with this kind of stuff before am I right?” she asked. Slowly the two nodded. “Good.”

“Good?” Luna asked. “How could that possibly be good?”

“Because this makes it much more easier for what I’m about to explain to you. Darkstar and I we used to date” Kevin growled but Gwen simply ignored him. “And things went downhill for him pretty quick when my cousin and boyfriend here took him down. He basically you see has the power to absorb energy, that includes magic, life force, strength. Anything based off energy he can absorb it.”

“So we’re basically dealing with a Tirek” Discord sighed pinching the bridge of his nose. This was bringing up bad memories, memories he clearly did not want to have to deal with right now or any other day. Beginning to regret his small stroll in the rain to investigate this matter in the first place Discord sighed as Luna’s voice drove him back to the conversation.

“What do we do?” Princess Luna asked her expression serious. Dealing with Tirek had proven impossible for her, her sister and her niece to do. Had it not been for Twilight Sparkle the world wouldn’t exist as it did today, but the thought of having to give up her magic for a second time wasn’t something she really wanted to do again. Feeling useless and weak once was bad enough, doing it a second time wasn’t something she wanted again.

“Not we, us” Kevin corrected, staring at the alicorn from his standpoint. Luna merely stared back, just now taking notice that the stallion was exactly the same height as her, possibly taller by an inch if his hair was taken into account.

“Kevin” Gwen pulled the steel stallion back from his stand-off with the queen of the night and offering a sheepish apologetic smile in the dark alicorn’s direction. “Excuse us for one second” she said grabbing Kevin up with her glowing amethyst paw that now exuded a brilliant pink aura, Gwen quickly walked a couple of feet away from two powerful creatures that she could sense contained powerful magic before turning on her boyfriend.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” she scolded in a whisper.

“What does it look like I’m doing I’m making sure no one else gets involved with our problem” he said surprisingly in a calm manner.

“Well do you have to talk like that to the two strongest beings in this area?” Gwen asked in a frustrated tone.

“What do you mean?”

“Kevin, you told me when I woke up she saved our life. Since we’re stuck in these bodies and I’m part dragon, part whatever-”

“Dracony” he chimed in wisely, earning a look. “What? I think Ben would love that name for this uh- new form you’re in.”

“Ben! Oh man, I completely forgot about him!” Gwen let out another groan of frustration as the realization of how much they needed to do here began to sink in.

“Exactly why I dismissed their help. We don’t have time to explain things to them babe, we need to find Ben and take down Darkstar.”

Gwen frowned. He was right. Every second they wasted time explaining was another second Darkstar could be getting away and since she doesn’t have anything of his to track him with then losing sight of him would be horrible.

Taking another quick look behind them Gwen saw Princess Luna waiting and Discord gone. She sighed, “I hate it when you’re right”

“Love you to” Kevin replied as they made their way back to the dark winged unicorn.

“What have you two concluded as your decision?” she asked.

“Actually we-” Gwen began only to hear an echoing voice reverberate through the forest and into her ears.

“They’ve decided to leave us in the dark, pun intended Lulu” and with a poof the master of chaos had reappeared beside a slightly annoyed Luna, and the grimace of Kevin who was now clutching his ears.

“Good to see I’m so warmly welcomed. Anyway!” he said clapping his hands with a pleased look, Discord continued. “I couldn’t help overhearing what you were saying” he stated pointing on Kevin’s head one of Discord’s ears was sticking out of his mane. With a snap of his griffon claw the ear disappeared then reappeared back on his head.

“And frankly I just can’t see why you won’t tell us anything?” he said with a wag of his lion finger.

“They refuse to tell us?” Luna asked, not surprised but no more pleased than she had been when she first heard of the news.

“We can explain” Gwen began, only to have Discord stop her cold as he placed a claw on her lips and ssshhh’d her into silence.

“No explanations necessary” he stated. “I understand, you need to find your friend, you’re worried. You need to stop this horrible horrible villain you’ve brought into our world” he said making Gwen’s ears droop a bit when he emphasized the “our.”
.
“But I don’t think you understand what my good friend Lulu here will be going through?” he said cupping Luna’s face in his other extra pair of hands as he arched himself over her. “Luna dear, please explain to these kind folk what you’ll be going through if they don’t tell you what happens.”

“Gladly” she said before shooing both of Discord’s hands away from her face. “As the princess of Equestria it is my duty to ensure my people are safe. If you have indeed brought a villain into my countryside, even if unintentionally, I will have to deliver punishment if any foal, mare or stallion is hurt.”

“Wait a second! We just-”

“But” she continued cutting Kevin off from further interruption. “if you can stop this dragon from hurting anypony else.”

“We won’t have to worry about Darkstar harming anyone” Gwen finished. “Dont worry we already planned on doing that in the first place. But if we’re going to catch up to Darkstar we’ll need to keep an eye on him, from a distance figure out what he’s doing so we don’t tip him off.”

Luna smiled shooting a glance in Discord’s direction. “I believe I know just the draconequus to help.”

---

“Calm yourself Natani. I assure you Fluttershy and our new friend will find your son” Princess Celestia stated reassuringly.

A feral growl was the only response the massive constellation bear gave. She was getting impatient, her maternal instincts were starting to kick in once again and any minute now she felt she would completely rip apart this small town and everyone of its inhabitants if she didn’t get her son back this instant.

The sound of clicking hooves drove the bear’s attention downwards as she spotted the flash white earth pony trotting towards them. The pony obviously showed no signs of fear even as he approached the massive beast that could easily eat him in one gulp, nor was he perturbed by the brilliant essence the Princess gave off as she stood in view of the giant bear. Natani couldn’t help but think that this pony of all the ponies she’d ever encountered (especially those that had gotten lost in the Everfree forest), was the strangest one she’d ever seen.

“Did you find him?” Celestia asked, turning her attention to the stallion as he trotted up to them coming to a stop directly in Natani’s view and by Celestia’s side.

“We did” Ben replied, his voice grave. A tone that wasn’t missed by the aggravated mother.

“But?”

“But he had claw marks on him, and looked extremely tired when we got to him.” No sooner had these words left Ben’s mouth did Natani immediately get up and let out an earsplitting roar that shook the heavens itself. The piercing roar wasn’t one of anger but of a grieving mother, that had just been told her son was wounded and she was too far away to comfort him.

“Where is he?” the mother bellowed now on all fours and slamming a paw into the ground merely four feet away from the princess and Ben. Neither were shaken. Celestia obviously having seen and been through much worse and Ben just as likewise.

“Fluttershy is taking care of him” Ben said, not a sliver of fear or uneasiness in his voice, just austerity.

“Do you know who did this?” Celestia asked careful as not to upset the already fuming mother who looked ready to kill at any second now.

“Nothing aside from the fact that it was a dragon. But I can find them.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow in question. “How?”

“I need a tracker. Do you have anyone like that here?” Celestia immediately began thinking. She knew of various trackers, some of which that had worked in her services whenever there was a missing pony case to be solved by the Manehattan Department of Justice.

“I know of a few. I can immediately contact one and have them get here as quickly as possible.”

Ben shook his head. “I need one now. I’m not going to wait and let whoever did this go free.”

“Then why wait?” a voice from above said, and zooming by performing a safe landing was Rainbow Dash. “Take me with you. I’ll help you track down the guy that made Ponyville into a bowling alley.

“Besides if you’re going after a dragon you’ll need me to provide aerial support. I have dealt with dragons before you know” she said confidently placing a hoof on her chest.

Ben merely rolled his eyes. “What about your friends?”

“I’ll need them here to help keep an eye on things” Celestia said. “If things are settled then please, make haste and find the dragon that did this. I’m entrusting you and Rainbow Dash to find and stop that dragon.”

Bowing Ben and Rainbow Dash took off, in an attempt to meet Fluttershy who would be their guide on the journey.

As Ben galloped Rainbow Dash flapped her wings moving ahead, only one thought came across his mind: “What could have done that to that cub?”

---

“Tell me again why I’m doing this?” Discord asked as Kevin and Gwen trotted ahead checking for any signs of the target they were in search for.

“Because the princess said you would if you didn’t want Fluttershy to be upset with you for not taking the chance of helping two people that really needed” Kevin answered, grinning when Discord scowled.

“Oh yeah. That” he said glumly.

“Where to Discord?” Gwen asked as they now exited the Everfree forest and came out onto plain grassy fields, in the distance there was a city ahead that Gwen could just barely make out.

“About 8 miles towards BadLands” he replied.

“Why’s it called BadLands?” Kevin asked as they continued to push on forward towards the city in the distance.

Discord shrugged “Bad things happen” he said with a wry smile, no one laughed. The smile immediately faded into a sullen frown. “You people are so boring. If you need me I’ll be in this tent” he said gesturing towards the magically flying tent that had just happened to be there all of a sudden. Levitating inside and zipping it up, Gwen and Kevin looked at each other with confusion as the draconequus allowed the tent to continue following after them as the small group made its way towards Dodge City.

Directly behind them, within the shadows of the Everfree was a figure sitting atop a tiger that appeared to be the same size as a chimera. The figure grinned and patted his pet gently his stature having slightly shrunk since being tossed in this world merely made things more interesting for him now that he had found himself new pray to follow.

As the small team moved further on towards the city and hints of sunlight began to mark the horizon, the figure stepped out of the shadows his form now that of a grown gator, upper body covered in the bones of many animals he had claimed as his trophies Kyhber watched the dracony and draconequus along with the stallion make their way toward a dot in the distance.

The being merely grinned standing on his raptor like feet now and licking his lips with greedy lust for what he would soon claim and mount on his wall as his next trophy.

“Come pet.” Kyhber stated to the chimera sized sabertooth lion by his side. “For now we keep our distance and watch. When the time is right” he felt his claws lung out from his excitement. Marvelling at this new body’s physiology the alligator-like creature merely grinned.

“That is when the hunt begins.”

---

Fluttershy had just finished tending to the wounds of the Ursa Minor and the bear had now come out of his unconscious state. At first she thought she would have to soothe the bear and reassure it she meant no harm, but it was clear the cub was too tired to even make a protest. All it could do was whimper.

The sound made Fluttershy’s heartbreak so she floated down (accompanied by the manticore) and cautiously approached the cub. Hearing a faint growl warned her to stop, the cub may have been weak but the fighting spirit it possessed was no joke.

Staring into her teal eyes were the embers of anger, but at the same time Fluttershy could see the fear in the poor creature’s eyes and took it into account ignoring the manticore’s protests for her to stay away and the increasing feral growl coming from the cub.

“There, there” she said gently stroking the bear’s side. A small purr and the relaxation of its muscles was all she needed to know that she had calmed it down. “Sssh, it’s okay I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Surprise!” came Discord’s voice above Fluttershy making her squeal in shock and the manticore lash out in rage. The cub however was too tired to give a fuck so merely rested his head on the ground, having already recognized the voice belonged to the master of Chaos.

“H-H-Hi Discord” she managed once she had calmed down the growling of the beast as it tried to locate the draconequus’ voice from wherever it came from. “Where have you been all day?”

“Ooooh you simply would not believe me my dear” Discord said.

“Really, why what happened?”

“Glad you asked.” And so it began, the long droning of Discord’s talk on how he met the stallion named Kevin who was protecting his girlfriend Gwen, how they’re not from this world and how they seemed to have brought some kind of global peril on them all. And all while Discord spoke Fluttershy’s mood became decreasingly less pleased with all this information.

“Oh my” she said sounding rather sullen about the whole turn of events the group was now in. “I hope you and your new friends will be alright.”

“Oh but of course Fluttershy dear, we will be just fine now I must get going I believe my new amigos are calling out to me.” And with that silence soon returned to the forest once Fluttershy had bid her goodbye.

Hearing the sound of clicking hooves coming towards her Fluttershy calmed the edgy manticore as Ben, Rainbow Dash and a small group of unicorns arrived.

“Oh hey guys, I was able to get the cub all fixed up. He’ll need to rest a bit before he can move though” she said upon noticing one of the unicorns begin to approach the bear.

“Well we can’t wait we need to go” Rainbow Dash said landing and folding her wings as she trotted towards the yellow pegasus.

“Where to?”

“I need your help to track down the dragon so we can stop it from doing anymore harm” Ben said. Fluttershy hesitated but after a few seconds nodded.

“Alright then. But if we’re leaving now they can’t touch this cub till he’s ready to move again” her voice now strict as she turned her attention to the group of unicorns. “Don’t try carrying him in your magic. If you move him too much he’ll reopen his wounds and since his magic isn’t working he won’t be able to heal himself fast enough before he gets a serious infection.

“Do. You. Understand?” she asked with each word she took a step towards the leader’s direction till their snouts were nearly touching.

“Yes” the mare squeaked.

“Good” Fluttershy replied with a smile, before turning back to her attention to the manticore. “Mr.Slasher, please make sure they don’t touch the cub till he’s ready to move again okay?”

The manticore bowed its head in response as if Fluttershy were royalty and he were merely a servant, signalling he understood.

“Thank you” she said quickly hugging the manticore before trotting over to Ben and Rainbow Dash. “Let’s go.”

Before Ben followed after his comrades he turned to see the manticore growling at the trembling unit of unicorns as they waited for the cub to reawaken. “Hey guys!” he called out.

All of them looked in his direction.

“Have fun” he said with a grin before galloping off after the others, a few shouts and curses were thrown his way but they were all silenced when ‘Mr.Slasher’ roared.

Ben couldn’t help but snicker. The hunt was now on, and soon enough he’d come face to face with the dragon that did this.

Comments

[Diokno44]

Yay, Ben 10 Crossover!

[Fox spirit]

Yay indeed my Friend Yay Indeed...