Creature of the Night: Episode One-The Night Guardian

by CreatureofTheNight

The Night Guardian

Creature looked on, a cold glint in his blood-red eyes, as the Hydra roared, thrashing its three heads with pride and hunger, saliva dripping from its gaping maw. The girls got into formation almost through instinct as the six of them realized they would have to fight the vile thing off, otherwise it would certainly eat them. Creature, on the other hoof, just stood there, a fierce debate raging in his mind. He had tried repeatedly to warn them about the Hydra, well, Twilight anyway, but nopony had listened to him. Instead they'd attacked him, tried to drive him away from the ponies he'd loved to protect. Why should he help them?

The Hydra roared and smacked Applejack into a wall with one of its heads. The others rushed to her, but the thing's breath generated such force that it launched them against the wall. Twilight stood and tried blasting the thing with magic, but to her horror, the thing ate her blasts, literally swallowing great bursts of energy, seeming to grow larger and stronger and angrier with every blast. It smirked, jutting its central head towards Twilight, leaning into the room in which the helpless ponies cowered, when suddenly the thing felt a hoof under its jaw, violently smashing its skull into the ceiling.

Rainbow smirked and said "Got your back, Twilight! Don't worry, I know how to deal with this monster!" Twilight cast Rainbow a doubtful glance, but the pegasus dashed recklessly towards the beast, kicking the dazed head that had, until recently, been menacing her friend at mach one.

She quickly turned pale, though, for she had kicked the thing so hard that the head was simply crushed, its face shattering from the impact. As she watched, horror-stricken, the head - and the entire neck attached to it - began to wither and blacken, shrivelling up to almost nothing, and eventually dropping off altogether, shattering on the stone ground like charred wood. Rainbow started to apologize profusely for that because that was not what she had intended, but the Hydra only smirked.

Fluttershy had to remind her about the biology[It's a myth to us, but ponies are probably a lot more used to Hydras.] of the Hydra. "Rainbow, don't worry, Hydra's are okay if they lose their heads." Rainbow paused and smiled with relief "Because when one head goes away..." Suddenly two heads burst from the Hydra's stump - "Two more take its place."

Rainbow paled once more as the Hydra, now four-headed, stared right at her with all eight of its eyes. She decided to go into dodge mode as the thing nipped and bit at her, trying to crush the rainbow maned pegasus with its powerful jaws. She dived down underneath it, but that turned out to be exactly what it wanted. It used its tail to smack Rainbow away, sending her spinning wildly out of control. Applejack, having gotten up, lassoed Rainbow towards her. Dash sighed with relief. "Thanks"

"Don't thank me yet," replied Applejack, narrowing her eyes at the beast. The Hydra looked at the two, allowing Twilight to blast the thing in its back, trying not to hit its head, but the Hydra was more clever than it let on, swinging down its other two heads to take the blast. When it hit them, the two simply disolved into a thin purple vapour. True to the legend the Hydra now was armed with six dangerous heads, all six of them coming towards Twilight with the clear intention of eating her. Sprining into action, Fluttershy of all ponies hurled herself towards Twilight, pushing her out of its path.

The six looked up at the creature, which was now grinning evilly. All six of the heads went in six different directions, each one headed for one of them. Fluttershy dived behind some rocks as the thing clamped down trying to have her for dinner, getting nothing but a mouthful of stone for its trouble. However it just smirked, crushing the stone in its massive jaws and spitting the rocks out, bombarding the helpless Fluttershy. The head was just going in for the kill, when suddenly Fluttershy, who had been reduced to a cowering wreck, seemingly vanished into thin air.

Applejack and Rainbow, meanwhile, were trying to team up with each other trying to take two heads at once. Applejack had been trying the brilliant idea of tying their necks together which did work, till the Hydra used its mass to break the rope, and then went for Applejack and Rainbow, its gaping maws closing in from either side, but like Fluttershy they vanished.

Rarity in the meantime was holding her own quite well, not directly fighting it, but playing a very good game of cat and mouse, ducking and weaving so that every attempt the thing made to get her failed, or even ended with a nasty collision with some stonework. With the other heads free, they all turned and dived towards Rarity, leaving her nowhere to turn. With a hefty swing, one of the heads knocked her into the air. Rarity succumbed to blind panic when she reached the zenith of her inadvertent flight, but this became far worse as she began to fall back towards the waiting monster.

To her surprise, instead of being gobbled up on the spot, she was knocked into the air by another head, then another. Whenever she began to fall, she would be thrown back up. The grim realisation dawned on her that the creature was taking its revenge by playing its own game with her. After a while though, it seemed to tire of this. All too soon Rarity, bruised and battered, found herself plummetting towards an open mouth. Then suddenly a blur snatched Rarity out of the air, vanishing from sight.

Pinkie in the meantime was bouncing around really more annoying the Hydra than anything, but what finally got her was the fact that it had five heads free now, and they all dived at Pinkie who was laughing as they came towards her. Suddenly, like the others, she vanished.

She found herself in familiar territory, surrounded by her already-vanished friends, but it took her a second to realise where they were. "Hey look, the gravestones."

Rarity looked concerned. "But who could have...?"

Suddenly Rainbow pointed her hoof back towards the castle interior. "Look!"

Twilight was busy firing at the thing trying to make it back down, but the thing just kept eating her magic. Suddenly she realized she was surrounded by all six heads and that she was therefore outnumbered. She charged up her horn to teleport out of there and regain the advantage, but the Hydra struck too quickly, smacking her up and down. The heads mercilessly launched her into the air, all six of them wanting to bite Twilight; to eat her, piece by piece, when suddenly -

BAM!

The Hydra's heads all recoiled in pain, causing Twilight to fall to the ground, stunned. Suddenly she was at the gravestones too, and she looked up seeing the pony who saved them. Her eyes widened as she saw that it was Creature looking right back at the Hydra, whose faces were contorted into masks of rage. He said to Twilight "Next time I say listen to me, stop and listen to me," teasing the princess - only the tiniest trace of reproach in his voice. He seemed to be enjoying this a little more than she'd thought. Twilight sheepishly nodded.

The Hydra wasn't happy at having its meal interrupted. All six pairs of eyes looked down at Creature. They all lunged at him in blind rage, but he dived in the air flying out of the way, dodging left and right, trying to look one of the heads in the eyes; but it was difficult with all six of them determined to take a chunk out of him. There was a slight concern because, even though he was invulnerable to most dangers, being eaten probably would kill him. Eventually. Suddenly the Hydra started to gain the upper hoof, Creature had to dive bomb down trying to smack it in the gut again to stop it from lunging at him. However, the Hydra had prepared for that. It smacked Creature away with a mighty swing of its massive tail. Creature spread his wings mid-flight so he wouldn't be launched too far, ready for more as well as he dived towards the creature.

"He can't do this alone, girls," cried Twilight, "come on! Let's give him a hoof!" They all nodded, running with one accord downstairs towards the area to make sure that Creature had the back up he needed.

Creature started smacking heads down trying to beat the Hydra into submission but all it was doing was making the thing angry. Creature got smacked by a head hitting him from a blind spot when suddenly he felt magic grabbing him in mid-air. A quick glance confirmed that Twilight was holding him in place. Gratefully, Creature flapped his wings, recovering from the relentless pummelling he'd just recieved.

"Girls, now!" shouted Twilight at the top of her voice. Instantly, Pinkie jumped up and curled into a ball, Rarity boosting her up a little with her magic, Applejack sending her flying in the air, Fluttershy punting Pinkie to Twilight who put an electricity spell on her causing Pinkie to spark like lightning, then Rainbow booted Pinkie downwards, sending her crashing into the Hydra's back forcing the thing down to the ground, stunning it.

Creature, seeing an opportunity, dived down and looked the monster in the eyes. In the canyons of the Hydra's mind his voiced echoed, summonning all of his super-natural powers, as he had done before to Twilight and Applejack. "Now sleep!" He ordered. Obediently, the thing slipped into oblivion, each head yawning, stretching, and lying down on the cold flagstones of the courtyard. Creature held his head in his forehooves. Everypony else approached his sombre form, a little tentatively, but with a great deal more trust and respect. "Thank you," Creture said, simply.

Twilight slowly smiled back and said "You're welcome... and... sorry"

Creature walked forward and extended a hoof. "It's cool," as the two connected with each other with a friendly smack.

Author's Note:

As Always the Edit was provided by "The Minister of Scones"