> King of monsters > by viconis > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Black ice > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was cold, so cold and lifeless this wasteland was. For a hundred miles in any direction, there was no life or civilization spare an explorer, or the odd icelot wandering in search of a new home. It would be a thousand miles in every direction if it weren’t for the crystal city to the east just recently brought back from its accursed non-existence. Even then, that made this wasteland a bit livelier, with their celebrations and fireworks creating new cracks in the floor of the ice. A hundred miles to the west was the ocean with new icebergs breaking off to drift south and melt away before cycling back to the ice caps of the north. As another celebration in the Crystal Empire occurred its sounds of joy and laughter spread throughout the wasteland. Its sound's even louder than that of all of its previous celebrations and as they got louder, the cracks got bigger, more icebergs threatened to break away to drift south. As the racket continued, more icebergs seemed to break away until they slowly seemed to reveal something on the edge of the icy wasteland. Inside stood a giant beast brimming with hatred for those that made it, then tried to kill it fearing its power. Towering over two-hundred feet, spines taller than most beings and scales blacker than the night itself and overlapping scales that made it almost impossible to pierce, it had been sealed away for the safety of the planet. Those that had sealed it away had killed themselves by throwing away their greatest weapon when they needed it the most. Forty years after they sealed it away, an alien race came and exterminated them, not noticing the weapon that had been sealed away. Over the millions of years it had been frozen away, the ice had slowly worked the monster back to the ocean. Now it was almost free and just a few more cracks would let its built-up fury run rampant throughout the entire planet again. Even though it did not know how close it was to being free it still struggled with what little strength it had left. As it moved a hairline crack appeared on the right side of its icy prison, then it grew to a few inches. As it kept struggling, the crack kept growing and spreading, until finally the ice gave way to the monster’s humongous size and weight. The ice fell into the ocean’s near-freezing waters, but instead of floating south like all the other ice it sank, deep and deeper into the ocean’s depths the cracks on the ice feeling the pressure of hundreds of tons of water on top of it. And the more ice that cracked away, the more the monster’s conscience returned and the more it struggled to break free. With both the water’s pressure and the monster’s strength fighting against the cracks in the ice, it finally gave way and it was finally free. As it slowly drifted downwards the monsters eyes finally opened, revealing its rage-filled orange eyes. The eye itself moved back and forth over its surroundings to try and find the drill-ship it had been fighting. Despite how the ship had attacked and hurt it, and how it chased it all the way to the north it had ran away. Typical of the little demons, chase it up north and then leave it alone and hope it dies. Maybe they forgot how it could tell where their greatest cities were and how much it hated being tricked. Maybe just a little bit of a rampage would remind them of who they’re messing with. As a slight grin grew upon the monster’s face, it curled its tail before launching through the water, its body winding in a serpentine fashion the dark, freezing water unable to lace its icy cold fingers into its scale. As the water grew brighter and slightly warmer, it slowed down wondering how to get on top of the ice. A thought came to its mind and it let itself float in the water to get a moment to rest. Opening its mouth water rushed in before it slowly started to boil, along with the water around its spines. Slowly the spines glowed a dull blue before it grew brighter and brighter and the same thing was happening in the monster’s mouth. Instead of the water boiling now, it practically dissolved when it came near its spines or mouth. When the glowing reached its peak, the monster let out the energy that had been growing in its spines. Out of its mouth a beam of pure energy flew out dissolving all water near it and blowing apart a huge portion of the ice-cap. Into the water showered tons of ice and water that had been blown away by its blast. It propelled itself to the hole in the ice with its tail before gripping the edges of the hole and pulling itself up with all of its might. The ice started to crack underneath its weight before pieces started to fall through the ice floor. Despite this the monster kept pulling itself up and after some struggling it was finally on top of the ice, the water highlighting its bus size spines and giant claws on its arms. Looking around its head swiveled before it saw something shining on the ground a few steps away. Walking towards it, the monster noticed that it seemed to be stepping on solid ground now. As it stood over the shining piece it noticed the shining continued into the distance of the east and towards the south too. Dropping onto one knee it looked at the shining object and noticed it was just like the ones that those insects used to travel around the world and ruin it. Looking towards the east and then south it decided that since the insects like warmer areas usually, if it headed south along these shining lines it would find another of the insects abominations they called a city. Stepping forward it took a deep breath in before letting out its mighty and iconic roar that would make most of the insects run for their lives. 00000 Nighttime was when most ponies went to sleep, due to the fact they had all been up for a while. A few stayed up to consummate love or those annoying distractions, but one pony didn't have any of that on his mind at all. He was focused on the manticore that was in front of him. He had come out here earlier to look for some meat for his pet and had been jumped by a manticore, of course. As for here he was in the Everfree forest, living in it due to the fact he didn't get along with most sentient beings, he much rather liked his pets. But back to the matter at hoof. Right now he had spaced his hooves apart and pointed his horn at the creature, waiting for it to make its move. The thing shouldn't have even seen him with his green coat, and ash colored mane, but that was what he got for getting fish and not bothering to cover up the smell. The manticore had been slowly circling him for a minute in the middle of a clearing making sure he wouldn't make a run for it, no doubt thinking he was easy prey. Licking its lips it lowered itself to the ground its muscles rippling across its body, in preparation for lunging for his throat. But he was ready. As its legs launched itself forward and its claws stretched outwards intending to rip him in half. Smiling he simply gave the manticore's neck a simple twist and stepped out of the way, letting it lifeless body tumble on past him and into the brush. He shook his head at the manticore's stupidity before turning around as if to continue on his way home, when he took another glance at the body. He looked at his basket of fish and then back at the body, and looked again at his basket. Under the moonlight he could be able to get a good meal for his pet this time... shrugging he magicked away the basket of fish and instead levitated the manticore's corpse towards him. As it glowed his signature dark red magic, he turned around back towards his pets den. He walked through the forest's prickly paths, ending up with many cuts and scrapes as usual and yet again he vowed to grab some type of hoof-wear even though he knew he'd forget come morn. Rolling his eyes at his stupidity he maneuvered the body around another cluster of trees, grunting at the effort he was going through to bring his pet a decent meal for once. As the body cleared the tree he thought to himself, how fast it had grown and how, pretty soon it'd probably be able to get all it ever wanted to eat. As the cave came to into his sights he grinned as he saw hints of his pet near the entrance, and then started jogging when it retreated back into the comfort of its cave. "Come 'ere boyo I got's ya something to eat!" He said happily. Bringing the manticore around to the front of him, and more importantly in front of his pet he sat down and watched as his pet slowly extracted itself from the cave. Well partially anyways, but even though only its head came out he could clearly see that it was twice as big as most houses, and judging by his estimates it'd double in the next two months. He watched with fascination as it slowly opened its gaping maw and ate the manticore in one bite, not bothering to chew. Not that it needed to when one looked at the size comparison. When it finished eating he teleported onto its head, and started scratching behind its ear. It let out an almost, primal purr. His beautiful pets always liked it when he scratched behind their ears, to bad he had to let his favorite one eat all the others. But when it came to something as rare as this beast, as glorious and deadly, one simply did not complain. Laying down on top of its head, he let it carry him back inside the cave and watched as it lay down, to sleep on the cold rocky floor. "You don't deserve to be treated like a monster do ya boy?" He muttered to his pet quietly as he too fell asleep. > Black Ice (edited) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was cold, quiet and lifeless just like any other day in this wasteland. For a hundred miles in any direction, there was no life or civilization spare an explorer, or the odd icelot wandering in search of a new home. It would be a thousand miles in every direction if it weren’t for the Crystal Empire to the east just recently brought back from its accursed non-existence. Even then, just one city it made this wasteland a bit livelier and dangerous, with their celebrations and fireworks creating new cracks in the floor of the ice. A hundred miles to the west was the ocean with new icebergs breaking off to drift south and melt away in the warm summer oceans, before cycling back to the ice caps of the north. As another celebration in the Crystal Empire occurred, its sounds of joy and laughter spread throughout the wasteland. For a thousand years only the occasional giant iceberg had broken away from the continent, but now that the Crystal Empire was back its sound helped to widen the existing cracks in the ice. As the racket continued, another iceberg threatened to break away from the continent, with loud thunder-like cracks of ice sounding as it strained with its job of holding up what was inside. Inside of the iceberg, stood a giant monster brimming with hatred for those that made it, then tried to kill it fearing its power. Towering over two-hundred feet, spines taller than most beings and scales blacker than the night itself and overlapping scales that made it almost impossible to pierce, it had been feared by the past rulers of the planet. They had conquered nature itself, bent it to their whim, exterminated entire species and even traveled to the moon. Their entire existence had been based on war so when a monster awoke and wrecked destruction of a massive scale upon the inhabitants, they sent all their most powerful weapons to stop it. When they realized they couldn't kill it they instead settled for sealing it away in the ice. Those that had sealed it away had killed themselves by throwing away their greatest weapon when they needed it the most. Forty years after they sealed it away, an alien race came and exterminated them, not noticing the weapon of unrivaled power, that had been sealed away. Over the millions of years it had been frozen away, the ice had slowly worked the monster back to the ocean. Now it was almost free and just a few more cracks would let its built-up furious fire ravage the surface of the entire planet again. It had remained dormant the entire time, the only thing that changed from its previous encounter with the insects millions of years ago, was that its radiation had begun to reach a critical level. With the combined weight, hot radiation and massive noise the Crystal Empire was making it wasn't long until the beast awoke. With another thunderous crack, the iceberg shifted to the right as the ice on the left broke apart into little shards and tumbled down into the freezing waters below. It hung there for a few seconds almost as if deciding on whether or not to release its mighty prize, before with a anti-climatic snap of ice signaled its drop into the ocean below. The ice fell into the ocean’s near-freezing waters, but instead of floating south like all the other ice it sank, deep and deeper into the ocean’s depths, the cracks on the ice feeling the pressure of hundreds of tons of water on top of it. With water bullying its way into the cracks, the pressure of the water beating upon the ice, it didn't take long until large pieces of ice started to fall off. As the first pieces of ice fell away, cold freezing water rushed to fill the gap and woke the monster inside. Unable to move, but knowing that it should it started wriggling around in its icy prison, adding even more to the forces that were ripping apart its prison. And the more ice that cracked away, the more the monster’s conscience returned and the more it struggled to break free. Resting for a moment it gathered its strength for one last push against its prison and with an explosion of ice and rage it was finally free again. As it slowly drifted downwards the monsters eyes finally opened, revealing its rage-filled orange eyes. The eye itself moved back and forth over its surroundings to try and find the drill-ship it had been fighting. Despite how the ship had attacked and hurt it, and how it chased it all the way to the north it had ran away. Typical of the little demons, chase it up north and then leave it alone and hope it dies. Maybe they forgot how it could tell where their greatest cities were and how much it hated being tricked. Maybe just a little bit of a rampage would remind them of who they’re messing with. As a slight grin grew upon the monster’s face, it curled its tail before launching through the water, its body winding in a serpentine fashion the dark, freezing water unable to lace its icy cold fingers into its scales. As the water grew brighter and slightly warmer, it slowed down wondering how to get on top of the ice. A thought came to its mind and it let itself float in the water to get a moment to rest. Opening its mouth water rushed in before it slowly started to boil, along with the water around its spines. Slowly the spines glowed a dull blue before it grew brighter and brighter and the same thing was happening in the monster’s mouth. Instead of the water boiling now, it practically dissolved when it came near its spines or mouth. When the glowing reached its peak, the monster let out the energy that had been growing in its spines. Out of its mouth a beam of pure energy flew out dissolving all water near it and blowing apart a huge portion of the ice-cap, making it rain boulders of ice and a tidal wave of water. After the ice flew up a few hundred feet it all came crashing back down into the water, sending even more of a ripple through the icy land. The monster meanwhile propelled itself to the hole in the ice with its tail, before gripping the edges of the hole and pulling itself up with all of its might. The ice started to crack underneath its weight before pieces started to fall through the ice floor. Despite this the monster kept pulling itself up and after some struggling it was finally on top of the ice, the water highlighting its hose-sized spines and giant claws on its arms. Looking around its head swiveled before it saw something shining on the ground a few steps away. Walking towards it, the monster noticed that it seemed to be stepping on solid ground now. As it stood over the shining piece it noticed the shining continued into the distance of the east and towards the south too. Dropping onto one knee it looked at the shining object and noticed it was just like the ones that those insects used to travel around the world and ruin it. Looking towards the east and then south it decided that since the insects like warmer areas usually, if it headed south along these shining lines it would find another of the insects abominations they called a city. Stepping forward it took a deep breath in before letting out its mighty and iconic roar that would make most of the insects run for their lives. 00000 Nighttime was when most ponies went to sleep, due to the fact they had all been for the day working, playing or teaching or etc.. A few stayed up to consummate love or those annoying distractions, but one pony didn't have any of that on his mind at all. He was focused on the manticore that was in front of him. He had come out here earlier to look for some meat for his pet and had been jumped by a manticore, of course. As for here he was in the Everfree forest, living in it due to the fact he didn't get along with most sentient beings, he much rather liked his pets. But back to the matter at hoof. Right now he had spaced his hooves apart and pointed his horn at the creature, waiting for it to make its move. The thing shouldn't have even seen him with his green coat, and ash colored mane, but that was what he got for getting fish and not bothering to cover up the smell. The manticore had been slowly circling him for a minute in the middle of a clearing making sure he wouldn't make a run for it, no doubt thinking he was easy prey. Licking its lips it lowered itself to the ground its muscles rippling across its body, in preparation for lunging for his throat. But he was ready. Its legs launched itself forward and its claws stretched outwards intending to rip him in half. Smiling he simply gave the manticore's neck a simple twist and stepped out of the way, letting it lifeless body tumble on past him and into the brush. He shook his head at the manticore's stupidity before turning around as if to continue on his way home, when he took another glance at the body. He looked at his basket of fish and then back at the body, and looked again at his basket. Under the moonlight he could be able to get a good meal for his pet this time... shrugging he magicked away the basket of fish and instead levitated the manticore's corpse towards him. As it glowed his signature dark red magic, he turned around back towards his pets den and his home. He walked through the forest's prickly paths, ending up with many cuts and scrapes as usual and yet again he vowed to grab some type of hoof-wear even though he knew he'd forget come morn. Rolling his eyes at his stupidity he maneuvered the body around another cluster of trees, grunting at the effort he was going through to bring his pet a decent meal for once. As the body cleared the tree he thought to himself, how fast it had grown and how, pretty soon it'd probably be able to get all it ever wanted to eat. As the cave came to into his sights he grinned as he saw hints of his pet near the entrance, and then started jogging when it retreated back into the comfort of its cave. "Come 'ere boyo I got's ya something to eat!" He said happily. Bringing the manticore around to the front of him, and more importantly in front of his pet he sat down on his haunches and watched with glee as his pet slowly extracted itself from the cave. Well partially anyways, but even though only its head came out he could clearly see that it was twice as big as even the largest Hydra, and judging by his estimates it'd double in the next two months. He watched with fascination as it slowly opened its gaping maw and ate the manticore in one bite, not bothering to chew. Not that it needed to when one looked at the size comparison. It threw its head back to help with swallowing its meal before looking back down at him. Smiling he teleported onto its head, and started scratching behind its ear. It let out an almost, primal purr, his beautiful pets always liked it when he scratched behind their ears, too bad he had to let his favorite one eat all the others. But when it came to something as rare as this beast, as glorious and deadly, one simply did not complain. Laying down on top of its head, he let it carry him back inside the cave and watched as it lay down, to sleep on the cold rocky floor. "You don't deserve to be treated like a monster do ya boy?" He muttered to his pet quietly as he too fell asleep with its warm coat and body providing all the hat he'd ever need. > Reckoning is near > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Set two weeks after first chapter. It was mid-day now, the heat of the day when ponies were supposed to be out talking, swimming in the refreshing cool lakes or being told to work in the blazing heat, getting their skin boiled off. Today though instead of enjoying the day, many were trying their best to not fall into tears. Their city wasn't the best one but it was theirs... and now it was gone, ravaged by the monster that had come only three days ago. And it was far from being the only one to suffer this, at least five others had suffered the same, if not worse fate. Entire blocks were gone, fires raged throughout the city, entire families were dead, and all the ponies had to go on was a giant black monster that left giant four-toed footprints behind. So Princess Celestia had sent her sister to try and help since they couldn't use the elements of harmony anymore, and she couldn't very well leave the castle since she was used to the demands of the modern ponies. After the first two cities Princess Luna realized how much her sister had relied on the elements of harmony, and how inexperienced their armies were. As soon as she had arrived, she'd been mobbed by the survivors of the attack and had to string together a relief effort to help those left behind. Then she got notice of the next city that had been destroyed, and so on and so forth. This one though seemed to be the newest and by that logic it would lead them to the monster. But right now she had a relief effort to start on. She and the captain of her guard were walking down the remains of one of the hallways of the city hall. Despite most of it being gone, it was at the center of the city, and offered decent shade from the summer heat. Right now she was listening to Blade who was giving her a summary of the city's immediate problems, that was derived from the documents he held in front of him with his magic. "The pipeline was crushed during the attack, so there's no water supply. The malls that housed a majority of food also got burnt down by the fires, but a few of them are still standing and there might be some left in them. There's also the issue of where many of the ponies are going to stay, since many of their homes were crushed." Nodding she paused for a second to rip a chunk of the ruined hallway's ceiling, since it was close to falling down into the hallway and would probably smash somepony. "Well for the water issue we should get a few pegasi to redirect the clouds over the city, then get some ponies over to those warehouses to find anything that's left. We could also use a few of the unicorns to re-arrange the rubble into temporary housing." Pausing in the shade offered by one of walls, from the baking sun she muttered under her breath. "We will have to talk with our sister later about this summer heat." Blade let the corner of his mouth turn upwards in a grin, but quickly banished it when Luna glanced backwards at him. "Has there been any word of the monster?" Shaking his head he replied, "Uh no your majesty, from the patrols that have come back so far none of them have seen any sign. Though two of the patrols haven't come back yet." Sighing Luna resumed walking down the hallway, abandoning the cool respite offered by the wall. "We don't see how hard it is to find a beast that is supposed to be over twenty stories tall." Jogging after Luna, Blade said. "Well from what the patrols reported the monster hid its tracks by walking in the ocean and lakes, basically any large body of water." Luna rolled her eyes, before turning a corner that led to the main office where the entire building seemed most intact. "We are not blaming thee Blade, we art just annoyed right now. If thou wouldn't mind we would like to be alone right now, so please hand us the reports while we think." Bowing to Princess Luna, Blade dropped the reports on the desk and walked back out the way they'd came, to help set up some of the housing. Luna meanwhile walked around the desk and sat down in the mayor's chair, which was several sizes too small but was still better than walking. Kicking back her hooves and leaning back in the chair, she let her fatigued muscles relax, almost moaning from the pleasure of laying down. Though there was work to do. Giving a little huff, she started shuffling through the papers about all the damage that had been done to the city. She had been reading it for about fifteen minutes and had just reached the casualty list, when she heard the clip-clopping of hooves hitting the stone floors. Looking up from the papers she saw Blade running full speed at her. Lifting one of her eyebrows she got up out of the seat to see what had him in such a hurry when she saw over his shoulder one of the patrol ponies was behind him too. She waited for them to skid to a stop in front of her and catch their breath before asking, "Please tell me some good news." Panting in front of her, he noticed the sweat dripping off of his muzzle before Shade shook his head. "I wouldn't exactly call it good news." "What do you mean?" "We found the monster, but it's attack-- err getting ready to attack another city." Luna's eyes snapped open at this and she started running down the way they came, the summer's blazing sun completely forgotten and instead replaced by the icy tendrils of fear wounding their way around her spine. "And the ponies?" "The pegasi split up, as you can see Peanut came back." Luna threw glance over her shoulder, briefly wondering why one of her guards was named Peanut, then shook her head to rid herself of that stupid question. "The other Pegasus went ahead to the city to warn everypony." Stopping at another bend in the hall, Luna looked at the gaping holes and instead opted to jump out the hole instead of running the rest of the way out, through what was left of the main entrance. Waiting for the two ponies to jump out after her she asked, "And what city did you all see it heading to?" As they jumped out Peanut came out in front and motioned for her to follow, with his wing. Spreading them out he launched himself into the cloudless, dry skies, with the Princess following close behind. "Well its not heading to one particular city." Luna's pace faltered, before she gracefully recovered and came up by his side. "Then how do you know its heading to a city?" He grimaced as if that would answer her. "Well it's following a train-line and they flow into a half-dozen different cities. At best it will be heading to a tiny hamlet that already evacuated." "And at worst?" "At worst? It's heading to Las Pegasus." As he said that she felt the gaping maw of dread swallow her soul whole. All those ponies, all of the innocents about to be set upon by something only heard in the oldest of myths. With that in mind she grabbed Peanut with her magic and double timed it to the train tracks. 00000 This land wasn't familiar at all... normally it'd have met some resistance from those insects with their many metal toys, or had met that metal insult that was supposed to be a replica of itself. But no all it had met was miles and miles of seemingly endless wilderness, a few settlements and some three-headed creature that looked like a baby version of its nemesis. Growling it increased its pace, it had spent too much time eating, and sleeping and too little time wreaking vengeance on those that had left in ice for all those years. But it would rectify that. In its gut it could just feel the many, little insects ahead of it. As its huge weight shifted from foot to foot, it landed in a large patch of mud, and yanked it back out glowering at it. It looked at the offending landscape, and blasted it with its nuclear fire-breath. With that done it continued on its pace to wherever this metal line was heading. When it disappeared in the distance a bird looked away at it then took off in the opposite direction as fast as it could, as if it knew the reckoning that would happen soon. As it flew into the sky, it passed over the monsters footprint, big enough to encompass many normal schools, and leave enough room for a bus to occupy each of its three clawed toes. > There's only one God... > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Luna had spent the last half-hour rushing towards Las Pegas, since that was the most populated area around and that was one of the few areas where the monster could be. All the while Peanut was being towed behind her, in her magical aura. She ignored the blazing heat, stinging dust and the dry arid air of the surrounding desert. Spying the Las Pegas bay she dived downwards to get a slight spray of cool water before she flew over the rolling hills that kept the lake contained. As she reached the crest of the hill she wasn't prepared for what she saw.... Peace. Absolute peace in all of Las Pegas, no devastation, destruction, mayhem or anything had happened. The only chaotic thing that had happened was the evacuation of the city's civilians. Slowing down Luna flew over the empty neighborhoods and the occasional bird that flew by her. "Um your highness?" Luna glanced behind her and noticed she was still dragging Peanut behind her. Blushing slightly she let Peanut go and let him fly of his own accord, then flew on towards the Strip where she thought she saw some ponies. Peanut meanwhile flew over to the rails, since if the monster did appear it would from that area. Luna meanwhile flew towards what looked like a mob forming around the Stratosphere and as she reached the edge of the crowd, she stopped flying and instead opted to walk to the front. From above all she could see was a mob, but on the ground she could see that some earth pony was yelling into a megaphone and riling the entire mob up. And from what she could hear it was just another revolutionist taking advantage of everypony's fear and anxiety and using it for their own agenda. "All the Royal sisters are doing now, is making us move out of the way for their new castles and barracks. Forcing us the poor to relocate, when we are the ones who deserve the big houses!" There was supposed to be a giant monster, running around razing and devouring entire cities. It was over a 100 degrees. And this pony was yelling about how she and her sister were abusing their power.... and he wasn't even doing a decent job either. Oh how it was easier before the Nightmare incident, if somepony spoke like this they could just throw them into the dungeons for a week or two. Oh well time to see why they were still there. As Luna approached the crowd, they parted ways, some of them even gawking which made since the one on the steps leading to the Stratosphere was shouting hate against the throne. She made it halfway through the crowd, before the stallion on the stairs noticed her and starting shaking, then promptly fainted. Luna merely shook her head, with a slight grin appearing on her muzzle, maybe this is why Celestia didn't throw anypony into the dungeons anymore. None of them could really start a revolution if this is what happened every time a leader came, while they were giving a speech. Still it was funny. As the last of the crowd dispersed in front of her, she reached the stairs and turned around to look at the crowd. Some were scowling others were looking a bit hopeful, a few seemed to be sweating profusely. Clearing her throat with a little cough she asked, "What are you all doing here? We thought we ordered an evacuation?" The mob seemed to shimmer, as they all looked to another for a leader, until a green-coated unicorn mare stepped forward. "'Cause we don't want to lose our homes, for your new castle!" The unicorn and Luna stared at each other for a few minutes, giving birth to a new level of awkwardness. The unicorn wondered whether or not she was going to be executed, while Luna tried not to facehoof and break her nose . Taking a deep breath, Luna looked at the sky for a few seconds trying to gain some composure before looking back at the mob. "We do not want a new castle, for if we wanted one, we would not build it in the middle of a desert. As for you all staying here at least head into a building, preferably ground level." As Luna said that, the crowd seemed to dissolve and head in different directions, leaving the mare alone in the front of the crowd. That left the mare flustered and flabbergasted. She stood there looking left and right wondering why everpony was leaving before she grabbed the stallion off of the stage and dragging him to wherever she was going. Luna let out a small laugh as she watched that before looking back up to where Peanut had gone off to. Her lip curved downwards into a grimace as she remembered why she came here in the first place. Spreading her wings, she launched herself into the sky, with the arid wing rushing into her face and making her squint her eyes to keep the dust out. She expected herself to have to fly for a few minutes to find Peanut, but to her dismay she saw him flying right towards her. He was easily a couple hundred yards away and she could see him huffing and puffing. As he came to a stop in front of her, some of his sweat flew off his body and hit her in the face, blinking Luna used her magic to get it off of her. "We swear if thou is about to say what we think thou will say..." Peanut quickly averted his eyes. "Well you already know what I'm going to say, judging by that voice." Spotting a few of the ponies below he added, "I think I should help get them somewhere safe. While you your highness if you just head the way I came, well heh. Yeah I'm going." With that he disappeared with another burst of speed, probably from not wanting to feel Luna's wrath. Luna gazed after Peanut for a few seconds and watched as he started rounding up the ponies below, before she shook her head and launched herself in the direction Peanut had just came from. This thing had destroyed entire cities and families. When she had done these things, she had at least only done it once or twice, but there was no end in sight for this monster's wrath. Scowling she added another burst of speed and directed herself to the train-tracks that led away from the city. Looking down she knew what she fought for, family's livelihoods, their homes, memories, a whole lot of tax money that was needed for relief programs for the less developed countries. That's when a sound interrupted her thoughts. Luna snapped her head up as she saw a giant creature come over the crest of the hills north of Las Pegas. It was every bit the monster the survivors had described and more. Razor-sharp dorsal fins rode down the back of its head all the way to a massive tail that was being wagged back and forth, launching massive dust plumes into the air whenever it hit the ground. Huge black scales were all over its body, some of the scales shining as though they were just grown in. Huge arms with large claws were included, but were made tiny in comparison to its massive tree-trunk like legs. The worst of all was its eyes. Filled to the brim with hate and fury, and they weren't looking at her, they were looking at the entire city sizing it up like a lion would with a injured gazelle. Wondering how to devour everything whole, without anything getting in its way. > ...He's called Godzilla > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As the beast walked towards the city and brought its tail down on the desert behind it, Luna lowered her horn and stared at it. *Bang* This was what had killed all those innocent ponies. *Bang* Burned down entire cities and ravaged graveyards, just by stepping on them. *Bang* And now it wanted to destroy Las Pegas. Her subjects... those that looked up to her and her sister. She had seen all those ponies that stayed behind because they wanted to keep their homes and now this... thing wanted to take it all away. There wasn't any food, any water or anything like that around here. It just wanted to destroy the city, for the fun of it. *Bang* She was trusted to protect this city from it... and she wouldn't fail them. Her lips curled into a snarl, before she lowered her horn and pointed it at the beast. Flapping her wings to keep herself steady, she channeled her magic into the tip of her horn. As more and more magic flow into the tip, the darker the aura around her horn became. When she was satisfied with the magical buildup in her horn she let it all go. The force of the blast threw her back a few yards, before she regained her balance by flapping her wings a few times. Looking up she smiled as the dark blue beam of energy shot towards its target. There was no way the beast could handle that, in fact it may have been a bit overkill. But right before it pierced the monster chest it stepped to the side with speed and grace unbefitting a creature of that size, letting the beam blow up the mountain behind it. The massive plume of dust and ash, from the destroyed mountain, cloaked the creature in shadow, while Luna stared on in aghast, it simply glared at her. Lowering its head and bringing its arms in towards its chest, it took a large intake of breath before letting it out in one massive roar. During the roar it lifted its head up and spread its arms wide, as if inviting Luna to try again and when its head pointed towards Luna before continuing upwards, Luna could have sworn she felt the air coming from the beast. When it was done, it looked back down, but not at the city. At Luna. She smiled at that. Even if it was smarter than she thought, at least it wasn't fixated on devouring the city. Still that was a bit worrying, a beast as massive as this one capable of doing such a feat with ease. She shook her head and tried again. Charging up another spell, but not as powerful and slow she let if fly towards the beast, while she waited to see if the beast would dodge again. Instead of dodging it, it simply raised its massive clawed hands and caught the blast, completely unaffected. Definitely worrisome. She raised an eyebrow at the creature before letting another blast head towards its face, and disappearing in flash of light. When she reappeared she was behind the beast, and watched as it casually ducked underneath the decoy blast she used. Smiling she shot it in the back, catching it completely off-guard. The blast hit it square in the back of its head, toppling its balance and sending it face-first into the ground. Giving her wings a good flap she flew upwards into the sky and out of its reach. Up there she waited for it to get back up. 00000 Annoying flying insect, it somehow shot from behind when it was in front of him! Now he had his face embedded in the ground, and the back of his head throbbed from where it had gotten a hit in. That was what he got for getting cocky though... time to get serious Placing his hands on the ground he pushed himself up and shook the dust out of his nostrils. When he had gotten halfway off the ground he was shot again, but it hit one of his spines which just absorbed the energy, making him smile his fangy smile. At his full height he looked around to see where it had gone, when he noticed a bright blue light coming out of the corner of his right eye. Leaning backwards onto his tail, it whizzed by leaving a trace of heat across his lower jawline. Lashing out with his arm blindly in the direction it had come from, he felt his arm impact something, then felt a familiar surge of electricity course through his veins and up into his brain. Yanking his hand back, he looked at the air where he'd been shocked to see a trail of dark blue leading to the right. Following the trail with his eyes, he saw a giant boulder rushing towards his face. Roaring he smashed his head through the boulder and grasped for the insect that was right behind it, ignoring the sharp pain and rocks falling into his eyes. But just as he almost grasped it, it just flew between his fingers and punched him in the cheek. It just punched him in the cheek... it definitely wasn't another one of those insects he was used to smashing under his feet. Argh too much thinking, not enough destruction! Rubbing its chin with one of its claws it looked around for where the... demon had disappeared too. It was gone.... again. He was getting tired of this, turning back around to the city he started into a slow jog, before trying to break out into a full-on run. Instead though he felt something grab his tail and pull him backwards. Tearing his gaze from the city begging to be destroyed behind him, to the thing pulling at his tail he saw nothing except a blue aura. Wait... Aha! There it was, floating about tail-length behind it. Roaring he ripped his tail out of the aura and wrapped the very end of his tail around it and flung it towards the city. Following its path with his eyes he laughed as it hit some of the taller buildings and went straight through at least four of them. Still laughing he ran towards the city, the earth itself trembling under each step he took. Once he reached the edge of the city het let his tail flop down upon the homes of the insects and rip apart the blight that they had made on the planet. After he smashed several miles of homes he noticed the tall building had started growing blue. Stopping he watched as it started shaking, then started floating into the air. The building was several times his size, which brought to the question how it was floating. Wait was that? Squinting his eyes he looked slightly to the left of the floating object, to see the demon there. So it was like those demons from space was it? Then it will die like them too. He scowled at the annoying demon, before taking another deep breath. Instead of letting it out in a roar he kept it contained and as he kept it in his spines started glowing blue with atomic energy. The demon meanwhile turned the building sideways and pointed it at him in a threatening manner. His spines started crackling with electrical energy, all the way up and down his back when the demon rushed at him with the building at its side like a javelin. The demon had only reached the distance halfway when he let his atomic ray blast the very top of the building in half. As the demon kept pushing the javelin and he kept blasting away, the building's floors started blowing up and covered the air over most of the city in debris. All in all it took him five seconds to destroy the entire building and for him it was little more than an inconvenience. For any of the insects running around though, they had to worry about entire tons of flaming rubble raining down upon their heads, for an entire minute. Even the demon was gone now, probably blown away by the building's explosion. He gazed at the amazing spectacle for a few moments letting the realization that he was cleaning the planet from these insects hit him. When he was done thinking about it, he turned his gaze from the sky above him and then turned his gaze back down onto the city that lay before him. Staring at it he felt his rage and anger build up again, before he turned his atomic breath upon the city. > Into the Unknown > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "We thought that almost dying left ponies in agony..." Luna said questioningly to the nurse that was next to her administering another dose of something to her I.V. Apparently it had been half a week since she'd tried taking down that monster, but it had caught her off-guard with that beam of pure magic and had impaled her with hundreds of pieces of metal from the tower exploding. But yet from what Peanut had told her she bought enough time for her ponies to get to a safe place away from the monster's wrath. "Well it does help with the painkillers we have you on Princess." The nurse said with a slight smile before she started to walk off to help the other ponies that were only a few yards to her left. Turning her head to the right she looked out the giant hole in the wall that served as the main doorway to see a familiar Sprit of Chaos. "Is that why we see Discord in a tutu?" The nurse paused for a moment to give Luna a funny look before looking out the hole. The nurse then shook her head and started checking the next patient. "Um no I seem him in a tutu too. I think he's trying to cheer everypony up." Luna chuckled before looking over in the nurse's direction and down the aisles of ponies that had been injured in the attack. "So can thou tell us where we are?" The nameless nurse put her ear down on her patients chest before letting out a heavy sigh and pulling the cover up over their head. "We're in a warehouse in Las Pegas and the other towns that have been hit started sending their ponies here since it has the most intact houses despite the amount of damage done. Look no offense your highness but you should ask your guards this because we're already short enough on nurses and doctors already." Nodding at the nurse Luna looked back up at the ceiling straight above her where a few beams of sunlight came through a few dozen holes, with only the clip-clopping of the retreating nurse and the occasional cough of groan of pain for company. She couldn't even think that much thanks to the medicine they had her on. So when she heard a voice she'd heard since she was born it wasn't much of a surprise she didn't turn to look until she heard the voice call her name. Looking to her right she saw a white alicorn heading towards her... wait white alicorn? "Sister?" The alicorn disappeared in a flash of light just to re-appear next to her. Luna looked up to see her sister's face but something was wrong... her eyes were all red and puffy. Reaching upwards with a hoof she tried to touch her sister's face only to have her arm drop slightly before Celestia grabbed it with her magic. Letting her sister hold her hoof, she bopped her on the nose before saying, "We swear if you've been crying over... us we'll banish you to... the moon. Hmmm.... it's getting harder to stay... awake..." Sitting down next to her sister Celestia draped her wing over her. She said sniffling, "It's just some painkillers, it's the side effects. Don't worry sister." "The only thing... to worry about... is the subjects... That thing... handled our magic.... like... it was us throwing pebbles... Sister check... its dreams... its memories. There might be... something to..." Luna opened her eyelids again, wait when did they close? "Stop the creature..." With that Luna was overtaken by the painkillers. Celestia gave a sad smile to her sister before standing up and taking her all in. She was completely covered in bandages and gauze, there were a few stitches on left side of the body, her horn had a crack running down the middle and her entire left wing was set in a cast to make sure she didn't do anything to disturb it. To top it all off she didn't manage to hurt the creature according to the ponies that were around when it had all transpired, she'd managed to only delay it for only two minutes. She and her sister were the most powerful ponies in existence, and would be the most powerful beings if it weren't for Discord, but yet Luna only delayed it. Her sister was right the only way to beat this thing would be to find out its weakness... but it had been a long time since she had gone into anypony's dreams much less their memories. Looking to her right at the newest captain of her guard named Silver and said, "I need you to keep it quiet if possible." He nodded and proceeded to grab a few of the guards standing at the doors to help him out with her request, she sat down on the ground and made herself as comfortable as one could be on concrete. Taking a slow deep breath she closed her eyes and channeled her magic. As she did that she brought up a clear crisp image of her mind and memories and let it envelope her. Opening her eyes again she found herself in her room, a place that was over a thousand miles away in reality. Giving off a little smile to nopony in particular she walked over to the double doors that lead out into the hallway and pushed them open with her hoof to see a vast empty void of nothingness. Stepping into that void her world flipped upside down and what was once the bottom of the floor was the top and vice versa. Trotting forward into the void she let that memory disappear from view. Here she felt absolutely nothing, not the floor that she was "walking" on, the air she "breathed", nor the sun she "felt" on her back. Before long images started appearing in the distance, then right next to her revealing themselves to be windows into ponies memories. But she didn't want a ponies memories though and with that thought all the windows flew past in a blur of colors and sounds. Before long the memories were of griffons, minotaurs, changelings, zebras, Saddle Arabians, hydras, Ursa Majors then the entire rainbow of colors and noises came to a complete and sudden stop as she saw something completely new. Looking into the window she saw a giant two-legged metal beast dueling with a black reptile-like monster. This had to be it. Stepping through into it she found herself on the ground having to crane her neck so far back she was looking straight up, as the metal one's foot flew over her. Wait what... with a flash of magic she teleported atop one of the buildings to get a better look. The view she had of the battle was unthought-of, the giant metal robot she supposed it would be called, had drills for arms and its mouth, it had a short stubby tail that in combination with its feet was enabling it to fly. It flew around once in a circle shooting beams of energy at the monster, and every shot that missed caused a massive explosion to whatever it hit but the shots that hit the monster barely phased it. At least she knew what it looked like now, she thought as she watched the metal beast fly away. Glancing back at the black beast she watched as it slowly lumbered after it... at this rate she'd be here for an hour. Using her magic she fast-forwarded the memory and in a matter of seconds found herself and the beast in a city encompassed by crystals, wait this thing fought King Sombra? As she looked at the city better she found the thing that the beast and the robot had gone so far to get to. In the middle of the city stood a demonic duplicate of the beast that had been terrorizing Equestria but with giant crystal growths on its shoulders and a crown on its head. Flapping her wings once she settled upon a cloud that was above the entire scene and watched as the battle unfolded. The monster she was familiar with tried blasting it with a blue beam of energy but was blocked by a red shield, the same beam had annihilated the Stratosphere... the amount of power in them. Shaking her head she continued watching. After the beam failed the monster tried attacking a giant tower behind its demonic cousin just to be grabbed out of the air easily a kilometer into a building. Then the robot split into two pieces and started attacking the demon, keeping it distracted while the beast stood up. Weren't they just fighting earlier? Nevertheless the two sides helped each other, with half of the robot flying around and shooting the demon while the beast tried to take out the tower. She had no idea where the other half of the robot was, until the tower started collapsing in on itself and the robot flew out of the ground. The beast then satisfied with the destroyed tower attacked its demonic twin, while the robot combined itself back together a safe distance away. Once the robot was completed again it started using its lasers to shoot the demonic twin, then its drill arms split open and fired missiles of some sort at the two yet again sending the beast flying backwards. Standing up Celestia wondered how much longer this would take, because they weren't showing any signs of slowing down or of suffering any type of injuries. Deciding she needed to see if the beast could actually be hurt in any way she fast-forwarded through the battle and straight to the end. The battle correspondingly flew by in another blur then stopped to show the demon and the robot lying on the ground with the beast standing victorious before it blew up both the demon and the robot, resulting in a complete and utter destruction of dozens of blocks. Celestia watched on with horror as something that would leave even her exhausted or hurt, the beast simply turned around, started stomping on houses and walked away into the distance. No no no no. Letting off another burst of magic she jumped through its memories to a random spot and found herself floating above an ocean littered with dozens of ships. Thinking about what this was supposed to be, she jumped at an unreal roar coming from right behind her. Slowly she turned her neck around and found the beast walking through the water, it roaring at the ships in front of them. The roar was answered with the report of something that was akin to the Griffon's black-powder only exponentially, then a explosion formed on the beast's upper torso followed shortly by another and another. Those explosions were followed themselves by flying ships that were firing some missiles at it. When the shots missed and hit the ocean instead of the beast it exploded in massive plumes of water, but when it hit the beast only miniature clouds of smoke formed. The beast grew tired of this and fired the blue beam of energy at the ships, both flying and floating and they all exploded one by one, piece by piece not even a scratch on the beast to show their efforts. Starting to panic slightly know she jumped to another memory. This time she arrived just in time to see a smoking city, with the beast blowing the middle head off of a giant golden, winged hydra. Then to see it fight a giant fish like monster and another robot, to come out victorious. A giant butterfly and bat smashed under its might. Another fleet of ships exploding under its gaze. Entire cities gone from its fury. Entire alien invasions almost single-handedly repelled by the beast. Breathing in a pant she jumped one last time to see something of interest to her. It was in the middle of falling into a volcano, sure it wouldn't kill it since it was still alive but... using a little more magic she once again fast-forwarded it and watched as the sun and moon flew by over a hundred times and the beast didn't emerge. It had to be in hibernation! Okay there were a few active volcanoes around Equestria and she could hire some ponies or other species to lure it into one. Yeah she could make it work. Re-assured of herself she turned around to see the memory gone, nothing there not even a door or way out. Whirling around, she saw her own mane and nothing else again. Looking left then right she started to back up when she heard, no felt a growl emanating from the space around her. It couldn't be the beast it wasn't sentient... was it? Taking a deep breath she was about to say something when another memory slammed into her quite literally. Rubbing her nose she looked up to see the beast gazing down at her with a snarl, but before she could even register what happened she found herself suspended in the air in front of it, right at eyes level. It opened its mouth and it started to glow blue again. Gather her magic she tried to teleport out, when she was slammed down into the ground, knocking the wind out of her. But how!?! This was a memory not reality! Pushing herself to her hooves she looked up to see herself in the void of nothingness again. "Let me out demon!" She yelled into the abyss. "So you can go back to controlling Mother Earth?" A dark unforgiving voice said from the shadows. Shocked senseless she stood there motionless. "You can speak?" "I care not to talk to demons and insects normally. Not even to the last one that entered my mind. But when a demon comes into MY MIND. Looking for a way to KILL ME... well...." The beast trailed off. Wait it just called her a demon... when it was the one that was demolishing her country! "But am I the one controlling the sun?" When she heard it talk again, her blood ran cold. It was in her head. "Quite observant.... though you should have waited until your sister was awake, she would have noticed the presence in her mind. You though, it was like an open door and the things you have been doing to the planet." A low guttural growl sounded from above her following the noise she looked up to see a set of glowing eyes looking down upon her, as if she truly were an insect. "It's just sickening. Controlling the weather, the rise of the sun and moon, the very seasons themselves all controlled by you..." The eyes slowly started circling around her, bobbing as they did but strangely silent otherwise."Even the previous inhabitants with their weapons that could destroy your biggest cities in a few seconds, even they had more respect for the balance of nature..." Celestia stomper her foot to the apparent surprise of the eyes for they stopped circling her. "I have no idea what you are talking about! It has always been this way for as long as any pony can remember! If it weren't for me and my sister the sun and moon wouldn't move at all! If it weren't for the ponies teaching the animals would die! If it weren't for--" Interrupting her the eyes rushed forward, revealing the giant black scaly head that it was attached to. It slowly opened its mouth revealing its large sharp teeth before saying,"If it weren't for you entering my mind you wouldn't even have known any of this knowledge." The face slowly pulled back into the darkness. "So I suggest you use your knowledge to rid yourself of any doubts of being able to kill me, and instead let nature control itself like it was meant to otherwise..." Celestia slowly questioned it. "Otherwise what?" As if to respond the darkness disappeared and was replaced by yet another burning city. Yet this time there were shadowy figures screaming and running away, from what she assumed was the beast. Yet when she looked up there was a massive ship flying in the sky, completely eclipsing the sun then from behind she heard the beats of a massive set of wings. Turning around she saw the winged-hydra from before now back with a metal head and chest and as if to challenge it she heard the booms of what sounded like footsteps. Turning around she saw the black head from before turning around a building, smashing through the glass wall, but instead of the beast looking at the hydra it seemed to look down at her. "Otherwise I'll show you why the those from before called me Godzilla." With that last word it started running down the street towards the hydra. The hydra responded in kind by running on its own two feet towards Godzilla. Celestia stood frozen as its foot hovered over her head, then started to rocket towards her. Shaking herself out of her stupor she closed her eyes and canceled the spell. She could feel the cold cement beneath her again, the sweat pouring down off her brow, the exhaustion of the sheer amount of magic she used. Pushing herself up onto her four wobbly hooves, her Guard appeared at her side helping her up. "Thank you Silver." She wheezed out. Once she was onto her hooves Silver said, "Hang on a minute your highness, I'm go get a nurse." Before he could turn around though she stopped him by placing her hoof on his head. "No instead go tell our fastest pegasi to bring Twilight here, then get another pegasi to head to the Dragonlands to deliver a message. After I write it though." Saluting Silver ran off to do as she said. Celestia slowly walked towards the hole in the wall, making sure not to trip over her own hooves. As she reached the cusp of the hole she let her sun beat down on her as she looked over the mayhem "Godzilla" had caused. Nothing but rubble was left of most of the city and what was left was burning down now... it would take everything that Equestria had. Looking back inside towards her sister's body she corrected that thought. It'd take everything that Equis had to stop it. > Hail to the King > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the sea-bed Godzilla stirred, his tail kicking up massive amounts of sand and clouding the water around him. As he started moving the fish that had started congregating around him swam away in terror even the great whites took hint and disappeared. Pulling out from his ball he sweeped his tail through the water and propelled himself forward through the water. That was an interesting visit he just had in his mind. Quite a informational one too... like how the previous insects of the planet had been replaced by a half-dozen new races and a true race of demons. Earth controllers the lot of them and the knowledge he'd taken from their ruler had them being proclaimed as the planet's most benevolent race. Had them being the oldest and wisest race and some type of weapon that wiped out any opposition to them, turning them to stone or just wiping them from existence altogether. But yet they control the weather with massive cloud factories. He thought as he swam through the ocean, ducking underneath a large outcropping of coral, making sure not to disturb as much as a petal of the new ocean's fauna. They dictate the night and day. They dictate the very nature of the animal kingdom itself! During his brief tour of the demon's mind he saw only one place in her domain that wasn't able to be controlled. But through her eyes he learned of all the most important cities contributing to this global rape of nature, learned which species were respectful of nature and which ones were imitating the long past insects of yesterday. He was briefly brought out of his thoughts as a giant creature passed before him. A squid it seemed like except its head was warped, it had grown a mouth in between its eyes instead of where the tentacles congregated and had a sick and twisted aura to it. Take that into account it was twice his size and was eyeing him like a delicious morsel didn't sit well with him. Before the closest size he'd seen to himself were his fellow "Monsters" and the many aliens and abominations of metal that the insects had made. Even the biggest squid he had seen was only his size and it had been only once. He tensed his muscles and was ready to fight another thing he had never seen before but was surprised when it swam off slowly, one of its tentacles seeming like it was beckoning him to follow. It had swam less than a few hundred yards before it twisted again and repeated the motion with its tentacles, assured now he followed the thing to wherever it was taking him. 00000 Launching himself forward with another serpentine wind of his tail, he curved around a sunken island keeping his eyes on not just his guide but on his surroundings. If he remembered correctly this is where the island where he first made landfall was, but it was completely gone. Pausing briefly he cast a sideways glance at the island then rethought, that maybe the sunken island was it. Ignoring that he continued on with following the giant squid to wherever it was taking him until it suddenly flew upwards into the brighter water. Following it he found himself smelling and breathing in pollution again, hmmm according to the sun one there were two species that could do this and for both this was illegal. The squid stopped a good distance from the top of the water, gesturing with one of its tentacles towards the pollution and making a sweeping motion with its tentacles. Well he might not know much about his new world but some of the new world obviously knew of him. He let his mouth curl upwards in a grin before swimming upwards, aiming for a shadow of what seemed to be another metal abomination that they all used for crossing the oceans. As the water streamed behind him he narrowed his eyes at the metal ship before opening his mouth and slamming into the ship, lifting both him and the ship out of the water about a third of his height. When he reached the apex of his jump he crunched straight through the ship's hull splitting it in half and letting those inside of it come screaming and tumbling out. Crashing back down into the water, a massive wave of water was sent rolling to the coast and towards the source of pollution. He paused for a second to appreciate the bubbles frothing around him and going back up to the crystalline water's surface before he went towards the coast to re-enact what he had done hundreds of times before. The sheer drop of the ocean floor suddenly jumped up into a coastal sea bed, which he started stepping on to get ready to bring death and destruction to those above. Five steps in, his head broke through the water making it cascade off of his head in a almost angelic entrance for a demon. Another three steps and the water started rolling off his shoulders and back down into the water. One more step and the water parted way to show his steaming spines and their signature glowing blue energy. Only thing was to see what to blow up as he took another step forward. A big square building was located right on the coast, already wrecked by his own tsunami, but farther away from it he could see a flying oval with another ship secured to it. Angling his head up he blasted it with his atomic breath and watched as it exploded into a fine mist. Ignoring it after a few seconds he turned around to see his new friend wave at him with a tentacle before diving back deep into the ocean's depths. While that normally would have tempered his mood even just a little bit, it enraged him even more. They couldn't be satisfied with just controlling nature, they had to kill it off and mutate it into things like him!? He'd been thinking of giving the Sun a month or two of theirs to fix her mistakes but now... now he was just going to fix the problem permanently. Turning on his right foot he headed for the first major industrial complex that came to mind, fixated on the biggest and most explosive things that he could think of. 00000 Smoke billowed into his nostrils as he turned around and slammed his tail through another skyscraper, letting its metal debris fall upon him like an unholy blessing before he stepped on a small building located down the street. As he raised his head in the direction of the setting sun he felt a few pinpricks of metal balls impacting his face. Snarling he turned in the direction to see knock-offs of the wheeled contraptions used by insects long past, down in the street below shooting at him their own smoke coming out of the holes at the ends of the metal weapons. Another volley his face and one impacted his eye. Dropping down onto all fours his spines started glowing and the insects tried to fly away... 00000 Letting his fury erupt out of his mouth he blew up another hole leading down into the hive, ignoring the black insects blasting him with energy. Pushing himself up off of all fours he turned around to continue on when he was slammed in the back of the head by a powerful beam of energy. Turning around he saw the culprit floating in the same place as where it had shot him. Roaring he reached out to smash the insect in his claws... 00000 As he clasped his claws around the dragon's throat he lifted it up and then slammed it back down against the ground, then repeated the process again and again. He raised it up again and was about to slam it back down when he noticed one of its dragon kin flying towards them. Smiling he dropped the dragon and stood still, letting the dragon think it had the advantage of surprise. RIght before it slammed into him, he slammed his tail against its wing making it crash into the ground. Letting out another roar he raised his foot... 00000 He let his foot slowly touch the ground so as to limit his wrath upon the few insects that still respected mother Earth, making sure to keep his tail from knocking over their triangular homes. Unlike the other species they just watched awestruck as he walked on to commit another devastation. Hmmm according to Sun's memories these ones were called Bison. They reminded him of a race of insects that worshipped a giant moth that he knew of in ages long past. He turned his gaze upon them and let out a low growl of respect before continuing on... 00000 He continued blasting the floating weather factory even as a tangible swarm of demons did their best to try and hurt him. But unlike the prevouis races of insects they didn't have military might to back them up at all. They relied on two beings and other weapons of "Harmony" to protect them. But they didn't have it now and even if they did he was setting up true harmony between insect and beast, the children and mother Earth. Taking a deep breath in he concentrated his wrath into one last burst of energy, feeling it as it traveled from his spines and into his mouth, the energy glowing a blood-red. Almost like a signal the demons disappeared at that and without distractions he blew up what was left of the weather city, before hanging his head in exhaustion. But as one of the true free clouds, that originated from the forest, passed by overhead and let out a refreshing rainfall upon him he knew he had to keep going on like this until every weather machine, every pollution making race, every pseudo leader of harmony was burnt to ash. Taking a deep breath he continued on walking ahead, forging a path for his fellow children of nature to follow and make their own changes to the world. > Enter Player Two. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ever since the monster had started rampaging throughout Equis, nopony paid much attention to little things like massive shipments of meat being hijacked, or a few dozen citizens going missing. When they did they just thought it was thanks to the monster, nopony realized that all of those things had started disappearing near the Everfree forest. Or that all of it disappeared next to only one area. Caries had been taking full advantage of that to expand his collection of beautiful pets, not only from his prized jewel but to the manticores, Hydras and even some plant beast. But as before they couldn't match up to his new favorite, with its ability to absorb magic and lightning, massive claws and its mountainous size. The sad thing was even if he kept attacking the passing caravans to feed his pets, he'd run out pretty soon. He stopped on the mountain he'd been traversing to see Canterlot, the glimmering gem of Equestria, shining at him. Beckoning him closer. He sat down on the rock next to him and stared at the capital. A gem to feed his precious jewel in his collection it seemed almost poetic. Standing back up he slid back down the mountain, towards the base where his personal transport was. It had been lying down when he started sliding, but when he reached the bottom his manticore was stretching its back, knowing what he wanted to do. Before he reached the summit he teleported onto its back and turned its head with his horn, making it fly in that direction. It's mighty wings spread before launching them over the forest's treetops, free from danger of any untrained beasts of the Everfree. As they flew, he could already see the top of his pet over the trees, hiding behind a mountain like he had instructed it too. With another push of his horn the manticore picked up speed, making them fly in a blur. Within the minute they were overtop the gathering of his many hungry pets. Letting the corner of his mouth lift up into a smile, his horn started to glow along with all of his lovelies' eyes. At this they all looked at their master knowing he was in charge, before he tugged them all towards Canterlot. First to start moving were the speedy manticores slowly followed by the three hydra's he'd acquired. But they didn't compare to his pet and its starry back, the way how when it walked it lumbered, the way it breathed a huge gust of wind came out its nostrils. The way when its stomach rumbled it sounded like an earthquake. Looking back to the gem of Equestria he thought to himself, that pretty soon that earthquake would be replaced by a different sort.