> The Elder Dragons of Equestria > by FanboyGamer3E > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1. Reincarnation. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Person POV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today was definitely not my day. First my alarm goes off an hour early, I blame that on my asshole little brother and his pranks, Next my toast gets burnt because my baby sister some how managed to get up on the counter and fuck with the toaster by turning it up too high, then on the way to school my regular route gets shut down so they can repave the roads, so we have to take an already crumbling road which was bumpy as hell, and now I'm lying here bleeding to death in the school's shop class because some dumbass thought it was a good idea to cut a metal chain with a handsaw normally used to cut plywood. I didn't even get a warning like "LOOK OUT" or something like that. One minute I'm using sandpaper to get rid of any splinters on the side of this little bird house I was making, the next I feel the spinning blade of the handsaw shredding it's way into the back of my thigh and make it's way in between my legs. I'm not a doctor, but by the amount of blood coming out, I'd say it must have cut an artery. Apparently the guy trying to cut the chain, Brandon I think his name was, got it in his head to cut a metal chain in half so he could rework it into some kind of chain belt like some kind of Hell's Angel, but someone was at the cutting table so he grabbed a handsaw and got his two stoner friends to hold the chain so that it wouldn't slip. But then the dumbass leans his whole body against it, cuts through it, and falls down onto me which cut open my leg. That was five minutes ago, the teacher's called the paramedics, the trio of morons responsible for this are being held in the principal's office until the cops come, and my vision is starting to fade out due to the blood loss. There's this one pretty blond girl beside me holding my hand. She's saying stuff like "Your gonna be alright," and "Just hold on a little longer." I think she's trying to comfort me or give me some kind of hope, but I'm a realist. The paramedic's aren't going to be here in time, and even if they are, what are they gonna do for a severed artery? I'll tell you what, Jack-Shit. The best the can do is stick a whole bunch of blood bags in my arm and try to buy me as much time as they can until they get to the hospital and rush me into the E.R. and even then there's no guarantee I'll survive, and if I do I'll have to stay in bed for weeks while doped up on painkillers and antibiotics before being healed enough to start up physical therapy. Of coarse that's assuming the paramedics get here in time, which they most likely won't. It's funny, most people would be crying or freaking out, but I'm just calm. Not content because I'm kicking the bucket at such a young age, but calm. Although that's probably just because of the blood loss. My vision is really starting to go now, I'm also seeing a bright light, I think I read somewhere that flashing lights in my vision means my brain is dying which people in the old days would mistake as some kind of portal to heaven. Not wanting to be an open-eyed corpse, I close my eyes and slip into the sweet embrace of death. At least I think I do. It takes a minute or two after the lights in my eyes stop flashing for me to realize I'm still conscious, not only that but my well being has considerably improved. "Human." A young male voice calls out. "Open your eyes." Not having anything better to do, I comply with the voice's request, and am surprised to what my eyes are greeted to. I'm in an empty black void, buck-ass naked, and lying down on a floor of nothing. It's not like an infinite darkness, because if it were I couldn't see a damn thing in front of my face. The best thing I have to compare it to is the abyss where you fight the four kings in the first Dark Souls game. I got to by feet and looked around at the nothing, before shouting out "HELLO, ANYONE, HELLO-OOOOOOH." "Hello human." The voice said in a calm tone. It was weird, it's like it was coming from everywhere and yet there's nowhere for it to come from. "Uuuuuuh, God, Is that you?" "No, not exactly. I am the Tester, and I have chosen you to be my test subject." "Okay I have some issues with the test subject thing but first can you give me some kind of thing for me to identify you as so I'm not just looking everywhere. And could you also have the thing you make be where your voice comes from, I mean I'm all for ASMR, but not when it's coming from everywhere at once." The "Tester" as he calls himself didn't respond right away. But he did, I guess the right word is manifest, some kind of orb of light which asked, "Does this construct meet your standards?" "Yes thank you, now about being a "Test subject." what exactly does this imply?" "First allow me to explain what I am. I am a transdimensional being which through extreme fortune had obtained omnipotence. I have always had a fascination with experimenting with how life forms will react and adapt to change, this change being the universe in which they exist and the body the reside in." "Alright got it, getting a lot of Sci-fi vibes from this. So what you're going to make me immortal and send me back in time, turn me into some kind of immortal prophet to lead the world in a better direction?" "Not quite, I've noticed that you humans have many titles in media." "Yeah so what, they're just made up stories." "Not entirely, tell me are you familiar with the concept of Multiverse theory?" "I mean I know about it from some Justice League movies and Rick & Morty. It goes that there's an infinite number of universe where anything can happen, Boys can be born as girls, Good guys turn into Bad guys." "And made up stories can be real life reality." "Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa, wait, are you telling me that nearly every story line of Tv, movies, and Video games are real, their just happening across infinite universe." "Yes, in fact I suspect that someone is writing about us right now." "Whoa man that's trippy." "Indeed, it took me nearly a century to fully come to terms with the reality of the multiverse when I first obtained these powers. But enough small talk, it is time to commence with the transformation part of the experiment, I warn you this will be painful." And let me tell you it was. I barely had anytime to react to what the Tester had said before a wave of pain sent me reeling to the floor. It was like I was being burnt with fire, acid, and electricity from inside and out. I could barely make out what was happening to my body from my state of pure agony. My muscles and bones where growing and shrinking as my body transformed, at some point I had grown a tail and a pair of leathery wings, my skin was being replaced with scales, and bony spikes had started growing all over my body, with the two largest ones growing out of the sides of my head creating massive horns. By the time the transformation was over nothing even resembling a human remained on my body. "Huh huh huh, what did you do to me?" I asked between ragged breaths, at least my voice was still the same. "I transformed your body into a powerful dragon. I now erase your original name form your memory and christen you with your new identity. You are now Nergigante, The Elder Dragon of Extinction." Out of nowhere I felt myself forget my name, my own fucking name. My other memories were still intact, but whenever I tried to remember myself writing or responding to my name I just couldn't make it come to mind, it was like I never even had it. "In exchange for your erased memories I gift to you knowledge of the various monster from the world Nergigante is originally from." And just like that I felt a stream of information rushing into my brain, a number of facts about the monsters from the Monster Hunter series. Even facts I didn't need or want to known, like the mating habits of various monsters. "Whoa, this is just insane. Are you sure your not a god." I asked. "No, the title of God is reserved for beings of my power who serve as guardians of a universe, and who are worshiped for their power. I have no followers, and I see life forms such as you as play things. Now then where to send you, Tamriel, no they've got enough dragons after the whole Skyrim incident. The Capital Wasteland, no they'll just think you're some new breed of DeathClaw and try to kill you right out the gate. Paradise Island, having a flying dragon on your side would certainly help out against the titans." Now it was my turn to cut him off. "What about Equestria?" "The pony world, are you sure? It seems a bit too cutesy for an elder dragon like you." "Hey, you turned me into this thing, you're the one who involved me in your little "Experiment," I feel that I should have the right to choose where I end up at least." The Tester made a sound like he was blowing air through his lips like people do when they're annoyed before saying, "Very well, but I get to decide where you go in the timeline." "Alright, fair enough." "I will also be sending other beings such as yourself there as well, they will all be beasts from where Nergigante is from so you will know what to do when they appear." "Alright then. Now what? Do you just StarTrek beam me down to the planet?" "Not quite, your ride down will be a bit more "bumpy."" "What does that- OH SHIT." I yelled as I was sucked through a portal into vacuum of FUCKING SPACE. I thought I was going to be left floating out there forever until if felt myself falling. I turned around to see that I was actually falling down to the planet's surface, the one thought that ran through my head before I began to panic again was, "Oh so this what he meant by bumpy." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Person POV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight was gazing out of her telescope in the Golden Oak library. She enjoyed looking up at the night sky. She stretched her wings before taking one last look up at the sky. That's when she saw it, a shooting star falling from the seemingly infinite heavens. She looked through the telescope to get a closer look at it, and noticed that it looked like it was flailing around at one point he even though she saw wings, a tail, and a face. She also noticed that it was getting closer. Twilight looked up from her telescope to see that some of the detail were more noticeable now, and watched in awe as the falling thing that she no longer thought of as a star flew over the house before landing somewhere in the Everfree forest, causing a flock of birds to scatter in it's wake. The only phrase that came to her mind was, "Well that was ominous." > Chapter 2. The morning after. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Person POV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight and her friends all gathered on the edge of the Everfree forest. "So why'd you have us all come here Twi?" Rainbow asked. "Yes, weren't we supposed to investigate the small little box at the Tree of Harmony." Rarity added. "We'll be putting that on hold for now." Twilight answered. "But why?" FlutterShy asked." "Because we have more pressing matters, last night I saw something fall from the sky and land in the Everfree forest, we're going to the crash site to investigate." "20 bits says it's and Alien Spacecraft with a baby in it." Pinkie said in her usual cheerful tone. "You got that from that new SuperMare comic, didn't you." AppleJack said snidely. "Heheheh, Yup." "So what actually happened?" Rainbow asked. "Well," Twilight began. "I was up late last night star gazing, right before I went to bed I noticed what I thought was a shooting star. I looked at it through my telescope and noticed that it wasn't moving like a normal comet or meteor." "Whatever do you mean darling?" Rarity asked. "I mean it was failing around, never holding or returning to a consistent shape. As it got closer I started to notice some features about it. It had wings, a tail, and a head with a huge pair of horns on top, it also looked to have a lizard-like face. By the time I noticed that it had fallen past the cloud line and had landed in the Everfree forest. Normally I would have sprang into action immediately, but I was just so tired and I didn't want to wake you so I just went to bed, which brings us to now." "Let me guess, we're going to go see what landed there." Rainbow said. "Yes, that is the plan." Twilight confirmed. "Alrighty then." "Okay." "Let's do this." "Okie-Dokie-Loki." "Ready when you are Darling." "Wait your not worried?" Twilight asked, surprised. "Come on Twilight, we've all been in and out of the Everfree about a hundred times by now." Rainbow said confidently. "Plus, your an Alicorn now, so if the weird thing from space does try to attack us, you can just blast it with your magic." "Hmm, I suppose your right." "Of coarse I'm right, now lets go see what's out here." Rainbow said before flying head with the rest of the girls following behind her. Twilight smiled, reassured by Rainbow's attitude and ran followed after her friends. It didn't take them long to find the crash site. The crater itself was about 13 feet in diameter, and was about 4 feet deep. However the really interesting part was what was lying in the hole. The best word Twilight could describe it as was a dragon. The dragon was the size of a large Manticore, which explained the crater. It had black scales with a hot pink coloration on its belly. Its wings where large and leathery with the wing membrane being a Tannish color with hints of black along the digits. It had a box shaped jaw which had sharp teeth along the mouth. It had massive horns on the side of its head which ended in sharp black points, it also had spikes with the same coloration across it's body, primarily on its front legs, its back, its tail, and the edges of its wings. The spikes varied in length with of of the longer ones being around five and a half inches long. Lastly its feet had light pink colored paw pads on the bottom of them, which was more characteristic of mammals instead of a lizard type creatures. "What is it." FlutterShy asked. "Looks to be some kind of dragon." Twilight said. "What I'm wondering is how did it survive falling from orbit?" "Maybe it's just super tough." Rainbow said. "Maybe we should tell the Princesses about this." AppleJack suggested. "Having both Tirek and this thing showing up around the same time feels like an omen." "You may be right." Twilight said. "I should send a message to Celestia." "Quiet, I think it's waking up." FlutterShy whispered, while pointing at it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Person POV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Good God everything hurts." I said raising a clawed hand up to my face before seeing it and being reminded of the events that lead me to this situation. "Oh yeah, was kinda hoping that was all a dream." I tried to get to my feet, but ended up falling on my gut before remembering that my new body was quadrupedal. I stood up, on all fours this time, before spreading out my wings to stretch them. Having wings was weird, it was like having a pair of giant hands on your back without being able to move each individual finger. It was then that I began to smell something, no, multiple things in the air. I choked it up to my new senses and tried to pick up on the individual scents. One smelled like fine perfume, another like apples, another like various cookies and cakes, one smelled like a combination of various animal scents, one that smelled like some sort of energy drink, and finally one that smelled like old paper and books, with a hint of lavender. I turned to see where the smells where coming from, and was surprised to see the mane six. Well not so much "surprised" since I expected to run into them sometime or another, but more like startled to see them so soon. It's like watching Terminator and having Arnold Schwarzenegger show up at your door asking if you're Sarah Conner, your not expecting it but your secretly glad it happened. "Alright, I've run through this situation a dozen times in my head." I thought to myself. "I just need to not let them know I know them, act friendly, and not seem like I'm a threat. That last part is going to be difficult with this body but I'll make due." "Hello there." I say holding up a paw. Twilight's the first to speak. "Who and what are you?" She says it in an authoritative manor, but I can tell she's just trying to keep her cool. Having always been wanting to say this, I snidely reply with. "Don't you know it's impolite to ask someone's name without introducing yourself first." Before remembering that she's a princess and she can probably turn me to stone all on her own even without the Elements of Harmony now. Needless to say, I immediately regretted my previous decision. "Very well" She said to my relief. "I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, beside me are my friends Rainbow Dash, Rarity, AppleJack, FlutterShy, and Pinkie Pie. Now would you please be so kind as to tell us your name and what you are." Having gotten away with my previous snide comment, I stupidly decide to press my luck and say. "Well it's pretty obvious what I am. I'm a dragon, to be more specific an Elder Dragon, not saying I'm old or anything, I just have incredible power and don't fit into any other category of dragon. As for my name, I am called Nergigante, my title is the extinction dragon, but in all honesty I'm usually pretty peaceful." "What do you mean by don't fit into any category?" Twilight asked. "Well, this is going to be hard to explain so I'll do it as best I can." I say, while thinking up a concurrent backstory to explain my situation. "You see I'm from another world. In my world dragons and other monsters are sectioned into categories of Wyvern due to our nature. There's Brute Wyverns, Flying Wyverns, Bird Wyverns, Snake Wyvern, Fanged Wyvern, Piscine Wyverns, and finally Leviathan Wyverns. There are others but those are the basic categories. Then there are the Elder Dragons which don't fit into any of the categories. There are also several monsters that haven't been categorized due to so little being known about them." "Wait how do you not know about others like you." Twilight asked. "Well you see, we don't do the categorizing, the Humans, and Wyverians do." I answer. "What are Humans, and Wyverians?" FlutterShy asked. "Humans are a kind of hairless ape that stands on two legs and where's clothes all the time. Wyverians are basically humans with pointy ears, although they are more attuned with nature than humans, they also vary in size, some are as tall as humans and others are about 3 feet tall. There's also a race called the Lynians, who are basically cat people, they also vary in size but most of them are only about 3 feet. Lynians are basically servants for the other races, they help build thing, carry items, help in fights, basically whatever their master needs them to do." "I see so these races categorize dragons and other monsters so they can better understand them." Twilight guessed. "That seems like a very effective way of working together." "Now that's where your wrong Sparkle." I say holding up a claw. "It's not so we can work together, it's so we're easier to hunt, and kill." This visibly shocked the girls, FlutterShy most of all. "Why would they do that." FlutterShy asked. "Looks like I'll have to give you a history lesson." I say. "You see Monsters and Humans have been fighting each other for centuries now. It all began with the Great Dragon war. Centuries ago the races lived in moderate harmony with us dragons. When a dragon died, the humans would use the body to make armor, weapons, and food items. But one day the humans went too far by preforming the forbidden act. The forbidden act is creating new life from the life on another, which is essentially playing god. The humans slaughtered countless monsters, and used their corpses to create an abomination which they dubbed The Equal Dragon Weapon. Enraged by this, my ancestors along with other monsters destroyed the Human's civilization and nearly drove them to extinction. This was hundreds of years ago now, The Humans now call what was once theirs the Ancient Civilization, not even remembering it was once their birthright. The humans still hunt and kill monsters, using their hides to make weapons and armor as they once did. However they don't do it out of some instinctual hate as we have for them. They hunt us to understand and study us, they do not do it out of revenge but out of necessity. They see us as a threat, but only hunt us when they need to. This has given birth to the Hunter's guild, a human organization which accepts requests to hunt monster, either for research purposes, or because one of us is running amok. They even place and lift bans on hunting certain monsters if the population becomes too low. I suspect this is because they've been humbled by the near extinction of their race, and now have a greater respect for life." None of what I told them was made up. I learned it when the Tester filled my head with the knowledge of other monsters. It was like the information was directly linked to why the humans hunt them and how they came to be. But I knew the next question was where I would have to start getting creative. I didn't want to lie, but saying that I was from a world where they're a cartoon was more unbelievable than anything I could think up. "I see." Twilight said. "But then how did you get to Equestria?" "A portal." I answered. Not technically a lie, but I'd have to make it fit along side the facts I had in my mind. "Portals in space have been opening all across my world. No one knows what they are, not even the humans. What's weird is that the humans can't pass through them, only monsters. The portal I was sucked through just happened to be above your planet's atmosphere, which is how I ended up in this crater. Speaking of which can I please get out of here?" "Sure, come on up." Twilight said motioning me towards the with a hoof. I decided to give me wings a try. I flapped them and managed to get airborne. I circled around the mane six before landing next to them. It was at this point that I realized something, they where small compared to me. Granted I was expecting them to be about half my height while I was human. But I wasn't human anymore and my dragon body was around 13 to 14 feet tall, not to mention a probably weighed the same as an elephant. "Hey, is there anyway you can make me smaller?" I asked. "Actually I've been looking for a reason to use this new spell." Twilight said charging up her horn. "How small do you want to be?" "Uh, around the same size as you." I answer. I was a bit weirded out by being covered in this magic stuff. It made me feel all tingly. That's when I noticed my body was changing. My legs where becoming longer and less muscly, my tail and wings where becoming thinner, and my spikes and horns where decreasing in size. By the time the transformation was done I looked like a cross between a pony and my dragon body. Twilight let out a breath and said "Alright, the hard part's over, Now give me your paws." "Okay, why?" I asked while doing as she said. Without saying anything Twilight focused the magic which had been covering me before into the center of my paws. The magic condensed and formed a little emblem of each paw pad, the emblem was that of my dragon form's face, which had been colored purple. "What are these?" "They're transformation sigils." Twilight replied. "They allow you to transform from your full sized form into this smaller one, all you have to do is press them together. This spell was originally created to make previous Dragon lords smaller so they could fit into the building at the world summit." "Neat, what's a Dragon lord." I asked. I knew what a Dragon lord was from watching season 6, when Spike was called to the dragon lands by the Dragon lord. But I didn't want to make them think I knew anything about their world because that would just be opening a huge can of worms I did not want. "It's exactly as it sound." Twilight said with a hint of snide. Clever girl. "The Dragon lord is the supreme lord of the dragons. He's the one who leads them all. At least that's what Celestia's told me, and before you ask, Celestia is one of the co-rulers of this country known as Equestria." "Got it." I say, giving a thumbs up. "By the way I should probably have you meet Celestia." "I'm gonna stop you right there Twilight." Pinkie interjected before turning to me. "Before we do anything else we need you a nickname. Nergigante's a good name and all but it's a bit of a mouthful in casual conversation, how 'bout we call you Nergi?" "Nergi, hmm, I like it, kinda roles off the tongue. How'd you come up with it?" "Oh it was easy, I just cut your name in half and chose the one that sounded better." "Alright, it's decided, from now on call me Nergi." I said proudly, before a question popped into my head. "Have there been any reports of other bizarre monsters running around causing trouble? They might be from my world and if so I could give you information on them." "Well we haven't heard about any monsters." Twilight said. "The only one running around causing trouble is a centaur named Tirek, he's been draining ponies of their magic. Celestia sent Discord out to deal with him but he hasn't reported in. Discord is a Draconaquis, he's able to sense different kinds magic, as well distort reality using the power of chaos." "I see." I said nodding my head before thinking to myself. "That places me at the tail end of season 4, which means that Discord has probably already been persuaded to join Tirek. On the plus side I might be able to get a front row seat to the epic clash between Twilight and Tirek, SCORE." After introductions were over the girls brought me to Ponyville. The ponies all ran and hide like they did with Zecora but Twilight assured them that I wasn't an evil demon or anything like that. I decide to live with Twilight for my stay in Ponyville, I knew that at some point Celestia would summon Twilight to Canterlot so that she could receive the Alicorn magic. I didn't tell her this, I just made the excuse that I used to live in a tree and the Library was comforting to me. Which is not a total lie, I enjoyed the Golden Oak library whenever I saw it in the show and I always wanted to have a tree house in real life. Sure enough a couple hours after I arrived Spike burped out a letter saying that Twilight had to come to Canterlot right away. I suggested that I go with her and explained that I was bound to meet the princesses anyway so bringing me along would be killing two birds with one stone. The phrase slightly disturbed her but she agreed to take me. "I came as quickly as I could." Twilight said charging into the throne room. "Is something wrong? Is it Tirek?" "I'm afraid we put too much trust in Discord and the effect that friendship would have upon him." Celestia said solemnly. "Earlier today, a member of the Wonderbolts had reported that Discord had betrayed the ponies of Equestria and joined forces with Tirek." "How could he do this?" Twilight asked in disbelief. "I thought our friendship meant something to him. I thought he had changed." "You shouldn't blame him." I said walking into the throne room. "It's possible that this Tirek guy manipulated him into thinking that his friendship with you was just another form of imprisonment." My presence and appearance visibly put the Princesses on edge. Luna being ever headstrong asked. "Who art thou, and how did thou intrude upon us?" "Wait, he's with me." Twilight said stepping in front of me. "I'll take it from here Twilight." I said pushing past her before standing proud in front of the three Eldest Princesses. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Nergigante, I am a dragon from another world. I was brought to this world by being sucked through a portal, one of many that had been opening randomly back on my world. I would like to help you stop Tirek if you would allow me to aid you." "I'm afraid that you'd only do more harm than good." Celestia said. "Tirek has stolen enough magic that he now has the strength to steal fight as well, without Pegasi to control the weather there will be now rain in Equestria. There is word he has also gone after Earth Ponies as well, without their strength they will not be able to tend the land." "Ponies will no longer be able to control their world, that power will remain solely to Tirek." Luna added. "If he's able to steal flight and strength, then I'll just be a booster for him then." I said realizing the problems I could cause if Tirek got a hold of my power. "That's not all." Cadence added. "The last known reports from the crystal empire said that he had recruited an army by allying himself with Queen Chrysalis, and had resurrected King Sombra for insight on his military expertise." "I don't know who either of those are but it sounds like it's bad that they're with him." I saying bluntly. I knew exactly who Chrysalis and Sombra where, and with both of them AND Discord being in league with Tirek I felt like shit was about to hit the fan hard. "There is no doubt that Tirek is after Alicorn magic, and with Discord, Chrysalis and Sombra by his side, even we will not be able to stop him from taking it." Celestia said. "Once is in his possession all hope will be lost." Luna added "Even then he might not stop there." I interject, confusing the ponies. "Think about it, if he gets Alicorn magic what's to stop him from just stealing the powers of his henchmen? I might not be from here, but I know how a megalomaniac thinks, he won't stop until everything is his, he'll steal anything he can get his hands on and once he does he'll rule with an iron fist. Which begs the question, how do we stop him?" "There is one solution." Celestia said with a determined look in her eye. "It is only by making this sacrifice that Equestria and the land beyond it might be saved. We must rid ourselves of our magic, before Tirek has the change to steal it from us." "That is right, Tirek is set on possessing Alicorn magic." Luna added. "When he comes for us we cannot have what he is looking for." "I'm more than willing to do my part and give up my magic." Twilight said in a brave voice. "You misunderstand." Luna interrupted. "Our magic cannot just disappear into thin air, somepony must keep it safe." "That somepony is you Twilight." Cadence added. "Bad idea." I say bluntly. "How is it a bad idea?" Celestia asked. "As far as we know Tirek is not aware that a forth Alicorn Princess exists in Equestria." "What about Discord? He knows, and if he hasn't already he's bound to spill the beans about it when Tirek finds out you don't have your magic, I mean for God's sake there's a giant stained glass window of Twilight right beside you." I say pointed to said window. My argument clearly puts Celestia's plan back a square one. "So what do you purpose Dragon?" Luna asked. I think a bit and a plan springs up in my mind. "Alright, I have a plan, but before I explain it I should go over some stuff. Where I'm from, we Elder dragons have a kind of force in our bodies that gives us our powers it's called Bio-Energy. When it's time for an Elder dragon to die they make the Elder crossing and travel to a continent the humans call The New World. There they die and release the Bio-Energy into the ecosystem, super charging it. After countless centuries the Bio-Energy created a mystical gem known as the Sapphire Star. The Star holds the accumulated energy of thousands of Elder Dragons, most of who, if I haven't mentioned have the ability to change the environment of the region just by staying in one place long enough." At that point, Luna slapped me and shouted. "GET TO THE POINT DRAGON, WE DO NOT HAVE ALL DAY." "Ow, alright, Jesus. You didn't have to blindside me." I say before continuing. "Alright so my plan is that we condense your magic it some kind of crystal or artifact, then give it to me so I can keep it safe." "No." Luna interrupted. "Sister, we cannot trust him, for all we know he could be a servant of Tirek trying to gain favor." "Fine the don't give it to me. Give it to Twilight, give to that guard pony outside, Hell throw it in a lake for all I care, it doesn't matter. One way or another we need to hide it and keep it out of Tirek's hands." "But there's one thing you're not getting Nergi." Twilight said. "Somepony needs to wield the magic to move the Sun and Moon, if nopony does everything will be at a stand still." "Oh, wish you told me that sooner." I said, realizing the irony that it was my plan being set back to square one. "Fine we'll go with Celestia's plan." From that point things went around the same way as it did in the episode. Twilight gets the magic of the other princesses, manages to messily raise the sun, and flies out to the Everfree Forest to think about her new powers. This is where I stopped following her around. I got hungry so I decide to go fishing, not the kind of fishing you're thinking of, I mean the kind of fishing that involves diving into the water and pulling a slippery lake Trout up onto the beach. I didn't really like the taste of fish when I was human, but since I wasn't sure if eating meat like beef, pork, and chicken was okay in Equestria, decided to eat fish until I get a conclusive answer. After I finished eating I went back to town. Tirek and the other villains where bound to show up at some point to capture the other members of the mane six, and when they did I could free them so Twilight wouldn't have to give up her magic. I know I was fucking with the timeline a bit, but I wanted to at least try to help even if I did more harm than good. I heard people talking from a little ways away and went to investigate. Looked to me like I had gotten there right on time, Tirek and his lackeys had already captured Spike and the girls, and Discord, Chrysalis, and Sombra had already been drained of their magic and where currently lying on the ground. Tirek himself was relishing in his new power and was around the same size as he was in the show before absorbing Discord's power. "I must say your abilities are certainly not to be trifled with." Tirek said proudly. "The power to shape shift is especially useful, I'll admit always having my size increase every time I absorb magic would become encumbering over time, and having a connection to an army through a species wide hive-mind is nothing to shake a stick at either. As for your powers Sombra, the ability to delve into a pony's mind and force them to live out their darkest fear is perhaps the most terrifying ability on its own, to be honest I was hoping for this to happen sooner, before you had a chance to double cross me. Crystal creation's not bad either, it'll allow me to literally raise my empire from the ground up." I only had one change at this so I decide to charge in. I managed to literally get the jump on Tirek, pouching on him and digging my claws into his shoulder. He grabbed me by my horn and slammed me into the ground, I thrusted my spiked tail towards him and missed. Tirek then capitalized on this by grabbing me by the tail and once again slamming me into the ground. I rolled off my back and jumped away from him before growing out my spikes to their limit before flying up into the air and swooping down shouting. "EXTINCTION DRAGON SPECIAL MOVE; BLACK SPIKE DIVE-BOMB." As I shouted I spun through the air whipping nearly all my spikes from my body before landing on my feet. Confident my attack had hit, I cracked a smirk. "Black Spike Dive-bomb, Really?" Tirek said, shattering my composure. "That's the best attack name you could think of. I'm not impressed dragon." I looked up to see that nearly all of my spikes had been imbedded in a wall of black crystal Tirek had created. I went to punch it but Tirek (No pun intended) beat me to the punch, not only that but he punched it with enough force to shatter it and send shards of crystal flying at me. I covered my eyes to keep the shards from blinding me, which is when Tirek grabbed me by the horns and slammed his knee into my face before grabbing my neck and raising me to eye level and saying. "I'm going to ask you two questions, and if I don't like your answer I tighten my grip on your neck. First off, who are you? Second, why did you think a weak little dragon like you could have a chance against me?" "I am Nergigante the Extinction Dragon." I answer. "I thought I could battle you to save Princess Twilight's friends so that you couldn't use them as bargaining chips." "Really?" Tirek asked with an eyebrow raised. "One last question, do you know where Princess Twilight is?" "No, but I can probably use my senses to find her." I answer, to wanting to get my neck crushed. Tirek smirked and threw me to the ground and said. "Alright dragon, I'm not going to drain you of your magic, but in exchange you have to do something for me. I want you to find Princess Twilight and tell her that if she even wants to see her friends again, she'll give me the Alicorn magic." "You know she won't give you the magic without a fight, right?" "Hmph, Let her fight. I'm more than a match for her." He was a match for her, even more so now that he had absorbed the power of Chrysalis and Sombra. I thought I could face him with my new dragon powers, but I was wrong. With nothing else I could do that wouldn't be considered suicide, I spread my wings and few of to the Everfree to search for Twilight. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tirek's POV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As I watched the Dragon fly off I made a mental note to travel to the Dragon Lands to absorb their powers, fire breath would certainly be a beneficial ability, if only to serve as a painful means of execution. But for now I had things to do. I tuned myself into the Changeling Hive-mind and made my orders. "Changelings, round up every pony it this town and bring them to your new king, no, your new emperor." "YES EMPEROR TIREK." My pawns shouted before flying into town to do my bidding. > Chapter 3. Altering Destiny. Nergigante and Twilight vs Tirek. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Person POV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight sat upon a cliff thinking of her current situation. She had the power of her other princesses combined, she might have been able to handle the responsibility if she had her friends to confide in. But Celestia had said that telling them of this secret would put them in danger. Not only that but three of the most dangerous creatures in Equestria has face have joined up with him. The only one who knew as much as she did was a dragon she had only just met a day ago after seeing him fall from space on a ball of fire, she still didn't know how he was still alive after falling from orbit. Her train of thought would have continued from this but she was interrupted by Nergi landing next to her. Actually "landing" was putting lightly, the spiked dragon dived into the ground next to her with enough force to nearly bring the cliff down. Nergi shook the dirt from his face and frantically said. "Twilight he's here, Tirek is here and shit has hit the fan, we have a code red, the shit has hit the fan and it's viscus and bloody, we're talking night after TacoBell shit here, I'm making a lot of unneeded analogies to with shit in them but I don't care, it's bad." "Nergi calm down, and for the love of Celestia stop cursing. What's going on?" "Tirek is here, he's taken the girls and spike hostage, and also stole the powers of Discord, Sombra, and Chrysalis. Called it by the way. Now he has complete control of the Changeling army, and can copy the abilities of his former henchmen. I tried to fight him but I got my ass kicked, and my face to, there was a lot of kicking. My body was just too weak." "Did you transform into your full size to fight him?" "No. Why?" "You're power is reduced to a 10th of what it usually is when you're in this form. Wait, why am I explaining this to you, we need to save my friends." "Hold it, if we're doing this we need a plan, actually we might not but I still would like to have a plan on hand." "Alright, what did you have in mind?" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 minutes later ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tirek stood in the middle of town square waiting for the final group of ponies to be delivered. So far nearly every pony in the town had been easy, but he chocked it up to there only being a few note worthy ones there. "Lord Tirek." A Changeling said as he entered the room. "We have brought you the last of the ponies." Behind the first one, five more Changelings forcefully dragged the prisoners towards their master. "Ah, so you are what is left." Tirek said standing over them. "Big Macintosh, you are by far one of the largest and strongest ponies I've encountered, your only second to this one muscly pegasus I noticed when the wonderbolts tried to bring me down. Trixie the trickster, those firework spells are certainly loud, I could hear them from all the way over here, sadly they lack the force it takes to keep a Changeling down for long, much less a swarm of them. The Cutie Mark Crusaders, who could have guessed that three school fillies without their Cutie Marks could give a platoon of Changelings the runaround, frankly I'm disappointed in them for taking so long, but credit where credit is due you put up a good fight, bravo. Zecora, long way from your homeland aren't you Zebra, It took some time to find you out in the Everfree, and even more to corner you. And last but not least, wait who are you?" The final prisoner was wearing a cloak that covered their entire body. "Drones, disrobe them." Tirek said pointing to the cloaked figure. As soon as the Changelings got near, the figure broke the rope holding him and bashed their heads together before ripping off his cloak to reveal himself as Nergi. Tirek was a bit surprised but kept his composure saying "Well, well, looks like you've regrown your back-bone along with your spines. So first of, I have to ask, how did you hide your horns underneath that cloak? Secondly, what gave you the idea that you can face off with me again?" "To answer your first question, I broke off my horns and regrew them as I was taking off the cloak." Nergi said proudly. "As for why I'm about to fight you again, that first round was only a practice, this is the real thing." "Really? And what makes you think you can win this time?" Nergi smirked and said "Because this time, I'm going all out." Before clapping his paws together. His body became engulfed in purple lightning, as the energy pulsed trough him his body began to change, his muscles grew bigger, his wings became broader, and his tail became longer and thicker. When the lightning stopped he was three times the size of his pony form. "BEHOLD, THIS IS MY TRUE FORM, MY TRUE BODY." "Shapeshifting?" Tirek thought to himself. "No, he called it his true form, which means that his puny pony sized body was some sort of repressed state he enters when there's no need to fight, it's like a the opposite of what Pufferfish or Cobra do when threatened, while they make themselves bigger to intimidate foes, he choses to make himself smaller to be more approachable. Not only that, but I can sense his physical and magical prowess has increased, interesting." "I'm gonna give you one chance Tirek." Nergigante said. "Give back what you've stolen, or else I'll put a hole the size of my arm right in your chest cavity." "Oh really? Hmph, alright then, LET ME SEE YOU TRY!" Tirek shouted while charging forward. Nergigante grew out the spikes on his arms as well as his claws and shouted. "DECIMATION CLAWS," Before jumping forward and slashing at Tirek with both claws. Tirek blocked both attacks and grabbed the dragon by the arms before asking, "What do you have to say now?" Nergigante smirked and shouted "DOOM SHAFT," Before attempting spear Tirek in the stomach with his tail. Tirek managed to block the attack by creating a crystal from the ground which forced him to release Nergigante's arms. The dragon straightened his fingers and grew out his claws making them turn black before shouting "PERDITION'S HAND," and impaling the crystal with his claws. He then rose his arm above his head while growing a row of spines on the side of his arm and shouting "EXTERMINATION'S EDGE," before attacking Tirek with a karate chop. "SHADOW SHIFT." Tirek shouted phasing his body into his own shadow. Nergigante's attack struck the ground, missing Tirek but landing where his head faded into his shadow. The shadow moved away from the dragon and made it's way over to a building and moving up onto the wall. "Whoa, that's new?" Tirek said stepping out of his shadow. "Now where's that dragon?" "OBLITERATION'S FOOTFALL" Nergigante shouted as he slammed his feet into Tirek's lower back from above, making him scream in pain. The dragon then jumped off Tirek's back and off to the side before charging towards him, bearing his horns and shouting "ERADICATION VANGUARD" before flinging him into the Library, making the tree explode into splinters upon impact. "HEY TIREK." Nergigante shouted. "I'VE DECIDED TO RENAME MY DIVE-BOMB ATTACK." He then began to fly up into the air before asking "HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE NAME DEVASTATION'S THORNS?" Before growing out his spines and swooping down to attack. "ENOUGH" Tirek shouted as he expanding in size to grab Nergigante in both hands, by now he was half the size as he was when he absorbed the Alicorn magic. "I'll admit you where a powerful opponent. But I have risen far above you, what made you think you could defeat me?" "I wasn't trying to defeat you. I was just to by time for Twilight to charge her attack." "WHAT!?!" Nergigante smirked and shouted, "DO IT NOW TWILIGHT," before making his spikes burst off his body. Tirek clutched his hand in pain before looking up to the sky where Twilight was about to fire a beam of magic. Twilight blasted a massive beam of magic towards Tirek. "I can't dodge this, I'm too big. Looks like I'll have to use my new ability." Tirek thought to himself before shouting. "NOW, MAGIC SPONGE." The beam made contact with Tirek's body, and in a flash of light the energy from the blast absorbed into his body surprising both Twilight and Nergigante. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Person POV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL?" I think to myself. "He didn't have that ability in the show, maybe me being here fucked with the timeline, that would explain why Chrysalis and Sombra where with him. Or maybe this is a parallel timeline and the Tester sent me here to save it. OH SHIT GIANT FOOT." As you can tell from my last statement, Tirek nearly squashed me under his massive hoof. "What was that?" Twilight asked. "A little trick I developed in Tartarus." Tirek replied which reducing in size. "The demon guards would blast us with magic every time the other prisoners would try to escape and even if they did escape Cerberus would simply chase them down, so once Cerberus left his post I began to create this ability. I created the spell by merging my absorption spell with my body's own natural ability to absorb radiation. As the name implies the spell turns my body into a sponge which absorbs any form of magical energy, adding it to my own power." "What about physical attacks?" I ask. "The spell will only absorb the energy you infuse into the punch, while the momentum will still exist. But enough of these formalities, let's get down to brass tax." Tirek said before snapping his fingers and teleporting the girls, Spike, Discord, Chrysalis, and Sombra around him, each where in a kind of bubble prison. "Now, give me the Alicorn magic or else, well, you do know what happens when you crush a grape, don't you?" "DON'T DO IT SPARKLE" Chrysalis shouted "HE MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO GET ANYMORE POWER" Sombra added. Gotta say I wasn't expecting those two to be the "selfless" kind, I expected Chrysalis to beg Twilight to do as Tirek said while Sombra just sat in his bubble and sulked like Discord was doing. Maybe things are more different in this timeline than I thought, or maybe being double crossed by Tirek somehow changed them, well not so much "change," it's more likely they've realized that if Tirek becomes a God things are gonna go to hell real quick. Either way it was a surprise to me. Twilight looked at her hooves before saying, "I will give you my magic for my friends." "As you wish" Tirek said with a grin before lowering Spike and the other Element Bearers to the ground. "All of them." "You can't be serious. After the way Discord has betrayed you, you still call him your friend. Those other two were never even your friends to begin with. From what I've heard Chrysalis tried to take over the whole kingdom by mind controlling your brother and taking his fiancé's place, you've never even had a proper dialogue with Sombra." "I don't care, release them." "If that's what you want." Tirek said while lowering the villain trio to the ground. "Now for what I came for." An orb of orange and black energy formed in between Tirek's horn as he inhaled Twilight's magic from her horn. I had seen it in the show but I wasn't prepared for seeing it in person. When all of her magic was gone Twilight fell over, I managed to catch her before she hit the ground. "Don't think I've forgotten about you Dragon. I'll leave you with your power, after all what's the point in depriving myself of another battle with a worthy opponent." "But I'm not a worthy opponent, not that you've gotten your hands on the Alicorn magic." "HA, do you really think I can't sense it, the latent power coursing. You are too young to harness it now, but as you age you will grow stronger and stronger, until you possess the power to fight me, only then will I relinquish you of your power. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a war to wage with the dragons." I didn't know what he was talking about, but I didn't want him think I was stupid so I let him walk away. "Twilight what were you thinking?" Spike asked as he rushed to mine and Twilight's side along with the girls. "What was she thinking indeed." Sombra said as he approached us along with Discord and Chrysalis. "You could have let Tirek do what ever he wished with us, so why make him free us?" Chrysalis asked. "Because you didn't deserve it." Twilight began. "I may not have forgiven you for your past crimes, but that doesn't mean I should turn a blind eye to your suffering, everypony deserves a second chance." "What about a third chance?" Discord asked solemnly. "Tirek tricked be into believing he could offer me something more valuable than friendship, but there is nothing worth more, I see that now. He lied when he said that this medallion was given as a sign of gratitude and loyalty, but when I say that it is a sign of our true friendship, I am telling the truth." Discord placed the medallion around Twilight's neck, and for a brief instant I saw a pastel rainbow glint across it. "You think that's the last one we need?" AppleJack asked. "The last what?" Chrysalis asked "Only one way to find out, we have to get to the chest." Twilight said before running off. "What chest?" Sombra asked. "Just come on you two." I say grabbing them by the necks and running after the group. When we reached the chest at the tree of harmony I saw Twilight rest the medallion on the key hole, and just like in the show it transformed into a golden key and made it's way into the lock. "Uh guys, not to break up the friendship moment but we should probably stop the power hungry monster from getting too far away." I said in a rushed tone. "Nergi's right." Twilight said. "Let's do this together." The mane six each turned the keys, opening the chest. Once opened, a pastel rainbow erupted from the box and charged the elements of harmony with power which then flowed into the bearers of the elements granting them what I like to call their "Super Charged Forms." It was at that point I realized something I should have earlier. "Oh SHIT." "What, what's wrong." Chrysalis asked. "Tirek can absorb attack based magic, and with the amount the girl are about to blast him with he'll be ten times as powerful as he is now." I reply before flying upward after the girls. "HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? YOU HAVE NOW MAGIC." I hear Tirek shout from above. "You're wrong Tirek, I may have giving you my Alicorn magic, but carry within me the most powerful magic of all." Twilight responded proudly. "TWILIGHT STOP." I franticly shout. "DON'T YOU REMEMBER, TIREK CAN ABSORB MAGICAL BEAMS, OF YOU USE THE POWER YOU GOT FROM THE BOX HE'LL JUST ABSORB IT AND GROW TEN TIMES MORE POWERFUL." "Well what do you think we should do?" Rainbow asked. "I have a plan, just buy me time and make sure he doesn't move from that spot." I say before flying up into the sky. I indeed did have a plan, granted it was a half baked plan that I expected had a slim-to-none percentage of success, but it was a plan none the less. The basic idea was that I was going to redo my entrance into this world by flying up into the upper atmosphere and turn myself into a living meteor, like I said it was half baked but it was all I had. As I flew higher and higher into the sky it became harder for me to breath, nevertheless I pushed trough it and pepped flying. At this point the sky was beginning to get dark, either because I was getting close to the outer atmosphere or because my brain was dying from lack of oxygen, either way it was about time to go back down. I performed a corkscrew and turned down to dive-bomb as I did my best to make myself as aerodynamic as possible so that I was able to accelerate. As I felt myself break the sound barrier a single thought popped into my head, one of the most well known events in my planet's history, the extinction of the dinosaurs. And that's when it came to me, the perfect name for my ultimate attack. I grew out the spikes on my right arm and got ready to punch. As I fell through the clouds I saw that Tirek had grow quite a bit and was trying to swat down the mane six who where currently zipping around him. I clenched my spiked fist and shouted the name of my attack with a righteous fury. "METEOR OF EXTINCTION" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd persom POV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tirek turned to where the voice had come from to see Nergigante falling from the sky in a ball of fire. He barely had anytime to reach before the dragon was mere feet away from his chest. In a single second Nergigante had punched through Tirek's body and had crashed in the field behind him, leaving a massive hole in his chest. Magic energy erupted from the hole, Tirek desperately tried the hold it in shouting. "No no no NO NO." But before long he exploded, which released the magic in a massive wave that spread across Equestria. The magic flowed back into its original owners, giving them back their powers. Nergi, now in his miniature form got up from the crater to see a rainbow shoot out from the tree of Harmony. He smirked and said to himself, "Well looks like the castle's here, guess I should go check it out, heheheh god everything hurts. Good thing I didn't grow out all my spikes, otherwise I would have leveled this entire area. I wonder what Tirek was talking about with my "Latent powers." Maybe he meant the power I would get when I become Tempered like the Elder Dragons do in the game, guess I'll never know. Wait, the hell is that?" The "that" Nergi was referring to was in fact the spot where Tirek was standing when he exploded. As he approached the epicenter he noticed a trail of blood going off into the woods. "Y'know I'm sure this is gonna bite me in the ass later on, but I'm just gonna not tell anyone about this, he'll probably bleed out anyways so what's the point? Then again if he does survive, nope nope not gonna think about that, that's a problem for future me, future me can deal with it on his own." Nergi spread his wings and took flight towards the castle. As he landed he noticed Chrysalis and her Changelings moving towards the castle. He charged through the doors of the castle and ran to the council room, as be opened the door he grabbed everypony's attention by saying, "Uh guys we might have a problem." He lead the group to the door to meet the Changeling army at the door, with Chrysalis in the forefront. "Hello there." Chrysalis said with a calm smile. "What do you want Chrysalis?" Celestia asked with a stern tone. "First off, I'd like to make something clear. I am not sorry for what I've done in the past, not for kidnapping Cadenza and taking her place, not for brainwashing Shining Armor, and not for taking over Canterlot. If there's one thing I AM sorry for, it's underestimating you all. That being said, the reason I am not sorry for my actions is because I did them for the good of my hive, my changelings need love to survive, I merely saw Canterlot as a source of food my hive. However I now see that love cannot just be taken, it must be given, my pride blinded me to that fact. I now see that the best life for my Changelings to have is one of peace, not conquest. And so, against my own pride and better judgment, I am surrendering myself, you may do with me what you wish, all I ask is that you give my Changelings a chance for a better future." Celestia remained silent for a moment before saying, "Very well then, you are hereby pardoned for all previous crimes against Equestria, however I am unsure if the ponies of Canterlot will be as accepting and forgiving as I, so with Princess Cadence's permission I would like to move the majority of the changeling population to the Crystal Empire, with several small bands of Changelings being relocated to various towns across the land save for Canterlot." "I suppose they would have an easier time gaining the trust of the Crystal Ponies, but Chrysalis herself will have to be monitored around the clock by my Royal Guards." Cadence said, not happy about the arrangement. "If we're really doing this than there'll have to be a structure of order." Twilight added. "If I had enough time, I could work out some kind of system of ambassadors which have a conference with the mayor of each respected town once a week." "I personally don't care." Nergi said bluntly. "But since we're discussing plans for the future I should also mention that creature from my world are libel to start showing up in this one if they haven't already so we should probably do something about that, also where's Sombra?" "He said something about searching for an army to reclaim what he had lost." Chrysalis replied. "Well that's ominous as fuck, doesn't help that Tirek might still be alive." Nergi said startling everypony. "Y-you can't be serious, we saw him EXPLODE." Twilight said in disbelief. "Not just get caught up in an explosion, I mean actually explode in a blast of magical energy. "Well I don't know what to tell you, I saw a trail of blood leading into the woods from where Tirek was standing, he might bleed out with that hole in his chest, and even if he does survive he probably won't be able to absorb magic for a while without it leaking out of him." "Still, we should remain on high alert, for both of them." Celestia said calmly. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile In the Everfree forest ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sombra strode through the Everfree, thinking back on what had happened. "It seems that dragon had more power than I expected," He thought to himself. "Even with all the power Tirek acquired, the dragon was able to dispatch him in an instant. Not to mention the latent power Tirek spoke of, I managed to sense it once my magic returned. It almost seemed other worldly, similar to the dragon itself. Quadruped dragons like him don't usually have such broad wings or massive horns, and they certainly don't have the power to grow out their spikes, that black dragon is truly one of a kind or if there are others like him they're not from this world." Suddenly Tirek grabbed Sombra from behind and began to drain his magic, Tirek had nearly drained Sombra of all his magic before the power erupted from his chest and returned to the pony. Sombra jumped away from his would be parasite and turned towards him in a combat stance. Tirek was on his knees coughing up blood, he was also the size as he was when he escaped Tartarus, and had a two inch wide hole going right through his chest. "Look at you." Sombra said bitterly. "To think not even a half hour you had the power to reshape the world in your own image, now look at you, a coughing sputtering mess in the middle of the woods. I'd kill you right here if you didn't look so pathetic right now, but if you try this again you will not receive the same mercy again." Sombra then faded into the shadows of the forest, leaving Tirek alone. Tirek clutched his chest in pain. "Curse you Nergigante, curse you you damn dragon." He said to himself, "I had it all, all the power of the alicorn magic, the power of a god in my hands, and now it's gone, ripped from me by a dragon of all things, a savaged lizard which barely have any form of civilization." "Your mistake is comparing Nergigante to the dragons of your world." A voice called out. "WHO'S THERE, SHOW YOURSELF." Tirek called out. "Unfortunately I am unable to do this." The voice said calmly, "Like you, I have been stripped of something, not just my power, but also my physical form itself. I now exist as ghost, a wandering spirit with no substance, like air inside of a nonexistent empty shell. However like you I still hold a small fraction of my power." "Enlightening." Tirek said in a deadpan tone. "Why tell me this?" "I believe we can aid each other. I can give you the power to store energy without it leaking out of your body, in exchange I request that I use you as a host, until the time comes when I am able to reform myself, at which point I will leave you and pursue my own ambitions. So what do you say, do we have a deal?" "First answer me this. How do you know about Nergigante? What is your connection to him?" "He and I are from another world. In the past one of his kind tried to keep me from forming, but was killed by an ignorant human obsessed with hunting and killing the monsters of our world. His body has now been possessed by a wandering spirit from yet another distant world. The spirit appears to have forgotten his own identity, and has taken on the mantle of my old enemy. Are you satisfied with that answer?" "Yes. Alright then, I accept your offer. Come into me and give me what little strength you have left." Tirek felt a splintering pain come from the hole in his chest, which soon turned into a wave of constant pain. As the pain continued he felt his body grow until he was the same size as he was when he stormed Canterlot, the hole in his chest had been filled in my a light blue crystal. The crystal was smooth and was in the shape of a four pointed diamond. Tirek clenched his fist and punched a tree to test his physical strength. The tree splintered a bit upon contact but was otherwise structurally stable. Tirek turned his I to another tree and fired a beam of magic at it, the beam seared away the bark of the tree but did not majorly damage it. "I see, so despite my size I am still inherently weak. I am going to have to remedy that." Tirek said before striding deeper into the forest. > Chapter 4. Fake smiles and Tragic troubles. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd person POV ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Thanks again for letting me stay here." Nergi said as he and the main six entered back into the thone room. "It's no trouble." Twilight said warmly "Now, let's go through this one more time." "We've been over this a million time Twilight." Rainbow said. "We found all six keys, defeated and or killed Tirek, and got this sweet castle, end of story." "Yes, but why?" "I don't know SugarCube. Maybe it's just your new house and there ain't nothing more to it than that." AppleJack suggested. "I must say, speaking strictly on aesthetics, there really doesn't need to be more to it. It's all simply divine." Rarity gushed. "I agree with Twilight." FlutterShy said kindly. "And Rarity, and AppleJack, and Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie, and Nergi. Oh, and probably Spike." "Me and Pinkie didn't say anything." Nergi stated. "And Spike's asleep." "There has to be more to this castle." Twilight said firmly. "Think about it for a second. As Princess, I've been chosen to spread the magic of friendship across Equestria. So why would the Tree of Harmony want us to sit in a castle in Ponyville, it does make any senses." Twilight sat in her throne and the Cutie Mark emblems on the thrones of the main six glowed before each creating crystals which converged in the middle of the room creating a bright light. Once the light had dispelled everypony looked to see a table made of crystal which had a holographic map of Equestria on it. At that moment spike woke up from his nap ad gazed at the map before asking. "Is that new? I like it." "Well now, this is... interesting." Nergi said in a fake nervous voice, knowing full well what that map was having watched the show. It was the Cutie Map, a seemingly omniscient mystical artifact which would later on send the mane six on various friendship quests. "Interesting doesn't even cover it." Spike said hopping up on the table. "This is incredible, it's got all of Equestria." "Hi Mom and Dad." Pinkie said while looking down on her family home on the map. "Uuuuh Twilight, your butt is flashing." Nergi said pointing to Twilight's Cutie Mark. Twilight and the others looked at their Cutie Marks which where indeed flashing. The flashing creating an image of the Marks which rose into the air before lowering to a small village on the map. The village was located in a desert like area. "Now 'that' was interesting." Spike said before being levitated off the table by Twilight. "But, if this is ponyville, why are our Cutie Marks over there?" FlutterShy asked. "I don't know, but it seems like the map wants us to find out." Twilight said. "Think about it, the tree, the chest, this castle, and now the map, how can we not follow it." "Y'know what, there's a ton of room for dangerous adventure along that route. Count me in." Rainbow said. "Ah shoot, I reckon yer right." AppleJack added. "Well I was planning on organizing me baking sheets, but okay." Pinkie said in a hyper tone. Rarity sighed and said. "Very well." Everypony's gaze then turned to FlutterShy who shyly said. "Um, maybe I'll just stay here with Spike." "Awesome." Spike exclaimed, now wearing a foam finger claw and a drinking helmet. "Me and Big Mac have a huge weekend ahead of us, taking Hoofball, and trading hoofball cards, and arguing about hoofball stats." "On second thought, maybe I'd better go with them, incase they need me." "Count me in to, maybe there'll be a creature from my world there causing the trouble." Nergi said. It wasn't necessarily a lie since there was a strong possibility of a beast from the Monster Hunter Universe running around, after all the tester never specified when or where the creature would appear once sent to Equestria. But he also didn't want to get roped into the aspects of Hoofball. He was never really much of a fan of sports when he was human, much less with sports from other Universes. "Looks like it's time for a road trip." Twilight said. "Well suit yourself, but he's got a Hawk Fetlock rookie card I plan to sweet talk into these hot little claws." Spike said as the group left. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 1/2 Hours later ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After a long train ride, as well as a trek through the environment, the group finally reached the little village the map had lead them to. The Village was small and overly simplistic, It had a single road with a row of six house on either side and a final house at the end, totaling thirteen buildings. "That's it, that's the place on the map." Twilight said. "Duh that's what the author just said, or is it wrote. Eh whatever." Pinkie stated while break the forth wall. "Wait what did she say about an author?" Nergi asked. "Do worry about her dearie, she just being Pinkie Pie." Rarity said in a calming tone. "Right then, now let's get down there and find the spa." "Wait." Twilight interjected. "We don't know why the map sent us here. We shouldn't just walk right in, it could be dangerous." "Yes." Rainbow said in delight while pumping her fist. "I'm an Elder Dragon, the only thing more dangerous than me is a more powerful Elder Dragon." Nergi said. "Stay behind me everypony." Pinkie said pushing her way to the front of the group. "I got this." "Careful Pinkie." AppleJack said in a worried tone. Pinkie herself was already rolling down the hill, with much more stealth than anypony though possible. Once at the bottom she motioned the others to follow her down before zipping underneath various rocks until getting to the largest one and moving it to in front of the town. The group made there way behind the rock and looked over to gaze at the town, which was over all not that impressive. The buildings where all relatively the same with the only ones to stick out being a bookstore, a tavern, a food store, and a clothing store. "This is where the map sent us? It looks like the most boring place in Equestria." Rainbow said bitterly. "Rainbow's right." AppleJack added "That's just an ordinary village full of ordinary pony folk." "It could certainly use a few more architectural flourishes." Rarity said. "Or any architectural flourishes for that matter. Just look how drab and uniform the buildings look." "I think it looks lovely." FlutterShy said, enjoying the simplicity of the town. "I don't like it. I don't like it one bit." Pinkie stated. "What makes you say that Pinkie." AppleJack asked. "You're usually the friendliest Pony in Ponyville." "Look at the smiles on all their faces. I know smiles, and those smiles, their just not right." "Forget the smiles, look at the Cutie Marks." Twilight said, pointing out the fact that everypony had the exact same Cutie Mark in the shape of an Equal Sign. "Okay, that's weird." Rainbow said. "Not just weird, it's impossible." Twilight added. "An entire village with the same Cutie Mark, how can that be?" "I bet there's some sort of horrific monster behind it." Rainbow suggested. "What makes you say that?" "Because fighting a horrific monster would be super awesome. Am I right Nergi? Nergi?" Nergi was currently facing away from the town into the wilderness, occasionally sniffing the air. He turned to the group and said, "You're right about there being a monster here Rainbow, there's a two creatures from my world here." "Wait, something from you're world did this?" Twilight asked "No, but that doesn't change the fact that something's here. You girls should go and try to find out what's happening with the town, I'll go find any evidence of what we might be dealing with." "I'm with Nergi, I reckon we should just head into town and talk to some locals, find out what's goin on." AppleJack suggest. "If anything goes wrong we can just call Nergi hear and he can take care of it." "Great idea, let's go." Rainbow said. "Alright, hold still Nergi." Twilight said before casting a spell on the dragon. "If anything goes wrong, I'll transmit a signal which will cause the runes on you paws to pulsate." "Better have that transmission on standby Twilight." Pinkie said "Because those smile are bad news." "Right, I'll meet back up with you guys at sun down if nothing happens." Nergi said before flying off. "Good thing I actually have something to do besides wait around, If I manage to get the drop on Starlight I can keep the girls from loosing their Cutie Marks and put everything in the village back to normal, it is weird that one of the scents I was picking up was coming from the village though, whatever it probably just wanders into town at night and spooks the local." Nergi landed a ways away from the village and began to investigate the surrounding area. He sniffed the air a bit before following the scent to a field of cacti. Once in a while he would find a patch of cacti that had been almost completely eaten, with only the bottom most parts being left to grow back. He also noticed several foot prints leading to a hole in the ground that lead into a collapsed tunnel. Nergi took flight once again to scout the surrounding area, and landed once he noticed a massive sinkhole in the sand. "The scent is stronger here." He thought to himself, "There's also signs of battle. Ponies, probably the ones from the village, they were fighting something big, and with a pair of large horns or claws. By the lack of any blood looks like they managed to pull it off. Still there should be some blood, even weak monsters have to be fought in order to properly capture them so there should be some blood from the monster, but there isn't, not even a little bit. Which means that either the ponies have up right when shit hit the fan or they used some kind of magic to take control of it. There's also a chance that they made some kind of deal with it, but if I'm right about what kind of monster it is, that option is highly unlikely. I should go tell the girls about this." Nergi began to run back to the boulder behind the village, choosing to not fly so as to not attract any unwanted attention from the village ponies. "By this point the girls should have learned about the Cutie Unmarking Starlight does, if they're not at the rock to tell me what they've learn I'll head straight to the cave and wait there." Upon reaching the rock and seeing that the girls are not there, he then ran over to the cave where the Cutie Unmarking ritual is held. Seeing the cave being empty, save for the Cutie Mark Vault, he then proceeded to climb up to the ceiling and wait till the group to arrive. "Just through here." Starlight said as she lead the girls into the cave, to present the main attraction."Behold, our Cutie Mark Vault." Nergi noticed that Starlight has wearing a bit of jewelry, specifically necklace with an round orange jewel hanging from it and a tiara which resembled Twilight's element of harmony, only instead of a purple the gem was an electric blue. She also seemed to be carrying a pole or staff on her back which was rapped in cloth. "Right on time." Nergi thought to himself while cracking a smirk. "Now I just gotta wait till Starlight tries to steal the girl's Cutie Marks, then I'll jump in at the last moment and save the day." "I-I've never seen anything like it." Twilight said in astonishment. "And here is the Staff of Sameness." Starlight said taking the staff in here magic. "It was one of the great mage MeadowBrook's nine enchanted item's, we are incredible fortunate to have it here. This is the tool that allows us to free ourselves from our marks." Starlight paused before asking. "I'm curious, how 'did' the subject of the vault come up?" "Oh some ponies we're telling us how much they miss their Cutie Marks and-" Pinkie began before being cut off by twilight. "Pinkie!" "Oops." "Were they?" Starlight gasped in fake surprise. "Well it seems you inspire all sorts of free thinking, don't you." Rarity, trying to defuse the situation, giggle before saying. "Well, w-we certainly didn't intend to cause and disruptions to your charming little-." "Good." Starlight interrupted, a hit of sadistic satisfaction in her voice. "Let's just make sure of that, shall we." At that moment the ponies of the village began to step out from the darkness and encircle the mane six. "It's a trap." Twilight said, accidentally quoting Star Wars. "No shit." Nergi said while growing out his spike. "Raise a shield." "WHO SAID THAT?" Starlight asked while looking around the room. "A DRAGON WHO'S COME TO CHANGE DESTINY." Nergi shouted triumphantly before dropping down from the ceiling on to Twilight's shield, sending spike flying. "NERGAL CRUSHER." He spread his wings and let out a roar, frightening the village ponies. "I had a feeling about this place, so I searched around and found this place." "An Elder Dragon?" Starlight said in with a surprised look on her face, which soon turned to a devious grin. "My, my, your kind are just popping up all over the place aren't you." "Wait, how do you know about Elder Dragons?" "Let's just say the Staff of Sameness wasn't the only thing I found in these caves. But that's of no concern to you. LIGHTINGBOLT, ATTACK." A sudden flash of electricity blasted from deep within the cave, striking Nergi and giving him a dose of thunder blight. "Wh-what the hell." Nergi said before screaming in pain as another shock ran through his body. "AAAH damnit, this sucks, I'm getting struck by lightning and I don't even know where it's coming from. Doesn't help that I have a three star weakness against lightning, AAH SON OF A BITCH." Nergi looked around to see where the bolts where coming from, that's when he noticed a light blue unicorn wearing a cloak. The unicorn charge the lighting through it's horn and fired, electrocuting Nergi once again. "Damnit, enough of this I need to break the staff, if I do that then the Cutie Marks will be released." "Now then, are you done?" "Yeah, yeah I'm done. Done with THIS SHIT." Nergi shouted before covering his fist in spikes, jumping forward, and attacking with, "NERGAL RAM." Starlight used her magic to hold him in place before he could do a thing. "That was a close one." Starlight said, sarcasm practically dripping from her voice, "But you're now close enough for me to use my trump card." Starlight took out the staff on her back and unwrapped it with he magic, it looked to have been carved from wood, and had an ornate figure on top. The figure was of a dragon clutching a glowing orb half its size. "This is the Staff of Taming." "Is that what allowed you to tame monster from my world." "Why yes actually, care to see how it works." Without waiting for a response Starlight blasted Nergi with the staff making him scream in pain before going in lip. Starlight released Nergi from her magic and let him drop to the floor, the dragon twitched before getting to his feet and growling before letting out a roar, Nergi slashed at Starlight who teleported out of the way. He then grabbed on of the village ponies by the neck and threw him at the mage. As Starlight teleported around he began to barrel through the crowd, slamming ponies into walls as he did so. "Nergi stop, we came here to save the ponies, not hurt them." Twilight shouted. Nergi turned to the girls and let out a roar as he charged towards them and pounded on the shield with animalistic fury. Before Twilight had anytime to repair the shield Nergi had broken through, grabbed her by the neck, and began to slam her around like a rag doll. "LIGHTNING, RESTRAIN HIM." Starlight shouted. At her command the unicorn called LightningBolt shot Nergi with an powerful electric shock which induced a series of muscle spasms through out his whole body. The other ponies began to bind Nergi's limbs with chains, they bound his wings to his horns, chained his front legs together behind his back, and finally chained his back legs to his tail. "Don't worry about your dragon friend, he's not himself, the staff has made his hind regress back to a primal state, the only draw back is that the staff needs two days to recharge, but from there I'm free to mold him into a loyal pet." "You mean mind slave." Twilight said bitterly. "That's such a mean phrase, both Lightning and the Earth Demon have the same rights as everypony else, which reminds me, we've yet to make you on of us." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Person POV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I open my eyes and see that I'm in a bed of, I bring a hand to my head and realize I'm a human again, and I'm also naked. I sit up to see that I'm the little bed I'm lying in is right in the front of a group of people in sitting in what looks to be a church. They're all looking staring at their feet and talking to each other. I look over the crowd and my eyes land on my brother. "Oh come on really?" I ask while getting out of bed. "I swear Trevor, you've come up with some bullshit pranks over the years, but this takes the cake and eats it right in front of a group of starving Ethiopian children, you must have been planning this shit for months. Well come on asshole, laugh, laugh at the naked asshole, yeah and while your at it kiss it." Turn around and spread my anus in Trevors face, before turning back around and continuing my rant. "WELL ASSHOLE, COME ON SAY SOMETHING, LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME AND DO THAT SHIT EATING LAUGH YOU KNOW I HATE." At that moment a priest come out from in back of the building. "Oh, oh really, you've even got the priest going along with your damn joke." I say walking back up to the little box bed. "Well HA HA ha?" I feel an initial confusion at what's before me but the realization slowly kicks. Well I say it slowly kicks in but in reality I just don't know what to think, but when the though finally get it in my head it hits me like a flaming Semi-truck. "Oh, I see now." I turn away from the casket and my body lying inside it. "We will now commence the last rights of-." Right when the priest says my name I here the sound of static. "Oh come on man, I don't even get to here my name at my own funeral, that just ain't right." I look up to the other end of the church and see a figure clothed in black, think the stereotypical Grim Reaper only without the scythe and skeleton body. I walk over to the figure and say, "Listen guy, I know you're just doing your job, but I'm not in the mood for this, come talk to me after the actual burial." The Reaper does say anything but just fades away out of the church. I look back to the alter and look as the priest gives me my last rights, I crack a smirk and begin to cry while thinking to myself. "I never thought I'd live to see my own funeral. Heh, when I say that out loud it sounds super cheesy. Why the hell am I talking to myself?" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Person POV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After Starlight had removed their Cutie Marks, and had the feral Nergi locked away further into the cave, the mane six where imprisoned in a kind of reconditioning cottage. They where to stay in there until they had accepted and joined the community of the town. After a long night of thinking Twilight had finally had an idea. "I got it." She exclaimed "I know how we can get out." Rainbow sighed and said. "Forget it Twilight, this door's not opening." "And I'm afraid these windows are too small for escape." Rarity added. "But there is a third way." "OF COURSE! Eventually the wind will whether down the walls until they start to crumble, then we'll just wait for a big enough hole to form and just walk right out, IT'S THE PERFECT PLAN." Pinkie said in her usual happy tone, which was subsequently lessened by the effects of the Equal Mark. "I guess." "What did you have in mind Twilight?" Applejack asked. "Well I was thinking of how to get out of here all night." Twilight explained. "Then it just hit me, we don't actually have to escape, they'll just let us out when they think we've accepted their philosophy." "But they're never gonna believe we switched over in just one night." AppleJack argued. "There's one of us they might believe." Twilight said turning everypony's attention to a certain yellow pegasus. "Me!?!" FlutterShy asked in surprise. "Of course you." Rainbow stated. "You've been saying how great this place is since we got here." "That's because everypony's so nice, and their village is so pretty, and, and-" Without any other excuses FlutterShy gave in. "Oh you're right, they probably would believe me. But I'd hate to lie to them, they've been so welcoming and friendly, aside from locking us in here and trying to brain wash us into abandoning the things that make us special, not to mention turning Nergi into a feral beast." With a new found burst of confidence and a determination to aid her new friend FlutterShy steeled her nerves and said. "Okay, I'll do it." "WOOHOO." Pinkie shouted, before having her joy suppressed by the mark. "I mean, cool." "But, what do I do once I'm out?" "First things first, you need to see how Nergi's doing." Twilight said. "Then you need to find a way to get our Cutie Marks back. After that I can find a way to get Nergi back to normal." "Oh good morning." Starlight said over the intercom before walking inside. "I trust you had a pleasant night. This why please there are some friends who'd like to see you." Starlight lead the mane six out of the cabin were the town's ponies where all gathering. "Gather round friends, Gather round. We've come to ask is any of you are ready to join us, there are so many friends to be made once you realize you don't need your Cutie Marks, or the talents that come with them." Starlight made sure to say that last bit with an extra snide tone of voice. "We have a welcome ceremony for new friends." A snow colored Earth Pony said. "The whole village joins together to build you your very own cottage." "NOT INTERESTED." Rainbow snapped. "You may have them now, but we're going to get our Cutie Marks back." "Y'all don't understand, do ya. Ya can't force nopony to be friends, it don't work like that." AppleJack added. "Please, Join us." One of the Village ponies said, ignoring the previous statements. "We love new friends." Another added. "It's all right everypony." Starlight said. "This is a perfectly normal part of the equalization process for those who haven't quite seen the light yet." She turned to the mane six and continued. "We'll try again tomorrow, once you have had a bit more time to consider our philosophy." As the girls walked back inside, Twilight tapped FlutterShy on the leg. Reminding her of the plan. "I'd like to join." FlutterShy said before shyly putting her hooves to her face. She was either nervous from all the attention or she was a really good actor. "FlutterShy, How could you?" Twilight asked with fake surprise. "If giving up my Cutie Mark means I get to stay in the lovely village with these lovely Ponies, then I'll do it." Twilight gave her best "Betrayed" face and walked into the cottage, cracking a smirk as she was through the doorway. Starlight closed and locked the door before turning back to the crowd and saying. "We have a new friend everypony." The village ponies gathered around FlutterShy, welcoming here with open hooves. "Now, there's one more order of business." Starlight said grabbing the pony's attention before doing a bit of acting herself. "It seems some in our midst might be dissatisfied with the village life." The village ponies all gasped in surprise, after giving them enough time to pick up their jaws, she continued. "Unfortunately it's all too true my friends." Starlight turned to FlutterShy and asked, "Would you kindly tell us the names of those 'friends' who so desperately miss their Cutie Marks that they would sneak around in the shadows talking to strangers about it. Just so we can make sure your intentions are indeed pure." "MISS STARLIGHT." A pony shouted, while running towards the group. "The Spiky Dragon has broken free again, LightningBolt is fighting him as we speak." "Maybe I can help." FlutterShy asked. "I was good at working with animals when I had my Cutie Mark, maybe I can somehow calm him down." At that moment a ball of thunder slammed into the ground and LightningBolt was flung into the side of the Reconditioning Cottage. Nergi charged out from the dust and was about to continue beating the Unicorn when FlutterShy got between them, using The Stare to intimidate the Dragon. "Nergi, stop this right now. This isn't you, you're a nice Dragon, you helped us stop Tirek, we saved Equestria together, so please just calm down and stop fighting." Nergi snarled and raised his claw to slash at the Pegasus. Suddenly a pair of massive horns erupted from the ground and impaled Nergi's wings, making him unable to get free. "Now Lightning, electrocute him." Starlight commanded. Lightning got to his feet, and from this distance FlutterShy could see his face. The Unicorn had a blueish-white coat, a white beard and massive sideburns, bright yellow eyes, and its horn looked to be made of some sort of blue crystal which had grown in a spiral formation. Kirin began to charge a massive amount of electricity in his body before unleashing it in a single burst. Nergi reeled in shock before being pulled to the ground by the horns. As he convulsed a squad of village ponies began to bind his limbs together, this time using a greater number of chains. "I told you before, he's not you're friend anymore." Starlight said walking up to FlutterShy. "He's just a savage beast running purely on instinct and aggression. Still we're fortunate you were the first to join us, if you didn't intimidate him with that death glare he probably would have beaten Lightning into the group." "Will he be able to go back to normal?" "The feral period should were off by tomorrow then he'll just go into a deep sleep, probably to give his body time to rest from that rampaging. I manipulate his mind when he's in that sleep and bind his mind to a special crystal which grows out of his body." "Is that how you could control Lightning and that thing that held Nergi in place." "Yes actually. In fact Lightning didn't even go through a feral period, he just walked around like some kind of regal beast, I actually had to shrink him down to the size of a normal pony because he was too big for the village. If I didn't he'd be twice is size, that's in both height and length." "That reminds me earlier when the first fought Nergi could barely do anything to Lightning, what happened?" "He's worn out, you might not believe this but this is actually the third time your dragon friend has escaped and went on a rampage. Everypony has had barely anytime to sleep in between breakouts, and Lightning needs it the most since he's the only one who can effectively fight him without causing a cave in or leveling the Village. I'd make the Earth Demon smaller if I could, but it took all I had just to get Lightning to normal size." "I see. Well I hope I've proved myself to be trustworthy." Starlight smirked and said. "I suppose you have. But you'll still need to tell me the names of those ponies who told you and your friends about the Vault. But I suppose that can wait till later." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Person POV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I gotta say, there's something about staring at your name on a gravestone that just really makes you think about your life, or in my case lack there of. Not to mention the fact that I can't even read my name, what's written on the stone just looks like a mash of different symbols highlighted in Brail. For those of you who don't know what brail is, it's basically a bunch of dots that blind people read with their hands. The only reason I know this is my grave is because I spent the past 4 hours watching my family members cry at it. It probably would have been longer but it started to rain. Fun fact ghost can actually feel things like cold and wet, the only difference is that the feeling actually runs though your body when the rain phases through you. So here I sit, cold and wet, on the inside and out (Wow that sounded wrong), thinking about how much it sucks that I can't even read the name on my own gravestone. I can honestly say that I have never felt more depressed. "I know you're here." I say to the Reaper behind me. He had been there for a while but I suppose he was just being polite and giving me my space. "You wanna have a seat, neither of us have anything better to do?" "You seem to be taking your death rather well." He says as he sits down next to me. "Most spirits who died at your age would be crying about all the things they never got to do." "Yeah well most of them are probably school shooting victims, so they probably couldn't come to terms with it on their own. Where as I bled to death so I had a bit of time to my thoughts and settle with things. I'm more upset with the fact that my family buried me, I told them time and again I wanted to be an organ donor, I felt it was a kind of last bit of kindness I could do in death." "They actually rush your dead body to the hospital if your an organ donor. It's best to harvest them before the nerves in them die, You wouldn't eat expired meat would you." "I actually did one time. Worst, day, ever. I'm serious, I would not stop throwing up." "Lovely." "Hey, do you mind if I ask you something? What's with the whole "Black Cloak" Look?" "Well the first depiction of me in the black cloak came from England in the 15th century. But the truth is I have the ability to take on any form I want. I'm less of an entity and more of an idea. In fact it's the same with all the other different gods and monsters." "What do you mean?" I ask now a bit intrigued. "Looks like I'll need to explain a few things. You see in this world and many others like it, humans have developed a latent physic ability they have no idea of, the reason no-one knows about it is because no one human is able to access it alone, the acceptation being the select few with enough mental and spiritual power to develop it further, even then they can only do things like bend spoons with their minds and force their bodies to do extremely bizarre things." "Wait you mean there are people in this world who have superpowers?" "Yes, however that is the bare minimum of the power. The true strength of it is in Humanity as a species." "You keep mentioning this ability but you keep dancing around it, so tell me what is it really?" "The name of the ability is call Mind Over Matter, and it grants humans the ability to literally create gods." "Wait, what?" "You heard me right, in large enough numbers humans have the potential to create the gods, and other supernatural entities. I myself was created by this power." "There you go again, dancing around the subject, if you're not gonna give it to me straight then just be quite." "Very well, if you're that impatient than I'll get to the point. Mind Over Matter allows humans to make thoughts and ideas into reality, however this only works if a vast number of people believe in it. That is how the various gods and goddesses of the worlds religions came to be. It is also what gave the messiah Jesus Christ the abilities spoken of in the Bible. It is also the reason sightings of various monsters and aliens are still popping up. The ones who believe in them us the power to will them into existence, however since people who believe in monsters and aliens are not as numerous as the amount of people who believe in god, the monsters can only exist for a certain amount of time before returning to the spiritual plain, which is where we currently reside by the way. Just thought you should know." "Yeah thanks, I kinda figured that last part, since I'm a ghost and all." "Not a ghost, a spirit. Ghosts are the wandering souls who have yet to be set to either heaven or hell, a spirit is a being who wanders the spiritual plain still having enough life energy to return to their body. I believe you humans call it Astral Projection." "But I'm dead, my body is in this grave right now, I spent the past few hours watching it being lowered into the ground and having my family and friends cry over it." "Yes, but you still have a body to go back to." "Wait, you mean that dragon body back in the MLP world, I thought Starlight killed me and that's why I'm here." "I'm not to sure on the details myself, but apparently she didn't kill you, she just banished your consciousness from your body and it ended up here. She probably didn't using some kind of magic item." "How did you even get here? I mean I understand that a wandering soul needs to be dealt with but still there are people dying of starvation in Africa shouldn't you be popping over there once in a while before?" "You think there's only one of me? There are literally thousands of death spirits, collecting souls from all over the world and whisking them off to heaven or hell. I'm just the one they called in to deal with you and your issues, this is basically a day off for me." "Wait, Grim reapers get days off." "Sure, we like to relax sometimes too. You think we're just always working, we're not robots." "Do you get paid?" "No, not really, money and currency where invented by humans since you hate doing things without getting something in return. Where as we recognize that these things need to be done or else everything will be thrown out of order." "That's another thing earlier you said that humans created all the different gods, but how does that actually work? Not the creating part, I mean what's the power balance between all the difference between them?" "Well the best way I can describe that whole deal is that it's set up like a pyramid. That the very top there's the big man himself, the one true god the Catholics worship, despite all the credit he's given he's basically just a figure head, like the president or a royal family. Then there are the God kings of the various pantheons like Zeus, and Vishnu. Below them are the various gods of those pantheons like Poseidon, Ares, Freya, Heimdall, and Asura. Below them are the Demi-Gods like Thor, Loki, Hercules, and contrary to popular belief Jesus." "That's not surprising, not for me anyway. I mean it's said he was the son of god, but I feel like no one refers to him as a Demi-god like those other guys." "Yeah well, you know Christians, always insisting they're right. Anyway below the Demi-Gods are the servants of the gods, like the Archangels, the Furies, and the Valkyries. Below them are the average everyday angels, like me, and those angels who fly around heaven helping god. Below us are various holy beasts like The Golden Boar, Black Hounds, and the beasts that make up the Greek and Chinese Zodiacs. And that the very bottom are holy men, like the Pope or a Magi." "What's a Magi?" "A Magi is a person who chooses kings of a country." "You mean like in the anime Magi?" "In the roughest sense of it, yes." "Hm, alright then, I've been dancing around this long enough, how long am I gonna stay here?" "I can't say, I suppose it's up to your new pony friends in that other world." I crack a smirk and say. "I see, in that case I don't have anything to worry about." "You seem so sure." "Of course, if there's one thing I know about those girls it's that they never give up on their friends." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Person POV --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the incident with the savage Nergi, Starlight allowed FlutterShy to stay with her in her cottage. All the while FlutterShy planned on sneaking into the vault after dark to steal back her and her friends's Cutie Marks, as well as the Staff of Sameness. However, still suspicious of the yellow Pegasus Starlight had the marks transferred to her home when she thought FlutterShy was asleep. It was then that FlutterShy learned that Starlight still possessed her Cutie Mark, and was lying to the Ponies of her village. Once FlutterShy told the others of this, Twilight devised a plan to reveal Starlight's deception and turn her followers against her. "I've got a good feeling about today." Starlight said as the girls where brought out of the reconditioning cottage for their daily "Friendship" evaluation. "So, do any of you have anything you'd like to say." The silence of the girls was all the answer she needed. "Aw, a pity, well let's try this again tomorrow shall we. No new friends today I'm afraid." "Wait." FlutterShy interrupted. "I'd like to lock them in." "Marvelous FlutterShy, that's the spirit." Starlight said before turning looking to the Stallion who gave himself up as the one who told the mane six about the vault. "PartyFavor, will you join us please?" The Stallion rushed out of the cottage and began apologizing to all the other village Ponies, when in reality he was just a distraction for FlutterShy and Twilight to talk. "Everything's ready." FlutterShy stated. "Good, so we all know the plan, once FlutterShy shows to villagers Starlight's Cutie Mark, I'll blast off her tiara she uses to control LightningBolt, then Rainbow will rush out and take staff she used on Nergi and break it, that should bring him back to his senses. Are PartyFavor's friends in position?" "They should be in the dungeons of the cave by now." "Alright let's do this." FlutterShy walk out from the cottage and said. "Um Starlight, I think we might have one more friend joining us today." Which is when Twilight stepped out of the building. "Is this true?" Starlight asked. "I-I think so, but I just want to be sure." Twilight said as FlutterShy snuck away to carry out her part of the plan. "If I agree to leave my Cutie Mark in the Vault I'll really be happier." "Of course you will, just look around. Equality has given us more happiness than you've ever known." "And you wouldn't just let me live here in the village with my old Cutie Mark?" "Out of the question, a pony with a different Cutie Mark in our midst would destroy our entire philosophy." Starlight said setting herself up for what was to come. "We are all equal here." "Then how do you explain THIS?" FlutterShy ask before splashing water at Starlight from up high. Starlight jumped out of the way but still got splashed. The water washed away the make up on her Cutie Mark, showing it to the entire town. Twilight summoned as much magic as she could in her weakened stated and blasted Starlight's Tiara with a beam of magic, destroying the gem. "NOW RAINBOW." Twilight shouted. Rainbow bolted out of the cottage and snatched up the staff, flying up into the sky before zooming back down and slamming the crystal orb into the ground. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile Inside the Beast Dungeon ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lightning clutched his head and yelled in pain before falling over. "That's our cue." SugarBell said before running to Nergi's cage. "Are you sure about this?" Cloud Chaser asked. "I mean what if it wakes up and tries to eat us?" "If Lightning is unconscious that means that Princess Twilight and her friends have broken the staff." "Yeah, but, what if he's angry about us chaining him up and kills us anyway." "Then we'll run like Tartarus and say he's on a rampage again." SugarBell said a she unlocked the chains. "I think he's waking up." "He won't if you just-" SugarBell was cut off by Nergi grabbing her neck. He picked himself up and asked in a deep, rage filled voice. "Where... Is... Starlight?" "She's in town, seeing if you friends have conformed to our ways." Nergi dropped the mare and said. "Thanks for the info." Before striding out of the cage. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Back in town ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Ponies of the village had all seen Starlight's Cutie Mark and where now in an uproar. "You lied to us." Double Diamond shouted, who up to this point had been Starlight's to lackey. "So what, everything else I've said is true." Starlight said. "The only way to be happy is if we're all equal." "Except you." PartyFavor said in an accusing manor. Twilight stepped forward and began to give a little victory speech to rally the ponies. "Everypony has unique talents and gifts, and when we share them with each other, that's how-" "QUIET." Starlight shouted startling the mane six, but leaving the villagers undeterred. "You can't have that Cutie Mark Starlight." A pony said. "Either we're all equal or no of us are." "You all forget, I still have an ace in the hole." Starlight said with a devilish grin. "NOW RISE EARTH DEMON." The ground began to shake as a massive creature headed towards the village at break neck speed, causing the dirt to be up heaved as it pass. The creature dipped below the surface of the earth before erupting from the ground and landing behind Starlight. The earth demon was indeed massive, it had a huge pair of horn which jutted out 6 feet in front of it's face, and a set of tusks akin to warthog or wild boar. It's skull ended in a brim which protected its neck and its back was covered in tan bony plates and scales. It didn't have any arms, only a broad set of wings and a pair of muscular legs. Last but not least its tail was half as long as its body and had bony tail club at the end, each side of which was as big as a pony. The creature let out a shrill roar before waiting for Starlight's command. "You see now, I don't need to put up this goodie-goodie facade anymore. Even if I don't have the staff I can still control this beast. With the power of an Elder Dragon at my side, I can rule Equestria and make sure nopony ever has to suffer the fate of in Equality, AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA." "You see, that's where you're wrong." Nergi said as he strut through the center of town. "Nergi what is that thing?" Twilight asked. "It's called a Diablos, AKA the Demon of the Desert. Sure enough, it's one tough S.O.B." "You see you fouls, even-" Starlight began before being cut off. "However, it's no where near my power." Nergi said as he transformed into Nergigante. "What the, EARTH DEMON ATTACK." Starlight shouted, slightly started by the transformation. The Diablos charged towards the Elder Dragon, but Nergigante grabbed its horns and held it in place. "You see, doesn't even have the power to push me back. And another thing, it's not an Elder Dragon, it's just a basic bitch flying wyvern, not even near Elder Dragon level, NOT EVEN CLOSE." Nergi shouted as he jumped into the air, raising the wyvern's head was he did so. He pulled the Diablos's head back and slammed it into the ground. "NOW LET THE LIGHT OF THE SUN FADE FROM YOUR VISION, DYING LIGHT." "Wh-wh-WHAT ARE YOU?!?." Starlight shouted in abject terror and confusing. "I AM THE EXTINCTION DRAGON NERGIGANTE, AND YOU WILL FEAR MY WRATH." Nergigante pointed a finger at Starlight and shouted, "CATACLYSM TRIGGER." The claw on Nergigante's finger shot off and imbedded itself in the jewel of Starlight's necklace. "I give you chance to escape, but should you ever attempt to restart this cult of yours in a new town or city, we will know about it, and you will not be granted the same mercy as you did today. Do I make myself clear, Starlight Glimmer?" "Y-yes." "Good, NOW RUN." Fearing for her life, Starlight did as the dragon said running into her house and through the secret passage under her bed, making sure to leave behind the Cutie Marks of the mane six so as to not incur the Dragon's wrath. Nergigante had transformed back into Nergi and said, "Well, what are you ponies waiting for." "Come on Everypony, Let's get our Cutie Marks back." Double Diamond said, leading the ponies up to the vault. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile at the mountain pass ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Starlight had slowed her initial sprint to a brisk run, and her fear had turned to resentment of the loss of what she had worked so hard to achieve. "I swear, I'll make those Ponies and their Dragon friend pay for this." She said to herself. As she neared the mouth of the cave a massive bolt of lightning struck the ground in front of her, once the lightning died down Starlight saw Lightning Bolt standing in front of her, without his cloak and with a massive scowl across his face. "Lightning Bolt? What are you doing here?" "I've come for payback." He said before summoning an even greater amount of lightning. As he absorbed the electricity his body began to grow in size until he was three times the size of Starlight. "But before I do I want to know one thing. Where did you get the staff you used to take control of me and the other two." "I-I them from a dragon, he had wandered into the village a couple days before you and I healed his wounds in exchange he made the staff for me, the orb was some kind of pearl from underneath his scales. He told me that so long as I had the staff the power to dominate Elder Dragons could be mine." "What was his name?" "He called himself a Fatalis." "So, one of them is here as well." "Listen, Lightning-." "DO NOT CALL ME THAT. That is not my name, it is the name you gave me when you made me your slave, I refuse to be referred to by that name ever again. My name IS KIRIN." Kirin began to charge up a massive amount of energy before releasing it in a single strike, using the same move he used again Nergi he shouted. "NOW, MONARCH'S LIGHTNING." Starlight screamed in pain as currents of electricity ran through her body an into the ground. By the time the strike was over she was unconscious, her body fell to the ground and twitched, both from the pain and from the faint electrical currents that where still running through her body, despite he appearance she was still alive, if just barely. "That should be enough pain to pay back my servitude." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Back in town (again) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I think he's waking up." Twilight said as the Diablos stirred. "You all, you saved me from her, thank you." The dragon said as he got up. "Wait did you all get a bit bigger?" "Actually it's the opposite my friend." Nergi said. "You got smaller." The Diablos looked at himself and began to freak out a bit. "What the hell, I haven't been this size since I was a hatchling! What did you do to me?" "You might not believe this but, magic." Nergi said doing a "Jazz Hands" motion with his paws. "The Purple girl made you smaller so your a bit easier to approach, we also gave you some lips, smoothed out you tail club and shortened your horns a bit. Don't worry though, all you need you is touch the joints of your wings to the sides of your face and you'll return to your normal size. I transformation marks are on my paws." "I see, knowing I can switch between forms really takes a load off my mind." "Cool now all we need to do is give this new form a name. Any suggestions miss Pie?" "Beats me. I tried cutting his name in half, but Dia and Blos both sound like girl names." Pinkie stated "In that case I've got a perfect name in mind." Nergi said. "Alright, from now on your new name is Dio." "Dio, what kind of name is that?" Twilight asked. "Well if cutting a name in half didn't work I figured I could just remove letters on at a time until I got something good, at first I was gonna go with Diablo but that still seemed pretty threatening so I went with Dio. "Dio, I like." Dio said with a grin. "Alright then Dio, let's head off to Ponyville." Nergi said leading the way. "Wait." Twilight interrupted. "Are you sure it's a good idea to bring him back to Ponyville?" "Well we need to show him to Princess Celestia, after that he and either stay at Ponyville, come back here, for find some other desert to live in. Besides Diablos are herbivores, so he won't be going around eating ponies." "I feel like I should go with you, the other ponies here might be a bit skittish around be due to me being used to almost kill all of them, including you, I feel like I should give them some space." Dio said "Then it's decided come on let's go to Ponyville." "Wait what about Lightning Bolt?" FlutterShy asked. "Fuck him. He's a dick." > Chapter 5. A pair of flaming lovers. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The train pulled into the station and a number of ponies stepped out, along with a pair of dragons. The first was a four legged black dragon with a broad pair of wings and was covered with spikes and thorns, the other a two legged dragon with a pair of broad wings and large horns, and a clubbed tail. "I swear Dio you're gonna love it hear in Ponyville." Nergi said with excitement. "The ponies are friendly, everything's peaceful, why is the town on fire?" As Nergi had stated the buildings closest to the Everfree forest where enveloped in flames. Wasting no time Nergi, Dio, and the mane six sprung into action. "RAINBOW, FLUTTERSHY, USE RAIN CLOUDS TO HELP PUT OUT THE FIRE." Twilight shouted. "APPLEJACK, PINKIE, TRY AND HELP ME STOP THE FIRE FROM SPREADING, RARITY HELP THE OTHER PONIES GET TO SAFETY." Nergi charged into the flames and transformed into Nergigante, he flexed the muscles in his wings before letting them loose in a torrent of wind. "DESOLATION OVERTURE." The wind blasted was the fire reducing them to half the size of what they once where. From there it was a simple matter of using rain clouds to put out the remaining flames, and once the fires were put out the group of six ponies and two dragons reconvened. "So anyone know who or what set the fire?" Nergigante asked before transforming back into Nergi. "No, everypony said that the fire just suddenly started." Twilight replied. "Didn't even see any smoke, it's like the fire was just there in an instant, before anypony knew it the town was on fire." "Hey you guys seeing all this strange dust in the air?" Pinkie asked sniffing at the air before sneezing. The second she sneezed the dust in the air exploded and blasted her into a tree. "What just happened?" "Ignition dust?!?" Nergi said in awe. "That means... this is bad." "What, do you know what did this?" Twilight asked. "Yeah, theres only two creatures I know that can produce this type of dust, and their both Elder Dragons." "Technically their both the same kind of creature, the two kinds are just the male and female variations of the same species." Dio added. "Who are they then?" Twilight asked. "The monster that set the fire is either a Teostra or Lunastra." Nergi said. "Or god forbid both." Dio added. "Don't be silly Dio, those two are almost never seen together, though if they are together it could be worst than I thought. Teostra is known as the Emperor of flames, and Lunastra is the Empress. They earned those titles due to their dominion over fire, they both have the power to produce a steady stream of fire breath as well as that flammable dust, which is a kind of natural thermite which is shed as a kind of dandruff." "I get the dust part, but what's so special about breathing fire?" AppleJack asked. "The thing is not all dragons from my world can breath fire, and those that can are limited to only things like fire balls, flaming lasers, and finally coating parts of their body in flames, some of the only creature able to breath fire are creatures which have evolved to have a fire sac in their though as well as several different kinds of Elder Dragon. However Teostra and Lunastra both are able do all of the above, in addition to the dust." "So what do these things look like." Rainbow asked. "I guess the best thing to compare them to is a demonic Manticore with a normal lion tail instead of the scorpion stinger. They also have a set of horns, well Teostra does, Lunastra has a type of crest where the horns should be. That reminds me, I should also mention that Teostra and Lunastra have different fur colorations, Teostra is pink and his mane is red while Lunastra is blue with her main being a bluish white. It's because of these differences that the Hunter's Guild has classified them as two different breeds instead of just having them be one species, they also did the same for pair of Flying Wyverns, Rathalos and Rathian." "Alright that's all we need to know." Twilight said "If it's possible that there's more than one monster we're looking for, than we should split up for now. Nergi you take FlutterShy, AppleJack, and Rarity, and I'll take Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Dio." "One dragon and three ponies, I like it. Not to mention it follows the rule of five which is also good." "What's the rule of five?" Twilight asked. "I'll tell you some other time, for now I'll just say that it's a thing the Hunter's Guild put in place to reduce the number of casualties during monster hunts." Nergi replied. "One last thing. In the event of there being both a Teostra and Lunastra here, I want to make something absolutely clear. If both monsters are together, under no circumstances should you engage in combat. I'M LOOKING AT YOU RAINBOW DASH, DO NOT FIGHT THEM BOTH AT ONCE, I MEAN IT." "Why not?" "Because nothing can stand up against a Teostra and Lunastra at once. Maybe if they're apart, when they're together they're nigh unstoppable. The only other thing that stands a fraction of a chance against both of them at once is another Elder Dragon like me, that or a small army of elite hunters, even then there's only the smallest of changes that they succeed, even then there'll definitely be a lot of damage taken by whoever tries." "Just how powerful are these things?" "I'm going to explain this one more time since you seem to be having trouble getting it through your head. On their own, each one is pretty powerful, but when they're together they're near unbeatable, the reason they're so dangerous, beside being a pair of Elder Dragons, is that they can work together with such precision that it almost like they have the same mind at some times. Normally when Elder Dragons or other monsters encounter each other in the wild they usually battle for where they are, this is called a Turf War. However Turf Wars between Teostras and Lunastras are even more rare than seeing them together, instead of fighting each other like most monsters they work together to fight the same opponents." "He's right." Dio added. "They're akin to a flaming tornado when we work together." "I think I got it." Twilight said "The bottom line here is that we should never fight them both at the same time." "Bingo." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Person POV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "This is bullshit." I think to myself. "It's been at least 30 minutes since we've started looking and we haven't found Jack or shit. I hope Twilight is having better luck, then again if she was than we'd probably be seeing flames fly into the sky now. Knowing Rainbow she'd probably go all Rambo and try to take the thing on herself." I look to the other members of my group. "Then again, AppleJack's not that different either, I can see why people ship them on the internet. Oh shit, I just realized that I'll never be able to watch youtube videos or anime anymore. Man that sucks, well whatever I'm living in a fantasy world now, so I guess there's no need to occupy my time with things like that anymore. Still, I'm going to miss my lazy weekends chilling out." "Hey Nergi, what we gonna do when we find these critters?" AppleJack asked. "They're not critters AJ. They're super powerful monsters who hold mastery over fire." "Yeah, whatever. Still doesn't answer my question." "Well, the first thing we should do is keep following it. While we're doing that, FlutterShy go finds Twilight's group and bring them back here. My kind isn't that popular with other Elder Dragons, so it's probably best if Twilight negotiates with them, not to mention she's a princess so that's probably gonna work in her favor." "Why isn't your species well liked by other Elders?" FlutterShy asked. "I'll tell you some other time." I reply before sniffing at the air and picking up a scent. "Hold on, (Sniff,sniff), I think I got a trail, come on." I run ahead following the scent until I reach the edge of the clearing I landed in when I first arrive, and that's when I see him. Teostra, his crimson mane flowing in the breeze. He circles around the crater and occasionally sniffs at the edges. "Is that it?" Rarity asked. "I must say, his mane is quiet lovely." "Yeah well it's also where the Ignition Dust is produced from. Hey Flutters you better go find Twilight." Suddenly a roar sounded from the direction Twilight was in. Followed by the glow of fire breath, and the smell of smoke. Teostra was the first to react, taking flight in the direction of the battle. "GODDAMNIT! Rainbow must have charged in like I told her not to, come on girls." I transforming into my full dragon form, and taking flight after the Teostra. I swoop up into the sky and do a divebomb, tackling him down into a clearing where Rainbow was fighting the Lunastra. I jump back into the air, grab Lunastra's head crest, and slam her face into the ground before letting out as savage a roar as I could. "Thanks for the save Nergi." Rainbow said from overhead. "Don't mention it, TWILIGHT TRY AND CONTAIN THESE THINGS BEFORE THEY GET UP!" "On it." She said while charging up her horn and creating spherical domes around both monsters. "LET US OUT!" Lunastra shouted. "I WON'T LET MYSELF BECOME A MEAL FOR SOME SPIKEY BASTARD." Teostra added. "You don't have to worry about that with me, I prefer to not eat anything sentient." "Nergi, what are they talking about?" Twilight asked in a worried tone. "Well, I guess I'd have to tell everyone eventually, I just hope you all don't think less of me. You see, the Nergigante breed is famous for something which no other monster is famous for, and that is the fact they exclusively hunt and devour other Elder Dragons. Sure there are other Elders that hunt each other, and even some non-Elders who hunt Elder Dragons, but the Nergigante breed is the only one who's diet consists solely of Elder Dragons. I am the one exception to this rule, my very existence going against my species's own nature." "Yeah, and what makes you so special?" Teostra asked. I had been thinking up a backstory for myself since I first arrived here, thinking ahead for a moment like this, now it was time for me to put it into action. "Alright I'll tell you, but first let me say that this is the truth, I don't care if you believe me or not. The truth is, I was raised by a Hunter." "Don'y make me laugh." Lunastra scoffed. "An Elder Dragon being raised by a human of all things." "Yeah, that doesn't make sense." Twilight added. "When we first met you you told us that all monsters had an instinctual hate for humans, so how did a human raise you when you hate them so much?" "It's a long story Twilight, so get comfortable." I began. "This first part I can only speculate because I didn't see it for myself. When I was just and egg the hunter who raised me killed my mother, and found me, since he was part of the Research Commission, he felt that this was the perfect opportunity to try something that had never been done before, taming an Elder Dragon. Unbelievably the commission approved his request and I was taken in, when I first hatched I was as spiteful and hateful towards the humans as any other monster, but as time went on I slowly gained a respect towards him. He fed me by having me hunt monsters he had captured. At first they where just herbivores like Aptonoths and Apceros, as I got older my food came with a bit more bite, things like Kestodon, Gastodon, and Jagras. Eventually when I got big enough he took me out hunting with him, he'd let me eat the bodies of the monsters after he was done carving off the materials used for crafting weapons and armor. We made a good team." "So what happened?" Twilight asked. "We were out classed. We went out hunting for another Nergigante, and we ended up coming upon a horde of them. They gave me a choice, I could either kill the hunter or die with him. Since he was one who basically raised me, I choose to stick by him. Despite this we lost, my hunter was killed and I was beaten to near death, the only reason I survived was because the palico just barely managed to get us back to the field camp. After that everything changed, the guide tried pairing me up with other hunters, but I wasn't having it. I became a loose cannon, I threw myself at whatever monsters I could just to fight and let out some of the fury inside of me. I didn't care about anything but fighting, killing, and eating. But when all that rage faded, all I felt was the same hate towards humans as all other monsters. I tried to form a kind of pack with other Elder Dragons but all they would do was either fight me or run away. Eventually I stopped caring about anything and shut myself off from the world, choosing to lie in a cave and wait to die. I grew hungrier and hungrier but still refused to leave my little hovel. Then on night I had a dream, I was surrounded by a bright light, and is saw the hunter who raised me in that white void. He told me that I shouldn't let myself die just because he was gone, and that I should go on surviving, and adventuring like I used to do with him. Which I did, I journeyed across both the new and old worlds, exploring as I saw fit and occasionally aiding hunters in their battles. After I felt I explored everything I kept on adventuring, which is when the portals to the other worlds started opening. I saw these portals as a way to begin a new adventure so I jumped in one as soon as I could, which brought me here." "You've certainly been through a lot." The Teostra said. "But still, I'm not trusting you so easily." "You don't have to trust me, all I ask is that you not light anymore towns on fire. These ponies had never even heard of humans up until a few days ago, so theres no need to cause any destruction to their civilization. As for me I'm not stupid enough to believe I can take both of you on at once, the only reason we managed to capture you two was because we used a sneak attack, I'd wager if I tried to fight you both now I'd be burnt to a crisp." "Damn right you would." A voice said from behind me. I turn around to see the unicorn from Starlight's village. He doesn't have his cloak and I notice that he looks familiar, I don't know what but it's on the tip of my tongue. With nothing else to do, I asked, "Hey, what are you doing here? What was your name again, LightningBolt?" He scowls and brings down a massive bolt of lightning on me, shouting "MONARCH'S LIGHTNING." I fall to all four of my knees and look upwards to meet his gaze. I look in surprise to see that he's three times the size as he was before, his fur is crackling with electricity, and his horn has grow into a kind of crystal drill. "Don't call me LightningBolt." He says "I refuse to be called that ever again. I AM KIRIN!" "How are you able to do that?" Twilight asked "I've never met a unicorn with those kinds of powers, only a small number of ponies can control lightning, regardless of whether their a Pegasus or Unicorn, and none of them can generate it from their body itself or increase their size." "It's because he's from my world." I say. "He's also an Elder Dragon, like me. His kind are called Kirin, out of all the Elder Dragons they are the most reclusive and mysterious. They've only been known to appear during or after crucial moments in history, or when a new king is crown. The most recent sighting of one of them was in the New World, after the defeat of a new breed of Elder Dragon called Xeno'Jiiva. The humans see the arrival of a Kirin as a sign of a new era, which makes sense why one has appeared here, along with me and the other monster popping up around the land. Am I right in assuming that Kirin?" "Yes, it is true that I have sensed a change in this world due to the portals. However the reason I have come here is not to fight, but to give my thanks for freeing me from the control of Starlight Glimmer." "Don't mention it. Anyway how can you change your form?" I ask. "Starlight granted me this ability, so as to keep some modicum of peace in the village. But enough about that, I would like to join your group." He said before transforming back into his pony form. To show him that I don't mean to fight I revert to my Pony sized body. "Hey Twilight, why don't you make Theo and Leona Pony sized so we can talk." "Wait, who are Theo and Leona?" "The two Elder Dragons you have bubbled up." "Wait, did you just give us nicknames?" The Teostra asked. "Yeah why, I have one, it's Nergi, and that Diablos is nicknamed Dio. I came up with yours just now, The Teostra is Theo and the Lunastra is Leona, I was gonna call her Luna, but there's a princess in this world who has that name so I went with Leona since Leo means Lion and Leona sounds kinda pretty." "I will admit it is a pretty name." Leona said. "But what if we need to fight?" "Then you can just transform back by touching the marks on your paws together." I say showing them my own. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Person POV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After Theo and Leona where transformed into their suppressed forms, the two of them along with Dio and Kirin were brought to Twilight's Castle to wait for Princess Celestia to arrive. "So who's this Princess Celestia?" Theo asked. "Celestia is one of corulers of this country." Nergi explained. "She also also has more power than a Black Elder Dragon like me and Fatalis. She also has a younger sister named Luna who's almost as strong as her, and together they have the power to literally move the sun and moon." "That's impossible." Dio scoffed. "Nothing is that powerful." "Nothing from our world at least, but Alicorns have enough power easily defeat any Elder Dragon in single combat. Not to mention that the ponies can use their magic far better than we can use our Bioenergy, even baby unicorns have a decent amount of skill with magic." "You keep saying magic this and magic that." Leona scoffed. "What even IS magic?" "I don't know that much about it, but here's what I understand about it. Magic is a more versatile version of our Bioenergy, Unicorns are able to use it in specific ways, and Alicorns are capable of using an immense amount of magic to perform miracles like it's nothing, this includes moving the sun and moon and other things like that. I guess it's a good thing that there are only four Alicorns in this world." "That's another thing I'm confused about, what are Unicorns and Alicorns?" Kirin asked. "Well a unicorn is basically what you are Kirin, only their a bit more varying in color and personality. Unicorns are capable of harnessing magic and controlling it, however their amount of skill in magic depends on their special talent. However there are some Unicorns who's special talent is the practice of magic itself, that kind of Unicorn is very rare. However they also have the potential to become Alicorns however that happening is even rarer than the type of unicorn that can become an Alicorn. Granted most of this is just speculation." "True, but speculation is a key part of intuition." Celestia said as she entered the throne room. "So this is the group of Dragons who have appeared in our world? I must say, they are indeed formidable. Please introduce yourselves, and feel free to explain your powers and abilities if you so desire." "Right then, You already know me so I'll sit this out." "I'm Dio. My breed of dragon is named Diablos, I'm able to burrow through the ground and use my horns to not only attack but also to senses my way through the earth using seismic vibrations." "I am Kirin. It is both the name of my race, and the name I have chosen for myself. My kind is capable of generating lightning and charging it through our horns similar to how the Unicorns here us magic. We can also effect the environment around us, creating electrical storms with the static electricity our bodies emit." "I am Theo I am a Teostra, and my mate Leona is a Lunastra. Despite our differences in appearance we are the same species of Elder Dragon." "We both have the ability to fly, breath fire, and and produce an explosive dust. We can also set ourselves on fire to protect ourselves from physical attacks. Finally we are able to produce a massive amount of dust at once and ignite it to create a massive explosion." "intriguing." Celestia said before looking behind her. "Well do come out, they've all introduced themselves, so it's only fair if you do the same." After a couple seconds, a dragon entered from around the corner of the door. He had massive broad wings, glimmering steel scales, and a bronze nose. "Greeting, I am Kushala Daora, feel free to call me what you wish." "I think Kushala's a good enough name." Nergi said. "Very well, now on to my powers. I hold a substantial control over wind. I can create a wind shield around myself which can buffet away physical attacks, as well as create multiple self sustaining cyclones each of which further powers my wind shield. That being said, the cyclones themselves also have enough power to pick us whatever is on the ground and use it to further damage my opponents, this includes fire, lava, ice, snow, rocks, sand, and whatever else. Finally and most obviously, my scales have the durability of Steel, which gave me the title of the Steel Dragon." Rainbow smacked her forehead and said. "These monsters and their powers are just getting ridiculous. I mean, a Demon who can burrow underground, a Unicorn that's a Dragon, a Dragon that's able to make cyclones, a pair of Manticores that breath fire, what's next a giant fish with legs?" "There are actually a number of those from our world." Nergi said "In fact there's a whole class of monsters like that, their called Piscine Wyverns." "Are you serious? Oh sweet Celestia you're serious aren't you?" "That is the least of our problems." Kirin chimed in. "I neglected to mention this during our first meeting, but it appears that the one who gave Starlight Glimmer the power to tame and control us was yet another Elder Dragon. One the most powerful of all Elders, The Black Dragon, Fatalis." Upon hearing this, nearly all dragons in the room where set on edge. "You gotta be fucking, kidding me." Nergi said in a worried tone before composing himself. "If that's the case, then we have a problem. Fatalis are tyrant dragons, they instill fear within even Elder Dragons like us. Not even mentioning the fact that they have the power to evolve into two different more powerful forms. First is the Crimson Fatalis which instinctively more aggressive powerful in fire and lava based attacks, and then there's wiser and more powerful version the White Fatalis who has forsaken his mastery of fire in exchange for a mastery of lightning. The White Fatalis is also especially resilient, you could gouge out its eyes and it would still stubbornly fight on to make sure you suffered tenfold before it finally died." "I see in that case precautions must be taken in the event that this Fatalis creature decide to set it's sights on our land of Equestria." Celestia said gravely. "Tell me Nergi, are there any other abilities Fatalis are capable of?" "Actually there is one more ability that you should know about." Nergi said. "The most disturbing ability of the Fatalis, is reincarnation. You see when a Hunter wears an armor made from a Fatalis long enough the armor begins to take over their body. First it encases them inside itself with no chance of escape, then if forces them to disappear into the wilderness never to be seen again, then another Fatalis appears where the Hunter was last sighted. If I had to guess what happens to them, I'd say that the armor becomes a Fatalis egg and the Hunter inside becomes the embryo, slowly metamorphosing into the former Fatalis which the Hunter killed, effectively reincarnating itself into a new body. That's the reason why the Hunter's Guild has explicitly forbidden any hunter from wearing more than three pieces of Fatalis armor at a time. The plus side to this is that the cells in the armor only awaken after a number of years of being worn by a hunter, and since there aren't any hunters in this world who have the know who to create armor from a Fatalis, so there's no need to worry about it resurrecting itself." "Wait you're not going to kill it are you?" Twilight asked. "Surely it doesn't have to come to that." "You don't know this thing like I do Twilight, it's not some kind of misguided monarch or power hungry warrior, it's a psychopathic dragon with the power, wrath, and sedition of over a hundred demons. It has no empathy for life, only resentment and distain. It instills fear in even the largest of the Elder Dragons like Lao Shan Lung, and demands to be obeyed and feared. It's beyond me why the Fatalis didn't just kill Starlight for the hell of it, much less why it gave he the power to take control of Elder Dragons and other Wyverns." "Perhaps it was just a whim." Kirin stated. "Never the less, we should formulate some sort of strike force to repel it if it ever decides to attack a town or city just for the hell of it." "My thoughts exactly." Celestia said calmly. "I would like to make you all members of a new extension of the Royal guard that will be placed under Princess Twilight's command, with Nergi, or should I say Nergigante, becoming the Captain of the new guard. Tell me Nergigante, Dragon of Extinction, do you accept this responsibility and the burdens that comes with it?" "I do." Nergi said with a grin. "And I've got the perfect name for my new team, The Wyvern Guard." > Chapter 5.5 Interview with an Elder Dragon: Installment #1- The Other World > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Alright, this is audio journal 1. I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, and today I am going to be interviewing the Elder Dragon Nergigante, or Nergi for short, and asking him about his homeworld and the various creature of it. Nergi, could you please begin?" "Right then, let's start things off with the deadliest creature in my world." "Are you talking about your own species?" "Wha- NO, I'm talking about humans. Do you really think I'm that vain?" "Well you did seem to talk about how strong you are back when you were fighting Dio in Starlight's Village, but just forget that, you can go back to talking about humans." "Right well, like I said before I was raised by a human, a hunter at that, so I've seen first hand the power of humans. The first thing they have on their side is their ingenuity, their able to create potions which are able to heal them, antidotes that work twice as fast as the herbs their made from, energy drinks that replenish their stamina, Hot drinks that keep from catching hypothermia in the tundras, cool drinks that keep them from passing out from heat exhaustion, and finally a vast array of armor and weapons made from the parts of the monsters they've killed. However they also have charisma, which they use to convince Wyverians, Dwarves, and Lynians to aid them in their endeavors." "You've mentioned those three other races before, could you give me some more information on them?" "Sure, first off the Wyverians. The Wyverians are actually a race of humanoid dragon, the only difference they have to humans are a set of pointed ears, and a stronger connection with nature. It's rare for them to become hunters, but it has happened on occasion. Then there are the Dwarves, like I said before they're shorter than humans, the tallest of them only reach to about the knees of a human. They're not much for combat, but they're experts when it comes to alchemy and craftsmanship, they're usually made researchers, item melders, or blacksmiths when they join up with the Hunter's Guild. Finally there's the different Lynian races, First off there's Felynes, the majority of them are about as tall as Dwarves and are catlike in appearance, although some can grow to be taller. They also come in a variety of colors, and fur patterns, in that regard I'd compare them to you ponies who I've noticed also come in a number of colors. Finally they have incredible endurance and strength for their size, being able to fight large monsters along side humans. It's for this reason that their main job in the guild is being a Palico for hunters." "What's a Palico? Is that some sort of pun?" "No actually, Palico means companion in the Felyne language. Palico are basically a Hunter's backup during a fight, they also can carry a number of items and make use of various weapons and gear, like VigorWasp Lures, Flashfly cages, and miniature traps. They also can strategize with their hunter, however they can't properly speak in human language without having a thick Felyne accent, so they use words like Meowster, or Meownster." "Sweet Celestia that sounds adorable." "It really is, anyway, moving on to the next family of Lynians, the Melynx, they're a subspecies of Felyne that usually only sports two different fur patterns, either tan and brown or black and white, they also have the ability to speak human languages without having the accent. However they lack the physical strength of the Felynes so they mostly just help cook for the hunters and manage their rooms while their out on a hunt. Then there are the Shakalakas, their small, savage little creatures with green skin, they also have been known to only wear masks and tribal loincloths, despite their aggressive nature they're actually very social creatures living in large tribes under the control of the tribe's king." "Wait, don't tribes usually have a chief?" "Yeah well that's how big a Shakalaka tribe can get to be, having a chief doesn't cut it so a king is chosen form a number of worth chiefs. Anyway Shakalakas nearly always wear masks, only a Shakalaka's parents are allowed to see its face. In the beginning they only have the most basic of mask, they only gain a more complex designs during a coming of age ritual." "Fascinating." "I know right. Next up is the Uruki, which mostly resembles a sloth. They're a peaceful and generous breed of Lynian, usually they fish when their not eating or sleeping. They've also been known to give hunters certain items if they run into one another. Moving on to the species in the New World, first is the Grimalkyne, a breed of more feral Lynian that only exists in the New World. Like the Felynes they come in a variety of fur patterns, although it depends on which tribe they belong to, they can be from the BugTrapper Tribe, the Protector Tribe, the Performer Tribe, or the Plunderer Tribe. Each of which have developed special tools to survive their, they also have their own language which is fairly similar to Felyne so Paclios are able to communicate with them. Then there are the Gajalaka tribes, which are a basically more savage tribe of Shakalaka which only exists in the New World, not much is known about them but it's speculated that their tribe is structured in a similar way to the Shakalaka tribes." "You keep mentioning this place called the New World, do you mind explaining what you mean." "Of coarse. Like your planet, Earth is divided up into several continents. However the various races have long since forgotten their names, the main continent where the races reside is known as the Old World which itself is surrounded by various islands like LocLac. They only just found out about the New World some forty to fifty years ago when the guide first started researching the Elder Crossing. An event where Elder Dragons of a certain age travel to the New World." "Really, why is that?" "It's because the New World is where Elder Dragons go to die. It's a kinda instinctual thing, like what the elephants of this world have, once an Elder Dragon reaches a certain age a biological beacon goes off and guides us to the New World. Once we die we release the bioenergy in our bodies which over the coarse of a hundred years becomes its own environment in the New World. The research commission has only just figured that out a few years ago." "Wait, if the New World is where Elder Dragons go to die than wouldn't that mean the Elder Dragons that are trapped in this world need to find a new rising place?" "Yeah, but well cross that bring when we come to it. Now do you have any other questions?" "Yes actually, Could you please tell me about the various kinds of dragon from your world?" "Sure thing. But my world isn't just filled with dragons, it's filled with all sorts of monsters. Starting things off at the bottom of the food chain we have the herbivores, generally peaceful monsters who eat vegetation and roots. Now herbivores come in various types, there are the dinosaur like creatures such as Aptonoth, Apceros, and Larinoth. The mammals such as Popo, Kelbi, Eurpe, and Burukku, and then they're the amphibians like Epioth. While most herbivores are peaceful, choosing to run rather than fight most of the time, there are territorial herbivores like Kestodon and Gastodon who live in the New World. Then there are the Wingdrakes, small wyverns who are primarily used to carry hunters around areas there are only four main species, first there are the Barnos, the Mernos, the Noios, and the Raphinos. Next up we have the Neopterons, which are basically giant insects. They range from the wasplike Vespoids, to the Hornetaurs which are basically grasshoppers mixed with Rhinoceros beetles which are the size of cats." "Oh my." "Yeah, and those are just the smaller ones. There are also large ones like the Ahtal-ka which is a giant praying mantis which is large enough to bite off the heads of herbivores." "Oh sweet Celestia that's horrifying." "Yeah, anyway lets move on to the Temnocerans, which are basically giant arachnids who prey on basically everything smaller than them, however they primarily feed on Neopterons to keep them in check. The most terrifying of the Temnoceran family is a giant spider called Nerscylla, which has fangs the size of my horns, unreal speed, and poisonous spikes it can fire off from its back, it's basically me if I was a spider." "Please tell me we're done with all the creepy crawly monsters." "Not entirely, but we're done with the arthropod monsters. Lets move on to the Bird Wyverns, which themselves are divided up into two different families. First there's the Theropod Wyverns which resemble land based raptors, then there's the actual Bird-like Wyverns which actually have feathers and can fly. Speaking of which let's move on to the Flying Wyverns, who are again divided up into two different families, True Wyverns, and Pseudo Wyverns." "What's the difference?" "Well True Wyverns are basically Wyverns which fit the overall traits of a dragon, wings instead of forelegs, the ability to fly, some kind of elemental breath attack, y'know the basics. Pseudo Wyverns on the other hand are masters of adaptation and speed. Take Nargacuga for example, it's like a cross between a Wyvern, a jungle cat, and a falcon. It's stealthy enough to the point that it can stalk pretty much anything through the forest, and has enough speed to be able to cut off your head before you even knew it was there. Another example is Tigrex who can basically survive anywhere and not have any problems adapting to the environment. My point is that Pseudo Wyverns are different from True Wyverns in the sense that their was of hunting and surviving is focus more on speed and stealth rather than being on sheer brute power, the only exceptions to this are Akantor and Ukanlos, who by all accounts should be classified as Brute Wyverns. Both of them are massive in size and wield enough power to take on Elder Dragons like me, they've even been given the titles of the Black God and the White God, that's how powerful they are, and that's just when they're apart from each other. The prospect of those two meeting up, and god forbid fighting is so dangerous that the guild needs to keep tabs on nearly every single member of the species to try and avoid the ever meeting up in the wild, and that's not an easy task their not like Elder Dragons where there's only a round one or two hundred of them running around at a time, no this is a whole entire species they have to keep track of, the population of each is about 50 thousand." "You mentioned that both Akantor and Ukanlos are able to hunt and kill Elder Dragons, are there any other monsters who are able to do that besides other Elder Dragons?" "I'll get to that in a minute, for now lets focus on the monster classes. Moving on to the Piscine Wyverns. The majority of these are basically gigantic fish with legs, with the only exceptions being Delex, which are dolphin sized flying fish, and Gajau, which are basically giant catfish with shark teeth. Despite their uniform build, Piscine Wyverns are capable of existing in a number of environments. The Cephalos and Cephadrome are able to swim through sand as gracefully as in water, the Aruganosu is able to do the same only with snow, and Lavasioth is able to swim in lava and coat itself in volcanic rock to protect itself." "Incredible so your saying there are creature from your world who are able to withstand molten lava?" "Yep, and Lavasioth is one of many, there are even some monsters who can produce lava inside their bodies like living smelters, more on that later. For now lets move on to the Carapaceons, which are basically insects from the sea. First off there's the Hermitaur, Ceanataur, Onimusha, and the Shen Gaoren, which are all basically giant hermit crabs. Then theres the Akura Vashimu, and Akura Jebia, which are basically giant Sea Scorpions with crystals growing on them. Then there's the Taikun Zamuza, Baelidae, and the Kususbami, which are basically giant lobsters which are large enough to carry boulders and even mountains on their backs. Moving on to the Amphibians, first off there's the Tetsucabra, which is basically a giant orange frog with a pair of tusk like fangs on its bottom jaw. Then there's Zamite, which are like a cross between salamander and shark. And finally there's Zamtrios, which is basically a great white shark with a pair of frog legs and a sack which it can fill up with air and water to make itself into a giant ballon of pain. Next up is the fanged beasts, which are actually mammals and not just some variant of lizard, fish, or bug. The Fanged beasts are divided up into three different families, the Primatius which are basically giant apes, the Pelagus which are a variation of bear, and the fanged mammals which are basically giant herbivores with massive tusks and fangs. However the strongest of the fanged beasts is a member of the Primatius family called Rajang, which is a giant baboon with lightning powers. Rajang is on of the only non-Elders who can actually hunt and kill Elder Dragons, in fact his favorite thing to hunt is Kirins, he's able to generate electricity partially because of this diet." "So how strong 'is' Rajang? Do his lightning attacks melt stone or something like that?" "No, Rajang's lightning attacks are powerful but not enough to do that. When I say strongest, I mean it is possible that he is the physically strongest creature in the world. He's able to rip boulders the size of houses straight out of the ground and throw them a distance of 15 meters, and he can do this a number of times without running out of energy. He can pick up a hunter, crumple them up into a ball, and throw them back to base camp, and that's when he's in his base form." "What do you mean based form?" "Well there are some monsters who can enter into a enraged form, and in Rajang's case, his enraged form is him turning himself into a golden version of himself, he does this by sending an immense amount of electricity flowing throughout his body. This both empowers his electric attacks and gives him more versatility with them, now being able to create a massive ball of lightning the size of the boulders he rips out of the ground, which is also able to basically flash fry any living thing around him, leaving them burnt smoking husks." "Oh dear, that is disturbing." "And most likely painful, anyway let's move on to the Leviathans. Leviathans are genuinely water based creatures with a salamander like appearance. However one member of the family, Agnaktor, is able to survive in volcanic wastelands and frozen tundras. Like Lavasioth it's able to withstand lava and use molten rock as armor for defense against attacks, there's also Nibelsnarf which is able to move through sand like a snake. Speaking of which let's move on the the Snake Wyverns, which I would prefer either be classified as Fanged Wyverns or Leviathans. First there's Remobra, which is basically a snake with wings. Then there's the Najarala which is a snake type creature covered in boney plates. Like I said the guild could have easily just classified them as Leviathans or Fanged Wyverns, it would make more sense than just making an entirely new category. But enough about that, lets move on to the big boys, The Brute Wyverns. Brute Wyverns primarily resemble theropods like with the bird Wyverns, only brutes are much bigger, twice as large as the bird Wyvern theropods. And this is where we meet the last of the Non-Elders who can take on Elder Dragons, one of the most dangerous monsters from my world, they're able to turn the entire food chain of any ecosystem on its head, their known as the World Eater, Deviljho." "So that's a total of 4 Wyverns that can hunt and kill Elder Dragons, good to know, please continue." "Right well, Deviljho's don't just eat Elder Dragons, they eat anything they can get their mouths on, it's the reason the species was given the title World Eater, their always hunger, and always angry. A Deviljho's metabolism requires them to constantly search for food, they've even been known to eat their own tail after a hunter cuts it off. Speaking of which, the tail itself is as long and as heavy as the Deviljho's front end, it basically takes up half its body. But enough about that thing's body, lets talk personality, and when it comes to Deviljho, it only has two default emotions, sleepy and angry. He's also known as the Violent Wyvern because he he fights with such an unstoppable fury that some this fueled by rage, should not be seen outside of the depths of hell. He is a walking rampage with an unbridled rage that eclipses the sun, and this means, and I really want to stress this because it's equally badass and terrifying, that a deviljho literally CANNOT walk away from a fight, and at the same time it cannot help itself from fighting everything that moves, so that means if it comes across any kind of monster it will instantly decide to fight that monster to the death, and those that don't either fight or run get eaten. Deviljho are known to swallow herbivores like Aptonoth alive so as to not waste any energy by simply chasing it down and fighting it, and it has to constantly hunt for food due to its high metabolism, high body temperature, and constant fighting. A Deviljho also has the ability to use it's lower jaw as a shovel, and just throw boulders at enemies, kinda like Rajang only on a smaller extent. It also has rows and rows of shark like teeth which are constantly growing out, getting to the point that the cover the Deviljho's entire chin and upper lip by the time they reach adulthood. And if that wasn't enough, he is able to use the Dragon Element, an extremely rare elemental ability which usually only Elder Dragons have access to, this usually only serves as a sort of defense against elemental attack, I'm able to charge it through my spikes and make them super hard to break, that's why they turn black. But Deviljho's are not only able to harness it, but also use it to attack, unleashing a cloud of black smoke riddled with red lightning, and if that doesn't immediately kill the monster or hunter Deviljho is attacking, it will rob the Hunter's weapons of their elemental damage effects, and make it so monsters can't use their elemental organs or breath attacks. They also have saliva which is actually 75 percent stomach acid, which allows him to corrode the armor of a hunter or the shell of any monster making it so he does twice the damage the bites." "Wow, I would not want to run into one of them." "That's not even the half of it. You see like Rajang, Deviljho has an enraged form which makes him more powerful, when he enters his enraged state, his body temperature rises to such an incredible degree, that the battle scars he's gotten throughout his life of fighting actually glow red and occasionally open back up, and the glowing red stuff is actually his blood, his body temperature rises to such a degree that his blood become a kind of glowing fluid, and he become a literal engine of hate and destruction, which cannot help itself to fight everything. Even when a hunter traps it in a pitfall trap, instead of trying to escape will keep on fighting, he cares more about killing you that he does about escaping the trap. Not even mentioning the fact that when he's enraged he is able to flex his muscles so hard that they become a kind of leather around them bone. He also has an excellent scene of smell, so it can smell a fresh corpse from miles away which makes it easier to find food, and as I stated before he will eat ANYTHING. If a hunter puts some drugged meat on the ground, he'll just eat that meat bones and all, and like I said before if a hunter cuts off his tail, he will not hesitate to eat that either, in fact it's been proven that a Deviljho's favorite kind of meat, is the meat of another Deviljho." "Wait what?" "Yeah you heard me right, Deviljho's have been known to cannibalize each other, and if a Deviljho consumes enough flesh from other Deviljho's, then it will become permanently enraged, becoming the Savage Deviljho. On the other end of the spectrum, if a Deviljho goes a certain number of days without food than it will become even stronger somehow, the sheer force of hunger driving it to incredible levels of strength, granted his stamina is drastically decreased but that doesn't mean that he can't one shot you with a head butt. The point I'm making is that Deviljho is one of the most feared creature on the planet where I'm from, and that fear is well warranted, even Elder Dragons like me know tasty away from them. Anyway let's move on to the Fanged Wyverns. These guys are commonly known for their speed like Zinogre, Tobi-Kadachi, or Odogaron. However there are some species that have been known to hunt in packs like Shamos, Girros, and Jagras, with the leader of the pack being significantly larger than the other, and as such having the annotation Great added on to their names, like Great Jagras and Great Girros. The only Fanged Wyvern I know which doesn't hunt in packs or uses speed is the Dodogama, basically a big lizard with a massive underbite which is able to eat rocks and turn them into lava, which usually only a select number of Elder Dragons can do. Which brings us to the last type of monster, the Elder Dragons." "About time." "Now, the first thing you need to know about Elder Dragons is that, we are powerful creatures who are essentially forces of nature, there are even one as large as mountains, which automatically grants them some kind of "Mountain Dragon" title. Like Lao-Shan Lung, the Old Mountain Dragon, or Zorah Magdaros, the Scorching Mountain Dragon. Then there are Elder Dragons like Kirin, Theo, and Leona, who are either extremely powerful with elemental and physical attacks. Then there are the most powerful of the Elder Dragons, the Black Dragons like me. We have the potential to destroy the world if we say fit, First there's me, then there's Fatalis, which was the first Black Dragon ever categorized. Then there's Dire Miralis, the Smelting Black Dragon, which has the ability to produce magma within its body that is so hot it is able to boil an entire section of the sea and turn it into a massive sea of blood from all the boiled carcasses. Then there's Alatreon, the Blazing Black Dragon, which the ability to use nearly all elements and use them to attack, even the Dragon Element. That being said Alatreon is an unstable creature and can passively turn anywhere into an ever changing wasteland of lava, Ice, thunderstorms, and floods. Finally there's Gore Magala, the Black Eclipse Dragon, which is able to destroy all life without even trying, and the reason for that is because he is able to passively spread a virus which only he is able to produce. This "Frenzy Virus" is able to cause any monster to go into a rage before dying of exhaustion, however that's not the end of it. If a monster is extremely powerful then they will actually absorb the virus and become an Apex Monster which is basically able to fight ten more of its own kind, as well as spread the Frenzy Virus around to other monsters, which of left unchecked could potentially become a massive plague of berserker Apex Predators able to turn entire nations into disease riddled wastelands, where only the strongest of flora and fauna have the slimmest chance survival." "I see, that is very impressive, so one last question. What Elder Dragon is the strongest out of all the others?" "Oh easily Nakarkos, y'know how we where talking about Deviljho a few minutes ago, well Nakarkos is able to eat him as a snack. Thankfully they usual only stay at the bottom of the oceans, in the blackest of abysses, however when one comes to the surface and makes a nest all hell breaks loose. The nest itself is call the Wyvern's End, an appropriate name considering that usually anything that enters beside the Nakarkos itself is never seen again, and the few who have seen the inside and lived to tell about it describe it as being a massive cave with bones littering every square foot of it, even being stuck to the ceiling due to a kind of blue mucous which Nakarkos creates. By all accounts he should be the one with the title World Eater or Extinction Dragon, because he can bring any biome relatively close to his nest to the point of extinction, he's also been known to save the closest environment for last. You see Nakarkos is a cephalopod, which means he has an extremely high IQ, and is able to learn and adapt itself to the point that it has a nearly perfect defense and offense. They're able to cover themselves in the bones of other monster and attach the skulls of those monsters to the end of its tentacles, which by they way are not only able to produce that blue mucous as an attack but are also able to fire off laser beams, he's also able to use the parts of other monsters as weapons, sort of like a cruder version of what hunters do. Speaking of which, the Hunter's Guild is so terrified of these things that whenever one emerges, they call in the highest ranking hunters from all across the globe just to fight this thing, and almost none are ever seen from again. Back to Nakarkos, he's able to use the parts of other monsters to attack. Y'know how Dio has those two large horns, well Nakarkos is able to eat Dio and then use his horns as a weapon. There's also monster called Uragaan, who's massive boney chin is so hard it is able to smash the toughest of bedrock into chunks of stone, and then once Nakarkos eats him Nakarkos can use his chin as the most durable and desisting hammer in the world. And y'know that blue mucous I was talking about earlier, he is able to use this to stick his prey to literally anything, making it nearly impossible for them to move, which makes it all the more easier for him to pick them up and shove them into his beak like mouth, and them most terrifying aspect of that is that somethings the mucous will effectively seal the mouth of the poor bastard who's being eaten shut, making it impossible for them to scream for help, or even scream in general. The only monster who even stands a snowball's chance in hell of defeating this thing is an Elder Dragon known as Ceadeus, which is essentially a giant whale with a pair of massive horns, which if scraped against any mass of land is able to create earthquakes, and the only way for Ceadeus to even get to Nakarkos is for the Wyvern's End to me inside of a massive underwater cave. Back to Nakarkos, those laser beams I was taking about, that's fueled by the Dragon Element and is able to be concentrated into a super charged to increase it's range. Lastly, I've mentioned that Nakarkos is able to eat a number of environments into extinction, which Deviljho can also do. But the main difference between them, besides the over all power scale, is that while Deviljho needs to do this to survive Nakarkos does it simply because he likes food. He is a living embodiment of gluttony, he devours entire ecosystems because he can, not even because he's hungry, he does it because he likes the feeling of food moving through his body and into his stomach. The just eats to eat, and the most terrifying aspect of that is the fact that in some cases he will leave prey have eaten simply because he is too full to finish them, so he'll just chew on them until he's digested enough, but up until that point the prey will just be flailing around, desperately trying to escape but being unable to, the only emotion they feel being abject terror and the helplessness of being trapped in the maw of the thing that is currently holding them hostage, the very thought of it chills me to my core, I desperately hope to god that I never encounter a Nakarkos." "Okay... well, you could have simply said the name of the monster and what his basically abilities are, but that was, that was overwhelmingly disturbing. I might not be able to fall asleep for weeks, and I agree with you that meeting one of those Nakarkos things would be terrifying in every sense of the word." "Yeah well, I just thought you'd want all the information would could. Anyway, we should be getting back to your castle, it's almost sundown and I'm pretty sure the girls are done with the redecorating, not to mention I gotta get back to building the hideout for the Wyvern Guard out in the Everfree." "Alright just give me a second. Ahem, So, that was my first interview with the Elder Dragon, Nergigante. I'm almost hesitant to make another one, but it's necessary, even if I'm never able to sleep soundly ever again. Anyway, this is Princess Twilight Sparkle, signing off." > Chapter 6. Enter Ana and the Jag pack > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Person POV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Come on Dio you call this a tunnel?" Nergi asked. "Not even a Mosswine could fit through that hole, and why are you still in your miniature form? I when I asked you to excavate a tune system for our new base I expected you to go big." Dio shook the dirt from his horns and said. "Look, I'm not use to actually digging tunnels, or for that matter even being in a forest like this. I'm a desert creature, the only vegetation I'm use to digging under are cactuses and the occasional dried out tree, a big forest like this is way out of my expertise. I got my horns stuck on at least 15 bundles of roots." "Why do we even need an underground tunnel?" Kushala asked "Five out of the six of us can fly, and Kirin isn't really that heavy, not to mention he can jump around like his legs are made of springy rubber." "Actually I can't fly that well either. The only even use my wing to move through the ground better, usually I can only get a few feet off the ground." "My point still stands." "Look we need an under ground tunnel system as a safety precaution, in the event that we're either attacked with overwhelming force, or if one of the walking fireballs accidentally sets the woods ablaze by sneezing." "HEY, that happened ONE TIME ya spiky Bastard!" Theo shouted. "And who's to say it won't happen again?" "Fuck you." "Look my point is that we need things like this incase of an emergency." "I agree with Nergi, it's always best to be prepared." Kirin added. "Here's a thought, why don't you do the digging?" Leona asked "You seem to know a bit about how it should be, so why not just do it yourself, Mr. Leader?" "Do these look like digging paws to you?" Nergi asked while holding up said paws. "The only thing I can dig these things into is a corpse. We need a creature that's good at digging tunnels, and since Dio is the only one here who has any experience in digging he's all we got." "Again, I don't actually dig tunnels, I just make my way through the ground. We're gonna need some kind of tunneling monster if you want your precious tunnel system." "Don't call it that. Don't call it precious, it makes it sound weird." "NERGI, EVERYONE!" Twilight shouted as she fly down towards them. "We need your help, there's been an attack, nopony was hurt but we think it may be something from your world." "Say no more Twilight, we're on it. Wyvern Guard, MOVE OUT." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sweet Apple Acres ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Alright girls, one of you tell me what happened." Nergi said to the Cutie Mark Crusaders. "Well." Sweetie Bell began. "We were trying to get our Cutie Marks in fishing, when suddenly this huge catfish just came jumping out of the water. Then suddenly this yellow lizard thing came out of the woods and chased us away." "What did this lizard thing look like?" "Well, it was the size of a TimberWolf, and it had yellow scales with oranges line running down its back." Scootaloo explained. "It also had a box shaped head, and it sounded like somepony strangling a Cockatrice." "Thanks kid, I think we got all we needed." Theo said. "Now run along." Once the CMCs had left, the monster began to analyze the situation. "So, looks like we got some Lesser Jagras running through the woods." Theo stated. "And where there's lesser monster there's bound to be Pack leaders." Leona added. "Not only that but is seems some non-sentient monsters have stared appearing." Nergi added. "That huge catfish Sweetie Bell was talking about might have been a Gajau. In which case we'll be able to have that as our main food source. With us in these smaller bodies we'll only need to eat one or two for each meal." "I am a herbivore, however I also agree that it would be beneficial to the rest of you." Kirin added. "Yeah, you have fun with your fish." Dio said. "Me and Kirin will be just fine munching on apples and cabbages." "Can we please stop thinking about food for a second and just focus on the matter at hand?" Kushala asked. "We have a Great Jagras and its pack running around. The lesser Jagras may be easy to deal with, but let's not forget that a Great Jagras can swallow up things twice its size in one gulp, and these ponies aren't that big so it's only a matter of time before that fat bastard decides to set its sights on the town." "Kushala's right, besides since Jagras are burrowers we might be able to work out some kind of agreement. We get a few new members, the Jagras get a steady diet, and I get someone to dig my tunnels." Nergi stated. "Oh not this shit again." Theo deadpanned. "Underground escape tunnels are essential to a headquarters, you know what we're not arguing this, I'm the leader and I say our base needs underground tunnels." "Can you two stop infighting and actually start helping now?" Twilight asked. "Twilight's right." Leona added. "We need to take care of these guys." "Right, right, okay all of us should split up and comb the woods." Nergi said. " If anyone runs into the pack let out a roar to let us know where you are. Try to avoid fighting them and try to reason with them if you can, but if you do end up fighting them, well, they're Jagras so... just try not to kill them." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Person POV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I sniff the air and follow the scent trail before saying to myself, "Man, tracking a pack of the same creature is damn hard. I hope the others are having a better time than me." At that moment a lesser Jagras jumped from the brush, I grab it and throw it against a nearby tree. "Did you really think you could sneak up on an Elder Dragon?" I say, containing my amazement of my feat. "You, an Elder Dragon? HA, Don't make me laugh, your as big as me, and the rest of my pack." The Jagras says before letting out a series of shrill shrieks attracting the rest of the pack, and their leader. There's a rustling in the bushes before the massive body of the great Jagras came barreling through the woods and letting out a roar, his belly distended by whatever meal he currently had in his gullet. At that moment a said the only thing I could think to, "You are one fat bastard." "And you have a big mouth for such a little monster." The Great Jagras said in a thick New York accent, for some reason. "I've swallowed Aptonoths bigger than you, and you have the gaul to call yourself an Elder Dragon when you ain't got the slightest bit of Bioenergy coming from you. I should swallow you whole, but the boss would use me as a rag doll if she knew I ate twice before letting her get her fill." "Wait, aren't you the boss?" "I was, but due to the latest change in territory and food chain, I decided to make a deal with my new boss. She gives me and my pack safety, and we give her a portion of food." "JAGRAS, my nose is burning, are you talking about me?" A Female voice calls out from deeper in the woods. "Speak of the fucking Deviljho. Come on boss, check out the new snack in the woods. This one calls himself and Elder Dragon, can you believe that? You better make dying quick Mr.Elder, the boss love to toy with her food." I hear a stomping threw the woods before a massive Anjanath pushes through the trees and lets out a roar. She leans down and sniffs me before saying, "Never seen a monster like you little guy, you do kinda look like an kind of Elder Dragon, but your too small and lanky. Whatever, just try to put up a fight." The Anjanath tries to bite me, but I dodge out of the way. The Jagras pack retreats from the immediate area as the fight begins. I jump onto the Anjanath's head and start punching her in the eye, she tries to shake me off and slammed her head into a tree. Before her skull makes impact I jump from her head to her back and grab the twin sails above her legs, from there I yank and pull at them, making her run into trees before she finally topples to the ground. I jump from her back and land on my feet before jumping back over to her, grabbing her head, and beginning to bash her skull into the ground. One of the Jagras bites down on my one of wings and pulls me off her, I grab the little bastard and throw him away with the others but by that time the bitch had gotten back to her feet. She slams my into a tree with a hip-check before flaring her nose and breathing fire on me. "Alright, I think that's it for easy mode, time to get serious." I say before transforming into my Full Dragon form. I charge through the flames and punch the Anjanath in the jaw before slamming her head into the ground, picking her up, and slamming her back into the ground. "Damn, I thought you looked familiar. You're the real thing aren't you, an Elder Dragon." She asked. "Yes. I am the Extinction Dragon, Nergigante. And I, AM AN ELDER DRAGON." "HE'S NOT THE ONLY ONE." Kushala shouted from up above. Both he, Theo and Leona where in their full dragon forms. "Alright you two, LET'S DO THIS." Theo and Luna swooped down began flying around us in a wide circle before breathing fire on the surrounding area so none of the Jagras could escape. "BLAZING COMBO: RING OF FIRE!" There was a rumbling underground before Dio burst from the earth in his full dragon form shouting "DIABLOS SHATTER!" The ground around him became loose and shifty. I realized what was going on and took flight, a second later I saw the Anjanath and the Jagras trying and failing to worm their way out of the landfill that Dio had just opened up. "Nice work Dio." I say in gratitude. "It was nothing." He replied "Lucky for me there wasn't that many tangling tree roots." I hear Kirin shout, "QUICKCASTER." before lightning crackles above the clearing. I look up to see that Kirin has appeared in the air. "TWILIGHT GET DIO OUT OF THERE." Twilight appears from above the tree line and uses her magic to pull Dio out from the ground, as Dio is pulled from the earth he transforms into his miniature form. As Kirin falls he charges lighting throughout his body. As he lands the electricity runs through the earth, electrocuting the monsters. "THUNDER PIKE!" "FUCK KIRIN, you didn't kill them did you?" I ask. "No, I made sure to only use a few hundred volts, which have probably been diluted by the earth." "Well that's good to known." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Person POV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After a good thirty minutes the Anjanath awoke to see that she had shrunken in size and was now the same height as the others, and was being contained in a purple bubble "Wha-WHAT THE? WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? WHY AM I SMALL?" "It's so you don't reek havoc anymore." Nergi said as he approached from behind a tree. "You, let me out and make be big again." "Not until you agree to the terms of my arrangement." "What arrangement?" "Simple, you join our group, the Wyvern Guard, and in exchange we'll allow you to run free. All we ask from you is that you not hunt and kill anything sentient, such as the ponies of this world, other self aware monsters, basically anything that can speak." "Hmph, that's funny coming from an Elder Dragon known for hunting and eating other Elders." "I abide by these rules just the same as you, believe it or not I'm actually the one who put them in place as leader of the guard. I'll also have you know that your Great Jagras friend and his pack members have agree to this and are currently hard at work digging an underground tunnel system for our future base, now do we have a deal or not? "What happens if I don't agree to this little arrangement?" "You'll be contained in a cell and studied by the ponies of this world, you'll be well fead but you'll be denied your freedom. Where as if you run with us you'll be free to hunt as you please so long as you don't kill anything that's sentient. Overall it seems like a a pretty good deal, so what do you say?" "Hmph fine, I'll join your little group. But just because I don't feel like becoming the enemy of an Elder Dragons, much less a whole group of them. So how do I transform back into my full size?" "There's a pair of transformation sigils on your claws and upper torso, just press them together to transform into your full dragon form. I should also mention that there's a pretty drastic power scale between your miniature and full dragon form, the only reason I lasted so long against you in your full dragon from was because I'm me." "Good to know, I'll be sure to remember that when it's time to fight. I kinda like being this small, reminds me of being a hatchling back in the Ancient Forest where I grew up." "Cool. One last thing, I make it my business to know my team on a personal level, and one of the ways I do it is giving them nicknames. I've given the Great Jagras the nickname McJagger, I've been thinking for a minute and I've though of a name for you, what do you think of the name Ana?" "Ana, hm, gotta say not that bad. Now do you mind letting me down?" "Sure, hey Twilight let her go." "Alright if you insist." Twilight said as she dispelled the magic bubble. "Well Ana, welcome to the Wyvern Guard." Nergi said with a smirk. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Wasteland, Somewhere on the outskirts of Equestria ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sombra stood overlooking the most disturbing scene he had ever laid eyes on. What laid off in the distance was an entire mountain range full of rotting mean and bone, with the main mountains being the corpses of five different mountain sized monsters. The first, a gigantic white serpentine monster which would have been long enough to encircle a mountain on its own were it not rotted so much. The second, a mountain sized wingless dragon with ashen scales and a Rhino like horn on its face. The third, what seemed to be an enormous whale with a pair of horns and a thick coat of hair which formed a long beard around the face of the beast, the hair gave off a since which would have once resembled gold but now only looked like a rusted bloody copper. The forth, a massive salamander with long straight tusks, which also seemed to have a kind of purple amethyst-like crystal growing on its back and all across the end of its tail. And finally, a gigantic black turtle with a volcano on its shell which was leaking lava to form volcanic streams all across the bodies of the other beasts. The shell of the beast seemed to be broken in some places which allowed a greater lava flow and the skin of the beast, while still rotting, looked flabby and leathery indicating that it had lived for well over thousands of centuries before dying. Those where only the largest of the corpses however, the entire biome was in fact a massive wasteland of decay. Corpses literally made up the infrastructure of the caves and tunnels, a unique bacteria had evolved there and had entirely covered the land in gray clouds of disease in some regions, and event from miles away Sombra could smell the stench of rotten meat and death. Being a former tyrant he had grown accustomed to that smell in small doses, but the stench was so strong that it threatened to send the former warlord to the brink of vomiting. "The other world these corpses come from, it is a place which will supply me with the resources I need." He said to himself. "However, this place reeks of death and decay, and only serves as a mass grave for the ones from that world. There is nothing for me here so I shall take my leave, and let what ever beast which call that place home do so in what relative peace they have." Sombra turned away and looked back on last time. As he did, he could have sworn he had seen a dragon flying over the wasteland, a dragon cloaked in a veil of rotting flesh, bone, and bacterial fog. > Chapter 7. What's Ya-ku with you? > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ana bit down on Dio's horn and tried her best to lift him up but barely managed to move him. "Come on Ana, are you even trying?" Dio asked. "Shud da hell op dammit." Ana snarled in reply with Dio's horn still in her mouth. "Looks like your not strong enough to face an Apex monster like me one on one." Dio snidely said before bashing Ana in the face with his head and knocking her off her feat with a hip-check. Ana snarled as she got to her feet and transformed into her miniature form. "Not bad, You hit with the same power as a Rathalos, guess that's what you True Wyverns have in common." "Of course, but you Brute Wyverns aren't anything to laugh at either, your kind are some of the only things that can actually give us a challenge." Dio said as he changed as well. "Not saying that you'd win, but you'd put up one hell of a fight. The only Brutes who can take down a True Wyvern are Deviljho and maybe Brachydios." "Alright scrubs, training's over we got work to do." Nergi said flying down and landing down in the clearing. "We've been assigned to investigate a series of thefts." "Why, don't those ponies have the guards to deal with things like that?" Dio asked. "Twilight and I believe that creatures from our world may be responsible. We also believe that they're from the New World, which is why I would ask that you come with us Ana, we've already got Jagger and a few of his Jagras with us but we'd like you to come with us." "Why do I have to go? Can't you just bring Dio?" "I'm not from the New World, I'm from one of the great deserts of the Old World." Ana groaned to herself, "Fiiiiiiine, I'll go with you." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ponyville: Sugarcube Corner ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Alright Mrs.Cake, could you please explain what happened the night of the theft?" Nergi asked. "Yes well, I had just went out to pick up the delivery of eggs that had been delivered." Mrs.Cake began "When I was about to bring the last big crate inside I heard a kind of squawking out in the dark, I looked out and noticed a flashing light a few feet in front of me. The light flashed twice, before blinding me with a much bringer flash of light. I couldn't see a thing for a good while, and when I got my sight back the crate was gone." "Thank you ma'am, I think that's all we need." Once Mrs.Cake went back into the bakery Nergi turned to the group and said. "So, what do you make of it Ana?" "Well, the only monster from the New World I know who can make a blinding flash of light is a Tzitzi-Ya-Ku, but the egg stealing is definitely the M.O. for a Kulu-Ya-Ku." "So we either have a Kulu-Ya-Ku teaming up with a Tzitzi-Ya-Ku, or we have a Tzitzi-Ya-Ku trying a diet of eggs." "Either way it's an issue that needs to be dealt with immediately." Twilight added. "I assume you plan on trying to recruit these two into your ranks." "You are correct." "Well if it's a Kulu-Ya-Ku we can possibly bribe it into joining just by promising it a steady supply of eggs, those bird-brained bastards are crazy for them." "I suppose we could work out an arrangement like that, 'if' you manage to convince them to join. But what about the other one, the Tzitzi-Ya-Ku? Am I saying that right?" "You're fine Twilight, and convincing the Tzitzi won't be that hard either. All we need to do is make a deal with them that's leveled in their favor, and considering how most Bird Wyverns only ever think about feeding and nesting, we shouldn't have any trouble providing for them." "If you say so." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 minutes later ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nergi, Ana, Jagger, and Twilight strode through the forest. The three monsters sniffing at the ground trying to pick up the scent, as well as scanning the ground for footprints and feathers. Suddenly a lesser Jagras screeched out a signal. "Sounds like my boys have picked up a trail, Let's Go." Jagger shout before running off in the direction of the noise. "Alright, looks like we're going in guns blazing, I can work with this. Com' on you two, we'll think up a plan on the way." "Wait I, Oh Horse Feathers." As the Trio chased down the Jagras they were lead to a clearing where the rest of the pack was attacking a pair of Raptor-like creatures. One with Azure Scales and a pair of crest-like skin flaps, and the other with tan colored scales with orange strips running cross its back, red tufts of feathers long its elbows and head, and finally a curved beak resembling a Dodo bird. Acting On his feet, Nergi Shouted. "TWILIGHT WE NEED A DOME. ANA, JAGGER, FULL SIZE." With little time to act the three fighters acted on Nergi's orders. With Twilight creating a dome of magic around the clearing as Ana and Jagger transforming into their enlarged monster states while Nergi did the same. Jagger using his full weight Jagger slammed his body into the Kulu-Ya-Ku who let out a terrified quack before being squashed. The Tzitzi's reaction was faster with him being able to dodge out of the way of Ana's fire breath before emitting his blinding flash from the flaps on its head. This caused Ana and Twilight to recoil, however Nergi had been able to cover his eyes in time before the flash and was able to pounce upon the Azure Raptor, pinning him to the ground and keeping him from using his ability again. "Listen here Tzitzi, one of two things are going to happen here. Either I rip your neck open here and now, and then do the same to your egg stealing friend, or you let that pony over there cast a harmless little spell on you to make you both smaller and we can talk about making a deal that can work out for both of us. The choice is yours." The Tzitzi was silent for a moment before saying, "Look buddy, If you wanted to talk all you had to do was ask." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 minutes later ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "So that's our deal, in exchange for joining our group and agreeing not to harass or attack the citizens of Equestria you will both be granted safe haven in the everfree forest and will be provided with anything you need." Twilight said. "Even eggs?" Kulu asked "All the eggs you need." "What can it hurt, you've got yourself a deal princess." Tzitzi said smugly "I'm in too, but only for the eggs." "We get it, you like Eggs, it's probably your only defining character trait." Ana said snidely. A gust of wind blew overhead as Kushala circled over the clearing and swooped down. "Looks like you've already caught the egg thieves, good we'll need all the help we can get. We've received a mission from Celestia, apparently a whole biome has appeared, and it's from the New World." "Which one?" Nergi asked "The Rotten Vale." Nergi's eyes went wide at the mention of this, before becoming grimly serious. "Well then, no time to waste, let's go." > Chapter 8. Valley of the Shadow of Death > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Person POV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As I looked over the valley I felt and odd combination or disgust and hunger, like watching someone slurp down a live octopus. Perhaps it was my own draconic instincts telling me to devour the flesh of the fallen Elder Dragons, or maybe it's because I haven't had anything to eat since yesterday. Come to think of it, it's probably a little of both. I looked back over my shoulder to see the mane six and my team setting up our makeshift basecamp while AppleJack, Dio, Rarity, and myself were on watch duty. Not wanting to think about eating dead bodies anymore I decide to try and make some small talk with Rarity. "So, like the view?" "Hardly, Ugh, what a horrid place." Rarity scoffed "Yeah no kidding, it's worse for me since I can actually smell it from here." "And it's only gonna get worse once we get closer to it." Kirin said as he walked up to me. "So you decide who's going down there yet, or did you plan on making us all draw straws?" "I'll tell you once Rainbow and Kushala get back from scouting." "You rang." Rainbow said from overhead with Kushala following behind her. "Well speak of the devil. Come on." After rallying the rest of the group I turned to Kushala and asked "So, what's it look like from up there?" "Well it's nothing like the Rotten Vale in the New World, but that's obvious just by looking at it." Kushala said as he stepped forward. "From what I could tell the whole thing is divided up into four main regions which each have different monsters living there. Geovores like Uragaan and Dodogama make their homes around the bodies of the Zorah Magdaros and the Hallowed Jhen Mohran, they can't really go anywhere other than that because of how dense the clouds of effluvium are, and other monsters can't get to where they are because of the river of molten lava Zorah creates. The body of the Goldbeard Ceadeus and Jhen Mohran's underbelly is mainly inhabited by Insectoid monsters, mainly Carapaceon and Neopterons, and it looks like the big boss of these bugs is a Shen Gaoren who lives in the head of that Ashen Loa-Shang-Lung." "Wait, to me it looks like the Loa-Shang-Lung's head is still attached." "It's still in it's juvenile years, hasn't molted into its full size yet. Anyway, they upper half of Loa-Shang-Lung's body is mainly a roosting point for bird Wyverns, flying Wyverns, and wing-drakes. There's Barnos, Yain Kut-ku, Yain Garuga, Monoblos, Tigrex." "Alright, I'm getting you saved this one for last since it's the most important right?" "Straight to the point then, fine. You know how I said that there were dense clouds of effluvium, well the clouds are coming from the Shan Dalamader. There's certain places where it looks like the snake coiled around itself before dying, and those bunched up piles of flesh are the perfect breeding ground for the effluvium bacteria. And to make it even more dangerous the digestive fluids of the snake have been leaking out, making entire lakes of sulfuric acid." "I see, then that adds yet another level of danger." Twilight added. "You're talking about the toxic gas right?" "Yes, Equestria doesn't have that many Volcanoes. But we do know about natural sulfuric lakes from stories about the land Thesus, the homeland of the Minotaurs. The sulfuric acid creates toxic fumes which are extremely deadly, even one breath is enough to kill a healthy adult. Although this varies due to the density gas, which is why Minotaurs have evolved to walk upright, so as to not inhale the gasses closest to the ground." "Unfortunately." An Ominous voice echoed "That is not a weakness the creatures in that Hellscape have." I looked down and noticed the my shadow and the others were beginning to not only lengthen but converge actually taking shape. I expected Sombra to appear from the shadowy mass however I did not expect the state he would be in. As Sombra form emerged from the darkness I noticed he had numerous bruise, bite marks, and claw wounds all across his body. The other monsters were on edge but I held up a hand telling them to wait before asking. "Why are you here Sombra." "To give you a warning." "A warning of what?" Twilight asked. "That valley is far more dangerous than you can even believe. I ventured there in hopes of forming an army, but all I found there was a land seemingly crafted by the Four Thoroughbreds of the Apocalypse. Chaos, famine, pestilence, and death permeated from everywhere. What little plants I found were covered in volcanic ash and this 'Effluvium' the dragon speaks of, and yet in this seemingly barren wasteland there is an entire ecosystem of creatures which have evolved to not only survive but thrive in these impossible conditions. There are giant fish and sea-serpents that can swim through the acid and lava like it's simple water, enormous creatures that cover themselves in bones as for self defense, and creatures that can seemingly create explosions with their own bodies. And then there are the Four Kings." "Four kings? What do you mean?" "The Pegasus and Steel Dragon saw one of them, the giant crab you call Shen Gaoren. There are three others. First, A Silver plated dragon with the speed of falling star, who lives at the peak of the mountain dragon's back. Secondly, a massive tusked Behemoth covered in black boney spikes with a set of jaws that can crush boulders, He has made his home within the broken shell of the volcano turtle. Lastly, a dragon that I can only describe as a rotting corpse, it may be hard to explain he command the very Effluvium that chokes out the lives of others." "Val Hazak." "You know of it." "I know about every monster. I had a feeling that we would run into a Val Hazak here, after all the rotten vale is the only place that Val Hazak can be found. And another thing, you weren't exactly wrong about his abilities, but it's more accurate to say it has a symbiotic relationship with the bacteria. It allows the Effluvium to feed on dead skin, damaged or rotting tissue, and anything else that could be hazardous to the dragon's health, this can be poisons, tumors, other kinds of infections, and so on. It's not an exaggeration to say there's probably more Effluvium in a Val Hazak's body then there is blood. However in exchange for this, the Val Hazak species has become immune to the negative effects of the effluvium, and are even able to expel great gouts of it in a breath attack, or subsequently absorb it back into it's body by draining it from the very air itself or siphoning it off from other living things with effluvium in their body. The other two kings are called Valstrax and Akantor, Valstrax is undoubtably the fastest creature alive in my world and has been given the nickname "Red Comet." And Akantor, while not an elder dragon, is one of the only wyverns capable of dominating them in battle. Akantor is an apex predator so powerful that it's been given the nickname "The Black God." The only other monster equal to it in power is "The White God." Ukanlos. "Great." Rainbow said sarcastically. "So we're up against a Zombie Dragon, a giant crab, a rocket powered dragon, and a creature so powerful that it's considered a god. Yeah, we're totally not gonna die if we go in there." "There one thing I don't understand." Twilight added. "Why tell us all of this? Why not simply let us go in there and learn these things ourselves?" "I'm merely repaying you for freeing me from Tirek, It would be poor form to go to war with someone I am indebted to." I had to give him one thing, he did have some integrity. Even if it was the integrity of a tyrant. "I have given you my warning and all information pertaining to that hazardous hellscape. It is yours to do with as you will, I take my leave of both you and this retched place. Farewell." With that, Sombra dissolved back in to the darkness from whence he came, and slinked off somewhere else. "Well that's not entirely unexpected." Twilight said in a deadpan tone. "So what now?" "Let me think." I said before thinking through what our best plan could be. Once I had everything down in my head I faced the team began to explain my plan. "Alright, I think our best chance is to try and make the Val Hazak our ally first." "Wait hold on." Rainbow said. "So of all four of them, you want to team up with the zombie dragon first." "Yeah well, that's probably our best option. Akantor are extremely territorial and aggressive, It's a wonder this one even lets other monsters share it's environment. Shen Gaoren and other Carapaceon are creatures of instinct, the most we'll manage to do is get them to stay in their territory until the food runs out, and seeing as how their territory consists of essentially a pair of enormous whales, I'm not exactly worried about that happening any time soon. And as for Valstrax, I doubt he actually has any sway over the flying wyverns since his kind are primarily solitary by nature, at most he's got some good reputation. Val Hazak is frankly our best starting point since if we get him on our side we could have a way to bypass the effluvium entirely." "Can we just wait a moment?" Twilight asked. "Before we head into an extremely dangerous environment, does anyone else have a plan to deal with this." FlutterShy and Rarity raised their hooves in unison. "Ones that don't involve going home." They simply lowered their hooves. "Alright then, if that's our only plan let's see how it works out." I said as I looked out over the land. > Chapter 9. The king of death > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The shells of the insects that littered the ground crunched underneath the massive form of Nergigante as he, Kushala, and Kirin guided Twilight, AppleJack, and RainbowDash towards the coiled carcass of the Dalamader. With Kushala's control of wind being the only thing keeping the effluvium from enveloping them. "So Nergi, what kind of monsters do you think will be here?" Twilight asked as she trotted up beside him. Nergigante thought for a moment and said. "Well, if it's anything like the Rotten Vale in the New World, there's probably going be a number of species specially adapted for surviving there. There's Radobaan, a herbivore brute wyvern which covers itself with bones as a defense mechanism. Girros and Great Girros, fanged wyverns with paralytic venom and a cousin of the Jagras. And last but not least Odogaron, a fanged wyvern which can strike with devastating speed and terrifying savagery, doesn't help that his skin is literally blood red so he can blend in with all this rotten flesh. Other than that we might run into some unique subspecies that live here." "Subspecies?" "Yeah of course. Viper Tobi-Kadatchi, Acidic Glavenus, Ebony Odogaron, frankly I wouldn't be surprised if we ran into monsters that haven't even been cataloged by the Research Commission. This place is just radiating Bio-Energy, that's bound to do something to anything that wanders in here." "Hold on now, does that mean we might turn into crazy monster ponies?" AppleJack asked. "That's not how it works AppleJack." Twilight explained. "A subspecies is created when a species needs to better adapt to a climate or environment foreign to them. Like how a group of Pegasi that got trapped underground for decades created the bat pony race." "Exactly, only normally that process takes a good number of years. But here, in an area rich in Bio-Energy, a subspecies can be created instantaneously. Even if the creature wasn't born here, it can still develop into a subspecies if it grows up and matures in this kind of environment. Bio-Energy itself it a catalyst for change, that's why the New world back home is filled with so many different biomes and creatures, it is literally a place where Elder Dragons go to die and release their energy." "Well... that's certainly off-putting. But still, we're too far in to turn back now." "See, that's why I choose you three to come with me, because you know how to keep your cool in tough spots." "Is that what you think is happening." Twilight said in a nervous voice. "Because I don't exactly feel like I'm quote, 'keeping my cool.' I'm walking through a literal land of the dead, to the mouth of a giant snake where a zombie dragon lives, all the while stepping on the bodies of bug the size of my hoof, and the only thing keeping me from inhaling a fog of airborne flesh eating bacteria is a simple wind current produced by a metallic dragon. I'm quite literally one surprise way from having a panic attack, how can I possibly be keeping my cool?" "Allow me to answer your question with another question. How do you think Rarity, FlutterShy, or PinkiePie would be handling all of this?" Twilight paused for a moment, "Fair Point." "Mhm, that's what I thought. No disrespect to the three of them but when it comes to real serious topics they're not exactly useful. Where as you, AJ, and Rainbow are definitely able to handle more mature situations. Rainbow's gutsy enough to take any challenge, AppleJack's not afraid of getting her hooves dirty, and you have enough mental fortitude to not let your emotions cloud your judgement." "Thank you, I guess. Y'know it's strange, we've only known each other for a couple of weeks and yet it seems you already have a good understanding of our personalities." "What can I say, I'm a good judge of character." "Everyone stop." Kirin shout. "We've been surrounded." "But how?" Rainbow asked. "Nergi would have smelled them coming wouldn't he?" "Actually the only thing I can spell is rotting meat, I can't believe it had slipped my mind till now." "IGNITERS, CLEAR THE EFFLUVIUM." A voice called out from the fog. A series of screeches and grunts could be heard in response to the order. A series of fire balls began to burn up the effluvium in massive droves. When a majority of the fog and dispersed, the group surrounding them could be seen clearly. The group itself was made up of 12 different monsters. Among them was a purple wyvern with a green tail and wings who was missing its left eye. A large two-legged brute entirely covered in tar and bones. A fanged wyvern with the head of a snake and a tail covered in feathers and spikes. And the monster that appeared to be the leader of the group, a theropod-type creature with gray and cyan scales, a pair of horns above its eyes, and a long blade-like tail covered in a sickly yellow rust. "State your business here." The theropod said from on high. "I take it you're the welcoming comity." Nergigante retorted. "Take us to your leader." The other monster growled at this but where silenced when the Theropod slammed the side of its tail down. "You think we do not your kind, Elder Eater? You think we will just let you slay and consume the king of death?" "Please, give me some credit. You really think I'd eat a dragon who's rotting from the inside out? If I wanted food I'd just take a bite out of one of these two. I came here so these ponies could hold a conference with your king to persuade him to join my team." "Your team?" "Yes, my team. A team of Wyverns and Elder Dragons which protect the land of Equestria in exchange for food, shelter, and various other things that make it so we don't have to worry about someone killing you in your sleep. Now are you going to lead us to the king, or are we going to have to find himself?" "You believe you can defeat us? We are 12 monsters who have been tempered by combat even before we came to this land, you are only a mere 3." "Yes, 3 Elder Dragons. And if my eyes aren't playing tricks on me, I'm not seeing any Apex Predators like Deviljho, or Rajang. You may bring at least one or two of us down, but the last one would end up killing the rest of you. And it's not like we're actually trying to pick a fight with you, I was just saying that me and my allies would have to find the king by ourselves. Now why don't we keep things peaceful as can be and go to meet his highness together. Would that be all right?" The Theropod scowled down at Nergigante before grunting, "Very well, but one false move and we will call upon all the hordes of this land." "Fair enough, but one more thing. What's your name big guy?" "I have no name of my own, however my subordinates have taken to calling me Yellowtail." "I take it they call you that because of the Sulfur Oxide on your tail blade?" Twilight asked. "Sulfur what? You mean this yellow rust?" "Most monsters aren't that well-versed in the periodic table." Nergigante whispered. "Noted." As Yellowtail and his soldiers lead the team into the maw of the Dalamader the stench of death seemed to permeate more of the surrounding area while somehow dropping in its intensity, and as they delved deeper into the belly of the beast they could hear the distant grunts, screeches, and howls of the various monsters. Finally they were lead into a massive open space encircled by the coils of the great serpent, empty save for two lone figures. The first appeared to be some kind of statue or tree, however on closer inspection its true grim form was revealed. What stood in the center of the clearing was a long death dragon, its bones showing, what little flesh remaining being calcified, wings outstretched only held up by what remained of its tendons, and growing out of the creatures agape jaw was a giant mushroom reaching up to the sky. The second figure appeared to simply be a mass if rotting meat and bone, complete with various insects and birds pecking at any loose bits of flesh. However when Yellowtail approached the mass of flesh began to move. The vile mass lifted itself up of muscular legs tipped with jagged claws, unfurled its tattered leathery wings, and as the birds and bugs took flight Val Hazak revealed himself in all his grotesque splendor. With a voice that sounded both gravely and stoic he asked, "Why are you here?" "My king, I-" "Not you, them." Twilight cleared her throat, stepped forward and said. "Greetings, I am Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria. These are my friends RainbowDash and AppleJack, along with our guards Kirin, Kushala, and-" "Nergigante the extinction dragon. Him I know well." "I think you mean you know of my kind well." Nergigante corrected. "But of coarse. There is not an Elder alive who does not know of the great devouring race, you mean to say you are different?" "Well considering I haven't tried to take a bite out of you or these two, I'd say I'm plenty different." Val Hazak focus his gaze upon Nergigante for a moment fo before saying, "Yes, your body is strong. But I do not sense the energy of any Elders mixed in with your own." "Um excuse me." Twilight interrupted. "Could you please explain what you mean by that." "It is quite simple princess. When a Nergigante devours the flesh of an elder dragon, he doesn't simply consume the meat to satiate his own hunger. He also absorbs a percentage of the elder's Bio-energy, making it his own and increasing his power. Once he has consumed enough Bio-energy, he begins to develop into a more powerful version of himself, The Great Ruiner, with spines of steel and enough power to rival even the almighty Black Dragons. Now, I think it's time that you answer my questions, why are you here?" "We have come to ask that to become an ally of Equestria. In exchange we will aid you in any aspect that you desire, from giving you assistance in battle to suppling aid to your people in troubled times." "My people are resilient, able to weather any famine, drought, or plague. And as for the strength of my guards, you have only see my allied scout troop. Allow me to show you my four Royal Commanders." Val Hazak let out a roar, setting of a cacophony of roars and shrieks from all around the clearing until four figures jumped down from above. Cause the team to step back, even Nergigante. The first of the monsters was a hound-like Fanged Wyvern with black scales on its face, grey scales on its upper body, and red scales on its lower body ending in a bone covered tail with blue embers sparking from the bone shards. This same blue energy flowed throughout the creatures body, with its breath also having the blue embers sparking from it. The second was a Theropod Brute Wyvern with green and purple scales which almost seemed to act as plates. It had a large club-like shell on both its arms along with on in the middle of its forehead, and its tail had a club at the end which seemed to be in the shape of a mace. Lastly, there was the sickly gray mold which appeared to be growing all across the creature's body. The Third appeared to be a great Leviathan Wyvern with neon blue scales, a crested head, and a number of crystalline bones in the center of its back. It was covered in liquid which was burning the actual floor of the clearing, and green sparks of electricity sparked along its back. Lastly, there was the ape. It appeared to be a fat gorilla with the face of a hippo, brown and green fur, a red mohawk, and a tail similar to that of a lion or baboon. However the most defining quality of the ape, was the smell. The stench of death that was only slightly noticeable at this point, was replaced by the most vile, tear-jerking, stomach turning, repugnant stench that the group had ever smelled in their entire life. "I take it these are some of them sub-species' you were talking' 'bout." AppleJack said. "You have no idea, AJ." Nergigante said with a nervous smile. "These things aren't just any normal subspecies', they're full-blown Deviants." "Deviants?" Twilight asked. "Monsters that have gone through such an extreme and traumatic event, that their bodies have been gone through an equally drastic change, making them far stronger than than any normal subspecies." "Precisely." Val Hazak said. "These four are the ones most effected by the extremes of this land. Allow me to introduce my guard. Odogaron of the azure flame, Brachydios of the effluvial mold, Lagiacrus of the acid lake, and Congalala of the decaying bowels. It's worth noting that the Kings of fire, the swarm, and the sky also have a squad of 4 deviant monster who serve them. Together they are known as the 12 Deva's, an order founded by my father, the first king of these lands." "Wait, so your father was the first king of the Rotten Vale?" Twilight asked? "Yes and no. My father was the one who ruled this land before the territory was divided up between the current 4 kings, but this place is a far cry from the Rotten Vale in the new world, that land is ruled by nothing, be it man or monster." "Well then how did this place come to be, and how did your father become king?" Val Hazak chuckled. "Hehe, I was wondering when you'd ask that. Very well then, I shall start from the beginning." > Chapter 10. Chronicles of the first king. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Long ago, there was a world of only light. A timeless land of eternity with a sun that burned in the sky without either beginning or end. This world was of light was inhabited by men, beasts, and the five great dragons that had created everything they could comprehend. Because this land was without time, nothing was ever lost while nothing was ever gained either, this was both the blessing and the curse of eternity. The Dragons knew the nature of the world, for it was of their design. However they did not share the secret, saying that to do so would be to unveil knowledge that their creations would not be ready for. The beasts chose to not question the dragons, for they were ever faithful to their creators. However, the men were curious, impatient, and prideful, and in their arrogance they went to the dragons, saying that they were dissatisfied with the eternal nothingness of the world, and asked the dragons to explain why the world was the way it was. The dragons opened with mouths as if to answer, but from their maws poured water, wind, and clouds instead of words. It rushed out in streams to create the Skys and the oceans, and the dragons swam away. The dragons swam to the center of the ocean, and there they began to transform into an island. The first Dragon sank into the sea and became the land. The second lifted its gaze to the sky and became the mountains. The Third stooped low to become the lakes, and scattered its scales into the clouds to make the rains. The Forth fell into a deep sleep to become the forests. And the last dragon climbed into the sky and swallowed the sun, to create a star of sapphire blue which now shown brightly above the island. The men could not understand why the dragons had left or why they had transformed, and even though they wished to gain the answers they sought they were too afraid to cross the unknown seas. While the beasts simply waited and hoped that their masters would return. Eventually, a lone youth with pointed ears decided to travel to the island to seek the answers from the dragons themselves. The men looked at the boy and scoffed, jealously saying that he would simply be swept away by the seas. But the boy care, he merely dawned a simple cloak, climbed in a simple boat, and cast off alone into the seas. At last, guided by the Sapphire Star, he reached the island of the five. Some time passed before the boy returned. When he did, those who previously called him a fool and jealously mocked him were now singing his praises and asking him, "Did you speak with the dragons?" "Yes. I did." The boy replied. "Then tell us, why did they create the island?" The youth did not answer, instead he pulled out five dragon scales which he used to create his own land, mountains, lakes, rain, and forests. The land eclipsed the white world, and with the scale which the boy had broken in two, he created the moon and a new sun so that the sapphire star which guided him during his voyage would not shine alone in the sky. As the light from the sun and moon grew, day and night were born. As the Mountains, Lakes, and forests breathed together, the four seasons were born. As the Moon shined it light on the ocean, the tides were born. And as all these things began to breath in harmony, time itself was born, which created life and death. The men thanked the boy for giving them life, but also scorned him for giving them death. The boy then turned towards the beasts and said that for their faith in their masters, the were to be blessed with the powers of the dragons. And so the boy took out a bag of dust and blew it onto the beasts, changing them into dragons. The boy then pointed to the island and said, "When you feel that your death is approaching, cross the seas and go to your master, and they will welcome you with open arms." In the millennia that passed, the children of the youth would go on to become the Wyverians, the dragons would go to the island where their ancient masters are waiting for them, and the men bitterly chose to forget the true events of what happened, instead saying that it was them who created the mountains, lakes, and forests, and yet even though they have forgotten the truth, they still cannot purge the island's memory from their hearts, or blind themselves from the light of the light of the Sapphire Star. However, even though the have not forgotten the sacred island, they have also not forgotten their primal flaws. Curiosity, Dissatisfaction, and Arrogance. They believed themselves to be exempt from the laws of the world, and so they created a massive empire during the first age of man. The empire's monarchs are the Wyverians, however they are merely figureheads, the true rulers and masterminds of this great kingdom are the humans. They grew their empire by stripping the great land of its resources and leaving only wasteland and desert in their wake, deserts that now cover nearly a quarter of the great continent. With the wood and stone ripped from the land massive temples and monoliths are constructed, the Wyverians are gifted with gold, silver, platinum and countless kinds of jewels, while ores such as Iron and Dragonite are used to create new tools and weapons used to further subjugate the land, and even the dragons blessed with the power of the original five. The Dragons are made into slaves to further power the empire, and slain to be eaten like cattle to further man's gluttonous life style, with their hide and bones used to grant new power to the weapons they construct. However, the final injustice was the creation of the five abominations known as "The Equal Dragon Weapons." Towering Behemoths made from the bodies of countless Dragons, and given life by the science of man's disturbed mind. These abominations of nature, mockeries of the original five, were completely under the control of man and where used to subjugate the whole of the world's wilds, save for but just one lone creature. A noble stallion with a crystalline horn, who could run with the clouds and ride on the wind. The Stallion crossed the ocean in search of any dragons who had not yet passed away, those who he found were of the oldest and monster powerful generation. These Elder Dragons were applauded and enraged by the acts of mankind, and so against their own nature they crossed back over to the mainland and began the war against man kind. Starting at the coast, they circled the continent and destroyed all hopes of escaping judgement. They liberated the dragons from all across the land before marching on the capitol. There the empire unleashed their "Equal Dragon Weapons" and laid siege to the invading armies. However from the depths of despair one dragon rose up and devoured the abominations one piece at a time, taking their power for his own and laying waste to the remaining forces of the army. With their guardians defeated the humans surrendered, finally humbled by the loss of their great empire. The Dragons, though resentful, chose to let humanity live with the defeat at the hands of those they once thought lesser. However one dragon, once the most noble and gentle of his kind could not forgive humanity of its sins. With his body and soul turned black, he vowed that his bloodline would cause as much death and destruction to the humans as they did to his kind and the land. The dragon who had devoured the five weapons asked him to reconsider, but the black dragon merely said this. "I hear your words my brother but care not for them. I will not blame you for judging me, but know if you seek to stop me then you too shall become my enemy." And so the two dragons parted ways, each having three children of their own. The first child of the black dragon, inherited his father's hatred and cruelty towards the humans, and all who supported them. The second, inherited the burning heat of his fathers will. The third, inherited his father's nobility, and mastery of all elements. The children of the devourer, who had since travel to the island of the five, also inherited traits from their progenitor. The first child inherited his father's curse, the hunger for the flesh of other dragons the the devourer had gained by consuming the abominations. The second inherited yet another curse, the overwhelming size of the abominations, which would soon come to dwarf that of all other dragons. However child, inherited the compassion of his father, and thus was chosen to become the guardians of the island of the five, tasked with ensuring the elder dragons passed peacefully into the embrace of their creators. However, there was a forth child brewing within the devourer, one who's spirit was made up of the pain, anguish, and hate of all the dragons used to create the Equal Dragon Weapons, one who would grow to become even more powerful than even the original five. And so, fearing for the newly establish peace of the world, the devourer chose to purge all the power and Bio-Energy from his body, creating a massive mountain of crystals which would serve as his grave. Yet another Millenia passed, until finally humans began traveling the island of the five, which they now called "The New World." They came, not to destroy but to learn, to study this paradise untainted by corruption. The guardians of the island which they named the "Val Hazak" chose to allow them to study their land so long as they did not repeat their bad habits. One day, a severe storm began to swirl of the coast of the New World, one of the oldest of the Val Hazak flew out to meet with the five oldest Elder Dragons who had preceded the rest, and guide them to the shores of the island. Suddenly a massive portal opened at the bottom of the sea, swallowing up the Elders and Val Hazak, stranding them it a wasteland. The Elders despair, thinking that their master had abandoned them. But Val Hazak knew different, he saw this as an opportunity and declared that the Elders were chosen to create a new land from nothing, just as the five had created their island from nothing. And so It was that the elders passed away, and a new land was created. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Present Day Equestria ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "That was around 40 or 50 years ago." Val Hazak continued. "Ever since my Father and the five other Elders Landed in this world, monsters have been appearing here from all over the new and old worlds like Valstrax, Akantor, Shen Gaoren, and my mother the Black-veiled Queen." "Black-veiled?" Twilight said in a confused tone. "It's a subspecies of Val Hazak." Nergigante explained. "Although, it's really more like the next step in the species' lifespan. When a Val Hazak absorbed enough effluvium into their body, and that layer of dead flesh they wear begins to decay, they become a host to the same kind of fungal effluvium covering the Brachydios, only to a much more rapid extent. And when a Val Hazak finally dies they funnel all their Bio-energy into the Effluvium instead of the environment, creating-." "The grand fungus." Val Hazak said. "The precursor to the giant coral which make up the highlands high above the rotten vale back in the new world. The one my father spawn is merely in its infancy, having only been created five years ago, but in time it and the ones my mother, myself, and my our descendants will create will cover the whole of this land of death and give way to a knew land." "Wait, five years ago. That was back when Nightmare Moon first appeared." Rainbow said. "If I may as, where is the queen now?" Nergigante asked. "She has made her home within the body of the Loa-Shang-Lung. Although in truth she could be anywhere. My father decree that once one of my kind reaches the Black-veiled state, they are able travel freely across the land in order to greatly spread the growth of the grand fungi, so she could have traveled somewhere else." "Alright well, I don't really want to go on a wild goose chase, so how 'bout we both join forces and you can extend the offer to mommy dearest for me, that sound good?" "You assume much Elder Eater. Important topics such as this require council with true rulers." "Yeah, exactly. Why do you think I brought Twilight with me, she's one of the rulers of Equestria." "Precisely, she is but One of the rulers, just as I am but one of the four kings of this land. In order for negotiations to take place between Equestria and this land all active rulers must have a say in the matter. We can arrange a proper peace conference to be held on neutral ground at a later date, however it might take some time to convince the king of fire and the king of the swarm to even agree to leave their territories." "Thank you for being so understanding, and I'm sure the other princesses and Queen Chrysalis will agree to these talks quite easily." Twilight said reaching into her saddlebag and retrieving a small scroll along with a quill and ink vial. "Here, when you've gathered up all the rulers of this kingdom you can write me a letter in this scroll." Val Hazak took the items in his claws and asked, "How will I send it back to you?" "It's a teleportation scroll, all you need to do is write the name of the person you want to send it to, then burn it in order for the spell to take effect. It's super easy, I used to use them to keep in contact with princess Celestia back before I was a princess." "The, spell?" "It's a way of using magic." Nergigante said. "An energy similar to the Bio-Energy we Elder Dragons possess. Only these ponies can use their energy in a far more versatile ways. Like this for example." Nergigante pressed his hands together transforming back into his Nergi form. "This spell essentially lets me transform into a smaller and weaker version of myself." "I see, most impressive Elder Eater. Very well then, once I have convinced the other rulers of this land to attend, we shall meet on the border between our and your Kingdom of Equestria." "Thank you king Val Hazak, and if it's not too informal, may I call you Val." "I don't see why not, it will make addressing me in conversation easier. Now then, if there's nothing more to discuss I shall have Yellowtail escort you to the edge of my territory." As the team was lead out by their guide Twilight trotted up beside Nergi to speak with him. "I think that went good, don't you." "Sure, better than I expected actually. I expected them to have a biased against joining us, but I think that the whole thing went well. And we got some information out of it to." "You mean that stuff about that portal?" "Exactly, I knew that monsters had been appearing here since before I arrived here myself. But I didn't expect them to be showing up in the same place for 50 year, though it does explain how Starlight got her hand on that Fatalis staff." "My thoughts exactly, a magical Item like that takes a lot of time and effort to craft. Well, whatever the case, it seems like coming here was worth it after all." "There's one thing I don't understand though. This place has been here for 50 years, how has no-one in Equestria known about it till now?" "Well this region's been notoriously barren since the war between Equestria and the crystal empire years ago. Back then Sombra was draining the magic from neighboring lands to push back the eternal winter since he couldn't rely on the power of the crystal heart any more. This left the land dead and infertile so no pony ever bothered coming here any more, in fact the only reason we found this place was because we were tracking down Sombra. He had been seen in this area after the battle with Tirek, and when the WonderBolts were scouting here the found this place." "I see, so in fleeing from the land of his enemies he found new life in a land he had killed decades ago. Y'know this whole situation is kinda poetic if you leave out all the corpses." "I suppose it is." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile In a distant universe ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A lone man sat in the middle of the woods, his silver hair shimmering in the moonlight. He had destroyed all the totems he found to lure out the spirit he was hunting, however these woods were ancient and untamed, stretching for miles across the horizon. The man heard something approaching from behind him, it was far too big to be his quarry but that didn't matter to him, he would just have to ask for additional pay. As the man stood up he took hold of the silver sword hanging on his back and turned to face his opponent but was surprised by what he saw. Stepping into view was a large muscular centaur wrapped in a brown robe, with red skin and a pair of horns that made him look more like a sylvan. "So you're Geralt of Rivia." The Centaur said "The famed white wolf who slew the king of the wild hunt elves, along with countless other men and monsters." "You seem to know a lot about me, but who are you and why are you here. I've never seen a Centaur before, and certainly never heard of one coming to this side of Korath desert." "I am Tirek, and I am not of this world, as hard as it is for you to believe." "It's not as hard as you might think actually, I have a bad habit of getting sucked into portals." "Quite, as for why I'm here I think it should be obvious, to do battle with you." "Look, I'm kinda in the middle of something and I don't have time to fight some show-boating Centaur so could we maybe do this some other time." "I'm sorry but I'd prefer we cut right to the chase." Tirek said as he charged and Geralt who easily rolled out of the way, dodging the hooves and upper cut the Centaur threw before casting his Igni spell. Tirek simple braced his body against the fire attack before reaching out and grabbing Geralt by the wrist. Geralt was stunned not just by the Centaur's strength, but also the sensation he felt radiating across his body. It felt as if someone had cast the Axii and Yrden spells on him, making his mind hazy and body heavy and weak. "Wha- what is this?" "Contact based telepathy, I call it Mind Leeching. It's a useful ability I picked up in another world, one far more desolate that you or I could imagine. A world destroyed by war, where even the air is poisonous, and where humans are forced to take refuse in the under tunnels they call the Metro. Where as the surface is ruled by mutants, vicious hounds that can rip meat apart in seconds, winged beasts that resemble demons and are called as such, and at the pinochle of this tainted world's food chain were a race of beings simply called the Dark Ones. The same race I got this power from, It's a shame I only managed to absorb the power of two of them before the rest were wiped out by the humans in a misguided attempt to preserve themselves, and what's funny about this, is that the one responsible for destroying them was the one they expected to bridge the gap between their two races. Now then, let's see what you have to offer." Tirek looked inside Geralt's mind for a moment before his smug grin turned to a scowl. "Tch, what a disappointment. After all the hype I expected you to be more powerful than this. Your spells are versatile but your overall proficiency with magic is that of a child. Your mutations give you greater stamina, agility, and endurance, but not anything I can't get from any wild animal, and the one note worthy thing about you is your connection to Cirilla, the lady of space and time. At least she has powers worth absorbing but it's nearly impossible to track her down, and as for you, you're free to go. Tirek let go of Geralt's hand and let him drop to the ground. "Absorbing your power wouldn't give me anything I don't already have. As an apology for wasting both of our time, I'll handle killing thing for you." Geralt looked up from the ground to see that his target had come to him, an Ancient Leshen that had been stalking the Northern frontier of Poviss for generations now. The Witcher turned to Tirek who was simply looking up at the night sky intently, before suddenly cracking a smile and saying, "That one should do." Tirek turned to him and said, "You'd better start running Witcher, unless you want to be caught in the blast." "Blast, what blast?" Tirek merely raised his had which was now rippling with magical energy before shouting, "COME TO ME, METEOR." As Tirek fired the energy into the air a bright red light began to glow in the sky, starting as a small speck at first but slowly growing in size and intensity. As it grew closer clouds began to appear as the heat in the area began to grow, and as they began to blot out the sky, Geralt realized the severity of the situation and began sprinting away from the clearing at top speed. The Leshen had a different idea, choosing to instead attack the caster of the spell. It charged at Tirek and planted its claw in Tirek's stomach, to little effect. "Hehehe, that might have worked before. But unfortunately for you, I've been working on my abs." The Leshen tried to pull its arm out of Tirek but was met by resistance. "I don't think so you nature freak, you made your choice. I would say you have to live with it, but you and I both know that's not happening. After all we're in the middle of the blast zone." As the building sized meteor broke through the cloud cover both Tirek and the Leshen where engulfed in flames. Geralt slid behind a boulder as it slayed into the ground and caused a massive explosion. When the shaking had finally stop and the dust had cleared, Geralt looked back at the impact size seeing a crater in the earth. And in the center was Tirek holding the eviscerated leshen, its lower half completely gone, its antlers broken, its bones broken and splinter, the moss on its body simply incinerated, and yet it still clung to life reaching out its broken claw to grab Tirek's neck. "Well, well, well, you Are resilient. Perhaps coming to this world won't be a total loss after all." Tirek tightened his grip on the Leshen, and opened his mouth to absorb the magic from its body and as he did he siphoned off what little life force the beast had left. "My, I didn't expect to kill it by absorbing its magic. No matter, I drained enough to be able to copy its powers, so the rest of it is quite literally dead weight. I suppose my debt to the Witcher is paid, time to move on to the next." Tirek charged magic through both of his hands and created a crackling portal. "Why not stay?" The voice in Tirek's chest asked. "Why not simply devour all the magic in this world?" "That's not how the spell works, I can only stay in a different world for a set period of time before being transported back to Equestria. That is how the spells creator, Skywarp the planewalker, designed it. I was fortunate enough to find this loophole by chance, and I'd rather not return to Equestria until I'm absolutely certain I can defeat the princesses, and that dragon." > Chapter 11. Ice-Ice-Baby > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "This is total bull-crap." I said to Twilight as I watched the horizon pass by. "I mean we get back from that hellscape of a Rotten Vale, and just when I finish washing the stink off we get sent off to the crystal empire." "Oh come on Nergi, it's not that bad." Twilight said. "I mean why are you even complaining about going somewhere you've never even been to." "It's cold there, I hate the cold." "How do you know it's cold?" "You said it was in the north right. And seeing as how we're not in a jungle or desert, north usually means we're getting closer to whatever passes for the arctic circle in this world. And since that place is commonly the coldest place on any planet, its a fair assessment to say that the closer we get to there the colder the general atmosphere is going to be. I mean It's basic logic." "Okay smarty-scales, you make a fair point. But, counterpoint, the actual city of the crystal empire is just as warm as Ponyville thanks to the magic of the crystal heart." "So it's basically and Arctic oasis, only instead of being produced by underground magma it's kept habitable by the 'magical warmth of lo-o-ove.'" I made sure to put extra sarcastic emphasis in the world love. "That's a fair assessment, yes. Anyway why so sassy all of a sudden?" "Like I said I hate the cold. I mean can you blame me I'm a reptile, I'm cold blooded, and unlike any of the other dragons here I don't have the benefit of having fire breath, fur, or anything else to keep me from getting a metaphorical and or literal icicle up my ass, so forgive me if I'm just the tiniest bit unsociable." "Alright well, try not to be this way when we get to the crystal palace, I'd rather not have tension's flare up." "Because of the Changelings?" "Yeah, I mean I know that the crystal ponies weren't there for the changeling invasion of Canterlot, but they're still majorly behind the times in terms of-" She took a moment before continuing, "Racial acceptance." "Really." Finally, I was learning something new about the world. "I would think that a society that revolves around friendship would be more open-minded to the concept of different races." "Yeah I mean, Ponies have always valued friendship and cooperation, and now-a-days we're willing to give anypony the benefit of the doubt, but it wasn't always like that. You see the main reason ponies were so suspicious in those days was because they each had a single herd mentality, and that the world was only big enough for one specific herd since before Equestria was founded we all had to live in the mountains, and it was hard enough to grow food there without some other tribe taking up the land that could be used for yours. Even after Equestria was settled it was hard to shake off that mentality, Earth ponies were suspicious of Unicorns, who were suspicious of Pegasi, who were suspicious of Earth Ponies, and it eventually lead to single race cities like Canterlot and Cloudsdale being built, and we wouldn't even talk to other races like the Changeling, Minotaurs, Griffons. We really only started breaking past our barriers when the Royal Sisters rose to power. That's probably why the other ponies where so accepting of the different monsters from your world." "I guess that makes sense." I said before standing up. "I'm gonna take a little walk around the car, stretch my legs a bit." "Alright, just make sure to sit down before the train stops, or else you'll be knocked to the floor." "Yeah, yeah, I got it. You don't need to keep reminding me, it only happened that one time at Starlight's village." I got up from my seat and walked out to the isle and down towards the Cabin which held my teammates, the first car I passed was the one that held the four other Elder Dragons of my team. The next one held, Rainbow, Pinkie Pie, FlutterShy, and Dio who took up a whole seat on his own. After that there was the cabin with Ana, Rarity, AppleJack and Spike, and finally the cabin that held Jagger and a team of four Jagras which he had brought along, as well as the Kulu-yaku and Tzitzi-yaku who had been named Flash and Yolk-beak. I knocked on the door and stepped inside saying, "Hey, you guys having a good ride?" "Oh, yeah, just peachy." Flash said Sarcastically. "Why are we even riding this thing? I'm sure that we could get to this 'Crystal Kingdom' place just by going there on foot. "I mean, we could. But I would prefer not to get frostbite and lose all of my toes on the way there. Not to mention we'll get there in an hour or two, opposed to a day in a half." "Still though, I don't see why we all need to go there. I mean, shouldn't at least one of us stayed back at the base to keep it safe, we are supposed to be guards after all." "True, but we're still to small a force. Better to have all of us go somewhere instead of either having too few of us on the mission or too few of us guarding the base. When we get to have around 20 members, we'll start dividing up our forces. Till then, we go wherever Twilight and the others need us to go." "Yeah, yeah, we get it you take your job very seriously." Jagger said in a bored tone. "Will there be any food when we get to this place?" "And will there be Eggs?" Yolk-beak added. "Yes, and Yes, so just be patient." As I step out of the cabin, I think of how things have changed. Not just in terms of my personal life, but also in the main timeline of the MLP series. Not only have a couple things changed in the timeline, like where Sombra and Chrysalis have reappeared before the Grogar storyline, but now I've found out that there have been monsters from the Monster Hunter Universe appearing in this world for nearly half a century. It seems like the more time I spend in this world, the more changes I discover along the ways. I initially came to this world with a good understanding of the timeline, and that's allowed me to stay ahead of any plot points that could prove to be troublesome, but now with so many deviations taking place I'm starting to wonder what other changes might happen. I know for sure that there won't be that second changeling invasion happening, so Starlight won't be getting that bit of character development. But come to think of it, what if Starlight isn't reformed at all, what if Cozy Glow and Grogar don't appear in the story, and what's going to happen with Tirek and Sombra now that they're off in God-Knows-Where doing their own thing. And that's not even considering how other monsters running around might influence the timeline, I already know that Fatalis is somewhere out there since they gave Starlight the staff that removed me from my body, what else are they doing out there? All these questions plague my mind as I walk back to mine and Twilight's cabin, and as I take my seat I start to think of what to do about these potential changes, giving myself a headache as I do so. "You okay?" Twilight asked. "Hm, oh yeah. I'm just thinking about what other kinds of Monsters are out there, and what kind of trouble they might cause. I mean, Leo and Leona nearly burned down Ponyville, Dio, Kirin and I got mind controlled by a pony who was given a Staff from Fatalis, who we having even seen yet, and then there's the whole thing with the Rotten Vale." I let out a sigh and say. "I'm just worried that something might happen that I'm not prepared for, and a lot of people might get hurt because I wasn't ready." Twilight got up from her seat and draped a wing around me saying. "It's alright, I get it. You're a leader, and that comes with a lot of responsibility. When I first became a princess, I wasn't sure what to do either. But, then I figured out that all I had to do was exactly what I was doing already, solving problems as they came and doing my best while relying on my friends to help me out. So trust me, whatever comes our way, we'll be ready." I was still concerned but smiled and nodded in agreement. Twilight was right, even if the timeline did change I could adapt and face the challenges ahead along with my teammates. After all, this the world of My Little Pony, just about every problem can be solved with friendship here. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30 Minutes Later, 3rd Person POV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As the train pulled into the station the various monsters rush to get out of the cold and into the warmth of the city, where Shining Armor and Chrysalis are waiting for them. Twilight runs up to her brother and gives him a hug saying, "It's great to see you again Shining." She looks to Chrysalis and makes herself more proper before saying. "Chrysalis." "Princess." After a few awkward seconds Twilight turns back to her brother and asks. "Sooo, where's Cadence?" "She couldn't come, she had a little bit of morning sickness and said that me and Chrysalis could meet you here by ourselves, she said it would be good if me and her worked together." "Morning sickness?" She said in slight confusion until the gears click in her head and she lets out a little gasp, before letting out a long high-pitched, "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE." "AH GODDAMNIT MY EARS." Nergi shouted gripping is head while the rest of the team were writhing on the ground gripping their own skulls. "Sweet boiling hell Twilight, you trying to break glass with those pipes." "Right, sorry, I'm just so excited. I'm going to be an Aunt." She then let out another gasp and turned towards her brother. "And you, you're going to be a daddy, I'm so happy for you." "I'm happy too, and proud. Which is why I want to keep my family safe." "Which leads us to why we called you and these Dragons here." Chrysalis added. "There have been sightings of monsters in the frozen wasteland outside the city limits, as well as in the subterranean catacombs underneath the city." "Any distinguishing features?" Nergi asked. "Well, there's actually a couple of them." Shining began. "One of the Dragons out in the tundra has the same body type as Kushala, and it seems to have similar powers. Another is a kind of flying dragon which also has the same kind of abilities." "As for the catacombs, only one kind of beast has been seen coming in and out of the tunnels." Chrysalis said. "Although none of my changelings or the crystal ponies have gotten a clear look at it, it seems to have quite a fair amount of speed." "Alright then, I have a fair idea about how we should pair up to deal with these guys." Nergi said. "Kushala, Leo, Leona, and a couple of the elements bearers can go out to deal with the monsters out in the tundra. Meanwhile Kirin, Flash, The Jag Pack, Twilight, Shining Armor, and Chrysalis can go down and deal with this mystery monster. As for Me, Ana, and Dio we'll guard Cadence to keep her company." "Wait, you're not going to help out?" Twilight asked. "I already said I hate the cold, I'm not gonna go fight monsters with ice powers out in a frozen wasteland." "Same." Ana said. "Yeah I'm a desert wyvern, we don't really do well in the cold." Dio added. "Alright you could still go underground with us." Twilight noted. "Yeah that's not a good idea either. We don't know how strong the monster down there is, and if we need to transform the three of us could cause the tunnel to collapse, from either my strength or the sheer size from these two. Besides, isn't it in your best interest to keep your strongest fighters behind to guard someone who needs the most protection." "He does have a point." Shining Armor said. "Alright you three, Cadence is in your hands. As for the rest of you, the latest sightings for the two ice monsters put then north west of the city. Best of luck to all of you." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crystal Empire Outskirts ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As the group strode through the snow, they began to talk amongst themselves. "Hey Kushala, got any Idea of what we're going up against?" Rainbow asked. "About as much as you. All we know is that one of them has a similar body and power set as me, and even though the does narrow it down, it's not my much. Wind Manipulation is a pretty basic ability for Elder Dragons, the only reason my kind is known for it is because we have the greatest proficiency with it, even these two are able to use it to spread around their explosive dust." He said motioning to Leo and Leona. "Yeah, making tornados and moving clouds is pretty simple for Pegasi too." "That may be, but true mastery of the power is rare in Elder Dragons. Which narrows down our options to a couple of different types. That said, a number of them are pretty powerful, so we might be going up against either Altreon who is the only type of Elder Dragon that can control all elements, or one of the three types of Fatalis, who you already know about." "Yeesh, any chance it's not one of those two?" "Well it could be a different type of Elder Dragon. But like I said Elder Dragons with wind mastery are rare and the only one who's confirmed to be here is Fatalis." "Fine, then what about that Flying Dragon?" "Well "Flying Dragon" doesn't really give us much to go on since Twilight's brother didn't really give us much to go on, I mean we don't even know if its an actual Flying Wyvern, or a Bird wyvern that can fly. That said I have narrowed it down to a couple. There's the Chramine, Barioth, Gigginox, basically any one of their subspecies'. "And how dangerous are those?" "Well I our world, they're pretty easy to fight. But in yours, well." "What?" "Well, the creatures from our world which are the most similar to you ponies are the Kelbi, and those monsters can literally rip kelbi apart like they're wet paper, or simply swallow them alive, or possibly both." "Well then, good thing we've got you guys here." As the wind and snow picked up, a strange song began to echo across the frozen tundra. "Looks like they're here. Stay close to me." As the wind grew in intensity a pair of talons slashed at Kushala's back. The Steel Dragon fired a blast of wind to where he thought the monster was, but only served to disrupt the air current. He fired three more shots into the blizzard to no avail, Leo and Leona both erupted fire breath into the sky and were blasted with a focused current of icy wind which froze their manes in place and formed ice crystals across their bodies. "Damn. We're not getting anywhere like this." Leona said "Right, I think it's time we use that." Leo said. "Kushala, cover the ponies with your wings." "Wait what are you-?" "JUST DO IT." Kushala quickly lowered his body to the ground and pulled the mares to his body along with a good amount of powdery snow. The pair of Leonine dragons leaped away from each other before taking flight and beginning to release orange and blue glowing dust. As if anticipating what the pair were attempting to do, the body of an Elder Dragon slammed into Leo from the left side, knocking him to the ground, while another figure attempted to slash at Leona's back but was battered away by her tail. As Leo took flight again, the dragon tried to knock him to the ground again, but was blasted by a gout of explosive dust by its target. As the pair released their dust the begin to approach each other, and began to circle their partner, starting in a simple spiral motion, then in a three dimensional dance not unlike that of birds of prey. As their dance increased in speed their bodies began to glow with the dust they released, and as their glow grew to be as bright as the sun, the dust ignited, creating a massive explosion of heat and fire as they shouted in unison. "Harmonic Supernova" As the heat and flames died down Kushala raised his head to see what had happened and saw Leona pinning down a wyvern with Dark Blue and tan patterns across its body, while Leo was trying to stay on top of an Elder Dragon with steel gray scales and shards of ice across its body. "Kushala, Come help me with this, and watch out for the tail, this thing just tried to stab me with it." "Do what you will with me you brute, but release my Legiana." The dragon snapped. "Shouldn't you be concerned about your own safety?" Kushala asked. "I am the reason the Legiana was brought to this world, she was lured here by my song and separated from her flock. I've been helping her to survive since we landed in this icy land. She doesn't deserve to die simply because you wish to destroy us." "Would you calm down." Leo said. "No-one's gonna kill you or her, we're just gonna take you somewhere to speak with our boss. They'll be the one's to decide if we kill you or not." "And If I refuse to comply?" "Then I'll simply have my beloved crush that Wyvern's spine beneath her paws." "That's not your call to make Leo." Kushala said. "And why not. Far as I can tell we've got the majority in this decision. It's two to one." "Make that two to six." Rainbow said. "And I say we wait for Twilight and Nergi to get back." "Listen little one, you may be good diplomats with all your "Friendship" and "Harmony." But in our world it's the strong who make the rules, the strong who enforce them, And the weak who either obey the strong or get crushed under foot." "But you're forgetting Leo, this isn't our world it's theirs. Nergigante understands that well enough, so unless you want a problem with him, you'd better not have a problem with us." Leo let out a deep growl, but Kushala stood steadfast. Seeing his attempt to intimidate the steel dragon failed, he relented. "Fine, we'll do this your way. But next time, if things go bad because your empathy, don't expect me to help clean up your mess." He released the dragon from his claws and turn back the way they came, motioning Leona to follow him. The Dragon got to her feet and began tending to the Legiana. "Sorry about him, you know how fire breathers can be." Kushala said, "What's your name." "I am Velkanna, thank you for reasoning with the Teostra, Kushala Daora." "Just call me Kushala." "Hm." Velkanna fell silent for a moment before speaking up again. "You mentioned that your leader was a Nergigante, but how can that be? Nergigante are known for Devouring Elder Dragons such as us." "It is a curious thing isn't it. Even though he has all the strength and power as those of his breed, he is surprisingly tranquil. He does not smell of blood, nor does he exude the same aura of bloodlust. Put simply, he is a being who has over come his own nature." "Just like the humans?" "Yes, he claims he was raised by them, but I find that hard to believe. Some of the other feel that way about him as well, but none of us are willing to confront him about it for... Obvious reasons. But I can assure you that he is a trustworthy leader." "We shall see." > Chapter 12. The Labyrinth > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As the tunnel loomed in front of them, Twilight and the others prepared themselves to venture down to find the monster that was lurking its depths. Yet one question permeated their minds. "So, who's going first?" Flash asked turning all eyes to him. "I mean, if you're volunteering." Twilight said. "I'm not volunteering, all I asked was who's going first, how is that volunteering?" "Well you have the power to emit light from those flaps on your head." Shining Armor said. "Yeah, but I can only do them in short bursts, not exactly that reliable for lighting the way through underground tunnels. Why can't Jagger send in his pack to scout the place out first?" "A. I only brought four of my boys along for support. B. even if I did bring more we don't know how many paths those tunnels branch off into. And C. we don't know what's down there, it could be a Nakarkos for all we know. I'm not sending my boys down there alone, why not have one of the ponies lead the way, after they've got those magic horns don't they?" "Well obviously it's because we're royalty." Chrysalis said. "Wait so that just exempts us from danger?" Twilight asked. "Well when your in charge of an entire city and or race, I would imagine it would be a bad idea to throw yourself into danger at the drop of a hat. Not that you'd know anything about it." "And what's that supposed to mean?" "Exactly what you think it means Sparkle, you aren't qualified to rule a kingdom because you haven't needed to make any hard decisions." "Yes I have. Remember when I gave up my magic to Tirek to free my friends, and you. That was one of the hardest decisions I had ever made, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't look down on me after I saved you." Chrysalis was surprised by Twilights retort, and simply sighed in defeat. "Fine, so what don't you try and figure out how we should proceed." "Alright just give me a moment." Twilight closed her eyes and raised a hoof to her lip, holding it there while she thought. "I've got it. Alright I'll go in first and light the way with magic, Jagger and Flash will follow behind me, while Shining, Chrysalis and the four Jagras will follow behind them. Is that alright with everyone?" S- "Sure, Twilight." C- "It's not like we have any other Ideas." F- "As long as I'm not the one leading the way I'm fine with it." J- "Same goes for me and my boys." "Then it's decided, let's go gang." As the group ventured down the path began to grow worn and broken with the well maintained stone of the entrance being replaced with cracked bricks and uneven cobblestone. Before long they came to a massive underground chamber with numerous pathways and bridges connecting the various levels of the ruins together. As Twilight stepped out of the tunnel a chilling wind blew and causes her to stop in her tracks. "Brrrrh, What was that? Aren't we supposed to be underground." "It's possible that some of these tunnels lead outside of the city itself." Chrysalis said. "The frozen tundra has a way of finding its way into warm places not protected by the crystal heart's power." "What is this place?" Flash asked. "Well from what we learned from the crystal ponies It used to be Sombra's main weapon forge." Shining said. "Apparently he had a dragon melt all the raw ore his slaves mined out into molten slag, then bathe in it to help shed its scales." "How does a dragon taking a bath in liquid metal help make weapons? I mean, I know humans use monster parts to make their weapons stronger, but what does having a dragon bathe in metal actually do for it?" "More than you'd think. The shed dragon scales became a part of the slag and the heat from the dragon's own body helped any pieces of metal that weren't fully melted yet integrate into the mixture, creating a specially alloy that hasn't been used for centuries. We call it dragonite." Flash though a moment and asked, "Hey, did this dragonite have a specific color?" "Yes, it was a dark purple metal, though certain conditions made it turn Red, Green, or Yellow. Why? "Heh, well the funny thing is that in our world dragonite is a naturally occurring metal." "Normally I wouldn't believe you, but considering where you come from I can't say I'm surprised." "DOWN THERE." Jag shouted "I just saw something go into one of the tunnels down there." "Did you get a good look at it?" Shining asked. "No, All I saw is that it was white." "Well we can't let it get away, come on." Twilight said as she used her create a bridge down to the tunnel where the creature had gone into. As the group chased the sound of the beast the ground became more and more icy causing one of the Jagras in front to slip and fall which triggered a massive pile-up in the ground. With no-one able to get their footing they slid down the tunnel until eventually ending up in a large open area that appeared to have been dug out. "Is everyone okay." Twilight asked, prompting a small chorus of groans. S: "What is this place?" C: "Probably something the monster dug out for itself." J: "I think it's kinda homie." The group was interrupted by a scratching coming from the far wall. Twilight, Chrysalis, and Shining Armor focused the light from their horns towards the beast and as they did they were surprised at what stared back at them. It appeared to be a cross between a Rabbit and a Wombat with the a body the size of a bull elephant. "That's it." Flash said in surprise and annoyance. "We came all the way down here to fight a Lagombi!" "Wait, what's a Lagombi?" Twilight asked. "That is. It's an herbivore monster from the old world. All it does is slide around on ice and eat roots." "So its not dangerous." "Of course not, look at it. The only thing dangerous about is its bite, and its copious about of weight. Other than that it's basically pretty tame." "So what do we do about it?" "I don't know, fight it, talk to it, leave it down here. You're the leader you decide." "In that case I think we should just leave it for now." "But what if it comes up to the surface again?" Shining asked. "Its a giant bunny, the worst it will do is eat someone's garden. Now come, lets the back to the surface." "Amen to that." Flash said as he started running up the tunnel the just came from, before suddenly slipping and sliding back down on his back. "This may take while."