> Shadow of Equestria
>  by Igris
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The only one the sun fears
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In this world, fantasy is the only thing that ruled over the laws of physics, meaning everything here is a lawbreaker. But there is one of the few things that follow these laws that still exists here, the law of nature, the very predator/prey symbiotic relationship that rules and birth life itself, a law that only applies in the life inside the Everfree Forest.

And of course, in every places where the laws of nature is the most influential, there is a food chain going from the tiniest bacteries to the apex predator on top or even above the food chain.

Of course there is many apex predators that claim some part of the forest as their territories, battling each other to claim the throne of said territories.

And where there is a king, an emperor might as well be in there.

And the emperor standing above the food chain was now sleeping inside a cave underground. A Gore Magala was hibernating for many many millennia.





Of course, these creatures of shadows did not hibernate but this one was different, he was sentient or at least his conscience overwhelmed his instincts completely disregarding his nature.

‘How long has it been since I’ve seen sunlight?’

Ah yes, this one can think like a human being, as to why? Well because he is different from the others of his kind.

‘Why did I decide to stuck myself here?’

That was because he gained sentience and soon found out how meaningless his life was, well that was after he fled the hunters that were chasing him. Yes he fled because he could see that they were prepared to kill him and so instead of dealing with them he fled.

‘How long have I been here? Is the world still standing?’

Of course he hid here but he forgot the reason why he did so. After his intentional lockdown, he expected to die from starvation, but he didn’t.

He slowly started to think like the humans, gaining the ability to have imagination and logical reasoning. And so he thought it useless to go out for him to only run away as he knew that the humans were prepared to kill him.

And as to how he knew they were humans, that’s because he killed one of them that had so many books on him he might have been mistaken for a bookshelf. And so he red those books when he was hiding as he had nothing else to do.

Of course darkness was not bothering him and he could see in the dark like it was daytime, sort of as he did not have eyes. It took him quite a while to learn and understand their writings with only his sense of touch, which would normally be impossible, if he was normal.

He almost grinned, if he could, when he found out that the humans had indeed studied his species with utmost care with their weaknesses being the main subject of their studies.

Of course he himself was very surprised at how the humans interpreted their behaviours, it unnerved him at how detailed the informations were but he couldn’t blame them to know so much as he blamed his own kin for being too careless in unsafe areas.

‘Hm, I really wish I could speak with humans without them interpreting what I try to say as threats.’

He lost his nature as a monster, so much so that he actually thought like humans. Normally it would be bad but as I repeatedly said before, he isn’t normal even in his species standards.

It actually benefited him. Before he could use his “powers” but with a risk to lose control over them, of course they did not harm him but it did harm his surroundings. In short he could control his virus and pretty much everything that was part of him whenever, wherever and how he wants to.

His senses also evolved to be more sensible, being immortal meant that his body could evolve or at least adapt to wherever he was. And because he is right now in a pitch black cave with no sounds or even movement, his senses became more sensible.

For example : Before he couldn’t hear or see anything, the latter being normal as he did not have eyes, but now he could hear even the worms digging inside the dirt and rocks around him and he could also kind of see his surroundings. His sight evolved in a bizarre way because now, instead of using his scales to perceive his surroundings, he could see the outlines of what was in front of him, still with no colour beside the white outline surrounding whatever was in front of him.

‘I don’t think I can do anything now.’

He was half awake and half asleep so he could still feel his surroundings. Right now he was laying on dirt, or infected dirt in this case as he did not move an inch from here after he finished the last book he brought with him so the dirt below him was so exposed to the Frenzy virus around him that it actually might be the most infected matter he’d ever see.

Talking about the Frenzy Virus, well it’s a disease, a very lethal one at that. If you resist it’s deadly effect well you will go mad as it literally controls your brain to go on a rampage. But for humans it didn’t do that effect, for them it was temporary just like any disease. Not only that but if they recover from it they actually get stronger and become immune to the Virus for some times.

And of course, this Virus grew too. He could now control its effects, or at least most of them as the base effect of driving anything mad if they are still alive could not be erased. No, he could make it so the effect could be stronger, driving anything to unimaginable madness or making so that death come earlier that planned, or he could make the effect less painful for the host.

‘Humans…’

He was actually having his interests in humans come back to him. He spent countless years underground, and because of that his interest grew stronger as he started to dislike the place he was in.

But his mind told him to stay safe underground and that he could use his imagination to think about any fantasies he wanted.

Such a conflict between instincts and reason would happen once in a while, that was the price of intelligence rivaling that of humans.

But now it was different than the usual cycle that went through his mind, because he actually started to move his body after a long time underground.

*click**crack*

Movement was hurting him because his body was trying to remember how to function in a way that wouldn’t hurt when he moved.

Yes, his body was literally a statue breaking apart, it's state cause by him it slowly adapting to his motionless lifestyle for a long time.

But he didn’t mind the pain, it actually felt refreshing to him and quite frankly nostalgic. Yes, he was motionless for so long that even ordering one of his muscle tissue to move was nostalgic.

‘Ahhhh, I feel so alive now.’

He had no idea how lifeless his body was and now he felt alive because his body was actually dead, or more like in a coma-like state.

Now he was trying to get used to his new body, quite literally here with how zombie-like he just stood up.

He flexed every muscle around his body starting with his claws and clawed wings, he stretched his back, wings, legs, arms, even his neck.

He then moved his mouth to make it feel like it stretched while at the same time licking his teeths/fangs, humidifying his mouth with his deadly Frenzy Virus infected saliva. For a fact he didn’t even know why he had saliva to begin with but it didn’t matter to him.

As his body slowly took life, so did the Virus and the countless scales covering his body, mostly his wings which were covered by a fur like matter. Then he went into Frenzy Mode for no particular reason, Frenzy Mode being similar to an enraged mode.

His horn like feelers poked out of his head, his underwing started to glow a bright and ominous purple and a large amount of his scales were released in this tiny cave he was currently in, which would normally be like a gas chamber to the power thirty if there was any living beings besides him inside it.

And so, he used all of his claws and his clawed wings to dig up to the surface, which was easier than he expected because the surface was actually not too far from where he was, like two hundred meters above him.

And when the sunlight finally showered on him, his scales scattered like a swarm of bees fleeing for their lives. He could perceive his surroundings now and he was confused as he was in a Forest, but not a Forest he knew from what he could feel from his scales.

He did not realise that he was still in his Frenzy Mode so the hairs on his wings were starting to cover the sky, and soon the sun with it. His scales and hairs were highly volatile and were infected by the Frenzy Virus, also there are so many of them that the sky actually looked like it was covered by a black cloud that would sometime glow purple.

It took him quite a while to stop and return back to normal because he was quite literally scanning the entire Forest he was in and only the Forest as he thought it to be too risky to expand his scales outside of it for he wasn’t yet accustomed to his new home.

Yes he noticed that it wasn’t the same forest where he buried himself into as not only did it have a different food chain but the air around him felt weird to him, he could feel that it was filled with some kind of matter or bacteria or virus. But it felt like the Frenzy Virus to him, not with the same effect but the way it propagated felt the same, and he could feel that this thing went through his body.

For some weird reason, this thing felt like it empowered him throughout his entire body. It also empowered his virus but in what way? He did not yet know, and he didn’t like not knowing.

So he set a goal to understand the strange matter saturating the atmosphere for seemingly a limitless amount of time.

He went back to normal and his hairs floated down making the sun appear. This eclipse was of course seen by all the inhabitants of Equestria, and the one who rules the sun.





To say that Celestia was surprised would be an understatement as even her unbreakable poker face broke into terror the moment she saw through her window that the sun was covered by darkness.

Fortunately for her, she was in her private room so her face wasn’t seen but unfortunately this privacy didn’t last long as her doors bursted open to reveal a blue alicorn in a similar state.

“S-sister.” The moon princess finally said before falling on her hind leg to catch her breath.

This would normally be normal for someone to feel tired after running through the whole Castle, but they were not normal in any way as they were Alicorns with enhanced stamina.

“W-what is it Luna?” The solar princess asked trying to regain her composure, which failed miserably.

Celestia herself felt tired even if she didn’t move from her spot the whole time, she also felt as if something told her to go on a rampage.

She then remembered a being that would exactly do that.

‘Daybreaker' She thought with fear and determination.

But then it didn’t make any sense as the entity itself didn’t appear for the last millenia. The only other reason would be that a new threat is coming closer.

Luna on the other hand didn’t understand why she felt tired and in distress, the night was never a bother to her. That’s when she remembered that what covered the sun wasn’t the night, it was darkness and she knew better than anyone that darkness does not belong to the night.

“What should we do?” Luna asked after she regained her composure. Of course she already thought about sending her troops to the Everfree Forest to see what was the cause of this ominous cloud.

“We should go and see for ourselves.” Celestia replied after regaining her composure too.

It was still the middle of the day on Equestria and many many guards came to seek comfort from the Princesses, even though they would fall on their way here as they could not see in the darkness that covered Equestria. Of course this only applied to the guards that followed Celestia as those that were with Luna could perfectly see in the dark.

Celestia has already told the Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor to send troops and see if there were any casualties in the different city around Equestria. Though this idea was quickly stopped when Luna proposed her guard to do the job as they would be more efficient in this darkness.

Then, right after the troops were sent and the sister were left alone, the ominous cloud that hid the sun faded away just as fast as it came. Celestia quickly took action and sent her guards to support the Lunar Guards that were still outside to see and comfort the ponies.

It then didn’t take long for Celestia and Luna to spot the train coming from Ponyville, already expecting who was on the train.

“Let’s go greet them.” Luna said observing the approaching train from Celestia’s tower.

“No, let them come as I’m sure the ponies would come swarming on us if they ever see us outside.” Celestia explained receiving an understanding nod from Luna who still watched the incoming train.





‘What an odd environment’

It was odd indeed. It’s not even been an hour and he already came across the current inhabitants of the Forest, the ones that looked to be made of wood.

Odd was certainly not enough to describe what was in front of him. He could see that the group of five quadruped predators before him were made of wood, but this wasn’t what shocked him, it was the fact that these beings that were obviously weaker than him didn’t back down from him as they would growl or bark to him.

‘Then again, if they were to challenge me then why aren’t they engaging.’

It certainly has almost been an hour that they were growling and barking but during this time none of them engaged the fight, even though he stat here harmless with his claws not even visible.

It reminded him of one of these smaller beings that would do the same whenever he passed by, they would always growl or bark like these wooden wolves.

Then one of them finally decided to attack and it shocked him. No, it wasn’t the fact that it decided to attack even though he knew that it knew that it couldn’t win no, it was the fact that the speed, strength and even precision of the incoming attack was too underpowered. It was like he was fighting with a bunch of newborns that were just experiencing their first fight.

‘What is this? I can’t even tell if it’s taking me seriously.’

It was. But his perception of time was different because his senses evolved. To normal beings, the wolf would probably look like it went at unbelievable speed but to him well, he seriously thought that the wolf in front of him was joking with him because the way he saw it approaching him he literally thought he could sleep for hours and the wolf would still not reach him.

So before he did exactly just that, he walked calmly towards it until he gave it a little claw attack. But he didn’t expect the wolf to not only be blown away a few meters while rolling on the ground, but also that it had a huge claw mark that literally crushed to its insides, insides that were actually hollow.

At least he wasn’t the only shocked one as the other wolf that saw that couldn’t even see it, to them he looked like he moved fast enough that he was a blur, then that he suddenly appears in front of their comrade and that they couldn’t even see him do the little claw attack on their comrade side that it was already on the ground.

If they feared him before that, now they were traumatised and even if they weren’t intelligent enough to think, they would still experience post-traumatic stress disorder. So they fled as fast as possible from the monster in front of them.

‘How utterly and unbelievably weak.’

He thought with a sense of pride and arrogance. Of course he would feel prideful even over a weak being as it was the first fight he had after who-knows-how-long underground.

‘Well I don’t blame them, it doesn’t surprise me that they would protect their territory from an intruder. Even if said intruder was an immortal (kind of) elder dragon controlling a virus worse than death. Now that I think about it.’

He grew to shape his mind to be quite like that of humans, so now he was thinking about experimenting a little bit with the little wolf he beated that was somehow still alive, even though it couldn’t move a bit.

‘Let’s see, the virus evolved when I was underground so it’s effect must have changed a bit.’

Of course he didn’t know that he had better control over the virus, to the point of nearly controlling the effect it had on the mind of its host. But he would soon know with the help of the poor little puppy that laid before him, seemingly looking at the demise that would soon fall onto it. Unfortunately, even death would not take it as something worse than death came closer and closer to its unmoving body.

‘Hehe, sorry little doggy but I need you alive.’

If a pony or anything had telepathic powers, they would probably hear the malicious chuckles in the mind of this abnormal Gore Magala.
> Worse than The Plague
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The poor little wolf that is supposed to be one of the most feared predators of the Everfree Forest is now reduced to be the guinea pig of something that even Death fears, sort of.

‘The Virus has more effects than expected.’

Indeed, the deadly virus was deadlier now. The wolf was surrounded by it and now it was standing up, its eyes normally glowing green was now glowing red with fury, you could tell it was extremely furious just by looking at it and yet it didn’t move and just stood there like waiting his orders.

‘It certainly looks like it’s under my control, let’s see.’

Willing the virus to move another body certainly isn’t an easy task. So the wolf would sometimes fall or move somewhere unintentionally before fully taking control over it.

‘It’s hard to control two body at the same time.’

Of course it took more time to control the wooden wolf and himself at the same time but he did it anyways. Now he had something like a slave that he doesn’t even know what to do with.

‘Let’s go see what are the other beings inside this forest.’





“Princess!” The main six exclaimed in unisson. They were all in the throne room except Luna who was taking care of the guards that reported the situation.

In response, Celestia only raised her hoof to calm her subjects down. All of them of course calmed down besides Twilight who can’t calm down.

“What happened!” Twilight nearly shouted before putting her hooves on her mouth.

“I do not know, the dark cloud that appeared is of unknown origins even for me.” Celestia explained with a hint of stress that was of course not caught by them. The face they made was enough to tell that they were  panicking.

“I have a mission for you.” Celestia said making them stand like soldiers waiting for orders.

“You will investigate on this matter, normally I would go but I need to help my sister calm the ponies heart.” She explained gaining a nod from them.

“Of course Princess!” They exclaimed with determination before quickly galloping to the train.

‘I hope that whatever that was we don’t need to use the Elements.’





Using the little wolf to catch anything that came across them is unbelievably useful. Due to the Frenzy Virus, the Timberwolf is as strong as a hydra and is so enraged that it would even kill its own kin.

‘How useful, it seems like when I’m not controlling it it will guard me from anything, interesting.’

He was fascinated by the powers of his own virus but he was at the same time quite disappointed by what he saw from the current inhabitants of this Forest.

The one that looked like a Teostra had his hopes up, but it was easily killed by the Frenzied Wolf, too easily.

Now he was wandering around the unbelievably peaceful forest, trying to find the slightest sign of familiarity. But nothing here was familiar to him, too many things were different. It was like he was in another world entirely.

Even the air was filled with something unknown to him and everytime he inhaled, the strange matter would flow in his entire body. Not only did it felt weird to him, but it also made him stronger somehow.

He felt like he could manipulate this strange matter, much like the Frenzy Virus. He shaped the matter he inhaled, morphing it to be hotter and more opaque and then.

*FWAAA*

Purple flames came out of his mouth without even harming him. And the weird feeling wasn’t here anymore, until he inhaled again making it flow through his entire body again.

The feeling itself felt like a breeze caressing your skin, but now not only was it blowing instead of caressing, but it was inside of your body not on your skin. He honestly can tell that it tickled him.

Of course he didn’t stop with the Infected Fire Breathing, he also started to change how it should come out as. The result being that now he could spit a liquid like matter that was of course infected with the Frenzy Virus. He could also spit a more opaque matter, being more rock-like infected matter coming out of his mouth.

With all of these breathing attack, his mouth felt numb so he then decided to use the weird matter differently.



 

“So? What do you girls think that was?” Asked a very energetic rainbow pegasus who started to punch in the air.

“Hm, at first I thought it was one of Discord tricks but…” Said a purple Alicorn who tried to explain the phenomenon that covered the sun.

“Well, it looked like a cloud…” Said the shy yellow mare who honestly didn’t want to go check on what that was.

“If it was a cloud, it didn’t look tasty at all!” Exclaimed a bouncing Pink Pony.

“And it looked awful!” Continued a white unicorn.

“Whatever that was, ‘am sure we can solve it!” Cheered the smiling orange mare.

The Main 6 were in Ponyville and were currently going towards the Everfree Forest as it was the first place that came to mind when unknown things happened, besides Discord.

They all talked about how terrifying that was, a black fog so dense that even the sun rays were stopped from shining on Equestria. This would normally be impossible and unrealistic and yet it just happened not too long ago.

Not only that but when they arrived in Ponyville train station, many if not all of Fluttershy animal friend came to her, all of them frightened to their cores.

Fluttershy of course tried to calm them down and even asked them what was wrong, but for the first time in her whole life, she could not understand what the animals were saying. She could only pick the words ‘Disaster’ and ‘Calamity’ from the shower of panicked voices that the animals threw her.

This of course did not help them as they were quickly on guard, tensing up more and more as time passes.

And now they were in front of the Everfree Forest and they couldn’t even recognise it. They went inside the Forest many many times and it didn’t even frightened them, but now for some reason they felt just like the first time they entered the forest long ago. Fearful and terrorised.

The two magic wielders immediately sensed that something was wrong inside the forest, well more wrong that it usual is. Not only that but the Pink Pony was twitching madly and was literally a moving jackhammer.

Even the cow-pony felt something was wrong in here. The connection she had with the earth by being an earth pony made it so that she could feel the earth, and it felt wrong to her. The earth felt sick to her, like there was an illness infecting the land inside the forest.

But those who felt the wrongness the most were the two pegasus. Being creatures of the sky, they naturally were familiar with the air around them, and they could feel that something Plagued the air.

“Girls? Is it me or the Everfree Forest is more purple than green?” Stated the Rainbow Pony who couldn’t help but feel a shiver down her spine as soon as she said that.

The forest who naturally had a light fog inside it was now a shade of purple, making the forest look more purple than green. Of course, the trees and the nature itself was infected by the Frenzy Virus, but it didn’t cause them to die a quick death but a slow, very slow death, a death that will likely come in a year or two.

After a long moment of observing the Forest from afar, the Main 6 finally decided to enter the ever so fearful Everfree Forest.





‘Hm, this matter is very strange.’

He was studying, or more like toying with the matter that saturated the air around him. He found out that he could manipulate other objects filled with it if he concentrated really hard, and when they were ‘possessed’ they would start to glow a very dark purple with sparkles popping up all around it.

He also found out that he could levitate what he ‘possessed’ with the weird matter. And so he started his training in telekinesis, starting from a little rock all the way to a tree. When he lifted up the tree, he could feel that his own reserve of that weird matter would deplete quickly so the tree stood in the air for not even a minute.

He also learned that basic breathing, inhale and exhale, recharged his reserves very quickly. He also discovered that the more he use and recharge, the more he could stock inside his body. So after a while of training, he ended up having so much magic that, if something could see the flow of magic, he would be covered by a thick layer of it all around his body.

He was recharging himself right now to continue his experiments until he felt 6 new presences entering the Forest.

He quickly started to perceive what the Virus touched. Then he felt them, 6 lifeform entered the Forest and they were not very far from him.

His instincts told him that it was alright and that there was nothing to worry about, but his mind started to think of the wildest of scenarios, all ending with him getting killed, captured or lethally injured.

Normally he would listen to his instincts and go see the intruders without much care in what they were, but as I said and as I will continue to say, he isn’t normal.

But he couldn’t flee either as he didn’t know the threat was real or not, and for the first time in a long time, he went to see in the most discreet he could be. He let the Virus infect them but not harm them as his twisted human scientist mind didn’t allow him to ruin potential experiment subjects.

So he moved between the trees and even the leaves, not making a single sound. He used the fog of his scales and hairs to hide himself, he then slowly scattered more and more of his scales so the fog would grow thicker and thicker to lower his chance of being caught.

He came closer and closer to the 6 intruders, and then he stopped just behind some trees to observe them.

He soon saw that what was before him were of no threats and his mind slowly lost its guard, that is until he remembered the first time he encountered hunters and that his carelessness nearly cost him his life.

His guards were up again and he observed the beings in front of him, carefully going closer to them when they walked away.

He had them surrounded, but he would not attack them unlike his previous encounters. And the reason being that these six looked like ponies from the books he red during his isolation. Not only that but they were able to communicate with each other, they were speaking.

‘How? There shouldn’t be any physical way for these herbivores to speak so how?’

That’s when he thought about the only thing that could defy logic, the weird matter that saturated the air, or more likely known as magic.

This stalking continued until these beings came across these Teostra-like beings. And the yellow pony immediately screamed ‘Manticore’.

‘So that’s what they called it.’

A manticore, having the face of a lion, wings of a bat and the tail of a scorpion. The combination of weak animals to make something barely even stronger, at least in his point of view.

The fight that came after their encounter was quite interesting. He immediately saw that the two ponies that had horns used magic to attack, and when he saw that he immediately knew that he couldn’t let these ponies die. Also, when he saw the winged ponies, he couldn’t help but wonder how they could fly with such small wings, then he thought about it, magic.

‘These ponies have too much use to die here.’

And so, he willed the Virus to infect the Manticore, forcing it to inhale the infected air. And then, it stopped.

The sudden stop confused the ponies, but he didn’t care and so he enhanced the effects of the Virus as much as possible. He was ready to see the manticore fall and die, but he wasn’t ready to see it exploded and then literally evaporate leaving nothing behind, not even blood.

This released even more Virus infected matter and he was surprised to not see another one of his kind pop up in the place of the manticore.

Ah yes, how his species reproduce. You see, sometimes in very very very rare cases, like 1 in a millionth chances, one of the victims would carry a Virus that had reproductive genes. And so it would grow and grow until it formed an egg. The egg itself can be anywhere inside the victim, and the egg would feed on the victim until another Gore Magala bursts out of the corpse that was its previous host.

But now, it seems like this would be impossible now as he already infected more than a million beings in his entire life, meaning that in every beings he infected from the day he was born until now, none of them had the reproductive virus.

‘It doesn’t matter, now I must see what these are.’

The ponies, they looked shocked, traumatised even. Of course they would be as a manticore literally exploded in front of them.

‘What are they doing?’

He was curious, too curious. Because they didn’t move for a while now, he was worried the effect of the virus extended to them. So he foolishly came out of his hiding to approach the ponies from behind.

‘Are they alive?’

He asked this question because he couldn’t see them clearly, he could only see their bodies outline so to him it looks like they were frozen in place and he feared that he accidentally ordered the Virus to kill them.

He was proven wrong the moment he was close enough that he made a shadow over them, this shadow was of course caught by all of them who immediately turned around to look at what made it.

That’s when their eyes met a huge monster, covered by black scales and that had winged claws. To them, he was easily twice or even thrice their size completely covering the light that shone on them not a minute ago.

‘Hm, I guess it’s time for introduction?’
> Incarnation of Terror
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hey Twilight? Is it just me or the Everfree Forest is darker than usual.” Said Rainbow Dash after she noticed that not only did the forest had a shade of purple now, but it felt darker and more uncomfortable than usual.

“No, you’re right something is wrong with the Everfree Forest.” Twilight stated before being as cautious as her brother on his guard duties.

“Blergh! The air is nasty.” Pinkie Pie said before blocking the incoming vomit.

“Ew, Pinkie dear be careful!” Exclaimed the fashionista while backing away from the sick Pink Pony.

“Pinkie are you alright?” Asked the worried yellow pegasus as she tried to comfort the Pink Pony who nearly threw up just from breathing.

“There’s something’ wrong with the Everfree Forest.” Stated the cow-pony before coughing.

They were all starting to feel sick but they didn’t know what was the cause of their illness. The one the most affected was Pinkie Pie who needed help to walk. The magic wielders too noticed that their magic were somehow weaker in the forest.

Overall they were not feeling well and they didn’t even walk for 5 minutes into the forest. They didn’t even know where to look, but they at least decided to go to the Castle of the Two Sisters so they could rest. There was no way they would go back on their track from just a little sickness after all.

After a while, they could finally see the ruins between the trees. But at the same time they felt uncomfortable, their primal instincts screamed at them to run but as to why? They didn’t know.

That is until a Manticore blocked their way.

“Girls!” Shouted the purple alicorn before preparing a spell.

They were all ready to fight, even those who were sick as their illness went away for some reason. But they were ready to fight now.

To say they were ready would even be an understatement as they fought worse than a Manticore.

Twilight and Rarity were restraining it while AppleJack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash went to give it a good beat up. Fluttershy stayed behind because she couldn’t bear to see the poor Manticore getting beaten up, that is until she decided to intervene to stop the fight. The reason being that the Manticore froze in place and looked like it was in pain.

“What’s happening to it?” Asked a surprised Rainbow Dash.

It was the first time they saw a Manticore hold its head like it was in extreme agony, it was growling and even screaming in pain. This of course hurt the heart of the kind Fluttershy who now tried to approach the Manticore to comfort it.

But she didn’t even get to it that the Manticore exploded, its flesh and blood blown away, tainting the Main 6 with a very dark bloody red. They couldn’t even react as the blood and flesh turned dark purple before evaporating. Yes, the remain of the Manticore evaporated, leaving not a single trace that it even existed.

The Main 6 were of course too shocked by what happened before them, never in their quite eventful lives did they see such a gruesome act unfold before them.

Their frozen body stood there for what felt like centuries.

Until an enormous shadow covered them, from their point of view, the shadow seemed to belong to a hydra, even if the hydra itself would look a little too big to be a simple hydra.

But even if the shadow of what looked like a deadly predator covered them, they didn’t move as they were still in their shock states. That is until a low growl could be heard from behind them with two stomps that literally shook the ground under them.

They were brought back to reality and the first one to look behind was Rarity, who immediately fainted at the sight of the being standing behind them.

When they saw the unconscious body of their fashionista friend, all of them turned around to see what caused her to faint so dramatically. And they immediately understood why she fainted like that. If they were a few years younger, they would instantly faint like Rarity, but they didn’t.

What’s the most surprising was that Fluttershy didn’t felt fear from the being before her, well just a bit because of her instincts. She could see from its face and stature that it didn’t intend on hunting her and her friend. She just saw a curious animal before her, but even if her mind told her that the being was harmless, her instincts said otherwise so she still trembled in fear.

To Twilight, the tall being before her couldn’t be described with anything but the word “Ancient”, as to why? Well she was taught by and Ancient her entire life, but what stood before her looked more Ancient than even the oldest legend in existence.

Standing before them was a true monster, it didn’t have eyes on what looked like its face but it did have fangs sharper than the sharpest weapon that exists. It seemed to have an exoskeleton-like body but even with that, it looked extremely muscular. Its arms looked like they could shatter a mountain and its claws looked like they could slice through anything. With only that it already looked too deadly for Equestria, but it was covered by a dark aura that looked like it came from the end of its wings, wings that were clawed.

In short, it was in their eyes something not even the worst of their nightmares could make. No evil could match the dark and malicious aura that this dragon-like entity emitted.

But even so, one of them had the courage to speak.

“H-hello…” It was Fluttershy who spoke, but it took her everything she had to mutter this single word before she went back into shaking.

Even Pinkie Pie who normally only scream and run in this situation didn’t. Her randomness was overwhelmed by her instincts as a prey. Rainbow Dash was no better than her as even her pride was crushed by fear.

Then, it growled. No it didn’t growl to threaten them, the growl didn’t even sounded like a growl, it sounded gentle and even friendly. Fluttershy was the first to stop trembling as her thought of it being harmless was proven by this simple growl.

Now, for some reason they started to feel better. The feeling of uneasiness slowly faded away, even the ominous purple fog that suffocated them started to go away. Now the forest was back to its original state, well at least the area they were went back into being the Everfree Forest they knew as they could still see the fog from far away.

Then, Fluttershy continued to speak.

“Um… Are you the one that made this fog sir?” She asked while still being cautious around the thing before her.

The being itself looked like it was thinking about the question, like it tried to answer it. Then it nodded to them. This of course shocked the other five ponies who didn’t even think that it was intelligent, they were more shocked when they realised that the pressure they felt from when they entered the forest was made by what stood before them.

This little interrogation would continue if not for the enormous pack of Timberwolves that surrounded them.





‘This is going better than I expected.’

He couldn’t believe what was happening to him. Just a moment ago he feared that the defenseless beings before him would start to flee but no, one of them even started to talk to him, not only that but they spoke the same language as the humans he knew.

‘Are they the descendant of the humans? No, equines are not the same as the humans. Ah but why should I care about how they can speak the human language? All that I need to know is that they can speak and that’s all I need.’

The one that started to talk to him asked if he was the one that made the fog. Of course, he knew that it was him but he still thought about what fog it asked about because when he first came in the forest, there was already a fog-like aura around the Forest. But he nodded anyway.

For some reason, they had a look of shock on their faces, well more shocked than they already were.

He also started to clear some of his scales as he noticed that they were bothered by them. And he was right, lifting away the “fog” made them relax a little bit but they were still on guard.

Then, he sensed something coming towards his him, multiple things. Because he could sense them thanks to his scales, he could see that they were just some wolves who seemed to have sensed the sent of these ponies.

The ponies themselves didn’t look like they noticed the wolves, the one he was talking to was about to ask him another question until the wolves started to howl.

‘Dogs… How troublesome.’

He thought. He could see that the ponies were scared and they were shaking in fear. He didn’t blame them as they were preys in this forest after all. But he himself didn’t care about the wolves as stayed as calm as he was when he talked with the yellow pony.

‘Well I can’t let them feast on my precious source of informations.’

He thought before infecting all of the wolves in the area. He was just about to kill them all with the virus but then he thought about something.

‘Let’s see, if I kill them all right now the ponies wouldn’t have time to register what is happening. So what if I kill them just in front of the ponies?’

What he was planning was to impress and make the ponies see that he was no threat. He knew that saving them would gain him quite the reputation, a reputation he could use to create bonds with these ponies and their rulers.

Of course he knew they had some kind of a leader, anything that showed signs of intelligence must have a leader. And the more intelligent the species, the more powerful and influential would be their rulers.

His plan was set and it was ready to be set in action.





‘What do we do?’ Was the Main 6 collective thought.

As soon as they heard the howls of the Timberwolves, they instantly regrouped and form a circle so they could see all around them. The one who looked to the direction of the huge being was Fluttershy of course, and she was surprised to see it didn’t even react to the howls, like they didn’t even existed.

That’s when she saw that it didn’t have ears, and she feared that it didn’t hear the howls of the Timberwolves.

She tried to warn it to be on guard. In truth she knew it could defend itself but she couldn’t help but worry about the new friend she made. But she couldn’t even utter a single sound because the fear she felt formed a lump in her throat that blocked her from making a single sound.

And then, her eyes widen and her pupils shrank when she saw a Timberwolf jump on her new friend from behind it, she wanted to scream and run to its rescue but she couldn’t even move from her spot.

Then, the wolf exploded in mid-air without her new friend even turning to look at what happened. That’s when she knew that it made the Timberwolf explode, as to how she didn’t know.

Then she heard Twilight yelp so she turned to see what happened, only to see her giant friend on top of a crushed Timberwolf just in front of Twilight.

Then she saw all of the Timberwolves that were hiding jump towards them. That’s when she closed her eyes and waited for her inevitable demise. She could hear that wood was being crushed, she could also hear what sounded like the whimpers of Timberwolves.

‘Timberwolves whimpers?’

She was confused as Timberwolves were known to be one of the top predators inside the Everfree Forest, so to hear their whimpers shocked her.

Then, after a moment she slowly opened her eyes only to see something unbelievable.

Her giant friend was moving at unbelievable speed around them, he was crushing and even destroying any Timberwolf that tried to get close to her and her friends. Not only that but what previously looked like the purple fog that covered the forest now looked like a wild purple storm cloud that flew to the Timberwolves and entering inside them only to make them explode.

She wasn’t the only one to see that as her friends too could see that. All of them had the same look of shock and even admiration at the being that destroyed anything that approached them.

The strange teamwork between a monster and a seemingly sentient deadly purple cloud only accentuated their shock.

And after what felt like hours of non-stop chaos and destruction, peace slowly came in the atmosphere. Then, the giant monster finally roared to the sky, its clawed wings gripping in the ground, its roar was so loud that if it was directed at them they would die from the sheer force of the sound it made. Also, while it roared, the storm cloud flew in circle all around it and then just at the end of the roar, it transformed into purple flame that flew to the sky, changing the color of the sky into a dark purple for a moment before disappearing and turning the sky back to its comforting light blue.

Then, their guardian shook around much like a little puppy trying to dry itself after bathing. Then it turned around to look at them, sort of as it did not have eyes. The sudden ‘eye’ contact made them flinch.

Then something unexpected happen, Fluttershy flew to hug him. This of course made her friends dead worried about her, but because he didn’t seem like he was bothered by the sudden contact, they calmed down a little but they were still worried about her.

“Oh you’re okay, you’re okay…” Repeated the normally shy pegasus while petting him on the head.

“Woah… This was so awesome!” Exclaimed Rainbow Dash who started to fly around him.

“I tell ya, this was one giant apple worth of a fight.” Said Applejack who was still shaken from this one-sided fight.

“Now that I look closer, your scales are quite beautiful.” Said Rarity while admiring the scales that covered him.

“Yeah! And this deserves a Party!!!!” Exclaimed Pinkie Pie before exploding into confetti and then reappearing on top of him.

The only one that didn’t say anything was Twilight who was still a little cautious around him, but this quickly changed after a while when she saw that her friends were in no danger around him. But she did a little scan just in case.

Scan was the name of a spell she made, a spell that can show the heart of anything, well metaphorically as it was only to show if the being itself was evil or not.

She was relieved when the scan showed no sign of evil in his heart, well even if there was a little bit of it but everything had an evil side to them and the evil side to him was small enough to be left aside.

She then smiled and came closer to him.

“Well. Why don’t you come with us, we still need to ask some questions and here is not really a safe enough place.” She said before looking at him for an answer.

He replied with a nod before standing up and walking, the sudden movement made Pinkie fall but she was still caught by him before touching the ground. The Pink pony smiled and said her thanks to him.

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash too started to back away so to let him some space.

Twilight then started to walk towards the outskirt of the forest before being stopped by Fluttershy.

“Um… Why don’t we go to my house? I don’t think the other ponies will react well if they see him.” She suggested.

“You’re right, let’s go to your house.” Twilight said.

“But where is it?” Asked Rainbow Dash who clearly didn’t know where they were.

“Well we’re lucky that we aren’t to far, I kind of know where my house is from here.” Fluttershy said before walking to her home.

Her friends didn’t complain and followed her. Of course after a while they turned around to see if their new friends was following them, and he was which put a small smile on their faces.





‘So predictable.’

His plan worked perfectly, he instantly gained their trust after the little exercise he put on. This made for a good work out for him and he honestly thought about doing it again because it was fun to him.

Also, when the ponies started to climb on him, he could feel that the purple one used magic on him. As to what was used he didn’t know but from the face the little pony made he guessed it was to make sure he wasn’t dangerous or something like that.

His plan went so well that they even invited him to their home, until the yellow one suggested to go to her home as to not alarm the other ponies.

‘Other ponies… It seems like ponies replaced the humans. No matter, they act the same way so it doesn’t matter.’

He was satisfied with the result, and soon he would learn about the new world he is in.

‘I can’t wait!’
> Friends
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

‘They look so weak.’

For him, these ponies really really looked weak, the only trait of strength he could find is their reserves of magic which overwhelmed his own. He could also tell that some form of magic was shared between them.

How he could tell that you say? It’s because while they walked to the yellow pony house, he was manipulating magic in a way that enhanced his vision. It took sometimes but because he got the hang of how magic worked, he could morph his vision to see magic in a form of aura.

And when he looked at the ponies, he would have covered his eyes if he had some.

‘At least I know why they seemed so powerful when they fought the Manticore.’

It made him flinch a little when he found out that they could possibly kill him, which again was not very good. If he was aware about their unbelievable amount of magic earlier, he would have done the same thing he did with the humans, hide and wait until they go extinct.

But he couldn’t do that right now as he was already involved in a friendship relationship with them, and he knew that friends don’t flee their friends without looking suspicious. And any trace of suspiciousness can lead to the possibility of death with beings of power.

“So…. um monster? Where are you from?” Asked the Rainbow maned pony.

Honestly, he didn’t even know where he came from because he was always travelling around his world without having a single place he could call “home”.

“Rainbow Dash… He is not a monster.” Said the yellow pony while glaring at the Rainbow Pony.

‘Rainbow Dash.. So that’s her name. She certainly is quite colorful.”

“Well what do you want me to call him...her?” Rainbow Dash was clearly confused now. When the other ponies realised what she was confused about, they too started to be confused.

“Uh… Are you a boy or a girl?” Asked Rainbow Dash.

Technically, he was neither as their species literally reproduce by infecting other species and hoping that the virus had the reproduction factor. So because he was technically neither, he just shrugged not knowing how to answer.

“Uh… I still don’t know what you are.” Said Rainbow Dash.

“Are you a girl?” Asked the yellow pony, stopping in her tracks.

He honestly didn’t care what he was, but he guessed that he took quite a liking into the male side. So he shook his head.

“Ah so you’re a boy then.” Continued the yellow pony. He nodded.

“Okay… And what’s your name?” Asked the Rainbow Dash.

He started to think that the Rainbow pony would become more annoying if this continues but he didn’t care right now as he was already starting to think about what to do when the time of his introductions with their leader comes.

“Rainbow… He obviously can’t reply to questions that doesn’t need a yes/no answer.” Stated the yellow pony. Now he really wanted to know her name as she was quite smart.

“But Fluttershy! Why can’t you talk to him then?” Huffed Rainbow Dash before turning around. This made Fluttershy sigh and the she proceeded to continue to walk.

“That’s because he doesn’t speak.” Said Fluttershy like it was a fact.

If he could speak he would, but his physical morphology wouldn’t allow such…

‘... I can speak… If these ponies can I might be able to speak no?’

...a feat. If he could first stop interrupting me the story might go to a point where he can speak.

What he thought is neither false nor true, ponies can speak through magic but they are taught since their childhoods.

But he would have to test this later as they were already in front of Fluttershy home.

‘Quite natural for a highly intelligent pony. It seems like she is fond of animals.’

He could see the many many animals hiding inside the little yellow pony house, he didn’t even need to have eyes to picture their terrified faces.

‘Animals instincts always surprised me.’

That’s when he could tell that the ponies were not normal animals, well they weren’t the first time he saw them with horns and wings, but this pushed this normalness more now that he saw that these ponies seems to take other animals as pets. How human like, he may have found fellow anomalies.

“Oh… Don’t worry! He’s not dangerous. See?” Said Fluttershy to her terrorised little friends while pointing at the pink pony who seems to have appeared out of nowhere on him. 

Her desperate attempts to show that he was harmless doesn’t seem to work as the animals were still cowering in fear. This made her a little sad but she understood them as even it took her everything she had just to speak to him. She turned around and looked at him with a little hint of sadness and shame in her eyes.

“I’m sorry…” She said with shame.

‘I seriously don’t understand why she’s apologizing.’

He shrugged in hopes to make her understand that he doesn’t understand, but it didn’t work because Fluttershy took it the wrong way. She thought that he was used to this kind of reaction towards him, which was true but she was sad because of it.

‘Poor thing… He never had friends then…’ Was the thought that went through her head.

‘Poor thing… She has to deal with these troublesome animals then…’ Was what went through his head at the same time.

The irony of this misunderstanding made it worse as they both started to feel bad about each other without even the same reason. And for some reason Pinkie Pie understood this and started to laugh madly, which only got her weirded out looks from her friends who watched her roll on the ground.

Then, to his surprise, a little bunny came out of the house. Fluttershy looked like she was happy to see it, but he didn’t understand why. He didn’t even understand why she housed a bunny that by his looks looks more annoying than the other animals.

But he gave it some respect as it even went up to him, kicked him on one of his claws, and immediately started to jump around while holding its weak leg in pain.

The combination of the Pink pony laughing like a mad mare on the ground plus the little rabbit holding its leg in pain with Fluttershy trying to help the little bunny while the other ponies looked at the whole scene with an unmoving giant mass of dark and virus in the middle made the supposed to be serious situation too comedic for his own tastes.

This randomness of course infected the other ponies laugh or giggle, as to what they were laughing or giggling at he wasn’t sure. But he didn’t hate this at all, for him it certainly is a new experience, while unexpected it isn’t unpleasant at all. To be honest, he was ready to laugh or giggle too, if he could.

A heart is not exactly what a deadly Elder Dragon that spreads a deadly virus has. He himself was not sure if he had a heart to begin with, he just assumed that he was only filled with the virus and nothing more.

On that matter, he didn’t even think he was remotely organic the moment he sent himself into isolation, there isn’t even anything in the human books that said that Elder Dragons are biorganic life forms, they are just said to be living natural disasters, or even Gods, and Gods don’t feel for the mortals.

‘How problematic.’

Problematic indeed, he knew that feeling emotions was a sign to be alive and have a heart, the many books about human psychology told him so.

For now he would put such thoughts aside and only bring these clearly distracted ponies back to reality.

*Rrrrrgh*

He growled and fortunately for him, they immediately stopped and became petrified even.

“R-right.’ Said the purple pony.

“...”

“...”

“...”

‘It doesn’t seem like they can talk. Well then, I’ll go make myself at home.’

After that, he started to walk towards Fluttershy’s garden, then he pressed against the ground to shape it to its liking much like a cat, and just like them he rolled up and started to sleep, or he made it look like he slept. He was after all curious about what they would talk about if he seemed to not be hearing them.

‘Let’s see your true selves.’

He knew how to act around terrified beings, he had his dose of them through his whole life after all. And he exactly knew how to act to know how they thought.

Those who are greedy or hateful towards him will normally attack him right now, if not this means they are still cautious around him showing signs of reasoning. If they don’t attack him and leave this means they are simple victims of nature, cowards that only scavenge the residue of the stronger predators.

And if none of these, then this means that they truly trusted him to stay here, which would surprise him a little even if he intended them to think that way.

“Poor thing, he must be tired from the battle he had with the Timberwolves.” He heard what sounded like Fluttershy say.

‘Foolish beings clouded by emotions, follow your instincts instead of relying on what you saw.’ Or so he would like to say. He didn’t like to see beings with obvious signs of intelligence reason like this act with this much idiocy.

Well at the same time it showed that they have intelligence, emotions is something not all beings have, he is a living proof of that.

“It doesn’t surprise me, you saw how he fought and from his size I don’t think he is used to move this fast.” Said the Twilight.

‘If only that were true, I wouldn’t be this bored of my current life.’

For some reason, he couldn’t help but criticizing everything they say. He thought that it was because they showed him pity, which was exactly nothing he was expecting. This of course would frustrate him who always think he can expect everything.

Of course, he could tell from just this little purple pony’s analysis that she was very very smart, maybe smarter than Fluttershy.

This little eavesdropping would continue if he was not interrupted by something trying to climb on him. He used his scales to sense what was doing it and he was quite surprised to sense that it was not one but multiple animals.

Not only that but he could sense that more and more of them started to climb on him. If he wasn’t who he was they would all be dead by now. Now this may be why they seemed to be doing what they were doing, of course there’s were still smart animals that were hiding far away from him.

“So, how do we call him? It is quite rude to call him “monster”, “he” or “him” all the time no?” Said an irritating voice to him. It was Rarity.

“Ah don’t know ‘bout that, he might not like ‘t.” Said an unknown voice. It was Applejack but because she didn’t speak as much as the others he didn’t know who it was, but it didn’t take him long to assume it was her as it was the only one who seemed to have this kind of speech.

‘Indeed you thought right, I might not like it depending on the name you give me. But it’s still true that it’s rude to call me that way isn’t that right narrator?”

Do not speak directly to me.

Now as for the names, he could make a book about them but he didn’t and he honestly couldn’t right now with how many fluffy animals stacked on him.

Him whose patience was so strong that he stood still for so much time that his entire body became a statue, started to be impatient from simple little animals that annoyed him. Poor him indeed Fluttershy.

‘Quiet.’

While he was trying to not murder every single thing that stood in his way, the Main 6 set up for the name Obsidian, and as for how and why? Let’s not go into the private space that is their collective minds.

The girls now brought back to reality noticed the situation Obsidian was in and so they started to giggle.

This humiliation continued until he growled, a growl that sounded much more threatening than the last one. Of course the animals quickly ran away so fast a cloud of dust replaced their previous location. But for some reason the ponies were less affected by the threat, traces of fear still hung in their hearts.

Night started to fall down without them even realising it, so they told their goodnights without even being bothered by the newly named Obsidian sleeping on Fluttershy’s garden, they even told him goodnight even though they were only whispering before walking away to their homes.

For some reason, Fluttershy did more than say goodnight, she started to pet him on his head and she was obviously starting to be interested in his feelers, but she didn’t pry too much as she knew that animals like him love their privacy. So after the little pat on his head, she went into her home.

Now this gave him the space he needed to think about them and their behaviours.

‘As stupid and immature as they acted, they still hold some interest. Those named Twilight, Pinkie, and Fluttershy are especially interesting. Twilight held wisdom and intelligence with how she analyse and even reason with situations she is confronted with, this means she must be the leader of their little group.

Pinkie is honestly a bizarre entity, I don’t think she qualifies as a pony and even if she can master the matter known as magic, this is no reason for her constant unpredictableness. Her sudden apparition on me was proof enough that she is not bound by the laws of physics. Logic will not do with her I already sensed that.

And as for Fluttershy, hm… I do not know how I should describe her but I know that she is smart, strong and kind when it’s necessary. Her attitude towards animals shows it, she holds authority and yet doesn’t impose. I might seriously become attached to her, as for how much attached, it remains to be seen.

But overall, they seem to be quite the group and it will definitely not be as lifeless as my old life. I’m looking forward to what they have to show me.’