five of the most dangerous predators manage to find themselves in a land ruled by ponies
Sixty five million years ago was the end of the Dinosaurs. but, by the slimest of events occur, five predatory birds find themselves where the land where predators are scarce and prey is rampant.
will they prove themselves worthy of this second chance? or will they blow it like their ancestors?
Gobi desert, Mongolia, sixty five million years ago. Twelve hours before impact.
The hot cretaceous sun beat down on a pack of Velociraptor’s. The stench of death filled the hot, dry air as the small predators feasted down on their kill, a Protoceratops, a relative to the mighty Triceratops but much smaller, about sheep size, and with no horns. The shout and feathers of the alpha Velociraptor was drenched in the blood from the kill. A younger Velociraptor, nicknamed White Tip, had just joined the pack little over a month ago. Naturally, being the newest member, she ate last.
Life could be tough for the pack of raptors, but it all paid off in the end. There were little other predators, besides the rival Velociraptor packs and the occasional Oviraptor, a taller, more birdlike creature with a peculiar crest and beak that usually hunted for eggs. White Tip gazed lazily into the blue sky.
Everything was how it always was; the birds flew high, the mammals hid whenever her and her pack was near, the wait for the rainy season and finally, the earthquakes.
Wait what?
The ground shook under the Velociraptor, shifting the sand below them. White Tip desperately leaped onto a nearby dead tree to avoid the collapsing sand dune. The entire area was swallowed by the shifting sand to White tip’s amazement. She realised that she was safe, so long as she stayed in the tree.
The other raptors were not so lucky. The sudden shaking had taken them all by surprise and they panicked. Some tried to follow White tip, but were too far away from a stable structure. In the end, they all lay suffocating underneath at least six feet of sand, where they would remain for millions of years…
Mid-west North America, Sixty five million years ago. Five hours before impact.
The two monsters stared down. One was a male Utahraptor. He was about the size of a (currently non-existent) human. The other was a female Dromaeosaurs, (who was about the size of a Velociraptor). Both were after the same thing: an injured Maiasaurus.
Under normal circumstances, the Dromaeosaurs would have backed down.
But the circumstances were anything but normal.
The world was changing far faster than anything could comprehend. A large space rock filled the sky day and night. The rock caused the tremors, eruptions, giant waves and starvation.
The Dromaeosaurs growled at her larger cousin while the Utahraptor leaped at the Maiasaurus and tore its throat open with its sickle toe claw, killing it instantly. The Dromaeosaurs pounced onto the Utahraptor, causing him to stagger back and try to get her off his back.
All this notice attracted some attention from an unwanted predator. The predator had been stalking her two cousins for the last ten minutes while they fought over the kill. The Deinonychus shifted her tail for better balance on the small hillside. Deinonychus was about half the height of the Utahraptor, making her about the size of a pony. Her breath smelled like hundreds of dead carcasses from her twelve years of life. She silently eyes the kill, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Finally, just as the two other predators were in an all-out brawl with no determined victor, the Deinonychus started to feast on the Maiasaurus, and very loudly at that.
The two birds of prey stopped fighting immediately to see the female Deinonychus eating what should be their kill. The Utahraptor growled as the Dromaeosaurs charger her larger cousin. Seeing that fleeing was the best option for now, the nimble Deinonychus fled. They chased her until sunrise, where another cousin of theirs was having problems of his own in another part of the world…
European islands, sixty five million years ago. Two hours before impact.
Pod was a Pyroraptor, a little bit larger that a Velociraptor. His mission: survive the day ahead. The sun had risen in the late cretaceous sky and everything was a bit more… panicked that usual. He already had his early morning meal, a young Iguanodon, and decided to rest for now.
Last night was awful, the constant shaking and the big wave destroying his home and his pack… he’s had worse, but not by much. Pod gazed lazily at the mountain of fire in the distance. It’d been some time since it erupted. That was fun, well, except for his mother being killed by a stampede of iguanodons; the whole experience was a blast.
He’d never forget the shaking and the heat of the forest that day. In fact, thinking about it made him almost feel and smell the heat and smoke. Pod stopped his train of primitive thought, ‘smoke? But there’s no fire…’
He got himself off the ground and ran to a nearby cliff overlooking the sea. There, in the distance, towards North America, he saw what could be described as beautiful and horrifying at the same time.
A large mushroom cloud of rock, smoke and fire filled the Pyroraptor vision. Unable to take the breathtaking sight all at once, he took a step back. When he did, the world became orange, grey and finally, black as the cloud of death enveloped the entire planet…
Everfree forest, Equestria. Unknown years after impact.
Many monsters live in the haunted woods of the Everfree forest. Like Hydras, Dragons and Cockatrices. But, it’s not just the monsters that keep the residence of Ponyville out of the dangerous woods. It was the strange weather, clouds moving by themselves without any pegasi moving them, strange, uncontrolled weather and various other things.
But by far the strangest things in the forest were five reptile-like birds, all crumpled on the forest floor. Each with a headache as the strange properties of this new land filled their primitive minds…
*********************************************************************** Fluttershy was worried. Earlier today some of her bird friends claimed to have seen some sort of feathery bird hybrid. She knew of course, such a thing was impossible. But, decided to ask Twilight about the possibility anyways.
She walked through the town of Ponyville to Twilight’s house. Upon arrival, she saw Spike walking out the door. He turned to go into town and noticed her.
“Hey Fluttershy,” Spike said.
“Oh, hello there. I was wondering if I could ask Twilight something,” said Fluttershy.
Spike shook his head, “sorry, she spent all of last night studying about some strange sort of space-time rip thing that may have caused some problems. She’s sleeping right now.”
“Oh, ok, I guess it can wait until she’s awake.”
Nodding, Spike left to the town market to get something while Fluttershy returned to her cabin by the forest. When she returned, she saw that her windows were smashed open and claw marks surrounding the area. Ignoring the possibility of what ever did this was still inside, she ran into her home to see if the animals were ok.
She nearly fainted when she saw the interior of her home.
Blood and feathers covered the floor. Bird cadges torn open and strange footprints were on the floor. Fluttershy stared at the ruined house until she heard a peculiar bird-like call from behind her. She quickly turned around to face what it was.
Throughout the town, everyone could hear the scream that had escaped Fluttershy’s throat.
Pod took a cautious step back. The scream from Fluttershy was breaking his eardrums. With an angry snarl and a quick swipe at Fluttershy’s face, Pod bolted into the forest for cover. Out of the corner of his eye he saw two other shapes, one blue and the other white, running towards the yellow creature.
It was unusual for Pod to give up potential prey that easily. But, this was not his usual prey. For all he knew, these… things could tear him apart, and that was the last thing he wanted right now. He ran into the clearing he found the other raptors in. from what he knew, they were anywhere but home. To his surprise, the Velociraptor and Dromaeosaur seemed to have formed a small pack, which (now that pod thought about it) was the best course of action. The two other raptors were speaking in the language of Dinosaura, a language that has literally been lost in time.
“…this forest is strange,” said the Velociraptor.
The Dromaeosaur nodded, “only large mammals, nothing else.”
The two stopped when they heard Pod’s approach. They noticed that he had the same look in his eye as they did. Yes, Pod had the same strange spark that dignified them from the rest of the animals in the forest, the spark of intelligence.
“What do you want?” growled the Velociraptor.
“Me? I just want food. And I can’t get food without a proper pack,” replied Pod.
The Dromaeosaurs eyed Pod suspiciously, “if you are suggesting forming a pack, you should go find the other two. I’ve met them before this, if their smart, they will follow you.”
To any other creature that wasn’t from their time, they could only hear strange bird calls and reptile like hisses. Anypony in the forest at the time that heard the unnerving calls immediately left the forest with all haste.
Pod’s eyes flickered around the small clearing, and then agreed to find the other missing raptors before nightfall and set out into the strange new world.
A misty rain had enveloped Sweet Apple Acres along with the feeling of unease. Applejack looked into the orchard of trees, knowing that something was out there, something big. ‘It’s nothing. So what if Winona was acting a bit antsy? It’s just the rain,' thought Applejack, trying to keep out thoughts on what might be out there. To her right, she heard a strange, distorted bird call along with a snarl from up ahead.
Applejack tried to reaming calm, whatever it was, she could handle it. Right? After stopping to check her progress, she glanced to her right to see if she could see the bird that made the sound.
Instead of a bird, she saw two reptilian eyes staring back at her with bloody claws and ready to pounce.
Instinctively, Applejack ran for her life. She ran through the orchard of trees in an attempt to escape whatever that thing was. Suddenly, two thin grey twee trunks appeared in front of her. She tried to stop but crashed into them. She quickly got back to her hooves and looked to see what she had crashed into. Her eyes bulged when she saw what it was. The smell of rotten flesh filled her nose.
She was staring into the gaping jaws of a hungry Utahraptor.
Rarity had just finished putting the bandages on Fluttershy. According to her, some sort of monster had broken into her home and killed a lot of the animals she was caring for there. The amounts of casualties were currently unknown. Rainbow dash claimed to have seen the monster fleeing into the forest when she arrived.
“So Fluttershy,” started Rainbow dash, “did you see what the thing looked like?”
Fluttershy looked at her with teary eyes and nodded. Rainbow dash sighed; many of Fluttershy’s animals were still missing, even though they found no other signs of an attack besides the occasional footprint or blood stain.
“Well… what did It look like?” asked Rainbow dash impatiently.
“If um, looked kind of like a bird and a reptile but with really sharp teeth and claws. Its feathers were an orangey red,” said Fluttershy, whose voice, was muffled through the bandages.
“Well whatever it was I’m sure it’s gone now,” assured Rarity.
“Yes, but for how long? Lots of predators come back to feed…” Fluttershy stopped herself mid-sentence, her eyes fearful of another encounter with the mystery animal.
“Yeah? Well, it’ going to have to deal with me first!” said Rainbow dash as she flew off to go find the monster.
Rarity and Fluttershy saw rainbow dash fly over the forest.
“Do you think she’ll be alright?” asked Rarity.
Fluttershy nodded, “I don’t think it could fly. If she stays high up, I’m sure it can’t reach her.”
Applejack had certainly tried. The smaller of the two monsters was dragging her away by pulling her back right leg in its mouth. Applejack was in the peculiar state between consciousness and unconsciousness. Just aware enough to know that she was being pulled along the muddy ground.
The fight was short and unfair. First, one of the two monsters was about twice the size she was and two, she had no idea what these things were of how to fight them. Her eyes shifted slowly to see her attackers. One of them had orange feathers with a green stripe pattern is its back. The other’s feathers were a deep black, with some grey at its feet. Both were making bird noises, which Applejack assumed was their method of speaking, until another, smaller creature with burnt orange feathers approached the two.
“You two, leave the mammal and return to the forest,” said Pod in the method of bird calls.
“Why? It’s our kill, and we’re not giving it to you, so run along little one and leave the hunting for real predators,” said the Deinoychus.
Pod glared at the two, “I don’t want the stupid mammal, and I just need you two to be at the clearing. I spoke with the two others and we need your help to form a pack.”
The Utahraptor snorted, “Yeah? And why is that?”
“Strength in numbers. I’m sure you’ve hunted things three times your size with a pack. Well, although there isn’t anything that big here, I have seen these mammals do more than any plant eater than I’ve ever seen,” said Pod.
“What are you implying, shorty?” growled the Deinoychus, looming menacingly over Pod.
“These aren’t the stupid plant eaters we hunted. These things have caves with miniature suns and more,” replied Pod, “I don’t want to be killed by a mammal, so it’s best if we stay together for the time being.”
The two North American’s looked at their English cousin. “Fine, we’ll join your little pack, but, I eat first,” said the Utahraptor as he and the Deinoychus ran off into the forest passed the strange red fruit trees.
Pod looked at the fruit and then back to the orange mammal lying on the ground. The two‘s eyes met briefly, Pod and Applejack both took a mental note at the intelligence they could see in each other’s eyes. After growling slightly, Pod took off in the direction of the other two raptors.
It was almost ten minutes later until somepony found applejack and rushed her to the hospital for the bleeding and the claw marks. When one of her friends, Rainbow dash asked what did this, she said three things.
White tip patently waited for the Pyroraptor’s return. The Dromaeosaur, named Red tooth, had gone hunting for food. Nothing in the forest was especially dangerous; in fact, most of them were quite easy to trick. White tip found that confusing, back in the desert, she would have never have thought of forming a pack with for different species, let alone some she just met. But something in her mind told her it was the right thing to do.
Even since the headache she had when she awoke in the forest, her intelligence rose drastically. Before she had the intelligence of a possum at best, now she was at least as smart as seven year old filly.
Unbeknownst to her, the strange properties of Equestria had somehow altered her mind, making it more suitable to survive. That coupled with the fact that she was among the smartest of all the creatures on earth sixty five million years ago gave her and the other raptors a decent advantage against any potential predator in the area.
A cold gust of wind blew past White tip, causing her to shiver. ‘It was never this cold in the desert…’ she thought as she tried to find Red before nightfall. The clouds overhead were dark and gloomy, usually a sign for rain. White tip continued to search for Red Claw as she stumbled into Pod along with the Utahraptor and the Deinoychus.
“So, you wanted to see us?” asked the Utahraptor.
The Deinoychus glanced at the two before sniffing around a hole in the ground. It smelled like the mammals back in the cold forest. If the mammals were smart, they would have gotten supplies for the approaching winter. If not, they should be leaving soon to get them. All she had to do was wait the out. While she was doing this, she heard the Pyroraptor, Utahraptor, and the young Velociraptor talking about making a pack.
The idea generally uninterested her, but if she wanted a decent meal before the first snow, which she assumed may be just days away, she needed to be in a pack. The Deinoychus growled slightly as she turned away from the mammal nest. The other predators were staring at her; she assumed they had asked her to join the pack. Sighing heavily, she answered.
The steady beeps from the hospital were starting to get on Applejack’s nerves. The attack from earlier had left her with multiple cuts, a broken leg and some minor organ damage. The doctors assumed that whatever did this weren’t trying to kill her, only injure to get later. Applejack shivered whenever she had to re tell what the monster looked like.
Fluttershy and Rainbow dash seemed to be the most interested, Fluttershy because it appeared to be a new animal and Rainbow dash because a smaller orange one attacked Fluttershy earlier. Fluttershy was amazed to learn that there was not just one, but two more of these strange monsters. It also worried her that the two that attacked her were much bigger based on Applejack’s description of them.
It was disturbing how close the monsters wee to the farm, only about three minutes away. If the monsters decided to return to the farm again… ‘No, Big Macintosh will keep Applebloom safe,’ Applejack reassured herself. ‘After all, there are only three and one of them is a coward.’ She was certain that he brother could handle them if they returned.
Applejack looked out of the hospital window, a small flurry of snowflakes were gently falling from the sky and landed softly on the ground…
“What did you call this?” asked White tip, shivering.
“It’s called snow,” replied the Pyroraptor, whose name she learned was Pod.
They had found Red claw shortly after the Deinoychus, named Pounce, had agreed to join their pack. The Utahraptor, who claims his name, is Frost, had said that the winter had stated and they should find a cave or something to stay warm during the winter.
Now, White tip was from the desert, which it rained once or twice a year, which made snow impossible. The other four raptors have had to deal with snow most of their lives and occasionally thought if White tip was going to survive the winter. Only Red claw thought she was going to survive. Pounce, Pod and Frost however, were just waiting for it to happen to get it over with.
Later that night the snow had really started to come down. Even Frost and Pounce, who lived in cold areas all throughout the year, instead of going south like Pod and Red claw, were shivering. The cold was relentless as they hunted for something, preferably a large mammal of some sort, like a deer.
“I can’t even see my claws right in front of my face,” grumbled Pounce as she walked cautiously through the snow with Pod.
“It’s not so bad,” replied Pod as he sneezed, causing Pounce to laugh at him.
“Yeah? Well, maybe if you, I don’t know, had camouflage instead of those bright red feathers then maybe you would hunt better.”
Pod glanced at her, “oh, you can hunt better than me even though you can’t see your claws that are right in front of your face. Camouflage only gets you so far against bigger prey. I use intimidation.”
Pod could tell that Pounce was snickering and saying “yeah, intimidating lizards.”
A squirrel scampered across the ground, avoiding the patches of snow that were forming. The squirrel suddenly stopped, as if a brick wall was in front of it. The rodent had a sudden feeling of dead, like something was going to-.
A loud crack echoed throughout the small open area as Frost tore the skull off of the dead squirrel. The meal was pitifully small for the six foot carnivore, but it was the best he could find. Until he found a deer, rodents were the next best thing.
‘But what about the fruit mammal?’ thought Frost, ‘I’d have been able to get a decent meal out of that. If only Pod hadn’t interrupted me,’ he snapped the squirrel’s rib cage with his foot. Being robbed of a decent meal was annoying, having to be in the same pack of the one who caused it was infuriating.
‘When the winter’s over, I’m going to snap that red feathered freak’s neck,’ thought Frost as he ate the final remains of the unlucky rodent.
Still hungry, Frost continued to hunt through the forest, which slowly became a snowy wasteland. By the time he figured he’d survive the night, he called out to the other raptors, calling them to the area he was in.
One by one the other raptors called back in response, the first being Pounce and the last being White tip. Eventually all of the raptors met back in the clearing where they first awoke about twenty hours ago. Almost immediately, the absence of White tip was noticed.
“Where do you think she is?” asked Red claw.
Pounce yawned, “Probably dead.” Just then, White tip’s call drifted through the wind. “Or just lost, either way, she’s not going to survive the night.”
Pod sighed, an interesting sound to anything but a fellow raptor, “as grim as it may be, I agree with Pounce, there is no way White tip is going to survive until sunrise.”
Red claw chose to remain silent, over the past few hours hunting in the forest with White tip; she had learnt that she was extremely effective at hunting the smaller prey, like rats, squirrels and those strange bat chicken things.
“If the desert crawler is dead, so be it. I am not going out to find her in this storm,” said Frost as he walked into a nearby cave. The others glanced at each other and followed their unofficial pack leader into the cave.
Meanwhile, White tip called out into the frozen forest. If under better circumstances, she’d call the icy forest beautiful.
But it’s hard to call you grave pretty when you’re all alone with no food in sight.
Still, White tip called out to the other raptors. After a while of no one responding, she gave up and searched for shelter. She silently walked through the cold forest, her breath freezing in the cool winter night. She was shivering violently, being a native to a desert, her feathers were more suited to cool the Velociraptor down, not keep her warm.
After about a half hour of wandering, she saw lights through the frozen trees. ‘Light means warmth. Warmth means life. Life means food,’ she thought as she ran through the forest towards the almost heavenly light.
Low hanging branches snapped off the tree as White tip crashed through them in a desperate attempt to get to the light. Her feathers were covered with her own blood as she crashed through the last few trees and stopped dead in her tracks.
Not far away, a large mammal, fitting the description that Pod gave her about the one he encountered when he awoke, stood near the entrance to her wooden cave, calling out to something in the mammalian language, which none of the raptors could understand.
White tip became extremely cautious. Pod was bigger than her, and he said the mammal was big, White tip stared at the large yellow mammal as she noticed that her legs were giving way. She stopped staring at the yellow mammal and glanced at her legs, which were soaked in blood and snow. White tip took a surprised step back, causing intense pain the shoot throughout her body, causing her to snarl in surprise.
The yellow mammal heard the snarl and turned to White tip. It made and “eep!” as it backed away into its cave. White tip tried to take a step forwards but collapsed into the snow from the pain in her legs and the bitter cold. The last thing she saw before losing consciousness was the yellow mammal rushing towards her…
To say Fluttershy was uneasy was an understatement. To say she was absolutely terrified would be a more accurate guess. About an hour ago, she saw one of the monsters collapse into the snow with multiple cuts, minor hypothermia and (from what she can see) mild starvation. Judging from what Applejack said about the size two monsters that attacked her and the orange one she encountered earlier, this was by far the smallest, only about three feet tall. But that wasn’t the thing that worried her, no,
It was that she had an active carnivore in her house with multiple small, helpless animals that the monster could no doubt eat in a minute. Thankfully, the orange monster seamed to only have eaten two birds and injured a beaver. All of the other animals seemed alright, save for the younger ones who were present during the attack.
Anyway, the white feathered monster lay shivering violently on a makeshift bed on the floor with multiple blankets on it. Occasionally it lashed t with one of its injured legs, making it screech and quickly withdraw it back under the blanket. After a while, the monster stopped shivering and Fluttershy got her first good look at it. It was surprisingly small for a carnivore, and from the way it had moved earlier, it appeared to be a young adult.
Although she might have second thoughts about this later, Fluttershy did admit that it looked relative harmless as it slept under the blankets. Yawning, Fluttershy decided that she would get to bed too, but not after she put a muzzle around the monster’s snout to make sure it didn’t eat anything if it woke up before her. After the muzzle was placed, Fluttershy went upstairs to her bed, hoping that she could learn more about the monster in the morning.
It was the smell of rotting flesh that awoke Pod in the dark forest cave. He stretched out his tired forearms and walked out of the cave. Outside he saw Frost and Pounce eating a bear. Pod smiled as he approached them.
“I see you found a decent meal,” said Pod as he looked around the carcass.
Frost glanced at him and resumed eating. Pounce moved her head out of the bear’s stomach region with a small bit of flesh sticking out of her blood stained mouth, “don’t just assume that you’re going to be able to get some of it. We caught it; go find your own food.”
Pod rolled his eyes and walked into the frozen trees. He spotted some raccoons and another one of those weird bat chicken things. The strange thing about the bat chickens were, they kept staring at him, as if they were trying to intimidate him. ‘Oh well, they just leave themselves open for attack,’ thought Pod as he ducked under a low branch of a tree. After a while, his thought’s drifted to White tip. ‘She’s probably dead, but, we’ll never know until we find her body.’ After coming to that conclusion, Pod turned the other way and walked back towards the cave…
She had awoken this morning in the yellow mammal’s cave with something strapped around her snout, preventing her from eating and some white bandages around her legs that were stained with her blood. She glared at her captor as she fluttered around feeding all the small prey.
“So, what are you supposed to be?”
White tip spun around and stared at a nearby bird that landed on the table behind her. She made a muffled sound, which the bird couldn’t understand.
“Ah, I assume you can understand me?”
White tip reluctantly nodded and attempted to clean the feathers on her arm, which wasn’t possible with the muzzle.
“Well, as I see you can’t speak, what are you here for? Injury or just hanging around for the free food?” asked the bird.
White tip rolled her eyes and started to pull the muzzle off her snout. To her surprise, it actually started to slide off when the yellow mammal noticed.
“Oh, Mr. Bird were you speaking with the monster?” asked the yellow mammal.
White tip slowly turned to see the yellow mammal. Somehow, it had just spoken the language of Dinosaura, abet with a heavy mammalian accent but it was the same language none the less. White tip moved her claws again to see if the yellow mammal understood.
Unfortunately, the yellow mammal started to speak in mammalian again, much to White tips annoyance, as she turned away and started to try and pull off the muzzle again. Oddly, the yellow mammal spoke in a quiet voice to White tip in an attempt to get her to stop pulling off the muzzle. Just as White tip pulled off the muzzle, she snarled at her success. She confidently turned to the yellow mammal that captured her and opened her jaws, hungry for food.
And then, blinding, searing pain waved through White tip’s eyes as they looked into the yellow mammals. She screeched in surprise and pain as she desperately tried to look away. The mammal spoke again, this time her words utterly clear.
“No! Bad monster! You will not eat any of these animals!” it said sternly.
White tip continued to screech in pain, but uttered a response, “fine! Sorry, just, make the pain stop!” when White tip managed to finally stop the pain, she collapsed to the wooden floor in pained, shuddering gasps. The yellow mammal looked concerned, like that wasn’t supposed to happen. White tip tried to drag herself across the floor in a weak escape attempt. The attempt fell short as White tip started to lose consciousness about two feet from her starting point. Discouraged, White tip stopped to regain her senses and let the pain subside before another attempt. The yellow mammal looked at her curiously as White tip attempted to swipe at it with her claws.
The mammal however, continued to look and even dared to walk closer. White tip turned her gaze back to the bird, who shrugged.
“I’ve never seen the look do that. Must be bad luck,” he said.
“Bad luck is all I ever have,” muttered White tip.
The bird looked at her, “ah, so you can speak. So, repeating my question from earlier, what exactly are you?”
“Velociraptor,” said White tip as she tried to get up, making sure that the yellow mammal could tell that she wasn’t going to attack.
“Velociraptor, huh? Hmm, can’t say I’ve ever heard of one of those. Where do you normally live? Those feathers don’t seem like their meant for cold winters like this.”
“I used to live in a desert,” said White tip, “as of yesterday I now live in that forest with my new pack. My old one was killed in a falling dune.”
The bird nodded, “I see… my old flock migrated without me so I’m staying for the winter. I can see you attempted something similar, yes?” he said, motioning to White tip’s bandages.
White tip stretched slightly and sat down on the floor, “I saw a light. The light led me to here. I’m not sure if it saved my life or doomed it.”
The bird chuckled, “my friend, it definitely saved your life. Fluttershy knows all about nearly every animal and is always kind enough to help them. But, one thing you must never do it threaten another animal, as you learned mere moments ago.”
White tip turned and watched Fluttershy, who had returned to caring for the other animals. Seeing her chance, White tip slowly got to her feet and crept slowly across the floor to escape. After three tense minutes of walking slowly and watching for Fluttershy, White tip stopped at the door, which was closed. The handle of the door was, unfortunately, a pull door. White tip tried to open it; all of her attempts were met with failure, until she noticed a window nearby. Eyeing it, White tip crept towards the window and peered out it.
Outside there was an endless ocean of snow. White tip calculated her chances of surviving out there without a pack, which were far too low to even bother to make an attempt. White tip sighed and walked back over to the bird, not even trying to be quiet, and sat back down.
“Ah, the door, the obstacle that far too few have managed to get past,” said the bird. He noticed White tip closing her eyes and sighing, “don’t worry, Raptor, you’ll be outta here as soon as the snow melts and I bet you’re new pack will be overjoyed to see that you’re alive.”
White tip made a hacking sound that the bird soon realised was a sarcastic laugh, “overjoyed? They’ll be pissed because they’ll have one more mouth to feed. If you haven’t noticed, I’m a carnivore. And everything in this room is food just begging to be eaten. You’re lucky bird, if Fluttershy didn’t have here death glare, you’d be dead faster than you’d be able to take your next breath.”
A cool winter breeze drifted through the dark cave in the Everfree forest that inhabited four strange creatures.
Pod lazily opened one of his slate grey eyes. He lifted his head up and yawned quietly. Today was the second day of White tip’s absence and probably the day he should forget about her at all.
Unfortunately, in Pods fifteen years of life, he’s learned that every member of a pack has a role. His and Red claw’s role was to hunt the smaller prey while Frost and Pounce hunted the larger prey to survive the winter.
White tip’s role was uncertain. She was easily the smallest of the five, just over two feet tall and the youngest. The main advantage she was that she was the fastest, as she was able to quickly snatch the young prey before the parents could react and defend them.
Rays of sunlight were shining into the cave now and the other three were waking up. The carcass from the day before had been nearly picked clean by the night time scavengers, not that Frost and Pounce left them much anyway.
Pod got off the ground and yawned again, ‘if White tip does have a role, maybe I shouldn’t give up the chance she survived just yet,’ he thought.
Red claw glanced at Pod, “I know she’s not dead, Pod.”
“What do you mean?” asked Pod, slightly unnerved at how Red claw seemed to know what he was thinking.
Red claw shrugged, “White tip is not dead, I found her tracks leading out of the forest.”
“That could be anyone’s tracks,” replied Pod.
Red claw shook her head, “no, none of us has feet that small but her. She is definitely alive.”
“So what if you found her tracks? She could have died further ahead.”
“Ahead was a wooden cave inhabited by one of the large mammals,” said Red claw, “White tip isn’t stupid. She must have seen the cave and took shelter inside. Why the yellow mammal is still alive I’m not sure, but I definitely saw her shadow inside.”
Pod nodded while Pounce snorted at Red claw’s statement, “White tip was a desert crawler. There is no way that she’d have survived. What you saw was something else, maybe one of those freakish wood carnivores.”
“I know what I saw. And I saw White tip,” insisted Red claw.
Frost tapped the ground with his sickle toe claw; the sound reverberated around the cave. “Whatever you saw, as unlikely as it may be, White tip may still be out there.”
Pounce rolled her eyes, “don’t tell me you believe these two?”
Frost stared straight ahead and looked beyond the cave and into the frozen forest. “Every member of a pack serves a purpose. No matter how small. If White tip still has even the slightest possibility of being alive, then she still is part of this pack.”
“Steady, steady,” said Frank the bird as White tip slowly walked out of Fluttershy’s cave, which was called a cabin.
Fluttershy seemed to have noticed late yesterday that White tip needed to be in an environment more ‘suitable for her body type’. Which meant that she was allowed to roam around outside for a certain amount of time while Fluttershy made sure that she didn’t eat anything.
Eating was another problem for White tip. Like how she noticed that she needed to be outside, Fluttershy had barley even needed to check White tip’s teeth before knowing that she was a carnivore. White tip had only eaten some sort of meat-like product that any carnivore could tell wasn’t natural.
White tip made Fluttershy nervous and uncomfortable, which was oblivious to White tip. Still, she didn’t pose as much of a threat as she would like with her legs damaged from two nights ago.
“Steady,” Frank said again.
White tip rolled her eyes. She hadn’t been walking since the pain killers that were used for her legs wore off and she was just trying to get around today. Unfortunately, every step was painful. Although White tip was no stranger to pain (as most would be if they had to spend two weeks in the desert without a proper meal and a sprained ankle) she had never experienced the pain this intense on both of her legs at the same time. That coupled with the bitter cold outside made even a slow walk challenging.
“You try walking steadily with bandages around your legs,” muttered White tip as she cautiously took another step forwards and away from the cabin.
Fluttershy had decided to let White tip roam around town, with her and Frank supervising of course, and hopefully finding out if Twilight had any idea what she might be. Of course, Frank knew that she was a Velociraptor; Fluttershy couldn’t understand White tip and Frank could barely pronounce it and just called her Raptor, which meant bird of prey.
Although Fluttershy had dealt with predatory birds before, like eagles and falcons, she had never encountered one without wings and had an entire jaw full of razor sharp teeth.
The ground was a pale white due to the snow and frost, which did not help with White tip’s injures. It was around ten in the morning when Fluttershy decided that it was about time that Twilight took a look at White tip. Frank decided to accompany them by standing on top of White tip’s head, much to her annoyance.
During the walk through the town, White tip was given looks from horror to curiosity. One small pony dared to walk closer to White tip. The opportunity to scare the small pony was too easy to pass up so she turned towards it when Fluttershy wasn’t looking and stepped towards it with her claws outstretched and jaws gaping.
The small pony shrieked in terror and fled as fast as its legs could carry it. White tip started to laugh again, causing Frank and Fluttershy to glare at her. Sighing, White tip turned back ahead and resumed walking.
“Be more careful,” said Frank, “the ponies don’t like strange new things that nobody knows anything about.”
White tip rolled her eyes, “well, it was its fault for getting so close to me.”
“Her,” corrected Frank, “the foal was a she.”
“Whatever,” muttered White tip.
The two were silent until they arrived at Twilight’s house with Fluttershy, Who knocked on the door and waited for a response. To White tip’s surprise, a small purple reptilian thing a little smaller than her opened the door.
The two stared at each other until White tip growled slightly, causing it to jump.
Fluttershy started to speak with the reptile in mammalian. After a moment the reptile invited them inside where anther large mammal (Frank called them ponies) and the purple one with a horn on its head looked at White tip curiously before speaking with Fluttershy.
White tip sighed; she couldn’t understand a word they were saying. Trying to pass the time, White tip decided to look around. There were shelves with things called ‘books’ on them all around the building.
“What’s the point of having all these books everywhere?” wondered White tip aloud.
“Huh?”
Spike scratched his head. He swore he had heard someone speaking. It didn’t sound like Twilight or Fluttershy, no, it sounded like a low bird call but spoken like it was Equestrian.
“Did you hear that?” Spike asked Twilight and Fluttershy.
They shook their heads. Frowning, Spike looked around to find the source of the voice. After a few minutes of searching, Spike returned to the main room of the library and sat on a chair around where White tip was wandering.
“Who could have that been?” he asked himself.
Spike saw White tip walk up to him, the small bird on her head seemed to be chirping to her.
“Spike, huh? Not very threatening is he?”
Spike froze and stared at White tip, who returned the look. Spike shook his head, “no, that’s crazy.”
“What’s he saying?” White tip asked Frank.
Frank blinked in surprise, “I think he can understand you.”
Now it was White tip’s turn to be surprised, “what? But, I he can understand me, then why can’t I understand him?”
Frank shrugged, “maybe it has to do with your species. You sound and act like a bird, but you look like some sort of two legged reptile with feathers.”
White tip considered this and tried something, “hey, purple guy, nod your head if you can hear me.”
To White tips utter amazement, Spike nodded slowly. White tip stared at him, astounded by the discovery that something other than a bird could understand her.
“You can speak to them, right?” asked White tip slowly as she gestured to Twilight and Fluttershy, who were staring at her and Spike.
Again, Spike nodded.
“Interesting,” muttered White tip under her breath, “you can understand me, but I can’t understand you. You can talk to them, but I can’t,” White tip suddenly smiled as an idea popped into her head, “hey, Spike was it? Well, since you can talk to them, can you get them to let me go back to the forest and rejoin my pack?”
“Hey, Spike,” asked Twilight, who white tip couldn’t understand, “what are you doing?”
Spike turned to her, “I think I can understand her.”
Twilight and Fluttershy beamed at him, “what?! Is it saying anything?”
Spike nodded, “yeah, I think she wants to go back to her pack in the forest.”
“Wait, maybe those things that attacked Fluttershy and Applejack are the others in this one’s pack!” exclaimed Twilight.
“But Applejack said the monsters that attacked her were much bigger and had black and dark green feathers and the one that attacked the animals at my house had orange feathers.”
Twilight continued smiling, “maybe they are all different species! We may have come across a whole new genre of animals!”
White tip looked at Twilight, who was rambling on in mammalian with worry. She backed away and growled at Twilight as she ran up to her to try and see every possible visible detail on her body.
White tip didn’t like this. She didn’t like this at all.
White tip awoke with an angry screech. Yesterday was her worse day living with Fluttershy by far.
She had handed her over to the purple demon known as Twilight Sparkle.
Physically White tip wasn’t harmed. Unfortunately, something else would have to be said about her mental state. The entire latter half of yesterday Twilight had run experiments and tests on her to learn more about what exactly White tip was. One experiment in particular had White tip muzzled and chained to a wall so Twilight could try and learn what purpose her feathers had due to her being unable to fly.
From what she understood, she was currently the most dangerous thing alive that’s less than four feet tall. She is able to kill almost anything she want’s if she manages to catch it off guard.
And that included unaware ponies.
White tip looked around Fluttershy’s cabin, other than Frank, most of the animals in the cabin stayed as far away from White tip as possible.
White tip sighed, from what Frank had told her, Twilight would come to check her again. White tip’s claws curled slightly at the thought of her. After all she’s been through her greatest challenge is a purple mammal called Twilight, and she’s an herbivore at that.
‘No,’ she thought, ‘I have not come this far for this.’
White tip walked over to the window. Snow was still falling; abet much less than yesterday and the day before. A squirrel scurried across the snow. White tip’s eyes narrowed like they did when she was hunting her prey. The food Fluttershy has been giving her was dull and tasteless. White tip craved for a real meal. Not some handout, no, she wanted live prey. White tip wanted to toy with her meal before snapping its neck and slicing it in half.
With grim determination in her eyes, White tip slowly backed away from the window. With a loud shriek, she charged at the window full force and landed on the cold snow outside. Shacking she glass off her feathers, White tip ran as fast as her still bandaged legs could carry her in the direction of Ponyville.
As cold as it was outside, White tip felt nothing but the burning feeling of hate for Twilight and the ravenous hunger for prey.
Fluttershy looked around Ponyville franticly searching for White tip. About an hour ago she noticed that one of her windows were smashed open a trail of footprints lead into town.
Now, normally Fluttershy would be slightly calmer if it wasn’t a carnivore that she knew next to nothing about. Even worse, given what White tip had been through yesterday, who knows what’s going on inside her head.
Fluttershy continued her frantic search until she heard a loud shriek in the distance. Turning to where she thought it might have originated from, Fluttershy ran towards Sweet Apple acres in hopes of finding a mentally unsound White tip.
Prey. At long last prey. White tip snarled at the orange pony that she was fighting. The orange pony jumped out of the way of White tip’s three inch claw and tried to kick her with one of her hind legs.
It was White tip’s turn to leap back as an even larger red pony burst from the trees and attempted to charge White tip. Shrieking loudly, White tip leapt into the air in the path of the charging red pony and landing on its back.
The red pony started bucking into the air as it tried to shake White tip off its back. White tip however, was used to her previous favourite prey, Protoceratops, trying to shake her off the same way and sunk her five inch sickle toe claw. The red pony made a loud sound that was utterly alien to White tip but she assumed that it was in pain. Gaining confidence that the fight was going her way, White tip moved her jaws towards the neck of the red pony and was about to step it’s neck.
The orange pony made another loud sound and tackled White tip off the red one. Unfortunately, White tips claws were still sunk in the back of the red pony causing a rather large about of it to be torn off along with White tip. Blood splattered across the snow, causing the red pony to collapse onto the ground from the intense pain of having its skin torn off, as White tip turned to the orange pony.
Applejack stared at White tip in a look of pure rage. The small predator had attacked her just moments before. If it weren’t for Big Macintosh it was very likely that she’d be dead right now. Applejack growled slightly as the three foot predator snarled again. The two both stared at each other, waiting for the other to back down leaving the open to attack. A branch snapped nearby and it took a lot of willpower from both of them not to turn to see what caused it.
Little did either of they know, the source of the disturbance would turn the table in the favor of whoever could get away the fastest.
Frost roared angrily as he crashed through the trees and lunged at White tip. Both Applejack and White tip broke eye contact and turned towards the massive predator that was charging towards White tip. Applejack turned away and ran as she saw Frost grab White tip in his jaws, shake her until she went limp and walked off back into the trees. After she was certain that they were gone, Applejack retuned to where her brother had collapsed and desperately tried to wake him up.
“Did you find her?” asked Pod as Frost retuned to the clearing in front of the cave.
Frost opened his jaws and White tip fell to the snow on the ground, still unconscious from before.
“What does it look like, Red feathers?”
Pod stared at the unconscious form of his Mongolian cousin. She had faded white bandages around her legs from a few nights before and looked more or less fed. Pod was impressed at her condition to say the least.
“How do you think she managed?” asked Pod.
Frost lifted his right arm and began cleaning out the feathers, “I found her attacking the orange mammal from day one. The two seemed to be fighting over a large red mammal not too far away. White tip must have done a number on him because he was surrounded in blood.”
“And you didn’t bring it back because?”
Frost stopped cleaning his feathers and stared at Pod, “are you leading this pack?”
Pod stared at the ground, “no.”
“Then don’t tell me what I do and don’t do,” said Frost menacingly, “the mammal will most likely survive anyway. Pounce was stalking the orange one two days ago and it had mostly recovered from the attack when we arrived.”
“I still don’t know how it did that,” muttered Pod.
“These mammals are smart, a lot smarter that the prey we usually hunt. They will not stop fighting until we leave or they’ve rotted for three days and have gotten a layer of snow on them,” said Frost, “do not under estimate them.”
Fluttershy stared at Applejack, who had a tired look in her eyes.
“I really do think it’s better that that big… thing took her away anyhow.”
“I know she was scared but, how could she do that?” asked Fluttershy quietly.
Applejack sighed, “Fluttershy, that thing isn’t from here. Twilight said so herself. Whatever she is she’s too dangerous to be around here. You saw what she did to Big Mac.”
Fluttershy shuddered; Big Macintosh had suffered from multiple cut wounds and massive blood loss. It was a miracle that he was alive, let alone that he nearly walked here without much help.
“I know what she did was wrong but I still think she’s not all bad,” said Fluttershy.
Applejack stared at her, “she nearly killed my brother and probably would have done the same to me if that thing didn’t take her away.”
“Twilight scared her yesterday. I have taken care of some… carnivores in the past and sometimes they can react like that when their put under a lot of stress. I think it’s called ‘post traumatic predator disorder’.”
Applejack shook her head, “I don’t care what you call it, she nearly killed my brother. Unless she can apologise and make up for it, she’s not aloud anywhere my farm or my family.”
“I’ll make sure she knows when I find her again,” said Fluttershy.
“Don’t tell me that you’re going to look for the varmint in the forest?” asked Applejack.
Fluttershy nodded, “I have to. She’s all alone in there with that big monster and she might be in trouble. Also, Twilight want’s to show her to the Princess.”
Applejack sighed, “You must be crazy thinking you’re going into the forest to find that weird new monster and you’re little lizard bird alone. Heck, I’m also crazy for going to go with you.”
“Really?” asked Fluttershy.
Applejack sighed, “I don’t want to. I really don’t. But there is no way that I’m letting you go in there alone. Come on, let’s get the other girls and see if they want to help you find your monster.”
Fluttershy smiled and Applejack muttered that she was crazy under her breath as they went to go find their friends.
it is to my great regret to anounce that this story will be temporaly put on hold until insperation strikes or my duel with another author is finished.
i know this is inconveniant, as it stopped before i could get to the intence FOREST EXPLORATION part of the story.
please bear with me here (there will be bears in the FOREST EXPLORATION) i DO plan on finishing this and i WILL update this as much as i can, just not as often.
The loud chirping of birds caused an odd looking bird with white feathers to stir slightly. White tip slowly opened her eyes and was greeted by a small Chickadee. White tip looked the little bird curiously; something about it reminded it of herself. She just couldn’t figure out what.
The soft crunch of footsteps on snow alerted White tip of someone else’s presence. White tip curled her tail in slightly, making her slightly more spherical when she heard the footsteps move onto stone.
There was a sigh from her left, “You’re surprisingly lucky.”
White tip’s eyes darted around her, only to the clawed feet of whoever was speaking with her.
“Everyone said you were dead. But, I knew you weren’t. You just don’t go and die in the cold after you’ve survived your pack being killed twice. You just can’t do that.”
The being chuckled softly, “I was close to giving up myself, but then I remembered something important.”
“You’re a Raptor.”
The sounds of birds stopped. The frigid forest became utterly silent, besides the occasional shriek from Frost, Pounce or Pod.
White tip raised her head to look at Red Claw. Despite not being missing for very long, White tip had mostly forgotten what Red Claw had looked like. She was bigger than her, but still quite a bit smaller than Pounce and nearly miniscule compared to Frost. White tip’s eyes met her fellow pack members.
“Do you know what that word means?” asked White tip quietly.
Red Claw made a chirping sound, which was the equivalent to a nod, “Thief, egg stealer and my personal favorite, bird of prey.”
White tip got off of the cool cave floor and stared at her North American cousin. She stared at Red Claw, a faint glow of anger in her eyes.
“…Have you ever had a clutch of eggs before?” asked White tip finally.
Red claw shrugged, “This is my third Cold, so no. No eggs and definitely no mate for me.”
White tip sighed, “My last pack was my first clutch. They died in a falling dune, just like my last one. They were only hatchlings then.”
Red Claw nodded slowly. Eggs were a rather large part of their diet if there wasn’t any prey around. Of course, since all the prey that they had discovered here had been mammalian, there were no eggs to be found. Well, at least not any that would be large enough to be considered a meal.
The quiet of the forest engulfed the cave, making the sounds of the other predators in the distance echo like gunshots. Suddenly, there was a sharp, high pitched sound, then silence. Red Claw glanced at White tip. Even though they were originally thousands of miles apart, every member of the Dromaeosaur family knew what that sound meant.
It was the sound of them being challenged for territory.
Frost’s eyes flickered between the pack of strange predators before Pod, Pounce and himself. He slowly waked up to what appeared to be the leader of the opposing predators. He rose up to his full height and glared down upon the opposing hunter.
Unbeknownst to Frost, Pounce and Pod, the creatures they were facing was none other than a pack of Timberwolves. They had never faced anything like them, as Late Cretaceous Earth lacked large quadruped carnivores, especially ones that were made from wood.
Not too many days before Frost had recovered White tip, Frost had claimed the title of Alpha of the pack of four, now five raptors. He was unopposed, as the next raptor that would have tried to run that position was half his height. That didn’t faze Pounce the slightest, she knew Frost knew what he was doing. His massive height was an added bonus, as he kept larger, rival predators away as well. None of the larger predators they had encountered gave them much trouble, none except for the Timberwolves.
Frost stepped forwards, challenging the rival alpha. Pounce and Pod watched one of the Timberwolves, a larger one with a scar across its left eye walk up to face Frost. The two stared at each other, the glowing green eyes of the Timberwolf staring about four feet up at the midnight blue eyes of the Utahraptor.
All of a sudden, like an invisible switch was thrown, the two began to fight. Frost charged the wolf as the wooden predator made a jump that should be impossible for something of that body type at Frost. The Timberwolf managed to bite Frost’s right forearm, which caused him to shriek in pain and bite at the wolf’s neck.
There was a sickening crunch as Frost managed to crush the outer layer of bark on the Timberwolf’s neck (and breaking some of his weaker teeth in the process) and nearly tore his arm off as he ripped the Timberwolf away from his arm and flung it into the snow. The wooden wolf crashed into the ground, bouncing off of it twice, and rolled in an attempt to shake off the injuries it contacted during the fall.
Meanwhile Frost paused for a moment to look at his injured arm. Blood was flowing like a stream from the bite, which made Frost turn his head back to the Timberwolf, who was standing on it wooden paws again, preparing another charge when the wolf suddenly froze and began to whimper softly.
Frost tilted his head in confusion and turned back to Pounce and Pod, who also had looks of confusion. Then the wolves began to whine loudly, as if scared for some reason.
‘Something isn’t right,’ thought Frost, ‘They can sense something coming, but what? And why can’t I ether?’
Frost turned back to the wolves, who his astonishment, had completely vanished. Frost grimaced in the way only an Utahraptor could and crouched down like he was hunting something. He noticed that Pounce and Pod had walked closer and had taken similar hunting stances.
A branch snapped nearby, causing Pod to jump slightly. If the situation wasn’t so serious Pounce probably would have snickered at Pod. But, it’s essential that predators make absolutely no sounds when unseen danger could be around.
The wind slowly began to pick up, making Frost hiss quietly in pain where the wolf bit him. Another branch snapped, this time even closer than the last one. Frost suddenly tuned his head to the left and his eyes widened in shock and terror.
Standing there, in all of its three meters tall and six ton glory, was a Tarbosaurus Bataar. The Tyranosaurid was covered from the back of its head down in black and purple feathers that reached all the way to the tip of its tail. It’s giant, menacing eyes sent chills down the three raptor’s spines.
How they had managed to go this long without encountering it, they may never know. All they knew now was that they had to get the hell out of there.
“W-what do we do?” asked Pod. He’d never seen a predator as large as a Tarbosaurus before, and frankly, he never wanted to.
Frost sized the predator up for a moment, before responding.
“Run like hell.”
The mighty predator bellowed a horrible, alien sound throughout the frozen forest and charged after the three retreating raptors. The beast chased after them until the three were swallowed by a maze of large, frozen roots and tunnels that Frost and Pounce could barely fit in. the beast roared again, making snow fall off branches and striking terror in all of the nearby hibernating animals awakened by the bellow.
