Daneroka tik no Merunam: The Godkiller's Lament

Collars and Troopers'

Hopefully this is a little bit more interesting, and the italic's in the later half are the meeting 'Reginald' is having with the Elements and the Sisters', just to clarify.

To state the obvious, flying was something that made Rainbow Dash's life worthwhile, and today was no different.

With a beat of her wings, she shot into the sky, rising higher and higher. She flapped until Ponyville was a speck far below her, the townsfolk not even visible, and closed her eyes.

With her eyes still closed, she dove, pulling her wings in to lower drag, and tilted them, sending her into a spin. After a few seconds of freefall, her eyes shot open and her wings extended to their full span, catching the air and slowing her descent as she turned, rising in a diagonal arc which quickly became a series of loops and flips, ending with a pirouette that left here near her original altitude, and a little less worried.

But only a little.

What is with everyone? She shook her head and flew over to a stray cloud and landed with a small 'poof' of cloud. They trust him, and the Princesses didn't even do anything...

She dropped onto the surface, and sighed.

This was actually something she'd noticed earlier, how the others were more or less indifferent to the fact that an alien was right in front of them and had been sneaking around town. And the string of murders' that had been in the paper. Shuddering at one particular instance involving a Pegasus and a windmill with a working grindstone… She shook her head and gagged, pushing the thought out of her mind before coming back to the original problem.

She huffed and used her arms to make a pillow out of the fluffy material, and setting her chin on it.

"He's got something to do with it..." She looked up and saw it was around one in the afternoon, having learned how to tell time without a clock out of necessity; after all, a metal watch wouldn't go very well with lightning. "And I'm going to find out what..."

With that, she leaped from the cloud and fell, waiting until she was a few hundred feet from the ground to open her wings and pull up, flying towards clearing in the Everfree where the alien had told them to meet him.

As she entered the forest's airspace, Rainbow immediately regretted flying into someplace as unnatural as it was, a few stray lightning clouds' made themselves known by trying to electrocute her with their discharges'.

Quickly landing to avoid a rather painful crash, and electrical burns, Rainbow Dash began to walk, giving the brush and trees wary looks with each step.

Although she was known for her brash nature and largely confident demeanor, even she was nervous about the Everfree, especially when she was by herself. After all, she wasn't stupid, despite how many ponies said otherwise.

As it was, she starting to hate the roots and vines that criss-crossed her path, finally opening her wings again, and was about to take off when a loud creaking to her left drew her attention.

"What the hay..." she whispered, watching as trees, vines and bushes moved, creating a dirt path that quickly morphed into a road paved with rectangular stones and having simple stone lanterns spaced out along the edges. Then she saw a much larger version of the alien in the jar, standing a good two and a half feet taller than she did, walking down the path deeper into the forest, "Well, that was convenient..."

She waited for the alien to move further down the path, rather stunned as the trees in front of it changed as he neared, then she put her jaw back up and followed, staying twenty yards behind him to stay unseen. He moved rather quickly, the clang of his armored feet against stone echoing in the forest, and setting a rhythmic march, until the path formed an arch way, engraved with strange mechanical shapes'. He walked through and stopped on the other side, turning to face her, with a small grin.

"I figures one of you would come early." Rainbow opened her wings and crouched, ready to charge or flee, "If I wanted you dead, you wouldn't be posing right now."

She closed her wings and followed him, walking under the arch into a large, grassy clearing, untouched by the effect of his presence. With she looked to her left, to speak (more like yell, actually) at him, but there was nothing where he had been standing.

Instead he was standing in the center of the clearing, moving his right arm like a conductor, muttering as stone rose from the ground, quickly becoming a flat, circular table. He turned and walked towards her, giving her clear look at his face.

Rainbow nearly blew chunks.

In the light, the transparent skin was decidedly...wrong, and not because of the reptilian eyes. Individual muscle fibers could be seen, and patches of bone were visible on his fore head, and his jaw, a stark contrast to the red and pink tissue covering it and the dull black hair on his head. It was disgusting, but she managed to hold her lunch down, and speak.

"What have you done to my friends?"

"Wait a second," his smile faded and a look of confusion took its place, "You noticed something was wrong with them?"

"Yeah, now tell me what you did!" She flapped her wings and brought herself to eye level, glaring and holding her arms up, as though boxing, "or I'll knock your block off!"

He just blinked and then held up both his hands, palm's facing her.

"It wasn't me," He motioned to the table, which now had two chairs, on meant for a pony, the other for something else, "but I have an idea of what is doing it, and if you want I can explain some of it."

She glared at him, and moved to the table, neither of them looking away from the other, and hovered next to her chair, waiting until he sat down to do the same.

"I can help your friends, but," he reached into his coat, his right hand phasing through the metal, and pulled out a light blue metal ring, obviously meant to be worn around something(or someone's) neck, "You need to let me get one of these on them."

"Wait." She leaned forward and eyed the small device. "You want to put dog collars on the Princesses, and my friends?"

"That's half right," he twisted the ring and it opened, revealing pulsing circuits and padding, "if I'm right, these 'dog collars' will cancel out what's affecting them."

"And if you're wrong?"

"They'll have a headache while their wearing it."

Rainbow looked at the device and realized just how much this was over her head, i mean, the lights looked more complicated then Twilights lab.

"Give me a second..."

He nodded and got up, walking back to the archway.

Should I trust him...? She shook her head, and sighed, No, but it isn't like I have much of a choice... Putting her forehooves on the her temples she realized that there wasn't any other option at this point. Fine, but if he does anything, I'm going to make him pay...

"Fine."

He walked back to the table and sat down, face blank.

"So I have your permission?"

"I'll let you do it."

"Good." He crossed his arms on the table, and leaned forward. "I do need something, though, and it should be rather easy to get."

"What is it? A potion or something?”

"No.” He shook his head and smiled again, before letting his face go slack. “Just the newspaper's from the last few days." He stood, and Rainbow followed suit, still cautious of him, and opened her wings. "Bring them tonight, and I'll tell you everything I know."

She flapped once and flew back to town.

Amongst the dead trees and forgotten wastes' of the badlands hid a once long forgotten people, and they would have remained forgotten, save for a desperate action on their rulers behalf, and they were waiting for the end result, their extinction, at any point, soldiers armed to the wing and all points of entry guarded.

Thank you all for coming. Please, have a seat...

Unfortunately, the threat was far worse then what they had anticipated. Three heat shimmers, not uncommon during the blistering hot days, moved through the night. Each shimmer was twice a ponies size, and deathly silent, not even prints were left in the sand they tread upon.

Thank you. Now then, what-?!

What is the meaning of this?!

You would dare to collar the Princess of the Night?!

A sudden crack of thunder, the result of a multitude of force spells being fired at a single point in space, soon out shadowed by a chittering akin to a locust swarm.

The shimmers moved to a small hole, leading straight down, and crawled down, soon landing in a domed room, green crystals providing light in the otherwise pitch black cavern. They moved quickly, spreading through the tunnels, killing everything that got in their path, sending panic and surprise through the hive minded creatures'.

Now that you're all done blasting me to pieces, may I speak?

Silence as seven head's nod.

The few who stood up to the invisible monster's only fell apart, their bodies shattered beyond recognition, their blood splattering across every surface possible. One of the three shimmers stopped, at the entrance to the beings throne room, and dropped its cloaking.

I am, as I said, here to help you. The threat you and your planet now face is one much too strong for you to take on alone, and I intend to help you.

In the shimmers place was a massive biped, resembling a metal coated iguana, with a fish like head, gills along the sides of it, and a fluked tail, the thin webbing covered by razor-sharp plate-mail. it gave a few clicking call's to its brethren, and soon the other shimmers, their cloak made useless by the green blood splattered on their armor, stood by its side.

And the collars?

They opened the doors, carving through the heavy stone as though it wasn't there, and then sheathed the liquid metal blades.

If you remember, the last time we met, though you still looked through my mind, you didn't react the way a ruler of your merit should.

An outburst as multiple voices speak at once, cut off by a tom-boyish 'Hey!'.

There upon the throne, one foreleg missing, wings tattered and torn, breathing ragged, sat their target, panic clear in her cat like eyes. She spoke, the pleas falling on deaf ears, the creature fanning out to cut off any escape. More of the black shelled natives flooded into the room, holes and doorways unseen giving the small army a way in, even as their queen begged them to leave. Only a scant hundred twenty eight headed her , leaving with speed rivaling any other life form, leaving the hive and taking the young with them.

The monsters just hissed, unsheathing the four blades hidden in each arm, mimicking the talons of a griffon, and crouched waiting for the first move.

He's not lying. We need help for this.

Rainbow, you of all ponies should be-!

The slamming of hooves upon stone silencing the others

And you, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna just tore him apart and he got right back up, like it didn't do anything!

Silence once more as the words sink in.

The first blow came from an armored native, blue plates covering his back and head. Firing a force spell, he was cut down just as it left his horn, his head, barrel and hind quarters falling to the ground separately. The other's begged their queen to leave, sending the message through the hive; all of them asking her to save herself.

The three creatures tore through the desperate ‘army’, killing the natives’ faster than they could enter the room, spells and blows not even denting their metal hide, until the broken ruler was all that remained.

Save the mountain of corpses between them and her, her eyes focused on one place. Somewhere she hoped to never see again. The three began to carve through the bodies, as the Queen closed her eyes and charged her horn, sickly, weak light forming a nebulous cloud along its length.

Opening her eyes, seeing the dead, a single tear fell from her thin face.

“I’m…Sorry…”

Just as the beings charged her, a flash of green light signaled her departure, and the last bit of energy she had left, just as the blades touched her flesh.

He can help us, and while I'll be the first to say I don't trust him, we need his help.

Did you bring the papers?

A crinkling sound as a stack of print is thrown onto the table, and picked up, before being placed back down seconds later.

The three beings, their blades lodged in the stone floor as the throne fell to the ground, carved like a pumpkin on Nightmare Night, raised their head’s and screeched, the stone walls cracking as the sound went above any audible spectrum.

Well then, it seems we all are in more danger then I thought...

What do you mean, darling?

A quiet chuckle, followed by the spark of electricity.

Liquid metal, an equal part mixture of mercury and gold suspended as an unknown alloy, three foot deep gouge marks at the place of death...

Gasp's as a perfect replica of the monsters spun above the table, woven from light, depicting the feral might of the metal skinned creatures as recordings played in the air. All the ponies present turned away, tears dripping to the ground as unknown beings were slaughtered in seconds, nothing remotely resembling a body left behind

There are Shock Troopers here. Celestia, Luna call a council of all the sapient races, and I don't give a damn about the political relation you have with them, get a representative in your capital in two days, or...

Or what, Captain?

Then they might not ever come, till your planet dies and you meet them in whatever after-life awaits you...

"Stay where you are!"

Golden armored, white coated guards flanked the Black Queen, her ragged breathes undermined by the fierce will that allowed her to speak.

"Not...here....to fight" A burst of hacking and wheezing as her body began to fail and fall brought on of the guards, a unicorn mare with , to her side. "P-Please...L-Listen..."

"Hold on, just hold on..." The mare turned back to the other's and shouted for them to get doctors, before turning to the dying Changeling, whose eyes were closed in pain, tears leaking down her muzzle to pool with her own blood. "If you’re not here to fight then why are you here...?"

Her answer didn't come until the doctors arrived, casting spells and using every form of medicine available to keep the Queen alive. As the doctors placed her on a stretcher to move her from the throne room, and lifted the much larger mare, Chrysalis, The Queen of the Changelings', opened her eyes and gave a low, rattling chuckle as she wept, before responding with something that chilled the guards to the bones.

"Running...from...the...Demons'..."

The doctors brought her to the castle infirmary, finding the major causes of her condition to be a mixture of malnutrition, mercury poisoning, and magical exhaustion. They came to the decision that it was in their best efforts to keep her alive, despite how many of them personally wanted her dead.

Three hours later, a rather pale Princess Celestia, wearing a white and gold necklace, was told of the Queens arrival.

She only said that ‘It makes’ what I have to do that much easier’, her face grim and full of pity, not just for the Queen, but the many that had left this world in this night.