The Strange Tale Of Ezekiel Henderson

Anchita's story of her species, griffins, and their standing in Equestria captivated Henderson. Aside from the living nightmares he had just spent an eternity fighting, he was convinced Equestria was rather free of conflict. Anchita's tale of how to the ponies had shunned Anchita's people said otherwise. Henderson had also recounted how he arrived in Equestria, and explained himself to Anchita.

"Now, as to why you are here.", she had moved to the dining area, and had just finished her meal. "We brought you to our sanctuary because Equestria is about to be destroyed. Consumed, to be precise."

Henderson's mouth dropped open.

"Wha-, Did you just say it's about to be consumed? By what? Those walking shits down in those damn caves?", Henderson stood from his chair, his fists resting on the table.

"Calm down, Ezekiel. Please, take your seat.", Anchita nodded at Henderson's now vacant chair. "Now, this is an urgent matter, and I don't wish to diminish its severity. However, we can't just rush into this, as you and your blue friend did. It won't be hard for you to handle, but-"

Henderson was rubbing his temples, "Please, just get to the fucking point. I've dealt with this mystery crap since I was dropped into this place."

"Very well, to hell with subtlety.", now Anchita rose from her chair. "Not only is Equestria about to be destroyed, by the monstrum, but its your fore-told duty to stop them. Furthermore, my comrades and I are the only ones on the planet with the informative resources pertaining to the monstrum to be of any practical use to you. And if you're wondering why I'm referring to those 'walking shits' as monstrum, it is because that is their correct title. The full version of which is Monstrum de Mortuus, meaning, monter of death.", Anchita paused her rant to take a breath, "We had all remaining specimens contained in that ancient facility, until recently. You didn't free them, neither did Celestia's 'best'. They freed themselves, broke out from the opening near Mustangia. They've consumed nearly all the population.", she noticed Henderson's cheeks turn red with anger, "Oh? Did dear Princess Celestia fail to inform you of that little tid bit? Well don't feel alone, there isn't a non-royal soul outside of Mustangia, besides us of course, that knows about it. They're starting to show up in neighboring territories, assimilating all sentient life they come into contact with.", another breath, "How do they do this? You ask. Well, its quite interesting. The small mechanical spiders, called parasiti, burrow into a host, take over its central nervous system, then make a few physical changes in the form of cancerous growths, organ repurposement, and bio-metallic limb replacement. With a now completely deformed, completely submissive slave, called a servus, the parasitus guides its new host in an effort to find more hosts, for the new parasiti that grow in those fleshy sacks.", another breath, "If they can't find a suitable host, but enough organic matter is present, they will simply build a large organism, usually in the shape of a large biped, this is called a gigas." Anchita stopped.

Henderson stared at her for a moment, then asked, "Where did they come from, and how do you know all this?"

"I can answer both of those at once.", she drew a breath. "Several thousand years ago, Celestia and Luna had just claimed sovereignty over ponykind, a group of adventure seeking foals found the Saddle Arabia entrance to the caves. They accidentally released the monstrum, all but one of the foals became the monstrum's first victims. The one that survived warned the townsfolk, who fought of the waves of parasiti and gigas. Despite their best efforts, the ponies began to fall, either being eaten outright or transformed into servi. My many greats-grandfather was the leader of a nearby griffin tribe.  Hearing the screams ,he gathered his finest warriors and descended into the town, slaying monstrum as they went through the town, looking for survivors. Sadly, they found none. It was this violent loss of life that drove my ancestors to form this group, sworn to wipe the monstrum from the face of the planet.", she paused to take a drink of water, "Similar incidents happened over the next hundred or so years, each were quickly quelled. Just after the death of my many greats-grandfather, the entrance to one of the caves was discovered near the Crystal Empire. In my ancestors went. They returned with a plethora of information pertaining to the monstrum, including what I've told you about them. Well, long story short, they got the monstrum back into their hole, then sealed them in. Like I said though, they've resurfaced, and have already consumed twenty percent of the planet's population."

Henderson mulled over this information for a good five minutes before he gave his educated opinion on the matter, "Holy shit."

"Its way beyond our power to stop them now, and I do believe that's why you're here, in Equestria.", Anchita settled back down into her chair.

Henderson shot her a quizzical look, "What makes you say that?"

"The old book in Celestia's basement."

Henderson hadn't forgotten it. "The one with a picture of a human in it?"

"Yes. It was stolen from us decades ago. It was one of about four we had yet to translate into Griffish, our dialect of Equestrian. Those four, along with dozens of other scrolls and such, were taken."

"Who took them?"

"Celestia and her royal friends, they had never liked the fact that we knew something that they didn't. That, and the fact that they didn't want their 'subjects' to know that there was something terrible crawling around beneath them, drove them to steal them. And slaughter half our group.", Anchita's talons had dug into the wooden table.

"Well, there's only one possible solution.", Henderson stood and put on his helmet, "We go steal them back."