[Prototype]: Equestria

by DX-1118 C

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Adventure, Crossover, Alternate Universe
Length: 5987

Alex Mercer must can adapt to anything, but when sent to an unfamiliar place that defies logic, keeping his sanity is the test.

After the nuke, Alex Mercer is sent to Equestria…
How will he handle this peaceful world…
Follow him on his new journey.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-05-22 15:42:13 UTC

Prologue

USS Ronald Reagan4:55 P.M.

Three men. Three men, leaders of Blackwatch, stood on the deck of the ironclad carrier. These three men were all tasked with making sure the REDLIGHT infection didn’t spread off of Manhattan island and possibly save as many civilians as possible, as long as it didn’t waste too much time. They were also under strict orders to kill anything that moved if it was in an infected zone. Pretty much anything went as long as the job was done.

But the job wasn’t done. No, Colonel Ian Taggart, had failed in his duty. Once the head of the infection was killed, victory was within Blackwatch’s grasp. At that exact moment, the men were ready to kill everything within the area before they could realize what happened, but the colonel called a retreat, and pulled the men out of the area, against the orders of his superiors. His failure led to Blackwatch losing the control they had in the city and the collapse of a primary base on the island, which kept the infection from getting through it since some time after the outbreak started. The colonel stole a thermobaric tank from inside and was chased by Tango Primary, the creature he was assigned to kill by whatever means and sacrifices necessary.

Currently the captain, shackled by handcuffs, stood ready for his trial. He, a forty five year old man with a beard, no hair on his head, and a hateful scowl on his face, looked over at his general. He tried to reach for a small pair of clips in his pocket to break free of the cuffs, but they were hidden in the many layers of his black ops uniform.

To his right, wearing a similar uniform with some tweaks, Captain Cross stood ready for the general, a stoic expression on his ancient face. His worn face had an unsurprisingly evil glint in them, but that was nothing new. He had mostly greying black hair with two completely white streaks on both sides of it. The hair looked like something from Taggart’s daughter’s anime shows.

General Randall, an old man with the standard green camouflage army uniform walked over and gave a salute with his only arm, the other having been cut off years ago. Once the salute ended, Randall  spoke. “Report.” he said. in truth, he didn’t have to, but he was always a man of protocol above all else.

“Taggart’s order lead directly to the collapse of the central Blue Zone.” Cross said, as if he recited it. Ian sent the man a death glare as the general pulled out a handgun and shot him straight through the head.

“Welcome home, Operation: Redlight is over.” Randall patted Cross on the shoulder, and the two walked inside, leaving the body of Taggart to walk. They walked through the carrier in silence, passing the troops ready to evacuate on order. A large pair of double doors came into view, and Randall opened it to reveal a mostly empty room, save for keyboards all over the place, and a nuclear bomb in the center.

Upon laying eyes on the nuke, Cross almost jumped. “Sir, what about our men?” Randall glanced over to the captain. “The ones on the ground in Manhattan.” he clarified.

Randall stared into space for a moment, pulled a gun on Cross, and looked at him with an odd look on his face. “You didn’t think I was that naive, did you? When you have a festering wound, you cauterize it. We will be saving millions of american lives.” He prepared to pull the trigger on the unflinching captain, when he felt something behind him. The old man turned around to barely see the undead body of Taggart, the bullet hole still in his face. The body shifted in a mass of tendrils, into the form of a twenty seven year old pale man with two layers of jackets and a shirt. Most of his chest wear had popped collars. The outermost jacket was black leather with two white strips on the side, followed by a grey hoodie that was unzipped past the neck, followed by a dress shirt with popped collars that was unbuttoned as well. The man, Tango Primary, Alex Mercer, Zeus, lifted the general by the neck. “Zeus!” He tried to rasp, but all he could utter was choking noises as Zeus tightened his grip.

“I wont let you erase New York like you erased hope.” He spat at the general, who chuckled.

“Let?” He tried to laugh some more, a plan already in his head. “We’re six minutes out, and only I know the code.” He tried to bargain his life with Zeus, and when he was dropped to the ground, he thought he was home free. That was until Zeus started to walk towards him with intent to kill.

“You were at Hope Idaho. You took something from Elizabeth Greene. I know what Blackwatch has done.” he said. The general was confused. He knew none of his men would ever give that information, Blackwatch or scientist. “Because everyone I’ve killed -- they’re in me. They are me.”

Something clicked in Randall’s head. The footage. It was all in the footage. That’s why men would disappear without a trace. The tendrils, when he ripped his men apart. He wasn’t simply eating them, he was somehow getting their thoughts. Their memories. The suspicions turned out to be correct, after all. He was more intelligent than what they thought. “That’s how you-” He never got to finish, as Zeus slammed his fist through the General’s head, and consumed his body with the red and black tendrils as he had so many times before.

Zeus clutched his head in pain, allowing the memories of the general’s life to flash before his subconscious. As the memories made it to Hope, Idaho, he saw exactly what he needed. Shifting the memories so they show only what was necessary, flashes appeared giving a detailed view on what happened. Flashes of the old Blackwatch, Elizabeth Greene, the Hope families, some children, a pregnant Greene, the mysterious child of hers, and a few numbers. The code for the nuke. Zeus has everything he wanted to know about Hope, and all the people who know about it are swimming around in his head as of now. “You bastard,” he said. “You could have stopped all of this, instead you let this happen.”

Captain Cross, now directly behind Zeus, reached over to grab him. Zeus felt his presence and turned around, then was lifted in the air. Although he didn’t really need any oxygen at that point, he still reflexively grabbed the Captain’s arm in an attempt to pry him off. “When the weapon detonates,” he gestured to it with his head. “And they think the infection is cleansed, they won't be looking for me. And when I consume you,” Zeus’s eyes opened in shock and confusion, both from being lifted by Cross and him saying he could consume Zeus. “I’ll be able to withstand… Even this.” Cross threw Zeus onto a lift, walked on, and his skin melted off. He began to grow, and in a moment he was three times larger than Zeus, raw, and made entirely out of muscle. The creature he turned into had two large arms, one a huge black claw and the other a thin blade. It’s head was similar to a skull, and one half was covered in cancerous tumors. It stood on two, strong legs that looked incredibly thin. Zeus knew it as The Supreme Hunter.

By the time his transformation was complete, the lift was already on the top deck, and several marines saw the two and opened fire, which went unnoticed to the two. The Supreme Hunter lurched forwards, and seven tendrils exploded from his back, grabbed a few marines unfortunate to be close to him, and reeled them into himself. The behemoth looked over to Zeus and moved to grab him in his massive claw. Zeus front flipped over the hunter, curved his body at the apex of his jump, and tried to elbow slam onto the tumors on it’s neck. The monster simply backhanded Zeus across the carrier, into a group of marines. One of them shot him point blank in the face with a javelin launcher, killing himself and his group.

After the explosion stopped, the hunter was on Zeus again. It charged straight at him, but this time Zeus was ready. Red and black Tendrils engulfed both his arms, making them black and bulky. His hands both turned into two giant blocky clubs with metal protrusions popping out at certain points. As the hunter began to slam down onto him, Zeus released a strong uppercut towards the hunter, and it flew back a few feet, skidded upon landing, and crashed into a stack of missiles, which exploded.

While it was still on the ground, Zeus ran in it’s direction, leaving one of his fists dragging through the ground, while he was pushing as much of his weight as he could into it. Then he threw his fist over his head, soared through the air towards his target, and slammed down onto it’s chest, flattening it. A loud boom, the squishing of flesh, and the denting of metal was heard. The air around the two was pushed back, and everything lighter than the force was either pushed away or torn apart. The hunter roared in pain, and once again launched Zeus to the side.

Before he slammed to the ground, Zeus flipped so he could land on his hands. A group of Marines to his side ignored him and only shot at the hunter that began to tear into their ranks. A few got into helicopters and jets to try and kill the hulking abomination. The hunter, after tearing into the marines, saw Zeus, raised his giant claw, and slammed it into the metal. Zeus could see the ground parting and something under tunneling towards him. Zeus jumped twenty feet into the air and completely avoided the huge spikes that pushed from the ground.

The Supreme hunter charged towards Zeus, and Zeus morphed his right arm into a six foot blade, while his arm turned black, adjourned by random spikes that were more decoration than anything else. Zeus grabbed his blade with both hands, flipped forwards in the air towards the Supreme Hunter, and came down on the beast in a fashion that would put a guillotine to shame. Again, the beast backhanded Zeus across the carrier.

Zeus switched his right arm into yet another weapon; a barbed, black tentacle made of more elastic materials. It was tipped with a cross between a glaive and a claw, and it shined in the sun. Zeus reached his newly formed arm back while tendrils rippled along its edges. After a moment, he shot the appendage towards the hunter, embedding it into the beast’s chest. Zeus reeled himself in at speeds that the human eye can’t even track, but the hunter grabbed him by the face despite that. The hunter slammed Zeus into the ground of the ship thirteen times, making a crater that got larger with each slam. The hunter moved a tendril to consume the dazed Zeus, but he forgot that Zeus was immune to blunt force trauma.

Zeus rolled his body within the grip of the monster, lashed out with his tentacle, and cut a hole in the Hunter’s claw. The hunter roared in pain and tried to crush Zeus, but Zeus rolled to the side, grabbed a machine gun, and emptied the clip into the Supreme Hunter. His skill with the gun has improved so greatly over these two weeks, that every bullet made it’s mark on the beast’s face. Temporarily blinded, the beast used the tendril attack from earlier, and a lucky tentacle speared itself through Zeus’s torso. It barely made it into Zeus, so it went in and out of his chest in a second, then Zeus recovered from his stupor, and dive rolled rolled away from it.

The hunter pulled the tendrils back into his body, and hunched over, paralyzed. Zeus took the opportune moment to climb aboard the hunter’s back and smash his fist into the back of it’s head repeatedly. After a minute, the hunter regained it’s bearings, scooped Zeus up with it’s claw, and threw him into the air in front of it. Instead of hitting the ground, Zeus floated in the air for a split second, and nearly successfully delivered a flying karate kick to the hunter’s chest.

Zeus and the Supreme Hunter stared each other down for a moment, then smelt fuel being burned. They both looked over the deck of the ship, and saw the jets from earlier finally ready for attack. A radio inside Zeus’s jacket, unaffected by the conflict, buzzed to life and relayed a message. “You are cleared to end his fucking life. Do it.” Red Crown Spoke.

“Roger that.” one of the pilots spoke. “Eagle Eye 11 locked and loaded.” The barrels and missiles were aimed on Zeus and The Supreme Hunter. Zeus was used to this sort of thing by now, and immediately jumped as far away as he could. The Supreme Hunter wasn’t as fast. Before it even realized that there was a strike on him, the jets emptied everything the had on him, and the heat, force, and size of the explosion that fired almost melted the surrounding area. It might have have killed the hunter right there, had it not been so dense.

It’s wounds were cauterized close, it’s body was on fire, and it’s face was almost twice as ugly. The thing lurched forwards and tried to heal itself, but it fell over on one knee. It tried to send a tendril towards Zeus, but it didn’t even go halfway there. It was losing this fight. It then got up, slowly, and tried to run- to force his way over to Zeus-, but he ended up tripping over itself. It then laid down on the ground and tried to regenerate.

Zeus, the marines, and Blackwatch would have none of it. They released everything they had on the monster. Grenades, rockets, bullets, hell everything they had was send off at the hunter. The barrage of metal, fire, and force nearly drove it to the edge of the carrier, then Zeus yanked it towards him with the whipfist. The thing was significantly lighter than earlier due to the attacks sent to him. The hunter was pulled half way to Zeus, then a heat seeking missile hit him mid air. After he exploded, two more jets sent missiles at him then flew straight up into the air.

Zeus was already in the air at that point, coming down prepared to launch a graveyard ground spike devastator right on top of the hunter. The hunter moved out of the way just fast enough to avoid having the biomass pumped straight through his body. He was still impaled on a spike. As an effect of the devastator, the spikes went around the carrier at random positions, and some marines got impaled on the spikes. Some of them were violently ripped in half, while others were dissolved by the spikes.

The supreme hunter was severely weakened by now. The thing was surprisingly only missing the arm with the claw on it. There was a huge, gaping, bloody hole in it’s torso. It pushed itself up, tried to stand on two legs, and make a face as ferocious as it could when it stared down at Zeus. The hole in it’s chest began to close and Zeus brought out his blade again. The Supreme Hunter’s arm started to form, so Zeus went for the only place he suspected would kill this monster.

The head.

Zeus used his giant blade and uppercut the Supreme Hunter in the head, which decapitated it. The body fell limp, and the head rolled to Zeus’s feet. The jets weren't done with it. They didn’t see much of what happened, so they continued to pelt the Supreme Hunter’s corpse with missiles and such. The rockets hit him square in the chest, and some of them were filled with napalm. Once the fires faded, there was a burnt body and no blood.

Zeus walked over to the burnt body. He then plunged his tendrils into the body, and consumed as much as he could. All that was left was a chunk of arm which went into the water as well. Now, all that was left was the nuke. Zeus walked over to the lift but was met with several Blackwatch guns pointed at him. He knew he didn’t have any time for this. The timer was ticking and Dana was in immediate danger. One of them stepped forwards and called out. “Stand down.” the Blackwatch commander, as evidenced by the white on his uniform, commanded. The guns were then lowered, although hesitantly. “You going to the nuke?” the commander asked.

“I need to get it as far away from the city as I can.” Zeus began to walk towards the lift. “If you want to live, get me a chopper.” Zeus continued walking, brushing against the commander slightly, and his men parted ways for Zeus.

“Commander Rooks-” a grunt tried to ask, but was silenced by the commanders orders. “I need a bird right now. Some chains if he’s about to do if I think he’s going to do.” the commander said. Once he saw his men still there, he yelled at them. “OR DO I HAVE TO REPEAT MYSELF!” the men scrambled to get the chopper and the chains.

By the time Zeus came up with the nuke over his back, the helicopter and the chains were all ready. Some locks were also thrown into the mix. Zeus placed the nuke down and grabbed some chains. “Attach the end of these chains to the helicopter after I lock it to the nuke.” he said. He then began to slink the chains through the supports of the nuclear bomb.

After a minute, the nuke was successfully chained to the helicopter, attached to a discardable piece on the bottom. Without a word, Zeus climbed into the helicopter, and took his package far into the atlantic ocean. As he left, anyone still alive on the ship was tasked with cleanup and scanning the decks for infection.

A couple of minutes later, Zeus made it fifty miles away from the shore. Knowing it was just far enough to keep the city from burning with radiation, Zeus dropped it into the ocean and turned around, secretly thanking whoever attached the chains to a discardable latch. He then turned the chopper around, and tried to see if he can escape the imminent explosion.

About two miles later, the bomb exploded. His helicopter was caught in the fireball, and it was torn apart, melted, and blown up all at once. For Zeus, all that was left was the pain and blackness.

Chapter 1

Zeus's eyes flew open, the bright lights of his surroundings casting a blinding light on his super enhanced eyes. It didn't take much more than a thought to correct that, and by then he already had his claws drawn, ready to dismember any threat around him. After seeing nothing but trees, his razor sharp claws melted back into his hands and he instinctively rubbed his head.

He was wondering what happened. The possibility of being in a nuclear explosion and ending up in a... Forest? The odds of that were very small. Especially since he was pretty far out in the Atlantic Ocean. He was certain that he must have drifted back into New York or somewhere nearby, as there are bound to be forests nearby that looked like the thick one he was in. This obviously wasn't central park, as there were way too many trees around. He supposed he could jump in the air and look around.

Zeus crouched low and made to jump, but instead of soaring high and controlled like normal, but his legs were out of sync with the angle of the jump. Instead of going straight up, he made a forty five degree arched jump and landed pretty far from where he stood to begin with, and he even got a view of the surroundings. Trees, trees and more trees for miles. He crashed straight through a few trees, but he had worse, so it barely registered to him.

He looked to his legs to see if there was something physically wrong with them, like a huge piece of metal or something was inside of them. He couldn't feel anything large, but his legs did seem oddly bent. If it mattered, he could say they were broken. But that wasn't possible. Not entirely.

A quick mental command to fix his legs did the trick, but after seeing his leg writhe and twitch, nothing changed. Instead of just staring like an idiot, he just made the legs on his pants disappear. There was something in his leg. A large piece of metal that seemed melted into his leg was just sitting there. He had no idea how he didn't feel that til after he saw it, but it didn't matter. It was an easy fix. His leg melted down and all the metal in his leg slid out. He next repeated the process with the rest of his body to make sure there wasn't any more inside of him. Satisfied, he got up and prepared to jump once again.

He repeated the earlier action and made sure to look at every direction this time. It was late at night, probably after six or eight. He could hear the animals in the woods scurrying, pouncing, and chewing from where he was. Behind him, he could see unnatural lights, and a non forested area around it. He could feel himself falling, but that never mattered to him, and he still had a few seconds to look before he hit the ground.

The next thing he looked at was the sky. He could see plenty of stars, much more than he could see in New York, as the smog covered mostly everything worth seeing. While carving his name in the city with blood, it wasn't like he had much time to relax. Constantly moving, constantly evolving, constantly fighting, constantly protecting his family. That was really all he did. All because he had to, for Dana and, even if he wouldn't admit it, for the people he doomed to death.

He looked at the stars, trying to see one of many constellations travelers and lost people have used to find their ways for millennia. None. He saw not one single constellation that he, and by extension everyone he has consumed, were familiar with. No Ursa Major, Scorpius, or Orion. He did see constellations that looked more easily defined and full. He saw a dragon, a griffin, and various other creatures. The most common were equine. The sky looked amazing, and even he could say that.

Alex ignored the sky for now and decided to move in the direction of the unnatural lights. That was more likely to be a town than anything else over here. Running was the fastest option. He would just slow to a halt before he gets to the town so as not to attract attention.

Zeus switched his focus to thermal, looking to scope out anything that could be potentially watching him. He was almost satisfied until he saw a massive heat source. It was faint and hidden,  he would call it reptilian, as it seemed to blend in to the environment. It was undefinable from where he was, but he could tell one thing. It was watching him.

He couldn't see it well per say, but it was one of those feelings he learned never to ignore. It was as if a metaphorical yellow light flashed in his head when he was being watched by someone who could shoot him, or themselves if they knew he was after them. It changed to red once he was positive that he was going to be met with hostility.

The yellow light was flashing.

He knew something was going to happen, and that large lizard creature was going to do it. He didn't have much more than a split second of reaction time before it struck.

As if by lightning, the head of the monster was on him in the time it would take a human to blink. Zeus reached outwards with both his hands, and caught the creature by the jaws, since it tilted its head to snap at him.

He has never seen or heard of the creature before. It was one of the largest reptiles besides a dinosaur he had ever seen, memory or otherwise. The head was larger than his body by about two times, each tooth was about the size of his arm, and razor sharp. They looked like they could cut rocks. He allowed the creature to gain some leverage on the bite. Once its teeth were at his shoulders, he pushed out as far as his arms would allow. The creature's jaws were dislocated from the pressure suddenly inverting, and it slumped over. Zeus, seeing as he just came out if an explosion, decided to eat the creature.

Before doing so, he went around to get a good look at it. Slumped in pain, the single headed serpent was no longer obscured. He could make out a massive, bulky body on it, an extremely large neck, and medium sized, yet powerful looking legs. "Definitely something you don't see every day." Zeus mused.

He encased the monster in tendrils and reeled as much of it as he could into his body, devouring it alive. He couldn't eat all of it, but he could eat a substantial amount if it. Then again, the bomb did leave him low on biomass, but he didn't notice until he got some food in his body.

About sixty percent of the body was able to be reeled in, and the rest was useless to him for now. He did get some memories. He filtered the considerable lifespan of the beast into highlighted flashes of information that could be useful to him. The creature spent most of it's time hunting and lounging in solitude, a lifestyle that was pretty boring. Looking between useless memory and memories he wished he could unsee, he was starting to think this thing was a complete waste of time. Then he saw a horse.

At first, he thought it was a normal, oddly colored mini horse, then he saw it wearing a hat. Now, people in his head are or know people who can't help but dress up animals and make them do strange, non sexual things. He assumed this horse was one subjected to death by paint and embarrassment. Then it started screaming.

The scream was not a horse scream. Well, it was, as it came from a horse.  This was still a scream sounding of human origin. The oh-so familiar sound that he had grown so accustomed to in New York. The thing began to hide behind a tree and breathe heavily. The creature, commonly being referred to as a Hydra, could hear it talking in English. How? Zeus had no idea. He was however suspecting he was not in Kansas, or any part of the united states. Unless the government had a weird biology research going on.

But the stars. Not on earth. He wasn't on earth. The sky was just... Too amazing. This could be a strange dream, he supposed. Or he was dead. The afterlife and all that religion shit.

He really wasn't sure.

He did, however, know that he had some creatures to find. Be they horses or not, something knew where he was, and probably one of then knew how to get back to Dana. Assuming Blackwatch wouldn't leave her alone with him out of the picture. She wasn't confirmed infected, after all. There was a change...

First things first, he had an objective to fulfill. And he was going to start on it.

Then a wooden dog came out of the brush, cautiously went around him, and sniffed the 'hydra'. Then it howled. Within thirty seconds, a pack came out of the brush. Zeus didn't care what they did, and left.

One well placed jump later, Zeus was about two miles from town. He landed a fer meters from a trail that led in the direction of town. Now,  Zeus is a smart and logical person and likes to think about everything when he goes places. Ever since he infiltrated his first building, he made sure it was quiet until he got what he came for. The memories of the horse creature the Hydra saw were very recent, as Zeus found many older memories involving the creatures. That one was the most recent. Actually, the horse had been seen running towards this town, on this path, the last time the 'Hydra' saw it.

Zeus heard the heavy breathing, the hooves clipping, and the frantic heart pace from where he was. The creature was moving pretty fast. From the time Zeus heard it to the time he saw it, four seconds had passed. Given how semi quiet the forest area had been at that moment, Zeus deduced that the horse was pretty far from him when he heard it at first.

The mini horse, colored with a green coat and a two toned cream green and white mane, saw him almost instantly. It reared up and fell backwards on its ass. "Don't eat me!" the horse shrieked in a high pitched, female voice. It went into hysterics.

Zeus already knew the horse could talk, but seeing it with his own eyes validated it. He wasn't surprised or shocked, per say but he was feeling that indescribable feeling one felt when you see something that should be impossible, yet you knew it was true to begin with. 'What was the word?' He found himself thinking.

"Don't worry, I already ate." he said. The horse was shaking before this, but it slowed down a bit.

"Y-you did?!" she asked, still shaken. Zeus didn't really feel like killing the horse. Sure, he could, but he had no real reason to. The Hydra left him pretty full. Full enough to share with moving trees, for that matter.

"Yes." Zeus answered, leaning on a nearby tree. He knew the horse was pretty shaken up from the Hydra, so he guessed this would take a while. Best to end this right here. Get what he wanted and get out.

"What are you?" the horse asked.

"If it wasn't obvious, I would ask you the same question." Zeus said. The horse blinked a few times, and Zeus could see tears in its eyes. The stars above provided tons of light. He couldn't help but glance at the stars some.

"A-are you..." the horse gasped shakily, then covered it’s-her mouth with her... hoof. Zeus slightly tensed at the question out of habit. Those words were usually followed by bullets for him. "A human?!"

"Yes and no." Zeus said. He noticed the pony looked like she was shaking. A lot. He could tell this wasn't from fear, as the shit eating grin on her face told that perfectly. It was more joy. No... Excitement. She looked like she was about to explode. He wanted to see if she would, deep down.

She was right next to him in a moment, and he would have backed through the tree had he blinked. He found himself looking into hazel eyes that just oozed curiosity, amazement and the feared fangirl expression.

She began looking and checking all over him, his hands, his legs, his clothes and pretty much everywhere, while asking questions so fast he gave up on answering. "I am not answering anything unless you slow down. Honestly, you looked like you were about to pass out a minute ago."

The horse got off of it's new location, atop his head while dangling from his back, and moved in front of him and sat down. She blushed in embarrassment and looked down in shame. "I'm sorry..."

"I have a few questions. It would be beneficial to both of us if you answer." Zeus said, flatly. The horses ears drooped, likely because she thought she upset Zeus. "Do you understand?"

"Yes." she meekly said.

"Good. What is your name."

"Lyra." she answered. "Lyra Heartstrings."

"Do you live around here?"

"Yes." she answered. Zeus sighed again.

"You can ask questions too. That is how this works. This isn't an interrogation." He hoped it wasn't, at least. Believe it or not, Zeus would hate being on the interrogator side of an interrogation. Obviously, he wouldn't want to be interrogated. Not that he would find himself in that situation. It was easier to consume people. He would do it now, as this was getting irritating. Too bad he already started talking to her. Killing her now would just waste the time already spent talking.

"I can?" she perked up again.

"Yes, but one at a time." Zeus answered. This wasn't as tedious a process as he thought. Sure, there were other, faster ways to do this, but this wasn't gruesome. Not that he had a problem with gruesome.

"Are there any more of you?" Lyra asked.

"Probably not. Not here, anyway." Zeus said. "You?"

"Um, yeah!" she made a gesture with her hoof. "Like, all over the place!" Lyra got on her... hind legs and placed both forehooves in the air. "We are kinda the dominant species in Equestria." she said once she was on all fours again.

"So if I were to go out into the open, assuming there are no other humans around judging by your reaction, I would be the odd one out?"

"More than that!" she pretty much yelled. "You would be all over the news! Reporters, researchers, historians! You will be featured on Equestria Daily, even the princesses might show up!"

"Well, we can't have that." Zeus mused. "Maybe..." Zeus looked at Lyra very closely, thinking about whether or not his shapeshifting abilities would turn him into a horse Lyra's size. Maybe she weighed more than a normal human? It wouldn't matter. He can ditch some biomass without causing a Holocaust. No problem.

"Maybe what?" Lyra asked.

Without warning, Zeus reached out and plucked a hair from her mane.

"OW!" Lyra yelled. "What was that for!"

"Nothing." Zeus replied. He then looked behind her and appeared confused "Hey, what's that?" He asked.

"What?" She turned around and looked, but couldn't' see anything out of replace, "What are you talking abou...." She trailed off after she turned back to find the human missing, and a gray unicorn standing in it's place.

"What did you do to my human!" She yelled as she started to punch Zeus. She instantly regretted it. The guy felt like he was filled with lead. "Ah!" she fell over and clutched her hoof.

"Your human? Aren’t you being a tad possessive? We only met a couple of minutes ago.” Zeus laughed.

"Human!" Lyra called. "What happened to you?"

"Magic." He replied nonchalantly. "And I have a name, its Zeus."

"You can use magic?!" She almost tripped. "What other magic can you do?"

"Not much." He answered.

"Can you show me?"

"No."

"Why nooot?" Lyra whined.

"Its a secret." He said.

"Please?" She asked. "Cmon, I won't tell a soul." she put her hooves together and smiled.

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Pleeeeease?"

"No." Zeus began walking down the path of the town. He was done with this conversation. If she wanted to ask further, she would not even get a reaction.

"Hey!" Lyra called after seeing him walk off. "Wait up!" she called as she ran after Zeus.

Chapter 2

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Chapter 3

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Chapter 4

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Chapter 5

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Chapter 6

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