It took about 10 minutes, but Twilight and the others finally found the footprints they were looking for. Twilight pulled a container full of white goop and dumps it into the footprint. Rainbow looks over and asks, “Uh, Twilight. What are you doing?”

“Making a mold. If we don’t find the creature that made it, at least I’ll have this casing to look through zoology books and figure out what it is.”

“Why not just look through the whole forest until we find it?”

“Because A. I have to get going in a few hours and B. This forest isn’t exactly safe you know. What, with manticores, cragodiles, and other nasty creatures.”

“Ha! There is nothing in this forest that scares me.” She then turns to a random direction and yells out “You hear me?! Nothing can scare me!!” Her boast is answered by a very, very loud roar, a roar that sends chills running down the three’s spines.

Applejack eyes Rainbow Dash and asks, “Did ya really have ta challenge the forest, Rainbow?” Her question is answered by a sheepish giggle from the cyan Pegasus.

Twilight looks up from her mold and says, “That sounded awfully close, wouldn’t you think?”

“Yeah, and I don’t like it. I think we should get outta here.”

“Not a chance. I’ve heard recordings of every creatures signature sound ever found and never heard one like that. We are going to find it.”

“And what?” Rainbow asks. “Ask it to sing us a song?”

Twilight rolls her eyes and begins heading in the direction the sound came from. But before she can take more than 2 steps, Applejack dashes in front of her. “Are ya crazy?! We are NOT heading towards whatevah made that sound. Who knows how dangerous it is.”

“Exactly,” Twilight says. “For all we know, it could be friendly.”

Twilight pushes past Applejack and continues walking. “Yeah, when ‘ave we evah been that lucky?” She looks up at Rainbow Dash, who’s only response is a shrug. “Alright, best we follow, so she don’t get hurt.” About half an hour passes and still no signs of the creature. Well, unless you count a bunch of broken trees with claw marks all over them and torn up, bloodied earth to be signs. “What in the hay happened here?”

“Looks like a fight,” Twilight notes. “A pretty nasty one from the looks of it. Look at all this blood. The ground is almost completely covered.”

“And it stinks.” Rainbow Dash covers her nose. “Smells like something died here.” She then flutters down and lands on a rock, only for the ‘rock’ to begin shifting. “Whoa!” Rainbow Dash quickly gets off and the clear markings of a cragodile are seen.

The girls, remembering the monster from their previous encounter, shriek and begin to run away but then notice it isn’t chasing them. In fact, other than when Rainbow Dash sat on it, it hasn’t moved at all. “What in tarnations is going on?”

“I don’t know. It should be chasing us.” Twilight then walks around the cragodile and all the color drains from her face. “I-i-i-it, it, it…” Applejack and Rainbow Dash run around to see what has Twilight so spooked and discover what happened. The cragodile has been completely torn open in the stomach and chest area, and, judging by the claw and teeth marks, was in the process of being eaten. “I-I don’t understand. Cragodiles are one of the top predators around here. Nothing preys on it. Not one this size.”

“Well,” Applejack begins. “Somethin’ killed and started eatin’ it. And I ain’t about to stick around and become dessert.”

“I’m with Applejack on this one Twi. We really should head back before whatever killed it decides to come back to finish it.”

But Twilight wasn’t moving, and it wasn’t from shock. She then stands up straight and says, “No, we can’t go back.”

Applejack and Rainbow Dash both yell out, “What?!”

“Think about it. Whatever killed this cragodile has to be pretty powerful. Not to mention the kill looks fresh, so it must still be nearby. Way I figure, if this thing decides to move to a new hunting ground, who’s to say it won’t come into Ponyville?” She then turns to the side. “No, we need to stay here, track this creature down, and capture it, before it harms anypony. Are you girls with me?” Neither one of them answer. She turns back to her friends and see that they have horrified looks on their faces, looking back behind Twilight. Twilight follows their gazes and sees what they are looking at. There, staring out from the shadows at them, is a pair of almond shaped, glowing, yellow eyes. Then, in a flash, a bat with glowing wings comes fluttering out of the darkness, shrieking as the girls go running for cover before flying off. After the bat flies away, Twilight peeks up from her hiding spot to look around. She then exhales and says, “Well, glad to see that the Bright-wing bats are still around, ehe.”

Rainbow Dash pops her head out of a tree and asks, “That was it? A bat?! How lame it that?”

Applejack walks out from behind a rock and adds, “Well, at least it wasn’t… whatever killed this cragodile.” Suddenly, the bushes begin rustling. “Now what?” The answer comes as a strange looking creature comes out of the bushes. It is taller than a pony and walking on its back legs with its much shorter front legs, or in this case arms, pressed up against its body. Its neck is long and slender and its tail even more so. Its head is lizard like, with yellow eyes that seem to catch every movement and small blood red feathers running down the back of its neck and on the outside of its arms. One of its 3 toed feet has a large claw on it, made for slashing. It has blue and black stripes on its body that almost wraps around it. The creature bobs its head, watching the orange pony carefully. “Uh, Twilight, think this is what you were lookin’ for?”

“N-no, I don’t think so. Just don’t make any sudden movements, maybe it will leave.”

The creature then extends it arms, opens its mouth, and shrieks at them. Rainbow Dash yells out, “RUN!!” and everypony does just that.

Rainbow Dash and Twilight in the air and Applejack still on the ground, running as fast as her hooves can carry her but the creature is slowly catching up to her, snapping at her hooves. “Somepony get this thing away from me!” She then feels herself tripping over a vine, sending her lurching forwards. She turns back just in time to see the creature leaping at her before she closes her eyes.

Then, out of nowhere, Rainbow Dash swoops in and delivers a hoof to the side of the creatures head, causing it to lurch sideways. “Ha!” she exclaims, “Bet you didn’t see that coming!” The creature responds by swinging its tail at her but she manages to dodge it and takes off, yelling, “Catch me if you can!”

The creature hisses in anger and gives chase, leaving Applejack behind. Twilight lands next to her and asks, “Applejack! What happened?!”

“T-that thing almost killed me but Rainbow Dash stopped it and now she’s being chased by it! We gotta go help her!”

“Agreed. Let’s go!”

Rainbow Dash continues galloping through the forest, making sure to dodge every vine and leap over every rock she comes across. She then looks back and no longer sees the creature. Screeching to a halt, she thinks, “Oh man, I hope that thing didn’t go back to Applejack.” She hears a branch snap and ducks just in time to dodge the creature’s jaws snapping at her. “Ha! Think you can get the drop on me? I can just fly away!” She opens her wings but before she could do so, she sees the creature’s throat start to swell. “What the…” In the blink of an eye, the creature then spits a green clump right at her right wing, earning a shocked yell from the pegasus. “Hey, what was that for?!” She tries to fly away but finds that she can’t move her right wing. She looks at it and sees that the green clump has solidified. “Aw man, that ain’t fair!” Seeing the adhesive work, the creature begins closing in on its prey, hissing and snarling. Rainbow Dash takes a stance and says, “Well, c’mon, I ain’t got all day!” Suddenly the same roar she heard before occurs and another, much larger and different creature leaps out of the brushes, snapping up the smaller creature in its jaws by the tail. The small creature shrieks with a mixture of pain and fright as the larger one begins slamming it on the ground before tossing it in the air and catching it by the neck and jerks its head, killing it. The creature then drops the smaller one and roars again with victory. Now that everything is still, Rainbow Dash can get a clear look at this creature.

It is vaguely wolf shaped except it is easily twice the size of a normal pony. It was thick yet soft looking navy blue fur covering its body measuring at about 4 inches long and, shockingly, 3 ½ foot long bone spikes on its shoulders and hips and a foot long spike on its elbows and heels. And perhaps the most striking feature is its head, which looks like it’s made of solid bone and looks like a skull, with two 1 1/2 foot long spikes pointing backwards and 8 much smaller ones below the larger ones. It has dog like back feet, but with longer toes and its front paws vaguely look like hands with five fingers, each finger and toe sporting almost 2 inch claws. When it opens its jaws, dozens of teeth can be seen, each looking like they could bite through almost anything. All the marks of a powerful and dangerous predator.

The large creature then looks straight at Rainbow Dash, growling softly. She tries backing up away from it but finds her back hitting a tree. She closes her eyes, expecting the worse. But instead of death, she just hears a strange sound. She opens her eyes a bit and sees the creature’s nose almost touching, smelling her. After a few seconds, the creature snorts and says in a deep, monotone voice, “Why are you here?”

Surprised that it can talk, Rainbow’s only response was, “Uh, excuse me?”

The creature growls and says, “Perhaps I was not clear enough. What are you doing in my forest?”

“Uh, well, you see, uh…”

The creature, growing impatient, groans and simply says, “Never mind, it doez not matter. Just leave. You do not belong here.” And begins to walk away.

Annoyed at his command, Rainbow Dash jumps to her hooves and says, “Hey, you can’t just tell me what to do! We came here looking for you!”

The creature looks back. “We?”

“Yeah, ‘we’. Now who, and what, are you?”

The creature quickly spins around and gets in her face, studying her, glaring at her. Despite suddenly appearing, the pony doesn’t flinch. “Impressive” He thinks. “Very well zhen,” he says out loud, “I am Asteroth Irontooth of zhe Bone Valley. And az for what I am, I am a Bone-Hound. And you are?”

“R-Rainbow Dash.”

“’Rainbow Dash’, hmm? Interesting. I honestly did not expect any creatures here to be capable of speech.”

“I-I could say the same of you. I’ve never seen anything like you before.”

“Hmph, zhat is because I try not to let myself become seen.”

“Well, like I said earlier, me and my friends were looking for you.”

“For what purpose?”

“Well, we’ve been hearing strange noises and found weird footprints and wanted to make sure you aren’t a danger to Ponyville.”

“Ponyville? Is zhat zhe land where you are from?”

“Not exactly.”

“I see. Well, I should be going and you should as well. Farewell, Rainbow Dash.”

“Wait a minute!” Asteroth pauses. “Uh, thanks, for saving me, I mean. And if ya want, you could come to Ponyville, as long as you don’t cause trouble. It’s in that direction.”

Asteroth stands there for a few moments before saying, “I will consider it.” He then walks over to the smaller creature’s corpse, picks it up in his jaws, and walks away into the brush. After a few moments, Rainbow Dash gets up and begins heading back towards Ponyville before passing out from exhaustion.

Author's Note

I hope you guys like it so far. And if anyone can tell me what they think of my attempt at making accents, that would be much appreciated :)

And for those who are wondering, this is was Asteroth looks like, minus the lines on his head. http://kitsune2008.deviantart.com/art/Razakel-Drawn-by-Matt-Wilson-461400441?ga_submit_new=10%253A1402978192