//-------------------------------------------------------//
                   Hollyhock and Kingcup                   
                      -by T. Peddler-                      
//-------------------------------------------------------//
//-------------------------------------------------------//
                  Prologue: The Creature                   
//-------------------------------------------------------//
Author's Note
This is my first story I'm publishing, so any and all feedback is appreciated. Also, I don't have a proofreader, so if you spot any errors, could ya please let me know. Also, I'm not totally set on this yet, so the chapter could change drastically at a moment's notice. FInally, the prologue is written in a weird perspective, but that'll change in the rest of the story.
Prologue: The Creature
Night had risen in the Everfree forest, and what a night it was. In the nearby village of Ponyville, panic was spreading. Ponies scrambled too and fro trying to decide what to do with themselves. Most cowered within their homes, while some of the most brave and foolish decided to take action. Among them, six gathered themselves and marched into the Everfree to try and end this glorious night. Others decided to flee the small town, in hopes of finding respite from the moon elsewhere. Even more recognized the grimness of the situation and began planning for the worst, because deep within the Everfree Forest, other things began to wake.
A vaporous being flew through the skies, relishing in her kingdom of night and watching her mournful subjects. They would come around to accept her rule eventually, they would have to, or they would perish, as simple as that. Nightmare Moon watched and took notice of the ponies charging into the Everfree. She made note to deal with them as soon as possible, but that could wait another minute as she relished in her own glory.
She flew by the edge of town, hearing the nocturnal predators of the Everfree awake and take interest in all of the action in the town. They would have to be taken care of as well. They could not eat her other subjects at their own discretion, there would have to be strict stipulations put in place, but that is a matter for another time.
She watched as the houses nearest to the Everfree were taken by the most adventurous of the predators, the Manticores. She watched as some of her subjects were slaughtered on the spot, while others were taken into the forest to be eaten later. She was about to move along when she saw something surprising. Two of the inhabitants of Ponyville stood outside of their house in the armor of her sister’s royal guard, fighting against the small pack of manticores that were trying to invade their house.
This angered Nightmare Moon.
How could they stand their on the dawn of her reign in the colors of her treacherous sibling. They should be bowing down to her and her alone. She would have made an example of them on the spot, but she saw that they were fighting a losing battle and the manticores had found an open window into the house. She would let her more loyal subjects teach these heretics a lesson.
She returned her attention to those six troublemakers.
*** *** ***
Nightmare Moon smiled in satisfaction.
The once treacherous path to her old castle was now nigh impassable. Should those six even manage to make it there, it would take them days to fight through her subjects. Enough time to make more arrangements to deal with them more permanently. Now she could sit back and watch her subjects as they take part in her glorious night.
On her way back to Ponyville, she noticed something quite peculiar. There was a large clearing in the middle of the Everfree, between the town and the castle, and from it’s center, rose a great ribbon of smoke.
She flew into the clearing to investigate. At the center of the clearing was a creature she had never seen before, and around it, the grass was scorched, still smoking. The creature had four legs, and appeared to have black, course skin everywhere but what she assumed to be it’s head. It had many straps all across it’s torso with all matter of unidentifiable items hanging off of them. She would have approached and investigated closer, but the creature appeared to stir.
It sat up at an unnatural angle, with its front legs up in the air and its hind legs on the ground. It spread its legs and stretched, then looked around a few times as if confused. Eventually, it sighed and spoke.
“God-dammit!” It shouted. “They dropped me in the wrong place, again.” It stood and looked at the ankle on one of it’s front legs and spun around a few times, as it looking for something. Eventually, it settled on the direction Nightmare Moon had just come from. “They’re fucking miles off, do they know what a pain it is to track them down every fucking time!”
It calmed itself down and sighed. “Guess I’d better start, then.” It pulled a long, wide blade from a pocket at it’s side and began to march towards the edge of the clearing. As it reached the edge of the clearing it paused. Nightmare Moon could sense some of her loyal subjects waiting just outside of the clearing, why they hadn’t attacked already bewildered her. The creature smiled and said, “Well at least the trip won’t be boring.”
After it said this, the creature sprinted forward into the forest and brought the blade to bare. Nightmare Moon had to change position to get a better view of what was happening on the other side of the trees. She flew up above the trees and found the creature again. When she finally caught sight of the creature, she flew down through the trees and gasped.
In the time it had taken her to find the creature, it had already killed two of the manticores with large slashes across their faces and necks. It was now fighting the third of the group and had it on the defensive. The manticore was retreating and looking for a chance to escape, but was unable to as the creature dove under it and delivered a long stroke from the manticore’s neck to it’s loins. The manticore roared a dying cry as it dropped to the ground in shock.
By the end of the encounter the creature appeared untouched aside from three shallow slashes across different areas of it’s body, though none of them looked like they came from the claws of a manticore.
The creature rose and sighed, “That was quicker than I hoped. I thought they said this place was supposed to be dangerous.”
Nightmare Moon stood in shock as the creature walked on as if nothing had ever happened. How dare he do that to her loyal subjects, without even thinking, it’s insulting. It doesn’t matter though, she could sense that the rest of the pride had heard the death rattle from Ponyville and were on their way now. This insolent creature would not insult her again.
She had stopped paying attention to the creature, and when she looked back, she found it staring off back towards Ponyville, as if it knew they were coming.
And it was smiling.
“That’s more like it,” the creature exclaimed, then looked back in the direction it was going, “I guess they can’t complain if I take to long, it’s their fault I am where I am, so I might as well have some fun.”
The creature began running towards the pride and Nightmare Moon followed, eager to watch this whelp slaughtered like the fool he was.
Nightmare Moon rose above the tree tops and spotted the pride gliding through the night air and smiled. This was the largest pride she knew of in the forest, a good fifty strong, there was no way the creature would be able to best them.
The creature stood and and watched the sky as they came into view, trembling. As he should be, thought Nightmare Moon, but soon enough she would realize that it was in anticipation, not fear.
The pride spotted the creature and descended. It dove into the trees as one and surrounded the creature. They took a moment to size each other up then the pride attacked. They charged the creature in groups of three, diving in to swing at him, then retreating as another group traded places and took the creature by surprise. They kept diving in, swinging at the creature and retreating, over and over again, a technique manticores typically used for taking down prey larger than them, such as hydras.
Nightmare Moon watched as the creature was beaten back and forth by the barrage of attacks from the manticores. She laughed as the creature began to slow down with each new attack, until she really payed attention to what was happening.
The creature was slowing down, but so were the attacks. Each pass the pride made left one more dead and the creature with only one more of those shallow wounds to show for it. The creature was now making slow, but steady strikes at each pass instead of swing wildly as he had been, and soon enough each attack became more and more costly to the pride, killing two or even all three at a time, until only a a handful were left.
The pride, broken and unsure, began to scatter and retreat. Nightmare Moon would have been furious if she wasn’t so surprised. This creature single handedly took out forty manticores. Imagine if she could control that power. Imagine if it was working for her, and she suddenly began to formulate plan after plan for this creature. She became so lost in thought that she missed the creature chasing after the largest group of fleeing manticores.
Nightmare Moon chased after them to catch up and found the creature as it dove into a wounded manticore, jumping through the trees. The creature’s momentum carried the manticore through the brush and into another, smaller clearing.
Nightmare Moon took to the sky to watch, but got over the trees as the creature cut deep into the manticore’s side. and the manticore dropped. The creature stood and it’s blade flashed as another small wound appeared on its left leg. The creature appeared to be cutting itself, but Nightmare Moon could not fathom why.
The creature looked to the sky as the last of the pride escaped from view, and sighed. When it looked around, it realized it wasn’t alone in the clearing. On the other end of the clearing, two ponies were fighting another manticore and having quite a bit of trouble. The ponies were the two that Nightmare Moon had seen fighting back in Ponyville. The two, one fighting with sword and the other with spear, finally managed to bring down the manticore, stabbing it through mouth with the spear. When they were finally sure that the beast was dead, the two looked to each other, then off towards a small bundle behind where the manticore had been standing.
They took off their helmets to reveal that one was a stallion with grey fur and a navy blue mane, while the other was a pastel pink unicorn mare with a light purple mane. Nightmare Moon made sure to remember that so she could make proper arrangements to remove them later but now she was to intrigued to do anything.
The pair ran off towards the bundle and looked down at a small, deep purple filly, and sighed in relief as they found her breathing, but wounded by the manticores. They scooped her up and placed her on the stallion’s back as the mare grabbed the weapons and prepared to return to Ponyville. That is, until they noticed that they were being watched and froze.
The creature was standing with his blade sheathed and his arms crossed. “Well, well, well. What do we have here?”
The mare stood in front of the stallion with the spear floating beside her. The creature seemed intrigued by this.
“What are you?” The mare asked cautiously.
“I was about to ask the same question, funny isn’t it?” The creature retorted.
The mare seemed confused by this, “You’ve never seen a pony before?”
“Well I have, they’ve just never talked,” the creature gestures to the floating spear, ”or levitated things with their minds, but by the way you said that I assume that’s quite common here as well.”
The mare suddenly realized she was suddenly on thin ice. ”Look, we don’t want any trouble, we just want to take our child home. She’s been injured and we need to get her medical attention.”
“And where might that be?” The creature asks, bringing his ankle up to his face and pressing some odd mechanism on it.
The mare swallows and says, “Its a town called Ponyville, why do you want to know?”
“I notice you didn’t say where it was, but we’ll get to that eventually. Are there other ponies like you there?”
The mare shifts and brings the spear to bear, “We just want to leave, please leave us alone.”
The creature reaches into another pocket on it’s side and pulls out an odd... thing. It shines an obsidian black and has a long end that the creature points towards the pair and grip that the creature holds it by.
“And you may get to leave once you answer my questions, but for now, I’m going to need to ask you to come with me.”
The mare releases a tense chuckle, ”Is that thing supposed to scare us?”
“How many of those lion things did you kill?” The creature asks.
The mare tenses up even more, “I don’t know. 8, I think.”
The creature smiles. “You do realize they attack in threes, right? I only see two bodies in this clearing. Where is the last one?”
As the creature said this, a roar erupted behind the pair, and the then a roar erupted from the creature. The device the creature was holding releases a massive roar as the manticore’s head is turned into a red, dripping cave.
As the pair rubs at their ears and looks down at the dead manticore, the creature blows the smoke from end of the device and points it back towards them. “Are you scared now?”
The pair drop their weapons in submission. “Alright, we’ll follow you.”
“Good. Then I have some friends in...” The creature looks at his ankle, spins a bit, and points back towards the castle, ”That direction, so we are going to meet up with them. You can answer more questions when we get there.”
The pair look uneasily at each other and the stallion asks, ”Do any of your friends have medical experience?”
The creature grins. “Maybe. If you two behave I’m sure we could try to fix up the little one.”
The pair’s shoulders dropped, like a massive weight had just been lifted.
The creature keeps the device trained on the pair as it walks to them, picks up their weapons and begins to admire them.
“These are beautifully crafted, how were they made?” it asked, then stopped itself. “You know what, we’re burning daylight, we can walk and talk.” The creature says as he directs them to move towards the castle.
Nightmare Moon was overwhelmed with interest in the creature, but suddenly feels something horrid. Those six meddlesome creatures have made it past the river. They must have found some way to kill the serpent. It should have taken them hours to get somewhere safe to cross. How did they even manage to kill it?
Nightmare Moon flew off through the night, going to stop those impudent ponies from reaching the elements at any cost.
*** *** ***
Princess Celestia sat within the confines of her sister’s old tower chamber within their broken castle. She had awoken there to discover that the doors were sealed and the balcony was enclosed by a magical shield that prevented her from leaving it. She had suspicions as to what was going on, and they were confirmed when Nightmare Moon came to gloat about how she was going to bring eternal night and how Celestia was powerless to stop it.
Celestia regarded Nightmare Moon with a smug sureness when confronted with this possibility. She had been anticipating this and had put her own precautions in place, mostly her student who she had trained, unwittingly of course, to use the Elements of Harmony. Nightmare Moon likely new about her pupil though, and was planning something to deal with her. But Celestia had confidence in Twilight and it showed.
Nightmare Moon had left some time ago. Probably to go and reveal her return to the ponies of Equestria. Celestia had been bored above everything else. All she had to do was wait for Twilight to arrive and everything would be solved, so she waited. She primarily spent her time sitting on the balcony, watching what happened in the forest below. Everything looked so different.
She remembered when her and her sister had first built the castle just over 1000 years ago. It was in the middle of a great plain, expanding in all directions, not stopping until it changed into the great mountains in the distance. She remembered sitting on her own balcony, just across from her sisters and looking out towards that one particularly tall mountain in the distance.
It was always her favorite time of day, when she was about to go to sleep, but stepped out onto the balcony for her final duty of the day. Right as she lowered her sun and her sister lifted her moon. The two bodies always seemed to rise from behind that great mountain. It was almost as if you stood at the top of it, you could touch them as they passed overhead.
When her sister changed, and their old castle was almost destroyed, Celestia decided to rebuild anew on that mountain, so that she may be able to one day touch her sister again. When she stood out on her balcony each morning and each dusk, she would look up and think of her sister, and how far away they still were. She counted each of those days until her and her sister would see each other again. She had been looking forward to this day for so long, that even though she knew her sister would still have to be retrieved by Twilight, she was hurt a little by seeing the monster that had taken her sister from her so many years ago.
Celestia had been lost in thoughts of days come and go, until she saw something peculiar.
Down by the ravine that ran through the ground at the base of the castle, she saw something burst forth from the tree line. An odd creature, that walked only on its back legs, seemed to be running for its life. It stopped short at the edge of the ravine, looking down at it’s front ankle, and saying something. It’s head snapped around and stared back into the trees it had just emerged from. It took off again, running alongside the ravine, constantly looking over it’s shoulder.
From the edge of the tree line, where the odd creature emerged, another creature erupted. This time, it was one that Celestia recognized. A cockatrice scanned the clearing around the ravine until it saw the odd creature. Once it saw the creature, the cockatrice shot off after it.
The creature picked up the pace, but in the wide, open area, the cockatrice gained on it quickly. By the time the creature reached the trees again, the cockatrice was on it. Celestia prepared to avert her eyes. She did not wish to see what was about to come, especially when she was helpless to stop it.
Her attempts to avoid witnessing violence came to late, as the cockatrice exploded in a fine red mist, accompanied by a loud explosion, just before it reached the creature. Celestia would have turned away, but her disgust was now matched by her curiosity. The odd creature had collapsed in exhaustion at the tree line, catching it’s breath. From the brush stepped another creature, holding a long metal rod that smoked from one end. It squatted near the first creature, and they seemed to talk, until the first one pointed to where it had entered the clearing from, then balled up and buried it’s face in its front legs.
The second creature waved its front foot at the tree line, and another four creatures made their way clumsily out of the brush, each one carrying a large duffel bag. They came in and talked with the creature holding the metal rod. It pointed to a set of stairs leading down into the ravine, and then pointed to where the first creature had. The other creatures nodded.
They moved to help the first creature up onto it’s hind legs, and then started to move down into the ravine, while the creature holding the metal rod ran into the woods, back in the direction that the first creature had come from. After a few minutes, it returned to the clearing, struggling to carry an extra three bags.
It made it’s way down into the ravine, where the other creatures had started to unpack their bags and set up a small camp. It carried the three bags over to the first creature, which still had it’s head buried in it’s front legs, and dropped them. The first creature looked up, and said something to the second creature. The second creature acted incredibly flustered, then just walked away very quickly.
Celestia spent the next few hours enthralled by these odd creatures. They spent the time fiddling with odd objects that they pulled from their own bags, but two of the bags that were brought back from the woods remained untouched.
The creature with the metal rod built a campfire, and started to cook things it pulled from it’s bag.
The first creature sat, balled up by the fire, for what seemed like hours, but eventually got up and rummaged through its bag. It pulled out a large, collapsable metal disk and a large, flat rectangular panel. It spread the disk out on the ground, but held the panel in its lap. It spent hours tapping away at the panel, until the disk on the ground lit up in the middle. Then, the creature laid down and went to sleep.
The other creatures did similarly baffling activities to pass the time. One inflated balloons and let them fly into the air, while tapping away on a panel of it’s own. Another took a small machine around, placing it on the ground in many places, and tapping away on yet another panel.
Hours pass, until yet another creature entered the clearing. This one was carrying another metal rod, smaller than the first, and was covered in long scratches from head to toe. It was also accompanied by two very familiar forms. It walked behind two ponies dressed as members of her royal guard.
Celestia gasped, worried for her subjects. She had seen what those metal rod’s could do, and didn’t appreciate having them pointed at her little ponies. She looked closer and recognized the ponies. Their names were Eucalyptus and Fennel, the only married couple in the royal guard. They were currently on maternity and paternity leave after the birth of their first child, Bluebelle. Celestia was even more shocked when she saw that their baby was with them, riding on Fennel’s back.
The creature and ponies marched down into the ravine, getting the attention of the other creatures. The new creature called out to them, saying something that made the first creature stand, walk over to it, and slap it full force across the face. Despite it looking like the first creature had put a lot into that slap, the new creature looked unfazed, and merely smiled. Eventually the tension broke and the creature with the larger metal rod called out, waving the new creature over to the fire.
It marched over and sat down, then motioned for Eucalyptus and Fennel to come as well. The two creatures talked a while, then turned to the two ponies. They gently scooped Bluebelle off of Fennel’s back, and presented her to the creature. It looked her over then reached into it’s bag and pulled out a small, white box. It pulled out some bandages and sutures, then began working on Bluebelle.
While this happened, the new creature called out to the first one. They shared some more words and, this time much more calmly, before the new creature looked over at the small metal disk and stood. It walked over to inspect it, then called the rest of the camp to attention.
After it spoke to them, they began to pack up their bags again and move over to the metal plate. They each lined up and began to step on it. The first creature returned to the panel and began to tap on it again. Each creature stood there for several seconds before the lights on the plate started to grow in intensity, until they were impossible to see through. After the lights faded, the creatures had disappeared and another one stepped up to take it’s place. Through this, Eucalyptus and Fennel stared in awe at what was happening, but kept close to the creature working on Bluebelle.
They all disappeared until it was only the first creature and the two with the metal rods. The one that had been working on Bluebelle finished and passed her off to Fennel, then walked up to the plate and stood there for it’s turn. Fennel scooped Bluebelle onto his back and they both leaned in to nuzzle her, happy to have her back, safe in their arms. The new creature eventually broke up the touching moment with a wave of his metal rod. The two flinched and looked at each other in fear, before dropping their heads and moving towards the platform. Eucalyptus stepped up first, and turned to look at her family with tears in her eyes.
As the light started to fade up beneath her, the creatures reacted to some kind of sound coming from the edge of the clearing. When they turned to look at what had made the sound, the pride of manticores rose from the trees and dove into the clearing.
Celestia saw this and averted her eyes. She did not want to watch a massacre that she was helpless to stop.
She sat there listened to the occasional explosion, which she assumed was coming from the creatures metal rod, but other than that, the shield around her room muffled any other sound.
Eventually, even the explosions stopped. Celestia sat there in silence. She tried to will herself to look out over the balcony, but she was afraid of what she might see. She just sat there in silence, hoping that there wasn’t someone out there who needed her help.
As she sat there cowering, she felt the magic encapsulating the room drop. As Celestia sat there, frozen by fear, she hadn’t sensed Twilight reach the castle, or activate the Elements of Harmony, or banish Nightmare Moon. Celestia rose as she realized that she could go and see if there were any survivors, but again she froze. How long ago had the sounds stopped? Had it been minutes or hours that she had sat there, fearing what was outside? If anyone had survived, would they have died yet?
Celestia was afraid. She did not want to endure the heartache of venturing out there, only to find that she could have helped, had she not been locked away. Her sister was definitely alive, and needed her. How could she forsake her in this time of need.
Celestia turned her back on the balcony and left through the doors to her sister’s chamber.
*** *** ***
The prides of the Everfree forest had all gotten news of the death of the largest pride in the forest. Most came across the bodies, while others smelled their marks go stale, and from then on, the movement of the prides told the story well enough.
The forest was buzzing with action as the manticores all moved to take the now vacant territory, or claim the now widowed females. One of the next largest prides decided to hunt down whatever killed them, and spread their corpses across their territory to display their might.
The pride came across the carnage shortly after it ended, and picked up the trail of whatever did it almost immediately. They had been on the move, stalking them in the trees for almost an hour. It was one unfamiliar creature that walked on it’s hind legs and two of the ponies that the manticores were very familiar with, along with one baby pony, wrapped in a cloth.
They stalked through the trees waiting for the opportune moment to strike, but the creature never seemed to let it’s guard down. It carried an odd club in it’s front claw and a blade under one of its front legs, but it always seemed ready to strike. The creature and ponies talked almost the entire time, but the creature seemed to be controlling the situation.
As they walked, the ponies became more and more agitated. They started to ask where they were being taken, or begging to be let go, for the sake of their child, but the creature shut them down at every question, making them even more antsy.
Eventually, the creature pushed out into a clearing, and the pride feared they had missed their chance. They saw that in the opening was another six creatures like the first one. They decided to bide their time and wait for the perfect time to strike.
The creature stepped into the opening and spotted the other creatures, seated at the bottom of a ravine. It found the staircase that lead down into the ravine, and followed the ponies down. The creature shouted out to the others.
“Hey, how nice of you guys to drop me miles off course and then get all comfy here. I appreciate it,” it said, seething with sarcasm and annoyance, “luckily for you, you dropped me off right by some of the local sentients.” It prodded the ponies forward at this comment, and they stepped forward sheepishly.
“Now then, wheres that freak Charles. He owes me one for doing his job for him.” One of the creatures in the camp had been swelling with rage as the first creature spoke, and finally rose as it finished speaking. The second creature stomped towards the first, wound up, and delivered a slap with all the force it seemed to be able to muster, but the first creature looked unimpressed.
“What, you sad that I called your little friend a freak? Well not many people dedicate themselves to studying animal anatomy so... intimately.” The creature put a lot of thought and emphasis into the last word. The second creature puffed again, shaking with rage, but the first didn’t flinch.
Before anything could happen, a third creature, sitting at the campfire, called over to the first.
“He got dropped a little off course as well and ran into some of the local wildlife. Him and Gianna both. Edith’s still a little shaken up, so don’t push it,” This creature added in a pleading tone.
“Oh, your little circlejerk is broken up now. What a pity. I’ll make sure to let the bosses know what a massive shame that is.” Now, the second creature had gotten past her rage, and was just solemn and silent. She stood there still, as the first creature pushed past her and walked into the camp.
It motioned the ponies over to the campfire and had them sit down.
“Hey, their kid got bashed up on the way here, and I told them someone would take a look at it,” the creature said to the one sitting there.
This creature looked it in the eyes and raised it’s eyebrow in a questioning look.
“This time, it wasn’t me, believe it or not,” the first creature said casually.
The third creature sighed and reached over to his bag. The first creature saw this and jumped in.
“Did you guys get my bag? I didn’t have it when I dropped in.”
The third creature nodded over to a pile of three bags. The first creature went over to it and began to pull out even more of those odd metal clubs and blades. It looked them over, to make sure they were all there, then looked over to the campfire. He saw that the third creature was chatting with the ponies as it worked on their child.
It continued to look around the camp, studying each of the other creatures. It lingered the longest on the sullen creature, sitting by a metal disk on the ground.
It looked at the disk, then scanned the camp, looking at each of the creatures messing with their little metal objects.
“Do you guys have all you measurements?” The creature asked to the creatures. They were all messing around with their gadgets, but looked up to acknowledge the creature with nod.
“Good, I want to be out of here as soon as possible.” He said then turned to the creature that had slapped him earlier.
“The return pad is up and working, right?”
The creature regarded him sullenly.
“Whenever you’re ready.” She said with an incredibly grim voice.
“Alright! You guys heard the girl! Pack up and be ready to move out as soon as possible.” After this, the other creatures began to put away all of their little pieces of metal and began to move towards the metal disk on the ground.
The first creature looked over towards the campfire. It saw that the little pony was almost completely bandaged up.
“Alright, you all get on first,” it said to the creatures with all the little pieces of metal.
“That’ll give him enough time to patch up the horse. Then he can go through, then the horses, the me, then you,” it went around the camp in a circle, and ended on the creature that had hit it earlier. She didn’t seem to protest, she even seemed a little happy.
Once it said that, one of the creatures stepped up onto the disk. The solemn creature moved to take a small panel in her hands. She started tapping away on it, and then a bright light came on in the middle of the metal disk.
The entire pride averted their eyes, and when they looked back the odd creature was gone. After the next few disappeared, they decided they would strike once most of the creatures were gone, when the disked flashed up, to catch the creatures off guard.
Eventually, all but three of the creatures were gone. The one at the campfire finished bandaging up the little pony. It handed her back to the larger ponies, then moved to the plate himself.
The group of ponies took comfort in each other. They appeared to be whispering to each other. Something about making a break for it once this creature left.
They were interrupted when the first creature appeared behind them with the metal club. He motioned them towards the plate. He pointed at the one not carrying the child.
“You’re going first.”

The female pony gulped, then looked around for any way out. The first creature prodded her forward.
“Get on with it.”
She moved up onto the plate reluctantly. The light started to fade up as the pride leapt into the skies with a great communal roar.
The female pony saw them with a panicked look in her eyes before any one else, but she didn’t move from inside the light. She used her magic to grab the bag that the first creature had been checking earlier and throw it over towards the other pony. She disappeared in a flash as he looked on at her with a pained look. He swallowed his sorrow, threw open the bag and pulled out a long blade. He wielded it in his mouth as the pride came down, determined to protect his child.
The first creature removed his blade and drew up his odd metal club, while the sullen one hid behind a rock and drew another small metal club she had been concealing.
As the first few manticores prodded at the creatures, they realized that the first creature seemed to be protecting the sullen one. They attacked at her as a distraction, then took swings at the first while it went to assist her. The first creature was already taking some wounds, but none of them were slowing him down any. He kept up with the pride’s attacks swing for swing, cutting down one manticore for every wound they inflicted upon him, and every so often, letting off an expertly timed shot from his club, that sent a manticore flying back without a head.
While this was happening, the pony was also faring well enough on his own. The majority of the forces were focused on the odd creature, so the pony was left with only a handful of attackers. He tried to work his way out of the ravine while he fought, but was stalled on the stairs as he was beaten back by the manticores. He dodged and parried each strike with poise and grace, despited the delicate bundle on his back. He was doing a decent job of fending for himself.
The creature was dealing the majority of the damage to their numbers though. Eventually, the strongest and fastest manticores all rallied to make one final strike at the creature. They swooped around him and bombed him with their tail strikes and sharp claws, but one by one, each fell.
The creature stood, heaving as the weak and feeble remaining manticores fled into the night or moved to assist in the fight against the pony.
He saw that the pony was fighting off the manticores, and moved to help, but first dumped a large amount of small metal tubes onto the ground from his club. He pulled more from his pocket. It was putting them into the club, until another sharp explosion rang out, but not from his club this time.
The creature reached up to its chest and coughed up blood. The explosion had ripped a massive hole in its chest. It tried to turn to see who had shot it, but fell to its knees.
It looked up at the sullen creature, standing there with her club pointed at the first creature’s head.
“You have no clue how long I have waited to do this,” the sullen creature said in a wavering voice. “You should have died so damn long ago for the things you’ve one.”
“And you’re so high and mighty? You have blood on your hands as well,” the first creature coughed up through bloody breaths.
“Only the blood of monsters...” the sullen creature said. It pointed the club at the other creatures head and pulled the trigger one last time. The explosion threw the creature backward, a huge bloody crevice opened in it’s skull. It lay there in there still in the mud.
The creature looked at what it had done, then looked up at the pony, struggling to keep up the fight. In those brief moments, the pony had taken serious damage. He had multiple wounds along his legs, making it difficult for him to walk. He was bleeding from wounds on every part of his body that his armor didn’t cover, and even some that it did. There were still a dozen manticores circling the pony.
Despite that all, the bundle on his back was untouched, though stained slightly by his blood.
The creature looked at the pony then back to the metal plate on the ground. She dropped the club, then ran over to the plate and began fiddling with the metal panel. She punched a button on the panel and jumped onto the plate. As the light faded up from the base of the plate, a similar light faded up from inside the castle. There was another explosion as a great rainbow light shot out through the windows of the derelict castle.
*** *** ***
Aaaaaaaarrrrrrgggggghhhhhh!!!
Those damn troublesome ponies! How did they activate the elements!? No matter, that can wait for later.
This body will not do! I need another host! Someone ravaged by jealousy and a need for revenge...
...They will do nicely.
*** *** ***
As the light from the plate reached it’s most intense, a dark mist fled the castle, running ahead of the rainbow light. It descended upon the metal plate and fought with the light, until it eventually overcame it and faded. The light followed suit, and soon the metal plate was empty.
The pony had taken advantage of the flash of light to cut down the last manticore. The pony stood there, caked in his own blood. As he looked into the clear night sky, he collapsed. He had saved his baby, now he was going to sleep for a while.
He did not wake up.
*** *** ***
Celestia stood in the throne room of her old castle. Her and Luna had spent a long time embracing each other, but it was finally time to leave. She looked over to Twilight and her friends and found that they also looked very tired.
“I say, we head back home and take a nice long nap, during the day.”
The six ponies looked relieved by that in more than one way.
“Ah’ could really hit the hay right about now.”

“Oh, me too Darling. Today has been an emotional roller coaster.”
“But first, we have to celebrate the best Summer Sun Celebration EVAR!” Pinkie Pie exploded, barely even phased by the events of the day.
“Yeah, lets do that,” Twilight sighed in a content voice.
As the were exiting the castle they were chatting lightly, until Fluttershy stopped. Her ears perked up at a high pitched whining sound.
“Do you guys hear that?”
The other stopped and looked at her briefly, not sure what she was talking about, then they heard the faint whimper of an injured animal.
Fluttershy shot off around the castle to find a manticore laying there, a deep slice running through it’s abdomen. She ran up to the dying manticore.
“Oh my, you’re going to be alright. Just look at me.”
Fluttershy began trying to put pressure on the wound, while giving the manticore a pep talk, but it was already slipping away.
“Come on, just keep breathing... keep breathing...”
The other ponies came around the castle to find her like that. Legs covered in blood up to her knees, begging the manticore to live, and standing over an already dead body.
Applejack and Rarity ran up to her to comfort her. They embraced and held Fluttershy up as she sobbed into their manes.
Rainbow Dash noticed that there was a trail of blood leading up to the now dead body. She began to fly after it, until Celestia interrupted her.
“Where are you going Rainbow Dash?”
“I’m gonna go see what did this so I can kick it’s ass. Making Fluttershy cry like that, the nerve.”
“Do you really think than is so wise. Whatever did this must have been very tough to be able to kill a manticore.”
“Fine, then. I’ll find it then come back so we can kick it’s ass together,” she said before she flew a little higher then came to a sudden stop. Her eyes widened as she hovered in shock.
“You guys may want to see this...”
Celestia already knew what it was, but now she had to look at what she was unable to stop.
“What is it Rainbow?” Twilight asked.
“There’s a ravine... and... you should really see it for yourself. I don’t know what to say,” Rainbow dropped back to the ground and held her stomach like she was about to vomit.
The group all pushed forward except Rarity and Fluttershy who was still weeping.
As they crested the hill, Twilight saw it first. The entire crevice ran red with blood. There were dozens of dead manticores with varying levels of injury. Twilight saw it, then backtracked to purge herself in the bushes.
Applejack saw it next and held her lunch better, but she was still sent reeling by the sight.
Then Pinkie and the Princesses saw it and their jaws dropped. Not even Celestia expected to see that, maybe four or five dead bodies, but not this!
Eventually they were broken out of their trance when they saw the pony on the stairs.
“Aint that one of them royal guard ponies that lives in Ponyville?” Applejack wondered. “What’s he doin’ all the way out here? And where’s his wife.” Then a sudden look of realization dawned on her face. “Didn’t they have a kid?”
Then all of them looked at each other and ran towards the body, and sure enough, on the step nearby was one little bundle, soaked in blood. Applejack picked her up and looked at her little unconscious face.
“We should get her to a hospital. We don’t know what kind of injuries she’s got.”
Everybody silently agreed. As they began to turn and leave Rainbow noticed something else, deeper in the ravine, where the blood was most concentrated. There was a form, crawling alongside a rock, as if using it as a guide.
Rainbow began to fly in. Celestia tried to stop her, but she was already to far gone to do anything.
Rainbow swooped down and landed near the form. It crawled on four legs, but it didn’t look like it was supposed to. Its head had a deep cut gouged out, so that you could see brain, but it wasn’t damaged. The creature had an odd metal rod in it’s front hoof that it tried to raise, but dropped before it came to bare on its target.
The creature eventually sighed and pushed itself up against the rock, so it was sitting in an unnatural position, but it looked comfortable.
The creature let out a loud, cackling laugh.
“Hah! I’m not allowed to die!”
Th creature passed out after it said that. Rainbow checked to see if it was still breathing, and it was so she called the others over to help.
Applejack came down and scooped the creature onto her back to carry back to Ponyville.
The party now moved with decided haste. There was little conversation as they dragged the creature responsible for the massacre back to Ponyville.