65 MILLION YEARS AGO
NORTH AMERICA, EARTH
The sun beats down on an open meadow. It is midday. A herd of triceratops graze on large ferns and tall grass, as three pteranodons circle the skies above, searching for a carcass, or a sickly animal, to eat. In other words, it is another plain day in the prehistoric meadow. In the trees, however, a storm is brewing, for a pair of large, reptilian eyes pierce the treeline, scanning the area for potential prey. It is a tyrannosaurus rex. However, this particular rex is different. The rex is large, obviously, because all rexes are large when full grown. However, this one is a bull, and seems more muscular than the average bull tyrannosaurus. But there are things about this particular rex that cannot be seen at first glance. it seems smarter that most T. rexes, watching the triceratops herd closely, searching for the eldest or most sickly one, evaluating their every move. Also, this rex is far more aggressive than any average rex. The rex is quite old, and while he should be in a group of two or three rexes, he prefers being on his own, and even attacks his own kind. He has killed at least 5 other bulls in the past, and on several occasions, killed potential mates. This rex will never mate. But, he will always kill.
The rex has found his prey. He has singled out a large, old triceratops. He would use his method for killing large prey: ambush and chase the herd; get them stampeding, focus on the intended victim, separate the victim from the rest of the herd, then finally attack and kill. He snorted, and scraped the ground with his foot. He then leapt out of the treeline and emitted an ear-shattering scream, which instantly sent all animals within a three-and-a-half mile radius running. The triceratops herd charged away at full speed. With no time to spare, the large T. rex started to sprint behind the herd, his gaze locked on the old and wrinkly three-horned triceratops. Naturally, the slowest triceratops stayed at the back, while the faster ones continued to escape. However, the eldest triceratops, the rex's target, was the slowest, and was unfortunately the one farthest behind. The rest of the herd escaped, but the old beast kept running, but to no avail. The rex was now running alongside the triceratops' right flank. Without hesitating, the rex lunged at the triceratops, and scored a hit. He grabbed hold of the triceratops' right-front leg, and, with a mighty pull, tore it clean off. Blood and sinew sprayed from the severed limb and the empty socket. The old beast bellowed and collapsed mid-run, panting. The rex stopped as well. He placed a three-toed foot on the squirming animal's side, and pushed his mouth around his prey's neck. He slowly squeezed the neck, gradually adding pressure, as if to torture his prey. Eventually, a sickening SNAP! could be heard, and the squirming stopped. The rex reared his head and triumphantly roared, as if celebrating his kill. The grass was covered with blood. The rex decided to eat his fresh carcass, but just as he reached down to pull some meat off his prey, a large void appeared into thin air in front of his food. Startled, the rex jumped back, squawking. He was afraid of the portal that had just appeared, but at the same time, he was oddly drawn to it, curious of it. He climbed over his mountain of flesh, and only meant to sniff the thing. But, the next thing he knew, he was flying through a long tunnel of light, roaring and flailing his limbs as he flew. Then his mind went blank.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
The rex opened his eyes. He had no sense of how long he was unconscious, but it did not bother him for long. What did bother him was his hunger. Of course, he was never NOT hungry, but he was hungrier than normal; he never did get to eat his kill, which was nowhere in sight. He glanced around. He did not recognize this forest, but he knew that where there are forests, there are animals, so he started to walk through the forest to find suitable food.
The rex had been looking for food for no more than 3 minutes, when he heard a loud hiss from his left side. A creature he had never encountered before stood 20 yards away from his position. It was smaller than him, but still quite large. The creature was a lion with a scorpion tail and bat wings. The rex turned to face his opponent. He stared at the manticore and stomped both feet three times, while roaring. this meant that he accepted the challenge. The manticore lunged at the rex, who quickly dodged it by jumping to the right. The manticore swiped at the rex, hissing and roaring. The claw managed to slice a wound on the dinosaur's face, from his eye crest to the bottom of his jaw. It only increased his rage. Using the fueled anger from the new wound, the rex grabbed hold of the manticore's tail. The manticore screamed in pain. The rex planted a foot on the manticore's back to hold it down. Easily, he pulled off the tail. The manticore hollared so loud that even the rex flinched.
The manticore was in shock. All it could do was collapse and twitch its limbs. This opened a window of opportunity for the rex. Using all his strength, the rex picked the manticore up in his mouth, shook him side to side like a ragdoll, and threw it against a large tree. The manticore was near unconscious and emitted an occasional moan. The rex decided he would have some fun with this one. He decided that he hated this thing so much that he would dismember it, keeping it alive until each limb was eaten. He started by ripping off the wings. The manticore screamed and slashed at the air, barely missing the rex's throat. He decided not to take any risks. Next he removed an arm and swallowed it whole, which was difficult, because the manticore was trying desperately to kill the rex. When the manticore tried to slash with the other arm, the rex simply caught it in his mouth and ripped it off, swallowing it, just like the last one. The manticore was near unconscious. The rex easily removed the legs and ate them as well. By this time the manticore was surely dead. The rex decided he had his fun, so he simply left the carcass where it lay at the edge of the forest.
The rex continued to forage for food, but he decided to do something different. The rex left the forest and entered a clearing with small wooden benches, trees with red fruit in them, and a winding trail, with strange, small creatures playing in the distance.
Chapter 3
Pluck. Pluck. One by one, Junebug picked the prettiest daisies in the field, putting them in her saddlebags. Of course, there were a lot of them, she definitely would be here for a while if she were to pick them all. Fortunately, all she needed were the best ones. Concentrating, she scanned the field, searching for only the most beautiful ones. Finally, she spotted a nice patch of daisies. She was about to approach the patch, but then she stopped. The patch was right on the edge of the Everfree Forest. However, after much thought, she decided that she would take a risk and pick them: they were very beautiful, after all.
A few moments later, Junebug stopped in front of the daisy patch. With acute precision, she scoped out the prettiest flowers. It was hard to choose, for they were all eye-catching. "Ah, this one looks beautiful!" Junebug exclaimed, extending a hoof to grab a bright, almost-glowing white flower. Once again, though, she stopped. Something caught her eye from far away, and it wasn't a flower.
50 feet away from Junebug, something caused the trees to shudder and the pond to ripple. It had some sort of uneven pattern, like giant footsteps. Suddenly, four trees on the edge of the forest shook tremendously, as something massive pushed its way out of the forest. Junebug froze as soon as she saw it. A massive reptillian head, easily biggger than a full grown mare, emerged through the trees, blood dripping down its muzzle, staining the grass. It had massive teeth that jutted out of its mouth, much like that of an alligator. Its eyes were golden with a black slit for pupils. The beast continued to extend out from the trees, revealing that the head was attached to a thick neck, which continued to a broad torso with ridiculously small arms. Its legs were surpprisingly avian, like a chicken. Fiinally, it ended with a long, thick tail.
For what seemed like hours, Junebug stood frozen, paralyzed with fear, analyzing what she just witnessed. The monster swung its head from left to right, looking around, when its head finally stopped, snout pointing in Junebug's direction. Its reptillian eyes seemed to pierce Junebug's soul. Finally, Junebug turned and ran. She had no idea where to go; Ponyville was quite far away, further than she could run, but it was worth a try. Behind her, she heard a bloodcurdling roar, followed by rapid, earth-shaking footsteps. She dropped her saddlebags, for she could run faster without them. However, it did not do much good. The tremors rapidly became closer and closer. After a few minutes of sprinting, she could run no longer. She slowed down, almost to a complete stop. "HELP!!!" She shrieked. "PLEASE HEL-"
Junebug's scream for assistance was cut short. She felt an extreme pain in both flanks, and felt her hip instantly disintegrate under tremendous pressure. She let out an ear-shattering scream of pain and horror. She felt herself being lifted up, up, up, until finally being suspended in air. She felt a large, wet tongue working its way up her belly. Tears streaking down her face, she furiously punched the thing's snout with her forelegs, but to no avail. She could have sworn she heard the thing chuckle at her futile attempts to save herself. The tongue reached her chest, then past it to her chin, where it draggged her further into its deep mouth. When she was fully inside, she heard the jaws snap shut. Between sobs, she screamed out, "PLEASE, HELP ME!" She knew no one could hear her. She then broke down into a crying fit. This was brief, though. The crying turned into panic as she realized she couldn't breathe. After two minutes of hard gasping, she slipped into unconsciousness, then slipped down the Rex's throat and into his stomach.
The Rex, satisfied with his meal, turned and walked back to the forest. He realized something about these small creatures: they had a different taste. They were very sweet, almost like candy....
"C'maan, Twilight, just do it!" Rainbow Dash nagged. "It'll be sooo cool! I'll be all like ZOOM and then I'll be gone and everyone'll be like, 'where did she go?' But then I'll reappear, and everyone will cheer, and it'll be SOOO wicked!" She excitedly ranted to her purple friend.
"Oh, I don't know, Rainbow," she said, "it could be dangerous... I'd hate for you to get hurt..."
"Don't worry, Twilight Sparkle, I'll be fine!" Rainbow continued to nag. Rainbow Dash was looking to perform a new stunt. A stunt that would definitely go into the record books. She knew exactly what she wanted to do, but it required the help of Twilight Sparkle's magic. The stunt involved two portals, both would be conjured in the sky. Basically, what would happen, is that Rainbow Dash would gather up as much speed as she could, fly into one portal, and emerge from the other one, perfectly intact. It was risky... just the way she liked it.
"Well... okay, I'll give it a try. But it's not my fault if you end up in some alternate dimension, okay?" Twilight Sparkle shut her eyes and focused hard on her 'open portal' spell. Slowly, her horn began to glow, brighter with every second. The horn got brighter and brighter, until eventually there was a bright flash that sent Twilight Sparkle flying and temporarily blinded Rainbow Dash. Eventually, both ponies recovered.
"Ugh... my head... you okay, Dash?" Twilight moaned.
"yeah, I'm fine, just a little dizzy. What the heck happened?" Dash said, disoriented.
"I don't know... but I'm exhausted, let's head back to Ponyville." Twilight replied.
"Yeah, good idea. I think my trick can wait. Hey! maybe 'The Great and Powerful Trixie' can open the portals for me!" Rainbow Dash teased.
"Don't even get me started..." Twilight growled as they walked back to town.
Little did the two girls know, the portal DID open... just not where it was supposed to open... And, unbeknownst to them, they just caused the soon-to-come massacre in Ponyville that will never be forgotten...
