Thunders Howl

A week had passed since I first began going out to hunt monsters regularly. Discord has been a big help in watching my back. He's still using Greatswords, much to his regret when he was picking weapons but he's been making due.

I have been getting plenty stronger too. Having slain and devoured many beasts. Mantacores, a Hydra, Timber Wolves… did not enjoy that one but their abilities are neat, and I finally got some Thunder Bugs too!

"So that Giant Mole is around here somewhere…" Discord muttered as we walked through the massive tunnel that our target monster had made. This beast, while not too dangerous, was causing a lot of sinkholes and pits to pop up all over the place and make travel difficult.

“We’re getting closer thankfully.” I brought up, thankful that my nose could tell where it was specifically in it’s many tunnels filled with it’s scent.

"Good. Hm, I wonder if it's made a nest in a Gemstone deposit. Would be a great boon for the town. On top of use as a secondary currency Gems are perfect for enchanting or other fun stuff."

“Cool.” I nodded. “If…Tony comes back with Rarity’s soul, she might get a kick out of all the gems from what I was told about her.” I said, still hating myself for not knowing Pain would do this even after all these months.

"Oh yes, that mare and her gems." Discord shrugged. "She used them in her clothing designs, making them eye-catching and such. But of a waste to me personally but she found them so she does what she will with them. Funny how she had the perfect special talent for gemstone mining yet her career was fashion."

“Well, maybe her special talent isn’t just gemstone mining?” I suggested.

Discord shrugged. "Meh. Never asked." We soon came across a large opening, even with some enhanced night vision it was too dark in here to see much. We pulled out some flashlights, yes, Fantasy world with flashlights, and looked around… holy crap.

All around us was a forest. A forest underground and out of the light where upside down trees hung from the ceiling, stalagmites rose from the floor to meet the trees, and various subterranean creatures jumped through the strange trees. "Wow, this is… amazing." Discord said.

“Yeah…” I muttered in awe. “How…an underground forest? How the hell is this possible?”

We walked through it, looking around in awe as we saw it was its own world entirely here. Some of these trees had fruit hanging. Reaching up and picking one off I sniffed it, not smelling any toxins or poison. With a shrug I bit into it.

It was really tough, like biting into a raw potato, had a little juice in it and seemed to taste like a mix of almond and walnuts.

“Huh…weird almond and walnut mixture.” I said. “Tough as hell though.”

"Makes sense. Even if it's growing from a tree it's still underground. Roots and such are usually rather tough." Discord said.

We made it to the end of this underground forest when we spotted it. The Giant Mole was trying to dig through some strange looking deposit of rock or something and was having trouble doing so.

We used the fact it was distracted to our advantage and rushed in. Discord hacking it's great and when it spun around I rushed in, using my claws to dig into its hide and then bit into its skull, the crack I received told me I broke its skull open and killed it.

I then began the task of eating it.

Giant Mole devoured.

New Ability Integrated.

Tunneler Rank 1: This ability allows you faster, better digging abilities and easier breaking of less dense rocks and ore deposits.

“That’ll help out a lot.” I said happily. “So…wonder what it was trying to dig into.”

I touched the metal, feeling it was…. Really tough. I tried to see if my new Ability could help and gave a swipe at it-

Crack!!

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!!!!

My claws broke on contact, leaving my fingers bleeding and really, really hurt!

“Ooooowwwww!” I whined, holding my hand and lightly jumping up and down at how much this really fucking hurt.

"How did that happen?" Discord asked, using his magic and healing me. Thankfully it grew my claws back too. Still felt sore though…

“Whatever that metal is made out of, it’s really fucking strong.” I said, lightly wagging my hand at the soreness. “Do you know what that is?”

Discord looked the metal over, squinting as he poked it. Then he looked at his side. "Strange…" He said, poking it again. He then picked up a small rock, walked some feet from the ore and threw the rock at it. "Ouch!" He yelped, rubbing a spot on his neck. "Well, I don't think that it's tough, I think it actually reflects the damage done to it onto the attacker?"

“Vibranium?” I suggested, looking over the metal again to see if it looked like the metal from Marvel

"Doubt it, that metal absorbs the energy itself then releases it, this actually takes the damage and attacks itself and throws it back at the attacker. Plus Vibranium glows a light blue color when in raw ore form."

“True…” I frowned. “So…what in the world is this stuff?”

"No idea. Whatever it is, I can't detect magic from it either. Probably something the All Makers would know. Should probably ask for some books or something to make identifying this crap easier."

"Yeah…" I nodded in agreement. "We should head back to Shopkeep, we finished our job, and found something new."

With a nod, Discord and I made our way back to Ponyville. More over the last week was the once simple country town more and more starting to look like a hunters camp right out of the Monster Hunter games.

Walking into Shopkeeper's store we received the credits for the job and began asking some questions.

"So we found a strange metal that hurt us when we hit it, do you know anything about it?" I ed.inquired.

"Mirror Realm Metal." Shopkeeper answered.

“Mirror Realm Metal?” I blinked. “How the hell is that here?”

"It happens. The Mirror Realm is one of many dimensions that exist in the same physical space but not on the same frequency of existence. Sometimes they accidentally pop into another universe and get stranded."

"Hmm." I hummed. "Well, how much for a book that could help us on our travels?"

"For the collection of them it will be ninety thousand credits. Alternatively an Info bot that can do the same and then some will run you just two thousand credits."

“I’ll take the info bot cause…I actually have the money for that.”

"Any specific style you'd like the bot to be in?"

“Well…what style’s are there?” I inquired, honestly having thought I would have just gotten a Navi esc robot immediately for some reason.

"Any style within the multiverse. If you can think of a robot then it can come in that style."

"Neat." I nodded, thinking hard on what kinda robo assistant I wanted. "Which one do I want?" I hummed, trying to think of what I could get that either won't annoy the piss out of me or, depending on the kind, I won't try to bed with on a regular basis. "Well…even though it might be annoying, let's go with the old classic Navi."

"Sure." Shopkeeper said as he reached under the desk and placed a box on it. I opened it. Sitting inside was what looked like a small floating, glowing ball of blue light with wings.

I was amazed how much it actually looked like the fairy. The ball flew up and around me for a time. "New owner Registered. Greetings Tina." The ball spoke, sounding nothing like Navi, a more deep and matured female voice. "I am Firecracker. Your personal information and storage bot."

"Nice to meet you Firecracker." I nodded. "And…wow that voice…"

"This unit comes with standard Multiverse information based on current and past events as well as 10 trillion Yottabytes of storage for personal belongings."

"Holy hell…" I said in awe. "That…is a lot of storage."

"It is a standard storage size." Firecracker answered.

After a bit I left that place and was heading home. It amazed me how fast the pups were maturing. Despite being half pony they all still aged quickly. They were already crawling, could hear, eyes were wide open and they loved to crawl around all over the place.

"Look at em go…" I cooed happily at all my adorable pups crawling around.

It was always adorable to watch them crawl around like hyper little things. The nursery/playroom was full of toys, but the kids largely ignored them, favoring getting lost and tangled in blankets and wrestling with one another in a literal dog pile as a means of self entertainment.

Once they saw me they all rushed over to me. I kneeled down and fed each one before burping and checking their diapers before putting them all in the crib for a nap.

With that done I met with Fluttershy, who was making dinner. "Have a productive day?" She asked.

"Yep." I nodded. "How was your day hun?"

"Good. Now that the girls all know about my… member. Pinkie really wants to see it. Though I doubt that's all she wants to do. Rainbow makes jokes and such all the time but I get the feeling she's in the same boat as Pinkie… AJ thinks it's weird but if I'm okay with it she won't bring it up. Twilight thought it was biologically fascinating. Luna plans on… riding me like a wild bull after she had her baby, and Celestia just gave an invitation a wink so… I have had an interesting day."

I chuckled.

Twilight, Celestia and Luna were back in Canterlot for a bit to meet with the Dwarf Ambassadors. Pinkie kinda lives with us given the Cake Twins are here but she also mostly goes out and looks for new and exotic foods to make pastries with. Applejack and her family have largely gone unchanged given all the developments, though AJ now sports one amazing looking shotgun. Rainbow… the cyan Pegasus recovered from her lost legs quickly, actually seeming almost unphased by the disability. Given she's always flying I guess it was just like losing weight for her…

Still, she oftentimes can be seen with a rifle on her back flying around the town's wall to keep an eye out for anything getting too close.

"I'm…still glad that some people are taking this well…" I sighed, still believing I'm at least partly to blame for Pains antics.

"Just about everyone has been adjusting. I hear the Dragons find this all to be especially fun. Their lands are barren volcanic coastal beaches and valleys so some… alternative food sources, have been welcome by them."

"Good for them." I nodded.

"So, what did you do?" Fluttershy asked as she served me. I was surprised she was willing to cook meat, given Ponies don't eat meat, but she does prepare meals for her predatory animal friends so she didn't mind. She placed before me two whole chickens. One roasted and the other barbecue. She herself has steamed potatoes with butter, sour cream and fried onions.

"Killed a giant mole that was causing a lot of trade to be rough, found an underground forest, tried a tunnel fruit, and then found Mirror Metal." I explained.

"Oh, an Underground forest?"

“Yep.” I nodded. “It was really cool and pretty, and the tough fruit tasted like walnuts and almonds.”

"Oh, that sounds lovely." Fluttershy said with a nod. "What are your plans for tomorrow then? More of the same?"

“Well…either do some more hunting, taking care of our children…or something.” I shrugged. “Not sure really…and honestly, I miss Tony…”

"I am upset I didn't get to meet them before they left for that trial thing."

“Yeah…” I sighed. “I mean…he would have made you about as pregnant as you made me while also taking it up the ass with just as much vigor…but he’d be ecstatic to be an uncle.”

"Oh my… it is weird I find that attractive?" Fluttershy asked with a blush.

“Which part?” I inquired. “Cause Tony is as much of a horndog as me, so not sure if your into being stuffed better than a thanksgiving turkey, or having him get the stuffing?”

"The… latter…" She admitted.

“Fair.” I shrugged.

After dinner I showered, and… surprisingly it's not that hard washing all this fluff. Once that was done I began to mess around with some… custom toys of mine. Being a Den Mother means any sex at all regardless of how it's finished means I get knocked up. And apparently there is still a small chance even if I'm with another girl I can still get knocked up. So my casual sex life has sadly gone out the window.

The next morning I was feeding the pups, changing diapers and letting them get to playing when Celestia, Luna and Twilight came back.

Along with them were two dwarves… Celestia was right. They did look a bit like Pony Goblins. Though their eyes were far more… pony.

"Hello again Tina." Celestia said as she and the group entered. "This here is Matter Breaker and Space Paradox. They are going to be Ponyville's personal blacksmiths and will work with Shopkeeper to some degree."

"It's nice to meet you two." I nodded.

"So you're the new Den Mother Zinogre in this dimension." The slightly fatter, and taller Dwarf, Matter Breaker, said as they looked me up. "Well, Haven't seen one of your type before."

"She's bit on the small side for a Den Mother." The other, Space Paradox said. She, at least she sounds… kinda like a she, said.

"I mean, I just became a mother and just started eating so…I have plenty of room to grow." I pointed out.

"I was hoping to see if you'd take them to see Shopkeeper."

"Sure." I nodded. "Hopefully he'd at least…maybe not look completely bored due to it."

"Nah, that's just how All Maker Shopkeeper is. Now if he gets excited. Be afraid. Be VERY afraid." Space Paradox said, leaving me with some concerning questions as the three of us headed out.

“Uh…why should I be…very afraid if he gets excited?” I asked nervously.

"Cause it means he wants to get involved. And when Shopkeeper gets involved… well, let's just say it gets rather chaotic from there…"

“Right then…” I said nervously. “Really hope he doesn’t get…excited here, Pain is…well a pain enough as is.”

"In any case, it will be nice to see them again." Matter Breaker said with a shrug.

I blinked. “Again? You’ve met them once?”

"Yes. He does have a location in the Dwarves Kingdom. We don't buy his weapons, but the schematics and blueprints for them. We prefer making things ourselves."

“Fair enough.” I nodded. “So do you know how to mine Mirror World metal?”

"Oh yeah, several methods."

“Cool, cause I didn’t know what it was and…well, shattered my claw’s on accident from clawing at it.”

"Heh, yeah that will happen. Unless you're strong enough to tank your own attacks. Then you might have broken some of the ore off." Paradox said.

We quickly arrived at Shopkeeper's place. "Oh, it's you two…" Shopkeeper said with a yawn. "Bit far away from your hole in the ground."

"A pleasure as always All Maker." Breaker said as he and Paradox gave a bow.

“So, I brought these two here to help out Ponyville start…either fortifying against whatever nonsense Pain plan’s on throwing at us next, or starting to expand thing’s so others can use this place as a safe haven.”

"Sure, whatever helps you sleep at night." Shopkeeper shrugged.

I rolled my eyes at that. “So, where do you want to start with your work?” I asked the two dwarves curiously.

"We should first start with finding good ore. That Mirror ore you talked about would make a perfect gate. Any attack it suffers will be reflected on whatever attacks it." Paradox said.

“Alright, and also it’s near an underground forest, so there’s also that.” I mentioned.

"Nah, just show us the ore."

With that we headed off. It was thankfully an uneventful trip and the method they mined the ore in was… unexpected. First they set up a lot of lanterns, then they brought up a giant mirror and had it face the ore deposit. Once that was all set up they began hitting the mirror with pickaxes… and somehow the ore was breaking off in prices and chunks.

“Uh…what?” I blinked. “That…shouldn’t work the way I’m thinking it does.”

"When it comes to the All Makers, the Multiverse and all that, there are things you don't question less you want to give yourself a brain hemorrhage."

"I…can tell…" I sighed out. "So, how long have you been…doing this kind of stuff?"

"Four hundred and thirty two years." Breaker said.

"Damn, that's a pretty long time." I said in a bit of surprise.

"Well a dwarfs lifespan is roughly thousand years."

"Right then." I nodded. "Any questions you have for me or should I let you two do your thing?"

"Nothing really." Breaker said.

It was a few hours before they got the last of the mirror ore and once it was all collected we went back to town where they quickly began setting up a forge.

With them busy I headed off to find something to do.

I was out in the wilds and spotted the biggest snake I have ever seen!

It was long, it's body about as thick as my torso and coiled in a pile on itself sleeping.

"Uh…wow, that's a big snek…" I said in surprise. "Hey Firecracker…what's that?" I inquired my Navi esc robobuddy.

The little fairy robot flew out from… somewhere in my fluffy back and looked at the snake. "It appears to be a fully reptilian Lamia." They answered.

"Huh…didn't expect to see one of those here…" I hummed.

"They appear to be digesting a meal, resting as the best means of recovering spent energy."

"Are they sapient or feral?" I inquired. "Cause…well this is my first time seeing a lamia…"

"Brain scans indicate they are feral, but contain the genetic prerequisites needed to develop intelligence."

"Well…that sounds interesting…" I hummed. "How so?"

"Genetically her brain contains the genetics needed to advance her mental capacities to that of intelligence. A special genetic or magical formula can activate the dormant genes within their biology."

“Well…wonder if it’s possible to make that a reality here and get myself a naga helper?”

"It is entirely possible assuming you have the required Technology and or magic skills."

“Cool.” I nodded. “Wonder if Discord could do that?” I hummed.

"Possibly, chaos magic users are capable of much but her personality and mentality will be completely random as a result. If you were to bestow them with intelligence, you could choose their personality and mentality among other factors."

“Ah, also it’s a she? Neat.” I nodded. “Now…how to capture the snek without waking her up?”

"Multiple spells exist that can take her, making her a form of tamed beast, pet, or familiar. Technological alternatives also exist as a means of capturing feral beasts to tame them in various ways."

“Neat.” I nodded. “Alright…so time to capture this thing…"

"This unit is capable of purchasing supplies from Shopkeeper. Access to your account and credits/currency balance is available."

“Alright, so let’s buy us a lamia trap.” I nodded.

"Current Credits Balance. 22,640 credits. Currency Balance. Zero. Basic tamer trap is 400 rem or 700 credits."

“I don’t think I heard of Rem before…but let’s by the tamer trap.”

"Transaction complete." Firecracker said as suddenly, in a small flash of blue appeared a strange collar looking item. "Tamers Collar. To use, place around the beast's neck."

“Sounds simple enough.” I nodded, taking the collar and starting to sneak up on the sleeping snake.

I couldn't see its head, meaning it's likely in the coiled up body. With a sigh I managed to lift and climb between it's coiled up body and quickly saw it's top half. It was… different. Their upper half looked humanoid, but was covered in scales. Their head, arms, all of it was covered in small thin scales. The whole of their body was a dark green with spots of black here and there. They were heavily asleep. Wasting no time I opened the collar clasp and quickly put it on the lamia's neck, clasping it shut. Their eyes opened once I did and they seemed to glow. First blue, then green, then lastly gold before they reverted back to the normal, yellow reptilian eyes that just looked back at me almost expectantly.

“Hi there.” I said, lightly patting the lamia’s head.

They looked at me kinda blankly.

“I’m taking you home, and I’m gonna make you a smart snek.”

Again, she gave me a blank look and I crawled out from her coiled body as she uncoiled herself.

“Follow me.” I said, leading the lamia back to town cause it being so quiet and giving me that blank stare made me feel a little uncomfortable.

It followed me silently, and once we got home it just slithered around my bedroom.

"Interesting…" Twilight said, already looking the lamia over with a notebook and various other instruments. "To study one of all the new species of animals and creatures on Equestria alive and in person! How did you get them so tame?"

“The collar.” I pointed to it. “Currently it’s Feral so…I don’t fully feel bad, but I came to you to see if you could help give it intelligence, since Firecracker here said that they have the genetics to gain all the wonders of sapience.”

"Really? That's incredible." Twilight said.

"She seems calm." Fluttershy said, also looking the lamia over. "A bit confused but overall healthy too."

"Can you understand them like your animal friends Fluttershy?"

"Yes. She says she's not mad about being tamed but is upset she had to move so soon after eating."

“Sorry about that.” I said sheepishly. "Didn’t want to assume a few thing’s…and yeah sorry for making you move after eating and sleeping.”

"She says it's fine but wants to know where to burrow to make a new nest for herself." Fluttershy said.

"Say, you said she doesn't have intelligence. So what separates how Fluttershy understands them and the other animals compared to us?" Twilight asked.

“Well…and this is just me guessing, is that there’s a difference between sentience and sapience, sentient is baseline everything a living creature would have, but to most nobody know’s how an animal mind’s work or full on body language…unlike Fluttershy here.” I gently patted her shoulder. “Sapience is what we’re doing right now, able to do all the wonderful things we can do due to higher brain functions or some other such nonsense if that makes sense.”

"That would make sense, but how do you translate and talk to them Fluttershy?" Twilight asked.

"Well, it's like… understanding intention. I don't actually hear them speaking, more like, I can feel what they mean." Fluttershy said.

"Empathic translation into verbal language. Incredible. And it's the reverse when you ask them for something or speak to them?"

"Basically. I think my special talent does it automatically." Fluttershy said.

"Right, the passive magical effects of cutie marks often manifesting in various ways. Yours manifested into the ability to understand the empathic meaning of underdeveloped creatures and translate them into understandable languages. It makes sense that the passive cutie mark magic would do the same backwards to allow perfect two way communication."

“That sounds very interesting.” I nodded.

"So, how will you be giving her our level of intelligence and such Tina?" Twilight asked.

“Well, either through magical means, or technological means.” I said honestly. “I came to you because of magic and…I’d probably have to go to Shopkeep for the scientific part.”

"I have no idea how to do that. We can't even understand how Cutie Mark Magic works. All I do know is that it's a powerful form of passive magic. Giving our level of intelligence on a creature like your lamia here is… it's never been done."

“Shopkeep it is.” I said honestly. “I shall be back, while I let you help our new lamia friend here get comfortable and a new home.”

With that, I got up and left. Rushing back to Shopkeeper. When I arrived he was sleeping at the counter, as usual.

“Yo, I got a purchase to make.” I said. “I’m gonna give a feral being sapience, you got anything for it?”

He didn't wake up.

"Yo." I gently nudged the shopkeeper. "Need some help."

Still nothing.

“Oh come on…” I grumbled. “Alright…Firecracker, can you help me find any item’s that can help me get that Lamia sapience here?”

"A level ten bio laboratory fabrication machine. And at minimum, 4,521,302,632 chemical combinations and ingredients to develop the injection." The small robot said.

“Which I will never have enough money for…fuck…” I sighed.

I began contemplating what to do… then it hit me… Voodoo…

“Doubt he would just appear if I called his name…” I frowned. “But mind seeing if you can call Voodoo for me? Gonna need to talk to him given sleeps mcgee here won’t wake up.”

"Boo." I jumped, seeing the skeleton man behind me shuffling a deck of cards. "All you really need to do is call. To say my name."

“I mean…I guess.” I said sheepishly. “I didn’t know if you were busy with either someone else, watching over Tony or…something else.”

"A good dealer has time for all his clients when they call. If I ever am not available, means I'm on vacation."

“Fair enough.” I nodded. “So I need some help getting a lamia some sapience cause I don’t know how to, either magically or technologically, and he’s out like a light.”

"Yes, when Shopkeeper sleeps, not much can wake him. Well, sounds to me like you need an Intelligence Injection." He said, taking a card out of his neck. With a flick of his bone fingers, the card changed into a metallic syringe with a small glass window showing a clear liquid inside.

“She has the genetics for it and…well I suppose that’ll help out a lot.” I said. “So…what do I need to do?”

"Well, normally folks like you don't get these so easily." He said, another flick and the syringe was back to being a card he shuffled back into the deck. "Doing this will set you on a path to power you know?"

“Uh…how?” I asked. “Giving something sapience when it…already had the chance to doesn’t really sound like ‘the first step to new power’.”

"You give a caveman fire, he will think of you as a God. Give an animal free thought, will, understanding and the ability to Truly begin to learn and understand the world around them, you are a god. Or, a Progenitor in our eyes. Step below that, like a sibling to demi-gods."

“Uh…huh…” I blinked. “So…that’s new.”

"If you wanna fight Pain this is a Prerequisite."

“Fine…” I sighed. “Alright so…what do I need to do for this to happen?”

"You're a mother now, having birthed life, and this little event is much the same. So you'll have to know the other side of the coin "

“So…I need to be a father now or something?” I inquired.

"You need to end a life."

“Oh come on.” I whined. “Why do I suddenly need to commit a murder?”

"If you want a chance at fighting Pain, you need to be willing to become a Monster yourself. Simple fact of life, Evil exists. And sometimes there is no redemption for those who dive so far down into that darkness."

I gulped. “So…who do I need to kill?” I asked timidly.

"That's the fun part. You can't know until you meet them."

“What wondrous help I’m getting…” I rolled my eyes. “Vagueness because I want to make a lamia sapient…”

"Because you want to fight Pain." Voodoo said. "Can't expect to fight evil without understanding it."

“You make it sound like I have to kill an innocent all of a sudden…not some deranged madman.”

"Maybe. Maybe not." Voodoo shrugged. "Very few people ever ask to die, but when it comes none of them ever have a choice.”

"Wonderful…" I grumbled. "So…in a random spot, at aat a random time, I might have to maul someone to death so I can give basic human intelligence to a lamia…"

"Power comes at a price, and that price is the loss of your own innocence."

“Fine…” I sighed. “This is gonna suck a lot…”

To be continued...