From afar, they faced the thing that was slowly but surely approaching them. It was not that tall ; an adult and monstrous Spike was only two heads smaller. But it was so heavy. Ridiculously heavy. Even from far away, each of its steps seemed to literally shake the entire castle of Canterlot and, by extension, the mountain itself. They were eleven against it, but the creature wanted only one of them ; it was getting closer and closer. At the same time, it seemed so distant, just next to Ponyville which was spared ; however, the deadly footsteps had made some buildings collapse ; the Castle of Friendship was intact, but the monster was not after destruction anyways.

Even with the distance between them, Twilight Sparkle could almost sense the demonic red eyes set after that particular pony. The thing suddenly made an incredible leap for its size, significantly tightening the distance and causing an earthquake. It stopped at the base of the mountain, the castle just above it ; it could surely jump, but it could not grip any edge and its weight when falling on the ground would have made the city or even the whole mountain collapse. Undeterred, the beast began to make its way towards the eastern side of the mountains.

"Great ! We have some time to think about what to do !" Twilight Sparkle exclaimed in a tone she wanted enthusiastic.

"Hate to break it to you Twilight, but. We. Tried. EVERYTHING. Magic. Raw power. Heat. Not even Discord can stop it ! So, yeah, what do we do ?"

Twilight would have loved to answer Rainbow Dash’s question, but this time, she had nothing to say. But she had seen it coming : precisely one week before the attack, she was in a paranoid mood : panicking over the smallest of things, from a misplaced book to a falling fork ; she did not know where this feeling was coming from at the time, and, when the monster came, she regretted not talking to Princess Celestia or Princess Luna, or Princess Cadance, or anyone else. Twilight perfectly knew she had a tendency to stress over trivial things ; she had considered that it was not worth bothering any of her friends with the sentiment of impending doom that was submerging her ; after all, anything could have been the cause : a missed invitation, a spell she had trouble practicing correctly, an unsent letter, or simply nothing at all. Of course, her friends had noticed, but she had simply brushed off the matter with all the assurance she still had at the time ; it was a terrible miscalculation : she knew she could count on them, that they always listened to her. But it was too late now. She remembered how, right from the get go, the situation was already out of control, and deep inside, she wondered if talking would have changed anything.

Seven days ago :

"Twilight ! We have a problem !"

The young winged unicorn tore off her purple eyes from the book she was reading ; Spike was literally flying towards her, his small feet barely touching the ground. He sweated so much he seemed to have taken a shower or been under pouring rain ; his green eyes transpired a worry she had rarely seen.

"Sp…"

"It’s from princess Ember ! The Dragon Lands are in trouble !" The little dragon panicked.

"What happened !?"

"They were attacked yesterday ! By a monster !"

"What ?!" Twilight exclaimed in disbelief.

She bit her lower lip.

"Is Princess Ember alright ?"

"Yeah, luckily. She said in the letter she didn’t fight. Twilight, the dragons… they were… huh… powerless against that thing. And… and we-we know firsthoof what dragons can do", Spike said with a hint of fear in his voice.

He gave the letter to Twilight.

"We’re going to see Princess Ember. Immediately."

"Do we tell the others ?"

"Yes Spike. But…"

Before she could finish, a second letter emerged from Spike’s mouth in a puff of green fire.

Twilight rapidly read the paper, her face twisting in a more and more worried expression as she progressed in her reading. She was right all along ; she was struck by a sudden urge to go back in time.

"That’s a second letter from Princess Ember. The monster’s going in the direction of Griffonstone ! This is bad, Spike. Griffonstone has healed thanks to the Magic of Friendship. It must not be attacked ! We must stop that creature before it wreaks havoc there !"

Twilight flipped the paper and noticed two drawings of the same thing on the other side ; what it depicted was not good news ; at the first glance it was a dragon. A titanic bipedal dragon with a body reminiscent of a turtle, with a hunchbacked shell covered with fearsome long, thin bone spines and large, thick, keeled overlapping scales oriented downwards ; they were so long that the pointed ends were protruding, giving it an almost hedgehog-like appearance. The torso was covered in bone plates, not unlike those of regular dragons ; the monster was standing on its bent hind legs supported by two enormous feet, which ended in three thick and tall claws. A tail of medium size, from where four spikes were sprouting at the tip, was the only thing in the back not covered by the shell ; however, the scaly armor was still almost touching the ground around the tail. Spiked iron rings encircled the middle of the arms and forearms, and a similar collar was wrapped around the beast’s neck. For Twilight however, the most terrifying thing about the monster was probably its head and face ; two bull’s horns framed a mohawk-like mass of spiky bright orange hair ; beneath it, on the dark green scales of the face, under two bushy orange eyebrows, were the eyes : fiery red, with oval, slightly elongated pupils. Twilight had never seen such a monstrous look, even on her worst enemies. And last was the mouth : its shape was nothing exceptional, albeit almost short for most of the dragons, but the teeth were not ; calling these things teeth or fangs was out of question for Twilight ; it was something much more dangerous, something that lacked a word to describe it ; they were a few, eleven on the lower jaw and eight on the upper ; they also were, in a regular fashion on each jaw, not of the same size ; four of the fangs protruded from the upper jaw and all had a slight backwards implantation, as if they were made to rip off prey. But what shocked Twilight was the sharpness of the fangs : even on a drawing, they seemed to cut by simply watching them. She judged the monster to be tall, but not as much she had thought it to be in the first place, as its head was low-placed with its hunchback ; however, the sheer mass of the creature, compared to a normal dragon and Torch, the largest dragon she had ever seen, which were drawn beside it, made her head spin.

"If it’s a dragon, why did he attack his own land and peers ? Are the Dragon Lands under a revolt of some kind ?" Twilight interrogated herself.

"Sorry Twilight, but it doesn’t look like a… true dragon to me, Spike corrected. I know there's so many different dragons, but still... It’s more like a mix of – (he pointed the corresponding parts) – bull, turtle, dragon, lizard, dinosaur. But maybe I just don’t want this thing to be of my kind. And Twilight ?"

"Yes, Spike ?"

"That thing really scares me. Of course I’ll come with you, but… I just wanted you to know."

"It’s no problem, Spike. Frankly, this monster scares me too. It'd scare pretty much anypony or anything by the way. Come on, we need to warn the others and embark as soon as possible !"

The situation was not long to explain to the six other ponies. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were the firsts to be ready ; they were worried to no end for their friend Gilda.

An hour after Twilight’s announcement, the seven ponies and the little dragon were on the train ; on the way, Twilight decided to split the group in two : one who would go to Griffonstone and one who would go to the Dragon Lands to assess the damage. They agreed to meet again in Griffonstone in three days, then scoot around the city for one day or slightly more, and then leave if nothing happened.

It took hours before they finally arrived at the Griffonstone station, and two more for one of the group to arrive at the actual city ; it was well past noon when the habitations finally appeared in sight. The village was in a much better state since the visit from Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie : the houses were repaired and the streets were clean ; the griffons were even polite to the ponies ; the mighty city was slowly regaining its former glory.

When Gilda saw her friends, she hugged, albeit rapidly, each one of them. After some discussions on the future of Griffonstone, which looked brighter than ever, Rainbow Dash updated Gilda on the situation.

"Nothin’ here, the griffon replied. No rampaging monster or everythin’ else by the way."

"Maybe it hasn’t arrived yet", Fluttershy squeaked.

"Wanna go in the sky to patrol ?" Gilda asked to Rainbow Dash.

"Sure", the pegasus replied before taking off with her friend.

An hour later, while Pinkie, Fluttershy and Starlight were enjoying some scones at the new restaurant, Gilda and Rainbow Dash came back.

"Nothing", the blue pegasus groaned. "Nothing at all".

"It hasn’t arrived yet", Fluttershy repeated with a barely audible voice.

"Still, a creature this big will be seen, and especially heard, from miles away", Starlight affirmed.

"And we can kick its butt when we’ll see it !" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

"I think driving it off will be sufficient", Starlight tempered.

"That’s just the same !" The cyan winged pony retorted.

"Schwose schcones are effen ‘etter fan che lacht time !" Pinkie Pie tried to say with her mouth full of scones.

"You bet they are !" Gilda concurred.

"I hope Twilight’s luckier than us" Rainbow Dash muttered.

"If by “luckier” you mean find this dra… monster, I hope she’s having bad luck", Starlight corrected.

"Maybe it’s gone. Far away in the mountains… and it’ll never come back", Fluttershy whispered.

"Could be true. We griffons don’t go into the mountains of the East, there’s just nothin’ interesting to see, except if you like rocks", Gilda explained.

Suddenly, in the distance, something seemed to explode, producing a terrible thundering sound. It was very far away, but it was of such magnitude it sent little tremors to the city.

"What was that !?" Pinkie Pie panicked.

"Something has blown up many kilometers from here. Judging by the vibrations, it must be a mountain far away, maybe an eruption. Is it frequent here ?" Starlight asked to Gilda.

"Never happened once. Not sure if there are volcanoes there actually", the griffon replied.

"It’s… the thing…" Fluttershy spluttered, but it was so low that no one heard it.

"We must have a look, even if it’s miles away", Starlight decided.

"But why ? I bet it’s not even in Equestria !" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

-We must be sure. We can’t know what this thing will do. Do you want to take the risk to let this monster go West, towards us ? Maybe it’ll continue in the bugbear territory and cross the sea towards the unknown. But maybe it’ll turn before, if it hasn’t already did, and is actually really coming towards us or the Griffonstone train station ? And what if it crosses the sea to Fillydelphia, Manehattan ? Starlight asked in return.

"You’re so optimistic", Gilda deadpanned.

"I won’t be able to face any of you if something disastrous happen because of me again. It already had in another timelines. Six times", Starlight sobbed.

"It won’t happen, Fluttershy reassured as she hugged Starlight. We are your friends. We trust you. You saved Equestria. And we’ve already long forgiven you for what you’ve done".

"Okay, okay", Rainbow Dash surrendered. "Let’s go".

It was long hours of long march before they reached their destination ; the end of the afternoon was drawing near. The ponies were considering turning back when they saw it. They froze in place : it was terrifying. The trail of destruction was unlike any other they had seen so far : anything that had dared to cross the path of the creature was literally flattened under its tremendous weight. Worse, they quickly found out the cause for the tremors they had felt earlier : all color drained from their cheeks.

"That’s impossible !" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "Nothing can do THAT !"

"I-I’m afraid it is", Starlight spluttered. "At least, we-we have an indication of the power of that… that thing".

"I remember that place... that mountain was huge. Hope no one’ll meet that thing. Ever", Gilda added with a sinister expression.

In front of them, scattered kilometers and kilometers around, the mountain was pulverized.

"We came to see if everything’s alright", Twilight told Ember. "Our other friends are in Griffonstone. We’ll meet in two days there".

"Everything’s okay, thank you Princess Twilight", Ember thanked. "Well… almost everything…" The blue dragoness hesitated.

"Is somep… dragon hurt ?" Spike asked.

"Yes, in a sense. My father tried to stop that… that… that monster !" Ember sobbed with a broken voice.

"Is it serious ? Is he hurt ?" Applejack interrogated.

"No, he’s not hurt… He’s just exhausted… but his pride and convictions are completely... shaken because… that beast didn’t EVEN try to put up a fight ! It just walked and walked… at the same pace all along ! My father tried to push it back with everything he had ! I called all the dragons to back him up, but it made no difference ! Even when they all breathed fire in the face of that creature ! They all exahausted themselves in in the end. It-It’s not something normal, Princess. It-it just kept walking slowly. There was no change in its pace. Not the slightest change, I can assure you. I don’t know if some kind of magic's involved, but as I see it, this thing's totally unstoppable".

The jaws of the ponies dropped : hundreds of dragons, plus one of considerable size, not being able to even alter the walking pace of the monster ; it was far beyond bad news.

"It’s worse than all I could’ve imagined, Twilight declared after a pause. We must return to Griffonstone and follow that thing. Maybe Griffonstone isn’t on its path. Maybe it will go to the sea, and disappear. But maybe it will follow civilization. I won’t take the risk. We’ll find it and stop it. If we can’t, we’ll call the princesses for help. But we, at least, must see it. What it can and can’t do, and maybe see if we can talk to it".

"It can talk. It said just a word", Ember recalled.

"A word ?" Applejack interrogated.

"“Princess” When I asked what it meant, it didn’t respond and simply went away".

"Oh my…" Rarity choked.

"That thing’s after a princess !?" Spike panicked.

"Well, it isn’t you Princess Ember, so… we’ve got four other possibilities, five if we count Flurry Heart…" Applejack counted.

"And I’m one of them", Twilight concluded. "But maybe I’m not ; anyways, it’s a very good reason to call Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Cadance. They must be warned at all costs. May I have a letter ?" She asked to Ember.

"Of course", the young dragon princess complied.

Twilight wasted no time as she dictated the words to Spike ; he was scribbling so fast his writing was nearly indecipherable ; when he finished the last letter and sent it, his arm was numb.

Twilight had written the letters in a way that, while she was uncertain of the monster’s actions and intentions, there was a high probability that they were all in peril ; she also sent the drawings to add to the emergency of the situation. The young alicorn had learned to trust her intuitions, even more so with the recent event, and the princesses too. “They’ll take the appropriate measures. But I hope it’ll be sufficient” she thought.

The two synchronized replies to the letters arrived some minutes later : Cadance’s letter explained that, if the monster was coming to the Crystal Empire, it would be greeted with an impenetrable shield of magic and hundreds of unicorns and pegasi guards. She also added that she would send Flurry Heart at a safe place should the monster approached the Crystal Empire boundaries.

Celestia and Luna’s reply was a rendezvous : regardless if they had met the thing or not, they were summoned to Canterlot in five days to discuss the problem.

"You should come back to your friends", Ember advised. "Everything will be alright here".

"You sure ?" Spike asked.

"Yes. We’ll simply let it walk if it comes back", the dragoness replied with a sad smile.

"Hey, don’t say that !" Spike protested. "We’ll stop it !"

"Thank you Spike. I’ll stay in touch", Ember assured.

"I’m relieved we came for nothing too serious", Rarity sighed before gasping. "Not that I…"

"No offense", the dragoness cut her off with a genuine smile this time.

"If you want some help to rebuild or something…" Twilight suggested.

"Don’t worry. Nothing was destroyed, just… rocks I guess. At least, we found tons of crushed gems in the footsteps of that thing, gems we couldn’t have found. We have food for almost a year. We're kinda lucky, aren't we ?" The blue dragoness asked tentatively.

"Well… If you say so… maybe", Twilight replied with uncertainty.

"One more thing before you go", Ember added. "I don’t know if it helps but… that thing came from the Southwest : from the sea, or from the weird forests beyond".

Twilight spent the voyage to think about the last piece of information given by the princess. She shared some of her ideas with her friends, but they were too worried to answer meaningfully. One of her theories, though, seemed more plausible than the others : the creature was coming from the sea ; it was a species of turtle or dragon that lived mostly in water and had never set a foot in Equestria.

"Maybe it’s like Equestrian dragons : that monster awoke from a hundred years slumber and is totally disoriented. If it sleeps in water, the sea currents could’ve brought it to Equestria, far away from its land ! It’s just lost ! And that’s why it’s searching for a princess of its kind !"

Spike was the only one who doubted that hypothesis.

"Twilight, that thing is terr… terri… walks on earth. Except the shell, I don’t see anything that is sea-related".

"Maybe it’s terrestrial. But it has been swoop by a wave or something", Twilight had replied absent-mindedly as she continued to make countless hypotheses.

"I don’t think it can float", Spike had mumbled between his teeth.

The group of Griffonstone was very surprised to see its friends again so soon. Both of the situations were explained to each group : Twilight was on the verge of panic once she heard the story of the pulverized mountain ; she began to hyperventilate.

"From what we’ve seen, the rocks were partially melted in addition to being scattered miles away in all directions", Starlight said. "Most were missing though : we’re lucky we didn’t find ourselves, or most of Equestria, under a meteor shower ; the flying rocks must've sunk in the ocean".

Twilight drew in her last reserves of calmness ; she took a very deep breath to reply without screaming in panic.

"We have two options for tomorrow : we follow that monster while being at least uncertain that we could stop it. Or we go to meet Princess Celestia and Princess Luna immediately, but we’ll have only very vague assumptions and hypotheses. What do you think, everypony ?"

Fluttershy squeaked something incomprehensible as the others pondered the possibilities.

"Ah think we should see it", Applejack decided finally.

"And if it attacks us ? What do we do ?" Rarity asked sarcastically.

"We’ll stay out of its view first", Starlight replied. "We just have to see its silhouette in the distance, or hide from it if it comes towards us".

Rarity gave up ; she could see that, besides her and Fluttershy, everyone wanted to see the monster with their own eyes.

"So… How ‘bout following an invincible angry, probably highly adaptive and regenerative super-duper lizard ?" Pinkie Pie asked with an excited voice ; her friends simply rolled their eyes.
The group stayed in Griffonstone for the night : following the thing at night was out of question ; they would track it slowly but surely under the daylight.

Author's Note

First story on MLP, first story in English, first story that I'll force myself to finish.

Important : I used the map of Equestria from the wiki for this story ; check it out ;)

SCP Foundation reference in the chapter ;)