The Hourglassed Stranger

Leon slowly woke up, feeling a bit refreshed from the goodnight's sleep he just got. He looked around his surroundings and for some reason, everything seemed to be upside down. Leon tried to move, but soon found out that he was tied up, and hung upside down in some sort of well lit cave, filled with old mining equipment and a bunch of tough looking stallions and mares, smiling as they looked evilly at the human.

"Huh, didn't know this would be happening. So, I'm gonna go off on a limb here and just assume that you weirdos tied me up here, right?" Leon asked. The ponies nodded, laughing sinisterly as they did so. Leon frowned as he tried to reach the Omnitrix, but due to how tight the ropes were, he didn't have much of a chance anyway.

"Okay, so what's your deal? Do you psycho ponies just take random folks in the night or what? Like seriously, you tied me up, hung me like a piñata, and you're staring at me like I'm buck ass naked. Can I talk to the semi-sane pony or creature in charge so I can resolve this?!" Leon said aloud. The laughter stopped as one kept laughing. From the shadows of the caves, a lightly faded brown stallion trots forth with shaggy and messy black hair and a messier tail with some kind of 5 o'clock shadow being clear as day on his face as he laughed and smirked evilly. Dressed in a light beige dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and a red ascot with white polka dots on it, with a golden animal skull with a red ruby eye as a cutie mark.

"You rang, ancestor of man?" The stallion asked, smirking. Leon's right eye began to twitch as he got a good look at the stallion in the light.

"Doctor Caballeron... wasn't expecting to deal with you so soon... Wait you're with these schlubs? These guys couldn't even try to fight Swampfire and ran with their tails between their legs. Yeesh, you're starting off with below basic henchmen. That's sad, like really sad. I almost feel bad or some form of sympathy for you if I didn't know you are a villain." Leon spouted irritably. Caballeron motioned for the henchmen to let the human down, but keep him tied up. As Leon's body was lowered to the ground, Callaberon stood right on top of him.

"Even humans know of my expertise. I'd let you go just for that, but with your abilities, I just can't allow it. When my men came to me saying that they found the man behind the flaming plant monster, and not the stallion, I knew I had to capitalize on this. So here's what's going to happen, human. You are going to help me with something important, no questions asked. If you comply every step of the way, you'll be happy to know those ponies you traveled here with will be unharmed and set free. If you don't comply, well..." Caballeron pressed a button on one of the cave's walls, revealing a TV screen showing Big Mac and the CMC in a cage, dangling over a tank of ferocious sharks and electric eels.

"Oooookay, below basic henchmen, but you're far more criminal than I thought! Fine, I'll help you, but you better keep your word, because after all of this is said and done and you double cross me, if we cross paths again, I won't hesitate to throttle you for such an insane, monstrous and villainous form of ransom." Leon stated angrily. Caballeron was not intimidated by Leon's attempt at being tough, and motioned the henchmen to untie him, all the while unicorns would ready magical blasts in case he tried to escape or back out. Caballeron pulled out a silver necklace with a diamond shaped locket with a white gemstone embedded into it, and placed said locket into a diamond-shaped hole, opening up a stairwell that lead down.

Caballeron looked back at the angered and reluctant human with confidence and bravado as he motioned for them to start following. Leon slowly descended the stairway as he tried to reach for the Omnitrix, in an attempt to turn into anything and save his pony companions before things escalate. "This is going to be a long day..." Leon groaned as he followed Caballeron.

...

Big Mac looks down past the cage, seeing the sharks below. "Someway, somehow, this feels really par fer tha course. There's gotta be a way to git on outta 'ere." Big Mac said, looking around for something that could be of use. Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom huddled together to try and think of a plan of their own.

"Ok, so while ma brother tries to think of something, any of you girls got any ideas?" Applebloom asked the other two fillies.

"What about if I teleport us all out of the cage? That way we can go find Mister Leon and get out of here in two shakes of a lamb's tail." Sweetie Belle suggested.

"That could work, but how much practice have you had at teleporting ponies? If this goes wrong, we could either get stuck in a wall or end up in the shark tank." Scootaloo said worrisomely.

"Do you have any ideas, then, Scootaloo?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Yeah, and it's pretty simple. If I can use my wings to just barely flutter over the shark tank, and land on the ground, I can escape and I can try to find help. Easy peasy." Scootaloo suggested. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom looked at her bemusedly.

"Scoots, do you really trust in that idea? They'd know somepony is missing, especially if its a filly, and what if it doesn't even work? We don't know where we are, how deep we are in the ground, or who even put us up here. We just gotta hope that Mister Leon will find us, I'm sure he'll know what to do." Sweetie Belle said disappointingly. Big Mac turned to look back at the fillies, and sighed, having exhausted all of his options.

...

As several henchmen, Dr. Caballeron and Leon walked through a dimly lit hall, the torch's light illuminating runes of some sort as they ventured on. Leon looked around as he pieced together what might be ancient pictures on the walls, telling a story he didn't have much time to read or understand as the henchponies nudged him along. They all soon came to a halt when faced with a huge stone wall.

"The first of many obstacles. This door requires three ancient jewels to be unlocked. I would've had those jewels on me if you didn't make the fool hardy decision to interfere with our affairs. So now, here's where you start your part of the agreement. You will get us through here. Change into something that can solve this issue." Caballeron demanded calmly.

As the henchponies undid Leon's restraints, he started to twist the dial on the Omnitrix, knowing that Iron Wolf would be good in a situation like this. Leon found Iron Wolf's icon and popped the core up, making sure there was enough room for his alien form to fit. Leon was about to press it down until Caballeron started to get impatient.

"Hurry up, you fool!" Caballeron exclaimed, causing Leon to accidentally switch off of Iron Wolf's icon, as he transformed into something else in a bright flash of cyan light. In place of Leon was not Iron Wolf, but a new alien. The new form itself was bipedal, but was also very elephant-like with huge mammoth tusks, big ears and a swaying trunk. It wore a gray chest guard with a black body suit with cyan wristguards. Its eyes were shining a cyan color as the torch's flame illuminated the elephant-like creature's tough and dark brown skin. Atop of its head was a black cap with a white band holding it in place. In the middle of the white band was the Omnitrix's emblem.

"HEEEAAAA- Huh? What the?! This isn't Iron Wolf, what the hell!!" The alien creature exclaimed in confusion. "This is a really bad time for this thing to suddenly start giving me the wrong alien. Jeez, I barely even fit in this small hallway!" The creature added, trying to squirm towards the sealed door. Caballeron was barely able to make sure he didn't get crushed beneath the elephant-like creature's foot as it squirmed past. The creature immediately tried to brute force its way through the door, which made some real significant progress with shattering the stone obstacle into a bunch of huge rubbly chunks. Caballeron was more so impressed by the raw physical strength this monster had, and wondered to himself if he could acquire something like that for his own evil endeavors.

"Very impressive, but we're not done yet. You impress me, human, that's no easy feat. Come, we must still dive into the unknown. That treasure is as good as mine." Caballeron stated, walking forward, torch in hoof. The alien and the henchponies followed suite, not like one of them had much of a choice. Leon then figured this could be the time to at least try to learn something about this Caballeron, as he seemed to be more like an actual villain with the whole 'comply or your friends bite the dust' tactic.

"So.. Caballeron, was it? Listen, I just wanna ask a couple questions." the alien said. Caballeron turned his head back to look at the alien following him.

"Go on." Caballeron stated, awaiting the questions.

"Well, do you know of a pony named Daring Do?" The alien asked. Caballeron seemed to sneer at that question, but composed himself.

"Of course I have, she's been the bane of my career for a long time, but if there's one thing I know she can't find, it's treasures left behind by early man. Treasures you will help me collect before she makes her move." Caballeron stated.

"Not like you've given me much of a choice in the matter. You never did seem like this type of villain, though. Honestly, for you, that's actually kind of a breath of fresh air, you remind me of Dr. Evil or Dr. Eggman with your more serious, but still kinda funny villainous approach." The alien remarked. Dr. Caballeron looked at the towering creature with confusion and shrugged it off, not even willing to try and dignify that with a response. As they reached the next chamber, there was a sudden breeze of sweltering hot air.

"We're on the right track. Huge mammal! Block the air and guide us through." Dr. Caballeron commanded. The alien groaned and trudged on through the hot air, not minding it much as apparently this alien's skin is not just tough, but very used to the humid air blowing in its face and against its body. Caballeron and the henchponies followed close behind as the alien pushed on, but as it kept going, the breeze soon got stronger, and hotter, causing the alien to slow down as it continued to try and press on.

By the time the alien reached the end, there was a huge natural vent pouring hot and strong air out by the second, until the alien finally managed to make it stop by blocking the vent with its huge body. Soon enough, the hot air soon seized its assault, and quit altogether, allowing the alien and the ponies to venture deep into the vent without repeated obstruction or suffering from a stroke due to the insufferable heat.

The huge alien sat down as the Omnitrix flashed red, and soon transformed Leon back into his human state, where he wipes a shower's worth of sweat from his face. "That... sucked... so bad!!! I haven't sweat that much since my last date!! Are we any closer to this stupid treasure or what, you evil showpony?" Leon remarked irritably to Caballeron. The stallion looked a bit beat from the heat, but he still trudged onwards. The henchponies were exhausted and collapsing as they slowly followed behind. Leon slowly got up and took off his jacket, tying it around his waist as he let his torn up black shirt sway as he ran to catch up.

...

Back with Big Mac and the CMC, they continue to argue over what ideas could work, and what other options still remain that have yet to be debated.

"I'm telling you, I can teleport one pony, not necessarily myself, to the ground. They'll be a bit woozy, but everything will be fine as long as I focus on where they'll be teleported. It's not exactly Steampunk Mechanics, you know?" Sweetie Belle stated.

"And Ahm sayin' you'd be putting another filly at risk, cause what happens if they end up in the shark tank below us, or what if they get their heads stuck in a wall? It could be dangerous to try that spell if you don't teleport them somewhere safe." Big Mac stated. "It wouldn' be worth the risk if somepony gets put in danger, there's gotta be somethin' 'ere that can help us." Big Mac added, looking around. Sweetie Belle looks to the ground, and sees that there's a lever between a crate and an Orthros on a leash.

"Hey, that lever could get us down. I know it's a big risk to assume it'll be for the cage, but it's gotta do something. I can teleport Big Mac down there and he can get us out." Sweetie Belle said as she smiled. Her unicorn horn began to glow as Big Mac tried to stop her, until he suddenly found himself down on the ground, safe and unharmed. Sweetie Belle took a deep breath and fell back onto the floor of the cage, feeling incredibly winded as she tried to take it easy.

"Hey, you fillies okay up there?!" Big Mac exclaimed, walking towards the lever.

"We're ahlright, but Sweetie's a bit worn out from the spell. Throw the lever, get us outta 'ere!" Applebloom exclaimed back. Big Mac hesitantly pulled the lever, seeing the cage move away from the shark tank, and lower down to the ground as it opened up, freeing the little fillies. Scootaloo carried Sweetie Belle on her back while Applebloom followed Big Mac, who was running in one direction.

...

As Dr. Caballeron trotted through the vent, with Leon following behind in place of the henchponies who collapsed from exhaustion, looking at how the vent seems to still be eroding from the long forgotten years. "Woah... Never saw anything like this before. I remember there being old memorial grounds for fallen warriors, but nothing majorly intricate like this." Leon commented, bewildered by the intricacy of the huge vent.

"The memorials are sacred, but they always made sure that in case of any treasure hunters like yours truly, they set up traps to keep them out or at bay. With any luck, we got rid of the more difficult traps first. Now, how's about you educate me for a moment or so, human. How is it that your kind thrives, even in such a miniscule number, you're still alive?" Caballeron asked with a sneer.

"Ok, first off, that sounds just a wee bit racist... or is it speciesist? Either way, that's offensive saying 'your kind', you wouldn't like it if I called you a hoof dragging no good excuse for a stallion looking troglodyte, now would you?" Leon remarked. Caballeron whipped around, his face contorting with anger. Leon glared down at Caballeron, staring down at his short stature as he scoffed. Caballeron grunted, lunging at Leon, who managed to roll out of the way and catch himself as he quickly started to see if he could transform again, only for the Omnitrix to emit a red flash of light, showing that it was still recharging.

"I really should've hoped for a manual for this thing." Leon stated irritably as he jumped over Caballeron, causing him to faceplant onto the ground. The stallion got up and reached into one of his shirt pockets, pulling out a small knife as he groaned and charged forward. Leon tried to dodge the blade the best he could, only for the blade to barely graze his cheek, leaving a minor cut as Leon reflexively kicked Caballeron in his muzzle, a cracking sound could be heard as Caballeron howls in anger and pain. The blade drops to the floor as Caballeron charges forth towards the human, knocking Leon and himself down an unnoticed hole, causing both of them to yell as they plummeted down into the dark depths.

...

Big Mac and the CMC are running through the strange location, constantly encountering and narrowly evading a bunch of Caballeron's henchponies who were tasked to stay behind and guard the prisoners. As they constantly looked around, they noticed a huge door in the midst of one of the hallways. It required a code, but that wasn't Big Mac's forte, as he bucked away at the door, trying to break it open as more of the henchponies came their way.

"Sweetie, please tell me you can do something to stop them!" Scootaloo exclaimed worriedly. Sweetie Belle mustered all of her magic into her horn, and managed to blast the ponies back with a magical wave of energy. Big Mac managed to bust down the door as the fillies followed suite. They were in surprise when they saw that the room they just entered, was actually a well lit cave where two exhausted henchponies came onto the scene and sat on a couple stones and relaxed. They had little to no time to do anything about the escaped prisoners, who just gestured to the open stairway, leading down to where Leon and Caballeron went.

...

There was a loud crashing sound, sounding like a huge amount of weight was brought down on a bunch of fragile withered sticks. Leon groaned in pain as he slowly, but surely sat up, his body becoming filled with fear as he looks upon many white and dirtied skulls and bones. A whole lot of these bones belonged to human beings... but a few of these bones, who looked recently picked clean or gnawed off, looked like they could be a pony's femur. Leon felt a bit sickened by the sight and immediately scrambled to his feet, stepping out of the bone pile as he saw a pedestal in the distance. Caballeron was slowly walking towards the pedestal as Leon looked along the walls of the new room, seeing what looks like a huge monster etched onto the wall as many human figures and ponies cower in fear.

"Caballeron, I don't think you wanna touch that treasure! Doesn't seem very worth it." Leon exclaimed, hoping to get through to the stubborn stallion, but Caballeron continued to move forward, treading carefully on an unstable, but still incredibly sound stone walkway. He managed to make it to the end until he finally saw what was on the pedestal. A rusted gold encrusted hatchet with a gem encrusted handle. Caballeron smiled as he grabbed the ancient tool with his mouth, and started to walk back until a rumbling sound was heard throughout the chambers.

"shoulda listened when I said to not touch the treasure, this shit was booby trapped, and not by humans or ponies... it's what they got stuck in here with that posed as a problem." Leon stated irately. Caballeron rolled his eyes and looked back up at the hole, starting to scale the mountainous pile of bones as both can hear a spine chilling roar echo from underneath.

"Ooohh crapbaskets..." Leon muttered as he frantically tried to cycle through his transformations. Caballeron attempts to jump up to the hole he fell through, only to slide down futilely down the pile of bones and skeletal parts. Leon managed to find the form he was about to use, before he became that elephant creature, and pressed down on the core, transforming into a familiar alien.

In Leon's place this time was a tall bipedal feline creature, robust and slim with a cyan ornamental neck piece with the Omnitrix being smack dab in the middle of it. The creature had a long flowing cheetah tail as well as deep orange tufts of fur forming over his hands to look like gloves. The creature's skin or coat of thin fur was a dark and faded green-ish Navy color. The face of the alien was obscured by a black mask with a pair of cyan eyes glowing glowing amidst the tufts of green-ish navy colored fur, with the only other visible body parts being seen were a pair of green-ish navy colored cat ears, similar to that of a puma. The upper body of the alien had a white skin tight suit with black lightning bolt patterns on the front of it, leading down to a Cyan belt that held nothing in place.

"FASTTRACK!!" The alien exclaimed, his voice sounding much deeper than Leon expected it to sound. Fasttrack rushed over to Caballeron and hoisted him over his shoulders as he began to run back towards the pedestal. The alien got into a stance and started to run faster, everything began to blur around the alien as Caballeron saw the world around him distort and blur as Fasttrack ramped himself up the pile of bones back to the tube, where he was running back up the walls, as something was obviously ticked off that it wasn't gonna get another meal, and began to try and follow the alien.

"What are you doing, you fool! Unhand me!!" Caballeron exclaimed, trying to get out of the creature's hold. The monster snaps its jaws as it roars and follows close behind.

"Sure, like I plan to die by the hands of a monster because you got greedy. Grow up and accept that this is happening!" Fasttrack stated, his words being punctuated by a very thick, but understandable accent. It sounded familiar, but he didn't quite know why as he was still running from a huge rampaging monster that was hellbent on devouring them alive.

Fasttrack looked around the blurring environment for something to use against the monster. As the alien kept running, it came to a stop, tossing Caballeron aside as it unsheathed a new set of tipped claws from its fingertips, rushing towards the creature as it attempted to slash at it. Fasttrack slashed at the creature, only to be met with the loud clanging of his claws striking what felt like hollowed out metal. The creature roared as it swatted Fasttrack back, sending the alien flying, though the fast alien sped forward after catching itself, and delivered a flurry of kicks and punches to the creature, only to hear the sudden sound of flesh hitting metal really hard. The creature roared as the alien continued to attack it, but could only hold off on the physical blows as he sped back and grabbed Caballeron, and threw the strange treasure back towards the beast, apparently allowing it to be easily swayed as the alien hero sped up the staircase, only to come to a screeching, dust scattering halt as he looked towards his equestrian allies.

"Nice to see yer' alri- Oh!" Big Mac could barely finish his sentence as the speedster alien rounded the stallion and the three fillies up and bolted out of the mines. Halfway to the campsite, the Omnitrix's emblem begins to flash red, beeping at an alarming rate, signifying that the transformation was just about to end. Fasttrack came to a quick stop, dropped Big Mac and the CMC, while he quickly sped back to the mines, Caballeron in-hand as he tossed him to the side, ontop of one of his henchstallions, ran back down towards the huge creature and then grabbed something, proceeding to run all the way back to the ponies right after, before a flash of red light shined, Leon tripped over himself and tumbled in front of the ponies.

"Oh boy, hey, you okay partner? Yer not too overworked, are ya?" Apple Bloom asked, nudging the human. Leon groaned and picked himself up, trying to shake off the sudden fatigue that hit him.

"Yeah, Yeah I'm fine... oh jesus christ, I feel sore. Oh man, the other guy makes it look so easy." Leon mumbled, rubbing his face as he dusted himself off. Leon and the ponies walked in the direction of the campsite as the fillies asked him questions. He could feel his lungs being overexerted and his legs felt like brittle bones, ready to snap under the slightest touch of pressure.

"So, what was that like? You became a really fast cat, you moved like lightning! You could arguably be just as fast as Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo said excitedly.

"What were you runnin' from back there? You seemed like you were in a rush to get on outta the mines with that fancy footwork." Apple Bloom asked quizzically.

"Are those guys gonna come back?" Sweetie Belle asked, a bit worried. Leon sighed and turned towards the CMC, looking down at the fillies.

"Knowing how ponies like that just keep coming back... It's obvious that they're gonna come back, but with the right preparations, everything'll be fine, you three won't be put in danger, I'll get a grip on my powers, and maybe, just maybe, they won't be a problem anymore when that time comes. Who knows, maybe he'll actually not be a threat by the time I find a way home." Leon explains.

"While that's all good and all, and you got a goal in mind, so that's even better, but what in the hay did you run back there for?" Big Mac asked curiously. Leon smiled, a smile so wide, so joyous, and so smug that it made the human laugh.

"Oh, I left Caballeron and his posse to deal with what I'm gonna call... the Catacombs Dweller." Leon answered, chuckling as he continued to walk to the campsite.

...

Back with Caballeron, who had steadily let his blurry vision restore on its own, took notice of where he was, and what was no longer in his possession. He gritted his teeth, groaning and yelling out in anger. His henchponies winced as their boss yelled, knowing they were in for it.

"I swear to Faust, you fools are so incompetent, your equipment could do a better job WITHOUT YOU!! And I didn't even get that hatchet!! That ancient hatchet, it could've been worth millions!!! CURSE YOU, HUMAN!!!!! Mark my words, fore I, DOCTOR CABALLERON, will have my revenge!!!" The stallion exclaimed loudly. While his screams echoed through the mines, a low growl echoed back, and thus, Caballeron ran out of the mines, some of his henchponies following his lead, while the others...

well, one can obviously guess that the creature did get its next meal after all.