Author's Note

It ain't me, it ain't me. 🗣🔥

6. Skull Island.

The flying Hydras emerged from the storm and before them was the most beautiful sight they had ever seen.

Skull Island opens up before them like a paradise untouched by any outside contact for millennia. An aquamarine sea, white waves breaking on the numerous white sand beaches surrounding plenty of islets filled with dense green vegetation.

Twilight and the entire Hydra company feel fascination and relief at the same time.

A splendorous orchard of life before them could not leave them indifferent at all. Voices of astonishment and adjectives of all kinds can be heard on the radio, it seems that the storm has been left behind.

“Come down low and level,” Peakard instructed.

The helicopters now zigzagged between the numerous islets, closing in on their target, the main island.

Fluttershy was almost crying with emotion at such a spectacular sight, Spike was simply gaping.

Flocks of exotic birds, species never before seen by anycreature, their songs echoed in the jungles and cliffs of the island's rugged outskirts; the only thing that silenced them was the roar of the gas turbines of those helicopters, a technology previously unsuspected in this part of Faust.

Hydra Company flew towards their destination, dominated by a smoking volcano and rugged cliffs and mountains, all teeming with life and color.

Unknown insects, plants of all colours, giant trees with enourmous crowns, covered in moss and vines, mammals and reptiles wander through the ground covered in leaf litter.

Millennia, perhaps millions of years of evolution carried out out of sight of the world.
Perhaps, it should have stayed that way.

One of the company's helicopters had loudspeakers installed, clearly a system to fight the guerrillas psychologically, or simply a method to maintain evercreature's morale.

And some enthusiast of the group, perhaps a hippogriff, brought a cassette from home, with the song “Fortunate Griff” by the famous rock group Trotence-Seapony Revival. His companions were definitely not strangers to this song, in fact, after more than a year of deployment, they may already be fed up with it.

"Some griffs are born made to wave the flag
They're grey, yellow and blue
And when the band plays 'Hail to the Queen'
They point the cannon at you, Lord"

“The Ride of the Windigos would've sounded better, but oh well,” Comet Trail thought.

“Hydra Leader to Hydra Group, split up. Survey your zones. Over” —Peakard orders over the radio— “hydra 7 and 8, bring the expedition ashore.”

“Roger that. Hydra 7 and 8 going to zone six.”

Two hueys split up from the formation and flew to the east.

After a few minutes of hovering around, Jade Finder points to a clearing in the forest.

“We can land there!”

Thus, Hydra 7 and 8 comes down to the landing zone, there, Jade Finder, Windy Claw, Fluttershy, Spike and other members of the expedition disembark.

The second they touch down, the soldiers move to immediately unload all the boxes filled with scientific equipment, supplies, and computers.

Twilight brought a portable movie camera, perfect for watching the action unfold through her lenses. She watched as all the creatures from Hydra 7 and 8 descended into the clearing, the grass rustling in the wind from the blades.

The 3rd Joint Company now heads into the second phase of the surveying plan in attack formation.

The loud sounds of those flying metal beasts immediately frightened all the surrounding fauna, herds of antelopes, primates and unknown bovines fled from such thunderous noise.

On the ground, the computer cases are opened, revealing sophisticated green text CRT displays, the latest in technology, along with huge batteries and radio beacons for communication.

At the same time, a television camera was prepared for the upcoming show.

After a few keystrokes of different codes and calibrating everything, Jade finally grabs his radio.

“System's ready. Green light for seismic charges. Over.”

“Roger that.”

In the helicopters, the soldiers were happy, it was a time of fun for them, and boy were they going to enjoy it.

The gunners opened the boxes with the danger symbol and admired what was inside.

“Hydra group, drop 'em,” Peakard orders.

Immediately the Company's creatures dropped the loads one by one, which opened fins during free fall to slow their descent.

Afterwards they simply embedded themselves in the ground, with animals fleeing terrified for their lives, at least Fluttershy wasn't seeing this right now; she didn't like the idea, but she reluctantly did it for science.

After a brief buzz, the charges explode, leaving a fireball behind Hydra 3 and 4.

The soldiers let out a cry of excitement at such a display, don't you all love the smell of fireballs in the morning?

Tailcoatl didn't look very convinced, but she looked intrigued by the display from the helicopter.

On land, the computers didn't take long to receive the seismic signals, providing extremely revealing data to Spike and Fluttershy, the latter trying not to think about the chaos Twilight has brought.

“Are you seeing the same thing I am, Flutters?” the dragon asks.

“Indeed, incredible,” she replied.

As more seismic loads fell, more data arrived.

The readings showed very interesting spikes on the seismograph and echo.

“Twilight, I didn’t want to believe it, but you were right” —her dragon assistant calls— “the underground is practically hollow.”

Twilight smiled diligently, this meant the completion of the job she had been working on the longest since joining Luna Nova.

Explosions and fireballs rocked the island, the soldiers felt at home doing what they were always best at.

The explosions illuminated their pupils and reflected in their sunglasses. What a sight.

Suddenly, one of the gunners on Hydra 3 looked forward and his heart sank. The pilot soon saw it too.

It was the trunk of a tree coming straight towards them like a thrown spear.

“IMPACT!” the deer pilot yelled.

The base of the tree went all the way through the helicopter's cabin to the back, obliterating everything in its path.

Hydra 3's blades continued to spin by sheer inertia as the Huey plummeted inexorably to the ground.

Hydra 3 is down.

On Hydra 4 they watched the display of such brutality in shock, so much so that they didn't see the huge hand reaching out to take the helicopter on the other side.

The impact on the side of the aircraft caused it to fall immediately, spinning at high speed. The alarms sounded, the helicopter was out of control.

Hydra 4 is down.

Centrifugal force sent one pony gunner flying toward his final destination.

The pegasus second gunner held on with all her strength until she felt the impact with the ground.

It was all a mess of short circuits, red lights and sparks, the changeling co-pilot tried to get out of his seat while the second gunner found himself dazed.

Suddenly the cabin shook violently and rose above the treetops again.

The soldiers inside looked on in horror as a huge ape held what was now the hull of a helicopter, raising its cockpit above him and roaring in fury.

The gunner fell from a great height towards her end while his fellow co-pilot fell straight into the jaws of his nemesis.

Things were quiet on land, it was already time for lunch. So Windy Claw was eating a nice tuna sandwich until the interruption.

“Attention, Hydra group, Hydra 3 and 4 are down, I repeat, Hydra 3 and 4 are down!” Peakard announced, dismayed. “Hydra 4, you copy?!”

The ground crew was startled.

“At twelve o’clock!” they announce on the helicopter radio.

Before them was a huge silhouette, towering above the trees.

The radio conversation was all confusion, orders, warnings, questions and gibberish.

Tailcoatl and Twilight saw the huge creature in front of them. Twilight tried to record it on camera.

It was a bipedal ape, approximately 30 meters tall, muscular, with strong and long arms, with the face of a gorilla, a gigantic gorilla with brown and black fur, with brown eyes full of as much intelligence as rage.

Many bad memories of Manehattan came to Twilight immediately.

“What’s that?” “I’m not in range,” “Keep your distance,” “Your orders, sir,” that’s what she could hear in the gibberish on the radio.

But they could only see the enormous silhouette of the titan in front of them, less than a kilometer away, behind it, the sun that dazzled them.

“We've got a target at two o'clock, sir!”

Peakard admired the animal, stupefied as well, that gigantic animal made him remember all those news from Puerto Caballo and Manehattan and an acquaintance that served in the Royal Navy.

“Is that an ape?” Trotland asks over the radio.

Immediately the formation of 8 hueys, a stallion and a chinook separated and began to circle around the huge creature.

The beast clenched its fists and prepared to fight.

“Gunners stand by,” Peakard ordered, this was definitely never in the tactical operations manual, not even after those incidents.

The ape looked around with enormous fury.

The confusion on the radio was only eclipsed by the Major's orders:

“Hydra group, fire at will!”

The machine guns immediately began their work.

In Hydra 5 Rain Docker and Thrax were arguing in terror.

“What's that thing?!”

“Keine verdammte idee!”

Twilight just held on to whatever she could.

Bullets rained down on the primate, who only covered his face and roared with even more anger as he spun on his own axis, choosing his next target.

Suddenly he made a great leap and headed towards Hydra 2, hitting it with his fists with tremendous force, the helicopter fell straight to the ground.

Hydra 2 is down.

He beat his chest in a show of strength.

Tailcoatl, inside Hydra 6, watched this with dismay and terror as she heard the helicopter she was in activate its rotary machine gun.

“Don’t go near 'im, you’ll kill us!” she shouted.

“Who said you give the orders?!” Comet Trail replied, adrenaline pumping.

On Hydra 5, Twilight started thinking fast and prepared a spell to try to drive the animal away.

“You have to get us out of here, Peakard, this can't be won,” she said on the radio.

However, her concentration was broken when she saw Hydra 11, the Stallion, next to Hydra 5, was caught by the tail rotor, which injured the primate's hand and caused him to let go of the aircraft.

“Hydra 11, mayday, mayday, mayday, we're going down,” Trotland calls, spinning towards the mountains.

Hydra 11 is down.

As the animal roared with another victory, Peakard continued to give orders:

“Hydra 5, this is Hydra lead, Hydra 2 went down one kilometer north of the river. Deploy recovery team, over.”

Twilight decided to act again this time, creating a shield over the new fallen helicopter.

Hydra 5 immediately deployed one of the gunners who rappelled down and approached the downed aircraft. The alicorn maintained the shield.

“Hydra 5's in sie position. Vee got one going down, over,” Thrax says.

“One injured, needs med–"

Suddenly Twilight's force field was destroyed by the titan's stomp, immediately crushing the helicopter and everything around it. Twilight only felt the blow to her magic and her stomach at what she had seen.

“It crushed them?!” Docker asked, terrified.

Before the primate could turn its attention to Hydra 5, another helicopter flew past, firing at it.

The ape chased after them, also followed by another one behind.

In front of the ape, Hydra 1 was heading straight for the target.

“Kill that damn animal now!” Peakard ordered, as his aircraft’s machine guns fired everything they had.

Suddenly, the creature leapt at them, leaving them behind and revealing Hydra 10 chasing the creature from behind.

The crossfire damaged both aircrafts, who collided head-on and fell into the jungle.

Hydra 1 and 10 crashed violently into the trees.

Hydra 1 and 10 are now down.

From Hydra 6, Tailcoatl watched as the crew of Hydra 8 attempted to rescue their fallen, but heard the primate's roar and turned the other way.

The creature was now heading towards the ground camp.

The soldiers and scientists fled from the enormous 30-meter primate that was approaching them at full speed; several were crushed.

A soldier, fleeing, tried to take shelter behind some boxes. There were several of the expedition, including Jade, Windy, Fluttershy and Spike, who ran as fast as they could.

Those who stayed behind saw the giant's hand sweep the ground, sending them flying.

On Hydra 6, Tailcoatl only watched in horror at the massacre happening down there.

“Hold on,” Comet Trail announces.

“Watch out!” The pegasus announces.

Suddenly, in front of them, a soldier flew out from the ground, it was probably a zebra.

The poor wretch's trajectory was heading straight for Hydra 6's windshield, which crashed savagely into it, cracking the glass, the zebra seemed conscious somehow and yelled.

But he didn't stay there for long, as the wind and inertia did their work, lifting the soldier up onto the roof of the helicopter, towards the propellers.

The sound was metallic and several red particles were seen among the smoke and the loose earth. The alarm began to sound.

Hydra 6 was now falling down.

“Brace for impact!” the Thestral announced.

The Huey crashed into a treetop, creating a huge hole in it, which cushioned the impact a bit.

Utter chaos.

“Hydra 1 ist down, Hydra 5's on its vay. Vee've got you in sight, hold on Major Peakard,” Thrax says.

On Hydra 1, Peakard managed to slip out of his safety belt and climb out of the helicopter's hull. His deer pilot was still alive, trying to free herself.

“Hold on, I’ll help ya,” he says, preparing his combat knife.

Suddenly the helicopter is grabbed by the primate's hands, sending its pilot flying, falling like a ragdoll to her destination while yelling.

Peakard watches in dismay as his underling flies away and the helicopter that was once Hydra 1 gets thrown and hits Hydra 5 directly.

The helicopter carcass flew directly at them.

Twilight was shaken tremendously by the impact, almost falling out of the aircraft, but hanged on.

“Mayday, mayday, mayday, Hydra 5 ist falling,” The changeling announces.

Twilight held on for dear life. The fire and engine alarms were blaring around her.

“Listen, tell me somezing. You love your mom?” the changeling asks, fighting a losing battle for control of his aircraft.

“I love her!” Docker replies, almost crying.

"How musch?"

"A lot!"

Hydra 5 crashed into the jungle.

Meanwhile, the gigantic ape continued its attack, hitting Hydra 8 from above with both fists, making it explode instantly while Hydra 12, the Chinook, passed by.

He manages to grab the huge helicopter by the sides, now with smoke coming out of its engines' overexertion, swinging it like a toy and throwing it at Hydra 7.

Hydra 7 and 12 collided in mid-air.

Hydra 7, 8, and 12 are down.

Peakard watched as the creature mowed down the last of the 3rd Joint Air Assault Company.

Before him he saw how the titan held his last helicopter, Hydra 9, as if it were a toy, from which his soldiers fell to their deaths and he tore the aircraft apart as if the metal were made of paper. His blood boiled with rage.

Hydra 9 is down.

As one of his soldiers told him to leave now, yelling, but Major Phin Peakard listened to no reason or shouts, he just watched in impotent rage as that damned monkey crashed the aircraft into the ground, exploding.

At that moment, Peakard swore revenge at the roar of the victorious ape.

For now.