Equestria: Kong's Dominion

Skull Island lies in a deafening silence, all the life that once filled the ears of the expedition members has been silenced by the brutal outburst of rage of the island's hitherto undefeated king.

Standing on the edge of a cliff overlooking the island's many streams and mountains is Tailcoatl, observing her surroundings through her binoculars.

As the cacophony of the jungle came back to life she turned to her right and watched as the primate that had not long ago wiped out the whole expedition moved away and vanished among the mountains of the island, leaving behind a trail of destruction, fire and twisted steel.

The king of the island retreated, now calm.

“Hydra company, you copy? Anycreature flying? Repeat, is anycreature flying?” Comet Trail, the thestral, asked talked over the radio, to no avail.

“They all fell.” The golden-collared pegasus intervenes with determination. “We are south of the island, there is a river a couple of kilometers away, if we follow it we will reach the extraction point up north.”

“What about Twilight and the others?” Spike asks, worried while also nursing several bruises from the impact.

Fluttershy, also injured, is helping those who are also injured; there are not many, just Jade, Spike, Trail, Tail, and her.

“If they're alive, they know where to go. But we have to go north, and we join whoever we find,” Tailcoatl replies.

“And then what? There are no more helicopters,” Jade Finder interjects, dismayed.

“We’ll figure out how to warn the ship eventually, Mr. Jade, but we have to get there on time,” she replies sternly.

“Yeah…” the earth pony says, conflicted. “and I should be at a desk.”

“And we’re not going to discuss this?!” Trail interrupts again. “Are we really not going to talk about this? We got shot down by a 100-foot primate!”

“I know. I’ve never seen anything like that, but now is not the time to find out, now is the time to move,” Tailcoatl cuts in. “I estimate we’re spread out between six and eight kilometers.”

Fluttershy only had memories from ten years ago, until she was interrupted by her guide.

“Are you okay, ma’am?”

“I don’t know what to tell you, honestly.”

“I remember something like this on the news years ago, but I have a feeling you guys may know something.”

Fluttershy fell quiet for a bit.

“I was told you were well paid, Mrs. Tailcoatl, I hope it was worth it,” Jade interrupts them.

The pegasus just gave him an angry look and returned to the shy pegasus.

“Yes.. we do know, but it’s a long story.”

“We got plenty of time.”

Somewhere in the jungle lies the remains of the Stallion helicopter, Hydra 11, badly damaged and with its engines still smoking.

With his pony companion dead in his seat, Trotland sat in a box, struggling to get his radio working and receiving a signal. Blood came from the injuries in his forehead.

For minutes it was just static.

Surrounded by the oppressive, dense jungle, he feels watched, just like in Naugdaw.

“Leader… Hydra to… Group Hydra… Is anyone there?... Do you copy? Over,” The recognizable voice of Major Peakard could be heard through the static.

“Hydra… Trotland here.” He answer the call, panting.

“Trotland… What… Your location?”

“4 kilometers east, highest peak, November, Alpha, Zero, Zero. Over.”

The lieutenant waited a few moments and looked around. Just vegetation.

“Roger… Trotland… East… Peak… Over.”

“Hydra 11, affirmative, next to the Stallion.”

“Trotland… Hold… Position… We’ll… Go… Search… Enough… Ammunition… Kill… That thing…”

The interference was getting stronger and stronger, the lieutenant tried to keep it up as long as possible.

“Explore… Perimeter… Search… Location… Ambush… Over.”

And then the radio went completely silent.

“Trotland. Field reccon. Proceeding,” the blue pony said into the loudspeaker of a dead radio.

Then he turned to look around and saw the thickness of the jungle again.

“Another day in Naugdaw, I guess,” he said to himself.

So he pulled out his combat knife and started walking.

It took Major Peakard several minutes to regain his senses beyond his impotent anger, which turned into a thirst for revenge, which served as fuel for plotting his counterattack.

But now his radio was not receiving signals.

So he started walking towards where he thought his soldiers were, towards the columns of smoke.

And there he saw part of the remains of Hydra 8, but all of its occupants were dejected, except for one unrelated creature, a zebra under a tree and a thin metal panel.

He had fallen down and the tree stopped him, kind of.

“Zash, Zash Zivstreles.” Peakard called to his soldier, feeling his neck. “Come on, son, your heart's still beating.”

Peakard saw him as being quite healthy and complete, which was something, and he was also breathing, which was a plus, so he tried to get him into a more comfortable position to revive him.

“Wake up, boy. Come on, snap to,” he said while patting his face.

After coughing up some saliva, and moaning, the Hydra 6 gunner opens his eyes, eyes of confusion and disorientation. but alive.

“That’s my boy.”

Sitting on the tail of what was once a Huey helicopter, Thrax silently opens a can of love rations with his combat knife and begins to eat it quietly.

Across the creek from the tail of that helicopter is Rain Docker, putting everything he found into a box, ammo, weapons, and equipment inside.

After placing a strip of fifty-caliber bullets inside this box, the hippogriff turns to look at his companion.

His confused face was evident.

“Thrax, what the tartarus is wrong with ya? How can you be hungry right now?”

The changeling just turns to look at him, silent, thoughtful and severely bruised.

“It means Ich am alive,” he replies dryly.

“We just got knocked down by a monkey the size of a building,” Docker replies, dismayed, gesticulating with his claws.

“Ja, it vas unconfentional.”

“Is that really the only thing you answer?!”

“Zere ist no tactical doctrine to combat susch creatures. Vee did what vee could,” The changeling finished, throwing the empty can of rations to the ground.

Docker just shook his head in denial.

“Flying Hydras!”

The cry came from the top of a hill.

Everyone turned to see Major Peakard and Zash waving from above.

Peakard and Zash walked along the river path until they met up with Thrax and Docker, behind them several more creatures.

“Glad ya'll are okay,” the commander greets with a hug of relief.

After a brief greeting hugs between the creatures, Peakard gets back to business.

“How much is left?”

“Seven alive” —Docker replies— “seven confirmed KIA: Johan, Zapar, Tracker, Lemon, Stars, Mason, and Johnson. Trail and the rest are missing.”

Peakard looks grim as his trusted hippogriff hands him at least seven dogtags. He holds them in his claws and puts them in his pocket, hesitating for a moment.

The Major exhales deeply and looks around.

“Where's the Princess?”

Twilight sat by the stream, bandaging her broken wing and cleaning the wounds she had, thoughtful.

The birds sang peacefully and the frogs croaked in the river. A peaceful evening.

Suddenly Peakard arrives flying slowly and sits in front of her.

“Your Majesty, how are you? Are you fine?”

“Other than a broken wing and worrying about my friends, fine, thanks.” She replied, checking her bruises.

“What a relief, I was worried too, ma’am.” He replied calmly.

Suddenly, the Major pulls out his service pistol and points it at Twilight, his expression very stern.

“You're going to start telling me everything I don't know, or I won't care that you're Celestia's protégé, or Queen Skystar's personal friend.”

Twilight tried to remain calm and took a deep breath. She saw her life for a moment through the barrel of that gun.

“Monsters do exist, Major."

"Yeah, I realized it when a giant monkey wiped out my unit." He said sarcastically, pointing at the helicopters, or what was left of them.

"I knew there might be risks in coming here, Major, but the expedition was crucial to our research into the hollow Faust theory.”

“I don’t give a flying feather about your theory, Your Majesty. My soldiers are dead and we're trapped here now... Wait, did you know we would find that thing here? And knew something could happen?” The soldier replied, calm, but with fury in his eyes.

The alicorn nodded slowly.

“Did you hear about the battle of Puerto Caballo and Manehattan, Major?”

“Just news and anecdotes from friends in the navy.”

“Well, the Secret Monster Intelligence League of Equestria, as known as SMILE, has been dedicated not only to espionage for a long time, Major, but also to the study of gigantic creatures like Godzilla; creatures from time immemorial that are returning to reclaim their thrones, SMILE is in charge of all of this. And this island is the culmination of years of study, but I didn’t expect this massacre to happen.”

“You and your theories, you and your science, you and your secrets, princess, have already caused many deaths.” He takes the dogtags out of his pocket. “These are soldiers who won't return home, now they're dead in the name of science.”

There were tears in the princess's eyes, but she stood firm.

“I am deeply and sincerely sorry for the loss of your soldiers, Major Peakard. Every life lost is a tragedy that has weighed on me for years and will always be.”

Peakard looked a little less tense.

“That’s why it’s essential that we get everyone out of here, Major. This island can change everything; we have to understand and prevent more tragedies like those in new and old Manehattan or Puerto Caballo. The Third Company’s sacrifice will not be in vain; get us out of here and we’ll bring in the cavalry.”

The hippogriff stood up and stared at the alicorn, who stood firm at all times against the gun less than a meter from her chest. He pondered his options.

Peakard then lowered his weapon and put it away, turned and returned to his soldiers who were already collecting their fallen ones.

“I am the cavalry.”