The Monument to All Your Sins.

The night was advancing quietly in the northern capital, the vast majority of ponies were already in their homes sleeping, the few businesses that were open late were already closing or attending to their last customers, in the end, the only ones who were walking the streets were the few royal guards assigned to the night watch, a few pairs of ponies were making their rounds between street and street.
Two stallions dressed in their fancy crystal armor were walking down one of the outer avenues of the city as they conversed.

“Seriously Silver Bucket, I swear the general hates me...” said one of the stallions, with yellow fur and light purple mane.

“She doesn't hate you Quiet Trench, she just wants to make sure you meet the standards of the empire guard...” the second stallion replied, bright gray coat and black mane.

“Really...and what standards are those...because as far as I know, I meet all the requirements perfectly!” he exclaimed somewhat elated.

“Well you must admit that sometimes you're a bit impulsive, and your reactions tend to be a bit over the top when the situation doesn't warrant it.”

“What?! That's not true...!”

“Will you shut up! I'm trying to sleep!” The conversation was interrupted by the voice of an elderly mare screaming from one of the houses, irritated and clearly aroused by the stallion's shrill scream.

They were both silent for a moment, walking to the end of the street and rounding the corner, at which point Quiet Trench spoke again.

“Okey...I see what you mean,” said the pony dejectedly.

Silver Bucket then patted his friend on the shoulder, giving a smile.

“Hey don't be like that, you just need to focus that energy better, I'm sure you'll make a great guard one of these days.”

“Thanks Silver Bucket, I hope you're right...”

At that moment something in front of them caught their attention, right in the middle of the street, partially hidden by the shadowy spaces between streetlight and streetlight, was what appeared to be a small foal, walking slowly and with its nose flush to the ground.
This confused the stallions a bit, they were sure it was after one in the morning, definitely not an appropriate time for a foal to be out and about, let alone alone alone, still they both decided to take a closer look, the foal seemed disoriented, staggering with each step and raising its head every now and then to look both ways before lowering its face to the ground again, slowly it was getting farther and farther away from the guards at a slow pace.

Finally and after exchanging worried glances both stallions decided to approach the little one, at a cautious pace, with the intention of, if the little one was lost, not to frighten him, the moment they both considered to be close enough, Silver Bucket cleared his throat slightly and spoke in a soft tone of voice.

“Ahem...hello, little one, are you lost?”

There was no response, the colt didn't even turn to look at them, he just kept walking, slowly and arduously forward.
The stallions exchanged glances again, now if this seemed like a strange situation to them, they quickly advanced to the foal, placing each on either side of the little one and walking in lockstep.

“Hey kid...!” exclaimed Quiet Trench in a somewhat loud tone of voice ”Where are your parents?”

The boy didn't even seem to hear them, he didn't even seem to notice that both ponies were even there, both guards began to notice the foal's strange appearance, it seemed that his body was completely bald, there seemed to be not a single hair on his body, no mane, no tail, the foal's skin seemed to have a sickly pale green tone, even in the dim light of the street lamps, the skin seemed to reflect the light, shining as if the foal was bathed in oil, at last he could see how, strangely, the foal seemed to wear a kind of very ostentatious golden necklace.

At that moment Silver Bucket reached out his hoof and placed it on the foal's shoulder, noting that it was icy to the touch.

“Hey stop! Are you all right? Are you sick?”

The foal just kept moving forward, breaking free of the guard's grip, at which point Quiet Trench lost his patience, not only because of how strange the situation was getting, but because of the fact that, to his mind, the foal was deliberately ignoring them, as some sort of twisted joke.

“All right that's enough...” the stallion strode forward with a firm stride.

“Quiet Trench wait...!”

The yellow colored stallion leapt in front of the foal, blocking his path, at this the foal finally stopped, standing completely still all at once, as if he had frozen where he was.

“Hey kid, I don't know what weird game you're playing, but you shouldn't be wandering around so late at night, so you better tell us where you live so we can take you and talk to your parents.”

There was no response once again, the foal's head was still completely fixed to the ground, still as a statue.

“Boy enough with the jokes, we are royal guards, you must talk to us...!”

“Quiet Trench wait!” exclaimed the other guard still standing behind the colt, finally getting the yellow stallion's attention ”Something's not right...”

“What do you mean?” asked Quiet Trench in confusion.

Silver Bucket took a couple of steps, starting to circle the colt.

“I mean he looks sick, just look at him, he has no fur...”

“Maybe it's just one of those strange fads of the young...”

At that moment finally a third voice came through, the foal spoke in a distorted, guttural voice, startling the stallions, ending their discussion.

“Where...?”

A single word that elicited a shared shudder from both guards, instead of sounding like a foal, the voice, seemed to be that of an adult, smoking mare with lungs wracked with smoke.

“What...what did you say boy?” asked Silver Bucket trying not to stutter and feeling the sweat pouring from his coat.

For his part Quiet Trench stood completely still, still recovering, he didn't ask to believe what he had heard, nor what he was feeling at that moment, for a moment he thought that this was just a dream, that somehow he was just drunk and asleep in his room, but that thought was not feasible, after all he remembered perfectly the events that had transpired during that morning and afternoon.
The atmosphere had suddenly become dense, as if the colt's words had suddenly brought the perpetual cold of the outside of the empire there, both stallions stood still for a second, breathing heavily, the next second the colt's chest puffed out.

At first it looked like the foal was taking a big breath, but quickly, the swelling in his chest expanded beyond what the tiny lungs of such a small foal could have inflated, then beyond what the lungs of an adult stallion could have inflated, and then beyond what the lungs of a dragon could have inflated.
The colt stood there, his torso inflated like a balloon about to burst, while the stallions stood paralyzed, unable to understand what they were seeing, the next moment, a great sigh from the colt let out all the air, so violently and quickly that Silver Bucket's hoof, which was the closest, flew off.

Silence reigned again for a moment before the voice coming from the foal resounded again.

“There...is...”

The foal again remained still like stone, but, little by little, he seemed to begin to tremble, a noise resembling someone shivering was present and, in less than a minute, the foal was convulsing still standing, with his hooves as if they were attached to the ground.
The stallions were already terrified at the Dantesque image, the screeching and the unnatural movements had made them start to tremble, the shivering was now perpetual over their bodies, bristling all their fur, it was a fear so deep and raw that, in spite of everything, they still lay still, enraged with fear, and at that moment, the foal became completely still.

Again he looked like a statue, solid marble placed in the middle of the street, Quiet Trench in the face of this sinister calm could only say.

“What the fuck...”

And at that moment the foal, for the first time, seemed to hear them, violently raising his head and finally looking at them.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Bek was asleep inside a small tent set up in the middle of the training grounds of the castle barracks, she was warm and comfortable, very grateful that Applejack and the others had helped her build and fix up the little place.
This, combined with the fact that they had also helped her get some new pain medicine, gave her a sense of peace of mind, despite her restless sleep.

Suddenly Bek felt a chill, for an instant she attributed it to the icy wind that crept into her tent from time to time, but, little by little, that chill rose from the tip of her tail to the top of her head, and then she felt it, a pang of a familiar but unpleasant feeling, something that, from long ago, she thought he would never feel again, but she had felt it, when he stepped into the colossal cavern beneath the two sisters' castle, a sinister reminder that, however good this world looked, there were still things lurking in the darkness, and then her eyes snapped open.

“AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

The scream echoed in the silence of the night, so loud and so horrible that even Princess Cadance herself, asleep in the highest room of the palace in the company of her husband and daughter, heard it, jolting awake and making Flurry Heart cry.
The first to come to the call for help were the other guards patrolling the nearby streets, a dozen guards ran on alert in the direction of the noise, finally turning a last corner they found themselves face to face with the source of the sound.

Quiet Trench was flat on his back against the ground, in a fetal position as he cried and screamed over and over again, in front of him was the body of Silver Bucket, decapitated and spilling a huge pool of blood.
The image stopped the rest of the guards in their tracks, so shocked were they that it took them a moment to realize what was beyond the corpse, standing there was a tall figure, very very tall, exceeding the height of the street lamps, they could see four hooves that extended upwards, bending in multiple joints, one after the other and without stopping until they were lost in a dark mass that hardly looked like a pony.

Unfortunately Quiet Trench had seen it all, he looked up and saw what had become of the foal's deformed face, it had lasted less than a second, but if he had to describe it he would say that the little body was deformed as if it was made of clay, as if some giant invisible pony had taken it and squeezed it with all its strength, the face, the neck and part of the chest had opened in half, revealing a void of pure darkness inside the foal's body and, the next second, Silver Bucket no longer had a head.

A sound similar to the cracking of branches came from the highest part of the silhouette, it was rhythmic and constant, it was not until whatever it was seemed to drop something from the heights, that the guards realized that it was the head of Silver Bucket torn off and half chewed.
Everyone froze, no one knew what to do, the huge figure seemed to wobble, as if it was so light that the mere night breeze was able to move it.

“Where....?” was heard, now the voice was not even something capable of coming from any pony, or any other living creature, poor Quiet Trench could only close his eyes and cover his ears with his hooves, in an attempt to silence that horrible voice.

The thing swelled again, sucking in all the air around it, releasing it with power a moment later then turned in the direction of the other guards.

“Im.....coming...”

And then the dam broke.

“GHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

The shriek that the creature let out was so powerful, that the guards' ears began to bleed, the windows of nearby houses burst and each and every street lamp on the street exploded, letting darkness take over the place.
They had barely begun to recover from the daze when the figure took a huge step forward and, incredibly, impaled one of the guards, suddenly, the hoof had become a kind of sharp black stick, which pierced from the back to the belly of the stallion, The blood splattered all around him, the shattered bones and torn flesh could be heard as the creature took another step forward, lifting the stallion, who let out pitiful gurgles as he bled to death.

At that moment the mare leading the group came to, still enveloped in terror and confusion she managed to pull herself together and shout an order.

“A...ATTACK!!!”

Twilight and her friends ran out the front door of the castle, the first scream woke them up the shriek that followed sent them into a panic and now they were trying to figure out what was going on.

“By a thousand Equestria what the hell was that?” Applejack asked in exasperation.

“I don't know...I don't know...” Twilight ran to the front of the group, her head a mess trying to make sense of the situation.

“You know, it does sound familiar...” began Pinkie Pie, which caused everyone to stop abruptly to look at the pink pony, it took Pinkie a moment to realize ”Oh emm, well, it sounded just like the giant thing inside the cavern under the castle...”

Twilight turned pale, it was true, the next moment a new noise was present, a cacophony of screams of horror echoed one after another, the five mares resumed the mark on their way to face whatever was causing this.
Just like the guards before, they all turned one last corner and before them the massacre was mirrored, there were pieces of guards scattered all over the street, some split in half cleanly, others so torn apart they were barely recognizable, the few that were still standing were trying to circle around the thing that was advancing away barely paying them any attention.
The lead mare of the squadron then leapt in front of the thing and, in one swift motion threw her spear at the upper section where she assumed its head was.

“Die damned!!!”

The fine, polished, sharp glass-tipped spear of shattered instantly from the force of the impact, without even piercing the creature's skin, it only made a sweeping motion with one of its massive hooves and that impacted the mare from the side, slamming her against the wall with such force that her spine was instantly shattered, dying as she choked on her own blood.

“Aaahhh!” cried Rarity as she witnessed the carnage, immediately beginning to cry.

Rainbow Dash on the other hand vomited full on against the ground uncontrollably while Pinkie Pie was losing the color of her fur and Applejack was trying not to shake, Twilight couldn't breathe, it was as if the gory stories Bek had told her were being projected right in front of her.

At one point the creature stopped its gait dead in its tracks, the few remaining guards took the opportunity to back away and flee the scene, the figure once again stood perfectly still, as if it had frozen in place, now all that could be heard was the sound of blood dripping from the walls and the bits of pony falling off the thing's legs.
Once again it inflated again, exhaling a stream of air that reached Twilight and the others, an air that smelled of blood, and then it turned, a mechanical movement and so fast it seemed instantaneous, now, without a doubt, it was looking in the direction of the five mares.

An entire street separated them, approximately fifty meters, Twilight could feel the blood in her body cool as if suddenly the raging northern storm had seemed in her chest, her eyes fixed on the thing, she could almost feel it returning her gaze, the instant of tension was broken when the thing spoke again.

“There....you are....”

And then the thing's legs twisted, violently until, what was supposed to be the rest of its body, whipped against the ground, now its legs bent as if it were a bulbous, misshapen spider.

The five friends knew what would happen next, but something in the back of their minds was screaming at them over and over again that this was just a bad dream, that, at any moment, they would wake up and this would just be a nightmare they would forget by breakfast, late they realized that the thing was pouncing on her, Its huge legs propelled it forward like a black lightning bolt, just as the thing crossed the threshold into the light of the street where they were standing, ready to be slaughtered, Bek appeared at the creature's side, slamming her body into its torso and managing to deflect it just enough to send it crashing into the rock, only a few meters away from the mare.

Now under the light and at ground level the shape of the thing was perfectly discernible, most of its body was pure black, so thin that it seemed to be made of tree branches, branching from some parts there was a kind of bright green membrane, this seemed to be placed randomly along its entire body, its torso was bulging, as if it was made of hundreds and hundreds of irregular bubbles of different sizes that moved and held from one side to the other, and on top of that stood a head, elongated and stretched out, completely covered by the green membrane, and on the top of that head was frozen the deformed expression of something that undoubtedly tried to look like a pony, total emphasis on “tried” since the face looked like the poorly made drawing of a foal that was just beginning to draw, as if the skin of a pony's face was stretched over a dead trunk.
The grimace on the face seemed to mimic a huge grin, so much so that the corners of the boa rose above the eyes, and the eyes, the eyes of the thing would give the five friends nightmares now, and until the day they died, they could all feel that when they saw them, in the huge empty misshapen sockets of the thing, there was a single white dot, as small as the tip of a needle but emanating an evil so deep and pure, it could not come from this realm, or anywhere else.

Twilight's ears were ringing, but she could see out of the corner of her eye as Bek was beckoning and shouting in their direction, the alicorn tried to pay attention to what it was saying, but the mare's voice sounded distant, it wasn't until she noticed how the thing was quickly rising that Bek's voice finally made its way deep inside her.

“RUN, NOW!!!”

And so they did, they didn't even hesitate, simply their hooves moved on their own, speeding away from the thing, for a moment there was nothing else on either's mind, it wasn't until Twilight noticed Bek's absence that she was devoted skidding overhead, only to turn and see how the unicorn had stayed behind facing the thing.

Bek maintained a firm stance as the creature watched her, the thing tilted its head slightly before swelling the bubbles in its body again, filling them with air and expelling through the cavities in its face, and again it stood still again, and once more its body changed, its body contorted stretching once more, this time its limbs shrinking completely, sticking to his body and becoming so small that they could have been of a newborn foal, and the next instant one of the bubbles burst, and then another, and another, from each of the bubbles began to emerge hundreds of new limbs of all shapes and sizes, arms, with claws or razors, legs as wide as those of an adult dragon or as thin as those of a giraffe, and in a second, the creature charged at Bek with a bestial scream.

The unicorn then began to dodge the attacks of the creature, which charged and screeched with fury, its calculated movement of before had been replaced by an uncontrolled frenzy, with its eyes fixed on the mare, with the sole intention of pursuing her.
The blows destroy buildings and pieces of the street the creature was crawling along the ground holding on to whatever its new parts could find, at a speed that would seem to be impossible for a creature of its size, on the other hand Bek was just dodging, moving away little by little, pulling the creature away from Twilight and the others, there were no words, no threats, just the concentrated gaze of the unicorn and the shrieks of the thing.

“We have to do something!” Applejack exclaimed.

“But what can we do!” replied Rarity hysterically.

“We have to get help!!!” Pinkie Pie shouted.

The discussion became heated, the friends' panic didn't let them think clearly and they just shouted at each other, suddenly and without warning Twilight turned around and started running back towards the main street.

“Twilight!” shouted Applejack making Twilight turn around ”By a thousand Equestrias what do you think you're doing!”

“We can't leave her! She needs us...!”

“You're out of your mind!” exclaimed Rainbow ”Didn't you see that thing! It's going to tear us apart like rag dolls!”

“We should help her...!” before another of her friends could claim or continue to debate continuously, ”That's what friends do...”

They all looked at each other, no one could say anything against that.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

In a moment the thing threw a blow with its whole body, right there Bek saw the opportunity to counterattack, she quickly drew her sword, igniting it with her magic and, with a quick movement, the blade cut one of the limbs of the thing, the arm fell to the ground with a thud and the creature shrieked in pain, at that moment the unicorn noticed that, between all the limbs of the thing and on its green membrane just below its face, there was a thick golden necklace with a bright red gem.
In response the creature raised a huge pointed claw, coming down violently, Bek dodged by ducking, but just as the claw passed over her head the side of it sprouted huge sharp hooks, which scraped across the ground and hit the mare squarely, digging into her left side before throwing her away, the unicorn recovered quickly, getting up before noticing the terrible pain in her leg and side, checking herself she saw how six huge holes now marked her skin, three in her left foreleg and another three in her side, the wounds were bleeding and burning horribly, still the unicorn did her best to ignore them, rising up just in time to avoid the thing's next blow.

“Wow...” said Bek quietly as she landed on the ground, away from the thing ‘I'm really out of practice...’ the unicorn gave a glance at the thing that was still shrieking from the loss of its limb, shaking itself off and turning back towards her ‘But it looks like you too big guy...’ she said before steadying herself again and charging back up.

The unicorn tried to slash at the thing again, this time aiming for its body, but, surprisingly, her magical blade was stopped dead in its tracks, hanging onto the creature's greenish armor.

“No...” Bek started to say but quickly had to step aside to dodge the powerful blow from one of the larger paws.

At that moment a rumbling sound was heard from across the street, Bek turned enough to see a huge number of guards, accompanied by Twilight, Shining Armor and her friends.

“Don't worry Bek, we'll help you!” exclaimed Twilight.

“Now all together! Attack!” shouted Shining Armor.

“No!!! wait!” shouted Bek but it was too late.

Quickly the guards surrounded the creature with great synchronicity, throwing their spears at the thing and attempting to cut off its limbs, however all the weapons broke at the first blow and no matter how hard they tried, none of the beast's parts gave way, and in less than a second, it was all horror again, the limbs were thrown rapidly, trapping many of the guards and immediately retracting, the guards were trapped against the bubbles on the creature's torso and in less than a second the screams began.
Screams of agony as little by little the fur, skin and muscles of the guards were dissolved by the bubbles, this inevitably broke the formation, panic set in and the thing was able to continue its attack.

Shining Armor watched in horror as his troops were decimated while the beast feasted, at this the unicorn frowned and charged a powerful magical bolt of lightning into its horn.
Bek, who was trying to free the guards from the outstretched limbs, saw what Shining was attempting and shouted.

“NO!!! Magic no!” again, it was too late.

The powerful magical shot hit the thing full on, throwing it through the air far away and to the other end of the main street, for a second the thing stood still, almost as if it was dead, the guards seeing this let out sighs of relief and began to head towards the thing in an attempt to save their comrades.

“No no no no no no!!! stop...!” shouted Bek again but her warnings fell on deaf ears ”heed me!”

Twilight and the others approached towards Bek quickly.

“Bek what is it, what's wrong?” asked Twilight.

“Listen to me, you have to go, it's a hound, it's hunting me, go and keep the others safe...!”

At that moment the thing shook violently, spinning around and tearing through a couple more guards as it got up, Shining Armor then exclaimed in disbelief.

“But how, I shot my most powerful lightning at it!”

“Pure magic has no effect!” shouted Bek at him from a distance ”His armor absorbs it and becomes more resistant!”

“Then how the hell do we kill it!” replied the stallion in despair.

“Fire!!!” shouted the mare loudly ”We need fire!”

Shining Armor saw the creature advancing smoothly between his guards, assessed the situation and came to the conclusion that yes, in the end, it was the best option.

“Listen to me!” exclaimed the captain of the guard ”Do as the unicorn says, get fire!”

“You guys roll him and keep a safe distance...!” said Bek approaching Shining Armor ”I'll keep him away from the buildings!”

“Bek you can't fight that thing by yourself, you're hurt!” Twilight exclaimed pointing to Bek's bleeding wounds that stained the ground everywhere she passed.

“I'm the only one who knows how to deal with it, I can't let you risk...”

“No!!! You'll get yourself killed!” retorted the alicorn.

“That doesn't matter, I must keep them safe!”

“NO!!!” shouted Twilight again.

At that moment the thing turned and set its sights on Twilight, as it looked directly at her its body swelled again, and as the air was released its four pony legs stretched out again, lifting the creature over the guards, it advanced with speed and, in one swift movement, violently grabbed Twilight with one pair of its huge hands and lifted her up, the mare tried to shake herself in terror thinking the same fate awaited her as the guards, but to her surprise the creature held her against its chest, away from the bubbles, quickly running away from the crowd, towards the outskirts of the city.

“Twilight no!!!” shouted Shining in terror ready to run after her, but was stopped by Bek ”What the hell are you doing!!! he's got my sister!!!”

“Get something to set that thing on fire!” said Bek seriously.

“But I have to save her!”

“I'll go get her you figure it out!!!” Bek's shout was so loud that Shining was speechless, at this the unicorn let out a sigh and gave Shining a determined look “She'll be fine, now run...”

Shining thought about it for a second but in the end he obeyed, leading his guards to leave along with him.

Without wasting any time Bek ran after the thing, quickly noticing Twilight's four friends running alongside her.

“Hey, what are you guys doing, you need to get to safety!”

“No way!” shouted Rainbow who was flying at high speed.

“We'll help you save Twilight!” Said Applejack.

“Are you crazy!!! That's going to gut all of you!”

“No time to hesitate dear, our friend is in danger!” Said Rarity who seemed to be the most scared.

“And no matter what monster out of nightmares has her, we're her friends and we'll save her!” shouted Pinkie.

Bek wasn't going to stop to argue, he had a job to do, and a monster to kill.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Twilight struggled with all her might against the thing's grip, she tried to teleport but the magic coming out of her horn was immediately absorbed by the green membrane, she screamed and cried in panic but all that didn't seem to matter to the thing which just kept running, now heading out of the city and towards the borders of the empire.
Twilight looked up in search of something she could use and was met with the sight from below of the golden necklace clenched around the thing's neck, the red gem embedded in it kept slowly flashing over and over again, and Twilight couldn't help but think how really strange that necklace looked.

Bek and the others had caught up to the thing, still it was moving away faster than they could run.

“We must stop it!” shouted Bek ”At this rate it's going to get away!”

“I got this!” shouted Rainbow Dash, swallowing her fear and accelerating incredibly fast, as she flew in the direction of one of the thing's legs she closed her eyes and repeated to herself over and over ‘Be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave ¡Be brave!’ and with a mighty thud, one of the creature's hind legs broke, Rainbow Dash shot off to the side and crashed to the ground as the thing shrieked in pain and fell abruptly.

Just before it hit the ground the creature swelled back up, zalating and letting the rest of its limbs out, stopping its fall and moving forward again, but slower now.
This allowed it all to arrive, Bek quickly cut off another of the thing's legs, causing it to stagger and lose its balance, at this Applejack, deftly dodging the creature's parts, positioned herself on its side, turning and delivering a powerful kick that turned the creature upside down, at this the thing tried to attack the farmer with one of its claws but Rarity, Bek then jumped over the thing's chest towards the arms that were holding Twilight, but her advance was stopped by the avalanche of limbs that threatened to cut her into pieces.
The creature started to sit up and crawl forward on the ground, just as it stage to start its run again Pinkie Pie appeared right in front of its face, before the creature could react the pink pony spoke in a shaky voice.

“You know what they call people who leave the party before it's over...?” pinkie pulled out her party cannon and pointed it at the thing's eyes ”Water party!”

The shot rang out and the confetti blinded the thing, it began to cough and shake violently, which gave Bek a chance to get to where Twilight was and cut off the arms that were holding it.
They all backed away as the thing still writhed and stood up, facing the six again.

“All of you behind me!” shouted Bek as he pointed his sword at the thing.

To their surprise, the thing inflated again, but this time as it exhaled it shrunk, compressing its entire body in an impossible way until the folds of the membrane closed completely giving the thing's body a shape very similar to that of an adult stallion, even its face had changed, resembling Silver Bucket's but not quite resembling it, now the golden collar was perfectly visible to all of them.

“Now what the hell does he do...?” asked Applejack disgusted.

“It adapts to the situation..” replied Bek, and at that moment, the creature lunged at them again.

This time the attack was more precise, the thing opened its front hooves to let out two huge blades which it used to try to stab Bek, the mare deftly dodged and cut the blades, trying to lunge at the thing's head but now the membrane covered its entire body, making it impossible for her sword to pierce it.

The thing changed its target quickly, pulling out from the back of its back two huge clawed arms with which it tried to attack Applejack, the pony farmer reacted turning just in time but surprisingly a third claw shot out in the direction of her face, luckily at that very moment Rainbow Dash appeared from the distance, pushing Applejack at the right moment so that the claw only tore her nose a little.
At that moment Bek intervened again, jumping on the thing and slashing two of its three arms, it recoiled seeing the unicorn in front of it, Bek was staggering, the loss of blood now made her vision blurry and her balance poor, she was breathing hard and feeling dizzy.

The thing then inflated again and this time its lower body became a sort of giant snake tail, made of its fused limbs, and without further ado it lunged forward.
Pinkie tried to fire her party cannon again but a fast blade coming out of the tail cut it in half, the pink pony barely had time to move aside to avoid the same fate, Rarity tried to create another shield but due to exhaustion it didn't resist the creature's attack, sending her to the ground completely exhausted, Rainbow and Applejack tried to get closer but the tangle of claws and blades didn't allow them, the huge tail split in two, surrounding them all in a huge black circle which immediately closed violently, but at that instant Twilight created a shield around them while the thing kept attacking.

“What now?” asked Applejack.

“I don't know! What do we do Bek!” Twilight turned just in time to see Bek collapse to the ground, running over to her just in time to catch her ”Bek! Are you ok?!”

“Yeah...yeah I...I just need a moment...” her voice was weak and slurred, the hilt of her sword fell to the ground deactivated.

“She's losing a lot of blood!” Twilight exclaimed examining the unicorn's wounds noticing how they were not closing.

At that moment the thing buried its huge tail in the ground, while its upper half embraced the shield, from one moment to another black blades began to sprout from the ground one by one, trying to impale the mares, they were desperately trying to escape but they were starting to run out of space where to go, at that moment Twilight noticed how, near her no blades were sprouting.

“All of you come to me quickly!”

Her friends obeyed, getting as close together as possible and to their surprise a perfect circle of blades formed around them.

“What's happening now!” asked Applejack.

“I'm not sure, but this thing doesn't seem to want to hurt me...”

“Excellent!” exclaimed Rainbow with a nervous tone ”So what do we do now?!”

“We can stay here until Shining arrives just have to make sure it doesn't...” suddenly Twilight stopped dead in her tracks, something was wrong, she looked up to see the creature's hideous face right above the shield over their heads and to everyone's horror, the shield slowly seemed to fade away, curving and letting the thing get closer and closer.

“Now what the hell is going on!” Rarity asked in desperation.

Twilight just had to ponder for a second.

“The membrane!”

“What!” they all asked.

“The creature's outer membrane absorbs magic, it sticks to the bubble to absorb the magic from my shield!”

They all looked up in horror to see the magic shield slowly tearing away until it finally burst, and now there was nothing between them and the horrible thing that let out a new nightmarish shriek, just at that instant, when it seemed there was nothing left to do a great voice was projected.

“HEY, BEAST!!!”

The thing turned and saw right behind it a huge troop of guards carrying huge barrels, the thing didn't understand what was going on but as it rested its gaze on Shining Armor something made it shriek, before it could even move Shining exclaimed.

“Get the fuck out of my kingdom!” and with her magic a huge barrel was hurled at the thing, exploding and filling it with liquid ”Now Twilight!!!”

Twilight understood, flashing her horn, all it took was a spark and the thing burst into flames.

Quickly all its blades recoiled, which the mares took advantage of to flee, all while the thing writhed and shrieked in agony, in a moment the thing began to run in the direction of the snow outside the empire but Shining armor and its guards quickly shut it down, throwing more barrels and setting fire to the grass to block its way, the thing increasingly desperately tried to go around or jump over the wall of fire epros its limbs began to scorch and turn to ashes at an enormous speed, in the end only its torso was left writhing and flailing until at last it stopped moving.

Silence then finally reigned, the only thing that could be heard now was the ringing of the fire, everyone approached to see what was left of the thing, finding only a pile of bones of different sizes piled senselessly, accompanied by a huge skull that none of those present could identify.
Twilight and her friends approached along with Shining, while Bek, already conscious, staggered over to the pile of burnt bones, looking up and down with her eyes, and there she saw it, the golden necklace, red hot in the middle of the pile, using her magic she lifted it up and brought it closer, letting it fall in full view of everyone....

They could only appreciate it for a moment before the red gem in the center finally stopped glowing and the next instant, the necklace vanished into thin air, disappearing completely before everyone's eyes with a golden flash.

“What the heck was that?” asked Shining.

“I have no idea who it was, but I think I know who it belongs to...” replied Bek as he dropped face first to the ground, clutching his side tightly, feeling the blood still gushing out.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

“What the fuck is this!” Cadance asked hysterically, they were in the throne room she, Shining, Twilight, her friends and Bek, in the center of the room lay, on an old blanket, the bones of the thing, if anyone saw them they would think that none of them belonged to the same creature.

“You, mare!” exclaimed Cadance addressing Bek, who remained sitting on the floor and her side covered with bandages ”I hope you have a damned explanation!”

“It's a Sniffer...” replied Bek with a lot of calm in his voice, as if he thought that explanation was enough.

“...What?” asked Cadance with a twitching eye.

“Yes I, I think we need to give each other more context Bek, we have no idea what a...Sniffer is...” spoke Twilight with the intention of not letting a fight break out.

Bek then let out a long weary sigh, struggling to his feet and walking over to the pile of bones.

“These things, we called them Sniffers, one of the most efficient pony predators that ever existed, they acquired a partial camouflage that allowed them to lurk and get close enough to their prey to be able to consume them, they also became extremely resistant to magic, as it was the most efficient way to defeat them before...”

“Before what?” asked Applejack.

“I don't know, that's what I was told when I learned how to kill them...I had no idea there were any specimens left alive.”

“What do you mean?” asked Shining.

“It was my understanding that they were among the first monster races to be efficiently extinguished during the great expansion of the empire...”

“Well, it looks like that wasn't the case...” Cadance said in exasperation.

“No, no there's something else...” Twilight began “Never in all of Equestria's recent history was there any record of any creature that even resembled this, there's no way it's some kind of missing link...”

“I agree...” continued Bek ”This one was very large, which meant it had lived for a very long time, but it also looked malnourished, weak, a Sniffer can't go long without feeding, they are fast metabolizing scavengers.”

“Then where the fuck did it come from!” asked Cadance increasingly frustrated.

“Well...” began Bek ”I have a theory...”

Everyone turned to look at Bek.

“Shortly before I was sent on my last failed mission, the queens had changed their policy with their treatment of monsters, by that point there were very few left roaming the world and the new orders were, capture instead of hunt, everyone assumed the queens wanted to research the latest specimens to use their findings to help the kingdom, I see the use they were put to was more....banal...”

“You're saying...” Twilight began “That Celestia and Luna have a gallery of thousand year old beasts and that they sent one of them to hunt us...?”

“Basically...”

“No!!!” interrupted Cadance ”That's not possible what they say, Celestia and Luna would never interact with something so monstrous!”

“Wow and I thought we were already making progress..” Bek exclaimed sarcastically.

“Cadance, please...” began Shining ”You have to admit that it's at least suspicious...”

“Just because she says so!” Cadance vociferated without any qualms “No!!! No Shining Armor!!!! This is too sick, even Discord couldn't do something like this There are thirty-seven dead guards for Celestia's sake! They're still wiping their visor off the benches...” Cadance paused feeling herself hyperventilating “Celestia wouldn't...order something like this...”

“Can we please stop calling her that, let's call her because she's a fucking Solar Bitch...” said Bek with a tone of annoyance.

“Take it back right now you disrespectful wretch!” Cadance shouted advancing towards Bek with the intention of hitting her.

“Why don't you come over here and force me princess of sex, or was it of love? I really don't remember anymore...”

Shining stepped in between the two, stopping his wife's advance and exclaiming.

“Stop both of you!”

“No! That bitch doesn't even have proof that what she's saying is true...!”

At that moment there was silence, Cadance looked around and was met with looks of dismay from everyone in the room, finally turning back to her husband who was giving her the same look.

“Well Cadance, that's not quite true...”

“What do you mean Shining?”

“He means shut your mouth and listen...” said Bek dismissively.

Cadance was about to respond when Twilight interjected.

“The creature was carrying some sort of magical amulet, I could feel very powerful energy emanating from it...”

“And where is this magical amulet you speak of?”

“Well I....emmm....”

“It vanished into thin air when the Sniffer died...” interrupted Bek.

“So you have no proof of that you tell me, and even if you did how do we know that amulet somehow connects this thing to Celestia or Luna?”

“Because the engravings that were on the necklace were very similar to the ornaments occupied by the princesses...” Twilight replied hastily.

“Are you serious, that's your only proof?”

“You don't understand Cadance, I saw it too, no doubt it was something very similar...”

“You too Shining? Don't tell me you're getting carried away with this absurd assumption...”

“Cadance please, you have to react, this puts us in worse danger than we thought, Celestia could have a whole army of these things ready to attack us...”

“No! No Twilight, it's too much, I understand that maybe Equestria was a horrible place in the past, but it's not that place anymore, now this is a kingdom of peace and harmony And definitely Celestia and Luna are not sadistic maniacal tyrants, unleashing monsters to murder ponies!!!”

Everyone was silent, they didn't know what else to say to make Cadance come to her senses, at that moment a very loud cry echoed throughout the castle, the cry was instantly identified by Cadance who, rising from her throne proclaimed.

“I'll go check on Flurry, we'll continue this later...” and without further ado she left the throne room.

Once the door closed behind them Twilight turned to Shining.

“Brother, we have to do something, we can't wait for Cadance to get over her period of denial, we have to prepare now while we still can...”

“I agree Twilight, we can't let them catch us off guard again, but how exactly will we defend against this?”

“You could start by training your soldiers better...” said Bek distractedly, causing both Shining and Twilight to look at her, noticing this the unicorn cleared her throat and continued ”Well, not to offend, but from what I could see the militia of this kingdom is ... deficient to say the least, and I don't mean to sound pessimistic or anything but, the Sniffer was among the most common and weakest creatures when I was in my better days, if we are to assume that the Solar Bitch has a complete collection of past horrors we can all be left for dead if she decides to send something more dangerous, so I suggest you teach your soldiers to fight, incapacitate and ultimately assassinate these monsters...”

“And how the hell do you expect us to teach that to them?” Shining asked somewhat exasperated.

“I can teach them...”

Everyone was silent at the thought.

“Are you serious?” asked Rainbow.

“Well, I was never the best teacher but I'm sure I can share the basics and everything I know about it on how to kill these things, it won't be much of an improvement, but at least the soldiers will no longer run around like headless chickens when a creature of the night attacks them...”

Twilight and Shining considered the idea for a good while, while Bek and the others waited in silence, finally Shining raised her voice.

“Well, that's fine with me, but you'll only be able to work with the direct castle guard...”

“That's another thing...” interrupted Bek ”We're going to need a lot more soldiers...”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that if this empire really is going to become the epicenter of a series of sieges, the few guards I saw training at the bars won't be enough...”

“But, there's no one left who wants to enlist, and after last night, I highly doubt that even those who are already enlisted will want to wear the armor again..”

“Well, you're kind of like the prince of the empire aren't you?”

“Ehhh...yes, yes I am...”

“Well, I want to believe that you have enough authority over your populace to impose your will on certain important matters, so I would guess that if, you wanted to, you could make your subjects fight if you ordered them to...”

“Are you suggesting that we force the ponies of the empire to fight under compulsion against a horde of monsters?” asked Applejack in surprise.

“If either of you have a better idea, believe me I'm willing to listen to it...” replied Bek somewhat dejectedly, she really wasn't pleased with where things were headed.

Shining Armor then stood thoughtfully for a long while, as the others debated and discussed the possibilities, the stallion's gaze remained fixed on the skull of the thing they had just killed and he remembered the fear and helplessness he felt at not being able to do anything to stop the massacre of his people, the ponies who were counting on him, finally the stallion responded.

“No, we won't force anyone to fight...” his answer surprised everyone ”Still, that doesn't mean we won't tell them how important this fight is, I will talk to the people, I will ask for their help, maybe if we tell them the whole truth they will understand why we need them to defend us...”

There was silence for a moment, until Applejack spoke.

“Well.... I'm not sure if something like this will convince many, but at the very least, I'll fight without a doubt.”

“Me too!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed “I won't stand on crossed hooves if there's danger around the corner!”

“I...I'm not sure, this I think is beyond what we girls can handle...” said Rarity doubtfully.

Pinkie Pie didn't say anything, she just stood with her gaze to the ground, contemplating the remains of her party cannon.

“That was a very noble gesture I admit, but still we have the problem of not having well trained ponies anytime soon Do you guys really don't know anyone, any pony who possesses a minimum of war knowledge, strategic knowledge or at the very least who is a good fighter?” Bek asked taking out his pain medicine and taking a long sip.

Twilight then pondered for a moment, Bek was right, if they were really going to stand firm against Celestia they should make allies and fast, there was no guarantee that they would have enough time for a long preparation if Celestia desidiated to attack again, at that moment Twilight finally came up with.

“I think I know someone, but it might take me some time to contact her...”

“Well, I guess worse is nothing...” began Bek as he flashed his horn ‘Which leaves us with the last of the big problems we have to solve...’ before them all fell the shattered pieces of one of the spears the guards used to attack the creature ”We need better weapons.”

“Weapons?” asked Shining.

“And armor, unless you want your soldiers to fight with the equivalent of a wet piece of paper against the Solar Bitch beasts...”

“Well..the Crystal Empire is an isolated kingdom, we don't have access to much raw material here in the frozen north, everything we need we get from trade with Equestria..” Shining began.

“What is the most abundant raw material in the Crystal Empire...?” started to ask Bek but noticing the looks of disbelief from the others he quickly corrected himself ”Oh, right, stupid question, crystals...would there be any way to work with that and make them stronger?”

“I...I don't know, blacksmithing isn't exactly my forte...” began Shining Armor but at that moment Twilight raised her voice.

“I'm sure I can find some spell that will strengthen the material during the forging process.”

“Excellent!...but, that leaves us with a new problem...” said Shining while scratching the back of his neck.

“What problem?”

“There are only two blacksmiths in the entire imperial city, and they're the only ones with functional forges, if we're supposed to forge new weapons and armor for a much larger army, we won't be able to meet that demand...”

“Why not build a bigger forge?” asked Bek.

“Even if we could, the terrain in the confines of the city is too unstable for the construction of very large structures, so it would have to be built in the outdoors, not to mention that, if we want the forge to meet the requirements, it must be of enormous size, which means it will have to be able to generate an even greater amount of heat, and if I have learned one thing since I arrived here, it is that the frozen north is not very kind to the heat...”

“So we should build a forge on the outskirts of the city and find a way to keep it from freezing instantly from the snow and ice storm? How exactly are we going to accomplish something like that?” asked Applejack.

“Maybe with magic...?” asked Rainbow.

“I don't think so, it's already been proven a million times that these storm clouds are like the one in Everfree Forest, uncontrollable” replied Twilight.

“Maybe I have a solution for that too...” they all turned to look at Bek again ”Although of course, maybe everyone will now have to say goodbye to their days off...”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Celestia and Luna were sitting in the throne room, listening intently and with the seven pillars in front of them.

“We followed the creature east for days after that, but finally lost track of it...” finished Starswirl.

Luna could tell how Celestia gritted her teeth for a second before replying in a serene tone.

“So...you have no idea where he might have gone?”

“No princesses, we're sorry...”

“Well...” said Celestia after a long pause ”Thank you all for your service, you may now retire...”

All the pillars bowed before turning around and starting to leave, at one point Stygar stopped dead in his tracks, drawing the attention of the other pillars, clearing his throat and turning around to speak.

“Uh, excuse me Princess, there's something else I'd like to ask you...”

Celestia gave the little pony a serious look before nodding.

“Sure Stygar, tell me what you need...”

“Well, as you know Rock Hoof had a close encounter with the creature in which several guards were...well, killed...”

“Yes, I know Stygar, I paid attention to everything they told me.”

“Well, Rock Hoof said he didn't want to worry you with this detail but, he assured us that the creature shared certain physical traits with the element of kindness Fluttershy...”

“I, ehh I told them that I wasn't sure about what I had seen, it might have looked a little bit similar, and also the zebra that was with her called her that, but she was behaving completely different, that wasn't the Fluttershy I know...” interrupts Rock Hoof suddenly.

Celestia then kept silent for a long while while the pilates and Luna remained expectant, finally the sun monarch let out a sigh and spoke again.

“I had told you not to trust anything you see or hear when it comes to this creature, we don't know what kind of dark powers it may have, perhaps the kind of power that distorts the perception of the ponies who see it...”

“But...” Interrupted Stygar “That doesn't explain the zebra, nor why it called the thing Fluttershy, nor why right after that it let Rock Hoof live when it already had it cornered...”

“Do you trust me Stygar?” asked the princess calmly.

The little pony didn't know what to answer to this sudden question, it seemed that Celestia was doing her best not to go into details about the possible nature of the creature, even so, he tried to keep his composure, he didn't want to start a heated debate far from it, swallowing saliva lightly and taking a deep breath he answered.

“Yes princess, if I trust...”

“Then you will trust me to believe me when I tell you that there are things in the darkness capable of getting deep inside the mind, and wreaking terrible havoc beyond your imagination, that is why we must trust me and trust me to keep you safe from those horrible things, trust me to protect you, I am the light of Equestria and by my side, darkness will never come...”

Stygar said nothing more, he simply bowed again and withdrew with the rest of the pillars, Luna for her part could see Celestia's eye twitch slightly and how she seemed to grit her teeth harder.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Both princesses were walking down a lonely corridor of the castle, Celestia was taking heavy, firm steps forward while Luna followed behind her, listening as her older sister muttered things between her teeth.

“You ungrateful bastards, you dare to question me!”

At that moment Luna saw another opportunity to attack Celestia's ego.

“They only question you because you give them the confidence to do so, too bad the figure you decided to mold to rule them is so...benevolent...”

“I'm not in the mood for this right now Luna...”

“Oh I'm sorry, but it's just that since I saw you had everything under control I didn't think you'd be upset because a single pony asked a single question...”

“Shut the fuck up!” shouted Celestia stopping and facing Luna ”All this happening now is your fault...!”

“My fault?!” said Luna feigning indignation ”Now what are you talking about?!”

At that moment Celestia flashed her horn and a small empty bottle appeared before Luna, the same bottle that contained the potion Luna had administered Fluttershy, at that moment she was speechless and open-mouthed, she could have sworn she had thrown the container away.

“What the fuck were you thinking!”

Luna felt fear, she thought her facade was over, but seeing Celestia's relatively calm reaction she assumed that she was only aware of the potion, she knew nothing about Zecora, nor the help she provided for Bek's escape, at this Luna did her best to put a heavy expression on her face and answer with feigned embarrassment.

“She...she was suffering...”

“And your best idea was to give her a potion that would turn her into a fucking vampire?!”

“I didn't know the potion would do that to her!”

“And where the fuck did you get it?!”

“I...I made it...”

“Really? You?”

“Yeah, me. Is there a fucking problem with that?”

Luna gave her a serious look, keeping her eyes locked on Celestia's, she knew she had to stand her ground, after a long moment of staring at each other Celestia let out a snort of annoyance and turned around again to continue moving forward.

“Well whatever, you caused it, you fix it..”

“What do you mean?” This question caused Celestia to give her a stern look over her shoulder, one that sent a shiver down her spine.

“I mean I don't give a shit how you do it, you must capture Fluttershy and bring her here!”

“But why the hell is it so important?” Luna asked, even knowing the answer.

“Because...?!” Celestia looked like she was about to let out a scream but restrained herself and just kept walking “Because, if Discord finds out I don't have her in my possession anymore he'll come and make my vagina sprout teeth as revenge, that damn shoddy chaos lord is the only thing that could end all this with a simple snap, I can't let that happen...”

Luna could have refused, but this was her chance to form alliances outside the castle, if she managed to find Fluttershy and reasoned with her, she could get an advantage over Celestia, at that idea Luna merely forced a smile and nodded.

“Yeah sure sis, don't worry I'll fix it.”

“Good, now I'll go to my room don't interrupt me if it's not something good...” said Celestia curtly before walking away quickly and getting out of sight around a corner.

Celestia abruptly entered her room, slamming the door behind her and throwing her crown against her bed, on which also rested a large golden necklace with ash marks on it.
The alicorn looked at him and couldn't help but grit her teeth in rage, the necklace had fallen on her face in the middle of the night while she slept, waking her up and quickly giving her to understand that her plan to capture Twilight and kill Bek failed, now she was with less options than before, who knows what things those mares could be ruminating on while she was limited in what she could and couldn't do, the frustration she felt slowly made her body start to give off heat, but she did her best to calm herself down before her curtains caught fire.

Taking a big breath and closing her eyes Celestia finally managed to control herself, there was no problem, she just had to go ahead and adapt to the situation, her mind quickly began to evaluate her new options, realizing that, at least for the moment, she was at a dead end, she thought about sending another monster but that wouldn't be wise she didn't want to risk causing more collateral damage by sending something bigger, neither could she openly declare Twilight and her friends as traitors, the population was still trying to digest the previous revelations, she had to wait until they were ready, at that moment an idea crossed her mind, she slapped her face as she realized how stupid she was for not checking before, before doing anything, she had to know where Twilight and Bek were.

She shone her horn and, in a second, a huge map of Equestria was projected in the middle of the room, then Celestia brought the golden necklace closer and removed the red gem in the center, concentrating her magic and, out of nowhere, a red line was projected on the map.
This one went from Canterlot and up, slowly following the creature's entire journey through Equestria, slowly moving forward until it finally stopped, seeing the end of the line Celestia couldn't help but be genuinely surprised and let out a giggle.

“Wow well what a pleasant surprise...” she began to say seeing how the line ended right at the Crystal Empire ”There Twilight you seriously couldn't think of a better place...well, looks like I'll have to clear my schedule and plan...a visit.”