My Little Destroyah: Rise of the Crystal King

Chapter 03 – Power Search

In the morning, when the sun slid over the horizon, beating back the shadows, Destroyah opened his eyes just as slowly as the sun's ascent. Destroyah unfurled his wings and stretched them; hearing pops and clicks as joints reawakened. The kaiju slid out of the bed and snapped his neck shuddering, now fully awake. He slid on his cold armor ignoring its icy grip. The Elements of Harmony where on a diplomatic mission and but Destroyah's task concerned other matters. The demon closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, remembering his conversation with the now solitary ruler of Equestria.

The throne room was dark and cold; the complete opposite of what it was when Celestia was in power. But, truth be told, Destroyah preferred it this way. The calm blue and silver colors blended well together to create a soothing midnight atmosphere, one that provoked nightmares. The bright gold and white color scheme of Celestia's throne room nearly blinded the demonic kaiju of the night and irritated him to no end. But, despite the calm beauty of the room, Destroyah was taken by ruler perched in her throne, one leg crossed over the other and head placed in her right hoof. A dark fang filled smile graced her face. Luna had often let Nightmare deal with the political aspects of ruling the kingdom. Destroyah tore apart the first pony that called her a monster, fearing eternal night. It was safe to say he hardly regretted the action taken.

"Destroyah, my dear, you remember that you are to guard the Elements during their time in the crystal kingdom, correct?"

"Of course, your majesty."

“Oh please, you know I hate that title, especially when you say it!”

Destroyah snickered a bit at her reaction but his expression quickly turned back to serious. He snorted, wishing she would just get to the point already. Nightmare noticed and smirked, understanding his impatience.

"I would also like you to do something else while you are up there."

"What are you suggestion, my mate?"

Nightmare cringed a little but said nothing, not wanting to provoke the kaiju’s constant torment. He knew she preferred when he called her Nightmare but he always found a way to bypass such requests.

She dropped from her throne and moved to an open chest at the far corner of the room. Destroyah moved closer to get a better look. Nightmare pulled out a black clean-cut crystal and held it up.

"You are aware of the emergence of these 'power surge' crystals, correct?"

"I recovered one myself."

Destroyah could feel the surging power coming off of the crystal as he answered. His essence was captured by the blackness of the crystal, as if it was calling his name. His lust for the power held within the crystal was strong, but he knew he had to gain control, for his mate.

"Indeed, we currently possess three, but I fear the Empire's reappearance will spawn more. Your mission is to find these ancient relics of power and recover them for the kingdom."

“With pleasure, Nightmare!”

Destroyah reopened his eyes and sighed. He had to kill the owners of those crystals, knowing that any non-kaiju that laid eyes on them would go mad with power and never give up the relics by will. Destroyah wasn’t necessarily against tearing them to pieces but the trouble was that the crystals gave them power, unimaginable power. He opened his door with that thought in mind and stepped into the hallway, claws clicking on the crystal surface. Destroyah clicked down the hall and slid past the throne room unnoticed. Continuing down the rather empty hall, he soon found a balcony and spread out his wings. A cool breeze caught under the membranes of his four wings and it soothed their morbid skin. He pumped his massive wings once and was airborne without any trouble. Destroyah glided forth, flying over the city with great haste, casting his shadow below. The strange blackness of his shadow was as if a grimacing ghost haunting the ruins as it slid by, catching the eyes of all who were in the vicinity. He flew to the outskirts of the city to the coordinates given to him by Nightmare. It appeared that the coordinates lead him to an abandon system of mines. Swiftly he landed by the great entrance. It was a large crystal cavern governed by twin wooden doors. Large handles where out of a pony's reach but chains wrapped around them touched the floor. Destroyah grabbed one in his deadly jaws and yanked pulling the door open with a large creak as the rusty hinges moved for the first time in a millennium. Destroyah slid into the caverns, his golden orbs gleaming in the darkness. He saw a torch mounted in place on one of the walls and gave it a small blast from his micro oxygen breath. The torch ignited and many others leading down the twisted caverns did so as well in some form of a chain reaction. The pinkish-blue caverns glimmered with the torchlight, their ways gleaming with encrusted crystals. The kaiju walked down the shaft, claws scrapping against the dusty floor. As he descended, darkness fought the light of the torches, eventually turning into an all-consuming gloom. He wasn’t bothered by this for the most part but a sense of danger soon took hold of him. His senses were on high alert.

Destroyah made it further into the tunnel systems and heard another set of clicking. He stopped and looked all around him, seeing nothing but empty blackness and sparkling crystals. But then, he looked up and a rather large scorpion dropped from the ceiling. Destroyah leaped out of the way to avoid the descending arachnid. The stone grey creature hissed and slashed at the kaiju, approaching fast with quick and choppy steps from its eight legs. Destroyah flapped his wings, forcing the scorpion back as it approached. The kaiju snarled in anger and rushed the creature. His massive arms gripped the scorpion’s arms, crushing deep through the arachnid’s exoskeleton and tearing the limbs clean from the body. The massive scorpion shrieked in pain as Destroyah came in for another round. He grabbed a hold of the scorpion’s mandibles, and, with great amounts of strength, tore the creature right in two, sending green blood bursting everywhere. Destroyah roared in victory as he held the two shredded pieces of the once great scorpion in his bloodied hands. He discarded the useless pieces of his defeated foe, parts squishing against the bloodied walls of the tunnel as they fell. The Destroyah snorted in defiance and continued. Just as he continued to press onward, an army of scorpions arose, standing directly in his path as if sinister guarding of a sacred object. The clicking and hissing was almost deafening as they approached in waves. Destroyah let loose an earsplitting roar that quieted the hissing beasts and shook the cavers as he charged, a magenta beam of micro-oxygen bursting from his gaping maw. Several of the unfazed beasts swarmed forward, attempting to coat the kaiju as he advanced but many were incinerated by his raging fury. His breath weapon tore through the first wave of attackers but more came to take their place. Destroyah smashed and crushed his way through the waves as he pressed on, sending blood and guts everywhere. However, no matter how many he killed, the infernal arachnids just kept coming, attempting to drive their large stingers into his thick hide. Destroyah slashed and stomped, continuing to kill as he moved foreword, ignoring the spraying blood that burst from every dying form. He soon was getting tiered from the continuous bombardment so he gave himself some room with a spiraled back of his micro-oxygen spray. The deadly blast tore through dozens of the armor-coated beats but the holes in their ranks quickly filled with more scorpions. Destroyah had no time to rush through the gaps he made for they filled to quickly and razor-sharp pincers were there to greet him. It was a struggle to even keep them at arm's distance but he had to keep going, no matter how many there were. The audible crunching of armor was heard as teeth tore and claws penetrated hide, killed more scorpions. Destroyah was slowly working his way down the corridor but the masses just kept coming. He spotted a wall of scorpions going from floor to ceiling. He loosed another blast of micro-oxygen, blowing them down but it appeared there where more behind them. He was getting nowhere like this and he knew something had to give if he was going to complete his mission. Crimson micro-oxygen gathered around his horn and the blade extended to attacking size. Destroyah charged the wall like a wild beast. He hacked into the arachnids like they where nothing. Limbs and body parts flew as they slayer hauled his way through wave-after-wave of scorpions. No blood was splattered though as the wounds where cauterized by the deadly blade. But, as Destroyah reached the end of the swarm, his claws no longer felt the hard-packet earth below them. The floor had dropped a good twenty feet and Destroyah didn't see it coming, felling into thin air as the tunnel abruptly ended. Destroyah hit the ground hard, knocking the breath out of him but he still rose, tall and proud as ever. Looking around he saw a well-lite carver of enormous sizes. The walls were all encrusted with layers-upon-layers of glistening crystals that sparkled in the torchlight. It was a massive place to say the least but completely empty, void of all substance except for the crystal-laced walls themselves.

“So, I had come down here for nothing? Well that’s just great!” Destroyah said out loud to himself, his voice echoing in the massive room. But, as the demon turned, one large crystal assumed to be a spire protruding from the wall actually raised itself. Destroyah's eyes widened as the massive crystal unfurled itself, revealing its true form as that of a massive scorpion. The large beast shook loose rock off its shining hide as it stretched. Its gaping mouth, pincers, and the tips of its legs where stone grey and its back and tail where shining, revealing themselves to be made of crystal. The beast’s legs were also a sparkling crystal, making the creature, despite its size, near unnoticeable. The scorpion walked up to Destroyah and let loose an earth shattering roar, towering over the kaiju as a mountain of crystalline power.