It was another peaceful afternoon in Ponyville. The ponies went about their daily business, from shopping at the market, tending gardens, to just flying about in the skies. It was a beautiful, sunny day, a perfect day for outdoor activities. Young colts and fillies could be found playing about. Some ponies, however, had other plans in mind, ones that required staying indoors.

Twilight Sparkle sat at her desk, reading over one of her books on stellar phenomenon. She had reserved time over the weekend for just this occasion, and she did not want to be disturbed. She knew of one other matter that would come up during the day, and that was a delivery if apple pies from Applejack. But, that wasn’t for a while, so Twilight had all the time she needed to hopefully finish her book. However, one purple baby dragon felt the need to interrupt her.

“Hey Twilight,” Spike called to her.

“Not now Spike, I’m in the middle of reading this book, and I told you I didn’t want to be interrupted,” she responded before Spike could continue.

“But this is important,” he continued, running upstairs and walking up to her.

“What could be more important than me reading my book?” she asked. An awkward silence fell over the room. Spike could easily think of twenty different things that were more important than that, and he had a twenty first reason in his hand.

“How about an urgent letter from the Princess,” Spike said, showing Twilight the scroll. She immediately snatched up the letter with her magic and began to read.

My Dearest Twilight Sparkle,

It has come to my attention that a surge of magical energy has emanated from the Everfree Forest. My sister and I have reason to believe that this surge has come from another being that has arrived in Equestria. We have no way of knowing what it is, and fear the worst. I would like for you and your friends to investigate the Forest for any strange activities or beings that seem out of the ordinary. Please report back to me with anything you find.

Twilight lowered the letter and looked out her window.

“A being from another world?” she asked herself.

“Or just a magical spike,” Spike added on. “Are you really gonna go into the Forest?” he asked.

“Well of course Spike. This task was assigned to me by the Princess, and I have no intentions on letting her down.” Before Twilight could continue, a knock came from the door. Twilight and Spike walked downstairs, opened the door, and found Applejack had arrived early.

“Howdy, Twilight. Turns out, mah family and Ah were able to bake the pies a bit quicker than we thought. Now don’t you worry yer pretty little head, they’ll still taste mighty fine,” Applejack greeted them, presenting her cart of pies to Twilight and Spike. Spike’s tongue fell out of his mouth, but Twilight quickly fixed that by closing his mouth.

“Thank you Applejack, but it seems we have more pressing matters to attend to,” Twilight said.

“Like what?” Applejack asked.

“I’ll explain on the way. We need to find the rest of the girls and head into the Everfree Forest.”

“Now wha in tarnation would we go into the Everfree Forest?” Applejack asked.

“Princess Celestia seems to have found a surge of magical energy emanating from the Forest. She sent me a letter asking for us to go in and investigate. I know that it may seem a bit scary to go in there, but I don’t want to let the Princess down, especially if this magical spike could cause harm to Equestria.” Applejack nodded in response. The three started to set off to find the rest of the Element Bearers, until Twilight stopped them.

“Spike, you can stay home.”

“Thanks,” he responded, and he rushed back into the library. Twilight and Applejack continued on to gather their friends. Twilight hoped in the back of her head that they would find a being from another world. She always wanted to meet an alien. What she didn’t know, however, is that the alien they would find was a demon.

Scorpion arrived in a dark, muggy forest. The ambers from his teleportation still burnt on the ground. He looked around his surroundings, but he could hardly see at all. He could, however, make out that this forest was indeed dense with trees and bushes. He could hear the cackling and cooing of various creatures that lurked in the darkness.

“This is quite a departure from what I was shown. I was told to believe this world was, colorful and peaceful, not dark and depressing,” Scorpion said to himself. He shook his head and started to walk. He had no idea where he was going, but seeing as though his knowledge of this realm was limited, he couldn’t necessarily teleport anywhere. He would first need to learn the landscape.

Walking into an area of more sunlight, Scorpion took a moment to examine the forest more thoroughly. His first impressions were confirmed, and from walking a bit, he found the ground to be mostly muddy. Strange plants seemed to cover the landscape, and it almost seemed like the trees and bushes were alive. Scorpion swore that if a bit of fire and a few demons were added, this place would make for a good Netherrealm replacement. But, nothing would be as good as the original.

Before he continued, Scorpion took a moment to check over his gear, which wasn’t much. He made sure his armor was still sturdy and in place, checked to make sure his mask was on tight, and pulled out one of his black, jagged blades. Checking it over, he found it to be in perfect condition. He let his spear and chain dangle for a moment as he examined it.

“Perfect,” he said to himself, placing the spear back on his belt. Giving himself one more quick look over, and finding everything to be in ship shape, Scorpion continued onward. However, now, Scorpion couldn’t help but get the feeling that he was being followed. Stopping for a moment, he listened to his surroundings. He could definitely hear deep breathing, and a few growls came from the source as well. Scorpion continued to look around, but he found nothing. As he turned to continue walking, he heard footsteps advancing towards him. He readied himself for whatever was coming.

Suddenly, a giant, lion-like creature jumped out and tried to pounce on Scorpion, but he quickly teleported out of the way. Reappearing a few feet away from the beast, Scorpion gave it a once over. He found that this creature was extremely muscular, and it did indeed resemble a lion. What came off as odd was that the creature has a scorpion tail.

“So, this world has a population of manticores as well. It’s as if this world is nothing but a fantasy land. Now then, let’s see what you’re made of," Scorpion said, standing in his fighting stance.

The manticore let out a loud roar and charged at Scorpion with all its might. Just as it was about to bring its fist down on Scorpion, the demon teleported behind the creature. Scorpion quickly delivered a straight punch, a back hand punch, and a round house kick to the manticore, a combo he referred to as Damnation. This only managed to make the manticore stumble a bit. Usually when Scorpion used that combo, his adversaries would go flying back to the ground.

“Alright then, let’s try something else,” Scorpion said, as the manticore came at him with his tail. Scorpion side stepped the attack and readied his right blade. He sliced at the manticore with a downward slice, brought out his other blade, and sliced the manticore again with both blades. To finish off, Scorpion kicked the manticore to the ground with a flaming backflip kick. This was one of Scorpion’s more favorable combos, one he referred to as Doom Blade.

The combo did its job, as the manticore fell to its back. However, it didn’t stay there very long. Getting back up, the manticore let out another loud roar. Before Scorpion could move out of the way, he was hit against a tree by the manticore's powerful fist. Falling to the ground, Scorpion let out a short grunt. He looked back to the charging manticore and growled. He teleported out of the way as the manticore smashed the tree in two. Scorpion stood behind the manticore and summoned his Demon Fire special attack, causing flames to arise from under the manticore. The beast let out a few short cries, but it quickly brushed off the flames, turned to Scorpion, and charged again.

“Let’s finish this already,” Scorpion said, readying himself. The manticore charged at him, but Scorpion jumped over the beast, doing a flip in the air. The manticore wasn’t fast enough to stop Scorpion from grabbing onto its tail. With all his might, Scorpion pulled the tail right out of the manticore. The beast roared in pain, as blood spewed out from its back. The point of connection for the tail to wherever it was connected in the beast still clung onto the slim end of the tail. Blood still dripped from the dislodged tail, as Scorpion threw it up and grabbed it by the slim end.

With the stinger end of the tail now on the ground, and the manticore crawling on the ground in agonizing pain in a pool of its own blood, Scorpion brought the tail behind him. He stomped on the manticore to keep it from moving any further. Stepping back, Scorpion brought his arms up. In one giant swing, Scorpion smashed the stinger of the tail through the manticore’s skull, causing half of the beast’s face to fall off. Blood gushed out of the manticore’s head, it’s eyes had fallen out of the skull, and bits of the beast’s brain lay on the floor. Still holding the tail, Scorpion brought it back around and lodged the stinger into the beast’s back. Scorpion had killed the mighty creature.

Scorpion could sense the soul of the beast floating away from the body. Using a bit of his magic, Scorpion found the soul. He sent the soul of the manticore straight to the Netherrealm, and more specifically, to Quan Chi.

‘My master may be pleased to have a soul such as this. This manticore could pose a challenge for a lesser demon, but I am no such demon. But, if the Netherrealm had small groups of creatures such as this, our strength would grow immensely. But, enough of this folly, I am here to kill Celestia, not petty beasts,’ Scorpion thought to himself, turning to continue on his way through the forest.

However, before Scorpion could continue on, he was faced with six colorful creatures. They were ponies. Each of them was colored differently. One was a velvet color, and had a horn, signifying it was a Unicorn. There was another Unicorn, but it had a white coat. There were two ponies without horns or wings, one of them pink, and the other orange. There were two Pegasi, one which was cyan blue, and the other was cream yellow. Scorpion remembered this pony. It was the one he had been shown by Quan Chi. All Scorpion had to figure out now, was how to deal with them.

Author's Notes:

Straight punch, backhand punch, Roundhouse kick = Damnation
Downward slice, Twin sword slice, Flaming backflip kick = Doom Blade