I reappeared in the middle of... nowhere. There was literally next to nothing to be seen. It seriously reminded me of 'Courage the Cowardly Dog's landscape, right down to the tumbleweeds and lack of life. However, there was one small collection of buildings a sizeable distance away from me, and a large hole in the earth much closer than that. The hole was very obviously the entrance to a mine, once. However, it looked like it had been smashed further open and then collapsed on itself.

"Oh thank Luna! She sent you!" a male voice called from behind me. I turned around to see a unicorn stallion in full Lunar Guard armor. His armor had plates broken off of it, and there was blood dripping off of him in various places on his body.

"Whoa... You must be the last of the team Luna sent here, right? Where's the beast? You fed your teammates to it to save your own ass, didn'cha?"

"I-is that the Steven Luna warned me about?! A-and I don't know! It burrowed. It could be under us right now!" the stallion seemed to be on the verge of panic.

"Calm down, calm down. What happened to the rest of your team?" I decided to ignore the comment on Steven for now.

"They... it ate them. All of them."

"Oh. I didn't know celestial monsters ate... I mean, I assume this thing is celestial, right? I heard Scorpio Major and naturally I assumed... Well, I officially just discovered my favorite thing on this rock!" I trailed off. The stallion gave me a horrified expression.

"Y-you mean you don't even know what it is?!"

"Did you when you showed up?" I countered.

"Yes! I'm part of a team specifically made to hunt down celestial beasts that go on a rampage!"

"... Then what the hell excuse do you have for failing?! Damn man, failing at the one thing you should be able to do right? You suck." I shouted. If he was a part of a team designed to kill things like this, why couldn't they even do their job?

"Scorpios hibernate for centuries, and hardly ever even visit the surface. This is the first time any team has dealt with one in over a hundred years! We had no chance, we didn't know what we were up against."

"... Well, fair enough. Tell me whatever you can."

"I told you, we didn't know anyt--"

"Yeah, but you just fought the thing, right?! You should also know some stuff about celestial beasts overall, so tell me!"

"W-well... They can only be inj--"

"Injured by magic or legendary weapons, yeah I got that. Anything else?" I motioned for him to speed up. If that thing truly could spring out of the ground at any moment, I needed to be ready quickly

"I-It's a killer sir. Fastest beast I've fought. You better kill it fast, because there's only one other way to stop a celestial beast."

"How?"

"Feed it. If you can't beat it, it'll just eat and eat until it goes back to sleep." he shivered as he finished his statement. I felt my mouth suddenly go dry.

"How much will it eat?"

"Well... Los Pegasus isn't far from here. Big city, I'm sure you know. Half of the ponies there could die. Maybe more to sate this one."

"Oh... crap. You better call Luna and head home. I'll handle this from here."

"W-wait! My whole team was taken out by that thing! You think you can beat it?!"

"Don't believe me? Stay and watch. However, it's best you leave, just in case. Luna's magic mirror things are standard issue, right?"

"Of course!" he pulled a little mirrior out of a coin pouch on his hip to prove it.

"Good. Just call Luna and go then." I turned my back to him and began scanning the ground for any hint of the Scorpio's location or direction. However, other than a few holes where I guessed it had entered and exited the ground, there was no sign of it. I had to be at least a decent distance underground for there to be no sign of its passage.

"H-hey!" the stallion called. I whipped the Buster Sword off my back and turned to him, expecting him to be under attack. Instead, I almost cleaved his head in half. I barely managed to turn my blade away from him at the last second. To his credit, he didn't even flinch.

"Awww dammit, we missed! Dude! I almost killed you! What is it?!"

"I... I want to help you! For my team, I need to see this mission through to the end! Whatever that may be." he demanded bravely, despite the fact that he was obviously terrified. I sighed and thought for a moment. If I didn't let him go with me, he'd likely just follow me anyway and end up in danger since I wouldn't be directly trying to work with him. My only real choice was to let him help.

"Alright, you can come along then. Well, so much for letting real men handle this. Just try to stay out of the way of my blades and don't get hurt, ok?"

"You got it sir! I won't let you down! ... Could you shut that Steven thing up though? He's distracting me."

"Sorry, I can't control him outside of my dreams. Just don't talk directly to him or about him and he should eventually get bored of doing... whatever he does. Not likely."

"Will do sir. So, what's the plan?"

"My plan is to stop the Scorpio from getting to Los Pegasus. Violently, of course. Gotta love the violence. What's your name, by the way?"

"My name is Lightning Starslayer. I figured we were going to stop it from getting it to Los Pegasus, but how are we going to find it and stop it?"

I stood up perfectly straight, then began jumping up and down. I made sure to slam my feet into the ground as hard as I could each time I came back down.

"... What are you doing?"

"Isn't it obvious? *slam* I'm calling the Scorpio Major! *slam* Yeah, you're pretty stupid if *slam* you couldn't figure that out."

"Well... forgive me if this seems like a stupid question, but how does this help anything?" Lightning trotted over to me and peered at the ground curiously as I stomped, as if I were stomping on the Scorpio or something.

"Well you see, *slam* it's underground, right? *slam* It lives almost its whole life underground, *slam* so far as we know ri-*slam*-ght?"

"Right..."

"Well then, I figure *slam* in order to hunt, it has to *slam* be able to feel the vibrations of its *BOOM* prey!" right before I finished my statement, an enormous, yellow, star-riddled scorpion with a white star-like symbol above its eight, soulless black eyes burst from the ground and tried to grab me in its sectioned maw.

"Whoa!" Lightning was thrown to the side as the beast's massive body surfaced. I barely noticed him though; I was a bit busy trying to not fall into the huge insect's mouth. I kicked off of its face and flew back through the air as it landed thunderously on the ground. I landed mere seconds after it. I was able to get a good look at its body from this distance. It was big, bigger than an Ursa Minor by far. Not as big as an Ursa Major though. Not even as big as Sharic, the dinosaur from the Arena.

"You know, this thing doesn't look so bad!" I shouted to Lightning. Sure, it had a stinger the size of my sword, both of its pincers were big enough to snap me in half, and it had a multi-sectioned mouth just full of pointy little feelers that twitched disturbingly, but it wasn't that bad.

"Are you kidding me?!"

"You're just a bitch! Let's smash it! Just watch!" the huge scorpion charged right at me, hissing like a deranged snake. I braced the Buster Sword and prepared to cut the bastard in half. It reached me, I swung...

...and my sword went right through him.

"Oh shit!" Before I could recover from my swing, the scorpion grabbed me in its right pincer. It lifted me into the air and began trying to split me in half right away. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" I shrieked. Were I still a normal human, it likely would've killed me in merely a few seconds. Luckily, I wasn't entirely human. "T-thundraga!" I shouted. A bolt fell out of the sky and hit the bug on its tail. It shrieked and dropped me before stumbling back a few steps. Lightning was by my side almost instantly.

"You ok?! Geez, you think you'd come to battle with decent weapons!" he reprimanded me. I gave him an angry glare.

"I-I don't understand! This blade should be legendary!" I shouted back at him. Then it hit me. Nopony in this world knew what the hell sword this was. It likely didn't count here. "Crap, no it isn't. My main weapon is shit against this guy!"

"Here! Give it to me!" Lightning shouted. I gave him a confused look.

"Bro, do you even lift? Dude, I don't think you would be able to use this sword very well."

"Just do it! Look out, it's coming back!" Lightning pointed wildly in the direction the Scorpio had gone. I tossed my sword in his general direction and pulled my ax off of my back. This one I knew would hit for sure, it was magic. Sure enough, Lightning was right. The Scorpio was charging at me madly while snapping both of its claws threateningly. I was about to spring forward and hit it, but it quickly went underground mid-charge.

"What the... Get back here you bitch!"

"Look out! It might be under you!" Lightning warned. I closed my eyes and began searching with my void. Sure enough, he was right. I could sense the Scorpio's massive amount of magic rushing up from below me. I leapt to the side at the last possible second, narrowly dodging the gargantuan beast as it erupted out of the desert-like landscape once more. Lickily, I was prepared this time. I rolled back to my feet right after I landed, then charged at the monster. I reared back and took a mighty swing at one of the thing's legs, cleaving it right off.

"Ha! Take that!" I cried as I reared back for another hit. My ax was suddenly struck by something and knocked out of my hands. I looked up to see the Scorpio's stinger right in my face, rearing back for another stab. "We're fucked." My ax had saved me from the first shot, but now I didn't even have the time to dodge.

"Not so fast!" Lightning cried. The Buster Sword flew through the air, wrapped in a yellow aura. It sliced through the Scorpio's tail, which seperated from its body and faded into nothingness. "You're welcome!"

"Thanks!" I turned and ran to pick up my ax while the Scorpio writhed and screeched in pain. I grabbed it off of the ground it had landed on only a few feet away. With my ax back in hand, I turned back to the Scorpio. It was right behind me, pissed and rearing back with both claws. I leapt into the air quickly, leaving the Scorpio to swing at empty air. I brought my ax down as I fell. I hit the monster in the face, killing it instantly. The body went limp and collapsed on the ground, still twitching eerily. It gradually faded out of view and I was left where it had been, gasping for breath.

"It's dead..." Lightning whispered. I jumped a little. I hadn't even realized he was next to me.

"Yeah, it would seem so." I agreed.

"That was... easy. Why was it so easy?!"

I held up my ax and waved it in front of his face. "This ax is fueled by the souls of four of my friends, and that sword you chucked at it was near unbreakable. It never stood a chance against me." I finished matter-of-factly.

"Wow... By the way, you're bleeding. A lot." he pointed at my split waist. I looked down to see a new massive gash across my stomach that connected the two scars that formed that 'X' on my chest. The gash was likely mirrored on my back.

"Well, we should get going then. Hopefully before I bleed too much... I don't like the idea of nearly bleeding to death again." I stood up and walked over to my sword, which Lightning had left where he had thrown it.

"Again?"

"Yeah, I nearly die a lot. Anyway..." I pulled out my iPhone.

"Whoa, what's that?"

"It's my magic mirror. It formatted itself to something I was more familiar with when Luna gave it to me." I hit Luna's call button and her face faded into view on the screen.

"Hey Luna! I'm all done with the beast, thanks to Lightning here."

"Oh good, We were worried thou might have had more trouble with it. We will teleport you back immediately."

"Alright, sounds good to me." I said with a smile as we disappeared in another flash of light.

*****************************************************************

"Sharky! Thou art bleeding profusely!" Luna squealed when we flashed into the hall outside of her room.

"Yeah. That shit tends to happen when you cowards hurl us at monsters to protect yourselves."

"Lightning Starslayer reporting Luna. The Scorpio Major has been dispatched... at the cost of my team."

Luna seemed to be able to pry her eyes off of my injury just long enough to show concern to Lightning. "Yes, We heard that thine allies passed away in the line of duty when you first requested backup. We do apologize for thine losses and would like thee for thine aid in the salvation of the population of Los Pegasus. Please, return to thine family and rest."

Lightning nodded to her and vanished in a flash of black light. Luna turned her attention back to me and dropped her steady leader facade.

"Oh my gosh Sharky! Are you ok? Are you in a lot of pain?"

"Funny, you never seemed so concerned by my injuries before. Don't worry, I just need to get this bandaged up and I'll be right as rain."

"Please, allow me to bandage it for you. It's the least I can do." Luna offered graciously. I thought for a moment.

"Deal. You can do that instead of paying me. We'll call it like a sort of... me paying a hospital bill."

Luna seemed stunned for a moment, but then she started giggling. "Fine, fine. You always do try to avoid your pay somehow. Come with me." Luna turned and opened the doors to her room, the moon. "Just sit somewhere for a bit, I'll be back with some bandages in a moment." she ordered. I sat down and she left me alone. In the dark of the moon. Shit. In order to keep myself from running around like a headless chicken, I lay down and closed my eyes. By the time Luna got back, I had actually almost fallen asleep. "Sharky, I have the bandages!"

"Huh? Wha... Oh, hi Luna. *yawn* good to hear."

"Are you tired?" Luna questioned as she trotted over to me.

"Well yeah. It's like... the middle of the night, right? I usually sleep now. When I can help it."

"Do you... not like... my night?" Luna asked slowly.

"On the contrary. I love the night." I assured her with a smile. Luna's heart skipped a beat as she noticed the double meaning of his words. Little did she know there was no double meaning. "I just need to sleep sometime, and I need to be with my friends and son during the day."

"Fair enough. " Luna helped me up into a sitting position with her hooves. I was grateful that she didn't use magic. Last thing I needed was wings and a horn breaking my back and head open. She began trying to wrap the bandages around me using only her hooves. I had to help her a lot, but soon enough I was good to go.

"Alright, seems good Luna. Thanks. You can send me home now."

"Oh, yes! Just g--"

"Luna!" Celestia's voice called from somewhere outside her room.

"Oh, please, give me a moment. My sister needs me." Luna politely exused herself. I put on a brave smile and nodded for her to go. As soon as she was gone, I closed my eyes and lay back down. I struggled to stay awake until she returned, I really did. I was so tired though, and it had been such a long day... I fell asleep only seconds after Luna left.