”… and here I go again on my o~hown!
Walking down the only road I´ve ever kno~hown,
Like a drifter I was born to walk alo~one!
And I´ve made up my mind,
I ain´t wasting…”

*GUUUURGGLLL*

“Oh thank you very much, now I´m out of it.” I said mildly miffed, glancing in the general direction of my complaining stomach. Obviously the ‘don’t grow hungry’ effect of the strange trans-warp tunnel had vanished and now my body was loudly demanding food. I ignored that to the best of my abilities.

I was walking for what seemed to be hours by now and judging by the position of the sun it had to be early evening.

Still no road.

No planes in the sky.

No rusty, carelessly disposed soft drink cans, half buried in the dry ground.

No sign of civilization.

No animals too for that matter.

Or animal bones, bleaching under the sun.

Just desolate, barren land stretching as far as the horizon in every direction. That triggered the comparison I had made while entering this planets orbit after seeing the way its landmass was arranged.

Pangea.

“Well, it’s true that you don’t see any big cities while plummeting down towards your assumed doom but that had nothing to say, has it?” I asked myself just to hear another sound then the stomping of my metal boots and the ground crunching underneath.

“Hmm, that’s a tricky one. On one hand, one could argue that you did not notice anything resembling a larger assembly of artificial structures, inhabited by the local life forms because simply there are none. Which would lead to the conclusion that this planet is indeed similar to the earth from time immemorial and not inhabited by our standard of a sapient species. On the other hand, it is also highly possible that this planet is indeed inhabited but the population is not in need and/or able to build cities big enough to been seen from the orbit by the naked eye.” I answered myself in a tone that made me think of a certain TV series about physics and four guys with abysmal social skills.

>>Great, I started talking to myself again. After how long? Ten years, give or take? You´ve been through this shit already Sara. If I recall it correctly, poor Dr. Feinstein quit being a psychiatrist after our last session. And why did that answer just sounded like that of some science geek?<<

“Well, the human is a social creature after all. It craves the companionship of others while it dreads the thought of being alone. So it is only natural to simulate said companionship in a situation like this if there is no real equivalent at hand. Plus, deep inside you are somewhat of a science geek.”

“Oh shut up geeky me!”

Sadly, the geeky figment of my mind obeyed and whisked out of existence in the same way it had appeared. Quit and quick.

Instead, my stomach decided to make itself heard once more with a loud and begging growling sound. Ignoring my unruly digestive organ, I devoted my whole concentration to keep on walking.

Easier said than done when you are wearing a bulky suit of armor, your skin just decided to turn into the most undesirable color for a walk underneath a scorching sun and when you are dragging a mace half your size around behind you.

Why was it so hot anyways? It was nearly evening so why was it that the temperature seemed to rise and rise? In the ‘crazy corner’ of my mind the idea of the planet as a living, breathing entity itself that thought of me as a germ of virus and tried to get rid of me by rising its temperature like a fever, was born.

Sweat ran down my forehead, my spine, my legs and my arms. I always had prided myself with being better with high temperatures then low ones then my fellow man. A snicker stole itself from my dry lips as I recalled their reactions every time summer came around. As soon as temperatures had risen over a bit over twenty degrees Celsius, everyone would start running around in shorts, t-shirts or tank tops. Everyone but lil´ ol´ me. I would wear my normal jeans and long sleeve shirts until the temperatures outside would have reached forty degrees Celsius in the shade at least. Then and only then, with everyone else melting into puddles in a more or less figurative sense, I would start to wear normal shirts and 7/8 pants. But this temperatures right now were downright unholy!

Cold on the other side. I was never one for cold weather. As soon as the temperature reached fifteen degrees, I would only leave the house in thick winters clothing to the never ending amusement of my friends.

“Gaah, I´m so thirstyyy~”

*Groo~oowlll*

“And huu~ungry!” I complained in the most childish manner a twenty-six years old woman should allowed to. In fact, I was so engrossed in making complaints that I failed to notice a half buried rock in my path. Until I tripped over it and face planted into the dirt, sounding like a rodeo in a hardware store.

After lying perfectly still for a couple of minutes, only taking deep, slow breaths, I stood up. After regaining my plumb line, I dusted myself off and took up my mace. Then, in perfect tranquility I turned around and faced the dastardly piece of rock that made me trip.

There it was, an absolutely ordinary piece of brown rock, half buried in the ground and its edges worn off by the relentless caressing of the elements. If it would be able to talk, what stories it would be able to tell?
Was it once part of a mighty mountain?
Has it been flung away by a volcanic eruption?
Maybe it was only the tip of an ancient building that was buried here by the sand of time in this godforsaken land?
Maybe it has been a meteor once?

Fixating the rock with a smile hidden underneath my ornate head gear, I gripped my mace with both hands and raised it slowly over my head. Then I brought it down on the unfortunate boulder that just had been chosen to act as my stress reliever. All while releasing my pent up frustration in a long, inarticulate and primal cry.

Again and again, the heavy head of the Beast thundered down, causing cracks to appear all over the rocks surface. Wave after wave of poison drenched the ground, causing the without a doubt hardly fertile ground to become only more hostile to life.

Soon, chunks of rock were flung in every direction from the sheer ferocity of my frustrated blows.

Finally I ran out of steam, huffing and puffing like an old train’s engine and using my weapon as support to keep myself upright. Looking down on the miniature crater filled with poison drenched rubble I just created, I felt… placid.

Giving my victim a nod, I shouldered the Beast and continued walking. All the adrenaline my sudden outburst had poured in my system made my head comfortably blank, silenced my growling stomach and gave me enough energy to keep my pace until nightfall.

With nothing else on me but my gear, I rested my back against a huge rock and used my cape as a makeshift blanket after taking of my helmet. “Damn, I really wished I made that thing bigger.” The red cloth was merely covering my torso but beggars can´t be choosers.

Gazing at the upcoming night’s sky, I felt a twinge of homesickness growing in my heart. All those stars looked so strangely familiar. Never averting my eyes from the myriads of glistening lights above, I quickly drifted off into sleep.

[POV third Person]

The small filly, a unicorn with a grey coat and unruly blonde mane, ran as fast as her little hooves could carry her. She skidded around a corner of the dark corridor she was running through and came to a halt. Catching her breath, her ears perked up as they recognized a certain sound. The sound of shuffling steps. Fuelled by fear, the filly broke into a desperate dash again. She needed to get away from the source of the sound. Or else they would get her. And eat her!

Just like her mommy.

And uncle Time Turner.

And the flower sisters.

And Miss Cherrilee.

And everpony else in Ponyville.

Dinky Doo felt tears stream down her face and dampen the fur on her cheeks. Her little legs began to tire out, her breathing became labored.

Not far from behind her, the little unicorn heard cheerful gibbering.
It was them.
The monsters!

With her heart beating like a jackhammer, Dinky looked around in desperate need for a place to hide. To her horror, she came to realize that she just had entered a dead end.

The steps and the gibbering came closer.

Curling up into a shivering ball of fur and tears, Dinky tried her best to merge with the corner of the dead end she pressed herself in.

The first shadows of her merciless pursuers could be seen around the corner.

The foal started to sob uncontrollable.

A brown claw reached around the corner.

Dinky hid her face behind her hooves. “Momma, uncle Timer Turner, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, help me. Somepony. Anypony. Please…” the terrified unicorn bubbled.

The cheerful gibbering was now all around her and despite covering her eyes, Dinky could feel that the monsters had her. Every moment now, their claws would dig into her mane and pull her into a waiting maw and then…

“Thou have called for me?” suddenly asked a new voice. A voice that carried a promise of safety.

Dinky opened her eyes. Right next to her stood tall and proud Princess Luna, Guardian of the night and goddess of the moon, wearing a bright white… milkmares uniform? Puzzled Dinky starred at the midnight blue alicorn as she sets the white peaked cap on her head right.

“Now young Dinky, tell me. What is it that ails you?” the lunar diarch asked the still shivering filly with a warm smile.

All the now confused filly could do was to point a hoof at the source of her dread. There, right in front of the filly and princess they stood.
Rows after rows of cookies!
But not just your normal run of the mill cookies, oh no, these were evil cookies big as wagon wheels with scraggly limps and gapping maws full of sharp teeth! They came from the darkest corners of the oven, crept from underneath the drawers and made their way from the bottom of the cookie jar where they had dwelled for untold time since nopony ever wanted to eat them. They were the unwanted, the burned and the forgotten and their only desire was to feed on those ponies who had neglected them! How could Princess Luna not see that, Dinky wondered.

“I see.” Luna finally said before unlatching her delivery satchel and placing it next to Dinky. “Then it is a good thing I brought those.”

Dinky eyed stared wide eyed. Right in front of her stood a transportation satchel with eight bottles full of milk! “Whaa~…” stammered the filly.

Giving her confused subject an amused smile, Luna opened the first bottle with her magic and poured Dinky a glass full. “I have heard this goes really well with this kind of baked confectionery.”

Dinky stared at the floating glass in front of her.
Then at Princess Luna.
Then at the cookies.
Then at Princess Luna again. The gears in her little head turned and finally her face lit up as the proverbial bit fell. Those cookies weren’t evil, they were sad! Sad because nopony ever wanted to eat them, which practically was the whole purpose of existence for a cookie. Who cares that some of them had a been burned a bit or that some had a few dust bunnies clinging onto them or were a bit crumbled because they had been on the bottom of the cookie jar? They were still cookies and cookies were still an absolutely delicious treat. Especially when dipped in milk! Slipping into the transportation satchel herself and taking the offered glass in her own magic, Dinky let out a predatory squeal and jumped onto the next cookie, pouring the contents of her glass on top of it. In the instant the white liquid made contact with it, it turned back into a regular sized albeit slightly singed cookie which was quickly devoured by the now delighted unicorn.

Luna allowed herself a smile as she watched her young subject contently munching away at the army of cookies which were now everything but hostile. The baked goods even politely stood in line, waiting for their turn to be finally dipped in milk and eaten by the now broadly smiling filly. With the knowledge that she did her duty here, Luna lit up her horn with magic and left the dream of Dinky Doo and reentered the dreamscape.

The Princess of the night loved the dreamscape. To her, it was like the night sky just infinitively larger. Opposite to the belief that the lunar goddess was not only able to see and enter the dreams of her and her sisters subjects, Luna was able to see each and enter every dream on Equuis. They appeared to her as bright, dancing lights not unlike the stars on her beloved night sky. Of course, every species had their respective deity for this realm. Otherwise there would be no way for a single god or goddess for that matter to tend to every single dreamer in need.

Something glided over Lunas astral body. Looking up the Princess found herself literally eye to eye with Somnium the star dragon, guardian of the dreams for all dragons and dragon kin of Equuis. The enormous wyrm flapped his leathery, star coated wings idly while puffing small gusts of ethereal flames from his nostrils.

“Ahh, young Luna. Was a nice coincidence to meet you here.” the millennia older deity rumbled, his voice sending vibrations through Lunas mind.

The pony goddess bowed her crowned head in respect. “Master Somnium, it is always a pleasure. How is your kin faring?”

The star dragon let out a thundering chuckle. “Oh what do I tell you? Just like children they are of course. Always bickering, always only thinking of themselves.”

Unsure what to say, the alicorn of the night offered a thoughtful hum.

“You know young one, sometimes I envy you and your sister. Compared to my kin, your ponies are so much more… docile? Yes I think docile is a fitting description for them. They are always willing to lend each other a helping claw, to actually improve themselves to make Equuis a better place for every living being, not just for the ponies.”

“Hoof. Helping hoof.” corrected Luna nearly automatic just to cover her mouth with both hooves moments later as her brain registered that she just berated a being older than she, Celestia and the whole species of ponies together. Much to the sage dragon´s exhilaration.

“Hmm, oh right. Must be my age finally catching up with me. I apologize, young Luna.” The guardian of draconic dreams chuckled.

“Please master Somnium, I thought I had asked you to desist from calling me ‘young Luna’.” The moon princess moaned.

“Of course, young Luna. As soon as you desist from calling me ‘master’ Somnium.”

Before Luna was able to deliver a reply, Somnium turned his massive head to the right as if hearing a call only he could detect.

“As much as I enjoy your company, I´m afraid my duty is calling for me.” The star dragon said in his rumbling tone. “May the stars guide you, princess of Equestria.”

“And may the moon always light your path, dragon of the stars.” Luna replied curtly. She watched the astral dragon turn his gargantuan form sharp to the right and accelerate until he was out of sight.
Focusing on her own task again, the lunar princess continued her duty as guardian of the dreams for her little ponies.

There.

Down there, somepony just begun to have a nightmare!

Closing in to the dream, Luna could not help but to notice how strange the energy was that the dream emitted.

>>`Tis strange. It would appear that the dreamer is located in the region known as the Badlands. A traveler mayhaps?<<

As her astral body finally reached the dream, Luna noticed instantly that this dream was not that of a pony. The light representing the dream was so small, so frail like none she had ever seen before yet it emitted such a great amounts of fear!

The light flickered brightly for a moment before returning to its normal intensity.

Luna bit her lip and pranced nervously on the spot. She could not feel any other deity in a wide area around her. No sign of Moonhowler, deity of the Diamond Dogs and Mother Noctum, night goddess of the Minotaur’s was probably tending to the need of her own kin.

The dream flickered again and this time, small patches of darkness starting to grew in it.

Hesitantly, Luna reached out with her magic. It would hurt nopony if she would go and try to help this dreamer until his or her respective deity would arrive, would it?

After waiting for another moment, the goddess of the moon flared her horn and entered the dream.

Darkness greeted Luna.

Cold and unforgiving darkness.

A shudder ran down the pony deity’s spine. This reminded her to much of her own experience with the Nightmare.

“All the more reason to help this poor dreamer as fast as possible.” Luna reassured herself and started trotting.

After what seemed like an eternity, the alicorn finally found the dreamer. It was a strange sight to behold, even for Luna, who had seen her fair share of strange things over the millennia of her life.

There, in front of her, cowered a… female? Yes, Luna was sure that this creature was a female. Its body was similar to a female Minotaur, only with feet instead of hoofs at the ends of her legs and even less muscles or a tail. The females body was furless, peach colored skin covered it instead expect for a shoulder long, dark blonde mane on her head. Long bangs obscured most of her face so that Luna only could see that her mysterious dreamer had no muzzle, just a line of a mouth and a small nose. The lunar princess could see no ears on top of the females head so she assumed that they must be obscured by her mane too. The female had curled herself up into a fetal position and was loudly sobbing.

Instantly Luna felt a pang in her heart. Whatever this being was, she was alone and frightened. “There, there. No need to cry. You are alone no longer.” Luna cooed with her most motherly voice, attempting to sooth the females sorrow. Her well-meant attempt however seemed to frighten the dreamer only further because the dreamer let out a surprised yelp and crawled away from the voice that had suddenly appeared. The being stopped her escape several meters from the lunar diarch, sitting upright and fixating Luna with puffed eyes through her bangs, heavily breathing.

Now Luna could say for sure that the dreamer was a female, now that she saw certain… details of the creatures anatomy. “Fear none. I am here to help you.” The alicorn reassured the dreamer. Stepping closer carefully, not to frighten her further, Luna could hear whispering.

“… oh great, now I´m seeing an alicorn… I´m going bonkers, I knew this would happen… probably because I´m dying from dehydration in my sleep… I want to go home…”

Lunas ears perked up in surprise. This creature knew what she was? And what did she mean by dying? “Thou… thou knowest… ehrm… you know what I am?” the midnight blue alicorn asked carefully, the cheer surprise causing her to slip into her archaic speech mannerisms shortly.

The dreamer stared at Luna without answering her. Instead, she slowly stood up which now caused Luna to back up. Although lacking the muscles of a Minotaur, the mysterious female was towering one and a half heads above the moon goddess.

Hesitantly, an arm reached out for Luna. A clawless finger came closer and closer to Lunas face until it made contact with the princess´ nose. From somewhere inside the dream, a “Boop” sounded.

“You´re the real deal?” the female asked hesitant after retracting her appendance.

“O-of course we are the ‘real deal’! Whatever that meant.” A confused Luna replied to the weird question. What kind of creature had she discovered here? She watched the female move her pale lips silently, as if she was practicing what to say next.

Suddenly the dreamer clutched her head with both hands and began to scream as if in intense pain. The same moment, black blotches began to spread all over the females body.

Instantly Luna fired up her magic. This was no ordinary dream, she realized with dread.

From underneath the female, a gigantic, armored hand appeared with the screaming dreamer in its palm. Dark flames rose all around the writhing body.

“No!” Luna cried out as the flames began to eat away the helpless female. Conjuring every ounce of her magic, the Princess tried to extinct the flames but to no avail. All she could do was watching.

The fingers began to close into a fist as the flames burned with more and more intensity. As the armored digits reopened, the flames were gone and likewise was the dreamer.

Guilt washed over Luna. The female had just died in her own dream and in such a horrid way.

A dark, low chuckle resonated through the empty dream and two gargantuan eyes flashed into existence, glowing brightly.

The Princess of the night flared her wings and held her head up high. “Show thyself demon! We art not afraid of thou!” Luna bellowed with all her might and authority.

At first, nothing happened. The glowing eyes just bore themselves into Lunas. Then a voice, filled with malicious intent and absolute doubtlessness spoke.

“Oh but you will be little Princess. You will be!”

And with that, the dream collapsed.

In Canterlot Castle, in the tower where Lunas private chambers where located, the Princess of the Night let out a nearly window shattering scream. Instantly several members of her Lunar Guard rushed into the room only to find their ruler sitting in her bed straight as a candle, with eyes wide and pupils like pinpricks. Lunas breathing was heavy and there was even a hint of sweat on her coat.

“Your majesty? Are you unharmed? What happened?” asked one of her thestral guards with concern in his voice.

Finally regaining control over her body, Luna turned towards her loyal guards. “It´s… fine Lieutenant. Just an unpredictable… encounter. `Tis all, really.”

Seemingly satisfied with their diarchs answer, the guards began to take their leaves until just the Lieutenant remained. “If there is anything…” he began but was cut short by the wave of a midnight blue hoof.

“I am fine Silver Wing. But thank you for your concern, old friend.” The goddess of the moon said and gifted her guard with one of her rare, warm smiles aside of those she had reserved for her sister and the foals among her subjects.

Finally satisfied, Lieutenant Silver Wing bowed and took his leave too, closing the door behind him.

After being sure that she was really alone, Luna let out a deep breath. Whatever this being was that she had encountered in this dream, it had been strong enough to force her out of her own domain. She. Princess Luna, guardian of the night!

After a peek out of her window, Luna realized that her night would still last for two hours until she had to lower the moon to make way for her sisters day. Not able to focus on something else, Luna levitated a quill and a stack of empty papers towards her and began to take notes, developing plans. She would make sure to be prepared the next time she crossed paths with that mysterious entity.

[The Badlands, early morning]

“AAA~AAAAHHHHH…..”
I woke up, screaming on top of my lungs from the most bizarre and at the same time most frightful nightmare I had in my entire life until now.

Wide awake in an instant, I remembered the details of my dream.

Myself.

Alone.

Naked in the dark.

And… Princess Luna?

I shook my head slightly. Why was there an element of a series made for little kids, turned a popular phenomenon among adult from eighteen to forty-five, present in my nightmare? Sure, I proudly called myself a fan of My little Pony: Friendship is Magic and Luna was amongst my top favorite characters but WTF? What should Moonbutt represent in my dream anyways? Guessing after the way she had acted, she was probably a symbol of hope or something like that. Hey, what do I know? I never studied psychology.

My train of thought was interrupted by my every mornings basic bodily needs. Namely, toilet and breakfast. At least the first one was not much of a problem.

After satisfying that need, I found myself in the same dilemma like yesterday. I was still in the middle of nowhere, with no truck stop or even a friggin´ watering hole in sight.

At this point, I really wished I had listened to my friend Ester when she was talking about her Girl Scout group. Especially when she told me about survival lessons. There was a trick to palliate your thirst when you run out of water while being stuck in a hot area…

What was it again?

Even after twisting my mind for a while, I could not remember so I took my stuff and resumed walking towards, what I hoped was, the next way out of this barren plains and to civilization.

At least the air was nice and cool in the morning.

[Several hours of walking later]

“Argh, fuck this place!” I yelled annoyed as I let myself slump on my armored four letters. After fruitlessly walking around for hours I had decided to take a break in the shade of a big rock.

“I need something to drink really quick or else I´m gonna die…” I mumbled, licking my dry lips in order to moisturize them but my tongue had run dry long ago too.

On top of that, my stomach won’t shut up with its demands for food.

“Oh shut up you!” I grumbled “It´s not like a can hit my heels together and ‘poof’ along comes something to eat.” To demonstrate it, I clanked my boots heels together weakly. As expected, nothing happened. “Crud, I would even eat a lizard right now, scales an´ all!”

Staring blankly in front of me I failed to notice the movement at first.

“Huh?”

There it was. Scampering movements of the sort a small animal would produce. I froze as the primitive part of my brain took over. Animal meant meat. Meat meant no more hunger. My eyes grew wide as the source of the sound scampered into my field of vision.

It looked like an iguana. Well, somehow. If an iguana would have been the size of a big dachshund and would have sported eight(!) tiny legs. Also I noticed that two small, purple knobs protruded from the back of the lizards head and a longish snout, more fitting to a crocodile that an iguana. At least the leaf green scales seemed to be right.

>>Great, am I walking around in some kind of weapon testing area?<<

The mutant iguana scratched itself lazily and let out a, I must admit, cute groan. It sat down not a meter away from me, basking in the sun.

“Well, cute or not, you’re going to make acquaintance with my stomach you little mutant gecko.” I mumbled under my breath, my mouth already watering.

Slowly, not to alarm my prey, I stood up.

The lizard starred at nothing in particular, making it nearly too easy for me.

Carefully I crouched down; both hands open and ready to catch my breakfast. It was just back then in my childhood when I had roamed the fields around my hometown to catch grasshoppers. The secret was to be patient and slow. Move your hands in slow motion until you are close enough to grab your prey with a quick surprise attack.

It was this moment my stomach decided to betray me and let out a lout gurgling sound.

The sleipnir iguana turned its head and gazed at me.

My hands shot forward.

It jumped but too late. With my wiggling and growling prize held tightly in my hands I stood up.

“Sorry pal, it’s nothing personal. It’s just, you see, I was made a meat-plant and you my eight legged friend are unfortunately made of meat. So…” I said in an attempt to justify myself but I never came to finish that sentence. Dozens of tiny yet razor sharp teeth pierced right through the armor of my gauntlet and sank into my tender flesh beneath, drawing blood. Letting go of my prey I started to scream bloody murder, mostly taken by surprise that this lizard bit through solid steel like it was wet paper. The lizard on the other hand wasted no time and started running away.

“Oh no, you fucking don´t!” I roared, grapping my mace and gave chase to my meal on the run.

You won´t believe how fast that little bugger was. Guess these legs weren´t just for show. It was like chasing a rabbit. The lizard was running a zig zag course, using its smaller frame to zip between boulders while I was forced to climb over them or run around them. At some point I felt like Will E. Coyote chasing Roadrunner but my hunger and my thick-headedness drove me forward.

I don´t know how long our little chase went on but finally that scaly bastard zipped into a hole underneath a massive rock. I went down on all fours and peeked into the hidey hole. It was not very deep and in its stern most corner cowered my hissing price.

“Come here you little bastard!” I growled pissed and out of breath, shoving my hand into the miniature den. Just to be greeted by sharp teeth trying to bite my thumb in half. Quickly I retracted my hand. As I glared at the lizard, I could swear it blew me a raspberry!

“Oh that´s it! You´re so in for it now buddy!” I yelled at the cocky little bastard of a mutated gecko. “You get your scaly little ass out here at the count of three so I can fucking eat you!” To drive my point home, I stomped against the surface of the rock.

The rock let out a surprised yelp.

>>Waitaminute, are rocks supposed to yelp? Or to be leaf green?<<

To answer both of my unasked questions, the rock started to move. Teensy tiny wings unfurled on top of it and eight stubby legs appeared from underneath. A thick, spaded tail appeared from the left and a long neck with a purple horned head and long crocodilian snout full of big and sharp looking teeth rose up. Two eyes as big as tennis balls, with small red pupils looked down on me irritated. It was now that I discovered that my so called ‘rock’ was encrusted with several gemstones.

Slack jawed I stared at that thing, at that absolutely impossible thing. That sorry excuse for a dragon that looked like a stoner or a three years old had designed it! Or a three years old stoner.

My mouth moved in what felt like slow motion as I finally regained my ability to speak.

“Crackle?”

Crackle the dragon gave an irritated snort and a small cloud of smoke rose from her nostrils. She really tried to fixate me with both of her eyes bot they continued to drift apart. Suddenly, the small creature, that I supposed to be an iguana, appeared on the walleyed dragoness´ head. It gave a series of small grunts. Looking up to the little thing on her head, the bigger dragons face darkened visibly.

Finally I recognized the similarities between the two. The small lizard I tried to eat looked like a miniature version of Crackle minus the wings. That plus the fact that it hide itself under the dragoness and seemed to be talking to her right now…

Crackle bends her lanky neck down to me until her nostrils nearly hit my helmet, squinting her comically big eyes at me, glaring no daggers but freaking claymores. I knew this expression on her face. It was the “Momma Bear” expression, also known as the “Run fucker, run!” face.

“Uh oh…” I gulped audibly.

The green dragoness opened her admittedly intimidating maw and roared at me, showering me with spittle and chunks of… gems?

Needless to say, I turned tail and ran for it.

The rumbling of four sets of feet in the size of small dinner plates behind me and the really pissed roaring of a mother protecting her child told me that Crackle did not planned to let me off the hook that easily.

A long tongue of bright orange fire scorched through the air a few meters to my left.

“Hey, come one! You´re not supposed to be a mother! The show never told us that you had a child!” I yelled without looking back.

Another burst of dragon fire missed me, this time half a meter to my right.

“Hey! It’s eat or be eaten out here! You as a dragon should knoaaaAAHAAA!” This time, Crackles aim was almost true as the fire ever so slightly grazed my butt, causing me to make a small leap to escape the intense heat.

With adrenaline rushing through my veins, now it was me who started to ran in zig zag lines in order to escape the wrath of the pissed dragoness and her vengeful spawn.

Ducking under another fireball that missed my head by a good meter again, I spotted a rock in the size of a bus stop and my brain gave birth to an Idea.

Changing my course towards the boulder I taunted the already boiling dragon to follow me. “Hey, are you even trying to hit me? Come on wacky eyes, come and get me you overgrown lizard!” Judging by the increased volume of her roars, it worked pretty well.

Only a couple meters left.

>>C´mon, if the valiant little Tailor could pull this shit with a boar and a unicorn, I can do it with a dragon.<<

Behind me, I could hear my pursuer inhale. In the last moment I turned to the right and ran around the boulder. While kept on running, a smile formed on my lips. Every moment now. Every moment there would be the sound of skull meets boulder.

Every moment now.

Nothing happened. Slowing down a bit, I turned around to see why there was no sound indicating the success of my incredible cunning plan. My answer was delivered to me by a view that would have led every physician on earth to an immediate suicide.

Crackle was flying. Her forked tongue hanging out of her maw, her little wings flapped in an impossible speed, keeping the dragoness airborne.

“Aw come on! Are you a fucking bumblebee?” I felt cheated. Like in ‘you clearly saw the other guy pull that ace from his sleeve to get the jackpot at poker night’ cheated.

Roaring, the mother dragon focused her eyes on me and suddenly began to descent in a clear intent to dive bomb me into the ground.

“Ohshitohshitohshitohshitohshit!” I pressed through gritted teeth as I pumped my legs as fast as I could.

The Crackle shaped shadow covering me grew bigger and bigger.

I threw myself forward and not a second to early as a fuck-ton of angry dragon mother crashed into the ground where I had been a few seconds prior, sending debris as big as my head in every direction.

Getting on my feet again I felt a wave of euphoria. I just avoided to be flattened by a dragon. Turning my head while still running forward, I noticed with extreme satisfaction that Crackle seemed to be stunned by the impact, judging by the way she was still laying on her belly, legs outstretched and her eyes rolling around in two different directions.

“Ha, nice try lady. Good luck next time!” I shouted full of schadenfreude.

In hindsight, I should have watched where I was running instead of gloating. Because suddenly my foot met nothing but empty air and my world of spiteful joy turned into one of hurt.

I really don’t know how I was able to NOT notice the freaking cliff right in front of me. Doesn’t matter anyways, the damage was done. It was just my luck that it was not a vertical cliff but more a giant crater like cliff.

Half the time skidding on my back or on my stomach and the other half somersaulting, I rapidly approached the end of the rocky ride, losing my helmet and my mace somewhere alongside the way down.

Stones hit me everywhere. My arms, my legs, my chest, my back, my ass and my face. Everything got hit at least a dozen times. Getting hit in the face was definitely the worst part.

Near the bottom of the cliff, I somehow managed to curl myself into a ball, protecting my head with my arms. Peeking through between my arms, I braced myself for the impact on the ground and prepared myself to literally vomit out my soul afterwards.

With a loud and very wet splash I impacted at what mistook for the ground. Cold water rushed into my nose and my mouth, nearly drowning me. Flailing around in panic and with the bile already rising in my throat, meeting the intruding water half the way, I tried to find solid ground. After agonizing long seconds, both my hands and feet met ground solid enough for me to rise up.

I broke through the surface of the water, gasping for air like mad, stumbling a few steps forward. Only to bend forward as the vomit flooded my mouth.

I spend the next minute or so retching and vomiting this icky yellow foam because my stomach was still empty.

After my stomach mercifully decided to stop expelling its non-existent content, I broke onto all fours after realizing that the water was only knee deep and dunked my face into the lifesaving liquid. That I had puked in it only moments ago didn´t even phase me. I drank until the lack of oxygen forced me to stop.

“Aaahh, sweet, sweet water! Oh most magnificent of all liquids! Oh most desirable of all elements!” I overly enthusiastic praised the formerly clear, now more or less tainted liquid that was pouring down my body, refreshing my spirit and soothed my soul, splashing around like a toddler in the kiddy’s basin.

“What in Tartarus is that?”

I froze.

My eyes meet five other pairs. There, no ten meters right in front of me were two colorful ponies, two gruff looking griffons and one black dragon.

The ponies were a mare and a stallion as far as I could see. The stallion looked like some kind of scholar, wearing and eccentric mix between a lab coat and safari clothing and small, round glasses on the bridge of his nose. His mane and tail was of a light grey color and his coat was somewhat ochre-ish. A small, stubby horn protruded from his forehead, giving him away as a unicorn. His jade green eyes were practically glued to me, which creeped me out to be honest.

The mare was a unicorn too. She wore nothing but saddlebags and a plain looking bandana as sun protection. Her coat was crème colored while her mane, which she seemed to wear braided unlike her tail, was chestnut brown. Her aqua blue eyes were glued to my person too.

The griffins, I could honestly not tell if they were male or female. Both wore some kind of light armor, to protect their torsi. Mostly leather with chain mail sleeves covering their arms. The lion part of their bodies seemed unarmored like their eagle heads. One had a nasty scar running down his/her left cheek. But what really were eye-catching were the weapons both of them possessed. The scarred one was holding a flintlock musket in his talons while the other was at least sporting one flintlock pistol at a belt around his/her hip.
They seemed to be some kind of guards. Or mercenaries.

And then the dragon. It was a sight to behold. It was not really bigger then Crackle but this was what a dragon should look like. Everything on him/her (I could not tell. Again) was proportional from the bound wings, to the likewise disabled limps and the head with the iron muzzle and the ram like, curled horns. And those pitch black scales. Like shimmering obsidian. Or onyx.

My mind worked on overcharge to process all this information and suppressed the urge to cackle like a maniac. So last night it was really Luna in my dream? This mother fucking warp tunnel had transported me to Equestria? The land of friendship, harmony and colorful pastel ponies? Instantly the fan girl inside of me took charge of my thinking. This was awesome to quote a certain polychromatic speedster.

>>Oh, oh, I could have muffins with Derpy, maybe even play with Dinky. I could check out if Lyra really is all crazy over humans, find out if Time Turner is really the pony incarnation of The Doctor, and visit Sugarcube Corners because I really, really crave something sweet. Oh, I could visit Canterlot too and meet the Princesses and…<<

Whoa, whoa, wait a damn second! Bound wings and limps? A muzzle? What in the name of Lauren Faust’s favorite drawing pen was going on here?

“… is that Professor?” a female voice reached my ears.

“I don´t know. I have never heard of such a creature before. Extremely interesting.” A male voice said.

I came to realize that the two ponies must have talked about me all the time.

“This armor looks strange Professor. And look at its face. No muzzle. And these eyes. They scare me!” the mare addressed the stallion.

>>Hey, what´s wrong with my eyes?<<

“Could be a demon.” One of the griffins, the one with the scar, suddenly said. A thick accent swung in his (yup, definitive a male) voice.

“Maybe. From the looks of it you could be right Mr. Adebar.” This ‘Professor’ character agreed with the griffin.

>>Wait. Adebar?<< I really had a hard time not to laugh at that name. That unfortunate fellow was named after a stork!

Okay, enough starring, time for some words and to prove that I am not a threat. Even if I really looked like one I guess. So I gave my best (and most harmless) smile and casually waved my hand. “Oh, hello there. Nice weather for a quick dip, isn´t it?”

They stared at me wide eyed. Even the dragon.

“It… spoke…” the mare stuttered.

Eh? What? You haven´t noticed my enthusiastic praising of simple H2O earlier?

“Heilige Scheiße! [Holy shit!]” muttered the griffin called Adebar. So I guess all the fan canon with griffins being German was right in the end.

“Fascinating. The subject seems to be able to speak fluent Equestrian.” The Professor stated and floated a note pad and a quill out the nameless mares saddlebags to take notes.

Deciding to give it a try I nodded towards the griffins and said politely “Schönen guten Tag. [A good day to you.]” Two beaks nearly hit the ground simultaneously.

“Subject seems to be able to speak fluently Gryphon too! A trained ability or maybe mimicry?” the scholar unicorn furiously scribbled on his notepad.

I looked around for my lost belongings after finally noticing that my helmet was not on its place and that I was one unleased Beast short. I found both in the deeper water of the pond I had crash dived in. Putting my helmet back on and carrying my mace as unthreatening as possible, I climbed out of the water, electing collective gasps from ponies and griffins. Both unicorns merely reached my hip and I was even a head taller than the two avian predators. There was a hint of awe in their eyes. Sometimes it pays for a girl to be one meter eighty tall.

“Hi. My name is…” I tried to introduce myself but was cut short as the stallion started to cackle.

“This is incredible. I just came here for the dragon parts but now I have this marvelous creature at hoof. Oh, all the others professors back at the University, they will envy me for I; Professor Crystal Flask will be the one who had secured the supremacy of the unicorns over the other pony species! My name will be immortalized in the annals of science and history.”

>>Wait, wait, wait, what?<< I totally disliked the way this rambling were going.

“Wait a sec, ‘unicorn supremacy’?” I asked carefully “What are you? Some kind of… neighzi? And what´s that about ‘dragon parts’?”

The rambling unicorn gazed at me with a deranged grin. “Oh my dear… you are a female right? That’s none of your concern, I assure you. You may not know it but you will help me to putt the unicorns back on their rightful place as ruling class. Just like in the days of the three tribes. All the glorious things I will without a doubt be able to do after thoroughly studying you, after learning what makes you… tick.”

“What?” Yup, defs no likey!

The looney unicorn gave a me chilling smile. “Adebar, Gerhard, please secure this specimen for our travel back to Canterlot.”

“Zat will cost you extra Herr Professor.” The other griffin, obviously Gerhard, responded. Okay, so both are male.

“Money doesn´t matter gentlestallions. This time, you don’t need to be careful. Break its limps if you have to.” The now officially crazy Professor ordered.

“Wot if we kill it?”

“Unfortunate but it won’t make much of a difference. Just be sure not to damage its internal organs too much.”

“Wery well.” Both griffins turned towards me.

“Können wir drüber reden? [Can we talk about this?]” I asked with a slight hint of panic.

“Tut mir leid Mädchen. [I´m sorry girl.]” The scarred one, Adebar said.

“Wir stehen unter Vertrag. Aber wir machen es schnell. [We are under a contract. But we will make this quick.]” The other one, Gerhard added his piece.

Gulping I took a step back as both avian predators approached me with a glint in their eyes. At least they showed no intent to use their firearms against me.

>>Yes, so they are only armed with razor sharp talons, beaks and the strength of a lion! Well, maybe I could…<<

I was unable to finish that though because Gerhard lunged himself at me, talons aiming at my throat. Up until today, I don´t exactly know how I managed to dodge that strike, but I did it, miraculously sidestepping away from the undoubtedly fatal blow. The fierce griffin didn´t give me a moment to celebrate, the party pooper. He spread his wings wide, stopping in midair, and with a few powerful flaps that kicked up small clouds of dirt, he turned around to face me. Gerhard was onto me in nearly an instant, speeding through the air at an alarming pace and letting out a high-pitched, eagle-like battle cry.

Now, despite what my appearance would suggest, I was by no means an otherworldly demon-lord. Well, maybe otherworldly, but the point is, I have never, ever, in my twenty six years of life been on a situation where someone else wished death upon me. Well… that’s not entirely incorrect. I did make a couple of nemeses in high school who would undoubtedly have been glad to see me in this situation, but hell, they never did act on it… just talked behind my back, mostly. Really, the closest experience I’ve had on the matter was the time an overenthusiastic schnauzer chased me up a garbage bin.

The point is, I was paralyzed with fear and indecision, but my brain, in a last-ditch attempt at self preservation, managed to send signals to my body and unresponsive limbs, along with a jolt that broke me out of my stupor- basically its way of pimp slapping me and yelling ‘Bitch, move yo’ fat ass and protect yourself!’ Clumsily, hastily, I brought up my mace to block my assailant with the handle, but the griffin simply rammed me, causing me to drop the Beast and soon we found ourselves caught in a deadly wrestling match, rolling around in the dirt.

That bastard was unbelievably strong. I did not know where I mustered the strength to keep his deadly talons away from my soft throat, but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“Not bad. You may have potential as a skilled warrior. A shame I must end your life,” my opponent complimented in his heavy Equestrian before suddenly bringing his beak to bear, trying to rip open my throat.

“Professor! Stop them, please! This… this is inequine!” the shrill voice of the mare sounded.

“Shut up and get a grip on yourself, Dawn! We are doing this for the sake of every unicorn in Equestria, no, for the sake of every pony on Equuis!” the voice of Professor Crystal Flask shrilled back, followed by a smacking noise. He sounded downright ecstatic.

So the nameless mare’s name is Dawn, eh? Pretty.

With that razor sharp appendage snapping away at me, I felt pure, cold fear creeping into my being. I felt it numb my arms and cloud my mind. I was going to die here... I was going to fucking die HERE! This was such a sick joke! This psycho griffin would rip my throat out like a rabid dog, only for this fucking excuse of a Nazi unicorn to take me apart piece by piece to reach some kind of ‘unicorn supremacy’, as he called it.

Gerhard's beak screeched over the cheek guard of my helmet, causing him to smile wildly. “Next taim, Mädchen! Next taim, it will be your neck,” he promised in a chillingly casual tone.

“Träum weiter! [Dream on!]” I hissed defiantly but deep inside, I knew he was right. He had me pinned down with all his weight, his talons slowly but surely pressing down my own arms and his deadly beak ready to sink into my weak flesh.

Tears welled up my eyes.

“I dun wanna go this way…” I sobbed.

>>Then allow me to assist you.<<

[POV third Person, Badlands, a small cave above the pond]

“You sure that is the new Master?” Bruiser asked.

“Looks so weak.” Scrapper added. “And no magic.”

Gnarl hummed and peeked over the edge of the cave he and the other minions were hiding in, observing this new “Overlord” that had called them into this world. “I know, it doesn't look so good until now. This one seemed to have potential even though he's making no use of it until now. Be patient. Evil always finds a way.”

The younger minions groaned audibly at the older minion’s favorite phrase. A loud, pain filled cry ripped through the air. Instantly, every minion poked his head out of the cave's entrance to get a better view. Violence always had been like a magnet to all minions, especially to the Brown Ones, an irresistible siren’s cry. Gnarl pushed and punched his way through his gaping brethren. What he saw brought a big smile on his withered face. The potential Overlord was no longer pinned underneath that overgrown lovechild between a cat and a chicken but standing tall over the griffin, left arm stretched out and rivers of electricity flowing from the armored palm into the writhing and howling creature.

“Well, what did I tell you?” the wise minion asked.

Next to him, Rufus yelled out, “Ten maggots on the Master!”

[Badlands, the pond]

That voice, it echoed in the dark confines of my mind. It was powerful, menacing, and hollow, with a reverberating bass quality. It was a voice rich with domination, that promised pain, and icy as the grave. Never had I heard it before, and if I had heard it before, it would no doubt have terrified me like a small child. Instead, it gave me comfort. It was... incredible. It was like a deep well of power that always lay within me, but I never knew I had, suddenly bubbled and boiled to the surface, gifting me with invigorating confidence and unbridled power.

My struggles ceased, and I simply lay there underneath the psychotic griffin- moments ago, the terrifying harbinger of my death, but now, I looked to him with a renewed, critical eye. He was soft. He was squishy. He was easily breakable. Most importantly, he had the gall, the arrogance to think that not only could he stand against me, but that he, a mortal creature of fleshy meat, could hope to fell a higher being such as me.

I recalled clearly the dread I had felt, the fear of death.

How it paralyzed me.

Sobbing that I didn’t want to die like this.

It was then that something in my mind had just… clicked. The fear was no longer there, only a sense of exhilaration, fueled by a far more powerful force.

Wrath.

Cold, calculating wrath.

Wrath directed at this griffin on top of me for trying to kill me just out of the blue. Wrath directed at this fascistic unicorn Crystal Flask for wanting to use me for his inferior supremacy scheme.

The first one to get a taste of my wrath would be the griffin.

A sinister chuckle condensed in my throat.

“Eh? What´s zo fanny?” the unsuspecting griffin asked, stopping his attempt to bite my throat for a moment.

“This!” I replied, ramming my armored forehead into Gerhard’s face. I noticed with a grim satisfaction the cracking sounds of his beak.

Instantly the wounded griffin reared up, holding his damaged beak with both talons, offering me free access to his weak spots.

I brought my leg up and watched him collapse as the armor protecting my shin made contact with the one place where a male never in his whole life wants to get hit.

Watching the fallen griffin clutch his crushed testes and gaping for air like a fish on dry land, I rose up. Towering over Gerhard’s twitching body, I took a moment to take in my surroundings.

Adebar, the other griffin just stood there, watching me. Then his gaze drifted to his fallen comrade only to return to me a heartbeat later. There was a hint of disgust on his features but he didn´t seem to intent to butt in this fight.

Next came ‘Professor’ Crystal Flask. His features showed more of a poker face except for a medium smile. Arrogant bastard!

Dawn, the unicorn mare had tears running down her face, she looked like wanted to run away. Her right cheek was swollen and red.

>>So that’s what it was! Fascist bastard slapped her...<< Come to think of it, a slap with hooves instead of a relatively soft hand must have really hurt.

Making a mental note to curb stomp Flask extra hard, I felt a tug at my mind. It directed my attention back to the wounded griffin to my feet. A smile tugged at my lips. The sense of domination filled my being like a drug, me presiding over this insignificant kitty-chicken amalgamation and him rolling in the dirt, below me… just as it should be.

“Well, what shall I do with you, hm?” I asked my disabled foe. And then there was that voice again, murmuring in my head, guiding me, and I allowed it in like a long-lost friend.

“Yes, that sounds good.” I smiled sinisterly and almost instinctively stretched my arm out, my palm facing Gerhard who looked at me with wide eyes.

The well of power within me boiled even more intensely than before, and like a latent knowledge-- long since buried in the furthest corners of my mind but now vividly recalled, a pleasant tingle encroached my hand as various tiny sparks of raw electricity danced along my armored digits, the incoming spell humming and crackling as I allowed it to grow in power. Fixating my victim, I said in a voice so malicious it felt foreign to me:

“Vanish!”

Five tendrils of lightning arced from my palm into Gerhard’s still writhing form. The griffin screamed in agony as the Corruption spell tortured his body and mind at the same time, contorting and seizing as the massive electrical barrage robbed him control of his muscles. It was like the sweetest of music in my ears.

The griffin’s whole body twitched and spasmed under the constant onslaught of my spell. He arched his back, his wings splayed out uncontrolled, his legs kicked helplessly and his talons opened and closed so rapidly that he sliced open his own palms.

From somewhere in my mind came the suggestion to pour even more energy in my attack, to dominate, to punish this griffin for the unforgivable act of attempting to kill me.

And I did.

The raw electric power flowing out my fingertips grew in size and intensity so that it was almost painful to look at, completely enveloping Gerhard’s body in its crackling, unrepentant power. Not a heartbeat later, the tortured griffin let out a final screech before the negative energies of my spell completely overwhelmed him and in one flash of light his body disintegrated into thousands of little particles, all of them all of them briefly flickering before vanishing from sight.

Having done its job, I stopped the spell and paused to look at my handiwork… or lack thereof.

“I did it,” I muttered lowly and in slight disbelief. “I killed that bastard.”

I don’t know how long I stood there and just let the fact sink in that I had just ended a life in an indescribably painful way.

“Beeindruckend. [Impressive.]” A calm voice said in front of me.

Looking up, I found myself facing Adebar, Gerhard's companion. He handed me my mace.

“Jetzt wir beide. [Now the two of us.]” The scarred griffin told me. To my surprise he threw his gun to the side and instead pulled out a simple sword from a hidden scabbard underneath his folded wing.

“Wir können das immer noch so klären. [We can still resolve this.]“ I offered him.

But he just shook his head and took a fighting stance. That look in his eyes. It was something I only ever saw in films, but didn’t actually understand until today. It was the determination of a warrior to adhere to his honor because he was bound by an oath, or in this case a contract.

Then he made his move. Using his powerful wings, the scarred warrior propelled himself forward with his sword clutched in both talons. Its point was aimed straight at me.

For some reason, be it women’s intuition; remnants of past tv shows, movies or video games, or simply the mutual understanding that two combatants face in the battlefield, I exactly knew what the griffin was doing. Adebar was going for an ‘all or nothing’ move, gambling with his luck… no his life. If he could land a precise hit in the right place, he would kill me in an instant, assuring his victory. But if his aim was even a centimeter off, he was done for.

And judging after the expression on his face, he was perfectly aware of that.

Time seemed to slow down painfully as he closed in.

I tightened the grip around the Beasts handle. My blood boiled when I killed Gerhard, imbibing me with a sickening sense of pleasure and exhilaration as I ended his life and now, it was threatening to do the same. I fought down the feeling as best I could. I… I did not want to take another life. I did not want to kill again. I could disable Adebar, make it impossible for him to continue his fight. Snap off Crystal Flasks horn and send him home after an old fashioned beating, I could…

The sword’s tip was approaching me rapidly. For a millisecond I could see the reflection of my face on the polished steel surface. Underneath my helmet, there were two brightly glowing orbs in place of my eyes. I… I couldn’t fight it anymore. My blood pulsed and boiled within me, and I was once again overtaken by that drive, that urge to oppress, to dominate and to destroy those who dared to stand against me.

My body reacted, almost on instinct, and all of a sudden there was a strong impact running through my right arm, followed by the sound of breaking bones and a high pitched cry of agony.

Something warm splashed on my face.

I wiped some of it away with my left hand.

There, on my armored fingertips was a liquid, gleaming red in the sunlight.

Blood.

Its smell empowered me, clouding my vision and planting an idea at the back of my mind to spill the blood of every living thing in sight until the ground ran red with its color. I heard a labored, wet coughing and turned towards it. In a growing puddle of his own blood I saw Adebar, lying on his side. His left wing was completely ripped off at the joint and blood was gushing through the side of his torn leather armor. Pointy, bloody shards of bone could be seen through the drenched material. His ribs, and even from where I stood, I could see something pulsating from behind them.

The mere sight of it was enough to break me out of my stupor. My blood calmed and stilled, and I almost wished it hadn’t done so. My mace slipped out of my hand as I felt crippling waves of shame and remorse overtake my body. My stomach lurched and I brought up a trembling hand to cover my mouth.

The mortally wounded warrior locked eyes with me, and to my never ending shame and surprise, he smiled and nodded at me.

Numbly, I approached him.

After coughing blood again, he looked up to me.

“Guter Schlag Kind. [Good hit child.]” He croaked and put his sword at my feet.

Understanding the gesture, I shook my head. “No,” I whispered weakly.

“It is gud child. Nao let me go,” The dying griffin croaked, his voice fading like the light in his eyes.

I slumped onto my knees. I knew what he wanted me to do but I could not bring myself to do it. The cold wrath I had felt during my fight with Gerhard was quickly replaced with guilt and hot tears started to flow down my cheeks.

A gentle talon took my hand, opened it and put the sword in it.

I looked at my fallen opponent.

He guided the tip of the blade over his heart, barely able to hide his unimaginable pain.

Clutching the handle with both hands, I tried in vain to fight back my tears as a lump built up in my throat.

“Es tut mir so leid! [I am so sorry!]” I sobbed only loud enough for him to understand me.

Then I pushed.

Nearly without resistance, the blade pierced through the armor, the skin, muscles and bones of the avian warrior. I only stopped pushing as I felt the blade exit the griffin’s body.

A last tremor shook Adebar’s body before he finally went limp and the last flicker of light in his eyes vanished.

Unable to turn my eyes from the corpse, I reached out and closed the dead warrior’s eyes.

“Incredible. Absolutely incredible!” came an unbelievable happy voice from behind me.

It was his voice! And it boiled my blood, filling my entire being with ice cold fury!

It was his fault that I had been forced to take two lives, his fault and no one else’s and he was going to pay!

My body exploded into action as I spun around and closed to distance to the deranged smiling unicorn.

“Wonderful! Splendid! Such tremendous potential! What raw destructive power! Oh, I just need to possess it, explore its source! All the possibilities…” the Professor giddily exclaimed.

My blood ran hotter, so much so that even my vision went red. With a snarl that sounded foreign to my ears, I lifted my palm towards the lab coat wearing pony, reached for my newfound power and let loose a burst of lighting, but before it could reach the unicorn, an ice blue shield popped into existence, taking the brunt of my attack and deflecting the rest.

“Ah, ah, ah,” Crystal Flask tutted and waved his hoof, disapproving but smiling. His horn glowed in the same color like the shield.

“You think a fear bubble will save your ass?” I screamed at the bastard, my voice on the verge of breaking.

He nodded, still smiling.

“Wrong, fucker!” I screeched, unleashing every ounce of wrath my body could muster into the shield.

At the same time, in another galaxy, a middle aged man with blonde hair, black clothes and a cybernetic hand shuddered.

I did not really care at that moment where all this freaky shit was coming from, how this thoughts of what to do in which way simply popped up in my mind or what I was going to do afterwards. Right now, all I wanted was a roasted unicorn!

Roaring in frustration, I stepped closer, but the shield held.

At least for a while.

Another step.

The protective sphere flickered.

In the same way the smile on Crystal Flask's face vanished, it grew on mine.

Another step and my palm were nearly resting on the magical shield.

Crystal Flask broke onto a knee, his face strained and sweat running down his face as he struggled to keep his spell up and running.

A tug in my mind and I reached out with my free, right fist and smashed it into the sphere.

The scholar unicorn let out a pained cry as his magic dome finally reached its limits and shattered with the sound of breaking glass. He looked up to me and was greeted by my armored boot against his jaw, sending him to the ground. I allowed him a last, confused gaze at me before I brought my boot down on his head.

And again.

And again.

And again.

Until his screaming finally subsided, alongside his twitching and his face was nothing more than a bloody wreck.

The sharp stench of ammonia meet my nostrils and pulled me back to reality. Turning my head, my gaze met that of Dawn, the unicorn mare. She was pale as a ghost, her pupils little more than pinpricks. A quick glance down confirmed my suspicion that she had indeed wetted herself.

Hell, I couldn´t hold it against her.

Then I looked over the dragon. Those bindings had no locks. Just three glyphs or runes or something.

“Hey. How do you open these?” I tried to ask the terrified mare in my most stable voice but it was still shaking from all the adrenaline. After getting no response, I took off my helmet, and asked again. This time, I got a reaction. The mare started to scream on top of her lungs and tried to scamper away from me.

Again, I could not hold it against her.

However, I was a tad faster and firmly grabbed her on both shoulders. Which prompted her to go and try to magic me in the face but for some reason, all her horn produced were a few measly sparks. After she had realized that, the dams broke and she started to blubber.

“Please don’t kill me I never wanted all this but Professor Flask was my superior and he was so fixated on his projects and he said the ends always justifies the means he even hired those mercenaries to help him get all the ingredients for his experiments that are normally forbidden in Canterlot... oh sweet Celestia! Please don’t kill me, please don’t kill me, please don’t kill me….”

I pressed a single finger on her lips to signal her to be silent.

“Okay, I am going to remove my finger now and once I have done that, I want you to tell me how to open this dragon’s bindings. Afterwards, you can take whatever equipment you need to get back home. Understand me?”

She nodded and I removed my finger.

“So?”

“Th-these are magi-cal bindings, h-high tier for dragons and other… “ she started what I supposed was a full scale explanation about these bindings but after she noticed my glare, she gave me a short version. “Ju-just touch the runes in the order down, middle, up.”

”That’s all? Sounds like a game cheat.” I said.

“That’s all. Really. Can I g-go now?”

Letting go of her, I gestured away from me. “Like I promised. I´m very sorry you had to witness all this Dawn.”

Unsure at first, the unicorn mare quickly levitated two canteens into her saddlebags and ran off as fast as her hooves could carry her without looking back even once.

Turning to the last living being aside of me, I addressed the dragon. “Okay big fella, I´m going to release you now. Hold still.” I touched the runes like Dawn had instructed me and after I had touched the last one, the respective binding came off.

Two minutes later, the last binding fell into the dirt and the dragon rose to its full height (the dragon was at least full two meters tall), stretching its large wings and popping the joints in its arms. Then it gazed down at me, two big golden orbs bore into my own.

I felt a twitch in my mind. Was the dragon going to attack me?

It slowly opened its maw.

I readied myself for an onslaught of fiery death.

“Thank you… I guess,” A deep but still very feminine voice said.

“Uh?”

“I said ‘thank you’. What? Something on your ears?” the same voice came out of the dragon’s maw.

Regaining my composure, I closed my mouth. “Uh, you’re welcome,” I finally managed to say.

>>That dragon is a female, hn? Well, her jawline is pretty smooth and her body somehow has feminine curves.<<

Turning around to pick up my mace, I decided to keep our little conversation rolling. I was in dire need of distraction. “Why did they captured you anyways? That unicorn guy mentioned something about ‘parts’?”

The roaring of fire behind me made me turn around abruptly. I was greeted by the sight of a very pissed dragoness, cremating the leftovers of Crystal Flask in a storm of azure blue fire and kicking the resulting ash in every direction. After that, she took up a big bag from the ground next to her and poured its contents between us. What I saw reminded me of butchers tools or that stuff I once saw in a museum to pull out the organs of a mummified body.

“This pony bastard wanted to gut me like a damn fish, that’s why he captured me. Kept on rambling how my death would help the unicorn race to again become what it once had been. Bleagh, brainless pony ideology!”

>>Well, looks like my ‘neighzi theory’ had something to it,<< I thought, picking up the Beast. The head was still smeared with Adebar’s blood. Like the rest of me. Deciding to clean myself a bit, my gaze lingered at the dead griffin, his sword still piercing his chest.

“Hey, could you please cremate him too?” I asked the dragon lady, motioning to the warrior’s corpse.

“Why?” the black dragoness asked visibly puzzled.

“Because he deserved a burial but I don’t have a shovel,” was my answer.

With a shrug, the dragoness came over and did what I asked her to do. In the meantime I cleaned myself and had the first real opportunity to check my face for changes. I was not surprised that my facial skin had turned black too. What surprised me a little was that it was now really hard to see my mouth when it was closed or details like my eyebrows. Another thing were my eyes. Like in the game, my eyes had lost their natural blue green-ish coloration and instead they were now two ominously glowing orbs of light with a yellowish hint. At least my hair had kept its dark blonde color and length. A big, black head appeared in the waters reflection over my shoulder.

“Soo, what are you? Never seen anything like you before. You´re not a Diamond Dog and obviously not a Pony. But you’re no Dragon either,” The dark colored dragoness asked with an unmistakable hint of curiosity. “Are you really a demon?”

I chuckled. “You could say that I guess.”

“Huh? You guess?” she pulled me on my feet and turned me around to face her. “You are or you are not! There is no guessing!” she huffed with a hint of annoyance.

That made me think.

Here I was, a once human woman, now with the appearance and the skills of Evil incarnate. I just had slaughtered two griffins and curb stomped an admittedly mad unicorn to death. Yes, that should qualify me as ‘a demon’.

“Hey, someone home?” A claw poked against my chest piece to gain my attention.

Brushing a lock of my bangs behind my ear, I finally answered the waiting dragoness.

“Yes. I am a demon.”

Giving me a big, toothy smile, the female dragon offered me a claw which I shook. Just because one is a monster, there is no reason to abandon all manners, is it?

“Sick! Never meet a demon before but you seem kinda cool. Plus, you don’t take shit from no one. Wanna, dunno, hang out together for a bit?” she asked, trying to sound as cool and casual as possible but something in my mind told me that there was something else behind this question. But that could wait for later, for it looks like I would be here for a while.

“Sure, why not? Let’s hang,” I responded with a casual smile.

“Cool, my name’s Onyx by the way. What’s yours demonette?”

Good question there sister. I could hardly use my human name anymore. Sara the demon, yeah right. I needed something new, something more befitting for a monster like me. Something dark, yet elegant. Something you don’t need fifteen tongues for to pronounce it properly.

Something like…

“Umbra.”

Author's Notes:

Phfew, long chapter this time. Hope you folks can enjoy.

Okay, time to hit the hay.

Edit: Because lotsa German in this chapter (and because someone waved a fencepost at me), now with translations.

Battle scene improvements made by ArreClonClipo. Give some applause.