Author's Notes:

All right, this chapter is far from perfect but so much has time has passed since I started this thing I just wanted to get it done so I could move on. I mean, the people of Nirn haven't even met the princesses yet and that's going to be a whole other thing. Most of the refugees are going to be Nords, of course, but Dunmer and Khajiit will be close seconds from the Grey Quarter and the Khajiit caravans. Luna's going to be in for a surprise when she has several dozen cat creatures worshiping her!

Chapter X- Monsters vs Aliens

Bastian felt like a fool. It was not because of the fact that he, a full grown man in his twenties was riding a tiny green pony with his knees nearly touching his chin. No, that realization would come later. He felt like a fool because he left the people he had been spending the past several years of his life trying to protect alone in an unknown alien world. If something happened to them their blood would be on his hands. Surely whatever he dragged them into couldn’t be worse than an immortal, soul eating dragon right? Right? Bastian couldn’t say. It had been a very odd day, which brings us back to the little green pony that was carrying the mage on his back.

“There! Turn there!” Bastian said pointing with his staff.

“Kay!” Wally nodded and veered off to the left. He jumped down the slope and slid in the mud on the bank of the little river with Twilight and the others right behind them.

“Where are your friends?” Twilight panted as Bastian dismounted Wally.

“There, just across the river.” Bastian said.

Another roar pierced the forest and the ponies gasped.

“W-what was that?” Fluttershy whimpered. “I’ve never heard anything like it!”

“I have.” Bastian said.

“What is it? Is it something dangerous?” Twilight asked nervously.

“Oh yes.” Bastian said. “Very.”

Across the river came the sound of splintering wood. Two trees fell away and a massive, scorpion-like creature slid down the incline with Shahk the Orc clinging onto its back, roaring in rage. Clenched in the monster’s left claw, a Knight Brother struggled to escape. The creature shook its body trying to cast off its green assailant but to no avail. Behind them came the rest of the Blades, Meadow Sweet, Whisper Wind, Summer Shudder and what seemed to be a dozen new Everfree Rangers. The Blades had their weapons drawn and ready, hesitantly circling around the creature trying to find a spot to strike that wasn’t completely covered in armor.

“W-what the hay is THAT thing?!” Rainbow Dash stammered.

Twilight’s eyes widened and she balked at the sight of the monster. She felt her blood run cold.

“I-It’s a Serket! It’s a Serket!” Twilight exclaimed. “I’ve read about them in the Canterlot archives. They’re a race of creatures that lived in Equestria thousands of years ago. But they’re supposed to be extinct!”

“Not ta undermine yer studies Twi, but that don’t seem to be the case here.” Applejack said as the creature snapped its free pincer at a Khajiit warrior.

“Whatever happens, we CAN’T let that thing out of the forest.” Twilight said. “Ponyville, maybe all of Equestria would be in danger! We have to stop it!”

“I’ve written fanfics like this…” Wally whispered excitedly.

“Then let’s go!” Bastian said.

With a wave of his hand, a section of the river froze over, forming a makeshift bridge.

“You said you didn’t have super powers!” Wally exclaimed.

“Wally, let it go.” Applejack said as they ran across the bridge.

“Kay!”

“Woo-hoo!” Pinkie cheered as she slid across the ice.

Across the river, the Serket rose as high as it could on its legs and shook itself violently, finally casting Shahk off of its back and sending the Orc rolling along the ground.

“Release me you devil!” The Knight Brother shouted slamming his mace along the creature’s claw.

The Serket held him in front of its face, almost as if it was studying the new life form quizzically. The Nord spat in the Serket’s face and the creature’s eye narrowed. It then began to squeeze the Nord in retaliation, its pincers sharper than any razor. The Nord screamed in pain as the claws cut through his armor and into his flesh. Just as he thought he heard Sovngarde beckon him, there was a blur of pink and a loud clang as something landed on the Serket’s head.

“Hi there! I’m Pinkie Pie!” The pink pony said kneeling down to the captive Nord. “This is so neat! I’ve never seen so many aliens in one place before, well except for at my family’s rock farm at night when everypony else is asleep.”

She began to bounce up and down on the Serket’s head and the Nord stared in bewilderment.

“They used to come by every other week or so and just hover there in the air above the northern field. They didn’t do anything; they just sort of hung out. Ha ha! Get it? Hung out? Anyway, one night I go out there and I’m like, “Listen buddy, if you guys are going to just fly there and gawk at our rocks, I’m going to have to start charging you!” Never saw them again after that. Say, you guys haven’t been out by the Pie Farm have you?”

The Serket aimed his free claw over its head and fired three green tentacle-like appendages out of his claw. They wrapped themselves around Pinkie Pie and lifted her into the air.

“No Serket-Dono! Yamate!” Pinkie cried.

“This IS my fanfic!” Wally exclaimed.

A Dunmer clad in leather armor darted forward and leapt into the air. There was a flash of steel as his sword cut into the binds that held Pinkie Pie. He grabbed her in midair and the two landed in the mud behind the Serket. However, the Dunmer seemed to forget just how heavy ponies are and when they landed, was immediately crushed under a mass of pink.

“Arigato!” Pinkie said hopping off of the Dunmer.

The Serket howled in pain, a horrible noise that sounded like a metallic screech. It released his grasp on the Nord who fell to the ground and quickly scrambled away. His brothers were quick to launch a counter attack. They charged forward and lashed out with their weapons, wildly striking it over and over again. Rainbow Dash teamed up with a pair of Pegasus ponies that included Whisper Wind and began an aerial assault. They flew high into the air and came straight down on the Serket’s back, gaining blinding speed and letting out a fierce battle cry that even the Nords would later admit was pretty impressive. Applejack, Wally and Meadow Sweet charged and bucked the creature with their hooves as hard as they could nearly knocking the creature over as Twilight sent a volley of magical energy bolts over their heads and Summer Shudder sent a continuous blast of cold energy from her horn. Bastian complemented their assault by doing what he did best; using his environment to his advantage. Tree limbs and large rocks littered the ground and using telekinesis he lifted them into the air and sent them flying at the Serket, each strike dazing it and allowing the warriors to continue their attack. Though they gave it their best effort, the combined assault seemed to do little more than anger the Serket. The Serket’s pincers clasped and it swung its tail in a wide arc, knocking several Blades down and sending a glob of green goo flying through the air. It met with a large rock that Bastian had thrown and melted it almost instantly.

“Oh how marvelous!” Heciri said as another projectile of acid sailed over his head. “It spits acid now! Would anyone care to aggravate it further and see what else it can do?”

“I have something that can aggravate it.” Faendal said from his perch in a tree.

The Bosmer was hanging upside down from a tree limb, arrow nocked and ready to fire. Though the Serket’s movements were jerky and erratic, the Bosmer’s golden brown eyes followed them effortlessly. He let out a slow breath to steady his aim and fired his arrow. The Dwemer arrow whistled through the air like a bottle rocket, leaving a smoke trail behind it. Faendal’s eyes widened as the arrow that had been specially designed to puncture dragon scales bounced off of the Serket’s body and flew into a tree before bursting into flames. The Serket took notice of the attack, grabbed a large stone in one of its pincers, and hurled the rock at Faendal with the force of a cannon ball. The Bosmer dropped from his perch with a cry and rolled along the ground as the rock shattered against the tree and sent the limb tumbling to the ground with a thunderous crack.

“Well…” The Bosmer said. “That’s not good.”

The Serket then turned its attention to Bastian. Bastian brought up a shield of magical energy just as one of the Serket’s claws jabbed out at him. The force of the attack knocked Bastian off balance broke his concentration. The Serket seized the chance to lash out with its other claw, intending to gore the young Breton on its pincers.

“I got ya buddy!” Wally cried out.

The earth pony pulled a watermelon out of a pouch on his vest. Just how the melon could fit, no one could say. He threw it into the air, jumped after it, bit through it and landed in front of Bastian. Wally inhaled a lungful of air and began spitting seeds with the force of a machine gun. The seeds hit the creature’s eye and caused it to roar in anger and pain. It covered its face with one of its pincers and swung the other one in front of it trying to strike the pony down.

“Better move!” Wally said. “That thing looks really mad now!”

He grabbed the back of Bastian’s robes in his mouth and jumped away as the Serket’s stinger drove into the earth.

“Wally!” Applejack cried. “How in Equestria did you do that?!”

“Easy AJ!” Wally said letting Bastian unceremoniously plop into the mud. “For the past few years I have been studying under Grand Master Shen (gong), leader of Grand Master Shen’s dojo of the martial arts and dry cleaning back home! Under his tutelage I can concentrate all of my ki, or life energy if you will, into a single point, such as one of my hooves, or in this case, my mouth. Using this technique I fired a barrage of seeds from my melon and struck the monster right in his gross squishy eye, allowing me to jump in and save the day!”

“Y-you did what now?” Applejack asked.

“I spit seeds at ‘im!” Wally declared.

“But you hurt it.” Bastian said standing up. “Your attack got through!”

“Uh, duh? Armored bosses weakness is like, almost always the eye.” Wally said.

“So you knew this and didn’t say anything?” Bastian asked angrily.

“Didn’t realize you needed me to tell you how to fight monsters, buddy.” Wally said.

Heciri snorted.

“Thanks.” Bastian said growled.

“Don’t mention it buddy!”

“J’Dado!” Shahk yelled. The Serket’s tail struck a Pegasus that flew a little too low and sent it spiraling to the ground. “Get your fuzzy ass down here and help us kill this damned thing!”

A Khajiit wearing a suit of leather armor with dozens of pouches on the vest and a thick fur collar sat in a tree high above the fighting.

“This one is fine up here muthsera!” J’Dado called from the relative safety of his tree. “Do not worry about J’Dado! This one has total faith in you!”

“If you don’t get down here right now I’ll skin you alive and use your tail as a belt!” Shahk roared.

“Now that it just unnecessary!”

“It seems the moons blessed me with the courage as well as the looks brother!” J’Zargo said sending a blast of flames at the Serket from his palms. “Just focus on keeping Ubaarji safe huh?”

The fur collar on J’Dado’s vest moved at the mention of its name. It was a small tabby cat with yellow eyes and a small scar on its left ear. It yawned, stretched and looked up at her brother quizzically.

“It’s fine little sister, go back to sleep.” He said stroking her head.

The cat looked down at the fight below, yawned again and curled back up against her brother’s neck.

“We can’t keep fighting it like this!” Bastian said. “We’re just going to tire ourselves out!”

“None of our attacks are even hurting it!” Lielle said. “What are we supposed to do?”

“It’s not invulnerable.” Bastian said. “Wally injured it by attacking the eye and when Resven cut those tentacles with his sword it cried out in pain. I think its body is just armor. There’s something inside of that creature. Something we can destroy. We just have to find a way to penetrate its defenses.”

“Easier said than done.” Haala said. “Nothing has worked. Fire, frost, lightning! Even acid!”

“My illusions haven’t affected it either.” Heciri said. “I can’t charm it, calm it or even send it into a frenzy to make mistakes. I’ve been able to make it strike phantom targets but that’s all.”

“If we don’t bring this varmint down, our friends in Ponyville won’t stand a chance.” Applejack said stomping a hoof to the ground.

“What-ville?” Lielle asked.

“Now wait just a minute!” Fluttershy exclaimed in horror. “Are you talking about- about killing it?!”

The pony whispered the “k-word” as if it was the ultimate taboo.

“Fluttershy, this isn’t an animal having a temper tantrum.” Twilight explained. “The Serket were, well, are a race of creatures that went to war with the Alicorns a long time ago. The archives didn’t say much because even the Alicorns didn’t know much about them. They just sort of appeared. They’re evil and given the chance this thing would destroy everything in its path.”

“Five of my men have already fallen to the beast.” Shahk said. “I’ll be damned to Oblivion before I lose another.”

“My baby sister is in Ponyville Ms. Fluttershy.” Wally said seriously. “I’m not letting that monster anywhere near her. If we have to destroy that thing to keep her and everypony else safe then that’s what we’ll have to do.”

“And Sweetie Belle!” Rarity said.

“All of our friends and family are in danger if we can’t stop this thing.” Twilight said.

“But- but-“

“Haala, before I left Winterhold to get the heart did you say you were working on the ray of disintegration spell?” Bastian asked.

“Ray of disintegration?” Twilight asked.

“It’s exactly what it sounds like.” Haala said.

“Sounds awesome!” Wally said.

“It’s an extremely powerful and complicated spell.” Haala said. “Yes I was studying it, but I’m not sure if I can pull that off Bas. There’s something… wrong here. I feel more drained than I should, like my magicka isn’t returning to me, at least not as fast as it should.”

“I know.” Bastian said. “I feel it too. But we have to bring this thing down. We did not come all this way just to be destroyed by another monster in another world. Lielle, give whatever magicka potions you have left to Haala. We’ll draw its attention while you gather your energy. Heciri, can I count on you to give us support?”

“I’ve been carrying all of you for the past several years. Why stop now?” He asked.

“If you’re sure Bastian.” Haala said. “We may only get one shot at this.”

“Then don’t miss.” Bastian said.

“When you’re ready, I might know a spell that can hold it in place giving you chance to a chance to-“ Twilight took a glance at a distraught Fluttershy. “-to do what you need to do.”

“Let’s not waste any more time then.” Bastian said.

Golden flames appeared in Heciri’s hands.

“Well?” He asked. “What are we waiting for?”

They ran to meet their opponent for the second time. Rarity and Pinkie Pie served as distractions, jumping around and dodging the Serket’s attacks while the warriors flanked and the mages bombarded the Serket with spells.

“Yoo-hoo!” Rarity called out waving her tail. “Over he-ere!” The Serket swung and she ducked down.

“Oh! Watch the mane!” She snapped. “I realize we are fighting but that’s no excuse for rudeness!”

A lightning bolt struck the beasts side and Shahk slammed his hammer into it. Pinkie Pie giggled as she jumped around making faces at the creature which only served to increase the Serket’s frustration. A fire ball struck the top of its tail and exploded on impact, staggering the creature and allowing a Nord to actually drive his sword into a crease in its armored hide. The Serket hissed and scuttled backwards away from the warriors, showing fear for the first time since the battle began.

“Faendal! Multiply!” Lielle said.

The Bosmer nodded and fired a single arrow straight up into the air. Lielle cast a spell and the sky darkened as one arrow became twenty. They all rained down on the Serket, each one exploding on impact with its body.

“Almost ready!” Haala said.

The Dunmer was surrounded by several glowing red arcane symbols, bathing her in a harsh red light. Her eyes glowed and sweat dripped down her brow as she pushed her body further than she ever had before. She was past the point of no return now. The spell would destroy something. Whether she was about to destroy the monster or herself, she did not know. Twilight’s horn glowed as she began to cast her containment spell. She had never used it on such a large creature before and she wasn’t sure if it would work. A field of magical energy appeared around the Serket’s legs, holding it in place. The Unicorn’s horn sparked in resistance and she gritted her teeth against the strain as the Serket fought back. The immobilized Serket flung its tail and sent a blob of acid towards the Unicorn.

“Twilight!” Rainbow yelled.

“I can hold it!” Twilight said not realizing what her friend meant.

Rainbow Dash kicked off from the ground and flew towards her friend and scooped her into the air, the ground exploding in a pool of acid a second later. Twilight’s spell broke and the Serket took its chance. It charged forward and barreled past the warriors, heading straight for the wizards, straight for the first target it could see.

“Lielle!” Bastian yelled running to her.

“No!” Heciri cried.

Lielle screamed. There was a sound of ripping cloth and tearing flesh. Lielle fell backwards and looked up as the Serket’s tail pierced Bastian’s chest. Blood pooled the ground.

“Gods no!” Lielle cried tears streaming down her face.

The Serket lifted its tail into the air and flung Bastian to the ground with a slam. There was a burst of light and all that remained was a pile of glowing dust and Bastian’s cloak.

“A- A mirage?” Lielle gasped.

Bastian appeared behind the creature. Using the last bit of magicka he had left in him, he sent a continuous blast of lightning from his hands, shocking the creature into submission. Lielle, thinking quickly, conjured thick sticky spider webs at the creatures feet while Twilight quickly resumed her containment field and Faendal begin firing arrow after arrow at the Serket, each one sending magical ropes snaking along its body and tying it down.

“Haala!” Bastian yelled. “Do it now!”

Haala pointed a single finger at the Serket and fired her spell. Her robes billowed behind her as a ray of blood red energy sprang forth from her fingertip, flew past the mages and hit the Serket in the center of its exposed eye. The Serket let out a final ear splitting shriek that overpowered the hollow explosion that came from within its shell as its body disintegrated. The creature crumbled to ash.

It was over.