My Little Pony: The Guardians of Equestria
by Laci the Hunter
First published
Dinosaurs are invading and populating Equestria. As pony and dinosaur folk alike learn how to co-exist, an ancient threat that dates back to the creation of Equus awakens it will take both sides to defeat it once more.
As the time and reign of the dinosaurs draws to a close, it is time for some great changes to happen on the world of Equus. The mighty reptiles of the distant world begin to appear all around Equestria and start their new lives there. Now the pony folk, and slowly every other country in the world, must learn how to co-exist with these mighty creatures. Some will accept them as friends, while others will reject them as monsters.
Meanwhile, an ancient evil that's been dormant since the All Mother created the world, begins to awaken, and with it it's desire for revenge. Now, not only must the pony folk gather their courage for this great battle, but the mighty dinosaurs must ban together as well to defeat this great evil. They must forfill their destinies as the Guardians of Equestria.
The life and times of the dinosaurs
Hehehahaha, soon all will know...death
Earth-Triassic era-250 000 000 B.C.-Arizona
Right now its the mid-dry season and plant life and water are starting to become less and less. At a drying river, a very peculiar creature is lumbering its way towards it, to have a nice, cool drink. This is Desmatosuchus, the only crocodile in existence that's an herbivore. It is quite large, armor covering the entirity of its back, even its belly is protected. Several large spikes come out of the sides of its body and the creature can sometimes use them to impale any clumsy, impatient or otherwise dumb predators that try to attack it.
Desmatosuchus
All around the riverbank, small lizards are performing their own mating rituals. These are Longisquama, primitive triassic lizards with long. colorful feathers on their backs. The males are mostly the ones with these long feathers, and every one of them keeps sticking them out and pulling back down, to flash their colors and attract a mate.
Logisquama
The bull Desmatosuchus isn't bothered in the least bit by these flashy little reptiles. In fact it finds seeing these little ones performing their mating rituals, quite fun to watch. However its body has its needs and so it must get to the water to drink and as it keeps pushing forward, the Longisquamas move away, so as to not get trampled.
But just as the male Longisquamas start performing their color flashed again, and as the bull finishes its drink, something scatters all the lizards away and puts the Desmatosuchus on edge. The bull looks to its right and sees an aprouching male Saurosuchus, one of biggest predators of the Triassic.
Saurosuchus
Having lost the element of surprise, the great predator now just walks closer towards it soon to be lunch, but the Desmatosuchus, doesn't give up without a fight. The herbivoris crocodile began growl at the predatorial foe, even flexing its shoulders to display its massive spikes.
However the monster croc wasn't even half intimidated, and simply kept advancing forward. The Desmatosuchus smashed its tail down onto the ground to try and further intimidate the opponent. But the Saurosuchus was done playing and therefor stood up on its hind legs and threw its entire front side on the Desmatosuchus. Now the predator was holding it's prey's head down with one paw, while the rest of the Desmatosuchus' body kept struggling to get free. Using this opportunity, the Saurosuchus used its free paw and stomped down on the herbivore's right spikes, breaking the much longer ones.
The Desmatosuchus had enough and used all of its brute strength to push the Saurosuchus off. Then it looked at the damage and was starting to think that maybe playing the tuff guy act with this croc wasn't such a good idea after all. Its train of thought was interrupted when it heard quickly advancing feet. As it turned its head, the last thing it saw was the massive maw of the Saurosuchus as it clamped its massive jaws around the Desmatosuchus' head.
The vegetarian croc struggled to try and get free, but the Saurosuchus only bit down harder, until there was a sickening crack and with one swift swing of the head, the predator ripped the Desmatosuchus' head right off. The headless body swayed back and forth for a little but, and blood gushed out of the area where the was once was, until it fell limp to the ground.
After swallowing the head, the Saurosuchus now rolled the body to the right and with its powerful jaws, began to crack open its belly armor and feast on its flesh.
The Saurosuchus was so engrossed in its meal, that it never noticed the weird, black mist aprouching from the horrizon. Even more bizzarly, strings of lighting sometimes appeared on it.
Earth-Jurassic era-150 000 000 B.C.-Europe-Tethys ocean
Although much of Europe is covered by the vast sea, known as the Tethys ocean, there are still some scattered islands here and there. And traveling from on to another to find food, is a lone Europasaurus.
Europasaurus
Although sauropods reach massive lenghts and can often travel between islands just by walking and keeping there heads up, the Europasaurus on the other hand is a much smaller species and must therefore swim, in order to keeps its head above the water.
Like with all sauropods, the Europasauru' best defence was it size, and more often its tail. But in the water many if not all land dwelling dinosaurs are vulnerable and no matter how big you are, in these jurassic waters, you must always watch out for danger.
Lurking just bellow the lone sauropod, is one the resident predators of these waters, the Plesiosuchus.
Plesiosuchus (creature is from 'Dinoshark')
This massive predator scenced the presence of the lone dinosaur for a while now and is been simply biding its time, waiting for the right moment to strike. Having waited long enough, the Plesiosuchus makes a sudden U turn upwards, straight toward the Europasaurus. As it got close enough, it opened its massive maw and bit down, hard, onto the sauropods left front leg.
The Europasaurus never saw it coming, it only felt something with sharp edges just ram straight into its leg, like a runaway fraitrain (if there even were any in the Jurassic period). Anyway, while the long necked herbivore struggled to get free, the Plesiosuchus was busy trying to get its free meal. Having enough of the struggle, the predator performed the legendary 'Death Role' and ripped the limb off the struggling dinosaur.
While the Europasaurus was hollering in pain and struggling to stay above the water with only three legs now, massive amounts of blood were coming out of the newly made wound. Meanwhile the Plesiosuchus was swimming away, the leg still in its mouth, being satisfied with what it got.
Soon other Plesiosuchy were beginning to swim closer to the crippled sauropod. Each of them took an individual bite out of the dinosaur, either tearing a chunk of flesh off, or holding the body still for others to feast. The Europasaurus knew full well, that it was slowly dying, and so it gave out one final cry of pain and defiance (towards Death himself), before a Plesiosuchus bit down on its neck, and ripping it in half.
As the feeding frenzy continued and blood was giving this section of the Tethys a new color, a grey-ish black mist, with lighting bolts crackling here and there, was slowly advancing towards...somewhere. Strangely enough, this same thing happened in the Triassic period too.
Earth-Cretaceous era-075 000 000 B.C.-Australia
Since Australia is supposed to be isolated in the 21st century, now it was connected to Antarctica. The climate is warm up north, while down south is freezing during winter.
On the really warm, deserty part of Australia lumbers perhaps the cutest dinosaur of its species. The Minmi.
Minmi
This small ankylosaurid is currently searching for something to eat, using its nose to 'see' the world around it. It wasn't worried at all by the threat of any predator, since it had the perfect defence mechanism. As it found, and soon began to feast on, a small patch of desert shrubs, its presence drew the attention of Australia's top land predator, the Australovenator, also nicknamed the dwarf Allosaurus.
Australovenator
This animal was also wandering around in the desert, in search of some good snacks. And it found one, although not one of its most favorites. In fact, when it comes to the Minmi, even the biggest preds would just go and try their luck with something else. But since the pickings are too slim in the territory, the Australovenator had no choice but to go along with this.
As the dwarf Allosaurus was getting closer, the little Minmi sensed it aprouching and then calmly did its family's and species' most famous defence strategy: lye down and take a nap. No, seriously, this is a common defence mechanism used by almost every ankylosaurid in the world. This way, the unprotected belly stays hidden and all the preds will get is a mouthful of bone spikes and armor.
Anyway, by the time the Australovenator got within close range of the Minmi, the little ankylosaurid was already fast asleep. Cursing under its breath in its native tongue, the dwarf Allosaur decided to try and flip it over. Now, as mentioned before, every and all preds, including Australos would simply avoid Minmis, especially when they do the whole 'defence sleep' thing, mainly because rolling them over is like trying to push a boulder. But the Australovenator knew that finding decent food in the desert is hard, and doing this sounded a lot better then hunting fast, little dinosaurs.
And so it lowered it snout and using its skull and powerful neck muscles, it began to push and as always it was hard. The Minmi sensed this and simply lifted its tail and began swinging it back and forth. The Australo saw this and stopped pushing, because it just hatched up an idea: it would grab the tail and pull the Minmi out that way. While it thought it was an ingenous plan, it would soon be proven 'painfully' wrong.
So it moved behind the half-sleeping dinosaur and tried to grab its tail. It missed a few times, until it finally caught it. It was painful though, since the bone spikes from its tail were hurting the inside of its mouth, but it pulled none the less. However the little dinosaur, felt that one and simply pulled its tail out with some added force and swung its tail at the Australos face once.
Normally that wouldn't be enough, but in this case it is enough to discourage the mighty predator. Having learned its lesson and having face scars to remember, the Australovenator was suddenly struck with heavenly wisdom: small fries sound good. While the Minmi simply got up and moved without a care in the world.
None of these creatures noticed the rapidly aprouching grey-ish black mist, heading their way.
Earth-Cretaceous era-075 000 000 B.C.-Hateg Island-Romania
Among the many island of Cretaceous Europe, there lies one island that is different from all the rest: Hateg Island. The reason for that, is because, due to the limited food supply here, many of the dinosaurs have shrunk in size and became dwarf-like.
On an open field, several miles inland, a heard of two resident herbivore dinosaur species formed a unified herd, both for mutual protection and because they where eating in the same place. The first of these dinosaurs, where Rhabdodons, small iguanodons, that seemed like pocket-sized versions of their inland cousins.
Rhabdodon
The second species of dinosaurs where the Telmatosaurus. These were duck-billed dinosaurs, and seeing at least one of them is like looking at an infant Hadrosaur.
Telmatosaurus
Although dinosaurs tend to stick with their own kind, when food is plentiful alliances tend to happen. And among these numerous plant devourers, almost completely hidden from sight, was a small ankylosaurid called Struthiosaurus.
Struthiosaurus
Just like others of its kind the Struthiosaurus always lumbers along with a large herd of dinosaurs, presumably for mutual protection. There is after all safety in numbers. But that, unfortunately doesn't apply when there are many hungry eyes watching you.
Among the bushes and trees, just a few yards away from the herd, was a pack of agile predators, that rained terror on all the island inhabitents: Balaur Bondoc.
Balaur
These creatures were also known as the romanian Velociraptors, since they, not only were the same size as the Velociraptors from Mongolia, but there were also some fizical similarities as well. But what made them stand out from other raptors, was the fact that they only had two fingures, and four toes, from which two had the signature curved claw of the family. Not only that, but they where also more muscularly built, a trait that's needed to bring down strong prey.
Their white and lime green feathers disguise them perfectly among the vegetation, allowing them to move in as close as possible, without being given away. The alpha male advanced a few short steps ahead of the pack, to see if he can get just a little bit closer. Getting as close a possible to their quarry was essential, because since they're more muscularly built, the Balaur can't run for very long like other raptors, only short bursts of speed.
But by a small accident, the alpha stepped on a stray branch on the ground, and this got the the attention of the Rhabdodon that was the furthurest from the herd. It raised it head and saw the head of the alpha poke out of the bush. With this in mind it raised the front half of its body and gave a loud holler, alerting everyone else. Realizing that their cover is blown, the raptor boss signaled the pack to move out, but so did the herd.
A dozen or so panicked heads were now running for their lives in a straight line. The Struthiosaurus was left behind, because running was never necessary for his kind, because of the armor. The raptors themselves ignored that lumbering tank and ran after the herd.
When he got close enough, the alpha spotted a Rhabdodon that was slowly getting left behind, most likely because of sickness or old age. The pack made a crescent moon pattern when they got close enough, cutting out any escape routs. The alpha took his chance and ran up a fallen tree that stood in a diagonal position. The alpha ran up the tree and when it got to the end, it jumped down, landing on the Rhabdodon's back.
Then the herbivore stopped and was now thrashing around, harder then a bull in a rodeo. But the alpha used his sharp hand claws and the curved blades on his feet to anchor him to the Rhabdodon's body, while also doing some major damage. Meanwhile the rest of the pack stopped as well and began attacking the dinosaur. They were using an ancient technique, passed down the raptor line for millions of years, known as the 'Slash and Dash' technique. They would run up to the Rhabdodon, slash at it with their claws, then dash to safety.
The Rhabdodon was in excrutiating pain, and it was enraged that it couldn't even counterattack the raptors. Just when its rage reached a boiling point, one of the raptors wanted to try its luck and attack the chest area. But then the little iguanodontid swung its left paw, and not only did it stab the raptor with its thumbspike, but it knocked the predator to a nearby tree, where its back hit the bark hard, with a sickening crunch sound, and it fell limp on the ground.
Now the raptors were the ones who were pissed, especially the alpha, since the thing they had to kill together, kill one of them instead. Now the Balaurs attacked even more relentlessly and the alpha, still on the Rhabdodon's back bit down as hard as it could on the dinosaurs neck. The Rhabdodon just wasn't giving up, and so throwing in his trump card, the alpha unlatched his left foot, angled it to the front of the Rhabdodon's neck, and using his double blades, made a double, deep horizontal slash across the dinosaurs neck.
The Rhabdodon kept struggling a little bit more, while blood just squirted out of its fresh wound, like an artezian fountain, and the raptor stopped and backed up. After a few more moments, the alpha jumped off the Rhabdodon as it fell limp onto the forest floor, in a huge bloody mess.
This would be a triumphant moment for the pack, but the moment just turned sorrow. The pack went to where their fallen comrad was and saw that its back was in an unnatural angle and a small pool of blood was coming out of its mouth. The raptors stood there for a moment, before some of them gathered some fallen branches with leaves still on them, and placed them over the dead raptor, as if burying it.
The raptors then backed up and formed a half circle once more, and then they all reared their heads back and gave out a howl-like screech into the air, while streams of tears escaped their eyes. Their dead pack member was given an honorable burial.
The moment, however would be interrupted soon by the arrival of that all to familiar mist.
Earth-Cretaceous era-065 000 000 B.C.-South Dakota
In an open area covered in volcanic soil and where only a few trees and bushes can be seen in the distance, the body of a dead Anatotitan was being devoured by the most advanced dinosaur that has ever lived and will continue to until humans will bring its demise: the dragon, or as the humans have learned to call it, the Wyvern.
Wyvern (creature is from syfy's 'Wyvern')
The Wyvern was enjoying its latest kill after a well planned out, succesfull hunt: first it flew in low towards the herd of unsuspecting dinosaurs, causing mayhem and panic, then it would isolate one member of the heard (it didn't care if it was healthy, sick, old or strong), then it would use its *ahem* secret weapon to cut off its escape rout and it would then attack like an eagle and kill it almost immediately.
So now it was feasting happily, but it should keep an eye and ear out for trouble, like any good hunter should, but it wasn't. Big mistake. Suddenly it heard and felt slight vibrations under its feet and folded wings. At first it suspected to be an earthquake, but the vibrations only lasted a couple of seconds until another followed. They were like footsteps, big ones. The Wyvern smelled something off in the air, and it looked forward, and there he was. Slowly walking towards the dragon, like a lion preparing an ambush, saliva dripping from its massive, three meter long jaws, and red eyes like a pair of deep blood pools. This was the dinosaur king himself, Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Tyrannosaurus Rex
It's entire body was blood red, save for its head, which was a ghostly white, like it was depicting its skull. This was a male, a bull, and he carried many battle scars on his entire body, clear signs that serve as warnings for others not to aprouch.
The Wyvern saw the T. Rex a few yards away from it, and thinking that he wanted what it had, the prehistoric dragon decided to try and intimidate him, by opening up its giant, bat-like wings to seem bigger and badder. But the male Rex didn't buy it and instead it slightly picked up the pace and growled at its adversary.
The dragon predicted this might happen, so it thought of a quick and efficient plan B. It dropped its wings to the ground, to anchor its body down, gathered some air through its mouth and shot its head forward releasing a large wave of fire towards the mighty king. However the monster Rex saw that coming a mile away, just by looking at his opponent's movements. He simply sidestepped and ran directly to the Wyvern.
The dragon in question flapped its wings to both start flying and make a gust of wind that could discourage the Rex. But that didn't work either, and when the Tyrannosaurus got within striking distance, it clamped its massive jaws onto the Wyvern's left wing, right where the shoulder is. The dragon hollered in pain and tried to shake him off, it even used the massive spike on its tail and stabbed the Rex's side, but that failed as well.
The Tyrannosaurus ignored the pain and with one thrust of his head, he dettached the wing from the rest of the body. The sheer power of the thrust was enough to throw the dragon a few feet away. The Rex dropped the wing and turned to the dragon as it was roaring to the Heavens in pain and blood gushing out of the fresh wound. The Wyvern then threw its head down and blew another wave of fire, this time surprising the T. Rex.
The Rex only had a few seconds to move out of the way, before being turned to cinders. He quickly moved to his left, and while he still lived, the fire did leave some pretty bad scorch marks on the right side of his face. Now the Rex hollered in both pain and anger, and was just about ready to finish the Wyvern off. He looked to its direction, noticing that it had its head held low, and breathing heavily, as if panting out of exhaustion, most likely from the lose of a lot of blood from its missing limb.
The dragon heard and felt heavy footsteps again, and as it looked up, the last thing it saw was the opened maw of the T.Rex lunging down at its neck. The dragon was in trouble now, 'cause once a Rex grabs something in its mouth it won't let go. The Wyvern tried to use its tail again, but the Rex meraly stomped on it and squished it under his weight.
After about two minutes of struggling, the Tyrannosaurus simply used its powerful bite force and broke the Wyvern's neck. As it fell limp to the ground, the Rex raised his head and gave a mighty roar, that sounded all over the territory. Then he lowered his head back down, ripped open the dragon and tore out its liver and ate it. The bull didn't kill the dragon for food, for invading his territory, or just out of fun, no he did it for one reason, the one reason he managed to survive for for all these years: revenge. But that's a story for another time.
After he swallowed the last of the dragon's liver, he was about to eat the rest of the body up, until something strange caught his eye. He saw in the horizon the very same grey-ish black mist that appeared in the Triassic, Jurassic and the early periods of the Cretaceous. It was rapidly aprouching, and he sensed something was wrong, so as a last resort, the mighty dinosaur king gave out one final roar of deffiance, until the mist engulfed him completely.
Although the dinosaurs were a thriving race, that ruled the Earth for more then 150 000 000 years, their days had soon come to an end. But it wasn't because of some giant space rock the size of mount Everest. No, it was because of that accursed mist that, bizzarly enough, appeared in the same time all around the world, in every era of the Mesozoic.
The strangest thing however, is where did it originate from. And funny enough, it came from the most unlikely of worlds.
Equus-1001 C.R. (Celestia's Reign)-Equestria-Canterlot
Before the mist appeared on Earth
Within the vast country of Equestria, lies the capital city of Canterlot, where the two royal sisters, Princess Celestia of the Sun and Princess Luna of the Moon, lived. Right now it was night time and, as usual, Luna stayed up to guard the night, and have a bit of fun looking into other ponies nightmares and banishing them back to the Ether.
After making sure that every star and constelation was in the right place, she decided to go and visit Scootaloo in her dreams and see how she was doing. But just before she could do anything, a sudden earthquake hit the mountain city. Luna flapped her wings and hovered above the balcony, to see what's gonna happen and in case somepony needed her help.
Underneath the city, within the long abandoned crystal caves that were once used to be a dungeon that housed the baddest of the bad in Equestria, there was a massive disturbance. As the earthquake shook the caves violently, every single crystal, in every single cavern began to create sparks of electricity, similar to lightning, and what appeared to be smoke was forming inside the large minerals as well.
After a full minute, this disturbance reached its climax, and suddenly there was a blast of energy, and a gigantic shockwave appeared around Canterlot Mountain and had spread very quickly across the land. Strangely enough, not only was nopony hurt or any objects destroyed by the wave, the earthquake abruptly stopped, as if it was waiting for this and then left.
Luna then landed back on the balcony, and before she could do or think of anything else, a voice from behind her suddenly spoke:
"Luna, are you alright? What happened?"-Luna turned her head and noticed the owner of the voice to be Celestia, who was walking towards her little sister with a worried look on her face. Seeing this the princess of the night answered:
"We are fine sister, truly we are. But there are more pressing matters at hoof here: first of all there was this mysterious earthquake that appeared out of nowhere, then there was that sudden shockwave that came from the mountain and the quaking stopped. I do not understand sist..."-anything else she wanted to say was stopped, when she saw her sister walk past her and look out into the distance.
Right now she would think that Celestia would be looking down to the city, worried that there might be injured ponies needing medical attention. But as she got to her sister's side, Luna saw that Celestia was looking out into the night horizon, with a distant look on her face.
"Tia?"-Luna asked, being worried for her older sibling, and this got Celestia out of her thoughts, and she looked back to her sister, giving her the best warm smile she could counjer right now and said:
"I'm fine Lu."-even though Celestia adressed Luna by her old pet-name, the night princess still wore a worried look on her face. But as if ignoring this, the princess of day turned back to the direction she was looking to and spoke, in an almost cold and monotonious tone-"But something big is coming our way. Something very big."
And at that moment she remembered the weird dream she had before all this happened.
Celestia's bed chamber-just before the earthquake
Celestia was sound asleep, and was now visiting the dream realm like everyone else. Only this time she was sturing in her sleep, her dream showing images of creatures she's never seen before in her past lifes and a mysterious voice kept on repeating one word. One word that would ultimately change the fate of Equus itself.
...dinosaur...
Let the extinction begin.
Author's Notes:
Yo what's up everyone. This is you friendly neighberhood huntsman bringing you another, thrilling, exciting, action packed, adventure packed story once more.
This is technically supposed to be a spin-off of My Little Pony - The Age of Dinosaurs by StrangeBehavior.
A quick sidebar the reason I added the Dinoshark and the Wyvern was because they were both epic, so I wanted to put them somewhere and this seemed the right place.
Also, I will use pics of dinosaurs only and ONLY when I showcase them. I'm aiming to make them as presentable as possible and awesome as possible.
Well, I'll see you guys next time and don't worry, I'l try to update as fast as possible. Chiao!
New world, new comers
A crimson eye shot open. The eye looked around, taking in its new surroundings. When it bellieved that the coast was clear, it signaled the brain, to signal the rest of the body to move.
The eye belonged to a peculiar creature. It ad the appearance of a very large ground hawk, with slender fingers ending in long claws jutting out of the 'wings', strong legs with a large sickle shaped claw on each third foot, a long tail ending in a fan of blackish feathers. It was covered in feathers with the color scheme being orange and brown. It also had a large skull, with jaws filled with razor-sharp teeth, instead of a beak. This was one of the formidable predators from Mongolia, one that rivaled the infamous Utahraptor of North America: the Achillobator.
Achillobator
This fearsome raptor was a male, and from the looks of the three (albiet healed) claw marks from his right side, he was an expirianced veteran. This raptor also went by a name of his own; Casuar. Although some would laugh at the almost irony of it, he carried his name proudly and with honor.
Casuar rose up from his lied down position. After regaining his footing he shook his head and looked around. He saw that he was in some sort of desert, but there was something wrong here. After looking around one more time, Casuar spoke in his native language:
"Where am I? How did I even get here?"-he then closed his eyes and began to concentrate-"I think I remember..."
Several hours prior-070 000 000 B.C.-Mongolia
As the sun slowly ascended to the very center of the sky, a lone Achillobator, Casuar, was walking through an oasis of trees, head held low and wounds, both fizical and mental, deep.
Several hours ago, he and his pack brought down a young dinosaur to feast upon, as reward for having to wait for a potential meal for two days straight. His pack consisted of three childhood hunting mates, his younger brother, Quick Strike, and his mate Shaila. They were known as the Black Claw clan, a name chosen by Quick Strike in honor of his brother, since his claws were unusually black, as if a fire burned them. Not even Casuar knew why his claws were like that, in fact they were pretty much like this, ever since he hatched. Quick Strike respected Casuar greatly, because as hatchlings they sometimes got into trouble with other preds, rogue raptors, or even some of the jerkier members of their father's pack, and when that happened, Casuar would always get the both of them out of said trouble whether by running away as fast as possible, or by fighting their way through. For this Quick Strike had looked up to him for a very long time, and because Casuar respects his brother as well for his tactical support, he decided to respect Quick Strike's request.
But as they were gorging on their meal, Casuar suddenly jerked his head up, sensing something off. Quick Strike noticed his brothers sudden action and pulled his head out of the dead dinosaurs belly, face covered in blood, and lifted his head up as well, in order to meet Casuar's gaze. Although that would be a little bit difficult, since Casuar stood a full head taller then Quick Strike.
"Brother what's wrong? What do you sens?"
"Trouble. Be prepared."-Casuar answered stoicly as always, but even Quick Strike could notice the worry in his brother's eyes so he got himself ready for trouble.
And trouble found them, in the form of a rogue Auchillobator, that was boldly aprouching the Black Claw clan. The other raptors sensed the new threat also, and they all raised their heads to see the new foe. The raptor in question was a male, who had several scars all across his fleshy neck, his right eye had a vertical scar going through it and his left hand was missing. This clearly a guy, whose appearance alone said 'I'm the one that got away. And the one you don't fuck with.'.
Sensing that this guy's bad news, Casuar catiously stepped forward and was about to ask him his name, until the new guy spoke up first:
"Are you Black Claw Casuar?!"-this wasn't his full name, just something everyone came up with, but nevertheless Casuar nodded sharply and with that the stranger continued-"Then I challenge you to a duel! The prize: your pack and your mate."
Casuar didn't really like where this was going, because when his pack was still forming its fame, after about four or five fights with rogues or other alphas, no one challenged him ever again afterwards. However, he knew that he had to accept the challenge, or else he would dishonor both his pack and his father. So he looked directly at his opponent with rigurous determination, sprinkled with a little arrogance and self-confidence, and stated to the stranger:
"I accept your challenge!"-the stranger's maw formed into a faint smug grin, but it soon turned into frown after Casuar continued speaking-"But first, tell me your name stranger. It is costume for me to know my opponent's name before beginning our battle."
The stranger growled, but then he calmed down and said-"Very well. My name is Terror Slash. Now FIGHT!"-he stated sharply and quickly getting into a fighting position.
"As you wish."-Casuar calmly said as he too got into his own fighting stance.
They started by circling each other, while keeping their heads low, and their claws ready. Terror Slash made the first move, by charging in, jaws a blazin'. Of course Casuar saw this coming from a mile and a half away, so he just side stepped and kicked Slash's left side. The rogue raptor nearly tripped, but managed to keep his balance and kept going. He went for another frontal assault and the result was mostly the same, except that this time Casuar grabbed Slash's tail with his jaws and threw him back. He didn't fall that time either and just kept going on with the same attack.
As the two opposing raptors kept going at it, the Black Claw clan kept watching and while they were rooting for their fearless leader, one member of the pack, was focusing his sites on the opposing dino. Seeing Quick Strike so quiet and deep in thought Shaila, decided to ask out of curiosity:
"What is wrong Quick Strike? You seem troubled. Do you not have faith in your brother that he'll proveil?"
"It's not that Shaila. Not that at all."-said the young raptor, never taking his eyes off of Terror Slash-"It's just that, that rogue, Terror Slash, he's using the same attack over and over again, and all he does is fail every single time. You can't tell me that that isn't odd."
Now that Shaila heard it, she did find it weird that Slash would keep using the same attack and not succeed. However-"Perhaps that's the only way he knows how to fight. Many dinosaurs use only one kind of attack to achieve victory."
"Yes that would make sense for other dinosaurs, or if it were a rookie, but from what I can tell from his scars, I'd say he's no rookie, but a veteran, just like brother is. So why would he keep using the same attack, if he knows he'll keep failing?"-this time Quick Strike lowered his head and put his finger under his jaw and thought, and after a moment it finally dawned to him-"Unless..."
Meanwhile back in the fight, Terror Slash once again hit the dirt, as he received another kick from Casuar. Said raptor was now standing before the fallen fighter, and looked at him, like a tyrant would look down at a slave.
"You are persistent, I'll give you that much. But I hope you realize that your efforts are in vein."-Casuar said, his voice dripping with arrogance. But then he saw the edges of Terror Slash's muzzle almost curl up into a dinosaurs equivalent of a smile or smirk. Casuar looked surprised by this and Slash then said:
"No. They are not!"-he then used his right hand and brushed some dust up into the air, hitting Casuar's eyes in the process.
Casuar was now blind and was trying desperately to get the dust out of his eyes, but when he did he felt strong pain on his right side. When he looked he saw that Terror Slash was already up on his feet and he was in a position as if he just used his left hand to strike downwards. And unfortunately he did. Then the rogue raptor wirrled around smashed his tail into Casuar's face, making the leader raptor fall on his uninjured side.
Casuar, though still dazed by the sudden attacks, looked and saw Terror Slash looking down upon him and chuckling in an evil sorta way. Then the rogue spoke with as much arrogance as Casuar spoke earlier:
"Well, it looks like my plan did work after all. I was actually planning a fighting strategy that was more elaborate then this, but then it hit me: why waste my time with useless tactics, when I can just use your own arrogance against you!"-Casuar was shocked when he heard this, but Terror Slash continued-"You see, I knew you would just be full of confidence once the battle would commence, so I planned on having you fooled by using a single attack for a short period of time, then strike at the most critical moment. And now that my plan worked"-he lifted his left foot, readying his sickle claw-"PREPARE TO DIE!"
Casuar was prepared to face his demise with dignity and honor, but as his eyes were closed he heard the sound of another raptor in pain, but it sounded very close, like...right in front of him. Casuar then opened his eyes, only to see a sight that would haunt him forever: his brother, Quick Strike was standing right in front of him, with a tone of blood dripping from his front.
Casuar feared the worst and it was proven correct when his brother fell in front of him. Quick Strike had a massive gash from his neck's mid-section, to his chest, blood still oozing from the wound, creating a red pond. Casuar crawled to his little brother's side as best he could, and as the younger sibling coughed up some blood, he looked at Casuar in the eye and said his final, dying words:
"Strength...brother."-and then his eyes went blank, the spark of his soul faded away.
Casuar was now shedding tears of sorrow and was still looking at Quick Strike's limp body with guilt, but when he looked up and saw Terror Slash, the blood of his brother still on his claw, his eyes suddenly burned with primal rage, as he jumped forward and tried to slaughter his brother's murderer. But the combination of pain and Terror Slash quickly kicking him back down, made it impossible. Then he heard his rival say:
"Well, well, it seems your pack is more loyal to you then I thought. I wonder what would have happened if this small one hadn't gotten in the way?"-Casuar would have ripped this bastard to shreds for talking that way about his brother, if the pain wouldn't stop him.-"I ought to kill you right now and just be done with it. However...I am not a warrior without honor, and since this small one wanted you to live, I will respect his final wish. But as accordance to the rules of combat, since I defeated you, Black Claw Casuar, then your entire pack belongs to me."
After Terror Slash said his peace, Casuar looked into the direction of his pack, and saw the shocked faces of his pack mates, but the one look that truly caused him pain, was the look of his very mate, Shaila. He could also see large tears starting to fall from her big, beautiful eyes.
"Don't fret."-Terror Slash suddenly spoke once more-"I will take good care of your pack, and especially your precious mate."-he gave off an almost sadistic snicker, and Casuar was just about to get up and tear him a new one, but the rogue planted his foot onto his side, preventing him from getting up-"Now remember this, for I will say it but once: if I ever see you, within a mile away, I will kill your mate right in front of you, without any mercy, and afterwards the rest of your pack and then you. Understood?"-Casuar merely hissed at his victorious rival, but that didn't wipe that smirk off Terror Slash's face-"Perfect. See how well things an be solved without violence."-then he took his foot of the defeated raptor, turned his back to him, and walked to his new pack.
But after about ten steps, Terror Slash heard Casuar slowly getting up, and out of curiosity, he turned back to him, but came face to face with a look on Casuar's face that could freeze the blood of a Megaraptor. Then Casuar gave off a growling hiss and spoke to his rival:
"YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS YOU BASTARD! I will leave for now, but mark my words, even if it takes me a millenia, I will get stronger, and the next time we meet I WILL KILL YOU SO THAT YOU CAN BURN IN HELL!"-his words were spoken with such ferocity that Terror Slash's heart stopped for a moment and he was almost completely frozen stiff. But he composed himself and simply said:
"Dully marked."
In his present state of mind Casuar almost lundged at him, but held himself back and simply turned and limped away. But after a few steps he turned back to look at his pack for one last time. Then he saw the saddened and frightened face of his beloved mate, tears now flowing down her face, like waterfalls. Seeing his mate look at him this way only shattered his heart, but Casuar knew that in his current condition, he could not be able to protector her, and he knew that Terror Slash would kill her without a second thought. So he turned his head and continued limping away, tears flowing down his face as well.
After a completely restless night, Casuar now finds himself wondering the endless cretaceous plains, as anger and sadness still haunt his very soul. But he knew that he had to somehow get over this, so that he could become stronger and kill Terror Slash. But before he could so much as hatch a thought, he sensed something was amiss. So he lifted his head and saw a gigantic wall of grey-ish black mist, with lightning striking here and there. The wall of mist in question was heading towards him fast. Believing that this could be the end result of a nearby volcano, Casuar drew the conclusion that he will die as well, no matter how fast he'd run or how well he'd hide.
Bearing this dreadful thought in mind, Casuar just reared his head up, screeching in defiance towards the Heavens for denying him the chance to avenge his honor, his pack and most of all his little brother, as the mist swept over the entire land, along with him, and then his whole world went black.
Present time
And here Casuar stood, remembering every shred of detail that happened to him in the past several hours of his life. When his train of thought got to the part where Terror Slash, not only defeated him in front of his very pack, but also took said pack from him and used his mate as a hostage to secure his freedom, he clenched his teeth so hard one would think they would break at any moment. And when he remembered that his little brother was caught in the cross-fire and killed in the process by his rival, his rage got to a boiling point.
Unable to contain his rage any longer, Casuar reared his head back and cried out to the Heavens one again. His shrill screech was so lowed that every single creature in the area, alive or even dead, could hear it and it also sent deep chills into the very souls of lesser beings within the vicinity.
Having vented out most of his anger, and almost having his lounges explode in the process, he laid his head low while streams of fresh tears started flowing down his muzzle and fall onto the sand bellow. He felt so pathetic for not being able to protect his comrades, his mate Shaila, and most importantly he felt extremely guilty for letting his brother die. In his present state of mind, he had almost half the mind to just kill himself for his failure, but then he remembered the vow that he both made and declared to his rival: that he will become stronger, that he will hunt Terror Slash down and that he will send him straight down to Hell where he belongs. He then shook his head to get rid of the tears and looked into the sky and said:
“I swear to you, brother, I will become stronger, and I will avenge your death. I will make that bastard regret he ever met us in the first place. Shaila, my love, please wait for me a little longer. I promise, I will return.”
Having said his peace, Casuar took one more look around the area in which he was. It was a desert. Check. I mean, it was pretty obvious, since there were cliffs, rocks, shrubs and sand as far as the eye can see. Casuar was still clueless about what does this desert have to do with that weird mist that washed over him. But then he remembered something very crucial: he was feeling as fine as ever, when in fact he still had deep claw marks, curtesy of Terror Slash, and should be in pain right about now. He quickly looked at the spot where his wounds were, but saw something shocking: instead of deep, bloody, pain inducing wounds, he instead had three, dried scars.
He had a slight hunch, that this ‘rapid healing’ had something to do with that weird mist. But he decided to ponder about this at a later time, right now he had a more urgent matter to attend to: to quench his hunger. Because of his previous depression, he didn’t eat anything , not even a carcass that he’d occasionally pass by.
So, having this task in mind, he reared his head up once again, and began sniffing the air for potential prey. ‘There has to be something edible around here.’-Casuar debated in his mind.
Suddenly his nose picked up a familiar, yet in the same time, unfamiliar sent a bit further off from where he was standing. He followed the sent trail and when he came to the crest of a small sand dune, he saw something quite peculiar at the bottom.
It was a small dinosaur, of that much even he was certain of. But it was as small as a hatchling, covered in ash grey feathers with a few dark brownish-red splotches here and there. But the oddest thing about it was that it didn’t have any arms, or even hands for that matter. The only things that it had that showed that it had any frontal appandeges at all, were a pair of small claw-like nubs on each area where its arms should be.
Linhenykus
At first Casuar thought that the little dinosaur was just a wandering hatchling, but after a few seconds of starring at it and sniffing it some more, he determend that it was an adult dinosaur. Although Casuar had no idea how could a dinosaur be this little, other then hatchlings, this little fella was actually the rare little oddball Linhenykus, from the Mongolian desert. This diminutive reptile is an insectivore and is right now searching for such sustinence in the bark of an old tree branch.
The way it works, is that it uses its ‘claws’ to scrape away some of the outer layers of the branch, and when it finds traces of borrowing insects (the most obvious being tunnels that they make) it uses its extra-long and extra-flexible tongue to snatch up its prey and bring them into its mouth.
Today the little Linhenykus really thought that it struck gold at this one, but unfortunately, it isn’t that lucky, because in a few seconds it will become someone else’s lunch. While Casuar was still wierded out by the site of such small and odd dinosaur, he was still hungry and will have to settle for this little morsel. Instinct telling him to keep going, Casuar lowered his body like he always does, but the problem was there was no tall grass are bushes to provide him cover.
He took a few cautious steps forward, but at one point the little dinosaur turned its head and saw the Achillobator behind it. The two theropods just stared at each other for about thirty seconds, until the alarm bell inside the Linhenykus’s skull went off and it started running at high speed in the opposite direction, with Casuar following behind.
The chase was on, and for the most part the Linhenykus was the one that had the upper hand, since it was at least five steps ahead of Casuar. Even he noticed that he was going to come up with something different if he wants to eat this thing. But luck seems to have shined upon our Achillobator, because the chase suddenly continued at a field of rocks and this gave him an idea.
After a few more minutes of running, the little dinosaur stopped and looked behind it and saw that the large raptor wasn’t following it anymore. Figuring that it was safe, the Linhenykus made a U turn and started running into that specific direction in search of some more grub. But suddenly, a pair of large, tooth-lined jaws clamped onto the poor dino. Turns out it was none other then Casuar, who hid away behind one of the larger rocks, in order to surprise its prey.
The Linhenykus was still struggling to get out of the Achillobator’s mouth, but Casuar simply maneuvered the little dinosaur in his mouth so that its head faces the entrance of his throat. Then he began to slowly swallow his prey, and as the little theropod went down his gullet, his powerful throat muscles completely crushed the life out of the Linhenykus.
After savoring this new and rather unique dinosaur, Casuar started looking around once more, searching for the next thing on his to-do list: water. After giving the general area a onceover, and seeing that there was no water, Casuar began sniffing the air once more. After a few seconds, he picked up the faint sent of water, and began following the trail towards his goal, and ultimately discover new things along the way.
Ponyville, Castle of Friendship
As the bright and glorious sun of princess Celestia shinned down upon the quaint, rural town of Ponyville, everyone was going about their day-to-day routines. Although, the same could not be said about a certain young alicorn princess.
At the newly created Castle of Friendship, the newly represented princess of friendship, Twilight Sparkle, was having another crazy fit, even though today was supposed to be a very special day for her. Ever since she returned from her second trip to the human world, she began thinking almost nonstop about a certain Flash Century. Although she fell in love with the human version of said individual, she began seeing his pony (in this case Pegasus) counterpart more often now. The reason why is because, he was given a new post at her castle, and the two of them have been seeing each other a lot since then. And also, unknown to Twilight at the time, Flash Century has been developing feelings of love towards the princess he swore to protect. *sigh* Oh the irony. And so one day the two wanted to invite the other on a date, and ended up saying at the same time to each other, which resulted in quite an awkward moment.
And now we find ourselves in the present, where Twilight is frantically running around her room to get prepared for her first ever date. And with amphisis on 'prepare' because she's right now doing everything she can to make this first date a very special one. Even, writing down a checklist of what to do and where to got to on her date. Although, all of this was making a certain young dragon really irritated.
"Ugh, will you calm down already Twilight."-Spike finally voiced his thoughts-"If you keep this up, you'll be late."
"Sorry Spike, but I can't talk right now. As you can see I'm in a bit of a crisis here!"-Twilight practically yelled out the last part and continued to run around like an oviraptor with its head cut off.
After hearing this, Spike could only grunt-"Urgh, what crisis?! All you're doing is running around and making a fuss about it! It's just a date!"-however Spike was gonna wish he hadn't said that, because the moment the last part exited his lips Twilight's head shot up, and then she turned around to face the little drake. Her face may have looked upset, but if you'd look closely you'd see that she actually bore the face of a crazy pony, if the constant twitch on her left eye wasn't a good enough giveaway.
"Just a date?"-and then she suddenly jumped in front of Spike while the little dragon started backing away slowly-"JUST A DATE?! This is going to be the very first date I've every had in my life, and I've always wanted my first date to be extra special, and here you are telling me that it's just a date?!"-now Spike was backed up to the wall, with crazy Twilight still facing him, waiting for his answer. This is the whole Crystal Empire test thing all over again.-Spike thought as this scene was getting all too familiar.
But no matter how familiar this is, or how familiar, he believes, the next part will be, he knew that right now, he had to calm Twilight down, else she might end up tiring herself out before her date could even start.
"Yes, yes I do."-he stated, looking at Twilight with determination, and before Twilight could blow a casket he continued-"And before you go and blow the entire castle up, like you did with the library, let me just finish. A date is supposed to be when two ponies meet and have fun. You know, loosen up. But you're doing the exact opposite, you're completely stressing yourself out, and believe me when I tell you, at this rate it'll be worse on the date."-this last statement seemed to have hit nail in, because Twilight then got a look of surprise, as if she just realized something important.-"*sigh* Look, do me and probably everyone else a favor and forget about the whole organizing thing for just this once, make yourself look pretty and just have some fun on your date with Flash. Do you think you can do that? At least for me?"
At that moment, Twilight simply backed away, the look of shock still present on her face. She only now realized that, while she was busying herself with her organizing the date to be perfect, she forgot the most esential thing: to have fun. And she now understood that that can't happen if everything on a date is organized.
So with a gentle smile replacing her shocked look, she looked at her number one assistent, patted his head and said-"Thank you Spike. What would I ever do without you?"
"Eh, probably mess up a lot of things."-Spike joked, receiving some giggles from the princess of friendship.
After this little...ahem 'episode' Twilight finally calmed down enough to finish getting herself ready for her date. She was dressed in a beautiful white and dark pink dress (which looked oddly the same as the one she wore during the Fall Formal at Canterlot High), her mane was well combed and she wore some makeup as well just for the heck of it (nothing too much, just some eye-shadow and some blush).
Now she was ready to go out with Flash, and she was right now making her way to the castle entrance to meet up with said pegasus. Once she got to her destination, she saw Flash waiting for her by the door. He wore his traditional royal guard armor, with the exception of his helmet, although his mane was combed backwards, and made him look more presentable.
When Flash turned to look at Twilight, he was utterly stunned by the equestrian royal beauty that stood before him. Once Twilight was right in front of him and saw his expression, she just looked away in embarrassment, a light blush forming on her cheeks, although it couldn't be seen do to the makeup.
"Uhm...Flash? Could you please stop starring at me."-Twilight said, snapping the young soldier out of his trance like state-"It's too much, isn't it?"
"What-NO! No, it isn't p-princess...I mean uh..."-yeah now Flash was embarrassing himself by being a stuttering mess-"What I mean to say is...you're beautiful."-at this compliment Twilight's blush only increased, making her makeup seem like it's glowing.
"Oh, thank you Flash, you're so sweet. But, you didn't have to wear your armor today. You're not on duty."-Twilight said
"Well...I thought about wearing a tux, but then I figured that it may be a little too much, and would probably attract too much attention."-Flash said as he scratched the back of his head with his hoof-"I mean...you're going out on a date with a rookie from the royal guard, so that will already attract enough unwanted attention already."
After listening through his ranting, Twilight walked up to Flash until their muzzles were only inches apart.-"I may be going out with a soldier who's not royalty, and this news may attract some unwanted attention...but I don't regret anything by doing this."-she then closed her eyes as she was inching closer to the stallion in front of her. Even Flash himself knew what this meant, so he closed his eyes too, and was ready for what was about to happen. Their lips were barely grazing each other and as the two ponies were about to join their lips together in a-
*AHEM*
The two shot their eyes open and immediately parted from each other, each having a strong blush decorating their faces. The one who made their voice clear was Spike and when the two of them looked at the little dragon, he had a very unamused look on his face.
"Sheesh, get a room you two."-this only elicitated a chuckle from Flash and giggle from Twilight-"Now get a move on before I start trowing up"-he then started pushing the two out the door, gaining a slight glare from Twilight
"Spike, you don't have to be so rude."
"Yeah, well I'm not really into this mushy kissy stuff."
"Yeah, I can see that."-once outside, the couple was about to depart, until Twilight suddenly gained another look of realization and she turned around to her assistent-"I almost forgot to tell you Spike to-"
"Go and help out Fluttershy with her animals, help Pinkie Pie make some cupcakes for a delivery and go check up on Applejack to see if she needs help selling her apples down at the market."-Spike finished for her-"Don't worry, I've got it covered Twilight. Now get going already!"
Twilight simply smiled and shook her head at her friend's insistence. Then she turned to her date and spoke once more-"I'm ready now. Let's go."
"As you wish princess."-Flash said, still being a little nervous about his first date with royalty
"Flash please, just call me Twilight"-Twilight said as the two walked off, and with Spike just rolling his eyes at what he saw. But if this made Twilight happy, then he was happy too...no matter how gross it may seem.
Fluttershy's Cottage
On the other side of Ponyville, a certain pony is about to have a very unexpected visitor.
Fluttershy, was quite possibly the shyest, but at the same time the most adorable pony by far. Yet it was this very shyness and her kindhearted nature that made her realize her destiny as one who understands and looks after animals of all shapes and sizes. However, with all her expertly gentle skills and her cutie mark, none of this were enough to prepare her for what she was about to find at her very home.
While Twilight was out on her date, and Spike was making his way to Fluttershy's home, the afformentioned pegasus girl was busy taking care of the various woodland animals that were inside her house. When she finished feeding a family of squirrels she turned to her pet rabbit, Angel, who was, unsurprisingly, sleeping in his bed-like basket. Fluttershy gently flew to him, and patted his head to wake him up, while still hovering in the air. When the white rabbit looked at her with his usual annoying glare, Fluttershy just gently smiled and said:
"Come on Angel bunny. I need your help feeding some of the animals outside."-but the white rodent simply swatted away his owners hoof and went back to sleep. But the gentle pegasus girl wasn't just gonna stand for this-"Oh come on now, it'll be fun. I'll even give you a carrot when we're done."-but Angel just ignored her by giving a light snore. Now with that, Fluttershy believed that it was time to bring out the big guns, even if she hates doing this.-"Angel Bunny."-still having that annoying scowl on his face, the afformentioned rodent lifted his head up to look at her...only to regret doing so.
Fluttershy was now using her infamous, Stare and from the look of utter fear on Angel's face, it was working really well. Knowing full well, that he doesn't stand a snowball's chance against the Stare Angel quickly scampered out into the backyard of the cottage to get started on his 'assignment'. After canceling out the Stare, Fluttershy looked into the direction the rabbit jetted away, and smiled sweetly-"Such a good bunny."
So now the two are outside, happily feeding the animals that like living in the backyard. Well actually Fluttershy was feeding them happily, while Angel was grumbling about how he caved in again.
After about fifteen minutes, Fluttershy was just about ready to call it a day, but when she turned to Angel, the white rodent was sniffing the air in specific direction, and Fluttershy knew that that meant something wasn't right.
"What is it Angel? What's wrong?"-as if on cue to answer her question, some nearby bushes started moving, as if there was something inside. A moment later, a little white, and very terrified mouse jumped out of the bush and ran off very quickly, as if it just saw a monster. Seeing this, Fluttershy, was not only worried about the scared little critter, but was also terrified herself about the prospect of a wild animal so close to her cottage.
She then looked back at the bush as it never stopped rattling around. By now, she was certain that whatever else was in there was gonna come out at this very moment, and she was now sweating bullets like crazy. Then, with a mighty screech, the animal in question burst out of the leaf litter, and Fluttershy just looked away, too scared to see what horrible monster might have appeared in front of her. After a few seconds, she gradually opened her eyes and looked into the direction of the bush, and saw something that could only be described as weird.
It stood on two legs, and was covered in a mixture of orange, brown and dirty yellow feathers, making it look like a bird. Except that it had a long tail, from its 'wings' grew three long figures, with long sharp claws, a single sickle shaped claw was located on the third tow of each foot, and finally it's head resembled that of lizard, with large yellow eyes, sharp teeth, and some elongated feathers on top of the head pointing backwards, making it look like it has crazy looking bedhair.
Hesperonychus
This was actually a Hesperonychus, a small raptor dinosaur from Alaska. Normally this little guys would be in packs of two or three members, so seeing one being all alone was quite rare.
Even though Fluttershy didn't know what the little guy was, she was rather curious about it. Thinking that it was probably just trying to be friends with the mouse, bit it got scared by the dinosaur's appearence, she esentially calmed down and with her sweet smile, she hovered towards the little raptor, Angel following suit.
The Hesperonychus was still looking around for the mouse, but when it saw a shadow covering his body, it looked up into the smiling face of Fluttershy, as said pegasus spoke to him:
"Hello there little one."-the raptor just tilted its head to the side, not understanding what this large mammal was saying-"Oh you poor little thing, you must frightenend out of your mind. Did you get separated from your mommy and daddy, and was just looking for some help?"-the Hesperonychus just tilted its head back, and still looked at Fluttershy, like she was spewing gibarish-"Now don't you worry one bit little one, I will keep you here safely, until my friends and I find your family."
Fluttershy was about to pick up the little predator, until she noticed Angel, inching ever so slowly towards the raptor, constantly sniffing it. As Angel was taking strides forward, the Hesperonychus was taking strides backwards, trying to further the distance between him and the white mammal with large head and ears. After a few more steps and sniffs, the northern carnivore got really annoyed and just shrieked at Angel, revealing a mouth full of needle-sharp teeth. At that moment, Angel went pale (but no one could tell due to his fur) and immediately ran back into the house, leaving a smoke or dust trail behind him.
Fluttershy, was shocked by this development, and after seeing her precious pet flee in terror, she shot a glare at the little dinosaur.-"That was not very nice, mister bird!"-her 'yelling' caught the Hesperonychy's attention, as it turned to face the much larger mammal in front of it-"Now you go inside the cottage, and apologise to Angel this instant! Do you hear me?!"-she shot her hoof right in front of the raptor's snout while scolding him, but would soon regret it. The little raptor simply bit Fluttershy's hoof, elicitating a yelp from the pegasus in question. She then quickly pulled her hoof away, and shot another glare-"Hey!"
The Hesperonychus, having enough of these crazy mammals, decided to book it, so it slid under the wooden fence and ran to the Everfree forest.
"W-wait! Don't go!"-Fluttershy cried out, but to no avail.
When the Hesperonychus got into the forest, it looked back to Fluttershy and her cottage, still wandering what was up with all these mammals, why were they so big, but must importantly, where are all the other dinosaurs. Well, he got his answer as a pair of long, narrow jaws clamped around his body and lifted him up. The attacker, was another, much larger dinosaur, that much even he could tell, even through all the struggling and shrieking. To him, it looked like a smaller, and more scrawny looking Gorgosaurus, with longer arms and one extra finger, completely yellow in body color with swirling black stripes covering its entire body. But the weirdest thing was the wierd looking crest on top of its head, that looked like two large clam shells.
Cryolophosaurus
This creature was in fact the top early Jurassic predator from Antarctica, the Cryolophosaurus, a male to be precise. The Hesperonychus, didn't know what this thing was, and it didn't even care, because right now all it wanted was to get away. It flailed its arms, legs and tail and continued to shriek its head off to try and get away, but failed miserably. In fact when the Cryolophosaurus had enough, he powerfully slammed the little raptor's head into a nearby tree, crushing his little skull with an ear wrenching crunch sound, and leaving a small blood splotch on the bark. Then, it manuevered the little dinosaur in its mouth, so that its head was facing the inside of its throat, and then the Cryolophosaurus swallowed down the Hesperonychus whole. Although it tasted a bit odd, since the little theropod was covered head to toe in feathers, but the taste was more then a little intoxicating for the great southern predator. Wanting to have more of this interesting flavor, the Cryolophosaurus turned around and went back into the dark depths of the Everfree forest.
Fluttershy, although being quite a distance away from the dangerous forest, only saw the tail of the jurassic predator as it went back into the forest. Of course given her nature, she was worried about the little Hesperonychus, not knowing of course that it became a fast food menu for someone else, and was about to fly over there to see what's going on, until-
"HEY, FLUTTERSHY! ARE YA HOME?! IT'S ME SPIKE!"-yelled the dragon in question
"Oh, uh y-yes, I'm outside Spike! I'll be with you in a second!"-Fluttershy yelled as loud as she could
"OK!"-Spike replied
She then turned back to look at the forest entrance one last time, then turned to make her way back to her cottage. Along the way, she checked her hoof, the one that the Hesperonychus bit, and saw that, despite the sudden pain when it bit her, there were only a few, very small scratch marks, in fact they could barely even be seen.
This at least eased her mind. She didn't want to tell Spike, or anypony for that matter, about what happened today, because she didn't want them to make a big fuss about it or to worry about her. But she had a gut feeling, that little creature won't be the last new creature she'll see from now on.
Far off in the Equestrian ocean
On the surface of the clear, blue waters of the ocean, one of the many borders between Equestria and the Griffon Kingdom, was a lone ship, with white sails, and a flag, bearing the Equestrian symbol proudly fluttered on the central mass. This ship was of course a merchant vessel, which was always on this very rout, to trade goods with the griffons. Although, for many ponies, these goods are always considered bads. The reason? This vessel doubled as a fishing bout as well, and so the goods they were selling to the griffons were fish.
Although griffons don't eat fish all the time, some of the cities from the eastern section of the kingdom were really good at making fish based meals, and not to mention the griffons living by the sea are always on the look out for ingredients from the ocean to make sea food delicacies.
And that's what this, and a few other trading vessels are here for. Although these ponies, like virtually everypony else in Equestria, don't like fishing or selling meat based products, they know very well that the griffons will pay handsomely for these kinds of things, so, as the old saying goes 'a stallion's gotta put bread on the table' and if this is a sure fire way to get extra bits, then so be it.
And right now the crew is howling in their last catch of the day. Their cargohold is already packed with all manner of fish, mostly tuna for today, but earlier they got lucky; they managed to spot and kill a full grown shark. Most of the fish they capture are tuna, sardines and such, so finding and catching a shark was a tremendous bonus for the crew.
At first they thought that it was a great white, because of its coloration, but it was abnormally large to be a normal great white. Not to mention, its snout was unusually long and sharp like a spear. But when the shark was completely pulled out of the water for the crew to see, they didn't know what they were looking at.
"Captain! Captain!"-one of the crew members shouted
Pretty soon, a stallion pony, with deep blue eyes, brown fur, black mane, tail and beard came forth. In terms of clothing he wore a dark blue beanie, orange life vest and black rubber boots on his hind legs. His cutie mark was a fish on a hook, with a couple of bits on the side. His name was Fish'n Trade, and he was the well respected captain of this vessel.
"Alright, alright, I'm here, now what in Tartarus did you all call me here for?"-he asked in a somewhat irritated manner
"We called you here for this, sir."-the stallion who shouted for him said as he pointed to the shark
Fish'n Trade shook his head and looked at the shark as well and now understood why was he summoned in the first place. While most of the shark seemed normal, the only thing that stood completely out of place, was its lower jaw: it was circular and had a single line of teeth on it, while the top jaw was completely devoid of teeth all together.
Helicoprion
This beast was in fact the ever surviving Helicoprion shark, although Fish'n Trade and his crew didn't know that. After about another minute of starring at the hanging carcass of the prehistoric shark, the stallion who summoned Fish'n Trade, who is actually the crew's first mate, spoke up:
"So captain? What do you think it is?"
"I don't know Crew Master."-Fish'n Trade answered-"This has got to be the weirdest shark I've ever seen"
"What should we do with it captain?"-Crew Master asked-"We can't just leave it here, right?"
"Of course not."-Fish'n Trade immediately answered-"We'll haul it in and then sell it to the griffons. It might be worth a lot more then our usual catches."-as soon as he said that, some murmurs were heard among the crew members, obviously being excited about gaining more-"All right, enough chit-chat lads. Let's haul this beauty in, get it to the griffons and make some bits!"
And they were about to do just that...until a very large, dark red tentacle sprang out of the water, wrapped around the Helicoprion and forcibly pulled it and a part of the crain down along with it. The force of the pull alone was enough to rock the boat a bit to the side, alerting ever crewmember on board.
"What in the name of Gaia was that?!"-Fish'n Trade asked Crew Master, after regaining his footing
"Don't know captain! I think I saw a giant tentacle and then nothing!"-Crew Master answered
"A tentacle?! That's impossible! There's no way in Tartarus that it could be a-"-whatever Fish'n Trade was about to say, was never said, as a tremendous force rocked the boat even harder...and then dozens of giant red tentacles with massive suction cups with dozens of spikes inside of them, sprung out of the water around the ship and started going berserk. This arrival was welcomed by a single cry from Fish'n Trade as he realized what were they dealing with.
"KRAKEN!"
At this point the tentacles all started thrashing around the ship, some gripping the deck, some trying to get the panicking crew members, one even began coiling its way up the mast. Simply one word were to describe all that was happening, and that is 'chaos'.
After one whole minute, something completely unexpected happened: the seiged ship rocked a second time, only now the tentacles froze in an instant. Then all the tentacles jerked once and then they began to forcible sink into the water, as if something was pulling the Kraken down. But that proved to be difficult since the tentacles were attached to the sides of the ship and one even wrapped itself around the mast. But off course the Kraken was pulled down anyway, and the tentacles were leaving big drag marks on the sides of the ship and the one that was attached to the mast yanked that part of the mast, causing it to fall down, like a tree. Pretty soon all the tentacles were dragged down into the deep and everypony that went to cover soon began coming out of hiding. Fish'n Trade, while holding a harpoon, looked around and began wondering what just happened.
"What in Equetria..."
"CAPTAIN! CAPTAIN!"-whatever Fish'n Trade wanted to say was interrupted as Crew Master shouted his name, until he came up to his first mate-"You really need to see this captain."-pointing out to the waters by the port bow both ponies saw something that sent chills down their spines.
Right in front of them a massive pool of blackness was forming, and it was also getting longer in length a well, as if someone was drawing a black line on the waters. Fish'n Trade, Crew Master and every other sailor upon the vessel knew exactly what this was: squid ink. This was obviously from the Kraken, but they knew that if it was bleeding ink, then that means something more viscious, and possibly even bigger took it down.
"What do we do now captain?"-asked a terrified Crew Master-"I mean, something obviously killed that Kraken, a-a-and that usually isn't even possible. An-and how in Tartarus did Kraken even get here?! I mean shouldn't they be residing in the-"
"SILENCE!"-Fish'n Trade suddenly cut him off-"I GET IT! I get it..."-at first the captain seemed to be in deep thought, but then he raised his head and with a look of determination he shouted his orders to the crew-"Start repairing any and all damages done to the ship! We're setting sail back to Equestria immediately!"
Everypony was shocked to her this from their very captain, and Crew Master decided to speak up for everyone-"Wait a minute, we're turning back?! But-but we have we have an entire cargo full of merchandise! The griffins will pay good money for this and you're just going to-"-but once more he was cut off, as Fish'n Trade suddenly turned to face him with a glare that could make a shark shit bricks.
"Listen to me Crew Master,"-he spoke in a low and threatening voice-"We were just attacked by a Kraken, and that very same Kraken has just been killed by something far more worse. And yes I know it's impossible, yes I know Krakens don't come this far north and yes I am perfectly aware about the payment for our cargo. But whatever killed that squid is still out there, and I am not about to risk my or my crew's life for money. So just shut up and do your part on this crew, or hop into a longboat and leave. Do I make myself clear first mate?"
He almost seemed to have growl when he finished, and even Crew Master knew better then to piss him off any further-"Yes sir."
Fish'n Trade simply nodded and went to help the crew with the repairs. Crew Master then looked out to where then trail of ink went and wondered, what kind of monster could possibly bring down a full grown Kraken?
Down bellow the depths however, we can now see what has become of the Kraken. Once it was a might predator of the ocean, but now it was lifelessly hanging in the massive jaws of its executioner, bleeding out massive amounts of black ink. The jaws themselves belonged to a gigantic reptile, with four massive flippers instead of legs and a long robust tail.
Pliosaurus/Predator X
This was infact the great Pliosaurus Funkei, the biggest predator that has ever existed, and something, not even a Kraken could hope to overcome. Though its reputation made every living thing in the ocean cower in fear, its name alone was enough to send deep chills down to their very souls, for it was a name those that survived an encounter with this great beast, have chosen: Predator X
Ponyville market area
"OK, time get some shopping done."-Spike declared as he marched through the Ponyville market area, like a dragon on a mission. Which ironically, he was.
After his visit to Fluttershy, who was acting oddly the entire time, as if she saw something both incredibly scary but in the same time incredibly amazing, he went to Sugercube Corner and helped Pinkie out as requested and now he's here. Although he's supposed to help Applejack out, he also needed to buy somethings as well, and figured he might bump into her along the way.
He already had with him a bag containing some carrots and tomatoes, and he just needed a few more stuff and then he'd call it a day. As he shifted his gaze around the market looking for the next item on his list, his eyes fell on the very pony he was also looking for. Applejack stood proudly by her stand, having dozens of apples set on display for ponies to buy, and her baby sister Applebloom was also there, helping her out in any way possible.
"Hey, Applejack! How's it goin'?"-Spike said once he closed the distance
"Howdy Spike."-Applejack responded-"It's goin' just fine, thank ya kindly."
"Hi Spike. How are ya doin'?"-Applebloom spoke as well
"Hey Applebloom. I'm doing fine thanks. I'm actually here to see how well your business is going, since Twilight is out on a date and all."
"Hehe, so soldier boy finally decided to ask the princess out?"-Applejack asked with a cheeky smile
"Yeah, he did. And its a good thing too. I was getting really tired of seeing them getting all embarassed every time they look at each other."-Spike said, causing the small apple to giggle and the big apple to roll her eyes, then he continued-"Anyway, I see things are going well, so I'll just by some apples and be on my way."
"Well, since you're busy doin' Twilight's work, plus yer own chores, I wouldn't wanna keep ya standing here for long."-said Applejack-"So I'll be given ya some fresh ones as soon as Big Mac brings 'em here."
"That's very nice of you Applejack, but why don't you save those for your costumers."-Spike said
"Well, technically you ARE one of mah costumers Spike."-said AJ with a chuckle-"And also, since yer a friend of mine, I happen to make some exceptions on these occasions."
"Ah gee, thanks Applejack."-said Spike in a bashful manner
"Yer welcome Spike. Now if only Big Mac would get here already...-"then Applejack's ears perked up as she heard the sound of big hoofsteps aprouching her-"Well, speak of the devil, there he is. Took ya long enough Big Mac."
"Eeyup, sorry AJ."-said the largest of the apple siblings
"Well, since yer here give this little dragon here five apple would ya."-Applejack instructed, not noticing the slight glare Spike was directiong towards her
"You got it sis."-Big Mac replied
Applebloom then approached Spike slowly before asking-"S-so Spike, d-do ya have anything p-planned for this weekend?"
The question caught Spike by surprise, but after a few seconds of thinking he answered-"Well...I have to clean up the royal dinning room, clean up my room, go out shopping with Twilight, help Twilight with rearranging the books from the royal library and lots of more things that I probably forgot again without the checklist. So, yeah, I pretty much have a full calendar. Why do ya ask?"
"Oh, uh...no reason. Just uh...just curious, that's all, hehehe..."-however that wasn't the case at all. In the past couple of months Applebloom had developed feelings of love towards Spike. She couldn't explain why, in fact she even thought that this kind of attraction could be bad, so she VAGUELY asked Twilight about this (and by vaguely, I mean not mentioning the 'I love Spike' part) and she said that it isn't uncommon for ponies to fall in love with other species.
This information brought so much relief for the little earth pony girl, but she couldn't confess her feelings towards Spike right away. She figured she should wait for the right time to confess her love for him. But, unbiknownst to her, the other cutie mark crusaders have also developed feelings of love towards the young drake, and are also too shy to confess to him, yes, even Scootaloo. So, yeah, this is basically harem anime material.
Anyway back to the story, while Applebloom was feeling disappointed about Spike not spending more time with her, Big Mac suddenly shouted in fright as he backed away from the apple cart he had carried here.
"What in tarnation Big Mac?! Why did ya *FRIGHTENED GASP*"-Applejack asked, but then got terrified as well by something, which was obviously in the apple cart.
Applebloom, having enough of her older siblings' odd behavior, decided to see for herself the cause of this weirdness-"Alright yall. Just what in Equestria has gotten you all...scared?"-the last part came out meekly as what she saw among the apples gave her a fright that would pague her dreams for weeks to come.
There, crawling among the top apples in the cart, was quite possibly the largest locust they have ever seen. It was as big as a pony's hoof, was brown in color, didn't have wings but was instead covered in a thick carapace, had spikes on everyone of its limbs and one larger spike coming from the end of its abdomen, like some kind of stinger.
Weta
Only this wasn't a locust but a type of cricket, known as the Weta insect, a very large species of insect that feeds on vegetables and fruits as well, when it can. Seeing that the Apple siblings were still standing stock-still, Spike decided to see what all the commotion was about.
"Alright, guys enough with shocked looks already. Just tell me what the heck is-WOAH"-Spike shouted when the Weta came into view
"W-w-what is that th-thing Spike?"-Applebloom asked, thinking that since he lived in a library most of his life, Spike would know what this inset was.
"W-well, if I remember correctly, i think this things is a...Weta."-the young drake answered
"Uhm, a what now Spike?"-Applejack asked, having recovered from her previously shocked state.
"Well, a Weta is basically a really big cricket that likes to eat entire vegetables, but would also devour fruits without hesitation."-Spike answered, the Weta currently eating an apple-"But, I don't get it, I thought they were all extinct, when the three pony tribes united to eradicate them in one go."
"Well this will be extinct after I deal with it."-Applebloom said as she advanced towards the munching insect, not liking the idea of a bug eating her families crops. When she face 'face to face' with the Weta, she shouted at it-"Hey, bug boy! Ya can't just eat our apples without paying the fee first. Now git on out of here, or else..."-she let the last part of her threat hanging in the air, hoping it'll intimidate the hungry bug.
But sadly, when the Weta stopped, all it did was look up at her with its blank, black eyes then suddenly hop onto her face. At that moment Applebloom let out a terrified shriek as the insect covered almost the entire front side of her face. It wasn't crawling around her face, but it was moving its mandibles around like it was ready to eat her muzzle. Meanwhile Applebloom was running around histericaly, screaming and yelling to get it off her. Spike abruptly stopped her and removed the pesky insect from the distressed filly's muzzle, only for it to wiggle in his paw until he dropped it. It was about to make a run for it, until a small animal ran into it, clamping its jaws on it in the process.
The critter stopped and began munching on the dying incest and the ponies and dragon could now see it in better detail. It was about the size of a rat, if not bigger, covered in black greyish for, only its face being covered in white fur, with bare pink feet and a long tail. All in all, it kinda looked like an opossum, but different, when in fact it was the little Cretaceous bundle of cuteness, the Alphadon.
Alphadon
While the little mammal was happily chewing on the Weta, crunching noises being constantly heard, the Apple siblings and Spike were watching it the whole time.
"Uhm, Spike? Any idea what kinda possum this little feller might be?"-AJ whispered to the young drake, reffering about the little Alphadon.
"Well, I don't really know."-answered the bewildered dragon-"And to be fully honest, I'm not even sure if this little guy even IS an opossum."
Then, after devouring the Weta, leaving the spiky parts lying on the ground, the Alphadon turned its head to face the group, and just looked at them with its big black eyes and sniffing each of them. Applebloom was the first to approuch the little critter, and it in turn suddenly faced her, slightly startling her, and sniffed her. Then AB spoke to her siblings and secret crush-"Well Ah may not know what this little guy is, but Ah do know one thing."-she then suddenly grabbed the Alphadon in a bug bear hug-"It's just the cutest little critter Ah have ever seen in mah life!"
"You can say that again sis."-Big Mac surprisingly agreed
Hearing that at least her brother agrees on her notion, Applebloom then turned to her only sister and asked her an interesting question-"Hey Applejack, can we keep this little guy?! Can we, can we?!"-she asked while bouncing on her hind limbs, with the Alphadon trying, and failing, to wriggle its way free.
Applejack was initially shocked by her sisters question, and was about to give her a straight 'no' answer, but one look into those happy and pleading eyes of her sister, and she had to somehow rethink her entire answer.-"Uhm...well, Ah don't really know Applebloom. I mean, we don't even know what this little fellar is, or what he eats, or if he is even from Equestria for that matter. Besides, we already have Winnona as a pet."
"Uh correction, she's YOUR pet, and Ah've always wanted a pet of mah own. And we can always check the library, or ask Twilight herself about this sortsa unknown stuff."-Applebloom retorted-"And besides, this little fella is probably just lost and alone, and wants friends, just like everypony else. And also *shoves the Alphadon right in front of AJ's face* just look how cute he is. Could ya really not let such a cute little face into our family sis?"-this time even Applebloom adopted to use the sad puppy eyes, to use more ammo on her sister, while the Alphadon just looked blankly at Applejack.
Applejack cringed when she saw her sister's begging face, toppled with the adorable looking face of the prehistoric mammal right in front of her. It's these kinds of moments that really annoyed her. But upon looking at the Alphadon one more time, she had to admit that it certainly looked very cute, and it didn't even look dangerous at all. So in the end she just sighed in defeat and just said:
"Well, I guess we could-"-but before she could utter her final judgement, the Alphadon finally ceased its chance and managed to shake out of Applebloom's grasp and land on the ground safely.
Then it quickly scurried into a nearby bush and disappeared from everypony's site. Applebloom tried to run after it, but Big Mac managed to hold her back, before she herself took off. When she saw she lost the Alphadon, the little filly began to shed large tears of sorrow, while the others tried to comfort her.
"Aw come on now sugercube."-Applejack said, trying to ease her sisters sadness-"I'm sure its for the best. I mean, he didn't seem to want to live inside a house."
"How would YOU know that?!"-Applebloom shouted as she turned her head to glare at her sister, tears still flowing freely-"You never even wanted him to stay with us! In fact, Ah bet you were even gonna say ta get rid of him earlier, right?!"
"No, I wasn't!"-Applejack shouted back, being offended by that accusation-"I was gonna consider keeping'em, but only if you looked after'em!"-hearing this Applebloom's eyes went wide in surprise, only to then look down on the ground in both guilt and sorrow still. After a few seconds Applejack calmed down a bit and spoke once more-"Listen Applebloom, I know yer upset right now, but just imagine that the little fellar is happy right now to be with his family and friends. And who knows, maybe he'll even pop by at the farm tah, ya know, play with ya."
Lying was never EVER Applejack's forte, and Applebloom saw right through the last part. But she sucked in her tears none the less.-"Maybe."-was the only other thing she said, before heading back to the farm, too depressed to sell anymore apples today.
Big Mac looked at Applejack, who simply nodded, silently telling him to go with her and try to comfort her. After her two siblings left the area, AJ turned here attention back to Spike who was looking on worriedly as Applebloom kept going away from the area. She put a reassuring hoof on his shoulder, causing him to look up at her.
"Will she be okay?"-he asked, worry clear in his voice
"Don't you worry none sugarcube. She just needs some time, that's all."-the young cowpony said with a warm smile-"Do ya still need some apples?"
Hearing this, Spike turned around and his eye landed directly at the apple the Weta was munching on earlier and he immediately said-"Uh, no thanks. I think I lost my appetite."-and after saying goodbye to Applejack, he left the area as well.
Unbinknownst to the ponies and drake, the Alphadon, after getting into the bushes, looked back, and his eyes landed directly at Applebloom's already tear soked eyes and by just one look, he started feeling deep regret swelling up in his heart. With ears flat down, he turned around and scurried around town a bit more until he reached the Everfree forest.
Frogy Bottom Bog
Above the soggy, murky and somewhat creepy swampland of Frogy Bottom Bog, Fluttershy flew with a small carriage full of large green frogs. Her pond became overcrowded with frogs yet again, and as much as it pains her to do this, she has to set these ones free, to make room for other water dwelling animals in her pond.
And she was personally glad she'd be doing this. It seems like a good way to relieve some of today's stress off of her.
In truth, she was feeling worried almost constantly ever since her encounter with the Hesperonychus. She was worried that such a wild and unpredictable creature could pose a great danger to her smaller animal friends. However she was also worried about the little dinosaur, ever since she saw that large tail; she worried that something may have happened to the little critter and that whatever was attached to that tail may have killed it. Even though she was a little miffed that the little raptor not only scared off her pet rabbit Angel, but also BIT her hoof. Something most animals never did.
Not only that, but it wouldn't even succumb to her Stare, something no living organic creature on this planet could resist. And ever since, her minds been plagued with so many questions, that not even Spikes little visit was enough to calm her down. In fact she even started having a headache right when she was serving some tea for the two, causing Spike to get worried.
Now since the bog itself is a fair distance away from Ponyville, and since she was flying in a steady pace like she usually does, she was able to calm down significantly.
As she landed on the shoreline of the murky swamp, Fluttershy opened the front of the carriage and all the frogs leapt out, croaked and went into the water, in the form of a small green wave. Fluttershy could only smile, being happy that her frog friends will be alright in their new home. But no matter how relaxed she was along this trip, one thought still haunted her mind: if she found a completely new species of animal, what else might be lurking in the shadows of the wild.
Suddenly, as if fate wanted to answer her question, just for the heck of it, she hear a small splash and an equally small thud to her left. When she turned to look, she saw a small fish leaping on the ground, no doubt choking on the oxigen rich atmosphere around it. Feeling sorry for it, she quickly closed the door of her carriage and went over to it to help it back into the water.
But just as she made only two steps, something odd came out of the water. It wasn't very big...actually it wasn't big at all. It was about 70 cm long, typical to a normal lizard. However, this wasn't exactly a lizard, because it had a type of bony armor running across its back, its tail was flat along the end and its feed were webbed, which were typical features of a crocodile. But its legs were long and held its body high over the ground, and the head was most unusual part of all: its eyes were large and slitted, its snout was short and wide, almost flat looking, and the middle of its snot was sightly elongated, giving it a sorta Pinocchio like appearance.
This creature was infact Anatosuchus, or more commonly known in among its crocodile brethren and the dinosaurs as Duck Croc.
Anatosuchus/Duck Croc
Normally this odd ball of a croc, would spend most of its time on land, but it wouldn't think twice about going into the water to hunt, or escape preds. Now was its lucky day, because it actually ate about five more fish a few minutes ago, and now was about to eat the final one for the moment. As it got closer, the fish kept on frantically jumping around, trying to get back into the drink, but its look completely ran out, as the Duck Croc clamped its jaws out and then swallowed it down whole.
Fluttershy, for her part, has never seen anything like this little water dweller, and was weary of approuching it, seeing as her last interaction with a new creature didn't go smoothly. But she was confident that last time was only a fluke and that this time she'd get better results. So she slowly trotted towards the little reptile, as it swallowed the last bit of its prey. When she was close enough, she spoke, immediately gaining the Anatosuchus' attention:
"H-hello there little one. I don't think I've ever seen anyone like you before. Did you come here from a neighboring land?"-but the Duck Croc simply cocked its head to the side, having no earthly idea what this large mammal was jabbering on about. Determend, however, to make friends with this new creature, Fluttershy slowly reached out to try and pet it, only for it to draw its head slightly back.-"Oh its okay little one. I'm not gonna hurt you, I promise."
But to her misfortune, the Anatosuchus suddenly lunged at her hoof, which luckily she managed to quickly pull back before getting bitten. Then the little reptile let out a series of shrill hisses, causing Fluttershy to frown and to turn around and leave.
'Oh, why does every new critter hate me today?'-she thought, being even more discouraged then before.
She strapped the carriage back onto her back, then glancing one last time at the little crocodile, before taking off and flying back to her home, while shedding a few tears of sorrow.
After the flying mammal left, the Anatosuchus was just about ready to go back into the water, before something happened so suddenly, it didn't even have time to blink; something squishy and sticky latched onto its right side, and immediately pulled it back to where it came from...right into the mouth of something big.
That something was in fact a very large, roundish green toad, actly named Beelzebufo, but thanks to the pair of horns its got on top of its eyes, it is more commonly known as the devil frog.
Beelzebufo/Devil Frog
The Anatosuchus still wiggled and struggled inside the darkness of the large amphibion's gullet, and its movements were even visible in the outside world. However the monster frog swallowed the little croc a moment later, forever ending its life. It then croaked in a low, but very loud voice and then began to hop in a straight line across the shore line...until something bigger burst out of the water and snapped its long jaws on its body.
The long, crocodile-like jaws were attached to a large theropod dinosaur, with a pair of long muscular arms each equiped with a large, hooked claw on the thumb, equally powerful legs, a long strong tail, and was mostly green in color, with darker green stripes running along the length of its back. This was a special breed of dinosaur known as a spinosaurid, although the name God decided to give this guy's kind is Baryonyx.
Baryonyx (tumblr image belongs to TheGamingBeaver from YouTube)
The frog was still moving in the maw of this great predator, but only just. The Baryonyx bit down on the Beelzebufo one more time, then swung its head to the side, and threw the devil frog right into the water.
Once it landed, the Beelzebufo was still barely alive and twitching, as its blood oozed out of its injuries and formed a large red splotch in the water that kept on growing as the body kept flouting on the surfice. The Baryonyx then swam towards its incapacitated prey, by moving its powerful tail side to side, like a crocodile, occasionally pedaling with its back legs as well to either stay on the surfice or as rudders. Then it clamped down one more time on the devil frog, and then swam right down into the water, the Beelzebufo trapped in its maw.
San Palomino Desert
As Casuar was traversing across the unknown desert still in search of water, he couldn't help but feel a strange sensation growing inside of him. He couldn't really explain what this sensation was, but he could somehow feel it ever since he woke up. He somehow had a slight feeling that the more breathed in the air of this strange land, the more this sensation grew. It wasn't bad of course, it just somehow felt...right.
Anyway, he had traveling along sand dunes and flat sandy terrains for at least two hours now, and while he managed to munch on occasional lizards, snakes and rodents to regain some lost streingth, he felt and knew that without water he'd be dead in a couple more hours.
But, as if fate decided to deny him the luxury of death, his nose finally picked up the scent of fresh water. He immediately ran up to the crest of a large dune that was in front of him, and when he looked down, he saw a massive river, flowing from one direction and towards who knows where.
He didn't care about the details however, as he quickly made a mad dash towards the river and then immediately dipped his entire head into the water, like how an ostrich would bury its head into the sand. Big bubbles were bubbling out from around the base of his neck, while he was gulping down huge amounts of water.
Then he quickly pulled his head out of the water to take in an equal amount of air in order to avoid drowning. With his energy fully replenished and his streinght ready to be used on something big for a change, he was finally able to calm himself down and take a quick look around the area he was now in.
The river was indeed big, with enough water for herds of even gigantic dinosaurs to drink. And there were in fact other animals either on the other shoreline, or a few yards away from him. The most notible creatures he saw, were the Placerias, large, bulking protomammals, with large beaks and equally large tusks coming out of the sides of their faces.
Placerias
And lumbering close behind these walking mountains of meat were the Lystrosaurs, smaller and earlier versions of these behemoths. Although they are distant cousins, since Casuar has never once seen such animals, he's been forgiven to think that the Lystrosaurs were Placerias children.
Lystrosaurus
As soon as his eyes fell on the Placerias herd, Casuar immediately wanted to run up to the herd, kill one and eat it. But he only now noticed that the sun was just about setting over the horizon, and while he knew that night time was predator time, he was far too exhausted from his long trek across the desert and his arrival to this strange new world, so now he will find suitable place for rest, and he will take a journey to the dream realm.
However, while he was planning out his next move and admiring the scenery, a cunning ambush predator, managed to swim close enough to shore so that its still unseen and within striking distance. And after a few more seconds, Casuar felt tremendous pain on his right shoulder, as something sprung out of the water and latched onto his unprotected body part.
Turns out, the assailant was a Chasmatosaurus, a primitive crocodile from the early Triassic, with long legs designed for a mostly terrestrial life style as well as aquatic, no body armor at all, and the most recognizable feature in its anatomy is the downward curving upper jaw, that supported a pair of sharp buck teeth.
Chasmatosuchus (this was the best I could find)
Apparently the primitive croc, thought that Casuar might be an easy meal since he left his guard down for so long, but it was about to proven wrong. BRUTALLY wrong. After recovering from the initial shock, Casuar bit down on the right side of the Chasmatosaurus' neck, forcing it to let go of his shoulder and roar in pain. Then, using the strenght that he had recovered, Casuar threw the crocodile out of the water, and a few feet behind him, onto dry land.
The Chasmatosaurus slowly got up onto its feet, and once it layed eyes on Casuar it roar in anger at him. Casuar shrieked right back at, but he wasn't through with it just yet; the Chasmatosaurus charged and so did Casuar, and as the crocodile raised the front half of its body to try and take a bite out of Casuar's head, that's when the Achillobator made his move: he used his hands to grab hold of the Triassic reptile, then shoved his left foot claw into its stomach, making it once again wail in agony, then he dug his long finger laws into the hide of the Chasmatosaurus and finally bit down on the wounded part of its neck.
The Chasmatosaurus was all the while wailing in agony and pain, trying to get away, but no matter how hard it tried, it couldn't get out of Casuar's 'Death Grip'. After an entire minute, and duo to a combination of shock and massive blood loss, the Chasmatosaurus finally let Death take it to the after life, leaving its body to the mercy of the Achillobator that killed him.
Once his newest victim died, Casuar dropped the body, a large podle of blood forming around it. He looked ahead and saw a rock formation, big enough for him to lie in and sleep. So he took hold of the Chasmatosaurus carcass and dragged it to his new napping place, deciding to have dinner in bed.
By the time Casuar had finished eating and dumped the rest of the body into the river, it was already night time, and the moon had just begun its ascension to the night sky. With that notion, Casuar returned to his new bed to get some much needed shuteye. Even though he knew that he'd probably be seen as an easy meal for any night hunters or would-be-predators, he was still hoping to get some well deserved rest.
And so the curtain falls on the dinosaurs' first day in the land of Equestria, with the promise of new opportunities and new challenges in the following days to come.
Author's Notes:
Hey guys! Sorry for the delay, I've been kinda busy sightseeing every single day, and barely had anytime to get proper work done. But I'm really glad that I was able to finish this story here in Milan Italy, and right on my last day here none the less. So, to make up for all of this lost time, I present to you this extra long chapter. Hopefully it will be satisfying enough.
This chapter at least gave me an opportunity to present the protagonist for the entire story, and before any of you start asking, why did I name him 'Casuar' and say that it's a ridiculous name, well then go search for 'Dinosaur Island'/'Journey to Dinosaur Island' and have good look at the raptors from that movie, and then you'll understand my reasons.
The idea of how the Baryonyx swam came to me when I thought-'If Spinosaurus lived like a crocodile, then would it be possible that Baryonyx and others of its kind would do the same? And since Baryonyx doesn't have a sail on its back, then would it be able to somewhat swim like a crocodile?'. I know this idea may seem stupid, but I try what I can.
And lastly I chose an Achillobator as a dinosaur protagonist, because the name means 'Achilles hero' and since it's a raptor, I figured this could actually fit.
Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I will start working on the next one, as well as some other new stories, which will hopefully come out soon as well, and it may be possible that I'll be having a guest star in my next A/N. Who knows.
So anyways I will see you all next time. Arivederci.