Alad

Three centuries. That’s how long it’s been without something of interest happening in our lands. The Fundament now included the eastern portion of our continent, The Ecumene the west along with the Griffon lands. As for the vampires-those I rule- we rule the south, which includes the badlands, as well as the Crystal Empire, somethin worked out with Oryx due to the crystals there being important to my research.

I was in the middle of an experiment of having the crystals being able to contain certain magics-an integral part in Project: Revival-when I heard knocking outside my lab-a well sized room with a tube of changeling chrysalis fluids at the far end and another part of the aforementioned project. “Yes, what is it?” I asked.

“Sir, I have news from the Fundament!” one of my aides shouted. “Something was able to depower King Oryx, and grew in size. It was sighted heading towards the Empire!”

“Why is the Ecumene not stopping it?” I asked.

“Sir they’re mobilizing, but the nearest force won’t get there until next week. At the size of the creature, it’ll be there by next week.”

I sighed, and set down a crystal empty of charge on the brass table in front of me. “Prepare the teleporter, and radio the Empire. Tell them to prepare everything in conjunction with Project:Anti-mage.” I paused for a second. “Oh, and prepare Project: Harmonics,” I added, a devious smile on my face.

“Yes, sir!” the aide replied, his voice enthusiastic.

“Zanuka, come,” I said to my robot that was in a sleeping pose next to the door. It raised its head and stretched like a cat as I walked past, and followed me out of the room as I made my way towards the teleporter here in the vampire city.

Fundament capital, three hours previous
Oryx

I was in my throne room, dealing with requests from the nobles as to allocations of excess money in our budget. Thanks to both threats from yours truely and simply saying no to stupid, selfish requests, most were involved wellfare and other public items. I had just finished with one when my aide walked into the room. “Sir, the ambassadors from Tartarus have arrived.”

Ah, yes. A year ago, I had met with the ruler of Tartarus, and we began talks of-at the very least- a non-aggression pact between Tartarus and the Shadow kings. He sen me a letter saying his sons would be the ambassadors, and that his eldest was looking forward to it.

“Send them in,” I said. “Cancel court for the rest of the week.”

“Yes, my lord,” the aide said with a bow before leaving.

“Sekana,” I said, and my adoptive daughter appeared out of the shadows.

“Yes, father?” she asked with a bow.

“Take the singers, and station them around the room. Ensure they are invisible and ready on my signal.”

“Already done, father,” she replied, a confident smile on her face. “I felt it best to prepare something if this was a ruse.”

I nodded. “Go to the Ecumene. I feel it best all of the royals not at risk if this is a facade.”

“At once,” she said before vanishing in green flames. A minute later, two creatures walked in. One was humanoid and colored grey with leathery wings folded behind his back. His chest was bare, and from the waist down he had only knee length armor, the legs ending in talons. His face was elongated like a muzzle, and he had a pair of horns atop his head.

The second was a red and black centaur with horns who seemed to wear only a black, sleeveless shirt over his chest, and a simple, short, white beard.

The gargoyle-as that is what the first reminded me of- was fidgeting slightly, and looked between his brother and myself, while the Centaur had a bored expression.

“Welcome, ambassadors and princes,” I said. “It is my honor to welcome the heirs of Tartarus’ king to my palace, and it is my hope that our nations will be able to remain peaceful.”

“It most certainly will,” the Centaur said. “When I rule.”

“You mean your father is simply doing this for a ruse?” I asked, something from the near forgotten time as a human came near the surface.

The Gargoyle was fidgeting even more, and I voiced the concern. “Is your brother alright?”

“Him? He’s always nervous. A weakling.”

“Funny, that is,” I said. “Where I come from, gargoyles-which he reminds me of with his appearance- are seen as protectors.” I then eyed him. “Centaurs could be known as wild and instinctive. I suppose neither are true.” Silence passed for a few seconds, during which I saw the shimmer in the air indicating an invisible entity moving around, the shimmer just in front of the doors. “Where are my manners, I don’t know either of your names.”

“M-my name is Scorpan,” the gargoyle said. “My brother is Tirek.”

As the last syllable exited Scorpan’s mouth, I felt myself lifted into the air, and saw the Deathsingers become visible as energy visible left our bodies, and I felt weaker with every past second. I saw the trails lead to Tirek, who was growing as our energy entered his mouth.

This lasted for a minute, after which, the roof was shattered, and Tirek was taller than the castle, according to what I heard. Not an easy feat, as the castle itself was three kilometers high. “Now then, where to next?” Tirek asked, his voice deeper. “Ah, the Empire. So much natural magic, and yet it is so weak.” With that, Tirek’s legs pretty much demolished my throne room as he began making his way towards the Empire. When he was gone, I began to chuckle, followed by a. . . rather stereotypical laugh for a villain. I’ll admit, it felt good considering the circumstances.

“H-how can you be laughing?” Scorpan asked, terrified.

“Because that dumbass thinks Alad left his most important facility undefended!” I yelled as I laughed, and the Deathsingers joined in. As they laughed, I stopped, an looked at Scorpan. “Now, give me a good reason I shouldn’t take you when my powers are back.”

“M-my brother’s powers,” he stammered out. “I can explain how they work.” I was silent for a second, with that telling him yes. Figured I may as well know if there are others like him. “He learned the ability to steal the natural abilities of others, and use them to increase his power. The size is just a side effect,” he said nervously. “I wanted to tell you, but he put a spell on me to ensure I didn’t.”

“We’ll discuss that later,” I said. “Now, we simply wait for news of Tirek’s defeat.”

Three days later-Crystal Empire
Alad

I stood on the wall surrounding the Empire, facing the direction the behemoth would be coming from. “Is everything ready?” I asked into my radio.

“Yes, sir,” one of the defenders replied. “Controls are mapped to your collar.”

“Excellent,” I said. With the radio off, I then said, “Initiate voice commands. Activate project: Feedback; Project: Anti-mage, and cue up Heading three, subsection four, article ten of Project: Harmonics, activate on my command.”

I heard the collar beep as the commands were registered and followed. I smiled just as an alert came through on Zanuka. “Proximity alarms triggered: six kilometers out and closing at a hundred meters per second.”

“Activate Project: Harmonics, prepare three Anti-mage artillery salvos, and prepare mines for next projected contact point. Fire on my mark.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSX85vVxIlU

“Mines armed,” the automated voice said. A second later, “Mines detonated. Minimal damage.”

“Fire the first salvo,” I said, and ten loud bangs were heard in rapid succession as ten artillery guns fired a single round each.

Three seconds later, a roar of agony was heard. “Target hit for effect. Warning, energy build up detected.”

“Focus Feedback in the path of the beam, and have any gained power routed to the cannon.”

“Understood. Beam fired, shield in place.”

I simply smirked as I saw a beam of orange energy coming my way, and only blinked my eyes when it stopped in front of me. “Fire salvos two and three, prep four missile salvos.”

“Firing. Missiles prepped.”

“Cannon charge?”

“Forty percent,” was the answer as another roar of agony was heard, and the beam stopped soon after.

“Hm,” I replied. “Need to improve the efficiency,” I said as another beam hit in front of me, and was stopped. “Oh well, that’s a job for later. Fire missile salvos one and two. Cannon charge?”

“Firing,” was the reply as thirty missiles soared overhead. “Fifty percent and climbing at one percent per second.”

“Excellent, considering,” I said. “Have the cannon set to discharge all energy when it fires. If the target is down, discharge the energy slowly. It will need to be returned to its owners.”

“Parameters set,” the system replied as the beam stopped again. “Seventy five percent.”

“Status of target?”

“Legs destroyed, as is a single horn. Adrenaline is most likely numbing pain. Wounds will be fatal by bleedout in a week given current size.”

“Make it less than a minute.”

“Firing salvos three and four, prepping and firing artillery salvos three through five.”

“Boom, mother-” I began before I could not even hear over myself as the artillery fired. Thirty missiles soared overhead, preceded by a total of thirty artillery shells, each designed to ignore magical defenses by having an inner shell made out of a special stone found in the badlands.

“Target eliminated. Numerous energy signatures releasing and trails lead to Fundament.”

“Good,” I said. “Schedule a meeting with the lord of Tartarus. He won’t be happy I just curbstomped his son.

Author's Notes:

One: Only three people got the reasoning correct(initial commenter and the two who liked the comment. You know who you are.).
Two:I honestly do not like how Fimfiction looks now. What about you all?
Also, a bit of an explanation for the three projects used.
Feedback is essentially the Force Feedback shield seen in sci-fi. Basically, the harder you it it, the stronger it becomes, but this one can be channeled to other systems. Basically, it could be a self sustaining power supply.
Anti-mage is basically projectiles with an inner shell of a stone like Chrysalis’ throne in season six.
Harmonics essentially hijacks the planet’s natural magical field to create songs for combat meant to improve an allies effectiveness. Basically, it takes those random musical numbers in the show ponies seem to automatically know, and weaponizes them