Early Morning
6th May, 71 BNM
Eastern Equestria
Coltchester

Satio awoke, and upon rising from his crafted den in the hill slopes, he felt pain in his gut yet again. Pain from his unknown disease, building ever since 16 days ago, as well as pain he couldn't heal easily.
He had the dream yet again. Of him going berserk, terrorising the towns, consuming all in his path. A nightmare he lived, a nightmare he was.
His orange form, a large mound of gelatinous flesh, had the eerie yellow and green glow in the centre, like a disease. He knew the key to illness was to remain nourished.
The unquenchable hunger he felt was proof of that.
He needed to feed again.
The emptiness in him, it made him not bother to form his shape into even a semblance of the Minotaur he once was.
Yet as he gazed out of his small cavern he'd made with his magic to sleep in, the orange hued, shapeless mass cast its twinkling brighter orange eyes downwards.
The pain was not just from whatever he was diseased with, for there was pain of loss that was only two days old now.
He shifted his massive form to squeeze out of the crevice cavern, bursting apart to form into the swarm of tiny orange locusts to swarm and fill the sky, heading east.

A few miles away, the bare bones structure of what had once been a thriving town named Mareberdeen lay. Entire fields of wheat stripped bare, markets ransacked, and grain stores emptied, massive holes burrowed in them.
Most disturbingly, entire housing structures were gone, a strange dissolved state on many giving the impression something had tried to liquefy them. And by the sounds of cries from the towns, there were many ponies missing who fell to the same

6th May, 71 BNM
Mareberdeen, church grounds.

"It came, swarms, but as it bit everything, it felt soggy, a burning watery touch from a thousand mouths. A plague, it consumed everyone it touched, and then vanished as swiftly as it came."
The priest pony was shaken as he spoke, while the Unicorn mare before him offered a sympathetic hoof on his shoulder.
Casting her eyes to the wreckage, the Mage Unicorn, Meadowbrook, could only stare at the half dissolved ruins of one side of the church.

2 days later
Nighttime
8th May, 71 BNM
Gaitmore Town

The Royalist aligned town, a farming community and market town, became a hell this night.
The screams from the town alerted him, and as he rushed out, the Alicorn Lord Ridegait's eyes wide as he saw chaos unfolding in the town. Beside him, his wife,
An orange haze covered the town as fires raged, and shadows of ponies rushing through the streets, fleeing, or being caught by the flames.
But as the lack of the smell of smoke reached his nostrils, he realized this was no fire.
At the end of a street, stretching out from his manor, he saw local police Unicorns and Earth Ponies hurling spears and spells at something. But an orange arm of some sort shot out, snatching them an dragging them back, as the orange glow drew closer.
Then, it surged, engulfing the houses at the end of the road, vapors giving off as all it touched seemed to melt, or vanish into its bulk. Inside itself, a fierce yellow and green light glowed within its orange mass, like a fire in its glow, but like a massive liquid body moving through the street, alive, pulsating, and growling in insatiable hunger.
Lady Ridegait gasped, begging Lord Ridegait:
"We must evacuate the town, the ponies can't-."
"Its too late, we must leave, the town is lost. Get the children, have them ready to go as soon as possible!"
As Lady Ridegait rushed off, the Alicorn mare's frantic paced hoofsteps fading as she ran into the house, Lord Ridegait couldn't help but gaze out as the mass surged across the town, behind it, a burnt and dissolved trail of destruction. Like a gargantuan slug, it consumed all in its path.
Yet launching from it, swarms of orange bugs of some sort, that ate furiously at a rate that would put parasprites to shame.
"This is no Nationalist attack..."
At this word, he recalled what he'd heard, of a series of attacks in the night like this. An all consuming force.
Without another word, he rushed inside to his office.

As the groans from in the city began to spread, Ridegait magically summoned a piece of parchment and quill, and began furiously scribbling, enunciating to himself to try and drown out the sounds of carnage further beyond:
"Dear Mage Meadowbrook, I plead for your help. My township, Gaitmore, has been attack by a menace that consumes all, glowing like an orange fire. The same sort of attacks that have happened across eastern Equestria to both Royal and National aligned towns. This matter goes beyond our warring factions, but I will contact the Wizard Starswirl, as I know those of greater magic studies do not divide as much as Equestria has now..."

The guard pony screamed as he was snathced up, pulled into the alley. Moments later, the orange mass oozed forwards, joining more as it surged down the streets towards the largest house in the town, the Ridegait residence, home to the local Alicorn lord and his family.

Ridegait residence, main entrance hall.

As the carnage raged in the town, Ridegait swiftly finished the rest of the letter, teleporting it off the Meadowbrook's tower in a flash of his magic.
Lady Ridegait stood there with their young son and daughter Alicorn, and a few guards ready to flee too.
"I have them, let's get out of here!"
As they rushed to the back entrance however, they found the door stuck. Straining desperately, they saw something horrific.
Outside the windows, orange light, and nothing else, the dark of night now gone.
The door began to melt, as orange liquid oozed inside through the cracks.
Standing back, the young Alicorn children cowering behind their mother, the guards warily standing ready with spears and magic horns alight, while Lord Ridegait could only blink out of fear as his mouth went dry.
Overhead, cracks appeared in the ceiling, and orange liquid drops fell. One landed on a guard's face, and he yelled as it burned him like boiling hot water.
Yet as the cracks increased, Ridegait glanced over at his family and guards, rushing towards his wife and children as the roof finally collapsed, and the orange mass that had engulfed the house fell into the entrance hall.

Outside, the massive orange bulk sunk down as it penetrated the inner rooms of the house, consuming it in its digestive bulk, flaring as it felt more powerful magic users consumed.
But as it moved, the toxic yellow/green glow didn't fully diminish.

3 days later
11th May, 71 BNM
Mid-eastern Equestria, along Royalist/Nationalist territorial divide.
Equestria, Neighagra falls
Meadowbrook’s tower

The tragedy that befell Gaitmore town, including the death of the Alicorn Rdiegait family, was merely the most recent. Now, two highly skilled magic users met to determine a solution.

"You made it then?" Meadowbrook asked, lowing her hood from her yellow furred face. Beside her, Starswirl sat down on the seat at her kitchen table, face gaunt:
"As soon as I heard what was happening. But before we begin, I know where this creature came from, I know its weakness."
"How?" Meadowbrook was surprised, though she made no complaint about this news:
"Baltimare, the sacking of its city, its fall, there were two creatures there. This menace is the one that survived after it fled, the other died from its injuries." Starswirl explained a short summary of the events he'd witnessed 3 weeks ago today. But on hearing this, Meadowbrook sat down beside Starswirl, her face and brows furrowed in thought:
"So what is driving it?"
"Hunger, nothing more. Its a gluttonous creature to its core now, a shapeshifter and a powerful being that puts Alicorns to shame." Starswirl murmured, a small hint of that blasted prophecy creeping to mind, despite his loss in belief of it.
"Surely any creature would be filled after all it has consumed." Meadowbrook reasoned, quizzical that it was only hunger driving this creature.
"No. Not with the poison its been infected with. One of my, allies, he struck it in its core, now a poison is slowly harming it, weakening it. It eats more than it needs to, because the poison is consuming and wasting him away from the inside, like a parasite. The creature would not have the sighted yellow and green light form inside its orange mass if it were healthy."
At Starswirl's explanation, Meadowbrook's eyes became alight at this fortunate news, as she gave a small sigh of relief, before remarking to him:
"So its dying?"
"In time it will, when even it eating every second of every day is not enough to calm its hunger. Its pain from the poison makes him animalistic in intelligence, he'll seek food rather than safety if he gets too hungry."
At this, Meadowbrook had an idea, a small smile of thought about the simplicity of the solution coming to mind:
"We could starve it then, but distract it the whole time. Does it consume all, even magic?"
"Yes. Any magic attacks it absorbs, unless struck from the inside. But my ally barely survived being consumed in order to escape after poisoning it."
At Starswirl's doubtful remark, Meadowbrook gave a small smile, as she glanced away towards another room, remarking offhandedly as she spoke:
"I, have something, more a few things. They're not weapons, but they are powerful with magic. Enough for him to come after them and give chase."
"And all we'd have to do is keep him occupied. He'll be going after truly large or powerful things to feed his deteriorating body now. Wise..." Starswirl couldn't help but share Meadowbrook's optimism as she got up, the Unicorn mare wandering over to the other room.
Following her, Starswirl saw her open her storage closet, where a few jars containing artefacts she kept lay before them.
Eight of them.
As she looked at them in their jars, Starswirl beside her remarked:
"So, which ones to take?"
"All of them. I only need to use each once to get his attention, and if I'm carrying all of them, he'll focus on me." Meadowbrook spoke plainly, as she began to magically open the jars, the artefacts inside hovering out around her as she walked over to a nearby table.
"You realize the dangers of this..." Starswirl remarked, to which Meadowbrook remarked with a small smile of anticipation as she began to store the artifacts inside a shrinking pouch:
"You expect me to not protect innocent ponies... Many of the villages and towns its attacked are farming, markets. The sort of ponies this war has drained, a war they themselves have less stake in. Somepony has to help them as fast as possible."
"You always did vouch for the little ponies..." Starswirl remarked, with not an ounce of contempt in his voice. If only Siral had been as humble as Meadowbrook. She protected the lesser ponies by helping them, not by attacking those higher up.
But getting out a map, Starswirl then added:
"There are armies on the move, they'll be useless or worse, food for the creature. But they can clear out towns that are near attacked zones. So, if we track its movements, it seems to making its way slowly north."
On the map, a small graphite stencil hovered in blue light, tracing a single line, before it circled the towns in its general direction. One was the biggest however.
"Reignborough, that's right on the border of the territories. My money would be on that town." Meadowbrook remarked, looking at the map carefully as Starswirl then added, his caution evident.
"Rightly so, and the armies have the same idea too. The Royalists, begrudgingly, let the Nationalists send a contingent to aid in holding it off."

2 days later
13th May, 71 BNM

Clenching his stomach that morning, Satio slowly gave up sustaining his minotaur form. He had the terrible night again, about consuming and terrorising, when all he did in the days was live in isolation, dwelling on his loss, trying to find a way to move on.
But by now he knew. He had done it in his sleep.
"Is it really me if I did it in my sleep?"
Satio tried to placate himself, but the doubt was there.
All the while, he felt a dark presence in his mind, something that awoke soon after he went to sleep, soon before the nightmares began.
His stomach wracked with more pain, as he felt whatever was literally eating him from inside cause him agony once more. By now, he suspected it was more than just grief.
"I'll see if I can sneak into a town tomorrow. Reignborough seems big enough to have medicines I could use."
As fate would have it, he would visit Reignborough tonight.

Nightfall
Reignborough town outskirts

The creature had performed as predicted, as Reignborough was the largest farming and market town in the vicinity. But on the outskirts, tonight, two small armies gathered to ward off the creature.
As they stared out over the hill, the lights of the orange creature's bulk obscured the spears and energy being hurled at it, the armies drawing its attention from the town.
"We best hurry. This first one will get its attention." Meadowbrook replied calmly, as she fished out the first of her 8 artifacts. This one was what looked like a candleholder, but instead of a candle, it held a single gemstone with a slightly bright white glow in its centre. Intrigued, but wary of the danger they were to draw in, Stasrwirl asked:
"What does it do?"
"An eternal illumination artifact. A light spell of any brightness, for however long, forever. You will want to shield your eyes being this close, we will need to really get his attention..."
Meadowbrook placed a hoof on the gemstone, as she began to murmur under her breath the simple incantation, a comparable term to describe how bright:
"Sol..."
Even with shut eyes, Starswirl saw the darkness brighten, as if daylight struck. Meadowbrook unleashed the Lantern of Starlight at its full setting, with only raw daylight being brighter, yet with only a heat like a campfire being given off.

The orange blob groaned as he scorched/dissolved another hurled boulder in half with a flung tendril. Concentrating, it formed a globule of its own material and shot it towards a group of Nationalist pegasi flying overhead. The blob consumed them, before it came swiftly hovering back to recombine with the main blob. All around him weapons and magic fired at him, as he shifted to rise up and engulf another group of soldier ponies, these ones Royalist.
But at that moment, the starlight skies suddenly turned brighter, as a light as intense as the sun all but blinded them from the western hills. It was a silent light, as yells and recoils of pain and blurred vision plagued the armies.
As it turned to the source, the small orange eyes of the creature narrowed at the brightness.
But in its primal hunger, it sensed great power. Food.
As the light faded, the orange mass began to slither away to the west, leaving the stunned army groups of the Nationalists and Royalists, who had come to deal with him, stunned and relieved.
Both armies dispersed before any disagreements could erupt, they'd had to deal with enough today, lost too many each.

"He's coming for us."
"Now we make a run for it." Meadowbrook replied, as Starswirl turned tail for a swift gallop. Stopping him, Meadowbrook pulled out from her pouch another artefact, as she placed the Lantern back inside. Oddly though, she pulled out a duplicate for herself:
"Here, take this. We can't let him lose us, so we'll fly slow enough for him to keep up."
His blue magic pulling the saddle over his back, Starswirl remarked to Meadowbrook as she did up her own:
"You know I can fly with my magic, you can too."
"I know, but these artifacts being used are better bait."
Glancing back, seeing the orange hulking mass slithering fast up the fields, now only half a mile from them, Starswirl found himself agreeing. He turned to Meadowbrook, suggesting as she and he incanted in their minds to fly:
"West, to the river. There are fewer ponies there, and less for him to consume."
Both Unicorns took flight, though not at a speed the massive orange creature slithering across the plains and hills couldn't match.
And so it went on like this, both Unicorns luring Satio onwards, the latter consumed by his sleepless hunger and darker instincts brought up by his internal poisoning.

6 hours later
14th May, 71 BNM
Early Morning/sunrise
Hounduin river, the whitecrest rapids

Pine tree forests on both sides of the river flanked its whitewater depths, the wide river jagged with protruding rocks too hard for the river to wear away entirely despite its best efforts.
But as both Unicorns came to land, they saw that the orange glow that was Satio's form, slowly melting his way through the forest, had fallen behind slightly.
Taking out her 5th item, the Scope of Acuteness, Meadowbrook had a look through. To her vision, she saw through enough trees to see the massive orange bulk of Satio still coming after them, thouhg noticeably slowing. The yellow and green toxic energy inside his massive, shapeless blob of a body had increased if anything.
"The toxin is truly plaguing him. Even eating a forest as he burns a path through isn't enough."
"Only raw magic would give him a chance now." Starswirl murmured, at which he nervously looked at the pouch Meadowbrook had strapped to her robes. The grey bearded Unicorn glanced ahead, as he replied to her with a surprisingly sombre tone:
"I don't think this will end in a battle, but a whimper."
"Yes. I sense it too. Its dying. You said an ally infected it. It must have truly taken its toll by now. 24 days you said... I cannot help but feel sorry for its suffering, eating to try and stop its starving state. If only it hadn't attacked anypony..."
"There are a lot of 'if only' things in this world Meadowbrook. Take it from a Wizard whose felt fate's sting enough, there are too many things that go wrong in this world that are a product of somepony's poor choice."
Starswirl's rather bitter remark was in contrast to Meadowbrook's more sensitive demeanor to all things, but before them, the pine trees burst out of the way as a seemingly tired bloblike creature slumped before the river, merely staring at them with its blank, minuscule orange eyes from its mound-like body.
Cautiously, Meadowbrook donned the Belt of Appendage around her waist, while Starswirl readied his magic. On the other side of the rapids, Satio's massive shapeless bulk just sat there.
But from his bulk, blobs shot forth like hail, glowing orange as they flew at them.
Her magic getting to work, Meadowbrook's Belt split up into many tentacle like arms, the fabric of the sash-like belt flicking out to deflect the incoming orange blobs. To her alarm, she saw each deflection eat away at her belt sash on each hit.
Beside her, Starswirl's blue shield held, the orange blobs congealing on the front in an attempt to consume him. But on the ground, the other blobs that had been fired and cast aside began to form, and advance on Meadowbrook. Scrambling back, her magic firing at the blobs, Meadowbrook lashed out with her belt 'arms', and laced them with burning magic. But as welts appeared on the rocky ground before her, as she also took flight with her saddle artefact, the orange minion turned into a gigantic leech of sorts, as thick and an arm and very long, leaping up like a spring to penetrate her shields and wrap around her ankle.
Burning into her skin, she screeched at the pain. But before she could fall, a fierce blue blast shot the orange creature free of her leg, whilst Starswirl then took a nearby rock, larger than the orange minion itself, and slammed it with the rock, sending the minion careening into the raging river. Nearby, Meadowbrook slammed onto the ground, the Belt around her waist breaking as some of the dissolving orange mucus from Satio's minion snapped the belt itself.
On the rocky ground now, the sun rising on the horizon, Meadowbrook gasped as she pulled out another artefact, this one a mask. Hurling it at Stasrwirl, she had him put it on, where a set of magical beams then shot out of the eye sockets onto the burnt, semi dissolved fur and skin on her leg. The healing took effect immediately, while she fished out her last artefact, one she'd hoped not to have to use. Taking the Hammer of Adherence, she magically pulled together the Belt of Appendage to repair it, the hammer hitting lightly in a way to magically repair it.
"Where is he?"
"Here he comes!" Starswirl warned, as he readied a spell. On the other side of the river, as they had frantically warred with the shot minion, the main mass that was Satio surged into the raging river, water spraying up as he surged forwards. The Green and Yellow glow inside his massive orange body seemed to crackle with toxic energy, while Satio's bulk growled like an enormous stomach.
As he looked at the incoming creature, Starswirl had a thought, but after a moment's hesitation, he furrowed his brows, warning to Meadowbrook.
"Fly up, we can't let him tackle us! I have something that will stop him, it worked on another like him, made it obey me!"
"Why didn't you say so before? What do you-..." Meadowbrook began exclaiming, but cut herself off as she saw a glow of purple/black dark magic begin to emanate from Starswirl's horn as he focused, a dark chanted language in his voice as Satio came closer.
"Dark magic... You didn't..." Meadowbrook breathed, but Starswirl was ignorant, as he began to search for Satio's soul name to control him.
But at that instant, a black glow erupted from within Satio's enormous bulk as he charged, one which made him quiver with strain as an unknown presence used his body to burst into Starswirl's mind:
No trick shall work twice while I am within them, old friend!
It was Siral's voice, burning into Starswirl's, as a crack of black lightning threw Starswirl onto his back, electric arcs consuming his body as he lay on the river bank. Running over, Meadowbrook helped Starswirl up, before she saw Satio charging them fast, the mansion sized creature almost upon them. Taking the Wizard in her grip, she flew up with her Saddle artefact's powers, as Satio slammed, or more staggered into the small treeline they'd been standing by on the riverfront.
Flying higher up, Meadowbrook felt Starswirl awaken, the Wizard croaking:
"The river, make him go upstream, tire him at last, the poison in him..."
Slowly hovering over the river, Meadowbrook, and Starswirl as he regained his full composure, simply waited as Satio roared, charging towards them upstream, the massive creature's bulk forcing its way through the lethal rapids while taking up half the width of the river itself.
Charging, Satio's orange eyes blazed at the enticing sight of two Wizard level Unicorns and at least 8 artefacts of great power on the female's being.
But as she saw, as did Starswirl, the orange, miniscule eyes on the similarly orange being widened briefly as the yellow and green light arcs within itself suddenly seemed to spread and fracture like broken glass.

He felt it, the burning, it peaked and then, he felt nothing. Weakness, then nothing. He didn't even feel it as he began to collapse, but he gave a small groan at how it ended like this.
Groaning, Satio lamented Iena, but knew he'd be joining her now.
The toxins in his body finally overcame his food consumption for energy to fight it. He had been starved at the pursuit of a meal potential enough to feed him for days on end, weeks maybe. Instead, eternal rest took him in its arms.

PG BRK

The massive, shapeless orange form began to slow, as the yellow/green light from inside its mass finally flared, and spread like a bolt of electricity bursting inside him at long last.
Stumbling to a halt, the creature let out what sounded like a guttural moan, weak and draining, as it then began to slump down, its orange glow fading fast.
The rapids overcame the creature as it slumped down, and without hesitation, the orange mass that had been Satio began to be slowly carried down the river, away from the two Unicorns who hovered above its raging rapids, simply staring on.
As Meadowbrook began to fly them overhead, releasing Starswirl to also fly alongside her with his own saddle artefact duplicate, she noticed Starswirl grip his head all of a sudden, as if a sudden pain set in.
"What is it?"
"This again, he is dead."
Down in the water, the orange bulk began to diminish in the rapids, as Starswirl's mind wandered. The two Unicorns flew to a nearby shore higher up the river, where keen eyesight by way of magic would reveal the deteriorating body of the Being of Gluttony.
Staring as they stood on their little rise, Starswirl recalled the second of his exemplars he met, of memories he never knew. It was exactly the same as happened with Iena's death shortly after Baltimare, a glimpse of the final moments of their opposite, their corresponding exemplar of harmony. In this case, gluttony opposed magic of spreading, not consuming.

141 years ago
212 BNM
Imperial Pandina, Ghungyin Province
Hilomeyan Mountains, Chihon plateau
Xangalii temple

She had lived a long life, a good life. 421 was no age to scoff at, even if the newly emerged Alicorns and the already long lived Western Dragons and Fire Drakes could live longer.
The great master Hinai had reached her end, she knew it, she felt it in her bones, and she accepted it. She would go her way.
The elderly Eastern Dragoness with golden scales and jade green stripes knelt down, her movements slow as she came to a comfortable position. Beside her, a young male Eastern Dragon, green and black striped, helped her as she shuffled herself, his face concerned until she gave a sigh upon finally settling.
"You will carry on my work? Pass on the wisdom I have taught, as those elders I found did unto me?"
"Yes master..."
"Good, good. I am ready. You have been a wonderful student Xiang, and you will teach the others well. I am proud to have been your teacher."
"Thank you, such words are a great honour."
"One well deserved. Goodbye, I go now, to where, only those I go to join know. Many old friends, good friends, and family I've too long lost, missed."
As she spoke, the faded yellow scales of her long, serpentine body began to glow brighter, highlighting the green and red stripes along her body as her magic began to flare up one last time.
But as she breathed calmly, she flashed a small smile to Xiang, the younger Eastern Dragon bowing low, but keeping his mournful face hardened as she faded. A gentle flurry of gold glowing tree flower leaves began to swirl, picked up on the winds atop the plateau, blowing through the shrine hill's grounds that they stood upon.
In a noise that seemed akin to a massive breath being let out, Hinai slowly turned to golden light, her bright pink eyes glowing amidst the golden colour before they too began to fade.
Then, as the swarm of golden petals danced about her, obscuring her, she melted away, a forest of more golden lower petals adding to the small storm gusting atop the shrine hill mount. Then, they were gently carried away on the mountain breeze, passing out into the twilight sunset lit skies over the mountains.
On the mountain top, Xiang looked down at the spot where she had just sat, a single golden petal laying there on the ground, slowly fading its light.
With his own green magic, he hovered a small mound of dirt up, and after excavating a small hole, buried the flower petal. He then knelt down in a respectful bow, a sad smile on his face as he flexed his wings while looking out at the golden/red sunset.

14th May, 71 BNM
Early Morning/sunrise
Hounduin river, the whitecrest rapids

Down the river, grey liquid from Satio's melting, dead body stained the white and bluish-brown the potion grey he'd been changed in. Now, a single body of a rather portly minotaur floated facedown in the river, the rapids rocking it as he was carried further downstream, often times being submerged by the currents.
In time he would be picked off like all dead bodies were in nature.

Both the Mage and Wizard stood atop the riverside rise, having seen the body that had been what the being was built around be carried down the current, presumably to a grave.
Facing Starswirl now, giving a sigh at the relief, and possible sadness for the creature, Meadowbrook demanded coldly of Stasrwirl:
"You have been tampering with dark magic?"
"True name spells, nothing else yet."
"Yet? What else have you delved into? You know that knowledge is forbidden by age old rules of law." The Mage strode up into Stasrwirl's face, to which the Wizard gruffly replied:
"Rules went to the dogs when the war started."
"We mustn't discuss this here, we have to say that the creature is no more, and they can rest easier. But we will discuss your apparent hypocrisy Starswirl, believe it."
Without another word, Meadowbrook then magically snatched the duplicated Saddle artefact from Starswirl's neck, and placed it within her Pouch of Duplicana.
"I can't believe you Starswirl... You preached against dark magic, and yet here you are."
"Do not question my resolve, only my methods have changed." Starswirl growled. At this, Meadowbrook turned away to take off with her saddle artefact, remarking darkly to him:
"Is that not how your old friend Siral turned out in the end, changed methods but the same resolve?"
Without another word, she took flight, leaving Starswirl stunned for words. He shook his head, murmuring to himself:
"I am nothing like Siral, nothing!"
Yet as the last of the dark magic flickered from his horn, of the true name spell he was about to unleash finally fading, he found himself unable to say that anymore.

Author's Notes:

A rather subversive chapter, as Satio's final fate is more of going out with a whimper, rather than a roar. His consumption of towns merely delays the inevitability of the poison Chack's enchanted blade gave inside part of him, constantly building until it overcame whatever energy he could take in by eating.
A rundown of my interpretation of Meadowbrook's 8 items. None are weapons per say, though could be used for attack somehow. None are lethal by design. But they all have uses for normal ponies too.
-Lantern of Starlight. Campfire level heating, plus light brightness from candlelight to sunlight level.
-Mask of Curation. Heal any injury or illness on anybody EXCEPT the user.
-Hammer of Adherence. Repair any object, attach/'glue' any object to another.
-Scope of Acuteness. Can see immense distances, in the dark, and at closer range, even see through solid objects.
-Saddle of Nimbus. Manipulate/walk on clouds and fly like a Pegasus.
-Belt of Appendage. Can form into extra limbs depending on user's focus.
-Broach of Hermesia. User can message another fast, be it in mind or in visual form before them, instantly, no matter where they are.
-Pouch of Duplicain. Stuff items inside, and as well as store them compactly, can duplicate them. Duplicates always of lesser quality, worse as more duplicates made of 'origin' item.
And yet as he's shown to be willing to use dark magic means so forbidden in wake of these creatures, Starswirl gets an opinion that doesn't approve of his methods. And this is a moment of self doubt for Starswirl at a time when there can be no doubt.