The pair of trolleys stop by an area that piques the group’s interest for an otherwise uneventful ride. Granted the rain holds much to blame since it is keeping the exhibits sheltered, however, interest has returned now that the group sees tall electric fences standing at almost two dozen feet tall with red lights on each post, and securing the posts in is a concrete wall.There is also a sign on the fence big enough for everyone to see, and it has is a simple message: REMAIN IN YOUR VEHICLES!

Inside Twilight’s trolley, she stares wide eyed at the tall posts. The red light gives the rain a red tint, and a brief flash of lightning in the distance adds to the ominous atmosphere. As Twilight stares at the fence, she uses her magic to grab a folded map and slowly looks away to study the trail, realizing that Test Tube has made a horrible error. According to the map, they are at the T-Rex paddock, which she is sure is the big attraction, but there are also a dozen other locations to visit after this one. Essentially, the doctor played his best card first.

“The Tyrannosaurus Rex is often called the King of the Dinosaurs, and for a good reason! It was the largest of the Tyrannosaurids, capable of growing four meters tall and thirteen meters long,” says the recording.

“Thirteen point two,” corrects Fluttershy under her breath.

Twilight looks at Fluttershy, who has her face pressed against the window, squinting as thick streaks of water obscure her vision. Fluttershy says nothing more, and Twilight goes back to looking at the map, but it is more out of giving her eyes something to do other than trying to see through a shroud of darkness.

“I don’t think this park is ready,” says Twilight. “This map layout doesn’t make any sense, and with the time I’ve spent with Dr. Rack, I’ve gotten the feeling that he is using this park to fix a chip on his shoulder. That, and the ampelosites are also a huge problem.”

Fluttershy sighs and flops in her seat. “The doctor did say that his wife died. Maybe he is doing this as a tribute to her? But it doesn’t excuse how he’s been treating these creatures. If he’s treating the raptors poorly, then I can’t imagine how he’s treating the others.”

Twilight nods and looks at the fence, specifically the wires, and rubs her chin.

“Another potential problem I see is the fencing. Those wires look strong, but do you think they can hold a T-Rex?” asks Twilight.

“I hope they do because it’s been watching us for a few minutes,” replies Fluttershy.

“Wait, you can actually see it?”

Fluttershy points at the thick foliage of trees, and Twilight squints her eyes, which allows her to see a pair of beady eyes hiding in the camouflage of heavy rain, darkness, and thick forest. Seeing that sends a shiver up her spine, and Fluttershy coughs in her hoof and shudders.

“If that fence breaks, we’ll be in a lot of trouble,” says Fluttershy.

Inside Gate Keeper’s office, Rainbow Dash has found a perch on the office couch with a Daring Do book. It is one of A.K. Yearling’s earlier books and the writing shows, but nonetheless it is still enjoyable. Though, her immersion is broken when the light above flickers, and Rainbow Dash looks at the troublesome light while Gate Keeper casts her an easygoing smile with another Daring Do book on his desk, which is next to a log book and a stack of notebooks.

“Relax,” says Gate Keeper. “The light does that every time there is a storm.”

“You’ve been through a lot of storms, huh?” says Rainbow Dash.

“Oh, yeah. This might be the worst one, but nothing bad has ever happened. This will be no different”

“What happens if the power goes out?”

“It won’t. This section has its own power station that is connected to the main power station, so if this one drops, the big one will give us some juice until the little one is brought back up. No biggie.”

Rainbow Dash nods and looks at her book. “Right. The doctor mentioned something like that earlier. I just forgot.”

Gate Keeper waves his hand. “No worries. I forget a lot of… Hold on.”

Rainbow Dash’s ears perk, and she looks at Gate Keeper as he pushes one of the red buttons, giggling to himself while he peers out the window and gives the button another push.

“Red Gala is being a troublemaker again,” he says, giving the button yet another push. “But nothing like a few bursts of liquid nitrogen to show her who’s in charge!”

Rainbow Dash watches Gate Keeper giggle for a few more seconds before she lowers her head into the book, now wondering if she made a mistake staying with him.

Gary’s vehicle slows to a stop outside a structure surrounded by a barb wire fence with lamp posts placed in equal intervals, making it the brightest spot on the island from what Applejack has seen. Beyond the wall is a metal structure dozens of stories tall, with large towers on its corners spewing exhaust. There are also two brick wings attached to the structure through a network of walkways, which are being illuminated by a generous amount of lights. The station also has pipes of various sizes and colors circling around and inside it, and thick wires on equally placed poles leave the station to connect with dozens of tall cylindrical turbines in the distance, which are being spun by the stormy winds and the crashing waves, and each have red lights signaling their location.

While Applejack stares at the distant turbines, Gary leans out and slips a card into a small machine by the entrance gate. The machine beeps, flashes green, and once Gary pulls his card out the gate opens. The griffin adjusts himself, then drives forward, and Applejack looks over shoulder, watching the gate close with the rain smashing against the metal. Once the gate closes, she looks back at the power station with a small smile.

“It’s amazing, we don’t have anything like this in Equestria,” says Applejack.

“The lack of magical abilities has forced us to look to technology,” says Gary. “But I will say, I absolutely hate driving. Griffins are meant to fly, not do this.”

Applejack stares at Gary, and he looks at her out of the corner of his eye.

“Not that I mind driving a guest around since I know you can’t fly and you’ll be heavy to carry around, but you understand where I’m coming from, right?” says Gary.

“What’d’ya mean I’d be heavy to carry around?” says Applejack.

“You ponies are heavy! Especially earth ponies. I mean, jeeze, talk about a load.”

Applejack self-consciously inspects her large frame. Sure, she is bigger than most earth pony mares, with her rock-solid build from working on the orchard and a lifetime of various strength and endurance tasks, but she’s not that much bigger or heavier. Gary is just being a jerk.

“Well, ya ain’t exactly a pillow to carry, either, being a griffin and all,” says Applejack.

Gary rolls his eyes. “Oh, wow. The burn. I’ll need some aloe vera for that.” He stops the vehicle outside the structure’s entrance and hops out. “I think we should focus on the job, now. You want to inspect the plant? Here we are. Get your checklist ready. We got a lot to cover.”

Tempest stares at Chip from just a few paces away, her ears flat against her skull, eyes narrowed and broken horn charging. Every part of her is tense, but from what she can see Chip seems only mildly inconvenienced by her presence. And Tempest doesn’t like that at all. He is either very stupid or very dangerous, and with what she can see in his eyes, it is the latter.

“How much are you being paid to betray your boss?” asks Tempest, her eyes steady while they search for a weak spot on the large griffin.

“That is none of your concern,” says Chip, his eyes fixed on hers. “You should be asking yourself something more important.”

Tempest braces herself and her magic crackles while Chip taps a single talon on the floor.

“You should be asking yourself: Which one of us is going to die, tonight?” says Chip.

Tempest narrows her eyes and her broken horn sparks as she snorts and paws the floor. There isn't a lot of space, which is not good for her, but not good for Chip, either. She knows from experience that griffins need their space, and she needs space because that is how her training molded her to be, but with her size she should be able to adjust easier than Chip.
Then she makes a mistake.

She blinks.

In that split second of a blink, Chip launches himself forward, and Tempest barely has a chance to slide out of the way. His talons graze her armor and his wing hits her in the face, knocking him into a spin and forcing her off balance. But Tempest is able quickly regains herself and with a snarl she turns and leaps at Chip, only to have the griffin grab her throat and slam her on the ground. His talons dig into her neck, drawing blood, and he puts his feline paw on her gut while the other set of talons lift to gouge her eyes out.

Before he can bring his talons down, Tempest zaps Chip in the chest, bringing him to loosen his grip, and she follows up with swiftly tucking her legs underneath his gut and kicking him off. Chip flips over her and lands on his back, and he growls as a trail of smoke rises from his chest with the stench of burnt fur and skin flowing into Tempest's nose. Chip quickly rolls upright, but before he can get a stable stance, Tempest rams him into the wall, denting it, and she bites on the crook of his neck while her hoofs lock on his shoulders. The taste of blood tickles Tempest's tongue, and she can't help but get a little bit of glee from that. It is only fair, after all. Blood for blood!

With Tempest’s teeth latched firmly on Chip’s neck, the griffin screams and rolls around on the floor, squishing Tempest with his superior weight, but she refuses to let go and releases another burst of electricity into him, burning more of his fur and skin, and this time a little bit of his feathers. The sparks have also blown out some of the lights and as shattered glass falls, the stench of burnt wires flood Tempest’s senses.

“You psycho!” snarls Chip.

The griffin screams again, only this time he goes into flight, and Tempest feels a brief rush of wind before a sharp pain hits her head, followed by a multiple cuts going all over her neck and cheek. Then everything becomes a blur as she rolls and bounces across a carpeted floor. She hits a chair, knocking it over, and when she stands up quickly, her legs give out and her attempt to grab a table leads to it falling over, spilling a napkin dispenser and condiments on the floor.

Across from Tempest, Chip growls and shakes glass off his hide, and his fur and feathers bristle as he coils his body, eyes locked on Tempest. Meanwhile, Tempest groans and keeps her eyes on Chip as she rolls to her hoofs, but before she can fully regain herself, she is rammed again and her back breaks into a vending machine, showering her with glass and snacks. Chip steps back to let her fall on the floor, and as Tempest tries to get up, Chip grabs the vending machine, and the last thing she feels before losing consciousness is 500 pounds of machinery landing on top of her.

Chip looks at Tempest's limp body underneath the vending machine, with one of his hands holding the wound on his neck. He is breathing heavily, and after taking a moment to look at the blood on his palm he looks at the clock on the wall. Seeing the precious time wasted he snarls and hurries away. He is confident that Tempest is out of the way for good, and even though he didn't like the commotion or the time it took he knows this set back won't change the outcome. His goal has been accomplished. Getting paid is just icing on the cake.

Test Tube is chewing on his talon, his eyes fixated on the map in front of him while his ears are listening to the conversations of the passengers.

“I don’t think this park is ready,” says Twilight. “This map layout doesn’t make any sense, and with the time I’ve spent with Dr. Rack, I’ve gotten the feeling that he is using this park to fix a chip on his shoulder. That, and the ampelosites are also a huge problem.”

Test Tube’s eyes briefly break off the map to look at the speaker, and Cord glances at him, only to look back at his station when the doctor motions him to.

“Has the T-Rex showed up yet?” asks Test Tube.

“Considering that no one is screaming, I would say no,” says Cord.

Test Tube sighs heavily and leans against the desk. His talons dig into the wood, leaving deep gashes and he glares at the map.

“So far this is turning out to be a dud,” says Test Tube. “A very expensive dud.”

“Hey, it’s only been one day,” says Cord. “We still got four more left, right? Or is it three? I honestly don’t know since nobody told me they would be coming”

Test Tube glares at him out of the corner of his eye. “We had a team meeting about this.”

“I’m sorry, I missed the meeting. But what I’m trying to say is that we still got some time left to impress them.” Cord grins and points at Guillermo. “Maybe if we convince that guy to upgrade his personality from sandpaper to Casanova, he can convince those ponies to give us passing grades. Two of them are already drooling over him, anyway.”

Test Tube looks at Guillermo, who is still listening to the weather, which is only getting worse according to the reports. It is also at that time that Test Tube realizes that Tempest and Chip still haven't returned. He honestly expected Chip to do some ditching since his attitude has always been terrible, but he distinctly remembers Pinkie Pie telling Tempest to spy on him and she has been watching everyone closely up until she left to use the bathroom. So, for her to be missing is a cause for concern.

“Guillermo,” calls Test Tube, getting the black and white griffin’s attention. “Find Tempest and Chip, please.”

Guillermo stands up, shoulders his rifle, and goes to the door, and when he grips the knob, he looks at Test Tube.

“You really need to call the trolleys back. The weather is getting worse and one of our visitors is already sick,” says Guillermo.

“Noted. Please do what I told you to do,” says Test Tube.

Guillermo grunts and exits the room, and Test Tube shakes his head and looks at the map.

“Stupid dinosaurs. Stupid weather,” grumbles Test Tube. “At this rate I’ll be driven back to smoking.”

Cord chuckles, and Test Tube resumes biting his talons.

In the hallway, Guillermo looks behind him, peering through one of the circular windows, watching Test Tube and Cord go about their business. He shakes his head, adjusts his rifle and is about to go in the direction of the bathroom when a flicker catches his eye. He looks in the direction of the oddity and notices that there is a dimness around the corner. He furrows his brow and carefully walks towards the shadowed corner. When he rounds the corner, he sees flickering lights reflecting off broken glass and droplets of blood, and there are feathers everywhere with a large dent on the wall. Seeing this, Guillermo’s jaw tightens, and he walks forward.

Inside the command center, Test Tube is sitting on a chair, rubbing his brow, and not hearing anything pointing towards excitement. It is all boredom!

“Forget it,” says Test Tube. “Move them to the next exhibit.”

“Are you sure that is a good idea? I mean, the weather is-”

“Just do it!”

Cord holds up his hands and is about to put in the next command but stops when a small radio on his desk crackles.

“Hey, Doc, I found Tempest,” says Guillermo.

Test Tube snatches the radio. “Where?”

“Underneath a vending machine in the break room,” says Guillermo. “She surprisingly still has a pulse, so I'm taking her to medical for Wayward to look at her. But I have not seen Chip anywhere and the protection detail for the samples is missing.”

“What are you talking…” Test Tube's voice drifts off as his eyes drift to Chip's desk, noticing two things. First, Chip's ugly hair dye can is missing. Second, there is a loading bar moving across the screen, creeping towards a skull and crossbones icon. “Guillermo, check the DNA samples and send a search party out for Chip and the missing security! Arrest them on sight!”

“Copy that.”

Test Tube turns to Cord. “You! Bring the trolleys back right now! Celestia will have me turned to stone if any of these ponies are hurt!”

“Got it!” says Cord.

But as soon as Cord goes to put in the command, the loading bar zips towards a snake icon, and when the bar reaches the icon, a message appears: “You lose.”

After that, the lights flicker off and various thuds echo in the chamber as the hallway lights flash off one by one. The map goes dim, the radios fuzz out, the computers go dark, and red emergency lights flash on, bringing pockets of dim light to the circular room.
“Oh... That's not good,” says Cord.

Inside the power station, Applejack follows Gary up a large metal stairway. The pipes that cling to the walls rumble, and gauges are placed at even intervals with labeled rooms scattered about. In the center of the station are five turbines, each with their fans spinning at blurring speeds with a deafening whir as well as having thick tubes connecting them to large, block shaped devices that have more tubes connecting to the pipes. The block shaped devices have monitors, gauges and various knobs, levers, and buttons on them, and each one us showing a steady stream of data with the gauge needles inching closer to the red section.

“This power station serves as the main, um, power station,” says Gary, having to speak loudly over the generators. “We got five more smaller stations around the park, but by themselves they barely power their sections. With this beauty, however, it sends more power to each section, giving them a boost while having enough to keep the park running in case of emergency. So, if one fails for some reason, this will make sure power still gets to the affected area. Which, if I’m going to be honest, I’m expecting at least two sub stations to fail due to this awful storm. It’s going to suck, but this station will keep the lights on.”

“And what happens if all the small ones fail?” asks Applejack.

“The station would be strained and possibly explode from over exertion.”

Applejack stops and stares at Gary with wide eyes while the lights get brighter and the generators whirring gets louder.

“Are ya saying we’re walking on a giant bomb!?” says Applejack.

Gary stops at the top of the stairs and looks at Applejack, leaning against the railing with a cool smile.

“Look, I know this is all new to you, but the chances of all the power stations failing at once is very unlikely and it would take a while for the main station to explode from overexertion!” says Gary. “We’ll be fine! Trust me!”

And right as he finishes the sentence, red lights flash on with a wailing alarm, and Gary’s smile disappears in a flash as he looks at one of the red lights.

“What is going on!?” asks Applejack loudly.

One of the generators sparks and flames burst out, twirling in the air with the fan glowing red hot. The other turbines follow soon after with pipes shaking and bursting, and sparks rain from the ceiling as Gary runs towards Applejack.

“We need to evacuate!” says Gary. “The plant’s overheating!”

Without saying a word, Applejack bolts down the stairs, but before she could reach the bottom, one of the generators explodes, flinging hot twisted metal everywhere and a cloud of electric fire destroying the other four generators, leading to more explosions tearing apart the room. The flying debris cuts into the pipes and the stairway jerks sharply to the side as the support is bent. Metal, brick, and concrete rain down on the pair, shaking and damaging the stairway more, and Gary leaps towards Applejack, using his body as a shield as a burst of fire collides with them, knocking them against the wall. With the disorientation and shaking of the stairs, the two bounce down the metal steps, and once they land on the bottom, Applejack and Gary roll away from each other, with Applejack’s hat falling off her head.

As the building continues shaking with fire bursting from the pipes and wires snapping, Applejack coughs and groans, tasting blood on her tongue, and near her, Gary shifts on the ground with smoke rising from his patches of burnt fur and feathers. As the two lay on the floor, shifting and coughing, another explosion tears apart a network of support beams, and Applejack’s eyes widen as the literal tons of burning debris rain down. The mangled metal hits the stairs, crushing what is left of it, and when all that burning rubble crashes into the floor, sending a rushing wave of smoke and rubble towards the pair. Applejack can barely scream before she is hit and everything goes dark.

All the large lamps snap off around the raptor paddock, the humming of the electric fences ceases, and the office is plunged into total darkness, with only a red light above the door and the bright, terrified eyes of Gate Keeper shining in the dark.

“What just happened!?” yells Rainbow Dash, dropping her book.

“A… A power outage,” says Gate Keeper. “A very bad power outage.”

In Pinkie’s trolley, all the interior lights snap off, and the same happens with Twilight’s trolley, and on the large electric fence, the red lights on the posts switch off. It all happens so fast that it knocks Pinkie’s thoughts out of focus, but after that moment of loss, dread slams into her stomach like a rock, and her color drains as she looks up, squishing herself into the other side of the wall as rain slams against the trolley.

“What happened to the red lights?” asks Rarity. “Why did the lights turn off!?”

“This is not going to look good for him. Power outages are unacceptable,” says Coinbag. “I’m glad I went through another round of inspections. Who knows how many other problems are-”

“Shush for a second!” snaps Pinkie Pie.

The two unicorns look at her, with Rarity’s worry increasing tenfold while Coinbag is annoyed. Then comes a series of ever approaching thumps that get louder and rattle the windows harder with every passing second. When the thumping stops, the glass stops rattling and it is just three sets of heavy breathing inside the trolley. A few seconds later, Pinkie Pie inches towards her original spot to get a peek outside, and her mane deflates with a terrified whimper and she quickly pushes herself back, followed closely by the other two, and all three hug each other as they stare out the window, pale and shaking.

Then one of the posts bends, the wires snap one by one, and the ground shakes with heavy thud; followed by another. And another. And another. Seconds later, a blaring roar shakes their very bones.

The king has come.

And he is hungry.

Now things will get fun.