“An observatory? Seriously? Don't you guys have a bunker or something for these situations?” Praeratus said while walking inside the room. “And why do you have an observatory in the castle? Pretty sure there are better places for it.”

“Yes, but this one is the first, built over eight hundred years ago.” Explained Luna without mentioning her banishment, not knowing how well would he react to her evil past and not wanting to risk it. “Besides I thought that since you're an alien and you came from the sky, it would be interesting if you-” Replied Luna before Praeratus interrupted her.

“Nevermind. Nice telescope you got here.” Said the therawyrm while inspeacting said device.

“Really?” Said Luna.

“Yeah. Although in the Confederation you can buy smaller, more advanced ones without even using a credit card. Still not bad for a society that hasn't send their first satellite into space.” He said, making Luna's smile disappear.

“Ugh!”

“What's a satellite?” Asked Twilight.

“I'll tell you later, first we talk about what to do.”

The 'safer place to talk' that Luna chose wasn't a hidden room, or an office, or even a simple war room (even though the last one wouldn't have fit in the peaceful nature of the ponies). Heck, even the headquarters of the 'Royal Guard' would have sufficed.

Instead, the blue alicorn had brought them to an observatory housing a large rectangular table in the middle surrounded by wooden chairs and a huge telescope. A primitive, basic telescope that obviously couldn't produce images using other wavelengths, but a telescope nonetheless.

Praeratus requested that only those with political influence came with them, so it was just him, Celestia, Twilight (who although complained at first, wanting her friends to be with her, complied at the end), Luna, Novo and Neighsay, the last one coming by Celestia's request, while the rest, Cyranus included, went out to help the rebuilt city (Discord naturally protested and threw an actual hissy fit turning into a multicolored snake with a megaphone instead of mouth, but Cyranus bit him and dragged him away). Obviously Praeratus wasn't exactly pleased with the white alicorn's choice, especially since Neighsay wasn't even a politician but more like their equivalent of Minister of Education, but she told him that Neighsay was still a important pony and did had some influence in Equestria, so he let him come with them as long as he said sensible things and kept his stupidty and racism for himself.

He would also preffered for the leaders of the most influential species of the planet (aside from ponies and hippogriffs, these were dragons, changelings and yaks) to be there too, but Novo was the only one readily available, since she was right there with them.

Praeratus waited for all of them to be inside the observatory and sit down before closing the door himself.

“Well, now that we are away from prying eyes, we can start talking of how to deal with the bioweapons.” Said the xeno-hunter before realizing something crucial. “I can't sit on this chair.”

“Why not?”

“It's made for ponies, and I doubt you weigh two hundred kilograms of pure muscle.”

“I can help with that!” Chirped Celestia before illuminating her horn and teleporting a larger, metallic chair. “It's a chair for larger races. I had it made after an incident during a party.”

Praeratus inspected the metal chair, put pressure on it with his psionics to see if it could sustain his weight, and seeing that it didn't budge too much he sat on it. He looked at Celestia and smiled in gratitude, which in turn made her smile happily at him.

Novo and Celestia sat at his right, Twilight and Neighsay to his left at and Luna in front of him. He addressed the blue alicorn. “First things first, do you have a map of the world here?” He asked her.

“Right here.” She teleported a rolled map of Equus from her room, opened it and laid it on the table.

“Thank you.” Thanked Praeratus before looking at the map. “When I searched through the mind of the monster that mauled Celestia to find out where the other monsters were hiding, I saw a forest. I know there are a lot of forests in Equestria, but this one” He said while pointing at a patch of green with the words 'Evefree Forest' plastered on it. “, it's the closest.”

Twilight gasped in horror, bringing the other's attention to her.

“What is it Twilight?”

“That's the Everfree Forest!”

“Anything special about it?”

“Well, for starters the animals there take care of themselves without the supervision of ponies, the weather there can't be managed by pegasi, it's-was full of monsters and some rogue dragons...” Said Novo, smirking when she saw the usually solemn alien stare at her in something akin to shock. “By the look of your face I conclude that's in fact the norm in the rest of the galaxy.”

“Well, no, not really. I mean, we do take care of wildlife and the weather in certain worlds, but mostly with technology, and many of those animals are already tamed. Even then it's done only when it's required, not all the time, and many people think it's unethical to control nature like that. At most we just move a few clouds to help the crops and put out fires, or relocate native species. Of course, we can simply terraform the world.”

“Terraform?”

“Making a world more habitable for people, like turning a frozen wasteland into a tropical paradise. It takes a few years at least, but it can be done.” Now it was his turn to smile when he saw Novo, Celestia, Luna and Neighsay give him looks of bewilderment/awe/shock. Howver, before Luna could say something (probably related to what he just said), Twilight continued.

“That's also where Zecora and the deer live!”

“The deer!” Cried Celestia in horror. “I forgot that they lived there!”

“Who is this Zecora you're talking about?” Inquired Neighsay.

“She's a friend of mine, a zebra that lives in the Everfree and who sometimes goes to Ponyville to sell potions.” Replied the purple alicorn, making Neighsay snort in disdain. Naturally this pissed her off, but before she could give a piece of her mind, Praeratus resumed talking.

“Don't worry, I surveyed the zone when you slept and found nothing aside from the obvious shortage of fauna and the villages of those deer. Either they left to escape from me or it was lying about where they hiding, which is quite a feat given that it was completely outmatched in the psionics department.”

The women breathed out in relief, while Neighsay kept looking at the map.

“Thank goodness.”

“Actually, that doesn't make things better.”

“What!?”

“Why not!?”

“Well, for starters the monster I killed actually spoke to me. Well, thought, but still. Add the possible fact that it did in fact lie to me, and we have a problem. A serious problem.”

The group knew that something was very wrong, both by what he said and the tone he used to say it.”

“What, exactly, do you mean with that?”

“The things are sapient, or might be sapient. It's the only way it could have spoken to me lied.”

“What does sapient mean?” Asked Luna.

Praeratus repressed a grunt of annoyance, but replied to her question.

“There's a difference between sentience and sapience. A sentient organism is one that is aware of its own existance and has a subject experience of reality, plus simple emotions like fear and anger; all members of the animal kingdom, and some plants and fungi, are sentient.” Explained the therawyrm. “Sapience, however, it's a bit trickier to explain. It's the ability to think and act by combining knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight that other creatures lack.

He realized they weren't really following him whe he saw their puzzled expressions. He supposed it would be better to just simplify it.

“Or, to put it simply, not just thinking of doing things now, but tomorrow and after. Basically the capacity to plan ahead and solve complex problems.”

“Oh! That's better to understand.” Said Twilight in a happy tone (which was ironic considering she was a very rational person herself).

“And this helps us how?” Said Neighsay. “Because going by that definition, most creatures of Equus are sapient.”

“Really? Then how do you...? Nevermind, that's not important at the moment. I'll put this in perspective, but I need three figures or something similar: one of a pony, one of a vicious beast, and another of a random weapon.”

Celestia teleported what he requested (a doll of a pony, an action figure of a manticore, and a butter knife) and laid it on top of the map. Praeratus noted with interest that the pony was actually her.

“Imagine that Dollestia-” He said before being interrupted by the laughs of the other two princesses and the hippogriff queen, making Celestia blush in embarrasment. Neighsay said nothing, but it was obvious he was 'displeased' with the name.

“H-he called you Dollestia! Hahahaha!” Laughed Novo.

“That's the funniest nickname I've heard for you since Sunbutt!” Agreed Luna.

“Sorry princess!” Managed to blurt Twilight between laughs. “It's just... Dollestia!”

Celestia blushed even more (if that were even possible in the first place) when she heard that. She promptly turned to Praeratus, who was watching it happen.

“Please don't call me that in front of Discord. He won't let me forget it.” She implored to him with her hands clasped in a beggin position.

“Don't worry, I won't tell a soul, and if for some reason he finds out I'll call him Dildord.” Assured the xeno-hunter, not considering the possibility that sexual toys may not even exist in Equestria, or Equus for that matter. He then turned to Luna, Novo and Twilight. “As for you...” He said before clasping their mouths and jaws with his psionics, stopping their laughing. “There, you're cuter when silent.” He said, earning a glare from them. “If I let you open your mouths, will you laugh again?” When they shook their heads, he fred their jaws. “Next time I'll give YOU embarrasing nicknames, and trust me, there are at least thirty that rhyme with Luna, Novo and Twilight Sparkle.”

It was Celestia's turn to laugh, but she did so quietly.

Neighsay, on the other hand, didn't find it funny.

“Can you please continue with your demonstration? We are going nowhere with this!”

“I hate to break the mood and agree with him, but he's right, we're sidetracking. Imagine that Dollestia is strolling through a city alone and-”

“Which one?” Interrupted Twilight. “Manehattan, Fillydelphia maybe?”

“And why would she do it without me or an escort?”

“Hey! You I go out alone sometimes Luna!”

“I know, it's just that-”

“I don't know what are the names of your cities, I literally didn't know those names until right now, she's alone because she's an adult woman and not a kid, and I want-no, HAVE to do this.” Explained Praeratus in an exasperated tone. “Can you girls just wait until after I finish what I want to show you please?”

“Sorry.” Apologized the three alicorns.

“Right. Dollestia is strolling through this Manehattan when suddenly” He says while putting the manticore figure in front of the doll. “, a wild manticore appears out of nowhere and attacks her.” He then puts the manticore away from the doll. “This obviously fails spectacularly for two main reasons: first, it attacked her directly without even thinking about it, and second, I gather that Celestia possesses powerful magic, so a simple monster won't be a problem for her.”

“Of course a manticore wouldn't be a problem for her, she has been raising and lowering the Sun for over a thousand years.” Stated Neighsay.

“I know that.” Then he grabbed the butter knife with telekinesis and hovered it behind the doll before saying in a serious tone: “But what if instead of being directly attacked by a stupid cat-scorpion hybrid, she was stalked by a perpetually angry yet uncannily smart creature whose only goal in life is to exterminate all life on this planet?”

He then paused and looked at Celestia, whose eyes were wide and irises were shrunken and focused on the knife hovering behind the doll that represented her and realized he was about to recreate the event that ended up with the alicorn dead for several minutes.

“Luna, can you bring me another doll please? Well, three: two of your guards nd one that doesn't look like Celestia.”

“What? Why?” Asked the blue alicorn. She supposed that Praeratus wanted the guards for something, but why did he want to

“I changed my mind, this one is not Celestia, it's some other random pony.” He said while make head notions towards Celestia.

Luna realized what he meant when saw her sister's unsettled expression, so she complied with his request and teleported another doll, this time one that represented herself and three small figures depicting guards.

Praeratus continued, placing the guards near the doll and moving the knife around it in a slow manner. Luna was reminded of an old novel from a big before her return set in Griffontstone, one about a killer that stalked his prey, both female griffons and hippogriffs and pegasi mares, to kill them and steal their prettiest feather in a sick display of love only to end up arrested and executed. What Praeratus was simulating was somewhat similar to what happened in the novel.

“The bioweapon stalks Luna through the shadows of Manehattan, watching her every move at any distance, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. You have already seen what these things can do.” He was, of course, reffering to the possession, telekinesis, movility and overall capacity of the bioweapons.

“Yes, I remember it too well.” Muttered Celestia in a weak voice, unable to forget both the massacre two hundred years prior and her own death yesterday.

“Luna ends up walking in a somewhat empty street in the night, but is not really worried since she's an alicorn, a princess and it's night, and therefore her domain. She's so confident that she doesn't see that there's something bigger than the manticore from before hiding in the sides of the street, watching her every move until...” He said before simulating a strike with the knife.

Luna expected a simple cut, Novo thought that the knife would impale the doll (somehow, since it wasn't even sharp), Neighsay expected Praeratus to simply tape the doll, and Celestia simply wanted all of it to end already.

Instead, the knife struck the doll disturbingly fast, and in the leg, with so much strength behind it that the leg of the doll was actually severed, which in turn showed how powerful Praeratus psionics were, since the knife wasn't supposed to cut anything at all.

Plus, it wasn't difficult for Luna to imagine blood sweeping from the 'stump'.

“The demon, despite having the capacity and the will to do so, doesn't kill her right away. Instead, it just cripples her, wanting to draw in more prey to kill by making her scream for help” He said while placing the 'guards' around Luna before throwing them all off the table “; that way it can kill more ponies in one singular strike instead of wasting time seeking them out one by one in their homes.”

Luna looked at the broken toys in the floor swallowed hard; just like before, it wasn't difficult to see the broken doll and figures as her and her guards' mauled corpses laying in the cold ground.

“And why couldn't it simply go on a rampage through the city instead of... killing Princess Luna and anypony nearby?” Asked Neighsay, just as scared as the other three.

“Because they'll want to spread chaos, terror and panic in the world, and what better way to do it than not only killing the princess in charge of the moon in a very gruesome way, but also in the middle of a city and therefore making clear that they're not afraid of doing it in front of everybody?”

Praeratus looked at the group with heavy eyes.

“Look, I'm not going to lie to you, just one of those freaks can cause untold damage and death by itself thanks to its the fact it was genetically engineered to be a perfect killing machine and its ability to use psionics in indirect ways, to the point that one of them slaughtered an army two centuries ago and another nearly ripped my head off if not for Cyranus. And there are ten of them. Ten super strong, psionic and self-healing monsters that may know that by killing you they can desestabilize the planet, and may also know that someone that can kill them is hunting them down. And they adapt, so simply using my psionics to kill them may not be a viable option in the future.”

“B-but you can do something, right? You came here to help us!”

The alien former soldier sighed, and Celestia thought he became older for a second.

“Aside of using you as bait to bring them out of whatever hole they are hiding in, I'm not sure. As for me being here to help you, you're not completely wrong, but...”

“But?”

Praeratus reclined on his chair and looked up, his expression unreadable.

“The monsters, they weren't supposed to escape the container. I know one of them did, but it was an accident.”

“Praeratus what are you talking about?” Asked Celestia.

“Celestia, remember when I told you about the war?”

“What war?” Asked Neighsay.

“Praeratus was a soldier once, and fought in a very devastating war.” Explained Celestia, remembering vividly the images of thousands of ships firing at each other in space and soldiers fighting humongous beasts.

“And it wasn't just a war, it was the Hegemony War: a hundred-years long conflict that saw billions of deaths. Remember also when I told Discord about dead worlds? They 'died' in that war, and even though I hate to admit it, at least a good chunk of them were destroyed by the Confederation to drive back the Hegemony, deprive them of resources... or simply to see them burn in hell.” The word 'burn in hell' dripped with venom, and it was obvious that, despite the fact he didn't scream nor growl, Praeratus was pretty much furious. Why, they didn't know, but Celestia had a feeling it wasn't due to the actions of the Confederation.

“Goodness...” Said Neighsay.

“How could you do that!? Destroy entire planets just because they belonged to the enemy!?” Cried Luna.

Praeratus glared at her, and Luna felt that feeling again: the feeling of having insulted somepony that she shouldn't had. The first time was when Praeratus pinned her to the wall in his ship.

“First, we had to, it was one of the driving points to the peace treaty. And second, don't try to make me feel guilt for something I didn't do, or even do anything about it! I was just a soldier when the brass chose to unleash the Colossus on the worlds of the Hegemony, and I didn't know of the destruction of those planets until the first cracking.”

“The Colossus?” Asked Twilight. Something told her (maybe it was the name) that it wasn't something good.

“The ship that destroyed those worlds, a six-mile long warshop armed with the most destructive weapon ever known to sapient life, a laser powerful enough to utterly crack any kind of world in a single shot no matter its size. The government only planned to use it's existance as a deterrent to possible threats to the Confederation, but the Hegemony forced us to actually use it. Needless to say, they began regretting taking our people as slaves and cannon fodder when we burned theirs to cinders, even with our people in the middle of the fire.” His previous anger had made way to sorrow.

“Civilians too?” Asked Twilight, remembering what he said to himself yesterday about refusing to hurt civilians.

“We were that desperate, and at the moment we didn't care about their civilians.”

This horrified the locals: a weapon not made by magic capable of destroying a planet? That was terrifying! There was also the name of the weapon, the Colossus. There were many objects of nefarious purpose (Staff of Sacanas, Alicorn Amulet, Orbs of Darkness) whose names outright stated their nature. But Colossus? It simply meant something enormous, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing by itself.

But the worst by far was the fact that it had been built explicitly with the approval of Praeratus' government. What kind of king or princess could order something like that? Or worse, what kind of enemy was this 'Hegemony' to warrant the construction of such a ship?

“And you won, right?” Asked Twilight nervously, making Praeratus stare at her. Suddenly he seemed very tired.

“Yeah, we won... but after a hundred years of lives lost, planets razed and people kidnapped to never return.” He then glared at Luna. “And just so that you know, we were desperate to win.” He growled, making the blue alicorn look away in shame

Celestia wanted desperately to console Praeratus in some way, but he didn't know how. Comforting one of her little ponies was easy, she was wiser and a bit of a mother figure to all of them, but Praeratus wasn't just older than her and thus rendering the 'mother figure' part moot, he had been fighting wars for over eight hundred years and monster for two, so in a way he was wiser than her.

“I'm sorry, it was just-”

“Don't be sorry, just think about what you will say before saying it.” He said in a cold tone before his expression darkened even more, if that were possible. “Of course, you may want to keep some of that anger.” He sighed yet again. “It wasn't supposed to be populated.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your world, Equus, wasn't supposed to be inhabited by intelligent life. Hell, pretty sure those who did it didn't know it could even support life until now.” He said.

“I don't like where is this going.” Said Twilight in a frightened tone.

“What are you saying Praeratus?” Asked Novo.

The therawyrm spoke again.

“Did you girls notice that, when I fought against that monster, it only tried to kill me AFTER I stopped it from killing you?”

To the surprise of the locals, it was Celestia who answered.

“The Confederation made the monsters to attack the Hegemony.” It wasn't an angered tone, nor a suprirsed tone, more of a matter-of-fact tone. “And they send them here thinking Equus wasn't inhabited.”

In another time Luna and Neighsay would have exploded at that, screaming that the presence of the demons in their world was his fault. But after seeing how furious he was when Luna thought he was somehow related to the Colossus, they wisely stayed quiet.

Praeratus nodded to the white alicorn. “The bioweapons had been originally created to attack Hegemony worlds, aiming to disrupt their supply lines, take out important targets and terrorize the civilian population, but after achieving peace with them the Confederation decided to get rid of them before the Hegemony discoreved their existance. I still don't get why they didn't simply shoot them or throw them into a black hole, but in the end they launched them through a wormhole to the Dwarf Galaxy, and it landed here and, well, you know the rest.” He said, looking at Celestia with regret.

“The brass,” He continued. “, seeing that the only bioweapon that escaped containment was taken out by the locals, and that only outside interference you guys didn't open it, either by accident or deliberately, chose to simply watch over the planet to make sure the things didn't escape.”

“They had been watching us all this time?” Novo asked.

“Only the last two hundred years or so, and believe me, it was a good thing that the government decided to make First Contact with you.”

“But you-I mean they, could have helped us when we were in trouble, no?” Asked Neighsay. “We had a lot of villains that would have trembled in fear at the sight of a ship that is probably bigger than Canterlot.”

“Bigger. Much bigger” Replied Praeratus, smiling when he saw the Chancellor gulp in fear. Of course, if a battleship that was supposed to stay in zero gravity for basically all the time (they could hover over a planet's surface, but not for long, and unlike cruisers they weren't designed to do that) was forced to enter atmosphere that meant something was wrong. “. And about helping you... help you with what? I'm pretty sure that, aside from the Storm King, there is nothing threatening Equestria, or the world. Plus, something tells me that, as bad as your 'villains' were, none of them killed anyone, even the Storm King, right?”

“Well no, but he still enslaved Equestria and other kingdoms in his search for power.”

“Good thing that I hate people who practice slavery then.”

“And we have to thank you for that.” Said Celestia with a small smile. Unlike Neigshay, she was quite happy to ignore the fact that Praeratus had killed quite a lot of living creatures on her land, especially since one of them was a demon.

“Yes, I suppose I was.” Replied Praeratus, returning her smile with his.

“Praeratus, you said that the Confederation launched the monsters to the Dwarf Galaxy through a wormhole. What is that?” Asked Luna.

“It's the galaxy Equus is on. The Confederation, the Hegemony and all the other empires are based on the Milky Way, but there are a few wormholes scattered through the Milky Way; some of them connect parts of the galaxy, but for some reason at least lead to here instead of, I don't know, another, random third galaxy or even the void in the cosmos that separates galaxies.”

“Wait, you live in another galaxy!?” Screamed the locals (Celestia didn't, but was just as surprised with widened eyes), shocked by the possibility of intergalactic empires waiting for the perfect moment to attack each other with Equus in the middle.

“Yeah, but the Confederation doesn't have any hold on the Dwarf Galaxy except the satellite that was used to monitor the container. Plus, we're technically the good guys, remember? We have a strict policy of never interacting with younger civilizations until they discover faster-than-light travel and settle their neighboring system.” He said, earning several sighs of relief. He grunted; he didn't want to burst their bubble, but they had to know. “That said, the Hegemony has at least a few outposts here, and going through the treaty they have every right to do whatever they want on it as long as it doesn't take place near Confederation space.”

The natives promptly stared at the former Centurion in horror, terrified of the fact that their world might be close to an intergalactic empire that practiced slavery, could destroy planets without even resorting magic and, as Celestia saw back in Praeratus' home, used giant monsters in battle to crush their enemies.

“And how close is the nearest 'outpost' of the Hegemony?” Asked Neighsay.

“No idea, but not close enough to notice a satellite self destructing.” Shrugged Praeratus. “Besides, they're only interested in species that can provide something of interest to them and are advanced enough to receive radio signals.”

“We do have radios.” Twilight pointed out.

“Yes, but I doubt they can reach signals coming from beyond your celestial bodies. I'm going to be sincere with you, as dangerous as the Hegemony is, especially to a planet which doesn't even have satellites orbiting it, the real danger is the Dwarf Galaxy.”

If the natives were frightened before, now they were terrified.

“What do you mean, the Dwarf Galaxy is the real danger?”

“I'm going to answer that with another question. How big is the largest dragon in Equus? Something tells me they are quite big.”

“Former Dragonlord Torch? He's just as big as an Ursa Major, although his wings make him look bigger than he actually is and his tail adds more length.” Replied Twilight. “Your ship is still bigger though.”

“So approximately fifty meters. Well, the average Confederate corvette is a bit over four times bigger than my ship, and has a minimum weight of nine thousand tonnes.” Praeratus leaned on his side of the table, taking care to not crush it. “An ether drake, which so you know is not a dragon at all but a multi-eyed, beam-spitting monstrosity that lives in space, is large enough to swallow a corvette with one bite.”

“Oh my Celestia.” Twilight said in a low voice, making Praeratus stare at her.

“Girl, don't pray to a woman that, even though I don't like to remind it to her, has died and brought back to life by me, in my presence.” He said, before realizing what he said and remembering that one of the people present wasn't there when he revived Celestia.

“What do you mean, the Princess was killed by the monster!?” Cried Neighsay.

“Yes, but not outright: that thing caused wounds too grievous for Celestia to survive, but I managed to get her to my Med-Pod before her death became irreversible.” Praeratus said in a casual tone, delighting himself in Neighsay's growing fear.

“Why do I have the feeling that there are worse things out there?” Spoke Novo.

“Because there are, and one of the worst are sun-eating, probably immortal spiders bigger than battleships that go from system to system eating planets, and if the navy can't kill the thing in time the only option left is evacuating the system, which sees billions of people displaced and planets dead due to their sun losing energy. Of course, those things are just animals doing what they have to survive, so they can't be really blamed for following their instincts.”

“Sun-eating spiders...” Whispered Celestia in sheer horror. The mere thought of a creature that fed upon stars (and now knowing that her sun was one) was, naturally, quite terrifying to her. The fact that, according to Praeratus, her sun was actually tiny compared to the average star only helped to scare her further. “How much time would a 'sun-eating spider' need to devour the Sun?” She feared the answer, but something in her wanted to know.

“Never saw one feeding before, but comparing sizes and the fact that stellarite devourers do vary in size... less than a month.” Answered Praeratus in a grim tone. “But as powerful as one is, they are the rarest of them all, even here.”

“'Rarest'?”

“Space jellyfish born from pulsars, living asteroid hives, tiyanki herds, the aforementioend ether drakes... the list is long. These things live in the Milky Way too, but the Dwarf Galaxy has a higher number of them, and since is several times smaller than the Milky Way, they are more concentrated. But you shouldn't be worried.”

“We shouldn't be worried!?” Screamed Neighsay. “You just told us that Equus is located in a galaxy full of space dragons, sun-eating abominations, an intergalactic empire and-” He ranted before an angry growl from Praeratus stopped him cold.

“Don't call them abominations.” Growled the xeno-hunter. “They may be dangerous animals, and they may ruin a lot of lives just by eating, but devourers are simply that, animals. And as far as I know they are more 'natural' than anything that lives on this planet. Besides, as dangerous as devourers, drakes and the rest are, they rarely attack planets since, being voidborn creatures, the slightest pressure of gravity would turn them into pulp. And about the Hegemony... Space is big. Really, really big. For you, a journey around the world may be an odyssey worthy of a film, but that's peanuts to space since distance is measured in light years, which is the time light travels in one year. Even the Dwaf Galaxy is still seven thousand light years across, and since the overall technology level of Equus is still quite primitive and your radios practically emit no signals the possibilities of the Hegemony finding you are pretty slim.” Before Luna could speak, he continued. “And no, they can't detect my ships, it's simply too small. The bioweapons, on the other hand, are still very much alive and on this planet, and as most of you have seen, they're quite dangerous, so they're a more inmediate threat.” He said, reminding them of the real problem at hand.

There was silence in the observatory for half a minute.

“Well” Said Luna. “, what do you suggest us to do then?”

“Aside from you, what other leaders have political powers?”

“Well, there are King Thorax and his brother Pharynx from the Changeling Kingdom, Dragonlord Ember from the Dragon Lands, Prince Rutheford from Yayakistan, King Aspen from the Everfree, Lord Gestal from Griffonstone and us. There are many others, but they're not as powerful.” Replied Novo.

In another instance Praeratus would have asked if a democratic governement existed, but he decided against it. For now.

“Reunite the leaders of the planet and tell them about the bioweapons and the extreme danger they pose.”

“The Convocation of Creatures!” Cried out Twilight.

“The what of what?” 'That's got to be the most racist thing ever' Thought Praeratus.

“It's an assembly of leaders from all across the world to share knowledge, speak about trade and more.” Explained Celestia. “It has not been held for seven hundred years due to several reasons, but maybe after the Storm King we could assemble the others to inform them of the monsters' presence on Equus.”

“And when is it supposed to take place.”

“In two months, give or take a few days.”

“Then it's decided, I'll go with you to this 'Convention of Creatures', we'll tell them about the danger of the bioweapons and I'll ask them to tell me if they see any sign of them on their lands.”

“That's it, just say that there are nearly invincible monsters running amok in our planet and that you're hunting them down?” Said Neighsay incredulously.

“What should I tell them then, that their planet is the least strange thing in a galaxy full of them? Do you think they would react well to the fact that Equus is in a galaxy inhabited by space monsters and settled by an empire that takes slaves to force them into battle, or worse? Because you didn't.”

“It is decided then. Well, I suppose we could...” Began to say Celestia before trailing off, staring at the open dome of the observatory. Following her gaze, the group saw what she was looking at: a blue dot moving in the telescope.

“What's that?” Wondered Twilight

“I don't know, but it reminds me of yesterday when big guy here was watching us from afar.” Replied Novo while signaling at Praeratus, who got up from his chair.

“Praeratus, do you have any idea of what might it be?” Asked Celestia before looking at him and seeing his widened eyes tracing the dancing dot in something akin to a combination of shock and anger.

Celestia became worried. She had only seen him like that before when the demon mauled her.

“Praeratus, are you okay?”

“How the hell...?” The words had barely left Praeratus' mouth when, without warning, several hypersonic slugs struck the telescope, destroying it, and then the observatory itself, making the ponies and hippogriff scream in fear and duck under the table to avoid being hit by the deadly projectiles. Before the alicorns or unicorn could create a shield to protect themselves (which actually would have worked), Praeratus did it, forming a psionic barrier that deflected the bullets at the cost of making them ricochet and wreck the observatory even more. Eventually the deadly barrage ceased, leaving five shaken up natives and one angry xeno-hunter in a room that had more in common with a giant strainer than an observatory.

“What was that!?” Exclaimed Neighsay while getting out from under the table with the others.

“MY OBSERVATORY!!!” Cried Luna in agony when she saw the sorry state of her favourite place in the castle.

Praeratus, on the other hand, growled in fury.

“That was the machine gun of the Wedge. Somehow, somebody opened the doors, started the car even without the keys and fired the machine gun, which should be impossible because it's fingerprint-locked, which as the name implies requires me to put my fingers on the handles to unlock AND open the doors, start the car without the keys, and disengage the safety of the gun to fire it!”

“You use fingerprints to protect your propiety?” Asked Neighsay, in awe for the first time since he saw Praeratus (with the first one being the time that the Old Pillars of Equestria, including Starswirl the Bearded, turned out to be still alive and well). Praeratus, too angry to respond and still a bit contemptuous of him, ignored the Chancellor and ranted about ripping somebody's penis or ovaries and force feeding them to him/her.

Twilight, having an idea of who could have done it, facepalmed.

“Pinkie...”

There you go guys, a new chapter, and this one is longer to boot!

Also, despite adding the deer and the Convocation of Creatures I won't add anything else from the IDW comics since it simply makes no sense (and given what I wrote about the Dwarf Galaxy, both Discord and Cosmos would have known about the dangers on it... or gotten themselves eaten by a stronger freak, enslaved by late-game empires or accidentaly ended in THAT PLACE).