The night was peaceful, frogs making mating calls, the occasional chirping of crickets and the sloshing of water was the only thing that could be heard for miles around. The Everfree Forrest was something of a enigma in Equestria, always seeming at peace but at the same time home to creatures both monstrous and magical. Tonight however the air was full of electricity in the literal sense, swirls of light and sparks could be seen over the marsh section of the forest slowly coming together in a radiant disk.

The sparks moved faster and faster, swirling together in the center of the disk as it started to grow a hot white. The edges spread out into a circle, forming something akin to a vertical oval. A boot came through the gate first, stepping into the soft marsh ground. Soon an arm grabbed the edge of the portal came through, then another. Finally it pulled its whole body through.

“Great, just what I needed” it said in a feminine voice. “To spend the next three days cleaning pond scum off my uniform. Oh well better get down to business.” She reached into her grey and silver coat and pulled out a slender grey box, holding it up in the air the device came on. It shined a dim white light across her face, revealing her identity. A young human woman almost six feet tall, with ruby red eyes and emerald green hair. She wore a coat that looked like something a sea captain would wear, grey with silver outlines that went all the way to the bottom becoming two silver dragons with ornate ruby eyes. She was also wearing a sea captain's cap with a pair of  gold swords crossing on the front. On her shoulder sat a gold badge with a single gold bar running horizontally on it.

The rest of her clothing was typical formal wear a businessman or student would wear, a black vest with white undershirt , black slacks that ended in large military boots with silver buckles. She waved the device in her right hand in the air for a few moments before bringing it back close to her face.

“Lets see here, time axis not available, biological readings are a fuck ton of frogs and salamanders, oh I wonder what gave it THAT idea” she said sarcastically to herself as she looked around the marsh. “Weather reading not available, no satellites detected and no human level intelligence detected nearby. Lets see next up ...huh six axis magic casting is natural to this world” She snapped her left fingers together and produced a small blue flame which she set hovering over her shoulder. “lets see, coordinates are one hundred seventeen parallel three, milky way galaxy alpha quadrant section C1. Well at least its a parallel earth instead of a crab planet this time.”

“Hmmm no fragments nearby but...” she pressed a few buttons and waited “Well, well the big boss is here. I wonder for how long.” She waved the device in the air for a moment, it beeped and she brought it close to her again. “EDR three to five years? Excellent , even that slacker ensign Yorks could kill it at this stage.”

A rustling at the edge of the marsh put her on guard. Then a deep bellowing voice, like three or four beings talking at once echoed across the marsh. “Lieutenant Sharai Altair, so good to see you again. Tell me , is your admiral around? I would much rather consume him than pissants like yourself.”

“You know you really need to work on your subtlety, as for Hans, like you could even hurt him with as little time you spent feeding here. Why don’t you quit with the melodramatic taunting and come on out?” Sharai scanned the edge of the marsh where it met up with the trees.

“Be careful what you ask for little human. I have little tolerance for your races arrogance. Maybe I’ll just hang around the outside of this marsh stalking you.” The bellowing voice teased.

“You could do that, but you make your positioning so blatantly obvious even a first year could find you.” Sharia made a quick turn left turn and thrust both her palms out shouting "Tvier eldur stooin!" Twin pillars of red, orange and yellow flew from her hands striking the brush at the edge of the marsh, clearing it to reveal her foe.

From the shadows walked a massive boar with a slick black coat and a outline of deep red. Its maw was lined with many sharp teeth and its tusks were easily the size of a full grown man. The beast itself was heavy built and tall nearly the size of a rhino or small elephant.

“The form of a pig eh? Fits swine like you quite well I say.” Sharai teased.

“Sticks and stones Lieutenant, why don’t you just surrender and I will endeavor to make your death quick and painless. Refuse and I will invoke tortures on your body until you beg me for death.” The creature licked it lips in a distasteful manner, droll dropping onto the march beneath him.

“Hmmm let me think. How about no and say we did? Better yet why don’t we cut the chatter so I can kill you and be home for dinner?” Sharai looked around the marsh inspecting its suitability for battle.

Poor footing , uneven water depth, dead roots everywhere and no way to surprise attack or set a trap. Best take this into the forest. She thought to herself.

Sharai put both hands in the air together and brought them down on a single spot on the ground yelling “reyk sprengju!” large amounts of smoke and steam enveloped her as yelled again “vatn ganga!” which made her feet glow light blue.

“See if you can keep up, piggy” she taunted as she ran on top of the water towards the forest behind her.

“Cowardly human. Oh well, I do like a good chase before the kill.” The beast shook out its legs and gave chase into the forest. Sharai ran along a small open path ,clapping her hands together before touching tree trunks muttering “eðli hækkun” forming seals on the trunks as she passed them.

“Arrrrggg dirty little...” a loud bellowing came from behind her. Tree spike traps , works every time. As she ran another smaller marsh came into view. Wonder if it enjoys ice skating?

As her feet found the start of the marsh she clapped her hands together and planted them above the water’s surface and yelled “ís ís elskan!” The water hummed and glowed a bright blue before the entire surface turned to ice. She jumped up sliding across the former marsh and clapped her hands starting another incantation “blöð í vetur!” She turned around and dragged both hands on the ice forming large ice blades jutting up horizontally in her wake.

Skating to the far right of the Ice blades she waited for her pursuer to land in her trap. This should be good , I’ll follow it up with a electric spell. The monster front legs hit the ice and they gave out underneath him sliding him right into the spike trap on the ice surface.

“Arrrgrgr...cheeky little bitch” It screamed as the blades cut its skin spilling black blood all over the ice. Sharai clapped her hands together preparing another spell when the ice below her suddenly cracked and gave out. A large head with rows of jagged teeth lunged out grabbing her by the leg, sinking its teeth into her flesh. Ignoring the pain she finished the spell she was casting and aimed it at the water just below the creature's neck. “Sundered eldingar” bolts of lightning struck the water making two more heads jut from the water howling in pain.

The creature did not loosen its grip however and swung Sharai around in circles before flinging her over the treetops, over a ravine and into fog cloaked earth with a ruined castle in the distance. As she hit the ground she could feel her left arm break on impact. Sitting up she got a better view at what had grabbed her.

Great, A hydra, just what I needed.

The hydra roared and made its way in toward her, smashing through the trees in its wake when a deep voice from behind halted its advance. “That’s my prey Hydra, you will leave her to me or suffer the consequences. The hydra looked down at the black boar and its many heads gave a hearty laugh. The hydra turned around ignoring the creatures warning and headed to pick up his free meal when a beam of red light struck it in the back.

The hydra let out a deafening roar in pain as its flesh began to separate into smaller chunks. The red light made its way through its body slowly breaking chunks of flesh off. It tried biting at the red light but to no avail. Soon its other heads were falling apart leaving only the main head alive.The light slowly cracked all the way up its neck into near the face. The creature gave out one more deafening roar before exploding into hydra giblets, showering the marsh with its remains.

Seizing the moment Sharai slapped her still functioning arm on the ground and yelled “Vatn Hindrun!” The fog around her began to swirl and freeze forming a dome of water and ice around her, buying her precious time to deal with her wounds. She inspected the bite wounds on her leg and noticed they were outlined with a tinge of green.

If my knowledge of mythology serves me correctly , hydras are poisonous.

Sharai grabbed her leg with her right arm and began a cleansing incantation. Her vision went fuzzy as she struggled to mutter the words “hreinsa líkama”. A green light enveloped her injured leg drawing the poison out of her body and turning the wound from light greed to blood red.

“My, my what do we have here. I’ve gone and accidentally made hydra stew. I wonder if adding a human for seasoning is out of the question. Then again that means I would need to tenderize the meat, such a bother.”

“Taunt all you want we both know you’re still no match for me, the hydra bite is nearly cleansed and the lacerations barely amount to a minor flesh wound.” Sharai said as she finished cleaning the wound on her leg.

“And I suppose you think this little barrier will hold out while you recover? Truth be told I enjoyed the chase. However, all those spells hit me dead on and as you can see, I remain alive and uninjured. I am not even sweating while your power supply is quickly running dry.” The beast said while slowly circling the barrier Sharai had erected.

Hes bluffing, there's no way hes at least not partially damaged....is he bluffing?

“Doesn’t matter, I can still win this , but first” she pointed her finger in the air drawing a little circle. Sparks started to form around the edges of the circle and soon a small portal opened up. “Insurance policy” she said while pointing at the portal. She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out the scanning device she used earlier and tossed it through the small portal. The portal hissed and then closed with a loud crack.

“How adorable, she’s asking for reinforcements for whittle old me. What's wrong lieutenant have you lost your nerve?" The beast teased.

"Hardly, I just signed your death warrant. Even if i fail the rest will come for you." Sharai said proudly.

"Cute but that barrier you have is already starting to break apart, soon we will both know who shines brightest between us. Your courage is admirable, but like your brother before you; you will die by my hand." The beast began to approach the barrier, his drool beginning to stain the ground below him as he licked his lips, hungry for flesh.

The beast suddenly stopped. "You know, you could be an avatar for me if you wanted. I will still pay you back for the the pain you caused me but you could have immortality, power, bask in the power of eternal death and chaos. Every desire you ever wanted could be granted if you just pledged fealty to me."

"Like I would just give up to swine like you. I know of what becomes of your 'servants'. They all end up being part of you."Sharai said.

"And? Being part of a greater whole is an amazing gift, but have it your way, horribly painful death it is."

Sharai watched as parts of her shield began to fracture.Hmmm I have a minute at most before it breaks entirely, what else can I do to buy time?

A sly grin formed on her face. There was one way to make sure she had plenty of time for reinforcements to arrive. She took a deep breath and raised her right arm at the beast. Slowly beams of light started to circle her arm covering her body in a bright white aura.

“Oh cute she wants to play with big spells now, I’m game.” The creature jumped back several yards and kicked the dirt with its front hooves. “Any day now would be nice.”

He knows what this spell will do if it connects, but why is he goading me? Better surprise him with a double. She thought to herself.

The barrier dropped and Sharai yelled her incantation “heilaga ljós!” a vortex of light corkscrewed its way toward the beast, ripping up the ground in its wake. The beast stood its ground opening its mouth when Sharai shouted “tvöfaldur!” and a duplicate of the previous spell fired out right behind the first.

“My, my aren't we the desperate one.” The monster opened its mouth wider and took both shots down its throat swallowing with a satisfied gulp. Sharai dropped to her knees panting heavily as beads of sweat rolled down her brow.

I don’t understand, that should have banished him. There's no way at his level that she should be able to just eat them. Sharai thought. She tried to get up and run but she was entirely spent. She had used to much power to quickly and the rest of her magic was busy just keeping her alive.

“Ahh the look on your face, that’s the look that makes killing off you filthy monkeys all the more worthwhile. I bet you're wondering how I stopped not one but both of your banishing spells hmmm?” The creature walked up and whispered in Sharai’s ear, she tried to move but her legs wouldn’t budge. “I have been feeding off this world misery and hatred for fifteen hundred years, not five like your primitive device told you.”

Sharai’s eyes went wide, the data she sent the admiral was incorrect. She had assuredly signed his death warrant. “Now, now little one no need to feel guilty. In a few moments all you will be feeling is insurmountable amounts of pain” The creature said grinning menacingly.

Sharai reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a syringe filled with green liquid and swung down hard at her leg with it. Right before the tip reached her black slacks she felt a tug on her arm and saw a black tendril grab the syringe out of her hand.

“Suicide? Seriously now your brother tried the same thing before I killed him. So distasteful of you to try and ruin my fun after I worked so hard to earn it.” The monster licked his lips tossing the syringe into the woods behind him. “Now how kill you in the most painful way possible.” The monster hopped in the air and fluttered his feet about like a child that was just granted free reign in a candy store. Slowly circling its prey while thinking aloud.

“How to best kill you? I could nail you to a tree and slowly flay you alive. I could set you on fire and watch you turn to ash. I could corrupt your body and make you serve me eternally. I could crush you like a grape, I can even eat you” It smiled. “So many different ways but only one life to test them on." The monster scratched its chin for a moment before a grin formed on his face.

“Idea! how about a little of all the above?” The monster laid down on its belly retracting its limbs into its body. Its body started to thin out and elongate, head becoming like a snake, fur becoming scales and tusks becoming rows of small back curved teeth. Small holes began opening over its body secreting a orange substance that stunk of roadkill.

“Do you think this is too much acid? Wait why am I asking you about it? Any amount of acid is too much for the soon to be deceased.” Sharai could feel some of her strength coming back and angled her heels to sprint.

maybe I can lose him in the foliage...

She sprung forth heading to the nearest brush she could reach when the monster struck her with his mouth over her neck, biting down and injecting venom. “Don’t worry” it mouthed “The venom I use only paralyzes the major muscle groups but leaves your ability to feel pain in tact."

Sharai couldn't move. Every single muscle refused to so much as budge. As if not missing a beat her entire body lifted in the air And coils snapped around her entire body, leaving only her head uncovered. She tried search for any magical power left to defend herself but there was none.

“Oh don’t bother, even if i hadn’t poisoned you, I would still be too much to try and brute force through. Besides my first squeeze is always a test. I wouldn’t want to accidentally pop you like a grape, not before I have had my fun.”

The monster loosened its grip slightly and then contracted hard. Sharai felt the acid start to burn though her uniform and her bones start to give way as the serpent pulled tighter and tighter. What little magic she had left to struggle with left her as the coils snapped in hard. Sharai could feel her skin burning as if set on fire, her arms, legs ,hips and rib cage all bending and breaking as the monster kept pulling in tighter and tighter. The monster knew what it was doing in this form, every time she exhaled the monster would pull in tighter robbing her of oxygen slowly, just like a snake would.

“You know this no fun if you don’t scream a little, woman” It said licking her face with its fork-like tongue. “Oh, I know how to get you to scream!”

Don’t ..give ..him  any enjoyment. must send telepathic message...something must be out there to help me....

Sharai focused her mind but the monster loosened its grip again making her reflexively take in a gulp of air before snapping its coils back in hard. Sharai let out a little whimper but gritted her teeth refusing to give the creature the enjoyment of making her scream.

“Oh come on, your skins should feel like its on fire, I have already broken nearly every bone in your body and yet you still refuse to let me have fun.” The creature gave a sigh “Oh well, at least the meat is nice and tender now, normally I watch my calories on these late night snacks but tonight I will make a exception.” The monster lifted its head up in the air and began widening its lower jaw, flashing rows of small dagger like teeth.

“One more for the road I think.” The creature loosened its grip again and came in hard one last time. Sharai couldn’t hold it in this time, and gave the tiniest little cry. “I guess I can settle for that, it's not a scream but the suffering feeds me all the same. I should just draw your pain out as long as possible, but I need to make plans for your companions arrival. I wonder what you taste like...."

Sharai could feel her consciousness leave her as her vision began to blur. The creature began positioning its mouth over her face but something caught the corner of her eye before the mouth closed over her head. Night blue smoke that looked like it had small stars in it. To the right of it was something blurry with stripes of black and white

I must be delirious, at least I didn’t give it what it wanted...I'm sorry brother...l for my failure.

Sharai closed her eyes as the smoke rushed forward, hoping soon for the sweet embrace of death.

"She's not dead. Zecora begin to treat her wounds. I will go get help."

   A loud whooping sound blared loudly followed by a bang and the breaking of glass. A young man in his late teens pulled his head out of the refrigerator rubbing the newly formed knot on his noggin. Staring at the glowing red light above the fridge he thought to himself.

You think after so long I would gain the common sense not to set the bay alarm above the refrigerator.

He took a gander around the room, to his left he noticed that the pickles he had been aging were strewn about the floor to his left. Picking one up he inspected it for glass fragments or dirt and put it into his mouth whole. Hooray for ten second rule...or five minute rule, depending how hungry I am. Chewing greedily he exited the mess hall and into the corridor. Passing up the war room and personal quarters he came to the end of the hall with four doors, each had red marking above them that read out which bay they were and a red light below each one to show if they were currently in use.

Bay two’s light was going off and the young man opened the door and entered a small sealed room with nozzles sticking from the sides of the wall. Through a small window on a heavy bolted door he could see round metal drones spraying the chamber on the other side with gas. “Computer forgo sanitary operations chamber two door voice authorization Hans C81.”

A female voice chimed over the speakers “Voice authorization and command code confirmed, you may proceed, General.” The heavy door swung open as the gas in the room ahead cleared. The drones were all settling back into knots in the wall to recharge except one that lay twitching on the floor. Hans gave a dejected sigh “Well there's another one for Cid to fix.”

The room was empty save a small digital journal on the floor in the center of the bay. Hans picked it up and noticed that the screen was broken and covered with dried flecks of blood. Flipping the device over he checked the back for the registry number. “ Zero zero sixty-seven. This would belong to Lieutenant Sharai Altair” he said to himself. “Hope that blood isn’t hers, we have had enough funerals around here as of late.” Walking out into the hall, Hans proceeded to the war room entrance. Stopping at the door he punched in a code on the keypad on the lower right. The opened with a hiss revealing a large room with lockers lining the right side, a large table with flags and a map in the center and computers on the left of varying ages running a multitude of outdated operating systems. At the far left corner was a heavily tattered and ugly looking leather chair which Hans sat down in as he took apart Sharai's digital journal. Popping open the back of the journal he removed a small black chip with the markings ‘nx-128 TB’ and placed it in the slot underneath the multimedia drive in the computer in front of him.

The screen went blue for a moment and then slowly started listing the current data on the card. “Lets see now, time axis unavailable, biological data is a fuck-ton of swamp life, no weather data available. “ Hans filtered through the data until something caught his eye. “Huh, six axis magic casting possible and it's a parallel earth this time, not a stinking crab planet. That zoid what’s his face was the worst doctor ever.” Hans shuddered as he remembered the unpleasantness of his last visited dimension. “Let’s see here, what else...” He grinned suddenly as he reached the end of the data transcript.

“Well, well the big boss has only been there for three to five years” Hans put his hand on his chin, thinking deeply. “Sounds too good to be true, especially with time axis data missing and such. I guess I have no choice but to inspect it myself since no other units are free.” Hans looked down at the device again and remembered about the flecks of blood on the broken screen. “Computer, medical drone to war room, voice authorization.” A female voice chimed over the speakers confirming the command and moments later a sphere with a red cross on its belly was busy ramming its front plate against the wall next to the war room. As Hans got up the terminal he was at flashed blue with a error message that windows had crashed due to a unresponsive device.

"Lovely." Hans grumbled.

“C00005 path not found error” The medical drone sputtered. Hans covered his face with his palm and sighed. “How did I let Cid talk me into installing Frapple corporation software in all the droids and Microbloat-ware on the terminals , they were doing so well with linux. Last time I listen to fanboy engineers.” Hans got out of his seat and walked over to the malfunctioning drone and popped open its biological analyzer on its side. He inserted the dried flecks of blood into the open chamber and closed the lid. “Analyze blood sample.”

The drone beeped a few times and answered “Error corn clog in port two” Hans slapped it on the side and it continued to beep. After a few moments it finally answered. “Blood analysis complete, sample belongs to agent 0067 Error, file not found.” Hans punched the drone in the side. “Name found, Lieutenant Sharai Altair.”

“I figured that much you hovering hunk of junk, I need details!” Hans growled.

The drone beeped again “Sample shows heightened levels of adrenaline and minor amounts of poison of an unknown animal origin.”

“Can you identify what kind of poison? Effects and maybe even the animal in question?” Hans inquired.

The drone beeped in response. “Poison of the paralysis origin, mainly affecting major muscle groups and partially digesting the immediate bitten area. Animal of origin is magical in nature, possibly a Basilisk or Hydra.”

“Hmmm” If it was a basilisk it would only bite her if its stare of death failed and Sharai's way to quick on her feet to allow something so slow to bite her. So that leaves the Hydra as the best possible explanation.

“Drone, can a basic cleansing spell heal a poisonous bite wound from a hydra?” Hans asked.

“Unknown, best possible calculations point to it being cleansed but leaving the victims stamina severely drained.” The drone replied.

“Drone return to engineering bay for repairs.” The drone hovered in place for a moment before smoke exited its sides and it crashed onto the floor. “Oh well, Cids problem not mine.” Hans walked back into the war room and over to the locker closest to the back wall. He fidgeted with the latch for a moment and opened it. Inside was an ash black coat that flared out at the bottom with gold lining that ended in twin dragons at the bottom with sapphire eyes. The shoulders were adorned with gold cinnamon bun shaped objects with ornate gold streamers coming out the ends. On the coats right sleeve below the shoulder was five gold bars set horizontally across a black square, a pair of gold swords crossing the bottom.

Below the coat were a pair of ash black leather boots with gold trim down the side ending in small gold buckles and a pair of plain black socks. Above the coat was a small silver bag, a black and gold captains cap with gold crossed swords on it, a digital journal and a picture set in a onyx frame. Picking up the picture Hans stared at it, letting out a sigh. Ten people aside from himself stared back at him, most wearing similar regalia to the one he had in his locker. Each person in the picture had their names in small print above them with the title “1st division battle battalion.”

Hans set the picture back on the shelf and gave another sigh. I lost so many of them from my own weakness or haphazard leadership. Hans thought to himself as he stared at the old photo. I really need to stop beating myself up so much...

Hans got dressed, tying the silver bag to a hoop on his slacks and put the digital journal in his inside coat pocket. As he walked out into the hall one of the cleaning drones was busy pulling the broken medical drone away, sputtering itself as if to break down as well. Hans shook his head dejectedly as he passed. Heading down the corridor he stopped by the personal quarters section and picked up a rucksack, throwing it over his shoulder by the drawstrings.

He made his way into bay one and after messing around with the gateway controls he set his rucksack down to check its contents. “lets see here, med-kit check, five days provisions check, casual clothes check, tent and sleeping bag check, flint and tinder...wait.”

We still use these? Guess I grabbed a scout bag by mistake.

Closing the bag he tossed it back over his shoulder by the drawstrings and stood up. He closed his eyes and felt the room around him. Drawing a circle in his mind he reached his right hand forward and snapped his fingers. Within seconds a gateway had opened up filling a large portion of he room, the sparks burning the concrete by the edges. "Whoops made it too big again. Oh well a portal is a portal. Dimension one one seven is nearly a days travel time, lets see if I can’t shave a few hours off of that.” Hans leaped forward into the gateway, it collapsing behind him with a thunderous crack.

"We barely got her stabilized but she seems to be infected with something we cannot purge. In her current state she has maybe a few days at the most before whatever is growing inside consumes her." A lime green pony with orange hair said. "Your highness, is there any thing you can do?"

Luna shook her head dejectedly. "I will confer with my sister, maybe she has a solution."

Luna stared at the strange pale bipedal creature. It pains me to see any creature suffer. I hope you can hold on till we find a solution. I would hate to have to do the unthinkable and put you down. Luna thought to herself.

"I will keep her alive with a life preserving spell. Fetch me doctors from other towns. Maybe one of them will have an answer..."