[i]Interesting gryphons, those two,[/i] Theá mused as she watched Xerihan and Ricket walk away. One might think it strange that she didn't have very many of their kind among her followers, and she truthfully didn't know why she had only a hundred or two gryphons in total; not that she cared all that much. She assumed that it was because they were a proud and independent people. They had always seen themselves as exemplary hunters, and when she came and claimed her spot as the top of the food chain and ultimate predator, they became insulted and many turned their backs to her in return. She couldn't help a tiny chuckle at the thought, realising how much they were like her; proud and stubborn. 

She stood up and stretched her wings and legs, craning her wing to smooth out a few out-of-order feathers she had spotted out the corner of her eyes. Even as she did so she felt a surge of pride rush through her. She'd always been proud of her speed and agility, and her wings by extension of that. They were large yet narrow, allowing her to easily ride the thermals and air currents. Truthfully, she shouldn't have been able to fly as fast as she did with wings like that; they were normally for long flights, whereas the smaller and narrower wing types were for speed and agility. It was an assumption only, albeit a fair one, but she attributed her incredible speed and manoeuvrability to the large amounts of pegasus magic within her body. She'd always been physically weaker than her siblings, or at least weaker than most of them, thanks to a lower amount of earth pony magic that was made up for in an increase in pegasus magic. 

[i]I wonder why Mother created me like this? Was I to be a paragon all things winged? Or just for the pegasi race themselves? To many of them the wings are an object of sexual desire.[/i] That thought brought a wide smirk to her lips. She stretched out one wing fully and inspected it, watching how one wing in itself was even longer than her own body length, so long that, when folded against her side, it would still stretch out behind her a bit. [i]That explains why some of my followers oggle me.[/i] She shook her head, banishing the thought. [i]Hunt, Wilderness, Wild animals, fertility... All of them are primal in one way or the other. I guess I'm a paragon of what ponies were, and remind them that even if it is primal, there's still pride to be held in it.[/i] She would have continued her musings had a voice not interrupted her.

"Theá?" 

She folded her wing back and looked at the sand coloured stallion standing here with a serious look on his face. Her brows furrowed and she stood up. It wasn't often that one saw Meelo so serious, and when one did it was usually advisable to listen. "Yes?" 

"I just recently caught wind of something. I was following the two gryphons when I got a Ping - a short telepathic message given to Moon and Star scouts," he said, adding the last bit in response to the quizzical look he received from the alicorn. "Anyway, long story short, they're looking for you. Seems like Twilight found out about you and has sent out parties to track you down and capture you, even if only to get a feather or some hair from you for research purposes."

Theá nodded, though tilted her head after. "They're coming for me specifically?"

"No." Meelo shook his head. "You alicorns in general. I received the ping because one such party is nearby, asking fellow moon & star soldiers to send them any information we can. Twilight doesn't know any of you in particular, except for some rumours circling around. Bottom line is, they're looking for you, and I had no choice but to hand over the fact that I had seen you here; they would've known if I had lied." He suddenly pointed to the north east, towards Canterlot. "They're near a small town that way." 

"I'm impressed," Theá said out loud, looking impassively down at Meelo, though a small smirk started tugging at the corner of her lips. "You seem to know me well enough that I would seek them out." The stallion just smiled bashfully. "Regardless, thank you for your honesty and the information. I think it's time I go." Her smirk fully appeared now. "Until then." 

And just like that, she was gone, having propelled herself into the sky with such force that Meelo almost toppled over from the sheer force of the wind she had pushed around with her wings like a plaything. In no time at all she had reached the skies and soared in the direction Meelo had pointed her to. A few minutes later and she saw what she assumed was the town he had talked about. It was nothing special, likely a thousand of so ponies living there. She touched down a few kilometres from it and walked closer, keeping an eye out for any potential attackers. 

[i]They had heard of rumours, he said... What rumours exactly? Hmm... Amaretto told me how he'd heard of rumours about a creature with the wings of a pegasus and the horn of a pony stalking the woods.[/i] She could see a small forest south of here; Whitetail Woods. She turned and walked that way, figuring that they would likely search near forests if Meelo had told them that he had seen her. 

She didn't get far before she felt a presence in her vicinity, then one more, and another and another. There were ten, at least, and all of them unicorns, which wasn't really that hard to guess given which faction they came from. She had to hold back the urge to turn around and announce the fact that she knew they were there. There was nothing to the naked eye, but she could feel them and knew they were there - she wasn't going to let them know that, however. She stopped walking and simply looked towards the forest, keeping an eye out for anything while attempting to hear them; they were as silent as the grave.

"I know you're there," she finally called after several minutes of just waiting. "Why not drop your enchantments and come forth?" All around her she heard muttered curses as, one by one, ten unicorns came into view, shedding their invisibility spells, and glared at her.

"How'd you know we were here, False God?!" a stallion in front of her challenged, stepping forward with his horn shining bright in what was supposed to be an intimidating sight. To Theá, however, it was simply.

"Pitiful." 

The stallion almost balked at her comment, obviously having expected her to either be offended or angry - perhaps even expected her to answer the question. He grit his teeth and glared at the alicorn in front of him, intent on giving her a piece of his mind. She looked young, he had thought, she's just another pony, with wings on her back. Judging by how she looked she could be no older than his own daughter. But as he looked into her eyes, he could not help but feel like the child instead. The weight of the simple gaze she directed at him was enough to halt him. Her body may have been young, but her eyes betrayed an age that he could not even fathom. That, however, wasn't even the worst. He felt so utterly small and powerless from just looking into those deep blue eyes, he felt--He tore his gaze away from her eyes and focused on the base of her horn instead.

"I am not pitiful!" He growled.

"Then why do you refuse to look into my eyes? If you truly claim to not be pitiful, to be more than a mere child then-"

"I am not a child!" He roared and flung a bolt of raw energy at her. Though none could see it, one of the other unicorns rolled her eyes, evidently having seen him lose his temper with such ease before. 

Theá hardly blinked and didn’t even seem to bother with recognising the attack as anything but an empty threat. With a quick movement of her wing, she batted the bolt away and sent it rocketing back towards the stallion, only for it to create a small crater right beside him. 

He grit his teeth and flung another bolt at her, watchin it sail past her head and not even be close to hitting. “What are you waiting for?!” He shouted, glaring at the other unicorns. “Attack her!” The other unicorns complied and attacked, firing small volleys of attacks at her. 

Theá, for her part, kept her cool, although she did light up her horn with a faint green colour. As one, all the bolts fired at her either cancelled out as they met her body or ricocheted off and creating tiny craters in the ground or knocking out some other unicorn. 

“That’s it?” She asked, raising an eyebrow as she looked around at the glaring unicorns. Her eyes widened slightly when she spotted a dark shape behind one of thems, only the head visible. [i]Meelo. What’s he doing here?[/i] It wasn’t important. She dismissed the thought and returned her attention to the other unicorns. Meelo had proven himself loyal to her, or at least unwilling to go against her since she was his ‘ticket’ to finding Luna again. She didn’t think he’d even so much as try to betray her unless doing so would mean the instantaneous return of Luna. With half a thought, she snuffed out the magic in her horn and let the shield fall. To the mortals it would have looked like she just didn’t get hurt, when in truth the shield had been almost impossible to see when it hugged her body almost like a second skin—she was actually quite proud of that trick.

The unicorn stallion from before growled and poured more magic into his horn, preparing a spell that he knew that would affect even someone who appeared to be invulnerable to other attacks. He pinged the other unicorns and they, too, prepared the spell. Within seconds, each unicorn fired off a thick chain of bright white, each chain wrapping around Theá and holding her fast. Next came six onyx obelisks rising from the ground. Six chains latched onto the obelisks, and the remaining four dug into the ground and her fast. Lastly, from the top of each obelisk, came a thin chain of pure black and wrapped itself around he horn; she could feel it shut off her connection to he magic immediately. 

“You won’t get anywhere now,” the stallion sneered and stepped closer, meeting Theá’s gaze yet again. This time he wasn’t so easily intimidated by her gaze. “Third level binding spell; six-pointed onyx star. No one can get out of that; you’ll stand there for the rest of your miserable life!” He cackled loudly, and Theá could not help but think of he had gone mad at some point during the war. “Night Bloom. Go take a sample. Get some from the flank and a few feathers. I’d imagine there’s something special with her cutie mark.” 

Nothing they had done before had been enough to anger her, merely enough to irritate her. She could deal with being attacked, as that was often the automatic response by a cornered animal. They were children to her and, as such, she could forgive their folly of attacking her so long as they simply left. That chance was gone now. While she could allow many things, she would [i]not[/i] let them take so much as a single feather from her wings.

“No.” 

“What do you say?” It was the stallion again. He was grinning widely and triumphantly; it seemed as if he expected her to be helpless. “No? You don’t want your pretty wings touched, do you? Aaaw, that’s sad.” He turned to the mare he had ordered to take the samples. “Go ahead, Night Bloom.”

“[i]No.[/i]” Theá narrowed her eyes and let the full weight of her age and divinity crash down on the stallion in front of her. With nary a mental effort, she started pushing magic from her core and into her surroundings, shaking the very air surrounding them. She forced her magic into her horn, weakening and subsequently shatterin the bindings surrounding it. The obelisks shook, as did the ground. 

A faint green mist seemed to surround Theá. The earth underneath her caved in, creating a crater with her in the middle. 

“I tolerate many things, [i]Mortal[/i], but do not think that I am some ginuea pig for you to make your tests upon!” The chains surrounding her body shook and some even had smaller cracks in them. “You forget one thing, little one.” The chains shattered and she spread her wings wide, creating a shockwave of magic and air that obliterated the obelisks and knocked each of the unicorns off of their hooves. “[i]I am a god![/i]”

With an anger that had not burned in her eyes for longer than she could rememer she stepped out of the crater and up to the stallion who had not only mocked her, but given the order to damage her wings. She lifted him in her magic and brought him to eye level, glaring into those pig-like eyes of his. She almost felt like holding some victory speech or other, declaring herself superior and mocking him like he had mocked her. Instead, she simply glared at him and threw him away. “Run.” 

He did as she bid, running as fast as he could once he had found his footing again. He didn’t get far, however, as an arrow of pure blue pierced his heart from behind, courtesy of Theá. 

When she turned around towards the other unicorns she realised that her shattering their binding spell had injured them to no small degree. Many of them had shards from the obelisks embedded into their bodies, others had broken limb and two were dead if the lack of breathing and the angle of their head was of any indication. 

She snorted and was about to walk away when Meelo appeared in front of her. “Shouldn’t you at least see about them getting some help?” he asked, 

“They attacked me, insulted me, threatened to mutilate my wings. This is their fate.” 

“And is that a reason for them to suffer a slow and painful death?” he challenged again, looking up at her with a frown. “You pride yourself on being a hunter and predator. What hunter would kill their prey slowly and painfully? Plus, these are not your prey, they are victims of collateral damage!” 

[i]I hate when he gets like this. He’ll haunt me until I relent.[/i] She snorted again and turned around to the bleeding ponies. A sigh escaped her lips. “Alright. I’ll get help in that town. You do what you can here.” Meelo nodded and she took off, heading for the town, and dearly hoping that there were a doctor or other there that could help the unicorns, or at least keep them alive for a while longer. 

It was a matter of minutes before she were there, touching down a few metres from the gate. She walked inside, curious as to the lack of guards posted at the gate. “Is there a doctor here?! I have seven wounded ponies not far away and they need medical attention as quickly as possible!” 

No answer.

[i]Strange. This town should have at least a thousand ponies living here.[/i] She looked around, tried to peek through windows but finding nothin. She grumbled and continued on, walking towards the centre of the city. It seemed logical, to her at least, that there would be ponies in the centre square if there were none at the edges. 

She saw nothing even as she continued towards the centre of the town except for a few shadows that seemingly moved in her peripheral, but she ignored them as she could feel no presences. That, above all, seemed strange to her, and she couldn’t quite keep uncertainty at bay.

The first thing she noticed when she came to the centre square was the large group of ponies bartering goods, discussing prices and some just chatting with each other. These, Theá could feel the presence of which helped reduce her uncertainty with this town. It seemed like all of them had been to the market, small as it was. She’d approximate them to around one or two hundred ponies here. 

“Are any of you a doctor?” She asked loudly, immediately gaining the attention of every pony in the square. 

One pony in the middle of the group stood up on his hind legs and pointed at her, a strange smile on face. “Oh! You be one of them new alicorns!” 

One eyebrow shut up under her mane. “I am. Are you a doctor?” 

The stallion laughed. “Oh, we all be doctors here. One way or the other.”

“That’s good. Please follow me, I have ten ponies, three of which are likely dead, who need medical attention immediately.”

The stallion shrugged and shook his head. “Afraid we can’t be of help, Lady Horn-Wing. Would you like to stay instead?” 

His way of speaking and nonchelant way of acting was ever so slowly starting to get on her nerves. “I have no intentions of staying here, I have my own agenda but these ponies need help and you’re the only town nearby.” 

“Oh-hehe, there’s a reason we be the only one here. Not many like our company.” 

[i]That sounds ominous.[/i] “And why, pray tell, do ponies not-Agh!” Pain lanced through her body from her her lower back. She whirled her head around and came face to face with a metallic and leathery face covered in spikes, with an unnaturally wide smile plastered on it. It was a Smiling Doll, and one of its scythe like claws had embedded itself into her lower back. 

[i]The shadows! They were these things, but not alive.[/i] That’s[i] why I couldn’t sense them![/i] She lit her horn and blasted the doll away from her, impaling it on a wall with an arrow through its head.

Golden blood flowed from the wound on her back, stopping only when the wound had closed herself a few seconds later. When she turned back to the throng of ponies her face was a mask of anger. She wasn’t faced with the same ponies as before, however, as all of them seemed to have changed, however subtly; the biggest diference was that all of them now had weapons of one kind or another, many of them held wicked smiles and a few she even had to question as to whether or not they were truly alive with how dead their eyes seemed. 

“Cultists!” she snarled, baring her teeth and spreading her wings. “Should’ve known there was something wrong with this town.” 

“Oho… Nothing wrong with this town, Lady, just a normal one filled with the laughing ones. Now, everypony! Let’s make the Laughing Mare happy and get her one of these for some fun experiments!” He brandished a long knife and charged forward, followed by the other two hundred, or so, ponies. 

The first five were taken down by rapidly fired arrows of blue energy, impaling their brains and often throwing them back into others. She had to stop firing as smiling dolls and other undeads jumped from the roofs and stormed out of the houses. One of the smiling dolls attempted to hug her, but found itself cleaved in two by her wing glowing a soft green. Another was cast away with a quick pulse of telekinesis, impaling more than a few of the other cultists. 

[i]This town is swarming with them![/i] she thought as she summoned three tigers that immediately went about mauling the nearest cultists. They were quickly killed by more of those dolls, but half a dozen cultists had been killed before the tigers died. Meanwhile, Theá had received more cuts and bruises than she cared to admit. Her inability to sense the presence of the undead ones proved quite an annoyance they tended to come for behind, too. 

A powerful blast of pure force sent ten cultists flying and cleared her way down a street. She galloped away, trying to gain some distance to allow herself to shoot them down rather than fight in close quarters. She could just fly, but she’d rather run just to see if she could find any normal ponies. The few she found were already dead, and some even lounged at her, trying to bite her. 

[i]Nothing but cultists here. How was this place not discovered earlier?[/i] A earth pony wearing what looked like Earthborne armour lounged at her, only to be crushed between a building’s wall and her wing. [i]Guess that answers it. The parties that discovered this place disappeared.[/i] 

Several minutes later and there seemed to be no end to the cultists. No mattter how many she impaled, crushed, or tore apart, there were almost more to take their spot; for each one she killed three new appeared. She found herself at the edge of the city, having surrounding herself with a barrier to allow her wounds to heal before she went out there again. 

She looked at her left wing. It had taken quite a beating, one of the Dolls having almost gotten a clean cut on it. She was just glad she’d moved out of the way in time to—pain lanced through the self-same wing as she scythe-like appendage of a smiling doll came into view. She looked up with her eyes widened in shock and came face to face with the smiling doll. 

Her face contorted in rage and hardly a shred of it remained from the furious blast of power she sent at it. Behind it she could see several unicorn cultists, still living, working on her barrier. They had managed to create a small opening to allow the doll inside. That, however, wasn’t her biggest concern at the moment. Her eyes were transfixed on her wing, or what was left of it. Her pride and joy was lying on the ground, severed from her body by that doll. 

Theá would say that few things could make her angry, and among those were losing or being belittled. Another thing, as the cultists found out, was having her wings damaged. 

A bestial roar ripped from her throat as she pushed magic through her body, boosting her generative abilities until a new wing grew where the old one had been cut off. With a face set in a ferocious snarl and eyes already shining a bright white. Her wings spread and she took off, shooting towards the skies as arcs of energy crackled around her body. Her horn was like a beacon, shining a brilliant green whose mad crackling seemed angry itself. 

[i]You have messed with me for the last time, Cult![/i] 

Time seemed to stop. The skies above her stood still, waiting, and even the world itself seemed to hold its breath in pause. Her eyes locked onto the centre of the city, making even the undead in that city shiver at the sense of dread that overtook them in that second. 

The skies opened, the clouds parted, and Theá unleashed her might, damning the city and cursing it for its transgression against her and the world. Magic washed off her body as she brought to bear her full power upon those who dared challenge the Gods and the laws of their Mother.

“मौत के लिए चिह्नित: शिकारिका का क्रोध!”

A column of light so large that it would be visible from even the northern mountains shot down from the skies, covering the city in its entirety, obliteraing it and everything within its borders. Every cultist was turned to ask, every Doll was shattered to metallic fragments. The houses were shattered and the ground itself seemed to evaporate. 

When finally, after an entire half minute, the light died away, Theá landed on the outskirts of the crater she had created, panting hard as she looked across the destruction she was the cause of. 

She felt drained and tired, the spell having taken out a large chunk of her energy. She was certain that her siblings had felt, if not seen, the amount of power she had unleashed. For now, however, she didn’t care what they’d do. She just wanted to rest and let her anger subside lest she destroy someone innocent.