I Am Your Nemesis (Patreon)

time to talk about Montezuma, Smokescreen's greatest adversary/possible boyfriend

soooo some of my older patrons may remember my concept art for Montezuma, son of Ahuizotl and The Sphinx:

To put his story quickly, infant Montezuma was "rescued" (read: kidnapped) by Daring Do and Dr. Cabelleron, in the hopes of giving him a proper civilized life out of the jungle/touting him as a living cryptid and charging ponies to see. This was all pretty traumatic for lil Monty, and eventually he runs away, somehow making his way back to the Tenochtitlan Basin. Ahuizotl having spent many years on a desperate, furious search for his son, has grown despondent- but upon meeting Montezuma he is overjoyed, quickly filling his son in on their culture, history, and species. Montezuma is glad to have found his real father, as well as a place in the world (among the local tribe of Aztec ponies, Ahuizotl is greatly respected as their temple guardian). 

But the more Montezuma learns about why he was taken, the angrier he becomes. Ponies like Daring Do and Cabelleron think they can plunder his home for riches with no consequence....so Montezuma decides to start stealing back. His business is stealing ancient artifacts and treasures from museums and private collections and returning them to their proper home- and if no home can be found, they are given to Ahuizotl for safekeeping. All this has left Equestrians baffled and terrified- why is a monster stealing and stockpiling their rightfully excavated treasures? Some of the artifacts are immensely magical and powerful, with potential to be used as weapons! Ponies are frightened. Montezuma is considered an enemy to Equestria, and Smokescreen is tasked with taking him down.

Except that's actually really difficult, to Smoky's never-ending frustration. Montezuma is cunning and has a whole tribe of ponies willing to carry out his orders. Smokescreen's unique changeling-dragon magic imbues his scales with the ability to turn invisible- but Montezuma has an excellent sense of smell and hearing, and can detect Smoke where no creature alive can. Being half-sphinx, Monte is absolutely brimming with magic, and naturally resistant to Smoke's attempts at mind control. Smoky, who is pretty overconfident by nature, fully expects their first encounter to be an easy capture.....only to end up bested and humiliated. This sparks his hunting instincts hardcore, and thus begins a long, long metaphorical chess match where they're constantly trying to one up the other. Smoky hates Montezuma and his dumb smug face, and yet.....Montezuma has brought so much excitement to Smoke's often dull, lonely life. Smokescreen hungers for their game like nothing else, obsesses over ways he can beat Montezuma, and gets a strange thrill in waiting for Monte's retaliation. 

There's....a LOT of tension between them both, and Montezuma leans into it, flirting obnoxiously with Smoke and constantly invading his personal space. Smokescreen 100% reciprocates the attraction but is too dumb to realize that, and thinks his DEEP OBSESSIVE INTEREST in this villain is just typical hero stuff. It's simply pragmatic to wonder how soft Montezuma's hair is, so he can grab it properly in a fight. I imagine these two have a lot of dramatic physical battles that are at least partly an excuse for some good ol' fashioned homoerotic wrestling