Star! EDIT: Wanna hear Montezuma talk? I made a voice test! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW8rx_…
i am absolutely delighted at the positive feedback i got about my new nextgen, Montezuma: NextGen: Montezuma by Lopoddity

so have some more doodles of slinky boi, and his dynamic with his nemesis, Smokescreen

1.) Montezuma is extremely opposed to the plundering of relics from ancient civilization, as well as the desecration of these sites and cultures (popularized by graverobber/adventurer Daring Do). He has committed himself to 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 special agent 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 grows to hunger for their game like nothing else, obsessing over ways he can beat Montezuma, and gets a strange thrill in waiting for Monte's retaliation.

Their relationship is ruthless at the start. They are enemies, each standing for what they believe is right, and neither willing to back down. In the beginning, when all Smokescreen knows is that Montezuma is a cunning and dangerous threat to Equestria- welp, they fight a lot. All teeth and claws- Smokescreen may be bigger, stronger, and better trained for combat, but that doesn't mean Monty isn't ready to wreck his shit. Montezuma has speed and superior agility, and is clever enough to maintain distance and strike with talons and teeth- avoiding Smoke's crushing jaws. Smoke breathes poisonous smog that can disorient Montezuma, while Monte possesses the same fiery magic as the Sphinx. I wonder who will win?

2.) montezuma note to self: always remember to use a mouth restraint when your nemesis has goddamn acid spit

3.) human Monty and Smoky

Besides their running rivalry, 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.

4.) speaking of hero stuff...

Montezuma enjoys their game as much as Smokescreen does, but he does sometimes get frustrated by the fact that Smoke is opposing him in the first place. Smoky is clever and competent and deserves so much more than being Equestria's errand boy. He's unique, just like Montezuma, misunderstood, mysterious, and alone. Montezuma gets it. Monty can think of so many better uses for his arch-rival.....why does Smoke insist on this silly battle of minds, when they could be so much better together?

Smokescreen is more of a black-and-white thinker than Montezuma. As a spy, Smokescreen believes that the many questionable things he does are justified, or at least excusable, in pursuit of the greater good. Hurting people, stalking, stealing....these must be moral actions, because they're what he's been told to do, and he has no reason to believe his superiors could be motivated by petty reasons like greed or conquest. Certainly his intelligence agency HAS done many good things- saved lives, found missing ponies, thwarted tyrants. To Smoky, the unsavory bits are just a part of the job, a necessity to ensure the safety of Equestria- and for that reason, he performs his assignments with gusto. Smoky has a bit of a complex about being a "monster" (y'know, a big scary insect-dragon hybrid that cannot speak), and compensates by using his monstrous talents for good. Smoky kinda desperately wants to belong to the pony in-group and is therefore aggressively loyal to Equestria, especially the royals. Montezuma often picks at this insecurity ("Do you think letting the ponies use you as an attack dog will endear you to them? You're a fool"). Smoky would be rocked to his core to discover that his agency- as well as himself- are as fallible as anyone else.

Smoky does not quite understand Montezuma's motives....he just knows Monte is a thief and a nuisance. Monte has explained why he "steals" to Smoke many, many times (dude loves a good dramatic monologue), but Smoke disregards it as he's either 1.) not listening cuz he's busy escaping/thwarting Monte, or 2.) Smoke is naturally resistant to the idea that his superiors, the "good guys"- Celestia, Luna, Iridescence, BonBon, all of Equestria- could possibly be the baddies. Smoky assumes Montezuma is lying about wanting to rescue artifacts, because, well, Monte does lie a lot. So in between their fighting is many instances of Montezuma trying to lure Smoke to the so-called "dark side." Someday, Monte will succeed, and he and Smokescreen will recruit Celestia's aid in returning stolen artifacts to their respective civilizations, as well as condemning Daring Do and other such explorers. But for now, at the very least, Monte gets to watch his smooth secret agent lose his composure (a rare, delightful sight)

from the delightful :iconcolbyr: : Something I've been thinking about since you responded with this was how similar Smoky and Pandora are -- at least, Smoky and early, goody-two-shoes Pandora. While young!Pan would probably still resist taking a life even in the name of her country, and many other manner of unsavory things Smoky is meant to do, they both try so hard to be good. They're both almost obsessed with proving, through loyalty to queen(s) and country, that they're not the monsters they're often viewed as.

Those similarities are especially interesting to me when considering how you've headcanoned before that Spike and Pandora are sort of like brother and sister, at least in how they're related to Twilight. It's a bit odd to think of Pan as any sort of 'aunt' to Smokescreen, though that might explain why they're not as close as they might have been otherwise, with the both of them 'unnatural abominations' in a pretty-pony world. I wonder what post-failed-coronation Pan, who's had some time and space to figure out how the world works for herself, might have to say to Smokescreen, who's still so viciously loyal to Equestria that his desperation has made him blind. (For some reason, I feel like Cupcake would be part of that conversation, too, and probably the reason the world wouldn't explode if tensions got high. I imagine Pandora wouldn't aim to have a conversation like that in the first place, as generally conflict-averse as she is with family and friends especially, but I can see her getting frustrated when she realizes how obstinate Smoky is being.

And, when Smoky inevitably switches sides and does gay, culturally-justified crime with Monty, Pandora wipes away a proud lil' tear at another gay chaos baby unleashing chaos on the world.

5.) Montezuma may be a master thief, but sometimes he does get in over his head, especially as he has enemies other than Smokescreen. And in these instances, what can ya do but crawl into your nemesis/sort of-bf's apartment window and bleed all over his bedsheets cuz lord knows u can't go to a legitimate hospital

Smoky is 1.) grumpy at being woken up and 2.) most definitely gonna smack Monty upside the head for being so reckless/watch over Monte while he sleeps in a creepy unblinking lizardy kinda way. Definitely gonna brood lots over the very unwelcome urge to hold his idiot nemesis' hand or brush his sweaty hair out of his face, goddamnit

Montezuma is muttering an impressive cavalcade of cursewords in several languages and possibly maybe wishing his parents were here. Lollipop is a good gorl and happy to help Papa out. Phoenix is wondering who the fuck is in her apartment at 4am.

(On a less gory note, in return for Smoky's good deed, Montezuma made fun of his pajamas forever and now often calls him Candypants. Or, when he's feeling like less of a dick, "Sweets".)

6.)

Monty: Won't you at least stay for breakfast?

Smoky: *hesitates, then shakes head to decline*

Monty: *singsong voice* I could make churros~

Smoky: *immediately yeets mission file out window, betrays Equestria, plops down at breakfast table*

Smoky and Monty, as the lines between enemy/rival/friend/??? start to blur. Smoky is definitely in violation of his special agent code here, BonBon is def gonna whack him in the face with a rolled up newspaper for consorting with a villain