The Next Hunter

“Morte de Amour you old fiend! You asked me here rather unexpectedly, do you have any idea how hard it is to sneak out of that blasted castle? Discord asked cordially as he walked through the living area of Morte de Amour’s home, moving to one side to avoid a writhing pile of mating rotters in various states of decay.

“Discord, we both know that the only reason you are here is because your lovely daughter called you. We have despised each other for centuries and it killed a small piece of you when Eris fell for me didn’t it?” The Rotted Lord said with a sinister smile on his face

“True, where is she? I would never have come here if it wasn’t for her” Discord replied snapping his fingers causing a couch to appear.

“You will see her when our business is concluded and not one moment before. Let me be blunt, I need more access to the Hunter I need to find out what it will take to kill him. Sombra and I have been racking our brains trying to find out his weaknesses but if he is one tenth as strong as he is reported to be then I fear it is a futile effort” Morte de Amour said “You will provide this access I need one of his lovers replaced with one of your chaos clones, I care not which one but given Scootaloo’s past I think she would do nicely.”

“And how exactly do you propose I sneak a chaos clone into what is essentially the Hunters Lair while simultaneously kidnapping an Element of Harmony, one who is quite skilled at combat mind you, and have nay hope of escaping without anyone noticing?” Discord replied while pouring tea from his pinkie finger “Tea, or perhaps some O Positive?”

“O Negative is more my flavor if you don’t mind” Discord nods and the fluid changed from tea to a thick red fluid which flowed into a mug which he then handed to Morte de Amour

“This wouldn’t happen to be poisoned now would it Discord? Wouldn’t want anything to happen to your lovely daughter now would we?” Morte de amour quietly said with a small smile

“Ah, I forgot to warm it, one moment.” Discord said sheepishly snapping his fingers making the blood steam and a small cloud rise from it briefly shaping into a skull before dissipating “How clumsy of me”

“Wouldn’t be a visit from the Lord of Chaos without an assassination attempt,” Morte de Amour said taking a small sip. “Fact is your daughter is here with us right now and once you agree to my terms you will see her. Maybe if you complete this mission I will even allow you to take her home with you, not forever mind you she’s mine, but for a time.”

“Fine you old corpse, I will figure out how to get you one of his lovers and a spy in their midst.” Discord replied with a snarl nearly chipping his fang in the process.

“Splendid! Children move so that a father can see his daughter in the flesh as it were…” the Rotted one said with a malicious grin

The writhing pile of rotters moved to one side showing Eris covered in the rotted flesh of her captors feasting on the sex of the half rotted vampire in front of her. Tears are flowing from her eyes as she is debased and humiliated in front of her father.

“YOU BASTARD!” Discord howls with tears in his eyes “Please release her from this, I will do what you ask, I will even bring you Scootaloo.”

“I thought you might. Very well children leave her be, for now at least. For every twelve hours you delay in bringing me my captive and producing my spy she will suffer twenty four hours of this.” Morte de Amour states primly “I suggest for her sake you hurry not even a demigoddess can handle this for very long without breaking.”

“Very well.” Discord replies flatly teleporting out without flair.

~ Back at Luna’s Playground~

Moon is sitting at his normal shadowed booth in the back of the club soaking in the radiating lust flowing from the room when he realized that he was no longer alone. Looking to his left he sees a broken man with mismatched eyes and a ragged goatee

“Lord Discord! What a surprise, literally you surprised the hell out of me” Moon says with a start “What Bring the Lord of Chaos to my humble abode”

“Hunter” Discord says raggedly “I need your help.”

“My help? What could I possibly do for you?” I ask him in surprise

“Morte de Amour has my daughter, Eris, held captive and has for years. I haven’t been able to rescue her but tonight I finally managed to catch him unawares and I need you to kill him before it is too late.”

“What did you do, Discord?” Twilight asks coming up to the booth with the rest of the team behind her

“Something that will likely get me imprisoned in stone again but if my Eris gets freed I couldn’t care less. I poisoned Morte de Amour, it alone will not kill him, but it will weaken him to the point that you can easily do so. I will tell you where his lair is if you promise to kill that bastard and get my daughter back.” Discord replies with tears streaming down his face

“Do you have the standing orders for him and anyone who aides him yet Twi?” I ask

“Yes, Princess Luna just sent them to me this evening, why?”

“Because, we have a monster to kill”

“And a spy” Discord pipes in “She is here in the club”

“Who, and what proof do you have of this” Twilight asks seriously suddenly furious that we had been betrayed.

“Not until he is dead or he will know you are coming. She is one of his children but very old and able to hide from even you. One of his prouder conquests I think even though her power and position kept him at bay for years.” Discord says quickly “You need to know what he plans before you go in because I have no idea how we are going to sneak in your whole team when all he wants is one of you.”

“What do you mean he wants one of us” I ask him suddenly very afraid for my lovers and friends.

“He wants me to bring him Scootaloo since she has a natural fear of rotters given her…past experiences, and replace her with one of my chaos clones under his control” Discord says quietly “Twenty years ago I would have done this no problem, but after my time with the lovely Flutters I cannot bring myself to do this even for my daughter. He has promised that for every twelve hours she is not in his hands my daughter will suffer twenty-four hours of being raped repeatedly by rotters. Please Hunter, help me save her”

“Of course we will help you, but why come to us and not the Princesses?” I ask him genuinely curious “They could just as easily get her back and likely could dispatch all of us as well as a sizable military force to back us up.”

“Because, he has been lying to the Princesses for years about Eris’ whereabouts” Skyla says with her eyes glowing hotly “something I am not happy about mind you, she is my friend.”

“I will deal with whatever fallout is necessary as long as she is safe when this is done.” Discord says “and I will help you however I can but we must hurry the poison I tricked him into taking will wear off quickly.”

“What exactly did you give him?” Sweetie asks “I didn’t think poisons worked on vampires.”

“They don’t but I am a God of Chaos I can do basically whatever I want and it will happen but like all my magic it comes at a price. I have been saving this particular piece of nastiness for when he summoned me next.” He says brokenly “This spell took most of my magic I have just enough to teleport you and your gear to his hideout and maybe a bit more before I collapse for quite some time.”

“Twilight, you are our tactician what do you recommend?” I ask getting down to business

“He takes Scoots in and we follow in under the cloud of his magic, we carry her gear in and suit her up after we get to his sanctum. Then we route them from the inside out, his fortress is nearly impenetrable from without but from within…” she trails off

“It’s weak.” I finish for her citing an old military tactic. “Like going for the soft underbelly but you are already underneath the target”

“Wait, we are actually thinking of letting him take Scoots into the one place that scares her more than any other thing in this world. Have you even asked her what she thinks about this plan” Sweetie asks incredulously

“Sweetie, love this is the only way we can rid the world of him and finally begin taking out what scares me so badly, I owe him personally for my past and I want to be there when he dies, I would like to do that myself but I don’t know if I can do it so I will lean on my loves to help me.” Scoots says in a tone I have never heard from the brash Avian… fear

“Scoots, my dear we can find another plan, I would not ask this of you.” I say bringing her into my arms only to find her shaking with rage

“No! Moon, he raped me, it wasn’t a near thing like the reports say, he actually did it. I have killed the other two that helped but he was untouchable until the new law went into effect. Now it is his turn.” She says with barely repressed tears in her eyes “Sweetie, Bloom, and Babs helped put me back together and you finally closed the wounds he opened but it is time to get rid of the scars completely.”

“Then you will have your Justice, but we will not be killing him in his hideout, we will corner him like the dog he is, and bring him before the Princesses for final sentencing and destruction.” I say with my humanity slipping just a bit in rage a this new information “We will force him to confess his sins before the nation and then publicly he will meet the sun.”

“Thank you My Love” Scootaloo says cuddling into my arms followed by Bloom, Sweetie, Babs and Twilight. Mac holds Skyla as she cries for her friend.

“Ah’right team, strap up we got an old friend to save!”

“Thank you Hunter” Discord says quietly

“Don’t thank me yet, thank me when we put your daughter back together when this is done.”

“There is one other person we need to contact…” Scoots says quietly “We need to get my Mom, well surrogate mom but she held me when the nightmares were bad and the others weren’t with me. We need Rainbow Dash”

Twilight pulls a scroll out of her robe and begins writing “Her speed will be useful and I think she would want in on this as well. With her being a Wonderbolt she will be more than capable of handling herself in a fight. Bloom, do you have an extra set of wing blades and a pair of short swords hanging around your shop?”

“Twi, have ya met me? Hi, ah’m Applebloom weapons master for the Hunter. O’course I have a few extras layin’ around, ah even have her old gear if’n ya don’t mind refreshin’ tha enchants.” Applebloom says sarcastically

“Thanks, Bloom” Scoots says kissing her friend and lover softly.

“Very well, she is on her way.” Twi says as a rumbling is felt throughout the club after her magic fades from sending the message. After a moment the windows light up in a scintillation of colors and the front doors to my club come flying off the hinges. Standing in the door is Rainbow Dash in a tank top and panties looking as if she just woke up. The whole group of us except for Scoots looks surprised at her sudden appearance

“Where’s my girl! Where’s Scootaloo!” She screams as she scans the room looking for her in a frenzy.

“I’m here mom.” Scoots says from my arms “I’m okay”

Finally calming down Dash walks up to us and asks her adopted daughter “Is it time?”

Scoots just nods as a fire sparks in Rainbow Dashes eyes “Finally, I can pay that bastard back for what he did to my little girl. Bloom? You got my weapons ready? and maybe a pair of pants…” She says after a moment of looking at herself.

“Downstairs, Dash otherwise people are gonna think yer tha next floor show.” Bloom asks laughing

“So, how many Rainbooms did it take to make it here that fast? I think it took you fifteen seconds from Sweet Apple acres and a dead sleep to the front of the club.” Twilight asks

“Fourteen point two seconds and five of them back to back I was traveling at about thirty seven hundred miles per hour, I would have been here faster but I had to bypass the barn and house so I didn’t blow them down… again.” Dash says without an ounce of braggadocio in her tone “On the plus side the apples are already off the trees for tomorrow’s harvest.”

For the first time I see a light tracing of burn scars across her arms legs and back she must have felt me looking “Burn scars from my swords, they carry flame enchantments and I fight in the sacrificial style of Saddle Arabia, even though I use western weapons. The pain is a small price to pay and the scars are even less of one because every strike I make is meant to kill even at the cost of my own blood.”

“I am truly impressed Miss Dash” I say honestly “that speed will come in quite handy for this mission”

“What mission? I’m going in solo and taking my daughters revenge for her. Try and stop me Moon and I don’t care how much my daughter loves you I will fly you up so fast that when I finally let inertia take you, you will land on Celestia’s sun and we will see how your immunity holds up then.” She states flatly with hellfire in her eyes

“Then at least let me accompany you, I can keep up and I care for Scootaloo as much as you do.”

“Fine, but if you slow me down or stop me from killing that son of a bitch I will personally deliver your headless corpse to the Princesses.”

“Very well, let’s get you geared out and go.”

Once we reach the weapons room I see Applebloom pulling a strange set of armor out of the chest… if you could call it armor it was mostly straps and very few of them. They looked to be mainly weapon belts but there was a bra and panty set made out of the same toughened leather that my armor was but no blades or spikes.

“What is that supposed to be Bloom?” I ask her incredulously only to be answered by Dash

“It’s my weapons rig and armor such as it is. With my speed I can’t be weighed down by fifty plus pounds of armor but more importantly I do not wear armor like you do” she says hitting my chest plate on the table “I’m exposed, like a nerve, every time I get hit I just get faster and faster the madder I get. Twi says my fighting style will be the death of me but if that happens in this fight then I’m going to make sure I take him with me.”

Dash reaches into the chest pulling out two very well used short swords they look unremarkable save that they have no cross guard. She unsheathes them only to have them flare up into a bright blue flame on each blade, she gives them an experimental swing and I realize that they give off no heat from this distance. Seeing my doubt she picks up a spare dagger and touches her blade to it shearing it off with absolutely no pressure from her. “Still doubtful? I thought not.” She says haughtily and sheathes her demonic blades back in their home, as glyphs flare up on the scabbards dousing the fire after a moment.

“Spitfire and Soarin’ after my Wonderbolts idols growing up” she says as she straps her gear on tapping her blades lightly as she straps them on.

As she finishes she looks at me getting my gear together and says calmly “Let’s go to WAR!”