A Tale of Hunters, Wanderers, Hucksters and Monsters.

It was a clear and sunny day, the birds were singing, the animals were enjoying life and everything was peaceful.

Right up until a swooping shape tore into a pair of rabbits and sliced their throats open with quick,deft movement as their killer, a young female griffon, began expertly draining the corpses of blood before with a few quick cuts using her razor-sharp talons, began tugging the skins off and scooping out the guts to leave for the scavengers.

"Fucking Rainbow Dash, fucking pink bitch, fucking idiot pegasus, fucking naive townsponies..." She hissed under breath as she scrubbed a bloody claw across her face to get rid of the tears that threatened to fall, "N-not going to cry, tougher than that, been through worse, had worse done to me..." She sniffled before coughing harshly, "Fuck! Fuckfuckfuck!"

"Now there's a voice I haven't heard in a while." The Griffon whipped around, cursing her inattentiveness, as the bushes shifted to reveal a unicorn standing there with a smile, "Hello Gilda, it's been a long time."

Gilda smiled weakly, still sniffing slightly, "Figured it would be you. You weren't there at the party after all."

The pony's smile dimmed slightly, "I wanted you to reconnect with Rainbow Dash, but then you were always a brash creature Gilda, always charging into the fray and letting your blood boil." She shook her head, "How long has it been since we travelled together?"

Gilda sniffed slightly, "Six years, it's been six years. Maybe you should have talked to me, stopped me from doing something stupid."

The Pony giggled as she approached and sniffed the rabbits, "Ah, young bucks. With the breeding season so near, it's better than having to deal with pregnant does." Gilda shivered.

"How the hell does a pony become a better tracker than a Griffon I'll never know." She held up her kills, "You want to join me? I could use a friend right about now, remember old times."

The Pony nodded, still smiling, "Of course. It has been a long time since I've have field-roasted rabbits and traded Griffish hunting songs." She flicked her head back the way she came, "Come on, I found some nice wild herbs we can use season the kills and a clear spot to burn the remains for the ancestors."

Gilda smiled, "Lead the way."

Zecora smiled as the now-cured group of ponies left her hut and sighed as she regarded the mess, "Truly their lesson learned is one of the best, but on me it was such a test." She muttered with a sigh before blinking as a golden-green aura lifted an upturned pot and replaced it on its rightful place.

Smiling, she turned her head slightly, "Into my home I welcome you, but I hope you were not so foolish as to tread on the flowers blue."

A chuckle sounded as a unicorn stepped into the hut and bowed her head respectfully to the shrine Zecora held to her tribal totems, "Maker of potions and toxins, into your door I advise you place some locks in." She spoke in the same rhyming speech as she helped the Zebra clean up, "Pray tell oh shamaness, why allow your home to become such a mess?"

Zecora sighed with a smile, "Let them break a few crocks and pots, no greater relief for when the blood runs hot." They shared a smile, "It is good to see you, truly I am happy to see your new found peace made true."

The Pony smiled, "I miss the old days, I will not pretend, but our friendship shall remain and never need to mend." She bowed low before the Zebra waved a hoof, bangles jingling.

"Rise my friend, as you have said, we shall not pretend." She motioned to the smaller of the fireplaces, and placed a black iron kettle upon the rack above the flames, "Now then, tea we shall drink, and of those days we shall think."

The Pony smiled before her expression sobered, "I anticipate your fine brew, but your deadliest poisons I also require of you. A task must be done, in secret and in silence, with discretion and prudence."

Zecora nodded as she measured out tea and poured the water, "Of my brews I shall provide the foulest and most cruel, for the slaying of this fool. But you aid I require, so that your foe shall more properly taste your ire."

Nodding, the pony accepted a cup and as she sipped, began picking out the necessary ingredients while Zecora prepared the cauldron for their work, muttering ancient curses and words of power as the lanterns in the hut flared and changed colour.

"I do believe dear brother, that we may be using the wrong business strategy, and that our future profit-finding endeavours shall be quite difficult." Flim remarked to his twin brother Flam as the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 trundled down the dirt road.

"Quite. Perhaps however, we should make a prefunctory effort to ensure that the next batch is at least somewhat drinkable, and also...I say, is that who I think it is?" Flam questioned as they spotted a unicorn standing on the side of the road, regarding them with a wide and happy smile, one that Flam eagerly returned, "I say Flim, look who it is!"

Flim whooped with happiness, "A friendly face! Pull over brother, surely we can delay our trip to speak to her!" Flam was already slowing the steam-powered machine down in a hiss of steam before they stopped in front of the Unicorn, who stared up at the slowing machine without even a hint of fear at the possibility of being run over.

Before Flam had fully parked the machine, Flim was already on the ground running to the unicorn and giving her a hug that she returned warmly, "It is you! Oh I thought we'd never see you again after that day!"

The Pony smiled, "As did I, but look at you two, on the road and selling snake-oil to snakes and bad cider to the rest." She cast a practiced eye up at the machine, "I do hope you two haven't lost all of your cider making skill. Sweet Apple Acre cider is fine and dandy, but I find myself thirsty for a proper Red Barrel Hard Spice."

Flam smiled and laughed as he opened a side door with a flourish to reveal several dark red wood barrels, "But of course, hucksters, snake oil sellers and con-artists we may be, but our private reserve is always open to those we call friends! And you, my dear have proven yourself a dear and true friend, even after our own failings."

The Pony smiled and trotted over, before kissing Flam on the cheek, eliciting a bright blush that shone under his blonde coat, "And the two of you have proven yourselves a thousand times over, you incorrigible geniuses." She pulled out a silver tankard from a box set into the wall and waved it at the barrels, "Now let's drink! I want to hear about what you've been doing since our glory days."

Trixie spat on the ground as her illusion ran off into the distance and she overheard Twilight Sparkle's comment of, "I'm sure she'll learn her lesson."

"Naive fool, Trixie learned her lessons a long time ago, and learned them through far harder and violent lessons than you. To blame me for the foolishness of children, how narrow-sighted you are." The blue mare spat as she wrapped her star-swept cloak around her and vanished into invisibility, "Allow me to extract payment for my performance, I'm sure you won't mind."

As the town began to celebrate the purple unicorn mare's achievement, the show mare slipped into homes and extracted her payment, never taking enough to be noticed, along with a few supplies for the road, "Hmph, Trixie will have to purchase another wagon at some point." She muttered as she slipped into one home and began searching for valuables to take, "Though this does bring back memories."

"Good ones I hope my dear Trixie." Trixie stiffened as she felt the blade tickling the fur of her neck as a warm voice whispered into her ear, "My, my, it seems that you fell afoul of this town's signature attraction, the Elements of Harmony." Trixie resisted the urge to swallow as the blade slid along her throat, not piercing the skin, but the sudden chill of air against bare skin told her that this blade was sharp enough to shave her coat.

"Trixie is not afraid of death, you will gain no satisfaction from me." She hissed defiantly, before twitching at the throaty purr sounding next to her ear.

"Oh, it has really been too long Trixie, six years hasn't it? Surely the Moonlight Thief, who stole into the Vaults of Twilight and duelled with the Shades of Dusk, would have found a more...luxurious lifestyle to suit her, she certainly stole enough to pay for it."

Trixie sniffled, "How could she? Trixie is a wanderer, unsuited for the high-life, her money invested to make more money so she might finance her wandering ways. How can one be happy in the glitz and glamour when she misses the days scrabbling in the dirt and blood, wondering where her next meal will come from, and who she might kill to gain it."

Another purr, "So many good memories, so many adventures...Go to the kitchen, there is a travelling pack on the table. Exit through the back door and go straight, it will take you out of town and away from anyone wandering around."

Trixie nodded and the blade vanished. Trotting into the kitchen, she picked up the pack and slung it over her back before heading to the back door, managing to hear a mare's voice ask, "Why are you sitting here with the light's off?"

Whatever reply was said, Trixie ignored, she had no reason to invade an old friend's privacy.

"Besides..." Trixie murmured as she hefted a large bag of gold bits, "Trixie is more than amply compensated for her trouble." She laughed to herself as she jauntily trotted down the road, whistling a nameless tune.

Chrysalis, Queen of Nightmares, Destroyer of the Wastes, Ruler of the Black Hordes, cursed her bad luck and her softness. She should have slain those two and replaced them, robbed Celestia of her power before she was revealed, something, anything but act like so many other petty warlords!

She had failed, but that fault also lay with her current brood, a Queen's forces reflected on the Queen, and her forces were too soft, too weak since those glorious days at the head of an army of ravening monsters feeding on the fear and pain of her enemies and extracting secrets through seduction and desire.

"How the mighty have fallen." She hissed as glowing green ichor dripped out of her wounds from her landing outside of Equestria before skin shifted to seal the gashes. That was when she heard laughter and whipped her head around at the source, horn firing a spray of razor-sharp shards at the bushes, revealing nothing as Chrysalis listened to the laughter.

And snarled, "So, it was really you. Of course my hypnosis wouldn't have affected you. Not with the zebra's protections, the brother's elixirs and the blessing of the griffon's ancestors." A unicorn stepped out of the undergrowth, eyes glowing with power as she smiled, still giggling.

"Let's not forget your blood oh Queen of Nightmares, Goddess of the Cursed Isles, which you offered to us freely and in friendship." The pony replied, smiling wide and showing off some rather sharp teeth as Chrysalis smiled.

"Truly, those days were ones to be treasured." She said before the Changeling Queen hissed in the Black Tongue and her brood, depleted but not totally destroyed, launched into the fray alongside her as the pony yanked out a heavy blade from a holster and split a charging changeling in two neat halves, the corpse landing with a wet crunch of chitin, ichor and organs, the pony already making her own charge as the blade locked into a strange brace on her right foreleg that whipped up to slam the blade into a changeling's leg.

Blood boiled and flowed from the hole as the changeling left off a gurgling screech as the blade slipped out with a wet *SCHLURCH* and the pony slammed into Chrysalis.

"Remember the armies of the Blood Winged King? You were glorious! Leading your hordes into their teeth and blades! Hundreds dead by your horn alone!" The Pony declared as they wrestled, horns glowing with deadly spells, as Chrysalis laughed.

"Thousands! And you! You were the one who put an arrow in his champion's eye! His son! Killed before the first charge even met my battle lines! I remember the field after the battle, the Blood Winged King duelling..." She snarled and kicked the Pony off her body into a crowd of changelings as she rose to her hooves, hissing and snapping, "It isn't fair! He should be here with us! He should be enjoying this peace as well! Not...not trapped there!"

She ignored the screams and pleads for aid as limbs, heads and ichor flew into the air, an errant application of power smashing a head into gory pieces as Chrysalis strode forwards, "Tell me! How is it fair to us? To him? Tell me!"

There was no answer and Chrysalis screamed to her remaining brood, "Kill her! Crush her!" They obeyed as Chrysalis allowed the pain of the memory to break down her emotional barriers and she collapsed in a weeping heap as ichor and pieces of Changeling landed on and around her.

A glow suddenly lit up the few gaps in the piles of Changelings before an explosion ripped through them, Chrysalis ignoring the rain of body parts and ichor as she sobbed, before looking up at The Pony, "End it. Please. I cannot go on like this."

*KRAK!* Chrysalis' head snapped back from the punch as the Pony spat on the ground, "He wouldn't want to see you cry." She waved a gore-covered hoof at the carnage surrounding them, "Your weak brood is dead, your shame is erased. The traditions of your kind tell you what you must do." She drew the blade across her foreleg and held out the bleeding appendage, "The one who defeated you offers you succour from your agony and shame by giving you her blood, so that the next brood you birth shall be stronger than the weaklings that lay here dead."

Chrysalis stared up at the Pony's eyes and smiled sadly, "I do not deserve your friendship."

"He believed you to be worth his. Do not insult him."

Chrysalis laughed as her skin shifted and a trace of her true form revealed itself, "Indeed I shall not. Thank you, I shall name my first-born General after you. It is time I lived as a true Queen should."

Her mouth opened and revealed her rippling maw before it clamped down on the bleeding limb and Chrysalis began to feed.

It had been a tiring few weeks since the wedding, and she was glad to be rid of that place, so much light and hope when there were still pockets of dark things nibbling away at the borders to cleanse. Maybe...

No, they had vowed to save their strength until the appointed time, but even so they had gotten soft.

That unacceptable. Flouncing off her bed, trotted over to a set of boxes locked with secure magical combination tumblers and with a flick of magic opened one to regard the weapon inside.

It had been so long since they parted ways, and it was lonely without the sound of bawdy songs, the heady scent of Red Barrel cider and cooked meat, stories and boasts before the gambling of gold and trinkets in games of dice and cards. Perhaps it was time she called them all together, to remember old glories, and rededicate their resolve to helping the one who was not here.

Her eyes flicked towards an article of clothing hanging on the wall, and she approached it before placing her muzzle against it and taking in a deep breath. It was still there, underneath the tang of blood and her own scent, that rich, musty smell that reminded her of the one who had brought them all together.

She sighed and returned to bed, she had a trip to Hoofington in the morning, and from there a nice five week hunting and survival trip. Then back to Ponyville with some supplies for a small get together between friends.

She smiled, Bon Bon would be able to keep the house in order, and she would leave plenty of money in case of emergencies, though she knew Bon Bon could buy Ponyville a hundred times over really, and Bon Bon knew The Rule, so her stuff was safe from meddling.

Lyra Heartstrings smiled. Nothing was going to go wrong.