Chapters Cutie Mark Crusaders Monster Hunters Yay!!!
“AAAAHHHHH!!!!”, Sweetie Belle screamed. She dropped her torch and backed up against the slimy wall, shivers sprawling across her body, “What is it! Kill it! Kill it kill it kill it!” A small, pale little creature, that was basically a white blob with a mouth full of sharp teeth, tried to shimmy its way towards her. It brought its mouth up and prepared to jump when somepony else smacked it with a torch.
“Sweetie, calm down, it was just a Giggi. They might leech off of you, but it's hardly noticeable and they're easy to get rid of”, Scootaloo said. “They're not even that hard to fight off. You don't even need a weapon.” She smacked the Giggi again and it slumped to the ground and died. “Only thing they're here for is they're velvety skin. Otherwise, you can basically ignore them.”
“But it's so wiggly and slimy and gross!”, Sweetie complained.
“Look, you said you wanted to join us on our hunts. You're literally going to be pulling the guts and bones out of other creatures. You can't be afraid of a little overgrown maggot.”
“Are ya'll finished play'n with yer worms?”, Applebloom called out, “Babs an' I got enough ore to give to the blacksmith fer Sweetie's weapon.” Applebloom came into sight, wearing a jaggi leather chest-plate and jaggi leather kilt over her farm clothes. Scootaloo sighed and squeezed the bridge of her nose. “What?”
“You're armor”, Scootaloo sighed, “It's just so... small.”
“It's your armor, Ah'm just borrowin' it 'til the smith is done repair'n mine”, Applebloom pointed out.
“Yeah, but I had dozens of other sets you could choose, plus, you're not even wearing boots, I mean seriously, I know I had at least one pair that'd fit you.”
“They were purple. Ah don't like purple.”
“So what? Have you seen what I'm wearing? This Rhenoplos armor makes me looking like a frickin' sumo wrestler, but it's the best I have. At least it helps me eat faster.”
“Um... girls”, Sweetie whimpered, but Scootaloo kept going.
“And you also choose to come here without any useful items, I mean seriously, not even an herb. The only thing you have, other than the armor, is a bone greatsword. I know it's your starting weapon, but I have the material to upgrade it at least once.”
“Girls!”, Sweetie shouted, catching everyponies' attention, then threw her torch behind Applebloom. The cave floor was covered in Giggi.
“So what? Applebloom can just swipe them away with her greatsword, they're not that strong”, Scootaloo said.
“Ugh, look at the wall!”, Sweetie fumed, pulling out her sword and shield made out of a special combination from elder wyvern bones and the scales of a Rathalos. A special gift from Scootaloo.
Everypony looked at what seemed like a pale wall when they realized that it had veins. The creature was bulbous and unsightly. It had no eyes, small wings, and a small tail, but it's neck and tail were quite stretchy.
“Crap, it's a Kehzu!”, Scootaloo said under her breath, “Run girls! This is not a fight for us!”
“But I thought you've fought these before”, Babs asked, pulling out her hammer.
“Look at its head!”, Scootaloo said, reaching her belt for a dung bomb, “It's got scars and circular bite marks, plus its veins are purple, a clear sign its been poisoned. There's only one other creature hear that has those bite marks and poison, and its a Gigginox. I do not want to fight a Kehzu and a Gigginox. Ugly sons o' bitches are annoying enough as it is.” Scootaloo chucked the dung bomb at the Kehzu, hiding their senses so it wouldn't smell them. “Run!” The crusaders charged as fast as they could out of the cave, away from the imposing threat, when a slimmer version of the Kehzu dropped down in front of the exit. It made an ear-piercing scream that only affected Sweetie Belle, the only one not wearing sound absorbing earrings.
“Out of the way you poisonous, blood-sucking, overgrown leech!”, Babs shouted, running to knock the Gigginox to the side. Scootaloo whipped out her bowgun and shot Babs with a might pellet, giving her the strength to do so. The Gigginox went flying to the side, against the cave well, temporarily stunned. The girls headed out of the caves and into broad daylight, but not stopping until they reached camp.
“Why did those things have to exist?”, Scootaloo panted, falling to the ground. Sweetie Belle went to sit by her, with her knees up to her chest. Now that the girls had stopped running, they could observe the beauty of the sea in front of camp. The water was so clear, you could see the fish swimming around from a mile away. Off in the distance, she could see a large rock spire sticking out of the water where an old Lagiacrus usually slept. It never seemed to bother anypony, and nopony tried to bother it.
Sweetie Belle used to think that monster hunting was just about attacking random wildlife and getting paid for it. That is, until Scootaloo showed her that it was more than that. Being a monster hunter meant protecting your village from immediate monster threats, like a wyvern attacking a farm, or collecting food for the village when most the villagers couldn't fight off monsters. It wasn't about hunting, it was about protecting, and since Celestia and Luna have passed new laws about capturing monsters, the quests have been becoming a little more about just trying to survive than keeping a monster for a pet and collecting from it.
“Watchya think'n about girl?”, Scootaloo asked Sweetie.
“Whether or not I'm cut out for this”, she sighed. Scootaloo sat up and gave Sweetie a shoulder bump.
“I told you, we're not just mindlessly hunting other living creatures, we're helping our village from getting trampled over. That's another reason I didn't want to attack that Kehzu and Gigginox, because they weren't doing any real harm to our home. Besides, this isn't even a hunting quest, we're just out mining for material. I would say to head back now that we're done, but the dragon younglings just sent a message to camp to send a boat to pick us up. It's not gonna be here until nightfall.”
“It's none of that”, said Sweetie, “You saw me in that cave. I couldn't handle a single Giggi.”
“You just have a phobia of gross little squirmy things.” Sweetie giggled a little. “C'mon, let's set up the spit for dinner. Running for my life really builds up an appetite.”
Author's Note
I feel like i rushed this a little, but idk, i'm not good a judging my own stuff.
Cutie Mark Crusaders Monster Hunters Yay!!!
“Should we name him?”, Applebloom asked as everypony sat around the fire pit. Babs was roasting a large chunk of Aptonoth meat, making sure it cooked evenly.
“Whaddya mean?”, Babs asked. Applebloom pointed at the old Lagiacrus who was still sleeping on the rock spire.
“Him, that ol' wyvern. Ah mean, we see him everytime we come here, and he's certainly noticed us a couple o' times.”
“Yeah, I kind of feel like we've loosely bonded with that one”, Scootaloo stated, “I'd bet that he wouldn't hurt us if we climbed on his back. Not that we should.”
“How 'bout Ol' Spire?”, Applebloom asked, “You know, 'cause he's always lyin' on that spire.”
“That really isn't very creative, but I think it fits him”, Scootaloo agreed.
“I wonder how long he's lived”, Sweetie wondered out loud.
“I'd say he's definitely lived way longer than us. Just look at how big he is, Ol' Spire doesn't even fit on his own bed. Plus his scales are pretty dull, and the crystals on his back are pretty worn out. But judging by those scars, I'd definitely say that his life wasn't entirely boring. I bet he enjoys resting on the rock all the time, finally finding a place where he could take a break from the excitement of the wild. I'd like to live like that. A life of adventure and excitement, than to take a moment of peace before the end.”
“Don't speak like that, who knows when Ol' Spire's end will come”, Sweetie pointed out, “I don't think anypony has ever seen a wyvern just die of old age. They might be able to live forever.”
“Who'd want that?”, Scootaloo asked, “Living forever just means seeing everyone around you pass away, while you just continue to live.”
“But what if you had somepony to be immortal with you?” The girls pondered on that for a while as it started getting dark out. A Banabra flew into the camp and was just about to sting Sweetie when Scootaloo shoot it with her bowgun.
“I think we should head to the tent”, Scootaloo suggested. As the girls headed into the camp tent to protect themselves from other minor bugs.
“Aww, I wanna stay outside and watch Ol' Spire”, Sweetie mumbled.
“C'mon Sweeite”, Apple Bloom said to her, “I'm sure even a wyvern would think that sounds a little creepy, plus the forecast predicted Banabra migration from the north ta the south, and we're in the central part of the island. There's goin' ta be more bugs than we can handle.” Sweetie grumbled again and followed the girls back into the tent.
The lights were out, and the girls were sleeping on their mats. Scootaloo slept near the entrance in case anything decided to check out the inside of the tent. Sweetie Belle slept next to her while Babs and Applebloom slept next to each other on the other side of the tent. Sweetie's eyes fluttered open, and she felt a pressure down in the center of her waste.
She got up and nudged Scootaloo a bit.
“Psst! Scoots”, Sweetie whispered, to try avoid waking anypony else, “Hey Scootaloo!”
“Uggh”, Scootaloo groaned, “What is it?”
“I have to pee”, Sweetie told her quietly.
“Just go outside, there's no bathroom.”
“But what about all the Banabra?”, Sweetie asked. Scootaloo grumbled and got up.
“Yeah, I guess I should at least guard you.” The two mares walked outside. Sweetie Belle squatted in some bushes while Scootaloo turned her back and loaded her bowgun with pellet shots. “It's a good thing I decided to bring something other than normal shot.” A few Banabra came flying in. They weren't worth too much mentioning. They had triangular, red heads and an oval like thorax with two pairs of translucent wings that buzzed through the air. They pointed their stingers towards Scootaloo and tried dive bombing her, but she fired and completely mangled them.
“Weak little buggers”, Scootaloo grumbled.
“Scootaloo! Help!”, Sweetie exclaimed. Scootaloo turned and found a swarm of bugs aiming for the two mares. Scootaloo fired a couple more shots, but ran empty pretty quick.
“Dammit!”, Scootaloo cursed, “I knew I should've upgraded my clip before coming out here.” She tried her best to reload and dodge the bugs at the same time while Sweetie Belle struggled to slash at the ones near her. Since she was only using a sword and shield, there wasn't much range.
“Somepony help!”, Scootaloo shouted. Applebloom and Babs seemed to struggle getting out of the tent because they were tangled up in the blankets. One of the Banabra grazed Scootaloo's right shoulder where the armor wasn't as protective, making her whole arm go numb. “Agh!” Another one was gonna aim right for her head when an earth shaking roar knocked it off its course and making it difficult for all the other Banabra to fly. A few that descended got slashed into pieces by Sweetie and Scootaloo pulled one of her swords out to fend off against the dizzy bugs. It wasn't long before the ground started shaking again, but from actual tremors, then they stopped as Applebloom and Babs finally came out.
“Girls stop!”, Scootaloo whispered harshly, holding her hounds out, signaling everyone to stand still. She slowly reached into her pouch and pulled out a rock. She aimed away from the tent and chucked it as hard as she could. It cracked against a larger rock, breaking apart. After a little bit, the tremors came back and centered around the area where Scootaloo threw the stone. Two claws errupted from the ground, smashing the larger rock to pieces, as a giant, red, hermit-crab-like creature burst through the surface. Its claws dull and scratched from digging through the ground, it was bubbling at the mouth, and most of its back was covered by the skull of a diablos.
“Seriously!? A Daimyo Hermitaur! What in the name of Elder Dragons is it doing here? This is a terrible environment to live in for them. The water isn't even good for them. Its fresh water here, they live in saltwater!”
“Scoots! Get your priorities straight!”, Applebloom said, smacking her, “We need you ta fire some strength rounds at us. Mah sword's not sharp enough to penetrate its armor.”
“My right arms paralyzed, so I can't fire very well, you're just gonna have to aim for its face, or the underside of its armor.” The Hermitar started foaming at the mouth, about ready to fire a powerful stream of water at the girls, but was suddenly knocked over by a large Lagiacrus, causing it to missfire into the air.
“Ol' Spire!”, Babs shouted in happiness.
“Oh my Luna”, Scootaloo gasped in awe.
“He's saving us!”, Sweetie cheered, “Go Ol' Spire! Woo!” Ol' Spire grasped one of the Hermitaur's claws with his powerful jaw. Loud crunching noises sounded through the air as the armored claw was ripped off. Ol' Spire spit out the claw, then charged the Hermitaur into the side of a mountain. A cloud of dust rose as the two monsters brawled with each other.
Even with one claw gone, the overgrown crab still put up a fight. It snapped its claw at Ol' Spire's neck, and shot a powerful jet stream of water right at the old Lagiacrus's face. It howled in pain, and let off a powerful discharge of electricity, loosening the crab's grip. The Hermitaur turned to face the Diablos skull at its opponent, then charged, but, while Ol' Spire was older, he was still faster and quickly used his tail to smack the Hermitaur to the side, and its shell into the water. The monster tried to burry into the ground, but Ol' Spire wouldn't have it. He chomped down on the giant crab's back and pulled it right out before it had the chance to get away, and tossed it into the air. The Hermitaur came crashing down, connecting with the ground, making many loud crunching noises as its armor broke.
Ol' Spire walked over to the Daimyo Hermitaur, hitting it a couple of times with his tail to make sure it was dead, then sounded a triumphant roar to the sky, showing that he was still the king of this land.
The four mares couldn't do anything other than stand there and watch, amazed at the epic battle that just happened before them. Scootaloo even forgot that her arm was paralyzed and didn't notice that she had regained feeling in it.
“That... Was... Awesome!!!”, Scootaloo exclaimed. Ol' Spire turned his head towards the small group, as if remembering they were there, and everypony froze in place, not sure what he was gonna do next.
Ol' Spire calmed down and stared at the four mares. He lowered his head, making it easier for the girls to see the details on his face. It was easy to see the larger scars, even from afar, but with his face this close, you could see even more, smaller ones, but not a single bite mark. The closest thing was the new wounds he'd received from fighting the Hermitaur. The obvious large cuts on his neck, and a large bruise where its water jet hit.
He huffed a little, then sniffed the air around the girls, as if seeing if he could find anything familiar. When he turned his head a little, Sweetie saw that there was a scar over his left eyelid that was kept close, making him half blinded. She suddenly felt so much sorrow for all the pain that this poor creature might've been through, but also felt a lot of respect for him at the same time. She unknowingly walked up to the Lagiacrus, reaching a hand out to him. He turned his head towards her, but didn't make any threatening moves.
The other mares, who were frozen in fear, carefully reached for their weapons, just in case. They know they wanted to be friends with this wyvern, but they'd never had an experience this close to him.
Ol' Spire didn't do anything else, other than wait for Sweetie. When she got close enough, Sweetie Belle placed her hand on his snout, feeling the small scars there, and his dulled scales.
“He's... friendly”, Sweetie Belle said, “He's friendly... And I think he likes me!” She began to get a little more excited and went strait to hugging the large creature's snout. “Oh my gosh! This is so exciting!” The other girls calmed down and immediately became slightly more positive. Even Ol' Spire seemed to take in the happy atmosphere and nudged Sweetie.
“Holy zap apple jam, we've made friends with a wyvern”, Applebloom stated, scratching the back of her head, “Now that's pretty awesome.”
“Not a wyvern, he's a Leviathen!!”, Scootaloo pointed out. She walked up to Ol' Spire, completely stricken with awe, as she reached out to stroke his head. “This is the best thing ever.” Ol' Spire lie down by the water to get some rest from all the excitement that day. A couple Banabra flew near by, but didn't attack, knowing the greater threat. Instead, they just passed on by harmlessly. Instead of going in the tent, the girls went to sleep by Ol' Spire, feeling protected by his side.
Author's Note
*yay* i made another chapter
Cutie Mark Crusaders Monster Hunters Yay!!!
Returning home, then back to hunting
When morning came to, the girls woke up as Ol' Spire left them to go and hunt for food. Scootaloo stood up and stretched, looking around. The sun had just started peaking over the horizon and the migration had ended. The fire pit was put out and the marks of last night's battle left scars scattered throughout the area, including the dead Daimyo Hermitaur. It seemed like nothing, save a few Banabra, touched it since the fight.
Suddenly, something snapped in Scootaloo's mind.
“Girls! Where's our ride?”, she asked. Applebloom, Babs, and Sweetie looked at the dock where the boat was supposed to pick them up when a rowboat came into view.
“Took 'em long enough”, Applebloom grumbled. The boat held three ponies. Two were a couple of burly, brown earth ponies rowing it, and a white unicorn tied up, looking extremely pissed.
“Where in Equestria were you!?”, Scootaloo shouted out.
“Sorry ma'am!”, one of the brown colts called out, “We're on a shortage of boats! Some are in repair, and the remaining few are being used for other hunters. Sadly, the only one big enough was a private boat that could only leave the docks with its owner.”
“This little prick would rather us kill him than use it to help out-”
“Some low-life peasants that make a sad excuse for a living!!!”, the white unicorn shouted. The girls noticed an enchanted ring on his horn that kept his magic at bay.
“Yyyyeeah, so we compromised”, the other colt chuckled.
“Let me out you-!”, the unicorn continued to cuss and shout until Sweetie Belle finally got sick of his voice and used a silencing spell on him, but as he continued to try and complain, everypony could still imagine his insufferable voice.
“I bucking hate you, Blueblood”, Scootaloo grumbled, stepping into the boat.
“Whachya gonna tell the chief when we reach the village?”, Babs asked, jumping in, 'accidentally' dropping one of her dung bombs. Blueblood sniffed once, then hurled over the edge. When he saw that a tiny bit of vomit hit the edge of his boat, his nose started bleeding, a vein started throbbing in his temple, then he fainted.
“Chief Twilight Sparkle?”, one of the colts laughed, “She was the one that gave us the magic inhibitor and rope in the first place! She said that she'd just let us take the boat, but because Blueblood bought it for himself, there was a DNA enchantment in it that wouldn't let us leave without him. So, this was the next best thing.”
“Can we go now? I fell his snobbyness crawling up my spine”, Sweetie Belle complained, then nudged his unconscious body away from her.
“Girls!”, Twilight cheered, hugging the crusaders, “I'm so glad your back! Anything interesting happen?” Twilight didn't wear anything too fancy. Mostly just a regular, purple dress, a brown cape to cover her wings, and a pair of sandals. She left the better clothes and armor to the hunters. Her hunting days were over, but that didn't stop her from teaching Scootaloo how to hunt. And she was really proud when Scootaloo started teaching the other girls too.
“Twilight! You'll never believe it!”, Sweetie Belle squealed and started jumping up and down. Blueblood walked in on the conversation, in front of the crusaders, just interrupting them.
“Excuse me ch-”, Blueblood started, but Twilight quickly teleported him at the docks, dropping him in the water.
“C'mon girls, lets continue inside the library”, Twilight said, as if nothing happened.
When they entered the library, Sweetie Belle started jumping around again, squealing and giggling in delight. She jumped around so much, Twilight put a suspension spell on her to keep her from doing any damage, but Sweetie Belle's attitude wasn't fazed at all.
“Spike will you make us some tea?”, Twilight asked her dragon assistant. There was no reply.
“Spike!”, Twilight snapped. Spike came tumbling down the stairs, and landed face first into the ground. He was wearing a dirty apron, along with a brown, long sleeve shirt and black pants. Spike had grown a bit, as well as the crusaders. Once he hit puberty, Spike finally got a growth spurt, and his voice sounded a little less... falsetto. He never grew wings, but he didn't mind that. The spikes on his head and back had sharpened to a bit more of a point, and his ability to breath fire increased to the power of a Rathian. He even tested it out himself. The only thing about him was his teeth didn't grow very sharp due to living with omnivores. With the help of the town dentist, Colgate, he grew more accustomed to eating plants and meat than jewels. In times like these, eating precious metal was almost a waste. But he still got to have some pieces of old accessories or some rare ores that hunters would donate for him.
If there was one thing ponies admired him for, it was his muscle strength. Even though he's not as strong as other dragons, his strength increased dramatically, past that of an earth ponies strength after they drink a mega demondrug. They also admired him for his smithing. He even made armor out of his own shed scales. Of course he never wore it since his newer scales were much stronger, but the armor made a nice decoration piece.
“Ugh, why does morning have to be now?”, he grumbled, getting up off the ground. When he saw the crusaders, his face immediately brightened. “Hey girls! You finally made it back!”
“Spike, tea, please.”
“Oh, of course, it'll be right up.” Spike hurried to the kitchen.
“So, what happened on your quest? I know it's just a gathering quest, but anything can happen out there.”
“Ooooooooh! Twilight! You'll never guess what happened!”, Sweetie Belle exclaimed, “It was so scary, then awesome! We made a new friend!”
“Really? Out there? Where is this little filly? Why didn't you take him or her with you?”
“First of all, he's a lot older than us, that I can tell for sure”, Scootaloo said.
“And he's a great swimmer”, Applebloom added, “And really strong.”
“We've made friends with a Leviathan!”, Sweetie squealed as Spike walked in.
“Wait, what?”, Twilight and Spike asked at the same time.
“That old Lagiacrus that sleeps on the big rock spire out on the island”, Sweetie Belle continued, “We call him Ol' Spire. At first, we just thought of the name and though he was just there because he never bothered us. But then, there was this swarm of Banabra, one grazed Scootaloo's arm, and a Hermitaur burst out of the ground!” Sweetie made big hand motions, imitating the Hermitaur, “And we thought we were goners. Scootaloo's arm was paralyzed, I'm still new to this, Applebloom's weapon was dull, and Babs was already busy with the Banabra. We thought we were toast when it started preparing its Jet blast attack, but suddenly, Ol' Spire charged in and attack the Hermitaur! They had an epic battle, but our friend completely DESTROYED that overgrown hermit crab. Then we made friends with him and got to sleep under his hood. Urgh! I wanna see Ol' Spire again so we can ride his back while he swims!” Sweetie bit her shirt in anticipation and impatience.
“Woah there”, Twilight said, “You're saying that a Lagiacrus saved you? Intentionally?”
“That's totally awesome!”, Spike exclaimed, high fiving the crusaders. “You have got to show me Ol' Spire. He sounds totally awesome!”
“This is an amazing breakthrough”, Twilight stated, “Becoming friends with a Leviathan. I knew that Wyverns, Leviathans, and Elder Dragons have more intelligence than most monsters, but this... this is just amazing! Do you girls mind taking us along to interview with the L-... I mean, Ol' Spire?”
“We can take ya' ta' meet 'im, but ah don't think this needs ta be an interview”, Applebloom said.
“But...”
“Twilight, please”, Sweetie asked, “We don't think it's a good idea to start doing that just yet. I mean, we've only just met him yesterday, and that was because he saved us, but we need him to know that he can trust us.” Twilight looked disappointed first, but then understood how important their friendship with Ol' Spir is.
“Alright girls, I promise I won't turn this into another one of my experiments, but I hope you do understand why I want to change into armor first. It's not your friend I'm worried about, it's just been so long since I've been outside in the wilderness, I might be a little rusty when it comes to hunting.” The crusaders nodded and Spike jumped in joy.
“Woo! I'm gonna be a bucking Lagiacrus!”
Twilight came out wearing some more protective gear. Her entire armor set was made from crystals crafted by the crystal empire, but Twilight had painted it with darker shades of purple to reduce shine, and make it a little less obvious. Most of the armor looked like that of the royal guards, but a little more flexible around the joints, and instead of a helmet, she wore her crown, which she enchanted to absorb status effects (i.e. poison, paralyzation, waterblight, etc). Since Twilight prefered to carry a bowgun, one of her wrists and shoulders had a little extra plating, and her whole armor set wasn’t as thick as a swordsman’s.
“All right! Let's go!”, Spike said, climbing onto Twilight's private ship, which recently came back from repairs. It was a large boat with a a couple cannons on each side and one ballista on each side, along with a dragonater equipped at the front of the ship. The large sail above the boat was folded up so the wind didn't take it away, but you could still see part of Twilight's cutie mark on it.
“Um, Spike, I think we should take a smaller, less threatening boat”, Twilight said to him, “Especially since mine is built with a dragonater.” Spike slid down the ladder, not even phased by a possible rope burn.
“Oh... right”, he said sheepishly. He looked back at the ship and sighed. It was one of his favorite creations. He doesn't build ships too often, in fact, this was the second one of three he's ever made, but he had a lot of fun making them, especially since he got to work with others.
“Alright girls, since we don't have any large, unthreatening boats, and Blueblood went to go burn his...” Twilight made a raspberry at the sound of Blueblood's name, “we're going to have to take three different boats.” The two brown colts pointed out three similar looking row boats. Each could fit about three at the most. The first one held one of the colts, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. The second would hold the other colt, Applebloom, and Babs. And the third would just have Twilight and Spike.
The boats set off, and the two colts began talking about their lives, and how their monster hunts went. Even if you've been hunting long enough to hear all their stories, they keep it interesting.
Once everypony arrived back at the camp where the crusaders were last, the two colts tied all three boats together and began rowing away.
“So, where's Ol' Spire?”, Twilight asked, looking around, not paying much attention to the dead Hermitaur and battle marks that scattered the area.
“He's usually sleepin' over there”, Babs pointed to the giant rock spire out at sea, “But I'm guessing he's off hunting for his own food.”
“Should we go look for him?”, Scootaloo asked.
“Let's do it, I really wanna see him again”, Sweetie Belle squeaked and took off to the hunting grounds, the others following in her wake. Twilight had a little trouble keeping up due to not being used to wearing armor. She didn't have much of a stamina problem, but she forgot how clumsy armor was after wearing just fabric clothing for a while.
Sweetie Belle led everyone into a large open field. Off on the other side was a huge mountain with a waterfall fall down to the ground, creating a river that flowed right through the middle of the field and to the camp. It was surrounded by rocky structures, coming out from the waterfall, with only two ways out. That was either the cave beside the waterfall, or the path towards camp. Since the cave was the only other way to this area, and it held pretty dangerous creatures, herbivores never typically made it here. Mostly only flying wyverns, or a few giggi that crawl out of the cave. So this was just kind of a calm area for hunters. Kind of like an extension of camp, but with a little more access for monsters.
Sweetie Belle stopped in front of the cave, remembering what they were running from before.
“What's wrong Sweetie?”, Twilight asked, when she pointed at a large, pale creature with a huge bruise on its head appeared. It was the Gigginox from last night. The girls carefully pulled out their weapons, getting ready for battle. The creature was about to roar, but Spike quickly went up and punched it in the neck. Then he pinned it down and completely roasted the Gigginox with his fire breath, killing it rather quickly.
He threw the corpse to the side, hardly satisfied with the fight.
“C'mon”, he said positively, “We've got a Lagiacrus to meet!” Applebloom looked to Twilight, who just shrugged and said, “My #1 assistant. He’s not here just to help me sort out the library.”
Author's Note
I don't feel like this one is as decent as the first two, but I guess it's okay???
Cutie Mark Crusaders Monster Hunters Yay!!!
The group of friends rushed down the hillside, sliding on the gravel with their armor and shields, quickly reaching the sandy beach area on the other side of the small island.
“This is the typical Lagiacrus hunting ground”, Scootaloo said, searching around to see if Ol’ Spire was on land, “Plenty of land and sea herbivores, and some pretty large sharks they could snatch.” To her disappointment, she didn’t see him anywhere.
“Holy mother of the princesses!”, Twilight exclaimed as a large Leviathan shot out of the water and tackled a roaming Aptinoth. It killed the herbivore in an unsettlingly gruesome display of power, and devoured all the meat it could pick off. When he looked over towards the girls, the crusaders quickly recognized him as Ol’ Spire.
“He’s still here!”, Applebloom shouted, running towards the large monster to give him a hug. Ol’ Spire nuzzled her and seemed to give off an amused huff. The other crusaders went up to hug his head or rub his snout (which he really didn’t seem to mind).
“Yeah, but it was just a lucky shot”, Babs said, “It had no real chance against our friend.”
The crusaders, Twilight, and Spike all sat around a campfire with Ol’ Sire surrounding them as he rested. The sun was high in the middle of the sky, indicating that it was about lunch time. Spike had left for a short period of time to retrieve food and came back with a string of fish and a jar of honey he collected.
“When did ya get so good at gathering?”, Applebloom asked.
“When you’ve been working in Twilight’s library as long as I have, it’s not that hard to spot what you want and know where to look for it”, Spike explained. He pulled a few skewers from his bag and placed them near the fire with the fish hanging from them. He blew into the fire to make it grow, careful not to burn the fish too quickly. “Even as a baby, I could find any book Twilight had in her library, and as I grew older, I read some of her hunting books. I might not have much experience out in the wilderness, but you’d be surprised at how much you could learn from Twilight’s collection.”
Before anypony could say anything, Ol’ Spire lifted his head up, hearing something in the distance. He stood on all four of his legs, and turned to the ocean. Out there, in the middle of the large, blue field of water, was a large ship. It was battered and scorched here and there, and it dawned a large, threatening flag with the skull of a unicorn and the bones of pegasus wings crossed under it. A pegasus stood on the front of a ship with a large hunting horn and sounded it. Ol’ Spire howled back at it, feeling compelled to go fight the sounder. He dove into the water, swimming quickly towards the boat.
“Luna damn it!”, Scootaloo cursed. Without thinking she went to the chest and pulled out a long, smooth board. Scootaloo ran towards the water and jumped, putting the board under her feet, while flapping her small wings as much as she could. Even though Scootaloo couldn’t fly, she used her wings for propulsion, which helped her skip across the surface of the water towards Ol’ Spire and the ship.
Scootaloo hardly stood a chance against the unicorn. He simply blasted her with a wave of energy, knocking her off the boat with Spike. Then, the unicorn joined the twins, triple-teaming against Sweetie Belle. The unicorn with a broken horn chucked his sword at Sweetie. She ducked, but only to figure out that it was a distraction and feel the unicorn restrain her. The other two cast a spell on Sweetie, making her slowly slip into unconsci- ousness. Before Sweetie completely blacked out, she felt the unicorn holding her toss her over the edge and into the sea.
Twilight thought she could take on the pegasus. It seemed simple enough. Pegasus versus Alicorn. What she didn’t count on was everypony else getting defeated. While her magic was strong, she didn’t stand a chance against two other unicorns, and their captain. Twilight was about to fire another scatter shot at her opponent, but she suddenly started descending. Her wings felt like lead, and with each thrust, she became more exhausted, but Twilight still did her best to keep a steady shot. When she fired, somepony air tackled her, knocking Twilight into the water. Before she blacked out, the crew fired multiple tranqs at Ol’ Spire, successfully capturing him.
Author's Note
So...