Hunter

They’d been trekking past the thick trees of Everfree for almost two hours. Besides the occasional storm cloud ahead, nothing of interest happened. Though, there had been quite a bit of banter exchanged between the trio of Changelings and the lone human.

“So why do you got dem clothes on?” Tres asked the human. Trance tugged the tip of his hoodie, which he had patched up from his brawl with the pink menace.

“It’s considered taboo in my society to be without clothes publically, not to mention I’d be cold without them. Why do you got dem holes in your legs?” he said, mimicking their constant language flub. They had trouble pronouncing t’s and a few other things, normally swapping the letters with d’s.

“Dem for digging,” Uno said, stomping a hoof into the soft earthy ground. When he lifted his leg back up, dirt was shoveled out through the holes. “They also for building the hive.”

The human hummed quietly. “So they actually have a purpose...” he softly mumbled to himself.

Dos buzzed above the human, narrowly ducking a low hanging vine. “Why do you got dat eye patch on?” he questioned, asking the same question so many others had asked Trance.

“I’m blind in that eye. Just the one. Strange, I know. It’s just all in the way the ailments struck me.” He hopped over a rotten log, thinking up a few more questions. “So tell me about this queen of yours. Is she your mother?” The trio looked more confused than ever.

“M-m-ah-there?” Uno sounded out slowly as if speaking in another language for the first time. He shook his head. “I’m not sure what dat is. We can tell you what the queen is like though.” He paused, deep in thought as if nothing he said would give this queen the praise she deserved. “Queen Chrysalis is really smart,” Uno started. “She is kind to us and is best leader.” The others nodded and agreed with him.

“Chrysalis is best,” the three said in harmony, eliciting a funny look from the human, though he remained quiet.

Tres started buzzing by the human’s head, joining the other two in the air. “Why are you after dem anyways? Dem princesses?” The human fell silent for a while.

“I’m not exactly after them anymore. But, to answer your question, let’s just say it was persona-.”

The human stopped walking, immediately wielding his bow, notching an arrow, and releasing. The action was so sudden that the three Changelings dropped to the ground out of caution. They followed the path that the arrow took to see a Jackalope fifty yards out pinned to the bottom of a tree. A bright feathered arrow was imbedded in its left eye. They wondered how he saw it in such low light.

“Now that’s something I don’t see everyday,” Trance said as he walked to retrieve the kill. He pulled the arrow out of the tree, sliding the small game off with sickeningly calm look on his face. He held the rabbit up by one of its antlers.

“I wonder if it taste like rabbit and venison…?” he mumbled to himself as he continued walking. The three Changelings resumed following him again, but this time at a farther distance than before. It took a minute before any of them had the courage to speak to him again.

“Why’d you just do dat?” Tres asked with an uneasy tone. The human pulled a rigid knife from a bag and started sawing the antlers off the small rabbit.

“I’m not sure what they classify ‘love eaters’ by,” he started, “but humans are classified as omnivores. A healthy diet for me consists of meat and vegetables.” He looked intently from one Changeling to the next. “This isn’t gonna be a problem, is it?” They quickly shook their heads.

“No, no!” Uno said quickly. “We get it. Everypony eats differently. It was just sudden is all.” He shook his head. “Some got weird taste.” The other two agreed while the human rolled his eyes, hanging the now antlerless Jackalope upside down from his belt, blood draining from the creature’s mortal wound. He began to cut the spikes off the soft bone antlers, putting the small pieces into his bag. Once he was done, he was left with two smooth horns.

“So you eat dem antlers too?” Dos asked. The human almost laughed, but he bit his tongue and shook his head.

“Nope. I can carve them though. Antlers are a fun to shape.” He paused. He put up the antlers and knife, once again wielding his bow and drawing an arrow. His eye shifted through the dark trees, the only light the full moon that broke through the tree line.

“Gettin another Jackalope?” Uno asked.

“Stay low to the ground and shut it,” the human sharply intoned. He pulled out a large glow stick and cracked the plastic tube. The chemicals mixed to create a red glowing light. He bit down on the side of the glow stick and held it in his teeth. He looked through the trees, tightly gripping the string of his bow.

“Something hissed at me,” he mumbled through his teeth.

…
…
…

Various notes and books were sprawled everywhere across the crystal tree library, all surrounding the large Crystal Mirror. Twilight was jumping between book stack and book stack, trying to figure out anything she could. She just couldn’t make hooves or tails of any of it.

“Maybe it’s corrosion? Or an anti magic spell?” She fiercely scribbled a quill against a parchment with magic. “Could it be a problem on the other side?” She didn’t even notice when Luna teleported right next to her.

“Twilight,” Luna said, startling the lavender princess ten feet in the air. She quickly patted down her mane and lowered her wings when she realized who spoke.

“Oh! Luna! I didn’t notice you. I was too busy trying to fix something. What are you doing here?”

“I spoke with Trance through his dreams,” Luna stated right to the point. Twilight cringed at the mention of the human, but she said nothing. “I sensed that he was somewhere south of Canterlot. I figured that he was somewhere around Ponyville again, though my search in town yields nothing. After my fruitless venture, I decided to come to see if you learned anything from your human friend counterparts.”

Luna looked towards the original crystal mirror, which had previously been tinkered by the lavender mare to allow free travel between the two dimensions. Twilight frowned, not looking up from her parchment. Some of her hairs curled out of place.

“I was able to communicate to Sunset Shimmer through the two magical journals we share. As I suspected, he was not from their world, but a different one. Though, I would have asked them in person. I wasn’t able to cross the portal though.”

Luna looked between Twilight and the mirror. “You were not able? Why?” Twilight’s frown intensified. She actually looked up from her work this time.

“I’m not sure. The mirror doesn’t seem to work anymore. At this very moment, it is nothing more than an ornate mirror. I don’t know how it lost it’s magic or when, but it doesn’t function anymore. I tried to figure out why, but despite being inactive, it negates and reflects magic. I can’t imagine what would happen if somepony were to cross over while the mirror was in this state, as Starswirl the Bearded’s theory on magical presence would in theory be negated and cause a magical state of unrest and magical backlash flux!”

Luna felt almost ashamed to admit she didn’t fully understand everything the young scholar had just said. “Truly…? Twilight, what are you saying?”

More of the lavender mare’s hairs curled out of place, but she brightened up. “I am saying that I believe that this mirror doesn’t lead to Canterlot High School anymore. I believe it leads to a reality without the existence of magic! But, Starswirl’s theory on magical presence states that magic exists everywhere in reality in different quantities, which it does! That means that if there WAS magic on the other side of the portal, then it would be possible for our magic to act upon it and detect it. The reason magic reflects from the mirror now is likely because there is not magic on the other side of the portal for our magic to react to. But, that is impossible seeing how reality cannot exist without magic!” The mare suddenly jumped up, running over to another book.

“HOWEVER! Who is to say that reality is limited to what we know? If there exists another reality beyond our own, one without any quantity of magic, the question is does that reality exist? The answer is YES! A reality without magic is possible! For example, the reality with our human counterparts did not have magic in it until it was introduced to them! That means that at one point, that reality did not have any magic in it. But, somehow when the crystal mirror was created, our magic managed to spread over to their reality, which in turn became THEIR magic, allowing OUR magic to focus on and impact upon it!”

Luna was completely lost at this point. It was understandable. Twilight was the element of magic and thus had a greater spectrum to understand and practice it. What she was talking about was completely out of any normal pony’s scope of practice, Luna not excluded.

“Twilight dear, I do not understand what you are saying.” Twilight suddenly stopped, a goofy smile on her face.

“Don’t you get it princess? It means as I stated that this portal no longer leads to Canterlot High, but rather another reality! One without magic! However, we can not access this world because of our magic that exists inside of us. To attempt to cross over would be the same as instantly purging any and all magic from one’s self. In other words, crossing over to the reality with no magic would possibly leave the traveler magicless. That would mean that they would have no more magic for the portal to act upon, leaving them effectively stranded in the magic less reality! Though, this is still a hypothesis of mine that has yet to be tested, I believe that this problem could be bypassed by-”

The doors to the library doors slammed open, interrupting the lecture and revealing a frazzled Rarity.

“Twilight dear!” the fashionista shouted out, “We’ve got tremendous problem!” Twilight was on her hooves in an instant.

“Rarity? What is it? Is it the human?”

The fashionista shook her head, almost fainting. “No! You’re mane darling! It is a COMPLETE disaster dear!” She quickly shook her head. “But that’s not the main problem. It’s Fluttershy! She’s not Fluttershy anymore!”

Now it was Twilight’s turn to be confused. “Wait, what? What are you talking about?”

“Fluttershy had been in a bit of a sour mood since she wandered upon...the human. Pinkie Pie, bless her heart, suggested we throw her a slumber party to cheer her up. But, when we got to Fluttershy’s cottage, her door was wide open and she was hanging from the tree by her tail! She’s Flutterbat again!” Hearing that last part really got Luna’s attention.

“What doth you mean, ‘Flutterbat’?” she questioned in a monotone voice, slipping deep back into old Equestrian. Twilight rubbed the back of her head with a hoof.

“Ah...That was sorta my bad. Applejack was having trouble with bats. Long story short, I accidentally partially turned Fluttershy into a batpony. It was alright though because I reversed the spell. But why is she Flutterbat again?” she questioned to herself.

Luna gave Twilight a sympathetic look. “Twilight...once given, not all magic can be taken back. Transmorphing living creatures is very dangerous even for the most experienced spell casters. It is very possible what you did is irreversible. I’m surprised you don’t know something like this.”

You wouldn’t be able to get the same look on Twilight’s face even if you struck her. She was silent and absolutely devastated at these news.

“However, that does not matter anymore,” Luna continued, her expression suddenly turning serious. “Batponies are supernatural creatures created by a primal magic. This magic awakens at night, reaching it’s full potential under the full moon. It is why the batponies work as my guards under the night and it is likely why this power decided to resurrect now. Regardless, unless the correct restriction spells are used, at any moment Fluttershy could become primal and dangerous. And while undoing the original spell may yield impossible, there is still the chance to save her.”

“Um, princess,” Rarity sheepishly started, “there may be a tinsy problem. Fluttershy fled into Everfree Forest on sight of us. Rainbow, Applejack, and Pinkie gave chase while I came to warn Twilight.”

Luna grabbed onto both ponies and prepared to teleport to the element of Kindness’s cottage.

“Let us make haste then.”

…
…
…

More hisses sounded through the forest, these ones more audible than the first. The Changelings stuck low to the ground while the human watched the trees above. He suddenly did a 180 and fired an arrow, ceasing the hissing. Dos looked up.

“Did ya get it?” The human slung his bow over his back, making sure both his packs were still by his side.

He removed the glowstick from his teeth.

“Run.”

He bit down on the glowstick again before suddenly taking off. The Changelings blinked and looked to where he fired an arrow. They didn’t see anything in the tree lines, but the ground was a different story. Several glowing sets of green eyes opened.

Timberwolves.

The three bugs hugged each other and screamed very feminine screams before backpedaling themselves to the human’s direction. It took them several moments before they could distance themselves from the green glows. While they would have flown, the foliage was much too thick for them to navigate through. They managed to find the human easily do to the soft red glow light he carried. They were in awe at how fast Trance moved through the thick forest in the night, especially when carrying all his equipment with him. How often was he doing these same actions?

He was digging through his bag for an item by the time they caught up. He spit the glowstick out as soon as they were by his sides. They noticed he had a metal sling of some sorts attached to his arm.

“Don’t fly and don’t look back no matter what,” he calmly said despite the dozens of wooden wolves snarling not twenty feet behind them. He pulled out several objects from his bag. “Keep low and don’t look back.” he repeated.

He pulled the top off of one of the objects and loaded it into the sling. He turned while running and fired it into the darkness. There was a bright flash as a gout of fire emerged from the shot canister, engulfing several Timberwolves. The burning wood spirits cried out in pain before the light left their eyes, nothing left but burning charcoal.

“What the Tartarus was dat?” Uno shouted while running. Trance pulled more pins from the homemade explosives, which he proceeded to fire over his shoulder.

“A warning to the thing that rallied them,” he calmly stated as he folded the sling against his wrist. He pulled out his bat and tossed his bags against a tree.

“Do not intervene.”

As those words left his mouth, he skid to a halt and held the bat above his head. A small thestral dove through the trees, crashing both her front hooves into his metal club, a loud ring echoing through the burning forest. He raised an eyebrow as a loud hiss escaped her mawl. She flew back up several feet, hissing even more violently.

“I’ve seen your silhouette before.” He brandished the bat in one hand, holding it strangely in an a fencer stance. “You saw me kill and dismember that pony, Mr. Green Hooves? You ran to get help, didn’t you?”

She growled and divebombed at him in response. He angled her attack away with the side of his weapon, slamming the back of the bat into her chest. She flung a wing at him in return, the ends of her wing bones cutting against his left arm. He bit his tongue and slammed the bat into her twice, once in the stomach, knocking her up into the air, and again at the right of her ribs, flinging her away. She hissed and disappeared into the trees.

He was caught off guard. He didn’t expect this batpony to be able to use its wingtips as weapons. He pulled a hand full of metal slingshot ball bearings from his jacket.

“You won’t be able to kill me,” he stated. He loaded safe ammunition into his sling and pulled back. “I won’t kill you either.”

He pulled far back on the silicone sling and fired past the trees. There was a scream as the the thestral crashed to the ground hard, bruises already forming across her left wing from the sling shots.

He folded the sling against his wrist again and charged for the dazed creature, metal bat raised above his shoulder. Just as he was bringing it down on her head, she regained sense and craned her neck to the side, making his swing hit the dirt. She pulled her back legs close to her chest. There was a loud snap as she bucked both legs into his chest, knocking him back into a tree. The human hacked from both impacts, blotches of black filling his vision. He’d be surprised if at least one rib wasn’t broken. He held his chest, trying to steady his vision. He’d been sloppy and slow ever since coming to this world and he wasn’t certain why. He’d need to go home soon to retrieve his armor.

“We got baaaaaaad trouble!” Uno shouted, appearing by the downed human from seemingly nowhere. He noticed Uno brought his bags over.

“You handle it. I’m in the middle of something,” he said standing back up. He pulled out a roll of cloth bandages and hastily made work covering the cuts across his left shoulder and upper arm, tying the bandages right over his jacket. He seemed to be getting hit in the shoulders a lot lately. His eye was constantly surveying the ground and trees for the batpony. It managed to get away after kicking him.

Uno began to feverishly look around as well. “No, no, no! We go now! Not even you can take dem on, plus dat batpony! Not even you!” He put up the roll of gauze.

“Take who on?” he asked.

“YOU!”

Trance didn’t have any warning besides the sudden shout. There was no indicator for the rainbow blur that kicked his stomach at subsonic speed. The human was flung back like a rag doll into a tree while a lasso was flung around Uno.

“Oh fuck…”

Trance rolled over on his side and puked, thick stomach acid clinging to the inside of his throat. He felt a dangerously painful beating inside his head. He didn’t want to move. That last hit was like getting hit with a clip of .308 rounds. It wasn’t pleasant. His headache was even worse. It was like someone was driving rusty screws into his head with a brick.

He stole a blurry glance upwards. There were three ponies standing there. One was a Stetson hat wearing cowpony. She was swinging a lasso in the air. Applejack. The three Changelings were tied up behind her, each one unconcious.

To her left was a smug looking cyan pony. She had rainbow schemed tail and mane. He got really mad after seeing the look on her face. She looked so arrogant. He didn’t know who she was, but he could already tell he didn’t like her. He really wanted to hurt her.

He looked to her left. The third one was the most irritating of all. This one was sporting a wide smile. It wasn’t Pinkie Pie. It was Pinkamena, and she had a very satisfied look on her face. There was very faint burn scars on her left foreleg. He would’ve been surprised she was healed already if he were thinking clearly.

Trance didn’t have murder on his mind. Nope. It was pain. And no, it wasn’t the pain from the series of kicks they hit him with. It was the pain that he was going to inflict on these presented before him.

A dastardly purple began radiating out of his eyepatch, but that didn’t matter to him at the moment. He reached into his jacket and pulled out two thin metal rectangles, one in each hand. He flicked his wrists and twirled his fingers, flicking out two butterfly knives, one pearl, the other black. He watched as all three ponies stepped back several paces, the looks on their faces completely drained. He started stepping forward, continuously flipping and spinning the razor edged blades in his hands.

“I’m going to cut you.” His voice was dark, dry, and raspy, as if several of him were talking at once.

The three of the Mane six didn’t want to be on the receiving ends of those knives. They made to move, only to find very familiar black crystals holding their hooves in place. Applejack made a desperate attempt at tossing her lasso at him, but a quick flurry of his knives sliced the rope to pieces. Rainbow Dash flapped her wings furiously, managing to break free from the crystals. The human leaped forward, delivering a brutal roundhouse kick to her back, sending her back to the ground where more black crystals once again encased her legs. She could only look up as Trance prepared to clip her wings completely off with his knives.

“Away from the mares!”

A vine of weighted rocks were suddenly wrapped around the human’s torso, binding his arms. A cloaked figure jumped through the brush, more weighted vines hanging from between her teeth, a bamboo staff at her side.

“...Or I shall have you in snares!” she shouted.

“Zecora!” all three of the trapped ponies shouted at once.

Trance snarled, animalistically clamping his teeth over the thin vines to snap them apart. Zecora flicked her head, tossing the second weighted bola at the human. His knives were a torrent of fury as they cut through the vine with ease. The zebra stood up on her hind legs alone, holding the bo staff in front of her with a high level of skill.

“Back down before I send you to the ground,” she cautioned in rhyme.

The hunter met her gaze, sending a sudden chill down the zebra. He blinked almost stupidly at her. A sudden realization seemed to dawn over him, causing him to stop his approach completely.

He wasn’t feeling himself. He was feeling genuinely angry. It wasn’t that he was feeling angry, so much as it was that he was feeling in general.

He went from angry to disappointed at himself.

He wasn’t one to be driven by emotions easily, not even by pain. He seemed to be losing control a lot lately and he wasn’t very pleased about it.

...Was this the cause?

His knives flipped closed, his arms falling limp at his sides as he stared into space. The zebra and ponies stared at the creature, a blank look on his face.

This time was different though. He’d felt as if there was a presence over his shoulder watching and guiding his moves.

“What the hell are you?” he demanded aloud, though none were certain who he was talking to.

There was a tension in the air and a pause in his mind. Trance felt angry and light, but he wasn’t certain why.

Zecora’s grip on her bo staff increased as Trance walked by her and retrieved the three unconscious Changelings, walking by the three ponies he was about to fillet. He dragged the three Changelings by the rope as he went to retrieve his items, limping very slightly. The three the ponies and zebra didn’t even find words of protest, thankful that neither side was fighting.

As Trance dragged the Changelings from view, he turned, his poisonous gaze falling on the zebra. He grinned.

“You smell nice like the earth.” He turned and walked away before he could gauge the baffled looks on their faces.

Twilight, Rarity, and Luna arrived on the scene minutes later, though the human and Fluttershy were far too gone for them to follow, both gone in two different directions.

Trance was still trudging himself deeper and deeper into the forest, going the path he and the trio of bugs were originally headed.

“I will repeat myself only once more,” he demanded aloud in an empty tone, “what are you?” He held his breath for several seconds, waiting for a reply.

“...Crystal King…” a voice like a raspy whisper said in his mind. Trance huffed the three Changelings over his back, straining only slightly at their added bulk.

“So royalty?” Trance questioned aloud. “Tell me how and why you swayed my actions and judgement. And what are you? Father of Luna and Celestia? Some kind of deity?” Trance swore he could have heard a soft, painful chuckle echo in the air around him.

“More magic...Will speak then…” the voice sounded, disappearing like an echo in a cave. The purple haze stopped flowing from his blind eye.

Trance picked up his pace, trekking the forest fast as he could with his hindrances. While he didn’t fully understand everything in this chaotic day, there was one thing he was certain of. The owner of the voice in his head was not his own.

And, whoever the voice belonged to was tired. Very tired.

Trance was tired too. He was too tired to give a shit. He swallowed a few caffeine pills and continued on. He looked through the thick foliage at the full moon in the sky.

“That was an interesting zebra...Zecora.”