A New Life

Chapters

A Monstrous Regret (Revised)
A Surprise Visit
Wary Understanding
Unpleasant reality
New Beginnings
Cyclical Misery
Occurrences of Night
Nightmares of Reality
Growing Horror
The Sorrow of Life
A New Nightmare Night (Halloween special)

A Monstrous Regret (Revised)

A Monstrous Regret

“When night is made to end, and dreams to be forgotten, for the sun to break the sweet retreat of twilight solace, let the teacher receive the final gift.” -- Sunrise Gleam, scholar of Lunumworth
-A Monstrous Regret-

The great sword crashed against the Burial Blade. The battle had been going on like this for the last ten minutes, neither the hunter nor Gehrman getting enough of an advantage to press the other into submission. For the moment Draxton was holding his own, preventing Gehrman from landing any lethal or debilitating blows, but it was obvious that Draxton was losing.

*CHING*

The hunter had just prevented the burial blade from going right through his rib cage by using his great sword as a shield. After the impact the hunter jumped back, trying to put distance between himself and his mentor.

“This is not good,” the hunter thought to himself, falling to one knee. “I can’t create a visceral opportunity to save my life, I’m down to my last three blood vials, and he’s destroyed my blades of mercy. If I can’t figure out a strategy I’m done for.”

The current fight had not been in the hunters favor since the battle started. The hunter’s primary weapon, the blades of mercy, had been taken out of the fight fairly early. Having to block a vicious sweeping attack from the burial blade had snapped the swords in two, making them unusable. Ever since then the hunter had been on the defensive, blocking and preventing most of his mentor’s attacks with his great sword. To add insult to injury, the hunter had yet to score any major hits, and it was showing. Gehrman was, for the most part, untouched, barely showing any signs of injury. The hunter, on the other hand, looked to be in shambles. His cloak had a multitude of cuts in it, his left arm had been dislocated three times and was starting to give out, and he had been favoring his left leg since Gehrman had cut him in the thigh, nearly taking the leg off.

As the hunter was getting back up, he saw an opportunity. Gehrman had raised his hands out to his sides, and if he was anything like Logarius when increasing his power he would have some time to end this fight with a stab through the heart.

Draxton ran in with his blade at the ready for a swift stab, this would be the end of the fight. he was however greeted with a surprise. Gehrman screamed up at the moon, releasing a large shockwave of energy. This complicated things, but if the hunter could just hit his master in the heart that would solve the problem. With one last push the hunter put all he had into the stab, only to have Gehrman disappear into a cloud of mist and reappear on the hunter’s left side with his scythe at the ready.

“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me.”

The hunter tried to retreat, to distance himself from his mentor, but his blade was too heavy, weighing him down and restricting the quick movement he needed. Instead he was treated to the burial blade sinking into his left shoulder and tossing him several meters into a large tombstone. As the hunter got back up, he noticed that he had lost all feeling in his left arm. As he reached up to feel the wound made by the burial blade his hand slid into a deep cut, he discerned that his arm had been completely severed from its socket, the ligaments that had kept his arm connected to the joint had been completely severed, He now had one arm, limply hanging off his left side, one good leg, and a very pissed off old hunter to contend with; lucky him.

The hunter reached down to his blade and released the longsword from its massive sheathe. There was no way he would be able to use a huge weapon such as the greatsword with only one hand. After using up the last of his blood vials to stop the bleeding from the recent wound, Draxton looked up to see Gehrman only a few meters away and ready to end the fight then and there. The hunter was done for. There was, however, one idea that the hunter had just thought of, but it was a long shot.

“Well, it’s worth a shot; worst case he kills me first” the hunter mumbled as he stabbed his sword into the ground and pulled out a blood cocktail.

“So you’ve finally given up. I knew you would eventually see reason. I’ll try to make this quick, you’ve suffered enough already.” Gehrman calmly said, slowly approaching and preparing his weapon.

“Not quite.”

The hunter hurled the cocktail strait at Gehrman, the blood spraying all over his face. Gehrman yelled in fury, trying to wipe the blood off his face. This was just what the hunter needed, an opponent who couldn't respond. He grabbed his sword from the ground and dashed toward the old hunter. As Gehrman finished wiping the blood from his face, he was greeted with his latest apprentice running a longsword through his heart.

It was done, his mentor was defeated but the hunter did not feel relieved; he felt, regret. As the hunter lifted his head up, he took one last look at his dying mentor’s face only to see something he did not expect. Gehrman's eyes, usually so far off and clouded, for once looked clear and focused. Even stranger was the smile on his mentor’s face. It wasn’t a broad smile of joy, or a smile that Draxton had seen other hunters wear after killing, but one of contentment.

“The night, and the dream, were long.”

Those were the last words that the hunter heard from his old mentor before releasing the blade and letting his body fall to the ground.
The hunter was exhausted; this last battle had taken its toll on him. He would more than likely never walk right again, he had lost the use of his left arm, and was probably going to have a hard time breathing for the rest of his life on account of several ribs being broken. All this fighting, all this pain, just to keep from dying, forcing him to be forever exiled from the dream.

Was it really all worth it? The hunter could not bring himself to look at his most recent kill; there was too much guilt in what he had done. He had to seriously ask himself if killing one of the only people he had ever been able to call a friend was worth the cost of staying in the dream.

Once the hunter collected himself, a strange feeling came over him, a need for his mother. But this feeling wasn’t one for his birth mother but one for a mother he did not know. When the hunter looked up, a beautiful sight greeted him. A great one was hovering before a red moon. The eldritch creature was very different from the one he had met before, this one had a head almost completely composed of tentacles, thin, almost human limbs, and strangest of all, a torso lacking everything but the spine and ribs. He did not know how or when the moon turned red but it did not matter, all that mattered was the need to be with this great one.

As the great one descended, the feeling only got stronger; he NEEDED to get to this entity, to feel its embrace. It was not important that walking the way he was would only worsen his leg injury; it didn’t matter that one of his arms was now just a hunk of flesh. All that concerned the hunter was the being right in front of him.

When the hunter reached the eldritch being, he was only too glad to let it pick him up. It comforted him that this being would be his keeper.

The Great one pulled the hunter closer to itself, wrapping its tentacle like hair around its new child, but something was off. The Moon Presence could feel the part of its first child’s cord in the hunter, the same chord that was used by its first surrogate child to call to it, but it could also feel the presence of Oedon, Kos, and Ebrietas in this hunter. This human had gained so much knowledge from its time in Yharnam that it had transcended much of its humanity. The amount of influence its bretheren had bestowed on this human was too much for the Moon Presence to overpower, and the energy it had put into trying to control the hunter was becoming too great; the energy was going to release.

A large explosion lit up the old cemetery. It tossed the Moon Presence and the hunter apart. The hunter, being significantly lighter, was hurled over the cemetery fence and landed in a heap on the stairs leading up to the workshop. As the hunter faded into unconsciousness he heard the doll speak the same phrase he had always heard her say as he left the dream to fight in Yharnam, but this time it seemed to be more sincere. More... elated.

"Farewell, good hunter. May you find your worth in the waking world."

As the hunter returned to the waking world, he could not believe how much every muscle in his body felt like it had been forcefully ripped out of him, given to werewolves as a chew toy, and put back in haphazardly by the impostor Iosefka. A particularly egregious torment was the splitting headache he now had.

“I really hope that sedatives work as well on headaches as they do for calming nerves” the hunter moaned as he pressed his hands into his head. Wait. Hands!

The hunter opened his eye to look at what should not have been possible. What greeted the hunter were both of his hands, unmarred by the last battle. Well, mostly. The hunter reached up to feel the area where Gehrman's scythe had sunken into his shoulder, taking away use of his left arm, and was met with only a large scar. This was just too bizarre. The hunter reached down to his leg to feel for the cut above the knee but only sensed a thin scar.

This was just too weird. He wasn’t complaining, but even with blood vial use, injuries like these should have taken several hours to heal, and even then decent use of the limbs would not have been guaranteed, especially of his left arm which he was positive he would have never regained use of. Suddenly the hunter was struck with a headache the likes of which would put the cleric beast’s arm smash to shame.

“That’s it. Even if this will kill me, I’m using some sedatives.”

The hunter uncorked and downed the first of the sedatives from his item pouch, quickly followed by a second. The headache that had been troubling the hunter regressed into nothing at the accelerated rate that one would expect when using sedatives on frenzy. Without the horrible pain, the hunter was finally able to take in his surroundings, and they did not make any sense whatsoever.

The hunter was currently sitting on the stairs of the hunter’s workshop. Waking up at the workshop was not so unusual, he had personally done it countless times. the only unusual thing was the fact that the workshop was now in the middle of some unknown forest. It obviously wasn’t the Forbidden Woods going by the fact that he was not being overrun by dozens of snakes and Amygdala knows what in the world those snake headed citizens were. It made absolutely no sense that the hunter’s workshop was in the middle of the forest, because the last time he had visited the workshop it was at the base of the cathedral ward.

The hunter got up and headed into the workshop. When he opened the doors, he was greeted to the sight of the workshop from the hunter’s dream, with books piled haphazardly along the sides of the workshop and on every available table and desk and lit candles to add warmth to the small building. Even his storage chests were here. He had to be crazy; there was no way that the workshop from the dream could ever exist in the waking world.

The hunter just had to see if this really was the same workshop from the dream. He ran outside and confirmed his thoughts. Right outside the workshop the messengers were situated in their usual baths, and across from the workshop the ritual altars were sitting, waiting for the offerings of a chalice. This was the hunter's dream.

“How in the world did the hunter’s dream end up in the real world?”

There was no way this workshop should be here, even if it was possible for the Moon Presence to place the workshop in the world, which the hunter didn’t put past the entity. It had no reason to expend the energy needed to make the dream a reality.

“I think that now would be a good time to lay down and think about this” the hunter said, closing up the workshop and blowing out the candles to prevent the oncoming panic attack that he had heard many Yharnamites experienced when they could no longer bear the weight of the eldritch truth.

“I’m telling you, there’s been some kind of magical disturbance in the Everfree that’s never been documented before!” Twilight enthusiastically proclaimed, flipping through dozens of books, looking for confirmation that the event was indeed the first of its kind.

“And ah’m telling you, Twi, that us girls would love nothin’ better than to go an look for whatever’s got ya more excited than a dog after supper on Hearth’s Warming, but we can’t just drop everything and go into the forest on a hunch” Applejack retorted.

“Applejack I know what I’m feeling. Last night when I was working on a friendship report I sensed a massive surge of magic come from the Everfree and since then theres been a constant disruption to the magic coming from the forest. I’m positive that whatever this disturbance is will be just as big as the discovery of Starswirl's secret archive.”

“Twi, Ah know you like your mysteries, but Ah think this here hunch just don’t hold no water. Fluttershy says her animals tain’t felt nothing off about the Everfree, Rainbowdash ain’t seen nothin’ unusual above the forest, and the map ain’t showing us a problem.”

“I realize that, Applejack; that’s why I sent a letter to Celestia and Luna to see if they’re feeling the same thing I am. They should reply soon enough.”

Just then, Spike breathed green fire and from the flame a sealed letter materialized.

“See. What did I tell you?”

“Well what does it say, Twi?” It always amazed Applejack how fast the princesses were able read and respond to Twilight's letters. It was like Celestia and Luna already knew what the letters contained and had a corresponding response waiting.
My dearest Twilight,
I am afraid that I must confirm your suspicions; both my sister and I have felt the magical disturbance that you reported, and it deeply concerns us that this anomaly is in such close proximity to Ponyville. I would recommend that you take your friends with you and investigate, but be careful. I would not be able to forgive myself if something were to happen to any of you.
Sincerely,
Celestia

“Well I’ll be dumber than a box of rocks. Ah’ll go get the girls and tell them we’re headed on an adventure.”

After the hunter had spent the better part of an hour trying to reason through what he had seen, he eventually just gave up and decided that he had seen stranger things in the dungeons and Yahar'gul. The best explanation for the current situation he had come up with was that what he was seeing was most likely due to the insight, just like everything else.

After calming down, the hunter had opened up the workshop and decided to explore his surroundings, learning a good deal about his current situation. For one thing, there seemed to be a bell maiden in the area judging by the nearly unending attacks he was having to deal with from weird wooden wolfs. Fortunately they were weak, only able to withstand two hits from the longsword, and had let up on the attacks as of late, likely due to them learning that their current target had swiftly executed about sixty of their companions and continuing the assault would prove pointless. The second thing was that the altars that lead to Yharnam were not working, so going back to the damn city was not going to be a possibility any time soon. Finally, the graveyard was here with the rest of the workshop.

It was the one place that the hunter was not too willing to go, the hunter's cemetery, but he just had to go in and see. Crossing under the archway that led to the graveyard took some will, and every second that he spent in the field just brought back memories of the fight with Gehrman. While looking through the field of flowers the hunter found his fragmented blades of mercy, his preferred weapon, but fixing the blades was going to take a great deal of time and effort. The main body of his greatsword was lying where he remembered separating it from the short sword. There was however something interesting next to the giant sheath, it was a simple badge in the shape of the burial blade’s sword. His mentor’s, no, his friend’s badge of honor.

He knew what this badge meant; he had received nine badges before this one, this badge rounding off his final collection total at ten. The hunter clipped the new badge onto his necklace with the other ones, but placed it at the center, next to the crow hunter badge, so that he would never forget what he had done.

Finding the badge brought back the pain that the hunter had experienced upon finding out that the hunter’s cemetery had manifested with the rest of the hunter’s workshop, the regret surrounding the hallowed ground was almost palpable. It only felt right to remove a small knife from the back pouch of his crow feather garb and look for an empty headstone.

It was one of the more obscure facts about the hunters, but because their bodies were usually torn to pieces by the beasts of Yharnam, funerals took the form of a carved headstone instead of the more traditional coffins used before the hunts began. The practice had been slightly modified since the formation of the hunter’s dream though. Now, if a hunter was cut off from the dream they were given a tombstone in the dream to honor their time spent as a true hunter.

While walking around looking for a blank tombstone for his friend, the hunter saw some familiar names: Gascoigne, Djura, Alfred, even one of his most prized friends, Eileen. It pained him to be faced with the names of those he had killed, and those he could have prevented from dying. Draxton had a feeling that he should give these graves something special, something fitting of the hunters that these graves were meant for. On Djura’s grave he carved out a representation of the stake driver and filled it with black powder to honor his time as a powder keg. For Alfred he carved out a hole and placed the Queenly Flesh in the hole. It was a little harder to think of something to honor Eileen as she was never very open about her life outside of her prey, but there was something that seemed appropriate, above her name, the hunter carved the Heir rune and the Blood Rapture rune, the two rewards from Eileen’s marks. Finally, on Gascoigne’s grave he placed the ribon of Gascoigne’s youngest daughter at the base, another reminder of deaths he had been responsible for.

After walking around the graveyard for some time, he found a place where there weren’t any used gravestones. The hunter started the slow and difficult task of carving the headstone, but after about half an hour Draxton believed he had produced an adequate representation of his last friends memory.

GEHRMAN THE FIRST HUNTER
MENTOR TO THE HUNTERS AND PROTECTOR OF YHARNAM
MAY HE FIND PEACE FROM HIS TERRIBLE DREAM

It was a short and relatively bare epitaph for his old friend, but it seemed fitting for the old man. Gehrman never did seem to favor saying more than needed to be said. After standing up to leave, Draxton decided he should also write his own gravestone; nothing could be more appropriate for what he felt had happened as of late. The hunt and the death of so many friends, one by his own hand, was a weigh that he was not ready to bear, but none the less, had to learn to live with.

DRAXTON VALDANE THE LAST OF THE HUNTERS
KILLER OF BEASTS AND HUNTER OF HUNTERS
LET HIS ACTIONS BE REMEMBERED AND REST AS AN EXAMPLE FOR THOSE WHO WISH TO FOLLOW IN HIS STEPS

A Surprise Visit

“We are blessed to know that we are but dust to the great unknown.”--Moon Racer, student of Astral Haze

-A Surprise Visit-

It had been a real shock to Applejack that the princesses could actually sense what Twilight was talking about, let alone from so far away. It was actually quite troubling when she started to think about it; a magical disturbance that only alicorns could feel, and with enough magical power that it could be detected all the way in Canterlot. With the princesses wanting all of them to investigate it but they themselves were worried about what it might be. Whatever this magic thing was, it definitely didn’t bode well.

Applejack had been able to round up most of the girls in short order and tell them to head to Twilight's Castle. Now she only needed to talk to Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash had most likely gone back to sleep on a cloud somewhere after Twilight had woke her up to see if the weather had changed recently in conjunction to the disturbance. If Applejack knew anything about that darn pegasus she could be on any cloud over Ponyville, even on a good day it would probably take her a good while to finally track her down.

So, with Rainbow Dash probably going to take most of the morning to find, Applejack instead opted to head over to Fluttershy's cottage. It was a fairly good walk to the outskirts of the Everfree, and the weather was good for clearing her head. It was about an hour after sunrise, so the sun hadn't completely warmed up the air, but that was fine by Applejack. She always preferred the early morning air on her coat. It had been starting to cool down more lately since preparations for winter had started; the leaves were about to start to turn yellow and orange, and the eastern fields were ready for harvesting.

When Applejack finally got to Fluttershy's cottage, she saw that the aforementioned pegasus was watering her flowers and humming a song from the Ponytones.

“Ha’ there Fluttershy; how have you been doing?”

“Oh, hi there Applejack, i’m fine,” Fluttershy said, putting down the watering can. “What brings you out here?”

“Well, you remember when Twi was askin’ ‘bout if any of your critters had been actin’ up today?”

“Oh yes. She really confused me, talking about some magical anomaly happening in the Everfree. She kept asking if any of my animals had started hiding or if any creatures had started coming out of the forest, but nothing exciting has happened around here, fortunately. I'm sure it's just the stress of being a princess getting to her.”

“Well, about that,” Applejack said, lifting her right hoof behind her head. She had to word the news very carefully so as to not frighten the demure pegasus; the last thing she needed to do was scare the poor thing before Twilight could fully explain the situation. “Twilight was actually right about that magic thingy.”

“What?” Fluttershy gasped, eyes widening in curiosity. That was good; at least Fluttershy wasn’t panicking. Now all she needed to do was convince her to come to the castle.

“Twilight got a message from the princesses saying she should take all her friends to investigate whatever's going on in the forest. She’s getting everyone to meet her at the castle.”

“I’ll head right over. If whatever this is has got the princesses worried, it must be really important” Fluttershy said, taking off into the sky in the direction of the castle.

“Fluttershy, Ah almost forgot” Applejack called after the pegasus. “Yall are probably closer to Rainbow Dash than ah am; do you know where she might be right now?”

“Certainly,” Fluttershy stated with a nod, turning around to face AJ, “I’ll get her on my way over.”

Would you look at that, two trees with one buck. Now all she had to do was go to the castle herself, and have Twilight explain what the plan was for going after this disturbance she’s talking about.

“Alright, girls. As Applejack has probably told you, we’re heading into the Everfree to locate and figure out what is causing a particularly strong disruption to the magic in the area” Twilight started, pacing back and forth in front of a chalk board.

“At approximately 3:53 this morning I felt an extremely powerful tremor of raw mana pass through Ponyville,” Twilight explained, stopping at the left side of the chalkboard and using her magic to draw a small representation of Ponyville at its center. “Since then, the Everfree has been releasing pulses of magic that started at a dissipating oscillation intensity with a maximum displacement of eight meters, while retaining a constant period of ten seconds. The oscillations however have been reducing in maximum intensity since they began” Twilight continued, drawing a detailed depiction of the Everfree on the left side of the board, including the old castle and Zecora's hut.

“I don't think any of us understand what you're trying to say Twilight,” Rainbow Dash stated, looking at the everypony else that seemed to be the case.

“Think of it like a really loud drum that's constantly getting quieter,” Twilight clarified, turning back to the board to continue where she left off.

“Not to long ago, I received a letter from the princesses saying that they could also feel the disturbance coming from the Everfree from all the way in Canterlot,” Twilight said, drawing Canterlot at the bottom right corner. “And because of this, they have asked us to investigate it.”

“While I was out talking to Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy I made some calculations on the intensity of the pulses, and accounting for dissipation of magic per meter traveled, and rate of intensity reduction from the source, I have narrowed down the area of where they are coming from to this general area” Twilight said, drawing a moderately small circle a few inches down from the old castle and much deeper into the forest.

“Now, it's probably going to take a few hours to get to that location, and since the pulses started they have diminished to half the intensity. It would be best if we left soon, because once the pulses stop I don't know what will happen. So, does anyone have any questions” Twilight finished, putting the chalk down and turning to her friends with an eager smile.

“I have one question,” Rainbow Dash groggily expressed from her seat “What do you think this weird magic wave maky thing is?”

“Well, going off what I already know and some texts that I was able to retrieve from the old castle, my best guess would be that the disturbance is coming from a significantly old and well hidden mana geyser in the forest.” Twilight answered, making her way over to her seat in front of the map.

“If you already know what this is, why are you and the princesses so worked up about it?” Pinkie Pie inquired from across the table, lifting a hoof to her temple. “And what is a mana geyser? is it like one of my candy volcanos? Oh, does mana taste like candy?”

“No, Pinkie. Mana doesn't taste like candy. Mana is what unicorns and alicorns use for magic,” Twilight said, rolling her eyes at Pinkie’s line of thinking. “And a mana geyser is a large, concentrated outpouring of mana from an unearthed crystal vein. Let me explain.” Twilight grabbed the chalkboard and chalk with her magic and pulled it closer to the group.

“Mana geysers are formed when a mana flow comes into contact with a crystal vein,” Twilight explained, flipping the board over and drawing what looked like a river coming into contact with a crystal and coming out the other side slightly smaller. “ A mana flow is kind of like a river of mana underground, but think of it more like a jet stream. Because crystals are naturally the ideal material for absorbing and storing mana, when a mana flow hits a crystal vein it weakens, and the crystals start charging; this is actually quite common”

“If it's so common, why are you so worried about this?” Rainbow Dash pushed, looking a bit sceptical and slightly annoyed.

“Well, usually one of these veins is found quickly, or somepony plants crystals in the ground with the intent of digging them up in a timely fashion. The thing is, when a crystal is exposed to so much raw mana and becomes fully charged, but continues to remain exposed, its rate of growth drastically increases, and with more crystals, more mana can be stored and absorbed,” Twilight continued, increasing the size of the crystal and lessening the flow out of the crystal. “Eventually, the crystals can completely take over the mana flow, becoming the source of magic instead of the mana flow, and force the original flow to divert or completely relocate to somewhere else in the world. However, in exceedingly rare instances, mana flows can be very close together and the crystal growth can grow to start syphoning from those flows as well, this allows a crystal vein to grow to absurd sizes. This is most likely how this geyser would have formed, but this brings me to why the princesses are worried.”

“A geyser of this size would have taken at least eight hundred years to form, and because they're so rare, with only one being found outside the School of Unorthodox Magics, geysers this size are highly sought after. Many individuals are willing to do anything to get their hands, claws, or hoofs on one, and because Ponyville is so close to the anomaly if this is an ancient geyser we might be in danger from geyser hunters. Unfortunately, that's the better of the two hypotheses I came up with.”

“Y-you m-m-m-mean i-it could be worse?” Fluttershy squeaked, having curled up in her chair

“Sadly, that’s right,” Twilight affirmed, “Unlike the Canterlot caves, which took nearly a century to deplete their magic, or the geysers found by the school, which have not reduced in the magic they have held since their discovery, the energy coming from this source is plummeting WAY faster than could reasonably be expected. My hypothesis is that something or someone is drawing on this magic. Hopefully, it’s just some peaceful creature of the Everfree feeding off the mana source, but if it isn't peaceful and has been able to retain all of the mana, even Celestia wouldn’t last three seconds in a fight against it.”

“But it could also be completely different to that, couldn’t it?” Applejack asked, putting emphasis on the last two words

“Well of course it could be something different. These are just my guesses on what’s happening based on what information I have,” Twilight explained, missing Applejack’s implied message. “The problem is I'm trying to understand what's happening now using information on events that aren't very similar. It's like trying to compare the magical aptitude and contributions to magic of Starswirl the bearded to those of Glistening Starlight. They both worked on bettering magic, but Starlight focused on magic that dealt with harnessing its power and potential, while Starswirl focused on weaving and shaping how unicorns could most efficiently interact with magic.

“Well what are we waiting for, Twilight?” Rainbow Dash proclaimed, having leapt from her seat and proceeded to hover over the map. “We’ll never know what this is if we just sit around. Also, you said we should head out before the magic thing dies out.”

“You’re right. If everyone's ready, I think we should head out” Twilight announced, looking to the girls for confirmation. They looked at each other for a few seconds, and turned back to face Twilight, nodding in unison, except for Fluttershy who just kept her head down through the exchange, trying to calm down after nearly having a full blown panic attack.

It had been almost three hours since the six friends had departed from the castle. They had passed the old castle about two hours ago, and from there turned slightly south but kept their incursion into the depths of the forest. Fluttershy had been on edge since they passed the castle, warily looking for movement from anything living. At least she had calmed down since the meeting at Twilight’s castle. Granted, the constant paranoia was disconcerting, but since they were far deeper into the forest than anypony had ever explored, everyone was on edge. Even Rainbow Dash, with her brash disregard for safety, had stopped flying and had opted to walk the rest of the way.

The only pony besides Twilight who had been able to keep from openly showing their fear was Applejack, and that was because something Twilight had said had been bothering her since they left Twilight’s castle. As the group passed an old section of wall most likely from a building before Luna was banished, Applejack picked up her pace a little, leaving the position beside Fluttershy that she had kept since they started this trek, so that she could finally get some clarification from Twilight.

“Twi, there's been something that you said in the castle just don't add up” Applejack whispered as she came alongside her friend.

“What is it Applejack? I would be glad to go over the mana geysers or why Celestia is probably worried about this anomaly again if you want.” Twilight responded. It wasn't like Applejack to keep her concerns to herself this long.

“That's not what I’m confused about, you used some fancy terms and names, but a few of them I just frankly ain't heard of them. First, you were talking about some school that's found all those big mana flows, and then you were comparing Starswirl to some pony that just don't show up in any of the history books that I read, even though you said they done had an influence as big as Starswirl. It just don’t add up.”

“Oh, that’s right. The school and it's founders aren't that well known,” Twilight said, feeling fairly embarrassed for forgetting that a good deal of what she knew wasn't shared by her friends. “Well, the School of Unorthodox Magics was founded by Glistening Starlight, the pony I was comparing to Starswirl. She was actually a student of Starswirl until she departed over academic disagreements. You see, she believed that all magic could be used for ponykind’s benefit, even magic fueled by negative emotions, or, as it's more commonly known, dark magic.”

“That don't sound very smart to me. How can dark magic be used for good?” Applejack responded.

“That's the funny thing. Their research worked out quite well. The school was able to modify how many emotions found in dark magic were channeled, and create normal spells that benefited everyone. Its quite amazing. Their most famous spell, crystal lattice resonation, is powered by greed. The same spell Rarity uses to find her gems, and the same spell used to find mana geysers.

“If they done had such a big influence on magic, why aint no-one heard of them?”

“No one really knows” Twilight sighed. It was a problem that even she hadn’t solved yet. “A few years after the school formed, they began publishing the conclusions to their research, continuously adding to the collective knowledge of magic. They just kept improving, making new discoveries, so many that nopony really remembers what spells should be attributed to them. But after Luna became Nightmare Moon the research stopped being released, and a year after Luna's banishment the school just closed down. It stopped accepting ponies, information no longer came from them, and ponies that used to be a part of it started to come back to canterlot to continue their studies. It just ceased to be. Even ponies claiming to have been members couldn’t guess why it dissolved. After that, ponies just stopped talking about it. Within a decade the school had slipped into legend, a story told to young unicorns to fuel their curiosity to learn.”

Applejack lowered her head and frowned, asking Twilight for clarification had only given her more questions, and according to Twilight no one had answers.

“Does anyone else hear that?” Rainbow Dash asked, breaking the heavy silence that had fallen over the group.

Everyone stopped, trying to hear what Rainbow Dash was referring to. The group stood still for several seconds, but no one else could make out what she meant.

“Are you sure you heard something? All I can hear is the wind in the trees” Twilight said, confused as to what Dash was talking about.

“None of you can hear that? it sounds like an animal crying” Rainbow Dash asked. “It sounds like it's over there.” Rainbow Dash pointed slightly left from the direction they had been going, into a thicker part of the woods.

Twilight thought it was odd for her friend to be hearing things like animal cries.As far as she could tell there weren’t any animals this deep in the forest, but it would probably be best to see if there was anything else around, just in case there might be a threat. Twilight started walking in the direction that Rainbow Dash pointed. It didn't take long for her to start hearing what Rainbow was talking about. High pitched whining could be heard from not too far away.

When each of the friends could finally hear the cries from the animal Fluttershy had all but abandoned her timid demeanor in favor of complete concern for the poor creature making the noises. It didn't take long to find the creature, but when they did, they were not prepared for what they saw.

In front of them, a timber wolf was sitting on the ground poking its left rear leg with its muzzle. The leg was obviously broken, and was missing several bits of wood. The other rear leg was missing, splintered sticks were all that remained of it; but the worst injury was that its right eye was totally gone leaving a hole that went most of the way thru it's head. The wood around the wound looked dead and rotten as almost every piece of wood around the hole had become black and corroded. It was as if a lightning bolt had gone straight thru the poor thing’s eye.

All of the girls were shocked. What could or would have done such a horrible thing to this animal. Granted, timber wolves were not known for their passivity, with many ponies being attacked when going into their territories, but it was well known that the wolves could be easily dealt with without injuring or killing them. Fluttershy couldn't help but feel extreme pity for the wolf. She had to go over and help it.

“Hey there fella. Do you want some help?” Fluttershy said as evenly as she could manage.

What happened next felt like a kick to every pony’s gut. When the wolf looked up at Fluttershy, the most kind hearted and loving pony in Equestria, the only thing that Fluttershy could see in its remaining eye was shear unequivocal tearor. The wolf laid completely flat and tried to make itself as small as possible, never taking its eye off Fluttershy. This animal was so scared for itself that even Fluttershy’s small and unimposing figure did nothing to dissuade the dread it felt at the prospect of losing its life. Fluttershy was shocked, no animal had been this afraid of her. Even animals that were usually wary of ponies would almost always treat her with caution, but still be welcoming of her presence. This wolf was looking at her as if she was a hungry dragon that had just found its next meal.

Everyone was taken aback by the wolf's actions. Whatever had injured this animal had decimated its once dominant attitude and made it no more agressive than a newborn bunny. Though none of the friends liked how predatory the timberwolves were, it felt terrible that one could be reduced to such a sorry state. Fluttershy didn't know how to approach this. Her best bet was to treat the wolf like she would an Abatwa.

“Hey, can I come over there?” Fluttershy asked with as much kindness and caring as she could muster. This didn’t seem to change the wolf's attitude as all that it did was continue to look at her from the ball it had worked itself into.

As Fluttershy slowly trotted towards the injured wolf, it began to whine again, only this time at a higher, softer pitch. When Fluttershy finally got within a hoof’s length of the wolf, she slowly laid down on her stomach in front of it. Nothing she had done so far had communicated to the injured animal that she meant it no harm, so she had to try something else. She nuzzled it.

This action took the timber wolf by surprise. At first it tried to retreat, but was unable to on account of the position it had put itself in. However, after the initial retreat the wolf welcomed the affection, leaning into the nuzzling, even closing its eye. When Fluttershy finally stopped her tenderness the wolf didn’t nearly seem as terrified as it had earlier, although it still gave off the body language that it wanted nothing to do with any of the ponies.

Now that Fluttershy had calmed down the poor thing she had to ask what had caused all this. “Could you tell me what did this to you?”

The whines that followed struck a chord deep in Applejacks heart as it reminded her of the time she had accidentally locked Winona in the barn overnight, and when she went back the next morning heard her crying and pawing at the door to get out. It made her want to gallop over to the timber wolf and hold it as close as she could.

When the cries stopped, Fluttershy turned towards the group and said, “He said that there was a large crow with one large talon and another talon that flashed a bright light and made a terrible sound. Members of his pack had found it in their territory while hunting and wanted to chase it off. They decided to gather most of the pack and use the numbers to scare it away, but when they rushed at it everything went wrong. The crow fought back and was able to take them out with little trouble. When he lost his sight, he tried to escape, but it landed one last blow that took off his right leg. He wasn't able to get far since his other leg gave out, so he’s been sitting here since then, trying to hide till his legs heal. He doesn't think his pack survived because he hasn't heard any of them come back from the fight.” Fluttershy was in tears having to relate the details of the wolf's story.

Twilight hated to ask but she had to confirm, “Did he say where the fight happened?”

“Over there, behind those cedar trees,” Fluttershy responded, pointing westward to the the trees behind the wolf.

That was what Twilight had feared. The direction where the wolf had said it was attacked was the same direction that the magical disturbance was emanating from, and, judging from what that wolf said, this crow thing was the most likely reason for the massive mana drain if it wasn't occurring naturally. If this crow had something to do with this mana anomaly, they needed to put a stop to it immediately.

“Alright girls,” Twilight began, turning to look at everyone else. “If what Fluttershy said is accurate, we need to be extremely cautious; this crow is more than likely right on the mana disruption. We need to get there immediately to make sure this isn't the worst case scenario and it's absorbed all the mana.”

Twilight looked around to see if anyone would nod or respond or show some sign that they were motivated to end this mystery. However none of her friends looked in anyway ready to go on after seeing the timber wolf. Rainbow Dash, who would usually be urging everyone to get moving, was instead watching Fluttershy’s interaction with the wolf with unwavering concentration. Applejack had lowered her hat and looked to be trying to coming to terms with the situation. Even Pinkie Pie was sitting down, her mane deflating the longer she looked at the scene before her. It was Fluttershy’s talking that snapped the group out of the depression that had enveloped them like a heavy cloth.

“You girls need to go ahead and figure out what’s going on,” Fluttershy managed to say through her tears. “I’ll stay here and look out for this guy. If you need me, you’ll know where I am.”

Twilight just nodded. It didn't feel right to leave Fluttershy behind so deep in the forest, but she knew that they needed to find out what was happening out here, and standing around looking at an injured wolf was not going to help their current situation. So Twilight turned towards the cedar trees had proceeded forward . One by one the rest of group followed her lead, heading towards possibly the most terrifying and dangerous threat they had ever faced.

In less than a minute the group saw a break in the treeline; dimm sunlight could be seen through gaps between the trees. They were about to come out of the forest. Everyone felt some joy at the prospect of exiting the forest but that feeling was quickly replaced by fear when they remembered the timber wolf they had run into and the possible danger just waiting for them.

But what greeted the five ponies was an isolated cathedral like building sitting in the middle of a dilapidated estate filed with overgrown bushes and weeds. The building was dark and ominous, with an architectural style that was similar to what had been common during the princesses’ reign a thousand years ago. The whole look of the building seemed to emanate a sense of hostility and ill intent. On each of the corners and on the middle of each side spires rose from the building with a presence that gave off the impression that they were daring anyone to approach. The architecture itself would have been more a curiosity than a source of fear would it not have been constructed from the darkest materials. The whole building was made from materials that did not leave the color black, the lightest color anyone could see was a dark grey that made up the accents of the structure. It also didn't help that a massive dead tree flanked the structure, adding an extra sense of dread. A humble stone walkways lead to and from the building and to the left and right of the building. Plants grew everywhere around the property, in planter beds, along the sides of the walkways, even between the stonework of the pathways plants stubbornly pushed up, destroying the even grade of the path and threatening to eventually undo all the hard work that had gone into making the walk. The premises seemed to be in fairly well kept, but everything about it just put Twilight on edge.The whole area was in fair condition though it looked like the individual who resided there had only been away for a few years.

“Is this what we’ve been looking for?” Rainbow Dash asked quietly, sounding less like herself and more like Fluttershy.

“I think so. This is where the disturbance is coming from,” Twilight responded. “I think we should look around and make sure it's safe here before we head into the building.”

Everyone nodded and wordlessly split into two groups. Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack went towards the house,while Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash headed to the right, towards a large, iron gate. Twilight didn't want to admit it, but she wanted to delay going to the building because she could not get over the feeling of unease it gave to her.

Twilight's thought that exploring the surrounding area would ease her anxiety before the group proceeded into the building were poorly conceived. As the three friends waked up the pathway to the left of the building, they could not miss the candle lit headstones that lined the left side of the walkway. The plants seemed to have overrun the entire area, popping up between the stonework, escaping their planter beds, and in general slowly destroying the area.

“Do yall see names on any of these graves?” Applejack asked, trying to sound calm, but failing to hide her nervousness.

The statement caught Twilight by surprise. She hadn't been looking too closely at the headstones, but now that she examined them none of them contained so much as a single mark.

As Twilight was examining the headstones, Rainbow Dash came over from where she had been exploring. “I think you guys should come and see this.”

“What is it, Rainbow?” Twilight asked, still looking at a headstone, trying to find some imperfection that would suggest that these graves had once had names on them.

“I think this is a cemetery. Me and Pinkie found a huge graveyard.”

“I don’t think so. None of these headstones have writing on them. I think this was supposed to be one, but never saw any burials.”

“Maybe not the ones over here, but me and Pinkie found tons of them that have been used, and...well…you have to come see this for yourself,” Rainbow Dash didn't sound like she could find the right way to say what she was thinking, like words could not describe what she had seen.

Whatever had Rainbow Dash so concerned needed to be investigated, so the three ponies decided to follow her to the other side of the premises. Once the group arrived, what stood before them was a field that looked like something out of the Canterlot palace gardens. What stood before them was a large field of white lilies. This was by far the largest area that anyone had seen dedicated to just one species of flower. What made it more odd was that the entire perimeter of the field was lined with headstones. Some had even been stacked on top of eachother.

“This is an actual graveyard. How long has this been here? Why did it just start emanating mana? Does Celesta know about this site? Why was this ever abandoned?” Twilight's head was buzzing with questions about what she was seeing,.

It didn't take long however for Twilight's manic desire to understand what was infront of her to be disrupted with Rainbow adding,“It gets weirder. I found some graves that had offerings at their bases, and Pinkie said she found some graves that were recently added. We should probably go see her.”

The four friends walked towards the right side of the massive tree to the pink mass sitting in front of the graves. When the group arrived, they saw that Pinkie's mane had mostly reinflated and she was sitting in front of two headstones with her head bowed. Twilight was wondering what made these graves so important to Pinkie that she would sit down and pay her respects. While she was looking at the headstones she got her answer. Along their bases dust and small pieces of stone sat, remains from a recent engraving. It was obvious that these graves had only just been made. The other oddity that set these headstones apart from the others was that the writing on them was much less practised and artistic compared to the graves beside them, granted the writing was in another language that Twilight couldn't read. The only explanation was that the one who had engraved these headstones was not the one who had engraved the others.

With Pinkie paying her respects, the rest of the group felt the desire to follow suit. Everypony sat down in a semicircle facing the two graves and bowed their heads. The group sat like that for several minutes. None of them knew who the grave was for. A dragon. A griffon. A pony. Whether they were rich or poor, noble or common. After they felt that they had paid an adequate amount of respect, each of them lifted their heads and got up. One at a time the friends broke the semicircle, with Pinkie being the last to stand.

After their small break to collect their thoughts, everyone seemed to have calmed down, and the fear that this place had once instilled in them significantly lessened.

“I think now would be a good time to finish our assessment here and head home,” Twilight quietly said, trying not to kill the mood. Everyone nodded. It would be nice to go back home after what they had gone through, so with Twilight leading, the group proceeded to the building at the center of the premises.

As the group trotted up the stairs, they couldn't help but notice that a gravestone right next to the door had been split in half with what appeared to be blood and pieces of meat covering the entirety of the crack. It didn't take each of the ponies long before they started to think that the headstone in front of them and the two new graves were connected.

When Twilight used her magic to grab hold of the door handle she hesitated. The group hadn’t found the large crow the wolf mentioned yet. If it was behind that door they were almost guaranteed to suffer a similar fate to the timber wolf if killed. Twilight shook her head; even if there was a risk, they had to stop whatever that thing was if it posed a threat to Equestria.

Twilight opened the door and entered into what was a surprisingly welcoming abode. Along the left side wall books were shelved and piled on desks and the floor. On the right side was a large coffin near the door, but above that, several shelves held bottles and samples of various liquids, insects, and other unknown things that were either rare or Twilight had never seen before. Further down the right wall was a lit fireplace, adding a good amount of light and heat to the small room, and next to that was what looked like a workbench with several metal tools hanging on the wall and above the table from chains. Finally, along the back of the room was a raised stone slab and second coffin behind that. The thing that made to room so strangely inviting in the first place was how much light the room had. Other than the fireplace candles had been placed on every raised platform, and every so often on the walls. This small addition seemed to make the room seem more like a home.

Everypony decided to look around the room to see what they could find out about the individual or individuals that it belonged to. Twilight obviously was drawn to the assortment of books. Unfortunately for her most of them were written in the same language as the graves, so it was fairly pointless to try to decipher them. Something that struck her as odd though was that there were a few books written in Equestrian. This made no sense to her as there didn't seem to be any consistency to the language used, with books she could read mixed in haphazardly with books she couldn't. Pinkie Pie had decided to investigate the coffin to the right of the door, but, try as she might, it showed no signs of wanting to open, so she instead opted to explore the various glass containers and their contents. Rarity and Rainbow Dash were investigating the workbench and fireplace. To Rarity. the lack of decor was disconcerting. What pony would ever choose to live in such a bare bones environment? Rainbow, however, was more interested in what was above the workbench. Hanging on chains and the wall were at least a dozen weapons, ranging from a long thin sword and a spear to a massive ax and enormous stone hammer. Whoever lived here also had a freaking wheel hanging from the ceiling. There were also several odd contraptions on the floor and bench, none of which looked like devices she had ever used or seen with most being odd metal cylinders with a hole at one end.

Eventually, everyone gravitated to the large stone slab. No one knew what it was, as it was big enough for a pony to sleep on, but being made of stone it was not likely a bed. It was also not a tomb, as it was too small for even a pony to be fit into. The most intriguing thing though was the large needle-like object that sat in the middle of a white cloth at the center of the slab.

“What do you think this thing is, Twi?” Applejack asked This room was nothing like anything she had seen before.

“I don't know, but whatever this is, the princesses will definitely want to hear about it” Twilight responded, debating in her head if she wanted to further examine the strange needle or just leave it alone. Just then, a voice interrupted the group’s tranquility.

“Didn’t anyone tell you that you should always ask before you go into someone's home?” The voice was deep and masculine, with an accent that was unmistakably Scoltish.

The group turned around to see a large, dark figure standing in the doorway. It looked like it was a kind of minotaur, but it did not possess horns or the muscular build that minotaurs were known for. On it's head was a weird hat. It was a light grey color, and came to a point in the front. The hat also had a piece of cloth that wrapped over one of the creature’s eyes. Its hands seemed to be heavily bandaged, with white cloth wrapping around both of them, but the most striking part of it's dress was what appeared to be it's suit. The suit was dark, almost entirely black with a tinge of deep purple, and a distinguishing cape. The cape seemed to be made up of hundreds of crow feathers. It hung down over the front of it's arms, giving the creature the appearance of a crow with it's wings folded. All in all, this creature was definitely intimidating.

This outfit did not affect Dash however. In fact, it only made her angry. When Dash saw this dark figure, her mind instantly recalled the dying timberwolf that they had found, and it's story about a large crow that had almost killed it. This had to be the monster that was responsible. Before anyone could react, Dash rocketed at the new creature with all her strength keeping her front legs extended in front of her so as to have the best chance of knocking it down so she could then proceed to beat it to a pulp, but what happened next brought back all the ponies’ fears.

When Rainbow Dash got within a meter of the crow thing, it took a quick step forward and to the left, raising its right hand up to catch Rainbow Dash’s throat in one fluid motion. When Rainbow’s throat met the crow’s hand, the hand clenched around down and proceeded to push back. With how fast Rainbow was going, it would take an immense force to stop her trajectory, but this thing did it like Rainbow was just a hoofball that had been thrown to it. After it had stopped Rainbow Dash the real horror began. It quickly shoved her backwards into the ground at tremendous speed. Rainbow’s back collided with the hard wooden floor with a thud that everyone could feel through the ground. Dash’s head was quick to follow the rest of her body onto the ground, and it's impact was so hard that she was knocked unconscious before she could even process the creature's counterattack. Everyone was too shocked to say anything until that same deep voice came back, this time sounding more menacing than any of the girls thought possible.

“I don't appreciate unwanted guests, especially the kind that tries to attack me. Now, are you going to behave yourselves, or am I going to have to introduce you to the floor like I did your friend?"

Author's Note

it finally arrives, sorry it took so long, even my editor was worried it wouldn't come out. so i hope you enjoyed it. on an additional note check out Digital Media Disk, he's been acting as my editor and if you haven't seen him before check him out he's doing a Bloodborne fic too and is also working on a second project, i think he needs some love after the crap I've put him thru.
oh ya before i forget, for those that don't know i made a new group and am going to post possibly its first story on October 1st, take from that what you will.

Wary Understanding

“Beware the intrusions of those you do not know; our intelligence ever-grows and must be guarded from those that do not truly seek understanding and instead look only for power.” Astral Haze, Grand Archaeomancer of Kaultorium

-Wary Understanding-

Twilight had no idea how she should respond to this thing’s question. On one hoof he—judging by the baritone of the voice this thing was most likely male—had just injured one of her best friends, possibly enough that she would need to see a doctor. On the other hoof this creature moved faster than she thought physically possible, and on top of that, she did not understand what he was capable of. Fighting him was almost certainly out of the question. Looking around, her thoughts seemed to be echoed on her friends faces as each of them seemed to be weighing if this thing was really worth fighting. Finally, Twilight broke the silence.

“I don't think any of us would like to fight you, sir,” Twilight said, trying her best to keep her voice even to avoid giving away how terrified she was and hoping against hope that giving this individual some modicum of respect would improve their situation.

“That's good to hear” the creature replied, moving from his position at the door further into the building.

From the ponies’ perspective, the new arrival being in such close proximity to them in such a claustrophobic room was beyond horrifying. The closer he got to them, the more they felt like running away as far and as fast as physically possible. Although this creature did not seem to be entirely hostile, his approach none the less was putting everyone on edge. When he arrived at the fireplace it crouched down and proceeded to shift the three metal sticks that were sticking out of the fire through the coals at the bottom. So far, this thing had only been reactive to what the group had done, so the best idea Twilight had was not to act rashly and hope that this trend continued.

“Excuse me, sir, what exactly are you?” Twilight asked. Whatever this thing was, it had never been documented and probably never encountered before, so the fact he could speak perfect Equestrian was disconcerting.

“I’m a hunter” he replied several seconds later. As if to prove this point, after finishing his reply he pulled out two decent sized swords. The metal they were made of was dull and rough, making them look more like the start of a project than actual weapons. Each blade curved into a terrifying hook near the point. These swords were not made solely for cutting, but to rip and tear the flesh of whatever they came into contact with. In one quick movement, he connected the two blades at their points before flicking them both out to his right side, seamlessly combining them into one gruesome, double-bladed sword. It was obvious to the group that this creature was highly skilled at wielding his blades, and if he was being honest he was probably well trained in dealing with things far more powerful than any of them.
“That’s not what I’m asking, sir. I’m asking what your species is.”

“Human.”

This ‘human’ as he called himself didn't seem to be very keen on elaboration. To be honest, Twilight didn't think she would get more than what she asked for when she questioned him. She pressed on, hoping to ease the tension that had fallen over the room.

“My name is Twilight Sparkle, and my friends and I-”

“I don’t care what your name is. What made you think you could just walk into my workshop without permission?”

This question took Twilight by surprise. It was not the wording itself, but more the manner in which it was spoken. Since he had first spoken, discounting the threat he had issued after fighting Rainbow Dash, his voice had been measured and distant, but now it possessed an undercurrent of anger. Twilight just hoped she didn't end up provoking his ire.

“Earlier today I felt an explosion of mana come from deep in the Everfree Forest and thought it might be a threat to Ponyville, so I sent a letter to the princesses to see if they knew anything about it. When both of them said they had no knowledge of the explosion, and were worried about what it could mean I gathered my friends together to investigate, and... well... you know the rest.”

“That doesn't answer the question. What are you doing rummaging around my house without my consent?” the hunter asked, sounding more than irritated at his current company. He turned back to the fireplace and pulled the last stick out of it. To Twilight’s surprise and horror, it was not actually a stick, but a massive, curved sword as long as a pony's body and about as thick as a table leg. The sword’s shape was very unique though as it didn't keep a uniform width, but tapered to a point. It gave the blade the appearance, not of a forged weapon, but a gruesome stinger taken from a monstrous insect. As fearsome as the weapon was, it didn't look to be in good repair. The outer edge was dulled to where it looked incapable of cutting anything, more like a bludgeon while the inner edge was chipped and uneven with a half circle cut out of it near the hilt.

Twilight needed to think through her current situation very carefully. She and her friends were trapped in a small room with an angry creature that had easily killed several timberwolves, not to mention beat Rainbow Dash with nary a flick of its wrist, none of her friends looked anywhere close to being able to confront him, with Applejack and Pinkie Pie, usually two of the braver members of the group, looking like frightened puppies, and to top it off Fluttershy was gone, tending to the timberwolf, so she couldn't count on her to pacify this creature. The only option that seemed left to her was to answer his question and hope he didn't decide to take his anger out on them.

“We were looking through the graveyard and saw two headstones that looked new and the headstone just outside your home, and we thought that whoever was living here had died.” Twilight winced as she finished her explanation, hoping that the hunter wouldn't resort to violence.

“Makes sense,” he responded calmly, placing the curved blade on his right hip under the combined blades he had retrieved from the fire before it.

Really? That was it? All of that hostility and what seemed like bloodlust, and all it took was her telling him they thought he was dead to clear the air. She, at least, expected him to still be a little irritated.

“Now, if you don't mind, I would appreciate it if you would leave. I have work to do,” the hunter stated offhandedly, turning to go out the door.

“Wait! Before we go, would you mind coming back to town with us? I’m going to have to tell the princesses about what we found here and I’m sure they would like to meet you and learn what they can from you and it would frankly be easier for them if they didn't have to come all the way out here.” The words poured from Twilight’s mouth almost before she realized she’d said them, and no sooner did she finish speaking before her friends started their own little tirade against her.

“Twi, what in tarnation are y’all thinkin? We don't know if he can be trusted, and don’t you remember that he done beat Rainbow Dash like she was a darn filly!”

“I must agree Twilight. There is nothing I would like more than to let the royal guards deal with this ruffian and be done with him.”

“Rarity is right! I usually like meeting new ponies, but he’s just a sour pus meanie pants angry birdie who hasn’t been nice to any of my friends!”

After the talking, the deformed purple horse, Twilight Sparkle, asked him to accompany her and her friends back to the town they had come from, Draxton had stopped to consider the proposition. True, he had no reason to trust they wouldn't pull the same stunt en masse that the flying blue one had, but he had done far less intelligent things before when he had been drastically outnumbered, and still emerged the victor. He remembered trusting Patches when he’d given him the tonsil stone, and the time he’d taken a trip to Cainhurst in a carriage that had come out of nowhere. Looking back on things, those had also been ill-advised, but if worse came to worst it wouldn't be hard to fight any number of them with his scythe judging by how easily he had subdued the blue one. If anything, he could learn where he was, and why he and the workshop had manifested in what appeared to be a different waking world.

“Sure. I’ll come.”

Twilight was just about to speak again when the hunter responded. The abruptness with which he replied made her suddenly feel apprehensive about inviting him to return to Ponyville with her, and judging by her friend’s looks of complete despair and incredulity, she wasn't sure it was the best idea to have asked him. Just when she thought it couldn't get any worse, the hunter picked up Rainbow Dash and said something that made her stomach drop.

“I’ll carry your friend. If she tries anything funny on the way back to your town don't think I won’t kill her. I assume it’s east of here, in the direction of your other friend you left in the woods. We can collect them and head to town back the way you came.”

He knew where Fluttershy was! This was bad. If he saw Fluttershy with the timberwolf she didn't even want to think about what he might do, and if the wolf recognized him she knew Fluttershy would do everything she could to make him pay. She needed to think of something quickly before they left. She had to divert the hunter somewhere else.

“I don't think that would be the best idea. Fluttershy can be very timid, so if someone she didn't know like you suddenly appeared, she might have a panic attack. Then you’d end up having to carry two of my friends,” Twilight said, trying to keep her composure.

“Alright then. You lead the way” the hunter responded, moving aside so that the group could go ahead of him.

Twilight mentally breathed a sigh of relief, but now that she started to think about it, how was she supposed to keep the group at ease when they had to walk for several hours with such an intimidating individual. On top of that, she needed to help Fluttershy get the timberwolf back to Ponyville without her learning about the new arrival. This day was just getting better and better. The only plan that made sense at the moment was to rely on her acting skills, something that she had time and again proven poor at.

“Applejack, you can lead the way. Rarity and Pinkie, you can follow. I'll hang back with the hunter.”

Everyone looked at her like she was crazy. She couldn't tell if it was because they thought walking in front of the human was a terrible idea, or if it was they thought standing next to him was even more idiotic. Either way, no one spoke up in protest, and the long trek back to Ponyville began.

Twilight was starting to regret staying back with the hunter. Everything about him set off her internal alarms. Since they had headed out, he hadn't spoken a word, and the silence that had fallen over the group seemed far more oppressive than it had been when they had first entered the forest in hopes of discovering the magical anomaly. The human walked with an air about him that made Twilight feel like he was considering her and her friends as prey. However, the most unnerving thing the hunter did was that every so often he would turn his head in a random direction, slow his pace and fall farther behind the rest of the group for a while before resuming his place again. Twilight wondered how Fluttershy was handling her own situation.

Twilight nearly face hoofed herself when she remembered she had left Fluttershy back near the human’s dwelling. She needed to go back and get her as soon as she could.

These equines were strange. Not only were they able to talk, but they seemed to lack basic observational abilities. Draxton had lost track of how many times they simply walked past an old trail or a camouflaged animal without batting an eye. It was becoming so common that he had to admit to himself that he was most likely going to have to be their bodyguard. He noticed, however that none of them had grown less fearful of him along the way.

One thing had been on his mind since he had left with them. Twilight Sparkle, who he assumed to be the leader of the group, had mentioned that she had felt what could be described as a mana explosion—whatever that meant—come from the workshop. The most likely explanation was it was the result of his materialization here. Judging by the fact that they had asked what species he was, he doubted there would be any other humans in this world. There was another thing that he could not make sense of. They had spoken of informing “the princesses,” of his appearance. From what Draxton could guess, either the king and queen had more pressing matters to deal with, they were currently not of sufficient health to govern, or they were dead and their titles had yet to advance to their eldest heir.

Just as the group was passing by the remains of an old structure, Twilight Sparkle decided to break the silence.

“Oh, girls, I almost forgot about Fluttershy. You go ahead. I’ll go back and help her out” she said, turning back towards the workshop and hurrying off.

Looking at the others, Draxton didn’t think they were very keen on the idea, but the fact she was already galloping away made contesting her decision useless. Besides, there was something more important the group needed to worry about; they were being stalked. He had originally passed it off as a curious animal following them out of its territory, but after a while, it had become obvious this wasn't a harmless creature. Every time he had turned his head in its direction it would slow down considerably, but never fell too far behind the group. This animal was a seasoned hunter. The fact it had kept its distance for this long meant it was either waiting for a better chance to ambush them or for someone to break off from the group. Twilight Sparkle had just become that someone. He needed to think quickly. Even if he didn't personally care too much if these creatures died, having to explain to a royal family how he had allowed one of their envoys to be killed did not seem like the best way to start relations with the local government. The best idea he had was to lure their stalker in his direction with a more appealing target, wounded prey. As carefully as he could, so as not to arouse suspicion, he reached to the back of his belt with his free hand to grab his drinking flask. Being a hunter, blood was one of his most coveted resources, and while most hunters avoided drinking blood cocktails, as they dulled the senses and suppressed one's abilities, he had learned over time that a tolerance to them could be quickly developed if one was persistent enough. His original plan was to spread some of the drink on his clothes in order to lure the beast closer, but it was probably a better idea to simply leave the top off the canister as he felt its aroma would be strong enough without him having to spread blood on his clothes. With a quick slug to make sure the mixture hadn’t coagulated, he placed it back on his hip and resumed following the group.

At first, Draxton sensed the animal hesitate between following the group or chasing after the newly separated equine. He had caught its attention, but if he didn’t properly entice the creature he would need to act immediately as he had no idea how quickly he would be able to respond if it decided to attack Twilight Sparkle. Fortunately, the animal decided the scent of blood indicated a better target. The only downside that came with this plan was that this creature had now become more aggressive in its predation. Even when he would turn in its direction, it would only slow down slightly as it tried to close the distance. If he had to make a guess, he would have estimated he had about ten minutes till the creature was on them, provided they remained deep in the forest, or, if they were unlucky and reached a clearing a few minutes. Unfortunately, judging by the fact the trees were thinning out, he didn’t have much time before he’d be in the open and have to fight.

Twilight was glad the others hadn’t followed her after she’d split off from the group. It was obvious that the hunter and Fluttershy would eventually meet, but if she could help it she wanted that meeting to happen in a controlled environment, preferably a timberwolf-less one, where she could limit any collateral damage that might ensue.

Following the path she had used earlier, she eventually found where she had left Fluttershy and was relieved to see that she had calmed down the timberwolf.

“Hey, Fluttershy. I see your friend there is doing better.”

“Oh, yes. He seems to like me, and he’s so used to being with a pack that any company is welcome,” Fluttershy replied cheerfully, only to become very sorrowful and distant. “You should know that whatever attacked him is preventing him from properly healing. I'm going to need to get him back to the cottage to properly understand the extent of the damage.”

“What do you mean he’s not healing properly? I thought timberwolves just needed some old wood if they ever needed to replace lost pieces?”

“That's usually what happens, at least, that's what I remember I needed to do last time I took care of one, but something's different here. Look at his leg. It’s still splintered and broken. The magic that keeps timberwolves together always expels damaged wood from the body, but something is keeping the magic from working, preventing him from healing. What’s worse is that normally if a timberwolf were to get injured, it would split apart to prevent major damage to the rest of its body, but I'm positive the same thing keeping the wood from being expelled is preventing him from breaking up.”

“Do you think you can help him get better?” Twilight asked, concerned for the poor timberwolf in front of her and for her friends she’d had left behind with the human.

“I don't know, Twilight.” I’ve never had to deal with something like this before. I don't even think the most respected zoologist would know what to do. All I can do is guess.” Every word Fluttershy said seemed to be undercut with feelings of inadequacy and helplessness. It was only when she started to cry that it became obvious how deep those feelings ran. “I’m supposed to be able to treat every animal regardless of species. I should be able to help him. Why can’t I help him?”

Twilight wanted nothing more than to comfort Fluttershy. Even the timberwolf was nuzzling her in an attempt to console the weeping pegasus, but staying out in the Everfree any longer than necessary was a bad idea. “We need to head back. Do you think our new friend here can handle a teleportation spell?”

“I would think so. It's just….” Fluttershy didn't seem like she could finish the sentence, her insecurity getting the better of her. Twilight just nodded in response. It would be best to get her back to her cottage as soon as possible. Twilight charged up her teleportation spell, and in less than a second had transported the three of them through the ether and to the front of Fluttershy’s cottage.

“Where should we put your friend?” Twilight asked, knowing Fluttershy was most likely to keep him in the house to better care for him, but the other animals living there might object to having a dangerous predator in their midst.

“Do you think you can help carry him to my room? I’m going to need to keep a close eye on his health.”

Saying where they needed to move him was the easy part. Actually doing so was far more difficult. Timberwolves, when they reached adulthood, tended to be about ten percent larger than ponies, but the fact they were made almost entirely out of wood made carrying them a much easier task. The issue here came from the fact that the back half of this timberwolf had been mostly cut off, making moving him a challenge as anytime either of them touched his broken leg or the splintered mess that was his other back leg, he would let out a yelp of pain. Eventually, they were able to reach Fluttershy's room, and after further consideration, they decided to fix up a bed for the timberwolf beside Fluttershy's bed so she would have better access to him if his condition worsened.

“Thank you, Twilight. I don't think I could have done it myself,” Fluttershy said when they had finished, however, her tone made it sound more like a statement of fact than an expression of gratitude.

It didn’t seem right for Twilight to leave her friend in such an emotionally vulnerable state, however if her other friends arrived at the castle before she rejoined them, they would more than likely think she and Fluttershy hadn't made it back, and would probably set off again to find the two of them. As she was pondering what to do a solution came to her.

“Fluttershy, do you think I could borrow one of your bird friends for a moment?”

“I don't see why not.”

“Perfect,” Twilight magically grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill from Fluttershy's desk and quickly wrote out a letter telling her friends that she had made it back to Ponyville and was currently with Fluttershy. She then convinced a bluejay that had been watching them to fly the letter over to the castle and give it to Spike. Now all she needed to do was comfort Fluttershy until everyone got back.

This was probably the greatest day in Draxton’s entire life. in one day he had killed one of his mentors, got whisked away to a foreign world, and to top it off every single inhabitant he had encountered had either tried to kill him or was as good in a fight as a celestial infant. Speaking of which, the current oddity that had been trying to murder him for the last fifteen minutes was getting on his nerves. The creature seemed to be a large cat from what he had glimpsed of it (emphasis on glimpsed). Whatever this thing was, it was so fast that it made the Orphan of Kos look like a church giant. It had managed to strike him seven times so far, most of which were the result of defending his horse companions. He was bleeding fairly badly, and this only seemed to make the animal more aggressive.

The beast had first attacked with a powerful dive at his back. Fortunately, he had been able to dodge it as the group walked into a small glade. After the attack failed to land, the beast bolted back to the safety of the bushes, and the equines ran in the other direction, shouting something about heading toward an old castle. Now he had to run, protect the group, and keep track of the threat all at once. Did he mention how much he absolutely despised his current situation? Fortunately, he was starting to see the trees thinning again. He would finally get to fight back and get rid of this nuisance.

The underbrush to the left of the hunter suddenly erupted as the monster leapt at him again. He had gotten careless while keeping track of the horses and had forgotten to listen for an attack. With no other options available, he quickly dropped the horse he had been carrying and prepared himself to meet the charge. When he was finally hit he regretted the decision. The large cat—he could now confirm this from up close—sunk its claws into his torso and bit down where his neck met his shoulders, puncturing his jugular. He quickly stabbed the beast with his blade of mercy. This got it off of him, but whatever that thing was, its flesh was tough. His attack had only been able to create a shallow wound a few inches deep, insignificant when he considered that his current opponent was almost as big as he was.

The others had stopped in their mad dash when they couldn't hear him following them anymore. They looked back at him like they had when they had first met him. He needed to get them out of the picture somehow. They were worse than useless, they were cowards.

“Take your friend and run. I need to fight unhindered,” Draxton growled, throwing the flying blue horse he had been carrying at the others and then proceeding to inject himself with a blood vial to close his wounds.
.One of them sprinted to grab their friend and then continued running toward the castle. Draxton had half expected the beast to follow them, but for some reason, it still saw him as the more ideal target. When the horses finally left his line of sight, he switched out his blade of mercy for the burial blade and quickly transformed it into its scythe form. He was going to find this creature’s weakness and kill it with one swing.

Draxton was speculating how much of his mind he had lost recently. He would need to let it attack him if he wanted to figure out how to beat this nuisance. If he misjudged the attack it could kill him, if he didn't react fast enough it could kill him, and if he miscalculated the timing on his counterattack it could kill him.All in all, it was a typical fight as of late. If he survived this, he was really going to need to stop using madman's knowledge.

Draxton positioned himself facing the cats direction while it prowled through the bushes. He kept his front facing it so it wouldn't get a good shot on him. Even though Draxton showed that hiding wasn't working in the cat's benefit it didn't seem to mind, given that it was more or less unscathed and managed to almost kill him once he couldn't blame it for thinking it would win this little spat. If Draxton wanted to win this he would need to analyze every little move it made so if the cat had any patterns he could more easily strategize around them.

After approximately nine seconds of circling the cat suddenly bounded out of the bushes low to the ground and leapt forward at a shallow angle, straight at his center of mass once it had cleared the foliage. Draxton narrowly dodged the assault and watched as the cat fluidly landed and disappeared among the trees. The next attack came approximately two seconds after Draxton lost sight of it as it deftly leapt from a tree for an aerial attack. This time, Draxton wasn't able to fully dodge the attack and as he tried to roll was nicked on the back. Again, the cat retreated to the undergrowth to plan another attack.

Draxton didn't have to wait for long, he had barely gotten back up when the cat leapt directly for him with a paw raised in what looked like an incoming swipe. Instincts suddenly kicked in and Draxton jumped back as fast as he could. He had fortunately been able to dodge the attack quick enough and saw that instead of following through with the attack it made a ninety-degree turn to his left and returned to the bushes, three seconds.

This was just perfect, the creature didn't stick around for consecutive attacks instead opted for vicious potshots, so unless he gained the ability to read the future in the next ten seconds he was probably going to lose this fight. Unfortunately, for him predicting the future was not so easily acquired by merely wishing for it. To make matters worse this cat wasn't repeating any attacks so trying to analyze movements was just a waste of his time and mental skills. To add to the situation the attacks seemed to be coming faster, the cat had figured out how long it took him to recover and was going to exploit this flaw to finally get its prey.

The bushes to Draxtons rear right exploded with the cats latest attack, the attacks were getting so frequent Draxton had stopped trying to keep facing it as it was only wasting his energy, he was fortunately able to roll to his right to avoid the worst of the attack but was still grazed in his upper left arm as the beast flew past when he got back to his feet he was met with the cat hurtling towards him from a tree to gain a higher angle of attack. again he was not quick enough to dodge the strike but this time he sustained four deep lacerations down his right arm as he tried to duck to the left.

Again, the cat returned to the underbrush, as fast as Draxton could he took out a blood vial and stuck himself to start the healing process. That last attack, he had seen it before, it was the same attack it had done when he started to analyze the cats bombardments. Since that was the attack that seemed to have the most success in injuring him no doubt it was going to repeat the procedure to get the desired results, and since its subsequent attack was a more resounding success he had no doubt it would do it again, that's how he would win.

Just as he expected the cat leapt from the bushes in front of him at the same shallow angle. Instead of trying to dance around the beast's attack he rolled forward into the attack to dodge beneath it. When he got onto the other side of the cat he would need to get up almost instantly to mount his counterattack. Since trying his usual strategy for countering after an attack was hopeless he would need to intercept the attack as soon as it was launched and the two-second window he was given meant he needed to get up, turn around and at the same time prepare his attack in one fluid motion. When the cat was finally clear of him he jumped to his feet and raised his scythe above himself while turning around, if he was going to kill it he was going to make sure it learned just what it had picked a fight with.

Everyone was beyond terrified by what they had just witnessed, not only were they just in significant danger but whatever they had decided to lead back to Ponyville had just decided to stay behind to protect them and possibly get killed. Rarity was leading the charge through the forest hoping to Celestia that she was heading in the direction of the castle but the matter that they still hadn't reached it, even when running, was starting to lead to a loss of hope. Pinkie Pie was right behind Rarity, her hair betraying her feelings on the matter by having significantly deflated since they had first been attacked. Applejack had taken to the rear of the panic driven mob, not out of lack of speed but from the fact she was having to carry Rainbow Dash, and trying to keep her friend from slipping while still trying to run as fast as she possibly could was not the best recipe for leading any charges.

The friends had been running all out for the last ten minutes and the strain was starting to get to them. When they finally cleared the treeline they were met with the sight of Ponyville in front of them and Fluttershy's cottage not too far to their right. They had finally made it out of the Everfree but they were still in panic mode from what they had just been through so without a thought they instantly made a beeline for Fluttershy's cottage.
In their manic desire to get to some form of safety properly opening a door was merely a formality. Pinkie rushed ahead of Rarity and broke down the door to expedite their trip into the cottage. When the other two had made it in Pinkie slammed the door closed and quickly started to block off the door with almost all the available furniture.

“Whats going on down there, is someone in trouble,” Twilight called down, panic evident in her tone as she rushed down the stairs. When she reached the bottom she was met by the front door with everything but the kitchen sink piled in front of it and her friends in the fetal position on the other side of the room save for Rainbow Dash who was still knocked unconscious. “What happened to you girls, and where's the hunter!?”

“It was awful Twilight, we were just walking through the forest and then some mean and scary monster decided to attack us. we decided to run to try to get away but whatever it was just too fast. The angry birdie protected us for a while but then got hurt and told us to run away because he wanted to fight it alone,” Pinkie explained

“HE DID WHAT,” Twilight knew the hunter was skilled but to decide to fight a beast of the Everfree alone, in its own territory no less, was downright asking to be killed. She needed to get to him before it was too late. “what direction did you come from, I need to help him.”

“Twi, I know what y’all are thinkin but I just ain't sure any of us would be able to help that hunter,” Applejacks tone made it evident that she felt out of her league, almost exactly how Fluttershy had been feeling since she had met back up with her. Something about this human seemed to sap the hope and self-confidence from anyone he was around.

“I need to go find him, Fluttershy is upstairs caring for the timberwolf, if you one of you could go up and keep her company I would really appreciate it,” Twilight declared before teleporting away, preventing any objections from being voiced.

When Twilight reappeared as the main entrance to the Everfree she instantly took off, if anyone knew where the hunter would be it would be Zecora. She needed to hurry, Twilight didn't think the hunter would be able to win the fight alone, so if she could prevent a life form being lost she would do so.

It wasn't long before Twilight reached Zecora's hut and she couldn't have been happier to see the zebra was still at home. With a couple of overly zealous knocks, Twilight impatiently awaited for the door to open. When it finally did she was greeted with the smiling face of one of her closest friends.

“Ah, Twilight, it has been a while. I hope that your trip was not much of a trial.”

“I would love to stay and chat Zecora but I’m dealing with an emergency at the moment. Would you be able to tell me if you know where a fight would be occurring now? He was following my friends back to Ponyville be for he was attacked and told my friends to flee while he held the attacker off.”

“This seems like an important piece of information hold now while I prepare an incantation,” Zecora seemed to take on a very serious tone and proceeded to gather odds and ends for what she was planning. Every move she made looked very deliberate and thoughtful, Zecora didn't look for anything instead going right to materials in a well-practiced dance.

“I don't want to interrupt but you look like you've practiced this before, what is it?”

“What you see before you is a potion I use in meditation, it allows me to listen to the forest with the aid of translation. I look so practiced in its creation for it is a necessity in my situation,”Zecora responded as she dropped several elderberries into a goard shortly followed by some coltsfoot and fireweed.

“Is there anything you would like me to help with,” Twilight asked, it felt kind of wrong to come to Zecora and deplete her stocks just to help her find someone.

“I require a substance to break down the mix, I would appreciate it if you could grab me the bottle marked six.”

Twilight ran over to the shelves on the other side of the tree and looked for the requested bottle, she found it sitting on the middle shelf near the end. Twilight thought she would remove the cap for Zecora to help speed up the process but when she opened the bottle she was hit with the most rancid scent she could have possibly imagined. The best way to describe the horror was being thrown into a stallions locker room during a hot day after hoofball practice. She almost released the bottle from her magical grip the scent was so bad. It was at this moment she couldn't decide if she regretted or enjoyed that equines could not easily vomit.

“I can see that you wanted to increase the pace, I should inform you this is not a race,” Zecora stated with a barely contained chuckle, “What you smell before you is from the fruit of the norid though I must admit it does smell horrid. It is the only fruit I have found that has enough acid to not render the ingredients entirely placid.”

Twilight eagerly handed over the bottle to Zecora and bolted to the front door, she needed to get some fresh air because there was no way she was going to stay in the room any long as that bottle remained open. when she got outside she took a deep breath and leaned against a nearby tree for support. when Zecora finally finished with her concoction she stepped outside and motioned for her to follow her deeper into the forest. The two finally stopped in front of a tree in the middle of a small glade. The tree's roots seemed to initially come out of the ground before swiftly diving straight back down. Zecora put the potion she had been carrying down before motioning for Twilight to stand back slightly.

“Let me look to the forest and call for its knowledge, let us just hope that my call is acknowledged,” Zecora stated picking up the potion, taking out the stopper, and dropping a portion of the potion onto an exposed root and drinking the remainder. She then placed a hoof on the tree and closed her eyes in concentration, trying to reach out to the pulse of the forest and receive an answer to help her friend in her pursuit. The forests response hit her far faster than it had ever in the past, flooding her mind with the life auras of the forest, but what the forest specifically showed her was a dome, a dome of pure black greater than any she had ever seen. Usually, when a creature died naturally or was killed by a hunt the body would turn black to the forests eyes and leek off some shadow but nothing natural could have caused this. The only reason she could come up with for why the area was a void of death was something within it fed off the energy of death, consuming the darkness to empower itself. She could only make out two very faint lights in the darkness, one barely being visible most likely on the verge of death. Unfortunately, neither light showed what individual it represented so Zecora could not tell if Twilight's friend was the one on the verge of death or worse yet, the killer. Zecora suddenly became very pale, “The forest has responded and its answer has taken my breath, your friend is surrounded by the aura of death. I wish not to worry you as to your friends fate but I fear it might be too late.”

“That's not possible, where is he, I need to get there immediately.”

Zecora solemnly pointed to her left and Twilight instantly took off, she needed to see what had happened and if she could help him however she could.

She had been running for what seemed like an hour before she started to smell a musty scent in the air, at first, she wrote it off as an unknown plant in the forest until her palate started to taste like she had been sucking on a bit of metal. She couldn’t tell what it was until memories of watching open heart surgery flooded into her mind. Now she remembered exactly what it was, blood, and judging by the strength it was fresh. Twilight cast a spell to dampen her sense of smell and frantically started to search for the human.

It didn't take long to find where the smell of blood was coming from, Twilight almost ran right past a small open patch of the forest when she saw a large hairy creature lying near the middle. It took her a second to recognize it but when she did it was as if a wendigo had materialized on top of her. The animal before her was a Bladenboro beast, one of the fastest and most dangerous creatures to roam Equestria. The species was responsible for at least four deaths a year. The problem was so bad, in areas known to have one they required travelers to be accompanied by armed guards. She was about to slowly creep away until an all too familiar voice broke the silence

“I take it you didn't find your friend.”

Twilight snapped her head in the direction the voice had come from and was greeted by the human sitting under a tree in front of the beast smoking a cigaret. Twilight ran towards the hunter to check how hurt he was but just as she was about to reach him she heard quiet whimpers come from the beast.

She looked over to the beast and saw that she had missed something on her initial evaluation of the creature. She now saw a large stick ending in a piece of metal coming out of the beast's body. The hunter hadn’t yet killed the beast and had left it to suffer for Celestia knows how long. But the worst part was the face of the creature was currently wearing, the same face she had seen on the injured wolf, one of utter devastation and dread. The beast didn't look like the fearsome persona she had come to read about, instead, it looked like one of the orphaned bunnies Fluttershy had taken in months ago, scared beyond belief and begging for help.

Twilight had to turn away, the pain of looking at the creature in front of her. “ Why are you just sitting there, couldn't you have just killed it, can't you see it's suffering,” Twilight hated fact but she understood that many beings such as griffins were biologically required to eat meat and if this human was like them it wasn't right for her to try to make him feel bad about something he couldn't control but leaving an animal to suffer was another matter entirely.

“Don't worry, when I pull my blade out it will die. I had been hoping to hit his heart but I was only able to puncture a lung, I’m getting sloppy,” the human responded apathetically, as if he was describing how to maintain a garden when half asleep, “It should die of asphyxiation in minutes once it's blood floods the lung.”

His last sentence struck a nerve in Twilight, she looked straight into his blood red eye, furrowing her brow, trying with all her might to not outright explode in his face, “How is that any better, he still has to suffer a painful death for no reason,” she demanded almost shouting at the hunter. There was no way anything could be this cruel and flippant to another's misery.

The hunter didn't say anything, instead, he tossed his cigaret off to his right and stood up from against the tree and proceeded to the beast and crouched down. The hunter then put one hand on the creature's neck just behind the head and one hand on the creatures bottom jaw. Twilight was taken aback by what she was witnessing before she observed the most gruesome thing she could have possibly imagined. The hunter in one forceful move started to twist the creature's head at an unnatural angle before pops started to occur. Each pop was moist and uneven, almost like a group of fillies had started to trot on dried leafs whilst taking a bundle of sticks all at once. These pops leading to the most sickening crack she had ever heard, it was as if somepony had taken a bite out of a potato chip, only one made out of bone and sinew. The hunter had just snapped this creature's neck with all the care as one might expect someone to fold the laundry.

The hunter stood up, placed his foot on the creature's corpse next to the weapon and pulled it out. When the hunter had fully removed his weapon Twilight noticed it was the pony sized blade she had seen back at the hunter's home only it had been attached to a long misshapen pole. It registered in the back of Twilight's mind that the force to drive a blade that big up to the hilt was insane, a feat she didn't think many minotaurs could even accomplish, but that wasn't what was occupying the majority of her thoughts at the moment. What she was currently trying to come to terms with was the fact she had just witnessed a being she had trusted to bring back to Ponyville kill a creature so apathetically.

“There, it's dead and no longer suffering. Now if you don't mind I’m going to follow the path you friends took out of here, I hate forests.”
It took a few seconds for Twilight to break out of her shock and register what he had just said and turn to follow, but as she turned she just caught a glimpse at what she thought were tears on the Bladenboro beast's muzzle underneath its vacant lifeless eyes.

The walk back to Ponyville was silent and uneventful, Twilight had thought it was safe to lower her scent spell before but once she did the memories of the glade rushed back to her and she needed to recast the spell immediately. What was she going to do, she couldn't bring the hunter into Ponyville, and if she didn't keep him away from Fluttershy's cottage…

“Oof.” Twilight hadn't been paying attention and had walked straight into the hunter.

“I take it this was the town you were speaking of,” the hunter stated looking straight at the center of town,”I’m wondering why your friends went to the house over there instead of going into the town proper.”

“That's Fluttershy's house, the friend I went back to grab,” Twilight responded almost reflexively before turning pale, how did he know where her friends were at without him seeing them go in there. She needed to stop him if he planned to follow them to the cottage.

“I think it would be best if I took you to my house for the night. If it's alright with you I would prefer it if I teleported us there.” The hunter didn't initially respond to her and it took several seconds, thou to Twilight it felt like minutes, for her to finally get a reply.

“Sounds decent enough”

Twilight internally sighed with relief, one less thing to worry about. As she was preparing to cast her spell she saw the hunter kneel down, lower his head and place his hand on her shoulder. His touch sent shivers down her spine, every instinct she had was telling her to run as far and as fast away from here as she could, who knows how many he had killed with those hands, whos and whats blood was currently being placed on her. She wanted that hand off her immediately so as fast as she could she cast the spell to teleport them to the front hallway.
When they arrived Twilight felt unexplainably relieved to have the hunter remove his hand and stand back up. she needed to write a letter to Celestia immediately but not before she had the hunter isolated to a room.

“Your room should be up the stairs, to the left and the last room on the right,” Twilight told the hunter in a barely controlled mania, she would not start her paper until she knew where her visitor would be so when she followed him upstairs and turned right to her room she just couldn't take her eyes off the hunter, watching as he slowly made his way the guest room that she usually reserved for visiting dignitaries. When he finally opened the door and went in she threw open her own door and bolted inside.
Twilight quickly grabbed a quill, a jar of ink, and a piece of parchment and furiously started to compose her letter to Celestia.
Dear Celestia,
I have just come back from my exploration into the disturbance in the Everfree and have discovered that the anomaly was coming from an old cemetery, but this was not the most significant discovery. A species that has never been recorded calling itself a human was living in the cemetery. I had originally thought that it would be pertinent to bring him back to Ponyville but I have recently discovered that the human is a trained killer, far more adept at the craft than any that have been recorded. I am currently housing him in my castle for fear of what he might do alone given that he had learned of Ponyville's whereabouts when I asked him to accompany our group back. I would ask that you and your sister come here to Ponyville as soon as possible to help in this matter.
Sincerely,
Twilight

With the letter completed Twilight grabbed the parchment, rolled it up and sealed it with her usual ribbon. she then hurried downstairs and to the map room, Spike usually decided to read his comics or watch hoofball whenever she was out. When she finally got to the door and more or less slammed it open she was relieved to see she wasn't wrong about her assistant.

Spike who had been lying in his chair reading a comic sat bolt upright, tensing up like every muscle had suddenly been pulled taut, almost ripping the book from the shock of the door nearly being ripped off its hinges. When he placed his book down and looked over to see who had barged in he was greeted by a sealed parchment in his face.

“I need you to sent this to Celestia Spike, it's important she gets this post hast,” Twilight barked out

“Twilight what's the matter, I thought you were over at Fluttershy's’. By the way, none of your friends have come back yet,” Spike replied, worried for Twilight, he hadn't seen her this stressed in a long time, it was like since the gowrow incident several years back.

“Everyone's already at the cottage, I just need this letter sent, could you please just do that”

“Alright Twilight, you don't need to snap at me,” Spike replied defensively, breathing out his usual green flame to send the letter after the letter had completely disintegrated Spike felt like he could finally talk, “Twilight whatever the problem is I can help, you kn-” a burp interrupted Spike as a letter had been sent back to Twilight who grabbed it as fast as she could and began to read it.
My Dearest Twilight,
I regret to inform you that Luna and I have been summoned to the Zebra Nations in regards to the disturbance in the Everfree. Apparently the anomaly has been felt by their great shamans and they have requested to know what we know on the matter. I have instructed one of my trusted assistants to send me any mail that pertains to the matter when they receive it, this means that this letter was made before my departure and is not a direct response. If you require immediate help please inform your brother on the matter and ask for his assistance.
Sincerely.
Celestia

Twilight felt like she had just been given a report card saying she had failed. The Zebra Nations were seventeen hours away from Equestria when flying so she would have to wait for at least two days. What am I going to do with the hunter for two days, there is no way she will be able to keep her sanity for several days with what she knew about who she was housing. She hadn't even considered Spikes safety yet, as long as she had that hunter in her home Spike needed to know what was going on.

“Spike, whatever you do not go near the guest bedroom,I brought something extremely dangerous into the castle and I’m not sure how safe it is to be around,” Twilight said with as much seriousness as she could convey as she grabbed Spike in her magic and looked him dead in the eyes.

“Alright Twilight, I promise, but if it's really so dangerous why did you leave it in an unlocked room,” Spike inquired, it didn't seem like Twilight to gloss over such an important detail.

Spike was instantly dropped onto his tail as Twilight went rushing to the guest room. How had she been so careless, she had left the hunter unattended without locking the door what if he had left the room and went to terrorize the town and hack up the school ponies. When she reached the top of the stairs and finally got to the end of the hall she saw that the door to the room had been closed, maybe she was to late and had missed the start of the genocide he was about to unleash. So, feeling like a bucket of ice water had been dumped on her she slowly opened the door. What met her gaze when she cracked the door open was the hunter sitting on the bed writing in what looked like a small journal. The relief that Twilight felt at that moment was unimaginable, the hunter was simply sitting on a bed writing, nothing she wouldn't be doing given the current situation.

Twilight walked away from the room and back to Spike, maybe she had been overreacting and overestimating the danger the hunter posed. She felt exhausted, the Grand Equestria Pony Summit had nothing on the amount of stress she had gone through today. All Twilight wanted to do was head to her room and pass out but she had been away from Spike for most of the day and it didn't seem right of her to just come home, yell at him, scare him possible to death of what was going on, and then just go to sleep; besides, he was probably going to stay up till sunset before heading to bed.

“It was just a false alarm, I may have just been overreacting,” Twilight yawned out as she entered the map room, Spike for his part looked relieved before resuming a look of concern.

“Shouldn't you be in bed Twi? You look like you just you haven't slept in days,” Spike wasn't a fan of when Twilight put herself through the ringer to keep ponies safe, it wasn't particularly good for either of their bills of health.

“I’ll be fine Spike. I don't want to leave you alone when the sun's still out, I haven’t been spending enough time with you lately and me leaving you alone for most of the day and panicking you when I come back doesn't seem very fair.”

“Twi, it's been sundown for some time now, you’ve been gone ALL day” Spike was now very worried, Twilight only lost track of time like this when she was involved in something she had a great interest in or when she went full panic mode, “Twilight you just go to bed and I’ll be up when I put my comics away.”

Spike was right as he usually was when it came to her well being. So with the energy she had left she walked back up to her room and collapsed on her bed, barely bothering with the covers. With how this day had turned out, she was hoping that Luna would grant her with a good dream in a library so she could get this day behind her.

Author's Note

I give up. I've been trying to get this thru editing for the last month but with no headway, so fuck it, here's the chapter warts and all. If the last half of the chapter seems rough that's because it hasn't been edited.

Unpleasant reality

All minds are but seedlings, thirsting for knowledge. But even Starswirl and Celestia have only just germinated, we on the other hoof have grown to become great oaks from the apprehension afforded to our teacher.” Midnight Abyss, High Archmage of Metvalalies

-Unpleasant reality-

A beam of light crept across Twilight's face, beckoning her back from her slumber. Twilight at first tried to cover her head to continue her reprieve but the day had other plans and had prompted the songbirds to start their morning calls to spite Twilight's desires. Eventually, the morning won out and Twilight got out of her bed. She noticed Spike wasn't in his bed, it probably meant he had gotten up before her, an unusual occurrence but with the new guest here and all the fuss she had made yesterday over his presence she doubted he wouldn’t try to see what the hunter was like. It didn't really bother her that Spike had broken his promise when she had him take it she had been overreacting. It was curious that she hadn't had a dream last night, though, but with Luna away from Equestria, it made some sense. On the bright side if it was true no Luna meant no nightmares

Now that she was out of bed and much more stable than yesterday she started her morning routine. Twilight stretched her back, wings, and legs to jump start her circulation. After she finished her stretching she took a deep breath thru her nostrils, only to be hit with the rancid scent of old blood. Twilight gagged from what she had just inhaled. If she was the one to be housing the hunter she was going to need to have him take a bath and wash his clothes. So with a sigh, Twilight set off for the guest room.

When Twilight opened her door she was hit by a wall of odor. The scent of blood hung thick in the air but wasn't bad enough that she felt the need to cast her scent deprivation spell. As she approached the door for the guest room she couldn't help but notice the smell wasn't getting worse. It seemed odd that the scent of blood seemed to be spread evenly throughout the castle, she knew the air flow in the castle wasn’t the best given the lack of opening windows but she never thought it could get this bad.

“Good morning Mr. hunter, I hope-” When Twilight opened the door she was greeted by an empty room. The room looked just like it had before she had invited the hunter, everything was in order save for the bed sheets being slightly misaligned but that was nothing she couldn't handle herself. She would have to thank the hunter for being such a courteous guest. The hunter had probably woken up earlier and headed down to eat or wait for her to wake up.

As Twilight walked towards the stairs it occurred to her that it was more than likely the hunter and Spike were together at the moment. She didn't outright hate the idea but with what she knew about the hunter he was not exactly the best influence especially since he spoke so bluntly; however, given his propensity towards minimalism she doubted if Spike would want to talk for very long since he preferred the stories over just plain information.

As Twilight was descending the stairs she noticed that there was a large trail of blood starting at the front door and ending at the door to the throne room. So much for being a good guest. The hunter had likely gone back to get the bladenboro beast, probably to fix himself breakfast; given she almost never had meat in the castle except when she knew a dignitary would be visiting that required it. Now that she thought about it if Spike was with the hunter he was probably being taught how to properly butcher an animal. It sent shivers down her spine to think that Spike was learning such things but to some extent she knew it was to some degree inevitable. She learned that Spike was a species of dragon that was omnivorous a few years back when at a celebration of the Pony Gryphon Peace Accords she noticed he kept going back for food from the gryphon banquet table. She found out later that he was eating something called Beef Roulade, a popular gryphon dish. When Spike asked her if she wanted to try any she had to decline and tell him why. Spike didn't eat for some time after that. Since then he had promised that he would never eat meat again, but the extended looks she had seen him give towards gryphon dinners as of late was making the future of that promise questionable.

The closer she went to the throne room door the worse the smell became, she hoped to Celestia that the blood wouldn't be absorbed into the walls and floor and require everything to be acid washed. When she found the hunter he was going to be cleaning this whole mess up, every time she lifted her hoof the blood made a wet squelch that sent shivers down her spine when she thought about what she was walking through.

“I hope you were planning to-” Twilight started up as she opened the door to the throne room, only to be rendered speechless by what she was seeing.

Positioned on each seat was one of her friends sitting how they normally would, however, each of their heads had been cleaved clean off. Blood had started to flow from the wounds, running down each of their barrels onto the chairs before reaching the edge and creating a separate waterfall for each of them. Even Spike was given the grotesque treatment. If Twilight was wondering where the heads had gone the dripping on the table clued her in. Hanging from the tree root chandelier hung each of the heads. The heads had been tied to the roots using the blood-soaked manes of the victim, with the exception being Spike who had instead been impaled thru the eyes into the roots. The blood that had dripped down had covered the table and had now begun to slowly drip onto the floor. The scene before her made every cell in her body turn ice cold.

She had been right to not have trusted the hunter, why did she ever think that that monster could have ever been trusted. It occurred to Twilight that she wasn't being attacked and had not seen the hunter yet. The hairs on the back of Twilight's neck stood on end, the hunter was without a doubt out in Ponyville. Twilight instantly turned to put the gruesome scene behind her and bolted towards the front door. She needed to save as many ponies as she could, there was no way for her to stop the hunter now without the help of the princesses. As Twilight ran to the front door she kept slipping, the fact that the floor had always been kept extremely smooth and blood had very similar properties as water made traction a thing of the past, resulting in Twilight becoming covered in blood.

When she finally made it to the door and flung it open the only thing that came to her mind was despair. Before her stood the town of Ponyville only looking as if Sombra had returned although without a sense of morality. She had to find the hunter and try to stop him or delay him long enough for some pony to alert the royal guard. She galloped down the streets only to witness a continuation of the carnage from the throne room. Along the streets bodies lay gutted and butchered, blood flowed along downhill cracks in the roads creating small streams of ichor. Most of the street lamps had somepony impaled on them, mostly through the head; however the worst of these were the rare bodies hung upside down with the front hooves tied together and the intestines hanging from their opened guts.

Tears welled up in Twilight's eyes, she had been responsible for everyone's safety and she had failed; now everyone was most likely dead. She felt like dropping down and crying her eyes out. This desire was soon ended as a sudden explosion shook the town. Twilight looked to her right only to see the remains of a magical blast fade from behind a building. A second smaller explosion shortly followed, sending several wheelbarrows worth of earth into the air only a few buildings to the left of the first explosion.

She had no doubt there was at least one survivor-possibly two still alive and trying to fend off the hunter. She needed to go and help them before she was left as the sole survivor of this massacre. She ran towards a gap between two houses to get to the other side, it would take too long if she tried to run around the buildings and the fastest route was right between the buildings.

The gap between the buildings was fairly snug, no so much for her barrel to be touching both walls but if she needed to turn around she doubted she could do so without scraping her horn. As she was making her way through she noticed that many inhabitants had crawled into this ally to save themselves from the hunter. Moans and cries for help echoed off the walls, creating a miserable chorus of pain and death. Twilight closed her eyes and trotted slightly faster down the alley, she wanted nothing more than to stop to help these ponies only her current situation demanded she reach the survivors fighting off the hunter to make sure there weren't any more casualties today.

When she reached the other end of the ally ran into a small pegasus, knocking them over. When she looked down she saw it was one of the crusaders classmates, Featherweight. Blood rushed from Twilight's face, she remembered Featherweight’s mom being one of the many bodies that now adorned the street lamps around town. What made it even worse was that most of Featherweight’s face seemed to have been used to stop a particularly bad fall. Most of his face was bleeding from a multitude of cuts and scrapes several inches long with many exposing bone. Most of the cuts had bits of rock and wood embedded into them creating a grotesque pin board out of the poor colts skull, even one of his ears looked like some sadistic pony had grabbed hold of it and forcefully ripped it off. However, the eyes were what drew the most attention. Both of them were tightly shut with one eyelid cut open just enough to make it obvious that he had completely lost the eye.

Another explosion rocked the town, obviously, a strong unicorn was still fighting off the hunter she, needed to get there quickly before everything got worse. She quickly apologized to Featherweight and prepared to run off before a hoof grabbed her left hind leg.

“Is that you Miss Twilight?”

Twilight looked back, it was Featherweight.

“Please, I need your help. I was going to the store with my mom and then everyone started to scream and run and I got separated from her. Everyone kept screaming there was a monster so I hid in a trash can ‘til everyone stopped screaming. When I finally got out everyone was on the ground bleeding, I tried to wake them up but nothing worked, ” Featherweight sounded more scared as he continued the story, “I was running over to the hospital to get help when a spell came out of nowhere and everything hurt and I couldn't see, and I tried to call out for help but no one called back and I tried to keep going to the hospital,” Featherweight collapsed onto his hindquarters and lowered his head as blood-soaked tears started to run from his long gone eyes and down his muzzle as he choked out one last barely audible addition, “and I just want my mommy.”

Every fiber of Twilight's being was screaming at her to comfort the colt, reassure him that everything would be alright. Only she knew it wouldn't. He had lost both his eyes and his mother in one day, how could she ever comfort him knowing that everything that came out of her mouth was a blatant lie. Another explosion occurred not too far from them pulling Twilight back to the situation at hoof.

“I know you're scared, I am too. I promise that I will do everything I can to help you but right now there are ponies out there that really need my help now, but when I get back you’ll be my number one priority.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

“Ok.”

With that Twilight gently lifted Featherweight off the ground with her magic and placed him in the alley behind an old wooden pallet and asked if he would stay there till she got back, he only nodded in understanding, too emotional to find his voice.

When Twilight was sure Featherweight was safe she galloped down the street towards where the explosions had been coming from. The building had become engulfed in flames with several collapsed from what she assumed to be retaliation by the unicorn fighting off the hunter. She was about to turn towards town hall to see if the hunter and survivors had run that direction until she saw an ominous black figure standing near the end of the street with its back to her.

She had finally found the hunter, only he wasn't moving. Hope temporarily rose up in her that he had been defeated but reality decided that it needed to rear its ugly head. She remembered yesterday when she had found the hunter sitting across from the Bladenboro breast he had defeated with barely a scratch on him. The entire town had been slaughtered, how could she even think for a moment that such an efficient killer could be bested by some unknown unicorn. No, there was only one reason he would be so still.

Twilight channeled all her mana and all the mana she could pull into a spell to stop this hunter. She didn't care that without manipulating the spell she couldn’t know what she was casting if it ended being a spell in the first place, she just wanted to put an end to this madness. When she could no longer hold any more mana in her horn she launched a cart sized mass of pure mana straight at the back of the evil monster she had brought to the town.

Just as the spell left her horn the hunter spun around and flung a large white and red mass straight at the oncoming spell. When the white mass collided with the spell a loud, quick, uneven crack resounded throughout the entire street. The spell, however, had not been enough to stop the white mass as it continued towards her before falling to the ground and eventually coming to a stop at her hooves. It was only when she looked down did she realize what had been thrown at her.

At her hooves lay the battered and bloody corpse if princess Celestia. Most of her body was cut and bruised from her fight with the hunter. A large hole in her abdomen signaling that the hunter had used the giant blade to impale the princess had started to leak a fair amount of blood onto the surrounding dirt. Twilight realized that the red she had seen wasn't the cuts and bruises but the princess’s mane. Her usual multicolored flowing hair was now soaked in her own blood and plastered to the side of her face, speaking of which was now upside down. Celestia's entire skull had been wrenched so far that several vertebrae had broken and now pushed up the skin creating unsightly bumps. Her mouth hung open in a silent scream of terror.

“I must commend you. I had no idea one of your kind could be so cruel.”

The hunter’s statement drew Twilight's eyes away from her former mentor. The hunter was facing her with that horrible blade still caked in blood. He even looked to be smiling at her.

“What are you talking about? I’ve do nothing, except let you in.”

“Ah, but the body before you speaks against that statement. You see, when I threw that pony at you, they were still alive. Granted, you didn't mean to kill them, but the fact you were willing to try to snap my neck speaks volumes about who you really are.”

“No that's not true,” Twilight could not accept she had just killed someone she considered family, the hunter had to be lying to try to hurt her.

“Oh but it is. Before you cast that spell at me I was having a nice little chat with her about how things were going to be from now on. To protect myself I threw her at your spell before it could hit me. Now her blood is on your hooves, along with everypony else you let die.”

As the hunter finished his rebuttal Twilight could feel her front hooves start to become very wet. When she looked down the blood from Celestia had started to creep towards her, as if drawn by magic. She tried to back away and shake off the blood but nothing was working, the blood still followed her like a well-trained dog. She kept retreating back until she stepped in a puddle and could feel a sensation of something crawling up her back legs. When she looked back it was more blood, only this was a river of the foul ichor carrying the corpses of the deceased towards her. She couldn't move a muscle, this was just too much for her to handle. Slowly the blood started to cover her entire body. It wasn't until what she assumed to be a hoof touched her flank was she knocked out of her stupor and back to the situation at hand. Her body had been mostly covered by the blood and was only getting higher. Twilight tried to knock the blood off her, even summoning a broom made of magic to beat off as much of the blood as she could but it was no use, the foul liquid kept climbing its way up her body. The blood was starting to go into her mouth and nose, it tasted worse than anything she could imagine. She tried to scream for help but the blood had started to fill her mouth, making it impossible, she had to settle for choked cries and tears as she was covered from hoof to horn. The last thing she saw before the blood covered her eyes was the sight of the hunter smiling at her predicament.

Twilight sat up from her bed faster than she ever had before, a cold sweat covering her body. She quickly looked around her room, everything was its usual place, even Spike was snoring in his bed. A quick look towards the window showed that it was still dark, likely early morning with a few hours left before sunrise. Twilight laid back on her side and curled into the fetal position. She refused to go back to sleep if there was any possibility of returning to that nightmare.

Twilight stayed in that position until the sun came up, and even then it took Spike shaking her to bring her back to the real world.

“Twilight, are you ok. You’ve just been laying there like a statue, it's kind of scaring me.”

“It's ok Spike, it was just a bad dream,” Twilight replied stifling the yawn that was forming.

“Was it about our new guest? You know you can send for some guards if they're scaring you this badly,” Spike was concerned for Twilight's sanity. He had seen her countless times before having terrible nightmares, mostly over failing a test, and it always, without fail, resulted in Twilight being emotionally broken for days on end.

“I’m fine Spike if the hunter causes any problems I’m sure I’ll be able to handle him. How about you go down and get breakfast ready and I'll check on the guest.”

Spike looked at Twilight skeptically but headed downstairs to the kitchen to start breakfast. Twilight was glad Spike was concerned for her but right now she needed to see if she was willing to trust the hunter. If she was willing to stand by her title as princess she should be willing to put more faith in others, and bringing in the royal guard because of her fears just felt like going against that.

It took almost another half an hour but Twilight finally got down from her bed, did her stretches, this time skipping the deep inhale, and trotted out into the hall. As she was heading to the hunters room she couldn't help but remember what she had happened in the dream, every step seemed to remind her of the nightmare; but she couldn't let her fears control her. So taking a deep breath and doing the exercise Cadence had taught her she twisted the handle and opened the door.

In front of her was the same guest bedroom she had seen several times before, everything looked untouched. The only difference she could see was that I the middle of the room laid two open coffins. Twilight grew pale, had she been right about the hunter, was he planning to kill her and Spike? Twilight hurried downstairs, not running but definitely not walking. Her mind raced trying to reason through why the hunter had two open coffins in his room but every time she was drawn back to him planning to kill her and Spike.

When she arrived at the kitchen she opened the door, perhaps too vigorously, only to be met with the sight of the hunter leaning against the counter across from her drinking from a fairly dented metal cup while Spike went around making breakfast. The hunter had obviously changed his clothes, he was currently dressed what looked like a long grey overcoat and pants. It reminded her of the Minotaur’s formal dress for equestrian parties and delegations. He was still wearing the same grey pointed hat with the fabric that covered his right eye.

“Coffee is on the stove,” the hunter plainly stated after taking a sip from his own cup.

“Thank you, I appreciate the gesture.”

Twilight meandered over to the stove and looked into the pot that the hunter had likely been referring to. It was the darkest coffee she had ever seen, if it wasn't for the fact that about half the pot was already gone she would have mistaken the glass of the pot for something like cast iron. Twilight, not wanting to be inconsiderate, opened the cabinet where she stored her mugs, retrieved one, and poured about half a cup, just in case. When she finally took a sip she instantly regretted her good nature. The coffee was as purely black as it could possibly be, its bitterness refused to leave her mouth, staying almost as strong as when it first entered, even after she had quickly swallowed it all. The coffee also tasted like it had been thoroughly burned, attacking the back of her throat like a furious beaver. She had to put the cup down before she accidentally took another sip out of habit.

“If you don't like black coffee why didn't you add milk and sugar?’

Twilight looked at the hunter and saw his usual even expression. It really unnerved her that the entire emotional spectrum the hunter had displayed thus far was anger and apathy.

“I didn't think it would be that bitter, I need to test what the coffee tastes like first before I add anything.”

“Fair enough,” the hunter replied before pouring another cup of the coffee and resuming his place on the counter

“How can you even drink that, I don't even think Pinkie could stomach it,” Twilight asked as she grabbed the milk from the fridge and the sugar from the cabinet in an attempt to make the drink halfway palatable.

“When your usual cup uses no more than five beans, you learn to appreciate stronger brews.”

Twilight was about to inquire into why the hunter was so used to weak coffee when Spike set down a plate of pancakes and hay bacon for her.

“Breakfast is served.” Spike enthusiastically stated before turning to the hunter, “I can make you something too. I recently learned to-”

“I’m fine with just coffee”

“Oh, ok then,” Spike sounded fairly disheartened that the hunter had shot him down before even hearing him out, but quickly perked back up and resumed his questions for the hunter, “I didn't want to disturb you while you were making the coffee but I've got to know, Where are you from.”

“Lostendav”

“I've never heard of it, is it near Equestria,” Spike asked, while pouring himself a bowl of cereal.

“No.”

“So you had to travel quite a bit to get here, did you see anything exciting,” this got Spike excited, if their new guest was from far away he had to have some exciting stories.

“Not particularly.”

Twilight could barely contain a smile at Spikes mounting frustration. After the hunter had quickly shot down yet another of Spikes questions Spike looked to be ready to scream out in frustration. It was really setting her mind at ease how… well… normal the hunter was. Well he wasn't exactly normal by any stretch of the imagination, the approximately two dozen words he had uttered in total since first meeting him being just the cherry on top of his strangeness; but the fact that he wasn't the genocidal monster she had dreamt him to be was all that mattered to her now. The only thing that was keeping her from fully calming down was the one question she had since seeing the guest room.

“If you don't mind me asking, why do you have two coffins in your room?”

“They're my storage containers. I figured your princesses are going to want me to accompany them back to their castle.”

“What do you have in them?”

“Weapons, clothes, and other supplies for hunting.”

Spike slammed his claw down onto the table and pointed his spoon at the hunter and proceeded to shout with all his anger, “why does she get actual responses when I only get one-word answers?!”

“She asks the right questions.”

The human barely seemed to be registering Spikes fury, and this only worsened the situation. Twilight had to magically restrain Spike as he tried to jump off the seat and get into the hunter's face.

“I think what he means by that is I asked questions that take more to answer. I’m pretty sure he doesn't like saying more than necessary,” this seemed to calm Spike down quite a bit but he still seemed to be ready to fight the human. When she let go of him he gave one last death glare towords the human before picking up the remains of his cereal and stomping out of the kitchen.

Twilight sighed, that could have been better. She hadn't seen Spike that emotional in a long time. It felt out of place for Spike to be so easily angered, even if he felt slighted by the human not giving him the responses he wanted; it was like Spike had been replaced by a dragon diplomat with how easily he was set off. Then the final piece slipped into place.

Twilight let out another sigh and laid her face down on the table. Spike was going through normal dragon puberty. She was going to have to go through about fifteen years of Spike having elevated hormones, predator hormones no less, dealing with all the mood swings and aggression that came with it. If the great Fausticorn would like to give her any more hurdles this week, now would be the perfect time so she could get it out of the way.

“So when can I expect your princesses to show up.”

“I don’t know,” Twilight flatly stated, her muzzle still pressed against the table, “they had to go to the zebra nations because the zebras felt the same disturbance I did and they want to know exactly what happened.”

The kitchen was consumed by silence for some time after that, save for the occasional bird songs that reminded Twilight that she hadn't gone deaf. Twilight eventually lifted her head and finished her breakfast and when she turned to put her plate in the sink she nearly jumped when she saw the human still leaning against the counter and writing in the notebook she saw yesterday. The human had not made a single sound since he had asked about the princesses. She guessed he had been writing in the notebook the entire time. It scared her that he had done so without making noise. After her plate had been washed she decided she might as well engage with the human.

“Since we’re probably going to be near each other quite a bit for the foreseeable future we should probably get to know each other. I’m-”

“Twilight Sparkle.”

“Wait, how do you know that,” Twilight was surprised ,and slightly scared, that the human knew who she was.

“You told me yesterday”

Now that she thought about it, she did remember telling him her name right before he cut her off and interrogated them on why they had gone into his, I think he called it his workshop. Anyways, she still wanted to know his name.

“What about you?”

“Draxton Valdane”

“So Mr. Valdane, do you think you would be interested in taking a walk around the town?’

Draxton stopped writing in his book and looked up at her. His expression wasn't one of surprise or irritation, more a look of cold calculation. It was kind of unnerving her, especially his exposed eye. The intensity that that eye conveyed bordered on predatory, it didn’t help that the iris was this deep shade of red that reminded her of-- no, the dream wasn't real, she wasn't going to judge another based on her paranoia.

“Alright,” Draxton said. Closing the book and placing it in his coat, likely an inner pocket.

“Wonderful. If you want, you could put on something less formal.”

“This isn’t formal.”

“Oh,” Twilight had forgotten he was from another world possibly so codes of dress were likely much different there, then an idea struck her, “I know, I’ll take you to Rarity’s boutique. She could make you something more fitting for wearing around Ponyville.”

“Why would I need that?”

“Well, I thought it might be a nice gesture to offer you some new clothes so you could fit in a little better. It also gives me an excuse to check up on my friends while I show you around the town. If you really don't want her to make you anything I won’t force you.”

Draxton didn't look too sold on the idea, but the fact he wasn’t objecting to it out right was a good thing; at least she hoped so.

“I’ll just go clean up. If you want you can wait for me by the front door.”

It was an awkward walk thru Ponyville to reach carousel boutique. Every pony they passed gave a sidelong look to the human; each trying to figure out what he was. It didn’t really help that Draxton didn’t seem to acknowledge their existence, keeping himself looking straight ahead despite the murmurs. From snippets, she was able to overhear a majority were wondering if he was another visiting dignitary like the yaks were.

“Are you guys seeing this? Is Twilight trying to befriend more nations?”

“I don't have the foggiest. If she is, it must be quite the ways away, I haven't seen that fellows kind in Equestria.”

“Screw where they came from, are you seeing the weapon they’re carrying. If they’re that open with weapons and Twilight hasn't taken it away yet I’m pretty sure they’re another predator.”

It was a point that Twilight hated with a passion. She had tried to convince Draxton to leave his weapons behind but it ended with him telling her he was bringing a weapon, end of the conversation. Twilight didn't know why he was so adamant, she had told him Ponyville was extremely safe so he wouldn't need a weapon, more so since she had seen what he could do without one.

The two of them eventually arrived at Rarity's boutique and without so much as turning to wait for her he opened the door and strolled right in. She was afraid he would terrify Rarity and a possible client of hers with that so she quickly ran right in only to find the room empty with Draxton scanning the room.

“You know it isn't exactly polite to just stroll into someponies’ house without warning, especially since no one knows just who or what you are,” Twilight stated with mild irritation

“Didn't you say this was a store,” Draxton replied evenly, looking to be assessing the quality of the outfits on display but giving no indication as to his thoughts.

“Well… yes… I did, but it's just,” Twilight let out a sigh and lowered her head, “you know what, forget I said anything,” there was no way she was going to be able to explain all the societal norms he was going to need to learn without an exhaustive lesson plan, and even then she doubted he would conform to them anyway given this morning’s weapon debacle.

“Twilight, is that you?”

Rarity was galloping down the stairs, she had to make sure her ears weren't deceiving her. When she cleared the final stair and saw Twilight she instantly ran over and embraced her as tightly as she could.

“Twilight, everyone was worried sick about you. We watched the forest to see when you came out, but when you never did we thought the worst.”

“I’m sorry about that, I was meaning to send a letter to you girls when I got back, I was just so frazzled that I forgot.”

“Well why didn't any of us see you come back, we spent all night watching that dreadful forest.”

Twilight nervously laughed, “Well I sort of teleported us to the castle before we left the forest to avoid Draxton scaring the towns ponies,” Twilight was starting to regret not remembering her friends, they had probably been overly stressed all night.

“Well, I'm glad you’re safe. Now, down to business, I know you too well to think you would come in person and without notice just to exchange pleasantries.”

“Am I really that predictable,” Rarity only nodded in response, it wasn’t unexpected but it still felt weird that her friends probably knew more about her than she did about them. “Well, I just thought I would take our new guest around and show him what Ponyville was like. I also thought it would be nice to buy him more casual clothes to wear.”

Rarity had hardly noticed the human in her boutique, he had been watching them have their discussion, probably waiting for her decision on the matter. She hardly thought this creature was cultured in the slightest when she had first seen him, however, what he was wearing now looked to be more visiting diplomat instead of savage killer.

“I would be more than happy to help. If you would please disrobe I’ll be back shortly with my tape to take measurements,” Rarity stated, barely refraining from voicing her reluctance in being around the individual that injured Rainbow Dash.

As Rarity headed upstairs she couldn't help but allow a smile to creep onto her muzzle, despite her misgivings. She was going to be the first and possibly only designer to make an outfit for this new species, this was the opportunity of a lifetime. After she grabbed her measuring tape and her notebook and pen she went back downstairs and found the guest removing their pants to place on her presentation stage.

When the guest had removed all but his underwear it became obvious that she was indeed dealing with a male, judging by the bulge in the front. It was quite funny to her that he was so inclined to cover up; it was refreshing to be around such a modest male, given Equestrias’ dress code any modesty, in general, was quite the treat. Upon further inspection however her smile faded.

The entirety of the hunter’s upper body was covered in long wide scars, crisscrossing so often it almost appeared that his skin was actually another layer of clothing. Rarity was even able to pick out a multitude of round indents across the skin that looked like the craters that covered the moon. Rarity almost fainted though when she saw his face. Without the cloth from the hat to cover it, a large deep gash; running from the top middle of his forehead, down through his eye, and tapering off when it reached his bottom jaw, was painfully obvious.

Rarity simply stood where she was in utter shock, even Twilight was trying to recover from what she was seeing. It was such a shock because the wound looked to have only just stopped bleeding, strands of what looked like recently exposed flesh spider-webbed between the two sides of the wound. It also sent shivers down both of their spines that the individual in front of them seemed to have only recently been wounded but showed no sign of being in anyway cognizant of the damage.

“If it bothers you that much I can put the cloth back on,” Draxtons usual deadpan voice broke the silence that had fallen over the room. Neither of the friends had realized they had been staring right at the wound for some time now, and it had more than likely come off as insensitive.

“That would be much appreciated,” Rarity responded, after nervously swallowing, she wanted nothing more than to avoid looking at that dreadful wound more.

After Draxton had replaced the cloth over the injury Rarity went to work taking his measurements. From her measurements, this new guest was no bigger than an adolescent minotaur. He was only about two meters tall and his chest was only eighty-eight centimeters around, even his arms were no bigger than twenty-eight centimeters around. If she had just met him she would have incorrectly assumed that he was no stronger than the average stallion.

“I just have to ask Draxton, how did you get that wound.” Twilight needed to know the story behind such a vicious injury.

“Father Gascoigne. He was another hunter who went mad from the blood,” Draxton pointed at the cloth covered wound, “I underestimated him and lost an eye. I let it fester so I’ll always have a reminder.”

Both Twilight and Rarity were floored by his answer. Neither of them had ever heard of someone purposely keeping a wound from healing, sure there were those that held battle scars are a badge of honor but never like this.

“Doesn't it hurt darling, I mean, that is quite the wound.”

“More than you can imagine.”

“Well we have one of the best nurses in Equestria, I have no doubt she would be more than happy to help remedy that.”

“That would defeat the point of keeping the wound.”

Twilight was positive she needed to get Draxton away from Rarity. Every time he opened his mouth she could see Rarity become more and more unsettled. Not even the most hardened gryphon soldier shrugged off wounds like this human did.

“If you’re done with your measurements, Rarity, I think we should get going. It really would be nice if I was able to show Draxton Ponyville.”

Rarity still looked to be trying to process what she was hearing, “oh... yes... I’m done with the measurements. Before you go though, can come upstairs with me, I need to tell you something.”

Twilight was curious as to why Rarity wanted to talk so privately. As Draxton was getting redressed she told him she would meet him outside when she was done talking with Rarity. He didn't seem to have heard her, but as she was about to repeat herself Draxton just got up and walked outside. If she was going to be spending more time around him she was going to need to set some ground rules, and near the top of that list would be acknowledging her when she was talking to him. So with that sorted out Twilight headed upstairs to Rarity's room. When Twilight reached Rarity's bedroom she found the unicorn patiently waiting for her.

“So Rarity what do you need to tell me?”

“Well, I thought you should know that shortly after you left to find, Draxton was it, Applejack and Pinkie took Rainbow to the hospital when they were unable to wake her. The doctors sent word this morning that she finally woke up... but... the news wasn’t so good.”

Twilight was noticeably shocked at what she was being told but something didn't add up, “I appreciate you telling me, but why did have to be in private, I don't think Draxton would care if you told him how bad he hurt Rainbow Dash,” as much as the words both hurt and startled her to say, it seemed to be the most accurate assessment of the hunters personality.

“That's exactly why I wanted to tell you in private. When you brought him in here I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt but I couldn't shake the feeling when I was talking to him that everything about him was unnatural, like he’s the very elemental for the Everfree.”

Twilight couldn't respond, she knew exactly what Rarity was talking about and there was nothing she could say to refute her.

“I know it might sound unreasonable, but I don't think you should let him near Rainbow, for now, I just don't trust him enough to feel comfortable with him being near her.”

Twilight closed her eyes, lowered her head and released a sigh, “No, it's not unreasonable. I’ll see if Applejack would be willing to watch him while I check up on Rainbow Dash,” Rarity seemed to agree on this course of action, giving a little nod and a half-hearted smile. As Twilight was walking out the bedroom door she turned to Rarity, “If it's any consolation, I’m not sure I feel any different about him.”

When Twilight left the boutique she found the hunter leaning against a tree to her left and seemingly having something to eat. As she approached him she was starting to have second thoughts, what if Applejack and her family won't be safe around him, what if he refuses to leave her side, maybe she should just take him back to the castle and have the others keep her informed on Rainbow’s situation. The best course she could see right now would be to extend the same courtesy he had shown her.

“Draxton, I need to tell you something. Rarity just told me that our friend Rainbow Dash, the one you fought yesterday, is in the hospital and is not doing too well. If you don't mind, I would like for you to stay with another of my friends while I check on her, because if I’m being frank, I don’t entirely trust you, especially around Rainbow Dash.”

“Fine by me.”

One part of her felt relief that the hunter wasn't going to fight her on the matter, but a far more vocal part of her was berating her for how she had handled it. With how easily the hunter went along with the decision it was like he had been expecting her to want to leave him. Right now she just wanted to see how Rainbow Dash was doing and try to sort her emotions out.

The walk to the farm was fairly mundane, Draxton, as usual, was as talkative as a statue and she had done her best to avoid the most direct route through Ponyville so the only thing they passed of note was the bell tower. The silence was starting to get to her too. Without something to take her mind off the issue, the current situation with Rainbow was starting to make her more and more anxious.

Fortunately, Applejack was starting to clear the Apple trees near the entrance. When Applejack caught sight of Twilight she visually brightened up but that enthusiasm was quickly tempered at the sight of the hunter besides her friend. Nevertheless, Applejack happily trotted over to her friend to greet her.

“Hey Twi, I’m glad y’all got back safe,” Applejack said to Twilight before turning to Draxton, “I trust our new friend here helped play a part in that. I want to personally thank you for protecting us back in the Everfree, if you wouldn't have been there we’d have been as safe as a feed sack in a chicken coop.”

“I was just stopping by to see if he could stay here for a while. I’m planning to visit Rainbow Dash to see how she's doing and I didn't think a reunion between Draxton here and Rainbow would go all too well. If anything he could probably lend you some help around here, what do you say?”

“Why is it everyone assumes I’m the one who always needs help,” Applejack mumbled under her breath. “I think I can find something for him to do.”

“Thanks, Applejack, I should be back in about an hour.” Twilight quickly said before starting her jog to the hospital.

When Twilight was out of listening distance she turned to Draxton so his stay here could officially begin.

“I’m going to assume since she was referring to you as Draxton that's your name,” Draxton only nodded in response. “Well I think I know just where you can go, I was gonna go grab Applebloom to help Big Mac but I think you two will be a much better fit.”

Big Mac was carrying a bushel of apples to the cart when he saw Applejack crest over a hill with what looked to be a scrawny minotaur. He inwardly groaned to himself, every time a minotaur asked for a tour of the farm they always without fail asked to test their strength against him, they also never shut their mouths. When the two of them reached him he was glad that whoever it was with Applejack didn't seem to be like the other minotaur’s.

“Big Mac I'd like to introduce you to Draxton, the hunter I told you about yesterday. Twilight needs us to keep an eye on him for now while she checks on Rainbow so I thought it might be best to have him help you out.”

Big Mac did his best to form a polite smile and nod in understanding. He appreciated the fact the hunter had gone to great lengths to keep his sister and her friends safe but he could only see the hunter slowing his work down. All this plan would end up doing is making more work for him tomorrow.

“Now Draxton, all you need to do is when Big Mac here’s filled up a bushel with apples you take that bushel and place it in the cart over there. And when the cart’s full Big Mac can pull it to the barn for Granny Smith.”

The hunter didn't actually respond to or even acknowledge what Applejack said looking over Big Mac with this one Blood red eye. Big Mac prided himself on his ability to stay calm but something about the way he looked over him made him feel like he was being sized up for a meal.

“Well I’ll leave you two alone so you can get to work.”

No sooner had Applejack said those words then the then the hunter began to pick up a bushel that he had just filled and take it to the cart. Apparently he had been wrong in his initial judgement of the hunter, he appeared to be a hard worker that didn't need to be told twice what to do maybe he wasn't going to need to make up for lost progress tomorrow.

As time went on Big Mac couldn't help but let a smile creep across his muzzle as he realized that he and the hunter seemed to be cut from the same cloth. Not only was the hunter a focused worker he was quiet as the day was long. The hunter even brought a second cart for himself to pull so the process would be sped up. In about an hour and a half, the two of them had cleaned off about fifty trees, they were going to go back out to continue when Granny Smith spoke up.

“For both of your sakes, you better not be going back to bring me more of these here apples.”

In his euphoric haze of finally not being slowed down by someone helping him but actually being sped up he had failed to notice that Granny Smith was only now just starting to appraise the second load of apples they had brought in. So he wouldn't get whooped he lead the hunter to his favorite tree to rest under. He took his usual position that allowed him to stare over the southern section of the farm. When the hunter realized that the two of them were going to be here for a while he laid down with his back against the tree, pulled his hat over his face and seemed to fall asleep.

Today had been so good, not only had he been able to finish early today he would say that he had found a new friend that understood his desire for silence. If this new creature was willing he would no doubt be asking him to hang out another time.

The walk to the hospital had been stressful on Twilight, every time she tries to take her mind off Rainbows condition another possibility reared it to head to bring down her mood. If she imagined Rainbow having lost all her memories she tried to calm down using cadences breathing technique, but as soon as the possibility faded from her conscience the possibility that Rainbow had become completely paralyzed came to the forefront. By the time she reached the hospital she had become a nervous wreck.

“Oh, hello princess, what can I do for you,” Nurse Redheart asked as Twilight entered. The kind demeanor of the medical pony helped to ease her nerves.

“I came to see Rainbow Dash. My friends said she woke up this morning and wasn’t doing too well.”

As soon as Rainbows name left Twilight's lips the smile on Nurse Redheart disappeared, replaced by a look of sorrow.

“I can take you to see her, follow me”

It seemed odd how Redheart had become so drab at the drop of a hat. And just like that, the paranoia resurfaced. As they were walking through the hospital it became apparent they were heading in the direction of the intensive care unit.

“You should know a few things before you see your friend,” Redheart began, “when your friends brought her in and told us what happened we assumed the worse. When she wouldn't wake up we ordered a CT scan of her head to fully understand what damage had occurred. We noticed the back portion of her skull had been fractured in several areas, there were also several edemas across the brain.”

The nurse continued to tell her about the medical issues that Rainbow Dash had sustained but Twilight had tuned it out, she already knew what it meant. A fractured skull was one thing when it came to head trauma but when that gets combined with bleeding across the brain a ponies health was definitely at stake.

“We’ve put her under twenty-four-hour surveillance in case her condition gets worse but so far she's only displaying a mild case of retrograde amnesia.”

“How ‘mild’ of a case is it”

“It's approximately three days loss”

Had Rainbow really lost the last three days of memories? It might not seem like a great deal of time, and it wasn’t, but in that time Rainbow had done a show with the Wonderbolts and afterwards had a group dinner that she called ‘the greatest time she had ever had in her entire life’, it almost brought tears to her eyes knowing that that memory might be permanently robbed from her.

“Is there any hope she might regain them.”

“Hopefully. It's never clear with these kinds of injuries, they might come back by the end of the week, they might come back years down the line or not at all. We just need to wait and see.”

New Beginnings

“It is not up to our pathetic rulers to decide how we are to use our talents, we must be free, only then can the fullness of reality be comprehended.” Iron Mattock to Kaultorium initiates
-New Beginnings-

“Thank you for your explanation of the situation. However, it was not necessary for you to have come so soon, you could have simply waited for your previous student to report back on what she had found before leaving on your trip,” the king of the Zebra Nations explained to Celestia somewhat uncomfortably.

“Oh don't worry about it Fassil, you know how drab royal life can be. I’ve been looking for an excuse to leave the castle for ages,” Celestia replied with a smile. It had been several hours since she had met with the leaders of the Zebra nations and went over the letters she had received from Twilight with them. It was a relatively drab affair but learning what the magical disturbance was helped to alleviate her and her sister's concerns, somewhat.

What Twilight explained in her letter should not exist, even in her wildest nightmares. For one thing, the structure she described while being consistent with the style of architecture Equestria had before her sisters had been banished lay deep into the Everfree. So deep in fact that it lay near the heart of where the forest had originated, a location so dangerous that when she had first come to be regarded as princess many griffins came to test their mettle and map out the forest but all of them had been reduced to paranoid wrecks by the time they returned.

The next oddity was the creature she had described, a biped lacking hair on most of its body and living in the strange building. She said it called itself a human but she also mentioned that it had initially introduced itself as a hunter, and judging by Twilight's description of what it had done to the pack of timberwolves by itself, that initial introduction seemed more apt. Everything she had heard about this being sent shivers up her spine, even though Twilight had sent a letter saying that her initial assessment was overly paranoid Celestia couldn't shake the feeling that Ponyville was in significant trouble.

As Celestia rounded the last corner to the entrance of the king's palace she noticed that Luna was waiting for her by the door. She smiled to her host, thanking him for allowing her and her sister to stay with him until they had finished relaying to the zebras what her past student had discovered.

“I would like it if we could meet again and talk as friends rather than as leaders,” Fassil said as he bid Celestia safe travels.

“Well the Gala is coming up, I could send you some tickets and we can do just that when I can get away.”

“That would be appreciated, now I must take my leave, unlike you I can't escape my responsibilities for all too long.”

It brought a smile to her heart to know that there were still some individuals that were willing to joke at her expense. So often her subjects treated her like she was a goddess, the fact that anyone would treat her like their equal made it feel like she had received the greatest hearth warming gift imaginable.

“Are you ready to return home dear sister,” Luna stated when Celestia had reached her, “I have taken the liberty to summon our chariot.”

“Yes, while I wouldn’t object to staying I know Daily Planner would be handing me her resignation when I returned,” Celestia chuckled as she followed Luna thru the front door.

As Luna had said their chariot was waiting for them at the base of the palaces stairway. When they boarded and told the three pegasi that they were ready to depart they were treated to the quick jolt of acceleration followed by the steady climb to a decent altitude. Once they had reached the altitude that they were going to remain at for the duration of the trip Luna decided to confront Celestia.

“You know sister, I don't appreciate being lied to. I know that like me, you want nothing more than to return to Equestria and deal with our nation's new arrival. I saw in your eyes as we left the palace, you don't trust that the visitor is an insignificant threat to the elements.”
Celestia sighed, her sister had always been able to read her like a book. No matter how much she wished to hide her true feelings Luna was always able to see thru the facade.

“What Twilight put in her letters didn't sit right with me. She said that this hunter had been able to take out an entire pack of timberwolves and defeat a Bladenboro beast all by itself. Then when you consider that it had no problem incapacitating Rainbow Dash I fear we may be dealing with a creature far more dangerous than we have ever had to face.”

Luna could only nod in understanding, she felt the same, if not more so. If Luna was left to decide this creature's fate she would try to end its’ existence on the spot or sentence it to the farthest depths of Tartarus. But knowing her sister she would most likely try to befriend this being, seeing instead it's capacity for good. Thinking about it had allowed a grin to work itself onto her muzzle, her sister's good nature was something she was still trying to emulate but she had not had a great deal of success in. While this being had been described quite thoroughly as by far the best killer this planet had probably ever known her sister's good will might just be right and it could be brought to live more peacefully.

Unbeknownst to Luna Celestia was thinking just the opposite, a being this dangerous needed to be watched carefully one wrong move could result in the nation's downfall. Celestia hated what she was thinking but every time she mulled over the current situation she couldn't help but arrive at the same conclusion, this human needed to be as far away from the elements as was feasible.

“I am so sorry Twilight to force you into such great danger but I promise that as soon as I return I will personally rectify this mistake,” Celestia thought to herself.

It had been a painful experience for Twilight, informing Rainbow on what she had forgotten. When she had first started to talk to her Rainbow had been begging to be released from the hospital saying she was going to miss her performance with the Wonder Bolts. Needless to say Twilight had to tell her that she hadn't missed the show, and the reason she couldn't remember was that she had a head injury. This seemed to deflate Rainbow by quite a bit, for Rainbow it was more than a memory to fly with the Wonderbolts, it was a life dream. To lose such an important experience was akin to losing a part of yourself.

It was uncomfortable for Twilight to ask but she had to know if Rainbow remembered anything about how she had lost her memory. Rainbow fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you wanted to view it, had no idea, assuming that in her excitement after a successful show had done something stupid and ended up crashing. Twilight didn't know if she should tell her just yet the specifics of what had happened yesterday, particularly how she had come to lose her memories. Twilight instead opted to tell Rainbow what she remembered of the Wonderbolts show, this seemed to prevent Rainbow from asking for the details on how she had lost her memory.

The next three hours were spent telling Rainbow all about the show she had performed with the Wonderbolts in the crystal empire along with the dinner that followed, with a small break about a half hour into the stories so Twilight could write more a comprehensive letter to the princesses to explain the current situation. She had to send somepony to retrieve Spike, not just so she could send the letter but so Rainbow would get a more extensive account on what had happened during the dinner as her knowledge of that night was mostly limited to meeting with her brother and sister-in-law to catch up with what had transpired as of late.

“I’m telling you, if it wasn't for Spitfire, Soarin would have eaten all the pies on the dessert trolley.”

The laughter following Spikes retelling of the night's events shook Twilight out of her sour mood over Rainbows situation. Looking over to the mare in question Twilight could tell that she was doing much better, her ears were less flattened than when they had been when she had informed her of her memory loss, and her posture had markedly become more relaxed. It was moments like this that she treasured the most after having her world turned upside down, the wedding ceremony after the changeling attack and the tour to the four corners of Equestria after Tirek's attack, it all made things seem normal and logical.

A massive yawn started to form itself on Twilight's muzzle, she still hadn't gotten over the lack of sleep from last night's wonderful dream. With how tired she was feeling she was feeling like it was almost evening but according to the clock across from the bed it was still a quarter to noon. Something about that didn't seem right to her, though, she felt like she was very late to an appointment but she didn't have anything on her schedule for another three days, and besides what could be so important that it would warrant leaving her friend when she was at the hospital.

When Twilight finished that thought it hit her like a ton of bricks, she had left the hunter at Applejacks, she had meant to return in an hour but helping rainbow had definitely helped her lose track of time. She immediately got up and started heading straight for the door, as she was about to open it rainbow noticed her departure.

“Hey Twi, what's the rush, you getting lunch.”

Horsefeathers, Twilight had been doing so well keeping the hunter from Rainbows memory she didn't want to render all her efforts up to now pointless. She also didn't want to lie to her as that would likely result in worse outcomes down the line.

“I just left something at Applejack’s farm that I was supposed to pick up a few hours ago.”

“Oh cool, while you’re there could you grab me something to eat I'm getting hungry.”

“Don't the nurses bring you food,” Spike inquired, “I thought you could just order off a menu while at a hospital.”

“Ya, but have you had their food, not exactly fit for the best Wonderbolt”

Twilight was about to go into lecture mode on how the food was properly balanced to provide the ideal nutrients for recovering patients but right now getting to Draxton was her top priority.

Fluttershy's morning had been miserable so far. It wasn’t that it had been significantly different from her usual days but the fact the timberwolf she had brought home had major separation anxiety ripped at her heart. Every time she needed to leave to take care of her other animals she was met with a face begged she stay, and every time she had to leave she felt more of her willpower slip away. It didn't help that she felt like this poor creature's mother. Last night she was awoken by the soft cries of said timberwolf as it tried to come closer to her bed. It had felt like she had personally assaulted the timberwolf knowing that she had not put the timberwolf's bed closer to hers. The rest of the night saw her cuddling next to the timberwolf to keep him company.

She had finally finished caring for her other animals and was now ready to devote what time she could to help the timberwolf recover. She had collected many sticks and branches from the edge of the forest into her saddlebag and felt like she was ready to try to help heal the timberwolf's wounds. When she opened the door to her room she was met with the timberwolf staring straight at her, head pressed against the floor, and slowly wagging its tail. When she set her bag down she could immediately tell that the wolf was looking over to it with great interest.

She opened up her bag and proceeded to move all of the wood in front of the timberwolf so he could have his pick of which he preferred. When she had removed all of the wood she had collected she sat down across from the timberwolf to watch. As she sat there she couldn’t help but feel like she had failed; the timberwolf was simply sniffing all of the wood, not picking one up, not looking back at its legs to assess what size wood it would need, it was like a punch to the gut. Just as she was about to give up hope the timberwolf gently took one of the larger sticks in its mouth. It looked at her without moving and Fluttershy realized it was asking for her permission to take it, she simply smiled and nodded.

As she watched the timberwolf chew on the stick she started to notice something about its body that didn't seem right; it was extremely consistent. Normally when she saw a timberwolf it was very random in what wood composed its body along with being very simplistic in its general shape, but the timberwolf in front of her defied these notions. Every part of it looked like it had been painstakingly chosen and carved to flow seamlessly together. While its body wasn't a consistent type of wood it seemed like there had been careful consideration about how each wood would look when put together to form this creature. What was the oddest thing though was its teeth. As she was watching it chew down the stick it became apparent that its teeth weren't just sticks that had been sharpened to a point but looked more like what she would expect to see on an actual dog; not that they were perfect representations, they were thicker and less sharp than on a dog but still sharp enough that they were making short work of the stick it had chosen.

After several minutes it became apparent that the stick it had chosen was not one it was going to be using to help heal itself but rather as a meal. The stick had several holes along its length from the timberwolf's time with it along with both ends of it being reduced to barely bound splinters. Fluttershy knew that timberwolf's needed to pick wood that was going to comprise their body but the last time she had cared for one it had picked an ash stick in less than ten seconds and had done so when given only a dozen other options. This timberwolf had been given almost three dozen sticks and branches from the trees around her house and seemed almost content to stay without its back legs.

“Whats wrong, are they too small, I can find you something bigger if you want,”

The timberwolf stopped chewing on the stick and cocked his head at her. He simply chuffed and resumed his meal; signaling that he was content with what he had. Fluttershy for her part was still unclear as to why he was acting the way he was.

“Oh, alright. I was just wondering, don't you want your legs to heal?”

The sounds that followed only helped to make her heart sink lower. He said that none of the wood called to him. It smelled like food, not like himself. If Fluttershy couldn't find the wood she needed to help heal the timberwolf she was afraid he would never be able to properly leave this room. If anyone would know what she should do it was Twilight, and even if she didn't immediately know what she would need to do she must have a book that would help. In the event that even Twilight didn't have the information, she had met a pony some time ago on a trip to study the kappas of the Neighgano river who said that they specialized in timberwolves. She could send him a letter and ask if he could come to Ponyville and help.

Fluttershy got up, told the timberwolf she needed to head out for a minute, and proceeded to head to Twilight's castle, but not before being subject to the most incapacitating puppy dog eyes she had seen in her life. It took all of her willpower not to sit right back down and cuddle up with the timberwolf then and there.

Pinkie was stuck. Not knowing anything about what made someone tick was driving her up the wall, and not the fun kind of driving like with bumper cars but the not so fun kind where you had to sit still and stay quiet because everyone was sleepy. She was sitting in front of her Super Ultimate Redonkulous Party Ring of Incredible Surprises and Energy, her go to party planning table for new arrivals to Ponyville; though she was considering renaming it. She had been initially debating if she should have a party for this human, he had been super mean to her and her friends when they first met, especially to poor dashie. But on the other hoof if she saw somepony come into her secret party planning cave and ruin the surprises she had planned she would be super duper unhappy. He had also helped them get away from the mega scary jumpy kitty that had attacked them in the forest so she ultimately decided to give this human a super special welcome to Ponyville party; the only problem was that she didn't have any ideas.

The human seemed super duper upset, like, never had a party in their life kind of upset and she didn't want to make his more upset like she had done for Cranky so she needed to make sure the party fit the human to the n. The problem was that she knew nothing about humans, especially this one. She had been sitting like this for the least five hours and it was showing. The table was filled with party plans that had been written, scribbled out, rewritten, scribbled out again, and finally put on top of other plans she had given up on.

No matter what she thought would work she couldn't think of anypony in all of Equestria that she could compare to the human. Everyone always had something that made them happy, even the griffins weren't so grouchy when you got to know them. That was it she was going to need to know all about this human so she could give him a proper equestrian greeting. Now all she needed to do was to find him. It shouldn't be too hard thou, all she needed to do was follow the massive cloud of grump he kept giving off.

Twilight had been metaphorically kicking herself the entire way to the farm. How had she been so careless as to leave the hunter at the farm for three hours. She was hoping that the apples had been able to keep him relatively under control for this long but from what she had seen from him if he wanted to he could do as he pleased and nopony cold stop him. However, the more she went over the situation in her head the more it seemed like she was overreacting. The only time she could remember the hunter being violent was when he had been provoked; the timberwolves had been the first to attack so he probably felt justified in annihilating the entire pack, and when he had overpowered Rainbow she had been the first to act, flying straight for him. If she was being honest with herself if she looked over those two events she would have thought that the hunter was a normal, well not normal but definitely not homicidal, new species that had made it's home in the Everfree.

Going over those thoughts had definitely brought down her speed but by no stretch was she walking. As she approached the farm she noticed Applejack was still working the apple trees near the entrance only most of the trees had been cleared of the apples. Applejack for her part looked like she had been given exclusive permission to sell her apples at the next Wonderbolts show. Applejack was smiling ear to ear, and humming a pleasant tune that Twilight how but just couldn't put a name to. When Applejack noticed her approaching her smile only seemed to get bigger.

“Hey there Twi, what can I do ya for”

“Nothing too much, I just came back to take Draxton off your families hoofs.”

Her statement seemed to be part of a joke that she wasn't aware of because as soon as the words had left her lips no sooner did Applejack break out laughing. It was kind of an uncomfortable situation for Twilight but fortunately for her, the laughing was quick to subside.

“Ah, as much as I would love to tell you how much this family would like to see more of your new friend I don't think Granny would much appreciate it,” just as Twilight was going to ask for an explanation Applejack continued, “he’s up by the big tree with my brother. If ya can help it I would try to avoid the barn.”

And with that last statement Applejack was back to harvesting her apples. It didn't take a genius to discern that whatever had happened with Draxton was probably a mix of good and bad, leaning more on the side of bad. Twilight was afraid of what the bad might be but judging by Applejacks mood it probably wasn't too serious. As Twilight made her way towards the tree in question she noticed that Big Mac was up there as Applejack had said but he wasn't watching Draxton but instead looking over the farm; she only hoped that the hunter was up there with him and Big mack wasn't watching hm from on top of the hill.

When she reached the top of the hill she couldn't see Draxton with Big Mac. Twilight felt both annoyed that Big Mac had either let the hunter go off without keeping an eye on him or was watching him from up here, and scared at what the hunter could be doing at the moment. As she was about to ask Big Mac where the hunter had gone a voice broke the relative silence.

“I take it you came back to retrieve me?”

Twilight spun around to see Draxton had laid down with his back to the tree and pulled his hat down over his eyes. Big Mac for his part had also almost leapt out of his skin, he hadn't heard Twilight's approach and the sudden vocalization from the human had been the first words he had heard from him. The human’s voice sent shivers down his spine, it was extremely deep, deeper than his own voice, and how he spoke made even that simple question sound like it was a matter of fact. He could also tell that he spoke in a way that made him sound like he wanted nothing to do with the princess of friendship. He was starting to understand now why his sister said she didn't feel right around him before he had saved her life.

It unnerved Twilight how the hunter was able to do that. He had first shown that he could tell where her friends were without seeing them go there and now he had been able to tell it was her with a hat covering his face. When she had the time she was going to need to ask him exactly have he did that because if he did something like this again she didn't think that she would be able to go to sleep with him around.

“Yes. I’m sorry you had to wait, I was speaking with Rainbow for longer than I expected.”

Draxton simply replaced his hat to the top of his head, got up and started to walk down the hill.

“Where are you going,” Twilight called after the hunter as she trotted to catch up to him.

“I assume we’re returning to your home,” the hunter flatly responded. He simply kept walking towards the entrance, not bothering to engage in proper social etiquette such as look at who he's talking to, not that it should surprise her.

“Well yes, that was the plan. But you could have asked where I was going to be taking you before you start marching off on your own,” Twilight was getting irritated at this human's blatant disregard for how he should be acting in Equestria.

“If I was going in the wrong direction you would have corrected me.”

That was it; when she got home she was going to chain him to one of the chairs in the throne room and she was going to force him to recite every action he going to have to take while in Equestria to not be so insufferable to deal with.

Fluttershy was hoping that Twilight was going to be home when she arrived at the castle. She was currently taking the path through the park to help calm take her mind of the possibilities that might come up. It was one of the habits she had been developing as of late with her friends to help reduce her skittishness. It always brought a smile to her face to see ponies walking around, talking, and in the case of the little fillies and colts, playing games. Well, most of the time it brought a smile to her face; right now she was single-mindedly heading to the castle. While the walk thru the park was keeping the worst possibilities out of her head it wasn't helping to calm her down.

Right now she was really hoping that Twilight would have a book to help her with the timberwolf. If she didn't then she would need to find the timberwolf specialist and convince him to come to Ponyville. The problem was that he was living in Canterlot as a senior scientist for the Canterlot Academy of Biological Sciences the last time she had spoken to him. The problem with this was that she was going to need to leave all of her animals behind to go on said trip, and with an injured timberwolf that not even she could properly care for she wasn't confident in leaving him to be cared for by somepony else. If he had moved to another city or worse yet was off studying she wasn't sure she was ever going to find him.

As Fluttershy was reaching the end of the park she couldn't help but notice Twilight in front of her, and she was walking in the same direction but seemed to be accompanied by what appeared to be a scrawny minotaur. Fluttershy decided to pick up her pace to catch up with her friend and hopefully find out what the individual accompanying her was. Everypony had told her last night that they had found a minotaur-like creature living in a really scary graveyard when they had reached the place Twilight had been talking about and she was wondering if this was the thing they had been referring to. Fluttershy really didn't know how to feel about this creature thou as by their accounts he was the reason Rainbow had nearly been killed but on the other hoof he had protected them and had been willing to sacrifice himself to make sure they got to safety. When she was ten meters behind the two Twilight suddenly looked up at the creature and spun around to face her.

“Oh hey Fluttershy, how are you doing,” Twilight tried to say in a sincere manner but Fluttershy could tell from her voice and the way her eyes subtly kept looking over to the creature that she was with that something about it was or had made her very nervous.

“I’m fine. I was just going to the castle to ask you a question, but since you're here I can ask you now.”

At her statement Twilight visually tensed up, there was definitely something going on that was making her so nervous and she wanted to ask what it was but right now only one thing was on her mind.

“Do you have any books that might help me with the timberwolf, I tried to give him some wood to fix his legs but he didn't respond to any of it.”

Twilight seemed to become less tense, looking relieved at the question, she had probably been expecting to asked something else.
“I’m sorry but I don't think I have any books that could help. Timberwolves aren't exactly the most studied species out there,” Twilight started tilting her head down, it wasn't like her to not have a book to help her solve a problem. Twilight turned back around to continue her journey back to her castle and motioned for Fluttershy to follow her, “if you want you can look thru the library and see if I do have any books that could help.”

As they were walking Twilight suddenly raised her head and exclaimed,“wait, didn't you tell me that you found someone on one of your trips that specialized in timberwolves? Maybe you could ask him for some advice on what you should do.”

Twilight's sudden exclamation almost had Fluttershy jump into a nearby bush out of fear, but after she calmed down from the heart attack she had nearly had she simply nodded, “I had been planning on that. I was going to send a letter to the academy he was working for last time I spoke to him and hope they could get it to him.”

Silence followed Fluttershy's statement for what felt like an eternity. Fluttershy was so used to Twilight following up her statements with a question or at least a statement that her not trying to keep the conversation going felt…wrong.

“Oh, excuse me, sir. Are you the human that my friends met yesterday if you don't mind me asking,” Fluttershy felt like now would be a good time to ask the creature about itself since the previous conversation had seemed to have come to a close. It felt weird to say that word, human. She had never heard of it before and it felt entirely foreign, like a word from the valkyries of the northern islands across the western sea.

“Yes”

The voice that she heard made her think of a dragon with how deep and rumbly it was. It brought chills down her spine how much force had come from that one word. Fluttershy couldn't help but feel like she had insulted it in some way. The creature hadn't even turned its head to respond to her, and the way that one word was spoken made it sound like he was irritated by her. She couldn't help flattening her ears and lower her head.

Twilight for her part sighed, “Don't mind him. He does that to everypony. He only ever gives you what you ask for. And if you think he doesn't like you it's because he never changes that tone of his.”

The last sentence Twilight had made seemed to imply that she as angry at the human, it helped that she had also turned to face him and had narrowed her eyes. The human for his part didn't seem to acknowledge that Twilight was upset, continuing his unchanging pace towards the castle. But none of the information that Twilight had said had made Fluttershy feel any better as she still kept walking with her head down.

The remainder of the ten-minute walk was filled with an eerie silence that no one seemed to want to break; Fluttershy for fear of upsetting the human, Twilight for a need to collect her thoughts and feelings, and Draxton for obvious reasons. When they finally arrived at the castle the human simply opened the door, walked in and headed to one of the guest rooms. Twilight looked like she was going to yell after the human before she simply closed her mouth and proceeded to seethe. When it seemed like she was about to rush after the human and get into a shouting match she exhaled and turned to Fluttershy.

“Do you want something to drink?”

“That would be nice.”

Something about this hunter was definitely grinding Twilight's gears. It wasn't like he to be so wound up. When she got the chance she was going to have to ask her why the human was making her so unhappy. As they entered the kitchen they were met with the sight of Spike sitting on the counter eating a sandwich.

“What are you doing here, I thought you were staying with Rainbow to help her remember everything,” Twilight asked, more demanded as she made her way to the cabinet where she kept her tea.

“I got hungry. You were gone for almost an hour and I couldn't get anything at the hospital.”

“Spike, I left a little over half an hour ago.”

“Well I felt like an hour,” Spike huffed as he went back to eating his sandwich.

Twilight was about to get back to making Fluttershy and herself some tea when an idea struck her.

“I just had a great idea,” Twilight almost yelled, “Fluttershy, you can write a letter to your specialist friend and Spike you can send the letter to princess Celestia. The princesses are off in the Zebra Nations right now so any letters Spike sends are going to be handled by one of her assistants at the castle. As long as you attach a note to it saying who it's for I’m sure they would be willing to give it to him. Oh, you could even get Featherweight to take some photos of the injuries to give him a sense of what you're talking about.”

“You would really do that for me, oh thank you so much Twilight,” Fluttershy practically tackled Twilight in her excitement, she was also hugging her so hard it felt like Twilight had been placed in an oversized vice. And just as fast as the overly enthusiastic gratitude began it ended, “let's get going Spike, I need to find Featherweight and ask if he would be willing to help.”

Spike had gone from peacefully eating his lunch to being forcibly carried in the back of an excited pegasus in the span of two seconds. Twilight couldn't decide whether Spike would appreciate the sudden excitement she was giving him today or if she was going to be made to pay for it later. Either way, it made Twilight smile to see at least half of her friends had shown her genuine smiles today. Maybe this hunter wasn't going to be the end of Equestria's peaceful existence. Hopefully, sometime soon, she could be able to call him a friend

Author's Note

It's finally here. Sorry it took so long, I'm going to try to update this every two weeks from now on so that's a plus at least. Also if you notice this chapter reads like crap sorry, I didn't run it thru an editor as it was going to be short notice and let's face it. who wants to be editing someone's work and having them breathing down your neck about deadlines. I know the messages are old but if your reading this digital or Lunar Justice I could use some help with a proofreader if either of you are still available.
Also, I'm working on a board game that's going to show up in a future chapter. if anyone has experience with designing board games or has played an ass ton of board games I would appreciate the help in tuning the game to be; playable, balanced, comprehensible, and fun, or in other words, NOT THE RAGING DUMPSTER FIRE THAT IT IS NOW.
I would appreciate any reviews and input as to the stories quality and what I'm writing.
Thank you for the support and I wish you all the greatest, except you Reggie. You know what you did.

Cyclical Misery

“To welcome those who would not be willing to sacrifice for our cause is tantamount to deliberately giving up our horns, an action deserving of bottomless contempt.” Piercing Vision

-Cyclical Misery-

It felt odd for the castle to be this quiet. Ever since she had moved here, it felt like something was constantly taking place, whether it was a simple misunderstanding between friends or a misguided unicorn unwittingly trying to eradicate the very fabric of space and time as revenge. When she got to thinking about it, she kind of missed Starlight. Starlight had left Ponyville about three days ago to reconnect with her family in Canterlot and wouldn’t be back till next week. The fact Starlight was doing her best to improve herself and discover that she doesn’t always have to rely on herself and just needed to ask made her proud of her progress; she just wished the timing would have been better, right now she could really use support from anyone that could spare it.

She was presently writing everything she could about the new arrival in Equestria, the human. She couldn’t write with much certainty as to what humans were like given she had only interacted with the one, a fact that ground her gears to no end. What made it even more challenging was how representative he was to his race. Were humans inherently incapable of holding a conversation? Was that trait only shared by hunters, or perhaps he was the only human in existence whose personality was antithetical to everything Equestria held dear? With her luck, it would be the ladder with the added benefit of getting to meet an actually kind human just before both leave forever making it so that 99% of her interactions with humans would be with the absolutely worst paring imaginable. At least for the moment, she could work without any distractions, besides the oppressive silence and emotional turmoil the human had brought on.

Normally, she would be ecstatic to have the castle mostly to herself and the time to just relax and unwind, especially with how quiet it had become. The only problem with that was that the one individual she was sharing her home with was the individual she was writing about, someone who could apparently know exactly where anypony he met, scratch that, anypony at all was. She would like nothing more than to interrogate him on exactly how he did this, but it terrified her that the answer would be ‘I can smell their blood’ or some other disturbing answer. Until now she thought the phrase ‘don’t ask questions if you’re afraid of what the answer might be’ was beyond foolish, why wouldn’t anypony want to know an answer to something they were genuinely curious about, now she was grasping the reason. Added to the absolute silence he seemed to operate with if she wasn’t currently writing she would have thought that she was experiencing sensory deprivation.

Twilight’s quiet reflection was broken by the sound of the front door being opened and closed again. She could tell by the lack of clopping or wing beats coming down the hall but instead a sound of scaled feet that Spike had returned. When he opened the door to the kitchen she could tell that something was off with him. He didn’t look like his usual upbeat self or angry at her for volunteering him, instead, his posture made him look older than he actually was. It was the posture of someone that had just had their perspective of the world turned on its head, a posture she knew all too well from past experience. Spike decided to sit back where he had been before Fluttershy had unceremoniously relieved him from his meal.

“Is Fluttershy’s friend going to be able to help the timberwolf,” Spike asked, breaking the quiet with the voice of someone that wanted the best but was expecting the worst.

“I don’t know,” Spike didn’t seem like he was in the mood for somepony to try to cheer him up by telling him everything will turn out alright in the end, it was probably best to just tell him how she felt “very little is known about timberwolves as far as I know and if that’s the case he might be just as helpless as Fluttershy. All we can do is hope I’m wrong.”

Twilights words didn’t seem to have helped the situation but she doubted they had made it worse.

Spike had been pissed when Twilight had volunteered him to help with the timberwolf. The first time he had genuinely dealt with Timberwolves was the time when he had pledged his service to Applejack, they had nearly killed him then and subsequent meetings had only helped to enforce this. Why was Twilight having him join Fluttershy to see the timberwolf, wouldn’t it have been better to have Fluttershy ask for Featherweight to help take the pictures she needed and then give them to him to send with the message. Now that he was thinking, it would be more efficient this way but that wasn’t the point, someone should have asked him what he wanted and not just take it for granted that he was alright with being roped into everything.

Currently, Spike was being carried through Central Ponyville atop Fluttershy on their way to were Featherweight tended to relax. Since Featherweight had been appointed the editor-in-chief of the school paper his free time tended to get eaten up trying to help the other foals either clean up their articles of mistakes or help the new recruits find the position that they would fit best at. Because of his dwindling free time he tended to sit on a bench in the area that usually had several ponies with carts selling something or another just watching the other ponies go about their days. What was even funnier about this was that even when he did his best to get some time to himself he still couldn’t wrest himself from the paper. Invariably he would find something that sparked his meddlesomeness and led to a photo being taken and another article being added to the next issue of the paper.

As the two came upon the bustling center of trade for those who either were unable or unwilling to acquire a more permanent residence for their wares it was quickly made clear that they weren’t going to find featherweight here. Featherweight preferred the stories that he wrote to come from a more intimate environment, one where he could watch somepony and truly get a feel for what was happening, so the hustle and bustle that they were seeing now was definitely something that the young colt didn’t want to be around. Fluttershy started to feel depressed, Ponyville was so large it would take hours to find somepony if you didn’t know where they would be. Just as she was about to resign herself to hours of aimless wandering she remembered that the park she had been walking through when she saw Twilight and the human was just the kind of place that Featherweight liked to relax in.

“I don’t see him anywhere. Do you think he’s WWWOOOOOOOAAA,” Spike was barely able to hold on as Fluttershy suddenly took off. He had a feeling she had figured out where Featherweight was but she could have given him some warning beforehand.

Featherweight was enjoying his day off from school and the paper to the best of his ability, it always felt nice to not have to worry about anything. He had originally been planning to pony watch at the town center, especially given the fact that a new creature had come to town with the elements and had been seen traveling through there. Unfortunately, it had been too crowded so if he wanted to wait to meet the new arrival he would have likely needed to have waited as everypony else would have crowded them before him. He had settled for watching ponies in the park from a bench near the fountain after seeing the bustle around his usual spot. He had been sitting and waiting for somepony to come around and stay when he overheard some mares talking about seeing the new arrival walking through the park from the Apple family farm to Twilights castle. He had run as fast as he could in the direction of the path they would be taking but he hadn’t been fast enough.

He had been sitting on a bench near the path that the new arrival was seen coming down for the last few hours. He didn’t know if he was expecting to see this new creature, if he was hoping against hope that somepony would come down the path despite it being one of the more remote walkways, or if he was simply enjoying the peace and quiet. He had been trying to get time to himself as of late, he really had, he had even started to keep his camera in a bag and in pieces to dissuade himself from always looking for a picture to take but despite his attempts, he could never keep away from his job. Cheerily had said he was a type A pony, someone that always wanted to be doing something, he just needed to learn to moderate himself and not overwork himself.

Featherweight’s stomach let off a modest rumble as he was contemplating why he had stayed here, reminding him he had elected to skip lunch and instead only have a snack. He had been told countless times by both his parents and cheerily that he needed to maintain a decent diet, especially with how skinny he was, and stop burying himself in something on another and skipping meals. He was getting down from the bench and about to head towards home when he saw the pink and yellow shape of a running Fluttershy heading in his direction, and by the looks of it she was carrying Spike with her. Something was telling him that she needed Spike and him for something important, and he couldn’t help but start to grow a little smile.

Spike was hanging on as tight as he could to Fluttershy, well not as tight as he could but definitely tight enough that he was at no risk of falling off. The two of them had been to the more trafficked areas in the park but couldn’t find the young colt. It wasn’t until they overheard a conversation about a “new minotaur in town” that they received a clue as to where he might have gone to. Knowing the colt he couldn’t resist the chance to actually meet the new arrival and possibly interview it. The two of them, more so Fluttershy, questioned the ponies that were talking about it if they knew where the human had been seen. They said that they didn’t see it but had heard from those that had that the human was seen on the same path she had been on when she met up with Twilight and Draxton. She already knew this but the fact that the story of was Draxton had been was still being spread let alone being spread clued her into where Featherweight had gone.

Fluttershy made a beeline to the path she had taken earlier, cutting through grass and other paths on the way; occasionally stopping to apologize for her rudeness when she failed to notice ponies soon enough and almost cut them off. It didn’t take long to reach the path and when she got there Fluttershy decided to head in the direction of the castle, figuring that Featherweight was most likely in that direction. It didn’t take long, about five minutes later Spike announced, “there he is,” and Fluttershy made out the shape of the young colt of a park bench ahead. Featherweight looked surprised to see the two of them together and greeted them politely but gave off a sense of discomfort.

“Hi there Featherweight, I was looking for you. I was wondering if you could help me with something,” Fluttershy began in her usual timid fashion, “I need to send some pictures to a friend of mine to see if he can help, and I thought you would be the perfect pony to help; if you don’t mind that is.”

“Sure, I'm always glad to help,” Featherweight responded, all discomfort gone from his voice. He had been expecting something far scarier, specifically being questioned about why he was here and being reprimanded.

The two ponies and one dragon began the walk to Fluttershy's cottage in relative quiet only disturbed by the sounds of Featherweight piecing together his camera. They were moving at a brisk trot mostly due to Fluttershy wanting to get back as soon as he could partly due to her desire to help heal the timberwolf but mostly due to her not wanting to leave him alone for too long, especially after the look she had been given. Spike was still a little ticked over being brought along but had mostly mellowed out due to not being tossed around by all the running.

“So what do you need me to help with. I know you said you wanted me to take pictures but I was wondering what you needed me to take pictures of,” Featherweight felt somewhat foolish asking this now since he should have probably done so earlier, but he figured that Fluttershy was simply having work done on her cottage and the pony responsible needed reference pictures. It seemed rather silly since there were several ponies in town that could do the job just fine but considering that one of her friends was Rarity she had probably been convinced to use a more artistic pony.

“I found a poor wounded timberwolf yesterday but I haven't been able to help it get better. I thought I could do it myself but I don’t know enough,” Fluttershy responded melancholically, her ears flattening against her head as her head drooped and her pace slowed.

As soon as Featherweight heard the word Timberwolf alarms in his head started to go off. He knew how dangerous they could be. If he was remembering the stories around town correctly timberwolves had proved to be a problem for both Applejack and Rainbowdash and had only been stopped by a bit of luck. Despite knowing that the timberwolf was hurt and that Fluttershy would be able to keep it from hurting him he couldn’t help but feel on edge.

When the three of them arrived at the cottage Featherweight could feel himself tense up when Fluttershy reached to open the door, preparing to be assaulted by the timberwolf. When no attack came at the opening of the door just the sight of the inside of Fluttershy's cottage his nervousness seemed to dissipate only to return as he remembered there still was a timberwolf in the cottage that he was going to need to be neer in short order. When Fluttershy entered the cottage Spike lept down and proceeded to follow on his own, now that he wasn’t going to be left behind from all the running he could at least take back some control on his day. Fluttershy began to head upstairs to her room with the two tagalongs following close behind. When she reached for the door Featherweight experienced the same tension he had had at the front door only worse now that he knew there would definitely be a timberwolf behind this door.

When the door opened to reveal the inside of the room both Featherweight and Spike were surprised by what they were seeing. In front of them, laying down at the foot of the bed was what looked to be an actual wolf. Granted the fact that they had been told that it was a timberwolf and the fact its main body wasn’t hairy gave away it wasn’t an actual wolf but if they had seen it walking around they would have mistaken it for one. The most surprising thing though was the position it was in, the way it had been laying down along with the heads up position it had taken when it saw Fluttershy made it look like just another dog. Well, any other dog if you considered a dog slightly bigger than a pony to be normal.

When Fluttershy walked into the room the timberwolf’s tail began to slowly wag across the floor, creating a slightly unpleasant wood on wood scraping noise. As the other two entered the room the timberwolf seemed to become more nervous, with his ears partially flattening against his head and his tail stopping. Both Spike and Featherweight felt sorry for the creature before them and remorseful as to how they acted before; Spike for being so irritated with Fluttershy and Twilight, obviously this wolf made his personal problems look like a minor inconvenience in comparison, and Featherweight for assuming that this wolf was going to try to kill him as this poor thing looked to be in no condition to do anything.

“Are you ready Featherweight,” Fluttershy asked, turning to face the young colt.

Featherweight almost jumped after he heard his name. He had been so engrossed in how different the timberwolf in front of him was from what he expected one to be that he had forgotten about everything else around him. he simply nodded and held up his camera to show that he was ready. Fluttershy had him take several pictures from various angles, from full body shots to close-ups of the damaged eye and missing leg. The missing leg shot had been the more enlightening picture to take. When he saw how clean the leg had been taken off he really couldn’t imagine what could have done that. When he first tried to take a picture of it it had turned out too dark with none of the fine detail showing up. He asked Fluttershy if she could have him move to a brighter location but she explained that his other leg was broken at the hip and he needed to be held up or carried if he wanted more light from the window. She and Spike were able to lift him and place his back half in the direct light coming through the window.

After the final picture Fluttershy wanted was taken and all of the polaroids had finished developing Fluttershy quickly comprised a message and folded it into a letter and added the pictures. She added a note saying that it should be delivered to Forester at the Saddle Pine University of Ecology and that it was urgent that he get it. Spike was then handed the letter and in a flash of green fire and smoke, the letter had been sent. Fluttershy thanked the two of them for their help and went downstairs to start preparing dinner for all the animals she was housing. Spike and Featherweight seeing that there really wasn’t a need to stay anymore. The two of them started there decent downstairs and back towards their respective homes with Spike bringing up the rear.

Featherweight noticed that Spike hadn’t been his usual upbeat self since he had helped to move the timberwolf. Something about helping to move the timberwolf unsettled Spike and was now eating away at him. He tried offering to walk home with him but was met with a “don’t worry about it, I’ll be fine” from the purple dragon. On his way home the only thing on Featherweight’s mind was the hope that the letter arrives quickly and the other pony could make here soon.

The last half hour had been spent in silence by Twilight and Spike. Neither one of them willing to break it as both of their days had been spent in less than ideal circumstances, the stress and weight of their current situation. The oppressive silence that Twilight had been experiencing since Fluttershy left had resumed, so much so that she could make out the sound of a door being opened and closed upstairs along with the faint sound of footsteps. The pace of those footsteps was sending shivers down her spine though. Since she had met Draxton everytime she could make out the sound of him walking it had always been fairly brisk, never in a rush but definitely not relaxed. Now, the time between steps was much slower. Granted she was used to the steps of quadrupeds being an almost constant stream of noise but she had walked with minotaurs before and even their pace was never this slow and regular. Given what she knew about him, describing the sound as the slow approach of one's own death fit only too perfectly.

When Draxton reached the bottom of the stairs and turned towards the kitchen she could almost describe herself as happy. He was probably coming to talk to her about something but she had other plans. As soon as he opened that door she was going to lock it and try to beat some equestrian manners into him so he wouldn’t be so insufferable to deal with. Her plans to instill some form of decency in Draxton were thwarted however by him simply walking right past the door to the kitchen. Her elation at finally being able to curb the frustration Draxton had been giving her was replaced by absolute confusion. Why would Draxton be wandering around the castle? He hadn't shown any interest in being given a tour let alone even asked where anything in the house was. Granted there was NO instance she could imagine where Draxton would ask her anything. She would be willing to bet that if he became lost in the Canterlot Caverns and she had a map to the most efficient way out he would just aimlessly wander around until he found an exit of died.

It really was confusing though as to why he was just walking around the castle. He didn’t seem like the kind to do anything without a purpose. Every time she had been around him if he wasn’t occupied with something he seemed to be content to just write in his notebook or go to sleep if how she found him at Applejacks farm was any indication. While she was pondering this she heard the distinct sound of the heavy library doors opening and then closing again. Now she was unnerved, why did he go into that door, was it because it was just different to all the others, did he know that that was the library, and if he knew that that was the door to the library how did he know this? Even though it was too early to call Twilight was mentally noting that Draxton apparently had the power to know exactly where everything was at any time, a walking atlas with a penchant for murder.

Twilight quickly got up, she needed to get answers from Draxton on just what in Celestia's name he was up to. She opened up the door to the quickly trotted down the hall to the library. When she reached the door she yanked the doors open and was greeted the sight of the library as she had last seen it except for Draxon standing on the left side of the library with his back to her, seemingly browsing for a book judging by how his hand was moving across the fifth shelf up.

“If you aren't careful you're going to damage the hinges. Or are all doors made to deal with unicorn magic?” Draxtons voice was the same unchanging, almost bored tone it had been save for their first meeting.

Ok, he’s doing it again, knowing exactly who was where without seeing them. She needed to get to the bottom of this before she becomes paranoid.

“Ok, I don’t know what's normal for you but quite frankly you are the creepiest individual I have ever met and you are not leaving here until you answer some questions.”

For his part Draxton seems to have found the book he was looking for as he grabbed the book and simply turned around to face her. The silence that followed reminded Twilight that he refused to verbally acknowledge those he was talking to and simply wait for them to say what it was they were talking to him for. Despite her desire to pound into him the need to adhere to equestrian codes of decency, preferably by embedding a book on the topic into his skull as that was the most likely way to get it into his head she could hold that for another day. Right now the questions in her head took precedent.

“First off, why in Tartarus are in the library?”

“I was looking for a book about this world.”

Perfect, apparently he was a walking atlas, unless.

“How did you find the library?”

“Walking around last night.”

Ok, so at least he wasn’t all knowing. Still, him walking around the castle alone last night didn’t do anything to lessen the uncomfortable vibe she got from him.

“Secondly, how do you know it was me?”

“You’re the only unicorn here at the moment and your pet doesn't seem strong enough.”

“First off Spike isn't my pet, he’s family if anything he’s my brother. Second how do you know I’m the only unicorn.”

“The door opened two times since we arrived back, once on your friend and brother leaving and once when he came back. At no time did I hear another horse enter.”

That’s scary. He had been listening to everything going on in the house and could tell just how many ponies were in the house. Either he had better hearing than she had originally believed or the castle carried more noise than she thought. Granted she felt the desire to correct him that they were ponies, not horses as horses were taller with the closest population of them being Saddle Arabia, but that was a conversation for another time.

“Ok, then just how were you able to tell when I arrived to pick you up from Applejacks or when Fluttershy was coming up behind us in the park?”

Draxton held up a hand with two fingers raised before dropping one, signaling he was answering the first part. “I could hear someone approaching and when I smelled the air I could tell it was you,” Draxton stated before dropping the second finger, “and in the park we were traveling downwind so I could smell anyone behind us.”

“Then how did you know it was Fluttershy, you never met her?”

“I found her in the forest. Before I met you I was looking for the source of those wooden dogs. I saw her caring for one and figured it was hers and the other ones I had been wild.”

So that’s how he knew were Fluttershy had been when they first met. Well, that answers another question she had.

“What about when we were at the edge of the Everfree? You could tell where my friends had gone, I know you couldn’t have been able to smell them since the wind doesn't blow that direction.”

“I followed the path your friends made when they were running. When we left the forest I saw the disturbance in the grass in the direction of the house.”

At least he wasn’t lying about being a hunter. Even she hadn’t noticed the trail her friends had left. She just had one last question.

“Why did you bring all of your things with you? You could have left it back at your workshop.”

“If your royal family is anything like the ones I’m familiar with they will want to keep an eye on me. They will most likely take me to their palace to do so.”

It unnerved Twilight how right Draxton was in that regard. Well, at least she had gotten the answers she had been seeking, and to top it off he wasn’t as creepy as she had initially thought. Granted his sense of smell and sound were much greater than she thought animals could have but it was a far cry from the all-knowing being she had worked her self into thinking he was.

“Well, it’s a relief to know I was just being paranoid. In the future, when you do something that surprises somepony, please explain how you do it because when you don’t it makes you seem far scarier than you actually are.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Draxton turned to one of the chairs and proceeded towards it, obviously believing the conversation to be done with. Well, the conversation was done but would it kill him to just ask instead of figuring it out himself and assuming the other pony was fine with him just leaving. Again, a conversation for another day. She could not help but smile as she turned around and started to head out. She really had just been paranoid, as far as she could tell Draxton was about as normal as one could expect. When she reached the door and opened it she couldn’t help but turn around tell Draxton one last thing before she left.

“You know, it’s kind of funny. I came in here half expecting you to tell me you know where ponies are by the scent of their blood or something else really creepy,” she regretted saying this as soon as she got her response.

“I am.”

Why did she have to go and open her stupid mouth? Why could she have not just kept it closed and adhered to the saying ignorance is bliss? Why had she forgotten the don’t ask questions phrase she had JUST been thinking about not even an hour ago?. It was nice to know she wouldn’t be sleeping tonight. If last night was any indication she didn’t need it anyway.

Forrester was sitting at his desk going over some notes he had taken of a grigorpodi pack he had been observing this past week. The sun was about to set for the day but like most other days, that wasn’t going to stop him. He tended to stay late going over notes, remembering what it had been like and how the timberwolves had behaved. If he had his way he would spend more time with the timberwolves, heck he would spend all his time with them, but alas, the university required him to publish papers on what he found. Fortunately, he had been able to convince his boss not to place him in a lecturer position, citing the need to have a flexible schedule as he was still one of the only scientists that studied timberwolves so extensively. It wasn’t entirely true though, as several of his colleagues were lecture staff and could take a temporary leave to attend a speech or conduct research. He also had a pretty good feeling she knew that but never chose to push the topic.

He was just going over the section of notes he had made where he described that despite the introduction of balsa wood and the corresponding trees no timberwolves were seen incorporating it into their bodies, despite the calculations showing the loss in weight having a significant impact on the speed the timberwolves would be able to achieve. He hypothesized that despite the wood being lighter it being much more fragile suggested that the species required species of wood with a minimum weight to strength ratio. As he was about to pick up a databook on the properties of all known species of trees he heard several firm and quick knocks at his door. By the sound of It, whatever had brought this pony here must be urgent. He really hoped that it was another message from the Lama Empire asking him to come back to help with athrafstos repopulation efforts. He always loved to study the athrafstos. The species were the largest timberwolves and due to the wood they formed their bodies with were almost imposable to damage. When he opened the door to his office he was met with a mail pegasus breathing heavily.

“Are you Forrester,” the pony short-windedly asked after he had taken a deep breath to be able to do so without panting.

“I am.”

“I have an urgent message for you from the royal representatives,” the mail pegasus choked out before reaching into his bag and pulling out an unmarked letter.

“Are you sure that’s for me, its kind of blank?”

“Yeah, it’s the only piece of mail I have. A royal representative came into Parcels and Packages, grabbed me, and told me I needed to get this to you as fast as I could. I had just clocked out to.”

Forrester thanked the exhausted pony and tipped him for his troubles. When he closed his door he walked back over to his desk and began to analyze the piece of mail. The paper used for the letter was obviously equestrian in origin due to the bleaching and consistency of the color, so no urgent lama-grams. Judging by the lack of information on the front and back it hadn't been intended to ever go through the proper mail channels. When testing the letter to tell what was inside he could make out something thick and semi-flexible taking up the entire length of the letter behind two more ridged objects. If he had to guess, he would say the letter contained a written message and stacks of sticky notes. When he opened the letter he found that he was partially right, there was a message with the denser things he felt looking to be stacks of polaroids. If he had to hazard a guess, he would say that the letter was about some new timberwolf pack moving to an area around the castle. One of the citizens or a pony under Celestia was probably overreacting and asking him what they needed to do to get rid of them, with the pictures being of the pack in question. He tended to get a significant amount of letters about ponies wanting him to remove the timberwolves from an area and he was getting tired of it. Why couldn’t other ponies see what he did and just let the timberwolves be? They tended to stay to themselves for the most part anyways.

With resignation to what he was probably about to read, he removed the message from the letter with his mouth and proceeded to open it to see if the pony at least wrote their name at the bottom of their message. He was happy, and quite frankly relieved, to see it was Fluttershy, the pony he had met not too long ago when she was on a trip to study, what were they again, koopa, koola, maybe karma? Either way, at least he knew she was a fellow peer that understood wild animals shouldn’t be persecuted but understood.

Dear Forrester

I hope I’m not bothering you by sending this letter but I could really use your help.
I was recently deep in the Everfree and came across an injured timberwolf. I
brought him home to try to take care of him but when I tried to give him some
wood to help him repair himself, he just says none of it calls to him. He’s in really
bad shape and I don’t know if I could deal with being unable to help him. I included
some pictures if those could help you identify what I'm doing wrong. If you could
get back to me as soon as posable I would really appreciate it since I don’t want the
poor thing to suffer more than it already is.

Sincerely, Fluttershy

Finally, a letter asking to help a timberwolf. Unfortunately, the problem was probably extremely simple to solve, but he was willing to take any victory, no matter how small. If he remembered correctly she said the town she lived in only had rudervariabilis, so either she had found a different species when she went deep into the Everfree or the wood she had tried to give it was not good, either full of toxins or too damaged to use. If it was just another species he would just need to look at the pictures to see what species it was and what wood it would need. He just hoped it wasn’t an arborescens, he knew that adult specimens lost the ability to heal from wounds and he just didn’t think Fluttershy would be able to handle that kind of information.

He took the open letter in his mouth and proceeded to dump its contents of pictures out onto his desk and what he saw shocked him to his core. It, fortunately, wasn’t an arborescens but it definitely wasn’t a rudervariabilis, its body was too organized. The timberwolf in the pictures lacked the random scattering of different woods the timberwolves she was familiar with had. It instead looked to be made of different woods, all organized to make up only a certain part of the body. It was obviously not an athrafstos as there looked to be at least four different wood species, and while they were known to be packs that were made up of two different kinds of wood there had never been a pack with three kinds of wood, let alone four. The most interesting thing though was how closely it resembled an actual wolf. Usually, a timberwolf looked vaguely like some kind of Canidae with one species looking like a fox and another like a coyote no timberwolf had been recorded looking this close to an actual recreation of a canine.

While he did take a glance over the injuries it had sustained, and they were bad, particularly that eye. He couldn’t help but admire what had been sent to him, evidence of a new species of timberwolf. This was not only the opportunity of a lifetime but the one thing he had been dreaming of since he had discovered his love and subsequent talent for observing timberwolves. If this really was a new species he knew he would be able to convince his boss to give him the time and funding to study them, the perfect opportunity to get back in the field and out of this horrible office writing papers all day. He quickly got up from his chair and bolted out of the room and towards the office of Ruby Roots. When he arrived at her office he flung the door open, frightening the poor mare inside half to death as she had just been graphing the distribution and density of the conifers to look for where the boreal zones of Equestria were best defined as being.

“When does the next train going to Ponyville leave,” Forrester exclaimed before the mare had a chance to recover.

“I think the next one leaving south is in half an hour,” Ruby Roots responded half on instinct as she was still trying to figure out what was happening.

Forrester spun around and sprinted back to his office, inciting Ruby to yell after him to never burst in on her like that and to at least have the common courtesy to close her door after he left. But those complaints just went from one ear to the other as all he cared about right now was grabbing his traveling bag and booking it to the train station. After all, he only had half an hour and he wasn’t missing that train. Even though he knew another train would be leaving only a few hours after that one even that was too long to wait to finally see this amazing new specimen.

Author's Note

the species in the chapter [if you are confused as to why Forrester uses those weird names its because they are the scientific names and scientists almost never use the common name, so here are the explanations in order of refference]

Full name Composita Motorias Copiam Bestia Silva Lupus -
meaning; composition mobile supply animal forest wolf

Due to the nature of entities like the timberwolf posses being neith plant nor animal a new organic clasification was created for organisms that share properties of multiple kingdoms (compostia). They are a mobile organism (Motorias) and they suply material from them selfs when they breed (Copiam). The kingdoms they resemble are Animalia (Bestia) and Plantai (Silvia){when classifying the order you list the similar organisms goes animal, plant, fungi, bacteria, archaiea}. The genus they most closely resemble is the wolf (Lupus). Due to timberwolfs not being organisms in the manner we know it as, their "genetic uniqueness" is the magical signiture unique to them.

species name {what the name translates to} (common name); description

grigorpodi {quick footed} (blink paw) very lean and long, very fast, about as big as a shows Timberwolf, made from very light wood so can’t handle many hits and requires it to obtain wood more often than any other species to maintain itself, eats rabbits and squirrels mostly, about 10 kilos or 22 lbs. Evolved in this manner as long ago when larger, slower animals were hunted to extiction by several packs in an area and they could not easily migrate the wolfs that survived to pass on their "genes" were those that could chase and catch the faster animals. Over time, the timberwolves that had a stronger desire to use lighter woods became more successful and their genes were passed on.

athrafstos {unbreakable} (stone wolf) a species that evolved from oxyderkis with a majority of packs only being composed of one type of wood, these wolves are the largest being about twice the size of griffins and very bulky, name comes from the fact these wolfs are composed of woods that are extremely hard, diet is similar to oxyderkis only they will also eat the roots of most every plant, usually weigh upwards of 95 kilos or 210 lbs. Evolved in this manner as the location where they evolved contained more deadly threats so the timberwolves that survived were those that were larger and made of harder woods.

rudervariabilis {variable rubbish} (tinderwolf) “shows Timberwolves” very adaptable as it is the only species that can utilize any wood it finds as all other species can only use specific kinds of wood, weight varies by wood used and amount used. evolved in this manner due to pressure from the windigos killing off a great deal of plant life, forcing the timberwolves to be less selective. Native to regions were windigos first came from. Species is a good example of runaway sexual selection as female timberwolves desired less selective mates, even though they are the most succesful species and no longer need to be so open to any wood.

arborescens {shrub like} (bush wolf) about the size of a normal European wolf but its body is a thick mass of sticks and underbrush, upon reaching adulthood lose the capacity to repair themselves from damage by grafting on new wood, to compensate for the loss they are the second best runners, adapters, and camouflages’. Evolved this way as there was presure to be beter at hiding. Lost the ability to repair as their body exists in symbiosis with living plant matter so if a piece is lost and a replacement is introduced it would face chemical attacks from the already present plant life and might kill the timberwolf in the attempt to kill the foreign invader.

Occurrences of Night

“The silence of the caverns is a blessing only equaled by the night. Above them lies the great school, rivaled only by Canterlot in terms of activity, and below them wonders only the greatest among us have the privilege to witness. The solace they provide gives meaning to the work we do.” Stargazer

-Occurrences of Night-

The trip back to the castle turned out to be a long and quiet one. The flapping of the pegasi’s wings as they pulled the royal chariot as well as the whipping of the wind comprised most of the sounds that the two sisters heard. Luna, for her part, tried several times to strike up a conversation to diminish the boredom and keep her mind from trying to form long chains of barely connected thoughts to keep her sane. Or worse yet, having a single thought that would last the whole ride back, comprising figuring out every iteration of that thought and just why she cared.

Unfortunately for her, every time she would try to start the conversation, her sister didn’t seem to be willing to continue it. Whenever she tried to get an answer to what her sister thought of this new creature that had been found, she would simply receive some derivative of ‘I have no idea what to think’. Luna tried to ask questions about other topics, like the Zebra Nations pastries, or the interesting dreams she had seen as of late, but none of them could elicit more than a sentence from Celestia.

About ten minutes after Luna asked her last question, resigning herself to several hours of mind-numbing silence, Celestia decided to tell her sister why she was being so curt.

“I’m sorry for not being too talkative. I know I’m being rude. I just can’t seem to shake the feeling that this ‘human’ is not something we, nor anypony, is equipped to deal with. I feel we may have made a mistake in not just sending a letter to the Zebra Nations.”

“I do not blame you sister for thinking that a grave mistake was made in not being prepared for the arrival of a new species in Equestria. I do, however, believe that your reaction might be greater than is deserved. You read the letters yourself, besides their first meeting with the creature, it has not indicated any ill will towards the six of them. And if you think on how Rainbow acted towards it, I do not feel that the human’s actions were entirely unjustified.”

After that short exchange, the trip resumed the silence that Luna had been trying to avoid. Worse yet, the fact that the hunter had been brought up was reminding her of something that wasn’t sitting right for her, and worse yet, was probably why Celestia was so on edge. Twilight said that when Rainbow Dash had flown towards him he responded by grabbing her by the throat and slamming her onto her back with enough force that they could all feel the impact through their hoofs. While an impact like that was not exactly new for Rainbow Dash, discounting the fact that her head had been used to bring her to a stop, the human would not have known this.

When she thought about what the human had done, she couldn’t shake the notion that the human had more than likely intended to kill the pony that meant to attack him. While she couldn't blame him for his actions, it sounded like he had indeed been threatened, but the fact he had instantly resorted to murder was beyond disquieting. The human had not tried to talk the problem out like a pony, he had not subdued her in a way where she could not fight him, nor did it seem that he had simply meant to incapacitate her by rendering her unconscious; he seemed to have been attempting to kill her.

She knew there was no evidence for such an accusation. The human did describe himself as a hunter before revealing that he was human, so the possibility did exist that he had deduced how durable she was just from looking at her and by grabbed her. However, she highly doubted that that was the case. Every time she tried to reason through his actions and come up with an alternative, her thoughts always lead back to him wanting to kill Rainbow Dash.

So that's how she spent the remainder of her silent trip, trying her best to convince herself that she was over-thinking things, and she was failing miserably at it. Not even the changing of day to night was enough to shift her thoughts to a different topic.

Fortunately for her, the trip was short enough that she was prevented from finish her thoughts on just how little regard the human had for the lives of others when the chariot landed in the castle courtyard. The courtyard was in motion with the strange waltz that night brought about. While the day held the hurried bustling that would not look out of place in an ant hive, the nightly activity was much lighter, and looked to all flow together in a strangely purposeful rhythm. The moving and shifting lights of Canterlot and the castle, so peaceful at night, tempting the princess away from her dark thoughts on the human and onto her responsibility of helping the dreaming ponies of Equestria. The problem was that this duty had recently become tainted with thoughts just as, if not darker than, those she had on the human.

Last night had been odd for her. She had been unable to sense the dreams of those that resided in Ponyville. When she looked at the area where those dreams usually resided, she discovered the area shrouded in darkness. Worse yet, this strange darkness had clouded the dreams, rendering them impossible to view from the outside. She had visited several of these dreams, but all of them had been the pleasant dreams she strived to see in her subjects. She figured that the darkness was the result of her distance from the town, being in the Zebra Nations after all. Two things about that though didn't seem to make sense. For one, Ponyville was the only town that was experiencing this darkening of the dreams. While it would make sense if multiple towns and cities had been shrouded in darkness, she tended not to travel outside the boundaries of Equestria, so such an occurrence, while new, would not be all too surprising, the fact only Ponyville was being affected was worrisome. However, the more concerning thing was that the darkening of these dreams somehow felt familiar.

She knew in her heart that this couldn't be true, there was no way that she would be able to forget such a bizarre, and quite frankly unsettling occurrence. Yet, there was just something about it that felt familiar, like she had seen this before, and knew exactly what it was, but just couldn't conjure up the memory. What scared her even more though, was that this feeling of familiarity brought with it the feeling of dread. A part of her brain was telling her that she both knew exactly what was causing the darkened dreams and that it was something she was hopelessly unable to deal with.

“Thank you all for helping to transport me and my sister to and from the Zebra Nations. I do believe the three of you have earned some rest. If you wouldn’t mind, could the three of you fetch the night guards responsible for pulling Luna’s chariot, I feel the two of us have some business that needs to be taken care of before the night is over.”

The sound of her sister’s voice brought Luna back from her thoughts. Luna was able to turn towards her sister addressing the day guard pegasi right before the three of them headed towards the western wing, the area that the bat ponies of the night guard called their homes. It was always funny to watch the flummoxed looks of the day guard ponies when they were dismissed by Celestia when the duty of princess shifted to her. The day guard had seemingly grown so accustomed to extending their hours into the night in the millennia she had been absent that even now the guard were still trying to acclimate.

While Luna would have loved to quietly follow the three pegasi and listen to their thoughts on being dismissed, she was more concerned with what Celestia had said to them.

“Sister.” Celestia turned to acknowledge her younger sister, possessing the reserved face Luna knew she only held when she was trying to bring a situation under control. She knew that Celestia would never hold that face around her unless a situation was incredibly dire. “I know that you wish to meet with the human, but I believe that it is something that we should wait till tomorrow to accomplish. Let us rest, and when we finally meet with him, we might have cooler heads.”

The face that Celestia made in response to Luna's suggestion was one of utter shock. “Luna, you can't honestly be suggesting what I think you're suggesting.” The disbelief that emanated from Celestia's voice was only matched by how wide her eyes had become.

“I know you have your reservations on leaving the human in Ponyville for longer, I share your thoughts on the matter.” Celestia looked like she was about to interject, asking her sister why she was suggesting it then. Only to stopped as Luna resumed her appeal, “However, we have not been sent any letters telling us that the human has brought harm to our subjects. Nor have our royal advisors sent any messages that would even suggest that the human was not peacefully residing in Ponyville. I would suggest we wait to hear from your advisor, Daily Planner, before we take action.”

Celestia was both proud at how mature Luna sounded, and disappointed in herself for how she was behaving. She was the older sister, and had spent the last thousand years without her ruling the country. In all those years she should have become less paranoid about new creatures and more accepting. It almost brought a smile to her muzzle to know that her sister was taking the lessons that she and Twilight had been trying to instill in her since her reformation as Nightmare Night to heart. She resolved that from this point on she would look past what she had initially seen this human as and view the human as she would any other sentient creature on Equis.

While Celestia was berating herself for her actions over the last two days, the previously mentioned pony came through a doorway not too far from where the three pegasi guards had gone. It was almost as if Luna simply saying her name had called her forth from the castle. When Daily Planner reached the two princesses the grin on her khaki snout was one of immense relief, something that Celestia felt either meant that either a significant amount of vacation time, or a generous bonus, was in order.

“Thank goodness the two of you have returned,” the earth pony began, pulling a large purple binder from her saddle bag with her muzzle before laying it down on the ground and proceeding to open it with her hooves, “While most of the basic operations regarding maintenance of the castle occurred without issue, the lack of the two of you for the day and night courts have created an issue within the more affluent members of Canterlot. I was able to filter out the more ludicrous complaints like those of Tweed Suit, and have scheduled private meetings with many of the ponies later in the week for the two of you to go over exactly what it is that needed your attention.”

While the fact that Daily Planner had not only managed to keep everything in order in their absence, but had even been able to prevent them from having to deal with the more benign and absurd requests was a feat Celestia had decided had earned the mare the next two weeks off.

“That is excellent to hear. I was wondering, have there been any more letters from Ponyville while we were gone?” Celestia was doing her best to maintain a regal appearance, hiding her desperation to know everything that was happening around the human.

“There was one we received almost an hour ago, but it wasn’t meant for you. It came with a note saying that it should be delivered to a pony by the name of Forrester at the Saddle Pine University of Ecology as soon as possible.” Daily Planner began to turn pages in the binder to find something she had included that could help with the explanation.

The words were both scaring, and confusing her. Why would Twilight need a message to be delivered so quickly to an ecologist, let alone one so accomplished that they had attained a position at one of Equestrians premier universities? Twilight knew that humans were not a species native to Equestria, nor were there records on them in the written works of other species. Before she could delve too deeply into trying to figure out what had happened and why, Daily Planner had found what she had been looking for. She held up a small stack of papers that had been clipped together, her long maroon hair coming to rest on the papers before a quick exhalation through her nose blew her hair off of them.

Celestia took the papers from her assistant with her magic and began to look over them. The front page had the full body picture of a pegasus with a walnut coat that began to fade as it approached the hooves, and a copper mane and tail with streaks of mahogany in a barely maintained state. On his haunch, Celestia could make out his cutie mark, what appeared to be a timberwolf positioned in the shape of an ouroboros. Celestia figured that the pony in the picture was Forrester and the papers where what Daily Planner was able to find out about him.

“Forrester is the most respected timberwolf expert in Equestria. He has almost two decades of experience dealing with the creatures and has published extensively while working for the university,” Daily Planner continued after she saw Celestia looking over the report.

“Has Forrester been involved in any research aside from those involving timberwolves, perhaps something to do with minotaurs or other bipeds?” Celestia inquired, moving the papers over to Luna so she could read them.

“No. Forrester appears to only be interested in studying timberwolves. I think the best pony to ask about minotaurs would be Linear Mapper, and for bipeds in general Profound Endurance would seem to be a good choice.”

It appears that the letter she had received from Twilight was correct and that there was no cause for concern about the human, the misgivings about what he was simply attributable to paranoia. She remembered one of the letters Twilight had sent mentioned that Fluttershy had taken in an injured timberwolf. In all likelihood, Twilight had allowed Fluttershy to use the magical letter system to get the message to Forrester as soon as possible.

Just then, four ponies silently arrived, dropping to the ground after presumably having flown here from the night guard barracks rather than spending the time walking through the castle. All of them were bat ponies, however, two of them were currently utilizing enchanted armor to appear to be normal pegasi. The use of such magical items was something Celestia was saddened by. Many bat ponies faced some kind of discrimination from the general populace for their appearance, so many of them chose to hide their differences behind illusion magic from enchanted items. While both she and Luna permitted no discriminatory practices to occur within the guard, many bat ponies still chose to utilize magic to hide their true forms. A practice that ground on Luna’s soul.

The four newly arrived ponies began to stand at attention, awaiting orders from the princesses. Celestia looked over to Luna and was met with a look she knew all too well. Luna had been right, the human did not appear to be a danger to the citizens of Ponyville, and her insistence on summoning the night guard responsible for pulling the royal carriage was ill-founded. Celestia simply turned back to Daily Planner and thanked her for what she had done before silently looked to Luna with an even face.

The silence from her sister was all the answer Luna needed. “Thank you for coming, I wish to be escorted back to my chambers so I can begin preparations for handling tonight's dream excursions.”

The ponies looked perplexed by the order they had been given, why would the princess ask for the four of them specifically, the chariot guard, simply to walk her to her chambers? Despite their confusion, they did not voice their questions and simply began to walk with Luna as she headed to her night post.

Celestia released a sigh. If she wasn't going to be traveling to Ponyville tonight, the least she could do was send a letter to Twilight informing her of the change of plans. She had told her ex-student that she would be returning as soon as possible, so it was only right to inform her that the plan had changed.

The sounds of papers being crumpled and being disposed of had been occurring for some time in the second-floor workshop of the Carousel Boutique. It had been several hours since Draxton had left the boutique and she still couldn't figure out an outfit that would fit him.

She had first designed a light blue formal suit inspired by traditional equestrian clothing from when the Grand Galloping Gala first began, but it just didn't fit. She had tried revising the style, trying to modernize the outfit, but each iteration just looked wrong. She tried shifting the colors to pastels, brights, warms, and muted colors, each iteration never feeling just right. And she had a sinking feeling she knew why.

She was loath to admit it, but the first outfit she had seen on Draxton seemed to fit who he was exactly. From her experiences with him, he had been very dark and forward, with a distinct demeanor or knowledgeability that was reminiscent of Celestia herself. She hated to admit it but she had been trying to dress Draxton as she felt he needed to be, rather than how he should be.

Rarity grabbed her pencil and marker set and redrew the shape of Draxton that she had grown so familiar with. This time, she was not going to try to start this design from scratch, she was going to draw inspiration from that terrible, yet gorgeous crow outfit she had seen him wear.

The first thing she wanted to do was try to layer the design. While Twilight had told her that she had wanted Draxton to have some clothing that was more casual, she couldn't help but think Draxton would need some formal clothes as well. She could think of no better way than to make an outfit that could serve both goals. The challenge though would be making sure the layers could work without each other, a challenge she believed she was more than capable of handling.

While Draxton seemed to prefer things to be simple Rarity knew there was something more to him. She had seen him go from murderous to calm almost instantly in his workshop. When he wasn't actively threatening something, he seemed to act quite courteous, despite his laconic disposition.

For the first layer of clothing, she felt a nice, deep purple, button-up shirt would be a good start. She remembered that the first outfit he wore had been an almost black purple, and she felt it would be nice to use a similar color, although slightly less dark. In the end, a darkened eggplant seemed to be the proper color. To go with it, a crimson tie would serve as a nice contrast to the dark purple of the shirt.

Over the shirt and tie, an onyx black vest seemed appropriate. While she disliked using too many dark colors, especially black, in her designs, this was a special case. Even then, she planned to utilize vermilion red threads to embroider some designs into the vest to break up the color, and really make the outfit aesthetically pleasing.

Finally, for the uppermost piece of clothing, she was going to have it be a jet black leather frock coat, similar to the one she had seen him wearing today. Besides the color and materials, the coat would be mostly the same as the coat he had been wearing. The design differences being the collar lapel, while extending the same distance down the front of the coat, would also permit the front to be closed. She was also going to have the tail of the coat curve as it traveled to the front, rather than have that square look of his other coat. She additionally wouldn't create a divide between the left and right sides with a cut like the other one had.

For the pants, she could simply use a light but durable charcoal grey fabric. It probably wouldn't hurt to also try to make a replacement hat for Draxton with the same material as well, so he wouldn’t keep using that thin cloth to hide that horrid wound. Just the memory of that injury made her shudder.

When she looked down at the finished designs, she couldn’t be happier at how it had tuned out. Well, she would have been happier if Draxton would have looked right in brighter colors, but in the end, this outfit perfectly fit the human. Now she just needed to bring the piece before her into the real world.

Pinkie had followed the human's aerosolized grump back to Twilight's castle. She found a nice hiding bush to lay down in so she could see when the human came out. Unfortunately, it seemed he was done going outside for today. That was fine though, she just needed to go inside and meet him.

Pinkie got up and happily trotted towards Twilight's front door. As she was heading there, she could make out the faint sound of a door being opened really loudly. She couldn't tell exactly where the sound had come from but she was going to find out, and she was going to be S.Ne.A.K.Y about it.

Fortunately, she always had her Super Necessary Anonymity Kirtle Yeoman hidden everywhere, for just such an occasion. She reached into a nearby bush and pulled out what most ponies would assume was just a manikin from Rarity’s shop wearing a rustic dress. Pinkie quickly took the dress off her trusty yeoman and placed him back in the bush.

Pinkie quietly made her way along the wall towards where she thought she had heard the sound come from as fast as she could. When she reached the part of the castle that she remembered lead to the library two things became apparent to her. For one, she could make out the sound of Twilight's voice coming from the other side of the wall, meaning she was in the library talking to herself, Spike, or the human. The second thing she could notice was that the concentration of grump had gotten super high. The human was definitely with Twilight in the library.

Now that she knew where the two of them were, she just needed to walk back to twilight's front door and head to the library. She couldn't climb in a window like she would have wanted to since Twilight's library only had windows above her super high shelves. As she was about to head back through a really good idea suddenly came to her. Why not climb the walls and enter the windows to surprise the two of them, they would never see it coming?

Pinkie had just what she needed too. She always carried some super-suctiony suction cups with her for just such an occasion. She reached into a pocket in her kirtle and pulled out four large suction cups. She attached a suction cup to each hoof and began her ascent up the wall. As she was climbing, she could hear Twilight and Mr. Grumpy still talking. Unfortunately, the conversation quickly ended as she heard the human say one last thing before there was the sound of a door closing. The good news though was the not so fun feeling the human gave off hadn’t gone down, meaning he was still in the room.

When Pinkie finally reached one of the windows to the library, she began searching the room for the source of the grump. The room was dim, with the only lights coming from magically imbued gems in desk lamps and sconces that filled the room. Despite this, Pinkie knew she should have been able to make out the human, he was so different looking there was no way she could miss him. He must be right below her, in the natural blind spot she had from the window. She did her best to look beneath her by trying to get higher.

She plastered her face to the top of the window as high as she could get, straining to see anything below her. She could just make out what looked like the human's hat but she couldn't be sure. She was pushing her face as hard as she could against the glass, attempting to make out just what was beneath her.

She could almost see more of him, she was almost there, she just needed to…

A soft pop came from the window.

Pinkie had all of half a second to remember that Twilight preferred to not lock the library windows, and said windows were the circular ones that pivoted around the center before she was sent head first into the library. The window rotating from top to bottom, catching the pink mares clothing before flinging her towards the human she had been trying to see.

Draxton had been surprised to find that every book the strange unicorn that was housing him had was in New Delistaris. There wasn't a single book written using the runes of Old Velathrian, the language he had grown up with. He had tried to reason this away by telling himself that this was a different world and they had developed differently than how his world had. The only problem with this was that all the ponies as they called themselves -a stupid name seeing as all member were called as such despite ponies referring to immature horses- spoke his language and wrote a language from his world.

He had learned a great deal last night when he had discovered this library after having retrieved his things. He found a book titled Pony Anatomy: The Ins and Outs of Our Bodies and decided to read it. Apparently, these ponies were very similar to the equines of his home, the exception being unicorns and pegasi. The book had also stated that each pony had a latent network of structures throughout their bodies that allowed them to harness some kind of magic. But he highly doubted the claims.

With what he knew, he had no doubt that these creatures had come in contact with a great one that had bestowed them their powers. He had seen what the amygdala could do, and had been to that damnable fishing hamlet. Everything he had seen up to now that could be called “magic” was simply attributable to the cosmic powers of great ones.

He was searching the historical records contained in the books here for anything that would tell him just what great ones these equines had come in contact with. So far, the only records of a great one were of an entity they called Discord. According to their records, this being could warp the world around itself, seemingly breaking all known laws of physics. This, however, meant nothing, as the records of this being came after records of magic being used in the world.

He had a feeling that either the records had been purged- as they should be- to prevent the populace from going mad from the eldritch truth, or were never there to begin with. If the second was true it would mean that this world, despite being influenced by the same beings that he had so recently come to know, was wholly ignorant of the truth that surrounds them.

He was about to read a section of the book he had just picked up when a sudden high-pitched shriek filled the room, along with the sound of something falling from above. The muscles of his body moved before he even had to think, a reaction he had learned during his night in Yharnam. He had learned rather quickly how to respond to something that came at you from above.

He dropped the book he had been reading in front of him and deftly rolled away from his chair. He had his back to the chair when he heard the sound of something landing in the seat. Draxton immediately grabbed the blades of mercy he had on his hip, he wouldn't have time to split the blades now, but after his first attack, he would. He rounded on the creature that had landed on the chair, fully intent on slicing whatever had dared to attack him, only to be met by one of the normal horses he had seen in his workshop.

When the horse finally opened its eyes it was met with the sight of his blades inches from its flesh. He could see the horse visibly pale, a sight that should have been impossible to do, given it had fur. He calmly placed the blades back onto his hip and went to pick up the book he had dropped so he could put it back where he had found it.

“If I had less control you’d be dead.”

The pink horse for her part seemed to calm down once she saw that he did not intend to end her life just yet. She slowly lowered herself from the chair and turned to face him. When he turned back around he saw an unnaturally wide smile had come to dominate her face. Of all the horrors that he had witnessed in Yharnam, nothing compared to the fright that this smile was giving him. Back then, anything this unnerving had the decency to want to kill him, so he at least knew how to deal with it. This smile was too wide, it was the smile one would expect from someone that had found pure joy. It was a smile that couldn't be worn by anything not deranged or dead.

“Thanks for not hurting me Mr., I knew you couldn't be all bad.”

He just scoffed. He had learned well the lessons of Yharnam, the only thing that ever mattered was that you survived. He almost felt sorry for this pink ponies ignorant notion of good and bad. He began to make his way towards the door before the pink horse stopped him.

“Wait. Don't go yet. We haven't even properly met. My name is Pinkamina Diane Pie, but everyone just calls me Pinkie Pie or just Pinkie for short. What's your name?” Pinkie said as cheerily as could be. He couldn't fully trust something this happy, it wasn't right. He could at least be courteous and give her his name.

“Draxton Vanright Valdane,” he replied over his shoulder before resuming his walk back to the door.

Pinkie couldn't let Draxton get away she needed to throw him a “Welcome to Ponyville Party” and she did not need a repeat of Twilight or Cranky at ANOTHER of her welcome parties.

“Hey, before you go, I'm planning a super special ultra ‘Welcome to Ponyville But Also Equestria And Also Thanks For Saving Us From A Big Mean Kitty From The Everfree And Also Sorry For Going To Your Home Uninvited And Attacking You’ party and wanted to know if you wanted anything at the party?”

After she had finished her request, she could see the human looking over his shoulder at her. His single red eye feeling like it was looking into her soul. The uncomfortable silence that filled the room seemed to stretch on for a solid minute to Pinkie.

She could feel her mane deflating as time passed. What if he didn't want a party? What if he didn't like parties, and she had offended him by wanting to throw a party for him?

“Quiet.”

Her mane instantly regained its poofyness. Draxton hadn't refused to let her throw the party for him, she knew he had some goodness buried under his gruff, silent, miserable exterior. If she could just play her cards right, she could crack that exterior and make it so he wasn't always giving off that aura of grump.

“Okie dokie lokie.”

Pinkie happily started her bouncing out of the library and to the front door, passing by Draxton on her way. When she arrived at the door, she reached up to reopen it only for Draxton to stop her this time.

“Are those wooden wolves a common pet?”

Pinkie looked back at Draxton confused, what made him think timberwolves were pets. Unless he really liked them and wanted one for a pet. She could probably try to get him a pet timberwolf, but Twilight probably wouldn't want him to have one. Oh, maybe she could have a timberwolf theme to the party.

“You mean the timberwolves? I don't think anyone has one of those as a pet.”

“Then what’s your friend Fluttershy doing with one?”

“Oh, she looks out for all kinds of animals, it's her special talent. She’s taking care of that poor timberwolf since he got really hurt. I feel really bad for him too.” Pinkie looked down, her voice conveying the pain she felt for the condition of the Everfree predator.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could make out that Draxton had subtly changed his posture after hearing what she said. She couldn't make out what had specifically changed in his posture or what it meant, but she wanted to believe he felt bad for what he did and wanted to make up for it.

The dinners were almost prepared for all the animals she cared for. Fluttershy liked the consistency that feeding the animals that lived with her brought. Regardless of how bad her day had been, she could always count on the dinner preparations to remain consistent. It also didn’t hurt that caring for animals never failed to brighten her mood. The evening sun shining through her kitchen window mirroring her mood. She was just fixing dinner for the songbirds and wood mouse family which lived near her fireplace. They tended to be one of the last groups she fixed dinner for, mostly due to how simple it was, nuts and berries for the songbirds, and seeds and apple slices for the mice family. She was about to bring out the food for everyone when she remembered that she needed to prepare dinner for the timberwolf.

If she instead happened to be housing a normal timberwolf, she didn’t expect it would be much of an issue, but the one fact she knew was that this timberwolf was not normal. Typically, she gave the timberwolves sticks from the forest border but judging by the lack of interest it had shown over the sticks it had been given this morning, she doubted it would go over well. When she checked the wood she had left behind in her room, she found none of the softwoods had been interacted with, and most of the tougher woods only had light teeth marks. She asked if it wanted her to keep any of it around, but it told her none of it interested him. The timberwolf seemed perfectly content to not eat and instead just drink from the bowl of water she kept filled for him. Even when she discovered that the wood it had eaten this morning came from one of the oak trees near her garden when she found the leftover pieces while cleaning up, it had eaten none of the other sticks and branches from those trees. If there was a way to figure out what she needed to feed it from just this it was beyond her.

Fluttershy carefully took the small bowl of food for the songbirds in her mouth, and the plate for the mice family in her right hoof. When she arrived back in the living room, she found everyone was eating their dinner. Well not everyone, she only allowed the herbivores and insects to eat in the cottage. She had learned when she first started to take care of animals that having the carnivores eating with the non-carnivores lead to less than comfortable situations, so the predators tended to eat outside, they didn’t seem to mind though. Angel, who had already finished his dinner, was currently glaring at her from his spot on her loveseat. He was angry with her due to not being able to go into her room, not from her keeping him out, but because he didn’t want to share a room with a timberwolf. After she set down the last two meals, which they were immensely grateful of due having to wait, she headed upstairs to ask what the timberwolf would like to eat.

When she arrived in her room she was greeted by the timberwolf quickly wagging its tail across the floor with its head up as far is it could get it without instinctively wanting to sit up. She couldn’t help but give him some scratches behind the ears, because despite how different he was from her perspective, she couldn’t help but look at him as another dog, especially with how he treated her. The timberwolf gratefully took the pets, even closing his eye and tilting his head to get her to scratch what he wanted. The petting would have gone on for some time, but the rumble that came from Fluttershy’s stomach reminded her she still needed to eat and why she came up here.

“I’m so happy you’re doing better. Everyone else is having dinner, and I was wondering if you want something,” Fluttershy squeaked out, “I know you didn’t want any more of the sticks I brought earlier, so if you would like something I’m sure I can get it for you; if you want that is.”

“If I could have some meat that would be nice,” the timberwolf responded in soft growls and barks.

The response sent Fluttershy’s head reeling. This was the first time she had heard of a timberwolf eating another animal. As far as she had known, timberwolves only ate plants. However, when she thought about it, she had never housed a timberwolf longer than it needed to heal, and the stories she knew of them always involved the ponies staying as far from them as they could. On top of that, when she considered how this timberwolf had what were essentially the teeth of a predator, and how the other timberwolves around here had stakes for teeth, it shouldn’t be a surprise that they ate meat.

“Ok, I’ll see what I can do,” Fluttershy responded in the cheerful tone she tended to have around the animals she cared for.

As Fluttershy proceeded out of her room and down the stairs, she couldn’t help but feel like this was going to be an uncomfortable experience. Not because she was caring for an animal that ate meat, she knew better than most ponies the needs of animals, she took care of mink siblings that lived under her bridge, and one of her best friends was even a bear. It wasn’t even that she was probably going to need to handle the meat with her mouth, she disliked the taste, but that was a small price to pay to make sure another creature was happy. No, what was going to make this an unpleasant experience was that she was going to be bringing the meat past the animals in the house.

When she had first begun caring for animals in her cottage, she had originally fed everyone in the house. It didn’t take long to figure out that doing so was not the best of ideas. Because she allowed the animals to eat where they felt most comfortable, more than once an owl would be eating its rat dinner in front of a family if mice, or a snake would be given an egg while there were birds in the room. While every animal knew they were safe while she was caring for them, and none of them were deluded as to the needs of the other animals, it still wasn’t best to have the animals see something they could relate to getting eaten.

She had promised to have the predators eat their meals outside, and only let them back when they had finished. Everyone seemed to be fine with the arrangements, the predators could still live in the cottage, and the non-predators could eat without being horrified. Most of the predators had gone back to hunting for themselves too, which made things easier. Even though she knew the animals she was caring for would understand completely why she was doing it, it still felt like she was breaking her promise. She knew they would tell her it was fine, that the timberwolf needed her to be close, and that even if he did want to hurt them, his condition made everywhere but right in front of him safe, it still didn’t feel right though.

As she was about to exit her cottage, she remembered to grab her saddlebags from next to the door. If she was going to be feeding the timberwolf, she doubted he would only need to eat the small amount of food she could normally carry, especially when she considered how little he had eaten today. Now that she considered it, she hadn’t decided who she would ask to help the timberwolf by donating some of their food. While she was caring for a lynx at the moment, and she tended to have more hunts than she needed, Fluttershy knew that the extra food tended to get split up among the serpopard cubs that tended to follow the lynx. The serpopard cubs had a mother that cared for the three of them, but they seemed to prefer to hang around the lynx whenever they could for some inexplicable reason. The next best option would be asking Harry if he would help, but she preferred to ask him last as he seemed to be cut from the same cloth she was. She remembered times he had gave away all the food he had to help other predators. If she did ask him she needed to make sure that he had already eaten, she didn’t want to tell him he needed to look after himself first. Unable to think of another predator that would be able to help her, she made the decision to ask Harry.

Harry was currently in the animal sanctuary helping to make sure that everything was in order while she was gone. When she arrived at the sanctuary, she saw Harry giving some fish to a badger. As she was flying over Harry saw her and began running over. When he was close enough, he swept her into one of his wonderful hugs. He told her he was glad she was dropping by and that everything was still going just fine.

“That so nice to hear Harry. I was just coming by to ask you some questions; if you have time.”

“Of course, I always have time for you,” Harry replied, hugging her closer to emphasize his point.

“Well first off, are you making sure you are eating enough,” Fluttershy pointedly questioned, staring him straight in the eyes.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t forget what you told me.”

“That’s good,” Fluttershy said, her tone having returned to her usual pitch, “I also wanted to ask if you have any meat you could spare. There’s a timberwolf that’s not doing too well, he hasn’t eaten all day and said he would like some meat.”

“Certainly. How much do you need?”

She hadn’t thought about it. Usually, she had some kind of reference when she was fixing up a meal. She hated that she didn’t have more experience with this to make a good call. “I think he is about half your size, so a bit less than what you eat.”

Harry nodded, put her down, and walked over to the spot he had claimed for himself in the sanctuary. When he came back, he was carrying a small cloth wrapped item in his right paw while across both his paws was what appeared to be one of the back legs of a very large deer. When he got closer the size and structure of the leg suggested that it had come from a moose and not a deer. The leg coming from a moose made more sense than a deer since deer were a sentient species like ponies, and she couldn’t see Harry doing that after all his time around her and her friends.

When Harry finished walking back to her, he asked her if she thought it would be enough. She responded that it was probably more than what she needed, but he simply told her if he didn’t eat it all tonight she could just give the rest of it to him tomorrow. She thanked him for his generosity, but only after she made him promise that he still had enough food for himself, and began preparing to head back to her cottage. When she asked what was in the cloth Harry told her it was some fish he had caught. He preferred to have some variety in his meals and thought the timberwolf would feel the same. Fluttershy thanked Harry for being so thoughtful.

She didn’t need to worry about carrying the fish, as she could simply do so with her mouth, but the moose leg wasn’t so easy. While she could carry it in her hoofs, the weight of it was enough that she would need to make some stops to put it down and rest her muscles. She and Harry decided to use her saddlebag to hold the leg, but due to the leg being longer than she was, it only went in about half way up the thigh and tended to fall to that side. Harry was finally able to get the leg situated properly by turning and bending the leg to go into the other side of the bag, creating a furry triangle behind Fluttershy’s head.

Fluttershy bid her friend farewell and started her flight back. To an outside observer, her trip back would have looked quite absurd. The sight of a pegasus carrying what looked like a picnic lunch in her mouth while a moose leg jutted out of her bags, constantly threatening to fall to her side if she didn’t fly the right way was quite the sight. The situation would have brought a smile to her face if she stopped to reflect on what she was doing.

When Fluttershy had finally returned, the last of the sun's light peeking over the horizon, she quickly landed and dropped the fish-filled cloth. The scent of dead fish was starting to get to her and turn her stomach. She proceeded to drop her front while keeping her back up to slide her saddlebags off. When she stood back up and took her first look at the way that the leg had been situated she couldn’t help but blush a little when she thought about how ridiculous she had probably looked.

Looking over what she had been given, she tried to decide what she should give the timberwolf. The small amount of fish was most likely going to be less than he would need, so if she decided to give him fish she would need to find something else to give him. The moose leg on the other hoof had the opposite problem, definitively being more than enough. If she would have thought ahead, she would have asked Harry to break the leg into pieces to make it more manageable. Since the leg was practically the size of a pony and she DEFINITELY didn’t want one of the more sensitive animals to come across it before she gave it to the timberwolf, the decision seemed to have been made for her. She just needed to mentally prepare for having a half eaten leg in her room overnight if the timberwolf couldn’t eat all of it. Now she needed to figure out how she was going to get it to the timberwolf.

She couldn’t just carry the leg in for the same reasons she was going to feed it to the timberwolf now. The first thought was to fly it up to her room and go in through one of her windows, regrettably, none of her windows were currently unlocked, so that plan wouldn’t work. The only option was to bring it in the front door, either fast enough so no one would be able to make out the animal leg or to cover the leg. Because Rainbow Dash was the only pegasus she knew that could fly that fast she needed to find a way to cover it.

Fortunately, she kept a blanket in a box near the chicken coop for when cold nights were eminent and she wanted to make sure the chickens stayed warm. She retrieved the blanket from the box and decided to roll the leg in the blanket. When she had finished wrapping the leg the end result looked like somepony was trying to pass off a very wide blanket as one of those throw rugs one sees rolled up in stores. It was going to be awkward trying to carry the blanketed leg, but it was something she believed she needed to do.

Fluttershy grabbed the cloth of fish in her mouth and placed it in the box she had taken the blanket from. While the smell would likely be worse by tomorrow morning, it was better than taking it inside to try to refrigerate it, both due to not wanting to bring meat into the house again, and because if she did there was no way the refrigerator would ever not smell like the fish.

She made her way into her cottage, trying to balance the wrapped leg on her back. When she entered, she noticed several of the animals in the living room turn to watch her come in, many of them cocking their heads in confusion as to why she was carrying the chicken blanket on her back, and why it was rolled instead of folded. Fluttershy seeing this, quickly closed her door and trotted towards the stairs, telling the animals that she just needed to go out to retrieve some food for the timberwolf while not actually turning to properly address them. Her thoughts going up the stairs were of how she was going to make it up to them for being so impolite.

When she opened her bedroom door a wall of stench slammed into her nostrils like it just couldn’t wait to escape. She couldn’t help but try to cover her muzzle to avoid the horrid scent. When she looked at where the timberwolf had been she was met with a large “present” and a significant amount of liquid surrounding it. The puddle seemed to trail over to a large wooden mass in the corner of the room, the timberwolf was trying to wedge itself as far as it could into the corner and do its best to go unnoticed. Fluttershy dropped the leg to her left and flew over to where the timberwolf had crammed itself.

When she landed next to the timberwolf she was assailed with the timberwolf’s whimpers of apology. He told her he tried his best to hold it in but he so rarely did that he couldn’t control himself long enough. The timberwolf obviously felt immensely guilty for what he had done, he probably thought she was cross with him and would reprimand him for what he had done.

Fluttershy simply nuzzled him.

“I’m not mad at you. I should have known you would need to relieve yourself eventually. I didn’t think to take you outside earlier when we had your pictures taken. If anything it's my fault, I should have thought to take you outside when Spike and Featherweight were here. From now on just tell me when you need to go and I’ll help you outside. Don’t worry, I’ll get something to help clean up the accident.”

Fluttershy left the room and headed downstairs to her broom closet to grab the cleaning supplies. She needed some paper towels to deal with the poop, and to absorb what she could of the urine. She also grabbed a spray bottle of vinegar water and a box of baking soda to make sure none of it soaked into the floors. She had experience in with dealing with animals that couldn’t always hold it in so she was prepared. Her front hoof was on the first stair when she realized that she was forgetting to bring a bag to put the waste in, she quickly grabbed a bag from the kitchen and proceeded upstairs, many of the animals nodding in understanding as they saw what she was carrying under her wings.

As Fluttershy was cleaning up the accident she couldn’t help but notice the timberwolf still huddled in the corner she had found it in. While it was no longer trying to become a solid lump of wood, it still looked at her and what she was doing with what she could only describe as shame and remorse. She felt really bad for him, she needed to do something to try to get his mind off what had happened. When she had needed to get her mind off something she liked to soak in a warm bath, the heat relaxing her muscles and helping her forget her troubles.

That was it!

She was going to give the timberwolf a bath. He had never had one and after what had happened today he probably needed it too. After how long he had probably spent in the woods, he would likely feel so much better not being so dirty. She just needed to grab a brush and some light soap and she could put her plan into action.

The timberwolf was wondering if the creature that was taking care of him had lied to him. She said she was not angry with him but then she had assaulted him with foul smelling water and three hairy pieces of tree after her and a snake cat carried him into a raised, white, stone pit.

The first piece of tree with a clump of hair on it wasn’t so bad. The hair was like this creatures hair, soft and bending, making him feel funny every time it was rubbed on him. The other two hairy trees were less enjoyable. After she had rubbed his back with that first weird tree she switched to the smaller hairy tree piece, rubbing the larger one over his body while the smaller one was rubbed in between the pieces of his outer coat. He wished that he had more control over the pieces of his outer coat, because of every time the hair on the stick went between two pieces it scratched him and made him itch as nothing else could. The hairy stick scratching the outside of his coat wasn’t too pleasant, but he had become accustomed to scratching on the outside of his coat.

However, the worst thing to happen was when she started to use the foul smelling water she had used to clean up his mess to clean his back half. It smelled similar to fruits around the forest that he had learned from experience were not meant to be eaten. It made his outer coat tingle. The worst part wasn’t the smell of the water, or that it felt weird on him, but that she was using it to clean his broken leg and where his missing leg should be. While she had gone back to using the first hairy tree, whenever it came in contact with the exposed wood it would send bites of pain up through his body. She seemed sorry for causing him pain but kept insisting she needed to do it to try to keep his injury clean. She didn’t seem to be lying to him, and really seemed to be sorry for causing him pain, he tried his best to keep his sounds of pain to cries and whimpers instead of howls.

She finished off what she wanted by taking a soft wet leaf and rubbing him down. After that, she placed the same white powder she had placed on the area she had cleaned up his mess on his coat where she had used that awful water and wrapped it in a long white leaf. When she was done with whatever she wanted with him, she called the snake cat back in to help carry him back to the area he had been staying. He was placed back in the spot he had been when he had first been taken here.

Now that he was back and was no longer being prodded and scraped he could think about how his outer coat felt. He appreciated that his caretaker hadn’t used much water as he knew that his body would take it in and swell, making moving irritating and impractical. He also came to feel that his outer coat had become a great deal more comfortable. He turned as far as he could and looked at his coat, seeing that it was not as dull as he was used to it being this long after he replaced the pieces. It almost looked like it had just been replaced. When he licked at it he found that it was mostly smooth too, he couldn’t feel the usual scrapes he had gained in the last few months.

He had been wrong to assume that she had been punishing him for what he had done. Rather, it seemed that she was doing her best to make him as comfortable as she could. He would have to find a way that he could thank her for everything she was doing for him.

After the cat snake had left the room, following his caretaker telling it they could do so, the loud rumble of an empty stomach filled the room. It had been his caretaker.

The caretaker’s face seemed to change color when she realized what had happened, something he had not seen happens before in any other animal, least of all his own pack members. She apologized to him, saying she forgot about his dinner when she saw what had happened. She quickly went back to the door she had come in through and brought back something strange and dropped it in front of him with a firm thud. When he smelled it, he could pick up the scent of food, but with how weak the scent was, he knew whatever this was had only come in contact with the food he wanted and wasn’t the food itself. Not wanting to insult her, he began to bite the strange item and rewarded with a not too pleasant taste. It was stringy and soft, reminding him of the time he had run into a spider web with his mouth open, the taste of this thing seemed to come close to the spiderweb too.

His caretaker smiled at him as he tried to lick the air to get the feeling and taste of that thing out of his mouth. She told him that his food was covered by the strange object as she proceeded to grab onto a protruding portion of it and pull, causing the thing to roll in place and eventually deposit an item that made his mouth water and his own stomach to attempt to recreate the sound his caretaker’s had made.

Fluttershy was to no small degree regretting what she had done to the timberwolf. While his body language told her that he enjoyed the outcome, what it took to get there had made him miserable. When she started to brush him down with the body brush it just wouldn’t clean him. The bristles were too soft and couldn’t remove the chipped wood and anything that had embedded itself in his coat. Fluttershy figured she was going to be unable to clean the timberwolf until she saw her hoof brushes sitting in a cup near the timberwolf. The bristles were extremely stiff, made to clean hooves by scraping away at them. It didn’t seem right to use them on the timberwolf, but she couldn’t see another way to try to clean him off.

She had covered his back half with baking soda and then wrapped it in gauze to try to keep the powder to the timberwolf’s body to try to neutralize the vinegar water she had used and help the timberwolf smell nice. He looked a bit ridiculous though, almost like she had given him a diaper. It had pained her when she had cleaned back there. Every time she would brush the vinegar water on his leg wound or the broken leg, she could see the pain it caused him. But she needed to try to clean those areas as best she could; if the timberwolf’s urine could cause some medical problem by being in the wounds, she needed to act. It was better to be cautious when caring for something she was unfamiliar with.

After she had thanked the serpopard and told her she could handle the rest herself her stomach had rumbled, reminding her that she still needed to eat, meaning that the timberwolf also had yet to eat. She quickly flew over to where she had left to leg after having blushed of embarrassment.

When she set down the leg in the blanket, the timberwolf sniffed at it and tried to take a bite before she had a chance to unwrap it. She couldn’t help but giggle a little at the timberwolf trying to get the taste of cloth out of his mouth.

“That’s not your dinner silly. It's what's inside.” She grabbed ahold of the end of the blanket with her mouth and pulled up, the leg eventually cascading out of the blanket and rolling towards the timberwolf who looked at it like a child would their favorite meal.

“Is this really all for me?” His voice conveying his uncertainty as to the situation he had been presented with while looking up at her with wide eyes. “My dad and older brother were always the ones who got the hind legs.”

Fluttershy simply nodded to him and pushed the leg towards him with her foreleg. He graciously grabbed it in his mouth and ravenously tore into the haunch, placing his left foreleg over the thigh to keep it from moving too much. While it wasn’t the most pleasant thing to watch, Fluttershy was glad she had done well to make the timberwolf happy. If she had known how much the timberwolf enjoyed meat, or that he needed meat in his diet, she would have asked Harry yesterday if he had anything to spare.

With the timberwolf’s dinner taken care of, and the remaining animals having been fed, all that was left was for her to feed herself. As if the very mention of food in her thoughts was its invocation, her stomach growled, reminding her that she had indeed foregone her evening meal. Hopefully, she still had some daisy sandwiches left from earlier this week in her refrigerator. If not, she always had fresh vegetables in the kitchen she could use to make a nice salad.

The hospital was somehow worse than she remembered it. All day she had to deal with nurses and doctors coming in and out of her room, asking her really easy questions and writing down what she said. If it hadn't been for Twilight and Spike dropping by, she was sure that she would have had at least one more of those stupid tests. Worse yet, the library didn't have any Daring Do books. She had read each of the books at least a dozen times, so much so that she could explain precisely what had happened at any part of the book at the drop of a hat, so reading them was simply her way to kill time.

She had settled for reading a book from a series Daring Do had recommended, Dark Secrets: The Temple of Time by Starry Arora. Daring told her that while Starry was an unremitting racist, if you looked past that, his writing was quite good. The problem she was having was that the book had been written more for eggheads than for ponies like her. She wasn't saying she was stupid, it was just that the pacing and bleakness of the first few chapters, combined with the numerous word she had never seen before lead to her eyes glazing over at an accelerated rate. Seriously, how did this series have such high praise and a cult following when it seemed to be so antithetical to what common knowledge would say would be successful?

Rainbow Dash’s boredom eventually got the better of her as she relented and decided to pick up the book again and try to make it through the second chapter.

The walls surrounding me were filled with the etchings and fables of the long deceased civilization. I had taken great care to examine what I could of the etchings that surrounded the archway and along the first few meters of the walls along both sides. I had given up attempting to decipher the antiquarian writing though as the writing, while bearing a striking resemblance to ponish, did not maintain the careful style and pattern of the language I had grown familiar with. It twisted on itself, trying to convey digressive messages of one story or another but never seemed to maintain the thought long enough. Every second I had spent before those incomprehensible tales had brought a haze to the periphery of my vision, as if the very words contained the power to drive a pony to madness.

What remained of the long forgotten stone structures that comprised that incongruous civilization had been the pyramid I now trekked through. I had been informed of this long-lost culture through one of the many objectionable avenues I had amassed during my long tenure as an adventurer of the unknown corners of the world. I had been told that while the erasure of an entire civilization remained wholly unknown, rumors had pushed their ways into the minds of the ponies around the ruins, creating a historical account that I could not ignore. It appeared that for whatever reason the leaders of this civilization had been accused of consorting with the dark powers that lied beyond the realms of this world in the ichorous void of hatred that birthed all dark things.

All ponies that could have recounted what actions had taken place in that tomb had seemed to have vanished. Blown to some lost town or city never to be seen again by winds of their own fear or desire for escape from what lurked within the shadows of this stone rubble. All except one. An earth pony of advanced age who, resided in a town not far from this horrible site had claimed to be the descendant of one of the priests that managed the religious lives of those of the city. She had told me that the truth of the ruins had been passed down the generations to the oldest child in the form of a dilapidated and age-worn wooden box. The box, she guessed, held all the secrets of what had occurred those centuries past. Unfortunately, the box had been lost to a great fire that engulfed her home upon her fifth summer, along with her father and eldest sister, the only members that may have known what secrets lie within that most undesirable vessel.

Rainbow Dash had to put down the book again. Not only was the writing unbearably wordy, but happiness and hope seemed to be foreign concepts to this writer. Compared to the Daring Do books which positively radiated with a desire to win and push forth, this book seemed to wallow in hopelessness, and do it's best to convince the reader there would be no happy end. Her thoughts were broken however by the sound of a bird’s cry from outside the window, a cry that sent shivers down her spine.

When she turned to see what bird it was that had sent the chill of dread down her back she was met with the sight of an old crow, perched on the window sill of the hospital, framed by the light of an almost full moon. The sight of that black feathered form brought forth the most horrible visions. When she looked at the crow, staring at her through the window, she did not see a harmless black bird as she usually did, but a hateful omen, foretelling her misery and death.

Every fiber in her being felt like it had been pulled taut, rendering her immobile. In front of her was a creature that wanted to hurt her. A part of her was telling her that a small crow was not strong enough to hurt her, but a louder, more desperate voice inside her head was screaming that a crow was what had put her here. A crow had flown towards her and had smashed her skull while she was flying. It must have returned to finish the job.

What had she ever done to the crow that would warrant it coming after her? Then she remembered. She remembered feeling sad, somepony she had recently met had been hurt. She remembered they had told her it was a crow that had done it. She found the crow not too long after that and decided she was going to give it a piece of her mind, only to wake up here in the hospital.

As she was trying to remember what the crow looked like, her mind flashed an image of a tall crow with a single blood-red eye. The crow was far bigger than she was, making her feel like a filly before it.

No, this crow wasn't the one who had done this. It was simply a messenger, it had been sent here by the crow that had done this to her to remind her of what it had done. The spiteful way its eye stared at her through the window was a testament to the severity of the message it carried. The other crow was taunting her, it wanted her to know that it knew where she was. The other crow would wait for her to exit, and before she could make it too far, it would strike.

*tap*

The crow had slowly tapped upon her window three times. Why would it have done so? It must have known she saw it. It must know that she understood its foul message. Was it telling her to open the window? There was no reason she would have to open the window, not after the threat she had received.

*tap*

How could she be so stupid? The crow wasn't delivering a message, he was here to point the crow that had hurt her to the room she was in. The crow wasn't going to wait for her to get better, it was personally coming to finish the job, here and now.

She had to move. Every instinct she had was telling her to hide. But how could she hide? It knew where she was. Was it right behind the crow at her window? Was it already inside the hospital? Every horrible thought on how it would come for her flooded her mind all at once. One thought stood out and was the reason for her next action.

I need to defend myself.

The thought was the desperate vocalization of her desire to survive.

Rainbow Dash jumped out of her bed. Ignoring the doctor's orders to not move too much for risk of making her situation worse. But that wouldn't matter if she was dead. With all her strength she forced the bed along with the frame up onto its hoofboard. She then pushed it as hard as she could against the window.

It wasn't enough.

She knew that the crow was stronger than her. She knew it could kill her easily. A bed wasn't enough. She looked around the room. A large cabinet was standing to the right of the door. It looked heavy.

She went to the side of the cabinet closest to the door and pushed. It was too heavy. She couldn't push it.

No.

She needed to stop it from getting to her. She pushed with all he might. She was flapping her wings to help her. She could feel her muscles begin to tear. The pain was immense. But she couldn't stop. With all her strength she shoved the cabinet into the bed.

The two impacted with a satisfying thud, bending the bed. It would have to do. Her muscles were begging her to stop. They felt like they were on fire.

She couldn't stop now.

Not while the door was still unblocked.

The door was flung open by a group of one doctor pony and several nurses. They were here to help the crow.

She was about to defend herself but her muscles disobeyed her. Before she could properly react she was tackled to the ground.

“You’re working with him aren't you! You want to feed me to him, don't you!” Rainbows voice was manic, her eyes had shrunken down significantly despite the darkness of the room. “I won't let you! I’ll fight all of you! I’ll…

Rainbow was unable to finish that last sentence. Not after a nurse pony had come around the corner with a needle filled with sedatives and jabbed it into her neck.

Everypony looked at each other. Why had Rainbow Dash gone off? She had been fine all day, Twilight and Spike visiting had done wonders for her psyche as she had been mostly upbeat, all things considered. However, the biggest question on the ponies minds was why she had been freaking out. Why she was both violently afraid of whatever it was and why she thought it was going to kill her.

When the nurses and doctors assessed the damage they discovered just why Rainbow had been unable to move following what she had done with the cabinet. The supply cabinet she had been able to toss at the bed covering the window had contained several hundred pounds of both bedding supplies and other materials for the room. It was a feat in and of itself to even move something like that herself. What really scared the medical staff though was that the cabinet had been bolted in place to prevent it from falling. In her panic, she had been able to tear the legs from the cabinet and rip the bolt that secured the cabinet to the wall from its stud.

The only thing that the ponies could find that could explain what had caused this was a single black feather on the window sill.

Mr. Black loved Fluttershy, so when he had heard what had happened to one of her friends, he felt sorry for the mare that took care of him. Worse yet, because she needed to help a timberwolf recover, she couldn't go see her friend. Mr. Black figured that it would be a simple way to repay the kindness she had shown him by checking up on the injured mare and reporting back what he saw. He now knew that had been a terrible idea.

After Fluttershy had given him his food, he ate it as fast as he could. He knew she disapproved of animals devouring their food so fast but he had a job, and some minor stomach pain was worth the joy he would bring to his caretaker. After all of it had been consumed, he took flight in the direction of the town hospital.

When he had arrived at the hospital, he decided that he should check each of the windows to see if Fluttershy's friend could be seen through any of them. If not, he could always return home and simply say he had taken a flight to get some fresh air if Fluttershy decided to ask. It didn't take long to find Fluttershy's friend though. She was on the second-floor on the eastern side of the building.

He could recognize her from that awful hair on her head. He had seen her several times around Fluttershy’s cottage as he could not forget that colorful atrocity that was her hair. He didn't know if it was natural but if it was, he felt sorry for her. Every other pony he had seen had hair that matched their body or at least had colors that worked well together, she did not.

He saw her reading a book with a fairly interesting cover. It was dark and seemed to depict a unicorn fleeing in terror from a large stone structure with a clock in the background. She suddenly dropped the book into her lap and pointed her head at the ceiling. He had a feeling the book was not something she was enjoying.

Since she didn't seem to be presently engaged he let out a single caw to announce his presence. Hopefully, she would be willing to let him in, it was starting to get cold out here. He could see her instantly tensed up at the sound of his call and slowly turn to face him.

He did not claim to be an expert on how ponies tended to act, but he was fairly certain that an unmoving, unblinking mare was not a good sign. It unnerved him how she was staying stock still for so long. He needed to try to get her to stop what she was doing before she gave him nightmares.

He slowly tapped the window three times to try to wake her from her no movement thing. She didn't seem to respond at first, he waited to see if she was simply having a delayed response. When nothing changed he tried knocking again.

After the second knocking things quickly escalated. When he finished tapping the glass, he could see her eyes shrink significantly before she leapt off the bed. Had he scared her? He hadn't meant to. Before he could try to figure out what went wrong, he was greeted to the sight of the mare pushing the bed she had just been lying on onto its hoofboard and tossing it in his direction.

He didn't need to be told twice that he was unwanted. As soon as the bed came crashing into the wall housing the window he had taken flight, beating his wings as fast as he could so he wouldn't be harmed by this crazy mare.

Twilight was just about to turn in for the night. While she still couldn't get the thought of Draxton being able to smell everypony’s blood out of her head, she knew she still needed to sleep. She had returned to the kitchen to see Spike and see if she could help him in any way only to see he had left. She had sighed and simply fixed herself a warm cup of tea to help her get to sleep.

On her way to her room, she was meet with the sight of Pinkie Pie bouncing out of her house. Before she could summon her question as to how and why she had entered her house, Draxton rounded the corner and proceeded towards the stairs to his room. Her mouth was frozen in disbelief. Draxton, the single most joyless and serious entity she had probably ever met had possibly just interacted with the element of laughter, and neither party looked worse for wear. Before she could ask what had just happened Pinkie told her goodbye and left through the front door.

As Draxton walked past her a question formed in her head that she just had to have answered.

“Wait, weren't you just reading a book? Don't tell me you can read one that fast.”

“I haven't properly slept in forty-eight hours. I need to rest.”

How in Tartarus had he not slept in two days? He seemed perfectly awake all day. Did humans just not show signs of exhaustion? She would need to add several more questions to her “stuff Draxton needs to tell me soon before I go crazy” list.

She had made it to her room and was greeted to the sight of Spike sleeping in his bed. She was about to do the same before she heard the telltale belch and magical sparkling signifying that she had gotten a letter. When she turned around, she noticed Spike was still asleep, but a letter had materialized and rolled over to her dresser. She grabbed the letter with her magic and unfurled it so she could see just what had been sent.

Dear Twilight,

My sister and I have made it safely back to Canterlot as of the changing of day to night. While I would have come as soon as the chariot landed and new pegasi could be fetched, your letters and my sister have convinced me otherwise. According to your letters, this human you found has shown no sign of hostility unless provoked. As it seems that we may have worked ourselves into hysterics over the threat this being presents, my sister and I have decided to postpone our trip to Ponyville until tomorrow.

Sincerely, Princess Celestia

Twilight was unsure if this was great news or not. With the princesses coming tomorrow it would mean she would not need to house the human in her castle past tonight. This meant she didn't have to put up with Draxton violating every little etiquette she knew. Additionally, it meant she didn't have to wake up to burned coffee every morning. It would also mean he wouldn't be around to tell her all the horrifying facts about himself before she went to bed with nightmares.

On the other hoof, him not being around meant she couldn't have her questions answered concerning what he was, even the horrifying things. And despite his love of the single worst method to create coffee, the fact that he had thought to make coffee for the both of them and not just himself spoke to his true character.

Twilight released a frustrated groan and face planted into her bed. She didn't need to be thinking about this sort of thing right now. She just needed to clear her mind and have a nice restful sleep to make up for what she had lost the previous night. She quickly levitated over her half-filled teacup and poured the contents into her mouth before crawling under the covers and wishing to be given a more enjoyable dream tonight.

The sensation of the cool night air felt good against her coat. Luna was standing on the balcony she used to compose herself in preparation to enter the dream realm. The quiet of night, accompanied by the beauty of the stars and moon, was always helpful in clearing her mind to better attune herself to the oscillation of the dream realm. Many thought that for her to enter the dream realm she simply needed to cast a spell and it would be done, but the process was much more complex. If she truly wished to walk the dreams of others she needed to feel out the way the realm ebbed and flowed and match it. It was a difficult process that required her mind to be on nothing else.

She had sent the four guards away once she reached her destination. They understood she needed to be alone to properly join the dream realm and left without protest, but being summoned just to escort her was somewhat off-putting. She had looked over the two disguised bat ponies with the same look she and her sister had been given by their mother when they had something to tell her but didn't want to. While she and her sister did everything in their powers to try to make them feel welcome, there was nothing she was unwilling to try to finally have every bat pony accept who they were and cease their use of disguise magic.

Luna began her slow methodical breathing, clearing her mind of the last few hours and every thought she had had during that time. As she lit up her horn for the required magic, she could sense the realm of dreams before her; a malleable and thick wall of the most ancient of magics. The texture was not unlike that of sky jellyfish, able to bend and contort to a pressure, never seeming to be able to give way and split open. This was what made entering the dream realm so difficult when doing what she did. If she tried to enter without a clear mind, the realm would admit her, but within her own little dream, meaning that she would have to try again to enter the realm the way she needed to.

The solution to entering the dream realm as she did was to listen to the way that the realm fluctuated, and surround herself in a magic that resonated with the realm. By doing so, the realm would see her as a part of itself and allow her to move unhindered. She felt the way that the realm was shifting tonight, notes of hope surrounding notions of love chased by desires of accomplishment. She began her spell that would coat her in the proper frequency to enter. When she was finished, she walked forward and pushed at the border of the dream realm. The border easily moved at her touch, showing that her spell had worked. She walked forward until she had created a deep enough cavity her entire body was definitively inside. She could sense the realm collapsing the entrance and moving its way back towards her.

Luna knew what was going to happen next and shut her eyes, she knew how chaotic and colorful the realm was on the inside and preferred to not go from nothing to that without first preparing herself. She felt the walls of the crevice she had made begin to push on the sides of her barrel. The walls would not crush her but the pressure they had was nothing if not uncomfortable. The pressure increased steadily, coming to a point that was almost enough to prevent her breathing before it completely disappeared. She had made it.

She opened her eyes to the chaotic colorfulness of the dream realm. The peace and happiness she saw in ponies dreams was always a pleasant way to spend her nights. Her first priority was to sense any disturbances in the realm signaling the presence of a bad dream. Her horn lit up, and she listened to the currents of the dreams, trying to hear the telltale thrum of a nightmare disturbing the flows. She, fortunately, could not hear the signs of terrible dreams, so it was on to figuring out what had happened last night in Ponyville.

She made her way towards the direction that Ponyville’s residents tended to reside in the dream realm. To her curiosity and horror, the darkness she had seen last night still resided over that portion of the dream realm. When she reached her destination, she was somewhat relieved to see that the dream bubbles showed the dream within, but over them, wisps of shadow crawled, threatening to infect the dreams within and turn them into nightmares. She could not sense the source of the darkness, but could see that it centered near the dream bubbles of Spike and Twilight.

Seeing this, she had a sneaking suspicion about what was causing the darkness. The issue was that the dream realm was able to show all dreams within Equestria, regardless of species, so why could she not find out if her theory was correct. Before she could decide on what she should do a pulse of immeasurable darkness emanated from the center of the murk. The pulse forced Luna to close her eyes, and when she opened them again, her stomach dropped.

Before her, the darkness of the area had grown. What was once a cool shadow with wisps dancing around the edges of the dreams had now become a mercilessly cold abyss. She was still able to see into the dreams but they had become less clear, like trying to view a play through a dusty window while the play used only a few candles for lighting. What was worse was what now resided at the center of the darkness. Sitting in front of her was a dream bubble, but instead of the solid border that other dreams had, the edges of this were wavy and thin, constantly fluctuating. If she was a betting pony, she would say that this dream was somehow trying to meld and become one with the dream realm itself.

The worst part about this dream was that its sudden appearance and continued presence were having an effect on the dreams of Ponyville. The darkness had started to seep into other dreams and turn them. If she didn't stop whatever it was that was causing this, she feared that tonight all of Ponyville would be subject to the worst kind of nightmares. She approached the strange dream and was surprised at what she was seeing. The dream continually shifted from a black void that refused to show what it contained to a vivid and clear sight of what was within the dream. When she was able to clearly see inside she was mortified.

Rivers and lakes of blood covered the ground of a hellish landscape reminiscent of the cities of a thousand years ago. The structures were however wrong on every level. They twisting and linked in ways that no buildings should physically be able to achieve, and were covered in rolling stone hills, like the city had been summoned into the landscape rather than having been built. The dream shook her to her core, she never knew a nightmare of this caliber could exist, she wanted nothing more than to leave whoever the dreamer was to their fate, to run away and never look back. Her duty to help anyone in need with their terrible dreams and the sound of dreams becoming corrupted from this one's presence, however, forced her to stand her ground.

She waited for what felt like minutes, but in reality were mere seconds, for the contents of the dream to become clear and visible. When it finally occurred, she walked forward into the dream. Whatever it was that was causing this terrible dream to manifest, she needed to stop it. With bated breath and with a fear that no words could properly convey, she delved into the nightmare to end all nightmares.

Author's Note

It's finally here, YAY. Hopefully, I can get these chapters done and published for your enjoyment in less time in the future.

Nightmares of Reality

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Growing Horror

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

The Sorrow of Life

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

A New Nightmare Night (Halloween special)

-A New Nightmare Night-

A.k.a. The obligatory non-canon Halloween chapter.

Draxton had just been enjoying his daily rest before his nightly shift as a member of Luna’s guard. The key word being had. A loud crash outside of his sleeping champers had woken him as the sound resounded throughout the empty halls. Draxton’s heart was rapidly beating and he was halfway out of his bed before his new training kicked in. Despite working for the princesses for several months now the instincts he had gained as a hunter were still far too ingrained in him.

He stopped and carefully listened for any sounds from outside in the hall.

“Oh come on! I was so close to finally getting to scare him!”

He knew that voice. It was the pony he had volunteered to work for when he had first been brought here, Princess Luna. He stood up and looked towards his window to see what time it was. Judging by the angle of the sun he would have probably have woken up himself in another half hour if Luna hadn’t’ve had her little mishap. Speaking of Luna, he could still hear her talking from outside his door.

“Fowl carpet, you have thwarted my plans at pranking for the last time. I shall learneth ye how to treateth the princess of the night! Thee shalt beest did cast down to the deepest pits of Tartarus f'r this transgression! Thy family shalt nev'r knoweth of thy fate and thy descendants shalt f'rget thee! The whole of cant'rlot shalt feeleth mine own wrath this day and those gents shall knoweth t wast thy offense yond hath brought f'rth mine own ire!”

Well, this was just perfect. If there was one thing he had learned working for Luna it was that when she started to speak in the same manner as ancient texts he had found in the Canterlot library he needed to stop her. The last thing he needed to deal with today was Luna slipping back into her habits from before she had been banished. It had happened once when she had failed to best him at Swenton for the tenth time. He had to tolerate an entire night of her throwing a temper tantrum in an archaic language. Fortunately, she hadn't yet slipped into the Royal Canterlot Voice so there was still hope yet.

He grabbed the outfit he usually wore on guard duty; the Cainhurst leggings and gauntlets, Djuras old hat, and a custom breastplate given to him by Luna to match the armor of her other guards. He could still hear Luna cursing up a storm in the hall over whatever had happened. It was probably best to open the door and see what it was that had set her off.

When he opened the door Luna turned to face him with a raging inferno in her eyes. “Thou! Thou are the foulest entity to grace these brave halls with thy unnatural largess! Thou whom prevents mine desires for m'rriment and dissemble'ry! I shall hast no moe of the woe that thy presence endues to mine own life! Thou shall hereby allow mine pranks to hie forth and not disrupt the planning and execution of the superb japes that I shall devise! HARK ME THOU MISERABLE BEAST, THOU SHALL NOT WRACK MINE ENJOYMENT OF PRACTICAL JOKES ON THIS DAY OR ANY OTHER!”

And there was the Canterlot voice. If he wasn't a man of his word he would have closed the door to the room and gone back to sleep, leaving Luna to sort out her own issues. However, as it stands, he had agreed to guard Luna every night so he was just going to have to accept that tonight was just going to be one of those nights. He could parse from her shouting that she felt he was responsible for ruining one of her practical jokes. He couldn't deny that he had prevented her from pranking him on several occasions by simply being observant. He had told her that he would not stop her from pranking him just that he would tell her if he could see the prank coming.

“Carson a tha e a-nochd tha thu fiadhaich,” He asked, looking into the princess’s eyes intently.

“What?” Luna’s voice had come back to its modern form as he saw her shift on her hooves uncomfortably.

He had learned that his native language was almost entirely unknown in this world so it was his go-to way to calm Luna down when she started to slip. He also knew the ponies of this world couldn't stand it when he looked at them intently and he tended to use that knowledge occasionally to have uppity ponies stop what they were doing. He figured he might combine the two this time to see how Luna would respond. He was glad to know she wasn't too different than her subjects.

He broke eye contact and began looking around, trying to see what had happened. He could see a box that had presumably contained the various fake spiders and decorations that now covered the carpet. He could also see a section of the carpet where Luna had likely come from had not been folded down properly and had bunched up, most likely causing Luna to trip.

“I asked why you were so angry. I’m guessing you tripped.”

Luna angrily sighed. “Yes, I did.” Luna turned to glare at the folded carpet. “I had been planning to scare you today in celebration of Nightmare Night.”

Draxton raised an eyebrow. “Nightmare Night?”

“Yes, it is a glorious holiday filled with frights and sweets. I was hoping to make your first experience of this grand festival a memorable one by being the first pony to scare you.”

Draxton reached down and picked up one of the several fake spiders that littered the ground. They were slightly bigger than his hand but didn't look all that threatening. “And you figured I would be afraid of fake spiders?”

“No, but what about real ones?” Her horn lit up and in a flash the spider in his hand animated and began crawling up his arm. In one swift motion, he grazed his arm across the side of his leg, knocking the spider off his arm and onto it's back.

“I’m not particularly fond of them but I’m not afraid. Besides, I have seen far worse spiders.”

Luna looked at him skeptically. “I doubt you have seen worse spiders than that. I will admit the world you come from makes the scariest parts of ours look like foals play but what spider could be worse than one bigger than my hoof?”

Draxton simply reacher into the pocket on his belt that contained the notebook he kept as a hunter and brought it out. He flipped to the portion of the notes that covered the Nightmare of Mensis. He glanced over the pages until he found his notes on what he had learned were called Nightmare Apostles and handed his notebook to her.

Luna's eyes looked over the pages and slowly became very wide. “This is not true, this must be false. There could not be spiders as big as you, or with heads like yours, or...as big as a house.

“You can use your magic to look into my memories if you want.”

“NO!” Luna had already delved into the twisted memories of the human once before and if this was true she did not need to see any more horrors of his old world.

“Alright then. Since your failed prank woke me up I might as well start tonight early. Am I guarding your chambers tonight?” Draxton had been working on trying to talk more after all four princesses chastised him for his normal methods. He would have preferred to have just asked what he position was tonight and headed there but he wanted to at least try to meet the princesses halfway. Even though it felt wrong to do so many unnecessary things.

Luna lit up her horn and tuned the flipped spider back to a rubber model before magically collecting everything that had spilled out. “Actually, seeing as tonight is a celebration in my name I was planning to visit Ponyville to take part in the celebrations.”

“Is that so?” Draxton watched as the last of the spilled decorations were collected and were sent away in a magical flash. “I’m guessing that you will be asking me to accompany you then?”

“Yes, it will help you integrate into life here. Maybe one day you will find yourself to be just another citizen of Equestria.” Luna began walking back towards the throne room so Draxton followed suit.

“Draxton, I would request you not look at me that way again,” Luna told him over her shoulder, pissed that she still hadn’t been able to overcome that look of his. She was used to dealing with predator dignitaries and none of their aggressive looks even phased her. But Draxton was different. After she had seen the world Draxton came from when she found his dream and saw how easily he could kill, all while holding that same emotionless face she could help but see his stare as that of the most dangerous predator.

“Your sister told me to make sure you keep to modern parlance. It was the best way to stop you.”

Luna puffed up her cheeks. Only he would have the gall to talk back to her, not even hiding that he had been told to do so by Celestia, and make it sound like he had no intention to follow her order. She was about to start chewing him out when she remembered what else she had been meaning to tell him.

“Oh, I almost forgot. A big part of Nightmare Night is dressing up and trying to be as scary as possible. You should go back and change into something really frightening. How about that outfit you were wearing when you first met the elements? Get changed and meet me in the main courtyard, my sister will probably be accompanying us so try to make it really scary.”

Draxton looked at Luna with confusion but turned around to follow her instructions. While her suggestion for the crow garb had indeed scared the elements of harmony he had a better idea. He knew of several items of clothing he possessed that would scare them far more than the crow garb. And better yet, he could bring along one of his weapons if the princesses allowed it to make him look even more horrifying.

Celestia was waiting by her sister's chariot in anticipation of tonight's festivities. She hadn't been able to accompany her sister to a Nightmare Night since she had come back out of fear of what Luna would say to her. While Luna had given her a good lashing about letting the holiday establish itself she had said she enjoyed the nights immensely and did her best to go somewhere new each year to see how they celebrated. Before she could get too deep into thought Luna rounded a corner, smiling and skipping like a school filly as she approached the chariot.

“If this is how happy you are for Nightmare Night I think we should make it biannual,” Celestia told her little sister with a smile.

Luna stopped when she was standing in front of her older sister, but her smile hadn't yet faded. “While Nightmare Night is always good fun this one is going to be extra special.”

“Really now, I take it me coming this year is what is bringing out your inner filly.” Celestia chuckled. “If I knew you would be this happy I would have come quite a bit sooner.”

Luna shook her head. “While I appreciate you coming and have wanted you to do so for quite some time it's something else. I was able to convince Draxton to not only come but to participate in the festivities. Even better, he agreed to use clothes from his old life for his costume.”

Celestia's smile slipped, her face taking on a concerned frown. “Was that really the best of ideas. You saw his world yourself. You told me it was the worst nightmare you had ever helped to end. Won't his costume be a little...much?”

Luna’s smile widened. “That's the best part. Because it’s Nightmare Night ponies will be expecting to be scared. It's all in good fun. Besides, the world I saw was not a reality in the conventional sense, Draxton told me himself. Even then, just how scary could he possibly dress up as. You've seen the clothes he wears when he isn't on duty, what's the worst he could have?”

A scream resounded through the halls of the castle, its source close to the archway Luna had come around minutes prior. When they turned to see what had caused the scream they were met with the sight of just how scary Draxton could be using just the outfits he had brought with him. His head was covered in a rusty orange hood with a white cloth covering his face with dark black circles where his eyes and mouth should be. On his torso was what looked like a griffin butchers shirt, complete with an apron and soaked in blood. But what tied off his gruesome look was the large wheel he was carrying that had a bloodred bist coming from around its circumference.

Both princesses were scared at what they saw. They both knew Draxton was a predator but the fact that he had such articles of clothing was unnerving. When he passed through the archway he reached up to the wheel and gave an outer portion of it a turn. What came next shocked the princesses to their cores. When the outside of the wheel turned the red mist coalesced into the faces of humans, screaming in agony. If that wasn't bad enough the sisters could tell this wasn't just a parlor trick, the faces they saw were the actual souls of humans, trapped in the item and tortured from its use.

Luna, while happy with how scary his outfit was, began to have second thoughts about giving Draxton free reign of choosing his costume. It didn't help that after Draxton had turned the wheel the cloth on his face began to turn red where she knew his wound was.

Draxton slammed the wheel closed, dissipating the red mist. “I take it from the looks on your faces I succeeded.”

Draxton’s voice shook the princesses out of their shock. They knew that Draxton had an uncanny knack for being the most horrifying individual in a room from both the way he talked and the way he held himself but this was something else.

“I think you might have done a better job than I expected.” Luna began walking over to the third member of the ponyville trip when she began to taste iron in the back of her throat. “Draxton. Please tell me why I smell fresh blood.”

“I used some to increase the terror the outfit will provoke.”

And there he goes again, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that there existed not a single individual that could best him at making anyone uncomfortable. How could he tell them without delay and or a care in the world that he had used real blood on himself?

“At least tell me it wasn't your’s or one of our citizens.”

“It wasn’t.”

And now she regretted asking the question the way she had. She now wanted desperately to know just where the blood came from but she just knew the answer would be more unsettling than she could normally imagine.

“Well, since everyone is here now, I suggest we begin our trip to Ponyville.” the tone of Celestia's voice made it painfully obvious just how uncomfortable she also was at Draxton addition of the crimson fluid.

“Quite.”

After all three of them boarded the carriage, Luna on the left, Draxton ln the middle, and Celestia on the right, the four bat ponies responsible for pulling it began running and flapping their wings. After they had attained a great enough speed they lifted off. Draxton could never quite get comfortable with flying, every time the princesses would take him on one of their chariots the lift-off would remind him of being grabbed by an amygdala.

When the chariot had reached the appropriate altitude the bat ponies leveled off and lessened their wing beats. Draxton reduced the death grip he had on the front of the chariot, both sisters seeing his discomfort and chuckling internally. While neither of them enjoyed seeing one of their subjects less than happy neither of them could deny it was nice to see Draxton not in full control. It was especially nice after considering the experiences he had given them with is innate ability to make everything he did horrifying.

On the topic of Draxton making things uncomfortable, the blood on his outfit was starting to affect both of the sisters. With Draxton in the middle, the scent of the blood was equally shared between the sisters. Almost in sync, both princesses cast sense suppression spells to stop from smelling the atrocious odor.

For the next few minutes, silence enveloped the chariot. Not wanting the ride to slip into an uncomfortable experience Celestia decided that it would be best to try to strike up a conversation, it wasn't like she could rely on Draxton to do end it.

“So Luna, do you have any Nightmare Night scares planned this time around? I know you love to pull them every year.”

“Not this year sister. I had been hoped to ask our friend Draxton earlier this week to help plan a glorious scare, but it slipped my mind until this morning. I don't think it would have been fair to ask him to plan such a scare at the last second.”

Celestia just nodded, she understood her sister's predicament. She had lost track of personal projects on several occasions due to issues of state coming up. She should probably help Luna plan a little something before they arrived to give her sister something to do to keep with tradition.

“If you want me to I will, it wouldn't be too hard.” Draxton’s hard voice broke the silence.

Both sisters looked over to Draxton like he had grown a second head. He had never offered his help freely before unless he saw that somepony was at risk.

“Are you sure? We will be arriving at Ponyville shortly. There isn't going to be a terribly long time to plan anything big.” Luna thought of Draxton as quite competent but even she doubted he would be able to plan out an extravagant scare.

“It isn't that hard. What would be more horrifying than your subjects thinking I had attacked you and won?”

NOW Draxton had officially grown that second head. Was he honestly suggesting that the princesses fake either their deaths or have him carry their broken bodies into town?

“Are you honestly suggesting we fake our deaths to scare our subjects?” Celestia was taken aback.

“To some extent. What would scare your subjects more?”

“While that would scare our subjects, I feel that it is not exactly in the true spirit of Nightmare Night. The night was named after the time I...transformed...into a worse version of myself.” Despite all the time Luna had spent coming to terms with what she had done the act still weighed heavy on her heart.

“Than transform into a creature from my world.”

Now it was Luna’s turn to be taken aback. “A beast? From your world? Why would I ever do that? We both know how terrifying your world is in comparison to ours.”

“That's the point.”

Luna was about to respond when the words sunk in. She had just admitted that pulling a creature from his world would make one of the scariest, and most memorable Nightmare Nights on record. She had to admit it was a wonderful idea, there was just one problem.

“While that would be an excellent plan the problem would be scaring them. While your beasts are worthy of the nightmares that they cause I don't think one just walking into town would give the proper response.”

“Then combine the plans. I bring your broken bodies into town and appear to force you to transform into a beast of my world.”

Celestia needed to respond. While she liked the idea of a nightmare night scare as much as any other pony this seemed to be needlessly horrifying. There was no way that this plan could lead to the usual fun and merriment ponies associated with the holiday. The plan sounded like an idea crafted by Sombra to torture the citizens of the crystal empire.

“That’s brilliant!”

Celestia looked over to the smiling face of her sister, floored that she could think that this idea was in any way going to end well.

“No. It's not. If our subjects see Draxton carrying us, bloodied and bruised into town what are they going to think? What's to stop Twilight and her friends from trying to attack Draxton, or worse yet, use the elements on him?”

“We just inform them what is happening. While I will admit the plan does sound extremely terrifying if we tell them it's all a big joke the end result won't be so bad. Tell me, how many times has one of my scares been more enjoyable when you learned that others had been in on it?”

Celestia couldn't come up with a response, Luna had a point. Whenever Luna would scare her it always felt better for some reason to know others had been involved. Something about laughing with others about a shared experience just made the experience so much better.

“And besides, this is Draxton's first Nightmare Night scare, and it's not half bad.”

Celestia sighed, her sister always knew just what strings to pull to get her to do what she wanted. “Alright, you win.” She turned to face Draxton. “So what do you need us poor defenseless princesses to do.”

For Ponyville, Nightmare night was proceeding as it almost always did with only a few minor changes. As always, Fluttershy was staying home. However, this year, in an attempt to try to better her shyness she had elected to give out candy to foals that were willing to go out of their way to knock on her door. The Apple family had elected to hold a whole Nightmare Night party at their farm with dozens of games and activities. Pinkie was out collecting candy as usual, but this year she was doing so with her sister Maud.

For Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash, the three of them were currently dressed up and accompanying the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Spike through town to collect candy. Rarity and Twilight had taken inspiration from the first outfit Rarity had made for Draxton and had both dressed up as vamp-ponies. They had even gotten a hold of magical contacts that would turn their eyes red and would light up if supplied with magic. Rainbow had elected to go as a wendigo and had painted her body, tail, and mane white while also using a cloud to cover up her lower half.

The Crusaders had elected to each dress up as one of the many allies Daring Do had gained in her adventures. Sweetie Belle had chosen to go as Small Hoof, Apple Bloom as Sallinia, and Scootaloo as Dr. Martina Ballarin. Spike was still keeping to his tradition of going as a dragon and this year had chosen to be a lindwurm. All seemed to be going well until Spike suddenly burped up a letter from the princesses. Twilight grasped the scroll with her magic unrolled it.

Dear Twilight,

My sister and I will be arriving in Ponyville shortly. Draxton and I are planning a Nightmare Night scare to end all scares. For our plan to work you and your friends must act as you would normally but to bear in mind that this will all be in good fun so don't take our actions too seriously.

Sincerely
Luna

“Oo, what does it say.” Scootaloo was jumping up and down behind Twilight, doing her best to get a look at the letter.

“It just said that Celestia, Luna, and Draxton will be visiting tonight. She wants me and my friends help by playing along with their plan.”

The crusaders each looked extremely excited at the prospect of not only seeing the princesses but the human that the element had found in the Everfree. Each of them began jumping around and hollering.

“While a share in your excitement, why don't you head off with Spike And collect more candy. We’ll catch up with you shortly.”

The three fillies and dragon quickly made off towards Fluttershy's cottage. While they knew she wasn't too into the holiday none of them had a costume that would scare the pegasus so they figured it would probably be best to get there soon before something was to happen with other foals that would drive her to call the night early. As they were running off they passed by, and almost ran into Starlight Glimmer.

“He galls, I saw your partners for tonight heading off without you. Don't tell me you all got too old to keep up with them?” Starlight chuckled as she approached. She was dressed as one of the tree dwarves from an old fairytale.

“Well, the princesses just sent us a letter telling us that they are coming to town and they are going to be playing a Nightmare Night scare ‘to end all scares’. I think they want the four of us should wait here until they arrive, they want us to play along so hopefully it will be a good one this year.”

Fortunately for them, they didn't need to wait long. Suddenly, the moon and stars vanished from the sky, leaving only the lights of houses and the occasional street lamp to provide much-needed light. Fillies and colts stopped their playing and looked up at the pitch black darkness that had consumed the night sky. Most every adult besides Twilight's friends began to murmur among themselves, each asking what had happened and if this was Luna doing her yearly scares. While Twilight’s group knew what was happening it was nonetheless disconcerting to see a night sky with nothing.

The air suddenly began to cool at an unnatural speed, what should be a warm summer evening was now a freezing winter night. Many ponies began to shiver at the drastic change in temperature. Foals began to crowd around their parents for both warmth and comfort. A fog had begun to form and roll in from the north, an unnatural direction as the winds of Ponyville would always carry a fog in from the south-west, from the Everfree.

Twilight couldn't help but think that maybe Luna was taking this night of fright a little too seriously this year. While everypony loved to be scared on this night, the removal of the night sky and the sudden changing of the weather was something she had to admit was a little much.

“Are you sure about Luna’s plan here Twilight,” Rainbow’s voice lacked it's usual confidence, “I love a good scare on Nightmare Night but don't you think she might be overdoing it?”

“I don't know. While I do trust Luna’s judgment...I think this might be too much.” she looked over to some nearby foals, shaking in fear. “Maybe we should-”

“Twilight. I think you need to see this,” Rarity’s voice was quivering. When Twilight turned to where Rarity was facing she was greeted to a scene straight out of one of her nightmares.

Emerging from the fog several blocks away was what could only be Draxton judging by the thin bipedal form. Only, he wasn't dressed in any garments they had seen before. His entire face was covered and hooded, not permitting them from seeing his face. And instead of the armor they had grown to associate with him over the last few months as a lunar guard, he was wearing the bloodstained garments one would associate with a griffin butcher. In all the costume he had chosen to wear tonight definitely fit the theme of Nightmare Night. But what really sold the abhorrent look was what he was dragging with both hands.

In both hands, Draxton was gripping the horns of the two sisters bloody and broken bodies and unceremoniously dragging them with him. In his left hand he was dragging the body of Celestia, her usually ethereal mane was now a light pink and plastered to the side of her face by a copious amount of blood. Her wings were broken in several places with bones puncturing the skin like tiny white jagged knives.

In his right hand was the body of Luna, but in a far worse state. While Celestia had looked like she had an even fight with Draxton and had only just lost, Luna had been slaughtered. Her mane while still having its usual night sky appearance was coated in blood and appeared to have been grafted to what remained of her face. Her lower jaw was hanging open and to the side, obviously dislocated, while the side of her face not covered by her mane seemed to have been caved in around the eye. Looking back Twilight could see that Luna only had one wing left and it was even more ravaged than Celestia's had been. Her left back leg had the muscles that held the tibia to the femur ripped, allowing the leg to bend backward at an unsettling angle while the lower portion of her back right leg was missing.

“Get the foals away from here!” Twilight's voice was genuinely panicked. She didn't know just what Luna had devised but this was too real. This wasn't the normal “scare the children with the guise of her evil self”, this was the sight of a true monster coming to exterminate them or declare it's dominance.

As she watched parents grab their foals and run home she noticed that no filly or colt was fighting to stay and watch. Each of them knew they were not prepared for what was to come next. When she turned back to face Draxton he had gotten close enough that she could make out the details of what should have been his face. What she saw was a cloth mask with black circles where his eyes and mouth should be. However, a red stain had worked itself into the cloth where Twilight knew his wound was. Apparently, it had reopened and was now soaking his mask.

Draxton stopped in his approach when he was within a few dozen meters of her and her three friends. Twilight could smell the blood coming from him and the princesses. She looked around at her friends and the ponies that had decided to stay and watch what was going on. Many of them possessed faces of abject horror at seeing the mangled bodies of diarchs dragged behind an individual that had been trusted to protect them. She was having serious doubts about agreeing to help sell this.

No, these were not doubts, she needed to stop this right now before it escalated further. While Luna’s Nightmare Night plans could usually scare most ponies this was on another level. She knew it was all a farce and even her heart was racing. She couldn't even imagine the fear that the towns ponies were feeling.

“While I like a good Nightmare Night scare like any other pony, I think this might be a little far.”

The bodies of Luna and Celestia began to move but quickly stopped when the grip on their horns tightened. Draxton remained silent, staring intently at Twilight. Without warning, Draxton dropped Luna, her body not even bouncing off the cobbled road to show that she was still alive. Before anyone could move to help the princess of the night Draxton spun in a circle and tossed the body of Celestia towards them. Twilight's horn immediately lit up in an attempt to cast a spell to catch the princess, only for a vile memory she had done her best to suppress to resurface.

At her hooves lay the battered and bloody corpse if Princess Celestia. Most of her body was cut and bruised from her fight with the hunter. A large hole in her abdomen signaled that the hunter had used the giant blade to impale the princess had started to leak a fair amount of blood onto the surrounding dirt. Twilight realized that the red she had seen wasn't the cuts and bruises but the princess’s mane. Her usual multicolored flowing hair was now soaked in her own blood and plastered to the side of her face, speaking of which was now upside down. Celestia's entire skull had been wrenched so far that several vertebrae had broken and now pushed up the skin creating unsightly bumps. Her mouth hung open in a silent scream of terror.

Twilight panicked, her magic instantly stopped as she dropped onto her stomach and covered her head. The memory of the nightmare was too much for her to properly handle. It was too familiar, too much like that dream. She couldn't bring herself to use magic on her mentor, not if it would kill her like last time.

Starlight seeing Twilight shut down took it upon herself to catch the princess. Grabbing Celestia only a few meters before she would have collided with them. She carefully brought her towards the group and laid her down in front of them.

“I know you told me this was just an act but I can't help but think your friend Draxton didn't get the message,” Starlight told Twilight.

While Twilight was in the midst of her panic attack a blood-caked white hoof touched her right foreleg. When Twilight looked up she saw the broken body of her former mentor before her. The blood and wounds that covered her body were all too real, she could smell and taste the metallic compound permeating the air. Twilight saw her mentors face, usually so caring and even, now a mask of dread sorrow.

“Run.” the voice was barely audible but the look of genuine fear from her mentor was all Twilight needed to be convinced that this wasn't the prank that Luna had planned. Draxton had actually beat them down and was still out for blood.

“This isn't a prank, we need to get the other elements now! Rainbow I need you to fly as fast as you can to-”

“Tha mi a 'smaoineachadh a-nis gur e deagh àm a th' ann crìoch a chur air a 'chùis seo. Às deidh seo, faodaidh sinn toileachas a thoirt air dè a nì thu air na saor-làithean seo.”

Twilight had been interrupted by the sudden decision of Draxton to finally talk. Only, it wasn't in equish but the strange language he had told them was only spoken where he had been born. As Draxton spoke the words he lifted a strange object above his head with both his hands and in a swift motion looked to break it in half. When he did so a red mist formed around where the object had been broken and formed itself into the shape of three screaming human faces. The faces then quickly floated towards the broken body of Luna before impacting with her prone form and coating her in a fine red mist.

As the mist covered her body magical aura halfway between Luna’s aura and the bloody mist grabbed hold of Celestia. Neither Starlight nor Twilight was able to respond in time before the broken body of Celestia was rocketed towards Luna, screaming in fear the entire time. When the two collided collective mass of both sisters was tossed several meters back towards where they had been dragged from. However, instead of the two bodies impacting the way one would expect the two seemed to merge into one another, turning into an ever-shifting mass of white and blue fur mixed in with entrails and bones.

Twilight didn't know what to do. The only thing that felt real was the need to punish Draxton for what he had done. She shot upright and made a mad dash towards Draxton. Rainbow first tried to stop her but a quick teleport away had Rainbow crashing into the dirt where Twilight would have been. Starlight tried next by attempting to grab a hold of her but a feedback spell sent painful spikes throughout Starlights horn, stopping her from continuing the spell. While feedback spells were banned as they were one of the few spells from the School of Unorthodox Magics that had no use in modern times save for offensively Twilight didn't care. She needed to end this now.

She was running at Draxton with all of her might. She remembered what had happened the last time somepony had tried to do the same move with him, they had wound up in a hospital for several days and had developed a debilitating fear of crows. But at the moment she didn't care.

Draxton for his part did not move a muscle, he was standing perfectly still right in front of her, like he wanted her to attack him. If he wanted to make it easier for her that was his mistake. When she felt she had gotten close enough she leapt into Draxton's chest with her forehooves fully extended. The two impacted and were sent flying backward, with Twilight riding on top of Draxton like a strange skateboard. When the two of them stopped only a meter away from the mass that used to be Celestia and Luna, Twilight grabbed ahold of Draxton’s shirt and lifted him up, holding him only a few centimeters from her muzzle.

“How could you do this! I thought we were your friends! How could you be such a monster!” Twilight felt like she was about to cry. In one night her old mentor had been killed and she and her sister had been transformed into a terrifying mass of flesh. She needed to see his face, to know if he had any remorse for his actions.

She magically grabbed ahold of his hood and mask and ripped it off. While she knew just how awful his wound looked and how unsettling his gaze could be right now she was too angry. She did not expect what she saw.

Draxton was smiling.

He never smiled.

In almost an entire year, after all of the good things that had happened in his life Draxton had NEVER, SMILED. But here he was, with a smile she had only ever seen Pinkie pie wear plastered on his face. What made it worse was that his teeth were a disgusting shade of yellow. While she had seen his teeth before when he would talk she had never fully seen just how yellow they actually were. To tie the horrible package together his usually piercing blood-red eye was now clouded over, the red having turned a dark shade of pink and the pupil a pale grey.

“It is the fate of most all that consume the old blood to become mindless beasts. It was a choice I made for myself. It is why I would not have my blood used unless absolutely necessary. If I or any other should ever succumb to the blood you must kill them without hesitation. If you do not, I fear you would face a beast far more deadly than you ever imagine.”

Draxton’s words echoed in her head as she looked into that clouded eye. He had told her the symptoms of the old blood taking over but she never imagined she would ever see it. She walked backward off of him in shock. He had become a mindless beast, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

As her mind was still reeling from the revelation Draxton began to get up, that horrid smile still adorning his face and looking no worse for wear. Twilight knew what needed to be done but taking another living being’s life was something she felt was unforgivable. But she knew it must be done. Draxton had explained that once one had succumbed to the blood there was no turning back, they were gone forever.

She looked back over her friends and the ponies that had had not yet left the street. Each of them stared at her, draxton and the writhing mass of misshapen flesh that had once been Celestia and Luna. she knew what needed to be done. With tears in her eyes, she began to charge up an unforgivable spell.

Before she could finish charging her spell the writhing mass exploded in a shower of viscera. Twilight's spell vanished as she lost her focus as she tried to cover her face from the shower of gore that she was being pelted with. When she opened her eyes she was presented with a sight her worse nightmares could hardly conjure.

Where the combined flesh of Celestia and Luna had once been now stood an abhorrent monster of distorted flesh and to many limbs. Its face could be mistaken for Luna's if one was able to call a half horse half human fusion of grotesque perversion reminiscent of the late princess of the night. Beside that monstrosity sat what might have been the head of Celestia. It shared her general shape and color but was wrong on every level. Its face lacked any discernible features except for a permanently gaping maw, every centimeter of which was covered in eyes that twitches in random directions and at sporadic intervals.

Its body was no better. It's upper half somewhat resembled that of Draxton except its arms were far too long than its body should have and covered in dense black fur. Its “hands” were each tipped in dark jagged claws that would not look off if they would have been seen on a dragon rather than on this abomination. Its upper half looked to have been flayed at one point as much of its musculature was exposed and covered in either festering pus-filled blisters or was black and rotting. Despite all this, the lower half might have been the worse part. Like the upper half, the lower half was also partially flayed and rotted but instead of a human-esque structure, it was that of a bloated pony with too many limbs. While the beast walked on four hooves there were several extra legs, mostly pony but there were a few that were likely griffon, that grew from random points on the lower half and would occasionally flail for seemingly no reason. If all of this wasn't bad enough, where a pony would have their cutie mark instead lay a mangled fusion of both the sister's marks, a half moon, reefed in flames, in a night sky.

Suddenly the creature before her released an ear-piercing cry. It was worse than she could have imagined. At first, only the Luna head screamed, it's called halfway between the roar of a dragon and what could only be described as a scream of incomparable agony by the former princess. Eventually, the Celestia head joined in and added it's own half hydra roar, half scream of misery to the cry.

AIl of this was just too much for Twilight. She collapsed on the ground in the fetal position with her eyes wide open and staring unblinkingly at her friends and the ponies that had stayed. Each of the faces she could see was one of immeasurable terror, their bodies rigid and their hooves rooted to the ground out of fear. She couldn't fight the twisted form of her old mentor and her sister when they looked like that. The magic that Draxton had been able to utilize was something far darker than she could have ever imagined. The madness and horror it possessed were beyond anything even Discord could create in his most malicious fever dreams.

Twilight closed her eyes as all of her fears and sorrow hit her at once in the form of tears. She had not only been unable to stop Draxton from assaulting the princesses she had been one of the ponies to suggest Draxton join the lunar guard to help him adjust to his new life. If she wouldn't have done that she might have seen the signs of his coming madness earlier and she might have been able to stop it. But worst of all, her inability to respond in time had lead to Draxton converting two of her closest friends into a monster. If she would have just responded faster the miscreation that now stood before the entire town would have never been summoned.

She just wanted this night to come to an end, for something to end the madness and insanity that vile monster that had formerly been Draxton had summoned.

Suddenly a hand touched her on her shoulder. Twilight instinctively tensed up. Every cell in her body was telling her that the monster that had taken over Draxton was about to kill her. Every cell was telling her that this was it, this was how she would die.

“You alright?”

The voice was one Twilight had never heard Draxton use. It wasn't the barely dismissive tone he always seemed to use or the crazed tone she would have expected from a blood-crazed hunter. It sounded...caring...and...concerned.

The plan had gone better than expected. Draxton had watched as Twilight and each of her friends had played their part in the scare he had helped to devised. They genuinely looked like they had no idea that what he and the princesses were engaged in was the scare. He was glad that she had the parents take to foals away when he had come out of the fog, he knew that the scare would more than likely be too much for the younger ponies.

He had watched as Twilight tried to hide herself when he threw Celestia at her. He had overheard Luna talking with her about a nightmare she had on the first night she had housed him. Apparently, in the dream, he had slaughtered almost everyone in town and when she had tried to kill him he had thrown Celestia into the path of the magic, resulting in her killing her mentor. Twilight had been adamant that she had gotten over the nightmare and she had just been paranoid about him. If she had told anyone about the dream he figured she would see what he was doing and act like she had not yet gotten over the dream to increase the ponies fear, she did not disappoint.

To top it off, each of the friends she had brought were the perfect ones to sell the scare he had devised. Rainbow while being brash had avoided him for the first few weeks after she had left the hospital. Twilight had told him that when she found out it was him that had been at the workshop she had wanted to apologize to him for attacking without reason but had been too afraid at the sight of him to go near him. This and her temporary fear of crows had become well known around the town. Rarity was known for her ability to act so if anyone could sell the scare it would be her. And finally, Starlight Glimmer. While she had not been with there when the elements had found him he doubted that the townsponies had not guessed that the elements had told her about how good of a killer he was.

It was disappointing though that Twilight and her friends were not going to sell the scare with the fight he had figured they would have planned. On the bright side, them all shaking in fear of what they saw was definitely having a similar effect as them losing to him would have had. All of the ponies that had stayed looked to be paralyzed by fear, it was perfect.

While he had not expected Twilight to jump him and remove his mask after he had signaled the sisters cast the illusion spell that would turn them into Ludwig he had still planned for the mask to have come off. He had Luna cast a simple illusion spell to make his eye look like that of a blood-mad beast. Before the mask was removed he had done his best to recreate the crazed smile he had seen some of the citizens of Yharnam wearing. By the look of genuine fear on Twilight's face on seeing his, he knew he had done it right.

Twilight looked to be ready to mount an attack before the sisters spell finished and showered the area in the apparition of viscera. When he saw the looks of pure dread on the face of the townsponies he knew the scare had gone according to plan. He turned to look at what he thought would be Ludwig but was met with a hybrid between him and the two sisters. Even he had to admit it looked far worse than the real thing. He would have to congratulate them on that.

When he turned around to face Twilight and her friends to tell them to reveal that the scare was over he saw something he thought he would never see again. Twilight was curled up on the ground facing away from him shaking like a leaf in a violent storm.

He had seen this position too many times before to not recognize it. Soldier’s heart. There was no mistaking it, and no way to fake it. The scare he had devised had broken Twilight in a way that he had only seen a few men break. It suddenly hit him that the reactions from her and her friends had been too natural, none of them had fully known the extent that he had planned to go. What made it worse was the thought that if he had broken Twilight so thoroughly how bad had he scared the rest of the town?

Draxton slowly walked over to Twilight and rested his hand on her shoulder. He could feel her tense up at his touch. Looking down he could see tears coming out from between her closed eyes. The sight pulled at his heart, he had seen his older son in this same condition and couldn't help but see him in her.

When he asked her if she was alright her demeanor changed. He could hear the magic of the sisters dissipate behind him as they both rushed towards their fallen subject. Their bodies were still covered in blood as Luna had the idea to really sell the battered look by using the blood cocktails Draxton carried with him. Without the illusions that had cast on themselves, everyone could tell that neither princess had been harmed and the whole event had just been a very elaborate scare.

“Twilight! Are you alright? We are so sorry for what we did. We never meant for it to go this far.” Celestia looked to be on the verge of tears herself.

“My sister is right. It is I who is to blame for this terrible event. I should have listened to her concerns more carefully and realized this scare might have been too much for anypony to bear.” Luna was despondent. No one had seen her this guilt-ridden since the incident with the tantabus.

What shocked most of the ponies that were watching though was the way that Draxton was reacting. The ponies that knew him had almost always seen him holding a calm even face and posture, but now that had changed. He looked genuinely concerned for the wellbeing of Twilight and even looked to be trying to calm her down by slowly rubbing her shoulder. In that singular moment, many ponies saw a side of the human that they thought didn't exist.

Twilight hearing the voices of her mentor looked up from her position towards the two sisters. They were still blood-soaked and their manes were still glued to their faces but she couldn't see any signs of damage. She jumped up and ran over to Celestia, burying her face into her chest and holding her with her forehooves and began to weep. It didn't matter to Twilight that she was now being coated in semi-fresh blood, the only thing that mattered was that her old mentor had not been killed.

Celestia sat down on her haunches and wrapped both wings around her former student and tried to console her. Draxton knew from experience that when someone broke that way it wasn't guaranteed they would ever fully come back. He had seen his son lose himself to soldiers heart and knew that there was a distinct possibility he might have inadvertently caused Twilight to head down the same path.

“Draxton, I think the two of us and Twilight's friends should head to Twilight's castle and let Celestia help handle the fallout.”

Draxton simply nodded and stood up. He began walking to Twilight's castle with Twilight's friends following and Luna taking the rear. Many ponies gave Draxton shocked looks as he passed but still seemed rooted in place.

When the group finally arrived at Twilight's castle each of them had silently, and without looking at each other, decided to head into the map room. While the elements each took their own seats and Starlight took Pinkies Luna and Draxton each decided to lean against the walls of the room. The blood on their bodies painting the surrounding crystals crimson

“So, Draxton, how’s Ulysses? Don't think I’ve ever heard of someone taming a Timberwolf before.” Starlight sounded desperate to talk about anything that might take their minds off the topic of what had happened tonight.

“Some of his wood became infected by a fungus recently. Forresters taking care of him at the moment.” Draxton's tone was not what Starlight had grown accustomed to hearing. Draxton sounded regretful and distant, and she could hardly blame him.

The conversations around the table were more dead than they would usually be. Anytime Starlight, Rainbow, or Rarity would try to engage with Luna or Draxton they were met with half-hearted answers. Everyone knew why and hardly blamed them. They had both come up with a fright so horrible that it had reduced Twilight to tears and rendered her a broken mess in Celestia's wings. They had been the architects of a nightmare so vile it could make Tartarus tremble.

When the doors to the map room opened everyone turned to face the entrance to see if it was indeed Twilight and Celestia. They saw Celestia, still coated in blood with a similarly covered Twilight walking beside her. Twilight's eyes were bloodshot from all of the tears she had shed and her body showed signs of exhaustion. Celestia informed everyone that Twilight had mostly recovered and that the towns ponies, while shook, would likely not suffer as badly as Twilight. Still, Luna would beet to keep a close eye on the dreams of Ponyville for some time to make sure that nightmares about what had happened stay under control.

After several months Twilight seemed to be back to her usual self. That Nightmare Night had a massive spike in the number of nightmares that had formed in the dreamworld or Ponyville. Those nightmares continued for almost a week until Luna was finally able to quash the last nightmare that had formed in response to what several ponies had seen that night. After what had happened that night a meeting was conducted between each of the princesses to discuss how to prevent such an occurrence from happening again.

It was unanimously decided after that night that Draxton would have four very important rules given to him that he must never break. One, under no circumstances, was he EVER to be able to plan a Nightmare Night scare again. Two, if he wished to ever participate in future Nightmare Nights his costume would need to be cleared by all princesses before he could wear it. Three, on Twilight and Luna’s insistence Draxton would attend bi-weekly classes to teach him proper equestrian manners until it was deemed he had truly learned how not to act like his usual self. And four, at Twilight's insistence and despite everything that they held dear, he was NEVER to smile by exposing his teeth, EVER, AGAIN.

Author's Note

Surprise, a quick non-canon chapter to hold you guys over until I get the actual chapter edited.

fun fact: I spent every waking moment for the last three days when I was not eating or attending my college classes writing this chapter so I could have it published on Halloween.

killllll meeeeeee. :applecry: