Chink

Twilight pulled her sword out of the slab of stone on her back, blinking as visions of older hunters cleared from her eyes, and Eileen sliced in a flurry of blows through the mob of crows near Carol. They didn’t want another case of her first meeting with the little girl after all.

As Eileen came back, Twilight was trying out a few practice swings, before she swung, planted her foot on the ground as her blade went behind her back. It slid into the slab of stone like it was being sheathed, before she jammed it to the side, locking it into position. Using the base she’d made, she spun, throwing her whole weight into her next swing. The sword followed, now coming around as a sledgehammer.

And throwing Twilight five feet with the momentum as it crashed into the ground.

A bit of laughter brought a hint of red to Twilight’s cheeks, before Eileen stood over her, offering the poor mare a hand. “I don’t blame you. I stick to my daggers because I prefer their weight, but I also know that if you can master the Kirkhammer, you’ll be able to smash your way through anything.”

Twilight rubbed her neck, feeling the hyperextension that had happened with the swing fading, just like any injury on her, especially one not caused by another enemy. This was all caused by Eileen having put her daggers away as they’d slipped out of Oeden. When she pulled them out again, it was only one, until she ‘switched’ it.

As Twilight was told, all hunter weapons are called ‘trick weapons’. Said trick is that they all have a second form. Some have a hinge they rely on, like the Saw Cleaver, while others could fit into different parts of themselves to form brand new weapons, such as the twin daggers of what Eileen called The Blades of Mercy, or a sledgehammer out of a sword like the Kirkhammer.

Twilight pushed herself up, putting the slab of stone back onto her back before forcing it out with a slight wince. Yeah, she doubted she would use the tricked form of this one much, not when it winded her just to lift the slab of metal. It did become surprisingly light on her back, but she put that to the fact that anything she picked up just vanished into a bag that she just knew she had, even if she couldn’t find it. “Yeah, maybe, but for now I think I’ll just stick to the shortsword.”

Eileen grinned as she stepped away, beckoning Twilight to follow her. “Come now. You need to grab Carol. From her house, go as far down as you can. You’ll hit a sewer. Following it will bring you almost all the way to Oeden Tomb, and I’ll be waiting for you at the end of it to make sure you find the ladder.”

Twilight frowned as they came up to the gate. “Wait, you’re not sticking with us?”

Eileen shook her head as she slipped onto the ladder just past Gascoigne’s home, looking over her shoulder where they both could see a giant akin to the ones with slabs of cement on their hands there. It used more of a large club though, and Twilight sighed as she thought about how fun it would be to kill it.

Eileen crushed that worry as she said, “I’m used to fighting by myself, and you’ll be burdened with Carol. Therefore, I’ll go ahead and clear the path. Understand?”

Twilight nodded, watching as Eileen launched herself from the ladder, becoming a missile of death as she dove towards the giant. The sound of its neck cracking made Twilight cringe, but also made her certain that Eileen was fine. It was hunters that caused the woman trouble anyways.

“Unicorn, is that you?”

Twilight smiled, before she moved to the window. “Yes, it’s me Carol, and I’m here to take you to your father. He’s somewhere where you’ll be a lot safer, and… and it’s best you be with him right now.”

“Oh…. Dad usually doesn’t like us wanting to join in his hunts, but I guess I could leave a note for Viola to let her know I’m with dad.”

Twilight’s brow furrowed as she heard the name. Neither Henryk or Eileen had mentioned a second daughter, or was it some sort of nanny? “Carol, sweetie, whose Viola, and where is she? You uncle and father would probably want to have her with them as well.”

“Uncle Henryk’s with dad too? Oh, I wonder if he has any treats with him. He usually at least has hard candy. He says he carries it because he’s bad at talking to people.”

That seems to be a running theme with these hunters. “Carol, please, focus. Where and who is Viola?”

“Oh,” the little girl said as she came around from the other side of the bend, “she’s my sister, but she’s probably at the Healing Church right now. That’s where she always at at this time at night, getting taught how to be like dad.”

Twilight blinked. The girl, maybe ten or twelve years of age, came up to her stomach. She wore a simple blue jacket over a black shirt, leading into a gray dress skirt. Around her neck was a beautiful white ribbon, and the girl even held onto a teddy bear. It was almost heartbreaking to think about the fact that this little girl would soon be losing her innocence.

Twilight knelt down, offering her back to the girl. “Come on, I’ll carry you down the ladders.” This was something easier said than done. As Twilight had been reminded of earlier, she wasn’t exactly the strongest mare in the world. Maybe if she were Applejack she could handle at least a hundred feet of ladders, if not more to get to the bottom of the sewers, with a child on her back, but by the time her feet stepped into the water and mud at the bottom, she had to let the little girl down and lean against a wall, breathing hard as her muscles burned.

Carol frowned as she looked at Twilight. It reminded her of so many nights when her dad would come home from the hunt. The unicorn didn’t look half as strong as daddy though, so she probably could use a pick me up. Now, she knew her dad liked stiff drinks, fervent prayers, or playing with her when he needed to relax, but she doubted the unicorn would want any of those, especially with how urgent she made everything sound like it was.

And then, seeing a small, silver shine from the middle of the room, Carol remembered how much her dad liked cleaning his bullets while he told stories about the night to all of them.

Twilight looked around the wall, looking down the sewer. In all honesty, it was a rather impressive construction. Large, stone walls to make sure the scent stayed down here, with walkways along the sides for workers to walk on and stay out of the majority of the gunk. She could even tell where stairs would help them move different levels of the sewage levels.

Looking farther, she could see a torch come into view, shining off of a metal face. So she had gone the right way. She just needed to grab Carol and take her there.

“Hey, Twilight, look what I found!”

Looking to Carol, Twilight’s heart froze. Eileen was a hunter of hunters, and took no pleasure in the slaughter of beasts like the rest of her kin. It was one of the many factors that made sure she would never become like the beasts her marks were like. She also was fast and direct, usually trying to end fights in a single flurry of fast blows.

As such, she didn’t deviate her path, such as going to the middle of a square room of the sewers where a little girl held aloft a set of quicksilver bullets, and about seven creatures that were sleeping in the mud that looked up at said girl.

Twilight shot forward like a rocket, her sword drawn as the first raised its hand. Her blade intercepted it, but instead of cutting into the gelatinous monster, it simply forced the arm back down, hurting it a bit. Carol screamed in her ears, but Twilight couldn’t focus on that. She spotted a few more monsters in the back of the room take notice of the two of them.

A back cut got three of them, deterring them from attacking yet, but that left two more who were already acting, and soon she would hope that more than one of them was staring into the sky when the second wave got to her.

Her blade caught one arm, while the other hand slammed into her chest. For a moment, Twilight thought her ribs were cracking, before she took a step back. They were probably bruised, and it explained their speed. Slow, but infuriatingly strong. If even just one of them hit Carol, the poor girl would be doomed.

Her eyes glanced back as a cold calm came over Twilight. One behind her, two in front of her, and one to the side of both Carol were all getting ready to attack. Twilight could see the torch in the distance moving. It was fast, but she had seen how Eileen had fought. Fast, with blows that could devastate a person by targeting their most vital points, and the woman had even admitted that she used to be almost unmatched when she was younger, but age and her own code had dulled her speed, just like it had Gascoigne’s sanity and Henryk’s intelligence.

Even then, she doubted Eileen could get there in time. She was too far away. There were too many of them, and they were too tough. Maybe if the two of them had baited them together, only fighting one or two at a time, but like this…

Twilight shut her eyes, her mind burning. She was going to die, but that didn’t matter. She was a hunter. She would go back to the dream. Carol was only a child, and if they got her…

Twilight didn’t feel herself move at first. It reminded her of with Gascoigne, where she had lost control of her own body. Her blade came up, slipping into the hammer on her back. Instincts showed her the wave of damage that came with its slams, and Twilight’s body acted, bring it straight down.

The crash of water against it filled Twilight’s ears, her eyes still shut to the force she could feel around her. Her horn was at maximum power, having joined in with the rest of this instinct, helping the hammer come down.

From the echos that came into Twilight, she knew she had done it. Knew she had stopped all of the-

Twilight had opened her eyes to where her hammer had fallen. Right in front of her, or, in other words, right where Carol was… or had been.

She let the hammer fall to its side, and almost was happy that there was no corpse to be seen. Twilight didn’t need one though, not when there was a neatly folded ribbon there that was as white as snow.

Eileen limped in front of Twilight, her breathing heavy as she asked, “Twilight, what happened?” She waited a few moments for a report, the knot in her stomach growing. The hunter wasn’t blind, but she had gotten used to such tragedies long ago. The beast in front of her on the other hand… “Twilight, I’m sorry. I should have made sure there was nothing here. Children wander, and I should have-”

“No… No.” Twilight slowly picked up the ribbon, breathing in deep as tears ran down her cheeks. “It was my responsibility. She was with me, and… and it’ll be my responsibility to tell Gascoigne.”

Eileen slowly nodded, before letting the walk be a quiet one. For a moment, she’d thought about talking about how she’d done this plenty of times in training with Gascoigne and their master, but something stopped her. Probably just the pain of having failed in such a long time she assumed.

It didn’t take long for them to get back to the chapel. The only thing Eileen had let live from the large room to here, were the two gangly beasts outside of the tomb, and they were nothing for the two hunters. Twilight almost wished they were.

Walking into the chapel was harder though, as Twilight could feel her legs turn to lead as she looked up. Gascoigne was standing now, using the the banister to support his weight as him and Henryk talked. From what little she could hear, it sounded like they were happy, even… even catching up.

They stopped dead as Eileen and Twilight walked up, the ribbon still in Twilight’s hand. She didn’t even get a word out before Henryk reached for his cleaver, spitting the words, “You beast,” with enough venom to make the mare ill.

Gascoigne on the other hand held up a hand, stopping his friend. His shoulders were shaking, but his face held no emotion as he looked into Twilight’s eyes. Twilight swallowed hard, trying to square her shoulder and meet his gaze back. He deserved that much. “Carol got away from us for just a moment, but-”

Henryk stepped forward, smacking Twilight across the face as he screamed, “You didn’t carry her? You didn’t make sure she never left your side? Why did I trust you for a second?”

“Henryk.” Gascoigne looked up at his friend, and for a moment Twilight felt that, despite the fact that she could now seek Henryk’s face properly, and the dozens of wrinkles that pocketed the old man’s feature’s, he was not the one in charge between the two. “It was a mistake. We made plenty of those when we were learning. It’s best we make sure she doesn’t forget this one.”

Twilight swallowed hard as Gascoigne stood tall. She would turn away from him when he struck her down. She would take the blow like a good student. It’s what happened when you messed up after all.

“Attack me.”

For a moment all of them were silent, before Eileen was the first to speak, whispering, “You’re not serious, right?”

Henryk simply leaned back, nodding solemnly. “I understand. It is more fitting after everything after all.”

Twilight looked up at Gascoigne, seeing cold steel in his eyes. She would not convince him of otherwise, and, from what seemed to happen to hunters with little else, maybe she would be doing him a favor. She brought her sword up high, tensing her muscles to bring it down,

And Gascoigne flipped his gun up from his side, putting the blunderbuss to Twilight’s chest. With one blast she was knocked to the ground in an oddly familar fashion. Gascoigne stood over her, his now open hand flexing open. “If you fire upon someone when they swing, you can throw them off, staggering them. While they’re open, you can reach back, and rip them apart.”

And, just like the first time the two had fought, though now with Twilight seeing images of hunters performing the same technique a hundred times to teach her, he reached in, crushing her heart in one swift movement.

The normal darkness came around her before she could feel that something was wrong. She wasn’t going back to Hunter’s Dream again. Was it because of Henryk? Because she was continuing to defy the dream.

She would never find out, as the shadowed hunter appeared for only a moment, before his form was mixed with stars and traces of a deep, dark blue that called to Twilight, before it pulled him away.

And for just a moment, Twilight had felt Equestria again, before she woke back up in Oeden Chapel, and all three of the hunters she’d wanted to call friends were gone. She shut her eyes, tears coming down her face as she remembered she wasn’t in Equestria, and she wasn’t about to find a new set of elements or anything like that.

She was a hunter in a nightmare, and like all hunters apparently, she too would be a monster before this dream was over.

Once again so lost, with so many ways to go, from people back in Yharnam to check on to the two doors in Oeden, she cannot decide, and needs some guidance. Leave your comments below for what you think Twilight should do next.

Author's Note

Effects: 19 bullets, as Twilight wasn't going willing to take them from Carol's corpse,
The Hunters are out, working their way around areas near cleared bosses, so Twilight will have less to fight as Gascoigne and Henryk rip their marks apart.
The Kirkhammer is going away, at least for a while.