On the Hunt

"It's okay. There's nothing to be afraid of," I say softly to the imp, who's standing behind me with a look of terror in her eyes. Can't say I blame her for being afraid. Fluttershy, the pony that was trying to talk to her, is less harmless than the bunny that she keeps around. Bulk, on the other hoof, the brick wall of a stallion that was carrying Fluttershy's bags, terrifies me to some extent.

"Please don't be afraid. I just want to talk to you," Fluttershy says in a tone that would have calmed any other creature.

"YEAH! We just want to be your friends!" Bulk then screams at the top of his lungs. I hear the imp let out a yelp before she dives for cover under my body. Both Fluttershy and I give the guy a look. He hangs his head before muttering an apology and walking away from us, clearly upset that he had frightened the girl.

The moment the mass of muscle was out of sight, the little imp pokes her head back out from under me and walks over to Fluttershy. Fluttershy greets her once again, but the imp is instantly drawn to the Pegasus' wings. The girl stretches Fluttershy's wings out, before examining the feathers with wide eyes.

"Sorry about this...I think you're the first Pegasus that she's met up close," I apologize, but Fluttershy shakes her head in reply.

"Oh, it's no bother. She's just precious," Fluttershy says with a soft tone. The girl then wraps herself up in Fluttershy's mane and giggles, getting Flutters to giggle as well. "I'm surprised to see that you're alone with her today. Normally Lyra is always at the human's side."

"Yeah, well she went over to hang out with Twilight for a while. I bet the both of them are comparing notes about what they know about humans as we speak," I reply with a smirk. I remember finding the note on my bed from Lyra about how she had gone to visit Twilight, and how I'd have to look after the imp. I'm glad that the girl can't understand our language, or else she would have picked up a few words that a kid should not be saying.

"So, guess who got stuck watching the kid?" I ask Fluttershy. The two of us then watch the imp as she chases around Angel, who makes angry noises at the girl. The imp apparently doesn't understand rabbit either, because she just keeps chasing him around until he dives under a building for shelter.

"Well, I would gladly watch after her if you didn't mind," Fluttershy offers as the imp walks up to Fluttershy and wraps her arms over her body. Fluttershy smiles slightly at the hug before wrapping one of her wings around the little imp. As nice as the offer was, Lyra would have my head if I let the girl out of my sight for even a minute. I open my mouth to thank Fluttershy for the offer, but the words come to a dead stop when I see Wildfire standing at the side of a building. She waves me over before slipping into the shadows. That can't be good.

"Actually Fluttershy, I just remembered that there was a pony that I needed to go meet. So if you wouldn't mind watching the little imp--I mean girl, then I would greatly appreciate it." I race off before Fluttershy even has the chance to think of a reason to change her mind. I turn the corner where I saw Wildfire vanish and spy the mare leaning up against the wall, a paper in her hooves and a look in her eyes that I hadn't seen in a long time.

"Something's wrong, isn't it?" I ask her. I've known her long enough to know that when she got like this, it always meant trouble. Without a word she hoofs the paper to me. I take it and quickly glance over it, but I'm surprise when I see that it's the newspaper from the other day about the slaughtered village. "Yeah, I read about this. Why do you have it?"

"Because I'm going to be part of the team that gets sent in to stop whatever did this." My heart sinks as these words make it past my ears.

"Wildfire..." I try to think of a reason to stop her--to stop her before she does something that gets her killed. But she then flashes me a look that's so full of hatred and sorrow that I shut my mouth immediately.

"No. Don't try to talk me out of this. This is my choice," she says with a blazing passion. "Luna came to me and asked me if I'd be willing to help hunt down the blue and yellow creature. Yes, it's the blue and yellow creature that did this. We both know that the claw marks on the ponies' bodies perfectly match the shape and size of the claws the creature had. Luna even confirmed it."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Not about the claws or how the yellow-clad creature was responsible for the ponies' deaths. I had figured that out the moment I saw the wounds. But about Wildfire getting back into the hunting business.

"Wildfire...after everything that happened to us in...I thought for sure that you'd be the last one to sign up again," I say with no effort to hide the disbelief in my tone. Wildfire gives me a stern look for a moment before her gaze falters and she stares down at the ground.

"My sister was in that town." All of the anger and disbelief I had felt towards Wildfire melted away in a moment. She didn't mean her actual sister. We had no family. That's why we were picked. But by sister she meant her "sister" during her monster hunting days. Her partner. The pony she trusted with her life. I extended a hoof and placed it onto her shoulder, making sure that I was giving her the strongest stare I had ever given her when she looked up into my eyes.

"Then you make sure that you don't rest until the creature that did this is dead. Do you got that?" I inform her. I see the blaze of fire for which she got her name well up in her eyes and a moment later she flashes me the same, sinister smile that she gave me back before she'd do something crazy.

"Are you sure? A moment ago you were trying, and failing, to convince me not to go," she reminds me with a smirk.

"Of course I'm sure. Whatever creature this is made this a family matter. In fact...if you want my help..." Wildfire cuts me off there with a shake of her head, but she then gives me a grateful smile before the both of us share a hug.

"Please, I've seen the human that you've been watching. Seems like you already slipped back in to your old monster watching habits, despite saying how you've left those all behind you," she smirks as we break apart.

"That little imp isn't dangerous. Just annoying," I inform my friend as we both glance back to see Fluttershy trying to get the imp down from a tree. "I should go and help her. She has no idea what she's up against."

"And neither does that creature. Because as soon as we find it, Celestia told us that she'd help us to bring it down."

"Wow. So the top brass is going to be fighting with you. I almost feel bad for this creature. Almost."

"You and your bleeding heart. Don't you have a kid to go get out of a tree?" I wave to my friend as we split apart, her heading towards Faust knows where while I head towards the imp. But even though I have every confidence that Wildfire would succeed in bringing down the creature, I couldn't help but shake the feeling that I was forgetting...no, missing something. Something that I should know.

But then the imp lets out a cry and leaps down from the tree, forcing me to sprint at full speed to catch her. And as I do so, all thoughts of the creature with the claws are put on hold. Because this imp is going to be grounded for as long as I can keep her grounded.

||X||

I hate waking up in chains. Think I said that before.

But that's exactly where I find myself when my consciousness finally returns to me. In chains. In a jail cell. Some couple miles beneath the earth, if my nose is still working. Great. I don't hurt, fortunately, but as my eyes adjust to the dark I realize that my arms were just chained up. They were also covered in metal and then chained together. Meaning that even if I got my claws out, I wouldn't be able to get myself free.

"And even if I slice through the bars, in the state I'm in it wouldn't be long before I was captured again," I mutter to myself. I could smell over a hundred of those insect things that attacked me in the forest, with most of them gathered together in a very large chamber that smelled of blood. And I could also smell at least ten of them just out of view of my cell. Five I might be able to handle like this. Six if I was feeling cocky. Ten is too risky.

Speaking of cocky, I shouldn't have let my guard down against the bug. Allowed myself to be caught off guard by his magic. I've got a pretty good tolerance for magic thanks to my fights with the doctor, but if I lower my guard it can get the better of me. And in this place I can't afford to mess up. Because if I do, I end up in chains like I am now. So now what do I do?

I figure my best bet was to wait and see what they wanted with me. If they wanted to kill me, I would have awoken in a lot more pain than I was in. Meaning they wanted me alive. Meaning that soon they'll probably show me why they wanted me alive.

I wait for another hour in silence before the bugs finally decide to visit me. And sure enough, the very first bug I see on the outside of my cell is the large one that knocked my ass out back in the forest. I could feel the tips of my claws poking through my skin just at the sight of him.

He smirks at me through the bars before saying something that I don't understand. I remain silent in response. Annoyance flashes across his face before he goes into this long winded speech that I still don't understand. It takes him at least three minutes to finally stop talking my ears off. In response, I spit off to the side. He must like seeing spit, because he smiled at my response before shouting something to the other bugs.

Three of them come into my cell, two of them pointing spears at me while the other one unchains me from the floor. I could take them all out here, but if I'm lucky they'll take the chains and metal off of my arms soon enough. Then I can thank them properly.

The bugs with the spears seem to enjoy poking me, because I can't go five feet without feeling one of the spearheads poke into my back. My anger's already at its boiling point, but I use most of my willpower to keep it contained. I don't need to explode yet. I'll save it for when I do.

I march on in the dark caverns for a good ten minutes, while constantly being poked by those assholes behind me. But as we get closer to where I'm being herded, I start to pick up on a sound. Multiple sounds. The sound of cheering. The sound of screaming. And the sound of dying. I don't need to know anything else. I know exactly where they're taking me. And it pisses me off like they wouldn't believe.

A set of iron doors blocks my path, but my nose tells me that blood and death awaits me on the other side. I glance over my shoulder to see that the bugs are standing a good ways back, with none of them daring to get too close.

"What's the matter? Afraid to see what's on the other side?" I ask them before the doors start to creak open. I go through them the moment that there's a space large enough for me. I'm sick of being poked by those spears. And I bet there's going to be something on the other side that's going to be poking at me a lot harder than those bugs were.

Metal bars formed a dome over my head. The sand under my feet was stained with blood and most of it was new. Hundreds of bugs on the outside of the cage screamed at me as I entered. Yep, cage match. I knew it.

The large bug takes his seat on a throne, which also has the best view in the arena. He then goes on one of his long-winded speeches about something, but I couldn't care less about that. Instead, I'm far more interested in the griffon that's standing across the arena from me. Her claws and beak are covered in blood and she has multiple slashes across her body. But I can see in her eyes there's still an innocence and kindness in them. She's not a killer. Or she hasn't been long.

A small bug runs across the field and inserts a key into my chains, causing them and the metal covering my arms to fall to the ground. I rub my wrists as I gaze down at the bug, who looks to be a kid by his age. His eyes are closed and he seems to be waiting for me to kill him.

"Beat it, kid," I snarl at him as I begin to walk towards the griffon, who was advancing towards me. This fight isn't going to happen. I bet that the griffon is as much of a prisoner as I am. In fact, on my way up here I had smelled numerous creatures being held in those cells. But as my eyes wander to the cage above, I know that that's not the only thing keeping us in here. There has to be something else. Time to find out what.

The big bug let's out a cry that I think means for us to begin. It clearly meant that for the griffon, because she flaps her wings and throws herself at me. I leap into the air, not to avoid the attack but so I'm lined up perfectly with the cage. Her shoulder slams into my gut and pain floods my body as I'm sent hurling through the air. Right before I crash into the cage I slam into a barrier of magic. I crash to the floor with a bad stomach ache, but now I know why none of the bugs are afraid of the combatants. Time to figure out how strong that magic is.

The griffon charges me again, this time with her claws extended. I roll under her attack and press both of my legs under her chest, this time allowing her to be the one to be sent into the air. She catches herself before she strikes the top of the cage, but by the time she recovers I lunge into the air after her. Her eyes go wide with fear as I tackle her, but I've got no interest in hurting her. Now the magic barrier...

SNIKT. SNIKT.

I then kick off the griffon and hurl myself at the top of the cage, slashing at the magical barrier with all of my might. My claws connect and for a moment I hold my breath...only to let it out as a laugh a moment later, as the magic shatters into millions of pieces. The bugs begin to scream as I carve through the iron bars with no effort and then pull myself out of the cage. My eyes instantly lock onto the big bug sitting on his throne. His horn starts to glow, but before he has the chance to even think about firing his spell, I'm on him. My claws slice right through his neck, causing his head to roll to the side as green blood begins to spurt from the neck stump.

I then turn my gaze towards the bugs below, who are no longer black bugs with blue eyes. Now they're red. Along with everyone else in this arena of the dead.

"Oh God, everyone run! The Wolverine is loose!" I roar at the crowd before I plunge into them, swinging my claws wildly while losing myself in the cascade of screams, panic and blood. I'm doing everything in my power to keep from going berserk. I hope I can keep it down.