On the Hunt

Took me about an hour to circle around the outskirts of the city before I could finally reach where those airships were coming from. It was the right decision, because even though the airport is a bit away from the city, I can still smell the hundreds of thousands of ponies that live in there. If I had tried to go in through the city, I would have been spotted easily.

Now I'm crouched down beneath a large, wooden walkway, glancing up through the gaps in the wood to make sure that none of the ponies spot me. I may be pretty stealthy when I want to be, but blue and yellow aren't exactly colors that blend in too well. Except in this world of color and rainbows, where the wood is painted the same color blue that's on my suit. I must be lucky.

The airport is elevated off the ground by pillars, pillars that hold the platforms up over a large river. To get to them, I had to swim my way over to the pillars without getting pulled away by the current. That part was easy, since I'm metal and tend to sink. Swimming to the pillars without drowning? That was the real problem.

But I made it and now I'm beneath their platforms with my claws embedded into the wooden pillars, hanging underneath until I can go on up. Even with the gaps it's hard to see, so I rely mostly on my nose and ears to locate where the ponies are standing at all times. Considering all the noise that they make and how they smell, I can practically see where each of them is standing.

The hardest part is that there are ten different airships that are currently docked, and I have little idea where each one is going or where they've been. And as I can't understand what the horses are saying, I just can't wait until one of them says where they're heading. Not that it would matter, I don't know where anything is in this godforsaken place.

Alright Logan, it's time to think. None of these ships smell like the royals or Alicia. But there has to be a way to tell which of these you need to take in order to get closer to the girl. The first thing I should do is smell each of them and see what I come up with.

Thanks to all of the noise going on above me, none of the ponies hear me as I leap from pillar to pillar and punch holes in them with my claws. I climb up close to underneath one of the airships, staying just out of sight of the ponies. I take in a whiff and am greeted with the scent of a desert. That's not the one I'm looking for.

I repeat the process six different times, each time coming up short with what I'm looking for. While some of the airships smell interesting, there's nothing there that tells me where I need to go. I feel my anger starting to bubble as I claw my way towards the seventh ship, and I start to wonder if I'll need to go back into the water in a moment to cool myself off.

But as I take a sniff of the seventh ship, I'm greeted with the scent of a city that might be on top of a mountain. While the thought of a city on a mountain intrigues me slightly, I feel a smile crack across my face when I realize that I've caught a faint trace of this scent before. I close my eyes and recall all of the scents that I had caught a whiff of, when battling with the white royal. The smell of Alicia is the first to come to mind, followed by the smell of cake. But then my smile grows wider as I notice that she too smelled of the mountains...and of a city.

"Bingo," I mutter aloud before I start to climb my way up onto the ship, taking care only to move when I was certain that there were enough sounds to cover my movements. I also began to weigh how long I was going to wait. I could wait until nightfall and sneak aboard, but from the number of ponies that I noticed moving cargo onto the ship, I doubt that it will be here that long. But if I try to sneak on in the middle of the day, I might be spotted. But if I'm not on when it takes off, then I lose another chance at finding Alicia.

I have to risk it. Who knows what that girl has gone through since she's gotten here? I bet she wants to go home right about now. I know I do. I sheath my claws before grabbing hold of the planks above me, hoping that they can support my weight. Then I start to move across them monkey bars style, with only my fingers holding me above the river down below.

Slowly, I inch myself closer towards the side of the ship that none of the ponies can see, planning on hiding on that side until we're away from the port. A cry of surprise and pain escapes my lips when I feel a hoof stomp down on top of one of my fingers. For a moment, I'm worried that I've been found out, but as I start to hear two voice shout at each other I realize that two ponies must have gotten into an argument.

That's the good news. The bad news is that some asshole up there is standing on my finger and it hurts like hell. I consider stabbing the pony, but that's a good way to get myself noticed. So I slowly begin to wiggle my finger to worm it out from underneath his hoof. It takes me a good minute, but eventually I manage to get it free. I sigh in relief before moving my hand to the next plank.

Anger floods through me when I feel the asshole's hoof come down on my other fingers. That's it.

SNIKT!

I hear the pony yelp in pain as I slightly extend my claw into his hoof. I know that the moment he felt the pain of my claw, he'd look down for what stabbed him. So I move quickly, swinging my body forward and letting go of the planks only to grab onto the ones at the end of the walkway. I hear the sounds of the planks cracking overhead and I know that I have only seconds to act. The claws on my right hand extend fully and I lunge forward to plunge them into the underside of the airship.

The planks give out the second I do this and I glance down to watch them fall into the waters below. I take a brief second to recover before the second set of claws come out and I start to scale the side of the airship that the ponies can't see. There's a set of decorative fins that provide some cover, and I claw my way underneath one of those, closing my eyes as I wait for the screaming to start the moment I'm spotted.

The shouting never comes and after a moment I crack my eyes open to see that the airship that I'm on is a bright yellow with blue decorative paint. The same colors as my suit, practically camouflaging me perfectly.

Go figure.

||X||

I don't know if I can believe what I'm seeing. When Luna first brought me to Canterlot, I had expected to see something terrible, but this...this is something I could have never imagined. Because as I stare through the glass that looked into the emergency room, I try to grapple with the fact that I'm looking at Princess Celestia fight for her life.

Her body is terrible to look at. She's been ripped apart, with so many claw slashes and impalements upon her body that I'm amazed any of her blood stayed within her. Speaking of blood, her coat is completely stained red, with barely any of her white color coming through her new coat. And then there's her right wing...or lack of now, I guess. Now there's just a stump.

"What happened to her?" I ask Luna with terror, a terror that's reflected in the princess' eyes when I look up at her. I don't know how she's managing to keep herself look so calm. If this were my sister, I'd be freaking out, filled with rage, or maybe both. But I wouldn't be calm and collected. Guess that's why she's a leader.

"From what she told me before she passed out, she engaged the clawed beast at sunset last night, with a team of ponies that you used to work with." Her face might be calm, but the moment Luna speaks I can hear the absolute terror that she's going through. "At first the battle went well. Celestia said that she was winning, even. Then the creature tore its skin, all of it, off of its arms and went... berserk. It was like it had lost its soul. She stood no chance after that. It sliced through her magic, through her shields...the others. There was nothing she could do."

"The clawed creature...did this?" I weakly repeat before turning my gaze back to Celestia. Celestia was an alicorn. She held within her one of the strongest magical powers in all of Equestria. Most would say that she was the strongest in all of Equestria by herself. And the creature with claws did this to her. Faust help us all...wait a moment.

"What about the others?" I ask Luna. Luna then slowly looks down at me, sorrow in her eyes as she shakes her head. My heart sinks into my stomach.

"From what little I got out of my sister, when it became clear that the clawed creature was overpowering my sister, they stepped in to try and save her. And...it slaughtered them," Luna tells me with her voice cracking every few words. "They stood no chance. It had sliced two of them into pieces before Celestia could react. By the time she realized there was nothing she could do, it had already killed the third...your friend."

"Wildfire," I whisper in a broken tone.

"Her sacrifice bought Celestia enough time to escape with her life. I know that it doesn't make the pain any better, but I thought you'd want to know."

I'm barely listening to Luna at this point. I stare at the gravely injured Celestia and wonder how this could have happened? How could everything have gone so wrong? Back when we all worked for the agency, we were prepared every day to give our lives stopping the monsters that plagued our land...but I don't think any of us would have believed that we would have died after we retired. Not like this.

"What are you going to do now?" I ask Luna in a near whisper. I don't look up to see her face, but from the long silence that answers me, I know that she's wearing a look of pain and confusion.

"I...do not know. What I have done...I strengthened the guards around here in case the creature makes it to the city. Other than that...aside from bringing you here, I have not left my sister's side," Luna admits. "And honestly, I do not know what to do. I want to gather Twilight and her friends to help fight this creature, but after seeing what it has done to my sister...I fear for their lives. The doctors say that the only reason that my sister still lives is because of her immortality as an alicorn. If Twilight and her friends were to fight it...there is no guarantee any of them would survive."

"What about you? Are you going to avenge your sister?"

"I...do not know if I can. Celestia was stronger than me in nearly every way. And even she could not stop it. I fear that I would fare no better." I glance up at Luna to see that she's hanging her head in shame, guilt and regret blazing in her eyes as she stares at her sister.

I'm the same way. Regret tears apart my heart as I think about my friend. I hadn't been there for her. I hadn't been a part of the team. We always stick together. That was one of the most important rules that they taught us back during our training, and I didn't follow it. Now my friend and two of my colleagues are dead.

I should only be feeling sorrow. I should only be hating myself. But even though both of those emotions are crushing my soul...I feel two more emotions. One is a rage. An unending rage that will not be quelled until I have slain this creature with my own two hooves. But the other, I am ashamed to admit, is interest. I am interested in this creature. I want to know more about it. I want to know if I can beat it. I have to try, at least. For Wildfire.

"I'll take it on," I tell myself, more than I do Luna. My words do cause the princess to look at me with both fear and disbelief.

"Sweetie Drops, you cannot. My sister-"

"Was powerful. She was brilliant. And she is kind. But she didn't spend practically all of her life training to fight monsters, did she?" I ask Luna. Luna apparently realizes that I have a plan, because she doesn't say anything. "You said it yourself, Princess. In all the years that I fought monsters, not one of them was able to ever defeat me. I'm the only member of the old organization that has never been bested by a monster of any sorts. Not when I was at my peak. Not when I was a rookie. I'll take on this creature."

Luna stares at me for a long moment, and all the while I stare back at her, waiting to hear her response. The look that she's giving me isn't one of worry or fear for my safety. She's wondering if I can do it. She's wondering if the best monster fighter that she has ever known can win this fight. Then I see her expression shift and doubt forms in her eyes. She's going to say no. I need to change her mind.

"Please, Princess Luna. For my comrade. For Wildfire." I've won. Luna is wearing an expression of defeat upon her face and a moment later she sighs and nods her head.

"You are correct, Sweetie Drops. No other pony alive has as much experience combating monsters as you. What do you need of me?"

"I'm going to need most of my old gadgets. Also, I might need the addresses of some old teammates. And access to the science labs that you have hidden under the castle," I inform Luna, and I smile slightly when she looks at me with surprise. "I'm also a pretty good spy, Princess. I know about them. Do you also think you can find the creature again?"

"Yes, one of my soldiers of the night managed to insert a magical tracker onto its clothing during their battle. So far, the creature has not seemed to notice," Luna informs me. "But why would you want to know where its location is?" She is not going to like my answer.

"Because in order to learn about what I'm fighting, first I'm going to need some intel on it," I inform Luna with a grim look upon my face. "And seeing as there's only one of these creatures that we know of, the only way I can learn about it is getting up close and personal. Let's hope that I can survive the first encounter to make sure it doesn't survive the second."