On the Hunt

Blood. Fire. Screaming.

That's what assaults my senses. Even miles away I can still hear them. Ponies crying out. The smoke pluming up into the sky. My body is being ripped apart as I run with all of my might, tearing my leg muscles apart for extra speed only for my healing factor to stich them back together.

It's been three days since I started to hunt this thing. I didn't think that I'd find it so quickly. I had also hoped that there wouldn't be bodies. Guess I'm just not that lucky after all. And neither were they. The forest around me has been torn apart, but I only notice that in passing as I sprint down a hill towards the town which has been set ablaze. Not a small village this time. This is a large town. Whatever has been doing this has finally gone after the big fish.

"Hang on!" I roar into the blazing town as I reach the bottom of the hill and sprint into the town, but after a few seconds I roar in pain and collapse to my knees. The pain finally caught up with me, forcing me to take a break. I've got a higher pain tolerance than most, but even I have to rest eventually. When my healing factor returns my legs to normal, I shoot back to my feet and start to run through the streets again.

Now I'm worried. Not about whatever is causing this, but because the screaming has stopped. An entire town and not a single cry for help or of pain. Whatever did this has either managed to get all of these horses to be quiet or it's slaughtered all of them.

I find the first body next to hundreds of others. From the decoration and the festive looking items that I see strewn around the bodies I'm guessing that they had a festival today. Meaning that nearly all of the ponies would have been out in the open, making them easy targets. I kneel down next to one of the bodies, examining the corpse. It's been here for at least a day. This thing has been busy.

I continue my run through the streets, trying to find anyone. Either to save or to kill. Either will do. But all I find is fire, death and destruction. Just like with all of the other places, there is no mercy being shown. Adult or child, all have been killed by this thing. And from the wounds that have been inflicted, I know that it's my same buddy that I've been tracking.

This is the thing that has been responsible for my pain and the pain of the ponies here. And because of it, the ponies have been constantly going after me for the deaths of all those ponies. I don't need to speak their language to see the accusation that flashes in their eyes every time they fight me. I've seen enough of that in my life to know when it's being directed at me.

More bodies greet me as I continue down the roads, unable to find a sole survivor. All of them have been killed by either claws, lasers, lightning or a few other ways that I recognize as well. None of them make me feel any better about what I'm going up against. Maybe I'm wrong and it's not what I think it is.

But as I tilt my head back and sniff the air, I can smell a metallic smell far more clearly than before, that erases all doubt. Now I finally have the bastard's scent. What worries me now is that the scent isn't new to me. Great. I take off sprinting once more, following the smell as best I can through the town of death and fire. There's no point in me trying to save it. Even if I could combat the flames, this thing has done a good job of leaving no survivors. I hear no cries. I see no movement. It's like my worst nightmares, except I'm not the being killing everything.

The park. That's where it is. I smell its metallic ass that I'm going to kick in. I spy trees growing off in the distance and race as fast as I can, extending my claws while preparing myself. I'm going to kill it, that much is certain. The only thing I don't know is if I'll be able to. This one is different.

I let out a roar that would scare the shit out of any living being before I crash down on all fours, seething with hatred as I lift my head towards my foe. It has its back facing me and an arm extended, extended towards three helpless ponies who cower beneath it. Two adults and a kid. They aren't going to run. They're too scared. That means I have to get to them now.

With every last ounce of strength I possess, I hurl myself towards the back of the being, claws extended as I prepare to shred it to bits. I have to get there. I have to save them. The a flash of light erupts from the creature's eyes. And they're all dead.

I bellow with fury as I land on the back of the creature with a metallic clang, taking aim at its neck with one of my claws. Out of the corner of my eye I see two of the ponies' bodies fall to the ground, while the third had its lower half disintegrated by the blast. I failed to save them. Once again, I have to bear the burden of the deaths of the innocent because I was too slow. That's a pain I'm familiar with. No time to get emotional, Logan. Time to aven-

Faster than I would have given the tin can credit for, its head spins around and fires a blast of energy into my chest. I feel myself go flying through the air before I crash into the ground. I kick back up and let out a roar. I don't feel the pain. I'm far too pissed to feel anything but rage right now.

The machine turns around to face me and I recognize it almost immediately. The white coloring; the metal that its made of. The fact that I want to go on a killing spree, by just looking at the face of a creation that has caused me and my friend so much pain. And now it's here, killing everything in this land.

"Listen and listen well, bub. You've gone and done something that ya shouldn't have done," I say to the machine in between snarls. "And because of that, I'm not going to stop until every last piece of you has been so thoroughly ripped apart that even Stark won't be able to put you back together. Any last words, ya damn piece of scrap metal?!"

The thing glares at me. We're about the same height, same build, and same look of hatred in our eyes. Didn't even know these things could feel hatred. Must be a new model. But some things never change, because as I lunge towards the machine I hear it say,

"Mutant detected."

||X||

Three days. We've been watching the same footage of this creature fighting for three days. And despite having seen the images and footage hundreds of times, each time we re-watch it I find another reason to be afraid of this thing. His speed, his strength. The fact that he doesn't seem to feel pain, or if he does he hides it pretty well.

And then there are the claws. I had the local blacksmith come in to see if he could determine what they were made out of from the images, but without actually seeing them in pony, he told us that they could be made of anything. After telling him what they did to Reaper's scythe, he said that they couldn't be made of any material from this world.

But it's not all bad. Throughout these three days we've not only figured out how this creature likes to fight, but also how he responds to different situations. If teamed up on, he prefers to deal with the large threat while somewhat focusing on the lesser threat.

"He also appears to keep an eye on his surroundings while even in a fight, meaning that it's going to be hard to sneak up on him," I lecture to my teammates, but from the looks they give me they already knew this. I know that I've been beating material they already know into their heads, but I don't want any risk or uncertainty to be with us when we fight this thing. It could be fatal.

"So he's incredibly strong, can react to anything that we try to do, and has claws that slice through our strongest weapon. He also heals quick. So gang, any plan on how we're going to kill the Wombat before it kills us?" Stinger asks all of us with a laugh. He likes to joke about things that scare him. It's his way of dealing with things. Wish that my way of dealing with things could be so humorous.

"From the data that we've gathered on this creature and humans in general, it is safe to assume that they share a lot of similarities," Lens speaks up while bringing up two images, one of the creature and the other of human biology that Twilight loaned to me. "Skeletal structure matches up with his body shape and all of the facial features match the humans that Twilight knows. If you don't mind me saying, it seems this creature is more human than not."

"Maybe, but Twilight says that she sure as hell didn't see any humans that have blades extend through their hands before slaughtering a village," I remind the group. "So for now, we'll go off the assumption that it's humanoid and shares traits with humans, but is clearly different. Another species or an experiment, perhaps. But it's not human."

"Speaking of humans, how's your little human doing?" Stinger asks with genuine concern. I ignore his question while focusing on the next feature of the creature that we need to focus on. "Hey Bon, are we certain this is the creature responsible for the destruction of the villages?"

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Well...when we discovered he was heading for the town, we got their pretty quick. Yet the place was trashed," Stinger began. "I know this guy is dangerous, but...could he wipe out a town that big that fast?"

"He brought down Celestia. He's evaded capture and defeated everything we've thrown up against him. I wouldn't be surprised if he could wipe out a town that quickly," Lens answers before I can speak. "And even if he didn't, he's still killed multiple members of our family. Members of our family that must be avenged." Stinger looks down for a moment while Reaper nods, both of them agreeing with that last statement.

"I've shown some of these notes to Twilight, and she's started working with the scientist at Canterlot to help build weapons that we can use against the beast," I inform the group, changing the coversation. "She says that they're working as fast as they can and they hope to have something for us in the next couple of days."

"Not that it matters. What good will those weapons be if we can't get around that thing's ability to heal?" Lens asks. She brings up a good point. Luna told me how Celestia said that the creature tore off all of the skin on its arms to escape her magic. And then the skin grew back. Not only would that hurt like hell, but that's a rapid healing ability.

"I can't say anything on that right now, but I've asked both Luna and Twilight if they can think up any way to get around a creature that can heal rapidly. Once they have an answer, I'm sure that they'll report back to us. So for the time being, I think the best course of action is to go over the battle plan once more." I click a button on the camera and the image of our fight against the creature is projected up against a screen.

"The claws will be the hardest part about fighting this thing, aside from his ability to heal." The image continue to move, getting us to the part where his claws sliced clean through Reaper's scythe. The moment that scene shows up on the screen, a knife flies over my head and embeds itself in the screen. I turn towards where Reaper is sitting and give her a look, but she barely even gives me a glance.

She's pissed. She'll never say anything on the matter, but she's only gotten this angry once before and I remember she had the same look in her eyes that she has now. She's angry about the loss of her scythe. She treated that thing like her child and the creature ruined it. Well, at least I know that she'll be serious for the first time in a long time.

A knock at the door to our room snaps me out of my thoughts. I tell the group to keep watching before I walk over to the door, opening it to find the worried face of Lyra looking back at me.

"Lyra, what are you doing here?" I ask her once I've left the room and closed the door behind me. She takes a moment to respond and I take that moment to look at her face. She's worried. No doubt about the creature, and what it might mean if I go to fight it.

"Just...wanted to check up on you and your friends. See how everything was going," she replies with the fakest smile that I've ever seen her make. I give her a look to let her know that I'm onto her and she lets out a sigh, hanging her head in defeat for a moment. "Okay, I came here to talk to you. About this whole fighting the monster thing that you plan on doing."

"Lyra, I have to do this. I have to avenge Wildfire. This creature killed her and has killed so many. If we don't stop it, then who will?" I ask Lyra.

"I don't know?! Twilight and her friends, maybe? That's what they've been doing every since they moved here!" Lyra replies in an angry voice, but I can hear the fear under it as well. "Maybe Luna can help them! With all of that power on their side-"

"I don't think they can beat it," I cut her off. She gives me a confused glance in reply. "I've been watching what this thing can do for the past three days. We're professional monster fighters and it still held us off with an expert's skill. If we hadn't teleported out of there, we might not have made it."

"Exactly! So just leave it to Twilight and the others!" She's begging at this point. Lyra hates to beg, but she'll do it when she's desperate for somepony to listen to her. She's really worried about this...about me. She knows pretty well what this guy is capable of, and it scares her. It scares me too. But I can't walk away.

"Lyra...this is about the safety of our world. Of Imp," I tell her with a shake of my head. "And I will do whatever it takes to keep her safe."

Lyra then stares at me for a moment, with a look filled with both acceptance at my decision...and the strongest desire to fight against me that I've ever seen flashing in her eyes.

"Before you make that decision, can I show you something?" she asks me.

"Of course, Lyra. What is it?"