On the Hunt

"Appreciate you getting these for me. The store always seems to run out before I get there. Stupid sugar gnomes always stealing my sweets," Lyra says with a large smile on her face to me. I smile in reply as she downs another of the sweet drops in the bag before offering it to me.

"No thanks, you know that I can't stand those," I remind her, before rolling my eyes at the smile she gives me. "And yes, I know that sweet drops is practically my name and that it's weird that I don't like some candy. You don't have to remind me every time."

"Hey, you make fun of me for my hobby, then I make fun of the irony," she shot back before popping another drop.

"For the last time, I don't make fun of your hobby. I just find it farfetched, that's all."

"Farfetched?!" Lyra practically screams at me with indignation. I sigh as she takes in a deep breath, knowing that once again I've opened the flood gates. "Humans are not farfetched at all! There is plenty of evidence to support the theory that they exist as well as numerous reports by ancient unicorns of meeting beings such as them!"

"Reports that were often mistranslated and in terrible condition," I mutter under my breath so that Lyra doesn't hear.

"And why do you have so much trouble believing that creatures that stand on two legs and have no magical abilities exist? We live in a land of manticors, hydras and whatever the heck Discord is. I bet you've fought stranger creatures than humans back at your old job."

Hated to admit it, but Lyra did have a point. Back when I fought against all sorts of unbelievable monsters, I had to fight or kill things that I never even knew existed. Not that I'd tell her this, or else she'd go on for days about how she was right. I tune her out as we reach our house near the edge of town once more, fumbling with the keys to the place while Lyra continued to lecture.

"...and even recently Twilight herself hasn't been able to deny my claims! Every time I mention humans around her, she seems to become fascinated with anything other than the topic at hoof," I hear Lyra say from behind me, but I don't need to look at her to know she's wearing that smug look of hers.

"And is that supposed to mean something?" I ask in a bland tone while also managing to open the door, stepping to the side so that Lyra can race past me.

"It means that when she became a princess, Celestia told her that humans are real. But it's information that she's not allowed to share with anypony. So that's why she avoids me every time I've asked her on the subject," Lyra continued on, bounding around the room while I try to find the newspaper. I spy it laying under the couch and crouch down to grab it. "But every time I've broken into the castle to look for clues or evidence, all I find are those darned spells she keeps putting up to keep me out. Well that, and that mirror she moved here from the Crystal Empire."

"You snuck into the castle? And here I thought that I was the secret agent," I ask with a smile as my hoof wraps around the paper. I pull it free from beneath the couch, shaking the dust off while sitting down. I flip open the paper to see what's new in the world.

"Huh, carrot prices are going up. Carrot Top won't be happy about that." I also see on the next page an image of Twilight and her friends standing around the monster that I heard about earlier today. Honestly didn't know how they'd fare. But if the picture is accurately showing off the beast, then it didn't look that hard to beat. I hear Lyra bound back into the room before she plops onto the couch next to me. I spy a strange device in her magical grasp, strange enough to draw my gaze from the paper. She was holding a small, grey, metallic box with a screen in the center that had longitude and latitude on the sides.

"Curious, aren't you?" Lyra teases while waving the object back and forth.

"What have you got this time?" I ask in a slightly annoyed tone.

"This, my dear friend, is a contraption that I, and when I say "I," I mean me and Time Turner, built to scan humans!" Lyra yelled with triumph. I sigh in response while smacking my face with the newspaper. "Okay, that was not the reaction that I was expecting."

"Lyra, why did you bother building that? And where did you get the materials to build it? Did you go through my old gear again?" I can tell when others are lying pretty easily, though not as easily as Applejack does, but I could see it on Lyra's face that she was innocent of robbing my old tech. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter. So tell me, has it worked at all since you built it?"

"Well, no...but I'm sure that's only because-" The machine suddenly started beeping in the middle of Lyra's sentence. I felt my eyes go wide with shock, and a glance at Lyra's face told me I wasn't the only one surprised. We both glanced down at the small screen in the center of the machine to see a tiny, red dot appearing near one of the corners.

"Lyra, what does that mean?" I ask my friend.

"It means that there's a human here--not too far from us."

||X||

I hate waking up with a headache. It tells me that the rest of the day is going to suck. I also hate waking up to the sounds of voices that I can't understand. That generally means that there's going to be a fight. Oh well, time to get up. A grunt escapes my lips as I force my eyes open. A tarp ceiling is the very first sight that greets me, telling me that I'm flat on my back.

"Okay, what the hell happened?" I ask no one in particular as I sit up, hearing the rattling of chains as I did so. "What the-?" I ask as I look down to spy the source of the noise. Well, someone had the bad manners to go and put chains around my wrists and feet. Clearly they didn't know what they were doing though, because a simple shift of my hands allow me to get the chains right above my wrists.

Snikt.

I only need one of my claws to slice through the chain like salami. Once my hands are free, I slice through the chains that bound my legs. I hate being chained up. I also don't like not knowing where I am. From what I gathered about the room around me, I was in an old fashion gypsy caravan, but with more hay. Heh, haven't been in one of these since-

The girl.

Dammit all, I was so focused about where I was that I completely forgot about the girl that I was after. I sprang to my feet with a snarl and began to sniff at the air. No trace of her scent anywhere. All I could smell was hay, trees and horses. That meant I was definitely in a cart. The time for resting was over, it was time that I found out where the girl had gotten to. Spying a cloth that covered the back of the cart, I lunged forward and pushed my way out of the cart. Yet even as I hit solid ground on the other side, it became clear that I wasn't in Kansas anymore.

If you had asked me what would have been on the other side, I could have given you a number of answers. None of them would have come remotely close to the sheer bull that awaited me on the other side. Because on the other side were ponies. But not ponies like actual horses. No, these were like the ponies that you found in little girl commercials...colored like the rainbow and cute enough to make you puke your guts out. I found myself fighting that sensation as I glared from beneath the mask at the ponies that stared back at me.

"Great. That girl's powers took me to a whole 'nother world, didn't they?" I ask myself.

Three of the four were around the same size and wore armor, a golden armor that covered their heads, forelegs and upper bodies. But those three all had the same look of fear upon their faces. Fear of me. They haven't fought something like me before, have they? I also spied horns and wings on some of them, meaning that I was in a land of pretty pegasi and unicorns.

Of freaking course.

Then there was the one in the back, a large, greenish stallion that had numerous scars over his body. Those scars, along with his eyes, told me that he had fought numerous deadly creatures before and that he wasn't scared of me. That made him the most foolish of them all.

The scarred one let out a command and the other three pointed their weapons at me. I may not have understood the language that he spoke, but it was clear from their actions what was about to happen. They wanted to recapture me. I didn't want that. And only one of us was going to get what we wanted.

"Alright look, you girls' commercial rejects, I don't want to fight you," I warn the ponies as they slowly began to advance towards me. "But I don't want to be captured more. So if any of you try anything, then you're all in for a world of hurt. Back off." Either they didn't understand my language too, or they were just plain stupid, but they kept advancing towards me. Their leader let out a roar and the three charged me with fear in their eyes.

"Fine. Pain town it is." The ponies were smaller than me, which was saying something, but they were all fast as well. But not fast enough. The one that was closest to me jabbed at my skull with his spear, but by the time the point reached where my head had been I had already ducked under the attack and hurled my fist towards his nose. My knuckles connected fully with the pony's jaw and snapped his head to the side. I felt myself smiling as the pony fell flat on its back.

"Heh, always wanted to knock that smile off of yer cute and innocent faces."

Focus on the battle. I spun around and hurled my leg into the gut of the second pony, kicking the air out of its lungs. It fell over and curled into the fetal position, coughing up its guts. I didn't waste anytime going after the third pony. I could see in its eyes that it was afraid of me. Making it easy for me to leap forward and-

My instinct kicked in and I snapped my head to the side just in time to see a blast of energy whip past my face. I leapt away from the pony with narrowed eyes as I try to figure out what the hell just happened. Wait, was that thing's horn always glowing? No, don't tell me-

Another blast erupted from the end of the pony's horn, but this time I chose to take the attack head on. Yep, that's magic alright. I'd recognize that energy and the burning sensation it makes in my chest. But I've taken far worse than the small bolt that the pony could dish out. With a roar I lunged forward towards the pony, who fired another shot at me in desperation. I didn't even bother to dodge.

"GRAAAH!" I roared as I took the spell in my chest, ignoring the pain as I extended my leg and drove the point of my knee into the face of the pony. It dropped with a loud crack. I glanced down at it to see that it wouldn't be bothering me anytime soon, leaving only the big boss to finish off. The head honcho said something to me as he drew his blade, taking up a fighting stance that I didn't recognize.

"Don't bother, bub. That fancy toothpick of yours ain't going to be able to keep me down," I promised him. He lunged at me with blade aimed right for my heart. I turned to the side, dodging the blow with ease. Yet when I brought my elbow down on where he had been, he vanished in a flash of light and appeared a few feet away from me. Guess they can teleport too.

I motioned for him to bring it on. I wanted to see what more he could do. The pony then reached into a pack he had and pulled out another sent of chains. A smile crossed his face as he nodded from me to the chains. He had to go and piss me off. He's going to regret that. Nobody get's to treat me like an animal...without losing a few limbs.

The pony lunged at me again, sword raised high. I don't bother trying to dodge it. I simply narrow my eyes and lift one of my arms to intercept. The sword cleaves through my flesh, carving through muscle and skin until it hits my skeleton. And that's where it stops. The look of sheer shock upon the bastard's face makes up for the pain. I give him a sinister grin before deciding that it's my turn.

"Think your blade's impressive? Let me show you mine."

SNIKT!

My right arm swings upwards faster than his eyes could possibly track. But tracking my arm is the least of his worries. Because that armor of his doesn't stop my claws. Neither does his flesh beneath it. And the moment I finish swinging my arm blood erupts from his body, getting the tough guy to scream out while also collapsing to the ground. I smirk down at the pony who now has three new scars to add to his collection, scars that cover most of his upper body. For a moment, I consider finishing him off.

Click.

A camera. That's the only thing that makes that kind of clicking sound. A glance to my left shows me that I'm right once again. There's three more ponies that I missed. Another stallion that looks horrified. A mare whose eyes were locked on the bloody guard. And a foal with a baseball cap that had taken the picture of me. A little family of ponies. Would be cute if the scene wasn't ruined by the blood soaking into the ground and the screams of the guard who had just given blood.

"What are you looking at?" I ask them. The mare pulls the foal in close while the father leapt in front of them. He was ready to fight me. But while I may not be a nice person, I'm not a monster. I won't tear apart a family for no good reason. I give them a one-fingered salute before turning to the trees near the cart and racing into them.

"What have I gotten myself into this time?" I ask myself aloud. I'm in a land where ponies wear armor and have cameras. I have no idea where the girl is that Charles sent me to retrieve. And my first introduction to the creatures that rule this sweet slice of hell, was to beat up three of them and slice apart another. Well, one out of three ain't bad.

But I do need to find the girl. It was her powers in the first place that brought me here, and I'd wager that she's here as well. I use my claws to climb to the top of a nearby tree, gazing out from the top across the large forest that seemed to go on forever. And if that girl is here, then it's only a matter of time before I find her. I just hope I do, before someone else does.