Concord of the Circles

The dark-maned hunter crept silently through the underbrush, the butt of his crossbow held tightly to his shoulder. His amber eyes glowed softly in the darkness as his thoughts span with a mixture of confusion and focus. He did not know which cruel sister of fate decided that it was his turn to be cast out of another familiar world and face certain doom in some forest in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, but he was exorbitantly certain that he was going to slap the taste out of her mouth should he ever face her in person.

The hunter found himself in a clearing, and took a brief knee to look at the stars above. Indeed, the constellations matched those of another world he once fought upon, but there were ever-so-slight differences in their placement. As if thousands of years of time had passed and all the stars moved with the spinning of the galaxy. In theory, this would mean that the plants and trees the hunter had passed on his way to this spot of field should have evolved into wholly unrecognizable species or gone extinct entirely eons ago.

A light metal sound roused the hunter from his formulation of conjecture, and he instinctively brought a hand up to the silver wolf's head pendant that hung around his neck on its thick chain. Standing to his full height and bringing his crossbow up, he scanned in a slow circle across the edge of the forest around him, the metal clinking of his medallion getting increasingly louder as he did. A light, wooden snap caused him to quickly whirl to his left and lock his sights on something he couldn't fathom, even with his years of experience.

It was completely foreign to the world around it in every sense of the word; as if it was literally pulled from an animated venture from some TV show. A caricature of a miniature horse, barely three feet tall, looking extremely soft in all parts of it's anatomy. Its features were flawless, and it seemed to completely lack hooves, its legs simply ending with flawless little nubs. Even the head was unnaturally perfect, almost completely round, save for the snout and ears. The eyes sat obscenely large in its skull, the bright, green irises within locking on with the hunter's mutant, catlike eyes. The eyes were even rimmed with exaggerated, feminine eyelashes.

The thing's mane and coat was so bright and colorful that the hunter was sure he would need an insulin injection just from looking at it. A bright orange covered the entirety of the horse, and its mane and tail were a brilliant, golden blonde in color, both tied into a literal ponytail with a red ribbon. The horse itself even had what seemed to be three light, tan freckles on each side of it's face, and- were those apples on its flank? They were. Three red apples, presumably on both sides. Despite everything else, what the hunter found most strange about the horse was the fact that it had a cowboy hat atop its head, the sides bent upward to allow the ears to move.

The hunter kept his aim steady. His profession taught him not to let even the most innocent looking of beings have a moment to strike. Regardless, a few words did slip from his lips.

"What in the fuck?"

"Rarity! Rainbow Dash! Where in the hay are ya'll?!"

The cowgirl earth pony galloped through the forest in a panic. It all happened without warning, and unlike every other adventure she had ever undertaken, this happened with a subtlety simply unknown to her. It was always excitement, always some form of action; this, however, felt more... sinister. Unfinished. As if the big event was yet to come. This left the girl on edge. Expectant. Constantly waiting for something to pop out and scare the ribbons from her hair.

No, she was a brave pony, she thought. She just had to find her friends and figure out the situation. She had been on an outing with all five of her greatest friends; girls she wouldn't ever give up, come hell or high water. It was to be nothing dangerous; go into the forest, bring their zebra friend a selection of gifts for her birthday. They had walked that very same path a thousand times to seek out the zebra's help, but something happened this time, this single moment out of millions, that made things turn.

As they made their way through the forest, the pony realized that the path around her and her friends had gotten darker. A whisper from behind made her crane her head, and when she turned back, she realized she was in a completely unfamiliar stretch of forest, her friends nowhere to be seen.

This forest was simply wrong to the pony. Everything in her world, from the fiercest of dragons to the butterflies, it all had a soft, gentle feel to it. As if, regardless of the danger, something from beyond was making positively sure that nothing horrific could happen. But now, it was so... full. So many thousands of details the pony could hardly manage to comprehend. The grass looked sharper, the wood in the trees looked rougher. Everything had a distinct texture; it looked so different, but it felt all the same as before.

"Twilight? Pinkie Pie! Fluttershy?! Come on!"

Though her heart was hammering in her chest from this tidal wave of new experience, the pony knew well enough to not let herself succumb to a full, emotional explosion. She had to be strong. A farmgirl isn't built to cry like a sad little city girl losing her mother in the middle of town, no, she was meant for a brawl! Whatever this was, whatever had happened, she could get through it! She and her friends had within themselves the power to change their world, and there was nothing they couldn't accomplish!

Even with her new-found determination, the pony was exhausted from all her running. She had noticed that the trees had begun to thin out some distance ahead, and had assumed that she was approaching a clearing. She figured that, perhaps, one of her friends could have been there, using the open air to get a better view, or wait for someone. She ran with increasing vigor, until she finally did get to the rim of that clearing- immediately skidding to a halt as soon as she saw the strange being within.

It was a bit taller than she was, at least a couple feet, give or take a few inches. It seemed entirely clothed; standing atop two legs, like her friend's baby dragon, ending with black, shining boots. The coverings on it's legs seemed to have all kinds of metal attachments on them, similarly to the brown coat that hung off its thick frame. The coat itself looked armored, asymmetrically; one shoulder bearing a large, curved metal plate, the other bearing three pads of a material similar to the make of the coat itself. The pads sat one under the other, like dragon scales, and caught a silvery gleam from the metal chains that were linked through each of them.

On the creature's back were more straps, which seemed to hold down two swords. The pony had never seen such a device in person- it was all old pony tales, from books and folk stories that were read to her when she was but a little filly. One sword was wrapped in a bright, red grip, black cordage winding up it's length, and the other was a stout black with the occasional ring of metal up it's sheathe and handle. Another small device seemed clipped to the sheathes of the blades, completely black, the details difficult to make out from where the pony was.

The cowgirl took an idle step forward to get a better look at the strange contraption, but made the mistake of not watching her step- she ended up snapping a twig underhoof. In an instant, the creature whirled around, which made the pony's blood freeze in her veins. The creature's upper limbs ended in what looked like wicked claws, but the metallic sheen quickly told the cowgirl that they were part of the clothing over the creature's forelimbs. It had five appendages at the end of each limb, another similarity to her friend's assistant. The creature's face was uncovered by clothing, and the alien face made the pony's heart skip a beat. Its skin was a creamy color, pink in some places. Its face was stern, emotionless, marred by what seemed to be an eternity of war; yet, it looked so young. There were no wrinkles, only scars. She quickly figured that the mat on top of the creature's head was its own head of dark, brown, almost-black hair. Despite everything else about the creature, what shocked the pony most was the creature's eyes.

Golden. Glowing. Pupils slit.

Unblinking. Unmoving. Unnerving.

They were so stunning, the only thing that could possibly have knocked her out of her trance at that moment was the creature's voice, and it did so handily.

"Hold on a pony-pickin' second, here, mister- you can talk?" The cowgirl pony quizzed at the hunter, in a hearty southern accent that the hunter felt almost... charmed by. The hunter, uncertain, lowered his weapon just barely, keeping his finger on the trigger, but the head of his bow pointed at the ground. He took a breath to speak, licking his lips briefly.

"Aye. Nice to see you can, too." The hunter rumbled out, his voice toned over by a near-persistent growl, every word ending smoothly and concisely. The hunter wished not to jumble anything, to risk a possible misunderstanding between a creature he found so impossibly alien.

"Just what in the hay are you?" she replied, the pony tensing up from the intimidating nature of the hunter's voice. The hunter quickly gathered that there were none like him, wherever this pony came from, so the girl could quite obviously be hesitant and apprehensive of what she may or may not have perceived as a monster. She, however, looked almost harmless. As if those soft looking little marshmallows on her legs had any capacity to hurt him. The hunter realized he wasn't going to convince the pony to feel the same way if he kept staring at her and clutching his crossbow. He relaxed himself, switching his bow onto its safety and shouldering it.

The hunter straightened his back, softening the tone of his voice, in an effort to put the pony at ease. "Technically, I'm a human. Guessing you don't have much of me where you're from."

"My... my friend told me somethin' about humans she found in a book or two, but I ain't never seen one of your like in Equestria." The pony gently replied, unbent. She gently put her hoof back to the earth, from the raised position it was in, just in case she had to run. The pony didn't fully trust the human in front of her, but she figured he meant her no harm. Indeed, he didn't seem like the uncivilized monkey that her friend had told her about. Still, there were so many things just... wrong about him. He said he was human, but he also said "technically".

"I'm guessin' yer' just as lost as I am?" the pony eked out, her southern drawl continuing to charm the hunter.

"How do you figure?"

"Now, I may not know a lot about ya'll human folk, but ya' seem the sensible type, and ain't no sensible type I know that just sits in the middle of the forest, armed to the teeth."

"Aye, good thinking." The hunter paused, one of his glowing eyes flashing with the twitch of his cheek. His entire demeanor seemed to switch, in that instant. "Now, why don't you come closer, little pony? I won't bite." The hunter cooed, a suspicious smile on his face- almost forced. The pony was wary, however, and held her ground. "Now, hold on a minute there, mister, I ain't gonna just-"

"Get your blonde ass over here before you lose your head!" The hunter burst out, his eyes no longer focused on the pony. With hardly a second's hesitation, the hunter let out a growl, and swiped a short, metal object off of his shoulder, quickly hurling it at the cowgirl. With a yelp, the girl ducked her head, tucking it into her hooves, causing the spinning missile to miss- However, the resultant shriek informed the pony that she wasn't the target in the first place. She looked behind her, almost immediately regretting the decision.

The thing was absolutely horrifying. Rising off the ground nearly five feet, with another six or seven feet trailing behind it, was a creature so absolutely terrible that the pony nearly fainted from the sight of it. A snakelike body ending with a head of four, huge, bladed tentacles, with a massive, snapping beak in the center. The beast flailed around, its tentacles lapping at the injury site where the hunter's projectile had deeply buried itself.

The pony hadn't heard it sneak up behind, and in her fright, didn't bother to notice the hunter's thunderous footsteps as he dashed across the clearing, shoving the pony aside and slamming his knee into the underside of the creature's beak with a sickening crack, knocking it fully to the floor. The pony was still rocked and unable to focus on anything but the slithering, thrashing beast, even as the hunter picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder like a sack of apples.

The hunter took note of how soft the pony's fur was, even under the leather of his bear gloves. She was impossibly light, too, barely thirty, maybe forty or forty-five pounds, at most. After a good hundred yards or so of dashing through the trees, the hunter stopped to catch his breath, fairly certain he had escaped the stunlocked, serpentine abomination. He put the pony he had rescued down on the forest floor, and she comically rolled onto her back, her legs pointing skyward; she was still stunned.

The hunter let the sling of his crossbow off his shoulder, letting it rest in his hands, as he slid back-first against a tree, landing in a seat, panting. A good minute passed before the pony spoke. "W-w-what in sweet Celestia's name was that?"

"Not too sure, myself..." the hunter began, "...But I sure as hell hope it got the message."

"Hey, uh..." The pony started again, pulling herself to a stand, "Thanks for rescuin' my hide, back there. Sorry I didn't immediately listen to ya', but-"

"Stow it, horsie." The hunter chuckled, "I get it, relax. Didn't exactly have time to think over the fact that you might not fully trust me enough to come bouncing over. Spur of the moment, I guess." The hunter ran an idle hand over the arced prod of his crossbow, unthinkingly testing the pull of the taught bowstring. "Now, I'm gonna assume this forest is going to be just full of uncomfortable things. Seeing as you seem to have the constitution of pudding pop, I figure it would be best if we stuck together, yeah?"

"Well, ya' clearly ain't out for my life, so I can agree with that. Err... what's a puddin' pop?"

"Irrelevant." The hunter sighed, waving a gloved hand over his shoulder, "Now, tell me, pony, how in the shit did you get here?"

The pony chose to ignore the vulgarity in the human's vocabulary, figuring that, with the armament he possessed and manner of which he spoke, it was all too natural for him to swear and curse, and she wasn't about to ask a stranger to break a habit on her accord. "Well, I was just walkin' in the forest with my friends, when... when... oh, horseradish!"

"What's up, horsie?"

"My friends! I almost forgot about tryin' to find 'em!" the pony gasped out, suddenly aware of her own vulnerability in a forest full of things likely interested in slaughtering her. If she was in such extreme danger, and wholly unable to defend herself from creatures that could literally snap her head off before she even knew she was dead, then how would her friends fare?

"Slow it down. Start from the beginning."

The pony explained to her savior the events which transpired to bring her to the current situation, as well as giving him brief descriptions of her five friends. The hunter nodded, and began his own tale. "Same thing happened to me, in a sense. I got a contract, and was hunting for my target in the forest. I realized something strange had happened when the crickets started chirping backwards. Didn't think anything of it when they suddenly stopped and cicadas kicked in. Realized I forgot the garlic I needed for the job, and tried to head back. That's when I realized the entire forest was different. I've been walking around for a a good couple of hours, now."

The hunter stretched, and was about to add to his explanation, when the medallion around his neck began to shake and tug on it's chain, its eyes shining a fierce blue. "Hm. We might just get lucky, horsie."

"Whatcha' mean?" The pony replied, as the hunter clamped a hand down on his medallion, pulling himself to his feet and looking around. "I mean that one of your friends might be nearby. This thing around my neck reacts to magic."

"Magic?! Twilight!"

"Maybe yes, maybe no. From what you've told me, you can't do magical tricks like that friend of yours can, yet my medallion was going off just before you showed up in that clearing. Could be your friends, or it could be something worse. Keep an eye out, pony."

"Alright... and my name's Applejack, by the way."

"...Almir. Of Astora." The hunter idly replied, looking about. A distant sound caught his attention, high in the sky. It was like a mixture between a roar and a bird's call. The hunter tightened the strap on his crossbow's sling, and began to ascend the tree he was once leaning against. The pony below placed her hooves on the tree, looking up and observing the hunter's skillful climbing. "Ya' see anything up there?"

"I see a flying cartoon horse shitting out rainbows."

"Omigosh, omigosh, omigosh!" Shrieked out the winged pony, her raspberry-toned eyes filled with fear. Ever since she lost her friends and displaced into this strange world, things have been trying to outright slaughter her. Her light, blue coat was covered in dirt, and her rainbow-spectrum mane was filled with sticks and leaves from all the rolling about she had done. The ground was suicide, for her- she figured that the air would be much safer, and with her speed, she could easily outfly anything that could follow.

She was wrong.

Griffons in this world were much, much faster, and much more terrifying than the ones in her world. Too addled by fear for her life to focus on her explosive flying techniques, the rainbow pegasus pony merely flew as hard as her wings could carry her, hoping, praying that the beast on her heels would eventually give up or tire out. Even with everything that had happened in the short span of her being here, she still hadn't forgotten about her friends. How could she?

She had to find them. But she had to be alive for that. She knew she could survive. Griffons don't eat ponies! Right?

With a brief cast of a glance behind her, the pony's self-assurances melted away. The griffon caught up impossibly fast, it's massive talons stretching outward, ready to snatch the pony out of the air and toss her into that guillotine that was its beak. A nightmarish shriek tore through the pony's ears, and she tucked them instinctively, before forcing herself into a dive to avoid the gnashing blades of her pursuer. She performed barrel rolls, dives, loop-the-loops, anything that could keep her away from the monster. Indeed, the beast flew fast, but it's colossal wingspan meant it had trouble performing surgical maneuvers, something the pony could perform naturally due to all her practice.

But the pony was no immortal. She was a hell of an athlete, for sure; possibly the best in all her lands! But this beast, this monster that was so dead-set on catching her, it didn't need to sleep. It had no friends to catch up to, to search for. Nay, all it was concerned about was getting its meal, and it had all the time in the world to do so. The pegasus was beginning to wear down.

Just before her wings could finally give out, inevitably surrendering her body over to the beast that hounded her, the pegasus pony's eyes caught a glimpse of bright, red light, soaring out of the massive forest below her. She stopped, mesmerized, and didn't pay any attention to the eagle-lion about to rend her asunder.

Until the bolt of light smashed into it, exploding in a dazzling array of smoke and flame. The griffon let out another ear-shredding scream, falling back into the forest like a meteor, its hair and feathers beginning to burst and curl into ash and embers and flame. The pony didn't realize how long she was staring in awe of the event, her jaw dropped, her eyes beaded. After coming to her senses with the realization that her wings were aching, she looked down, and decided to follow the smoke trail towards the source of whatever it was that saved her.

-

The hunter fell to the ground next to his newfound cowpony companion, aiming to leave a crack in the very earth itself with the force of his drop. Rising to his full height in front of her, a smoking flare gun in his hand, his eyes shining in the shadows that obscured his face, the pony felt a sense of admiration well up inside her.

"YEEEEEEEEE-HAAAW!" Applejack cheered, rearing back on her hind legs, "I heard that critter cryin' from here! Heck of an aim ya' got there, sugarcube!"

"Aye, thanks. Had a lot of practice. Your friend is okay, last I saw she was starting to-"

The hunter was quickly cut off by a rainbow blur of light rapidly smashing into his pony companion. His eyes locked onto the ball of rolling colors, and tracked it as it rolled a good few meters, before finally ending with the rainbow pegasus standing atop the cowgirl pony. There was the briefest moment of passage, before the two girls were locked in a tight hug. Tears flowed from both their eyes, and the hunter came under the briefest suspicion that they were going to fuse together to form some form of ultra-pony.

They're cartoon horses. Anything is possible.

The ponies finally let go, helping each other to their hooves, before embracing once again. "Oh, AJ, you have no idea how happy I am to see you!"

"I feel the same, Dashie!"

"Cute." The hunter rumbled out, popping the breach on his flare gun, ejecting the spent, smoking shell, and inserting a new one. As he looked back up to regard the ponies he had rescued, the rainbow pegasus was immediately buzzing into his face. "And just who- and what- are you, chump?!"

Before the hunter was able to manage a reply to the brash pegasus, she let out a harsh yelp of surprise, before dropping out of the air and falling on her face. The hunter took a step back, and noticed that Applejack had grabbed her friend by the tail and yanked her out of his bubble. "Awful sorry about her, partner. She's a feisty one."

"Applejack, who is this guy?! How do you know 'im?" The pegasus spat, flying up and next to her friend, eyeing the hunter up and down. "This here's, uh... I'm sorry, again, but what did you say yer' name was?"

The hunter spaced his feet, pulling open his jacket with his free hand. "Almir of Astora. Butcher of Braxis. Cleanser of the Coastlands. Dirge of Dawnstar. There's a lot of names..." The hunter sighed, spinning his flare gun with a dexterous hand, before holstering the weapon in the case on his belt, to his right. "...But the official title is, and always has been, Almir. You can just call me Al."

Applejack gave the hunter a slightly apprehensive glance, listening closely to the names he uttered out, but took note that their sinister sounds reach a moot when compared to what the bearer of those names did for her.

"Dashie, relax. Al', here, saved my skin- and yours! Even offered to find the rest of the girls!"

"...Well, you're not one to lie, Applejack." Conceded the pegasus pony, relaxing just slightly, and dropping to the ground. "Alright, Al. A friend of Applejack's is a friend of mine!"

The pony flew up to the hunter's face once more. "But I've still got my eye on you!"

"Glad we got that straightened out." The hunter replied, ignoring the girl's aggression, which seemed to dampen her spirits. "What was your name, then? Applejack mentioned a Rain-"

"Rainbow Dash!" The pegasus interrupted, dropping to the ground and spreading her wings wide. "Fastest flyer in Equestria, at your service!" The pony seemed to have completely gotten past the horror she had gone through, dodging that griffon above the trees. Seeing, what the hunter assumed to be, her best friend must have completely revitalized her personality. However, the reality of the situation set in, then, and Rainbow Dash lost her pride for a bare moment.

"Do you... happen to know where we are?"

"Haven't the damnedest. But, that isn't of importance right now. We need to find your friends. You two seem nice enough, and I could always use another pair of eyes, especially in a place like this. Besides, you two would be bird shit and snake feed without me, so I figure it's a mutually beneficial relationship if we stick together."

"Baaah! That griffon couldn't catch me! You just got a lucky shot when I took a nap to let the thing catch up!" The brash pegasus snorted. She quickly resigned, again, however. "But, you know, I guess you're right. You seem to know what you're doing, for a monkey."

"You bet your ponyfeathers, he does!" Applejack interjected, "I don't know how in the hay someone with only two legs can move as fast as this guy, but Sweet Celestia, you should have heard the sound this monster's face made when he got to it!"

The hunter smiled to himself. It felt good to be a hero, even in the eyes of a pair of cartoon horses. Applejack and Rainbow Dash had begun to recount and swap tales, seeming to momentarily forget about the ass-backwards situation they were both in. But, they seemed to have hope, now. They had someone who could protect them from the horrors ahead, a mobile murder machine that could probably eliminate any given threat; and he wanted to help them find their friends.

The hunter began walking. If his hunch was right, he would find another of their friends, and soon. As he began his trek, he briefly looked behind him, and smiled once again. Without a word of direction, the ponies traveled close behind, still swapping tales, but keeping their voices low.

It had been a while since the hunter felt true companionship. Perhaps things could be different, this time.