Concord of the Circles

by SiftyMcStonenboner

Rating: teen
Tags: Other, Original Character, Comedy, Adventure, Crossover, Main 6, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Human
Length: 11415

A hunter of evil helps six magical horse creatures survive in a world that they never belonged to.

Every rare millennium, realms coalesce. Spheres conjunct, circles intertwine, worlds breathe into one another. So similar, yet so different, in so many ways. Worlds literally collide, and their inhabitants are thrown about into a visceral soup of differentiation. A man, his very genetics altered to aid him in his hunt of evil and defense of the innocent, ends up in a strange world after a colossal displacement event. He is not alone, however; six horses, ripped straight from a cartoon, end up keeping this hunter company. Swearing by the duty he was literally designed for, the hunter aids these ponies to survive in this strange new world, and aids in their return from whence they came.

Published 2015-12-01 21:00:02 UTC
Last updated 2016-02-18 06:08:09 UTC

Part 1

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.

Part 2

The hunter and his charges walked through the forest slowly. The light-hearted swapping of stories from before had faded into a silent apprehension of the world around them. The hunter never relaxed his grip on the weighty crossbow in his hands, his gleaming eyes constantly flicking between trees, aiming to catch movement within his peripherals, anything that could prove to be a threat. He hoped to, at the very least, detect some meaningful form of progress; either another strange pony creature, or, at the very least, something horrifying to fight, to break the monotony.

The hunter became increasingly aware of his own bloodlust. It was never this calm in the worlds that he fought in- nay, there was always something going on, something always in need of a warrior with his talents. Be it a civil war or a vampire in its castle, the hunter would always have something to earn his meals with.

There was a light jingling noise. "Hey, champ! What's that?" Came the voice of the brash pegasus pony the hunter had rescued. "Sounds like yer' medallion!" Responded the cowgirl by her side.

Indeed, it was the hunter's medallion, aggressively shaking on its heavy, silver chain. The hunter stopped, tightening his grip on his weapon, bringing it up all the more, in case he needed to quickly sink a bolt into an encroaching beast. The hunter scanned around the forest, nothing in particular catching his eyes.

"Psst! Hey, cowpoke! C'mere a sec!" whispered Applejack. The hunter crouched down to match her height, shifting his aim in order to match the pony's line of sight. He followed her gaze, and became aware of what she had noticed; a bright light, flickering on and off behind a tree, far into the distance. The hunter would have passed it entirely, had the pony not spoken up. "Now, what do ya' reckon that is?"

The hunter's eyes widened. His ears perked up. He picked up the sight of yellow light moving quickly towards the flashing, a heavy set of footsteps making vibrations through the woods. "No clue, but I sure as hell know what that big bastard charging at it is."

The pearlescent unicorn had given up hope of finding her friends. How could a simple walk in the woods have gone wrong, and even so, where was the flair? The action? It was almost cruel how subtly her life had changed for the worst. She wanted to be a star, to be someone of great influence, and her friends were bringing her to that point. Now, all she could do was sit and sob behind a tree.

She didn't give up her search on a whim. As fragile as she seemed, the girl had heart. However, she was no athlete, nor was she used to roughhousing- that was more of Rainbow Dash or Applejack's kind of game. She ran through that forest for hours, screaming and hollering. Perhaps she could have kept up her search if not for her noise drawing in some sort of hideous beast from the very confines of the forest depths.

The pony was absolutely no match for the horror that had come for her, despite her light propensity for the fighting arts, and she knew that well enough to turn tail the moment she saw it. It was like some form of corrupted minotaur; matted, gristly, greasy hair covering its back, chest and arms, with scaly, grey skin everywhere else. Its three-fingered claws clutched a massive, jagged rock-axe, bones of unknown creatures lashed haphazardly to the shaft. The creature's head was that of a bull, with colossal horns curving outwardly, framing the beast's skull-like face, which arguably the worst part of the whole monster, with two empty, glowing, yellow eyes boring holes into the pony's soul.

The monster, standing a solid fifteen feet in height, practically dwarfing the little unicorn, pushed trees aside with barely a moment's effort, swinging its axe and roaring into the sky. It pursued the pony for a good while, but the pony was crafty, in her fear- she skipped between thin trees, used her magic to swat branches into the beast's eyes, and finally ducked into a fallen log as the monster passed.

When she finally came out of her hiding spot, fairly certain that she was safe, she looked down at herself and was disgusted. Her purple, once-curly mane and tail were an absolute mess, and her pristine white coat was covered in mud and dirt. She was lost in a world that was so different than her own, a horrible beast was out for her blood, she couldn't find her friends, and now she was in ruins.

The pony slumped against a tree trunk, and she cried. She cried for a long time. She cried while she combed her mane, doing what she could with her magic alone. She was certain that her sobbing would attract the beast to her, again- and she didn't care. She was practically broken. She continued to sob and comb her mane while the thunderous steps got closer. She ignored the beast when it lifted its axe.

Her attention was immediately restored when the beast growled in a different emotion- not rage, but pain. The unicorn looked up to see the creature scratching at some sort of shining, metallic rod buried into its left eye. The metal rod seemed to glow for half a second, some kind of hourglass shape carved into it catching alight- before a massive electrical storm erupted from the rod, stunning the beast and causing it to take a knee to hold its smoldering face. The pony simply looked on, in surprise and confusion.

A voice erupted from the foggy forest around her. "LEROOOOOOOY-"

"JENKIIIIIIIINS!" Shouted the hunter, leaping into the bolt-stunned beast with a small sword in his hand, sinking the steel underneath the monster's chin and roughly pistoning his arm back and forth, creating a colossal gash in the beast's throat. The creature moved a giant, scaly arm up to grab at the hunter, but the warrior was much faster, placing a muddied boot to the monster's face and forcing himself off, blade in hand.

He landed, performing a back-roll, and quickly swatted a strange device off his left thigh. Black and streamlined, seemingly designed specifically for a human hand, the hunter pointed it at the beast, gazing down small iron indentations atop the device. The beast raised its axe, blood gushing from its wounds-

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Colossal amounts of bone and matter sprayed off from the beast's skull with each loud blast, the strange device the hunter clutched smoking from an exit port at its tip. The monster, finally succumbing to its wounds, tried to balance itself on its great axe like some kind of crutch- but it failed, unable to keep its balance, and fell to the side, convulsing and twitching in its death.

Despite his slaying of a colossal beast, the hunter reacted with a degree of nonchalance that seemed vastly disproportionate to the feat. He merely holstered the weapon he was using, and tucked his shortsword into a sheath on his right calf, the ice-blue rune still glowing through the sheathing.

"Heard enough out of you." The hunter rumbled. Getting down on one knee to check on the pony that was slumped against the tree, her head buried in her hooves, her entire body trembling, the hunter tried his honest best to soothe her nerves. "Hey, little horsie, its over now. I got it."

The unicorn mare didn't reply to the hunter, keeping her head tucked low and refusing to look up at him, her ears forced against her skull. The hunter could understand- with the whole situation that had unfolded in the last thirty seconds, it was understandable for an innocent little cartoon horse to be terrified.

"Holy cow, Al! Ya' sure tanned his hide! Applejack exclaimed, running up to the hunter. A moment's breath passed before she quickly realized what the hunter was doing. "Rarity?!"

The unicorn's attention immediately shot up. "APPLEJACK!" She squealed, immediately leaping from her pathetic wallowing and all but swallowing the cowgirl pony in a desperate hug. "Oh my goodness, you have no idea how happy I am to hear your voice!"

"Rarity!" Came the voice of Rainbow Dash, flying over and tackling the two reconciling mares, rolling them into a big heap. The three girls all clung to one-another, sniffling and nuzzling into each-other's coats. The hunter smiled to himself, letting them keep that moment, while he pulled the crossbow from his shoulder. Stepping into the foot-pedal that arched out from the bow, the hunter grabbed the bowstring with both hands and cocked it back, before loading in another bolt, again marked with an hourglass shape at the end of it, between the fletchings. As he clicked the safety on, he turned to regard the ponies once more, who had finished with their reconciliations.

"Excuse me, Mr. Human?" Came the unicorn's voice, some manner of class restored from the pathetic sniveling that it was before. The hunter knelt down, shouldering his crossbow, indicating that he was listening. "May I know the name of my savior?"

The hunter straightened his back, his medallion loosing an idle shake. "The name is Almir of Astora, miss. Surprised you're not freaking out about how weird I look." The hunter rumbled, with a smile. "Of course not, darling! Why would I be so rude as to insult someone who risked his life to save mine simply by manner of appearances?"

"Uh, Al?" Rainbow Dash butt in, "I can get that proper introductions and whatever are in order, but can you two walk and talk? Three missing friends left to go, ya'know."

"Aye, she's right." The hunter conceded, "I've gotta keep an eye out, miss. I'm sure your friends could tell you anything you need to know- at least, what we've gathered so far. Just make sure you stick close."

The unicorn nodded, and the trio of ponies- along with their human companion- set off once more.

Another silent walk through the forest came to an end when the hunter took note of the forest's ever-constant darkness. It hit him, then- it was the middle of the night when he arrived in this world, and everything had only gotten darker. He checked his wristwatch- nearly nine hours had passed! Surely, dawn should have come, by now?

"Halt." The hunter rumbled. "Night works different here, it looks like. I think we need to stop, for now."

"Al's right." Backed Applejack, "We've been walkin' practically all day, and there ain't been a lick of sunshine."

"Celestia should have raised the sun, by now..." Rarity whispered to nobody in particular.

"That how it works in your world, ponies?" The hunter replied, "Because, everywhere I've been, the sun is part of a natural process. Either this world has no sun, or it's much bigger than any of the other worlds I've been on."

"What?" All three ponies said in unison. The hunter proceeded to explain to them the concept of a solar system, and the way days and nights worked. He explained the twenty-four-hour clock that he was used to on most worlds he had been on, and that only one world had anything different, settling in at a brutal twelve hours for a single day. That planet, however, was a tiny, icy ball of rock that was practically hell without the brimstone. The ponies seemed confused, but the hunter waved them off, simply telling them that there were no magical princesses in other worlds to handle the celestial cycles.

"I think we should settle in for the night, girls. At least, until daybreak, then we need to count how long a day lasts on this rock."

"But what about the rest of our friends? Twilight might stand a chance, but Pinkie Pie? I'm not even going to pretend that Fluttershy has a chance, out here..." Rainbow Dash argued.

"We'll last longer if we sleep. Look, I'll keep watch all night. I'm built like that. You three, you need to sleep, or you're going to end up passing out at the absolute worst possible time. Just... trust me on this, okay?"

The ponies looked to one another, and sternly nodded. "Alright. We trust you, sugarcube." Applejack confirmed. The hunter nodded to the ponies in turn, and began to snap dry branches off the neighboring trees. "I'm going to build a very small campfire and shred some grass for you girls to sleep in."

And so he did. The unicorn used her magic to assist the hunter with collection of materials, and Rainbow Dash worked with Applejack to collect standing deadwood in a nearby radius. The hunter noticed that the unicorn was working diligently to make the small grass bed seem more... homey. His inner survivalist wanted to scold her for wasting energy prettying-up a temporary resting position, but he resisted the urge. The little pony was clearly under a lot of stress. Best not add more to her load.

In a short time, the hunter had a fire roaring, and was on his knees in front of it. The ponies chatted among each other, trying to ease the tension that was ever-so-thick in the air. The hunter pushed a small grinding stone against the shortblade he used to slay the beast some time ago. The metal was engraved in glowing runes and glyphs, with black, jagged inscriptions running along the blade in a twisting pattern.

"Almir? What are you doing?" Miss Rarity began, sidling up to the flames. "Ah, simply honing my sword." The hunter replied, twirling his shortblade. "Her name is Angraen- meaning 'iron rain' in an old language. She was a gift from a friend in another world."

"Another world? So, I assume you're saying that you've experienced this before?"

"Somewhat."

Before the hunter could continue, a flash of pink caught his eye. With a swift twist of his head, his glowing eyes met with a blue gaze. The sheer suddenness of the sight caused the hunter to let out a yelp and fall backwards from his seated position, falling onto the unicorn he was speaking to in the same motion. "Oi! What the fuck!"

"Ooooops! Sorry, mister!" Responded an enormously bubbly voice, ludicrously out of place in a situation such as the one the hunter and his companions found themselves in. The hunter looked up to a pink pony, jabbing his shortblade into the ground. The pony was entirely pink, with her puffy mane and tail only being a slightly darker shade. There were three balloons on her flank, one yellow, two blue, which matched the shade of her eyes. "I didn't mean to spook you! I just noticed the fire in the woods and I figured that these weird things didn't like light because they were trying to avoid the torch I made and I thought that a bright light might keep them away until the sun comes up but the sun hasn't come up for a long time which had me worried but that's okay because I'm a patient little pony and then I noticed my friends but they were asleep except for you and Rarity so I figured that you must have been friendly because Rarity doesn't normally talk to-"

The pony's breathless rambling was cut off by a loud shriek in the woods. The hunter rolled off the unicorn, taking his shortblade with him, and looked beyond the new addition to the camp. The hunter's breath caught in his throat as he realized the sheer amount of eyes glaring at him from the edge of the fire's light. He focused his vision, taking in the sight of dozens of small, hunched creatures with massive fangs and glowing eyes.

"You're shitting." The hunter sighed. He looked over to the unicorn, who had just finished recuperating and shot him a glare, before realizing that the hunter had turned serious. "Is she shitting?" The hunter quizzed, pointing his runeblade at the pink pony, that was now skipping around her two sleeping friends, waking them up. "Everything has got to be shitting."

"Laaaanguaaage!~" Piped the pink mare, her friends rousing and realizing who she was. The hunter knew what he was looking at at the edge of the flames, however- creatures from a realm he barely survived, long before he had become the man he currently was. He sighed, flicking his blade into the dirt, and reaching over his right shoulder.

"You girls, stay here and keep the fire lit. It's going to be a long night."

The ponies were too consumed by happiness due to the sight of their friend to hear the hunter. However, as soon as he cleared the sword from its sheathe, he could tell by their exasperated gasps that their eyes were on him. Three and a half feet of gleaming silver, seemingly caught alight in a blue flame from the alien moon, sang a song of metal as the hunter pointed the blade at the assembly of ghastly beings in the darkness.

With a singular motion, the hunter stepped forward and slashed his way into the dark and out of the fire's safety, exposing himself to the photosensitive beings- taking a few heads with him. He worried not for the innocent eyes of the ponies that likely watched his dance- his eyes were adapted to the dark, so only he could see the carnage he was ready to unleash. All that the ponies would see would be gleaming silver gracefully dancing in the dark.

Though the small beings vastly outnumbered the hunter, his speed and bladecraft were overwhelming. The strange creatures rushed in in packs of two, three, even four at a time, only to have their heads roll, their bodies bisect, their limbs flail into the distance of the forest in the midst of the bloodblath. The hunter span and kicked and jumped and twirled, never letting a single beast get close enough to land a blow.

Finally, the last beast turned and fled, choosing to let out a wail of primal fear rather than face the hunter head-on, alone. The hunter felt a smirk of satisfaction creep across his features- before realizing exactly why the monster fled. He recalled his first encounter with these beasts- barely managing to slay all but one, who proceeded to retreat to its burrow, and return with overwhelming reinforcements. The hunter cursed, but it was too late- the beast was long gone.

"Ooooooh!" Came that same ludicrously bubbly voice from before. "That thing is cool!"

The hunter assumed the pony was referring to the bloodsoaked silver blade the hunter wielded. With a chuckle, he wiped it off on the bandages that wrapped his left forearm, sheathing it in a smooth motion. "Is that a sword? I've always wanted a sword! Granny Pie always said that I was too young and that even if I wasn't that swords were only a fairy tale and that even if I could get a sword she asked me how I would be able to hold it with hooves but I realized that I can hold a lot of other things with hooves but gra-"

Rarity plugged the pony's mouth with both of her hooves. "What she means to say is that her name is Pinkie Pie, and she is pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Bit of a motormouth, eh, kiddo?" The hunter chuckled. "My name's Al. Tell me, little horsie," The hunter got onto a knee, facing the pony at eye level, "Why are you so damn happy?"

"Why shouldn't I be?" The pony replied, sticking a hoof to her chest, seeming insulted by the question. "Well, you nearly got mauled by a metric titload of goulish nightmare monsters after losing your friends in a forest full of things that want to eat you."

"Oh! I learned to laugh at things like that!"

"Oh, no." Rainbow Dash started up, plugging her ears with her wings. Applejack said nothing, merely ducking underneath Rainbow's tail. Rarity cringed.

"When I was a little filly and the sun was going doooooown..." The pink mare began to sing, dancing, while musical instruments seemed to play from nowhere in particular.

"Is she fucking singing?" The hunter rumbled to the unicorn mare, casually leaning his elbow onto her back as if he had known her for ages. The unicorn didn't mind this action.

"The darkness and the shadows, they would always make me froooown..."

"Yes, she is."

"I'd hide under my pillow from what I thought I saw-"

The hunter simply gazed at the pony, sharing the same expression as Rarity. He knew that this night was only going to get longer.

Part 3

The only thing that kept the hunter's wits about him were his mutations. Though he could still feel genuine joy, his emotional capacity was so dulled that it took a very long time to anger him. This was handy, as the pink pony kept singing her song and dancing about the party, even while they traveled through the forest. In a way, the hunter saw this as an opportunity- her other two friends could recognize her voice, and it would certainly draw them faster than his own.

However, this would also draw unwanted attention. The hunter wouldn't have cared if he were back in the world he came from- he knew every beast that stalked the wilds, so it would be a true stretch to surprise him. This world, however, has its own bestiary, its own repertoire of filth and horror- if it even had that. For all he knew, he could be facing angry raping trees at any one moment, or mind-reading slug pirates, or something equally stupid.

"Hey, Al!" Came Applejack's hearty voice. "I reckon this might be a little rude, but can you tell us how you got so... weird?"

"She means your eyes, darling." Rarity quickly butt in, as if to hopefully save her friend the embarrassment of improper word placement. "Our friend Twilight has described humans to us from her books, but you don't quite match up to the description."

The hunter mulled the words over in his head, and sighed. "It's a long story. I'll tell it the next time we make camp."

"Can you at least tell us how you got so good at using those awesome swords?" Rainbow Dash suddenly piped up from her position above the party. Rarity joined in once again, "I agree. I could hardly see the reflection of the moon on your blade, considering how fast you were moving last night."

"Also, it'd be really nice to know why you carry two of them! I mean if you don't need one, I'd love to give one a few swings!" Pinkie Pie added, taking a break from her persistent song.

With a hearty chuckle, the hunter smiled. "Members of our order, we carry two swords for very good reason. Silver for monsters..." As he said so, the hunter startled the ponies by roughly pulling the steel bastard sword off of his back and holding it straight out in front of him, allowing the blade to gleam with the light. "...Steel for humans."

Before the hunter could say more, he stopped walking and quickly sheathed his sword, bringing his arm up in a fist. "Hold up, horsies. You feel that?"

"I don't feel nothin'!" Applejack replied, looking around confusedly, as Rainbow Dash landed near to her and Pinkie stopped her singing. "The pressure here is different. As if it's about to start thundering." The hunter continued, "There's no thunder, no lightning. But it's unmistakable."

Just as he said this, thunder cracked the sky, and an icy rain began to pour down. The hunter's medallion began hopping, the immense magical energy exciting the silver bauble. The hunter focused his hearing, even as the white unicorn Rarity began to complain about her hair getting wet. Bearing the mutant hearing and unparalleled senses of his order, the hunter could hear the sounds of a fearful struggle, incredibly close by.

Drawing silver, the hunter grunted to his charges, wordlessly ordering them to follow close- but not too close.

It had been roughly a full day since the young princess lost contact with most of her friends. However, she was not alone in her search for them- when she lost her companions, she had been holding eye contact with another, and whenever the event occurred that pulled everybody else away, she and her friend managed to stay together. She was sure her shy companion would have been utterly lost in this great, dark wood, if she were to have been displaced alone.

Though they were both winged, the girls were hesitant to fly. The princess had seen a great flying beast hunting the skies above. Even if the woods were teeming with all sorts of hostile wildlife, the princess was at least able to hide from them. There was no sign of the rest of their friends, but even so, they would keep trying to locate them.

The princess was a ludicrously powerful sorceress, but this place seemed to simply nullify most of her magicks. Diagnostic spells, teleportation, invisibility- it took incredible strain for her to even cast a light upon her surroundings. Even so, she was at peace. Her companion, though shy, was still comfortable around her friend of several years. She had a constant grace about her that could calm even the most terrifying beasts in her own lands.

This aspect did not extend to this great wood. There were things, here. They walked on two legs and carried heavy clubs and swords in their hands. They didn't even hesitate when it came to the girls- they attacked almost at once. Horrifying screams tore from their throats from behind rotten, dirty teeth, as they tore chunks of flesh from their own bodies. The girls only ever barely managed to get away from them.

The princess knew what they were. Humans- but these were far different than what she read about. They were not civilized folk who built machines of metal or spoke a language like her's. They were not an ancient race. They were little more than degenerative savages. Their sheer wrath seemed to have shaken her shy friend- and the girls had no chance to rest. Even if they scaled trees with their wings, the savages would bring them down with rocks and sticks. They had constantly been running, and were both at risk of being caught and killed, or worse.

As the princess and her friend rounded a tree, a savage quickly stepped out and swung hard, barely missing the ponies. Both of the girls backed up against another tree, as savages continued to appear all around them. The girls were obviously scared. The princess tried one last spell- struggling hard and building up her magic- before letting it all out in one massive, condensed blast. All she managed to do, however, was summon a thunderstorm. The effort of this action forced all of the energy from the girl, and she fell to her stomach.

The savages continued to advance, almost chuckling, at their cornered quarry. The girls clung to one another, wondering just how their life could have come to this point.

"WHAT THE SANDWICH FUCK IS THIS?" Came a loud, angry voice from beyond the tree line. This startled the girls and caught the attention of the savages, who halted their advance for a moment. The shy pony caught the sight of something catching the light of a lightning strike, advancing in the darkness.

One of the savages growled, deeply, and raised his spiked, cruel club, before letting out a ghastly, muddy roar. "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU SAY ABOUT ME, YOU LITTLE BITCH?!" Came the voice again. Suddenly, another humanoid appeared from the darkness of the treeline- for a moment the girls thought he was another savage. There were distinct differences, however- the glowing eyes, the gleaming sword, and the obvious lack of indecency. The savages, all as one, roared at this newcomer. The newcomer carefully reached behind him, sheathing the sword he carried-

Only to draw another. A savage quickly rushed him, laughing and wailing as he swung his weapon, aiming to crack the newcomer's skull in two. However, the newcomer only furthered himself from the other "humans" around him, by quickly sidestepping the attack and cleaving through the back of the madman's legs, causing him to fall over, howling in pain. The newcomer made eye contact with the little pony for the briefest of moments.

"Close your eyes."

-

The hunter swiftly finished off his attacker in brutal fashion as soon as the little pony complied to his demands. Taking stance, the hunter sniffed at the other reavers that had caught his attention. Taking a deep breath, the hunter continued screaming nonsense to goad the beastmen into attacking. "I WILL SHIT FURY ALL OVER YOU AND YOU WILL DROWN IN IT."

Three ran at once, and the hunter merely span around them. One threw himself off balance and collided with a tree. Another turned with the hunter and brought down a strike, which the hunter parried away with his sword. The staggering force of the sudden denial in attack dislocated the reaver's wrist, and the hunter exploited the weakness to brutally slice off the reaver's arm and kick him down. Barely managing to block another club aimed for the back of his head, the hunter had no time to swing his blade, and settled for smashing the pommel of his sword into the offending assailant's head.

A swift kick knocked him back, and the hunter turned to face the other three savages, including the one that had just finished making aggressive love to a tree with his skull. As the three surrounded the hunter's every angle, he grinned, and began to whirl around, blocking and parrying every attack that came his way. "FUCKING NORMIES, REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-" Howled the hunter, just as his parries became stiff and aggressive, throwing the savages back.

Lifting his sword high, he immediately finished a reaver off with a crushing blow to the skull, only to spin around and wholly decapitate another one. The last savage- crawling to his feet- began to run. The hunter focused his energy, and cast outward with his hand, sending out a telekinetic blast of energy that knocked the reaver onto his stomach. "YOU'RE FUCKIN' DEAD, KIDDO" The hunter screeched, stepping forward and lifting his blade over his shoulder.

SHINKT

"Almir? Can we come out now?"

"Aye."

Rarity's voice was like a flaming arrow in the darkness for the shy pony and her friend. Daring to open her eyes, fearing she would observe a sea of carnage and pain, she instead only found herself and her princess surrounded by the four friends they had spent their whole ordeal trying to find. The hunter- Almir, as the pony had figured his name was- leaned against a tree close by, grinding a small stone against the blade he used in the previous battle.

The shy pony exploded upward, gripping all of her friends in a colossal hug, which they were all too quick to return to the sweet girl. "Girls! You have no idea how happy I am to see you!"

"We feel the same, Fluttershy!" Came Pinkie's voice, bubbly as ever. "But, what's with Twilight? She seems spent!"

"Guessing she over-exerted herself. I can barely use my own magic in this place to just comb my mane!" Rarity replied. The shy pony- Fluttershy- looked over at the hunter. The hunter noticed her gaze- but guessing by her demeanor, if his cat eyes shifted over to acknowledge her the girl would probably explode. Instead, he kept his gaze focused on maintaining his blade. "Aye, I would guess the same, Rarity. But we can ponder that later- this storm isn't letting up, and the barometric pressure is taking a dive, so it's only going to get worse."

"Meaning...?" Rainbow Dash piped up.

"We need shelter. Quickly. Everybody's accounted for, so we can focus on surviving this place. I'll make something temporary so we can rest, but then we really have to go."

The hunter quickly assembled a waterproof and windproof survival fire. The wet conditions made his matches and lighter fail to work, however. With a sigh, the hunter simply snapped his fingers, casting a very small ball of flame from his hands and onto the dry kindling, setting alight the fuel. The ponies simply looked on in silence as the hunter worked, until he brought the fire to a roar. The four he traveled with were comfortable enough sitting near the hunter, but Fluttershy was still wary of the man who saved her life, and her princess- Twilight Sparkle- was still unconscious.

The hunter set himself down on his knees and opened up the pack at his belt, pulling out two small bottles. One was a small, glass jar filled with a lightly glowing white liquid, and the other was a corked bottle filled with a very obviously glowing cyan fluid. Before the hunter did anything, Rarity caught his attention.

"So, can all humans do magic?"

"No..." The hunter began, "I was trained specially in the use of very light magic tricks. There are six in total. My magic is not as powerful as what your sorceress friend here can apparently do, but when someone's got a sword in their free hand, they can be ludicrously effective- Not to mention that creativity is rewarding, for my spells are very versatile."

"What else can you do, other than flick fireballs out of your hands?" Rainbow Dash inquired. "Not that the fireballs aren't wickedly cool."

"Well, I can cast a shielding spell that can absorb and repel damage. There's a telekinetic blast, and a hypnosis hex that has drastically powerful and long-lasting aftereffects. I can lay down magical traps that shock the everlasting hell out of anything that gets too close, and one is more of a defense than a spell, since it lets me absorb magical damage instead of getting blasted by it."

"You said yer tricks rewarded creativity, right?" Applejack asked. "What'cha mean by that?"

The hunter pondered the inquiry for a moment, then smiled. With a quick flick of his wrist, a very light telekinetic force flipped the cowgirl pony's hat off her head, sending it flying over to the hunter, where it landed neatly upon his head. "H-hey!" the cowgirl laughed, before playfully headbutting the hunter in the shoulder. Another chuckle bounced forth from the hunter as he gently placed the hat on her head. "Ooh! Ooh! Me next! Me next!" Pinkie Pie pounced forth excitedly, trying to shake her tail- a valiant effort, considering it was soaked by the rain.

A light tap to the ground with his finger sent a small quake through the earth- and directly into the puddle the pony's face had been hovering over, splashing her even further. With a brief moment of surprise, the pony began giggling uncontrollably. The hunter noticed that Fluttershy was beginning to smile, ever so slightly. Looking over, he noticed a few overlarge fireflies buzzing about the forest, and he stared at them for the briefest moment before making a few gestures with his fingers. A slight flash of white light appeared from the hunter's hand, and his eyes seemed to glow all the brighter for the shortest second.

The ponies wondered what it was the hunter had done, until they noticed the fireflies- all flying in unison, and all carrying what seemed to be a flower crown. They lightly set the crown atop Fluttershy's head, and she squeaked in response, before looking up at the brilliantly glowing insects. A large, genuine smile edged across the pony's features as an idle hoof touched her flower crown. She cast a glance at the hunter, who had finally chosen to meet the pony's eyes- he detected no fear.

"Alright, come on, let's get moving."

The ponies stood and stretched, a couple of them shaking themselves free of the rainwater. The hunter quickly downed the two bottles he had brought out earlier- the white potion seemed to create a sense of hyperalertness, and the other made the hunter's glowing, amber eyes emit an even fiercer glow. The hunter was now fully in tune with the forest around him; he could hear much farther, and see in almost pitch blackness. Hoisting the unconscious princess over his shoulder, he scanned around, until his sights set on a mountain in the distance, unseen in the forest storm.

"There. About a quarter mile northeast. I'm guessing there may be a cave there we can huddle in, perhaps make into a homebase until we can sort things out."

"R-right behind you." Fluttershy finally spoke up, standing straight-backed with her friends. Perhaps this human truly was their salvation, despite his violent tendencies.

The cover from the rain, plus the hunter's enhanced senses, kept the party from meeting any interesting new friends along the way to the mountain. Indeed, the hunter's hunch was correct- there was a cave. The mouth was about ten to twelve feet wide, and the cave itself was virtually untouched, about fifty feet in depth, and twice as wide as the mouth. There was indeed a sense of apprehension among the party as they entered, especially the hunter- in his own world, these caves were never this clean.

"Alright, you girls get in there and start getting it ready. I'll build another fire and trap the entrance, then see about getting clean water for us to drink. Then, comes the matter of food..."

"Awh, man, you just had to say that..." Rainbow said, her stomach growling. This was met by the same result from the rest of her friends- even the unconscious Twilight. "Shouldn't be a problem. This forest is vast. We have to mark this cave, and out foraging grounds, when the time comes. For now, just get set up."

"I'll handle the fires, Almir." Rarity replied, with a regal bow of her head. "You have done enough for us in that regard. Just do whatever else you must- we can take it from here. Believe us."

The hunter nodded. At the cave's mouth, he began to carve small hourglass figures into the dirt and stones. As each hourglass was finished, it glowed an ethereal, violet color, and sparked slightly with static. As the hunter laid the traps along the mouth, he noticed a tiny trickle of rainwater moving along the rocks and into the mouth of the cave, where it gathered in a small puddle. The water was cool, and as the rocks were covered in fresh, green algae, it was filtered, as well.

That would solve the water problem. Now came the bedding. He began to voice a question with his companions, but they seemed to have already solved that issue- Applejack had rounded together several mosses and Rarity had magically sewn them together with plant fibers, making soft, living beds for everyone. "Hot damn, you girls are productive."

In no time at all, a basic camp had been set up by the party. Huddled close, in tenuous firelight, an uneasy companionship made stable. The hunter grilled the ponies on what it was they would eat in their own world- he, himself, could survive just fine off the flesh of any beasts he could hunt. The suggestion of a carnivorous companion made the ponies- especially Fluttershy- rather uneasy, but the hunter stressed that he would only consume uncontrollable beasts such as Rarity's pursuer, and only ever out of the pony's sight.

The ponies themselves preferred a diet of hay, fruits and flowers, things that were in great abundance in this domain of the damned. Pinkie Pie then presented several mushrooms she had picked, all found within the cave walls. Before the ponies could dig in, the hunter flicked a brief gout of fire. "Hold on a second," he began, "I know of these species. These are ludicrously toxic..." With that, the hunter picked away several of the mushrooms, tossing them in the fire, leaving only enough for each pony to take only a single bite. "Sorry, Pinkie. I hope you're not upset."

"Naaah!~" The pony bubbled, "It's better to be a little hungry than to eat something dangerous!"

Smart girl.

Maybe this won't take so long after all.

The ponies all settled in together, sleeping in one big pile. The hunter was still riding off his potion high, so he didn't have the urge to settle down. Instead, he emptied his pack to clear some room, and decided to go on an early foraging trip. Checking his traps once more, the hunter set off into the darkness, his eyes shining in the black.
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