Princess Luna, on the bed once again, pondered for a few minutes about the strange creature that somehow managed to intrude the only place that could be accessed by the most powerful magical users in the world, ‘Maybe it was a bald minotaur… but it didn’t have horns, no… or it might have been a figment of my imagination, but that would mean I’ve lost my mind and-’ Shaking her head and leaving those baseless thoughts and took a deep breath.

“Keep it together, no one wants another princess susceptible to mental breakdowns” She smiled at the memory of the day when her sister told her about the Smarty Pants incident. “Maybe it’s a reasonable creature”

Deciding to not stall her search for the intruder, she lit up her horn and repeated the spell which allowed her to go to the Dreamscape, trying to reach the exact same place she was when she woke up. Halfway through the casting another doubt made itself present in her mind, breaking her concentration.

“I just hope it doesn’t relates to her”

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Dear Princess Twilight

First of all, how have you been? I hope you are fine regarding your new royal status, I know it can be overwhelming from time to time, but it’s rewarding in its own way.

Anyway, I’m writing to you because something happened last night, Luna found a strange creature during her night watch on the dreams of our subjects and I need you to do some research on the subject of bipedal creatures. From what little information my sister gathered about last night’s intruder, it appears to be “a bald minotaur without horns” and “used a lot of clothing”. And from your story you told us of when you met Sunset Shimmer on the other side of Starswirl’s mirror, I know I can trust with your help in this situation.

Before you start running around your castle and jump into conclusions, I need you to be discreet about this, this is a top secret and has the possibility to raise panic if word gets out about an unknown being capable of dream walking.

Sincerely, Princess Celestia

P.S. Send Spike and the girls my greetings.

Once she finished writing her letter she put down the scroll on her desk, staring at it as if it would suddenly grow legs and walk out of the room. Although the mental image amused her, she knew that sending this letter would probably drag her former student into this potential mess. ‘Twilight needs some rest after all, she has been working non-stop ever since her ascension’.

Sighing softly, Princess Celestia rolled up the scroll, used a red ribbon to secure it and burnt it, sending to a certain little dragon in Ponyville.

“I just hope everything is alright” she said, looking as the smoke of the scroll flew through a nearby window. She allowed herself to get distracted enough to not notice a servant entering her room, said servant cleared her throat and spoke.

“Excuse me, Princess Celestia, it’s time to begin today’s court” the servant, Right Time, said as she watched the princess look at a window with an unreadable expression.

“Uh? Oh, thank you, ms. Time, I shall arrive shortly to the throne room” She replied with a kind smile. “Is there anything else on today’s schedule?”

The young mare pulled out a small piece of parchment from her uniform and looked at the next appointment “Uhh, let’s see… There’s an inauguration of a new orphanage on Clover avenue at two o’clock. Other than that, you have a free day.”

Celestia cheered a little on the inside “Very well, let’s begin Day court as soon as possible”

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Luna opened her eyes and found herself standing in the middle of nowhere, all she could see in front of her was an inky darkness with a few dots of white scattered across considerable gaps between them. At least it was until she turned her head approximately 63 degrees to the right, and what she saw made her jaw drop.

In front of her was an ocean of lights that made the dreams of Equestria look like a puddle, dreams of every sentient being on the other side of the world were sparkling, twinkling and shining on every color a dream could have. Thankfully, most of them were white, pink and a lucky few were golden ones.

"How in the world did I miss this?!" She exclaimed, fortunately no one was near to hear the Canterlot royal voice used by the diarch. "This is bad, this is very bad..." 'Or is it good? I mean, I'm glad every other living being still have good dreams. However, the great expanse of dreams wasn't what she came for and then she remembered she had to begin searching the strange object she found this morning.

After a few minutes of search with little to no success, she discovered something that sent a shiver down her spine, it was something she thought she would never see again in her nightmares.

Whereas a golden star was a symbol of hope and happiness, there was another color embodying the opposite. Hovering before her was a big red star, bathing everything within its reach in an eerie bloody hue. Huddled around it, a fair share of dreams were showing a bright, pulsing purple glow and for Luna they seemed to shake as if trying to escape from the invisible binds that tied them to the red monstrosity.

This dream, if it could be called 'dream', was an abhorrent mass of fear and anger, no matter how many times she tried to come up with a name for this thing, nothing could describe how sickenened it made her feel the last time she entered one, a little more a thousand years ago. This kind of manifestations were extremely dangerous and had to be dealed with inmediatly, otherwise the dreamer would be trapped in a coma or have brain death.

Steeling her nerves, she took a deep breath and muttered a prayer to her mother before jumping into the abomination, completely ignoring the lantern that lay next to the behemoth, giving a soft and calming glow.

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Princess Twilight Sparkle was taking breakfast with her little brother and assistant Spike, finally enjoying a quiet morning without dealing with world-threatening villains and long forgotten evils. She had a bowl of oats and milk while Spike idly munched on a emerald. No words had to be said as they savored both their meals and the peace of knowing they had nothing else to do but their normal schedules for today.

"You know, Spike" She said setting down her spoon, "I've been thinking on visiting mom and dad, would you like to come with me?" She looked expectantly at the young dragon.

"Really? That's awesome, when do we-" He was interrupted by a loud belch and a puff of green fire expelling from his maw. Soon enough, the smoke gave way to a scroll of the likes Twilight has grown to know very well. "Huh, I wonder what does Celestia wants to talk about" He thought aloud as he handed the letter to Twilight, who held it in her magical grasp as she unrolled the parchment.

"Ok, let's see... Dear Princess Twilight... last night... Oh no, nononononononononothisisverybadveryveryvery-" She stopped reading and took a deep breath, counted to ten and exhaled. Once the little exersice was over, she finished reading the letter. She looked up form the parchment to see her assistant with a worried expression.

"What is it Twilight?"

"Celestia says 'Hi' and wants to know how have we been" She lied, hopefully Spike wouldn't take notice of her strained smile and forced cheerfulness in her voice.

"Twilight, please tell me what happened" Apparently, the little drake wasn't fooled and decided to press the issue. "I can tell you're lying, what did Princess Celestia tell you?" He asked, trying to sound stern.

"Spike, believe me when I tell you I don't think telling anypony about this is a good idea." She paused for a few seconds carefully choosing her next words. "Look, I have to write a letter and once I finish you will send it to Celestia and then you can go to the boutique and help Rarity. I promise we'll talk when you come back."

"Pinkie promise?"

"Pinkie promise"

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She blinked repeatedly, trying to focus her eyes on the new environment where she found herself in. The first word that came up to her mind to describe this place was: Flooded.

Her surroundings consisted in a large hall with, what she suspected it to be, a wooden floor swamped by at least half a foot of murky water. The few furniture she found was mostly destroyed, for exception of a small desk and an armchair that rested near a corner of the room. In front of her was a flight of stairs which led to a huge wooden door, already open. Glancing back to the rest of the hall she noticed there wasn't another way out but the the ominous door, where the water was coming from with no signs of stopping anytime soon.

Before she could get near the door, a pungent odor assaulted her nostrils making her to stop where she stood and thought about how convenient it was for her to not had breakfast this morning. She took a minute to calm down her twisting stomach and peered down at the color of the water, confirming her suspicions at the sight of a mix between crimson and pieces of flesh floating near the door. Luna finally got to the top of the staircase, ' It seemed to last forever' and went throught the door that led to a long aisle, to the right were paintings of what she assumed to be griffins, blurred and some of them showed scratches, holes and cuts. And to her left were pieces of rubble that fell from the cieling, which had leaks where the water was coming from, and some small holes and scratches that matched the ones on the pictures, some of the weaker and eroded bricks were broken and others were out of place, letting moonlight come from outside.

None of this details mattered to the princess, because she set her gaze upon the the most noticeable thing, or in this case being, in the hallway. The intruder.

This time, instead of being blurred by dust nor weird lights, she could see the details in its basic features. It was tall, a little taller than her, but not enough to reach the tip of her sister's horn. It was slim, a clear sign of being capable of atheltic feats without tiring easily. It wore a cap with a wide brim with a mask that hid its face, not that she could see it because she was seeing the creature from behind and with a respectful distance. All she could see from the garb it wore was a black and tattered cape and a big and metallic sword sheath strapped to his back, now that she payed attention to its chest area, she could guess the creature was a he, of course, if the creature was somewhat related to minotaurs. His forearms were covered in brass detailed with complex engravings.

Now that her attention was on the creature's arms, she saw a different kind of weapon than the last time she saw him. Instead of a saw, this time he was holding a long silver sword not very different from the ones the royal guard used to parades and ceremonies, No, this sword is very different, this blade has tasted more blood than the royal arsenal she thought grimly. And in the other hand he held an odd, hollowed metal club with a wooden handle.

As if having heard her thoughts, the intruder turned his head only to see an empty corridor, he truned his gaze forwards and kept his way into the flooded hallway. Completely ignoring the now invisible alicorn who was set on following his every step, having reached a turn in his path he walked slowly to the corner, peering slowly to not attract any unwanted attention, making sure he was the only living thing in the area, he kept moving forward and after a few minutes of hearing only the splashing of footsteps on the dirty water he found it. A tall wall of thick fog was acting as a gateway, replacing the pieces of broken double doors laying on the floor.

"Got'cha" He said to no one as he detected the source of the nightmare, the construct that corrupted this dream, a boss presence. "Let's see who is causing this mess" He added as he breached the fog with his hand, slowly entering the ceast's domain.

From her position, Luna had to struggle to keep her jaw from dropping as she saw the behemoth of a snake whom was curled tightly around a central pillar in the middle of the ridiculously spacious chamber. When she was a filly she heard stories about the basilisks, the biggest serpents on the face of Equis, they were said to be able to kill with direct eye contact and had scales so hard that could rival dragons', fortunately they were driven to extinction while she was in the moon, or so she was said by her sister. But there was something off about this beast, namely, the flowing dark smoke coming from the nostrils and maw of the reptile

Before she could muse in this new development, a loud hiss brought her attention back to the beggining of a battle that didn't look very promising for the intruder. With a speed that defied the size of the serpent, the basilisk almost flew from one pillar to another, the pillars were placed in two rows of three on each side of the chamber with a seventh in the middle of the room, so the beast could flank the smaller creature from several angles.

The unfortunate bipedal creature spent the first minutes of the fight skipping and side-stepping the vicious attacks of the beast, patiently waiting for an opportunity to strike as he dodged the relentless strikes and the flooded floor wasn't helping. Soon enough, he found a pattern in which he could make use of the length and simplicity of his enemy's assaults.

The basilisk made another lunge at the intruder with its maw wide open ready to swallow the smaller creature. Luna closed her eyes and began focusing on a spell that could help the intruder without making known her presence, but there wasn't enough time for her to try a cloaked enchantment. Suddenly, a loud bang echoed across the chamber, snapping her out of her spellcasting and she returned her gaze to the battle, and she looked at an impressive sight.

The serpent was writhing on the dank floor, a new bloody hole was etched on its left eye. Then the intruder walked slowly to the basilisk, his hollowed club was expelling a small trail of white smoke and sheathed his sword leaving his right arm free.
Once he was right in front of the basilisk's gaping maw, he reeled back and punched right throught its palate, clearly reaching the behemoth's brain, and then he ripped whatever flesh he was holding within the beast as it stopped writhing and became still.

This prey was slaughtered and silence hung in the chamber. It didn't last long as a lantern emerged from the ground and the small pale beings appeared from the base of it. They seemed happy, applauding and cheering silently at the victor and he let out a small chuckle at their antics.

Without tearing his eyes from the light, he said aloud "You can come out now, there's no need to keep stalking me"

Author's Note

So here's the second chapter, I'm actually impressed this still hasn't downvotes (totally not jinxing it) I'd like to thank all of you for taking your time to read this. One thing I would like to make clear is that english is not my first language, so if you could point out what places need to be fixed, please tell me.

On a side note, the attire of the hunter is the 'old hunter set'. Why? because it's my favorite set from the dlc.