The Hunt of the Nightmare

The chamber was quiet, the only noticeable things were the soft glow of a lantern and the creature sitting cross-legged next to it. Hidden near the entrance of the room was an invisible Princess Luna, not daring to make a sound and pretending to not have heard the words of the dream intruder as she tried to figure out how he discovered her presence.

"I know you heard me, stop hiding and face me" He exclaimed not bothering to look away from the lantern, staring idly at the small critters whom were telling him, through unknown means, any news from other possible preys in other nightmares.

'Let's try a peaceful approach, with luck I might coerce him into leaving the Dreamscape' Luna thought, turning off her invisibility spell she revealed her form to the intruder. Opting to use her old manner of speech, sans Royal Canterlot Voice, she introduced herself. "Greetings creature, We are Princess Luna, Diarch of the Moon and guardian of dreams of Equestria. We request thou to give us any information of thy activities in this restricted plane, if thou please".

"Oh... So the messengers were right," he said standing up and turning his masked face to the alicorn "someone was following me during this hunt. Excuse me if I don't give you my name, for I have forgotten it, but you can call me Hunter since that is how they've been calling me." He finished, bowing his head lightly.

"Very well, Hunter" she walked towards the source of light "now tell us, how didst thou know We wouldn't assault thee?"

"Ah-ah-ah, not so fast Princess." He raised his arm showing her his palm, "if you want to interrogate me, then I'll better get some answers of my own." He waited a moment, when the princess nodded he continued. "Now, do you have any relation between the arcane forces which taint these dreams?"

"Are thou acussing us of this nightmare?!" She replied offended, "We can assure thee We didst not make these horrors, our purpose is to prevent them." She stomped a hoof "What part of 'Guardian of dreams' thou didst not understand?"

"Alright, alright, by the Great Ones please calm down." Hunter said, "I only said that because there are not many arcane users in this plane. And I understand perfectly your title." He thought for a second and added "It's my turn again".

"What?"

"You asked me about me not understanding your title, now I have another free question. So if you please wait for me to finish speaking, I can begin my inquires" Luna shot him a glare, clearly not amused. "...Or you could drop the whole royal jargon and ask your question. I' can't stop relating it to the Vileblood Queen" Hunter shuddered.

"Fine, just know that I wont tolerate that childish attitude. My biggest concern right now is this; what are you?" She asked genuinely curious, the whole idea of meeting another species was very exciting, true, but it could possibly come up with dire political, or scientific, outcomes.

"No beating around the bush, eh?" He sat again in front of the lantern and motioned Luna to sit down. The messengers were looking at the princess and then back at Hunter, their curiousity peaked at the sight of the same visitor of a few hours ago. "What I am is called 'human' and I'm the only specimen in the world, I think. My turn, why were you following me?"

"Last night, I found this thing" she pointed the lantern "during my dream watch before I woke up. My sister and I agreed to find the source of this device and learn who was using it, imagine my surprise when I discovered a this monster of a nightmare I can't even name."

"I know how to call it, this is not the first Night Terror I have hunted." He added, "These have been popping up around twice a week as far as I know, this one in particular wasn't very strong, fortunately."

"Why are you here, in these dreams when you could just live your life peacefully?" She asked, eyeing the creatures at the base of the lantern.

"Because I don't have an option, the messengers come every night in which a hunt must be done and they come to me when I sleep. They say it's because I haven't fulfilled my part of the contract." Luna's ears perked up at the mention of a contract. Magical contracts bind the souls both individuals involved in the deal and were deemed illegal even before her banishment. If one of the implicated doesn't do whatever they agreed to, they were inmediatly sent to Tartarus for an indefinite amount of time or they were forced to any requirements were specified in the contract as a failsafe. "Right now, there's something that has been itching my mind ever since we started this conversation, if you are the guardian of dreams, what were you doing all this time?"

"That is an easy question, my duty requires me to watch over the dreams of the ponies of Equestria and only them. Other countries don't seem to be very kind toward somepony who can see what happens in the minds of subjects of other species, they think it's something like spying but I know more than that. Say... What are the messeengers?, you have mentioned them a few times and I'm somewhat curious about them."

"Oh, they are the messengers," He said, motioning to the small critters surging from the base of the lantern as they waved at Luna's direction "Yes, they don't look very impressive, but they hold a lot of secrets and can establish comunication with any living thing with arcane knowledge, no matter how little it is." He got up and rested his hand on the lamp, "now I must go, I don't have anything else to do except for getting some sleep. It was a pleasure meeting you."

"Wait, I have more questions. Where did you come from?, what are you fighting for?, were did you get your weapons?, what did the contract bind you to?... And who is this Vileblood Queen?" She urged as she saw Hunter's form slowly becoming dust in a mass of light.

"Well, you will have to ask the messengers to arrange a meeting in a few hours, it will be daytime for me but I think a nap would do me some good." He finished his transformation and flowed into the lamp, leaving a dumbfounded Luna and a bunch of vermins in an emty room.

"I will come back here at midnight, tell him to come here unarmed. Now I must go back with my sister and explain her what I have learned today." She lit up her horn and rested her hoof in the lamp the same way as Hunter. Instead of appearance of dust and light, the soft glow of her horn enveloped her completely.

A few seconds before her spell was finished, a mish-mash of voices spoke in her mind 'Good bye, Princess Luna, and safe travel' She glanced down at the messengers and nodded once.

----------------------------------------ooo----------------------------------------

It was around 3 o'clock in the afternoon when Princess Celestia got back to the castle, after her last assignment at the new orphanage. Her former student has yet to give her a response to her letter this morning and her sister was still 'sleeping' in her bedroom. Today's events have taken a toll on her composure, so naturally she settled on having some tea to alleviate her stress.

Once she was in front of her room, she addressed her guards to not disturb her unless Luna sent somepony to fetch her. Her room was rather simple compared to the extravagant chambers of a noble; her bed occupied most of the room and bookshelves were aligned along the walls, leaving a space for the light of her sun to filter through a window and letting her take a view of Canterlot as her ponies were out and about, enjoying their lives in a blissful obliviousness of the possible repercussions of her sister's discovery.

"Maybe I'm just thinking about it too much." She mused, "Perhaps a distraction can help kill some time." She levitated a random book from a shelf, using a bookmark she left the last time she read it.

Almost half an hour later, a knock on the door brought her attention to the voice of a servant "Her majesty? Princess Luna is asking for your presence in the dining room."

"Very well, tell her I'm on my way." Celestia replied, she set her book back in the same place she chose it from. Then she went to the dining room where she found her sister ravenously eating some daffodil salad and a few loafs of garlic bread. 'Of course, she hasn't eat in all day'. She approached Luna and sat next to her. "Hello, sister, how did everything go?"

Luna stopped massacring her meal and turned to her sister, "It went better than I expected, I found out someone is taking care of my duties on the other side of the world"

"How so? I though only us could enter dreams without disturbing them" Celestia asked concerned.

"That's the thing, he is not getting inside normal dreams, he only works with what he called Night Terrors."

"Night Terrors? , what are you talking about?" She said, growing ansious with the course of this conversation.

"Do you remember that nightmare?, the one She came from?" Luna almost whispered, not wanting to remember the first time she found that kind of dream. "He is fighting them, he is bound to a magical contract and he is called each time one appears."

"Did he tell you his name?, or anything else we could recognize him with?"

"His name is Hunter, as far as he knows, and he told me his species. He is a human, a bipedal creature with ape-like features, not too different from minotaurs. Also he is strong enough to wield two weapons at the same time without any hindrance."

"So I take it you have already seen him in action, right?" Celestia wondered, curious about the ability of the human. If what her sister has told her was true, then Hunter could be considered very dangerous if he decided to turn against Equestria, not as bad as to cause the fall of her kingdom, but it was a risk she didn't want to run.

"Yes, he... He took down a basilisk single-handedly. He somehow managed to pierce through the skull of the beast with a hand after he stunned with what appeared to be a miniature cannon." Luna responded, wishing to have asked about it when she talked to him. That kind of technology could be very useful for Equestria if war where to happen, heavens forbid.

When she heard no answer nor question form her sister, Luna turned to see Celestia with a dombfounded expression on her face, her jaw was loose, her gaze was locked on something a thousand yards away, one of her eyes was giving off a tick every few seconds and her wings were limp on the ground. Clearly a sign of hearing something she hasn't thought possible for a long time.

"You know, Luna..." Said Celestia, once she recovered the ability of speech. "The first time I've been this shocked was when I discovered you were coming back from your banishment, Starswirl had to throw me an ice bucket to snap me out of it." she chuckled quietly. "Is he willing to exchange more information?"

"Yes, he is. We agreed to meet at midnight tonight, do you have anything you want me to ask him about?"

"Apart from how he came here and what the contract he signed is about?, none that I can think of in the moment. By the way, I asked Twilight to give me some insight about Hunter."

"Did you get any response from her?"

"Not yet, but knowing her she is probably confirming what information she has before sending me her opinion this evening." Celestia shrugged.

"Very well, now with that issue settled, would you like to join me while I eat?" Luna asked, giving Celestia a piece of bread which she merrily accepted.

"Of course Lulu, would you like some cake for dessert?, I know I do." Replied Celestia, nibbling on the bread.

----------------------------------------ooo----------------------------------------

Later that day, nearing the change of day into night, a very tired Spike got home at the crystaline castle were she saw Twilight Sparkle looking at a scroll held in her hooves, a contemplative expression on her face. She rose her look and saw him, recalling their conversation this morning, she cleared her throat and spoke.

"Spike, I'll be straightforward with you, mostly because you don't like me treating you like a baby anymore." She let out a shaky breath and continued, "Do you remember our trip to that other dimension with the humans?"

"Yes, I do, Twilight." He replied, not sure as to where this conversation was going. "What does it has to do with Princess Celestia's letter?"

"Well, the thing is that Princess Luna has found a human during her dream watch. We know is impossible for a human to use magic." Twilight clarified.

"So are you gonna warn the princesses about it?" Spike reasoned, getting close to the distraught alicorn.

"Yes, this is a serious matter that must be treated with the utmost care. This can mean other dimensions can merge with this one and that could change life as we know it, and the only way we can determine how this is going to end is to know the intentions of the human in the Dreamscape. We might as well ask for some information in the background of the subject, maybe he is hostile and be prone to attack whenever they feel intimidated or they can be scared and alone or another number of variables that could define their nature."

"Calm down, Twilight, you'd better not start making mountains out of a molehill. Just remember the Smarty Pants incident and you went overboard with not having a report ready for that week." He remided her, then he changed the subject. "So, do you have the letter ready?" He asked, pointing at the scroll in her hooves.

"Yes, Spike, it's already written and triple checked, you know what to do." She gave him the scroll, then the young drake inhaled deeply and exhaled a puff of green flames that dissolved the papyrus into smoke that went flying through the nearest window in course to Canterlot.

Once this task was fulfilled, he asked Twilight "So... Can we tell our friends about this issue?"

"I asked the same thing in the letter, if she approves, then we can tell everypony as soon as possible." She said, "Now, with that out of the way, would you like to cook us some dinner or do you want us to eat outside?" She asked, after this stressful day, she forgot to eat lunch and her little assistant was always more than willing to get something to eat, he was growing up after all.

----------------------------------------ooo----------------------------------------

The sun was lowered and a full moon rose from the horizon. The colors of the sky changing into a range of reddish hues and settling in a dark blue. Stars slowly blinking into existence, making company to the moon and aiding it light the night sky. Once the celestial princesses finished their commitment with the world, a puff of smoke flew from the balcony and transfromed into a scroll with a purple ribbon which was catched by a golden magical aura.

"It seems Princess Twilight has finally sent me an answer, sister." Celestia said unrolling the letter and proceeding to read its contents. When she finished reading she addressed her sister. "Luna, Twilight appears to be worried with the emergence of a non magical species in the Dreamscape. She advises you to be careful and try to know the origins of Hunter, and I agree with letting her friends know and be prepared for whatever emergency may come."

"That is not to much different from what we discussed this noon, sister. Is there another thing I need to take into account?" Luna asked.

"No, pretty much everything is about getting to know him before jumping to conclusions. She says humans have a very warlike history and can be devious, so I sugest you to not believe completely everything he tells you." Without warning Luna was enveloped in a hug by her older sister, which she reciprocated happilly, "I can't stress this enough, your safety comes first, I don't want to lose you because of a mistake or being reckless."

"Don't worry, sister. I shall return safe and sound."

"Very well, I trust you. Now you better get ready to begin night court. I want to get some sleep myself."