Chapters The Hunt of the Nightmare
The moon rose high in the air and the night began once more. The bright light of the Sun slowly diming for the gentle glow of the moon and the stars to illuminate the darkening sky of Equestria. A kingdom inhabitated by ponies, there were four races with unique traits that made each one of them a valuable citizen, for example: Earth ponies are stronger and more resilient than the other races due to the magic that was stored within their bodies. Unicorns were easily distiguishable by the horn protruding from their heads and hability to use magic actively in a great number of awespiring feats. The pegasi have the ability to fly and manipulate clouds and, to some extent, the wind using their wings. Lastly, but definitely not the less important, the alicorns; there are only four, all of them share the traits of the other races combined and are very powerful in magic, strength, and political position, for they are the princesses and they make the necessary decisions in order to keep the kingdom up and running.
Talking about the princesses, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia were together in a balcony where they manipulated the moon and the sun, marking the beginning of a new night and the start of night court for Princess Luna to mediate the problems of the townsfolk and nobles of Canterlot, capital of Equestria. Lately the night court was getting less and less busy, giving the moon princess more time for her to guard the dreams of her little ponies, even if she liked this part of her job, she couldn't help but wonder if her subjects were still afraid of her becoming Nightmare Moon and subsequent banishment to the moon for a thousand years, then coming back two years ago and being blasted to with the Elements of Harmony. During her brief recolection of toughts she barely noticed her sister talking to her, clearly showing concern on her normally stoic demeanor.
"We- I'm sorry sister, what were you talking about?" She asked, this time paying attention to what Celestia had to say.
"I asked you if you were thinking about the lack of visits during night court", Celestia replied, after hearing no response, she added "Lulu, please tell me what's wrong"
"Nothing's wrong dear sister, it's just..." she let out a sigh "Does it ever gets easier? I mean, there must be a way for our subjects to stop fearing me, every night is the same thing, waiting for a few hours with nopony to talk to except for the janitor that ocasionally sweeps the throne room." She loked down at her hooves. Then she felt the warm embrace of her older sister's wing drapping around her barrel, smiling ever so slightly, she raised her head so she could see the reassuring smile Celestia was giving her.
"Don't worry about it, perhaps our ponies are not used to you, maybe beacuse they think you're a little outdated with more recent proccedures to deal with an affair, but we know better. How about this, I know how much you like to dream walk and I could take care of the court tonight so-" After hearing this, Luna's ears perked up and faster than one could say 'moon cake' she tackled Celestia, she staggered a little before righting herself and returning the unexpected, but welcomed hug.
"Thank you so much 'Tia, I will take my leave and start tonight's round" Before Celestia could reply, she was already heading back to her cuarters were she could start her Dream Walking spell, one that she has perfected over the centuries and only her and her sister were able to perform with a little more than a thought and a bit of magic, or at least a bit by her standards.
Once inside her room, she unceremoniously flopped on the bed and made herself comfortable, there were times were she would wake up to a sore neck due to sleeping in a wrong position. Then she lit up her horn as a blue aura started to surround her body and her mind started to wander trough the dreamscape quickly finding herself floating ina an endless space filled as far as she could see with little stars, each one of them representing a dream of a ponythat slept peacefully in the cosiness of their beds, knowing that they were safe under the glow of the moon.
She knew very well that the color of a star would tell her the state of the dream, the gentle white glow meant that it was a good dream, the dim yellow ones were memories of the same day or even a few decades, be it good or bad, a memory should never be bothered unless it was getting out of control. Pink colored stars were those of fantasies of lovers, she had learned by the hard way to never tamper with Princess Cadance's territory. Blue ones stood for sad dreams, worries and stress surfacing to disturb a dream. Purple ones were nightmares, she cringed at the mention of that name, some of them were silly, others were downright frightening, so it was her task to dive in the purple stars in hope to change them into pleasant dreams that could be remembered with fondness instead of fear. Lastly, the rarest and most favourite of all the stars she could find in the Dreamscape: Golden stars, not only beacuse of the unusual color, it was the brightness that washed over the dreams surrounding it, making her job easier.
She discovered long ago that those golden dreams were of those of foals that just recieved their cutie mark, not only they were impressive, they also served as beacons of hope instantly making every dream that was lucky enough to be near them one of the happiest dreams a pony could have.
What most ponies in Equestria didn't know, was that she took inspiration on the dreams and hopes of every sleeping creature to make her starry night an unparalled show which could last forever, of course, sans daytime. It was beacuse of this that she took pride on fulfilling her duty with the very thing she valued the most in the world, besides her sister.
A funny thing about the Dreamscape, time seemed to work almost at her will, she could spend days inside it and then she just would wake up only a few minutes before the dawn, but the only thing she couldn't do was to go back. So she exploited this advantage to its limit. Fortunately there little to no purple stars, so she spent the night doing one of her favorite activities, playing with the foals in their dreams, they seemed to have an endless well of ideas to create fantasies so awespiring, breathtaking or just filled with silly funwhich can only be originated by an 8 year old filly.
"A castle made out of cake, I have to keep that a secret from 'Tia" She chuckled at the mental picture of her sister diving and diggin her way trough chocolate flavored walls just to get to the throne room, or any room for that matter. Then she saw something that stopped her train of thought, a small, odd colored stray star that looked alone, so she decided to take a closer look.
What she disovered upon closer inspection made her feel uneasy, first of all, this was clearly not a star, not even a dream. This was somekind of lantern emmiting a dim white light with a bluish hue, it was suspended by a frail curved wooden stick and filled the surrounding area with a brand new kind of magic, very similar to her dream walking spell, but it felt... wrong. Not only it was the first material object found in the Dreamscape that didn't belonged to it. Unsure of what to do, she decided to touch it, nothing happened, feeling a little bolder, she lit up her horn and waited for some sort of signature which could show her who it belonged to.
...
"Nothing" She whispered to herself, "this is weird, very weird indeed" inspecting the strange item from ever angle. "How did I miss this?, this shouldn't even be here in the first place". And so she spent a few minutes, or were hours? trying to figure out how and who could have done this, let alone in her domain, her personal haven where she could just shut down the plane of reality.
All of sudden, the stars began to wink out of existence, actually they were just turning off, simbolizing the time for her subjects to wake up and reminded her of her duty with the moon. "Oh no, I'm late!" she exclaimed, but no one could hear her. Just as she was channeling energy into her horn, a strong light invaded her peripheral vision, interrupting her focus. She turned to see where the light was coming from and gasped, the lamp was lighting up, the soft glow quickly becoming a blinding light, the floor underneath the lamp started to bubble and she almost shrieked at the sight of small, pale and frail creatures with facial features that seemed sick and twisted beyond recognition. But what caught her attention was the dust, a cloud of thick, shining, shite dust flowed out of the light and condensed to create a silhouette of a bipedal creature. She was so enraptured with the whole show that she didn't noticed a tugging sensation.
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Princess Celestia was not a happy princess, today she had to to raise the sun and lower the moon alone beacuse her sister didn't showed up , she wasn't angry with Luna, far from it, it was more concerned by last night conversation and today abscense.
After a few seconds of concentration, Luna awoke with a gasp so hard a certain pink pony would be proud of it.
"Good morning dear sister, can you please tell me what kept you stuck in bed?" Celestia asked while Luna stretched her forehooves and yawned in an unladylike manner.
"Ugh... wuzzat?..." A few seconds passed before the mental cobwebs were cleared off of her thoughts "Good morning 'Tia, I'm afraid something dire has happened in the Dreamscape" She said in an alarmed tone.
"What are you talking about sister?" After all, only they knew how to access that realm "What happened last night?"
"I found a strange lantern far away from the dreams of our subjects, I've never seen something like that before" After a short pause, she continued, "but that is not the worst thing, apparently it was used by some sort of unknown creature of a species I haven't seen in my life."
The mention of the creature caught Celestia's attention "And what manner of creature are we talking about?"
"I don't know, it seemed like a minotaur but way less bulky and didn't have any horns or fur, the only features I could make of was some kind of saw with an odd handle in its right claw or paw or wathever it used to hold thing with. And it used a lot of black clothing of some thick fabric." She explained Besides I could have gotten more information if you wouldn't wake me up so rudely She tought. "But whatever creature I found in the Dreamscape, it is still there."
"It seems like it, Luna, I need you to go back there and find a way to know what kind of creature is and what does it wants with the Dreamscape, in the meantime I will task Princess Twilight to gather information to find something that matches with the description of this creature" Celestia turned back and started to walk to the door, after a few steps she stopped and turned her head back to her sister "One more thing, please, be careful and don't run unnecesary risks Lulu"
"Worry not sister, you can count on me"
With nothing else to say, Princess Luna fell back to bed and began her search of the unknown intruder.
The Hunt of the Nightmare
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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."
The Hunt of the Nightmare
The sun slowly rose up from the mountainside of Ashen Nest, a small village located near the capital of the griffin kingdom. This little town was known as a trading point between ponies, griffin, minotaurs, diamond dogs and the occasional young dragon could buy and sell wares on even grounds. Even though this community was in griffin territory, it also had a strong variety of species that lived together due to the considerable importance of the economical relations between nations. Of course, the multiculturalism wasn't as completely peaceful as one might think, thankfully the local guards were always monitoring the crowd that rose as soon as the day began and dwindled gradually on the course of the afternoon.
In order to introduce an air of trust to the different people that went to and fro in the marketplace, the local wardens hailed from almost every country in the world. Most of the guards were hired only if they covered a certain amount of years of service in their respective countries with a clean record and a recommendation from the highest autority in their respective land. There were a few exceptions, only applied if the candidate came from Ashen Nest and showed enough capabilities to make themselves useful under pressure. This conditions were established not only because of criminal activities, the main reason was the constant attacks of creatures wandering from the wild outskirts of the town.
Most of the ponies who traveled frecuently to this trading point were aware that mother nature wasn't as kind as it is back in Equestria. Even some of them preferred living in the Everfree forest for a week rather than to cross the grove leading to Ashen Nest on a good day. The animals here would make a manticore cringe in fear and the timberwolves wish to be made out of stone; the plants could be as well reclassified as animals with their seemingly erratic behavior, constantly luring other living beings to their, admitedly beautiful, deathtraps; and lastly the weather was so harsh during some times of the year that made the journeys last a lot longer than expected. As dangerous as it is, the forest is the most viable way to Ashen Nest.
Ashen Nest was founded 500 years ago, at the end of a war between an alliance between minotaurs, griffins, some loose packs of diamond dogs and a handful of young drakes, not older than a century or so, against a wave of runaway demons from Tartarus. At the end of the ordeal, this place was used to establish a more permanent partnership simbolizing the strength of the victors. Years passed by and this landmark slowly became a strong trade point in which everyone could get any marketable thing on the face of Equis.
About 200 years after its foundation, Princess Celestia sent the first equestrian group of merchants to establish some international presence in the market. Unfortunately, most of the ponies who went into the forest didn't come back, the trip was too dangerous. It was then declared if anyone who needed to go to Ashen Nest, they had to be accompanied by one of the guards to ensure the safety of both the cargo and the travelers.
Nowadays, ever since the return and defeat of Nightmare Moon, the monsters started acting differently. No longer they waited for someone to get in their territory as they did before. Now they went into town during daytime, not caring about their selfpreservation, and the residents would constantly complain about horrible visions of monsters unkown to the world, far too horrifying for any sane mind to develop over a simple nightmare.
This morning a particular guard was doing his normal patrol around some of the smaller stores and stands placed near the skirts of town. He chose this part of the town to make his routes because it was usually bustling with activity early on the mornings and became quieter as noon approached, giving him time to himself during the rest of the day. It wasn't that he didn't like to work, to the contrary, he loved finally giving his skills an use other than to disembowel invading beasts residing in the psyches of innocents everynight. Right now, it was around 8:30 in the morning, meaning the crowd of busy merchants and buyers was nearing its critical mass, and therefore, he had to keep a close eye on the constantly shifting mass of customers, vendors, other guards and the potential thief.
His name was unkown to most of his peers, as they usually avoided him due to his, admittedly, strange appearance. The minotaurs and dogs called him "the lanky one", the griffins dubbed him "the monkey", the ponies thought of him as "the monster" and the young drakes didn't bother to address him as something worth their time, admitedly they did the same thing to most species. The truth is that he was a human, his own name forgotten by the time he came to this place, grown accustomed to the name of Hunter during his first night of his new life. He was looking around for something to happen, something to keep him busy while he stood a few feet from the colorful creatures. He looked up at the sky and said to himself.
"Mmmm... just a few hours more." He started pacing some feet to the left taking a quick glance at the forest, he looked back and returned to his spot. "Booooring..." He whispered to himself noticing that no one seemed to tell his short absence, a good thing because they could report him if they saw that he wasn't responsible of his duties. "Did I check my pantry before heading out to work?, I think I might have to pick up some milk later..." He continued, still vigilant of the loud chatter and the clinking of coins, or bits as they called them.
His internal monologue was interrupted by a loud plea of help, those that one may hear in one of those, laughable, horror moving pictures he became rather fond of when he arrived. Snapping into attention he searched for the source of the scream, it was a store that sold various interesting trinkets was currently being attacked by some thugs. He didn't need to hear whatever they were saying, his job was to stop any disturbances first, then let the guys back at the headquarters interrogate the culprits later.
When he entered the store he found that some items were lying on the wooden floorboards, broken beyond repair, some of the shelves were undamaged as some others weren't. Probably the thugs tried intimidating the owner by breaking some merchandise. His eyes fell on the individuals near the counter and he decided it was best to intervene as soon as possible.
The owner of the store hidden behind the counter was a mare with a tan coat and a cyan mane, she had a golden earring and a bracelet on her left foreleg, the other bracelet was in the claw of one of the griffins that were robbing her. The little gang was conformed out of a large minotaur, clearly the leader, with dark brown fur and an iron ring hanging from his nose, and two griffins; a male of black feathers and brown coat, and the other one, a female, with the stolen item had white feathers and an orange coat. Once they took notice of Hunter's presence, the minotaur chuckled and said.
"Ah... the lanky one comes to have some fun, doesn't he?" He turned to face the human, crossing his arms. His cronies widenend their stances, getting ready to figh or flight any minute now.
"Stop what you're doing cow-face and surrender before you get yourself and your friends hurt." Hunter warned, following his protocole. If they surrendered no one had to get hurt, but if they responded with violence then he had to do whatever was necesary to defuse the situation. 'Whatever the case, I get todo something.' he thought.
"What did you called him, you monkey face?!" The male griffon screeched, offended by the guard's quip. The other griffon was unamused, showing her indifference to his fellow's inmature comeback with a raised eyebrow. The leader of the group wasn't bothered at all, he just stood there with a confident smile.
"C'mon now little guy, how are you supposed to beat the three of us?." During a brief pause, he eyed the guard for any indicator of a hidden weapon, and he continued "Unarmed, I might add".
It was true, he left his weapon, a magic-powered stun stick, back at the headquarters. He didn't like to use any weapons of any kind if he wasn't to kill anything. His unnatural strength and dexterity made up for his lack of equipment at the moment of just having to knock-out an opponent. Instead, he always carried a bag he had ever since he awoke in this peculiar world, it was infused with, from what information he gathered, a primitive pocket dimension spell. It baffled him how many times he used his bag without thinking on its internal workings. Inside it he stored the few things he managed to get during his stay in Yharnam; Ludwig's holy blade, a saw cleaver, a church pick, Kos (or some may say Kosm) parasite and some pieces of armor/clothing he found exploring that maze-like city.
"Second and last warning, give the mare her things back or else." He said in an authorative tone, he waited a few seconds and started tapping his foot. "I'm waiting, what is your decision?" He didn't get any word back as he instinctively rolled to the left, dodging a knife thrown by one of the quadrupeds. "Ok, no more mr. Nice guy" Like a second nature, he sidestepped making another blade to fail to connect, a third and a fourth one followed suit before he realized he was right in front of the minotaur, without more space to move, he didn't had a lot of directions he could have go. Unfortunately, some of the items in the store were hit by the proyectiles, inevitably including more paperwork for him as 'property damage' was going to be replaced by 'heavy property damage' in his report.
The minotaur was quick to seize the human by his neck and lifted him up so that they were eye to eye, making clear the size difference between the two bipeds. "Now listen here, shrimp. You'll better get out of here before we use you to paint the floor red." The two of them were glaring daggers at each other, the human didn't struggle as he felt the grip on his neck tightening. Hunter's hand shot up and punched the bovine's face with enough force to make him reel back a few steps, making the human to land on the floor, undamaged. "Lucky shot, freak!" Said the minotaur with a sneer as he glared at his opponent with murderous intent.
"I can tell this is going to be quick, you should have surrendered when I told you." He adjusted his footing as he waited for the three of them to make the first move. The male griffon lounged at Hunter only for his target to sidestep once again and hit him in the nape, knocking him out cold.
"Ugh... that featherbrain never learns" said the griffoness shaking her head, she glanced up to his leader giving him a nod as the two of them rushed to get pay-back for their fallen comrade. She swooped low to try to inmobilize his legs as the minotaur went with his arms outsretched to grab his upper body in a deadly hug.
Hunter skipped backwards to get out of reach of the crooks. When they finished their failed charge, he dashed forward and gave three quick jabs at the nearest enemy, namely the minotaur who was still regaining his footing... hoofing? from his failed grab, who dazedly stumbled backwards as he fell to the ground. Only the griffoness was left standing, intimidated by the being who managed to beat her fellows effortlessly, she was thinking to decide to flee, to give up or try to win the fight. Without any way to get away unscratched, she chose the smartest option.
"Fuck it, I give up." She said, walking up to her fallen comrades and sat down on her haunches, closed her eyes and held out her claws, waiting for the guard to arrest her. The last thing she felt before falling into unconsciousness was his fingers pressing agaisnt the side of her neck.
"Finally someone does the reasonable thing." Said hunter as the limp body of the griffin flopped onto the floor. He reached to her forelegs and retrieved the stolen bracelet, he stood up and looked around to see the mare hidden behind the counter, scared out of her mind as he approached her and held out his hand with her bracelet. He adressed her, "I guess this is yours, miss..."
"Crystal Ball, thank you uhh..." The mare said as she took her belonging and tried to remember the guard's name, or species at least, "What are you exactly?" she inquired.
"A human, that's all you need to know. I'm going to ask you to wait for some reinforcements to come here to give them a testimony about what happened before I got here, in the mean time I'm taking these scum with me." He gestured to the fallen thugs before pickong the two griffins under his left arm and started dragging the minotaur by the scruff of his neck with his right arm.
Slowly but surely he managed to arrive at his destination. He walked past the lobby, on the right of the room was a desk, behind it was a stallion, an unicorn, who was sorting through some papers, he gestured to his cargo and went to the left, where he could take a stairway leading to the dungeons. As he got there the jailers, two griffins and three minotaurs dressed in black uniforms, everyone of them armed with stun sticks, just nodded at him as one of them opened the nearest cell avaliable. He unceremoniously left his cargo there and closed the cell, going back upstairs to talk to the unicorn about the recent events and to request for the required investigations to be done.
"Hello Paper Clip, how have you been today?" Hunter asked.
"Very good, thank you for asking." The stallion replied, "I see you brought some guests, where did it happen?"
"It was Crystal Ball's trinkets and baubles store, near the forest." He responded, "can you send someone to investigate why they tried to steal some cheap trinkets? I don't think that stuff has any value beyond being souvenirs from a gift shop."
"Yeah, I can send a detective to gather some info. You go back to your shift, we know the boss isn't going to be happy to find out that you're not patrolling right now."
"Right, see you later Paper Clip."
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The rest of his shift passed by without much fanfare, no monsters lurked too close to the town, no more thieves and no more than the usual ruckus was left by the time his replacement came by. He just went back home after he made his report of today's activities.
His home was just a simple single-story house, small and secluded, just the way he liked it. He bought it about a year and a half ago, it wasn't expensive because of its location, the reason was its separated ubication from the town. For some reason animals didn't wander too close to it as they did to the rest of the town.
"Navi, I'm home!" he called out as he went through the door, shorlty followed by a mew and the appearance of a white little cat with a blotch of brown on its back. He crouched and stroked her head, then she went to another room, presumably the kitchen, as he headed to his bedroom to prepare for his meeting with the night princess. He discarded his uniform, an iron chainmail, knee and elbow pads, and leg armor. He never liked heavy armors, they always made him feel sluggish. Then he doned the same garb he wore during the first time Princess Luna and he talked.
As he started waiting for the equestrian midnight, he went to the kitchen where his cat was waiting for him to feed her, once he finished he could be free of the fluffy clutches of his little slaver. To help him pass some time, he went to the living room and looked for an invention he has grown very fond of, a radio. In his life he never imagined that music could be transmitted from various places, and he could hear them anytime as long as he had his radio at home. Of course, it was too big to be portable and he hoped for the day someone would create a way to travel everywhere with music at his disposal, but that was too farfetched to be real anytime soon.
He moved to the couch when some soft orchestral music started playing, grabbed a book that was lying on a coffee table next to his seat and opened it looking for a little bookmark he left in the last time he read it. One other thing that fascinated him about this place was the great amount of books he could read, regardless of their genre anything he could find was useful wether he wanted to entertain himself or to learn about the local cultures and their lore. He was truly grateful to wathever deity that he could understand their written language and grammar well enough to get some insight on the creatures that populated Equis.
"I wonder what Daring will do next..." He mused as he flipped the page, noticing a small weight on his lap, he lifted his book to see Navi curled into a ball practically begging for attention. Without anything to say in the matter he started scratching the cat as he went back to reading, the music of the radio and the purring of his pet lulling his mind into a calm stupor.
Naturally, all good things have to come to an end. He felt a tugging sensation at the back of his head, forcing him to put his book aside, usher the cat to get off him and turn off the radio. He turned to the living room and kneeled on the floor thinking deeply, with his eyes closed, of the shape of a man hung by his feet with his hands tied below his head, the mark that was forever etched into the depths of his mind ever since he chose to be the man he is now. The hunter's mark.
Whe he opened his eyes, he found an alicorn looking back at him with an impassive expression in the middle of an endless expanse of stars.
"Hello again, Princess Luna. I guess I owe you some answers."
Author's Note
Hello again, I apologise for the delay of this chapter and how short it is. It's been a few hard weeks for me with the whole broken display and recently dead pet....
The Hunt of the Nightmare
Princess Luna wandered across the Dreamscape, searching for the place far away from Equestria's conglomeration of dreams where she encountered the strange creature known as Hunter. The time for Equestrian midnight was approaching slowly as she looked around for anything that could help her find her destination.
'You're here.' A whisper echoed in her mind, making her freeze in mid-step. She whipped her head wildly looking for the one who addressed her, not finding the source of the voice made her feel unsettled. With a huff she said out loud.
"If you are going to talk to me, then you shall better show yourself." She kept checking her surroundings, or lack of them, waiting for the disembodied voices to talk to her once again as she lit up her horn preparing a defensive spell.
'There's no need for hostilities, your Highness, after all we're just doing what you asked us to.' Said the same voice, or voices in this case, it sounded like an amalgamation of several entities talking at unison. They continued, 'If you please, look down upon us, mere servants of the hunter, the last of his kind left with most of his humanity. We just follow orders from those above us.'
And look down she did, giving a small yelp as her hoof shot up to her chest as a result of the startling sight of the messengers speaking to her. Clearing her throat and regaining her not so unfaltering poise, she said to the beings sprouting from the floor.
"I apologise for that, little ones. It was unfit of me to act that way towards you, but you should know that I have to be very cautious in this realm." Changing the topic, she asked. "I guess Hunter is ready to talk, right?"
'That he is, your Highness, we just sent a signal so he could come.' Said the messengers as they spread apart from the center of the small manifestation of burbling quicksilver they were in. A lantern slightly taller than them slowly rose from the ground giving a soft glow, indicating it was ready to fulfill its purpose. 'If we were so bold to ask, what would you wish to know about our master?' They asked, all of them raising their heads to look the princess in the eye with the best hopeful smiles they could make with their disfigured faces.
"My intentions are to know whatever information necesary to determine if he can be trusted. Since my fellow princesses aren't avaliable at the moment, they asked me to get some of their worries to rest in their behalf." Luna responded, enraptured with the lantern glowing a little brighter by the minute.
A little brighter...
A little more brighter...
...
Clearing her throat and turning her eyes to the messengers, she asked "So... how long does he take to get here?"
'It takes a while, actually...' Some of the messengers were looking at the lamp, already knowing of the dreaded loading time it required to link the hunter to the Dreamscape. Other ones were awkwardly rubbing an arm, looking around for something to catch their attention while one of them imitated the recient action Luna did. 'Maybe it's taking longer than usual because he wasn't asleep.'
"Oh well..." Idly pawing the non-existent floor with a hoof, she recalled the priorities of her incoming questioning. The most important thing she had to know was where did he came from and what is his background. If what Twilight said was right, then she probably was facing one of the most advanced creatures in the world in terms of technology and science, and therefore, a very dangerous species far more chaotic than Discord could hope to be.
Slowly, but surely, the silohuette of Hunter appeared in a kneeling position. He raised his head and addressed the princess, not changing his pose.
"Hello again, Princess Luna. I guess I owe you some answers." He rose up and looked at the messengers still watching them with enraptured attention. "It seems like you have met my faithful freinds."
"Well met, human. There's no need for kneeling, you are not under mine nor my sister's jurisdiction. And yes, while I waited for your arrival your servants and I talked for a little bit." said Luna. With her wing she gestured him to start walking towards the equestrian side of the Dreamscape. "As much as I'd like to satisfy my curosity, I still have duties to fulfill. Come, if you will."
"Hm?... Oh, I'm just in this position because teleportation makes me dizzy and I don't want to lose my balance when I arrive." said Hunter, before realizing that the princess was already a few feet away.
"Get moving, my schedule is very tight as it is!" Shouted Luna from the growing gap between them.
Not being one to be left behind, he ran to reach the alicorn and asked "So, do you know what you want to talk about?"
"Indeed." she said, keeping her eyes on the steadily growing expanse of dreams of her subjects. "My fellow princesses and I wish to know basically everything about you."
"...Why?"
"Because you are dangerous. If what I saw the first time we talked was any indication, it was the fact you managed to defeat a basilisk single-handed without much trouble." She let out a sigh, "This is not something we can just shrug off and say it doesn't matter.
"Now for the first question, how come we didn't know about your existence until a couple of days ago?"
With a bit of hesitation he answered. "Well Princess, to answer that question I'll have to tell you where I'm currently residing." He carefully chose his words, he exactly didn't know how his existence has been unnoticed by the bystanders and the travellers who went to and fro in Ashen Nest.
But he had a few speculations of his own.
"During the past couple of years I've been living in a town far away from Equestria, near Griffonstone. I am currently a local warden to ensure the safety of the people from some of the creatures lurking in the near forest, so-"
"So you mean you work as a cop and animal control?" The princess interrupted.
A little displeased with the rude interruption of the royal, Hunter continued, "Yes, you could say that. And sometimes I do more than the usual things any other guard does in town." He paused, letting his statement sink in. "I suppose the lack of knowledge of my presence is because I patrol the areas near said forest."
"That still does not answer my question" Observed Luna, still looking ahead at their destination.
"What I'm saying is that ever since I arrived, I've been hearing some of the locals not calling me by my name, or even species. It's possible they just think I'm just part of the local fauna." He said with a shrug, hoping his guess was convincing enough for Luna.
"HA!, I don't think somepo-one might think of you as a mere animal." She said amused with the speculation of his companion. "But do go on, some of the rumors my ponies tell are quite imaginative. One time in Ponyville they though a zebra was evil just because of her looks. I mean, zebras are not very distinct from ponies, they just have a different culture and color scheme."
"That they do," responded Hunter in kind. "Anyway, ever since I started working there, some rumors began to run among the place. Something they call the 'Monster of Ashen Nest' or a 'Freak' as they eloquently put it. Honestly, I don't think I'm that hideous..." '...am I?' He mentally added.
"Hmm... That title does ring a bell, I do believe I have heard that before." Said Luna, stroking her chin with a hoof as she tried to remember whether or not she recognized the nickname. Not wanting to waste much time, she settled with asking her sister if she knew of a simmiliar gossip regarding the matter.
Getting back at the matter at hand/hoof, Princess Luna decided to resume the questioning with one of Celestia's biggest concerns.
"Are you sure you are the only human in Equis?"
Taking a deep breath, he looked away from the dreams. So peaceful, so pure, untouched by the Old Blood, the scourge of the beasts. "I'm as sure as hopeful I'm the only one." He let out a shaky sigh. "I can't even begin to fathom what can happen if another yharnamite, or any kind of their incluence for that matter, were to contact this lands."
"So low you think of your species you wish to be alone forever?" She inquired, intrigued by his statement.
'Might as well stop beating around the bush.' He considered. It was time to reveal the facts behind his arrival to Equis.
"No, Princess..." He recalled his awakening at Iosefka's clinic, his journey through Yharman and the weakening logic of reality. His last fight and his biggest failure, Gherman's body dissipating and his mind awakening, freed from the dream and...
IT.
Realizing he had zoned out in mid-answer, he shook his head, clearing the fog from his thoughts. He sighed again, softer this time. He turned to the alicorn who was still waiting his response, still watching over the light irratiated from the dreams.
"I have a feeling you want to know how I got here, right?"
"You are correct. That topic has been lingering in my mind."
"Then let me give you some insight on my situation with a question of my own. What happens to your physical body when you dreamwalk?" He asked while he reached to his bag, the sound of an impossibly big ammount of items clinking and knocking into each other filled the air as he waited for his response.
"That's an easy question, I use a spell that allows my consciousness to roam outside my body, leaving it in the real world in the safety of my cahmbers." She said, proud of the spell she had made so many centuries ago. "That also lets my body rest so I can stay awake during some time of the day."
The human stopped rummaging through the items of his bag, then he pulled out a small skull, a human skull, not bigger than the palm of his hand. Luna could feel something coming from it, a soft glow flickering from the eye sockets emiting whispers of dozens of voices speaking all at once making it impossible to understand their meaning.
"So you are not exactly here." He muttered to himself. "I, on the other hand, am here in blood, flesh and bone. So I can do things here that you cannot, no matter how powerful nor skilled you are."
Not amused wit his implication, she asked with a raised eyebrow. "Mind giving me an example?"
"With pleasure your Highness." He motioned at his hand containing the little skull. "I can bring material objects from the real world. I never know when I might need my weapons and tools. Also I found out that the enviomental magic of this world has affected how some of my items work." He balled up his hand into a fist, crushing the bone as easily as if it was an egg and making it to release a hazy blue mist. "This thing, for example, is a madman's knowledge, normally it would just let me see what lies beyond the limits of the common eye. Yet here, let's say it will give you a little insight on my situation."
"What do you mean?" Asked the puzzled princess, looking with awe as the mist began to swirl in front of them, creating a small window-like hole in the ground. She gasped at what she saw.
Within the misty borders of the window she saw a medical ward. A very old, filthy and dark medical ward.
As far as she could see in the dimly lit room, she spotted the wooden planks that made up the floor were starting to rot under the numerous bloodstains of previous treatments. Shards of broken glasses lay scattered across the room, reflecting the light of the lamps hagnging from the walls. Said walls fared a little better, except for a few chips on them, the stone supporting the weight of the building held strong. Some bookshleves were filled with books, some of them were almost empty, their contents were either piled on top of each other or were littering the floor with broken spines and discarded pages. The medical equipment appeared to be old, outdated by at least a century or so compared to the equestrian one. Lastly, in front of a lonely chair and a small table, there were a few beds lying along the wall opposite to the bookshelves with a correspondent I.V. pole next to each one of them.
Then she saw the human strapped onto one of the beds, an I.V. line connected his arm to a sizable bottle of coagulating blood hanging from a pole. He was wearing a hood to cover his face, a white shirt, black trousers held in place with an odd-looking belt and black shoes. The being squirmed in his binds trying to free himself to no avail with a panicked determitation.
"Is that you?" Gasping, the princess said. "This is a memory isn't it? Normally to show one the caster has to be very skilled and have hours of preparation before casting this kind of spell."
"That's right, and only very trained and skilled unicorns can cast spells while asleep." He pointed at the remants of bone scattered on the ground, "But I am not asleep and this item I brought with me can let me explain some of the things happening over there" he then ponited at the projection. His past self now struggling even harder at the sight of a scourge beast coming out of a pool of blood in front of him, attempting to reach him with a wickedly long claw. "Luckily for you, I will answer any doubts you may have during this exposition. Instead of trying to figure out while fighting for your life, like I did."
"I imagine being thrust in a world with little to no knowledge of anything must be very disorienting." Concluded Luna, keeping her attention as the wolf-looking beast suddenly caught on fire and was reduced to ashes by some invisible force.
Once the threat was somehow dealt with, the messengers appeared from beneath the panicking patient's bed and crawled to his sides. He reacted as any other sane person would if they were unfortunate enough to end up in the same ciscumstances. He yelled in a not very manly manner and passed out. Making the whole scene turn black due to the lack of stored information in the memory.
Meanwhile in the Dreamscape, a human was glaring by the corner of his eye at the alicorn as the corner of her mouth tried to curl up into a slimmer of a smile.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. It wasn't my proudest moment, and to be fair, I was still green at the concept of fucked up shit happening for no reason." Crossing his arms he looked straight at his memory, then his eyes widened as he took notice of the fact he just swore in front of a princess, one that was assesing his demeanor.
"Uhh... sorry for the language, your Highness."
With her laughing fit under control, she merrilly said, "Worry not, Hunter. One does not lives for thousands of years without hearing the occasional slip of the tongue. Please, feel free to speak your mind."
"Fine." He cleared his throat. "Moving on to the first thing I learned: I knew how to read any document I could find. I don't know why, but I understood the doodles and scribbles I found even before I knew what language it was."
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The memory now showed the human freed from the binds of his resting place, he walked up to the chair in the room. A yellowed piece of paper caught his attention. Its contents revealing a contract.
Iosefka's Old Blood treatment clinic.
The present document will hereby bind the existence of the outsider to seek and slaughter Paleblood and trascend the hunt. In exchange of his/her involvement in Yharnam's holy quest, the Blood treatment will be applied in order to cure his/her: Tuberculosis.
In the case he/she succeeds in the established task, or were to fall to the curse of beasthood, the present document shall be considered as fulfilled, releasing the patient from the hunt for the rest of their days.
"I wonder who is the poor gu-" The human in the memory said as he reached the end of the document, reading:
This contract is for the waste of skin in the bed number 2.
--The execution of the blood transfusion was made under the supervision of the local Blood Minister.
He looked back at the beds, surely enough, he was the number 2.
"Damn it."
Electing to not stay there for more time than it was necessary, he went to a door placed in the right side of the room. After twisting the knob and trying to push it only for it to not budge. Then he tried to open another door in the opposite end of the habitation, lit with a lamp perched in the wall. Thankfully, the door opened revealing a flight of stairs going down to the first floor, apparently he has been in some sort of attic this entire time.
As he went downstairs, he heard the sounds of growling, scratching of something hard against wood, and more puzzlingly so, the sound of something wet splattering on a surface. Dread filled his entire being as each step seemed to last longer than the previous one as he neared the source of the noises.
The entrance of the next floor made known his new surroundings, not too different from the second floor. The only differences he could find were the more numerous sets of medical equipment, research material and furniture in, the apparent, living room.
That and the fact that the same beast from before was now eating from the corpse of an old man, the clothes now unrecognizable leaving only a few bandages covering the dead body's eyes. Strangely enough, the sight of the odd wrappings was something familiar to him, as if he had seen it before.
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"The second thing I've learned; If somebody is eating somebody else, you might be the next in the menu." Said Hunter, while he deadpanned with his arms crossed as they kept watching the memory play out.
Ignoring his sad excuse of a joke, Luna pondered over how can a blood transfusion cure a sickness in such a manner. She voiced her concern, "Is that why you got there? You were sick?"
"Yes, from what I gathered in my journey, Yharnam was a forgotten town that harbored the secrets of a cure-all method. The blood of Yharnam was miracle of medicine, not a lot of people knew were it came from, but it was a succesful enough way to heal any ailments that rumors spread out to the surrounding citites and towns where I probably came from."
"If it was that effective, then why-"
"I'll tell you about it in a little bit, now something important is happening." Pouting, Luna reluctantly redirected her gaze to the memory.
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Fear destroyed any resemblance of his resolve to go on as he saw the beast feasting on the dead body, possibly the Blood Minister,oblivious to the new potential meal who just walked in during its feeding.
Desperate, he searched for a way out. Going back to the second floor meant no chances of survival as he remembered the locked door he tried to open a few minutes ago. A stroke of luck rewarded him as he saw a set of stairs going upwards to a door that lead outside the building. But there was a little detail that complicated his escape.
The beast was between him and safety.
Painstakingly slow steps made the broken floorboards creak as he moved by the side of the room, his back tightly pressed against the bookshelves covering the walls. He was trying his earnest to avoid getting the attention of the eating animal.
Sadly it was not enough as his foot accidentally crushed a small empty vial, its sound ringing all over the habitation.
Ears perked up. A snout was lifted and took a deep whiff in the air. A growl rumbled the walls. A chunk of half chewed flesh fell to the ground with a wet splat.
He only had time to jump to the side, safely rolling to a stop as the lupine creature lunged at his position. He didn't dare to look back when he heard claws tearing apart the unfortunate wood and paper behind him.
He did a mad dash to his way to freedom, he could feel the heavy, damp stench of the beast's raggedy breathing trying to catch up on him.
"Don't look back, don't look back, don'tlookbackdon'tlookback!" He repeated as his salvation was almost at hands reach.
"FUCK!" He yelled when his cloak was being yanked back, making him trip and fall to the ground and pulled him away from his objective. As he was dragged on the floor he flailed his legs in an attempt to kick his assaulter to no avail. Realizing he didn't stand a chance, he resigned himself to accept his end was near.
Razor-sharp teeth pierced his clothes and skin, his flesh and bones. A fresh coating of blood now adorned the proximities the moment the outsider expired.
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"YOUD DIED?!" Exclaimed the princess, no completely comprehending how a person who died, for some time ago at that, was standing right beside her in he same moment and realm of reality.
"It was the first time of many," he sighed, "it is still a thing I can do whenever I hunt in the Dreamscape. If I fall in battle, I'll be expulsed from the dream to start all over again until I manage to defeat whatever is cursing it.
"Apparently death was the entrance ticket to get in the hunter's dream, Gehrman's to be specific." He pulled out a small badge with a symbol in it and showed it to Luna.
"Who is this Gehrman you're speaking of?" She said as she analized the item.
"... A friend..." He sounded crestfallen, the sense of guilt growing in his gut as he recalled the end of the old hunter. "I'm sorry, but I don't feel like talking about him until I show you who he was."
"I shall respect your wishes." She responded in kind, focusing back in the memory.
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"Ugh... Where am I?" A voice said, coming from the body laying prone on the cobblestone path under the white sky. His limbs stirred as he struggled to get up. Apparently, coming back to life wasn't very comfortable as he regained his senses, pain and soreness being the only feedback on his nervous system.
Whe he regained his senses, he took in his surroundings. Everything from the graves beside the cobblestone path leading up to, what he supposed it was, a house on top of a small hill. To his left a slumped humanoid form sitting on a small stone wall caught his attention.
At first glance, it appeared to be some sort of mannequin. Upon further inspection, the item was revealed to be a doll in the shape of a woman with silvery hair and carefully carved features. The limbs, while limp at the moment, showed an accurate range of movement as the articulations seemed to be crafted with the utmost knowledge of human anatomy. The doll wore a plain black and red dress and a hood that covered the top of its head, leaving the face free for all to see.
"Why is this here?" He pondered. "Who would make something like this to just leave it out of their home?"
Once finished his brief observation on the strange doll, he went up to the house to see if someone could help him figure out what was going on. On his first steps, he noticed something shiny and, like a moth to a flame, he walked up to watch it closely. He backstepped once he found out who were holding the shiny object, that up close now resembled a small white ball of fire.
"You!" He shouted, pointing down at them with a trembling hand. "What are you doing?"
The one of the small creatures beckoned him with a frail limb to come closer and touch the item. With nothing to lose, he obeyed. Now in front of him, three objects lay on the ground. A cane, a saw and an axe. They were giving him something to defend himself.
"Oh... thanks, but... I don't know how to use them."
A few more gestures of the mysterious beings finnally convinced him to pick one, the cane.
"Ok, I'll try this one first. If I don't like it, I'll get to the next one." The top of the cane was made of a white wood, smooth and polished to prevent the user's hand from chaffing, followed with a thin blade full with odd segmentations crossing the steel ending with a sharp tip.
He swung left and right testing the small range of the cane, when suddenly, the handle twisted and the cane became something akin of a whip. The new form took him by surprise as the range of his swings doubled in length and required skill to not hit himself until his arm tired out.
"Is this supposed to happen?" He asked, fearful from the thought of breaking a gift so soon. After recieving a lot of nods of confirmation, he let out a sight of relief and placed the threaded cane on its former spot on the ground.
Next up was the axe, it measured roughly two feet from bottom to top where a heavy iron blade prouted to a side. The weight was not uncomfortable and the swings he made had good momentum and surely would deal good damaged from brute force alone.
Testing if this weapon had a simmilar transformation as the previous one, he pushed a small button at the height where his thumb was holding it and, with his left hand, he pulled hard. Sparks went flying as the axe doubled in lenght and now needed support form both his hands in order to wield it without upsetting his balance. Slow but powerful motions left him winded very soon as he made a mental note to keeping this axe as a possible choice.
Finnally he grabed the oddest of the three, a slab of dented steel held together to, what it seemed to be, a curved wooden rod. The union made the whole thing look as if it was folded by the middle making the whole thing look as a cleaver. The weirdest part were the bloodied bandages wrapping around the blade, while they looked well estetically, he didn't recognized any way or form for them to be of an actual use.
It was very fast, albeit its shorter range than the axe, it bested the cane. He stopped and noticed the mechanism that unlocked the hinge keeping the weapon folded. Knowing what to do, the weapon revealed itself with a wide semicircular motion, barely missing the user's face. The sudden shift in weight almost made him stumble forcing him to change his footing.
This was it.
"I think I have made my choice. Thank you very much." The little beings made dissapear the rejected weapons at his confirmation. Only to make appear a set of firearms. "Oh, well..."
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Another methodical selection later...
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Feeling bored out of her mind after looking his companion's past-self delaying himself with examinating every nook and cranny of the new equipment he was getting form the messengers, Luna kept her attention on Hunter's voice speaking of the items descriptions while she remained her watch over her charges.
As far as she looked, neither nightmares nor alien entities showed up under her gaze. She closed her eyes and let her senses drift back to the real world in an attempt to know how much time she had left before she had to lower the moon. Fortunately, she had a few hours before sunrise and the so awaited hour when she could tell her sister about the deadly creations the human was carrying.
Speaking of which...
"Do all your tools work the same way?" Her curiosity peaked at the concept of transforming weapons, never in her old days she imagined at such concept. Surely this development could have helped her on her campaings during those old wars before she was banished.
"Uhh, which way? sticking the pointy end on the thing you want dead?" He quipped. Seeing the glare he was recieving he continued, "in all seriousness though, yes. Only my melee weaponry has a second form, my sidearms an other tools just have a single purpose."
"Most interesting..." She muttered. "But now I must request you to hasten your story, morning is coming soon and I can't keep letting my sister do my responsibilities." She added.
"As you wish, your Highness."
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After waking up again in the same bed in the same room, he followed the same path that led him to his earlier doom. With a new determination burning in his eyes, he knew that a civilized dialogue was out of question when it came down on dealing with something that already killed him once. All he could do as he aproached once again to the beast was to pray so he would come out as the victor.
Stealth was proven to be useless in this situation, the only way to confront this problem was meeting it head-on.
"Come at me, beast!" He bellowed, raising his hands to the air. His display beckoned the attention of the creature as is bared its fangs and lurched at the would-be hunter recklessly. The rematch was on.
He nimbly skipped to the side dodging the furious swipes of the beast, only to stumble against a bookshelf behind him. The brittle wood turned into pieces under his weight. Moving on the offensive, he lunged and slashed back against his opponent.
Two deep gashes now marked the hide of the beast, bright crimson blood flowed freely from the flesh. The animal slumped on the floor, no longer responsive to the freshly accomplished hunter. Suddenly, the human saw the blood let out a fine steam as it changed its color to a deep brown puddle on the floor, no longer distinguishable from the blotches decorating the room. Said vapor searched for the nearest living being and gently flew to its new host.
Hunter's breath caught in his throat as the event transpired. He felt his blood get warmer for a second and then return to normal as he let out a sigh of relief at the possibility of getting over with this ordeal soon.
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"I couldn't be more wrong..."
"How so?"
"Yharnam was a forgotten city for a reason. There was a disease spreading among the citizens, a plague of some sort, that turned some of them into beasts and those who didn't transformed grew bloodthirtsy and, as I experienced first-hand, very aggressive.
"Luckily, the very same blood that cured my affliction was my edge over those who opposed me. I was faster, more skilled, stronger and most perceptive than the Yharnamites and some beasts that I hunted down. But everything comes at a cost, hunters like me who had the same treatment as me were few and far between, but most of them fell to bloodlust or started protecting the beasts, even so some of them became the very same thing they loathed so much. As the next memory will show you."
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The rippling image of the memory displayed the remains of a great hall, bloodied were the walls and floor as a result of the hundreds of corpses littered around the sides of the room in such a manner as if they were thrown aside with great force against the walls. The floor was barely visible under the three-inches deep pool of stale blood, making it difficult to walk on the sticky surface.
In it, a moving silhouette gave way to the human running around in the acrid liquid, his clothes were slightly torn from his fights with the monsters outside the arena and bloodied form his own injuries and his surroundings. He was panting heavily as he slowly ran out of stamina during his mad dash from seemingly nothing, the only thing following him was a trail of blood falling from the ceiling. With a desperate roll he barely escaped from the gargantuan creature dropping from above.
Turning back, he looked at the beast before him. A twisted amalgamation between a man and a horse loomed over him on four hooves, leaving two legs akin of those a human would have hanging on its backside. Of the two arms it had, one was gripping the floor supporting the weight of the beast while the other one was outstretched trying to grab the human. The head belonged to a human heavily morfed with equine features with a long ratty mane, near it a second neck sprouted from where a shoulder would be as it gaped open letting all to see the countless eyes hidden within. The rest of his body was covvered in rags and tattered clothes that lost their original colors long ago, settling on the ghastly browns and reds of the countless bloodstains permeating the leper skin of the beast. And on top of it all was an old sword in its scabbard that once belonged to a proud hunter.
But in the eyes of the human all those features resulted in the remnants of a legendary hunter of the Healing Church: Ludwig, the Holy Blade, now cursed to be what he despised the most, a beast.
Gripping tightly his longsword and putting away his blunderbuss, he jumped backwards avoiding a series of wild swipes from the beast, in a quick motion he sheathed his sword with great force and with two hands he swung the now transformed greatsword down on the head of his prey, who barely flinched at the hit.
In response the beast leapt at Hunter, who rolled forwards avoiding the impact, turned back at him and opened the eye-filled maw firing a stream of white energy ath the human. He ran and managed to land a few hits at the hoofed legs before his foe turned around and charged at him at full speed, efectively catching him off guard and dragging him a few feet before he dislodged himself of the abomination and rolled on the bloodied floor.
Battered and dizzy from the brutal impact he seized the opportunity to heal himself while the beast was near a corner. He pulled a blood vial from his bag and he jabbed it on his leg, he felt bones and tissue knitting back together as the pain of his previous injury faded away.
Realizing that the fight wasn't over yet, he ran towards the creature and just as he was about to swing his greatsword, it jumped to the roof trying to repeat the same attack as before. Once again he was runnig for his life attempting to outrun the falling trail of blood, and once again he managed to succed as the beast dropped from the ceiling for the second time. Another leap from the monster was met with another aggresive roll and missed swing from the human.
In an attemp at intimidating him the beast roared-screeched adopting a threatening, giving him a perfect chance to get some free hits at the monster and finally knocking out of balance, making it the beast tumble and expose the skinless torso of the creature. Wasting no time he positioned himself right in front of the downed creature, in a fast motion he hung his sword on his back and pulled his right arm back, and punched right through the exposed torso of his prey. Grabbing a handful of tumorous flesh he pulled and tore it out of the screeching body as it fell down , seemingly without any strenght to keep fighting.
'Seemingly', being the key word.
"I'm glad this is over." Said Hunter, trying to catch his breath. He began to walk toward the stairs near the en of the great hall and after a few steps a green light coming from behind him caught his attention.
"Aahh, you were at my side, all along..." Said the voice, not from the beast. It was Ludwig talking, as he grasped the blade strapped that has fallen from the scabbard on his back.
"My true mentor..." The blade seemed to glow in a deep green light, containing some sort of astral energy.
"My guiding moonlight..." No longer standing as a beast, was Ludwig now wielding his sword, which was in itself as legendary as the once proud hunter himself.
The only witness to this change had his jaw hanging in awe and fear. He cleared his throat and spoke, determined. "Very well, Ludwig. I'll grant you death not as the beast you are, but as the hunter you once were."
No other words were needed, tonight their weapons would do the talking.
Ludwig's blade began to shine with moonlight and sliced the air before him thrice, sending waves of energy at Hunte. Not expecting this kind of attack, he managed to avoid the first wave, the second one nicked him in the leg and made him stumble and fall, leaving him exposed to the third blast.
Not waiting for his opponent to rise, Ludwig rushed towards the human and slammed down his greatsword. Hunter got up and managed to move out of the way a second before blood and stone went flying from the impact of the blade with the piece of floor he was in a second ago.
Gaining some distance, he used a couple more of blood vials to get rid of the pain on his everything. Going after a more defensive stance, he avoided another barrage of energy blasts as he circled around his foe, looking for an opportunity to strike. One of the very few advantages he got from fighting with a racional opponent was that he could look for attack patterns and coherent movements rather than constantly dodging wild trashings and furious charges.
Then, accumulating more energy into the great blade, Ludwig raised it pointing upwards and slammed it on the ground sending a great blast of moonlight in a straight line in Hunter's direction. Luckily for him, he was already out of the blast-zone and was close enough to jump and plunge his own blade on the side of the ex-hunter. A second was all it took for him to start slashing with heavy swings before his objective responded in kind. Hunter was forced to duck under a backhanded swipe from Ludwig while still trying to keep his position behind him.
Ludwig charged his sword once more, this time pointing downwards and remaining firmly in place for his next strike. With a grunt, he embeded his blade in the ground, generating a blast around him that expelled the human from his comfort zone.
Skidding to a halt, the hunter got up again and treated hi wounds with another vial. He knew he was close to killing Ludwing, he only needed a little more damage. Searching a pocket in his garb, he pulled out a piece of orange parchment and swiped it along the lenght of his weapon. Instantly, his blade was set ablaze with a deadly fire.
Once again the duel between hunters began, the two of them pacing themselves in a clash of raw arcane power and brute force against agility and, admidetly, amateurish skills. Soon enough, the opponents slowly tired and their attack patterns grew more desperate up to the point where the newest hunter was too aggressive and was rewarded with a buck that sent him stumbling across the arena, again.
"This is my last vial" He said to himself as he healed once more, the dose not managing to completely deal with his injuries. Switching his sword for his cleaver, the fire already died out some minutes ago, he transformed it to get a greater range and avoided another volley of arcane blasts as he approached his objective.
Ludwig was in a bad shape too. A lot of cuts addorned the flesh and some pieces were hanging from thin threads of skin and muscle, some of them were charred and blackened or peppered in crimson holes of missing tissue. From his heavy panting and slackened stance it was clear to see that this fight was soon to be over.
And over it was when the human swung once, twice, three times his weapon at Ludwig's torso, meeting little resistance as the beast -- no, the old hunter could only try to swat him away with a claw to no avail.
Defeated, Ludwig howled for the last time as his body was engulfed with light and blood echoes searched their new host to strenghten his blood in the form of an explosion of ichor and gore. Leaving in place a lantern for the victor to go back to the workshop and rest.
"May you rest in peace, old hunter."
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As the scene reached its end, the mirror-like cloud began shifting and wobbling until it dissipated. The espectators of the recent fight were both sitting on the floor, one enraptured by the spectacle and the other frowning at the reminder of his past and future. Breaking the silence, he spoke.
"This is why I don't want to go back to my world. This is why I don't want it to come here either. I am destined to become one of them sooner of later if I don't control myself." Hunter said, the calm he once had was replaced somewhere during the memory with worry. He got up and offered a hand to the alicorn next to him to do so as well.
"Is there a way to help you?" She asked, as she mulled over his words. "I do not know if you are aware of the reasons of my banishment a thousand years ago. But I too was tainted with darkness and hatred mostly out of jealousy and was cleansed with the power of the Elements of Harmony."
He took a moment to contemplate the idea while he stretched his back. "I know what are you talking about. I might give it a shot someday, but until then I have things to do." He picked up his bag and collected his things. "If I still had my bell I could give it to you so we could talk anytime. Sadly that is not the case, if you have any other questions you can always ask the messengers to set a meeting."
With a nod, the lunar princess said. "I shall keep it in mind. Fare you well, friend." It was not much later when his figure disapeared in the vast inky darkness of the void between dreams, with that, she turned to walk around some more and felt something bumping her hooves. "How odd, he forgot something." Picking it up, she saw it was a leatherbound book, its cover saying "How to pick up fair maidens "
A single question popped up in her mind.
"What?"
With no more time to spare, she decided to wake up and reprt her findings to her sister.
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None of the dreamwalkers noticed the teal eyes watching form the darkness.
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Author's Note
It's been quite a while, hasn't it?
The Hunt of the Nightmare
It was early in the morning when a pink pony woke up in her room in Sugarcube Corner with a huge yawn as she scratched the back of her poofy mane. A sudden twitch in her forelegs took away the small shreds of lazyness on her face, replacing them with a huge grin as she jumped off the bed and inhaled deeply before yelling at top of her lungs.
"OH YEAH! WE'RE ON THE SPOTLIGHT, BABY!!!" She excalimed in glee during a gravity-defying hover that lasted a few seconds before she allowed her body to obey physics again and land gracefully on the wooden floor. Careful no to trip on the many toys and party supplies she kept for any future surprise parties. Unfortunately, her sudden celebration was cut short by her employer, startling her and making her step on a half eaten cupcake she left for Gummy last night.
"Pinke dear, don't be so loud or you'll wake up the twins." Said the muffled voice of Ms. Cake, who heard her employee's ruckus from somewhere in the house.
"Oops... SORRY MS. CAKE!, no, I mean, sorry Ms. Cake" She said realizing her mistake. She shook off the mush of the flattened pastry and made her way out of her room to begin what was going to be the start of a new adventure. "I know something cool is gonna happen, I just know it." She squealed to herself as she pranced past the door.
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Not very far from the Sugarcube Corner, in the Castle of Friendship, Spike was sorting trough the lower shelves carved in the cristal walls of the library 3B, which was open to everypony who wanted to research on the diverse topics of innate magic of the three pony races, the basics of spells and recent historical events from the last few centuries. Many other libraries were built in the castle to use most of the empty rooms and halls generated inside the structure, most of them were like the average library one was expected to see anywhere else. It was a select number of them, located near the newest Princess' chambers, dedicated to her personal collection of books gifted by Princess Celestia or the foal books she owned as a young filly when she started reading and her interest for knowledge sprouted from.
A loud belch erupted from the young dragon and a puff of smoke materialized into a scroll laced with a silver colored ribbon sealed shut with a dark blue wax stamp. Luckily for him, this time he recieved a letter via dragon fire he wasn't climbing on the ladder he frecuently used to reach the higher shelves, saving him from an otherwise embarrassing fall. With no time to lose, he grabbed the letter tightly in his claw and he ran to deliver it to Twilight.
It didn't take him more than a few minutes before he found her in the throne room reading a request for a reschedule of the next rains on Ponyville, althought this task was more suited for Mayor Mare, Twilight was required to have a say on this matter because her castle was in the vicinity of the little town.
"Hey Twilight, Princess Luna sent you a message" He said, giving her the scroll. She put aside the request she was reading and opened the letter, as she did so, a small 'clink' rang as a tiny crystal held in a glass tube encased in between two silvery cap-like ends fell to the ground. She raised it to her face while reading trough the letter and her eyes widened at the information held within the device.
"Spike, I need you to gather the girls here. They need to know this."
"Got it. What are you going to do?"
"I'll prepare the information we have on the human world and compare it with the results of Princess Luna's interrogation to make an exposition interesting enough to keep Pinkie's attention and simple enough for Rainbow Dash to understand." She said as she stood up from her throne and started walking away.
"You mean with those holographic pictures and stuff?" He asked mostly to himself.
"Exactly!" She exclaimed without looking back.
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"Ah'm tellin' ya, Rainbow," said an orange mare by the name of Applejack, "Ah can't have ya nappin' on top of mah trees. The apples may get bruised by yer tossin' and turnin' in yer sleep, or worse, get eaten!" She warned as her friend, a cyan pegasus with a rather colorful mane was lying upside down at the base of an apple tree, dizzy from falling of it after it was bucked during the dialy harvesting at the Sweet Apple Acres.
Getting up on her hooves, Rainbow Dash shook her head and retorted. "And how many times I must tell you to at least wake me up before kicking me off a tree?" It was a lousy comeback, and she knew it, but she couldn't think of anything else to say with her brain shaken as it was.
"It's easier this way."
"Woah, AJ taking the easy way. Somepony better catch this changeling quick!" Quipped the pegasus with sarcasm dripping from each word as Applejack rolled her eyes. But before the discussion could escalate any further, a purple and green baby dragon waddled as fast as he could on his stumpy legs to the bickering mares and called out to them.
"Rainbow, Applejack, Twilight needs you at the castle. She has to tell you about some official stuff Princess Luna discovered a few days ago. Ok bye, I'll get the others!" He half said-half yelled as he was already on his way to Rarity's
The orange mare was the first to break the silence. "Um... he does know you can tell the others faster than him, right?" Only to turn back to find a pony-shaped cloud of dust where her friend used to be. Deadpanning, she sarted walking after the multicolored trail leading to the Castle of Friendship muttering, "Dang it, Rainbow Dash."
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"Pinkie!, Pinkie!" Exclaimed Spike from the counter at Sugarcube Corner, ringing the service bell with urgency. For another five seconds he kept calling for the odd mare before the bell was swiped out of his reach by Carrot Cake, the co-owner of the locale. The stallion sported a tired expression on his face as he massaged his left temple with a bag of ice. With the kindest tone he could muster, given his current state, he addressed Spike.
"Spike, calm down! Where's the fire, little guy?"
"I'm looking for Pinkie, it's an emergency and Twilight tol- Mr. Cake, what happened to you?!" He asked, maybe a little too loud for the stallion's liking, making him grit his teeth with the volume of the baby dragon.
"It's nothing to worry about, Spike. I just couldn't sleep well last night and woke up with a really bad headache." He took a moment to remember where her employee was and said, " As for Pinkie, I can't really tell where she might be. She told me she had something important and left five minutes ago."
"Oh ok, thanks Mr. Cake. Guess I better go now." Before he could get halfway to the door, Carrot asked.
"Before you go, could you please tell Pinkie to foalsit the twins? We got a big order we have to deliver to Vanhoover and we won't come back until tomorrow noon."
"Sure, good luck with your delivery Mr. Cake." And with that, he went to the Carrousel Boutique.
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It was near noon when Spike arrived at the doorstep of the Carrousel Boutique. He let himself in at the sight of the sign on the door reading 'open' and good luck seemed to smile at him today because Rarity was having a pleasant conversation with Fluttershy over some tea and cookies. 'Cool, this saves me some time.' He thought, letting out a sigh.
Rarity was the first one to notice his presence and motioned him to come closer saying "Spikey, dear what brings you here?" Then she poured tea in one of the unused cups on the table with practiced ease and levitated it to Spike's claw.
"Thanks, Rarity. Hi Fluttershy. Twilight wants you to come with me to the castle so she can tell you some news" He said trying to keep a nonchalant attitude, and almost failing miserably as his tail wagged excitedly at the prospect of coming back along with the white unicorn.
Setting a half-nibbled cookie on a napkin, Fluttershy said in a volume not too much higher than a whisper, "Um... Then we better leave soon, I mean, what if the others are already there waiting for us and Twilight gets mad at us for being late?"
"Nonsense, darling. She wouldn't mind if we take our time to finish this gossip I heard about Cherilee and Big Mac-" She didn't get to finish as the little dragon interrupted, in the least rude way he could.
"I'm sorry Rarity, but Fluttershy is right. Twilight told me this was very important and she doesn't want to wait anymore time than necessary for me to get you." Pausing for a second, he added "By the way, have you seen Pinkie? I couldn't find her earlier today."
"Well then, in that case we must hurry." Said Rarity, pouting in a way Spike thought was cute. And with little else to do, the two mares and dragon left the building and headed to their destination.
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Twilight Sparkle paced in circles around the Cutie map, fiddling with the small crystal she got earlier this morning. Albeit unresponsive, it still gave off a strong magical signature, courtesy of Luna. No matter how many times she tried to pry open the glass container, it didn't seem to even affected to her attempts to get to the contents of the item that taunted her with its mere unresponsive, stationary state. And nothing ticked her off more than not getting things to work, except maybe not to understand something. She had already compared her notes with Luna's and the differences between Sunset's world and Hunter's couldn't be anymore staggering, and if what the letter was saying was true, she had to reveal the secrets held in the crystal soon.
Before she could throw her hooves in the air in frustration, a loud *THUNK* came from the western window, telling her that Rainbow Dash was already here. "Starlight, would you please open the door? I'm a little busy at the moment." She called.
"Coming!" Came the response from the newest addition of her growing circle of friends. Starlight Glimmer did as was asked only to find nopony at the entrance, stepping trough the entrance and turning to the western side of the building she found Rainbow passed out on the ground, apparently the impact against the reinforced window has knocked her out cold. Muttering something under the lines of "It's the fifth time this week" and "Having a skull as thick as the arm of a minotaur", she picked up the unconscious pegasus with her magic and brought her inside.
Carefully setting her on the throne-like seat corresponding to the element bearer of Loyalty, Starlight said. "It seems like the adrenaline junkie is here, Sparkle."
"I take it she didn't slow in time. Maybe after this she will finally stop her bad habit of breaking through my windows, they're no longer made of common glass." Pinching the bridge of her muzzle, Twilight let out a frustrated sigh and said. "This means I have roughly an hour before everypony comes here."
With a mysterious inert crystal and an unconscious pony in the map room, she decided to resume her work on the presentation that no doubt would raise as many questions as answers, to her friends as well as herself. "Starlight, I'm going to do some private stuff and I'm probably going to be busy for the rest of the day. Why don't you take the rest of the day off?" She asked, mostly for her own sake rather than her student, who knew it would be the best no to bother a princess with a record of stress induced hysteria.
"Uhh... Sure, Twilight." Responded the unicorn, who tried to come up with a benefit of her current situation. "I think I'll go to the Crystal Empire to visit Sunburst to catch up on some stuff, last time I saw him he was super excited about some ancient spells he found in the old library." With that, she left Twilight to do wathever she was doing and exited the castle a few minutes later. Just as she was leaving she bumped into Applejack, who sported a rather bemused look on her face.
"Twilight, your friend Applejack is here!" Belowed the unicorn, not wanting to stay anymore time near the time bomb that was her mentor's temper. "Good luck with her, she's kinda grumpy today." Starlight warned, only to recieve a nod from the orange mare and with little else to do, she left to the train station.
Seeing her muttering friend in the brink of a minor mental breakdown, Applejack went to the near hysterical mare and did what was best for this situation.
*SLAP*
"Ow! What the heck was that for?!" Exclaimed the alicorn rubbing a sore spot on her cheek. She noticed the bemused expression on her friend and she continued, "I was getting out of hoof, wasn't I?"
"Sure ya were, Twi'. Now, can ya please tell me why am Ah here for?" She said sparing a glance at the pegasus who was starting to stir awake and went to her seat.
"Of course, Applejack." Responded a fairly more collected Twilight, "But I can only tell you so much before the others get here, I don't want to repeat the most fine details too many times. A couple of days ago Princess Luna discovered a being with a similar capacity to enter someone else's nightmares and fix them, and she told me that this being is from another world, most possibly an entirely different dimension." She picked up the problematic crystal and showed it to Applejack. "Also, she sent me this earlier today and I can't for the life of me figure out what it does."
"So it's a big deal, right?" She poked the floating item with her hoof and noticed some engravings on the metallic caps at the ends of it, one of them was almost identical to her cutie mark. With a closer look, she saw the figures matched almost perfectly with her friend's cutie marks. "Uhh Twi'? Ah think we're gonna need the rest of us to open this thing." She pointed out.
As soon as Twilight noticed the engravings she said, "Ugh, I can't believe I didn't see them." Rubbing her eyes with the back of a hoof she continued, "Maybe I should visit the oculist, probably all those nights reading are finally catching up on me, alicorn physiology or not. Do you think this will react like the Elements?"
The orange mare shrugged, "Ah'm just sayin'. Ah mean, it fits with the whole 'Element Bearer's bussiness' with the cutie marks and such."
"Ow... my head..." A faint raspy voice muttered form the side, turning the mares' attention to the cyan pegasus awakening from her unespected nap.
"How do you feel Rainbow?" Asked Twilight, magicking a bag of ice near her friend so she could calm the pounding headache. While the concern was there, she couldn't exactly say she was surprised to see her awake so quickly. Having grown accustomed to the risky stunts Rainbow performed on an almost daily basis with a rather predictable failure/success ratio, Twilight was more than prepared for these kind of situations with a small pocket dimension full of first-aid equipment.
"Like Big Mac and AJ bucked me like an apple tree trying to see who knocked more apples." She mumbled as she pressed the bag to her head. Looking at the window, which sported several pony-shaped dents, she sighed and asked quietly, "I did it again, didn't I?" A couple of nods were the answer. "Sorry, Twi. Force of habit."
"Look, don't worry about it. There are more important things to do." Turning to the earth pony, she said, "How much time do you think the others will take?"
"Ah don't know, sugarcube."
Not a second after she answered, the sound of the door opening along with the clip-clop of hooves against the crystaline floor made itself present and two mares and a dragon came in. Rarity and Fluttershy went to their seats as Spike spoke to Twilight, a little of dissapointment on his chubby face.
"Hey, Twilight. I couldn't find Pinkie anywhere, it's like she just vanis-oh... There she is!" He suddenly excalimed and pointed a claw at the suddenly occupied place where, indeed, the bubblegum pink pony was waving back at them. "Where did you find her?"
"I didn't! She wasn't even here when you came in." She gestured to the entrance. Huffing exasperatedly, she just said, "You know what? Forget it, I'm not gonna ask."
"What are you talking about, guys? I've been here the whooooole time! You were like, 'Dumb crystal, dumb crystal', and Dashie was like, 'AAAAAAAHHH- CRASH', and AJ was like all grumpy and stuff and Starlight was like, 'Nope', and then the little drawings of our cutie marks on the thing and then you were like, 'Rainbow! You're alive' and I was going to cry because you were all worried and stuff and then Spike got here all sad and then he pointed at me and then I waved back at him and you went all like I appeared out of nowhere and then I told you stuff and, and, and here I am." She finished with a bright, if unnerving, smile and a deep gasp for air her lungs were begging for.
"Uhh, right." Having regained her composture, Twilight said aloud, "I suppose you are wondering why I brought you here." She recieved nods and mutters of approval in response. She pulled out a letter from her seat and continued, " This morning I got a letter from Princess Luna, where she expressed her concerns about a creature she found a couple of days ago."
"Oohh, is it okay?" Quietly said Fluttershy, gently interrupting, "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. Please continue, Twilight."
"Don't worry Fluttershy. From what she told me, he seems more than capable to take care of himself." She cleared her throat, "By the way, the creature is a he. He is able to travel to the Dreamscape on his own, where he apparently searches for nightmares and stops them."
"Does he have a name?" Asked Rarity.
"Yes. He calls himself Hunter."
"Pshh, scary name, weird dream power stuff, no big deal." Said Rainbow Dash while inspecting one of her hooves, "What more do we need to know about the guy so we can do whatever Luna wanted us to do?"
"That's the thing, he shouldn't be able to do something like that." Twilight replied.
"Why is that?"
"Because Hunter is a human."
"WHAT?!" Chorused the other ponies. It quickly dissolved into a mess of questions being asked at the same time, which caused Twilight to cover her ears and yell.
"Girls! Calm down!"
"Calm down? Darling, these are very big news. You once told us humans can't use magic." Rarity piped in, "How did he manage to even get here? Isn't his species in another world?"
"I was about to talk about that. This morning Princess Luna sent this." She set a small shiny item on the cutie map, "This thing is seemingly sensitive to our passive thaumic spectrum only."
"A ghostly what?" Said Pinkie, tilting her head.
"A passive thaumic spectrum is an unique kind of biological low-level radiation emmited from every single cell in a living magical-wielding body. It means that every magical creature is constantly sending an almost undetectable stream of magical energy and is different from one another."
"Ohhhh... I don't get it." At this, Rarity decided to take control of the explanation.
"What Twilight is trying to say, darling, is that everypony has an unique brand of magic. Think of it like our cutie marks, some may be simmiliar but they are never the same." She explained, getting a grateful nod from the alicorn.
"Ohhhh... Now I get it, it's like when you put Gummy, a cupcake and a rubber chicken in a-"
"Ok, Pinkie. Sorry to interrupt but I didn't call you here for a biology class." Reminded Twilight. "As I was saying, th-"
She never got the opportunity to finish her sentence as the ignored small crystal suddenly freed itself from its transparent casing and strarted floating over the cutiemap. A harsh light and a sharp whine engulfed the item, disorienting the mares below and causing a small surge of panic through the room. The unexpected lightshow was over almost as soon as it began, leaving six confused mares and a terrified baby dragon blinking, trying to recover their sight.
A new voice spoke from the spot of the flash, quickly gaining the attention of the everyone present. The words were a bit distorted, almost as if they were being said through a fan with a few hints of crumbling paper in the background. But the voice in itself was easily recognizable with the bold sonority proper of the princess of the night.
"Greetings, element bearers, I hope you are having a good day." A few seconds later an image flickered to life, showing no other than Luna in an eerily transparent, blue tinted mirage. "This recording is to be witnessed by no one other than yourselves. This is a matter of national security and I wish for you to behave and do not start asking questions until I finished, I shall not repeat myself."
"The first thing I want to make clear is that a human being is currently residing in our world, the circumstances of his arrival are still a mystery for the time being and it is unknown what is he going to do in the forseeable future, other than his routinal activities." The hologram slowly changed into a silhouette of a human being, crude in the sense of smaller details from his clothing being amiss, not that the bearers would know anyways. But these measly features didn't matter as to what caught their eyes were the half covered face and the slab of metal attached to a curved stick in his hand, provoking more than a few whimpers in the room.
"By Celestia! What is he wearing?!" Was the loudest of the reactions, which on cue ellicted a couple of deadpanning stares towards a horrified fashionista.
"From what he told me, he comes from a world stricken with a disease able to corrupt and transform any being into a monster, or beast as he calls them, and his duty was to get rid of them in any way possible. I am affraid he now carries this affliction." The projection continued, ignoring the reactions from her subjects. "Since he was unkowingly aiding me with the control of nightmares during his nightime, even with his... questionable methods, I am considering helping him with his fear of becoming the same thing he hunts before it's too late.
"I am giving you this information so you can discuss this matter further and reach a viable course of action. In the meantime, I shall keep questioning our interdimensional acquaintance in order to gather more information. I am truly sorry to cut the recording short, but this is a spell that hasn't been casted in a long time." Then she concluded in a lighter tone, changing the image back to Luna. "Princess Sparkle, if you wish to know how to make one of this thaumic crystal engravements then please send a letter and I shall gladly send you a copy of the spell, for your eyes only, of course." With that, the hologram flickered and died.
Rainbow Dash was the first one to break the silence, "Sooo... What do we do now? The dude apparently kills for a living and that stuff is not cool in my books."
"I think we should help him, I mean, if he wants our help that is." Chimed Fluttershy, peeking from under her mane while she tried to calm her nerves at the sight of the strange weapon. "But I don't know if we should let him keep k-k-killing things..."
"Well Ah'm not so sure about this. We don't know if he could turn on us if we tried somethin'." AppleJack tapped her chin with a hoof before asking. "By the way, Rares. Why did ya yell about his clothes?"
"Didn't you see what he was wearing? It was horrid, atrocious, a vile crime against pony-kind, or any-kind for that matter!"
"Don't ya think yer exagerating? Ah mean, yeah his cloak was ugly but nothing to fuss too much 'bout."
"I am definetly not exagerating, darling. He's wearing leather, the use of real leather as fabric is literally illegal, it's common knowledge in the industry." She replied with an undignified huff. "And before any of you ask, I use faux leather on my works, when it's needed of course."
"I don't get it," Said Rainbow Dash, "What's the difference between the faux leather and the real one?" Then Applejack leaned to her ear and whispered where it came from. As soon as she understood the message, she yelled out. "Bathroom!" With a greenish tint to her face, and left faster than somepony could protest. By the time she came back, the others were in a heated discussion on what should be done with the human.
It was clear this was going to be a long day, indeed.
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A soft chiming sound echoed across night sky, bouncing on the twisted trees and occasional rock without disturbing the tone of the sound itself. A little bell held by a cloaked figure was the responsible of the almost hypnotic ringing, held not by fingers, claws nor hooves. It was a slimy appendage wrapped along the bony limb of, what appeared to be, a long-dead corpse of a pony.
The only sign of life other than the movement of the body was the near-nonexisten whispers coming from its lips.
"Ye of power beyond ours. Ye of knowledge beyond ours. Ye of purpose beyond ours. We plead for ye to heed our call as we heed thine. We of faith absolute plead for guidance. We plead for ye to grace us with thine blessing of a life beyond our husks we call bodies."
The caller stood in the middle of a circle of roughly 4 feet in diameter, drawn in the soil with fresh blood leaking from one of their legs. Around them, five other shrouded figures repeated the sentences in perfect unison. Everyone of them varied in both shape and size, but they all shared the same decayed state of death and the snake-like protutions sprouted from different places from under the robes.
Flecks of crusty blood floated from the liquid symbol as it shifted and morphed into a straight vertical line, in the middle of said line, where the cultist was, a sideways diamond emerged, on top of it was a small semicircle and below it a bigger semicircle encompassed it.
The final result was a shape that should not exist in this world. A rune which depicted the satelite above them.
The moon has heeded their pleads.
Author's Note
I am so ashamed of myself right now and I have no excuse for taking so much time to update (even worse as it's moslty filler, important but still filler
As you know, please tell me if I left any ortographic horrors and any suggestions are appreciated.
The Hunt of the Nightmare
*Clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-CRACK*
"I still don't understand how these elevators work at all." Mused Hunter as he stepped out of a platform which led him to a room infested with maggots of the size of dogs. He was currently dealing with the most common kind of creatures plaguing these Night Terrors, bugs and arachnides were the usual representations of fears among the young and, oddly enough, recently married people.
Not bothering in wasting much time, he dealt with the maggots with a practiced motion of deep slashes and sidesteps. Once done, he gave his surroundings a bit more of attention while he looked for the source of the nightmare. There were two paths ahead of him, one led to another room shrouded in darkness and the other was cut off by an bottomless pit as if the world suddenly ended on the spot.
"Huh, it didn't took as long as I thought..." He shrugged and folded his cleaver. His footsteps felt louder with the almost unnatural silence in the air, they stopped when he forced himself to stop walking as he spotted several multicolored orbs floating in groups of four. Hunter reached to turn on the lantern attached to his hip, its soft light gave him some valuable feet of visibility in his search of the beasts dwelling in the dark. Unfortunately, it made him stick out of his surroundings like a sore thumb, evidenced by the sudden screech of the bugs alerting one another of his presence.
Just behind one of the sets of eyes a line of neon green lit up horizontally, showing the body of the creature. The whole body was covered in a hard, black chitin. It had the head of a spider, with only four relatively big eyes and a pair of pincers that hid fangs dripping with poison. Unlike other arachnids, this one had a thorax in which eight spindly, long legs supported its weight. On top of the thorax and the abdomen were four wings, buzzing in short intervals as if it was preparing to lounge at Hunter. Running along the length of the creature was a glowing line to the end of the abdomen, where a stinger giving out a strong stench of what could be assumed as a pheromone, possibly to mark and objective.
Hunter waited silently for it to start the attack, there was no point in talking to something that can't think. A flash of green sped by his right and he spun to swing his cleaver, only for it to bounce off the chitin and send the bug off course at the other side of the room-turned-arena. He furrowed his brow at the outcome, then another buzzing sound catches his attention and started running in a random direction while he folded his cleaver and pulled out a black broadsword with an overly large handle. A hiss was heard a few feet behind him and he turned on his heel, pulling at the handle of his weapon in a flurry of sparks and swinging it in a wide arc, and a loud *crack* of the rupture of black, hard natural armor was soon followed by a soft *squelch* of pulverized, soft, transparent flesh.
He set the point of his church pick on the ground and pushed the body of the bug with the sole of his boot, efectively releasing his tool from the deadweight it gathered. Noticing the lack of individual endurance of his prey, he ran without hesitation to the chittering kaleidoscope of eyes looking back at him from within the darkness.
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Countless eyes watched him, capturing every move with a morbid fascination as he fought oblivious to his spectator. Four arms gripped the mirage before their owner in a forceful manner, yet the pictures were undisturbed as they played out. A groan of mostruous pitch rose from somewhere among the entrails of the watcher as they kept watching.
A voice from source unseen, feminine in nature, stole the attention of the spectator with a single word.
"Attack."
And attack it did.
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Twitching carcasses of oversized bugs covered the floor as he rested on his knees, fighting to breathe in the aftermath of what he felt were two hours of constant killing and dodging. A smile stretched in his face as the all too familiar lantern rose from the ground with his messengers greeting him already.
A chill went down his spine.
The messengers hid, scared for their lives.
He felt the all too familiar sense of knowledge beyond understanding being crammed in his brain.
An Amygdala made itself known as the veil of mortal ignorance was lifted, a faint trail of dark smoke escaped from the holes in its head.
"Please, don't tell me they're here..." He whispered with fear lacing his words as he trembled, dreading for what its mere presence entailed to the world.
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"I feel the blood of my brethren in his veins." Said the voice, inhaling deeply and letting out a satisfied sigh. "Test him if he is truly worthy of our power."
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The Amygdala slammed two arms on the ground and it launched itself into the air, Hunter ran away from the landing zone where it landed a few seconds later. A large swipe and another slam from the front arms were met with similar results as the human kept himself alive with practiced motions.
He made his weapon turn back to its shorter form and switched it for his cleaver, opting to use fast, short ranged swipes instead of throwing slow, crowd-controlling attacks against an enemy slower than him. He went to strike at the arms supporting the nightmarish being while it raised another arm with the intent of crushing him, but the thick skin absorbed most of the damage and he was sent sailing as he was backhanded.
He tumbled into as stop before reaching a wall of the room, his head was swimming and his ribs were aching from the rough ride. He righted himself and jabbed a blood vial to his thigh, leaving his injuries behind, when he suddenly realized something.
'I'm running out of vials!' He thought, 'Ok, let's make no more mistakes.' Approaching his opponent, he ducked under a vicious hand flying out to grab him and he retaliated with a few hits of his own. The Amygdala began slamming its hands underneath its frame, trying to crush the bothersome hunter. Tired of the constant bites of the cleaver, the behemoth took a few steps backwards and pushed Hunter aside. Confused by the sudden retreat, the human did a few steps back of his own to assess the situation.
From within the gaps in the exoeskeleton covering the head of the Amygdala, countless yellow eyes erupted and started glowing with arcane energy. Hunter had little time to react as a sudden barrage of lasers rained down on him, following him while he ran to a safer distance. If it wasn't enough, the ground touched by the lasers began exploding a few seconds after, cutting off several escape routes.
The Old One stopped the attack to regain its bearings, giving Hunter an opening to keep cutting away at the tough flesh. But before he could reach his opponent, the Amygdala started coughing and a torrent of bile flew in short, yet voluminous, bursts that pooled on the ground before the nightmarish being. Holding back a gag at the stench of the fowl substance, Hunter avoided stepping on the puddles of acidic goo without missing a beat.
When he finally made it to the hunched head of the Amygdala, he reached into a pocket in his coat and pulled out a piece of thunder paper and slided it over his weapon. A wild crackle of electricity danced on the surface of his cleaver and clinged on the edge of its teeth while it tried to jump to the nearest living being. He reared back to hack at the bulbous head of his opponent, but before he could make contact with it, the Amygdala jumped away and Hunter hit nothing but air.
"Of course..." He deadpanned, ignoring his own 'no speaking' rule.
After his rather failed attack he turned to the direction his opponent jumped to, only to find nothing. A scrapping sound came from above him and a few small pieces of rubble fell on his head. He blinked and looked up. The Amygdala was hanging from the rocky ceiling like a roach, if it had a face, it would be smiling smugly.
"...That seems fair." Then he thought, 'Honestly, these kind of things no longer surprise me'.
The behemoth let gravity take hold of it with its clawed hands set to squash the human. He had no time to escape, so he faced the inminent danger head on and swung the cleaver upwards, transforming it into its longer form. He buckled under the massive weight of the Amygdala, but he held his ground and kept his weapon as a macabre support beam for the impaled Old One. It shrieked in pain and rage and swatted Hunter from underneath it. The electrified cleaver was dragged along with him tearing skin and muscle tissue, leaving behind a large splatter of ichor.
Infuriated, the Old One flailed and raged by slamming its arms and legs blindly, quickly advancing in Hunter's direction. It got to the point where it grabbed at one of its own arms and pulled with all its might. The loud, sickening *crack* of bones shattering and a disgusting, wet *squelch* of muscles stretching to their breaking point were the only sounds beside the constant enraged shrieking of the Amygdala. The cacophony ended when the arm was severed from the body as the owner wielded it like a rudimentary club, leaving a bleeding stump at the middle of the forearm with chreds of sking and muscle clinging stubbornly to the rest of the handless arm.
Hunter didn't have much time to process what he had just witnessed because when the Amygdala finished with its gruesome rage fit, it went full speed to pulverize him with the severed arm. He avoided it succesfully and retaliated in kind with his, still electrified, cleaver aiming at the head. He ducked and avoided touching the constant torrent of blood coming from the stump and the amputated limb, he didn't know if it had any ill effects on him, at least not yet. Reaching the torso of the Amygdala, he slashed at the exposed ribcage, left in this state by the failed leaping attack, trying to make as much damage as possible and he commited a mistake.
He got greedy.
An oversized claw grabbed him and started squeezing him, threatening to break his ribs, as he struggled to break free the Old One held him at eye-level (or as eye-level as you can get without any kind of facial features) and began charging a beam of arcane energy point-blank. Somewhere along the way, he let go of his weapon. He commited a second mistake.
Knowing he had no way to survive a hit of this magnitude, he struggled even more and slipped his hand free and into his bag. He searched frantically for something, anything that could get him out of this mess. His gloved fingers brushed against something small and metallic, a part of a mechanism of some sort, followed by a hollow metal cilynder. His eyes widened in realization and alarm, just what he needed, but he was running out of time. He desperately searched for the wooden stock and took hold of it, he fumbled with it in panic as he drew it, aimed and fired. The effect was inmediate.
The focus behind the arcane blast was disrupted by the barrage of quicksilver shards. Without an outlet the energy powering the blast had to go somewhere, in this case, the caster of said blast.
A strong shockwave sent Hunter sailing through the suddenly stiff fingers of the Amygdala, breaking them in the process. He rolled to a halt a few meters from the detonation zone and shut his eyes tightly, gasping in pain. He struggled to breathe and waited for the ringing in his ears to stop before he dared to get up.
"New rule. Never doing that again." He groaned, then he propped his weight on his elbows to survey the damage. Just as he thought, the head, and most of the upper body, of the Amygdala was no more. The uppermost arms were consumed by the sudden surge in the arcane energy build-up, meanwhile the rest of them were thrown to random places of the arena. He suddenly felt grateful by his stroke of luck of being caught by one of them. The rest of the body was slumped on the floor like a ragdoll, the part of the torso that survived was charred black and smoking, the legs and tail were limp without any purpose of keeping balance to a non-existent body.
Something shifting caught his attention, he turned his head to look at that distracting something. It as the severd arm of the Amygdala. He recalled some hunters of other worlds preferring using oddities like this one, the reason of it eluded him. But now he had an inkling of why it fascinates some people, probably it was some sort of trophy meant to be wielded, maybe it was just the sense of superority over these beings, or maybe because people liked weird things.
'Good thing I like weird things then.' He walked to the amputated limb and stored it in his bag, then he repeated the process with his cleaver, knowing he had nothing else to fight tonight. But something nagged at the back of his mind, 'How did they get here?'
He went to the lantern where the messengers greeted him, he lit it and got out of the vanquished nightmare. Once in the Dreamscape, he sat down and turned to the little creatures at the base of the lamp, "Do you have any idea on who might be behind this?" The shooke their heads almost instantly. "Alright, then I'll need you to do something. The next time you see Princess Luna, please tell her we have troubles. Really big troubles."
He paused for a minute and looked around him, apparently a new day was about to begin and everyone was awakening. He had to go back to the real world soon and begin his shift at the outskirts of a beast-dwelling forest. And in top of it all, he had fill more blood vials before he ran out of healing items. Joy.
"You guys think I need a vacation?" The messengers merely shrugged, not knowing what 'vacations' were, "Yeah, me too."
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It was almost nighttime in Ponyville. The meeting was nearing to an end, having been filled with an assortment of lectures of all the knowledge on human physiology known by ponykind, which was not much to begin with but it still had the basics on biological needs such as dietiary, sleeping and social habits researched in the human world, courtesy of Sunset Shimmer. But considering the background of the dream-dwelling human, it left more than a few topics open to speculation.
"So, what are we going to tell Princess Luna?" Asked a very tired Twilight to an equally tired group of mares. "I mean, we only have the basics on what he's doing and some of his background but there's nothing else we can point out without speculating."
Rainbow Dash answered with a huff, "I guess we could just take him out before he hurts somepony. Something feels off about this guy, I don't think we should help him."
"I say we must give him the benefit of the doubt, if we don't know his behaviour then there's little else we can do." Said Rarity, gently petting Spike, who had fallen asleep somewhere during the meeting.
"I think we should leave him alone. I mean, what if he's doesn't want us to bother him?" Chimed Fluttershy, who was barely keeping herself in the conversation being too worried about her animal friends she left back in her cottage. "I-I don't want him to get mad at us..."
"Ah don't know what to do, to be honest. Even if we go to help him, Ah don't think we can just waltz to his door and solve his problem" Replied Applejack, scratching the back of her head.
Pinkie was absent, having to take care of the Cake twins earlier in the afternoon. Before she left, she left a note with a drawing of herself juggling bags of flour while riding a monocycle.
"Ok... Then I guess we have to wait to give Luna an answer. Until then we must keep this information in mind if we want to reach an agreement while I ask the Princess for more details on Hunter." She magicked a gavel and banged it a few times on the cutie map. "This meeting is officially adjourned, you're free to go." Her friends didn't waste any time in getting up and walking out the door.
She bid her friends goodbye and sat there for a moment before muttering to herself in a giddy tone as she watched them leave. "I always wanted to do that."
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"He survived. Just as expected." Said the voice. "Let him rest, I want his best in the next test."
A chorus of guttural groans and growls replied at the words of their godess.
Author's Note
Well... This took longer than I thought. But still, I think a short, action filled chapter is easier to write than the ones with a lot of dialogue. I feel like dialogues are my weak point.
Anyway, comments and opinions are appretiated.
The Hunt of the Nightmare
7. They Come From The Cosmos
That night, the moon rose in short, forceful pulls in the darkening sky, catching a few curious glances at the satellite. The cause was non other than a struggling Princess of the night, whom wanted to get the nightfall dealt with before night court and found her dear moon protesting at her will. Like a stubborn foal refusing to obey their mother. Passing it as being too distraught with her newfound friend and having to deal with a night court, surprinsingly full of requests, she paid it no mind.
Also having to wait for the response she was supposed to receive from Twilight was slowly getting on her nerves. Maybe she was trying to figure out how to replicate the spell Luna used to make an hologram recording in a crystal. She found it in one of her old diaries she wrote on as a filly, it was brought from the forbidden libraries in the old castle a few months after her return. She kept it there as it held some of her most deepest thoughts on her desire for being as beloved as her sister and some of her experiments she did on her own time. That particular spell never got into public knowledge due to her being too reserved with the spells she developed long ago, this coupled with the fact that no one dared to even peek at her stuff during her imprisonment out of fear of being cursed or something as supersticious as that. She remembered it after watching Hunter showing her some of his 'insightful memories'.
As the hours rolled in to the night, it was in moments like this where she regretted being too eager to deal with her subject's problems and wished she was feared as she was right after her return from her vanishment, with nopony between her and her responsibility regarding the well-being of her subjects' minds. But alas, she might have to go to bed later than usual with the sudden increment in requests for audiences and, mostly, mere acts of presence to "validate this" or "validate that". Just as the bureocracy has dictated centuries ago, and probably will for another millenia or so.
"I hate it when they whine like young foals blaming each other." She muttered darkly as she witnessed another meaningless feud over some lands which belonged to neither of the bickering nobles before her. Pompous as non other and arrogant as only they can be, they were still her subjects and she had to follow the same protocols her parents taught her when she was a filly. Even if she just wanted to dismiss them and get the next potential slapfight started. It didn't help matters when the next one included her oh, so dear nephew, Blueblood.
Before she could tear her mane out in frustation at the babbling background noises flooding her train of thought, a thestral guard barged in through the throne room making the doors slam open with enough force to silence the nobles.
“Princess! Princess! We have word from Ponyville. The Princess of Friendship has an answer to your request” Said the young stallion, kneeling before her as her magical aura enveloped the letter held on the guard’s hoof.
As she read through the contents of the letter, she pondered if this was some kind of divine intervention coming to save her from the dreaded petty squabbles she was doomed to endure during the rest of the night. Those elated musings went down the drain when she reached the bottom of the message. If she wasn’t as good as her sister at making an unbreakable poker face, she would already have thrown the offending piece of parchment across the room.
’They haven’t decided yet.’ She thought. Then a small, clever smile developed in her muzzle. “Court is adjourned, everypony. I have been informed of some... Royal affairs I have to sort out.” She was very pleased at the sight of the ponies before her bow and leave without a hint of suspicion at her not so far-fetched lie. Happy with herself at her exagerated truth, she slumped on her seat and read the bottom of the letter once again.
“Until further notice, we are going to keep deliverating on the choices we have. I’m pretty sure we can reach an agreement by tomorrow...” Then she saw the P.D. “In regards of the new spell you showed us this morning, I’d like it very much if you were to teach me how to cast it.” She finished, just in time as her sister entered the room with the ‘I’m very dissapointed in your actions’ expression on her face.
“Um... Hi sister...” Started Luna weakly. She flipped the letter to show it to Celestia, “Look, it seems like your student needs more time to reach a resolution.”
“Luna, why are you skipping your duties?” She asked, ignoring the attempt at changing the subject.
"Sister, this letter is hundreds of times more important than the pointless squabbles this stallions were having." Luna pouted, allowing her sister to read the scroll. As she did so, she raised an eyebrow at some point only to flick her sight to Luna's direction and then return to her reading.
"I see this is important to you, Luna. But you just can't be this irresponsible to your duties as a Princess." She responded while giving a second reading to the letter. "And I get that the Dreamscape is something sacred to you, but you have to take priorities."
"Yes, that is exactly what I am doing. Hunter is helping me to get rid off nightmares without any kind of magic and I think he's keeping something from me." Luna replied, almost too quickly.
"Oh." Chimed Celestia with that mischievous little grin of hers, "So all of this is about certain-"
"Finish that sentence and I'll ban any kind of baked goods within the Equestrian borders."
"Secret, secret. I was going to say secret." Finished the Princess of the sun.
"Good. Now, the thing I'm talking about is this energy he gives off. It feels eerily familiar but I don't want to be certain on where have I felt that kind of energy before." After a quick glance at Celestia's growing frown, she said "I just don't want to be right on this."
"Have you asked Discord if he knows anything?" Chimed in Celestia, "I bet he probably knew the human was here and didn't want to tell us for a reason".
"I tried, trust me. But I can't find him anywhere."
"Have you tried looking up?" Said a voice from above Luna's head. The two alicorns directer their gazes to the source of the incorporeal voice of the mischievous trickster. Right on the dark tiara were two mismatched yellow eyes with red pupils waggling a floating pair of eyebrows, for each eye.
"Discord, how long have you been there?" Asked Luna, struggling to hold back the urge to throw the ornament impersonator to a swarm of parasprites.
"Not much time, really..." He paused as his lion paw appeared floating next to the eyes and started counting, "Uhh, how many weeks have been after the Great Galloping Gala?" He was suddenly efulged in a dark blue aura and was flung across the throne room to a conveniently placed trashcan.
"Rude." Reververated the trashcan.
As amusing as it may seem to the solar diarch, she had to step in before Discord dissapeared again. "Discord, as you are probable aware, we need information on-"
"Yeah, yeah, the monkey-ape-guy, right?" He interrupted as he showed up in front of the sisters in a cloud of cotton candy, which turned into a flock of geese.
"First off, it's a human. And second, yes, we need to know if you have something to do with this?" Said Luna, magicking her real tiara on her head.
"Well... The thing is... I'mnotallowedtosay..." He mumbled, fidgeting with a fallen feather, unable to look at the sisters in the eye.
Not wanting to play along with his nonsense, Luna pulled the head of Discord by his neck with her magic and demanded, sternly. "Discord. Tell. Us. Now."
"I'm not allowed to say! Ok?" He yelled. He teleported a few feet back and rubbed his sore neck. "Jeez, you're grouchy today."
"Why?" Asked Luna, "This is not one of your tricks, is it?" She finished flaring her aura around her horn, promising him that there would be consequences to not wanting to cooperate with her demands.
"No, no,no, no, no. It's just... Let's just say, I have a family reunion coming soon." He declared, sweating blueberry juice. Much to the chagring of whomever had to clean the carpet. Both alicorns had concerned expressions on their muzzles, laced with a hint of surprise. Discord, the only draconequus on the face of the world, had someone who shared their blood and flesh with him.
"That is certainly surprising." Mused Celestia, "But that still doesn't give us anything to work with. Why haven't you told us there were another draconeqii?" She inquired.
"Well... The thing is, Celly... It's because they're not draconequus." He squeezed the blueberry juice out of his goatee into a glass and drank it nerviously. "And they're not supposed to be here anymore."
"Explain." Demanded Luna, snapping out of her stupor.
"Well... We are family in terms of power. We share the same cosmic energy from the origin of time and space and the hobby of manipulaing others." As he said that, he morphed the glass in his paw into a monster with way too many tentacles to be anatomically functional attached to an impossibly frail spinal chord. Luna gasped at the strange figure, but Celestia didn't seem to aknowledge it "But that's where the simmilarities end, my dear. My kin shunned me because I'm too obvious with my intent, trying to do everything by myself without any kind of minions, being too soft with the mortals."
"Too soft? Discord, you plunged Equestria into madness in more than one occasion." Retorted Luna.
"Ahh, but how many of your precious ponies have died from my pranks? None. Of course, a few were injuried or traumatized for the rest of their lives. But I never messed with them to the point of killing them for my own amusement. Like they do." He growled.
Discord continued, "They are powerful. They are cunning. They can easily wait until both of you two die from old age before they enact their plans. But, like me, they like a challenge to entertain themselves, and as soon as they find someone who can face them head-on without breaking... That's all the knowledge I can share with you before you start getting too paranoid for your own good." He finished, panting from a mental exhaustion that seemed to come out of nowhere. At some point during his speech, the small glass figurine was crushed in a tight, bloody lion paw.
Luna and Celestia sat in silence. Both mulling over the disturbing revelation from their friend. This meant something big was coming, and maybe they were not prepared for it.
"Maybe you should head to your room and go to the Dreamscape whenever you're ready." Said Celestia, visibly shaken. Not a reaction many got out of her nowadays. Her sister silently nodded and went to the main door. Before reaching it, she turned back and saw that Discord was still in place, mumbling something she couldn't understand as Celestia rubbed a wing over his back.
"Discord!" She said from across the room,making him raise an ear in her direction. "I shall find a way to solve this. Remember that family sticks together, as they say." She assured him with a hint of a smile on her muzzle. Then, she went to her chambers.
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The first thing that reached his recently materialized ears was the muffled knocks on his door. He rose an eyebrow at that, normally people didn't want to go where the weird ape lived in. He looked down at himself to make sure he wasn't dripping any blood on the floor from his earlier fight and then glanced at the clock hanging on one of the walls, it read 10:27. "Shit! I'm late!" He hurried to answer the door, already dreading the rest of his day.
"Hunter! I know you're there!" The knocks were getting louder by each footstep as he tried to identify his unexpected guest. He opened the door and looked up to see a pair of steel grey eyes glaring down at him. A puff of angry steam erupted from the crooked bovine nose as a brass ring dangled closely to the mouth. Two large horns pointed upward proudly, a crack running along the right one. No distinguishable mane to speak of in between the horns. The rest of the body was what one could expect from a minotaur, muscled arms attached to a muscled chest, which in turn was attached to a pair of fairly normal hooved legs. But the thing that distinguished the behemoth in front of the human was the crest in the middle of the armored uniform.
Captain Head Ripper. Leader of the Public Protection Forces of Ashen Nest.
'Goodness, I still don't have any idea of why someone would call their offspring something like that' Hunter thought. He squashed the thought remembering he was very late and in front of his very angry boss, who could very easily live up to his name right now. He forced himself to stay still and try not to say something overly stupid that could possibly get him fired.
"Good morning Captain, I was just heading to work." Something like that.
The captain took a few deep breaths and replied. "Hunter. What in the name of Tartarus did you do?!"
"I'm going to work?" He said in a small voice. Not knowing what he was talking about.
"You see this?" Said Ripper pointing at one of his thumbs.
"Um... Yes?" He asked, unsure.
"Do you think I suck it like I was born yesterday?" Seeing the human about to open his mouth, he added. "Don't answer. It was a rethorical question." Pulling Hunter forward from his head, he continued. "One of our citizens dissapeared last night and the only lead we have are a track of human footprints and one of your freaky bottles of blood in the scene of crime."
Hunter widened his eyes at the accusation. "I didn't do it, Captain. You have to trust me!" He cried out, instinctively struggling to get free from the giant hand threatening to dislodge his head from his spine. While he could have easily free himself, he didn't want to hurt his boss or disrespect the only person who would want to hire him.
"Explain. Now. Human." Head Ripper demanded.
"Ok, ok. Remember that time when you found me chasing away some weird animals last week?" He asked. "Well, I found the nest yesterday evening and decided I could destroy it last night. It was deep in the woods and I have may dropped something on my way ther-Ghack!!" He stopped as he was dropped on his doorstep. Rubbing his sore scalp, he looked up to see the Captain with an unreadable expression on his face. Silently hoping to see if he bought the lie.
"Last warning, Hunter. Tell me where you've been or I'll make sure your species become extinct. You know I won't tolerate any treachery among our forces."
"Ok, fine. I was in the Dreamscape up until a few minutes ago. I've got evidence." He said, reluctantly. He didn't like to talk about his second occupation to his boss, not ever since he had to report to him about every single time he had to fight something dangerous inside the head of one of his citizens. He silently reached in to his bag with both hands and pulled out the piece of the arm left by the Amygdala.
"By the Gods... What is that?" Whispered the Captain, astonished by the unnatural chill running down his spine at the sight of the mangled piece of extremity.
"This, Captian, is something that shouldn't be here." He stored the thing in back in his bag and continued as he rummaged for something else. "This is a sign that something big is going to happen and I'm afraid that it could happen sooner rather than later." He pulled out a bottle and held it to for the Captain to grab. "Here. Take one, it helps."
Head Ripper opened the bottled and took a small, white pill. It reeked of naphtalene and chlorine, making him pull back in disgust. He forced himself to ignore the stench and swallowed the pill. He never liked medicine after all. The effect was instantaneous, the ice in his bones melted away and memory of the offending piece of flesh didn't seem to bother him anymore. He frowned at it, wondering why did he even got that reaction anyway.
"I hate those sedatives of yours."
"I know, but that's the only way you have to see that thing without it driving you crazy. It comes from a creature that should only be seen by those with enough knowledge to give it a mental baseline to even understand how it looks like. And even if you were one of those people, you could easily lose your mind."
"Fine, I believe you. I apologize for the accusation, but I still need to know if you know anything about the dissapearance." Huffed the Captain.
"I..." Hunter tried to come up with anything based on the evidence. It was possible that somemone might have gotten their hooves, or claws, on one of his vials, but it was too unlikely to happen, he was very careful no to drop them. The footprints were too hard to recreate, mostly because no one knew how to make the kind of boots he wore on a daily basis.
'But if an Amygdala appeared last night, who knows what else might have come to Equis?' He thought. "I don't know, Captain. But I don't think I'm going to like the answer."
The minotaur was silent, inwardly thinking on how much trouble it would cause if word got out that beings from another world were suddenly appearing all over the place. "Hunter. From now on, you're relieved of your duty as a guard." At seeing the human's shocked expression, he added. "Don't worry. You're not fired, yet. It's because I'm apointing you to investigate the dissapearance of Ms. Crystal Ball. Alone. No one must know that you're doing this, otherwise they could get too curious as to why you're investigating and they might start nosing around your assignment."
"Wait, did you say Crystal Ball?"
"Yes, is that a problem?"
"Um... No, it's just that she was getting robbed the other day. She owns a trinket shop, a tourist trap if you will, but the thieves were stopped before the got anything of value. Captain, do you think it had anything to do with her dissapearance?"
"That's your job to figure out, Hunter. But I wouldn't dscard that possibility just yet." Ripper crossed his arms and said, "If that's all, I'm leaving. Fail this task and I'll make sure no one can ever find you without digging a hole. Got it?" He threatened.
"Yes, Captain." Said Hunter. This could get him in deep trouble if he messed up. Head Ripper was known to be ruthless and, in most cases, unforgiving with his subordinates, but the few times when he got to this point of living up to his name were when he was truly worried for the safety of the citizens of Ashen Nest.
The minotaur left the house. The human stood in the doorstep, thinking about who, or what, could be the one responsible of this problem. A scratching sound coming from a piece of furniture broke his train of thought, as he blinked and went back inside his home. "Navi! I know you're hungry, but please leave the sofa alone."
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After feeding the cat and making sure his furniture would be safe for the rest of the morning until his pet got hungry again, Hunter got to, what he assumed, was the house of Crystal Ball. Yellow tape criss-crossed the door, forbidding the entrance to any civilian. He went under the tape and started searching for any clues.
The living room was a mess, whoever kidnapped Crystal Ball didn't go unnoticed by the victim. The furniture was in dissarray, some stools near the kitchen had broken legs and broken glass was scattered all over the floor, courtesy from some picture frames that fell during the scuffle. Some pieces of evidence were signalled by some plastic markers with numbers on them. He went to the first one.
Muddy footprints, very alike to the ones a human would leave. By the lenght and shape of the smudges on the floorboards, it was clear the assailant was running to catch the mare. In some parts, there were hoofprints over some of the footprints, meaning the chase took a while. But then other kind of stains on the floor catched his attention. Blood stains.
Out of all of them, one had a different shape than the rest. This one in particular followed a splatter pattern like it was from a paint filled balloon, a small one. Not like the one someone would expect from a wound. Another oddity was the small cluster of glass shards around it. He knelt down near it and grabbed a small metallic thing from the mess. A needle, a hypodermical needle. His eyes widened at it, quickly understanding why this blood stain was different. It was a blood vial.
"Ok... Now, why is this thing here then?" He kept looking around and found that the broken stool had a few strands of, what he assumed it was, mane in it. The blood around them caught his eye. "She defended herself and threw the stool at the kidnapper during the chase, then the assaliant tried to use a vial but was interrupted. How?" He muttered, running various scenarios in his head. He turned his head to the wall nearest to him and saw a fallen grandfather clock, behind it was a moderate sized hole on the wall. "Crystall Ball is an earth pony." He remembered, "Probably she rammmed the kidnapper into the wall." It was roughly the size of his torso, around the same height too. There was not doubting it now, the culprit was a human. A hunter, considering the vial.
"How is this possible? This shouldn't be happening." He muttered to himself. Then he remembered the thing he fought last night. If two things from his world were here, what could stop the stronger Old Ones from getting here? That is, if they weren't here already.
Dread filled his psyche and he started shaking. The walls seemed to close up on him, the roof was falling apart to reveal a dark, starless night with nothing more than a blood red moon glaring down at him, and only him, to light the asphixiating atmosphere choking him. He stumbled and flailed to find the door and fumbled with the doorknob once he found it, then he got out.
He fell to the front yard in a heap of tangled yellow tape and limbs. From somewhere in the darkness consuming the edges of his vision, he could hear the faint laughter of a female he couldn't recognize and the words he wished to never hear during the rest of his lifetime. "The Hunt is coming."
His brain couldn't take the strain anymore as he fell into unconsciousness, catching the attention of everyone near him. His last thought being, 'So many discoveries with so few clues.'
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Luna kept a brisk pace while she roamed around dreams, only stopping for a quick glance at some minor bad dreams. She had one mission in mind. Find the messengers.
"Come out little ones, I wish to speak with you!" She repeated to the void in between dreams. She kept looking around near the thing that would be the floor in her desperate attempt to find them. After a few minutes of search, a bubbling sound made her left ear perk up and she swivelled her head in that direction. A portion of the ground broke and from it the messengers emmerged in the same odd way as they did the last time.
'You called, Princess?' They said, eager to serve.
"I did. I must know if you know anything about something new coming to this world, besides you and Hunter, that is." She sat on her haunches as she asked.
'Of course, Princess. A stray being was here a few hours ago and it wasn't friendly. Master hunted it down already.' They informed her, still shaky from the recent encounter. They hoped that she wouldn't pick up on that.
"Is that so?" She questioned, noticing the trembling. Something was up. "And what could that unfriendly visit be?"
'It was an Amygdala, Princess.' An inquiring look from the mare told them to specify. 'They are lesser beings from the depths of the cosmos. Powerful enough to end any mortal, but they tend to ignore them as if they were mere ants.'
"If that is true, then tell me why was it inside a dream, or the Dreamscape for that matter?"
'We don't know, Princess. They don't do anything unless they ordered to do something. Something verily similar to our duty with the hunters' They affirmed.
"And who do they serve?" Luna asked, already dreading the answer. She didn't like where this conversation was going.
'The Old Ones, Princess. They are almost as old as the universe itself, sometimes we think they even made it in a whim. They can be anywhere they want, whenever they want. But they don't like to stay somewhere without entertainment or personal gain, not for long.'
Luna then thought of Discord's words. Old beings from the cosmos, as powerful as him, even more. This wasn't something she was prepared for, or anyone else for that matter. Maybe the Elements of Harmony wouldn't be effective against them. Maybe they are coming over here to satisfy their wants. There were many things she wasn't sure of, but maybe Hunter knew something and could shed some light on the situation.
"Is there a way to know if they are here? Anything?"
'We aren't sure, Princess. They only comunicate in soundless languages, languages that only precious few can percieve, let alone understand. And they only appear to those who mastered their knowledge, even those who can face them in battle. Master is one of the latter.'
This fact caused Luna to raise an eyebrow in interest and, in some measure, hope. This could be the information that Hunter didn't mention her. This meant she had to talk with her new friend later tonight.
"Is he really able to see these beings?"
'Indeed he does, Princess. In fact, that is the reason he is in this world. He lost his first, and last, encounter with the one from the moon.' They finished, eagerly giving this information away as they only lived to serve those who needed them. But the alicorn's shocked expression and flaring horn stopped them from saying something else.
Through gritted teeth and tense jaw, she asked. "How long ago did this happen?"
'Twenty seven moons and two weeks, Princess.' The messengers uttered, shaking before the alicorn. They had very good reason to their reaction as Luna sent a blast of unfocused magic to the air, it was almost powerful enough to jolt her awake if she didn't waste some energy screaming to the endless sky above in the same volume as the Royal Canterlot Voice. They couldn't place the emotion behind her action, as anger, pain and fear were somehow present during her realization that, in some manner, Hunter was related to her return from the moon. She curled up into a ball and kept screaming, not wanting to believe it.
Almost inmediatly, the whole ground began to quake and bits of it were starting to chip apart. Acting quickly and, for the first time in a long time, taking the innitiative, the messengers pleaded. 'Princess, calm down. You must calm your temper, otherwise the Dreamscape may become unstable.' But she ignored them. Unable to do anything else but plead, they continued trying to get her to calm down repeating themselves like a mantra.
She kept screaming at the sky, wordless. In some part of her mind she knew she was being irrational, maybe she made up that connection between the human and Nightmare, but right now she wasn't sure. Not when beings from other planes were emmerging in her domain, the Dreamscape, her safe haven, her responsibility. She mentally froze at the implication. She couldn't afford to act like a foal in a temper tantrum, like the despised attendants in her court. Right now, she had to act like the Princess she is and resolve this problem, meaning that she had to calm herself before she ended up destroying the very place she swore to protect.
After the loud screaming died down, she uncurled herself and took calming breaths. Her composure returning to her as soon as it left her. With a sore throat and nothing else to do but wait for the morning, she turned to the messengers and said. "I thank you for your cooperation, friends. If you see Hunter, tell him I want to talk to him about the Old Ones and how can I probably solve this problem. If things go my way, I may be able to send help."
'Don't worry, Princess. We're always glad to be of help to our hunters.' The messengers replied as the Princess dissapeared in a flash of magic.
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From the depths of the space made from the nothing between dreams, Nightmare Moon smirked at her former host. "The Hunt is coming."
Author's Note
Mental breakdowns for everybody!!!