By the Blood

Once again, the Doll is not waiting for you when you return to the Hunter's Dream. And once more, you find her inside, tending to the unconscious pony. She didn't appear to be turning any more transparent, but she wasn't any better, either.

Suddenly, as you got close to the two, something in your pockets started glowing faintly. Curious, you look for the source, finding it to be that stone you picked up from the giant bird. Not only that, but it started glowing more brightly the closer you brought it to the pony, though even when you touched it to her it didn't seem to do much besides glow brighter.

Acting on a hunch, you put pressure on the rock while it's right next to her horn, shattering it into pieces. As it does, you feel some sort of... something trail into the pony, along with a portion of your gathered echoes.

Once nothing of the rock remained, you pulled back and stood back to your full height, noting that the pony was becoming less transparent by the second. Once they were fully solid, her eyes groggily opened, and she scanned the room around her. When her eyes fell on you and the Doll, realization washed over her.

"How... how long was I incapacitated?"

The Doll answers for you. "Time has little meaning within the dream, but I would estimate it was at least for several hours."

Slowly, the pony gets up, until she's sitting on her haunches. "I see..." She turns to you. "Then I take it you have seen what has happened to our world?"

You nod, before asking for some specifics regarding the world.

She sighs. "It was terrible. One day, our great country of Equestria was peaceful, nothing out of the ordinary. Then, my sister vanished, and not even a day later that... plague spread across the land, turning ponies into terrible beasts, and slowly but surely reducing the natural magic in the air, until it became a great task to simply levitate an object, a spell that can be normally done with zero effort. Not only that, but the moon, which is my duty to raise and set every night, grew out of my control and blocked out the sun, throwing the land into darkness."

She shakes her head. "We fought hard, but there was no stopping it; not even our best magical minds could find a solution, or even what the cause was. However, eventually we were able to find something: a very brief mention of a group of individuals known for eliminating beasts and plagues, who manifest within special dreams."

You and the Doll share a brief look.

The pony continues. "Yes, Hunters have been legends within Equestria for many years, though as of late the legends have fallen from the public knowledge. Regardless, as I have a special connection with dreams, I was chosen to contact one, and was given what little magic was left from my allies to make the journey." She hangs her head low. "Though, it was clearly not enough to survive for very long after the journey. I must thank you for bringing me a mana stone, Hunter."

Before you can ask another question, the pony speaks again. "Oh, how rude of me, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Luna."

Once you and the Doll introduce yourselves, you ask about where the rest of her allies were.

"We were able to make it to the neighboring Crystal Empire, which was free from the plague, for the time, but was still suffering from the magical deterioration. Going there would be your best bet, but in the early stage of the plague, a magical barrier was erected around it, preventing anyone from finding the kingdom unless someone from within 'invites' them. While I do have some magic back, now, I cannot hope to send you there directly and survive, so instead I will tell you this: You have been to the city of Canterlot, correct?"

You nod.

"Good. At the foot of the mountain on which it rests, there will be a small town known as Ponyville. Within that town, there should be another, smaller castle, belonging to my sister's former student, Twilight Sparkle, one of the remaining princesses in the Crystal Empire. I would wager that you would find a way to contact her there."

You nod once again, and seeing that she was done talking, you head over to tune your weapons some more. Once that was done, you returned to the Doll and channeled what echoes you could, Luna watching curiously during the process. Once that was done, Luna bid you farewell as you left, heading once more into the broken world of Equestria.

The area around the train station was still on fire when you returned, though the intensity of the flames had died down considerably. The eclipse was farther down the sky now, though the light was unchanged.

Walking over to the far edge of the train platform, you spot the town that Luna told you of, which was in almost as bad a shape as Canterlot, it appeared.

Taking a deep breath, you begin to follow the tracks down, starting the trek to Ponyville.

In stark contrast to the burning ruins of Canterlot, the wilderness outside the city seemed almost peaceful, though the air was still thick with smoke from the city. The dead bodies of both ponies and wild animals found occasionally also told the true story of the land around you.

At one point, your path took you through some trees, where you happened across another pony beast. However, shortly after you dispatched it, a howl blew through the leaves, and you were attacked by a group of what appeared to be wolves.

At first glance, they looked to be made of wood. However, the closer you looked, the more you realized that it was actually charred bone that made up their bodies, along with a few scarce spots of flesh that looked like cancerous growths on their bodies. Any discomfort they might've had with such a form was ignored in favor of glaring at you, in that same focused, blood-hungry way that all beasts did.

The first one to lunge at you was swiftly avoided and attacked by your blade, and you couldn't help but grin in satisfaction as its form shattered entirely on a single swing.

The others also charged you, only to meet a similar fate.

Satisfied with the results of that skirmish, you begin to continue on your way, but stop when you hear a faint rattling behind you. Turning, you see the scattered remains of the wolves begin to rattle in place on the ground, before rushing up and condensing to a single point in the air, giving birth to a growing mass of bone.

With a mighty roar, the mass began to take form, turning into an even larger wolf, with far more limbs than was necessary, with several sticking out from its back uselessly.

You unfold your spear just in time for it to bound at you, its jaws set to close on your upper half. You avoid the bite, but are forced to continue retreating backwards as it keeps biting, hoping to catch you with one of the strikes.

When that wasn't working, it instead swept a claw along the ground at you, which you were barely able to roll over in time. Now off-balance, the wolf was defenseless against your attacks, each hit sending shards of bone and bits of flesh to the ground.

After one final stab, the beast bucks wildly, causing you to lose your grip on your weapon and tumble to the ground. You quickly get back on your feet, however, and have just enough time to see your spear stuck in the creature's side before it gets absorbed into the mass, becoming assimilated with the beast's body.

Scowling, you draw your backup weapon, a standard issue Hunter's axe. You didn't use it very often, but you still liked having it around just in case, such as right now.

Not giving the beast time to react, you charge forward, firing a shot into its face before following up with an axe swing. Right before you swing again, you pull the axe to its full length, causing the blade to hit deeper as you strike.

The wolf recoils greatly from the force of the blows, but in the middle of a massive swing, you're caught off guard when the beast sends another claw at you, hitting you square in the chest and sending you rolling away.

Not even hesitating to jam a vial into yourself, you get back up and head back towards the beast, both hands tightly gripping your axe. It makes the first move, bringing its entire weight forward at you, but you're too fast for it, and you sidestep before carving into the beast's side, sending more bits of its body to the ground.

After a few more hits, the beast lets out a mighty wail, before falling to the ground, completely shattering into thousands of bone shards. Catching your breath, you stride through its remains and reclaim your spear without ceremony, and continue on your trek to Ponyville.

After some distance, you realize you've lost sight of the train tracks, but it doesn't matter now, because you emerge from the trees to see the town itself ahead of you, and at the very least the smoke isn't as thick, here.

Doing a last inspection on all your weapons, you stride forward, into the unknown.