Where do they go? The ones lost, the ones searching, but searching for what? For more, more to know, more to understand, more to see, see with different eyes, see the truth... But will they believe in what they see? How will they find their way? They are hunters... They always know their way.

Borne of blood, she awoke. She no longer knew who she is, who she was or who she will become. A loud crash echoed through the empty hallways of the disheveled building as she stood up from her the cold metal surgery table. Her past life no longer mattered, from now on she was more that a pony, but less of a pony.

The moment she stood up her vision became blurry, her eyes blinded for a few seconds as the blood rush entered her head. A sudden spike of piercing pain, she fell in agony onto the hard rock ground. Shriveling in pain as she felt like a thousands of needles were stabbing her from her head down to her hooves. A small tingling still resonated as she twitched in torment, but not a single scream left her silent mouth. Her mind reunited with her hunter senses, her instincts awoke, slowly she rose up from the ground, a warm rush of movement could be felt in her veins. Her memories and emotions felt distant, almost dark like an endless void. Her past self was like a burning candle, covered by a blanked of darkness... Slowly burning out.

Calmly she inspected her surroundings, inspecting the room she was in. The room was very dark, lit up by only a couple barricaded windows. It seamed to have been used as a hospital noticeable by all the surgery tables, book filled shelves, medical tools and pony skeletal and vein system diagrams. What stood out the most were all the liquid vials and measuring cups, those looked to have been used for chemistry but in such a place they might have been used for making medicine or blood transfusions. She continued to look around the room, noticing how much of a mess it was left in, small shards of glass shattered beneath her hooves and a thick layer of dust covered everything in sight. Stood before her was a large working table, the wood dropping splinters as of its age. The dusty surface was mostly covered by piles of paper files filled with medical information and a single leather bag. It was probably left here by the buildings owner as it looked like he left in a hurry, the pony instinctively reached out for the abandoned bag with her right wing like she usually would to pick up an object. She stared in astonishment to notice her wings had no feathers, she could not remember if she was ever able to fly, but knew for certain that her wings use to have feathers. What was left were four bony fingers emerging from her wing joints, this was fairly strange but have her much more control over bone movement and a strong grasp. After picking it up she proceeded to open the bag revealing what it held inside. The bag was small and inside fitted four glass vials of a blood like substance and two old looking note books. She took the bag as it and the items within could come in handy and it's content must hold some value.

Her instincts urged her that it was time to move, staying in one place in an unknown location was dangerous. Silently she trotted forward exiting through the room's only door, she was met by a long hallway both to the left and right, moving along the left path led her to a pair of decrepit stairs. Walking down with occasional squeaks she made it to the hospital's main guestroom where stood a strangely large double exit door, what she found strange was how quiet and abandoned the place was, not a single souls to be felt, not the slightest whisper to be herd. All of the buildings windows were boarded up with thick wooden planks and even rusty metal chains, preventing preventing a almost all light from entering the room. With a slight struggle she managed to open the massive double door, pushing the two gates aside with both of her wings.

Her eyes gradually adjusted to the light emitted by the outside world, a cold and chocking air entering her nostrils. She first glanced at the night sky, it was dark, no stars could be seen, the only light lighting up the land below was a deep blood red moon, it was unbelievably large almost taking up the entire sky, it felt alive decorated my such a vibrant, fresh shade of red. Below the spectating lunar shy was a small alley of the place she was in, the buildings were too tall for her to see what hid behind them. The architecture looked to be from the late Victorian era approximately between year 1840 and 1860, but with a consistent building style theme of arrow heads, metal bars, clock towers, and overall in a long lasting state of decay, the walls rotting, bricks crumbling apart. Once again all windows and doors barricaded with wooden planks and rust infested chains all closed up with many locks, the long road that she stood on was connected with the pavement at both sides and coated with puddles of old decaying blood, over sized rats could be seed fighting to their death for a single drink of it, despite there being enough for all of them to feast upon. The pony coughed as she inhaled a strong drift of the putrid smell, managing to sense a delicate smell of ask, the ash of burning flesh, as she was told by her hunter senses. Both sides of the road were covered by buildings leaving a clear path both left and tight, the wind came both from the right, and so she went that way carefully following the small, perhaps it was food or perhaps it was trouble.

She trotted on the left right side of the narrow path, looking around at her deserted surroundings. She thought to herself, what is this place? What was she doing in that hospital? If she was a hospital patient, why did she not have a typical white or blue hospital gown? She decided it was best to concentrate on finding someone right now, so that they might explain and answer her questions. She looked in astonishment to see a caravan laying in the middle of the road, it was turned onto its left side and had no pony pulling it. Passing the mysterious sight she kept moving without investigating, but still wondered what kind of powerful force would be needed to turn over such a vehicle. As the smell of burning muscle and sizzling blood grew stronger she knew she was getting close, at the horizon of the road ahead she could see a small group of figures standing by a dancing flame. She wanted to get closer to see what exactly was happening and who were those ponies? But the road was very narrow and had very little cover, if any at all. She decided to take the risk, if the ponies were hostile she might pass unseen or escape, but if they are friendly then she must be a fool to avoid they.

Her head down she tried to stay low, slowly sneak closer and avoid making any sound, breathing was the slightest sound she was willing to let out. She stood still when close enough to the three tall figures standing still, staring at the pair of raging flames. She let out a slow gasp of air as she looked at the almost unrecognizable ponies, all three of them were stallions, but their skin looked pore pail and colorless than normal ponies. Their limbs were contorted and elongated, their eyes bone white with only their pupils showing minimal diluted color. Their coats had little hair due to the many scars inflicted upon their skin. Two of them were very skinny with a bony posture and long beards while one stood out with his large muscle mass. All three looked to be wearing slightly cheap but smart looking clothing, the typical jacket, long strait trousers, black leather shews, tops hats and leather coats or classic blazers, the kind of clothing a typical town inhabitant would wear in the late Victorian era. They were all armed with what looked to be blade like weapons, for whatever reason they were armed, it was certainly not a good one. What got her attention next were the bright flames emitting from in front of the three figures, she was horrified to see what looked to be two figures tied to large wooden logs, being consumed my the scorching fire. But they looked almost nothing like ponies, those creatures were a lot bigger even compared to the ponies standing around them. Their bones were a lot thicker, elongated pony like skulls filled with some knife sharp teeth but with some herbivore features, their disfigured legs ending with massive hooves but their front legs had split to create a pair of clawed hands growing from the joints of their front legs which did indeed have hooves. This sight was utterly horrifying, but not a single shiver went down her spine.

For a moment she stood there like a statue fixated on her discovery, debating over facing or avoiding the only ponies that she found. Before she decided on her next move she spotted a slight movement from within the three ponies. It was a dog, the dog was extremely battle scared with barely any fur and ghostly white skin, a long trail of fresh thick blood trailed from it's teeth filled mouth as it walked along the road. This dog did not look friendly at all, and it was sniffing. Frightened of being detected she moved back towards the direction she came from, approaching them was too much of a dangerous risk. The cold night wind suddenly changed direction... The dog's head immediately fixated in her direction, his endless white eyes met hers with raging anger, the dog's loud barking echoed through the silent night, alerting the three tall ponies. They turned to face her, pure hate swept across their pale faces, murder in their eyes as one of them shouted.
"Kill the monster!" in a gurgled tone.

She ran like her pure existence depended on it, the saliva in her mouth tasted of blood. Fearsome growling erupted from the dogs jaws as he gradually got close to her. She ran faster, the urge to survive powering her every muscle, her hunter instincts preventing her exhausted body from falling to the ground. The bloodthirsty dog leaped from the ground with a loud bark, it landed onto her back, it's big yellow teeth dug right into the back of her neck. They both fell onto the ground with a lot of force, the dog let go of her crackling neck as it was staggered on impact. With a almost paralyzing pain pulsating through her spine she attempted crawling away from the beast. The dog was fast to regain its stamina, the dog pounced at her again, biting into the soft muscle of her leg, she tried kicking the dog off, but to no avail as the dog was already in too much rage to feel any pain. She could barely hold back the dogs attacks with her wings as it growled in endless anger. The three slender ponies were getting closer, their hateful shouts becoming louder within seconds.

A sudden roar of gunshot pierced her ears, the dogs crimson blood splattering onto her light yellow coat, the dogs crooked corpse collapsed onto the cobble road. Organs spilled from a massive hole in the hounds chest, a pool of blood consuming the area around it. The street fell silent, the three enemy ponies looked towards a small alley to their right. A slow sound of trotting hooves was the only thing that could be herd, as a mysterious figure approached from within the shadows. A strong magenta purple aura emanating from her horn, holding a large blunderbuss with her magic, two twinkling sharp blades held in her wings, she must be an alicorn, the blades let out a sizzling spark as she scraped both metals against each other. Her coat of hair was purple and she wore a pointy, black, witch like hat with a frightening bird like plague doctor mask completely hiding her face. Her clothing was fully equipped with many small to medium vials of blood, an silent silver bell, and a thick night black cloak made up of crow feathers covering whatever else she might be hiding. One of the three angry ponies, with a long old beard and a rusty chain used by magic looked towards the masked figure, and let out a screeching scream. A sharp clank was herd as the rusty chain attack was blocked by the alicorn's blade, the old unicorn hissed in disapproval. The alicorn had already reloaded her blunderbuss, aimed in a flash and blew the unicorn's head open as he was still hissing, hi's skull erupting with a shower of blood and a wave of splattered brain. At this sight the second pony of the group, the most muscle built one ran towards the alicorn with a large hammer in hand, but hi's battle cry was silenced by a shiver of pain as the alicorn dodged his attack and precisely slashed a large cut into hi's front left leg, causing the muscular earth pony to fall onto the ground, letting go of hi's giant hammer. The alicorn just kept walking foreword, not looking back the masked pony threw a flaming molotov behind her, setting the fallen enemy on fire, his screams of agony slowly faded as he took his last carbon filled breath. The third pony was a pegasus, he looked to be the group leader, he was a lot smarter, thinking carefully of his next move as the alicorn came closer. Alicorns have very powerful magic and are not the kind of ponies to be messed with, he knew that very well. The alicorn shot her blunderbuss, but the bullet was deflected by the pegasuse's scythe. The pegasus swung hi's weapon barely missing the alicorn as she dodged the attack like a venomous snake. The pegasus then reversed one of hi's attacks, hitting the alicorn hard with the wooden end of hi's scythe, the the masked figure tumbled onto the ground, stunned by the strong hit she dropped her blunderbuss which rolled out of her reach. A slight smile crept upon the pegasuse's mouth, the only emotion he has shown throughout the fight. The wounded pony wanted to help the hopeless alicorn, but could not get up with the strong injuries inflicted by the dog. She could only luck as the tall pegasus raised the scythe above hi's head, about to end the alicorn's life. The alicorn closed her eyes, but she wasn't giving up... She was concentrating. Her horn sparked bright purple, the bright glow covered her entire body. With a flash she disappeared, suddenly appearing right behind the enemy, she scrapped the blades together, with no mercy one by another she stabbed both of her weapons deep into the confused pegasuse's back. He let out a scream of pain as hi's blood painted the alicorn's feathered coat rose red.

The alicorn slowly walked towards the wounded pony, weakened by such a powerful teleportation spell.
"Thank you" softly whispered to the alicorn, as she slowly bled out from the massive neck wound and her shattered neck.
The alicorn did not speak, just came closer and inspected what the wounded pony had inside her leather bag. From inside the alicorn took out one of the blood vials.
"Drink this" the alicorn instructed.
She did not have much choice, whatever this was going to do to her was certainly better than bleeding out in this place. And so she drank the vial's content, the piercing pain from before came back, the feeling of needles swept through her body like a swarm of bloodthirsty bees. A strong stab of pain struck her head, and the pain was over. Her wounds immediately filled up with flesh to the point where they were no longer there, the bleeding was gone, she felt full of energy, no longer tired, it was like food and a long rest, but also healed her entire body.
"There is no time to waste Flutterblood, we must hurry" the masked pony commanded.
"How would you know my name, and who are you?" asked Flutterblood with a puzzled expression.
"Your cutie mark looks to be three butterflies and you are a pony borne by the elder blood, a hunter. And so I will call you Flutterblood" the alicorn answered rapidly.
"But who are you?" Flutterblood repeated.
"My name is Stargazer, I'm a hunter like you and was sent here by the Celestialplain to find you, but we must go now, before more of beast hunters come" Stargazer answered.
Flutterblood did not argue and followed her new friend. The two ponies traveled down the narrow city paths, hiding within the cover of shadows to avoid any unwanted detection from their enemies. Flutterblood now could see a old crumbling castle in the distance, half of it had already fallen to the ground, it's days of glory looked to have passed a long time ago.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Stargazer whispered.
"Yes, it most looks glorious" Flutterblood lied.
The ponies had reached their destination, a massive metal gate stood before them, it was very rusty and looked to be rotting right before their eyes, but still kept it's gold plated patterns engraved in detail throughout all those years. Both ponies slowly traversed the large gates and stepped into the royal territory of the castle.
"Keep it calm, your safe here Flutterblood, the castle grounds hide no dangers" Stargazer said in a friendly voice.
Flutterblood just smiled gently and glanced at Stargazer, the dark hollow eyes of her mask hid any face expressions from Flutterblood.
Both ponies trotted along the crumbling rubble, avoiding any delicate infrastructures, the castle was in very bad condition at the enterance but the interior of it was a lot more stable. The castles walls were covered in paintings, they showed the deep history of it's rulers, all the royal blood members of the kingdom, from the deepest roots of the family tree to the high ends of its leaves. Flutterblood did not recognize the alicorns she saw, but new deep within the importance of those rulers and what they have done and sacrificed for this kingdom to still stand to this day. The paintings became a lot more familiar as she walked along the corridor, but the last five paintings were ripped to shreds, preventing Flutterblood from recognizing any vital facial features. The two ponies eventually reached a large door, marked with a picture of a golden sun. Stargazer looked at FlutterBlood once again, Flutterblood noticed a small glimpse of Stargazers hair escape from beneath the mask, the hair was a dark shade of blue with a few strands of amethyst purple and a touch of pink.
"You must see her alone, that is what the Celestial plain wants" Stargazer said.
Flutterblood was unsure of what she should do, she gradually grabbed the door handle and was about to enter. Stargazer took of the plague doctors mask, revealing a friendly smile and her diluted purple eyes.
"I know your scared we all are, but keep strong. You have many questions that will be answered, but not now, first you must speak to the Princess, she is waiting for you."

Flutterblood smiled back and proceeded to open the door, she was met with a long set of rounded rock stairs. Step by step she gradually made her way up, she noticed as the higher up she went rotating up the stairs around the rock pillar the temperature got drastically colder with every step she took. As she got closer to the top, the wall on the right side of the stairs had been destroyed causing Flutterblood to face the freezing cold winds of those heights and a terrifying view of the entire kingdom. She kept close to the left side, keeping safe and as far away from the drop as possible. She made it to the top of the castle tower, as small stairway extended from it, it was the last step she had to take. The view from here was never ending the kingdom was beautiful in its own way, the clock tower emerging from the rooftops below, the gigantic chimneys and walls decorating the landscape and filling the air with clouds of smoke. She did not waste more time and trotted up the tallest castle tower. The ice cold wind gently brushed through her light pink hair, making it wave to her left. In front of her stood Celestialplain a phantom white alicorn. The Celestial plain was completely surrounded by piles of burnt out candles, stood next to her was a very large empty bird cage, inside it was only a pile of gray ask and a single large bird skull was placed on top of it. Behind the celestial plain was a single, giant, colorful, decorative window which showed the kingdom but with a glorious bright sun above it, casting vibrant colors upon the buildings below it. Celestialplain's legs were very thin and contrasted in a slender posture with her incredible height, her featherless wings were the longest ones Flutteblood has ever seen, even without their feathers they were spread in their full glory, like the tail of a peacock. The alicorn's horn was longer than any sword Flutterblood has ever lied eyes upon and with such size it must hold magical powers so strong that only a pony of true royal blood can hold them. She stood in a tall strait posture, light sheets of silver armor were plated with gold lining detail and perfectly fitted to fit her chest and hooves. The middle of her chest plate held a royal gem, a mineral so rear only a royal could be honored to obtain it, it's glory reflecting the magnificence of it's owner. A very similar gem was placed upon the princesses crown, which was also made from the finest silver and plated with the highest qualities of gold, all to the royal standards. Despite this what stood out the most about the appearance of Celestialplain must have been the thick iron mask she had covering her entire face, the mask had thin line cuts in it to let the princess see and breath, but was astonishingly strange for the princess to hide her beauty this way. Next she noticed the calm waves of the alicorn's hair drifting through the air, Celestialplain did not have much hair but the bit of it that she obtained was outstanding, the diluted shades of pink, blue, and pink all together looked like beams of pure sunlight reflected off the eyes of those that have the privilege to see their glory... She was truly the only sun within the plain darkness of this world.

"Flutterblood my child, I could feel your pain, I felt your hope, but now I feel your fear, why is that?" Celestialplain asked softly, her words like the ones of a loving mother.
"I'm not scared your majesty, I'm just lost" responded Flutterblood.
"Those words hurt me my dear, a lie can be sometimes be worse than death you see, i know that very well. What you have just said is a lie, I am the unknown to you little pony, you do not understand my power, you do not know my weakness, the unknown is our greatest fear... But do not fear me, I mean you no harm, I'm just warning you about the truth of this world" Celestialplain stated.
Flutterblood was scared, but didn't want her fear to be noticed.
"Please come closer my daughter, I need to feel your warm blood, closer." said Celestialplain gently.
Flutterblood did not fear the princess's command and came foreword. Celestialplain reached out with her long bony wing and delicately stroked Flutterblood's right cheek, Flutterblood did not flinch.
"I feel the elder blood within your veins, you have been poisoned by what shall keep you alive, it will make you stronger as long as you can control that strength. Many have fallen before you, the elder blood has turned them into beasts, you must hold the duty they held and not fall under it's wait." Celestialplain paused for a moment.
"This land has fallen to a power stronger than us, a power we could not understand, the unknown that we have trusted. A ponies oldest and strongest fear is the fear of the unknown, fear of the elder blood. We were not ready for the power it gave us and were fools to do the deeds we now have to pay for. My sister was right..." A single tear dropped from the slit in Celestialplain's mask.
"She did not take the elder blood and so the great ones revealed to her the truth, what it was we do not know and we could never understand as she is now greater than us. She left the everlasting crimson moon upon our sky as a punishment for my foolishness, she left us rotting in this forsaken land while she travels beyond our existence." Another tear drop escaped the princess's mask.
"Without the sun I am dying, and without a princess this kingdom will die with me, you must help us Flutterblood. You must find the elements of harmony so that we can banish the curse put upon this kingdom, it cannot end this way." Celestial plain looked up from her feet and glanced in the direction of Flutterblood.
"I will do all I can to save this kingdom your highness" Flutterblood knelled.
She slowly rose back up and turned back towards where she came from.
"And you shall not fail" Whispered Celrstialplain as Flutterblood left the tower.

Author's Note

Thank you if you managed to read all of this, I'm working really hard on my project of Flutteblood. I've written a draft of this story before, but now I'm finally writing the full thing in full detail here on fimfiction because I feel a lot more people will read it and enjoy it on this website. All the art in my story is drawn by me and if you would like to see it than It's all on my DeviantArt: ImTheCASUAL