Whimsyshire

Not Enough Hatred

Thorne did not like what was happening. First he had to deal with an annoying spirit that hailed itself as some sort of 'Cow King', but at least he knew from Ayida's message that he was on the right track from that. However, Ayida failed to mention in her short message that he would be going through a portal to an entirely new world, and that in said world he would be dropped off in the middle of a forest with no directions.

"When I find Ayida I'm going to..." Thorne began to rant then stopped as he felt something.

In the pit of his stomach he could feel something or someone watching him. Thorne crouched low, drawing his bow and nocked an arrow. Closing his eyes he allowed his years of discipline to kick in, feeling what was around him.

Thorne's eyes shot open as he whirled in place and drew the bowstring back, but what he saw made him hesitate to fire. Standing next to a tree was a small yellow pony with a pink mane. Thorne slowly let the tension out of the string, keeping a firm grip on the arrow to make sure it did not fire. Something about this creature was off to him, it's eyes seem to gleam with intelligence.

"Oh, hi... um..." The pink maned pony began to lose volume as it went one to the point Thorne could not make out what it said. Not that he was paying attention to what it said, he was too busy freaking out that there were more talking animals.

"You can talk?!" Thorne nearly yelled, scaring the yellow mare who hid her face behind her mane.

"........" The pony mumbled again at an inaudible volume. Thorne realized he might be scaring her with his volume and decided to try a different course of action.

Fluttershy had been approached by Luna earlier that day. Luna had said that she felt something coming from the Everfree, something she felt before. When Bannuk and Ayida came to their world. Luna had asked Fluttershy who knew the forest the best to look for what had caused it, since Fluttershy could keep out of danger the easiest in the forest.

Fluttershy had not been expecting what she found however. The being was similar to Bannuk and Ayida, but were any of whatever they were alike in any way? Sure they were all bipedal Fluttershy thought, but Bannuk was physically a titan, Ayida was smaller but Twilight said Ayida had monstrous magical abilities, and this new one she found looked only slightly larger than Ayida, but much smaller then Bannuk. As Fluttershy watched it, she noticed the way it moved seemed to carry more grace than the others. It had skillfully leaped over fallen trees, and weaved its way through the trees.

The thing was covered in spiked armor plates, and it had a bow slung over it's shoulder. Instead of a helmet like Bannuk wore, or a mask like Ayida, it wore a black hood that obscured it's face. Fluttershy tried to catch a glimpse to tell if it was male or female, bet she did not want to risk it seeing her before she discovered if it was friendly. It came to a halt in a small clearing next to a stream. It leaned down and splashed some water under it's hood.

"When I find Ayida I'm going to..." It started in a deep voice, not quite as deep as Bannuk's but definitely male. Also, he seemed to know Ayida and was looking for her. Fluttershy decided to approach and welcome Ayida's friend.

The moment Fluttershy took one step forward after setting herself upon the forest floor and folding her wings tight against her body, The figure spun in place and aimed the bow at her. She froze, it had glowing red eyes underneath the hood. As it looked at her over an arrow, it seemed to loosen up from its tensed position, and lowered the bow.

"Oh, hi um. Are you Ayida's friend?" Asked Fluttershy. The figure did not seem to register what she had said.

"You can talk?!" Yelled the creature scaring Fluttershy.

"I'm sorry, please don't hurt me!" Fluttershy whimpered.

The creature then set down its bow, and returned the arrow to it's back. Then it sat down in front of Fluttershy and waited patiently. After a minute Fluttershy found the courage to come out from behind her mane and talk once again, seeing the creature did not want to harm her.

"Are you Ayida's friend?" Fluttershy asked with more volume this time.

"You know my friend?" the creature asked. Fluttershy perked up at this, it was friendly.

Then a roar cried out behind Fluttershy, one she recognized. Beginning to turn a paler shade of yellow, Fluttershy looked behind her to see a hydra. Worst of all, it was foaming at it's three mouths. Looking back to Ayida's friend Fluttershy let out a scared whimper.

Thorne reacted immediately to the roar. He couldn't believe he was so stupid! Letting his guard down just because there was an innocent creature trying to talk to him, that was when darkness always struck! He should know that, for that kind of foolishness is what had caused his parents and little sister to be taken form him.

Hatred burned inside of Thorne as his eyes burned a crimson red. The beast was barreling its way toward the yellow pony, no time to draw his bow. Reaching for the pouch at his belt, Thorne grabbed a cluster of grenades and hurled them at the charging beast. Two of the heads snapped up the incoming bombs, and were promptly splattered across the forest floor. The thing halted in its charge from this turn of events, offering enough time for Thorne to draw his bow, and launch an exploding cluster arrow. The shot found it's mark in the thing's chest, and the explosion wrenched it's chest open, allowing the secondary charges to wreak havoc on it's organs.

It fell dead to the ground, the light fading from it's eyes. The mare had fainted from the show of violence, there goes his guide.

"God... damn it..." Thorne said through clenched teeth, he was sick of this already. As he walked over to the yellow pony he noticed something he had missed before.

"Wings? No wonder how she snuck up one me..." Thorne whispered as he picked her up and carried her over a shoulder.

Thorne cocked his head to the side, he heard something barreling straight at him. He looked the the mare over his shoulder and then looked to the sound of trees crashing out of the way.

"Oh no..." Thorne said, eyes narrowing as he could see the black clad titan shattering trees that stood in the way of his charge, arms open wide.

Thorne set the mare and his bow down on the forest floor, and held his arms to his side, wincing. Bannuk always watched out for Thorne, the two had been close. Thorne always suspected Bannuk liked him because he did not use magic like the others. Regardless, Bannuk treated Thorne like a younger sibling, just as Bannuk had filled the role of an older sibling to Thorne.

The titanic figure of Bannuk came skidding to a halt just short of Thorne, and grabbed him in a crushing bear hug.

"Thorne! Long time no see! Ayida told me a little bit ago she had sent a message to you. I came to find you as quick as I could, I know how much you hate it when we run off and don't give you directions to find us." Bannuk greeted his friend who had gone limp in his hug. Bannuk looked down to the limp Demon Hunter in his arms and let go.

Thorne let out a deep gasp for air as he was released from the crushing grip. He panted trying to catch his breath, then lowered his hood to look up to Bannuk.

"Hello old friend, age still has not weakened you I see." Thorne laughed sarcastically standing up and picking up his bow.

"What happened to Fluttershy?" Bannuk asked, noticing the fainted mare.

"Well, we got attacked, and she kind of fainted when I killed it." Thorne said, rubbing the back of his head. Bannuk seemed to know this pony, and Thorne wasn't sure if Bannuk would be happy about him causing the mare to faint.

"Hah! You're taking after me already." Bannuk laughed.

"What." Thorne managed out as Bannuk picked up the mare, cradling her in his arms.

"Come, Ayida is waiting." Bannuk laughed as he walked down the path he had broken through the forest.

Ayida had found herself in a bad position. Three little fillies that had called themselves the 'Cutie Mark Crusaders' had asked her to teach them how to be Witch Doctors in hopes of finding their special talents. Ayida was busy buying some lemons from a stall and merely waved the girls off, telling them the notion was preposterous. Little did Ayida know in an attempt to better get her attention, the fillies would cause the lemons in the stand to spontaneously combust. How they even managed it was beyond her, she did not even feel the influence of magic. One thing was certain though, she had to evade the fillies.

The fillies chased her however, not giving up on becoming Witch Doctors. As they cornered Ayida in an alley however, the Witch Doctor's eyes glazed over, and as they approached the still form of Ayida, it vanished. Ayida had spirit walked to the other side of the wall, and had given the girls the slip.

"That was a close one, need to find a place to hide..." Ayida whispered to herself, then looked over to a large building with a sign on it that read 'Carousel Boutique'. She rushed for the door, and leaped inside, slamming the door behind her.

"Welcome to my store Ayida, is there something I can help you with?" Asked Rarity.

Ayida spun around and looked at Rarity, then to the shop that surrounded her. Dresses were everywhere, in progress, and finished.

"Uhh-" Ayida began before being cut off by Rarity.

"Oh! You must have taken up my offer to make you a new outfit! How splendid, this will be the perfect challenge for my skills." Rarity squealed in delight.

'Out of the pot and into the fire' thought Ayida as the seamstress advanced on her.

Celestia had indeed gotten a message from Envy, but the contents were not as Bannuk thought it would be. It was asking Celestia to stay out of her way. Something was wrong though, Envy was hot headed yes, but why was she so hostile towards Bannuk?

"What did Bannuk do to get your queen's hatred so fast?" Celestia asked the courier Griffon.

"The message he sent to her was carved in the flesh of a scout. After she had read it, the scout tried to blow up on her, and our guard captain took the blast for her." The courier explained, nervous about being addressed directly by royalty.

"What?! Oh that man, I knew he sought conflict, but to go that far... I will have to talk to him." Celestia stopped as she noticed the Griffon shift nervously under her angry gaze.

"I apologize, you may return now, just tell her I will uphold my end of the peace treaty." Celestia said, regaining her composure.

The Griffon scout nodded and flew off to deliver the message. Taking special care to go around the Diamond Dog lands.

Celestia sighed to herself. She did not want war to happen so close to her border, especially not right next to her precious elements. They would be needed to be in harmony, not the chaos of war to work properly. Celestia just hoped that nothing befell Equestria while this was going on.

"Shining, I need you to take care of all court duties, I have a Barbarian to talk to..." Celestia said, heading for the balcony that the throne room was connected to.

"Yes my princess" Shining saluted.

Celestia then flew off towards Ponyville in hopes of persuading Bannuk to keeping the as war away from Ponyville as possible.

Thorne could not believe his eyes. As they left the dark forest, he beheld a bright land that looked like ti had never seen true evil. He observed ponies in a town not far ahead going about a peaceful day, as if they feared nothing would come to harm them.

"What did you need me here for Bannuk? This land looks like it has no evil in it at all. Sure there are some animals that could cause harm in the forest, but they are not evil only hungry." Thorne said, looking up to Bannuk.

"We have started a war against a tyrant. She and her people are fliers but not of the same species as this one. They are Griffons." Bannuk explained.

"Don't you need an army to start a war?" Scoffed Thorne.

"Yes, and I have one and citizens to protect." Bannuk stated simply.

Thorne laughed at this and shook his head, then sobered up noticing the serious look on Bannuk's face.

"Oh god, your serious." The Demon Hunter mumbled.

"Yes, I was made the king of a species of intelligent dogs when they gave recognition to my might. The Griffons threatened to wipe them out, and as their king it is my duty to protect them. And I need you to defend my city." Bannuk said, looking Thorne right in the eye.

"Me? But I am not the best at protecting, vengeance I can enact, but protection? Why not send for the monk?" Thorne asked.

"They attack by the air Thorne, and you will be dealing out revenge. The Griffons nearly drove the dogs to extinction, you will be slaying their foe for them that they cannot reach." Bannuk said in a firm tone.

Fluttershy stirred in Bannuk's arm and looked up to him. The Barbarian looked down the the yellow Pegasus in his arms, and smiled.

"C'mon Fluttershy, lets get you home. You saw something scary again didn't you?" Bannuk said in a fatherly voice.

As Bannuk walked off Thorne watched him go, he needed to find Ayida. But this land, it was so perfect how was he supposed to fight like this?

"They expect me to draw on the power of hatred in a land like this?" The Demon Hunter huffed. A butterfly floated over and landed on his shoulder.

"Not enough hatred" Thorne mumbled, not even brushing the butterfly off as he took off towards the town in search of Ayida.