What it means to be a Hunter

Chapters

Chapter 1: The Hunter in Blue
Chapter 2: Maccao boxing
Chapter 3: Making friends, sorta

Chapter 1: The Hunter in Blue

Pure Heart, a relatively thin-looking snow-white unicorn with a long violet mane in a ponytail, proudly stood in front of the white marble arches of the entrance to Canterlot Castle, looking at all the ponies walking in and out of it. Most of the ponies were wearing armour of some kind, each set of armour flashier and more exotic than the other. Pure Heart was pretty sure he saw a set completely made out of bones and skulls at some point. Why anypony would wear something like that was beyond him. All those armoured ponies were walking in and out of the castle because it also doubled for the local guild hall, the place where all the real hunters meet up before going on hunts.

He was starting to have some second thoughts about participating in the annual monster-hunter tryout. Yes, being a hunter would mean that he was part of the legendary monster hunters, yes, he had trained for pretty much his whole life in combat, but these were monsters they were talking about. There's quite a lot of difference between fighting one on one with another pony and having to dodge giant claws as if your life depends on it. Then again, it was his destiny to protect ponies, and slaying dragons that threatened everyday-life seemed like the ultimate way for somepony like him to protect ponies. His cutiemark, a violet shield, symbolised that.

Pure Heart pulled himself together, shaking his head between his hooves. He got a few looks from some of the ponies around him, but he didn't care. If he was doing this, then he would be getting looks anyway. The tryouts were really popular to watch. What's not to like about newbie hunters trying to wield oversized weapons and getting kicked unconscious by equally oversized monsters? And today Pure Heart was going to be one of those newbies. At least no one could say that he didn't try. If this didn't work out he'd join the royal guard. It wasn't as good as being hunter, but it would have to do. He was specialised in combat against ponies, so getting accepted there wouldn't be a problem.

He walked through the arches, and into the castle, and was blown away at the size of the place. The ceiling here was at least 3 times as high as the one in his own little apartment, and this was just the entrance hall. Great white marble pillars rose from the grey granite floor. Between the pillars stood small trees in large olive-green pots, bringing some colour to the place. Rays of light shone in from small gaps in the ceiling, bathing the hall in warm golden sunlight.

Pure Heart stood there for a few seconds, taking it all in, before noticing the looks everypony around him were giving him again. And again, he didn't care much about it. He had already lost all his shame by coming here to probably receive a good monster-beatdown, get laughed at, and go home.

He crossed the hall, looking left and right at all the ponies that were there. There were some small groups of ponies that were probably hunters, chatting and telling stories, there were some stalls with all sorts of merchandise, and there was even a full blown kitchen! Pure Heart never knew that vendors were allowed in here, not to mention a small restaurant! Well, apparently they are allowed in here. Maybe a special permit, or something? He made a mental note to look into this later.

When Pure Heart finally got to the other side of the Great Hall, as it was called, he saw a scarily long queue in front of a white marble counter at the back of the hall. The queue was filled with nervous looking ponies, some of them carrying improvised weaponry, though most of them didn't.

Pure Heart looked around, not completely sure whether this was the place where he should be. Surely the hunter tryouts would attract better prepared ponies than this. That green one over there was carrying a shovel! Did he seriously think that a shovel would be good enough to kill monsters? Ugh. Some ponies. You don't just join the most disciplined corps of fighters with a shovel.

He spotted a lone hunter sitting on a bench at a table wearing blue feathered armour that looked as if it had belonged to a minstrel once. A heavily armoured foreign minstrel, maybe from Saddlearabia, or something. It didn't look as if it would grant much protection, but it probably did anyway. Hunting-armour is weird. His armour covered him completely, not even one scrap of fur could be seen poking out from under his exotic clothing. He even wore a mask, covering his face. He appeared to be going through his backpack. Pure Heart walked up to him.

"Excuse me, sir, is that over there the queue for the hunter tryouts?" Pure Heart asked him hesitantly.

The hunter slowly looked up from his backpack, looked at the queue, and went back to rummaging through his bag.

"Yep, that's the queue. Are you going to try to become a hunter or something?" he answered with a rich, laid-back, middle-aged, golden voice, whilst closing his bag with a dark blue aura.

"Yes sir!" Pure Heart answered Maybe a little too enthusiastic.

He looked up from his bag and looked Pure Heart up and down one time.

The hunter leant back on the bench. "A little bit eager, are we? Ech, we were all one day as eager as you. Have you picked your weapon of choice yet?"

Pure Heart shook his head and answered with a "No sir!", quieter this time. He hadn't. He wanted to keep his options open until he had taken a good look at all choices. He knew that most weapons were fairly heavy, so he had been honing his levitation power so that he could wield heavy weapons with ease.

The hunter clapped his hooves excitedly and rubbed them together. "Ah, then I'm going to help you pick one."

Before Pure Heart could interrupt him, the hunter already explained himself. "Weapon-picking is the best part of monster hunting! So many choices! So, what are you good at? Aiming, swinging heavy stuff, complex swordplay, what do you do?"

Pure Heart decided that he might as well let the hunter help him. "Well, I noticed that most of the melee weapons used were gigantic, so I practised levitating heavy things a lot. I think my options are pretty open. I think I'd prefer something close ranged, though."

The hunter sighed. "Well, that still leaves you with-" he looked up for a second in thought, "-around nine different weapons to choose from. You might want to get a little more specific than that if you want to get a proper weapon. There are quite a lot of weapons that are heavy and involve hitting the enemy, you know. Let me just ask you a few questions, and then I'll suggest you a weapon based on that, yes?"

Pure Heart nodded. He thought that the hunter probably knew best what to focus on.

"First of all, what's your name? I like knowing who I'm talking with," the hunter asked.

"I'm Pure Heart," Pure Heart said with a smile, "I want to become a hunter so that I can protect as many ponies as possible!"

Pure Heart could hear the hunter chuckling behind his mask. "Sure you do. Aren't you just in it for the thrill, the money, the cool weaponry? The knowledge that you can kill pretty much anything?!"

Pure Heart shook his head, looking horrified at just the thought of being a hunter for such trivial reasons. "N-no, sir, I actually want to protect ponies!"

The hunter shrugged and leant back on the bench again. "Eh, to each their own, I guess. And for my name... Well, you can call me the Blue Hunter. Blue, if that's too long for you. Some of us experienced hunters like having a bit of...mystique hanging around us. And 'The Blue Hunter' just sounds cool, doesn't it?"

'Blue' looked at Pure Heart, as if he expected him to confirm his opinion. Pure Heart couldn't see it, but he suspected that Blue had an expectant grin hidden behind that mask.

"It, eh, sounds very mysterious!" Pure Heart told him in a slightly softer voice than normal, "It, eh... really gives you this aura of mystique and...eh...mysterious-ness!"

The Blue Hunter looked at Pure Heart in silence for a few seconds, probably with a disapproving face under his mask, before continuing. "Soooo! Do you think being able to move is the bee's knees?"

Pure Heart nodded. It was probably best to just humour the hunter and call him 'Blue'. He was getting free advice from the guy, so he was not going to just annoy him for no big reason. "Yeah, that seems kind of important. I don't want to be stuck right in front of the monster as it's about to do some kind of death attack."

The Blue Hunter nodded sagely. "Ah yes, that rules out both types of lance. You're pretty much a sitting duck with those. So, next question, do you like having a shield of some sorts? Something to stand between you and the monster?"

Another nod. This one a bit more hesitant. "Well, yeah, but I don't want to have to depend on it all the time. I'd rather just stand someplace that the monster doesn't target in the first place."

"Huh, most people prefer not having a shield. They say it slows them down." Blue sounded surprised.

He stood up and picked up his backpack with levitation. "Well, we're down to two options. Follow me, I'm going show them to you."

Pure Heart nodded again excitedly and followed Blue towards an open doorway at the right side of the Great Hall. Behind it, there was a spacious hallway with a lot of large wooden doors on both sides with brass number plates. They walked along the hall for a bit before the hunter stopped at a door with the number 23 on it. He got out a key and unlocked what was apparently his room.

"Some people choose to stay here at the castle after they become hunters. You don't have much here, just a bed, a wardrobe, a weapon rack, and a box for your stuff to go in, but most ponies don't mind. They're spending most of their time in the wild anyway. The doors are extra big to not screw over the longsword and lance users. Their weapons are slightly too big to fit through normal doors," Blue said, as he walked over to his weapon rack and started looking through all the different weapons on it.

The weapon rack was made out of brass and was quite big. It took up the entire back wall of the room, leaving just enough space for the rest of the furniture. The small wooden bed was pushed into a corner, making a bit of room for a small wardrobe, and a big red box near the door. Next to the box there stood a tall mirror, probably for seeing if the armour was equipped correctly.

The rack was packed full with weapons and colourful sets of armour. There were all sorts of weapons: big swords, small swords, huge swords, giant axes, lances, spears, hammers, and even some oversized musical instruments. Blue picked out a (relatively speaking) small sword with a shield and one of the huge swords out from the rack and put them on the ground in front of Pure Heart.

The smaller sword looked like a normal double edged sword made out of steel, except that it was slightly thicker than a regular sword should be. The shield that went with it was a round, white shield with a yellow sun painted on it. It wasn't that big, but it looked big enough to deflect most attacks from monsters if positioned correctly. The greatsword was double-edged as well, and far bigger than the sword and shield. It was around a meter and a half long and was around 30 centimeters from edge to edge. It was about as thick as half a leg. It too had a yellow sun on it, this time on side of the blade, where the grey steel connected to the hilt. The greatsword didn't have a guard. It would probably just be in the way.

"Here you go," Blue said, "a sword and shield, and a greatsword. Your pick."

Pure Heart looked at how big and heavy the greatsword looked, and didn't think that anypony would ever be able to lift that.

"Ehm, I mean no disrespect, but... Blue, how am I supposed to use the greatsword? Isn't it far too heavy?"

Blue lifted the greatsword in his magic with apparent ease. "No it isn't."

Pure Heart shrugged and continued to look at both weapons critically, trying to see how they would be used. "You said that these would have a shield, correct?"

"Hmm-hmm."

"Well, the big one" -Pure Heart poked the greatsword- "doesn't have a shield."

Blue chuckled softly, before holding the greatsword sideways in front of him, showing how wide it was. "What do you mean, 'no shield'? This sword is the shield."

Pure Heart looked at the sword in silence for a few seconds before letting out a little "Oh." of realisation. "You know, that seems very handy. I think I'll take the greatsword."

"Ah! An excellent choice!" Blue said, while dropping the greatsword in front of Pure Heart, and putting the sword and shield back in the weapon rack, "You know, most ponies don't use the greatsword because it's too big and slow. It's because they try to make it do what they want. They try to move it from point A to point B in a straight line and then complain that it keeps going. Instead of moving it in straight lines, you need to move it in circles. Just a tip."

Blue picked up a sword and shield in his magic and made a few chopping motions with the sword. "You see? doing this with the greatsword wouldn't be possible. It simply has too much momentum."

"So...I need to just let it swing? And alter the path of the sword to hit things?" Pure Heart said with a grin, "That sounds fairly effective." This sounded like something he could do, maybe.

Blue nodded. "You got it. It's a lot more difficult than it seems because you need to let your magic go with the weapon, instead of trying to be in full control."

Pure Heart picked up the greatsword in his magic. It really was lighter than it looked. It was still really heavy, but at least he could lift it. Swinging it would probably not be that much of a problem, except for the stopping part that Blue had mentioned.

He looked questioningly at Blue. "Can I just take this?"

"Yep, it's all yours now," Blue said with a shrug, "I can make another one whenever I want, no biggie."

"Woah, thanks, sir!" Pure Heart almost bounced from excitement. He was maybe a bit too old for getting this excited when getting cool things, but he didn't care. He just got a sword that was longer than himself from an elite hunter. Of course he was excited.

Blue sighed deeply. "Y'know, you can drop the 'sir'. I really don't care for formalities," he said.

"B-but, si- I mean-" Pure Heart began with a confused look on his face before being silenced with a wave of Blue's hoof.

"Ech, forget it, it's not a big deal, you can keep calling me 'sir' if that makes you feel better. In fact," -Blue placed a hoof on his chin thoughtfully- "having somepony call me 'sir' will do wonders for my image. So if you want to, calling me 'sir' is just fine. Forget I said anything."

Blue walked towards the weapon rack and starting looking through the sets of armour that hung there and levitated a suit of metal armour from it, and dropped it on the ground on top of the greatsword in front of Pure Heart with a clanking noise. "Here, take this. You might be able to use this."

Pure Heart looked at the metal armour. It consisted of a steel helmet with a hole in the front to make place for his horn. The rest of the suit was made out of leather with chainmail and steel plates on strategic places to further reinforce it without sacrificing movement. It didn't look like the most protective armour out there, but at least he would be able to move in it.

He put it on with his magic. The thought of facing monsters with no armour didn't really make him feel comfortable.

When he finished putting the armour on, which felt surprisingly light, he picked up the greatsword again with a violet glow. He gave it a slow experimental vertical swing, noticing that stopping it took more effort than he would like, just like Blue had said. He had only just stopped the greatsword in time to not crash it into the wooden floor.

He walked over to the mirror, and saw that the armour didn't look half bad on him. He looked pretty cool even, in his opinion.

Blue walked up next to him and gave him a friendly punch to the shoulder, causing the armour to jingle. "So, are you ready to smack a monster?"

Pure Heart nodded. Yep, he was as ready as he would ever be. Plus, now that he had gotten a few pointers from Blue, he might actually stand a chance. So that was nice too.

"Well let's go then!" Blue said while motioning Pure Heart to follow him before walking out of the door and onto the hallway.

Pure Heart put the greatsword on his back, securing it with a strap that was probably there for holding weapons. He then followed Blue with a grin on his face.

Time to hunt a monster.

Author's Note

Well, this is my first story, so I hope it isn't that bad.
I'll be updating this, but I'm a fairly slow writer, so don't hold your breath.

17-3 EDIT: Rewrote some of the dialogue I wasn't happy with. Pure Heart was not exactly the character I wanted him to be, so I gave him a 180.

Chapter 2: Maccao boxing

Pure Heart, now wearing a nice set of armour and a greatsword on his back, trotted excitedly alongside Blue out of the living quarters and headed towards the queue for the hunter tryouts. Heart went to join the back of the rather long queue, but Blue stopped him with a quick poke.

"Nah, I don't feel like waiting for two hours before I can see you in action," Blue said whilst pointing at a door at the end of the hall, "follow me."

Heart followed Blue without saying a word. He did feel bad about jumping the queue, but Blue did say that he was an elite hunter, so he probably had a lot of influence? Maybe there was a system to let certain ponies jump the queue to keep things interesting for the viewers in the arena? There had to be a better reason than that Blue didn't feel like waiting.

When they arrived at the registration desk at the end of the queue, (which was also made out of marble, like most things here,) Heart finally saw who was standing behind it. It was a brown unicorn mare with a long flowing black mane, surrounded by books and writing tools. She wore green robes and had a small hat in the same colour. She was currently looking through a small pair of glasses at a big book in front of her, jotting down information with a pen levitated in a dark green aura, probably information about the slightly impatient stallion right in front of her. Blue approached her.

"Hey there, Guildmarm, can we cut the queue real quick? This guy here-" Blue gave Heart a small punch to the shoulder, "-shows promise. Should be interesting to watch."

The mare apparently called 'Guildmarm' looked up from her paperwork, and looked calculatingly at Heart for a few seconds. "Sure, I'll register him, and then he's good to go."

The ponies in the queue just sighed, and a light blue pegasus even facehoofed. Apparently Blue wasn't the first one to make a request like this.

They went through the registration process fairly quickly. They would usually have to register which weapon they used, borrow one from the armoury, etc, but all that had already been taken care of by Blue. You didn't have to borrow a weapon and a suit of armour if you already owned them.

The Guildmarm pointed towards the door to her left. "So, Doodle, you can go through that door now and beat up a monster. Hopefully. Blue will show you where everything is. I'd show you myself, but I might as well let Blue do it. I've still got work to do," she said, before going back to registering the ponies in the queue.

"Ehh, my name isn't-" Heart began, before being interrupted by Blue.

"Hush, she only calls ponies Doodle when they're hunters, so this means that she puts a lot of faith in you."

Heart smiled thankfully at the Guildmarm and started walking towards the door. It was probably just one of those military inside things.

He and Blue walked through the doorway, into a circular room which was completely open at one side, showing a gorgeous view of Equestria. The floor was still made out of marble, but the floor on the edge of the room, which just poked over the edge of the mountainside, was made out of weathered wood. Just before the wood part were more pillars in a circular pattern, following the edge of the room.

The room itself was fairly empty. It only contained a familiar red box, pushed against a pillar to his left, and a few ponies in armour standing next to another doorway to Heart's right. Just outside the edge of the room, there was an airship floating not far off, no doubt to bring hunters to their missions far away.

Blue poked Heart softly, who was just staring dumbfounded at the view in front of them.

"Yes, yes, it's very pretty, but that's not where we're going," Blue said with a chuckle, "we're going to the arena!"

The entrance to the arena was apparently the doorway to his right. They walked through it, Blue giving a friendly nod to the hunters guarding the door, and they started walking through the stone hallway that followed. It went on for quite a while, illuminated by thin gaps in the wall that let in dim rays of sunlight.

After a minute or three of walking the hallway started to slope upwards and eventually ended in a short staircase with a wooden trapdoor at the top. Blue opened it with his magic, and the two stepped into a brightly lit chamber. It was quite large, larger than most ponies' living rooms. It had the shape of a half-circle, with two doors on the flat side and a gigantic curved wooden bed with thick red blankets pushed against the circular wall. The bed looked big enough to fit at least four ponies with enough room for each of them to be comfy. Next to the bed was a staircase which led upwards, probably to the rest of the arena. And between the two doors, there was a blue box. It looked identical to the two red boxes Heart had seen before but instead of red, painted a bright blue.

Blue clapped in his hooves. "So. The box over there has some items, pick those up, sleep in the magical healing-bed to heal up some wounds if you need to, go through the doors to enter the arena, smack the monster until it doesn't get up again. The monster is a Great Maccao, a great big bird without wings but with claws and a massive springy tail. Any questions?"

Heart shook his head. "No sir."

"Alright then, good luck and happy hunting."

With that final greeting Blue waved Heart goodbye before climbing the stairs upwards and out of sight. Now it was just Heart in here.

He opened the blue box curiously and saw that it contained some phials with green liquid in them. The phials were marked with a red cross, so they were probably health potions. He had heard of these before. Liquid charged with healing magic beforehand, so that ponies in battle could quickly heal up if necessary by drinking it. There were also a few sandwiches in the box which, upon closer inspection, were found to be full of dried hay. Military rations were indeed as simple as they said.

Heart levitated the items out of the box and fitted them in a pouch on his back. It had been magically enhanced so that it could fit more items. He kept one hay-sandwich out and ate it, just to see what it tasted like. It tasted very bland (what did he expect, really,) and filled him up nicely. He had been getting peckish, and this sandwich hit just the spot. They said that you shouldn't eat before exercising, but 'they' can just go and slay monsters on an empty stomach.

With nothing else to give him excuses to delay himself, he approached the door to his right, looking through it. There was a short hallway, with on the other side a huge sand-filled arena, brightly lit by the sun. Heart could just see the crowd on top of the wall surrounding the arena from where he was standing. The crowd was currently just sitting there relaxed, chatting amongst themselves it seemed. He couldn't see too well from this distance.

At this point, Heart was just wasting time. He gave himself a mental kick to his flank and stepped into the hallway.

When he walked through the final door to the arena, the hooting sound of a horn rang through the arena, pointing everypony's attention towards Heart. The crowd started cheering and clapping, a few whistles piercing the air as well. It gave Heart some confidence, knowing that the crowd at least slightly believed in him.

He looked around the arena, to try to spot the monster that he was supposed to slay. He soon spotted it hopping around near the edge of the arena.

It truly deserved to be called a 'monster'.

The Great Maccao walked on two legs, like a bird, and had two smaller arms with razor-sharp claws dangling in the air in front of it. Its huge body was covered in brown scales and green feathers, making it easy to spot in the yellow-brown arena. It was no doubt camouflage meant for forests. It was huge, easily as tall as four ponies stacked on top of each other, and that was without it standing up on its massive tail. Its tail was as long as the rest of its body and it apparently used it as a foot of some sorts. It balanced itself on it, raising its body upright, allowing it to see the environment from a bit higher up.

It must have learned that the sound of the horn meant that another hunter had entered the arena because it had been looking around for him since. It didn't take long for the monster to spot Heart, and with a loud shriek, it began running towards him.

"Welp, here we go..." muttered Heart to himself before running towards the middle of the arena. He didn't like the idea of being pinned to the wall.

The Great Maccao was surprisingly fast for its size, closing the distance between them faster than Heart would've liked. Once it was relatively close, it jumped back onto its tail and roared very loudly.

Heart used this moment to unsheath his greatsword and get an experimental swipe in on the monster. The blade connected with the monsters face, giving it a nasty gash across its face that it wouldn't forget soon. The monster recoiled from the impact, looking thoroughly pissed at Heart. The ponies before him had at least let him finish with his roar.

The monster quickly lunged, his beak only just missing Heart's body. Heart had rolled out of the way and was preparing to slash again. Unfortunately for him, the monster had other plans. It lunged again, its widely opened beak this time slamming straight into Heart, making the audience gasp, knocking him a few meters away. It had tried to gouge out a chunk of pony, but Heart's leather and steel armour protected him well from the monster's teeth. It didn't make the impact hurt any less, though.

Heart got up shakily, making the crowd cheer for him again. The Great Maccao, meanwhile, was hopping around on its tail, its signature move, turning to face Heart head on. It used its tail as a spring to launch itself towards him, but this time, Heart was ready. He timed the swing of his greatsword just right so that he blocked the monster's claws with the flat of the blade as he swung it. He then let his sword continue on its circular path around himself to hit the monster straight in its face again, eliciting a cry from the green beast as streams of blood began to flow from its head and neck. Heart quickly followed that hit up with another one, keeping the blade's momentum going. He didn't waste too much effort trying to perfectly aim his hits. As long as they hit, he was fine with it.

He managed to get four to five good extra hits in before the monster finally broke through the barrage of blows. It tried to smack him away with its front leg, but Heart diverted his blade just in time to block that hit while he did a fast backstep.

Heart hadn't noticed because of his concentration, but the crowd was going absolutely wild. They hadn't seen a rookie fight like this in quite some time. With a greatsword, the fatty of all weapons, no less. Almost made it look easy.

This time, instead of the monster attacking Heart, Heart attacked the monster. He circled around, looking for an opening.

The monster attacked viciously, not having enjoyed Heart's last attack, and lunged forwards again, more aggressively this time. Heart had anticipated as much and gave the monster a good whack on its head with the flat of his blade, which seemed to stun it for a second. He followed it up with a sideways slash aimed at its legs, causing it to fall over on its side. Heart hadn't expected it to actually fall over from that, but as they say, "we take those".

He slashed away in his circular fashion while the monster tried desperately to get up. After a few hits, he was interrupted from his slashing by the fact that he had gotten hit by a large tail in his side, flinging him to the side. The monster hadn't been able to get up while Heart was swinging at it, so it had used its tail to bat him away first.

The Great Maccao got up and charged towards where Heart had been flung. This time it wasn't going to hold back. It didn't pause at all between attacks. Claw slash, tail swipe, jumping attack from above, claw slash while circling around, it tried everything it knew to try to get through Heart's defences. Heart couldn't do much other than blocking the hits as best as he could. His sword was simply too slow to get a counter attack in without being hit himself as well. He would have to get his sword moving again, and that took time, time that he didn't have at the moment.

Heart blocked one final tail swipe before sprinting away at full speed. He couldn't do anything against the monster if it just kept on attacking, he would just tire out from blocking the hits with his levitation, without doing any damage to the monster.

He managed to create some distance between him and the monster, which made him feel slightly more secure, and now he had a few precious seconds to come up with a plan to finish the monster off. It looked really hurt, bleeding from multiple large cuts in its body. It also limped slightly from where Heart had it its back leg. Not enough to slow it down significantly, but it was noticeable.

Heart faced the monster and started circling his sword around him, making it go faster and faster. The monster approached him but didn't get in range of his circling sword. It tilted its head, trying to see some way through this defence. After a few seconds, it roared and hopped on its tail. It launched itself high into the air, traversing a path through the air that would make him land right on top of Heart.

But instead of just standing there, waiting to be hit, Heart diverted the path of his sword to change it from circling around himself into an overhead slash. He timed it just right, catching the monster in mid-air, and slamming it into the ground in front of him with an almighty thud.

The Great Maccao didn't get up again.

After a few seconds of stunned silence, the crowd went absolutely nuts. This rookie had just killed a Great Maccao in style. Catching it in mid-air with a greatsword? Unheard of.

The sound from the horn rose above the cheering, signifying that he'd completed the arena quest.

Heart slowly started smiling. He did it. He did it. Pretty well too, if he did say so himself. He swung his sword around himself once, to get the majority of the blood off it, and then sheathed it, which elicited a few whistles from the crowd. The slash-to-get-the-blood-off had always been a fan favourite. He bowed a few times for the crowd, who cheered him on enthusiastically, and then he proudly made his way back towards the hallway where he first entered the arena.

Stepping into the circular preparation room, he was welcomed by Blue's excited clapping.

"Man, I knew there was something good about you," said Blue, probably with a grin, (he still wore his mask,) "you took that monster down, like, ba-POW! Straight in its face! Are you sure you're only a rookie? Because you sure didn't fight like one."

"Well, I'm not exactly a rookie. I'm part of the Heart family, you see," Heart said, whilst standing up just a bit straighter, "Ever heard of Brave Heart?"

Blue took a step back in surprise. "Isn't he one of those few ponies in the Royal Guard that answers directly to Shining Armour? Don't tell me-"

"Yup," Heart said with a wide grin, "that's my big brother. And the only reason that we currently have a peaceful relationship with Yakyakistan is because my great-granddad Strong Heart led an army to give them a crushing defeat that they wouldn't forget for a long time. The Heart household is almost completely focused on combat and combat related things, in proud service of Equestria. Armed and unarmed training was daily business growing up, so I'm not exactly a rookie, no."

Blue looked rather taken aback by this new information. "...Woah, never knew that you were from a big family, huh. Well, we only just met, so I guess that makes sense. Anyway, you're pretty much a hunter now! Congrats! We still have to do the formalities, blah blah blah, so that's where we're headed now. Follow me, please."

And with that Blue led Pure Heart, who was still grinning, back through the tunnel to the Great Hall in Canterlot Castle.

Author's Note

Welp, another chapter done. It only took me two months.
I've been getting distracted by school, friends, anti-friends, all sorts of nasty business. My writing speed should become a bit faster than this, don't worry.

Man, the last few weeks have been extremely tiring.

Chapter 3: Making friends, sorta

When Pure Heart and Blue arrived at the Great Hall, they went up a big marble staircase which led to the rest of the castle. Blue led Heart through the maze of long hallways and stairs eventually arriving at one of the many conference rooms. There was a brass sign on the wall next to the door which read "C.3.14: Hunter Room 3". Anypony finding this place without somepony to guide them would be a miracle.

Blue knocked on the door three times, said "Good luck, kiddo," and trotted away, leaving Heart standing in front of the door. A muffled female voice came through the door, saying "Come in!".

Heart hesitated for a second before opening the door and stepping inside, not wanting to let the owner of the voice wait. He entered a large room filled with comfortable looking sofas and armchairs. He was greeted by a warmly smiling white female earth pony with bright red manes and tail.

"Hiya!" she said happily, "Congratulations on beating the snot out of a monster! I wasn't there to see it, but I'm sure you did a fine job."

Her enthusiasm surprised Heart. Blue had been informal towards him, but that was just him being an experienced hunter and also just him being weird. His ranking allowed him to be a little eccentric. This mare, however, didn't have an excuse to be this sloppy. She even mimed bucking an imaginary monster in the face! She could afford to be a little bit more composed than that.

Before he could get more annoyed at the mare's behaviour, his annoyance well hidden behind a poker face, of course, she continued.

"You're probably tired from all that monster-butt-kicking, so you can have a free cool drink on the house! Yay you! And then you can relax anywhere you want until all the arena fights are done. Don't worry, it shouldn't take long."

Heart wanted to make a comment on her attitude but thought better of it. Surely she had a good excuse to be like that, perhaps it was to make newcomers feel at home before the proper training started.

He levitated a 'cool drink' (he had no idea what kind of drink it really was) from one of the trays that were placed on a few coffee tables, and found a nice and secluded corner of the room to sit in. He leant his greatsword against the wall next to him and sat down in a fancy-looking brown armchair.

Now that he was comfortable he had a chance to look around properly, without getting jumped on by over-enthusiastic mares. The room seemed to be a conference room that had been remodelled to be more comfortable and less formal. Instead of a big central table surrounded by chairs, the room was filled with luxurious armchairs and sofas, with coffee tables between them. There were only a few other chairs that were occupied by other ponies. All of them were also wearing armour. All the armour sets were variations on "leather-reinforced-with-iron/steel", and each pony had a weapon lying next to them on the floor. Only five other ponies passed the arena fight so far, which made sense since Pure Heart had come really early. He hadn't wanted to risk not getting a chance to prove his worth.

He snapped back from his thoughts when somepony knocked on the door again. The white and red mare rushed over to the door and bid the newcomer welcome. An orange juice coloured pegasus mare with royal blue manes and tail walked in casually. She was wearing all leather armour, which was new. Most ponies had some steel mixed in there as well, to protect
She had a bowgun on her back, which Heart easily recognised; It was one of the more advanced models from the SunLight series. He had trained with one of those as part of his extensive weapon training back at home. His father had always insisted that everypony in his household knew how to use every weapon that was present in the mansion. And there were a lot of weapons.
Her mane and tail were long and spiky, almost to the point where you could call them simply unkempt. There was a fine line between having a creative manestyle and just not caring for your mane, and this pony was walking that line. Heart wasn't exactly sure at which side of the line she was. Her attitude wasn't too refined either. She greeted everypony with a cheerful "Yo!" and a hoof raised in greeting. From what Heart knew from his family, anything less formal than "hello" would get stomped on by their superiors. She would find that one out the hard way.

After getting her short introduction, she too took a cool drink from one of the trays, looked around for a second or two, and then trotted over to Heart with her drink balanced expertly on her extended wing. When she got to the corner seats where Heart sat, she put her glass and bowgun on the table and dived onto the sofa next to Heart's armchair.

"Yo," she said.

Heart replied with a stiff hello, which didn't seem to bother the pegasus at all. She only smiled and started getting comfortable on the sofa by lying on her back, taking up all the available space on the sofa.

After a few seconds of silence, she opened her mouth again. "So, what weapon did you use to whap the monster?"

"A greatswo- wait, 'whap'?"

"Yes, 'whap'. Combination of whack and slap," she replied with a grin, tilting her head to the side so she could see Heart, "but yeah, greatsword, huh? That's cool. Usually only earth ponies use those. Too bulky for the poor unicorns to handle."

"Well, not for me," answered Heart, who was a bit taken aback by this mare's attitude, "I can levitate heavy objects. It's related to my cutiemark, actually. I got it when I protected a filly who was getting bullied by levitating the bullies and launching them into a nearby pond."

"Protection of others through magical bodybuilding? Niiiice."

"That's not...well... you're not entirely wrong, but there's more to it than that."

The pegasus grinned. "Sooo... what's your name? Mine is Swift. It means that I'm fast, if you didn't know."

"My name is Pure Heart. I'm from the Heart family," Heart replied a bit stiffer than he meant to.

"Well, Heart, nice to meet ya!" Swift said with a smile, "Hey, you wanna team up? The Ponyville Sweetheart, that white and red mare over there, told me that we're going to get some training tomorrow and that we're supposed to be in duos for it! Isn't that cool?"

Heart nodded. "Yes, that is pretty cool, I guess. My guess is that they're going to teach us teamwork first since that is a big part of being a soldier."

Swift shot upright at those words. "Oh, nononono, we're much more than just soldiers! We're hunters, man! We don't spend most of our time training or patrolling or doing other boring stuff like that, we actually go out and hunt monsters! Kill big animals! Whack giant beasties! Slam-dunk the ever-living daylight out of-"

"Yes, yes, I think I get your point. But, to answer your first question, yes, I guess we can team up. You don't seem to be so bad."

At first Swift had appeared too casual and maybe even just plain rude, but upon closer inspection, she meant well. She was just probably going to learn that greeting high-ranked military people with "yo" was bound to end wrong.

"Yay! Already made a new friend!" Swift said, whilst jumping into the air and doing a backflip, which attracted some curious looks from the other five in the room. She didn't acknowledge them, and just sat back down, this time in a more upright position.

She picked up her glass of 'cool drink' and looked at Heart. "Hey, cheers to friendship!"

Heart shrugged and lifted his glass as well. "We're not exactly friends yet, but maybe that will change sometime. Cheers, I guess."

They clanked their glasses together and they both took a sip. The 'cool drink' turned out to be lemonade which was magically cooled down. Heart could feel how even one sip of the drink cooled him down from the inside, making it feel as if instead of it being summer, it was actually cool spring.

After putting his glass back down, Heart looked back at Swift. "So, you use the bowgun, huh?"

Swift put her glass back on the table as well and picked up her bowgun. "Yup. I've been shooting things ever since I was a little filly. My parents told me that I wouldn't be able to make a living out of this, yet here I am, getting one of the highest paid jobs in the country. Take that, parents!"

Heart looked curiously at Swift's bowgun. "I'm curious, how do you use a gun like this against a monster this big? I didn't think that these guns were that powerful."

Swift nodded. "Yeah, the regular version of this gun would not be able to do any damage to the monster's scales, but this isn't the regular version. This one uses overcharged magic gems, instead of the regular variety to power it. Packs quite a punch. This baby can pierce even the toughest materials."

"So these 'overcharged' bowguns are specially made for slaying monsters?"

"Yup. They aren't available to the public, and neither is the information on how to make these. If the magic gems aren't used in the right way, they could blow up in the user's face. They aren't exactly the most stable," Swift grinned, "but that's what makes these fun!"

Heart's hooves, which had been moving to pick up the bowgun, stopped in their tracks. Heart looked at Swift with a concerned expression. "Exactly how unstable are these gems?"

Swift sat in silence for a few seconds, before she suddenly flew up from where she was sitting and delivered a flip-kick right onto the bowgun's power-gem, causing Heart to have a mini heart attack. Thankfully, nothing happened, other than Heart taking cover behind a nearby sofa.

After a few seconds of silence Heart's head peeked around the corner, seeing a very smug looking Swift trying (and failing) to hold back her laughter.

"PffffffAAAHAHAHAH YOU SHOULD'VE SEEN YOUR FAAA-HAA-HAAACE!"

Unable to contain her laughter, Swift fell over on her sofa, rolling around, drawing a few curious looks from the other hunters.

Unlike Swift, Pure Heart wasn't that amused. He gave her a soft bop on the head to show how cross he was with her. Before he could add a verbal bop to the head as well, a voice, which Heart recognised as the white and red mare which had welcomed him, rang out through the room.

"Attention everypony! I just received the message that the remaining queue of ponies for the tryouts is composed entirely of wimps, so we'll be cutting it off for today! Yay to all of you for not being wimps!" the mare clapped her hooves excitedly for a moment before continuing, "So! You can call me the Canterlot Sweetheart, or just Sweetheart for short, and here's some good news for you all: you're all hunters now! Woohoo! I'll hand each one of you your guildcard after we're done here."

The Canterlot Sweetheart walked from her place at the door towards one of the coffee tables at the centre. She motioned for everypony to come closer and pointed at the map that was on the table.

"As you all can see, this is a map of Equestria. We're here," she pointed at Canterlot, "and for your first training, you all are headed...here," she pointed at a place on the map not far from Canterlot, pretty close to Ponyville, "also known as the Everfree Forest. Pro hunters sometimes call it by the affectionate name 'Stupid-Death-Forest'."

"Wait, hold on," said one of the hunters, a green stallion with brown manes, "we're going on a field-trip to the Everfree as our first training? Isn't that a bit...overkill?"

"Nope!" the Canterlot Sweetheart replied with a cheerful smile, "No better way to learn than to just go out and have your life depend on it, my dad always used to say. Anyway, your complaints don't really matter, so I'll end this meeting here. We'll meet up tomorrow morning at 6 in the Great Hall. Your guildcards are on the table at the door, just look through the basket to see which one is yours."

And with that, every hunter present made their way towards the exit, forming a group around the table, rummaging through the cards to find which one was theirs. Everypony had their doubts about going to the Everfree, it was pretty infamous for all the monsters that live there after all, but they didn't really have a choice. Plus, if it really was that deadly, they wouldn't be sent there on their first training, right?

Swift and Heart swiftly (hah) found their cards and made their way onto the hallway.

They walked back towards the Great Hall, looking at their new guildcards while they walked.

"Say," began Pure Heart slowly, "wasn't the Sweetheart just a little bit too excited about sending new hunters to a dangerous forest?"

Swift, who was flying slowly next to Heart, shrugged. "Yeah, but they're probably watching us all the time in the forest, so that they can laugh at us while we struggle. It's probably a 'hey-look-you're-a-rookie' thing."

The two walked (and flew) the rest of the way to the hall in silence, thinking about how tomorrow was going to go.

In the Great Hall, Blue was waiting for Heart to come back from the hunter introduction. He was sitting on the ground, slouched against one of the giant tree-pots, when Heart and Swift came down the stairs leading to the rest of the castle. Blue quickly got up and trotted towards the two.

"Hey, ho, how was the hunter introduction?" he cheerfully asked Heart.

"Well... it wasn't really an introduction, but we did get told that we need to go to the Everfree Forest tomorrow as our first training," Heart said, not looking too happy about it.

"Yeah," added Swift, "the instructors are probably just going to laugh at us floundering about in the wild."

Blue nodded with a chuckle. "Yep, that sounds about right. Oh, and who's this friend of yours?"

"I'm Swift," Swift answered before Heart could say anything, "I can fly fast sometimes."

"Well, nice to meet you, Swift. I'm the Blue Hunter, also called Blue sometimes."

Blue looked at Swift expectantly, waiting for her to be amazed. She wasn't.

"Oh, well, nice to meet you too, Blue," Swift said with a smile.

Blue looked a bit disappointed, but not too much. Ponies not falling over from awe at the mention of his name was a daily occurrence.

Blue brought the subject back to the trip to the Everfree. "But, y'know about that trip to the Everfree? You don't have to worry about that. If you guys encounter any monsters, they won't be any bigger than the Great Maccao, and even if they are, you're going to have multiple hunters attacking the same monster which makes everything so much easier. So don't worry, everything will be completely fine."

Heart and Swift were a bit reassured by Blue but were still not entirely sure about this whole idea. Some theory lessons before heading out into the wild would've been nice.

The three chatted a bit more about trivial subjects (like the weather, what they had for lunch, stuff like that, mostly subjects that Blue and Swift brought up,) before Blue finally had to go.

"Hey, it's been fun chatting with you both, but I need to go to a hunter meeting. They need a volunteer to take down an Ivory Lagiacrus, so they organise a meeting with all the high-up hunters. It's pointless, really. They only need to say the words 'urgent quest' at a slightly-louder-than-normal volume, and everypony will line up to take the quest faster than you can say 'pointless meeting'. Well, anyway, I'll be off now. Have fun on your trip to the Everfree!"

Heart and Swift both said goodbye to Blue, and then went on their ways themselves. They had to go home some time.

They walked together through Canterlot for some time before finally splitting up and going their separate ways. They had planned to meet up tomorrow again before heading off to the castle together. There was no reason to go alone, after all.

Pure Heart trotted the rest of the way home at a faster pace. It was always good to get a little exercise in. Slowly the houses around him became less tall and more expensive looking, eventually becoming mansions. After a bit more trotting he'd arrived at his family's mansion. It was a huge mansion, not so much a mansion as a fort. the building looked as if the owner told the builders to "make a mansion, but make it a fort," because it had the shape of a mansion, but the materials and decorations looked like it belonged in a medieval castle. The walls were made of black stone, there were arrow-slits in the walls instead of windows, the roof had large steel spikes on it to prevent aerial attackers from swooping in, and there was even a complete ballista mounted on the roof as well.

It was a mansion made for war.

And it also doubled as the home of the Heart family.

Pure Heart walked through the front gate and knocked on the door. He was let in by the family butler, Sharp Wit.

Sharp Wit was a middle-aged unicorn stallion, with grey fur and long flowing white manes. He served the family in many ways, he helped clean the house, helped serving food, and even helping in training by being a sparring partner. Sharp Wit didn't look that fit, but he was frighteningly quick with a dagger.

"Hello, young sir," he welcomed Pure Heart with, "may I enquire as to how the tryouts have gone?"

Pure Heart entered the mansion with a respectful nod towards Sharp Wit. "Hello, yes, it went very well. I have been accepted as a hunter, and I will be participating in my first training tomorrow morning." He had immediately fallen back to formal Equine, as was expected in the Heart household. They were warriors, but not barbarians.

"Ah, very good. Master has requested that you see him as soon as possible. Master has been very anxious as to whether you had satisfactorily passed the hunters tests. Master is in his study. It would be best if you see master as soon as possible."

"I see. I'll go see him now," Pure Heart responded with a nod.

He wasted no time and immediately began making his way through the maze that was their house/stronghold towards his father's study, which was located in the middle of the mansion.

The interior of the mansion was made in the same style as the exterior; practical, but still stylish in a way. But mostly practical. Actually not really stylish at all, unless you thought that 'medieval castle' was in this season. The walls and ceiling were made of the same black stone as the outside, and the floor was made of sturdy wood. Magically charged crystals hung from the ceiling, emitting light. These could also double as energy sources in case they had to defend themselves. There were a few portraits on the walls, most of them depicting members of the Heart family in battle against various threats. The battle against the yaks, the battle against King Sombra's slave army, and some paintings even depicted the first Hearts fighting against the Pegasi before the founding of Equestria.

When Pure Heart arrived at his father's study, he knocked on the large wooden door.

"Enter," a deep voice came from the other side.

Pure Heart complied and went inside.

He had entered a large study room. There was an old and expensive looking desk at the back, with very little on it. This was the desk of a stallion who only had it so that he had a desk to sit behind when he had visitors. The owner wasn't somepony who used writing tools often. He liked using actions more than words.

Other than the desk, there was very little in the room. There were a few armour stands, and a variety of weapons hung on the walls. There was also a beat-up looking training dummy standing slightly off-centre in the room, which was currently being assaulted by the owner of this 'study'. He was a middle-aged white unicorn with long scarlet manes tied in a bun. He was currently practising a simple sword swing, using his hooves instead of magic. His name was Iron Heart, and he was Pure Heart's father.

"Welcome home, son," Iron Heart began, pausing his swings, "I hope you bear good news?"

Pure Heart did a small bow with his head. "Yes, father. I have passed the hunter entrance exam successfully. Tomorrow we will go to our first training in the Everfree forest."

"I see. Well done. You may leave now."

Iron Heart went back to swinging his sword, not paying any attention to Pure Heart anymore. Pure Heart left the room without looking back.

This interaction would have seemed cold to pretty much anypony else, but Pure Heart was used to it. It was how communication with his family had been ever since he had been born. Talking to his father was an honour, not a right.

After that, he went to his room, asking one of the servants to deliver his dinner to his room first.

His room was nothing special. Just a room with a large fancy bed, a closet, and a window. That was all he needed. He ate his dinner (a carrot salad and a healthy serving of cucumber slices) in silence, and went to bed.

He thought about all the things that had happened today, enjoying the experiences again in his memories. It had been...nice, almost, how casual everything had been. In his family there was no room for idle chatter. You wouldn't chat about what you had for lunch on the battlefield, would you? Though it was more than likely that the training he was going to have was going to leave no room for chitchat. Being casual had been fun while it lasted.

And with that thought, Pure Heart fell asleep.

Author's Note

Well, this chapter took long to write.
I've rewritten the first part at least a bazillion times, but in the end I think it turned out...well...? I don't know.

This chapter has mostly been 'I need to go from plot-thing-A to plot-thing-B without teleportation', so I apologise if it was boring. I tried my best to make it relevant.

Anyway, on to the Everfree! ゴゴゴゴ~