“Now what do you mean soulless? Every living being has a soul.” Rarity said.

“True but the Grimm are different.” Yang said shaking his head. “Every being with a soul has an Aura. Humans, animals, Faunus, even plants and insects. It's impossible for a Grimm to use Aura and therefore no souls.”

“What’s an Aura and how do you know so much about it?” Rainbow asked.

“In order for one to become a Huntsmen you must learn how to use your Aura so obviously, we need to know what an Aura is.” Yang said as he crossed his arms.

"You kinda just avoided the question, can you please tell us what Aura is?” Fluttershy asked.

“Sorry about that. Aura is a manifestation of the soul and can be used a few different ways. One way is helping to defend from attacks, a second way is to boost a person’s strength and, next if someone has a strong enough Aura it can help heal injuries and finally the Semblance… Wow I feel like I’m a teacher at Beacon or Signal explaining all of this.” Yang said before laughing.

“Well at least you’re in a better mood.” Twilight said smiling.

“I must say that outfit really suits you, although I am a little curious about your hair.” Rarity said.

“What about my hair?” Yang asked.

“I mean how it goes from raven black like you're sisters to a beautiful golden color. Is that natural?” Rarity asked.

“What the heck are you talking about? My hair is dark gold that become a paler gold when it goes past my shoulders.” Yang said confused.

“Why don’t we go to Ponyville? You’ll have a chance to see what she means there.” Celestia suggested.

“Sure, it’ll be good to get out of this forest. Didn’t really want to do much until now.” Yang said shrugging his shoulders

“That’s understandable given you loss.” Luna said.

“Speaking of which, are you sure you’re feeling better? I mean you spent so much time looking for Ruby but only to find her… well.” Rainbow asked.

“No, I’m not better but I’ve got to try to look towards the future and never forget her or my parents.” Yang said as he looked at the sky. “Besides Weiss and Blake are still out there, I know it. So, let’s stop all this depressing talk and get out of this forest.”

Celestia’s horn lit up and they teleported leaving behind the forest and reappeared in the middle of a bustling little town, however much to everyone’s surprise the town was being attacked by Grimm. The Grimm looked like wolf like creatures that stood on their hind legs long arms with bony spikes coming out of their arms and spine, and like the Ursa’s had bone like masks with red markings. “More Grimm? Where did they come from?” Celestia asked.

“No idea but welcome to the daily life of a Huntsmen, now if you excuse me it’s time for me to get to work.” Yang said as he grabbed something from underneath the cape. Yang jumped forwards as whatever it was changed into a red scythe with black highlights. Yang brought the back of the scythe down one of the Grimm who was leaping at one of the solders causing it to be slam down creating cracks in the ground. “While Sis always did like fighting you Beowulfs, I personally find you guys annoying more than anything else.” Yang said as he decapitated the Grimm.

As if sensing that Yang was the biggest threat, all the Grimm turned to him and charged. Yang smirked and began to swing his scythe to both defend himself and attack the Grimm. To the on lookers Yang seemed to be doing an impressive if somewhat awkward dance until his scythe flew out his hands and flew high into the air. “Tch, I still have no idea how Sis made it look so easy.” Yang said before he used one of the Beowulfs as a spring board to jump high into the air and grabbed the scythe.

Looking below him Yang saw that some of the Beowulfs were leaping up at him. Yang tilted the scythe and pressed a small trigger. A bang was heard as a black flash was seen near the head of the weapon and Yang began to spin slicing the Grimm who had leaped up to get to him. “Princesses we are glad the two of you are alright. Captain Armor sent us here in case you needed some help. What are your orders?” One of the solders said as they approached Celestia.

“Are the residents of Ponyville safe?” Celestia asked.

“Yes ma’am. Most our battalion are tasked with their protection. The rest of us corralled the beasts here since we couldn't get them out of town.” The solder said saluting.

Celestia looked at Luna and Luna nodded, “I want you and the rest of the solders to make sure that none of these beasts get away from our friend who’s handling the situation.” Celestia said.

“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem Ma’am.” he said before pointing at Yang and the last two Beowulfs.

“What’s wrong little Beowulfs? Are you scared of a single fighter who’s using a weapon he’s not fully used to? GOOD!” Yang yelled before he caught one of the Beowulfs with the blade. The Beowulf slowly turned to look at him and began to raise one of its claws as another grim jumped at Yang from behind. Yang jumped and used the Beowulf behind him as leverage to jump forwards and slice the two Grimm in half. Looking around he saw they were the last of the Grimm and the Grimm were disintegrating in to red and Yellow rose petals. Yang looked confused for a moment before he shrugged and returned the weapon to his belt.

Silence filled the area until one of the guards asked, “Who are you?”

Yang looked at the sky for a moment before nodding. “I am Yang Ruby Xiao Long, A Hunter.”

“I’m sorry that Luna and I can’t stay to talk any longer but we have to get back to Canterlot. We still have a lot of work to do.” Celestia said before she and Luna teleported away.

“So, what do want to do now Yang?” Twilight asked.

“Simple, take a shower. Last time I had a real shower was a week ago.” Yang said smiling before everyone stared at him.

“How… I mean…” Rarity started.

Yang smiled before saying. “A Hunter needs to know how to survive in the wild and that includes how to stay clean. Even when I didn’t do much the past few days I never forgot my hygiene.”

“But you obviously forgot your hair.” Rarity muttered under her breath.

“You can use the one at the Sugarcube Corner I’m sure the Cakes won’t mind.” Pinkie said.

Yang smiled and said. “Sounds good to me.”

Pinkie then grabbed Yang’s arm with her tail and began to run with Yang doing everything he could not to fall, they quickly reached a house made to look like it was made of Gingerbread. “Hi-Mr.-and-Mrs.-Cake-just taking-my-new-friend-up-stairs-so-he-can-shower-be back-in-a-moment!” Pinky said so quickly that Yang had a hard time understanding what she said before he got dragged upstairs. “Here’s the bathroom. Just put your clothes in that basket and I’ll make sure they’re clean before you get out. Oh, and don’t forget to wash your hair!” Pinkie said before vanishing in a puff of Pinkie shaped smoke.

Yang blinked for a moment before he thought. ‘How the heck did she move and talk that quickly? I know Ruby’s Semblance gave her super speed but Pinkie moved even faster. Does Pinkie have a Semblance? And why the heck did she bring up my hair?’ Yang then shook his head; these thoughts could wait, but when he turned and saw his reflection in the mirror. “My…my hair.” He placed his hand on the mirror as a tear slid down his face. “Sis… it looks like that tree gave me something else to remember you by.” Yang then placed his cloths in the basket he leaned his Ember Celica and Crescent Rose against the wall. After Yang got into the shower he carefully picked all the rocks and twigs out before washing his hair, when he opened the container he noticed that the shampoo smelled like sunflowers.

When he was done with his shower he noticed that his clothes were now clean and neatly folded and sitting next to the sink. “How did she… you know what never mind.” Yang said to himself before he dried himself off and put on his clothes. After he was dressed he did a quick check on how much ammo he had and was discouraged when he found he only had three clips for his Ember Celica and two clips of for the Crescent Rose, one of fire ammo and one of ice. “Great just great! How am I going to restock now? URG I should have checked how much ammo I had earlier! I completely emptied both clips I had equipped in my Ember Celica when I was fighting the Ursa’s and the last of the gravity clip that was in Crescent Rose against those Beowulfs. At least I still have clips for fire and ice bullets but that’s still just a total of eighty-four bullets.” Yang groaned and face palmed. “I really hope this place has access to Dust otherwise I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Yang was still grumbling as he walked down stairs only to slip and fall when he heard, “SURPRISE!” looking up he saw that the room was full of ponies all with smiles on their faces and the room was decked out for a party.

“How did all this… forget it. LET’S PARTY!” Yang yelled as he got to his feet and joined the party a giant grin on his face.

“How do you like your ‘Welcome to Ponyville/ Thanks for Saving the Town’ party!” Pinkie asked as she walked up and gave Yang a cup of punch that she was holding with her hair.

“It’s great!” Yang said before a small sad smile appeared on his face. “I just wish that sis and the rest of my team was here. The last celebration I was at was the Vytal Festival and that ended with Beacon being destroyed. I hope Weiss and Blake are fine.”

“I’m sure you’ll find them, now come on! You’ve got a party to enjoy!” Pinkie said.

“Your right. Come on I bet I can eat more of those cupcakes then you!” Yang said making his way over to one of the food tables.

“You’re on!” Pinkie exclaimed joining him at the table.

As Yang bit into the first cupcake he found something hard inside. “Ow what is… Pinkie why is there a gem in the food?”

“Oh-when-you-said-you-were-a-dragon-I-thought-‘well-dragons-like-to-eat-gems-so-maybe-I-should-make-some-food-with-gems’-but-i-was-wonder-what-kinds-of-gems-you-would-like.-So-when-I-couldn’t-decide-i-made-some-with-rubys-some-with-sapphires-and-some-with-emeralds.” Pinkie said once again in one breath and incredibly quickly.

“The only bit of that I got was there are dragons here and they can eat gems.” Yang said before he shook his head as if trying to rid himself of his current train of thought. “So where are the ones without any gems?

Hours later when the party died down Yang was sitting next to a window with a thoughtful expression on his face. “You okay Yang?” Rarity asked as she joined Yang at the table.

“Yeah, just remembering my time at Beacon. Sometimes I wish I could go back to just being a normal Faunus who’s learning to become a hero. You know?” Yang said.

“We all have times where we wish for things to return to the way it once was Yang.” Twilight said as she sat across from Yang.

“Hey Yang what were you grumbling about when you came down stairs?” Rainbow asked hovered over the table.

“After my shower, I checked to see how much ammo I have left for my weapons and wasn’t happy with how much I have.” Yang said. “Have any of you heard of Dust?”

“Why are you worried about dust? Isn’t it everywhere?” Rarity asked.

“And there is the answer to my question.” Yang groaned as he placed his head on the table. “Now what am I going to do?”

“What kind of dust are you talking about Yang?” Twilight asked.

“Crystals with different kinds of energy. There are four main kinds, fire, earth, wind, and water. Depending on how you mix them you can get many more kinds of effects,
like water and fire to get steam for example. The last time I had a chance to get more ammo was three weeks ago.” Yang said as he pulled up his sleeve to scratch his arm showing everyone a large and rather sinister looking scar.

“WHAT ON EQUS!” everyone screeched.

“Huh? Oh this.” Yang said and looked out the window again. “I got this the day Beacon fell. Almost lost my arm that day, but I got lucky thanks to the scales I get with my Semblance. That member of the White Fang’s sword didn’t cut deep enough.”

“What’s the White Fang?” Fluttershy asked.

“A group of Faunus’s that use work peacefully to try and improve relations between Humans and Faunus, but they changed more than eight years ago.” Yang said before sighing. “I don’t really want to talk about this right now, even with the party and using the Grimm to get rid of some stress, my emotions are still a mess.” Before anyone could say anything, Yang got out of his seat and began walking towards the door. “I’m going outside, with the way I’m feeling I wouldn’t be surprised if more Grimm turned up and if they do I want to be ready.”

After Yang left everyone looked at each other. “I think that’s the first time anyone’s ever been to a Pinkie party and still felt sad.” Applejack said with Pinkie nodding in agreement.

“Well I can’t say I blame him, he’s been through a lot. More than most have in their entire lives.” Rarity said solemnly.

“Well we got to do something!” Rainbow said. “I can’t stand not being to help one of my friends.”

“I agree Rainbow but what can we do?” Fluttershy said. “He has very deep emotional wounds, the kind that doesn’t heal easily. He lost his team, and his family. All within the span of a few years. That’s bound to be hard on anypony.”

“I agree with Fluttershy and Rainbow.” Pinkie said as her mane seemed to have deflated a bit. “I just don’t know what we can do.”

“I just thought of something. Could his teammates have been sent here and that’s the reason he and his sister couldn’t find them?” Rarity guessed.

“Celestia thought that same thing. Spike and I got a letter from her just before the party, she’s told the guards to spread the word to keep an eye out for anyone named Weiss Schnee or Blake Belladonna and don’t seem to be from Equestria. Hopefully we’ll get some news quickly.” Twilight said as she looked out the window. “In the meantime, we’ll just have to help him in any way we can.”

*Meanwhile with Yang *

Yang left Sugercube Corner as the sun began setting and began walking around Ponyville before he came across the town library that was built into a hollowed out oak tree that was taller than almost every other building in town. Yang quickly made his way to some of the highest branches and made himself comfortable sitting against the tree’s trunk. From his spot, he could see over the entire town. “Weiss. Blake. Where are you? I don’t know what to do and need your help. No matter what happens my thoughts always return to the two of you, Mom, Dad, Beacon… Sis. I just… hope the two of you are safe.” Yang said before closing his eyes and falling into an uneasy sleep.

Author's Note

Here's the last part of the prologue, I based Yang's depression on my personal experience where i had times where it seemed to disappear but would return in full force later that day. Please let me know what you think of the story so far and once again i hope you enjoy the story. Yang's outfit is based on her Hunter outfit and Ruby's is the one she has in volume 4 but as far as this story is concerned volume 4 never happened. and if someone know's a good name for the Sphinx Kingdom please let me know, i promise you'll get full credit for the name.