“Man this wyrm digs deep.” Dan looked on ahead as he as well as Twilight and Rainbow continued deeper into the tunnels the creature created. He had pulled out his flashlight to look on ahead but it just seemed like an endless tunnel, for awhile it descended for what felt like a mile or two before it leveled out making the walk much easier now that they don’t have to worry about slipping.

“Well they are at home to being underground, it makes sense that they’re digging prowess should match their lifestyle,” Twilight replied

Dan nodded “Right, right, live underground means you dig good, the question is where is this tunnel leading us?”

Twilight tapped a hoof to her chin for a moment “I can only imagine it returned to its nest for now.”

“Well since it isn’t infected that sounds about right, that or off hunting for food maybe.”

Despite the size of the large tunnel Rainbow still wasn’t too keen on walking in it. It wasn’t claustrophobia personally, but just being comfortable being there since her natural instincts as a pegasus are to be higher in the air. Hovering helped a little for her, but constantly making sure she didn’t bum her head on the ceiling always kept her wary and anxious. “How far is it?” she asked.

“How would I know?” Dan replied looking on ahead “I never dealt with a Tatzlwyrm before, nor have I been in a tunnel like this.” he continued onward “Plus since it's alive I’m a little busy trying to figure what to do to take care of it without killing it.”

“Well, we can capture and relocate it.” Twilight suggested

“You and what army, sister?” Dan looked back “It’s a straightforward solution sure, but what do you suppose we catch it with? I’m afraid the net in my bag isn’t gonna be big enough for this beast. Not to mention it's probably gonna be a pain in the ass trapping it in its home turf.”

Twilight pondered the thought, “Something big enough to catch it with…”

“Hey guys, something’s up ahead!” Rainbow called out as she moved passed Twilight and Dan to get a better look, having Dan and Twilight look in that direction as well. It was hard to make out but they could see a faint light up ahead.

“Light, down here? We’re too far down for it be the surface.” Dan said before he walked a little quicker leaving Twilight to pick up the pace to catch up with the two. When they finally reached the lighted source, they were surprised to enter a large cavern, lighted by strange glowing rocks embedded and peppered into the cave walls, stalactites, and stalagmites. Dan couldn’t help but whistle out his amazement “Damn, this is going on my phone.” he turned off his flashlight and pulled out his phone and started recording the place.

“It's so pretty, mystic even.” Twilight then noticed Dan’s comment and looked at his phone “Are you taking a Photograph?”

“Better than that, a Film of the place.” Dan tried to get as much as he could on camera. “Other me will probably try to save and make copies of this.”

“How are you gonna do that? With that thing? Don’t you need like filming equipment or whatever?” Rainbow was tossing a glowing rock from one hand to the other with mild interest.

Twilight seemed to jump at the chance to explain “Oh it's simply fascinating, Rainbow, his device can do so much like-” and then she was interrupted by a rumble that shook the ground.

“Oh boy.” Dan put his phone away

“We’re at a disadvantage, best to hide until we have a better shot at detaining it.” Aegis suggested, and Dan took it to heart as he looked around to find someplace to get behind and fortunately there was a rather large rock column. “Over here” he waved at the girls and made a dash for it, the girls close behind, and just in time as the creature finally surfaced from one of the holes it had already made on the other side of the room. The Tatzlwyrm surfaced completely and was already making its way to another end of the cavern, the end that was obscured the most by rock columns and thicker stalagmites. “Guessing its nest is over there,” Dan whispered

“We need to be careful if it has offspring, no doubt it will be even more aggressive now that we’re here,” Twilight replied quietly.

“Well here’s hoping its ugly mug kept it from getting some,” Dan replied as he crouched a little and silently made his way over, the girls close behind, trying their best not to make any loud noises. When they managed to reach the “wall” they peered between the stalagmites to peek and determine what their target was doing. Of course, something else immediately distracted them. “What the-” Before them they saw, buffalo, the missing Buffalo warriors, various animals, and a Stallion. What's more, was that they all seem to be tied and wrapped up in some strange residue plastered against the cave wall, “Hm?” It seemed to be glowing and encompassing most if not their entire bodies, submerging them in it. “Uuuh, can Tatzlwurms make that weird glowy stuff?”

Twilight could see what he was talking about and furiously shook his head, “N-no, at least, I don’t think so.” She then pulled out her book on Equestrian Fauna “L-let me check.”

“Uh, no need Twi, look.” Rainbow nudged them both whispering as well as she pointed to something above the Tatzelwurm It looked like some type of fungus planted well into the cave wall. Yet it moved as if it were an animal. It was mostly jet black, with what seemed to be the head with a glowing eye staring down at the victims, all around it were long thin appendages with glowing tips. And behind its head seemed to be a large bulbous sac of some sort.

“What in Celestia’s name is that?” Twilight almost broke out of her whispering voice, which caused the tatzlwyrm and fungus to look at their direction. However, the three barely managed to pull their heads back in time to be seen.

“Well this just got more complicated.” Aegis responded. “Looks like we’re dealing with an Incu-shroom.”

“An incu-shroom?” Dan whispered, and the others heard.

“Dan? You know what it is?” Rainbow turned to him

!! getting caught in the act of speaking to Aegis, he had to play it off. “Uuuh, y-yeah, I’ll explain later but basically that thing is bad news.” At Least that’s what Aegis immediately trying to tell him right now in his mind. “Part of that plague I’m supposed to be fighting against, just another mutation that was made to spread it.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, “Wait, but then shouldn’t it have infected the Tatzlwurm by now then? But you said it's still alive so what gives?”

‘Yeah, what gives, gramps. This freaky mushroom isn’t acting like a plague creature.’ Dan retorted to his ghostly companion.

Aegis responded without missing a beat. “That’s because it’s a more advanced mutation. Listen, just tell them this and let's move onto handling this problem, our targets seem to be busy right now anyway.” Looking back Dan could see he was right, it seemed the fungus was protruding strange glowing appendages toward the wyrm and flashing at its face with them randomly one by one in an odd sequence. Once Dan relayed the message and promised to explain later the three of them focused on a plan of what to do. “You see that sac behind it. By the looks of it its almost full.”

‘And that's a bad thing right?’ Dan asked

“Yes, it is, it’s a ticking time bomb before it fires off its spores around the area. Right now they are inert, but the moment the sac starts glowing, that means the spores have been given the corruption and it’ll explode almost immediately and we can kiss those hostages, goodbye. They’re only saving grace is the time it takes to make the spores. That’s all the time we have for an explanation. You wanna know more, then you gonna have to take care of this mess first.”

“Right, right” Dan mumbled to himself “Ok, looks like they’re still busy over there.” He whispered to the girls. “Now’s here’s the plan. That fungus back there will be my target if we can just sneak in closer than we can-”

CRACK!

As they were listening to his plan Rainbow had leaned against a small stalagmite, which wasn’t as sturdy as she expected as it eventually gave way to her body weight and she fell with it with a yelp and thud. Of course, all this got the attention of both the wyrm and incu-shroom that immediately turned to their direction.

“Yeeeah, this seems about right.” Dan monotoned with a look of annoyance before pulling out his MP5 set it to auto and just fired at the Incu-shroom’s sac, this caused the sac to rip and blow prematurely.

“Clever.” Aegis responded at the scene, the fact that he didn’t have to tell Dan to break the sac before it started glowing.

The wyrm still under the Shroom’s influence just roared before heading toward them at high speed. Rainbow was already back on her feet, and already in the air, Twilight teleported a good distance away. Dan… Dan had to leg it. “F@#K!” He sprinted then when his sense of death was at its highest he leaped to the side, narrowly dodging the beast’s maw once again. “I’m used to your tactics now, big guy!” he sprinted alongside the creature’s length knowing it was turning around to chase after him again He then leaped up and over its body aimed and fired a few rounds at what he assumed was the eye, well it looked like one anyway to him. The bullets mostly hit their mark and it seemed to have an effect as the incu-shroom recoiled from it as chunks of it flew off.

‘Not as well put together I see.’ Dan thought as he has to keep sprinting away from the Wyrm.

Aegis exited Dan’s body “It IS technically a fungus. Hit it hard enough and it’ll come to pieces… Hm?” He turned to his side to see the girls were making their way over to victims in the goop. “Well, nice to see they’re taking advantage of the situation.”

Twilight and Rainbow had snuck closer to the Incu-shroom as Dan seemed to be distracting both of them well enough on his own. Once they reached the stallion, they grabbed his hoof that was sticking out and began to pull, the process took a bit of grunting and a lot of effort but slowly they were getting more of the stallion out of it. Judging by this Both Dan and Aegis could only assume this was going to take awhile. And that was simply something they didn’t have now that the incu-shroom was starting to regrow its “eye” again. “How do we completely kill that mushroom?” Dan rolled out of the way another attempt by the wyrm “I feel like things will be a lot easier once that thing is dead.” he hopped over the beast's tail when it tried to whip at him as it passed by him

“Well, your intuition is correct. Slaying the incu-shroom will break its control on the Wyrm, and if it regains its sight, it’ll notice what the girls are up to and take a more direct approach.” Aegis responded as Dan started running at full sprint now. “Well for this particular creature, there is no core, in particular, you need to look out for-”

“Oh thank God.” Dan blurted out, memories of that Hydra seemed engraved in his mind. He looked back to make sure the Tatzlwyrm was still chasing him and only him. Which was good but with his luck, it was only a matter of time before something would wreck that.

And now was that time!

“Dan in front of you!” Aegis called out

“Huh?” Dan managed to turn his head halfway before colliding himself with an exceptionally
“Grk!” He staggered back a bit recoiling in pain before his mind reminded him of what was behind him, but it was too late and he was scooped up in the Wyrm’s mouth. “AAAAH!” Of course, he was putting up a fight as he pushed against its jaws in all four directions as its multiple “tendrils were trying to snake around its torso and limbs. “Crap crap crap crap crap crap!” with his right hand he pushed off the “jaw” part it was holding up before pulling back and pulling his fist back punching it hard. This got made the Wyrm jerk and recoil from the strike and yelp in pain, which in turn gave Dan enough time to pull out his knife and stab at one of the tendrils. The beast writhed in agony before it threw its head about and its tendrils released Dan he was flung out and painfully tumbled across the cave floor a few yards before stopping. “Ow! Getting really tired of being the chew toy here.” he stumbled to his feet.

“Then stop getting yourself in such situations,” Aegis replied

“F@#K You too.” Dan turned to the incu-shroom and the girls. They had just finally managed to pull out the Stallion and were now working on the buffalo warrior he was next to.“Can you ladies pick up the pace, Please?!” Dan called out before he jumps over the wyrm trying to head butt him land on it’s back, run down it a few feet before being shaken off.

“We’re trying, but this stuff is really sticky! HHHHRRGH!” Rainbow yelled back as she and Twilight pulling without all their might. “Twilight don’t you have a spell or something for this?”

“I can try teleporting, but to do this many, will definitely drain my magic if I take them back to town. And I’m not even sure if I can take this many with me. More than likely, if it succeeds, Dan will be left here by himself for who knows how long before I can just get the two of us back.

Just then they heard some movement above them. Looking up they could see the incu-shroom’s “eye” had regenerated, and what’s worse it was staring right at them.

“Oh that can’t be good.” the appendages it had used to control the Wyrm changed into a more robust form, thicker and sturdier than before, they then began descending upon them, beneath what would be considered its stem/torso, a seam suddenly became visible and the entire underbelly just opened up to reveal a disgusting goop covered cavity, perfect to fit large objects into, or in this case, large creatures, as the Girls were swatting away the tendrils completely distracted for a few minutes as the other tendrils burrowed into the goo trap the other victims were in and forcefully started pulling them out.

“What?! Huh?” a few of the buffalos that were trapped within seemed to be jostled awake from the force of being ripped out of their confines utterly confused and trapped as they were lifted higher into the air. “W-what’s going on?! I-I remember the beast and, huh?” this particular Buffalo was unlucky enough to be the one closest to the incu-shroom’s cavity, “What is that?! Wha? No! No!!! Let me go! What are you doing?! STOP!” the buffalo kicked and flailed confused and terrified.

This yelling did, however, catch the attention of Dan as he managed to dodge the Wyrms attempt to bite him in half and give a heavy kick that pushed the beast against a large stalagmite, this brought the creature into a brief daze. “What’s going on over there?!” he then noticed just too late as that buffalo was already pulled into the cavity and it snapped closed

“This is not good!” Aegis seemed alarmed, inside the monster they could hear the horrible screams and throes of agony from the buffalo as the incu-shroom seemed to be shifting about.

“STOP AAAAGH! IT HURTS! AAAAAA-aaaaaauauuuuuurrrrgh….….” and then silence, the entire scene was so bone chilling, no one said a word. Except for Aegis.

“It can’t be… another mutation?” he spoke before the cavity finally opened up and something fell out, it was encased in black goop and inert spores. Before it spattered onto the ground like a heap of dead flesh, this already was horrifying the captured, but it got even worse when it started to move then rise, and once the black sludge and spores fell off its body, they could see it was no longer the buffalo warrior they saw go in. It was lean yet muscular, its horns were gone, furless, blackened flesh, flat herbivore teeth replaced with nothing but jagged full row on both the top and bottom.tailless, it is replaced with long spindly, bony claws, and with the way it was standing on them, they were anything but fragile and the forelegs seem to have opposable thumbs. Its face barely retained the buffalo it once was and took more of a rabid canine-like with a longer muzzle.

Aegis, what the hell is that?” Dan asked

“A Ghoul, Since when can-NO! now is not the time get Twilight to teleport everyone out of here NOW!” However before Dan could even say a word, it seemed the Tatzlwurm was no longer shocked about the ghoul as it returned its attention to Dan, who barely caught on in time to catch it’s tail whip and was pushed back a yard “AUGH! F@#K That hurt!” without thinking he gripped onto it then pivoted, and with all his might, yelling out loud, unintentionally knocking everyone else out of their stupor, he actually managed to move the entire wyrm, granted only feet but it was enough to freak the wyrm out that such a little guy could even accomplish such a feat.

Meanwhile, the Ghoul seemed unfazed and was now making a mad dash toward Dan. Rainbow picked up on it and put two and two together and yelled at Twilight. “Twilight take the others back to town now!

“What?! But what about-”

“Someone’s gotta be here for Dan! And right now you need to go!” she pointed back at the incu-shroom and they could see another buffalo kicking and screaming as they were being lifted toward its cavity as well.

Twilight gasped and knew she didn’t have much choice as she charged her horn, and just as the buffalo was completely in the cavity, Twilight casts her spell and she as well as buffalos and Stallion vanished from sight.

“OK!” Rainbow then grabbed the tendril that grabbed her and chomped down on it. In retrospect, she probably shouldn’t think this was the best idea for it to release her, but to her surprise, it did as it recoiled and loosened its grip on her and in that split moment she darted out of its reach and straight at the Ghoul.

During all this, Dan was still fending off the wyrm when he felt the sense of death coming from behind him. Looking back he could see the Ghoul lunging straight at his face, getting another look this creature looked familiar to him. Suddenly he had a flash of realization, he had a brief image of those training monsters in his dreams, and he was already used to this position before. He moved in, ducking under the first claw to avoid it, then he grabbed the ankle yanked with one hand, grabbed at the throat with his other catching the beast in midair as it violently tried to rip his face off with its jaws, He then turned pivoting his foot to swing the ghoul over his head, then slam it onto it’s back onto the ground causing it to yelp in shock.

~~~

A few nights ago

Dan’s Dreams

Dan was on his back holding onto the top and bottom jaw with each hand keeping it from going for his neck. “You got careless again,” Aegis said

“I know!” Dan brought his foot under it and kicked it off and over him so he can roll to his feet into a kneeling position, pulling out a pistol manifested in his dreams as he took aim and fired a few rounds at it staggering it taking careful aim for the brain and fired. The shot went through the brain, a direct hit.

“That won’t work on these creatures.”

“Huh?” The beast was charging back at him again “Whoa!”

“Aim for the leg!” Aegis called out. Without even thinking Dan did so and his kinetic vision really came into play as everything seems to slow down just enough for him to anticipate where to fire then pull the trigger. The bullet hit the leg where the upper and lower part was jointed at causing the creature to then fall over itself and tumble before him. “This creature has no brain, so the shots to its head aren’t gonna be As effective… you’ll need to really make a mess up its head meat to really kill it as its all just one big muscle trapped in its skull following an order.” Aegis then came flying in and with both, his forehooves slammed them onto the bottom of the creature’s head, this seems to do the trick as the beast vanished from existence. “However it's not always guaranteed to work as it might regenerate its head. So if that happens-”

~~~

Present Time

“Eat a D$%K!” Dan then slammed his foot onto its head smashing it like a pumpkin However he didn’t want to take the chance as he reached for his Deagle, aimed for the chest and fired a few rounds blowing it wide open and spraying blackened guts and sludge everywhere, revealing a smaller, yet familiar looking green throbbing boil Dan had the displeasure of remembering. He was ready to fire another round at it when Aegis stopped him.

“Don’t! This ghoul was made in a strange way, we’re taking it. Its body won’t decay like other infected creatures but it we still need it out of commission sooo…”

“I was afraid you were going to say that…” Dan groaned, however movement, ahead of him reminded him of his previous problem. “Oh crap! The wyrm!” looking up putting his gun away ready to fight to flee, he was actually surprised to see Rainbow was already fending it off and distracting it.

During his brief Tussle with the ghoul Rainbow was about to join in when she noticed the Wyrm was going to take advantage of Dan being distracted, so instead she changed her course and rammed right into the Tatzlwyrm’s face hard making it reel back in a daze. And now she was flying around it keeping its attention on her. Not wasting a moment Dan quickly reached in, grimaced as he grabbed hold of the Ghoul’s boil, then ripped it out Mortal combat style. That was when the ghoul finally became limp. “Not sure how long she can keep that up, we need to kill that incu-shroom to finally calm it down.” Both Aegis and Dan then turned around to the creature. “Fortunately, it’s actually a sitting duck without protection.”

“I could go for some duck right about now,” Dan smirked as he pulled out his MP5 once more and decided to take care of it from a distance and avoid the tentacle hentai by emptying a few magazines on the thing until all its parts were shot off and it was nothing more than a husk on the wall drooling with black sludge and yet another green glowy pus ball. “And with that!” he ran to it then leaped high up to the side of it, reached in and ripped that boil out as well.

“You’re finally catching on,” Aegis said

At the same time, The wyrm suddenly stopped attacking Rainbow and immediately lost consciousness, falling into a heap on the ground. Rainbow was panting but seemed pretty confident as she remarked “Haaah… haaaah… That’s right, I’m untouchable.” She lowered herself to the ground so she could take a breather.

“All good over there Dash?” Dan asked as he was wrapping up the boils individually before stowing them away in his bag.

Rainbow tiredly lifted a hoof to wave it off. “Hah, a piece of cake when you don’t have to worry about other ponies in the crossfire.”

Dan shrugged as he walked up to her “Can’t argue with you there, and looks like the wyrm isn’t dead, also a plus.”

“Yeah but…” Rainbow turned back to the remains of the ghoul… Dan looked back and couldn’t help but feel sorry for the buffalo that it once was.

“Couldn’t be helped, it was the first time an incu-shroom could take someone like that,” he replied.

“And so quickly was the transformation. This doesn’t bode well… hopefully, these samples will provide enough information for the researchers.” Aegis replied.

It was quiet for a few moments before Dan looked back at Rainbow’s look of pity on the ghoul before sighing walking past her but making sure to place a hand on her head. “What's done is done, despite all that, I think we did a lot more good then there was harm by that thing, so that’s gotta count for something.”

“Oi, don’t forget the body!”

“O-oh yeah….” Dan immediately doubled back

~~~~~~~~~~

Ambassador Broadhorn’s Guest Room in Canterlot

Broadhorn was waiting. He stared out the window down at the town lost in thought.

He was told of a noble that wished to speak with him that involved his upcoming sparring session with the new Royal Hunter. He scoffed, if it was one of the hunter’s financial backers wishing for him to throw the fight to make their “asset” look good, he’ll immediately turn them away. If it were one of those types that wanted the complete opposite they’d get the same treatment. He was aware of the split views in Canterlot about the Hunter, and he would not get involved. He merely wished to see if this new generation can live up to their predecessor, nothing more.

That was when one of the guards at the door gave it a knock. “Pardon, Ambassador, but Mr. Black Steel has arrived.”

Speak of the devil, “Show him in.” The Ambassador replied Once the door opened, the first to step in was one of the maids, carrying a tray with a full tea set. Then right after that, stepped in another, a stallion it would seem. “So you are this Black Steel fellow?” Broadhorn made his way over to the table the maid was setting and took his seat. “Seeing as you have set us a drink, you seem confident that I would give you the time for such things.” once the maid poured fresh tea into both cups she set the teapot back on the tray gave a bow before heading back to the door just as the Stallion walked passed her. “Just to let you know, I’ve heard them all and I’ve no intention playing any of your games in throwing or cheating this fight.”

The Stallion took a seat across from the ambassador, “Oh rest assured I did not come here for either of those things.” the stallion replied. Once the door finally closed he spoke again. “On the contrary, I’m here to help you.”

“Help me?” The ambassador raised an eyebrow, “Again, I have no intention of cheating, so what could you possibly mean by helping me?” He watched the stallion take a sip of the fresh tea, he seemed calm and relaxed. What could this be about? He didn’t have to think on it for long as once “Mr. Black Steel” set his tea down he got straight to the point and spoke.

“You wish for a fair sparring Correct?” This got the ambassador’s attention. “Yet at the same time, you want a real challenge… A fight that could get your blood boiling.” To this, the ambassador nodded to the Stallion's words. He was correct. Nothing would make him happier than to fight this new hunter with everything he had.

To this, the ambassador nodded “What are you suggesting?” When he asked the Stallion smiled

“I know of a way, to grant that silent wish of yours if you're interested.”

Author's Note

Hello everyone, Cutting it a bit close but I managed to get it done before February ended. Sorry for the wait. So we finally wrap up Dan's time in the Prairie, and we can all tell where he's heading to next. It would seem not only will he get to meet the ambassadors especially Broadhorn, but it seems unavoidable he'll have a run in with our peculiar Noble Black Steel.

I've been waiting for this particular part of the story because, after this, some plot points will finally start moving into motion.

I hope you look forward to that as much as I will.