1,000 Years After the Appearance of the Monsters

On a dirt path not too far off from a town named Ponyville was a small group of Adventurers looking to make their mark.

The small group consisted of two mares and a stallion. The mares were the brute force of the group: one of the mares, Iron Glade, was an earth pony who utilized iron-forged hoof gauntlets that attached to each of her forehooves, and the other mare, Dust Trauma, was a unicorn who preferred dual-wielding a set of dense iron hammers with her magic. As for the stallion, Whistling Wood, he was also a unicorn but rather than using brute force as the mares did, he liked supporting from the back lines with the use of his wooden bow that shot out magically constructed arrows. Each pony also had a set of Manticore hide armor that added a small layer of protection over their softer skin.

"This is great!" Iron Glade shouted out in glee with a wide smile upon her face and a little skip in her gate. "At long last, we all finally became Rank-C Adventurers! I remember when we first took the trials, they were a lot harder than we thought they would be and were devastated when the Hub receptionist informed us we were rank-D. But those days are gone now! We're finally Rank-C! Rank-C!~ Rank-C!~" Glade happily announced over and over again as she hopped along the path brimming with excitement.

"Yes yes, Glade. Yay, we're Rank-C." Whistling Wood exasperated because of Glade's overhyped mood. Meanwhile, Dust Trauma, who was ignoring the entire debacle, was busy scanning the tree line to the right side of the path to keep a lookout for any unusual movements. She wouldn't let her guard down even for a second outside in these monster-infested wildernesses.

They continued along the path for a while longer before Trauma caught sight of some rustling bushes in the forest. "Hey, Glade, Wood hold up a second." Getting their attention both ponies halted their travels and turned towards Trauma.

Wood looked questioningly at her while Glade, with an inquisitive tilt of her head, questioned, "What? What is it Trauma?"

Turning back, Trauma looked at the pair. "I'm pretty sure I just spotted some movement coming from the forest over there. I'm going to go check it out real quick."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Wood asked with a little hesitation in his voice. "Because you never know what's lurking out there. I don't want you getting hurt."

"Thanks for the sentiment Wood, but I think I'll be fine. Besides, from what I saw, the movement didn't seem to indicate anything too big. It's probably just some overgrown rat or something." Trauma brushed off Wood's concern while at the same time reassuring him.

"Ohhh, just be really really really careful Trauma! I really really really don't want to see you getting hurt!" After Glade's worried input Trauma nodded her head and slowly shuffled her way to the edge of the forest where she saw the origins of the movement.

Reaching the edge of the forest she stopped just shy of entering it and tried to peer through the dense foliage. Not having any success Trauma decided to take a couple of steps closer and raise her head up higher in an attempt to look over the thick bushes that blocked her sight. When that still didn't work, Trauma grew a little annoyed and just stuck her head through the bushes. Peeking her head through, she saw nothing at first and let out a little sigh of relief, but in that short time she let her guard down it all transpired in mere moments.

In a sudden turn of events, Trauma was rendered motionless for a long... long time.

Some time has gone by and back on the pathway where Wood and Glade were anxiously watching Trauma; Wood whisperd to Glade, "Don't you think she's had her head in that bush for a little while now?"

"Yeah, maybe we should go and check on her?" Glade offered.

"Yeah... sure... let's go" I have a bad feeling about this... Wood thought to himself as they made their way over to Trauma's motionless form.

Now standing next to Trauma, Glade nudged her side a couple of times, "Hey Trauma what are you doing?" No response. "Trauma come onnnn, don't ignore us!" Glade whined out while continuing to nudge Trauma's side.

Sticking his forehoof out in front of Glade, she surprisingly picked up on the sign and stopped her persistent nudging. "Something isn't right." Wood said out loud but more to himself. Oblivious to Glade's questioning glance Wood walked up to the bushes hiding Trauma's head from view and stuck his head through as well. "Come on Trauma stop messing around, why are you ig... noring... us..." Wood's voice trailed off as he turned to look at Trauma. The scene he bore witness to caused his eyes to shoot wide open with shock and the feeling of bile to force its way to the forefront of his throat.

Barely containing the urge to vomit he turned back around and rushed his shaky legs as fast as he possibly could back to Glade, a couple of tears threatening to fall from his eyes. "GLADE!" Wood shouted out, "We gotta go NOW!"

A little put off by Wood's sudden change in demeanor Glade adopted a quizzical expression while staying in place, not really comprehending why Wood was acting the way he was. Impatient with her lack of compliance he started frantically pushing Glade back away from the tree line hoping to get her away from the harrowing sight he just beheld.

Not liking his actions Glade, who was a good deal stronger than Wood, planted herself firmly to the ground and refused to move. "Wood stop!" Glade yelled in an attempt to coerce Wood out of his panicked state. "WOOD! Please just calm down and tell me whats wr—" Glade's next words were cut off as a guttural screech ripped through the air.

Hearing the screech Wood jumped into the air shrieking before he ran around Glade and cowered behind her. Baffled at Wood's reaction Glade looked to the direction the loud screech came from. Her body tensed and froze, her face drained of color, her eyes constricted, her heart rate skyrocketed, her breathing came out in spazzes, and lastly, she croakingly muttered out a single name, "Trau... ma?"

What Glade was now viewing in front of her was the towering four-meter-tall (13ft.) Class-A monster known as the Scorpada. The Scorpada was really just an oversized scorpion known for having razor-sharp pincers and an even sharper stinger, but not only that, it's chitin was solid enough to deflect any form of bladed weapons.

Luckily Glade's choice of weapon utilized blunt force, unluckily Glade was too catatonic muttering her friend's name over and over again while denying the sight in front of her. Her same friend who was dangling freely in the air by the Scorpada's sharp stinger jammed into her lower jaw with the point of it visibly protruding out from the top of her skull.

In Wood's cowering he noticed how tense Glade became and decided to forgo a little of his cowardice and lift his head up off the ground to view what was transpiring... Bad idea.

The sight Wood was privy to was that of the giant Scorpada flicking its stinger forward and slinging the perished body of Dust Trauma straight at them. Wood's features grew even more panicked and he started to rapidly shuffle away from the incoming projectile. His actions proved to be a bad move because the body flew straight over the still spaced out Glade and impacted brutally against his own, knocking himself to the ground dazed.

Black spots began shrouding his vision and he was light-headed due to the rough impact. Slowly, Wood pushed himself off the ground with a groan and shook his head, trying to whisk away the black spots. Regaining a small semblance of sight Wood applied a bit of pressure to the side of his head with his hoof to try and deter the oncoming headache and turned to look for Glade hoping to see if she was alright.

Sadly, all Wood could see was a massive moving form of some sort because of the black spots still taking up the majority of his vision. He closed his eyes and shook his head once more then reopened them to see that the black spots disappeared, but that was not all.

A little distance away right in front of his very eyes, he saw one of the Scorpada's pincers spread wide open with Glade directly in the middle of them. "GLADE! GLADE RUN!" Woods hysterically screamed out with tears falling down his cheeks. "DAMMIT GLADE! PLEASE SNAP OUT OF IT AND RUN AWAY!" Wood's shouting fell on mostly deaf ears only gaining a single response out of the far too gone mare.

She slowly twisted her head and peered into Wood's crying eyes with lifeless ones of her own. Time seemed to slow down for Wood as he watched the pincers start to zoom closed. "GLADE!" He bellowed out, but that was the last moment Wood ever got to have with her before the pincer fully snapped shut, severing Glade's head from the rest of her body.

Wood couldn't cope with any more of it, he just bore witness to the deaths of his two closest friends not even ten minutes apart. Turning around, with tears drenching his face and the bile once more threatening his throat, he rushed to the nearest bush and viciously released the contents of his stomach.

Once Wood was done hurling his guts out he was heavily panting with exhaustion and bit of saliva was running down his chin while he stared blankly at the ground.

During his time staring at the ground, Wood forgot about the looming presence until he noticed a shadow sneaking up on him in his peripherals. Whipping around as fast as he could with fear overwriting the dull look on his face, Wood came face to face with the monster's menacing form. Rapidly shooting his head around looking for any means of escape he vaguely caught sight of a figure casually walking down the pathway a little distance away.

Jumping out of the way, Wood just barely dodged the Scorpada's stinger slamming down and instead of creating a red smear out of him it created a small crater in the tough soil.

Sprinting on Wood surged himself down the path toward the figure hoping for some kind of support.

The mysterious figure, who Wood could now see was a cloaked pony, came to a stop just as Woods skidded to a halt directly in front of them. "Please! You got... to help... me!" Wood begged between breaths. "My friends and I were just walking down this path when... when a Scorpada appeared out of nowhere and... and killed them both!" Wood, borderline hysterical, quickly spewed out. The hooded pony could make out a few stray tears that were streaming down the stallion's panicked face but didn't react otherwise.

"Please! You got to help me before it catches up!!" Wood continued to beg while the cloaked pony still showed no sign of hearing him. "Hello!? Please! Before it catches up to me, do you think you can help take care of it?!" Silence.

Getting a little frustrated at being ignored Wood yelled at the mysterious pony, "Ugh, FINE! FINE! I don't need your help anyways! I'll just... use you as bait! Yeah, that's a perfe—" Was all Wood was able to get out before a giant stinger tore through his flimsy armor and embedded itself into the back of his spine.

Gurggling out bubbles of blood the life quickly faded from Wood's eyes before the Scorpada chucked him to the side and focused on the new prey in front of it. The cloaked pony, unfazed by the stallion's swift demise, blankly looked up at the Class-A monster now in front of them. Without pause, a magenta glow appeared from, what appeared to be a horn, under the hood slightly illuminating the figure inside. The pony under the hood had a dark indigo mane with a few brighter highlights streaked through it and lighter purple fur to go along with it.

The glow only lasted a short five seconds before it gradually dimmed down until it disappeared, covering the pony's features in shadows once more. With that, the pony casually trotted around the Scorpada and continued down the dirt path to their destination; a simple town by the name of Ponyville.

If the pony were to look back now they would see that the four-meter-tall Scorpada, it's head nowhere to be found with dark red blood oozing out of its now headless neck, was flopped down along the path never to move on its own again...

Just what did this mystery pony do to it?

Further on down the path, the cloaked pony was standing atop a hill looking down to where the path ended at a reinforced wooden gate even further on ahead. Surrounding the edges of the gate was a thick six-meter tall concrete wall that stretched on a long distance to either side of it. There was also a couple of armor bound guards keeping watch from the top of the wall, and a couple more guards posted on each side of the gate on the ground.

Sighting a bit of movement the cloaked pony glanced to see a small caravan a little way up the path heading straight for the gate. With an opportunity now in play, the pony wasted no time lighting up their horn and making their body disappear from sight. Taking one last glance at the caravan the now invisible pony spotted where they wanted to go and disappeared with a flash that no one could see.

'Reappearing' behind the moving caravan the pony promptly matched its pace as it rolled along the path. Able to hear the conversation of the two ponies pulling the cart the invisible pony perked their ears up to eavesdrop on them until they arrived at the gate.

"Dude, are you positive we'll get through undetected? Because I really don't want to get thrown in jail again, once was enough for me." One of them said sounding a little on edge.

"Oh, calm down buddy I already told you about the enchanted blanket covering the goods, the guards will never think twice about them! Besides, when have I ever let you down?" The other pony, sounding a little cocky, responded to his partner.

"Dude, you were the one who got us thrown into jail in the first place." The first pony deadpanned.

"Come on, bud! How was I supposed to know the sack of money I snatched was from a guard!" Pony two argued back throwing up one of his forelegs, jostling the caravan.

"Don't bud me! I don't know how you didn't know, but I do know how you foisted the money off onto me before bolting away down a side alley! And, let me tell you... when I saw that enraged guard charging straight at me I just about pissed myself! I had that fight or flight response, dude, and that guard made me want to 'flight' the hell out of there before he 'fight' the hell out of me!" Pony one said getting a little heated over his partner's past deed.

Waving him off, "Oh quiet you it wasn't that bad." The two ponies were now coming up to the gate. Whispering to pony one, "Now literally, quiet you, let me do the talking." A groan is the only response he received.

The invisible cloaked pony, still tailing their caravan, sped up their pace and was now walking to the right of the caravan instead of behind it; a plan formulating in their head.

"Halt!" A guard bellowed with full authority to the two caravan pulling ponies and blocked their path forcing them to come to a stop. "State your business here."

Unhooking himself from the caravan Pony two walked up to the guard and threw one of his forehooves around his neck. "Ohhh, you know buddy! Just two casual traveling merchants hoping to sell a couple of wares in this here humble little town!" In the background pony one facehoofed... hard.

Shrugging the annoying pony's leg off his neck the guard walked up to the caravan and told both ponies, "I am required to check the contents of your caravan before I'm allowed to permit you both entry into this town."

"By all means, go ahead go ahead!" After that statement, the guard stuck his head through the flaps of the caravan and scanned its contents. Small wooden crates, a couple sacks of money, a few weapons, a suspicious looking blanket, armor, and that was just about it.

The guard pulled his head back out and turned back to pony two. "Everything seems to check out, you two may enter. Enjoy your time in Ponyville." With that, the guard made his way back to the gate and signaled to another guard standing watch on top of the wall. That guard then turned away and walked out of view for a few seconds before the gate started opening with a loud creaking noise.

Pony two now back to the caravan hooked himself back up to his harness. Turning to his buddy he gave him a little wink, "Too easy." All he got in return was his buddy rolling his eyes.

Once the gate fully opened both of the ponies resumed their trek, eager to enter the town and make some quick coin. And it was at this time the invisible pony sprang their plan into action. Lighting up their horn they shattered the front and back right wheels of the caravan making it tip over and slam into the ground, causing some of the more... illegal contents to fly out the back.

"What the—" Both ponies shouted before having the air knocked from their lungs when they fell with the caravan and impacted against their harnesses. Witnessing the accident, both the guards by the gate rushed up to assess the situation and in doing so they sighted the contents that ended up spilling out the back of the caravan.

Not sticking around to watch the aftermath the invisible pony nonchalantly walked through the gate and into the town's limits. Quickly finding a building to hide behind the pony canceled the invisibility spell they cast on themselves and wandered back out into the open.

There were many shops widely spread out across the way, and in the gaps between them, small little stalls were set up to the sides of the cobblestone paths selling foods, clothes, weapons, armor, accessories, and many other exotic looking items. For a small town, an unusually exorbitant amount of ponies were crowding the paths looking to buy some of the goods being sold.

Weaving their way through the bustling crowd the cloaked pony attempted to locate a single building. After an hour of fruitless searching, the cloaked pony resigned themselves and decided to ask somepony else for directions. Walking over to the first pony they saw it just so happens to be a white-furred purple maned unicorn who was busy peering through the window of a clothing shop.

"Excuse me." The cloaked unicorn called out in a no-nonsense tone. Catching the other pony's attention the white mare turned around to identify the pony who called out to her.

When she saw a cloaked pony waiting in front of her the mare hesitated to respond. "Uh... Um, was it you who called out to me, darling?" The mare's blue eyes clearly showed a bit of unease, but if the cloaked pony realized they didn't comment on it.

"Where is the Hub in this town?" Straight to the point, the cloaked pony asked.

"Oh! Well, you're in the wrong area. As you might tell this is the marketplace, while the Hub is positioned more towards the center of the town just further down this path here." The mare answered while pointing her hoof in the correct direction.

Giving a curt nod, "Thanks." the cloaked pony walked away, disappearing into the bustling crowd.

"That was... peculiar, but that cloak was nice." Stated the unicorn mare to herself before shrugging and resuming with her shopping. "Ugh... green? Only a ruffian would wear something like that!" Unbeknownst to her, a green-furred pony was giving her the stink eye.

After weaving through the dense marketplace crowd for what seemed like hours the cloaked unicorn now stood in front of the building they were searching for, Ponyville's Hub. It was a large circular stone brick abode with three stories in height and no windows to be seen besides the two on the top floor. Above the top floor, the roof looked to be a sort of hemisphere constructed with some type of refined wood. And the entrance to the building had a small patio made of polished mahogany wood that was leveled a bit off the ground with two steps leading up to it.

Walking up onto the patio the cloaked unicorn saw a group of pony's milling about. Ignoring them the unicorn made their way to the double door entrance, made of the same material as the patio, and pulled it open. Stepping in, the place was abuzz with other ponies, some stopping to stare at the newcomer while others ignored the pony entirely.

The Hub had a sort of medieval feel to it. Torches were placed evenly along the stone brick walls, covered by some metal mesh for protection, casting a soothing glow amongst the interior. The same sanded down smooth mahogany wood as the patio outside made up the flooring inside. And then there were numerous ponies present drinking, most likely, alcohol and just plain old having a jolly time with their friends or fellow guildmates.

Scanning the place there was wooden tables and chairs scattered all over the place seating the numerous ponies present; there was a small curved bar up against the right wall serving all types of brews; there was a poster board in the middle of the room with multiple pictures of monsters tacked onto it with a couple of ponies looking at them; and next to the poster board was what the cloaked pony was seeking this whole time, the receptionists desk. It appeared to be one long curved marble desk in the shape of a circle allowing any worker to walk freely around in the middle of it.

Ignoring the few looks still being thrown their way the cloaked pony headed straight for the desk. Coming up on the desk one of the Hub receptionists caught sight of the oncoming pony and happily greeted them. "Hello!~ My name is Redheart and I can say I haven't seen you before, is there anything perchance I'd be able to help you with?"

Coming to a stop in front of the desk the cloaked pony nodded their head. "Yes. I need to become an Adventurer here."

"Okay, that's not too hard to do. But you do realize that Ponyville, being a smaller and in turn not as protected town, is considered a more hazardous area compared to other bigger places like Canterlot and Manehatten correct?" Receiving a nod of confirmation Redheart continued, "Alright, I just wanted to make sure you realized that. So before we move on to the Ranking Trials there are going to be a couple of things I need from you."

Ducking down under the desk for a couple of seconds Redheart reappeared setting a camera, a contract, and quill onto the desk. "I'm going to need you to sign your name here, here, and here," she said pointing to each individual spot on the contract, "and I'm also going to need a picture of your face, so I'm sorry to say this, but you'll need to take your hood off for the time being."

Quickly floating the quill on the desk over to the contract the cloaked pony swiftly but neatly signed their signature on the designated areas. Setting the quill back down and cutting their magic the cloaked pony reached up with one of their forehooves and pulled back the hood.

With their hood fully pulled back now revealing the features of their face to the world the receptionist let out a little gasp of shock and held a forehoof up to her mouth. "Wha-wha-what happened t-to your—" Holding their hoof up to quiet the receptionist, the now revealed to be mare, stated her name and intentions.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle and I have only a single objective." She said with a voice devoid of any folly while looking straight into Redheart's eyes with a sharp gaze.

"A-and what might that b-be?" Redheart stuttered, wilting a little under that cold and menacing stare.

"To eradicate every... last... monster... from existence; starting around this town here."

Reigning in her nerves as much as she could, "Th-That's a very grandiose task you set up for y-yourself there Ms. Sparkle, are you sure you could handle s-something that big? Especially with your... um... handicap." Redheart dully finished off as she noticed the unicorn's narrowed eyes.

"No offense Redheart but I don't need you babying me. Even with this left eye of mine," Twilight said while pointing at it, "I am still fully aware as to the extent of my own abilities. And for what I have planned, if something as simple as a partial loss of sight hindered me, I'd have given up and killed myself long ago."

As for what the problem was with her left eye... there were three large scars parallel to each other starting a little on the forehead above the eye and leading straight over it before ending close to the corner of her mouth. The scars looked to have been caused by some type of three-clawed creature that made an attempt to gouge her eye out. And, as for the color of the eye itself, it had long since faded away leaving behind a milky white iris clearly indicating its blind state.

Put off by the blatant disregard the mare has with her own life but choosing to ignore it, Redheart gave a short little bow with a sad look on her face and sincerely apologized. "I'm am so very sorry, I didn't mean any offense with my earlier remark." Quickly attempting to change the subject Redheart looked back to Twilight with a soft smile. "Now, how do you feel about starting the Ranking Trials, hmm?"

"The picture?" Twilight asked simmering down a tad.

"Ehh... we'll just take it once we're finished with the trials, it isn't too big of a deal."

Twilight, nodding in response, waited as Redheart lifted up a panel incorporated into the desk and walked out from the circle. "Alright, just follow me and I'll lead us to the Trials grounds." With that the pair exit the Hub, completely oblivious to the group of ponies tailing behind them.

Author's Note

Should've put this in when I first published this chapter, but oh well!

All I got to say is that I'm going to be posting any new chapters when and only when I deem it fit for publishing. I want to try and make good unrushed content instead of constantly rushed subpar content, so with that being said, I won't have any kind of constant update schedule.

But I am very hyped up to make this story and will most likely be working on it during any free time I can get, so no worries! Updates are on the horizon!