The Hunter's Trek

Chapters

The Hunter
The Artist
The Beacon
The Creatures
The Invitation
The Spark...
The Contract
The Avians

The Hunter

The Hunter’s Trek

Chapter 1: The Hunter

The night.

To the most common of creatures, the night is a time of rest and replenish. A time where they need not worry till the morning unless they fear what could come for them in the middle of their slumber.

To those who stay up for a little longer after dark, it is a peaceful, quiet and serene sight to behold. The stars twinkling in the inky black that made up the sky, the soft chirp of crickets singing a sort of lullaby and the moon in which night makes sacred.

As for the hunters, they take to the shadows and, well, they hunt. They see the night as the darkest point in which to make their hunting ground, where unsuspecting prey tries to find comfort and safety in the night’s protective darkness.

There was one such hunter who was admiring the scene before him, in the safety of a tree branch high up and away from the Everfree forest’s floor.

His clothing was dark in colour, to help him hide among the shadows during his hunts. He wore a long overcoat, which left a bit of the fabric dangling over the side of the branch, with a hood sewn into it to cover his face. The figure wore dark boots with a metal lining on his feet and a pair of pants made of cloth and leather as protection, a quiver full of arrows strapped to his right leg. Two sheathed short swords hung from a red, leather belt roped around his waist. Clinging to the overcoat’s sides were two Nordic axes and two throwing axes just behind. Above the axes, he wore a round, wooden shield with an iron rim. A blowpipe fit snuggly underneath the shield itself with small feathers decorating it.

The hunter was not just enjoying the peace of the night. No, he had prey, and he was simply waiting for them to come to him.

A rustle of leaves drew his attention and four cloaked figures had emerged from a brush covering a hidden path, on which they followed. Most of these new arrivals had the tell-tale sign of the unicorn’s horn. Others would’ve either hid their extra appendages under their cloak or had none at all.

There was one, however, that stood out. They had a sack over their head, so it was impossible to put a face on who was hidden underneath if you didn’t know who it was already. That was his target, he knew for sure. They knew whose face was underneath the sack, they were the ones that had put her in that situation. And the pony was not being quiet at all.

“I swear, once I’m free you’ll all be sorry!” Of course, all she screamed was nothing but empty threats considering her position, but that did not stop her from making them.

The cloaked hunter watched as they passed - unable to see him as they were too focused in shutting up the mare whilst trying to navigate the dark - and slowly started to creep across the branch, where he promptly jumped to another, barely making a sound beside the rustle of leaves as he moved to stalk them. He had to make sure they got to their destination before he struck so as not to raise any suspicion with any of their friends. He had also heard that one of their leaders was going to be there.

They eventually came to an old ruin, the mare never ceasing in her screaming and thrashing, where the walls had been obviously fixed as old stone stood out to pristine, recently carved stone. Fortunately, they had not gotten to fixing the roof yet, giving him a clear window to look through and observe.

The room the cloaked ponies were using was fitted with bits of cloth in the colour of a deep red, green or purple, some even having an image of pure green eyes, purple mist leaking out from them.

A few candles littered the ground, some nearly blown out, while others looked like they had recently been placed down. They were surrounding a rune that seemed to serve as the base for a ritual about to take place. The rune looked to be drawn in a star pattern that did not stop at the ring around most of it, the points seeming to escape the circle and walk up the wall. The walls themselves had bits of moss here and there from ageing, where it was not being occupied by cloth or chalk, or part of the repairs. Finally, a throne made of a dark metal and wood sat at the far side of the room atop some stairs. The throne itself held an aura of evil, with the backrest spiked and jagged as it was. Cushions of red adorned the throne, only serving as the only amount of comfort one might get from the chair.

“Ah, finally you have arrived with our young guest here,” a silhouette spoke up, as he drifted a hoof up to point at the mare as she was brought into the room and unceremoniously thrown to the middle of the pentagram.

As he slowly rose, light from the candles and sconces around the room shone on the figure, revealing a stallion with greyish-white fur and a darker red mane, he wore a cloak, although the hood was pulled back, like the others but with a fur lining on the edge, much like a royal cape. His eyes were blood-red with purple mist flowing from the green of his cornea. A clear sign in the use of dark magic. A small crown, one might find a child with, sat atop his head, the metal reflecting the candlelight of the room.

The hunter watched the unicorn approach the mare while he continued to speak, a small blade pocketed in a sheath glinting every now and then when light made its way inside his cloak.

“Tonight, is the night, my brothers and sisters, that we bring the king back from the ashes. And on this night, he will bring a new rule to Equestria. And when the Sisters fall, so too will the Empire, on which our king shall make his new rule an- “

“What’s with all you ponies trying to foalnap me, then you tell me your plan to overthrow the Princesses, and then expecting everything to go right?” All eyes in the room fell on the mare as she spoke, not a single creature making a sound, surprised on how quickly her tone had shifted from screaming with frustration to a completely calm voice.

The hunter, using the opportunity to act, unsheathed his blowpipe and load it with a bristled, bone dart, taken from one of the pockets situated on his cloak.

“And you have to be the worst group who have tried foalnapping me this mouth.”

The crowned stallion looked at her in confusion, “Tried?”

He was about to retort, but at that moment, one of the cloaked ponies had hit the floor. ‘One down,’ Everyone present in the room froze, and one of the ponies closest had gotten a little too close to their unconscious comrade, that when they took one step toward them, they too hit the floor, a dart visibly sticking out of their neck.

For a second more the room was quiet, eyes darting everywhere until one pair of eyes landed on a bird. The bird was like nothing they had seen before, and it would not have gone noticed if it were not for its red eyes and what few white feathers were on its utter black feathers. Feathers that, if not for the white, would have made it seemed invisible during the cold night of the Everfree.

The leader’s eyes stayed on the near-camouflaged bird when the mare had broken the silence by saying “With all this silence, I’ll take a gander and say he’s here now”.

That was when a thud had resonated throughout the room. All eyes shot to their now unconscious leader, laying underneath a figure, hooded much like themselves, but standing just a few inches short as the famous Sun Princess.

held his fists in the air, ready to fight when a horn was blown and seconds later five more - unhooded this time and wearing a light, metallic armour - cultists joined the fray. They themselves came from the front door, looking a lot tougher and battle-trained than the rest, not that they did not know how to fight themselves.

The first pony charged; their head held down, hoping to skewer him on his horn, or at least something to that effect. Yet this was not the first time he had delt with these cult members or other cults for that matter. And so, it was easy for him to sidestep the charging stallion, grab his horn and promptly smash him muzzle first into the stone-cold floor beneath him. He threw the pony back, where he staggered and fell on his rump, dazed.

Through that time, one of the other armoured ponies had tackled him in the side. He stumbled for a bit, trying to gain a sense of balance before he righted himself on his feet and looked toward his assailant.

That was when he felt a strike take his jaw.

When he came back to his senses, the hunter looked back towards the whole of the group he was facing off against. Hs jaw still ached, but that did not matter right now.

He changed his stance, his back most foot being brought more to the back. He studied his opponents, two pegasi on the right, one earth and unicorn pony to the left, and that dazed unicorn still in the middle of the fray, most likely still trying to recover.

The other cultists seemed to have left. ‘They aren’t much of a problem. I‘m sure Ternychus will draw enough attention to them in town,’ After that thought, he got ready for the upcoming fight.

A pegasus charged straight for him, probably looking to get as lucky as his friends. Unlucky for him, the hunter struck out with his foot, stopping his charge and instead sent him crashing into the wall on the far side of the room.

The remaining ponies started to grab weapons of any kind to fight with, be it a random pole on the floor or blocks of old timber from the runs. ‘Well, if they wish to fight with arms…’ The hunter reached behind his overcoat and brought out a vaguely bow-like contraption. It definitely looked like a bow, if bows were made without the common arc and had ten centimetres of string on it. It more looked like an arm launcher than anything.

He jerked his hand forward and the contraption was revealed to indeed be a bow. But he didn’t stop there. He moved his hand up to where the string was hooked and unstrung it from its hook, causing the bow to snap together into a staff, which he twirled around before setting it to rest pointing toward the last of the still conscious group.

After the bow-turned staff had finished unfolding, the first of the armed ponies struck forward with a large piece of rotted timber held aloft in her magic, which was then blocked by the hunter’s staff and thrown as far to the side as he could muster. He then struck the unicorns horn, her magic fizzling out and the timber fell to the ground. He spun around and knocked her hooves out from under her, causing her to fall on her face.

He quickly struck the side of the mare’s head with the end of his staff before another pony, this time a pegasus with a polearm in their hooves, swung the polearm up and towards the hunter. He blocked the polearm and strained to keep himself grounded under the force the pegasus was applying to the weapon.

Out of the corner of his peripheral, a second pony was heading towards him, a broken pole, jagged tip, somewhat like a spear. Before the head pierced his flesh, the hunter jumped back, forcing the pegasi to fall forwards and crash into their friend.

Before they had a chance to get up, he too two darts out of a pouch on his coat, and the blowpipe off his back and shot them both.

All was silent as the last of them fell. The hunter got to work tying up all of those he could, attaching a magical beacon to one of the unicorn’s horn.

All that was left was his target.

The lavender pony had ceased in her struggles and kept quiet during the entire fight. He stopped for a moment to question to himself as to how this individual became so popular in the kidnapping department.

“Can you hurry up? I want to go home.” The mare complained. In response, the hunter grabbed the bag and too it off her head, “Finally. And here I thought you were going to leave me here.” He then went around to her hooves and untied her.

And speaking for the first time that night, the hunter replied with “No man left behind.”

“I guess I never will understand you…”

After the mare had stood up, it became easier for anypony to recognise her. Over the years of her stay in Ponyville, she had become a hero to Equestria. Her lavender coat, navy mane with dual colours of pink and purple and even her cutie mark, a six-pointed star with five smaller, white ones surrounding it, became iconic across the country. Known only as the unicorn mage; Twilight Sparkle, student to the princess of the sun herself.

“Come on. Let’s get you home, Sparkle,” the hunter called to get her attention, in what could only be described as an emotionally flat voice.

The two spent the next few minutes walking through the forest. The path they took was enchanted to repel the forest’s most dangerous creatures, so often to duo would notice a peaceful critter or two resting, or taking a quick bite before scurrying of, n the middle of the path, clearly well aware of this fact.

When the two finally reached the Golden Oak Hotel, renovated curtesy of Twilight Sparkle herself, they spotted a dark, slouching Silhouette in the lit-up doorway of the hotel. As they got closer to the silhouette, it turned out to be a baby dragon, clearly up longer than he would be used to.

The baby dragon had finally realised who had walked up to the door, where his expression had changed to one of mild anger. He lifted a claw to the air, too a step forward, opened his mouth to yell and fell to the ground, sleep finally overtaking him.

The purple and green dragon started lightly snoring and Twilight scooped hm up in her magic, placing hm on her back, “Oh, Spike…” she said softly. She then turned towards the hunter to say a farewell, only to find herself alone.

She shrugged her shoulders, knowing she would see the man in the morning, and went inside to a peaceful sleep.

The Artist

The Hunter’s Trek

Chapter 2: The Artist

The next three days went by without rest. Twilight had been dragged away in the morning by one of her friends to a ‘Welcome Back from Your 56th Foalnapping’ party and really had no time for a break.

The town had found it commonplace by this point that they started making a betting pool on which group had gotten to her this time.

On the second day of her return, she had her weekly report to the princess she had to write. Nowadays though, the only things she would write was information about the ponies who foalnapped her.

It was early the next morning that Twilight received a visitor to the Golden Oaks Hotel.

She was walking down the steps to the lobby, as she does every morning to check-in, where she spotted a man in a dark overcoat, a few pouches decorating it, but nothing else. Loong at his head, she noted that his short, dark brown hair was not even reaching his forehead. A new haircut maybe. His clothes were bland and a light shade of brown. The pants he wore almost reflected the colour of his hair if only a shade lighter. His boots were covered in mud, from the Everfree no doubt.

He was bent over, a leather-bound book on his lap as he drew some sketches onto the pages. As he heard Twilight’s hooves upon the wooden floor, he lifted his head up and turned his attention to her. A smile plastered itself onto his face as his eyes lit up in recognition.

“Morin’,” The artist greeted as Twilight came over and sat down on a pillow across from him.

He looked back towards his book as Twilight searched around the lobby for a certain dragon that definitely was not in his bed sleeping in again. “Where’s Spike? I thought he’d be cooking breakfast today.”

The artist looked back up and around for the young drake, who did seem to be missing. Then he remembered the short encounter he had with Spike when he first arrived in the early morning. “Right. Young lad said he’d be off sorting out the few books in the library section, just off that ‘a ways.”

Twilight turned her gaze to the far side of the lobby, where the library had been kept relatively the same since the renovations and heard the soft clicking of claws upon wood as Spike moved around.

She took the time she had to look around the place she called home for two years now. But, during that time, Twilight had noticed how much the small town was lacking in accommodations for any visiting ponies. So, she took it upon herself to request a renovation to the Golden Oaks Library, which had somehow been approved, to fix that problem.

It was unfortunate that nopony actually came over to the town for more than a day’s visit.

By the time the new hotel was finished, the tree more resembled that of a redwood tree than an oak tree. But it seemed wrong to change the name more than it had to be, so the name forever remained as Golden Oaks.

As for the interior, it had changed the most. Due to much of the construction happening above ground, Twilight was forced to live in a tent outside. It wasn’t all that bad at all, if she was to be honest. She quite enjoyed spending some time outside, her telescope just within reach so she could do some stargazing and her friends occasionally coming out for a small sleepover around a campfire made by Pinkie, who somehow managed to keep it from burning down the tree.

So far, at least on the ground level of the old tree, the only large-scale changes was in the lobby. Some bookshelves were either removed or were moved over to the library section of the hotel, because what place should not at least have a library. The centre table had been moved to a corner with a lounge for any waiting to be dealt a room. There was now a desk towards the back of the room, which barely has anyone there, but will be used when the time comes. There were a few stools and cushions here and there, mainly next to the few remaining bookshelves in the lobby, where pones could sit and read or pass the time with a friend or family member.

The library portion of the hotel was one of the ones that was barely changed on the ground level. In fact, the library is the only reason Twilight’s getting any income at all. The room had been spaced out a bit to make room for all the books that were being moved to that room. A lot more shelves were added and there was also a small desk on one side for checking out books, and a few smaller desks meant for resting a book on, or for note-taking, if the need arose.

The kitchen was probably the least bit altered during the renovations, not much needed to be changed besides the extension of cooking appliances for large amounts of guests. There was even a trolly to help with any deliveries, when and if it was ever to be used. But it was always welcome to wake up in the morning with the smell of breakfast being made. Much like right now.

Twilight did a double take.

“If Spike’s sorting out the library, then who’s using the stove?” Twilight asked slowly, confusion clear on her face.

“Oh, right. I went and grabbed some fresh slabs of venison and chucked it on the stove for a while,” the artist replied.

“Ah, alight then…” It took Twilight a second to remember just what venison was, and when she did she nearly screamed. “Wait… What!”

Twilight shot to her hooves and ran to the kitchen, hoping that her fears were wrong, and her ears were telling her things. Though, when she made it to the stove, those hopes were dashed as, true to the artist’s word, a slab of deer meat lay frying in the pan.

“Oh no, oh no, oh nononono. Why is there deer meat in my house!?” Twilight panicked as the artist had quickly moved to follow her after she left.

“Calm down, Sparkle.” He tried to calm her down, but it was all for nought as she started hyperventilating.

“CALM DOWN!? How can I be calm when there’s meat in my pan and an animal pacifist as a friend!?” The artist failed to get her nerves in check as bits of her mane started to stick out in different directions. “Ohhh, want if she comes by today? What if she’s on her way right now!?”

“J-just calm down and hear me out. Besides, it was raining in the Everfree and I sure as heck wasn’t about to start a fire in the middle of town.”

“What about Zecora? Surely, she would have let you-” Twilight was trying to reason with him, only to get cut off halfway through speaking.

“Except she decided to leave for a month’s trip to gather some native herbs around the country. And trust me, Fluttershy is still asleep and she ain’t coming by anytime soon.” Twilight, at this point, was really starting to freak out. So much so that she started to rabble on and on about what-ifs. Some like ‘What if she decides to come over early?’ or ‘What if she comes over for a random check on the owl family?’ But, before the artist could put a voice on any of this, the sound of claws hitting wood at a fast pace reached his ears.

Spike rushed inside the kitchen, drawn out of the library by the commotion happening within the next room. By the time he got past the doorway, Twilight was continuously mumbling to herself as the artist was trying to calm her down and tend to the venison in the pan, making sure it would not get burned, or set off the fire alarm.

“What’s going on? Why’s everyone screaming?” The voice of her number one assistant broke Twilight out of her mumbling, if only so she may answer his question.

“Oh, Spike, good. You’re here. Quickly, we need to get rid of this-” She turned to look at the pan, only to find the slab of deer missing. “Where did it go?”

She turned just in time to see the artist about to finish the remains of the steak. Stopping mid-bite to address the unicorn staring at him in bafflement. “What? You sad we needed to get rid of it, so that’s what I’m doing.” He continued to eat away at the steak as Twilight nervously shot looks between him and the window, hoping above all else that Fluttershy would not decide on an early morning visit.

“Eh… well, I’m going to go finish sorting the books…” Spike nervously left the kitchen, and its two occupants, as Twilight noticed a pony heading towards the door and, in her frantic state, neglected to process who it actually was that was coming towards the door. She barrelled her way over to the door, getting ready for all the apologies she was about to make to, whom she assumed was, Fluttershy.

“Ya know she barely reacted last time she’s was here, right?” the artist called as he followed Twilight out the kitchen. “Last time all she did was faint once she found out what meat it was. So just calm down, please.” Twilight quickly whipped her head away from the door, looking to address him.

“Exactly! Which is why I don’t want to worry her again! I don’t want to be seen as a bad friend!” While the two of them were arguing, they had not noticed the door opening to reveal a white unicorn mare, with a royal purple, well-kept and curled mane tail under its frame. Her blue eyes looking in the hotel with worry.

“Why would she think the steaks were yours?! You’re a flippin’ herbivore!” the artist shot back as they continued to argue. His face then contorted to a blank stare as he looked Twilight over. “Yer still new to friendship, aren’t ya?” – He held the bridge of his nose and shook his head slightly – “Don’t usually take yiz this long…”

Twilight’s face changed to one of confusion, before she decided to speak up again. “What’s that sup-” She was interrupted by the mare at the door cleared her throat to catch their attention.

“Terribly sorry, but I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” The mare asked, confusion and worry clear on her face.

“Oh! Rarity! No, no not. Just, ah, some light arguing?” Twilight spoke, long quite sheepish. She collected herself before addressing her friend properly. “So, what can I do for you?”

“Right…” Rarity said, not convinced at all. She decided to leave it for now and get back to why was here to begin with. “Anyway, I have come for your help, Twilight. You see, I came across a new gem cave recently, and I came across an odd-looking gem. I of course now the dangers of enchanted items, but it just could not be ignored, so I may have brought into town with me,” Rarity said as she herself started to look a little sheepish of her actions. “But I have it with me and was hoping you could understand what this gem was.”

Twilight beamed at the chance to study a potentially magical item. Maybe it was even an artefact from Old Equestria. “Of course! I’d love to check it out for you!” She looked around for the aforementioned stone but couldn’t seem to find it. “Where is it? I don’t see it anywhere.”

“Ah, right. It’s right here,” Rarity answered as she held up a square of fabric, that was held in a way that was reminiscent of a string bag, in her magic. It was clear there was something inside, most likely the gem, that weighed the fabric down to the earth.

“Alrighty then, I think I’m off then. I’ll see you lot around, maybe tomorrow, maybe not. See y’all later. Good night!” the artist called as he left the hotel and headed out of town.

Out of instinct, Twilight raised her hoof and called out to him in farewell. “Good night, Edmond!” It was then that she realised what she had said, and the fact it was still morning. Knowing it was to late to fix her mistake, she just shrugged her shoulders and lead Rarity into the hotel to get started on her tests for the mysterious gem she brought her. All the while, Edmond Khan Carter walked towards the Everfree forest. To hunt, rest or look for the many secrets of Equestria, nopony new, but they had their rumours of this hunter’s trek.

Author's Note

These first two chapters are a bit of an introduction to the story, and the protagonist. And, since this story is just me writing for fun, chapter updates will be quite irregular, so I make no promises as to when they will be done and posted. But bear with me, all I can promise is that they will be posted.

Other than that, I hope you all have enjoyed it so far and enjoy what is come.

The Beacon

The Hunter’s Trek

Chapter 3: The Beacon

It was early morning up in Canterlot. The many birds that lived outside of the many gardens and parks were singing their song and early workers would oft be seen wandering the streets towards their work placements, or towards cafes for morning coffee or breakfast. That is, if mood struck them.

One pony, in particular, a light brown earth pony, with a dark blue mane, and tail, with two red and white pills crossed in the universal sign for medics making up his cutie mark, was walking towards the great castle, sitting more on the ledge of the mountain than any other residential building of Canterlot.

He had two saddlebags strapped ether side, each full of medical supplies. Apparently, one of the local resident pones of the castle had gotten sick, and he had been charged with tending to the patent. Currently, the description of the symptoms given were; a high fever, constant headaches, and a stiffness in the neck. He had an idea of what was wrong, but, if he were to be at all honest, he could not care less. No, if he were an honest stallion, he would say he was happier for his real visit.

=====================================/|==========================================/

“So just take it easy for a few days. And, if it doesn’t pass, or f you get worse, send for us and we’ll be down in no time.” He waved off the elderly mare as he left the maid’s room. The poor mare had been affected by a virus, now known as the West Nile virus.

The nasty little pathogen was quite harmless at first. That is until it sends somepony into a coma. Often, the virus rarely needed treatment, able to clear away on its own. It was also quite uncommon for a pony to gain any illness at all. And it seemed the only way the virus would spread would be through the bite of a mosquito.

‘Nasty little buggers.’ Silver Gift shuddered at the thought of those bloodsuckers, and their unorthodox form of nourishment. His mind wandered back to a question he had asked himself but kept quiet about since he did have a job to do. Why weren’t the castle doctors called in to take care of her? But although he had not asked a soul, it seemed fate gave him the answer when he passed the medical wing on his way to the princess.

Stretchers were filled with many soldiers, a lot of them sporting red, seeping wounds. Didn’t look like anything too serious to him, but still serious enough to warrant all hooves on deck. Of course, it all did not matter to him in the slightest. He was here for one thing, and he was glad all the guards would not be much of a worry anymore.

It was then that he reached the doors to Princess Celestia’s chambers. Two guards stood at attention at the door, both long at Silver Gift with stoic suspicion. The stallion pulled out a letter, addressed to him and signed by the princess, up to the guards. After a quick glance to check the letter for any signs of falsity the guards stepped to the side, one of them knocking on the door to the princess’s study to notify her of Silver’s presence.

“Come in,” Princess Celestia called out to the sound of the knock. As Silver Gift pushed the door open, he thought back to the reaction of the guards. It was not the first time he gave his regards to the princess face to face, so he knew how the guard’s reactions had changed over the years.

Many a groups of ponies had been threatening the crown about the time of Celestia’s first student, whom, if he remembered what had been told to him, had abandoned her studies in search of something. Thing was, nopony ever saw her ever leave the castle. So, in retrospect, he couldn’t really blame their apprehensiveness around him. Too bad she was too trusting.

“Good morning, Silver Gift.” Princess Celestia stood from a large stack of paperwork piled on her desk a smile gracing her features. “It is good to see you again.”

“Princess.” Silver crouched into a bow before rising back up onto his hooves. “I’ve come to assure you that the patient is absolutely fine. Just as long as she has plenty of rest.” He placed his saddlebags down on the floor, silently relieved of the weight from his back. He couldn’t really pack light anyways, not knowing what the poor mare would need to be treated with after all.

Princess Celestia acknowledged the good news with a smile, and a slight nod of her head, before she turned to her island of papers and plucked a small envelope off the edge of the desk. She turned to regard the stallion, bringing a pot of tea and two cups over in her golden magic over to a small coffee table by their side, where she then sat down on a floor cushion, the doctor following her actions shortly after.

“Well, before you go off, I would like to spend some time catching up with an old friend,” She spoke up as she started pouring some tea into both cups, the two being moved towards the two occupants. “How have you been lately?” Princess Celesta asked out of curiosity.

“None the better!” Silver exclaimed with a good-natured chortle. “If you’re still looking to set up your student, I may know of a stallion who might meet her tastes.” He blinked and, for a second, thought over his response. “Or was it Cadence who was looking for one?”

Celestia giggled softly and said “Oh, I assure you, we both have been trying to get her out of her shell. But her friends have been doing a good job where we could not.”

“Did I hear that right? The little spark, shut-in, and highly reactive study addict, now has friends? And here I thought the day would never come!”

“Indeed, it has. And, if the news did not reach you, she and her friends are responsible for Luna’s return and Discord’s defeat.” She looked up wistfully. “She has grown so far…”

“I had heard of her achievements, yes. Though I had no idea it was in the presence of company,” Silver Gift said with a sip of his tea. He left it on the side to cool, turned his eyes to the princess’s teacup, which was still left untouched, and took a chance.

“I always did wonder how a cheery pony like her made no friends. Studying or not, she always seemed friendly to me, very creative too. But that is just my opinion.”

“She was never really the best at making friends in school. From the stories I myself have heard, she always worried too much about what they were going to think of her. She felt more comfortable around ponies living in the same space as her.” Celestia explained. “Although, from what I hear, she was never like that her whole life. Cadence even saying she was emotionally different from even before her entrance exam. Perhaps...?”

“Well, sorry to cut this short, Princess, but I’m afraid there is more work that needs to be attended to,” Silver said as he finished his tea and gave a small bow of farewell to the princess.

“Ah. How unfortunate. But I myself know what it is like to have your duties ruin a meeting with friends.” Celestia stood up before bringing her cup towards her lips for a light sip. After swallowing the tea, Princess Celestia started to feel a little off. But before she could say anything, she fell to her knees, finding it difficult to stand. She tried to say anything, but her vision started to cloud over. And everything went black shortly after.

Silver Gift watched on, a smile on his face. He started walking over to the downed princess, though as he passed the coffee table, he spied the letter the princess had picked up. He glanced over it, seeing it was addressed to Shining Armour, Captain of the Royal Guard. He picked it up and unsealed it, pulling out the contents.

‘A threat to the wedding? Well, we can’t have that, now, can we? Two invasions would make it quite confusing to the populace.’ He crumpled the paper up and into a ball and threw it away, where it landed underneath a nearby bookshelf.

He stood there for a minute before turning his attention around and towards his saddlebag. Taking a few steps closer, he took a decently large, black gem, polished down like a pebble and in a shape similar to that of a compass, from one of the side pouches and a metal rod with a small ring at one end, a red gem placed within the ring rung a slight humming sound, resonating magic.

He turned back towards the coffee table, lightly placing the stone on its surface. He spared a glance towards the currently unconscious mare, actually quite surprised the drug worked on her at all. ‘Guess I should apologize the next time I see him,’ He thought as he lifted the rod in the air before striking the dark gem lightly with the currently glowing red one.

It reacted immediately. A faint, pulsing red light came from the centre of the stone, continuously growing in brightness until it stopped, still repeatedly pulsing slowly, like a signal light in the dark.

Satisfied, Silver placed the rod back in the pocket it came from, placed his saddlebags on and readied to set out. And, if what they said was true, the princess should be out of it for at least a maximum of an hour. That was all they needed really. But, if she woke up before they had her, there was plenty more they could get from there… supplier.

He was done here, so there was no need for him to stay.

=====================================/|==========================================/

“I don’t know, Rarity. Are you sure this gem is special?” Twilight asked as she poked the black, compass-like gem the aforementioned mare had brought her with a small, metal shaft, held aloft in her magic, trying to get it to react. The day had shifted towards midday, Twilight and Rarity spending that time experimenting on the rock the latter had brought over. Said rock currently resting on a metal bench in the middle of the basement of the hotel and, no matter what Twilight did-save using magic-the rock had refused to do anything but lay absolutely still. Like a rock should.

“Well, I may not have seen a gem quite like this one, but I could most certainly feel something was off with it,” Rarity insisted, though she did start to feel as if the gem may just be a normal rune gem and that she was overreacting for nothing, “It did feel as if there was some magic in it, though. Even I know you don’t find natural resources with some runic magic already within the gem without some sort of explanation to it.”

“While yes that is entirely true, there have been cases of that happening before. But if this does have any special attributes, then the last test is the more risky one.” Twilight held a hoof to her chin, thinking whether it was a good idea to use magic on it or not. She initially decided that, if she were to get any results at all, she would have to go through with it.

She placed her metal poking stick to the side and grabbed the piece of cloth the gem in her magic, ready to minimize any risk if it ever became deadly. In addition to that, she spread her stance in case of any magical discharge the gem would release.

Rarity stood just behind her friend, watching the scene with trepidation, afraid of what might happen if everything went bad. “Are you sure it is safe, darling?”

Twilight’s gaze never broke off the stone as she replied. “Nope. But it’s the last test before we can assume it is safe.”

“Alright then, if you feel you must…” Rarity trailed off as her friend started applying a small amount of magic to the gem. But that was all the gem needed as a faint, red glow started pulsing from the inside of the stone.

Twilight ceased her magic, causing the cloth to fall atop the glowing object, the light slowly glowing bright enough to shine through the cloth, continuing to pulse as the light stopped growing.

After a few seconds of nothing happening, the two of them relaxed, twilight coming out of her defensive stance. She moved closer, still with a slight nervousness to her, and picked the cloth up and to the side, the gem still pulsating harmlessly.”

“Well, that settles it, completely harmless!” Twilight exclaimed, picking it up and spinning it around in the air. “Well, for now at least,” she added as an afterthought. She then turned over to face Rarity, holding up the gem to her friend in offering. “If you still want it, it should be safe for you to use now.”

“Oh, well I might just take you up on that offer.” Rarity took the gem-unfazed by what her friend had said, in her own magic, grabbing the bit of cloth she had used to transfer the thing safely. “And who knows what I could do with this? If I could replicate the flashing light, then I could make a truly wonderful new line of dresses as well!” Rarity took her inspiration and headed up the stairs of the basement as she started planning what would go well with the black stone she had found. “Farewell, Twilight! I simply must start designing straight away!” And just like that, she had disappeared from out the basement.

“Bye Rarity!” Twilight said as she soon followed her friend out of the basement. ‘Wait, was it a good idea to give Rarity that stone?’ Twilight started ruminating ‘It didn’t show any signs of being dangerous, but that doesn’t mean it won’t…’ Twilight started to worry that maybe it was not a good idea to have done. ‘Oh no! What I made a mistake and something bad happens and evrypony blames me!’ She started pacing around the room in worry when she passed by where she and Edmond had sat before the events of the morning and something had caught her eye.

It was Edmond’s leather-bound journal! The one he sat, drawing something inside of. It had a pencil sticking out, bookmarking the page he must have been working on. Twilight had personally never seen what he had drawn inside of it, never bothering to ask him. Surely, he wouldn’t mind if she had a small look inside, right?

Her curiosity getting the better of her, she slowly opened the front cover, taking the pencil out so she could read the whole thing without distraction. The first page had a short message, reading:

To make it less confusing, for myself or any reader, the book is split between non-fiction research and completely made up. The two black pages are the border between the two.

It was like he knew someone was going to pick this up. Before Twilight continued to the next page, she noticed a warning at the bottom of the page.

Warning: Don’t let any changelings get a hold of this book, there is, and will be, dangerous creatures in here.

For reference to them, look at page entry 23.

Twilight did just that, wanting to know more about this species that had been forbidden to this book. As she turned the pages, she saw many pictures of creatures she had recognized and some she did not. she had even spotted some on ponies.

When Twilight had gotten to the right page number, what greeted her was a picture of a vaguely pony-like creature, but instead of fur, it had chitin. Instead of a mane and tail made of visible hairs, it looked as though they had theirs crafted of a thin membrane, looking more like a fin. Its eyes were a single, light blue colour, looking almost soulless. Its wings looked a lot like that of an insect, baring holes here and there, a trait it shared with its legs. Two curved fangs protruded from its mouth, making it look like a carnivore.

There was a cue card stuck in one corner of the page, reading:

Common Name: Changeling

Species Name: Allagí Schímatos Insecta

Diet: Emotivore

‘So, this is the changeling? But what does it mean by ‘Emotiore?’ Twilight looked at it in a bit of confusion, before looking over to the written information beside the picture. She skimmed through most of it, missing what would have been important had she actually read it all the way through, to try and get some answers. Luckily, she didn’t need to go far through the text. The description explained that they can transform, as long as they knew what they were transforming into, to help them gather their source of food, emotions. Primarily love.

Satisfied with the answer, she continued looking through the book’s pages. As she distracted herself, a shadow passed her window, its eyes watching her, making sure it wasn’t seen. The shadow continued on its way to Carousel Boutique. The home of Rarity.

Twilight stopped at a page on the ‘completely made up’ side of the book, the creature being half-finished. And, on the cue card that adorned every page, its name read: stoiteran.

The Creatures

The Hunter’s Trek

Chapter 4: The Creatures

Edmond Khan Carter was an anomaly to Equestria. He was an unknown to all who have known or seen him. Of course, ponies were familiar with other sentient creatures, from dragons to griffons and even kirins, an old legend not many believe exist anymore. Edmond knew they existed, he had seen one, after all.

So, it wasn’t the man’s sapience that had astounded them, but merely other factors. One of them being that they knew he existed but did not know of any more of his kind.

Many ponies had made theories to his existence, from a science experiment gone wrong, a species of monkey having evolved in secret, a traveller from a far-off land, beyond Equestrian sea’s and even just calling him an alien from beyond the stars.

He never liked talking about himself as much, never confirming nor denying anything, so any information about him was ever just pure speculation.

What much many did know, was that he ate both meat and plants, an omnivore, although they would get confused when he refused flowers, then disgusted when he asked for meat inside of a bread roll with ketchup instead of a carrot-like everypony else would have.

Luckily, there were many who did accept his diet. Knowing that he only ever hunted within the Everfree comforted them to a point.

The other weird thing many had found about him, was his connection to two birds, ones that were almost always flying around the human hunter. The first of the two, a peregrine falcon Edmond had called Fanu’ia, was the faster of them, reaching around 390 km/h at top speed. She never stayed on par with Equestria’s fastest, but the two of them would like to race every now and again, Rainbow Dash enjoying such a sport.

The second, something Edmond had called an ‘Australian magpie’, was named Ternychus. Ternychus was more well known to anyone than Fanu’ia was. While Fanu’ia was faster, Ternychus was a lot more friendly, stood out more and was unlike anything anypony had seen in Equestria.

While yes, Equestria does have the odd common magpie here and there, Ternychus was the only of her kind ever seen in Ponyville.

But the only thing that everypony knew and accepted, or revolted, was an affinity for the hunt.

So, it here that Edmond was once again perched upon a tree branch, bow out, arrow drawn, and eyes locked on a deer. A non-sapient deer, he had to remind his moral side.

A rustle of bushes had drawn the deer’s attention from eating thistle buds. A quick look to the bush and Edmond deduced that it must have been another predator.

‘Two hunters staring down the same prey… This might messy,’ Edmond said in mind.

A snap from a twig was all it took for all of chaos to be unleashed upon the forest. Edmond released the arrow, the deer bolted, a timberwolf burst through the shrubbery. The arrow struck the ground, the wolf fell on its side in surprise and the deer stopped for a moment at the surprised yelp.

It was then that a second timberwolf lept from bushes to the right of the deer, now back to sprinting full force. The first wolf turned its attention to where the projectile had flown from, its green eyes locking onto the figure tracking the retreating form of the deer.

Edmond was about to put his bow away, ready to try and chase the deer. Falling out of the tree, after it had been rammed, seemed to have changed his plans incredibly quickly.

Hitting the ground with a thud, Edmond rolled over, coming face to muzzle with the timberwolf that had rammed the tree. Its putrid breath blocking his sense of smell considerably. It had had almost made him gag. Again.

He slowly reached his hand down to grab at one of his arrows. The timberwolf decided to not keep its stomach waiting, rearing up, ready to strike. With haste, Edmond pulled an arrow from the quiver strapped to his leg and jabbed the metal arrowhead into the wolf’s left eye, then moving to shove the beast off from on top of him.

The timberwolf howled in pain, slamming into the same tree it had just rammed into just moments before. Edmond quickly stood, retrieving his bow and the arrow meant from the deer. He drew the string of the bow back, loaded with the arrow, and looked back to the wolf that now had managed to stand and stare straight back.

A rustle to the side reminded him that wolves were pack hunters, never really wanting to hunt alone.

He released the arrow, striking true, then reached for one of his axes while he still could. But he could not keep his grip in the end, the wolf jumping upon him, pinning him down once more.

The axe he had pulled out was too far to reach and his left arm, of which had the hand that was clutching onto his bow, had been pinned to the ground by the timberwolf’s wooden paw, claws gripping into the ground like a cuff.

It reared its head back, twisting slightly on an angle, ready to strike at the jugular. Edmond thought about retrying the last trick he pulled off. He grabbed another arrow, this time aiming straight for where a heart might be. He drove the arrowhead into its chest, pushing and rolling over on top of the wolf, dropping his bow for the time being.

He grabbed an axe from his side, flipping the axe so he could use the blunt side to strike the wolf. And he did just that. Bringing his arm to the right and above his head, he swung the now-bludgeoning weapon across the wolf’s muzzle. He flipped it back, blade facing the earth, and stuck his axe into the wolf’s forehead.

Edmond sat there for a moment, atop the wolf. He let out a slow laugh as he let gravity take him to the ground, not really worried about the regenerating wolves, who decided to not try what little luck they might have with him.

And so, he lay there, in the middle of Equestria’s most dangerous forests, simply resting the day away.

=====================================/|==========================================/

It wasn’t ten minutes of laying on the forest’s floor, his lost gear strapped back to where they belong when Edmond heard the sound of something walking on a path a few feet off from him. He rose his head, looking in the direction of the noise in curiosity.

Edmond stood up from his prone position and climbed up the nearest tree, looking out to one of the many paths of the forests to see what had roused him.

The creature walking down the path was different to anything he had seen, but that was expected the more he travelled. He took a moment to study the creature’s appearance, feeling around the inside of his overcoat for his species journal to log it in. Finding the space, it usually would be, empty, he came to a sudden realisation.

‘Darned. Must’ve left it back at the hotel.’ He decided to continue observing it regardless, taking in what details he could within the dark forest.

From his vantage point, all he could see was that whatever it was donned a form of dark amour, almost seeming to blend in with the surroundings, and that it was bipedal.

It reminded him of a changeling he had once met.

As far as he could tell, it had no eyes, but it could be that it was wearing a mask to cover it face. It was wearing armour; the theory wasn’t totally out there.

The head, or helmet, had rugged, black spikes jutting out from it, two large horns, in a similar colour to the spikes, protruded from the side of the head, helmet, whatever it was. The rest of that portion of the creature was coloured to a lighter, but still quite dark, grey.

The creature seemed to have talons in place of hands and feet resembling a lizard-wolf hybrid, both sets of appendages as dark as a crow’s own talons.

For a second, Edmond thought he saw the glint of a metallic pommel and crossguard, features of a sword.

Doing a quick assessment of the path, he realized the creature was travelling away from Ponyville. So, it wasn’t a threat. That was good news.

Edmond, relaxing his gaze upon the fauna, decided to move towards Fluttershy’s cottage to check up on Ternychus and Fanu’ia, having left them in her care after her request. He started jumping between the trees, making slow progress to the other side of the Everfree. Although, he yet to notice the creature turned its own studying gaze onto him.

=====================================/|==========================================/

Edmond knew the forest was more alive than one might let on. He lived in it, for goodness’s sake. And so, he had learned how alive the forest actually was, he just never got a handle on how to avoid the annoyances of the forest.

When the ponies say the trees move, they do. When they say they see the earth move, growling with hunger, it often would be. But when tree branches make the effort to move themselves, sending tree jumpers like himself crashing down to the forest floor, it made him wonder whether or not the forest was conscious.

So here he was, back on the ground, some yards or so away from his initial destination, when he heard a familiar sound of walking, headed in his direction.

He quickly jumped to his feet, readying a fighting pose, when that same creature came from out the bushes. He saw it more clearly now, now on ground level with the thing and more sunlight being allowed passed the canopies.

The beast was about his height, maybe a little taller, and did indeed sport some armour over its body. Edmond did manage a view of its eyes, though. Two glowing, white eyes with green irises stared straight at him, if not through him, in a cold glare. The rest of its face was covered by what was now recognisable as a cold, metal helmet.

The rest of the body appeared as accurate as Edmond had seen from his view atop the branch. But, having a better look at the creature’s body, he noticed the thin, yet muscular, figure it had, clearly some sort of scout, if this creature truly were part of some army.

The armour itself wore was relatively smooth, spiky formations appearing here and there. The colours matched the helmets scheme, with a dark grey transitioning into a black at the spikes.

As the too finished studying the other, Edmond moved to speak to the creature, hoping it might have some sense of language if it were a warrior.

“Allo, mate. There a reason you might be following me ‘round this here forest?” He asked the creature in front of him, only gaining a grunt in response.

He made to speak again, only for a dart to find its place in his neck.

He knew this feeling. Not personally, but he knew it to be the fate of many of his victims. He knew that this thing in front of him was definitely up to something. But, before he could do anything, he fell to the ground, asleep.

The creature continued to look coldly down at Edmond’s unconscious body until a second one came out of the bushes, holding a blowpipe in its talon. It was bulkier than the other was, and the armour it wore was more blocky, with more jagged points to it. The colour scheme was also different, being almost completely black.

The bulkier creature moved up to the body, picking him up and heaving him over its shoulder. The two of them then turned east, somehow know which way it was, and started off into the dark forest.

No pony had even known of his disappearance, nor even the disappearance of their own princess. That was until one curious guard had checked up on her, finding her study empty.

He knew the princess never liked teleporting without warning, after an incident a couple hundred years ago, so he knew something was up. After a thorough search, the castle went on high alert.

The Invitation

The Hunter’s Trek

Chapter 5: The Invitation

The Crystal Empire was a truly magnificent place, many ponies from far and wide booked train tickets to get there as soon as the news of its reappearance had reached news agencies and then, the whole of Equestria. Of course, this led to many delays, but the upside led to the many train stations gaining a whole lot of bits out of the whole ordeal.

The story of the return had actually been different each agency that tried to do an article on it, but the one story, the only one confirmed by Celestia herself, was that the empire itself was meant to reappear two years later than it did. The unfortunate part of it being Equestria had just gotten through the short period of Discords reign.

When news had reached the princess of the northern empire’s return, she had sent her niece, a pink alicorn named Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, or Princess Cadance as she preferred to be called, out to see if the empire was indeed back from its thousand-year slumber. She had not gone alone, sent accompanied by a contingent of Solar Guards, led by Shining Armour, Captain, brother and ‘secretly’ coltfriend of the Princess of Love.

The Element bearers, Spike and Edmond tagging along, had been sent out to join them, catching their train before stopping by Canterlot to pick up the others before setting off and out towards the Frozen North.

They had spent the first week calming the citizens of the empire, trying to cure their amnesia, before a shadow descended upon them in the form of King Sombra. The shadow king’s appearance had gone and thrown away the progress Twilight and her friends had managed to make as the entire populace regained a long-buried, quite literally, fear.

On his appearance, however, Princess Cadance had managed to seal the Crystal Empire under a magic shield while the bearers looked for a more permanent solution to their problem.

That solution came around when Twilight had returned with the Crystal Heart, an artifact said to protect the empire from the cold of the Frozen North and whatever might threaten the empire’s denizens. Apparently, there was a trap surrounding the Crystal Heart, one that triggered on her magic, trying to keep the heart trapped at the highest tower.

It was a good thing Twilight had brought her number one assistant with her, too. She was sure she would have lost herself in her fear if it wasn’t for him.

After King Sombra’s defeat, the ponies, dragon, and human celebrated, Pinkie Pie managing to set one up themed around the crystal appearance everypony had donned, just after the return of the crystal artifact, in no more than a few seconds worth of blinking.

After the party concluded, the Solar Guard was dismissed, Captain Shining Armour, however, decided to stay. His excuse being, ‘To protect the princess just in case Sombra comes back.’ He also decided upon training a crystal guard regime for the extended protection of the empire.

It was about a year or so later that the now captain of the Crystal Force Battalion, with district captains in charge of different portions of the empire, had finally proposed to Empress Cadance of the Crystal Empire, who prefers to still be known as a princess.

And so, it is about a month later that Shining Armour sat in his captain’s quarters, trying to figure out how to write to his sister that he was getting married.

‘“Dear Twily”…? No. “Dear sister”… definitely not. How about… “Twilight Sparkle”? No, that makes it sound like she’s in trouble.’ He paused after a short snort of amusement in his ruminations, scratching the tip of his quill’s feather against the bottom of his chin.

Looking over the blank piece of paper didn’t really help him with his words. If only writing a letter to tell your younger sister that you were getting married to her age-long foalsitter was actually easy. Alas, for the life of him, he could not figure out the best way to break the news.

After a long series of mental battles, he finally put quill to paper and started writing.

‘Dear Twilight,…’

=====================================/|==========================================/

It was the day that Twilight found still herself reading Edmond’s monster book, having decided to start at the start of the whole thing. It was just so full of detail, each entry, that she couldn’t help herself.

There was just so much that ponies didn’t actually know about the fauna of Equestria, but a single creature had managed to capture so much detail of animals, like the ursas of the Everfree, and creatures she had never seen or heard of before, like this changeling thing.

Apparently, there were only two different types of changelings he had found, one seeming to feed on love, while the other… didn’t eat at all? That had stumped Twilight, as, by the law of nature, every animal had to find some way to gain nutrients to survive. But, according to a field book, these changelings didn’t.

Although, most of the entries, other than the changelings, did not make sense to her. Like timberwolves, born from a pony’s soul if they wandered too far from the forest’s edge, sometimes. Or the manticore, who could or could not have acid venom. How was he unsure?

She did find herself falling asleep halfway through midnight. Or, more accurately, Twilight found out she had fallen asleep halfway through that fourth hour of the night, the following morning, face planted on a page depicting a four-legged, brown coated creature, commonly known as a bunyip.

She had been awoken by the sound of Spike’s voice. What later ensued was a bit of short-lived panic on Spike’s end at the sight of Edmonds book, thinking it might have been slightly stolen. Spike spent too much time with Twilight, he thought.

After a bit of assuring, and a little more panic, Spike had finally told Twilight the reason for the early morning disturbance.

Spike had received a letter. A letter from, not the Princess, but from the captain of Canterlot’s Solar Guard Unit, informing the unicorn of the disappearance of her teacher. Following that, Twilight gathered her friends and set off for Canterlot, Rarity assembling a wardrobe before even stepping upon the train platform.

So, it was to Twilight’s surprise, and shock, to see Princess Celestia walking through the streets of Canterlot – coming in from the main gates, a trader’s route – looking a little ruffled up and grumbling to herself, an unhappy look plastered upon her face, not a care for her public image on her mind. Many of the local citizens, however, took notice of her presence and tipped themselves into a sudden, deep bow.

“Princess!” Twilight called out to her as she made to tackle said royalty in a hug of relief and joy. Celestia froze, caught off guard before she smiled down at her overly joyous student, returning the hug. What limited guards there were, started to file in on the streets at the sudden appearance of the nation’s day monarch. “Are you ok? We heard you got foalnapped.”

“I’m fine, Twilight,” Princess Celestia replied, draping a wing over Twilight in a show of comfort. Then, her smile fell from her face, a saddened look appearing upon it. “Those monsters had just taken me by surprise. But luckily I escaped when they had been attacked in the Everfree Forest.”

It was then that Princess Celestia pulled away from the embrace with her dear friend and started for castle, Twilight following close at heel. “What happened Princess?” asked Twilight, her friends making their way towards, in an effort to catch up and not be left behind, while the present guards formed a protective ring around their Princess.

“Yeah! Whose butt do we need kick this time?” a rainbow maned, cyan pegasus, easily identifiable – because of said rainbow hair – as Rainbow Dash, exclaimed, making a show punching the air with her hooves whilst she was hovering above the ground.

“Calm down now, RD. Let th’ princess say ‘er word ‘afore y’all rush off blind into danger,” a southern accented earth pony said looking at her rainbow companion blankly under the rim of her stetson hat.

Princess Celestia stopped in her tracks, every pony and drake stopping soon after. There was a few seconds of silence before she looked over her shoulder at the Element bearers, plus one. Then, she finally spoke, her voice low enough not to drag the attention of Canterlot’s citizens. “We appear to have a traitor here in Canterlot. A pony I thought I could trust.” She turned herself around, now giving the ponies now before her, her full attention. “Has anypony here heard anything from Edmond recently?”

The ponies and dragon in attendance were still slightly shocked at the princess’s news. It took a few seconds before they registered the question and Twilight moved to talk. “He came by the hotel yesterday. But I haven’t seen him since. What about you, Fluttershy? You were looking after his birds, right?”

A yellow pegasus, with a pink mane and tail, jumped at the sound of her name and, at the realisation of being put on the spot, started sputtering as she tried to answer, her voice coming out weak and in a near whisper. “O-oh. Um… I left them both at Ponyville, a-and Edmond didn’t come by this morning, b-but he could have gotten them without me there.” With every stutter, Fluttershy shrank away, until the attention left her alone.

“Well, he left his book at the hotel, so he has to come back, right?” Twilight wondered aloud. Princess Celestia hummed in thought for a moment, head slightly tipped down. Shortly after, the group moved back to silence. Then, Princess Celestia turned back up the road, towards her castle.

Spike furrowed his brow as a sudden thought, and a question struck his mind. “Wait, what about the guards? Can’t they help?”

“Unfortunately, not, Spike. There was an… accident. A large portion of Luna’s and my own guards got injured recently and are currently being treated at the moment,” Princess Celestia replied. The group then fell over the group once again, many wondering what could have happened, a few worrying for the soldier’s wellbeing, and one planning a ‘Get Well’ party to cheer the, no doubt, sad and dour ponies within the castle.

When they reached the gates of the castle, the Princess stopping just before those iron doors. She turned back once again, her pose looking significantly more regal than when they had seen her walking into town. “You should return to Ponyville, my little ponies. Spike, Twilight, I will send you a letter for Edmond’s eyes only. But, if there is anything you must know, no doubt he will tell you. With that, I wish you a good day.”

=====================================/|==========================================/

When the Element bearers had returned to Ponyville, it had become the time of dusk and the lot of them split up to return to their respective homes. Fluttershy returning home to find Ternychus and Fanu’ia still, the magpie and falcon waiting upon the top of her home, waiting for either of their caretakers. Applejack making her way back to her farm when she stumbled upon tracks. Tracks heading into the Everfree. Large tracks heading into the Everfree. Rarity returning to search around her workroom for that black rock she found. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash returning to their homes and just deciding to hit the hay. Pinkie taking it a bit literally before actually getting into her bed. And Twilight returning to find Edmond’s book still there.

So, she decided a little more reading wouldn’t.

It was through reading through an entry about something called a Chupacabra that she was once again interrupted by Spike calling her name from across the lobby. But, once she saw was about, she thought would she faint.

At first, she saw a letter, so she thought it was from the Princess and was about the reprimand spike on reading it. Then Twilight got a better look at it. It wasn’t from the Princess at all. So, her own curiosity taking over once again, she took it in her magic and read over it.

And then, her magic flickered out.

It was an invitation. Not just any invitation, but a wedding invitation. From her brother. And, if anything on the letter is to be believed, then it was about her brother marrying her, the best, foalsitter, Cadance.

As she read it over and over in her head, her eyes gradually grew wider and wider, until they eventually rolled up and glided closed as she fell to the ground, Spike barely being able to support her weight.

The Spark...

The Hunter’s Trek

Chapter 6: The Spark…

Fuzzy.

Everything was fuzzy and numb by the time Edmond had awoken. He woke a bit sluggishly, everything too unfocused to make any coherent shapes out of. And for some reason, he awoke from his daze standing.

The room he was in may have been too blurred to make any detail of, but it didn’t seem to look anything like a cell. Nor did it seem as if he was the only other occupant here.

They were not pony, that was for sure, but they were handing something to him. A cloak? No, not a cloak. Although it did look like-

‘When did I take off my overcoat?’

As soon as the thought entered his mind, he realised that his surroundings were starting to clear up slightly, however slow he was regaining his vision.

Being too sluggish at the current moment had caused his attempts to try and grab the coat himself all failures, leaving these strange creatures to do it all for him, after they had come to the same conclusion.

It was after they successfully equipped the piece to his body that one of the three currently present, parted from the group, heading towards a- what is it? -a table? Another followed shortly after, the both of them picking up some objects, looking little more like two blunted skewers, two hatchets and a rectangular frame to his temporarily impaired eyes.

When the pair returned to Edmond’s side, he could feel feeling returning to the rest of his body. At the same time, his vision improved significantly. The creatures take note of this development, the one holding the hatchets—now recognised as his axe—held one up to him in offering to take it.

He reached out to grab the axe and, upon touching it, a surge of recent memories entered the forefront of his mind. Feeling had completely returned to his body, his eyes focused, and he then remembered want had happened to himself before he had woken.

The feeling of something coursing through his bloodstream, recognised as his own narcotic mix, one only he would know about.

Edmond knew the drug used, as, though he had no personal experience with it, there were times those that did have the experience, told him of the feeling they had felt.

Mind free of the fog clouding it, Edmond took his first good look at his surroundings. Many of which was still hidden behind these creatures, which stood uncomfortably close to him. But from what he could gather, he could see that the room he was in was made of some dark blue stone and two rectangular tables, made from a light brown coloured wood, with weapons situated across one, and a crossbow on the other.

‘Unrecognisable civilisation structural material. Definitely a new one. One even I don’t about,’ he thought. Upon further investigation of his surroundings, Edmond took note of one of the creatures turning towards the table off to left. The one which held the crossbow. He then noted the quiver attached to his back, previously hidden by the point of view the archer kept in front of him.

As the archer came to the side of the light-wood table, they grabbed the weapon atop it, lifting it up and pointing it directly at Edward. That was when he saw the bolt already loaded in the crossbow.

Fear and adrenaline seized him as he heard the click of the crossbow releasing, the bolt flying toward him as it cut the air.

He ducked backwards in time, the arrow grazing him and sticking into the opposite wall. Unfortunately, he had landed in the arms of one of the creatures who had moved behind him, to keep Edmond from escaping. The creature then grabbed him by the arms with its tri-clawed talons, holding him in place as a second bolt was loaded into the crossbow.

Edmond struggled to be released from the iron grip of a bird’s claw. As the crossbow was pointed towards him, however, an idea struck him, almost like the arrow would have, had he not enacted as soon as the thought crossed him.

What he had decided upon, was tucking in his legs and letting gravity take himself, and his captor, down towards the ground, the bolt flying seamlessly past and sticking itself into another wall.

The act of this move caused the creature holding him to roll over onto its back, following the force Edmond, and enter a daze. Edmond used this opportunity to pick himself up and strike the thing in the chest with his axe, severely wounding it.

The sound of the drawstring settling in place forced him to abandon the buried axe, least he were to get caught by a bolt trying to pulling it out.

As the bolt flew past in yet another miss, Edmond gazed around the room for an unequipped weapon he could. There was the other of the creatures, currently poised with a broadsword, ready to attack. And then, he saw one of his short swords lying on the ground, between him and the other sword-wielder, just a little to right.

The click of the crossbow’s firing mechanism was what brought him from his mind as rushed straight for the sword on the ground. This time, the bolt managed to clip the back of his head, drawing blood and tearing away some hairs, causing him to stumble and fall forwards, just short of his goal.

The swordfighter drew his weapon back, preparing to strike down upon the fallen man, who had managed to pull himself forward and towards his fallen sword, tucking in his legs hoping to keep them attached to himself.

Grabbing his sword, Edmond rose to his feet, holding the wound upon the back of his head and wiping his hand across it, drawing a smear of blood. As the creature drew its sword up to strike down at him, Edmond braced himself for the oncoming attack.

The sword struck his own as Edmond moved to the side, stumbling a bit as the force shook him off balance. He righted himself as another click sounded the chamber and a bolt shot towards him. he took to the side, as the bolt grazed the metal of the blade he held, stumbling a bit in fearful desperation to stay alive.

There was just too many, and no way he could focus on dealing with the two at the same time. Maybe if he were in the right mind, but this time the two of them had him at a disadvantage few ever had. They surprised him.

He decided to deal with the archer first, deal the range before it could deal with him. As he searched for an easy way to close the distance, and disable the archer, the other creature had walked to Edmond’s side and, upon gazing in the sword warriors direction, Edmond himself caught sight of his buried axe, left in the torso of the late creature.

When sword-warrior had finally made it to his side, it held its blade ready to strike down upon the man just as the crossbow was raised up to meet the sight of Edmond’s chest. As the iron blade fell down towards him, and the newly loaded blot was released unto flesh, Edmond threw himself to the floor, sword tightly gripped in his right hand, head tucked in as he rolled along the ground and away from the aggressor stopping just short of tripping in his haste. Taking grip of his axe, Edmond pulled the bloodied blade free of flesh and reared to throw the weapon straight for the archer, who had levelled another loaded shot at him.

As axe left hand, the bolt was let loose from crossbow shortly after, both connecting with something. The axe finding its place in the opposer’s shoulder, while the blot, knocked slightly off course, had been stuck in the plating of sword wielder's armour, who had hoped to sneak up on the Fail, hindering it for but a second.

With the archer knocked out of the way, Edmond turned towards the sword-wielder with his own sword clutched in both hands, held to inclining on his right. As soon as it got within range, the sword-wielder swung its weapon back and took a swing straight on Edmonds side, who matched it with a parrying strike to the left while stepping away and clear of any retaliation and holding the sword up, the blade itself pointing towards the attacker.

With a step and a swing, Edmond slashed down upon the creature’s breastplate, only for the blade to harmlessly slide across the plating. The creature just stood there, looking down upon the man’s poor attempt at piercing the armour.

Edmond, however, just stood there, his shocked expression having turned to analytical. While he was distracted, the creature held up its sword to swing the cold blade down upon him.

Seeing the change in stance, Edmond quickly raised his sword to match and block the opposer.

He was too slow to steady himself from the oncoming strike, forcing him to step off to the side, least he topples over. It was after he had separated himself enough that Edmond saw what he was looking for.

‘The bolt!’ It had struck the creature in the shoulder, in a thin gap between the two pieces of plating.

With a goal set, Edmond moved into stance, face set and eyes focused, ready to finish the fight and leave.

The creature moved forward, lifting its sword up and brought it down with incredible force. Edmond matched it by bringing his own sword up to block the strike, while also widening his own stance to brace himself from the force of the broadsword.

He pushed the sword off to the side, drawing back and preparing to thrust his sword in between the plating on its other side, strike at a weak point. But the collision with flesh never came as another blade quick contacted and threw the other away.

It then became a battle of who could land a blow first upon the others’ flesh, both sides focused and matched upon the other. There were clashes, as sparks flew, and struggles to gain any forward ground. Sometimes a blade would cut through air or strike uselessly upon the solid stone ground of the room’s floor.

As the sword of the creature clashed down hard upon his own, Edmond was pushed downwards with a powerful strike. The two fighters faced a power struggle as they fought the strength of the other, Edmond saw his opportunity to strike at the thing’s shoulder. He twisted his sword to place it atop his opponent and, while he stepped to the side, he used the force it applied upon him to create a clear window and thrust upwards.

The point of the blade made contact with soft flesh and poked out the other side only slightly. Edmond took a moment before he turned his body around and, hands held behind him and on the sword, pushed his hands up, the arm flying off and to the side. The sword once held by the creature clattered down beside the fallen arm and a muted cry sounded behind the creature’s mask sounded at the same time. It then fell to the ground, too unsteady to stand anymore.

Edmond stood looming over the creature still drawing breath. He took his sword in his hand to unmask the strange being, slowly lifting the helmet with the flat of the weapon. As the helmet was slowly being lifted off the creature’s head, Edmond’s shock and confusion grew as what was underneath was revealed.

Behind that Chitin forged armour was the face of a pony.

“What?” he spoke under her breath as his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “That… That’s also new…”

And then, as the pony in the armour slowly died of blood loss, a click once more sounded and a crossbow bolt buried itself within Edmond’s left shoulder.

He grunted as he fell back from the impact, his eyes flying towards the still-alive archer and stood, bringing his sword up and down upon the bolt shaft off, snapping it in half to fall to the ground.

He pushed through the searing pain in his shoulder as he made his way towards the archer, slowly.

The pony hidden behind the armour tried reloading the crossbow, as quickly as they could, with one of the fallen bolts, but before they could load in the bolt, Edmond kicked the weapon away.

He brought one foot upon the leg of the pony while holding out his sword up to their chest, keeping them pinned to the floor. Edmond then brought up the sword and brought it down upon the suit’s right forearm.

But the pony merely flinched slightly, not in pain, but in slight fear. And no blood flowed, from either side of the wound.

And then they struck. Or, at least, tried to.

Edmond caught the second limb by the wrist as it had started to rise. He then raised his sword, forearm still skewered on the blade, and, with a twist, broke the limb in two.

What was left of the arm fell to the ground with a clank as the arm impacted with the ground, but Edmond barely paid the limb any attention. He instead took brought sword down upon the arm currently held within his grasp and cleaved it at the elbow’s joint.

Once again, the pony in the suit barely reacted, giving only the slightest reaction, and when Edmond turned around the forearm to look on its insides, he found out why.

The suit was, to an extent, he believed, mechanical. The insides were nothing but what looked to be metal wiring and ancient-looking gears, possibly connecting to each of the three bird-like fingers.

The whole thing was new to Edmond, but, at the moment, he had to do something about the former owner of the limb extension.

He dropped the limb off to the side and kneeled beside the pony. The two stared intently at each other before Edmond lifted the helmet off the pony’s head and spoke.

“Hello there. Do you mind telling me where this place is?” he said, only gaining silence from the mare beneath him. “No? Damn. Well, that’s unfortunate. And I was really hoping for an answer, too.”

Still, silence.

Deciding upon wasting no more time, Edmond struck the pommel of his sword into the side of the pony’s head, knocking her out cold.

Standing up, Edmond sheathed his sword and went about collecting what things he had. Which included the axe he had used earlier that was left, discarded on the floor, and the other three from the other side of the small room placing them in their own spots on his coat. He also took his second sword, left on the same table as the axes, and sheathed it in its own scabbard.

Getting a better look around the room, Edmond spotted what looked like a door and headed straight towards it.

It was a single, long slab stone, smooth compared to the brick layout of the room, but not a single knob or crevice was visible upon the slab to give any hint to its purpose. But as Edmond focused on the stone, he could make out a rune carved into it, hard to make out on the dark material if it weren’t for the indentation.

Curiously, he placed his hand upon the rune. Edmond watched it as the carved stone glowed a soft blue before the door began to slowly slide up and into the rest of the wall, reminding him of one of those ancient Equestrian temples.

But just as he was about to step out of the room, a head poked out from around the corner, looking up at him. It was the head of a pony stallion, forest green in colour and not wearing the others had donned.

The two stared at each other for a good while, until the pony looked deeper into the room, spying the two bodies and the single, unconscious form further in. Then, looked up, the staring contest resuming another long while.

“Yeah… I think they had a little too much to drink. You might want to check on them,” said Edmond as he briskly made to leave as quickly as he could.

It was a good while before the sound of a shouting cry and hooves galloping forced him into a long sprint.

The sound of wooden doors creaking open, or striking stone as they were slammed open, carried behind him as he passed them, more running steps sounding out behind as the crowd increased and chased him down the hall.

After a long run through the halls of, what he assumed to be a temple, Edmond came to the end of it, where a wooden door stood just in front of him. Words seemed to have been carved into the door, marked in an unknown language.

Edmond barged right inside, looking around for another door after he closed the one behind him. Looking over the room, he noticed a lot of barrels, of varying size, on the left side and a forts worth of cannons and strapped, metal shots in a corner, away from the barrels. There was also a table against the far wall, with a small, cloth bag and a few packets, both beside an unknown object, sitting atop it, and another door sitting to his right.

There was a thud on the door from behind and Edmond broke into action, grabbing for one of the medium-sized barrels, dragging the heavy cargo to stall the breaking door.

He also had a feeling he knew what this room was.

It was a powder room.

One spark and this place would go up in a great, big blaze of glory. And that thought sent a shiver of fear up his spine.

But maybe he could use that.

Unfortunately, he had nothing to start the black powder with, so he set to stacking barrels to give him a chance at searching the room.

With the sound of possibly a thousand bodies batting at the door behind him, Edmond started searching.

His first stop was the cannons themselves, looking around for any matches, but all he found were empty linstocks and nothing more.

He then moved over to the table up against the wall, noticing some of the barrels starting to shift in front of the door.

When Edmond made it to the table, what it held surprised him and he picked up the previously unknown object.

“This is…” -- he frowned at the object and his brow furrowed in confusion – “since when did ponies advance to the point of the seventeenth-century arms?” Sure enough, the object in his hands had a barrel made of metal, framed by a wooden base and handle, while the bottom of it was covered in a dark metal of its own. It was a standard flintlock pistol.

‘These must be the powder and shots for the thing,’ he thought to himself as he took the two objects in question and stashed them under his coat and into a satchel that the ponies must have left him. before taking off with the rest of his things.

As he took the last of the packets from the table, an idea struck him the same time a rather loud crash shook the door, way behind and across the room.

Stashing the last of them, save one, he grabbed a single metal shot from the bag and placed it upon the table. Remembering what little his grandfather once told him about his own musket, Edmond set to work on loading the pistol, to the best of his ability, starting by setting it at half-cock.

‘Let’s see. Powder in the pan and into the barrel… then stuff the paper on top… and push the ball inside the barrel.’ -- Edmond spoke to himself as he performed the actions as he went. -- ‘Then take the rod and push it all… and finished!’

Just then, the door opened a crack as every single creature there put their weight upon it.

And with that, Edmond turned and ran for the other down, opening it and rushing to the other side, just stopping to poke the loaded firearm through a crack in the door, and waited.

Then, the other door slammed open and every pony, armoured or not, ran inside, looking around for the runaway prisoner. And one pony, not protected by any form of plating, light or heavy, saw the barrel of the flintlock, sticking out of the crack of a door on their right, all too late.

Edmond set the pistol to full cock and pulled the trigger.

A spark was created as the flint struck the steel pan, that was soon to light a flame that set powder up, and a second later, the shot travelled down the barrel and flew towards one of the larger powder barrels, still warm as it sailed through the stiff air.

And it blew the keg.

The result, a large explosion that shock the dark-stone ruins.

Edmond, and the door he used as a shield, were both thrown to the floor as the explosion demolished the entire room and anything inside.

He lay there, under the door, and in ash and soot as he slowly got over the shock blast of the kegs. There wasn’t a ringing in his ears or anything, but he was definitely in pain.

After some time, and recovery, he moved up to his feet, pushing the door off the top of him, and looked down the dark hall, lit barely by deep blue coloured runes.

“Well, I guess it’s time to find the rest of my stuff and find an exit,” he said as set off, deeper into the temple.

=====================================/|==========================================/

A unicorn mare, with a forest green coat and a light blue mane and tail, with strands of navy here and there, looked behind her shoulder nervously, ears pinned backwards, as she hiked along a forest path. She wasn’t sure but had a feeling she was being followed.

Looking back up the trail, she tried to focus her mind on other things and relax. But a shadow wouldn’t let her

She swore she felt her blood trail down long before the painfully registered.

A large blade lifted her up by the back of the neck, and a tall, skinny creature moved its arm at impossible curvature for any animal limb, forcing the poor mare to gaze upon cold, blue spots upon a smooth face. The rest of its body was jagged, with two impressive ones one either shoulder, and looked heavily armoured, despite not making a single sound, and looking quite nimble.

The thing lifted another, handless, limb, which started shifting to form hooked claws, and grabbed onto her head and wrapped a hooked claw around her muzzle before could attempt to scream. Not that she could, with a blade pierced through her windpipe and all.

The beast stared the dying mare in her terror-filled eyes as the light in them slowly faded as it slowly drew its blade-limb from her neck wound and held it against the side of her neck. As the mare weakly kicked out, the monster drew the blade back and sliced through hide, tissue, flesh and bone like butter, decapitating her.

Her body fell to the dirt path as the mare’s eyes lost the light of life.

The creature threw her head far into the brush and grabbed the body to do the same, picking it up by the leg and dragging it deep inside the forest.

The Contract

The Hunter’s Trek

Chapter 7: The Contract

It had been some week and a half since the disappearance of Edmond and the arrival of an invitation to her brother’s wedding. During that time, Twilight had been wracked with a mix of worry and excitement for those two things. Especially since, one, it was rare for Edmond to have left for such a long time – without his companions, no less – and two, how many times does somepony get a chance to go to their big brother's wedding?!

Well, hopefully, this will be his only wedding.

And ponies with more than one brother would probably get to go to more. Unless they didn’t…

This was beside the point. Her brother’s wedding was in four weeks’ time, and she was not going to miss it. She also had to prepare for the trip to the Crystal Empire, check up on friends, who were given tasks for the wedding itself, organise presents, help Pinkie with planning a bachelorette party for Cadance and-and-! Oh, the lists!

And on top of that, she couldn’t actually leave until Edmond got Princess Celestia’s letter! She also had to return his journal.

Although, maybe she could read a little more before he got back?

Putting her most recent of her checklist for the weddings checklist’s checklist, she moved over to where the book in question sat. It had been moved from the main lobby of the hotel to one of the more private library wings, one housing her own collection of books.

Moving up beside the table, Twilight placed a hoof upon the book, ready to open it up once again, when the sound of the hotel’s front door slammed and a loud voice, reverberating around the lobby, caused to scream in fright before freezing still.

“Sparkle?! Spike?! Y’all in here?!” The sound of Edmond’s voice carried itself to Twilight’s ears.

After a few seconds of silent stillness, Twilight panicked slightly and moved to scoop up the book in her magic, failing to notice as a piece of folded paper fell out and onto the floor, as she hurried towards to the room’s door. But then the door opened first, Edmond walking in, decked in his weapons, and her panic started to increase.

Only slightly

“There you are-!”

“I swear I didn’t read your book while you were away!” Twilight blurted out.

Edmond just stood there with a cocked eyebrow and a slightly bemused expression. He muttered something under his breath, too quiet to be heard, then moved in to disarm Twilight’s fears.

“Honestly? I don’t care if you read it. You always do eventually. Long as you aren’t no changeling, right?” he asked, but quickly dismissed her before she could even try to answer. “Nope, don’t seem like it.”

As he grabbed the book still held within her magical grasp – and dusted the magic off – Twilight took those words as a relief and sighed, before speaking up again.

“Wait, what do have against these changelings?” she asked. “And why does it sound like you don’t even know anything about some of these entries?”

Before he chose to answer her questions, Edmond took sight of the folded paper on the ground, knelt down toward it and picked it up.

Pocketing the journal under his cloak, Edmond unfolded the paper and stayed, staring at it for a few seconds. The only sound he made was a short ‘hm’ before he folded it up and offered it up to the unicorn in front of him.

“What is it?” Twilight asked as she took the paper in her magic and stared at its folded form, much like Edmond had.

“It’s an old map. Well, for me it is,” Edmond said in a vague sort of way. “Just open it if you want to know the future of Equestria.

“Anyways, in relation to your questions; I don’t have anything against changelings, it’s just you can never tell when one is lying or being deceptive. Sometimes they’re just… Unstable,” he explained, starting to move towards the door and into the lobby, Twilight following behind. “And I don’t really let any of ‘em, colour or not. It’s just, some of the stuff in their can be dangerous to the environment, their fellows or themselves.

“And there’s nothin’ solid out there anyhow,” Edmond finished, standing within the centre of the lobby. “But, right now, we have a bit of an issue.”

“Oh! That reminds me. Princess Celestia sent you a letter!” Twilight quickly exclaimed, “Let me go get it for you.”

With that, Twilight quickly left to enter another room, the mysterious map floating after her, still held in her magic.

Entering the room she was looking for, which resembled more of an office – which looked a little out of place in a hotel made out of a tree, Twilight placed the map down upon a desk, sitting squarely in the centre of the room, and moved around to one of the drawers attached to it.

On occasion, her gaze flitted up to the piece of paper that apparently held Equestria’s future.

When she finally found the letter she was trying to find, she grabbed the folded paper out with her magic and placed it next to her on the desk. Twilight then turned her attention to the other folded-up item, deciding enough was enough. She had to read it.

And, with no incoming regret in her mind, Twilight Sparkle picked up the map that held, possibly, her future and started to open it.

The drawing, etched upon the paper with a faded look to it, made her brow furrow and her lips to curve downward.

She didn’t even recognise the locations on the map. How was this supposed to tell her anything about the future? All it had was unknown locations. Where even was this ‘Zephyr Heights’?

But… maybe that was the point? Just some new locations on the map. But how far into the future was this? And how does he even know about the future? Is he from the future?

Regardless, she had a job to do. And that was to deliver the Princess’s letter to Edmond. She could ask questions later, after all. And so, with that thought, Twilight placed the map back on top of the desk and made for the exit.

Re-entering the lobby, finding Edmond sitting at one of the tables strewn about the place, she began her trek towards him, grabbing a pillow to sit across from him.

“Here’s the letter. It’s a little over a week old, but I hope that doesn’t matter,” she said as she placed the letter, just as mysterious as the map, in front of him.

After a few seconds of looking the folded piece over, and Twilight looking at him intently, Edmond grabbed it and started to open his own ‘mystery paper’.

A minute of reading had gone by, the only sounds in the silence was a soft and soft ‘hm’ from Edmond. And in that time, Twilight started to get a little antsy, but before she could say anything, the man, sitting in front of her, beat her to it.

“You looked at the map, didn’t ya?” he asked, never taking his eyes from the letter.

Twilight found her opportunity to ask her own question and took it. “Are you-?”

“No answer,” Edmond cut off with a stern-sounding voice. He then took his eyes from reading to look straight at Twilight’s own and, with a slight change in tone, spoke once more. “Consider it a trade of resources, then. Anyways, it would appear as if some far-off civilization, of semi-advanced ponies, just declared war on Equestria.”

He then stood up, from the basic, wooden chair he was seated at, and started for the door, leaving Twilight in surprised shock, however stopping just at the door to pick a strange-looking object out of the umbrella holder by the front he was standing beside.

The thing looked to be made primarily of a wood type, smoothed down to a polish, while a small metal pipe stuck out at a horizontal angle. Two small lever-like mechanisms seemed to be jutting out on the far side, near the back and on the top of a heavily curved handle. There was also a smaller lever on the underside, and a thin metal cover, but both had one of Edmond’s – um… toes, was it? Fingers? – one of those resting upon it. So, what was its use?

“And it looks like I have to go find the idiot that thought taking on Sun Incarnate was a good idea.” Edmond’s voice spooked Twilight, ending her observations of the object, making her flinch. The two locked eyes again, Twilight occasionally, and briefly, looking back at the object.

“What is that? Is it dangerous?” she asked, feeling as if all she accomplished today was make a mental list of questions about the already enigmatic human before her, instead of something productive, like, organise everything needed for the wedding and write it all down!

“It’s loud.”

For yet another long time the two stood, just staring at each other. And once again, Edmond broke the silence. If only so he could leave the awkward bubble the hotel had just made.

“Right, well, I guess I should get going then. See ya sometime else, eh?” And with that, long before Twilight could try to respond, Edmond had already walked out. And, before she could say whatever words she had formed, the door was closed.

Alone now in the lobby, Twilight allowed her thoughts to roam. If Edmond truly is a time traveller, then Why is he here? He did say he was a traveller.

Well, no time to worry about that, she had a wedding to plan!

=====================================/|==========================================/

“Edmond,

“I have an important contract for you. Should you accept, the job must take all of your time, beside any high priority necessity on your part, whether it be food, drink or sleep.

“It has come to my attention that there is a party within Canterlot main who wish for harm upon dyarchy. This party rose to taking action, to my prediction, within this very week. You are to find out as much as you can, as well as track down the stallion who leads this party and bring him in, unharmed. You will know him by the name, Sliver Gift.

“All information on this target is catalogued in a separate note. Should you accept, you should expect it delivered within twenty-four hours.

“Princess Celestia.

“Signature: ___________”

That was all it said. That’s all Celestia had to say.

Edmond knew where to read between the lines, though. He could see, now, how his own kidnapping was connected with this party. And, if what Twilight said about its age, then the timing of either attack seemed too convenient.

Either way, if Celestia needed his help, he wouldn’t deny the request. Especially if to find the true intentions of this group.

Pulling out a pencil from one of his inner pockets, Edmond signed his initials within the space provided. There was no doubt Celestia enchanted this thing or something. Something to pick up the writing on another piece of paper. A bit like Sunset.

With that done, he folded up the letter and tucked it within his coat, placing it within one of the many alcoves within, and continued down the path within the Everfree Forest.

The forest seemed so peaceful today. Maybe the oncoming season of snow was reason enough for the creatures to be leaving this horror many made it to be, to turn into such a nice, calming place. Too bad these trees didn’t change with the season; the things would look beautiful with the sun shining through leaves of red and yellow and orange.

It would be a forest of fire.

After some time, Edmond made it up to a very familiar bridge, connecting itself to a castle, one quite glorious in its days. Well, one of its days. This place did often have bad history.

Shaking himself from the past, Edmond started crossing the seemingly unstable bridge, its groans of pain telling quite thoroughly of its age.

After making the trip across, Edmond moved toward the rotten, old doors. Pushing the doors open, which gave a form of resistance, despite its age, he stepped through to the main ‘lobby’, so to speak.

He looked around the floor of the castle, seeming to look for something specific. Then, he found it.

In the ground lay two loose stones, both separated a one still holding strong to what of the foundation it could. Edmond grabbed the handle to one of his swords, drawing the blade and sticking it into the space one of the loose stones had, using the blade like a lever. Pushing down upon the handle, he pried the stone brick off, revealing that, at least, a majority of the stone had been carved hollow.

Whatever the brick was hiding was revealed to be three rectangular-looking tools, one wider than the other and all stacked in the shape of a pyramid.

He took the two smaller ones, which hand a series of straps on their underside, and slipped both arms through the belts, one at a time.

Making sure they were secured, he then grabbed the wider one, which turned out to be curved in an arc, and snapped it on over his left arm, securing it to the other objects belts.

Satisfied for the week ahead, he moved the stone back in place, but the flapping of wings turned his attention to the collapsed roof, where the midday sun leaked through and two birds sat on the edge, watching him.

He smiled as he recognised them. Both, two companions he’s had for a long time, now.

“Fanu’ia! Ternychus! Glad to see you two again,” he said as the falcon and magpie, respectively, flew down to perch upon their owner. “Man, I’ll tell you, it has been quite the week I had.”

Edmond held up an arm, letting his falcon rest upon it, while Ternychus took his shoulder. And, just as he was about to speak, a light flashed beneath his coat and a smirk formed on his face as he started for the exit.

“Say, what say you. Ya wanna go huntin’?”

The Avians

The Hunter’s Trek

Chapter 8: The Avians

It was quite early in the morning, the cool air quite refreshing upon her feathers. The howling wind of Canterhorn, however, drowned out whatever sounds within the area. While the lack of sound might have been a disability to any creature, she saw it as more of an advantage.

Flying above the city of Canterlot, she watched as ponies walked around. Some, walking out to open shops – or to get an early start to what work they might do – others, to find themselves at cafes for a social breakfast or other. There even were fillies and colts hunting each other up and down the streets.

She flapped her wings a few good beats, rising up and pushing herself outwards towards her destination. The hospital. Unfortunately, as big as Canterlot happened to be, there was not one of the buildings alone.

Spotting the first hospital she came across, she folded her wings and a dive, swooping down before stretching her wings and pulling up while giving off a few flaps to slow her impact with the hospital’s roof.

From the sky, the place looked bigger, but now that she was grounded on the roof, it looked more like a regular shelter. The roof matched the walls’ beige colouring and, looking over the side, she could make out wooden doors that, while was of luxury wood, was not like the other one she had seen before, preferring glass doors from what this one had. The only way she knew it to be medical was the red cross painted upon a hanging sign.

Dropping softly down onto the windowsill, she turned her head to its side and gazed in through the pane. What met her was the sight of the hospital’s lobby, not at all busy, especially for this season. She took to the sky briefly, hopping over to the next sill over, and looked inside. It was just a patient’s room, with its doctor inside. Not who she was looking for.

She spent some time looking through every window, and the likes, looking for him. the one she was tasked to look out for. While being bound to staying outside, she did hold out and wait a good while at the window, in case she would see him. To no luck.

She then just decided upon moving on, off to check the next hospital she came across. And so, with a mighty flap of her black and white feathers, she took to the sky.

=====================================/|==========================================/

Her talons clicked against the brick chimney’s rim of a noblepony’s residence as her predatory gaze watched a hospital locked in her sight. It was the first one she had come across, but she had yet to investigate its insides, instead watching those few since the crack of dawn, who walked into the building – either for work or other – for her target. Right now, it was late morning.

Watching the hospital from afar, however, did not yield any gain, for she knew of two things. Her prey was either partly nocturnal, or something has forced him to take a different trail.

She jumped from the chimney and entered a soft glide for the large, white hospital. With a good few wingbeats, she made the distance, grabbing onto a window sill with her talons.

Looking inside the window itself, she saw a pony, wearing white and working at a tree wood desk. The pony was an icy blue – in coat – with a mix of red and lavender, striped in their mane and tail. They didn’t look like him, so she moved on to the next windowsill with but a wingbeat.

What she saw through this glass pane, was little different than the last, the only difference being its emptiness, with no pony inside. She looked around the room with the one eye facing it, looking for any feature that might hint to if this was her prey’s den. Nothing.

It took a good few more windows before she came across another empty room. Each one either occupied with other ponies or just empty, with no sign of him. Some were just sleeping dens, filled with the injured and sick. But it looked as if this one, too, had nothing on her prey.

She spread her wings to hop for the next window when something caught her eye in her new position. What it was, was a landscape trapped in time. There was a herd – possibly a family of young, with their elders – of ponies with one with the same colours as her target looked. It seemed she had found his den. But she had yet to see him, himself.

She decided to sit and wait for any sign of the pony whom she had been sent to hunt.

After nearly an hour of nothing, she took to the sky, quickly, shifting her direction towards the castle, which was quite close to the nobles’ territory.

This place where the nobles stayed was quite different from the other points of land. Where she would see the gathering spots, there were also stone depictions of the alpha, drinking points – even if all they did with it was throw metal into it – social territory and the prey playing predator.

This bit of land was quieter, like a forest in the middle of the day. Few ponies wandered its’ streets, even few socialized longer than the ones of south. To her, ponies were a little too diverse.

Pretty soon, she had crossed the castle wall and roof, moving towards its other side. To the alpha’s study.

=====================================/|==========================================/

Edmond stood in the middle of the study, looking over every nook and cranny in the room for a hint as to what might have happened here. So far, all he found was a letter meant for Shining Armor, dear Sparkle’s older brother, declaring a threat to their wedding, hidden and crumpled under a bookshelf.

He had spent all of the last day getting to Canterlot, spending the night on the train, hoping to get an early start to track this ‘Silver Gift’. Fortunately, the train arrived early, giving him, Ternychus and Fanu’ia time to get extra rest for the hunt before them.

And, by dawn’s raising, the three had split up to search predestined locations for hair or hide of the doctor, with plans to meet up at noon, lest the two avians find anything in Canterlot proper.

When he arrived at the castle, he wasted no time and briskly headed towards Celestia’s study. During his search – that had been relatively untouched, or so he had been told – he could find very little as to the events that had transpired within these walls, apparently unheard by the guards stationed outside its doors.

It was then that he heard the sound of shifting wind, drawing his attention to the window he left open, for his or his birds’ use. And the sight that met him was that of Fanu’ia landing inside the window.

“Fanu’ia,” he said with a nod and a raised arm. The acknowledged bird briefly took to the air, making the short distance and perching upon his outstretched arm. “I see you’re a little early. Ya find something?”

Turning his head from the avian, Edmond let out a soft hum in consideration. Jerking his arm upwards he let the bird situated on top jump off and onto the table sat in the middle of the room. He then dragged over a nearby stool and sat down upon it before speaking up once more.

“Give ‘er thirty more minutes. If she doesn’t show up, got out and look out for,” he said, half to himself. It wasn’t too long, however, that he heard another set of wings approach the window.

Turning his head, he regarded to magpie sat in the study’s window.

“So, one of you found the bastard, then,” he said. He then stood and walked over to the windowsill, keeping his gaze out and on the castle gardens. And, in a quiet tone that only conveyed triumphant glee – accompanied by a smirk – he spoke out to unhearing ears. “Well then. Check, mate.”

=====================================/|==========================================/

In the throne room, sat upon one of two thrones, one made of a golden material, sat an alabaster alicorn, awaiting the next petitioner to walk through the very doors she stared blankly at, hoping not one of the spoiled nobles would dare make another outlandish request, especially with Equestria being threatened.

A slight twitch of the eye broke her from her thousand-mile stare. Only momentarily, for the only difference at current, was a big decision playing out in her mind.

That, too, only lasted so long. And so, summoning a piece of parchment, and some ink and a quill, she started writing her will.