The Swordsman and the Nurse

The cold wind blew as Moonshine walked through the ruin of Canterlot, his icy blue eyes darting from side to side, as if expecting something wrong to happen.

His steps were firm in that streets teeming with snow of the former blooming city, even as he felt that his task wasn't; escort the nurse while she looked for herbs to make some kind of medicine in that frozen landscape were, as he felt, a nightmare.

"Moonshine" - Called the nurse Cheerilee, while she pointed to a house taken by the elements - "there is the place where the herbs grow."

"Understood." - Moonshine was bored, but feel as if he could get some action, and with a quick movement drew his sword - "Please, miss, I'm going to check if there is something inside. You can come at my sign."

Cheerilee, enveloped in an arrangement of tick cloths nodded.

==========X

The inside of the house was much warmer than outside, and as Moonshine step inside he could see many kinds of grasses growing where should be the floor.

For a tiny moment he let his guard down, imagining how that, in a world frozen for years now, plant life was capable of growing outside a man-made place. But that was something he would think later.

So, with the utmost caution, Moonshine inspected each nook of the house, looking for any kind of possible danger - he even inspected the ground, but there was no footprint in the middle of the plants. With more confidence, he got back to the nurse, who waited as the light snow started falling, and gave the sign.

==========X

Moonshine sat in the ground, his long dark blue hair under his shoulder and his sword by his side, His eyes tracking each movement the nurse did as she harvested the herbs.

"You know, young man, you could be helping me right now" - Cheerilee spoke, finally looking at the young man.

"No, thank you" - Moonshine didn't even hesitate

"What?" - Cheerilee open her mouth to argue, but he cut her in the spot.

"In the time that you would argue with me, or even teach me how to identify the herbs ..." - Moonshine rose a finger upward - "You would have ended your job. Now if you excuse me..."

Cherilee start mumbling something about the rest of the people being right about Moonshine, but he paid no mind, instead he believed he had heard something estrange coming from outside; Moonshine had no idea what it was, so it meant he had to investigate - could be something dangerous to the nurse.

"Hey, where are you going!" - Cheerilee spoke as she noticed Moonshine exiting the house

"Make sure you don't die today." And with this, he let the house with the lone nurse - who once again mumble something about him being a "Moonie".

==========X

Moonshine hated this nickname, "Moonie", he was certain that he was not THAT grumpy, but this kind of rambling would not help to do his job.

And so, he slowly walked to the entrance of the ruined house, peaking at the streets, and to his surprise, he was really right.

Walking through the snowy street was two humanoid creatures, and Moonshine believed that they were both taller than 6 ft, had no hair in their heads and wore some kind of yellow armor in their torso. Behind them and tied by some makeshift rope was a robed figure that tried to follow their pace, but each time it slowed down, it was pushed to go on by the strong tug of the two beings.

For a second a thought came to his mind, the idea of saving the robed creature from what was certainly a grisly end was so alluring that Moonshine took a steep forward - and then he regretted it.

As if both beings could hear his movement, they stopped, looking around.

Sweat dripped from Moonshine's face as he weighted his choices, he was the only combatant in the vicinity, and before him was two unknown threats that appear to be physically strong and with unknown skills.

On the one hand, he could risk everything and take down both creatures and save their prisoner, he had the skill to do it, but...

In the other hand, his job was not to save anyone – it was to keep the nurse safe and sound, and he didn't trust himself to fight with someone to slow him down.

So Moonshine made his decision, stepping back to the shadows of the crumble house; watching as the two strangers took their prisoner away, walking in the direction of one of "the places of dread". - but before he could return his full attention to the nurse, he heard shouting coming from the direction the strangers went, he could not identify the language, but it sent shivers down his spine.

==========X

"Cheerilee, we need to go. NOW." - Moonshine spoke firmly.

The nurse appeared as if she was going to say something funny, but when she looked at Moonshine's eyes, she understood that something was off. She nodded and closed her bag full of herbs.

"Moonie, is something wrong?"

"Yes. Let's go" - Moonshine answered dryly and motioned for them to go. Cheerilee nodded and both exited the place.

==========X

Cheerilee was clearly tired, but Moonshine had no choice; the only way for him to feel safe was to take the long route back to the base. He couldn't know how much time they walked, but the feeling of wrongness hasn't left him.

That's why, without warning, he turned to Cheerilee and dragged her to the nearby house hiding their presence. It was obvious that Cheerilee hated what he did, especially because he immobilized her and put a hand in her mouth.

But Moonshine didn't care, he felt something was wrong, and if he had acted wrong, he would just ask for forgiveness later. And so, he watched the snowy street once again, without letting the poor nurse make a sound.

A minute passed. Two. Three.

Moonshine started to regret dragging the Cheerilee to appease his paranoia, but then he saw it.

One of the two strange beings he had seen earlier was following them, and now he could finally see the detail.

The creature was big, with short stock legs and strong hands and arms – almost like a gorilla – but it had no fur whatsoever, in its torso a metal looking armor shimmered by the grey light of that cloud day.

But what marked Moonshine more was its face, where the pale skin of the creature seemed to rip apart around it's mouth, so that two big tusks could grow, and the small red eyes.

The base was just a few blocks away and Cherilee could easily escape if that monster had a distraction. So, Moonshine made his choice.

"Cheerilee, you must go"

"But... What about you?"

"Don't worry, I am strong enough to take this one down."

"If you say..."

"When I get in the street, you run."

"Okey... take care, Moonshine"

=================================================X====

The hunter were walking slowly, sniffing the air and looking for its prey. It has been some time since the alpha sent him to investigate, but when he was going to go back to the lair, he caught a strange scent – almost the same as the ponies, but different at the same time – and followed it till he found some footprints.

The alpha was right, there was some prey around, and he would have the glory to hunt them. And now, he felt the scent of his prey getting closer, and for that, he smirked.

Yet, what happened next was unexpected.

From one of the crumbled huts around the road, the pony-like prey exited.

He was smaller than the hunter, wearing a full set of black cloth with a light blue coat; his face was dark blue and his long hair was an even dark shade. - but his eyes were of clear icy blue color that made the hunter stand on his guard, even before seeing the silvery blade his prey was holding.

"I don't know who or what you are" - spoke the prey in a cold tone - "but I will make you answer some questions."

The hunter was happy for the prey to show itself, it made his job easier. Furthermore, he wasn't alone.