Author's Note

I want to thank you all for getting this story to 100 likes! I hope you enjoy this chapter as a reward!

Chapter 13

Dreadmire Academy - Lunchroom for Breakfast

Spike, Rumble, and Spike's admirers were all eating breakfast with a lot on their minds. It's only been three days since Spike's duel with Sunset, and things have been awkward. Not only has his popularity among the student body shot up, but from what he heard, Sunset hasn't even left her room. Finally, someone broke the awkward silence.

"I think Sunset will be fine. She's always been a tough cookie!" Pinkie said.

"Are you sure about that, sugarcube?" Applejack asked. "She not only lost the duel, but she was disowned by her own father in front of the entire school. It's really hard to see someone bounce back from that. Even tough cookies like Sunset".

"Besides, she's been holed up in her room for the past three days," Spike said. "I can just hope and pray she'll be alright".

"Spike's right, guys," Fluttershy said. "The Highmother will heal Sunset".

Spike leaned towards Rumble and whispered. "Who?"

"She's talking about the Highmother, Nyx. She's the goddess who created all monsters. Nyx is the matron deity of our faith," Rumble replied.

From what Fluttershy said, the others must be devout followers of hers. They all looked as if they were praying to her. He wanted to more into Nyx the Highmother. But wanting to change the topic away from theology and Sunset, he wanted to learn more about the girls. Spike turned to Fluttershy.

"So Fluttershy, I heard from our first day that you're a Vouivre, huh?" Spike asked. "Forgive me for saying this, but I've personally never heard of your species".

"That's because I'm kind of a rarity among monsterkind," Fluttershy said.

"How rare exactly?" Spike asked.

"Dude, Vouivres are an endangered species," Rumble said. "In fact, there are only eighteen of them left in the whole world!"

"Damn! How is the Vouivre population so low?" Spike asked.

"It's all because of the Order of Artemis," Twilight said. "Their European branch has done a splendid job in ensuring the Vouivre population's decline".

"The Order of Artemis? I've never heard of it," Spike said.

Everyone at the table apart from Rumble stared at Spike with the widest eyes he's ever seen. He expected their eyes to pop out at any second now.

"Where have you been living where you've never heard of the Order of Artemis?!" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Well... I've been living among humans, so I've never really had any contact with them," Spike replied.

"The Order of Artemis is a secret monster-hunting organization the humans founded two-thousand years ago," Rarity said.

"They're our greatest enemies! They mercilessly slaughter thousands of our people!" Pinkie said.

"And whatever monsters they don't kill they imprison for information or experiment on them to create better ways of killing us," Fluttershy said.

"I think it's a miracle you haven't encountered them already!" Applejack said.

"Wait, with all this talk of the Order, I just had a troubling thought," Spike said. "What's keeping the Order from finding the school or other monster settlements like this one?"

"That's because of the special barrier we talked about on our first day," Rarity said. "This place is supposed to look like abandoned buildings in the middle of the woods to humans. Even if they somehow found a way in, the school's security team would take care of them".

"This school has a security team?" Spike asked.

"Yep. It's a pack of werewolves run by Vice-Headmistresses Celestia and Luna, as well as a few Hellhounds we keep on campus," Rumble said.

"Well, in that case, let's eat up. We'll just focus on what we can do now," Spike said, sipping his chocolate milk.

Outside the School's Grounds

Lyra and Bon-Bon have made their way through the woods until they reached the heart of the forest. Eventually, they reached their destination: a collection of abandoned decrepit buildings out in the middle of nowhere. The two Hunters stood on a hill overlooking the complex with a pair of binoculars, planning their next move.

"What do you think?" Lyra asked.

"Well, it would be the height of foolishness to simple break through the front door. If Father Banesworth's information is correct, there's not only multiple monster species gathered, but a powerful Demon is among them as well. It's best we prepare of few surprises when we finally do launch our attack," Bon-Bon replied.

Lyra smiled and looked behind them at two large duffle bags they brought with them for this attack. Lyra opened the duffle bags to reveal several small clay statues with special runes carved on them.

These little statues were Battle Golems. The runes carved on them were designed to store magic and bring them to life. Once the Golems are created, they increase to human size and are programmed to fight whatever enemies their masters to them to. And Lyra and Bon-Bon brought two whole duffle bags full of them, with at least one hundred and fifty of them in each bag. All they had to do was to activate them with runes.

"Wait, isn't bringing these Golems to life going to deplete us of our arc energy?" Lyra asked.

"It will. But in this situation, we'll need the numbers to take them down," Bon-Bon. "Battle Golems aren't mindless. They're designed to fight and think on the battlefield. We also have the Enochian Blades in case we run into the Demon we heard about".

Bon-Bon and Lyra set about fueling the Battle Golems with the magic they need to fight and function. The magic within the runes would last for a whole hour, so the Hunters had to ensure that the fight would be over by that time. They had to play this tactically.

Thirty minutes later, all of the Battle Golems were activated and ready for battle. Both Bon-Bon and Lyra were pretty drained of their magic, but the results were well worth it.

"Now then, let's talk strategy. I came up with one while we were activating the Golems," Bon-Bon said.

Bon-Bon surveyed the area around the school and then turned back to Lyra and the Golems.

"Listen up! We're striking the nest today while it's daylight while the beasts are asleep, catching them by surprise!" Bon-Bon said. "Me and Lyra will act as the vanguard while the rest of you will split up into groups of fifty each and attack different parts of the nest! Me and Lyra destroying the barrier will be your signal to attack! Now move out!"

The Battle Golems nodded and began to move out to fulfill their assignments. Bon-Bon and Lyra conjured their weapons and armor to get ready for battle.

"Alright! Let's go!" Lyra called out.