In the Great City of Canterlot
A happy girl was running down the street of the wondrous city of Canterlot. This girl was more than excited about what she was intending to do on this particular day.
This girl was Twilight Sparkle, the top student who recently graduated from the Princess's Royal Wizard Academy. She had put on her official wizard robe for today. The robe was a dark purple in color with some patterns in the shapes of star constellations. The button that held the hood of the robe together was in the shape of a flaring sun. Twilight's look was completed by a pointed hat and a long wooden staff that held a blue gem-like stone fixed to the top.
Twilight was quite talented when it came to practicing magic. She was able to perform most high-level spells that left even Starswirl the Bearded, the nation's highest-ranked wizard, speechless. Her natural talent and her studious nature had her even inspire her peers to study and practice magic.
When she was declared an official wizard at her graduation, she told her family what exactly she wanted to do in order to do her duty to Equestria: she wanted to become an Adventurer.
Adventurers were people paid to either explore the unknown lands or to deal with threats to the kingdom, such as monsters or people that practice dark magic. Twilight had seen the various Adventurer parties that had worked for the city's Adventurer's Guild and had heard the stories of their quests.
One of the greatest Adventurers Twilight had seen in the city was Rockhoof, a Warrior-class Adventurer that had single-handedly fought off four battalions of invading Hobgoblins until the Royal Army's reinforcements arrived. He was a living legend even among other high-ranked Adventurers.
Twilight was running to the city's Adventurer's Guild with full force and a giddy smile. Soon enough, she saw the Guild building.
The Canterlot Adventurer's Guild was a large building with two levels. The ground floor was where the Adventurers waited for quests to be posted and would hang out with their parties until they received their quests. The second floor was the administration level where most of the office work took place.
"Alright! Time to become an Adventurer" Twilight whispered to herself before stepping through the doors.
Twilight was instantly taken by the mood of merriment that emanated from the Guildhall. Everywhere she looked, she saw happy Adventurers talking, laughing, and eating with their Guildmates. There were Adventurers of different classes in the Guildhall. There were Warriors, Wizards, Paladins, Rangers, Clerics, Monster Hunters, and Barbarians to name a few. There were also Adventurers of different races in the Guildhall, too. Twilight saw humans like her, but she also saw Elves, Dwarves, Half-Elves, Halflings, Tieflings, and even a Half-Orc.
The smell of the Guildhall was that of ale and roasted meat. It was a smell that was strangely pleasant to her.
Twilight looked around the hall and finally found the registration desk for obtaining quests and for signing up to be and Adventurer. She walked up to the desk to see two Half-Elf twins working the front desk. One had light pink hair and her sister had light blue hair. Twilight went up to them with a smile on her face.
"Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle", she greeted. "I'm here to register as an Adventurer".
The Half-Elf twins smiled pleasantly at Twilight. They didn't have any forced smiles at all, but true genuine smiles. The blue-haired one pulled out a rolled up paper and handed it to Twilight.
"Welcome to the Canterlot Adventurer's Guild, Miss Twilight. We're more than happy to accept you as one our Adventurers. Just fill out this paper with your information and we'll give you your Guild crest and rank-plate" she said sweetly.
Twilight accepted the registration form and went to find a place to sit and fill it out. She looked around the Guildhall to find any vacant seat or table in the entire hall. After focusing on the back of the hall, she spotted a perfect place to sit and fill out her information.
It was a single table in a corner at the back of the hall with a whole set of vacant seats around it. The table only had one single occupant sitting with his back to the wall.
The table's single occupant was quite clearly male. He wore a long black coat, black pants, and had a black wide-brimmed hat. The man also had a sheathed longsword at his right side. He sat in the corner with his arms crossed and his hat covering most of his face, leaving only his pronounced chin visible from where Twilight was standing. Something about this stranger was off-putting to Twilight.
Still, Twilight had to sit somewhere to fill out her registration form. She went to the back corner of the hall, weaving through the tables and walking Adventurers to get to her desired destination.
After weaving between a few more tables, she made it to the table. Without taking her eyes off the black-clad Adventurer, she sat down in the seat facing towards him and began to fill out the form.
The form required a small amount of information. It required her to list any experience adventuring, knowledge of the outdoors, her Adventurer class, and if she was in a party.
"You in a party?" a strange voice asked. This voice was deep and somewhat stern.
Twilight looked up to see the black-clad stranger looking at her with one bright blue eye open. Now that he had his head up, the young wizard could get a better look at his face.
He was quite a handsome man that looked about Twilight's age, but he had the aura of a far more experienced Adventurer. His hair and skin were white as fresh snow. His ears were small points similar to a Half-Elf. His lips were gray like lead. He wore a necklace that consisted of a small glass vial with black hair inside it. Twilight suddenly couldn't take her eyes off of his face.
He leaned forward slightly and looked at her with his blue eye. "Are you in a party, miss?"
Twilight shook her shock out of her head.
"N-no. I'm not in a party" she replied to the beautiful stranger.
The stranger shook his head. "If that's the case, they may not accept you as an Adventurer, yet".
"What?! Why?!" Twilight demanded.
"To answer your first question, the Guild recently changed their policy. Nowadays, they don't accept lone Adventurers. They have to be in a party of four or more to be accepted. To answer your second question, the reason for the party policy is because of the increase in monster attacks. Want to join the Guild? Join or form a party" he replied.
"Why have monster attacks been increasing?"
"I'm not sure. Either their food sources are being depleted, their territories are being trespassed, or a dark power is leading them"
Twilight looked to the mysterious Adventurer with amazement. "Do you think Canterlot is safe?"
The stranger shrugged. "If the city's defenses are up, we could survive a three-month siege. Besides, the attacks are mostly occurring in the rural areas and some of the outlying towns".
"Thank you for letting me know. My name is Twilight Sparkle. What's your name?" Twilight asked in greeting.
The Adventurer didn't open his other eye. "My name is Alarich Bloodborne. What's your class?"
"I'm a Wizard. What's your class?" Twilight replied.
"I should've guessed from your robes and hat. Also, I'm a Monster Hunter" Alarich replied.
"You're hired to hunt monsters? What's your biggest kill?" Twilight asked.
"It's a living. As for my biggest kill, it was a Beholder causing trouble in the northern prefectures" he replied.
Twilight was stunned. She had heard of Beholders before. They were large monsters that looked like a flying one-eyed head with several eyestalks that performed various magical tasks. These creatures would kill people as soon as they saw them.
"Did your party help you?" Twilight asked.
"I'm not in a party" Alarich replied.
"What?! You're not in a party?! And you killed a Beholder by yourself?!"
"Yeah, I'm not in a party. The Guild made an exception for me".
"Why?"
"Don't you want to turn in your registration form?"
Twilight looked down at the completed registration form. Then she looked back at Alarich.
"Oh yeah. But what about my needing to join a party? I don't feel comfortable about asking all these other Adventurers. And I don't know of any other Adventurers that are without a party other than you" Twilight replied.
Alarich looked at Twilight for what felt like an eternity before sighing. "If you want, you could travel with me until you find others to form a party with. I'm sure the Guild will approve you traveling with me".
Twilight looked at Alarich with wide and sparkly eyes. "Oh, thank you so much, Mister Bloodborne! I promise I'll pull my weight!"
"You don't need the formal 'Mister'. Just call me Alarich", Alarich responded.
Twilight jumped from her seat with excitement. "Thank you... Alarich".
The young Wizard then left to turn in her registration. She was finally going to become an Adventurer.
Author's Note
I hope you all enjoy this first chapter. I had to do a lot of research into DND monsters to figure out what would be good for Alarich's best kill as a Monster Hunter.
