Daedalus' New World

They had boarded an airborne carriage in less than twenty minutes, a vehicle that was large enough to match a large van on Earth. It was made of white wood with what appeared to be steel reinforcements and carried an overall framed design. The four corners of the carriage supported the roof above their heads, and the back wall was one solid piece as well. The other three sides of the carriage were open to the air though and he was sure the ponies were thankful for the wind cooling down what would no doubt be a hot ride otherwise. He had also overheard Star and Beam talking about something called a weight reduction enchantment. He could guess its use.

Visibility would be low during this hunt, but not incredibly so. He had been woken up some time around two in the morning for the hunt and the moon was still shining brightly above them. Apparently, Luna had changed the moon's phase to full once the Hunters were deployed, but a lot of the light would be filtered out once they got into the Everfree. Turning his attention to his companions, he took in the sight of all their armor and equipment. Lightning Star and Glimmering Moonbeam were pulling the carriage, their shimmering chainmail glittering in the moonlight. Star's wings sparked with every wingbeat, electricity crackling through his enchanted wingblades as a belt of small red crystals crossed over his chest. Beam chose not to wield wingblades and instead wore a bandolier of knives across her chest in easy reach of her hooves. He knew that the knives in specific spots on said bandolier were treated with special concoctions that ranged from paralytic to neurotoxic.

Looking back into the carriage, Aqua was clad in a white robe that matched her coat color. Runes appeared to be emblazoned on the fabric with ethereal energy, likely enchanted to boost her magic or something along those lines. Her horn was alight with blue magic as she passed out red crystals matching the ones Star carried. She also gave him specifically another blue gemstone on a chain meant to go around his neck. Seeing his curious look, she explained what they were. "The red crystals are explosives. Everypony gets two except Star who acts as our strike bomber. Activate it with magic and an orange light will flare inside of it, then you've got five seconds to throw it before it detonates. The blue crystal is your communication crystal, it'll let you speak to anyone of us within a league, and can also function as a tracker within the same distance. You can receive communications at any point, but if you want to send an outgoing message you'll have to use your token since you don't have your own magic. Same with the bombs, actually. Oh, and only myself and Iron can using the tracking enchanted into it, it requires a spell."

Jay's gaze drifted to Kin next, to the giant earth pony adorned in black plate armor that flexed with his hide as he moved. The gaps were protected by a shimmering cobalt magic similar to Wrought Iron's own armor. Two axes were crossed on his back with a third strapped to his side. The two on his back were large double bladed battleaxes, both identical in design except for the material of the blades themselves. One axe was forged of steel or iron, Jay wasn't quite sure which. The other, though, had mismatched blades- one was a bright golden metal and the other a shiny silver. It didn't take long for Jay to realize that the axe was made of sunsteel and silver.

I don't think making a weapon out of two separate metals is a good idea. Then again, it could be reinforced by magic.

Kin's last axe was strapped to his side, a smaller one with a single blade most likely meant to be used in close quarters when the large pony was unable to grab and swing his larger blades. All in all, he looked pretty damn well equipped and like he could handle just about anything the forest could throw at him. Hopefully, that remained true.

Lastly was Captain Iron wearing the same armor he wore when they first met. The only real difference from Kin's heavy armor was that it was a dark shade of grey rather than black, otherwise the two sets of plate mail were near identical. A large warhammer rested on his back with a flat steel head on one side. Opposite the flat head was a dual set of spikes, again made of silver and sunsteel. As he looked, Iron's horn lit up with a dusty aura and two greatswords were levitated over to Jay. The Evolved took them both, slightly unsheathing the blades as he examined them. They were simply designed, straight blades meeting large crossguards that would protect his hands. While the blades were definitely greatswords to the generally smaller ponies, they were closer to what one of his memories called a 'hand and a half' with a blade of about three and a half feet in length. The simple design and plain leather sheathes clearly identified these as the backups Iron mentioned before as the pair shared the two metals he was told he'd need. "Just in case, Jay. From what our info is, we won't need silver or sunsteel but it's better to carry an extra blade than to die."

"What are we hunting, anyway? Beam didn't tell me." Jay asked, giving Iron a curious look. Whatever it was, it likely wasn't magical if plain weapons worked just fine.

"Cause I didn't know!" Beam interrupted, her voice emanating from the crystal around his neck and slightly muffled by the sounds of rushing wind. It was good to have confirmation that the crystals transmitted all sound around the user, not just what the user was saying.

"Right, normally you won't get your briefing until we're actually en route since the faster we get there, the less ponies die. It's why we say to keep your kit fully prepared at all times and in a place you know well so you can get to it fast." Iron explained, adjusting his warhammer as he made sure it was strapped in place properly. "Those two blades are yours from now on. Keep them on you as much as possible. Like I said, you probably won't need them. Better safe than sorry, though."

As Jay nodded and formed two false-leather straps on his back to hold the swords, Iron continued. "The situation is about as cut and dry as it can get. Three fillies from Ponyville got it in their heads to go explore the Everfree, and to nopony's surprise, they ended up getting lost. This isn't a rescue mission though, everything ended up turning out alright. The fillies were chased by a pack of timberwolves, but ended up running into a small search party lead by the Element Bearers. The wolves got scared off and the fillies only had couple scratches. That's as much as we got details-wise."

"Our job is simple. The wolves might get more bold now that they've had a run in with a group of ponies and got away uninjured. It'll be twice as bad if they got a taste for pony blood. We can't have that. We're also going to be taking care of a hydra that's causing a couple problems for the locals. It's driving predators out of the forest, which is increasing competition and making predators roam wider. The fillies probably wouldn't have even run into wolves if it weren't for the hydra. As such, we'll be splitting into two teams once we're on the ground."

"Secondary team will be tasked with dealing with the wolves, and it'll comprise of Star and Aqua. Star can move fast enough to catch up to the wolves just fine, and he's strong enough to carry Aqua on his back. Aqua's fire will let her make short work of the timberwolves, too. Jay, for you to know, you have to burn the bodies of timberwolves. Once they're destroyed, magic will just collect in the wood again and reform the wolf. Burning the wood disperses the wild enchantments and kills it for good." Iron explained and received a nod from Aqua just as Beam's voice came through over the crystal, sounding in agreement.

"Primary team will be dealing with the hydra. It'll consist of me, Kin, Beam, and Jay. Beam, you'll be our aerial scout. Stay below the canopy, keep a steady speed, and find the beast. We know it's on the move, so it shouldn't take too much to hear that big thing stomping around. Obviously, me, Kin, and Jay will move in on the ground. Jay, how fast can you run?"

While Jay didn't exactly have an accurate speed, he had a rough idea of how fast he could move at his top speed. He was slightly slower than Mercer who he knew could outrun a Blackhawk heli, and thanks to the memories of the thousands of soldiers he's consumed he knew that the VRF Blackhawks stayed around two hundred miles per hours but could top out past that. Since he was slower than Mercer, he had a pretty accurate guess of how fast he could move. "I'd say somewhere around one hundred fifty miles per hour is my max, faster if I change to a quadrupedal form."

Iron shook his head. "I don't know what a mile is, Jay. How many leagues is that?"

"How far is a league?"

"Three thousand hooves." Iron answered. Knowing that three hooves was about a foot thanks to Celestia during his duel with Luna, he did some quick mental math. At one fifty miles an hour, he could cross a league in about five seconds.

"Roughly, I can cross a league in five seconds once I get to top speed." Jay answered to wide eyed looks from the non-pegasi, which didn't surprise the Evolved at all. From something on foot, that kind of speed was ridiculous.

"Alright, you're gonna be working with Beam. Find the hydra and call out on the comms crystal when you do. Once it's found, all of the primary team will regroup and assess. The primary threats to look out for on the hydra are it's heads, tail, and corrosive bile. The first two are obvious why, you don't want to get bitten in half by a head twice your size or crushed by a tail the side of a shed. Hydras are also able to vomit on command and their stomach bile is highly corrosive, allowing them to eat almost anything safely. Beam and Jay will keep it's attention on the air and ground while me and Kin strike it to wear it out. Jay, hit it hard every chance you get. The more you make it work it's natural regeneration the slower it gets. Once we hurt it faster than it heals, we'll start cutting off heads and detonating the crystals to burn the stumps. When it's down to the final head it's going to become very defensive. It'll keep it close to the body and not attack as much but we need to cut it off."

"Leave the final hit to me. Worst comes, I think I can just rip it off once it's weakened." Jay said earning nods from those around him.

"Good, any questions?"

"What's the terrain like in the Everfree?" Jay asked, wanting to know what kind of areas he'd have to search. "I'm not going to be able to move at my max because of the trees but I'm even slower in mud."

"Not an issue." Aqua answered. "We'll be operating in dry forest. The only swamp in the region is the Froggy Bottom Bog and it has its own hydra that doesn't really bother anypony."

"Alright, if nopony else has another question..." Iron trailed off, waiting to see if anypony would say anything. When nothing came forth, he continued. "Get some rest, we all got woken up early. Just don't fall asleep."

﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏

When they landed in Ponyville, Jay was surprised to find Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash waiting for them just outside the carriage. While Aqua moved to help the two pegasi unhook faster, Jay approached the three Elements with Iron. Jay couldn't help but notice that both Applejack and Rainbow were bandaged and as they approached, he turned to Iron. "Do we have a few minutes for me to heal those two?"

"Yeah, go ahead. I'm going to find out what I can from Princess Twilight." Iron agreed, approaching the alicorn. Jay walked over to the two young ponies.

When the two seemingly injured ponies noticed him approaching, they gave him small smiles as they wrapped up whatever they were talking about in hushed tones. Jay took a moment to take in their appearances. Both of them were pretty disheveled, a little banged up, and more than a little dirty with twigs tangled in their fur with mud and sweat soaking them both. Applejack's hat was missing and her matted mane looked like it had a few chunks torn off, which had definitely hurt. A deep bruise was slowly forming on her muzzle and a lightly stained bandage was wrapped around her barrel, the white cloth slowly turning red. Rainbow wasn't really any better off. The feathers on her wings were bent askew and it looked like a few were missing, but nothing appeared broken. Instead, one of her hooves was wrapped up in a slag that held it close to her chest, making her hobble around on three legs. When Jay came to a stop in front of them, he sighed and kneeled down next to Applejack. "You two should be resting in a hospital, not out here. You look like you've been through enough."

Applejack just gave him a soft smile. "Yer right, but we couldn't. Not while knowin' that those timberwolves could end up coming here after they got a bite of us. Twi had mentioned you were a Hunter now, so it's darn good ta see ya. We wanted ta go back out there with y'all but Twi won't let us. Rightfully so, probably."

"Yeah, at least with you here, we know the wolves won't stand a chance." Rainbow said, giving him a confident smile. Then it turned to a sheepish look. "And, uh, while you're here, do you think you could heal us?"

"Yeah, that's what I came over here for. Applejack, you first. You look like you're still bleeding." Jay said, giving the two an understanding look as he reached out to her. Pressing his hand against her side lightly, his viral tendrils reached out and into the wound from the palm of his hand, unseen to the ponies. Through the bandage, he could tell it wasn't as bad as he feared. She had three long but shallow claw marks running across a portion of her barrel from the bottom to the side. The wolf that had gotten her apparently hadn't gotten a good grip, fortunately. Localized anesthesia was injected into the site with a relieved sigh from Applejack confirming his suspicions that they hadn't actually gone to the hospital and just bandaged themselves. Viral tendrils knitted living flesh and, after a moment of consideration, he examined Applejack's gene sequence. To his surprise, he could view it perfectly fine. Taking a sample to consume later, he quickly finished healing her injury before turning to Rainbow.

Gently grabbing her hoof, she flinched lightly in his grip. Jay glanced up at her in slight concern. "Broken or sprained?"

Her muzzle tinted a light pink as he heard Applejack start to laugh before Rainbow answered him. "N-no, I just don't like my hooves touched."

"I'll be quick." Jay promised, turning his attention back to her. Again, painkillers were injected into the wound as he examined it. She had been bitten, wood fragments still buried in her flesh as the teeth splintered. The injury was deep and Jay couldn't help but be surprised at how well she was hiding the pain. He quickly extracted and consumed the wood, then began to repair muscle and tendons. The Greater Evolved detected a strange concoction in her body that he couldn't identify, but could see that it was clotting her blood and preventing her from bleeding. "Did you take some medicine to clot the blood?"

Rainbow nodded above him, a lot more at ease now that the pain was gone. "Yeah, back in the Forest. I got bit first so Applejack gave me one of her potions she got from Applebloom that stopped the bleeding. The wolf that jumped her crushed her saddlebag though so she couldn't do the same for herself."

Finishing up, he pulled back from Rainbow and helped remove the sling from her. Tentatively, she pressed her hoof to the ground and sighed in relief with no pain came with it. "Thank Celestia. You're a lifesaver, dude. I didn't wanna be stuck in a hospital for a week. Kinda numb, though."

Removing the bandage from Applejack, he visually inspected the area and confirmed that no scars were left behind. "Yeah, that's the anesthesia. It's short term but powerful, so it'll wear off in a few minutes and you'll be fine. Same with you, Applejack. Also, the wounds won't scar so you don't have to worry about patchy fur."

"Wouldn't o' mattered none, as long as I can still help my family on the farm, I'd a' been happy. Still, thank ya, Jay." Applejack said, wrapping a hoof around him and giving him a hug. He returned it for a second, then let go as the three of them walked back over to the rest of the Hunters.

Aqua was climbing onto Star's back, the little unicorn easily able to fit in what appeared to be a specially-made attachment to his chainmail. A few clips on Aqua's robes slotted into the metal addition and Jay realized this was probably a duo that worked together often. Iron gave Jay a curious look to which he nodded toward the ponies, and then the large unicorn turned back to the rest of the Hunters as the three Bearers listened in. "Alright, you know the plans. Aqua, you and Star are heading toward the timberwolf pack. Between your fire and Star's crystal bombs, you should make short work of them. If something goes wrong and you need backup, use the comms and we'll send Jay, Beam, or both to reinforce you. The rest of us are heading for the hydra. Last chance to ask any questions. If not, get going."

A second later, Aqua and Star took off in a burst of speed as Rainbow looked on in surprise, then gave an excited grin as she realized Star was fast. Jay could easily agree, he had to guess the little pegasus could fly at least triple his own speed. Beam whistled to catch Jay's attention, then nodded in the direction of the Forest. Jay returned her nod and the two took off into the Forest, traveling together for the first two leagues then splitting off as they searched for the Hydra. The Forest was darker than he last remembered, but that was expected. Last time he had been here it had been the middle of the day, somewhat closer to the edge in the makeshift clearing of the old castle. Now it was the middle of the night, deep in the forest, and with an unbroken canopy high above him. Jay didn't have night vision any better than a human as it was something he never needed in New York- the VRF lit their bases up just fine with floodlights. No, he had something better.

Everything turned red as his sight dulled, specific details becoming harder to make out. All sounds became muffled as he tuned out every other sense, focusing on the innate viral sight that any infected with a hive mind could access. Glancing down at his hand as he ran, he saw his own body emitting a bright white glow that he knew belonged to those who were heavily infected. Glancing around, he saw that all life had gained a very dull red color and the occasional animal his sight picked up were orange. He nodded in approval, his speed picking up as the ground beneath his feet cracked and buckled from his weight. In truth, he was excited for this. Iron had mentioned the hydra had regeneration and he dearly hoped it was biological in nature, not magical, so he could improve his own regeneration. The acidic bile would be useful too, allowing him to create a non-viral ranged weapon he didn't have to worry about retrieving later.

His comms crystal lit up in a dim blue glow, Aqua's voice coming through muffled but still audible thanks to its proximity to him. "We've found the wolves. There's about twenty of them heading for Ponyville but we've caught up to them with plenty of time to spare. We're engaging now."

Iron's voice followed behind a moment later as Jay's keen hearing picked up the very distance sounds of roaring fire. "Copy. Our scouts are still searching for the hydra. Jay, Beam, how's going?"

Jay waited assuming Beam would transmit first and was proven right a few moments later as Beam's voice came through the crystal. "Nothing so far. No stomping marks, corrosion, or slime. I don't think it's in my sector so keep an eye open, Jay."

Reaching down, he touched his token to the communication crystal and, when it lit up green, he spoke. "Same as Beam over here. I've got nothing so far but as I'm going further the animal population is dropping. I think Beam's right, it might be near me."

"Copy. We're going to shift and head your way, Jay. Beam, turn east and start making your way toward him." Iron responded.

Before Beam could say anything else through the ponified radio, a reverberating roar cut through the night air coming from about a mile in front of him. At first, Jay had thought the roar had somehow echoed through the trees as it was nearly perfectly mimicked a few seconds later only to realize it was most likely another head roaring. Speaking through the crystal again, he informed the rest of the Hunters. "Yeah, it's ahead of me by about two leagues. I'm going to continue forward a league and then wait for the rest of you."

"Copy, I'm inbound from your southwest." Beam said, the sound of rushing wind signifying her picking up speed toward him.

"We're ten out." Iron responded, heavy thumping coming through the crystal as the two heavy plated ponies galloped toward him. "Don't engage and pull back if it starts to approach you."

"Will do." Jay said, letting go of the token and cutting off his transmission. Soon enough, he would fight his first monster in this world and see how it compared to the monsters he knew.