//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 - Recruiting Policy // Story: Demonic Dues // by Seamserb //------------------------------// Twilight’s eyes begin to flutter open. A white light fills her sight. “Twilight…” A pleasant voice calls. Is this… heaven?  “Twilight…” The voice calls again. The voice sounds familiar to Twilight. It reminds her of... Her thoughts are interrupted as a hoof cups her mouth, squishing both cheeks together. She’s quickly brought back to reality.  Twilight looks around, seeing herself to be lying upon a bed in the Monastery Infirmary. Abbot Firelight, Captain Hammerhead, and a few medics look at her, all somewhat perturbed. The Hunter sits aside them too, but simply stares without any notable reaction besides a slight eye-brow raise upon seeing the unicorn awaken.  “Whart ish goin onuh?” Twilight mumbles, mouth still being cupped by one of the medics. The medic hastily releases her hoof from the unicorn’s mouth upon seeing her able to speak. “The Hunter brought you back to the Monastery after you two apparently completed your mission. You were rendered unconscious, though.” Captain Hammerhead says. Twilight raises an eyebrow. “Apparently?”  “The Hunter says the Devourer was vanquished, but hasn’t given us any specific details of how the hunt went.” Firelight clarifies. Twilight raises a hoof to quickly respond, but The Hunter shuts her down. “Gentlecolts, if you would, may I have a moment' with my scribe? It won’t take long.” The earthen promises. Everypony else looks pretty confused, including Twilight. Firelight speaks up first. “Surely something of importance should be told to all of—” “It’s private Hunter matters. Between my partner and I. I’m askin’ you to give us the room.” The Hunter says, a bit sterner.  The other ponies get the memo, quickly leaving. Firelight, now alone, reluctantly agrees as well.  “Try to make it short, please.” The Abbot says on his way out, trying to assert some control.  The Hunter watches the door close. She waits a few seconds, before calmly walking up and pressing her ear against it. After making sure that nopony is snooping, she returns to her seat next to the confused unicorn.  “Alright. How much do you remember?” The Hunter probes. Twilight thinks for a few moments, realizing she can’t fully recall how she got here. “I remember we got attacked by the… uh… Devourer? We fell off the cliff, and then you started fighting it, and then I picked up your sword, ran at it and stabbed it, and then you killed it. Everything after that is blank, though.” The Hunter mutters something under her breath. “Do you remember how you said you wanted to 'quit this no matter what’?”  The unicorn tilts her head. “I don’t remember saying it but I remember thinking it.”  “Well, ya said it out loud.”  Twilight grimaces. “Am I in trouble?” She asks, leaning back a little. “That depends on what your definition of trouble is, and what you decide to do from here.” The Hunter responds. Twilight blinks a few times, clearly not understanding. The Hunter sighs. “I’ll just say it how it is. The Order has a policy regarding recruitment of Hunters. Anypony who contributes significantly to the exorcism of an Epsilon-Level Demon or higher is automatically drafted into becoming a new Demon Hunter.” Twilight’s jaw nearly drops in shock and surprise. “What?! Are you serious?!” She yells.  The Hunter quickly shushes her, lifting a hoof to her own mouth. “Yes. I’m serious.” She simply says. Twilight immediately begins to freak out, holding her hooves to the sides of her head and beginning to shake. Her eyes nearly look in different directions, but point straight forward, unnaturally still. She feels a cold sweat coming on. “Why… why would that policy even exist?!” She says in disbelief.  “Findin’ new Demon Hunters is more difficult than ya' might expect, despite the demand for em' and how many ponies are eager to become one. Any uninitiated pony who has the skill, luck, or courage to help slay an Epsilon-Level Demon would be a worthy stock, at least in The Order’s eyes. It has… mostly worked out.”  Twilight can’t help but feel like it won’t work out for her.  “Has this always existed?! How come nopony has ever heard of it here!?”  Truth be told, Twilight would likely not hear about it even if it was known knowledge, considering how she isn't the most extroverted pony. But she's still mad. “If this was common knowledge, then everypony and their mother’ would be killin’ themselves trying to hunt an Epsilon-Level Demon. No reason to have this be some sort of giant death game.” The Hunter says. She leans in a bit. “Don’t tell anypony about this policy, by the way.” Twilight can’t even think of gossiping right now, still agonizing, freaking out, and muttering incoherently. The Hunter sighs. “Ya know, I get it. I was recruited the same way.”  The unicorn stops her meltdown for a moment, surprised. She looks at The Hunter, the earthens' usual glare or uninterested look being replaced with one of a sympathetic gaze. “Thank you for the understanding... But I still feel like I'm kind of screwed here.” Twilight says, dryly. The Hunter looks around a little, before leaning in. “Well, there is onething you can do.”  Twilight looks back at her, waiting for her to explain. The earthen rolls her eyes. “You don’t have to tell them what happened. Nopony knows what went down except you or I.” She says, plainly. “You’re telling me to lie???” Twilight says, a bit bewildered. The Hunter raises both hoofs. “Nopony said 'lie'. Just… you don’t need to tell the full story if you don’t want to.”  “Why don’t you do it, then?” The unicorn asks. She hopes she didn’t sound too mean, especially considering this seems like the first time The Hunter is actually being somewhat nice. The Hunter shrugs. “I’m a horrible liar, but I can keep a secret and won’t go out of my way to poke any holes in your story. When they ask us, you answer them, and I’ll try to corroborate whatever you say.” Twilight eyes The Hunter with some suspicion.  This could be a test or a trick of some kind. But there’s no way for Twilight to know.  After a few seconds of contemplation, she gulps. “Okay. I’m ready.”  The Hunter raises an eyebrow. “You sure?”  Twilight nods in response.  The Hunter looks at her for a second or two, before getting back up to go to the door. She opens it, poking her head out and calling for Firelight and Hammerhead, who quickly rush back to the room. Abbot Firelight clears his throat. “Alright. Now that Scribe Twilight is awake, and you two had your private discussion, would you mind explaining what happened, exactly?” He asks. The Hunter gives a disinterested shrug. “I’ll let my scribe explain.” She says, barely looking at the two. All eyes are on Twilight now. Her glance drifts between The Hunter and Firelight a few times, before taking a deep breath. “After we set up camp, the Devourer attacked the two of us. It took The Hunter off-guard, managing to wrest her sword away. As the two struggled, I grabbed her sword, and drove it through the side of the Demon, allowing The Hunter to exorcize it.”  A little bit of embellishment, but effectively what actually happened. Firelight and Hammerhead both look at Twilight with utter shock, their jaws dropping at the recounting.  Even The Hunter looks surprised, but also impressed. She cracks a small smile at the fact that Twilight had the gall to tell the truth. “Is this… true?” Hammerhead asks to The Hunter, the Captain still in disbelief. She simply nods.  Firelight nearly jumps into the air. “Oh, how glorious this is! Monastery Light has produced a new Demon Hunter for The Order!” He exclaims, instantly understanding the ramifications of Twilight’s story. The scribe frowns a little. “We must immediately assemble an escort party to transport her to Citadel Raven!” Hammerhead excitedly says back. The Hunter stops both of their parades with a single hoof raise. “That won’t be necessary. I will take her there myself. I would also like to take her as my apprentice.” she says, with a smirk. Twilight looks at The Hunter with confusion. “Am I not already your partner, or something similar?”  Hammerhead and Firelight don’t say anything, but also stare at The Hunter with their own faces of confusion, probably wondering the same thing. “Nope. Apprentices and Partners are two different things. Think of it like comparin’ a student’s tutor to their classmates, or whatever would make sense for you.” The Hunter explains. Thankfully, that analogy hits home enough for Twilight to understand. “...Won’t we need to get a new Scribe for you, though?” Hammerhead asks. Firelight lights up. “You know, we still have two other—!” “Nope. A pony can be both an Apprentice and a Partner at the same time. It’s rare, but possible, and very convenient.” The Hunter elaborates. Firelight backs down, disappointed.  The former-scribe raises a hoof, a little confused. “Uh… what exactly did the Captain mean by ‘transport her to Citadel Raven?’” Twilight asks. The unicorn knows a little about what the Citadels’ are, but doesn’t understand the importance or mention in this context. The Abbot looks bewildered. “Did you believe you were going to stay at the Monastery this whole time? Even if you weren’t granted the glorious opportunity of becoming a Demon Hunter, you would have had to follow and aid The Hunter on all of her quests.” He explains, calmly. Before Twilight can even respond, Hammerhead and Firelight quickly leave the room, saying they’re going to ‘begin preparations’ for something.  The unicorn face-hooves. Somehow that thought never dawned on her before.  She can’t tell if the fact that she was going to be forced to leave even if she didn’t accidentally help exorcize the Demon makes it worse or not.  “Do you think you’re goin’ to be alright to leave?” The Hunter asks. “I don’t have a choice, so what does it matter? Either way, even though I enjoyed my job as a Scribe, I won’t exactly be leaving much behind here. I only have a few friends, and no family to speak of.” The unicorn says, looking somewhat solemn.   The Hunter frowns.  “I was but a small orphan filly when I was recruited. I only had a grandma and brother, no parents. I also had a little sister.”  Twilight understands the implication immediately. The Hunter managed to one-up her sad background. “At the very least, we can be thankful there’s no big fuss. Usually that's the hard part, with new recruits bein’ taken away from their families and whatnot.” The earthen says, trying to see the optimistic side. “How often does this happen?” Twilight asks. “Quite a bit.” The Hunter dryly responds. Twilight frowns. She isn’t sure if it's a good thing or not that she isn’t too torn up about leaving. “I will say, though. I’ll miss all the reading I did here.” Twilight said. The Hunter blinks a few times. “That’s what you’ll miss? Not being able to live a semi-normal life? Not having to travel everywhere? Not having to fight’ for your life on the daily?” The Hunter says, in some disbelief. The unicorn realizes she kinda made herself sound a bit spoiled. ‘Oh yeah my life was perfect, but I’ll reallllly miss the reading!’  The Hunter huffs a little. “Reading is the one thing you won’t be missin’ anyhow. Demon Hunters are forced to read a ton of stuff. I can barely keep up with the amount of crazy crap they expect me to research and study.”  Twilight nearly leaps out of the bed, going for the door. The Hunter grabs her in surprise. “LET ME GO! I NEED ITTTTT!” The manic unicorn yells.  The Hunter gently shoves Twilight back onto the bed, a bit entertained by the strange enthusiasm. “Hold your horses! We’ll be leavin’ soon, yeah. But are you sure that there’s nopony you want to see off before you leave?” The Hunter inquires. Twilight puts a hoof to her chin. “WHAT?!” Minuette yells in Twilight’s face, blowing the purple unicorns’ mane away.  “What do you mean you’re a ‘Demon Hunter’ now?!” The blue unicorn yells again. “I said apprentice. Apprentice Demon Hunter. Apparently there’s some strange rule where if a regular pony helps kill a strong Demon then they automatically get recruited into being a new Demon Hunter. And the one who came to us decided to take me under her wing." Minuette blinks a few times. “Oh. Don’t tell anypony that. Or that I told you that. And also don’t try it yourself!” Twilight stresses. “I’m honestly just more surprised that you aren’t incoherently bawling on the floor or something — No offense.” Minuette says. Twilight rolls her eyes. “Yeah. I already got that out of my system earlier. Besides... it's not all bad. The Hunter said Demon Hunters apparently get access to all sorts of extensive knowledge and information to interact with. I’ll finally be able to see more stuff than what we can as scribes!” Minuette huffs. “Lucky! Guess I’ll still be stuck with ‘fillies guide to Demons…’” she says with a sigh. Twilight cracks a small smirk. “Hey! Who knows. Maybe one day I’ll come back here and take you as my Scribe.” She coughs. “Or something.”  “Yeah right! As if you’d want to pick little old me instead of some way cooler and better pony.” Minuette says, a bit sarcastically. That last comment reminds them both of a certain other Scribe. “You should totally rub this into Starlight’s stupid face!” Minuette says, a bit giddy. Twilight frowns a little. “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to see her off.” Twilight says, clearly not reciprocating Minuette’s revenge fantasy.  The blue unicorn frowns. “Meh. Are you sure you even want to see her at all, though? I heard she’s taking it pretty badly.” Twilight waves her hoof. “Oh please. How bad can she be?” Twilight visits Starlight’s quarters within the Scriptorium. ‘Visit’ is stretching it, as the three scribes, well technically two now, have rooms only a few feet away from each other. There’s a clear, but crude makeshift “DO NOT DISTURB” sign on her door.  The purple unicorn knocks on it. “Starlight? Hello?” She hears some rustling from the inside. “Go… away!” A voice from the room says. “Starlight! It’s me, Twilig—” Before she even finishes her sentence, Starlight has already thrown open the door with a glare.  Her mane is a complete mess, and her face a pure scowl, fit with baggy eyes. If looks could kill, Twilight would be in the morgue by now. “What do YOU want? Here to rub it in?” The senior scribe growls. Twilight looks surprised. “No..? I’m just saying goodbye.” “Oh so you are here to rub it in…” Starlight mumbles.  Before Twilight can even respond, Starlight gets in her face, putting both hooves on the unicorn. “What made you so good that the brute decided to pick you, huh???  Twilight gently moves the other unicorn away, backing up as well. “She said she picked me because I was the first in line. That was all.” Starlight takes a few seconds to process the words. One of her eyes twitches a few times. “Ohhhh!! I see…” She says, slamming a hoof to her own temple. “I didn’t get picked because of pure… random… chance..?” She says, teeth grit. “...yes?” Twilight replies. Starlight just stares at her, before laughing a few times, even snorting. Suddenly, her horn glows. Various objects around the hall are levitated into the air and float around Twilight. “LIES! YOU LIE.” She roars.  Twilight steps back, half due to fear, half in surprise. Starlight continues her menacing display, looking like she’s about to take it even further, before she suddenly huffs, hunching over. All the objects drop with various clatters and crashes. “Just get out of my sight, already.” Starlight scoffs. The unicorn slams the door on Twilight’s face.  Twilight feels a little bad, but if Starlight wants to act this way then it can’t be helped. She simply walks away, hoping the senior scribe doesn’t do anything crazy. The Hunter and Twilight sit within the Scriptorium. The earthen looks around a bit awkwardly, unfamiliar with the room and its various devices and utensils. Twilight wanted to meet with her here for some further elaboration. “So… where in specific are we going? I remember Hammerhead saying something about ‘Citadel Raven’, but like… what is that, exactly?”  “You can think of Citadels like bigger Monasteries. Each Monastery is assigned a single Citadel to serve, and each Citadel is assigned multiple Monastery’s to protect and watch over. If you would liken’ a Monastery to a town, then Citadels are a city.” The Hunter leans back in her overly small chair, the piece creaking a bit. “The one we’re goin’ to is Citadel Raven, led by Master Moonlight Raven. That’s the one I'm currently stationed at, and also live at.” The Hunter explains. “What is it like?” Twilight inquires. “I mean… it’s pretty much like this place, but just... better? It’s very well defended, and is actually pretty relaxin’... but some of the Demon Hunter stuff gets intense every now and then.” She pauses. “And yes, they do have very nice stores of information and libraries.” The Hunter says, knowing what Twilight is looking for. Twilight lights up a little, especially at that last part. Maybe this won’t be so bad after all! The Hunter appears to notice this, and quickly shoots it down. “Don’t get your hopes up just yet. Actually gettin’ to the Citadel is goin’ to be a challenge in-of-itself.” The earthen says, bluntly. The unicorn frowns. “Er… how long did it take you to get from Citadel Raven to Monastery Light?” “About a day.”  “That’s not too bad.” Twilight points out. “A day of near continuous travel. And without having to protect and look over a tag-along.” The Hunter clarifies.  Twilight grumbles, but knows she’s right. “I’ll try not to be that much of a burden…” She mutters. The Hunter gives a small smirk. “You can try all you want, you still will be.” She says, a bit jokingly. Back at the main gate once more, the two are being seen off by the Monastery once again. This time, The Hunter drags along a small cart of supplies for the two of them. Twilight sees Minuette, and even Snips and Snails waving at her. This time, she waves back with a smile.  Starlight is still nowhere to be seen. But Twilight feels like she’s watching them from somewhere, anyways.  The gate is pulled open, and the two step through it together.  The Hunter gestures with her head for Twilight, which she quickly does. “You know… I never bothered to ask. What am I supposed to call you, anyways? ‘Master’?” Twilight inquires. The Hunter gives a small smile. “You can call me Applejack.” Starlight fumes as she tries to focus on her stupid job, shuffling around stupid books in the stupid library. This is so unfair! It’s criminal! She was meant to be the one picked… not Twilight..! Stupid… Stupid!!! She tears down a shelf in rage, causing a collapse of books everywhere. Her anger is briefly diluted with shock and surprise. As the senior scribe goes to begin fixing her mess, another hoof reaches out into the pile at the same time.  Starlight is about to yell in blind rage at whoever this pony is, but when she looks at them, her eyes widen. It’s the Monasteries' resident Demon expert, the Demonologist. Even in her fury, the senior scribe has enough wherewithal to apologize to her direct superior.  “D-Demonologist M-Mistmane!” she stutters, quickly bowing.  The elderly unicorn chuckles.  “No need to do that, my dear.” she says, calmly Starlight lifts her head up slightly, still unsure.  Mistmane looks down upon the young unicorn with a gentle gaze. “It appears to me that something perturbs you. If I may, what troubles you so?” Mistmane asks. Starlight feels her anger begin to well up again. “The Demon Hunter came to the Monastery just a mere day ago… and picked Twilight Sparkle instead of me! It’s not fair! She shouldn’t have picked that useless loser! That stupid brute—” Starlight catches her tongue, realizing how crass and immature she sounds.  She expects a chewing out from the elder unicorn, but instead she simply leans in with a whisper. “I believe I may know a remedy to your ache… but you’ll need to keep it a secret between us.” Mistmane whispers, with a smile.