My name is Derpy Hooves. Up until recently, I was just your almost typical local mailmare. Accidents tended to happen around me a lot, but everypony has to have something that's a little off, right? Things changed a bit when my ex-husband turned into a vampire and tried to kill me. Now I hunt down monsters for a living so that your average pony can continue to ignore their existence.
Monster hunting is dangerous work, but satisfying. From what I've been hearing from my new friends, though, a lot of the monsters we've been fighting lately have been—different. They've been more organized, for starters, and their attacks seem to have some larger goal in mind...
Rated T and tagged for gore and darkness because there will be many fight scenes, and you should expect them to get messy. Nothing too gratuitous, though.
Based loosely on Larry Correia's Monster Hunter: International. No familiarity with it is required for reading, but this work should be similar to it in spirit.
Editing and prereading by SirNotAppearingInThisFic, cogwheelbrain, FanOfMostEverything, and Doc Crowl
I'm afraid that I"m pretty low on time at the moment, but the fight scene seemed okay to me, I think.
Oh, this is going to be glorious. Eagerly looking forward to more.
"Next to the glass of water on the tray was a platefull of garlic bread"
Methinks that the kind of bread is perhaps not a coincidence. :)
"Looking back up to her, she looked a lot more relaxed then."
Yep. :)
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6479032
Glad to hear the fight scene went over well. That's probably the thing that I was most worried about.
And good work noticing that detail around the garlic bread. People finding these things I imply is yet another reason I love writing.
6479382
Oh, thanks. And I'm glad you liked me noticing it. :)
How can I NOT read this?
I've got every MHI novel, including the first-edition paperback with Oleg Volk's cover photo, and I've even got the patch on my armor. Oh, and Dorcas and some bug monsters showed up in one of my stories.
I'm so looking forward to this.
6495516
Glad to see you're excited! I've got fond memories of Belle of the 7.62x55mm Ball, myself.
Here's hoping I do the source material justice. While there won't be a Dorcas pony or anything so direct as that, there will be plenty of the stuff that made me fall in love with the original: realistic weapons, fleshed-out characters, scary monsters, and much mayhem! And maybe a pinch of world-threatening evil.
I'm looking forward to this, too.
I liked this.
64991
Glad you enjoyed it.
This? This is how you hook the audience with the first sentence.
6512445
Glad you liked it! That part was actually a direct reference to how Larry Correia's Monster Hunter: International opened.
6512847
I may have to read that some time then.
By the way:
Why is this bit suddenly in italics?
6522690
Because that bit is coming from inside her head.
6523093
I actually figured that out upon reading the next chapter and meeting the guy inside her head, but it's not too clearly indicated at the time.
This story has potential.
And I hate pony vampire stories, so that's saying something.
6565290
Thanks for the outstanding compliment! One of my favorite things to hear as an author is "I usually hate X, but..."
Don't worry too much about this being a vampire story, my good catsnake. This story is not primarily about vampires. You can expect plenty of variety on the monster front.
6565345
catsnake? I'll have you know I am a toy poodle!
Bon Bon being a canonical secret government monster hunter still amuses me immensely. As did all the subtext with Lyra that episode that you're just treating as text.
This was a bit of set-up chapter, not a lot happened but the pitch is a necessary thing, as is the insight to why it's okay to just kill monsters, and it's good to see Derpy putting her daughter's welfare first here.
Entropy magic's one explanation for what she does. I always interpreted her bubble cutie mark as representing her ability to burst through things, myself, but maybe her cutie mark is for entropy magic.
In any case, a compelling and fascinating exposition piece. The stakes are established, the revelation was fascinating, and I'm eagerly looking forward to more.
7023007
"Slice of Life" was just such an amazing episode. DHX was so nice to give me an early birthday present.
As for subtext, what subtext? All I see are two best friends doing best friend things together.
As for everything else, it's good to see that this set-up chapter didn't feel out of place. Hope you don't mind that I'm going to need one more in which she talks to two other people before she gets to meet the rest of the team and have some training action. One Derpy can't really avoid talking to, and the other she really wants to talk to.
Also, chaos magic is fun.
7023009
I'm really glad to hear that you find her malapropisms amusing, rather than over-the-top. I'd been worried that I'd overdone it.
And calling my exposition both fascinating and compelling? You flatterer, you.
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7023578
I wasn't even sure if 'flyability' was a malapropism or just pony-speak like "everypony".
7024708
Well, it was a malapropism. Was it confusing enough to merit alteration?
Is it wrong that I want Agent Franks to be involved in this somehow?
I mean I know he won't be but can you imagine how angry he would be if he was turned into an actual unicorn? Z however would find it delightful. Not him being turned into a unicorn, but Franks being transformed. 'Cause they're buddies.
Anyways this is fun. I'll read the following chapters as soon as they're available.
7024944
No it's fine. Just one of the quirks of writing pony fic, since canon's already full of puns.
7025367
It's just not within the scope of this fic. That would be funny, though.
It is not terribly wrong.
Glad you're enjoying the story.
Took me a bit longer than usual to get to reading this, but here I am!
"me in an eye and"
I was going to mark this as a potential typo and suggest "the eye"... but then I remembered who we were talking about. :)
She does have a point.
"I'm so destructive to everything around me!"
"Which is why we want to put monsters around you."
"“What?!,”"
I don't think that a comma is needed after an interrobang there.
Interesting things about the entropy magic, though.
"of one-hundred chips"
Chips? Is that some higher denomination than bits?
Ah, it does appear to be.
And there's the chapter, a bit short-seeming, but certainly good. :)
7025876
Checks box labeled "Talk about magical mechanics without boring people."
Thanks!
Thanks for the catch on that rogue comma. Sneaky little devils, they are.
As for the chips: I decided to borrow the concept of bars as being a step above bits from VikingZX and Hoopy McGee (and whoever else decided that sounded like a good name), but decided they needed an even bigger denomination for use in huge deals and called it the chip. A bar is made up of eight bits, while a chip is eight bars. Equestrians don't have paper money, so carrying around all the cash required to purchase a big-ticket item in bits would be prohibitively heavy. Buying such an item in chips, however, is far more convenient.
Not mentioned there is the pip, which is one eighth of a bit. We've seen that bits are fairly valuable, so I figured these little guys would be useful for small purchases.
I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. Hopefully, I can get the next one out fairly soon.
7026231
Glad I could help. :)
Ah, and thanks for the currency elaboration.
7026231
7026312
Bugsy and I had some fun coming up with a few details regarding the currency. Also, jokes.
I like to think that most small meals one could buy in Ponyville are 4 bits.
7032964
Nah, four bits will get you a lot farther than that in Ponyville.
That's probably what filly Applejack's "meal" cost in Manehattan in "Cutie Mark Chronicles," though, and that stuff was barely a nibble!
7032964
7033208
Ah, nice that you can have fun writing what I've been having fun reading. :)
Hm, thanks for the additional information.
OK OK fine, I like this story. Okay?
7041157
That particular malapropism is unexpectedly popular, and I love that fact.
I swear, you people latch onto the most random things.
I'm glad you like this story despite there being a vampire in it.
7041364
It's worldbuilding! Only a society of pegasi would come up with that!
But yeah it's a decent story in general. Verrry interesting to have a 1st person perspective on Derpy.
OK - I'm not familiar with MHI, but this is starting to amuse me greatly.
Oh, while 'Awaken' is a wonderful song, I'm more of a 'Heart of the Sunrise' kinda guy. But unfortunately, only parts of it fit this story, mainly the manic bits. (Personally, I would love to see some fanged-blood sucker be roasted by the sunrise while this played in the background.)
Now, on to the next chapter!
7252147
You, sir, have excellent taste in music.
Glad that my story is providing sufficient amusement.
An awesome scene that would be, to be sure. Sadly, however, sunlight wouldn't quite roast a vampire to ashes in this 'verse. It would, however, give it the worst migraine headache ever, as well as giving them 2nd degree sunburns within a matter of minutes.
"onety-bit"
Ooh, a word for "ten", based on a bit of looking around? Nice. :)
Another good good chapter. :)
Me too, Dinky. Me too. Someday ...
7256524
Sort of, and thanks!
7256623
Kumquats are a deliciously confusing (and confusingly delicious) fruit. They're structured like grape-shaped oranges, but you're supposed to eat the peel. The peel is sweet, but the flesh of the fruit is highly bitter and sour. One time, I used them and a granny smith apple as the chief ingredients in a sweet & sour sauce. That was a delicious experiment.
7257462
Only sort of? What is it, then, if you don't mind me asking?
7257708
Onety is 10, but it isn't ten.
I'd just tell you what's going on here, but I think it'll be more fun for both of us if I let you piece together the clues for yourself as they drop. It's nothing truly plot-critical; it's mainly just some nerdy, minor world-building.
I don't think I've dropped enough clues yet for people to nail it down for certain just yet, but maybe I'm wrong...
Very telling that Dinky refers to Railroad Spike by name. He's not a father to her, just a sperm donor. Well, she probably wouldn't put it in those terms, but the sentiment is there.
Heh. Inverted meme.
Pfft.
Well! I guess she might put it like that after all!
Okay, using "onety" for ten is really weird, especially when using more conventional numbers. Is there a reason for that? Also, "chip" does not sound like an especially large denomination. "Block," maybe—it certainly sounds larger than a bar—but not "chip." Unless that's the next denomination up from chip, which would make sense.
... wait. It's 10 but it isn't ten? What number base are your ponies using?
Heh. She's not the only one.
And I see that induction into Triple H is about as momentous as becoming a full-fledged Wonderbolt.
Always good to see this update. Ditzy's personal stakes have been established. Now it's time for her to find out just who and what she's working with.
7258002
I dunno if it'll show up in the story later, but chips are well decorated and embedded with gems. It might not contain a multiple of the amount of gold of a pip or bit, but it certainly looks more valuable.
Besides, just think of the painstaking effort involved in significant purchases, such as a house. You'd have to use a cart to get all that gold to the seller. Loading bars would be slow and tedious, especially with large transfers.
7257761
Ah, you're using a different base? :)
7258002
Names and titles have power, as does their absence.
I am very glad somebody noticed the inverted meme. I was afraid it would be too obscure after all these years.
And yeah, there is zero love lost here.
I was hoping that using "onety" would be just weird enough to make readers pause and scratch their heads, but not confusing enough to upset them. I fear I may have failed in that balancing act.
There is, indeed, a reason I did this, which you yourself touch on.
As for why I chose the name "chip" for that denomination, I was thinking of computer chips and poker chips. The in-universe reason for the name is the gem chips that stud a chip's surface. Blocks would make a certain amount of sense as a name, but it might make more sense to change the name of a bar.
Also, I blame this guy 7258927 for helping me come up with the names. He's nearly as bad about wordplay and obscure humor as I am.
Anyhow, I thought I'd have some fun world-building the ponies number systems. And you and 7259013 would be correct to think that they don't use base-ten. Ponies using base-ten didn't make sense to me, for a number of reasons. Which base they actually use, I'll allow y'all to figure that out from context cues and wild speculation.
You wound me, sir! How could you say such a thing!
Seriously, though, Triple H doesn't really try to get its name out there. Most ponies don't like to think about monsters, hunting, or monster hunting after all.
Glad to see that you continue to look forward to these chapters.
That is actually exactly what's happening next chapter. I guess it was pretty easy to guess, since that is the most logical thing to have happen next.
Here's hoping that meeting the team and having some training
accidentsaction will keep the readers from getting bored. I swear we'll see some more fights with monsters later!7259150
I look forward to that. :)
Onety? Is that Ten or Eleven? It's a bit of a confusing way to phrase things, anyway. We're already dealing with horsepuns and Derpy's habit of word substitution, I really don't think we need to start numbering things differently too.
That said, the rest of the chapter was pretty good. I liked your characterization of Dinky.
7263410
"Onety" is 10 in a different number base. (Think "twenty" or "thirty.") It's turning out to be more confusing than I'd hoped, but I'm not ready to give up on it just yet.
I'm glad you enjoyed the rest of the chapter, though. What did you like about Dinky's characterization? (That was another part I was a bit shaky on while I was writing it.)