Chapter 3
Chapter 3
“Let me see if I understand what you’re saying,” Iron Sights growled, pacing in front of Zarola as she stood at attention. “The two of you went into the forest and found that your target was already dead, found another monster in the process, let him fight this new target without anypony’s approval, and then came back…without him!”
“Y-yes sir,” Zarola squeaked out. It took every ounce of willpower to keep herself from trembling. She felt like she was in a large interrogation room instead of the barracks.
Iron Sights stopped to face her before saying, “Private Recurve, are you a soldier or a mercenary.”
“A soldier, sir.”
“Oh, really?! Because your actions seem to say otherwise. You acted in ways that are unbecoming of a guard, disregarded everything you’ve ever been taught, and that Artemis-”
“Is not one of your soldiers,” the calm, but stern voice of Princess Celestia echoed out. Both guards turned to watch her walk into the room.
“Princess Celestia!” Iron Sights exclaimed before bowing along with Zarola.
“At ease,” Celestia ordered. She turned towards Iron Sights. “Now, what seems to be the problem, Captain?”
“What’s the problem!? Princess, didn’t you read the report Private Recurve made?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Then you should know what’s wrong!” Iron Sights exclaimed. “That hunter is too wild. He just did what he wanted and when he wanted. How can we rely on a soldier like that!?”
Celestia stared unamused at her Captain as she replied, “Like I said, Captain, he is not a soldier. He is a hunter. And our agreement was to have him work the way he normally works, so long as Zarola’s there to observe him. Not turn him into a soldier for us to control.”
“Princess, with all due respect, how can you trust somepony we can’t control?!” Iron Sights yelled.
“I trust ponies like that every day. I trust you to do your job without my constant supervision, do I not?” she replied.
Iron Sights opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out. He was stunned by how easily Celestia was able to read him like a book. After a few moments of silence, he finally said, “He’s a maverick. An army can’t rely on somepony like that. Especially against the threat we’re currently facing.”
Celestia gave him a small nod before replying, “While I understand your reasoning, I also acknowledge that Artemis was able to succeed where we continued to fail. And where you see a soldier gone rouge, I see a fighter who recognized a bigger threat and took the initiative to deal with it before it did any real damage.”
“Yeah, and he almost died because of it.”
“And yet, he survived because somepony decided to follow his example,” she retorted, slightly turning towards Zarola. She couldn’t help but blush at Celestia’s comment.
Right as Iron Sights was about to argue, a guard came running in, yelling, “Princess Celestia! Captain Iron Sights!”
Everyone turned to the panting guard. “Yes, what is it?” Iron Sights asked, stepping towards him.
“We just received word the Manehattan police! There’s been a monster sighted in Central Park! They’ve made a request for reinforcements!”
Iron Sights’s heart felt like it skipped when he heard what the guard say. “What do they know about this monster?! Don’t spare any details!” he ordered immediately.
“There’s not much they do know, sir. All they know is that it’s some sort of leviathan-like creature that uses bubble as a weapon of sorts.”
“…Bubbles?!” Iron Sights asked, feeling slightly bemused.
“Yes, sir! It’s been giving the city’s guard a hard time.”
Iron Sights let out a small huff before exclaiming, “Organize Gold Company. Tell them to head to Manehattan immediately.” He then turned to Celestia before adding, “Unless you think somepony else is more suited for the job.”
Celestia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Very well. If you believe that Gold Company is all you need, then I won’t stop you.”
“Thank you, Princess,” Iron Sights bowed before turning back to the guard. “Well, what are you waiting for! Move! Move! Move!”
Once the two of them had left, Celestia turned to Zarola and said, “Speaking of which, what is Artemis doing right now?”
“If I remember correctly, your highness, he’s probably teaching some ponies how to make his potions,” Zarola replied.
“Ah, then I would imagine that Twilight’s among one of them one of them. That’ll make sending some reports to him a little easier to do. Though I would imagine that he’ll be busy answering Twilight’s own game of twenty questions.”
“And just like that,” Artemis, who was only wearing the body suit he wore under his armor, proudly said as he slammed the completed potion on Twilight’s Map Table. “You’ve got a potion that’s ready to be used out in the field. Any questions?” He asked, leaning back in the throne he occupied.
Twilight, Applejack, and Zecora sat across from him, each with a potion in front of them. Zecora looked down at hers with pride. Applejack looked at hers with a bit of surprise. Twilight frowned at hers before looking back at the scroll she used to write down his instructions, which only took up a small portion of the scroll. “That’s it?! She yelled, slamming the scroll down on the table.
“That’s it,” he answered with a smirk. “Mix it with some honey and you make it more powerful.”
“Are you kidding me?! That was the easiest potion I’ve ever learned. I was expecting a healing potion to be a little more complex than this!” she exclaimed, pouting slightly.
“When fighting such monstrous foes
Complexity would make for great woes,” Zecora chimed in as she began to make another potion.
“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Artemis said with a smirk. “I’ve long since lost track of the number of times I’ve had to make these in the middle of a fight. We were all ecstatic when someone found a way to make these damn things without a blue mushroom. Made for one less thing for me to worry about.”
“Well…when you put it that way,” Twilight begrudgingly relented as she looked back at the potion.
“By the way, Applejack,” he began to say, turning to the country mare. “Thanks again for growing some of these herbs for me. It’s really going to help a lot.”
“Ain’t no problem, pardner. You weren’t kiddin’ about these herbs. They came out of the ground faster than a worm after a rainy day,” she replied.
“I warned you. I get free reign at them, right?”
“So long as you don’t take all of ‘em. Might need one of these potions the next time Big Mac hurts himself durin’ harvest.”
“Eh, fair enough,” he replied with a shrug.
The double doors to the room suddenly opened as a small purple dragon came flying in, scrolls in his claws. “Twilight, Celestia just sent these a few minutes ago!” he exclaimed. His cheeks then puffed up before a stream of fire burped out of his mouth. The flame soon rolled up as a scroll appeared in its place. “And it looks like she has more on the way,” he added with a sense of dread.
“Thank you, Spike,” Twilight said as she took everything he was carrying with her magic and opened one of the scrolls.
“No problem, Twilight,” Spike replied. He started to fly out of the room but stopped when he saw Artemis staring at him curiously. “Uh, can I help you with something?”
Artemis flinched a little once he was addressed. “Sorry, I’ve just never seen an elder dragon burp out a scroll before…or talk for that matter.”
Spike raised an eyebrow at that. “Elder? Dude, have you ever seen a baby dragon before?”
“Can’t say that I have, but I wasn’t exactly referring to your age.”
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked, looking up from one of the scrolls.
“Well, simply put, elder dragons are a category of monster from my world. All of the monsters are separated into different categories based on traits they share. Primarily, their body structure and how they fight.”
“Fascinating,” Twilight exclaimed her eyes sparkling as she grabbed her quill and a blank parchment. “So, what’s Anjanath classified as?” she asked enthusiastically much to the amusement of her friends.
“It’s classified as a brute wyvern,” he answered, figuring it would be easier to indulge the mare. “Large, bulky theropods that like to throw their weight around in a fight but are piss poor at managing their stamina.”
“I see,” Twilight muttered as she wrote down Artemis’s description. “What about that Rathalos you fought?”
“He’s a flying wyvern. In case the name doesn’t give it away, they’re large monsters that fly with a set of wings they have in place of their front limbs. Most of them are very powerful and very efficient fighters.”
“That ain’t a pleasant thought,” Applejack commented.
“And those elder dragons?” Twilight asked, looking up from the parchment with an excited smile. “What do they share with each other?”
“Nothing,” he answered.
Twilight’s smile turned to a frown. Everyone was a bit stunned by the answer. “Nothing?!” Twilight asked in a raised voice.
“Nothing,” he confirmed.
“But wait, they’re called Elder Dragons,” Spike pointed out. “Shouldn’t they all look like, you know, dragons?”
“And many of them do, but many of them don’t,” Artemis replied, sitting up a little as he thought about his answer. “The best way to describe the Elder Dragon category is that it’s one big melding pot of monsters that don’t belong in any other category.”
Zecora sat with her hoof lightly tapping against her chin, thinking about what he said before saying,
“I think I know what you’re trying to say.
That there’s no place for a ‘dragon’ to stay.
With so many traits unique to it,
They built it a place where it best fit.”
“Hence why we called them Elder Dragons,” Artemis added with a hint of sarcasm.
“Okay, so they’re a bunch of monsters with unique traits, but there’s gotta be something they share with each other,” Twilight exclaimed with a bit of annoyance.
Just as Artemis was about to rebuke her, he paused as he remembered something. “Actually, there are some things they share. They all scare away most other monsters that aren’t Elder Dragons just by walking into the area, they’re immune to traps, and they’re all very powerful. Y’know, all the important stuff,” he sarcastically finished.
“Yeah, that’s reassuring,” Twilight replied somewhat regretting asking for more information as she wrote down what he said. Then she paused and looked over what she had written down. Bit and pieces of her conversations with Artemis started flashing as she noticed one item in the notes. “Hey, Artemis, you said you didn’t bring any traps with you, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“And you said you were fighting a Nergigante when you arrived?”
“I was.”
Twilight’s eyes widened immediately as she put two and two together. “Are you saying that Nergigante is an Elder Dragon?!”
“…Yeah, a physically strong one to boot,” he answered almost somberly.
Everyone stared wide eyed at Artemis. The possible implications of the destruction one monster could bring was staggering to them. Especially if it was stronger than any of the other monsters that’ve been active so far. “How likely is it to attack a town?!” Twilight asked, feeling slightly panicked.
“Don’t know,” he answered. “Most sightings of it either find it roaming on its own or attacking another Elder Dragon.”
“Why would it go and do that?” Applejack asked.
“Best we could observe is that Nergigante preys almost exclusively on them.”
“It eats Elder Dragons?!” everyone in the room yelled.
“So, could it go after dragons like Spike?!” Twilight loudly exclaimed.
“It’s very possible, yes,
If that is anyone’s guess,” Zecora answered.
“Spike,” Twilight began as she turned toward the dragon. “Send a letter to Dragon Lord Ember. Tell her to look for…” she trailed off as she turned to Artemis.
“A black dragon covered in spikes,” he answered her silent question.
“A dragon covered in spikes that could attack the Dragon Lands.”
“Right away, Twilight,” Spike exclaimed, rushing out of the room.
“Well, Ah need ta head back home. Still got chores that need ta get done,” Applejack said, grabbing her potion.
“I need to start heading home too.
There’s still much for me to do,” Zecora said as she got up as well.
“Alright, stay safe you two,” Twilight said as she watched them leave. She then started to read some of the parchments Spike brought her. “Huh, hey Artemis, I think these were for you.”
“What makes you say that?”
“All of these are reports about unknown monster sightings. Maybe there’s something about Nergigante in here,” she said hopefully as she started to dig through the reports.
“Maybe. It all depends on how elusive it wants to be.”
“There’s only one way to find out then,” Twilight said as she began to organize the reports. She stopped when she found a letter that was different from the others. “Huh, this one’s a direct letter from Princess Celestia,” she commented before opening it to quickly read it. “Apparently, Captain Iron Sights is moving troops to Manehattan to deal with a monster that showed up there. Do you think she wants you to head over there?”
“Does the letter tell me to head over there?”
She read through the letter a second time. “No,” she answered.
“Then I don’t have to go back them up right now. I think she’s just keeping me in the loop for now. Besides, I don’t think that captain wants me there anyway.”
“But what if it’s one of your monsters?”
“Then we hope for the best.”
“That Iron Sights defeats the monster?”
“That it only humiliates him,” he replied with a small smirk.
Iron Sights watched the chaos in front of him with a blank stare. He had never felt so humiliated in his entire career. The only thing he could be thankful for was that the monster hadn’t killed anypony yet.
The monster had a fox-like head on a long, slender body. There were also small fins decorated on its head and back. And, despite the slightly dull colors, Iron Sights could tell that its scales and fins were a mix of pink and yellow and that the fur on its belly, tail, and legs were purple. Had Iron Sights been in any other position, he almost would have called it beautiful.
Instead, he could only curse its existence as it danced around the guards, shooting bubbles out of its mouth and scales. The guards trying to fight it were so busy trying to avoid its bubbles that they couldn’t get a good hit in. Those that were hit by them found themselves covered in a liquid that caused them to slide around like a bar of soap, making them vulnerable to its attacks.
“The damn thing’s toying with us,” Iron Sights sneered through gritted teeth.
“Sir, what if we tried a massive air stike on it,” one of his officers suggested. “The pegasi won’t have to worry about sliding on the ground like the earth ponies and unicorns are.”
“That might work once or twice, but I doubt it’ll allow that to happen more than that.”
“What do you mean, sir?”
“Just look at it,” he replied, keeping an observant eye on the monster. “Its movements are graceful, but there’s something else to it. It’s moving around to try to outmaneuver our troops and it primarily focuses its attacks on ponies that’ve been caught by its bubbles. If the pegasi start to attack it, it’ll probably just try to find a way to use its bubbles to knock them out of the sky.”
“Do you think it could do that, sir?”
“Why wouldn’t it? If the fluid from the scales is what’s making those bubbles, then it could possibly shoot them anywhere,” Iron Sights pointed out, feeling slightly annoyed.
“Sir,” a gruff voice said from behind him.
Iron Sights turned around to face the large, muscular earth pony behind him. “What is it, Wrecker?”
“Let me get a crack at ‘em,” he exclaimed jovially, adjusting the war hammer he had resting on his armored shoulders. “I can smash its head in within seconds.”
Iron Sights regarded the brown stallion in front of him. He considered Wrecker as one of his best fighters, but he was also reckless and boisterous. I doubt he’ll turn the tide of this battle, but what choice do I have, he sighed in defeat. “Get in there, Wrecker! And be careful!”
“Got it!” he exclaimed, walking confidently towards the monster, keeping a watchful eye for bubbles. “Alright monster!” he yelled, catching the monster’s attention. “Today, you’ll meet the same fate as every other monster that have dared face me! For as long as I have my hammer, no monster will make me fal-”
He was immediately silenced as a pressurized jet of water from the monster’s mouth slammed into him, instantly pushing him into a nearby tree. He slumped down to the ground when the stream stopped. Iron Sights stared slack jawed at Wrecker before turning back at the monster. If he didn’t know any better, he could have sworn that it was smirking as it inspected its work.
“Sir, what do we do now?” the officer asked.
Iron Sights let out a small growl as he glared at the monster, which had gone back to dealing with the other guards. “Send an emergency message to Canterlot. Give the Princess every detail we now know about this monster and request for reinforcements.”
“Sir, how many troops should I request?”
“However many it takes to defeat this monster!”
Zarola was seated on her bed, inspecting her crossbow for probably the twentieth time that day. She had stopped counting after the seventh inspection. The only reason she started doing it was to give her something to do while she waited for her next set of orders. Assuming, of course, that she was going to receive new orders. One more inspection shouldn’t hurt, he told herself again as she started the process over again.
The barrack door suddenly opened, causing her to yelp as she jumped off the bed. “Oh, I’m sorry, Private Recurve,” Princess Celestia said as she walked in. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“Oh, Princess Celestia!” Zarola exclaimed, giving her a quick bow. “No need for apologies I guess I was just stuck in my own world is all.”
“I see. Now Private Recurve…actually, may I call you Zarola?”
“Of course you may, Princess!”
“Very well, Zarola,” she said, levitating a scroll to her. “Would you please read this?”
“Yes, ma’am,” she replied before opening the scroll to read it. Her eyes slowly widened with each line she read. “Th-this is an emergency request for reinforcements in Manehattan.”
“Indeed it is. It looks like Captain Iron Sights is having problems with that monster and wants more troops to beat it in a war of attrition,” Celestia explained with a hint of unease.
“I…I take it I’m going to Manehattan then?”
“Yes, you are.”
“Understood, ma’am,” she replied, grabbing her crossbow and quiver. “Where am I meeting the rest of the reinforcements?”
“Oh, you and I are meeting him in Ponyville,” she replied with a cheeky smile.
“Ponyville?!” She was slightly confused at first, until she realized what Celestia was telling her. “Wait, you mean…”
“Oh, of course,” Celestia replied, walking up to Zarola with her horn lit. “Afterall, I think it’s a much better idea than what Captain Iron Sights has in mind.” With that, a loud pop echoed around them, accompanied by a bright flash.
Zarola was disoriented at first, but soon recovered enough to find herself in a larger, crystalized room. She looked around until she saw a round table where Twilight and Artemis were at. Twilight was sitting at her throne, quite surprised by their sudden appearance. Artemis, meanwhile, was standing with his hands on another throne, looking like he was going to use it like a club.
“Fatalis, where the hell did you two come from?!” he exclaimed.
“Oh, sorry for startling you, but we needed to get to you as fast as possible,” Celestia replied. She looked over all the parchments on the Cutie Map. “Ah, I see that you did get all the reports.”
“Yes we did, Princess,” Twilight replied happily. “We’ve been trying to figure out if there have been any sightings of Elder Dragons for the past few hours.”
“Elder Dragons?” Zarola asked, feeling slightly concerned.
“In short, some of the most powerful monsters The Commission knows,” Artemis answered.
“I see,” Celestia commented. She then levitated the message over to him. “In that case, is this one of your Elder Dragons?”
Artemis took the message and read it quickly. He soon let out a sigh of frustration. “I take it this is related to the letter you sent earlier?”
“About the monster in Manehattan, yes.”
“In that case, no it’s not an Elder Dragon. It’s a leviathan. One of the least aggressive ones actually.”
“I see. Believe me when I say that I would have preferred having you investigate it, but Captain Iron Sights was adamant that he could take care of it,” Celestia explained, rolling her eyes.
“And since he apparently can’t, you want me to go and prove a point,” he finished for her.
Celestia gave him a smirk, “Zarola’s report was right about you. So, will you go to Manehattan?”
He looked down at the letter again before saying, “Yeah, might as well. Seeing as your captain decided to make a mountain out of a molehill.”
Zarola furrowed her brows at him. “What do you mean by that?”
“I’ll explain when we get there,” he answered. He then turned to Twilight and said, “You mind organizing those by yourself?”
“Are you kidding?! Of course I will!” she exclaimed happily. “Want me to let you know if I find anything on Nergigante?”
“Sure, but don’t be surprised if you don’t find anything. Damn thing only shows up when it wants to. Just make sure that the more urgent reports are separated from the others and I’ll look at them when I get back.”
“Okay, I understand. Good luck, Artemis,” Twilight said before going back to work.
He turned to Celestia and Zarola before saying, “Let me get my weapon and armor. How long is the train ride over there?”
“Who said we’re taking a train?” Celestia said, almost teasingly.
“…Why do I have a bad feeling about this?” he muttered.
Iron Sights had finally managed to create some order for his troops. However, this did nothing to turn the tide of battle. All the guards could do was make a perimeter around the monster. None of them were able to make any advances on it.
The monster had gotten more aggressive throughout the course of the fight. Saliva was pouring out of its jaw like waterfalls as it started to bite at the guards more often, specifically targeting those that got isolated from the others. Any time that it wasn’t was spent glaring at the circle of guards around it, waiting for one of them to make a move. This put Iron Sights into a tough position as well, since the best strategy he could come up with was to wait for it to make a move of its own.
A sudden pop from behind him caught his attention. He turned around to find Princess Celestia and Zarola standing alongside a fully armored, yet disoriented Artemis. “There we are, Artemis. Was that so bad?” Celestia asked cheerfully.
Artemis shook his head as he stumbled around a little before answering. “If it’s all the same to you, I’m taking the train back.” Once he got his footing, he faced Iron Sights and said, “Alright, where is it?”
Iron Sights ignored his question and went straight to Celestia. “Princess Celestia, what are you doing?! Where are my reinforcements?!”
“Why, I brought them personally. I thought that much would have been obvious,” she replied.
“This is not what I had in mind and you know it!” he argued.
“I know, but I figured that sending in a specialist would allow us to deal with it more effectively. If you have a problem with that, then we can discuss when we get back to Canterlot. Until then, I’d suggest letting him work,” she scolded.
Iron Sights let out a low growl before turning to face Artemis, only he wasn’t next to Celestia like he was originally. He looked around until he spotted him standing next to a couple of guards stationed at the perimeter. “Hey, what’re you doing over there?!” he bellowed, running toward him with Celestia and Zarola in tow.
Iron Sights glared intently at Artemis. He was about to respond, but stopped himself when Celestia walked forward and said, “So, Artemis, is it what you thought it was?”
“Yeah, it’s a Mizutsune. And a female at that,” he replied.
“How dangerous are they?” Zarola asked.
“Generally, not very,” Artemis ordered. “Mizutsune generally only become a problem if you get too close to it or if it’s a male in mating season. They also don’t continuously chase you down if you run away from it. In short,” he said, turning to point a finger at Iron Sights, “you managed to make this into a bigger deal than it should’ve been.”
“I turned this into a big deal?!” Iron Sights shouted. “You honestly think that this beast just sitting here isn’t a big deal?! Look around you!” he yelled, waving a hoof at the city around them. “Do you have any idea how many ponies live in this city!?”
“No, I don’t”
“Hundreds of thousands of ponies live here! And I don’t need a degree in zoology to tell me that thing is a carnivore! And I sure as hell wasn’t going to let that thing just snack on ponies whenever it damn well wanted!”
Artemis regarded what he said for a few seconds before responding, “Regardless, we wouldn’t be in this situation if you didn’t run in to fight it all day. Cause now we have a predator that’s just as hungry as it is pissed.”
“Wait, it’s hungry?” Zarola piped up. “How can you tell?”
Artemis pointed at the monster’s snout. “See all that saliva pouring out of its mouth? It’s low on stamina because of how long it’s been fighting. Right now, it’s trying to find something to eat to build it back up.”
Iron Sights’ brow furrowed as he looked back at the monster. “That would explain why it tried to take more bites out of my soldiers,” he muttered.
“So, what’re you going to do? Zarola asked. “Are you going to kill it?”
Artemis took a moment to look around at the city before responding, “I don’t think that’ll be the best of ideas. The monsters from my world have a habit of retreating to another area when they start losing a fight. For all we know, it could retreat to somewhere else in the park, or-”
“To somewhere in the city,” Zarola finished for him.
“So what the hell are we going to do?! We can’t just let it stay here!” Iron Sights exclaimed.
“Couldn’t we try relocating it?” Zarola offered.
“I don’t have any traps or tranq bombs, remember?” Artemis replied. “We can’t move it if we can’t capture it and it’s not like we can reason with it.”
“No, I suppose we can’t,” Celestia echoed, a cheeky grin plastered on her face. “But perhaps there might be somepony who can.”
Artemis, Zarola, and Iron Sights just stared at her in confusion, trying to figure out what she was implying. Artemis’s eyes wondered as he thought, until his eyes landed on Celestia’s cutie mark. A conversation he had a day ago began to play back in his head. “Are you saying that Fluttershy can reason with it?”
“She could. I’m sure she’d be more than happy to try to find her a new home,” Celestia replied.
“Yeah, so long as it doesn’t turn it into its lunch,” Zarola muttered as she watched Mizutsune threaten to make a lunge at the guards.
“Then we’ll have to feed it so that it doesn’t,” Celestia countered. She then turned to Artemis and said, “We know it’s a carnivore, but what does it like to eat?”
“Fish mostly,” Artemis answered.
Zarola let out an annoyed huff. “Great, so where are we supposed to get-”
“You two!” Iron Sights suddenly exclaimed, pointing at a couple of pegasus guards hovering nearby. When they flew over, her ordered, “Fly to the Manehattan Park Zoo and get as much fish as you can carry. Tell them that the crown will reimburse them later. Now move!” The two guards saluted before flying off.
Iron Sights turned around until he was facing Artemis, who was staring at him. He could feel the questioning look from under Artemis’s helmet. “I’ve been going to this park for most of my life. The sea lions at the zoo were always my favorite,” he explained.
“Hmph, that explains that,” Artemis muttered with a smirk. He turned to Celestia before saying, “Princess, do you mind getting Fluttershy?”
“You didn’t have to ask,” she said before teleporting away.
Artemis let out a deep sigh before turning toward the Mizutsune. “Now, we just make sure she doesn’t do anything.”
“Agreed,” Iron Sights said as he stood next to Artemis. “So, what happens if this plan doesn’t work?”
“I’ll kill it. What other choice would I have?”
“And what should my soldiers do?”
“Just try to cut it off if it tries to leave the park. No offense, but your soldiers are kinda useless against this thing.”
“Yeah, I noticed,” Iron Sights begrudgingly agreed. “…Hey, mind if I ask you something?”
“Sure, go ahead.”
“Why did you become a hunter?”
“Cause I really needed the money at the time. Why did you become a guard?”
Iron Sights let out a dry chuckle before answering, “Cause I needed the money and I couldn’t hold any other job to save my life.”
“Heh, fair enough,” Artemis chuckled.
Zarola, who had flown up in the air to watch Mizutsune, couldn’t help but listen in on the two of them. “He became a hunter…for money?” she muttered to herself. “That’s it? I thought there’d be a little bit more than that?” She paused when she noticed that Mizutsune stopped looking around at the guards and seemed to be staring at a particular pair of guards that had managed to move out of position. Her eyes widened as she yelled. “Artemis! Captain! I think she’s up to something!”
Artemis perked up and saw what Mizutsune was up to. “Shit, she’s found an opening! She’s going to make a break for it!” He immediately bolted towards her right as she started to charge. As he ran, he looked around to look for anything that could give him an advantage. He soon found a rock near her path that was large enough for him to leap off of. “That’ll work. Gotta time this right,” he muttered, turning toward the rock while keeping his eye on Mizutsune.
He was almost halfway up the rock by the time Mizutsune reached it. After a few powerful lunges, he leapt off the rock while drawing his sword to help get a hold of the monster. It yelped when the sword penetrated through her scales. Artemis wasted no time to sheath his sword in order to grab on to it with both hands, ready to brace himself by the time Mizutsune stopped her charge to try to throw him off.
“You two!” Iron Sights yelled at the shaking guards. “Get back in position. Don’t leave anymore openings for it!” The guards immediately went back to where they were supposed to be. Iron Sights’s frown furrowed as he watched Artemis ride Misutzune, who was shaking around violently to throw him off. “Private Recurve!” he called.
“Yes, sir!” Zarola answered, landing next to him.
“I’ll need you to escort Fluttershy when she gets here. Make sure nothing happens to her, understood?”
“Yes, sir!” Zarola replied, turning to watch Artemis. He had yet to pull out his knife. “Huh, that’s strange,” he commented, tilting her head slightly.
“What is it, private?”
“He did something like this when he fought Rathalos, but that time he stabbed it like there was no tomorrow.”
“Really…and he was trying to kill that one, right?”
“Well, yeah, and after a while it staggered long enough for him to strike it with his sword. I don’t know why he’s not trying to stab at this one.”
Iron Sights’s brow furrowed, watching them closely. He saw Mizutsune make several attempts to throw Artemis off. It shook either its head or body violently, depending on which one he clung on to, and occasionally slammed itself against a nearby tree. Not once did it attempt to leave the area with Artemis on his back.
“I think I get it,” Iron Sights muttered. “He’s not trying to beat it. He’s trying to buy us some time and lock her down here. Not bad.”
A loud pop from behind turned their attention away from the fight as Celestia teleported in with Fluttershy next to her. “Hello, captain. Did we miss anything?”
“Mizutsune tried to make an escape. Artemis is currently dealing with it,” Iron Sights reported. He turned to Fluttershy before saying, “You must be Fluttershy. How much did Princess Celestia tell you?”
“Oh, she told me you needed help getting a monster to leave the park,” she answered. She then looked over to see the thrashing monster with Artemis on its head. “Oh, goodness. Is she going to be okay?”
Iron Sights stared incredulously at her before answering. “It’ll be fine. We just need to wait for the fish from the zoo to get here.”
“Oh, okay,” Fluttershy replied as she watched. “Oh my, I hope I’ll be able to do this.”
“Don’t worry, Fluttershy,” Celestia reassured. “I know you're competent.” She then looked over at Artemis and frowned. “Though, I don’t know if Artemis will be able to hold on for much longer.”
Artemis gritted his teeth as he felt his grip loosen a bit. Damn, I’m reaching my limit here. I need to jump off before it throws me off. Besides, I have her attention now. He leapt off the monster’s head and landed safely on his feet. He immediately turned around, sword in hand, just in time to see Mizutsune slithering right at him.
It’s been a while since I fought one of these. Let’s hope I’m not rusty, he silently noted, raising his shield to block a swipe from her tail. He was knocked back a little, but he recovered fast enough to watch her slither back to launch a set of three bubbles at him. He quickly rolled between two of them as he approached her, swinging his sword at her. She retaliated by trying to take a bite out of him, but he managed to dodge her in time.
“Wow, he’s impressive,” Fluttershy commented softly.
“Hmm, he’s actually not as good as I thought he’d be,” Celestia commented.
“I agree,” Iron Sights added. “He’s more concerned with dealing as much damage with each swing instead of maintaining his defense during his attack. If he was fighting any of our better fighters, he’d have a very good chance of losing.”
“Then why is he doing so well against it?” Fluttershy asked.
“My best guess, loads of experience along with any amount of training he’s had. It might not be refined, but it’s obvious he’s been training. He might not be maintaining a traditional defense, but that monsters’ movements are exaggerated enough for him to react by either dodging or using that shield if he has to. Not to mention he’s probably fought so many of these that he’s probably predicting everything she’s about to do. In short, this is basically a fight between something that knows how to throw its weight around and a fighter who’s specifically trained to counter him.”
“So, what you’re saying is… he knows what he’s doing?” Celestia teased.
Iron Sights frowned slightly as he silently watched Artemis run to avoid a beam of water. At this point, he didn’t know what frustrated him more. That Artemis was doing leagues better than what any of his soldiers had managed to do, or that he could have saved himself a lot of trouble by sending Artemis out in the first place.
“Captain Iron Sights!” he heard a stallion yell out. He looked up to see a pair of pegasus guards carrying an ice chest between them. “We got the fish the zoo was able to give us.”
“Alright, stay at the ready!” Iron Sights yelled. “Artemis, the fish has arrived. Keep that monster busy for a little while longer!”
“What do you think I’ve been doing!?” Artemis replied as he avoided Mizutsune’s attack.
Irons Sights turned back towards the guards. “You two! Get those fish to the center of the perimeter! This is the best opportunity you’ll get!”
“Sir!” they yelled before flying towards the center to dump the fish.
With the fish in place, Mizutsune stopped her advance as she began to sniff the air. She turned slowly until her eyes met the pile of fish. In a blink of an eye, she pounced to gorge herself on a much-needed meal.
“Right, this is what we were waiting for,” Zarola said as she moved closer to Fluttershy. “Stay behind me. Don’t know if it’ll attack or not.”
“O-okay,” Fluttershy nervously replied, filing in behind her.
Zarola began to slowly escort Fluttershy toward the feasting monster. Artemis had noticed them when they were about halfway there and filed in beside Zarola. They continued like this until they were a few feet away from the feasting monster.
“Right, it’s now or never, Fluttershy. Just be careful,” Artemis whispered, moving out of her way.
Fluttershy gave him a small nod before taking a few timid steps toward Mizutsune. “Um, excuse me, miss Mizutsune.” Mizutsune turned an eye toward Fluttershy and let out a loud growl. It was a growl she understood all too clearly as her way of telling her to go away. “Oh, I’m really sorry for bothering you, but I really have to talk to you about something. Why are you attacking all these ponies?” she asked, gesturing a hoof towards the guards.
Mizutsune let out a low growl as it stared cautiously at the guards that were still around them. “Oh, I think I get it. You like it here, so you want to defend your new territory. But I’m afraid you can’t claim this as your home.”
A low roar from the monster’s mouth began to put Artemis and Zarola on edge. “I don’t like where this is going, Artemis.”
“Neither do I,” he replied, the grip on his sword tightening. “Just get ready to fight.”
The two remained tense as they watched Fluttershy talk to an advancing Mizutsune. Eventually, Mizutsune started to back off a little and its glare softened before going back to eating its fish. Fluttershy had a satisfied smile as she flew back to them.
“So, what’s going on?” Artemis asked.
“Well, I think the poor thing might have lost its home before it found itself here, which is why she was trying to defend this place so much. I’m pretty sure she was also agitated that she couldn’t really find any fish for awhile.”
“Yeah, that might do it. So what happened after that?”
“Well, once I told her it was possible for me to help her find a home for her to hunt in, she was willing to leave the park. She’ll just have to stay at Sweet Feather Sanctuary for awhile.”
“She won’t cause any problems there, right?”
“Well, she might have some problems with some of the other animals there, but she should be fine if they give her some space.”
“...Yeah, I guess that can work for now,” he said, putting his sword away.
“Excellent!” Fluttershy exclaimed with a smile. “I’ll lead you there as soon as you’re ready to go.” She then flew off to Princess Celestia to tell her the good news, which was soon relayed to everyone else.
As the guards cheered their victory, Artemis and Zarola had opted to just watch Mizutsune as it went back to eating its fish. “I’m glad we figured something out. She’s kinda beautiful when she isn’t trying to kill everypony.”
“Yeah, she is. This is actually my first time seeing a female outside of journals. I usually have to deal with the rampaging males.”
“Really? Huh, that interesting,” There was a small moment of silence between them before Zarola suddenly said. “Most of the monsters you’re going to fight aren’t like her, are they?”
“No, they’re not. Most of them are going to be like Anjanath and Rathalos,” he admitted.
A small cough from behind them caught their attention. They turned around to face Princess Celestia. “Well, I should head over to the train station. I need to tell them to expect a big, fish eating passenger today.” She turned to Artemis before giving him a small bow. “Thank you, Artemis. Your information was most valuable.”
“It was no problem, Princess. Just had to do what I needed to do,” Artemis bowed.
She turned to make her way towards the station. Along the way, she passed by Iron Sights, who was making his way toward Artemis.
“Artemis,” he said, pausing in front of the hunter. “Are you going to continue to stay at Twilight’s Castle?”
“When I’m not on a hunt, yes,” he answered.
“…In that case, I’ll make sure that any monster reports are sent there.” He turned to Zarola. “Private, continue to observe and assist him. Give me full reports on the monsters and Artemis’s tactics. The more information we have, the better our chances will be.” With that, he turned around to direct his troops.
“So, was that his way of saying that he trusts me now?” Artemis asked, taking his helmet off.
“I guess so,” Zarola answered, more questioning than confirming. “Still he has a point. We need information that we’re still lacking. She let out a smirk as she said, “Who knows, I might be able to fight one on my own someday.”
An itching pain in Artemis’s chest began to flare up. “Hey, Zarola,” he said, bringing his hand to his chest to try to relieve the pain. “Don’t be overconfident. It’s ended more careers than anyone would like to count.”
Zarola flinched from the seriousness in his tone. “Hey, I was just kidding around…but I’ll keep that in mind, if that makes you happy,” she said, before she began to walk away.
“You’d better,” he said before muttering. “If you want to stay alive.”
Nights in Equestria were relatively safe under the watchful guard of Princess Luna. Even more so in the smaller villages. One unicorn, however, was not experiencing such a night, as she was chased by an ape-like creature she had never seen before.
She had let the creature approach at first, thinking that it was just an oversized minotaur. But as it got closer and its strut turned into a charge, she realized that it was something more terrifying than any minotaur could ever hope to be. She ran faster than she had ever ran before, not knowing if the creature was gaining on her or not. Then, her house came into view.
She thought she was about to reach salvation, when a sudden ball bounced off the ground in front of her, throwing her back. She tried to get up but stopped as she saw that the ball was the very monster she had been running from. “No. No!” she pleaded as she tried to back away.
The creature stalked over to her until it loomed over her. It reached a big paw towards her, emitting a growl that almost sounded happy. Then, it stopped. It raised its head up towards the sky, taking a few sniffs. It raised itself up on its hind legs, letting out a roar while its fur threatened to turn gold as sparks of electricity came out, before running off into the distance. The frightened mare didn’t hesitate to get up to run home, not planning to leave her home any time soon.
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- Blacklight Brony · 36k words · 61 18 · 3k views
- Hilord17 · 36k words · 39 1 · 1.1k views
- Soul King Vulcar · 3.1k words · 31 5 · 2.4k views
- Xenoguyver · 18k words · 77 12 · 3.4k views
- LikeaSir · 15k words · 46 7 · 1.3k views
- Kauetheadventurer246 · 6.2k words · 42 3 · 2k views
- Crisis Novastar · 39k words · 64 8 · 2.9k views
- MetalJrock · 100k words · 97 13 · 6.9k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.154 seconds
Total duration
1,108 users online
1,997,208 hits today, 2,818,023 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Finally, a worthy opponent!
uh oh, a jang in a world where one third of the populace looks like tiny weak Kirin....this wont end well.
yay Mizutsune gets to live
love the bubble fox leviathan on how pretty they and the armor looks. and maybe Fluttershy might give her a belly rub.
and oh boy a Rajang thats gonna be fun.
Fucking Rajang is here now? Christ lol
Rajang...
This demon super saiyan ape in in Equestria.
Place that is inhabited by mini Kirin-look-alike.
That can end only well...
Ps.: R.I.P Artemis. Daddy Rajang gonna turn you into a minced meat.
Rajang PTSD kicks in, also, if he ran away that can only mean that something bigger has entered in the land, an elder dragon perhaps?
Or, could that mean that a certain mutant pickle is roaming the area?
#praisebetoourgloriousleader
#bestprincess
Hay, the Kirin is an Elder Dragon and it looks far more akin to a unicorn.
#youtalktoomuch
#instantfail
10291750
Our battle shall be Legendary!!
Oh the Rajang, I thought it it was the Zinogre at first.
I’m eager to see what monsters show up next. I’m hoping that the Tigrex, Zinogre, and ‘shudders’ the Deviljho show up.
YES!!
I've been waiting anxiously
I liked it, I will wait patiently for the update
Hello rajang you super sayin basterd
Just had to be the goddamn Goku monkey didn't it? Just had to be Raj-mother-fucking-ang.
Please continue this story! It's an excellent way of combining these two series!😆👍
Two years have passed, no update in sight. Then again, my stories suffer similar fates...
I just read this and since I'm on a Monster Hunter craze for the past 9 months I'm thinking of writing my own story.
Anyway, hoping to see this continue!
Where's next Chapter ?