//------------------------------// // And Sleeping in the Middle of a Summer Afternoon-Chapter Two // Story: Hunter's Story // by Horatiojones //------------------------------// Fluttershy was cantering towards Hunter, coming to reassure him, when she saw two young fillies racing past her, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, if she remembered correctly. This only made her speed up, flapping her wings to increase her speed. However she was soon surpassed by the self-titled Equestria’s Greatest Flyer, flying straight towards Hunter, a look of deep seated fear in her eyes. She flew up, and then descended downwards, aiming at Hunter. Her speed increased, a conical barrier building around her, until she broke through, and created a rainboom, different colours spreading out from her body. With this increase in speed she hit Hunter, making him fly away from his four friends, before landing in the dirt, Rainbow Dash straddling him, and hitting him repeatedly shouting “get away from my daughter Discord”. By this time Fluttershy had reached the two, and pulled Rainbow Dash of Hunter, before picking her up and throwing her away from him, yelling “get away from my son, he’s not Discord, leave him alone”. Fluttershy eyed Rainbow Dash as she got up, the cyan mare staring right back at her, a similar look of anger, mixed with fear, on their faces. Hunter stood up, surprisingly uninjured by the attack by Rainbow Dash, he say the rest of his mother’s friends racing up behind Rainbow Dash, before he found himself surrounded by a purple glow, Twilight’s magic holding him aloft in the air. Fluttershy turned around, noticing Hunter’s position above her, she looked back at her friend’s and said “I don’t care what you think, he’s my son, he is not Discord, and I won’t have you do anything to him”. Applejack, an expression of fear plastered on her face, responded “look honey, we don’t know what’s going on, but how can yah be sure, I mean, you saw just as much as we did, and it’s mighty suspicious”. Fluttershy looked at her son, suspended in the air above her, before turning back to her friends and saying “I just know I can trust him, please believe me, I just know I can”, and looked at them. Her friends considered her, before smiling, and walking up to her, Rainbow Dash as well, and said collectively “of course we believe you”, and hugged her. Hunter started laughing, which caused them all to look at him confused, he responded “sorry but this is hilarious, you guys are all happy, while I'm just floating up here, it’s kinda funny, you got to admit”. Twilight smiled at him, and released him, dropping him the few feet to the ground. Spike and the Cutiemark Crusaders ran up, the small dragon clutching a letter in his claws. “Twilight” he cried “the princesses are coming, along with a guest, their bringing the Elements of Harmony. Suddenly, there was a huge flash, and the two princesses, a smaller Discord, and a phalanx of guards all appeared in front of them, next to the tree library. Twilight called out to them, and they turned towards the meadow, before walking quickly over. “Hello Twilight”, the two princesses said simultaneously, Celestia with a motherly tone, Luna with something more suggestive. Pinkie shouted, “Yay Discord” and looked up at the sky hopefully, until Discord said “sorry Pinkie, but it appears I am no longer the controller of chaotic magic”. Celestia continued, her younger sister letting her talk “Twilight, Discord has lost his chaos magic, something else is now in possession of it, we need to find out who or what it is, and capture it immediately”. Twilight looked at her hooves, before straightening up and saying “I don’t think we need to look very far, in fact, I’m fairly sure I know exactly who it is”, and turned, pointing her hoof at the now standing Hunter, who smiled, not really sure what they were talking about. Luna reacted, saying what they were all thinking, “oh no, please don’t say we have to capture him, I like him”, Hunter was startled at this. He started crying “I don’t want to go to jail, I know what I did was bad, but I didn’t mean to, honest”, Celestia looked at her student and then the rest of the surrounding individuals, before saying “I think we both have some explaining to do, especially Hunter, and Discord”. The 5 friends explained how Hunter had been interacting with them recently, Fluttershy and Twilight having the most to say on the subject, with Spike often interjecting. Discord then explained how he had been released, caught, and all before being given anything to eat, or drink, which he thought was pretty rough, the last bit said pointedly at Celestia and Luna. Hunter, meanwhile, had been looking curiously at the draconequus, so he asked, once everybody else had finished, “So what’s that” and pointed at Discord. Discord responded, “I, my dear boy, am a dragon-pony, mixed with other creatures, among whom are goats, griffons and lions, but that is not what matters, what is important, is that I am your predecessor concerning the holder of chaos magic, and so I must teach you how to control it, if you are to survive this at all”, and nodded before cackling with glee at the concerned look on everyone else’s face. Twilight looked at him accusingly, before saying “why would you want to do that, not only has Hunter taken your magic, something I must assume you’re annoyed by, but your evil, you tried to destroy my friendship and Equestria”. Discord looked hurt, he responded “Twilight, I assure you, I wanted to hurt nopony, and I am sorry about what I did to your friendship, but look at it from my perspective, I had been encased in stone for thousands of years, and so I just had to stop the only thing that could hurt me, which was you and your friends, sure I had fun doing it, but that’s only because I was really bored, I mean come on, I am millions of years old, you think this is the first time I have taken control of Equestria, concerning the young, human was it? It’s not merely a matter of wanting to help him, I need to help him, otherwise he could end up destroying everything, myself included, now that I am mortal. Please understand this has to be done”. Everybody turned to look at Hunter, who was looking very perplexed, and asked “I’m not really sure I understand what’s going on, at all”. Fluttershy just shook her head sadly, and said “Hunter, I really have to something to tell you”, and began to explain what had just happened, as well as their previous history with Discord. Hunter’s face changed from confusion, to shock, to confusion, to happiness, to confusion again, before he smiled dumbly, and said “ok”, even though, everything, was not okay. Spike nudged Scootaloo, who was standing next to him, and whispered “I really don’t think he understands”, Scootaloo looked at him suspiciously and whispered back, “And you do?” Discord continued “now I believe I’m going to need somewhere to stay, I vote Pinkie’s house, as I think her small amount of chaos magic will be fun to be around, even if she is now more powerful than myself”. Twilight gasped “what do you mean her small amount of chaos magic?” Discord laughed, and responded “oh yes, well, many, many years ago, I grated the Pie family a small amount of my magic for a boon they had provided me, as well as Pinkie’s mother’s family, the Cake family, who also provided me a boon, and when they combined to create Pinkie Pie, well she got double, and so she can use an actually fairly decent amount of chaos magic”. Twilight was immensely confused, but decided to query the first of many questions, asking “What were the boons”, Discord chuckled again and said “isn’t it obvious, the Pies invented pie, although how they ended up gem farming I’ll never know, and the Cakes invented cake, two of the greatest things ever, although you should have seen what I did for the Chocolate Milks”. Pinkie began speaking “oh my Celestia, me and Discord as roomies, oh this is going to be so cool, the food we could make, the parties we could have, and the pranks, the pranks” and then collapsed, the overwhelming awesomeness of being roommates with Discord getting to her. Celestia looked at her surrounding subjects, Discord now included in this, and said “alright, well, you shall tell the towns people that Discord escaped, which caused Hunter’s increase in size, but we subdued him, which resulted in the loss of his power, and now he lives here in Ponyville, as there was nowhere else for him to live, now that’s over, I assume that Hunter should get back to playing, your only a child once”, she finished the last part, sadly. Twilight and her friends gasped, while Hunter and the other younger ponies and dragon just ran off, content to try to look for something to do, with the few hours of daylight remaining. Luna looked accusingly at Discord, and said “Discord, if you so much as touch one of my loves, I will end you”, Discord gasped, and said “loves”, Twilight and Fluttershy blushed, causing Discord to laugh loudly, and say “oh this is going to be so much fun”. With that, Celestia and Luna left, along with the phalanx of guards, disappearing in a flash of magic. Twilight turned to Pinkie, and said “you better not have known it was chaos magic that allowed you to do those things”, Pinkie turned, smiled, and said “of course I did Twilight, I just thought it would be to eggheady to explain everything to you, so I didn’t, now I got to go plan a party”, and then she dashed off, grabbing Discord, leaving a very angry Twilight in her wake. Fluttershy went over to her mare friend, and comforted her, recognising the signs of a Twilight freak out, Spike noticed from across the meadow and shouted “she’s gonna blow” and then ran off chuckling with his friends. Twilight smiled evilly, and then her horn glowed, and she vanished. Hunter and Fluttershy walked into town, aiming for a gingerbread house, as Fluttershy had said to Hunter that “if he wanted a guitar, he had to apologise to Diamond Tiara first, even if he would have to lie to do it”, so he had agreed, but only if they stopped at Pinkie’s bakery first, as he had been told some very good things about it. They walked in, and where surprised to find Pinkie Pie tied up hanging from the ceiling, with Twilight lying dazed underneath her, covered in cupcakes, Discord was leaning on a counter, throwing a cupcake up and down in his paw, much like a baseball player at the pitch, and the Cakes where holding each other in a corner, crying softly. Fluttershy looked at Twilight, under the cupcakes, and then up at Pinkie, before flying up to her, and untying her friend, who laughed and dashed over to Twilight and said “well, I thought it would work, but oh well, it was fun anyway”, and then ran off to her room, Discord chuckling and walking after her. Twilight started getting up, asking “what happened, I just remember asking Pinkie for a demonstration, and then, this,” and looked around her, the Cakes still sobbing quietly in the corner. Fluttershy responded “come on Twilight, I think we better leave”, Twilight nodded, muttered sorry to the Cakes, and walked out with her marefriend and Hunter, who was just looking around him, dumbfounded, at the gingerbread house. They walked towards Diamond Tiara’s house, a large mansion near the outskirts of Ponyville, and knocked on the door, somewhat surprised when it was answered by a butler, almost immediately on knocking. Filthy Rich walked over to them, after they had been let in, somewhat surprised to see the three, as the last he had heard, Hunter had attacked his daughter, supposedly without provocation, and Twilight and Fluttershy, had been trying to stop him. He was angry to say the least; his daughter had hidden herself under the bed in her room, with her friend Silver Spoon, and wouldn’t let anybody in, all because of the strange creature in front of him, who he had met, if only briefly, and thought he was a nice enough young man, until he heard what he had done to his daughter, but ever the salesman, he approached smiling. Hunter spoke up and said “hello Mr Rich, sir, I am here to apologise to your daughter, for my actions this afternoon, it was wrong of me to hurt her, and I feel bad about it”. Filthy smiled reassuringly and said “ok son, she’s just upstairs, Jeeves will show you the way”, and pointed at the butler, who nodded, and led the young human upstairs. Filthy turned two the two adult mares in front of him and asked “can humans do that growing thing all the time”, Fluttershy blushed and said “oh no, Mr Rich, he was affected by Discord, who had escaped, but it’s alright presently, we took his magic away, and now he’s living with Pinkie”. Mr Rich smiled, nodded, trying to keep his cool at the information he had just heard, before remembering the other question he wanted to ask “you wouldn’t happen to know why Hunter attacked my daughter would you, it’s just, she says she did nothing to provoke him, but I don’t think I believe her”. Twilight replied “it seems your daughter was, supposedly, laughing at Hunter and his friends for being orphans”, she replied, slightly angrily, Filthy’s smile ran from his face, replaced by one of anger, he looked at Twilight, and yelled “she did what”, and then turned and raced upstairs. Hunter meanwhile, had just made it to outside Diamond Tiara’s room, when he heard somepony shout “she did what”, and then the sound of hooves going on marble flooring, he turned towards the stairs, just in time to see Filthy Rich race up from the stairs. Filthy slowed down, walked over to his daughter’s door, and turned to Hunter, and said “young colt, I am very sorry for how my daughter treated you, there is no need for you to apologise, I think you should just leave, as I have to have a serious talk with my daughter”, before pushing his daughter’s door open, and saying “that goes for you to silver spoon, I think you should go home”. The grey and white filly raced out from the bed, and disappeared down the stairs, while Hunter walked slowly off, unsure what had just happened, but happy he didn’t have to apologise, as he really wasn’t looking forward to it. The three left the mansion, headed towards the town’s music store, Fluttershy thought that although Hunter hadn’t actually apologised, he had been going to, which was good enough. They entered the store, which was shaped like a huge violin, causing a small bell to chime. Hunter was mildly surprised when Lyra, the green mare from earlier walked over to them, from behind the counter, and smiled brightly when she saw him. “oh my Celestia, I bet your here to buy an instrument, ooh what is it, wait let me guess, it’s a string instrument, I'm going to go with, the guitar, yeah that’s right, I'm sure of it, well their over in that room, let me show you, their my second favourite instrument, after the lyre, of course”, and pointed to the back, before leading the way. Hunter followed the unicorn, while Fluttershy and Twilight looked around the store, as neither had any experience with instruments, so were a bit overwhelmed by their surroundings. Hunter and Lyra entered the guitar room, he didn’t see any familiar brands, but what he did see in the way of guitars was impressive, he walked over to an electric semi-hollow, similar to his own on earth and picked it up. He liked the weight, heavy, but as he had been always told, he was still growing, and said so, finding the neck was big, with the same reason as the weight behind it, he played a blues riff, and smiled, this was something he could do. Lyra smiled back, slightly crazed, at him, and said “wow that was good, who teaches you, oh wait I bet you don’t have a teacher yet, well, I teach instruments sometimes, at least I used to at the music college in Canterlot, before I met Bon Bon, and we moved here, so I volunteer”. Hunter looked up at the mare, his attention moving from the guitar to her, and said “you really seem excited, is something wrong?” Lyra replied “no nothing’s wrong, everything is fine, I'm just really excited”. Hunter nodded, accepting the explanation, and walked over to the amps, and found he himself out of his depth, as they were magically powered, Lyra noticed this and said, “well if you like the semi-hollow, I would recommend this one, because it would really boost the rockafilly sound”, and pointed to a fairly large amp with some vacuum tubes poking out of the top. Hunter nodded, accepting the musician’s judgement, and turned to his mother, and said “I found the guitar and the amp, oh, and a teacher”, before indicating Lyra, Fluttershy smiled and agreed, before they walked back to the counter, and bought the equipment, which they were assured would be dropped off the tomorrow, as the working day was almost over. They arranged for Hunter to come for an hour every Wednesday, starting that week, after school. Hunter said goodbye to Lyra, and thanked her for her help, before he, Fluttershy and Twilight walked back to the library. Hunter was astounded when, once they were inside the library, he and Spike, were presented with their school books, a large assortment of maths, science, geography and Equestrian, both exclaimed their annoyance at this, especially when they were told they had missed half the school year, and so had a lot of catching up to do. Fluttershy and Twilight smiled at each other, and then dropped a bombshell on the two young boys, saying, “Were going to move in together”. Fluttershy continued “Hunter, you and I are moving in with Twilight and Spike, there’s plenty of room here, so we’ll fit in easily, and I’ll just spend the day with my animal friends, if they have anything serious happen at night, I will just get them to send a messenger bird, and Angel can look after the cabin, his family can move in, which I’m sure he’ll love”, Twilight nodded, and took the figurative talking stick from her special somepony, saying “so you two are going to have a room together, and Fluttershy and I are going to have a room together, I’ll manifest some rooms when you move in, later tonight”. Hunter and Spike looked at each other, and high-fived, shouting “woo hoo, brothers”, their school books long since forgotten. The rest of that afternoon was spent moving the small amount of belongings that Hunter and Fluttershy would immediately need, as anything else could easily be gotten later, since Fluttershy was planning to return to her cabin during the day. Hunter and Spike moved into their room, which was now in what would be considered the attic in a normal house, while Fluttershy moved into Twilight’s room, which now had a wall and a door, for privacy. Spike and Hunter lay on the bunk bed that Twilight had made extend from the tree, and smiled happily. Both realised simultaneously that they had yet to have dinner, so raced down to the kitchen, where they saw Twilight and Fluttershy, working together to create dinner, a small salad, with dressing. Hunter became conscious of the fact that he had no meat, but then saw a large cooler box, lying on the counter. Twilight saw him looking at the box and said “oh Hunter, I forgot to say, I ordered the meat yesterday from the griffin in canterlot, and it just arrived in town, on the train”. Hunter looked in, and gasped, he saw bacon, and some kind of steaks and sausages, hopefully not cow, as well as some white meat. He was very happy with what he saw, and was about to begin cooking it, when he saw his new family looking at him, slightly disdainfully. “I’ll just wait for you guys to finish, by the way, have you got any potatoes”, Twilight nodded, and then herself and Fluttershy walked into the living room, and began to eat their salad. Hunter looked at Spike, who was looking back at him, expectantly, “what” Hunter queried, while taking some steak out of the box, which he found was ridiculously cold, but put that down to magic. Spike laughed and said “you’re going to need me to light the oven, what you think you could just heat it up yourself? Besides, I want to try meat, and whatever you’re doing with the potatoes”, Hunter nodded, pointed at the oven, and said “light her up”, and laughed. Spike did just that, and lit up the oven, lighting its coals. Hunter placed the steaks in a pan, and then prepared a pot full of oil. Spike smelt the cooking meat, and grinned, finding himself surprisingly attracted to it, before looking and the heating pot of oil and remarking “what, are you making hay fries, I thought you couldn’t eat them”. Hunter looked at him confused, before shaking his head and saying “nah better I'm making potato fires”, and began cutting up the potatoes. Eventually both he and Spike found themselves looking at plates of medium rare steak, and chips, with Hunter remarking, “I just wish we had some tomato sauce”, Spike laughed and said “why didn’t you ask, I’ll go get it”, and walked into the kitchen, returning moments later with a bottle of tomato sauce. They sat down to eat, Spike remarking on the deliciousness, of both the meat, which he adored, and the chips, which he convinced Fluttershy and Twilight to try, who both agreed that they would really like to find out how to cook them. Hunter meanwhile, was tucking into his steak with gusto, having been desperate for red meat for days, but not wanting to say so, fearful of what it might cause to occur, he was happy that he had given Spike a whole new type of food to try, and that he was enjoying it, even if he had fire ruby sprinkles on it first, which was apparently “like chilli powder, only hotter”. Once they had finished, Twilight and Fluttershy had gone upstairs, muttering about “breaking in new sheets”, and not wanting “to be disturbed”. Hunter and spike had ice-cream, before brushing their teeth and going to bed themselves, excited for their first day of school in Ponyville, but tired from their experiences that day. Celestia sat in her study, crying, looking at pictures of past students, as well as friends, confidants and compadres that decorated the walls of the room, in between numerous bookcases, and a fire place, which contained a roaring fire. Luna walked in to the study, having heard her sister crying while walking past, and wondering what was wrong. She asked that, to which Celestia responded “Hunter”. Luna was confused further and asked “sister, I do not understand why you are so sad, Discord is defeated, and in his place a child has gained the chaos magic, a child who is being raised by the represented Element of Kindness, what about this situation makes you so unhappy as to cry?” Celestia rubbed her eyes with her hooves, blinking away tears before saying “Luna, don’t you see, this poor child, through no fault of his own, has been given the same deplorable gift given to us by the moon and the sun respectively, by his new powers, the gift of immortality, he, like us, will watch his friends, family and loves grow old and die, while nothing will occur to him beyond the point where he is at his perfect age, when he will stop growing”. Luna started crying herself, and walked over to Celestia, and hugged her sister before saying “oh that poor, poor child”. So drop us a line, say what you like/dislike, how you think I’m doing, you know, any advice you want to give, also if you have any ideas how chapter three has 110 views, and 4 and 5 have 118, please tell.