//------------------------------// // Chapter 16 // Story: Masks' of the Hunters // by Kamer //------------------------------// Chapter 16 Creeping Stories After finishing a talk with her sister, Luna was in a similar mind. She agreed with Celestia’s diagnosis of a deeper issue. Luna would like to go over this development in a deeper sense, both with her sister and with the archive team. But at hoof, she had more pressing matters do deal with. Namely, Luna had been working for almost twelve hours, had been awake for almost 20 hours and she needed sleep. Nothing would stop her from this endeavor, nothing would stop her from making it to her bed, in her sheets and on her pillow. Nothing would stop her from reaching the sweet blissful release from duty that is sleep. Nothing at a- “P-princess?” ‘Except for Penchant, evidently.’ Luna thought. “Yes, Penchant what doth thou need?” Luna asked. “do you... Prince Blueblood requests a meeting, he says immediately.” Luna stared flatly at Penchant. Then turned her head to the corridor to her room, then back to Penchant. With A final sigh she stormed off back toward the throne room. “I’m going to throw him out a window.” “Princess…?” “This request is on purpose.” Luna muttered to herself, “He doth know full well We are tired, that We require rest and he requests a meeting at this hour.” Luna rounded the corner, while Penchant began trotting after her. “Princess the meeting is in your quarters.” Penchant squeaked out. Luna once more stopped and looked at Penchant, before letting out a huff and turning around. “So he wishes to taunt Us, does he?” Luna continued to mutter, “In Our own room, so close to Our nice, large, ever so comfortable bed.” Penchant thought the Princesses mood to sour to comment on speech, so he held his tongue. Luna and Penchant made their way to the Princess’ chambers, turning the heads of many guards on their way. Luna’s mood was ever slowly getting worse, to the point where Penchant could swear the air around her was getting colder and darker. Penchant accepted this job rather hastily in his mind. In the interview, Celestia said that she would forgive all of his school debt if he was able to go two weeks into this position, and a stipend for life if he managed a year. All he had to do in return was make sure Princess Luna attended meetings, signed papers, made appearances and didn’t lose her temper. He was starting to think that he wouldn’t last a week, let alone two years. The nerves were already starting to feel like too much already. “Princess?” Penchant asked quietly. “Yes?” Luna’s tone was cold, but Penchant could tell it was not directed at him. ‘I really hope that does not change…’ he thought. “I think…” he gulped, “that it would be wise for you to…” another gulp of air, “to relax a little before meeting Prince Blueblood…” When Luna stopped and cast a sidelong glance at Penchant, for a moment, he felt all of the annoyance in her eyes turn into anger, then leave just as quickly. She sighed, “I do suppose your right,” Luna said, her posture visibly calmer, “It does both parties no good if even one is unwilling to listen to the other.” Luna fluttered her wings and moved in place for a moment, before regaining her regal posture and continuing on the journey. “But if his request is idiotic,” Luna continued, “I will throw him out of the tower.” Penchant was standing stock still and shaking. He could tell that the look that Luna gave him was nowhere near how angry she could actually become. It was, however, the single most terrifying look he had ever received. He could not think of which scared him more. “Hey” a guard came up to Penchant. “Y-yea?” “There is a bathroom over here, if ya want to calm down a bit.” Penchant looked to where the guard was pointing, and quickly scurried over. “Thank you!” he said as he entered. The guard chuckled as he went back to his post next to another guard. “I’m pretty sure he was moving backward he was shaking so much.” The other guard said. “Sounded like one of our morning runs.” Blueblood sat in the chambers of Princess Luna, waiting for the inevitable storm that was the lunar alicorn. Blueblood was not an idiot, like some thought, though he was also not a mastermind of social grace as others thought he did. What he was, however, master of presenting himself exactly as he wants to be. He called them his ‘masks’. And he had a few. At heart, Blueblood was a diplomat, traveling to different countries and making himself a friend to all. In pursuing that task, he found that acting the part that people want you to is pivotal to making the perfect first impression. As well as a lasting feeling of trust. Blueblood would use his trust and influence to make as many deals as possible in favor of Equestria. But he needed to be careful about how far he took his little masks. Blueblood’s main rule about them is he would never lie to a foreign country about anything, he would never step to far outside of his own personality. There at least. Back in Equestria, he was able to try anything that he wanted to, under the protection of his ‘aunts’. Sometimes things would backfire, like an unfortunate situation that will not be mentioned. Sometimes they would work out swimmingly, like many other very fortunate situations that will also not be mentioned. Because of how manipulative he could become, Blueblood would often use his talent to play pranks on the sisters. He once convinced the chefs at the castle that Celestia was on an all blueberry diet, and they needed to go on everything she ate from now on. It took a little while for Celestia to realize what was going on, and she quickly deduced that he was responsible. His prank on Luna though might have earned him quite a bit of her ire. She had convinced her then aide to schedule a meeting every half hour in a different room of the castle, on different sides of the castle. He had gotten some of them to be actual meetings, but many of them were just empty rooms. He had her running around all night in quite the mood. When she found out, she was of course blindingly angry. He was still finding bits of evergreen needles in his room. It was for this reason that Blueblood was reluctant to scheduling a meeting with Luna. But the information he had was too important not to tell her, considering what was going on. He was sure that she would see reason when he told her. But if she wasn’t, that’s what the tea and cookies were for. Blueblood took one final look over his notes, making sure he was getting everything right. He didn’t want to slip up while he was talking to her, and he definitely didn’t want to say something wrong that Luna took as fact. “Three Griffons, two zebra, four, potentially five minotaur...” Blueblood muttered to himself. The door to Luna’s chambers opened, allowing the lunar alicorn to enter. Blueblood was quite relieved to note the lack of annoyance on her face. For a moment, his apprehension faded. “Before we begin,” Luna started, “Note that We will be looking for a reason to throw you out of our window, so be quick, or don’t say anything at all.” Blueblood’s apprehension came back in full force, though he did not dare let Luna know this. He knew enough about acting to disguise what he was actually feeling, and he knew enough about luna to know that she would take full advantage if she knew. Luna sat across from Blueblood, snatching up a cup of tea and a cookie almost immediately. Blueblood was happy that he kept the tea warm for as long as he did. “Well?” Luna asked. “Oh, sorry princess.” Blueblood said, “I’ve gotten multiple reports across various countries, including Griffonstone, Yakyakistan, Abyssinia and the Minotaur Lands with sightings of a pair of creatures. One was described as tall and white, the other was black and seemed to be made of smoke.” Luna went visibly pale at this statement, eyes wide with shock and fear. Blueblood was too focused on his wording and delivery to notice the change. “As an aside, I know I can trust all of my corespondents. I hoof picked them for their loyalty and ability to tell me exactly whats going on. The kicker to this story is they all told me on the same day, within an hour of each other.” As Blueblood finished up, Luna was regaining her composure, thankful that he did not see her extreme change in mood. This was not something that was good for the general public to know about, but it seemed to be out of their control now. There would need to be an announcement, discussions and decisions on this matter. “The different countries are still looking into the matters, but a cursory investigation says that there is no correlation. The deaths were all of natural causes.” Blueblood set down his papers to looked up at Luna, who had just set her tea cup down. “I see.” Luna said, “Is there anything else on the two creatures?” “No...” Blueblood replied, “Just that.” “An interesting group of sightings. This has given me something to think about.” Luna stood, giving Blueblood a nod. “Please inform my sister at her earliest convenience. This is something that needs to be discussed with the leaders.” “Yes, your Highness.” Blueblood stood to leave. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention.” “Anything, your highness.” Blueblood left with a small chunk of the doors closing, leaving Luna up to her own thoughts. ‘This is most troubling,’ she thought, ‘I did not think they could travel so quickly.’ Luna had begun to have doubts of the creatures true intents almost a week after the first incident with the homeless stallion and the unicorn. There was so many things that did not add up. Many variables unaccounted for. Why were they not claiming the cause of the deaths to be themselves? What purpose would holding out give them? Perhaps they were not aware the alicorns could see their work. Perhaps they are still hoping that the secrecy of their actions were not yet discovered. But why then did they allow themselves to be seen, and even converse with some on occasion? ‘Their actions are paradoxical and illogical’ Luna thought. They seem to want to say just out of sight, but still in the corner of the eye. There, but always fleetingly so. Something to be chased, but never caught. Luna stood rigid, then relaxed. She knew what they were, what they wanted to do. She took another cup of tea out to the balcony. ‘Sleep would need to wait tonight,’ she thought, ‘There were things needed to be discussed.’ They were not doing these things at random, nor were they following a carefully laid plan. Celestia had said their world had died, that there was no signs of life in range of her spells. That would mean their job their was done, or rather, there was nothing more to do. This was something that they had always done. Something that they had done on their previous would and what they wanted to continue doing here. Luna recalled old stories, legends. Stories of ponies meeting the pale horse, the reaper. Come to take their souls to the next world. This pair of creatures was no different. They were not killers. They were not the cause of these deaths, not directly at least. She walked slowly, but with purpose, toward the edge of the balcony, casting an augmented locator spell as she went. Lamb and Wolf were a legend from another world, and they wanted to be a legend in this one as well. Luna spread her wings and took off. She needed to have a talk with Death.