I looked down at the unconscious pegasus in front of me and looked at my changeling companion. "I thought these ponies had more balls that this." I asked, poking the pony with a finger. Chitin smiled.
"Thats because that pony is a mare." He said smugly. I just started with an expressionless face.
"Really?" He just shrugged. "Sigh. Alright, what are we supposed to do now?" The changeling shrugged. "Aren't you supposed to be, you know, the best infiltrator and replacement of people species, or something like that." I said non-committedly .
"Even though that is true, I am a Digger. I carve the tunnels throughout the hive and dig the larvae holders in the nursery. What you described were the infiltrators." He stated matter of factly.
"That's a dumb name. Digger, infiltrator, there's no intelligence behind these names are there?" Chitin shrugged
"Don't look at me I didnt name them."
I sighed again and walked over to my hammock. "I'm going to sleep. See you in the morning" I laid on my biomass hammock, closed my eyes and let darkness take me.
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I opened my eyes and saw a familiar videogame style screen. Resume, Upgrades, Powers, the whole shabang. I pushed the Upgrades button and a new screen popped up over the Home screen. A list of my powers and what they could become were on the left side and a short description of the weapon, with a tutorial video, is on the right. I selected the Magic tab and low and behold, it was barely filled. Maybe I should put more points in healing I think to myself. Yea. Healing sounds the best option right now. I put the Skill Point that I got today into the healing branch of magic.
Healing lll
Allows you to heal yourself and others more in both combat and non-combat situations
I never really got magic all that much. Its kind of like the Blacklight Virus, super powerful and adaptable, but a little tooOP for my taste in combat. I still remember the first time I got unicorn DNA, wanting to waste time, I exited out of Upgrades and clicked the Memories tab on the home page. From there I picked the not-so-recent memory.
I was sitting in a griffin tavern with my pony disguise on, I had a few minutes before a contact that had information about a drug dealer would be here. I had ordered ale and a slab of steak, the griffon in front of me gave me a glance before writing down my order. You will never take a man away from his steak even in a world ruled by ponies. He came back with my order and that was when the first red flag came up, the steak didn't smell like steak at all, it wasn't the smell that would fill the air whenever my family would get together for a cookout. The second flag went up when I tasted it and two notifications popped up in my face.
New DNA Acquired: Unicorn
New Ability Acquired: Magic
I asked the Bartender what this meat was from. He said Cow. His heartbeat on the other hand said another thing entirely. I nodded, finished my meal and ale then left. I expanded my senses to find any exposed blood of a unicorn, other than a knee scrape from a colt about three miles out, there was only one other place, and that was in the back o the tavern. Slipping behind the establishment I saw it was mainly empty except for a metal cellar door connected to the back of the tavern. Shedding my disguise and forming into a snake, I slithered to the edge of the door, where I hears the scraping of claws on a metal grate. Soon after, the cellar door opened and a large griffin wearing a blood stained apron walked out and pulled out a cigarette. Using this to my advantage I slipped in without incident.
Looking around I thought I was in a horror movie. Skinned pony bodies hung from hooks, what looked like a incinerator and freezer were on opposite sides of the room, the counters had enough organs and blood to put a pony back together and an array of tools were set on a gurney, recently used. Hearing the sound of a cigarette hitting the ground alerted me to the coming of the griffin chef, I quickly attached myself to the ceiling and changed my appearance to match the ceiling. As the Griffin passed me I did a quick analysis on him and found a wanted poster for 5,000 bits. Wow I thought as the griffin pulled out a somewhat living pony from the freezer.
Slithering over the griffin I saw him prepare his tools, I saw the pony look at me in fear as I turned into my pony form right above the distracted killer. Putting a hoof to my lips I silently told the pony to be quiet which he thankfully understood.
"You are going to be one delicious meal." he told the pony with a predatory smile, the nameless pony looked at me with hope in his eyes.
"What're you lookin at?" Asked the griffin, as he looked up I jumped onto his back and put a sword to his throat.
"You have two choices griffin." I said in my most predatory voice "Either you can surrender now or your head can join my collection." I felt the griffin gulp in fear.
"Y...your that p...pony bounty h...hunter, aren't you?"
"I am." At this the griffin put his tool down and surrendered.
"Good times." I say to myself as the memory ends. It wasn't the most fun or exciting one, but it was worth it. Looking at the time I exit out of the menu and wake up in my hammock, Chitin might be out hunting at this time so I didn't worry, I looked towards the still unconscious Pegasus and decided that returning her home or at least the nearest town would be the best decision in this situation. Pressing a finger to her nose I excreted muscle relaxing agents to help her sleep until the destination was reached. Absorbing the chain and picking up the sleeping Pegasus, I press another finger to her forehead and start to view her memories. Magic is a wonderful thing. Once I know where to go I change into my pony disguise and start walking.
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"Fluttershy!" Rainbow Dash called out above the canopy of trees in the Everfree forest. She and her friends have been searching for Fluttershy all morning.
"Fluttershy darling, where are you!?" called Rarity as she looked into a bush. "I cant find her anywhere. How about you Pinkie, do you see anything?" she asked the hyperactive pink party pony that was currently looking in a tree. Pinkie popped out from underneath the brush and pointed further into the forest.
"Why don't we ask him?" she asked, the rest of the group stopped searching looked to where Pinkie was pointing. There in the distance was a gray stallion with a white mane, armor of some kind, orange cat like eyes, and the body of a familiar yellow Pegasus on his back.
"FLUTTERSHY!" they yelled in unison. The stallion raised a hoof to his mouth in a shushing manner.
"I know you are worried about your friend, but I need you all to be quiet so you don't attract anything that could eat us." The stranger said as he set Fluttershy on the forest floor.
"What did you do to my friend you creep!" Yelled Rainbow as she tried to rush the stallion, but was held back by Applejack pulling on her tail.
"I did nothing." The stranger said calmly "I was hunting a manticore and she saw me kill it which in turn caused her to faint. I'm just bringing her to the nearest village to see if anybody knows her and it seems like you know and care for her, so I'll be on my way."
"How do we know that isn't some story you made up!" She accused, Applejack tapped the rainbow mane Pegasus on the shoulder.
"Um, sugar. He's tellin the truth." Applejack confirmed, at this, Rainbow let out an 'oh' "Thank ya for takin care of Fluttershy, stranger, it was rather kind of you to do that." she said as she carefully picked up the sleeping Pegasus and put here on her back.
"It was no problem ma'am, just doing what is right and all that. Now if you will excuse me..." He turned to go back into the forest.
"Wait!" cried a voice from behind, when he turned he saw it was Rarity "We cant just let you leave without knowing your name after such a heroic deed." The stallion made a show of thinking about it before answering.
"My name is Witcher Thorn." He then turned to the forest and started walking.
Twilight knew that name from somewhere, but couldn't put her hoof on it. When she tried to ask the stallion, he was already too deep into the forest to reach. "You've been quiet Pinkie, you're normally excided about meeting new ponies, I thought you would ask him a thousand questions about... She's gone isn't she?" Twilight stated in realization, her friends nodded. "Sigh. Lets get back to Ponyville , I know I heard that name somewhere before."