Diamond had a short but elegant dress coloured white and pink, with some heavy looking high-heeled ponyshooes that were plated in metal, her dress featured a silver breastplate with her cutie mark engraved upon it, one that could be removed and attached with little effort, meaning that she didn’t need to be wearing the armour all the time, and she could simply wear the outfit as a nice dress. She also had a little silver tiara that matched the one she wore in Ponyville, with the exception of being a little flatter and more like a circlet to better fit the head of whatever she was now. Luckily the outfit also came with a silver and blue scarf, a gift from Celestia, or rather Discord, given the chilly air.
Sweetie had a longer, heavier, white coat that was clearly padded, with a fur collar and fur cloak, while the air was chilly, the cloak was a little much and so she left it in her bag, but the dress was nice. Her mane colours trimmed the outfit and a little patch in the shape of a star with a music note in the middle decorated her chest. It almost reminded her of those griffon military uniforms they wore in winter.
Scootaloo had an orange shirt and a thick black short-sleeved jacket with metal plates sewn inside and holes for her wings. She also had some heavy pants with metal plates sewn on and another pair of heavy ponyshooes, around her waist was a spiked belt with a light purple skirt with the symbol of a wing and lightning bolt sewn on. She almost gave off an aura of menace in that jacket and pants, like she was somepony out to beat up someone and rob them, but the cute little skirt nearly ruined the effect.
Apple Bloom had the simplest of their clothing, a sweater with some kind of vest that also felt metal-plated, although unlike Diamond’s gleaming, royal-guard style, breastplate or Scootaloo’s rugged pants, these plates were clearly inside the vest, hidden by the brown cloth. With a simple pair of pants and a hat exactly like her sisters save for the metal emblem of an apple and a heart adorning it like a sheriff’s medal. The most obvious pieces of armour were a pair of bronze ponyshooes for both her sets of legs, hind and fore.
Sweetie Belle was really the only one of them used to wearing clothing, but Discord provided them, they were decent armour, and they got them out of the Celestia damned cold. The thought that Discord had provided them armour was both relieving and at the same time more chilling than the cold air… Equestria had plenty of monsters, but for the most part, the guard could handle them, why would this place have a school dedicated to teaching monster-killing… Couldn’t their own guards handle it? And now they had just been given armour as if Discord was expecting them to be attacked right as they awoke… And the most annoying part, sure, the fillies liked their new armour, but why did Diamond get the best protection!
They took the time getting dressed to inspect the field around them, it was a clearing in the woods not too far from a hill, there was a glow emanating from just beyond. “What do you think, should we head that way?” Asked Sweetie, pointing toward the dim light from just beyond the hill and woods.
“Well, where there’s light, there has to be something producing light, it doesn’t have the orange hue of a fire, so I’m guessing it’s a town or city,” Said Diamond.
“I’d guess the same.”
“It doesn’t matter what’s over there, so long as I find some food,” Apple Bloom muttered.
“I don’t care where we go, so long as it’s not as boring as this place,” Scootaloo said.
“I guess that means we’re in agreement… Come on, we should get moving,” Said Diamond.
“What about those boxes…” Said Apple Bloom, pointing toward the cardboard boxes discord had given them, “I took a peek inside and found all kinds of metal bits, screws, pipes, all that kind of thing, including some papers that looked important.”
Diamond sighed, “All they are is some metal junk… I don’t know why Discord gave them to us, but I don’t want to haul those to… Wherever we’re going.”
Apple Bloom replied, “Discord gave them to us, we can’t just leave it, they’re probably important!”
Diamond replied in turn, “Do you want to carry all that metal for who knows how far.”
Sweetie cut in, “I’ll take a box if that helps, I’ve carried Rarity’s luggage enough that I’ve gotten plenty of practice in hauling boxes,” She moved to the box with her name on it, the largest of the bunch… Back when they were in Equestria, as ponies, the box was nearly the size of a thirteen-year-old filly, and that wasn’t counting its length, it was nearly twice as long as even a fully grown pony. The box was still pretty big but if she set the box on her shoulder and held it with her claws, it wouldn’t be too hard to carry.
Scootaloo nodded and moved to her box, the smallest of the bunch, being just big enough that she could comfortably carry it in her claws. Apple Bloom went to pick up hers and discovered, rather surprisingly, that while being nowhere near as big as Sweetie’s box, hers was somehow the heaviest.
Diamond scoffed, and when they realized that she wasn’t going to be taking her box with her, Scootaloo grabbed it and again was surprised that while easily being three times the size of her package, Diamond’s was somehow the lightest.
Soon they had scaled the hill and saw the source of the glow. “Woah!” Exclaimed Scoots, Apple Bloom looked rather impressed, and Sweetie stared mouth agape. Diamond merely stared, not showing much of a reaction. The city was massive, bigger than Canterlot, bigger than Manehattan even, it stretched all the way from the coast on one side to the mountain on the other, behind that mountain, in the shadows, they could vaguely see what looked like more of the city, but no lights came from over there. At the other end of the city from where they were now, they could see a huge spire overlooking a cliff-face. There was the occasional airship patrolling the skies, not nearly as many as in Cloudsdale or Rainbow Falls, and certainly not as many as Las Pegasus, but they were there, too far away to make out any details about them though.
“Looks like a three or four hour trot… Let’s stop gawking and get there as soon as possible,” Apple Bloom said, breaking the spell the fillies had been under. And so they began their trek, the forest proved sparse enough to easily traverse.
News travels fast in Ponyville, it wasn’t long before everypony in town knew what Silver Spoon had heard and seen, four fillies, the notorious Crusaders and the equally infamous Diamond Tiara, going to a school to hunt monsters, seemingly teleported away by Discord.
School that day was rather quiet. Cheerilee stepped in, “So, apparently Discord,” She said, her voice an amalgamation of all kinds of emotions: Exasperation, relief, disdain, confusion, and worry. “Has decided to send off four certain foals to some other school… One about, ‘fighting monsters’.”
“We know,” Almost the entire class said at once.
“Silver Spoon wouldn’t shut up about it,” A monochromatic grey and dark grey colt said.
“I kinda wish Sweetie didn’t leave,” A brown and rust-coloured colt continued.
“At least we won’t have to deal with Diamond’s brattiness…” A shy platinum and blonde filly continued.
“I kinda feel the same, but Scootaloo was a friend, I don’t like to see her go,” The first colt finished.
Throughout the day, half of the school was happy, the other half sombre, happy to be rid of four forces of destruction and annoyance who had terrorized the school and Ponyville as a whole… But at the same time, those four were good friends to some, and had disappeared without a trace.
In the corner of the playground, a lonely filly sat… Diamond Tiara was her only friend, she was one of the few ponies in the entire world who she could trust… And now she was gone. Silver Spoon wanted to yell out for Discord’s name, wanted to demand that he bring her to Diamond, but she was also scared… Not just about the potential dangers that exist wherever they had been sent, but also Discord’s unpredictability. She wasn’t going to go, she didn’t have the strength or courage to find her one and only friend… Silver started to let tears collect under closed eyes as she heard the other foals play.
“Silver…” Came a voice, that of a colt.
“We know how much Diamond meant to you” Came the sweet and quiet voice of a filly.
“And the crusaders were our friends too,” Another colt spoke up, his voice a little higher-pitched and more energetic.
“So, we’re going to go have a talk with Discord… And we want you to come with us,” The first colt finished.
Silver Spoon opened her eyes and stared, still wet with tears, at the three… None of them were ponies she knew well, one of them she was sure was a filly Diamond and herself had teased and insulted numerous times, but these ponies were willing to help…
We were almost there… We had been walking for a few hours now. The team’s legs were sore, arms heavy from the metal-filled boxes they carried with them, but the glow of the city lights were growing steadily closer. A familiar sound graced the four ears of Sweetie, who immediately recognized the danger… Timberwolf.
She raised her hand to stop, Diamond heard it too and did the same, soon they were sitting there, confused. “Timberwolf,” Sweetie whispered, “I heard its growling, be careful.” A few tense moments passed, and Diamond gasped when she saw a pair of glowing crimson eyes coming from the darkness between the trees.
Sweetie may not have been a pony anymore, she might not have had a horn, but she still had her magic, she could still feel the energies running through her body, and so she reached out with her claws and focused for all her might, and behold, a green barrier flashed into existence around Diamond as the wolf charged…
This was when they realized they were mistaken about what exactly this creature was… This creature wasn’t a timberwolf, this wasn’t a normal wolf, this was some other canine creature. Its stature reminded Sweetie of the Diamond Dogs, this thing bore the torso of an ape, with massive claws, and she could tell from their razor-like talons that these were claws meant for killing, not digging, and it’s head, while undeniably canine, reminding her a bit of Winona, bore a mask of bone engraved with glowing red marks that oozed with malignant magical energies, energies that every pony here could feel in their bones.
The creature’s claws slammed into the barrier and Sweetie felt her magic collapse in on itself with a painful implosion in her mind, it would be a minute or two before she could pull off magic like that again. She fell to the ground, letting out a scream of pain as the spell’s violent assault reacted with the nerves in her skull.
Apple Bloom wasted no time and rushed forward. Leaping, she rammed her forehoof, claw curled into a ball, right into the chest of the wolf-monster. With all her force, her fear, her rage, and the screams of Sweetie Belle backing her fist, it didn’t send the monster flying, it cut through its rather frail flesh and burst out the other side, bronze shoe coated in black and red ichor that started to turn to an acrid black smoke. A little sickened at herself, realizing that she struck with much more force than she had intended, she stared, disgusted at the sludge leaking from the monster’s body.
The wolf wore an expression of astonishment, or at least as astonished as a mindless beast could be, as it went limp and started to dissolve. Apple Bloom ripped her claw from the creature’s chest and turned to see if there were any others approaching. Of course, there were.
“Diamond, watch out!” Called Scootaloo as she tried her usual tactic of running around and harassing the foe, only to trip on nothing, still not used to this strange body, not enough to attempt a wild dash through uneven ground.
Diamond lept to the side as another of these wolf-monsters came charging, she narrowly avoided it’s scything claws, and the monster impacted the ground with a thud, but was quick to recover. Not quick enough it seemed, as Diamond got to her hooves first and stomped over to the creature, a sharp buck to the side keeping it down as she rammed her shooed hind leg over and over again into the creature with her earth-pony strength, horrible snapping and cracking and popping noises came from the beast as Diamond pummeled it’s head into the ground until it started to dissolve into an ebony sludge and noxious fume…
Diamond felt sick for a moment, realizing that she had killed the wolf… She had beaten ponies before, she had hurt, she always felt bad about it afterwards, but she had never truly injured someone, not even broken a bone… Now she had actually killed… But this wasn’t a pony, any creature with a trace of magic in their blood could feel the dark energies flowing off this thing, even as it lay there, dying, boiling into goo and finally into smoke before it dissolved further, back into the magical energies that it had been originally. This creature in truth never actually existed, but was rather an entity of magic… This was something she could kill without regret. Or at least she tried to convince herself of that, but the guilt gnawed at her mind, thus she stood there, staring at the dissolving monster, not knowing what to think.
Another two lept from the shadows, clearly, they were not as cowardly as Timberwolves. Scootaloo was right in their path and had just managed to recover her hoofing. From experience in the Everfree, she knew exactly what to do, she leapt into the air, the air seeming to flow around her and give her that boost she needed, guided by the magic of a pegasus. She considered for a moment trying an old trick Rainbow had once shown her, but this wasn’t the time for experimentation, she could practice that later. The air current reversed and with gravity’s help, she plunged down on to the wolf’s back.
Even in this new body, she didn’t have the weight to hurt the creature just from falling, pegasi were nearly a quarter the weight of any normal pony, even when not using their magic, but she did grab a tight hold on the wolf’s back with her new claws. Brandishing a broken stick she had grabbed from the forest floor, she plunged the wooden stake deep into the monster’s back, drawing black goo from the wound and seeing its glowing red flesh.
Scootaloo savoured the adrenaline as she struck down again and again with her makeshift stake. Scootaloo questioned for a moment her sanity, enjoying the pain she was causing, but she soon remembered that this creature wanted to cause pain and death to her friends, and nothing was going to touch them as long as she had something to say about it. With one final strike, the stake went through the wolf’s neck and it stopped struggling.
Sweetie had gotten back to her hooves, and felt the aching in her head subside, but she still found it hard to concentrate… Scootaloo was busy stabbing one of the malignant wolf-creatures, the others looked paralysed, not moving, staring at the rapidly dissolving bodies of the monsters. There came another growl from the woods, and it lunged at the still form of Diamond.
Sweetie didn’t have much magic left in her for now, that barrier took all she had, and she hadn’t recovered much in the past dozen or so seconds. But she had to do something, so she closed her eyes, raised her arms, and let the power she had in her reach out with the intent to cut. There was a single pulse of green around the wolf’s center torso, and just like that it was bisected, legs and upper torso impacting the ground separately, rolling, and coming to a stop right before the still shocked Diamond.
Everyone stood still for a moment, a little on edge, expecting one or two more to come jumping out from the bush… But nothing happened… Everything was still. Sweetie Belle allowed herself to collapse in exhaustion, a stunned Apple Bloom just sat on the ground, Diamond stared down to where there had once been a monster, and now just pulverized dirt, and Scootaloo fell to her back, panting, and wincing a bit at the pain in her wings as she fell on them.
Everypony sat there for what felt like hours, but in all likelihood, it was merely a few minutes, when there came a noise. A loud whirring, a screech like a demented train engine kicked up to a million, or like a cross between a whistling teapot and yelling griffon. All the ponies got to their hooves, and frantically looked around for the source of the noise, Scootaloo holding her newfound weapon at the ready.
Suddenly, an airship, a rather small one, made from what looked like metal, and somehow flying on the magical energy emitted from the two massive horn-like protrusions on either wing, descended from the sky, looking like a metal oval with a three-finned tail, like a flying fish. A door opened on the side and inside were two bipedal creatures in some kind of armour, one in some metal plate armour not too unlike what the royal guards would wear, except that it seemed made from a grey metal rather than gold, and the other wearing a heavy trenchcoat, looking down at the ponies.
One of the two bipeds gestured to someone out of sight and the craft descended, the conical protrusions, emanating with enough magic for the equestrians to feel, started to decrease in power and rotate, allowing the ship to land smoothly on the ground as a ramp extended from the vessel’s open doorframe, allowing the two bipeds to march out to the ground.
“We saw the smoke and flashes of light from the walls, thought a grimm attack was heading our way…” One said, a stallion, judging from his voice.
“What’s four faunus girls doing out here? Are you with Beacon or one of the combat schools?” The other one, again another male, at least from voice, continued.
“No…” Sweetie spoke up, voice dripping with exhaustion, “We saw the city’s lights and made our way here…”
“Probably survivors from an unmapped settlement…”
Diamond simply nodded, it was clearly the answer they expected, she was hesitant to say anything more, at least until they got a greater understanding of where exactly they were… Faunus, so that’s what these creatures were called.
“Well…” The stallion’s voice spoke of deep regret and pitty, “I’m glad we found you when we did then… We’ll take you into Vale, along with anything you might be carrying, but once you get inside the city, I’m afraid you’ll be on your own.”
“We’ll manage,” Apple Bloom said, getting to her hind-hooves and started lifting the boxes of parts on to the ship, one of the two alien stallions rushing to her aid.
“I can’t believe that you four managed to take out all these grimm yourself, without any weapons no less…” The one in the trenchcoat said before helping Sweetie to her hooves and into the ship.
Discord heard his name spoken, as he always did, but this wasn’t someone using his name in fear, gossip, or ignorance… This was someone calling to him with intent, someone wanted to see him, how interesting… But this was expected. He answered, appearing from his realm of non-reality to greet the pony who had called him. And so he appeared within a shack on the Apple Family’s farm.
A grey filly with a silver mane stood, a look of defiance and courage on her face… Loyalty ran deep in this young mare’s veins, and part of Discord wanted to go back in time and make her the bearer of the Element of Loyalty instead… Perhaps an experiment for another time and another reality. Discord was a little surprised at the three other foals with her, two colts and a filly… Then, a wonderfully chaotic idea ran through his cosmic mind.
Silver Spoon took a step forward, “Discord,” She said, doing an impressive job at hiding the trepidation in her tone, “I-” She paused, “We want to go to Monster-Hunting School…” The other young ponies nodded and gave their affirmations.
Discord couldn’t help a smirk from crossing his features. “It’s a dangerous world out there, I’m positive Diamond and the Crusaders have figured that out first-hoof by now… I’m simply giving you this warning, once.”
Silver Spoon was scared, but nodded her head… Loyalty was very strong in this one indeed… “Very Well,” And with a snap of his fingers four boxes and four bags appeared, and with another finger snap, the four foals and their gifts vanished from this planet.