//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: The First Hunt - Part 1 // Story: Fillies and Monsters // by Solaris Vult //------------------------------// Ozpin was in his office, alone, night had just fallen and he sat there, chair swivelled to stare out of the clockface-window, out toward the rising moon… It was a full moon tonight, hiding the scars of the past. The elevator hummed as someone approached, and with a sigh, Ozpin swivelled his chair to face the newcomer. Out stepped a familiar face, and a face he certainly didn’t expect to see any time soon. “Taiyang? What brings you to Beacon?” “Hello, Oz… Something… Interesting, has happened,” Ozpin’s eyebrow raised, “See, Ruby and Yang found these four faunus girls who were fleeing after their town was destroyed…”  “Yes, I heard about that from Night Lark, he was the one who found them outside the walls,” Ozpin took a sip from his mug. “Yeah, I’m letting them stay at Patch for the time being… They say they want to come to Beacon,” Ozpin’s eyebrows raised once again, “At first, I thought they weren’t even going to make it past the entrance exam, they didn’t even know what aura was, they didn’t even know anything about the grimm, other than that they’re dangerous and prevalent… How does someone not know about the grimm!” “It’s not unheard of, there are those families who believe that ignorance is the best defence against the dangers of the world… I believe there are even a few in the city who have no knowledge of the monsters. Continue.” “Well… I decided to unlock their auras, to at least give them a chance, and…” Tai sighed, “They have some of the strongest auras I’ve ever seen, stronger than Raven… Stronger than Summer…” At that, Ozpin’s eyebrows shot up, “All four were that strong? Summer had one of the strongest auras of any huntsmen or huntresses in our generation, not counting myself, of course.” “Yeah, and it’s not just that… One of the girls, one who introduced herself as Sweetie Belle,” Tai began, “Wierd name,” He muttered under his breath before continuing further, “Apparently had unlocked her semblance before even unlocking her aura… As far as I can tell, it’s some kind of energy-manipulation ability… And it’s a powerful one.” “Really… I guess this gives Beacon two energy manipulators, I’ve gotten the transcripts from Sanctum and the esteemed Pyrrha Nikos will be joining us,” Ozpin smiled… At least these two will be under his supervision, having such rare and powerful semblances as they do… They would make fine warriors. “And she isn’t the only one… Apple Bloom has some kind of super-strength, and Scootaloo can seemingly create and control stormclouds, I saw her shoot a bolt of lightning from one she created in her hands… As silly as it sounds, at first I thought she might have been a Maiden.” Ozpin’s smile faded… No, she wasn’t, that was sure, all the maidens, with the exception of Spring, were accounted for, and he was certain that Spring hadn’t died between now and then, otherwise Qrow would have found her, or someone, even if they were in a remote village, would have reported the disturbance a magical child would cause… None the less, these children, with their odd names, seemed incredibly powerful… He would need to make sure to get them into Beacon, and he would make sure they were all placed on the same team, such a team would be a very powerful weapon against evil, if handled properly. But, there were plenty of unanswered questions left… He would need to keep a close eye on these children. A week had passed since the girls found themselves in this strange world, Remnant. The first day had been right after they showed up, awaking in their hotel beds and finding Ruby, and later that night, her sister, Yang… They had from there, boarded a late-night ship to Patch. The dawn of the second day, they had awoken aboard the ship and moved to Yang and Ruby’s home… There, they met Taiyang Xiao Long, who had unlocked their aura, and they had begun their training in hand-to-hand combat. According to Yang, they were quick learners. The third day was when they finally got their hands on their weapons… Or, at least, they would have… Yang insisted on them getting more hand-to-hand training before they moved on to weaponized combat, Yang also pointed out that they didn’t have any ammo, and would need to go to the mainland to get dust and bullets. So, that day was spent throwing more punches, and later that night the fillies discovered the human’s taste for meat… Meat was not uncommon in Equestria, not since Griffon cuisine had graced the restaurants of ponykind, Bacon was a favourite for any meat-eater, and Scootaloo said that chicken was to die for, but meat-eaters were still a minority, and so, while Apple Bloom tentatively tried beef, Sweetie Belle shovelled all her meat over to Scootaloo, who was certainly downing more than her share. The fourth day was when they started more aura control, Ruby showing them how to channel aura into solid objects to increase their durability… Apparently, most of the more complex weapons would simply break if their users tried to use them in battle without channelling their aura into them… Even food could become a weapon if used properly. After they had managed to stick a needle into a plank of wood without damaging the needle, apparently the same method used to teach children in Signal, Yang introduced them to aura jumping and aura running… Apparently, jumping fifteen feet into the air wasn’t something only a pegasus or Pinkie Pie could do, and someone running while using their aura to boost them could prove a challenge to even the fastest pegasus flier. The fifth day was more of the same, mostly aura control, but the fillies were learning that much quicker than most other students did, so Yang and Ruby both pitched in to train them in hand-to-hand… That was when the fillies discovered that Ruby was nearly just as useless in hand-to-hand combat, and so it suddenly became a five-vs-one battle, as Yang decided to show everyone there what a proper fist-fighter is like. At last, the fillies scored their first victory against the blonde, as Ruby and Scootaloo proved good enough distractions for Apple Bloom to land a crippling blow against Yang. The sixth day was something new… Melee combat… The fillies were all given crude wooden replicas of their weapons in their melee forms, apparently made by Ruby over the previous days, to give them something a little safer to train with than their actual weapons, as they still had yet to fully control their aura, and certainly didn’t have the years of instinct a student would acquire, learning how to channel and release their power almost subconsciously. Later that day Taiyang left the island to do some shopping back at the mainland, and the girls had a pretty good idea what he was getting. At last, the seventh day had dawned. The only thing the fillies regretted was not being able to make use of their gifts Discord had given them, between all the training, they never had the free time, and by the time they were finished, they were too exhausted, both physically and mentally, to do anything with the night. They were sitting in the living room, watching the television, when Tai burst through the door, carrying a sizable bag in his grasp, “I’m back!” He said, “I got plenty of ammo for everyone, and even a few dust rounds to try out.” Ruby gasped and ran out the door, coming back with the Crusader’s weapons in hand… “Oooh,” The girls all awed, realizing that this was the first time they had ever laid eyes on their own weapons. There was a longsword with little cyan crystals embedded in the pommel and ends of the crossguard, with some kind of cylinder in the center of the guard, and a long blade with a grove running down the middle. The sword’s handle was wrapped in pink cloth that matched Diamond’s hair perfectly, and a large lever extended downward along the handle from the central cylinder. It looked as if the sword were made entirely from silver, with the trigger-lever being gold, and the cylinder being a darker metallic grey. Diamond lifted the sword, the blade was tremendously heavy, but her earth-pony strength and aura made it seem as light as a feather in her grasp. She pulled down on the trigger and the blade split in half along the grove, moving to each side to make her sword look like an oversized tuning fork, and exposing the cylinder in the middle. “Those crystals are hard-light dust, I don’t really have much, but the schematics specifically called for it, so I used what samples I had… The stuff’s pretty expensive outside of Atlas.” Apple Bloom stared in awe of the massive weapon before her, the thing had a thirty-millimetre bore, according to Ruby, which was apparently a bit on the big side for a weapon. Ruby explained that it was built like an oversized assault rifle, with a side-mounted drum magazine, and a trigger set into the back of the weapon, underneath the oddly placed guard and in front of the butt, making it like someone had mounted a stock to the back of what was supposed to be an emplaced weapon. She pulled a lever that doubled as an iron sight, extending down the barrel of the gun, and the stock retracted, the barrel swung downward, and it turned into some kind of hammer, the barrel now the shaft. Sweetie’s was as simple as they come, it was a halberd… Or, more accurately, a battle-axe with a giant yellow dust crystal mounted on the tip of the shaft like a spearhead. That was when Tai explained how dust could be used as a weapon all on its own, such as being thrown, weaved into clothing, or fused with the body, and not just stuffed inside bullets. Scootaloo looked at her pistols in glee, they were rather big, with cylinders mounted to their sides, and little knives mounted to their oversized barrels, the barrels covered in holes. “Interesting design,” Scootaloo commented. “They are designed to exclusively use fire dust as ammo, the holes are there to help with cooling… Aura might prevent physical damage, but it won’t stop your weapons from melting,” Ruby said. “So, they shoot balls of fire?” “No, not balls of fire so much as beams of fire… They have three settings, you can either expend the entire dust canister in a single blast that could probably melt straight through a concrete pillar, you can shoot smaller blasts of heat, or you can shoot gouts of flame like a flamethrower… It was actually a pretty fascinating design,” Ruby finished. The girls lifted their weapons and moved outside to the yard, there, Ruby showed them all how to reload their weapons, and carefully informed them of the dangers of running out of ammo, “Apple Bloom, that cannon of yours only has twenty shots, then you need to reload, so each time you fire, count down from twenty, that’s a good way of making sure you don’t run out right when you’re facing down the claws of an ursa… The rest of your weapons operate on dust, so they’re much harder to predict… Well, except for Diamond’s sword, which has only a single shot before you need to reload.” The girls stared at this girl, Ruby, who was normally so weird, quirky, and in some ways, shy… Suddenly she sounded like Spitfire giving a lecture to Wonderbolt recruits as she drilled them on weapon maintainance. It came time to test the weapons, both in melee and ranged forms. Apple Bloom stepped up, aimed the massive rife at a tree, and pulled the trigger. There was a tremendous boom-boom-boom noise, Apple Bloom was thrown on her back and slid across the ground, propelled by the recoil, the tree she was aiming now had three massive holes torn through it, each one large enough to stick a pony foal’s head through. More loud booms followed as Apple Bloom tried to find a way to hold the gun without falling flat on her back, eventually, she just decided that standing and firing didn’t mix well, and opted to crouch and shoot instead. She pulled the transforming handle and took a grip on the cannon’s barrel, soon Apple Bloom was holding a large hammer in her grasp. She proved equally skilled with it as she did when shooting, flinging herself around with the momentum and inertia involved in swinging such a large and heavy weapon. Eventually, she got the hang of it. Diamond raised her sword, she swung it around with ease. As she poured some aura into the sword, the little cyan crystals in the blade’s handle changed into a bright pink, and a field of pink energy encased the sword-blade. Diamond stared at the magical energy that shimmered around the sword’s blade, as she swung it around it left a glimmering trail of light in the air for a few moments. Everyone stared in awe as the blade danced around, creating glimmering patterns in the air, Diamond swung it at a tree, and it passed clean through as if it weren't there, it wasn’t so much cutting, as separating the material. She pulled the lever and the energy field disappeared, the blade split in two, and exposed the central canister, filled with the same orange dust used in Yang’s gauntlets. She pulled the lever again, and, aiming the weapon into the air, it shot off a solid beam of energy straight up. Sweetie stared at the pink crystals now inhabiting Diamond’s sword, then looked at the large yellow dust-crystal on her halberd. She put her hand on the crystal and poured her own power into it… It turned the same minty green colour as her own magic and glowed a bit brighter as it sparked and crackled. She grinned, as the others looked on in interest, with the exception of Ruby, Yang, and Tai, who all stared at the crackling green crystal with looks of confusion and awe. Sweetie was equally surprised at the magical reaction, but then as she looked at the minty green colour, it made sense… She raised her halberd and focused on it, closing her eyes, thinking of it as an extension of her arm… It felt, almost like her old horn, as she waved it around. She channelled her aura and magic down the length of the shaft and into the crystal… A spell matrix formed in her mind and-  She opened her eyes to see a shield had formed around her, she changed the spell in her mind and the shield vanished. She raised her halberd and pointed it away from the house and the others, as, from the crystal, a wave of telekinetic force washed out in a cone over the yard, it wasn’t particularly powerful, but it still kicked up dirt, uprooted grass, and sent insects flying. She couldn’t wait to start reading through her spellbook, now that she had a staff to cast with. When she looked back, the fillies, even Tiara, were clapping. Over the week, she had really warmed up to the Crusaders… Ruby and Yang stared in awe, and Tai was… A little scared, judging from his eyes. Finally, it was Scootaloo’s turn, she raised her pistols, loaded with fire dust, and pulled the trigger on both… The most surprising part, to her anyway, was the lack of recoil, particularly after seeing Apple Bloom thrown around like that by her cannon, but these were smaller, so it made sense. There was a loud popping-hissing noise from the air as her pistols unleashed beams of heat that boiled the air it passed through. The tree she was aiming at didn’t even catch fire, rather there was a small steam explosion at the point she was aiming, the heat explosively vaporizing the plant matter. Scootaloo twisted a dial on her two pistols, then fired them into the air. They unleashed an impressive torrent of fire. Yang asked something to her father, no one caught what she said, but everyone noticed Tai’s reaction, “What!” “Come on dad, it’ll be great training, plus, I want to see them in action!” “Only if Ruby comes along too.” “You think I’d miss this!” The red-hooded girl practically shouted. “Fine, but don’t be out there for more than a few hours.” The human girls nodded, then Yang turned to the fillies as Ruby ran off to retrieve her scythe, “Come on, get those guns reloaded, we’re going grimm hunting!”