//------------------------------//
// Chapter 10: The First Hunt - Part 2 
// Story: Fillies and Monsters 
// by Solaris Vult 
//------------------------------//

Rainbow Dash slid another bolt into the crossbow. Behind, Spitfire watched her, she hadn’t been there a moment ago… But there was no time for that. She bit down on the trigger, and another bolt stuck right into the eye-socket of the dummy. Rainbow Dash slid another bolt into the crossbow.

“Hey, Dash.” Rainbow didn’t respond, instead, she bit down on the trigger again, and a bolt struck the target clean in the heart. “Dash!” Spitfire shouted.

“What…” Dash replied bitterly, loading another enchanted bolt into the crossbow… Magic weaved into the bolts helped them to fly perfectly straight, she wasn’t going to let something like wind or gravity from stopping her from hitting the target.

“Dash… For the past week, I’ve never seen you once for flying practice, you’ve not joined us in any events… You’ve spent all your time in here… What’s wrong?”

“Why do you think something’s wrong… I’m perfectly fine,” She replied, again bitterly, firing another bolt, this time it struck the target clean in the other eye-socket. She slid another bolt into the crossbow.

“You’ve never enjoyed marksmareship training… You’ve never wanted to practice hoof-to-hoof combat… Now it’s the only thing you’re ever doing.”

“What do you think! Has it ever occurred to you that it could be something about how Discord sent Scoots away to some alien world filled with monsters, then says that I can’t go with her because it’s too dangerous!” There was a pause, “Get out of here… You may be my commanding officer, but I don’t care… I have more training to get to.”

Spitfire just nodded and trotted off, trying to argue with Dash when she got like this was a pointless endeavour… Plus, she knew the feelings the rainbow-maned mare was going through right now... At least Discord would make sure the fillies were safe, at least they would come back someday. Rainbow Dash slid another bolt into the crossbow… If she needed to, she would become the deadliest weapon on Equus, if it meant seeing Scootaloo again. She bit down on the trigger, and another bolt struck the dummy’s forehead, perfect aim, despite her target being easily two-hundred meters away, on the other end of the firing range.





Waiting in the forest was a pack of grimm, two ursai, fifteen beowolves, seventeen creeps. Change that to fourteen creeps, as a series of booms rang out through the forest, autocannon shells rending the small grimm to paste, that quickly evaporated in the air. “Damn! Missed quite a few that time,” Said Apple Bloom, her aim thrown off by the recoil, causing many of the shots in her volley of eight to go wild, ripping into the ground or distant trees. Scootaloo was already running from the bush, both her pistols primed. A hissing blast blew a hole in one of the beowolves, and a second hissing blasting a hole in the head of one of the creeps.

One of the ursai turned and roared at Scootaloo, charing, trampling two of the creeps in the process. Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom, and a volley of autocannon shells tore into the ursa, tearing a series of holes in its black skin. Diamond lept from off a branch of one of the trees, sword glimmering in hand, and in a single motion beheaded two of the beowolves, a strong kick sending one of the creeps crashing into a tree.

The remaining ursa turned to run, and was caught in the side by a blast of green lightning. Sweetie ran forward, and with her halberd, she cast the cutting spell, a wave of green energy slicing forth and splitting the bear in half. Only ten creeps remained, and twelve beowolves. Sweetie let her axe blade fall and nearly split a beowolf right down the middle, as Scootaloo, running around the confused and enraged horde, let out a gout of fire from one pistol that reduced one beowolf and three more creeps to ash, then she turned and with the other pistol, blasted a beowolf right in the torso. She didn’t see the third beowolf right behind her, who descended and started slashing at her aura with it’s scything claws.

As Scootaloo cried out in pain, Diamond lept and impaled the offending beast with a jab of her sword. Scootaloo, to her surprise, was completely unharmed, asides from the phantom pains that racked her body where gruesome claws tried to tear at her skin. One more beowolf lept at Tiara, but suddenly found itself ramming into a wall of green as Sweetie aimed her staff and cast the shield over the pair of girls. The shield fell a moment later as Sweetie’s magic failed, but that was enough time for Tiara to split her sword blade in half and pull down on the trigger. A brilliant beam of energy launched from the dust-cannon and, in a great flash of golden lightning, the beowolf fell, a meter-wide hole ripped in its torso.

That just left seven more of the wolf-monsters and seven more of the legged snake creatures. Boom-boom-boom, another autocannon volley ripped apart three more creeps, Apple Bloom pausing between shots, trying to keep the recoil under control. That was followed by a blur of red that caught one of the beowolves in the side and split it apart. Yang lept from the trees and started beating a pair of wolves with a rapid series of punches, and Apple Bloom lept out of cover as three creeps ganged up on the machine-gunner who had been decimating them. 

With her cannon in hammer form, Apple Bloom rammed it down on one of the creeps, smashing it like it were an insect, the other two lept, but a kick sent one flying, leaving just one more, which started biting at her head and neck and jabbing her with its legs. There was the sound of a gun firing, and a blur of red sliced the offending creep in half, the blur resolved itself into Ruby, her over-engineered monster, as Yang called it when Ruby wasn't listening, in hand. She helped the filly back up as the others finished the fight.

Diamond and Scootaloo had finished up the last of the creeps, with bursts of superheated air, and glimmering fields of magic ripping the creatures to bloody shreds. Sweetie, with more blasts of green lightning, had rendered several of the beowolves dead, and with Yang’s help, the last of the grimm had been dealt with by a single punch to the head.

“That was AWESOME!” Yelled Ruby and Scootaloo in unison.

“Those pistols were amazing, did you see that stream of fire you launched, and when you ran in there and blasted that beowolf right in the chest!’ Ruby shouted.

“You were all spinning around and slashing with that scythe of yours, cutting and slashing and the way you used the recoil was absolutely awesome! So cool!” Scootaloo returned.

“That was enlightening,” Diamond commented, “Certainly exciting.”

“If all monsters are like that, why do you need these fancy huntsman schools?” Apple Bloom said.

“Oh,” Yang commented, “ The grimm on Patch are pretty weak… Hell, back in winter Ruby tore through something like fifty beowolves,” Ruby blushed at this. “Grimm on the mainland are quite a bit tougher… There are some which might be able to shrug off hits from that autocannon.”

“Come, we should return to your house,” Sweetie said.





Research was going slow… Whenever the blood samples of the extraplanetary creature were removed from their stasis syringes, they would immediately begin to vapourize, and no serious experiments, analysis, or research could be done with the substance when it was under stasis, though, observing the vapourization process proved fairly insightful.

Many biologists in Canterlot considered the merits of having Discord bring another specimen for examination, and studying the new subject while under stasis spells… More conventional methods would be employed first though, as the princess Twilight Sparkle’s own research showed, magical energy, in general, proved harmful to the creatures. It was only unfortunate that relying on the god of chaos to provide another sample was not something the scientists were particularly eager to do… The deity was unpredictable at the best of times.

That was also the reason why research into this other world had stalled… Discord proved less than cooperative when Celestia summoned him to Canterlot to give the coordinates of this world so teleportation spells could be used to access it, and explained that, yes, in time he would give her the coordinates, now was not that time. This would, at least, give ponykind time to consider the implications of another world full of life, similar to their own...

And so, Twilight sat alone in her study, just returning home from spending a week working with various scientists in Canterlot. She was having Spike brew her some coffee as she read up on teleportation and portal spells when there came a knock on the door. “Darling, I know you must be busy, but I need your help."

Twilight sighed and put her book away, moving over to the door, “What is it, Rarity?” She asked, sounding a bit more bitter than she intended. She really didn't have the time or energy if it proved just another silly, vain, and empty concern.

“I know you’ve had a rough week, but it’s important… I need you to figure out what this thing does,” She said, pulling out an object wrapped in cloth. “Discord gave it to me, saying that it could help,” She carefully unravelled the cloth and set the little white device on a table. “I need to figure out if this can help me find Sweetie Belle, but I’ve been too afraid to even touch it for as long as I’ve had it, who knows what kind of devilish tricks that serpent could have placed on it, and so I was waiting for you to get back from Canterlot.”

Twilight sighed, “Tomorrow… I need to sleep before I go fucking around with Discord’s crap.”

Rarity gasped, “Language darling!”

“I. Don’t. Care... I'm too tired to care right now.”





Silver Spoon realized that she was actually pretty lucky that she arrived in this world in the late summer, going through this place in the spring or autumn would be painful, and she couldn’t imagine trudging through this place in the winter. A light snow sprinkled the ground and her companions followed her down the trail toward Mistral.

She held her spear at the ready, still wondering about what she should name it as she swung it around absently. Behind her, Button’s sword and shield were mounted safely on his back as he marched onward through the cold. Behind him, Rumble held his water-cooled machine gun at the ready, wings flared, waiting for something to attack… The three had run into far too many monsters on this trip already, and it was only now she realized just how paranoid the grey pegasus could be at times. In the back, Dinky used her musket like a walking stick and simply smiled as they marched ever onward.

Night was going to fall soon, and none of them wanted to sleep in this weather again… At least Pyrrha was kind enough to provide warm sleeping bags. They were all tremendously tired, even if Rumble didn’t admit it.

They felt the cold wind blowing against their bodies and heard some kind of metallic squeaking. In the distance, they saw what looked like some kind of house, and so they drew closer, hoping to find someone that would offer them shelter. But the closer and closer they drew, the more they realized how abandoned it looked…

There were several open buildings that looked like roofed livestock enclosures, but the rooves and fences all looked rotten and broken, torn apart by time, weather, and the abuse of nature. There was some kind of vehicle sitting on the road, coated in rust. The home in the back looked no better, and all the ponies present realized that their chances of finding hospitality in this place was not likely in the least… But Silver didn’t care, she was too tired to care. They craned their heads to look at the sign that read: Brunswick Farms.

“Let’s head inside,” Said Silver Spoon.

“Are you sure, I don’t like this place, there’s some kind of magic here,” Said Dinky.

“Would you rather stay out here and keep walking,” Said Button.

“I’d like to get out of the wilderness and away from monsters for a night,” Said Rumble.

“I think that settles it, Dinky,” Silver replied, “Come on, I’m tired.”

Dinky Hooves shook her head, but followed the other ponies, they were going to find their friends at Haven, and nothing was going to stop them… Any of them…