//------------------------------//
// The Badlands 
// Story: The Hunters of Secrets 
// by Arkantos 
//------------------------------//

As the Butcher, Black Fall wasn't doing much in the wagon after the ambush. She and Cold Blood took off from Ponyville. 

Through most of the journey to the Badlands, Black Fall found it hard to sleep. There were a few boxes in the back of the wagon and whenever Cold Blood passed over a bump in the road, the boxes would jump or slide to where she was sleeping. Being unable to sleep, Black Fall decided to look in the boxes to see if there was anything useful inside, or possibly something to eat. She found some apples.

Black Fall said, "Well, that is unfortunate."

She closed the boxes. "Why couldn't they have purchased berries? I quite enjoy berries."

Her ears flattened as she said, "I guess if worse comes to worst, I could devour an apple. It may not be as tasty as a berry, but it will leave my stomach feeling satisfied."

Black Fall moved deeper into the wagon and saw a built-in desk, a perfect spot for reading. She walked towards it while going through her saddlebags. Finding what she was looking for, she brought out a book and placed it on the desk. She and the other hunters had to read it to better understand their prey, and she quite enjoyed it, so much so that she had read through it several times. However, this copy was not from Blood Moon. No, the Butcher stole this copy from somepony else in Ponyville. The book itself had seen better days: a couple bookmarks here, some torn pages there, and some pages completely missing. Besides that, the book was still in good condition. Black Fall recalled the one thing that she actually found interesting in the book: the history of the Monsters past.The front of the book was covered in gold letters, titled Terrifying Monsters and How to Properly Kill Them.

Black Fall opened the book and carefully went through several pages before finding a page containing an image of a pony-like creature with a lion’s mane and tail, except the tail had a little more hair in it. It also had a horn on its head that could be mistaken for a branch. On the creature’s back, there were scales. And underneath the image was scrawled the name of the creature. The Kirin was once believed to be kind and caring. They could gently speed up the growth of plants. But ponies should not be fooled by the Kirin’s kind greetings or generally helpful nature, because if you make one angry, they can transform into fiery versions of themselves, known as Nirik. If there's a group of them nearby and one becomes angry enough to become a Nirik, it could cause the rest of them to burst into flames as well, with the mind of a beast that has an instinct to destroy anything and everything. These creatures have been known to burn down entire towns. The best way to deal with them is to convince the entire village or town to avoid them like the plague. If avoiding them is not an option, then ponies should go for a stealth kill. But you must be sure the group of monsters doesn't see you, because if they do, the most likely scenario would be a smoldering, crispy village.

Black Fall reread through the Kirin page four more times before carefully going through the book again. She found another interesting creature. An insect pony, the Chitin, a black creature with a silky-looking mane and tail. Its hooves had cheese-like holes and the creature also had insect-like wings. A pair of fangs rested under the muzzle, and on top of the head was a pointy horn and insect blue eyes. Under the image, the name of the race of these creatures showed: Changeling.

Black Fall mumbled to herself, "I shouldn't be surprised. It's the same for every creature in this book." She continued reading.

The changelings are a hidden race of monsters that tend to stick to the shadows and basically disguise themselves as other ponies. But when they attack, they do it through several faces and with confidence that they will win no matter what or who they are attacking. They usually attack in a swarm and depend on numbers to win. Word of advice, don't fight an entire swarm alone, because if you do, it will be a bloody mess. They first appeared and succeeded in what has been known in history as The Attack on Canterlot. A swarm is usually led by a queen. So far, there has only been one queen known in existence. Since the day of the Canterlot attack, ponies have known that changelings have the numbers to seriously invade Equestria. But for some reason, they haven't yet. Someponies theorize that the queen doesn't want to lose and therefore is buying time to create more Changeling to increase their numbers and eventually take over Equestria without the ponies knowing it. But since the wedding at Canterlot, several ponies have begun to realize that there was a reason several villages in the badlands were abandoned to these things. However, Changeling cannot survive without pink energy,, known as love energy. It powers them up and they need it to survive the changing. The more eager it is to change, the more willing it is to get that love energy. And if you have a foal in front of the starving changeling, that foal can cause it to reveal itself. And when that happens, you kill it. Fast. As for the queens..."

Before Black Fall could continue reading, they went over a big bump and the entire wagon tilted. Black Fall realized the wagon was no longer moving, so she made her way out of the cramped space and opened the door. The sun temporarily blinded her, but she quickly adjusted her eyes and saw rocky hills and mountains ahead.  When she looked around, she saw Cold Blood by a natural river that seemed to be the only source of water in the area. The Butcher made her way to him and then looked at the river, staring at her reflection, seeing so many scars of the past.

Cold Blood raised his eyebrows at her before saying with a harsh tone, "Well, what are you waiting for? Take a drink!"

Black Fall shook her head and took a good long drink from the water. Then she looked at Cold Blood and said, "Aren't you all sunshine and rainbows." Then she went for a second drink.

"The reason why I'm so cranky,” he said, “is because I spent nearly all of the day hauling a wagon in the ruthless heat of the sun! Meanwhile, you were inside, getting lost in whatever you were doing. At least you had shade!"

Finishing her second drink, Black Fall realized that what he said was true. She did spend nearly all day in the wagon. 

She gave her companion a cold stare and said, "I was taking inventory on what we have so far. We have four crates of apples, some rope, and a built-in desk. Also I needed time to think." 

Black Fall recalled back to the ambush, how she had the capability of sparing those two Hunters but some unnatural power had washed over her and caused her to kill them instead.  She  pondered more on that but was interrupted by Cold Blood.

"I get it, I get it," Cold Blood said. "If we want to survive, we need to be two steps ahead of the Hunters, right?"

Black Fall walked to the fire pit that Cold Blood had dug up and sat down on a log. She stared into space for a little while before answering. "Yes."

Not convinced by her answer, Cold Blood began to poke the ground with his claws. He wore a look that said he wanted to say something but he didn't know how to say it.

Black Fall was still trying to ponder on that unpleasant thing, but then she saw Cold Blood and rolled her eyes. 

"What is it, Cold Blood? I know we haven't known each other for long, but I can tell when something is bothering you, so please tell me - what is it?"

 A hour passed before Cold Blood managed to work up the courage to say, "How did you end up in that pit with me?"

Black Fall thought about his question for a moment before saying, "I suppose it all started in a village called Guano Town."

 
Flashback


Black Fall and three other Hunters arrived at the town; or, at least, what was left of it. Several buildings were destroyed. The leader of the Hunters’ little group was questioning the town’s mayor and the other two Hunters started to look around.  Black Fall did the same, but she was paying more attention to the destroyed buildings. She found the remains of a crushed Unicorn; she guessed that this Unicorn was once the owner of the building. But there was something a bit strange about the remains. For one thing, the Unicorn didn't have any weapons on him. For another thing, this was the fifth building to get attacked. But the strangest thing was that it looed like the Unicorn had been pierced by the monster, not crushed by the debris. As Black Fall walked out from the demolished rubble, another pony went in to clean up the sticky mess before it attracted flies. 

Black Fall flew up to a roof and started to think to herself. 'Why would a creature kill a Unicorn before smashing the place? Unless there's more going on.' Before she could start investigating the other destroyed buildings, Black Fall heard the Hunters call.

 She glided down to Harsh Lee, a dark pink Chiroptera with a black mane and tall. Despite being a Hunter, Harsh could get very heated, very fast. 

"OK,” Harsh said. ”It looks like there's only one monster trashing this place and they say it usually comes at night, so we’re going to trap it here."

Black Fall asked, "Are you sure we should do this? Because I just looked in one of the destroyed houses and it was weird. It was like the creature specifically targeted the pony who lived there."

Harsh Lee stared at Black Fall coldly and said very carefully, "Black Fall, are you questioning our mission? Or Did Little Old You Forget You Are A Hunter!? "

"No, I just think we should be questioning the town’s ponies more to find out what's really going on here and why this monster is destroying their buildings," she pointed her hoof toward a pile of rubble,. "and not the other buildings!" 

As Black Fall spoke, she came nearer and nearer to Harsh. She continued. "I think there's a little more to the story than just a monster rampaging through this village, don't you?"

Another Hunter put his hoof up to his face and murmured, "Here she goes again, overanalyzing things when she should really focus on killing monsters."

Harsh look at her with murder written on her face. Then she punched Black Fall and yelled, "Your Need For Analyzing And Observing Can Get Annoying!" Her expression turned stoney and she continued. "You must realize that we are here to kill monsters. So lose those analyzing and observing skills of yours and focus more on trapping and killing." 

Harsh kicked some dirt in Black Fall’s face before heading back to the group. 

A bit calmer now, she addressed all of the Hunters, saying, "OK, boys and girls, from what the mayor has told me, our monster today is a manticore. So, let's do this right and not let anyone else get killed by this thing. Let’s get to work!"

Immediately, all four Hunters began setting up all kinds of traps: arrow traps, net traps, and the like. Black Fall, despite her hurt feelings, still set up traps dutifully. As she did this, she started thinking to herself Is this the right thing to do? We could've tried talking to some of the creatures. 

But then Harsh Lee’s words came screaming into her head. 'We Are Here To Kill Monsters! You Got That? Hunters Don't Ask Monsters To Go Away! We Focus On Trapping And Killing Them Before They Get A Chance To Cause More Death And Destruction!' These words repeated inside her head over and over as she worked to set up her traps.