//------------------------------// // Libraries and Dream // Story: The Hunters of Secrets // by Arkantos //------------------------------// Back in the present The moon was in the middle of the sky when Cold Blood said, “After she cast her spell to turn me into another one of her soldiers, Foul Blood used us to spread war and bring endless death and destruction. Equestria remained in Foul Blood’s grasp for a good seven years.”  Cold Blood poked the fire with a stick and caused sparks of flame to poof up. He continued, “Then the final and biggest battle took place, where the three ponies tribes, along with the dragons, zebras, and the umbrum, united under one banner and fought together. When that battle ended, Foul Blood the Alicorn of War disappeared and hasn’t been seen since. After that battle, the other wereponies and I spread out through Equestria to become the plague that Luna knows us to be, with our endless need for destruction and our hunger for anything and everything.” Cold Blood waited for Black Fall to say something, but she didn’t speak. Then he became a bit curious and looked around at the ex hunter. He found her curled up in a ball, sleeping on a log. Realizing that his partner had been sleeping, he said to himself, “I guess I’ll tell her the rest of the story another time.”  Cold Blood opened his mouth very wide, so wide that if one were to place a small filly on his tongue, he could swallow it. But if that were to happen, he would probably start choking. After revealing all of his teeth, he quickly closed his mouth, and then immediately opened it again in a giant yawn.  “Wow, it must be late,” he said to himself. “I suppose I should catch some shut eye as well.”  Cold Blood grabbed an empty bucket and moved toward the river, filled the bucket, and walked back to the fire. He dumped the water over the fire. Now, with little to no heat, he walked to the wagon and found a blanket, which he grabbed. He walked over Black Fall and gently placed the blanket on Black Fall’s resting form. Cold Blood then turned around and went to the opposite side of the log where Black Fall was. He laid down on the cold ground to catch a little bit of sleep before they had to get up for another long day. As the sun started to rise, so did Cold Blood and Black Fall. The Butcher of the Night said, “Well, I don’t know about you, but I slept like a filly.” Black Fall started to search for something edible and ended up grabbing a few more apples. She ate them, even though some of them were covered in bruises. Cold Blood munched on a Hunter’s leg. ”Do you recall any of what I told you last night?” he asked Black Fall. Black Fall thought for a moment while she chewed on an apple, her sixth one, even though she wasn’t really  enjoying them.  “You said something about being a librarian,” she said. ”And there was a unicorn who was actually an alicorn that was hungry for war. And you made a run for it, but Foul Blood cast some kind of spell that turned you and the townsponies into what you are today. Does that about sum it up?” Cold Blood replied, “That is accurate, but she is the Alicorn of War, and she disappeared after the last and biggest battle.”  Black Fall nodded. She finished her seventh apple and walked to the river to get a drink.   Cold Blood said, ”We’ll have to leave the wagon behind.” Black Fall took a couple of gulps before turning her head to ask, “What? But there’re many uses for it. We could fill it, or hide it, or set it up as a permanent fixture and-” “It’s slowing us down and the Hunters could easily catch up to us. As much as I would like to continue to eat those who attack us, I think that if we bump into another Hunter party, it is very likely that the next one could end us.” Black Fall’s ears flattened and her rear fell to the ground as she listened, realizing that Cold Blood had a point. If they wanted to break the Hunters’ seal, they would need to be faster, not slower.  “You’re right,” she conceded. ”We no longer need that wagon. I’ll grab whatever we need from it to survive and we’ll leave the rest to burn.” Black Fall filled her bag with essential items: the broken horn of Rarity; a few dozen apples; some water skins; and her ex hunter equipment, including her sword, some crossbow bolts  (seven magical crossbow bolts that explode on impact), and several random items that are used to set up traps. The Butcher of the Night began placing the items in her saddlebags.  After Black Fall removed everything they needed, Cold Blood used the fire starter on the wagon. It began burning slowly but surely, and when it was completely consumed by flames, Cold Blood walked back over to Black Fall, who had just finished packing. She hoisted her saddlebags onto her back and then put her cloak over them. She pulled up the hood of her cloak, and then she and Cold Blood began to make their way to the mountains. Back at Canterlot castle, in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns “No, no, that’s not what I saw. They’re supposed to be more pony-like, except their eyes are red, and they have white fangs and dark fur.”  Twilight had been in the royal library for weeks, trying to figure out what happened to Rarity and, if possible, find out how to reverse it. As Twilight looked through yet another book, a maid approached her and said, “Your dinner, ma’am. Where do you want me to put this?”  The Princess replied, “Just set it on the desk. I’ll be there shortly.” The maid placed the tray on the desk next to another tray that still had some food on it. She lifted the other tray of half eaten food and asked, “What exactly are you doing? Today was a good day to fly, so why don’t you fly?” Twilight turned her head and looked at the maid with a little twitch in her eye. “I can’t go out flying when my best friend has been turned into a monster who eats anypony and everypony she comes across.“ As she said this, Twilight moved her hoof up to her back to feel the scars on her coat. “What I need is to find a way to fix this, so no, I don’t have time to waste flying in the sky and enjoying the day, as great as that would feel.” The maid lost some of her coat color as she realized who she was talking to. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. Does Princess Celestia know?” “This is just something I need to do.” “Of course, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she already knew.” The purple alicorn backed away and turned around to walk over to the bookshelves. “Now, let’s look through these books again!” She lit up her horn and scoured the shelves.  The maid looked around and saw seven other unicorns who were up late studying. She noticed that the students seemed desperate for Twilight to leave the library. But alas, they couldn’t force her to leave. The only thing holding them back from grabbing her and tossing her out of the library was the fact that she was the Princess of Friendship who could easily return with her friends to beat them all up together. She could also blast them with her magic, and being an alicorn, she was ten times stronger than an average unicorn. Nopony was too eager to challenge the mare that was going through every single book that had some kind of monster in it. When Twilight was finished with a book, she would toss it on a desk which already held a small pile of books. That pile of literature was a bit close to the dinner trays and some of the books’ pages had food on them. The ponies who wanted to study wished that somepony would just slap her in the face and tell her to collect four or five books, leave the royal library, and allow them to look up the information that they needed to help them with their studies. Twilight skimmed through another book called The Monster in Me. It was about somepony who went from being a victim to being a monster in the streets. Sadly, it was only metaphorical. The pony didn’t literally become a monster. No, he just started acting like a monster. It didn’t take long for the maid to pick up the half eaten dinner tray and head toward the exit. As she departed, Twilight levitated the book that was clearly going to be a massive waste of her time and placed it back on the shelf. She levitated another book and brought it to her. This new read contained within it every monster in Equestria. Twilight skimmed through it quickly, but upon reaching the end, her expresssion changed from hopeful to despairing. The book was exactly the sort she was looking for, but unfortunately, she didn’t see any reference to what kind of monster Rarity had transformed into. The purple alicorn did not give up. If anything, her resolve was strengthened. Twilight used her Canterlot voice to say, “That’s not what she turned into!” She looked at another book and switched to using her indoor voice because the librarian gave her the stink eye.  “No, that’s a Manticore.” She flipping to the next page. “That’s a Hydra.” Twilight looked at the next page. “That’s a Bugbear.” She flipped to the next page and said questioningly, “And what’s this?” She looked closely at the picture of a wolf. It was roughly what she was looking for, except the wolf was made out of wood. “Ugh, that’s a Timberwolf! That’s not what she turned into!” Feeling defeated by the one thing that she was absolutely good at, Twilight closed the book of Equestria monsters. It seemed that knowledge was against her for a change. She levitated another book, opened it, and flipped through the pages. She got through the first chapter and bookmarked it using her magic so that the page that began with the words ”Chapter Two” started glowing purple. She closed the book and looked at the cover of The Monster in Me, reading the name of the author: Arkantos. Twilight opened the book in front of her again to the bookmarked page and continued to read. She simultaneously used her magic to levitate all the books she wasn’t currently reading back to their proper shelves. However, being half awake and reading, she did misplace some of them. As she continued to read, she dozed off and finally fell asleep on the desk. When Twilight opened her eyes again, she saw that she was in the library, except it was a bit more empty than usual. She got up and said aloud, “Hello? Lyra Heartstring? Pinky? Anypony with a pulse?”  Suddenly, the library doors opened slightly and then closed. A speeding shadow zipped across the library and Twilight tried to see what it was, but it was too fast. Then the library became a bit darker as one candle after another went out. With only seven candles still lit in the library, Twilight cautiously illuminated her horn. She saw the black speeding bullet again and began pursuing it. She chased it out of the library and through the hallways of Canterlot. As the figure bolted to the doors that lead to the throne room, Twilight followed it. As soon as she went through the doors, Twilight stopped, a bit more confused than before, because suddenly, she had somehow run into the Everfree Forest. She didn’t know how she had gotten there. She turned around and saw the two golden doors closing behind her. And then they disappeared.  Twilight recalled that she had been chasing something. As if on cue, a twig snapped and the purple alicorn looked in the direction of the sound. She spotted a hooded figure running away. Twilight gave chase again and flipped her wings while running. It wasn’t long before she took off in the air zoomed closer to the mysterious figure. They both entered a clearing. Twilight decided that now would be a great time to tackle whomever she was chasing. When she landed on the unknown pony, they both started tumbling across the field. The hooded pony bared a set of fangs. Twilight teleported with a purple flash and reappeared a few meters away. The hooded figure had jumped up and landed on a nearby rock. Twilight cautiously approached the figure and asked, “Who are you?” Then several clicks sounded and the Princess of Friendship heard them a split second before a rain of arrows flew at her. Twilight raised a shield and the arrows bounced off of it, leaving several cracks in her shield.  The hooded pony ran at Twilight, whose eyes widened when the pony’s hood bounced off to reveal Rarity, her eyes red, her body wolfish, and her broken horn crackling dangerously with sparks that charged up in a spell of lightning.  Twilight had read all about the elemental spells that were used to destroy stuff. When a unicorn uses that sort of spell, they fire it as soon as it appears on their horn. If somepony tried to charge that kind of spell up, they could accidentally obliterate themselves. The Rarwolf, however, had been charging up the elemental spell of lightning for a while. Twilight’s eyes widened in surprise by this, for it was extremely difficult to charge up any kind of spell, especially when a unicorn’s horn is broken in two. The lightning spell sparked very dangerously, and lightning bolts shot everywhere. With a loud scream, the Werepony fired her spell. When the spell hit Twilight’s shield, it wasn’t shattered; it was obliterated. Twilight fell to the ground. She tried to get up, but Rarwolf was too fast, using her mouth and claws to rip one of Twilight’s wings off. The alicorn let out a bloodcurdling scream. The monster began using her claws to cut and slice Twilight until a small puddle of her own blood started to form around her.  Twilight looked up, quivering, and saw the Rarwolf was slowly invadeing her personal space. Rarwolf opened her red eyes and asked, “Do you know why I’m here?” Twilight shook her head in pain as Rarwolf removed her cloak. “It is because you failed to protect your friends. Do you know how close I came to killing them?” Twilight tried and failed to get up as the Werepony continued, “I won’t lie, it was pretty close. But that’s in the past. Right now, I am ready to make you like me. With you, we can turn the others and be BFFFs.” Twilight wore a look of confusion until Rarwolf cleared her confusion away. “Best Feasting Friends Forever.” Rarwolf opened her mouth, but before she could bite down, a glowing light blue hook connected to a chain wrapped around Rarwolf’s neck. It wasn’t long before several other light blue chains with hooks began wrapping themselves around Rarwolf. Cracks of light blue and dark red formed on her body as magic liquid began pouring out of her. Suddenly, the Werepony burst into flames of red and blue. Not long after that, the dust blew away into several sparks of blue and red magic.  Twilight looked around and noticed that her missing wing was reattached and the cuts that Rarwolf had inflicted were no longer there.  She then got up and saw Luna coming through the moon and landing on the rock that Rarwolf had been on earlier.  Twilight said, “Princess Luna, what are you doing here?” As soon as she asked, she realized it was a stupid question, because she knew that Luna was the guardian of the dream realm. Luna replied, “I am the Alicorn of the Night and guardian of the dream realm. I’m here because Celestia is worried about your well-being. She told me that soon after the incident which took your friend’s life, you came to Canterlot and have been practically, and sometimes literally, sleeping in her royal library in an effort to find out more information about what exactly happened in Ponyville that day.” Twilight’s ears dropped and she answered, “Yes, I want to know what happened to Rarity. I’ve been looking for any kind of reference to what she is so I can try to reverse it.” “I see. Well, I know what she turned into, and I also know her current whereabouts.” Twilight gasped. “Can you tell me, please?” “Very well, Let’s start with what she is now. She is what is known as a werepony, and those like her have an endless hunger for ponies and for destruction. Against my better judgment, I saved her soul. I still don’t know why I saved her.” Twilight pondered this a while before saying, “Maybe it’s because you saw the pony in her and not the monster, and you believe there’s a chance to reverse what has been done to her.” “You might be right, but it is a dangerous road toward trying to restore her to her former self. As for her whereabouts, she is in a place that I cannot view because, let’s just say, the last time this place was even mentioned, the ponies and chiroptera came together and it ended badly. And for that reason, on I have kept its location safe, and I will not reveal it for anypony. If you were to see your friend again, it’s because she either escaped or was sent there for a reason. But for now the question remains: when you see her again, will you see her as a friend or a foe?” Twilight’s gears started turning in her head as she struggled to say, “I don’t know. I have always seen her as a friend.” When Twilight said this, she realized that she was thinking of one of her friends with suspicion, and in that moment, she decided to choose friendship over knowing the truth. “I shall leave you with your thoughts. But now, it’s time to wake up.” Twilight awoke on the desk that she had fallen asleep on earlier that evening. She looked out the library window and saw that the sun had just started to rise.  “I need to talk to Celestia now.” Twilight murmured to herself. She galloped out of the library. As soon as she was outside, she flapped her wings hard until she was up in the air, searching for the Princess of the Sun.