//------------------------------//
// The Meeting 
// Story: The Hunters of Secrets 
// by Arkantos 
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Celestia was speechless for a moment before she snapped back to reality. In a calmer voice, she said, "So let me get this straight. You started a movement with the Hunters for the sole purpose of hunting down and killing the monsters that were eating and destroying the new towns being built up? And there’s a secret town that they come from that you alone knew about? Well, this leads me to question: what if some of them wanted to leave?"

"Yes, well..." Luna used her magic to teleport the old sun throne out of the room. "Some of them tried. Those that succeeded in living outside of the town hid their true natures. There is a reason why they do not show themselves but will defend the innocent."

The Princess of the Sun let out the longest yawn in the history of yawns. "Ok, Luna, I need to sleep on this."

"Before you turn in, I need you to reconsider hosting the Wonderbolts performance tomorrow."

"I'm sorry, Luna, but the answer is still no. I need to show the ponies that our military’s aerial assault team is still in good shape."

"I see." Then, with nothing else to say, Luna watched her sister walk out of the throne room to her sleeping chambers. She looked at the throne, and after casting a quick spell of silence to make sure her sister didn't wake up, she yelled in her royal Canterlot voice, "Blast it! If there is one thing I know about those monsters, it’s that they will turn that performance into a blood festival of ponies!"





Rainbow began to fall asleep in the spare room that Celestia gave her when Twilight asked if she could let her friends stay, which, of course, the Princess of the Sun had no problem with. But Rainbow Dash was having a hard time with what she had seen. Fluttershy and her mother were in some sort of cult, and Rarity was also apparently in the same cult.  Rainbow eventually fell into a troubled sleep.

In the middle of the night, Rainbow was shaken awake.  She got up, yawning. "What the hey! I was enjoying a good dream."

"Oh, I'm sorry for waking you, but I needed to talk to you about how you kept on staring at Fluttershy. I'm guessing you saw or suspect something?" said a familiar voice.

Rainbow rubbed her eyes and saw Twilight looking very patiently at her, awaiting an answer to her question. 

"Well, I'm not sure what I saw or heard." Rainbow said. Then, she told Twilight about the time on the train and about the other time she followed Fluttershy and her mother with several others.

For a long while, Twilight just looked at her. Eventually, she said, "I see. So what do you think they are doing?"

"I don't know."

Twilight remembered what Luna said in her dream a few nights ago, and after clearing her throat, she said, "Well, we don't know what she’s up to, but the real question is, does it matter?"

"Say what now?"

"I mean, it doesn't matter, because we know her as the pony we know her to be. Even if she has one or two secrets, she is still our Fluttershy, the same pony that has been shy and timid around other ponies. It's a bit of a miracle that she has any friends to begin with. We shouldn't judge her for her secrets."

Rainbow replied, "Um, what’s up with the change in view? Because the last time I checked, you were growing suspicious of her activities?"

Twilight moved her hoof in the air and said, "Well, I may have jumped to conclusions a bit early." Then she lowered her hoof to the floor. "But that doesn't mean that we have to know everything about her. Stop and look at it from her perspective. Would you want everypony to know your secrets, know what you do all day long, and invade your privacy?"

Rainbow blushed. "Well, when you put it that way, I think I'd like some stuff to remain private."

"And I'm sure that she wants her privacy too, as any pony would." Twilight got up and walked to the door. "I'll let you sleep on it. Oh , and by the way, the Wonderbolts’ performance is tomorrow." With that, the purple alicorn closed the door and Rainbow made herself comfortable again in her bed, her eyes closed and a grin on her face.





Back in the throne room, Luna sat in her throne alone for a long time, long enough to calm down from her rage. As she sat, she began to think back to when she was a filly. Oh, how she wished that she could go back to a time when she and her sister could go into town and cause all sorts of trouble, and ponies would yell at them for doing this or that stupid thing. Back then, they got all sorts of cuts and bruises, and a fair portion of dirt from busting into a crate of apples. It was a simpler time, before they met Starswirl the Bearded, before ponies gathered around them and wanted their blessings and their wisdom. 

Luna’s thoughts of happy times were suddenly interrupted when the doors of the throne room were opened with a creak. Several Chiroptera entered the room, some of them flying in as others walked in.

Fluttershy walked beside her mother. She saw some Chiroptera that had been with her mother at the edge of Canterlot, but now there were more of them.

Fluttershy lost her focus when Luna rose from her throne and said, "Well, now, I'm sure you understand why I called for a meeting at night?"

Night Glider immediately answered. "It’s less suspicious, and we should get used to it."

The dark blue alicorn replied, "That is correct. Also, I told my sister about us."

Sturdy Step said, "That seems to be risky to tell her. Are you sure she won't rat us out?"

With a serious expression, Luna said, "I trust my sister."

Night Breeze piped up. "Of course, but you have to admit that your sister is a poor judge of character. Just look at-"

"Enough!" Luna shouted and her eyes glowed white for a second. "I trust my sister with my life and you should too!" Luna calmed down and folded her wings back up. Then she continued. "But that is not why I called for this meeting. I know the monsters recently destroyed a town in the Badlands called Las Hages."

Several Chiroptera begin mumbling to each other before Black Dart asked, "How do you know that they're there?"

"Well, I doubt the ponies that live there were throwing big bonfires, especially since the  town's buildings were used as kindling."

"Oh."

Feeling a little frustrating with her sister, Luna continued. "My sister refuses to reschedule her silly Wonderbolts performance, which is supposed to happen tomorrow. Judging by the fires that I saw, the monsters could be here by tomorrow."

"In an effort to make sure there is more to this gathering than doom and gloom," Night Breeze suddenly said, "I’d like to make it known that my daughter has joined the hunt." A few hunters ground their teeth in disappointment. Some of them even said, "Not another one. Don't we have enough hunters already?"

Luna said, "Now, now, my hunters. No need for that. What are we? Chiropteras or ponies?"

All of the hunters replied as one, "We are Chiropteras."

"Then we should welcome her to our ranks,” Luna said. She looked at Fluttershy. "But only once she has passed her test. Her test will be to survive these monsters when they attack. For now, the main thing we need to do is make sure that my sister and Twilight Sparkle survive the attack that is coming.  I would like Night Breeze, Night Glider, and Sturdy Step to protect my sister."

Night Glider and Night Breeze looked at each other. 'Working side-by-side just like old times.' thought Night Glider. Night Breeze just nodded her head in confirmation that she understood him.

Sturdy Step said, "It seems stupid to assign three hunters to protect one alicorn."

Luna ignored the comment and continued. "Eager Shot, Black Dart, and Raven Wind, make sure that Twilight lives through tomorrow."

Eager looked at Sturdy and said, "I hope we see each other again." The mare nodded her head in understanding of how she felt for him.

Black Dart turned his head in disgust and muttered, "Oh my gosh, get a room, you two!" Luna looked at him, unimpressed, and he continued, "But I understand that my special somepony is in this fight too, so I guess I'll do my best to keep my comments to a minimum."

Raven finished her meditation and said, "There is an unbalance in the world. Other forces are marching towards us, Miss Luna. I cannot prevent what will happen, but I will do my part."

Luna continued, "I will be guarding the final seal that has yet to be broken in Canterlot castle, the one in Starswirl the Bearded’s tower. Some of you that haven't seen action will guard it with me. Luna looked at the dark yellow Chiroptera and said, "That means you, Fluttershy."

Fluttershy put on a brave face and said, "I'm ready for whatever may happen."

With that, the Hunters left the room, making as little noise as possible.





That afternoon, all kinds of ponies gathered and picked spots on the bleachers. The bleachers became fuller and fuller. 

Three brothers came to see the show, but after looking at the full stands, they realized they would need a miracle to get a good view of the show. It took forever, but the umbrum Arkantos finally located a place for he and his brothers to see the performance. The oldest brother was a black pegasus with blue eyes and a yellow mane and tail. His name was Mowgli, and he was a Sky Slammer.  The Sky Slammers were a group of Pegasi that used their advantage of being able to fly really fast to slam down their enemies from the sky to the ground at supersonic speed. But Mowgli was here to enjoy his day off.

The umbrum said to his brothers, "Who do you think will show up the rest of the Wonderbolts?"

Mowgli thought for a moment before replying, "I bet Thunder will, since he’s the strongest flier on the Wonderbolts’ team."

The other brother exclaimed, "Are you crazy? Just because he's the strongest flier doesn't mean he’s the fastest. I think Misty will fly circles around Thunder." Arkantos looked to his left at his younger brother, an orange unicorn with a blue mane and tail, and light blue eyes.

Mowgli looked at the unicorn too. "Said the only changeling who decided to leave queen Chrysalis because he got beat up by what's his name again?"

The disguised changeling stared daggers at Mowgli. "You better watch it, or do you want me to have a go at you again?"

Arkantos asked, ”Why are you in that form anyway?"

The disguised changeling replied, "I feel more comfortable disguised like this." With a small sparkle of red magic, he snapped at the umbrum. "You got a problem with that?!"

Mowgli remembered the name he was thinking and smiled, "Oh, yeah, now I remember his name."

The disguised changeling cried fearfully, "Don't you dare say his name! I'm begging you!"

But the pegasus said the name anyway. "His name was Pharynx."

The orange unicorn lit up his red magical horn and yelled, "That's it! Come here!"

Arkantos sighed. "Oh boy, here we go again." Then he quickly used his shadow magic to teleport them to a shadow realm, a world where there was nothing but floating rocks and debris. However logic doesn't make sense in the realm. An undisguised changeling landed on one of the floating rocks, upside down. his chitin was black. His legs at the bottom had holes in them like swiss cheese. His horn looked like it had been bent back and forth too many times and now seemed crooked. He had two fangs poking out and two insect-like wings on his back. But his eyes remained the same as he climbed out of the portal, his red magic flared up and ready to fire at the black pegasus.

But Mowgli was in the air already and flying at hypersonic speeds, which made it difficult for Morgorath to pinpoint his target. Suddenly, a black and dark yellow bolt zoomed towards the changeling. Mowgli missed his target, though, as Morgorath managed to get out of the way. It was close though. Morgorath fired several bolts of red magic at Mowgli.

The magical bolts made impact and Mowgli was slammed into a humongous boulder which shattered into a million pieces. He saw his brother attack again, and this time, he easily dodged the magical shots. He launched forth with his supersonic tackle again. They continued with this dance back and forth, over and over again, for hours. Time was passing like crazy in the shadow realm, though mere seconds transpired in reality.

Finally, Morgorath mustered what courage he had and used his magic to create a small but strong barrier in front of him. He charged at Mowgli, hopeful to knock him out. But as the fighters slammed into each other head first, a black and dark yellow wave of magic blasted throughout the realm.

The fighters fell on one of the rocks. Arkantos reformed himself on the rock, and then looked up to see Morgorath out cold. Mowgli landed next to the umbrum and said, "Oops. I wasn't trying to kill him."

Arkantos scoffed. "Yeah, right, you totally weren't trying to kill our brother, going at him at hypersonic speed." The Umbrum began looking for sore spots and found one on Morgorath’s forehead. He placed a bandage over it.

"Hmmm, point taken. So, when will he wake up?"

"Well, it should be any moment now."

As he said this, Morgorath gasped for breath, looked up, and asked, "Did I win?"

Then, all three brothers were teleported back to the Wonderbolts event. Morgorath transformed back into his unicorn disguise, this time with a bandage over his head.

"Look,” said Mowgli, “I'm sorry I went overboard with you like that. Would you accept my apology and look past this? Please, Morgorath?"

"I'll need to think about it."

The three brothers waited for the show to begin.