The Wonderbolts prepared to give the ponies a show.
In the royal stand sat the Princess of the Sun with prince Blueblood, but unknown to them, the hunters Night Breeze, Night Glider, and Study Step were waiting underneath the stand to come to her aid should she need them.
On the other side of the royal stand stood Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Twilight was trying to hide from prince Blueblood’s creepy gaze, and her friends took notice. They helped her out by blocking his line of sight, and the purple alicorn appreciated it. But unknown to them, up in the sky, the hunters Black Dart, Raven Wind, and Eager shot were disguised as three Pegasus who were also waiting to come to her aid.
In Canterlot castle, inside and at the base of the tower named for a famous unicorn wizard named Star Swirl the Bearded, Fluttershy, Luna, and three new and inexperienced hunters were ready to protect the hunter seal with their lives if necessary. However, Fluttershy noticed that the new recruits seemed nervous, and she couldn't blame them. They were about to go up against powerful and bloodthirsty monsters that they’d never seen before. Even though they’d been trained their entire lives to fight said monsters.
Suddenly, Luna spoke., "Nervous, are we?"
"Oh, no." Fluttershy replied. "Despite everything that's going to happen today, I'm not feeling nervous at all. I seem to be more focused than nervous."
“Well, that's because of that amulet that you’re wearing around your neck. It has some of the hunters’ knowledge, and knowing that knowledge makes you less nervous and more focused."
"Oh. Do you want me to take it off? Because it kind of feels like cheating."
"No. It may feel like cheating, but it's actually an advantage that you need, and one of the rules of the hunt is to expect the unexpected."
"Expect the unexpected?" With a puzzled look, Fluttershy asked, "How do you prepare for that?"
"Well, look into that knowledge you have, and you’ll know the answer."
Fluttershy concentrated, looking hard for that knowledge. An hour passed by before she found what she was looking for.
"I have an idea."
Back in the caves beneath Canterlot, regular and magic-wielding wereponies were running into the old entrance through Canterlot’s abandoned mine. The mine was where the fortune of Equestria had come from, but has lain abandoned for many years now; the perfect secret entrance into Canterlot. As for the flying wereponies, they were waiting for the right time to strike, which, it was decided, would be right in the middle of the performance.
Black Fall walked through the entrance, but Frozen Fang and Cold Blood decided to let the pack go in before them. They needed to talk about a few things.
"Why did you want to talk?" Cold Blood asked.
Frozen Fang replied, "Because I know you and I know why you keep that mare close. I used to think that you saw her as a fellow warrior, but now I know it's more than equal respect for one to another. You like her."
"Is it really necessary for us to talk about this here and now? We have a feast to go to." Cold Blood then tried to go through the cave entrance.
However, he was stopped by a pull on his tail and a jarring reaction from his companion. Frozen Fang used his strength to slam Cold Blood into the mountainside, resulting in a spider crack in the rockface just outside of the abandoned mine entrance.
"I'm saying that you are in love with that mare! Don't deny it, for I know that look on your face. You, sir, are in love." Cold Blood became silent as his bones started to regenerate, repairing any physical damage that was done.
"But you know that you only have two choices,” the white werepony continued.” ”Silver dagger her or turn her. The reason these are your only choices is because we're supposed to be heartless monsters with no sympathy for the weak that we eat. Like I said, it's your decision."
Finally able to stand up again, Cold Blood glared at Frozen Fang and started to walk into the mine again. "And what if I do neither? What if she and I started to live our lives on the run?"
That got the pack leader’s attention, and he slowly turned around. "You know that is forbidden. If you two make it work, there is no telling what will happen or what kind of monster you and that mare will create."
They finally made it through the mine entrance and ran to catch up to the pack. Cold Blood thought about jumping into the unknown to survive on the run and what might happen if they had a kid along the way. They would have to abandon it to survive. But the possibility of leaving this cursed life was appealing, and certainly better than the idea of killing the mare he loved. And then there was the third option: to make her a creature like him. But that path was a bloody one, on which she would want nothing more than bloodshed to quench her thirst. It was not worth it and it would not be fair to her. So he strongly thought about going with his first option. Sure, they wouldn't be able to settle down in one place, but they would be alive.
Fluttershy set up traps of all kinds, from tripwire crossbows with silver-tipped arrows to several hidden holes filled with a mixture of silver stakes and wooden stakes. The rest of the Hunters were still trying to settle their nerves, polishing or sharpening their weapons of silver. Luna, meanwhile, was doing something interesting with her magic. She was levitating four rocks, each one about the size of a hoof. Instead of using the special tool that unicorns did, Luna used magic to carve runes on each of the stones.
Fluttershy looked at the other hunters and asked, "Why does she hate them?"
This question took the hunters by surprise. One of them looked like they were having a hard time thinking of what to say in answer, but was let off the hook when one another hunter spoke. "Well, it's hard to say if the Princess of the Night really does hate them. Just judging by their appearance, it can be hard to see anything good inside them, but she is a goddess, and true goddesses don't hate anything. If she did, then she would be no different from the rest of us."
"Don't give me that; that whole speech that says she's better than the rest of us," said a black chiroptera with a light blue and white mane and tail, his eyes gleaming yellow. "Yes, she may be an alicorn, and yes, she was the one who headed up the first generation of hunters, but back at the Summer Sun Celebration when she was Nightmare Moon, she was mad and jealous at her sister. Which means she is like us, and there is nothing that you say that will make me think otherwise." The chiroptera paused for a moment with the constant humming of magicat work accompanied by the sound of small pieces of stone falling to the ground. Thunder Lane eventually looked at Fluttershy and said, "I have heard stories of these monsters. They eat and destroy whole towns. They devour anything and everything,but the worst is what they do to fillies and colts. They turn them into more Wereponies. I guess it's how they regain their numbers after they’ve killed all of the other ponies. So, I suppose it would not be too hard to hate them."
Fluttershy thought angrily about his words. 'That is so barbaric, turning the innocent and the helpless into monsters just so they don't run low on Wereponies. Now that is going too far! As of now, I hate these things too!'
Fluttershy remained angry, fuming internally for a minute. Then, as she cooled down, it struck her, 'They still have a choice, don't they?'
Luna answered her unspoken question, saying, "Yes, they do have a choice. However their pack leaders are very fierce in their ways of getting all Wereponies to follow their lead." Luna placed the four rocks with their newly etched runes on the ground and looked at Fluttershy. "Once, in an age of death and destruction..."
Long ago, when Wereponies were everywhere, Luna developed the first generation of the Order of the Hunt. They had been making progress at some of the settlements, which remained a bit longer than expected. One of the settlements that was closer to the ocean seemed to be doing very well and, some time in the future, it would be renamed Manehattan.
Luna was walking through a forest between two mountains. The dark blue alicorn was in her war armor, for she was expecting a fight. She was looking for the nest that those monsters called home. She looked down, examining her new sword on the way. It was different, to say the least, for most swords were made from steel and any common soldier could wield one with practice. However, the Hunters realized that silver aura was more effective against the monsters, and the fact that the silver blades were a little lighter than the steel ones made them much easier to use. The price for a silver blade was much higher than for a regular one, though.
As Luna gave her blade a few swings, it felt right. She was satisfied with her weapon. She slid it back into its saber.
Her smartest Hunter had noted that a lot of Wereponies came out of these woodlands, and she wanted to end the bloodshed as fast as she could. So her Hunter had suggested that she should explore these woods to find the things. She was just about to give up when she spotted what looked like a cave.
"Hmm, that must be it." She approached the cave through a clearing; however,when she spotted a few pony skulls and dried up broken bones laying nearby, she lit up her horn and prepared a spell. Then, she stopped in front of the mouth of the cave. Several glowing red eyes appeared and glared at the Princess of the Night, as if she had just rudely woken them up. She didn't care much for the monsters, and she decided to draw them out, yelling loudly, "Come on out, you fiends! The murders and destruction against Equestria will not go unpunished!"
A monstrous voice boomed out, "Is that so? Well now, it looks like we’ve got a pony trying to bring the law to us. Now that is funny! Because we usually end up eating up the ponies of law. This is interesting. I wish to see this pony myself!"
Suddenly, several Wereponies ran out of the cave. Eleven of them headed straight for her, but Luna let loose her shadow spell, killing them instantly and leaving nothing more than black bodies; she then pulled out her silver sword and slashed three more across the throat, easily killing them. Then she lunged forward. Using very little strength, she brought her sword through four more of them, piercing them through the left sides of their chests. She swiftly pulled her sword out and the four bodies joined the other six on the ground. She slashed at one of them twice, cutting off both front legs, and then finished that Werepony off by lunging forward, her sword going straight into the one of its eyes. Luna pulled her sword out, and it came as quickly as if it had been coming out melted butter.
As that last monster fell to the ground, the rest of them quickly disintegrated in front of her. Something strange occurred to her then. 'They clearly outnumber me, so why don't they go for me?'
The same monstrous voice said, "They don't go after you because most of them are scared that you will chop them up into hamburger. I wish to meet you so that I can eat you myself. There are more here that are foolish enough to try to come at you even though they know that they will just die for nothing. But I ordered them to stand down and they will listen to me, or I will put living fear in them to the point where they will hope for nothing more than the sweet release of death!" Luna realized then that the others were not coming after her anymore. Rather, they were trying to run away from something, and most of them jumped into the nearby trees, climbing up to watch the Princess of the Night.
Then, she saw the pack leader emerge, her fur as black as the night, her paws and legs covered in thick layers of blood, as if this Werepony had taken daily baths in blood. On her back were three broken spears, one ax, and three rusty swords, all of them sticking up from her fur. The werepony dropped the head of one of Luna’s Hunters, then said in that monstrous voice of hers, "I assume this is yours?"
Back in the present day, in the abandoned mines of Canterlot, a vicious and hungry pack of Wereponies were running all over the place, listening for the sound of cheering. They suddenly stopped when they heard it. A Werepony with a horn said, "Do you hear that?"
Another Werepony answered, "Yeah, we must be right underneath."
Then a third Werepony said, "Yes, I hear them too."
The Exhunter known as Black Fall didn't notice that the pack had stopped; she was too busy arguing with the voice inside her head. "Just stop speaking to me! I don't need your advice! And furthermore- 'Bump!' Her internal conversation was interupped when she slammed into one of the Wereponies. She recovered quickly, backing away and looking at the others. It seemed strange that the pack would stop in the middle of the mine. She asked, "Is there a reason why you guys just stopped? Because I thought we were going to crash the party."
"We agreed that this is the right action to do. We will catch everpony by surprise," said the Werepony who heard the cheering going on. She continued, "Boys, let's get digging!" All the Wereponies nodded their heads in agreement, and they began to dig upward with their paws and claws.
'They can't be serious,’ Black Fall said to herself. ’Trying to dig up to the event? That has to be at least several feet of rocks and dirt, not to mention Canterlot’s concrete floors and metal pipes. How do they plan to get through that?'
"Lost for words?" The pack leader Frozen Fang said. "I don't blame you. My pack and I can do amazing things when we are together. If any Hunters were to underestimate us, well, he or she would be a dead hunter." Then, Frozen Fang checked a device on his paw which told him the time. "In an hour, the flying Wereponies should have begun the aerial attack. When we reach the capital city, I expect we will find many ponies running around in panic."
Black Fall replied. "I'm kind of worried that the Princess of the Moon will make things difficult."
“Hey,” said Frozen Fang, "if there is one thing that my Wereponies can do,it’s adapt to all kinds of scenarios." Frozen Fang then joined the Wereponies digging up to Canterlot.
Black Fall’s spear said to her 'Well, if there is anything I can say about this, it’s that that guy expects everything to go wrong.'
Black Fall replied, 'And how would you know? You’ve never psychically talked to him.'
'Trust me, I am a good judge of character. From what I can tell, he's prepared for anything.'
Black Fall said, "Well, it looks like we will be here for a while." She set the Spear of the Hunters down. After an hour passed by, she figured the attack against Canterlot had begun.
One part of her was glad. She was eager to fight and kill some Hunters. But the other part of her was worried. She could not imagine what the world would look like without the capital city. She was caught between two paths, and she was uncertain about both of them. On the one hoof, she could help the Hunters with their struggle, even though they banished her to Torturous. On the flip side, she could help her new bloodthirsty and questionable friends. The question was, which way should she go?