//------------------------------//
// Fight of the Present Part Four 
// Story: The Hunters of Secrets 
// by Arkantos 
//------------------------------//

In the noble street, Black Fall walked around. Her spear forced her to show the ponies their deepest nightmares. And if any of them ran out, she would end their life right there. But she kept asking herself, "Do I need this?" She pondered for a moment, then asked the power of the spear, ' Why do we cut down everyone that we see?'

' Because if you don't, then it would be all for nothing! You'll turn back into a weakling!' The spear said a little worriedly, 'Don’t you love the power? Do you not enjoy torturing those who have wronged you?'

With a frustrated look, she mentally responded, ' Yes, I do want to make those who have wronged me suffer!' She calmed down and continued. ' But you have me going after the innocent, the ones who have done nothing to me.' She raised an eyebrow at her spear. ' Why do you want me to kill ponies that I’ve never met?'

Several seconds passed by and nothing happened besides a random Noble running by outside. He tripped and fell to the street, but quickly recovered and backed away as if someone was in front of him. He said in a fearful voice, "No, no, this can't be real. You're supposed to be dead. My henchpony killed you." 

The Noble turned and saw a fabrication of his nightmare; whoever he saw, it must have been someone he trusted. Perhaps his wife, because he then said, "Red Ruby, what are you doing here? It's not safe. Somehow, this ruffian came back from the dead." Then the Noble got up, ran over to Black Fall, and hugged her. It was a nice embrace, but she decided to end it by using the spear of the First Hunter to impale the Noble in the head. As his blood spilled out of his body, it soaked the spear. Black Fall saw the light in the Noble’s eyes go dark when the spear said, 'I don't want to disappear.'





Captain Trail tackled a Werepony down to the ground as it snapped its jaw at him. But the stallion continued his plan despite seeing the full inside of a Werepony’s mouth. He slammed it to the ground, A purple Earth pony helped him turn the Monster around, though not without some resistance. They responded in kind as the mare used her super strength to dislocate its shoulder and pin it to the ground. The Werepony struggled under the super strength of the Earth pony while Captain Trail pulled it over to a rock He then banged its head several times into the rock until the Monster was out cold. The two ponies backed away while a nearby blue Unicorn lit up his horn with a lightning spell to kill it.

"Captain, we are gaining more ground," the same purple Earth pony mare said to him confidently.

Blazing Trail face-hoofed and said, "That may be true, but we have failed to save the civilians of this capital city."

"What do you mean?" the blue Unicorn asked.

Captain Trail pointed his hoof towards Canterlot. "We may have regained the stadium, but during the battle, dozens of Wereponies ran into the streets and entered the homes of ponies, giving them grisly deaths. Or they simply cast fire spells into homes, causing the ponies inside to be burned alive."

The Earth Pony and Unicorn both said, "Oh yeah, that is pretty bad."

"Well, I'm just glad that you two caught on." Blazing Trail picked up a sword and said, "Half of Canterlot is now on fire." With that, Captain Trail flapped his wings and flew to where Celestia was.

As Captain Trail soared through the sky, he started to make his way to the castle of Canterlot. It took him many hours as he passed many streets. Some streets revealed Wereponys emerging from the ground. Others displayed the aftermath of a recent explosion. And a few streets were just blazing with flames. The reason Captain Trail wasn’t flying to the castle was because it was too risky. Any of those Monsters could easily spot him and chase after him, which could quickly ruin Celestia’s plan. So he had to play it safe and travel by hoof. But unfortunately for him, Wereponies were also on the ground and he was nearly seen several times. Luck, however, seemed to be on his side. As he dashed from one building to the next, he found the only upside of travel by hoof: the destroyed buildings provided him with an excellent maze to easily lose those Monsters. Eventually, after losing the sixth Werepony that tried to follow him, he came to a clearing. Within the clearing, he saw a truly horrific sight: piles of bodies upon piles of bodies; some of the unfortunates seemed to have been burned alive while others had been torn to pieces.

“I think he went this way,” said a nearby Werepony.

Thinking quickly, Blazing Trail did something he felt he would truly regret and dived into the massive pile of rotting corpses. He could feel something very squishy; innards and parts of bodies that he didn’t want to know about. He stood strong and made sure that his head was poking out so he could breathe. To ensure that the Wereponies didn’t grab him on sight, he played dead.

Several paws slowed down as they entered the area, and then the same Monster said, “I can still smell him. He can’t be too far.”

“Oh, please! We all know you can’t smell him,” said a mare Werepony as she continued forward. “The idea that any of us can smell ponies is misleading. The only thing we can smell is their blood, and considering where we’re standing, there’s a lot of spilled blood.”

“Oh, come on! I know I saw him, and who knows? Maybe he accidentally cut himself?”

The mare pointed her paw at him. “You’re just chasing shadows and assuming that there is one here, when really it’s a pack member playing tricks on you.”

“Why, you little…” It looked like the Monster was about to strike her but his paw was shaking. And as quickly as he raised his paw he slammed it to the ground, creating a spider crack. Then he said a bit more calmly, “You’re probably right. It’s just…I want something better to do than guard one of the five piles of bodies we placed in this area of the city.”

The mare hugged him before saying, “I know you want to do more, but there’s a reason why we’re in this position. Frozen Fang knows you’re a screw up. All we can do is hope for an opportunity to reveal itself.” Slowly, but surely, the small group of Monsters made their way out of the area to hunt something else.

Blazing Trail climbed out of the pile of bodies. Blood stained his coat, and with a sickening splat, a lump of another pony’s coat slipped off of him to the ground. 

“Eww, never again,” he muttered. And flying up to a rooftop, he looked around and saw a lot of carnage and craters from explosions. In some of the craters, he saw more huge piles of burned and butchered ponies. If he had to guess, he thought it seemed that the Monsters were saving some bodies for later. He did his best not to vomit after taking in this sickly sight. Eventually, he reoriented himself and located Canterlot castle. After jumping down to street level and making a mental note of where the castle was he swiftly galloped towards it again, leaving behind the horror of what was left of the clearing.

Blazing Trail was about halfway to the castle with two or three Solar guards behind him. Just as the Solar guards had suddenly appeared, they quickly disappeared to join another battle that was happening in another corner. Captain Trail had just reached the Noble level when suddenly, an explosion of lightning, fire, and ice blasted in front of him, causing him to soar backwards. After a couple of seconds went by, he regained consciousness and was about to get up. However, a Werepony's paws pinned him to the ground, and just as the Monster was about to take a good chunk out of him, a beam as hot as the sun struck the creature.

Blazing Trail looked up and saw several Wereponies running into a bright light that he recognized as Celestia's power. She was resplendent in her golden armor and had begun to defend herself. As she summoned several magical blades of golden light, two of them blocked the Monster's attacks, and the other four sliced and pierced the Creatures. Then, as quick as a river flows, they disintegrated into nothing. Captain Trail moved closer to the light and thought, 'Well, it looks like her majesty is doing well.'

Captain Trail began galloping toward the light source, assuming that the Alicorn of the Sun was not acting ironically.. He guessed that the Princess didn't want her School for Talented Unicorns to be destroyed. The school building had five floors and a flat rooftop. Normally, there would be no one on the roof, but ever since Monsters brought down the fire and brimstone, Celestia herself, with several other Unicorns, had taken up positions on top of the roof to shoot down any Werepony that dared to come close to the building.

The testing tower where prospective students had to pass an entry test was now constantly glowing with magical power, thanks to a small group of Unicorns who were creating and maintaining a teleporting ring. If a Monster was able to dodge all the spells being fired and cross the ring, they would get immediately teleported outside of the capital city. However, this was a high-level spell, even for a student of Celestia to master. And it takes an exorbitant amount of magical power to maintain it. Even now, the eight Unicorn students were struggling to stay awake to keep the spell power up. But eventually, one of the unicorn students would collapse to the ground. And when they did, two Earth ponies were ready to take that pony away to the school's cafeteria for some well-deserved rest. The two Solar guards who were present would tell the other Unicorns to help keep the spell up.

When things weren’t so chaotic, the tower was usually used for some kind of test that would allow for a blank flank to assume its cutie mark. But at present, the building was a temporary safe zone where ponies who had managed to get away from those Monsters could feel safe and hide. 

The Solar Captain thought to himself, 'I wonder how many more safe zones are set up? I suppose I'll ask Celestia that question.'

Captain Trail took off into the sky and glided toward the school. He noticed that there were several burn marks on the building and a couple of small holes in the walls. As Blazing Trail flew toward the Princess, he saw several colorful mixes of Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth ponies who were inside the school hallways and gymnasium. Two Earth ponies were keeping the school’s front doors open for a group of ponies being chased by some Wereponies. However, every one of the Monsters were shish kebabed by a magical sword of Celestia’s. She wasn't allowing any Wereponies in or near her school as her valor and overly motherly protection for her ponies took hold. And if there's one thing you didn’t want to do, it was get in front of a mother's wrath. But unfortunately, the rest of the capital city was now the Wereponies' feeding ground. They were doing nothing but killing ponies and destroying buildings.

Captain Trail landed on the roof of the school. But as he touched down, he felt strange; buzzy, like an electrical current was coursing through him, starting in his hoofs.

Celestia said, "My students have a good knowledge of magical space manipulation and redirection, and that knowledge has resulted in protection covering the entire building."

Suddenly, several balls of fire came shooting straight at the building. The students who were on the roof let loose a barrage of spells of fire, water, lightning, and ice; some of them missed their targets, but the rest of them hit. Water drenched the fireballs, then ice, fire, and lightning blew up what was left of them. As for the few fireballs that got through, they were blocked by a magical barrier which appeared on contact. A magical wave ran through the entire building, clinging to every area that got hit. After the wave finished spreading around the building, it started to fade away before it finally disappeared.

The Princess of the Sun spoke. "By using their magic together, they can block any attack. And if those Monsters get any funny ideas about entering the school, then they will have to try to get through the teleporting ring. If they try to get past the ring, it will teleport them far away from here. You see, it only allows ponies in.  

Celestia’s voice took a disappointed turn. “I see that you have yet to commence with Operation Crossbow."

Captain Trail looked at Celestia as she killed several Monsters who had used their horns to levitate some large pieces of debris to make an unstable staircase in an effort to reach her. She raised her pike and easily summoned several swords made of pure magic with golden flames dancing on each of them and sent them flying at the Monsters.

Blazing Trail cleared his throat and said with worry in his words, "I’m sorry, your highness. But even if I do accomplish that mission, there are just too many of those Creatures, and the situation will get worse by the minute. There’s no guarantee that these Monsters will leave the civilians alone, and as your Captain of the Solar Guard, I strongly urge you to consider evacuating the city.”

The white Alicorn finished off the last Werepony who was trying to slice through her armor. The only thing that Monster got a taste of was her pike. The Beast quickly disintegrated. 

Celestia lowered her head defeatedly. "Okay, I guess we are running then. Captain, spread-”

"What's wrong with you guys!? Don't you know that the fate of the universe is at stakein this battle!?" A young,  frustrated voice called out from somewhere unseen.

The Princess stopped and listened as she heard a different voice, a more cheery voice, say, "Oh, don't be like that, Henry. I get what you mean, though. I thought I'd never see the day when our glorious Princess would run with her tail between her legs."

At this point, both ponies heard the voices and started to look around. The first voice, now a little calmer, replied, "What do you expect? She's a leader, and she must put her ponies before herself."

Celestia yelled, "Hey! Whoever you are, show yourselves! I know you are not Discord!"

A third and older voice responded, "You seem trustworthy. I suppose we will show ourselves."

With that, a black crack in the air began to form until it was wide enough for a pony to walk through. Celestia recognized the magic from when she fought and killed Sombra. A dark blue Umbrum head came out, his black flowing mane very similar to Celestia’s own mane and tail.

The Umbrum looked at her and said, "Trust me, I can help you."

l

Back down in the common population street levels, a group of silent ponies quickly moved through the streets of Canterlot. They had a couple of close calls, and they saw several streets that were either empty, burning away by fire, or containing  bodies of ponies crumpled up where they had fallen. The passing ponies had to cover the fillies' eyes to keep them from seeing the horrors in the streets. Several explosions went off close by as they got out of the streets and made it to the Barracks.

Crystal Breeze, a light blue Pegasus with a lavender mane and tail  had decided to stick around and protect this group, though she really wanted to fly up and scout ahead. Summer Spell had told her that it would be a bad idea and she agreed. Even if Crystal did scout ahead, she wouldn’t be able to fly back to tell them because that would run the risk of several Monsters seeing her. So, Crystal decided to go on hoof so she wouldn’t get them discovered. Staying on the ground, though, was difficult for her, because Crystal was a Pegasus. Normally, Pegasi prefer to stay at least several meters in the air. It was hard, but she fought her urge to fly, as they came closer to the military facility.

When they were within sight of the Barracks, Summer Spell said to the Solar guards who came with them, “Ok, you three in the back, keep this group safe. As for you four.” She pointed her hoof at two Unicorns, an Earth pony, and Crystal Breeze, all of whom were in the Solar Guard. “You four are with me. We’re going to secure the Barracks before we let them in.”

A brown Earth pony with a white mane asked, “How come we have to wait here for your signal when we could easily secure it faster if we all go in?”

Summer Spell turned around to address the civilians. “Alright, let’s say we all go in at the same time. What happens if we find nothing but a horde of Wereponies inside? It would be too little and too late to back out of it.”

The crowd of ponies' eyes widened in fear as Crystal Breeze added, "And let's not forget about the blood they’ve already spilled so far. Just thinking about something like that should keep you from going forward with a really stupid idea like the one you just suggested."

"That’s correct, Crystal Breeze. It would be a bloodbath. We're mostly civilians here, and we would all die from the Wereponies. All it would take is a single jump from them and we would be history." Summer's face became serious as she continued. "You have a choice: play it safe or play it sorry."

The now shaking ponies all quickly agreed to the play-it-safe option. Then, Summer Spell and four other Solar guards turned around and walked into the Barracks.