//------------------------------// // 3 - Of monsters, weapons and food // Story: Proof of a hero // by SkarinOfAtmora //------------------------------// A day of celebration was turned into a day of chaos when a rathalos crashed the festivities and tried to eat Twilight. Everycreature ran for their lives as the red wyvern belched fire across Canterlot. Many didn't even see the hunter who took down the beast with little effort. Max wanted to end the rathalos' life but Twilight was adamant he not behead the wyvern in the middle of town or at all for that matter. Having no time for the youngsters lollygagging Flynn deployed a shock trap and quickly put the beast to sleep with tranquilizers. Guards quickly surrounded them and pointed their spears at the sleeping rathalos and even on Max and Flynn. "Captain, put down you spear." Twilight instructed Flash Sentry who raised his spear towards Max who looked at the pointy weapon with an amused look. "Your Majesty, we don't know if they are cooperating with that beast!" Flash retorted which made Max roll his eyes. "I said stand down." Twilight repeated herself with more authority, something she couldn't even imagine before becoming the ruler of Equestria. "Cooperating!?" Flynn finally lost it. The old gray palico jumped at Flash Sentry and kicked the spear out from the captain's hand with little effort and Flash Sentry suddenly found himself face to face with a very angry kitty. "We just saved yer' ungrateful arses and ye' point these toothpicks at us!" Flynn gripped Flash's collar tighter and the pegasus gulped. "Cool it Flynn." Max pulled the palico from the pegasus captain who quickly picked up the spear. "And you, put that thing away before you hurt yourself." "Guards, stand down. Final warning." Twilight stepped forward and stood between Flash Sentry and Max who held Flynn away at arms length so the palico doesn't scratch his face off. The captain finally pulled back and lowered his spear. "Stand down." all guards followed his order but some still jumped in fright when the rathalos snored a little too loud. "Umm, what should we do about this?" Flash pointed at the sleeping rathalos. Before Twilight could answer, Max spoke. "You need to kill it." Max stated harshly. "You can't keep it asleep forever and you'd have to wake it up to feed it. It's too dangerous to be left alive." "There has to be another way." Twilight shook her head. "We don't just kill all willy nilly here in Equestria." "Yeah, I've noticed." Max finally let Flynn down and the palico crossed his arms and huffed. "Look, if it were a younger one you could even train it but this one is too far gone. There is no reasoning with tempered monsters." Max stepped forward and pulled out the hunting knife. "I suggest you close down the area so we can get this over with quickly." "I will do no such thing!" Twilight stomped her hoof. "There is no way in Tartarus I will allow you to kill a creature in the middle of Canterlot!" "Look 'ere lassie." Flynn stepped forward and spoke in a surprisingly calm tone. "It's just as Max said. We don' like kilin' any more than you. But sometimes ya' have ta' do what's neccesary." "We can take it out of town and end it's life there. It will feel no pain." Max reassured calmly. "That doesn't make it better." Twilight looked sadly at the sleeping creature but she knew the two were right. If they were to release it it would just wreak havoc someplace else. "Are there more of them?" "So far we've encountered five different species. No tempered ones so we drove them away from towns and villages." Max replied and Twilight looked at him in confusion. "How come I haven't heard about any attacks?" "Because we're the best at what we do." Max said casually and lowered his fist so Flynn can bump it with his paw. "Damn right." Flynn replied and then looked at Flash Sentry. "You! Gather your soldiers and let's get this sunovabitch out of town." Flash Sentry looked at Twilight for approval. "Oy! You answer to me now laddie!" Flynn stepped forward and pinted a sharp claw at Flash Sentry. Twilight almost laughed when Flash Sentry flinched away from the palico. "I am a captain!" Flash shouted back. "Do as he says, Captain." Twilight's response made Flash's jaw drop. "As much as I hate to admit it, they are right. We don't know anything about these creatures and if they insist on ending this creature's life is safer for Equestrian then I have no choice but to believe them." Twilight then crouched to be at eye level with Flynn. "Sir Flynn, promise me it will feel no pain." "No worries lassie." Flynn nodded and then turned to the gathered guards. "What're ye' starin' at? Get yer' arses movin'! We have bloody rathalos to transport!" Twilight chukled at the way the guards suddenly sprung to action and ran around like a bunch of headless chickens. It would seem Flynn had that drill sergeant aura around him. "I'll get the rope." Max said and was ready to leave when Flynn grabbed his leg. "Oh no! I'll deal with the beast, you deal with the diplomacy!" Twilight stood up and looked at Max who looked horrified. "What? No! I don't want diplomacy duty!" "Like it or not numbskull, you're the only hunter here so that means you have to establish relations between The Guild and Equestria." Flynn pointed a finger at him before smirking. "I'm sure ye' will be fine, after all, you have experience-" "Alright, alright!" Max goraned and shooed away the old palico who immediately started barking orders at the fumbling guards. "How long have you two been married?" Twilight asked teasingly. "About twenty years." Max replied without missing a beat. "He's like a father to me. Or a crazy uncle. Depends on who you ask." the hunter then turned to Twilight who looked at him in amusement. "So uh, you got an office or something? There's a lot to talk about." "Indeed there is." Twilight nodded and motioned towards the castle. Max nodded and followed Twilight closely. "If you would follow me, please. We will talk in my office once I change into something more appropriate." they barely made a couple of steps when Flynn called. "Heads up!" Max quickly turned around and caught a thick notebook that Flynn flung at him. "What's this?" Twilight looked at the book curiously. The brown cover had a symbol engraved into and she could see the notebook was well worn and used. "My notes. All the information you want to know about any monster is right here." Max wiggled the book in front of Twilight. The nerd inside her suddenly woke up and her right ear twitched. "Everything?" Twilight asked and tried to not act all excited but the growing smile gave it away. She couldn't help it! "Everything." Max handed the notebook to Twilight who snatched it away and flipped through the pages. It wasn't in aplhabetical order, the handwriting was messy and it was stained with stars knows what. Not a problem, she will fix that in the Equestrian edition. "Hey." Twilight turned the open notebook to Max who flinched. "Why does it only say FUCK IT in red letters for Rajang?" Max stood at the window inside Twilight's office. It was a spacious round room where bookshelves covered the walls completely, leaving only space for an antrance and one large window that had a small balcony outside. In the distance Max could see the Royal Guard and Flynn moving the rathalos towards the forest on a big cart. He just hoped Flynn would get everything useful from the monster before the ponies bury it. "I apologize for the wait." the sound of doors opening and Twilight's voice made Max turn around. "Getting out of that dress was more difficult than I imagined." and now instead of a dress, Twilight wore a white button-up shirt and a black skirt that reached her knees. "I didn't know you wear glasses." Max remarked and walked to the big table in the center of the room. "They're only for reading." Twilight replied and sat down on the bigger chair that had her cutie mark carved into it. Max sat across from her and crossed his arms. "Now, I believe we have much to talk about." Twilight then put his notebook on the table. "I already copied the notebook so I can read it later." "Magic?" Max asked and took the notebook and flipped through the pages rapidly. "Yes." Twilight responded and summoned her copy. "Some parts are unclear to me but we can get to that later." "Sure, sure." Max nodded and held the notebook in his hands. "So, ummm... What do you wanna know?" he asked sheepishly. "Everything, of course!" Twilight's tone surprised Max. "How did you end up in Equestria? Are there more of you? How many monsters are there? Does this mean interdimensional travel exists? I mean, we have mirrors for that but this feels completely different!" "Whoaaaa! Slow down!" Max raised his arms at the excited alicorn. "One thing at a time, okay?" "Oh, my apologies." Twilight blushed slightly. "I just get excited when there's something new to learn." "I can see that." Max nodded before continuing. "Well, how did we end up here? Uhmm... Tough question." Twilight tilted her head sideways. "I guess it had something to do with portals." "Duh." "Just, let me finish, okay?" Max rolled his eyes. "The New world, as we dubbed it, has incredible amounts of bioenergy. There were many cases when someone or something got transported into our world. I haven't heard of that happening anywhere else besides the New world." "So this New world is special? How?" "In a way. It's where elder dragons go to die." Max explained shortly. "Oh! You mean liiiiike..." Twilight opened her copy of the notebook. "Like Lunastra?" "Yes. Wait, did you already read the entire thing?" Max narrowed his eyes making Twilight blush again. "Maybe." she could hear Max stiffle a laugh. "I like reading, okay?" "Apparently." Max chuckled and opened his notebook. "What you saw today was a Rathalos, so-called king of the sky." Twilight quickly opened her own notebook to the rathalos chapter. "A flying wyvern, breathes fire and has a poisonous tail." "Not to mention sharp teeth." Twilight commented as she remembered the razor sharp fangs that almost got her. "That too. It's very territorial, like most monster actually, and since this is unclaimed territory it wanted to make it's nest here." Max explained and flipped to the next page. "This is a rathian, the female counterpart." Twilight turned the page and spoke. "A rathalos and rathian always come in pair." she then looked to Max. "You think one will show up?" "I know it will." Max nodded and closed the notebook. "We've been trailing one rathian for a couple of days and so far it hasn't got close to here. Wheter or not they're mates we can't tell for sure." "I see." Twilight hummed in thought. She didn't like the idea of another one of those monsters attacking Canterlot but if the rathalos and rathian were truly mates, then it was unavoidable. She knew animals locate their mates by smell and marked territory and assumed these monsters did it the same way. "Were you and Flynn the only ones transported here from the Hunter's guild?" the first page of the notebook explaind what the guild was and how it operated. To Twilight it appeared it was like a forest ranger group but on a much grander scale. "As far as we know, yes." Max answered and stood up before walking to a map of Equestria. "I think we landed somewhere around..." he searched for the location and quickly found it. "Here." Max's finger landed on a forest in the vicinity of Baltimare. "Baltimare? That's a long way from Canterlot." Twilight hummed and then joined Max at the map. "Are you sure about this?" "We saw a sign." Max nodded and followed the train tracks towards Canterlot. "There was a nargacuga preying in this area so we followed it and eventually met that tempered rathalos." Max then traced his finger back to the forest. "Problem is, our tent is still in the forest. There's some gear and supplies that we will need." "I will send a message to Baltimare." Twilight said and a parchment and quill appeared beside her and the quill began writing a message. "Do you know how you got here?" Twilight asked and the quill continued to write on it's own. "Not really." Max sighed and crossed his arms. "We were in the guiding lands following up on reports of a large number of elder dragon sightings." Twilight nodded in response and remembered that the strongest monsters resided there. "Just the two of you?" she asked bewildered. "Aren't the guiding lands home to the strongest monsters in the world?" "We are the best hunting team after all." Max said a bit smugly. "And yes, we were alone, but not because we're cocky. Reinforcements were held up by a rampaging banbaro in Seliana." "I see." Twilight nodded and began pacing around her office. "It says in your notebook that elder dragons are the most powerful monsters in existance." "Rajang would disagree but sure." Max shrugged. "And you said many elder dragons suddenly appearead in the guiding lands." Twilight cupped her chin in though. "Is it possible that they fought each other and the energy released by them somehow created a portal to Equestria?" she suddenly stopped and turned to Max bewith a frightened look. "Are there elder dragons here?" "Not that we know of." Max addmited. "Elder dragons are hard to track and they mostly just pop-out out of nowhere." Twilight crossed her arms under her chest, making Max notice how large her chest really was. To his credit, the hunter looked away instantly. "I really don't like this." Twilight sighed. "Today was supposed to be a day of celebration, not of fear." "Don't worry." Max replied, eyes still everted from the princess. "Flynn and I will clean up this mess and be out of your hair in no time." "Hair?" Twilight asked. "Yeah." Max finally looked at Twilight and pointed at her mane. "That." "Oh, you mean mane." Twilight chuckled. "How silly of me. You are from another world, and another species at that. Yes, we call our hair, mane." "I'll keep that in mind." Max nodded and extended his arm. "I never properly introduced myself. The name's Max, master rank hunter of the Guild." he offered a smile which Twilight returned together with a handshake. "Princess Twilight Sparkle, ruler of Equestria." she said and retracted her hand. "I look forward to working with you and I hope we can resolve this situation as quickly as possible." "Likewise." Max then looked at her in amusement. "You seem pretty calm about all this. Monster from another world are invading and you're geeking out over a notebook." "Please, I've dealt with worse catastrophese before I even sat on the throne." Twilight said with a sly smirk. "And I was not geeking out." "Really?" Max chuckled. "You copied and read it in the time it took you to change clothes!" the hunter teased the princess. "What can I say, I'm a fast learner." Twilight shrugged before a thought hit her and she decided to tease him a little. "Is your name really Max?" she smirked victoriously as the hunter flinched. "Beacause I could have sworn Flynn was about to call you something different." Twilight then leaned forward and Max had to once again divert his eyes. That button up shirt was a really tight fit. "Well?" "Nope. Just Max." the hunter replied and hastily stepped away. "Soooo what was that party for? Is it your birthday or something?" Twilight chuckled and shook her head. "No. It's actually my ten year anniversary of ruling Equestria." she explained as she walked to the window. "Too bad it ended the way it did and ruined my perfect score." "Perfect score?" Max asked and joined her at the window. Down below in the city, ponies and all other creatures were still recovering from the attack. Medical teams were checking for injuries, of which there were very little and very minor, mostly caused by running in panic and spraining their ankles or getting bruised by falling down. "I'm sorry, that came out wrong." Twilight rubbed her temples. "Ponies and many creatures were hurt yet here I am complaining about my score like I'm back in school." she shook her head in shame. "It's just that for ten years there hasn't been any catastrophe that would endager my little ponies." "I think ten years is a pretty good run." Max admitted with a shrug. "Can't say my perfect score lasted more than two days." Twilight turned to him with an amused smile. "Really?" "Oh yeah. I get my ass kicked by monsters every other day." Max said sheepishly. "Even more so when Flynn forces me to use different weapons on every other hunt." Twilight then looked at the blade Max had leaned on a bookshelf. "You seemed to handle yourself well today." she then approached the sword and picked it up. It was a little heavier than expected but nothing she couldn't handle. "May I?" "Sure." Max nodded. "Just be careful. That thing causes blast build-up when you strike a monster and is extremely sharp." Twilight nodded and proceeded with caution. She gripped the handle and slowly pulled out the sword from it's sheath, the blade's edge turning red like hot steel. "Flynn named it Lightbreak Edge. Made it from a raging brachydios." "Flynn made this?" Twilight asked in surprise and Max nodded. "He became a blacksmith once his old hunting party disbanded." Max approached Twilight who inspected the sword thoroughly. She could feel a strange energy emanate from it and once again got the feeling it could blow up the world. "This feels... Dangerous." Twilight said in wonder and Max extended his arm. She understood his intention and handed Max the sword. "It's only dangerous to monsters." Max almost gave Twilight a heart attack when he slammed the sword on the marble floor. "See? No worries about blowing stuff up on accident. You can cut yourself though." Max then showed Twilight his other palm which indeed had cuts on it, some even fresh ones from today's encounter. "Still can't get that iai stance right." "May I?" Twilight then took his injured hand and put it between her own palms, making Max notice how soft a pony's fur really was. Then he felt a pleasant warmth wash over his hand. Once the feling was gone, Twilight removed her hands and Max stared at his hand in disbelief. "There. All better now!" Twilight said with a big smile. "That's incredible." Max inspected his healed hand and found no traces of today's injury. "Thank you." Twilight replied before tapping on one of the previous scars. "Unfortunately it can't heal wounds that already healed by themselves." "That's okay." Max smiled briefly. "After all, a knight in shining armor has never seen bat-" *GROOOOOWL* "What in the name of the Sun was that?" Twilight jumped back in surprise and looked at Max in disbelief. "Was that-" "Yep, sorry." Max said sheepishly and rubbed his stomach. "Haven't eaten in a while." "It sounded like a rathalos!" Twilight covered her mouth to suppress an incoming laugh. Max on the other hand laughed nervously. "You wouldn't happen to have anything to eat?" he asked sheepishly. "I'm sure we can fix something up." Twilight then turned around and made her way to the door. "Is there anything specific you would like? I don't know what your species-" "Human. I'm human." Max's words made Twilight stop and turn around. "Human?" she thought she heard wrong. "Is that true?" "Umm, yes?" Max looked at the princess with a confused look. "Why?" "No, nothing..." Twilight shook her head. "Come on. Let's get you something to eat before my little ponies think another rathalos is coming." the princess said in a teasing voice and motioned Max to follow her. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up." Max rolled his eyes and followed Twilight into the hallway. It was empty which didn't come as a surprise as almost everypony was outside and helping to clean the mess rathalos made. After going down a spiral stair-case, Twilight opened the first door to her right and they found themselves in a large kitchen. "Chef would like this." Max nodded to himself as he remebered the buff cat from Astera. Twilight went to the fridge and opened it to see what options they have. "Okaaaaay..." she tapped her chin in thought. "We've got eggs, milk, some chocolate syrup." she then looked at a nearby shelf. "And flour. I can make you pancakes if you'd like some." "What?" Max thought he heard wrong. "You're going to make me pancakes?" "Do you see a chef around?" Twilight asked matter-of-factly and Max shook his head. "And since you're my guest now it is my responsibility to make sure your stay is a pleasant one." she smiled widely and levitated the ingredients with her magic. "Now be prepared for the best pancakes ever!"