//------------------------------//
// 4. The Huntress Appears 
// Story: Monster Huntress Diamond 
// by HappyPillz 
//------------------------------//

The following morning brought with it a hot and humid atmosphere, greeting Rarity with a severely frizzled mane and tail. 
Oh, you can not be serious. I don’t even have a brush with me! Jungle, what did I ever do to you to deserve this? Just kick me while I’m down, why don’t you? 
She tried her best to straighten her hair, which only improved mildly. 
It’ll have to do, I suppose. 
She glanced down at her leg. 
And how are you feeling this morning, hmm? 
She flexed it warily without any twinges of pain, then tried standing with success. She walked back and forth, then gave a sigh of relief. 
Oh, thank goodness. I was afraid I might have injured it worse than that. I must have just given it a little strain from my… shall we say, escapades, yesterday. So, that gives me plenty that I can do today. I guess I had better start out by returning to the river, I need to refill my water bottles and I desperately need a bath. Then I should probably start searching for civilization again, and I can hunt along the way. 
She packed up her camp, rolling her canvas tent as best she could. The water squished out, leaving a damp and mildly smelly cloth behind, but it was at least light enough to carry if bundled. She took down her ropes and wrapped the canvas, adding to her growing load. Donning her scale gear and picking up her saddlebag, she stowed her weapons, shouldered her canvas, deposited a flag, and set out in the direction of the riverbed.
The hike was unpleasant; her normal paths through the jungle required her to forge through foliage and she had no issues with that other than the occasional scrape or odd tickling feeling, but now every single leaf that touched her was wet or slimy from the previous night’s rain, and they stuck to her body as she squeezed her way past. Her hooves sank into the soft earth, and in places the earth gave way to thick muck that sucked her hooves down and refused to let go. Several times she had to catch herself on trees to keep from falling face first into the mud, and she found herself cursing under her breath much more often than she would have liked.
Eventually the sound of running water reached her ears, though, and she smiled to herself as the river came into view. She had managed to come out slightly downstream of where she had camped a couple nights before, her flight from the wolf-lizard must have taken her farther back than she had realized. She set her belongings down and left her scale mail with them, then made her way to the water, plunging in without removing her regular clothing or even testing the water. It was frigid, but at this point she did not care.
She spent as long as she could in the water, washing both her clothes and herself, trying to clean as much of the blood from her fur as possible; surprisingly she was mostly successful. Only a slight pink tinge remained in a few spots, and it thankfully was not spread over her entire body as she feared it might. Her clothes, on the other hand, did not fare quite so well, and would never be free of the red stains again. She sighed, but a set of clothes was a small price to pay if it meant she was able to eat. She climbed from the water and used some cloth to dry herself, then dressed, filled her water bottles, collected her gear, and set off upstream.
She followed the river as she had a couple days prior, picking her way through familiar rocks and terrain until she reached the campsite she had used previously, noting the remains of her fire pit, when something struck her as being slightly off. She cast her eyes around, not able to put her finger on what exactly was striking her as inconsistent, when she noticed a flurry of faint paw prints in the soft wet earth further ahead and the change became apparent. The flag she had planted was now missing. 
Her heart began hammering as she ran up to the prints, inspecting them closely. They were of medium size, but still much smaller than her hoof prints; she guessed whatever had made them were probably about three quarters of her height. She could tell by the prints that whomever had made them was long gone, but she was overjoyed to know that there might be someone looking for her somewhere out there. She tried to keep her emotions in check, however, as she had no guarantee as to who it was that took her flag, or why. With a last look at the tracks, she pressed onward, venturing once again into the interior.
She followed her previous day’s path toward the glade, feeling slight anxiety as she neared given her encounter from the previous day. She happened upon her gathering satchel, still lying on the ground where she had dropped it. She retrieved it with a smile, though it no longer had any of the food she had collected, and she continued forward toward the glade. As the open area came into view she was relieved to see there were no wolf-lizards in sight, though she saw several small creatures that looked like deer in the glade, green in color, occasionally drinking from a waterhole or eating grasses as they wandered. Rarity stared for several long moments as several different trains of thought fought for dominance in her head.
So, how are we going to plan our attack? Are you really going to attack a poor defenseless deer? I doubt it’s defenseless. Fluttershy would never forgive you, you know. We’ve been over this, you need meat to live. You can’t be choosy about where you get it, especially if the source could kill you. So, I’m going to have to kill one. I’m not going to be able to outrun one, maybe keep up, but definitely not outrun. I could probably sneak up to a point, but I’m not going to be able to get up close enough to attack. Using my magic to attack wouldn’t be effective, and I can’t use magic to hold it down or pick it up, I’m not that strong… 
A sly smile worked its way across her face. 
But I can use my magic to grab legs, trip them, maybe even flip them upside down. I bet they’re not used to that from their usual predators. 
With a strategy in mind, she slipped her packs to the ground, donned her scale mail and her dual blades, and crept slowly through the grass behind the closest of the creatures, keeping as quiet as she could while trying to blend in with the greenery. Holding her blades along the insides of her arms for stealth, she neared the deer, which had not seemed to have noticed her yet. Her pulse quickened and her breath slowed, every one of her senses seemed to be in a heightened state, and adrenaline coursed through her veins. She became acutely aware of every movement her prey made. She was close; she took a step. She saw movement; the deer’s head turned just a bit, its ears perked up ever so slightly, it blinked. Its hind legs tensed but did not move. But Rarity already had.
In an instant she dashed forward, holding the deer’s hind legs stationary with her magic momentarily as she flipped her blades forward and plunged them into its lower thighs. The other deer scattered; the one she attacked let out a bleating screech, breaking her concentration and shattering her magical grip. The deer lifted its hindquarters and kicked, catching Rarity in her midsection and sending her and her blades flying backwards, her legs sailing over her head as she flipped over in midair, managing to land on her hooves ten yards behind the beast. She coughed and heaved heavily, catching her breath after such a heavy blow, but the sight of the creature attempting to stumble away was enough to get her back up on her hooves, racing back into the fray.
“No you don’t, you little bastard! Get back here!" she yelled. She ran toward the deer, yanking on its hind leg with her magic to slow it down. She spotted one of her blades on the ground between them, and she scooped it up as she ran without slowing. The deer saw her coming and turned, lowering its head to prepare to attack; its horns pointed directly at her. Rarity narrowed her eyes. 
“You want to play it that way, hm?" 
She quickened her pace, flipping her blade inward along her arm again as she ran, then as she neared the deer dropped to the ground hooves first, sliding along the wet grass underneath the creature and slicing its leg as she slid past. The beast bellowed and dropped to its knee as she popped up on the other side, stabbing down with her blade through its shoulder and into its heart. It gave a weak bleat, kicking and stumbling under her blade as she withdrew it, before crumpling at her hooves and finally succumbing to its fate. 
Rarity stood above it, her chest rising and falling in a strong and steady rhythm as she stared down at her kill, her mind replaying all that had just happened: the exhilaration of the hunt, the surge of raw aggression that she had never felt before in her life, the ability to weave a deadly dance with another creature, a dance in which one would fall and not rise again, and then she emerged the victor - all these thoughts and more flooded her mind, and she found that she loved it. The thrill of the hunt had captured her, and she didn’t care if it never let her go.
She knelt down beside the deer, feeling a twinge of pain in her ribs as she did so. She grimaced. “You probably bruised something, you know,” she said to the carcass in front of her. “Still, I came off better than you in the end, so I’ll take it." She pulled out a bone knife she had made, carving the deer in a much better fashion than she had the wolf-lizard; she had learned quickly, and her knife was of much better quality now. She stored the meat away and picked up her belongings; she was about halfway across the glade when she slowed, and her ears turned, picking up a faint buzzing noise far off to her side. 
Are those… bees? 
She stopped for a moment in thought. 
It would be great if I could get some honey… and the honeycombs… 
Her eyes shot open. 
Idea! 
She squealed girlishly and jumped in place excitedly. 
Wax! I can melt wax into my canvas and it will waterproof it! I remember that from crafting with mom when I was a filly! 
 She turned and headed toward the buzz, which slowly grew in volume until it reached a volume loud enough to make her ears hurt, but there was the hive about fifty yards away. It wasn’t quite hanging from a tree as much as it was coating the tree; it started halfway out on a branch about ten feet off the ground, spanned all the way back to the trunk, and tapered almost all the way to the base of the tree. Rarity gaped at the massive hive, not daring to go any closer to it for fear of being swarmed, and she sat down by a tree to think how she might be able to gather some honey and wax without being in any danger.
An extremely loud grunting snort, punctuated by a snarl, came from somewhere in the distance, and it was all Rarity could do to keep from crying out in surprise. She kept extremely still and quiet as she heard something heavy and large slowly lumbering through the trees to her side, behind the tree she was sitting at. She desperately wanted to peek around the tree to see what it was that was approaching, but she knew that if she gave away her presence it could very well be the last thing she did. Whatever the creature was, it was heading in that direction, and Rarity held her breath as she heard it stop and sniff the air. It gave another large snort, and then moved on past her tree toward the beehive. It was what appeared to be a giant bear, easily twice Rarity’s height, with turquoise fur and what seemed to be almost like a shell on its back. It grunted and aimed its huge red-tipped claws at the hive, ripping the nest open and pouring angry bees out like water. The bear didn’t seem to care. It scooped up a large comb of honey and sat down to eat, seemingly oblivious to the fact that it was being stung thousands of times.
Well, I suppose that is a stroke of luck for me. They won’t notice a chunk of honeycomb floating away by magic. 
She gathered as much as she could without being noticed and pulled it away carefully, then stole away quietly while the bear continued to eat. With her honeycomb secured, she made her way out of the glade and continued onward, pressing through into a less dense part of the jungle. She wandered on, enjoying the new feeling of freedom from constant entanglement in vines and bushes, and decided to take advantage of her open surroundings by practicing various skills she may need to make use of in the future - dodging, rolling, using her environment - it appeared that her body was well adapted for these sorts of maneuvers, as she took to them rather easily. She found herself wishing that Rainbow Dash was here, just so she could show off. It was a rather odd feeling. 
I guess this must be how she feels all the time. I suppose I can understand why. A little. She’s still a braggart, though.
  Her hooves eventually tired as the day wore on, light fading to darkness, and she found herself at a small stream crossing the jungle, only a few yards across and about three feet deep at its deepest point. She stopped to rest, enjoying the quiet babbling of the water and rubbing her aching muscles. She had quite the eventful day, and now it was time to set up her camp before continuing on yet again; though as she looked around at the idyllic scenery, she found that she didn’t really want to leave immediately. She had been on the move constantly ever since she arrived, and she had finally achieved the means to survive without worrying about where her food would come from tomorrow. Yes, she still had a long way to go, but she deserved a bit of a break from travel, and this was a perfect spot to do it. Besides, she reasoned, here she had water, and she would be able to spend more time honing her skills and refining her tools. There were likely more deer around as well, in case she had any need of more food. Her plan having been decided, she set up camp and settled in for an extended stay.

**********

It had been two days since Rarity had settled to camp by the stream, and she had made the most of her stay. She had used the beeswax to waterproof her canvas, which had worked wonderfully; not only had she been able to use it to create a functional tent, but she was able to make a large water skein as well to help supplement her bottles for storage. She had also spent a large amount of her time practicing with her weapons and honing her skills. She was proud of the progress she had made, and deemed herself ready to defend herself against more formidable foes should the need arise. Feeling refreshed and ready enough to continue on her way, she planted a flag, prepared and set out once again, venturing through the woods.
She hiked on for some time; the area she had entered seemed to have officially transitioned from dense jungle to a moderate forest, and she was now enjoying the sights and sounds that accompanied the change to much less oppressive scenery. She saw occasional birds and beasts as she walked, but none were terribly close, and as long as she didn’t approach them, they seemed to pay her no mind. She had seen some of the wolf-lizards, however, and that worried her greatly; thankfully they were far off and appeared to be sleeping, but the fact that they were there reminded her that they, and likely other predators and aggressive monsters, were still around. 
She moved quietly through the trees, staying keenly aware of her surroundings, when something caught her eye. Off to her side, on the bark of a tree, was a paw drawn in blue paint. It wasn’t terribly large, and was quite faded as well, but it was unmistakable. She approached it cautiously, inspecting the tree and the area around it. It had a massive trunk, and she saw that the base had a hollow neatly carved out in it, and inside was stored a plethora of… well, what looked like somebody’s trash, for lack of a better term. She saw pot lids, old barrels, random odds and ends… but to her, it meant a great deal. It meant that there was somebody living around here, somebody intelligent enough to have made use of tools like these, and that meant rescue. Her heart nearly leapt out of her chest with adrenaline.
She looked around, searching for any footprints, paw prints, or any more of the marked trees. She was disappointed to find that much of the surrounding area had hard dirt ground, poor for retaining any tracks, but she persevered, widening her search. She wandered the uneven terrain and found a nearby rocky rise, peppered with trees and dotted with crags and crevices. She followed the ridge watching carefully as she walked, when a splash of blue on a rock caught her attention. She raced forward, coming to a stop outside a small cave marked with a blue paw. She excitedly peered into the hollow, finding more stored items, though that was not what had made her heart leap into her throat with shock and joy. The soft floor of the cave was riddled with paw prints, fresh paw prints, and there were many of them around several familiar cloth flags, adorned with blue diamonds, that now leaned in the corner of the cave.
Sweet Celestia, these are the creatures that were looking for me! And they’re close by! If I can find them I’m saved!
A lump formed in her throat and a tear worked its way into her eye, she was so close; all she had to do was find whatever these things were and this would all be over. She wasted no time, and without a second thought, yelled as loud as she could possibly muster.
“HELLO! IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? I’M STRANDED HERE AND NEED YOUR HELP!”
She paused, hoping for a possible answer and preparing to yell again. Suddenly, she received an answer, though not the kind she had been hoping for. A cacophony of loud screeching noises assaulted her ears; looking around she saw a pack of four blue scaled raptors approaching, their thin frames masking their powerful muscles and their needle-sharp teeth protruding frighteningly from their bird-like beaks.
Buck! You idiot! There are other things out here too, you know, and most of them want to eat you! Well, you are well and truly bucked, I hope you are ready to either fight your way out or die trying. 
She drew out her sword and shield; if there was a time she would need to be blocking attacks, this was definitely a good time to start. With her back to the ridge, she saw that she was surrounded, with all four raptors spread out around her. Her mind worked furiously to work out a plan of attack, and she launched into action almost immediately. She used her magic to loudly smash some rocks on the far left behind them; they provided enough noise to draw their attention momentarily, allowing her to act. She dashed ahead to the right toward the mid-right raptor, aiming for a moderately sized boulder lodged in the ground between them. Putting on a final burst of speed, she jumped off the rock toward the raptor before it had time to respond, slashing downward as she fell to open a cavity through the raptor’s neck, hacking it through completely as she continued her downward descent. With a punctuated exhale she landed, stabilizing herself with her shielded arm while her sword arm remained outstretched to the carcass in front of her.
“One down. Who’s next?”
She looked to her far left, at the raptor she had sent the rocks smashing behind; it was in the most dangerous position as it would be able to get behind her and attack easily. She needed it disabled, and fast. With a blue aura, she yanked out a berry bomb, crushed it and sent it hurtling directly into the raptor’s face, ensuring that it smothered the creature’s eyes. It screeched and writhed in pain, the hissing of the monster matched only in intensity by that of the acid eating at its scales. 
The lapse in her concentration taken by throwing her bomb was not overlooked, however, and another of the raptors took advantage of the pause, leaping at Rarity and slashing at her with its massive clawed toes. She reacted just in time as it reached her, raising her shield to block its strike; the impact knocked Rarity back considerably, her breath knocked from her body as she reeled from the blow. The claw had ripped through the shield, shattering the wood and utterly destroying the shield, and had even cut through her scale mail and left a deep gash in her arm; blood oozed from the wound and her arm hung limply, too pained to move. 
“Bucking… monster…” she choked out.
She held her sword out, swinging it back and forth between the remaining two raptors, trying to figure out how she could attack them both without leaving herself open to one of them. Throwing bombs took concentrating on only one, she had no shield and only one arm. 
I guess I’m out of good options… I suppose I could just rush one and hope the other doesn’t join?
She braced herself, when a large rumble shook the earth and an immense and ear splitting roar ripped through the air. Rarity fell to the ground, her eyes clenched shut and her ears pinned back against her head; she dropped her sword and held her good arm over her ears in an effort to block out the intensely painful noise. When she opened her eyes, her pupils shrank to pinpricks, and her jaw dropped open. One of the raptors was in the process of running away, and the other was firmly in the jaws of a massive monster before her. 
The monster was easily three times her height, pinkish red in color with grayish black fur along its back, and resembled something she had heard of called a tyrannosaur. It violently shook the raptor in its mouth before tossing it upward in the air and catching it with a vicious bite that severed the head from the remainder of the body; the monster gulped the body down while the head flopped to the ground limply. Rarity found herself wondering if it was the raptor that slashed her arm. However, her next thought was much more sobering as the monster turned its gaze toward her.
Buck. I’m going to be the next course, aren’t I? 
She stood, backing up step by step, never taking her eyes off the massive creature in front of her as she did so. The monster, in turn, took a step forward.
The monster, however, did not get past making its first step. Faster than Rarity could realize, another creature had arrived in the area. Just as large as the tyrannosaur, this monster appeared to be a hybrid of a sort - it had a white furred squirrel body, scaled claws, and a head resembling a snake, and it had leapt out of a tree and attacked the tyrannosaur with a piercing hiss. Electrical energy sparked from the fur of the squirrely monster as it nimbly sped around the lumbering brute, biting its hulking body with territorial hissing, while the tyrannosaur flared its nostrils and raised two dorsal fins on its back; Rarity went slack-jawed as she saw the tyrannosaur’s maw open to spew a torrent of flame at the snake-squirrel. She was snapped from her daze, however, by an unfamiliar voice yelling behind her.
“Hey! Purr-son with a horn! Follow me! This way!”
She turned, and saw to her amazement a small cat person, slightly smaller than herself, waving frantically at her.
“Hurry! Before the anjanath and tobi kadachi stop fighting and decide to eat you!”
She looked behind her at the monsters still locked in battle and then back at the cat person. 
She had never run so hard or fast as she did just now before in her life.

**********

“Really, I can’t thank you enough for coming when you did.” Rarity winced as the felyne wrapped another bandage around her arm. “I would have ended up as a snack for those… what did you call them again?”
The felyne paused. “The red one is an anjanath. The white one is a tobi kadachi. Now, please hold still, Miss Rowrity.”
“It’s Rarity. And I’m sorry, your name was…?”
“That’s what I said.” The felyne cocked an eyebrow at her. “And my name is Cinnamon. I live in this felyne camp.” The tortoiseshell felyne waved her paw, motioning around to the small gathering of huts. Several other felynes were patrolling the perimeter of the camp, holding crude spears or swords made with wood, bone, and stone. A small campfire burned not far off, with a pot held over it and a slightly rotund felyne minding the contents with perhaps a little too much interest. A couple small felyne kits scampered around, playing and mewling as they raced each other around, almost knocking over a barrel in the process of their game. Rarity smiled and turned back to Cinnamon.
“It’s a lovely camp. Thank you for bringing me here. Once again, I really appreciate it.”
“Of course! Besides, You were about to be monster chow, we couldn’t just leave you there.” She looked back at Rarity’s saddlebag again, emblazoned with the trio of blue diamonds. “So all the flags were yours? We scavenge and roam the forest and jungle often and bring what we find back to our camp or storage places. We thought a new hunter must have ventured out further than usual and forgotten them.”
Rarity blinked. “A new hunter? You mean, there are more people around here? And these people intentionally come way out here to hunt deer and birds? I mean, I agree that the meat is rather delicious, but it is incredibly dangerous out here just to come for a hunt, isn’t it?”
The felyne stared at her wordlessly. She eventually found her voice, addressing Rarity’s armor. “You have to know what I’m talking about, I mean the hunters that provide materials like the jagras hide and bones that made your armor and weapons. The smithy that made them did a great job, by the way. You probably would have lost your arm to that velociprey if they had made a poor armguard.”
“Is that what those lizards are called?” Rarity looked thoughtful, then smiled at the compliment. “As for the hunter and the smith that provided my armor and weapons, you’re looking at her.”
Cinnamon openly gaped at her. “You mean to tell me that you killed a jagras by yourself-“
“With some purple berries and a big rock.” Rarity interjected cheerily.
The felyne sputtered momentarily, then regained her voice. “-and then you carved it, and crafted weapons and armor by yourself, all out in the middle of the jungle?”
Rarity nodded. “That sums it up pretty well, yes. I was able to fend off two of those velociprey monsters before they injured my arm, as well. So, your other hunters hunt these jagras and velociprey creatures too, then?”
Her new companion shook her head. “Hunters are in charge of keeping us safe from the large monsters. The really dangerous ones.”
Rarity’s eyes grew wide. “The… large ones? You can’t possibly mean…?”
Cinnamon nodded. “Like the anjanath and the tobi kadachi. They hunt monsters like those regularly. They carve parts from the monsters to bring back to the village, and the smithies there craft armor and weapons from what they bring back. They can even make special decorations, and quite often what they make can enhance the hunters’ abilities. The smithies can also use ores and gems to craft things, though those tend to be less of a focus for most hunters, as tracking down monsters is easier.”
“Oh, those should be easy for me to find,” Rarity said nonchalantly. “I have a special talent for finding gems and ores, after all.”
“That should be extremely useful, then.” The felyne cursed softly as she watched the bandages tied around Rarity’s arm slowly turn red. “We need to get you to Miliesu Village. I don’t think you’re in any immediate danger, but that wound isn’t going to heal without medical treatment, and we don’t have that in our camp. Do you feel strong enough to travel? We should be there by nightfall.” 
Rarity nodded. “I don’t think I’ve lost enough blood yet to feel woozy, thanks to you. Any longer, though, and I’d probably be passed out by now.”
“Alright, the path leads out the rear of our camp and through the ridge behind. Just a moment, I’ll help you pick up your gear, it won’t be easy to slip on with only one arm.”
“Oh, don’t you worry,” Rarity reassured her. “That’s so polite of you, but I can manage just fine, thank you.” She levitated her armor over, slipping it on effortlessly with her magic, then doing the same with the rest of her gear, while the felyne stared with bulging eyes and a slack jaw.
“Why, whatever is the matter?” Rarity queried. “You look absolutely terrified!” 
“What…” She pointed a quivering paw at Rarity, “what was that?”
“What was what?” Rarity looked puzzled. “You mean my magic?”
“Magic?” the felyne gasped. “You have magic?”
“Well, of course! I am a unicorn, after all.” She tapped her horn. She looked at Cinnamon quizzically. “You mean to tell me you’ve never seen magic before?”
The cat blanched. “No, never! Not even monsters can do things like that! Where on earth are you from? I’ve never seen another person like you before.”
“About that… I’m not from your ‘earth’. I’m from a place called Equestria, another dimension, actually. I was sent here by accident, so I’m actually pretty lost and confused about everything, which means getting to this village of yours sounds like a great idea. Speaking of which, we should probably be going now.”
Cinnamon snapped back to attention. “Right! Sorry, I got a bit distracted there. Let’s get moving before we lose any more time and you get any weaker. Come on, my friend!”
Rarity smiled, following the cheerful little felyne as she exited the camp and started up the ridge, leading on toward civilization.

**********

The bustling village of Miliesu was settled beyond the forest, and was the crucial waypoint to all the major regions on the continent: the desert in the east, the lava caves to the south, the ice peaks to the north, and the forest and jungle to the west. Inside the village, a large manor dominated the landscape, surrounded by more modest homes fanning out as the streets spread through the sprawling town. Businesses began popping up shortly after; the main plaza held stalls for shopkeepers, smiths, trainers for both hunters and their companions, and even a restaurant. On a higher tier, just above the main plaza, sat the Wyverian’s Quarter, though it was only known as such due to the professions housed there. Both the clinic and the researcher’s academy were located in that area, and given the Wyverians penchant for learning, the name of the quarter seemed well earned.
Miliesu was an active village during the day, though night was generally quiet. Regardless, guards did need to keep watch at the entrances to ensure no monsters strayed into the village. Late past nightfall, they were alarmed as someone or something appeared stumbling through the shadows of the trees under the moon, approaching the gates of the village. A weak moan, accompanied by an equally weak meow reached their ears, and they rushed forward as they realized the shapes were not monsters.
Rarity staggered into the village, supported by Cinnamon at her side. Her arm hung by her side, tied tightly with crimson strips and slowly dripping blood from her fingertips. Her eyes were half-lidded, unfocused, and she was barely hanging on to consciousness as she slowly teetered on the brink of collapse. Her horn sparked, pulsing faint blue as her magic ebbed in and out of control. She was quite acquainted with fainting, but fainting from blood loss would be a first for her. Cinnamon held her with great difficulty, supporting the larger frame as best she could while the village guards rushed forward to their aid.
“Someone call Aerylla, fast!” one yelled, breaking the quiet night air as his companion hoisted Rarity from the ground, relieving Cinnamon from her burden. Draping the limp form across his arms, he moved quickly toward the clinic, which had already been lit and was bustling with activity. Rarity’s eyes fluttered closed as she passed in and out of awareness, and she could barely make out any of the blurred images as she was laid in the hospital bed. The only thing she could remember before she faded from consciousness was hearing the concerned voices muttering the words “same energy signature… monsters… aggression… who?” Then her head lolled to the side and everything turned black.