//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3: First Hunt 
// Story: Welcome Home, Hunter 
// by KutKu 
//------------------------------//

	The sun took its sweet time actually deciding to rise this time. Twilight was wide awake and pacing around the library just as the first few rays of sunlight peeked over the horizon. So many things to do today, so many chores and responsibilities to get out of the way before reading more of that journal. The magic that let her read the journal was very specific: One hour every day, no more, no less. Experimentation to extend the amount of time or reduce the time in between almost killed her. There was no way around it, and if there was, Twilight was not brave enough to keep trying to find out.
Around the same time every other pony in Ponyville was getting up, Twilight was halfway done with her workday. She had to deliver several letters to different houses around town. They were past due notices for books borrowed from the library. Like it or not, Twilight had to remind the population that a library is there for the general public, and that ponies should not keep the library books to themselves. A letter to Berry's house asking her to return the book on brewing yeast she borrowed, a letter to Lyra asking for the library's book on opposable thumbs back, Mrs. Cake with a book on low carbohydrate diets; all of these had to be delivered as soon as possible.
While Twilight did her rounds, she passed by the Sugarcube Corner. Smoke was coming out of the chimney, possibly from the early morning batch of pastries. Curiosity overtaking her, she snuck around the back and peeked into the backyard. Sure enough, the building was much larger on the outside than what she remembered being on the inside, and the backyard merely pointed straight out into the wilderness, two boarded up giant double doors taking up most of the wall. She could see the stairs leading up to Pinkie's room, and although it was hard to tell from such a distance, it looked like the door with the heart window was open just a little bit.
"Hi Twilight! Whatcha doin back here?!" Pinkie pie appeared right behind Twilight, who's poor pony heart took a small vacation. Completely surprised, Twilight could only cough and gasp for breath for a few moments.
"Are you here for the croissants? This time I made them and they're a brand new extra special recipe!" Pinkie held up a tray with a few black, charred pastries in the rough shape of a croissant.
"I... Im sorry Pinkie," Twilight responded after catching up with herself. "I, uh, was just delivering these past due notices around town and happened to be in the neighborhood."
"Oh no! I completely forgot! That book on jokes i borrowed was due back a week ago! Still, I got some really good ones out of it!"
Twilight was confused, but a quick check of her pile of letters showed she actually did have one for Pinkie. How convenient.
"Knock Knock" Pinkie's eyes were as wide as possible, she was obviously expecting a response.
"Wh...who's there?" Twilight was unsure if she should continue this.
"Sandy. No wait, uh, Sally! No, wait! Shoot, I forgot it. Anyway the punchline is try these they're DELICIOUS!"
Pinkie pie handed one of the burnt croissants to Twilight. She had seen Pinkie Pie eat some terrible things in the past, but she just assumed Pinkie was trying to be nice or courteous. This, however, was starting to hint at the fact that Pinkie probably doesn't have any tastebuds. Still, not to be rude, Twilight reached out and grabbed the toasted gift. As her hoof touched the burnt pastry, it burst almost violently, quickly shedding its ugly coat of charred bread and revealing a steaming hot beautiful croissant underneath. One bite almost made Twilight's hind legs buckle. It was just so soft, so buttery, so delicious, anything that was on her mind at the moment was completely gone. Pastry heaven.
"Hey, uh, twilight?" Pinkie interrupted her nirvana. "Did you get around to reading the book I gave you?"
"Huh... oh, OH, YEAH!" Even though she was sad to have to leave breadtopia and return to the real world, Twilight was glad the conversation changed to this particular topic. "It's very interesting. The journal itself is quite simple but it looks like the Hunter, uh, PS, put in a large amount of detail in secret writing. I had to use a magic spell to be able to read just a little bit of it, but I'll keep reading it!"
"Secret writing?" Pinkie smiled. "You must mean the shorthoof, silly. I thought you knew how to read shorthoof, since you both came from Canterlot."
"N...No. I had never heard of shorthoof before. It must be a Hunter's secret. Do you know how to read shorthoof, Pinkie Pie?" No. Possible. Way.
"Of course! PS taught me how to even write it. I've been putting it on party invitations and tons of other stuff recently, I thought you noticed. Oh well, at least you can read it with your magic. Leave it to Twilight Sparkle to invent a magic spell that lets her read more books! Tell me when you get to the good parts, ok? I want to know what he thought about us."
"Who exactly should i look out for?" Twilight recalled the hunter's initial opinion on Mr. and Mrs. Cake but nobody else had been mentioned yet.
"Well, it would be Yours Truly more importantly, then maybe Applejack... ooh and Rarity! I'd really like to know what he thought of Rarity!"
Rarity? That was new. Another piece of the puzzle rears its head. Now Rarity is involved in this. You'd think since so many of her friends knew about this Hunter pony, they'd have at least mentioned him once. Come to think of it, Twilight had not visited Rarity for a while, and she's almost certain Rarity wasn't at the festival either. One day she'd have to confront her about it. After thanking Pinkie for the snack and much later after the final note was delivered, Twilight Sparkle prepared the library for another spell.
From outside, a pony could only see flashing lights through the windows, feel the floor shake underhoof, hear the roar of unnatural magic, and finally, witness the violence of fire shooting out of every window in the treehouse. Some of the more nervous ponies grew concerned. What sort of crazy experiments are going on in there? Are we in danger? What exactly is the library trying to do, burn itself down?
However, this spectacle was almost commonplace. The bakery lights up and explodes randomly too, pegasus furniture has a habit of falling from the sky, and constant visits from strange creatures from the Everfree forest are merely signs that all is normal. So what if the library catches fire occasionally? There's really nothing to worry about.
Without a moment to lose, Twilight started reading where she left off:

First Hunt: Lizards (At least what I can remember)
As it turns out, Mr. Cake had a bad habit of not actually hunting anything at all ever throughout his whole career. Early in the morning there was a knock at my door. I quickly put on my undercoat and answered it. It was the local hunter Felyne. She introduced herself as "Opalescence" or something, I couldn't tell very well because her accent is completely different from our Felyne instructor's. She spoke like royalty, with proper inflections and accents, but still had that trademark Felyne language quirk. Behind her were several piles of documents.
"Each one of these is an unfulfilled request submeowted to the Guild that is within your territory. They are the result of at least one and a half decades of unfinished work. You are obligated to purrrsue these quests as soon as pawsible. Failure to comply will result in termnyanation of your hunter privileges."
"Hey, Opal, can i call you Opal?" I tried to break the ice, soften her up a bit. Some of my best friends were cats, and I'm proud of my flawlessly fluent Felyne. Surely if I get in good with the local Guild Felyne life would be much easier.
The cat shook its head no. Ugh. Tough crowd.
"Ok, ma'am. That's a pretty giant pile of contracts." It was. "You can't possibly expect me to realistically finish them all just by myself. I'm pretty sure some are probably expired by now, too."
"Nyope, these are the current standing quests. I don't expect you finish them all by yourself. I expect you to finish them all, and then keep up with the rest that come up on demand, for the rest of your purrfessional life. Ta Ta, see you tomorrow when i come check up on your pawgress."
With that, the cat lifted its tail and so casually walked away. Well, EX SCUSE ME, you big... fluffy... PRINCESS! I mean seriously all the other cats I had met were great pals. This one had to be one giant jerk ball of hair. I was a bit flustered and I'm pretty sure I had gotten just a little red in the face.
Lifting my head, I noticed a particularly girly looking pony staring right at me. She was completely pink, from her head to her tail, and her eyes were like giant saucers, staring into my soul. She was the first moderately attractive girl I had seen in this town. Just about my age, too, and the way she was looking at me, staring at me, was really making me feel uncomfortable. That's when it hit me.
I was standing there, by the door to an abandoned room, just barely woken up and not yet groomed, wearing what is essentially my underwear, and I just had a conversation with a cat. I wasn't just talking to a cat, I was arguing with it, in it's own language. To her it probably sounded like I was just meowing at it as it meowed back. Oh god no. Please god no.
I ran back inside and closed the door. Oh dammit, I forgot the pile of contracts outside. Looking through the peephole I could see the stack of papers on the floor. Is she still out there? Crap. She is. What do I do? Oh god she's walking this way! As fast as my hooves could move i almost jumped into my armor. She didn't see my cutie mark, did she? I hope not.
Surely enough there was a knock at my door again. My helmet was on in reverse so I just threw it aside. Boots? Check. Belt? Check. Chestpeice? Check. After taking a deep breath, I opened the door, expecting the worst. Of course, I first fumbled a bit with the knob out of incompetence, then tried to push it instead of pull. She's probably gonna call me weird for meowing and stupid for leaving those important papers on the floor.  She's gonna make fun of my mane, laugh at my beat up armor, and insist I tell her my real name. Why does this always happen to me. As the door swung open I expected that judgmental pink pony to just break out in laughter.
Instead, there was silence. Nobody was at the door! I was certain I had heard the knock. Could I have been so distraught that I just imagined the worst possible scenario? Why do I do this to myself? Still, the relief of this so narrowly avoided disaster was overwhelming, and I let out the largest sigh i have ever let out in my life.
Oh well, not to wallow in self pity too much, I picked up the stack of documents and brought them inside. Looking behind me, I used a hind leg to kick the door closed, making it creak loudly at its first few uses in years. A very satisfying thump once again signaled the separation of my private affairs from prying eyes.
That is to say, only if the prying eyes were outside. They weren't.
"SURPRISE!" yelled an excitedly squeaky voice. A flurry of confetti and streamers flew in every which way. There were balloons everywhere, falling from the ceiling. My eyes could not believe it. The entire hall was decorated in ribbons and banners and glitter and those little metallic stars. Something exploded next to me, covering me in all kinds of multicolored dots of paper. Banners were hung on the walls, some of them read "Happy Birthday," some of them had "Welcome Home" and I swear I saw one that said "Get well soon."
Standing right in the middle of the chaos, there she stood. A tornado of color spun around the room, but where she walked it was calm, quiet. She was a pink eye of the storm, the rosy center of the rift between this world and the beyond. I was struck down with fear. Was she a demon here to finally punish me for what I had done? Some sort of supernatural monster who decided to strike me down before i even started?
In the academy they teach us that every living thing has to follow rules in order to stay alive. Us earth ponies need to eat to survive. Unicorns need a horn to cast magic. Pegasi need wings to fly. The Guild has actively analyzed and observed monsters that do not have similar rules. Some monsters can fly without wings, some can swim in earth and walk on water, some are made out of solid electricity, others can breathe fire. These might break the pony rules, but they are well within their own. As a hunter, we are trained to never doubt our observations simply because they break the rules. If we see something happen, usually, it means it can happen again. So there I was, staring at a creature who warped time and space to her whim, and for the first time I was scared for my life. I had no weapon to fight back with, no special chemical potion or armor to protect me. I stood there and took a moment to just simply accept my fate.
She casually trotted up to me, her big fluffy mane bouncing up and down with each little skip. Getting up really close to my face, she stared straight into my eyes. I could see inside her through those eyes. It was the abyss, staring back at me. From the furthest, darkest corner I saw a little spark. Just a flash. Then two. They were like the tiniest stars in the night sky. Four, eight, sixteen, the sparks doubled exponentially, and soon the dark abyss exploded in bright flashing swirls of light.
"HI! I'm pinkie pie!" the pony was almost exploding with excitement. "And although its quite the short notice, this party is for YOU!"
A party blower buzzed behind me, right at my ear. It was enough to distract me and turn to see who did it. It was pinkie pie. Pinkie Pie blew that party blower in my ear. Turning back quickly I saw Pinkie Pie once again standing in front of me. Turning around she was behind me again, buzzing the blower again. This has to be the afterlife. It has to be.
"See, I'm totally excited to have a roommate and I just have to party! Also, this is the room where I used to hide all my party supplies, well, I still hide all my party supplies here, or, well, I used to hide them but now they're not hidden at all! I live upstairs and I want to say welcome to your new home. Are you a hunter like Mr. Cake was? Is it why you moved in? I was keeping my party things here but now that you're living here I guess ill just move them out of the way. Or ill just keep them hidden so they don't bug you. So, mister, what's your name?"
"M...My name?" I stuttered. Get it together, PS, I practiced this. Whenever someone in this town would ask me for my name I'd be prepared to spin them a yarn about how I earned my special hunter name PS or something stupid like that, but at that moment I was so surprised and scared I had no idea what came out of my mouth. Well, I did. It was my real name. Oh man the very first civilian i meet and i already messed up.
Pinkie Pie started to giggle. "Its a very -cute- name." she said. "I like it a lot!" The word cute cut into me like the jaws of a hydra. I'm not supposed to be cute why did i say that. I tried to change the conversation to something else but we both got immediately distracted.
"BUT MY FRIENDS CALL ME PS!" Oh god this wasn't helping at all. GET IT TOGETHER OR SHE'LL EAT YOU ALIVE, STUPID.
Something exploded under my bed, making it rattle back and forth. A few moments later, a giant inflatable red pony shaped balloon wearing tribal buffalo headgear popped out from under my bed.
"Oh no, there goes the big finale! I wasn't expecting your bed to be there! The whole party is ruined now! I'll just reset the cannon and try again later."
A long, thin rope fell from the ceiling. It had a little wooden knob at the end, obviously meant for pulling. Pinkie Pie grabbed it and yanked it downward, then let go. The tension of the rope sent it flying back up through the little hole it came out of and made me wonder why I had not seen it before. There was a loud rumbling. I recognized that sound. It was the sound of giant wooden gears, like the ones found inside a windmill or watermill. Creaking and thundering, the sounds of motion filled the Hall, which was experiencing some very drastic changes. Walls were turning in on themselves, hiding all the banners and decorations, revealing only the plain wall paintings and trophies of the Hall. Decorated tables would sink into the ground and pop up again as plain as they ever were. The whole floor vibrated violently, causing all the confetti to sift through little vents which appeared. The big balloon under my bed deflated back into a panel on the floor so quickly it caused my bed to crash down with a tremendous rattle. Within moments, the largely decorated party hall was nothing more than just a regular hunting hall.
"I work here at the Sugarcube Corner, so I'll be around most of the time! Actually right now its time for work so I'll see you later! We're gonna be best buddies, I can FEEL it!" By the way her face was twitching, I wouldn't doubt she was feeling something.
As quickly as she entered she left, leaving me with a completely dumbstruck look on my face. Could you blame me? What just happened? This pony isn't a pony. She's some sort of pink chaos god. Was this place rigged from the start? Did she just will this room into existence? I literally could not move from my spot for several minutes.
After a while I finally sorted out everything. Hunting halls do have emergency modes that activate all sorts of hidden things in case of a surprise monster attack. Pinkie Pie probably just re-purposed it to hold parties instead. As for Pinkie Pie herself, well, it was probably me being really nervous.
I desperately wanted to get my mind off the subject, so I started going through the active quests and guild contracts I had so quickly forgotten about. The very first one, well, the one on top of the list, was a call to arms against a new monster nobody had ever seen before. The description was just "My caravan was attacked and destroyed and we never saw what did it, please hunt it down and save us from this threat."
Nope.
"Help us. Our small settlement was demolished by a beast who swims in the sand as if it was water! He can pop out from right under your feet at any given moment, he must be hunted to protect us.
NOPE.
"The guild has spotted a strange object headed deep into the Everfree forest. It was round like an air balloon, green with several tentacles draping downward, and flew using means we could not comprehend. We observed it open a giant mouth lined with two giant rows of teeth and suck in an herbivore lizard along with the surrounding trees. Please investigate and report back your findings."
Nope, nope, nope. NOPE.
"My chickens keep getting scared half to death by these pretty blue lizards that try to eat them. If it wouldn't be too much of a bother, could you please tell them to leave, or to not be so scary."
OH HELL N... wait. Actually this doesn't sound too bad. Wow, its actually very recent, too. What a perfect way to start my career. (Or so i thought.)
Although most of my gear got rearranged in the entire room shuffle that occurred, I was able to find all I needed to prepare. Clearing up the big table in the center, I started the most important part of the hunt, gearing up. My armor had several small pouches, each designed to specifically hold a certain item, but as hunters quickly learn, packing too much is the same as packing not enough. The quest was here in the outskirts of Ponyville, so I probably didn't need a map.
According to the contract, it was a few "pretty blue lizards." They could be anything from just carnivorous velociprey to fire breathing baby dragons, so i better pack some salve to cure burns. Mixing up some paint inside the material for a throwable bomb got me a crude paintball, which would make the monster more noticeable if it tries to hide and would rub off on the surroundings to help me track it if it ran. I really only need one. 
Even though i wasn't going to fight any poisonous monsters, there was no way i was stepping a foot outside the Hall without an antidote. Different monsters had different venom, but the hunter Antidote worked not by cleansing the blood of toxins but rather, it gave a hunter lungs of steel. This drink, made of a bitter herb, would allow a hunter to breathe normally. This was important because monster poison either stopped you from breathing or paralyzed you. Obviously any sort of anti-paralysis potion would be completely useless, seeing as you can't possibly take it to cure the effect. I'll keep one close to my chest.
The hunting knife was always strapped on the belt. No exceptions. Each hunting knife is made specifically for each individual hunter, rumors are they are forged in the same fires as Celestia's own equipment, and it shows. These knives are used by us to cut and dress a dead monster, anything from the soft leather pelts of mammals to the impossibly tough skin of lava dwelling rock monsters. It can scrape off the sharpest of a dragon's scales and cut through the slimiest webbing of their wings. Its almost magical how these knives work, but unfortunately they're way too small to be used to hunt the monsters by themselves.
And, of course, it was important to pack the all powerful Hunter Potion. One of the first things we are taught is how to make this potion from multiple things in the wild: herbs, bugs, monster parts, sometimes even other less important potions. This potion, The Potion, was usually what kept a hunter alive. Sure, common sense, proper training, and survival instinct were important in keeping a hunter from danger, but once he was flank deep in trouble, suddenly the only friend a hunter had was his little flask of green juice. It quickly closed open wounds if applied to the skin, and if I were to drink it, it would trigger all sorts of flags in my body that would overdrive my healing and adrenaline. It was a painkiller, an antacid, it would let me breathe for a bit longer before poison killed me, it would momentarily restore movement in immobile limbs, and it tasted terrible. I packed two bottles.
All that was left was my weapon. This giant slab of metal called the Steel Greatsword. It in itself wasn't too heavy, I had used it plenty of times on mannequins and wooden posts with ease, nor was it sharp. A sword this big could not afford to be sharp, it would snap and break under its own weight on impact. It was simply just a really big double sided slab of metal that was meant to hit things really hard. Even then, you couldn't just swing this around and expect results. It took several classes with the same angry instructor to learn how to not trip on yourself while swinging this thing around. Although I had never actually hunted a single monster with any Greatsword, there were plenty of monster shaped strawmen who tasted my cold steel. I was confident today would be the day a real monster would meet his end by this thing.
All geared up and ready to go, I set off on my very first adventure. I unlocked the giant double doors and pushed them open. They cracked and popped and scraped as I strained to get them into their fully extended position. My situation was strange, my housing was unusual, my gear was unorthodox, but ill be damned if I didn't walk out of the famous Gathering Hall doors like every other hunter, even if there was a smaller door leading out right next to them and another door leading into the Sugarcube Corner indoors. A mission did not start unless you walked through those double doors.
Compared to a trip to a distant island or the desert sands of Appaloosa, getting to the house of the pony who wrote the request was done very quickly. It was a little overgrown cottage separated from the town, a quaint little bridge allowed me to cross the creek flowing through her front yard. The contract was signed by a certain "Fluttershy," whom I assumed was a mare. Even a pony with my name should be allowed to make fun of any stallion named like that. The cottage itself was very strange. It was clearly a house, but it looked like a pony had carved a home into a hill. Windows were haphazardly located around the grassy rooftop and walls, little animal shelters were scattered all over the yards and birdhouses hung from everywhere, including the chimney.
Oh no. She's probably some hippie animal rights activist. These types of ponies are more dangerous to us hunters than the monsters themselves. Could this be some sort of trap? Some kind of sick joke to trick me into wasting my day on a snipe hunt? Once again my own mind got the best of me, and for a long time I could not muster the courage to knock on the door. I reviewed the contract once again. It wanted me to get rid of lizards scaring the chickens. There's probably chickens in the back, and even though there's nothing but forest after that, I'm pretty sure its not the Everfree forest, which I am supposed to stay out of. Maybe she really was being attacked by velociprey. 
This was supposed to be my very first hunt! How could I not go through with it? Who cares if it ends up being a waste of time, if I fail my very first request then that can only mean the rest of my career will soon follow! No. I was going to knock on the door and I was going to start the hunt no matter what.
Filled with a new confidence, I trotted straight up to the door and lifted my hoof to knock. It was one of those dutch doors, and I noticed too late that the top part of the door had been open for quite a while. There she was, a yellow mare with a pink mane. Absolutely every mare I have met so far in Ponyville has had pink hair of some sort. This one was considerably softer on the eyes than Ms. Cake's or Pinkie Pie's mane, though. There was a worried expression on her face as she looked at me. It wasn't strained and did not look out of place. I suspect it was actually the way she looked most of the time. She had probably been standing there for a long time, enough to see me internally monologue and debate about the legitimacy of the hunt, but compared to other things I have done today this was hardly something to be embarrassed about.
Clearing my throat, I introduced myself as "Local Guild Hunter, Hall Leader, and Ponyville Representative: PS"
"P.S.: what?" she replied. Her voice was so quiet and soft, it was difficult to understand her. However, all my life I've had to deal with big headed foals who think I haven't heard that joke a million times. Her execution sounded sincere enough, she must have tons of practice with this innocent girl routine.
"Haha," I turned on my sarcasm. "Yeah, real funny." God, she still looked confused. Get over it. "Anyway, I'm the hunter who has come to fulfill the contract you requested."
"Oh my! You're a hunter!" Her droopy eyes widened in amazement. "Someone a...actually cared enough to come! ooooh, thank you so much!"
She was getting excited. It was either genuine or massively sarcastic. I couldn't tell.
"Please come in!" she squeaked, but immediately corrected herself. "I mean, if its ok with you."
To be honest I did not want to get in that little shire mound, it was probably filled with about twenty cats, judging by the front porch, but not to be rude, I accepted. Its common courtesy to unsheathe your sword and place it on the inside of the doorway, but just as I had removed it from my back the yellow pony let out a giant "EEEP" and the door slammed in my face.
"On second thought... please go around to the back, ill explain everything there."
Seriously this was getting on my nerves. Even that other hyperactive pony was better company than this tree hugging hippie.
Going around was more difficult than it should have been. It was hard to tell when the house ended and the backyard began. It all looked like just a big hill with a tree growing on top. At this rate I wouldn't be surprised if she had big hairy hooves and was best friends with some gray wizard. There were animal houses all over the yard as well, and the clearly obvious chicken coop in the center.
A small circular window swiveled open, and Fluttershy peeked her head through it.
"Over there is the chicken coop. I've covered it with chicken wire but there are these big blue lizards that keep tearing it to eat the chickens. The poor things have to hide in the coop. I'm scared one won't make it into the coop in time. Please, Mr. Hunter, set out bait or traps or something to keep the lizards away."
"Lady, it doesn't work like that, but I'll see what I can do." It's true. Once a monster moves into an area the only way to remove it is to threaten its life with murder. I wasn't about to go have a nice little chat with a bunch of brainless, bloodthirsty animals.
The ground all around the chicken coop was torn and dug up violently. Clear tracks of carnivorous lizards were all over the yard, and the chicken coop itself was scratched with the deep, thick marks of a talon. Well, at least this isn't some prank, the coop actually is being harassed by monsters.
It wasn't hard to follow the tracks back into the woods. Broken branches, bite marks on trees, claw prints on soft soil, all of this was covered in tracking classes. What wasn't covered was how difficult it was to take a walk in a forest with a giant sword strapped to your back. My kilt got snagged on bushes, branches, rocks, twigs, absolutely everything in this forest wanted a piece of my armor. I don't want to remember exactly how many times I tried to pass between two trees only to get my sword stuck in between like I was one of the Three Pony Stooges. To be honest, I'm glad I was doing this alone, because looking back at how many amateur mistakes I made I probably wouldn't have been able to live it down in a real Gathering Hall. At one point, I got excited because the tracks were almost brand new and fresh, only to realize I had been following my own in a circle for several yards.
After a while, a bit longer than it should have been while, the tracks started to get fresher and I stumbled upon a clearing. There it was. It was about my size, not too big, and it was bright blue with a red crest on its head. A velociprey. It walked on two feet, both with giant talons, and had little stubby arms with claws. Its mouth was pointed and filled with razor sharp teeth, reminiscent of a beak. It's skin was covered in blue scales, with dark spots all around, and a long skinny tail jutted out the back. These velociprey were the living remnants of the dinosaurs of ancient times. They were what nature left behind, as dinosaurs quickly evolved into dragons and other similar monsters. This one, as it looked, was too busy worried about some injury to notice me. It was limping around the clearing, not even looking around to see if anything was gonna sneak up on it.
This was my chance. I could jump it and score my very first kill. It's wounded, alone, probably even disowned by the pack. If I kill it now, I'll be able to come back and dress the body once I've gotten rid of the rest. Not to mention velociprey are remarkably cowardly. If the pack realizes there's something that can threaten their lives, they'll probably migrate deeper away from civilization. I'll come back with new materials, a few bits in my pocket, and buy myself something nice. Yes. Today could not get any better.
I grabbed my sword as tightly as I could. It was within range, all I had to do is pop out of these bushes and plant this straight in its skull. Its totally gonna happen. My breathing got heavy. That's a bad thing. I was getting too excited, which leads to mistakes. No. I had to control my breathing, control my adrenaline. But no matter how hard I tried I could not stop making the loudest breathing noises ever. It was deafening. In an extreme effort to regain control of my own bodily functions, I held my breath. There was no way I was not going to be completely in control of this situation. However, even with my breath held perfectly still, I was still breathing heavier than I had ever breathed before.
Wait, that's not right. If I was holding my breath, then who is making that noise?
Almost sensing it, my target made a miraculous recovery and ran into the thick brush as if it wasn't injured in the slightest... Clever girl.
It was a trap. I could hear the sounds of several velociprey all around me.
Back at the academy, we were taught what to do in case of an ambush, other than the obvious "Don't get ambushed in the first place." A trap relied on surrounding the prey and blocking all forms of escape. To be ambushed meant that the monsters were trying to guess which direction you could and could not go. In case a hunter was in such a situation, he would simply... uh...
Well, in any case, I forgot. Staring down a few sets of teeth and claws makes a pony forget things. I did what my instincts told me to do, and that was to run. I turned hoof and ran. Scared for my life I ran as fast as I could. I didn't get very far before I cashed into one of the velociprey, obviously trying to block my escape. It worked a bit like a shoulder tackle, now that i think about it, and we both fell to the ground. It was scratching at my underside with its claws and biting at my neck the whole time. Luckily my armor kept it from hurting me too badly, and although it tore up the kilt-looking plaid overcoat, the actual armor stayed intact.
I was still scrambling frantically, hellbent on staying alive. Eventually my hooves found solid ground again and I started running into the forest again. Somehow I was free from the ambush, but that didn't mean I was safe from danger. Still outnumbered, I was being chased by monsters that were quicker and more nimble than me, monsters who could jump ten feet into the air and cut a tree in half with just one claw in their pinky toe. Not only that, the forest was so dense I couldn't even dream of swinging my sword to defend myself. It was better to just put it away and run for dear life.
Lifting the sword behind me, I let it fall into place on the sheath part of my armor. It was a cool mechanism that were like little clamps which stuck out my back. Just slapping the sword against it was enough to make them clasp tightly, attaching it to my armor. Now I was a bit more balanced and hopefully I wouldn't get stuck in between two trees like on my way over here. All around me I could hear the screeching calls of the lizards. Bushes would rustle and streaks of blue would cross over. It really was time to go.
Once again I took off into the woods. A velociprey would pop out from the foliage in front of me, making me change direction. A claw would scratch at me from some hidden place, trying to trip me. Talons would scratch at me, but my armor deflected it. After a while a single lizard jumped at me from behind and managed to plant its talons right on the gap between my belt and boots. With that leverage on me and the monster's own added momentum, I tripped and fell face first into the mossy ground. Within moments, three of them were already clawing at me. All i saw were teeth and claws, all I heard was screeches and the buckling of my armor. I started bucking in the air, kicking in every direction, desperately trying to get these monsters off of me. Sometimes i hit nothing but air, but sometimes I felt the solid impact of my hooves on something. Eventually I had some breathing room, and I burst out running again.
At this point I had no idea where i was going. Was I running in circles? Is this even the way back? The floor was starting to slant upwards sharply, and the ground wasn't soft and mossy anymore. It was rough, rocky ground, with sharp edges that seemed to actively try to trip me. One of my hind legs caught fire as I ran, or so it seemed. It burned with every step, and I felt the unmistakable trickle of wetness coming from the thigh. I was bleeding, badly. One of the monsters managed to cut me, and now, even if I managed to escape, even if i managed to outrun them, even if I managed to hide, they could easily follow my blood trail.
All seemed to be lost, that is, until I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Or, well, trees. The canopy above had all but blocked out the sun, but off at the distance, I could see light. There was a clear cut line just above the hill I was running up where all the trees stopped. A new vigor overcame me and I ran as fast as I could toward the tree line. Once I clear these trees ill be able to fight back! Once I clear the trees the monsters have no place to hide, no place to ambush! Heck, they might even stop chasing me once they realize the advantage is no longer on their side! As the line drew closer, I could still hear the lizards all around me, screeching and barking, keeping pace with me out of some sick mockery of my agility. Just they wait, they'll get what's coming to them. An imaginary finish line rope appeared at the last pair of trees I was to cross. Suddenly I was in a race, first place, with my eyes on the prize. It was the pony Olympics and the gold medal was the promise I was not going to die today. There is no way anything was gonna keep me from making it to safety. Just a few feet more, just a bit...
As I broke through the imaginary finish line the blinding light of the sun was reminiscent of the flash of pony reporters catching a photo finish. I did it. I won the race. The fresh wind blew through my crest and mane, roaring in my ears like the sounds of thousands of adoring fans. I felt lighter than air, as if I was on top of the world. This must be what victory felt like. What champion racers feel at the end of a competition. It felt like... falling.
For a split second time seemed to conveniently stop. I looked around as my eyes quickly adjusted to the new light. There was no ground at my feet. Behind me was a wall of rock, several angry velociprey screeching at the edge of it. Below me lay a sea of green, as wide as the horizon. The tops of trees all forming a canopy of little hills. Off in the distance I could see some houses, most likely the edge of town, and other than that, there was nothing. My mind processed this slowly until it came up with the most logical conclusion:
I had jumped off a cliff.
Funny thing is, as my body hurtled downward towards death, I felt strangely at peace. All my worries, all my problems, they were weightless there in freefall. My leg didn't hurt anymore. The monsters were no longer chasing me. I didn't have to worry about the giant stack of contracts I was obligated to complete, I didn't have to worry about leading an entire Gathering Hall by myself, I didn't have to worry about what those jerks at the other halls think of me. As a foal I wanted to be a genuine Monster Hunter like my idol, and as far as I'm concerned, I fulfilled that goal one hundred percent. I had no regrets.
Well, just one. That pink filly who tried to throw a party for me. I'm pretty sure I left a terrible last impression. Damn it. For years i was surrounded by gruff manly pony hunters, both male and female, and the first real girl I meet has me slack-jawed and speechless. If they never find my body it would look like I ran away from her. She must think I'm a...
Looking down I saw I could add a second regret to my list: not jumping far enough to clear the cliff walls for a peaceful, painless death.
In a display of gravity's unyielding thirst for violence, I crashed against the side of the cliff as it tapered outward. My body thrashed and spun as i rolled down, causing me to flip and turn in absolutely random directions. Sometimes I'd hit a rock that was jutting out and I'd bounce back out into the air, only to crash down against the wall again. I had only actually jumped about halfway down, most of the cliff was just a slope downward that was made out of sharp rocks, so most of my descent was a prolonged and painful roll down the cliff. Somewhere along in this little dance I lost consciousness, but I am fairly certain my body was able to finish rolling down the cliffside on its own.
Sadly, that thrashing did not kill me. As convenient as my death would have been, I guess fate wasn't going to let me go that easily. I eventually woke up. My body was mangled and beaten, limbs and extremities going in every direction, some in directions they aren't really supposed to go. Everything hurt in a way that broke the boundaries of what I thought was possible for pain to hurt. Breathing in hurt. Breathing out hurt. Trying to hold my breath so it wouldn't hurt made the whole thing hurt even more. For a moment, I had forgotten absolutely everything: who I was, what had just occured, what not being in extreme pain felt like, that sort of thing. Slowly, my brain started to come back to reality and everything that had happened eventually trickled into my memory as I lay there on the dead leaves and damp earth.
Crap, i was bleeding from a leg, wasn't I? How much time had passed? Actually, I'm pretty sure the act of falling off a cliff is a bit more unhealthy than bleeding. I needed medical attention immediately, but there was no conceivable way to get that here in the middle of the forest. If this kept up I would eventually just black out and die of blood loss, I had to do something right then and there while I still had the strength. Think, PS. That's right!, I packed a few potions for this trip. They might just be the thing I need to save my life.
I managed to will my forelegs back into their sockets and eventually sat up, trying to get control of the situation. Everything hurt so bad it was difficult to focus my eyes. Reaching for my supplies, I noticed that most of my armor was missing. My belt and the skirt, the entire left side of the chestpiece, all of my boots, and my poor silly hat were all gone, torn straight off my body as I fell. Luckily my sword was still firmly attached to what remained of my back armor, but it was chipped so badly you'd think the sword was supposed to be serrated. A bit up the hill lay a bunch of mangled bits of leather and metal, that must be the remnants of what used to be the guild exclusive limited edition trainee armor I would only get one of.
I had to drag myself up the hill, crawling with whatever part of my body that chose to respond. On the armor pile was my belt, and on my belt were those life saving green potions. Of course, the fall completely shattered one of the bottles, but the other one was more or less intact. During training, we were all forced to take a single potion as a part of the final exam in survival class. Many of us, present company included, failed the exam for being unable to keep the vile swill inside our bodies. However, to me at that moment, that single particular potion was the most delicious thing I had ever tasted.
The effect was almost instantaneous. My muscles contracted involuntarily with such strength that they made my joints pop and reposition themselves. A sensation overcame my chest, something I could only describe as my lungs getting placed in a dishwasher. This caused me to cough savagely but eventually I was able to breathe normally, the pain completely gone. My head stopped pounding, I could see clearly now, and the hearing returned to my ears as the ambient sounds of the forest forced themselves into my head. I didn't even notice I had lost my hearing. Although I was still bruised and battered, cut and wounded, I was feeling absolutely fine on the inside, and if you really think about it, that's all that mattered. The other potion was broken but most of the liquid stayed in the pouch. Using a torn up rag from my armor I dabbed some of it on my leg. It stung like salt and lemon and alcohol and some sort of super salty alcoholic lemonade, but it immediately stopped my bleeding and sealed up my wound better than a suture. At that particular moment in time I don't believe I had a healthier or more deeply felt respect for any object in the universe than that there potion.
Filled with a new vigor, I got to work gathering as much of my armor as was salvageable. Two boots, a half of a belt, and what used to be some sort of chunk of metal now too disfigured to properly identify. This would have to do. There was enough of the belt left to cover my cutie mark. It was vain, it was silly, it was just plain stupid to care about my cutie mark at such a time but I really had nothing left to lose but my dignity at that point, I was going to hold on to it as hard as i could. I remembered that on my way down I caught a glimpse of Ponyville, at least I'm not lost. There's really nothing left to do but to limp back home with nothing but a broken sword and body. Its not like these missions go away. Tomorrow I'll be staring down the exact same pile of requests, and hopefully I'll do a bit more research before jumping head first into the next one. A quest, even if completed, is failed if the hunter didn't learn from it. I can easily say I have learned something important in this one.
Navigating the remaining forest with completely ruined equipment was a bit of a hassle. I'd have to leave a pile of stones or use my terribly broken sword to chip a clearly visible chunk off a tree, line them up and go forward to another landmark, only to repeat again once the trail got too hard to see. It wasn't hard, just really time consuming. By the time I crossed the treeline it was completely dark. The full moon was shining as bright as it has for hundreds of years, and today was a particularly clear day. A few rolling hills more and the bright lights of civilization were visible off in the distance. Eventually the ground gave way to paved street, and paved street yielded to the familiar cobblestone floor of the Gathering Hall. After closing the double doors and locking the windows, I collapsed someplace on the floor, nowhere near my bed, completely exhausted.
Still, I was unable to sleep. Have you ever been so tired, so absolutely drained, that you can't even make yourself sleep? It felt a bit like an out-of-body experience. There I was, on the floor, out of adrenaline, out cold but completely conscious. It must have been the effect of the potion trying to keep me alive. Only the sound of my heart, the sound of my breathing, and a quiet, almost inaudible whimper accompanied me. 
No. That couldn't be right. Sure I can cry, sure I've been known to break down in tears and slurp up my snot like a child, but this wasn't the sound a wounded pony like me would make. It was desperate. I could hear the plea but I knew not where it came from. A few feet from my face, I saw a single fiber. A single strand of some sort of animal hair, sprouting from the floor like a tiny blade of grass. My eyes fixated on it while my ears pressed harder against the ground. I could hear sobbing now. Very quiet sobbing. Was someone crying next door? Outside my window?
That's when I saw it move. The string that so innocently jutted from the ground tugged on itself and moved, just ever so slightly. Something was down there, under my floor, whimpering and crying, and it had a very long hair which was... what color is that? PINK?
Once again, against my entire body's wishes, I forced myself up. I was running on pure willpower by then, and by some miracle I managed to grab on to the little pull cord sticking out of the ceiling and gave it a sharp tug. The entire gathering hall once more began to rumble and shake, its entire structure twisting and warping thanks to some very large and complicated machinery. The floor directly in front of me opened up and there she was, the crazy party pony who greeted me in the morning, a so called Pinkie Pie. However, she was not in the same spirits as I left her. Her whole body was limp and with every short breath she drew a little cry or whimper was released. She was hurt and it looked pretty serious. What was she doing down there? Does a pony even fit in that hole? Did she get stuck there or did someone put her there? Dragging myself to the cabinets, I grabbed a single hunter potion and brought it to her, collapsing on myself a few times on the way and back.
"Please drink this. It tastes terrible but trust me, Ok." I think I said that, but I was so weak myself I probably just thought it out loud.
Her eyes were still distant but at least her mouth opened up a little bit. She probably heard me. I tilted the bottle into her mouth slowly and watched as she struggled to swallow just one gulp. With that cue, my body decided it was time to clock out. I lost my hearing again, my eyesight clouded up, and in one final decisive motion I slumped over sideways. That was it, I was done.

Twilight noticed that this part was the end of the entry. She also noticed the rest was pure gibberish. Her hour had come up. What a terrible experience this hunter must have had, on his first day no less. He wasn't exactly the heroic figure the other ponies had implied he was, but Twilight had just barely finished reading the second day, perhaps it got better over time. One thing was for certain, this one particular hunter did not match her prejudicial stereotype of a typical hunter in the slightest. Hunters, according to Twilight's older brother, are inconsiderate jerks who are only out for the glory of a fight rather than to protect or keep any sort of order. The dismantling of the guild did nothing but good, he said, because it stopped those big-egoed maniacs from being in places of power. 
How could you argue? There have been plenty of stories of hunters riding monsters straight into towns and settlements, setting up explosives or traps in populated areas, and causing all sorts of collateral damage just to hunt a single beast. They didn't care about the well being of the population. The whole point in Monster Hunting was to kill the biggest and baddest monsters and get the best materials to get rich and make a name for yourself.
Come to think of it, back in Canterlot Shining Armor told Twilight to keep away from every single hunter, and to never wander into the lower city. He would tell stories of how hunters would mistreat just random people that even looked at them funny. The one night she will never forget was the time Shiny came back from some awards ceremony completely enraged that he received a lesser award than a pair of hunters. He kept calling them Red and Green, based on their armor no doubt, and how nothing they did would have been possible had it not been for his brilliant strategies and defenses. They stole the show just by being flashy and getting all the attention. He wanted twilight to promise to never trust a hunter as long as she lived. Realistically that was impossible to promise, but she did give her word she would be very cautious around hunters.
Strangely enough, now she's completely raveled in this story of a fledgeling hunter and his impact on this town. Only being able to piece together bits at a time was driving twilight up the wall. Something had to be done. An hour a day was not adequate at all, especially if this book really did cover the greater part of a year of notes. She needed stronger magic, a tighter bond with the reading gods, some lessons on how to read shorthoof, ANYTHING to help speed things up.
"Spike!" she called, "Come here for a moment."
"What's up, Twilight?" he replied. "Is your hour over? Did you finish the book?"
"No, no. This is going to be harder than I thought. I'm going to see if I can find some stronger magic in the Everfree forest. Maybe I'll give Zecora a visit. In the meantime I want you to take down a note, I'm going to write my letter to Celestia now before I forget."
Spike readied his quill and parchment. He carried them at all times.
"Dear Princess Celestia, I've learned that no matter how difficult the day is for you, no matter how many problems you might have, no matter how tired or hurt you might be, if a friend is in need you should always try your hardest to lend a helping hand. You can never know when someone's day has been worse than your own."
"Wait a minute, Twilight." Spike interrupted. "When did you learn that? I haven't seen you leave the library all day! Are you just making this stuff up now?"
"No!" ugh, the nerve of this little dragon. She would never cheat! "I've learned this through reading this journal."
"But Celestia said that things you learn in books don't count!"
"This isn’t a book, Spike. Its a journal. Its the retelling of actual events that happened to actual people that actually existed from their point of view within a short amount of time after it actually happened. Not only that, I used magic to read it so I might as well have been there myself."
"Alright, fine." Spike finished writing the letter. "I'll send it this time, but I've got my eye on you."