//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: Hunter/Prey // by UnluckyReaver //------------------------------// Twilight and Hunter exited the hall containing the Elements; the unicorn and the human were locked in a debate over what they had just discovered. “You had a negative reaction to the Elements; what else could it mean?” Twilight asked. “It can mean anything; that’s the point.” Hunter replied. “But you have the same reaction when you’re near the Princesses; and Celestia once wielded all six, and Luna was purified by them.” “You’re forgetting it happens when I’m near your sister-in-law, and she’s never touched them; and you are a current bearer of one of the Elements and I’m standing next to you without problem.” “I could just be that I’m only one of the bearers, the Princesses were affected by all six.” “That still doesn’t explain Princess Cadence. No, I think we’re missing something; there’s got to be something that both alicorns and the Elements have in common, something they have that other ponies don’t.” As Twilight thought over what Hunter had said one of the solar guards approached them. “Miss Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia has as sent for you.” The guard informed them. Twilight looked at Hunter, who gave the unicorn a friendly smile “You should go.” Hunter told her. “If the Princess is asking for you now it’s probably important.” “Are you sure?” Twilight asked. “It seems like we’re so close to a breakthrough.” “I’m sure.” Hunter reassured Twilight. Twilight nodded, turned and left with the guard. Hunter remained in the hall, his thought turned back to the conversation he had with Twilight. Replaying it over and over in his mind, he came to the same conclusion every time; there was something he was missing. Hunter started down the hall once more this time heading towards the archives. Luna pushed opened the door to the royal archives only to be met by a frantic grey earth pony. “Princess Luna! Thank goodness you’re here!” He exclaimed upon spotting the alicorn. “It’s the human; you have to do something about him!” “Calm yourself, Hunter has used the archives before so what has you so distressed?” Luna asked as she attempted to calm the pony in front of her. “It’s different this time. Before he would pick something and read it and put it back; now he’s ransacking the archive, trying to find something specific.” “Do not worry; I shall deal with this situation.” Luna reassured the stallion. The alicorn moved passed the earth pony as she ventured deeper into the archives. As she approached the section pertaining to early Equestrian history, she could make out the sound of Hunter’s voice as well as the shuffling of papers. As she neared the last set of shelves, the sounds stopped only to be replaced by Hunter calling out to her. “Hello Princess. What brings you here?” Hunter asked. “A distressed pony.” Luna answered as she stepped past the last shelf to see Hunter standing there with books, papers and scrolls littering the floor around him. “The archivist was panicking, believing that you were about to destroy a good portion of the material that is kept here.” “Not deliberately.” Hunter replied as he pulled yet another book off a shelf. “It’s just… the answer has to be here somewhere; I just can’t find it.” “If I may ask; the answer to what?” “To us, to this.” He answered, pointing at his head. “I was in the hall where the Elements are stored, and I reacted to them; the same way I react to you. There has to be some connection between the Elements and alicorns that isn’t present in any other pony. I just can’t find it.” “Just how long have you been looking?” “I don’t know; probably not that long yet.” Hunter shrugged. “Let’s see… after Twilight and I left the hall she was summoned by Celestia, and I came straight here, so maybe an hour, two at the most.” “It has been over six hours since my sister spoke with Twilight Sparkle.” “Oh… well, if I didn’t find anything by now…” He muttered as he let the book fall from his hand. He stared at the pile for several seconds, the lifted his head to look directly at Luna. “Hey, Luna; where do alicorns come from? The only thing I get from these books it that one day you and your sister just kinda appeared. It the same with the Elements; all it said was that at some point during Discord’s reign, you found them.” “I’m sorry, I cannot tell you that.” Luna said, hanging her head slightly. “In the past things were far different than they are now. Fearing that if somepony, or even some other being, with evil intent had that knowledge it could be used against us. To keep it safe, Celestia erased it from history. Even now it is considered a crime to seek this knowledge out.” “A crime to understand your own history? That’s insane.” “Insanity or not, it is what it is.” “But-” “Please, do not press this issue; nor raise it with my sister. Just forget about your current path of inquiry, and focus on something else. I’m… I’m begging you; I do not want to see anything happen to you.” “Alright Luna; I’ll let it go.” Luna smiled and stepped forwards, which only caused Hunter to step back. “I’m sorry, I forgot.” Luna said sheepishly. “It just that I was so relieved to hear you say that…” “It’s alright; I’d probably feel the same if out places were switched.” “Come, you have been down here so long you have missed dinner.” Luna turned and started off back towards the exit. Hunter looked down at the pile of books, and then back up in the direction that Luna had walked off in. He thought over his situation for only a moment before he went after the alicorn. “Hey, wait… what happened to Twilight anyways? I thought she would be the one to track me down.” Hunter asked. “Unfortunately Twilight Sparkle, the remaining Elements as well as Captain Shining Armour and Princess Cadence have all been called away on urgent business.” “Oh, I was hoping to speak with Twilight again, but if it’s that important I can’t really do anything about it.” As they entered the dining hall they were greeted by one of the servants. “Princess Luna, Sir Hunter, what brings you here at this hour?” the yellow furred mare asked then quickly added. “N-not that you can’t or anything.” “We were hoping to get something to eat.” Luna explained. “Is the chef available?” “Unfortunately, he’s not here at the moment, highness; but we can summon him if you want.” “Nah, don’t bother; I’ll just make something myself.” Hunter said moving towards one of the doors. “Kitchen’s through here right?” Having finished the last court session for the day, Celestia left the grand hall and headed towards her chambers. As the alicorn passed the dining hall, she could hear several voices inside speaking in a hurried tone. Opening the door to take a quick look inside Celestia saw a group of ponies gathered around the door that lead into the kitchen. Venturing into the dining hall, the princess approached the crowd the scent of something unfamiliar wafted into her nose. “My little ponies, what is all this commotion about?” Celestia asked the group. “P-princess Celestia,” one of the ponies stammered, causing the group to turn and bow to her, “it’s your sister, Princess Luna, and the human.” “What about them?” “They’ve taken over the kitchen.” “You see,” a second pony quickly chimed in, “earlier, they came into the dining hall looking for some food. However, when they were informed that the chef was not available, Hunter said that he would prepare something himself. Since then, they’ve commandeered two of the chef apprentices and one dishwasher.” “But why are you all gathered around the door?” “Truthfully, your majesty, we’re all curious. Hunter, he’s having them make... something, but none of us have any idea what it could be.” “He’s said the names,” the first pony said, “but it's things we’ve never heard of.” With her curiosity peeked and the strange but appetising smell assaulting her nostrils, Celestia stepped forwards. “I think I will investigate this directly.” she said. The gathered ponies moved aside to let the alircorn pass. As Celestia entered the kitchen, Hunter was giving some final instructions to the three ponies he had recruited to help him. “Looks like everything’s done.” Hunter said as he took some of whatever he had made and placed it on a plate. “You three take the rest and share it with our audience.” “And is there any for me?” Celestia asked. Hunter and the three ponies froze when they heard Celestia’s voice. Luna, however, jumped up and raced over to her sister. “Sister, you must try these!” she said as she carried the plate over to Celestia. “Hunter has made us something from his world.” Without warning, Luna used her telekinesis to grab one of the items that Hunter had made and floated it into Celestia’s mouth. Hunter, using the time that Luna had giving him, managed to recompose himself. “Careful, those can be spicy.” Hunter warned. Celestia carefully chewed the item that now occupied her mouth, as an approving smile came to her face. “This is quite delectable.” she said as she swallowed. “Tell me, what are they called?” “That was a samosa, the green ones are pakora, yellow is the dhokla and it kheer in the pot.” Hunter explained. “Try some of everything and see what you like; oh and don’t worry, there’s no meat in anything, it’s all pony friendly.” Celestia looked over the rest of the food while the three other ponies that had been helping Hunter carried it out to the dining hall. Encouraged by the princesses, the collection of ponies who had watched Hunter make the food began to help themselves to what was laid out. Celestia, Luna, and eventually Hunter, all exited the kitchen and joined the ponies gathered around the table. The moment Hunter sat down at the table; he was assailed by dozens of questions regarding the food. Doing the best he could; Hunter tried to explain the basics of ethic and regional based cooking. Eventually, all of the food was eaten and the ponies began to head out; returning to their homes or their rooms in the palace. Hunter waited until he was alone with the two princesses until he decided to retire of the night. “Goodnight Princesses.” He said with a small bow. “Do not worry;” Luna replied, “I shall endeavor to make this night a good one indeed.” Celestia let out a small giggle, while Hunter merely smiled and gave the two alicorns a small wave as he left the hall and began the long trek back to his room. Lying down in his bed, Hunter slowly drifted off to sleep. A moment later, Hunter found himself standing near the edge of a familiar cliff that was covered by cherry trees. Taking a moment to get his bearings, the human set off. As he approached the cliff’s edge, Hunter found a familiar alicorn waiting for him. “I see you’ve decided to visit my dreams once again.” Hunter said giving the pony a friendly smile. “At first, I wanted to say I was merely curious about you and your world; however that... is not the case.” Nightmare Moon said, he voice getting sheepish at the end. “Are you saying you want to be my friend?” The alicorn gave no verbal response; instead she nodded her head hanging low, unable to look the human in the eye. “I have to admit that I am surprised;” Hunter said, “The stories that are told about you don’t make you out to be the friend having type. But, humans are usually taught not to believe everything they hear.” “So does that mean you’re willing to be my friend?” “Let’s find out together.” Luna walked across the dreamscape; as the Princess of Night it was her duty to watch out for her subjects while they slept. As she traveled, the alicorn came across a strange place within the dream realm; it only took her a moment to realize what it was. It was the dreams of Hunter, the only human within Equestria. Luna paused as she looked over the space that lay before her; the human’s dreams had both an air of familiarity about them, yet at the same time seemed completely alien. Luna stood motionless for several moments as she debated on what to do next. Every time she had been here in the past, the alicorn had always decided to turn back. “No, this time I’m going to do it.” Luna told herself. “I will see what a human dreams about.” With her mind made up, Luna pressed forwards and left the familiar surroundings of pony dreams and entered that of a human’s. As she went deeper and deeper into the dream, Luna was surprised at how peaceful it was. “It seems that at least his sleeping mind is calmer that his waking one.” Luna said aloud to no one. “All these cherry trees; I wonder if they’re somehow important to him.” Pressing on, Luna found herself nearing the edge of a cliff; and head she could see two figures. One was Hunter, and the other was a dark furred alicorn. “Is he dreaming about me?” Luna asked herself. As she got closer still, Luna started to make out details of the dream alicorn. Luna froze in fear as she recognised the very worst of herself standing there; the dream alicorn was without any doubt Nightmare Moon. Still in shock, and completely unsure of what to do, Luna watched on in fear as Hunter held what seemed to be a pleasant conversation with her alter ego. Still too far away to make out any words, Luna watched on as Nightmare Moon turned her head away from Hunter, only to turn it back when he placed a hand on her neck, then draw her into an embrace. Luna’s eyes widened as her heart sunk, unable to watch any more she turned and fled back to the waking world. Bolting out of her bed, Luna raced across the hall to a large door with the emblem of the sun on it. Without stopping to knock, Luna burst through the doors and dove into her sister’s bed. “Luna? Is that you?” A confused Celestia asked. “What has happened to make you so upset?” “I was performing my duty as Princess of the Night, and I happened to come across Hunter’s dream.” Luna said her voice shaky and uneven and a sorrowful look was spread across her face. “And I found him, in a grove of cherry trees, watching the sunset with me.” “Hunter dreaming about a romantic rendezvous with you is what has you so upset?” Celestia asked. “Is that the problem sister? Are you afraid that the human has feeling for you that you do not have for him?” “I-I don’t know, sister; he’s... nice, he never treated me as anything less than a friend; he’s never once judged me by my past as Nightmare Moon; but it wasn’t me he was with;” Luna said as tears begun to fill her eyes. “It was her. What if he likes her more than me? What if I like him enough to become her once more?” “Shhh... calm yourself, dear sister.” Celestia said reassuringly as she wrapped her wing around the younger alicorn. “Remember, dreams can have many meanings; and you were not in one that belonged to a pony. It is possible that the differences between our two races even extended to the land of dreams.” “Maybe you are right, sister; but why would he dream of her?” “Hey, what’s wrong?” Hunter asked seeing Nightmare Moon’s eyes fill with tears, he reached out and placed his hand on the mare’s neck. “I thought that you would be happy.” “I am;” Nightmare Moon explained, “It just... I never would have thought that there would be sompony that would want to be my friend.” “Selene...” Hunter said softly as he pulled the alicorn into an embrace. Nightmare Moon didn’t move for several seconds, she focused on the genuine kindness the human had showed her; and on how it seemed to be reflected in the warmth of his arms. “Why did you call me Selene?” The alicorn finally brought herself to ask. “Oh, that, it’s just that I’m not going to call you Nightmare Moon.” Hunter answered, as he released the alicorn. “So I got to thinking, and remembered one that seemed fitting from human mythology.” Nightmare Moon thought over what Hunter had just told her. “Hmmm... well, alright. If you think that it’s a fitting name, from now on I shall be known as Selene.” she paused for a moment, then held out her hoof towards Hunter. “I mean; my name is Selene, it’s nice to meet you.” Hunter smiled as he took her hoof in his hand. “I’m Hunter; it’s nice to meet you too. I do have one question; you and Luna, are you two separate beings or two parts of the same being? The books talk about how Luna became Nightmare Moon, but she’s in the real world and you’re here.” “You see...” Selene trailed off as her eyes went wide. “You have to wake up!” she told him suddenly in a panicked voice. “What?” Hunter gave Selene a confused look. “You need to wake up, something is happening to your actual body!” Selene told him, then reared up and brought her hooves down on Hunter, shoving him to the ground. The moment Hunter stuck the earth, his actual eyes shot open and he was back in his bed. Standing over him was a strange creature with sickly yellow eyes and sharp pointed teeth. The creature raised a claw; Hunter’s eyes went wide as he quickly realized the situation he was in. The human rolled away from the creature as it brought its claw down, tearing through the mattress where Hunter had been only a moment ago. Hunter quickly got to his feet, his eye narrowed as he studded his assailant; it was a bipedal dog creature, its grey fur was matted and filled with dirt. Hunter jumped to the side as the creature lunged forwards at him. “What do you want?” Hunter demanded. “We want hairless monkey to tell us how copper tubes work.” The creature demanded. Realizing what the thing in front of him wanted to know, Hunter’s response was a simple “No.” “Too bad, we not give monkey thing a choice!” The creature barked, and then lunged at Hunter a second time. Hunter’s breath escaped him as the dog-creature connected with him. Recovering quickly Hunter formed his hand into his fist and lashed out at the creature. The dog faltered and Hunter moved backwards towards the door. Hunter noticed movement in the corner of his eye when a second dog-creature came out of the shadows swinging one of its claws. Hunter ducked and the claw tore into the wall, Hunter shot back with a quick punch to its kidney causing it to yelp in pain. Taking the advantage, Hunter grabbed the creature and smashed its head against the wall. The first creature closed in and brought its claws down on Hunter, the human jumped to the side dodging one claw but not the other. Hunter let out cry of pain as the claw dug into his flesh, causing the creature to laugh. Getting to his feet, Hunter launched himself forwards tackling the dog-creature to the floor. Holding the dog down, Hunter began to rain blows down on the creature. After he landed the fifth blow, the creature squirmed out of his grasp. The dog leaned forwards and bit down on Hunter’s arm, the human gritted his teeth, and used his other hand grab the creature’s lower jaw. Hunter pulled on the creature’s jaw and wrenched his arm free. The second creature managed to clear its head from the blow it had taken, it leaped across the room. As it neared Hunter, the human’s good arm lashed out and grabbed the creature and pulled it out of the air. Standing up again, Hunter kicked the first creature in the ribs several times. Stepping over the now battered creature, Hunter walked over to the other one. Reaching down, Hunter grabbed it by its scruff and pulled it back onto its feet. The creature swung one of its claws in an upwards arc, ripping through Hunter’s clothing and cutting open his chest. Summoning all of his strength, Hunter smashed the creature’s heads through the small table and into the floor. He looked down at the two beaten creatures then began to stumble his way towards the door. He managed to get four steps when something heavy struck him in the back of his head, causing the world to fade from his eyes. It was mid-morning when Luna final woke, as she slowly rose from the bed, she realized that she was still in her sister’s room. She quietly pushed the bedroom door open, and peeked out into the hallway; seeing that it was empty, the alicorn hurried across the hall into her own room. As Luna got herself ready for the day, she reflected on her conversation with her sister. Maybe Celestia is right, she told herself, humans are different than ponies physically, so their dreams could be different too. I guess I could just ask him about human dreams in general; that would give me some answers without letting him know that I saw his dream... or maybe I should just tell him the truth. Her mind set, Luna exited her room and head towards the dining hall; seeing that Hunter wasn’t there she called over one of the servants. “Excuse me, do you know where Hunter is?” she asked. “Sorry, Princess, but I haven’t seen him.” The servant answered. “It is possible that Shrouded Armour took him down to the training hall again.” Luna thanked the servant before exiting the dining hall. As Luna made her way towards the training hall, she found that curiosity had begun to permeate her thoughts and her pace quickened slightly. Having heard the story about Hunter somehow throwing a pegasus across the training hall. Although she was skeptical, Luna was wanted to see if the story had any truth to it at all. Approaching the training hall shouts paired with the sound of hooves striking stone and steel echoed through the hall. Stepping through the doorway, Luna scanned the room but didn’t see Hunter anywhere. “Captain Armour;” Luna called out when she spotted Shrouded Armour drilling several recruits. “Have you seen Hunter yet this morning?” “No, Princess I haven’t.” Shrouded replied as he saluted Luna. “Perhaps he is in the archives with his face buried in some old book.” “Thank you Captain, I-” Luna’s reply was cut off when alarm bells began to ring throughout the castle. Shrouded Armour began yelling orders at everypony in the room as one of the doors burst open and a guard came running into the room. “Captain Shrouded!” The pony gasped for breath but still managed a quick salute, then realized that Luna was standing there. “Princess Luna!” “Report solider!” Shrouded barked at the guard. “There’s been an attack; looks like diamond dogs, in Hunter’s quarters, and the human is missing.” The guard managed to get out between heavy breaths. Luna’s eyes went wide when she heard this; her horn began to glow as she suddenly teleported herself along with Shrouded Armour from the training hall up to the guest wing to the palace. Appearing outside of Hunter’s room, Shrouded Armour was forced to take a moment to recompose himself from the shock of the sudden teleport. Making his way towards the room, with Luna following him, the guard ponies at the door allowed them to pass. They found the inside of the room a complete mess, furniture broken, papers scattered everywhere and blood on the floor. Luna let out a barely audible gasp as Shrouded turned his attention to one of the ponies in the room. “Sergeant, can you fill us in?” Shrouded asked. “Yes, sir;” the stallion answered, “one of the maids came by to clean this room as she always did and found it like this. Judging by the claw marks and the tooth we pulled out of the floor, looks like at least two diamond dogs managed to gain entry and assaulted Hunter.” “Looks like he put up a fight.” Shrouded commented. “Yes, sir; judging by the debris and the blood it would appear that way.” “A fight like this would have been loud; why didn’t anypony hear it? And how did a group of diamond dogs get his far into the castle without anyone noticing them?” “I’m not sure, sir; there are traces of some kind of strange magic, but we haven’t been able to identify it yet, and we haven’t been able to piece together how they got in, or managed to take the human back out.” “Are you saying he was kidnapped, sergeant?” Luna asked. “It would appear that way, Princess.” “What time do you think this happened at?” Shrouded asked. “Probably some point late last night; maybe around midnight, but we can’t put a definitive timeline together yet.” “That would explain why nopony saw him since he retired last night.” Luna commented. “Princess, Captain, can either of you think of a reason that these diamond dog would risk breaking into the castle to kidnap Hunter?” the sergeant asked. Shrouded shook his head, but Luna’s face twisted in shock. “Everypony out!” she commanded, realising what the diamond dogs could have been after. “But Princess we-” “Your Princess has giving you a command; I suggest you carry it out!” Luna shouted using the royal canterlot voice. Ponies began to rush out of the room. “Shrouded Amour;” Luna said using her normal voice once more. “Please fetch our sister at once.” Shrouded bowed and exited the room, leaving Luna alone. The alicorn went over to one of the wardrobes and used her telekinesis to pull the doors open. Rumaging through the draws, Luna failed to locate the small locked box she was looking for. Beginning to panic, Luna began to search through the room in its entirety. After several frantic minutes of searching by Luna, Celestia entered the room. The white alicorn placed her hoof on her sister’s shoulder. “Luna, I understand that you are upset about Hunter being kidnapped, but this is not how to go about helping him.” Celestia said trying to calm Luna down. “It’s not that, sister.” Luna answered; worry still strong in her voice. “The box, the one that Hunter had us make when he first got here, I can’t find it.” Celestia’s eyes widened in horror; “What about...” she trailed off, not being able to bring herself to ask. “I don’t know, I’ve been too afraid to look yet.” Luna replied knowing what Celestia wanted to ask her about. The two alicorns walked over to an untouched dresser. Luna’s horn glowed as a hidden lid on the dresser opened. Peering inside, they saw the item in question was still there; a long tube that flared at one end; and had a strange mechanism about a quarter of the way from the wide end. Breathing a quick sigh of relief, Luna quickly closed the secret compartment. “Do you think that this is what they were after?” Celestia asked. “With the way Hunter talked about what it was, probably.” Luna answered. “And with Shining Armour, his stallions and the Elements all in the Crystal Kingdom, the dogs figured that this was an opportunity they couldn’t pass.” “What do we do, sister?” “I don’t know, sister; I don’t know.”