//------------------------------// // Hunted // Story: The Incredible Flutterhulk // by FanofAwesomeness //------------------------------// "I told you to find her!" screamed the General Thunderbolt. "She is a threat to ponykind and needs to be handled!" He was having enough trouble keeping his own troops under control, he didn't need the added ponies from that organization Luna had put together. "Get me a line to Luna." "Yes, sir," one of the ponies said, tapping away at a console. "And make it quick," he added, sighing a little. After all of this time, they were still no closer to finding her than when she had run the first time. The screen ahead went blank, quickly filled with an image of Princess Luna. "What do you want, General?" she asked, clearly annoyed. "I want full authorization to end this," he said. "What we need to do is kill her, not try more experiments! She is a threat to everypony on this planet-" "And a friend not just to my sister, but to me," Luna interrupted. "I want you to find her and help her, and if I find out you were trying anything else, you will have to answer to me." The General bit back a growl of frustration. "Fine," he said after a moment. "But at least stop sending in your agents for their 'help'. They're just getting in the way." "I understand," Luna said. "I had something in mind already anyways." "Thank you," he replied. "And if there's any information you have on her, it would be very helpful to tell us now." Luna smirked a little at that. "I have told you everything I can," she responded. "I'll call my agents back and you can continue your search immediately." With that, she ended the call. "Somepony tell me they have something on where this Pegasus is," the general said to the entire room. ******************************* Luna sighed, thinking about what that general would end up doing without her involvement. There were many risks involved, and she didn't like to think about the outcomes of those risks. This could end very badly, and she should have fired him long ago, but he was an effective general. Ponies listened to him and he followed orders, even if it wasn't always to the letter. Thinking a moment, Luna started tapping keys on her computer. There was something she could do to keep an eye on this general. It wasn't the best of moves, but it was the only thing she could do at the moment. "Ma'am," came a voice on the other end of the call she had just made. "Coltson," she answered. "I need you to keep an eye on General Thunderbolt for me. I get the feeling he might be up to something again." ******************************* Fluttershy trotted down the steps of her apartment to the small main street. It was strange living in an area only slightly touched by Twilight's advancements, enough to get by but only so. She always felt a small pit form when she thought about all the good that could be done if the technology were simply given to them, soon followed by the bad. It was such a shame there were some ponies who would go out of their way to hurt others. But she couldn't dwell on that thought. She had to get to work at the bottling plant and get through the day. Maybe this time there wouldn't be any trouble. Unfortunately, only a couple hours into her shift, something did happen. "Hey Fluttershy!" came a call from above. "I think there's an animal hiding in the compressor shaft. Do you think you could help get it out?" Fluttershy didn't waste any time moving up there to see what was going on. If there was an animal up there, she had to try and get it out before something happened. Once she got up there, she could see the slight outline of a raccoon hiding in the small space. "Come on out," she said quietly, trying to coax it into safety. "You don't have to hide in there." It hissed at her. Ever since that experiment, animals had been less and less responsive and it really wasn't helping in this case. "You really don't want to hide in there," she said, trying to be as soothing as possible. "It's not safe." The raccoon looked at her for a moment in understanding. Slowly, it moved forward, making its way out of the small area. But once it got close to Fluttershy, it hesitated. The understanding in its eyes quickly vanished, turning into a defensive nature as it moved back a few steps. It bared its teeth and hissed, giving Fluttershy a very weary look. "It's okay," she said. She moved forward to try and comfort the animal, but it took her kindness as a threat and lunged, jumping off of her and across the ceiling bars to a window outside. Fluttershy yelped and flinched, feeling a few of the claws dig into her shoulder. She looked in the direction of the raccoon, a small tear welling up in her eye. All thoughts of the animal vanished when she felt a small trickle of blood run down her leg, though. Her eyes went wide and she took a step back from the edge, but a few drops had already fallen to the bottles below. She barely saw it past the grating, but it was enough. She hit the emergency shut-off switch and jumped from the catwalk, gliding down to the lower level. The belt had stopped moving and she was hoping above all else that everything was fine. The drop had to have landed on the belt. She sighed in relief when she saw the drop on the black surface, quickly picking up a cloth and wiping it off. It had been a close call, but she had been lucky. She didn't have to worry about anything except for her pulse now, which had jumped to a rate that made the meter beep. She leaned against a wall and calmed herself, knowing everything was going to be fine. Not noticing the small bit of red on the inside of an empty bottle. ******************************* "Sir, I may have found something," said a computer pony in the room. "What is it?" General Thunderbolt asked, annoyed. "It looks like a case of gamma poisoning," she answered. "Somepony opened a bottle of some of that imported soda and got a little more kick than he was expecting." The General's eyes widened. "Where was that bottle manufactured?" "It looks like somewhere by the Griffon Mountains," she answered. "Get me a team," he continued, walking towards the door. "I want the best soldiers you can get your hooves on and I want them yesterday!"