As the ponies lay comfortably in their beds under the cover of Luna’s moonlight, the monsters of Everfree were beginning to wake up.
The silver maned beast woke up with a loud growl which alerted the sleeping Grimoire. The gargoyle almost gave up his hiding place as he lost his grip on the branch, but quickly repositioned himself.
As the hunter stretched out, he looked to the mountain. He could already tell that it was going to be a long way to the cavern, but he wasn’t going to give up. Quickly picking up the precious gem and placing it in his mouth, Makita slouched to all fours and began rushing through the woods, with Grimoire quick on his tail. The corpse like creature rushed through the Everfree forest, making sure not to disturb the slumbering beasts that waited from within.
As the fearless hunter began to rush he suddenly saw thick, green, vine only inches away from him. Unable to stop himself in time, Makita stepped on, what he had assumed to be, a vine, only to hear a bloodcurdling screech of pain.
The hunter stumbled forward, eventually falling over and tossing the gem out of his reach.
He looked as the coils of some unidentifiable beast retracted only to reveal its chicken headed owner. Grimoire watched from the top of the treetops as the cockatrice wrapped its coils around Makita, pulling it closer into its line of sight. The creature stared intently into Makita’s bug eyes, attempting to turn it to stone. The hunter simply stared back as the cockatrice came to a horrible conclusion; its magical stare was not working.
It attempted to look deeper into Makita’s eyes, but it was no use.
The ghastly creature smiled contently and opened up his jaw, full of razor sharp teeth, and bit down upon the wicked beast’s coils, wounding it gravely. The creature unleashed another scream of agony as it loosened its grip and released the fearsome hunter from its enticing hold.
As soon as Makita was free, he rushed back to his misplaced gem. Before he placed it back in his jaw, the Makita turned back to the cockatrice and growled.
The winged beast quickly slithered away in fear of another vicious bite.
The Makita then proceeded to pick up the ‘Eye of Leviathan’ and placed it in his mouth and returned back to his original path.
Grimoire was still in a bit of shock from what had just happened. By his calculations, Makita should have been nothing more than a statue now. And yet he walked away without so much, as a scratch on him. The gargoyle couldn’t help but wonder why.
He continued to follow the hunter for a good half an hour, before the beast stopped in front of a huge mountain. The beast looked all around the gigantic formation as he finally realized that finding this cavern might be a bit of a challenge.
“Typical Ares,” Makita thought to himself angrily “The damn son of Cerberus couldn’t even tell me on which side of the mountain is the cavern located,” the hunter sighed.
Just as he began to search for the entrance he saw a hooded figure approach him. The figure seemed to have a pony esque physique. It wore a dark brown robe with a gold medallion of Ares’ army on its chest.
The darkness concealed the color of its fur pretty well and for his face, the pony seemed to wear an expressionless white mask. The only thing that was showing was the dark blue horn, protruding out of its forehead. The Makita prepared to strike, but the mysterious colt held out a hoof.
“Do not be alarmed,” the creature spoke in a distorted voice “I am here to help you:”
“How can I trust you?” the Makita said to the colt approaching him. The masked pony only showed off his badge as Makita’s mind was eased. It was a flaming eye, no doubt Ares' secret service.
However, the corpse beast still was not pleased, so he wanted to test the colt a bit more.
“Within the darkness we were born,” the Makita said cryptically.
“Conceived by light’s true scorn,” the pony replied as he saluted the hunter.
Makita returned his salute. He was still cautious around this pony, but he seemed legit enough.
“So where is this cavern I was supposed to meet you at?” Makita asked him.
“Why it is right in front of you, of course,” the pony replied.
Makita looked at the bare naked side of the mountain and then back at the pony with a skeptical eye.
“You do know what a cavern is, right?” Makita said confusedly.
The pony facehoofed himself at that remark.
“The cavern is hidden, genius!” he replied “I don’t want those curious guards snooping about,” the pony replied as he passed right through the wall.
“Oh, now I see,” Makita said as he entered the cavern.
Grimoire watched their exchange with intrigue as he quickly searched for another vial from his pouch. He managed to locate his last bottle of tricks; an orange liquid labeled ‘Umbra Noxia’. This potion was his last trick and would allow him to blend with the walls of the cavern and move along them, without making his presence noted. However, the potion had a time limit, as it would stop working after two hours, so he had no time to lose.
Grimoire plugged his nose, as the potion smelled like spoiled eggs and broken dreams and gulped down the concoction. Surprisingly, it tasted like tomato soup.
Once he felt the potion taking effect, Grimoire swooped down from the trees and began to follow the two.
Inside the walls of the damp cavern, Grimoire noticed two purple crystals standing in front of the entrance of the cavern. They seemed to be emitting a field of magic, causing the entrance to blend in with the rest of the mountain.
“So that’s how he did it,” Grimoire thought to himself as he followed the two creatures deeper into the cave.
Both the unicorn and the Makita were silent during their traverse into the cave, but the hunter could feel something odd in this cave. He felt
like something was tracking them, but every time he would turn around he could only hear bats scuffling about.
“I hope you’re not getting paranoid, Makita,” the unicorn said in a distorted voice “I wouldn’t want you to do something foolish.”
“It’s nothing,” the hunter responded “I just have a strange feeling about this place.”
“Yeah, the caves will do that to ya,” the unicorn responded distantly.
After a few moments the hunter and the unicorn arrived at a sealed door with a small hole in it. The masked unicorn approached the hole and inserted his horn inside. The unicorn's horn glowed only for a moment, effectively openinning the door, as a sudden light blinded the corpse like beast.
Grimoire noticed that they were going towards the light source, so he moved to the ceiling of the cavern. After a few moments, Makita’s eyes were adjusted to the sudden change as he was led into a room.
The hunter could barely believe his eyes as he saw a luxurious room inside this damp place. Red, shag, carpeting covered the floors of this place, while the walls were covered in marble, giving it the appearance of a normal room. Upon the walls were bookshelves filled with scrolls all neatly organized and labeled. These scrolls seem to range from basic information about Ponyville’s citizens to the tactical strategies of Ponyville.
The hunter rubbed his claws together as he attempted to open one of the scrolls, but he was quickly met by a letter opener being fired at his direction. The beast growled and turned its head towards the unicorn.
“You have to pay quite the price to get a look at those,” the unicorn responded smugly.
Makita shot him an evil glare and moved away from the bookshelf. As he stepped away, Grimoire slid into its place for a better viewing of the exchange between these two mysterious figures.
As the decaying hunter prowled around the room, he noticed a strange metallic box in one of the room’s corners. The metal box gave off a weird buzzing sound and it seemed to be connected to the source of light in this room. He could barely look at the blinding orb that illuminated this place.
“Do you like it?” the unicorn asked the hunter.
“I have no idea what it is,” the hunter responded.
“It’s a device I made,” the unicorn explained and opened up the metal box. Inside it was an enchanted spinning device hooked with to the ground and to the line leading up to the ceiling.
“It gives off much more light than a plain torch,” the unicorn explained.
“Fascinating,” the hunter thought to himself amazed at this unicorn.
“I try,” the unicorn acted coy as he trotted over to a large stone desk upon which were stacks of papers, documents and other various things.
The unicorn sat behind the desk and signaled for the Makita to sit opposite of him. The hunter obliged and sat down. As he sat down, the hunter placed the ‘Eye of Leviathan’ on the table. The unicorn immediately looked at it with intrigue and picked it up with his magic.
“What do you think you are doing?!” Makita jumped up to his feet, furious at the unicorn.
“Calm down,” the masked pony said “I am just going to put in a pouch for you, so you don’t lose it. My payday depends on it as well,” the unicorn explained and placed the gem in a small, brown, bag and handed it back to Makita.
“Thanks,” Makita replied “but you know I will still have to carry it around.”
The unicorn sighed.
“Just tie the pouch to your mane, genius,” the pony said annoyed at the hunter.
“Oh,” Makita said, embarrassed by his mistake.
The unicorn tapped his hooves, impatiently, as Makita tied the pouch to his luscious mane.
“Now, if you’re done, I’d like to get this over with, before the break of dawn,” the unicorn said “If I understood Ares correctly, you wish to
execute prince Darkrim. Is that true?”
“Yes, it is true,” Makita replied.
“Well, I am sad to say you won’t be able to do that,” the unicorn replied. Makita felt his bug eyes were about to pop out of his skull.
“What?!” he yelled at the unicorn, preparing to strike.
“I am sorry, but that is true,” the unicorn replied “Currently, your precious prince resides with the rulers of Equestria themselves. He is heavily guarded by a specially trained Royal Guard and not to mention the princesses themselves. Getting to him would be damn near impossible, at this point.”
Makita was already flaring up, but the unicorn was smirking under his mask. He loved playing games with this short tempered beast.
“However,” he began “There is a chance.”
Makita’s head rose up and his ears pricked up in attendance.
“Rumor has it, that the prince will be transported to live in Ponyville under the wing of the newly crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends. He will be much more vulnerable there,” the unicorn finished up his explanation and leaned back in his chair.
“Well, if you knew that information, then why didn’t you start with it?!” Makita yelled.
“Hey, what can I say?” the unicorn shrugged “I just love your reaction. I find it rather amusing.”
Makita was getting annoyed by this unicorn’s actions, but he decided to play along.
“So, tell me, how do I get to this Ponyville?” Makita questioned.
“Oh that is quite simple,” the unicorn replied and pulled out the map of the Great Canterlot Area “As you can see here, Ponyville is just a few miles away from this place. You should be there in no time,” the unicorn explained.
“Sounds great, except for one little detail,” Makita said.
“What’s that?”the unicorn.
“I am a freaking Tartarian abomination!” the hunter yelled “I can’t just waltz into Ponyville! I’ll be notice in less than a millisecond!”
The unicorn laughed.
“Don’t you worry, my friend,” he said condescendingly “I have you covered.”
As he said that, the unicorn’s horn glowed blue and a ray of concetrated magic hit the corpse like hunter.
Makita could feel his whole anatomy convert in one painful transformation.
Due to the extreme pain he felt, the hunter was forced into a crawl position. He could feel the bones in his front and back limbs gain more mass and his skull to be shaped into that of a pony. He felt his bug eyes transform into large, adorable, eyes with deep blue irises. His mane was still long and flowing, with the pouch properly hidden, but the most painful part was about to come as a tail, the same color as his mane, came out of his behind. On his flank, a cutie mark was formed in the shape of a black book. As the transformation was finally complete the once corpse like hunter looked at himself and then back at the unicorn.
Grimoire barely held in his laughter as he saw Makita’s adorable new form.
“Well at least he will be miserable,” the gargoyle thought to himself.
“What did you do to me?” he asked in shock, but found out his voice a bit higher pitched.
“I have turned you into a pony,” the unicorn replied “but, it’s not permanent.”
“Oh what a shame,” Makita responded sarcastically.
“Hey, don’t you get snippy with me,” the unicorn warned him “The transformation is there so you can just spy on Darkrim and lure him into the Everfree forest. Once there, you can do to him whatever you pleas and nopony will be the wiser. They will just assume that he was mauled by a manticore or something like that,” the unicorn said proudly.
Makita looked at his new body and nodded confidently.
“Alright, I can make this work,” he said proudly to himself “so how long do I have until this wears off?”
“Anywhere from two days to a week,” the unicorn responded calmly.
“Great,” the Makita groaned.
“It’s not perfect, but it will work,” the unicorn said calmly.
Makita nodded his head. Just as he was about to leave, one question popped into his head.
“You know,” he began “I forgot to ask you something important; Why do you do this?”
“What do you mean?” the unicorn asked in confusion.
“What compelled you the help out general Ares and Tartarus in general? Aren’t you ponies supposed to love each other and be happy and whatnot,” the hunter.
The unicorn fell silent for a second.
“Let’s just say that I am not satisfied at the way things are done around these parts and would like them to change as soon as they can. Your general has promised me that much, so I am happy to oblige to his whims,” the unicorn explained and waved the grey coated stallion out of his cavern.
As their conversation continued, Grimoire could feel his potion wearing off. He could almost feel that he would drop out of the wall, so he rushed to the exit of the room. The brown winged gargoyle barely made it out of the cave, undetected by the watchful gaze of the Makita. He repositioned himself on the same tree and waited for a few moments.
Soon enough the hunter, in his pony form, stepped out and smelled the evening breeze. As the scent of dawn’s awakening hit his nostrils, Makita smiled.
Everything was going according to plan.