Monster Hunters~
Chapter 1:
The cold breeze of the night ran over her mane, it brought the smell of blood, whispers of nameless fears, and the freshness of the summer, her scarf shined over the moonlight and waved against the winds, Twilight Sparkle took a deep breath and entered the now huge Everfree Forest, Largest Forest of Septentrional Equestria.
Twilight Sparkle hooves made sound as she entered the woods, the moonlight seemed to dwindle, as the trees became bigger and their numerous twigs blocked the moonlight, Twilight silently casted a spell on her eyes that gave her enhanced vision, the darkness and moonlight mixing, since she was looking for clues about his prey.
She tried to remember the letter as she checked her surroundings for any leads or worse things that could be waiting since she was starting to stop completely at times and do a good searches in open glades, since the Everfree most of the time feasted on their victims under the moonlight, a breeze of cold wind made her scarf wave as she finally felt it again, the smell of blood.
-Guilt Feeder, a creature that uses past memories to torment it’s victims, before… - Twilight Sparkle was remembering about this certain monster when she spotted it, a trail of soaked blood, she followed it keeping her arbalest ready, until he spotted it, some lump of clothes surrounded by fresh blood and tentacle tracks in the dirt and mud…
But after a second analysis she realized that it was not a lump of clothes, she had found the Victim, insides sucked out… just a sack of skin and robes, she tried to contain herself, as she casted a spell and ignited the remains of the Poor Pony that had gone missing on the letter, she watched it burn opening the letter as she read it again.
“Dear Twilight Sparkle.
I am sorry to sent you a letter in such a rush after your last adventure but you, of all Ponies in Equestria must know this, Princess Luna has disappeared as well, just yesterday I summoned to Canterlot since the situation is worse than ever, Canterlot is crumbling from the inside, Princess Luna has been missing all along! Since the start of this mess... They need somepony with experience to take lead of it for now, we have no Royal guidance and strangely both Sun and Moon are still changing themselves right on time, something strange is up and I want you to find out what’s up with that, the Sun's light has been dwindling and the Moon's light as well, their light can't pierce the dark gloomy clouds that are starting to cover all of Equestria.
This last year I have been leading my own Guard company that remained loyal to me the 1138 Fillydelphian Company, my “Outriders” we have earned our keep and a fair degree of fame, and now I am going to try and talk with other Guard leaders and as well as the Nobles that are now trying to take the throne for themselves, they waited all this time to make their move, since the Princesses are assumed as offically lost now, officially dead to them, I hope I will soon be able to restore Order in Canterlot and rally the Guard to push back these Everfree Monsters from out Lands! And maybe hunt them down back to the hell they once came from.
Now back to you, I need you to find the rest of the Elements, I need you all 6 to rally the Guard and then you will have your revenge, because I will sent you and your team to look for our Princesses and then, strike at the heart of whatever is behind the Everfree invasion, this offense against Ponykind will not go unpunished.
A Royal Stalker agent was tracking an important Spy that holds information regarding Princess Luna’s whereabouts, I am not completely sure about this, she fled into the Everfree forest before the Stalker could catch her without revealing himself, go ahead and scour the woods and see if you can find her before she gets killed, try your best to get that piece of info…
Keep up the good fight Twilight Sparkle, I am sure Celestia is proud of you! ~ High Lord Judge Cloud Chaser”
Twilight Sparkle started crying, tears flooding remember it all in some seconds as she fells down on her rump sobbing… E-Day, she would never forget it… some images still haunted her dreams, those 2 Ponies she saw laying on the ground holding hooves as they were dying… She didn’t even want to remember their last words, she close her jaw to avoid sobbing in a very enraged way, holding back anymore tears, her face turned into stone as her rage took over her sadness.
-Never again!- She screamed in fury, slamming her hoof on the ground with magical imbued force on her pool of tears, she didn’t liked breaking down even at home alone in her room, much less in the Middle of the Everfree Forest, she was sick of feeling so weak, lost and alone deep inside.
She breathed deep and loaded her Arbalest as she knew all that noise and the burning of a corpse would only spell one thing, the arrival of Everfree Monsters, she could only pray she would be lucky enough to get the one she was looking for... eventually something entered the glade, it was a Yellow Pegasus that had clearly seen brighter days, her mane was a mess, totally discolored it looked almost white and her wings seemed injured as they were folded in a funny way, Twilight Sparkle recognized something that made her halt her fire.
-Fluttershy!?- She shouted lighting up her horn towards her, still aiming at the Pegasi with her Arbalest, not sure what to do.
Twilight Sparkle hold her aim steadily at the Pegasus, she stared deeply into her white eyes, like empty wells made of a blank stare of nothingness, she started trying to move in the center of the glade, the Pegasus quickly reacting to each of her moves, the both ended up making circles around each other, as neither of them wanted to reveal their intentions just yet.
The Purple Unicorn used these precious moments to finish reading in her mind the chapter about Guiltfeeders in the Bestiary Book.
"Guilt Feeder, a creature that uses past memories to torment it’s victims, before feasting on them alive, sucking their innards from inside out while holding them in place with their tentacles, these Monsters have a very tough skin and are very agile and slippery, as they often appear mimicking another sentient being of our imagination, how quick they react to any of your movements it’s the best way to tell the difference between another illusory monster and a Guiltfeeder.
Fights with these creatures are best keep being resolved quickly, the more time you give him to spy into your mind and give it a chance to find a memory that would make you crumble for the second it needs to kill you, proceed with extreme caution and hit it with all you have, at the first opening you see!"
Twilight Sparkle decided to make her first move and opened fire at the Pegasus whom quickly lunged forward, spreading its wings menacingly; the Celestium Bolts glancing off the skin of the creature, clearly showing she was not a normal pony, the Purple Unicorn tumbled some steps backwards, still raining bolts from her Arbalest at the creature, as it deflected them with their wings, some getting stuck in the creatures wings, Twilight noticed how it groaned in pain as the Poison she brewed on the bolts entered it’s veins, the illusory veil broke down and the Guilt Feeder true form was revealed, a horrible Everfree monster with tentacles among it’s abnormal long limbs to strangle it’s victim, eyes void of any emotion and a skin as dark as its soul.
-You know you face extinction Little Pony, give up as I did and embrace the oblivion that awaits us all! - The Guiltfeeder called out in a voice that was no other than the one of Princess Celestia herself.
- NEVER! – Twilight Sparkle roared at the top of her lungs firing a single Celestium bolt at the monster’s left eye, empowering it mid air with time magic, making it move at incredible speed, exploding on the monster’s face, the poison coating showering its eyes with the deadly brew, blinding it temporarily as it lowered its defense in pain.
This was the Monster Hunter’s chance, she remembered the spell from the book and charged forward, her horn glowing like a star just like her scarf, goring the beast with her horn, imbued with magic, it caused a explosion that launched the beast back, black blood spilling everywhere, covering some of Twilight Sparkle’s purple coat.
She felt dizzy and temporarily blinded herself a bit as her pupils were covered in the Guilt feeder’s blood and by the recoil of the explosion her Magic Spear spell, which successfully pierced the monster’s skin. as the beast limbs and tentacles tried to grab the Unicorn Pony, Twilight Sparkle managed to teleport with her Unicorn magic at the last second, her react time was flawless, the second she could feel the fiend’s grip almost around her coat, she teleported over its limbs gracefully kicking him in the face with her back hoofs, making it fall down, exposing it’s wound.
The Pony and the Beast exchanged sights for a second, both trying to magically invade each other’s thoughts, as Twilight Sparkle jumped back, a cold conviction on her eyes and a small smile on her lips, as she ruthlessly filled the wound of the beast with dozen of dozens of Celestium bolts before landing a few steps back of her fallen foe.
The Purple Unicorn powered up her horn, mimicking the spell of another kind of Everfree monster, a Mind Render “Mental Blade”, and pierced the head of the dying Guiltfeeder with an Ethereal Sword from her horn, the poison was already weakening it, now it was a flood of death for the beast, Twilight Sparkle easily extracted the only recent memory that had an affinity with her Pony mind, and stored it on a blank page of her trusty spell book for further analysis later.
She kept her soft smile as she knew it was time to leave, she turned around and left the glade, as the Guiltfeeder exhaled it’s last breath, it ignited in flames, purified by the magical poison that it was its doom, Twilight Sparkle breathed deep into the freshness of the trees and the coldness of the night, the moonlight disappearing as she galloped trough the deep woods, she knew the stench of the burning fiend would only lure more Everfree monsters, worse than a Guiltfeeder if unlucky.
Twilight eventually left the Everfree forest behind, much to her relief, the sun was rising, but it was quickly covered by dark winds carrying gloom clouds over Ponyville, she sadly walked back to her home, noticing how the sunrays couldn’t pierce the dark clouds gloom, she remembered the old days, when the sun reigned the sky with no gloom or shadow… those days were nothing more than a fading memory now.
She reached Ponyville and the city gates opened for her, she smiled for the guards as they saluted her, clearly still covered in black blood and showing signs of exhaustion, she walked around, no pony in the streets just yet, in their sleep, it was the only times the Ponies were actually as happy as they were before, she sighed happily as she spotted the Tree House Library, the place she could still call Home.
As she open the door of her Home, she realized Spike had waited for her for several hours and was still sleeping, smiling happily at the sight of her trusty friend, leaving her sobering worries behind, she took of her saddle and the rest of her blood stained gear, scarf, boots, arbalest, bracelet and left the spell book over the table, she gracefully went into the bathroom making not a single sound, and entered the shower.
Twilight Sparkle sat over her rump, cutely hugging her hind legs with her front hooves, closing her eyes and moaning softly in delight as the warm water started washing away the filth out of her purple coat and mane, she felt her mane get wet, feeling free once again of burden, she flipped her wet mane to the side and casted a bubble spell, foam soap bubbles pouring out her horn, as she closed her eyes and laid down on the shower over her back, crossing her hind legs and her front hooves holding her shoulders, letting the water and bubbles ran down all over her body, blushing and shivering softly in the delightful feeling over her exhausted and sore body, leaving all burdens behind for this moment, before heading to bed and dream of brighter days to come.