//------------------------------// // Chapter 18 // Story: Blood Curse Hunters // by Rarity Belle //------------------------------// For hours more had Sweetie been pondering her mind about the situation. She had been drawing the lines in her mind as to how everything should have proceeded. The evening would have almost rung in again when she finally dared to speak the question. The one question that was bothering her mind ever since she left the clubhouse of the Crusaders. “Is it worth it, to fight alongside them and uncover the truth?” The question, that simple sounding question had just so much meaning for her. Not only did she wanted to know what happened to her sister of course, what had really happened to her. But the better question was: was she ready for what she could find? That was what bothered the young mare perhaps more. No longer was it a question of joining or not, but the question about whether or not she was ready for the truth. Was she ready to face the facts as they were? Was she able to stay strong enough after knowing the truth? What would she have done with her life after the truth had been realized? All those questions haunted her mind. All of those things, she never even dared thinking about. It was a devastation for her mind. “Do I fight alongside them, to make a difference for Equestria, or do I pull back and stay on the side, meaning that I’m not sure what to do with my life altogether,” she questioned to herself. Sweetie let out a deep sigh of confusion while her eyes shut. She couldn’t make the decision yet. She felt too weak in the moment to do anything, really. Something about it all just didn’t make any sense to her. Something about it all, was wrong. “Am I looking, in the wrong direction then?” That was another question that bobbled through her mind. Perhaps she was indeed wrong with her entire reasoning and all the things she had said against both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo had been for nothing. If so, she should ask or beg them both for forgiveness. But Sweetie wasn’t wrong, right? She couldn’t have been. A hoof brought itself up to a temple and began to rub it gentle. She groaned with almost every single exhale. It was a deep and great step to undertake. To either join with the notorious Night Guard and fight the immortals, or stay the young mare she was and let life take the shape that she wanted it to be. Another sigh came, but the eyes wouldn’t open. Not even when her mother called for dinner. Her stomach rumbled, but Sweetie wouldn’t listen to it. She wanted an answer to the hungry question in her mind, she didn’t wanted to listen to her roaring stomach. Both options were terrible, she realized that much. Joining them meant that she would have to end the life of many other beings, but not joining stood equal to them coming for her, her family and her hometown. It meant for Sweetie that big trouble could be heading to Ponyville. The choices that she had according to herself were just terrible. In her mind it was one or the other. One would have brought her to the truth according to what she knew, the other would have made her ignorant for everything, forever. Both of her hooves managed to get a hold of her head and she wanted to scream louder than ever before. Though not a single sound ever came from her. She was screaming in her mind. All her thoughts had been silenced and the one true voice of herself would have screamed as loud as it could. The decision that she had to make wasn’t one she wanted to make. No, Sweetie Belle had to make a choice, a choice that would change the entire course of her life. A choice like that was everything but easy to make. It all resulted in a growl before she rolled off the bed. Her eyes went from left to right while she tried to stand the right way up on her hooves. Hours she had spent atop the bed, hours that had made her weaker than she ever could have thought to become. A deep exhale was eventually given though. A deep exhale that made certain she wasn’t just doing something stupid. The storm inside her head, had to be calmed, somehow. Sweetie began to wander around the room with her head everywhere and nowhere at the same time. She had to calm down, only then would the decision have been made. But Sweetie’s head was never calm. A certain storm always managed to rage through there like that. Sweetie’s mind was never silent as all sorts of ideas managed to pound themselves through the skull. She was the voice of reason when she wanted to be, but in that moment was she the voice of insanity. While her own mind was balancing on the edge of the cliff, with nothing but a sheer drop on the other side. “What do I do? What do I do?!” she growled to herself. The answer just wasn’t clear, the decision couldn’t be made anytime soon. “Join the Night Guard or just leave them be? Figure out what happened to Rarity one way or the other, or just roam around the lands, pretending nothing happened?” It was a decision that nopony could have made for her. Sweetie Belle hadn’t even the foggiest idea as to what was playing it safe and what was just starting the terror. Every decision had an advantage and disadvantage to it. She turned over to the window and placed both forehooves at the sill, raising her a bit while she watched the world outside. “Do I become a Hunter and let the one who did it, pay for everything?” The wondering twinkle in her eyes faded more when the sun lowered even further behind the hills. She had given herself the time until the sun had truly set, before the moon would rise, to make the decision that would change her life. A decision that had to fall in mere seconds. More and more had the sun lowered itself behind the hills. Only a few more precious seconds and all the light in Equestria would have faded. The orange, burning skies above would have been claimed by the darkness of night. Sweetie watched with a set of big eyes how the transition happened. Because the sun had set. The decision had fallen. In the darkness of the evening, Sweetie knew what she had to do. She knew what stupid and rash decision had to be made. The darkness of night began to take away all the light in her room, consuming it and replacing it with its own. Where Sweetie stood in the orange light seconds ago, now her face was covered in dark. But her irises were lit, they burned with a fire unknown to her. They burned with a fire that spoke a thousand truths. “I’ll join them, I’ll join them and find the one responsible for my sister’s death. Whomever, whatever, did it, I will make sure you’ll suffer like she did, because she didn’t deserve it,” growled Sweetie before she turned away from the window, “but you do.” The decision had finally been made by the young mare. She finally had come to a point in time where everything would change for her. She would have done the near impossible and become a Hunter in the Night Guard, those that are actively looking for the immortal beings. The most dangerous job there was. Sweetie primed her horn slight and felt the sheer power surging through her body. It felt good, just so good to feel it going through her. She was delighted for a moment, not even thinking about the possibility that she could be denied. Her magic was strong and had many uses for defense. There was no way in her mind that they would deny her. A smile came to her face, she had finally decided as to what would happen. She had come to decide what course of her life would take next. She knew, what trouble would come next though. But first, the night should be slept away. A deep yawn managed to escape her and she crawled back on bed. Sweetie snuggled up underneath the blankets and placed the pillow where it should have been. A night of sleep, was all that she wanted at that point. A night of sleep, was all she needed. ~~~~ Drudging in her bed, Sweetie Belle couldn’t get the sleep that she needed. She turned and twisted with her eyes forcefully shut tight. She wanted to sleep, but just couldn’t. Thoughts had returned to her, dark thoughts that could have thrown everything right out the window. Sweetie Belle wasn’t safe by any account and it showed. The trouble that she went through in that moment of time, was some of the worst she had ever seen. Thoughts about machines that would destroy Equestria, controlled by those immortal beings rushed through her. She wouldn’t have any of that. No, her thoughts were even worse. Everything that went down her mind, just didn’t make sense. Sweetie Belle was scared, she admitted it. She was terrified as the blanket was raised to far over her head. She couldn’t see the outside world yet, she wasn’t ready for it. She wanted to remain there, in the safe haven that was her bed. She wanted to remain hidden underneath the blanket, to remain where could hide with all the safety in the world. The young mare shivered and drudged underneath the blanket, but the eyes never dared to open themselves. She couldn’t scream for help, because there was nothing going on. Yet to boot everything that had gone wrong, horrible images and sounds returned to her. Sweetie began to imagine what it must have been for Rarity, to die in that fire. It was a thought that had come to her numerous times in the past year. A thought that always managed to devastate her entire being for about a week. She couldn’t even compare her feelings to what the actual fires must have felt. And then, underneath the blanket, while she was trying her best not to cry, she felt it. She felt that one tear rolling down her cheek. She felt that one tear, being the start of many more. What followed, was another tear and a sniffle. Sweetie was terrified and crying, two things that a unicorn wasn’t well known for. But she was just a foal, one that only just took a glance of the world. She wished that her heart had stopped beating in that moment, never realizing how close she had come to death once before. Sweetie didn’t knew what to do, even her decision to join the Night Guard was standing unstable. What would she have done? Yet to make things even more worse, words came from all sides. Words that her friends spoke, that her parents spoke, that her sister once spoke. Words that were meant to help her, confuse her, enrage her. Nopony was speaking in a clear language and Sweetie hated it. She didn’t wanted any of them to talk, but one pony’s words, managed to drill themselves deep in her skull. One pony’s words managed to destroy everything, and give her the determination that she needed. “Shut up, shut up, shutidity shutshutshut upupup!” Sweetie growled from underneath the blankets. “Shut up, Diamond Tiara!” The horrible words spoken by the stock up young mare –or at the time filly– rampaged again through her mind. The words that had first set her on the course she was going down. The dreaded words that her sister was murdered by a vampony, all came from that little bastard. Sweetie had based everything she spoke on the words of her greatest nemesis. But it was true in a sense, that she had to keep her friends close, but her enemies even closer. Sweetie groaned while the blanket was thrown off of her body. Nothing made sense anymore and she needed some fresh air. A deep swig of air was taken before she got out of bed again. It wasn’t even midnight and she was still awake. For nearly thirty hours had she gone without any sleep. It was taking its toll on her, that much was certain. “No! Rarity can’t have been killed by a vampony, it, it doesn’t make sense!” Sweetie said to herself in a moment of pure rage and sadness. The turn in statement was strange, even for her own doing, but it was how she came to the facts and figures. The young mare growled deep to herself before she shifted her attention to the window. “How could, a vampony have done such a thing? Not every piece of the puzzle is clear to you, Sweetie, you know that.” Every single word she spoke was the truth about the matter. Every single word that she spoke, caused her to become even more insane. “What do I do, what do I do, what do I do?!” she mouthed while pacing up and down the length of her room. Confusion had hit her, she was in doubt once more. The young mare didn’t have a clue what she had to do. To join or to not to join, that was the question she had. Another growl came from her before she turned back to the window. Her eyes glanced to the moon, watching over it with a deep respiration. “What do I do?!” Sweetie asked again. A rightful question given the moment, but Sweetie had no answer to it. Her eyes went shut again, moments before she let out another sigh and the tears that rolled down. She was shivering, shuddering at all the thoughts that were going through her mind. A snap was thought to be heard all of the sudden. A snap in her mind that caused her to lose all sense of morality for a moment. A snap that shut down every last one of her emotions. Sudden clarity had come to her and Sweetie could think straight for the first time in a long, long time indeed. “Join the Night Guard, it is all that you have left to live for. Perhaps no answers come, but at least you will be able to do something about it. No more changes, no more decisions, no more chances. Tomorrow, you’re going to enlist, with, or without them.” With those words, Sweetie crawled back in her bed and brought the blankets back over her. She would try to get some much needed sleep. The decision had fallen, she would have done it and there’s nothing in the universe that could stop her. She would join the Night Guard. ~~~~ Tree Hugger had woken up from something that she couldn’t explain with clarity. A groan came from her in the middle of the night. The storm was still going on, but she slept in the attic, a warm and cozy bed had been prepared for her. But something downstairs was something that had caused her to be awoken. The game she and Fluttershy had played was exhausting, exciting too. But she swore that something was wrong down there. The mare left the bed for what it was and began to wander over to the stairs. What could she have found beneath? What could she have discovered, when she came down to the ground floor? It seemed like something massive was scurrying around, trying to be careful. A hoof was set on the first step, letting the wood just creak a little bit. But Tree didn’t mind that creak, what she wondered about was the creaking of the floorboards beneath her. A yawn came from her before some words would follow. “In bed above or deep asleep. While greater loves lies further deep. This dream must end, this world must know... We all depend on the beast below.” With those words she continued her way down the stairs before she reached the hallway on the ground floor. In her drunkenness, Tree hadn’t even checked in Fluttershy’s bedroom to see if she was there, not that she would have barged in to begin with though. All her hooves were set on the ground floor and no light could be seen. Only bits of the moon and the occasional lightning flash. The storm still hadn’t laid down but reduced in force. Tree didn’t knew what to expect as she went in the living room and rubbed her eyes. A pair of eyes that hadn’t been used to the darkness yet. “Hey man, could you be a bit more quiet? There are ponies in here trying to sleep, thanks.” All she got in return was a whimper. “What?” Tree questioned aloud before taking a step forward. A whimper that sounded a lot like that of a wolf echoed in her ears. “Didn’t knew Fluttershy even kept wolves in here.” Perhaps it was a stupid thing, what she would do next, but Tree had to try it. She had to try and see what laid there. With calm steps, hearing the other creature stagger back, the earth pony mare made her way over to a candle. A bit more light was required in order to reveal whatever was hiding on the ground floor. But Tree didn’t even knew in how much danger she was. She didn’t even knew, what truly roamed through the ground floor of the cottage. “Hey, there we go!” Tree hugger said while lighting a match. Seconds later was the candle lit and she took it in her hoof. The light it cast was enough to shine through, even if it was barely. A smile came to her face while she aimed the candle in the direction of the creature. A creature that uncurled itself from itself. It had a faint gold-yellowish coat and rose up to its true height. It stood on its back legs with two forelegs ready to slash with talons thick. “Oh bugger,” was all Tree managed to say. A howl came from the thing, a thing that looked like a wolf. But not a charging howl, a warning howl. Whatever Tree hugger would have done, she had to get away from there, fast. The candle was dropped but Tree noticed something on the body of the creature. She noticed scars. Scars that were present. She gulped before blowing out the candle, terrified as she was. “It’s okay man, d-don’t do a-anything stupid. I, I’ll leave ya be, you beauty!” And with that, she rushed back to the attic. The creature shrouded itself back in the darkness, growling in a low tuned voice before a thud on the floor ceased all of the creaking. Silence returned to the cottage, but Tree was scared to death. She couldn’t place the creature, she had to talk to Fluttershy at one point about it.