//------------------------------//
// Tonight, We Hunt (Part: 1) 
// Story: Tonight, We Hunt 
// by ShadowFall 
//------------------------------//

        It was him, and Kindred now. He saw the elements die right then, right before him. He didn’t know how much power Kha’zix could have gained from the bearers of the Elements, but he feared that if he didn’t find him soon, he, along with this world would be doomed. Kha’zix was still a long ways from reaching his true power, but at this state that he is in, nothing that comes from this world would be able to stop him.

        Thankfully, Rengar wasn’t from this world. 

        It was just like hunting in Runeterra and in Equestria before he met the Elements of Harmony. Find anything that seemed out of place. Footprints, disturbed scenery, claw markings, an absence of other wildlife. Especially, a scent, as Rengar was very keen of tracking one.

        With Wolf, the three found themselves on a good path to find the Voidreaver. The scent of Kha’zix was the most unique and alien odor that came from the Everfree compared to anything else that lived inside, thus the hunting party was able to track the scent, ready to finish this monster.

        “I can smell Kha’zix! We must chase faster!”, Wolf snarled as he darted forward through the air, his blue eyes glowing through the darkness, “Little Lamb! What will this monster taste like?”

        Lamb echoed back, “For once, I think you wouldn’t like what he will taste like, dear Wolf…”

        “Focus! We must catch up to Kha’zix before he kills anything else!”, Rengar looked back at the two others trailing him.

        The smell of Kha’zix was still prominent in Rengar’s and Wolf’s nose. He couldn’t outrun them. They knew that he would eventually have to stand his ground and fight them all at once. From time and time fighting him in the League of Legends, Rengar knew that Kha’zix could never fight a group at once and kill them all. But then again, the League of Legends always restricted the power of champions in some way or another.

        Something that they called a futile “balance”.

        The only time Rengar ever fought Kha’zix out of the League was when he was still a promising young pathfinder and hunter. That was when Kha’zix first came to his world.

        When Rengar saw him in his youth, he didn’t think twice. He leapt at him and tried to slay the monster, but Kha’zix had other plans. The Voidreaver managed to destroy an eye of Rengar’s, and escape back into the void to recuperate whatever wounds he had.

        Rengar would never get his eye back, only with his eye-binding there to replace it. No matter how long ago it was, Rengar wanted revenge for his eye. Not revenge in the League where killing was meaningless with magical revival, but a fight to the death, with only one walking away. And he would be damned if that would be Kha’zix. As such, so would Equestria, and possibly Runeterra as well.

        His one remaining eye narrowed as his mouth turned into a scowl. He will have his revenge.

        Then, the smell became pungent in his nose.

        “Stop! Form up! He’s here!”, Rengar spoke as he and Lamb now stood back to back. Drawing his knife and notching her bow, along with a snarl filled with fangs, Rengar, Lamb, and Wolf watched from every direction they could.

        The cloudy sky soon turned the forest even darker than what it was before, as the humidity began to rise, signaling rain. Rengar’s piercing blue eye watched around the dark environment. 

        Then, Lamb shivered suddenly.

        “I sense... “

        Wolf finished her sentence as he suddenly pushed her out of the way.

        “...danger!”

        Biospikes impacted along to where Lamb was standing from the side, barely missing Rengar. Turning to the right, he fixed his claws onto one of his bolas, then gave it a hurl at the treeline. The figure of Kha’zix shifted from his place, effortlessly dodging the attack. 

        Coming down from the tree, Kha’zix’s powerful legs marched himself forwards, his green alien eyes illuminating what was in front of him. His wings uncurled and gave off their eery green translucent color.

        “Ah… such power stands before me… so much power to consume!”, Kha’zix grinned as his blades fell to his side, melting the dirt and rocks that were below his feet.

        “You’ve done enough damage to our home, Kha’zix! For that, your time has now come!”, Lamb echoed at her adversary.

        “We will make sure of it, insect!”, Wolf shouted at Kha’zix.

        Then, the Voidreaver looked over towards Rengar.

        “And what about you, my dear old ‘hunting buddy’? Still miss that eye I took from you?”, Kha’zix taunted towards the lion, who tightened his grip on his weapons.

        “You’re going to miss your head when I remove it from your spine!”

        With that, Rengar immediately jumped from Kha’zix, Hunting Knife in paw.

        “Rengar!”

        Lamb pulled back her bowstring.

        Wolf jet forwards with his teeth bared.

        Kha’zix’s blades hissed and sliced through the air.

        The fight had begun.





        It had become dark now from the clouds that had rolled in. Afterall, the Everfree’s weather acted on its own accord. 

        But she payed no mind to it. What she did still pay mind to, was that her friends, her salvation, were all dead.

        She never thought that she would ever see them like this. Lifeless, cold, dead. All of those happy memories shared with them. All of which now stopped cold in their tracks. And worst of all, Kha’zix had been cruel enough to not even kill Fluttershy so she could be with her friends in their eternal sleep.

        He laughed at her. 

        Fluttershy’s eyes had been bloodshot from the crying, the muffled screaming as she buried her face onto Rainbow Dash’s unmoving chest, muffling out her cries. Her chest got colder, and colder every second she felt it.

        How could something so cruel like that exist? Why couldn’t she have met her end like the rest?

        Why was it this world? Why did it have to…

        Then, she heard the roar of a lion in the distance. It didn’t sound like a mantacore. It was far too strong, powerful, and controlled.

        Fluttershy looked back. There was the path that lead back to Ponyville, and all that lay dead within it. She just wanted this to be all over. She wanted to go home and forget this ever happened. 

        But she knew that Rengar and Kindred were trying to do something larger. They didn’t run away, they’re trying to stop a cataclysm that would overtake all of Equestria, and the world. Fluttershy was the only element left, but with her friends dead, what could she do to help?

        She didn’t want to go deeper into the forest. Images of Kha’zix butchering her in a thousand different ways played over in her mind. But that didn’t stop Rengar, someone that she at one point looked down upon. She had to help. She had to do whatever she could to save this world. She prayed that Celestia and Luna had finished negotiating with the Summoners now, being such a crisis. However, she knew that in the back of her head that help would not come soon enough. She had to become that help, and she had to become it now.

        Fluttershy walked over to Shining Armor, and his crumpled body that lay on the forest ground. Blood poured from his armored plates, giving Fluttershy a horrifying twinge as she approached him. However, she needed something to defend herself. Looking down at his side was Shining Armor’s sword, still in its sheath.

        The handle slick with blood, she grabbed it with her mouth, unable to use the armored gauntlets that Shining had to operate it as they were far too big, and pulled the weapon from its harness. Fluttershy flicked the blade of its blood, wondering how she could ever muster the courage to do what she was doing now, and was about to do next.

        Looking towards the forest in the biggest rush of fear and anxiety she had ever experienced, she buried it all down, and began to walk deeper within, heading towards the sound of battle.
        
        She faced the hydra, and now, she would face something even deadlier.

        What could she do? Whatever it was, Fluttershy was going to try all that she could.

At this point, it was all she could do now.





        Kha’zix effortlessly dodged the incoming magic bolts that Lamb had let loose at the Voidreaver, them dotting the tree that stood behind him. The magic of the forest seeped out of the tree and onto the ground as Nightmare Moon’s magical corruption still lingered within the forest. It had become more and more humid and increasingly dark as the only light that was emanated within the Everfree were from the magic arrows of Lamb, and the combatants’ eyes.

        Kha’zix wasn’t able to get an opening onto his adversaries, only being able to launch a volley of spikes once in awhile to get a lucky hit. 

        Lamb rolled away from the attacks and pointed towards Kha’zix, signalling Wolf and Rengar to pounce as his ranged attack was now reloading.

        “Now! I’ll cover you!”

        “Rrragh!”

        “Hrrah!”

        Kha’zix now bared witness to the giant lion and spiritkin wolf that were now in the air, converging onto him. He was about to move away, until Lamb then pulled back her bow, a magical energy gathering onto her bow. Launching it at Kha’zix, it felt like weights to his legs, making him hardly able to move.

        Lamb’s Mounting Dread was beginning as she fired her first bolt. The arrow struck into the chest of Kha’zix, painting a white glowing ring around his body mass. 

        Rengar landed besides Kha’zix, slashing upwards with his knife. Kha’zix brought down his own energy blades onto Rengar’s Hunting Knife, only to have it stop right on the blade. Rengar gave a grin and shouted at his prey.
        
        “You see this knife, Kha’zix? I made it to butcher you!”, Rengar slashed away from Kha’zix, breaking free of the struggle.

        Then, the next arrow impacted into the voidling, gaining a second ring around Kha’zix. The pain was excruciating to the oversized bug, but the worse was still to come.

        “Now, Wolf!”

        Wolf pounced from the air and clamped his jaws down on Kha’zix, completing the third ring and blasting them all into its target, sending a surge of deathly magic into him. Kha’zix grunted in pain as the marks did their trick, damaging the beast like nothing before.

        Wolf thrashed Kha’zix around, but only until Kha’zix’s spikes had reloaded. 

        Instantly, Kha’zix aimed downwards and blasted Wolf’s face full of his biospikes. This time, the spikes exploded into shrapnel and tore Wolf straight off of Kha’zix. When Kha’zix was caught in the explosion of the spikes, instead of damaging or harming himself, the energy that seeped from the spikes healed him, pouring into his wounds from before. With a laugh, Kha’zix slashed across Wolf’s face with his claw, earning a massive straight scorch mark across the mask of the spiritkin.
        
        “Argh!”, Wolf shouted as his mask was nearly broken apart again. He retreated behind Lamb, who began to fire more and more arrows.

        Kha’zix tried to leap away again to gain more of a height advantage, but ended up being tackled by Rengar as he leaped from a bush. Intercepted, Kha’zix thrashed around and kicked the lion off of him, slashing the ground in front with his energy blades to create a line of sparks that came from reacting rocks.

        Then, Kha’zix disappeared instantly.

        Lamb kept her bow up and fired at his last position, but it was no use as Kha’zix was now long gone. 

        Then, Rengar laughed.

        “You really think that old trick is going to fool any of us? Looks like I’m not the only one that still needs to learn!”

        With that, Rengar closed his eyes.



“Listen…”


        His other senses took over. His smell, his hearing, his whiskers, they all could sense around. Heartbeats were no longer in the Everfree Forest, as Kha’zix had taken care of nearly everything that lived within. 

        There were only four heartbeats… no… five…? Something else was alive in the forest, but Rengar payed no mind to it. He paid mind to the heart that beat irregularly fast for a creature of its size, as well as having a beating tone of something not mammalian. 

        It was Kha’zix. He was attempting to circle around and take one of them out from the shadows, unseen by Lamb or Wolf.

        With a hurl of a bola, Rengar shouted, “I see you, wretched creature!”

        The roped weapon suddenly snagged on something in mid air. Kha’zix decloaked and tumbled to the ground, trying profusely to free himself from the entanglement.

        “Grah! Rggghah!”, Kha’zix shouted as he snapped free of the bola’s ropes with his claw, but was unable to avoid another arrow from Lamb. This one had impacted straight into his shoulder, disabling one of his spike racks and digging the unspent ammunition into his shoulder. The voidling screamed in pain as his left arm fell limp from the injury.

        Immediately, Rengar pounced onto the bug, and rose his knife.

        “It’s time to finish this! All of your destruction, it ends here!”

        Kha’zix’s wings spread apart.
        
        “I beg to differ.”

        A single flap was all it took to blanket the entire area in dirt and dust. A single kick was all it took to shove Rengar off, him wildly slashing what was in front of him.

        Then, a single maneuver was all it took for Kha’zix to reappear behind Lamb.

        A single stab was all it took.

        Kha’zix’s energy blade suddenly impaled through Lamb’s back and through her chest, lifting her up into the air as her magic energies seeped out from within her. Lamb couldn’t even react in time to cast her Respite on herself.

        “NO!”, Wolf charged straight towards Kha’zix, who simply threw the now impaled Lamb at Wolf, then turned around and fled the scene.

        As Kha’zix escaped into the darkness, he laughed and cackled, “If three of you can’t stop me, then what makes you think anything can?! Ahahahahaaaah!”

        Lamb fell to the ground off of Wolf’s nose, her breathing beginning to slow down. Wolf hovered down over her, him looking over her as he soon felt his own energy begin to become stripped away from him.

        “Lamb… you will be okay… won’t you?”, Wolf looked down upon her fleeting body.

        Lamb’s hand lightly caressed Wolf’s jaw line. She too could feel his power escaping him as well.

        “I might not make it, dear Wolf. My wounds are too grievous. Soon, you will pass along with me. I cannot let that happen to you. But Kha’zix is still rampant. You must go after him.”, Lamb weakly echoed through the forest.

        “I… can’t. WIthout you, my power is nothing. I will soon die along with you.”

        Rengar watched back, then looked into the forest.

        “Then… I must fight Kha’zix until the bitter end. Believe me. I will avenge you both, and everything that has died at the claws of Kha’zix.”, Rengar growled in rage and anger.

        “No… this isn’t about vengeance, Rengar. This is about protecting your home. Our home. All of us, we are counting on you to stop this bloodshed. Not take a prize you have been after.”, Lamb pleaded to Rengar, “Please… know where your heart lays, not your desires…”

        Then, rustling was heard from the south of the group. Rengar took a grip on his knife and peered into the foliage, only to be met with a familiar butter-yellow coat and a pink mane, albeit rather dirtied up.

        However, at this, Rengar’s eye widened in pure shock. Emerging from the treeline was Fluttershy, with Shining Armor’s sword gripped into her mouth. She appeared heavily battered and shaken, yet here she was in front of Rengar and Kindred. 

        Rengar couldn’t believe his eye. He thought that she had died along with the rest of the elements. She had to. Kha’zix killed them all. But those thought all blew out of his mind when he finally realised that standing in front of him was the real Fluttershy.

        “F-Fluttershy… you’re alive…!”, Rengar suddenly rushed over to her, sheathing his dagger.

        What happened next gave a little surprise to the pony, and even a bit to Rengar himself. He wrapped his arms around the pony into an embrace, his mane meeting with hers. Fluttershy came to fight for once, but instead, she was met with a hug from Rengar.

        Rengar’s hug was shaky. He had been afraid.

        “I… I thought you were dead…”, Rengar breathed heavily, shaking his head, “I should have come back. I should have checked. Instead, I left you alo-”

        Fluttershy then responded back, the tiniest of smiles growing on her face for the first time in the last few days.

        “It’s okay… everything happened so fast. Even I thought I hadn’t made it… but… my friends…”, Fluttershy’s smile disappeared when she remembered the deaths of those beloved to her.

        “I’m sorry I couldn’t save them, Fluttershy. It’s my fault. I couldn’t react. I still thought about myself and what only I would do, not what would happen.”, Rengar spoke through his gruff voice, wavering a bit as he silenced himself.

        Then, Fluttershy looked at Kindred, who were getting weaker and weaker.

        “Dear Celestia, are they okay?”, she rushed over to them, bending down to Wolf’s head and stroking his jaw.

        “No. Kha’zix had grievously injured Lamb, and Wolf will soon follow afterwards. There is nothing we can do for them.”, Rengar solemnly replied.

        Lamb then reached up to touch Fluttershy’s mane. Fluttershy stared down onto the masked face. She never had a clue what lay beneath the mask, but whatever was under it, she knew for a fact that it was trying to smile at her as Lamb slowly wafted into eternal sleep. 

        “You are very brave, dear Fluttershy to come back and stand your ground. There are very few ponies with such courage as you. Believe me, I have seen many of them all around this world.”, Lamb’s echo serenaded the forest one last time.

        “But now we ask of one last thing, little pony. Chase down Kha’zix. Run him down. Stop his rampage as I couldn’t!”, Wolf gave a low growl, as his energy was nearly empty.

        Fluttershy felt tears trying to escape her eyes once more, but they didn’t leave. She wouldn’t cry now. Kha’zix had taken so much from her, and will continue to take even more if nothing stopped him.

        With slight nods, she took a deep breath.

        “I won’t let anypony down. You can count on me and Rengar to stop this monster…”, Fluttershy spoke as Lamb’s paw slowly fell from Fluttershy’s mane.

        Lamb then turned to the dying Wolf, as Wolf turned to the dying Lamb. 


        “So many stories I’ve told you, dear Wolf…”



	“But all stories have one thing in common… little Lamb…”



        Kindred placed her paw on the forehead of Wolf’s mask.



	“What is that… dear Wolf…?”



	The light that emanated from both of their masks slowly faded away.


	



	“They end.”