Hunters and Ponies.

by Vorki

Ice, Stone and Yellow Snow.

Oats grunted as he carried the now unconscious Issac to the bench, where Tich was resting. Oats put Issac down beside Tich and gave a sigh. He had been reminded numerous times before that Catherine was a force to be reckoned with, but thankfully he had avoided the painful fate that came with her sudden spikes of anger and frustration. After applying bandages to Tich and Issac's heads to stop the bleeding (Yes! She had hit them that hard) he then turned his attention to Catherine, who was still showing her frustration.

"We haven't even accepted the request and we already have two casualties" Oats sighed, as he walked over to Catherine.

"It was Tich's oblivious nature and Issac's sudden advance that brought them to such a fate" Catherine said, as she slowly calmed down.

"Well we need them alive, so if you could restrain yourself for the length of the request, that would be appreciated" Oats replied carefully. This seemed to do the trick, as Catherine walked over to Oats with an apologetic look on her face. Oats sighed and smiled kindly at her.

Before they could say anything, a small gasp could be heard behind them. Oats turned around and saw a tall, dark haired girl. She wore a set of full plate armor, making her look heavily protected and she held a long katana, similar to that of Oats. She was also holding a 2x2 cup holder, that held what seemed to be cups of coffee. She looked nervously at Oats as if expecting an answer.

"Its okay Walker" Oats assured her. "'They will wake up soon with a minor headache. Nothing to worry about".

Walker let out a small sign of relief and then offered one of the coffees to Oats, while looking away. Oats raised an eyebrow but accepted the warm cup and smiled.

"Very generous of you Walker. Thanks".

Walker offered Catherine a cup and seemed more confident about her, than she had been with Oats. Catherine accepted with a smile as well. Walker then looked thoughtfully at the two unconscious figures on the bench. She then pointed at them while looking at Oats.

"Yes, I think its about time we woke them" Oats said, as he picked up a small pile of snow in each hand. Oat's then looked down at the two hunters. He then dropped one of the snow piles and looked at Tich. Oats shrugged, then pulled Issac forward and put some snow down his back.

The result was almost instant.

Issac's eyes snapped open and he leapt into the air while clutching his back. When he landed he began running around in random directions, desperately trying to get the snow out of his yellow jacket.

"HOLY FROST BALLS! THAT'S COLD! COLD, COLD, COLD. YAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAHAAAA."

Walker looked over at Oats, who was laughing his ass off. She then looked at Catherine, who was trying desperately to hold back a fit of laughter. Oats wiped the tears of laughter from his eyes and then walked over to Tich, who was still seated.

"You're awake aren't you Tich?" Oats said in a commanding voice.

No response.

"Come on, get up" Oats said, giving Tich a small kick.

No response.

"Oh well, looks like we will have to explore the ice cream cave without you". That got Tich's attention. Oats was suddenly grasped with monstrous strength and lifted clean off the ground. Tich looked furiously at Oats. His grip tightened as he brought Oats closer to his face.

Tich then hugged Oats and begin to cry under his helmet.

"PLEASE TAKE ME WITH YOU!" Tich cried, while he slowly bent Oat's spine with his crushing monster hug.

Oats could hardly breathe, let alone answer Tich, as he felt his spine almost shattering. Suddenly the pressure died down as Walker rushed to Tich and shook him, trying to stop Tich from snapping Oats in two. Tich then let go of Oats and turned to Walker.

"So! We are going together then sis?" Tich said while trying to hold back the tears. Walker nodded and hugged her brother. Tich then went from tears to explosive happiness (try to image an on and off switch).

"YAY!"

Walker let go of her brother and looked at Oats, who was lying on the ground. She gasped and knelt beside Oats and tried to wake him up.

Walker was a fragile and caring soul, but she had rarely spoken from an young age. She didn't show much in the way of strength but she had amazing skill when it came to wielding swords. So it was a startling surprise as she lifted Oats clean off the ground and shook him violently. Catherine could only stand there in awe at this sudden escalation of events while Issac laughed hysterically.

"She get's it from her brother" Issac said to Catherine, between laughing fits "Me and Oats have known Tich and Walker for years. She may seem fragile and don't get me wrong, she is, but when Oats gets hurt she goes into overdrive."

"Does she like him?" Catherine asked Issac, which only made him laugh harder.

"She has had a crush on him since our childhood" Issac somehow managed to say between breaths. "She's not very good at hiding it but Oats isn't very good when it comes to girls emotions. He's been oblivious to the fact that she likes him for years and the fact that she is very protective of him" Issac said as he finally calmed down.

Oats had woken up from near suffocation and spinal injury, only to find that he was being shaken like a pair of maracas,

"Walker you can stop now" Oats said in a wobbly voice, as Walker continued to shake him like there was no tomorrow.

After the ordeal was over and Oats had picked himself up, he then led the group over to a large message board. In most hunter towns and cities the message board is where hundreds of people post requests concerning a monster problem. Hunters can only hunt and capture/kill a monster if they have been give permission to do so. However they can defend themselves if they get attacked but they must only attack to drive away the monster or to escape.

However Koko villages message board had only one single job. It was quite sad really, a huge board that could have hundreds of jobs listed but they only had one. Oats tore the request down and took it to a small booth. A melynx sighed and stamped the request and wished them the best of luck in the unexplored cave.

The cave in question took a while to find but soon the group of hunter stood at the large and unsettling opening. The opening looked like it had been forced open by some monster because it didn't look natural. Before the hunters went in Oats carefully examined the crack.

"Not even Vex could do this" Oats said quietly to himself as he ran his fingers along the edge of the crack. "Oh well! That's not important right now" Oats said, as he caught up to the group.

XXX

It was dark and Daring was in a bad mood. She only just found out that the statue could talk and she was left with so many questions. It infuriated her, but reluctantly she packed up her equipment and made for a near by cave. Soon after the stallion walked out and joined her near the cave.

"One Tartarus of a find, I have to say" the stallion said eagerly. Daring just grumbled. "Still not happy about the fact that you have to wait to get some answers?" continued the stallion Daring scowled at him so he took that as a sign to shut up.

They reached the cave entrance and Daring wandered inside and started to build a small fire pit.

"What are you doing?" asked the stallion.

"Setting up camp. Why?" Daring said, not even bothering to look up at him.

"You mean you're staying the night here?"

"Yes"

"Why?"

"Because I want answers and I am not heading all the way back down this mountain to only climb all the way back up" Daring pouted.

"Well I can't just go if you're setting up camp. Besides, I'd like some answers too" the stallion said while he looked around the cave.

"Well if you're staying, at least tell me your name" Daring said, as she got some flint and lit the fire.

"Search Glass" said the Stallion who held out a hoof.

"Daring! But you already knew that" she said, returning the hoof shake.

Search Glass winched a bit as the shook hooves.

"Got quite the grip on you. You know that!" he said, as he broke the shake.

"Years of vine swinging and treasure hunting" she claimed proudly.

"But you have wings! Why not just fly?" questioned Search Glass.

"I could, but where's the fun in that!" Daring said while grinning smugly.

It was now pitch black outside Daring's cave. Both of the pony's huddled around the fire as they tried to stay warm. The mountain was surprisingly cold and Daring had wondered why there was no snow. It seemed like perfect conditions for natural snow. But natural snow was rare to find because the Pegasus maintain most of the weather, anyway. After a hour or so Daring got up.

"I've got to go for a minute" she said simply. She then walked off without Search Glass saying anything. She made her way further inside the cave and immediately it got very cold. Daring could see her breath as she walked further inside.

She then came across something very strange.

It was a small sludge puddle in a corner of one of the caves many tunnels. What was even stranger is that it was glowing purple. Daring looked closely at the goo but didn't touch it.

"Looks nasty! Whatever it is?" She said to herself.

Something else caught her eye inside the tunnel, that the goo was in. It looked like a piece of metal. Upon further inspection it had some writing on it, in a language that was unknown to Daring, but frighteningly similar to the ones located on the stone tablet inside the tomb. It was also slightly burnt at the top. Daring decided to go further inside the tunnel to see if anything else was inside.

She soon came to a clearing and the tunnel opened out into a cavern. It was amazing inside, there were strange blue crystals hanging from the ceiling. The cavern was also very cold. Daring cautiously made her way inside the cavern.

She then slipped.

"Ow owowowow! Cold, cold!" Daring muttered. "Stupid ice!"

Ice!?

Daring looked down and saw that a portion of the floor was covered in ice.

"But how come I didn't see any ice or snow on the way in? Water is needed as well? WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? Daring said, with mixed emotions.

The room was very strange. One side was stone. The other was ice.

Daring made her way to the icy side of the cavern in hopes of finding some more strange items.

Nothing, except her clopping hooves could be heard in the surprisingly dimly lit cavern. Daring found it hard to adjust to the ice, and kept sliding around and slipping. Her ears then picked up something. It was faint but it sounded like running water.

The noise excited Daring, as she made her rather slippery way to the source of the running water. She turned a corner and saw the running liquid and she bounded her way towards it but stopped just before it. Something was wrong. The liquid was a strange yellow color. The ice was steaming where the liquid hit it, and it left a rather discomfiting smell.

Daring then looked at the source of the strange smelly liquid to see......something.

It was tall and had two things sprouting out of its body. It stood on two legs and wore a strange rice hat, strange clothes and had a bow and a long sword strapped on its back. The source of the liquid was hidden behind a small pointy rock.

Daring was speechless and frozen with fear. She had never seen anything like this......Thing.

The liquid stopped running and a small zip noise came from the strange Thing that was inside a small opening in the wall.

They both looked at each other. Then screamed.

Comments

[FlamingDragon]

Very Interesting part I wish to read more. This new character Walker is very Inserting to say the least. Great Work

[LakieLegion]

... Oats just HAD to pee on that particular wall didn't he? worst way to meet a new species imho... but funny as hell

[Vorki]

3253510 woops sorry about that