• Published 23rd Aug 2013
  • 10,515 Views, 261 Comments

Carapace of Lavender - Dark0592



What would happen if Chrysalis became Twilight's mentor?

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9: The Hunt

“What did you mean by ‘True Hive Huntress’ by the way, nel?” Dash asked as they walked through the Everfree. “I mean, I guess I assume it means Twilight is an awesome hunter.” She continued after a moment.

“Twilight is an exceptional hunter, one of our best actually. If memory serves you made second under Nictus correct?” Charon replied for the other.

“Correct, the night before last. Although it was less due to skill and more due to Lirend retiring to learn how to prepare meal pods.” Twilight replied.

“Still impressive. I’m surprised our queen hasn’t named you the leader. Nictus is an incredible huntress, but I believe you surpass even her.” Nel said. Twilight just shook her head.

“I don’t think I’d want to gain that title like that, and while I don’t truly believe I have surpassed Nictus in hunting prowess I definitely haven't surpassed her in the ability to lead.” She retorted. Nel just nodded in apparent agreement.

“Are you sure we’re talking about the same girl? Not too long ago she would rather read a book on archery and calculate the trajectory of the arrow rather than fire it.” Spike said with a chuckle.

“Dude you should have seen it, when she saved us in that messed up forest she was a total badass!” Dash started. “She swooped in so fast I barely even noticed her, and she took apart those crazy things like they were nothing!” She continued enthusiastically. Nel put a hand in front of her, though, as Charon did the same for Spike. They had both reacted to a sharp series of clicks, coming from Twilight. They exchanged a few nonverbal phrases and Twilight was suddenly shooting into the forest, her battle plating extending.

“Wha-” Dash started to ask, but Nel quickly shushed her.

“Something is nearby, she heard it.” The changeling whispered. Dash nodded, her expression getting serious.

It seemed like the seconds were draggon in for minutes, but before long Twilight’s voice called through the brush.

“It’s clear, come take a look at this!” She called. The others quickly followed to find a large cave almost hidden in the moss and trees. Twilight was inside, kneeling over a mass of rocks. As they neared, though, they found the mass of rocks to be the decaying corpse of an Ursa.

“Wait, it’s already dead?” Dash asked, confused. Twilight shook her head and the face of her battle plating slid back a bit as she stood and turned around.

“By the looks of it, he’s been dead only a few days. I don’t see anything on the outside so he must have died from sickness or infection or something. Perhaps the reason he was troubling the town was because he was sick… but his mother isn’t here. Hasn’t been since he died.” She explained.

“How can you tell?” Spike asked. Twilight proceeded to point out a few things. A much larger set of footprints, a large indent in the brush that made up some sort of bedding, long decaying meat that looked like a half eaten meal.

“An Ursa minor is dangerous, a Major wandering around could be catastrophic for Ponyville. Especially if she’s grief stricken, she’ll lash out at anything and everything that gets close… she shouldn’t be too hard to track.” Twilight continued. She started walking out, following the tracks, but Dash grabbed her by the shoulder.

“Waaaaaait wait wait wait… Spooking an ursa minor away from the town is one thing, hunting down a fully grown major? That’s like Suicide. We need help.” The Valkyrie protested. Twilight smiled and put a hand on the other girl’s on her shoulder.

“Don’t worry, if we all stay in the air it can’t get to us easily. Trees and rocks are pretty easy to dodge. If it really is enraged We’ll probably back off and have Spike send a message to Celestia to send someone over. If it gets close to Ponyville, though, then we’ll have to take action.” The changeling girl explained.

“Pff, not a good leader my ass.” Charon chuckled, his basic battle plating extending.

“Sounds like a plan to me.” nel shrugged, doing the same and checking her quiver.

“Are you sure about this, Twi?” Spike asked. The girl nodded. He sighed but started preparing the message should he need to send it.

“You’re absolutely insane, Twilight, and I love it.” Dash grinned, cracking her knuckles. Twilight grinned back and pointed in the direction of the tracks.

“From the sky we can travel faster, following this thing shouldn’t be too hard.” She said. Everyone nodded and took to the skies.

It didn’t take long.

“They heard it first, the sound of wood snapping and an angry grumble. Then they saw one of the trees fall. There was that clicking again, coming from Twilight, and again Charon and Nel nodded as if she had just said something and shot off.

“Dash, Spike, I’m going to need you to hang back. If it gets bad you come in and start blasting fire around- even a raging Ursa is wary of fire.” Twilight started, looking to Spike first. “And if you feel 100% confident that you can do something without getting hurt then you go for it Dash, otherwise we don’t need you getting hurt and ruining your chance at getting into the Wonderbolts.” She continued, looking at the Valkyrie.

“How come they can help?” Dash asked, she was starting to get frustrated. She was starting to feel left out ,even though Twilight was one of her best friends. Twilight hugged her in the air, then.

“Don’t worry, I’m not leaving you out by choice. Nel, Charon and I are linked because of the Hive Mind, and we can also communicate quickly and efficiently using body language and our… clicking and stuff. If this goes bad then I don’t want to risk you getting hurt especially since you don’t have battle plating or armor.” The changeling girl said when she pulled back. Dash crossed her arms with a huff, but nodded. She was hotheaded, but not stupid. She understood. Twilight nodded and shot off towards where the other two were closing in.

After that it was a bit of a blur.

She met up with the other two, exchanged a few words and made to follow the beast. They were forced to scatter as there was already a massive tree trunk flying at them. They had been noticed. They dodged it easily, and all drew their bows. They had coated the bottoms in the strongest of their toxin they could safely create, and with twenty-one arrows between them they hoped it would be enough.

It wasn’t.

It was slowing down considerably, taking much longer between swipes and throwing things at them, but it was still swinging and throwing regardless. If this was a normal hunt, they probably would have killed it by now, but this wasn’t a normal hunt. They weren’t trying to kill it. They were trying to scare it off, or subdue it and use magic to bring it far away from civilization.

Charon was clipped by a rock and was sent spiraling to the ground. After crashing he gave a thumbs up- alive and mostly ok- but that was the turning point. One of them had been injured. She nodded to Spike, who sent a message to Celestia by dragonfire, and then dived in to try and scare it off with fire.

The thing swatted him out of the sky too, and his crash landing wasn’t nearly as safe. In fact, he went through the trunk of a tree and smashed into a boulder. The boulder cracked and fell into many pieces, though he managed to slide off and get to his feet. One of his wing arms were broken, though. And that was the last straw, she didn’t want Dash or Nel to get hurt too. She extended her blades and let the chitin slide off ,revealing the black blade.

“She means business now… the best we can do is watch…” Nel said, stopping Dash as the Valkyrie was about to charge in. Dash wanted to punch the changeling woman, but stopped herself as she saw Twilight looking back at her.

“I’ll go get Fluttershy…” Nel said when Dash nodded to Twilight. They both nodded and the changeling shot off towards Ponyville, Charon had found Spike and was attempting to help him, but he was bruised and Spike was in need of some medical attention. The numbing toxin could only do so much.

“Twi, if that thing hurts you I swear I’ll die before letting it get away with it!” Dash called out to Twilight, who raised a hand in affirmative. She hovered there, watching her friend. Twilight was waiting for something, it wasn’t long. A boulder was thrown in her direction, though she disappeared in a small flash right before it hit her. From the Ursa’s perspective, however, it seemed like it had finally squashed those annoying bugs.

Boy was it wrong.

The scream of pain could be heard quite a ways off as Twilight’s blades ran along one of its front legs. It nearly toppled over as it tried to put its weight on it to swing with the other paw, which gave Twilight the opportunity to get out of there. It snapped at her, to which she slashed at its nose. With another yell of pain, it backed up a bit- watching this new threat.

Twilight wished she could speak to it, to tell it to leave so she didn’t have to hurt it anymore. But there was nothing but rage in its eyes, it was absolutely still grieving the death of its cub. Twilight felt sorry for it as it started licking its foreleg where she had cut. It kept both eyes on her, though, not giving her another chance to get close without it knowing.

Twilight dashed in again, baiting a swing with its good arm. Ducking under it, she made to slice at the thing’s soft underbelly, but had to quickly dodge the other paw’s swing. It may have been injured, but that leg wasn’t crippled. She flew back to a safe distance and they were again at a stalemate.

There was a click, and the sound of something coming towards her. She reached her hand out, not bothering to look, as she caught a single arrow. Charon had spent some time creating it for her. The Ursa seemed to realize what it was, though, and roared loud. It jumped up to lunge at her, but she dodged it and grabbed her bow from where it was strung around her chest and readied it. It jumped at her again, to which she ducked under it and put an arrow in the back of the back right knee. It yelped in pain as it landed, she hit a pressure point.

That seemed to take up a lot of its energy, though. Either that or the toxin was finally getting to it, as it dropped low to the ground and barely even looked up at her. Now was her chance, she quickly dashed in for a lethal strike.

She realized too late her mistake. It was her turn to be baited. In a flash, the thing had swung at her with both claws. She barely dodged them, but was forced to react as its hot breath covered her as she was caught in its jaws.

Right before the teeth could crush through her battle plating, she put up a magical barrier. It was a quick, rushed spell so it was consuming her energy at an alarming rate. Well, either that or the fact that it takes a lot of energy to repel the teeth of an infuriated ursa Major. Probably both.

“Twilight!” Dash yelled. Twilight couldn’t look, but she heard the sound barrier breaking. Less than a second later, she felt the creature’s head smashing to one direction. Dash had apparently done a sonic-rainboom-dropkick to try and get it to let Twilight go. Unfortunately for Twilight, this also put an incredible amount of strain on her shield, and it shattered. She could only let out a pained gasp as the jaws clamped on her midsection, and probably would have severed her in two if it weren’t for the fact that the teeth were shattering along with her shield.

The force of the blast proceeded to send her flying out of the now somewhat toothless mass, putting her into one of the thrown boulders. She would have felt, and probably heard, her carapace crunching against the stone if she was conscious.

Author's Note:

I hope I've gotten better with description, I remember that was one of my major flaws. I must say, I'm enjoying the fact that I'm able to write again.
Enjoy