Camaraderie is Sorcery

by FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 2:16.1 - A Hunter's Task

Author's Note:

Translations

Chapter 2:16.1 – A Hunter’s Task

“How are we to find Rainbow Dash’s sword?” Rarity asked after Spike shut the door on the room the injured Hunter was lying in, “Are we going to just dig through the snow until we bump into it.”

“If need be,” Twilight Sparkle said, “Fluttershy, can you lead us to where you found Rainbow Dash?”

“Yes, but …” the druidess said nervously, “What if whatever monster broke Rainbow’s wing is still out there?”

“Then we fight it,” Applejack said, and Rarity looked horrified.

“Do we have to?” Fluttershy asked, hiding behind her mane as she grew more nervous, “Rainbow Dash is far from the least skilled Hunter, and it took her down.”

“Only if we must. It has likely vacated the area by now, anyway,” Twilight Sparkle assured her, “Spike, fetch me my Hunter’s bestiary.” Just in case it hasn’t.

***

A light snow was falling by the time the Brave Companions arrived at the wood where Fluttershy had found Rainbow Dash, but the signs of the fight were still evident. There was the furrow from where Rainbow Dash had slid to strike her head, the branch that had broken her wing swinging back and forth, the tree that had nearly been uprooted as the lindwurm first burrowed out from under it and then slithered around its trunk. Rainbow Dash had been blinded when she’d lost the sword, so it was worthless asking her where she’d dropped it; it could be anywhere.

The search commenced, the Brave Companions trotting back and forth and trampling the snow. The sword had to be around here somewhere. Fluttershy searched the treetops to see if it had fallen into and been caught there, Pinkamena sometimes climbing up to assist and giving her a fright when they met; the rest stuck to the ground. With no sign of the sword, Twilight Sparkle decided to take more drastic action. The sorceress reached out with her magic and lifted all the snow off the ground, the layer hovering over the Brave Companions’ heads so they could more easily search the ground for Rainbow Dash’s missing blade.

Unbeknownst to her, this use of magic attracted the attention of the lindwurm, and it rushed toward the surface. A rumble in the ground was the only warning the Brave Companions had before it burst from its burrow. It gave a gurgling roar as it twisted its body around and spotted the five ponies and young dragon.

“What is that thing?” Rarity cried in alarm as the lindwurm twisted around a tree to loom over them.

“Spike?” Twilight asked, and her page paged through the Hunter bestiary.

The lindwurm didn’t wait for them to identify it and spat poison at the duo.

“Falan otha Ye!^[1]” Twilight Sparkle called out, and a shield burst into being around her.

As the poison struck the shield, hissing evilly, she released the snow she was holding, and it crashed down on lindwurm and ponies alike. As the lindwurm shook itself off angrily, light glinted off something just above its left shoulder. It was the hilt of Rainbow Dash’s sword, the blade buried into its flesh.

“Twilight, look!” Pinkamena pointed it out.

“I see it,” the sorceress said, “Cant’r majia tanya Ye’r fecorar!^[2]”

Lightning flashed down from the heavens to strike the lindwurm, but one of these flashes was not like the others. A blinding light emanated from the lindwurm’s forehead, blinding all the Brave Companions. Twilight Sparkle’s head suddnely felt filled with cotton, and her spell collapsed. She could hear the lindworm moving but had no idea where it was. It was a struggle, but she managed to reach out into the unknown and locate each of the Brave Companions. With a titanic effort, she managed to teleport them a short distance away from where they were, hopefully out of lindwurm’s reach.

Vision gradually returned, but Twilight still struggled to grasp even the simplest spells. The lindwurm had knocked over several trees trying to strike the Brave Companions before they’d vanished and reappeared here. Now it was slithering toward them, claws ready to tear them apart. As it reached the pack of ponies, the lindwurm circled them with its long, serpentine body, diving in and out of the ground and throwing dirty snow and frozen earth at them.

“It’s a lindwurm, I think,” Spike panted, finally having located its entry in the bestiary.

“What weaknesses does it have?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

Before the dragon could reply, Fluttershy steeled herself and launched into the air with a whimper. The lindwurm was taken by surprise as the druidess shot toward it. It snapped at her, but she rolled between its fangs and grabbed at the hilt of the sword lodged in it. She tried to jerk it free, but the sword caught, inflicting excruciating pain on the serpent. The lindwurm howled in agony and knocked Fluttershy aside with its great frilled head. It dove for the ground and began burrowing furiously.

“Quick, e’rypony out!” Applejack yelled as the coils around them began to constrict.

The Brave Companions struggled to hop and climb up the moving body of the lindwurm, all of them but Pinkamena slipping more than once. Applejack pulled Rarity free as the coils closed up, and they were thrown together into the mixture of snow and soil that now covered the area. The end of the lindwurm’s tail whipped around, nearly decapitating Twilight, as it vanished into the earth. The sounds of tunneling grew distant as the lindwurm left them alive but without what they’d come here for.

“Now what?” Pinkamena asked.

“We need to catch the lindwurm,” Twilight said, her head still spinning from the beast’s attack, “I think that we could use a Hunter’s advice before we pursue it, though.”

***

The only Hunter available to question, of course, was Rainbow Dash, and Twilight made the most of her current predicament to get everything she could out of her about lindwurms. While questioning Rainbow Dash, the Hunter seemed distracted. Twilight attributed it to her probably longing to accompany them or take down the lindwurm herself. It was unfortunate for her to be injured and unable to ply her trade at this time, when she had the monster-slaying market in Ponieville to herself and plenty of coin to be made. To continue her trade after she recovered, though, she’d need her sword, which the Brave Companions had to retrieve for her.

Early the next morning, the Brave Companions met back up at Golden Oak’s laboratory to head out after the lindwurm. Twilight Sparkle hoped that the lindwurm hadn’t tunneled far, but if it had then she had a plan to find it regardless. Before they returned to the scene of the attack yesterday, they made a detour to Rainbow Dash’s home to pick up her Hunter traps. Rarity had also made a few traps of Twilight’s own design this morning; she’d sent Ream over with the plans the night before. Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkamena all carried the bundled contraptions on their backs, to set up when the time was right.

Twilight experimented with a burst of magic to catch the lindwurm’s attention, but got no response. Fluttershy conversed with the underground creatures here that weren’t hibernating and learned that the lindwurm had indeed not returned since the previous confrontation. As per Twilight’s plan, they followed its underground course, Fluttershy using her abilities to learn the way as they went. The path led almost due east, and soon they reached the Everfree Forest.

The Everfree Forest was no more hospitable than the other times the Brave Companions had been forced to venture into it. Twilight would be without trustworthy use of her magic again, which really made her hope the traps they’d brought along would do the trick. At least the other monsters here mostly left them alone. Those that didn’t got a firm talking-to by Fluttershy and thankfully they were ones that would listen to her. The druidess made it clear that if they were here too long, though, they probably wouldn’t be so lucky. The forest was also mostly free of cultists, now, so they wouldn’t have to deal with the Children of the Night. Luna had straightened out most of her worshippers in the Everfree Forest, taking them under her wings, and was currently in the process of seeking out the other misguided souls that worshipped Nightmare Moon spread out across Equestria.

Tracking the lindwurm’s path here was easier, and the Brave Companions had to call on Fluttershy less and less to see where it had gone. The serpent had taken a shallower course here, as most monsters did in the Everfree, for some unknown reason. Trees were tilted to the side, or completely uprooted in some places, and the snow-covered soil stuck up in mounds.

The Everfree Forest grew still as the Brave Companions reached a place where the trees were tilted every which way by the lindwurm burrowing all over the place. It was definitely nearby, and the group set about preparing. They stepped gingerly as they unpacked and assembled the traps and contraptions, not knowing if the lindwurm was right beneath their hooves or not, trying not wanting to disturb it before they were ready.

“Ready, everypony?” Twilight Sparkle asked and waited until everypony nodded to proceed.

At first, her magic refused to obey her, but then it sent a wave of energy into the ground that set everypony tingling. The lindwurm also felt it and rushed for the surface. It burst through in a geyser of soil and snow, jagged black thorns stuck in its flesh in places.

“Now!” Twilight yelled once the lindwurm was clearly visible and the earth it’d displaced had mostly settled.

Spike sliced the cable near him with his tail, setting off a chain reaction that caused the trap surrounding the lindwurm to constrict. Spikes drove into the lindwurm’s flesh. At their non-pointed ends were loops, and Rarity and Applejack hurriedly drove stakes through them into the ground. The lindwurm would not be retreating belowground now.

“Fluttershy!” Twilight called, and while the druidess whimpered, she hurried to do her duty.

Fluttershy flew up and over the lindwurm while it twisted and struck out at Rarity and Applejack. She hefted a crossbow-like contraption and fired when the lindwurm turned to face her. A band shot out from it and wrapped around the lindwurm’s head, covering all three of its eyes. Reaching blindly with its claws, the lindwurm managed to catch the druidess before she could fly away.

The rest of the Brave Companions began firing the contraptions they’d set up, a mixture of Hunter and Cant’r Laht sorceress ingenuity. Rainbow Dash’s fired spiked chains wrapped around the lindwurm and pierced it in multiple places. One of them managed to pin one of the lindwurm’s arms to it side, and it dropped Fluttershy. Twilight’s weapons were like miniature ballistae, and they fired broad-headed bolts into the lindwurm, some of them punching through.

The lindwurm, though trapped in place where it rose from the ground, was still able to flail the exposed portion of its body around and nearly reach the Brave Companions. Poison spat from its tongue, forcing Pinkamena and Spike both to abandon their weapons as they were swamped and began to sizzle. Applejack was thrown off her hooves as the lindwum managed to get another potion of its body above the surface, smashing her contraption to bits with its coils.

It spun around the circle, spitting poison wherever it sensed another lifeform. Eventually, its maw stared Twilight in the face. The sorceress fired the bolt she had set before rolling through the snow to get away from the poison. The bolt cut through the poison, the lindwurm’s tongue, and the roof of its mouth before punching out through its third eye and snapping the band around the creature’s head.

The lindwurm gave a few deathblows before finally falling still. When it was clear that the monster was actually dead, Applejack removed Rainbow Dash’s sword from it and wiped it in the snow. Once again, nopony was seriously hurt, but it had taken all six of them to do what Rainbow Dash did on a typical day. A greater appreciation was had for what their friend, and indeed all Hunters, went through, as well as amazement at how infrequently she came back seriously injured.

Comments

[TasermonsPartner]

It's good to see that this story was updated! It's been so long, I was starting to get worried about your intentions to continue it.

But, out of curiosity, why update with all the chapters at once? If you had done them bit-by-bit, over the otherwise protracted course of the update, you might get more views and people taking notice of the story.

Anyway, love the world-building and setting. You did an excellent job at Dodge's Crossing with setting the scene. I'm a little surprised that Fluttershy didn't try to talk to the lindworm though. It wasn't a possessed animal, so why couldn't she have tried to calm it down first?