Hunt Begins Again

by burner181

Past of the Hunter

As Twilight and I walk to the library, there is only silence, save for the click of my cane against the floor. Taking some deep breaths, I calm myself, letting the adrenaline run out, as I take a closer look at my surroundings and my host. Twilight’s mane and tail are purple with a pink stripe and she is wearing a purple dress with a star motif aligned at the bottom. Looking at the castle, I notice almost everything is made out of some crystalline material. I glance at my cane, remembering the gouge I put in the floor. “I wonder how strong I have gotten.” Looking up, I notice purple eyes staring at me with concern. I wave my hand dismissively, “Just thinking about how I used to be.”

Twilight’s eyes light up with curiosity and she pushes her face close to my face. I instinctively move my head back as she starts firing off questions, “What were you like before you became a hunter? What did you do before all this? Did you have any friends?” A blush spreads across her face, poorly hidden by a scroll she’s carrying as she asks, “Did you have any lovers?”

I take a deep breath to focus my thoughts and answer the questions as best I can, motioning to Twilight to continue our walk. “Well, I wasn’t very social and was mostly gruff with others when I talked to them. Becoming a hunter during that time, taught me to treasure those that could at least tolerate me.” After a brief pause to let Twilight note down the answer, I continued, “Before I was a Hunter, I was actually a scholar. I had gone to Yharnam to study this miraculous cure they claimed to have.” We arrived at the library, a majestic room several stories tall, with bookcases as far as the eye could see, a couple of couches near a fireplace, and desks scattered here and there.“I didn’t have many friends. Although I had allies and companions, the closest thing to friends I had was my Covenant.” I raise a hand to stop her from asking about Covenants, “I’ll get to that in time.” There’s a mischievous grin on my face as I lean down towards her. “I do wonder why you asked if I had any lovers though, it couldn’t be that a certain princess has developed a crush on the mysterious stranger has she?” I chuckle as Twilight blushes once more, fumbling her scrolls and quills. “I’m just teasing, Twilight. No, I did not have any lovers back home.” At that, Twilight gives me a flustered pout and gathers her writing materials together, before motioning towards a set of comfortable-looking chairs.

I turn towards the door we entered into the library from, hearing footsteps on the other side. Twilight confusedly looks over as well as the door opens and a purple-scaled, green-spiked head peeks into the room. Twilight looks back at me, a single eyebrow raised. “How did you know Spike was there?”

I give the now-named biped, something more lizard-like than anyone else I’ve seen, a once over. He’s wearing a dark green hooded jacket with a zipper and seems to be about average size, if a bit lanky. I give him a tip of my hat in a friendly greeting before turning back to Twilight and setting my hat on the table. “My adventures in Yharnam trained all of my senses to detect threats.” Both Twilight and Spike blink in surprise, and stare at me, eyes wide. “No,” I chuckle, “I do not consider Spike a threat to anyone’s wellbeing at the moment, I’m just saying that I have trained my hearing, and that claws on crystal are not all that hard to miss.” I turn my head, thinking I hear hoofsteps, as Twilight asks Spike to bring us some tea, then turn my attention back to Twilight, setting the noise aside.

Clearing my throat to catch Twilight's attention, I return to our discussion. “Since I brought it up in our last conversation a few minutes ago, I’ll tell you about Covenants.” Looking my clothes over for something, I sigh, not finding what I was searching for. “I was a part of a Covenant known as The League, our purpose was a united one, to protect the people of Yharnam from the monsters.” Leaning back on the couch, I continue, “The other five Covenants are vastly different. While they worked towards that same purpose: two of them, Cainhurst Vilebloods and Executioners, made enemies out of each other, another two, The Blood Beast and Lumenwood Kin, gave into the creatures of the hunt, and the last group, Hunter of Hunters, hunted down hunters who have become addled by blood.”

As Spike returns, carrying a loaded tea tray, I catch a whiff of a simple green tea. “Twilight, the girls are in the map room, do you want me to send them here?”

Twilight nods, “Yes please, Spike.” Twilight turns back to me as I take a sip of tea, “So I have a few questions.” Nodding, I motion for her to continue. “Are all creatures like you furless, are there any other sapient creatures in your world, and how does magic work over there?”

I set my cup down to answer, “All humans like myself are furless yes, no matter where you go, while we all have different cultures and different skin tones, all in all we are the same.” Taking a breath, I sigh at my own comment, “As for other sapients, only humans have achieved full sapience, but there are some animals that are just as smart, or perhaps even smarter in certain ways.” Tapping the couch armrest in thought, I continue, “Only hunters were able to utilize innate magic when holding a focus, non-hunters had to use specialized, magic-infused tools, although hunters’ magic was considered dark, even for over there.” I look up and see a concerned expression on Twilight. “Do you have blood magic here? It’s a kind of magic that uses the user’s own life as fuel. As I said when I demonstrated the Burial Blade, that scythe, I was more of a skill or fast fighter, whereas the burial blade and magic were more for arcane fighters.” Taking another sip of tea, I hear hoofsteps just outside the door and point towards it.

The door opens and six mares come in, two appear like normal equines from earth, one orange with a blond mane and tail wearing a flannel tied top and a pair of shorts, the other pink with not much else to say about her appearance save for the whiteshirt, blue jacket and pink skirt . Another two of them appear to be unicorns of myth, one white with a purple mane and tail noticing her wearing an outfit clearly fit for nobility causes me to grimace, the other with a coat color similar to lilacs and a two-toned mane and tail of purple and teal and wearing a sky blue shirt and purple skirt, while the last two appear to be pegasi, one yellow with a pink mane and tail wearing a white blouse and green skirt, the other cyan with a rainbow mane and tail wearing a white shirt with a blue jacket and blue skirt. The rainbow-maned ones’ eyes flare as she sees me, and she falls into a striking stance. I duck forward under the lunging cyan pegasus, then roll off the couch and up into a defensive stance, leaving my cane leaning against the couch and my gun on my waist. I catch her mid-lunge, then slam her onto the couch on her stomach and sit on her. “Maybe you should learn about what’s going on before attacking someone.” Seeing that I’m not actually hurting their friend, the other ponies collectively giggle at their friend’s situation.

The pegasus struggles to get me off her back, “I’m not going to let you eat my friend, you monster!”

Twilight gives me a concerned look and I just shrug it off, “Yes, I am an omnivore but that doesn’t mean I’m going to eat another sentient being.” Twilight picks up her scroll and quill again. “Twilight, more questions can wait till we deal with introductions and Miss Short Fuse here.”

Twilight blinks, then blushes bashfully, “You’re right, Sparrow.” She gestures to the one I'm sitting on, who’s struggling to still get up, “That pegasus there is Rainbow Dash.” I put my blunderbuss into storage so Rainbow doesn’t accidentally set it off and shoot herself as Twilight gestures to the others, “My other friends here are Fluttershy, Rarity, Starlight Glimmer, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie.” They all give me their own greeting with varying levels of enthusiasm as I stand up and bow before them, “Girls, this is Sparrow, Hunter of Yharnam. He will be helping us deal with more creatures like those that appeared last night.”

Rainbow sits up and gruffly says, “For all we know he could have led those creatures here, how do we know we can trust him?”

I look over at Rainbow, “You can’t.” Everyone startles, confused, as I continue, “I could ask the same of you though, how do I know I can trust you?” I point at Pinkie Pie, “I know I can trust her, she contains the same magical aura of a friendly creature I met in my travels, they provided a safe haven for me to send people too.”

Rarity gasps, “You’re the one that saved my sister.” She rushes over and hugs me, tears running down her face. “I don’t know what I would have done if I lost her.”

“No-one would know what to do if they lost family.” I gently rub her back, “And I made a promise to myself to not let a particular event happen again.”

Rarity backs away and cleans her tears, “What event was that, darling?”

I sit back on the couch next to Rainbow and pick up my cane, running a finger over the blood-red gem set in it, “There was a little girl who wanted me to find her parents.” I look over at Twilight, “Her father was a hunter that had succumbed to the blood, and I was forced to put him down. Her mother's corpse was not too far away.” Clenching my fist, I pause to collect myself. “I retrieved the mother's brooch and went back to the little girl, and told her of the safe place at the chapel.” Dropping my cane, I hang my head, sorrow in my voice, “She never made it, she was killed by a man-eating boar on her way there, all that remained was a ribbon stained red with blood.” I hear sniffles and gasps from all the mares in the room

I feel more than a couple pairs of arms wrap around me in a hug, “That hit me hard, but it also drove me to work harder so no one else would lose their life senselessly.” As they all let go, I looked over at the one named Fluttershy, who looked like she wanted to say something, “Yes?”

Flutteryshy, hiding behind her mane, speaks, “Isn’t there any way things could have been resolved peacefully?”

I sigh and shake my head, “Unfortunately not, they were mindless creatures consumed by the plague only wanting to kill.” Seeing the discomfort on her face, I quickly explain, “They weren’t in control of their actions anymore, they were just pawns for a greater creature, which was the last thing I fought before arriving here.” I raise my hand to stop Twilight from asking a question, “I will not speak of it, in fear that it may summon it to this world, but I can say it was the source of the hunt, but did not spread the plague itself, and that it hid itself on the moon in the Hunter’s Dream.” Raising my hands to stop any more questions, “Please hold off on any more questions for now, the lack of sleep for two days now is catching up to me, and I’d just like to rest.” I Get up letting the girls talk amongst themselves. I go to search for a book to read. Finding a book on the basics of magic I find a secluded desk and sit down to start reading falling asleep in the process. Unbeknownst to me another conversation is taking place.

=====================================================================

Stepping off her chariot, Luna arrives back at Canterlot. All save for two of her guards head to the barracks to rest up while she proceeds into the castle proper. As she heads to her room to retire for the day she hears a familiar voice call out to her. “Sister!” Turning to see a Larger white alicorn walking towards her. Gives a tired smile “hello dear sister.”

The white alicorn stops a few feet away, “Sister I was worried, you had stormed off just as I was about to come get you for night court, is everything okay?”

Luna nods thinking she can’t keep anything for her sister. “Yes Tia, everything is okay now, there were some unusual creatures attacking ponyville. The guards and a concerned citizen were able to deal with them.”

Tia looked concerned, “while I appreciate one of our citizens taking initiative to help defend ponyville they really should just leave it to the guards.”

Luna shakes her head, “They aren’t one of our ponies sister, they are a traveler from a distant land that apparently has had dealings with these creatures before.” Looks out the window “They then proceeded into the Everfree after feeling something calling to them, and they returned with a pony that looked like nightmare moon.”

Celestia's eyes go wide, “She has been detained and imprisoned, yes?”

Luna Shakes her head, “I am leaving her under the watch of that traveler, they said a few things that made sense, and while I do hesitate I trust them to make sure nightmare doesn’t become what she once was.” She yawns “now if you’ll excuse me dear sister, I must be off to bed as this excursion has most assuredly drained me.”

Celestia nods as Luna enters her room, “Sleep well sister.” She walks towards the throne room, “While you may trust them sister, I don't trust a creature like nightmare moon to run free, maybe I can convince this traveler to hand her over to me.” starts writing a letter to be sent to twilight.

Author's Note:

hope you lot enjoyed the little christ mas gift, I kinda rushed the last part of the chapter so it would be out for christmas, so it may not be up to mine or my editors standards, but otherwise, enjoy and we shall see what happens when sparrow meets the princess of the sun

Comments

[Jason Monroe]

It's nice to see a new chapter after such a long period of silence. It's a great chapter as well. Oh and with that storyline following the girl that got eaten by a boar, there's another part. If you go back to where you would normally talk to the girl after obtaining the ribbon, you instead talk to her sister. Telling her of her sister's demise causes her to....take the easy way out.

[burner181]

10597406
I'm aware of that part, I just could not think of a good way to put that in there