The Hunters of Secrets

by Arkantos

Fight of the Present Part One

Back in the past, at the den of Monsters.

As the last of the red sand disappeared, the other Wereponies came closer, which was bad, because Luna was bleeding out and her Alicorn magical reserves were low. She was surrounded and there was nothing to do except the inevitable. But then, all of her fears of losing her life were swept away when one white Werepony said, "Thank you for killing the pack leader. She once cared deeply about our survival, but then she got greedy. In the end, she tossed away everything that Eclipse cared about.”

Luna looked up before asking, “If she was someone who deeply cared for her own kind, then what caused her to abandon her ideals?”

“Some kind of ancient force keeps changing our best leaders, causing them to go on a blood rampage, and it's getting worse." One by one, the red eyes of the Wereponies began to disappear.

"Wait!” Luna cried. ”Can you help me? My wounds are too serious and I’m low on magic power. I doubt I’ll be able to make it back to the nearest town." The Princess of the Moon got up and felt a spike of red hot pain in her hooves. She clenched her teeth in pain.

The white Werepony left, saying, "To show how grateful we are, take a dip in the blood bath. As for me and my friends, we will disappear into the wild. Thank you again for giving us a chance to change things for the better." And with that, the Wereponies disappeared into the darkness of the forest.

Luna painfully made her way to the bath of blood inside the den. As she entered the mouth of the cave, she saw the remains of several ponies on the floor and in the corners. Some of them even had rusty old armor on them, which probably meant that Luna and her hunters weren’t the first to try to fight here. There were several different sets of rusted armor that she didn’t recognize at all, except for one which was a mighty helmet armor, the owners of which didn’t care for the fallen. Luna spotted several broken bones that were scattered over the floor. In the middle of the den, the bath of blood bubbled with pure magic.

Luna stopped and pondered for a moment. ‘Is this the only way? No, there must be another way. If I do it, would I enjoy it too much? Would I develop a desire for blood baths? If I go down this road, what would my sister think of me if she ever found out?’ Luna’s expression changed from worry and fear, converting to something else as she stepped into the blood, submerging herself into it.

The blood was somehow different than the regular kind. It felt like warm water, with no stickiness of the substance. Somehow, some way, Eclipse had managed to bring forth the dormant magical powers that dwelled in the blood and converted it to healing magic. Luna’s entire body glowed with golden magic. The Princess of the Night had read once that if you killed someone innocent, then their blood, when boiled right, can actually heal severe wounds. However, Luna didn’t practice this, because the book had been written by a mad pony.

The blood quickly healed her, and when she got up to walk out of the liquid substance, she suddenly felt a lifetime of memories wash over her; memories of the victims that Eclipse killed and bled dry for her bath. They blamed her for not doing anything for them. Luna wanted to get out of there quickly. She jumped out of the blood bath and tried her best to quickly shake off the blood, yelling aloud, “Never again!”

All healed up, Luna took off into the night sky and returned to Canterlot.

Back in the present, at the bottom of Star Swirl’s tower.

Luna finished carving the four stones with runes. All that was left to do was for Luna to fill the stones with magic. She charged her horn and finished telling the last of her story.

"I did as he said. Somehow, that blood bath healed all my wounds, as if they never existed. Thinking back, that Werepony gave me hope that there might be a peaceful way to end this."

Luna remembered the battle that had yet to come and continued. "Even though it was false hope, it was still important to have. Back then, the Wereponies’ attacks continued to get bigger and worse. And with my sister’s anger reaching its peak, it was growing difficult for her to open up a door for Daybreak to come out and play.

I used my Alicorn magic to create the Hunters’ Seal, in order to trap all of the Wereponies in an alternate reality, in a place where they were meant to sleep for the rest of their days. I got the feeling, however, that the Wereponies were just the beginning of something much worse.

Fluttershy piped up, "You did what you thought was right, and if I was in your place, I would have done the same."

Luna wiped away a tear that was falling down her cheek. She finished charging up the last stone, then placed them all on the floor.

She closed her eyes and spoke. "Summon Blue X Torio Ren Correct New Cyhi Moon!" As Luna said the last word, the rune stones glowed blue and shot out four beams into four walls, opening up four portals, each one showing a different area of the castle. One of the portals showed the throne room. Another showed the Solar and Lunar guards’ barracks. The third led to the tallest tower in Canterlot. And the final portal led into Canterlot’s dungeons, deep down in Canterlot.

Luna said, "We will use these when the time grows dire." A couple seconds later, the Hunters and Luna heard dozens of paws hitting the stone floor.

"Fight to kill!” Luna yelled. ”No exceptions!"

---

Back up in the Canterlot stadium, the Wereponies had begun their assault.

The Werepony said loudly, "Oh, Bringer of the Sun, we come in all shapes and sizes. Now, you must die!" Then he dive bombed Celestia, consumed by a need to kill, to make Celestia into a midnight meal.

But his dive bomb was ruined when an orange pegasus in purple armor tackled the Monster, shield first, shouting, "That is not how you greet the Princess!" He looked to his left, then to his right, and yelled, "Solar guards, defend your Princess!"

Several ponies in golden armor appeared; Unicorns, Pegasuses, and Earth ponies came forth. Portals opened wide and several Unicorns came through them, but these weren’t your average Unicorns; they were all students from Celestia’s School of Magic who became wizards. Silence fell. No one spoke, not a sound was made, except for the blowing of the wind and the flapping of wings, which were accompanied by the rushing of the leaves and the flapping of a flag. For a small moment, nothing happened. Then all chaos exploded as the Captain of the Solar Guard, along with all of the Pegasuses in the Solar Guard flew up to fight the flying Wereponies. Hooves kicked, shields raised, swords swung, and spears were thrown as the fight raged.

As for the ponies that couldn't fly, the Unicorns mostly, Celestia’s students, they started to fire elemental spells of fire, ice and earth. The Unicorns in the Solar Guards didn’t help the students because they didn’t share their deep knowledge of magic. But they were able to levitate their weapons to throw them and put up a shield of magic. If any Wereponies got close enough, then the solar guard Unicorns used their magic to create a humongous shield barrier to keep the Monsters away. Before the Monsters could fly back into the sky, they were either hit by arrows from the Earth ponies’ crossbows or by magic from Celestia’ students.

Blaze Trail said to Celestia, “Get out of here! I’ve got a feeling that you’ll be needed elsewhere!”

Celestia pondered for a little while before saying to her captain, “Alright, but you’ve got to promise me that you’ll be safe.”

Blaze Trail chuckled before saying, “Safe in a literal war zone. That’ll be a trick. ”

But the Princess was already gone.

A small group of Wereponies made their way out of the Stadium, but were blocked by a group of Pegasuses.

Another group of Wereponies made it to the exit, stepping out onto the main road of Canterlot, but were then pinned down by several arrows that had been fired by Earth Ponies.

A third group of Wereponies did a better job dodging another wave of arrows as they got out of the Stadium, but they were blocked by another group of Pegasuses.

At the Stadium, the Wereponies attacked, and Blaze Trail’s group dodged and split in half. A Werepony did a full-on pounce on the first group and bit into the Solar Guard Captain. Blaze Trail tried to hit the Werepony at full force with his shield, but the Monster saw it coming and easily dodged out of the way. Blaze Trail went Splat! into the wall of a nearby building.

A pair of Wereponies, feeling confident, pounced on the other guards. However, the guards dodged the Wereponies, and before they could recover from their mistake, both Wereponies were hit by lightning shot by a dark blue Unicorn in a royal purple robe with the sun stitched in it. The fineness of the robe indicated that he was one of Celestia’s students. Unfortunately, another Monster popped out of nowhere and ate the student.

The Wereponies tried to bite the ponies’ necks, but they missed and were stabbed by iron spears.

Blaze Trail rose up and shook off his mistake. He saw that many of the Wereponies had been hit by arrows, but they were still able to get up and pull the arrows out.

Thinking very quickly, Blaze Trail decided to regroup to form a bigger squad, which took off at high speed.

Two Wereponies from the first group used their mouths to rip the Solar guards’ throats out. Before they could die fully, they were slammed into the roof of the building. Unfortunately for them, the other two Wereponies weren’t doing so great. They tried to shred their opponents by fiercely swiping at open air to the point of exhaustion. The Pegasuses took advantage of their opponents’ exhaustion, and when the time was right, the Guards kicked them into the side of the building.

The second group of Wereponies did not do so well either. When one tried to pounce on a Pegasus, the Pegasus not only dodged his attack, but also redirected it into a nearby building.

The next Werepony tried to bite his opponent but ended up getting hit by a shield. Then the pony hit the Werepony several more times before dislocating the Monster’s jaw. With an ax, she finished him off, causing him to join his partner in the building.

The third Monster in the group tried to tackle his opponent, but the Pegasus dodged it and used his back legs to kick the Werepony out of the sky. He went tumbling down to the ground.

The fourth Werepony did a little better, biting into the edge of his opponent’s shield. With great strength, the Monster tore off the piece of shield and spat it out, greatly disliking the taste of metal. The Pegasus screamed bloody murder as his front leg was now missing. When the shield was ripped away, so was the pony’s shield arm, and with no protection, the Werepony finished him off with a series of ferocious slashes from its claws, eventually leaving a mess of golden armor and blood.

A group of Wereponies charged at Blaze Trail’s group, both sides flying over the main road, which was the most direct route to Canterlot castle. The two groups landed on opposite sides of the building walls and roofs. After landing, they quickly took off again, speeding right at their opponents and exchanging blows. Swords and claws clashed fiercely against each other.

Four Wereponies suddenly charged at Blaze Trail just as he was finishing with another Werepony on the left of the fray. Blaze Trail dove out of the way. When the small group headed to the ground, they separated and went in different directions. Blaze Trail spent most of the battle dodging the four Wereponies. Every now and then, he would see somepony get killed.

A Monster grappled one of the Pegasuses, squeezing the life out of him before letting go. Then it went after Blaze Trail. He whipped his shield out and activated the magic in it. The shield heated up like it was just coming out of the forge. Blaze Trail hit the Werepony in the chest, which caused the rest of the Monster to burn to death. Just to be safe, the Captain of the Solar Guard used his sword to cut the Werepony’s head off. And he would have ordered two Pegasuses to pierce their spears through it too, but he had to move fast, as four more Wereponies went at him just then. Under normally circumstances, he would be able to take them one at a time, but four at the same time would be suicide. He flew and jumped all over the place as the burning body of his last opponent fell onto the main road.

One Werepony saw what just happened and, immediately enraged, grabbed a pony by the throat and ripped it out. Another Werepony tried to swipe at a Pegasus but failed to actually injure her, because she kept on bringing up her shield to block the swipes. The enraged Monster saw this and tore her shield away, throwing it and her against the wall. She was pinned to the wall by the shield. The mare tried using her sword to free herself, but it was like hitting a concrete pillar, and she had no success. The Monster took a good look at her and saw that she was attractive for a guard. But his animal instincts took over and he bit her on the neck, then tossed her aside, knowing that soon she sould be one of them.

Back at the Colosseum, things took a turn for the worse. The first Pegasus managed to stun one of the Monsters before grabbing it by the wing and tossing it out like yesterday’s trash. That Werepony actually ended up in the Colosseum’s trash.

To the left, a Solar guard didn’t do so well as he tried to lunge at one of the Monsters; the Werepony simply dodged his lunge and bit his arm off, quickly spitting it out to tackle the pony. When they hit the ground, the Monster began digging into him.

The next pony tried to slit a monster’s throat; however, the Werepony saw this coming and dodged his attack. Then he lunged with his paw and pierced through the pony’s armor and coat. He grabbed the pony’s heart, and with great strength and pain from the armor’s jagged edges, he pulled the organ out to show the owner before he immediately died.

After seeing most of her brothers in arms get brutally murdered, another pony grabbed two swords and started swinging them at the Wereponys, but they kept their distance. She hit nothing but air, and when the time was right, the Monsters ended her right then and there by ripping her head off.

Back to the first group, one of the Wereponies shook off his daze and flew back into the battle, immediately trying to tackle the nearest Pegasus into a cloud. Unfortunately, his flying was sloppy and he missed his target, landing on a soft cloud. One Solar guard became too confident and started to charge at a Werepony. The Monster took advantage of his confidence and dodged one spear strike after another; it wasn’t long before the Pegasus started to tire out. Then, satisfied that the pony was fully exhausted, the Werepony grabbed his spear and snapped it in two. Then, before the pony could fly away, the Werepony grabbed him and flew high up into the sky, so high that the buildings looked like black little dots. Then, the Monster grabbed his wings and tore them off, letting the pony fall to his death.

The other Werepony allowed a Pegasus to hit him in the neck with her ax, but really, the Monster barely felt a thing. Then, he ripped her in two and started eating her flesh.

Suddenly, several spells were fired into the battlefield and hit the Wereponies. They were either burned, electrified, or they just exploded into a bloody mess. One of the Monsters realized that they could not stay within the Unicorns’ range, but then he was hit by a spell. His body started to inflate like a balloon, swelling until it exploded, his blood, guts, and bones flying everywhere.

Another Werepony who had just gotten up saw where the spells were being fired from. He yelled to the others, “Let’s try flying out of their range!” They all agreed and every single one of them flew higher, out of the spells’ range. Every Werepony retreated up into the clouds, but not all of them made it. Four of them were hit by a lightning spell in the sky. And those that escaped knew that every Pegasus in the Solar Guard would go after them.

Back on the ground, Solar Flare saw and took the advantage that the Unicorns of Celestia’s school had given him. He and the rest of the Solar Guard Pegasuses took off to pursue the Wereponies.

As for the Earth ponies, some of them stayed with the Unicorns to kill any flying Wereponies that hit the Unicorns’ barrier. As for the rest of them, they ran to their bows and arrows with the intent to take aim and fire. To put more fire power into the battle going on in the sky, the Earth ponies readied the five ballistas on the towers. The ballistas were pretty simple to operate, requiring three ponies to operate one. The first pony aimed it, the second pony pulled it around, and a third pony reloaded the weapon after it discharged.

When one of the ballista’s levers was pulled, an oversized arrow was fired. It impaled five Wereponies before slamming into the side of the mountain.

While the fighting continued to rage on in the sky, Celestia ran into the area where most of her students were and yelled with a hint of fear, "Twilight, I need you and your friends to get somewhere safe!"

"But what about you? Can't you come with us?" Twilight answered in a worried voice.

Celestia looked up and saw one of the Wereponies tearing a light blue Pegasus to shreds. She looked back at Twilight before she answered. "Unfortunately, as I am the ruler of this nation, my ponies need me here. But you and your friends use the most powerful magic of all. So please, for the sake of Equestria, save yourselves!"

Twilight started to tear up as she flew to her teacher and gave her a quick hug before flying back to her friends.

The Princess of the Sun heard Rainbow Dash ask her friends as they ran, "Hey, has anypony seen Fluttershy?"

Celestia looked up and began to charge up her horn, ready to fire a spell to send these Monsters straight to Tartarus.

Twilight ran through the streets of the city with Pinky and Rainbow. She was thinking about where they were going to go when it hit her quite literally. She slammed face first into a lamp post, and as her friends helped her up, she said, "The castle is probably a safe place to be."

Rainbow replied, "Isn't that the first place that any villains or enemies would expect us to go?"

Twilight responded sarcastically. "Sure, because that happens in every story, it must mean it happens in real situations." They began to run again.

As Pinkie bounced right next to them, she said, "Well, if they do find us at the castle, I'll throw a ‘Congratulations, You Caught Us’ party when we get there. Oh, by the way, we’ve got someponies following us. Hmm, I guess they really want your autograph! Thank goodness I have an emergency stash of blank sheets of paper all over Equestria, just in case they are needed." Then, Pinkie turned around quickly and bounced backwards, waving her hoof energetically.

Twilight looked back to where Pinkie was looking. Sure enough, two flying Wereponyies were following them.

Twilight yelled, "We Need To Get There Now!"

As the three ponies galloped to the castle, Rainbow yelled back to Twilight, "See, I'm telling you, this is how it begins, with goons like those two following us!"

Behind them, one of the Wereponies said to the other, "Looks like easy pickings up ahead. We can eat these mares when they think they're safe."

The other stupidly laughed and said, "Yeah, a free meal." Some drool fell from his mouth.

Little did they know, a team of hunters flew above them, planning to keep the elemental bearers and Twilight safe. As they flew overhead,Eager Shot said, "Wait for them to stop, and watch for when they go for the kill."

Raven Wind said, "I will be their shield and will redirect any attack."

"Ok, I guess we are going for the kill,” Black Dart replied. He looked at Eager Shot. The burned stallion nodded his head to confirm that he heard him, and they continued to follow the Wereponies who were following Twilight and her friends.