The Hunters of Secrets

by Arkantos

The Hunt Begins

The dark yellow Chiroptera spoke. "We are the Hunters of Secrets, and starting now, you three will be under our protection."

Before Rainbow could ask any more questions, Pinkie Pie exclaimed, "Twitchy twitch! Twitchy twitch!" Her tail started to shake uncontrollably, and then she said the combo, "Itchy tongue! Fluttering eyes! Shaky tail! And aching back!"

"Huh, you never had that combo before," Rainbow said.

Pinkie replied, "Well, that combo means something good will happen but there will be a price."

"What do you mean, a price?"

The dark blue Hunter interjected, "Well, I don't know about your friend's twitchiness but the tables are about to turn. You'll see soon enough." He brought out a horn and blew into it. After a few minutes of silence, a horn sounded again, but distantly, as if it were coming from several miles away in the sky.

The purple Hunter said, "I think we should introduce ourselves further. I am Raven Wind." As she said this, she removed her hood. Rainbow and Pinkie saw that her eyes were pink and her mane was done up in a black ponytail, kind of like Applejack's mane style if Applejack’s mane had several different kinds of colors that faded away near the ends.

Raven Wind gestured to the Hunters at her side. "This is Black Dart." The dark blue Chiroptera removed his hood to reveal a pair of gray eyes and a white mane. He bowed. Then Raven continued. "And the other is Eager Shot." The dark yellow Chiroptera did the same, revealing his burned face. His eyes were green and his mane was orange. He said, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Rainbow spoke. "Not to be rude or anything, but what exactly happened to your face?"

Eager narrowed his eyes and replied, "It's complicated, to be honest. Let's just say I did something stupid."

"Hey! I have a question!" Pinkie cried. "When will Twilight get up?"

Raven walked to where Twilight was laying as Pinkie continued to look worried for her. Raven placed her hoof on Twilight's coat. As soon as she did, several blue and green runes flowed off of Raven and into Twilight. The runes ran all over Twilight's coat before they returned to Raven, some of them having turned red. Raven looked at Pinkie and said, "Your friend will be fine. she just needs a bit more rest."

As Raven walked back to her comrades, Black Dart gave her a serious look that said, 'I know you're lying face.'

She replied, "Well, it's better than the cold hard truth; these two have been through Tartarus already."

"But have you heard that the truth can set you free? Now, do you want to tell them or shall I?" Both Chiroptera became locked in a staring battle that lasted minutes but felt like forever.

The silence was broken when Eager Shot shouted, "Your friend isn't ok! She has been magically infected by a Werepony and is quickly turning into one of them, and if she does become one of them, then we have failed in our duty as Hunters."

Twilight tossed and turned. Whenever she opened her eyes, they appeared tinged with red. Everypony looked straight at her as the army of Hunters flew overhead.

Raven said, "We need to find a way to stop this." She and the other Hunters quickly lashed multiple chains around the purple Alicorn’s hoofs, neck, and barrel. Raven placed several magical barriers around her.

“This could change her perspective on life. You know that, right."

Raven replied, "I know."

Meanwhile, on top of one of the walls of Canterlot castle, a red Alicorn saw the whole thing unfold. "Let's just see where this goes," he said to himself. He simultaneously began to look through his enormous spell book.

Down in the courtyard, several shadows passed over the group of ponies. Rainbow and Pinkie looked up. Black Dart said with a bored tone, "Finally! The cavalry has arrived."

---

Captain Trail flew alongside a few other Pegasuses in the sky. Two were unusual characters; one was super fast and strong. Without any weapons, he continuously slammed into one Monster after the other. The other Pegasus got beaten quite suddenly as a literal beam of light destroyed him.

"Aww, does somepony miss me already?"

This caught the Captain by surprise. He heard Arkantos’s voice as if he was everywhere at once. "Umbrum, show yourself!"

The Umbrum replied, "Well, since you asked nicely." Then a smoky cloud approached Captain Trail. Arkantos's head popped out of the smoke. "Oh,” he said, “it looks like the battle isn't going well for you."

"Arkantos!" The Captain said with frustration in his voice. "Can you do anything to stop the slaughter?"

The dark blue Umbrum answered, "Unfortunately, that magic staff took me out of commission. I'm still regenerating from that attack."

That answer didn't please the Captain. He then remembered the approaching army of what appeared to be Bat ponies. "Ok, whatever, just tell me, who are they?"

Arkantos looked up and said, "Well, they're right on time." The Captain looked at the Umbrum strangely. The floating head continued, "Let's just say that Luna isn't being lazy. She's taking action right now. But to answer your question, yes, they are allies. Just don't call them Bat ponies. They'll be offended by that."

As the Captain looked at them again, he noticed several things. They appeared to be ponies in dark blue leather armor, but they had bat wings instead of the feathered wings of a Pegasus. He thought to himself, 'Allies, huh?'

---

As for Luna, Fluttershy, and the other Hunters with them, they were prepared for anything, gearing up as several Wereponies howled in the tower's underground entrance. The Hunters dropped their disguises and began to tap into their Thread traits: increased strength, sharp fangs, and sonar hearing, Which could help them to know where everything was.

"Well, any last words?" Fluttershy asked Thunder Lane.

The black thread replied, "I just want my little brother Rumble to do something with his life, and if I make it, I want to show him the pleasures of life." He and Fluttershy eased their crossbows around the entrance.

In the pack that had yet to reach the surface, the pack leader's orders were followed. Cold Blood led the charge. Suddenly, Cold Blood stopped in his tracks, seeing several Wereponies trip some preset traps; all chaos broke loose. Silver arrows pierced many of the Wereponies, but those who had armor managed to survive only to fall into a pit of wood and silver spikes and die instantly. Without delay, the dead disintegrated as quickly as a river flows. Cold Blood studied the traps that the other Wereponies set off, then he turned to the nearest Werepony and said, "Find and put on some armor. We will need it to get through these traps."

Back at the tower basement, a handful of traps could be heard springing free. Luna said to Fluttershy, ”They have found a way to cross your traps. Everypony, prepare to fire on my mark."

As the first Wereponies showed their ugly heads, Luna yelled, "Now!" Several silver arrows let loose, some of them hitting their targets in the face, others hitting the chest area, but those arrows just bounced off with little to no damage against the iron armor plate. Those Monsters who didn't have armor on and managed to survive the onslaught of arrows stopped to pull arrows out of themselves with their claws or teeth before continuing to charge at the Hunters. The Hunters, however, had a backup plan. As each of them backed up into portals, they changed their weapons from crossbows to silver swords.

Fluttershy got out of the portal and dropped several smoke bombs. She then took off into the sky. When she was roughly hovering at the ceiling five, Wereponies came quickly, and not expecting the smoke, they coughed and waved at it with their paws to clear it.

When the smoke dissipated, they noticed that they were in the Canterlot throne room. At the top of the throne was a golden figure designed like the sun. Behind the massive chair were two stained glass windows, one with a depiction of Princess Celestia on a cloud, raising the sun, and the second with a depiction of Luna on a grassy hill, raising the moon. One of the Wereponies took an interest in the windows, but the other continued to search for the Hunter. Fluttershy hung upside down with her tail. She took out a block of silver and bit into it real hard and deep. As she bit down, the silver liquid began to pour out. She removed the silver block from her mouth and placed it back into her saddle bag. She then dropped down, pulled out a silver arrow, and threw it straight at the neck of an iron-armored Werepony who was about to open the two massive throne room doors. The arrow successfully hit the neck of the Monster and she disintegrated.

Another Werepony exclaimed, "Get ready, she's making her move!"

Fluttershy landed right on top of the Werepony who was admiring the artwork and bit deeply into the Werepony's neck. After one minute, the Monster disintegrated.

"Ptooey! Well, that tasted awful!" Fluttershy spat out blood as three other Wereponies looked around and saw her. They charged at her with hunger in their eyes.

---

As Wereponies scratched and clawed at the barrier around the Barracks, Sugar Mist, and Winter Bolt made their way up to the barracks' wall. The dark purple Earth pony was in leather armor and had a short sword at his side. But, as predicted, he began to complain to the white Unicorn. “There’s no point in locking up the gate.”

Winter asked, “Oh? And how did you come up with logic like that?”

With a deadpan look, Sugar explained. “They could simply fly over the wall or use their teeth and claws to rip the gate off or climb the wall.”

Winter replied, “Well, that may be true, but you are forgetting an important factor here: there are four towers. We have plenty of weapons and armor, and right now Crystal Breeze is training civilians which means you too have volunteered. And nothing has gone wrong.” He paused for a moment before continuing, “Yet I can’t ask for more.”

The Earth pony spoke. “Did you forget about the worst-case scenario?” He pointed at the white Unicorn’s horn before continuing. “The Monsters can use magic to blast the walls and gate to pieces.”

Winter stopped at the top of the stairs and looked at the volunteer ponies. A squad of five got maneuvered around a squad of four as three of the four attacked and then ran from the squad of five.

The white Unicorn said, “That may also be true, but those are things we can’t control.”

The squad of five foolishly left their accrued makeshift dishcloth flag unprotected, giving the final and fourth teammate from the squad of four a chance to grab it.

Sugar Mist watched and smiled. Winter continued. “We can, however, control the security of this place. The true security breach is in the sky. Half of the civilians are Unicorns all of whom have offered their magic to power a spell that Summer Spell came up with. It is a crude piece of work, but it managed to create a barrier spell that took care of the breach problem.”

The stealthy pony had successfully won his team the game. As he waved the flag for the others to see it, the five ponies from the losing team lowered their heads in defeat.

As Sugar Mist and Winter Bolt walked on the wall that was over the main gate, Sugar Mist asked, “So, you're saying that there’s no real reason why we had to patrol the walls?”

Winter replied, “I didn’t say that. If there is any real threat, she still needs ponies to patrol the wall and watch the Wereponies as they attack the barrier. We need to make sure that the spell continues to work. This is pretty much kindergarten stuff for a student of Celestia, but last I checked, Summer Spell was no student of Celestia.”

Winter and Sugar Mist reached the door of one of the towers. As the Unicorn opened the door, three Wereponies dove right at them, but found themselves crashing into the magical barrier; it didn’t stop them, as the barrier stretched around them. They were inches from the ponies before, like a slingshot, the Monsters went flying back out into the sky.

Both ponies were shaken from this failure of an attack from the Wereponies. Sugar Mist belched out some air as he forgot to breathe. He fell to the ground trying to regain the air.

Leaving the door open, Winter helped the Earth pony up and asked, “You ok there, buddy?”

Sugar answered with weak words. “Yeah, I’m good. Just forgot to breathe, that’s all.”

When the purple pony was back on his hooves, Winter Bolt turned to the magical barrier and used his magic to scan the part of the barrier that the Monsters had crashed into. “Well, it looks like it works, but barely.”

---

Back at the main building of the Barracks, Summer Spell had just finished proving the barrier spell that was protecting the Barracks. The Unicorns in the room felt confident that they knew how to not only power the spell but also to keep it going.

Summer Spell walked out of the throne room and through a series of other rooms filled with bunks. After several twists and turns, and some ups and downs, she finally found the room she was looking for: the room belonging to the Captain of the Solar Guard. Wasting no time, she searched the room up and down before finally finding the telegraph that was under the bed. Using her magic to levitate the device, she made her way to the desk.

Using her hoofs, she cleared the books and reports, placed the device on the desk, and set it up. Then she started tapping on the device to send a telegram to the Equestrians military force, the E.U.P.

Her message said, “Monsters overrun the Capital city. Request military forces to drive them out. The situation is at the Barracks on the lower level. There are several civilians. Send a reply as soon as you can.”

She waited for a reply but time waited for no one. Hours went by, and despite the noise of static and explosions outside, Summer Spell continued to listen to the device. As she waited for the reply, her mind became occupied. She thought to herself, ‘Now is the best time to call for reinforcements.’

---

Outside of the Barracks, a hooded figure stood waiting for the ponies to see him. Eventually, when they did notice him, Winter Bolt and Sugar Mist said together, “Who goes there?”