My little hunter : Companionship is magic

by MonsterHunterBrony

Chapter 4 : First night in Ponyville

Author's notes: Hello everyone, I hope you are enjoying the story thus far, I know I'm a bit slow with updates but I have a hard time keeping up with all IRL stuff. This not is to mention that I posted a revised version of chapter 1 and chapter 2, no major changes but I think it's worth mentioning. Also feel free to give feedback about the way I portray the characters and such, I don't want Clay to enter Gary stu's hell, and I don't want to make the mane 6 out of character, so if anything bugs you, tell me and I'll take it in consideration when working on new chapters.
Originally this chapter was supposed to be much longer but I chose to cut it in 2 parts, both because I want the action to move a bit faster toward the first encounter and because I know I can fit the removed part somewhere later without affecting the flow of the story. The now removed part will appear somewhere in chapter 5-6-7 depending on their individual length.
And now, enjoy the new chapter!

My little hunter : Companionship is magic

by ~Meteorimpact/Monster Hunter Brony

Chapter 4 : First night in Ponyville

Rarity and Clay were on their way to Carousel boutique, Rainbow Dash already left them and mentioned she would meet them later at Sugarcube Corner leaving them question whatever she meant. Once they finally reached the fashionista's shop, she unlocked the back-store door usually used for deliveries, allowing Clay to bring in the scale filled cart. They then proceeded to unload it and when only the sword and armor were left, Rarity faced Clay asking "Are you sure about doing this? I'm not going to stop you, but I have to admit I am worried for Rainbow Dash. Do you really think she can pull it off?"

"If I didn't, I wouldn't have asked her, she is full of energy, and seems to have a lot of ambitions. We could say that the best hunters are forged out of peoples like her, I didn't get to ask her much about herself, and I know very little about who she really is, but her eyes can't lie to me, she wants to do this, and even if I didn't ask her, I'm pretty sure she would get into a fight with a monster at the first occasion. Might as well make sure she is safe by tutoring her." He replied trying to make his tone as reassuring as he could.

"If you say so, but I warn you, if anything happens to her. You. Will. Be. Held as responsible. Is that clear?" She emphasized her thought by prodding Clay with her horn every time she took a pause in the sentence.

"Crystal clear ma'am!" He couldn't help but rub the now sore spot on his shoulder, where the horn left a little bruise. Then he muttered to himself "I won't allow any harm to come to her or anyone else."

"Did you say something?" Rarity inquired as she was unloading the armor and carefully placing it in a corner.

"Nothing important, just mumbling to myself. By the way, do you think there is any way to convert my sword into something Rainbow and I could use?"

The white unicorn took a long pensive look at the massive weapon, still coursing with jolts of electricity. The gigantic sword had a blade making only half of the broad side of the blade, other half was made out of sort sort of fleshy light grey matter. A few electrodes glowing neon teal seemed to be the source of power for the electric weapon. "I think I have an idea, but I don't know yet if it's feasible. You will have to ask me in a day or two." After she and Clay took it off the cart and stored it beside the armor, she beckoned him to follow her to the front of the boutique. "What kind of host am I, I forgot to offer you something to drink, would you like some water?" to which he simply approved with a nod. As Rarity walked around the shop's counter to reach her cupboard, she noticed something laying on the door mat, a bright pink invitation to Clay's welcome-to-Ponyville party. "Oh dear, I forgot Pinkie wouldn't pass a chance to throw a party." She took a quick glance at Clay and her eyes quickly grew as large as saucers. " Oh my, you certainly aren't ready to attend it! Your coat is still stained with blood and you definitely need some sort of makeover, I can't let you go like that. You are going to follow me home and take a bath, as soon as we get there I want you to go to the second floor and head to the second room on your left, you will find the bathtub there, meanwhile I will prepare something to make you somewhat presentable."

"Umh, I appreciate the attention but it will be ok, it's only a little smudge of blood, I'll clean that la-"

"I said: Second room to your left on the second floor!" If Rarity was able to shoot lightning with her eyes, Clay would probably be a pile of ashes by now.

"Got it!" The stallion just gave a very nervous grin as he was looking for a way to escape the slightly irritated fashionista, to no avail. Guess there was no escape from this.

"And don't take too long, I don't want Sweetie Belle to come back from her Cutie Mark Crusaders activities and ask me why there is a stranger in the bath. Now let's move!"

-----

After a small detour by the library to drop Clay's saddlebags and back pack, both ponies took off to join the festivities. The party was already ongoing when both Clay and Rarity arrived, ponies laughing and talking everywhere around Sugarcube Corner. It didn't take long for Twilight Sparkle to spot them and join the newcomers.

"Hey guys, I see Spike gave you the message, glad you could make it to the party."

"He did but even without him, Pinkie already left invitations at both my house and Carrousel Boutique, my guess is she wanted to make sure I wouldn't miss it. We are a bit late but I had to take care of something." She waved a foreleg toward Clay.

Twilight took a glance at the earth colored stallion and chuckled. "I see, it seem you got the Rarity makeover treatment, don't worry we all went through it." Clay blushed a little, not used to wear anything formal, or getting groomed. He had his mane slightly trimmed and combed so the hair wouldn't touch the ground anymore and he was donning a wine colored necktie matching his coat. "By the way Pinkie was looking all around for you. You should go tell her that you are finally here, speaking of the devil, she's right over there looking under the punch bowl."

"Got it, I guess it would be polite of me to at least thank her for the attention." He bowed to both Rarity and Twilight and quickly trotted over the table Pinkie was looking under and called out to her. "Miss Pinkie, I hear you wanted to talk to-" He didn't get to end his sentence since he got literally glomped by the energetic party pony.

"There you are! I looked all over for you, I couldn't announce the special game I planned for this party without the guest of honor , it would have been rude of me especially since I got the idea from you!" Without warning she bit Clay's tail as he was trying to get his breath back and then proceeded to drag him over a small stage where she did her best to attract everypony's attention. "Hello ladies and gentlecolts, I hope you are all having as much fun as I do as we welcome our new town resident" She pointed a hoof at the colt trying to desperately free his tail from Pinkie's teeth, how was she able to speak so clearly with her teeth clenched this hard was a complete mystery. "I will now present you the main attraction of tonight's party! We are going on a monster hunt in Ponyville!" Pinkie pie then pulled a rope that was hanging over the small stage, and a curtain raised revealing a manticore shaped Pinata. The candy filled creature was tied to a small battery powered wheeled contraption. "I hid many of these around ponyville, and once I press a certain switch they will all start to roam around town, your mission if you accept it is to grab one of those wooden sword laying under the stage and hunt for your candies! Good luck everypony!"

After some loud cheering the crowd rushed to get their wooden weapons all eager to hunt for delicious sweetness. Satisfied with this, the pink pony turned to face the still struggling colt. "And I got something special planned for you before you attend the party." Her immense grin did nothing to reassure Clay who felt Pinkie tugging on his tail again, forcefully dragging him inside a dark room in Sugarcube Corner. The room was almost pitch black and it was impossible to discern anything if not for the help of the moon's light. Clay suddenly felt himself being lifted off the ground and dropped on what seemed to be a chair. As he was trying to find his bearing he realized his tail was free again, after scanning the room for a source of light he felt his blood freeze in his veins when he saw Pinkie's eyes and large scary grin reflecting the moonlight, she was holding something made out of metal in her teeth, Clay was about to switch to self defense mode but the light suddenly turned on, revealing Pinkie pie holding a large tray of mushrooms of all imaginable colors. She then dropped the tray on the table Clay was facing and exclaimed "SURPRISE! I'm not letting you leave this room until you try them."

Clay wasn't so sure it was a good idea but he thought now wouldn't be a good time to anger the party planner. He grabbed one of the mushrooms from the tray and started analyzing it, the stem had some sort of thin wavy layer sticking to it, he tried biting in that layer to see if it was edible but when he pulled, it simply came off, dropping on the table. He then smelled the weird mushroom and was surprised it smelled, sweet? That's when he noticed Pinkie was staring at him expectantly the whole time, not able to stand it any longer he just stuffed his mouth with the mushroom in one go. He couldn't believe it, the sweetness was incredible, and this flavor was nothing he ever tasted before, the only sweets he knew where honey based pastries and a few made out of berries. Not waiting any more seconds Pinkie pie jumped on the table and brought her face right in front of Clay's.

"So do you like chocolate?"

"Oh, you mean chocolate is that kind of mushroom? I guess I do like it." He chuckled as he realized what this set up was all about, but Pinkie felt the need to correct him.

"These aren't mushroom silly, they are cupcakes! Who would make sweets out of mushroom, you have weird taste if you do, really. I spent all day making them since I guessed there is no cupcakes where you came from, you can try any you want, I made chocolate, blueberry, and my favorite, strawberry! I'm so glad you like it, I mean I can't imagine a world without sweets so it must have been horrible for you not to have had cupcakes before! I may have been a bit forceful but it was for your own good, now try an other one and you are free to go party with the others, after all you got sweets to take from the roaming pinata monsters!" At this moment a faint voice coming from the next room could be heard asking who wanted to play pin the tail on the pony, Pinkie practically disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving Clay alone with the cupcakes.

The stallion, just laughed at the whole situation, all this just to make sure he would know the taste of cupcakes? That's when he realized he was a fool to let himself be afraid of the pink pony. She was simply the most spontaneous and random being he ever met, and frankly, he was starting to enjoy this. Only a few days passed since he arrived to Equestria, and yet, it felt so good. He had a hard time remembering the last time he enjoyed the company of others as much as this, sure he joined many hunting parties, but even tough he somewhat befriended some hunters, he never tried to keep contact with them. If he met them again on a hunt it was fun, but he wasn't actively looking for these particular peoples, just a group to hunt with. As weird as it seemed, he enjoyed this adventure with the multicolored ponies and he was ready to try and have as much fun as possible during his stay. He shoved an other cupcake in his mouth and headed outside grabbing a wooden sword lying on the ground, time to kick some pinatas' flanks.

-----

As he ran trough Ponyville in search for his quarry he took great care in taking notes of some landmarks to be able to make his way back to Sugarcube Corner, having fun was great and all, but not if he wasn't able to come back after. The streets were dark with only the moon and occasional lit windows to reveal them, then, the sound of wheels rolling on the stone road could be heard a few meters away. Clay readied his weapon, holding it as best he could with his teeth, and trotted over the sounds origin, only then did he notice a weak thumping sound coming from the same direction, as he came closer he finally spotted the candy filled monster, beside it was a yellow pegasus lightly hitting it with her own wooden sword. Clay had to stifle a laugh at the scene, Fluttershy looked so adorable trying to get her hooves on the sweets, yet failing to break the pinata due to the lack of strength in her hits. That's when he remembered he owed the mare some apologies, this chance meeting was probably a good time to try and make up. The plan was simple, he would help break the pinata, and would improvise depending on her reaction, if she got scared he would use comedy to lighten the atmosphere. without a second thought, the stallion clenched his teeth as hard as he could on the sword handle and dashed toward the pinata, with a precise strike to the papier macher monster's belly it finally stopped moving revealing its candy filled insides.

"EEP!" Fluttershy startled and hid as fast as she could in a barrel leaning against a wall. A few seconds later she finally risked a look out of it and saw Clay splitting the candies in two equal piles.

Exactly what he was waiting for, he then took a comically heroic pose and said with a comedic tone "Hello there, I'm sorry if I scared you, but when I saw you were in dire need of assistance I had to rush to your help, no need to thank me, anypony would have done the same for you. Thanks to your help in distracting the beast I was able to strike the final blow and we managed to save Ponyville from it's attacker! Here is your share of the spoils, let's celebrate our victory over the pinacore!" He then pushed one of the candy pile toward the now confused pegasus all the while bearing a smile he hoped looked cheerful, she simply stood there, blinking and staring in his general direction as if she was trying to make sense of the scene that just unfolded before her eyes. Clay was starting to wonder if operation 'make-a-fool-out-of-myself-to-lighten-the-atmosphere' was a success or not. Apparently his attempt at looking ridiculous didn't work as he planned. "Miss Fluttershy? Are you all right?"

She finally emerged from her stupor, "OH! Mmh... Yes... I am fine... I was just a little surprised." She then realized who she was talking to, and felt a little embarrassed as she remembered the way she acted during the walk back to Ponyville.

"I wanted to say I'm sorry about what happened today." They both said at the same time.

Clay quickly added. "You don't have to apologize to me, I was the one at fault. I think I got a bit rude with you and I know how I sometimes express myself the wrong way. If there is anything I can do to make it up to you, you can ask me, if it's in my power I'll try to grant it to you."

Fluttershy blushed a bit and came to the realization the colt really wasn't a bad pony, maybe she did overreact when they first met. She got out of the barrel she was hiding in and stood beside one of the candy pile. "I... Um... I still want to say I'm sorry about judging you before actually trying to know you a bit better. As for making it up to me, I think you just did, After all you saved me from the claws of the dangerous pinacore." She took a hoof to her forehead in a comedy act as terrible as Clay's. "Who knows what could have happened to Ponyville if not for your help?" There was a moment of silence before they both started laughing. Clay felt relieved there were no hard feelings between both of them, the weight of his guilt finally leaving his shoulders. Both ponies then chose to head back to Sugarcube Corner with their trophy. Unable to carry all the sweets on their own, they simply filled the pinata with everything and pushed it like a cart, they would share the reward later with their friends.

-----

Meanwhile, in Canterlot, Doctor Whooves was working with Luna on a way to open a two way rift to Clay's home world. Thus far, all attempts to connect to it either started opening a portal to a different dimension than the one they were looking for, or, when they did manage to make a gate to the right world, it was still one way only. Luna was taking a nap as Celestia entered the laboratory in search of answers. In the past week, every night were spent trying to figure out how Luna could open portals to an other dimension, and why their locations were so random.

"Good evening Doctor. Did you make any breakthrough regarding the current situation?"

The stallion with the hourglass cutie mark did not lift his eyes from the notes he was reading but still answered the question. "Greetings Princess, indeed I think I managed to work something out, or rather, I think I'm starting to understand how the spell works, or doesn't."

She perked an eye out of confusion. "How it works or doesn't? What does it even mean?"

"Exactly what it says. The spell seems to be an incomplete spell, one that Luna didn't create herself. As you know the alicorns aren't born as alicorn. I know you both used to be unicorn before you inherited the powers to move the sun and moon. And I think we can trace the origins of all this to this period, during the ceremony where a regent of the sun or moon choose their successor, they pass down all of their power, including their cutie marks, and the spells they knew beforehand. I'm actually pretty sure both you and Princess Luna have many latent abilities or spells you don't even know about, because you don't know you have them."

"Are you implying that we have magical powers we ignore? How is that even possible, if we know how to cast a spell, then it should mean we know what the spell is, right?"

"It's not as simple as that I fear. Remember back when you got your powers, what is the first ability you used? The answer is easy, you already knew how to move the sun, because you knew that being the regent of the sun implied this responsibility. By knowing this role you were given, you were easily able to find the power to move the sun in your spell pool. But since you have no idea what kind of other magic your predecessor knew, your subconscious don't know where to look when it comes to use them. That's where my theory comes in. Let's recapitulate the events leading to Luna's discovery of the spell. during the past months, she tried to integrate modern life with little to no success, every time she made a mistake or failed in a simple task, she would end up isolating herself in her room, ashamed of her inability to adapt. As time went on and the stress accumulated, she finally started breaking up, she was starting to sink in despair and fear of being unable to live a normal life."

Suddenly Celestia's eyes grew wide as she was starting to piece everything together. "A call for help, her nature always made her keep everything to herself, so it was a distress call nopony but her could hear."

"Exactly. That's when the first incomplete tears started appearing. Her subconscious used her emotions to find a spell to help her. And if my theory is correct I might be able to figure out if the spells is really acting randomly or if it's just unstable because it's still in creation process. It seem the previous regent of the moon started working on this spell but never finished it before giving his powers to Luna. Problem is, to confirm my theory I would need to access the ancestral archives, the place where the previous leaders of Equestria stored all their knowledge. Would you mind granting me access to this section of the castle?"

"Permission granted, I will make the arrangements to allow you to make your researches in that sector."

-----

As the night was moving on, the party's participants slowly started to head home one after the other, it was getting late and only the elements of harmony and Clay still remained. The past few hours were spent telling stories about themselves such as the day Rainbow Dash performed her sonic rainboom, or even the time when Trixie came to ponyville. Failing to stop an ursa minor's rampage, Twilight intervened and managed to defeat the beast, saving ponyville. Clay was finishing his own story about a hunt he went on with a female hunter. The monster they were looking for was something fairly easy to defeat, a monster known as the Yian Kut-ku. The Kut-ku is a small bird like wyvern with a big beak and fan shaped ears, the average specimen is about two to three meters high and four to five in length. The first day of the hunt didn't go quite well, they spent all afternoon and evening looking for their quarry, yet, they never managed to see it, at some point they decided to set up camp and try looking again the day after. Ironically enough the wyvern found them as they were about to go to sleep. Both hunters had removed their protective gear and were only wearing their casual clothes when they were attacked. During the battle a wrong maneuver from one of them, they never got around to determine whose fault it was, made them collide as they tried to dodge a fireball spat by the Kut-ku, tough the projectile didn't hit them directly, the small explosion set their clothes on fire forcing them to remove everything mid fight and finish the battle butt naked.

"- so when we readied ourselves to go back to sleep, most of the camp was thrashed and our sleeping bags couldn't be used anymore, she hastily grabbed whatever was left of them to cover herself and laid beside the campfire adding an angry 'no peeking!' before falling asleep. All I can say after that is I started bringing a change of clothes on all subsequent hunts."

Rainbow dash giggled a bit."Geez, having to wear clothes all the time sure seems like a terrible annoyance, I wouldn't want to be a human for all the bits in the world." After a quick glance through the window, she noticed the moon was already past the middle of the sky, indicating it was somewhere around two or three in the morning. "Well, I think it might be a good idea to call it a night. I'll see you all later." After a quick wave of the hoof she went outside, flapping her wings to reach the skies. It didn't take long for the remaining guests to take their leave as well, thanking Pinkie pie for the party. Twilight took off toward the library, Clay following her. About half way she broke the silence.

"So, what do you think of your first day in Ponyville?"

Clay took a few second to think it over. "Well, it sure was enjoyable, but I'm tempted to say either all the ponies in this town are crazy, or I am the one who needs to step up my game to match them. I always had a hard time making friends, mostly my fault for not actually trying, and I feel like I missed a lot. I think it's because I'm afraid of losing them after creating strong bonds, it's something I don't want to experience again..." He seemed lost in thought for a bit but noticed Twilight's inquisitive look, he quickly added "Nevermind that, it's in the past now and shouldn't influence the present, or the future." He suddenly increased his pace as if to avoid incoming questions.

Twilight chose not to pry,but she was certain she got her first clue to understand why Clay wasn't getting along with his peers. It seemed like Applejack was right after all, the stallion had social issues. The library finally came into sight and after a few minutes, both ponies were inside the building. They tried to stay as quiet as possible not to wake up spike who was sleeping. Clay picked up his saddlebags and backpack he previously left near the door as Twilight showed him the way to his room in the underground level of the library. Spike had already set up a bed with sheets and pillow for the guest and it didn't take long for the colt to make himself comfortable. Twilight then proceeded to go brush her teeth and get ready for bed. Before laying to sleep tough, she telekinetically brought a small empty notepad beside her with a quill and labeled it 'Clay's world'. She smirked as her last thought before falling asleep was "You better brace yourself because I'm not letting you leave the library before you answer all my questions." She then drifted to sleep, dreaming of the book she planned to write later about a world outside of Equestria.

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[green oni]

One little thing Carousel Boutique is Rarity's house. She lives on the second floor.