Following the disappearance of his father, Hunter looks around Equestria for him as well as running a few errands here and there to keep his home. Too bad a war had to have happened two millenniums ago and might start again.
Equestria had been at war with demons 2000 years ago and won by the miracle of 'the hero in red' and barely won. Equestria would be doomed if their hero hadn't arrived when they did. Equestria was a broken land but would be rebuilt with time.
Hunter is a lone, cocky stallion who doesn't have many friends, but what do you expect when you grew up on another world while thinking and acting differently than what other ponies do? Hunter is following the disappearance of his father and has been led to Equestria and has found an interesting book of demons and war. Could this be a coincidence or a clue? Either way, Hunter will figure it out himself.
There is no real sex in this story only jokes and innuendos but I will keep this story 'Mature' rated just in case
Edit: 11/16/2019. Edited just about anything -Tags, description, etc.- except the story text itself.
Equestria, a world full of joy, magic, and friendship. It's a world of perfect harmony but that is also it's downfall. For years demons have been in hiding, scouting the land in search for its powerful magic under the rule of Lord Kagloth. Nopony suspected anything 'cause no one knew demons existed at this point but we should've known better. As time went on demons got more and more desperate in their search for their prize and started killing, slaughtering and outright corrupting ponies to do their dirty deeds in the most horrible of ways. This is what is known as 'The Great Demon War Of Equestria'.
Not many ponies know of the story to this day only the royal sisters, Princess Celestia and her sister Princess Luna can tell fact from fiction of the war. Ponykind was almost annihilated by the sheer numbers of demons. If it wasn't for a bipedal creature ponykind could've been extinct. This creature was said to be part demon itself and wore a red coat and carried all kinds of different weaponry known as 'devil arms'. This creature was able to turn the tables and brought the fight to the demons. Nopony could believe their eyes when they saw how this bipedal creature fought and they were able to gain a foothold back of their world.
No one knows what happened after that nor of the bipedal creature. But to this day no one has seen or heard from any kind of demon within 2000 years. But as far as everypony is concerned demons are a mere myth like the legendary devil hunter in red himself.
"Why did it have to be hidden in the forest?"
A lone earth-pony stallion was wandering around in the Everfree forest late at night, talking to himself about this demon myth wondering how a single creature was able to banish if not outright kill all of these demons. Was there a magical artifact in play? An amulet maybe, or maybe this red coat this half-demon creature had was enchanted beyond what was thought possible. He kept on musing to himself about what could be the reason this creature had the edge. Only to be interrupted by noises that didn't sound like it came from a living being. He stopped and listened for the sound again only to hear nothing but the wind rustling the leaves of the trees and bushes.
"'Going to the Everfree forest is gonna get you killed' they said. 'Once you're in you'll never come out alive' they said. I'll have them know I know what I'm doing and I am not afraid of some stupid forest!" The stallion bellowed in frustration over his paranoid mind. "If it really was something I'm sure I would be dead by now!"
A sudden twig snapping from behind indicating someone must've heard him or rather someTHING had heard him considering his surroundings. At this point, he did the most logical thing he could think of which was to run like the wind and did he run. He ran and ran for what felt like an hour but had to stop running 'cause he had to catch his breath. As he was catching his breath he didn't hear any unusual noises and no twigs snapping. He must've lost whatever was chasing him. Having finally caught his breath it was time to keep on trekking only to notice a sudden chill coming from behind him.
He slowly turned around and regretted doing so. All he saw was a dark figure emerging from some sort of cloud underneath it. It was wielding a massive scythe dripping with some dark yet fresh liquid. It looked to covered in a cloak and only consist of bones underneath it as it stared at him with its glowing eye sockets. A demon with an intent to kill was staring right at him.
"S-stay back!" The stallion told the demon as he started backing away from the demon.
The demon inched closer with each backward step the stallion took. Bumping his rear into a tree and being unable to move further back the stallion just looked at the demon in horror, completely in shock and wide-eyed. The demon lifted its scythe and prepared for the kill. Too scared to run the only thing the stallion could do was scream for his life as the scythe neared its target.
"And that's at least how the rumors go."
Sugarcube Corner, the popular bakery was filled with ponies going on about their day, getting their baked goods from the Cake family and their assistant Pinkie Pie when she wasn't out adventuring with her close friends. Pinkie was currently talking to her friends about a sudden rumor that had spread throughout Ponyville through the last couple of days after an earth pony stallion was rushed to the hospital.
"Pinkie as much as I like a good rumor I don't really think that's a true story. Demons don't exist at all," Twilight Sparkle, the princess of friendship told her hyperactive friend. "Besides, the whole thing about demons is just pure fiction, nopony has ever seen or faced a demon."
"I know that silly it's also just a rumor but imagine if it was a demon," The pink earth pony gasped. "If it really was a demon should I throw it a party? Like a 'Welcome to Ponyville Party, Spawn of Tartarus'?"
All her friends just facehoofed at that. Demons couldn't be a thing, after all, it's just stories made by creative -yet disturbing- minds. There were a few demon stories published but very few and hard to find in most libraries. The only demon story that's easy to come by was 'The Great Demon War' that explains about a time when Equestria was lost to demons if it wasn't for a creature with a red coat coming to the world's aid.
"Hey Twilight, You still got one of those great demon war books?" Asked an interested rainbow-maned pegasus. "I wanna see what the fuzz is about and I have heard awesome things about how this demon killer fought."
"And I thought reading wasn't your strong suit Rainbow," Twilight said as the four other ponies around giggled at this comment. Before Rainbow Dash could counter her with a smart comment of her own a small ding was heard near the counter and Pinkie immediately got back up behind the counter to do her job and serve the customers. The current customer was a yellowish stallion with a white mane and tail whilst wearing a red trenchcoat to boot.
"Hai there! What can Pinkie Pie get you?" Pinkie asked in her ever so chipper manner.
"Hello Pinkie, get me the usual sundae would you?" The stallion said and put five bits on the counter. The pink mare giggled at this.
"It's still only three bits for the sundae you know."
"And? I love the atmosphere and the goods this place sells, which is why I pay a little extra to keep it afloat."
"Okie dokie lokie be right back with your sundae just find a table and I'll be there super duper fast!" And with that, Pinkie headed to the kitchen.
After Pinkie left, the stallion just stood there smiling for a second before heading for a table with a lone unicorn stallion in with a black suit and a matching hat and tie, snacking on a piece of pie.
"So you decided to come at last did you?" The stallion spoke as he laid eyes on the approaching stallion. "Was afraid I was gonna have to come find you, Hunter."
Rolling his eyes, Hunter took a seat on the other end of the table looking at the suited stallion expectingly for a bit before he opened his mouth.
"So, what's this about? Normally you come to my place, grab a drink while we talk about the odd jobs. Why meet at my favorite dessert joint?"
"Well, I thought a change of scenery and a dessert wouldn't hurt."
"It could, never know who might be listening to this conversation."
"True, true but this place is filled with friendly faces and judging by the amount of bits you just put on the counter to Miss. Pie up there I'd say you think the same."
"Sure... anyway what am I hunting down this time?"
Levitating a file onto the table for Hunter to read as the suited-stallion took another bite of his pie. Opening the file was rough sketches of some sort of sword stuck in a tree trunk. Skimming through the file's text it was said to be some sort of powerful artifact that could even rival Equestria's princesses and that many had tried to get to this sword in hopes of getting its immense power. While getting to the sword would be easy if you were able to read the environment for danger. The real problem would be confronting the locals of the area.
"'Everfree forest' huh? The least magical and dangerous place in Equestria?" Chuckling Hunter closed the file and smirked. "I'm gonna like this Easter Egg hunt."
"Did you say 'Easter Egg hunt'?" A chipper voice chimed in. "I love Easter Egg hunts you'll never know where to find those little chocolate eggs!"
Hearing the newcomer's voice Hunter immediately recognized the owner of the voice. Turning around he smiled at Pinkie Pie who had arrived to give out her order for Hunter. A strawberry sundae.
"It's just a metaphor Pinkie, there's not gonna be any chocolate eggs in this," Hunter stated as he dug into his dessert. "Just me having to find a little thing is all."
"Oohhh what is it? Is it a treasure chest? Or it's a bunch of gems! No, it's a giant puppy!"
"Or it's a magical artifact that can cause lots of destruction if it's in the hooves of the wrong ponies," said the sharp-dressed stallion.
"Or that yeah..." Hunter replied.
"Anyway, Hunter it's nice to know you're still up for the task but I must leave now good hunting Hunter." With his farewell, the suited stallion left the store leaving Hunter to the file and dessert in front of him.
"Hmm... Everfree forest how could I have been so blind? I felt a sudden change in aura last time I was in there so why didn't I stay and search around?" Hunter thought as to scold himself of his own stupidity.
Eating his dessert, Hunter kept on examining the file for anything to tell him what this artifact could be but sadly no luck. All he knew was that the item of interest let out an interesting aura for demons or powerful magic users who got anywhere near it. Finishing his sugary snack Hunter packed the file and headed for the door only for Ponyville's purple scaled pal, Spike the dragon to run into his chest.
"Whoa hey there pal easy now where's the fire?" Hunter asked expecting no real answer.
"S-Sorry! Important message for Twilight," Spike replied before heading towards the table of six mares and leaving Hunter to head his merry way. Pondering a bit Hunter got a really bad feeling about this due to prior hunts.
"Finally catching up are we princess? Well, I'll still get the artifact before anyone else will." Walking out of Sugarcube Corner, Hunter started his quest for finding the artifact.
Meanwhile in Sugarcube Corner
"Spike, calm down what's wrong?" Twilight asked her assistant.
"Urgent message from Princess Celestia!" Spike exclaimed as he tried to breathe the sweet, sweet oxygen. "She's at the library needing all of you girls there at once!"
"What could be so bad that the princess needs to see us at this point? What could possibly come from Tartarus now?" The confident Rainbow Dash asked.
"I couldn't tell you if I wanted to Rainbow but Princess Celestia will surely tell us on what's going on," Twilight said as she got up from her seat. As she did so, the rest of her friends did the same -with Spike having jumped onto Twilight's back- where they all exited the bakery and headed for the library.
"Uhh... you girls don't think this could have something to do with those rumors that's been spreading as of the last few days?" Fluttershy, who had been mostly quiet of the afternoon asked.
"I highly doubt that Fluttershy dear," Rarity told the shy mare to reassure her. "But still it's rather unusual of her to go out of her way to warn us by coming down to Ponyville personally. It's usually us who have to go to Canterlot like the incident with Discord."
Coming up to the Golden Oaks library the six mares and dragon entered the building.
"Hello, my little ponies," a warm and soothing voice was heard as the six mares and dragon entered the main room. Said voice belonged to the co-ruler of Equestria, Princess Celestia.
"Princess! I got your message what seems to be the problem?" Twilight asked.
"Something very worryingly Twilight, and I should've seen it coming," The tall white alicorn said. "There's been a magical surge in the Everfree forest, unlike anything we've ever seen anywhere in Equestria yet it feels so familiar."
"But the Everfree forest doesn't show much magic if any at all from countless studies over the years!" Twilight exclaimed.
"I know and that's what worries me Twilight. Normally I'd have you girls go investigate it alone, but the magical spike unleashed was an alarming amount. So alarming that I need to make sure how dangerous it is to my little ponies."
A magical spike in the Everfree forest? This was alarming. To begin with considering Everfree's almost non-existent magical power. This wasn't a normal problem that the group of friends would have to deal with.
"So a magical mishap happened in the Everfree forest so what? This is gonna be a cakewalk and I'll even have time for a nap after," Rainbow Dash said as she stretched her limps. Only to get a glare from the Orange earth pony.
"Rainbow can ya'll take this seriously fer like five minutes? If the princess is worried we should be too," Applejack said.
"Still gonna be done before the day is done, farm girl."
"If you're both done with your argument I'd say we get going and get this checked out fast," Twilight cut the arguing pegasus and earth-pony off before they could get too far into it. Nodding Princess Celestia looked around at the six friends.
A ruffling sound of papers caught the attention of everypony in the room. What the ponies saw was a bunch of papers being stuffed into a saddlebag. Everypony looked at Twilight who smiled sheepishly and became flustered.
"Sorry about that."
A while later the solar goddess and the six friends had gathered at the edge of The Everfree forest separating the forest from Ponyville. It took a bit of convincing for Twilight not to bring her studying gear but eventually, she left it at the library.
"Ready my little ponies?" Celestia asked. "If you see something moving, warn everyone. Anything could be lurking in that forsaken forest."
Fluttershy was staying close to Rarity and shaking a bit in fear. She remembered some of the horrors she's witnessed in The Everfree.
"Fluttershy darling, we're all here for you no need be scared we'll make it through dear," Rarity told the butterscotch colored mare and gave her a gentle hug to reassure her. Having calmed Fluttershy down, they all headed into the forest looking for the magical disturbance.
Walking through the forest was no easy task no matter who you were. Branches, thorny bushes, poison joke, and everything huddled close together made everything that much harder to navigate. Celestia used her magic to guide them to the disturbance.
"So how long are we gonna be going for?" A very bored Rainbow Dash asked. "I could sweep this forest faster than the speed we are going at right now!"
"Rainbow Dash, you don't even know what yer looking fer," Applejack said. "You'd miss it without knowing from doing so."
Groaning from boredom and the lack of speed Rainbow Dash just accept the fact that Applejack was right. Arriving at a small area in the forest all the mares saw burnt grass, burnt trees, and a sword stuck in the dirt. All the mares looked at the unusual sight in front of them. There was no reason for this area to be surrounded by burnt trees or burnt grass since no creature in The Everfree was known to have some sort of fire that could go so out of control.
"What happened here?" Twilight asked to no one in particular as she stared at the scene in front of her.
"I must assume it was this magical disturbance that has caused this," Celestia said as she slowly trotted over to the sword and examined it ever so carefully. The six friends followed Celestia's hoof steps and trotted to the sword since it was obvious this item was out of place. Getting close to it, it was clear as day that this wasn't a normal sword. It was covered what looked like organic material as well as the metal itself like any sword would have but the design threw it off. It would not be able to be handled a simple pony. Twilight, Celestia, and Rarity took a look at the sword to see if there was something to figure out about it than what they could tell from its appearance.
"So it's a sword stuck in the dirt?" Rainbow Dash asked. "We went in here for a sword? Never have I done so much for so little!"
"But what if there's more to it? This is clearly what we've been looking fer and I have no I idea why but I don't give a hoot about it!" Applejack snapped.
Leaves rustled from the nearby trees that didn't get burnt which caught Fluttershy's attention. There was no wind so it was just something she imagined right? Surely there wasn't something stalking them.
"So what? It's a sword. Sure the design looks weird considering it looks like it's made out of flesh as well as metal and bone!"
"G-Girls? P-Please stop." Fluttershy said quietly and nervously. Clearly, the mares didn't hear the butterscotch mare.
"And? It ain't like it sprouted legs and decided to plant itself here on its own free will!"
"How would you know that?!"
"G-Girls stop."
Suddenly a loud shriek caused all the ponies to stop what they were doing and look towards the treetops of the still-living trees. Slowly from the trees emerged shadowy figures with a white mask for a face and wielding a giant pair of scissors. Fluttershy slowly backed lost all the color in her and hid behind her mane whimpering in fear. Rainbow Dash took to the air and flew towards the creature only to pass right through it. Thinking she missed she gave another try with a result that was exactly the same. Suddenly more and more started to emerge from the treetops.
"W-what are those beings?" Twilight asked blasting one of them with a lightning spell only for the demon to shrug it off.
"I can't tell you what they are if I wanted to Twilight. Only thing I know for certain is that their magical aura is of demon origin" Celestia stated
"Wait did you say demon?!" Twilight exclaimed panic as she fired more magic at the demons. "Can we even hurt those things?"
"We should be able to stagger them so we can escape but demons are relentless," Celestia reluctantly said in a somewhat calm demeanor.
"S-so this is it? W-we're gonna die?!" Rarity exclaimed out of pure panic. The demons just floated there looking at the ponies. Their giant blood-soaked scissors and white creepy masks didn't ease anyone of what would be in store for them. This was it. A magical disturbance led the ponies to be surrounded by demons. One of the demons floated towards Fluttershy who was still hiding behind her mane and sobbing.
BANG
Fluttershy slowly pulled her mane out of her teary eyes to see the giant pair of scissors was now stuck in the grass and the shadowy creature disintegrated and disappeared. What happened? What was that loud noise and where did it come from?
"Well well well. Ain't this a nice little surprise," someone called from up above.
looking up high, the mares noticed something was off about one of the branches. Laying on one of the branches was a stallion. He had a yellowish coat, a white mane, tail, and a red trenchcoat covered his form.
"I hope you finally got the money for that one time some of your cousins destroyed my dad's shop years ago," he said with a grin as he turned his head to look at the demons.
"Hey ain't it that there stallion you know Pinkie?" Applejack asked surprised.
Rolling off of the branch, Hunter fell from a height that would certainly break somepony's legs. But Hunter landed perfectly fine on his hindlegs with no sign of broken bones. Looking around Hunter could count and least 20 demons and there was surely more to come. The demons all looked at Hunter as if to analyze their foe and find a weakness. These demons didn't know who they were messing with. Hunter lifted his right foreleg and pointed at one demon then another as he spoke.
"Now, which one of you wants to play?"
A single demon charged him and Hunter grabbed a pair of swords on his back as the demon got ever so closer to him. Hunter blocked the scissors that reached him with his right sword and slashed the demon's mask in half with the left, killing the demon instantly. Realizing how easy it was for the lone demon to easily die from the stallion, three of them charged only for Hunter to do a large backflip and land on another tree branch. Sidestepping away from one pair of scissors and rolling underneath another pair, Hunter just chuckled and decided Taunting was a great option.
"You know you guys might be good mane dressers but certainly not good fighters. Hey, would you mind if I paid you all to fix a curl in my tail?" Hunter taunted. "Or maybe you could just cut it off. Eh doesn't really matter at this point."
Hunter slashed his swords on a nearby tree to cut off a branch and throw it at the trio of demons charing him. They didn't stand a chance once the branch split into three sharp ones in flight and pierced their masks on impact. Jumping into the air with his face looking at the ground, Hunter pointed his forelegs down, started to spin rapidly and started firing at the demons with some red energy. Blocking as much of the energy as the demons could only five of them stood left and they were all looking for revenge.
"Man and here I thought you guys had learned a new thing or two since I last fought your kind. It hurts to see you die this easy, it doesn't feel like an accomplishment anymore just a pure nuisance, I mea-" Hunter didn't get to finish his rant as he was stabbed by multiple scythes from behind. Gasping in shock all the mares stared in horror as the blood-covered scythes had cut into Hunter. Cackling from behind him stood a few grey figures covered in a black cloak and black bandages. They had easily taken down Hunter and now it was the mares' turn. That was until the stabbed stallion grabbed one of them and thrust one of his swords through it leaving the demon to disintegrate on his blade.
"I'm impressed. You demons sure know how to throw a party, if it wasn't for the fact that the food and drinks are missing and the babes are scared shitless" Hunter chuckled and disappeared only to reappear a few feet in from of him. Twirling his swords in his forelegs, Hunter took a deep breath and smirked. While doing his little circus act, more demons spawned whilst cackling and shrieking. Looking at all the spawning demons Hunter stopped twirling his swords and butted the blades against each other to which the swords reacted. One of the blades became engulfed in flames while the other became engulfed in some kind of powerful wind.
"Brother it is time to bathe in demon blood once more!" A very deep voice exclaimed.
"They don't stand a chance against master Hunter," another voice said.
"Indeed they don't," Hunter replied to the mares' confusion as to who he was talking to. "Let's get it on! Swordmaster!"
As the words left Hunter's mouth he went all out. Jumping over one demon to land his blades in another behind it. Hunter Blocked a scythe with one the sword in his right hoof and kicked the owner of the scythe back into another demon knocking them over. Out of nowhere, two sin scissor demons flew at high speed towards Hunter from his front, one close to the ground and a second one above the first. Hunter barely had time to react but was able to jump in between the scissors aimed to cut his legs and head off. Throwing his swords in the air, Hunter aimed his forelegs at the demons that missed him and fired bolts into the back of their heads, watching the bolts pierce through the shadow and broke their masks from the inside.
Charging at Hunter, the rest of the demons went in for an all-out assault on the devil hunter. Catching the swords that Hunter threw he put both the bottom of his swords' handles together, Hunter twirled the swords around above him letting a small vortex of fire come to life, only to jump up in the air and aim himself downwards to increase the destruction and range of the flame vortex. The demons that had charged the devil hunter got caught in the flames and disintegrated in the flames. Adjusting himself so that he landed on his hindlegs, Hunter just smirked and took note that there were no other demons around.
"job well-done guys," Hunter said and flipped the swords so he was looking at the bottom of the handles. "This is why I always love a good fire, the smell of windswept burnt wood and grass."
"Have ya gone insane there fella?!" A southern voice shouted. Chuckling Hunter put the swords on his back and looked towards the group of ponies that were staring at him. Deciding to have a bit of fun, Hunter did a little bow only to be met with glares of anger before they turned to worry about each others' safety.
"That was awesome!" Except for one.
The rainbow-maned mare of the group who flew over to be right in the face of the stallion.
"You gotta teach me some of those moves!"
Hunter smirked at the excited mare but turned his head towards the massive sword in the dirt the mares were slowly moving away from except for Twilight who was taking notes on the sword. Getting back on all of his legs, Hunter headed over to where the sword and purple alicorn were. Only to be stopped by the orange farm mare glaring at him, as a mother would to a child who's been bad.
"Not that ah don't appreciate that there rescue partner, but what are ya'll doing in the forest to begin with?!" She asked in a demanding tone.
"Well you see, I heard there was a party that was happening out here but I wouldn't call it a party if you only have the babes scared and the entertainment isn't that entertaining. Meanwhile, the food and drink are nowhere to be found," Hunter replied in a cocky manner.
"So yer gonna have a cocky attitude with me huh?! You could've died fighting them there demons, speaking off, how didn't you die from all the stab wounds?!"
BANG
"Damn, I'm losing my edge it seems."
Everypony looked at the stallion to see that he was aiming a front hoof towards Twilight. Twilight slowly turned her head to look at what was behind her only for her eyes to go wide while looking like she had almost lost all the color in her coat from what she saw. A demon with a scythe was standing perfectly still behind her, having almost slashed her with it. The demon fell over and disintegrated leaving the ponies alone. Twilight not moving an inch started shivering badly from what almost happened. Trotting over to Twilight and the sword, Hunter looked at the wide-eyed mare and rolled his own eyes before grabbing the sword in the dirt and pulled it out to examine it himself. While examining the sword, all the ponies gathered over by the stallion and shivering mare to make sure that Twilight was alright. Celestia cast a few spells on Twilight to just make sure there was no sign of damage to her body and thankfully there wasn't. After making sure her student would be alright the solar princess turned her head towards the stallion who had just saved everypony.
"Not many ponies would jump from such a high branch, let alone fight a horde of demons," Celestia stated. True to her words most ponies would've panicked and run away from such a foe.
"Well, I'm not like most ponies as I'm sure you can tell by any of this Celestia. Not many ponies would dare venture into the Everfree forest like myself and the currently hospitalized stallion that's barely surviving."
"I heard about that rumor, something about demons."
"Jammed the scythe right into his torso. He would've died from blood loss if he was lucky. But lady luck was kind enough to him and had me nearby to aid him and get him to a hospital."
"Very kind of you sir. Pardon me but would you mind telling me which of my little ponies I am talking to?"
"Hunter. That's all you need to know princess and that this sword here belongs to me. Hope you don't mind."
Swinging the sword a few times Hunter could feel the demon power in the sword coursing through him. It felt like Hunter had wielded this sword before but he couldn't recall it. Smirking, Hunter started thrust the sword forward in front of him speeding up with each thrust until he gave a powerful thrust at the end. Chuckling to himself Hunter put the sword on his back with his other swords and ran off before anyone was able to get a word out. Noting a few similar things that the solar princess had witnessed before a single word left her mouth, a name.
"Well, that was a productive afternoon, got myself a massive catch today. Time for a well-deserved rest."
Hunter had returned to Ponyville with no incident of trouble after his trip into the Everfree forest for his daily afternoon hunt. Despite the fact that Hunter was a pony, he had this urge now and again to go hunt himself some non-sapient creatures and take them back to his home. A lot of ponies were put off by this since they're all herbivores yet Hunter, despite his own body making it possible not having to eat meat Hunter preferred having some meat every day.
Coming up to his house, Hunter took a look at the sanctuary of his. It was a relatively large building in terms of Ponyville standard and it also housed a second floor. Most of his windows had curtains but he never used them 'cause he had chosen to just board them up instead. the only windows he decided to be seen through were the ones next to the front door. Entering his house, Hunter took a look around to see everything was as he had left it. A coffee table with a few couches stood on one side of the main room, a few paintings on the walls, 'decorative' weapons, a jukebox -something Hunter would never understand how worked in this world- and of course the desk in the middle of it all with a few letters on as well as a pizza box. Hunter took a look at the sword he had taken from the Everfree forest and saw it sitting on its place like he had left it when he had acquired it.
Taking his price to a special cabinet in his pantry in the kitchen, Hunter would work on it later. Coming back to into his office Hunter grabbed a slice of pizza from the pizza box and started on his snack. Noticing that the chair he usually sat on by his desk was knocked over, Hunter gave it a swift kick and had it land on all of its legs right sat down on it. Chuckling to himself Hunter thought back to the days of his youth where he was still living with his father. Those times were never boring at all.
"Master? Are you thinking back again?"
Snapping back to reality Hunter just rubbed his face with a hoof and groaned a bit in annoyance at the interruption of an old memory of his, Hunter turned to one of his talking swords who he'd hung on the wall as well.
"Yeah... I miss him Rudra you know? Wonder what he'd say about me if he knew what I was doing" Hunter said.
"Ahh, the feeling of family love is strong in him isn't it?" Another voice asked.
"It must be brother, either that or of the other."
"Angi, Rudra I know who you're talking about just... both of you be quiet for a while alright? It's been years they're both most likely dead!" Hunter snapped at his twin swords.
Wanting to relax Hunter leaned back in his chair and grabbed the nearby magazine which happened to be of lightly dressed ponies. Rolling his eyes Hunter kept on going through the magazine to the point where he just put it on his face and started dozing off. Well, at least that was the plan anyway. Listening to the sounds of what was going on, Hunter could hear someone opening the front door but he wasn't expecting visitors and by the sound of the hooves there were two ponies walking on the wooden floor. Two young ponies to be exact.
"Whoa, this place is bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside!" A voice said.
Hunter could tell a few things about the colt that had entered, even if his face was still covered by the magazine. The colt wasn't a smart one at that, easy to humor and sounded like one that would follow a friend rather than do things himself. All of that was determined by the voice of the colt.
"You dolt, be quiet!" Another voice said though this one was quieter than the first one. "It's not every day you enter an abandoned house and see all of this amazing stuff right for the taking."
The other voice was also from a colt. Confident, leader type, yet still not smart at all. Oh, this was gonna be a field day with these two.
"Oh? My home is abandoned? What a pair of jackasses. So we got a dumb follower and an overconfident dumbass. I swear if it's who I think it is..." Hunter mentally grumbled and was as still as possible in his chair. It could be fun to teach them a lesson about entering a house without permission.
Listening to the steps on the wooden floor, Hunter could listen for where the colts were. One of them had gone over to his Jukebox, probably poking and wondering what it was. The other one had moved close to the desk and was probably staring at Hunter. Hunter just kept on staying still in the chair pretending to be some sort of massive doll or something. Staying completely still wasn't new for Hunter, he's used the tactic before on previous jobs or to pull a prank on somepony. Sometimes he'd stay still for hours upon hours on end.
"Hey Snails, come look at this life-like mannequin." Hunter almost flinched once he heard the name 'Snails' and put two and two together. Fucking Snips and Snails.
"That's actually pretty cool and that jacket thing is cool too."
Feeling his trenchcoat being pulled from the side Snips was on, Hunter had trouble keeping from smacking the little shit over the head. Having trouble getting the coat off of Hunter, Snips got Snails to help as well but it still didn't budge.
"I don't think this jacket will come off Snips," Snails said panting from the use of magic since Hunter never felt hooves on him.
"But it's supposed to come off, it's a mannequin for Faust's sake!" Snips grumbled. Deciding to give it another yank with magic Snips instantly regretted his decision when a hoof made contact with his horn.
"Didn't your parents ever teach the two of you to never trespass on somepony's property?" Hunter asked in a little too calm manner. Hearing the gasps from both Snips and Snails Hunter smirked and pulled the magazine off of his face and looked at the two of them. Only to have them both give off a scream and run out of the building shouting things about ghosts or something like that.
"Well that was disappointing, thought you said you were good with kids," a voice called from the doorway as a mare walked on into Hunter's home. "Was hoping that if I ever had kids you could be my babysitter."
"Oh laugh it up Sapphire ya nymphomaniac," Hunter shot back at the newcomer. "We both know you love the joystick a little too much to prepare for kids."
Giggling, Sapphire walked towards Hunter's desk. Sapphire was a green unicorn with a purple mane and tail, both of which had pretty cute curls according to Hunter but he would never say that. At least not near her. As she arrived at the front of the desk, Hunter noticed that Sapphire had a very unusual glint in her sapphire blue eyes.
"So... what brings you here today?" Hunter asked.
"Can't I come into your office and just see you once in a while handsome?" Sapphire asked and fluttered her eyes a bit.
"Sapphire... you'd rather drain me given the chance than just 'come see me,'" Hunter shot back.
"hmm... You're right, though I do have some business to attend with you," Sapphire said as she put a folder on the desk and Hunter only needed to read the front of the folder.
Mysterious creature detected near the train tracks between Ponyville and Canterlot
Looking at Sapphire with an unamused look, Hunter just shrugged at her.
"This better be a massive demon or I swear they can take care of it themselves," he told her.
"Open the folder and read," Sapphire instructed.
Doing as he was told Hunter could now understand. The creature was described as a large bear, possibly the size of an Ursa Minor with very aggressive behavior towards anything it sees as either prey or competitor, pretty normal behavior for an Ursa Minor. One thing that struck Hunter odd was the fact that there were a few pictures about this monster. Taking a look at them it was hard to determine if it was of demon origin or if it really was an Ursa Minor at all. One thing that caught the eye of the devil hunter was that in the background behind one of the pictures was a stone monolith of some kind. Giving the folder and its contents back to Sapphire, Hunter grabbed his swords and put them on his back.
"So who's paying me for this?" Hunter asked.
"There are guards stationed at the train station in case this beast should arrive, their commander there will be giving you the bits once the job is done," Sapphire answered and threw Hunter two leg bands. Looking at the mare, Hunter gave her a questionable look that simply said 'What is this crap?'.
"They're for the energy and metal you shoot out through the small cylinders you have attached to your forelegs, gives them the kick you've always wanted," Sapphire said and rolled her eyes. "You know the energy you'd let me research?"
"Ahh... was about to ask you about that actually. Any gear that can kick ass is all fine by me," Hunter replied and put the bands on each of his forelegs.
"And as always don't die I don't want you dying before I taste your 'essence' Hunter."
"I'll think about it," Hunter said as he gave Sapphire a playful smirk.
"You're a plothole Hunter, you know that?"
Walking towards the train station proved nothing interesting for Hunter. A few ponies who were still up after dark kept on staring at him as he walked like always, probably because of the fact he was carrying two swords on his back. Some ponies were looking in interest, some in fear but it didn't matter to Hunter, he had a job to do. Giving it some thought Hunter could understand why he was getting those stares. Ponies didn't kill, it was something that's never been done for a long time yet here Hunter was, keeping everyone alive while looking like the village clown. Coming up to the station Hunter could see the two statue-like guards just making sure no one would get on a train without their say so. Had to give them credit for not letting civilians go kill themselves over things they don't know about. Walking over to the guards the pointed their spears at him as if to warn him and get him to back off.
"Careful or you might poke somepony's eye out you two," Hunter said in his usual taunting manner.
"Stay back citizen, this station is under lockdown until further notice by order of commander Iron Heart," the guard mare on the right stated.
"Relax cutie, I actually have some business with this commander of yours."
"No citizens allowed."
"Typical guard bullshit..." Hunter grumble. "Well can I get somepony to go get him or do I have to do it myself?"
"No citizens allowed. Leave now or you will be escorted away from the premises!"
"Private Grace! Private Blaze! What is the meaning of this?" A gruff voice cut in as a white pegasus stallion came over to take a look at the commotion.
"Just an unruly citizen trying to get onto the station, sir! We'll have him escorted back to his home right away!"
Taking a look at Hunter, the stallion took a deep breath and facehoofed.
"You idiots! He has business with the commander, let him through!" the stallion demanded.
Both realizing they messed up, the two guard ponies gave a salute and let Hunter through who decided to follow the supposedly higher ranked guard.
"You must be the merc some of us were told would arrive tonight," the stallion said. "I'm lieutenant Snow Wing, I'll take you to the commander."
Following the lieutenant, Hunter could see why the guards would need his help. The entirety of the train was damaged. Windows were broken, wheels bent, roofs were gone. The one thing that confirmed this was worse than what Hunter thought was the large amounts of blood spilled upon the walls. Getting to the front of the train, guards were looking underneath blankets of which was assumed to be dead ponies. 23 dead to be exact from the looks of it. The lieutenant that Hunter had been following gave a loud whistle to which the guards turned to look at Hunter and Snow Wing. Taking note that Hunter had arrived one of the stallions walked over to Hunter and Snow Wing who gave a salute and walked off.
"So you're that merc huh? Don't look like much to me really," the stallion said and extended a foreleg which Hunter shook. "Commander Iron Heart."
"Hunter."
"So tell me, what makes you think you can help us with this big problem of ours?" Iron Heart asked in a not so impressed fashion.
"Wouldn't the better question be, 'When are you gonna take care of this problem cause we aren't cut out or getting paid enough for this shit'?" Hunter shot back.
"I'd keep that tongue of yours in check if I were you."
"Whatever. So how'd all of this happen in the first place?" Taking a deep breath at the question Hunter asked, Iron Heart began explaining.
"This train was on its way from Canterlot yesterday night and would be here the following morning. It never arrived so a few guards were sent along the tracks to find it and it looked like what you see on the tracks. 23 ponies were lost three of them guards. Ripped open like a bag of sweets you're addicted to."
Looking at Iron Heart, Hunter could see that this didn't sit well with him. There was a look in his eyes that showed Hunter how terrified the commander was about it all.
"I see, you mind if I go investigate the train?" Hunter asked.
"We've already checked the train but I guess you're welcome to since this will be your task to finish if you want the bits." Iron Heart said and went back to his fellow guards.
"'Ripped open like a bag of sweets you're addicted to'? Sounds like a massive slaughter but I don't understand why a demon would just kill these ponies aside from nourishment, but maybe there's something hidden underneath the surface. One thing dad sometimes didn't have time to think about on the job." Hunter thought as he went into the train to investigate.
A few minutes earlier
Up in the sky of Ponyville Rainbow Dash was flying towards her home after a hard day of relaxing and being awesome. Looking down in the lit streets of Ponyville Rainbow Dash saw a stallion clad in a red trenchcoat with two swords on his back walking through town. Having been saved by him a few days ago put a little pain in her pride but his moves were so cool! Giving herself a small smirk, she decided that under the guise of a cloud to follow him to see what adventures he'd be having this time.
Following Hunter for a bit, Rainbow Dash noticed something peculiar about the ponies that laid eyes on him. They got uncomfortable near him, but that could be because of the swords on his back adding to that factor, it wasn't like he was hurting the ponies or threatening them at all, he had saved the element bearers and the princess of the sun after all. Rainbow Dash decided to keep that in mind as Hunter got to the train station where a sight Rainbow Dash wasn't expecting. A destroyed train and some sort of black blanket were covering a bit area on the station itself. Perking her ears up Rainbow Dash heard Hunter talk to the guards guarding the station platform and tried to pick up on the conversation she was hearing.
Realizing she couldn't understand anything with how high up she was, Rainbow Dash tried to get a little closer only to stop when she heard somepony using a raised voice. Taking a look down again a new guard had walked over and looked rather annoyed at the two guarding the platform. After a minute or two, the new guard facehoofed and brought Hunter up on the platform leading him towards the black blanket where a bunch of other guards was doing who knows what. A new guard cam over to Hunter and the guard he was following only for him to give a salute and walk off. Sill unable to hear what was being said Rainbow Dash waited but her patience was running thin. Noticing Hunter and the guard was done talking Rainbow Dash saw Hunter head into the train and since the roof was gone Rainbow Dash had a clear view of what he was doing.
In the train, Hunter examined the broken windows, the bloody walls and some of the tears in the train itself. Rainbow Dash wondered what could've happened to the train and that nopony was hurt in the event of it all.
"What happened here? I should alert the girls about this since the newspaper today didn't say anything about this mess," Rainbow Dash thought to herself as she noticed Hunter had really gotten interested in the red liquid on the wall. Fearing what it could be she shook her head to get the thoughts out of her head only to see Hunter licking his hoof which had some of the red substance on it. Rainbow Dash was shocked at this and was about to confront Hunter who ran off following the train tracks at a speed faster than Applejack could run. Gritting her teeth Rainbow Dash flew after him determined to find out what the now suspicious stallion was planning.
Trying to catch up to Hunter proved to be harder than Rainbow Dash had thought and looked to be able to -painfully for Rainbow Dash's ego- match her in speed on his legs. Hunter had decided to get on his hind legs and start running like she had seen him kick those demons and saved her life.
"You know you're not really sneaky right gay mane?" Hunter called out and looked behind him with straight at Rainbow Dash with a big grin.
"What did you just call me?! Come back here so I can knock some sense into you like I did the colts in flight school!" Rainbow Dash barked at the hunter.
"What? Rainbows back where I come from are symbolize with homosexuality! Gay pride come on!"
"I'll show you gay pride whatever that is!"
"Oh, I love feisty girls."
Running from the now angered pegasus, Hunter was enjoying this little game of 'tag' especially with the threats of things like his third leg getting ripped off or breaking of his jaw. Rainbow Dash on the other hoof was fueled with anger from getting called 'gay mane' like in her young days especially when that nickname had stuck with her dad for a long time throughout his life. Catching up to Hunter, Rainbow Dash was about to reach him only for him to disappear. Remembering that trick of Hunter's Rainbow Dash kept flying forward expecting him to be in front of her.
"Well now, what a great athletic flank I see."
Growling, Rainbow Dash looked behind her to see Hunter had appeared behind her and was still wearing that big grin of his. Rainbow Dash was not gonna get bested by a cocky stallion who thought he was better than her. She turned around and flew into the stallion with the big grin and tackled him to the ground. Laying on the ground Hunter stared up at the mare pinning him down on his back.
"I gotta admit I didn't think you'd go down this easily but of course you were no match for the awesome Rainbow Dash!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed and grinned at the stallion. judging by the moves she's seen Hunter use this was a disappointment for Rainbow Dash on a large scale.
"What? Me go down just like that? I'm not even trying, though I will admit I wouldn't mind being stuck in this position under different circumstances." Hunter said as he winked at the mare on top of him.
Confused by what the stallion said, Rainbow Dash failed to notice said stallion used his hind legs to push her own hind legs with enough force to lose her footing and fall on top of Hunter who then rolled them both so their positions had swapped. Shaking her head, Rainbow Dash tried to grasp at how fast things had turned around for her by a sudden push to her hind legs. Chuckling at the mare underneath him, Hunter got onto his hind legs and offered her a hoof to get back on her hooves. Reluctantly, Rainbow Dash accepted Hunter's hoof and get onto hooves and gave him a small glare.
"Rule number one. 'Never think you've bested your opponent before they're either dead or knocked out for sure'," Hunter said told Rainbow Dash as he passed her to keep following the train tracks.
"Hey! I want some answers as to what just happened!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she followed Hunter. "What the hay were those moves and how come you can teleport without being a unicorn?"
Not turning his head to look at his companion Hunter chuckled a bit at the question he had just been asked as if there was a small joke to it.
"Frankly? I dunno it's just something I can do thanks to my father's teachings," Hunter replied and twitched his ears as if he tried to pick up the sound of something.
"And what are you doing out here at this time? What happened to the train and what is it with that black blanket at Ponyville station?"
"You're not gonna leave me until I give you an answer are you miss Dash?"
"You can bet your flank I'm not."
Taking a deep breath Hunter stopped and looked at Rainbow Dash and said one single word to her.
"Demons," was all Hunter gave as a response.
"Like the ones me and my friends saw you... kill?" Rainbow asked being very reluctant on the end of the sentence.
"No, much bigger and much more dangerous." Hunter answer calmly. "Makes it more fun that way."
Before Rainbow Dash could come up with another word a massive roar filled the air and Hunter set off in a sprint in the direction of the roar. Not one to leave any action behind Rainbow Dash followed Hunter barely being able to follow him as they both headed towards the roar. As the two ponies hurried along, a shining silhouette came to view the further they went.
"Oh no..." Was all Rainbow Dash was able to let out before the silhouette turned towards them.
An Ursa Minor was glaring at Hunter and Rainbow Dash but something was really off about it. It had some sort of tentacle-like tendrils coming out from its back and there were no pupils in its eyes either and its size was much bigger than any normal Uras Minor. Standing up on its hind legs the Uras let out another massive roar which Rainbow Dash had to cover her ears from to not get hearing damage or become deaf. Hunter just looked at it and drew his swords ready for action.
"Miss. Dash get out of here now!" Hunter ordered and get into his combat stance.
"And leave you all the glory? No way!" Rainbow Dash replied trying to act cool.
"This is NOT up for discussion! You've seen what they can do so get out of here and let me take care of it!"
Not willing to admit she's afraid and flee Rainbow Dash didn't leave at first but as the Ursa got closer and whipped its tentacles at them two ponies she flew off as fast as she could. Looking up at the Ursa who roared again at the stallion in front of it Hunter just grinned at what he was up against.
"So this is what a real fight is gonna be in years is it?! Well come on then I'll put you down Smokey!"
Another roar came from the massive bear-like creature as it prepared to charge and Hunter gave a final word before the battle would start.
Flying away in the night sky, Rainbow Dash needed to inform her friends of what she had seen and of how out of control it might get, should Hunter should be able to fail to kill the demon he was facing. Not believing her eyes at what the Ursa looked like, ponies would've thought it was designed by a horror design gone mad. What even happened to the Ursa? Nothing like this had ever happened to their kind so there was nothing known about what this Ursa was capable of.
Getting to Ponyville, the first stop was Golden Oaks library but instead of using the door like anypony would normally do, Rainbow Dash flew in through the window in a panic and rush. Groaning from crashing through the window, Rainbow Dash shakily got up on her hooves and shook her head to gather her bearings. Looking around the dark room she was in Rainbow Dash could swear she saw if not heard something moving around, and she would figure out what it was when she was being held in a purple magical aura and not being able to move.
"I don't know why you thought it was a good idea to break into my home, but you did." A female said in a disappointed tone. "What's the big idea?"
"Twilight it's me, Rainbow Dash." Rainbow Dash said as she struggled in the magical grasp.
Using her magic to light up a few nearby candles in the room, Twilight saw she was indeed holding her friend Rainbow Dash in a magical grip with no mercy. Putting a hoof to her face and groaning in irritation, Twilight took a look at the floor to see that books were scattered across the room as well as the window shattered and blood was on the floor. Letting Rainbow Dash go of her magic, Twilight looked at the pegasus with an unamused look.
"This better be important, I have so much to study in the following days," Twilight stated.
"Twilight there's an Ursa on the train tracks towards Canterlot!" Rainbow Dash said in a panic. "We gotta inform somepony because it's bigger, has no pupils, and weird tentacles coming out of its back and it looks like a zombie bear!"
"Zombie bear? Zombies of any kind aren't real Rainbow Dash, they're as real as you being like Rarity," Twilight said unamused as she used a small bit of her magic to numb the pain from the few cuts and bruises she noticed on Rainbow Dash.
"So, you're willing to believe demons from the experience in the forest but not a zombie bear?" Rainbow Dash questioned.
"Exactly! From what Princess Celestia knows about these demons, I'm pretty sure she must've encountered some at one point but nothing about zombies!" Twilight stated as a matter-of-factly.
Rainbow Dash gawked at her friend, before facehoofing at Twilight and her ways of trying to find a logical solution to anything resembling the unlogical. Turning towards the window she had crashed through, Dash was about to take off but not before giving Twilight one last message.
"You don't wanna help that Hunter guy who's currently fighting a massive Ursa because it sounds like bogus to you? Fine, I'll go help him alone then instead of relying on your help!" Rainbow Dash said and flew out the window.
She was stopped before she got out of the window as she was grabbed by her rainbow tail by Twilight who had a not so pleased look on her face.
"'Hunter'? You, mean that stallion that fought off the demons? The same stallion who was stabbed multiple times yet survived? The same one who took the sword before I could study it?" Twilight asked so calmly that her words probably would freeze Rainbow Dash's blood.
Feeling fear creep back into her body, Rainbow Dash nodded, barely breathing from the sudden change in her friend's tone. Letting go of the rainbow tail Twilight was holding with magic, she took a deep breath and gave a single command to Rainbow Dash consisting of 4 words.
"Lead me to him."
Out past the outskirts of Ponyville along the train tracks, Hunter was having a great time if he had to say so himself.
"You should've stayed in the forest making sure no one was starting forest fires, you'd be better off doing that than playing with me!" Hunter called out as he blocked a paw that would've sent him flying if it hadn't been for his royal-guard ability.
Aiming his forelegs at the Ursa, Hunter let loose a storm of bullets and energy towards the Ursa who blocked its head with a foreleg. Taking the opportunity, Hunter sprinted forward to cut at the Ursa but one of its tentacle on its back smacked Hunter to the side, away from the Ursa. Rubbing his head as he got up on his hind legs again, Hunter glanced at the tentacles who seemed to be having a mind of their own, living in the Ursa feeding it demonic power. Taking note of what to focus on first, Hunter ran at the Ursa again, this time taking note of the tentacles' movement as well as the Ursa's. Seeing one of the tentacles slowly start to light up, Hunter went wide eye and jumped back, just in time as a laser of demonic energy hit where Hunter had just been running.
Letting out a roar, the Ursa leapt at Hunter who rolled to the side barely dodging the Ursa's claw that almost cut him. Quickly aiming at the tentacles, Hunter started his hail of energy and bullets again only for a dimly light forcefield light up every time a bullet got too close to the tentacles. Gritting his teeth in anger, Hunter smacked Rudra and Agni against each other letting their elements come to life.
"Alright, so it's gonna be one of those types, is it? Wrath and Sorrow, I'm sorry ladies but looks like you two beauties can't damage this Ursa," Hunter told his guns hidden in his sleeves. "Next time ladies, you have my word."
Snarling at Hunter, the Ursa ever so slowly opened its mouth and revealed its ability to talk.
"Pony! How dare you stand against Irgaan let alone still live!" The Ursa said.
"Another talking animal, huh? This time a bear. You know any tricks Smokey? Going to teach me how to prevent forest fires?" Hunter asked in a cocky manner.
"How dare you mock Irgaan as some sort of bear!? Irgaan will kill you and devour you!"
"Easy there Smokey, there's not been a single forest fire around here for a long time."
Roaring at the final taunt from Hunter, the Ursa swiped at Hunter who sidestepped and slashed at the Ursa's entire leg which connected and left a long laceration on its leg. Smirking at the cut, Hunter ran underneath the Ursa, narrowly dodging one of the tentacles swiping at him, Hunter slashed at the Ursa's stomach leaving a long line of a cut on the Ursa, while blood from the new wound fell on Hunter. Getting out from underneath the Ursa, Hunter jumped onto the Ursa's leg and left another cut in the Ursa this time going for a deep cut. Roaring in both pain and anger, the Ursa flailed with the pony on his leg and had its tentacles swipe at the hanging pony who was currently leaving a deep wound in its leg. This was exactly what Hunter had planned. Pulling his swords out from the wound in the leg he was making, Hunter dodged another tentacle and cut it off then grabbed onto one of the others that were swiping at him.
"Just as planned," Hunter thought and was ready to cut another tentacle off.
As he was about to slash at another tentacle, Hunter was hit by a demonic energy beam and got launched aways from the Ursa.
Groaning a bit and shaking the dirt out of his mane, Hunter looked at the Ursa in the distance with an annoyed expression as he got up onto his hind legs.
"Hold it right there mister!" A voice called from behind him.
"You gotta be fucking kidding me," Hunter muttered and turned around to see a purple alicorn and a rainbow-maned pegasus.
"You have a lot of nerve doing what you did in that forest, taking the magical artifact with power to possibly destroy Equestria!" Twilight called out in frustration. "What do you have to say in your defense?!"
"Look, now is not the time nor the place, so get out of here I have a demon to kill"
"No! Killing is not the right answer!"
"Well then, go tell the demon that then mother Teresa!"
"My name is not Mother Teresa!"
"Just shut up and get to safety!"
Getting really annoyed, Hunter advanced towards the Ursa ignoring all of the words that Twilight kept throwing at Hunter, telling him how in the wrong he was about his actions.
"Guess who's getting their ass kicked!" Hunter called out and sprinted towards the Ursa, taking care to keep an eye on the tentacles.
Twilight had not noticed the Ursa Minor before now because of her mind being so focused on teaching Hunter about what he did wrong and how he or others could get hurt from his actions. Taking a look at the Ursa from the distance Twilight and Rainbow Dash were at, she could clearly see that it wasn't a normal Ursa as the pegasus mare had told her. It had some sort of tentacles coming out from its back and was way bigger than a normal Ursa Minor, so big in fact it almost could've been bigger than an Ursa Major.
Jumping high up in the air, Hunter dodged a tentacle that tried to smack him only for the appendage to get cut off with a fast downwards slash from Hunter. Seeing the Ursa roar in pain and a new tentacle sprout from the ursa, Hunter had to do something to kill it fast so it couldn't regenerate tentacles. A horrible and crazy idea to end the ursa fast popped into Hunter's head but it would be a one time plan he'd never use again. Hunter used his agility and started to run up the ursa's leg while avoiding the beams that the tentacles kept shooting at him. Nearing the head of the ursa Hunter had a single thought go through his head about this plan.
"This is probably the worst and craziest plan I've ever had but it must work!" Hunter mentally told himself and jumped from the leg into the Ursa's mouth and slid down its throat.
Totally flabbergasted as to what Twilight and Rainbow Dash had just witnessed, both mares still couldn't believe it. Hunter had run over and climbed the Ursa, to let it swallow him whole. Why he would do such a thing, let alone consider it an option? Snapping out of their little trance, both mares noticed the Ursa making its way over to them and they saw a tentacle charging up a beam that was aiming at them. Twilight made a barrier around herself and Rainbow Dash, hoping it would hold enough for them to live to tell the princesses about this massive problem. Giving off a roar, the Ursa had its tentacle shot at the barrier and Twilight and Rainbow Dash closed their eyes whilst they braced for the impact. But it never came.
"Cease thy havoc beast!" A voice yelled from above.
Opening their eyes Twilight and Rainbow Dash looked up to see a mare wielding a sword sparking with electricity coming to their aid. Noticing the pony flying above it, the Ursa snarled at the newcomer whilst bearing its teeth. Taking note of the blue translucent mane flowing through the night sky, it was easy to tell that it was Princess Luna that had arrived in the nick of time to save Twilight and Rainbow Dash.
"So, the princess of the night has arrived before the mighty Irgaan, big mistake," Irgaan said while staring at the pony.
"The only mistake we have made is of not finding you ourselves beast," Luna replied with venom in her voice.
Cackling, the ursa had one of its tentacles charge an attack but was rudely interrupted by a sword poking out of the ursa's back. Roaring in pain as the sword sliced through the back and tentacles of the ursa, the beast rolled onto its back trying to get the pain to stop but it just wouldn't stop. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Luna stared at the ursa cautious and confused at what they were seeing. At one point the beast stopped rolling and just laid down on its side grunting and bleeding, with barely any strength left. Landing and moving over to the beast's head, Luna was prepared to deliver the final blow and lifted her sword and was about the stab it.
"We art sorry for the twisted fate which caused thou to be change into a demon, ursa." Luna said.
Still holding the blade in her magic, Luna thrust the sword downward and stabbed the beast's head, only for a sword to stick out of the head and block the sword the lunar princess was wielding. Seeing the beast ripple and rumble Luna took a few steps back as the beast slowly disintegrated, leaving behind a pool of blood and a blood-covered stallion where the beast just was.
"Absolutely the worst FUCKING plan you've ever had Hunter! 'Since I can't hurt it from outside how about the inside?' At least you weren't dumb enough to try and climb out through its ass you fucking dumbass!" The blood-covered stallion ranted as he tried to get the blood out of his trenchcoat, mane, tail, and fur.
Shaking himself clean of as much blood as possible, Hunter looked around and saw the three mares staring at him. Hunter being the guy he is looked at them for a bit before taking note of the sword the lunar princess was wielding and became cautious. Having sheathed his swords Hunter kept staring at the lunar princess as she stared back, none of them saying a word. Twilight and Rainbow Dash stared nervously at both the stallion and the princess waiting for anything to happen. Chuckling and giving off a smirk Hunter broke the silence.
"So the lunar princess got a hold of Alastor I see" Hunter commented in his usual cocky demeanor.
"Hmph, and thou must that stallion we've been hearing about from our sister, though she forgot to tell us that thou was a bounty hunter," Luna replied with a small hint of venom.
"A bounty hunter? A bounty hunter doesn't ask questions when it comes to contracts and is on the side of whoever pays more. I have dignity and morale, unlike those bastards."
Turning his head to the side, Hunter saw what he was waiting for, a small glowing white orb heading towards him. Pointing her sword at Hunter, Luna prepared for him to jump at her, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash. Embracing the white glow, Hunter felt it invigorating him and gave him a stupid grin on his face. The glow moved to his back and expanded in two lines down, parallel his body and started to materialize some sort of quiver on Hunter's back with two insect wing-shaped sheaths. Once the glow started to dim down Hunter looked over his shoulders to see a familiar devil arm.
"Ahh Lucifer, been a while ol' pal," Hunter said and looked over to the one thing no one else seemed to have paid attention to.
A stone monolith with a small pedestal in front of it was standing right in front of them. To anyone, it would just be a massive old stone turned into a monolith but to Hunter, said monolith had to be destroyed. Giving a quick glance at the mares that were present, Hunter gave them a smirk and jumped high in the air.
"First I whip it out!" Hunter said as he grabbed some blades from his quivers and threw them at the monolith. "And then I thrust it with great force!"
Gasping at the sight of what Twilight was seeing, she yelled at him to stop but it fell on deaf ears.
"Every angle it penetrates, until with great strength I ram it in!" Hunter said as he kept throwing the blades.
Luna took notice that it wasn't normal blades but blades surrounded in red demon energy that Hunter was throwing into the monolith, which only caused Luna to be even more cautious. Hunter threw the last blade into the monolith and landed on the ground on his hindlegs with a rose in his mouth -where it came from non of the mares knew-. Giving off a few claps of his front hooves the blades that were embedded in the monolith exploded, leaving the monolith in the shape of a heart with a lone blade in the middle of the heart.
"And in the end, we are all satisfied," Hunter said before throwing the rose at the last blade. "And you are set free."
As the rose connected to the blade the blade exploded leaving the heart-shaped monolith broken. Turning back towards the mares Hunter gave off another of his smirks and gave a quick bow. Hunter saw Twilight advancing up to him looking like she's gonna rip off his dick off and show it up where the sun doesn't shine.
"You just broke an Equestrian artifact! What the Tartarus is wrong with you?! We still had secrets to uncover from it!" Twilight shrieked in Hunter's face.
Still standing on his hindlegs, Hunter gave Twilight a few pats on her head with a front hoof which earned him a glare from the purple alicorn.
"Well, you see smarty, that there wasn't an Equestrian artifact, it's more like a portal to your worst nightmares," Hunter replied not really giving a damn what Twilight was gonna say.
"That doesn't change the fact about what you have done, and my name is Twilight!"
"Tell me smarty, when was that monolith discovered? When was it built? What were its purposes?"
"The monolith it was-" Twilight started but was interrupted.
"It was built during our banishment to the moon. Why do any of these questions matter demon?" Luna said.
Chuckling, Hunter just smirked at Luna who kept her sword pointed at Hunter.
"Believe in what you want princess I don't really give a crap what you say about considering me a demon, all I know is opinion and beliefs are a thing ponies like to have," Hunter said and turned to leave but was stopped when the princess blocked him, by getting in front of him.
"And where do thou think thou ist going?"
"I'm going to Tartarus..." Hunter sarcastically. "I'm going back to Ponyville I've had enough for one night."
Walking past Luna, Hunter waited for her to stop him again but to Hunter's surprise, she didn't. Not wanting to take it for granted, Hunter headed towards Ponyville to get his bounty on the ursa and then home for some rest. But one thing that Hunter noticed was his demon senses picking up that he was being watched by someone or something from afar. Thinking he'd deal with it some other time Hunter kept his current plan and headed on home to his office.
In the distance hidden away on top of a hill, a shadowy figure had been looking at the group of four ponies, observing them and especially observing Hunter from his distance.
"Found you, Hunter, you've got something that belongs to me and I will have it."
A black void, that was all there was around. Grumbling at the sight of the black void, Hunter walked along a path he felt was there to get away from here, wherever 'here' was. There were faint eerie echos all around that grew louder as he walked. Feeling a chill go down his spine, Hunter tensed up a little something he rarely did due to the demons he's fought.
"Hunter run!" A faint but audible voice echoed must to Hunter's dismay.
Soon a tower started to form underneath his hooves and buildings far below the tower's top which Hunter suddenly found himself on. Hunter took a sharp breath and looked around not believing his own eyes. It was Temen-ni-gru, a tower with horror Hunter had witnessed at least 16 years ago but the tower was gone it couldn't be back. Perking his ears up Hunter heard the sound of metal clashing against each other in rapid and powerful motions. Looking over towards the sound Hunter froze completely, there he saw two bipedal figures -one in a red trenchcoat and one in a blue silver buttoned coat- both clashing their swords in battle. Breathing more rapidly Hunter could only stare as the two figures pressed their swords against each other trying to overpower the other. The red-coated figure was disarmed by the other figure's power and was then stabbed right in the stomach. Grunting in pain, the red figure could only stare at its opponent as blood coated the sword in its stomach. Pulling out the sword, the blue figure pulled its sword out of the red figure who stood for a few more seconds before falling limp onto its back. Feeling his breath grow more frantic, Hunter found it difficult to stand on his hooves at what he had witnessed but managed to find his voice.
"NOOO!!" Hunter screamed and drew the attention of the blue figure.
Feeling, even more, chills go down his spine Hunter's eyes widened as he saw a third figure appearing holding a book and looking at Hunter. The blue figure walked over to Hunter with its sword still red from the blood of the previous victim and unsheathed. Feeling fear let itself into Hunter's body, he just stared at the figure getting closer and closer. Standing in front of Hunter, the blue figure looked at Hunter before kicking him over to the red figure's corpse. There Hunter was laying on his side and gasped from the pain and the fear he was feeling. Looking at the corpse next to Hunter he took notice of the face and straight white hair partially covering the eyes of the now passed out bipedal and recognized who it was, it was the one who took Hunter in as a foal and cared for him.
"D-Dante?" Hunter asked even though he knew he wouldn't get an answer.
Panting as he laid there Hunter heard the footsteps of his attacker draw near and probably to finish the job. Painfully turning to lay on his back, Hunter saw the blue figure standing above him though his face was now visible with a look which was cold and ruthless. Like the corpse, this figure had white hair which was also partially covering the eyes of the figure but the eyes from what Hunter could see were filled with pain.
"W-why?" Hunter asked and groaned from the pain.
"Foolishness Hunter Foolishness. Might controls everything. Without strength you cannot protect anything, let alone yourself," the figure told Hunter before walking away from Hunter while following the other remaining figure.
Looking back at the corpse next to him, Hunter cuddled close and began crying until he passed out from exhaustion.
Waking up in what felt like an ocean of sweat and with rapid breathing, Hunter frantically looked around searching for any sign of danger only to find the light of the morning sun pouring in through the front windows. Taking at least ten minutes if not more to make sure nothing was wrong Hunter groaned and rubbed his head with his front hooves. Sitting up on the couch he had been sleeping on, Hunter gave off a long yawn and popped a few of his joints as he stretched.
"Another nightmare, same one too," Hunter muttered to himself. "Why does it haunt me?"
Getting off of the couch Hunter noticed that there were a few letters in front of his front door and when over to pick up the letters. Skimming through the letters it was mainly junk mail and a letter from an advertisement. Rolling his eyes Hunter threw the mail into the trashcan nearby and headed for the bathroom to wash off the sweat. Walking upstairs to his second-floor Hunter entered the first door on his left and entered a small bathroom. It wasn't anything special in terms of bathrooms but was still very reliable to Hunter.
Taking his trenchcoat off Hunter hang it on the single clothing hook that was installed and turned towards the sink. Taking a look in the mirror hanging on the wall above the sink, Hunter could see how much of a wreck he currently was, bags were starting to form under his eyes as well as his mane being disheveled more so than usual. Looking over his flank he noticed his cutie mark which he never really gave much attention. A single red drop of liquid with a pair of fiery wings attached to said drop with a small halo above it, that was what his cutie mark resembled yet he wasn't sure what it meant. Shaking his head Hunter turned and entered the shower he had and turned on the cold water to try and let it wash away his sweat and unease.
Despite the water being cold, Hunter let the water run down his body and was lost deep in thought about what happened last night. He fought an Ursa Minor bigger than an Ursa Major and it had also been a host to some sort of demonic power hence the tentacles it had sprouting out of its back. What also puzzled Hunter was why his newest devil arm Lucifer manifested from the bear after he killed it. Hunter knew he wouldn't really understand it since he wasn't the brightest when it came to how or why demonic things were happening so Hunter just let it slide for now and finished his shower before he'd start using too much water. Grabbing a towel to start drying himself off Hunter made a mental note to go to Canterlot as soon as possible to meet the princesses and hear about how Alastor came in the possession of Princess Luna and hopefully only to talk to Celestia and not Luna.
Feeling clean and dry Hunter grabbed his trenchcoat and put it on and went back to the main room to find the current fan favorite book on his desk, 'The Great Demon War'. The book described the adventures of a bipedal demon hunter saving Equestria from being conquered by demons who wanted to take over the world to absorb the magic and use it for themselves. Having skimmed through the book over the past few days since he got his hands on it Hunter had made a mental list of areas he'd have to go investigate at one point. As of now, Hunter would keep his office closed for today and go wherever the day might take him.
In Canterlot, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia were currently sitting in a small conference room in the castle. Luna has brought her sister's attention towards Hunter, a single stallion capable of wielding demonic weapons, whilst possessing incredible speed, strength, and healing capabilities. Something that needed to be kept a very close eye on in case it should be of ill intent.
"So as thou can tell sister, this stallion is too dangerous to be doing as he pleases which is why we want the royal guard or the night guard to apprehend him before he does any damage to our littlest of ponies. Especially with the demon blood running through his veins"
Taking a sip from the teacup Celestia held in her magic, she could understand the concerns Luna had but going as far as calling him a demon was a little too much. Sighing the solar princess spoke.
"Luna, we can't just apprehend him because you think he's a danger to ponies around him. Do you remember what I told you from the incident in the Everfree forest? He saved me, Twilight and all of her friends before taking the sword and leaving. He could have taken it and just left us to defend ourselves but he didn't."
"Celestia art thou even listening to thyself? He's taken a sword with incredible demon power, killed an Ursa Minor heavily mutated with demon power, recognized Alastor a sword no one except us and Dante knows of and he destroyed a piece of Equestrian history! How art thou so calm about tis?!" Luna asked in a demanding tone.
Taking another sip from her teacup Celestia looked at her sister not even fazed by her sister's claims since Celestia has heard even crazier claims.
"The reason why is simply because there's a familiar aura about him if you will. One that I'm sure you'd recognize." Celestia said and got out of her chair. "But if you're so inclined to prove he is indeed a demon that means harm I shall send a letter to Twilight to keep an eye on him and report back to me."
Sighing in defeat for trying to tell her sister of the demon among them, Luna just nodded in acceptance.
"We guess tis the best we can do for now."
Roaming around through a vinyl store Hunter had been there since they opened a little before noon and was browsing through the small store in hopes of finding some interesting vinyl records but so far nothing piqued his interest. Having listened to all of the records in his jukebox back at his office, it was certainly time to get some new ones and not go insane from all of the same songs. There were all kinds of records including, Pop, classical, symphony, etc. but most of them didn't look worth it. Picking up a few random records Hunter walked over to the cashier and put them on the counter which made the mare behind the counter nervous.
"H-hello sir I s-see you got a t-taste in the odd types of m-music?" the cashier mare asked nervously. Clearly, she was not a social butterfly.
"Yes? Anything wrong with these records? They're not broken are they?" Hunter asked in confusion.
"N-no of course not! I-it's just that those r-records are very loud and obnoxious in the s-style it's m-made in."
Hearing this Hunter's eyes almost went wide in shock. Did he hear that right? This is supposed to be loud and obnoxious? like most of the music, he listened to in his early life? Either way, Hunter paid for the records -even though the cashier tried to recommend a lot of other records different records that weren't as 'obnoxious'- and happily took them with him back to his office while feeling gitty on the inside.
Walking through the town Hunter could hear the gossip of the nearby ponies talking about a giant Ursa Minor outside of town suddenly vanishing, some of the gossiping ponies even looked at Hunter as he walked by as if they thought he had anything to do with it. If only they knew what had happened the night before. Reaching his office Hunter did the only sensible thing he could think of which was to kick the front doors open.
"Good to be home in the office again."
Entering his office and closing the door behind him Hunter put the records on his desk and gave the records a look. Looking at them there was not really much to see on the sleeve the records were in. It was just blank sleeves with the records safely tucked in them It didn't really matter to Hunter only if the songs were actually worth listening to. Walking over to his jukebox with the records Hunter opened the glass panel up and put the new records in some of the empty record-holders. As he was about to pick one of the new songs he had put in, Hunter heard a knock on his front door and swore to whoever was listening that they had a horrible sense of humor and timing. Sighing, Hunter walked over to his front door and opened it to reveal the elements of harmony on his doorstep. This couldn't be bad, right?
"Can I help you all?" Hunter asked in slight annoyance.
"Sorry to disturb you, sir. I'm Twilight Sparkle and we'd like to ask you something," Twilight said.
"Sorry babe, but if this is about a job the office is closed for the day."
Getting slightly flustered at Hunter's words, Twilight Sparkle coughed into a hoof and tried regaining her composure.
"No! N-no no. It's not a job, what made you even think that?"
"Well, this here is my office and I take on jobs that ponies can't do themselves and pay me for it. Now if that's all I wish you all a good day," Hunter said as he started closing the door.
"W-wait m-mister!" a timid and barely audible voice called out to Hunter raised an eyebrow and looked at Fluttershy.
Realizing that Hunter was looking at her she 'eep'd and quickly hid behind her mane. Turning his attention to the rest of the mares, Hunter could see the determination in their eyes and that they wouldn't let him be without doing whatever it was they wanted with him. Hunter gave a sigh as he lowered his head slightly and opened both of the doors and walked in.
"You girls comin' in or what?" He called out to them.
Nodding to each other the mares entered Hunter's house and closed the doors. Upon seeing the inside of the house however the mares were shocked. It was completely and utterly disgusting. Pizza boxes were littered across the tables, there were a few burn marks on the walls and floor. How could someone live like this? The mares looked at Hunter with a bemused stare, which he just shrugged and leaned back in one of the couches in the office the only somewhat clean pieces of furniture in the room.
"H-how can you live like this?!" Twilight asked in a somewhat scared tone.
"Well, living with my father I was usually the one to do the most chores since he was out of the house a lot working, so excuse me for not being able to clean up if I have to be outta my office a lot," Hunter said and took a slice of pizza from the box on the coffee table in front of him.
The mares slowly got over to the couches and had Applejack, Pinkie, and Twilight sit in the couch opposite of Hunter while Fluttershy, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash sat on the couch next to him. Finishing his slice Hunter looked back and forth between the mares and waited for them to say something. Hunter could see they all had a different expression on their faces, the white mare had a look of disgust as to how things were looking in the office, typical of a ladylike mare. Fluttershy was mostly nervous and scared judging by the amount of shaking Hunter could see on her form, while Rainbow Dash had a glare directed towards him, probably because of the events the day prior. Pinkie had a smile on her face like she usually did as she seemed to never take any danger too seriously for whatever reason. Applejack had a calm look and waited patiently as she was sitting on the couch. Twilight looked like she was about as nervous as Fluttershy but that would mean it's an important task she's gotten.
"Alright, let's get the show on the road since I'm sure this isn't about thanking me for saving you in the Everfree," Hunter said and looked at Twilight while ignoring a 'hmph' from Rarity.
"Well there are a few questions that have come to our attention and you are the only source of reliable information sir," Twilight said trying her best to keep calm.
"Oh really? and what sort of questions are we talking about here? Why I'm always wearing a coat? Why my office is a mess?" Hunter asked sarcastically and gave off an annoyed snort.
"Hey! Twi didn't do nothin' to ya, why the hostility?" Applejack asked growing irritated.
Rolling his eyes Hunter lifted his right front hoof and gestured Twilight to go on so they could finish faster and he could relax.
"Well first off and probably one of the most important questions. How are you alive?" Twilight asked. "We saw you get stabbed by at least 5 demons and you just shrugged it off like you weren't even phased by it. You should've passed out from pure pain if not outright dying."
"Well, I'm harder to kill than I look let's just say that," Hunter replied with a smirk.
"But that doesn'-"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, so just leave it at that."
"Urrgg... fine but we'll return to that question at one point," Twilight said in annoyance. "Question two: How are you able to teleport small distances without being a unicorn?"
"Easy, I picked it up from my dad years ago," Hunter replied with no hesitation.
"But how? You're not a unicorn! Were there runes involved? Spells? Rituals? Magical studies even the princesses don't know?!" Twilight frantically asked to try and make sense of it.
"No, I just learned it from my dad. No fancy spells, rituals or any of that kind, just pure and simple training."
"So you're saying you could just teach me something like that?" Rainbow Dash asked with interest.
Looking at the rainbow-maned mare Hunter shook his head with a plain and simple 'no' in response. Grumbling at the fact it could've been useful for pranking other ponies Rainbow Dash was disappointed that she couldn't be taught or maybe it was because Hunter just didn't want to teach her? Either way, Rainbow Dash wasn't happy.
"Any others wanting to question things about me so princess over there has a chance to calm down?" Hunter asked as he noticed Twilight was getting frustrated with his answers.
"I-I do mister H-Hunter. H-How long have you been searching?" Fluttershy asked.
Raising an eyebrow at this question Hunter leaned forward towards the yellow-colored mare.
"Fluttershy? What kind of question is that?" Rainbow Dash asked her fellow pegasus in confusion.
"Searching for what?" Hunter asked.
"H-How long have you been searching for him?" Fluttershy asked.
Looking at Fluttershy, Hunter just stared at her for a few minutes. Did Fluttershy make him angry? Sad? She hoped she didn't and was nervous of how Hunter would react to the question. Finally, after much silence, Hunter lowered his head.
"Long enough for others to give up." Hunter finally replied as he got up from the couch and walked over to his desk to sit on the chair behind the desk. "Do me a favor and get off of my property I'm not in the mood for more talking!"
Surprised at the sudden change in Hunter's tone from annoyed to angry, the mares just took a glance at each other before Fluttershy gently nodded and headed for the door as the first one while the rest of the group slowly followed suit. A few minutes passed before Hunter dropped his attitude and reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a silver amulet and a picture and put them on the desk. The amulet was wrought in silver with a red jewel in the middle and even though it was meant to be worn around the neck Hunter never did.
Looking at the picture Hunter saw three individuals, Hunter and two furless apes known as humans. The tall human was a male, who wore a red trenchcoat similar to Hunter's and had white hair with bangs somewhat covering his blue eyes and wielded a friendly smirk. The other human was a smaller female human. She donned a white blouse and a skirt which Hunter always thought were too small for her. She had ragged bob black hair and a heterochromatic set of eyes with the left one being red and the right one being bluish-green, which always fascinated Hunter as well. Despite the relationship between both of the humans, Hunter always would know them as his parents no matter what.
"One vanished and the other is probably worried sick not knowing where I am," Hunter muttered to himself. "I'll figure things out always have."
"Ah don't understand it. He's an earth pony stallion that can teleport small distances and fall from heights that would break a leg on Big Mac. None of them things he said were lies either!" Applejack said as the group of mares had left Hunter's house. "He makes me so annoyed that ah'm tempted to go with Dash's plan and tie him up to interegate him!"
"While I do agree with you Applejack darling that it's not right nor the way he treats us, maybe it would be best if we didn't try and tie him up," Rarity told Applejack.
"But it still kept giving us more questions than answers," Twilight said. "Has he something to hide? Does he have a connection to what happened in the Everfree and last night? And probably the most important one. Who is he searching for?"
Hunter was sitting behind his desk in his office while listening to one of the new records he'd gotten his hooves on earlier that day. Leaning back in his chair, Hunter groaned in annoyance as he was looking back to what had happened not too long ago. The Elements of Harmony had entered Hunter's home and started questioning him about what he is and how he'd survived stab wounds no one would survive. Could this day get any worse? With his luck, the day would only get worse. Just as Hunter was about to doze off for a nap his door suddenly burst open causing Hunter to fall out of his chair.
"Oh come on!" Hunter practically yelled at his ceiling. "Just give me one fucking day to relax!"
Muttering swears under his breath, Hunter got up onto his hooves and saw a small orange pegasus filly with a frizzled purple mane and tail laying on his floor dazed and groaning, probably because she was the one to burst through Hunter's doors.
"Scootaloo!"
Hunter heard someone call out from his front door and looked to see two fillies, standing in his doorway looking worried at the pegasus in his house. One of them was yellow earth pony filly, with a red mane and tail who donned a pink bow in her mane. The other was a white unicorn filly with a grayish mulberry and light grayish curly mane and tail to match. Hunter had heard of these three fillies, they were known as the 'Cutie Mark Crusaders' and as cute as they were they got into a lot of dangerous situations or trouble. The entrance though reminded him of that time when a blonde human girl broke down the doors to his father's shop. Shaking his head out of the memory, Hunter quickly got over to the filly on the floor and checked her for damages.
"Hey kid, you alright?" Hunter asked the orange filly.
"W-why's everything spinning?" She asked.
Not really getting a straight answer wasn't a bad thing per se, at least it told Hunter that the filly was awake though she was bleeding a bit and the bruise she had on the right front leg looked very nasty. Picking the filly up, Hunter put her down carefully in one of the couches he had in his office and gestured for the two fillies, who had worry all over their faces, to come over.
"M-Mister? I-Is Scootaloo alright?" Asked the white unicorn after she saw the bruise on Scootaloo.
"She'll be fine, she's not in danger of any kind," Hunter replied to ease the nerves of the two fillies. "Will one of you be so kind as to go and get the medkit I have in one of the drawers in my desk?"
Looking over behind Hunter's desk, the yellow filly quickly went over to the desk and grabbed the medkit from one of the drawers and brought it back to Hunter. Putting the medkit on the coffee table, Hunter grabbed a small spray bottle and took hold of the injured filly's bruised leg and then proceeded to spray her bruise with disinfecting liquid. Yelping in pain from the disinfection, Scootaloo snapped out of her little daze and tried to escape the pain before it got worse. Muttering words like, 'I'm sorry' under his breath, Hunter finished disinfecting the bruise and grabbed some bandages from the medkit and started wrapping some around her leg to cover the bruise.
"There, that should keep your bruise clean and not have it get infected," Hunter said and packed the medical supplies away.
After the cleaning of her bruise, Scootaloo looked after her bandaged leg and groaned a bit thinking about what to tell her family once she comes home with another bruise. Scootaloo looked around to see her friends next to the couch she was laying on, happy that she wasn't in a bad condition.
"You alright kid?" Hunter asked as he joined the three fillies, on the couch across from Scootaloo.
"Y-Yeah, it stings a bit but I've had worse," Scootaloo replied. "Who are you?"
Chuckling a bit Hunter smiled.
"I'm Hunter, and you three must be the fillies trying to do everything to get their cutie marks. Who are your two friends?" Hunter asked turning his attention to the unicorn and earth pony in the room.
"I'm Sweetie Belle!" The white unicorn answered with glee.
"An' Ah'm Applebloom," the earth pony answered.
"Pleasure. So what were you girls doing that caused one of you to fly into my office through the front doors?" Hunter asked.
Looking nervously at each other the fillies then smiled sheepishly at Hunter.
"Well, we had planned on meeting in town square today and-" Scootaloo replied.
"Sctooaloo was riding her scooter a little faster than usual," Sweetie Belle cut off.
"An' one of her wheels suddenly snapped off as she was riding!" Applebloom finished.
"Reminds me of dad and I were speeding down Temen-ni-gru only for it to abruptly end as the Leviathan gobbled us up..." Hunter muttered to himself.
"Sorry, what was that mister?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Huh? Oh, nothing you need to worry your head about," Hunter quickly said putting it aside. "Though I have a question, where is your scooter Scootaloo?"
Blinking at the sudden question, Scootaloo looked towards the door and quickly ran for the outside to check on her Scooter, grunting from the stinging sensation from her leg as she did. Hunter got up from the couch and decided to follow her as well to see the damage done outside of his office. It couldn't have been that bad, but just in case.
Coming outside, Hunter noticed a few ponies had gathered outside of Hunter's office and were looking confused and worried at Scootaloo who was too busy looking at her scooter, as if to figure out why one wheel suddenly snapped off. Deciding to walk over to Scootaloo, Hunter almost tripped when he stepped on the missing wheel which seemed to be almost new. Picking up the wheel Hunter called out to Scootaloo.
"Hey Scootaloo, I found the wheel if you're looking for it,"
Turning around, Scootaloo barely caught the wheel that Hunter had thrown to her.
"So how's the scooter looking?" Hunter asked.
"Well, only the wheel snapped off," Scootaloo said as she turned to look at her scooter again. "Aw man, I really loved that scooter,"
Seeing Applebloom and Sweetie Belle run over to Scootaloo, Hunter looked at the ground in front of his office and couldn't see a single thing that would have caused the wheel to snap. Not a single hole, crack, or something of the like that would snap an almost new wheel off.
"Excuse me, mister hunter?" A voice called out snapping Hunter out of his thoughts.
Shaking his head a bit, Hunter looked down to see Sweetie Belle looking up at him.
"Thank you for helping Scootaloo, even if she wouldn't thank you outright."
"I heard that!" Scootaloo called back which earned a giggle from Applebloom.
"No problem, just don't go making a habit out of flying into ponies houses you three," Hunter replied with a bit of a chuckle.
"We won't!" The fillies all said in unison.
Chuckling Hunter returned back into his office and closed the doors behind him.
Now that Hunter was alone again, he walked over to his desk and looked up at Rudra and Agni, who ere hanging on the wall behind his desk.
"You two felt something didn't you?" Hunter asked the twin blades.
"Yes master, we felt the presence of a powerful demon nearby," Rudra answered.
"We don't know what it was doing, nor could we identify it like we usually were able to," Agni continued.
"It may very well be a new type of demon you've never encountered before, like that bear yesterday," both of them said.
Sighing a little bit Hunter kicked his office chair up again and sat down talking out loud.
"If it wants a fight it should just come and bring a fight!"
"Before that master, doesn't it strike you odd that those three fillies didn't ask about your dirty and armed office?"
"Meh," Hunter said as he shrugged. "I wouldn't be surprised if they've seen their fair share of things."
In a secluded location, a hooded pony was looking into a cauldron projecting a picture of an office in Ponyville.
"Careful with what you say, Hunter, you just might get it, but then again that's how you grew up to be isn't it? Growing up in that world of humans with Dante teaching you all there is to know about killing demons. Stabbing, slicing, shooting projectiles, getting all of those powers of yours? If you just think that will help you then I'm afraid you're out of luck. I have some big plans for you colt and there's nothing you can do to stop the demons rising. Isn't that right deary?" the pony asked the creature standing behind them.
"Wouldn't it be easier to just get some of his blood if not outright end him to get what you need?" the creature asked.
"It would be easier, yes, though we'd have to adapt since we wouldn't have him right here to start the transfusion and that would mean you wouldn't get the power you want," the pony replied back. "And I don't think I need to remind you of the loses you acquired even though you had the upper hoof do I?"
"Hmph, I only lost cause I didn't have my full potential and because of him. This time, it will be different."
"Good deary, and remember I always keep my promises, you will get what you deserve. After all, you are the strong one of the litter. These ponies won't know what hit them before it's too late. They'll try and call Hunter for help, but he will be in our clutches before they can even consider asking him for help," the hooded pony chuckled. "Come, we have preparations to make and creatures to befriend."
Hunter wiped the sweat off of his brow, after having taken a few hours to clean his office. It wasn't sparkly clean but it was welcoming. Being proud of his work, Hunter looked over his devil arms he had acquired so far. As he glanced over Lucifer and the twin blades, Hunter remembered an ability his father used to keep weapons on his person, without having to carry it physically all at once but never decided to learn it, much to his dismay. Looking over on his desk, Hunter saw the book, 'The Great Demon War' and decided to give it a look in case there would be anything written about this ability. Hunter opened it and skimmed through the book, looking for words about the abilities used by the 'hero in red'. Grumbling as he kept on skimming, Hunter thought it would take him ages to skim through the book to even get a glance at these abilities.
"There's gotta be something in here to tell me about how he did it," Hunter said out loud. "And I told him I'd learn it but kept on pushing it aside."
Taking a deep breath, Hunter imagined his father's weaponry on his back that would change into another weapon in the blink of an eye. Could it have been some sort of stasis the weapons were in? Some sort of demonic power that kept his weapons hidden, until someone defeated him? Maybe it worked like how the demons did when they were defeated and left themselves as a devil arm. Hunter gave a quick glance at his devil arms, then closed his eyes and began to concentrate. Like his father, Hunter would rather learn by doing than by reading about it. Feeling his devil arms' powers, Hunter embraced them and started imagining them being a part of him, like a small white orb he'd absorb and use for his own good, but could easily be taken from him should he die. Feeling some weight slightly change on his back, Hunter opened his eyes and turned his head to see that Lucifer was now on his back while Rudra and Agni, as well as Sparda, was nowhere to be seen. Closing his eyes and imagining Rudra and Agni on his back instead of Lucifer, Hunter felt a slight change of weight on his back again and noticed that Rudra and Agni were on his back again.
"Huh, guess I didn't need your practices for this trick dad," Hunter said confidentially.
"Learning another trick are we Hunter?" A voice called out.
Looking over to his couches, Hunter saw Sapphire, sitting in one of them, sipping from a plastic bottle.
"You know, I'm getting kinda annoyed by the ways you suddenly just drop by Sapphire," Hunter said and joined Sapphire on the couch opposite of her.
"Aww, you wound me, Hunter. I just thought I'd drop by to hear what the commotion, I heard today was about," Sapphire said and gave a fake gasp. "Did a mare go crazy and clean your office?"
"No Sapphire, there wasn't a mare or another stallion here but me," Hunter said. "Thanks for the vote of confidence in thinking I can't clean my own office!"
"No problem Hunter~"
Groaning, Hunter facehoofed and laid down with front legs behind his head as he got comfortable even though Rudra and Agni were on his back. This was something Hunter had gotten used to as well as the blades.
"No, the commotion you heard? I think someone wants me to notice them," Hunter said.
"Any idea who?" Sapphire said getting a little more serious.
"No idea. All I can tell you is what makes me suspicious about it."
"I'm listening."
Hunter told Sapphire about how the morning went with the CMC accidentally crashed into his house and had Hunter make sure Scootaloo's nasty bruise wouldn't get infected. Afterward, they had a small talk -without the girls really noticing or asking Hunter about the weapons on display- as to why it happened, before Scootaloo realized her scooter was outside and made a mad dash to see the damages.
"So..." Sapphire began. "You're telling me, that when you looked at the wheel from the scooter, it looked like it was almost brand new?"
"Yup, couldn't have been more than a week ago that wheel was fitted on most likely," Hunter replied. "Yet there it was, completely cut off from where it belonged as if it had been cut off just like that."
"And who would be able to do that without anypony noticing?" Sapphire asked.
"Honestly? I know one guy but he can't be here. Not in Equestria," Hunter said and stretched. "So you planning on staying the night? It is getting rather late."
"If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to cuddle extra close to the stallion who owns this place~" Sapphire purred and fluttered her eyelids at Hunter.
"Sapphire, the only way you'd get me to sleep with you at the current moment of our lives is if you got me drunk and managed to get me horny at the same time, which wouldn't help as the booze would contradict my arousal," Hunter replied as he closed his eyes.
Feeling a shift of weight on his body, Hunter opened his eyes and saw Sapphire laying on him, her head next to his and gently breathed into his cheek.
"Sapphire? This isn't-" Hunter said but was silenced when Sapphire spoke.
"I get terrified when I have to sleep alone away from home," Sapphire said in a hushed and nervous tone. "It's something bad happened when I was young, Hunter. Please let me sleep with you I won't make any advances or anything to you during the night, just please let me sleep with you."
Taken back from what Sapphire said, Hunter tried to say something but couldn't find the words, he could only just lay there listening to the sound of them both breathing. What could he say? That, 'There are no monsters and everything's gonna be alright'? Hunter could feel the mare in question shaking a bit but just laid still on him otherwise. It reminded him of himself when he was a colt. Taking a front leg, Hunter wrapped it around Sapphire, who gave off a little 'eep' in surprise but made no move to remove it.
"Alright, you got yourself a deal Sapphire," Hunter said and closed his eyes. "But do me a favor and don't have a wet dream if you're gonna lay on top of me."
Giggling a small bit Sapphire got a little bit more relaxed and closed her eyes as well.
"Doesn't mean I won't try and make it up to you for this," Sapphire said.
Hunter was confused when he found himself floating around in a white void. Looking around everything was white, no ground, no sky just plain white.
"Huh, this is new. Last thing I remember is the office and falling asleep with Sapphire on top of me." Realizing what Hunter just said he facehoofed. "Because that's normal, without going at it like rabbits in heat."
Suddenly in front of Hunter, an image of sorts popped up and all he saw was the backside of Sapphire bouncing up and down on a stallion with a red trenchcoat. It didn't take a genius to figure out what that was. It was Sapphire playing 'Hide the Pickle' with Hunter. Growing flustered, Hunter looked away and gave a loud annoyed groan.
"I didn't need an imaginary presentation of what sex between me and Sapphire could look like!" Hunter exclaimed. "I don't have time to indulge in those activities!"
"Oh Hunter, you naughty, naughty colt~," the projected Sapphire said, much to Hunter's frustrations and his rising arousal.
Covering himself up out of instinct with the help of his trenchcoat, Hunter closed his eyes and tried to think of anything else.
"Alright, unsexy things, unsexy things..." Hunter told himself. "Demons, blood, gore, visceral, Nevan- gah! I said unsexy things brain!"
After trying to calm down for a while, Hunter heard everything go silent and felt some sort of warmth embrace him, a warmth he hadn't felt in years.
"So thou do need rest after all," a voice echoed.
"Great, now I'm starting to hear Luna's voice. I'm not a senile old fart yet!" Hunter yelled out.
"Nay, thou are not."
Opening his eyes, Hunter saw the void around him taking shape. A grassy field with flowers of various colors sprouted and went on for what looked like forever. It was like taken out of a fairytale but so was Equestria. Feeling a glare coming from behind him, Hunter put the events of what had just happened together and knew what was going on. He was in a dream and Luna was here and she was standing behind him.
"Where's dad's special knockout drink when I need it?" Hunter thought to himself, as a glass bottle appear and float in front of him. " Ah, there it is. Wait, can I even knock myself out in a dream?"
"Demon, we wish to speak with thee, so if you'd please, turn around and face us and stop hiding in thine clothing," Luna said.
"Sure... yeah... talk then, 'cause I am fine right here," Hunter replied not turning.
"Demon, we won't ask again, turn around or we'll turn you around for you."
"Just talk, I'm listening, and my name is Hunter!"
"Why must thou be so childish?"
Walking over to Hunter, Luna got in front of the stallion hiding his body in his trenchcoat, only to have him turn in the opposite direction. Rolling her eyes Luna walked in front of him again which granted the same result.
"Will thou just face me so we can talk?!" Luna asked in annoyance.
"Trust me, it's better this way princess," Hunter replied.
Giving another attempt, Luna walked in front of Hunter and he responded with turning around again.
"ENOUGH!" Luna yelled using her royal Canterlot voice. "Thou have forced our hoof!"
Using her magic Luna grabbed Hunter by the torso and turned him around to face her and opened his trenchcoat and regretted it instantly. Hunter was standing at full attention and had used his trenchcoat to hide the fact from Luna. Turning her head to the side, Luna had a massive blush on her cheeks and let Hunter go of her magic.
"Thou could have warned us, demon," Luna said, trying to fight off the embarrassed blush.
"Yet you kept trying to see what was underneath my jacket!" Hunter said defensively and hid in his trenchcoat again. "Wanted me to just say, 'I have a hard-on, don't take a peek underneath'?"
"N-no! Just... we wish to talk demon."
"What do you want to talk about? You claim that I am a demon Luna, yet you have no proof." Hunter objected
"We want to know what thou were doing, fighting that Ursa Minor affected by demonic power and why thou had brought lady Twilight and lady Rainbow Dash there as well!" Luna demanded.
"I didn't bring them there myself and the reason I fought Smokey back there? I accepted a deal with a commander Iron Heart. Maybe... IT'S BECAUSE I HAVE A LOT OF PENT UP FRUSTRATIONS THAT I WILL TAKE OUT ON ANY FUCKING DEMON THAT THREATENS TO HURT THE INNOCENT!" Hunter yelled at the demanding alicorn.
"The way thou handled thyself prove little to help thy point. The speed thou had when thou destroyed the artifact, the strength thou used to pierce thy blade through the Ursa's skull. No normal pony would be able to do such feats so effortlessly," Lund pointed out. "Yet, thou were able to do such feats and still be in one piece. What art thou?"
Looking at Hunter, Luna could see the tears being fought back and feel the anger coming from within, but there was something more she couldn't quite put her hoof on. But what caught her attention was a silver amulet and blank paper. The amulet was familiar to the point where Luna levitated both paper and amulet over to her and to inspect the items.
"Hey! Leave my stuff alone!" Hunter demanded from Luna as she flipped the paper and gave a gasp.
There Hunter was, in a picture with two ape-like creatures. Standing there looking at the picture for a minute or two, Luna shook her head and glanced back to Hunter.
"Thou knew Dante? 'The Hero in Red'?" Luna asked.
"What is it to you? Not like you'll leave it alone anyway," Hunter said and snorted in annoyance.
Levitating the picture and amulet back to Hunter who snatched them and put them in his pocket. Luna became more mellow and sat down in front of Hunter.
"He saved our world a long time ago, yet we've never been able to repay such a debt," Luna said.
"I know that story, Kagloth right?" Hunter asked, to which Luna nodded.
"Yes if it wasn't for Dante, we'd all but perished back then," Luna said and started channeling mild magic through her horn. "Tell us, young Hunter, how did thou get to know Dante?
"Met him outside of Equestria about... 15 years ago, when I was four," Hunter said.
Using her magic Luna brought forth a square-like picture, though it suddenly started moving and showed Hunter and Princess Luna how he had met Dante.
Working in a small office, Nell Goldstein, a gunsmith known as the, '.45 Calibur Virtuoso', was sorting through weapon parts so she could work without having to spend time looking for a part that could be right in front of her. Though she's been known as a legend for crafting custom weaponry, she had gotten older since then and now just preferred upgrading weapons others had made.
"Hey, old lady you here?" A voice called as her office door opened and revealed a man donning a red trenchcoat and white hair. "Haven't kicked the bucket yet, have you?"
"You annoying little brat Tony, how many times how I told you to knock before you enter?" Goldstein asked back as she came into view, holding a gun frame. "And just when I thought I had a day to myself."
"Well, aren't we a little self-centered today? By the way, when are you going to fix the plate?" Tony asked as he pointed at the gold plate that read, '.45 Calibar Warks'. "Even a kid wouldn't make that spelling mistake like that."
"Tsk, It's always been like that and I don't mind it."
"You don't mind, 'cause you can't read properly because of your age," Tony teased.
"Why don't you tell me why you're here before I make sure you'll be eating soap for that foul mouth of yours?" Goldstein threatened.
"Buzzkill. Well, I got another gun you could take a look at for me."
"Again? How many guns is it this month?" Goldstein asked bewilderedly
"I dunno, I don't really keep count."
"I'm not your personal gunsmith!" Goldstein objected. "Just give me the damn gun, if it'll keep you quiet,"
"Fair enough,"
Despite her objection, Goldstein took the gun Tony handed her and began examining it. From the looks of things, it was still usable but needed a thorough cleaning and a few parts could probably do with a changing.
"So, is it usable?" Tony asked.
"Yes, but by whom? This thing wouldn't suit you. This HSC Mauser isn't something you shoot wildly with. It would most likely jam if not outright break." Goldstein replied.
"Well, you see about that..." Tony started and rubbed the back of his neck. "The P08 you gave me? It kinda... well, let's just say it's seen better days,"
"You broke the Luger? Oh, give me a damn break!" Goldstein groaned. "I spent so much energy on that pistol!"
This was a normal conversation between the two since Tony, always broke the guns he got by trying to fire them as fast as a machine gun and then he had to come to Goldstein and ask for a replacement. Always improving guns for Tony until he would inevitably wear them out and Goldstein would always have trouble, finding parts that would be able to handle the stress and so far that goal hadn't been reached yet.
"You know, normal people wouldn't be able to pull the trigger as fast as you can Tony. I've had to rebuild weapons from scratch to even make them somewhat reliable to you."
"And that's why I only come to you."
"Flattery isn't your strong suit Tony, I'm just letting you know how much of a pain in the ass you are."
Taking another look at the gun Tony had handed her, Goldstein tried to examine what parts would be required and where the upgrades could fit, Goldstein muttered to herself.
"Have the strip the entire frame down and the costs for the parts alone wouldn't even be worth it. Just forget it."
"Oh, come on old lady, don't say that! A merc without his gun wouldn't look right at all."
"Since when did anyone care about how a mercenary looked?" Goldstein asked in annoyance and put the Mauser in the desk drawer. "It'll take time and I want half the price upfront or no deal got it?"
"Sure no complaints here!" Tony beamed and then chuckled.
"What's so funny?"
A small 'thud' came from behind Goldstein and turned towards to source of the sound. A small pony was eyeing a weapon that had just fallen onto the floor. Looking over, Tony saw the little yellow furred pony with a brown mane and tail, pick up the gun and walk over to Goldstein with it. Giving a low chuckle, Goldstein took the gun and earned a cooing sound from the little pony, as she scratched it behind one of its ears.
"Well would you look at that, someone's not as cold as she seems," Tony interjected the moment in front of him. "Who's the little guy?"
"Some things are best left unknown 'til you can't hide it no more Tony," Goldstein said and picked the pony up and put it in her lap. "Hunter's lucky, I was getting some fresh air about a month or two ago when I heard this whimpering nearby. I followed the whimpering and found him in a cardboard box shivering. I was conflicted with taking him in or not, but this was the best decision back then. He's a real sweetheart and also a good helping hand."
"I'd say he's rather a good helping 'hoof' old lady," Tony joked.
Looking at Tony, the pony -Hunter- grabbed a bullet casing from the table and threw it at Tony and blew him a raspberry.
"Seems like I'm not the only one who's not a fan of your jokes Tony," Goldstein laughed "Now get going I have some things to do, and guns to fix."
Shaking his head with a stupid smirk, Tony headed for the door and exited the building.
"You threw an empty metal canister at him?" Luna asked in confusion.
"Not the question I was expecting you to ask princess," Hunter said. "I thought you'd ask something along the lines of, 'How did you get in that world? What was the world like? are humans the only sapient creature of said world?' That kind of thing"
"As much as we'd like to, that is more of lady Twilight's tendency. It is also time to wake up Hunter hence why we have no questions like that," Luna said as she slowly started to fade away. "Come to the castle whenever able to, we have something important to tell you."
Once Luna was gone, Hunter blinked in confusion as to what happened. Luna had changed her view of Hunter as a 'demon' and now as someone, she could trust, she even wanted him at the castle whenever able. Why? Are ponies really more trustworthy than humans? Did something happen to make them like this? All these questions that were starting to come up, but there was a more important question was present Hunter didn't know the answer to.
"Don't tell me, I'll have morning wood when I wake up, right?"
Slowly escaping, the clutches of sleep, Hunter woke up to a sleeping sapphire on his belly. Confused at first, Hunter recalled the memory of the night prior and gently stroked her mane. Feeling Sapphire make small adjustments as to how she was laying on her stallion sized pillow, Hunter gasped at the sudden feeling of a brush against his most sensitive of limbs. Growing a little panicked as well as blushing, Hunter tried to think of a way to get Sapphire off of him, without waking her but much to his dismay she kept adjusting herself and Hunter started groaning in response.
"Dammit, Sapphire!" Hunter hissed quietly through gritted teeth. "Stop, moving so much."
As Sapphire's movements slowly came to a halt, she slowly stirred awake and opened her eyes to see a nervous and blushing Hunter at her mercy. Yawning, Sapphire rubbed the sleep from her eyes and arched her back in a stretch, giving a satisfied groan as a small yet audible 'pop' was heard, Sapphire kept laying on Hunter and nuzzled him gently.
"You're like a cuddly teddy bear, you know that?" She said and gave a low cat-like purr.
"W-well, this teddy bear would like its freedom," Hunter replied trying not to stutter but failed in doing so.
Giggling, Sapphire decided to mess with Hunter and got into a sitting position and sat on Hunter's chest.
"I bet you're loving this right now handsome~" Sapphire said as she winked at Hunter. "I bet you're all excited, that a mare has you where she wants you."
"You wouldn't be half wrong," Hunter mumbled to himself and looked away, his blush growing more intense.
Giggling again, Sapphire gave a gentle sigh as she leaned down and gave Hunter a kiss on his forehead.
"Thank you for letting me stay Hunter," Sapphire said and climbed off of him. "I knew you were a gentlestallion dee-"
Sapphire cut her sentence short as she looked at the other end of the couch, opposite Hunter's head.
"Sapphire? Are you alright?" Hunter asked as he followed her stare and knew why she cut herself short. She was staring at his 'friend'.
Blushing a deep red, Sapphire averted her eyes and covered her mouth in surprise and an awkward silence soon followed. This was the first time Sapphire had seen Hunter so exposed, it didn't help that there was a certain smell of stallion in the air either. It surely couldn't get worse than this right? But knowing the luck of Hunter and her own recent week, it would probably get worse. Hunter pointed his nose upward and noticed the air had gotten a peculiar smell about it. As the silence went on for several minutes, Hunter spoke up.
"Uhh... do you smell that Sapphire?" He asked uneasily. "Smells like pear, with a slight hint of lime I think."
Still not saying anything, Sapphire just kept quiet, not sure what to say. He had just caught a smell previous stallions did in the past when she would get excited.
"Did we really just excite each other?" Sapphire mentally asked herself. "Oh boy, this is gonna be an awkward morning."
Clearing his throat Hunter managed to get Sapphire's attention as she looked back at him, blush present on her face.
"Listen, how about you go put some coffee on and I'll go take a shower, sound good?" Hunter asked and saw Sapphire meekly nod. "Great!"
Getting up from the couch, Hunter headed upstairs to the bathroom as quickly as his body would let him and locked the door. This certainly would be an interesting and awkward start of the day.
About an hour later, Sapphire was sitting in silence in the office, with two cups of coffee on the coffee table. The coffee wasn't cold but steaming hot, due to the memories of earlier kept coming back and stopped Sapphire in her tracks. She'd prepare the coffee then stop for minutes just fighting off fantasies of Hunter out of her mind. She only meant to make a joke not for it to go that far.
Hearing a creaking sound coming from above gave Sapphire the idea that Hunter had finished in the bathroom and was heading down. It felt like an eternity for Sapphire, she didn't know what to say or if she could looking Hunter in the eyes after this, it was embarrassing and awkward as hell. Hearing hoofsteps from her front, Sapphire saw Hunter had walked to the couch in front of her and sat down with nothing exposed thankfully.
"So uhhh... Slept well?" Hunter asked, still fighting the embarrassment that was still present on his face.
"Mhmm," Sapphire answered and gave a nod.
"Good! Good," Hunter said and grabbed the coffee cup in front of him. "Let's just forget about this ever happened and move on."
Taking a sip from the cup Hunter swallowed the contents of his cup in mere seconds before putting the cup down. Looking over to Sapphire, Hunter noticed that she wasn't looking well in terms of mood and just looked into her coffee. Hunter began to think on a way to at least put her mind at ease, or at the very least get her to stop looking so nervous. Smirking Hunter leaned forward and executed his plan.
"Hey, Sapphire," Hunter called. "Why did the duck cross the road?"
She didn't move her head and just kept staring into her coffee.
"Why?" She asked meekly.
"To go to the naughty unicorn's house," Hunter replied. "Knock, knock."
"Who's there?"
"The duck," Hunter said and moved over to Sapphire and put a hoof on her shoulder. "Walked right into that one."
"Pfffft... You cheeky foal Hunter!" Sapphire exclaimed and started to laugh a bit.
"What can I say? I'm a foal at heart!" Hunter said proudly "Feeling a bit better?"
Nodding Sapphire gave a smile.
"Yeah, thanks Hunter and sorry for making things awkward," Sapphire said.
"It was bound to happen really. I know you wouldn't jump me without consent but go all shy like that? Now that's a surprise to me."
"It's all really just a thing to keep me sane and somewhat normal Hunter. If you met 5 years ago, you wouldn't believe me if I said I was a normal pony."
"Yeah I know, you wanna live a life you want but something didn't want you to," Hunter said. "I figured it out after the first month you started hanging out with me. I may act like it but I'm not a complete moron."
Knowing what Hunter meant, Sapphire nodded and finished her coffee, as the front doors opened revealing a stallion in a black suit with matching tie and hat. Noticing this Hunter gave a skeptical look towards the unicorn, as he walked in. It was early in the morning and Hunter wouldn't have the office open for another half an hour, so this was confusing.
"Good morning Hunter, Sapphire," The stallion said as he nodded in both ponies direction. "I'm sorry it's this early in the morning but this is more serious than you think."
"Must be, you'd probably be getting your beauty sleep right now about now," Hunter remarked.
"Very funny Hunter but no," The stallion said and levitated a file onto the coffee table. "We may have a very big problem in our hooves than these artifacts and lesser demons I've mostly been having you go after."
Opening the file, Sapphire grabbed a piece of paper and started to read out loud.
Codename: Black Mamba.
Known for associating and aiding demons in The Great Demon War, is said to have become ageless as thanks for aiding the demons. She is highly dangerous and wishes nothing more than for her king to rise to power and take over everything.
Last known information about her, is that she is an earth pony who has mastered the arts of alchemy and potions. Should you encounter her remain calm and don't let her figure out if you know who she is.
Should her capture be a success, only the highest of skilled mages or the princesses would be able to prepare her for transportation and is MANDATORY to keep her in check until she is safely locked away.
Current whereabouts are unknown but are still being investigated.
As Sapphire finished reading the file, Hunter grabbed a few of the pictures from the file and saw a hooded pony on all the photos, with nothing striking him as out of the ordinary. More demons had arrived since Hunter first arrived and now there was the whole scooter incident the day prior, somehow it all seems connected but there would still be factors missing, so far it only seemed to be like that time in Fortuna.
"So you want me to go after this mare, penguin?" Hunter asked.
"Good heavens, if only it was that easy," the suited stallion said. "No, what I want you to do is to go to Canterlot as a guest for the Grand Galloping Gala, find a secret room that is located in the west wing of the castle. In that room, there should be a weapon said to have repelled the demons back and would end a war that wouldn't even be able to start. Also, Penguin?"
"I need to call you something, I'm sick and tired of not knowing what to call you," Hunter stated.
"Well if it makes you feel better sure, I'll go by Penguin."
"Good, now let me get this straight," Hunter said. "You want me to go as a guest to the Grand Galloping Gala, a party primarily filled with nobles that I don't fit in with at all, a party being hosted by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, a party that will have massive security 'cause of the guards present, then once I'm there you want me to break the law by trying to find this hidden place which only the princesses are allowed to be in, and to even get in I need a ticket to even get in. Is that what you're telling me?"
"Yes, that is simply put what I want you to do."
"Heh, I like it but there is one major problem penguin, I don't have a ticket so how am I gonna get in there and portray as a guest?"
"Well, that is where our lovely friend Sapphire steps in Hunter," Penguin said. "Sapphire you have two tickets to the gala like you do every year isn't that correct?"
Sapphire who had been silent for the most part suddenly rubbed the back of her head and sighed.
"Well... that is what we 'elite' nobles get every year when the gala is upon us," Sapphire said.
"So that's what you were this entire time a noble?" Hunter asked and smirked. "Well color me impressed, I knew you were hiding something but this? I gotta give it to you Sapphire, you're good."
"Don't know if I should be offended or not by that Hunter," Sapphire huffed slightly.
"Easy, I'm pulling your tail, I will ask later but for now we need to make preparations 'cause I am gonna need your help, Sapphire."
"I trust you two with this," Penguin chimed in. "I don't care how you do it just go in, get the weapon then get out without raising suspicion. I wish you two good luck, I will keep in touch."
With his farewell, Penguin headed out of the building and left Hunter and Sapphire alone again.
"So how did he get in? I locked the door before we fell asleep yesterday," Sapphire said.
"He has a key for the office, the reason he does is because of how shady he is. He is too shady to be with the demons and I know what shady looks like from a demon's side." Hunter explained.
"I see, so...?"
"Preparations. I need to get a tux, and your help teaching me a few things about being a decent stuck-up prick." Hunter shuddered as he said that. "I can't believe I said that but this is an even more dirty job than I usually do and I need to be different for it."
"Give me a list, I'll make sure we can get the things and be in Canterlot before tomorrow night," Sapphire said.
Hunter looked at Sapphire with wide eyes as the words left the mare's mouth and just stared at her for a few minutes, before opening his own mouth.
"TOMORROW NIGHT?!"
It had taken Hunter and Sapphire most of the day to prepare for this little burglary. It had taken much more time than what Hunter thought because right now, he was disembarking the train in Canterlot with only a bit of time to sundown. The gala would start within the hour and Hunter had to go meet with Sapphire in her house in Canterlot for a final makeover.
"Gala starting within an hour, I still need a tux, better hope Sapphire comes through with this 'cause if not this won't end pretty," Hunter mumbled to himself as he was heading down to Canterlot square where Sapphire would meet him.
Sapphire gave Hunter the idea that even though he would be wearing a tuxedo, the princesses would still be able to see through his disguise if he didn't have a different mane color and a different manestyle and then the plan would be over before it even began. As Hunter walked, he noticed nobles were heading towards Canterlot Castle with their 'charming' behavior talking about either, how to brag to other nobles or talk business with each other. This was indeed gonna be a 'fun' night for Hunter.
Coming up to the Canterlot square, Hunter saw a lone green unicorn mare leaning against the water fountain while looking in Hunter's direction. Giving a small nod, Hunter followed her as she headed to one of the expensive-looking buildings that were large houses. Hunter held his tongue as to not voice his opinion on it, there was no need to have this much space in your home unless you had an office or something of that sort, otherwise you'd just have more space than you'd ever need. Seeing the mare enter a more middle-class looking house, Hunter followed her in and closed the door and locked it behind him.
"I've never been to Canterlot before but I can already see why you prefer to live in Ponyville Sapphire unless necessary," Hunter said and shuddered. "Seriously what is wrong with the nobles?"
"Oh, they care for nothing if it's underneath the high-class Hunter," Sapphire said casually. "I'm just happy I didn't turn out like them."
"I can understand that." Hunter nodded in understanding. "That's not why we're here though, we have less than an hour to be ready to enter the castle and join the gala."
"I got a tux from my last coltfriend, who turned out to be the most bucked up plothole I've ever met." Sapphire was visibly fuming at the mention of him. "But remember Hunter, the tuxedo is only part of it, now sit in that chair and let me work on your mane."
"Normally I'd tell you 'go fuck yourself', but you're right and as you said," Hunter started as he sat in the chair Sapphire had prepared for his arrival. "'There may be many nobles, but none of them would have a yellow fur and a long white messy mane or tail to boot'."
"Yeah, otherwise it would've helped spread some confusion," Sapphire said and started to come Hunter's mane and tail. "Also, did you pick out a dye from my collection yet?
"I did," Hunter stated and felt the corners of his lips pull him into a smile. "I want both my tail and mane be dyed brown."
"Oh? That's... actually a pretty good color to match your fur coat and the tuxedo," Sapphire said in surprise. "What made you choose that color in particular?"
"I'll tell you when we're done with this job," Hunter said and relaxed.
Though Hunter was never a fan of having anypony touch his mane or tail at all, Sapphire proved to be really good at it, almost as if the strands of his mane was talking to Sapphire on some level. One good thing about Sapphire being a noble aside from having tickets, was the fact that no one would question why she was there 'cause the other nobles would be too busy talking about deals or brag to others about how their business would be better than others and Sapphire wasn't seen as a competitor which was good.
One thing that struck Hunter as odd was this, Celestia and Luna have witnessed the demons are slowly coming back so why haven't they brought out this weapon? Were they waiting for Kalgoth to arrive to end him for good or is there something else to it? Well, the only way to be certain was to find this secret room and get the weapon hidden in there.
"Hunter? Hunter, wake up I'm done." Sapphire's voice called.
"Wha- huh?" Hunter snapped out of it and looked at the owner of the voice and saw something he didn't expect.
Sapphire was standing there in a dress that showed off what a beauty she could be if she tried. The dress was a purple color with the edges and collar of it having white and purple-pink-ish pearls sewn into it. Thin and short light pink gems hung off of the mask she was wearing, with a larger one sitting on the bridge of her nose keeping the mask together in a smart yet beautiful way. A necklace made of the same light pink gems but larger was sitting on her neck going well with her green fur. Sapphire had even straightened her mane and let it down. Hunter was staring at Sapphire completely mesmerized by her beauty.
"Hunter!" Sapphire called. "Admire me later, we're gonna be late!"
"Late? Late for..." Hunter asked before remembering. "Right the gala, just let me get the tux on and we'll get going."
"No need, I put it on you while you were dozing off," Sapphire said with a giggle.
True to her word, when Hunter looked at himself in the nearby full body mirror, he was wearing the tuxedo with a bowtie, his mane was slicked back and dyed brown, and like his mane, his tail was dyed brown as well. All he saw in the mirror was a colt that had been transported to another world, all grown up into a stallion looking to find out what happened to the father who took him in after his rescuer died in a building fire. Shaking his head Hunter cleared his head and turned to Sapphire.
"Well, we better get going then, you ready madam?" Hunter asked and extended a hoof.
Blushing lightly, Sapphire giggled and grabbed Hunter's hoof with one of her own, as they started the path towards Canterlot Castle.
The Grand Galloping Gala was probably the biggest event every noble would be excited for, getting to enjoy a nice party in the castle and brag about your achievements? Nobles would be fools to not do as such. Hunter would not fit in at all and prayed that he could get this job over with before the party would even really start. Sapphire would be able to pull off acting like a noble seeing as she is was a noble in the first place and hopefully, ponies wouldn't give much of a damn about Sapphire.
"Cash Grab dearest," Sapphire whispered to Hunter as she got into character. "Remember the bowtie I helped you with? It's got a spell on it that connects to my necklace so we can talk to each other using a mental link."
Hunter nodded and gave his bowtie a quick tap with his hoof.
"Testicles, testicles, hello, hello."
"Celestia dammit Hunter! Are you ever gonna grow up?""
"Just testing to make sure it's working and all."
"Let's just get going 'Cash Grab'."
"Let's go over the plan again just in case first. We go in mingle as business partners with the nobles where you will do the talking as I, 'Cash Grab' am a mute who suffered through an accident in his foalhood that fucked my vocal cords so badly that I can only grunt or make small noises but no actual words. After that, we break off towards the west wing where you will get any guard blocking off the west wing go to the royal gardens because something happened that requires the guards' attention. I will then go and look for this secret room and keep in touch with our accessories, any questions?
"Only one. How will you get back being discreet? The guards will probably be back in place, once you've got the weapon."
"Speed, shadows, and improv."
"Oh, of course that would be your plan."
Having gone over the plan one final time, Hunter and Sapphire headed up the steps of Canterlot Castle which was of course guarded to make sure that the 'riff-raff' didn't get in, too bad it was gonna happen tonight. Reaching into his tuxedo, Hunter grabbed the tickets and handed them to the guards who inspected the tickets for a bit. After a minute or two, the guard with the tickets nodded to the other guard and they both took a step away from the door and let Sapphire and Hunter in. Hunter gave a small nod to the guards before walking in with Sapphire close by his side to make their disguises look perfect.
"Miss Sapphire Star, good to see you," A feminine voice called out.
Both Hunter and Sapphire turned to their left to see both princesses welcoming their guests, as per tradition. Giving a small smile Sapphire nudged Hunter to make him play along. Giving off a small smile himself, Hunter tried his best to make it look real and not fake.
"Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, forgive me for not noticing you at first, I can only blame myself," Sapphire said using a manner of talking Hunter never heard her use.
"It is quite alright Miss Star, say it has been quite a while since you've been to the gala and you bring a stallion too?" Celestia asked in genuine curiosity.
"Oh my, where have my manners gone?" Sapphire asked nervously. "Your majesties, I present to you my coltfriend, Cash Grab. It's his first gala."
"Sapphire that wasn't what we planned."
"Hunter shut it!"
"Well, in that case, let us be the first to welcome to thy first gala, Mr. Grab," Luna said and smiled.
Hunter gave a polite bow to the princesses and looked at Sapphire.
"Sadly he can't really use his words, due to an accident in his foalhood and will only be able to make grunts and lightly chuckle," Sapphire said in a soft yet sad voice.
"We are sorry to hear that Mr. Grab, rest assured we hope you enjoy the gala nevertheless," Celestia said and gave a soft smile.
Nodding at the princesses, Hunter gave off another smile in return to the princesses for understanding.
"We won't take any more of your time your majesties, I am sure you have will be very busy welcoming the rest of the high-class," Sapphire said.
"Sadly thou art right," Luna said and gave a small sigh. "Hopefully we will be able to, 'catch up later' as they say."
"Of course your majesties," Sapphire said and turned to Hunter. "Come, dearest, let us go and enjoy the evening."
Nodding, Hunter and Sapphire headed towards the main room to 'enjoy the festivities'.
"'Coltfriend'? Really?!"
"I panicked alright? At least it didn't blow our cover."
"True... but let's refrain from changing the plan more than needed alright?"
"Agreed."
Hidden in the dark overlooking the castle, a figure was observing Hunter and Sapphire heading to the main room.
"You can't hide Hunter but feel lucky, you are you're needed alive after all."
The main room of the castle was filled with ponies talking, having a laugh, or just listening to the music being played. Aside from the food table filled with lots of different snacks, the castle staff was walking around with trays of additional snacks and champagne, offering their cargo. Everything was going like Hunter expected, a boring party that would test his mental capabilities.
"You know, maybe we could just head straight for the west wing and get this over with already. My sanity is slowly draining from trying not to scream."
"I know what you mean Hunter, but wasn't it you who said we should mingle with the nobles?"
"And I regret that idea, I should've just thought about using my abilities to sneak in instead."
"Sapphire darling, over here!" Someone called causing Hunter and Sapphire to look at two approaching ponies, a mare and a stallion.
"Oh no, my parents."
"Welp, this is not gonna end well and we haven't even mingled with the nobles yet!"
"My, I couldn't believe it for a minute it really is you, Sapphire!" The mare exclaimed and hugged Sapphire like there was no tomorrow.
The mare was a white unicorn -typical for Canterlot- that had a bun manestyle and a simple red dress on. The stallion was also a unicorn but a blue fur coat and wore a tuxedo, like Hunter's but with a top hat to boot. Seemed like they were more of a middle-class nobility than high-class to Hunter, but that could be their cham.
"My baby's back in Canterlot!" The mother almost shouted in happiness.
"And with a stallion to boot," the father said.
Hunter smiled nervously and took a look at Sapphire who was almost turning blue. Pointing at Sapphire's face the mother looked at her and immediately let go of Sapphire.
"T-Thanks Hunter."
Sapphire gasped for air and rubbed at her throat.
"So sorry about sweetheart! Are you alright? Do you need anything? Maybe a glass of water?" the mother frantically asked.
"I'm fine mother, I'm just a tad surprised is all," Sapphire said and gave a few coughs. "Didn't expect to find you two here."
Chuckling the father gave a gentle smile as he looked at Sapphire.
"We go to the gala every year Sapphire, you would've known had you been to them all," he said. "Now who is this stallion with you? He doesn't seem like he knows how to treat his herd, let alone a single mare."
"D-dad!" Sapphire exclaimed and blushed heavily. "We're not even that far yet, we're just giving it a shot."
"I'm just messing with you, sweetheart," the father said before turning to Hunter extending a hoof which Hunter shook. "Silver Moon."
"Velvet Swirl" Velvet said. "Now how long have you been with my baby, and when can I expect grandfoals?"
Hunter blushed heavily at that and opened his mouth to respond but nothing came out, not a single sound was said as remembered he had to be mute, so he looked at Sapphire.
"Sapphire help? I might know how to fight demons and all but this shit is terrifying"
"Mom you're scaring him!" Sapphire pointed out. "I haven't even been able to introduce him yet."
"But he is a grown stallion he should be able to shouldn't he?" Silver countered.
"Yes, if he wasn't a mute dad," Sapphire said which surprised both parents. "He had a terrible accident when he was a foal, his vocal cords were so damaged that he is only able to lightly chuckle or grunt."
Gasping both parents looked at Hunter and saw the sadness in their eyes, Silver even took his hat off and put it against his chest.
"I'm so sorry to hear that my boy," he said. "I hope you can forgive us since we haven't seen our girl in two years, only letters."
Hunter nodded and gave a small smile to both Velvet and Silver as if to say that, he forgave them.
"Let's try this again, mom, dad, meet Cash Grab, my coltfriend." Sapphire introduced Hunter to keep their cover. "And we've been together for a few months now."
"You are planning on telling them after everything is done right?"
"Not now smart flank..."
"Good to know things are going better than your last coltfriend Sapphire." Velvet said. "And sorry to just leave you like this, but your father and I have some things we were planning on doing here at the gala but do enjoy yourselves now!"
As Velvet finished her sentence, she and her husband took off in a direction and disappeared in the crowd, leaving a pair of relieved ponies.
"Sapphire?"
"Yeah?"
"Your parents sure are something."
"Better than most nobles."
"Yeah, let's just head towards the west wing and get this over with, we've mingled with more than enough nobles and your parents didn't act like the shitty ones!"
"You're right, let's go."
Heading over in the direction of the west wing Hunter broke off from Sapphire in the middle of the crowd as she headed over to the guards blocking the path. She had to give them a solid lie, so they'd be off and she wouldn't get bitten in the ass for it. Someone passed out or was dying? No, other nobles would be able to say otherwise. A brawl wouldn't work because of the nobles' high class. A duel? That could work but it would get ponies in trouble that were 'relatively innocent'. A changeling? That would work for sure. Taking a deep breath Sapphire approached the guards and saw Hunter ready to move.
"Excuse me, sirs?" Sapphire asked.
"Sorry ma'am, this area is off-limits to party-goers and non-staff of Canterlot Castle, please go back and enjoy your evening," the guard on the right said in his stoic manner.
"About that, I think I saw a changeling disguise themselves as one of the staff members of the castle." Getting the guards full attention Sapphire continued. "I saw it happen in the royal garden but they didn't see me so they still believe that they've not been discovered."
"Ma'am, thank you for bringing this to our attention, we will go check it out at once."
Immediately the guards left the path to the west wing unguarded and Hunter walked down the hall as no one except Sapphire, was none the wiser.
"Be careful Hunter, I can't help you anymore from here."
"You did good Sapphire, go enjoy the party, I'll be back shortly."
Walking down the hall sticking to the shadows to avoid guards or staff in case there would be any, Hunter didn't see much except for the moonlight shining in through the windows and doors to different rooms.
What struck Hunter as odd was that so far he hadn't seen a single pony, only the long hallway which seemed to go on forever.
"This is gonna take way longer than excepted, I'm sure of it," Hunter thought to himself as he walking hoping for anything.
"Hun...ter..."
Immediately stopping in his tracks, Hunter looked around to see if someone was following him but there was nothing.
"Alright, you're just imagining things Hunter, you've been in the hallway for at least 10 minutes now so ease up, it's not even Equestria's version of Halloween yet, Hunter thought to himself.
"Hun...ter..."
As he kept hearing his name being called, Hunter slowly started to feel a strong demonic aura, possibly belonging to the weapon he was looking for. Deciding to follow it Hunter kept sticking to the shadows, just in case. Seeing another hallway coming up, Hunter felt the power getting stronger as he from there and decided to keep going.
"Hunter? Have you found the weapon yet?"
"No, I do believe it's guiding me towards it, hence why I feel a strong demonic power, very, very strong power."
"Alright, be warned though, the guards are back and I've even noticed the element bearers. Should this go south, you're in big trouble Hunter."
"Roger that, I'll be back without raining hell, over."
Passing a door Hunter looked at it and saw the plaque that's been dusty as all hell, shrugging Hunter cleaned the plaque and smirked as he saw the name. In bold red letters, the plaque spelled out 'Dante'
"So this is where you are hiding the weapon, Celestia? Of course, no one would look in the room of the 'hero in red', since you've most likely cleaned it of artifacts and such, Hunter thought and grabbed ahold of the doorknob, only to be surprised that it was actually open. "Must be my lucky day.
Heading inside and closing the door, Hunter took a look around and saw his old home. The desk, the couches, the fan, hell even the guitar was here.
"I miss you, dad, and I will find you before or after this whole demon mess I swear I will," Hunter quietly said.
Smiling, Hunter looked at the picture that was tilted to the side and saw himself, his father, and his mother smiling at the camera. Hunter sniffled a bit and let the tears roll down his cheeks as he adjusted the picture so it was upright and not tilting to the side. Upon doing so, Hunter heard a 'clank' noise from underneath the desk, taking a look he saw a small trapdoor had opened so his Hunch was right.
"Let's see what's down here shall we dad?" Hunter quietly asked as he headed underneath the desk and climbed down the trapdoor.
A trapdoor with a ladder leading to a secret room wasn't something Hunter was not expecting, it reminded him of that one time on Mallet island with his dad, too much to explore yet no time at all since the island is now gone for good. Reaching the bottom of the ladder, Hunter examined the room and saw that it was dusty as hell, there was a table with his father's weapons were. Rebellion and Ebony and Ivory was kept in pristine condition, which meant that even the princesses missed his father. Looking away from the weapons Hunter saw a tarp was draped over something. Hunter felt the aura of the weapons on the table, but that wasn't what he had been following which confused Hunter. He then walked over to the tarp and grew, even more confused, the aura was coming from what the tarp was hiding so Hunter, did what most adventures would do in this situation and pull the tarp off and Hunter fell onto his haunches. Hunter had gone wide-eyed and was staring at a stone statue of his father there was one massive difference though, a normal stone statue wouldn't be pulsating with demonic power.
"D-dad?" Hunter asked out loud as he couldn't believe it. "What happened to you?"
Hunter didn't get an answer but was so confused as to why his father was stone and not killed, it didn't make sense to him. Looking back and forth between the weapons on the table and his father, Hunter didn't know why but he went over to the weapons and put them against the statue. Feeling his tears come back, Hunter put a hoof on the statue and let the tears fall. Why would the ponies do this to him if he saved from all those years ago? How could Princess Celestia let this happen? Why would she let it happen? Feeling his sadness turn to anger, Hunter was gonna have a word with Celestia about this. Hunter headed over to the ladder and turned to the statue to give it one last glance. Hunter nodded and climbed up the ladder.
"Sapphire I found the room but the weapon is not a weapon, it's my dad it's my fucking father the stone statue!
"What? But why? That makes no sense at all! We were meant to get a weapon, not a pony!"
"He isn't a pony, look I'll explain later but right now I have a princess to go get an answer from!"
"Just don't be seen, Hunt- oh no."
"Talk to me Sapphire what's going on?"
"Hunter get to the main hall hurry, some bipedal creature in blue wielding a sword, is holding a pony hostage asking for you!"
"Do not apporach it whatever you do, I'm on my way!"
"No it's not possible, he can't be here!" Hunter exclaimed as he rushed to get to the main hall.
In the main hall of Canterlot Castle, a bipedal creature in a blue jacket was holding a mare hostage and had threatened to kill her if he didn't get Hunter. It happened so fast that no pony could react before it was too late and now the creature was holding a blade to the crying mare's throat. A few guards had tried to intercept the creature before it had grabbed the mare but were laying on the ground with deep cuts and broken bones.
"I will not ask again, where is hunter?!" it yelled in frustration.
Everypony was in staring at the creature in fear or anger. Where did it come from? Who was this Hunter he wanted? The princesses and the element bearers were currently behind a platoon of guards while the nobles were all the way behind them cowering in fear.
"Let her go!" Celestia demanded as she, Luna and the unicorn guards had their horns aimed at the creature.
"I'd advise you point those things away from me unless you want collateral damage," the creature said and pushed its blade into the mare's throat and made a small cut just enough to draw a little blood.
"Alright that's it, I'm going in!" Rainbow Dash said as she took off towards the creature.
"Rainbow Dash stop!" Twilight said and used her magic to pull Rainbow Dash's tail before she got anywhere near the creature.
Being forcibly pulled by her tail, Rainbow Dash hit the marble floor with an audible 'thud' before she looked and Twilight. "What the hay Twi?! I was gonna kick his plot!"
"Ya would've only gotten the mare and possibly yerself killed Dash!" Applejack told her rainbow-maned friend. "Think before ya charge!"
"Girls!" Twilight said getting the attention of Applejack and Rainbow Dash. "Now is not the time to fight each other, we need to do something."
"What can we do? If any of us get close that there thing is gonna kill her." Applejack pointed out and looked at the creature and hostage.
"Where's Hunter when you need him?" Celestia muttered to herself.
BANG
The loud bang caught the creature off guard to the point where it dropped the mare and jumped backward to avoid the red energy that was heading its way. Giving off a low 'hmph', the creature stared in the direction of the west wing and saw stallion walking on his hind legs with his forelegs aimed at the creature as smoke was coming from the sleeves of his tuxedo. Giving a small smirk for about a second the creature looked at the hostage and pointed at the guards to which the mare just ran, tears running down her cheeks.
"So you decided to show your face after all Hunter, I was afraid you'd be too occupied to face me after our last meeting," the creature said and turned to look at Hunter. "How's your father?"
"Vergil..." Hunter growled.
Hunter glared at the creature then stepped in between guards and the creature still aiming his forelegs at it. Everypony was staring at Hunter who didn't bat an eye as he was staring at the creature looking at him.
"Hunty what are you doing?" Pinkie Pie gasped. "The big meanie creature will give you a booboo that will go owie wowie!"
"I know Pinkie," Hunter said in a low tone. "Trust me, I know."
"Nopony is getting hurt under our watch! Hunter stand down now!" Luna commanded. "That is a royal order!"
"Sorry, Luna but I don't do orders," Hunter said and turned his head slightly to see them. "But you should get everypony out of here, I'll buy you time!"
"Don't be ridiculous Hunter! He's a demon, a strong one at that!"
"Yet I deal with demons everyday Luna," Hunter said and stretched his forelegs to the sides and had his signature swords materialize in his hooves with their respective element at the ready as he got into a fighting stance. "Now put a strong barrier up behind me so he can't hurt any of you and under any circumstances do not fight him if he beats me."
Seeing that Hunter didn't back down, Luna ordered the guards to get the partygoers away from the castle to safety while Celestia set up a faint golden-colored barrier behind Hunter. All the mares could only hope that Hunter knew what he was doing and would be able to fend off this creature, while unbeknownst to them, it was a score that was to be settled between family.
"This brings me back Hunter, back to Temen-ni-gru," Vergil said as it got into a fighting stance. "It's gonna be interesting to see what my brother taught you."
"I've learned enough to know how to kick your ass!" Hunter said as he felt his blood boil. "Whatever happened to the man I used to think who had a heart? The man who wouldn't use hostages?"
"He has never been there Hunter, don't fool yourself."
"You wouldn't dare threaten an innocent life just like that! Where's your honor?"
"Thrown out the window when you and Dante, killed me on Mallet island!" Vergil said and charged towards Hunter.
"You motherfucker!" Hunter yelled as he charged towards his uncle.
Meeting in the middle both sword bearers clashed their blades against the other's and put their raw strength to the test. Pulling back, Vergil planted a swift kick in Hunter's stomach and sent him flying to the other end of the hall. Grunting as he got back up on his hind legs, Hunter rushed towards Vergil and shot his guns as fast as he could. Spinning his sword as fast as he could in front of himself, Vergil blocked all of the red projectiles coming towards him without breaking a sweat. Still rushing towards Vergil, Hunter swung Rudra into his foe's spinning blade to stop it and slashed at Vergil's feet but Vergil sidestepped and thrust his blade forward to try and stab Hunter who barely blocked it with Agni.
Failing to see Vergil's foot moving, Hunter felt it collide with his gut and staggered a few feet back as Vergil slashed his blade from above. Blocking Vergil's sword with his own, Hunter used his strength to keep the blade from going down further and hit him, even though he's taken stab wounds that would be lethal to others, a demonic weapon could be fatal to his health.
Grunting, both pony and human were using their strength to overpower the other but so far it was a draw.
"Is that the best you can do Hunter? I thought you had grown stronger," Vergil said in a disappointed demeanor. "Has my brother really been that lazy with you or did he only teach you to rush in blindly?"
"Shut up!" Hunter growled.
"The training Dante gave you isn't gonna enough, he wouldn't be able to help you even if he was here."
"SHUT UP!" Hunter yelled in rage as he pushed Vergil's sword to the side and threw him into the snack table that was present in the main hall.
Getting back up on his feet while rubbing the snacks off of himself, Vergil looked at where Hunter was and almost let out an uncharacteristic gasp. Taken back from what he was seeing, Vergil saw Hunter's body slowly transform into something else. Hunter's fur was becoming a complete blood-red, two small horns grew on his forehead, his tail had become thin and very long with a sharp knife-like tip, a pair of razor-sharp claws had grown from his front hooves, his eyes had gone from their normal baby-blue color to a fiery orange glow, his teeth had all become like a predator's and to top it all off, his body looked as if it was covered in some sort of strong black obsidian-like plating. Hunter's body had just embraced his demon blood and transformed him into his demon self.
"Well, well, it seems like you've finally unlocked your potential Hunter, still, it won't change a th-" Vergil started but was cut off as he barely dodged the tip of Hunter's tail coming at him.
Hunter had shot off his tail tip and had it materialize back to where it belonged. Giving off a loud roar that would intimidate even the toughest of animals, Hunter charged towards Vergil for the third time and spun around in a fast motion wiping Vergil off of his feet by swiping his tail at Vergil's feet and used his hind legs to buck Vergil into the wall of the castle. Grinning from ear to ear, Hunter got back into his fighting stance and snarled at Vergil. Seeing his uncle coming out from the shape he had made in the wall from the buck, Hunter aimed a foreleg straight at Vergil, not taking his eyes from his price.
"What form of power is that?" Vergil thought to himself. "He is but young stallion how is he this strong? He shouldn't be this strong without practice!"
Looking at Hunter, Vergil saw that he was now wielding Sparda and clenched his teeth a bit. Hunter was using the demonic power from Sparda to increase his power but also at the risk of losing control. Summoning a spectral sword, Vergil shot it at Hunter who absorbed the energy, judging by the demonic energy that appeared and disappeared right on impact. Things were starting to get interesting at this point.
Behind the barrier, all the mares could only bear witness to Hunter's transformation. Was he a demon all along or did he have some sort of artifact that changed him in need?
"What's happening to Hunter?!" Twilight asked to no one in particular.
"It's like that demon killer in the demon book you let me borrow Twilight!" Dash said in both amazement and fear.
"That's because Dante is not fiction, everything in that book is based on events two millennia ago," Celestia muttered to herself and looked on in surprise. "I never thought I'd see something like that again."
Hunter rushed towards Vergil again but at an even higher speed than before and swung his sword at Vergil who dodged out of the way just before he was split in two. Vergil sent more spectral swords which Hunter absorbed as the pony was advancing. Vergil used his demon powers to briefly disappear and reappear behind Hunter and managed to cut Hunter's tail off. Growling in both pain and anger, Hunter quickly turned around to face Vergil but had his face get bashed in with something blunt, before getting kicked into a pillar. Grunting from the impact, Hunter fell onto the floor after hitting the pillar and was holding a front hoof to the left side of his barrel as he slowly reverted back to his normal stallion self.
"Why do you resist Hunter?" Vergil asked as he approached Hunter. "You've been wanting more power ever since Temen-ni-gru, you have had the chance multiple times, so why are you resisting it?!"
Giving a slight cough, Hunter looked deep into his uncle's eyes with a glare. "Because I don't hurt family for it, but train!"
"I see," was all Vergil muttered and was standing in front of Hunter. "I had hoped for things to not come to this Hunter, but you chose to try and stop me."
Raising his sword, Vergil pointed the tip down towards Hunter's back and in a quick motion pierced the stallion's back.
Giving out a yell of pain, Hunter felt his breathing become uneasy as pain washed all over him. Trying to stand up, Hunter would feel the pain grow more and more intense as Vergil twisted his sword to keep the stallion from getting up. Feeling himself slip in and out of consciousness, Hunter knew he was in trouble.
Vergil knelt down and gave Hunter a glare. "Where is the amulet, Hunter?"
"You got your own..." Hunter groaned from the pain. "Leave my dad's amulet alone...."
Vergil lowered his head and sighed in annoyance. It could've been so easy to just end Hunter right here, had he not been needed alive. Pulling his sword out of Hunter, Vergil saw the red liquid underneath the stallion increase as the blood was leaving the pony. Turning his gaze over to the group of mares behind the barrier staring in disbelief at what they had witnessed.
Vergil took his blade and gave a downward slash in the air and then a sideways one, leaving lines in the air which opened some portal of sorts. Giving one final glance to the mares behind the barrier, Vergil was about to drag Hunter through the portal with him, until a bolt of lightning struck him in the back. Giving off a grunt, Vergil faced the direction of which the lightning bolt had come from and saw the green mare that hadn't been a part of the group behind the barrier.
"Leave him alone!" Sapphire shouted in anger and flared her horn as Hunter was now behind her, probably some small teleportation spell as Vergil had seen some unicorns do.
Looking at the unicorn, Vergil pointed his blade at her giving her one chance to walk away. "Give me Hunter or you leave me no choice."
Was she foolish enough to still stand up? It would certainly be her downfall and an unwanted casualty but possibly unavoidable.
"I will not give him up just like that!" Sapphire exclaimed and fired off another lightning bolt.
Dodging the lightning bolt, Vergil rushed the unicorn at incredible speed with the intent to kill. Sapphire shot another lightning bolt at the human but because of his speed, Vergil was easily able to dodge it like before and closed the distance between them, pointing his blade to her throat while looking her in the eyes with a cold stare. Sapphire felt a lump in her throat, as she felt the blood-coated blade was somewhat pressed into her throat.
"Any last words?" The human asked in a cold and unamused tone.
"I have a lot actually!" A new voice growled as a new human in a red jacket jumped in between Vergil and Sapphire, delivering a swift kick to Vergil's chest sending him back. "And some of them go like this, 'Leave the ponies alone if you really value your life'."
Still stirring from his blood loss and the exhaustion from his Devil Trigger, Hunter looked at the human that just saved Sapphire and gave a small smile, before blacking out from the blood loss.
Glancing back to get a glimpse of Hunter's passed out form, the human then turned his gaze towards Vergil and groaned. "You really don't get along with him do you?"
Gritting his teeth in anger, Vergil rushed the creature who managed to block his attack with red energy similar to Hunter's and used said power to propel the human back into the portal that had been created a minute ago, which closed itself.
"And I thought you didn't rush in blind Vergil," The newcomer called out loud to no one in particular.
Hearing the faint sound of magic being dispelled, the human turned around to see the approaching mares and gave a small smirk. "What a nice surprise, to see a bunch of beautiful mares in dresses."
"Dante?" Celestia asked. "Is that you?"
"Well, who else would dare call you 'Sunbutt' or your sister 'Moonbutt', Celestia?" The human inquired, earning a groan from Luna.
"Yes, It is thou Dante," Luna said with a light blush, her face covered by a hoof. "None would have the bravery or be foolish enough to call us by such a silly name."
"You love it Moonbutt."
Luna just scrunched her nose as she groaned even more. "It is good to see thou again Dante."
Dante turned around to see Sapphire who was frantically trying to wake Hunter up. Heading over, Dante put a hand on Sapphire's shoulder, giving her a small smile. "He'll be fine, not the first time he's been through this."
Those words seemed to calm Sapphire down a bit but she still didn't leave Hunter's side whilst looking at the stab wound he had. The wound was deep and seemed to go through the back to the front still pouring out some blood. Despite the fact that Hunter had regenerative powers thanks to the demon blood, it would still take hours if not a day or two to leave it without a scar of some kind.
Dante hoisted the unconscious stallion over his shoulder and turned to look at the royal sisters. "I'll get Hunter to the medical wing so he can rest up, I'll meet you all in the dining room where I'm sure you all have questions."
Seeing Dante head towards the medical wing, Celestia gave a sigh and looked at the large pool of blood where the stallion just laid.
"Like father like son as they say," Celestia muttered to herself.
Sitting in the dining hall of the castle, the royal sisters had told the element bearers, and Sapphire about who Dante really was and his feats of saving the nation two millennia ago and the fact that he wasn't really a pony. They were waiting on Dante to arrive from the medical wing of the castle, everyone was pretty shocked over what had happened, a battle of demons and Dante arriving out of nowhere? It was as if events from the past were playing over again during different circumstances.
"Princess Celestia?" Twilight called out.
Turning to face Twilight, Celestia gave a gentle nod for her to continue.
"Is he the hero in red?"
"Dante? Why yes he is, he did save Equestria 2000 years ago, I'm still surprised he doesn't look ten years older than we last saw him," Celestia said.
"How in tarnation did he even get to Equestria?" Applejack chimed in curiously.
"Does he like parties?" Pinkie asked with enthusiasm.
"Does he have cool fight moves like Hunter?" Rainbow Dash asked in interest.
"I hope he acts more of a gentlestallion than Hunter did when we asked him questions, such a brute," Rarity scoffed.
"I'm worried about Hunter, he looked very weak," Fluttershy said quietly.
Questions and opinions about Dante were shared with the element bearers as well as worries, a few about Hunter. Hearing the muffled sound of boots meeting tilestone, everypony turned their attention to see the eastern hallway doors open and show Dante, carrying a green bottle. Walking over to the table that all the mares had gathered by, Dante, took a seat and leaned back in his chair then threw his legs up on the table, much to Rarity's disgust. "S'up?"
"Hello, Dante, I assume Hunter is being examined by the medical staff?" Celestia asked.
"Yup, apparently the stab wound grazed his heart as well as piercing his left lung."
"Well, he certainly stood up against Vergil."
Pulling the cork on the bottle he had, Dante took a swig from it and let out a satisfied sigh of satisfaction.
"That's the Hunter I raised so many years ago," Dante chuckled and put the bottle on the table. "Pretty good wine I must say."
"Dante, why art thou drinking wine and where did thou find it?" Luna inquired and narrowed her eyes at the stallion.
"I pulled it out of my jacket," Dante sarcastically told the lunar princess who groaned in response. "No, I found it on the way back from the medical wing."
"And ya took it with ya partner?" AJ asked. "Why?"
"Well cowgirl, when you've been stuck as a statue for a while, you'll become thirsty and hungry as hell." Dante took in a deep breath out of the air and smirked. "Speak of the devil."
A unicorn maid entered the dining hall from the western hallway, pushing along a food cart with multiple plates of pizzas on it. Dante almost jumped out of his chair with glee at the sight of such a beautiful display. Almost. Levitating a plate to everyone at the table, the unicorn maid gave a slight bow and returned from where she came leaving the mares and human alone again.
Wasting no time, Dante took a slice the pizza in front of him and devoured it within a few seconds, sighing blissfully at the taste. "Best type of food no matter where you are."
All the mares in the room with the exception of Sapphire, Celestia, and Luna went wide-eyed as the human ate his pizza at a ridiculous speed, finishing it within five minutes. Dante chuckled at their reaction and licked his fingers clean.
"I've never seen somepony eat food that fast," Twilight mused.
"Good job Dante!" Pinkie exclaimed with a huge grin.
"I could do it faster if I tried," Dash said and rolled her eyes.
Dante gave a smirk to the rainbow-maned pegasus before taking the wine bottle and taking a long sip from it. It wasn't like they were taking the bottle away from him, so why not enjoy some wine for once?
Dante parted the wine bottle from his lips and stretched his arms. "Man, I feel like I've taken a long nap. I hope it's not tampering with my abilities."
"I could run a quick spell on you to see if your magical powers are still awakening," Twilight said with glee.
"I don't think we're talking the same language, purple," Dante replied as he turned his gaze to the bookworm.
"What do you mean? It's just a simple spell that determines your full magical power."
"I don't have magical powers,"
"Wait, what?" Twilight cut in. "You don't have magic?"
"No, we humans do not. The closest thing we have to magic is imagination. If we see a problem we'll figure out a way to fix it."
"But, how can you live like that?"
"Simple, we adapt, that is the human's greatest tool, adaption."
Turning his gaze back towards Celestia and Luna, Dante pulled his legs off of the table and leaned forward with a dangerous look on his face.
"I've been locked away for months and my gut is telling me the demon problem has only gotten worse since then. Have you two found any clues as to who is in charge of this?"
Giving a firm shake of her head, Luna's eyes were filled with concern. "Nay we have not Dante, we fear that they are very wise in the art of hiding their tracks."
"Are you sure?" Dante asked, not believing a word. "Remember when I first arrived? Everyone was afraid of me to the point of some calling the guard to capture me. Sure I knocked them out but I didn't kill them because they weren't demons. You two were suspicious of me for the fact that I was an unknown creature that suddenly came to your rescue back when you needed it the most. You, on the other hand, though thought I was sent by the demons as a spy or something, I wasn't, I had just arrived in Equestria. Despite the fact it's so long ago I am still skeptical about some things you say."
"How'd you even make it to Equestria Dante?" Twilight asked.
"What happened was that I had finished a job in Red Grave City back in my world, killing a bunch of religious nutjobs who were trying to open a portal to the demon world using human blood as tribute. I don't know what happened, but they must've somehow been able to do something cause I was sucked into a dark void. What waited on the other side was something not even I had ever seen. Equestria."
Dante closed his eyes as he tried to remember the important parts of his tale of arriving in Equestria and aiding the citizens.
"I had fights with guards every time I ran into them, then I had demons trying to kill me so my situation wasn't great at all. I had learned that some ponies were helping the demons take over Equestria and despite the fact that I was wanted for being what I am, I helped save their world, I even saved Moonbutt once thanks to my increased physical abilities. If it wasn't for getting stabbed right in front of her, she probably wouldn't be sitting here right now."
"But the princesses would never capture someone just for being a different species!" Twilight pointed out.
"Afraid so, when do you think I arrived in pony-land the first time?" Dante asked. "Anybody gonna take a guess?"
Dante opened his eyes and looked around at every mare in the room yet none of them spoke. Dante's eyes fell on Sapphire. "What about you? Any guesses?"
"Well, if I must. You first arrived in Equestria around two millennia ago, when the princesses had barely become grown mares at that point," Sapphire answered and got a nod from the human.
"Seems Hunter told that bit of the story I see," Dante mused and turned to look at Twilight. "But yes, they did try to capture me 'cause I was an unknown creature that had just appeared, as demon armies were advancing towards the rest of Equestria and there were ponies helping the demons by leaking information."
"Why would somepony do such a dreadful thing?" Rarity almost shrieked.
"Power," Dante simply answered. "Demonic power specifically."
"That still didn't explain what you said about the princess!" Twilight pointed out. "Why bring it up if you aren't gonna explain it?"
"Because time passes and it changes you," Dante said and got out of his chair. "I'm gonna go to my old room and see you all tomorrow, where I'll be looking into this whole demon thing and finishing it once and for all."
Vergil was in an armory mixed with a training room, cutting into some practice dummies in frustration as to what had happened. The universe must've been laughing at him and his failure of capturing Hunter alive and getting his brother's amulet from the stallion. His own brother, Dante had suddenly just appeared but he was supposed to be dead. He went missing months ago and then he suddenly reappeared and in this forsaken land filled with ponies too? It made Vergil so damn angry.
"Vergil deary, those practice dummies aren't gonna break if that's what you're trying to accomplish, I did enchant them for that purpose to keep you in shape when you are here after all." A motherly female voice called.
Vergil didn't say anything as he stared at one of the dummies, sword aimed at it for about a minute before he sheathed the blade and gave off an annoyed sigh.
"He always interferes with my plans, one way or another," Vergil stated and turned to look at his companion. An earth pony mare was standing in front of him. She had a royal blue fur coat with a long smooth silver-like mane and tail. She was currently soaking wet from a shower and had a towel draped around her back as she had probably heard Vergil's frustrations and he had come to know her as 'Black Mamba'.
"Dante? I had a feeling he was still alive," Mamba mused as she started to dry herself. "I will admit that going to the gala to capture Hunter and get your brother's amulet from him would be pure luck, had it actually worked. No, I wanted you to go there and confirm if my theory of Dante still being alive but hidden to be true or false, and congratulations you proved that my theory was correct dear."
At those words, Vergil grew a little mad. "You're telling me that I went there mainly as a lab rat for some theory about my brother being alive?"
"Put bluntly, yes. Think about it like this, if we didn't know Dante would be here and had our plans in motion without taking him into account, we would lose before we could factor him in. Was this necessary? Yes, it was."
"Hmph, you should've told me, I could have gotten the same result had I known," Vergil deadpanned.
"No deary, you couldn't," the mare sighed and shook her head. "It wouldn't have had the same impact as it did this way. You could have given them a sign that showed you were just here to investigate, which means they could prepare something we could not prepare for."
"I see."
"Good, now, I know you have regenerative powers thanks to your demon blood Vergil, but I'd rather take a look at possible wounds just in case. Black Mamba can't lose her valuable companion in this endeavor."
Mamba left the room and hummed a little tune as her hoof steps became quieter as the seconds passed. Not really having anything better to do, Vergil followed the direction of the mare and headed through a small hallway and entered a door into some room that seemed to be the bedroom of a child. It was colorful, yet worn as whoever lived in this room must've grown up a long time ago.
"Ah, there you are deary, I thought you got cold hooves, errr... feet," Mamba said as she had prepared a bowl of clear water and a bowl of red liquid, both with a cloth each.
Pulling a chair from a nearby corner, Vergil sat down in it and took off his coat, followed by the ascot around his neck and his sleeveless vest. Vergil's upper body was now bare and showed no wounds or scars. Taking a quick look over his body, Mamba took the cloth from the bowl with clear water and rubbed the cloth over his torso. It wasn't cold or hot but just the right temperature for the skin.
"Tell me, have you ever been with foal?" Vergil asked. He didn't know why he asked, it just came out of nowhere.
"A son," Black Mamba said as a small smile appeared on her face. "An adorable colt who wanted to protect his mother from the dangers of the world, but that was a long time ago."
"Hmm... who was he?" Vergil asked still not understanding why he was asking these questions, he honestly didn't care yet here he was, asking about it and listening to it.
"September 26th, 24 years Post-Equestria, I gave birth to a small colt whom I named, 'Double-cross' and I lost him more than two millennia ago." mamba gestured for Vergil to turn around and began rubbing the damp cloth on the human's back. "His father had been killed by a crazy stallion who rotted away in prison for murdering a noble, honored for protecting the common ponies."
"Hmph, the stallion got what he deserved for murdering someone of honor." Vergil mused.
"I agree, he took my one love away from me and I was left to care for my son by myself," a few sniffles came from the mare as she remembered the painful memories. "I took care of little Double-cross the best that I could, I gave him all the attention he needed, all the food he could eat, but one day I lost him. Some unicorn novice was having a magical surge, a very powerful one with no real good reason behind it. I didn't know what happened before it was over, but my little Double-cross had disappeared through a small rift and I had no way of getting him back no matter how hard I tried."
Black Mamba shakily finished rubbing the damp cloth across Vergil's back and just went quiet as a few years ran down her cheeks.
Vergil turned around to face the crestfallen mare and put a hand on her shoulder. "I know what it's like to be alone and lose your family, my life crumbled back when I was a young boy and ever since I've been forced to take care of myself, it's a painful route but you can't change things as you'd see fit or know the consequences."
Mamba gently nuzzled Vergil's chest and gave a small smile at the sympathy the human was trying to show. "Thank you, deary."
The sound of hooves hitting tilestone echoed through the night in Canterlot castle as Sapphire was galloping through the western wing. She had woken up in the middle of the night and decided to go check on Hunter who she found gone from the medical wing without any of the night guards patroling the area noticing. Learning of this fact was the reason Sapphire was galloping through the western wing, to find Dante and tell him of his son's disappearance. It took her several minutes to gallop through the halls, but Sapphire arrived at a door with a plaque displaying Dante's name.
Sapphire knocked on the door then proceeded to open the -surprisingly- unlocked door gently and peeked her head in. The room was dark, barely lit up by a few rays from the moon shining in through the windows. Sapphire took a deep breath and noticed Dante leaning back in the chair behind the desk, a magazine on his face like she had seen Hunter do a few times.
"It's the middle of the night lady, you don't see me knocking on doors and interrupting your sleep do you?" Dante asked out loud, though his words a bit muffled by the magazine on his face. "And here I thought I'd be able to catch some 'Z's without being interrupted for once."
"S-sorry about that Dante, but I have a bit of bad news," Sapphire said as she opened the door fully, revealing the rest of herself, without her dress or possible make-up. "Hunter and his things from the medical wing are gone."
The room became silent. The human nor pony said anything for what felt like an eternity as Dante was processing the fact.
"Well, this is something new," Dante mused and pulled the magazine off of his face. "I expected him to get out of the medical wing, then come here and sleep on one of the couches, not whatever he's doing."
"We have to find him before he gets himself more hurt!" Sapphire exclaimed, earning a chuckle from the human.
"Normally I'd tell you, 'he'll be fine', but from the sudden burst of anger he showed yesterday you're right," Dante said as he got out of his chair. "Way to take my spotlight kiddo."
Making his way over to the mare, Dante tilted his neck to each side as a group of at least six lunar guards ran through the halls, past Dante's room in a hurry. Despite Dante not having a lot of knowledge about how the lunar or solar guards worked, he knew that if a group of four or more were heading somewhere in a hurry something was wrong.
"That can't be good," Dante muttered and sprinted after the thestral guards to see what excitement he could get into now that he was awake.
"Where are you going?!" Sapphire called out as Dante followed the guards.
"Going to see what the fuzz is about!" Dante called over his shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll look for Hunter, he's certainly not getting dessert after dinner for this!"
Sapphire sighed and shook her head at the words that left the human's mouth and decided to let it go.
Following the guards with no problem, Dante found it a little odd with the guards, he had never seen them run towards possible trouble like this, especially not as more lunar guards joined the leading six, making it seem as if it was worse than he first thought. Something about this was odd, Dante couldn't feel any sort of unknown demon aura at all, the ones he could feel were either from his own devil arms or the small remnants of Hunter's aura as he wasn't in the medical wing resting up. Something wasn't right.
As Dante followed the guards through the corridors of the castle, he noticed that they were heading towards the training grounds of the castle. Was something happening at the training grounds? Normally if the guards were training they would already be there while the rest would be patrolling and guard areas of the castle. Again, Dante knew something wasn't right about this situation.
A loud thundering noise, as well as a yell, echoed over the sound of the guards' clanking armor, causing Dante to speed up and head towards the noise with vigor, as to Dante, it sounded like a demon causing havoc and terror for who knows how many lives. If this demon would drag out a fight, Dante knew he would probably lose the possible track of Hunter, but he knew Hunter could take care of himself as he'd done beforehand.
After a few minutes of running towards the thunderous noises and yells, Dante finally reached the training grounds and saw a sight he didn't come to expect. Nothing was really destroyed except for a pair of training dummies, -wait weren't those enchanted to last against powerful blows?- and guards who were laying on the ground either unconscious or in pain but no one was dead. This was definitely new but still caused the devil hunter to be cautious and kept his hand on the handle of his go-to weapon, Rebellion.
"N-no, please! I'm sorry! D-don't kill me!" A voice begged from up ahead, causing Dante to unsheath his blade and sprint forward to stop whatever was doing this.
As Dante rounded a corner of the training grounds, he saw a lunar guard stallion being held against the ground, trembling in fear as he stared upon his assaulter. A stallion with horns, claws covered in obsidian. Dante let out a frustrated groan at what he was seeing, his adopted son Hunter had let his temper get to him and entered his devil trigger. Annoyance could easily get under Hunter's skin if his buttons were pushed just right, but rarely would it delve into so much anger that it would cause Hunter to enter his devil trigger, yet it seemed they had been, at least Hunter had the restraint of not killing anyone which was at least good news.
"Let that stallion go at once and surrender yourself!" A voice caught Dante out of his thoughts as a decent amount of lunar guards had stepped in front of him during his quick mental analysis, at least a dozen guards in armor.
Hunter let out a growl as he threw the stallion towards Dante, who caught him by the back of his neck with no trouble. Dante had an unamused look on his face as he turned the stallion to look him in his eyes.
"You must've pushed his buttons just right if you managed to get him this angry," Dante flatly said as he put the stallion on the ground.
"H-he's a-a-a-a..." The stallion couldn't let out a coherent reply as he was trembling in fear and had an odor of what wasn't a pleasant smell.
"Yeah yeah, he's different don't pull the racist card on him or it'll only get worse."
Dante turned his attention back to Hunter and advanced towards the demonized stallion, pushing a few guards out of his path as he made his way several feet ahead of the guards.
"Alright kiddo, you got two options. Option one, you calm down and come with me," Dante called out as Hunter stared at the human who was wearing the same unamused look when he caught the guard. "Option two, I'll put you over the damn knee since I still clearly stand taller than you. Which option is it gonna be?"
Hunter glared at Dante and let out a growl of warning, all the while grinding a front hoof on the ground towards his own body as he was preparing to charge at the human who was now putting himself in the way of Hunter's anger.
Dante sighed and prepared himself mentally for a fight against Hunter, sadly this one wasn't one of their usual sparing matches which granted would be more fun, but this fight could possibly hurt either one of them.
Letting out a demonic roar of rage, Hunter charged at Dante.
"I couldn't possibly begin to describe how these findings came to us your highness, but I've run them through multiple tests again and again but the results are all the same."
Sitting in Princess Luna's chambers with a soundproofing spell around the room, Luna was listening to one of Canterlot's finest researchers in terms of the evolution of ponykind, Paper Swirl. Her latest discovery came from the recent blood sample she had been given just a few hours prior to this urgent meeting with Luna.
"And pray tell, what was the result? So far all thou have been telling us is that this couldn't be possible," Luna said as she looked at the unicorn mare in front of her. "So please, tell us thy discovery and we'll see to it that it will get fixed."
"R-right, my mistake your highness," Paper Swirl said and levitated a clipboard over to Luna for her to take a look at.
There were diagrams, along with formulas for different blood tests and multiple pages with who knows how many of researcher mare's thoughts and theories, to the results the blood's magical aura and cells reactions. So far from the look of the different pages, there was nothing out of the ordinary, Paper Swirl had put her mind as to why things are the way they are in her tests, the thing that caught Luna's attention was the final page and the results. There were smaller amounts of magical aura as well as other types of cells inside of the blood, that had never been found in a pony's blood over the years.
"So, from thy notes and theories, thou suggest we put this pony in quarantine due to the anomalies found in his blood?" Luna asked curiously before levitating the clipboard back to Paper Swirl.
"Well, unless he is able to keep the blood inside of him and not spray it onto other ponies it should be fine," Paper replied. "But the fact is this, his blood's magical power's strength is as weak as it was back in the early years of Equestria. He's a 19-year-old stallion, -if his blood and body structure is anything to go by- but his blood also indicates he was born around two millennia ago! How is that possible?"
"We do not know, but thou should go and get some rest thou have done more than enough," Luna said and gave a gentle smile at Paper Swirl. "We do believe we have another visitor."
Luna's magical aura enveloped the doors to her chambers and they opened up to reveal Sapphire with a hoof where the doors once were. A small giggle escaped Paper Swirl's lips as she gave a gentle bow towards Luna and headed out of the room, past Sapphire to find her way home.
"Lady Sapphire, come in, we assume thou have something you wish to talk about?" Luna asked in curiosity and let the green unicorn mare come in. "We assure thou that we will help you ease your mind from what happened a few hours ago."
"Well, there is this thing your highness," Sapphire started as she closed the doors behind her. "I am quite curious about this, what do you have against Hunter your highness?"
Luna had to do a double-take, if not a triple-take about what Sapphire came to talk about. Shaking her head to regain her composure Luna looked at Sapphire with a confused expression.
"Verily? Thou came to talk and that is what has thou curious? Wouldn't it be wiser to talk about his sudden outburst and the thundering sound of his yells?" Luna asked in confusion. "His yells are quiet due to the castle's magical enchantments, but with a trained ear thou would be able to hear it."
Groaning a little before giving off a sigh, Sapphire shook her head before she replied.
"I had a feeling he got himself in trouble again, that's probably what caused the guards to be on alert, not to worry Dante is most likely fixing things right now," Sapphire said and looked at Luna with a curious look. "So, what do you have against him, your highness?"
Knowing there was no way to change the subject with Sapphire, Luna took a glance towards her balcony then gave a short and simple answer. "He reminds us of ourselves."
Sapphire looked at the lunar princess with a confused expression as the words just registered. "Pardon?"
"He reminds us of ourselves when we were but a filly, way before we were banished to the moon," Luna repeated and looked back at the unicorn. "We'll give thou a few examples. He doesn't take orders from authorities, such as our sister and us. He acts rashly and improvises as he does what he sets his mind for, then he starts treating it as 'fun' or 'something to cure his boredom'. These are just two things to name a few of his potential dangers to others."
Shaking her head, Sapphire gave a small chuckle before she looked at Luna once more. "Really your highness, that's your reason?"
"What? Our reasons are valid, he keeps putting himself and possibly others in danger, Faust only knows he might be linked to some of the mysterious murders the royal guards started reporting a few months ago," Luna answered. "He's mysterious and doesn't talk about himself or what darkness might be hiding in him, you saw what happened during the gala."
"I understand your concern your highness, but I will be honest and say that you are judging him for being different," Sapphire pointed out. "He stood up instead of staying hidden and leave the mare to die. He ordered you to put up a barrier in case he lost. He saw the danger of his opponent when others didn't"
"Despite that little serious stance he took there, he should learn to not treat danger as a game and focus on what's at stake should he lose a battle," Luna scoffed and were fighting her building anger from the discussion about Hunter. "Now please, leave us be as we have nightmares to fight lady Sapphire."
Giving a small nod, Sapphire headed towards the double doors and exited out of Luna's chambers, leaving the lunar princess alone.
"We pray that Hunter isn't a piece of the past that is here to haunt us as punishment for what we did to Dante back then, it was troubling and bizarre times."
The sound of scribbling and rambling assumptions of Twilight Sparkle kept on going as she had failed to notice two of her best friends, Rarity and Applejack -with Rarity dressed in a pink bathrobe- had gone to check up on her where they found her trying to find a solution to some mysterious puzzle. A long paper trailed from across the floor with all types of theories as to what had happened to Hunter from what both the farm mare and fashionista could tell. Twilight was way obsessed over this, she even had that weird manestyle she had over the 'want it need it' incident.
"Twilight darling, don't you think you should get some rest dear?" Rarity asked worryingly as she noticed the bags under the eyes of her one of her closest friends.
"Rare's right Twi, ya could always look into this when ya'll aren't fighting off sleep," Applejack said as she walked over to the side of visibly tired alicorn.
Twilight, sitting at a small desk, -a quill dripping with ink was grasped in her magic with a candle as the only light source- had her eyes fixated on the piece of paper in front of her and all the words she had written down as if to come up with any logical theory about Hunter's change. Looking over her friend's shoulder, Applejack could see multiple words if not hundreds of words crossed over in various manners, be it vertically diagonally or simply crossed the words out entirely. Shaking her head, Applejack nudged Twilight enough to pull the alicorn out of her stupor.
"W-whu-?" Twilight asked as she looked around frantically before her eyes fell on Rarity and Applejack where she then sighed and gave an apologetic look to both the mares. "I did it again, didn't I?"
"Yes, you did darling," Rarity said and trapped the paper in her magical aura and rolled it neatly together. "Twilight dear, you need to rest and not fret over what happened to Hunter, despite it being rather alarming to see something like that."
"He's saved our hides for a second time, do ya honestly still think he has somethin' to hide from others?" Applejack asked, knowing full well that Twilight couldn't lie to the farm mare.
Looking Applejack in the eyes, Twilight lowered her gaze and sighed as if she had been caught with her hoof in the cookie jar and was about to punished for it. Twilight wanted to lie, tell her friends it wasn't that big of a deal, and that it was mainly her trying to piece together the whole transformation Hunter went through. That would've been the easy answer had Applejack not been there.
"I... don't think he wants anypony to know anything about him." Twilight honestly answered, albeit being hesitant about it. "He seems to be a good pony, but doesn't want to embrace the magic of friendship fully, something I've never heard a pony push so far away from oneself, it's like he's fighting his own mind."
"Maybe ask that there Dante fellow about Hunter?" AJ suggested. "He did say that Hunter grew up with him."
"But that will have to wait until you've gotten some sleep darling," Rarity said and shot Twilight a worried look. "You're on the verge of falling asleep and I will not have you skip out on beauty sleep, let alone just the sleep in general."
Twilight gave a little giggle at the last part of Rarity's words before letting out a yawn as if to tell her it was time for some rest. This wasn't the first and probably not the last time Twilight would be caught up in trying to find the logic behind something, only to be found by her friends or Spike a few hours later who would then snap her out of it thankfully.
"You're right. Thanks for checking up on me girls," Twilight said and gave let out a sigh. "I'm just worried about all of the things that have happened over these last few days."
"We all are Twi," Applejack said and put a gentle hoof on the alicorn's shoulder. "We all are."
Sighing deeply, Sapphire had returned to Dante's room where she was currently sitting in one of the couches in the room, sipping on a glass of water as she was trying to calm her nerves. Hunter had gone missing from the medical wing, a group of guards rushing towards what is most likely Hunter's doing. He was hurt from last night and he shouldn't be doing what he was doing, especially with that stab wound. The more Sapphire thought about it the more it worried her to no end.
Pushing the thoughts aside for just a little to try and stay somewhat calm, Sapphire decided to look at the magazine she had found laying on Dante's face when she came with the news of Hunter's disappearance earlier that night.
Engulfing the magazine in her magic, Sapphire levitated it over to her and skimmed through the pages. It was nothing but one of those gossip magazines with ridiculous advertisements, like products to increase your endurance for your herd's pleasure or something like that. The magazine was crumbled and got violently thrown into the garbage bin next to the desk in an instant, as nothing good ever came from reading the gossip stories journalists made or harassed ponies for.
Sapphire panted heavily, a bad memory emerged from her head of gossip involving her had spread around a few years ago. None of it was true, her words were turned against her, it made her look bad in everypony's eyes.
"I should've destroyed the camera back then, at least now it's mainly forgotten, thank goodness," Sapphire told herself as she put a hoof to her forehead, trying and subdue the thoughts of doing horrible things to a certain pair of journalists, should she find them again.
Taking a few deep breaths, Sapphire felt her composure return and her panting had returned to normal breathing. She took a look back at the garbage bin and saw it had tipped over from the magazine violently being thrown into it. Sapphire would blame it on her worry for Hunter and the way a memory resurfaced caused her to act like this, completely out of character.
Despite being able to use her magic to fix the mess, Sapphire jumped off of the couch and used her hooves to clean up. Most unicorns would probably have frowned upon her and wonder why she was using her hooves instead of magic, but to Sapphire, it gave her body some sort of balance, thus not making her have to rely on magic at all times.
Having put the magazine and the other piece of garbage in the bin, Sapphire put the bin in its place standing upright and noticed out of the corner of her eye a drawer opened ajar from the desk Dante was sitting at earlier. Did Sapphire accidentally open it when the garbage bin was violently knocked over or had it always been open but she just never noticed it until now? Either way, Sapphire's curiosity got the better of her and she opened the drawer fully and all she saw was a single picture. Levitating the picture up to her face, Sapphire took note of the red text in the bottom right corner of the picture that read, '"One happy family"' - Hunter'.
The picture had Hunter and Dante in it with five other humans, all smiling and being cheerful. Aside from Hunter and Dante, there was a black-haired human in a white shirt, further back were two other humans Sapphire had never seen before, one had white hair like Dante and Hunter and the other with auburn hair. The human with white hair wore a very darkened blue coat with a red vest underneath with dark blue pants to match, while the one with auburn hair had a white dress of some kind. Another human had long blonde hair and wore black leather pants and corset, revealing more skin than any of the others. The final human was sitting on Hunter's back, its hair was black and wore a green hoodie with a pair of blue jeans, and it seemed happier than any of the others.
"You know, I didn't take you for the snooping type lady." A voice piped in.
Accidentally letting the picture loose from her magical grasp as she visibly recoiled from the voice, Sapphire turned her attention to the newcomer and saw Dante with a passed out Hunter being carried on the human's shoulder.
"D-Dante! Hi there!" Sapphire greeted him with a nervous smile. "You and Hunter are both alright I see."
Dante shook his head a little and put Hunter onto his back on one of the couches and gently putting a hand on the stallion's forehead.
"Hunter's been better but he'll come around," Dante said without looking at the mare. "So, I see you found a pleasant memory from a few years ago."
"Yeah, you and Hunter with all of those other humans seemed happy," Sapphire said as she picked up the picture she dropped and put it on the desk. "I can only imagine they're missing you, back wherever you are, but this also brings me to question what you and Hunter have been through."
Dante sighed and turned his head towards Sapphire and had a saddened look on his face, the look made Sapphire regret asking the question, but it had already been asked.
"Listen, there are things I can answer but there are some that you have to ask Hunter about," Dante said and walked over to the desk and mare behind it, with Dante putting his hand on the picture. "I can tell you about all the adventures me and Hunter have been on and how we met all of those people, but don't ask me about this girl got it?"
Sapphire looked at the picture and saw Dante's index finger was now pointing at the girl sitting on Hunter's back, the black-haired human. Sapphire looked back up at Dante and nodded in understanding.
"Then tell me about the other human with white hair and how you and Hunter met him," Sapphire said. "It seems like a stupid observation but, both you and Hunter have white hair or a white mane, not only that but there's a faint glow in his right sleeve, so does that mean he has powers like you two?."
Dante gave a light chuckle and walked over to the free couch with the picture in hand and sat down in on the couch, beckoning Sapphire to sit next to him.
"Not a bad observation there Sapphire," Dante congratulated the mare as she was walking over. "You wanna know more about my nephew Nero it seems. Boy oh boy was that something for sure."
A feeling Dante did not remember had resurfaced in the late morning. Having taken care of Hunter's tantrum in the night, he had returned with the stallion to his room slumped over his shoulder before turning in later himself.
Dante didn't notice it at first, only after waking up and then taking a look at Hunter's wound to see that it hadn't healed yet. Thinking it was just his eyes playing tricks on him, Dante closed his eyes and opened them only to see the wound was still there. The wound shouldn't have been there considering the regenerative abilities both devil hunters shared, something was blocking it and Hunter was at this point most likely dying.
Dante had rushed out of the room and into the halls towards Celestia's bed chambers faster than he had run before for anything. Guards were either jumped over or dodged as Dante didn't have time for them as he knew Celestia had something that could help, the only problem was her willingly giving it to Dante.
Coming up to the double doors to Celestia's bed chambers, Dante ignored the stallions guarding the doors and slammed himself against the large metal doors, opening them with a loud 'thud' that echoed through the halls as the doors were knocked against the inner walls of Celestia's chambers, the entire display startling both Celestia and the guards.
"Celestia, we need to talk, now!" Dante told the solar princess before he felt a prick against his backside.
"And knowing you Dante, you won't leave it alone until we've come to a conclusion," Celestia sighed and quickly turned her gaze to her guards who had their spears pointed at Dante. "He's not here to cause harm despite his unusual ways."
"With respect your highness," One of the guards said. "He barged into your chambers out of nowhere, I would rather not take the chance of him hurting you."
"Hey, if I wanted to kill sunbutt here, I wouldn't be talking to her right now," Dante said annoyed. "I need to talk to her, and you grunts aren't even of a high enough paygrade for that."
"Why you-! I should drag you to a cell for disrespecting the princess!" The other guard said, poking Dante with his spear.
"Enough! I will not have this escalate into something so feeble!" Celestia exclaimed. "I don't approve of the way any of you are talking to one another. Guards go back to your posts, I will take care of Dante."
Reluctantly the guards pointed their spears back upwards and slowly trotted out the door, but not before one of them giving Dante a stink eye. This was not the start of a good day for anyone from the looks of things.
Dante had rushed to Celestia's bed chambers to talk to the princess about an item that was considered a 'magical artifact' according to its discovery a couple of centuries ago. It was more of a statue than an actual magical device, even after years of poking and prodding of the statue to get a slight hint of its magical capabilities. Dante was here to get Celestia to give it to him so that he could use its power to help him heal Hunter.
"Celestia, I know you and I have a little bit of a rocky past, but Hunter and I need a certain statue you have somewhere here in the castle," Dante told Celestia as his patience was wearing rather thin as well as a slight hint of panic was present in his tone.
"I beg your pardon Dante, you burst into my private chambers to ask about a statue?" Celestia asked in annoyed confusion. "I fail to see how a simple statue would help both of you, Dante."
"Still untrusting, even after all those years?"
"While you did indeed save our kingdom, if not our entire world, you are still a wildcard and is thus unpredictable in what you'll do."
"Heh, give me a bit of credit, at least I make things interesting for all parties involved!" Dante exclaimed and threw his hands up in the air.
"That may be so, but there's more than just demons in play this time, your brother, not to mention a powerful pony."
"You know that doesn't stop me Celestia, I'm all for excitement but for now I need to know where you're keeping the divinity statue, human-looking body holding an hourglass with a lion mask?"
"Oh, that statue. I'm sorry, but I'm not letting that statue go, not before I know it won't hurt my little ponies." Celestia answered simply and walked over one of the windows in the chamber and looked out towards the land.
The air was tense as not a single word was muttered, both Dante and Celestia had a stance on the statue and its possible powers. Ponies would get hurt if the demons weren't taken care of but the statue would do the same, wouldn't it? Last time Celestia interacted with the statue it had demonic energy all over it along with another energy. Giving it more thought, Celestia remembered that sending her guards after Dante those centuries ago was also a risk towards the defenses of the towns and the overall safety of her little ponies, so many risks had been taken over the course of the Demons' attack.
"I can see you're busy thinking on it so I'll go break some walls if I have to, Hunter is dying right now Celestia!" Dante exclaimed. "I don't know what Vergil did to him, but I can feel his power weakening every minute. I need that statue Celestia."
"Dante," Celestia began and turned back to face the human. "I'll let you have the statue on the condition that you can promise me that both you and Hunter can take care of these demons and that this statue doesn't hurt my little ponies."
"That's all? The statue won't hurt your ponies as they aren't pure demons, thought you'd know that by now," Dante said without turning around. "And don't worry Hunter and I will get the job done after his wound has healed."
"I'll have Twilight and her friends deliver the statue to your room, go and tend to Hunter in the meantime. Don't make me regret giving you the statue Dante."
"'Deliver'? Sorry but I don't trust deliveries after many failed pizza orders." Dante opened the door and left the solar princess to herself while proceeding to find Twilight and her friends.
As Dante left, Celestia muttered to herself as she knew there would be casualties in the possible war that was coming forth.
"Hope you're right Dante, I won't take risks that'll hurt my little ponies if I can help it."
A warm feeling was covering Hunter's face as he was laying on something soft yet familiar, like as if he was home. His mind slowly worked on waking his limbs up and he wondered about something, were his adventures in Equestria as well as his father going missing just a dream? It couldn't have been, but Vergil couldn't be alive despite how real the events felt. Vergil died on Mallet island a few years back. None of it made sense to the stallion who let out a sharp gasp as he felt his body move so gently.
Hunter opened his eyes in an instant and put his forehooves to his chest as a wave of pain washed over him. Feeling woven fabric instead of his fur, Hunter looked down his body and saw that he was wearing a shredded tuxedo as well as his barrel being covered in bandages with a deep crimson mark about half a foot long around the middle. Clutching his hooves to his pained area, Hunter breathed deeply and stayed like such for a few minutes. One thing Hunter could tell from this was that he was still in Equestria and Vergil was alive who had almost killed him if it wasn't for his father.
"He saved me yet again," Hunter said out loud before hissing in pain, "Should've known it wasn't a dream, it never is when I want it to be, that or a nightmare."
Taking a look around, Hunter saw that he was laying on one of the couches in his father's room in the castle. Taking a deep breath of air, Hunter rolled off of the couch and onto his legs where he then grunted in pain. Hunter had been stabbed and cut over the years and his wounds would usually heal over the course of a few hours, but thinking about it, he realized that those wounds were from all kinds of weapons, even his uncle's sword, Yamato, but what puzzled him was that Vergil's sword wasn't that strong before, what happened?
"Oh, I am really hating whoever decided to just leave me here with nothing to dull this pain!" Hunter groaned as the pain felt more intense than when he was laying on the couch.
"I'm sorry to hear that my friend."
A voice caught Hunter's attention, causing him to look at the desk and saw 'Penguin' stirring a spoon in a teacup. How Hunter didn't notice him when he gathered his surroundings was probably due to the pain he was feeling from his wound since that was the first thing he felt after he awoke.
"I see you've done as I asked and got severely hurt because of it," Penguin said in his usually calm tone. "I've taken the liberty to look after you while Sapphire is getting your coat from her Canterlot home."
"Heh, that's unusual of you Penguin," Hunter said and coughed up blood. "Oh great, like I needed a metallic taste in my mouth mixed with the pain."
"Well, let me help you with that Hunter, sorry in advance though."
Hunter felt his body get engulfed in blue magic and then gently lifted. The pain was relentless and showed no sign of stopping the painful signals running through the devil hunter's nerves. It felt like his body was like a pinball machine that lit up, only the light was his body feeling the excruciating pain. The grunts and moans as well as the facial expression coming from the devil hunter were the only indications that he was feeling extreme pain.
Hunter felt the soft cushions of the couch comfort his back as his body was shaking slightly from his nerves screaming out in pain.
"I told you I was sorry," Penguin said as he let Hunter free from the magical grasp. "I'll be blunt with you, you've been poisoned and it's not a simple poison either. It runs through your bloodstream, causing your nerves to cause a ruckus, and therefore you're in pain."
"I-I think I understood the pain part and I also know what a poison is you prick!" Hunter shot at the unicorn.
"Well, in any case, let me continue. Not only does it cause you pain due to it being in your bloodstream, but it's also a relatively new poison, one which doctors have seen very rare cases of in the entirety of Equestria, sadly the victims never survived without losing a lot of their magical abilities, if they survived."
"And how does knowing any of that help me?"
"Simple, it's known that the poison only targets your magical abilities as well as the functions, but since you're of a more 'unique' pony, I'm sure you have an idea of what it's currently targeting first," Penguin explained and trotted over to Hunter with the teacup engulfed in his magic. "Now, this little drink I have prepared in this teacup will put you in a coma-like state for a few hours, preventing you from escalating the poison's effect by moving your limbs, delaying your possible demise while your father can get to the divinity statue for your wellbeing."
"You gotta be kidding me Penguin," Hunter said as his breathing was shakey, showing a hint of fear.
"I'm afraid not Hunter."
Penguin levitated the cup close to Hunter's head, indicating that whatever this drink was, was going to help. Feeling fear for the first time since forever, Hunter coughed up more blood and felt his body scream again. Giving off another set of grunts and more shakey breathing, Hunter slowly opened his mouth and closed his eyes as he waited for Penguin to just pour the contents of the cup into his mouth.
"Just lay still and swallow the contents of the cup Hunter," Penguin said and slowly brought the cup to Hunter's lips where the devil hunter swallowed. "And should you pass on while in this state, it will at least be less painful than if you were awake."
Feeling the mouthful of ghastly tasting liquid, Hunter could feel his body slowly easing down as if there was some sort of painkiller in the liquid as well. Hunter looked at the unicorn by his side with a gentle and calm expression as he felt the drink taking effect fast.
"Hey... Penguin?" Hunter called out. "T-thank you for being there for me, despite the fact I might be an ass sometimes."
Earning a small chuckle from the unicorn, Hunter felt his eyes close and hear the faint sound of Penguin's voice echoing as he grew unconscious.
"You'll get through this Hunter, just like you always did with your father," Penguin said as he headed for the door. "I wouldn't want you to pass yet if at all, you and I both have some history we need to see the end of."
Walking through the streets of Canterlot, Sapphire was on her way back to the castle after having gone to her house and grabbed Hunter's red coat. Nothing had gotten in her way, just a few mares and stallions giving Sapphire a look of distaste. It wasn't anything that bothered her in the slightest anymore as it happened every time some noble recognized Sapphire was.
Rolling her eyes, Sapphire casually trotted towards Canterlot castle with Hunter's red coat on her back, making sure it wouldn't fall off and get dirty. Sapphire had noticed that the coat had needed a wash from the day before, as all kinds of smudges were visible on it and Sapphire knew that some of the darker red smudges weren't tomato sauce or ketchup that might've been spilled on it.
Shuddering a little at the thought of the dark red smudges, Sapphire let out a sigh, knowing that Hunter just needed some rest and that he would be fine after waking up considering she had heard Hunter's stories wherein he was stabbed multiple times. Something about this time though felt different to Sapphire, throughout the two to three months she's known Hunter, he's never had to go to the hospital or use medicine of any form.
"Excuse me, ma'am?"
A voice interrupted Sapphire's train of thought, snapping her back to reality and noticing two mares trying to get her attention. A brown and white mare respectively, both unicorns, one was holding a camera in her magic while the other a pencil and a note block. A pair of reporters had just 'graced Sapphire with their presence' so to speak. Sapphire could do without them at a time like this.
"Oh, sorry can I help you?" Sapphire asked, getting to a standstill as she gave the reporters a puzzling look.
"Why yes! You're Sapphire Gleam, aren't you?" The reporter with the note block asked. "Daughter of Velvet Swirl and Silver Moon? We'd like to ask you a few questions."
"I'm sorry, I really don't have time for this," Sapphire said and began walking again, only to be rudely stopped as a hoof from the brown mare was shot in front of Sapphire.
"Is it true you went to the Grand Galloping Gala last night, accompanied by a stallion using the alias 'Cash Grab'?"
"I said I don't have time."
"Is he known for stepping in to help others in life or death situations?"
"Please, I got places to be."
"Is he related to the stallion 'Hunter' from Ponyville, considering he isn't afraid to talk against the princesses either?"
Question after question, reporters never got the hint and they would pester you until you gave them what they came for to earn that big scoop. The frustration grew in Sapphire as she just wanted to leave and look at Hunter's condition, hopefully, she'd come back to see him awake and have healed his wound some if not entirely. Quickly glancing between the reporters, Sapphire sighed and pushed the reporters to the side and began storming towards the castle.
"How rude of you Ma'am, we still need answers to our questions!" The same reporter called out while making sure she didn't fall over from the push of Sapphire's magic.
"You need to learn to respect when a pony says they don't have time to answer your questions!" Sapphire called over her shoulder and ignored the verbal insults thrown her way.
Moving through the streets of Canterlot, Sapphire eventually calmed down, having had to deal with reporters is one of the worst things she'd ever experienced and could easily aggravate her. In Canterlot a single news article could ruin your life if not force you to change just to be in a better position, it's what caused her to move to Ponyville, staying down in that town outside of Canterlot unless she had no choice.
One thing Sapphire noticed about Canterlot both in the castle and the city was that there were more guards around than she's ever seen, it had to be Celestia making sure to keep her ponies safe in case of a demon assault, which seemed more possible thanks to the events at the gala. A simple gathering job turned into an entirely different deal, it only made Sapphire try and think about it. Did Penguin know that Dante would be found, Or was he as much in the dark as Hunter and Sapphire were to begin with? Thinking about it only made Sapphire's head hurt as there were too many possibilities to this, and without proof of it who was to say what the truth was?
Reaching the castle gates, Sapphire was stopped by a pair of unicorn guards instantly causing her to be filled with nervousness. One of the guards used their magic to wrap Sapphire in magic, probably scanning her to see if she was a pony and nothing else judging by the tingles she felt along her fur. This scan took a few minutes and considering the guards didn't get alarmed and let her pass only filled her with a bit of relief. With the events at the gates over with, Sapphire headed through the castle towards the west wing, praying that Hunter was just resting his eyes and that Penguin had taken good care of him in her absence.
Nearing Dante's room, the sound of multiple female voices coming from within confused Sapphire, who was in Dante's room and why? Opening the door and entering, Sapphire saw Dante and Twilight and her friends all staring at Dante who had his hand pressed against a small statue that was placed on the coffee table. What had Sapphire missed and what was with the statue Dante was currently touching?
"There it is!" Dante exclaimed and lifted his hand up to his head to examine a small green star he was holding with his index finger and thumb. "Little green star of goodness! Good thing I still had some red orbs leftover."
"This is fascinating, to know that we had found such a statue that can produce such a tiny item which can heal somepony's wounds, it would be of great use at hospitals for the patients!" Twilight squealed as she was taking notes on a note block of course.
"It doesn't exactly work with everyone, you gotta offer some red orbs or if you prefer the real term, demon blood in order to get one of these things."
A gasp from Rarity followed by her falling backward onto a couch that just seemed to be there whenever needed.
"Oh how dreadful, carrying around such nasty liquid just to be able to gain such useful items!" Rarity exclaimed. "I'm so disgusted by the thought of having to use blood for something!"
"Is she always this dramatic?" Dante asked as he looked at Applejack who nodded at the human. "I knew I should've started packing earplugs for jobs, you just never know when there are things you don't wanna listen to."
"I'm guessing something good has been found?" Sapphire asked, making her presence known to everyone.
"'Good'? Hunter's finally able to get patched up," Dante said knelt down onto the floor next to the resting stallion. "I'm just hoping his powers haven't weakened once this star washes him clean of the poison."
"Hey, you got some sort of star that can help him survive right?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I mean, he might be a jerk at times but I can respect someone who charges headfirst into danger."
"Not to mention, he also stood up when a mare he didn't know was in danger," Fluttershy added in. "I do hope he will get better from this, we never got to thank him for saving us."
Dante put the green star against Hunter's chest near his heart, it was the best way to ensure none of the poison would reach the stallion's heart before it was too late. The star gave a slight dim as it slowly dissolved into nothingness, leaving Hunter's chest with the same green tint the star just had. The star was taking effect and had begun its work on fixing its patient up as best as it could.
"Well, you girls are welcome to stay," Dante said as he walked behind the desk and sat down in the chair before kicking his feet up on said desk. "Just don't wake me unless it's an emergency."
Seeing Dante pick up a random magazine from the desk to put on his face as he leaned back, Sapphire couldn't help but giggle at the display.
"Seems like the phrase 'Like father like son' isn't entirely wrong about the two of you Dante."
"Don't you ever mention her name again in such a way or I will rip your heart out and devour it in front of you!"
This sentence would always send shivers down Hunter's spine, even though the context of this event was years old.
Hunter had been put into a coma-like state for what felt like an eternity to the stallion as he listened and watched memories pass by. The memories ranged from some of the good ones to some of the bad ones to some that even left him feeling regret over his actions. Especially when threatening a school bully to the point where she pissed her pants in front of everyone who was looking.
Sighing deeply, Hunter hung his head low as he never wanted to remember that day or the week before, so many people were left devastated and in someway it was all because of Hunter. He knew that deep down, it would always be pointed back at him no matter how many times he was told that it wasn't his fault. Sometimes he wished he was in her place instead.
"Despite this being your domain Luna, you're still not able to avoid an avid hunter's senses," Hunter called out as he lifted his head to see the blue alicorn right before him. "If you're here to scold me for my actions during the gala save it."
Surprised by the fact that Hunter called her out before she even made a single sound, Luna stared at the stallion who was staring back at her. This was the first time someone knew Luna wasn't part of a dream.
"Neigh, we actually came to just talk," Luna said. "We... were wrong about thee."
"Not the first time I've heard that Luna."
"Let us finish Hunter. Thou showed great courage for standing up to the noble mare, even though thou were unsure of the outcome. We applaud you."
"Yeah, yeah, just lock me up if you... I'm sorry, what?" Hunter grew confused by this. Princess Luna, a mare who he figured would be nothing but a pain in his side was congratulating him? "I have a feeling there is a 'but' on this though."
"Indeed. Did thou take your loss into consideration? What would've happened had thy father not showed up to save both thou and lady Sapphire?"
Sighing at the words of the alicorn before him, Hunter avoided Luna's gaze before speaking.
"Who knows Luna? Uncle is as cold as they can get, the only thing keeping him above the rest is his honor in battle, despite his questionable goal at times."
"By taking ponies captive?!" Luna almost bellowed at Hunter. "He clearly has no knowledge honor if he's taking ponies hostage, no matter his goals!"
"No," Hunter flatly said and looked back at the alicorn mare. "He only put on that act as a bluff because none of you know him as I or dad does, thus keeping you all away as he patiently waited for me to come to him."
"He would've killed the mare had thou not shown!"
Hunter, who was now glaring daggers at Luna had to restrain himself from using actions as words. Luna didn't know who Vergil was so who was she to cast judgment on a man who had been helping Hunter and Dante when their goals aligned? Most of their encounters ended up in a battle between both Dante and Vergil, but the few times he was actually helping them from what Hunter could recall from his memories. That was it!
"Well, if you don't want to believe me, Luna," Hunter started as a 'picture frame' popped up next to him, one that held Hunter's memories of his uncle Vergil. "Why don't I show you instead?"