Hunter in Equestria: Chapter 2

Your little chat with Twilight was going well. You both agreed to ask each other questions, alternating every other question. Her questions had been things like "What's your culture like?" and "What are you?" Yours had mostly been the same, just as curious about where you were as the purple pony was about where you came from. She was currently explaining magic, and your head was spinning.

"So wait, it's just a natural talent?"

"Ah ah ah, my turn!" Twilight said, a small grin on her face. "Wouldn't wanna be unfair now, would you?"

"Nope." It was your turn to grin as you continued: "Also, that counts as a question." Your grin widened a bit when she flattened her ears, annoyed you would 'cheat' like that. She crossed her front legs together, pouting. The small shadow in the treeline continued to take notes, but would duck away if you looked over.

"You realize I can see whoever's over there, right?" You ask, burning your question on the obvious. Twilight looked a bit annoyed, probably because her spy was caught.

"Wh-aww, really?" Twilight sighed. "Alright Spike, you can come out!" She called out, and the small form responded.

"What, did he see me?" The figure questioned, coming out of the treeline. You arched an eyebrow at the...dragon that stepped out. Light purple scales covered him except for on his chest and stomach, where light green plates resided. A quill and sheet of parchment were in each hand, the parchment no doubt listing everything you had said and asked. You instinctively reached for your sword before forcibly stopping yourself. This failed to go unnoticed by the purple pony staring at you. "I need to work on my sneaking skills..." Spike finished dejectedly.

Well. Talking dragons. That was new. Very new. You shook your head.

"Alright, my turn. Why do you look like someone beat you up? Er, Rainbow Dash aside." Twilight gestured to your head and blood-covered hair, which reminded you that you really needed to clean up.

"A dragon kicked the shit out of me." You answered back, wincing when your head twinged. It had been doing that since you had been woken up, which you had assumed was dehydration setting in. You popped open your canteen and took a long drink, the water still not quite cool enough to be enjoyable. Still, that was the price you paid to avoid some...rather nasty consequences.

"A...a dragon did this...?" Spike asked quietly, in awe. "What did you do to tick it off?"

A mirthless chuckle came from you. "Absolutely nothing initially."

"Initially?" Came the confused reply. Twilight sighed.

"It means 'at the start', Spike."

"Oh."

"To be absolutely fair, it attacked me first." You continued. You went over the fight, skipping most of the gorier details. Didn't want to scar their minds in you were right about them, though a few of said details were important to the story. Recounting the fight made your hair stand on end, signalling an adrenaline rush. You grinned to yourself, you always loved this feeling. Made you feel...invincible.

"You cut its tongue out?!" Twilight half-shouted, growing noticeably more pale as your story went on.

"If I hadn't, it would have eaten me." You replied flatly. "Instead, it headbutted me and I flew into a wall. Next thing I know, I wake up in a tower in that forest." You gestured to the darkened trees. "I know it's not the tower I fought it in, so I obviously got here *somehow*. I'm just not sure how exactly."

She nodded, her color slowly returning. "We would have seen that fight if it had happened over there anyway. The way you describe it, it wasn't very quiet."

"How long have you been here anyway?" Spike asked offhandedly.

"Less than a full day at least, a day at most." You pointed to the sun, which predictably hadn't moved. That was still playing hell with your time-telling. "It was night-time when I finally came to."

"In the Everfree Forest? How did you get o-oh, right." Twilight stopped her question when she remembered your thick armor and sharp weapon. She shuddered at the thought of what you might have done before leaving the forest.

Your stomach growled again. That little bit of Aptonoth steak had done nearly nothing to stop your growling void. You dug back into your pack, only to remember you had dumped it all on the ground to show Twilight. There was no food there. Twilight smiled.

"So, it takes about an hour for you to get hungry again, interesting..." She nodded to the dragon, who took another note.

"No, not an hour. Roughly six." You corrected, watching as Spike crossed out the 1 and wrote a 6. "I've only had a small bit of dried steak in the last day though, so it's not going to hold me over." You sighed before donning your armor again and standing.

"Where are you going?"

"Hunting," was the reply as you walked back into the Everfree Forest. You didn't bother to wait for a reply.
--

Dammit, didn't you tell yourself that you wouldn't be back here for any reason? Yeah, that was before you ran out of food. You stuck to the treelines, avoiding clearings. Your dark armor helped you blend in, and the sharp lines broke up your outline. You found your prey.

A somewhat large bird was in one of the many clearings in the forest, and you quietly crept up on it. Roughly the size of the ponies you had met before, had the head of a chicken but a green-scaled body and tail. You hoped it was edible...and you guessed you'd find out soon enough. A little food poisoning never killed anyone, right?

You silently drew your knife, and lunged. It had only begun to turn around at the sound when your serrated blade buried itself in the bird's throat and ended its life. Wrenching your knife free, you grabbed the your meal around the neck and left the forest.
--

Surprisingly, Twilight was still there when you got back. She was taking a nap in the sun, a book open and in front of her. Spike, meanwhile, was sitting near the stream you filled your canteen from, his feet in the water. You reminded yourself that was why you boiled your water. The sounds of your now-heavy footfalls drew his attention, and he balked when he saw you.

"A cockatrice!?"

You looked down at the bird in your grip. Is that what it was? Again, dipping into your childhood fairytales...

You decided to play dumb.

"Yeah?"

"You know they can petrify you, ri-" he froze when he realized it wasn't moving, and there was a red trail from its neck leading down its chest. "I-is it...dead...?"

"...yeah...?"

"Wow." Was the only response. You decided to get down to cleaning the cockatrice, preparing it for eating. You assumed Spike, being a carnivore himself, wouldn't care. You were wrong. "Wait, what are you doing?"

"I'm getting ready to eat, what does it look like?" You answer, a small hitch of irritation in your voice. You got a little cranky when you didn't eat.

"Eat it? Why?"

"Because I'm hungry, what is this twenty questions?"

You began cleaning and gutting the bird, and Spike averted his eyes. He was going green in the face from the sounds, and you could tell he was about to get sick.

"If you wanna go somewhere else, I don't need company." You snapped a bit more harshly than you intended.

You could have sworn those words unlocked some sort of weight from his ankles. He put as much distance between you and him as possible, likely to get away from the sounds. You didn't like the noises that gutting and cleaning an animal made either, and in truth, it always put you off a bit. Still, a guy's gotta eat.

You glanced over and saw Twilight still snoozing in the sun. How she didn't hear the snapping and removal of bone was beyond you, but you weren't complaining.

Fifteen minutes later, your task was done. You looked the poultry over, seeing if you missed any small bones. Last time you had something even remotely similar, you nearly died when a bone lodged itself in your throat. Not your proudest moment, that.

Satisfied it was done, you walked back over to your fire pit. You snapped down a few more branches from nearby trees, this time waking Twilight up. She drowsily looked at you, then to Spike with his fingers in his ears.

"What are you doing?" She asked, stifling a yawn.

"Making a fire so I can eat." Your short answers were even getting on *your* nerves. Funny how that works.

She sat silently as you set up the firepit again, extinguishing/cooking rock and branch again at the ready. She watched intently as you drew your sword and touched off another blaze in an instant, having a merry fire crackling in under a minute total. Damn you loved this sword.

You would have cooked on your weapon, but you had tried cooking on it once before. That just left an unholy mess to clean up. You didn't want to even think about it.

Instead, you waited. After roughly ten minutes, you threw a chunk of cockatrice meat onto the stone, hearing the sizzle. Twilight watched you cook without a word, purple aura around the quill and parchment. She was taking notes of how you did this. Why she was doing this was beyond you. Surely they had campfires here...?

You mentally shrugged, flipping the hunk of meat. The aroma was making you ravenous and impatient, while doing the exact opposite for Twilight. She grew slightly green, and her expression was obviously disturbed. She tried to ignore it for the sake of her notes though.

Spike on the other hand, looked confused as all hell. You saw it playing across his face, and you grinned. You could tell he was torn between being repulsed and wanting a piece of what you were cooking.

After a few more minutes of self torture, you pulled the chunk of muscle off the stone. It was cooked nice and well, what with you trying to avoid any sort of food-borne illness. You knew poultry from your area
carried nasty diseases, and you weren't taking the risk of an equally bad disease here.

You took a bite, and you were instantly in heaven. You chewed slowly, savoring the taste. Despite having no seasoning at all, it had a slight spicy kick to it. Very curious. You saw Spike looking over at you. You tore a bit off and offered it to him, and he cautiously took it. He bit into it, and had the same euphoric look you did.

"W-wow. That's amazing! Why didn't I find out about this sooner?"

Twilight perked up at this, curiosity getting the better of her.

"Can I get a taste...?" You looked at her, surprised. "I mean, for the sake of my notes...?"

Yeah, you were sure that was exactly why.

You tore off another chunk, smaller than what you gave Spike. If she noticed that, she didn't say anything.

"Fair warning, you might not like it." You said. Then again, who knew? These ponies might not be like the ones ho-nope. She took a bite, it squished, and she was done. She spit it out like you had tried to poison her. What a waste.

"That's absolutely disgusting!" Twilight galloped over to the stream, desperately trying to get the taste out of her mouth. "Ew ew ew ew ew..."

You laughed, taking a few more bites. You then smothered the fire again, setting the rock into the hole. "You okay over there?" You called out, the amusement clear in your voice. She simply glared at you in answer, slowly getting up and returning.

"How do you eat that?" Twilight asked when she sat down again.

"Like this," you said as you took another bite. The lavender pony grimaced and shook her head.

"Not what I meant. I mean, how do you digest it? Why do you even like that?"

"Well, the first question I can't really answer. I'm not a doctor. As for the second..." You shrugged. "I need a lot of protein, and meat provides it. I can't really explain it. I suppose because it's good for me, I like it."

"Is that all you eat? Meats?"

"No no, not at all. Here, look." You opened your mouth, letting her get a good look at your teeth. After a few minutes (and a few notes from her), you closed your mouth so you could talk. "I have molars for plant-based foods and incisors for meats. I'm an omnivore."

She was taking notes the entire time, listening intently. She didn't look surprised at all you were an omnivore after looking at your teeth, though she obviously appreciated the explanation regardless.

You noticed steel-grey clouds hanging in the air. Those hadn't been there a second ago...

"Uh, is it about to rain...?" You asked, causing Twilight to look up.

"Hey, Rainbow didn't say anything about a storm today. Come on, we can finish up at the library." She stood and began quickly walking away. You gathered your things and followed suit, your longer legs letting you easily keep up. You kept an eye on the sky, which is when you saw it.

Pegasai, pushing clouds together. Your mind was blown.

"Wait, is weather artificial here?"

"No, it's real. Why?" Twilight answered, giving you a strange look.

"So why are they pushing clouds together?" You pointed at the sky, where the pegasai had finished pushing the wall of clouding together.

"To make rain?" She had a tone that implied that you were being slow on the uptake.

"...then it's artificial. If something sentient has to *force* it to happen, it's artificial." Your tone was flat and annoyed.

"Well it's not. It comes from factories where rainclouds are made."

The hell is a 'factory'? If it was anything like a forge, then the rain was still artificial. Regardless, you let the argument drop as the rain began to fall, tapping against your armor. Twilight had put a magical umbrella over her and Spike, keeping them both dry.

--


By the time you made it to the library, the storm had hit an almost terrifying degree of strength. You had nearly been hit by a branch on the way over, only seeing the falling tree limb at the last moment. Twilight was galloping at full tilt straight towards a tree at the edge of a small village.

"Wait, is that the library?" You shouted over the howling wind.

"Yeah, hurry!" She shouted back, Spike holding on for dear life. She drew closer and threw open the front door with a burst of magic, dashing inside. You sprinted for the door, ducking quickly under the shorter entrance. Once you were in, Twilight slammed the door shut and locked it, keeping the wind from pushing it open.

You looked around, and true to its name, books were everywhere. You saw what you assumed was a map of the area. Good, maybe you can find out where exactly you are...

"Hey Twilight, mind if I look at that map?" You gestured towards the parchment in question. She nodded and lowered it to you, placing it on the ground between you.

You looked at it...and looked, and looked again. "Uh...is this the entire world...?"

"Yes, though its about twenty years old."

Your heart jumped into your throat as a cold realization sank over you. This was NOT your world. Not even slightly. How you got here was beyond you. You then remembered the lightning bolt.

Maybe you were dead...?

No, the sheer fact Rainbow Dash nearly knocked your ass out ruled that out.

"Twilight...I think I'm in trouble."

"Wait, why?"

"Because I don't recognize any of this. Not a single island, ocean, or landmass. Where's Minegarde? Where's Loc Lac? Where's Pokke?!" Your voice rose with each question, you were getting more and more panicky. You were beginning to scare Twilight, as she slowly backed away from you. She suddenly became acutely aware of your weapon, her eyes locked to it.

"I-I don't k-know! I don't know any of those places!" She cried, fear causing her to tear up. "Please don't hurt me, I don't know!"

Wait, what? Sure, you were freaking out...but where was she getting the idea you would hurt her...?

Oh right. The fact you were a quarter ton of metal, scale, and sheer imposing form. You tried to calm yourself, keeping your voice as level as you could.

"I'm not going to hurt you. This isn't your fault." You began, trying desperately to not panic again. "I'm just confused. I don't know where I am, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little upset about it." You paused, gathering your thoughts. "I just need a minute."

Twilight nodded silently, trying to make herself appear as small as possible. You stood and left the library, standing out in the rain.

The harsh rainfall spattered against your helmet, but you were still dry. As a result, you ignored it. You had bigger problems than a little water.

Your mind was going a mile a minute. Where the fuck were you? Equestria was the obvious answer, but where the hell was that?! That map was a world map, and there was NOTHING in common with the world map you were familiar with.

Lightning crackled overhead, and you involuntarily jumped. Wait...

A lightning bolt hit you, and you felt like you were falling...

Hell?

This was awful pleasant for hell...

The only logical explanation you could come up with is this: You were obviously not in your own world anymore. You frowned. Any simpleton could have told you that. Still, you should have figured it out when pastel colored TALKING ponies found you.

You scratched at your head in irritation, ignoring the fact you couldn't with your helmet on.

Sighing, you walked back into the library.

--

Twilight was busy pouring over various books when you walked in.

"No, that's not right. No, not this one..."

"Uh, Twi?"

She jumped at the sound of your voice, making her lose her focus and drop the multiple books floating around. She turned and saw you looking at her. You took your helmet off and quirked an eyebrow at the pony.

"What are you doing?"

Twilight replied after a few minutes gathering her thoughts. "I'm looking for anything similar to what happened to you in my books. I know I've read something like this before, but it was an older fantasy novel. I can't find it either, I think I lent it to Rainbow."

You groaned. "Great. Well, she'll be as willing to help me as I am to drink molten lava."

"You can do that?!" She asked, quill and notes instantly in her magical grip.

"No, I can't. That's the point." You felt this would be a theme with the purple pony.

"Oh..." She put it down dejectedly. Twilight then looked out the window, sighing at the storm. "Well, we can't do anything right now with the rain the way it is. The rain will ruin the book, obviously."

You nodded, beginning to take your armor off. It was quite toasty in the treebrary, and even worse when you were in full battle gear. You set all of your armor on the floor near the door, not wanting to track more water into what you assumed was her home as well. Once it was all off, you stretched, popping a few of your vertebrae.

Twilight took another look at your head. "If you want, there's a bath in that room over there."

She gestured to a small, dimly lit room with a porcelain tub in it.

"Wow, you must be well off." You commented. "That had to cost an arm and a leg."

"What? No, that tub is about as cheap as they come."

"Really? How much did it cost?"

"Couldn't have been more than one hundred bits. I honestly don't know the exact amount, this place was grown and then built long before I was even born."

You weren't sure what bits were, but judging by how the term was used, you assumed it was the local currency. If it was anything close in value to the zenny, which you highly doubted, then porcelain must be very cheap indeed.

Shrugging, you walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind you. Lights suddenly clicked on, and you looked above you. A lantern was hanging from the ceiling, putting out light much higher than a normal candle should. You *would* have assumed a thunder sac, but this wasn't your world. A fact you were still trying to wrap your head around. Electricity was hard to come by, only affordable by the wealthy. Technically you were part of the wealthy, but you spent so much time hunting that you didn't have time to enjoy your hard earned money.

You turned the shower on (also ridiculously expensive back home), stripped, waited for it to get hot, and stepped in.

--

A half hour later, you were refreshed and clean. Your blood-caked hair had been the hardest part to wash, what with the practically open wound there. You would have stitched it up, but lack of vision prevented you from probably making it worse. Besides, it wasn't *that* bad. You had definitely had worse before.

You toweled yourself off with a nearby cloth labeled "Guest". It wasn't there before you got in, so you assumed Twilight had either ninja'd her way in, or Spike did. For reasons unknown to you, you were far more comfortable with Spike being the one to do it.

You shrugged, drying yourself and putting your clothes back on. You stepped  into the main room to see Twilight reading one of her many books. She didn't seem to be rushing or worried, but instead had a small smile on her face. Pleasure reading, of course.

Closer inspection revealed it to be *your* book, but you let it slide. It was a shock that she could even read it. The chances of your spoken languages being the same with the same inflections and meanings was already a slim chance, but written words too? You were a little spooked, to be frank. Someone had to be fucking with you.

"Enjoying my book?" You asked, smiling. She jumped a bit and blushed, having been caught going through your pack. Not that you cared much.

"Uh, yeah. Human literature is fascinating, but a bit violent." She commented, her eyes not leaving the book.

"Well, to be honest, we're a violent species." You said with another shrug. "Comes with being part carnivore." She nodded, only half listening to you. She was absorbed into the story already, so you decided to leave her be.

Rainy day, warm building? What a better way to finish the day off than to read a book yourself? You had nothing better to do, after all.

You skimmed through the fiction section, then pulled a book at random.  The title read "War for Canterlot." Cracking the book open, you sat on the floor across from the lavender pony and began reading.
--

Holy shit, that was the most boring thing you've ever read. It wasn't so much a 'war', more of a shouting match. Hell, no one even threw a punch! You closed the book, disappointed. The rain showed no signs of letting up, but you could tell it was night from the darker shade of the clouds.

Twilight yawned softly. You had almost missed it, it was so quiet. You looked over to see her nodding off again, book still open and in front of her. Her eyes closed, and she was in dreamland. Spike was nowhere to be seen, you assumed he had gone to bed as well.

A knock on the door drew your attention. Who could this be at this late hour, especially in the rain?

You stood and opened the door, to find a rain-soaked Rainbow Dash standing there.

"Hey Twilight, I brought your book ba-YOU!" She cut herself off when she finally opened her eyes and saw you standing there. "What the buck are you doing in here?!"

"Uh, reading? This is a library after all, keep your voice down."

She grit her teeth, then saw the sleeping Twilight. Twilight chose that moment to slump over, laying on her side.

You watched this happen in slow motion, almost knowing what would follow.

"What did you do to Twilight!?" She shouted, stirring Twilight from her sleep.

"Huh...wha...?"

"Don't worry Twilight, I'm gonna kick this guy's flank for what he did!"

You held your hands up, backing away. "I didn't do anything! She fell asleep reading a book!"

"Liar!"

It was at that point a hoof met your face. Blinding pain shot from the impact point, causing you to stagger back. Twilight was fully awake at this point, putting a magic wall between the two of you. You touched where the crazed pegasus had hit you, already feeling the swelling and bruising. You growled and grimaced.

"Rainbow Dash, what are you doing?! Anon wasn't hurting anyone!"

"Twilight." You said quietly. "Lower the wall."

"What?"

"Do it. She wants to tango, then fine. We're settling this, one way or another."

Reluctantly, she lowered the shield. She also grabbed her quill and parchment. If she was going to see two of her friends beat the hell out of each other, she might as well get some notes off of it.

As soon as the shield came down, Rainbow lashed out again. Expecting it this time, you ducked it and threw a punch of your own. She expertly dodged around it, countering with a blow to your right shoulder. It hurt, but no where near as badly as the hit to the face.

You growled and threw another punch, forcing her to dodge to the left...where you were waiting with your other fist. Your reach was longer than she thought it was, and you connected with a solid strike to her snout. You thought you heard something snap, and she flew into a bookcase. Books tumbled down onto her head and buried her under a deluge of paper. A groan from under the books let you know she was alive, at least. Good, you didn't need to be run out of town already.

You walked over and started removing books, exposing the cyan pegasus beneath.

"What, gonna hit somepony while they're down?" She spat, seething with anger. Her face was bruised up and her nose was bleeding freely. That snapping sound had to have been one of the bones in her snout, because it was swelling quite quickly.

"Twilight, is there a hospital here?" You asked, ignoring Rainbow for a moment.

"Y-yes. I can take you there. Is it over?"

"I don't know." You replied. You then looked at the battered pony. "Is it over?"

She didn't answer, instead looking away from you. Tears were in her eyes, you assumed from the pain. You knew from experience getting your nose broken wasn't fun at all.

"Come on." You said, holding your hand out. "I'm taking you to the hospital." You grabbed Rainbow's front hoof, pulling her out of the pile. She shook out of your grip, glaring at you.

"I can take care of myself!" She snapped, backing away. "I can't believe you'd house this...thing, Twilight. You need to put it back in the forest before somepony else gets hurt!"

"Rainbow, shut it." Twilight said, looking more livid than you had seen her. Granted, you've known her for less than a day, but that was beside the point. "He was having a great conversation with me, and the only pony getting upset about it is you! This is *your* fault, and you got what you deserved."

Twilight then turned to you. "If you want to take her to the hospital, fine. She seems to be capable of doing it herself though. I could use some help picking these books back up."

Rainbow Dash was dumbfounded, and you were having a hard time not giggling in her face like a schoolgirl. Instead, you settled for a wide grin aimed toward the rainbow-maned pony. She glared daggers at you and left, dropping the book she had on the ground.

"Whatever Twilight, I'll be back when you come to your senses." Her voice almost seemed sad, but you honestly didn't care at this point. She spread her wings and flew off in a rainbow-cyan blur.

You turned around and started picking up the books, setting them in alphabetical order...which seemed to be right as Twilight wasn't correcting you. Looking over, the purple pony was on the verge of tears, upset with the way her friend had spoken to her.

You walked over and gently stroked her mane.

"Hey hey hey, no tears now. She'll be back. C'mon, let's get you to bed. You look dead on your fe-hooves." You picked up the surprisingly light Twilight without any protest, and took her up the stairs. She pointed to where her room was, and you took her in. You put her on the bed and tucked her in, almost like you would a child.

"There's a guest bedroom on the main floor, next to the bath room." Twilight mentioned, right before releasing a huge yawn. "Good night, Anon."

"Good night Twi." You replied, closing the door and going downstairs.

You opened the door to the guest bedroom, and were completely unsurprised to see it for pony use. The bed was small, the quilt was small, the pillows were small...

You took the blankets and pillow and threw them on the floor. Settling in, you closed your eyes and quickly fell asleep.