Princess Celestia had certainly gotten better over the course of the past few days. She was able to finally get out of her wheelchair and walk around, albeit with help from some crutches. The doctor said she could fly, but it wasn't advised. Rainbow Dash on the other hand was still suffering the worst. The doctor said that while her wounds would eventually heal, her injuries were more severe than Celestia's, so she was still bound to her wheelchair, much to her dismay.

The two were currently sitting on the rooftop of the hospital, overlooking the semi-repaired Ponyville. Celestia smiled as she thought about how this all began; the Gore Magala, Twilight becoming a hunter, and now this.

"Speaking of which, I wonder how Twilight is doing right now..." she thought aloud "I haven't heard from her in a while..."

"Eh, she'll be fine" smirked Rainbow as she relaxed in her wheelchair "Knowing her, she's probably riding a Rathian like a boss!"

XXXXXX

"HOW DO I FLY THIS THING?!?!" Twilight exclaimed as she struggled to control the Rathian covered in leather armour and reigns, signalling it was a carrier dragon "Why couldn't you fly this thing, Rage?!"

"I wanted you to try and learn" chuckled Rage Quit, who was sitting behind the lavender mare with all of their supplies, thankfully safely and tightly wrapped around the Rathian's back "You can't be a Monster Hunter if you can't even fly a Rathian. A tame one at that!"

After saying farewell to the ponies of Dracoville, Rage Quit and Twilight prepared for a long ride back home on the carrier Rathian that helped defeat the Dire Miralis. Pinkie had decided to stay in substitution for Rage so he could go home, see his wife and relax. After loading their stuff on the dragon queen's back, the light blue Pegasus had graciously allowed his lavender partner to fly the creature, to which, of course, she accepted. It wasn't long until she learned that she sucked at driving Rathians.

"Can't you just take the reigns and fly her?" politely asked the purple maned mare.

"I could do that, yes..." smiled the Pegasus before slowly shifting to the front of the dragon and taking control "Easy girl..." the Rathian began to stabilize "There we go... I guess she just likes me more."

"I could tell..." Twilight rolled her eyes before looking down onto the earth below her "Wow... We're really high up!"

"You're not afraid of heights, are you?" smiled Rage Quit.

"N-No!" slightly blushed the Unicorn "I'm just pointing out something."

"Alright, alright" the stallion chuckled "No need to ruffle your feathers."

"That's a joke only used on Pegasi, Rage" Twilight deadpanned "Not like I'll grow wings anytime soon."

"Speaking of princesses," he tried to begin a new conversation "Dark tells me you know the princess, but you're not an elite guard for her. How is that possible?"

"I'm one of her students and friends, in terms of studying about monsters" explained the lavender mare "Actually, I never had any intention of even becoming a Monster Hunter. But an attack on my town that left everypony injured left ME no choice but to buckle up and learn what it's like to be a hunter. I've only been a hunter for a few days, in truth."

"What, really?" Rage Quit said in slight surprise "Well, you're pretty damn good for somepony who just began a few days ago. It's like it's in your blood or something."

"In my... blood?" wondered Twilight before spotting a familiar sight below "Hey, look! It's Ponyville! That's where my home is!"

"Really? Huh... It's it pretty bad shape..." noted the light blue stallion "Seems like things are getting better though."

"Wow... They've really done some work on it since I was last here!" smiled the lavender Unicorn before her face became one of deep thought "Since I was last-" she gasped "PRINCESS CELESTIA!!"

XXXXXX

"Your highness!" a hunter guard with Gypceros armour and lance came onto the rooftop of the hospital where the princess and her dual blade using companion were relaxing "We have just received word from our scout team that a monster, a Rathian, is headed this way! What are your orders?"

"There's a what?" Celestia got up from her seat and stood with her crutches, facing the hunter "Sound the alarm! We've come too far to allow a Rathian to destroy this town. Especially if it's infected with that virus..."

"At once, milady!" the hunter bowed before rushing off to tell the other hunters of the danger. It wasn't long before she and Rainbow heard an alarm echoing through the town to warn them of the danger about to befall them. The ponies scattered and scrambled through the construction to try and find a safe haven for them to stay while the monster threat had either gone away or the hunters had dealt with it.

The Rathian finally came into view of the whole town, and that was the exact moment when Celestia realized that the dragon was nothing more than the carrier dragon from Dracoville. Even more importantly, on the back of the green dragon queen were two lavender and blue dots. The princess of the sun put two and two together...

"Mother of mercy!" she exclaimed "Twilight's on that thing!"

"She's what?" Rainbow asked before cracking a smile "Well, I guess I wasn't too far off... heheh..."

"HUNTERS!! CALL OFF THE ATTACK!!" the white Alicorn shouted over to the hunters setting up the cannons to fire at the Rathian, but they were out of earshot "This isn't good... She could get blasted out of the sky!"

"Princess, chill, okay?" the cyan mare calmed the princess down "Wow... I've never seen you so agitated before. Twilight's gonna be totes fine. She IS your student after all, right?"

"I suppose I acted rashly... My apologies..." sighed the solar princess "I know she's fought many monsters before. There has to be a way out of this. I hope those hunters understand the situation soon enough..."

XXXXXX

"Hey, is that the dragon alarm?" Rage Quit asked as he looked over the edge of the Rathian "And are those hunters preparing their cannons and ballistas to fire at us?!"

"Oh no..." Twilight gasped "Quick, we have to do something! Can't you steer the Rathian closer to the hunters? Maybe that will tell them we're no harm!"

"Those heavy bowguns say otherwise!" Rage shouted.

Twilight looked around the Rathian for anything they could use. She scrambled through the supply boxes, going through potions and Dire Miralis scales until she finally found something of use: a Farcaster. Without question, she fired the Farcaster up into the air, resulting in a firework display of red and blue, telling the Monster Hunters to back down.

"It's a Farcaster!" stated one of the mares ready to fire the cannons "Somepony's on that thing!"

"Hunters, at ease..." the commanding hunter calmed his troop down, putting away their bowguns and cannons "It's just a carrier dragon..."

XXXXXX

After that fiasco was over with, the carrier Rathian landed in the centre of Ponyville and let the two ponies off. With some help from some of the nearby hunters all dressed in Gypceros armour, they brought the supplies down from the dragon queen and began to unpack a few things. Twilight smiled as she took a deep breath and looked around the area, suddenly seeing Princess Celestia limp her way over to her with her crutches.

"Twilight" the Alicorn smiled before embracing her student "I was becoming worried about you..."

"Heh, worried isn't exactly the word I'd use" chuckled Rainbow Dash, who had approached the two who had now exited from their hug "She freaked out, Twi! It was crazy funny!"

"Y-Your highness... Miss Twilight..." the commanding hunter approached the three conversing mares "I on behalf of the entire squad would like to send our deepest apologies to you two. After the attack not a week ago, you must understand we are quite riled up at the moment."

"Really, it's no-" Twilight began before Rage Quit entered the scene, his back leg still tied close to his torso.

"You better be sorry!" he crossly spoke "You nearly shot us out of the sky!"

"Rage, they didn't know!" the lavender Unicorn scolded, immediately shutting the stallion up "Now..." she turned back to the hunter commander "We accept your apology. We understand that, after the Gore Magala attack, you'd be very concerned for the ponies of Ponyville."

"Thank you, Miss Twilight..." the commander bowed.

"Sir! This crate is full of Dire Miralis scales!" shouted one of the Monster Hunters unloading the carrier Rathian "Miss Twilight, shall I get these to a blacksmith for immediate armour forgery?"

"Um... sure!" Twilight looked slightly confused at first "Yeah, go ahead. Make those scales into armour and stuff."

"You fought a Dire Miralis?" Celestia perked up "Care to explain just what happened on your trip?"

"Oh... Heheh..." the Unicorn mare sheepishly laughed "Well, why don't we head on inside?"

XXXXXX

Once the four were back inside the hospital, Twilight began telling her everything that happened. It took a good hour to explain everything to Princess Celestia, but she thought she got the gist of it. The white Alicorn slowly nodded her head in confirmation, telling the lavender hunter that she understood and got everything.

"So what you're telling me," the celestial mare began to speak "Is that you were captured by a group of rogue hunters, thrown into slavery, found Pinkie Pie and three stallions willing to help you, defeated a Berserk Tetsucabra, clashed with the Gore Magala again, ran from a Deviljho, found Dracoville and defeated a Brachydios and the rogue hunter leader all the while trying to retrieve a scale that was ultimately destroyed and used to summon the Dire Miralis which you managed to defeat. Am I right?"

"One-hundred percent, your highness" Twilight nodded.

"Well, I'm come across stranger..." reminisced Celestia with a smile "I suppose you two are headed for the Crystal Empire next?"

"How did you know?" Rage Quit asked.

"I can read minds. Did you not know that?" Celestia smiled.

"Y-You can?" the light blue Pegasus was amazed by the princess's powers.

"No, not really" she giggled "Twilight told me whilst you were still limping your way to the hospital."

"Of course she did..." he sighed before looking at Twilight, who only gave him a shrug in return.

"Now, you should know that the Crystal Empire, though in the Frozen North, is heated up by a few generators and Alicorn magic" Celestia explained "So don't be bringing any heavy clothing for this occasion, okay?"

"Well, we might just do anyway" spoke the purple maned Unicorn present "We'll STILL be traversing through the Frozen North anyway. Knowing my bad luck, some monster is going to terrorize the town and drive me crazy!"

"Then perhaps you should take some hot drinks?" the princess of the sun suggested "They keep your body nice and toasty warm, even in the harshest of cold weather. They even come in different packets and flavours! Hot chocolate, apple, banana..."

"Hey, you guys?" Rainbow spoke up "I haven't had a chance to talk yet y'know! Actually, that necklace around your neck Twi. It's a different colour than before."

"It is?" the lavender mare asked in confusion before looking down and noticing for the first time that the colour had changed from clear to pale yellow "How interesting... It looks just like the Shagaru Magala scale, but I don't sense any sort of corrupt powers coming from it. Is it faulty, or is it just waiting?"

"Wait, Shagaru Magala?!" Celestia shouted in shock.

"Yeah, that's the original owner of the scale we were trying to save before it became absorbed by the Dire Miralis" explained Twilight "Apparently it's very closely related to the Gore Mag-"

"I know what it is, Twilight..." sighed the celestial Alicorn "Long, long ago, this world was befallen by a great evil that plagued monsters and ponies alike. We would know it as the Great Calamity, but the legends write it as a single entity."

"The Shagaru Magala..." spoke the lavender Unicorn quietly, but loud enough so the others could hear.

"Correct" the princess nodded "But for now, it would appear that we have a subspecies of the Shagaru Magala on our hooves. We must defeat it at all costs!"

"So, we're heading off to the Frozen North then?" Rage asked.

"You seem slightly hesitant..." Celestia remarked.

"Sorry, your highness..." the light blue stallion bowed "But my wife and unborn child are waiting for me there, and I'd very much like to go as soon as possible."

"Of course..." she smiled kindly "Well, I think you two should hurry should you wish to save Rarity from whatever perils she may have gotten herself into. Then, of course, she might have just discovered the boutique there."

All ponies present shared a hearty laugh at Celestia's joke before the lavender one and the light blue one finally decided to head out. They grabbed their armour and weapons before waving goodbye and walking out the door. Twilight heard something behind her as she traversed through the halls. She turned around and saw her baby Azure Rathalos, which she, until now, thought his colour was just a rare coloration of a normal Rathalos.

"Hello there, Spike" she bent down and gave him a hug "Guess what? I found out you're a subspecies today!"

The baby dragon, which had grown a bit since she last saw him, growled in joy as she spoke and hugged him. However, the time had come for her to head off. She gave her pet one last hug and walked away, leaving the baby monster curious to where she was going off to.

XXXXXX

The lavender Unicorn visited the blacksmith before heading out to retrieve the Dire Miralis armour promised to her from earlier. She put it on (not her helm as to see properly) and was about to join up with Rage until the brown coated and white maned smithy with a wondrous beard and goggles stopped her and took a good look at her insect glaive.

"That's one mighty fine glaive you got there, missy" he let out a chuckled "I gots some spare scales from your hunt. Wanna upgrade?"

"Well, I am going to an ice place..." though Twilight aloud "Sure, why not. Just don't take too long, okay?" she passed him the glaive but allowed the Kinsect to stay on her back. The smithy didn't even take a thirty seconds until he was done with the weapon. It was silver and red, and had fake lava running through it, just like her armour. It was a perfect match.

"Wow! Thank you, sir!" the lavender mare smiled in joy.

"Anytime!" the smithy let out a hearty laugh before Twilight waved him goodbye. She at last met up with Rage Quit who, with the assistance of some nearby hunters, was repacking the Rathian for the trip to the Crystal Empire.

"Ah, Twilight!" he greeted "Sorry that we have to take the Rathian again. The hunters say that the train tracks were eaten by something and the train is stuck in Appleloosa right now. What kind of crap answer IS that anyway?! What monster is actually big enough to eat train tracks?"

"Um... No idea!" nervously laughed the purple maned hunter "A-Anyway, are we just about ready to take off?"

"Yep!" the stallion nodded before looking at the hunters next to the green dragon queen "Just let these big, kind and strong fellas get all of our stuff onto the Rathian and we're good to go."

"Why did you say that like you were checking them out?" Twilight wondered.

"Oh, did you not know? I'm Bi" he smiled as he said this, surprising the Unicorn "What? What? Is that a problem?"

"What? No, no!" she calmed him down a bit "I was just surprised was all. You can be bisexual all you want! I don't have a problem with it."

"Ah, okay..." Rage smiled before going back to helping the hunters.

"I think I saved that one..." Twilight sighed to herself.

XXXXXX

The Rathian and the two hunters were finally up into the air and heading towards the Crystal Empire with haste. As the two rode the dragon and slowly approached the Frozen North, the air around them began to feel cooler and easier to breath in. Twilight's teeth began to chatter as the cold wind blew past her body and nearly froze her to death. She sipped one of the hot drinks the hunters back in Ponyville supplied to her by request of the princess and began to feel a bit warmer.

"Hey, you doing okay back there?" Rage asked as he piloted the dragon queen to their destination.

"Y-Yeah..." Twilight spoke, still slightly cold "I'll b-be f-f-fine..."

"We're almost there, okay?" he smiled "They have hot chocolate and heating, so all the more reason to look forward to it. I personally don't mind the cold, but hey, that's just me. I was actually born here, believe it or..."

Rage Quit's voice was drowned out by Twilight's interest in looking at the scale around her neck. Still so many questions were left unanswered. Why did the scale turn a light gold colour when exposed to moonlight? Why did it explode before that? What WAS the Gore Magala? An alien? A beast from tartarus? Who knew?

"Twilight? Equestria to Twilight?" Rage Quit spoke up, gaining Twilight's attention again.

"What? Sorry?" she stuttered a bit.

"We're almost there, I said" the light blue stallion smiled "And finally too! I can't wait to see my wife again!"

XXXXXX

Thankfully, the ponies and felynes of the Crystal Empire didn't seem too fazed that a Rathian had landed in their city, meaning stuff like this must have happened often. The two hunters got off their ride and patted her on the back before she was treated by some of the felyne helpers roaming around. Rage never even got to walk two steps forward before he was tackled by an dark grey blur.

"You stupid idiot!" the blur shouted at Rage's face in a feminine voice, signalling she was a mare "You left me and this kid alone for months! What the hell were you doing this whole time?!"

"Nice to see you again too, Unity..." he smiled as the mare proceeded to slap him across the face. Twilight now got a better look at this Unity mare. She was a Unicorn with an dark grey coat and an orange mane, and very, very pregnant. This made the lavender hunter wonder just where she got all this energy to clomp her husband with all that weight on her.

"You stupid, stupid idiot!" she proceeded to kiss him "I hate you so much!"

"I love you too, Unity..." Rage grinned again "Now, do you mind if you get off me? My leg is broken."

"It is?!" Unity gasped in shock before slowly getting herself back up and hugging her mate "Oh, you poor thing... You shouldn't push yourself like that!"

"And you shouldn't hop around like that" the light blue stallion smiled before remembering something "Oh! Right!" he turned to Twilight, turning Unity with him "Twilight, this is my wife Unity. Unity, this is NOT your replacement, Twilight Sparkle; protector of the princess."

"Hello there!" the dark grey Unicorn mare nodded at the lavender one "Welcome to the Crystal Empire!" she then got very close to her "Stay away from my husband, you got that?"

Twilight terrifyingly nodded.

Author's Notes:

I'M BACK!!

Now, you might be wondering: Kamek, why is it that you posted this chapter when you have clearly stated that you wouldn't post another one until AFTER your spring break? Well, we recently hit 3000 views! WOO!! Thank you guys so much for everything, and I hope this story continues to thrive!

This was a boring chapter I know, but I promise things will perk up in the next chapter. Also, Derpy is going to be in this place somewhere!

This is the last act for suggestions, so place them in the comments below if you want to see them. Now this one is important because I'm too lazy to look through everything. So, tealspeckles, DarkThunder144, rst64tlc, and Dark Dienen, please type your suggestions into the comment box below so I can get a better look at them. This is requested, but I'd seriously like you to do so. Thank you!

Be sure to Like, Comment, Favourite and Follow, and until then, happy hunting!