Summer Spell is relentlessly rolling on the ground, hoping that enough contact with the cold earth will stop her fears from coming true, but it wouldn't be so. The heat reached a boiling point and a sudden burst of lava splashed around her. When that happened, the pain disappeared, but she felt something on her back that should have been impossible. She checked her back and saw two black feathered wings. An enormous grin grew on her face. Thinking quickly, she used her magic to destroy the smoky tentacles and charged at Mystic Coat. Mere inches from the Umbrum, she lost consciousness and her eyes began to glow orange.
Mystic Coat said to herself, 'Can you hear me? Good. Now turn around and kill every pony in that Barracks.'
Unable to fight the command, Summer Spell turned around and made her way towards the gate of the fortress. She galloped straight towards the gate, building up heat. When she jumped through the iron gate, she created a pony-sized hole that started to melt the rest of the structure. The orange cracks on her coat began to glow a bright orange. When she opened her mouth, a torrent of flames blew out at the ponies on the ground. The flames burned away in a flash and Summer stopped. She saw that one of the civilians had put up a shield which saved most of them. Three ponies on the left side were barbecued. Summer started to walk toward the magical barrier but was stopped suddenly when a Solar unicorn blasted lightning magic at her. He charged up his horn to throw more devastating magic, including a water spell that completely drenched the Alirag. He sent another lightning spell, then used his telekinesis to throw five rocks at her, destroying them with her hoofs. His horn glowed green and he shot a jet of acid towards Summer that burned her face, followed by another spell meant to freeze. Then the Unicorn levitated the fiery Monster and was about to throw her at a wall, when quite quickly, Summer blasted her way out of the ice and flapped her wings to hover over the unicorn.
She landed and dusted the leftover ice off her head with her wing. The pony's eyes widened as he realized that the leader he had followed truly was no more. He materialized a magical sword of lightning and said, to her, "Forgive me for doing this. I just hope you go quickly." Then he charged.
Summer immediately responded by summoning her sword of fire and the two blades clashed. The first strike sent sparks of lightning and fire raining around them. He went for a stab to hopefully end her miserable and cursed life, but unfortunately, the Alirag stepped aside to avoid the jab and then slammed her sword of fire down onto his sword of lightning so hard his sword shattered into a million pieces. Summer grabbed his jaw and yanked it open unnaturally. With a nightmarish look, his jaw hanging there, gallons of blood spilling out of his mouth, the pony tried to fix the damage, grabbing his loose jaw with both hoofs. But Summer slammed her hoof into his chest and pulled out his heart. She let the organ pulse in her hoof for a moment, and when she saw that the Unicorn was about to die, she pushed the heart into his throat, grabbed his jaw with one hoof and the top of his head with the other, then slammed them together with so much force it destroyed his head, creating a bloody mess. With that, the heroic Unicorn fell, never to rise again.
Summer approached the magical barrier again, raised her sword, and swung it at the shield. It created several cracks within the magic barrier but the barrier remained intact. She wound up for a second swing, this time with a little more strength behind it. As the blow landed on the shield, more cracks emerged along with a few small holes. Summer swung once more, this time creating a giant hole where her sword landed, followed by even more cracks and holes. The magical shield was on the verge of failure. Summer raised her fire sword a fourth time when she heard a Solar Pegasus scream, "To Tartarus you go, Monster!" With spear raised the pegasus dove right at her. However, Summer simply blew fire at him, roasting the pony alive quickly. After that failed attack, three more Pegasus surrounded the Alirag. It was clear from the fear in their eyes that the ponies were not prepared for this.
Before Summer could cut them to pieces, an icicle spell zipped past the Alirag. She looked up to see where the spell had come from. On top of the wall stood a Unicorn who was shaking, so fierce was her glare.
The interruption gave the three remaining Pegasuses a chance to shake off their fears and attack. They all jabbed her with their spears but kept a good distance away from her fire sword.
The spears stabbed into her several times before she got fed up and canceled her fire sword spell, summoning a time spell instead. From the ponies’ perspective, it happened in the blink of an eye, but from Summer Spell's point of view, whole minutes passed. She flew up and punched the two Pegasuses in their faces, causing them to spin out of control in the air. The Alirag moved and grabbed the last Pegasus by the tail, repeatedly slamming her against the shield that was still up.
Her time spell ended as she swung the pony like a living club. The Pegasus panicked, flailing her hooves and flapping her wings crazily, trying to get out of the situation. On the sixth or seventh hit, the Pegasus stopped flailing and went limp; she was bleeding profusely from her nose and mouth. The tenth swing shattered the magical barrier. Summer then dropped the dead Pegasus from her magical grip and began walking back toward the two ponies. One punch to their heads immediately caused their necks to snap, turning their gazes in an unnaturally backward direction. The blow killed them instantly.
The two Pegasuses who were spinning out of control in the air regained their bearings and charged at Summer again. She was ready for them, though, hitting each of them in the neck. Then she grabbed both of their heads and slammed them together several times until their heads shattered into pulp against each other.
The remaining ponies saw all of what happened and realized that they didn't stand a chance against Summer, but before they could run, Summer heated up the ground until it turned from black to orange.
The Alirag scooped up the molten earth, magically making it even hotter so that it glowed fiery orange. She tossed four of the bright clumps at each pony. The Unicorn on the wall was hit in the face which quickly burned it to ash. He screamed and pleaded for someone to save him but no one came. The Pegasus saw the hot ground shooting right at him and dodged it; however, three more came at him. He successfully dodged two of them, but the third one hit him in the wing. As quickly as a river flows, he becomes encased in magma.
The Earth pony ran to the Barracks, but she was hit in the butt and sadly burned alive as well.
The Solar Unicorn was also pretty well beaten up with one of the lumps of hot earth. Summer appeared in front of him and started finishing him off. She delivered a punch to the throat, then a swift kick to the lower part of the chest, which caused him to gasp for air. As he fell, the Alirag hit his side four times, breaking one or two of his ribs. Summer continued to hit him several more times with the hot glowing earth, leaving bruises and burns, effectively dazing him. Then, with a look of madness, Summer forcefully shoved the hot lump of earth into his mouth. She turned and walked away as the Unicorn started to expand, a bright glow of orange appearing beneath his battle-worn coat. He tried to scream but it was too little too late. With a sickening sound, his flesh began tearing. Then came the sickening splat of his body exploding.
Back in the past, shortly before Luna was imprisoned on the moon, a Hunter dove down at Black Fall. However, she threw two daggers at the Hunter's leather wings and the Hunter lost control of her dive. The Butcher stabbed her in the forehead with her spear. She swung her spear around until the head was ripped from the Hunter’s body, a body which went crashing into a ruined home.
The Hunter's head was still on the spear, but somehow the blood that came from the head began to get sucked up into the spear, and red veins started to appear on its shaft. Black Fall saw this but didn't question it. She mentally asked the weapon, 'What do you mean you don't want to disappear?' She questioned it further. ' How can you disappear when you're a weapon with a conscience?'
The Spear answered. ' This is going to be a long story so try to keep up. Once, long ago, when the third generation of Hunters began their quest to protect Equestria-'
Silver Tip walked to the top of a grassy hill, where he gained a view of a mostly rocky terrain and a handful of Hunters. He had joined up with a small group of nomadic Hunters. From the top of the mountains to the deepest parts of the forest of Equestria, they found and killed whatever Monster they came across. Monsters range from your typical Timberwolf to Wereponies. There were also a few outlying challenges, like a house-size Dragon.
The Hunters, led by Silver Tip, were currently camped on the grassy hill. Silver looked to the east and saw a larger patch of rocks. And atop those rocks stood a village which was not exactly well known in Pony society. The name of the village was Hollow Shade. From what Silver Tip knew, the place was often covered in a shade of clouds. The inhabitants would be Pony or Chiroptera, but the Chiroptera in these parts didn't know a thing about the Hunters of Secrets or their endless goals.
As Silver Tip looked toward the town again, he said, "This brings back memories."
One of the Hunters walked up to him and asked with a curious look, "You've been here before?"
"Yes, when my sister and I were not but children. I certainly enjoyed my time here, but my sister did not. She earned her Cutie mark on her first day at school. She could walk into one shadow and then pop out of another area that happened to have a shadow. She stayed very closely near areas with shadows." Silver Tip chuckled a bit and the Hunter standing next to him gave him a confused look. Silver said, "Sorry, I'm just remembering a very particularly funny memory. There was this one time when I set up a game of chess. I did this because I wanted to get to know my sister a bit better and the only way I could do so was by setting up a good old game of chess. My sister may have been shy, but she couldn't resist a good chess game. She enjoyed playing chess with me." Silver Tip looked around to make sure that no other Hunter was nearby. Then he moved a little closer and whispered into the Hunter's ear, "To be quite honest, I never won against her." Silver Tip cleared his throat and spoke normally again. "But the funny part is that in the middle of this particular game, she accidentally went through a shadow and popped out of the closet. It was very funny. I tried my best not to laugh. She usually avoided everyone like the plague, only appearing for dinner and to play chess with me. She did eventually break out of her shell of isolation, and it was thanks to me."
The Hunter looked at him again, clearly confused. "Thanks to you, sir?"
"Why, yes. She didn't always show herself in public, but now and then she would beat up any kind of bully who was looking for a fight. I was often their target, until one day all of that changed. Black Dart came to my rescue that day, and it was the last time those idiots tried anything like that again. I encouraged her to open up to others. She told me that she would think about it. A year went by before I saw her come out in the open again, and she was not shying away from anyone. From then on, she became a sister I could look up to, more present and talkative."
The Hunter said, "I see." Then he noticed something and tapped his leader on the shoulder. "Looks like we have an unexpected army coming straight at us."
Silver Tip looked out to where the hoodie Hunter was staring at and saw Griffins. Lots and lots of Griffins; some of them were in armor, some were not. They were on the ground marching towards Hollow Shade, probably half a dozen of them at least. Silver Tip grinned and grabbed his spear with runes on it. He yelled to his Hunters, "To Arms! To Arms!" But the Hunter whom he was talking to had already gotten the other Hunters up and ready for battle.
Down at the Griffin frontline stood a fully armored Griffin. Most of the feathers on his body and wings were dark brown. His beak and talons were black, the feathers around his head, neck, and lion tail were a royal blue, and his eyes were green. Judging from his golden armor, he seemed to be the King of the Griffins. He looked toward the shady town and said, "This place has always been shady. Could that be something to do with the condition of the sky?" It was at this time he noticed a group of hooded figures in front of the wall. He continued speaking with curiosity in his words. "Or is there something else going on?" As the king took off his crown, he squinted his eyes, his vision zooming in on the hooded figures. He couldn't see any physical weapons except for an odd-looking spear. "Well, whatever it is, I want to know about it."
The king and his army from Griffin Stone had been marching for days, hoping for the promise of great reward. When they saw the front gate of Hollow Shade, however, they also noticed several hoodie figures near it. The king raised his talon signaling for his army to halt.
He then walked to the center of the field where one of the hooded ponies met him. The King cleared his throat and said, "I'm King Steel Beak."
The hooded pony said nothing as he shook his talon.
Steel Beak continued, "We have come to see what kind of business goes on here, but if you want us to leave, then I could be convinced, For a price of one million bits to each of my men."
The hoodie pony spoke. "Leave this place or die where you stand." Then he suddenly pulled out a spear with runes on it, pointing it at Steel Beak.
Steel Beak adopted a puzzled look at this response and said, "Wow, that is a nice spear you have there. Tell you what, you give me that spear and we will give you and your friends, along with all of the residents in Hollow Shade, a few bruises. No death whatsoever."
The hooded pony said, "You should learn how to pick your fights. You are nothing more than a typical tyrant, a Griffin who takes whatever he wants no matter the cost to his name. You probably got rid of anyone who threatened your seat of power, and you couldn’t care less about who lived and who died. Am I on the mark?"
Steel Beak looked frustrated and replied with a little heat in his words, "I tried my best by giving you a choice. It seems the only thing that you creatures of Celestia understand is violence!" Then he cooled down a bit. "But, being a King, I will respect your decision. You will undoubtedly feel much guilt, knowing that you are the one responsible for the downfall of this town. And later, when you pray for death, I will generously give it to you. When all is said and done, your head will be on a spike."
The King walked back to his army and the hood pony said, "We shall see whose head ends up on a spike." Then he carefully walked back to his Hunters.
As the King made his way back to his army, he thought to himself, ' Who is he to call me a tyrant? At the last Summer Sun Celebration, I was invited to Celestia's castle.' Then he thought about why he had brought his army to Hollow Shade. ' I want to know what kind of scheme is going on in this town.'
He grabbed his crown from the Griffon who was holding it and pulled his shield from his side. Another Griffin offered him his weapon of war, a two-handed ax
The king of the Griffins called aloud, "They give us empty threats and refuse to pay us bits. So now I say to you, my army, attack!"
The first two long lines of Griffins charged straight at the town. One Griffin shouted, "Kill them all!" Another yelled, "Don't leave any survivors!" And a third Griffin exclaimed, "Cool, while you're killing, I'm going to be looking for their treasure."
Silver Tip watched the charge, and then he said loudly, "None of your first wave will come back." What he didn't notice, though, was that somepony, deep in the shadows, was watching him as he prepared to battle.