“This is a lot of gear.”
Hunter looked up from the pile in front of him, nodding as he glanced at Nova before turning his attention back to his equipment. All of it was spread out in neat, mostly-organized rows, ready to be placed in a particular spot in his saddlebags. For what they were about to do, he wanted to make sure everything was where he wanted it.
“It is,” he said, picking up a small collection of gelatin sticks and sliding them into a pouch on his climbing harness. There were only three of them, mostly because they were new, and still quite a bit more costly than flares—which he had twice as many of—but there were moments where the glowing chemical concoction inside them would be more useful than a fiery, sparking flare. Especially under a glacier. “But better to have it than to want it.” He moved to the next items in line, a whole set of carabiner clips made of high-quality, sturdy metal, and began clipping them to the front of his climbing harness, where he could grab them as needed. Separate from any that he would be using if he climbed.
Clips secure and strapped down with a piece of velcro, he moved to the next thing. Small coils of rope went to the exterior of his saddlebags, strapped down but in a way allowing him to reach them as needed. A small, razor-sharp cutting tool that could be used to slice through the same rope as needed in a quick, clean motion. All of it went into his saddlebags or into small pouches on his harness, which was already over a light coat, which in turn was over his armor.
Awkward, but it worked. Thankfully, from the troubled frowns Sky Bolt had been giving both him and Nova each time she’d run through the cabin, he had a feeling that their next meeting would see her producing improvements of some kind.
“Okay,” Nova said, slowly following in Hunter’s steps and putting his own gear in place. His motions were slower, but no less deliberate, with the colt occasionally stopping to check and make certain he could reach something easily. Another feather in the wings of their training regimen. “I get why I have climbing gear.” He rapped his crampons with a carabiner, eliciting a faint metal-on-metal ting quickly buried under the hum of The Hummingbird’s propellers. “But you? You’ve got wings.”
“So?” He glanced down at his harness, making sure everything was in place. Screws, clips, rope, leash, chem sticks, flares … “What if I hurt my wings? Or somepony down below is looking for a flying target? Or you slip? I can fly, sure … right up until I can’t. Besides …” He picked up one of the items still left on the table, a long, lean climbing axe, and threaded his hoof through the hoop at the end. Then he gave it a quick, vicious flip, the tip scything through the air. “We end up in a blue down there, these things can be pretty helpful. And have you ever kicked anything with climbing crampons on?”
Nova shook his head. “Nope.”
“Trust me, they won’t be looking forward to being kicked again. Provided you do it right.” He eyed the crampons spread across the table. Much better than snowshoes. Easier to move in, too.
“So … weapons and useful gear?”
“Well, the same way I could fly, I could ask you why you’re not teleporting. The short answer is that you’re still working on it, but the real answer is that even if you could …” He let his voice trail off.
“I get it,” Nova said, nodding. “No way I’d teleport down blind.”
“Exactly. You’re not starkers, or stupid. So me?” Hunter pulled the axe from his hoof and slapped it into place on his harness. “Sure, I can fly. And I might fly out. But I’m not flying down. That’s a crook idea.”
The sound of running hoofsteps alerted him to Bolt running in from the aft of the ship, and he turned as she jumped through the door, already in her own armor, though without a harness or other gear. Yet. But she had a more important task to tend to first.
“We’re almost in position,” she said quickly, skidding to a halt on the rubbery deck mats. “With three anchors, The Hummingbird should be safe enough unless the wind picks up pretty strong again.” He could hear the unspoken worry in her voice, that the exact scenario would happen while she was climbing down with them into the glacier.
Then again, the storm over the city hasn’t really dissipated at all, so we’re bound to get more crook weather out here on the edges. The worry is valid.
Then again, she’d built The Hummingbird. If she said the anchors would hold, they’d hold. “How low do we have to be?”
“Pretty low,” Bolt said, glancing toward the large cabin windows. The snow had started back up again, though much lighter than it had been earlier. “About forty feet from the ground. I’ll leave the superboilers going low to keep everything warm, and the autopilot will try to keep her from moving too much, but that’s as low as I dare get.”
He nodded. “Nova and I will drive the anchor spikes in then?” Bolt nodded, then turned and rushed for the cockpit, the conversation over as abruptly as it had begun.
She was nervous. They all were. And not just because we’re not wearing our helmets right now. His own was sitting at the end of the table, waiting for him to claim it. And maybe that had something to do with it. After all, their quarry had messed with their heads before.
At the same time, the faint feeling of nervous dread in his stomach felt pretty natural. They’d chased Sombra to their exact position, and he’d spent an entire storm digging straight down. The shade’s course had been too specific, to determined, to be by chance. He was looking for something. Something more important than the city he was supposed to have rushed back towards.
I shouldn’t whinge, Hunter thought, securing a second ice axe at his side. But this mission really has been shonky from the start.
“You ready?” he asked, picking up his crampons and clipping them to his side. Outside the airship, the world was slowly spinning, the world turning around them as Bolt brought them down to anchoring altitude and pointed the ship’s nose into the wind.
“Almost,” Nova carefully clipped his own ice-axe in place. He’d opted for one rather than two, choosing a third crampon for his other forehoof. “So, we drop down and plant the anchors, right?”
Hunter nodded. “Plant the anchors, then a solid belay line near the crevasse. Unless you notice any traps; then we’ll clear those first. Once The Hummingbird is anchored, Bolt will join us, and we’ll see what our friend has been digging for.”
“And if it’s too unstable?”
He shrugged. “We could always help it along. Probably won’t kill a shade to have the glacier cave in on him, but it sure can’t make it easier for him.”
He gave his armor a final check, eyeing each component and giving his body a quick shake to make sure that everything was secure. As he did, something caught his eye from the lockers on the far side of the room. His was still open, as he’d grabbed some of his equipment from it.
And hanging on a peg in the back was his hat.
He shook his head, tearing his eyes away. Not ideal, he thought, picking up his helmet. But it’s not worth the risk.
Still, as he trotted over and shut the locker, leaving the hat in darkness, he couldn’t help feel a sense of unease that had nothing to do with their hunt or any magic field their quarry could be throwing at them.
Sorry Swift, he thought, sliding his helmet down over his mane. But I’ve only got the two sets of headgear.
If she was there, he knew, she’d have rolled her eyes for even having the hesitation in the first place. But … she wasn’t, and that only made leaving the hat behind harder.
Focus, he told himself with another shake of his head. He cinched his helmet into place. It’s just until the mission is over. For now, worry about what’s at the bottom of—
“Boss!” Bolt’s shout from the cockpit made him whirl. “You’d better get in here!”
He bolted, grabbing the hatchframe as he swung himself out of the cabin. “What?” Then he saw it, and his stomach sank along with his wings.
“Oh Tartarus,” he said, his eyes fixed on the shimmering blue dome covering the distant Crystal Empire. “How long ago did that happen?”
“Couldn’t have been more than a few minutes ago,” Bolt answered, glancing over at him as he made way for Nova to poke his head into the cockpit as well. Nova’s eyes instantly locked on the distant blue sphere.
“That’s the signal, isn’t it?” he asked, and Hunter nodded.
“True dinkum.” He pulled his wings back tight against his sides, mind racing. Feathers, that upends almost everything we were just doing.
“So … I need to go pick up the captain and his squad, right?”
“Team,” Hunter corrected without thinking. “But yeah, you do.” And that means we’re down a mare, plus bereft of all our support equipment and supply. “How long do you think it’ll take?”
“Weather being what it is?” Bolt’s pained look told him what he’d wanted to know before she continued. “At least a couple of hours. Maybe more. Say … six, seven hours to get there if the weather is clear. Maybe that back.”
“Feathers.”
“Should I stay?”
“No.” The word was out of his mouth in a snap, his mind already made up. “No,” he said again. “You’re going. Now. Nova?” Hunter turned. “Change of plans. We’re not anchoring The Hummingbird. Bolt is going to go back and pick up the rest of the team. That means we’ll need survival gear: Tents, food, the like. Grab the throw bags. We’ll leave them in the snow at the edge of the glacier before we go down. One for each of us.”
“Got it.” Nova nodded and pulled his head out of the cabin, horn glowing as he scrambled to grab the heavy “go bags.”
“Hunter—” Sky Bolt began, but he cut her off with a wave of his hoof.
“Nova and I have this. That’s our job. We’ll do the glacier diving and see what we find. Your job is to get Captain Song and the rest of the team back out here as quickly as possible, right?” Sky Bolt nodded, and he clapped her on the shoulder with his hoof. “As soon as you see us jump, open your baby up. When we see you coming back, we’ll send up a flare. Right?”
She nodded. “Right.”
“Spot on.” He pulled his hoof back and glanced back at the central cabin. Two of the to-go bags were lying on the table, Nova running over them with his magic and double-checking that both were stocked. “Soon as the bags are ready, we’ll jump. You see us hit the ground, you take off. Fast as your baby will go.”
He didn’t miss the sudden flash of glee shining through Bolt’s look of alarm. “That fast?”
He paused, glancing again at the bags. Nova was almost done, already floating one of them up onto his back. “Well, as long as you don’t overdo it and break something. You’ll be flying alone, remember.”
“Right, right.” The sudden look of contemplative thoughtfulness on her muzzle didn’t do anything to hide the eager twitch of her wingfeathers, or the way her tail was trembling. Even with everything that was going on, the prospect of opening up her airship at full throttle was clearly appealing.
“Just get the team, and come back and get us.” He stepped back, halfway through the hatch. “Nova?”
“Your bag’s ready to go.”
“Final gear check then. Make sure we didn’t leave anything behind.” He gave Sky Bolt a final nod, then rushed to his to-go bag and, with a nod from Nova, slung it over his back, grunting a little as the extra weight came down on him.
Definitely a little much with the climbing gear and the coat, he thought as he began moving down the hall, Nova behind him.
“Well,” Nova said as they neared the door. “That didn’t take long to go wrong, did it?”
“No,” he replied. “It didn’t.” But there was nothing more they could do now. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
They dropped faster this time, the weight of the to-go bags dragging them down through the icy air toward the edge of the glacier. Thick snow cushioned their impact, however, and a moment later they were digging their way out of a snowbank, Nova already excavating a small divot for his bag while at the same time assembling a thin, whiplike pole with a brightly-colored flag on the end to mark where their gear was buried. Hunter tossed his own bag at him, and it hit the snow with a faint whump, sinking in slightly.
Above them The Hummingbird hung for a moment longer, then slowly began to pivot. The moment the cockpit came into view, the low rumble of the propellers became an almost deafening roar. Hunter folded his ears back as the airship began to rise higher into the sky, the downdraft from its props enough to kick snow up all around them. The roar rose, a growl that echoed across the sky like a challenge to the heavens, and The Hummingbird surged upward, the wind and the howl of its props fading as it climbed and climbed. In minutes, it was barely a dot, moving toward the western horizon.
“Well, that’s that,” Hunter said, lowering his hoof and brushing a coating of snow off of his visor. “The bags?”
“Secure,” Nova said, patting a small pile of snow. The flagpole stuck out of them, whipping back and forth in the low wind, orange flag at its tip flapping with faint snaps.
“Then we’re good to go.” He gave his rear hooves a quick stomp, frowning when they dropped through the snow. Right. No snowshoes. “Let’s see what Sombra’s so interested in.”
The crampons on their rear hooves made it easy to cross the glacier, the tough spikes digging into the icy and gripping solidly. Three times Nova motioned for a stop, his horn glowing faintly as he checked for traps, and three times they moved on without action, the distant grey crystals growing closer with each step.
“Nothing,” Nova said after the third stop, shaking his head. “These crystals are totally inert. I’m getting some hints of magic that way—” He pointed. “—but nothing nearby.”
“So if there are magical traps, you’re not sensing them?”
“Please,” Nova said, shaking his head. “No one’s that good. Not even Luna.”
“She’s tried?”
“She has. She’s good, but I’m better.”
They moved forward once more, and in minutes they were standing near the edge of the crevasse, the ice ahead of them bunching in broken clumps before giving way entirely. A minute more and Hunter had secured an anchor for their drop near the middle of the gash’s length, satisfied that the possie he’d picked was sound only when Nova couldn’t tug it free with a judicious use of his magic.
“I’ll go first.” He backed up the edge of the crevice, rope carefully threaded through his climbing gear. “Clip on and follow once I’m about ten feet down.” Nova nodded, and then there was nothing left to do but steel himself and jump.
He hung in the air for only a moment before swinging back into the side of the crevasse, his rear hooves biting into the ice and stopping his descent cold. He checked his grip on the line, then swung out again, dropping a good dozen feet before stopping against the icy wall once more.
So far, so good. He took a quick look around. The walls of the crevice were like a rocky canyon, dropping down at least a few hundred feet beneath him, maybe more. The sides were jagged and angled, some showing signs of age, but most looking like fresh wounds, the ice untouched by air until recently. Over it, the crystal growths were like strange bones, jutting out of the ice.
He jumped again, dropping. Jump. Drop. Rest. Above him the line tightened as Nova attached himself to it and followed, mimicking the same movements as they both descended deeper into the glacier. The sounds of their descent echoed around them, every chip against the ice rolling back in a long, resonating cry that rose in pitch with every bounce until they were alien squeaks. The walls, slowly but surely, began to narrow, taking on a more recently touched appearance. Above them, the sky had thinned to a single, jagged crack, a bolt of brilliant blue against the ice.
Still they dropped. How far down does this go? The crystals growths made it hard to tell, their shadows twisting over one another and casting successive layers of darkness the deeper they went. I hope I threw enough rope over the edge. He’d opted for three hundred-foot coils. If it wasn’t enough, he had more than enough tools to set up a new anchor point and climb down, but … I’d really rather not do that.
Then he saw it. The end of the rope, some ten feet down, faintly whipping back and forth with his every movement.
“Stop.” His words echoed off the ice around them, bouncing over and back like the glacier itself was trying to speak. “End of the rope. Gonna have to add to it.”
“Great. How much further?”
It took him a moment to remember how to activate the lights Bolt had installed in his helmet, but after a moment’s fumbling he got it. And almost immediately let out a sigh of relief.
“Another forty, fifty feet,” he called, beams sweeping back and forth across what could only be dark, rich earth. The lights illuminated the glacier around them, showing off its bold blue shade with every turn of his head. By comparison, the ground beneath them was almost a dark morass, like a single hoofstep on it would only drop further into the earth. Save for the occasional lighter shade to it that betrayed it as the carpet of stability that it was.
He took a faint sniff, and the scent of rich, heavy earth flooded his nostrils. Interesting. He played his lights left and then right, searching for signs of ice along the ground, and was rewarded with several. But the blue clumps were smoothed, without harsh edges.
“I think it’s natural!” he called upwards, twisting and looking at Nova dangling some twenty feet above him.
“What?”
“The crevasse!” He pointed down. “The ground beneath us. There’s no signs of breakage. This was here before Sombra found it.” He began to slide down the rope again, more slowly this time as the end of the rope neared.
“Okay,” Nova said, nodding. “So what’s that mean?”
“I don’t know,” he said, coming to a stop a few feet from the bottom of the rope and digging his rear legs into the ice with a solid kick. Then, one hoof still tightly binding the rope, he drove one of his axes into the glacier wall, the sharp tick of the impact echoing around him and echoing into another strange squelch. When he was sure it could hold his weight, he clipped himself to the end, using it as an anchor and taking his weight off of the primary rope while he extended it.
Good onya Swift, he thought as he tied the addition in place. Making sure I never used my wings doing this. For the challenge. He gave the knot a sharp yank, and satisfied, got a good grip once more and moved his anchor back.
“Line’s in place,” he said, putting his full weight on it. Only once he was certain that it was holding his weight did he jerk his ice-axe out of the glacier wall and return it to his side. “Going down.”
He let out a faint sigh of relief as his back hooves touched soft earth at last, sinking several inches into what felt like loam. “Contact,” he called, disengaging himself from the end of the rope and stepping away and quickly looking around, searching for any signs of their quarry.
No crystals, he thought, playing his lights across the glacier walls. Huh. So he only had to pry open the crevasse above us. But … He frowned, peering back and forth down the length of the gap. That disturbed the ice above us. Why don’t we see signs of that down here? Something that fell? Here and there, his lights sparkled over a hard piece of shimmering blue ice, but in each case the sides were old and smoothed. In fact, the sides of the glacier walls around them were smooth as well.
“Find something?” Nova asked, a soft thump sounding out before being absorbed by the soft earth.
“I’m not sure,” he said, stepping over to one of the chunks of ice and sliding his hoof across it. Smooth as silk. “Give me a moment.” Smooth ice. This isn’t a normal break. He peered to his left, what would have been west had they been above ground, his lights glimmering off of more ice as the crevasse narrowed.
The soil. He turned his lights down, then lifted a forehoof out and stepped down, pressing hard against the loam.
His hoof sank several inches into the earth, and when it did, he caught sight of a faint glimmer around it. That’s it. Dark clumps of loam clung to the limb as he pulled it back, and he lifted his hoof up near his muzzle, taking a quick sniff.
Moisture. The ground is wet. And warm. That’s why the walls in what should be a crack are so smooth. And there aren’t any signs of Sombra’s excavation above. Any chips that made it this far down melted, which is why the ground is damp. That means heat. Not much heat, but heat all the same.
“Ground’s wet,” he said, shaking the clump of earth free from his hoof and looking at Nova. “There’s heat source down here.” Nova nodded, his horn glowing.
“Magical?” he asked.
Hunter shook his head. “I don’t know.” But Sombra came down here, or at least we think so … He peered at the long walls of the shaft to their east. “There’s less ice to our east. Let’s see what we find.” The twin beams of his lights flickered off the bright blue walls, making it look like the path ahead of them repeated endlessly. The ground broke the illusion, however, rolling and shifting like waves frozen in the earth. The crevasse began to widen, occasionally twisting or sometimes narrowing for a brief moment, but never ceasing, and always resuming its forward route once more. Above them, the brief glimpse of sky left by Sombra’s excavation dimmed, snow and ice covering the top of the gap once more.
Hunter heard it before he saw it. A soft, unmistakable trickle faintly echoing from ahead. “You hear that?”
Nova nodded, horn still softly glowing. “Sounds like water.”
“I think it is.” He flicked his ears, testing the air around them, but they weren’t exactly the best choice for checking for moistness. Still, the air did taste damper. Or maybe that was just him imagining it, but … Ahead of them the gap between the mighty glacier walls narrowed to a single pony’s width, flaring next to the ground like the shape of some ancient Romane vase. More signs of water. The walls looked brighter as well, with a sheen to them under his lights. The narrow gap twisted and turned, completely blocking their view of whatever lay beyond.
“I’ll go—” He was going to say “first” but Nova cut him off.
“I’ll go first,” he said quickly. “I’m not sensing any magic, but I’m the one with shields. In a tight space, that’s a better option.”
“Onya. That’s a good point,” Hunter replied. “Though I could use my mod.”
Nova shook his head as he moved past him. “No, save it. I’m not sensing any magic ahead. And believe me—” His horn flared slightly brighter. “I’m looking.” The armored unicorn moved forward into the gap, body twisting as he contorted around the narrow ice walls, touching nothing. A moment later, he’d moved completely out of sight.
Seconds later he was back. “Found the stream,” he said quickly, half his body poking around the twist in the ice. “And … Well, just come look.”
Hunter followed Nova through the gap, pausing only to press one hoof against the wall and note how slick it was. It’s wet. There’s enough water in the air to make the ice wet.
Then the narrow passage opened up, and he saw the stream. And it all made sense.
Water cascaded gently over a series of long, flat stones, their surfaces worn smooth by who knew how many centuries of water. There were even small divots in the stone where pools had formed. Most notable of all, however, was that the water despite its coolness had a faint mist coming off of it.
No, not mist. Steam. That explains the moisture down here, but is it because it’s cold enough down here for that to evaporate, or is the water—
Nova elbowed him and he jerked his eyes up. “Oh crikey.”
Just up the “side” of the mountain, the stream flowing between them, were two life-sized statues of what looked to have once been unicorns, their surfaces now coated in lichen, rearing up with their broken horns pointed at the icy roof of the glacier. The long, flat stones were more than just stones, they were steps, winding with the stream past the statues and up the side of the mountain through a tunnel carved into the ice. Glacier dirt had claimed the edges of the long, flat stones, and some of them were even broken, cracked or out of position, but the running water in the middle had kept that part of the stones clean.
“Flowing water,” Hunter said, stepping forward and dipping a hoof against the nearest flat stone, water splitting around it. “Over an old stone path.”
“You miss the tunnel heading up the mountain under the glacier?” Nova asked. “Or the two statues of unicorns? Cause both of those seem pretty important.”
“I was getting there,” he said, glancing down the side of the mountain. The tunnel continued southward, curving away out of sight. “This must meet up with the rest of the tributaries that make up Neighagra Falls. Eroding the glacier from beneath.”
“Right,” Nova said. “Why doesn’t it freeze. Is it magic?”
He took a quick look around, his beams spilling over the statues once more and throwing their craggy muzzles into relief. One was a mare, the other a stallion. “Anything dangerous you can pick up?”
“No,” Nova said, shaking his head. “Why?”
“Cause I need to do this,” Hunter replied, undoing the strap under his helmet and pulling it from his head. The lights on it went out immediately, the only remaining light the glow from Nova’s horn. It was dim, almost dark in the wake of the brightness of the lamps, but he could still see well enough to bend down on one leg and take a deep sniff of the water. No faint, acrid stink teased at his nostrils.
“Uh … you thirsty?” Nova asked as he stuck his tongue out, very lightly touching the surface of the water. “I’ve got a spare canteen.”
“No,” he replied as he pushed himself back up. “Though I would like to wash that taste out of my mouth.” He grabbed his own canteen and took a quick sip, swishing the water through his teeth before spitting it out on the stones. “I just wanted to check something. The water’s warm, not very, but warm all the same. Sus too, ‘cause it doesn’t smell like water you’d get from a hot spring. No sulfur scent. That’s why I took my helmet off; couldn’t check it with my hooves geared up.” He held up one coated hoof and waggled it.
“So … warm water. Is that why there’s a cave here?”
“Most likely. Could explain the groaning beings have heard here over the years too, maybe. Warmth under the ice making the glacier shift. But warm water?” He slipped his helmet back down over his head, adjusting it slightly as it pressed against his mane and ears improperly and getting it seated in the right position. “Flowing beneath it? That’d do it.” The lights in his helmet didn’t come back on when he dropped the helmet into place, but he left them off, instead moving to his harness and pulled out one of the gelatin sticks. It let out a sharp series of pops as he rolled it in his hooves, the sounds echoing back at him from the glacier walls like cascading stones, and then the stick began to let out a steady, bright yellowish glow.
“So,” he said, clipping the stick to the front of his harness and turning, its yellow light blending with the glow from Nova’s horn. “Any magic on those statues?”
Nova shook his head. “None that I can detect.” He moved up the steps, faint splashes of water echoing around him and scrapes sounding as the crampons on his rear hooves scratched against the ancient stone. “They’ve been down here pretty long though. I mean, the glacier is over a thousand years old, right?”
“At least.” Hunter stepped up next to him, examining the statue and tapping a hoof against the stone. Powder fell away beneath his hooves. “Lichen’s had centuries to work on it. I don’t think this was shonky work. Stone looks like … granite. Tough stuff. Not the kind of thing you make a cheap statue with; stuff’s a hard yakka to carve. Lasts forever. For lichen to have smoothed this stone over …” He ran his hoof over the stone chest of the unicorn, dust and dried bits of lichen flaking away beneath his hoof. “I’m not familiar with cave lichens, but I’d guess at least around a dozen centuries.”
“Before the glacier existed, then,” Nova said.
“Unless you can think of a reason for someone to haul this stuff down under here after the glacier formed.”
“So this must be what Sombra was after then,” Nova said. “This path.”
“Seems like it.” The features of the mare were all but worn away, the stallion standing astride the opposite side of the path suffering the same. He couldn’t pick out any details. “Though the statues give me another worry.”
“You mean that they’re unicorns, and not crystal ponies?” Nova asked, rapping his hoof against one. “Yeah, I noticed that. Only one way to find out what’s at the top, though.”
Hunter nodded, and then followed as Nova moved to the side, away from the stream-covered steps and onto the soft earth. Where it’s quiet, Hunter thought as Nova began to climb the soft mountainside. Good thinking. They couldn’t do much about their light, since the alternative was moving entirely in the dark, but at least they could be quiet.
They followed that path upward, the soft soil sucking at their hooves and making each step a bit more intensive than it would have been. The stream meandered with the pathway, rarely leaving the stones for long. Once it cut a sharp upward climb, the stones vanishing under the ice, only to reappear and meet back up as they climbed up a steep, muddy embankment. The tunnel they were in constantly changed size, widening and narrowing, sometimes spacious, sometimes almost right up against the edges of the stream, other times spread wide at the base. The stream changed almost-as-often, sometimes wide and placid, sometimes narrow and choppy. When it was the latter, Hunter noted, the steam coming from it was more pronounced.
They had passed two more sets of statues, unicorns like the first girdling the path, when Nova held up a hoof and signaled for Hunter to stop. Then he gave the signal for a trap.
“What kind of trap?” Hunter asked, keeping his voice low. The tunnel ahead of them was straight, and through the glow of the chem stick he could see another pair of statues ahead, practically identical to those he’d seen before.
“Not sure,” Nova said quietly, his horn glowing very faintly. “It’s like a tripwire, stretched across the whole cavern. Not perfectly accurate, but that’s it. Trip-net maybe.”
“Any idea what it does?”
Nova shook his head. “No. But it’s fresh. And it feels like Sombra. Not the shade, but his magic. It’s got his touch.”
“Can you find out what it does?”
“Not without setting it off.”
“What about get around it?”
“Same problem, I think.” Nova was barely moving, his eyes narrowed through the visor. “It’s not sloppy work, I’ll give it that much. Even hitting it with your mod might set it off, though …” He quieted, the glow around his horn brightening slightly. “Okay, that won’t work either. Going above it … This is thorough. If I put out enough magic to get past it, I’ll set it off anyway.”
“And if we just mosey up there?” Hunter asked, motioning at the two statues.
“That’ll definitely set it off,” Nova replied quickly, horn ceasing its glow. “Problem is, I’m not seeing much of an alternative.
“Is there any way you can get a better idea of what it does?”
“Maybe. Might take some time.”
“Do it. We can’t turn back.”
“All right,” Nova said with a slight toss of his head. “Here goes. Just get ready to run if it goes bad.”
“Aren’t you the greatest thief Equestria ever saw?”
“Ever?” Nova glanced at him. “Probably not ever. Well … maybe. But either way, part of that is knowing when you’re going to get caught. This is only made to catch somepony. The only question is how it does that.” His horn began to glow once more, and Nova went quiet.
A minute passed, and then another, Nova completely motionless save for the movement of his barrel with each breath as he probed at the spell blocking their path. Hope it’s the only one, Hunter thought as he watched. Who knows how much of a lead Sombra has on us.
And for what? That was still a question without an answer, though some hunch told him that the water had something to do with it. It’s warm, but not geothermal. At least, it doesn’t smell like it. How?
“Got something.” Nova’s voice was strained, like he was holding himself just above a precipice. “I think it’s—”
A loud snap echoed through the air, and Nova jerked back as a wave of purple smoke boiled out of the air between the two statues, rushing toward them.
“Brace!” Hunter wasn’t sure if the words had been his or Nova’s but he heeded them all the same as the purple cloud swept into him.
His body locked, a paralyzing fear sweeping over him pushing into his soul, filling his mind with nothing but horrible flashes of terrible memories … and then it was gone, and he let out a gasp as the cloud faded.
“Fear spell,” Nova said through a gasp of his own. “If we didn’t have the armor …” He shook his head. “Sorry Hunter, I set it off. There was another part to the spell though, something—”
From ahead of them a chorus of cracks echoed down the tunnel, and Hunter snapped his head up in a panic, searching for the first signs of the ice coming down on them. But it wasn’t the ice. The sound was too normal to be the popping twang of a glacier.
Instead, the two statues ahead of them were moving, dust and lichen breaking free as they moved and shook, first with jerky, uneven movements, and then smoother ones as each stepped free of their pedestals, blank faces turning in the direction of Hunter and Nova.
“Oh,” Nova said, his voice almost matter-of-fact as the two statues began to trot toward them. “A come-to-life spell then. Probably designed to kill us while we’re immobile with fear. I’d be impressed, but after the golems?” He shrugged. “Eh. It’s just stone.”
“Right then,” Hunter said, rolling his shoulders. Finally, something I can fight. “I got the stallion, you got the mare?”
“Sounds good.”
Hunter nodded and unclipped both his axes. “Then let’s do some carving.” The two statues accelerated into a gallop, the sound of their stone hooves echoing off of the steps, and Hunter rushed forward, his wings snapping back to give him height and momentum. He sailed over the head of the stone stallion, tucking himself tight into a roll and landing behind it. The animated construct tried to turn, but its hooves slipped against the wet stone, turning what probably would have been a somewhat graceful dash into a scrambling slide.
You’re heavy, Hunter thought as he darted back, swinging out with an ice-axe and catching the statue in the shoulder. The tough metal blade bit through the aged stone, chips flying free. He pulled his limb back, dodging a ponderously slow backhoof. But slow.
Still, a single hit would have a lot of weight behind it, he thought as he made another strike, darting past the stallion’s next sloppy strike and chipping more stone from its form. Don’t get careless.
The same couldn’t be said for the stone stallion. Already it was charging toward him once more, acting more like a drunken brawler than a conscious fighter. Mint’s golems had more sense than this. Then again, she’d built her golems, making breakthrough designs and innovations over common tried-and-true spellwork. And “come to life” spells weren’t known for their complexity. They moved within a simple set of instructions and acted on them. Usually with a degree of “growth” that made them highly unpredictable.
Then again, you don’t need much predictability when your orders are “smash everything,” Hunter thought as he ducked to the side, a heavy haymaker of a blow whipping through the air where he’d just been. The action left the stallion off-balance, and he stumbled forward, giving Hunter another chance to clip him in the hindquarters, carving out a small divot in the stone.
Still, I can’t just dance with this thing forever. A glance back at Nova showed that he was still occupied with his own statue … though he didn’t seem too concerned. He was holding it in the air with his magic, the statue struggling and twisting but unable to break free. Eventually, I’ll get stuffed, or the spell will wear out, and all I’ll have done is some carving. The stone stallion came back around, charging at him once more. I need a weak point. It’s stone. Stone’s brittle.
He ducked under another wild blow, hooking a hind leg with one axe as he slid past and almost losing it as the weight of the statue tugged against it. The tip slipped free however, and the statue went down again, slamming its head into the stone steps with enough force that the ground shook.
Weak points, Hunter thought as the statue climbed to its hooves once more. Places where the stone is thin, easy to crack. The impact of the stallion’s head against the steps had broken more of its face away, giving it an even more unnatural look as it charged at him once more. Hunter’s eyes slipped downward.
The neck, he thought, jumping up and over the statue’s charge and kicking it in the back of the head for good measure. The impact sent a shock rushing up his hooves, like he’d kicked a boulder, but it was enough to once again send the statue sliding forward, tripping over the wet steps. That’s the thinnest point of the statue.
He snapped his wings forward, throwing himself backward in a tight roll and landing on the statue’s back, both hooves coming down in a crosswise slash that drove his ice axes right into its neck. The metal picks chipped into the lichen-weakened granite, each knocking free a decent-sized piece.
Then the statue bucked, flinging him upwards toward the roof of the tunnel, and he flared his wings to keep from slamming into the ice. Did it—Yes! He could see more chips of stone falling away from the stallion’s neck as it turned, “looking” at him. Which was weird, since it wasn’t like its eyes did anything.
Nova, he noticed, was still holding his statue in a magic field. He hadn’t moved otherwise.
The statue was trying to jump at him now, rising up into the air and then crashing down on the steps hard enough that one of the slabs cracked. Hunter shook his head. These things are amazingly dumb. But since it’s fixed on me … He looked at Nova, then motioned to the jumping stallion.
Nova nodded, and the stallion’s companion slammed into it in midair as if fired from a cannon, stone dust exploding around them as the two masses met. Both tumbled into the soft earth, kicking up soil around them, struggling to rise, and then—
A loud crack split the air as the mare, in its haste to rise, broke its companion’s foreleg off at the joint. Which caused the stallion to topple over, crashing into the mare once more and sending both of them into the dirt.
“Wow,” Nova said aloud. “They really are stupid, aren’t they?” The broken limb floated into the air clad in a yellow glow as the two statues, finally far enough from one another, rose. Both were caked in mud and dirt, giving them an even stranger appearance. Then, as the mare started forward, Nova’s impromptu club snapped down against the side of the statue’s head. With a sharp crack, the mare’s head and the leg itself broke apart, the stone separating into several pieces.
The mare didn’t even seem to react, the statue still moving forward, now headless.
“Not bad,” Nova said, animating several more of the now-free bits of stone and pelting the statue’s body with them. “Spell’s adaptive enough that losing a major limb won’t break it.”
“Most don’t consider the head a limb,” Hunter pointed out, watching the stallion statue as it began to limp toward them. “Where’s the spell centered?”
“Chest,” Nova said, another of the mare’s limbs cracking and then breaking under the pounding he was giving it. The broken limb soon added to his assault. “Do you want me to take care of the stallion, or …?”
“I can handle it.” He dove back down, avoiding a off-balance swipe from the stallion’s remaining foreleg that sent it pitching into the dirt. Chest huh? Thickest part of the statue. Sombra isn’t stupid. He brought his axes down between the statue’s shoulder blades—or at least, where shoulder blades would have been on a real pony rather than a carving. The picks made a decent dent, but as they did, his eyes caught something else: a hairline fracture running through the rock.
All that motion, he thought as he jumped back, the stallion’s slow blow too late to be effective at anything but sending it into the dirt once more. Which was now starting to look a lot more like churned mud. The magic can’t cover up the cost. Another reason “come to life” spells were impractical, unless you tuned them like the Tam sisters had. Stone isn’t meant to bend like that.
Off to his side, the mare had been reduced mostly to immobility, pushing itself forward with one leg while Nova ground it into gravel. With one limb left, they could probably leave it be, but since his was still moving …
He attacked again, this time driving both his axes down at the hairline crack as hard as he could. One missed, kicking off the stone near the faint crack. But the other hit home, biting into the stone stallion’s back.
He barely had time to slip his hoof free of the strap and jump back before the stallion had pushed up once more, almost clipping him with a buck that probably would have cracked his armor had it connected. Still, the axe stayed in place, pick pinned inside the crack in the statue’s back even as it turned and twisted. Hunter flapped his wings, gaining altitude over the struggling stone pony, and then hurtled himself downward, bracing his rear legs and bringing them down squarely on the handle of the pinned axe.
The impact was like kicking a stone wall, the shock resonating up his rear legs, but the result was immediate. The statue shuddered as the tiny fracture widened, a series of cracks emanating from its body. Then it froze, body perfectly still, before collapsing, its core coming apart in three different pieces.
“And that’s how you do it, you dumb hunk of rock,” Hunter said, picking up the ice axe and checking the pick. The tough steel bore signs of the fight, the edge dulled in places and the metal tarnished, but it looked functional enough.
He turned away from the rubble just in time to see Nova let go of the rubble he’d been using to pound the other statue apart, stones falling into the mud with faint wet splashes. The core of the mare was still intact, Hunter noted, only missing its limbs and its head. Which had left the spell intact, the body of the statue twisting and turning in the mud like some sort of insect larva.
“Well,” he said, clipping his axes back to his harness as he watched the statue squirm. “That’s disturbing.”
“Yeah, but it can’t do much but roll now, so we can leave it until the spell runs out.”
“Good.” He lifted a hind leg, checking the crampons and noting that the metal tips had been smashed in thanks to his kicks against the stone. Whoops. Hope that isn’t a problem later. “How much energy do you think Sombra spent setting this up for us?”
“Hard to say,” Nova said, shrugging and stepping a little closer to the flailing statue. “Come-to-life spells take some good energy to make work, but they’re not out of the realm for an average unicorn. They’re just a waste most of the time considering how stupid the result is.” He tapped the headless, limbless statue lying in the mud, and it responded by shaking back and forth violently, splattering mud across Nova’s armor.
“Two of them would be a challenge then?”
“For the average unicorn?” Nova thought for a moment and then nodded. “I think so. Which would mean he’s still getting stronger.”
“But still not heading for the city.” Hunter glanced down at the remains of the statue he’d shattered. So were these meant to stop us? Or slow us down? “Still, there’s one thing we can stop worrying about now.”
“Keeping quiet?” Nova asked.
Hunter nodded. “Keeping quiet. He has to know we’re coming now.”
“Then let’s not keep him waiting,” Nova said, turning and galloping up the wet steps. “I’ll keep a lookout for more traps.”
“Good!” Hunter called, taking to the air for a moment and catching up to Nova. The sound of their hooves splashing against the wet stone echoed around them. “Let’s see how much of a lead he really has.”
And hope it isn’t much of one, he thought as they rounded another bend in the tunnel, the light of Nova’s magic and the chem stick reflecting back off the walls of the glacier. Because if he gets any stronger, facing him head on might no longer be an option. And once that happens, I have no idea how we’re supposed to keep him from just barreling through us to the empire.
They galloped upwards, following the steps as they wound back and forth beneath the glacier. Twice more they slowed as statues neared ahead of them, and both times Nova shook his head, the statues staying inert as they passed by.
How much higher can this climb? We have to be getting close to the top at some—
“Stop!” Nova’s cry was the only warning he got as a shimmering silver shield snapped into existence just ahead of them, moments before a black cloud slammed into it. Hunter locked his hooves, crampon screeching against the slick stone steps as he slid forward, even as shards of black crystal consumed the shield, growing across it and around it as they tried to reach him and Nova. He came to a stop just as the spell flickered out, leaving the crystals behind in the shape of a strange wave, sharp points stretching out toward them.
“I know that spell …” The voice was like a whisper that seethed with heat, a fire that cut through the cold air. “You serve her!” Something shifted in the tunnel ahead of them, the shadows shifting and sliding like smoke, and then with a rush of wind, Sombra vanished into the dark.
“Go!” Hunter shouted, rising from his crouch and rushing around the crystal wave. He could already hear them cracking, coming apart as their master fled. Nova darted around the other side, horn glowing with power.
“Run him down!” Hunter shouted as he beat his wings, taking to the air for extra speed. He could just make out the sight of something fleeing ahead of them, a black cloud that shimmered over the stream like smoke. He beat his wings harder, almost falling through the air as he picked up speed—
A black tendril lashed out of smoke, slamming into the ceiling of the glacier just ahead of him. Hunter rolled to the side as a massive, dark crystal shot out of the roof, growing right into his path. More tendrils lashed out, striking the ground and the glacier around them, crystals shoving free of the earth with cracks and pops. Hunter was forced to slow as the air ahead grew thick with the growths, each stabbing downward. Some of them even broke free of the ice and fell, dark, dangerous spears that dropped through the dark toward the ground below, where Nova was already forced to dance around the pillars that had already sprung up in his path. As Hunter watched, Nova lashed out with magic of his own, slamming one of the falling growths out of his path.
Then with a cry somewhere between the howl of an animal in pain and a roar of desperation, tendrils stabbed out in all directions, striking every side of the tunnel all at once. Hunter snapped his wings forward, braking hard as the passage ahead of them grew crystal spikes like teeth, closing off all but a narrow gap between them. A narrow, sharp gap.
“That had to cost him,” Nova said as he slid to a halt at the base. “He just used a lot of magic.”
“Can you take these down?” Hunter asked, kicking one of the growths in the side. It held, solid beneath his hoof. Sombra had already vanished through the small gap.
“Maybe?” A simple beam shot out of his horn, plying over the crystal wall. “I think it’s already starting to weaken.”
“Good.” He kicked against the crystal again. This time it cracked, shifting slightly beneath his hooves.
“Step back,” he said, readying for another kick. “This might come down.” Nova moved, and he kicked again, the crystal cracking louder and shifting, but not quite falling.
“Hurry,” Nova said. “If he’s willing to burn this much power to slow us down, what’s so important that stopping us for this long is worth it?”
“Good point,” Hunter grunted, slamming his whole body into the crystal stalactite. The whole thing shifted and then gave, folding back beneath the impact and then plummeting to the ground, bouncing off the back sides of the crystals below it and knocking them both outward.
Nova was already moving toward him at a run, and Hunter turned, stretching out his front hooves. Nova’s leap carried him up, his forehoove’s catching Hunter’s, and for a moment both their combined weights and that of their gear made his wing-muscles scream with exertion before he flipped Nova up and through the new opening, winging after him a moment later.
“You feel that?” Nova called before Hunter had even made it through the gap.
“No.”
“Magic,” Nova said as he charged forward, and Hunter followed. “It’s like that weird fear effect from earlier, but different.”
“Different? How?”
“Muffled? Dampened? Something like that,” Nova said as they charged forward. The ground beneath them was almost level now, through there was still a slight incline shown in the water Nova was splashing through. “But it’s getting stronger.”
With a thought, Hunter activated his mod, the golden glow bursting out around him and suffusing the world in the same, strange glowing blur he’d come to expect.
Except the colors were wrong, the shades different. It was like there was a haze in the air, a faint tinge of purple that clouded everything. The stone underhoof was widening as they moved forward, and he realized that he was seeing something magic in the stone, something that let him see through the dark around them. Something …
“It’s a building,” he said, slowing.
“What?”
“What’s left of one, anyway.” He could see how the path they were on met a shattered foundation, passing between what was left of what looked like two stone doorposts.
“I see it. You’re right. Was.”
More of the structure came into his augmented view as he stepped forward. There wasn’t much left aside from the foundation. Here and there he could make out a low wall, but little else. “Something leveled this place,” he said as they neared the point where the stone steps swelled out to make a courtyard, the water spilling over them. The roof of the glacier seemed to be rising away as well, bulging back into the edge of what he assumed was a large, inverted bowl.
“That feeling’s getting stronger,” Nova said, horn glowing.
“I know.” He could see the haze thickening near the edges of what the mod showed him, swirling out of something. Worse, he could feel it pressing against his mind, like a whisper at the edge of his senses, even through his armor.
Still, he couldn’t see Sombra. Or what lay further into the ruin. The purple, glowing haze and stone walls around him vanished, the mod’s power extinguished.
“Well,” he said, glancing at Nova. “There’s only one way forward.”
“Slow,” Nova cautioned, his horn glowing. “With all this magic in the air, finding traps is going to be a lot harder.
They trotted forward, toward the ruined doorposts. The feeling of unease seemed to swell within him with each step, like there was something crawling down his back that was just out of sight and out of reach. A drop of water landed on his visor as he passed through what was left of the doorway and he paused.
“What?” Nova asked, his voice low.
Hunter pointed at the drop as it slid down his visor. “This must be where the water’s coming from,” he said, looking up. The ceiling of the glacier was already almost out of sight, faint stalactites of ice glimmering under the chem stick’s weak light. He brought his gaze back down, checking the base of the ruined walls. The water was deeper than it had been on the way up. “It’s a lake. Or a pond, I guess, depending on how big this place is.” He gave his wings a little shake, more droplets of water drizzling off and striking the surface of the lake, which he noted was still rippling despite he and Nova no longer moving forward.
“Geothermal vent?” Nova asked.
He shook his head. “No, those smell. And this place?” He took a deep sniff. “Musty and wet. But it doesn’t smell like a hot spring. There’s something else.” He took a quick look around again, his eye stopping on the back-side of the door posts.
“Look at this,” he said, pointing. “Is it just me, or does the stone on this side seem melted?”
“It does,” Nova said, hooves slipping in and out of the water as he stepped up to the doorposts. Then he bent in close, horn glowing slightly brighter for a moment. “And it’s warm.”
“What?”
“The stone,” Nova said. “There’s some sort of magic on it. Or in it. It’s letting off heat.”
Hunter placed a hoof up against it but couldn’t feel it through his suit. The moment he pulled away, however, he could see the wet mark he’d left start to fade, evaporating into the air.
Sombra’s eating magic. Could this be why he came here? He nodded at Nova and they began moving forward once more, the water slowly deepening around them as they splashed further into the ruin.
What was this place? Small raised lines in their path marked what had once been walls, hallways, and doors. Here and there larger walls loomed out of the dark, the stone shiny and smooth like liquid where whatever force had leveled the place had melted the surface. The air grew warmer as they moved further in, the water deeper, rising first to their fetlocks, and then to halfway up their limbs. The sounds of their passage grew louder as the water grew deeper, and louder still as they scrambled over ruins of stone that now stood like islands in a swamp. Even they had been submitted to the same force as the rest of the ruin, their sides smooth and slick, bristling with once-molten drops and drips.
“The fear effect is getting stronger,” Nova said as they climbed over another molten ruin. This one was topped by what had probably once been a statue, though it was hard to tell. It’s features were a sagging mush, the shape barely recognizable as something possibly equine.
“I know.” He swallowed as they moved down the other side of the stones. How far does this go on? “I can feel it.” His breath was starting to come in shorter gasps, and he forced himself to calm, pulling in a long breath and holding it before letting it out.
It’s just magic. Don’t let it aggro you over nothing. It’s just magic.
It didn’t feel like magic, though. It felt like the world was starting to compress around him, every sound magnified in his ears. And it wasn’t like there wasn’t anything to be worried about. All the magic in the air around them, the ruin … Sombra …
The air felt like it was getting thicker, pressing back against him with every step he took forward. Short, heavy breaths sounded across the water, and he realized with surprise that they were his own. His ears were tight against the outside of his helmet, clenched as low as they could go.
It’s just fear magic. Push forward. One hoof after the other.
A gasp from Nova made him stop short, one hoof frozen in midstep. He noted as he glanced over that the water was now up to his chest, his barrel partially submerged. He hadn’t even noticed. “What is it?” Even his own voice sounded alien to his ears, his wings twitching as it echoed across the water and then back at him.
“Magic,” Nova said, his voice strained. “Dark magic. Lots of it. Straight ahead.”
“Right.” There was no way their voices weren’t carrying through the entire cavern. Where is Sombra. “Get ready. I’m going to turn on the lights. Straight ahead?”
Nova nodded, horn still glowing and his body set in a ready stance, though his tail was tucked tightly against his body.
It’s just magic. It wants you to be afraid. It’s shonky. Fake. Don’t give in. He ignored the lightness to his limbs as he fixed his gaze ahead and, sucking in a breath, activated the headlamps.
“Sun above …” The words slipped out of his mouth almost by reflex, even as he heard Nova let out a similar curse of astonishment. The water ahead of them was open and flat, devoid of any breaks or obstructions for almost a hundred feet in all directions.
Save one. There, in what looked to be the center, was a giant, multifaceted growth of crystal rising out of the water like a tower, its surface as clear as glass. And inside it, hanging in the air, frozen, was the mummified body of a rearing pony.
But not just any pony. The skin was black and withered, the hooves charred and cracked. The eyes were empty sockets, staring straight up, mouth open in a soundless challenge. Shining bands of molten metal marred its chest and forehead. But the most striking feature of all was a curved, red horn, jutting upwards toward the heavens.
A nervous pit formed in Hunter’s gut, one that had nothing to do with the haze of magic around them. “His body,” he said quietly, as every mystery of the ruin around them fell into place. “That’s his body.” Or what’s left of it. “This must be—”
“Where I changed …”
The voice seemed to echo all around them, bouncing and reverberating as Hunter dropped into a low crouch, wings at the ready, pulling his gaze from the crystal monolith and panning it across the water around them. Where is he?
Now it all made sense. He was looking for his body. This is where he ripped himself from it, became that … thing. That’s why the stone is melted, why there’s magic everywhere. This is where he made his last stand against Celestia and Luna. A last stand with so much magic thrown around it left a mark that lasted over a thousand years.
And now they were right in the middle of it. Where is he? He panned his gaze in all directions, searching for any sign of errant smoke or dark clouds, but saw nothing. Where?
“Nova?” he asked, taking a step back and making sure they were side by side. “Any sign of him?”
Nova shook his head. “Nothing. There’s too much ambient magic in the air. It’s like trying to look through fog.”
“Well, keep trying.” He spun, putting them back to back and peering over the path behind them. “He’s got to be—”
A smoky black tendril lashed out from the dark, his headlamps plying across it at the last possible second, and he threw himself to the side, tackling Nova and shoving them both out of the way. He had a brief glimpse of the tendril striking the water’s surface where he’d just been, hitting with a wet slap, and then he and Nova were both under the surface, water shooting into his helmet from every opening and blinding him. He shoved himself back up, blinking as the spray of water stopped and trying not to choke on the water that was already in his helmet.
“There he goes!” A black cloud was streaking across the water’s surface, already well out of reach. Nova fired, a single beam of yellow light catching the rear section of the cloud, a scream sounding out across the cavern as it boiled the smoke away.
But then the black mist reached the crystal at the center of the lake and sank into it as if dissolving into water, tendrils of dark, smoky crystal spreading out from the point of impact. Nova fired another beam, but it bounced off, impacting somewhere far above as the crystal continued to change color, Sombra’s form somehow moving through the clear substance like a cloud of obsidian glass.
“Mine …” The voice resonated around them as the first of the smoky tendrils wrapped around the rear hoof of the mummified corpse at the center, and as Hunter watched the body began to wither, limb shriveling away and melting into the cloud. “Mine!” Sombra’s voice drew out, echoing into a roar that made the cavern shake, ripples rolling out across the lake as more and more of the withered body inside the crystal was consumed.
“Uh … Hunter?” Nova asked, backing up a couple of steps.
“Way ahead of you kid.” Deep cracks were forming across the surface of the crystal, the body inside now more than halfway consumed and sprouting multiple tendrils that had wrapped about the horn. “I think we’re officially out of our weight class, and that came with orders.”
With a deep crunch that echoed in his bones, part of the cavern ceiling gave way, several tons of ice collapsing and falling for the lake behind the crystal. Sombra’s body was almost completely gone, only the skull and the red, curved horn remaining. “MINE!”
“Go!” Hunter called, pulling his eyes away from the growing threat and flapping his wings, skimming across the surface. “Go go go!” A heavy whump sounded behind them as the heavy chunk of ice buried itself in the lake, sending a rush of air across his wings. It wasn’t just fake fear driving him now. There was an energy in the air, a prickling sensation that made the hairs of his coat stand on end.
Nova! He glanced back and down just in time to see a flash of yellow light from Nova’s position, followed by a faint pop and an echoing flash as Nova appeared further ahead, water that had ridden with him through the teleport splashing down around him. For a moment he looked stunned, but then he let out a loud “Yeah!” and vanished again, reappearing some distance ahead.
“MINE!”
The ground was shaking like an earthquake had possessed it now, and Hunter beat his wings, gaining altitude as more chunks of ice fell from the ceiling. Like the ERS headquarters all over again, he thought as he ducked around a falling slab of ice as thick as he was tall. What is it with places we visit collapsing on us!?
He could see the tunnel down the mountainside ahead of them now, and he rushed toward it even as a deep, cackling, almost mad laughter began to echo across the cavern behind him. Then it changed, the pitch switching to a maddened roar, and something slid across the surface of the water like a shadow, moving far faster than any tendril of smoke.
Then a sharp crystal spike erupted out of the water at the shadow’s peak, shooting up into the air and narrowly missing him as he went into a roll. Two more shadows split out from its base, and each of them burst forth into a crystal as well, narrowly missing his wings as the tunnel entrance loomed.
Nova was already there, and he fired, a beam of yellow light striking out at yet another crystal growth burst through the water, rising into the air. The beam bounced off and struck the glacier wall, the ice blowing apart with sharp echoed twangs.
“Run!” Hunter shouted, three more crystals erupting around him and almost spearing a wing. Nova nodded and turned, galloping across the flat courtyard and down the steps as Hunter winged after him.
“Mine!” The voice behind them had grown deeper, almost a growl that echoed like the earth itself was in pain. A titanic crack split the air, like the cavern itself was coming apart, and Hunter glanced back as the shadows ceased their chase. The central crystal had split in two, shadows and smoke leaking out of it. “All mine … Crystals … all mine!”
The fake fear was gone now. Real, dinkum fear had replaced it. Twin glows of green-and-purple light shone out of the center of the shadowed mass, eyes that stared right at him.
“Crystal ponies …” The eyes swept out of sight as he entered the tunnel at last, flying downward as fast as he could, settling for a skipping hop that saw his hooves touch the steps just long enough for him to shove himself forward. Nova was somewhere ahead of him, teleporting every few moments and lighting the way with his horn.
A wordless roar swept down the tunnel behind him, and he risked a glance back to see shadows sweeping after them, patches of dark that persisted despite the bright lights of his helmet. Here and there small black crystals were erupting out of the ground and walls along the shadows, and behind them … A dark cloud, filling the tunnel behind them.
Go go go go! He kicked off of the ground again, almost caught up with Nova now as the shadows surged toward them, picking up speed and closing the gap. His wings were starting to burn, the extra power granted by his armor not enough for both the speeds he was keeping and the extra weight of all the gear he was carrying. He moved a hoof to one of the straps, ready to dump something, anything, to keep ahead of the shadows, when they began to fall back, the howling roar fading as Sombra slowed.
He slowed down, Hunter thought as they rounded another bend, Nova taking it at a single leap while he winged overhead. Good. Let’s get some distance between us and … whatever he is now. Now that the moment was over and the fear effect gone, it was a lot easier to think rationally. Unless he drills right up through the cavern—which unless I miss my guess is the glacier bowl itself—he has to take the same exit out. If we can get there first and collapse it down on him …
A rumble from behind rippled past him, an echoing whisper of words traveling in its wake. Assuming we have time for that.
Still, they were officially in part two of their assignment. Or was that three? Doesn’t matter. We hunted him, now we keep him hunting us as long as we can. He glanced behind once more, but saw no signs of the shadows rushing after them.
“Nova!” He let his altitude drop as Nova looked up at him, running rather than teleporting, though whether it was because he was tired or simply saving his energy Hunter couldn’t say. “Any ideas?”
“For the next part of the plan? Yeah. We drop the glacier on him.”
Hunter nodded. “Kind of what I was thinking. Congrats on the teleport by the way.”
“Thanks! Nothing like fear of imminent death to make a hard spell really easy!” Nova glanced up at him as they rounded another bend. “So, how do you want to do this?”
“Without us eating dirt with him?” Another roar echoed down the tunnel behind them, dragging out into a low rumble that made the ice shake. “The crevasse.”
“Where we climbed down?”
He nodded. “How quickly do you think you can bring it down?”
“With spells? Fast. But I want to climb out first.”
“I’m with you there. Make it quick.” He risked a glance back and his insides went liquid. Black mist was rolling down the tunnel in a tide, roiling and shifting like a flash flood.
Nova glanced at him. “Did you look back?”
He nodded, gaze fixed firmly forward once more. “Yup.”
“And?”
He shook his head. “Run faster.”
The tunnel around them began to grow brighter, the light dim but welcome, and a moment later the crevasse came into view, the walls falling back and giving way. Nova threw himself into a hard turn as he rounded the corner, dirt and mud spraying from beneath his hooves as he tore out of the tunnel and out of sight. Hunter threw his own wings into a sharp, pitched turn, grunting as the weight of his gear bore down on him. Nova was already galloping toward the line, churning up the ground in a full sprint.
Hunter kept with his tight turn, tiny spasms of pain ripping down his wings as he banked right toward the crevasse wall and the closest grey crystal holding it back. He slammed into it with enough force to make his hooves ache, crampons biting into the surface and halting a short downward slide. The other crystals became brittle fast, he thought as he readied one of his ice axes. Let’s hope you’re just as shonky!
The ice axe bit deep into the crystal’s surface, driving deep between it and the icy wall of the glacier. Hunter threw himself back, beating his wings and pulling as hard as he could at the handle of the axe.
Nothing.
Come on, you shonky bit of stone. Give! Another roar echoed out of the tunnel as he reseated himself against the crystal’s side. Come on!
He jumped back again, tugging as hard as he could with his hooves, wings almost humming he was flapping so hard. With a soft crack the crystal gave, jerking outward about an inch before coming to a stop. Behind it, the ice let out a low groan, quivering slightly.
Come on! Tendrils of black were poking out of the tunnel now, snaking across the ground and spilling over the earth, swaying back and forth as if searching for something. Give!
He tilted himself sideways against the glacier wall, planting his rear hooves against the ice and pulling upward as hard as he could. Move you blasted bit of—
With a sharp crack the base of the crystal cracked and gave way, the ice behind it letting out another groan as Hunter rocketed away, the sound deep and sharp at the same time. The heavy piece of crystal hit the ground with a wet slap, mud spraying up around it. More mist rolled out of the tunnel, tendrils slipping over the fallen chunk of crystal and probing at it like octopus arms.
A sharp crack, however, echoed in the wake of the crystal slab’s slap, as the ice it had been supporting trembled and broke apart. A piece of ice roughly the size of a two-story home broke free of the glacier wall, toppling out and down into the mud with a heavy impact that resonated in Hunter’s chest.
Landing squarely atop the fallen support crystal and smoky tendrils, both vanishing in a spray of mud that coated the nearby glacier walls as well as a good portion of Hunter’s armor. The echoing scream of rage and pain from the tunnel, however, was worth it.
So you can be hurt, Hunter thought, spinning in the air and winging down the narrow glacier, leaving the tunnel behind. Good to know.
Nova was already halfway up the glacier wall, flying up the rope without regards to safety equipment or the harness he was wearing. As Hunter watched, Nova vanished in a flash of yellow light, reappearing several dozen feet higher up and dropping for a bare second before catching hold of the rope again. Risky—extremely so given the drop and the fact that he’d first successfully teleported only minutes ago—but given what was behind them and how quickly Nova was moving upward, Hunter wasn’t about to begrudge him the risk.
Another howl echoed behind them, and a wave of fear swept through Hunter’s body, his muscles spasming and locking for the barest moment before he forced them back into motion, flying for the far wall. Didn’t slow him down long, did it? A glance at the ground showed more of the shadowed tendrils spilling over the blue ice, backed by a dark cloud that seemed to suck the very color from its surroundings, the bright blue of the glacier somehow fading into drab grey.
Suddenly his mouth felt dry, his limbs weak. Sombra was coming, and there was nothing they could do to sto—
No! He shoved back against the fear seeping into his bones. It’s just a bunch of crook head magic! He’s trying to get into your head! It’s just a beat up! Ahead of him, a third of the way up the wall, was another greyed out crystal, part of a base for several more, holding back the ice. Push through it!
He slammed into the crystal without even slowing down, ignoring the pain in favor of pushing through the mindless fear jabbering at the back of his mind. The ice axe bit deep, shoving its way between the crystal and the ice wall with a sharp click that seemed abnormally loud against his ears.
“Run … little ponies …” The words echoed around him as Sombra spoke, and another chain of shivers rolled through his wings. His breaths were coming hard and fast. “Run … and die …”
It’s just magic! Just crook, stupid magic! He heaved, and the crystal jerked away from the glacier with a sharp, echoing crack, breaking free and falling down toward the ground below. The ice it was holding back let out a sharp cascade of echoing pings as Hunter flew back, but then stopped. The crystal had broken free too high up, with more than enough of its weight left braced against the ice to support itself, its fellows, and the walls of the glacier.
Sombra was getting closer. The black cloud was at the rope now, and he could see shadows shooting up the wall of the glacier, like long talons reaching out for him, moving to close over and drag him down to the—
“Hunter! Move!”
Nova’s voice shook him from his stupor, reality snapping back, and he beat his wings, climbing upwards as fast as he could, angling for the rope on the other side of the crevasse. Moments later, a trio of yellow bolts slammed into the side of the glacier, impacting around the base of the crystal he’d been trying to pull free, and with a series of shuddering, jerking cracks, the supports pulled away from the glacier wall. Deep cracks spread across the ice, splintering out in all directions and quickly rising past his own altitude. Moments later, the first chunks began to break free, brilliant blue shards the size of small ships sliding out and dropping down toward the distant ground. As he watched, the shadows that had been making their way up the walls stopped, black crystals growing out of them to ward off the collapsing wall.
It wasn’t nearly enough. The first chunk of ice slowed slightly as it crashed into the crystals, but it battered its way through them all the same. When several of its fellows bore down on it from behind, however, all sense of delay ceased, a thunderous roar rolling across the chasm as the ice hit bottom, mud and ice clouds rolling up around it. The force of the impact was enough to make the far wall shake, cracks rippling through the ice there as more ice began to tumble down in the wake of the first, pieces growing larger and larger.
Oh horsefeathers. Cracks were splitting in all directions now, ice splitting free and dropping all across the chasm wall, even around the crystal supports. Worse, small chips of ice were falling past him, dropping through the air and down toward the ground below.
Horsefeathers! He pumped his wings, going into a steep climb as a chunk of ice the size of a pony dropped past him, breaking free from somewhere up above. The constant crack and crash of breaking ice was blending into an indeterminate roar now as both walls began to give way, the chasm caving in on itself as the support crystals along both walls shattered.
Climb climb climb climb— His wings were on fire, fighting against the downward pull of gravity and the weight of his gear as he ducked around a falling block of ice large enough to crush him without slowing. The fake fear was gone again, replaced by very real fear as the glacier around him began to come apart.
His eyes darted up, catching sight of Nova working his way up the crumbling wall, whipping his body from side to side as the ice under his hooves crumbled. A large chunk of ice plummeted down at him from above, and with a flash Nova teleported, appearing above it, ice axe scraping a long trench in the glacier’s side before he caught the rope once more, ascending up the side of the crumbling glacier almost as fast as Hunter was flying.
The noise was deafening now, an all-consuming rumble that came from all directions, battering against him with almost as much force as the bits and pieces of ice that were skipping off of his armor. The air currents were going wild now, walls of freezing air rolling past as more and more of the glacier caved in, carrying with it small particles of ice and freezing mists that buffeted him from below.
Cold as they might be, however, they were currents he could ride. He stretched his wings wide, ignoring the sharp stabs of pain that cut across them as flecks of ice pounded them from both sides. He was almost at the top now, the sky visible above him through the icy mists, a beacon of wide open blue …
And then he was out, soaring into the bright noonday sun with a final push of his wings, ice dust and large bits sailing up around him in the open air. Another wave of air pushed up from below amidst a thunderous crash, carrying him high into the sky, and he leveled off, searching for any sign of purple amid the snow and clouds.
There! He spotted Nova galloping as fast as he could across the glacier’s surface, heading in a southwest bent as ice behind him shuddered and warped. A quick dive took him down once more, passing through a cloud of ice crystals before catching up and wrapping his hooves around Nova’s pack.
“Jump!” Nova complied, pushing off from the ice in time with a heavy wingflap and carrying them both forward over the ice. They both touched down for a brief moment before Nova leaped again, pushing up and easing the strain on his already tired wings.
Then they were over snow, real snow, and Hunter let go, dropping Nova to the ground and carrying on just far enough that he wouldn’t crash into him before letting his own wings go limp and falling to the ground. The thick snow absorbed the impact, cushioning his landing and bringing him to a jarring halt.
Keep moving. Snow was licking his lips, shoved through the grate at the front of his helmet by the impact, and he blew out a kick breath, forcing it back out as he stood. The roaring of the glacier behind them had already lowered to a dull rumbling echo, the only sign of the turmoil the ice clouds in the air and a large depression that ran east to west along one side of the ice.
Nova sat up, spitting snow from his helmet before turning and looking back at the depression. “Think that’ll hold him?”
Hunter shook his head. “Not for long.”
“Plan?”
He turned to the west, looking roughly in the direction of the Crystal Empire. It was hidden at the moment, obscured by mountains, rock, and trees. “Traps. Got any good ones for a smoke monster?”
“I’ve got a few.”
“Good. That’ll be step one.”
“Step two?”
He took a breath, tasting ice and feeling it burn against the back of his throat. “We run, and hope he follows.”