//------------------------------//
// The Hand of Time 
// Story: The Hunters of Secrets 
// by Arkantos 
//------------------------------//

Night had fallen on the Badlands. The EUP guards of the day watch had retired for the night and the EUP guards of the night watch had made their way to their post. Some of the night watch, however, decided to practice fighting with wooden dummies or with each other. 

On the other side of the wall, Black Fall slowly climbed the wall of the fortress and waited for her opportunity to sneak in unnoticed. Several seconds went by and it wasn't long before those seconds became hours. Finally, the night guards switched positions. As that happened, Black Fall quickly climbed up one of the ballista towers,  managing to make it to the top of the tower without getting noticed. As she crossed the tower’s roof, she felt a wave of magic go over her. It felt as if the magic was scanning her. This was probably that time loop magic the Serpentine had told them about. Black Fall looked around and noted that she was still on the roof; the magic didn't loop her back to the wall or to the border of the fortress. She looked down and around the fortress for the item that was responsible for this place’s defense.

It didn’t take long for her to find the magical item. It was a weird-looking spear. It seemed similar to the spear of the first hunter that she carried. The pony in the fortress holding the spear had a face that demanded authority. He was a purple Earth pony with a blue and green mixed mane and tail. He wore silver armor with a small golden pattern on it. He also had an oversized shield with a carved hourglass, indicating that he was the commander of this fortress.

Black Fall looked down and saw some brown overgrown bushes which she jumped into. She landed on something squishy. It looked like mud with too much water. It had an unpleasant smell too. Some of it was stuck on her belly and hoofs. She looked over at another bush and saw a EUP soldier coming out of it with a self-satisfied look that said he had just done his business. Suddenly Black Fall realized what she was laying in. She wanted to scream, “EWWWW!!!” but that would give away her current position. So, she waited until the guards’ shifts changed again.

The commander of the fortress passed by her and walked up to the wall. He asked a nearby EUP soldier in bronze armor, "Anything happening yet?"

The lower rank EUP answered, "Nothing yet, sir. It's been quiet for the last few days. Do you think that those things have given up?"

The Commander’s eyes narrowed to the empty field of desert and replied, "No. Stay alert. Something’s not right here. They must be planning something, and the last time I saw that green thing, he had a look that plainly said I'm going to kill you. I’ve got a feeling that he won't sleep until he gets his revenge. So, whatever you do, don't fall asleep." 

Suddenly, the Commander looked to the right of the EUP soldier and said, "Wait, what now?" He then ran back to the heart of the fortress muttering, "Yes, yes, I know, and as soon as they appear, we will trap them in a time loop."

The EUP soldier from before stared after him and said, "Ok, well, I guess I'll stay up here and keep watch."

Black Fall dashed from one bush to another, leaving a trail of brown residue in her wake. There were more bushes that the guards used to take care of business, but no matter how disgusting it was, it was better than climbing from rooftop to rooftop, risking getting discovered by a EUP guard who might happen to glance up. 

Black Fall approached the heart of the fortress without being seen. She approached the mouth of the cave which seemed to lead into a system of tunnels. She snuck into a large cavern and hid in a wooden pony-sized crate. And it was just in time, she realized, as a pair of EUP guards marched from the right tunnel and departed the cave. She waited until she could no longer hear the guards’ metal hoof steps. She managed to poke her head up just high enough to see the area. There were two guards positioned at the mouths of the tunnels. There were three different ways she could go from here; two of paths would lead her deeper into the cave system. The third way was to retrace her hoof steps, but that wasn't an option. She was here to find and destroy the item that created the time loop that kept the fortress safe. She spent hours deciding which way would lead her to the Commander. 

Suddenly, she heard the Commander’s voice yelling, "They have to be here! They’re going to be here!"

The sound was coming from the left tunnel. Black Fall needed a distraction. She thought to herself, 'I could really use Cold Blood. He can make the perfect distraction.' She shook her head to clear it, looked down, and noticed a stone in the crate. 'Then again, he would laugh at what I had to do to get here.' She took out her sword and transformed it into a crossbow, picked up and loaded the rock in it, aimed to the right and fired in that direction, producing several satisfying sounds of rock hitting rock. The sound grabbed the guards’ attention enough for the two of them to investigate the right tunnel. One of the guards exclaimed, "Who goes there?" As they continued looking for the source of the noise, Black Fall swiftly entered the left tunnel and dived into another hiding spot.





At the bottom of the cave system was an expansive cavern floor which had gotten so much water on it that it had essentially been shallow pool for quite some time. The Commander of the fortress seemed to be yelling at nothing whatsoever and the guards with him were wearing looks of utter confusion. The Commander stopped at the center of the cavern where a table stood with a leather fur covering  it. In the center of the table were two candles flanking a stone. The stone contained an hourglass set above some weird markings and white crystals.

The Commander said to the guards, "Take your positions! It will happen here." He then looked at his weapon and yelled at it, "Can't you give me a clearer vision!? And not some vague bits of clouds that I can barely understand!?"

As he shouted, the two EUP guards took positions at the cavern entrance. Two more guards stood at his left and two others to his right. 

Meanwhile, near the ceiling of the cavern where several stalactites had formed, Black Fall found a decent hiding spot. One of the guards stood right underneath her. She took a good look and counted six guards and one commander. Then she said to herself, "Well, it's now or never." 

She drew out both of her swords and dropped out of her hiding spot. She stabbed her whip sword into the closest EUP guard’s head before the others could figure out what was going on. Then, she transformed the other sword into a crossbow and fired a bolt of ice that instantly froze two guards in a glacier of ice. The ice would slowly suffocate them if they did not die from being frozen alive.

Of the three EUP guards remaining, two of them ran up to their Commander’s side. The EUP Unicorn who was right next to Black Fall jumped back and used her magic to teleport to the other side of the cavern in an effort to gain some distance. From there, she pulled out and aimed her crossbow at the Butcher of the Night. One Earth pony with a spear and a shield charged at her, and one flying EUP Pegasus with a sword flew at her. However, the Commander wasn't looking at her. She thought perhaps that the reason he didn't take her too seriously was because he believed that his soldiers were up to the task. Oh, how wrong he was.  

Black Fall transformed her crossbow back into a sword and put it back in its saber. She then pulled out the spear of the first hunter. In her mind, that sinister voice awoke and said to her, 'Well, now, you plan on using me. The question is, can you stomach it?'

Black Fall mentally replied, 'Look, this isn't the right time for this conversation. I just need your power to take on these guys.'

'What the heck happened to you?' The spear mentally laughed at her and continued, 'It looks like you just swam through a river of manure!'

She adopted a furious expression as she blocked two EUP guards. Then she pressed a button on her other sword. The sword blade broke apart and lay on the ground, but each piece of the blade was still connected to the handle by a wire. As she slashed the blade fragments at the guards charging her, she said to the voice, 'Look, the short version of it is that these EUP guards found a practical use for those bushes around the wall. Now, are you going to help me or are you going to continue to laugh at me and be a jerk?'

'Ok, ok, I'm sorry, it was just too rich.' The runes on the spear glowed red and Black Fall’s eyes turned red too. She said in a raging voice, "Let's get ready for this bloodbath!"

Using the spear to block the Pegasus, she tried to grab him, but the flying horse saw it coming. He immediately flew out of her reach and maneuvered around the cavern in such a way as to zoom by her from behind and successfully cut her side. But it wasn't a deep cut, so she ignored the pain and charged at the Earth pony, plunging her spear into his chest. The spear penetrated through his armor and chainmail. His eyes widened with fear as the Butcher of the Night bit hard into his neck. She pulled away and opened her mouth to reveal two sets of fangs with blood dripping from them. Black Fall tossed the guard into the Unicorn archer who was the farthest away.

Black Fall looked at the whip blade and then used it to cleve at the head of the Pegasus. But that didn't happen and her whip blade instead wrapped around one of the wings of the Pegasus. Using a little strength, she yanked the wing off of the Pegasus and he crashed into a stalagmite. She whipped the blade around his waist and yanked it hard, causing the Pegasus’s belly to open up and his insides to spill out. On the 17th yank, the Pegasus was fully sliced in two.

The last EUP guard pushed the dead Earth pony off of her and rose up to aim her crossbow at Black Fall. She fired her arrow but a spike of earth sprouted from the ground and the arrow bounced off of the rock harmlessly. Then Black Fall used her whip blade to destroy the guard’s crossbow, quick as lightning. Black Fall jumped up and plunged her spear through the EUP mare’s head. As the Butcher of the Night pulled the spear out of the corpse’s head, she turned around and saw the Commander of the fortress had yet to run away or call for reinforcements.

The Commander arose, brought up his shield, and pointed his spear at her. "What’s your name, Miss?"

Surprised by the question, she answered. "It's Black Fall, good sir." She pointed her spear at the Commander and said, "Now, may I ask who you are? You know, before I kill you."

"You seem confident that you will be able to kill me. No matter, I shall still answer your question. I am Commander Dream." He raised his spear. "It has been a while since someone dared to challenge me, but I know this isn't where I'm supposed to die. Yes, I knew this day would come. However, this thing," he stared daggers at his weapon, "refuses to reveal certain things, like the fact that you're very skilled."

The Butcher raised an eyebrow before asking, "Why is that?"

"Well, once upon a time, before I joined the EUP, I was once a member of a secret organization within Equestria. I and the other members of the organization wanted to control anything and everything, but it was short lived. That Draconic known as Discord quite literally pulled our organization apart.. And when Celestia and Luna turned that thing into stone, the order that I worked for decided it would be wise to discontinue the operation and how we did things. Those of us that were left basically went our own ways and never looked back."

As Dream continued to tell his life story, Black Fall took a better look at his weapon of choice. It wasn't exactly a spear per se. It was more like a giant golden clock hand that could count down the seconds if it were in its proper place. She must've been looking at it too long, because Dream noticed her gazing at it. He moved the clock hand around and asked, "Do you like my weapon of choice?"

"Yes, but that’s not exactly a weapon. At least, I’m pretty sure it’s not. But I know it could be used as a weapon if you are comfortable charging with it at full force.”

"Oh, well, you would be right. And you would also be wrong. I know it's not a standard thing for a weapon, but once you see what this item can do, you'll be begging for execution." As he said this, Dream raised the clock hand.

Black Fall looked around her and said, "What in all of Tartarus is this?"