//------------------------------//
// Victory or Death 
// Story: The Hunters of Secrets 
// by Arkantos 
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Black Fall looked around and said, “What in all of Tartarus is this?”

His eyes glowed blinding white as he slowly rose up to the middle of the Cavern. A silvery magical substance began to come out of the clock hand and it created an oversized clock. Right now, it said it was 7 PM. Commander Dream took the physical clock hand that he had and moved it backwards to 1 PM. Suddenly, all four dead EUP guards got up, and like time was rewinding their deceptions. Their cuts were closing on their own, and then the wounds completely disappeared. As that happened, a silver beam flew from the clock to the iceberg and cracked it before completely breaking it apart. The two guards within the iceberg stood up. 

Commander Dream adopted a bright smile and said, “Ok, boys, the first round went to her. Make sure that the other rounds don’t. Now, kill her fast. If you manage to do that, then  drinks are on me. All you can drink alcoholic apple cider. And now, the second round begins.”

Two Earth ponies, one Pegasus, and one Unicorn charged at Black Fall. She was almost tackled by all of the guards in the cavern at once, but thanks to her quick thinking, she tossed a smoke bomb and dove out of the way. The Unicorn and Pegasus fired their crossbows, sending Black Fall into a wall. Thinking quickly, she jumped out of the way and heard the sound of her cloak tearing. As an Earth pony and the Unicorn had plunged their weapons right into the wall at the spot where she was pinned. She turned around and used the power of the spear. She used an earth spike to push the two ponies back into the group. After dodging some incoming arrows, she did the same to the Pegasus and the Unicorn. With all of the EUP guards in one spot, she increased the gravity on them until there was nothing left but a pile of broken bones and bloody puddles with armor.

Black Fall charged at Commander Dream who was still floating in the middle of the room at the center of a humongous magical silver clock, positioned right behind him. Black Fall was almost within arms reach when he rewound the clock again. She was tackled by two bloody Earth pony guards. She looked over to where she had killed all of the guards at once. Thanks to that clock hand, the guards were no longer a bloody mess. They were making their way to her yet again. 

Using the power of the spear, she summoned two spikes of earth and used them to impale the two ponies who had pinned her. She jumped up and ran as the four guards continued to pursue her to the other side of the cavern. Black Fall brought out her whip blade and began to slash and whip at the guards. She didn’t stop until she was convinced that they were down. But it wasn’t long before a Pegasus mare dove out at her. Black Fall turned around and kicked the Pegasus in the air. She grabbed the Pegasus by the wing and spun her around three times before slamming her into the ground, pulling out a throwing knife, and stabbing her in the chest, which killed the mare Pegasus instantly. As she ended that pony’s life, she picked up the crossbow and fired it at Commander Dream. But he blocked it with his oversized shield. She tossed the weapon aside and charged at him again with her whip blade, cutting and slashing as she went.

Commander Dream blocked most of it, and as she was getting to the end of her whip dance, he tackled her. The magical clock disappeared. Dream used his shield to pin down Black Fall’s hoof, the one that held the blade whip. He used the glowing silver clock hand to tap her weapon. In seconds, her blade whip became nothing more than a rusty old whip. 

Dream jumped back and Black Fall sprang up. She used the rusted blade on a guard. To her shock, her weapon became caught between one of the Earth pony guard’s sword and shield. 

The Earth pony yelled, “Hey, some assistance down here!” A Pegasus guard came to his aid, jumping onto the sword to give more pressure. It was enough to shatter the weapon into pieces. Black Fall quickly picked up two pieces within her reach and threw them at the two EUP guards.

Then, two more guards ran up and stood between Black Fall and their Commander. Black Fall’s eyes flared red with rage. She pulled out the spear and lunged with it, successfully impaling a Unicorn guard. Reacting to her attack, the Pegasus guard swung his sword to try to kill her. But she managed to dodge the swings before finally piercing her spear, with the dead Unicorn guard still on it, into the other guard’s chest. Commander Dream locked onto her thinking quickly. Black Fall threw six daggers, each one having an elemental rune on it. They all hit the clock hand, resulting in two ice explosions. The silver glow increased. The ice broke apart when a lightning rune hit. The clock hand started cracking and the silver magic coming from it increased so much it was hard to tell if Commander Dream was still holding it. The last three daggers exploded into green clouds of acid which caused their target to not only to break apart and melt into nothing, but also caused a good amount of flesh near Dream’s front hooves to get eaten away. He fell to the ground, crying in agony.  

Then, a blast of time magic zoomed across the Fortress, and the six pony guards got up and approached her. As they came nearer, they started to age unnaturally. The hairs on their coats grew long and gray. Their faces developed too many wrinkles too rapidly, and their insides started to turn dry. It wasn't long before all of them were too weak to even approach her. 

Suddenly, three of the aging ponies’ coats split open. Small streams of sand poured out of them as more and more of their bones broke. Then, their stab wounds reappeared, and before long, all six of them were nothing but piles of broken bones and dust with armor. As they hit the ground, the power of the spear devoured their souls. 

Black Fall swung the spear and two sets of armor from the no longer existing guards flung off of it. Using the rune of Earth on the spear, she dropped several tons of rock onto Commander Dream. Black Fall decided it was best not to check if he survived. Then, she galloped back to where she had snuck in.
 
As she trotted back to the Fortress’s gates, where one of the ballista towers were, she pulled out and transformed her sword into a crossbow. She then shot an explosive arrow of fire and lightning at the ballista tower and it exploded into flames and lightning. That certainly got the attention of every guard in the Fortress. As they charged at Black Fall, she reloaded her crossbow and pulled out her spear, getting ready for another fight. The upside to this ploy was that the guards were focused completely on her, which gave Cold Blood and the Serpentine a chance to make it to the Fortress wall sooner.
 
Back in the cavern, a pile of rocks suddenly started shaking. An oversized rock rolled out of the pile and hit the cavern wall, causing it to crumble into pieces. Then, a very large shield slammed to the ground. 

Commander Dream emerged from the rock pile and said quietly, “You see, I’m not destined to die here. I’m destined to die out there, in the heat of battle.” He pressed a button on his shield and several spikes popped out. He continued, “You may have managed to destroy my relic, which I’ve held onto for quite some time.” He looked at the burns of acid on his hooves and glanced around for a weapon. He located and grabbed a sword from a pile of dust and armor, then turned around and galloped out of the cave system. As he ran, he could hear explosions coming from outside. “Well, Black Fall,” he mused, “let’s see who is truly fated to die today. You or me.”

The explosion of lightning and fire appeared on one of the ballista towers. Cold Blood and the Serpentine saw it and knew that the time to charge was now.
 
Following the explosion, Black Fall galloped quickly to the wall of the Fortress; she was being chased by half of the fort. They surrounded her, spears and swords pointed at her. But then, she did something that no guard could have expected her to do. She said loudly, “Hello, EUP soldiers! Now, let’s not beat around the bush. Yes, I know that some of you guys are Hunters. Yes, we all know your names, but don’t worry! I won’t spill your secrets! Anyway, I have a message for you from me, the Butcher of the Night.” She pointed a hoof to herself. “I say to you: forget your prayers to your beloved Celestia or Luna, because they don’t care for you at all. All they care about is having a peaceful, thriving land. Now, with that out of the way, let the bloodbath commence.” And just like that, she used the power of the spear to push against the ground and shoot into the air.
 
As she flew skyward, Black Fall transformed her sword into a crossbow and fired a bolt that sparked with electricity and fire. It was aimed straight at the EUP guards. As she landed on the wall, the bolt hit the ground and exploded with five waves of fire and lightning. The burst of power and heat sent half of the fortress flying in opposite directions. Some of the guards were impaled by weapons that had been put aside for later use. Others were burned to a crisp from the waves of fire, and even more of them just fell to the ground and didn’t get back up because of the waves of the deadly lightning that had washed over them.. As for the rest of the guards, they were extremely lucky to still be alive. They got up and charged at Black Fall. The flames died down as Black Fall transformed her crossbow back into a sword and placed it back into her saber. She pointed the spear at the survivors and poised herself for several attacks. She yelled at them, “Come on! I’m ready to face any one of you!”
 
One guard said, “Come on guys, she’s just one pony. That’s one pony versus all of us. We can easily take her on.”
 
Commander Dream slammed his shield and boomed, “Is this how you treat your host? By blowing up his property and his troops?”
 
Black Fall looked down and, a little impressed, said, “So, you survived the boulders, did you?”
 
The Commander replied, “Yes. Now, please come down and face me.”
 
The Butcher pondered for a moment, but eventually came to the conclusion that it would be better to fight in a wider area than on a narrow wall. She jumped down and landed on all fours. Then she looked up at Commander Dream. He was a bit dusty with debris and had several wounds on his coat, but otherwise, he looked pretty fine for someone who had survived a bunch of heavy rocks falling on him. His face gave off a look that said ‘You are dead.’ 

Suddenly, Dream said with a little hate in his voice, “Now, are you ready to finish what you started?” As he spoke, Black Fall noticed that there was something different about his shield; it had different designs now. Instead of an hourglass, there were skulls etched into it, and several black spikes poked out of it. 

Then, with a little metallic click, the spikes shot out of the sheild.

Three of the spikes hit Black Fall; one in the chest, the other two in her shoulders. Immediately, Black Fall felt the familiar burning sensation of a poison spreading through her, one that would kill her if she didn’t treat it right away.  

Black Fall pulled out the spikes,r which weren’t stuck in too deep. When they were all out, the burning sensation stopped.  

Black Fall got up and pointed her spear at Commander Dream. “I’m more now ready than I'll ever be.” And with that, she charged at the Commander. He quickly raised his shield and blocked the ex-Hunter’s attack. As he blocked, he commanded his troops, “What are you looking at? The enemy is approaching our Fortress! To your stations!”
 
His remaining soldiers heard his command and scrambled up to the wall, loaded their crossbows. One of them manned the only ballista left, and another loaded it with an oversized arrow. Everyone took aim at the army that was closing in on the Fortress.