The Tales Of A Night Stalker

by Don Pedro von Poltergeis

Chapter 8: The Temple

Author's Note:

Another part of the crossover with The Winter Rose.
Fun fact #1. When Spooks left Earth she was 75 but in Equestria she is 21. Jen was 32 on Earth and 19 in Equestria.

The sun was setting at their back as they walked past many guards that were taking care of the many ships that come in and out of Arcadia and their crews. A few guards stood out above the rest to Spooks as she walked through the shipyard to the ship known as, The Summer's Aria. She watched carefully with her companions as the three Black Knights that were following them, began to pick up pace.

The many crews of the shipyard took notice of the trio as they walked around a bend while trudging through a thin layer of snow. Many of them had a look of worry as they saw the Black Knights, who were quickly gaining a reputation of pure terror that made Celestia's clone troopers look like mere toys to them. Spooks noticed this but thought nothing of it as she watched a few zebras on a small frigate, grip their bridles of their battle saddles in preparation for a fight. Spooks raised a brow at the paranoid zebras as they came into view of the ship that they were looking for before their three followers caught up to them, but didn't do anything other than escort them the rest of the way.

“Wow, that’s one big ship,” Spooks muttered, her eyes looking over the black hull of the ship. She admired the shape of the WWII veteran that was once used by the Russians, all of her new additions. To her, it wasn't hard to tell that it was modified for flight with the two dragon-like wings at the bow of the ship, and the four, x-shaped wings at the stern with propellers on each wing.

The Aria was hovering over a small ravine and was tied to a dock with a bunch of rope. There was a large gangplank leading into the ship on the port side with a few guards patrolling close by to the ship, however. There was one guard that stood out from the rest. The guard in question saw the trio walking over to the ship while carrying a few saddlebags on their backs. Spooks watched with curiosity as the light black Thestral with a fiery orange mane in a ponytail wearing samurai armor, walked up to them with an annoyed expression on her face.

"Yo," Spooks saluted to the samurai as they stopped just a few meters away from the ship.

"Yeah, whatever," the light black mare said with a roll of her eyes, making Spooks wonder how much of a bitch she must be. "Who are you, and what are you doing here?" she asked while she gripped the hidden .45 ACP with her wing.

"Okay...My name is Spooks, and this is my mare-friend, Windy," she pointed to the gray coated Lunar Unicorn with a dark purple mane, "and this is Night Heart, Windy's mother," she pointed to the older mare with the lighter purple mane wearing a cute set of glasses.

"Bout' time you three showed up. Empress Rose has been waiting for you since this morning. So come with me, Winter is waiting for all of you on the bridge," Nova said with a sigh of relief before turning around and lead the trio into the bowels of the ship.

Walking up the gangplank Spooks couldn’t help but be amazed at the sheer size of the ship, she has seen Kirov Class carriers and Lower Class battleships, but compared to the Summer’s Aria, they looked like dwarves.

“Could use a little more color, though,” Spooks thought, “The black stands out a little too much.” Spooks followed quietly behind the scary thestral mare into the metal halls of the ship. The only sound that they could hear was the sound of hooves clip-clopping on the metal grates as they quickly moved through the maze of metal and pipe in the dim light to the bridge.

When they reached the ship’s bridge, which was surprisingly empty, Spooks saw Empress Rose wearing a leather jacket with a high collar on the only chair in the room. She didn't notice them at first as she was cleaning a pair of black Desert Eagles with stylish silver markings along the barrels that looked like a pair of dragons were engraved into the guns. Spooks also noticed that she was wearing two, strange bracelets around her forehooves that looked like they were a part of her skin. Why she had those on, she may never know.

"Well? I have been waiting here since morning, and you guys just waltz in like you own the place. If it weren't for the fact that I just figured how to have sex with my mare-friend though our soul link. I would have ordered my guards to drag your asses here for a spanking with one of the lifeboat paddles."

“Thanks but no thanks. My ass has been abused enough by Windy,” Spooks said flatly.

"Damn, I was kinda hoping for a live show. Oh well, I guess I will have to wait until after we come back," Winter giggled before she went serious again. “Alright you three, the cabins are on the lower deck. You can pick whichever one you want,” she said with a wave of the hoof.

Without wanting to find out why anyone would perform in front of the filly willingly in the lewdest of ways from Windy's kinky curiosity. Spooks gave the young Empress a curt bow and left the bridge with Windy and Night Heart close behind. All three of them were lead by one of the Black Knights that were there to act as back-up for Winter.

Picking room numbered: 34, they walked into the small, cold, metal room and placed their stuff on the top bunks, though. Spooks kept her Mosin Nagant named, Cue, and slung it across her back, and picked up a few magazines for it and put them into the pockets of her aviator jacket.

"Where are you going, Fluffy?' Windy asked as she and Night laid down in the lower bunks as Spooks stood in the doorway.

"I'm gonna play, 'Spot the mountain temple,'" She replied as she turned off the lights for the two mares, closed the door, and walked out of the room. Much to the pouting nature of Windy, who was not pleased that her body pillow was running away for awhile.

Spooks walked back up to the main deck of the ship and walked back towards the bridge with the odd guard giving her a curious look towards her flank before they shook their heads and continued walking. She clambered back up the metal stairs to the bridge, passing by the Empress and the mare with orange hair.

"Ladies," Spooks said with a nod as she passed the entrance to the bridge and continued up the stairs to the observation deck.

With a heave of the metal blast door, Spooks emerged into the pale moonlight of the evening sky and walked over to the guard rail with a slight shiver from the cold wind. She plopped down on her flank and curled her tail on around her lap. She propped up Cue over the guardrail and looked through the scope. Just as she spotted a flying rat perched on a warehouse a mile away, the sudden lurch from the ship coming to life caused her to miss her target by a mile. With an annoyed hiss, she realigned her reticle over the rats again while the ship began to leave the port and fired.

*Clack!*

"Boom, headshot, Jaja'," Spooks laughed with a slight Russian accent as she watched the flying rat's head exploded into a bloody mess of flesh and bones, just as the ship flew off into the west to, Mount Sif.

---

Winter stood beside Spooks—Who was looking down the sight of her black, Mosin Nagant, Archangel, looking over the mountain side that had a few, strange lights dotting its surface. Winter watched quietly through a pair of binoculars as the ship cruised slowly with an invisibility enchantment hiding the terrifying battleship. "I don't like it," Spooks said, her breath making a cloud of air in the cold, morning wind.

"I agree," Winter replied as she zoomed in on what she thought looked like an old, Greek pillar that had a small set of cobblestone steps beside it. Just under the pillar she could see one of the lights that were clearly visible on the mountainside before it suddenly went out.

Winter frowned for a moment as she tried to figure out why the light went out in the first place before she saw a feminine looking stallion jumped behind a bush. With peaked curiosity, she shoved Spooks's shoulder and pointed in the direction of where the girly-stallion was hiding. Then, just as the ship was about to stop at the rendezvous, Winter saw a different stallion jump into the same bush that the girly-stallion was hiding in, and with another zoom of her binoculars, she saw what the two stallions were up to.

"Man, that girly-stallion can suck like a champ," Winter muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" Spooks said as she cocked Cue and aligned her gun over the taller stallion getting a blowjob.

"Nothing," Winter replied before she teleported her guitar to herself from her room on the ship. "Continue why you don't like this mountain?" Winter said as she strapped her guitar on her back while receiving a few, strange looks from Nova, Spooks, Windy and Night.

"O...K..." Spooks said as she tried to figure out why Winter had a rad looking guitar, but nothing rational came to mind. "With the lack of guards in the area aside from the two getting funky in the bush by the stairs, they must be dug in further into the mountain, which would make my rifle here somewhat useless. Also, there is a crap-ton of mines off of the main path, so a sneak around isn't going to work either. So what you think, Empress?"

Winter let out a sigh, knowing that her plan of going in and out without a sound wasn't going to be viable for the snatch-n-grab operation that they were trying to pull. Her wings twitched as she tried to picture how the mercs' would be set up on the mountain. If they were as good as she thought they were, then rushing up a thousand stairs would be hazardous to their survivability of the mission, but with the mines spread out all over the mountainside. The stairs were the only option.

"I think the stairs are the only option, but I have a deathly allergy to bullets and cake. So we will have to move in the classic, 'Tank and Rifleman,' tactic. I'll act as the vanguard, and you be our sniper. Nova will be our scout/assassin, and Windy, Night? You do what you guys do. Got it?" Winter asked as she flexed her wings out and got ready to jump off of the ship.

"Got it," Everyone said in unison before they all leapt off of The Summer’s Aria and into the forest below.

Winter landed on a small patch of snow, as did Spooks, and company. Winter watched Nova disappear into the snow covered trees, becoming invisible the second she jumped over a bare shrub. Winter looked around and found the trail that should lead to the steps to the temple where Spooks's friends should be hiding. She began walking towards the trail with Spooks and her friends following right behind. Winter turned on her Air Sight to see if anything was hiding in the trees nearby, and only found the proximity mines and the two stallions that have finished their fun.

Spooks shuddered from the cold as she tightened the straps for her saddlebags. She slung Cue over her shoulder and followed behind Winter with the strange guitar towards a trail that must have lead to the stairs to the top of the mountain.

They came up to a trail where Winter lifted her hoof for them to stop. Spooks watched Winter point to the two stallions that were no longer having their fun in the bush and were now back beside the two, Greek pillars in their winter wear and carrying two rifles over their shoulders. All four of them stopped behind a bush, and she found out what the bracelets that Winter was wearing did. Spooks's eyes went wide as the bracelets around Winters forehooves transformed into black, dragon claws before Winter reached into her jacket and pulled out one of her guns with dexterous ease.

She quickly twirled them around before she brought the black muzzle up to her lips, telling them all to be silent before she pointed to Cue then to the two guards. Spooks instantly knew what she was trying to say and went prone in the snow, and poked the barrel of her gun through the bush, just as Winter teleported to the other side of the trail behind a tree while standing on her back legs with both of her magnums in her dragon claws that looked like they were real.

"Alright, let's have one last looksy," Spook muttered as she saw Winter give her the go ahead. Spooks looked through her scope and slowed her breathing to stabilize her shot. She had her recital over the bigger looking stallion and slowly put pressure on the modified trigger.

*Clack!*

“Gotcha, you bugger,” Spooks thought, just as the other stallion turned around to his partner in pure shock. Spooks cycled the bolt and shifted her aim to the other stallion—That was shaking like a leaf as he surveyed the forest with his rifle, shaking in his hooves.

*Clack!*

"And you dead too," Spooks thought as she looked up the mile worth of stairs, waiting for the small army to come marching down towards them, but after a few minutes of waiting, no one came.

"What the fuck?" Spooks muttered as she stood up from her hiding place with her gun trained up the cobblestone stairs. To her left, she saw Winter come out from the tree that she was hiding behind with her guns, and claws put away.

"Fuckers aren't coming," Spooks said to the Empress as she looked up the stairs that lead to A.T. "So what now?" Spooks asked as Windy and Night come out from their hiding place.

"We move up, but keep your eyes open. I'll lead," Winter said before she began walking up the stairs with two, swirling blades of wind, at her side.

Spooks slowly followed Winter up the endless stairs with Cue at the ready. She didn't know when or where the mercs' would come out and fill them with bullets, but that didn't mean she wasn't ready. She kept a trained eye on anything and everything that the mercs' could be hiding behind. Before she knew it, they were at a hole in the wall that looked like something that the Greek Gods themselves would carve out of the mountainside.

Two guards stood tall beside the entrance that leads into the mountain with the same, Henry Boy lever action rifles at their sides. Before anyone could react, Winter launched her two air blades at the guards that just took notice of them, slicing them down in half. Spooks blinked for a second as she watched the two ponies fell apart in their respective halves, and shook her head and tried not to think about how Winter was able to do that, and in silence.

They walked up to the cave entrance, now without its guards that were spilt from the groin up on the floor, and were stopped again from a big, metal door preventing them from entering the mountain.

“Okay, here’s my plan," Spooks said with a demented smile while Nova regrouped and cleared the bodies from the door.

"Alright, what is it?" Winter asked as she pulled out her guns and claws again, and stood up on her back legs like it was completely natural.

"I'm going to put a couple of Frame charges on the door, and when it blows up. I'll throw in a frag grenade, and we rush in, in epic slow motion. Any questions? No? Good," Spooks said with the same maniacal smile as before as she pulled out a big square thing, and placed it on the door before anyone could say anything, and prepped a few frag grenades in her hooves.

“Who gave her bombs?” Winter asked with slight concern, but only the air heard her question. Winter shook her head and got into position next to the door, with Spooks at the other side, smiling like a maniac.

“So, Empress, do you want to find out what’s it like when the Spetznaz knocks?” Spooks asked with a smile before pulling the pins off of the frags.

"Sure," Winter nervously said as Windy grabbed the detonator from Spooks and backed away with Nova and Night at her side and ready for a fight.

"Excellent! Windy, hit the doorbell!" Spooks yelled with glee as she pulled out the Safe twins out from their holsters. Winter did a quick air spell over everyone's ears to protect them from damage as she watched Windy pulled the trigger on the detonator, causing the heavy-looking door to fly off of its hinges with a loud, *Bang!*

Spooks and Winter threw their grenades into the room and counted to five before they rushed in, in slow motion like Spooks said they would.

Winter entered the room with time crawling to a standstill. She watched a few ponies slowly get up from the sudden blast to the door and pointed her two guns, Ash, and Cinder at the two earth ponies standing back up behind their portable miniguns and fired two bullets into their heads.

Spooks watched blood splurge out from two stallions from Winter’s guns and pointed her two guns, Keep Safe, and Stay Safe at the four ponies closest to them, and fired without hesitation.

*Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!* Went the Safe Twins as the flashes from both Winter’s guns and her guns lit up the room, killing the four ponies in front of them. Time sped back up to normal after a few more shots into the room, killing the rest of their hosts into the temple.

Winter cracked a smile as she twirled her guns like a cowboy and holstered them into their resting place. She sheathed her claws and stood back on all fours as she rushed down the hall with a few flood lamps, and boxes in their way. Winter ran over the bloody mess that was created by the grenades and kicked one of the miniguns around the other direction on its tripod and aimed it down the hall while revving its barrel up to speed.

Spooks ran up to her while exchanging the Safe Twins with Cue, and aimed down the sight towards the only hallway away from the Spartan room in anticipation for any and all reinforcements that comes their way, but no one came.

"What the fuck? Is that all?" Spooks asked with irritation that no one else was coming to play while Nova, Windy, and Night walked in with disgust for the mess that she and Winter made.

"No, far from it. I can feel at least a few hundred throughout the temple, as well as your friend in a place that feels like a prison with a few others. We should go there first before we find the key," Winter said as she pulled the minigun off of its tripod with its twin, with her AirKineisis, and had them float at her side without breaking a sweat, while bringing two extra drums from a nearby crate in case she ran out of bullets for her new guns.

“How do you know that?” Spooks asked her, surprised.

“Air Sight,” Winter replied with a smirk.

“Lemme guess. Some special pegasus magic?” Spooks asked again.

"It's not that special. Most of my Pegasi and Thestral guards can do it," Winter replied with a quick rev of her miniguns.

“Aww, I wanna some cool magic of my own now,” Spooks said with a pout and Windy gave her a flat stare.

“Spooks you can go invisible for however long you like, you’re probably the most poisonous being in the world and you still want more?” Windy said in a very flat tone.

“A girl can dream!” Spooks shot back.

“Girls!” Night Heart said angrily giving the both of them a glare that can melt steel, causing them to flinch back.

“Sorry,” They both said in unison.

"I agree, we should really get going now," Winter said, unphased of the older mare. "And dream on Spooks. I can teleport," Winter saluted with a cheeky smirk and blinked in a dim flash of light, causing her to reappear at the entrance to the next hall.

“Oh, come on!” Spooks shouted in exasperation with her ears folded back.”That’s not fair!” Winter playfully stuck the entire length of her tongue out at her with a wink and trotted into the hall with Nova right behind her. Spooks didn’t look phased by the length of Winter's tongue. She was familiar seeing the same size and shape emerge from Windy's mouth during their fun time. Feeling snooty, she stuck out her forked tongue of the same length as Windy's, out at the fleeing Empress.

“You can’t beat me in that category,” She said with a smirk.

"I can still teleport!" Winter replied. "And get your ass over here. I'm not the one saving your threeway ya' know!”

"Arg...I can still go invisible!" Spooks shot back as she, Windy and Night rejoined the Empress in a dimly lit hall that looked like an old mine.

"So can I," Winter chuckled as she went invisible for a moment before reappearing further down the hallway, causing the Night Stalker to have a mad eye twitch. Spooks followed behind Winter feeling like she got the shit end of the crap stick for losing the grand, 'dick waving contest of magical epicness,' but she didn't show it. She was more concerned about the lack of guards in the decrepit hallways that reminded her of Medieval versions of the Vault-Tec vaults she used to scavenge in.

They all walked down the creepy, dark, and quiet halls. All of their eyes darting from shadow to shadow in anticipation for an ambush. The dim, old lanterns, created an eerie glow against the carved stone walls, making their trip feel like a ghastly tour of an abandoned mine from the Stone Age. Their nervousness wasn't helped from the almost constant rattling coming from Spooks's tail.

“It’s too quiet here,” Spooks muttered, looking over a pair of rats chewing on an old bone from a pony that must have died a few centuries ago.

"Yeah," Winter said. "Almost—" Her sentence was suddenly interrupted by Spooks stopping her by sticking a hoof right in front of her.

"Tripwire," Spooks said sternly before she walked over the left-side of the hall, and began disarming the trap. Winter rolled her eyes, already know that the trap was there from her Air Sight that was active. When Spooks walked back to the group with a grenade held in her hoof. When she walked back, Winter saw that the Night Stalker was a little confused that the trap was already disarmed when she found it, but she didn't tell her about it.

"A white phosphorous nade. Where did they get their hands on something like this?" Spooks asked, but Winter shrugged and kept on walking.

Following the tripwire trap, they continued walking down the hall in silence, wary for any more traps along the way. After walking for a half an hour, they reached a fork in the road: The one on the right lead down a flight of stone stairs that looked like they were ready to collapse in on themselves. The one on the left lead up a flight of stairs that were better maintained.

“So, which way now, Empress?” Spooks asked as she looked up the stairs to the right of the fork for any pony that would want to fill them up with bullet holes.

Winter quickly researched the entire complex again with her Air Sight and pointed to the stairs on the left. "Down there, first hall on the right. That's where we will find our friends, as well as a tiger, a cheetah, a lynx, a panther, and a house cat at the bottom. So, wanna throw a grenade down there to clear a path?" Winter asked Spooks—Who instantly pulled out a few incendiary grenades, with her demented smile, back on her face.

"Bottom of the stairs, they are coming up, and they know that we are here," Winter smiled to Spooks. She replied with a happy nod and pulled the pin of the incendiary grenades, and tossed them down the stairs.

Within seconds after Spooks threw her grenades down the stairs was horrifying. Howls of dying cats echoed throughout the hall. Windy, Nova, and Night had to close their ears with their hooves from the sound of what could only be the howls of hell. Winter and Spooks, however, weren't phased by the screeching as they were more focused on the other staircase for any and all mercenaries that would come and check out what was going on with their cats. Once the screeching stopped, they ran down the stairs where Apple Twilight, and the others that Winter said that were with her.

Spooks was the first pony of the group to reach the bottom to see the carnage that she has wrought. On the floor near the base of the old, stone steps, were five piles of flaming ash that smelt like cooked beef grilled over a gas fire. She scrunched up her nose from the strange smell and trotted past the bodies, down the first hall on the right and shot the pony that was shaking behind a crate with his rifle, with the Safe Twins.

Spooks ran past the stallion with her friends running up to her and bolted through a small entryway that opened up to a circular room with six cages embedded in the walls. She looked around the dimly lit room that only had one lamp on the ceiling at the center of the room, in search for A.T.

In the cage on the right had a dark orange stallion with a scruffy, brown mane. He had a white patch on his muzzle, on the tips of his ears, on his back and flanks. He had light green eyes that held many years of seeing things that most shouldn't see. He had sideburns that lead into a scruffy goatee. He looked like he was wearing a filthy, white dress shirt with an equally dirty black tie that had a silver flask in his breast pocket.

Beside him in the other cage was a tall, light gray wolf with a pitch black chest and abdomen. His auburn-colored eyes held an endless fire that only seeks to destroy, but also had a very loving side held within. He had a one-inch scar on his left cheek. He had an athletic body that was slightly intimidating. He wore a dirty white dress shirt with a black tie and black jeans. His rear pasterns had a protective, black leather covering them like armor and he wore a collar that had a tag in the shape of a fairy with a tail and looked like something that a guild would wear.

“But where is A.T?” Spooks thought as he looked at the other two cages that had ponies in them.

The cage closest to her on the left had a Pegasus mare with a dirty yellow coat, a three-toned gray mane, and she had warm magenta eyes. She wore a pith helmet with green trimming against the base. She wore a green, forest range shirt with a strap were a whip would be holstered, and she wasn't happy with the glare she was giving Spooks. Spooks shot her a dirty look back and found her friend in the cage next to the mare that was giving her the stink eye.

The candy-red earth pony with a candy-green mane and tail looked at Spooks with tear-filled, mustang-yellow eyes, in pure joy that she was there to rescue her from her kidnappers.Just as Spooks ran up to the cage that held her friend, Winter and the others walked into the room, breathing heavily from having to run down a million stairs to catch up to the Night Stalker.

“Hey, did you miss me?” Spooks asked A.T with a smirk, but A.T didn’t reply, she just continued looking at Spooks with more tears appearing in her eyes, “Hey, don’t cry,” Spooks said in an attempt to calm down the crying mare.

“I’m sorry,” A.T said in resignation.

“There’s no need for you to be sorry,” Spooks said giving her a warm smile, “It wasn’t your fault you were kidnapped.”

“But it was! If I had been stronger or a better fighter none of this would have would have happened!” Her words caused Spooks to have a flashback to when she first met her surrogate younger sister, back when she was still a Spetsnaz, and her name was—

“—Jennifer Booker,” Spooks said quietly in disbelief.

“How..?” A.T asked with the same level of disbelief.

“Jen, it’s me, Dima,” Spooks said with a few tears of her own escaping from her eyes.

“Dima?” A.T asked herself quietly, her face adopting a thoughtful expression for a while before lighting up in recognition and a fresh stream of tears started rolling down her cheeks.

“Mоя маленькая сестра,” Spooks said in her native tongue, causing A.T to chuckle a little.

“You know I can’t speak Russian,” A.T said with a small smile as she wiped away her tears.

"Sorry, let's get you out of the cage," Spooks said before pulling out a small, plastic tube of semtex, and stuffed it into the lock of the cage, this time, without her usual demented smile on her face. "You also may want to step back a bit," she warned.

Following Spooks's advice, A.T stepped back to the far end of the cage and closed her ears as Spooks detonated the small charge, causing the door to swing on its hinges in a violent jolt from the small explosive. The barred door banged against the wall of the cage and fell to the ground with a hard, *Clank!* On the cold, stone floor. The second the smoke cleared from the initial blast, A.T jumped out of her prison and tackled Spooks to the ground, giving her the most affectionate embrace that either of them has ever felt.

"Hey, girls?" the dirty yellow mare asked, drawing in both of their attentions. "This is all cute and sappy, but can you break us out of here!?"

"Geez, don't get your panties in a twist," Spooks said with a roll of her eyes as she broke free from A.T's death grip, and walked over to the cage containing the dark orange stallion, and blew out the lock of his cage. Then she moved to the cage containing the wolf and freed him as well. The dirty yellow mare was last, much to her dismay, but didn't complain when her cage was blasted open like the rest.

Stepping out of their respective cages, the bipedal wolf, the stallion, and the mare looked over the group of misfits. Their eyes lingering on Spooks and Winter for longer than on anyone else, and Spooks saw the mare's eyes darken when they looked at Winter.

“What are you doing here, Black Queen?” The mare asked with hostility in her tone and seeing the hurt look on Winter's face, Spooks's tail gave her a warning rattle.

"I'm here helping a friend, protecting a country, and saving a family. That's why I am here," Winter said, hiding her hurt from the one and only, Daring Do.

Spooks's chest welled up in pride a little when she heard Winter call her a 'Friend,' but she didn't show it. Instead, she glared at the mare, the muscles in her poisonous fangs twitching in anticipation for an attack.

"Yeah, right. Do you think that I'll believe any of the lies that you are trying to feed me? Hell, I bet you are working with Ahuitzotl, himself," the mare snorted in response.

Winter's ears flatten against her head, saddened that Celestia has engrained her mantra in her grandmother's brain, but she didn't let it phase her. There are very few things that can make Spooks angry. One of them is pears, and the other one is people hurting children, both physically and verbally. Spooks walked in between them and poked the dirty yellow mare in the chest, and gave her a death glare that would make Satan run for the hills.

"Now listen here, somewhat young lady. This here filly is one of the kindest, friendliest, honorable and most admirable people that I have ever met," Spooks said. Seeing the mare in front of her open her mouth in preparation for a retort, Spooks snapped at her. "I am not done talking! Now you will apologize to your granddaughter, or I will bite you!"

Daring Do's eyes went wide, as did the rest of the group when they were all told that Winter was her granddaughter. Daring's ears flattened and backed away, staring in pure shock to the equally shocked filly that was staring right back. Daring looked back to the Night Stalker like this was one giant joke, like she was just playing, 'Punked: Temple of the 12 storms of Alta addition,' but the look that Spooks was giving her. Reminded her of an old mare giving her the, 'I'm waiting,' look of extreme anger.

Daring looked away, a little angry herself for being treated like a child, and very confused that her daughter, Spitfire, adopted someone so dark. 'But was she really?' Daring thought in shame for not knowing what her daughter was doing with her life. She has only been in Arcadia for a few hours, and only in the countryside. She has never seen the main city in fear of being corrupted by the dark influences that have claimed the Elements of Harmony, themselves, but was that true?

She can't feel the Dark Mana that should be drowning them all from the Empress. In fact, from what Redbeard and Stephen had told her about the Empress, she was purer than the Princess of the Sun, but was that true?

If it was true, than was her friend right all along? Was the young and boisterous mare, Lightning Dust, right when she shared a drink with her in a small bar in Appleloosa right? Daring couldn't know until she uncovers the truth about the young Empress, and why she is, supposedly, her granddaughter.

"S-Sorry," Daring reluctantly said, which brought some life back into the filly’s mismatched colored eyes, with her ears flattened but her head kept high.

Before Spooks could force her to give Winter a more genuine apology, the sound of thunderous hoof steps from down the hallway and a few shouts in an unidentifiable language.

"Okay, feeling sorry later, fighting starts now!" Spooks shouted before turning her attention to the almost forgotten dark orange stallion and bipedal wolf. "You two? Can you fight?" The stallion nodded with a neutral expression before he pulled out his flask and took a quick swig, and grumbled about something relating to his age.

"Bout time I get to burn those freaks," the wolf said excitedly, causing a small jet of flame to escape his smiling lips.

Just as the wolf finished his sentence, a nearly endless stream of mercenaries flowed into the room, armed with lever action rifles that quickly surrounded them from all sides. One of the mercs that looked like he was in charge from the cigar that he was smoking, spoke up and ordered them to, 'lay down their arms and surrender!' In a rough, Italian accent.

“Empress, are you familiar with effects of white phosphorous?” Spooks asked, already preparing the grenade behind her back.

"Nothing above fire and screaming, why?" Winter replied, preparing to teleport if they needed to.

"It is also used to create a smokescreen, but right now, we need fire and screams," Spooks said before pulling the pin out of the grenade and threw it in between the ranks of the mercs' closest to the door out of the room, but nothing happened. The mercs' just laughed, causing Spooks to curse under her breath at the dud of a grenade.

"Umm... Plan B?" Spooks sheepishly as she pulled out the Safe Twins.

"Plan B," Winter said with a nod and pulled out her two, Children of Cinder, causing the mercs to cock their guns as a warning.

Winter and Spooks unloaded an entire clip into the heads of the mercenaries within a few seconds, causing all hell to break loose. The sounds of bullets, fireballs could be heard as mercenaries dropped left and right. Some of them gained a bullet hole from the Safe Twins, some of the heads were missing from Winter’s .50-AE she called her Children of Cinder. Some of them burned to death while others had their necks snapped.

Redbeard grabbed a SPAS-12 shotgun from one of the dead mercs and helped push them back out of the room. Windy, Night, and Daring Do grabbed one of the hundreds of lever action guns and kept suppressing fire as the mercs regrouped down the hall near the stairs.

Spooks hissed in annoyance when the Safe Twins clicked empty, causing her to holster them and go invisible. She dodged the endless stream of bullets to where the mercs were taking cover, and one by one, they all dropped dead with two puncture holes in their necks.

Winter's miniguns ran dry after a few minutes, forcing her to drop them in the hall as they rush towards the stairs, however. Her magnums never seemed to run out of bullets nor did she ever had to reload them. It was like she had an infinite bullet enchantment on her guns, but that was a question best saved for later.

"We need to get back to the ship!" Spooks's disembodied voice shouted from somewhere near the stairs, but the boss of the mercs had a better idea.

“Block the stairs! Don’t—” But he didn’t have the chance to complete his order.

Spooks reappeared with her jaws firmly clamped around his neck, her fangs pumping him full of poison causing him to gasp, gurgle and finally die and slip from Spooks’s maw.

Spooks just stood there, staring at the dead body of the mercenary boss, her fangs dripping blood and poison, with a haunted look in her eyes before she shook her head and went back to fighting but there was no one left to fight.

Spooks and the other regrouped at the bottom of the stairs, the mercs all laid dead or dying around them, causing her to let out a sigh of relief.

“Let’s get back to the ship,” Spooks said and started walking up the stairs with the others walking right behind her.

---

They all walked back to The Summer’s Aria with their weapons ready for another firefight. Fortunately, they weren't stopped by any trap, wild animal or ambush as they backtracked through the hallowed halls of the mountain.

Spooks covered their tracks with the dynamite that she grabbed from one of the opened crates by the prison, and blocked the fork in the hall, preventing anyone and anything from chasing them back to the back exit to the mountain temple.

They all made it to the ship late in the afternoon. Redbeard, Steph, and Nova were happy to get out of the caves while Spooks, A.T, Windy, and Night learned the story of what happened to A.T when she was kidnapped. Daring, however, was chained to the ground, preventing her from running away to Luna knows where, with Winter getting ready to fly the ship back to the castle, but before she could return home, she saw three ships explode from the peak of the mountain, and began firing upon them.

"God damn it! Empress, they're still on to us!" Spooks shouted over the sounds of the ships, awakening engines.

“I know!” Winter shouted back sounding both annoyed and angry at the same time.

Spooks bolted for the nearest AA-gun and started firing at the ships that were closing in while everyone else ran below deck and took cover from the returning fire. Winter growled in irritation and turned the ship towards where the Endless Storm is, hoping to lose their wooden ships in the destructive force of the storm. She hit the accelerator as Spooks fired the cannons with the Black Knights at the ships, and bolted west.

As The Summers Aria gained speed, Winter saw that the three ships that were closing in weren't taking any damage. She could see through the many spyglasses that there was a thin, blue layer over the hulls of the ship, which told her that they had some sort of shield that was protecting the ships. With an annoyed grunt as she saw the western ocean come into view, she reached over to the intercom and spoke to everyone on the ship.

"Alright, we are going to enter The Endless Storm to lose the bastards that are following us. So buckle up this is going to be a bumpy ride!" Winter shouted before she was knocked over from an impact that felt like it came from the port side of the ship.

"Fuck," she spat as she stood back up. She looked over her shoulder to see that their followers were still hot on their trail, but they were slowly being left behind from the superior engines of her ship.

"Hey, Winter! We are missing two engines and I don't like the look of that storm!" Spooks shouted through the intercom. Winter hissed in anger that her ship lost half of its power, but frowned when she didn't see the storm anywhere in sight.

"What do you mean?" I don't see shit," Winter said in irritation over the intercom as she felt another impact hit the stern of the ship.

"You can't see that we are being pulled into the hurricane! How can you not see the black clouds that are sucking us in?!" Spooks shouted back, but before Winter could reply, the entire ship violently turned on a dim, causing her to fly headfirst into the wall, knocking her out cold.

When Spooks heard the sound of a large lump colliding against the wall of the bridge after the ship suddenly jerked. She knew that no one was flying the ship and that the Empress was knocked out. She gulped as she looked through the scope of the AA-gun as hundreds of waterspouts, lightning flashes, and debris hitting the ship.

Spooks ran out of the cockpit of the AA-gun and bolted for the bridge, along with Nova, an escaped Daring Do, Redbeard, and Stephen. They all bolted through the munitions deck, not saying a word as Spooks fell behind the faster quartet that made it to the stairs before she did.

Spooks ran down the hall, as she watched the four ran up the metal stairs. She jumped over a fallen Stallion, but before she could touch the ground again, the ship jolted violently again, sending her sprawling down a different hall, towards the crew deck.

She blinked as she felt blood trickle down her brow from a cut to the head from slamming against the wall. She shook her head and cleaned the blood out of her eyes, just in time to watch in horror as a giant crack appeared down the center of the hall she was thrown down.

Spooks tried to get back up to try and save the situation, but it was fruitless. The ship jolted again, causing the crew deck and the rest of the ship to split from each other. The sound of tearing metal, thunder and the feeling of rain was the only thing that she understood as she watched half of the ship disappear into the pitch black clouds.

She looked down the hall and saw Windy calling to her, but she couldn't hear anything other than a constant ringing in her ears. She saw Night and A.T crawl up to her as the were tossed and slammed against the floors and walls as the ship was flung like a toy in the hands of a toddler. She blinked again as the lights of the ship turned off, and the light from the flashes of lightning was the only thing to give her light.

Just as Night, Windy, and A.T grabbed her and pulled her into the rest of the ship, she saw something big that they were flying towards in a flash of light. She blinked again, thinking that it was just a mirage, but after another flash of lightning and bomb of thunder. She realized that it wasn't.

Instinctively, she pushed everyone into a room that looked like a bunk room with the mattresses fallen off of the beds and buried them all in a protective box of softness and springs, hoping that they won't die from the impact of the object that they were flying towards. Then, before anyone could react, in one final flash of light, they were met with instant darkness.

Comments

[Ardent Dusk]

Somehow these night stalkers always seemed to kill my hardcore playthroughs. I've had about 20 and 7 of them ended because of Night stalkers.

[Winter Rosario]

Hey! You are in the triple positive ratio! Good job.