The Dusk Guard Saga: Hunter/Hunted

by Viking ZX

Chapter 29

The distant boom echoed across the mountains, a rolling cascade that bounced back and forth like a slowly dying stampede. Hunter slowed, looking behind them and out over the side of the mountain. Off in the distance, a good few miles back, a plume of snow had risen into the air. As he watched, he could see it being shaped by the wind.

He waited, counting. One … two ...

A distant shriek of pain and rage echoed behind the blast. “Well,” he said, turning to look at Nova. “It worked. Nice spell.”

“Sounds like it just made him madder, though.”

Hunter shrugged. “Whatever keeps him following us.”

That had been their goal since they’d escaped the glacier. Keep moving, keep running. Keep Sombra focused on them, rather than on returning to the city. Especially since he’d “powered up” and gone from running away to chasing hard.

Still, as long as he keeps chasing us, Hunter thought, turning and resuming their upward slog through the snowpack. Until the Element Bearers arrive.

It wasn’t easy, however. Twice already they’d been forced to duck back and recover his attention, poking at his sides with flares or attacks until he rounded on them once more.

Keep him aggro. Keep him focused. A prospect that was becoming harder by the minute, thanks to the worsening weather. The sky around them was becoming more and more crook as the day marched on, residue from the storm around the empire leaking out over them once more.

Even worse, Sombra didn’t seem to care, while the weather mattered to him and Nova quite a bit.

Still, no sense dwelling on it. He turned back, down the steepening side of the mountain to look at Nova, who was following his path upward. “So was that it? Just that one boom?”

“Hey,” Nova replied. “It was a good boom.”

“Yeah, but I thought you said there was something special to it? A blast is great, but they’re tiring you out! We can’t just rely on a bang!” Especially not when we’re going to need a couple of them soon enough!

“It’s not just one!” Nova called back. The open area of the mountain they’d been waiting on, partially so that Sombra wouldn’t find it hard to locate them, was completely bare to the howling wind. And colder than a high-flier’s primaries. “There’s the first trap, but I attached it to a secondary spell so that it looked like I was close by, powering it. When he follows that, though …” He stopped speaking, as if waiting for something.

He wasn’t waiting long. Another, second boom echoed across the mountainside, this one followed much more quickly by a wordless shriek that set Hunter’s teeth on edge.

“That’ll happen,” Nova said, a tone of grim satisfaction in his voice.

“You set two charges?” Hunter asked. “Don’t those tire you out a lot?”

“Yeah, they do, but I made them smaller than normal.”

“But you set two. Nova, I really don’t want to try and carry your butt out of here.”

“I can handle it,” Nova said, an edge coming into his voice. “Trust me.”

“Good.” Hunter turned back to moving up the side of the mountain. “Because I’m going to need a couple of them next.”

“All at once?”

“Yup.”

“We bringing a mountain down on him or something?”

“Close, actually.” He nodded toward the peak they were climbing toward. “Hopefully, anyway, but see that snowpack?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s steep enough that if a little bit of it starts sliding, the whole thing might just come down. One big, dangerous mess.”

“Like an avalanche?”

“Yeah. Exactly.”

“And we’re below it.”

“Yeah. Climbing right up it. That’s why I want Sombra behind us and, thereby, below us.”

“Don’t loud noises like explosions set off avalanches sometimes?”

“Yup. In the Rangers, we’d use thunderclaps, magic blasts, or even earth pony magic to do it sometimes, to make an area safer.”

“So we’re marching up toward an avalanche—”

“Possible avalanche.”

“Possible avalanche, under a growing storm, and with explosive traps behind us.”

“Yup.” Hunter flapped his wings slightly as the deep snows threatened to swallow him.

“And if it turns into one before we get there?”

“Well, I can fly,” Hunter said, glancing back at Nova. “But that’s kind of one reason why I only expected the one blast. But … that’s a blue on my part. I could have told you why. You could have told me about what you’d actually set up, though.”

“Hey, you wanted him to follow us, and he’s following us,” Nova snapped, shooting a glare at him. “I don’t see you …” He paused, eyes shifting beneath his visor, and Hunter shook his head as the sudden surge of anger and annoyance faded.

“Okay, that is really getting annoying,” Nova said, turning to glare back at the distant plume of the second explosion.

“Agreed,” Hunter said, shaking his head. “Sorry. I should have told you what we were looking for.” He spared a glance of his own at the distant plume of snow, mostly faded dust carried by the wind now. More attention-grabbing was the dark cloud sliding over the landscape beneath it. “How does he do that at this distance?”

“Probably a broad area effect sent in our direction,” Nova answered. “It’d take a lot of power, but since he absorbed that body of his—”

“Ate it, more like.”

“—he seems to have plenty to spare. And maybe it’s just me, but that smoke cloud looks bigger all the time.”

“I don’t think it’s just looks,” Hunter said. “He’s getting stronger. Fast, too. Which means we’d better hurry.” And hope that Bolt gets back with the rest of the team soon. “Come on, let’s climb.”

They resumed their upward trek, clawing at the snow as they climbed higher and higher. Beneath their hooves, the mountainside grew steeper, the snow thick and crunchy on the surface, but wet and cloying once their hooves broke through.

Perfect conditions for an avalanche, Hunter thought as they hurried up the mountain, breathing hard through their helmets and slowing periodically to knock ice from their muzzles. We had who knows what sort of conditions before we arrived, but then had all that snow dumped during the storm. Then it cleared. Now it’s getting cold and hard on top of that again. Lots of different layers. Dangerous under most conditions.

And if they were lucky, they’d be able to make use of those same conditions. He glanced back down the mountain.

The black smoke was getting closer.

We dropped a glacier on you, he thought, starting back up the mountain once more. And it stopped you for a little while. Let’s see how you handle a mountainside!

Of course, they had to get to a safe spot first. So they wouldn’t get sucked into it themselves. Normally I’d just ride things out on a cloud but … He glanced back at Nova. Nova can’t cloudwalk, so that’s out. One more spell they hadn’t thought about using until it was needed. Nothing like a good shakedown.

On the other hoof, he could teleport now, provided he wasn’t so stuffed he couldn’t muster it. And with what I’m hoping to do, he might be pretty drained.

Still, things could be worse. While the weather was picking up, there was still plenty of light, so he had a good view of the steepening mountainside ahead, in all its snow-covered, craggy glory. If we weren’t being chased by some sort of crazy, magic, crystal-obsessed shade, it’d almost be relaxing.

The snow crust gave way beneath his hooves once more, plunging part of his body into cold, damp snow until he pulled it out. Perfect conditions for an avalanche. And with how steep we’re getting … Just a little longer.

Hopefully not too much longer. He could feel his limbs lagging, muscles crying for a break. He wasn’t sure how far they’d come since the glacier, but it wasn’t hard to guess that they’d taken maybe a third the normal time. Ahead, he spotted a small, level outcropping, and he pointed with one wing.

“There!” he said. “We’ll take a quick break while I get a look at things.” Nova nodded, relief evident in his eyes. Both of them were breathing hard, air whistling past the frozen grates in their helmets. They climbed up the last few dozen feet to the outcropping, and there he let himself sag, smacking the side of his helmet once more to kick the ice build-up free.

Okay, we’re at a good point, he thought, peering around at their surroundings. Mountain here is good and steep, with plenty of snow. Angled well too. If we set up one of Nova’s magic “bombs” there, and maybe there … and there … It should be enough to shake things up and get this mountainside moving. The black cloud pursuing them was getting closer, now. We’d have to trigger them when it’s too late for him to get out of the way. Plus, we need someplace safe we can ride it out … A tall, jagged outcropping of rock caught his eye, high above them. That should work.

“Alright Nova,” he said, turning. “I need three of those explosions of yours, all rigged to go at the same …” His voice trailed off, his ears twitching as something began to ease over the edge of the storm. “You hear that?”

“What?”

“It’s faint. Really faint. Like a whine?”

For a moment Nova was quiet, then he nodded. “Yeah, I do. It’s getting closer.”

A faint icy current of fear wrapped around Hunter’s gut. “It’s not undulating is it? Getting louder and then quieter?” It was hard to pick the sound out over the howl of the wind, but Nova was right. It was definitely getting louder.

More familiar, too.

“Oh feathers.” The curse was torn away by the wind, not that it mattered. The whine was rising in pitch, getting louder and louder, while below them, coming up the side of the mountain well ahead of the black cloud, he could see the snow churning.

He spun, rounding on Nova. “Can you cast while we run? We need a spell there, there, and there.” He pointed quickly, hoping that Nova could pick out the areas of interest he’d identified. “Make for that rock outcropping up there,” he finished, pointing. “Now run, I’ll try to keep them off of you! Go!”

To his credit, Nova didn’t ask or question. He simply darted ahead, running through the snow as fast as he could, horn glowing. Hunter watched him go, then turned and looked down the mountain.

There was no mistaking the sound now, a faint hissing shriek that was all to familiar. Mixed with churning snow as their pursuers rushed through it toward the small ledge of snow.

Iceworms, he thought as the swarm drew closer. A dozen of them, maybe more. With a thought, he activated his mod, a golden glow diffusing across the landscape.

And a harsh, purple glow emanating from more than a dozen snakelike figures cutting through the snowpack toward his position, moving with great speed.

Purple? His eyes narrowed. Sombra. Faint tendrils of shadowy haze trailed in the iceworms’ wake, driving them forward. Some had thick clumps of it around their heads, like choking masks. Guess he got tired of chasing us alone. Still, is it actual control, or is he driving them through fear?

The iceworms were only a few dozen feet away now. If they were behaving as normal, then they’d start to split, working to surround him before striking. But if Sombra’s magic had made them some sort of mindless, ravening horde …

The worms continued rushing straight for him, the hissing sizzle of their magic now rivaling the wind. There was no deviation, no split in the pack. In fact, a few on the edges began to angle straight toward his position, rather than away.

A quick glance up the side of the mountain showed that Nova wasn’t even a quarter of the way there yet. His horn was practically a sun through the effect of the mod, bright yellow magic swirling around him as he ran. But he’d not even cast the first spell yet. He’d need time.

All right then. He turned back to the swarm of iceworms almost on top of him. Then let’s rumble. He extended his wings, putting his body into a low crouch, and waited. One … two … Now!

He jumped, snapping his wings down as hard as he could just as the first of the iceworms went into a sharp rise under the snow. It broke through the thick, hard crust a moment later, its hardened head cutting through the ice like an arrowhead, opening in the air to expose a maw of sharp, razor-like teeth.

The teeth weren’t what captivated Hunter’s attention, however, even as the iceworm flew through the air just beneath him, barely missing the tips of his hooves. What did was the array of black crystals growing along the back of the thing’s head, an array of jagged crystal spines that seethed with dark magic.

Then, before the first iceworm had even begun its downward descent, he saw the nearest iceworms dive even deeper into the snowpack, driving themselves down into the snow in preparation for a meteoric rise.

Okay, so it’s control, Hunter thought, beating his wings frantically and throwing himself to the side as two more iceworms rushed up out of the snow, twisting in the air and trying to catch his wings and flanks with their cavernous jaws. Let’s hope he can’t pull that trick on ponies!

Two more iceworms leapt out of the snow at him, their long bodies arcing through the air, and he beat his wings hard, vying for more altitude even as the wind tried its best to shove him off course. Another iceworm came close enough that he delivered a kick at its side, only for a fourth to slam into his hindquarters, teeth screeching across his armor and then catching at the edges of the plate. It lost its grip in mere moments, but even those few moments drug him down through the air, allowing another iceworm to slam into his chest and throw him back. The impact hurt, but didn’t crack the armor.

I’m too heavy! No maneuverability! His hooves scrabbled at the straps holding his backpack and equipment in place. An iceworm slammed into him from the side, sending him spinning through the air—the sudden motion the only thing that kept two more iceworms from wrapping their jaws around his head.

Come on! Come on! His hooves slipped off the icy catches as another iceworm narrowly flew past his flanks, catching a few stray hairs of his tail. One catch gave, but the second was packed with snow. Come on you bodgy, skonky—

An iceworm slammed into his pack, yanking the clasp from his hooves and throwing him off-balance. The long body whipped past as he struggled to regain control, only coming to a halt with a jerk as the iceworm’s teeth, dug into the body of the pack, called it to a halt, further yanking him to one side.

He was losing altitude now, and control, the snow-covered mountainside coming up at him. And even as the mod faded, taking away his ability to peer through the snow at the dangerous predators beneath it, he could still hear dozens of them cutting through the snow at him, their bodies twisting in sharp turns and picking up speed as they rushed back toward him.

A rear hoof touched snow, the iceworm on his pack thrashing now, trying to wrap its long body around anything it could find and squeeze, forcing him to pull his wing in close or risk having it caught by the worm’s muscular body. He had to get off the ground, or they’d drag him down, suck him under the snow, and hold him there until he was either torn apart or died from lack of oxygen.

Or Sombra got him, whichever came first.

Another iceworm leapt out of the snow, and he turned, barely ducking its charge. He was out of time. And this stupid catch won’t give! The brittle plastic held up even as he slammed his hoof into his chest. Any second now the snow around him would be alive with iceworms wrapping around his legs, sucking him under, and he’d be forced to lay into them with—

Axes! His hoof snapped back, grabbing one of his ice axes and thankfully unclipping it without any problems. If you won’t work, he thought, pulling the axe back and looking down at his chest. Then you’ll break!

He swung the axe down at his chest … and the pick bit easily into the thick, brittle plastic, shattering the clasp.

“Yes!” He snapped his wings back, shucking the heavy pack free and darting across the snow, angry iceworms bursting forth in his passing. He twisted back, gaining altitude and spinning around. His pack was already being sucked under the snow by several worms, now fully wrapping their bodies around it. But more had turned those strange, bony heads toward him, made all the more alarming by the spines of crystal along the top side, reacting to his body heat and their strange magic senses. Several let out shrill cries as they surged toward him, but he wasn’t the same slow target he was before. The bulky drag of his pack was gone, half-buried in the snow, and he had an ice axe in each forehoof. He’d opted against putting on his snowshoes after the glacier, and while the choice had tired his wings, at the moment he was glad he hadn’t had to dump them as well.

The first iceworm launched out of the snow like a dolphin from a wave. But with far more teeth, and no dolphin he’d ever seen could make such a strange, hissing shriek. He snapped himself to one side, bringing both his axes down in overhead swipes. One slammed into the creature’s bony skull, sticking in the bone, while the other bit into the muscled flesh behind it, biting deep with a small spray of blood. The sudden weight threw him to the side, but he was ready for it, spinning in place and then yanking both axes free as soon as he’d turned. The iceworm, now flying back almost the way it had come, slammed into another iceworm in midair. Both coiled around one another, shrieking as they hit the snow.

One wounded, about a dozen or so more to go! Hunter thought as he dropped down and then darted left, dodging another flying iceworm and then dragging one axe down the side of another, the pick not biting but skipping off of the beast’s thick skin.

The pack was all but abandoned now, only one worm still dragging it beneath the surface of the snow. The other two had broken free and were coming to join the rest. He beat his wings, sailing over one and then darting past another, each time scoring light hits with his axes. A third took both picks to the skull, shrieking and writhing as he spun around and flung it away. It hit the snow, convulsing.

One down. But there were plenty left, and he kept moving as quickly as he could, switching angles and movements as fast as his tired wings would allow.

Nova was halfway to the outcropping, his horn glowing brightly.

He brought his axes down again. One bit into flesh, carving a long trench in a worm’s side, blood and ichor leaking out. The other bounced off of the crystal spines that crowned its skull, not even chipping the black material.

Still, an injury was an injury, and the iceworm spasmed as it hit the snow once more. It would recover in time, unless …

Yup, he thought as he yanked a hoof back, narrowly avoiding getting it trapped in a maw of teeth. It’s coming back around. Sombra, through fear or direct control, was forcing his acquired minions to act outside of the norm.

Fine. I’ll just do this the hard way. He’d put down iceworm packs before. Just not alone, and with different gear.

But I wasn’t a Dusk Guard then either, he thought as he did a forward flip through the air, bringing his axes down into the skull of an iceworm that had leapt for him, jaws agape. Both sank home with an almost sickening squish, the worm snapping its jaw shut and almost pulling one of the axes out of his hoof. He twisted in the air, letting the worm’s momentum guide his own until he was behind it, and then yanking on the axes to tug the worm to one side. He pulled the axes free just before it hit the snow, arcing up into the air as behind him, the worm slammed headlong into another.

Come on Nova, he thought as another iceworm leapt out of the snow, rising toward him with open jaws. He darted to one side, folding his wings in and using both axes to leave bloody tracks down its sides. Another worm he kicked, the crampons on his rear hooves punching into its flesh and leaving painful but light cuts across its thick skin. Move it! Nova was still only three-quarters of the way to the rocky crag, and clearly lagging after running almost a mile up the mountainside while casting.

Nova wasn’t the only one. His own muscles were burning now that the sudden rush of combat was over, the adrenaline sliding into a steady rhythm. His wings were tired from hours of half-flight with a heavy load, and the sudden, high-impact demands he was making of them were definitely going to hurt later.

Still, four of the iceworms were now down, writhing on the ground as they died or too wounded to be a threat. That left ten still racing around, but as Hunter brought his axes down again, this time at the climax of a dive, both picks biting deep into the side of an iceworm’s head, the number sank to nine. He jerked himself to the side as another dove for his back, then looped back and caught both sides of the creature’s jaw with his axes, yanking the thing’s maw wide open. Just in time for another iceworm, aiming for Hunter’s wings, to dive headfirst down the other’s gullet. He pulled his axes free, kicking off the first’s back, and rose into the air as both worms began to thrash, coiling and pulling against one another.

Seven to go. He could handle that many. Or even half of them, then start winging toward Nova. He dodged another iceworm easily, scoring its side with his rear hooves. Then Nova would detonate his magic, the avalanche would start, and—

A jagged crystal growth burst out of the snow a dozen feet before him, and he barely had time to slow before a wave of panic crashed down on him. Images flickered through his mind as his body locked up—his own flesh, torn and eaten, his corpse freezing in the snow, Swift lying dead on the mountainside with her frozen eyes staring up at him, Thistle lying in the streets of Canterlot with blood running out of the side of—

He slammed into the pillar, pain and a deep chill radiating along his side as he spun off course, slamming into the snow. He couldn’t breathe, ragged gasps echoing out of his throat as image after image rolled across his mind. Somehow his eyes slid to the jagged bit of crystal, and deep inside it, seeping out of the inky depths, were two green eyes that he couldn’t look away from no matter how much he wanted to, no matter how much he tried to force his head to turn.

“That’s right little pony …” The voice seemed to come from everywhere, all at once as image after image flashed through his mind. Steel being tortured. Crystal growths ripping Dawn apart. Sabra screaming as spells lashed at him. The team dying and losing over and over again.

“Scream …”

And then he was, though it didn’t even sound like his voice at first, but an unearthly howl ripping out of his throat as Swift, Derpy and Dinky, the team, and everyone else he’d ever known or loved died again and again before his eyes.

No … All of them were dying. Would die. There was nothing he could—

A golden shield slammed down in front of him, and he jerked, scream dying off as images vanished. The world came back in a sudden rush, instinct and training taking over as he threw himself into the air, barely avoiding an iceworm in his mad flight skyward. His limbs felt like jelly and his heart ached. He could feel wetness on his cheeks. Tears.

“Hunter! Go!” It was Nova. He’d turned around, come partway back down the mountain, horn glowing bright as he tried to hold control over both the shield he’d dropped over Sombra’s crystal and whatever explosive spells he’d managed to erect.

It wasn’t enough. Cracks were already appearing in Nova’s shield, jagged black marks that pulsed against it from the inside, swallowing the golden light and morphing it into something grey and brittle. The shield shattered a moment later, more black crystals springing out of the earth as up the mountainside, Nova let out a cry and stumbled as the backlash slammed into him, the glow around his horn faltering. Hunter let out another cry as well as the same all-consuming fear and loss swept over him, his wings locking …

Only to vanish as three titanic booms rolled across the mountain, so loud they made his ears ring, their concussive force a wall against his body. Snow followed in the explosions’ wake, thrown up at the mercy of the wind.

Then the whole mountainside began to shift, the snow shaking, and Hunter’s eyes went wide. The blowback from the loss of the shield had caused Nova’s concentration to lapse, setting off the spells meant to trigger the avalanche.

And Nova was right in the middle of it. He could already see the snow beginning to slide, breaking away down the mountain, carrying with it Sombra’s crystals as well as the iceworms, a deep roar building as thousands of tons of snow shifted.

“Nova!” The snow was already acting more like a liquid than a solid, flowing down the mountain. Hunter’s wings ached, but he couldn’t stop beating them, not with Nova struggling to keep his head above the shifting snows. Clouds of it were kicking up into the air now, and he pushed himself ahead, calling on every scrap of magic he had left to punch through the air toward Nova’s struggling form. If he lost sight of him …

“Gotcha!” he wrapped his hooves around Nova’s own, axes swinging in their loops as he flew upward with all the force he could muster, muscles burning like he’d set fire to them. Still, it was enough to get them above the rolling, sliding mountain, and as long as he could keep them up …

There was a faint pop and the world around jerked in a flash of yellow, their position suddenly much further up the mountain, closer to the rocky outcropping he’d spotted earlier. Sure enough, the outcropping itself was clear, the snow parting around it like floodwaters around a sturdy island.

Then with another pop they were there, and he let Nova go before folding his own wings and dropping to the stone, his hooves barely arresting his momentum as he hit, and certainly not with enough balance to be considered “landing.”

But he was down, body and soul aching even as the stone beneath them shook with the force of the calamity they’d unleashed. He rolled over onto his back, chest heaving, and he fumbled with the latch of his helmet several times before getting it to release. Cold wind stung at his face as he pulled the helmet away, but he didn’t care. At the moment he wanted nothing more than as much air as he could breathe and a little bit of openness, anything that could drive back the images in his mind.

“Hunter.” He latched on to Nova’s voice. Anything to try and pull his mind away from the images spilling through it. His mind felt sullied, lost, like Swift had died all over—

“Hunter!” Nova moved into view, a greenish helmet in his hooves.

My helmet, he thought. Nova shoved it down over his head. The anguish began to fade.

“What were you thinking?” Nova asked, tightening the straps around his chin. “The helmet keeps him out.”

“Sorry.” He pushed himself up, his breaths still coming in short, irregular gasps. “I wasn’t … I wasn’t thinking straight. Good thing you were here.” He looked at Nova at last. He’s alive, not dead. “I’m glad you’re here. That shield …” A shiver ran through his body, one he couldn’t stop. “Thanks.”

“What did he do to you?” There was a concerned edge to Nova’s voice he’d never heard before.

“He got inside my head,” he said, another shiver rolling through him. Around them the snow had mostly passed, but he could still hear it rumbling down the mountain. “Made me see things. Like that fear, but a million times worse. Everypony dying because we lost. Tortured. Made me feel crook. I still feel crook, like I’ve swallowed oil.” He took another breath. “If you hadn’t dropped that shield, he might have made me crack a fruity for real. So again,” he said, looking Nova in the eyes. “Thank you. I don’t … I don’t ever want to feel something like that again.”

“Well,” Nova said. “I didn’t want to die in an avalanche. So we’re even. Thanks.”

“No,” Hunter said, shaking his head and pushing himself to his hooves. “We’re not even. We’re teammates. And friends. And I am never letting what I just saw happen. To any of us.” He staggered over to the edge of the rock, peering down at the wall of white below them. The avalanche had swept over everything in its path. There was no sign of Sombra or his minion iceworms.

For now.

“Right,” he said, turning his head slightly to glance at Nova. “Quick break. Get a bite, relieve ourselves, a drink, whatever. Though I’ll have to borrow some food, mine went down with my pack. But take ten, fifteen. By then, he’ll probably be back on our tails. And if not, we’ll need to remind him.”

“So … fifteen minutes to rest and come up with a plan?” Nova asked, shucking his pack down on the stone.

“Yeah,” Hunter said, nodding. “Fifteen minutes. Or less.”

The rock’s surface was cold, even through his armor, but he dropped back down on it, letting his wings rest against his sides and regain some of their spent energy. His whole body felt wrung, like he’d been washed, dried, and then left out to hang somewhere. Except the line broke, and now I’m lying in the dirt.

Which is why we use drying machines, he thought as he laid there, his heart slowly ceasing its near-constant pound, his breathing at last coming easier. A stillness had settled over the mountain in the wake of the avalanche, like the world was holding its breath on what could come next.

Which is the real question, he thought as Nova passed him an insulated canteen. The water inside was so cold it made his teeth ache, and he settled for slow sips, warming each small mouthful before swallowing it down and sucking in another. He might be a cloud, but Sombra still has to interact with the real world all the same. The avalanche drove him back, but when he digs his way out, he’ll be right back on our tails. And probably stronger. And angrier.

A shiver crawled across him at the thought. No matter what we do, he just gets stronger and stronger. And we’re supposed to hold him back until the Bearers arrive? This isn’t just a hard yakka, it’s practically insane! How are we supposed to stop him? He was starting to breathe hard again as he ran the last few hours through his mind. Even if the rest of the team shows up, we’re still outmatched. Feathers, we were told that from the beginning! What are we supposed to do? Die? In some pointless attempt to stop this thing?

“Hunter?” Nova’s voice was like a slap against the quiet of the mountain, and he snapped his eyes to him.

“What?” His voice sounded strained. Off.

“Are you all right?”

“I … No. We can’t win this.”

Nova frowned. “We’re not supposed to win this. We’re a delaying action, remember?”

“No.” He shook his head. “We can’t do that either.” He could see it in his mind, visions dancing through his head. “We’ll screw up, and he’ll kill us. We can’t stop him.”

Nova frowned, staring at him with a curious expression on his face. “Hunter? Take off your helmet.”

“What? No!” He shook his head, barely noticing that his whole body was shaking like a leaf. “It’s the only thing keeping him out, even if it can’t hold him back all the way.”

“Hunter,” Nova said again, his tone … different. Dangerous. “Take. It. Off.” He was standing now, moving toward him.

“Nova?” He pushed himself up, backing away as Nova continued forward. “Stay where you are. That’s an order. I don’t want—”

Nova lunged forward, batting aside Hunter’s hoof as he tried to defend himself and jamming his horn into the underside of his chin, through the seam where the helmet and armor met. A strange tingle rolled across his body … and it went completely limp as Nova’s magic bypassed the resistances.

No! Nova, you … He couldn’t explain it, but Nova, the pony that had just saved his life, had turned on him. He wanted to scream, but his body wasn’t obeying his commands, caught in the stunning spell, leaving him powerless as Nova knelt and undid the clasp holding his helmet in place.

“Alright Hunter, this might feel a little uncomfortable,” Nova said, looking him right in the eyes as his horn began to glow. “But—”

Traitor! Madpony! His mind was racing in a hundred different directions, different voices shouting against one another as Nova’s horn flashed, a wave of yellow spilling out of it …

And then pain lanced through his skull, pain like nothing he’d ever known, a red-hot railroad spike that seemed to penetrate all the way into his brain. He would have screamed if he’d been able to control himself, flapped his wings, anything to make the pain stop … but then it shifted, pulling back, focusing near the front of his head.

Then with a mental slurp it broke free, the pain pulling out of his mind with a sudden freeing sensation … just as a cloud of purple miasma twisted out of his skull in the grips of Nova’s magic, writhing and pulsing in the air like some strange, malevolent force. Nova’s eyes narrowed, his magic flaring, and the cloud sizzled, melting away like steam under a hot sun.

Nova let out a sigh of relief and sank back on his haunches, looking down at him. “Feel better?”

Hunter nodded. Or at least, he tried to. His cheek scraped against the rock, head barely moving. It was in my head. A strange calm seemed to have descended on him. But it wasn’t strange at all. It was familiar. It was real, a contrast to the fake panic he’d felt just moments ago.

“Sorry about that,” Nova said, wiping a hoof across his visor. “I should have thought to check the moment we arrived.”

“Men …” His tongue still felt strange, but feeling was returning to his extremities. Including the side of his head, which now was starting to hurt from where it’d been dropped against the ground. And one of his wings was lying at an awkward angle. “Mental …”

Nova nodded. “That fear spell you got hit with. It wasn’t just a spell. There was something in it. Like a magical virus.”

Feeling had almost returned now, and he pushed himself up, wincing slightly as pins and needles rolled along one wing. “I … Thanks, Nova. I didn’t even—”

“We caught it. The fault’s mine. Dawn taught me a spell for looking for it, but I forgot to.”

Hunter smacked his lips, feeling coming back to them at last. Though they were so cold it was a little hard to tell. “That was … crook.” He shook his head. “It was like my own mind was turning against me.” A shiver, a real one this time, rolled down his back. “He was in my head.”

“Something from him, anyway,” Nova said, nodding. “It’s sick. I didn’t get a great look at it before I tore it apart, but it looks like it just … makes suggestions.”

He nodded. “That’s what it did. Played on my fears. Made them seem more real. Like we couldn’t win.” He wanted to vomit. Understanding that somepony could play with your mind, or even make you feel emotions that weren’t normal was one thing. But to be inside his head, messing with it directly, preying on his own fears …

“This guy’s a monster.” Another shiver ran through him. “You’d have to be to do something like that.”

“You would,” Nova agreed, horn glowing. Hunter’s helmet lifted from the ground and floated over to him. “Here.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Besides, you’re a lot cooler when you’re, you know, you.”

“I like the real me better too. Less panicky.” The helmet slid back into place. If this is the real me. He shook his head quickly, driving the thought out.

“What?” Nova asked.

“Just shaking it off. Blasted thing was inside my own head, now I’m half-guessing my own thoughts.” He scowled. “And that was only after a few minutes. What would it have driven me too after an hour? A day?” Another shiver. “I don’t want to know.”

“Neither do I,” Nova agreed. “I like you the way you are. As much as I can like anyone who can order me around, anyway.” He winked. “And considering you’d technically have the authority to do that while evil-crazy, I think I’m better off sticking with normal-crazy.”

“Really?” He lifted on eyebrow. “I’m crazy?”

“The good kind of crazy. Would a normal pony take this job? Or drop an avalanche on an evil-dark-undead-ghost-thing?”

“That’s a good point. I’m starkers. But the good kind.” He let out a faint chuckle. It actually does feel a little better to say it out loud. “But what’s that make you? After all, you went along with it.”

“Depends on who you ask,” Nova replied, smirking. “Some would say I just go along with it because I have to. I mean, I do.”

“Uh huh. And others?”

“Well, they’d probably say I had ample opportunities to call it and cut out before now, so at this point, it’d just be because I’m crazy enough to stick around.”

“Well, I think that’s the best kind of crazy for a team like this. If you weren’t crazy, I’d be even more crazy right now.”

“We’re a team, like you said.” Nova cracked open his pack, floating out several ration bars. “Think you can bear to take your helmet off again?”

“For a bite to eat?” He took one of the bars, tugged his helmet up slightly, and took a bite. “Not all the way. Not until I’m either safe in The Hummingbird or this is over.” The bar was dry, crunchy, and not particularly tasty, but he swallowed it down all the same. “By the way, that spell you threw over me down there, the gold one? I don’t think I’ve seen that before.”

“It’s Princess Celestia’s,” Nova said, pausing from devouring his own ration bar. “After she heard that I was learning a bunch of Princess Luna’s old spells, she decided she wanted to teach me at least one. That shield was her choice. Seemed appropriate.”

“So … you can cast spells that both the princesses can?”

“Well, so could any other unicorn who took the time to study them, and they’re still powered by my magic, not theirs. If Princess Celestia were here, I don’t think hers would have broken so easily.”

“I wish she was.” He peered over the side of the outcropping. The mountain below them was still, no sign of a dark cloud sweeping toward them. “She’d be a lot better at this.”

“I don’t blame her for not wanting to be, though,” Nova replied. “I think she’s got a good reason.”

He almost spoke, but then the memory of their briefing came back, along with the princess’ warning. “She lost her sister,” he said slowly, half through a mouthful of dry ration bar. Then he paused. “You don’t think—”

“The same spell you were just hit with?” Nova cut in. “Yeah, I do. A little less subtle, I think, but the same thing, yeah.”

He shivered again at the memory. He got inside my head and I didn’t even realize it. I probably wouldn’t have even been able to see it with with my mod. We’re just lucky Nova realized what was going on when he did, or … He took another quick bite of his lunch. He didn’t want to think about it.

“So,” he said, changing the subject. “We still need to figure out what to do next. Sombra’s bound to dig his way out of that avalanche before long, and we’ve got to make sure he keeps tailing us.”

“For how much longer?” Nova asked. “I’m already feeling drained from all those explosions, plus the shield.”

“Well, the Guard were supposed to send word back the moment we dropped the signal flare, at which point Captain Armor and Princess Cadance were supposed to be dispatched and word sent to the Bearers, so … going off of distance and everything else, if Captain Armor arrived this morning, then that means the Bearers would probably make it from Ponyville to the end of the line around … early tomorrow morning?”

“And we’ve been at this for what, a few hours?”

“About eight, yeah,” Hunter said, swallowing the last of his ration bar and washing it down with another swig from Nova’s canteen. “The rest of the group should be here soon, but …”

“Until then, we’re on our own,” Nova said, nodding and sucking in a deep breath. “All right, any ideas?”

“Just the big one we’ve been doing. Running retreat. Keep him interested. At the moment, I’m drawing a blank.”

“Well, we can’t keep relying on explosions to draw him out,” Nova said. “I mean, the avalanche was great, and it was a good way to keep him chasing us, but I’m getting worn out over here.”

“How’d you keep the Guard chasing you?”

Nova’s eyes widened, his ears standing on end. “What?”

“The Royal Guard. Back when you were a thief,” Hunter said, rapping his own head with the bottom of his hoof. “Maybe we’re going about this all wrong. You’re the one with all the experience leading ponies on merry chases.”

“Those were Guard, though,” Nova said quickly. “Not murderous shades.”

Hunter shrugged and extended his wings. “He was a pony once. We’ve mostly been running and doing whatever I can think of. What about you? How would you keep him chasing you?”

“Well …” Nova took his canteen back and waved it idly with one hoof. “Insults, usually. General stuff like ‘you’ll have to be quicker than that’ or ‘ooh, almost had me.’ Stuff that gets on a pony’s nerves. Taunting. Traps, like the explosions we set up, but a lot less intensive.”

“Like what?”

“Well, I don’t think it’ll work here, but an empty box from an alley over a door, or tossed backward. Tip over somepony’s garbage can. Make a face even. Juvenile, but it works. Get somepony to chase you somewhere difficult, only to double back and make it look like you were never there in the first place.”

Hunter’s ears stood straight up. “Could we do that?”

“If we could get him chasing us? Maybe. I don’t know what would be difficult for something like him though. We have to go around trees, but he just seems to melt through them. I’d guess sunlight based on his shadow stuff, but it hasn’t seemed to bother him so far, and the weather’s getting worse, so we’re only going to get less of it. He’s somewhat tangible, though, so the weather might help.”

“I hope so.” He shot a sideways glance at the rolling storm building to the west. Even if they’d had a clear view, it would have been impossible to see the Crystal Empire now, shrouded as it was in storm clouds. Towering, massive clouds spreading in all directions. It wouldn’t quite be enough that he’d recommend fleeing the area, but … It will be at least as bad as the last one before it broke. And that storm had been pretty ferocious by the end. “So obstacles are iffy. What about traps?”

Nova rolled his head from one side to the other. “Again, we’d have to know what hurts him. Magic can, obviously, since he’s a creature of magic. Plus, we did annoy him with those explosions, and my beams seem to bother him. Enough physical interaction might? The avalanche seems to have buried him, though we don’t know for how long.”

Hunter nodded and took another quick glance down the mountain. It almost looked as though the avalanche had never happened, the wind already smoothing out the rough spots and distributing new snowfall across the mountainside. And there was still no sign of their pursuer. “You mentioned insults. How are you at illusions?”

“Not great.”

“Can you make a spell that makes a sound?”

Again Nova waggled a hoof. “Eh … so-so. Remember, usually with my job it was smarter to avoid magic whenever possible.”

“Right.” That, and that one bad experience you had with it probably didn’t help. “Still, you can do a basic tripwire, right?”

“Oh, like from my beam spell?” A beam of light shot out of his horn, striking the windswept rock. A second beam, this one dimmer, shone up from the ground where his initial magic had struck. He waved a hoof over it, and the beam blinked out with a pop. “Yeah. Been a while, but yeah.”

“Can we make one of those shout an insult? Like …” He paused for a moment, mouth hanging open. “Sombrero?”

“Sombrero?”

“You got a better one?”

“Well, not now,” Nova said. “But that doesn’t sound too hard. The beams are mine, so that’s always going to be easy. Making it say something? It might take a bit of work over the alarm we use during training, but if nothing else it’ll get his attention.”

Training. “That reminds me. That thing you did where you stuck your horn into the gap in my helmet. I’ve never seen you do that before. When’d you come up with that?”

Nova just shrugged. “About a month ago. I figured I’d keep my mouth shut about it, since it was too late to fix it, Sky Bolt already has it flagged as a weak point, and the fewer knew about it, the better.”

“Including your commanders?”

“I was right, wasn’t I?” Nova countered. “Besides, it’s the kind of weakness you’d have to be familiar with our armor to know about. Sky Bolt already figured it out, so I kept my mouth shut in case I needed it someday, either to win a bet during training, or ... Well I’ll admit stunning my superior so I could rip a magical brain parasite out of his head didn’t occur to me, but it happened, so …”

“Point taken.” He glanced down the mountain again. Still no change. Did he just give up, or … He activated his mod, the yellow glow flooding out over the world, searching to see if there was any sign of Sombra under the snow, but saw nothing.

“See anything?” Nova asked.

“No,” he said, shaking his head and dispelling the mod early. There was no point in draining the rest of the battery at the moment. “Maybe that avalanche hit him harder than we thought.”

“Or he’s running.”

“I hope it’s not that one. If it is, that means one of us is going to have to go down and check. And since I can’t pull a mind spell out of my head, that means you’d have to be the one to stay behind.” He let out a sigh. “Sometimes I wonder if I wouldn’t have been better off sticking with my station in Everfree.”

“Mint probably would have leveled half of Manehatten or something.”

“Fair dinkum. Besides, I’m here now.” Is that bit of snow moving, or … Trick of the light. “On the positive side of things, we’re up high, so we have a good view. If he moves for us, we’ll know. We’re still well away from the border, so we can retreat around the side of the mountain—”

“East?”

He shook his head, pulling his eyes away from the mountainside for a moment. “West. Steel and the rest of the team will be coming from that direction, and I want them to have as easy a time possible finding us.” Another flash of movement teased his eyes, and he stared at it. Was it another trick of the light, or …

No. It wasn’t the light. The snow was thrusting upwards, pushed aside as a tendril of black smoke broke through it. “Well, that answers that question.”

“Is he … Nevermind, I see it,” Nova said, stepping up to the edge of the stone. “Or him, I guess. So … what’s the plan?”

“Well, first we get his attention,” Hunter said, not pulling his eyes away from the amorphous mass boiling out of the snow. “Shouldn’t be hard, right? I mean, we did just drop a mountainside on him.”

“Okay, get his attention.”

“Then we make him chase us.”

“Step two.” Nova nodded. “What’s step three?”

“Well, we run …” Hunter said, mouth still dry. He ran his tongue over his teeth.

“Okay, and?”

“Around the west side of the mountain.”

“And …?” Nova was giving him an odd look now as below, the cloud continued to boil out of the snow.

“And then you’ll think of something to trap him with?” he answered, pulling his eyes away from Sombra to glance at Nova. “Maybe we run him in a circle?”

“A circle?” Nova said. “That’s it? That’s what you’ve got?”

“Hey, I came up with the avalanche. We established that, right?”

“I pulled that thing out of your head.”

“Feathers. All right. How about this.” The mass was seething now but seemed to have ceased growing. Now it was simply sending feelers in all directions. “We get his attention, run like mad, and drop as many traps behind us as we can.”

“Magic ones?”

“No.” He shook his head. “Not just magic ones. The avalanche worked, right? So we try everything. Rocks. Snares. We lost my pack, so we might as well use up the gear in yours. We find anything, and I mean anything that slows him down. Storm-clouds, whatever. We throw it all. And we keep running. Aggro him until he’s cracking a fruity. And hopefully at some point in that time, Steel and the others can show up and open up a few more options.”

Down below Sombra was beginning to move. West, this time, across the snow. “But right now, step one. We get his attention.” He reached down, undid the clasp beneath his helmet, and whistled.

The note echoed across the mountain, loud and shrill even over the wind. Sombra stopped, the black cloud whipping around.

“Hey!” Hunter shouted, cupping his hooves around his mouth and shouting as loud as he could. “Sombrero! You done already!?I thought you just needed some time to cool off!”

A loud, shrill scream echoed up the mountainside, and the cloud surged toward them. Hunter nodded, flapping his wings as he stepped back.

“What?” he asked. Nova was giving him a strange look.

“Cool off?” Nova asked. “Seriously? You went for a pun?”

“Didn’t hear you chinwagging any suggestions. Besides, it worked. Maybe he hates puns. Now, you said you could make your beam wire make a lot of noise, right?”

“I think so.”

“Drop a couple.”

“A couple?”

“As long as they don’t mess you up too badly.”

“Well, a high-pitched sound isn’t that hard to make.”

“Good.” He fanned his wings and glanced back. Sombra was already a quarter of the mountain. “Do it.”

“Doing it,” Nova said, his horn glowing and firing several small beams into the outcropping. “And done.”

“Quick work.”

“My spell. Running?”

Hunter held back a sigh as he looked at the steep mountainside above them. “Yeah,” he said. “More running.”

Author's Note:

Well, the horseshoe is on the other hoof now. And Sombra plays for keeps.

New chapters Tuesdays and Fridays, as well as every hundred upvotes! Don't forget to check out my website or my published works! If you like this, you'll love those!

Comments

[Streit]

Oh boy. That was close.

[Bawss]

Somebody get this man 5 more upvotes.

[Ytak]

“The good kind of crazy. Would a normal pony take this job? Or drop an avalanche on an evil-dark-undead-ghost-thing?”

That's an excellent point.

I'm tired just reading about all the running they are doing. And running across or through snow is hard work! I'm impressed with how much magic Nova is using. I can tell he's been practicing but it is still impressive.

9878152
I would upvote again if I could.

[TheStratovarian]

Oofles, and ouch on the whole crud of that kinda matter, and with his nuanced mental worms, a nasty feedback loop.

[Black--Soul]

Damn fine job they manage to pull. Awesome chapter!
Sombras mind magic is pretty nasty. I wonder if he suffers from it himself. The first chapter suggest that...

Sombra is pretty op as he is... Maybe retreat would still be in order. But his ego probably dont allow it.

[Seraphem]

Mind magic really, really sucks to deal with. And hey, Sombrero is just the type if egotistical dumbass that petty insults will work on very easily, so good on that plan..