The Hunters of Secrets

by Arkantos

Attack on the Fortress

At the borders of the Fortress, several arrows were fired by the guards but none of them killed anypony. The Werepony got up onto a boulder and howled. As he did, all of the Serpentine burrowed underground and went straight for the Fortress. As a second wave of arrows came flying toward them, an oversized arrow flew toward the Werepony, and it nearly got him. But, luckily for Cold Blood, he saw it coming. He stopped howling and jumped off of the boulder just in the nick of time. He ran to the fortress knowing full well that some of the archers may aim new arrows at him.

Back at the Fortress, a metallic clink was heard and several black spikes popped out of Commander Dream’s shield. Black Fall jumped back and threw three daggers at him. Each one hit his shield. The Butcher galloped right up to him and kicked him in the face. There was another metallic click and suddenly, the edge of his shield became a chainsaw blade. With a loud roar, he swung the shield at her. The first two swings hit her, leaving some nasty cuts on her chest, but she quickly backed away and transformed her sword into a crossbow. She loaded it with an ice bolt and fired it.

Back outside the fortress, Cold Blood had so many arrows stuck in his back, he looked like a porcupine. He galloped straight at the gate. Several underground Serpentine charged along with him.

As they ran nearer, a wave of arrows rained down on them. Four more hit Cold Blood, but thanks to his being a Werepony, they didn’t really affect him all that much. He pulled out the arrows as he ran, as many as he could reach. The arrows never reached the Serpentine as they dug through the battlefield. Seven waves of arrows hit the ground. Then came the ballista arrows, which pierced through the earth but killed very few of the Serpentine. Every now and then ballista arrows would head towards Cold Blood. He tried to dodge them, but most of the time, they hit their target. Each time he was hit with one, it caused him a great amount of pain.

Cold Blood reached the wall and, using his claws, he climbed up to the top. As he climbed, a guard noticed and brought two others over to fire their crossbows at him. He continued to climb. One arrow after another hit, until nine arrows had found a home in his flesh, most of them in his face. But with one last jump, he reached the top and slit the throats of the three guards who were shooting at him. The guards’ bodies fell to the ground.

It wasn’t long before another guard spotted him and blew the horn to let every EUP in the Fortress know that the wall had been breached. Cold Blood killed the guard and started to eat him before several more EUP Unicorns, Earth ponies, and Pegasus arrived on the wall or were flying near it. The Unicorns created pure magic swords and spears. Earth ponies drew out their swords and aimed their crossbows at him. And the Pegasus tossed their crossbows behind them and drew their swords for attack. Cold Blood had been waiting for this moment, and there was only one word going through his head at that time: Dinner.

The Serpentine arrived shortly after. They dug through and up the wall. Using their fangs, they bit into the EUP ponies’ necks or used their tails to strangle them. Most of the Unicorns and Earth ponies had been either bitten and were now slowly dying from the poison of the Serpentine, or they were being strangled to death. Many of the Pegasus remained alive as they were using their wings to stay up in the air. However, some of them had foolishly charged at Cold Blood. He took full advantage of their idiocy. A Pegasus mare charged at him next, but he easily dodged and grabbed her by the wing, then slammed her into the other Pegasus who had charged with her. As they fell to the ground, a few dozen Serpentine jumped out of the ground and bit into the Pegasus. They tried to fly away but were bitten in midair. The Serpentine then fell back into the ground. The Pegasus, try as they might to fly as far away as possible, would eventually fall to their death from the poison.

The ballista was aimed at a brown Serpentine who had just popped out of the ground. The Earth pony who was manning it fired the weapon and it hit the Serpentine directly in the head, instantly killing him.

Venom emerged from the ground and noticed his dead friend right away. “No!” he yelled, and went into a blood rage. He jumped from the wall and landed on a nearby Pegasus. He slithered around the pony’s body before biting him on the shoulder. Then, getting on the pony’s back, he jumped and landed on another nearby Pegasus, repeating what he had just done to the previous one. He continued to do this up until the tenth Pegasus. As he slithered around the last mare’s body, he encountered a little resistance. The Pegasus tried to shake him off her body and flew in circles in an effort to get rid of him. But Venom had his body wrapped around her very tightly. As he prepared to bite into the pony, the ballista took aim once more and fired at him and the mare. It killed both him and the Pegasus. He was still wrapped around her as both of them fell to the ground, landing with a sickening splat.

After seeing Venom fall in valor, Pearl yelled, “That ballista needs to go down!” She went back into the ground and, with four other Serpentine following her example, she started to dig around the base of the tower.

Behind the front gate, Cobra and Poison Fang popped out of the ground. Four Unicorns and three Earth ponies saw them and charged. But the two Serpentine toyed with them by borrowing back into the ground and popping back up right behind them. As they did this, Cobra noticed what Pearl was doing and said to Poison Fang, “I have an idea.” Both he and Poison Fang burrowed back into the ground and popped up right in front of the gates. The ponies gave chase by opening the massive wooden gates. When they were open, the ponies all charged. The structure of the tower began to give. It collapsed on the wooden gates. They had a few more minutes before the wood started to break. The massive hinges were ripped out of the wall. Within those minutes, Poison Fang and Cobra burrowed back into the ground. Four Unicorns and two Earth ponies were crushed in the process of taking down the tower and gates.

A few minutes went by before both Serpentine emerged right in front of the pile of rubble that used to be the tower and gate. The last pony left alive got up and brushed the dust off him. Poison Fang quickly cut him with his spike and the pony fell to the ground, slowly dying from the poison. Two more ponies who had been operating the ballista, an Earth pony and a Unicorn, got up suddenly. Pearl slithered around the Unicorn’s body and strangled her to death. Simultaneously, Cobra bit the Earth pony in the neck and let him slowly die from the poison.

Poison Fang started moving from where he had stabbed another Earth pony who had tried to kill him. He stabbed a mare Unicorn who had tried to fire a spell at him, but her aim was sloppy and she missed. Poison Fang burrowed into the ground, then launched out again, stabbing the Unicorn in the face with his spike, killing her instantly. He looked around and saw Pearl and Cobra moving toward the chaotic battlefield. He fell to the ground and slithered around a charging Pegasus. He jumped up to strangle him to death, and as he did, he got a good look at the chaos happening around him.

Black Fall was engaged in combat with the Commander. The Commander slammed his oversized shield. He was successful when he heard the metallic click. Black metal spikes shot out of his shield at the ex-hunter.

Suddenly, a spike of earth shot out of the ground, causing the black metal spikes to bounce. Poison Fang looked up at the wall and saw Cold Blood digging into a mare EUP Earth pony. It was brutal to see, because the mare was still alive as he continued to dig into her. She was alive, but she wouldn’t be for long. Cold Blood would enjoy every last bit of meat on her.

Poison Fang looked around again and noticed his Serpentine going for the underground pouncing and biting technique. Most of them were successful, but some of the EUP ponies got smart and stayed on the stone concrete. However there were only a few places that had solid rock. One was the road that led in and out of the Fortress; the other option was to climb to the top of a building, of which there were very few.

Poison Fang bore back down into the ground and jumped out again at four EUP ponies who were on top of a rooftop. Using his spike, he stabbed an Earth pony and wrapped his tail around a Unicorn’s neck to strangle him to death. The other Earth pony and Unicorn turned around and saw what he was doing. The EUP Earth pony ran to his struggling friend and tried using his strength to get the Unicorn out of Poison Fang’s grip.

Simultaneously, the other Unicorn raised her two short swords and charged at the Serpentine, trying to strike at him, but Poison Fang saw her coming and practically tossed the struggling Unicorn at the charging Unicorn. She accidentally stabbed the pony being tossed. Struggling under the weight of a dead body, both Unicorns fell onto the stone of the rooftop.

Suddenly Poison Fang was hit by an iron war hammer. He flew to the other side of the roof and landed at the edge of the stone rooftop. He quickly got up and used his scaly hoof to wipe away the green blood that was coming out of his nose. The EUP Earth pony in silver armor who was wielding the iron war hammer charged at him again, but Poison Fang was ready for him this time. As the war hammer swung down, he dodged it and bit into the Earth pony’s neck. Not loosening his jaw at all, he swung the pony to the edge of the rooftop. The Earth pony tried to get up again, but within five minutes, he died from Poison Fang’s poison.

The last Unicorn on the rooftop finally managed to toss the body of her fallen comrade aside. She saw what had happened and, with hatred in her eyes, she lit up her horn with fire magic and released a torrent of flames at Poison Fang. He was surprised that an EUP Unicorn was able to fire that kind of magic with such raw power at him. However, he opened his mouth and a glowing, sickening, green magic came out of it. To the Unicorn’s surprise, the green magic tore through her emotionally, and her anger-fueled flames were extinguished as if by water. When the green liquid geyser reached the Unicorn, she screamed in horror as it quickly disintegrated her into nothing more than melted armor.

Poison Fang jumped off of the rooftop and landed on the ground of the fortress. It wasn’t long before an EUP Pegasus in bronze armor tried to dive at him, but he saw the attempt and easily dodged the pony, bit her, and swung his head to the side to toss her against the wall. She got up and began to charge at Poison Fang, but soon began to feel weak from the poison. Her eyes grew heavy as she neared Poison Fang. But before she could get to him, the EUP Pegasus fell to the ground and died.

Then a group of five Earth ponies charged at Poison Fang. As they did, the Serpentine slammed his spike to the ground seven times. Seven Serpentine grabbed the Earth ponies and buried them in the ground, slowly suffocating them to death.

Poison Fang then looked at Commander Dream fighting against Black Fall. He thought to himself, ‘You’re going to lose this fight. Even if you manage to kill a Hunter of the Night my Serpentine and I will surely bury you.’