Hollow Mask

Hunter peeked around the corner. Only a few zombies littered the streets, many of them staggering towards the outer parts of the city, where the population density of the living was greater. When the area was mostly clear, she signaled Sunset and Rainbow Dash to follow. Two zombies noticed the shadows hushing over the street and began to limp towards them.

Sunset noticed the two and silently signaled her two friends trouble. They set up a small ambush in the alley they had reached. When the zombies limped around the corner, they were greeted with swords in their skulls. On had a dull blade, the other a mirror polish with a slight hint of rainbows on it.

"Anymore?" asked Hunter whispering.

Sunset looked around the corner and luckily the noises had not attracted any other zombies. "No. We're clear."

They two cyan girls sheathed their swords, Rainbow breathing a sigh of relief, "We are really lucky that we haven't found any large herds and... you know..."

Hunter nodded her agreement, "Yeah, but considering the fact that these are rather intelligent zombies, compared to the ones I know from movies and such, and they are led by an evil guy, I think he wants us to come to him. It's too easy."

"If he is to dumb to accept my awesome, than that is not my problem," countered Rainbow.

"Sometimes I wonder how you get your ego inside the school building," sighed Sunset, "You have any tricks?"

"Lots and lots of lube," smirked Rainbow.

"Ladies, we should get going, so could you please stop your latest sex fantasies?" asked Hunter politely, "Thank you." She walked down the small alley towards the destination.

On their way they encountered only few other zombies, most of which they could deal with before they alerted any large herds. Only twice they had to run into the next building and deal with the oncoming zombies but thanks to Rainbow and Hunter, it never became a real problem.

When they reached the next corner, Hunter could see their destination. The large warehouse towered before them. It had been neglected for years, which meant that the cheap iron sheets were covered in rust and mud.

The streets around it were mostly empty, except some lonely zombies staggering away from them. Hunter looked around, "Has anyone seen Pinkie?"

Sunset shrugged and Rainbow just shook her head. Hunter frowned, "Then it's just us, isn't it? Wait for my signal..." She looked around the edge again and scanned the street. After a few seconds she lifted her hand and the three stormed across the street.

Hunter slammed herself against the wall beside the backdoor. Quickly she reached for it and found it unlocked. She silently signaled the others and they entered.

They found themselves in the main hall, surrounded by zombies and the necromancer looking down at them. He easily towered his minions and was cloaked in shadows. His face was hidden by a mask, that punctured the darkness around him. He held sword in his right hand. A small golden glint could be seen on the same hand from time to time.

The necromancer chuckled, "So... tell me! How have you interrogated my minions? I'm rather interested." He placed the sword with a loud clang on the ground and looked expectantly at the three.

Hunter stepped forward, "Doesn't matter! We are here to end you!"

"I don't mean to pry, but how? With the little sword of yours? I possess powers beyond your imagination and can crush your any moment I want. The only reason you are still alive, is that I want to know how you managed to find my hideout."

"Yeah, yeah. The standard 'I am evil so tell me everything'-speech. Just shut up," whined Hunter. She readied her sword and took an aggressive stance, "Come on, fight me you coward."

The necromancer chuckled, "If you truly want to die." Hunter was the first to attack. The blade glowed in a bright blue light as it cut through the very fabric of space and time. The necromancer moved his blade to block the attack.

Sunset watched as the blade raced towards each other and expected Hunter's to just cut through the necromancer without much resistance.

To everyones, except the Necromancers, surprise, the blades crashed together with a loud bang. Sparks erupted and at the point where Hunter's sword had connected with the large blade of the Necromancer, it quickly became black like a piece of coal.

Hunter looked shocked while pushing against her opponents sword. She quickly recovered and they began a fast paced swordfight.

The blades whirled around, almost dancing, as the two fought. Rainbow and Sunset noticed that the zombies were holding back, watching the fight, which Hunter was currently losing.

She had retreated a few steps and her whole sword was black, a few pieces even missing in the blade. Her breathing was strained and fast.

"You still think you can defeat me?" asked the Necromancer. He looked like he just started the fight, the shadows still dancing lively around him.

"Yes," spitted Hunter out. The split second it took her to answer was enough to break her defenses.

The blade of the Necromancer sunk into her stomach, only slightly below the ribcage, before erupting out of her back. Hunter coughed, surprised by the impact.

"You feel that? Pain. It makes you weak, you pathetic human. You are an unimportant being in this small world and you just died for nothing," laughed the Necromancer. His laughter echoed through the building as he shoved the blade deeper in.

"You are wrong."

The laughing stopped. "What did you say?" asked the Necromancer.

Hunter grabbed the hilt of the Necromancer’s sword, preventing him from pulling it out, and took her own, "I said, you are wrong. Pain does not make one weak. It makes strong if you allow it to." With those words she swung the blade around, cutting of the arm of the Necromancer. The hand still held onto his sword as the rest dropped. Hunter took the sword and pulled it out, looking like she had just found an especially disgusting splinter in her finger.

Sunset could feel the rage in Hunter, even though she was standing a few meters away. If she had been a unicorn, she would have done a rageshift, Sunset didn’t doubt that for a second. The worst was her face. Instead of anger, it displayed calm. It was the eye of a raging firestorm that was fueled by her own life force.

The Necromance retreated a few steps. He wanted to speak but was interrupted when Hunters sword cut through his neck. His head hit the ground slightly after his body did.

The zombies around them took this as the signal to attack. They stormed towards Sunset, Rainbow and Hunter, the later already heavily injured but still fighting.

The fight only lasted a few minutes before all zombies were killed. Sunset turned around and saw Hunter, still standing, despite a large amount of blood gathering around her.

She took a few steps before she stumbled and fell to the ground.

Rainbow and Sunset stormed towards their injured companion. Hunter was already trying to stand up again while coughed blood. She took her blade, which she had dropped when she fell, and moved towards Rainbow.

"Rainbow, take the sword," she coughed.

"What?"

Hunter frowned, "I am dying. Nobody is able to take the sword if I did not allow them to. Take it."

Rainbow reached out with her hand, hesitated and took the sword. The instant her hand touched it, the blade changed. It now had a mirror polish and reflected a bright rainbow light no matter how you looked on it.

"NO!"

The scream echoed through the hall. All three looked towards the source. Olivia was standing in the doorframe, her face paler than ever.

"What is it? Something wrong?" asked Hunter between two coughs. She wobbled and took an unsure step back. She started to fall.

Olivia moved faster than anything Sunset had ever seen. She caught Hunter before she touched the ground.

“You’re pathetic, Olivia, do you know that?” Hunter whispered before she fell unconscious. Snuffed out like a candle in the wind.

“Nonononono,” yelled Olivia. Sunset felt the beginnings of a teleport spell. It wasn’t a nice clean teleport. The former unicorn could feel space and time being ripped apart as Olivia raced through. She didn’t bother to repair the damage she caused.

They impacted the destination, leaving a small crater in the ground, about five meters in diameter, some parts of the remaining grass even burning. The impact ring, the usual sign of a botched teleport, travelled outwards through the city and was visible for miles. It killed every single zombie in it’s way and even crushed a few buildings. Even with Alicorn magic it would be difficult to create such strong effects.

They stood in front of the portal statue in which Hunter had appeared some time ago. Sunset noticed that Rainbow had been left behind. Olivia walked over to her, “Hold out your arms.”

Sunset did as told and Olivia dropped Hunter in her arms, who was surprisingly light. Blood was covering her arms and clothes in a few seconds.

The Librarian stood in-front of the statue and carved symbols in it, using a strange blue fire.

She retreated from it and waited. After a few second the symbols glowed brighter before changing their color to a glinting red. Olivia’s face turned red. She moved her hand over the symbols, which turned to something resembling a keyboard only with a lot more keys. She ‘typed’ frantically on it. Multiple times the large symbols above turned red again, before returning to their normal blue color.

All the while Sunset was more and more worried about Hunter’s health. She had lost a lot of blood.

Suddenly Olivia punched the statue. The symbols flickered before vanishing, leaving the stone cracked and blank. She punched it again and again while crying out her pain into the world around her. It felt like an eternity until she stopped.

“If I ever get hold of Tirek, I swear I’ll make him wish he could die,” she yelled. After that outburst she broke down, sobbing silently. Sunset didn’t know what to do without dropping Hunter in the process.

“Sunset?”

Her voice was almost a whisper. She turned her head and looked Sunset in the eyes. Her face was covered in tears.

“Promise me that you don’t bury underground. Let her sleep under the stars. Please,” she whispered.

Sunset silently nodded. “Thank you,” said Olivia as she looked up on the sky, “The stars are beautiful tonight, aren’t they?”

With a flash of light Olivia vanished. Her form collapsed into itself, only visible as a small point of light for a few moments before blinking out.

It was the same moment Hunter’s breathing stopped. Her body relaxed, slowly cooling out.

In the last days Hunter had become almost a friend for Sunset. She had surprised her in many ways. She had been weird and crazy. Hunter had fought until the very last second. She had continued to fight even after she had been injured badly. The raw power inside her, in these moments, had left Sunset in awe and fear.

Sunset didn’t know what to do now.

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The funeral was short. The Apple family had helped to make a concrete casket which they had positioned a short walk inside the Everfree Forest.

The strange girl had influenced all their lives, except Fluttershy’s maybe, so all six attended. Big Mac, his cousin Breaburn and the two principles were the only others that were present.

The two Apples played an old family song with Big Mac's bagpipes and Breaburn's violin. Rainbow even saluted when she thought nobody was looking.

After about an hour they left the place quietly, only Luna stayed behind. They had put the casket in a clearing and the stars shone down on it. The moon passed over it not shortly after and the clearing flooded with the silver light of the celestial object.

Hunter had given her life to protect that of many. She had prevent the deaths of many students and later stopped a zombie invasion.

She had been around for only a few days but had left a strong impression on everybody she had met.

Luna moved closer and pulled out a bottle from under her coat. She placed it on top of the caket and left.