Shadows of the Night

(Author's Note: Prereader(s): LunarLover, Paw Print thank you)

The night began promptly at eight thirty p.m., though I’m no longer sure the use of post meridian is appropriate any longer, and as always its sinking brought me peace. The sun was finally gone, and so too the phantom light rays that wished to tear at my existence. That is to say, it wasn’t all bad. At least the sun was direct about its hatred. It didn’t hide behind pretended social norms that were dropped at the turn of a whim for the, undeserved, biased favor of another individual. No, it simply was, is, and will be a bright globe of fission that works to banish away the dark.

***

It didn’t take too long to figure out where the meeting spot was, partly due to the fact there was a path that went through a bit of forest on the mountains south side, but also due to the fact I could easily make out the forms of both Crash and Burn as they crouched in the shaded boughs of the lone tree that stood a few feet from the main group. I waved to them, or more truthfully, my proxy did.

They didn’t look too happy about that, but Burn swiftly winged his way down, motioning for Crash once he’d landed, giving a low chuckle, and once I was in, what he presumed to be my, earshot said, “Guess you weren’t kidding about that night vision, caught us with a mere glance, didn’t he brother?” Crash only gave a small grunt and mumbled something even I couldn’t quite catch, but it was presumably aimed at his brother, of whom he was standing right next to, and  who apparently knew what he meant by the quick look he gave him.

Putting on his warmest game show host grin Crash began to take the lead, saying, “Well, I’m sure you’re just itching to get things started, but before we get this sparring match started me and my brother thought it might do us all some good to see just how well you are when it comes to stealth and navigating your surroundings.” He pointed at a diagonal from the path into the forest as his brother Burn took wing, “my brother is going to go down a ways, and you’re going to go up and try and sneak up on him. Now mind you keep going about the same direction, this is your test.” He finished with a small grin, which quickly vanished when no reaction was given from my proxy.

All in all it sounded fair to me, I let him know as much, and having to swear upon my honor, once he saw me began to disappear into the shadows to be lost from sight, that I’d abide by the rules. I did, and then I made my way as silently down the path as possible.

Initially there were a few trip wires here and there, most were thick enough that I was actually able to see them, but a few were only caught because I took note of the slim sliver of shadow they made from the twisted light of the crescent moon as it stream through it’s nearly clear existence. The same could be said from a few of the pitfalls as well, none were too deep, being that they were so many, and only they would have worked on it, but they were so cleverly disguised  that it was only the softer texture of the shadows in it that brought me pause. It’s a little hard to describe, but while there is only one form of darkness, it being the mere absence of light, it’s how the light isn’t there that makes the difference between how it feels when it’s stratified in soil, under bits of rock and gravel, or in a great gape of air under a tarp. I had to edge around a few of those, but I was mostly able to step over them as most of them while running the width from one tree to another, but only as far as a foot forward. It all felt slightly trivial, though I put it down to them taking it easy on someone who they were only gauging to see the skill of. But still, it surprised me just how little noise I was making, at the very least I had expected to hear the swishing of my clothes grating against each other but they remained silent on a stalked my way forward.

It didn’t take too long to finally see Burn, he was lying down upon a cloud in the middle of a bough cover glade. 'Wow, he looks comfy.' Kinda made me wish I could stay on clouds, still couldn’t figure out what had caused my initial falling out with them, maybe it was just some by-product of inter-universal travel and it had been a fluke that one time. But all of that was put aside as I quietly tapped Burn’s shoulder-blade, right above his left wing as he gave an ear-splitting yelp and launched straight into the air, whipping out his rapier. I couldn’t help but let out a strangled giggle, wishing the fog of darkness away, but for enough to reform my proxy and keeping myself hidden, I waved.

The yell had, by all accounts, gotten the attention of Crash as only a few seconds later he parted a great swath of canopy out of his way with his sword and began to look for his brother calling to make sure he was fine.

It was a full minute before both of them had calmed down enough to realize they were right behind the other and regained as much composure as they could whilst I still tried to maintain myself and not fall into full on out laughter for fear that: one, I’d never stop, and two, that I’d cough up a lung in the process. A stern look from both Crash and Burn was enough to silence me, mostly due to how ineffective it was. Ponies just look so cute that when they try to look tough it’s just sad. Though a large amount of rippling muscles sure helped, it really boiled down to their large almost puppy like eyes…. anyway, despite himself Burn admitted he was quite pleased with how well I had done, but that now was the time for what we’d come here for, sparring. The plan was to do so near the tree we’d started at, and that they’d even give me a lift there so I wouldn’t have to traipse across the training area again, but I politely declined and let them know since I knew where I needed to go I could just port over there as I wrapped the darkness around me and vanished from sight.

Both of them, by the time they had returned were again pleased, I kept on forgetting that teleportation like that was a bit of a rarity around here, but I just smiled and waved at them as they landed.

“Well, here we are the final test.” Burn said as he pulled his thin rapier from its sheath and held it in his mouth and began walking to my front, “While you have shown some promise tonight, as I mentioned earlier today this is a dangerous occupation. While my brother and I always keep an eye out for each other, it is sometimes unavoidable that we must split up in order to catch our quarry. Or when we deal with pack animals and our numbers no longer give us an advantage. As such you always have to keep aware of your own surroundings and, once you get good enough, to be aware of your opponents as well.” And with that he charged at me, he was a fair distance, but somewhere in the back of my head it niggled me that he would run rather than fly…

I was almost too late when Crash swung at me or more correctly my proxy’s hind leg. I stole a glance to be sure, he was using the blunt end of his sword, but a swing like that would surely have cracked some bone.

These guys must deal with some crazy tough monsters, I thought as I worked to establish a better shadow sense of my surroundings. Without Caligo there to constantly buffer them I normally just held one hundred eighty degrees in front of me, it made me feel a little weird to hold conscious awareness of a full three hundred and sixty degrees. But with Caligo still silent and on the mend, and Somnium still quietly worrying over him I was on my own and would just have to buck up and deal with the slight feelings of exposure it brought.

I didn’t have long as now both Crash and Burn were now on opposite sides of me, but I didn’t need a long time, mostly due to the fact I had used shadow stride over to the darkened boughs of the nearest tree to bolster my concentration. It also just happened to give me a good view of the perplexed expressions of the two pegasi.

I was just about to step out from the tree when I got a better idea. I never really like all this up front and personal fighting, even with my ability to sense things around me, it always irked me. When it came to fighting games or shooters, I always preferred the third-person view. So why not use it now? A grin crept over my face as I formed my proxy about ten feet away, and sent my shadow proxy out as I silently followed in the ample shadows around me as I debated on whether or not I should attempt to harden its existence just yet.

It was Crash who noticed my shadow moving out from the tree first as he motioned to his brother, who said, “Ah, a fine trick indeed, but this is a test to see your fighting prowess, running away won’t help you.” I couldn’t help but giggle a little at that. Luckily I was enough to not be heard.

My little stunt had apparently made them a little angry, or possibly from the slightly oversized grin I had it sport, but regardless both brothers took wing and began to quickly circle my shadow, of who was now sitting down and gave a silent, but still comical yawn. Crash didn’t like that at all, and as he made his way behind me, suddenly stopped, and took a mighty swing at my shadows side.

‘Ooo, I’m gonna have me some fun with this city slicker.’

His sword, still turned in his mouth to hit me with the wide side was obviously meant to hurt, especially since it appeared I wasn’t taking this seriously, but panic began to visibly well up in him as his sword began to slip through my shadow like butter. It was then that I hardened the shadow, the sword, now completely stuck, was in the middle of the right side of its body. At this point Burn had stopped his circling, and crash released the sword from his jaw as to properly scream, not high pitched mind you, but a scream of fear nonetheless.

Sporting an ever widening grin, the likes to rival Pinkie Pie, my shadow then made its way to standing up, the head “looking” directly at the screaming Crash. He started to say something, from the distance I was at it sounded like a form of apology. It was then I noticed the look of horror upon Burn’s face,

‘Geez, his eye are bigger now than ever, it’s almost sickeningly funny.’

I then lashed out both of my shadows front legs, turning them insubstantial as they grew, but then hardened into existence as they quickly wrapped around waist and wing of the two surprised pegasi, completely immobilizing them.

Shifting the puppet into a more bipedal stance I brought, the now silenced, ponies, over to the more comfortable darkness beneath the tree. Calling up another shadow around me, and properly hiding myself within it as well, I then “made my way out” once they were within about three yards yards.

Looking a bit sheepish, their mouths clanged open and hit the ground below them, making the real me shudder and thinking on how that couldn’t possibly be healthy, and behind that musing on just how related these ponies were to snakes if they could unhinge their jaws like that so easily.

“*tick* Sooo, how was that?” I asked as the proxy, around me, mirrored my own chin-hair tugging. Bit of a nervous habit. I thought I’d done a good job, but they just remain silent. Had I done something wrong? I must have done something wrong, that can be the only reason they weren’t saying anything. A cold pit began to form at the bottom of my stomach as I thought on what I’d just done. Initial use of some moderate scare tactics, mostly due to absurdity more than grotesqueness, but I’d managed minimal damage done to targets, at least I hadn’t heard any bones crack, and they looked like they were breathing fine, even if it was a bit shallow. In fact I was rather proud that I’d finally thought up a way to figure out “fighting” rather than creating two mashy spike-plates to pulp them between. This immobilization stuff is kinda fun once you start to think about it.

They remained silent, jaws still agape.

“Oh right,” I said with a small nervous chuckle, the test was definitely over. Letting the dark constructs fade back into nothingness as both pegasi, and Crash’s sword, landed with a small thump onto the dirt a few inches below them.

They remained silent, but they recovered themselves enough to close their mouths. Then Crash did something altogether unexpected, he looked down by my feet, and then to the ground around me as he raised a single eyebrow. Remaining silent, he silently nudged his brother, breaking out of his judging stare of me, and pointed to the ground around me. The same raised eyebrow look was then mirrored by Burn as well, who then calmly stood up, a sly grin having spread across his face and said, “An impressive display, indeed, rather  well done. Your stealth is quite a feat, something my brother and I can attest too, especially if your claim to being untrained is true,” I braced myself, compliments in an interview are always a bad sign. “However, we prefer to know who we work with before going out to do any fieldwork together.”

My heart sank into my stomach. “I don’t understand.” I did understand, but I still hoped he was bluffing. Had my real face been showing it would have only proved how good of a poker face Applejack had.

“Oh, don't play coy with us.” Crash said with another sickeningly half cocked smile on his face. “You don’t get to be a monster hunter without being able to learn how to track them. Just look down behind you.”

I did, and couldn’t see anything. It was just… ground. I turned back and only gave them a quizzical look for reply.

Burn just sighed, looked over to Crash and said, “Shall you take this one brother, or shall I?”

“I think you should let him know, dear brother.” He said with a head inclined in Burn’s direction.

“Very well. The ground below you, whoever you claim to be, is indented from your walk over here. However, not only is the stride completely off from your supposed height, but they are also shaped in such a way that they are anything BUT hooves. So the real question is, what are you, really?”

So there it was, come clean or lose the opportunity of trying to do something good. I really didn’t know if I could take not being able to figure out what to do with myself again, and if I didn’t come clean, apparently these guys had some clout in the monsters hunting business and might just be willing to spread all kinds of rumors about me. So I did the only thing I could think to do with my heart racing and thoughts of all kinds of failure swirling around my head, I gave in.

“Please don’t hate me.” I said just loud enough from them to hear my voice as I slowly released the shadows around me. I stupidly dragged it out, fearing the release and the hatred of my own selfish deeds brought to light as the shadows split aside like an unzipped coat leaving a hunched six foot four, black robed, bipedal figure pulling at his sleeves after taking down his hood.

At first nothing happened, aside from my ever mounting fear that they were about to attack the bipedal “changeling” monster in front of them Not that I could justly blame them, they had every right to despise the way I’d manipulated them as I hid behind the societal stereotype that all ponies were xenophobes. My mind swirled with all of the justifiable pain and torment I should be inflicting upon myself so as to not have them waste their own time, of which I’d already plainly wasted on a freak like me. My shoulders began to sag in my disgusting self-pity.

Neither taking their eyes off me Crash said, “You thinking what I’m thinking dear brother?”

“Why I do believe I am brother of mine.” Burn replied with a shared grin. Now truly looking at me in the eye he said, “As egregious a wound you have given us for such a deception, we are willing to let this slide. After all, you did come to the best around with a true intention of learning didn’t you?”

I nodded, “It was all true, and I overheard you both talking, and I know that ponies really don’t like other species too much… b-but you really can call me Rumor. Will you please forgive me?”

At that Burn took wing and place a hoof around my shoulder, “Of course, we all make mistakes from time to time, isn’t that right Brother Crash?” To which he took wing as well, wrapping an arm around my opposite shoulder saying, “True indeed Brother Burn. Just stick with us Rumor, we’ll show you how to be a monster hunter just like us.” He finished with a smile that was equally shared with his brother and then finally with me. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was as we started heading back to town to find a place to eat and, apparently, celebrate my induction to their little group.

‘What nice guys.”

(Author's Note Mk. 2: Have looked over some of the things I’ve said and realized them to be no good. Specifically the shadow range (not piercing shadows, but the length away from Rumor he is able to manipulate and sense the world around him). Never been very good with judging distances, and have recently attended a football game, yeah, those fields are much more massive than I had thought. In accordance, Rumor will not be able to directly sense shadows, nor harden shadows beyond a 20 foot radius, caught a change in chapter 9, but if you spot anymore, please, fell free to let me know and I will fix them.)