Once A Shadow - From the other side

I woke up with Spitfire by my side, smiling at me radiantally. I still can't fully grasp the concept that she's now my marefriend, but I'm sure that'll pass. Figuring it would be best not to disturb her, I slowly creeped out of bed and made myself breakfast. Just as I was about to sit down and have breakfast, when she woke up, and gave me a cheery look.

"What?" I said stupidly.

"Oh, nothing. It's just that I got a message last night about some necromancers hiding out in the Haysead Swamps, and that we're going to have to deal with them today. And yet here you are, eating breakfast like a complete idiot." She Chuckled

"Well, excuse me for not knowing about that. Is there anything else you forgot to mention to me or can I finish my breakfast?"

"Oh yes, there was something else I forgot to mention. Brawny came by earlier this morning while you were asleep and dropped off a box for you but he didn't say what it was, he said it would 'ruin the surprise'. Anyway, I'm going to go downstairs and assemble the team. You can take a look at the box, I left it on the table in the kitchen." She then grabbed her suit and trotted out of the room. I looked over at the table and saw the plain packaged box on the table. I went over to it and proceeded to open it like a kid with a christmas present. Inside was a wrapped object and a note, I took the note out and read it. It said:

Dear Hornet, thanks for helping me at the Smithy, I really appreciate it. To say thanks, I made you a little something. It's an enchanted crossbow, with a nice oak finish. The enchantment is to help with loading the device, it pulls back the mechanism automatically, so all you have to do is load the bolt and fire. I also had a bit of a crack at advanced mechanics, and made an adjustable scope to go with it. Unfortunately, I couldn't make you any special bolts, so you'll have to put up with ordinary ones. I hope you use it well and don't kill yourself with it.
Yours, Brawny Hooves.

I put down the note and unwrapped the crossbow, revealing the cutsom oak finish on the handle and the body. on the side was a small metal plate with an engraving saying 'The Hornet's Sting'. I held it against the light, marvelling inthe magnificent craftsmanship. Well, well, well Brawny, you really know how to make somepony happy. Remembering about what Spitfire said earlier, I grabbed my vest and put it on, putting the crossbow on my back. The crossbow clipped onto the knife sheath perfectly, allowing for a quick draw of either. On the way through the hideout I grabbed a quiver from a shelf and headed out to the main room. Spitfire, Soarin, Blaze and Shadow were all just about to leave. Spitfire heard me coming and turned around.

She smiled at me. "Well, nice to see your sporting some new equipment. You'll get time to practice with it when we get to the Haysead Swamps, and then you'll be using it for real. Time to go Everypony!"

We flew over the countryside until we finally arrived at the Swamps, then Spitfire turned to us.

_"Okay, their base is hidden about a mile in. As soon as we enter, there should be four paths. I'll go down one by myself. Soarin and Blaze go down the next, Captain Night Wing go down the third, and Shadow you take the fourth. Am I clear?"

We nodded. "Good, then lets go!"_ -chapter 25-

"Wait!" I called out "Where do I go?"

Sptifire turned to me. "You? I have a special job for you, you're staying here, guarding the entrance."

"Guarding the entrance, why do I have to guard the entrance?" I complained.

"Because, you have a crossbow, and you can pick off anypony who trys to leave before we do. Besides, I thought you wanted to test out that crossbow of yours."

I sighed with annoyance. "Fine, but if I die of boredom, I'm haunting you."

She giggled "I'm sure you'll do just fine." She then went off and I lost sight of them.

Well that's just great. Stuck with guarding the entrance. It just had to be me, it just had to be. After silently complaining for a few minutes I set up on a ridge not too far away from the entrance. After a few minutes of waiting, a hooded figure stepped out. I lined up my crosshairs with his hidden face and fired. Within less than a second, the bolt pierced his skull and he dropped to the ground dead. That wasn't too bad of a first shot, if I do say so myself. But before I could celebrate, three more came out. I fired at one, killing him. Unfortunately the other two spotted me and charged. Grabbing a bolt from my quiver, I went to put it into the crossbow. I then realised that I wouldn't be able to kill both of them quick enough if I fired two bolts, so instead I thrusted the bolt into the chest of the closest one, ramming it into his heart. I then loaded the crossbow with the bolt and fired it into the third one's face, point blank. After cleaning the blood off my new best friend, I searched and then dragged the bodies out of sight, sat back down and waited. After almost falling asleep, A hooded figure, slightly larger than the others I faced, stepped out. I lined up the crosshairs and pulled the trigger. Within a split second the figure turned and caught the bolt, at the same time making his hood off and revealing his face. He was a grey unicorn, with an elderly complexion about him. He smiled at me and laughed, and then spoke.

"You better watch out with where you fire that, you never know where it might go..." The necromancer then levitated the bolt and it flew right back at me. It missed by millimeters, creating a whistling sound as it went by my ear. "You shouldn't have come here, now I'm regrettably going to have to kill you."

"Ha!" I said pulling out my knife "This is going to be fun."

"Unfortunately for you, it will also be painful." He then whipped out a knife and 'teleported' towards me, taking a slash at me at the same time. I jumped back, but it just clipped me, carving a menacing scar over my right eye. My vision was now partially impaired, I could only see out of one eye. Realising this, he went for a second strike, hitting my vest. The vest easily held up against the attack and using the shorter distance between us to my advantage, I rammed him, sending him backwards. "Not bad stranger, you show resilience and courage, sadly that will not save you." He then 'teleported' towards me again and took a successful swipe at my throat. I coughed up blood as I clutched my neck, gasping for air.

"Fuck...you...you...son of a bitch!" I spluttered

"Goodbye, stranger. I hope that our paths never cross again, for your sake." He then trotted away as my vision faded into blackness.

I woke up in the middle of nowhere, with a robed figure standing in front of me. Seeing him, I instantly went for my knife, finding it wasn't there. "I'm sorry about what he did, but he had no choice. I also took your knife, I'll give it back if you promise not to kill me." As it turned out, the 'he' was actually a 'she'. As I stood up, I felt my neck, finding that it was fully healed. "oh, you noticed that. I healed your wounds, but the scar on your eye will stay there permanently I'm afraid." I looked at the robed figure. She was a white unicorn, with gold mane and tail. She seemed kind of young for a necromancer, but I wasn't about to take chances. She held up my knife. "Like I said before, I'll give your knife back if you promise not to kill me."

"Okay, I promise I won't kill you, on two conditions. One, what's your name and two, why did you help me?" I asked

"My name is Crystal Tears, my father is the one who attacked you. I helped you because I'm not one of them, well at least I don't want to be."

"Wait, what do you mean by that?"

"I was born into the cult, I didn't have a say in the matter. My father knew this, so instead of training me to be like the other necromancers, he gave me special lessons. I was taught to heal and other things, but none of them could be used to hurt another pony. He's been getting scrutiny from the other members, but he ignores it. They say he's 'becoming soft', as you found out when he said he regrettably had to try and kill you."

"Then why don't you run away? Start a new life, leave the necromancy behind?"

"Because of my dad. He's one of the high ranking members of the cult, and if we tried to leave, they'd kill us. That's why-"

"That's why we need your help." Said a voice coming from around a corner. It was Crystal Tear's father, holding my crossbow. "I'm Crystal Shards, you already know my daughter. We want you to destroy the Black Hoof and it's leader, Sorrow Curse. Oh, and sorry for attacking you like that, when you showed yourself I though you were just a bandit or something."

"Don't worry about it." I replied.

"Alright, now that we have that out of the way, do you think you could help us?"

"Look, I'd love to help you, but if my team finds out that I've been talking to you, We'll probably all end up dead."

"I understand. We'll contact you again sometime, but for now we must go into hiding. Tears, say your goodbyes to mister...?"

"Hornet."

"Right. Say your goodbyes then we shall go, here's your crossbow back." He said as he tossed my crossbow back to me.

"goodbye Hornet; and please, I hope you'll help us." she said

"Don't worry, I will."

"Thank you, thank you so much." she said, before kissing me on the lips. "I hope we'll see you again." As they flew away, I felt something touch my back, to find it was my knife with a chained locket hooked around the blade , with a photo of Crystal Tears inside. I smiled, and flew away back to the Wonderbolts HQ. As I walked in, Spitfire and Soarin were standing in the lobby looking nervous. Spitfire then looked up and saw me, brining a large smile to her face.

"Hornet! Thank Celestia you're okay. We thought you were dead, I'm glad we were wrong."

"Nice to see you too. If you don't mind, I'd like to get some rest."

"Of course, by the way what happened to your eye?" She asked curiously

"I was attacked by some necromancers trying to leave early, and one of them got me in the eye."

"Well, I'm sure you'll be fine. If you don't mind me saying, that actually make you look more tough."

"What, you're saying I'm not tough?"

"Ha, considering you got hit in the eye in the first place." She joked "Come one, lets go get some sleep."

"Can't argue with you there." I said as I followed her into her room and got into bed with her. After getting comfortable we both fell asleep, assured that everything will be fine. Well at least one of us was.