He walked and walked and walked.
In the cold mountains that covered the south of the Crystal Empire from the rest of Equestria. Even in mid spring they were slightly cold, but that temperature was no match for Mane's natural cold resistance due to his origin of the 'Frozen Nurth', how they call It on Equestria's official map.

His backpack was filled with supplies to last for half week. From water to canned food, and of course a small sleeping bag along, and complete with a bottle of 'Crystal Vodka', his favorite.
It was his first time in those mountains, but not the first time hiking by a ridge. The rocky landscape was something to be appreciated, with Its small plants growing in the middle of the boulders, and the tops in grey rock which usually get covered in dense snow on winter just like the rest of the landscape.

It has been six hours since he departed from the city, without even knowing the location of his target's safe house. By that point, he didn't care about eliminating Don Topaz. It was all about rescuing his friend in time before something would happen.

"Just keep going... It may be right after that bank..." He kept thinking, forcing his tired legs to keep going. But arriving to the place was always disappointment just to see the same panorama of rocky mountains with trails. *Fucking hell...*

He kept going, until something made him stop by a flat side of the mountain full of boulders. Something came to his mind and he looked around intrigued.

"I'm being watched..." He thought nervous.

Suddenly, the tiny rocks in front of his hooves on the ground flew in random direction, with a noise of something hitting the ground and leave a dent on the dirt. In close inspection, he saw a iron sphere. It was indeed a bullet, but he didn't hear any shot!

"What the fuck?" He whispered to himself.

Half minute later in analyzing the perimeter, a second bullet razzed his shoulder and It came from behind. Mane took his hand to the scratch and ran to a boulder, and ducked behind It. There was somepony out there making from him a target. He took a peek, but his red hair on the top was too tall and only served has a spotting sign, when another bullet went through his hair and kept going to the empty landscape.

"What the heck..? A silenced musket?! I can't even see where he is! Turning myself into crystal makes me bulletproof, but slows me down and I would get tired if I try to run..."

Another bullet hit the rock he was cover, making him duck even more behind It. Even without the 'Crystal Sense', he would get shot due to the fact he didn't know where It was coming from, making the 'Crystal Sense' useless in one spot of his body also making him even slower, making him an easy prey. Whoever It was, reminded him of Pinkamena using the sniper she adopted in the night they raided the warehouse along with the cult, but something was wrong, because It was a prototype, so there couldn't be any possible copies of that long range weapon.
Whoever It was, he had skill with a musket, and he was playing with Mane, because otherwise he was already dead.

"This guy is like a crossbow elite... stealthy, quiet... but more dangerous. I can't see where the bullets are coming from unlike a bolt, not mentioning how he manages to be silent with a musket."

A scary concept.
Suddenly, an idea came to him He searched his backpack for the tiny mirror he had brought with him. He used his magic and slowly levitated the mirror away, and moved with the same speed to the side, and he could see the reflection showing the various rocks a bit far away on the top of the hill. A spot formed by two big boulders and tiny ones called his attention.

"I would be there..."

But quickly, a bullet broke the mirror in shards with a loud noise of glass breaking, making Mane flinch on the impact and surprise attack. He had to hurry up or else something would happen to Pinkamena, and that was only being a delay to him.
He crawled backwards along the bank on his stomach, always staying behind the rock he was. With his magic, he forced his big hair down or else the chances of being spotted again would ruin his plan. He kept crawling along the bank until he took cover in a new boulder.
He grabbed his hair and made a ponytail from It, making his horn the only thing tall in his head, but It was hard to spot being his body color grey just like the rocky scenario.

The new spot was kind of close to where he was before, but It seemed the sniper was more focused on the previous one. He took a peek by the side of the big rock and checked the place he thought about before. Mane took cover again and used his clayvorance spell to analyze the place without any risks.

The image on his conscious was just like the rest... rocks everywhere, various tones of grey in the floor. Until from behind a rock, he saw a familiar wooden shape. The brown stock of the musket, being held by a grey male pegasus with a black tail, laying on his stomach in the rocks and low grass, with two black stripes painted on his cheeks. He was dressed to be confused with the environment.
His pants had random patterns of grey tones, the same for the windbreaker he was wearing, complete with a hood so nopony could see his black hair as a stain in the grey landscape.

"Found you, motherfucker..."

On the top of the bank, the sniper kept his grip firm in the musket. He kept looking through the iron sight to the big rock, awaiting for his target to show his red mohawk like hair. Four minutes passed and there was no sight of him.
He started slowly moving the musket to the side followed by his open eye, always aligned with the iron sight.

The sniper started feeling nervous with his targets absence. He must have moved from his hiding spot, but where could he be?
He scanned the surroundings by only moving his eyes, but he was nowhere to be seen. He kept looking for him, until something caught his attention.

A strange pointy grey rock started glowing red in It's end. The light coming from It was tiny he almost missed It. He focused his stare into the glowing spot, and he saw his target's face looking at him in the distance, and It seemed he was pointing at him with a hand against the undergrowth grass. He aligned the musket in his direction and started to press the trigger.
Suddenly, a red ray came in his direction, and with a loud noise his head got shot by a magic ray, taking a huge chunk out of his head.

Mane undone his ponytail and allowed his big red hairdo to pop out of cover and waited. No bullets flew into It's direction, so he crawled out of cover and ran uphill to the sniper nest. Getting there, It wasn't hard to find the body dressed in grey now surrounded by red bits of skull and brain.

His body remained in the same position, now It was just a corpse spilling blood in the rocks. Mane grabbed the musket and saw something new on It's end. A steel cylinder screwed to the end of the barrel, with a hole adjusted to the size of the bullets. The silencer seemed to have done his job during those moments, so Mane took possession of the modified weapon, along with the pouches holding the bullets and the gunpowder.

The grey stallion turned the body around and felt grossed after seeing what was left of the sniper's head with the rest of his brains lodged inside is cracked skull. He searched his pockets and found a note, where apparently the guy was a hired gun from Don Topaz to eliminate Mane, with a full description of him and his orders. Along with the note, was a scribbled map of the surroundings with different positions marked as sniper nests, complete with a drawn compass. On the map somewhere in the middle of those marked places, his destination, Don Topaz's safe house.

He checked the weapon again and It's new addition. His thugs weren't that dumb after all, to come up with something new and revolutionary, giving the fact those new weapons were created only one or two months ago.
Mane rechecked the map and It was hard to tell where he was in that map made of scribbles and raw drawings. In close to a spot, a crevice was drawn as a reference point. Mane climbed one of the big rocks next to him and analyzed the surroundings. Looking back, he saw the crevice really far away. He pulled the compass out of his backpack and aligned with the map.

In close inspection, the crevice was facing north, meaning he was on the spot in extreme northwest and he had just entered in the map's area. The next sniper nest should be around half kilometer to the east, getting him closer to his destination, with the landmark of three raw rock columns holding a huge boulder, forming a dolmen.

Mane folded and saved the letter with the map in his pocket. He looked into the compass and turned to east. Before going, he dug with his magic a grave and buried the dead sniper, finishing the grave with a small pile of rocks arranged in a tower, starting from a large polished pebble and ending with a small one on the top.

He stood in silence for a minute while looking into the the grave he just did for his opponent, while the silence of the mountains made company along with the unheard wind blowing the plants around him.
After that, he silently walked away.