Chapters How do you become a king or a queen? A prince or a princess? Do you think that it’s all bloodlines and birthrights? No, you have to earn your title through hard work, tears and more bloodshed than you could ever imagine. You earn your title, be it through a sword in the chest or a knife in the back.
Nowadays, though, it seems that the nobility are nothing but figures, prancing about with their hollow names and ‘sophisticated society’. They aren’t true royals like they think they are.
Though, I guess that’s why they’re called nobles and not royalty.
There is only a single one among them fit for her title of royalty, of princess. Celestia fought her way to her title, earning it in full. It was good to see that my sister was still respected thusly.
I can’t say she’s gone soft, no matter how much I want to. I know that she simply changed with the times. Long ago were we the proud sisters, the two warrior princesses. Now, my dear sister is the loving and caring ruler of a peaceful nation. I can’t begrudge her for that, and I can’t begrudge the people for getting used to peace.
What I can begrudge the people for, though, is forgetting that peace isn’t the only possible solution.
What I can begrudge my sister of isn’t something so simple.
My banishment to the moon was just and I can’t be anything but thankful she didn’t strike me down those thousand years ago.
What preceded it, though, was cruel and disgusting. While she never had a direct hand in it, she allowed the killing and hunting of my people.
Let me explain. For starters, how do you think my sister and I have survived for all these years? There’s two different answers, since we’re not exactly sisters. At least by blood. Celestia is nearly a century older than I.
To this day, I do not know how she lives and the memory of it was burned from her mind by someone we don’t know. But my ‘immortality’ is rather cliche when you think about it.
I’m a Vampire. And no, I do not sparkle in the sun. I fixed that problem nearly a century before my banishment. Time does not touch me, though my strength ages. I feed on the life force, contained in the blood, of my enemies or sometimes on whoever is willing to combat this fading of strength.
Ah, and now we’re back to hollow titles. When you earn your title of royalty, there is so much blood shed. What if a rather thirsty creature of the night decided to drink all of that blood up? She lives for a long time, that’s what. And she gains followers, who walk by her side in the night.
Most of those followers were hunted shortly after my banishment, but some survived in a deep slumber in catacombs and graveyards and sometimes their own graves.
Though all that time without pure vampires gave fledglings power.
Ah, another thing I have to explain. You see, a Vampire can turn another with a bit of their dark magic of the night. It enters through a bite, usually from feeding, and works its way through the body in that manner. This creates a fledgling, a minor vampire. Fledglings can create more fledglings of equal power, though the more diluted the bloodline the more ravenous and bloodthirsty the creature becomes.
Only a vampire of pure blood can create another pureblood, and even so only a few knew how. I’m the last one who can do so now that those few were hunted down and slaughtered like cattle. The difference between the two is that a pureblood has unlimited potential, meaning that they can always get stronger. The fledgling is limited to only grow to half the strength of the one who turned them at the time of turning.
It was a group of fledglings that originally caused all vampires to be seen as terrible creatures of death and evil. A single fledgling, his vampiric blood so diluted and warped, ripped apart an innocent peasant in a village. That was all it took for my kin to be branded as evil creatures to be feared and avoided.
A similar event, though involving a great many maddened fledglings instead of one, caused us to be hunted. They consumed and pillaged many a village because I personally slew them hundreds of years ago. It was actually one of the many things leading up to my rule as princess.
Ah, back to the Princess part. You see, we may be strong and influential, but when your entire nation finds out what you are... well...
Uprising, rebellion, attempted assassination, riots just to name a few. Apparently when the people are riled up enough they stop caring about the power you fought and bled for to earn. They imprisoned Celestia and last I heard the people were discussing rather dark things. Funny, what a thousand year old fear can do to a peaceful nation.
Celestia refused to fight her people, she worked too hard to get them to where they were. Apparently they thought the same of me as they barged into my quarters.
They forgot or didn’t know something.
You remember what I said earlier?
They forgot I’m a warrior Princess, and they’ve just shattered the peace my sister worked so hard to cultivate. because of that hard work she put in, though, I resigned from killing anyone.
Funny how what seemed like a little rant about politics turns into something like this, eh?
I am a Princess of Equestria, Queen of the Night, Vampire being pursued and persecuted for no reason other than fear, and I’m heading towards the one girl I know I can count on no matter what.
I hope Ponyville is easier to hide in than Canterlot because I think I finally lost my pursuers. I’m sick and tired of always meeting fear and hate just because of what I am.
My name is Luna, and I think I’m going to do something about it.
Author's Note
as the description says, this may fail or it may soar. This is the first time I'm writing in this style so bear with me, the rest of the story will not be in this style if it turns into that
The night has always been calming for me, no matter what. If it weren’t for that then my little escapade on the moon would leave me a mad woman. And if it weren’t for that now then I probably wouldn’t be flying towards Ponyville right now.
I would have slaughtered the rebellion.
I shook that thought from my mind and just flew faster. Every now and then I would send out a magical pulse to see if the group of people that were following me were still there. They weren’t and I sighed in relief as Ponyville came into view.
Funny how much a peaceful nation can change in a week. It seems that the people in that nation harbored many much darker and sinister thoughts and feelings behind their smiling faces. Within the second day of the rebellion, murderers and bandits sprouted up everywhere. It was no longer safe to travel without knowing how to defend yourself, the night was a very dangerous place and the creatures of the night that caused the rebellion weren’t even the biggest threat.
At least not until recently. Of my purebloods, only three remained. One of them remained in Canterlot as a sort of informant, another was off in some distant land sleeping. The last, though, the last was a power hungry fool who came to me right before the rebellion. Spilled his entire plan to the one person that could stop him, at least that’s what I thought.
He wanted vampires to reign supreme over all other races and peoples. Right before I decided it was a good time to strike him down, a contingent of guards and nobles burst in screaming for my incarceration. Right after my return, Celestia made me promise that no matter the situation I could not kill a citizen of our nation. She put emphasis on the our part.
Traitorous guards and rebellious nobles were still citizens, but good lord it took all of my strength not to end them... I knocked them all unconscious, though, and visited my sister in her room. She wasn’t there, though, and after a bit of searching I found her in the dungeons. The dungeons!
We talked for awhile, but the last thing she said still haunts me. I had suggested I go to her pupil, who has solved some of the biggest problems in the nation’s history.
“I know you’re going to try and fix this, I know you’re going to try and put what’s left of your people in a better light... but so help me if you use her to do so it had better be her choice because if her life is destroyed or snuffed out and she was forced into it I will never forgive you.”
Those words stung my very being.
It wasn’t even what she said, it was how she said it and how she looked at me. She glared at me and I swear there was a bit of malice in her tone.
She really cared for that girl.
She forgot something, though. So do I. That girl is the reason I’m here to tell you this story, and the reason Nightmare Moon isn’t reigning over a permanently dark Equestria. I wouldn’t cause her harm if I could help it.
Unfortunately, I can’t help it. If she agrees to the proposition I have in mind as I soar over the new fortified walls of ponyville cloaked in shadows, she’ll be subjected to much pain and suffering. If she agrees, she will have to kill or be killed.
But if she agrees, I’m going to do everything in my power to bring her happiness in the hell her life will become.
My train of thought is knocked astray as I’m suddenly enveloped in a lavender magic and, with a flash, I’m no longer flying. I thought I felt a detection spell when I went over the wall. Now I was staring at a very different Twilight Sparkle than I remember.
She had bandages soaked in red around her abdomen, which were peeking under a loose tank, and her body looked more tough and fit. While the latter could have been over a large amount of time living in a village where you have to pull your own weight, the former was definitely recent.
She also had a very strange bow of black crystal with an arrow aimed straight at her head.
“What is my name?” She said, no, demanded. I immediately recognized the situation, she was trying to make sure I was who I looked like.
“Twilight Sparkle.” I answered.
“Who am I?” She asked again. It took only a second to glean what she meant.
“The bearer of the Element of Magic and student to Princess Celestia.” I answered once more. She pulled the string back more, as if she was about to fire.
“Tell me something to convince me you are Princess Luna.” She said. That took me more than just a few seconds to think of. After a full minute I remembered something.
“For Nightmare Night one year I came to Ponyville, where I was feared and rejected until you helped me have fun again.” I said. She looked unconvinced. “And you had a spot on replica of Starswirl the Bearded’s outfit.” I continued. A light smile creeped onto her face and she loosened her grip, only slightly though.
“Last question, are you here to drink my blood or are you here to try and fix what happened?” She asked. I got to my feet slowly from where I had crashed into the ground from the sudden teleportation and fixed my wings with a shake.
“Mainly the latter, though that could lead to the former.” I responded. That seemed to satisfy her, though, as the bow and arrow disappeared and she let out a hefty sigh and sank down on a chair.
“Well we can get to that later then... Right now, tell me how you plan to fix this. My last plan obviously didn’t turn out so well.” Twilight said. Now that she wasn’t ready to put an arrow through my head I saw that she was exhausted.
“I’m not entirely sure, what did you try?” I asked, not wanting to repeat her mistake. She made a strange noise, something between a snicker and a laugh.
“I tried resolving all the violence that sprung up peacefully. Nearly died. The only reason I didn’t is because you pick up a few things when your brother is captain of the royal guard. I hope the crystal empire isn’t getting any of this.” Twilight said, sighing again.
“I don’t plan to go about this peacefully... You know of Equestrian history, do you remember anything about the Warrior Princess Sisters?” I asked, my tone rather dark. She gave me a strange look, as if she suddenly understood anything.
“Everything recorded... Celestia always told me they were stories and legends, were they true?” She asked. I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Not exactly, they were rather light. We were really warrior Princesses, and we earned that title through a sea of bloodshed. Celestia obviously changed, but I haven’t. I promised not to kill any innocents, though that shouldn’t hamper us. Bandits are no longer citizens of our nation and Vampires are my people. I plan to destroy the vampires that caused this and bring my race into the light so they can be seen as more than just monsters.
As for all the violence, that can only be changed with more violence. Snuff out the biggest threats and make people afraid to be bad. That fear will turn into true peace after long. In my time, it took about five generations. This land is used to peace, though, so it should only be a few years if we pull this off.” I explained.
“Waaaait wait wait wait... That was a hell of a lot of information you just gave me... Your plan is to slaughter bad vampires, kill a few bad guys to make everyone else scared to follow in their footsteps, wait a few years until that fear turns back into peace and all of that is all hinging on if we can do something neither of us know what it is?” Twilight asked. She looked troubled.
It was a very accurate paraphrase if you ask me.
“Pretty much.” I said simply. I almost laughed at her expression. it was the kind of expression only a girl as obsessed with scheduling and planning could give when faced with something so scattered and incomplete. She was silent for a good five minutes before she spoke.
“At the start, you said that the plan could lead to you drinking my blood, what was with that?” She asked. Ah, I had almost forgotten that part.
“Well, you see, a thousand years without feeding leaves me fairly weak. Imagine you can’t starve to death or die of thirst, but you can’t sate your thirst and hunger for a thousand years. If it weren’t for my incredible amounts of self control I probably would have fed for days on the unsuspecting in Canterlot.” I explained.
“Then why my blood?” Twilight asked after a moment. It was a complicatedly simple answer, really.
“Any old person’s blood would do very little, I’d need to drink up a thousand years’ worth of it, and a normal person is only worth about a week to a month on average. Your blood, on the other hand, is so saturated with power and magic that it would sate my thirst after only a few feedings.” I explained. It felt odd explaining this to her, but luckily she seemed to take it well. She wasn’t freaking out or anything, even though I just said I really want to drink her blood multiple times.
Apparently she took it as any old information.
“Would I turn into a vampire if you did that? All of the more realistic legends and myths say that a bite can turn the victim...” She asked. O-hoh it seems she’s done some research on my kind. That should make things much simpler to explain.
“A simple bite or even a full feeding session won’t turn you unless the one sucking your neck knows a particular set of dark magic rituals to do so, and even then they have to have the intent on turning you instead of just feeding. I can feed from anyone I want and not a single one of them will turn.” I explained. She seemed to take that in for a moment and I was wondering something.
“Tell me, what myths and legends do you find ‘more realistic’?” I asked. She adopted a thinking pose for a while before she spoke.
“Mostly their dark magic and the difference between fledglings and purebloods, though I have no idea how to make either of them. I have actually learned and mastered a bit of the dark magic, but only things like shadow walking and black magic weapons. That bow was made from it” She answered. I thought that material looked familiar.
Shadow walking, though, was an advanced form of transportation magic that shrouds you in dark magics to allow you to melt into the shadows or even the night sky. You can then travel, it’s rather like teleporting in slow motion now that I think about it. Wherever there are shadows you can go, and it also masks your magical signature from all but the most advanced senses and spells. This means that you can teleport from one shadowed area to the next without being detected. Very useful.
The fact that she knew and mastered this without instruction was incredibly impressive. I had to know how she managed it. She seemed to sense my question, though.
“It took a long time, but Celestia taught me a few things about dark and black magic before so I wasn’t going into it blindly. All she showed me was how to use dark magic like my normal magic.” She explained.
“I see, impressive as always.” I said with a smile. She smiled back before yawning. She really was exhausted, and a forced teleportation through a hiding spell takes a lot out of you apparently. We both stayed silent for a little while until I noticed that she was barely fighting off sleep. It was three in the morning.
“Well I imagine you have a lot of questions and I have a lot myself, but it seems we are both exhausted... Could I perchance stay here tonight? I don’t know where else to go.” I asked her. I really didn't know where else to go. She grumbled something before pointing to a couch and heading for the stairs.
“Spike will be up in a few hours. Help him out in the morning and and I don’t mind.” She said and before I could respond she was up the stairs.
It’s been awhile since I’ve slept on a couch, much more comfortable than I remember. I had a very strange dream that night. It involved Twilight, myself and a rather appealingly dreadful feeding session.
Author's Note
so first chapter, how is it? Don't bother commenting anything if you're not going to give a reason why. Even if it's positive, telling me what you like let's me know what you like and letting me know what needs work does just that. Don't just say "this is good" or "this sucks ass".
I was awoken from my light slumber by the sound of talons clicking on the wooden floor. I opened my eyes in the dark and saw a pair of emerald reptilian eyes gleaming in the early morning light.
Spike, Twilight’s dragon assistant. He was an adolescent, but he was still larger than most dogs could get. I had heard a few things, and even seen the creature a few times, during what little time I’ve spent in this town. He likes to walk on two legs when he’s indoors and is just a bit taller than the average person when he does so. His purple scales had grown a bit darker since she last saw him, which explained why I could barely see him. He spoke, then, a younger voice than I thought he would have.
“So will you go up in flames if you go into the sunlight or would you be able to run errands for me outside?” He asked. That confused me, a lot.
“Huh?” I asked. It wasn’t the smartest thing to say, but I was still shrugging off sleep.
“Twilight told me what happened and that you’re supposed to help me, although burst into flames or not she did say to make sure you’re still a secret for a while so I guess I’ll run the errands... I’ve made breakfast, by the way, help yourself to it and bring some up for Twilight. I’ll think of more for you to do or help me with when I get back in twenty minutes.” He said, the light turning on as he started walking.
When he reached the door he looked back at me, I was still baffled at how he was acting.
“What?” He asked. I said the first thing that came to mind.
“Are you not afraid of me for what I am?” I asked. He chuckled and opened the door.
“Even if I didn’t know you’re a good woman you couldn’t bite through my scales if you tried.” He said and left, the door closing behind him. What he didn’t know, apparently, is that vampires, at least powerful ones, could rip through steel with their teeth alone... but he doesn’t need to know that. At least not yet.
Well, better not waste time. Besides, I haven’t eaten in two days and the smell coming from the kitchen was nothing less than deific.
There were four plates, two with bacon and eggs and two with french toast on it. I dug into one of the plates of each like a starving beggar, princesshood be damned. When I finished I used a quick cleaning spell on the plates and picked up the two full plates and made my way upstairs.
Twilight was sitting up in her bed, against the headboard, with a series of rather old looking tomes and scrolls floating about. Her hair was a disheveled mess and her bandages looked like they were the same ones from last night. When I stepped into the room in full she looked to me and smiled.
“Oh good, I’m starved. I assume Spike went out and left you to bring me my breakfast?” She asked. I simply nodded and handed her the plates and fork. She started talking between bites as she ate her meal much neater than I did, though still about as fast.
“So I’ve been reading up on a lot of those myths and legends and I think I have a bit more of an understanding of what you are. We can talk more about that in a bit, though, because once I’m done eating I’ll need help changing these bandages. You up to it?” She asked, finishing with a rather cute sideways glance.
“Do I have a choice?” I replied with a laugh.
“You do, actually, but I’ll take that as a sure.” She said, quickly finishing her food and throwing her blanket off of her. She got up, stretched and used her magic to open a door near the stairs, which led to a bathroom.
“I need to shower first, then put new bandages on. After that you can take one if you’d like. Spike should be home by then and we can all discuss what’s happening then. Deal?” She called and turned to look at me.
“I see no problem with it.” I said. She nodded and the door closed. I heard the sound of running water and had to stop myself from laughing as I heard a tune being hummed. It was catchy though and, as I sat down on the corner of her bed, I found myself humming it too.
She showers quick, since the door had opened only five minutes later and she called me in. When I got there, I nearly walked back out in embarrassment as I found her brushing her hair with no top on. She was turned away from me, though, and the mirror was only head high.
“Oh, I guess you wouldn’t be used to things like this. Sorry, I’m used to me and my friends walking in on each other all the time like it was nothing.” She said when she saw me in the mirror.
“Me and my sister are the same way, it was just unexpected from you...” I said. It was at that moment I remembered a rather hilarious night where Celestia had somehow gotten drunk and walked in on me while I was showering. I shook the rest of the memory from my mind, considering the situation, and looked at the girl’s back. I saw a barely closed wound on her lower back and two older scars vertically on her shoulder blades. Those scars reminded me of something.
“I forgot to ask before, or didn’t notice, but don’t you have wings? I mean I know you stepped down from being a princess almost immediately after your coronation...” I asked. I was very curious, if she had found a way to easily hide her own wings then I could hide my own and that would make it easier for me to be in disguise.
I shouldn’t have asked, her face fell into a very dark look as she finished brushing her hair. She gently placed the brush down and put her hands on her knees as she looked at the floor.
“Not anymore...” She said softly. I looked closer at the scars, taking a step forward, and saw the telltale sign of magical healing. The scars weren’t old. Judging by the signs, they were about as old as the wound.
“What happened?” I asked. She was silent as she grabbed a big roll of bandages and started clumsily wrapping them around her abdomen. I saw tears running down her face in the mirror and she was shaking slightly. I really shouldn’t have asked that question either. Thinking quickly, I stepped up to her and embraced her.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked..” I said, unsure of what else to do. She took a few breaths after that and wiped her eyes. I took the bandages from her and started wrapping them for her.
“Now that I think of it, it was fledglings. They were sane, though, but they were bandits. I tried to get them to leave us alone peacefully and they took me. They hurt me for fun until I finally tried to defend myself... I knocked half of them unconscious, and they knew I could beat the rest of them... Then one of them cast a spell and I lost consciousness.” She started. She stopped and took a deep breath. I stopped for a moment before continuing. She didn’t speak again until I finished, binding the end to the rest of it with magic. She stood up and checked it before pulling a tee on and walking out.
She sat down on her bed and I took a seat next to her silently. It was obviously a very painful memory.
“I woke up back in my bed two days ago, I had been taken three days prior... According to my friends I was found just inside of the everfree, battered and bloody... and my wings...” She continued, but couldn’t finish. Instead, I noticed a slight movement behind her and when I looked I saw the glint of purple peek from under wing-slits in the shirt.
In a flash of movement, something extended out of the slits and I was shocked and a little horrified. I’ve heard of clipping someone’s wings, but this? The only thing left in the things was the wing frame. Everything else was missing, and I can only guess that dark magic was cast over them so they would not heal. Black magic not even I could tamper with. There was a very powerful fledgling with that group of bandits.
“It horrifies and scares me and everyone else, so I use an old spell I found to retract them... I can show it to you if you’d like, it’s not very hard...” Twilight said, looking back at the mangled things. They moved and I realized that I could see some of the muscles and tendons under the remains of feathers.
“I can actually still fly with them, too... I just need to patch them up with magic to do so... I don’t want people to see me like this though...” She continued. I looked at her and I realized something. She was ready to put an arrow through my head last night. I hadn’t thought anything of it then, but now I remember how sweet and innocent she used to be.
“The funny thing is, I don’t remember what happened after I lost consciousness, but I still felt the pain of everything that happened. There were so many scratches and bite marks on me I must have wandered through the everfree for at least a full day.
What those bandits did to her changed her, if only slightly. It made me feel terrible that such an innocent spirit went through so much pain and suffering as to change like that... The wings fanned out and arced forward so she could look at them. She almost glared at them.
“This is a permanent reminder to me that not everything can be fixed with words anymore...” She said lowly. She pulled her legs up to the bed, wrapped her arms around them and rested her chin on her knees. Her expression was blank and emotionless. It actually kind of scared me. I didn’t know what to say, what could I even say? I haven’t even gone through something that painful...
“You can drink my blood, I really don’t care...” She suddenly said, startling me from my thoughts. I looked at her with confusion and she glanced sideways at me.
“What better way to learn about vampires then to study one directly? Go ahead, I know you’ve been restraining yourself with the smell of it everywhere.” She continued. She was right, I had been smelling it since I arrived here and I thought I had been hiding my urges quite well. Apparently not, as she flipped her hair over her right shoulder to leave the left side of her neck bare for me. I didn’t know how to respond.
“You’re... not hesitant?” I asked. She smiled and shook her head slightly.
“Why would I be? You’ve given no reason for me to believe you’d hurt me, and I want this nightmare to end... You said that drinking my blood will help you try, is that true?” She said.
“Even a single time feeding off of you would return a large portion of a strength to me, and after three or four times it will start increasing my strength. Potentially, your blood alone could increase my power potential by two times at least.” I replied.
“Good, then do it.” She said simply. I didn’t know what to do. I don’t know why I didn’t know what to do but that’s how it was. Maybe the way she brushed off me biting her and drinking her blood, I don’t know.
“Are... are you sure?” I asked. She just gave me a look. It was a look that very clearly stated ‘just do it already’. I sighed and let dark magic flow into me, which I haven’t done in a long time. I know Twilight was witnessing a few changes, namely my eyes gaining a red tint and my teeth sharpening. The most pronounced, though, was my wings turning bat-like and fangs extending. Her confidence didn’t falter, though, as I leaned towards her.
She hardly even flinched when I bit down. I actually froze for a second when her blood started filling my mouth, though. It was like drinking the finest beverage in the nation mixed with the taste of magic and that metallic taste that always compliments blood.
It took all of my strength not to suck her dry, and good lord I almost did it. I stopped, though, unlatching my jaws from her neck in a rather cliche manner. I took a few breaths before wiping my mouth, and I saw something out of the corner of my eye when I did so. I turned and looked at the stairs to see Spike standing there.
He had a worried and angry look on his face.
He just saw me feed off of Twilight. I looked to her to find that she was laying down, apparently I had forced her down without realizing it. She gave a weak thumbs-up to Spike, though, and the dragon calmed down. I quickly used a cleaning spell to make what little blood was spilled disappear, the bite wound already completely healed. Most vampires, like myself, use a healing spell on their teeth when they feed so that any damage done is instantly healed, though sometimes it leaves a scar.
I looked and saw nothing, so it didn’t scar. I sighed in relief and then remembered that I had forced her down, even though she offered.
“Sorry about that, I couldn’t really control myself...” I said. She chuckled and sat back up, though she looked tired. I didn’t mean to drink that much, but I could already feel my strength rising. It wasn’t back in full, maybe somewhere between halfway and a third.
“Just glad you didn’t suck me dry... It was actually kind of pleasant...” She said.
“That would be the anesthetic properties of vampire saliva. Well, the more diluted and insane fledglings don’t have it but mine would be the most potent out there. I’ve noticed sometimes it has an effect similar to minor aphrodisiac, though the fact you aren’t moaning in pleasure tells me that if it had that effect on you it was incredibly scarce.” I explained. I probably didn’t need to mention that last part, but it just came to mind.
“That’s interesting, do you know why?” She asked. That surprised me. This girl was good at that. Spike seemed a bit surprised by her reaction too.
“Just like you to try to milk everything for as much information as possible... You can study sexy vampire spit later, right now we have more important things to talk about. Those bandits are back. And they have help.” Spike said.
Author's Note
so anyone who knows my work knows that I love Twiluna. Those of you who don't like it need not worry, though, as I intend to make it a very gradual thing and it will certainly not be the focus of the story. It's more on Luna trying to get things back to how they were with Twilight's help. I may have others included, but as of now I have no idea.
“So one of the questions I was going to ask you was where did this wall come from?” I asked Twilight as we made our way to the gates of said wall. I got a great many stares, be them of awe or fear, as we walked.
“Right before they took me, I put it up with a very powerful and intricate construction spell to protect the town.” Twilight answered simply. “What kind of help do they have?” She continued to Spike.
“There’s about three times as many of them.” He replied.
“So what’s their total numbers now?” I asked.
“Around fifty.” He answered. I grinned. I could honestly take care of that many fledglings on my own without even trying. I have a feeling that it’s not going to be that easy, but either way I’m going to try and save this town. A good first step to glorifying the vampires.
The gates opened, to what I originally thought was magic, but when I looked up at the wooden ramparts I saw two men working a mechanism. It was the three of us facing fifty men in armor and weapons that had seen better days.
“We meet again, Twilight Sparkle.” The one who I assumed was the leader said.
“Just get the hell out of here. I’m done with you and your men.” Twilight said. Her tone was incredibly serious. I liked it.
“Or what? You’ll knock us unconscious and stagger through the forest like last time? Where’s those pretty little wings of yours anyways, I always love seeing my work again.” He said. The mood darkened and a rather frightening growl came from Spike.
“Oh, I’ve struck a nerve. How cute.” He laughed. It took all of my strength not to turn this man into a pile of flesh, but Twilight made me promise not to do anything until she said I could. Though, by the look on her face, I have a feeling I won’t need to.
“It was actually pretty fun plucking each little feather before chopping them off with a blunted axe. You don’t remember it unfortunately, but your screams of agony were music to my ears. They started growing back overnight, so I put a little blood poison all over them so they can’t heal, rather nifty black magic if you ask me. After that you somehow escaped and here we are again.” He went on. His men started laughing.
Twilight’s look had darkened.
“Luna?” She said, her voice shaking with built up power and fury.
“Mmyes?” I replied, sensing I was about to be given permission to take a few of these fools down. The bandits grew silent at hearing my name. All vampires knew my name.
“If I swing at you I apologize, so try not to get in my way.” She said, looking up and glaring at the group. Her eyes were glowing, though instead of the white I remember seeing before they were pitch black. It was like a Vampire’s when they fully delve into their dark magic. Not too far off, black crystalline samurai-esq armor suddenly formed on her body. What looked like crystalline gauntlets formed on her hands, but as she unclenched her fists I saw that when held straight it created a very sharp blade.
I imagine they would work like claws and a blade formed around the arm at the same time, while still allowing her to use the bow from last night that was now forming on her back.
This was an advanced form of dark magic only more powerful vampires, and apparently strong mages, could do successfully. A simple set of armor appeared around spike and liquid green magma started dripping from his jaws as he snarled.
“You coming?” She said, looking at me sideways as the group of bandits readied themselves for the attack, two or three of them bolting back into the forest. I grinned. There was an even more advanced form of what she did. She created dark magic crystalline armor and, while it could be light and versatile as leather, was in the end rigid and crystalline.
A certain nickname from the old days came to mind as I delved into my dark magic, baring my fangs at the bandits. Reaper of the Night. A cloak of shabby looking cloth formed around me, seemingly from shadows, and a black crystalline scythe appeared in my hands. I dubbed the cloth ‘Shadow Silk’ after creating it and the only other people that know it is the slumbering pureblood in a distant land and Celestia.
“It’s been too long since I used this, time to let loose a thousand years of hate.” I said. Twilight giggled, though it was the kind of giggle that made all the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
Twilight struck first. Before anyone could blink, her clawed fingers had gone through the skin of the lower jaw and out of the leader’s mouth. As soon as they all realized what had happened, the jaw was ripped out and bounced off of the now closed gates. In another second she had shoved her hands through his chest and had practically ripped him in half.
I found myself wary of her from that moment on. I can’t even imagine the things they did to her to make her literally rip the man apart. I saw her halfway-decapitate another man before I charged into the fray, brandishing the scythe. At one point I saw spike chomp down on someone’s face and spray his green fire until he stopped writhing. He wasn’t happy with them either.
That thought made me giggle as I pulled my scythe through someone’s skull, the blood being sucked into the blade. It was an ancient and powerful blood enchantment, similar to the blood poison used on Twilight’s wings. Instead of stopping the healing process it siphoned the life force of what it cuts, which just happens to be contained in blood. I can tap into the reserves if need be, and I have probably five years’ worth of pure life force in there, but that’s for a rainy day.
When I had slain the last bandit around me, I looked around to see Spike ripping one’s throat out and Twilight already tossing bodies into a huge ditch.
“You’re going to bury them so close?” I asked, panting, as I pulled my hood down and stuck my scythe into the ground and picked up two bodies.
“The ashes, yes.” Twilight replied emotionlessly as the last bodies were tossed in. There was no fire, no stench of burning flesh in the air. There was a flash, and they were incinerated with magic. She didn’t even bother doing a hand motion to direct her next spell as the mound of dirt floated in the air and filled the hole back in. I looked at her and I saw it. In her eyes I saw a torrent of emotion, I couldn’t even discern them. She turned on her heel and started walking towards the now opening gates. Spike and I followed.
“How many did you kill? I got seven of them...” He asked me, his jaws and talons still coated in blood. His tone wasn’t a boastful or competitive one, though.
“I counted fifteen.” I replied. twenty-two between us. Out of the forty-seven that stayed to fight, that means that Twilight killed twenty-five of them alone.
“This is the first time she’s killed, though I’m a bit more used to it... I can only imagine what’s going on in her head.” He said as we passed into the town. A crowd had formed, though they parted for the three of them. I had picked up my scythe, which was spattered with blood and now slung over my shoulder, and I hadn’t hidden my vampiric nature. I didn’t care, actually.
Wait a minute...
“Used to it? How are you more used to it?” I asked, looking down at him where he walked on all fours.
“I kill animals to eat, and I’ve been out of town alone before. Let’s just say not everyone waited until all of this happened to let their darker sides out.” He replied. That made sense. The five other elements of harmony quickly fell into step with Twilight. They talked until we reached the Library, where I overhead a bit as I caught up.
“I’m sorry girls, I just need some time... Luna will be here if I get like that again, but I don’t want Spike to go through seeing me like that again...” I heard. I looked down at said dragon, but he was looking at the ground and thinking hard about something.
“Jus’ make sure you come over and say howdy to all of us, you know there’s always an open spot at the apple family dinner table.” Applejack said. They all hugged her one by one and left, though Rarity walked towards them.
“Come on Spike, let’s get you all cleaned up. You’re spending the night with me tonight.” She said to the dragon, crouching down and putting her cheek to his muzzle. He seemed to snap out of his trance at that.
“Wait, what? Is Twilight alright?” He asked, looking at the girl who stood at the door. She smiled weakly at him.
“I’m sorry Spike, but I don’t want you to see me fall apart.” She said, her smile falling almost instantly. He looked like he was about to say no, but he quickly turned to me. Standing up on his haunches and looking down on me, no glaring down at me, I was actually a little shaken.
“You better take care of her for me, promise me that. Help her through whatever it is she’s going through, she obviously trusts you.” He said lowly.
“You needn’t even ask.” I said after a moment. He sighed and dropped back down before letting Rarity lead him away. I looked at Twilight, or rather where she had been, and found an open door. I entered and looked around for her and found that she wasn’t on the first floor.
I walked up the stairs, lightly calling her name, before I heard the shower running. I stopped in front of the bathroom door and was about to turn to let her shower in peace before I heard crying. It wasn’t an uncontrolled sob, though, it was the kind of cry you do when you’ve done something you wish had never happened.
That combined with the look in her eyes, her turning away her friends and kicking Spike out made me think that she didn’t just regret it. It was destroying her on the inside. I care for this girl, she saved me from my nightmare and taught me how to be happy again. Now I guess it’s my turn to return the favor.
“I’m coming in, Twilight.” I called softly before opening the door. The shower was running and I saw her stained and sundered clothes neatly folded on the sink. The shower door was open and when I looked in I saw Twilight there, sitting on the ground with her legs pulled against her body. Her wings were were splayed out across the shower floor, which only added to how broken she looked. It seemed that she hadn’t noticed I even came in, though she obviously did.
“I’m a terrible person.” She said.
I don’t know why, but that statement pissed me off.
“No you’re not, you killed those evil people to protect your home.” I retorted. She looked up for a moment and she stared right at me. The look on her face caused my heart to fall.
She wasn’t just broken, she was shattered. Her head fell again and I did the only thing I could think of.
I walked up to her, sat down next to her and gently embraced her.
“Then I’m a monster.” She said. Monster? Not likely, I think.
“And why would you think such a silly thing like that?” I asked.
“I killed twenty-five people out of anger and fury, and I enjoyed every second of it. When I ripped his jaw out, I was grinning like a madman. I was giddy and almost laughing...” She explained softly. I chuckled without thinking. She looked at me, then, still in my embrace as I stared her right in the eye.
“Take it from THE monster, Twilight, it’s not as bad as you think. Everybody is a monster in their own way, some people are just better at hiding it than others. It does not make you a bad person, and it sure as hell hasn’t degraded you in the eyes of those who care for you. That much was clear.” I said. She stared at me for a good thirty seconds before tears started silently flowing again and she turned into my embrace.
Within moments I was cradling her into my chest as she wept silently, the warm water falling over us. I didn’t mind, clothes can be dried and it was calming. And let’s be honest, I needed a shower anyways.
I’ve read a lot of books where something like this happens and the cliche is always that they fall asleep in your arms and you carry them to bed, and then after watching them sleep you get in with them and they smile in their sleep and everything is all better. Right?
She did fall asleep in my arms, but I didn’t move. I simply used a bit of magic to turn the water off, dry us off, clean her clothes and put her in them. That last part was tricky, but I managed it.
It was only about one o'clock in the afternoon, but she slept. It was probably her lack of blood coupled with the stress of the day, but boy did she sleep. At around seven I fell asleep as well.
I had another strange dream, though it wasn’t me feeding off of Twilight. This time it was of a party with a lot of faces I saw today and her friends. I don’t know what the party is about, but we’re all dancing and having a good time. It’s in a massive cathedral, and everyone is ballroom dancing. It’s open to the night sky, and it’s raining.
I realize it’s raining blood, though it neither stains nor dampens the attire of the party goers. I’m handed a wine glass by Twilight and we both drink at the same time. It tastes like blood, but not hers, and she grins at me.
She has fangs.
How did that happen? The question leaves my mind as I find myself slowly dancing with her. I feel a sharp pain as she leans into my neck. She’s drinking my blood, but that doesn’t scare me at all.
Needless to say I was in a very strange mindset when I woke up with her still sleeping in my arms, exactly where we were the day before.
What an incredibly strange dream...
Author's Note
Now before you say that this is focusing a lot on Twilight for a luna focused story, it's Luna's experience. Her experiences right now just so happen to be heavily filled with Twilight at the moment.
3.5: Slow dancing in the Dawn
Now was when I picked Twilight up and deposited her onto the bed. I looked and saw that it was seven in the morning, very early. The sun was just barely coming up now, but even so I saw movement and activity out of the window. I left Twilight a note saying that I’ll be back soon, in case she woke up, as I left the Library. I wanted to let her friends know she’s alright.
The second I turned around after I closed the door I saw something I wasn’t expecting. What few people that were out and about, and had noticed me, were bowing. I honestly never liked it when people bowed to me.
“Now why are you doing such a silly thing as bowing? I can’t be Princess of a land that wants me dead.” I said, it was true. That title was void, for now at least.
“We aren’t bowing to you because you’re a Princess, we’re bowing to you out of respect. You helped save the town.” One of them said as they all stood straight again.
“Respect?” I said. They simply nodded and went back to doing what they were doing. I was rooted to the spot.
So, this is what true respect feels like. I had forgotten, what little respect I ever got in Canterlot was fake or from fear. I couldn’t help but smile as I set off to sweet apple acres. It was the only home of the elements that I knew the location of, and chances are Applejack would be the only one awake.
I passed a few more people on the way, some of them bowed and other simply inclined their heads in my direction. I can’t help but remember how they all recognize me instantly. I wasn’t wearing any regalia, my outfit was casual at best and I even had my hair up.
Oh wait, they were all here for those nightmare nights I visited...
I stopped, not even realizing that I had almost run into an apple tree. Something crossed my mind that shocked me. Canterlot was my home, it was where I lived and where my sister was. But I never felt at home there.
Ponyville is the only place I’ve ever felt at home since my return... And now, seeing everyone smile at me with true respect and friendliness...
Well, it’s something to think about. I heard a very faint thud combined with a grunt followed by several smaller thumps. That could only be Applejack. Most apple farmers would climb the trees or use ladders and pick apples by hand. Applejack, though, she picked apples in one of the most unorthodox ways I’ve ever seen. She calls it ‘Applebucking’, if memory serves. I’ve never seen it myself, but that changed as I saw the country girl at it.
With a grunt, the girl planted her feet in front of the large trees. There were a few baskets seemingly scattered about the ground randomly. Then, with a grunted “Hah!” she roundhouse kicked the tree solidly in the trunk. The entire tree shook and a second later there was a series of thumps as apples fell down into the baskets. She caught one while it was falling and scared the hell out of me by tossing it my way.
“You look hungry.” She said, putting her hands on her hips as I nearly fumbled the thing. She wore leather pants and a tank that left her abdomen exposed. She chuckled at my expression, which was very confused, and sat down on the grass.
“Go on then, dig in.” She urged. I looked down at the glorious red orb and did as I was told. It was deliciously juicy and perfectly firm. I could never get enough Apple family apples. She laughed when I ate it down to the stem and flicked it away. She fell backwards onto her back and adjusted her stetson before adopting a more comfortable pose.
“Go on and have a sit-down if you’d like, I got a feeling you wanna talk to me.” She said. I sat down against the tree she was using as shade and let my hair down so I could lean my head against the trunk more comfortably.
“Well I just came by to let you know that Twilight’s doing alright.” I said. She lifted the top of her stetson with a finger to look at me before grinning and letting it fall back over here exposed eye.
“Thank you kindly for that, it’s good to know she’s not a wreck right now.” She started. “I can only imagine how it was... When we found her in the forest she wasn’t herself... It was like there was no Twilight in that head of hers, she was just stumbling around cryin’... Applebloom, my little sister, found her when she was running an errand to Zecora’s and we all rushed to get her.” She continued, her grin instantly falling. I could see how it pained her to remember her friend in that state.
“She was so messed up and hurt, and her wings... Those beautiful wings of hers were in tatters. If the three of you hadn’t have killed all of those bastards then they would have had the entire village to face for what they did to her...” She said. Now that I didn’t doubt.
“After she woke up, she just laid there in her bed. We all thought she was comatose, but her eyes were open an’ she just silently cried... She was like that for two days, not even eating until late at night that second day. I think that wasn’t long before you got here. And that reminds me, do you have any idea why she trusted you to stay with her instead of us or even Spike?” She finished suddenly, sitting up and staring at me.
I had been wondering the same thing too.
“I have no idea, though it might have been because I didn’t have anywhere else to go... Or maybe she thought I knew what she was going through.” I replied after a few moments of thought. She stared at me for a few more seconds before she sighed, shook her head and got back to her feet.
“Well ask her for me, for all of us. Let her know that no matter what we’re always there for her, alright?” She asked as she quickly loaded the full baskets onto a cart.
“Of course.” I said, getting to my feet as well. She picked up the front of the cart and started pushing it, which was a massive feat of strength. She stopped, though, just as I turned around.
“Oh an’ Luna? Don’t worry about tellin’ the others. Only Pinkie’d be up yet and she’ll be mighty busy. I’ll let them all know.” She said. I turned to look at her and smiled, nodded my thanks and started back towards the Library raising a hand in farewell.
When I got back I went straight up the stairs to check on Twilight. I found her sitting up and looking out of the window. She hadn’t noticed me yet and I got a good look at her. I couldn’t see her face, but the way the early morning sun shone in the dark room gave her a glowing presence. Even her tattered wings looked strangely beautiful as they were splayed across the bed.
“Hey, how are you holding up?” I asked her. She turned to look at me and I almost sighed in relief. She looked tired, not shattered anymore. She smiled weakly at me and spoke.
“Tired... Tired and hungry...” She replied. I chuckled and walked up to her.
“That’ll happen when you explode on a group of vampire bandits after only recently recovering from an immense hardship and having just had someone drink some of your blood.” I said, fixing her hair a little bit since it looked like a tornado had been through it. She looked down at her lap and was silent, though she spoke very softly after a moment of it.
“Luna?” She said. Her tone was indiscernible, I had no idea what to expect of her next words.
“Yes?” I replied, stopping and looking at her. I was surprised by a pair of wings and arms wrapping around me. I looked down to see her face buried in my chest.
“Thank you... For being there for me... I... I didn’t send you away because you had nowhere to go... and... you said you’ve killed a lot before....” She said so softly I could barely hear it. I smiled and wrapped my arms around her. I had that kind of spot on.
“You are a friend, and a very dear one to me. I wouldn’t dream of just leaving you alone. I was afraid I wasn’t good enough, actually, seeing you looking so platonic.” I explained. She giggled ever so slightly and that made me grin wide. She looked up at me and I gently grabbed her face.
“You are incredibly strong and powerful, both mentally and otherwise. I would have done anything to have such fortitude when I was first introduced to such violence. I was a wreck for a week when I made my first kill. You, on the other hand, killed over twenty and you’re already doing better. That isn’t a bad thing, alright?” I said. I actually surprised myself there, since when was I so good at talking to people?
My grin returned when she smiled and giggled.
“Well, I may not be Spike but I can probably throw something together. You said you were hungry and I wouldn’t mind eating.” I said. She nodded and hesitantly let go of me. “I’ll be right back.” I continued.
I returned a few minutes later with a few BLT sandwiches. Simple, but hey there was leftover bacon and lettuce and a bunch of tomatoes. It was the first thing that came to mind. We ate in silence and I noticed she barely finished her second sandwich with how tired she was.
“I’ll save the rest of these for lunch, you need to rest now.” I said, moving the plates aside and using my magic to clean up the crumbs on the bed. She mumbled something, but in her sleep it came out as an incoherent jumble of sounds. I giggled and sat down on the bed next to her again as she lay there.
“Dream sweetly, and sleep well.” I said. I don’t know why I did it, but I kissed her on the forehead. Her lips twitched in a tired smile and she was asleep.
That was really odd, I’ve only ever been that affectionate with my sister and even then only barely... I decided to think about it later as I picked up the plates of sandwiches and made my way back downstairs. I sat down on the couch again and looked around. Normally, this is about the time where I would do my early morning routine, but there was no room outside and I didn’t want to do it inside and wake Twilight.
Then I remembered I was in a Library, I always loved reading. I had picked a rather boring book, though, and that coupled with good food in my stomach made me fall asleep with the book still in my hand.
It was only a nap, but I still dreamed. It was in the same place as last night’s, but it wasn’t raining blood and it was only Twilight and I. She still had fangs, but she wasn’t feeding on me.
The music was soft and slow, the two of us meandering along in an equally slow dance. She had her head rested against me and I had my cheek resting on her head. It was a strange feeling, being this close to someone, even if it was just a dream.
I wouldn’t give that up for the world, though, and that thought genuinely intrigued me.
Author's Note
hey what happened guys? At first you were commenting like crazy and now the comment section is barren. I love hearing feedback, be it good or bad, as long as it has premise.
4: Tango in the Moonlight
I woke up on the couch I had fallen asleep on, but was surprised to find that I wasn’t alone. There was a weight on me and when I looked down, I saw Twilight snuggled up with me. I was on my back and her upper body was mostly on top of mine. I have a habit of cuddling with anything I can get my hands on when I sleep, so not only were we holding each other but our wings were around each other.
It wasn’t a bad feeling, not by any stretch of the imagination.
It was a few minutes before she started to stir. She opened her eyes and looked up at me, and then quickly looked back down with a blush.
“S-Sorry... I... I was having nightmares... and... I-I thought that you would be able to help me, but you were asleep... a-and...” She started stuttering out in embarrassment. It made me smile. I stopped her by pulling her closer and resting my cheek on her head.
“You’re fine, Twilight. I’m happy to help, even when i’m not exactly conscious. Besides, this is nice.” I said. Nice didn’t even come close to describing it, though. I eyed the clock in the corner and found it to be much later than I expected. I had fallen asleep around noon, and it was nearly eleven.
I must have been more exhausted than I thought.
“What a shame, our day was used up sleeping.” I said. The slight frown on my face that had formed turned back into a smile when Twilight looked up at me. I have an Idea, and it would be very fun for the both of us.
“Are you tired at all anymore?” I asked.
“Not really, I’ve always been a fast healer... And I slept well.” She said. I chuckled at that.
“Good, I want to show you something and see if a few old friends are around. You up to a trek in the woods?” I asked. She gave me a curious look.
“Do you mean the everfree?” She asked. I understand why, the Everfree was an incredibly dangerous place if you don’t know what you’re doing. That zebra, Zecora, still has my utmost respect for not only being able to go in there daily, but live in the edge of it.
“Don’t worry, nothing native to that place would dare attack me. And if we stumble upon where those bandits ran off to it’s a double win, eh?” I said. She thought for a moment before nodding. It was a bit awkward getting up, but we were out into the night quickly.
“We can fly to the forest, if you’re up to it, but we’ll be walking through the forest.” I said. She thought for a moment before concentrating. I saw a slight distortion fill in the gaps in her wings and she took to the air. I followed quickly and found her with her eyes closed, seemingly just taking in her surroundings.
“I haven’t flown since what happened... I never thought much of it, since I hadn’t been doing it my entire life like a Valkyrie would, but I can’t believe how much I missed it... It’s just so calming and serene, and you can enjoy the night to its fullest.” She said softly, her voice carrying on the light wind. I couldn’t help but grin at that last part
“Then we can take our time getting to the forest, where we’re going isn’t going to go anywhere.” I said. She smiled and nodded and we flew slowly towards the forest near the town. We wound up gliding most of the way, but she seemed a bit hesitant to enter. I was about to ask what was wrong, but I guess she sense the question.
“Just a few memories coming back... If we find their camp or wherever they ran off to in here, they won’t ever leave...” She said darkly. That made me smile a sadistic little smile.
“I might just look for them, actually. I’d enjoy wiping them off the face of the planet, you’ve shed enough blood lately.” I said, almost evilly. She smiled and nodded and she followed me as I walked.
I smiled as she gasped when we reached a destroyed rope bridge, she probably figured out where we were going. This bridge was special, though, and I was about to show Twilight why.
“Welcome, Twilight, to the Midnight Bridge. What do you know about dimensional travel?” I asked. She seemed surprised by the question, but she answered quickly.
“It’s incredibly difficult, but not impossible. There are many different forms of dimensions and dimensional travel. Some forms are like tunnels or stairways or doorways that uses the space of whatever form it takes to connect two places. This is the most common and can be opened almost anywhere, like a portal.” She explained. I smiled, she knew her magic better than I thought.
“What about dimensional bubbles and hubs?” I asked. The form she explained was in books in the library, but most other forms were either under the highest restriction or not even in the library. Though, now that I think of it, Twilight would probably have earned the right to access the highest restriction barriers, and I wouldn’t put it past Celestia to teach her some of the lost or sealed magics.
Turns out I was correct.
“A Dimensional Bubble is a self sustained area that maintains itself in a dimensional void, which is like an alternate dimension but completely empty, that can be manipulated and accessed at will. A hub is a much larger version of the bubble in which many different people can come and go as they please, like a transport hub in canterlot or something similar.” She answered me. I was impressed. There was one thing she didn’t know, though, or at least couldn’t know more than a few details. Not even Celestia knew as much about what I was going to say as I.
“Do you know the difference between static and dynamic portals?” I asked, portals used in this way meaning the doorways or tunnels that was the first form she explained. She looked puzzled by that.
“Well, by the name, I imagine a static portal being one that stays the same and a dynamic one being one that can change.” She replied. Close, but no cigar.
“Not quite. Portals generally don’t move once summoned, and if they were to change then so would the destination. No, A Dynamic Portal is a portal that is called up in no specific place by anyone able. A Static Portal, though, is a portal that is in one specific place and links to another specific place. They cannot be moved, changed, opened or closed without a certain set of requirements being met.” I Explained. She took in all the information quickly and asked a question I knew was coming.
“What are the requirements?” I smiled.
“For starters you have to either be the creator of the portal or have a key from them. You also have to not only know where the entrance is, but where it comes out as well... or at least have someone with you who does. A static portal can take you anywhere, but you also need to have permission to enter the place it comes out or it’ll spit you back out. That part only applies if the place belongs to someone, though, like a house or a dimensional bubble.
Though, with bubbles it’s different. You can enter without permission, but you’ll have to either get permission from or defeat the guardian or guardians.” I continued to explain. I smiled at the look on her face, it was a look only a girl in love with learning could have when doing just that.
“Guardians?” She asked. I grinned and didn’t speak.
“This particular static portal is only accessible by myself.” I said.
“Is there a reason for that?” She asked. I chuckled and, letting my fangs extend, slit my palm with one of them. I licked what little blood spattered on my lips and smeared the open gash on one of the support stones that would normally have the rope of the bridge embedded into it. She watched in awe as the stone absorbed my blood and a dark blue aura appeared around it. A bridge built itself, identical to the real one, but this one was made of the blue energy that made up the portal.
“A bridge?” She asked. I simply nodded and stepped onto it. It didn’t shift, it didn’t creak, it didn’t even budge a centimeter. When she followed it seemed to fascinate her, as she was staring down at it as she walked. We reached the end of the bridge and stepped back onto land, the bridge disappearing right behind us.
“Where are we now?” Twilight asked, looking around. I laughed.
“On the other side, of course.” I replied. She looked confused. “Take a look around, does anything look different?” I asked. I didn’t expect it to take long, and it didn’t. First she looked at the surroundings, which were almost identical to how they should be.
Except for two things. The first was the sky. There was no moon, only an endless expanse of stars. And second, instead of of a riverbed at the bottom there was nothing but darkness. The void was like a black hole. Though, on the off chance that you lived, it would randomly spit you out. It wasn’t a very pleasant experience, let me tell you.
“We’re not in the same world, are we?” She asked. I had to think about that one for a second.
“Well, it’s a copy of how this place used to be. The Temple of the Warrior Sisters used to me my home and Celestia’s, and it is home to a few things we’ll be needing.” I said, it was the best way I could think of to word it. I set off along the worn path and she followed after a moment.
As the castle came into view, Twilight gasped again. It was whole and complete and pristine, well as pristine as a towering cathedral can get. A giant mass of shadows stirred at the gates. After a moment a single massive blue eye opened, it reminded me of Spike somewhat. Twilight yelped and hid behind me, to which I giggled, and I stepped forward until I Was right in front of it.
A massive black draconic head looked down at me, it’s massive maw inches from me. I laugh and put my arms around it, hugging it in an odd sort of manner.
“Oroboros, it’s been too long.” I said. I really missed this dragon.
“Oroboros? You mean the black dragon that represents balance and infinity?” Twilight asked.
“Precisely so, young Warden.” The dragon said with a surprisingly intelligent voice. Well, surprising to her at least.
“You’re as out of the times as I was upon my return. They’re not called Wardens anymore, they’re Night Guards, though I guess I am still more used to their old name. And this girl isn’t a Warden, she’s just a very powerful friend.” I explained.
“Wait what do the Night Guard, or Wardens, have to do with this?” Twilight asked. I smiled and turned on a heel.
“They’re vampires, every single one of them. Well, at least back then they were. I’d say about a third of them still are, though the looks are basic transformation spells engraved into their armor to uphold the traditional look.” I explained. She seemed to accept it without question, though, and she looked at Oroboros. He grinned a sharp toothed grin before suddenly shrinking to the size of a large fox or other small animal. I proceeded to pick him up and he laid himself across my shoulders with a giggle.
“Is he your guardian?” Twilight asked. I was going to answer, but Oroboros answered instead.
“No, I’m not here enough to be so. I’m usually out and about in other dimensions or exploring the void. Those are the guardians.” He said, pointing his oriental snout at one of the two large statues on either side of the large castle gates. They looked like I did when I was fighting, like reapers.
“Awake, mine creature of the night, your queen wishes for thy presence.” I called, reverting back to the old tongue. I imagine that Twilight was expecting the statues to come to life, but no. That would be too simple, and giant stone creatures weren’t exactly the best at fighting small things.
No, it was what the black crystal statues contained. The statues had skeletal faces under the shadows of the hoods, but as their eyes glowed red they were revealed. The mouths opened and what could only be described as the presence of death spilled out like fog. The two streams of what looked like shadows coagulated at the ground and quickly took form.
It was slow enough to where you could see bones materialize, though quick enough that it was only a glance. A cloaked form fully materialized, though the cloak was an entirely different material than what made up my own. The eyes flashed in a white, eerie glow and the skeletal face was illuminated.
“You called, Mistress?” It asked softly in a surprisingly gentle voice. I smiled and held my arms out, to which the creature quickly grabbed me and we embraced.
“It has been so long... So, so long...” It said in a whisper. The voice was feminine, and I saw Twilight’s very confused face over the creature’s shoulder. I had to introduce them, this creature was very important to me.
“Twilight, this is Schnitter. Schnitter, Twilight. Schnitter is the only Pureblood left besides myself and the one we are against.” I explained. Well, she wasn’t exactly a Pureblood anymore. “She is what we call a Wraith, when the soul and life force of a vampire lives on in another form.” I continued.
“That’s... That’s amazing. How do you become a Wraith?” Twilight asked, looking over Schnitter as we stepped away from each other, well she kind of floated but whatever. I never understood how it happened, but that skeletal face showed a sad expression.
“You die... You die, and your soul carries on. Your body turns to bones, but your life force lives on. You die, and there’s something keeping you bound to life. For me, it is protecting this place. A Wraith cannot die, only be defeated and subdued, until they have finished what they started.” Schnitter explained. I couldn’t have put that in such a way, it actually made me feel a bit bad for binding her here...
“Don’t you ever want to just die? I mean, you can’t enjoy a life just guarding this place... Right?” Twilight asked. Schnitter actually chuckled at that.
“For the past thousand years, yes, though not anymore. You see, I’ve been guarding this place since my death. That was at least a century before Luna’s Banishment. My dying wish was to be bound here. It was fine, I’m not bound specifically to this spot. I can go anywhere I want here, and so whenever Luna or another Warden came I would not be bored or lonely.” Schnitter explained. Her face somehow fell once more, though.
“Though, with me gone and all vampires being hunted... Nobody’s been in here for three hundred years... The only reason I’m still sane is because of Oroboros’ stories when he returns from his adventures and maintaining the place...” She said solemnly. I put my hand on her shoulder and smiled.
“Well I’m back, I’m going to give Twilight here access and I’m going to round up the rest of the surviving clan members. I imagine they’ve started their own families, but they will love the chance to merge again.” I explained. Schnitter smiled her boney smile and I looked to Twilight.
“Alright Twilight. This is going to hurt a bit, but try not to resist.” I warned her and nodded to Schnitter. Twilight gained a cautious expression, but she nodded.
“I’m going to siphon off a bit of your life force. Well, it’s more like I’m devouring a part of you, but that makes it sound terrible. It’s merely allowing me to detect your presence instantly, thus allowing this place to accept you in full.” Schnitter explained to the girl. Twilight nodded, and I thought of something.
“Give her access to the Static Portal as well, I’ll give her the key later.” I said. What that entitled, though, would come later. Schnitter looked at me with an expression that said ‘you sure?” and I simply nodded. She shrugged and floated directly in front of Twilight.
“Steele yourself.” She warned the girl and Twilight once again nodded. Schnitter then appeared to take a huge breath, but what looked like a shimmering lavender force was inhaled instead of air. Twilight flinched, but after it stopped she opened her eyes which she probably hadn’t realize she closed.
A girl her age was staring back at her. She had pure white eyes, without pupils nor iris, and icy blue hair up in a rough tail, though I only knew that from memory since only her face was visible in the cloak.. They were about the same height, though Twilight was definitely much fuller and built, the other girl lean and slender. Schnitter then gave her an awkward smile, as if saying ‘sorry for this’ and promptly kissed Twilight.
I don’t know why but I felt a pang of jealousy, and it almost made me laugh. I did laugh as Twilight sputtered and stumbled backwards as an icy blue tendril of energy went from Schnitter’s mouth to hers. She coughed a few times and exclaimed “What was that?!”
“Essence of this place, or I guess you could say part of this place’s life force.” I said.
“Did you really have to kiss me?” Twilight asked after a moment, blushing slightly. Schnitter grinned awkwardly and giggled.
“That’s how I do it, or would you rather have me inject it directly into your heart? If you’re not a vampire you probably wouldn’t have survived it.” Schnitter said mischievously. I laughed at that.
“Well... That was kind of my first kiss...” Twilight said, flushing up in embarrassment. I froze and that jealousy came back in full force. It was kind of aggravating now.
“Well you didn’t kiss me back, and I wasn’t really kissing you. I was just putting our mouths together so I could transfer some of the essence without killing you. You’re still a mouth virgin, don’t worry!” Schnitter giggled. There’s the playful girl I remembered. I felt writing on my shoulders and remembered Oroboros was still there. He was rolling around silently laughing his head off.
“Alright, we should head inside before Oroboros dies of laughter.” I said, turning towards the gate opened without any command.
“I’m really going to need to get used to this...” Twilight sighed, though it was a happy sigh and she was smiling. She wiped her mouth and followed. “By the way, Schnitter, you taste like dust. No offence.” She continued. We all started laughing at that.
Author's Note
I lied, one more chapter. I promise we'll get to some wiping bandits off the face of the planet later : P
5: Ballroom Dancing in the Dead of Night
“Right, well I’ll go and prepare the ritual for copying the key to the static portal. Be back in a bit.” I said as we entered the main hall. I proceeded to enter a small room adjacent to the main courtyard, which was a small place filled with runes and glyphs. I nicked my palm on my fang again, though this time the cut wasn’t as big, and let it fall into the small pool at the center. From there I used my magic to shift the floor to allow the scattered runes and glyphs form a greater one, the combinations were many but I needed a specific one.
Once it clicked into place, the blood flowed along the engraved lines and shapes. The magic of the glyph was propelling the movement, as there was no incline. The rest of it would need Twilight here, so I made my way back to the main hall where I left her and Schnitter.
Apparently the two had been talking, and I was a bit curious so instead of rounding the corner I peeked around it. I saw Twilight going through one of the bookshelves while Schnitter sat on a table, swinging her cloaked legs like a child.
“-ong?” I heard Schnitter’s voice say.
“What?” Twilight asked.
“How long have you loved Luna?” Schnitter apparently repeated. Now I was really curious, I barely noticed my face flushing up slightly. I don’t know why, but that prospect gave me a tingly feeling all throughout my body. I’ve never experienced it before. I listened on as Twilight replied.
“Well we became friends a while ago, so I guess since then. I love all of my friends a whole lot.” Twilight said. My heart fell a little bit and I couldn’t figure out why. What’s wrong with me? I should be happy she loves me as a friend. That’s more than I had before that Nightmare Night.
“Not what I meant and you know it. Come on, you’re either hiding it well or you haven’t realized it yourself. Lord knows she hasn’t realized it either.” Schnitter said. What was that supposed to mean? Apparently that’s exactly what Twilight thought as she said those exact words.
“Oh come on you didn’t see how jealous she looked when I half-kissed you and when you said it would have been your first? She had a particularly sour expression. I’m good at reading people, and we’re like sisters. Almost as much as her and Celestia. She totally likes you, if not loves you. And I just know that you’ve already fallen in love with her.” Schnitter explained as if it was obvious.
“Knowing her, she probably still can’t figure out why she was jealous. That’ll just be all the more hilarious to see when you confess.” She continued. I peeked around the corner again, then, and saw that Twilight was looking at the ground. I could see that her cheeks were a deep shade of pink and she was glaring at the other girl in a sideways glance.
“I... I-I...” Twilight stammered and remained silent for a little bit. “...Last night...” She answered the first question. Right about then was when my face flushed up something fierce. “She... I was a wreck and she was there for me and she knew exactly what to say and...” She continued.
“I didn’t know what it was... I’ve never fallen in love, but now that you say it so plainly it only makes sense...” She finished. Schnitter was giggling like mad. I decided I was eavesdropping long enough, and if I took any longer then Schnitter would suspect something, so I composed myself and walked around the corner.
“Sorry I took longer than I thought, I took longer than I normally would setting up the right glyph pattern.” I said. It was actually true, though it was only by a few seconds rather than minutes. “Come on then.” I continued, beckoning towards Twilight. She looked at Schnitter, who giggled, and then quickly came to me. Just before we rounded the corner I looked back at the icy haired girl. She winked.
She totally knew I was there, probably the entire time.
I couldn’t help but grin at that, and the last thing I heard was a bout of laughter.
“This is... Intimidatingly intriguing.” Twilight said when we entered the room. I closed the door, which left nothing but a hanging lit candelabra to give the room light. Even then it was just barely, but as I focused my magic the pattern on the floor around the tiny pool of my blood started to glow. It created a rather pretty low-light feel to the room.
“Right, normally this would be a big long ritual in which powers are exchanged and whatnot, but the key to the static portal is rather unique among keys. My blood. This particular pattern is the locking mechanism for it, and what needs to happen is that it recognizes your life force, and therefore your blood. In order for that to happen, my life force must come into direct contact with yours.” I explained. She looked like she was thinking for a while after that as she pieced it together. Her face paled slightly. She figured it out.
“So if the fastest way to get directly at my life force was for Schnitter to kiss me... does that mean I have to... drink your blood?” She asked. Honestly I could just inject my blood into her bloodstream, but that would take time and would be rather painful. So I simply nodded.
“Suddenly I find myself wondering if it’s worth it...” Twilight mumbled. I couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
“R-Right... so... how is this gonna happen?” Twilight asked. I thought for a moment. I had an idea, a mischievously glorious idea at that.
“Close your eyes, and don’t worry. My blood shouldn’t be too bad, especially since I’ve had some of yours.” I said. She gave me a funny look and I chuckled, I couldn’t stop grinning. She just sighed and closed her eyes.
It’s my turn.
I bit my arm so that a good amount of blood filled it, quickly healed the wound, grabbed twilight’s face and pressed my lips to hers. Her eyes shot open as I pushed the blood into her mouth. When it was all in I backed off slightly, wiping a little that was leftover off. We were both blushing, but she looked like she was eating something very strange.
After a moment she swallowed and sighed in relief.
“Not too bad, I should think, right?” I asked, grinning mischievously. She was breathing a bit harder than normal and she gave me a very peculiar look. My blush had dissipated, but hers was still in full force.
“It was... actually kind of good...” She said. Then she looked me dead in the eye for a moment and I saw something in them. It looked like hesitation, but then it turned to confidence as she stepped towards me.
My eyes were wide with absolute shock, I was frozen in surprise and I was in heaven. She had came right up to me and kissed me, still was actually. When I finally got over the shock I kissed right back. It kind of went back and forth until we stopped to catch our breath.
“I guess she was right...” Twilight said to herself, an embarrassed smile on her face. I grinned.
“Yes,” I started, quickly pecking her on the lips. “yes she was.” I finished. She gave me a look then and I laughed some more. “Yes, I heard everything. And yes, the feeling is fairly mutual, still figuring everything out.” Said.
“S-So uh... What now? Is something supposed to happen with the key thing?” She asked after a moment, her face regaining it’s normal color as she quelled her embarrassment for now. On a side thought, I’m extremely happy that she’s able to be like this after what she went through. Back on topic, while the injection method is incredibly painful, this method is only a little better.
“Sorry, should have warned you.” I said. She was about to ask what I meant before she suddenly collapsed in my arms and started convulsing. I saw a few of her veins on her neck popping out as the glow from below turned to a blaring light.
Those veins, with the deliciously magnificent blood that was like sweet nectar flowing through them... So inviting... So...
Twilight had stopped convulsing, so I noticed when she flinched suddenly. I was about to ask why, but I realized that sweet delicious nectar was filling my mouth.
Oh lord, I just... I just bit her and... and I’m feeding without her permission... What the hell? But wait, normally blood wouldn’t be so good if taken by force... What’s going on?
I disengaged my jaws from her neck within seconds of first biting down, but I had lost control and was drinking like mad... I had almost taken as much as the last time. I took a few breaths and almost dropped her, instead I quickly pulled her close and I felt tears coming to my eyes.
“Oh lord I’m so sorry, I-I-I-I don’t... I don’t know what... I didn’t even know what I was doing until... u-unti-” I started frantically apologizing, but I was interrupted. Interrupted by an even sweeter tasting pair of lips. The kiss deepened as tears continued running down my face and we started breathing through our noses.
It finally ended, and I was filled with a certain feeling of emptiness because of it. It was silly, I know, but that’s what I felt.
“I don’t taste all that bad myself... You’re fine, Luna. You haven’t fed in over a thousand years except for me, so I think it’s only natural you’d be overwhelmed... You didn’t suck me dry, that’s all I’m worried about.” She said after a few moments of silence. You can’t even imagine the level of relief I felt at that. There was one problem, though.
“I’ve never even come close to losing control before now, not once. Not even when people cut their fingers on silverware or hurt themselves near me, or even that one time my sister intentionally cut her finger and was shoving it in my face to try and tease me... But with you... I just... I just couldn’t resist.” I explained. Twilight got back on her feet, albeit a bit shakily, and pulled me into an embrace.
“Just tell me if you feel it again, and we’ll do something about it. Be it getting it off your mind or presenting my neck. What’s a bit of blood between us now anyways?” She said. I nodded with a giggle, embracing her back. We stayed like that for a bit until I heard the very familiar sound of a very particular someone failing at trying to contain their laughter.
“Schnitter if I could I would kill you...” I growled. Twilight and I both looked over at the door at the same time, me with contempt and Twilight with surprise and perhaps a bit of horror.
“Try all you like, I’m still the one who taught you everything you know about how to use your scythe!” The girl cackled as it flew open to reveal her sprinting away, laughing madly. Twilight nearly collapsed again. I facepalmed.
“Don’t worry, she means well...” I sighed and led Twilight out back into the main hall. When we got there, though, we found Schnitter glaring at the door.
“What...?” I asked. Schnitter turned around, her eyes glowing white as shadow started flowing away from her.
“Intruders.” A rather intimidating version of her voice said before she completely disappeared. Oroboros, who had flown off onto a chair when we arrived, looked up and returned to his place around my shoulders.
“Let’s go watch Schnitter make true her name.” I said, her name meaning Reaper in a more ancient language. We left the castle to find Schnitter in front of a few grinning men. A couple of them looked familiar.
“Come out and play, little bitches!” One of them called.
“We slaughtered nearly fifty of you in seconds, what makes you think you’re any better?” I said. I could feel Schnitter in her statues, ready to strike these men down. She was waiting for my command, since I was here the judging of whether or not they could enter was up to me instead of her. I at least wanted to know why they were here or how they got here.
“Because those that you slew were only a fraction of one of us! We are ten strong, hundreds of times more powerful than the ones that faced you!” The same one yelled back.
“Oh well good then. You’ll give my guardian a nice fight I hope.” I said. The man looked at Oroboros, who had lazily looked in the man’s direction, and laughed.
“That little lizard?! Hah!” He exclaimed, taking a step forward.
“Not quite.” Schnitter’s voice came. She formed like she did last time, only this time when she was hole she put her hand out. An incredibly simple scythe with a wooden handle and steel blade formed there and she took it and expertly spun it.
“Mistress?” She asked. I grinned.
“Eat up their lives, you were looking a bit thin from just Twilight’s.” I said. The skeletal face under the hood grinned and she turned to face the ten vampires. They all bared their fangs and hissed, which made them seem like much less pure vampires than the last one. Schnitter did the same, though hers was much more intimidating without a face. They charged at each other and it was over quick.
She ruthlessly cut down three of them with one fell sweep of her scythe, their blood and life force flowing into her now open mouth and their flesh crumbling to ash. As she was doing this, five of them all charged and embedded their weapons into her. She seemed not to notice.
She grabbed one of them by the head, crushed it and threw the corpse aside to crumble to dust. The four with their weapons still in her body tried to pull them out, but she quickly spun and decapitated them with her scythe. She cleaved another in half vertically, leaving only the leader.
He was shaking and frozen in fear as Schnitter pulled her scythe from where it had embedded into the ground and closed her mouth as the last of the corpse’s life force flowed into her. He screamed as, with a snarl, she dashed at him. It was cut short as her jaws clamped over his throat. She proceeded to rip it out and spit it onto the ground before grabbing his spine, which was showing through the new hole of his still gargling neck, and brutally pulled. The thing shattered, but was still intact above where she grabbed. He crumbled to the ground, but his eyes still frantically moved around in terror.
She just turned her head, surprised he was still alive, and put the blade of her scythe between his eyes.
I started clapping. I looked over to Twilight, who looked a bit surprised at the brutality Schnitter used. After a moment, though, she smiled and joined me. Schnitter took on a much fuller form of flesh and did a bow as she touched back down to the ground and the scythe disappeared. All of the ashes blew away on a soft breeze, falling into the void below.
Author's Note
huzzah for 3 am writing shenanigans!
6: Waltzing in the Midnight
“I can see why you’re the guardian here.” Twilight said as the three of us took seats in the main hall once more, which was more like an oversized living area. Schnitter giggled and her scythe appeared again, though a grindstone appeared in her right hand and she started sharpening the thing as we talked. It wa silents, but still kind of intimidating.
“Oh now you’re just showing off.” I said, rolling my eyes. She just chuckled darkly and focused on maintaining her weapon. Since it wasn’t made out of the dark magic mine and Twilight’s were, it needed to be maintained. It got silent for a little while, except for the grinding, so I decided to broach a rather recent subject.
“So, Twilight, how did my blood taste?” I asked. Twilight gained a strange expression, somewhere between thinking and embarrassment, and Schnitter stopped her grinding dead to start laughing.
“Hm... A-A bit like... kinda... I don’t really know how to put it into words... I mean it has that metallic taste that blood always had, but the rest of it... I dunno.” She replied. The first time drinking blood is always like this for vampires, I can only imagine how it was for her not being one.
“What about her lips when you kissed a bunch?” Schnitter asked. I shot her a glare, to which she just laughed again. Twilight’s embarrassment was in full force now as she looked at the ground, I just chuckled and put my arm over her shoulder where she sat next to me on the couch.
“I couldn’t really tell... Both times there was blood in our mouths...” She squeaked out. That made me laugh and Schnitter laugh harder.
“We can experiment with that later...” I started in a low voice only Twilight could hear. “But for now we should head back, I imagine it’s about 2am and we still have a rat’s nest to exterminate.” I continued, standing up. Twilight stood up as well and Schnitter adopted a pouty face.
“Ahw, so soon? If they give you trouble just summon me up, I got enough of my strength back to create a physical form in other dimensions again.” She said, finishing her work of sharpening the blade. She proceeded to pull out a cloth to polish the metal and the wood handle.
“Hm, I might just summon you up to watch the show.” I said with a chuckle. She gave a thumbs up as we left. We reached the destroyed bridge once more and I sensed the ambient magic of a blood portal, a portal created with the blood of someone to find that someone. So that’s how they found me, they must have found my blood on the ground. I used a quick spell to track where it came out and saw nothing there, they were smart and moved away from their camp to do it.
“Alright, Twilight. You saw what I did to open the Midnight Bridge, your turn.” I said, nodding my head towards one of the support stones. Twilight nodded and a single sharp crystal finger of her gauntlets appeared for her to open up a cut on her palm. She smeared it on the rock, flinching a bit as the rough surface rubbed her cut skin, but the blood was absorbed into the stone just like mine did.
“You’ll get used to it.” I said with a smile, the bridge was building itself perfectly. She was a natural at it. I looked and saw the cut had already healed, though I was surprised when she cautiously licked her palm.
“So that’s what my blood tastes like... I guess I can’t blame you for losing control before even more.” She giggled. That was very surprising, though. I’ve never seen a human enjoy the taste of blood, not even their own. We walked over the bridge and we were back in the Everfree. I motioned towards a direction, where I could feel a faint dark magical signature, and started walking.
She surprised me again with a question.
“Luna, what’s it like being a vampire?” She asked me. I almost stumbled over, my step faltering. I looked at her for a few moments, trying to put it into words. Only a few things came to mind.
“A balance of strength and power mixed with pain and suffering with endless loneliness.” I answered softly. She adopted a thinking pose as we continued and it was a few minutes before she spoke again.
“Pain and suffering I can handle, and if I have you and Schnitter and Celestia then Loneliness can’t last forever...” She said. Her voice was soft but confident. I stopped and looked at her. She looked me dead in the eye and I knew she was serious.
“Why do you want to be a vampire?” I asked.
“Because I want to help bring Equestria back to how it was, to help the good vampires be seen as more than monsters... and... and I don’t want to have to leave you and Celestia in a few decades...” She explained. I sighed... I had originally planned to do this, but as I got to know her better I didn’t want to put her through that. She didn’t need to do it, she was already doing enough by letting me feed on her.
“You can do most of that as is, Twilight, and just because time won’t touch you doesn’t mean you’ll still be here in even a year’s time. People hunt vampires, vampires hunt vampires and you’ll be seen as a monster and a threat to almost everyone in the nation.” I explained, trying to dissuade her. She stepped towards me and hugged me before talking softly into my ear.
“I know all of that, but there’s a lot more than just fixing the nation that I’ll be getting out of this. Among other reasons, I’ll be able to research vampires directly since I would be one, and I love you. I honestly think I do, and I want to know what you’ve gone through for so long.” She said, almost in a whisper.
I sighed and put her at arm’s length before shaking my head and pulling her back into an embrace.
“Not right now, I’m going to give you the rest of the night to think about it. Think about it in your dreams when we go to sleep. Watch what a Vampire does.” I said, using my magic to move a few branches and shrubs out of the way to reveal light of a camp fire. I let her go and let my cloak and scythe manifest, then I launched into the air silently, though I noticed something strange. My wings were no longer bat-like, they had simply turned black. I liked it.
I let myself fall and land gracefully in the middle of the camp. There were bandits everywhere, blood spattered the ground near where animals were being slaughtered for food and where a few people were in cages. I had landed inside of the large campfire, but it did not burn me. It just added to the effect.
“Fledglings... You rape, kill, pillage and destroy whatever life you can find and yet you are still sane. Your life force is forfeit, and I am the one who will take it from you.” I said with a spell that would make everyone in the camp hear it.
These ones were obviously even better than the ones who assaulted the Midnight Castle, and I think they were expecting something because in an instant I had about four dozen different arrows and weapons riddling my body. Their weapons must have been enchanting with blood magic, though, because they went through my cloak as if it were normal silk. My blood spattered everywhere and flowed almost freely down my body.
The one, who I assumed was the leader, stepped up to me with a grin. There was real power about him, though, not like the leaders of the smaller groups. He tried to look up at my face, but it was hidden in the shadows of the cloak. They all turned away and I found it hilarious that they thought they could have killed me so easily.
So I started laughing. It was just a little dark chuckle, but they heard it.
The leader pulled my hood back to find me grinning like a mad man with blood spattered all over my face, running down from an arrow in my left eye.
“What the fu-” He started, but I didn’t let him finish. I had pulled the arrow out of my eye, actually pulling it out of my head, and with a giggle I had shoved it in his. In a flurry of motion I barely controlled I pulled each individual weapon or arrow out of my body and sent it back to its owner in a lethal manner.
In the end there were only a few people left standing, and they were frozen in fear. I picked up my scythe, which had fallen to the ground, and quickly disposed of the rest of them. All of the blood and life force from every single one of them flowed into the blade of my scythe in one go before I let it disappear. I turned back to where Twilight was and walked up to her, who looked like she was ready to start crying.
“Oh come on, did you really think I would die that easily?” I asked, blinking rapidly as my eye slowly reappeared in my skull and all of my wounds healed in an instant. She just embraced me and laughed uncertainly.
“No, I suppose not... That was kind of scary though, does consuming the life force of others let you take fatal damage and still live?” She asked. That was actually spot on.
“Exactly. Now, think on it long and hard tonight.” I said. She nodded and we started walking again in silence.
I dreamed a strange dream again, though it wasn’t exactly as strange as others had been. Maybe I was just getting used to them or something...
Twilight and I were flying side by side in silence. We were flying over Canterlot, where there were spells and arrows flying up at us like mad. It seemed like we didn’t even really notice them as we swooped down and landed, the arrows bouncing off of our armor and cloak and the spells being absorbed into them.
We said nothing, we didn’t even react as we just walked towards the Palace. A few others clad in armor similar, but not as impressive, to Twilight’s fell into step behind us and a few Night Guards as well. We all let our vampiric features show. Occasionally a feral vampire would charge at us, hissing, or even a sane one and either Twilight or I, or even one of the many with us, cut it down without a second thought.
The arrows stopped falling, the mages were exhausted and a particularly pristine white figure was waiting for us in front of the palace doors. Celestia was wearing golden gilded armor and she had a very ornate claymore sticking into the ground next to her. She picked it up and shouldered it, walking towards us.
It was Me with my cloak of shadows and scythe with an aura of death, and her angelic presence and glorified look. We met, our weapons clanging on the ground, in an embrace. The vampires following us Cheered, while the people attacking us gave off a wave of confused sounds.
And then I woke up. I like that dream.
Author's Note
I'm running out of witty dance themed chapter names lol, but I'll manage. I plan on ending this in the next 5 or so chapters, lest I risk losing the drive for it.
We showered together that morning, which was more due to the fact that we both reeked and were covered in gore to the point that neither of us could wait, but it was a very... unique experience. She was looking me over all over, and I don’t think it was because I had an awesome body. There were little marks, and even a few scars, around my body.
She had a few scars of her own, but I had her beat in number and all. The marks, which looked like little discolorations on my skin, were where a particularly lethal strike had landed last night. The most prominent being when I took an arrow in the eye. Now that I think of it, that eye was still kinda blurred even after I had woken up in full. She was gently tracing around it.
“What is it?” I had to ask when her expression became unreadable.
“I know that it can’t kill you, and maybe even that it just doesn’t hurt anymore, but I imagine it takes up so much life force to fix lethal damage to your head like that... I don’t want you to run dry and be really hurt.” She explained softly. I chuckled.
“That cloak of shadow silk has served me well in the past. Very rarely did anything ever get through it.” I said. It was true.
“But if just a bunch of fledgling bandits have blood magic that can get through it...” She started. I froze. She had a very good point. If I had spent the last centuries gathering up life force then I wouldn’t be worried, but what was left in me now was small. There was five years, now probably about five years and a week’s worth of life force in my scythe. My own life force, though, only amounts to around 20 years’ worth.
Now, that doesn’t mean I’ll die in 20 years. Not by a long shot. It means I can take 20 years’ worth of lethal damage. Though, everything I sustained last night was probably enough to kill about thirty people, it only shaved off about a week’s worth of life, Also, feeding off of Twilight replenished it months and even years at a time.
That was just fledglings with weapons enchanted enough to go through my cloak. If I were to have a real fight with a vampire, they could shave off a year of my reserves with one strike if I wasn’t careful.
“Hm, true... What did you have in mind?” I asked. I was interested to see what she thought of.
“Armor, real armor. Like mine.” She said. I smiled and tried to think of myself in a full set of black crystal armor. It didn’t work, though. There was a reason I wore the shadow silk cloak instead of armor.
“Unfortunately no good, that would restrict my movements. Fighting with a scythe needs you to be able to move every possible way you possibly can, at least in a real fight.” I explained.
“Then light armor to go under the cloak, so light and small you’d barely feel it’s there.” She retorted. She really wanted me to get some. It was an interesting idea, though, and it couldn’t hurt to try. Another problem, though.
“Well I’m no good at such fine details like that with black crystal. I don’t trust myself to make something that fits that description.” I said. Besides, while not exactly a viable reason, I do have my image as the Reaper of the Night to uphold so I can’t forego the cloak. Anything I could make would be too big and get caught up in it.
“I know! We can talk to Rarity, she’d be able to design something in an instant!” Twilight exclaimed after a moment of thought. I just laughed and hugged her.
“We can talk to her today.” I said. Who knows, maybe this would turn out rather magnificently. She smiled and, with a tinge of hesitation, kissed me. That brought a stupid grin to my face. We finished the shower and were eating the leftover BLTs for breakfast when the door opened. Spike walked through and it closed gently. He stared at me for a few seconds and then at Twilight.
“Are you alright now?” He asked. Twilight’s expression fell a little bit for a second, but she got up and quickly walked over to embrace him. He returned it and heaved a sigh full of relief.
“I’m actually glad you came... I was just about to bring something up with Luna that you should hear too.” Twilight said, getting off her knees and turning back to me. I have a hunch towards what it is, but I gave her a questioning glance anyways.
“I thought it over, and when I was done thinking it over I analyzed it inside and out over and over again. When I was done with that I thought it over again and came to my decision: yes. I want you to turn me into a vampire.” She said. Spike froze, but I looked directly into her eyes.
There was anticipation, a bit of fear but most of all was the complete lack of hesitation. I had thought up a few different retorts to give her, at least make her think on it for longer, but they were blown away by that look. Pure determination.
“Fine, you know everything it entitles... good and bad. I would like the other elements to be present for it, though... If you suddenly turn into a vampire when you have one staying with you then people get the wrong idea. I also want it to be known how it is a vampire is created, since so many think it’s just a bite.” I explained. Most of that was from experience, actually. Once you’ve got a few mobs chasing after you in the night with stakes in hand, you learn quickly.
“... Everyone’s already on their way... Are you sure about this Twi?” Spike asked. Twilight smiled and put her hand on his head.
“Like I said, I really thought this through. If I want to help Luna make things better I need to be on her level. And also, there’s a few reasons why I’d rather live longer than not... One of them being your incredibly long lifespan. You don’t have to deal with me dying on you in a few decades.” She explained to the dragon. They continued talking like that for a bit before there was a knock on the door.
I opened it and greeted the other elements and explained to them what Twilight and Spike were arguing about. That sparked one with them as well, so I just kind of stood back and let things run their course.
It took nearly an hour, but we were finally ready. All of Twilight’s reasoning had been explained, and part of that led to her explaining our new budding relationship and that just led to a whole bunch of stuff I tried not to listen to.
“It’s not going to hurt her right?” Fluttershy asked when I gathered up my dark magic.
“Only for a little bit... but it will most certainly hurt. I have to drink her dry and then ‘corrupt’ her heart and life force with my dark magic. That will either keep her alive or revive her, depending on how long she remains conscious, and then she will feed on me to regain a healthy blood count.” I explained.
“That sounds like an... interesting experience.” Twilight said. I heard the nervousness in her voice, so I smiled at her. Her friends look worried sick, but they trusted me. I couldn’t be happier about that.
“Remain conscious if you can, it’ll hurt a lot less afterwards.” I said. She nodded and braced herself. “Sorry if I scare all of you, I haven’t drunk someone dry in a very long time.” I continued softly before focusing on my thirst and letting it consume most of my conscious mind. My self control was high enough to the point where I was completely aware, at least enough to let my dark magic flow throughout my body.
In this kind of back-seat state, I could almost see my body and it was indeed rather frightening. All of my teeth sharpened a bit, my fangs becoming more pronounced, and my black wings fanned out. They enveloped us as I bit into her neck. Contrary to my state, it was a rather gentle bite. Then I drank.
And I drank, and I drank. It got to the point where I was literally glowing with magical energy and life force. She was getting more pale by the second, her eyes becoming heavier. One thing remained true, though. Even as her lids closed to slits, they still held that determination, and her paling lips still in a confident smirk.
Initially, a few drops of blood had spilled to the floor, but now there was almost a pool. I had only realized this because I had lowered her onto the ground into it as I fed. I could feel the last of her, so I quickly set the dark ritual into life. A large portion of the energies surrounding me suddenly condensed into what looked like shadows.
I wrenched myself from her neck, gasping for air, and the second my jaws left her body the dark magic rushed into the wound. I looked down at her, she was still smirking and her eyes were still just barely open. Her eyes had glossed over, though. I could sense her consciousness behind them, but it wasn’t aware of anything but her own body.
She was technically dead right now. I tried to wipe the blood around my mouth away, but when I looked down at myself I saw that it was drenching nearly my entire front. I looked around and everyone was looking at me with a sense of horror.
But I could see it, they still trusted me. I would have sighed if at that moment there wasn’t an almost physical explosion of magic, originating from the girl on the floor. The pulse that followed could probably have been felt all throughout the town. I looked back down at Twilight and had to put a hand over my mouth.
Maybe it was because the few people I’ve turned were much older, or less dear to my heart, but I don’t remember this ever looking so painful.
Her back was arched and her face was stuck in a silent, snarling scream as fangs extended. I could see her body almost bubbling as it changed into a slightly slimmer, yet much more toned and powerful frame. Her eyes, which were wide open now, gained a tint of crimson. To my surprise, her hair started fading. The stripe remained, but instead of the dark purple it used to be it was now pure white. It was stained red until halfway up, but it was still white.
She started to writhe a little bit as she rolled over, where I saw something that surprised me further. The bones that made up the frame of her wings were extending out of her back, becoming longer. The frame took on a dragonic look, and even membrane formed between what was left of them.
What was strange, though, was not only the fact that the final product was colored white, but the fact that instead of a leathery texture, the wings had feathers as well. At least she had rolled out of the puddle of her own blood, hear back and back of her head were soaked in it.
She rolled back onto her back, holding her hands over her chest for a bit. Her silent scream had stopped, now her eyes were closed and she looked like she was gritting her teeth in pain as she did so and she would twitch about once a second in regular intervals. It was her heartbeat.
There were tears streaming down her face, but they slowed as her flinching lowered in intensity, probably along with the pain she was feeling. After a few moments her breathing calmed down and she opened her eyes to see me standing over her with concern probably plastered over my face.
“Now that hurt like hell... But I’ve had worse, if only by a little bit...” She rasped out. I chuckled in relief and offered my hand. She took it and I pulled her to her feet, where she shakily stood and needed my help to do so. “Ugh... what’s wrong with me now?” She groaned, holding her head as if she had a headache.
“You’ve got almost no blood running through your system... You’re running on magic at the moment.” I explained. Before she could say anything I kissed her quickly. I made sure to bite my lip before so she got a taste of my blood. When I pulled away she seemed to have just processed it and gave me the most hungry look I’d ever seen on her. I presented my neck and flinched as I felt her bite down in an instant.
After about a minute I heard a thump and looked over with my eyes and saw that Fluttershy had fainted. Rarity was looking queasy while the rest of them were making sure their friend was alright. Spike had a very grim look on his face. Luckily for both me and Twilight, the thump brought her out of the trance her thirst had put her into and she let go. I was about to tell her enough.
As she looked over to Fluttershy I saw that all of the color had returned to her skin and lips, but her hair still remained pure white. Her wings, which were spattered with blood from the less than majestic transformation, folded on her back from where they were hanging limply and I could feel her standing on her own.
“Is she alright?” She asked. We all flinched at the sound of her voice. It wasn’t different, there was just so much power laced into it. She was breathing a little heavy, but Applejack nodded to her and smiled.
“She never was a big fan of blood... I’m actually a might surprised she lasted that long.” The rustic girl said.
“Speaking of blood...” I started, turning Twilight’s head towards me and kissing her. The taste of our blood mixed together and the kiss combined was absolutely magnificently deific. We separated and I continued, giggling at the look on her face. “We need to shower again, and it’ll take magic to get this out of our clothes.” I finished. She giggled weakly and put her forehead against mine.
“Well, that was all fun and dandy and everything, but if you start making out again I’m gonna throw up.” Dash said. That brought a few awkward laughs from the rest, that finally broke the tension on the group. I quickly used a spell to clean up all the blood in the room. I walked up to Fluttershy and woke her up with another spell. She was startled by seeing me in her face, but she quickly got over it.
After about five minutes of talking about Twilight’s changes they all left after hugging her one by one until it was just us two and Spike. Instead of staying to sit there and think about us in the shower he decided to go out and get something for lunch, at least that’s what he said.
That night I had a dream that was more like a Nightmare. It genuinely scared me, down to my very core.
I saw Twilight and nothing else in an endless abyss of black. There was something wrong, though. She wasn’t moving. I stepped closer to her and I was mortified to find that she was encased in a very thin layer of black Crystal, though the dream-me just looked at it sadly.
Slowly a room appeared around us, and I recognized it as a library. The walls were made of wood and looked very familiar, it reminded me of Twilight’s library. It was so big, though, and the crystal around Twilight extended into the ground and up into the roof.
The dream-me walked up to the crystallized Twilight. Even in crystal, she had a satisfied look on her face. It made it seem as if she was giving me/dream-me a look that said ‘hurry up already’. I chuckled softly and pecked the crystal Twilight on the smooth lips and walked towards the large door.
I thought it would end there, but as I walked outside I saw a strange sight. The walls around Ponyville were encased in the same crystal, making it look like bark on the wood. I looked back at where I had left and found a massive tree three times the size of the old library. Some of the branches were crustal while most of them were normal wood, though about half of the wooden ones had patches of the crystal in them.
I was no longer just along for the ride, I found, as I looked down and saw the ground grow transparent. I saw Twilight’s crystal merged with the roots of the tree, and the roots extended out far to the walls. I looked back at Twilight and realized something. There was a wound, nearly hidden by the crystal, seen between the fingers of a hand over her heart.
Something happened, and whatever it was warranted Twilight encasing herself and the town in crystal. Whether it was to protect or something else I don’t know, what I did know is that I hope this is just a dream...
Though, as I woke, I remembered that all of my dreams until now had foreshadowed something happening. I held the real sleeping Twilight close to me, staring at her peaceful face.
I wasn’t going to let that happen to her.
Author's Note
so I think the dreams at the end are starting to become more of helping me remember the idea of later plotlines than purely for the story, but hey it works.
“So... It wasn’t just a dream...” I heard her say. I had just gotten out of the shower and I saw her looking at her white wings. That kind of worried me a little bit.
“Do you wish it was just a dream?” I asked softly as I sat down next to her. She looked at me and smiled gently and pulled me into a warm embrace.
“Of course not. I don’t do things I regret if I can help it.” She said. I smiled and kissed her before there was a frantic knock on the door.
“You go take your shower, I’ll go and see.” I said. She nodded and got up as I made my way down the stairs.
“Whoa, hey, what’s going on?” I heard Spike say. I saw him look back at me from the door, the look on his face made me walk faster.
“Are they vampires or bandits?” He asked when I got there. My mood was thoroughly shat on at this point. A contingent of armed guards with spears were standing there.
“No, we’re not filthy creatures like that. It must be a stroke of luck that you were hiding here, monster, we simply came for Miss Sparkle’s help.” The captain said. Black Shield, contrary to his white hair, I’ve always hated him. I glared at him as a dozen spears aimed down towards me. Spike started growling.
“Well I’m sorry to disappoint you but you’ll have to come back later. She’s in the shower and hasn’t had breakfast yet. I suggest that you either leave or put your weapons down and wait patiently, I’ll even put tea on or something.” I explained to him. See, I noticed something he didn’t.
“What are you going to do? We all know you promised your sister you wouldn’t kill anyone unless they were rogue bandits or vampires...” He said, what a cocky attitude.
“Three things. First, I wouldn’t kill any of you. I’d just throw you out of town. The fall, though, might be a bit too rough though depending on how high I throw you. Second, do you really think I don’t know about you? It’s not directly, and it’s been diluted about three or four times, but that is my magic and a bit of my blood running through your veins.” I explained, listing off the things against him. His face paled and his squad gave him looks.
“My turning was forced, and Celestia has long since suppressed the monster within me.” He retorted. I laughed, who does he think taught her how to do that? I was going to say just that, but he continued. “And what was the last thing, pray tell?” He asked. I grinned and nodded my head towards a point behind them, which when they turned they found that nearly the entire town had gathered up with weapons and armor. Nothing as fancy or high quality as the guards, but good enough to hold their own. Every town had a militia garrison, Ponyville’s was one of the largest since everyone was tough here.
“That ‘monster’ saved our town and then exterminated the source.” A very large man, probably the strongest in the town, said. If I remember correctly he was Applejack’s brother, Macintosh, and he was hefting a rather large claymore on his shoulder. I couldn’t pass up the chance, having them all turned away from me, I quickly walked up to Black Shield and got close to his ear.
“And by the way, the girl you came here to ask for help willingly accepted my gift. She did it so she can become stronger so she can help me fix the chaos that was sowed into this land. If you and your men stand down, we can talk about it like civilized people.” I said into his ear. I was rather proud of myself there, I had managed to keep an unwavering calm intimidation in my tone.
He was confused by all of this, and so was his men, but he was shaking slightly. I had to hold back a laugh.
“Tea sounds nice, actually...” He said. I stepped aside to let them into the library, telling Spike to warn Twilight that they were here, and then I nodded in appreciation to the crowd that was starting to disperse. Macintosh raised his sword to me and turned around. He picked up a smaller girl, who I assumed was Applebloom, who I giggled to find she had just put a bow and arrow away.
The guards looked very uncomfortable and on-edge, their spears never leaving their hands. I quickly changed that as I pulled them all away in my magical grasp and placed them in the large umbrella holder.
“Sorry, but I can’t have anyone freaking out .You could put someone’s eye out with these things.” I giggled.
“Leaving us unarmed... How honorable...” Black snapped. I laughed.
“And having thirteen spears pointed at me when I hadn’t even summoned up a bit of magic? Same to you.” I retorted. He opened up his mouth to speak, but quickly shut it. True to my word I went into the kitchen and used my magic to duplicate teacups and the tea itself and quickly made enough for all of us. In seconds, I had tea floating to everyone on platters of magic.
I was surprised they didn’t accuse me of poisoning it, they all sipped with varying degrees of hesitance. They all found that I make a great cup of tea.
“So, what was that about you trying to fix all of this? How would that be possible when you started it?” Black asked. I noticed they had all taken seats. I plopped down on the couch between two of the four female guards. They looked uneasy, but didn’t move.
“It wasn’t I that started it. Technically it was the masses who did, but ultimately it was a particular Pureblood named Fovos. I didn’t know this until it all happened, but ever since my return he has been spreading the fear and rumors of vampires and occasionally releasing frenzied and degenerated fledglings to enforce that fear. My guess is that he showed fake proof that I was a vampire and shit hit the fan.” I explained. I knew Twilight was on the stairs now, that’s why I had waited a bit. I hadn’t told her this yet.
“Basically, long story short, I’m going to do two things. Not in this exact order, but I’ll get rid of Fovos and then give vampires a good name. There are obviously bad and evil vampires, but there are even more bad and evil humans. Once Equestria realizes this again, it should help out with bringing peace again.” I continued. He stopped me before I could continue.
“Exactly how are you going to try and bring peace again?” He asked. He was only a little curious, though, he was just trying to contradict me.
“Simple, make everyone fear violence.” I said. I had explained this part too many times, he would have to decipher it, and Twilight decided to walk down.
“Hello Captain, I haven’t seen you since Shining promoted you.” She said. Everyone was startled at how she looked. She looked like she did before turning, but that included her mangled wings as well as the scars that carried over.
“Twilight?! Did she do this to you?!” Black exclaimed, shooting to his feet. She deadpanned.
“No, bandits did. Get the story from someone else here, I don’t want to tell it.” She said. The guards I was sitting between had quickly moved away from me when Twilight came down, so she took a seat next to me. I put my arm around her and she wrapped hers around my midsection. Everyone was giving us the strangest looks, I just had to laugh.
“Tired, love?” I asked. She shook her head.
“I just wanted to see their faces.” She grinned. I laughed again and looked at everyone else. I could see movement and a flash of white in the corners of my eyes, meaning Twilight just dropped her illusion, and that got gasps all around.
“Before you ask, yes we are romantically inclined and no, I couldn’t even control her mind if I wanted to.” I said, sensing the stream of questions. There was a long, awkward silence before Black spoke.
“Twilight? You’ve changed, a lot.” He said, almost sadly. I couldn’t see the look on her face but Twilight’s tone was very serious.
“Pain and suffering kind of does that to you. I remember you used to complain to me about everything they put you through in the guard. I even respected that a little bit even though I had been through alot after I became the bearer of an element of harmony. Now, though? You have no idea what real pain and suffering is like, you’ve never even killed someone. Not even a vampire too, I can see it in your eyes.” As she spoke, I could see his face fall further and further until it looked like he was going to lash out. His fists were clenched and shaking.
Twilight looked at me for a second and whispered “childhood crush” before he spoke.
“I was there for the changeling invasion, I was there fighting them off. I saw my friends and comrades go down and die. I’ve seen so many people ripped apart by vampires I’m sick of it! You say you’ve been hurt and have suffered, yeah maybe but you have NO idea what it’s like to lose ANYTHING!” He growled angrily, glaring at her. Before I could say anything, Twilight was on her feet.
She slapped him so hard he crashed onto the ground. She crouched down in front of his head and glared at him until he looked up. She looked him dead in the eye, at least that’s what it looked like.
“You forget, Black Shield, that I was good friends with nearly every single royal guard. More so than you ever were. I have seen some of my closest friends here being slaughtered in front of me. Not even by frenzied creatures, but by sane human beings! I have had nearly every square inch of my body torn or ripped open, my wings plucked and chopped off with a dull axe, halfway regrown and then cursed to never heal. I had to fight my way out of the forest for hours, not even consciously. I have had to kill humans, creatures and vampires alike to defend my home and my friends. You have no clue what true suffering is.” She explained flatly.
She proceeded to stand back up and kick him hard enough to land in a chair, where he just sat with a blank look on his face. It was rather impressive actually, she probably used magic to get him to land right but still.
“Now, can one of you smarter guards tell me why you’re here?” She finished, standing in the middle of all of them.
Turns out, even rebellious mobs driven by fear realized that they can’t run a nation themselves that has been run by the same person for over a thousand years. Celestia was put back in power, but she ruled on a leash. She wasn’t allowed out of the palace, at least not until she fought off a vampire attack at the edges of Canterlot. They were using her to maintain stability across Equestria and as a sort of ultimate weapon to use against hostile attacks.
Well, at least that’s what they all thought. Celestia was doing all of this on her own, the people in charge were just saying she was allowed to do it after she did it better than them. If she wanted to, she could haze the entire city. But she wouldn’t. Not anymore.
Word was spreading everywhere that Twilight Sparkle had defended Ponyville against a large brigade of vampiric bandits, so Celestia suggested they ask for her help. I had a feeling she knew I had turned Twilight, possibly by that massive pulse. I wouldn’t put it past her.
Black Shield had finally recovered from his trance and he and Twilight were discussing what to do. I was absentmindedly petting Spike, who was sitting on the other side of me on the couch, and listening to the conversation. They were talking about Celestia when a dynamic portal appeared in the middle of the room. Schnitter stepped out of it.
“Mistress, Twilight.” She said. She had a rather grim face. I could see that her cloak was stained with blood, though it wasn’t ripped or torn, meaning it wasn’t hers. There was a general wave of surprise among the guards, but Twilight too recognized that something probably happened.
“Did more attack the castle?” I asked. She nodded.
“Fovos was there, or at least his presence. He knows he can’t beat me when I’m in my realm, but he came with a message.” Schnitter started. There was a few moments of silence.
“And?” I egged her on. She sighed.
“You know, mostly the classic evil villain thing: ‘no hope, i’m gonna eat your face yadda yadda’ but he was different. He was Fovos, that’s for sure, but he was engulfed in madness. Fovos was never an evil person, though he wasn’t exactly a saint, I think something’s corrupted him.” She explained. I thought on that for a bit. It sort of made sense, I do remember Fovos being quite the gentleman when he wanted to be. The kind of gentleman that wouldn’t try to start a bloody and unnecessary war. While all of this isn’t exactly a war, it’s pretty close.
“Oh hell, looks like we can’t just kill him then.” I groaned.
Author's Note
I've run out of witty dance-themed chapter names so I'm going to ditch that idea now lol. this is going on for longer than I planned.
“So who exactly is this Fovos guy?” Black asked as we all walked through the everfree. Twilight and I knew where we were going, Schnitter had returned saying they were still there and they were trying to poke at her defenses again.
“He is the only remaining pureblood besides Twilight and myself that’s awake. I guess you could say he is fear incarnate. I found him a scared and frightened little boy long, long ago and guided his life as best I could indirectly. When he was a man I offered him my gift and he accepted.” I explained. Now, normally one would think it was kind of a touching and cliche ‘oh he was like my son and now he’s bad’ story. What only I knew, though, is that I’ve guided the lives of all my purebloods in a similar manner. And there used to be dozens of them. Anyways, Black asked a question I was expecting.
“Wait, you said he wasn’t evil... yet he’s pretty much fear right? But fear is bad, we should always avoid it right? Doesn’t that make him at least villainous?” I would have laughed if it wasn’t such a serious subject.
“Not at all. Fear is necessary. The only stronger driving force than fear, is pain and love. Fear can mold your life, drag you into insanity or propel you above the clouds. You’re only evil when you’ve run out of fear, because without it what’s there to keep you from doing whatever you want? What’s there to stop you from being evil and bad and cruel? Because I’ll tell you something, it sure as hell isn’t out of the goodness in your heart you be a good person all the time.” I explained. I was surprised by Twilight, then.
“That makes sense... Most of the time, you’re not good just to be good... you’re good because you’re afraid to be bad, to be evil...” She said, more to herself really. I nodded to her with a smile as we came to Midnight Bridge. I turned around to face Black and the twelve guards with us. Spike was next to Twilight, and he could handle himself so my next words weren’t directed towards him.
“The place you are about to see is somewhere you may never go again unless invited. Ever. If you somehow manage to do so anyways, you’ll be cut down by Schnitter in seconds. First, We’re going to enter and make our way towards the castle. We’ll be behind their forces, but they may be ready for us. You will stay idle as we try and turn them away without any more bloodshed, which won’t work but it’ll be useful in gathering information on our enemies. Then you will fall back to Schnitter, who will protect you.” I explained.
“We can handle ourselves, ‘Princess’. We may not be the elite of the guard, but we’ve faced vampires before.” Black said with a cocky tone. He pointed his spear at me threateningly. I grabbed the tip of it and walked towards him, bending the long metal shaft of the thing to aim the tip at his face.
“You can handle yourselves against rabid fledglings. These are sane and incredibly powerful ones, and a pureblood at that. They could boil you in your armor, rip your throats out and eviscerate you as easily as shaking your hand in a formal greeting. I’ve already called for support, but because of your meddling in Canterlot they’ll be delayed.” I said. I wasn’t mean about it, but he looked scared again.
He seemed to get my point, though, and I released the head of the spear. It was warped and looked as if it was dough being crushed in my hand, though it still sliced open my palm. That part was intentional, though and I swiped it onto the activation support of the bridge to open the static portal. Twilight repaired the spear with a quick spell and followed me as I strode in.
We met a large group of soldiers in full war armor. There were hundreds of them and there were weapons everywhere. Bows, arrows, crossbows, swords, daggers, open spell tomes, enchanting kits and everything. They were mounting a full on assault on the castle.
Surprisingly enough they parted to let us pass when we arrived. A lot of them look relieved to see me, as if they had been waiting a good long while for it. I simply strode past them. Twilight and Spike were cautious, but were right behind me. The guards, on the other hand, had formed a tight circle with their shields and had their spears ready to jab at any attackers. Of course, there were none, but they were still ready.
At the end of the vampire army there was a bit of an expanse before the gates of the castle, where Schnitter was glaring at a man. They both looked at us when we started walking towards them. The man had white hair in a tail and strangely black eyes. He wore a clean and rather high-class old-fashioned overcoat and breeches. That was Fovos, always looking the part of a gentleman. Schnitter was right, though, there was something very off about him.
He had very dark skin, and there was a certain aura of malice about him that I didn’t remember. Its presence felt incredibly familiar, though, and that scared me just a little bit.
“Mistress... it’s Efialtis.” She growled under her breath. That... that filled me with fear, but most of all it filled me with pure hate and rage.
“Efialtis?” Twilight asked, worry in her tone. I didn’t even look at her as I practically snarled out the answer.
“The last pureblood I created before my banishment... Efialtis, hate, malice, horror... nightmare...” I started. She gasped, she had figured out what I meant. “All of those names are what she is... and she is incredibly influential when she corrupts you...” I growled.
That’s right. Nightmare Moon was this pureblood. Well, this pureblood’s influence and corruption on me. But there was just one problem.
“I thought I killed you before I was lost...” I said with contempt. Fovos chuckled under his breath and as he spoke I heard a second feminine tone that could only be Efialtis.
“You killed my physical form, yes, but my corruption lived on through you until it was ripped from your body by the Elements of Harmony. Unfortunately for you, fortunately for me, there was enough suppressed malice and hate and contempt in this land to keep me from completely dissipating long enough to find this fine young lad.”
So, Efialtis didn’t have a physical form, and she was possessing Fovos. I would have cursed if the object of my vulgarities wasn’t standing right in front of me, I had no idea how to combat such an entity without killing Fovos.
“Why are you here...?” I growled. Fovos chuckled again, though now the voice was more Efialtis than him now.
“I know neither me nor my army can defeat your guardian here, so I simply came to show you what your citizens of Equestria will face as we storm the capital.” She said. All of our looks darkened. Spears were readied, scythes and armor appeared, green magma fell to the ground.
“Then you shouldn’t have brought them all... Now they’re never going to leave.” I said with a rather monotone voice. Efialtis just laughed and made a motion, as if saying ‘after you’. I knew something was wrong at that point, but we still all charged.
The three people I cleaved in half turned to dust the second my scythe even touched them. Twilight went straight through four before tumbling on the ground due to her momentum. Dust blasted everywhere as an explosive ball of green fire impacted a large group and dust crumbled around a dozen spears.
Well shit...
“What?! But I was fighting them not twenty minutes ago!” Schnitter screeched. Efialtis was laughing. I lunged at her, then, not really caring about Fovos in my rage. She just started crumbling as well. The last thing that came out of his mouth was mad cackling and it royally pissed me off.
At that moment, about two or three hundred portals appeared all around the area. On the ground, in the sky, in the forest. Out of them emerged a variety of people. About half of them wore night guard uniforms, others had the clothing of minor nobility on, a small amount had normal royal guard uniforms on. The rest, about forty percent of them, had shabby and shredding clothing and looked like they had been refugees. In fact, a good amount of them still had shackles and chains on them.
“Mistress, you called?” They all said at roughly the same time as they gathered in front of us. The state of the majority made me want to tear Black’s head off, but that was for another time.
“Go to Canterlot and tell my sister that the dreams of Equestria are going to be plagued by Nightmares once more, originating in Canterlot. She’ll know exactly what it means. If she gives you an order that doesn’t stop you from following my own then do it. Otherwise, bolster the defenses of Canterlot. Make sure the innocents are safe, but don’t bother evacuating there won’t be enough time. Make sure everyone is in their homes, scare them in if you have to. Once you’re done with that I want a few of you to scout around and patrol around Canterlot to try and get as much warning of the assault as possible. These wee illusions here, and that means they’re already on their way.” I explained quickly and clearly.
“For the Mother!” They all exclaimed before their portals opened back up and her orders were followed without hesitation. I opened up a large portal and turned to Black.
“You and your men get back to Canterlot and make sure they have as little a hard time as possible. Get the message across that we are not the enemy. Don’t try and argue with me about this or so help me I will smash every bone in your body. My vampires will not try and hurt anything that isn’t trying to hurt them, and even then they’ll only kill if they have to or I tell them to.” I said to him. I pointed at the portal and then used my magic to rush them all into it.
“Spike, just smear this on the pillar and think of the bridge from the side we came in, the one in the normal forest.” I continued, looking at the dragon, as I took one of his forelegs, cut my palm on my scythe blade and let a good amount of blood fall into his claw. “Gather up the Ponyville militia to hunker down in case any decide to hit it.” I continued. He looked between Twilight and I before nodding and taking off into the air.
“And us?” Twilight asked.
“You and I are going to fill an armory with vampire-grade equipment. Pop in to Rarity’s to get any and all designs she has relating to combat. We’ll need them. Schnitter, rest and gather your strength. You’ll need all you can fighting in the physical world.” I replied, finishing by turning to the blue haired girl. She nodded without a word and dissolved back into her statues. Twilight opened up a portal and I turned towards the massive field in front of the castle.
The last thing I imagine she saw was me smashing my fists into the ground, them swirling with dark energies, and pulling up a massive forge. Mass producing armor and weapons with dark magic can kill even Twilight and I, so we need to do it the old fashioned way and just speed it along with magic. I started inscribing glyphs and spells into all of the parts.
Instant heating for the fire, instant cooling for the water, durability for hammers and whatnot. As Twilight left I pulled up and did the same for a dozen more forges.
Twilight returned with Rarity and between the two of them were a mass of designs and sketches and armor and weapon racks. I nodded to them and sent out a summons for enough incredibly power dark magic users to help. Within seconds a few portals popped up and I had a large task force of improvised blacksmiths.
“Right. Our numbers are small, only about a thousand total now, and the enemy sizes are unknown. But no matter the numbers, our kin cannot fight with their fangs and claws now in this day and age. They need armor and weapons. We have an expert in design with us so look sharp, we need enough equipment to arm an army done as soon as possible.
There are Thirteen forges. Between these thirteen we need to pump out light, medium and heavy armor, swords, shields, spears, bows, arrows, crossbows, bolts and everything inbetween. Rarity, do you have ample designs for all of them?” I explained and asked the classy woman.
“And a bit more, I should say. I can’t oversee thirteen forges, though.” She said. I walked up to her and quickly put my forehead against hers. It was a spell to transfer memories, and it was the memory of how to use that exact spell and how to manipulate the Crystallite and Shadow Silk and I copied from her all of the designs. I smiled at what she had for me, which fell as I got serious again.
“One person per forge, we’re just making the material. Everyone else come to Rarity so she can embed designs into your memory. We will cycle out whenever a forger gets tired and then you will give them the designs as well and take their place. The designers will take the material the forgers create and make them into equipment. Does everybody understand?” I continued.
“Of course, Mistress!” They all replied in unison and instantly got to work. I nodded to Twilight and Rarity. Twilight and I took our own forges.
In order for this to work we channeled the ambient dark energies coming from the void around us with our own, which after a while can be very taxing, and condensed it inside of the forge. We kept an almost continuous stream of new material coming in as the many designers pulled the much more malleable heated material from the forges and worked them into shape before cooling. They then handed them off to still more designers, who put parts together and fixed things and all around made them into finished products.
The first full sets of equipments, a full batch of thirteen, was finished in a total of about twenty minutes. In total that was on average forty sets in an hour. Forty out of over a thousand, since they would be outfitting the guards as well. This was going to take time.
Every hour, I would summon exactly enough people to take everything we had finished and either put it on there or distribute to someone more in need. At least, that was how it was for the armor. The weapons were being completed much quicker, so I had the retrievers constantly distributing them and filling up armories as time passed. A good sword could be finished in just three minutes, a quiver with thirty arrows in seven and a bow in five.
There had been many random bandit and small scale vampire attacks as we worked, in which I was getting reports from the retrievers, but no sign of Fovos, Efialtis or the army anywhere. Either way, though, we worked and we worked and we worked.
Honestly, I was actually having fun. Preparing for war was something I enjoyed and was good at... And this would be a good one.
Author's Note
listening to Night Sky while writing this at 1-3am and I'm just thinking "they gon fuck shit up"
It wasn’t long before the first of the Nightmare’s forces were reported. Some fighting had already broken out, but it seemed Black did as he was told as all the fighting was with ferals or bandits instead of with guards. My children kept me informed as I slaved over the forges. Twilight had to nearly force me to stop working after long. I was exhausted, but I wanted to make sure everything was done in time.
The only reason I didn’t have to be pried away from the thing was because Twilight told me that Rarity finished the designs for my new armor and they needed my help to give it form.
“I know you like the cloak and your reputation surrounds it, but Twilight was definitely right when she said you needed more. The crystalline armor plates are woven into the shadow silk fabric, the most mobile and flexible plate armor design I’ve ever seen. Normally it wouldn’t be possible with normal cloth and metal, but we’re not using normal cloth and metal.” Rarity explained as Twilight imprinted the designs they came up with together in my mind. I couldn’t help but grin, the idea was magnificent.
“I wish we would have met sooner, Rarity, your brilliant mind is on par with your extraordinary craft.” I said with a smile. She inclined her head in thanks and turned back towards the forges.
“Well give it a try will you? I want to see.” Twilight said. I chuckled and did as I was asked and delved into my dark magic. Forming the armor like this was different than what I’d been doing for hours at the forge, therefore It wasn’t that difficult and the fatigue I felt had no effect on the outcome.
The gauntlets were magnificently wicked with its pointed edges and open palms and bottoms of the fingers. The boots were held together with the silk so as to allow my movement to be as unimpaired as possible. The greaves were little more than a few plates strewn together in a similar fashion, and the breastplate was indeed weaved into the silk of the cloak. The hood had an addition as well, and I quite liked it. It was a mask, but not something quite so cliche as a skull. It was more of a heavily slanted visor that left my mouth exposed. There was some sort of magic about it since I could see through it like it wasn’t there.
“I think this is even more intimidating than your usual look.” Twilight said, looking over.
“I like the mask in particular.” I said with a grin as I looked myself over as well.
“You can still feed without having to take a helmet off, and it still protects your face.” Twilight said, stepping up to me.
“And this.” I added, quickly grabbing her and kissing her. She giggled and we just sort of held each other for a few moments.
“This is going to be the last moment we’ll have just for the two of us for a while…” She said.
“Most likely.” I agreed as we separated and looked back towards the forge. One of my children in a night guard’s uniform was porting in and he started towards us.
“Mother.” He said, quickly putting a hand on his chest and bowin. I inclined my head in response.
“Report, Child.” I said.
“We’ve spotted their main forces. They’re well hidden, surprisingly. One would expect they’d be announcing their presence. There are three main bodies. One is on a beeline straight for Canterlot, one is on a course to ransack Trottingham and one is in the everfree. Our friends in the Timberwolf packs are tracking them and are ready to strike when we are. The other two forces will take at least two days to reach their destinations but the force in the everfree is heading for Ponyville.” The man explained quickly. Twilight and I shared a look.
“How many?” I asked.
“Their whole force amounts to nearly thirty thousand, half of them are the ones going for Canterlot, five thousand for Trottingham and ten for Ponyville.” He answered.
“The militia is two hundred strong. With the wall they can withstand a siege, but with so many numbers they’ll be overrun in hours.” Twilight said more to herself than anything.
“Send word out that we need help in Ponyville. Make sure Trottingham and Canterlot are still well fortified and don’t leave any of them weak should they pounce earlier than expected. Twilight and I will head to the forces in the Everfree immediately, tell the wolves to expect us.” I said quickly. He bowed once more and disappeared into another portal.
“I’ll go to the Timberwolves, they know me, and I’ll ask them to help bolster the village. No matter what you are, you can’t fight a large scale battle in that forest. It will spill out to Ponyville.” Twilight said.
“Alright, do what you must. I expect to see you on the field, love.” I said. We embraced, kissed and jumped through two separate portals.
I arrived simultaneously with a large force of my forces, my children. I looked around at them, met all of their eyes. There were a hundred of us here, and we would be facing thousands. There weren’t many of us sane vampires left, and a lot of us were going to die. A lot of them here with me are going to die and I know it. They know it too. They would gladly give their lives for me, even without reason.
“Friends, Brothers, Sisters…” I started to say. I had their undivided attention. Messengers prepared to disperse with any messages she might have. “We aren’t fighting just for us anymore, here and now. For thousands of years, we’ve fought for our own gain and survival. Today we fight for those who cannot fight back. They may have hunted us, but that does not make them bad, our enemy.” I continued.
“The humans of this world were ignorant of our existence, and when they knew of us they feared and hated us. Honestly, we deserved it. We had done nothing to help them, nothing they would see as right. To them, we are animals that feed from them. How about we prove that we can be friends and allies?” I finished. The small force yelled in agreement, the forest being filled with their calls. In an instant we all spread out, dashing through the forest with practiced ease.
We found Efialtis’ forces quickly. They moved slowly through the forest, this wasn’t their kind of fight. Lucky for us, it was definitely ours. We gave no warning as we all encircled the massive army. In the treetops, one might barely see the rustling movement of armor and weapons forming of black crystal. They were unnoticed as they became only shadows, not even giving a flash of movement as scores of bandits and ferals fell dead.
“They’re here!” One of them yelled and a sort of alarm sounded. It was much too late, though, we were already here and we were already slaughtering them. Each pass left at least another hundred dead, usually more. The battle went on like this for a few more passes before the Nightmare’s forces scattered into the forest. Most of them were heading towards Ponyville, though, so we gave chase immediately.
It was a grueling hour of this guerilla style battle until the enemies spilled out of the forest. I noticed Zecora’s hut was ransacked, or maybe that’s how it naturally looked. I’d never really seen the thing. Me and my forces hung right at the edge of the forest for cover as half of the remaining enemies turned to fight while the rest continued towards the village. There was a thousand or so left for us and another 1500 heading towards Ponyville. We were a hundred strong but we only lost a few, ninety of us still remained.
I watched as the gate opened, seemingly inviting the marauders in. A hail of arrows rained down from a garrison of archers on the walls and a huge force of men, women, vampires and timberwolves poured out of the place to meet the attacking forces. I even saw a few of the older children alongside their parents and older siblings. That distraction gave me and my force a chance to pounce on our own prey, devastating them. The remaining battle was quick, but I felt uneasy. Twilight wasn’t with the militia. I suddenly had a very bad feeling, so I finished the enemies in front of me and shot towards the Library.
The door was blown off its hinges, a few holes scattered around the tree even. I entered and found Twilight and Efialtis locked, Twilight with her blades and Efialtis with his longsword. The second I moved in to help Twilight, they exploded into action again. It was too fast for me to even follow it properly, if I were to even stick my arm out towards them it’d probably be ripped off.
So I waited. I waited, ready to swing the first chance I got. I got that chance when they locked together again. They both noticed me at the same time. Twilight moved Efialtis into my scythe blade, but he somehow managed to twist away from it. As that happened, a dagger formed in his hand and I could only watch in horror as he shoved it into Twilight’s abdomen. Twilight’s eyes went wide as she stumbled back and pulled the thing out of her body. Efialtis cackled, there was dark magic swirling around the blade.
I nearly screamed as I dropped my scythe and grabbed the nightmare by the throat. I lifted him up and with my other hand I shattered his blade. He scrabbled at my hand clamped around his throat, surprised. I was draining his power so he couldn’t get away. I looked over to Twilight and almost dropped him. I could see it in her eyes, whatever that dark magic was it was killing her and she knew it.
“Sorry, love… Looks like you’re going to have to finish him without me.” She said with a ghost of a smile as blood spilled from the wound. She put her hands over it and Efialtis started chuckling in my grip. I closed it tighter to silence him. It didn’t work.
“That’s pure untapped dark magic, it’ll eat away at your life force like fire does ice.” He rasped out, though his voice was almost completely taken over by the Nightmare. Twilight and I locked gazes for a moment. Her eyes told me not to worry as she slowly stood up straight. I could literally feel her power build up, both her dark and normal magics.
I had a sinking feeling that the dream I wanted to prevent was going to happen.
I wasn’t wrong.
I was nearly knocked off of my feet as all of Twilight’s built up power literally exploded out of her. I felt like a drop of rain falling into the ocean of pure power around me. It was nearly instant, and it was exactly as I remembered it in my dream. The library looked like a massive hall, black crystal everywhere. And Twilight, with a peaceful look, encased in crystal in the center of the room.
Two things became apparent. The first was the fact that Efialtis was gone. The second was that some time had passed, I was on the floor. I don’t remember falling. I couldn’t stop tears from falling down my face as I scrambled up to Twilight. I could feel the Nightmare inside of her, as well as the poisonous dark magic.
She did this to trap Efialtis with her, and to stop the dark magic from eating away at her. Untapped magic on its own was difficult enough to disperse or control, dark magic was exponentially worse. I put my hand on her smooth crystalline face, I could feel her life force pulsing within her. In this state her life force would slowly deplete, keeping the crystal formed. I immediately enforced it with my own power to stop or slow that process.
I wanted nothing more than to smash through this crystal or melt it down with my own magic, getting her out of there wasn’t exactly very hard. At least for me. But I know that if I were to free her then she would only die. Or worse, be taken over by the Nightmare she pulled into herself.
Somebody coughed, nearby, and My cision snapped to them. Fovos was there, sprawled across the ground. I hadn’t noticed him the first time. I walked over to him and grabbed him by the collar of his jacket, lifting him up.
“Must you, Mother? You know that was not my own will…” He groaned. I sighed.
“You’re going to explain to me exactly how you came about the Nightmare, Even if she still had power here she was scattered and unable to even assume a form. Then you’re going to tell me exactly how to counter that dark poison. If you don’t know how then you will be in every library, every magical laboratory, experimenting and researching it to figure out how. You haven’t called me Mother for centuries, doing so now doesn’t make this any better for you.” I explained swiftly. I nodded his head and I dropped him to land on his feet again.
“The story of how I became the puppet will have to wait, it is a long story and I can already sense people coming to investigate the new center of their town… I honestly know very little about that poison, I was so far gone at that point she was her own entity instead of corrupting my thoughts… And I call you Mother now because it wasn’t until I was rendered helpless by the Nightmare that I realized I am still but a child compared to you…” He started. I looked back at Twilight as the doors slowly creaked open to reveal battle worn inhabitants of Ponyville, Twilight’s friends at the front.
“I’ll talk to all of you in private, but for now we need a place other than here where Fovos can tell his story.” I said lowly to them. The whole group was gaping in awe and horror at the ‘statue’ in the center. Spike stood on his hind legs, staring into the crystalline eyes.
“Is he the one who did this to her?” He practically snarled, dropping back down to all fours and glaring at Fovos.
“No, it was her own doing… I’ll explain soon, for now let us find some privacy.” I started and made to leave, but I was surprised to find the inhabitants of Ponyville that had wandered in quickly saluted and left. A few of them even stayed to guard the door.
“Before he starts, does the battle still go on?” I asked our friends that had stayed.
“Your troops are mopping up what’s left, the militia and timberwolves devastated them. One of your messengers reported the other small force decimated and the one heading to Canterlot disappeared, they’ve set up a scouting net across the nation.” Applejack answered. I nodded and looked at Fovos again, who seemed to be deep in thought.
“You, start talking.” I commanded.
Author's Note
so I have absolutely no more creativity left for the chapter titles lol so don't expect much from those. This chapter was written over the course of like two weeks so hopefully it's not too disjointed, I hope to finish this before I lose interest again but I don't know how long my enthusiasm will last again.
