Prologue: How the Hunt Began
"I haven't been a kid since I was eight years old."
Applejack looked at the house across the street. Located on the outskirts, most ponies wouldn't even look twice at the abode. But Applejack knew better, and what resided within. Gently patting her saddlebag, she looked at her companion. "Ready, Big Mac?"
"Eeyup," Big Mac said, a grim and determined look on his face that matched his sister's.
"That bloodsucker dies tonight," Applejack said.
"Eeyup."
With that, the siblings made their way across the street, covered by the dark and their cloaks. Making their way around back, they knocked on the back door.
"Who could that be?" a voice within pondered as hoofsteps approached the door and opened it. "Yes?"
As soon as the home owner was visible, Big Mac tackled her and pinned her to the floor while Applejack came in and shut the door behind her, locking it. "Evening, Berry Punch."
"Applejack?" Berry asked. "What's going on here? Why are you doing this? Please let me go!"
"Eenope," Big Mac said, keeping his weight on her.
"Big Macintosh?! You too?!" Berry asked in shock.
"Enough chit chat, Berry," Applejack said as she stepped into Berry's view. "We know what you are."
"I-I don't know what you're talking about," Berry stuttered as Applejack drew out a matchbook and pulled one of the matches out. "Please don't hurt me." At that moment, Applejack struck the match, bringing the flame to life in Berry's view, causing her to hiss and attempt to throw Big Mac off her as she recoiled from the flame in terror.
Applejack smirked as she put out the flame. "Still don't know what I'm talkin about, vampire?"
"W-What have I ever done to you?" Berry asked, looking at Applejack in fear.
"Not us," Applejack said. "But we know you've been feedin on ponies around Ponyville for years. Especially folks from outta town."
"I've never killed anypony!" Berry insisted. "I only take what I need to survive."
"Don't matter," Applejack said as she pulled out a wooden stake, causing Berry's eyes to widen. "You bloodsuckers are like blight. And we're the cure."
Berry started struggling against Big Mac as he pulled her up onto her hind legs to expose her chest. "Please don't!"
Her pleading fell on deaf ears as Applejack carefully aimed before plunging the stake into Berry's chest, piercing her heart. Berry's movement slowed and finally stopped as she was forced into *torpor.
Applejack nodded to Big Mac, who stuffed Berry into a potato sack and slung her across his back. "Let's get her to the farm."
Apple Bloom looked up from her work as she heard the approach of her siblings. "Did ya get her?"
"We got her," Applejack said as she pulled Berry from Big Mac's back and got her out of the bag. "Ya got her bed ready?"
"Sure do!" Apple Bloom said. "Good wood, good hay, and Ah soaked the whole thing in oil fer good measure."
Applejack and Big Mac smiled and patted their sister on the head in turn before putting Berry on the bed.
"Light her up, Apple Bloom," Applejack said.
Apple Bloom took an unlit torch in her mouth and used the brazier by which she had worked to light it. Walking over to the pyre, she touched it to some of the hay. Within seconds, the whole pyre was in flames, burning Berry and sending her on to her *final death. Extinguishing the torch, Apple Bloom stood by her siblings with a grin on her face. "One less bloodsucker in the world. Ah love lightin 'em up."
"An we'll keep bringin 'em to ya," Applejack said. "We ain't stoppin till we find the one from that night. Actually, we'll keep lightin 'em up even after that."
"Eeyup," Big Mac said.
It all started with him. Big Mac and I were young and innocent at the time, and Apple Bloom was just a few months old. Ah was gettin a glass o water before bed when I heard it: Ma's screams and the sounds of a struggle. Big Mac and I ran to their bedroom to see what was happening. And that's when we saw him... Ma was trying to fight off a stallion, and behind him on the floor, in a pool of his own blood, was our Pa. The stallion looked Ma in the eyes and she slowly stopped struggling. He slung her over his back and went to the window he'd come in through, and looked back at us. We froze, suddenly real scared for our lives. But he just grinned, and we saw his fangs glint in the moonlight, and saw his red eyes. Then he was gone, and Ma with him. We ran to Pa, but he was already gone. We couldn't do anythin.
After that, nothin was ever the same. Granny Smith did what she could fer us, and we managed to scrape by. But when we weren't working on the farm, me and Big Mac were doing research. Ah ain't normally one fer books, but Ah was willing to crack 'em open to get some answers. But no matter where we looked, we couldn't find any answers. Until that day...
We were approached on the farm by a stallion in a nice suit. He said he represented a company that worked outta Manehatten, a company called the Cheiron Group. He said his bosses had seen how much me and Big Mac were lookin fer answers, and that they were willing to meet with us to talk about what happened to Ma and Pa. We weren't too keen on leavin the farm untended, but when he offered to have some o his boys cover for us, we couldn't pass up the chance. We agreed to meet his bosses.
During the train ride to Manehatten, he told us the world is a lot bigger than we know. That there are things out there that the princesses can't protect their little ponies from. So we have ta protect ourselves as best we can. The Cheiron Group was one of the big ones that acted in the dark to protect Ponykind. I kinda thought it was a buncha hogwash, but considerin what Ah saw that night, Ah kept quiet about that.
Manehatten was as busy and bustlin as Ah remembered, and our mysterious friend led us to an office building with a pretty creepy logo on it. Inside, he took us up the elevator to the top floor and led us to a big set of double doors. Then he told us we'd have to go in alone, said he wasn't allowed to go any further. That made us a tad nervous, but we went in anyway.
The bosses in question were a group o three ponies. An earth pony, a pegasus, and a unicorn. All three looked like there was somethin not right about 'em, but we put it behind us and stepped closer, taking the seats they offered. They got right to it and explained what we wanted to know. Ma and Pa had been attacked by a vampire, and they weren't the only things that went bump in the night. The Cheiron Group captured and studied monsters in order to fight 'em better. They offered to train us, and give us some o their weirdo implants to help us hunt. And in return, we'd help them out if they needed some extra hooves on a non-vampire capture. Me and Big Mac looked at each other, then we nodded, and agreed to their deal.
So they did their surgeries. Made us stronger, faster, able to keep up with vampires physically. And they gave us somethin to resist the weird mind control like what Ma got used on her. Then they trained us. Taught us all about vampires so that we'd know what to look for when we was hunting. And when our first kill came, we came to a crossroads. Far as the regular folks would be concerned, we had just committed murder, and we learned whether or not we could sleep at night with that knowledge. Me, Big Macintosh, and Apple Bloom once she started helping us... All three of us sleep like foals every night. And we have absolutely no regrets...
Author's Note
Torpor: Vampire hibernation that comes about from a stake to to the heart, grievous damage to the body, or as an act of will on the vampire's part.
Final Death: A vampire's true demise.
Prologue: Nights are getting interesting.
"The Bird of Hermes is my name. Eating my wings to make me tame."
The guard's eyes widened as he took in the scene before him. The room, which earlier that day had held living, breathing slaves ready to be sold on the black market as well as their guards, was now littered with corpses. The air was misted red, and every surface was slick with blood. In the center of the carnage, covered in blood, was a single pegasus mare. Through the parts of her that weren't covered in blood, he saw a yellow coat, and a flowing pink mane. Gripped by fear, he gripped his crossbow, a top of the line repeater model, in his telekinetic grip. "Who are you?! What happened here?!"
That got the mare's attention. Slowly, she turned and looked at him, and the guard faintly noted a warm, wet sensation flowing down his hind legs. The mare's eyes had slitted pupils, and her blood red irises seemed to glow in the shade of her mane. As the light of the full moon came through a window and illuminated the mare, her lips parted to reveal her teeth, and a pair of fangs that glinted in the light. "More blood..." she muttered as she licked some of the blood around her mouth and grinned an animalistic grin.
The guard turned and tried to bolt out of the room, but found the mare in his face, still grinning. Scrambling back, his hooves struggling to find purchase on the bloodsoaked floor, he whimpered as tears of absolute terror flowed down his cheeks. "Stay back! Stay away from me!" he screamed as he fired a bolt at her. The bolt's path was true, and it buried itself in her chest. At first he thought he had slain the mare, but then watched in horror as she looked completely unfazed. Lifting her right hoof, the end of the appendage gruesomely split into a hand with four fingers tipped in vicious looking talons. Gripping the bolt, she ripped it from her chest. To his horror, there was no splatter of blood. In fact, the wound didn't bleed at all, and his gaze was drawn to her fangs as the wound repaired itself, leaving not even the slightest indication that she had been injured at all. As she grinned wider, he tried to back away further, but found himself against the wall. "Please... Please spare me..." he whimpered as the pony, no, monster approached him at a sedate pace, seeming to relish in his terror, her talons scraping against the floor and the sound echoing off the walls in horrifying concert with the sound of her hooves.
The mare stopped several feet from the guard and watched him for several moments. His crossbow lay forgotten in his terror. She'd had her fill during her unfortunate frenzy*. But there was another belly to fill with vitae*. "Schoolgirl. Come here. It's time for you to feed."
"Okay. Master, my name is Moondancer," a young mare said as she entered the room, clearly having some trouble ignoring the blood and corpses. This one was a unicorn with a white coat, purple eyes, and a flowing red mane with highlights the same shade of purple as her eyes. And like the pegasus, she had fangs. "And do I have to?"
"You do," the pegasus said. "The Beast* won't let you go without vitae. Either you feed, or it eventually takes control and feeds for you. And we can't have you on a feeding frenzy."
"Like what you did here, Master?" Moondancer asked.
"Mine wasn't a feeding frenzy, schoolgirl," the pegasus said. "Now feed."
"Alright, Master," Moondancer relented before approaching the guard, fangs bared. Pinning him with unnatural strength, she bit into his neck, lapping up the warm blood that flowed. She couldn't hold back a moan as she felt it flow down her throat. Drinking her fill, Moondancer released him and licked the wounds, sealing them as her sire* had taught her.
As she stepped back, the guard slumped down as he felt the effects of having some of his blood drained. Looking up, he saw the two creatures turn to leave the room. He had survived. He was going to live. As he got to his hooves, he noticed that they had stopped at the door. "Master?" he heard the one called Moondancer say. "Just a moment, schoolgirl." He saw the pegasus turn to him, and froze as her gaze fell on him, his burning terror returning. "Just need to..." her pleasantly smiling face split into a feral grin as her teeth erupted into pointy fangs. "Snip a loose end!" The guard only had time to scream as the monster leapt across the room and pinned him down, her talons ripping open his gut. Pain erupted from his body as he felt his organs partially spill out of him before those fangs tore into his right foreleg and ripped it off. Several organs were torn out before her fangs sank into his throat and tore it out in a splatter of blood.
"So that's your field report," the unicorn mare on the board of directors for the company known as the Cheiron Group said, a cigar between her lips as she stared at the two vampires before her.
"Yup," the pegasus said.
"So you broke into the warehouse," the unicorn mare continued.
"Yup," the pegasus chirped with a grin.
"You slaughtered all the slavers."
"Dead."
"And the slaves as well after you went into a frenzy."
"Unfortunate, but ultimately merciful."
"And scared the shit out of the last slaver before having the schoolgirl feed on him."
"It was good for her."
"And then you gave the slaver a spot of hope before violently mutilating him to death."
"A little kindness before snipping a loose end."
The cigar smoking unicorn stared at the pegasus for several seconds. "You need to stop going on walks, Fluttershy."
So I'm sure you're wondering how all this happened. Well, it all started a thousand years ago, on the night that Nightmare Moon was defeated. I was in the woods at midnight calming the animals when I was attacked by somepony. The next thing I knew, I had woken with fangs, and the one that attacked me explained that I was now a vampire of Clan Gangrel* He showed me the ropes and introduced me to the Ordo Dracul*. I've been with them for the last thousand years, and am now one of the most powerful vampiric agents the Cheiron Group has. About a week ago I saved a mare named Moondancer from a vampire attack. She was mortally wounded, so I embraced* her and made her into a new vampire.
(The evening after Moondancer's transformation.)
Moondancer groaned as she lay up in her bed, taking stock of her surroundings before seeing the smiling pegasus on her bed. Startled, she let out a quick scream.
"Tell me, schoolgirl. What's it like to be dead?" she inquired.
"Dead?" Moondancer asked in confusion.
"It was your choice to walk the path of the vampire," her visitor said before getting her a mirror.
Moondancer looked in the mirror and grinned as she looked at her new fangs before recoiling and letting out a horrified scream.
"You're too loud, schoolgirl," a new voice said.
Turning, Moondancer saw a unicorn in a business suit with a blue coat, green eyes, and a cigar between her lips.
"I don't care if you are a vampire. You're still a unicorn. Have some manners."
Moondancer looked sheepish. "So where am I, exactly?"
"This is the Canterlot branch of our headquarters," the unicorn said. "We are the Cheiron Group. To the public, we are a company that specializes in technological and pharmacological advances. Behind the scenes, we fight against the hostile creatures of the night, a duty charged to us by Princess Celestia herself. We're the monsters that protect Equestria from the other monsters. And we have no qualms about employing such entities to do our work, like Fluttershy here. She's been on the payroll for centuries."
"And who are you?" Moondancer asked.
"I'm a member of the board of directors," the unicorn said. "My name is Integra. And you may eventually meet my fellow directors, Fairbrook and Wingates. As for the near future, given your condition, you will be working for us from now on."
"But my studies!" Moondancer protested.
"You'll be given a similar arrangement as your sire*," Integra said. "We've already prepared a vessel for you to use while your true body sleeps. This vessel will allow you to go out in daylight and be a part of society. It'll be as though you were never embraced. And at night, you'll do work for us and study in your spare time."
"But..." Moondancer muttered before feeling a hoof on her shoulder. Looking at its owner, she saw Fluttershy's smiling face. And it was a genuine smile.
"It's a lot to take in, but you'll adjust," Fluttershy said. "Or you won't. In which case, I'll put you down quickly and painlessly." That last part got a nervous chuckle from Moondancer.
Author's Note
Vitae: The term for what vampires use to fuel themselves and their powers.
Frenzy: A state in which a vampire becomes unable to tell friend from foe and kills anything that moves. The most common triggers are hunger and great danger of death.
The Beast: The primal instinct inside every vampire that drives them to feed, taking control of the body when frenzy is triggered.
Clan Gangrel: One of the five clans of vampires. The other four being Daeva, Mekhet, Ventrue, and Nosferatu.
Ordo Dracul: One of the five primary Covenants of vampires. The others are the Circle of the Crone, the Lancea Sanctum, the Invictus, and the Carthian Movement.
Embrace: The act of creating a vampire. It involves draining the subject dry and then rousing them with vitae to feed from their sire.
Sire: One who has created a vampire. The term is gender neutral.
