Master of the Monster

At the next day an insistent knocking on the front door woke up Fluttershy.  A little annoyed, the yellow pegasus walked to open it when she bumped with something in the middle of her living room.  She groaned a little but after a while she noticed it was a large coffin.

Flutteshy gulped. “So it wasn’t a dream” she mumbled a little afraid, some more knockings called her attention.  “Coming!” she announced.

When she reached the door, she saw her five best friends waiting for her.

“Fluttershy, are you alright? What was that noise?”  asked her friend Twilight as soon as she opened the door.

“Er… I just… you see… I was…”

Twilight shook her head.  “Never mind, sorry for disturbing you Fluttershy but Princess Celestia send a letter telling us she felt a very powerful and dark presence coming from the Everfree forest and we need to investigate”

Flutteshy yawned.  “Can’t we wait for later, Twilight?  I didn’t sleep well last night and is still too early in the morning”

Rarity blinked astonished.  “Early? Darling, is almost 12:00pm.  Have you being sleeping the entire morning?”

“Are ya’ sick or something, partner?”  asked Applejack concerned.

“What?”  mumbled Fluttershy.  “I’m sorry but that’s not possible.  My animals always wake me for breakfast; it have to be some kind of mistake”

“I don’t know Fluttershy, I don’t see any of your animals neither”  said Pinkie entering and approaching to one of Fluttershy’s birdhouses.  “Oh, never mind.  They’re in here but… Fluttershy, why are all your animals hiding into their shelters? Something happened to them?”

Fluttershy gasped and started to examine her poor animals.  As Pinkie said, they all were hiding.  “What? Come on my friends, nothing can hurt you in here and you know it.  Come on, don’t you want to eat something? That will make you all feel better”

Angel jumped to her owner’s back and pointed to the coffin.

“Fluttershy, why do you have that thing on your living room? What’s going on?”  asked Rainbow Dash looking at the coffin.

“Ehem… is nothing Rainbow, can you please wait for me outside? I’ll be ready in a few minutes and…”

Ignoring her friend, Rainbow opened the box.

“NOOOOO!!”  screamed Fluttershy.

A bunch of bats escaped from the coffin dispersing all over the cottage to everypony’s surprise.  Recovering a little, Fluttershy sighed deeply and stared to Rainbow Dash.

“Rainbow Dash! You scare them!”

Still shocked, Rainbow Dash just landed.  “Okay, why on Equestria do you keep bats inside that thing? Is this some kind of prank or something?”

Fluttershy lowered her head.  “Well, they’re kind of nocturnal, you know?  This kind of bats like to sleep in places like trees or caves until the night come”

Twilight facehoofed.  “Girls, we’re losing time! Fluttershy, do you think you can be ready in less than fifteen minutes?”

Fluttershy nodded. “I can try, but I need you to leave me alone for a little while I get the bats back on their box”

“Understood, we’ll wait you outside”  announced Twilight.

When they left, Fluttershy sighed in relieve and the bats gathered together forming Seras Victoria again.

“That trick of the bats took me by surprise”  said Fluttershy.  “Thank you so much Seras”

The vampire bowed.  “I’m just obeying your orders, master”

Fluttershy sighed.  “Well, I know I told you to put this in the living room but now than I think about it… do you mind to move it to the basement?  I mean, if that’s okay with you.  You know… if you don’t like the basement we can think in other solution, just…”

Seras smiled.  “You’re the master, you only have to give the orders and I’ll follow it without arguing or questioning you.  You’re the master; I’m the slave, as easy as that”

Fluttershy grumped a little uncomfortable with the situation.  “Seras… I’ll appreciate if you stop calling me master.  Fluttershy will be fine.  For the sake of my mental sanity, can you do that for me?”

“Yes, Fluttershy”  said the vampire bowing again.

The shy pony sighed and after the vampire moved her “home” to the basement, she served the meal for all her animals and made a small sandwich for her.

“Sorry for the delay girls”  she said joining to her friends.

Twilight smiled.  “Good, now let’s go.  Remember girls: we’re looking for something unusual or strange.  Besides, we don’t know what are we dealing with so we have to be careful and don’t separate”

The girls nodded and entered to the forest.  At least Fluttershy was calmed.  Thanks to Seras’ strange powers, her friends won’t notice anything even if they get to deep into the forest.  Unfortunately for the shy pony, Rainbow noticed something strange:

“Girls… is normal to see an hydra like that?”  she asked half curious half scared.

They all gasped.  An hydra corpse laid before them, with strange marks on the neck and completely bloodless.  The worst part was the hydra wasn’t alone.  Several other big predators were all over the place with the same marks and without any blood into them.  Twilight examined the body.

“I know it sounds weird but… I can tell you something very powerful attacked all of them and drank all their blood”

“You mean like a vampire?”  asked Rainbow Dash staring at a manticore.

“Yes, like a vampire, but vampires doesn’t exists.  We’re probably dealing with some kind of strange creature who have strange eating habits but I’m pretty sure it isn’t a vampire”

“Ah’ don’t know Twi”  mumbled Applejack.  “They’re all dry and look at their faces, they seem to be really scared of something. Besides ya’ said the Princess felt a dark presence coming from here. Are ya’ sure it isn’t a vampire?”

Twilight took a deep breath to recover her patience.

“Yes, I’m sure… almost.  Whatever, at least we found something.  I’m going to write a report for the Princess; that’s the only thing we can do for now”

“I don’t know Twilight”  said Fluttershy examining another body.  “This is not the first time I see this and I can tell you is very common a little deeper into the forest.  Is just some predator that went too far from its home looking for food.  Nothing to worry about, after all, predators are part of the balance of nature”

Twilight shook her head.  “You’re probably right Fluttershy, but if that’s the case, we need to figure out why this predator came this far; probably the dark presence made this animal run away from its home”

Fluttershy was about to protest but she didn’t think in any good excuse so she kept quiet.  Twilight was going to be a problem if she wanted to hide Seras for the rest of the world.

At the end, they keep exploring for a couple of hours but didn’t find anything besides the carnage so they came back to their homes.  Half relieved half stressed, Fluttershy locked inside her cottage and waited until the night to have a serious talk with Seras.

When the sun hided, the vampire appeared immediately causing all her master’s animals ran to hide into their shelters.  Fluttershy shook her head.

“Seras… I think we have a problem”  said the shy pony a little afraid of the vampire reaction.

“What’s wrong, Fluttershy? Something I did?”

“Well, yes”  said Fluttershy slowly.  “You see Seras, dear, I know is not your fault but today Princess Celestia sent a letter to my friend Twilight.  She felt a very powerful and dark presence in the forest and made us investigate it”

“She felt me” mumbled Seras.

“Yes, and when we get into the forest we found all your preys.  Seras I know you need to feed but please, can you hunt deeper into the forest, please?  All my friends were to suspicious about the animals you left in there and I was lucky I could invent an excuse but I don’t know if I can lie to my friends again”

Seras bowed.  “My apologies.  From now on I’ll hunt deeper into the forest”

Fluttershy sighed relieved.  “And Seras, can you restrain yourself a little more?  You attacked so many animals in just one night, if you keep like this, you’ll end with all the wildlife in the Everfree forest in a matter of weeks and…”

Seras smiled a little. “Don’t worry Fluttershy, it won’t happen again. I slept for over a million years and I was thirsty, very thirsty.  But normally one or two preys will be more than enough for me”

Fluttershy smiled.  “Thank you Seras, I’m glad you understood”

Sreas smiled too.  “Anything else I can do for you, Fluttershy?”

“Well, about your power… is there something you can do to hide it from Twilight and Princess Celestia?”

Seras nodded. “I can restrain it but in order to do so, I need your help.  As my master you’re the only one who can do this for me”

Fluttershy shivered scared but nodded.

Then, Seras’ red eyes glowed creepily while her dark energy hoof extended its shadow for all over the place.  Fluttershy screamed in fear but it wasn’t the end.  Several red eyes that were staring at the two ponies appeared all over the shadow and a pentagram glowed in the ground.

“Master, I need your blood for this.  Put a few drops in the center of the symbol”

Shacking Fluttershy cut herself with a piece of paper and did what Seras said.  Seras bowed to Fluttershy and kissed her hoof as a symbol of eternal loyalty.

“I give you my unlife, master Fluttershy.  Whatever you order me, I’ll obey; whatever you want from me I’ll give it to you in no time.  From now on I’m unable to access my full power unless you allow me to. This is what is called a Restriction Seal”

As soon as the vampire said that, strange white horseshoes with pentagrams appeared in her four legs.

“So… what I have to do if I want you to use your power?”  asked curious Fluttershy.

“Just say: Releasing Restriction Seals #3, 2, 1, 0. As easy as that”

The dark energy banished leaving Fluttershy and Seras alone.  The shy pony felt weird and scared; now she had even more responsibility than last night.

“I must warn you Fluttershy, level zero is very dangerous and better if you don’t let me use it, but the decision is all yours. After all, you’re my master”

Fluttershy looked at the vampire.

“Seras… why me? I’m weak, easily scared and ashamed of almost everything.  Anypony else could be a better master for you; so why me? Is because I woke you?”

Seras shook her head.

“Because you’re kind, loyal and do anything for the sake of your friends and family.  You remind me when I was human.  Besides I have a feeling that serve you is what I need to do.  Something is about to happen and destiny crossed our paths.  Perhaps this means the end of my eternal loneliness, who knows?”

Fluttershy nodded and after treating her cut, went to sleep.  So according to Seras, this was only the beginning; but the beginning of what?