Vampony Survival Guide Tales

Chapter 24
Raiding The Nightclub

I took a moment to orient myself toward the mountain and I pictured the map, while counting the city blocks with a finger. Canterlot was glowing a soft red-orange in the setting sun’s light, almost making it look ablaze. After locating my target block I started down the stairs once more, my target’s location memorized. Were it not for the attention I would have drawn to myself, I would have taken flight to save time.

The trip back down into one of Canterlot’s commercial districts was over far more quickly than I anticipated, which was good. With the setting of the sun I had fewer than six hours to locate the nest and obliterate it. Taking down the nine leaders was my primary objective but it was also the minimum requirement to succeed and I did not plan on skating by on the first assignment Princess Luna had trusted me with.

I followed one of the roads in a straight line toward my objective, ignoring the majority of the stares I got from those I passed. Canterlot was still quite populated even after the outbreak, most of the residents had just taken to hiding and leading quiet lives. Occasionally I would pass through blocks of the commercial district still bustling with activity, it was an odd contrast to the completely deserted blocks right next to them.

I occasionally spotted completely walled off portions of the city as well. Buildings had walls built to connect them and gates that closed over the streets. Most of these structures appeared to be for keeping vamps out, but one gate I passed had guards around the outside of the perimeter. I figured they could easily fly out of their cage, but when I looked up I saw what looked like a net of razor wire over the walls and buildings. From what I heard, Bats trying to shadowstep through it could get sliced clean in half.

After banishing the image from my head I pressed onward toward my objective into a much less populated section of the city. The rest of my journey to the infested block was suspiciously uneventful, an unnatural stillness seemed to hang over the air like a thick blanket. I could feel eyes watching me from the shadows, hungry, angry, scared, confused.

The tunnel stretched on forever, I could hear them whispering from crevices all around me. The chittering of their high-pitched voices, the dry skittering of their wings as they nervously shuffled in their ambush positions. Undisciplined things. They weren’t going to stop me from getting to that chamber, that queen was as good as dead.

Oddly enough, I made it all the way to the egg-laying chamber and they never sprang their ambush. The chamber was just like the ones I had seen before, a truly massive room with a great, domed ceiling. There was but one occupant in the room, a Changeling queen desperately trying to squeeze her eggs out and make her escape.

A powerful beat of my wings launched me across the room and I was upon her. One hand found her throat, while the other pressed my revolver to her cheek…

Wait, revolver?

A choked cry escaped the stallion’s muzzle, his burning red eyes moist with fear. The sand behind the Changeling queen’s head had been replaced by the paving stones of Canterlot’s streets and her head was his?

The now Master vampony beneath me struggled to pry my hand from his throat as he managed a weak gasp.

“Please don’t shoot me,” the demon squeaked out as reality came crashing back in waves. The walls of the chamber crumbled and gave way to the buildings of the commercial district, the tunnel gave way to the long street I had been traveling, and the ceiling faded back into Canterlot’s evening sky.

“What the fuck did you do to me?!” I bellowed as I pressed the barrel of the massive handcannon into his eye, eliciting a fresh squeak of fear and pain from him. My hand around his throat moved to the bottom of his jaw where I could easily manipulate his head away if he tried to bite.

“You were just walking down the middle of the street without a single care in the world, prime target, I guarantee I wasn’t the only one thinking about jumping you,” his voice wavered and his breathing was fast and irregular. “Look, please just let me go. Vamp’s gotta eat you know? And I didn’t actually get to bite you, you just tranced out and went batshit crazy after I tried to mind-control you,” he explained as his body joined his voice in his trembles.

I pressed the barrel of the pistol deeper into his eye socket, causing him to let out a fresh wail of fear and pain. Any more pressure and the flesh was liable to give way. “You tried to fucking mind-control me?!” I snarled through grit teeth. I took a moment to take in his appearance, he wasn’t one of my targets, but a little extra credit could go a long way if I wanted to keep myself in Luna’s good books.

“Please just let me go!” He begged as tears began to leak from his eyes. “I didn’t actually do anything to you! Can we just call this a no-harm no-foul encounter and move on with our lives?” His demonic eye pleaded with me, it was surreal to see something so dangerous so afraid of me. “Please, don’t shoot me,” he whispered.

I slowly withdrew the pistol from his eye, my left hand still firmly gripping his jaw as I holstered my weapon. I could see a glimmer of hope returning to his eyes as the other opened. I had moved just a little too slowly it seemed, I didn’t want to give him that chance to feel hope. I just wanted to save some ammo.

I pushed up against the bottom of his jaw, forcing him to look away and expose his neck to me. He barely had time to utter a groan of surprise or protest, it doesn’t really matter which it was I suppose. The soft flesh of his neck parted almost effortlessly for my blade, his groan quickly turned to a choked gasp then a gut-wrenching gurgle as blood flowed into his windpipe. His efforts to breathe only worsened his situation as he began to drown in his own blood, weakening his body for its struggles against my efforts.

There’s an odd intimacy to taking someone’s life with a blade, be they a demon or no. The final moments of one’s life, feeling it fading away in my very hands. The struggles against my blades that grow weaker with each passing moment as they progress through the form before me, feeling his fingers grasping at my wrists even as my blade grinds through his vertebrae. Maybe I’m just reading too much into killing someone, maybe I just got really high off the rush of endorphins from ending a life and mistook that rush for a deeper emotion. Maybe I’m just losing my mind. One.

I rose and took in my surroundings, realizing I had traveled at least two blocks into the abandoned section of the city while under the influence of that damned creature. I could hear the subtle scraping of someone dragging their hooves in an alley to my left, I also caught movement from a darkened window when I glanced right. I could feel eyes from all around watching me in the moon’s light, I may as well have been standing alone on a stage with all spotlights shining on myself.

My instincts screamed at me to run, to flee from the predators waiting for a chance to pounce. If they wanted a chase they were going to be disappointed, for I had no intention of giving them the satisfaction. I knew what I needed to do in this time of doubt and fear, something I had done time and time again that always kept me going. I bowed my head and clasped my hands as I took the first of many fresh steps into enemy territory, the scent of fresh blood on my gauntlets rushing into my nostrils and nearly overwhelming me.

“Oh Sisters I beseech thee, I have found myself doubting and afraid, surrounded by mine enemy and without a friend at mine side. Give me thine courage, so I need not fear those who would use it against me. Give me thine assurances, so I shall not doubt myself nor my abilities. Give me thine endurance, so I might weather the coming storm of my foes. Though you are not with me in body, be with me in spirit. Watch over and protect me, so I needn’t an ally to overcome my tribulations. In return for these blessings I offer what I have already given, my life. Help me preserve it and it will be yours to use as you see fit, now and forever,” I felt a comforting warmth flow through my body as I finished my hushed prayer and looked back up to the blocks ahead.

My objective was a half a block away and I didn’t even have to guess which building they were using. I immediately recognized one of the lieutenants I was supposed to kill standing outside the building with two others helping him guard the entrance to a large nightclub. The lieutenant and one of his entourage were wearing Royal Guard armor, the entire trio consisted of Gargoyles. From my position I could hear the muted thumping of the bass of whatever music they were listening to. I thought back to Lucky flattening her ears because of the construction that was going on nearby, any Masters inside that building had to be absolutely miserable… Or wearing earplugs...

I was still hatching a plan to deal with them when the door opened and a trio of Bats came out to relieve them of their shift, I recognized one of the other lieutenants in his Royal Guard armor leading the second group. One of the Bats pointed at me but I couldn’t hear what they said, couldn’t have been good. I immediately darted into the alley to my right, maybe I’d get two or three of them to chase me and deal with more manageable groups.

“Hey you, come back here!” I heard one of the voices call out to me. With a flick of my wings and ears, I could hear what had to be six sets of hooves running down the street toward the alley I had chosen to flee through. I wasn’t going to escape them if they decided to transform and chase after me more efficiently. I had to think fast.

I charged through the alley and across the next street, checking over my shoulder to see the entire group still pursuing me. I entered the next alley, hoping the distance I had covered would prevent the noise of what I was about to do from reaching the nightclub.

I rounded a corner and peeked back around it to watch the entrance to the street, dropping my pack as I did so. I reached into it and pulled out one of the grenades Patches had given me, its surface was almost perfectly smooth and it had a bright yellow stripe painted on it. I quickly swatted the safety clip from the spoon of the grenade and grasped the pin. I could hear the group nearing the entrance of the alleyway as I yanked on the pin and twisted one direction, then the other. The pin popped free and I threw the grenade around the corner as the vamps piled into the alleyway. The spoon flew free and the two objects clattered noisily toward my pursuers.

“What the fuck?! Did he throw rocks at us?!” I heard one of them call as I hopped over my pack and laid on my belly behind it, my arms over my head covering my ears. “Shit! That’s a-” the remainder of the exclamation was drowned out by the deafening roar of the grenade’s detonation.

I rose from my position behind my pack and was immediately enshrouded by a mixture of smoke and dust. I could hear the patter of rocks and other debris landing and waited for it to stop before rounding the corner. With a kill radius of five meters and a casualty radius of fifteen that grenade should have taken them all down. However the detonation only seemed to have killed four of them, two of them whom had been in the back of the group were on the ground groaning in pain. Two, three, four, five.

I drew my revolver and stepped through the messy crater to finish the two survivors off, making sure to aim for their hearts. Six and seven.

“Fuck,” I muttered as I took in the mess of severed limbs and shattered stonework. In spite of their proximity to the blast, their bodies looked mostly intact. Aside from a few severed limbs and bits of shrapnel, two of the corpses looked untouched. I fired rounds into them to make sure and discovered that the concussion from the blast had reduced their organs to paste. Luckily enough, the helmets the lieutenants had been wearing preserved their faces well enough to keep them easily identifiable.

I ran out of the second alleyway, across the street and into the first alley. I moved to the edge of it to watch the entrance to the nightclub, my revolver and its two remaining shots at the ready. I could still hear the music thundering away inside the building, it was probably wishful thinking that I had been far enough away to cover the noise of that explosion. I had heard it echoing off buildings much farther away than the nightclub, so why the fuck weren’t any of them coming out?

I was fairly certain explosions weren’t a daily occurrence in Canterlot but when nobody came out to investigate I returned to my pack and grabbed two extra grenades and some ammo for my revolver. I took the time to reload it and cut the heads off the vamps in the alley before crossing the streets and returning to the nightclub.

I pressed myself against the wall mere inches from the door, the very building vibrated with the thumping of the bass. I braced myself for whatever could be on the other side, they had likely taken up defensive positions inside the building and the fight through it would most certainly be difficult.

“Give me thine courage,” I whispered as I pushed the door open and strode into the narrow entry hallway, revolver at the ready. The music was deafening inside this first room and I couldn’t even see any speakers in here pumping it out. The narrow hall stretched out at least thirty feet before me with a set of double doors at the end. Another set of double doors sat halfway down the right side of the hall and a lone door was on the end of the left side.

I slowly moved up to the double doors on the right, encountering no resistance in the hallway that could have easily been used as a funnel to overlap fields of fire and kill me. Maybe they really hadn’t heard the blast? Over the din of the music I could hear a voice right on the other side of the door.

“I don’t care if you think it’s nothing! I’m still gonna go check it out!” I heard a mare’s voice call out. She didn’t sound particularly agitated, it just sounded like she was trying to be heard over the noise. I prepared my left blade and moved past the double doors, with luck this vamp would head straight for the exit and not even notice me. “Besides, Bornite wants someone to go check it out!”

I love it when I’m right. The female Master clad in Royal Guard armor strode out and looked at the exit. She wasted no time striding down the hall toward the double doors and I moved along behind her as silently as I could. I was almost close enough to reach her when she threw the doors open and stepped out onto the sidewalk.

“Where the fuck did they go?” She asked with an annoyed groan as she looked for any sign of the guards that were missing from their post. She froze and looked at the ground, slowly following the trail of blood I had left from the alleyway.

I quickly stood and tapped her left shoulder with the barrel of my revolver, the metal clanging against her pauldron. She was still turning to look at me when I plunged my left blade through her neck, aiming for the vertebrae in her neck. They immediately snapped and her neck folded over at a grotesque angle, the soft tissues tearing open as the side of her helmet clanged against my forearm. A quick swipe down and to the left took her head the rest of the way off as her body collapsed. Eight.

A quick check over my shoulder confirmed that nobody had followed or noticed us and I darted back into the hallway to continue my mission. I paused a moment, realizing I had only taken down two of my nine targets and had topped my kill count from the hookah bar already. This was going to be a rough evening if it continued at this rate. I closed the distance to the double doors and pushed one open to peer inside.

Behind the doors was a dimly-lit bar, at the actual bar I could see a pair of the Gargoyles harassing the bartender. Upon closer inspection I noticed a collar around his neck keeping him chained to the bar. The nervous expression on his face only deepened when one of the mares grabbed the collar and yanked him toward her with a laugh. I caught a glimpse of the side of her face, the second lieutenant of the Gargoyles. Her helmet was sitting on the bar next to several empty glasses. I scanned as much of the room as possible before entering, there were a few empty booths and an unlit pool table but I didn’t see any other occupants.

I pushed the door open farther and strode over to the bar, the two Gargoyles didn’t even look back to see who was coming. They were too busy toying with the poor bartender they had enslaved. Of course it was also possible they hadn’t even heard the door opening and closing over that damned music. Who’s idea was it to make it this loud in the first place? They didn’t look back when I stopped behind them, they probably didn’t notice the smell of blood over the alcohol they had spilled all over the bar.

“You’re not much of a stallion but there should be enough of you to tend to both of us if we share!” She called to him over the music. Her hand caressed his cheek but her touch seemed to do nothing to ease his nerves.

I holstered my pistol to more easily use both blades and carefully lined the two up. It wasn’t until the bartender looked up at me instead of the Gargoyles that they seemed to notice anything was amiss. They were both turning to look back at me when I broke my own silence.

“You made this too easy,” I said to the mare as she looked up at me from her seat. I snapped my arms out with as much speed as I could muster, beheading both of the Gargoyles. Nine and ten.

The bartender fell away from the limp bodies with a cry as he covered his face. “Please don’t!” The corpses fell off their stools with a pair of dull thumps masked by the bass of the music.

“Shut up!” I hissed over the bar at him. “I’m going to get you out of here understand? But you have to help me,” I said, raising my voice enough for him to hear. “Where are the ones in charge?”

He shakily rose to the bar and looked at the mess, then at me. “The one in charge of the Gargoyles is across the hall in the lounge,” he said as he pointed to the approximate location of the single door I had seen earlier. “She took her pet or whatever it is she calls him, inside with her, should be alone otherwise,” he said as he cleared his throat and poured himself a shot of liquor.

He was about to drink it when I stopped him, my bloodstained gauntlet painting his forearm red. “Names and locations first, then you can have your damned poison,” I growled as I squeezed his forearm. He looked almost as scared as he did when the Gargoyles were harassing him.

“The alpha Bat is probably somewhere out by the dance floor if he’s not in the kitchen eating something he’s gonna puke up. The alpha Master is probably in the back office or the changing room, they’re both on the back left side of the dance floor. If any of them are missing they’re probably upstairs sleeping something off,” he explained.

“They can sleep with all this fucking noise?” I asked, forgetting the obvious.

“Soundproofing enchantments, you could drop a damned bomb on the building across the street and someone above the first floor won’t hear it,” he explained as he glanced back at the doors behind me. “Did you come alone?”

“Ahead of another team yes, but they’ll be here soon. So don’t you worry we’ll get you out of here,” I said as I moved away from the bar. “Just keep your head down and if any of them show up and want to know where I am, send them my way,” I instructed as I pushed one of the doors open and headed for the lounge.

I drew my revolver before opening the door, just in case they were too far away to dispatch quickly. I pushed the door open to reveal a rectangular room with several L-shaped lounging sofas and a pair of dancing poles. Sitting in one of the sofas with their backs to the door were what I assumed to be the alpha Gargoyle and her mate. She was still half-clad in her Sun Guard armor, she had been one of Celestia’s elite guards before the outbreak.

“Did you find out what that noise was?” She asked as she glanced over her shoulder, an expression of near-boredom that turned to surprise when it wasn’t one of her minions.

“Oh it was me,” I said as I took aim with my revolver at her head but she raised her armored arm to defend herself. I quickly corrected my aim and shot the Gargoyle who was still rising from his seat. The side of his head flew apart as the round tore through him, staining the sofa and pissing off the alpha. Eleven.

I returned my aim to the Gargoyle but found her obscured by the couch flying across the room toward me. I dove forward and to the left, narrowly avoiding the flying piece of furniture as it crashed through the wall. That much noise inside the building would definitely get someone’s attention…

I decided to take aim from the floor and found that I was too late, the Gargoyle had already hardened her skin and transformed. I scrambled to my hooves as I noted how much faster than usual she had managed to assume her alternate form. By the time I was standing she was charging and I found myself diving out of the way as she made a charging leap for me.

Much like the couch before her, she flew over me and smashed clean through the wall as my face met the floor for a second time. I used a beat of my wings to help myself up more quickly, ignoring the jolt of pain in my right wing as I propelled myself several feet through the air. I holstered my revolver when I landed and gripped one of my grenades.

The Gargoyle let out a deafening roar and charged across the room again as I backpedaled away. I managed to swat the safety clip off the spoon and looked up from my task just in time to see the snarling face of the Gargoyle hurtling toward me. I instinctively tightened my grip on my weapon and kicked off the ground with another powerful beat of my wings, trying to dodge her again. I had moved too little too late.

Her arms wrapped around my waist and her shoulder slammed into my midsection, the impact nearly knocked the wind out of me through my armor. We sailed through the air and slammed into the wall, which immediately buckled and crumbled under the force of the impact. I then felt yet another impact as we flew out into the street and slammed into the ground. Looking at the sky I could see stars, actual ones thankfully, not figurative ones. My wing ached fiercely as well, I grit my teeth in preparation for the struggle that had only just begun.

Her arms moved up from my waist to my torso, keeping my own arms pinned between us. I closed my eyes as her maw opened in a deafening roar, splattering my face with her venom-laced saliva. I struggled to work my legs up between us and free my arms from her grasp as she began squeezing in an attempt to crush me. I could feel my armor beginning to buckle under the force the Gargoyle was exerting on it, my wings were pinned and it was getting harder to breathe. The shoulder of my right wing felt like it was going to snap under the pressure she was exerting.

With a desperate yank I managed to free my left arm and jabbed my thumb into her right eye socket. She snarled loudly and continued to squeeze as I squirmed and worked my legs into position. I pushed harder, feeling a wet pop as her eyeball popped open and my thumb sank deeper into her eye socket. She recoiled and I wedged my hooves into place, shrimping my way out of her grip.

I used the momentum to roll backwards until I was on my hooves again, my right hand gripping the grenade so tightly my knuckles ached. The Gargoyle was flailing around on her back and snarling, clawing at her own face. I took the opportunity to work the pin out of the grenade, yanking and twisting on that stubborn little piece of metal until it popped free.

By the time I had the pin out she had already scrambled up onto all fours and was charging me again. I barely had enough time to dive out of the way and by the time I had recovered and was standing again she was charging once more. I had no choice, if I kept dodging her on the ground she would just wear me out until I made a mistake and would tear me to pieces, or the others would arrive and help her.

I spread my wings and jumped, adding several feet to the distance I covered with a powerful beat of the feathered appendages. A massive jolt of pain surged down the right side of my back as I forced my injured wing to do its job. She charged under me and I corrected my trajectory to land on her shoulders with my hooves. Direct hit.

I dug my left hand into her left eye to keep a grip on her as she bucked about and clawed at my legs. I forced my fingers deeper into her eye socket and she threw her head back in a loud howl of pain. My opportunity. Time seemed to slow as I released the spoon of the grenade, activating the fuse within it and forced my right hand down her gaping maw and into her throat. I felt the contraction of her muscles as she gagged on the sudden intrusion of half of my arm and released the grenade.

I wrenched my arm free and kicked off the enraged creature with all my might, beating my wings to gain as much distance as possible. The pain in my wing suddenly felt extremely dull with all the adrenaline coursing through my veins. The Gargoyle looked up at me and let out a final angry snarl before the grenade detonated and sent chunks of her in every direction. Twelve.

The dull pain suddenly became sharp and a wet popping sound came from my wing, my breath escaped in a harsh scream as my limb became significantly less responsive. I didn’t have enough time to grab my wing and straighten myself out and ended up falling several feet before slamming into the street. The impact dazed me but wasn’t enough to distract me from the hot knife in my wing. I could feel the rushing of fluids to the injured joint and reached back to touch it. My fingers felt like hammers hitting the surface of my wing and I immediately regretted touching it. Had I really exerted myself that hard? Had my adrenaline-fueled use of my wing pushed my fracture to the breaking point?

I pushed myself up off the street and stood, surveying the mess. The alpha was definitely dead and the occupants of the nightclub no doubt knew something was terribly wrong by now. I looked back at my right wing to see it hanging limply from my back. I flexed it to try to pull it back to its usual folded position against my back and was rewarded with a massive jolt of pain as it twitched weakly.

“Fuck!” I called out as my wing drooped back to its limp position. I looked back at the nightclub and walked back into the lounge through the hole in the wall. My hands found each other as I bowed my head. “Give me thine endurance, so I might forget my pain. Give me thine endurance, so I might fight again. Give me thine will, so I shall not be broken,” as I continued my prayer I could feel the pain subsiding once more.

“Oh isn’t that sweet, praying to Luna to save your precious little soul?” A voice from the other side of the lounge mocked.

“That’s Princess Luna, cur,” I snarled as I opened my eyes and looked up from my clasped hands. On the other side of the room stood three Bats, one I immediately recognized as the second lieutenant clad in Sun Guard armor. His entourage consisted of a pair of Bats in Royal Guard armor, I felt my blood run cold with rage at the sight of them after hearing their words.

“Did the poor little Pegasus get himself hurt by the big bad Gargoyle?” The Bat in charge asked as he leaned forward with a grin, gesturing at my limp wing. His armor was still very well cared for and his weapon of choice appeared to be a longsword and shield pair but I also spotted a pistol at his hip. The other guards had pistols as well but one was armed with a spear and the other a hammer.

“She bit off a bit more than she could chew I’m afraid, and even in this state I should be more than capable of continuing my mission,” my voice was cold as the trio moved across the room. Before I knew what I was doing, I had removed my gun belt and held it out at arm’s length. “How about we settle this the honorable way?” I proposed, my face set in stone. The other two looked back at their leader for instruction.

“Do it,” he said with a grin as he removed his gun belt. His entourage following suit. “I’m not gonna lie, I’m impressed you took Bornite down,” he looked to each of his followers with a grin. “But the three of us are going to tear you to pieces!” He shouted as he kicked off the ground and drew his sword.

I deployed my blades and turned slightly, keeping my injured wing away from the rapidly closing trio. I would have to time my blocks, dodges, and counters perfectly if I wanted to survive this fight. The mare with the spear was moving the fastest and the Sun Guard would likely launch the second attack, closing me in and removing my maneuvering options to deal with the one wielding the hammer.

Just as I predicted, the mare reached me first and delivered a thrust with her spear that I easily dodged. I kept myself on the inside of her attacks, moving to the right to keep her between myself and the other two. She continued jabbing at me with her spear and I continued avoiding the deadly tip, monitoring the other two as they changed positions in the rear to try to corner me.

The mare with the spear whom was clearly frustrated by my evasiveness swung the spear in a low arc and I jumped over it. She immediately changed grips to continue delivering thrusting attacks and started herding me left toward the one with the hammer. The Sun Guard had positioned himself to the side of the mare with the spear to prevent me from rushing her, leaving me with no choice but to continue dodging my way toward the stallion with the hammer.

I had to find a way to turn this strategy against them! The Sun Guard was rushing me with his shield raised and took a horizontal swing while the mare delivered another jab with her spear. I raised my left blade to block the longsword while dodging the spear and that’s when the hammer came down.