Falling Temperatures

I awoke the next morning hungry and sore. Rubbing my tiered eyes I began to get to work. I went down my list of targets again and decided to pick Gilda.

“This ought to be interesting,” I thought to myself. I moved to my fridge and proceeded to grab one of the sealed packages inside.

Donor: Swift Strike

Blood Type: O+

Occupation: Royal Guard

Tribe: Pegasus

“Thanks guy’s” I thought as I bit into the bag.  I still couldn’t believe that seven guards volunteered to help with my “food situation”.

I began to look over Gilda’s file and began to notice some anomalies.  One of which being her sudden interest in befriending ponies. Form the rest of her history I knew she didn’t think to highly of us ponies so this was a red flag to me. Also she seemed to only be out during the day. At night no one can seem to make heads or tails of her position. The file also detailed some very minute things; slight height increase; increase in aggressiveness; increase in the amount of direct eye contact.

“There the sign I was looking for,” I thought smirking, “Still I can’t jump to conclusions,”

I decided to tail her for the day to see if I couldn’t find any definitive evidence. I knock at my door brought me out of my planning. When I answered the door I was greeted by the sadden faces of what was left of my friends.

“Guy’s I… I don’t know what I can tell you, but you need to know that I’m never going to hurt any of you, and I will still defend you guys with my life,” I said with a flat tone.

The only reciprocation came from Bass, “You shouldn’t blame yourself for what happened,”

“That’s just it. I do blame myself for this. If I was a few minutes earlier or just a little stronger, I might have been able to save them,” I said. My mask was breaking; they had to have seen this because Autumn’s voice caused me to look up.

“I can’t imagine what you went through when you found them. But we still need to see what happened to you. As your friends we deserve as much, don’t you think?”

“Yeah I think you do,” I said with the memory sphere in hand. Tapping my horn to their heads I began the spell. I was surprised at their reactions as they seemed to be not too surprised by how gruesome it was.

After the spell was finished Bass spoke up again, “I can’t believe that this happened to three of our friends…RIGHT UNDER OUR NOSES,”

“I-I didn’t think you could have survived something like that,” Kind Wind said.

“Neither did I,” I said calmly, “By all accounts I should be dead. Technically I am dead,”

“Please don’t talk like that,” said my three friends.

I decided to stop and asked them to leave they did but not without one last comment from Bass,

“In a way…we’re all dead at this point,”

“Not if I can help it,” I thought confidently.

Turning back to my research I looked into Gilda’s frequent hangouts. According to the data the Knightwatch provided, she liked to frequent a small restaurant in the corner of the market.

“Quaint” I thought to myself.

Packing up a backpack with a few things for tonight; spare blood, notepad and pencils, a small tracker gem given to me by Shining, and a large bottle of Luna’s moonshine for after the job was done. I left my house and back into the silence of the twilight. As I walked into the market I saw a small stage set up in the middle of town square.

“Looks like Mayor Mare is going to reveal my handiwork,” I thought as I smirked, but I quickly replaced my public mask and approached her,

“Mayor I think the one who preformed this duty should reveal this to the public,”

She seemed to jump at my voice before asking, “Are you sure?”

“Positive,” I said confidently.She then walked me onto the stage as the sun began to set. She then began to address the public,

“Citizens of Ponyvile, we have discovered that the dreaded Vamponies are here among us,” the crowd seemed to shift uncomfortably.

“One of which was eliminated last night,” murmurs and whispers permeated the crowd.

“One of our own weather Pegasi, Thunderlane, was confirmed as a Bat and was eliminated, by this gentlecolt here,” she motioned to me and I waved to the crowd. I saw a few of the ponies in the crowd eyeballing me with something other than curiosity, hate, I could see hate in some of their eyes.

“This young stallion as also brought proof to us of this,” she called as she motioned to a small cart with Thunderlane’s head on it. I heard gasps and even a mare vomit at the site of the head. However I began to notice motion in the crowd. Unable to locate the source of the motion I tensed up and dropped the air temperature by a few degrees. A few of the guards on stage began to shiver slightly.

A saw a Pegasus lunge at the Mayor. Reacting instinctively, the air temperature dropped even further causing ice to start forming around me. The shadowy crystals crawled across my form in an instant as I pierced the Pegasus through the abdomen with my pronged gauntlet. Locking eyes with the Pegasus I began to recognize her.

“Blossomforth! You too?” I questioned sadly.

“You killed him and you deserve to die as he did,” She screamed as she pulled herself of my blade. Taking to the sky she began to gather clouds to form something. I only realized what was going on after the first lightning bolt hit me.

I had to think fast, I was being slammed over and over with lightning bolts. My armor was keeping me mostly grounded but the charges were building in strength and my armor was starting to melt from all the energy.

I needed help…NOW.

That help did come in the form of a pair of cyan blur. The cloud shattered and Blossomforth was thrown to the ground. I charged her and pinned her down with several pikes of ice.

“Blossomforth you stand accused of attempted murder of one of her majesties Knightwatch and you stand accused of being a Vampony, how do you plea?” I said with authority.

She merely chuckled, “You think you can stop us young one? We are more numerous than we appear. We will hunt you and we will kill you,”

“Noted,” I said as my blade claimed her throat. Her head rolling off to the side.

I turned to Dash, “Thank you,”

“No problem, but you still need to earn my trust back too you know,” she shot at me.

“Fine, fine,” I deadpanned.

“So what are you up to?” she questioned.

“That’s something I need to talk to you about,” I said cautiously.

“OK let’s go,” we walked over to an ally to the side of the market.

“Look my next target is… someone you know,” I said. She looked at me with a seemingly ignorant look as if to say “Well spill it”

“It’s Gilda,” I say flatly.

Her face contorts into a mixture of confusion and rage. However I can see that she seems to be relatively calm about this. I was expecting a full blown rant out of Dash and to not get one is surprising.

“So why Gilda?” she finally asks. I had to think for a little bit. I didn’t want to upset her but she deserved to know.

“Gilda has been sighted as a possible new species of Vampony, I have been tasked to observe and eliminate if necessary,” my military tone coming through slightly.

“Well she has been hanging around the darker places in the market for a while. She also seems to wear sunglasses more often too if that helps any,”

I was honestly a little shocked, I didn’t expect Dash to give me any info let alone help me fight of another Bat.

“Thanks Dash, this will help me a lot, be seeing you,” I called as I turned towards the restaurant.

“Well it’s less of a restaurant than a shady pub” I thought to myself as I walked up to the slightly dilapidated building. Walking in I saw large diversity of creatures, everything from Diamond Dogs to teenage Dragons were present in the bar.

I moved toward an empty table at the back of the bar and removed the bottle of moonshine from my bag. This was the strongest stuff that Equestria had ever produced as far as alcohol is concerned and those who recognized the drink were flabbergasted as I took a nice long swig from the bottle.

This managed to get the attention of a certain griffin.

“Hey, what are you drinking?” she asked cautiously.

“Moonshine, want some?” I said holding out the bottle, giving it a shake in front of her. She hesitantly took the bottle from my grasp and took a small swig.

“GAH! How the hell do you drink that!” she exclaimed through sputters.

I simply chuckled not wanting to trigger anything in the establishment. I decided to try small talk.

“I’ve been wondering why you wear those sunglasses, care to share.” I asked faking being drunk. She tensed up and took another swig from the bottle before she began,

“I wear these to hide…to hide my…condition,” she said fearfully.

“Whatever do you mean by “Condition”?” I prodded.

“I’m blind…,” she said hesitantly.

The pieces fell into place slowly, she wore the sunglasses to hide something, most likely scars, and the increase in eye contact probably the result of not having any idea she was making eye contact.

“The slight mass and height increase are still unaccounted for,” I thought.

“So, you look a bit taller than when I last saw you,” I said trying to get her to speak.

“I am? Huh I never noticed. Maybe it’s all the physical therapy they’re putting me through at the hospital. I’m still trying to get used to being blind,” her tone was downtrodden, sad, almost disappointed. I knew griffins were proud beings and hated any kind of weakness.

“Well maybe your “condition” will someday become an asset,” I said as I took another long drought from the bottle.

She looked at me with her head tilted as a hushed “What?” came out of her beak.

“Those who are blind often develop higher than average abilities in other senses. Your hearing and sense of smell may develop far further than is normally possible for griffins. I hope it does for your sake,” I elaborated as I raised myself out of my chair.

“I talk to you later Gilda, I’ll send Dash your way if you’d like?” I asked

“Sure, I’d like that,”

“Good,” I blinked out as I teleported back to my house. When I arrived I finished the bottle and grumbled.

“Still not even buzzed and I just drank half a wine bottle of the strongest liquor in Equestria,”

“THIS SUCKS,” I shouted to no one.

I sat at my desk and began to write my report for the night.

“This is going to drag on for a while now isn’t it? I should ask for more moonshine…” I thought as the night began to trail on. Only the sound of quills on parchment echoed throughout the home.