The Vampony Chronicles

The Vampony Chronicles
Chapter 8: R&R With Princess Luna

I stepped through the doors to the sanctuary to find Rarity flipping through one of the books on the shelves.

"I must say Twilight, you are going to love this collection." Rarity said with a small chuckle.

"Why's that?" I asked trotting over to her.

"Well I think the main reason would be that most of these are on a form of magic you've probably never studied." She said, levitating the book and showing me a spell diagram for a dark magic spell.

"Facinating..." I said, taking the book and occupying the couch beside her as she levitated a book from a section labeled 'Fiction'.

"I wonder what vamponies used to read." She said as she opened the cover. "Fetlock Holmes? I thought these were only released around a century ago." Rarity thought aloud.

"Oh they were, but that author was much older." Ceres said chuckling as she stepped in. "You're holding the original copy of that book."

"Really?" I said looking over at the leather bound novel.

"I do believe so darling, it's hoofwritten after all." She said turning it around to show me the elegant cursive that made up the story.

"Well I'll be..." I said chuckling.

"You'll find quite a few famous classic authors and artists were vamponies." Ceres said with a smile. "The arts seem to come easier to us."

"I may have to take up something then." I said smiling as I turned back to the tome before me. The spell mentioned was a type of armor spell that generated a black flame around the caster's body that would absorb all spell damage and channel the energy into the caster's reserves.

"Ooh, that's a useful one, take it from me." Ceres said about an inch from my ear causing me to literally jump through her in my surprise.

"Please!" I said, panting as Rarity broke down into a fit of giggles. "Don't do that!"

"Sorry." She said sheepishly while giggling to herself. "But after a century alone in this place can you blame me?"

"No I suppose I can't." I said with a smile. "Say, how old are you anyhow?" I asked.

"Twilight!" Rarity exclaimed.

"What? I'm curious." I said, blushing a little.

"It's alright Rarity, I got over that years ago. I'm... two thousand four hundred fifty seven, give or take thirty years, you loose count after a while." Ceres said, causing Rarity's jaw to drop.

"Wow." I said.

"Yep, i was born ten years after the end of Discord's reign, and was turned when I was twenty five or so." She said, resting on the back of the couch I was lounging on once more. "Actually I witnessed Luna's banishment, but let's not talk about that." She said with a small smile.

"Yeah." I said turning back to the spell and got to work memorizing it.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Two hours later we found ourselves having found better things to do. Rarity was taking a short power nap and I was in the courtyard below the tower practicing the spell I had just learned.

I held my ground as a large bolt of light shot at me, cast by Ceres. I brought up the spell, the black flames licking up from around my hooves and covering me in a cloak of black fire in less than a second. The bolt impacted and left me feeling as if I had just taken a power nap myself.

"Good work Twilight." Ceres said as she appeared next to me. "Twentieth try, that's about the usual for someone trying to learn that spell."

"How did you do?" I asked, curious.

"Ten tries, but then again my special talent is dark magic." She said chuckling as she nodded at her cutie mark with what a tongue of black fire.

"I was wondering what that meant." I said with a smile.

"Now, shall we invite Luna to join us or just leave her on the battlements eating that apple." Ceres said with a chuckle, nodding at the old wall that was nearest to us and sure enough, there was Luna with a half eaten apple in her hoof. She already looked older than she had after the Elements had done their work on her, her appearance less of a filly and more of a teenager. "Luna! Get your flank down here or I'll chase ya down!" Ceres yelled up to her, causing my jaw to drop as the Princess of the night flew down chuckling like a schoolfilly.

"I have missed thee Ceres. Thou art the only one who dares to treat me with such familiarity." Luna said as she landed.

"You know it Loony." Ceres replied as the two old friends hugged. "I missed you too ya know."

"And I apologize for my absence." Luna said. "I'm afraid I was unwillingly the first mare on the moon." She said with a weak smile.

"Bad joke loony." Ceres said facehoofing. "In any case, I kept the place as clean as I could." She said. "Shall we?"

"Yes let's." Luna replied and Ceres led us up the tower.

Rarity was still asleep when we opened the door, snoring adorably causing all of us to giggle a bit.

"Say, Loony, you remember the Royal Canterlot Voice don't you?" Ceres whispered in a way that made me imagine capitol letters on those words.

"I believe I do, and I must say, I like thine style." Luna said giggling a bit more leaving me rather confused. "Cover thine ears Twilight, this will be loud." She said before taking a deep breath as I clamped my hooves over my ears.

"Wake up Miss Rarity!" She said, although her voice was amplified loud enough to send the bats flying out of the rafters yet again, and definitely loud enough to cause Rarity to fly off of the couch like a startled cat. Her fur was standing on end and her mane and tail had somehow gotten all disheveled, causing her to look even more like a startled cat.

"P-princess Luna... While I must thank you for waking me up can you please do it at a normal volume next time." Rarity said, after shakily bowing.

"Of course Miss Rarity, I just thought the opportunity was far too perfect." Luna said, looking over to Ceres who was rolling around on the floor laughing her flank off.

"Oh Loony it has been far too long." She said, causing Rarity's jaw to drop this time.

"That it has." she said chuckling at the wide eyed Rarity. "Relax Miss Rarity, Ceres is an old friend of mine, and probably one of the few ponies around to day who knows me well enough to dare call me Loony."

Rarity was still dumbfounded as we all took up residence on four of the various couches in the common room. "So, Twilight, has thou gone over everything with Rarity yet?" Luna asked.

"Actually I was waiting until you arrived, I can't say I know all the details and i don't want to get anything wrong." I said a little sheepishly as Luna chuckled.

"Yes my sister did say that thous has a habit of making sure that thine information is correct." Luna said. "And I appreciate that. If thou hadn't been so meticulous I would probably be back on the moon."

There was an awkward silence after that as Luna finished her apple. "In any case, how much does thou know about vampirism." She said as she turned to Rarity.

"Only that many of the myths are incorrect your highness." Rarity replied.

"Please, call me Luna." The Moon Princess said, "and thou art correct, many of the myths about vampirism are incorrect, however some are true. Thou doest need to drink blood to survive, the magic thine body and blood has been infused with will drain thee of all energy if thou doest not. However, thou will only need to drink about once a month if thou keeps to the life of a normal pony."

"Well that doesn't seem all that bad." Rarity said.

"I'll continue with the negatives, since Twilight needs to hear them as well. The blessing is weaker in the sunlight, so keep that in mind if thou needs to fight during the daytime. Gold, not silver, is thine weakness similar to how werewolves are weak to silver. It is poisonous to you and any would caused by it will be slow to heal. Also be wary of weapons made from dragon scale, they can have similar effects if properly enchanted." Luna said, her tone serious now. "Light magic will harm thee as well if it is combat magic, and the white healing arts will have no effect. The green arts will act as normal however."

"Green arts? I'm sorry Pr- I mean Luna, but I am unaware of the difference." Rarity said apologetically.

"All magic can be classified by color." Ceres said. "For example, the spells keeping me around are black or dark magic. White or light magic, often incorrectly called holy magic, is the opposite of it. The blessing is dark magic in it's purest form, and Loony, being princess of the night, is exceptionally skilled at dark magic. Her sister is rather good with light magic. The other disciplines are red, fire, blue, which is water, green, which is magic dealing with life and nature, and yellow, which is magic dealing with wind. there is also purple which deals with magic involving spirits and the afterlife, but those have barely been studied." she finished.

"Okay, thank you." Rarity said, nodding.

"Continuing on," Luna said with a smile, "The benefits are the ability to use dark magic without going insane, thine increased agility, speed and strength. Thine stamina will have increased as well as thine senses. Thou can also see in complete darkness, although thine eyes will glow slightly in that case."

"Yeah, that spooked Spike already." I said chuckling.

"I can only picture his reaction." Luna said with a chuckle. "That's the basics of the blessing, the rest you will find out on your own."

"I was wondering about the whole white magic thing." I said with a smile.

"I would have expected thou to be full of questions Twilight, especially after what my sister has told me of thy study habits." Luna said with a chuckle.

"Yes, well you answered the most pressing ones." I said.

"I'll take Rarity into the other room and fill her in on the bits about being a secondary vampony." Ceres said. "Oh yeah, that's the term for a vampony who was turned by a bite, not the spell. Spell-turned vamponies are called Primaries if we want to stick to the old terms."

"Why are they called secondaries?" Rarity asked as I covered my ears, expecting quite a reaction.

I saw Luna's mouth move in explanation and, upon lip reading the word 'subservient', Rarity's face gradually turning to a look of horror before yelling out a "What!" that rivaled Luna's royal caps-lock and glaring at me.

"In my defense, I did save your life and I definitely will not abuse that fact." I said dryly. "Honestly Rarity, what do you take me for?"

Rarity seemed to calm down a bit at that, at least she looked less like she wanted to kill me. "Sorry dear, it's just a bit of a shock.

"I can't imagine." Ceres said with a chuckle. "Actually I may be able to but let's not go there." She said with a frown.

"Fair enough." Rarity said.

"Luna, would I be able to take some of these with me? Or at least copy them?" I asked, looking around at the books and tomes lining the walls.

"Copying them would be preferable, after all, many are one of a kind spell books and my sister has a thing against her little ponies toying around with dark magic." the moon princess said with a smirk. "The only reason I am allowed to is the fact that no matter how I cast it all of my magic is dark magic in some way."

"I bet that annoys the hell out of Cellie these days." Ceres said with a chuckle. "She probably trying to get you to stop using dark magic hmm?"

"That she is, and it annoys me to no end." Luna said with a frown. "She doesn't understand that just because she can use magic that seems like it's red magic that it isn't white magic. I mean, I can conjure up black flames just as easily as she can conjure up her white ones but that does not mean that they are actually red magic." she said with a huff causing Rarity and I to giggle. "What is so funny?" She asked.

"I'm sorry Luna, It's just that your little spiel reminded me of one of my roommates during my time at the academy, although her moments were caused by much more trivial matters.

"I am similarly reminded of my sister." Rarity said.

Luna opened her mouth to say something, then started to giggle as well. "And actually I'm reined of my sister when we were younger too." she said. "In any case, it's best I head back to Canterlot, my sister will wonder where I am and the last thing I wish to do is explain why her faithful student is a vampony." she said with a chuckle. "Although when she finds out I will want to witness it because the look on her face will be rather priceless."

I paused for a moment to picture it and burst out laughing. "Knowing her, yes it will be." I said when I could catch my breath. "At least until she processes it."

"By that time I will be at thy side to help thee." Luna said with a caring smile. "I doubt she will be too angry, after all, you are her student."

"You said you." Ceres chimed in with a smile. "That's a first loony."

"Oh put a sock in it Ceres." Luna said with a chuckle. "After all I seem to remember thou being rather fond of them."

At this Ceres turned beet red a moment before disappearing, causing us all to laugh.

"Well, it has been fun Twilight, Rarity, but I must be off." Luna said walking over to the door. "Has Ceres told you the traditional way to say goodbye between Vamponies and those who know about it?"

"No she has not." Rarity said.

"It goes as such: Merry meet and merry part and merry meet again." Luna said. "It comes from a verse of a religion from the Discordian times that practiced the dark arts in ways that would help others. Unfortunately many saw the darker arts as evil in those times, and they were forced to often practice in secrecy. Many of the Vamponies were trained in magic by these practitioners of 'Witchcraft' as the dark art were called in those days, although there were other kinds of magic thrown in, mostly through the use of potions, talismans and charms." She said with a smile. "I believe there is a zebra nearby who is a practitioner, although she cannot cast spells as a unicorn can, she still is skilled with the dark arts. At least, I've heard so from a few guards who were sent by my sister to investigate her presence."

"I've seen her a few times." Rarity said nervously. "She stops by in town every few months, all of Ponyville hides from her. To be honest she gives me the creeps."

Luna frowned at that. "Twilight, wouldst thou mind seeking out this zebra? Being treated as such without good reason is never a pleasant experience and I ask that you try to befriend her."

"I can do that Luna." I said. "After all, if what I've read in my psychology textbooks is correct then if I befriend her, the rest of town will probably warm up to her as well."

"Good luck to thee then Twilight, and have a good night the three of you." Luna said as she teleported outside.

"Well what to do now?" Ceres said, re-appearing beside me.

"We should get to work on the basement." I said with a chuckle. "We kind of got derailed."

"Yes, Let's." Rarity said, pulling a sketchpad out of her saddlebags.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

A/N: Sorry for the wait and the shorter chapter, I was at a Diablo 3 LAN for the past three days without a proper internet connection.