Under the Shadow of His Eyes

"What say you, Human? Have you had enough?"

Mar opened his left eye, his right having been torn out minutes ago.  He glanced around, seeing that his arms and legs were pinned to the rock behind him by daggers that seemed to be comprised of shadow and blood. The small clearing that he was in had been torn and bludgeoned into a smoldering waste. The night sky was devoid of stars, and the moon was glowing scarlet. His usual pair of dark, circular-lens sunglasses lay broken and trampled, half buried in the torn dirt.

However, none of that held his attention more than the being who stood a few feet in front of him. Cloaked in solidified shadow, surrounded by disembodied, floating eyes with red irises and slit pupils, stood the greatest slayer of vampire slayers.  He approached his human victim slowly, gliding softly across the ground.  The sky darkened until there was nothing visible but the vampires glowing, featureless eyes and his unnaturally wide, crooked smile.  He leaned down to look Mar directly in the eye.  He chuckled softly.

After a few moments, he turned around and floated back to his original spot.  He stared gleefully at Mar, who glared just as well as he could with one eye while blood dripped down from his forehead.

"Well? What will it be? Do you wish to continue, or will you simply die?"  He waved his hand, and a tall chair formed itself out of the shadow. He sat down lazily, summoning forth a bottle of wine and a glass.  "What did you even hope to accomplish here? Hmm? All you have managed was to entertain me. I shall allow you that. I haven't had a fight like that in over a century."  When he was met with silence, he raised an eyebrow.  "Oh, come on, there's no way you're dead yet!. I felt the residue of the spells you cast on yourself.  Much more of those regeneration and stamina increasing spells, and you may have become a vampire as well. Speak!"

Mar growled, attempting to move. "Fuck you, you bloodless piece of shit!"

He furrowed his brow.  "Two things. One, I think you've seen enough of my power to know that I have more blood than I know what to do with. And two, I have a name."  He strode toward Mar, grabbing a fistful of his hair and shoving his head against the stone. He gazed into Mar's single functioning eye. "Say my name. Say the name of the vampire who has beaten the human who beats down vampires. Say it!"

Mar narrowed his eye. "Zaalim Shaa-Nar, Vampire Lord, Scourge of the Desert."

Zaalim raised an eyebrow. "Well, the whole introduction was unnecessary, but yes." He released the hair, stepping back. "There's something I must know about your plans... If you knew it was me, then why did you come so unprepared? Only a few cursed-silver daggers, no sealing scrolls, and no armor? I would have thought you would have at least brought shadow-severing wire.  Come now, what did you take me for?"

Mar coughed, spitting out blood. "I didn't know it was you! From your attack pattern, I thought you were a younger vampire trying to consume enough blood to fight off hunters! If I had known it was you, I would have not even come to find you!"

"Really?  Well, consider me honored. Who would have thought that the only vampire the legendary Shadow Hunter would fear was myself?" Zaalim's characteristic grin vanished. He leaned back toward Mar. "Tell me, human, do you know what happens to vampires of this world after they are killed?  You cut off their heads to remove their energy source from their soul, pierce their hearts to stop the energy from flowing entirely, burn their bodies to disintegrate them completely, then scatter their ashes at a crossroads." He licked his lips.  "So far, I have noticed that humans only understand the first three steps.  Why scatter their ashes at a crossroads? Why, to confuse their soul and prevent it from regrouping its demolished body." His eyes grew brighter. "Yes. That's right. Every vampire you have killed lives on, wandering the earth in search of itself!"

He stepped back, the ethereal shadows around him growing and writhing in his resonant wrath. "They call out to me! They call for me to end their suffering, to save them from their fate! And I can to nothing!" His voice transformed, taking the sound of thousands of people growling and screaming at him, "This is the fate that you have doomed over three-hundred vampires to!  And now."  He opened his massive jaws, displaying his numerous, glinting fangs. "YOU SHALL SUFFER THE SAME!"

He bit into Mar's neck.

Mar attempted to scream, but only managed a hoarse whisper as the small amount of blood still inside his body was drawn away. Shadows engulfed his vision.

Mar was a child again, watching his parents going out for another visit to "relatives".

"Now listen, Mar, we're going to be away for a while. We're going on a trip to see-"

"Don't lie to me! You're going to kill more vampires, aren't you!" Mar grabbed the bag his father was holding and attempted to pull it away.

"Mar, stop that! Look, your mother and I don't hunt vampires anymore. Besides, it's illegal now." He looked to to his wife. "Honey, when is Mrs. Blackwood going to be here?"  She gave him a condescending glance.

"She already is, Jon, she's in the kitchen."

Hearing her name spoken, Mrs. Blackwood peeked around the corner. "Yes?"

Jon sighed.  "Could you take Mar here to the sitting room and do a puzzle with him or something?"

"Certainly, Mr. Cromwell. Come along, Zuan-Ma'r."

"I hate that name! Fuck it and fuck the king and fuck the vampires and fuck you two for leaving me here!"

"Zuan-Ma'r!" Shouted Mrs. Blackwood. "That's no way to speak to your parents-"

"Hold on, Ma'am." Said Jon.  He knelt down in front of Mar, and put a hand on his shoulder.  "Son, while I don't approve of that kind of language, especially when it's directed at the king or your mother, but I do understand your frustrations. How about this; when I get back from visiting your Aunt, I'll teach you some of those spells I told you about."

"But.. what if you don't come back? What if a vampire eats you?"

"Don't worry. We'll always be back."

His parents left. The sun vanished, and the walls of the house turned to ash and crumbled.  Mar turned to see Mrs. Blackwood grinning widely, her eyes glowing red.  She stepped forward. "Oh, but they didn't come back, did they?" Her face rotated a full circle, her grin widening as she stepped forward. "They never will."  She laughed softly.  She parted her lips, leaning toward Mar's neck.

The dream disintegrated, and was blown away by an explosion of deep blue light.  "Never fear, my subject. For this was simply a dream.  You are safe."  The light faded to reveal... a small blue horse.

Mar tilted his head.  "I'm not sure if I should be more or less afraid now."  He walked toward the horse, noticing it had a unicorn horn and fairly small wings.  now in adult form, he walked toward it, and knelt down.  "Exactly what the hell are you?"

The horse sputtered, shocked by his display.  "W-What do you mean?! I am Luna, Princess of the Night! Oh.. you must be new to Equestria.  I daresay an introduction is in order-"

Mar raised his hands.  "Whoa, whoa, back up a tiny little second, miss.  New to what, and, no, I'm not new to anything right now."

The Princess raised an eyebrow.  "Thou... er, you mean to tell me that you have not recently died and found yourself in a new world?"

Mar squinted, tilting his head.  "Uh... no?  I think I'm pretty close to dying, but I haven't actually died yet.  But.." he did a double take. "Wait, what...?"

Luna's pupils shrank, and she looked around, scratching the back of her neck with a hoof.  "Actually, We, er, I have to go, so... See you later!" She nearly screamed the last part before she vanished into the mild darkness.

Seeing that he was alone, Mar stood.  "Well, that was.... kind of an odd thing to dream about right before I die."

"Wake up, little Vampire.  Nap time is over."

Mar's eye's slowly opened.  He was lying on the ground.  All of his wounds were completely healed.  He looked up to see Zaalim grinning down at him.  "How does it feel, Shadow Hunter, to join the ranks of those that you so despise that you would seek to wipe them out?"

As Mar attempted to stand, Zaalim grabbed him by the hair and lifted him off the ground.  "Probably not very good.  You haven't fed yet, and you had a lot of wounds to heal." He shrugged. "Oh well.  I've had my fun with you. It's time for you join those cursed souls that travel the earth for eternity.  Goodbye, Shadow Hunter, the monster wrapped in human flesh, who dares to call the peaceful vampire a monster, only because of his circumstance of life."  He slammed Mar back against the boulder, and pierced his heart with one of Mar's own silver daggers.

Agony erupted throughout Mar's body, and he felt what was left of his energy start to fade.  Blood sprayed out of his mouth.

Zaalim licked a few drops of the blood off his lips. He lifted another of the daggers.  "May you wander forever."  He severed Mar's head, watching as it tumbled to the ground.

He sighed.  "Was that all you had? Such a... disappointment."

Countermelody liked to sing. Especially during a hunt.  And this had been one of her favorites.

She had set out at dusk, entering the Everfree forest under the guise of going for a long walk.  She trotted along the darkly lit path, for an hour only encountering a single cockatrice.  It had been a disappointing hunt, until she had run across a large pack of timberwolves.

The pack thought the unicorn to be an easy meal, that is, until she had unleashed a web of shadow chains, trapping three of them and tearing them to pieces within less than a second.  Then the pack fled.

She trotted along, singing a contrarily cheery song. She could hear the wolves. She could smell the wolves.

She could practically taste them, taste their fear, their confusion.  The trail they left reeked of it.

Before long, she caught up with a straggler, a young wolf with an injured leg.  It was hobbling along as fast as it could, but to no avail.  She walked right up behind it, still singing.  It turned around, and yipped as it attempted to increase its speed.  Countermelody summoned a chain out of the shadows, lifting up the young wolf, and shattering its body against a nearby tree.

Another wolf jumped out of the shadows, snarling and slobbering.  Countermelody assumed it was her latest victim's mother, come back to find her pup.

She grinned.  "Oh, I'm in love with somepony~" Wrapping the chain around the wolf's body, she dragged it to the ground.  Her horn glowed red "And it's not you!"  she ignited the wolf, laughing as it howled in pain, running around in circles.

She turned back to the direction the rest of the wolves were it.  She could tell that they were now much farther away.  She sighed and sprinted off after them.

She had hoped she wouldn't have to move much faster than a trot, but she wanted to get this hunt over with before the night was through.

The pack was now only a few hundred meters away.  They were huddled in a small clearing, unsure of whether the red-eyed demon pony was still chasing them.

Maybe, she thought to herself, I should do something extra special for this one.  I mean, they're all right in the same damn place.  And I've been killing everything in fairly similar ways for the last few months.  Maybe an explosion, or..?

BOOM.

Countermelody was shocked out of her thoughts. What the hell? Did someone beat me to it?  No, they're all still there, and there's something else... her eyes widened.  No... it couldn't be...That aura!

She sprinted over to the clearing, seeing that all the wolves were sniffing a body.  "Oh, mother of fuck... Oi! Shikaar klassa da! Laarsa, laarsa, bei-akul heiwaanat!"

The wolves sprinted away.  Countermelody growled in disappointment.  "You there!  Human, right? What language do you speak?"

The body groaned, shifting slightly.

Growing impatient, Countermelody trotted down toward him and kicked him lightly. "Hey! Get the hell up, you ass!"  She grabbed a bit of his hair with magic and lifted his face up.  She knelt down to look at him. Through his sunglasses, she could see his eyes were blood-red.  "Well, well, well, vampire, eh?" She felt his face with her hoof. Her eyes widened.  "Not.. not a single drop of blood?  Here." She pushed her foreleg between his teeth.  "Drink!" She shouted.

He lazily complied.  She narrowed her eyes at him.  "And not too much, now, just enough to get your sorry ass back on your feet!"

After a few minutes, the human was able to push himself up and sit.

"Alright, now, do you understand me?"

He nodded.  "Yes... yes I do."

She noted that his accent was completely unfamiliar to her.  "What's your name, fledgling?"

He gazed at her for a moment before saying, "My name... when I was a human.. was Zuan-Ma'r Cromwell."

"Well, what is it now?"

He considered for a moment. "I actually hadn't come up with one... I wasn't exactly planning on turning into a vampire."

Countermelody rolled her eyes.  "You don't need to make a new name when you turn into a vampire.  Zuan-Ma'r Cromwell... That's kind of a mouthful.  What do you go by?"

"Mar."

"Well, that's good enough for me. Well, we'd best get going."

"Why?"

"Well, we're about thirty miles away from the nearest town and I have a shit-ton of stuff to explain to you about this place."

"This world... it... to say the least is that it's nice."  Countermelody shrugged.  "Every aspect of it is.  The denizens, the scenery, the wildlife, the weather.... I can hardly think of anything I don't like about it."

Mar gave her a sideways glance.  She caught it.

"I know, I know.  It sounds ridiculous.  It sounds way to fuck-damn good to be true.  It sounds like you're going to have a moment of clarity and realize that everyone's under a spell." She spat on the side of the dirt path.  "Where we are now is called the Everfree Forest.  It is a place that I have found is much more similar to our own worlds than anywhere else here.  That's why I come here to hunt.  The animals put up a better fight than I could find anywhere else, and none of the ponies come around, so I can kill as much as I like without fear of being caught for what I am."

"A vampire."

"Wow!  You're really, really smart!  I can't believe you figured that out! I mean, it's not like anyone else wouldn't allow a vampire to feed off them!"  Countermelody said with mock surprise.  "But yeah.  I'm a vampire.  And, in case you were wondering, I'm not really a pony. I just prefer to live as a pony when I'm around the locals, and after a while, I got attached to the body type."

"So everyone in this world.. is a pony?"

"Well, a good portion of them.  But there are also zebras, buffalo, griffons, dragons, wyverns, who are all sentient, and other animals have varying degrees of sentience.  And then." She took a deep breath, "There are the humans."  Her horn lit up and she pulled a small cigar out of her mane. Igniting the tip and taking a drag, she continued. "Humans have been appearing in this world for a good little while now. Nobody can explain why, nobody can explain how.  All we really know is that they are usually males, between the ages of seventeen and thirty, who have had particularly troubled lives.  I would assume the same is true about you, yes?"  She glanced up at him.

Mar nodded slightly.

"Humans have, for the most part, been integrated into pony society, idolized by some for their inherent cunning, and unnatural physical strength.  Very few and far between are the ponies who hate humans, and they usually have personal reasons for it."

With his newly transformed eyes, Mar could see a soft light in the distance.

"Try to feel it."

"Huh?"

"You see the light from the town, don't you?  Ponies have very strong auras.  If you pay attention, you might be able to feel the energy radiating from them."

Mar raised an eyebrow.  "Well, sounds a bit creepy..."

Countermelody grinned.  "Oh, trust me, you can figure out many... interesting things about a pony by examining their aura."

"What... Hell's Boundaries, woman, is everyone here like that?  Am I going to have to put up with innuendo everywhere I go?"

She laughed.  "Not my fault you took it like that.  Even if that was exactly how I meant it.  But usually not.  It's usually considered really forward.  But seriously though, search for their auras."

Mar stretched out, feeling the dark energy congealed around him and Countermelody, past it, to the relatively mild, slowly flowing energies of the rest of the forest, then, just past it, a bright, warm, delicious hotspot.

Delicious...

He shook off the feeling.  Despite being a vampire, he was determined not to start that kind of life here.

"Well? Did you feel it?"

"Yes." He sighed.  "Countermelody..."

"Ponies usually just call me Melody."

"...Melody, is it usual to want to eat them?"

"You'll get used to it.  Wanting to eat every living thing all the time eventually kind of dulls the sensation."

"...Good? So... what happens when I get there?"

"Everyone freaks out, hides from you, you'll have to kill some guards, then one of the princesses will show up and find you, and find out you only did it out of self defense and you didn't mean any harm.  Then you'll become a celebrity, fall in love with a princess, get attacked by some bigots, discover you have magic abilities-"

"I already have magic."

"... for shit's sake, man, I was on a roll!  That was going to be really funny."

"Ha, ha, ha.  So what really happens?"

"They have a wayward human's hotel.  They'll ask you a bunch of questions, give you a room, send someone to explain how stuff works around here and make sure you're doing alright... damn, I'm sure I'm missing something... oh yeah, they'll have someone cast an auto-translation spell on you, so you can actually understand what they're saying."

"Hmm... alright. I think I get it."  He turned to Countermelody.  "So who are you?  How long have you been here, how old of a  vampire are you, what's your real name...?"

"Currently, I'm Countermelody, unicorn, musician extraordinaire, I was nineteen when I was turned into a vampire, and that was about fifty-five years ago."  She grinned playfully at him.  "How do you know Countermelody isn't my real name?"

"Well, you're a human, aren't you?"

"I'm pretty sure I never actually said that, but yeah.  As for my name?  You know how old I am, and there haven't been many human vampires in this world.  With a little bit of research, you'll figure it out."

Mar furrowed his eyebrows. "Well, alrighty then..."

"You know, you're really weird."

"How so?"

My aura usually causes creatures exposed to it to be at least fairly attracted to me.  I can read your aura like a damn book, and I'm not getting anything!"

Mar adjusted his glasses. "Now now, don't ask questions that you don't want answered."

Countermelody snickered.  "Oh... I think I get it.  Anyway, I'm really damn tired of walking, and I don't have shit-else to tell you. Mind if we teleport?"

He shrugged.  "As long as it doesn't kill me."

"No guarantees."  With that, her horn lit up, and with a flash of crimson light, the world shifted slightly, and Mar found that they had appeared in front of a small hotel.  The town was completely devoid of life at this time, the only light being cast from the moon and an occasional streetlamp.

Mar felt Countermelody stiffen upon arrival.  Inside the hotel was an aura that radiated sheer power.  It's Princess Luna.  Stay calm.  You have no reason to be afraid of her, yet. Don't worry about me, I can disguise my aura.  Mar stared at Countermelody.  "Did you just...?"

"Nani suui dei?" Yes I did.  Part of my cover is that I don't speak your language. She gestured to the door.  "Tasa" she pointed at him, then at the door again, "da'nan warsa."

Mar nodded.  He walked up the short flight of stairs, and pulled open the door.  As he stepped over the threshold, he saw the same damn blue horse had seen in his dream.

She smiled.  In slightly accented British, she said, "Well, there you are, we, er, I.. wait, yes, we have been waiting for you for quite a while! It's good to see you again."  She extended a hoof, having noticed that many humans extend their arms to each other as a sign of goodwill.

Mar did nothing.  Luna noticed that his hands were shaking, and that he was staring directly at the pony that had been next to her.

Another pony with both wings and a horn, whose fur was pink-tinted white, with a flowing, iridescent mane.

Luna's sister, Celestia, Princess of the Sun.

Luna gazed at his face.  A drop of blood rolled from behind the glasses he wore. Followed by several more.  Then he collapsed on the ground, blood pouring from his mouth, his glasses fell off and clattered across the floor.

Mar gazed hazily ahead, pain burning through his veins.  The sun princess's presence alone caused more pain than having been stabbed in the heart with a cursed silver dagger.

"Celestia! Sarsar, laarsa! Ouss!"

"Dossda?"

"Da Vampyrsa des!  Staasa ouswaal ma'ra kii!"

The last thing Mar saw before his vision failed him was Luna spreading her wings over him and a blue light igniting on her horn.

You bleed well, Shadow Hunter.