Have Friendship, Will Travel

Chapters

Chapter 1 | Realm Transfer
Chapter 2 | With Great Power
Vampirism FAQ
Chapter 3 | The Other Side
Chapter 4 | Iron Sharpeneth Iron
Chapter 5 | Calm Before the Storm

Chapter 1 | Realm Transfer

Consciousness stirred. Something hot amongst the cold, pulsating within; it felt so foreign, yet so familiar. The sounds of thousands, no, millions of screaming people amongst the occasional muffled sound. They were so far away, yet so dangerously close.Where have I been until now?

Alphonse’ last memory was set at Icecrown Citadel, in a fight against the Lich King himself. In that memory, which was more of a blur than anything else, he remembered being run through by Frostmourne, before everything went black. Am I in Frostmourne? Why haven’t I been brought back as scourge yet?Everything else was still a blur.

Slowly, Alphonse opened his eyes; through the blindingly bright light and the blur, he could make out that he was in a field not unlike Elwynn Forest. Everything was just brighter – and greener. The whole area seemed to be drenched in serenity. Definitely not in Frostmourne… Alphonse’ head was still groggy and he couldn’t think clearly; the sun drafts certainly didn’t help, either.

In his daze, he began a mental quest to remember how he had ended up in this field after his apparent death. One doesn’t usually get stabbed just to end up in a beautiful field shortly after… Well, at least not one who’s responsible for the death of countless innocent people at the command of evil incarnate.

His quest was quickly interrupted as he began to notice a few major differences; not just in the world he was in, but in himself.

The first thing he noticed was that he was, for lack of a better word, afraid. It wasn’t actually just odd, it was downright abnormal. I’m a Death Knight; I’m not supposed to haveemotions, let alone feel fear.

The second oddity he noticed was that there weren’t any shadows haunting his every thought. He could silence his thoughts and for once enjoy absolute silence. Wow… It’s beautiful.

The third and most blatant abnormality he noticed was that, despite being a Death Knight, and in that inherently a vampire, he didn’t feel the need to feed or kill. While he could still feel that ‘splinter’ in his mind that reminded him of his need for blood, it was as if it had been fed already, if not at this very moment. He only felt like this when he was directly feeding on a living victim, or his sword was absorbing his victim’s blood and placing it directly into his body.

Still enjoying his new-found silence, he continued to lay there in no particular presence while he tried to collect his thoughts. Not too long after, a small critter hopped over to him, sniffed him briefly before scurrying off. Wait, come back! I don’t have my achievement!

Deciding it was time to get up, he tried to move his legs; they moved, however something was horribly wrong with them. They bent backwards! Oh… my… was I transferred into the body of a Draenei? He tried to move his toes, only to get no response from them. Fearing that he’d spend the rest of his days as a space goat, he tried to move his fingers – again, no response. Great… just great!

He decided to lift his hand over to his face, hoping for a human hand while expecting a draenei hand; he was greeted by a squishy… hoof?

As a Death Knight, Alphonse had never screamed audibly in horror, nor had he passed out due to shock.

Regardless, at that moment they both happened in that order.

Cold. A warm pulsating sensation amongst the cold. The resonant screaming of thousands… a stirring.

Slowly, Alphonse opened his eyes again to see the same field he had recently lost consciousness in. He raised his hand—rather, his hoof to his face one more time to verify that wasn’t under the effects of some sort of drug. Dammit, still a hoof!

Being the brave soul he was, he attempted to get a good look at rest of his body. He noticed that his neck was at an unusual length, and that he had trouble bending it so that he could look at his body. Once he did manage to look, he couldn’t help but deduce that he was a horse. A horse with wings?!?

Eerily calm, likely due to his time under many other transformation effects during his time as a gladiator in the arena, his first question was if this was some sort of modified amniomorphic spell. I hate polymorph… If he were to name it, he’d call it the equinomorphic spell. If this was in fact some sort of spell, it was lasting abnormally long; the longest polymorph effect he’d had on him was on his 15th birthday by his best friend and fellow apprentice mage Leonidas, and that lasted only 16 seconds.

Thinking about Leonidas started to bring back flashbacks, although he was having trouble piecing it all together. Instead of dwelling on the flashbacks, he decided to try to get up and walk.

Doing so with his armor on made it nearly impossible, so he dismissed his armor and rune blade to the shadow realm to remove his extra weight.

After what seemed like an eternity, he managed to get up on all fours. It was incredibly difficult, especially because his rear legs bent the opposite way, and he had just switched from being a biped to a quadruped. After falling on his face numerous times, he started moving in a direction other than down. Actually, it would be better described as an awkward waddle; either way, Alphonse was proud of his latest feat of strength.

Instead of randomly walking around, he decided that he would strategically locate a civilized area, hopefully not heavily populated in the case that he’s in Horde territory. Looking around, he found what appeared to be a river coming from the side of the hill. He started walking up along the river, hoping it would lead him to civilization.

Walking with four legs was a pain, and not just any kind of pain; it hurt both his body and his pride. Going uphill wasn't too bad, however he found going downhill was quicker sliding on his face.

As he was walking, he tried to recollect certain things about his life. Since his recent awakening, he had not only reacquired his emotions, but flashbacks about his pre-death knight life were streaming before his eyes.

He remembered how it all came to be… how he became a Death Knight. Back when he was known as Archmage Amschel Lightweaver, he fought alongside Leonidas in a large battle against the Lich King. Heroes in their group were dropping like flies, and much to their chagrin, some of them were getting back up.

Just before the Lich King could strike down Leonidas, he used all of his remaining power and mana to transport him anywhere away from there. The farther away, the better. After that, he was the last man standing; out of mana and physically drained from that spell I’d never used before, he could only watch as the Lich King ran him through with Frostmourne.

Soon after, Amschel, now named Deathbringer Alphonse Runeweaver, was forced from that point on to serve the Lich King in undeath, torturing and murdering thousands if not hundreds of thousands in his wake. It wasn’t until five years later that he met with Leonidas, now an Archmage himself, who helped free him from the Lich King’s grasp.

Deciding to keep the name Alphonse, he befriended Leonidas for a second time, and the two became closer than brothers yet again. Something in Leonidas had changed since he last saw him; he was kind, loving and tolerant, as opposed to his former self. He was completely against the war with the Horde, and did everything in his power to save lives on both sides. Alphonse couldn’t complain; with the lingering effects of being a Death Knight haunting his every thought, a little happiness surely didn’t hurt. Sure, Alphonse didn’t have emotions anymore, but he had a strong sense of honor and care for those around him. Oof!

After getting up off of his face and back to his waddle, Alphonse returned to his thoughts; what happened right before I got here? He remembered that he was in his second fight against the Lich King, this time fighting with Leonidas alongside the Ashen Verdict, a group composed mainly of Death Knights and Paladins from both the Alliance and the Horde whose primary goal was to rid the world of the Lich King.

A pivotal moment occurred where some unknown spell triggered and knocked a good number of people off the side of the citadel. From there, the fight went south: As group members were again dropping like flies, the Lich King turned his attention to Alphonse. “Welcome back, Alphonse… once I’m through with you, I’ll let you introduce your little mage friend here to the Scourge!” The thought of that enraged Alphonse, to the point where he charged the Lich King with all of his unholy might. After a ground-breaking hit, Alphonse was run through by Frostmourne. Tears streaming down his eyes, it was all he could do to try and say goodbye; he couldn’t remember whether or not he got the words out. Before he lost consciousness, Leonidas cast a seemingly powerful spell over him, and then everything went black.

After some time walking, Alphonse remembered that he could just use a teleportation spell to return to Stormwind. Planting himself firmly on the ground, he started casting the spell excited as ever to return home; pony or not. However, instead of being teleported, all he heard was a zzt sound; the spell backfired and knocked him back. He’d never had a teleportation spell fail before, and decided it may be safer to just hoof it from here; lest he teleport himself to Zulway’s foot palace.

As he continued his waddle-trek, he came up to a sign: “Ponyville, 1KM” Great, a city! What an odd name, though.

Upon approaching the city, he noticed that all of its citizens, save a select few, were horses. Some had wings, a few others had horns on their heads, and the rest were just normal horses. Actually, based on their proportions, I’d say that they’re… ponies? That would explain *Pony*ville. From what he could make out, there wasn’t a single human or other azerothian to be seen. They made no clear mark of their allegiance, but on an air of caution, he kept his alliance-marked armor dismissed.

Upon entering the city, and by that it should be noted that he was 1 millimeter within the city limits, he was tackled by an incredible unholy force; feeling like he had just been hit by the Hammer of Justice five times over. Before he had time to pop his trinket and summon his rune blade, a pink monster was standing on his belly, looking him straight in the eyes.

“Ooh! Cool eyes mister! What’s your name? My name's Pinkie Pie! I’ve never seen you here before, and if I’ve never seen you before that means you’re new, because I know everypony!” she stopped for a millisecond before gasping with enough intensity to literally lift her off of my chest, before coming back down and landing on me; and then she was gone.

As he sat there pondering what he had just encountered, others just continued their activities like nothing had happened. Did you not see that? I was nearly decimated by a pony!

Shortly after, a concerned voice greeted him. “Are you okay? Did Pinkie hurt you?” I’m not sure…

He turned around to see a lavender coloured pony smiling at him.

“Hi, my name is Twilight Sparkle! What’s your name?”

“I, uh-it’s Alphonse.”

Still utterly horrified by the pink horror he had just witnessed, he broke into what Leonidas used to call “Confused Mage Moments”; said moments are when a mage, such as himself, would start asking every question that came to mind about a specific conundrum, regardless of what was going on around them, or who they were asking. Realizing he’d probably just confused the hell out of this new-found Twilight, he tried to apologize for confusing her.

“Um, sorry Miss Sparkle; that’s probably all nonsense to you…” he was going to finish his apology, when Twilight cut him off mid-sentence, almost arrogantly “Please, call me Twilight; I assure you, I understood your questions, and trust me: it’s best not to ask. There are things about Pinkie Pie that I simply cannot wrap my head around.”

He made a mental note to steer clear of this ‘Pinkie Pie’ until he learned more about her physics-bending power.

Alphonse regained his composure and decided to take care of the task at hand: He needed to find out where he was so he could figure out how to get back to Stormwind. He thought of simply asking where Stormwind was, but the thought occurred that if these people were aligned with the horde, they may decide to kill him on the spot. “Hmm, I see. I apologize for coming off as condescending. Don’t mind my asking; I’m rather new to this region and I was hoping that you could direct me to the library?” Upon asking, her face lit up as she started to giggle. “I run the local library! I can take you there, if you’d like.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, he accepted her offer. As they started walking together, she started to ask him a few questions of her own. “So, Alphonse, where are you from?” Well, I suppose there’s no harm in explaining my situation. Besides, I’m a Death Knight, what can possibly go wrong?

“To be perfectly honest, Twilight, I haven’t any idea how I got here. I just woke up in a field a few hours in that direction and since then have walked here.”

“So, you’re suffering from amnesia?”

“Not at all, I remember everything I was going, before I di—woke up here.” Alphonse quickly corrected himself, trying not to sound delusional. Twilight paused while looking at his eyes, before continuing.

“Hmm, I see. Well then, why did you want to come to the library of all places?”

Thinking of an answer to that question, Alphonse faltered. How would she react if I explained that I’m not even supposed to be a horse, and that I’m trying to learn more about this place so I can go back to being a bipedal creature and go home…

Before Alphonse could start to say the first thing that came to mind, he was cut off by an odd trio of fillies. They each approached, one orange with lavender hair and wings, one white with a horn, and the other a normal pony with a bow in her hair.

“Did you see that?!?” asked the white one, pointing at his behind. What?

“Oh mah gawsh, he ain’t got a cutie mark!” A cutie what now?

“Wow, he must be a total loser…” remarked the winged one. Ouch, kid…

Almost immediately, Twilight came to his defense. “Scootaloo! That’s a very rude thing to say to our guest!” Never being defended before by anyone other than Leonidas, Alphonse couldn’t help but smile. “Even if it is really weird that he still doesn’t have it.” Oh…

Almost innocently, he proceeded to put his hoof into my mouth: “What’s a cutie mark?”

Twilight looked at him, utterly dumbfounded, while the three fillies started laughing. A few moments into the laugh, Scootaloo stopped her laughing as she pursed her lips. “Wait guys, does this mean we might never get our cutie marks?”

The other two looked at each other in horror before gasping in unison. After a look of hopelessness washed over them, they started walking over dejectedly to a nearby bench.

“Shouldn’t you talk to them or something, Twilight?”

She nodded, “Yeah, I’ll be right back.”

As she walked over to them, Alphonse couldn’t help but notice the horrifying truth: We’re all naked.

Blushing, he turned around hoping his certain appendage would stay asleep. It didn’t, and Alphonse began to panic. As he was going to try to hide or cover it with something, he felt his vampiric senses kick in – he was being watched. He looked up, and heard a slight chuckle coming from directly above. Not knowing where it had come from, he was about to call above just before he heard Twilight call him.

“Hey, Alphonse, let’s keep going. I think they’ll be fine.” He was afraid to turn around, until he noticed that his appendage had returned to sleep.

“Yes, lets.” He stated, clearly flushed as he turned around.

She looked at him with an air of confusion before regaining her knowing smile, motioning Alphonse to follower her.

Still wondering what this ‘Cutie Mark’ trinket or badge was, he decided to ask Twilight about it. “So, Twilight… what exactly is a ‘Cutie Mark’?”

“Oh, right! You seriously don’t know what a cutie mark is?” she inquired, with a half grin, half knowing look on her face. Alphonse had trouble making out what she could be thinking behind that face; it didn’t seem to fit the situation at all. “Did you hit your head or something?”

“Let’s just assume at the moment that I’m not from here and I don’t know a thing about the culture, location, or anything of this place… almost like I'm from another…” He began to trail off as she took over for me: “A cutie mark is a symbol on your flanks that you receive once you find your ‘special talent’. Those girls back there don’t have theirs yet, and work as a group to try to find their talents. It’s honestly almost unheard of to see a full-grown pony without a cutie mark. I’ve only seen it once before, myself.”

“I see… Well, once we get to the library, I’d like to borrow any books that contain cultural information so that I can try to fit in better.”

“You sure are strange, Alphonse!” she said, chuckling throughout the sentence, giving him that knowing and hopeful look again. What’s with that look, anyways? He couldn’t help but chuckle and nod along with her.

Once they arrived at the library, Alphonse noted that it wasn’t really what he’d expected: It was a tree. Are there Night Elves here? The sight of it reminded Alphonse of the time he had to explain to one of his friends that restoration druids aren’t trees, even though they’d like to be a tree. His friend noted that he had no sense of sarcasm, before walking off. Alphonse just shrugged the comment off before getting back to planning his offensive: It was a mission where they had to carry a branch of Nordrassil over a lake and into contested territory to plant it; complications arose when a group of Tauren tried to stop them, claiming that it was their land. But, that’s a story for another time.

Once inside, she directed him to a stool while she walked over to make some tea. “Would you like some, Alphonse?” she asked, with a refreshing air of warmth.

“No thanks, I’m not very thirsty at the moment.” He didn’t know why he wasn’t thirsty – normally by now he’d be thirsty for blood, but now he was completely sated, as if he was feeding at this very moment.

Once the water was on the boiler, she came over to him and sat down.

“So, Alphonse; I know it may be a little rude to ask, but you’ve got me genuinely intrigued. Who are you?”

I’m the Death Knight. That’s what he wanted to say, anyways. “Well, I may as well formally introduce myself to start: I am one of the Twilight Vanquishers, Commander Alphonse; Death Knight and Mage in service of the Alliance. I serve as an active member of the Ashen Verdict, and my purpose is to protect the innocent from evil.” He completed his formal introduction with a regal bow.

She sat back and did a double take. “Death Knight? Alliance? Twilight Vanquisher?”

“Yes, well, you see, I’m not from around here. I’m not even originally a pony! At first I thought this was some sort of sick equinomorphic spell, but now I don’t even know what to think. I don’t even think I’m on Azeroth anymore…” He began to trail off before she interrupted him, her face bordering a mix between knowing excitement and concern. “Azeroth?!? Stop, please… can you start from the very beginning?”

And so he did; he explained everything about how he became a Death Knight, about his fellow mage and close friend Leonidas, about how he died and subsequently woke up here, and more. “The weirdest thing is that I’m not thirsty for blood right now. Normally I’d be holding myself back from trying to feed on your blood, but right now I feel as if I’m completely sated.”

She sat there for what felt like five to ten minutes, just looking at him, putting her thoughts together. He couldn’t help but awkwardly smile while he waited for her to do something.

“I’ll be right back, okay?” She got up and ran upstairs into her loft. She lives in a library? Being a mage, he was familiar with living in a library. Given the fact that he no longer required sleep, he could read until he needed to feed again.

She walked over to the ledge, looking straight at him: “I do have one question for you: You claim to be a mage, yet you aren’t a unicorn. How is that possible?” He didn’t know the answer to that question.

Without warning, she threw a ball at him. “Levitate this!” Without any thought, he used his magic to levitate it. The magic appeared to be streaming out of his eyes this time; usually it would stream from his rune blade or his hands, but never my eyes.

“Woah, Twilight. This is different; I can feel the magic channelling through my eyes!”

“That would make sense, you’re not a unicorn; you don’t have a horn to channel with. Hey, would you be willing to come out with me outside Ponyville and do a demonstration?”

A little confused, I inquired further “Demonstration of what, exactly?”

“Of your powers as a Mage and a Death Knight.” Alphonse nodded gingerly; he always enjoyed it when people liked his abilities, instead of fearing them. This was his chance to shine. “Of course! when do you want to head out?”

“Now, actually. We’ve got about two hours left of sunlight before today is over, and I don’t want to wait until tomorrow.”

She hopped down the stairs, as a purple dragon thing walked through the door. “Hey Twilight! Oh, you have a guest… Hi mister! My name’s Spike! What’s your name?” he asked, with a look of interest. “It's Alphonse, pleasure to meet y--”

Twilight chimed in as she was walking for the door. “Alphonse and I are just heading out so for about an hour or two, can you take the pot off of the boiler and clean-up for me? Thanks!” Not even giving the purple dragon thing called Spike a chance to respond, she looked at Alphonse and motioned for him to follow. And with that, they were out and on their way.

They continued walking until they had arrived in what appeared to be a sports field; Alphonse wasn’t sure which sport it was for, but it was big.

“So, Alphonse, show me what you can do!” she called, smiling cheerfully.

As he started powering up, he was interrupted by an ear-piercing howl coming from Ponyville; followed by the sound of many screaming citizens.

Twilight's eyes opened wide in horror “Sweet Celestia! Ponyville!”

The two ponies shared a shocked glance at each other before Alphonse broke into a full gallop towards Ponyville. "C'mon Twilight, Let's go!"

Chapter 2 | With Great Power

As they galloped full speed ahead, Alphonse couldn’t help but notice that he was doing so without any problems whatsoever. His venture to Ponyville had been a comparable to a penguin protecting its egg after mating season; now he was galloping full-speed ahead like the race-horses he used to watch as a child.

While he was curious as to how he was so coordinated, the thought was lost in the urgency of the situation. Screams of people could be heard among the ear-piercing roars emanating from the beast awaited him in the city; it brought back horrible flashbacks of his past. I used to be that beast...

Back when he didn’t have emotions, it wasn’t hard for him to simply brush off his past as something out of his control; with them, he felt responsible for every single innocent life he had ended. As the flashbacks played through his head like a movie, he began to zone-out of the current situation; that is, until Twilight broke him out of it. “Hey! Did you hear me?”

“I-uh, no. What did you say?”

“I said: What are we going to do once we get there? Whatever it is, is sounds huge!”

He tried to think of an answer, but he didn’t even know what it was they were about to engage. “I don’t know! We’ll figure it out when we get there!”

As they continued on their race to Ponyville, Alphonse tried to mentally prepare himself for battle. He was afraid and his nerves of cold steel had abandoned him. Get it together, Alphonse! What would Leonidas say?

When Ponyville came into closer view, they could make out the source of the commotion: a large hydra with four heads, stomping on buildings and eating any ponies it could get its maws on, while trampling on others; the sight was truly horrifying. Amongst the frantic ponies attempting to escape, a cyan pegasus with multi-colored hair was zipping around the beast, distracting it so others could escape.

On their way over to the beast, Alphonse began to announce the battle plan: “Twilight, run to the other side of the beast and distract it. I’ll hop on it’s back and sever its heads when it turns.”

“With what, exactly? You don’t have a weapon!”

“I’ll summon my runeblade once I’m in the air; being in full armor at the time of the jump will make me heavier, and I may not get high enough to land on its back.”

“Alright, lets do it! I’ll break right, you go left.”

“On it!” With that, they broke into a circle around the hydra. Twilight put on a spectacular light show to get the hydra’s attention while Alphonse ran behind it. Everything was going according to plan until one of the hydra’s heads lost interest and had a look around, noticing the pony charging directly at it’s behind.

When Alphonse jumped into the air to make his assault, the head bent around and snapped violently in Alphonse’ direction. It’s going to bite me in half... Before he knew what happened, he was knocked down out of the air by a blue streak, and landed on the ground with a hard thud.

Shaking the daze off, he noticed red drops dripping on his head coming from directly above. Before he could look up, he heard a blood-curdling scream from Twilight, followed by her unbridled sobbing. With slight hesitation, Alphonse looked up to see the cyan pegasus clamped hard inside the hydra’s mouth.

As the hydra’s mouth started to clamp down, the pegasus began breathing words so quiet that only a vampire could hear them. “Please... run...” After a loud snap sound, the mouth opened and the cyan pegasus fell down to the ground and toppled into a bloody mess.

Alphonse dragged himself over to the broken body, trembling. “I’m... I’m so sorry...” he breathed, fighting back the tears. The pegasus managed to turn her head and give him a calm smile, before her eyes rolled closed and she released her last breath.

She... saved me. An innocent mare just died... to save... me!

In the midst of her sobs, Twilight had given up hope on the situation; she just wanted it all to end. One her her best friends, among other innocent ponies had just been mauled before her very eyes; homes were destroyed, and Twilight was in the middle of it.

Before she could go back into her sobbing, she noticed a blood-curdling aura around her; a sort of unholy presence she had not felt before, as if death itself was brushing against her. This presence was followed by sorrowful weeping; looking around to make out where it was coming from, she noticed that Alphonse was starting to glow; the cyan fire in his eyes burned like wildfire, and runes were starting to glow over his body.

In a dark flash, a blade with runic symbols over it hovered in front of him, followed by a suit of armor, covering his whole body. His wings were different; instead of being regular pegasus wings, they were much larger and webbed like that of a bat. In addition, his voice was starting to change throughout his transformation; his sobs went from the deep yet soothing voice Alphonse carried about him to a distorted, hate-filled growl.

Once the ghostly helm finished materializing on his head, Alphonse let his powers run freely. The ground became desecrated, and the few dead ponies laying around him started to stir.

This was Deathbringer Alphonse Runeweaver.

Everything was shaking in his rage; unbelievable winds were blowing and knocking things about. The sky was growing dark, if not black. Twilight felt like she might pass out just from the sheer power of it. She was about to call out to him when everything stopped; the winds died down, and everything went silent. She looked at Alphonse, then at the Hydra, then back at... Where did he...

Her thoughts were interrupted as the hydra let out an ear-piercing howl; one of its heads fell from the base of its neck, falling to the ground and recoiling about like a headless chicken as necrosis crawled up the severed head like a disease. Twilight looked around, and noticed that Alphonse was standing right beside her. “Get out of here if you want to live.” he growled, without taking his flaming eyes off of the hydra. “Wh-what?” she stood there, confused; she didn’t know what was going on anymore.

GO! LEAVE THIS PLACE!

With that, Twilight galloped out of there; not looking back, she wished this day was over. She wished it had never happened. She ran and ran until she made it to the designated emergency zone; it was on the outer borders of Ponyville, right in front of Sweet Apple Acres, where many citizens including Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Fluttershy were standing there anxiously. Fluttershy was curled into a ball; Pinkie Pie looked depressed with her hair down straight over her face. The farm pony and fashionista looked about anxiously while they searched for their missing friends.

When they spotted Twilight, Applejack and Rarity made their way over and guided her into the group; with a light smile, Applejack greeted her friend. “Twilight! Yer okay! I thought sumthin’ awful had happened when I heard that you’d gone in ta’ fight that hydra.” Twilight, however, wasn’t smiling.

Rarity chimed in, trying to make light of the situation. “Twilight, dear, you look as if something awful has happened. Did the hydra hit the library? If so, don’t worry about Spike, he’s right over there. The poor dear passed out when he saw you running into town!”

After no response from Twilight, Applejack could tell something bad had happened, and by bad, she meant worse than the property damage that was taking place before their eyes. She knew that Twilight was always good at keeping a level head; even when Cerberus itself attacked Ponyville, she managed to keep a level head and take him back to the gates of Tartarus herself. Seeing this, Applejack feared the worst. “Oh, Twi... what is it? What happened?”

Twilight could only look up at Applejack, attempting to hold back the tears. Applejack could think of only one thing. Oh no... please no... not like this... “Where’s Rainbow, sugarcube?” Twilight’s face twisted before she broke down into uncontrolled tears. With that, the mane five’s fears were confirmed and together they all mourned the loss of their most loyal friend.

Now that every living pony had evacuated downtown Ponyville, Alphonse didn’t have to worry about harming anyone in his rage. Letting his sadness and rage take over him, he set his focus on the hydra. So many innocent lives taken... I’m going to fucking kill you. There won’t be a shred left when I’m finished with you...

Taking to the air with his bat-like wings, Alphonse kept his eyes on the hydra; as much as he wanted to make the hydra suffer, he needed to end this horrific nightmare before anyone else could possibly get hurt. Deciding to put his dark intentions aside and end this immediately, he began to channel his finishing maneuver: The Dark Bladestorm. To prevent the beast from escaping, Alphonse covered the whole area around the hydra in a spherical magic prison. He then summoned 20 runeblades similar to his main runeblade; each of them took a place around the hydra within its prison.

This is where things got... messy. Empowering the blades with all his might, they shattered into countless razor-sharp pieces, before whirring around the prison at such a speed that you couldn’t see them anymore. From outside the magic prison, you could see as the hydra quickly dissolved into a pungent cloud of red. The swords recompiled themselves before fading out into the darkness. As Alphonse let the prison dissipate, the blood cloud fell to the ground from its suspension, leaving the area where the hydra once stood drenched in blood. The beast was no more.

As the mane five continued to mourn in quiet contemplation, they were interrupted by the immense power that was Alphonse. His power is immense; Twilight had never felt anything like it before in her life. As they looked up, they saw a massive magical sphere appear in downtown Ponyville; they could only make out the top of it, but from what they could see, the hydra appeared to be inside. What happened next shook each pony to the core; as the sphere became filled with a thick sanguine cloud, Rarity looked over at Twilight: "Who is doing that? I've never seen anything so powerful in my life!"

Twilight looked over to Rarity, her eyes still bloodshot from crying: “His name is Alphonse; He’s a powerful mage who wandered into Ponyville this afternoon.” She put an odd emphasis on ‘powerful mage’ and ‘wandered into’.

Rarity paused as she processed that last statement; her eyes widened as she realized what Twilight was insinuating. “You don’t mean... like him?”

Twilight looked forwards and set her eyes on the magical sphere. “Yes. Exactly like him.”

They watched as light faded back into the sky, revealing a beautiful rainbow-coloured sunset. After taking a moment to admire its beauty, they returned to their mourning.

Alphonse walked over to the bloody cyan pegasus as he dismissed his armor. While his powers had faded back to the darkness, his emotions were now more amplified than ever before. He felt helpless; this innocent mare died protecting a murderer like me. Realizing there was one thing he could do for her, he began to weigh out the negatives and positives. I can resurrect her; but to do so would taint her with vampirism. She would live the rest of her life as an abomination, like myself. While she won’t know the horrors of being a Death Knight, she’ll need blood; the blood of innocent ponies to survive.

He looked down at her; that calm smile still on her face, clouding his thoughts. She was gorgeous, both alive and in-death. If I resurrect her, she may grow to hate me for all eternity; but if I don’t, her heroism will be wasted... on an abomination like me.

His emotions flooded his thoughts as he began to feel a new sensation in his chest; a sort of ‘tingle’, if you will. He almost didn’t care if she hated him; he just wanted to see her alive, badly.

Forgetting the negatives and the positives, he began channeling his dark resurrection spell; her body began to stir as dark energy filled her being. Alphonse could feel his blood-thirst rising as he channeled his energy; all the energy he had just expended slaying the hydra plus an additional dark resurrection would leave any Death Knight parched for blood. Ignoring the thirst, he continued his spell, until he had filled her entire being with dark energy.

With bated breath, he stood there and watched as she slowly opened her eyes. Instead of the maroon that they were before, they were now blood red and dilated horizontally like his own. She worked her way up to her hooves, analyzing the bloody scene around her.

“Unggh, what happened?” she asked, dazed and confused. Alphonse didn’t know where to begin. His thoughts were disorganized, and he was afraid he wouldn’t word his response properly. His first tangible thought was to get the mare’s name. “First, can you tell me your name?”

“It’s Rainbow... Rainbow Dash.”

“Hello, Rainbow; my name is Alphonse.”

Rainbow Dash took a quick look around the block, noticing the carnage that took place. “What... what happened here?”

“Well, after you saved my life, I couldn’t bring it upon myself to leave you dead, so I brought, um... I brought you back... as a” He was cut off by the pegasus who had apparently just remembered how she got there.

“Wait a minute! That’s right, there was a hydra! It mauled me and then I... died...” She looked at herself and the spot below her; both were covered in blood.

“Where’s the hydra!?” she asked, her face quickly twisting in a panic. Alphonse replied with a hint of darkness in his voice; “I killed it...”

She paused and looked at him, moderately confused. “Wait... what?”

“I destroyed it. It’s not around anymore.”

“You killed a hydra? How am I supposed to believe that?”

“Well, it’s kind of hard to explain... but I--” Alphonse paused as Rainbow Dash’s attention appeared to wane from him to the ground around her.

The pegasus was looking around at the carnage again, her face twisting as she saw the bodies of dead ponies lying around. “I can’t believe that ponies actually died today...” The pegasus walked over to the body of a light golden mare with teal hair. “I knew her, y’know... her name was Raindrops...” Tears were now streaming down her face. “Wait; if you brought me back; can’t you bring them all back?”

“I’m not sure they’d want me to. I haven’t had a chance to explain the... effects... of your resurrection.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, turning around to face him, tears still rolling down her face. The hopeless look on her face made Alphonse want to cry.

“Well... I’m not sure how I can put this without upsetting you...”

Rainbow Dash cut him off, her voice carrying an air of irritation. “Well, then get it over with! I mean, if you brought me back to life, I don’t see how I can be mad at you for that.”

“Well... as a side effect of your resurrection, you are now effectively semi-immortal” The pegasus looked at him, mouth agape, with complete disbelief; regardless, Alphonse continued, “The only side effect is that you need the blood of living beings to live; not just animals, but sentient ponies or other similar beings...”

Her face dropped, before she walked up to him. “Wait... so you’re saying that I’m a vampire now? How the hell does that make sense? Vampires don’t even exist... You - You’re lying!” She was now visibly upset, and Alphonse was starting to second guess his decision to afflict her with his burden.

“Well, if you’re having doubts, let me ask you this: Look at your friend Raindrops; When you see and smell her blood, does your thirst grow?”

The pegasus stopped in her mental tracks. She began to process his words. Wow... I am verythirsty... not to mention that I was dead. I remember dying! I was cut up beyond repair, but I’m standing here without a scratch on me...

After a short pause, she began to process to simplicity of the truth: “So... for the rest of my life... I’m going to have to drink... blood?” She walked over and sat down on the steps to the entrance a nearby shop, putting her head down into her hooves. Alphonse followed her over and sat beside her.

“How will I fit into society? Everyone will be afraid of me! Or worse! What if they hunt me down like in the movies! What if they kill me!”

“Well, they’d have to cut you up pretty badly to do that...” The image of that pink monster flashed by his face; he simply brushed it off before continuing. “There are many ways to conceal your vampirism from others, but it doesn’t hurt to have those you can confide in. When I first met Twilight, I mindlessly told Twilight about my vampirism and it didn’t even phase her. It was like she’d expected it or something...”

“But you don’t understand! What about my life! What about food? What about finding your special somepony and growing old together? What about my dreams? How will I become a Wonderbolt now?” A wonderwhat? Rainbow Dash continued, “For the rest of forever... I’m going to have to drink blood... or die...”

She stopped as she looked up at Alphonse, tears in her eyes. “Why me... why did you bring me back? Of all the other ponies here, why would you choose me?” The tears in her eyes were now flowing freely; it broke Alphonse’ heart.

“I’m sorry, I just... I couldn’t leave you there after dying for a monster like me. I let my emotions get the best of me... I mean, you were so... beautiful.” Alphonse covered his face with his hooves; he couldn’t believe how pathetic he sounded. Half expecting a slap across the face, he looked over at the pegasus, who was now staring him in the eyes.

“What did you say?” She asked, her twisted face falling to a serious glare. Alphonse cleared his throat, expecting her to become enraged. “I-uh... You were laying there with a soft smile on your face; I just found you to be so... captivating... and I let my emotions get the best of me...” He closed his eyes, before feeling two hard hooves knock him in the chest; he flew back and hit the shop wall hard before falling down with a thud; He had forgotten how hard vampires could hit. Shaking off the daze, he looked around to see that Rainbow Dash had disappeared.

He quickly sprang up to his hooves before yelling out to the sky at the top of his lungs: “Wait! I have more to tell you!” Rainbow wasn’t anywhere in sight, and he couldn’t sense her location as she was no longer living. Dammit! How could I be so stupid!

Alphonse figured that Rainbow Dash would likely go straight to Twilight Sparkle, or one of her other friends. Unfurling his wings, he set off to find Twilight.

Alphonse flew around at top speeds looking for Twilight Sparkle; there was much destruction left in the hydra’s wake; he could only look in awe at the aftermath.

When he caught a whiff of her blood-scent, he locked on and soared to her as fast as he can.

As she came into sight, he flew in her general direction and tried to land. Realizing that he’d never landed when flying so fast, he tried to slow himself down only to lose his balance and hit the floor with a dull thud. Ow...

The mane five stood in front of him, just watching. Pinkie Pie, with her hair still down and straight managed to grin a little at the sight. However, she was still deeply depressed about losing one of her best friends, and the grin dissipated within seconds.

Getting up to his hooves, he walked over in the lavender mare’s direction. “Twilight, I need to speak with you, alone; it’s about Rainbow...”

“Is it so important that you can’t say it in front of her best friends? And did you kill the hydra?” Twilight knew he had killed the hydra; she just needed to hear him say it himself.

“Yes, I did; Rainbow’s more important at the moment... and I’m not sure how I’m going to explain it to you, let alone her friends.”

Twilight couldn’t help but show her concern: “What do you mean?”

“Look, I really can’t say it in front of them; can you please come with me?”

Applejack cut in: “Now who do y’all think y’are? We’re her best friends, and we don’t give a flyin’ feather whether or not you want us to hear it or not. Yer gonna tell us everything you know about Rainbow, or else.”

Alphonse, who felt his frustration building, retorted with a dark rumble in his voice: “This is none of your business! Something good and bad has happened, and I need Twilight’s advice alone on the matter. Now get back and mind your own business!”

Before Applejack could voice her rebuttal, Fluttershy got up and walked over to Alphonse, her face twisted with anger. “How dare you... how dare you!”

“Listen here, mister. Just because you’re powerful doesn’t mean you get to tell us we’re not good enough to know what happened to Rainbow. You may have fiery eyes and use powerful magic; but you do not - I repeat - you do not ignore us. If there’s something we can do help Rainbow Dash, YOU WILL TELL US, NOW.”

Alphonse was frozen; something was wrong. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t use his trinket. He was frozen there. Without his permission, his mouth started moving. What the actual buck is happening? Mind control? This is... buck!

“After Rainbow Dash was killed by the hydra, I killed the hydra and resurrected Rainbow Dash as an immortal vampire.” For buck’s sake! What’s going on! I can’t stop myself from talking... “She ran away after I told her she was a vampire and that she’s beautiful and now I can’t find her.”

Fluttershy involuntarily dropped her control on him; the entire main five stared at him, their mouths agape.

“Y’did what now?” Applejack’s rage had boiled over; she was furious at this Alphonse character, and he knew it very well once she gave him the hardest applebuck she’d ever given anyone. Holy shit... how is she so strong? He flew back at least 7 feet before landing hard on his back. “Boy, Ah’m gonna beat you like a rented mule...” Now scared for his life, he got up on his feet. Thinking fast, he quickly bound her in chains of ice; while she was physically restrained, she kept her verbal abuse flying; using words that would make Celestia blush, Alphonse could only resist the urge to strangulate her.

Before any more chaos could unfold, Twilight ran in-between them. “Stop it you two!”

“Applejack, stop it, now! Alphonse, drop this spell immediately!” Alphonse complied as Applejack glared at him with looks that could kill.

“How could you let her get away, Alphonse?” Twilight was visibly upset with Alphonse, but it was apparent her concern for Rainbow trumped that of her anger, if that’s what it was.

“Well, she got mad and kicked me into a wall; by the time I looked around, she was long gone.”

Twilight paused before continuing: “Alright everypony, try to think of places Rainbow Dash would go if she was upset and was hiding from us.”

Each pony thought the question through as they came up with their own answers.

Rarity spoke up first, “I’d think she’d probably go to her house above Ponyville.”

Pinkie Pie jumped in next, “When I’m really sad, I like to eat lots of sweets! Maybe she’s hungry and stopped by Sugarcube Corner?” Alphonse sighed mentally to himself. She’s hungryalright...

The group looked at Fluttershy; she hated being in the spotlight and tried to answer as soon as possible: “Maybe she’s in the clouds?”

After hearing the random possibilities provided by the four mares that stood in-front of her, she decided to declare the plan of action: “We need to split up if we’re going to find her faster. Fluttershy, you fly up to her house and see if she’s there. Pinkie Pie, do a quick run around Ponyville to see if she’s hiding around town. Rarity, I want you to go to the library to make sure she’s not hiding there; if you could also take Spike with you that’d be appreciated. Applejack, I’d like you to search around Sweet Apple Acres with Big Macintosh to see if she’s hiding around the orchard. Alphonse, you’re coming with me. If after two hours from now you can’t find her, head back here and we’ll regroup.”

With that, the mane five plus Alphonse set off to find their most loyal friend.

Rainbow Dash sat down in her cloud shower, lamenting her newfound immortality.

After finding her way home, she looked in the mirror only to have the eyes of a true vampire stare back at her; the sight threw any trace of hope out the window. As the water streamed down her face and body, she tried to recollect herself as she always had.

Her mind was spinning faster than ever, and it was beginning to take a toll on her. I’ll never be able to do the things I loved before; things I never even knew I loved! I’ll never eat delicious food again... I’ll probably never become a Wonderbolt like this... and... and...

The most painful part of it all was slowly making its way through Rainbow’s mental gears before dropping down into her stomach with an incredible thud. I’ll never find my special somepony... I’ll spend the rest of this wretched life alone...

Her tears were now overflowing; placing her face in her hooves, she let the tears flow freely. I wonder what my friends would say if they found out about me... Fluttershy would probably be terrified of me; every time I’d come around she would curl up into a ball and beg me not to eat her... the rest would probably abandon me, or report me... or worse...

With the picture of her five best friends repeating itself in her mind, she returned to her sobbing. Never before had Rainbow Dash felt so alone.

As she scrubbed off the blood that the water had failed to remove on its own, she began to think about Alphonse. That bastard... how dare he do this to me! I saved his life and he gets all sappy over me and brings me back like this! Who does he think he is, telling me I’m beautiful and captivating. That isn’t a good enough reason to force someone into this; no reason is good enough! This isn’t right. I shouldn’t be alive...

Rainbow paused as that last sentence echoed throughout her mind. But... I want to be alive. If it weren’t for Alphonse I’d still be dead. If I was dead, I couldn’t see my friends anymore. Sure, I may have to hide my vampirism from them, but I’d way rather be with them with a dark secret than never see them again... Realizing that she probably owed Alphonse an apology, she got up in her shower and turned the rain nimbus off, before stepping out.

After she had finished drying herself off, she walked into her living room to make her way to the door. As she walked to the door, a worried Fluttershy barged through it, crashing right into Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy’s head hit hard against the now twenty percent sturdier skull of Rainbow Dash, causing her to bleed out a little.

As Twilight and Alphonse walked together, she managed to get him to spill the detailed beans on what had happened after she fled from the hydra earlier that day. Once the initial awkward tension between the two mages had dissipated, Twilight decided to speak what was on her mind. “Thank-you.”

“Why? What for?”

“For giving us Rainbow Dash. Even though she may be... different now, we’re so glad to have her back. I’m sure there are details we don’t know about vampirism that will complicate her day-to-day life, as well as ours, but I’m just glad to have her back.”

“Well, uh - You’re welcome.”

“Is it true what you said? Do you really think she’s beautiful?”

Caught a bit off guard, Alphonse decided to tell her the truth; it hadn’t come back to bite him so far. “Yes... Before I resurrected her, I tried to weigh out the negatives and the positives of bringing her back like this; but as I looked at her, I became overrun with emotions and completed the resurrection without considering the costs.”

“Well, I think it’s noble of you. Y’know, I think you two will end up being great friends.”

“Why is that? Last time I saw her she kicked me into a storefront wall...”

“Because like it or not, you two are now the only two of your kind here in Equestria, that we know about. If she really is immortal like you said she is, you two will be the only survivors of time once this generation and the others to come pass away...”

Giving her words some thought, he looked up at the night’s sky. He was about to suggest that they move on and continue searching for Rainbow, however, he couldn’t get the words out; his body had become very weak, and he fell to the floor with a rather soft womp.

“Twilight... augh... something’s wrong.”

Twilight knelt beside him. “Woah, hey! Are you alright?”

“I’m just... so tired.” This was not supposed to happen. Vampires and Death Knights don’t need sleep! Why... am I... so tired. Alphonse closed his eyes and he drifted off into unconsciousness.

In his unconsciousness, he started to have a vision. It was a first-person dream of him being in his human body. At first he thought it was a memory, but he soon realized that he had never been there. He was riding beside a Death Knight who looked identical to Leonidas... in fact, if he didn’t know better he’d say it was Leonidas. As the two rode onwards he realized that they were approaching a small Alliance town.

What happened next made Alphonse sick to his stomach; in his dream, he and the other Death Knight started killing every person in sight. Men, women and children; none were spared their wrath. Within five minutes, not one single person remained.

Once every person in the town had fallen, his vision shifted from a first-person view to a third-person view overlooking the two Death Knights. They both stood there, inanimate as if time itself had stopped.

In his dreamy daze, he felt a tap on his shoulder.

“Hello, Alphonse.”

Turning around, he saw a close friend staring back at him; his eyes glowing bright with fire.

“No way... it’s you!”

A/N:

I want to personally thank Urdreth and ThArcanist for being the bestest pre-readers and anypony could ever ask for.

I sincerely hoped you enjoyed chapter two!

Taktician

Vampirism FAQ

Vampirism FAQ:

Hi all, after some confusion among my pre-readers, I just want to clarify a couple of things about Vampires in this fic. It’s kind of a long winded explanation, but I think it’s necessary as so many fics in FiM fan-fiction seem to portray them differently and it can become confusing over time. You may choose to skip this FAQ if the vampirism thing doesn’t really matter to you, but if you want to look over some of the questions I’ve received, continue reading.

Do not read this if you have not finished chapter two. It contains spoilers/explanations to questions that arise from reading the second chapter.

What is a vampire, in a nutshell:

* They are undead creatures that need blood to sustain their life force.

* Sunlight doesn’t kill them, but it does weaken their vampiric super-strength and their self-healing capabilities. In direct sunlight, a vampire’s strength drops by about half, and he cannot heal himself.

* A vampire’s five senses are enhanced greatly.

* Vampires can detect when living beings are around, however they cannot detect other vampires and undead creatures.

* Garlic, silver and wooden stakes are no more fatal to them than apples, gold and metal stakes; albeit, most vampires find the smell of garlic to be repulsive with their heightened sense of smell.

* Vampires cannot ingest normal food without becoming sick; their bodies aren’t built to digest anything other than blood.

Is it fatal for a vampire to go without blood? How long can one go without blood?

Unlike Oblivion/Skyrim vampires, going without blood is fatal. In essence, the blood they drink is their life force, and is consumed when they do anything. The general time frame from fully sated to fatal deprivation is five days, assuming the vampire isn’t taking damage and/or overexerting himself. When a person first turns into a vampire, they start at about one to two days into the blood-deprivation cycle, meaning they are very thirsty but can still think clearly.

Can vampires consume the blood of animals/other species to survive?

I’ve received the suggestion that they should be able to drink the blood of wild animals as a substitute for human/pony blood, and I have two reasons as to why I’m against that:

1) Fluttershy would kill me

2) It feels like a cheap work-around to make a vampire’s life among civilized people/ponies easy.

Vampirism is supposed to be a curse in which people/ponies are required to drink the blood of their own kind (or similar sentient beings, for example a vampire pony can drink griffon blood) to survive and as such I want the characters in the fic to acknowledge it as such.

In the WoW video game, Death Knights can heal themselves by striking any creature; why can’t they in HFWT?

In WoW, Death Knights can heal on anything because it makes sense in a video game; they’d be the worst possible tanks if they could only heal themselves on living flesh-based beings.

HFWT isn’t a video game and DK’s needing sentient blood, just like normal vampires, to live works well for the plot I have lined up. Trust me, you’ll like it. :molestiastare:

Are vampires immortal? How would one kill a vampire?

Vampires are semi-immortal in that they will live forever assuming they have enough life energy to keep their undead bodies animated.

There are three ways to kill a vampire:

* Starve it for blood until it runs out of life energy.

* Cause so much damage to its body so that it runs out of life energy and can no longer heal itself. A great way to do this is to sever limbs; they take the most energy to regenerate, although a vampire can choose to hold off on the regeneration until later.

* Sever its head; without the head, a vampire cannot live.

Can you explain how vampirism is inherent in all Death Knights?

There’s really not much to explain here; A Death Knight is inherently a vampire and as such inherits their powers, abilities and weaknesses, on top of their Death Knight abilities.

The one thing thing to note about Death Knights is that they can absorb the blood of sentient beings through their runeblades on top of using their mouth and fangs.

If you have your doubts about Death Knight’s being vampiric by nature, read into the Blood talent tree. Here are some supporting factors for my DK/Vampirism plot device:

* Both Death Knights and vampires are undead and are considered abominations by normal standards.

* They are both semi-immortal in that they will live forever assuming they get enough blood to survive and they aren’t destroyed by means listed above.

* Death Knights and vampires both use life energy from their targets to heal themselves.

* Death Knights have many vampiric abilities, and they even have a Blood talent tree.

How does vampirism spread?

There are only two ways to spread vampirism:

1) Allow vampiric blood to enter the bloodstream of a living being

* This is the easiest way to turn a living being; the conversion takes effect over time and is only painful during the last part of the conversion, when the fangs grow in and undeath takes over the person.

* The conversion process takes roughly 24 hours, depending on the amount of body mass and blood in the vampire-to-be’s body. During the last part of the conversion, the person will feel very tired and will likely sleep until the conversion is finished.

*This does not work on a dead target, and as such it’s impossible for a normal vampire to resurrect someone into vampirism.

2) Use a Dark Resurrection spell to copy the dark essence of vampirism into your target

* This method is specific to Death Knights only; most normal vampires don’t have the magical know-how required to transfer their vampirism into the bodies of others using magic.

* This method is more painful for the target, as it effectively forgoes the blood mixing stage and turns the whole body into an undead creature in less than a minute.

* This method is risky as it can turn living targets into mindless ghouls. A Death Knight hoping to turn a living target to vampirism will usually put one to two drops of his own blood into his target’s bloodstream and let the conversion work itself out over time.

If a Death Knight or vampire was to bite a normal pony, would that pony become a vampire over time?

No, not unless the blood of the vampire somehow trickled into the wound of the normal pony and mixed with his/her blood.

Do vampires need to sleep?

No.

Does water hurt vampires?

No.

When Alphonse used the Dark Resurrection spell on Rainbow Dash, why didn’t she become a Death Knight herself?

It’s simple really; The Lich King is the only one who can make full-fledged Death Knights.

How much blood does a vampire drink each time?

In humans, between 0.5 to 1 US pint of blood per day, assuming the vampire didn't have to heal himself from a horrible injury and/or that he didn't over-exert himself.

Each additional day without blood stacks, so if you were to go without blood for three days, you'd need 1.5 to 3 pints of blood to fully satiate yourself.

How much blood can you drink before killing someone?

In humans, approximately 60%. Any more will put the person into shock.

Why do you say 'in-humans'?

Because I don't know a whole lot about equine cardiology.

Conclusion:

I hope this FAQ has answered most of your questions. Frequent or important questions asked in comments will be added to the FAQ.

I hope you enjoy the rest of the story as the chapters are released. :P

-Taktician

taktician.whooves@gmail.com

Chapter 3 | The Other Side

As Rarity gracefully galloped to the library, she couldn’t help but wretch at the horrible condition Ponyville was in. This town is in unacceptable condition... Unacceptable!

On their way they passed by the blood-soaked area where Alphonse had decimated the hydra; remembering what Twilight had said about him, her curiosity began to build.

Turning her attention to the dragon on her back, she cleared her throat audibly to get his attention. “Say, Spike, have you met this Alphonse character?”

Spike looked at her for a moment before answering. Why? You don’t like him or anything, do you?

“Yeah, I met him back before the hydra attacked. We were introduced, but I haven’t had a chance to speak with him yet or anything... His glowy blue eyes are pretty cool though, right?”

Rarity replied flatly -- her attention was elsewhere. “Yes dear, his eyes are wonderful.”

When Twilight said “Exactly like him”, did she mean like him? When he left so abruptly, we never got a chance to say goodbye...

“Oh, and Spike, do you remember that travelling mage who came through Ponyville years ago? I think five or six years ago now?”

Enjoying this rare one-on-one interaction with Rarity, Spike answered a little too enthusiastically: “Yeah! I remember him. He was really kind and kept talking about going back to and help his friend... what about him?”

“Oh nothing, this whole ordeal just brought back some... memories...” When are you coming back, dear? Fluttershy was heartbroken when you left; she misses you. You never truly knew just how much she cared about you... I hope you’re coming back too.

She felt her emotions begin to pool around her eyes, but shook the thought immediately; they had arrived at the library, and they had a Rainbow to find.

Fluttershy looked up into Rainbow’s eyes; she had landed on top of her in the fall. “I’m so sorry Rainbow, are you hurt?” She saw the blood on Rainbow’s head, not realizing it was hers. “Oh my... please let me help you.”

The scent of Fluttershy’s blood was overwhelming; Rainbow’s eyes began to glow sanguine as she licked the blood off of her hoof. The taste, combined with her intense thirst replaced any control Rainbow had over herself; she turned her gaze onto the pegasus before her.

“Do you have any bandages here, we need to get you...” she stopped as she realized the blood was dripping from her own head.

“Oh my, it looks like I need bandages instead!” She looked up at Rainbow, hoping to share a smile over the mishap; her smile was cut short by the look on Rainbow’s face. Noticing Rainbow’s fangs and mindless stare, she fell back as Rainbow advanced towards her.

Oh no... no please wait! “Uh-- wait, Rainbow... please wait... stop!”

Fluttershy gasped as cyan pegasus jumped at her, landing on top of her. Before Rainbow could bite down, she was interrupted by Fluttershy’s screaming. “Please Rainbow, stop it! Stop! No!” The sound of her friend sobbing broke her out of her vampiric frenzy. Jumping back off of Fluttershy, she backed up to the wall, tears streaming down her face.

“I’m so sorry Fluttershy, I didn’t mean to. I really didn’t... please forgive me... I’m so sorry!”

Fluttershy trembled fiercely as she tried to get up; she was obviously terrified, but still made an effort to look at Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow... I-uh...” she squeaked, before she pushed off her body’s natural urge to petrify and continued in a quiet yet serious tone. “W-When I heard about what you had turned into, I really wanted to help you. At first I was really afraid of you, and I still kind of really am afraid of you... I mean... just looking at those... those fangs... b-but you’re my friend and I can’t run away from you.”

Rainbow Dash was shocked by her friend’s kind words; She had expected the shy pegasus to flee for her life, and never return. Remembering what she had just done to her kindest friend, she placed her head down in her hooves and wept aloud. “I’m so sorry, Fluttershy...”

Fluttershy walked over and sat down beside Rainbow, still trembling. “It’s okay... it’s okay...” The trembling pegasus held Rainbow as the vampire wept in her arms. After a short time had passed, Fluttershy looked down at Rainbow: “Um, Rainbow?”

Wiping the tears from her eyes, she looked up at her friend. “Yeah?”

“Well, I uh... I know that you’re different now and you need... blood to live. Which is why I’ve been thinking; As long as you don’t get too... crazy... I’d uh--” she blushed before continuing, her voice growing much quieter, “I’d like to help you with... with your thirst.”

Rainbow looked up at Fluttershy. She must have heard that wrong. “Wh-what?”

“I-I don’t know how it works or anything at all, but I’d say you must be pretty thirsty if you’d attack me like that; if I can help you feel better by giving some blood, I’d love to...”

Rainbow thought the offer over, shaking her head. “No, I can’t. I mean, what if it hurts you? What I take too much? What if you die? What if you become a vampire too?”

“Um, I guess I hadn’t really thought of that...b-but that doesn’t matter now... I don’t care if it hurts; some pain isn’t as bad as watching a friend suffer. And if I become like you, y-you’d have someone to relate to...” her last words had caused her to blush. “Um, Rainbow... please, even if it’s just this once.”

Rainbow looked at Fluttershy, considering the pros and the cons. She got up and looked Fluttershy in the eyes. “Are you sure about this? I don’t know if I can control myself after I’ve started drinking.”

Fluttershy smiled warmly, still trembling. She must be fighting so hard to be brave. “Just stop as soon as you feel better, okay? I’d like to be able to offer this to you again one day.”

Rainbow couldn’t help but shed another tear over how kind her friend was. “Alright, Fluttershy. This is my first time too, so please understand I might be a bit messy.”

Fluttershy blushed harder as she turned her head, exposing her neck. “Oh, no; it’s okay! Just please go easy on me...”

As the cyan pegasus walked up to the trembling mare, she couldn’t help but shiver. This was oddly intimate; something she’d never done with a mare before, or anypony for that matter. Dash certainly wasn’t a fillyfooler by any means of the word; despite popular belief, she was actually still a virgin. Getting this close to Fluttershy was a new experience in and of itself, and Rainbow felt oddly out of place.

Rainbow Dash exposed her fangs before instinctually biting directly into the trembling mare’s carotid artery. Fluttershy gasped as she felt her life essence escape her; it was very new and uncomfortable to her, but Rainbow’s grunts and moans of what sounded like pleasure made Fluttershy happy she could be of some relief.

As Rainbow continued her extremely messy first meal, Fluttershy realized she was becoming faint. She was going to try to say something, but Rainbow sat back before she could say anything.

“That was amazing! I feel great!” Rainbow smiled at Fluttershy, blood all over her face. She reached over to a tissue box and pulled a handful out, applying it to Fluttershy’s neck.

Still lightheaded, Fluttershy smiled. “I’m really happy for you, Rainbow. Do you mind if I take a nap, though?”

Realizing that she may have taken too much blood, she began to panic. “Oh my gosh, are you okay Fluttershy? Did I take too much! Say something!”

“I’m alright, just really tired.”

“It’s okay, you can rest in my bed. I’ll wait until you feel better.” Rainbow guided her drained friend to the bed, laid her down and covered her with the sheets. Fluttershy fell into a deep sleep almost instantly; Rainbow couldn’t help but smile. “Thank-you Fluttershy... I owe you big time.”

As Rainbow Dash sat there looking down at her kindest friend, she noticed she was whispering something under her breath. Curious as ever, Rainbow leaned in to try to make out the words... It sounds like she’s saying...

“Leo! You’re alive! You wouldn’t believe where I’ve been.”

Not saying anything, the apparition of Leonidas smiled with a knowing look.

“Wait... your eyes are glowing... like mine. No...” Alphonse reeled as he felt his chest twist inside him. “NO! The Lich King didn’t corrupt you too, did he?”

The apparition’s reaction was non-existent, almost as if he hadn’t heard the question.

“Wait... why am I here? Did he pull me back?”

The apparition shook its head, before it shifted its attention to the frozen bodies of Alphonse and Leonidas, still standing fervently over their latest victims.

“They look just like us... is this some kind of dream, or memory?”

The apparition shook its head as it began to fade out. “I’m so glad you like it there, Alphonse. I never got a chance to thank you...”

As Leonidas continued to fade out, Alphonse ran over to try and do something to go with him. Anything to stay with his closest friend. “Wait, Leo! What’s going on here? Don’t go!”

Leo’s last words, “thank you”, echoed through his dream as the world crumbled around him...

“LEO, COME BACK!” Alphonse sprung up in his reacquired consciousness, sweating and breathing heavily.

Twilight was looking at him in the eyes, with an acute sense of concern in her eyes. “Alphonse, what happened?”

“I had a dream... I saw Leonidas...”

Twilight’s expression turned into an unexpected expression of hope. “What was Leonidas doing, Alphonse. What did you see?”

“Well, I was in my human body again; Leonidas and I charged a small town and... we.. we did horrible things...” Twilight pursed her lips as her face twisted. “He was like me Twilight... he had my eyes, he wore similar armor. I think the Lich King turned him into a Death Knight.”

Twilight’s reeled as those last words rolled off of his tongue; her expression turning to sadness as tears streamed down her eyes. You had to stay and help everyone, didn’t you...

Alphonse shifted his gaze to the ground beneath him. “I just hope it was a dream... I’d rather Leo be dead than have to go through this hell.”

Twilight looked up into the sky, a single tear falling from her face. I don’t that was a dream, Alphonse... we both know you don’t sleep. If you don’t sleep, how can you possibly dream?

Applejack galloped around Sweet Apple Acres as she looked for Rainbow. Please be okay, sugarcube!

It was dark out now and searching for anypony at this hour was nearly impossible. The element of honesty wasn’t going to lie to herself; her chances of finding Dash like this were low, especially if she was up in the trees. Despite her efforts to call out to her, the only response was the wind and the occasional sound of Big Macintosh calling for Rainbow out from somewhere else in the fields.

Realizing it was almost time to meet at the rendezvous point, she met up with her older brother and called off the search. Considering that the rendezvous point was right in front of the acreage, she didn’t have a long way to walk.

As she started her walk to the point, she began to process her thoughts.

While Ah’m grateful that pony brought Rainbow back, Ah still can’t believe he’d say that t’me. It’s downright rude. He’s right lucky he had his fancy shmancy magimatics to stop me from buckin’ his skull in.

She thought that last sentence; a wave of regret waved over her. While we may have started off on tha wrong hoof, he did bring her back... if it weren’t for him, Ahd’ve lost Rainbow fer good...

The thought of losing her again brought tears to her eyes. While Ah may not like him, Ah should still apologize fer my actions... Ah don’t want the tension between us to make this harder on Rainbow.

When she reached the rendezvous point, she leant against the fencepost and began to reminisce on her past times with her best friend and greatest rival.

Pinkie Pie didn’t bother looking around the city for Rainbow Dash; her Pinkie sense give her Rainbow’s exact coordinates when she wanted to find her, and she knew she was at home in the clouds; Fluttershy would find her. So, instead she decided to sit down at the bakery and think about this Alphonse character, while eating her fill of sweet treats.

So, who is this Alphonse guy? I’ve sensed a weird aura around him, almost like he’s not from here. Kinda like that other guy... but different.

He’s not a wall-breaker; I would have sensed that energy as soon as I hopped on him. And he’s not like that weird earth pony who disappears in that blue box all the time. Actually, I should get inside that box one day... Anyways, where is this guy from? If I had to describe him in a nutshell, I’d say it’s like he’s connected to something else...

She tried to visualize her thoughts; the vision was that of Alphonse being chained from his chest to an object shrouded by mist. Among the mist was two blue glowing dots. They’re like his eyes!

Realizing it was time to meet make her way back to Sweet Apple Acres, she gingerly made her way out the door.

An awkward silence carried itself between Alphonse and Twilight as they made their way back to Sweet Apple Acres. Twilight was used to awkward situations, but given the circumstance she was very sad and felt like she needed a shoulder to cry on.

Alphonse wasn’t that great with picking up on emotional queues, but even he could tell Twilight was having trouble; deciding to try to take her mind off of whatever was bothering her, he spoke up:

“So, uh, Twilight. I just wanted to thank you for showing me around Ponyville and not treating me like a monster after all you’ve heard and seen.”

She looked at him, her eyes still on the verge of tears. “You’re welcome, Alphonse. I’m just glad to see you made it here safely...”

Her statement confused him, but thinking fast he decided to push past it and moved onto the next thing that came to his mind.

“Y’know, I don’t think I’ve told you this, but you’re a lot like Leonidas. You’re kind, you care, and you seem to be there to lead and support your friends, no matter what the situation is. I think you two would have gotten along well.”

Twilight stopped walking, still looking in his eyes; tears were now flowing openly and she began to weep.

Alphonse had no idea why she was crying, but for the second time since his Death Knight conversion, he felt sympathy; acting on it, he walked over to Twilight and embraced her in a hug. It felt very odd to him, but it felt like the right thing to do. In response, Twilight squeezed him in the hug while weeping aloud.

A few moments later, once her sobbing had died down to an intermittent cry with a constant flow of tears, Twilight removed herself from the embrace and looked into Alphonse’ eyes.

“Don’t you miss him too, Alphonse?”

As Rarity looked through the library, she noticed a purple book left open on top of Twilight’s nightstand; she recognized it as Twilight’s private journal. Looking around to make sure Spike was still down in the kitchen, she walked over and began to read the page that was open. Oh, it’s dated a while back...

“Well, he’s finally decided to do it. Despite my sincerest efforts to have him stay here in Equestria, he said he can’t leave Amschel behind. As per his request, I’m going to help him open a portal back to Azeroth.

I’m truly afraid I may never see him again... as much as Fluttershy is in love with him, and he in her, I can’t help but feel guilty;I think I’ve developed feelings for him as well, although I could never take him away from her.

Whatever you do Leo, please come back to us.”

Rarity felt a tear roll down her face as she heard Spike calling to her on his way up the stairs. Thinking fast, she closed the book and turned inconspicuously to the window beside her, making it look like she was looking for Dash outside.

“Hey, uh, Rarity? I think it’s safe to say she’s not here.”

Nodding in agreement, the unicorn made her way to the door. “Are you sure you’ll be alright alone, Spike?”

Spike looked over into her eyes. She cares about me! “Yeah, I’ll be okay. While I’d love your company, I’m really worried about Rainbow...”

“Me too Spike... me too.”

And with that, the fashionista made her way to the rendezvous point.

A/N:

I have to say, I felt like I was writing a clopfic as I wrote the Rainbow and Fluttershy blood scene. In all honesty, I didn’t intend for it to be sensual; I was just trying to vividly paint the emotional experience Fluttershy and Rainbow shared together. (Oh my, even that sounds bad.)

The Molestia is strong in this one.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Taktician

Chapter 4 | Iron Sharpeneth Iron

Princess Luna peered out from her royal balcony; she had just brought out the moon, and most of Equestria’s many citizens had started to wind down for the night.

Luna wasn’t smiling tonight; the all too familiar power that had just burned out of Ponyville had nearly driven her back to her former insanity. He can’t be here... there’s no way he can be here!

Before Luna could decide on any sort of action, Celestia came through the door, fury emanating from her. “Luna! How dare you!” Celestia’s guards were storming into the room, as Luna’s stormed in through the window; they did not take their eyes off each other.

Luna knew exactly what her sister had assumed. “I had no part in this! I swear it!” The dark mare paused, collecting her thoughts. “What happened in Ponyville, anyways?”

“You speak as if you don’t know! A hydra attacked Ponyville, and then you stepped in!” Celestia paused, holding in the tears. “How could you, Luna? You told me you would never use your dark powers again!”

Her sister’s assumptions cut her deeply and tears were now flowing freely. “Listen to yourself, sister! Please cease your tactless accusations and see the truth for what it is... I had no part in this dark act!”

“Well, if you didn’t have any part in this, who did?”

It was now very dark out, and most citizens who had stayed at the emergency point, which was also the mane group’s rendezvous point, had now gone home; fifteen minutes had passed since the ponies were all supposed to meet at said point; all of them had, except for Fluttershy.

Twilight was very concerned for her, and couldn’t help but feel stupid for sending the weakest and most easily startled pony in the group to look in the likeliest place a hungry newborn vampire would hide. “I’m really worried about Fluttershy, everypony... what if Rainbow--”

Rarity interrupted her, clearly irritated. “Twilight dear, Rainbow would not do such a thing to our Fluttershy! I won’t have you assuming things from our own Element of Loyalty.”

“I agree. Y’all can’t just jump in and assume Rainbow’s become some sort of violent bloodthirsty freak like Alphonse...”

While those words hurt, Alphonse brushed them off and decided to move the conversation forward. “There is no point in standing here talking about the situation. We need to get up there, immediately. I need one of you to guide me to Rainbow’s house; if we don’t get there soon, for all we know your friend Fluttershy may not make it through the night.”

The stetson-clad earth pony stepped forward, determination covering every inch of her face. “Ah’m comin’ with’ya. Ah need to know that Dash and Fluttershy are okay.”

As much as he didn’t like her, Alphonse knew that she was serious about this and if he denied her this, it could cause him problems in the immediate future. “Fine, let’s go.”

Applejack walked over to Twilight, “Twilight, if ya’d be so kind as’ta give me that cloud-walkin’ spell again, Ah’d appreciate it.”

“Sure thing, Applejack; just stand still.” The lavender unicorn planted herself in the ground as her horn started glowing; Applejack felt a magical sensation cover her body; she felt lighter, and her hooves tingled.

Twilight was about to wish Applejack good luck, before she was cut off by that ungodly feeling she had felt earlier; it was nowhere near as intense as before, but it was still enough to give her the shivers.

Alphonse walked over in haste, noticing the grim looks on their faces. “Oh, sorry; I didn’t mean to startle you... I just powered up to fly faster.” He paused momentarily as he shifted his gaze towards Applejack. “Applejack, grab my tail!”

The farmer tilted her head. What? The idea of holding onto his tail for dear life was an adventure she didn’t want to go on. “Wouldn’t it be easier if ah just hopped on yer back?”

“Oh, I suppose so. Just be quick!”

She hopped on, motioning Alphonse to take off. “It’s in that direction... git goin!”

Pinkie Pie pranced up to Alphonse, a huge grin on her face. “Allons-y, Alphonso!”

Feeling strangely empowered by her words of encouragement, he took off with intense force; so much Applejack felt she may fall off his back and into the darkness below her.

Alphonse touched down on the cloud and began to power down; the runes on his body faded and his wings were feathered again.

Applejack hopped off, not wasting any time. Ah’ve got to know they’re okay!

Noticing the door was already broken down, she ran in to see Rainbow Dash sitting on the bed beside Fluttershy, who was sleeping. Much to Applejack’s horror, there was blood all around the area where Rainbow had just fed, along with two holes and a bandage over Fluttershy’s head. As much as this made Applejack furious and upset over Fluttershy’s assault, she was so happy to see Rainbow Dash, her best friend, in one piece.

“Rainbow Dash...”

“Applejack! I-uh... this isn’t what it looks like-- I swear!”

Applejack trotted over to Rainbow, tears streaming down her eyes; Rainbow closed her eyes, expecting a hard buck to the head. To her surprise, she felt the warm embrace of her best friend around her.

“Ah was so worried about you, Rainbow... Ah thought we’d lost ya...” Applejack was now sobbing openly, which caused Rainbow to tear up as well.

“Darnit, AJ... now you’ve got me acting all sappy...”

Alphonse walked in on the scene, assuming that Rainbow had indeed attacked Fluttershy; while he was in no position to judge her, he knew that if Rainbow had taken too much, she could be dying. Walking over to the sleeping pegasus, he placed his hoof on her to test her pulse. Much to his relief, she had a somewhat healthy pulse and wasn’t dying at the moment.

The Death Knight sighed as memories of his past flashed past his burning eyes; the first living being the Lich King had him feed on had died, only for the girl to become his first attempt at resurrecting and commanding an undead ghoul. It didn’t go well...

Turning to the cyan pegasus, he cleared his throat: “Rainbow Dash, you and I need to talk... there are things about your vampirism I have to explain to you if you’re to control it without attacking your friends.”

Rainbow left the stetson-clad mare’s embrace as she walked over to him. “Wait, you’ve got it all wrong! You have to believe me, I didn’t attack her! Well, I did... but I stopped before biting her!”

Applejack had trouble believing Rainbow; considering the bandages, it looked like a fight had taken place. “Now listen here, sugarcube; Ah know you feel a might guilty fer what ya did to Fluttershy, but lyin’ to us ain’t gonna fix the problem. We won’t get mad, just tell us the truth.”

“But AJ, I am telling you the truth! She offered herself to me; I didn’t force anything on her!”

Alphonse was getting irritated; he hated beating around the bush. “Well then, if that’s true why does she have a bandage on her head?”

“She came in with a bang and crashed into me... hard.”

Alphonse sighed, as a soft voice chimed in behind them. “Um, guys... I really did offer myself; please don’t yell at her.”

The earth pony was confused; “Y’all offered yerself to her? What in tarnation were y’all thinkin!”

Fluttershy shrank back into the bed, visibly frightened. “Oh, um... well, I... you see: I wanted to help her so that she’d be herself again. It looks like it worked, right?”

Alphonse looked over at the pale pegasus, nodding in agreement. “It sure did, for today. But I need to explain vampirism to her as soon as possible; I need to train her in vampire survival before she gets thirsty tomorrow.”

Rainbow’s face dropped to frown. “I’m going to have to drink every day, aren’t I?”

“Yes, but I can teach you how to do it without hurting others or getting caught.”

Rainbow liked the idea of not hurting others; she liked it a lot! “Okay. When do we start?”

Alphonse looked over to Applejack as he responded. “We start immediately; and we’re going to start with your friends.”

Applejack gulped, stepping back. Starting with... us?

Realizing that he worded his sentence wrong, he corrected himself. “Wait! No, I mean we’re going to start by talking about this with your friends; you’re not going to be able to do this without support.”

Both Applejack and Rainbow smiled at each other, before looking back at Alphonse. “Alright, Al. When do we leave?”

“Now. Rainbow, you carry Fluttershy down, I’ve got Applejack.”

Applejack frowned, causing Rainbow to speak up. “Actually, I’d like to take AJ if you don’t mind.”

“Sure, doesn’t matter to me.” Alphonse walked over to Fluttershy, kneeling down. “I’m not really sure how to carry you like this... will you be able to hold onto my back?”

Fluttershy blushed, while climbing out of the bed. “I’ll be fine. Just please fly slowly, I don’t know how strong I can hold on right now.”

He smiled as he positioned himself so that Fluttershy could jump on. “Just hold on tight, okay? Rainbow, we’re meeting in front of that apple farm.”

Rainbow nodded as Applejack hopped on her back; she made her way out the door and flew off, full speed ahead.

Pausing before taking off himself, Alphonse felt the yellow mare fall limply on his back. “Are you sure you’re ready to go, Fluttershy? If you feel weak, I don’t want to risk you falling.”

He could feel her breath on his back; it was light, but very warm. It was a weird sensation that he hadn’t felt before.

“You know him, don’t you, Amschel...”

Alphonse was confused. Who? And Amschel? I never told her my old name... “Know who?”

“You know my Leo, don’t you.”

She couldn’t mean... “Leo... like, Leonidas?”

Her breathing had slowed down further, and her head fell on his back. Alphonse ran back to the bed, and gently placed her down; she was unconscious and Alphonse didn’t want to move her if she was recovering from blood loss.

Everypony’s hearts melted when they saw their Rainbow touch down. Pinkie couldn’t help but cheer as she crossed the distance between her and the cyan pegasus, leaving less than one millimeter between their faces. “Rainbow! I’m so happy to see you! We thought you’d been eaten by that hydra! But I knew you’d be okay! Uncooked ponies don’t taste as good, so I knew he’d spit you out!”

Rarity walked up, her smile accompanied by two streams pouring down her face. “I’m so relieved to see you unharmed, dear. I knew you’d never attack Fluttershy!”

The lavender pony looked incredibly relieved to see Rainbow in one piece, however, she still wasn’t sure whether or not Fluttershy was okay. “I’m so happy to see that you’re alright, Rainbow! But where’s Fluttershy and Alphonse?”

Rainbow smiled, “They’re both on their way now. Fluttershy was a little too weak to fly, so Alphonse is carrying her.”

While Twilight wondered why Fluttershy was weak, the fact that she was still alive was a genuine relief to her. She nodded, before turning her attention to the group. “Once they arrive, let’s head off to the Library. It’s dark and I think we should talk in a more closed environment...”

Everypony agreed; as they waited, they continued their conversation about how they were relieved to see Rainbow Dash in one piece.

Celestia approached Luna, who was out on her royal balcony; she hadn’t left since earlier. The devastating power that was Alphonse had rekindled something dark inside her; it was now only a matter of time.

“I’ve mobilized recovery teams to help the citizens of Ponyville... Luna, I’d like to apologize... I felt another surge of that power from Ponyville for a few brief moments when you were clearly in the castle; it wasn’t you and I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.”

Luna turned around and smiled at her sister. “It’s fine, but Tia... what are we going to do about the one responsible... I felt it too, but I don’t understand... why would someone with that power not be destroying Ponyville?”

Celestia’s face hardened as she looked into her sister’s eyes. “I’m not sure... but if it’s a threat, I’ll have no choice but to order the Elements of Harmony to destroy it.”

Luna smiled as she nodded. “Of course, sister... I understand.” Like hell you will...

As Celestia was walking out of the room, the dark mare looked up to the moon; her eyes glowing blue for a split second. “I look forwards to meeting you, lichbourne.”

“What was that, Luna?”

“Oh, it was nothing, dear sister.”

As the citizens of Ponyville made their way back into the broken town, they couldn’t help but reel over how much destruction had taken place in their peaceful hometown. Celestia’s reinforcements had arrived, and were now picking up the bodies and preparing them for burial, while others were supporting those still alive.

The local mailmare stood in front of her decimated post-office, holding back her tears. “I... I-” tears were now swelling around her eyes. “I just don’t know what went wrong...”

Derpy didn’t know how she’d ended up bringing the hydra to town; she had the simple task of delivering a package to Zecora’s hut. However, before she could get there she was cut off by the giant scaled beast; scared for her life, she high-tailed it back to Ponyville, inadvertently bringing it to Ponyville. As her emotions ran rampant in her chest, she noticed the corpse of one of her close friends. Walking over to it, she let her tears start to flow.

“Oh Raindrops... I’m so sorry.”

After thirty minutes, the group noticed that Alphonse and Fluttershy hadn’t shown up yet; while they hadn’t noticed the time fly so fast, they were starting to get concerned as to where they were.

Twilight wanted to see Fluttershy badly; she hadn’t seen her kindest friend since she told her to pursue a hungry vampire. “Uh, Rainbow... you did say Alphonse was flying with Fluttershy, right?”

“Yeah, he was going to take off right away. I’m surprised he didn’t land right after I did!”

Pinkie Pie jumped in, an odd look of seriousness covering her face. “Hmm... maybe you should go back and make sure they’re okay, Dashie!”

By the time Pinkie was done her sentence, Rainbow’s wings were already unfurled. “I’ll be back in 10 minutes flat!”

“Just be safe, okay Rainbow! Ah don’t want you gettin’ hurt if Alphonse’s gone and done sumthin’ stupid.”

Rainbow frowned, before preparing to take off. “Relax, AJ. He’s not as big of an asshole as you paint him out to be.”

“Ah’m just sayin’... ah, shucks y’all know what ah mean.”

“I know. I’ll be back soon, alright?” And with that, Rainbow Dash was in the air.

Alphonse continued to look down at the unconscious mare before him; the fact that she was still alive meant she would most likely survive this ordeal, it was just a matter of taking the time to rest. What do you know of Leonidas, Fluttershy?

As if she could hear his thoughts, her face donned a grin; she was still unconscious and must have been dreaming.

The Death Knight was about to get up and give the innocent mare some space, before he felt that familiar exhaustion begin to take over him; falling over beside the sleeping mare, he drifted into dark unconsciousness.

Standing before him was Leonidas, his face shrouded by a dark cloud. He wasn’t sure how he knew it was Leonidas; he just did. Looking at Leo’s chest, and then his own, he noticed they were both chained from their chest to another object that was shrouded in its own dark cloud; from within the cloud, two blue glowing eyes could be seen. Wait... that’s not--

“Are you still enjoying your stay in Equestria, Alphonse?”

“Yes, I am. How do you know about Equestria?”

“Think back to when you cast your spell upon me; before you became a Death Knight. I’ve always wanted to ask you this: Where did you want to transport me when you used that spell?”

Al looked down over his body, before looking back up at his fallen friend. “I-I wanted to take you as far away from there as possible... to the happiest place in existence.”

“Ah--I see. Well, that makes sense.” The image of Leonidas started to drag towards the object he was chained to; its glowing eyes were now burning brighter than before. “Alphonse... are you starting to put the pieces together?”

“What pieces? I have no idea what’s going on, Leo.”

“Heh... you never were one to pick up on the obvious things, were you? Look, just tell Twilight Sparkle that I’m happy with my choice, and that she shouldn’t feel bad.”

Alphonse did a double take at what he had just heard. Twilight Sparkle? You know Twilight Sparkle? Wait... then what about... “Leo! How could you possibly know Twilight? Do you--do you know a yellow pony named ‘Fluttershy’, as well?”

The mention of the name Fluttershy seemed to strike a chord with Leo; tears began to roll down the visible portions of his face. “I--I know her well.”

Leo was now becoming engulfed by the dark shroud surrounding the object he was chained to and was fading fast. “Please tell her I lo--”

“Tell her what?!? Leo! Come back!”

Unlike last time, Alphonse’ dream hadn’t started crumbling around him; the object he was chained to was still there, and he wasn’t being drawn closer to it. Looking down below him, he noticed why: he was bound to the ground by a rift in the floor; through that rift, he saw his equine form sleeping on the bed beside Fluttershy; Rainbow Dash was standing over his body, shaking him, apparently trying to wake him up. I’ve got to return... I’ve got to get back!

“Hello, Deathbringer Alphonse Runeweaver.”

The dark voice shook him to his core; while he didn’t know where the voice was coming from, he knew who the voice was from all too well -- it had commanded the death of every innocent soul he had vanquished prior to his rescuing.

“You bastard... what do you want from me? Can’t you let me enjoy my new-found peace!”

“I want my right-hand killing machine back; since you’re sharing the energy absorbed by your human counterpart, he’s not operating at full capacity... Do you know how much power it takes to keep two bodies anda rift between two worlds active?”

Alphonse shook his head in disbelief. My human counterpart? “I’m barely consuming any power at all; it shouldn’t be noticeable at all. I’m surprised you know I’m here.” As he finished his sentence, he began to fall back through the rift towards his equine body.

“Before you go, Deathbringer, I’d like to share some interesting information with you. The power you’re receiving from your human counterpart has all been taken from the lives of those he kills, mostly, of course, of innocents; enjoy it. I do hope you won't try to resist, lest I take your new vampire friend. She'll serve me well in undeath, won't she? But not before suffering pain unlike anything you could ever imagine. Should you decide to come back willingly, I’ll make her your right-hand, Death Knight. See you soon...” A dark chuckle resonated around the dream as Alphonse felt the darkness take him once again.

Alphonse sprung up from his unconsciousness, drenched in his own sweat. The sun was shining, and the birds were chirping. I’m not in Rainbow’s house... This looks like Twilight’s library... The other ponies were gathered around Fluttershy, who was still sleeping on the bed across from him.

“Oh, look guys! Al’s awake!” The pink pony bounced over to him, looking him in his eyes. “Are you okay, mister? Dashie said you were sleeping on the bed with Fluttershy and then she flew you both back here one at a time! Isn’t she awesome!”

She carried both of us here? “I think I’m fine. How long have I been out?”

Twilight walked over, concern covering her face. “You’ve been out for about six hours. Did you do something to Fluttershy? And did you have another vision? The last time you passed out, you told me you saw Leonidas.”

As the other conscious ponies made their way to Alphonse’ bedside, he decided to share his dream with them.

“No, Fluttershy passed out on my back; and yes, I did have a dream, and I saw Leonidas there too. He told me to tell you something, Twilight... He said ‘I’m happy with my choice’, and ‘don’t be sad’.”

At this, Twilight began to tear up; trying to keep her composure, she motioned him to go on.

“I’m not sure how he knows you, but I asked him if he knew Fluttershy as well; when I did, he started to cry and tried to say something, before disappearing.”

Twilight looked back over to the sleeping Fluttershy, her face dropping to sadness. I know he loves you... and not me; I wish I could just forget about it all.

Rainbow chimed in, her face more serious than he’d ever seen it before. “What else happened in your dream? You were saying my name at one point when I carried you over.”

The memory of the Lich King’s last words teared through his mind: “She'll serve me well in undeath, won't she? But not before suffering pain unlike anything you could ever imagine.” Terror filled his mind as he tried to think of what the Lich King would ask... would he require him to turn Equestria into an undead wasteland? Would he require him to take Rainbow Dash with him back to Azeroth, only to turn her into another powerful Death Knight? And more importantly, what could the Lich King do if he said no? Either way, the situation was going to be dire; the only thing he could do was to wait for future instructions from the Lich King. It was bad enough that his life force was being supplied by the slaughter of innocents in Azeroth...

Rainbow Dash cleared her throat, motioning Alphonse to keep going. The Death Knight, however, had no plans of sharing the demands of the Lich King with him... at least not yet.

Shaking his head, Alphonse continued. “The rest is a blur, really. I’ll share more when I can piece out what happened.”

Despite the feeling of disappointment, Rainbow Dash smiled and sat beside her blood-brother. “Well, anyway... I’m just happy that you’re okay.”

Pinkie Pie smiled, injecting her thoughts audibly. “Oh, is that because you have a crush on Al?”

Rainbow blushed, quickly throwing her rebuttal back at the pink party animal. “Hey! I-I’m just making sure that he’s okay! Without him, I won’t know how to do this vampire stuff right!”

Rainbow’s words cut Alphonse; he was never able to pick up on emotions properly, and took her words as truth. Deciding to shake off the pain, he mentally recited the simple truth of his past. Why would she even want to look at me after what I’ve done to her...

As Applejack headed out to get Nurse Redheart for Fluttershy, Alphonse was preparing to set out with Rainbow Dash to teach her about vampirism.

Before Alphonse made his way out of the landing, he could have sworn he felt another Death Knight around; he wasn’t sure where, but it was immensely powerful and had a runic signature unlike any Death Knight he had met before. What frightened him more was that as soon as it had appeared, it was gone.

A/N:

And that's chapter four! Sorry that it took me so long to release. The foul beast "Writer's Block" has been sent back to the twisting nether, where I hope to never see it again.

I'm going to be honest... while writing this chapter, I've had *so many better ideas on where to take this story; I know you're going to love them!*

A special thanks to Urdreth, ThArcanist and Masu for being pre-readers. (And Urdreth especially, who has become more of an editor now than a pre-reader)

~Taktician

Chapter 5 | Calm Before the Storm

Alphonse couldn’t believe how fast Ponyville was rebuilding; in almost no time at all, buildings were returning and life appeared to be re-blossoming. While everypony was still mourning the loss of their loved ones, they had the prospect of their old city back in one piece.

“So, Alphonse; what are we going to do first?”

Smiling back at Rainbow, he pondered his response. “Well, I’ve never had to train a vampire before... I’ve only ever trained Death Knights, and that’s usually much more... violent.”

Rainbow sighed as she stretched her wings. “You sure know how to kill the peaceful mood, don’t you?”

Al chuckled to himself. “That and more... Well, anyways, the first thing we should do is endurance and self-control training; it’s daytime right now, meaning you can’t feed easily, and you are much more likely to encounter people full of the very thing that keeps you alive.”

Dash looked at him, boredom written across her face. “Look, after all that just went down, I’d really like to catch a break... can’t we just take some time to settle down and have some fun?”

Alphonse was confused; he really thought that Rainbow hated him for what he’d done to her, and wasn’t certain as to why she’d want to get to know him at all. “Well, that’s fine, I guess. What do ponies do for ‘fun’?”

“Well, normally I’d say we could go fly around Cloudsdale a bit, but we’re both a little too strong for that kind of flying... wanna race over the Everfree Forest?” The cyan pegasus’ face was starting to grin from cheek to cheek; she was obviously excited.

“Well, I don’t actually know what or where that is; care to lead the way?”

“Sure thing! Keep up if you can!” Already in the air, Rainbow took off at high speed, prompting Alphonse to do the same.

As he flew after his dark companion, he realized that since his arrival, he had learned how to fly with ease. Shrugging it off as a convenience, he continued after his crush.

Back at the library, Twilight was preparing to teleport herself to Canterlot; she had a lot to tell the princess, and needed guidance from her. Leonidas was one thing, but Alphonse is just... I have no idea what to do!

In the final stages of her preparation, her horn started to glow with its signature purple glow; no more than ten seconds later, she was just outside of the royal command room. Her teleportation appeared to be a bit off, as she had teleported herself into the side closet where janitorial supplies were held. As she made her way to the door, she couldn’t help but overhear a muffled voice, which sounded like Princess Celestia. She was going to politely knock before she heard Celestia mention Nightmare Moon; instead of knocking and opening the door, she placed her ear to the door.

“General, I need you to investigate this incident with utmost discretion; no one can know what you are investigating... not even the elements of harmony.”

A stallion’s voice replied, which sounded like that of her old friend General Dusk. “I understand, Princess. But if this power didn’t originate from Nightmare M--Princess Luna, where did it come from?”

“I don’t know, General; but whatever it is I will see to it personally that it is destroyed; not a single shred of it can remain. Believe me when I tell you that this dark energy is extremely corruptive: it spreads and spreads while consuming the life force of innocent ponies until there is nothing left. It’s what turned my beloved sister into Nightmare Moon. Recently, I’ve sensed two of these dark entities outside of the castle; one was very brief, but the other was very powerful and has shown itself twice. When you find them, immediately call for backup; do not engage them on your own.”

“Understood, Princess. I’ll head out for Ponyville immediately.”

After hearing a sizzling crackle, Twilight could only assume Dusk had teleported out of the castle. This is bad... this is verybad... if they find Alphonse, they’ll kill him... and Rainbow Dash too! Or Alphonse may kill the General... But who was this other dark being she mentioned... Realizing that Alphonse was out in public, she quickly powered up and teleported herself back to the library. “I’ve got to warn Alphonse!”

She ran outside of the library, looking left and right in an attempt see if Alphonse was in the area; he wasn’t, which meant she’d have to look on her own. That was fine, though: she happened to be good friends with the best pony-finder in all of Equestria.

Back at the castle, Shining Armor was arriving into the royal command room.

“You called, Princess Celestia?”

“Yes, thank you for coming, Shining Armor. I have a very important mission for you; I haven’t so much as received one letter from Twilight, or any of the other elements for that matter. I fear they may have become corrupted by the darkness during the attack.”

The regal stallion was a little skeptical. Surely, the Elements of Harmony wouldn’t be so easily corrupted...Especially Twilight. If anyone’s keeping a clear head, it’s her. But still... “What is it you want me to do, Princess?”

“I want you to keep your eye on the Elements and ensure that they haven’t been corrupted by the darkness.”

Nodding in acknowledgement, Shining asked the next question on his mind. “What do I do if I encounter this ‘darkness’?”

Looking down at the ground with fear written over her face, she continued. “Anypony infested by the darkness must be destroyed...” Her regal voice was beginning to falter. “... even if it’s Twilight...”

Looking back up at Shining Armor, Celestia nodded. “There’s no other option... you have your orders, Captain. Please mobilize as soon as you can.”

Nodding in resentful agreement, Shining Armor departed to prepare his voyage to Ponyville.

As Twilight ran into Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie was making her way up into the main room from the basement, carrying a tray full of muffins.

“Pinkie, I’m sorry to bother you at work, but I need your help.”

Pinkie trotted over to the counter, removing her apron. “My help? Oh, and do you want one of the Fruit Explosion muffins?”

“It’s Rainbow Dash and Alphonse... I think they’re in serious trouble, and I need you to help me find them right away!”

Pinkie’s face dropped into a very serious gaze. “Oh, no! This is the second time this week something has tried to hurt my friends... Nopony is going to take my friends away this time... The muffins can wait... Let’s go!”

With that, the duo were on their way.

As they were running, Twilight couldn’t help but notice she didn’t know where they were going. “Uh, Pinkie... where are we going, exactly?”

“Where do you think, silly? The Everfree Forest! Oh and by the way, why do you think they call it a hack-saw?”

Rarity had just returned to the library after a visit to the nearby ice-cream stand. I hope Fluttershy likes it... I didn’t know what to get her, so I just picked vanilla... Trotting quietly into the room, she saw Fluttershy, who was now awake and looking out the window. “Hello, Fluttershy. I trust you’re doing alright?”

After a few seconds, Fluttershy took her gaze off the window and looked at the fashionista with a weak smile across her face. “Oh, hi. Yes, I’m doing better now.”

“I brought this ice cream for you... would you like me to help you with it?”

Fluttershy smiled before declining. “Thank you, but It’s okay, Rarity; I can do it.” After a small lick of her ice cream, she continued. “Say, um... do you remember that talk we had about Leonidas a while back?”

Seating herself on the bed beside Fluttershy, Rarity looked out the window. “Yes, I do. You two had a rather serious passion for each other, didn’t you?”

Fluttershy blushed as she nodded. “Well, um... I think Alphonse might sort of know Leonidas; it might sound weird, but they both carry that same... feel about them.”

Rarity sighed as she thought over Al’s recent comments about Leo’s dark fate; deciding to spare Fluttershy the pain, she avoided the topic altogether. “I hadn’t noticed, really... but, I thought I’d let you know that Alphonse is doing well, and the city is coming back together smashingly... including my botique!”

Fluttershy smiled again, with a sigh of what Rarity assumed was relief. “I’m glad to hear it... so, um... what do you think of Alphonse? I noticed that look in your eyes when you talk about him... do you..”

Rarity interrupted Fluttershy, as she started blushing. “Absolutely not! He’s a... fine... stallion, but I would never...”

Fluttershy smiled as she looked out the window. “Oh, I’m sorry, Rarity... I didn’t mean to get to personal or anything...”

“Personal about what?” Applejack had reached the top of the landing with Nurse Redheart, and now approached Fluttershy’s bed.

The nurse took a moment to look at Fluttershy, with obvious concern over her face. “What... what happened to you?”

Almost rudely, Rarity stepped up to answer the question. “She was bitten by one of those fiendish animals she looks after, and bled out for quite some time before I found her.”

“Is this true, Fluttershy?” The nurse was skeptical, but Fluttershy’s nervous nod was enough to let her move on. “Well then, I’m just going to do a few tests and then I’ll be on my way.”

As Alphonse touched down at the Everfree Forest, he couldn’t help but notice how foreboding it was. In Azeroth, this wouldn’t have been so bad; but in a land composed primarily of sugar and spice, this forest was dark enough to put even a Death Knight on guard.

“Hey, Al, you’re not afraid are you?” Rainbow Dash’s malevolent grin was evident as she chuckled to herself.

Snapping out of his stare, he looked over at his companion. “Uh... No! Not at all. I’m just admiring how big and... dark it is. So, where are we racing?”

Rainbow looked into the seemingly endless forest as she responded. “To the other side of the forest; I’ve heard there are some really nice areas on the other side... we could sit and talk for a while after that if you want.” Rainbow was starting to blush, but the Death Knight didn’t seem to notice.

Smiling as he stretched his wings, Alphonse continued. “Alright; you count down and we’ll get started!”

Rainbow unfurled her wings to full length as she started to count down. “Five... four... three... Twilight?”

In a flash, Twilight materialized in front of them. “Something awful has happened, we need to get back to the library, now!”

Pinkie had now caught up, and was grinning widely as ever at the two vampires. To her, it didn’t look like anything bad was happening at all, and that was very good news. “What’s going on, anyways? You never did tell me...”

Twilight looked left and right, before whispering to the group. “It’s not safe to talk here; we could be being watched.”

Disappointed in his fellow mage, Alphonse offered his dark services. “I could just put a blood barrier around us; no one could hear a word you’re saying. You know, you could put up a magic barrier yourself...”

The lavender mage silenced him magically as she continued her hushed rant. “Sshhh! Don’t mention anything about your magic right now; that’s the problem. You’re on the royal wanted list, and Princess Celestia is sending an incredibly powerful mage to track you down!”

Alphonse grinned darkly as he stared into Twilight’s eyes. “Couldn’t I just kill him so we move on? I’ve never let a mage stop me before.”

“Absolutely not! He’s my friend and I don’t want either of you hurt. For now, we’re going to head back to the library so I can cover us in a local field; then we can talk.”

Clearly dissatisfied, Alphonse thought about teleporting them himself, but combined with the possibility of Zulway’s Foot Palace and Twilight ordering him to not use his magic, he thought he’d ask her to do it instead. “Twilight, can you just teleport us to the library so we don’t have to walk?”

“No, I’m running low on mana as it is, and if I just transport us there without checking back, someone could be there waiting for us. We’re going to have to walk.”

Rainbow Dash and Alphonse looked at each other as they sighed; they had no choice. “Fine... Lead the way, Twilight.”

And with that, they made their way back to the library.

About half way to the library, they came across an dark-maned pony, laying in a ball on the ground.

“DUSK!” Twilight ran over to the pony on the ground, noting a bleeding bump on the back of his head. “He’s unconscious... but who could've done this? He never lets his guard down!”

Alphonse examined the bump on his head... it looked eerily similar to the mark that rogues left on their sapped targets. He should know, one of his good friends was a rogue (an assassination rogue, to be precise)... and he’d been sapped plenty of times himself. “Whatever it is, if this guy is dangerous, and he’s a good friend of yours, we need to leave before he wakes up.”

Nodding in agreement, Twilight motioned the group to follow.

Before they could travel very far, Alphonse noted a shadowy figure for a brief second in the trees around them. Deciding to be proactive, he blasted the tree he’d seen the figure on into a hundred pieces, resulting in the shaded figure yelping as it fell to the ground. “What the fuck!” Within seconds, the figure got up and with a flash, vanished into thin air.

“Alphonse, what are you doing?” Twilight threw an angry and confused look at Alphonse; deciding to ignore it, he walked over to where the shadowy figure had fallen.

“I saw something in the trees; it was watching us... you sensed it too, right Rainbow?”

Looking back and forth between Twilight and Alphonse, Rainbow shrugged. “I felt something weird, but didn’t really sense anything living until I saw that shadowy thing hit the floor.” The cyan pegasus focused her attention to Twilight. “Was he from the Royal Guard? Are they going to take Alphonse?”

Alphonse walked to the middle of the group, a look of seriousness across his face unlike his normal emotionless gaze. “Answer me this one question... tell me what ‘fuck’ means.”

Pinkie giggled.

Twilight’s head tilted as she looked him in the eyes. “Do you mean ‘buck’?”

“No, I don’t. Before it vanished, it said ‘What the fuck’. Fuck is a curse word back from Azeroth, but in my short time here I haven’t heard anyone use it... and I’m fairly certain Applejack gave me a good sample of all your coarse language back at that farm.”

Twilight walked out of the group back in the direction of the library. “We’ll discuss this at the library; for now we have to keep moving... C’mon, lets go!”

Princess Luna was lying on her royal bed, shivering even though she was warm under the covers. The dark power that had once consumed her was now taking hold in a brand new way; she could swear it was now talking to her.

“I have to.... fight it... No! Stay away from me!” Within minutes, she noticed that she was no longer awake and in her bed... everything was darker than before. In front of her was a sinister object, shrouded by dark smoke, with two blue flames streaming not far from the top.

“Luna... come to me...”

“No, never again! I remember what you did to me... how you turned me into a beast!”

“I haven’t laid a hand on you until today... what you did one thousand years ago was solely your own doing... out of your hate, and vengeanceand jealousy, you turned yourself into a nightmare. Now that one of my pawns has provided a sort of ‘magnetic pole’ of lich energy in your ripe and virgin world, the Nightmare inside of you is waking up, making my job so... much... easier.”

“Please, leave me alone. I don’t want to lose myself again!”

In a flash, the Elements of Harmony appeared in front of her, a mysterious gray stallion standing in the middle. These Elements, however, were different. Their eyes all glowed of blue fire, and their skin was pale. In unison, they all trotted two steps closer to her, then knelt as they spoke. “Speak your will, Nightmare Moon, and it shall be done.” Their voices were deep, rumbly and hateful, like the being that had just spoken to her seconds ago. In fear, she jumped back from the apparitions in front of her.

“Stay away from me! The Elements would never turn into this!”

“One of them is already halfway there... By the time I’m done with you, the vision in front of you will become reality. We shall speak again soon, Nightmare Moon.”

With a start, Luna sprung up from her bed; her first instinct was to look at herself in the mirror. Doing so, the reflected mare in front of her was crying from eyes that were faintly glowing blue. Looking further into the reflection, she noticed her hair was starting to float and glimmer as it had when she was Nightmare Moon. No... I won’t let this happen. I refuse!

Putting all of her will into focus, she managed to turn her outward appearance back to that of the petite Princess Luna. As for what was going on deep inside, not even she knew.

When Alphonse and the group had arrived back at the Library, Twilight put up an alert barrier and a sound jumbler; in layman’s terms, everything they said would come out as jumbled nonsensical words, and any object living or otherwise to cross the barrier would notify Twilight.

By now Nurse Redheart had cleared Fluttershy as “healthy and in need of rest”, and Applejack had returned to Sweet Apple Acres to get back to work; Rarity had also since moved on with Spike to get back to restoring her boutique.

The group assembled around the table of the library. Placing her hoof on the table, Twilight started the meeting, cutting directly to the chase. “Okay, now we can talk. Alphonse: Princess Celestia has sensed you and another dark entity in Equestria, and has mobilized Dusk, that incredibly powerful mage we saw back on the road, and maybe even others to come and find you. She sounded very serious... she made it clear that your existence alone is enough reason to have the entire royal military after you.”

Rainbow Dash piped in, concern written over her face. “Wait... why? Hasn’t Alphonse only done good for us so far? He saved the town from the hydra, and then brought me back to life.”

“That’s the problem, Rainbow. She said that the darkness ‘corrupts and spreads’, as it has done to you. I’m afraid she may even try... to kill you.”

“Not a chance!” Alphonse slammed his hoof down on the table, eyes glowing strong with fire. “I’ll die before I let them lay a hoof on her... even if it means killing this ‘Celestia’ monarch.”

In awe Rainbow Dash stood silently beside Alphonse, trying to hide her blood-red cheeks.

Desperately trying to keep a level head, Twilight interjected. “You’ll do no such thing, Alphonse. I love her dearly as my mentor; without her, I wouldn’t have the skills to be helping you at this very moment.”

The Death Knight’s eye twitched. “Okay then, Twilight... what do you propose we do? And, while we’re at it--”

Twilight’s horn started pulsing with light, indicating that the barrier had been crossed. As if on queue, Alphonse ran to the front window and had a look around; no one was at the front door at all, yet Twilight’s horn continued to glow.

Al looked around outside one more time before whispering, “Everyone, stay very quiet. I can sense a life form around... it’s not one of us...” Pointing to the roof above them, he motioned towards the front door. No one in the group made a sound. As he reached out to open the door, there was a loud bang on the door, which revealed the tip of a dirk no less than one inch away from the Death Knight’s blazing retina. Recoiling, Alphonse summoned his blade and prepared for the worst.

After waiting around thirty seconds, Pinkie Pie walked over to the door. “Al... I think it’s gone.”

Quietly, the lichborne stallion opened the door. A scroll had been attached to the door by the blade. Alphonse levitated the blade out of the door, and opened the scroll. Curious as ever, Pinkie hopped on the stallion’s back, and began to read the note.

In absolute shock, Alphonse read it over.

By order of King Varian Wrynn, the Death Knight Alphonse Runeweaver, former commander in service of the Alliance and champion of the Ashen Verdict, has again fallen to the hands of the Lich King, and is hereby sentenced to death for heinous crimes including mass murder and high treason.

Alphonse Runeweaver is considered highly dangerous, and you are advised to contact the Alliance Guard upon sight.

The King is offering a one-hundred and fifty-thousand gold reward for the killing of Alphonse Runeweaver; and double that amount if you can bring his body back so he may be buried honorably as a fallen soldier.

[Stormwind Official Seal]

Alphonse closed the scroll as Pinkie gently climbed off.

The normally happy-go-lucky mare somberly reached over and hugged him. “Alphonse... I’m sorry... I’m so so sorry.”

No... no it can’t be... I thought that maybe -- just maybe my being here would make my counterpart weak or even inoperable... that maybe the Lich King was bluffing... but instead he’s still killing innocent people left and right... That’s why I never have to feed here... “I’m... I’m a monster!”

Tossing the scroll to the floor, Alphonse ran out the door and flew off as fast as he could.

Rainbow picked up the note and read it over. “Oh... oh no! Alphonse, wait!” Rushing out the door, the cyan mare flew after her dark companion.

Once Twilight had finished reading the note, she set it down on her table and walked up to Pinkie. “Well, Pinkie... if you were me, what would you do?”

Scratching her muzzle, her eyes lit up with excitement. “I know! I’ll throw him a welcome party!”

Once the party pony had bounced out the door to head to Sugarcube Corner, Twilight shrugged off her strange friend's behaviour and sat down to think about the note. Wait a minute... if a scroll from Azeroth made it here... oh no!

Alphonse had since made his way to the far side of the forest -- where Rainbow was supposed to race him. Sitting in a dark cloud far above the ground below him, he looked up at the sky.

“I need to die... it’s that simple; all I’ve done is destroyed and desecrated the clean and innocent things around me... with me here, nothing is sacred... I wish I could go back and face my sentence like an honorable soldier.”

“I don’t.”

Alphonse looked left and right before seeing Rainbow Dash standing behind him. Genuinely confused, he continued. “Why? Why don’t you wish I was dead? Look at what I’ve turned you into! I’ve turned you into something just like me. A monster!”

Dash looked him in the eyes with intensity. “Alphonse, I don’t think a monster would give somepony like me a second chance at life. You’re the most awesome dude I’ve ever met... not only have you given me a second chance at life, but you’ve given me something new to live for.”

Alphonse scoffed. “Yeah, and what’s that? Blood? Near immortality? It has its downsides you know!”

“No!”

“Then what?”

Rainbow Dash hesitated before looking down at the cloud below her. “Well... I... I...”

“See!? You don’t know, do you?”

“No, I do... I think I do... I just...”

“No, you don’t. You wanna know what you have to live for? The Lich King. He’s trying to break my will and turn you into a Death Knight. He wants to come here and desecrate this near perfect world, using me as his right hand!”

“Wait... who? He wants to what, now?”

“The Lich King. Death incarnate, the one who killed me and turned me into the atrocity standing before you. He’s now trying to extend his reach into Equestria... and when he does, no one will be safe.”

“Why didn’t you tell me... er, us this before? What can we do to stop it?” She looked hurt -- the sight of it wrenched Al’s heart.

“Because I thought I could protect you... I thought...” Before he could finish his sentence, the world around him started spinning. “I uh... I...”

Alphonse looked like he was going to fall over, so she ran over to his side, preparing to catch him. “Alphonse!? What’s wrong? Your eyes aren’t glowing anymore!”

The Death Knight had now tipped over and was resting in Rainbow Dash’s embrace. “Rainbow... I think I’m about to go back there again...”

The cyan vampire slapped him across the face, desperately trying to keep him awake. “What can I do?”

“Bite my neck.”

“Wait... why?”

“It will allow you to see into the void when I’m there. It will also keep my soul anchored to this body through you... in case he tries... to pull me back.”

As Al’s eyes began to close, she lunged forward and bit deep into his neck. As blood started pulsing into her mouth, her normal vision began to fade; she was in a dark place. This new place expanded endlessly -- it didn’t appear to have an end. In the middle was an object shrouded by mist; this object had two flaming blue dots near the top -- they reminded her of Alphonse’ eyes.

A bipedal creature stood in front of the object, chained to it by its chest -- it wore armor similar to Alphonse, and his eyes and hair looked identical to the pony she knew as Alphonse.

“Hello again, Alphonse. I do hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time.” The dark, demonic and rumbling voice instilled the feeling of death within Rainbow’s heart.

Alphonse looked around the room, a sort of fear written over his face she’d never seen before. “If I come back without a fight, would you leave this world alone? Would you spare the lives of these innocent ponies?”

No Alphonse... please don’t!

A dark chuckle reverberated around this endless void, shaking everything around her. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you, Death Knight? Leonidas says hello, by the way. The two of you have been the best of friends, lately.”

Through her soul connection to him, she could feel his heart shatter after hearing that. In the real world, she could feel tears streaming down her eyes.

After a long pause, Alphonse looked back up at the object before him. “Is that why you put that note on my door? To let me know how many people I’ve been killing? To let me know that I can’t escape your cold embrace?”

For a brief moment, there was silence.

“Note?”

Alphonse was confused. Wait a minute... if he’s not responsible for that note... then who? Thinking over his options, he decided to play his final card. “I’ll do it. I’ll destroy myself if you don’t leave. I’ll break the link between this world and your world.”

That dark laugh reverberated yet again through the void, making Rainbow feel sick to her stomach. “Well, you could go ahead and do that -- not only would you be giving your human self over to me completely, but then you’d take away Equestria’s last hope against my nightmare.”

“Wait... what nightmare?”

“I’ll let you figure it out, Alphonse Runeweaver. Oh, and please don’t go about thinking you’rethe link between Azeroth and Equestria. You’re far from it; without you in the way, I’ll have already won. Not that you ever stood a chance, death knight.Here, a glimpse of the future I have planned for Equestria.”

Appearing before Alphonse was seven ponies. Dash instantly identified them as her and the other Elements of Harmony, with another pony that looked identical to Alphonse standing between them. They looked very different, however: their skin was paler and their eyes were ablaze just like Alphonse’. Bloodied, beaten and barely alive before them was Princess Celestia. The one that looked like Rainbow Dash trotted over to the bloodied princess, and lunged her sword into Celestia’s regal throat; in a flash, blood covered her and Alphonse, just barely missing the other Death Knight Elements who stood behind them.

“I’ll kill you!” Alphonse’ voice was getting darker and similar to that of the Lich King’s. “When I find you, there won’t be anything left of you to burn!”

Again the dark voice chuckled, breaking into a sick cackle. “Many have said that before falling before my might. For now, focus your attention on the night. Oh, and hello Rainbow Dash. I will see you both again soon.”

As the world before her began to fade into nothingness, she saw Alphonse fall to his knees while covering his face. In an instant, her heart broke, and the void became as nothing.

After stirring slightly, Rainbow Dash awoke on top of Alphonse -- her fangs still in his neck. Blushing while wiping the blood and slobber off of her face, she looked down at the stallion under her. Endless tears were streaming from his eyes. After gently wiping them off, she placed her head on his chest. Al... I’m so scared.

She stayed like that until he began to stir -- in a flash, she got up and knelt beside him, trying to act like she hadn’t just been resting on him. “Hey Al, you feeling okay?”

Alphonse’ eyes were glowing again, but much dimmer than normal. “Ugh... yeah... did you see him? Did you see what happened?”

“Yeah... I saw him. He’s this ‘Lich King’?”

“Yes, and now it looks like he’s got another Death Knight here in Equestria...”

Rainbow Dash was concerned. Al is really strong... but what if this other Death Knight is stronger? “Can you beat him?”

“I don’t know... but I promise I’ll do my best to keep you all safe.”

Blushing slightly, she cleared her throat. “Say, uh... do you maybe wanna sit here and talk a bit about this stuff? I’d like to know more about what’s going on... about the Lich King... and about you.”

Alphonse shrugged. “Well, I’m too weak to go anywhere now... Have a seat wherever you want.”

Pinkie Pie pranced around Sugarcube Corner with her signature smile on her face. A bright banner saying “Welcome to Equestria, Alphonse!” hung high from the ceiling.

As she was preparing the plates for the party, she heard a loud bang near the front of the store, as if somepony had tripped and fallen. Running over to see what caused the noise, she found a white ball no bigger than a cupcake on the ground.

In an instant, it exploded, surrounding the party pony in smoke. After a brief moment of shock, she started giggling to herself. “Must have been a bad firework...”

A/N:

And that's the end of Chapter 5! I hope you all enjoyed it. I’ve been busy as ever with work lately, but I still hope to release these as possible.

I’m finding it easier to write these as the inspiration comes, as opposed to sitting down and attempting to chug out a story -- as such, the release time on these may be a little longer than I’d like to to be, but not like the month this last one took... it’s almost hard to come back to a book after putting it down for a month, and for that I apologize.

Stay pony, my friends.