It had been a disappointingly short fight, and Mara was less than happy it was over. Despite the fact, the five moved on, with Mara still grumbling about how the timberwolves had looked far more fierce than they were, and didn't even bleed real blood. At the time, she hadn't cared, but now that it was over she seemed to just be looking for an excuse. Yuki had been surprisingly quiet, Hargreaves never talked anyway, Loic just stared straight ahead and Dishwasher trudged on ahead of them all, his gaze hard and focused. Finally, the five came to a clearing, and Mara had to stop. She was starving, they all were really, but she was far worse.

"Damnit. Remember how I said this bites? I stand corrected. THIS bites. I need something that is actual flesh and blood soon."

"We'll all starve if we don't find something Dishwasher, you know that." Loic looked away from his companion as he spoke, but Dishwasher could tell he wasn't much better.

Mara had used up her strength fighting the timberwolves, but even without using their gifts, they were all weak. Pale as they were, they were clearly drained. Yuki stood hunched, her chainsaw pulling her arm nearly to dragging on the ground, and she held Conviction limply in her hand. Loic's grip on his Cleavers was loose. Hargreaves didn't seem any different, but he never did. Dishwasher nodded. This would have to work for now.

"Hargreaves, as far as I can tell, you look alright. Go on ahead of us, find something that actually bleeds, and bring it back here. Alive if possible. If not, we'll make due"

Hargreaves nodded, lifting Guillotine from his back and separating the two scissor blades, holding them like a pair of swords. He turned from the group and stalked off into the forest alone, as silent as the forest itself.

"Hey Twi, you know how I usually LIKE danger? Yeah, this is the kind I don't like. At all"

The girls seemed to agree with Rainbow Dash. Having found the trail that the mysterious beings had taken, they were surprised to find what looked like a battleground between their mystery beings and an entire pack of timberwolves. The carnage that had been set loose was among the more horrific things any of them had ever seen.

"What could have done this? I mean, there isn't any reason for this. Its just... Its slaughter for its own sake. What kind of creatures do this?" Twilight muttered, though more to herself than to the others.

"Maybe it was aliens," Pinkie said, bouncing a few times "Or robots! oh, maybe some monsters from Tartarus got lose! That's how Tirec was running around being a meanie pants after all!" Despite the horrific level of carnage in front of them, they were only timberwolves, and the lack of flesh and blood made it easier to look at.

"Oh, those poor things! I know they weren't very nice, but no creatures deserve this" Fluttershy didn't want to be here, but these were forest creatures, and this didn't sit well with her. "Twilight, we need to find out who would go hurting poor little creatures here"

As the girls talked, a Twilight was concentrating. She wasn't as powerful as the other princesses were yet, but she could feel a change in their quarry. One of them was moving. and it was moving right their way.

"Girls, we have company. One of them is coming back"

Hargreaves moved easily through the forest, heading back to where Mara had carved up those creatures. In his own mind, he figured he might catch something scavenging the dead. He wouldn't need to put a lot of effort into this if something was, and saving his energy was important for this. He might not be showing it, but he really was starting to starve. He was just better at hiding it. Aside from Dishwasher, Hargreaves was the oldest of the vampires, and could last longer than the others as well.

He was nearing the site of their fight when he heard someone talking. Six distinct voices. Peering through the trees, he realized he had found some of the local population. He swore internally, realizing that they would have spooked any scavengers. Worse, they weren't infected by the Cyborgs. A shame, as they would have made a good kill if they were. They were here to save the population though, not slaughter them. Then he got a good look at them and tilted his head. Equines? Too small for horses. Ponies? What kind of strange world was this? He shook his head and took off, heading out to find something to kill.

A soft rustle told Twilight that the creature had stopped short of approaching them. She didn't want to provoke it, but they needed to stop them, so she turned to look, ready to approach it. Before she could, it took off, racing through the forest as if it knew every root and branch. For only a moment though, just a stolen glance, She saw a face. Redder than fresh blood, eyes black as tar. It was shaped like a skull, but of a creature she didn't recognize. They had to catch it, whatever it was.

"There it goes! Come on everypony, we have to stop it! I'm sure it was the thing that did this. We can't let it get to Ponyville!"

The chase was on. The creature moved like a shadow in the night, and the ponies raced after him. Though most of them were barely keeping pace, Rainbow Dash was gaining ground, but the forest was poor flying conditions and she flew along his left, unable to overtake him to stop him. Applejack meanwhile, had caught up and ran alongside him, readying her lasso.

"Now this is some rodeo, pardner. Gave a good run, but ah gotcha now!" She said as she cast her lasso. The throw was true, and the rope circled her target....

Hargreaves saw the rope coming and smiled to himself. They actually thought to catch him? not about to happen. He focused his mind, shifting his body into the inky black mist that the others simply called The Shift. Yuki and Mara became a haze of blood, but Hargreaves, Loic and Dishwasher became shadows, and this let him slip through the rope with ease, because he simply ceased to exist for just that moment. They wanted to catch him, but he still needed fresh blood.

The cave he spotted up ahead was a good bet. Hargreaves turned to run towards it as the orange pony readied another throw. The blue one was trying to heard him, blocking his escape, so he simply Shifted through her and made for the cave. They didn't follow him in here, so he figured if they weren't coming in, there was something in here they didn't want to meet. That worked fine. Hargreaves could kill it and make his way back. Just as he had that thought, the thing made its presence known. It looked like some kind of wild cat from back home. A lion. But the scorpion stinger seemed to rule that out. Whatever it was, it was big, and that meant it had plenty of blood. The Manticore, for that's what it was, roared at this small being and decided a free meal was a free meal.

The Manticore pounced, aiming to make short work of Hargreaves, but he wouldn't be so easy to take. Slipping to the right, he slashed with one half of his scissor, a great cut sliced wide open in the beast's side. It swiped a claw at him, but Hargreaves was fast, and ducked the paw. The stinger came down and he sidestepped, but the follow up paw connected, sending him flying. Hargreaves recovered, wincing. That actually hurt. This beast may not be as dumb as he thought. The difference was that Hargreaves wasn't fighting for himself. The next attack came, and he rolled with it, taking the hit to re-attach his blades and snap them down on a paw. Guillotine sheared through flesh and bone, leaving the paw on the floor of the cave. Separating the blades, he loosed a flurry of slashes that sent he beast staggering. As it tried to recover, it found Guillotine on either side of its neck. Dishwasher wouldn't be happy he didn't bring it back alive, but that didn't matter. Blood was blood. The massive scissor blades snapped shut. The manticore never even had a chance to cry out...

"Ah tell ya, it just disappeared. Mah lasso was around it, then poof. Gone in a puff'a smoke. then back ta runnin' like it never happened. after that, it went in there"

Applejack told the girls what had happened when they caught up, while Rainbow tried to recover from the shock. The shadowy mist had felt like ice through her veins, and had shaken her pretty badly. They all heard the sounds of a fight and a manticore's roar, so they peered in to see. It was a carnal house. The strange new creature had sliced the manticore in dozens of places, and blood spattered all across the cave. Something lay in the splashes of blood, a thing they realized was the manticore's paw, and were nearly sick. Fluttershy had already passed out at the sight. A good thing she had. The creature stood on the wounded manticore's back, wielding what appeared to be a pair of giant, viciously sharp scissors. It held them open over the manticore's neck, and as the girls ran out of the cave, the could hear the wet sound of blades passing through flesh before snapping shut with a grim finality.

"Darling, can we pleeease go home now? I'm quite certain that whatever that thing is, I don't have any desire to face that in any kind of fight" Rarity said in a hushed tone, seeming paler than the pearl white pony normally was.

"Um, yeah, I second leaving the scary alien alone" Pinkie said, far more reserved than she normally was.

Before Twilight had a chance to speak, the creature came out of the cave. It held the head of the manticore in one hand, with thick chunks of it slung over its shoulders. it had its head tilted back as blood dripped from the neck, splashing into its mouth. It lowered the head as it turned to look to its pursuers, the scissors shining in the moonlight, glinting silver and wet with red.

"Girls. If it was up to me, we would. Suddenly, I have a bad feeling that decision is all his."

Author's Note

Hey there! hope you enjoy the story so far.

I wanted to clear a few things up for anyone who is confused. So, first of all, I went with the idea that they are all vampires. I know its never actually mentioned in game what they are, just that they are dead, but it seemed the most fitting for such a bloody game.

Second, you may be wondering about why the Arcade mode characters are here. Mara, Loic and Hargreaves don't feature too heavily, but I feel like they are a perfect outlet for me to have some creativity with the story, because I get to define who they are, as they never had a specific personality in game. So my ideas are that Loic is clearly bitter, his words always gruff and hard. Mara is like Yuki was before she got her revenge and Hargreaves was a personal challenge. Giving a personality to a character who never speaks.

Lastly, you may have noticed that, while Dishwasher is calm and focused like he is in game, Yuki isn't the bloodthirsty psycho. I did this because at this point, she got her revenge, so her bloodthirst is sated, much like Dishwasher's was in the first game, so the crazy, violent one ends up as Mara. Expect to see each character get some time in the spotlight in the future, if I actually continue this.
As always, comments, questions and criticisms are appreciated. Thanks for reading!