Rainbow Dash had no idea where she was, mostly because she hadn’t opened her eyes yet. All she could remember was one moment she was flying with Scootaloo the next she was in net pushing Scootaloo out only to get knocked out and dragged off to some random corner of Equestria. As she opened her eyes and after being nearly blinded by the sun she saw that she was in a large cage 10 other ponies who seemed to be absolutely terrified, and one of those greenskinned creatures standing guard out side.

Rainbow Dash started panic at the thought that she might never see her friends, family, or even Scootaloo again. She could never fly with the other wonderbolts again, never fight off monsters with her friends again, or go to cider season. Instead she might get shipped off to some unkown land that she may never escape.

She started to tear up but she remembered how many ponies were present and quickly pulled herself together, but would it really matter if anypony saw her cry? After all they are all in the same situation with no hope of escape.

“Rainbow Dash, you’re ok!” Cried out a voice full of glee that surprised Rainbow.

When Rainbow turned around an orange blur tackled her to the ground, “What are they gonna do to us, why are we here, where are they taking us?” Asked Scootaloo as she tightly hugged Rainbow Dash, reminding her of her broken wing.

“I don’t know what they want with us but what are you doing here?” Rainbow asked as she pried Scootaloo’s foreleg off of her injured wing, “Well I ran like you told me to but they were waiting for me at th-”

“QUIET! If any of you keep talking you’re gonna end up on my dinner plate!” threatened the greenskin. Rainbow pulled Scootaloo as close to her as she could at the threat, which also attracted someone’s attention.

“You, orc! What did I tell you about threatening the prisoners?” asked a tall yellow skinned creature that was followed by a tall two-legged cat creature. The yellow skinned creature wore a hooded black leather robe with gold lining. The cat wore metal armor that covered its entire body except it was missing a helmet that Dash noticed the cat was holding in its arms. The armor itself looked to be steel plated with engravings while the helmet had a opening where the eyes would go and a pair of metal wings adorning it.

“Hah! Where you’re takin’ them that’s the nicest thing you could do to. Besides I don’t take orders from you elf.” Stated the orc. The elf appeared annoyed by this but it the cat who spoke first,”This one does not need to remind you that the Thalmor are the ones who hired your boss, or do I?” The cat emphasised this by grabbing the hilt of his sword.

“Ignore him.” Said the elf,” It doesn’t where they are going, it just matters if they all make it there alive and so they can be sold for the promised price and used properly!” The elf scorned, taking a more aggressive stance for emphasis.

“Alright, alright, lay off okay I was just tryin’ to have some fun before you haul ‘em off to those storm guys or whatever. Say, what are doing helping those rebels against the Empire anyways?” The orc inquired, though this only further annoyed the duo in front of him, the cat more so.

“Our dealings are none of your concern you filthy pig child, so keep that snout of yours out of it!” Yelled the cat as he then fully unsheathed his sword with a low growl.

“If you wanna keep that tail of yours I would suggest you keep yo-” the orc was interrupted by a sound of thunder followed by screams of fear and pain that chilled the ponies and their captors to their cores. Not even a moment later an orc came flying at the cells landing dead before he hit the ground. The corpse had deep bloody cuts across the chest along with various cuts and bruises across his body.

“FUS RO DAH!!!!” Came a loud shout followed by thunder. The elf and his companion were frozen with fear at the realization of who had just discovered their operation,”You need leave before he discovers our involvement!” The cat said to the elf who quickly turned around to face him as the orc ran off to face this threat.

“Right, I’ll leave you to kill the prisoners incase we can’t hold him off.” the elf said as he ran off as to where the ponies didn’t bother to see once one of the cat’s hands magically produced a ball of flame.

Rainbow Dash prepared to shield Scootaloo from the flames. That never came. Instead the cat cried out in pain as a sword that appeared to be made of bone pierced through armor and flesh releasing a fine spray of blood into the air as the cat’s life was stolen by a mysterious killer. The cat’s body fell into a pool of blood at the feet of a new creature.

This new creature was about as tall as the cat but had lightly tanned skin where there wasn’t armor covering it. Said armor appeared to be made of mostly bone with small amounts of metal here and there. It also appeared to be just as shocked to see the ponies as they were to see him. The creature continued to stare at the ponies until another lizard creature foolishly announced its presence.

The armored creature turned and parried the steel sword with a bone shield exposing the lizard’s chest for a brief moment. The armored creature took a stab at the lizard who quickly dodged and countered by slashing the other creature’s chest. Rather than dying, the bone armored creature appeared unaffected by what was meant to be a mortal wound.

The lizard’s shocked reaction to the sight it had just witnessed allowed the bone armored creature to knock it back the unceremoniously remove the lizard’s head, releasing a fountain of blood and the lunches of the ponies who happened to be watching.

The creature took one last look at the ponies and ran off leaving a shocked and terrified crowd behind him,” What was that thing!?” Shouted a nearby stallion who only received the ramblings of terrified ponies. Rainbow Dash looked down at Scootaloo who looked like she was going to throw up at any moment.

All Rainbow could do was comfort the filly until she could get her out of here. Since she didn’t know how to calm somepony down after they watched something get decapitated all she could do was hold her close and tell her everything was going to be ok.

“You might want to get her a therapist, lucky you I know a few.” said a voice that was way to happy and familiar to be in this situation.

“Pinkie Pie what are you doing here!?” asked Rainbow Dash as she turned around to find her friend standing right behind her, smiling at her as if this was any normal day. It was also worth noting that the pink party pony was currently aiming her party cannon at the cages door while looking at her friend.

“Well I could say that the author wanted to put me here for quick and easy plot development because he’s really lazy or something like that but I’m just gonna say that I was caught by one of those Argonians.” (Falsely) Stated Pinkie.

“Author, argonians what are you talking about?” It was safe to say that Rainbow was very confused at the moment with her friend.

“Argonians, the big weird lizard people like that dead one over there, and the author I was talking about is the author of the story on FimFiction.net that we are in!” Said Pinkie as she prepared to fire her cannon.

“Pinkie why would anyone write a story like this?” Asked Rainbow Dash who was starting to get too curious for her own good. She then covered Scootaloo’s ears as Pinkie fired the cannon and blew a hole large enough for the ponies to escape.

Once everyone was out Rainbow Dash took it upon herself to lead them out of wherever they were. Taking a moment to go over the situation and the state of the camp she noticed something odd about some of the dead bodies. Some appeared shriveled and gray like dusty old skeletons except with skin and no muscle or organs. It almost seemed as if the creatures had the life sucked out of them.

“Vampire! There’s a vampire here with him!” Cried out a voice that coincidentally answered Rainbow Dash’s question, but how could a vampire do what it did to the corpses she found. There weren’t any bite marks to be found, so how did they die? The answer to that question came running through the forest of tents to the group’s right.

Another yellow elf in brown leather armor came running with a creature that looked like the bone armored creature but instead of bone it looked like a mix of ice, leather, cloth, and fur with two tall horns at the top of the helmet. This creature had pale-white skin, hair as black as a raven’s feather, and eyes that glowed like the fires of hell.

The elf was stopped in his tracks by the group of brightly colored equines that had somehow managed to escape the cage they were supposed to be held in, giving the vampire plenty of time to aim. With a pushing out motion of the arm the vampire released a large and very sharp spike of ice that flew as if it were an arrow shot from a bow.

The ice spike hit its mark in the back of the elf’s thigh piercing through flesh and bone with one end protruding through the front of the thigh colored crimson red. It was safe to say that the elf wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

The vampire casually walked to the wounded elf ignoring his pitiful sobs and cries for mercy. It was at this moment the vampire chose to produce a red aura around her left hand took aim at the sobbing mess that lay before her. It was also at this moment Rainbow Dash realized that she didn’t cover Scootaloo’s eyes or ears when she heard her lose her lunch, or breakfast at this point.

When Dash looked back at the vampire the red aura had also engulfed the elf who was now screaming in pain begging her to stop. The elf thrashed as his skin began to turn into a grey-yellow. Soon his skin began to shrivel and wither away as his cries of terror became nothing but a silent scream forever plastered on the elf’s face, staring out at his killer’s last location.

The vampire ceased the life stealing spell and began to walk to the frightened group of ponies. Instead of slaughtering them like the ponies expected, she crouched down and held out a hand to Scootaloo. As expected the filly hid behind Rainbow Dash who was taking a defensive stance,” Don’t be afraid, I’m not going to hurt you.” Said the vampire in a calm tone.

Rainbow Dash didn’t know what to think about what just happened, mostly because of how fast everything has happened. One moment she’s trapped in a cage the next a two legged monkey looking vampire is telling her, in a language she can understand, not to be afraid (which she totally wasn’t) all in the course of a couple of hours.

“My name is Serana, what’s your name?” Said the vampire. When she didn’t get a response she wondered why the creatures in front of her were so terrified of her, she hadn’t tried to kill them nor had the intention of killing them either. Before Serana could say anything the Pink horse had rushed up to her.

“Oh my gosh are you really a vampire that is sssooooooo cool! Like chocolate rain cool! Oh can you make me vampire because that would be so awesome! " The pink horse just kept talking and talking for what seemed like hours until Serana put a hand up as a signal to stop, which to her relief the horse stopped.

“I’m sorry to stop you but I still don’t know any of your names.” As Serana finished her sentence the pink horse gasped and bounced to the cyan pegasus’s side.

“Well my name is Pinkie Pie, this is my friend Rainbow Dash.” Pinkie said grabbing the pegasus,” And that little filly behind her is Scootaloo!”. Serena took a moment, she got the names of three ponies like she wanted. But they were so strange, almost as if they had been named by little girls. Shrugging off that thought she smiled

“Thank you... Pinkie Pie, but can you tell me where me and my friend are?” Serana asked, slightly hoping it won’t be something like “Happy Pony Land”, “Rainbow and Sparkle Place”, or something like that.

“Wait what friend? I don’t see anypony else with you.” Rainbow Dash said with a very curious glance sent towards the vampire. She wondered if the vampire standing in front of her might be a little insane until the bone armored creature emerged from the nearby tents.

“She’s talking about me I believe.” He said walking over to the group before saying, “Rol Steelbound at your service.” He finished with a slight bow. Now that the ponies could get a better look at him the could definitely say that his armor was made of bone being held together by a dark ebony colored metal and leather. The helmet appeared to be made of metal in the front and bone in the back. The front of the helmet had openings for the eyes and one large opening for the mouth. On top of the helmet was two horns that bent outward than came back inward.

Rol himself was a bit bulky with lightly tanned white skin from all of the adventures he had been on. His face, from what the ponies could see was was rough and a bit mean looking yet also seemed kind and gentle. His eyes were not a glowing color like his companion’s but instead were white with a dark brown irises. Rainbow also noticed a large scar from a cut on the man’s left cheek but not much else because of the helmet.

“And where have you been exactly?” Serena inquired towards the man next to her, giving a smug grin all the while. Rol returned the grin.

“Oh you know the usual, just killing bandits that just happen to be here or there.” Rol stated as he turned his gaze to the cyan pegasus,”Now I believe that you were going to tell us where we are?”

Rainbow stood there for a brief moment trying to let her brain process what had just happened before she responded,”You are in Equestria, or at least I think so.” She said with caution as she still didn’t really know where she was at the current moment.

Rol went to a bag at his side as seemed to be looking for something. After a few minutes he pulled out what looked like a rolled up map. Until he unrolled it to reveal something that resembled the map in Twilight’s throne room!

Rainbow Dash stared in awe as she looked over a perfect representation of all of Equestria. Every mountain, hill, forest, village, and city an exact carbon copy of whatever it represents right down to the clouds being pushed around by pegasi in real time.

Looking closer she saw that there was an image of a cave next to an arrow with a circle in the back. A name appeared next to the cave that read “Mysterious Cave”. It took Dash a few moments to realize that was where they were.

Rol and Serena both watched the pony as she looked around to figure out where to go to next (and Serena wanting to get out of the sun as usual). Eventually the pony managed to figure out where they were and a very coincidentally close town.

“So the closest town from here just happens to be the town I came from called Ponyville.” Rainbow stated, wondering if was really a good idea to bring a vampire (who seemed disappointed at the town name) and her friend there, but they did save them so that must mean that they are good.

Rol seemed satisfied with what Rainbow said as he touched the marker for Ponyville to mark it, rolled up the map, and put it in his bag,”Alright then let’s get going, shall we?” He asked as he started to lead the group to the town.

As they left the camp Serana whispered to Rol,”I have a feeling that there’s a lot more going on than just a little bandit operation.”

Rol nodded in agreement with his companion’s observation. It just didn’t seem right to him. Without any evidence to confirm the theory Rol decided to leave it there and continue his journey into this new world.

Author's Note

Apologies for the very long wait as I have allowed myself to be distracted for too long and I can't really make up any good excuses so just take this chapter as an apology and let me know if I screwed up somewhere.