It was the first time in months that Luna had gone down into the dungeon. Feeling the scabbard with her sword on her back helped her stay calm. And she wasn’t alone this time, either. She had four of her guards with her to make sure that she didn't lose control over her temper again. She took a deep breath before opening the door to White’s cell.

“Ah, the nightmare returns,” he said with a smirk.

Luna didn’t reply.

After a few moments, White’s smirk disappeared. “What do you want?”

Luna gave the guards a sign and two of them stepped in front of her, pointing silver coated spears at White. Luna used magic to put a set of restraints on White’s hooves. The chains connecting them were long enough to allow him to walk, but too short for him to run. Once they were secured, she used a spell to open his jougs. “We’re going to go for a little walk. I probably don’t have to tell you to behave yourself.”

“And where are we going?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.” Luna left the cell, followed by White, with the two guards at the end of the formation. Outside of the cell, the other two guards positioned themselves between Luna and White.

When she reached the door leading to the courtyard, she hesitated and looked at a nearby clock. Two more minutes…

She turned to one of the guards. “I meant to ask this earlier, but are there any problems in the barracks?”

“Um, not to my knowledge, your highness,” he said surprised, “at least no problems severe enough to trouble you with them.”

“Nonsense! If there is something, I want to know about it, no matter how minor.”

The guard looked at his comrades, unsure of what to say. Eventually, another one said, “A few of us would like to switch to day shifts for a few weeks, your highness.”

Luna raised an eyebrow. “Oh, is that so?”

“Don’t get me wrong, we all like working at night, but the next school year starts soon, and those of us with foals that will be enrolled in first grade would like to spend some time with them for that.”

“I see.” She looked at the clock again. It’s time. “Well, I’m sure that can be arranged.” She opened the door and stepped into the courtyard.

Celestia was already setting the sun, but its light was still shining directly at them, causing White to flinch. “Couldn’t you have waited a few more minutes?”

“Oh, sorry,” Luna said, her voice dripping with sarcasm, “I must have forgotten that your eyes aren’t used to the sun.”

While she led him to an armored carriage, she looked towards Celestia. I hope that was worth the contact lenses I had to get to not go blind from you pettiness, sister. She opened the doors in the back of the carriage. “Get in.”

White silently walked into the carriage and Luna locked the doors behind him and went to the front. “You know the route?” she asked the guards.

“Of course, your highness.”

“Then let’s go. Our train is waiting.”

Most ponies had already left the streets by this time of the day, and the few that were still out and about quickly got out of the way when the carriage came by, so they got to the train station without an incident. It was closed off for the public for the transfer that was about to happen.

The train waiting for them was long, bulky and lacked all concessions to elegance most equestrian trains possessed.

Luna immediately took a liking to its design.

A group of ponies stood in front of it, and their leader, an earth pony mare with a black mane and white coat approached Luna. When she stood in front of her, Luna noticed that, while her right eye was red, the left one had a silver colour. “Goodnight, your highness,” she said with a bow, “I’m Captain Snow from the Silver Eyes.”

“Good evening, Captain Snow,” Luna responded, “I hope the travel here wasn’t too exhausting.”

“It wasn’t, thanks to you. We were able to drive here in one go.”

While they were talking, the lunar guards opened the locks to the carriage and their vampire colleagues grabbed White and pulled him out and towards the train. When he saw Snow, his eyes widened in surprise, before narrowing again. “You worthless traitor!” He struggled to break free, but only succeeded in forcing the guards to stop. “I’ll rip your heart out and feed it to a manticore!”

Snow turned to him. “Tough words, Salty. I would be scared if you weren’t in chains.” She looked at one of the guards holding him. “Take him to the cell.”

The guard nodded and started to drag him away. Trying his best to look at Snow, he shouted, “You won’t get away with this! The others won’t betray me like you did! I will have your head on a spike!”

Snow sighed. “And silence him for Sanguis’ sake!”

One of the silver eyes put a collar on White and no more words escaped his mouth.
“Much better,” Snow said, “So, we should board as well, your highness. If you would follow me?”

Luna felt at home from the moment she stepped on the train. From the decor to the materials and the furniture, it looked just like any classical military barrack she had ever seen.

She had just sat down in her cabin when the train started to move, quietly leaving Canterlot behind and entering the tunnels through the mountains. Crystal lights illuminated the cabin. Luna narrowed her eyes. That's awfully silent for a train… Now that I think about it, did this thing even have a chimney?

Snow entered the cabin after a few minutes, sitting down on the seat across from Luna. “Thank you again for giving him to us. Dracula will really appreciate it, and so do I.”

“I take it that you have a personal relationship with him,” Luna said.

“Unfortunately, and not because I want it. But you can’t choose your grandparents.”

“He’s your grandfather?”

“Yes, he is. Salt White, head of the White family. My full name is Snow White.

“Then how did you end up in the Silver Eyes?” Luna asked with curiosity and a hint of worry.

“The short version is that my mother ran away from the family when I was really young. She fled to the noctral vampires. But… let’s just say that his threat earlier wasn’t a figure of speech.

“I’m sorry,” Luna said, “I can’t imagine how hard that must have been to go through.”

“After that, I put everything into becoming a Silver Eye. I thought about changing my name, but I want to honour my mother’s memory. And as a bonus, it hurts the White family's reputation among the other purists.”

“I’d imagine that your name didn’t make it any easier for you to be accepted by the other silvers,” Luna said.

“Yeah. In the beginning, everypony was at best suspicious. Many didn’t want to let me leave on my first mission alone, because they thought I’d return to my family and teach them the secrets of the Silver Eyes. Fortunately, Alucard, the first silver eye and our leader, gave me a chance. And the others stopped accusing me of being a spy when I came back two months later with Silk White’s head.”

That’s one way to do it, Luna thought.

The train left the tunnels, and Luna stood up. She opened a window, put her head out, and raised the moon.She turned back to Snow and was taken aback by her awestruck expression. That’s a new one… Huh, her silver eye sparkles.

Snow blinked, shook her head and said, “Sorry, I just didn’t expect to actually witness you raising the moon.”

“And I didn’t expect anypony to have a reaction like that.” She noticed a metal gauntlet on Snow’s right front hoof, with a blade running parallel to her leg fixed up to the middle of it. “What’s that?”

Snow held her hoof in front of her, happy to have something to talk about. “It’s a flickblade. Harmless like this, but if I flick my hoof the right way, like this—” she flicked her hoof outward, and the blade rotated, clicking into position in a right angle to the gauntlet “—it’s no longer that harmless. It doesn’t have as much range as your sword, but it’s still really useful up close.”

“Impressive. Unfortunately, I have to guard the dream realm now. Is there a private compartment you might lend me for a few hours?”

The next morning arrived, and Luna dragged herself into the mess, ignored the guards sitting around, grabbed the first hayburger from the counter, and took a big bite out of it while walking away.

Why does this taste metallic?

She looked at the burger and noticed the red sauce. Then it took a few seconds for her to register what she was seeing.

Then some more for her to remember where she was.

Then some more for her to put those two things together.

She sighed. Vampires… there’s blood in the sauce. She looked back at the counter. I could probably ask them to make me one without blood…

Shaking her head, she mumbled, “Too tired for that. It’s probably stoneblood, anyway…”

After a good day’s sleep, Luna returned to the mess. Only two ponies were in it. Snow, and a plum coated mare wearing a metal exoskeleton. The joints in her shoulders, hips and hooves had been removed, and bronze replacements had been put in their place. Rods giving off a faint blue glow connected each of the joints to its neighbors, with the two connecting her shoulders to her hips forming small arches. She clenched a mug between the mechanical steel claws her front legs ended in.

Luna walked up to them. “Good evening.”

The other mare didn’t look up from her mug as she said, “Good evening.”

“Good evening, your highness,” Snow said, “May I introduce you to our engineer?”

“Gladly.”

Snow nodded. She poked her colleague. “Mirror?”

Mirror blinked. “Yeah?” She looked at Snow, then noticed Luna standing by the table. “Oh. Oh! Princess Luna, I didn’t realize it was you, your highness.”

“Don’t worry about it. You’re Mirror, then?”

“Yes, Mirror Shine, your highness. I’m the engineer on this train.”

“I already told her that,” Snow said.

“Oh, ok. Sorry, not really awake yet. And I don’t trust this coffee.”

“If they had blooded it, it would be redder,” Snow told her. “Just drink it already.”

Mirror sighed and took a sip. “Still tastes horrible.”

Ruby Red stood at the entrance of her hideout, a cave in the hills overlooking the train tracks leading to the Smoky Mountains. The train with her target on it came into view in the distance, a lonely light traveling through the dark forest.

A vampire walked up to her, their head respectfully lowered. “Rusty gave the signal. All is ready as you ordered, sire.”

“Excellent.” Ruby let her tongue run across her fangs.

“You invented this train?” Luna asked Mirror.

“Yeah. I mean, sure, coal works, but it’s just not as useful if you have to travel long stretches underground. it took years to create storage crystals with enough capacity to power the engines over long distances, but my team and I managed to do it.”

“Impressive. And at such a young age as well.”

Mirror scoffed. “Because old people are the driving force of innovation?”

Luna wanted to respond, but couldn’t think of a good counter argument. “Fair point. But I must still compliment you for the idea to combine science with magic like this.”

“Which is a very equestrian thing to say,” Mirror said.

“I beg your pardon?” Luna asked, confused.

“The idea that there’s something to combine there,” Mirror explained, “In the Schatten, both are the same. The study of magic is a field of science just like physics or biology.” She put her front hoof on the table. Seeing it up close, Luna realized that the glow the rods gave off came from runes engraved across their entire length. “Take my exo for example. The enchantments give it the power it needs to function, but without mechanical engineering, the joints wouldn’t work. And without magical medicine and bionics, my body wouldn’t survive, either.”

“Mirror has a lot of metal under her coat,” Snow told Luna.

“Hey! I might have tweaked a lot, but I’m still more mare than machine!”

“And by how much?” Snow asked.

“Maybe five percent or so, but still!”

Luna blinked a few times before saying, “If you don’t mind my question, what things did you replace?”

Mirror had to think for a moment. “Liver, spleen… basically the entire digestive system… and of course some chunks of the nervous system… my eyes—” a red zigzag line running around her irises appeared for a moment “—because why rely on magicvision goggles when you can turn your eyes into them… Oh right, ear drums. Some minor accident with explosives. And of course my heart. I have a literal crystal heart pumping magic-enriched blood through my veins.”

“And why?”

“Earthpony organs aren’t made for being bipedal,” Mirror said, "Anyway, this is the first train of this system used outside of the Schattenrealm. I’m still a bit nervous that they’ll mess up.”

“Don’t worry,” Snow said, “This crew is among the best in the realm. They have centuries of experience.”

“Yeah, with steam engines. I don’t want them to treat my creation like it's some outdated museum piece.”

“I still remember the time when steam was the new big thing,” Snow said, “guess I’m a museum piece as well then.”

Mirror sighed. “You are alive and can develop yourself further. Well, sorta alive, but still. A steam engine is a hunk of steel, filled with water and burning coal. There’s only so much you can do to improve a system like that.”

Snow opened her mouth to say something, but confusion appeared on her face. She turned to the ceiling. “Did you hear that?”

“I didn’t hear anything,” Luna said, trying to follow Snow’s gaze.

“Me neither.” Mirror looked out of the window. “We’re speeding up.” She stood up and walked to the door leading to the locomotive, the others following closely. She tried to open it, but it didn’t move. “What the…”

She threw herself against the door, but still couldn’t open it. “It’s locked.”

“Can you break it open?” Snow asked.

Mirror shook her head. “Not without my tools.”

Luna charged her horn. “Step aside, I’ll open it.”

“NO!” Mirror’s face went pale. “The engine is extremely sensitive! If you just blast it open, you’ll blow us all up!”

“Then let’s go the other way round,” Snow said. They walked to the other end of the cart, but before they even reached the middle, something broke through one of the windows.

A moment later, a loud, shrill noise and bright flash of light caused Luna to recoil, covering her eyes with her wings. She reached out with her magic to pull out her sword, but her attacker put a suppressor over her horn, and she lost her connection to it.

Then she felt something landing on her back. She tried bucking them off, but suddenly felt something cold on her throat. The stallion sitting on her back said, “Hold still, now will you? Would be a shame if my hoof would slip.”

Out of options, Luna relented.

“There we go.”

Luna’s vision returned. A couple of the guards with empty expressions and a weird glow in their eyes held Snow in a forcefield, and two more kept Mirror in check with their spears. Another red coated unicorn vampire Luna hadn’t seen before stood in front of them. A scar ran across her face, and one of her eyes was missing. “Ah, here we are again, Snow. I bet you thought you had seen the last of me.”

“Really, Rusty?” Snow asked. “One hundred years, and you couldn’t come up with a better line?”

“Quick-witted like always. How long do you think that will last once you are brought into my lab?” She smiled at Snow for a moment before continuing, but Luna wasn’t listening anymore.

Rusty? Oh, she’s probably Rust Red! Moondancer told me about her. Elder vampire, purist, and infamous for her experiments with ponies... And an advocate for recruiting me to their side! I can use that to my advantage! Thank Epona that I’m a better actress than Tia...

Rusty turned to Luna. “Where are my manners?” She gave Luna a quick bow. “My name is Red Rust, your highness. I was a big fan of your efforts to bring forth the eternal night. It’s a shame that we had to meet on opposite sides.”

“I wouldn’t be sure about that,” Luna said, trying to remain calm, “I heard a lot about you.”

“What an honour! The Princess of the Night has heard of me.”

“I did, yes. And I was actually hoping to run into you.”

Rusty was surprised. “You were?”

“Of course! Did you really think that I actually gave up on the eternal night?”

“What do you mean?” She took a step towards Luna. “You’ve been helping Celestia all the time since you came back. And you work together with this traitor!” She pointed at Snow.

Think of something! “That was all because of the elements,” Luna said, “They changed who I am, but my true self came back after a few years. Unfortunately, at that point, I couldn’t try to bring the eternal night again. But as a vampire, with you and your friends on my side, it would be foal’s play. We have the same goal here, you and me. We should work together.”

Rusty was taken aback by Luna’s offer, as were the others. Snow was the first to find her words again. “You illoyal piece of Hydra manure! Not only do you betray your sister, but also—”

“That’s really rich coming from you,” Luna said, turning to Snow, “Just yesterday, you bragged about the members of your own family you killed. But don’t worry, I’ll still kill Salt for daring to lay a hoof on my prey.”

“You’re just as delusional as the other purists if you think that this scheme could be successful,” Snow said, “Even if you could take down Dracula and Alucard, Shaded and Gala Frey would stop you!”

“It actually was Shaded’s plan,” Luna told Snow, “She prepared everything for an invasion of Equestria, but as long as the other two parts of Noctris are against it, we can’t do put out plan in motion. But if I become the Queen of Vampires, we could overturn Gala’s veto and finally end the tyranny of the sun forever.” She looked Mirror in the eyes, trying to read her expression.

“So it’s finally happening, huh,” Mirror said after a few moments, “I was doubting if I’d live long enough to see it.”

Rusty stepped in front of Mirror, forced to look up to stare at her, “So she’s telling the truth?

“Of course.”

Rusty grinned ear to ear. “Yes! I knew it! The others called me crazy, but I knew that you would happily join us!” She stared at the vampire on Luna’s back and said, “Get off of her!”

Luna sighed with relief once she was freed of the knife.

Rusty stepped in front of Luna, euphoria clearly in her voice when she said, “So, where do you want the bite to be, mylady?”

Luna turned her head to the side, pointing at her neck. “I’d say we should keep it classical.”

Rusty sank her teeth into Luna’s neck. The lack of pain surprised Luna, but not as much as the taste surprised Rusty. She shoved Luna away and stumbled back, her fangs covered in black blood. “What is this villan—” She couldn’t get another word out. Her throat had swelled shut, and she was gasping for air.

“Do you like it?” Luna asked, rubbing the puncture wounds. “It’s something I invented with a few friends. Vampire alchemy, zebra herbalism, and equestrian dark arts together.”

She glanced behind herself and saw that the vampire that had threatened her was another guard. She turned back to Rusty and pushed the suppressor off of her horn. It lit up and her magic surrounded the hilt of her sword.

She pulled Nightguard out of its scabbard and stabbed Rusty in the heart. The vampire’s legs began to shake, but the sword kept her upright. Luna put her hoof on her chest. She leaned down and whispered in Rusty’s ear, “The ones calling you crazy were right.” She pulled her sword out, pushing at her with her hoof.

Rusty collapsed, the glow left the guard’s eyes, and the field holding Snow disappeared. She landed gracefully and looked at the confused guards. “Well, what are you waiting for? Back off!”

They stepped back and Snow walked over to the corpse, pulled her flickblade and touched Rusty’s back with the blade. It burned her flesh immediately, but Rusty didn’t react. “Can’t ever be too sure about confirming a kill,” she mumbled. Then she turned to Luna. “Impressive performance.”

Luna rubbed her neck. “I’m sorry about what I said, but—”

“—but you had to get her to trust you,” Snow said, “Don’t worry, I get it. Mirror surprised me more, to be honest.” She turned to her. “Because Rusty’s stare is extremely strong. It should have forced you to tell the truth.”

Now Luna turned to Mirror as well. Please let there be an explanation other than Shaded actually preparing an invasion…

“Remind me again,” Mirror said, “a vampire has to look their victim in the eyes to use the stare on them, right?”

“Yes.”

Mirror pointed her claws at her eyes, the red lines glowing again. “I don’t have eyes, I have AUGEN. OpticAl Units providing Greatly Enhanced Night vision. I developed and installed them years ago after a little accident in the chemistry lab. But we can talk about this later, I have to save this train!” She ran towards the door.

Climbing the last bar of the ladder, Mirror reached the top of the train, the wind almost blowing her away. But she managed to get her claws onto the roof, causing a loud clanking noise to echo through the waggon. Good thing that I picked the magnetic ones today…

She disabled the magnets in her left claw, pulled herself forward, and turned them on again, causing another loud clank.

Don’t think about how dead you’d be if the magnets fail, she told herself, right magnet out, pulling forward, clank.

Left magnet out, pulling forward, clank.

Right.

Left.

Right.

Left.

Just keep moving…

Eventually, her claw just caught air, and she climbed down onto the connection between the mess and the locomotive. She unlocked the door to the mess, then rushed into the locomotive, finding the drivers dead.

Snow heard the door unlocking and stormed into the locomotive. She ignored the drivers and turned straight to Mirror. “How bad is it?”

“Really bad. I turned off the acceleration, but we’re still too fast and they destroyed the brake control. She’ll derail on the curve leading into the smoky mountain tunnel, crash against the mountainside, and everypony on the train will die!”

“Come on, Mirror! You have to have an idea how to stop it!”

Mirror was silent for a moment. “Maybe I could turn the locomotor into a generator. That should slow us down enough to not die, but…”

“But, what?”

“It would destroy the converter crystal,” Mirror said grimly.

Snow blinked. “That’s it?”

Mirror glared at her. “I have spent ten years growing this crystal! I won’t just sacrifice her like it’s nothing!”

“What’s more important, the crystals or our lives?!”

Mirror was silent.

“Mirror!”

“I know!” She grabbed one of her tools, disappeared into a hatch leading to the engine room. She walked to the locomotor, but hesitated for a moment. Mirror looked at the apple-sized converter crystal in its safety case connecting the motor to the storage crystals. “I’m so sorry, Kristallie,” she told her creation before doing what had to be done.

She pulled out the three storage crystals. Then she put a charger on the first one and put it back in position. Magic started to flow from the motor to the crystal, the train began to slow down, and the converter made a faint cracking noise. “What was… No! You have to focus!” Mirror yelled at herself.

She repeated the process with the next storage crystal. “Please, just a little bit longer, Kristallie,” she said as more cracks appeared as the magic flow grew stronger. “I’ll get you the best polish money can buy, just… hang in there a little bit longer!”

A tiny piece of the crystal broke off, a steady stream of magic flowing out of it. “You’re doing amazing!” she told the converter crystal, “Almost done!”

She pushed the last storage crystal into the frame. The stream of magic was now so strong that it hurt Mirror’s eyes to look at the converter crystal. More and more pieces broke off, and a few moments later, it exploded completely. The magic kept flowing, heating up the entire engine. It was glowing red hot when the train slowly rolled into the tunnel, only getting a little bit uphill before rolling back out again. Mirror opened the case, picked up the shards and put them in a small, cushioned box. Then, she climbed out of the hatch with tears in her eyes.

Snow pulled her into a hug. “You did it!”

“But at a terrible cost…”

Luna heard cries coming from the locomotive when Snow returned to the mess. “What happened?”

Snow explained what Mirror had to do to save them.

“She must have been really attached to that crystal,” Luna said, “I hope she’ll be ok.”

“I’ve seen her like that before. We just have to give her ten minutes or so. But first, I’ll make sure that White knows that his rescue mission failed.”

She opened the door to the transport cart and immediately shouted, “FUCK!”

Author's Note

This Mirror here is a different version of an original character by my friend Pip