A Vampire in Equestria

After fifteen minutes of walking, Alucard and the others arrived at the picnic, the food already waiting for them, ready to be eaten.

"You like?" asked Lamia with a smile, "this is our secret meeting place," causing Gale to roll his eyes at the place being a secret.

"A good place to admire the night," replied Alucard sitting on the grass, "Even though I ate before I arrived."

"Ha, more food for me," exclaimed Axel, "so, tell us, what do you do for a living?"

"Yeah, to be honest, I'm curious about that too." Gale said looking at Alucard.

"Monster hunter," replied Alucard, "and what about you, Gale?"

"Oh, well at the moment, I'm a part of the weather team, I patrol for any rogue clouds and either bust 'em or put them back where they're supposed to be," Gale replied, "but my dream is to be a part of Princess Luna's Night Guard, maybe even the captain of the Night Guard."

Alucard was curious, who was this Princess Luna? He wanted to know more, this country was apparently ruled by a monarchy, and knowing who the leaders were was important.

"Could you tell me more about the Royal Guard?" asked Alucard, causing Gale to jump at the chance to talk about his dream.

"Of course," Gale replied with a smile and eyes full of happiness, "well, after Princess Luna returned, the Royal Guard split back into the two groups they used to be in a thousand years ago, the Day Guard, who directly serve the Princess of the Sun, and the Night Guard, who directly serve the Princess of the Moon."

"Oh, interesting," said Alucard, paying attention to Gale whilst wondering to himself why these princesses were called princesses of the moon and sun.

"Since Princess Luna only recently returned from the moon, her guard has almost no members, but that situation won't last long, we thestrals are loyal to our princess of the night. Soon she'll have a full complement of guards, led by yours truly, of course," exclaimed Gale with pride.

Alucard observed Gale in detail, he had a cutie mark of a shield, with a full moon inside. Alucard had realized that the cutie marks had some correlation with the personality of a pony, which made him laugh inside.

At that same moment, Alucard felt a group of individuals approaching their location at a great speed, one of those individuals was a good bit ahead of the others.

"Twenty seconds," Alucard murmured, "you should go."

"But we just sat down," Magna said.

"Something wrong?" Lapis asked.

"I don't know," replied Alucard, looking above them, "but it's too late now."

In the sky was a pony, her hair looking like a mantle of stars, from a distance Alucard could tell she was taller than the other ponies, 'who is she?'

The mysterious figure descended from the sky at high speed, Alucard was ready to fight, but the moment the figure touched the grass, the group of ponies that had accompanied Alucard knelt.

"Princess Luna," said the five ponies behind Alucard in unison.

"Rise," Luna said with a slight smile, before hurriedly approaching Alucard. "We must go immediately Alucard."

"Huh, you know my name." Alucard answered with a light and opaque smile, "I suppose the guard talked to you about me, or was it those griffons?"

"Yes, but we must leave, I will explain later, but we do not have much time." exclaimed Luna.

"I suppose it has to do with the others that are flying in this direction, correct?" said Alucard.

"Exactly, my sister wants to lock you up because she thinks you are too dangerous." Luna said in an angry tone.

The other ponies were puzzled, Luna and Alucard were talking like it was nothing, like one of them wasn't a princess, how Alucard wasn't nervous being in front of the princess of the night, and why the princess was so comfortable talking to him, they had no idea and they now had so many questions, but they didn't want to interrupt their conversation.

"And you don't?" asked Alucard.

"Of course not, you saved hundreds of ponies, mayhaps your methods are somewhat more violent than our own, but you still saved innocent ponies." Luna said, feeling somewhat offended by Alucard's question.

"But you know your sister is right," Alucard said calmly, "I am very dangerous."

"No, dangerous and powerful are different things, you are a powerful pony, someone dangerous would be destroying or trying to conquer Equestria for their pleasure, like King Sombra," Luna said.

"Hahaha, I suppose you're right," Alucard said, feeling offended at being compared to the insect he had faced in his first encounter in this world, "But I don't plan to run like a coward, if they want me... they'll have me."

Luna stared at Alucard, he just looked at her with an empty smile, and after a minute of silence, Alucard spoke while once more looking up.

"I certainly do enjoy the night here. I don't think I will ever get tired of looking at it. Princess of the Night? I suppose that is rather fitting, given your appearance." Alucard said as he glanced at Luna before looking in the direction she had come from. "Thirty seconds before they arrive, let's get ready to welcome them."

Luna was blushing, this stallion had refused to follow her to escape, the way he spoke, his confidence, and to add to all that, he had complimented her night.

In the distance, Alucard could see several carriages, each with armed ponies, in the center of everything was a pony that was even bigger than Luna.

Luna, who was still in a slight daze took a moment to shake herself out of her stupor before looking in the direction of her sister.

The carriages descended, Princess Celestia being in the front took the lead while the guards piled out and the pegasi unstrapped themselves from the carriages.

"You must be Alucard, correct?" said Celestia.

"Yes, and you must be the one who wants to imprison me, right?" answered Alucard.

"Not at this moment, but I would like to take you to Canterlot for questioning so that we might straighten this situation out. I promise you will not be harmed," said Celestia, opening her wings.

"As I told your sister, it's true that I am dangerous, but that doesn't mean I'll let you take me anywhere, not without a fight," Alucard said with a smile. "How many soldiers are you willing to sacrifice to capture me?"

"That will not happen, Alucard has not done anything wrong, and deserves to be treated like an innocent pony." Luna exclaimed, standing in front of Alucard.

"He just threatened the guards, Sister!" exclaimed Celestia.

"And how would you respond, if they were hunting you for something you have not even done yet!" Luna shouted in an angry tone.

In the brief pause of conversation, Flash Sentry stepped out of one of the rear carriages and approached Princess Celestia.

"That monster is very dangerous, Princess," Flash exclaimed as he trembled.

"Hey, who do you think you're calling a monster!" exclaimed Axel approaching Alucard. "Got something against thestrals? Ya think you're better than us!?"

"You mess with Alucard, you mess with us!" Lamia exclaimed, throwing her hooves in the air like a boxer.

"It's not okay to insult another pony like that." Magna said approaching Alucard.

"If this is the way they treat an innocent pony, I do not want to work for you anymore, Princess Celestia!" exclaimed Lapis, while whispering to Alucard in the ear, "My support is one hundred percent moral, but in battle I'll be useless."

"Fifty guards, a hundred guards? Pff, you and how many more, easy workout!" exclaimed Gale, flexing his wings.

"He annihilated the fifteen Bugbears that attacked Vanhoover as if they were nothing," Flash exclaimed as Celestia looked at him. "And then his magic devoured the remains of the bugbears!"

"Let me see if I understand this correctly," Lapis exclaimed, putting a hoof on his head, "he stopped a threat to Vanhoover, and he's a monster because he killed them easily? So he's a monster, because you're weak? Do you know how sad that sounds?"

Flash stared at Alucard and Princess Celestia, he was afraid of Alucard, but nopony seemed to understand the threat he posed. "He ate them!"

At this, Magna pitched in, frowning at Flash, "well, we are omnivores, you know."

"You definitely need to raise the requirements to join the guard, Princess, because this," said Lapis looking at Celestia and pointing to Flash, "is pathetic."

Celestia sighed deeply, drawing the attention of everyone present, and slowly approached Alucard.

"Would you be willing to answer some questions here then?" Celestia asked.

Alucard was processing why these ponies that he had just met a couple hours ago, were protecting him, was it because they looked alike, he didn't know what to do with this, it had been four hundred years since he had a friend, Integra was his master, and Seras was his pupil, the closest thing he had to a friendship was Alexander, and all they did was battle to the death.

"Sure, ask what you want, Celestia." said Alucard with a smirk, purposely removing the title of princess to annoy her and those with her.

After about fifteen minutes, where the princess interrogated Alucard, he answered most of the questions vaguely, but in the end, there was only one question left.

"How can I know that you are not a threat to Equestria." Celestia asked.

Which made Alucard start laughing uncontrollably, after a couple of minutes of laughter he finally managed to calm himself down, Alucard stared at her and said. "If my intentions were bad, neither you nor your soldiers would have made it here alive." Alucard said with a conversational tone.

Celestia stared at him, she didn't know how to respond to that, something about this pony told her that she wouldn't win in a battle, she was beginning to understand now the reason why Flash Sentry was so afraid.

Letting out a sigh, Celestia turned and approached her carriage, "I'm sorry if you thought I was being unfair Luna, but I hope in the future you'll talk to me more before jumping to conclusions."

With that Celestia and her soldiers took flight to Canterlot, leaving Luna and Alucard in the valley.

"Sister..." Luna whispered to herself.

"Okay, I need a dose of sugar right away, that was stressful." exclaimed Lamia, throwing herself on the grass.

"What a fright, I thought a civil war was about to happen," said Lapis, making a dramatic pose.

"I'm happy that we solved that without violence," Magna said with a sigh.

"When they saw me, they had no choice but to run back to canterlot!" exclaimed Gale with pride.

"Calm down, there were almost a hundred guards, with me, we had more than enough." Axel said, mocking Gale, which made the two begin to argue in low voices.

"Alucard..." Luna said looking at Alucard.

"Yes, Princess Luna?" Alucard said looking at her.

"Is it true what you said to my sister? If you were bad you would have killed them?" Luna hesitantly asked.

"Princess, in my life, I've done many things, but I've never killed innocents," Alucard said looking at Luna, "but I guess that depends on the way you look at it."

"I understand, what is good to some, is bad to others, that is what you mean, right?" said Luna looking at the stars.

"Yes, that is a way of saying it." Alucard replied, "I guess you'll be going back to your castle now?"

"Yes, everything went surprisingly well, but" Luna took a big breath as if preparing to do something difficult. "I'd like to give you an offer, you told my sister you're a monster hunter, yes?"

"Yes, do you perhaps have a job for me?" Alucard said, looking her up and down, "depending on of the job, it may come free for you Princess." 'Why am I flirting with her, and why do I find ponies attractive, Schrödinger seems to have fucked me up in more ways than I thought.'

Luna blushed, understanding what Alucard was implying, how could he be so daring with a princess, in a way she kind of liked it.

"I want to offer you the position of captain of my Night Guard." Luna said, opening her wings to emphasize, "I currently only have twenty guards, but they need a strong leader, and I do not think I could get a stronger pony than you."

"Interesting, and what benefits are there to serving under your banner, Princess," Alucard asked as Gale nearly had a convulsion behind him, because Alucard was fulfilling his dream.

"The crown will cover your expenses, you will have a good salary, but you must follow the regulations of the guard and my orders." Luna said as she raised an eyebrow. "And you can show off your position in the face of Sergeant Flash Sentry."

Alucard imagined an ungrateful pony seeing him in the castle, which brought him some laughter.

"That does sound amusing but I'm going to have to decline, though I could suggest some new soldiers?" said Alucard which stunned Luna though she still managed to nod, "Gale, how would you like to be a part of the Night Guard"

"YES YES YES!" exclaimed Gale, hugging Alucard, "THANK YOU!"

"Anyone else want to join? Today you showed value by standing up to superior numbers, and that is something worthy of a soldier." said Alucard.

"Well, I wouldn't mind having a fixed income." Axel said, putting a hoof to his head and then looking at Gale. "Well, I accept, someone has to fix the messes that this bat brain is going to cause."

"Can I have parties in the guard?" Asked Lamia, looking closely at Luna.

"Yes... I don't see why not." Luna said wondering if Lamia knew the meaning of personal space while feeling a strange sense of deja vu.

"HURRAY! Count me in, Alucard!" exclaimed Lamia jumping super high.

"I'm not good at fighting, but if the princess has something with gardening, or animal care I'd love to go with you guys to Canterlot, my animal friends are pretty independent, and rarely ask for help, so that won't be a problem." Magna said looking at Alucard and Luna.

"Eighty percent of my work is in Canterlot, so it wouldn't bother me at all to go there with you guys," said Lapis while putting a hoof to his chin, "maybe less than eighty percent, since I may have insulted Princess Celestia."

"Well, we had a garden with lunar plants at our old castle, though it was made Celestia's when it was moved to canterlot castle a thousand years ago, but," Luna said, looking at Magna, "it's still my garden, if you know how to keep the lunar plants, I'd love to hire you."

"Yeah! I know a lot about animals and gardening." Magna said hugging Lapis, "I'm happy we don't have to separate."

They all started talking and saying what they would do when they arrived in Canterlot, while Alucard was left thinking that when had offered them to come with him, he had asked for soldiers. And now everypony was going to canterlot with him and not all of them as soldiers.

Luna perked up once again, realising that she had gotten side tracked. "If you won't be my guard captain, would you perhaps be amenable to being hired as a monster hunter under the crown?" She said, frowning inquisitively at Alucard.

Having decided to rest in one of the carriages on the way back to Canterlot, Celestia was left to ponder the nights event, though she had hid it well, she was quite surprised that Alucard was a thestral unicorn, and even more so by the sheer amount of power she had felt oozing from him, 'who are you really Alucard?'

"Princess, why did you leave Alucard free," Flash asked with a frown.

"Because he is innocent of any crimes that I know of, his methods may have been overly violent, but at the end of the day he saved Vanhoover." Celestia said with a sigh and a serious look, "but that doesn't take away the fact that he's a very dangerous individual, to face him without the elements of the harmony or something equally powerful would likely be suicide."

Flash was mute, that Princess Celestia, one of the strongest ponies of Equestria considered Alucard too much for her to take alone, it was something he hadn't thought possible especially considering he was a thestral, he had thought that Alucard was a monster before, but now he knew just how much of a monster he was.

In Flash's silence, Celestia made a mental note to send a guard to retrieve the reports from Flash Sentry's squad in Vanhoover. Something about the situation and his report didn't sit quite right with her and she knew it was staring her right in the face, she just couldn't figure out what it was.