In the dark of the night

Twilight knew that the situation unfolding in front of her was NOT a good one. The three mysterious mares were closing in on Vinyl, circling her like ravenous timberwolves, licking their fangs as if to show their vicious intent. Vinyl was whirling around quickly, trying not to let her back fall squarely to any one of them as they circled. Looking over to Luna and Amaranth, she saw the black unicorn lean over and whisper into Luna’s ear. To her astonishment, Luna only smirked, chuckled and nodded before turning her head to look at Twilight and her friends, all of whom looked ready to jump into the fray.

"No matter what happens, do not intervene. This is not our fight." Luna said, in a cool, somewhat amused tone that somehow, also gave no room for argument. As the mares circled, getting ever closer, Twilight was on the verge of panic, her heart flying in her chest. She could hear the hearts of her friends hammering as well… they all knew the situation was on the brink of collapse.

Then, in an instant, it happened.

In what seemed like both blinding speed and painfully slow motion, the mare with the crimson mane flew across the short distance between them in a blur, knocking Vinyl off her feet with a sickening crack not unlike that of bones shattering. The other two mares came between the two fighting ponies and everypony else in the same instant. Looking over in a panic, the lavender mare was surprised to see bemused smiles on Luna and Amaranth's faces while her own worry was echoed by her friends.

"Why aren't you helping her?!" Fluttershy shouted in an uncharacteristic display of assertiveness as she made to help Vinyl, only to be bodily stopped by Luna, who gave her a wry grin.

"Worry not, friend Fluttershy, for there is no danger to any of us here."

Twilight was about to argue that statement when she looked over to Vinyl and the mare pinning her. Slowly, with fangs bared, the red maned mare leaned down and... brought their mouths together in a brief, but rather intense kiss.

"W-... What?!" Applejack asked, clearly as shocked as most everypony else.

The mare straddling Vinyl broke the kiss and whispered into Vinyl’s ear before she sat up, laughing loudly. "Oh, Mel, you should have seen the look on your face! That. Was. PRICELESS!!!"

Beneath her, a slightly panting Vinyl Scratch smiled goofily at her would-be "assailant" and chuckled. "Gotcha? That's the best thing you could come up with? Really, Ruby?"

The mare on top of her rolled her eyes. "Like you could do any bE-aah!" The mare yelped as Vinyl's hoof quickly reached out and slapped her flank right on the cutie mark with a resounding SMACK!!. Looking down with a lascivious grin, she said "Oh you're gonna regret that later Mel!"

To her credit, Vinyl just gave her a cheeky smirk and asked "Promise?"

"If you two nymphomaniacs are quite done, I'm pretty sure we're here to go wake up The Mistress... Not buck in a field." The mare with the black mane said in a flat tone that was offset by an amused smirk.

"Yea, business before pleasure, we know Nightshade." Ruby said, rolling her eyes.

"That, and I’m pretty sure the readers are getting a bit annoyed by all of this waiting to meet Artemis." Pinkie said, looking up into the sky.

"Uh... What??" Applejack said from beside her.

“Nothing you need to worry your pretty little head about, AJ! Now come on! lets get going!”

For a while, nopony spoke. They all just watched as Pinkie walked towards the black void that the three white mares had come out of with expressions of utter confusion. It took the mare with a purple mane to break the silence. “What the buck is she on??”

Rainbow just shook her head. “Nopony knows... So who are you three, anyways?” Her attention moving back to the mystery mare.

The mare shrugged. “Well, I’m Amethyst. The one with the black mane is Nightshade, and the one with the red mane is-”

“Ruby, yea… I’m pretty sure we got that. I mean, who ARE you ponies? What are you doing out here?” Dash said, interrupting the mare, who gave her a flat stare for said interruption.

“After giving you our names, I was going to tell you that we are three of the nine guardians of the crypt of Artemis Night. The Eternal Huntress.”

“... Oh… My bad.” Dash said, uncharacteristically cowering a little under Amethyst’s gaze.

Sighing a little, Amethyst shook her head and looked over towards Pinkie Pie, who was “poking” the darkness with a hoof. “We’re here because Artemis has enemies. Vamponies who would kill her if they got the chance. A few have tried, some even brought entire armies of fledglings… but none reached our Mistress. None can when all of us fight. We knew that there were six vamponies in your group. We’ve handled more than that before, of course, but Ruby saw three that were very powerful. More powerful than any others before.” Looking over to Luna, she smiled. “And now, we know why.”

“Indeed.” Luna said with a smile, already flanked by Ruby and Nightshade, who were nuzzling her.

At this, Amethyst also walked over to Luna and nuzzled her tenderly. A gesture which Luna reciprocated, using her wings to bring the three mares into an impromptu hug.

“Our Queen… we welcome you.”

“I am humbled that you welcome me amongst you again… my children of the night.” Luna said, her voice catching in her throat for an instant. Twilight and the rest of her friends watched the exchange with understanding smiles. The emotion that the three mares were feeling towards Luna was palpable, Twilight could even see a few tears running down Nightshades cheeks as the words were spoken.

Despite the absurdity of the situation… it was a beautiful thing.

Unfortunately, the emotional display was suddenly cut off as a delighted voice broke the silence of the clearing, drawing everypony’s attention.

“Hey! The shadows move! What happens if they-aah!!” Any further speech was cut off as Pinkie Pie got sucked into the shadows.

“BUCK!!” The three mares all but shouted as they ran towards the forest and dove into the inky blackness, disappearing into ripples of shadow as they did so.

“Um… What just-HEYWHATAREYOUDOINGLUNA?!!” Twilight shouted as she was picked up by Luna’s magic and hurled full force towards the shadows, with Luna and Amaranth close behind.

Twilight watched the darkness get closer to her, until it swallowed her and her friends.

Caedis paced across from a bright orange unicorn stallion, impatience etched in his features as the unicorn kept his eyes, as well as his mouth closed.

“Well? Have they entered the crypt yet?!”

“Not yet. Wait… one of them-Now four-Yes! All of them just entered.” Opening his eyes, the stallion’s irises glowed the same color as his coat before dimming down. “They are now beyond my sight. What are your commands?”

“Commands?” Caedis said, a smug smirk painting his features as he addressed the unicorn. “I have none yet. I merely wanted to know when they got there.” Walking over to a window, the stallion chuckled darkly. “After all… We’ll be meeting them soon enough. Artemis will be a grand addition to our ranks, I think. Even the whelp of a fledgling Luna turned to fight us has some potential. The sisters will fall… Equestria will be ours. We, the superior race, will have absolute power.”

“Master Caedis, not to overstep my bounds… but what makes you think Artemis or the fledgling will join us? They owe allegiance to the Prince-hRrk!!” The orange stallion suddenly found himself pinned by his throat against a wall that had previously been at least twenty feet away.

Caedis looked over to the stallion with an unamused expression. “You’re lucky you’re of use to me Tirok… otherwise you would be a deadpony. They will join us! How could they not?! Once they learn of the horrible acts the ‘princesses’ committed… they will join us. Mark my words.”

Tirok nodded vigorously, had he not been a vampony, his lungs would have been burning from lack of air as he flailed against the vice-like grip of Caedis’s magic until he was finally released.

“Besides,” Caedis said, looking back out his window. “The whelp has yet to learn of the true nature of the vampony. She won’t be able to refuse.”

Twilight hadn’t expected the shadows to have a consistency… or for that matter, to drag her to a sudden halt before dropping her onto a solid marble floor.

“Ow!! Mare-bucking… that hurt!!” Twilight cursed uncharacteristically. She hadn’t taken a hit like that since she was Applebloom’s age!

It was something her friends hadn’t expected either, as each of them hit the ground and uttered a similar curse, save for Fluttershy. She somehow landed on top of Rainbow Dash, who like Twilight, that had been rather quickly thrown through shadows by Luna, said diarch landing on her own hooves before stamping one with enough force to crack the stone under her hoof and bring silence to what Twilight hadn’t yet recognized, had been an absolute cacophony.

“BE STILL!!!” Luna shouted in the Royal Canterlot Voice, effectively making her presence known in deafening surety.

Looking up, Twilight saw some things she was woefully unprepared for. One was Pinkie Pie, sitting on top of a pile of two dazed vampony mares, holding a half-eaten cupcake. Ruby, Nightshade and Amethyst were nary a hoofstep away from her, almost undoubtedly having been questioning how Pinkie was able to defeat two vampony guards in a little under ten seconds. Another was that Amaranth was sitting on his haunches, levitating a teacup in his ice-blue magic and looking at Luna out of the corner of his eye in what may have been the most deviously innocent expression of all time. And finally, all of this was before a stone monument that could only be the result of decades, if not CENTURIES of carving by the most dedicated of craftsponies. It looked nearly as tall as Canterlot Castle and far more elaborate. Yet, the obviously hoof-carved monument held a dark and ominous aura about it that made Twilight want to turn around and run back through the shadows so as to return from whence she came.

“Luna…” Nightshade started, breaking the momentary silence. “Who is this mare? She bested not one, but TWO fully realized, eight-hundred year old vamponies in a matter of seconds.” Turning her head, her gaze leveled at her queen. “And I want to know how.”

Shaking her head, Luna shrugged. “I’m afraid I know not. All I know is that Miss Pie is, aside from Amaranth, the most eccentric and unusual pony I have ever met. I believe it would be wise to… “Make nice” with her, lest you find yourself incurring her wrath. Which, I might add, is not inconsiderable.”

“Indeed.” Amaranth said, walking towards the group of ponies. “She is not one to trifle with. I daresay, she may one day be my replacement or match as a pony who bends what seems to be reality to their will.”

Pinkie Pie, for her part, merely… blushed. Waving a hoof at him half-dismissively, she said: “Aww, you’re just saying that. I’m just me.”

“Which is more like myself than any other pony I’ve ever met. You will go far, Miss Pie, mark my words.”

“Ahem, not to interrupt this little ‘meet-and-greet’ party… but who the buck are you lot?” An unfamiliar voice, that of a stallion, said. Effectively breaking yet another diversion from the main focus of the assembled ponies. Looking over, four stallions stood shoulder to shoulder at the dark doorway of the monolith that towered over them. Two of the pegasi had their wings flared, ready to take off in an instant. One was a unicorn, his horn charged in dark magic. The last, an earth pony, not unlike Orpheus in his size and build.

“Luna, Princess of the Night and your Queen.” Luna said, flaring her wings out and lighting her horn in her own dark magic so powerful that it seemed to shake the very air around them.

“Amaranth. As though you had to ask… not after the last party I showed up to!” the Black stallion said with a chuckle.

“Pinkie Pie!”

“Twilight Sparkle??”

“Rainbow Dash.”

“Applejack.”

“F-Fluttershy…”

“Rarity… uncouth ruffians! “

“These six are my companions. Three are essential to resurrecting Artemis Night, your Mistress. They shall be among my children by daybreak. Three have already become one with the Night. One, only just recently…” Luna said, casting Twilight a glance before turning her attention back to the stallions before her. “Will you let us pass?”

The four stallions prostrated themselves before Luna, their heads down in reverence as they spoke in unison. “Yes our Queen, we shall grant thee passage to the tomb of our Mistress.”

“Rise, let us not tarry further.” Luna said, clearly becoming a little impatient with the constant interruptions.

“Yes, Our Queen.” the stallions said in unison before jumping up and leading the way into the crypt.

“We keep hearing about this ‘Artemis’ pony… Who is she?” Applejack asked as the group followed the four stallions into the torchlit hallway.

“Well…” Amaranth said “She’s one of the oldest vamponies in Equestria, Luna aside. She’s the only pony, other than Twilight here, to have ever fed off of Luna. As you can imagine, that gave her power like most vamponies could only dream of. She earned the nickname “Eternal Huntress” after hunting an entire clan to the last member. It took her fifty years, but over 900 ponies fell to her… She was essentially the sole killer of the then-infamous Black Soul Clan. Now, they’ve pretty much faded into the annals of history.

“She sounds like an absolute killing machine!” Rainbow said, partly aghast, while also being partly impressed.

“Oh, every vampony you meet over a hundred years old is a killing machine.” Amaranth said with a chuckle. “She’s an artist of death. A reaper with wings. Some would even say Death incarnate. She’s… a big-hearted pony who is here because she hated seeing her friends, family, lovers and even children succumb to the slow march of time. Make no mistake Miss Dash… we vamponies are ponies too.”

“Oh… my bad.” Dash said, hanging her head a bit.

Shaking his head slightly, Amaranth said “Don’t be sorry. You’ll understand soon enough… After all, You’ll have a long time to get to know Artemis. You all will.” With that, they entered a lit chamber. To say it was spacious would be a blatant understatement and insult to the craftsponies who had built the room. It was opulent! The room was massive, a design etched into the floor beneath their hooves that Twilight didn’t recognize, but knew was magical in nature. The center piece of the room was a casket of solid marble, intricately carved and sculpted with designs that were from era’s long gone.

It was Luna’s voice that broke the silence.

“Everypony, stand back.”

With that, she lit her horn in dark magic and encased the casket in an inky black glow. A short while later, a series of clicks was heard.

“A magically sealed coffin?” Twilight asked, shocked.

Setting the lid over to the side, Luna walked over to the casket, her horn dimming.

“Artemis… my old friend. Finally, we meet again.”