Author's Note

I'm going to be honest, I forgot about this story until someone favorited it recently. which reminded me I had part of a chapter written over a year ago. some digging later I Found a mostly complete chapter. a bit of time tweaking it later and here we are! Voila!

IN unrelated news, I've started a Patreon. it's mainly for Ancient Twilight but if you feel like supporting me you can go there. if you wind up sending some money my way, tell me in dm's or in discord which story you'd like your perks to apply to.

No Pain no Gain

The sound of hooves moving on dirt filled the small clearing.

It didn’t start as a clearing, but a newly turned Vampire and a Werewolf is hardly a recipe that avoids collateral damage.

In a matter of moments a soft “Oof.” echoed out as Mena, once again pinned Dash to the ground, her bored expression subtly changing to a smile.

“Do ponies truly not know how to fight anymore?” A glance at Twilight who was watching intently elicited a shrug.

Dash’s muffled voice came from below the pink pony resting on her back. “What was that?” Mena’s bored tone takes on a slight edge, never once rising in volume.

The shift in tone caused Dash’s snarky reply to die in her throat.

She’s lost limbs too many times already, she doesn’t need to go through it again.

“Nothing.”

“That’s what I thought.”

That was the worst part, she never raised her voice. Over the past few days, Dash had come to learn a few things.

The first is that her friend ‘Pinkie’ wasn’t the only one inside that messed up head, there were a few more.

There was Diana, the lusty one. Dash got a small shiver remembering her scant few interactions with the horny bitch.

There was, of course, Pinkie, but she seemed a little down about something.

Though the one she’d had the most interaction with, was Mena. The self-proclaimed second-oldest.

And a monster in the truest sense of the word.

With nothing better to do while she was pinned Dash thought back to the first time, she asked why Mena called herself a monster.

“Because I am.” she replied matter of factly.

Mena’s bored expression grew intense, her eyes shining faintly with joy. “I enjoy the hunt, the thrill of my prey as it fights for its life, but more than that, I enjoy breaking them.”

Her eyes turned wistful as if remembering something fondly. “Everyone has masks they wear, one they wear to the world so that they fit into society.”

She inspected her hoof for a moment before continuing.

“Then there’s the one beneath that they show to close friends and sometimes family.”

“There’s another one made up of all the lies and denial that they tell themselves. Everyone wants to be a ‘good pony’ and they delude themselves into thinking that they are. What I truly want to see is that final mask removed, revealing the deepest, darkest parts of their souls.”

She absently played with a knife, where she got them is anypony’s guess.

“When they understand, finally, the scope of their situation, they give into their inner darkness. They scream, they rage, they cry. I get to savor all those tiny little emotions they go through.” Mena looked at her reflection in the blade, one blue eye showing beneath her flat pink hair.

“Each pony reacts differently in their own unique way. And when I finally see their soul laid bare...I kill them.

When Dash blanched at that she looked at her, oddly intense energy shining in her blue eyes.

“I see them for who they truly are, that’s special Little Dashy. Beneath all the lies they tell themselves. All their delusions of being ‘normal’” she practically spat the word ‘normal’ out as if it was venom.

“It brings me closer than I can ever be to somepony, I was a monster before I became a werewolf, the transformation simply cemented what was already there.”

“And before you ask, I eat them when I’m done. I do still have to survive, and my diet is very different. Similar to yours actually.

At some point during this recollection, Mena had released the Vampire and was now doing some minor stretches.

Figures fighting with dash wasn’t even a warmup.

Dash for her part simply lay on the ground, not moving much at all.

With a shock, she realized she forgot to breathe again, followed immediately by the realization she doesn’t need to anymore.

It was weird, the internal silence of her body, nothing moved without her will, you get used to something for so long and when it’s gone you just feel odd.

And cold, though she was getting used to that.

Also thirsty. But that was less from being dead, and more from being undead.

“I don’t get it, all I’ve been doing so far is…” She glanced at the pink werewolf, realizing that she wasn’t even transformed and Dash still couldn’t handle her.

Dash felt she had no chance she could win against her at all. Usually, when she loses something, she has a feeling of how much she needs to work to win the next time.

She didn’t feel she had a chance period against Mena…

“Why am I only fighting against Pinkie?” The name caused Mena’s ear to twitch a bit. “Surely I would gain more experience learning from multiple teachers.” Dash’s defiant expression locked onto Twilight's dispassionate eyes.

“Fine.” Twilight stood up and lit her horn, Dash went to rise but suddenly found herself on the ground again.

Telekinesis? Or maybe gravity magic, surely if I just push...oh.

Looking down it appeared all of Dash’s limbs had been severed cleanly from her body, only her head remained attached to her torso.

“Care for a rematch? I’m sure I could dice you a bit finer next time.”

“Point taken.”

If it was at all possible, she was years, maybe centuries away from beating Pinkie.

She was millennia away from fighting Twilight.

In an effort to stall for time Dash asked a question.

“Who would win between you two? Surely one of you is stronger.”

“I would” They both said in unison.

Mena sneered at Twilight. “I’m older, therefore wiser.”

“By a decade. You spent most of that time being abused in your pack, hardly training now, is it? Meanwhile, I was being taught by Celestia since I was discovered. You didn’t know her back then, a better warrior I’ve never seen. Even sparing with Luna gave me the impression that without her hatred she would have easily lost to Celestia.”

“Please, The Sunbitch is hardly a warrior, the only thing I can see her training is her large moon.”

And that was it. One moment Mena was there, the next she wasn’t, only a furious Twilight looking up at the sky.

Oh great, it seemed she sparked a fight. Maybe observing it will give her some insight at least.

About thirty seconds later Mena reappeared, it took a few moments to realize what was wrong, but half of her coat seemed to be frozen, while on the other side of her body the hairs were blackened like coal. It took a few moments but the ground slowly started to accumulate burnt hair as the damaged ones were replaced at an alarming speed.

When her body had recovered she glared at Twilight with undisguised irritation. “Space, really? That’s just cruel.” With that, she pointed a hoof at Twilight, an amulet around her neck shining with a bright pink aura.

Wait, since when did Pinkie have a necklace?

Even more important, did pinkie just...teleport Twilight?

A few things begin to make sense to Dash, the realization that pinkie can use magic hitting her hard. Her mind ran back to moments in the past that she had just written off as ‘Pinkie Pie Weirdness’ now gaining new context with the knowledge magic was involved.

But how?

“She has a soulgem, it’s crude ancient magic that rips your soul out and forges it into a small stone, most go insane simply from the pain of such an act. It’s both her biggest defense and her greatest weakness.”

Well, that answers that, wait...who said that.

Dash tried to look around but couldn’t see anything with her limited view. She does hear two new heartbeats nearby though.

The sound of the more panicked of the two made her mouth go dry.

Enough procrastinating, she hated this part, willing limbs to reattach was tedious, and always left her feeling hungrier than before.

Slowly she calmed herself, feeling the blood inside her body stretch out to her limbs. (luckily Twilight left them quite close)

With a force of will, she pulled them back together and sighed. She rose to her hooves, glancing down she confirmed that there was no sign they were even cut in the first place.

Telekinesis was dangerous, the cuts are so much finer than a knife…

As Dash slowly turned around her red eyes pierced into the night in the direction she could hear the heartbeats coming from.

With a start, she recognized a familiar face, and a less familiar face bound and gagged on the ground behind the first.

The distinctive blue mane and sunglasses of Vinyl Scratch stood before her.

Huh, she had a pulse, which meant she couldn’t be a vampire, there’s one theory out the window.

Also, her headphones were removed from her head, exposing her tuft ears.

Wait...they look similar to Dash’s new ears…

Vinyl opened her mouth as if speaking but instead of any sound coming out it felt like her voice echoed inside Dash’s head.

“I’m part Thestral, my eyes, ears, and voicebox are all that of a batpony. Most can’t hear me unless they have ultrasensitive hearing like a vampire or a werewolf.” She gestured toward her headphones, which were hanging around her neck. “My ears are also incredibly sensitive, so I typically have magical headphones to block out other sounds. It also helps with spying for the EIS since ponies assume I can’t hear them.”

“My magic is unique in that it lets me alter sound itself. I can simply pick up conversations by feeling the vibrations of the air with my magic.”

She looked around, frowning. “I was supposed to meet with Director Twilight, who was also supposed to have explained this before I arrived...but it appears that They are fighting yet again.”

Dash is having a real hard time ignoring the bound pony behind Vinyl, she’d not really had any blood since her run-in with Roseluck….Twilight tried to give her a blood bag but it was just…

It just felt wrong, shouldn’t that blood go to a pony who needed it?

She could still remember the flavor of Roseluck on her tongue, it was so warm it seemed to fill the emptiness she felt inside.

Huh, this taste is different from what she remembered, with a start she realized she was clamped on the other ponies neck, lapping up the blood flowing into her mouth.

She tried, she really did to release the pony, but her body stubbornly refused her orders, continuing to fill a hole, that she was starting to think was bottomless.

Without warning, Dash found she was once again picking herself up off the ground. She blinked and looked confused for a moment, before taking one last swallow of the blood in her mouth.

“I was warned of this by Lun. You’re going to need to fight those urges Rainbow Dash. You weren’t meant to get so much of the divine blood during your transformation.”

Realizing what happened Dash looked for the pony she was feeding on earlier to find they were still breathing.

Dash went to sigh in relief but had no air in her lungs, causing her to blanch at the unfamiliar sensation.

“If you can resist the urges approach again. You need to lick the wound closed otherwise he’s going to bleed out.”

Dash nodded, moving toward the pony but the surroundings blurred and she slammed into the tree behind….him. It smelled like a male.

The tree for its part slowly split and began falling to the ground with a huge crash.

“Ow.”

A sigh filled the newfound stillness in the clearing. “Fledglings, stay still, I’ll bring him to you.”

Wordlessly Vinyl floated over the pony to Rainbow, who leaned in and licked his neck and backed up before the taste hit her tongue.

It worked, and the puncture marks begin to go away, the thin trail of blood leaking from his wound stopping.

Now that she was actually thinking a bit clearer she looked at the pony.

Male, blue coloring… a distinctive blue and yellow flight suit that she didn’t notice at first, being distracted by both his heartbeat and that lovely neck… wait.

“Is that bucking Soarin? I just nearly killed a wonderbolt?”

“Consider him on ‘community service’ duty for the foreseeable future.”

Dash gulped. (which had the side effect of reminding him how he tasted.)

“I should mention that you shouldn’t be at fault for your failure to release him, I was well aware of the difficulty you’d have before I brought a pony near you. Had you ever considered why you were being trained in the forest of all places?”

Vinyl was far more eloquent than Dash would have guessed from what she’d seen of the mare, but that could all be a ‘cover’ for all she knew.

“Yes, I had a lot of time to think about such things, especially considering my first is now a pile of ashes over there.” Dash’s faded blue hoof pointed in a direction she often found herself staring at.

She caught herself before saying that Twilight was lucky not to have emotions, one it was patently false, especially after what happened to her during the Summer Sun Celebration.

It was also petty.

Speaking of petty, the fight between Twilight and Pinkie was reaching a fever pitch, they seemed to have come to a ‘no magic’ rule and were simply trading blows with each other.

Usually, when this happened Dash couldn’t keep up, but this time she didn’t even have to think about following the moves, she simply could.

Without guidance, her eyes took it all in, the shifting of their weight, the fact that though each blow looked soft they would likely break most bones in the average ponies body.

“So you’ve noticed. The more you feed the stronger you become, you probably weren’t aware that you were actually starving. The Goddess's blood inside you would keep you alive for quite a while in that state, but your power wouldn’t increase by much, in fact as time went on you were getting weaker.”

“Don’t worry too much about being able to beat them, your pride will recover once you fight someone…not so well trained. And you will catch up to them in time, give it a few centuries.”

Right. She was immortal now.

“Oh Buck, how am I going to visit Fluttershy now? I don’t want to rampage around her animals, and she herself must smell…”

If Dash could blush, she would be bright red.

“Nevermind.”

Vinyl for her part simply stifled a chuckle before silently putting her headphones on.

Pinkie and Twilight looked quite tired, and it was of course now that she noticed they were surrounded.

For a bunch of Wolves, they sure could be quiet.

“Pink One! We have heeded your summons, what does an ancient wnt with our pack?!”

As one, both Twilight and Mena turn toward a large wolf emerging from the pack around them. He was easily twice the size of Pinkie when she was transformed. His shaggy grey hair ended in white tips moving in an unseen wind, a prominent scar on his face showing off a missing eye, the other one yellow and full of ferocity.

Mena’s blue eyes showed no emotion, not even bothering to acknowledge the fact that she was covered in slow healing bruises and a broken hoof that was in the process of stitching itself back together. “Fang, we have come to talk about a mutual enemy.”

The big wolf huffs in annoyance, his voice coming out less loud, but still deep enough to make dash’s chest feel the vibrations.

“Let me rephrase.” Slowly he approached and stared down PInkie, his voice coming out in a snarl.

“Why the fuck did you come. Ancients like us cannot move without great cause. Already the other packs are whispering about what could cause this.”

Mena’s reply silenced the entire clearing.

“Don’t put us on the same level Fang, or you’re other eye is going to follow its brother into my stomach.”

Shit, this was going to be a fight.

Wait.

With a shock, something occurred to Dash.

The other pack was waiting for this. They didn’t show up now randomly, they were waiting for Twilight and Pinkie to be tired.

Well, shit.

With a howl, the other wolves rushed in.

The next moments were nothing but fur and teeth.