The Golden Trail

The moon hung high over the trees of Canter Horn Forest, the mountain the great elder oaks surrounded partially hidden by its shadow. Where one to find a clearing or an opening in the forest's canopy, they would've had a perfect view of Equestria's capital city caught in the full moon's brilliant light. To the small group of ponies currently moving through the forest, such a splendor was reduced to a minor clip-note.

The group counted thirteen total, three Night Tribe ponies leading the charge with the remaining ten tailing behind by about five feet. All three of the stallions leading the charge had sharp blue eyes, coats as dark as night, and manes and tails as gray as ash, but that was as far as their similarities went. The Cheshire stood in the middle, his build painfully thin, yet he still carried the feline grace common to his tribe. A cold glare graced his face as his eyes scanned their surroundings, a thin black aura coating his pointed curved horn. His mane and tail was long and ragged looking, the hairs resembling dried ash-stained reeds. A dark blue spider sitting in the middle of a crimson web decorated his flanks. At his right was the Thestral of the trio, his ears flicking every now and then as he guarded his side of the group. While not to the same degree as the Cheshire, the Thestral also held a thin build, only his seemed to come from a life dedicated to speed training as opposed to malnourishment. His posture was calm, yet alert as he kept point, but a trained eye could see the building tension beneath the surface. His straight mane and tail were cut in a way solely designed to keep his mane out of his eyes. A gray owl with wide red eyes decorated his flanks. Taking point on the Cheshire's left was a Lycan, his hight identical to his companions, but his build was more focused on strength. His mane and tail were long and shaggy, the former tied back by a fraying strip of rope while the latter hung free. The wolfish pony's muzzle was low to the ground, sniffing as his fangs peeked past his lips in frustration. A dark blue hound mirroring his actions with a red shadow decorated his flanks.

"Do you still have her scent, Hound Shadow?" the Cheshire asked, his voice a cold dry whisper.

"Yes Spiderweb," the Lycan, Hound Shadow, snorted, his voice a rough growl. "What about you? Is the spell still working?"

"Yes," Spiderweb nodded, eyes still locked forward.

"Are you sure you can't get a more precise read on her location?" the Thestral asked, keeping his vigil. "I don't like being so open."

"No, unfortunately," Spiderweb sighed. "The magic Moonstone is using has many aspects to it that make it very difficult to track. Therefore, Owl Eye, we will need to rely on all of our hunting skills for this mission."

"Terrific," Owl Eye huffed, his wings twitching in irritation.

He gave the ponies walking behind them a leery glance as he sullenly added, "I still can't believe you decided to bring them along for this."

Spiderweb's frown deepened at that, all too familiar with what had his triplet so unnerved.

While small in number, the Elite Imperial Legion was made up of the most ruthlessly capable warriors in the entire kingdom. Not because of some special training routine or sacred ritual, but because they had been present long before the peaceful era the kingdom lived in now and anypony capable of adding to their ranks had long sensed passed from this world. Polished bronze covered the ten solders from top to bottom, not even their faces, ears, mane. or tails exposed to the outside world. Metallic wings were folded tightly at their sides while a deadly sharp horn made of the same material decorated their foreheads. Faint white lights could be seen shining out of the helmet's eyeholes like the souls of the lost in the dark recesses of the solders faces. Countless small runes covered the Legion armor in an intricately woven pattern that could only be made known to those unfortunate enough to earn their wearer's ire.

"They are simply a precaution," Spiderweb coldly stated.

"For what?" Hound Shadow asked, still sniffing at the ground. "Is this 'Moonstone Dagger' really that dangerous?"

"I'm with Hound on this one," Owl Eye frowned. "All of this seems a bit extreme for a simple murder case. You didn't even brief us before bringing us out here."

"That's seriously not like you," Hound Shadow frowned, pulling his head away from the ground to give his brother a glare. "So what's the deal?"

Spiderweb met his brothers' eyes, his face a cold mask that refused to let them see his thoughts. Beneath it, a burning rage thrashed against his control. Not at his brothers, but at the monster they were hunting. At the same time, he had to agree with both of them on one simple fact; he had neglected to inform them on the nature of their current prey.

His thoughts on the matter brought a feline growl out of him, his brothers taking a cautious step away from him as a result. Catching this, he reeled his fury back in and tried to organize his thoughts in a way that wouldn't make him lose control of himself. A task that Hound Shadow and Owl Eye noticed took a lot of work for the Cheshire to maintain.

"You are right," Spiderweb forced out. "I have neglected to give you two a full report of our target. Haste and anger affected my judgement on the matter and for that, I apologize."

"She's that bad?" Hound blinked, raising a brow.

"Worse," Spiderweb spat, fangs bared in a furious snarl. "So, so much worse."

"What are we dealing with?" Owl Eyes asked, eyes narrowing as he kept an ear on their surroundings.

Again, taking a second to regain control of his wrath, Spiderweb forced his focus forward as he told his brothers exactly what kind of monster they had been sent out to hunt.

***

Cherry Vine was one of several orphanages that stood in Canterlot, the building in question a shelter for over a hundred foals that, for one reason or another, lacked the needed care of a loving family or parent. It was also one of the most well funded, several Noble and lesser families donating regularly to the orphanage to help keep it alive. For over fifty years, Cherry Vine had been a place of safety and love.

Now, it was a sight straight out of a horror novel.

Dried flecks of blood soaked into the floor, walls, and ceiling of the dozens foals rooms, what few humble treasures their residents held either broken or equally stained. The various foalish drawings and craft projects that decorated the halls and staff rooms held a more tragic feel in the eerie silence that filled the air. The cafeteria looked as if a tornado had run through it, the tables seemingly tossed around into splintered debris. Shattered plates and silverware covered the floor along with hoofprints of varying sizes made of now dried blood.

The kitchen was filled with the mangled remains of the staff, some ripped to shreds while others looked as if they had been stabbed repeatedly by a blade. More chilling than the brutality on display was the lack of blood that filled the scene. It was present, but sparse in a way that didn't match the condition of the bodies. Small flecks of the crimson liquid decorated the kitchen like they were casually flicked off of something.

Them, along with a set of fully formed Blood-soaked hoofprints from some unknown adult pony that had made their way all throughout the building. The trail had been consistent and evenly paced compared to the scattered and disjointed trails that surrounded it, evidence of a slow and deliberate march. As unnerving as that fact was, it was nothing compared to the horrors on display in the playroom.

Aside from the murderer's trail, the room was completely void of blood. Instead, a tall pile of mangled bodies sat in a far corner of the room. Over a hundred foals stared blankly at Spiderweb, all of their faces twisted in silent screams of pained terror. The Cheshire took in the sight with wide eyes, the normally cold stallion frozen in silent slack-jawed horror. In all his time in this world, he had seen the foulest acts one could bring upon another. His job demanded it, solely for the sake of those who lived in the brighter side of the kingdom he served.

What he was staring at was more twisted than even the most depraved workings of the darkest cults he or his brothers had ever seen.

Slowly, red tears started to leak past his eyes, grief and seething rage filling his core the more he stared at the sick art project before him. At the same time, the black aura surrounding his horn writhed and twisted around the appendage like a burning serpent. Shadows bent and shifted back from him, seemingly scared of the hate-filled stallion while a feline growl slithered out of his fang-bared muzzle. In response to his own dark magic, he could hear the screams of the foals in their last moments of life, their pain coming to him to mix with a barely restrained rage. Slowly, his eyes drifted towards a single message jaggedly carved into the wall behind the pile of corpses, the shadows around him shifting in a wild frenzy in tune with his magic.
By their sweet cries, my edict will remain eternally crimson. So says the heir of Bloodstone Circle's legacy.

***

Owl Eye and Hound Shadow stared at their brother with wide eyes and slack jaws, both of them struggling to process what they had been told. Spiderweb's expression was almost unreadable, his clenched jaw and tense movements slipping past his calm façade as he continued his march. His brothers shook off their shock, choosing to save whatever feelings they had over the matter until they found their prey.

That didn't stop their thoughts from wandering though.

For Hound Shadow, his marefriend and her daughter's face drifted to the front of his mind. While they hadn't been together for very long, he had grown a strong bond with both of them. In many ways, they were the two things that kept him going every time he went to work. The thought of little Moonlight or Star Dancer suffering the fate that befell the ponies within that orphanage both froze and boiled his blood at the same time. His fangs sharpened as he sniffed the ground, his shaggy coat slightly thickening as his muscles and bones grew and toughened at the same rate underneath.

Owl Eye was completely impossible to read, his stance straight and rigid from countless years of dedicated training. Every single muscle in his body was primed and ready to strike, all of his senses picking up even the faintest traces of perception. A faint humming was the only thing he ignored, its source being he himself as his magic ran through him on an equally tense hair-trigger. He knew that Princess Twilight had put a hit on a capital A Class prisoner that had escaped recently, but he didn't know the sheer magnitude of what this target was capable of. Now he was happy that Spiderweb dragged him off before he could send his elite Guards out to hunt her. It made his feelings towards the Solders at his tail lighten up a little, though not by much.

Now that he had pushed the memories to the back of his mind, Spiderweb had regained his calm. However, it held the arctic chill of a reaper's scythe. Slowly, the Cheshire ran through his long list of spells, compared it to the magic he detected at the crime scene, and tried to think of which ones would allow him to destroy his target effectively. The problem was that a part of him didn't want to take the efficient rout. He wanted to make her suffer, to make her final moments as slow and agonizing as possible.

A sentiment both he and the Princesses shared on the matter.

Pushing back the memories of how the princesses took his report, he forced himself to not give in to the darker temptations some of his spells provided. Whether it be swift or slow, all that mattered was that the mare was no longer in this world. Besides, he refused to lose his reputation of being a professional over something so petty as pure bloodthirsty hatred.

All three of the stallions came to a sudden stop, each of them picking up on their target in different ways. For Hound, the smell of fresh blood was unmistakable, as was the rancid smell of cheap booze, but the sheer intensity of it made him almost wretch. Owl could hear the crackling of a fire along with a slurred female voice rambling about something that he couldn't make any sense of. The humming his body gave off faded away with his wings being the sole exception as he subtly moved into a low crouch. Hound did the same, his fangs bared in the direction both of his brothers looked. What Spider saw and sensed chilled and enraged him in equal measure. In the direction his brother's detected their prey, he could see rancid red tendrils of energy grabbing onto everything in sight. Trees, shrubs, and much of the ground were covered by the foul magic, poisoning everything they touched like plague given form.

"Found her," Spider growled, the black aura surrounding his horn flaring out slightly.

His brothers nodded.

Primed, the three brothers slowly crept towards their target, their ten supporters doing the same with just as much care. As they moved, the smells became more noticeable, the fire more visible, and the toxic magic tendrils more numerous. When Moonstone's campsite came into view, Spider had to cancel his tracking spell to retain his composure. Once he managed to swallow down his pile and reassured his brothers that he was fine, he joined them in studying their target.

At the moment, the mare was sitting in front of a poorly built fire, poking what were essentially lit embers with a stick she held in her hoof. The mare didn't seem to have any supplies or items of note beyond the red cloak wrapped around her. She teetered where she sat, whimpers and mad mutterings slipping past her muzzle as she stared into the fire.

"Why did I let you talk me into doing that?" she slurred, her voice shaky and weak. "They had nothing to do with her. Th-They were....They were just foals....they had...... I could've fed you something else! There are plenty of animals in the Canterlot Gardens or maybe a few stray vagrants from the slums! I didn't need to-!"

She paused, then shakily nodded as she said, "Th-that is fair. J-Just don't make me do that again. I-I-I want to kill Gold Vine. That is why I summoned you in the first-"

Another pause, then, "N-No! That wasn't what we agreed upon! O-Our contract said-!"

She froze, then frantically put her hooves over her ears.

"N-N-NO! STOP! I DON'T WANT TO HE-! DON'T MAKE ME HEAR THEIR SCREAMS!!!"

Taking advantage of the distraction, Spiderweb sent a small spell-signal to the Legion Solders behind them. The solders nodded, then with a few faint black flashes, they teleported to different locations around the clearing. Five hovered out of sight in the forest's canopy while the remaining five hid in the foliage with one standing at their commander's left. Hound Shadow silently moved into the shadows while Owl Eye joined the arial force with just as much stealth. Slowly, Spiderweb gathered some of his magic and, with eyes never leaving the trembling mare, began to chant.

As the words slid past his lips, Moonstone froze, then grasped at her throat. Wet, hacking coughs fell out of her as she fell to her side, blood pouring out of her mouth and eyes. He could see the fear in her eyes, the red orbs looking around frantically for help. The sight added to his rage, new eldritch words leaving his mouth as a new curse was added to the first.

She screamed as she felt something pop inside of her, yellow bile joining the blood leaving her mouth.

Another curse was added to the pile.

Moonstone screamed as her tongue swelled then popped like a wet balloon.

More foul magic was used.

Moonstone watched with hysteric fascination as her hide slowly turned a sickly brow before it fell off of her. The rot spread to everything underneath, careful to avoid the mare's vital organs. While she laid there writhing in agony, Spiderweb stepped out of cover and approached her. There was no way the mare could escape, regardless of what dark pacts she had made. His face was as blank as a fresh sheet of paper as he casually approached her. With a thin barrier coating him, he stepped through the slurry of fluids surrounding Moonstone Dagger and moved into her line of sight.

She looked up at him pleadingly, oblivious to the fact that the stallion standing before her was the source of her agony.

In a way, he was also going to be the one to give her the relief her eyes begged him for.

"Moonstone Dagger," he started, tone empty of all emotion. "For the crimes of extortion, mass kidnapping and torture, possession and trade of illegal magical components and text, escaping confinement, and the confirmed murder of one guard as well as the staff and residents of Cherry Vine Orphanage, you have been sentenced to death. As Princess Luna's personal aid, I have come to carry out this sentence in her stead."

Before he could continue, the mare frantically tried to say something. At first, Spiderweb thought she was trying to beg for her worthless life, but that quickly changed when she eventually managed to find a way to get her message out. While wet and slurred, the message was clear as day to the stallion. A single terrified word that put a chill down his spine and served as his only warning for what was to come.

"W-Wun!"

Spiderweb jumped back just in time to avoid a flurry of seven foot long red spikes that jutted out of the mare's body. Wet pained gasps came out of her along with a sickening high pitched mare voice that echoed from the spikes. The laughter grew as Moonstone staggered to her hooves, her movements jerky and forced like the workings of a rusty marionette. The fluids that soaked the ground beneath her slowly oozed back into her body, the spikes retracting back into her as her body repaired itself. Once she was whole again, she closed her eyes with a pained grimace, then threw her head back and let out a blood curdling scream. At the same time, her cloak writhed, liquified, then turned into a geyser of screaming foal heads. Spiderweb watched with a disgusted glare as it was revealed that not only was the cloak made form the blood of the orphans, but it was also erupting from a hole in her back. All the while, that same insane laughter continued to fill the air.

Just as suddenly as it erupted, the blood began to wrap itself around the mare, pain and terror plain on her face as she reached for the stallion. When the blood covered her head, her limb went limp, then went back to the ground as a manic smile formed on her face. The blood flowed across her body in a constant stream, her mane and tail weighed down on her like a pair of wet mops. Her horn was coated in a hardened shell of crimson, the ruby crystal filling its cracks glowing a hateful color to match.

"Quite a lot of foul spells mortal," the demon chuckled, its smile impossibly wide. "Tell me, did your mother teach you such language? Naughty, naughty mare, she is."

"What are you?" Spiderweb demanded, his tone even and cold.

The creature chuckled.

"Quite the loaded question. What am I? I believe the broadest term you mortals use is 'demon', but I prefer the older title of 'daemonis'. What do you think? Is it not more worthy of somepony as refined as I?"

"There is nothing refined about those that kill foals," Spiderweb spat, his eyes narrowing.

"Is that why you are in such a foul mood?" the demon asked, a puzzled look gracing its borrowed face as it tilted its head at him. "Why? I was hungry and their blood just smelled so good."

An ecstatic look crossed the creature's face at that, its eyes rolling back in pleasure for a second while its host's body shivered.

"How could I not have a few sips?" it continued, its twisted smile returning while its head stayed tilted to the left.

"Enough," Spiderweb growled. "Identify yourself, monster so that I can be done with you."

"No fun," the demon chuckled. "But I guess you deserve to at least know the name of your killer. Listen well moon taint.

The slur added more venom to Spiderweb's glare, but he refused to show any other signs that the demon's words affected him.

Straightening his posture, the demon's smile grew as it began, "Standing before you, held in the body of my own kin, is the great Lord Bloodstone Circle of the Noble House of Stone."

Shock took the place of Spider's glare at that.

"The Crimson Duke?" he asked.

"The one and only," Bloodstone cackled.

A venomous smile formed on Spiderweb's muzzle, the act shrinking Bloodstone's a bit.

"Good," Spiderweb snorted, smile still present as he leveled his horn at the demon. "Now I can actually enjoy killing you."

Before Bloodstone could respond, Spiderweb fired a small black ball of magic into the air. When it reached the forest canopy, it burst with a loud crack like a firecracker. A second later, all of the Legion Solders fired magic down onto their land-bound target. Ten beams, each a different color and the width of foreleg lancing through the ground and surrounding trees with the heat of the sun in an intricate pattern.

Bloodstone let out a pained wail, his voice a twisted mix of his own and his host's. The beams tore through him from every conceivable angle, turning his borrowed body into a perforated mess. When the beams finally stopped, Bloodstone's body was so thoroughly damaged, it should've been impossible for him to stand.

"Not bad," he chuckled, blood leaking out of his wounds and eyes. "Now, let me show you how it's really done."
https://youtu.be/746ElHmLvQI

A second later, blood poured out of Bloodstone's wounds in thick jets, the geysers instantly shaping themselves into long tendrils. LIke angry vipers, they lashed out to where the solders were hidden and pulled them into the clearing. One of them tried to grab Spiderweb, but a few cursed words destroyed it before it could touch him. At the same time, the runes in the Solders' armor activated, coating the warriors in a shining golden aura.

"The Equestrian Royal Legion?" Bloodstone blinked, his smile growing more twisted as he observed the ponies held in his grip. "What an honor! To think those two fools would send the best of the best to deal with little old me. I'm touched!"

In perfect synch, the ten Solders activated a mechanism in their vambraces. Foot-long wrist blades extended out of them and the armored ponies slashed themselves free from the demon's grip. Bloodstone laughed as the parts of his tendrils that had been holding them melted off of them onto the ground. With a faint pulse of power, the runes on the Solder's weapons burned to life, coating the blades in golden fire while their metallic wings kept them out of the demon's reach. At the same time, Spiderweb started to chant, the black aura surrounding his horn slowly moving down to the rest of his body.

Bloodstone chuckled, his wounds healing while the bases of his tentacles shifted position to his back. Said appendages quickly grew back to their original length, darting and lashing at the air like a cluster of vipers. The Solders didn't give him a chance to do anything else. Four of them flew towards him, ready to tear him apart with their swords and metal wings while the remaining six fired magic beams at him from different angles. Small drops of blood shot off of Bloodstone's body, slamming into the incoming attacker's breastplates hard enough to send them rocketing back through some trees while a dark red barrier protected him from the rays.

"Not this time," he cackled, eyes wide as he eyed each of the armored ponies in turn. "If you want to hurt us some more, you are all going to need to be a bit more clever."

A second later, the four Solders he knocked away teleported around him, then quickly sank their blades into him.

"That's more like it!" he cheered, eyes wide with madness as stared at each of his attackers in turn.

A second later, the blood covering his barrel morphed into the shape of foal heads, more blood pouring from the empty black holes that took the place of their eyes. The heads wailed in torment as they fired pressurized gallons of blood from their mouths at the Solders. The force was just enough to send them back, wrenching the blades out of the demon's borrowed body before they were again sent flying into the tree-line. The firing squad took another shot, but instead of shooting from different angles, they gathered into a tight flock above him and combined their beams into a single powerful blast. Bloodstone put up another barrier to try and block it, but the attack was more than enough to shatter his defense. The dust hadn't even settled before the armored ponies collectively gave their metallic wings a hard flap, sending some of their feathers down onto their prey like a rain of daggers. They were quickly rewarded for their efforts with the sounds of pained yells and meat getting cut.

The dust was quickly knocked aside a second later by a chorus of foalish wails. The demon's body was peppered with metal feathers, but otherwise lacked any evidence of the previous onslaught. He stared up at them with pure manic glee, fresh blood writhing around his hooves as a living puddle. Laughing, he willed the blood into action, the liquid surging up towards the Solders as a swarm of crimson flies. The small hellions exploded on contact, filling the air with flashes of crimson light as one of the Solders was knocked out of the sky. While one of his comrades flew his aid, the rest of the squad broke formation to try and avoid the small swarm of explosives.

Bloodstone watched them try, manic chuckles slipping past his wide toothy smile, his head faintly twitching to the side every few seconds. He jumped to the side just in time to avoid a searing beam of dark magic from Spider, the Cheshire covered with the same sickening magic. Manic grin met hateful glare as the two combatants stared each other down, before Bloodstone sicked some of his tentacles on Spiderweb. At the same time, a transparent blast of sound from the forest's canopy tore through the air and slammed the demon into a tree. The tentacles continued to reach towards Spider, but before they could reach him, his magic cover lashed out towards them. On contact, the blood limbs darkened then crumbled away into dust.

Bloodstone's smile shrank a little at that, using a few of his remaining tentacles to pull him out of the tree.

"Night Seeker's Rotten Tongue," Spider spat. "A useful little spell when dealing with monsters that use organic magical mediums."

"Impressive," Bloodstone chuckled. "Combine that with the friend you have hiding in the trees and this could get a little more difficult for us."

"Who said that's it?!" a voice from the tree-line roared.

A second later, Bloodstone's shadow shifted shape beneath him then shot up through him as long spikes. A dual voiced cough fell out of his muzzle along with a glob of blood. The foal heads on his barrel let out more screams in response, only to go suddenly silent when Owl dove down from hiding and cleaved the demon's head off with a swipe from his wing. Hound charged out of hiding as well and pinned the head under his hoof, shadows morphing around the limb into a claw to keep it securely trapped.

Spider closed in on the head, ready to lay his curse and put an end to this hunt, only to stop when he noticed just how quiet the forest had become. He looked up just in time to see one of his own Solders flying towards him, swords drawn and countless new crimson runes carved into its armor. His brothers noticed as well and quickly scrambled out of the way as the rest of their backup came for them. The three brothers dodged the blows as best as they could, meanwhile, Bloodstone cackled wildly at the scene.

The second they were pushed a good ten feet away, a blood tentacle burst out of Bloodstone's open neck, connected to his head, then retracted until it was snapped back into place.

"It's amazing how flexible Sangumancy is," Bloodstone cackled, moving his head from side to side. "Just a few quick drops of blood and some know-how and even holy runes can be reworked. Well, it helps if you're a Daemonis as well, but I digress."

None of the brothers responded, all of them more interested in keeping themselves from being ended by their own support to humor the mad demon.

"As fun as this has been," Bloodstone continued. "I do have a contract to complete and seeing as none of you are named Gold Vine, I will not be able to do it here. Ta-ta my dear Moon Blights; shall we dance again in the future."

With that, Bloodstone's tendrils melted off of his back onto the ground, formed into an intricate magic circle around him, then let out a near-blinding crimson flash of light. When passed, several things happened at once that filled the brothers with a mix of relief and rage. The corrupted runes canceled themselves, the Solders fell bonelessly to the ground, and Bloodstone was gone.