The Timeless One

Twilight ran quickly through the crumbling halls, before reaching the solid steel door that leads to the dungeon. Twilight swallowed her anxiety as she threw the door open and raced down the stone stairs, using her wings to help speed up her descent and balance her to keep her from tumbling forward. Her breathing was ragged and her heart was pounding, her limbs begged for a rest and she struggled to keep her eyes open. The surprise war that was declared on Equestria was unannounced, as all the neighboring countries began to attack. The changelings, the buffalos, the griffons, the yaks, even some ponies. Everyone began to attack Equestrian supply trains, towns, and farms before Equestria could muster any form of militaristic defense.

Twilight shook her head as she raced through the dungeons, before sliding to a stop in front of a door. The door had a denied entrance rune welded into the metal, which denied entrance to anyone not allowed by the maker of the rune. She slowly reached for the handle to the door, before pushing it open. More stairs lead deeper into the pitch-black darkness, but as she stepped forward, her horn lit up, casting enough light to see. She felt like she walked down hundreds, if not thousands of stairs before reaching the bottom. The room was large, but in the middle was a large steel container, similarly to shipping containers she's seen at the Manehattan docks. The container had symbols, runes and words etched into the metal. Something about this made her stomach queasy, the air felt like needles, and her legs felt like concrete. The long-distance between the stairs and the container made her realize how much her head hurt, the wound bleeding profusely.

She reached for the doors of the container, grabbing the handles and throwing them open. She gasped as she stared at the contents. A single creature was suspended in the middle by several meathooks.

"I thought it was supposed to be a weapon, not a... a corpse," Twilight asked herself, hoping for some sort of indication that this was correct. She entered the container, approaching the creature. It was completely naked, it's skin having had similar runes carved into its skin, runes of binding. As she drew closer and closer, the creature sniffed the air, startling Twilight enough to make her fall on her haunches.

"Release Me," a deep male voice echoed through her head, making Twilight look around in a panic.

"W-Who's there!" She shouted out, as she backed further and further into the container, before stopping and looking at the creature. "H-Hello?"

"W-Who are you?" The same deep male voice echoed through her head, weakness echoing through its voice. Twilight looked around.

"M-My name is Twilight Sparkle, are you the weapon Celestia mentioned?" as Twilight spoke Celestia's name, the creature twitched, blood pouring from the wounds, making Twilight nearly choke.

"Y-Yes, I served King Nebula and his family," the voice echoed in Twilights head. Twilight's ears twitched at the name King Nebula.

"King Nebula is dead," Twilight told the creature.

"I know, I felt his ownership over me end several thousand years ago," the creature told her. "I no longer serve the royal family."

"W-What? B-But if you're the weapon Celestia spoke of, we need your help!" Twilight yelled at the corpse, before grunting and turning away.

"I need someone to serve, it is for the safety of the planet," the corpse whispered into Twilight's mind.

"Y-You could serve me, we need help," Twilight told the corpse. She turned around slowly as she looked at the body.

"I am sworn to your side, Twilight Sparkle, I shall protect you with my life, and follow your every command," the body twitched again, but this time it didn't stop, the body moved as the meathooks were pulled from the creature's body, peeling away flesh as it fell to its knees. As he lands on his knees, the many engravings on the container and the creature glow a soft red.

"If you are to follow my every command then defend this castle," Twilight told the kneeling corpse, who ignored her for the time being. The corpse slowly and stiffly moved forward towards small drops of blood on the floor of the container. A low growl emanated from the being as he lowered his head, opened his mouth as rows of sharp teeth lined his mouth, his tongue falling out and licking at the scattered drops of blood. "W-What are you doing?"

"Drinking," the corpse answered as he kept licking at the blood, before looking up at the terrified alicorn. His eyes were clear, his pupils were a deep crimson red as he slowly stood up, the wounds on his body slowly closing as he walked forward. "Let's go, Mistress."

"M-Mistress? J-Just call me Twilight," the alicorn princess stammered, a soft blush covering her face. The tall figure looked down at her, smirking. The creature stood at about six feet tall, his pitch-black hair hung down to the middle of his torso, stopping just under his pecs. Despite being absolutely terrifying, he was almost hypnotically handsome. Twilight found herself enraptured in his features, as she looked up at his red eyes. She noticed she had stood there for around a minute just staring, as she shook her head hard and blushed a deep red as she looked down. "Let's go."

Twilight began walking towards the stairs leading up to the main part of the dungeon, the tall figure following along behind her. She looked back at him, before walking up the stairs. Her mind raced with so many questions, that it hurt to think about anything else. What was he, who was he, how did Celestia find him, why did he lick my blood?

"Um... What's your name?" Twilight asked softly, barely higher than a whisper, as the creature smirked. He kept walking, unresponding as he left the small pony in suspense. He finally sighed as they walked up the stairs.

"I have gone by numerous names, all of them wrong," he answered her, a solemn look on his face. "I have been called things like Dracula, monster, demon... none of them are wrong, but they are not my true name."

"What is your true name?" Twilight asked as they reached the top of the stairs. She was a bit surprised as she walked into the dungeon, it felt like she had run down so many more stairs than she walked up.

"Lazarus," he uttered, a hint of disgust in his tone. He continued to follow the alicorn, up and out of the dungeon into a hallway.

"That's a kinda cool name," Twilight told him, as she walked quickly towards the entrance hall, her heart pounding in her chest. She was screaming internally that she wanted to run, but something seemed to compel her to walk, and it was driving her crazy.

"Twilight... your heart is racing, calm yourself," Lazarus spoke up, as he looked down at the pony. Twilight was shocked, how could he tell? She kept her exterior calm and collected, how did he know that she was melting down inside? The two of them enter into the entrance hall, several ponies seeing the creature and panicking, ready to attack him, before Celestia saw him, barely awake as several other ponies helped her keep the magical shield.

"C-Calm ponies, he is here to help," Lazarus stared at the weakened Celestia, no emotions showing on his face. Lazarus walked forward, before kneeling in front of Celestia. "It has been a long time Lazarus since my father locked you back up in your container."

"I have no hatred towards you or your father, he did what he needed to," Lazarus told her, before looking towards the entrance. He stood and approached the barrier, the many species outside stopping to look at the figure. He smirked, as he looked at them. "Twilight, do I have permission to attack?"

"U-Um... yes?" Twilight uttered before Lazarus walked through the magical barrier, barely affected by it. "Celestia... what is he?"

Lazarus had his head down as he walked outside into the sun, before glancing up at the many attackers, his eyes filled with a mixture of blood rage and thirst. A changeling wielding a short steel sword charged forward, stabbing the tall figure in the chest, causing several attackers to laugh, and several defending ponies to gasp and sigh. Lazarus smirked as he grabbed the sword and pulled it through him, till he could grab the throat of the colorful changeling, lifting the squirming changeling into the air, before digging his teeth into his carapace and drinking the blood from the crying changeling.

"In simple, short, and sweet terms, he is a vampire," Celestia smirked as she watched the changeling slowly dry up. Lazarus through the changeling to the side, his body unmoving as his body physically reacted to the blood he drank, becoming toned and fit instead of thin. He looked upwards at the hundreds of attackers at the doors to the castle. "Give him an order, and he will fulfill it better than any soldier."

Lazarus attacked, he moved quicker than the eye could follow. He took no damage from weapons or magic, and he seemed to grow stronger with every combatant he killed. To everyone else, it was terrifying. To Twilight, it was beautiful, a mix of carnage and dance as he killed his way through the many species before him.