Angel of Justice: Blood Moon

Fluttershy followed close behind as Sunspot led her up the stairs and through the final path of the haunted house in search of their friends. Both mares had silver knives, and Sunspot was keeping her strobe pointed ahead and clearing every room as they entered.

The house was empty as far as they had seen. Sure, the occasional prop would pop out at them automatically, but several rooms were devoid of scares as if the actors that were supposed to be there to pop out at guests were gone.

“What’s going on?” Fluttershy asked, looking around uneasily and keeping a tight grip on her tiny weapon. She would be scared by her current surroundings on a good day, but with the risk of more of those creatures lurking around, she was terrified for a different reason now.

Sunspot glanced back at her timid companion and softened her expression before returning her eyes forward and pointing her strobe toward an open doorway, only to find it empty. “I’m not sure.”

“Have you heard from any of the others?” Fluttershy asked, a hint of concern in her voice.

“Not yet…” Sunspot replied uneasily. After a moment of thought, she sighed and put a hoof to her ear once more. “This is Sunspot, is there anyone there? Come on, guys… somepony pick up.”

After a moment of dreadful silence, a voice responded.

“This is Sparkplug… is everything ok?” The gray mare spoke, a somber and defeated tone to her voice that didn’t go unnoticed.

Sunspot deflated with relief and eyed to Fluttershy to let her know. “Thank the princess… Sparkplug, listen up. We just had a run-in with some kind of roided up pony with lots of sharp teeth.”

“Yeah, we ran into something similar.” Sparkplug explained hesitantly.

“Oh my gosh… everything ok?”

“Not exactly…” Sparkplug sighed gloomily and paused. “They kicked us around for a bit and took the kids. Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo… Apple Bloom. They’re all gone.”

Sunspot paled and stopped walking. “Sweet Celestia…”

Before the gray mare could respond further, another set of heavy breathing came over the call that sounded feminine and familiar.

“This… this is Glitterball.” The unicorn stated, very much out of breath and even seemingly in pain as she cringed softly.

“Oh my gosh…” Sparkplug chimed in, unsettled by how much worse off the unicorn sounded.

“Glitter, are you alright?” Sunspot added.

“I’ve been better…” Glitter paused briefly and cut off the call, but not before a slight whine of pain bled through. “Glimmer and I had a run-in with some of those… toothy… uh… vampires. Can we just agree to call them vampires?”

“How do you know they’re vampires?” Sunspot wrinkled her expression a bit.

“Other than the fact that one of them bit me in the neck and tried to suck my blood?” Glitterball said with a strained voice.

“Oh… gosh. Are you sure you’re ok?” Sunspot frowned with concern.

“This is Glimmer,” The stallion interjected, a bit out of breath, but much healthier sounding than his unicorn companion. “She’s a bit roughed up, but I can’t get her to settle down if that tells you anything. Anyway… we just barely got away from those freaks. The strobes weren’t effective enough to kill them.”

“Sounds about right.” Sunspot nodded. “Listen, silver seems to be our best bet right now. We poked ours with a knife and it lit up like a campfire.”

“I wish I knew that a few minutes ago…” Sparkplug chimed in gloomily.

“Stay strong, Sparkplug. I’m sure we’ll get the girls back. In the meantime, keep the others safe and try to meet up with us. We’re on our way back to the castle to grab some gear and tell the princess.” Glimmer Shine explained.

“Good. I’ll join you guys once me and Fluttershy find Rainbow Dash and Blue Bolt.” Sunspot said, glancing over to her yellow companion and flashing a reassuring expression.

“What about Tom?” Sparkplug chimed in.

“What about him? I thought he was with you guys?” Glimmer asked.

“No… he left a while ago to head back to the castle. I’ve tried reaching him, but he won’t respond.” Sparkplug explained with a hint of unease.

“That’s not good…” Glimmer Shine stated. “How about it, Tom? You there, buddy?” He asked, only to receive silence for several seconds and sigh. “Dangit… we’ll have to find him later. I’m sure he can handle himself. In the meantime, everyone stay safe and keep your wits about you. From the sound of it, there’s still more of those things out there terrorizing the city.”

“Got it.” Sparkplug replied.

Sunspot nodded, even though only Fluttershy could see her. “Got it.”

Fluttershy looked to her orange friend with a bit of a troubled expression. She could only hear Sunspot responding to seemingly nothing, and what little bits she heard from the pegasus weren’t very reassuring.

“Is everyone ok?” Fluttershy asked hesitantly.

Sunspot didn’t answer for a moment. “Yes and no… We don’t know where Tom is, and some more of those freaks took the crusaders.”

Fluttershy caught a gasp with her hoof, her form beginning to tremble at the thought of the fillies in danger. “Oh no…”

“We’ll get them back.” Sunspot said, resting a hoof on the yellow mare’s shoulder. “Right now, we need to focus on finding Rainbow Dash and Blue Bolt.” She gestured ahead.

“R-right…” Fluttershy nodded, doing her best to ignore the dread slowly filling her gut. She had a bad feeling that she couldn’t shake, and she was afraid that it had to do with their missing friends.

With newfound urgency, the pair continued moving through the dark halls of the mansion.

Soon, they found themselves at the edge of the house, evidenced by a series of windows along the wall to the left. There was a bit of an open area ahead of them, with a room up ahead that had a hole in its door.

Fluttershy immediately had her eyes drawn to something lying on the ground in the moonlight from a nearby window. “Look!” She pointed to the object, which appeared to be a fancy tophat on the floor that both of them recognized to belong to Blue Bolt.

“Sshh!” Sunspot hushed the yellow mare as a sound from up ahead pricked her ears.

Both of the pegasi fell silent and listened as the soft sound of sobs came through the hole in the door up ahead. It sounded like a mare, and much to the pair’s concern, it sounded very familiar to them.

“Dashie…?!” Fluttershy said before widening her eyes and running forward. Sunspot quickly followed behind as the yellow pegasus ran over to the broken door.

The pair gathered around the door and looked inside into what appeared to be a bedroom. However, their full attention was grabbed by the familiar sight of a cyan mare in a Wonderbolt costume hunched over another figure on the ground.

“Rainbow Dash… are you ok?” Sunspot asked, noting the mare’s quiet sobs and sniffles. She paused and felt her heart drop as she saw a puddle of blood and a hint of blue fur. “Oh no…”

As she noticed the blood as well, Fluttershy gasped and quickly made her way through the hole in the door. She rushed up to the cyan mare, causing Rainbow to look up and fully reveal what she had been crying over.

The lifeless corpse of a familiar blue stallion was lying in a pool of his own blood, seemingly from a large wound on his neck. His eyes were closed, and one foreleg was resting on his chest, which Rainbow Dash was holding onto tightly.

Seeing her friend in such a state, Fluttershy backed up a step and fell onto her haunches. She stared ahead wide-eyed, tears beginning to well up and her hoof beginning to tremble.

While Sunspot rushed over and examined the stallion, Rainbow Dash looked over to her friend and nearly collapsed into her, wrapping her forelegs around and squeezing tight.

“Fluttershy… I’m so sorry…” Rainbow said, her voice hoarse, quiet, and shaky. “I… I couldn’t… He…” She glanced back to the stallion for a moment before averting her eyes and trying to fight back another round of tears. She was surprised to see Fluttershy burying her head into her shoulder and returning her hug.

Sunspot looked up from beside Blue Bolt’s body to see the two mares hugging it out. While Fluttershy probably intended to comfort her friend, she started sobbing into Rainbow Dash’s shoulder. The cyan mare didn’t seem to mind, and she was trying to get a handle on her emotions now that she wasn't alone, but it was easy to see that she was far too heartbroken to care much for her reputation.

Looking down at the lifeless stallion beneath her, Sunspot hung her head and closed her eyes for a moment. A wide variety of regretful thoughts buzzed in her head. She was certain she could think of at least a dozen ways she could have gotten to them sooner, but she couldn’t let her emotions get the better of her. She was a monster hunter, and right now the city and all of its denizens needed her and her team.

“Girls… I’m sorry to say it, but we can’t stay here. The city’s under attack, and we need to get everyone back together so we can figure out a way to stop these things.” Sunspot explained regretfully.

Rainbow Dash looked up from the yellow mare still silently crying into her fur. She looked at Sunspot before stealing a glance at the stallion, softening her expression and nodding.

“Ok… ok,” Rainbow said. Although she didn’t want to leave her friend like this, she didn’t want to let what happened to him happen to anypony else. “Come on, Flutters… we have to go.” She gently helped the still grieving mare to her hooves.

“But… b-but…” Fluttershy hiccuped as she looked over her shoulder at the stallion while her friends led her away.

“I know…” Rainbow Dash said understandingly, patting the yellow mare and holding a foreleg around her. She looked behind her at the door to the bedroom as they walked away, a stray tickle working its way up her throat as she took a sharp breath. “I know…”

Meanwhile, back at the royal palace, the atmosphere was much more upbeat and colorful in the ballroom as everyone partied and enjoyed themselves.

Near the front of the room, Twilight Sparkle was enjoying some punch with her mentor and Cadence. The trio watched as Shining Armor and Spike took turns bobbing into a large bucket full of water.

Shining Armor dunked his muzzle into the water and fished around for a moment before coming up with an apple, receiving a few clops from the ponies gathered around. Spike tried the same, hanging onto the side of the bucket and submerging his entire head. Suddenly, he lost balance and fell in, with his tail catching on the side and preventing him from falling the rest of the way.

The dragon flailed for a moment, trying to get above water again in a panic. Before he could drown in shallow water, Shining Armor levitated him up. Much to the stallion’s surprise, he had an apple in his mouth that he seemed particularly proud of despite how soaking wet he was.

Twilight smirked as she watched the pair across the room. She looked over to see Cadence watching with a similarly warm expression. “We should spend time together more often.” She commented.

“I agree.” Cadence nodded.

“It’s a shame you didn’t get to celebrate your anniversary here. I would have commissioned the finest cake for you.” Celestia added a bit regretfully.

Cadence fought a pang in her stomach and her heart at the thought. “I appreciate the gesture, but… we had a great time together.”

“You know, you could just come down to Ponyville and celebrate it with us. Who said you need to celebrate something on the day of?” Twilight suggested.

“Hmm… that sounds like a good idea. I’ll have to ask Shining about it later and see what he thinks, but I’m sure he’ll agree.” Cadence smiled.

“Princess…” A gruff voice spoke up from off to the side.

Celestia looked over to see a guard walking up to her. “What is it?” She asked.

“Someone is requesting your presence in the foyer.” The guard explained.

Celestia twitched an eyebrow curiously. “Really? Who?”

“He didn’t give a name, but he looked like a brown unicorn. I apologize for being so vague… he was wearing a cloak.” The guard said.

“Did this unicorn give a reason why he wanted to see me?” Celestia asked, a veiled twinge of curiosity to her voice.

The guard shook his head. “No. Normally, I wouldn’t trouble you with such a request, but he seemed rather insistent. He said to tell you… that you were old acquaintances.” He explained with a bit of confusion.

Hearing this, Celestia wrinkled her expression. “Well then… I suppose I should go see this unicorn, at the very least to find out for myself what he wants.” She said before turning to her student and niece. “I’ll be right back.”

Twilight and Cadence watched as Celestia and the guard left through the connecting hallway toward the foyer. They were just as curious about who could have requested her presence so suddenly.

Walking alongside the guard, Celestia’s focus was absent as she thought about who her strange visitor could have been. She wasn't expecting any dignitaries or members of any noble family, and none of the old acquaintances she could think of were brown unicorns, not that any of her acquaintances could be that old comparatively.

Eventually, the opening to the foyer came into view. The alicorn walked through, closely followed by the guard. However, as soon as they stepped into the grand room, they both froze.

Scattered around the room were the bodies of three guards. Two were on the ground floor, while the third was midway up the stairs. All of them were covered in blood, to the point where the two nearby were lying in pools of the crimson fluid.

“What in the name of…” Celestia widened her eyes as she surveyed the area for any sign of who or what caused this travesty. She trotted over to one of the stallions, only to feel her heart sink as she saw no signs of life.

“Princess, you should get somewhere safe.” The guard said, unsheathing his sword and standing near the alicorn protectively while searching for whatever threat must have been nearby. He had been in this room mere moments before, and his three comrades were still alive then.

Hearing a slight groan, Celestia trailed her eyes up the stairs, only to see a twitch of movement coming from the third guard. She immediately rushed up the steps and knelt down, surprised to find that the stallion was still barely clinging to life.

Celestia frowned as she saw how poor shape he was in. He could barely move, and he seemed to be in the process of slipping away. “Hang in there…” She said, resting a hoof on his side and examining a circular wound punched clean through his body. “Can you tell me who did this?”

The stallion produced a faint noise of pain and tensed his limbs. He trailed his eyes up at the alicorn sluggishly and opened his mouth, seemingly trying to speak. However, before he could spend his last breath, his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fell still.

Celestia’s expression fell as she stared at the now lifeless pony for a moment. As much of a hollow pit was left in her gut from watching one of her beloved subjects die, one of her guards even, she couldn’t linger on her saddened thoughts with danger potentially nearby.

“Stoic Shield, I need you to alert Shining Armor and put the castle on lockdown. Whoever did this is probably still here.” She called back to the guard downstairs, still absorbed in her thoughts about who the culprit was. Given his sudden appearance, her prime suspect was the strange unicorn that wanted to see her.

However, she shifted her eyes to the side in confusion as nothing but silence greeted her.

“Stoic Sh-” Celestia turned around, only to freeze as she found the strangely silent guard.

The stallion was standing downstairs, still clutching his sword in his mouth, but he was staring ahead in shock. Much to the watching alicorn’s horror, a spurt of blood shot from his neck from a deep slash.

Before Celestia could so much as react, the stallion dropped his sword clattering to the ground and collapsed with a quiet gurgle of pain.

“No!” Celestia made it a couple of steps down before forcing herself to stop. The stallion was already limp and unmoving, and there was nothing she could do for him. Right now, she was under attack, and she had to keep her wits about her.

Lighting up her horn, she whipped her head around while simultaneously scanning for magical energies.

“Where are you?!” She shouted to thin air.

Right around that time, she darted her eyes to the front entrance, which was still open to welcome citizens into the palace for the costume ball. While nopony was outside seemingly, there was a strange and unsettling magical presence coming from that direction.

A cold and smug chuckle came from just out of sight as a cloaked figure stepped into the foyer. Brown hooves and a long horn could be seen poking out of a green shroud, while deep red eyes stared up at the alicorn on the steps.

“Hello, Princess… Lovely night we’re having, isn’t it?” The pony asked, offering a playful bow before gesturing around him at the moonlight streaming into the room and reflecting in the pools of blood on the floor.

Celestia lowered herself into a guarded stance and intensified her horn’s glow. A fiery orange ball formed at the tip of her horn, which she promptly pointed at the strange figure. “Identify yourself, murderer! Who are you?!” She demanded.

Hearing this, the red eyes adopted a softer look that almost resembled disappointment, though there was a hint of a stronger emotion in them as well.

“Oh? You don’t remember this voice? I’m hurt, Princess… Then again, it has been a long time, even for you.” The stallion said, speaking with a sense of casual familiarity with the alicorn that not even the highest of nobility displayed.

Suddenly, Celestia narrowed her eyes at the stallion before widening them as a long-forgotten memory came to the surface. “What… no…” She backed up a step and shook her head. “That’s not possible… you can’t be… you’re supposed to be-”

“Dead?” The stallion interrupted sharply, losing the casual look of playful confidence in his eyes and replacing it with a contemptful stare as he reached up and removed his cloak. “I suppose that’s a normal reaction… considering you’re the one who killed me.”

Celestia reeled back slightly as she was confronted by what could only be a young brown alicorn with silver hair. Two wings were tucked up at his sides, and although he was only around Luna’s height, he still stood tall over most ponies. A half sun and moon adorned his flanks, caught between a horizon of green pasture. Most curiously, however, were the three wounds across his neck and forelegs, which seemed dry despite how open they were.

“Dusk…?!” Celestia muttered in quiet shock, still at a loss for how the brown alicorn could be standing in front of her. “How are you alive?”

“Something the mighty Celestia doesn’t know?” The stallion tilted his head cynically. “Well… there’s a surprise. Let’s just say that after you condemned me to death, I was forced to turn to less… conventional means to ensure my survival.”

Just then, something lukewarm and wet touched Celestia’s back hooves. She spun her head around, only to widen them as she saw the pool of blood from the guard behind her moving down the steps.

She turned and followed the blood, only to realize that the blood from the other guards was moving too. All of the crimson fluid was shifting along the floor unnaturally, seemingly pulled by some unseen force toward the brown alicorn and into the three wounds across his body.

Celestia watched the macabre spectacle with more than a bit of disturbance on her face. The stallion seemed to enjoy the process, though he didn’t show as much restraint in letting her know what he was feeling as he paused and stretched his neck to allow the stream to more easily reach him with a contented smile plastered on his face.

“What have you done…?” Celestia asked, returning a serious air to herself. However, it was easy to make out how unsettled she was as she looked around at the bodies around her, which were now mostly devoid of blood.

“I’ve grown, Princess. I’ve grown more powerful than you or your precious sister could ever imagine. To think… after everything you did, after everything you said to justify her punishment, you welcome her back with open hooves like nothing ever happened. Then again… maybe her time on the moon made her soft? It certainly seemed that way when I ran into her.” Dusk smirked a bit, allowing the white alicorn a view at his fangs.

Celestia’s face paled as she listened to the stallion. “Luna…?! What did you do with her?!” She demanded, taking a few steps forward with anger flaring in her eyes. She knew that if her sister confronted such a murderous foe that she wouldn’t let him go without a fight, and that was what was currently causing a knot to form in her stomach.

Dusk produced a quiet and throaty chuckle at the alicorn’s unease. He looked off to the side before lighting up his horn. After a moment, a familiar blue alicorn came floating through the doors, held aloft by a silver magical glow.

The princess of the night was covered in bloody wounds, from her head down to her hooves. Cuts and strange circular punctures of various sizes and depths littered her body, which was limp as a ragdoll.

“Sister!” Celestia reached forward as the stallion tossed the blue mare over to her. Luna would have roughly dropped to the floor if she didn’t catch her and gently float her down, where she settled without so much as a twitch.

Glaring up at the monstrous alicorn, Celestia rushed down the last few steps and knelt down next to her sister. She kept an eye on Dusk as she examined her sibling with a fearful pang in her heart.

Thankfully, as she rested a hoof on the blue mare’s side, Luna groaned softly and opened her eyes.

The wounded alicorn seemed dazed and weak as she briefly tried to move, only to settle on staying still as she trailed her eyes up to see Celestia over her.

“T… Ti..a…?” Luna muttered faintly.

Celestia softened her expression, even managing a relieved smile, as she gently stroked her sister’s disheveled mane. “Lulu…”

“How touching.” Dusk chimed in. “You wouldn’t think that a mere thousand years ago you two were at each other’s throats.”

Hearing this, Celestia glared up at the stallion and stood up. “Luna changed, Dusk… She learned from her mistakes. I see you never have.” She said, starting to walk forward until she was stopped by a shaky hoof reaching out and grabbing her foreleg.

“Sister… d.. don’t…” Luna said, struggling to get the words out amidst her shallow breathing. She couldn’t even lift her head to look up at the older alicorn. “He’s… too s-strong.”

Celestia briefly grabbed the hoof holding onto her and gave it a reassuring squeeze as she looked down to her sister and smiled. “Rest now, Luna… This is my mess. I will take care of this.” She looked up to the stallion and intensified her gaze as she let go and started walking ahead.

Dusk watched silently as the princess of the sun approached him. He didn’t seem at all threatened or particularly concerned. In fact, he was looking at her like a cat lazily playing with a mouse.

Celestia stopped a few feet away, taking care to leave enough space between them to guard if he should try anything funny. “I suspect you’ve done something unnatural to yourself if you’ve survived this long and gotten strong enough to best Luna. Judging from the fangs and the thirst for blood, I would wager a guess that you’ve inflicted yourself with some form of vampirism.” She stated, not once removing her steely gaze from the other alicorn.

“I didn’t know you were so well versed in monsters, Princess. Have you taken up new hobbies since I’ve been gone?” Dusk asked with a playful smirk.

Celestia merely lit up her horn once more. “When monsters threaten my ponies, I learn how to kill monsters.” She said flatly.

With little warning, the white alicorn shot a blast of energy from her horn.

The bolt of crackling orange light zipped straight for the brown stallion faster than any normal pony could dodge. Yet somehow, Dusk cocked his head to the side, allowing the blast to sail past him and into one of the doors, where it exploded and took a chunk of the wood with it.

Turning back from the charred hole in the door, Dusk found himself being fired at by several smaller bursts of energy in rapid succession. With effortless ease, he ducked and dodged from side to side, up and down, anywhere he could find to let the lasers fly past him. He was moving so fast that his form was almost a blur, but still Celestia managed to just keep up with him.

Finally, Celestia charged up a more straightforward burst of sunlight. If her initial assumption was right and Dusk actually was a vampire, then she knew sunlight to be extremely effective in destroying such a creature.

Before she could even gather the spell, however, a blur of motion and the color red shot up from the floor.

The princess reeled her head back just in time to see a red skewer shoot up where she just was. The seemingly solid tendril adopted more fluid-like properties and whipped at her, forcing her to dodge to the side. She looked up, only to see another of the tendrils coming at her at the same time as the first. Thinking fast, she focused on a spell and blinked out of existence just as the two tendrils crossed like a pair of spears aimed for her head.

As she teleported a few feet back, Celestia looked ahead to get a better view of what just tried to kill her. She was more than a little surprised to see two fluid streams of what looked to be blood floating in the air. The streams started to recede toward the stallion, whereupon they swiftly disappeared into the two wounds on the backs of his wrists.

“Your ponies? How quaint… I see you haven’t outgrown your fondness for the other tribes as I had hoped.” Dusk said with a cold tone laced with annoyance. “But you see, dearest Princess… I am no mere monster.” He let his eyes flare as he stared at her, matching her intensity.

Celestia lowered into a fighting stance and kept her horn aglow as she faced off against the stallion. She wasn't sure entirely what he was capable of, but she knew that she had to beat him. Her sister behind her and every other pony in the castle and perhaps all of Canterlot were counting on her to defeat the brown alicorn.

Meanwhile, back in the ballroom, Twilight and the others were still enjoying the party before the costume contest.

By now, the actual party had died down a bit as everyone eagerly awaited the results. A unicorn stallion with tan fur and gray hair stood atop the small stage at the back of the room, preparing for the upcoming contest. Judging from his formal attire, he was most likely one of the princess’s personal assistants.

Twilight stood back and watched with passive curiosity as the stallion prepared a microphone. Spike, on the other hand, was far more invested.

"Do you think my costume is good enough to win?" The dragon asked, trying and failing to hide his excitement.

Twilight looked down at her young assistant and smiled. "You don’t need to win for me to tell you you already have the best costume here." She said, ruffling his head and pushing the wolf snout down over his eyes briefly.

"Aww… come on, Twilight," Spike said sheepishly. "We both know Shining Armor and Cadence are better. It's just a matter of who the judge thinks has the best costume." He gestured up at the stage.

"Don’t sell yourself short, buddy." Shining Armor chimed in as he walked over with Cadence.

"Yeah… your costume is great. I love the attention to detail." Cadence pointed out.

"Well, I'm nothing if not thorough." Spike chuckled, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.

An abrasive squeal of a microphone silenced the room, followed by a few taps as the stallion on stage did one last soundcheck. Everyone looked ahead as he cleared his throat and spoke.

"Hello, ladies and gentlecolts, and welcome to the annual Canterlot costume ball." He greeted formally.

Twilight looked around, only to lower her expression a bit as she found no trace of her mentor. "I hope Princess Celestia doesn’t miss out on this."

"Where is she?" Spike asked curiously while looking around for the alicorn.

"She’s meeting with someone." Twilight explained.

"It must be someone important for her to take this long. She loves the costume contest." Cadence added.

The regal-looking stallion looked around at the room full of ponies, noting the many creative outfits.

"And now, for the winner of best costume, as decided by popular vote." He gestured toward a small box full of ballots before producing a slip of paper and reading from it. "The winner is… Princess Cadence!"

A colorful spotlight zoned in on the pink alicorn and her crimson ensemble, much to her surprise and delight.

"Oh my… thank you all so much." Cadence smiled warmly as she was met with a room full of ponies clopping their hooves for her.

After giving a few moments to allow the celebration to die down, the stallion cleared his throat again and produced another slip of paper.

"And now for the winner of scariest costume. The winner is…"

*Crash*

The shattering of glass filled the room as one of the windows broke. A pair of pegasi came crashing into the room, landing as the crowd below dispersed with a series of surprised yelps. The pair consisted of a stallion and a mare, with pale and washed-out colors to their fur, a set of sharp-looking fangs in their mouths, and red eyes.

Everyone in the room stared at the new arrivals, unsure of what to think. Some ponies were even cowering back into the crowd from the terrifying appearance of the pair.

Up on the stage, the regal stallion blinked a few times at the mess that now was the ballroom floor. “Umm… I’m terribly sorry, but late entries will not be counted… and I’m fairly certain that breaking into the palace like that is illegal.” He explained, still at a bit of a loss.

Right on cue, one of the guards in the room walked up to the pair with a stern expression. “Sir, ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” He said, gesturing for the pair to come along peacefully.

Instead of a peaceful response, the pegasus mare hissed at the armor-clad stallion, her eyes flaring and her fangs gleaming, before shoving a hoof into him with immense strength. Like a hoofball soaring across an open field, the full-grown stallion was sent flying across the room with a startled yelp, where he smacked into the back wall on the stage.

Witnessing this, everyone devolved into fearful gasps and yelps as they took a collective few steps away from the monstrous ponies.

“Listen up! We were told that Twilight Sparkle would be here… Just give her up, and there won’t be any trouble.” The mare explained with a hostile tone as she eyed up the crowd of ponies, simultaneously searching for the purple unicorn and intimidating everyone into obeying her instructions.

Meanwhile, Twilight was watching from inside the crowd with Spike, Cadence, and Shining Armor. She wasn't sure what shocked her more, the fact that those weren’t costumes or the fact that the pair was looking for her.

“Why do they want Twilight?” Spike asked, poking out from behind the purple mare’s foreleg nervously.

“I don’t know… but it can’t be good.” Shining Armor said uneasily before looking back to his sister and wife. “Cadence, stay with Twilight.” He instructed, starting to move toward the two ponies until he was stopped by someone tugging on his tail.

“Shining, don’t. We don’t know what those two are capable of.” Twilight pleaded.

Shining Armor softened his expression as he saw how concerned his sibling was. Still, he had an intense need to protect the others in the room burning in his eyes. “Stay here, Twily… please.”

“Shining…” Twilight whispered tensely as she watched her BBBFF walking off toward potential danger. She reached out to him, but by the time she did, he was already pushing through the crowd. “Shining!”

Up ahead, two other guards were squaring off against the two pale pegasi, doing their best to keep the crowd behind them safe. However, with what the pair just did to their comrade still recovering on the stage, they did not want to engage in a fight if they didn’t have to.

The pegasus stallion leered at the two guards, inching forward enough to make them back up a step. “Just give us Twilight Sparkle and we won’t hurt anypony… probably.” He smirked, showing off his fangs to some of the more terrified members of the crowd and relishing in their reactions.

“What do you want with Twilight Sparkle?” Shining Armor spoke up as he stepped free of the crowd. The two guards seemed relieved to see their captain standing between them with his horn fiercely aglow.

The two monstrous ponies watched the strangely costumed unicorn with intense glares. He didn’t seem at all afraid of them, or if he was, he was hiding it behind a serious front.

“That’s none of your business, buddy.” The mare stated. “Just hand her over before we have to get rough with you.”

"You're talking about pony-napping my sister… I think that's about as much my business as it gets." Shining stated, lowering himself into a fighting stance.

The pegasus mare chuckled eagerly, lowering herself as well. "Whatever you say, tin man. It’s your funeral any-WOAH!" She yelped abruptly as a magical aura lifted her into the air before she could react.

Shining Armor hid a cringe as he focused on his magical hold on the mare. He had heard from the others that supernatural creatures tended to be resistant to unicorn magic, but this was ridiculous.

With a mighty shove, he tossed the pale pony through the air and into the wall. She tried to counter her momentum in midair, but before she could even flap her wings, she smacked into a solid marble pillar.

Shining couldn’t help but smile slightly as the mare flopped to the floor with a painful grunt. His expression shifted to one of alarm, however, as he heard an agitated hiss coming from in front of him.

The pegasus stallion lunged for the unicorn that just tossed his colleague like a sack of potatoes. He would have connected too if it wasn't for one of the guards tackling him to the floor.

"Sir! Get out of here! We'll take care of these t-" The guard grunted abruptly as the pegasus beneath him bucked him off, hitting skull to chin with bone-cracking strength.

The pale stallion glared up at Shining Armor, only to notice the other guard rushing up and trying to grapple him. With a brief struggle, he pulled the armored pony’s neck closer to his teeth and bit down before pushing the guard away with a horrible tearing sound and a spurt of blood.

Shining Armor widened his eyes as he watched the guard fall to the floor clutching a grave wound. The pegasus snarled at him, showing off bloodstained fangs.

With a quick magical buzz, he fired off a couple of energy bolts that zipped straight into the pony’s chest, opening up two bloody holes.

The pegasus yelped and clutched at his new wounds. As he removed his hoof, he revealed the two holes already starting to close up at a slow rate.

"Shining, look out!" Cadence shouted from the crowd.

Before he could even process his wife’s warning, Shining Armor felt something crashing into him from the side. He tumbled to the floor, a hoof smacking into his gut and knocking all the air from his lungs. As he looked up, he found the pegasus mare staring back at him with an agitated expression.

“This is for throwing me at that wall!” She snarled, reeling back and opening her mouth wide as she prepared to bite down onto his neck.

Shining barely had time to tense up and cringe before the mare clamped down. Strangely though, he felt no pain. As he peeked an eye open, he saw a faintly blue magical aura around the monstrous pegasus, keeping her immobile and keeping her fangs a mere inch away from breaking his skin.

Off to the side, Cadence cringed and strained to lift the unnatural pony off of her husband. She could practically feel whatever foul life force the mare now had working against her magic, but that wasn't going to stop her.

Looking to the side, she paled as she saw the pegasus stallion getting ready to pounce on Shining Armor and finish what his colleague started. However, before he could even land, another magical aura wrapped around him.

Shining Armor looked over to see his younger sister stepping out of the crowd. She had her horn aglow, and even through the ridiculously oversized spectacles of her costume it was easy to see how much she was struggling.

“Shining… get… get out of there!” Twilight pleaded with a strained voice.

With a look that told of a mixture of emotions, most prominently gratitude and simultaneous regret for the purple mare having to reveal herself, Shining Armor quickly rolled and got to his hooves.

Looking up just in time to watch the two vampiric pegasi starting to struggle against the magical holds over them, Shining racked his mind to try and think of an escape plan for him and his family. He didn’t get very far by the time Cadence and Twilight yelped under the mental strain being placed on them.

With one final push, the two pale ponies finally jerked themselves down to the floor, freeing themselves from the magical bubbles. They looked up and spotted the purple mare in mad scientist garb and smiled.

Just before either of them could act, however, a series of magical blasts came from the side.

Shining Armor produced a battle cry as he charged forward, loosing every offensive spell he knew at the pair. Fireballs, electrical discharges, energy beams, disintegration balls. The entire royal guard catalog of harmful magic and more was being flung around.

Much to the dismay of the remaining crowd watching from further back, the two ponies either dodged or tanked everything that came their way. Their bodies seemed more resistant than average equines, and even fatal-looking wounds didn’t seem to faze them beyond a painful outcry.

“Cadence, take Twilight and Spike and get out of here! Go find the princess!” Shining pleaded, not even sparing a glance to the side as he continued his assault on the pair.

Cadence glanced back to the purple unicorn and young dragon before turning to her husband with a fearful glint in her eyes. “But… Shining, I can’t just-”

“Look out!” Spike announced, pointing ahead as one of the pegasi broke free from Shining Armor’s attacks and leaped toward them.

Shining Armor widened his eyes as he watched the monstrous pony leaping for his sister. He whipped his head to the side and fired a concussive blast at the pale mare. The crackling bolt of energy struck her in the side and exploded, knocking her off course and sending her flying.

Hearing hoofbeats rapidly approaching, he looked ahead just in time to catch a glimpse of the pegasus stallion barging into him like a freight train. With an upward shove and an angry growl, the pegasus sent the full-grown unicorn flying up, away, and out of a window with a fearful scream and a glass shatter.

Twilight widened her eyes as she watched her brother disappear from sight. “Shining!”

“Twilight, get down!” Cadence shouted, aiming at the purple mare with her horn.

Darting her eyes up to the pink alicorn and then behind her, Twilight’s pupils shrank and a tiny squeak escaped her as she saw the vampire mare about to run and tackle her. Doing as she was told, she held her head and dove to the floor, allowing Cadence to fire a bolt of magic over her and into the pale pegasus.

The mare yelped in pain and stopped dead in her tracks as she clutched the side of her face. As she looked up, she flinched as she saw a pair of purple hind legs kicking out at her before a solid thwack rang out.

“Spike, Cadence, we need to get out of here!” Twilight announced as she recovered from her kick, the pale mare bouncing along the floor behind her.

Before either of her friends could respond, she heard a fearful gasp and a few magical discharges before Cadence produced a strangled yelp.

Twilight turned, only to widen her eyes as she saw the pink alicorn being held against a wall by her neck. The vampiric stallion had a few new burn wounds, but he only seemed to be angered by this as he glared at the princess of love.

“Cadence!” Twilight reached out.

Meanwhile, Spike gasped and pointed behind the unicorn as he watched the pegasus mare getting back up and lunging forward. “Twilight, behind you!”

Before she could even light up her horn or turn around, Twilight grunted as the pegasus careened into her, carrying her through the air a short ways and into the floor roughly. She looked up, fearful that the pale mare was about to bite into her, only to catch a glimpse of a hoof socking her in the face.

The pegasus mare gave a satisfied grunt as she watched the unicorn drift out of consciousness with a trickle of blood dripping from her nose. She looked over to see her companion still choking out the pink alicorn, who was rapidly losing strength.

“You think we should kill her?” She asked.

The stallion gave Cadence a shifty look as she weakly struggled in his grasp, seemingly contemplating the matter for a moment before snorting softly. “No… the Prince said to keep her and anyone else close to Celestia alive.”

“Oh well… I’m sure he has his reasons… whatever they are.” The mare said in an almost disappointed manner. She prepared to pick up the unconscious unicorn until she felt something tugging on her hind leg.

“Leave her alone!” Spike yelled as he pulled on the mare’s leg with all of his admittedly meager strength. He was visibly shaking from how scared he was, but he couldn’t just stand around and do nothing while the two pegasi hurt his friends.

The mare looked behind her and flattened her expression as she saw the costumed dragon. She lightly shoved him back, sending him to a rough seated position. She then turned around and picked him up by the scruff of his costume.

“Well, would you look at this? I didn’t know she had a pet dragon.” The mare said with a devious smile, showing off her fangs to the terrified drake.

“You…” Spike stammered, doing his best to keep eye contact with the glowing red dots staring into his soul. “Y-You better leave her alone.” He whimpered as he loosely struggled against her.

“Aww… that’s cute. Aren’t you a brave little guy?” The mare cooed, rubbing her muzzle against Spike’s face. Her body was cold as ice, and her mouth was still wet with blood from some previous victim. “You really care for her, don’t you?” She asked, receiving no response for a few moments until the dragon nodded hesitantly.

“Please… don’t hurt her,” Spike said, a single set of tears rolling down his face.

“Don’t you worry… I’m not going to hurt her. Tell you what… you can even come along with us to keep me honest.” She smirked before looking back at her colleague. “Hey, quit playing around and grab her so we can get out of here.” She nodded to Twilight’s unconscious body.

The stallion sighed before turning to the alicorn barely struggling in his grip. She seemed to be slipping in and out of consciousness, so much so that she barely reacted as he let her slide to the floor.

Cadence groaned softly as she fought through her spinning head to open an eye partway. She heard a mixture of Spike’s yells for help and a faint crackling of glass. Looking up, she just barely caught a glimpse of the two pegasi walking over to the window they entered through and taking flight, with an unconscious unicorn on one of their backs and a terrified dragon under one of their forelegs.

“Twi...light… Spike…” She weakly lifted a hoof and reached out for them, only to let it drop as her fatigue caught up with her. She would have tried to cast a spell of some kind, but around that time her vision blurred and she drifted into darkness.

Elsewhere, Celestia was still in the midst of her own battle.

Her magic was strained, her muscles were sore, and her body was littered with various wounds from close calls she had with the monstrous alicorn. Although she could hold her own with the toughest of foes, even she was having difficulties dodging the fluid streams of blood that Dusk used as weapons.

Ducking under a swipe from one of the bloody tendrils, she fired another blast at the stallion, which he promptly dodged. She had only managed to hit him once so far, and the wound healed just as fast as it was made. She was trying to hit him with a blast of sunlight, but he wasn't giving her enough time to charge such an attack.

“Getting tired, Princess?” Dusk asked with a mocking smile as he held his hoof in front of the wound on his neck. A bit of blood floated out and gathered in a ball in his hoof, which he promptly swiped sideways, sending a series of bloody projectiles toward the white mare that lengthened and focused to a sharp point.

Celestia placed a shield around herself, letting the crimson needles strike into it with surprising force. If one of those had hit her, or worse still, her wounded sister behind her, then the damage would have been grave.

“I see you haven’t outgrown your smug confidence. If I’m being honest, that was one of my least favorite aspects of your personality.” Celestia said, a hint of agitation to her voice as she glared at the stallion.

“And why shouldn’t I be confident?” Dusk smirked with amusement. “After all, even when I was a mere alicorn, I was one of the most powerful magic users in Equestria… until you took that from me as well.” He flattened his expression.

“I thought taking your alicorn magic might humble you and make you see the error of your ways… Clearly, I was mistaken.” Celestia growled under her breath.

“The error of my ways?” Dusk raised his voice a bit before taking a moment to calm down. “I did nothing but help you keep order!”

“You murdered innocent ponies!” Celestia retorted.

Dusk twitched a brow downwards and tensed his jaw. “They were hardly innocent! Thieves and street urchins the whole lot of them!” He stamped a hoof down before breathing in a few times. He let a soft smirk creep across his face again as he looked past the alicorn and her bubble. “Your sister was right about them when she tried to force their obedience. They’re weak… and it’s such a shame that you’ve become so like them… you and dear Luna.”

Celestia watched the stallion warily, only to trail her eyes down and see a trail of red behind his forelegs. She widened her eyes as she saw the trail moving behind her.

Spinning around, she discovered two blood tendrils creeping up out of the floor near Luna. The two streams sharpened to points and reeled back before zipping down at the helpless alicorn.

Racing as fast as she could, Celestia let her shield fall and placed it over her sister. The two crimson spears splattered against the comparatively denser shield, returning to scattered liquid.

Hearing movement behind her, Celestia cringed as she prepared herself for the expected attack coming her way. She whipped her head around, only to see two more streams breaking off the ones on the floor and heading straight for her.

Instead of sharpening to points and trying to pierce her, however, these streams globbed into thicker bands and wrapped around her fore and hind legs. Before she could even react, she was yanked off her hooves and briefly smacked into the floor before being lifted into the air upside down.

Her head was throbbing, both from the blood rushing to it and the blow she received from the floor. Still, she somehow managed to charge her horn up.

Just then, Dusk flicked his hoof to the side. The tendrils wrapped around her followed his direction, whipping her into a nearby pillar like an equine wrecking ball. The impact rattled her entire being. While the stallion seemed to be going for pain more than damage, it still felt like her bones were being pounded just short of breaking.

After two more impacts against the floor and a wall, Dusk chuckled to himself as he observed his work. The mighty princess of the sun was battered and bruised. Her costume was ripped in several places, and her face paint was running off from a combination of sweat and getting knocked into things.

Strangely, however, her horn was still aglow as she looked up at him with a fierce gleam in her eyes.

All at once, the room was filled with a brief flash of yellow light and a magical hum. Luna actually had to close her eyes as her sister and the brown stallion disappeared in the burning glow. Dusk produced a scream of pain as the light contacted his body, only to fall silent.

Celestia suddenly found herself dropping to the floor as the bloody tendrils wrapped around her legs stopped floating. She let a slight smirk through her exhausted features as she panted and stared ahead.

As the light died down, she could already see steam trailing off of the stallion’s form, which was heavily burned. His fur was singed clean off in several places, and his skin was aglow with cinders like it was in the process of burning off. She could even see his skeleton poking through in certain spots.

Her smile faded, however, as blood started leaking from his wounds and seemingly restoring his body.

Dusk grit his teeth as his burned flesh rejuvenated. The process took around ten seconds to complete, which was an astonishing feat, given the scope of the damage he had received.

Once the process was done, he looked down to one of his hooves with an almost impressed expression. He then trailed his eyes up to the white alicorn, a look of begrudging respect in his eyes that seemed to communicate a failure on his part rather than a victory on hers.

“Alright… fair enough.” Dusk panted briefly. “I suppose I should have expected as much fighting you… given my current fragility to sunlight. Still… did you really think it was going to be that easy?” He smiled and shook his head.

Celestia widened her eyes as she saw how strong the stallion’s regenerative powers were. He didn’t even seem exhausted by the process. His breathing was briefly strained, but that seemed to be a reaction to the pain he was in more than anything.

Seeing how urgent the situation was, she lit up her horn again and tried charging up a more powerful attack. Her strength was fading from how much blood she had lost, but she had just enough stamina to create a continuous beam of sunlight if she pushed herself.

Before she could gather the magic needed for her attack, however, her shoulders erupted into pain as two crimson tendrils shot through her like a pair of spears, piercing clean through her body and blowing her back through the air.

As she flew, more bloody projectiles crashed into her at high speeds, piercing into her like a series of daggers. These wounds weren’t deep enough to be fatal, but they were plenty debilitating with how taxed her body already was.

Luna watched as her sister crashed to the ground beside her. The white alicorn had a plethora of bloody holes punched into her form, and she seemed like she could barely move.

“Sister…” Luna croaked, attempting to move a hoof to brush against her sibling before finding her own stamina still drained. “You… you must… flee…”

Celestia peeked an eye open and shifted her head to the side slightly to look at her sister. Although she didn’t have the energy to run or teleport away, the look she was giving the blue mare told that she wouldn’t even if she could.

Hearing hoofsteps echoing against the floor, Celestia looked up to see Dusk approaching her. Before she could even think of resisting, two bloody tendrils whipped out of his wrists and pointed at her menacingly, waiting for her to make a wrong move.

“Look at you now, Princess… Broken and bloody on the floor. I used to think that you were invincible… that you could best any foe. I guess we’ve both shown our true colors, haven’t we?” Dusk said with a tight-lipped smile.

Celestia cringed as she tried to lift herself up. She only managed to crane her neck up to make eye contact with the stallion as he looked down at her.

“If you’re going to kill me… just… get it over with.” She said, conveying the anger she felt through her eyes while the rest of her features conveyed exhaustion.

Hearing this, Dusk smirked even wider. In unison, the two tendrils of blood reeled back before shooting down at her neck with lightning speed.

Luna clenched her eyes shut, refusing to watch any further as tears welled up in her eyes and a wet squelch sounded out. After a moment, she hesitantly opened them and looked ahead.

Somehow, Celestia was still alive. Instead of piercing into her, the two tendrils had made a small incision in her neck that was just barely bleeding.

Even the white alicorn seemed surprised and confused by this as she slowly opened her own eyes. She looked down, only to see the crimson streams pausing before the newly created wound.

“You’re not afraid to die?” Dusk asked rhetorically. “Then again... I suppose you wouldn’t be in this scenario. If you die, you don’t have to suffer anymore. You don’t have to watch your beloved ponies suffer. Well… I think I’ll do something worse to you.” He stated with a sadistic grin.

Confused and more than a little concerned, Celestia suddenly cringed as she felt something cold and unnatural brushing against her neck and then entering her body. She looked down, only to find the two tendrils of blood flowing into the cut on her neck.

“Wh… what are you…” She struggled loosely, even clutching a hoof to her neck to stop the unbearably cold and vile experience to no avail. She could feel his blood mingling with hers, flowing through her veins against her will and even against her heartbeat.

“I didn’t wait this long… I didn’t come all this way… just to let you get off easy by killing you. No… you’re going to suffer for what you did to me. You’re going to beg me to kill you before I’m done with you.” Dusk stated through grit teeth.

Luna watched as her sister struggled and writhed against the stream of blood entering her body. She didn’t seem to be in pain, but she seemed to be in severe discomfort. Suddenly, all of the energy left her and her eyes rolled to the back of her head as she fell limp with a faint groan.

Dusk lit up his horn and lifted the now unconscious alicorn up gently. He glanced back to Luna and smirked before turning and starting to walk away.

“Sister…” Luna tried to reach out, only to have her hoof fall to the floor again. She cringed and desperately tried to get her numb body to cooperate, but nothing she did amounted to anything more than an inch of movement. “Sister! Leave… her alone… t… t.ake… me instead!” She pleaded weakly.

However, even if the monstrous alicorn could hear her, he ignored her as he walked outside and spread his wings before disappearing into the night with Celestia in tow.