Angel of Justice: Blood Moon

Back in Ponyville, the once quiet town was alive with fear and dread as its denizens slowly became aware of the attacks on their community. Between the struggle at Sugarcube Corner and the tense crowd outside of town hall, anyone who was nearby quickly realized that something was amiss.

For Applejack and her friends, however, they knew just how bad things were, and they were doing everything they could to stop it. Right now, for the orange mare, that meant only one thing.

Saving her brother.

With Glimmer Shine and a small team of guards taking care of the rest of the vampires on the farm, Applejack and Rarity raced through the orchards toward the Crusaders’ treehouse.

“Come on… where are you, Mac?” Applejack muttered as she darted her eyes ahead of her.

“We’ll find him.” Rarity assured. “He’s strong… he can take care of himself.” She said, though it was easy to tell that she didn’t fully believe in her own words. If she was being honest, she didn’t want to think about what very likely could have been waiting for them.

Then, a faint snarl and a muffled shout pricked their ears. Applejack skidded to a halt, nearly colliding with Rarity as she darted her head toward the noise before shooting off in that direction. “There!”

“Wait for me, Applejack! Remember what we’re fighting against!” Rarity called after as she chased the orange mare. She could run pretty fast when properly motivated, but she had nothing on the more athletic farmer, especially when family was at stake.

The noises got louder as the pair bolted through the trees. They could immediately recognize the feral sounds as strigoi. It was hard to distinguish how many, but there was definitely more than one. The yells laced with desperation and a hint of fear were also easily identifiable.

Finally, Applejack stopped as she burst out into a clearing. Rarity came up behind, panting slightly, but otherwise ready to go. She was surprised to find her orange friend staring ahead with pale face and wide eyes, and she was even more surprised as she looked ahead to see what had caused such a reaction.

They had found Big Mac at last, but the stallion looked to be in a lot of trouble. He was clinging to a low tree branch at the edge of the clearing, while three gaunt equine beasts jumped and snapped at his exposed limbs.

The strigoi seemed to be blissfully unaware of the two mares as they pursued their closest meal. Were it not for their disfigured pony shells, one could easily mistake them for wild animals.

Big Mac lifted his head up to avert his gaze from the vicious maws biting at him. As he did, he caught sight of his middle sister and one of their best friends.

“Don’t worry, Mac!” Applejack assured. “We’ll take care of these critters ‘fore you can count your hooves!”

Hearing this, the stallion seemed more concerned than relieved. “Stay back!” He yelled. Then, before he could say anything else, he yelped fearfully as he nearly slipped off the branch below him, just barely managing to pull his limbs close in time to miss a set of gnarled teeth clamping down.

Rarity gasped, while the orange mare beside her could only stare wide-eyed as the stallion teetered on the edge of certain agonizing death. “Hold on, darling! We’ll save you!” She said confidently before turning to her companion and letting the worry show through her face. “How exactly are we going to handle this, Applejack?”

Applejack shifted her silver dagger in her hoof and bit her lip before her face went slack as genius struck. “I think a better question would be, how are you going to handle this.” She said, pressing her hoof into the unicorn’s chest and offering up the dagger.

Rarity reluctantly took the dagger in her aura, mostly because the orange mare handed it to her. She stared at it for a moment and blinked. “Pardon?”

“Somethin’ tells me those critters ain’t the sharpest crayon in the box… They’re probably too busy barkin’ up the proverbial tree to notice if, say, someone were to poke ‘em from a distance.” She lifted her brows and gave her friend a sly smirk.

“I see…” Rarity swallowed hesitantly as she leveled her gaze and the dagger forward. “Normally, I’m not a fan of poking the big scary monsters, but I think I’ll make an exception this time.” She said, gaining some confidence as she saw a friend in danger.

Applejack and Big Mac watched the unicorn gliding her weapon through the air, like a snake in the grass slowly approaching an unaware mouse. Only, the snake in this case was a completely inanimate dagger, and the mouse was the one with sharp pointy teeth that was deserving of fearful respect.

Rarity tensed her lips as she focused on the timing of her next move. The beasts were leaping eagerly, so much so that they were never in one spot for longer than a second. It made it hard to aim, especially something as indirect as a magically floating dagger.

“Here goes something…” Rarity flinched back a bit as she commited. With a quick shove from her aura, the dagger zipped forward. For a moment, she feared she got the timing wrong, but the feral pony quickly settled back on the ground just in time for the blade to stick into its chest.

Immediately, the creature yelped like a wounded animal, and its chest lit up in an outward spread of orange. In mere moments, there were only two monsters left as their companion disintegrated beside them.

As for those two monsters, they suddenly stopped what they were doing. They went dead quiet as they snapped their heads to the side, seemingly realizing that one of them had been killed. Then, before Rarity could even think to strike the next one, they sniffed the air and growled before bounding forward-

• and heading straight toward the two mares, who were now sans their only silver weapon.

“Bad idea, bad idea, BAD IDEA!” Rarity squealed, already turning on her hooves and running.

Applejack was quick to join her friend. “You got that right!”

Up in the tree, Big Mac gasped as he saw the two creatures now chasing after the pair. A wave of alarm coursed through him. He had to do something, but what could he do? He already tried fighting the beasts directly, and he narrowly escaped that debacle with his life.

Then, he cast his darting gaze to the dagger on the ground, hastily and perhaps foolishly dropped by Rarity as she ran. He didn’t know much about fighting monsters, but he knew that he needed to protect his family and friends.
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..
…
With bone-chilling barks and snarls behind them, getting ever closer if they dared to run at a comfortable speed, Rarity and Applejack pressed on through the moonlit orchards.

Applejack turned her head and widened her eyes before tucking her tail in just in time to miss a set of powerful jaws snapping down like an alligator. She darted to the right around a tree, forcing the beast chasing her to lose some ground as it raced to keep up.

After a few moments of losing sight of her white companion, she met back up with the terror-stricken unicorn, who was running from her own creature. “Y’know, this would be a lot easier if you didn’t drop the knife!”

“I know that!” Rarity whined, trying to avoid looking back at the horrifying visage of red-eyed death behind her. “I panicked, ok? I’m sorry!”

“At least we got your strobe. Maybe you can slow ‘em down?” Applejack suggested.

“Easier said than done when you’re running from the thing you’re trying to shoot at, but… I’ll see what I can do.” Rarity trailed her eyes up to the vial still floating alongside her, a hint of stiffness working its way over her as she envisioned all the things that could go wrong.

Careful not to lose speed or trip over any tree roots, Rarity slowly aimed the strobe backward toward the beast behind her. Praying to whoever might be listening for this to work, she repeatedly pressed the button, sending bolts of light out in a rapid-fire display.

The disfigured pony behind her flinched at the stinging projectiles exploding into its face. It bit at the rainbow of sparks, but this only seemed to burn it more. It finally turned its attention back to the unicorn it was chasing, only to trip its lanky forelimbs over a root on the ground, sending it tumbling tail over emaciated barrel.

Rarity let a relieved smile form as she exhaled and relaxed ever so slightly. That was one down, and one more to go before they could break line of sight.

And right around the time she was mentally acknowledging the presence of the second strigoi, she heard an abrupt snarl before the sound of hooves beating against the ground decreased by one set. The mare turned her head, pupils shrinking at the sight of an open maw full of teeth.

A cringe-worthy impact sounded out as the two bodies collided. Applejack skidded to a halt and darted her pale gaze over to see her friend tumbling to the floor with a monster on top of her, already preparing to bite. “Rarity!”

With her strobe somewhere unknown, and her head ringing from smacking the ground, Rarity did the only thing she could do and shoved her hooves out to catch the lunging beast. It snapped at her, coming dangerously close. She could feel the droplets of foul saliva dropping with its cold breath in her face, burning her nostrils without even inhaling.

Her nose wasn't the only thing that was burning. The muscles in her forelegs felt like they were about to snap from how hard she was pushing. Her limbs were shaking under the strain, and ever so slowly, she was losing ground as the creature lowered closer and closer.

Just before she accepted doom, the sound of rapidly approaching hooves came, followed by the creature being shoved off of her. She looked up to see Applejack standing over her, steely eyes watching as the creature tumbled on the ground.

“You hurt?” Applejack asked, sparing a glance down to her friend and quickly helping the unicorn back on all fours.

“No…” Rarity replied. Her voice was a bit shaken, but otherwise, she seemed unscathed. However, her face paled even more than it already was as she stared behind the orange mare with wide eyes.

A very distinct growl, separate from where the recovering creature was, came from behind the pair. Applejack turned, only to instinctively back closer to her friend as she spotted the first beast.

“Applejack… We need to run.” Rarity whispered tensely.

The orange mare backed up, keeping the unicorn close and slightly behind her protectively. She darted her head to the side at another snarl, only to see the second creature stalking toward them as well with a seriously irritated look on what was left of its features.

Bumping into solid wood, Applejack paused and looked behind her and then up. A great apple tree stood tall, leaves rustling in the wind, drawing attention to the few succulent red fruits still adorning it this late in the year. An idea started to form.

Rarity tugged on her friend’s foreleg, gentle but with growing desperation as the beasts got closer. “Darling, we need to go! Now!” She pleaded. Instead of joining her in sprinting off, Applejack merely put a hoof on her shoulder.

“Stay close to me, and get ready to move when I say.”

“But-” Rarity started, only to fall silent at the look of confidence in her friend’s eyes.

“Trust me.” Applejack smirked before shifting her attention ahead.

The two feral ponies growled through clenched teeth and approached their literally treed prey. Their glowing dots didn’t hold any emotion, but somehow they radiated a sense of cruel intent as they stared out through lidless dark pits at the helpless mares. It was enough to send chills radiating down their backs and through their coats, but at least Applejack was holding her ground.

Then, the creatures lowered close to the ground, rearing up for a pounce. And with that, the farmer sprang into action.

Balancing on her front hooves, Applejack reared up as well and delivered two powerful kicks with her back legs, sending vibrations through the thick trunk of the tree behind her. Rarity was too busy staring slack-jawed in terror at her impending demise as the creatures leaped in unison.

“NOW!” Applejack yelled, shoving her friend to the side and rolling as far out of the way as she could get the both of them.

Landing just behind the two ponies, the feral monsters turned their heads and prepared to make another lunge, when a strange sound came from above them.

All at once, a waterfall of apples fell from the tree, smacking into the two creatures and burying them under a sea of red.

Rarity watched the appleanche from her position on the ground, too stunned to move. Applejack was already standing and admiring her work, lifting her hoof and catching one final falling apple as it bounced off the pile and rolled to her.

“Sorry fellas, but I’ve got the home-field advantage ‘round these parts.” Applejack smirked, taking a single bite out of the juicy treat.

Rarity got to her hooves and cringed as she saw the pile move. “That’s not going to hold them long, is it?”

Applejack tossed the half-eaten fruit aside and adopted a more serious expression as she turned to her friend. “Definitely not. Let’s make ourselves scarce.”

Not needing to be told twice, Rarity spun around and started to run. She might have been halfway exhausted, but she would run until her lungs exploded if it meant losing the two creatures.

However, she made it roughly two steps before something made her stop dead in her tracks. That something being a chillingly familiar yelp.

“AH!”

The unicorn darted her head back, only to recoil in stunned terror as she found her friend on the ground. A lanky, malformed hoof was stretching out of the pile of apples and wrapping around the orange mare’s back leg as a dark shape rose up with a snarl, sending apples scattering everywhere.

A shrill gasp escaped Rarity’s wide mouth. She felt a jolt of fear and adrenaline that threatened to freeze her to the spot, but she couldn’t let her friend down. “Unhoof her, you vicious brute!” She demanded, lighting her horn and preparing to grab the pale beast. She never got the chance.

With blinding speed, the second creature leaped out of the remains of the apple pile toward the hapless unicorn. It reached for her with its forelimbs, ready to pin her so it could sink its teeth into her tender skin.

Rarity flinched back, racing to use her magic to save herself. The beast came mere inches away from her face before an aura halted its brief flight. She frantically backed up a few steps as the feral pony fought against her hold, actually managing to move another inch. Her head was already beginning to pulse with pain as her magical limits were tested. However, she was concerned with something else.

“Applejack!” The unicorn turned to her friend and watched in helpless terror as the other monster pulled Applejack closer.

The orange mare grunted and tried to turn her body so she could kick out or get up, but a pair of emaciated hooves that were deceptively strong pinned her down before she could do anything. A vicious snarl ended abruptly as a set of jaws opened wide, coming down lightning fast toward Applejack’s midsection.

Just as she felt the creature’s teeth sinking into her fur, Applejack flinched, expecting to feel herself being ripped into. However, what came next was the rapid sound of hooves, followed by the sensation of teeth being shoved off of her very quickly.

The orange mare looked up and saw the feral pony rolling along the ground a short distance away. Turning her head to meet her apparent savior, she found none other than her brother, sporting a slight smile and carrying a silver dagger in his teeth.

“Big Mac… You saved me?” She blinked, still a bit stunned.

“Eeyup.” The stallion replied with a nod, offering her some help with getting up and her previous weapon back.

Before the two siblings could share any further words, a strained yell from their friend snapped their attention to the side.

Rarity clutched a hoof to her temple as the creature shattered her magical grasp. It plopped back to the ground, but otherwise, it didn’t seem at all fazed by her attempt at containing it. If anything, it seemed angrier as it prepared to lunge at her.

The unicorn stumbled back before hitting another tree. She whined fearfully as death approached her. She felt like she might die of fright if the creature didn’t get to her first.

Then, the agitated snarl on the creature’s face shifted to confusion, and then mild fear as it was pulled backward at an alarming rate.

Applejack and Big Mac each took one hind leg of the feral pony and yanked. Once it was on the ground, Mac held it down while A.J reeled back and stabbed down into its form. She felt the dagger pierce all the way through into the ground as the strigoi jerked and shrieked while it burned away.

The pair shared a quick glance with each other, pleased to have dispatched such a deadly foe together so quickly. Their moment of relief wouldn’t last long.

Hearing a startled gasp from Rarity, Big Mac shifted his eyes to the side just in time to catch sight of the last creature, already mid-leap. It was heading straight for Applejack. Without time to do anything else, the stallion pushed his sister out of the way before catching the full weight of the pouncing monster, knocking him to the ground.

Applejack hit the ground with a slight grunt. The next thing she heard was a blur of sounds. A startled outcry, the gnashing of teeth, all culminating in a yell from her brother that cut off abruptly.

Lifting herself to her hooves in a flash, she darted her head toward the commotion. She nearly dropped her dagger in shock.

The stallion was on his back, with the feral pony on top of him. A set of jaws were clamped down on his throat, with sharp fangs digging in.

"MAC!"

Applejack flew forward, pouncing onto the creature with silver weapon outstretched. She struck at it, planting the blade in its spine. It was gone with little more than a muffled sound and a flash of ashes. However, its damage had already been done.

Rarity rushed over as the orange mare dropped her weapon and knelt down beside her wounded sibling. The unicorn felt her heart drop as she stared ahead, wide-eyed and slack-jawed.

Big Mac had a set of well-defined teeth marks on either side of his neck, stretching from just above the large yoke he wore to his chin. None of the flesh was missing, seemingly indicating the beast hadn’t fully bit down, but the puncture wounds that were left were bleeding. A lot.

“Sweet Celestia...” Applejack took a moment to direct her racing thoughts as she stared at her brother. With nothing else popping into her mind, she pushed her shaking hooves onto his neck, hoping to stifle the flow of crimson.

“Big Mac, can you hear us, darling?” Rarity prodded softly.

“Say somethin’!” Applejack added, doing a much worse job of internalizing her emotion.

The stallion took a labored breath and squinted an eye open. He weakly brought a hoof up toward his neck region, trying to press it against his wound, only to settle for touching Applejack’s foreleg. He tried to speak, but the act alone seemed painful enough to dissuade any further attempts after a violent coughing fit took him.

“Just… j-just sit tight. Everythin’s gonna be fine. We’ll have you feelin’ better than a possum at a picnic in no time.” Applejack assured, her smile cracking at the edges despite her best efforts.

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..
…
Meanwhile, Glimmer Shine was just finishing his brief fight out front. Once he and the other guards had dealt with the remaining vampires, he immediately turned tail and ran.

He ran around the back of the house, bolting through the orchards in search of his two friends and the red stallion they had set off to save. They were facing a potentially deadly foe, so he knew time was of the essence.

“Applejack?! Rarity?!” He yelled around him, eyes darting through the expanse of trees and grass. The members of the Apple family could probably navigate this place with no trouble, but to an outsider, everything tended to blend together into a maze of wood and fruit when landmarks like the barn or the main path fell out of view.

Coming to a stop with a frustrated huff, he took this brief moment to catch his breath and reach down to his vest. He pulled up a vial full of something akin to sand on a pull cord and twisted the cap. The detecting charm sprang to life with flashes of red before dimming once more, signaling him to start waving it around in a circle.

“Come on… come on…” He muttered tensely. Finally, the edge of the sand lit up in a certain direction. “Yes!” He smiled before rushing off again, this time with newfound determination.

Following the energy signature through the orchards, he finally started to hear some familiar voices as a few colorful shapes stood out up ahead. The stallion smiled with relief until he noted the big red shape on the ground and the panicked tone the voices held.

“Oh no…” Glimmer muttered to himself before stiffening up and rushing forward.

As the vested stallion approached, the two mares looked up and a hint of relief washed over them. Help had arrived, not that Glimmer was sure if he could help as much as they needed.

“Glimmer, thank goodness.” Rarity deflated a bit, eager to have a professional present.

Glimmer Shine had to stifle a visceral reaction of shock as he finally got a good view of Big Mac. The only thing preventing a sporadic flow of blood from his neck was Applejack’s hooves.

“One of those critters got him. I… I-I tried to stop it, but I couldn’t do it fast enough.” Applejack said. The explanation wasn't exactly necessary, but just hearing the normally rock steady orange mare in such distress made Glimmer frown. The pain in her eyes nearly broke the former guard’s heart.

“You’re doing great, just keep applying pressure.” Glimmer said before springing into action. He fought against the stiffness in his limbs to reach into a pocket on his vest and collect the things he would need to hopefully save the farmer’s life.

Rarity and Applejack watched tensely as the stallion took over for the orange mare. He knelt down and lifted Big Mac’s head up before applying some gauze pads and bandages.

Come on, Glimmer… Pepper didn’t spend half a year teaching you this stuff for nothing. The stallion thought to himself as he raced to stop the bleeding. Big Mac was already starting to lose some color to his face.

Applejack fell to her haunches and looked down to her own hooves, which were now stained nearly as red as her brother’s fur. She would have started hyperventilating, if not for a soft hoof being placed on her shoulder and a reassuring look from Rarity.

Finally, Glimmer Shine finished securing the already bloody mess of bandages over each wound with medical tape. He looked up to see Applejack coming closer and holding her brother’s foreleg.

“That’s all I can do for him right now.” He explained regretfully.

“Whad’ya mean?” Applejack asked. “Can’t you… I don’t know, sew him up or somethin’?” She persisted, more than a hint of desperation in her cracking voice.

“I’m sorry, but Glitter is the only one of us that knows how to suture. I-”

Suddenly, the stallion trailed off as a familiar voice rang in his ears.

“This is Glitter. We’re at a bit of a standstill over here at the square. Is anypony able to come over and help?”

Then another voice.

“This is Sparkplug. We just wrapped things up at Sugarcube Corner. We can be there in a few minutes.”

“Glimmer?” Rarity prodded as she noted the stallion’s blank stare.

Just then, the stallion had a look of revelation come over him. “Blue Bolt…!” He suddenly shot to his hooves before looking down at the pair. “I’m gonna call Glitter and ask her to send him over here. He can heal Big Mac!”

“That’s good… that’s… that’s great!” Applejack smiled brightly as she turned to her brother. “Ya hear that, Mac? Help is on the way!” She said before her expression fell as the stallion coughed a few times and groaned weakly.

Seeing how urgent the situation was, Glimmer wasted no time with shooting a hoof to his ear and focusing on his unicorn friend. “Glitter? Listen up, I need you to send Blue Bolt over to the farm, and tell him to hurry!” He stated, hoping that his message was received. “Do you copy, Glitter? We need him right now!”

After a moment, an understandably concerned voice responded.

“Ok… ok, got it!”

Meanwhile, the two mares were left staring at the stallion as he talked to seemingly thin air. They couldn’t hear whether or not the unicorn responded, and their nerves were building to a breaking point with each passing second.

“Well? Is he comin’?!” Applejack begged the question.

“Yeah. He’ll be here as soon as he can.” Glimmer assured before turning to Rarity with somewhat of an urgent expression. “Rarity, can you head back to the house and lead Blue to us when he gets here?”

The sudden call to action only made the white mare more nervous, but she was eager to do whatever she could to help. “Y-yes.” She nodded, already starting to get up and walk off before the stallion unclipped something from his vest and tossed it to her.

“Take this. It will help you find us faster.” Glimmer explained.

Rarity looked to the small vial in her magical grasp, the sand inside glowing a bright shade of red as it faced her friends. All at once, she understood. They needed every second they could spare if they were going to save Big Mac.

“Don’t worry, darling. I’ll be back with him as soon as possible.” The unicorn assured her friend, resting a hoof on the orange mare’s foreleg briefly before running off toward the Apple Family home.

Watching Rarity leave filled Applejack with a newfound sense of dread. She somehow felt worse and more alone, despite the fact that rescue was on the way. Still, she had Glimmer Shine with her, and for that, she was eternally grateful.

The orange mare scooted closer and reached down. She propped Big Mac’s head up with one hoof and used the other to apply pressure to the bandages on his neck, all the while struggling to keep a confident expression on her face.

“Hang in there, Big Mac. You’re gonna be ok.” She assured softly.

“Ngh… n… nope…” The stallion muttered.

Applejack skewed her expression. “Nope? What do you mean, nope?”

In response, the stallion shakily lifted a hoof and rested it on his sister’s foreleg. “Apple...jack…” He said before falling into another coughing fit. He struggled to gain the strength to speak again, only to be interrupted by his sister speaking with a firm tone.

“No. I don’t wanna hear it. You listen to me, Macintosh… You are an Apple, and you’re probably the hardiest Apple to be born since our dad or Granny Smith.” Applejack said, the corners of her mouth pulling up even as tears dotted the corners of her eyes.

Glimmer Shine felt a pang of sadness in his heart as he watched Applejack take her brother’s hoof in her own. Although he tried his hardest not to, he couldn’t help but imagine himself in her position.

What he would have said to Peppermint, if only he were there in the last moments of his brother’s life. He wouldn’t have been saying goodbye either, even if that was what he now wished so desperately for.

“You remember that time Apple Bloom fell outta the treehouse, and you were the one to carry her to her room and stay with her? Or when I got so sick that I could hardly walk, and you found time to sit with me even after doing the work for both of us that morning?” Applejack sniffled slightly, straining to keep her face straight.

“I might be the element of honesty… but you are the most important member of this family, Mac. So you just sit right there and forget about dyin’. You just keep holdin’ onta me, and I’ll get ya through this.”

Although he could barely move or talk, and he was struggling to breathe, Big Mac managed a soft smile over his tired, pained exterior as he looked up to his middle sister.

Applejack could barely sit still as she watched her brother’s condition worsening before her eyes. It killed her to know that she couldn’t do anything but comfort him and wait. She glanced up to stare off into the night sky, silently praying for all her worth for the blue pegasus to get here before it was too late.