Magehold Nights

With time, and the continued pointing out of typical local horrors, the duo finally happened across the fearful cries of somecreature in the distance “Please, don’t, I can help you!” This was met with the cracks of gunshots, and the screams of three separate voices which shortly became only one. The earth pony, eager to convince her fellow ghoul of the monstrous nature of their Arcturian occupiers rushed towards the noise.

“Wait, you can’t b-,” Bolt tried to plead before having her forelimb grabbed, getting dragged along. The excitement in the earth ponies face at this was far greater than Bolt was comfortable with, but the unicorn was too surprised by the earth ponies rushing towards gunfire to voice further protests.

As they drew near enough to make out more accurate details, an audible and familiar sound of crunching ribs and sobbing became apparent. The earth pony put a hoof, on Bolt’s shoulder “Fine you win, lets go..” There was a good amount of pain in the ghoul’s voice, not happy to be overhearing the telltale sign of their kin holding the momentum in a conflict.

Guiding Bolt paused for a moment, looking down at the symbol of Arcturius on her neck. Taking a deep breath she galloped around the corner coming face to face with a smug looking, red eyed yellow pegasus pony, two blue pegasi and a brown earth pony. The two blue pegasi and earth pony were currently gorging themselves on the exposed underbellies of two fallen knights, suggesting they were probably ghouls. Behind the bodies, a Griffon in a habit was backed into a corner, holding his claws up desperately swinging between sobs to try and deter attack. He looked too young to be a scribe from the order, and the symbol of Eyr around his neck confirmed he was likely here on a more friendly kind of mission.

The red eyed pegasus looked up, smiling. “Oh, goodie, we were just showing these griffons what happens when you mess with the Coven of Blood, now, be a good ghoul and kill that priest for me, my other pets are, well, they’re preoccupied.” She gestured towards the ghouls, smirking at the carnage.

Looking back towards the priest who justifiably flinched at her gaze and then towards the vampire and the two fallen griffons, Bolt did her best to rapidly get her bearings. Spotting a service pistol, holstered on the fallen knight’s side, she decided to act. Thinking more in her heart than with her head she’d ignite her horn, rip the pistol from its holster and fire a warning shot to the group of undead before her. This was immediately met with a firm blow to the side of her face, knocking her off of her hooves and dislocating her jaw, totally breaking the concentration necessary to levitate and use a gun. The vampire followed this unnaturally fast blow with a soft tsking, looking down to the would-be hero.

“It's a pity to see ghouls that don’t know their place,” the pegasus reinforced her position with a firm kick towards the unicorn’s ribs, breaking several of them in the process, “Oh well, I’ll get over it.”

Bolt, to her credit, did her best to stand up, only to be once again interrupted by a swift blow to the side of her head by the pegasus. This time, the pegasus hit with full force, knocking her down again and causing her to roll some two yards away on the cobbled pavement. Encouraged by the vampires' solid rhetoric, Bolt opted to stay down. Ultimately, the utility from such a decision was rendered null as the vampire whistled, calling the trio of her underlings to descend upon the unicorn, kicking her, spouting insults, and all kinds of other unpleasantries.

The sky, seemingly uncomfortable with the brutality of it all covered itself with clouds and, with the clouds came snowfall. The wind picked up, whistling through broken glass and the odd crack, creating a tune to accompany this otherwise silent period of violence.

This went on for a solid minute, though, to Bolt it felt more like hours. What was once a rather average looking mare now resembled a whimpering, blood-soaked fur bag with the odd bone jutting out. Still, being a zombie had its perks, or drawbacks in this case as where a normal pony would have passed out due to shock, Guiding Bolt had the privilege of laying there on the ground, helpless to do anything while still being aware of every blow.

Inevitably, the vampire grew tired of the Bolt’s continued existence, and as a result she’d give the orders for the ghouls to go ahead and cave in her skull and be done with it. With gleeful eagerness one of them raised a hoof to do just that, only to be intercepted by the earth pony who had led the unicorn to this predicament in the first place.

Grace was an aspect mostly seen in pegasi, magic was the privilege of the unicorn, but simple force, that most definitely belonged to the earth ponies. Aided by the momentum of her sudden attack, and the raw force in her blows she’d manage to render the first ghoul unable to continue fighting, breaking one of his legs and fracturing a cheekbone. Leaping up and entering the low stance, she faced the other two ghouls with a reckless confidence, silently assessing them.

The vampire sat down looking interested at the sudden display of bravery, opting to let her two underlings prove their worth. The two other ghouls, aggravated by the sudden assault on their comrade sought to deliver a back-kick and a more direct series of frontal strikes to the Earth Pony. Her low stance and preparedness for combat allowed her to avoid the more powerful back-kick, however the rapid-fire frontal hits battered her shoulders and face. Still, she remained in her stance well enough, taking the hits with a constitution that did her tribe justice.

Stepping back and waiting for the forward-attack focused ghoul to move up to attack again she would rotate quickly to deliver a quick but powerful back-kick towards its face. Sadly, this attack was interrupted by a firm blow to her side from the other who’d moved up with similar intents. The sound of ribs cracking added to the whistling choir of wind, whimpering and pained breathing. The earth pony, determined not to have her friend get executed stumbled back from the hit but remained standing nonetheless.

The earth pony coughed up blood and a fragment of bone that would have surely killed her if she still had to worry about breathing. Still, her aggressive nature was punished and the pain made it harder for her to get the nerve up to launch another attack against the two. A period of circling followed as neither party was too keen on getting a direct .

Finally, one of the vampire’s ghouls moved forward, going for a quick punch to the Earth Ponies already damaged side. The earth pony, focused on avoiding attacks, and due to being mercifully granted a single opponent to deal with at a time dodged and reciprocated with a quick jab to the other ghoul’s face, causing them to stumble back.

The vampire’s ears perked up and she frowned, walking over to the pistol before placing four well aimed shots into the hind legs of the Earth Pony “Enough playing, grab Artois and let's get out of here.” The two ghouls complied as the vampire walked over to the earth pony who was now in a less-than-stellar fighting capability. Smirking, she’d drag the pony over and jam her head into the open abdomen of the griffon, rubbing her around for a moment before tossing her next to Bolt’s broken body. “We’ll see how well your new friends treat you when they see a Griffon’s guts on your face,” and with that, the vampire and her cadre ran off, leaving the two broken ponies and the griffon to their own purpose.

Coincidentally, the weather began to clear as well, with the rapid onset of snowfall and wind departing as rapidly as it had appeared.

The earth pony, wounded and incapable of running off simply crawled over to Bolt and nuzzled up against her, resting her head on a part of her that wasn’t too broken. Still, the unicorn winced as contact was made. This caused the earth pony to pull back a bit, only to be urged to maintain contact as the unicorn leaned against her.

The griffon surveyed the scene, his gaze scanning over the fallen knights, then the crippled ponies that saved him, taking a deep breath, he’d retch, swallowing painfully as the smell of death began to enter his perception, the mask of adrenaline losing its potency. Hesitantly, he approached the two ponies laying beside each other. “You have my deepest gratitude, I’d be dead if it weren’t for you, I, I know that isn’t much and I’m sorry. I’ll go get help.”

“No,” the earth pony stated firmly “Stay here, they’ll kill us.”

He nodded, “Right, right,” there was a hint of panic still on his voice as he responded, sitting near the two, waiting for the patrol of knights to arrive.

Inevitably, the sound of armoured claws on pavement became audible, and a moment later, a squad of five Arcturian knights arrived most of them had rifles, however, one carried a fuel tank and large flamethrower. “Arcturius above, not again.” The knight with the flamethrower approached, turning towards the priest before pointing his flamethrower towards the two ghouls. “Are they with you?” The priest nodded, prompting the knight to direct his weapon of sacred flame elsewhere.

The knights looked everything over, their gaze lingering on the earth ponies muzzle a moment before relenting. “Right, we’ll just take them back to be questioned. We’d appreciate it if you came along as well.” The priest nodded as the two knights helped move the injured ponies as gently as they could manage. This did little to prevent protest from the earth pony, and pained yelps from the Unicorn for the majority of the trip. The Eyrite did his best to minimize the pain experienced by Bolt and the earth pony but, it was really hard to do anything without it being agonizing given their current situation.

Finally, as they approached the more frequently patrolled areas Bolt and the Earth Pony were placed on stretchers making the latter half of the journey less horrible, and, mercifully, letting the duo pass out.