New Blood

My very first kill didn’t quite feel like how I expected. I’d never even considered the fact that I might have to kill someone someday, especially when I was Stephen Waverly. Of course, now that I was Vladímir Blueblood, Prince of Equestria, the possibility that it would happen shot up. Not that I expected it to come so early in this life.

The stallion I had fallen on with my sword looked at me in shock and disbelief, eyes wide before he looked down at the sword which stuck out of his neck. Then, with a gurgle, all life left his eyes. It didn’t quite feel like how I expected to feel. I half expected to feel revulsion, but instead I felt something else, something that frightened me.

Satisfaction.

Not wanting to focus on that feeling, I pulled Crescent out of the stallion’s neck and twirled around, using the training I had been given to defend myself against another attacker, this one an older and stronger looking eutherian stallion. I utilized my youth and my shorter stature to dance around my opponent before I held out my hand, blasting him with magic and sending him flying.

Yes, Crescent said with glee, the enemies of Equestria are in front of us at last! We will make sure they suffer for their insolence!

That probably explains why I felt so satisfied, I thought briefly before I rushed forward and leaped onto one of the mounted cavalry they had. Unlike horses in Equestria, the Silver Sanctum horses were completely black and had red glowing slitted eyes along with sharper teeth like eutherians had. I stabbed the cavalry stallion through the back and shoved him off before grabbing the reins. The horse, clearly not happy, reared up and neighed loudly. “Come on, hup!” I shouted a command.

To my surprise, the horse rode forward into the fray, seemingly eager and willing to follow my commands suddenly. I leaned forward, looking around at the battle. Despite us being outnumbered by quite a large number, I saw my aunt in the center of it all, Solar Flare twirling in her hands as she swept it across the battlefield with impossible speed and dexterity. Bright flames spewed forth from the sword, either blowing the enemy back or incinerating those who got too close. Part of me knew that she likely could have easily used her magic to deal with them, but she’d told me once that if she had to fight, she preferred the sword because, while she admitted that there were times when she had to fight, she wanted to give the enemies as many chances to surrender as possible, and she hoped that seeing her like this would help the enemy come to such a decision.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite see the enemy surrendering, especially to someone they viewed as a tyrant. I held up Crescent Moon. “Crescent, whatever aid you can lend to me, I beseech you to do so now,” he said.

So thou hast beseeched us, and so shall it be, Crescent replied.

With that, I felt a surge of magic flowing through me, emanating from the sword and moving through me like a hurricane. The night became brighter, colors became sharper, and I could see much farther away than I normally could. I felt my teeth change slightly as well, and my muscles seemed to grow. Crescent began to glow a bright blue and cold mist began pouring off of it.

I swept my eyes around the battlefield, and despite our side being outnumbered, we were still holding the eutherians back. Unicorn magic was a major plus for us as the city guard blasted magic at the eutherians, held magical shields up, and more. The earth ponies used their superior strength to press the physically weaker eutherians back and the pegasi, with their aerial skills, kept the equally capable flying eutherians at bay.

I felt a surge of magic rising within me, and Crescent’s voice screamed in my head, Fool! Thy body cannot handle this much magic for thy first time! Release our magic!

I held up the sword and saw that the veins on the arm that held Crescent were glowing a dark blue. It was also rippling, muscles showing as they apparently tried to hold back the magic swirling within me. I whirled around, spotted a group of eutherians in the air, and swung the sword in their direction.

A blast of icy cold magic burst forth from the sword, releasing nearly all of the magic that had built up. The eutherians stopped in midair, their cries forever stuck in their throat as the fell. I watched in horrified fascination as they shattered into thousands of bloody pieces the moment they hit the ground, the heat of their remaining blood rising as steam in the cold early spring night.

I turned around and saw that my arm was rippling and growing again. I then saw a number of eutherians charging at me, their weapons raised. I swung the sword at them, and just like before they froze before falling and shattering, their blood steaming as well.

I bared my teeth, feeling my new and hopefully temporary fangs against my lips. “They have attacked us, and they will pay!” I shouted.

Indeed they shall, young whelp! Now continue!

I nodded and swung at the enemy, making sure I directed the swings at groups of just eutherians. I didn’t want to strike anyone who was on our side because, despite me suddenly knowing that with training I could differentiate between friend and foe, I had no time to train on that.

Just then I saw a burly eutherian stallion charging towards Aunt Celestia, whose back was turned as she was engaging with three other eutherian soldiers. Panic rose within me as I urged my temporary mount forward. At the last moment, I leaped onto my new horse’s back, leaped up, and roared in rage and desperation as I held my sword upside down, intent on striking the stallion down.

The stallion, however, heard me, and turned quite speedily for someone of his size. He brought his blade up, and I had barely enough time to redirect my blow towards his sword hand. He screamed in pain as I cut his wrist open, effectively making his dominant sword hand useless. We both tumbled to the ground, groaning and grunting in pain as we fell over ourselves.

I somehow managed to hold onto Crescent and got to my feet first, looking around wildly as the chaos of battle raged on around us. Just then, the stallion loomed tall over me, eyes ablaze with fury. He said something in a nasty tone before he raised his remaining hand which held a massive mace in it.

The mace came down and I blocked it just in the nick of time. The eutherian looked surprised, but only for a moment before recognition dawned on him. He began pressing the mace down, using his superior strength and experience to overpower me. I channeled all the magic I had into Crescent, and a blast of icy cold air and magic shot out, catching the stallion in the still injured arm and freezing it.

He stumbled back, giving me time to roll away and get to my feet. The hours of training I got from Iron Grip came back to me. Mind your surroundings, young princling, he would say. Use those swiveling ears to hear everything. I did just that, hearing the chaos of battle for the first time. In battle, there is chaos, he had said, and not the type that the ancient Discordia spreads. He was right about that, I noted briefly as I held up my sword in my preferred style of fighting.

The taller eutherian looked at his frozen and useless arm, then did something I didn’t expect. He raised his mace and hit the arm, shattering it just below the shoulder. He turned to me, covering the injury with one wing. He said something nasty to me, but unlike before I couldn’t understand him since I wasn’t in the Umbral. He swept his remaining wing at me, creating a large gust of wind that would have blown me back had I not seen it coming. I’d seen similar moves from the pegasi and eutherian guards during their training regimens. I raised the best magical shield I could, keeping back most of the wind, but it wasn’t enough. I found myself sprawled on my back once more, still clutching to Crescent Moon.

Never let your weapon out of your hands, I heard Iron Grip’s words echoing in my head as I rolled out of the way of another mace attack before swinging my sword at the eutherian. He was clearly in some sort of battle trance because his eyes were full of rage and determination when I once more got to my feet. He raised it and brought it down once more. Sidestepping, I swung Crescent to deflect the mace’s trajectory. It stuck in the ground, giving me an opportunity to stab the stallion in the throat. His eyes widened in surprise, then I heard him gurgling as blood came out of his mouth. He collapsed onto his side, eyes still full of shock even in death.

Pay attention, whelp! Crescent shouted. I whirled around just in time to see a eutherian mare bringing a shortsword down to cleave my head in two. I jumped back, but I wasn’t quick enough. I felt a searing pain in my chest and cried out in pain as I once more collapsed to the ground onto my back.

The eutherian soldier grinned at me, snarling as she spat on the ground. “Little princes should stay at home,” she said in a thick accent I couldn’t quite identify.

Despite the pain I was in, I grinned. “And the battlefield’s no place for a dainty little mare,” I shot back, hoping to make her angry enough to lose focus.

It backfired spectacularly. Her sneer turnt into a growl as she drew a second shortsword. “Consider yourself lucky,” she hissed. “I never draw this blade in battle.”

“Ah, shit,” I swore.

“Such uncouth language for a little spoiled princeling brat,” the mare shot back.

I got to my feet, looking down briefly at the cut on my chest. It was shallow, thankfully, but it was still covering my shirt with blood. It hurt like hell, but I powered through it, the adrenaline rush causing the pain to dissipate, at least temporarily. I pushed magic into Crescent. “Fortunately, you won’t be alive to share that information,” I shot back.

She rushed at me, using her wings to enhance her speed. I deflected the first few swings, but she caught me on the side of the head with the pommel of her left sword. I saw stars as I went down. Another steering pain erupted on my chest. Looking down, I saw that she’d created another, smaller injury on my chest, carving an X shape with the intersecting lines very near my heart. I jumped to my feet once more, blasting some of my own magic at her. Here, I remembered once more one of the disadvantages of being able to cast magic from my hands: I couldn’t hold my sword in two hands.

The magic blast caught her in the shoulder, blasting her shoulder plate off. She stumbled briefly, but it wasn’t enough. She leapt into the air, then spun, her swords dancing in the light provided by the hovering balls of magic light which illuminated the battlefield. I crawled away from her, still on my back, feeling my magical reserves growing weaker as my anima grew emptier. I was acting more so out of desperation now than anything as I continued to attempt to deflect the blades.

However, one powerful swing finally sent Crescent flying from my hands. She then stomped on my wrist, and I screamed in pain as she dug her boot in. She put her blade to my neck. “Today will be the day where you-”

However, before she could finish, a glowing orange blade pierced her skull, then swiped to the right. I felt blood splattering all over my face as the mare fell, revealing my aunt standing there.

Aunt Celestia glared at the mare, then spat. “Nopony harms my family,” she snarled. She then used her magic to hoist me to my feet and stood nearby to protect me as she swung her sword to brush away any enemies nearby. “Nephew, get out of here!” she ordered.

“I’m a prince of Equestria!” I replied as I reached for Crescent. I swung it quickly which froze several nearby eutherians before they were shattered by several mounted soldiers. “I need to be here! Besides,” and here I raised Crescent, “I can help!”

Aunt Celestia’s eyes were ablaze with anger, now. “I don’t care if you were an adult in a past life!” she shouted, making it sound like it was a hypothetical, but I knew what she meant. “You’re too damned young to be here! Get back-!”

She raised her sword just in time to block something, a blast of dark sky blue magic. I whirled around and held up Crescent just as a second blast of the same colored magic hit my sword. Unlike my aunt, I wasn’t able to keep my footing on my new mount and I was flung from my new horse, sprawling onto my back on the now fully trampled grass. Thankfully, unlike in movies, I held onto Crescent Moon. “The fuck was that?!” I shouted, although thankfully nobody heard me.

Nobody except Crescent. Thy foul language aside, young colt, that was the magic of our wielder!

“Aunt Luna?!” I sprang to my feet, grateful for my youthful resilience as I rushed up to join my aunt.

“No, it’s not,” my aunt replied, eyes narrowed as she glared ahead. “Somepony is using some of her magic somehow, though,” she added.

I looked in the direction of where the blast came from and saw a hooded figure standing in the middle of the battlefield, a black staff in their hands. The robes looked somewhat familiar until I remembered the purple robes with gold fringe from the Academy of the Arcane. This pony was wearing a nearly identical robe, but with the gold fringe parts torn off, making their robes look ragged. On their shoulder, their cutie mark was clearly visible, an upside down triangle with a rainbow pattern passing through it. Inside the upside down triangle was a four sided rhomboid gem.

“So, you’ve joined their side, Mage Prismia Glass,” Aunt Celestia growled angrily.

The mage reached up and removed her hood, revealing a very dark purple unicorn mare with light blue eyes and black and medium blue striped hair and tail. There was a golden necklace around her neck with a gemstone that seemed to radiate dark magical energy. She glared at my aunt. “They offered me what that pathetic Academy couldn’t,” Prismia said with a grin before she looked at me. “Test subjects.”

I knew of Prismia only in passing. She was apparently a magical prodigy who may very well have become one of Celestia’s students had she not begun performing experiments that were not only quite illegal but were quite unethical. Experiments into dark magic and experiments on ponies, holstaurs, ovitaurs, and other sapient beings, most of them children.

A chill ran down my back as I thought about Cadance and myself. Would we have become a part of Prismia’s cruel experiments had we not escaped? My question was answered when the older mare looked at me and grinned. “It would have been fun to see how a member of the royal family reacted to-”

A blast of fire erupted from my aunt’s mouth as her mane and tail erupted into flames, her sclera turning pitch black, her eyes going from purple to fiery red, and her teeth becoming fanged as she turned into Daybreaker. “Lay a finger on MY nephew at your own peril!” she snarled. “I will remove your hands and horn with my OWN hands if you do!”

“Oooh, there it is!” Prismia gasped in elation. “There’s the Daybreaker I’ve so longed to see!”

I did remember the episode with Starlight switching the cutie marks of the two sisters, but I’d never thought that I’d ever see my aunt go full Daybreaker. It was oddly heartwarming to see her go full momma bear for me, but at the same time, the childish part of me was terrified of her. I squashed that fear immediately and walked up, feeling the heat radiate off of her becoming next to unbearable.

Taking a leap of faith, however, I raised my tail and wrapped it around Daybreather’s own. Her head snapped down to me, the fury visible for a brief moment before she recognized who I was. I ignored the burning in my tail , and soon it vanished as Daybreaker came back down. She looked at me with her now normal purple eyes. “Blueblood, I-”

Another blast of magic hit her and she was flung back. I watched in horror as my aunt fell back in slow motion, landing heavily on her back and writhing in pain. I felt myself scream not so much as heard, and I turned and raised my blade just as another blast of Nightmare Moon’s magic came hurtling towards me, striking the blade. It was then that I noticed that she was casting magic from her hand and not from her horn. I had no time to comment on the impossibility of that as the magical energy from her hand doubled, forcing me to pour magic into Crescent Moon.

This foul abominable witch hast further tainted our true wielder’s most awesome magic! Crescent growled. Whelp, we shall give thee more magic, but be warned, it shall not be pleasant!

“Do it, do it, do it!” I bellowed.

The magic from the sword only increased, and I heard myself screaming as it felt like my nerves were on fire. Pain as a child is much more extreme than as an adult, but I had an adult’s mindset, so I held on as best as I can. At least, until a revitalized Daybreaker came bursting in front of me, blocking the magic from Prismia. I fell on my behind, Crescent still clutched in my hands. The blade was smoking.

Prismia laughed. “And there’s your weakness right there, Celestia,” the now clearly deranged mage said with derision. “All that power in your grasp, and you use it to defend an orphan like him! Little orphan Vladímir.”

Daybreaker took a step forward, snarling in a worryingly feral manner as she pushed her blade forward. I tried to get up, but was unable to thanks to the pain of all the injuries I’d sustained. I was vaguely aware of someone coming to my side, one of our mage medics. She cast a healing spell on my various injuries, but I was unable to look away as Daybreaker continued moving forward. One step. Two. Three. Then the magic from Prismia increased and Daybreaker paused in her tracks. Prismia laughed. “Hahaha! Do you know how I am using the magic of the Nightmare?”

“From that stolen relic of my sister’s, trollop!” Daybreaker snarled.

Prismia laughed even harder. “Do you even know where Silver Sanctum is located?” she asked with an evil grin. When Daybreaker didn’t respond, Prismia’s grin became even more devilish. She then pointed to the rising moon, which was waning. “Silver Sanctum is beneath the moon’s surface, you fool! This magic isn’t just a remnant of Nightmare Moon’s magic! IT IS HER FULL MAGIC! IT IS THE MAGIC SHE CURRENTLY POSSESSES, AND I WILL USE ALL OF IT TO MAKE SURE YOU DIE!”

Daybreaker’s fury turned to horror, and Prismia tried to use that temporary lapse to throw my transformed aunt off with another blast of Nightmare Moon’s magic. It didn’t work. My aunt was no fool. In fact, I realized that Prismia had just made a huge mistake. Nobody threatened her family like that. It might have been her Achilles heel like Prismia said, but it was also my aunt’s biggest strength. Her orange blade turned a hot and bright blue, casting its eerie glow across the battlefield as she approached the clearly dangerous mare.

A part of me was still reeling from the revelation that Silver Sanctum was located on the moon, or at least underneath the moon’s surface. I can think about that later, I thought as I quickly got back to my feet, much to the healer pony’s protests and with Crescent Moon still in my hands. The magic from the sword once more began to ripple through my arms. I moved to the side and raised the sword before swinging it down, releasing the magic that was swelling up from within. A blast of dark blue magic shot out from the sword like Aunt Luna’s version of a Getsuga Tensho.

The magic from Aunt Luna’s sword impacted the magic that Prismia was casting, causing both sources of magic to become intertwined. An explosion of immense power erupted from that point of contact, sending a wave of magic out from the collision in a massive dark blue dome. Everyone except for me, Aunt Celestia and Prismia were all flung back onto their backs, temporarily pausing the battle.

However, Prismia got back to her feet faster than the rest of us, her eyes glowing as the magic she was stealing coursed through her. She raised the staff and her hand, aiming one at me and the other at my aunt. “Time to die, and time for a new age to beg-”

The sky lit up with a bright pink light as a streak of pink shot down from the sky, slamming into Prismia and sending her flying. I looked up to see a large pink heart shaped explosion spreading out, followed by a streak of various pink and purple which led from the center of the expanding heart to where the streak of light had hit Prismia. Looking down, I saw a sight that filled me with horror and instantly made me better understand my aunt’s feelings on me being here. “Cadance?!” I shouted as I rushed forward to where the young pegasus filly, who was still glowing from her sonic loveboom or whatever it was, lay groaning.

When I reached her side, she looked up at me, her pink eyes full of fear, but not fear for herself. Fear for…me? She reached up and cupped my face with her hand. “Are you…okay?” she asked.

“Forget about me, what about you?!” I asked, helping her to her feet. “You shouldn’t be here!”

“I…I had to be here,” she said, sounding a bit confused now.

“You had to be here? But why?” I looked at her with confusion. I was trying hard not to be angry at her. She didn’t need that from me at the moment.

“There’s…there’s so much hate here,” she said as she shivered. “It…it hurts.”

I took a moment to survey the battle. Prismia was still lying on the ground, groaning from the hit. Aunt Celestia was approaching the downed unicorn, eyes blazing once more with venom. The soldiers on both sides were attacking each other with a ferocity that bordered on the fanatic.

I looked at my reflection in Crescent’s blade. My eyes had become slits, my teeth had grown fangs, and my mane had grown longer instantly. The look of pure fury and hatred there was enough to stun me. I swallowed, trying to calm down, but it felt hard. The anger, the rage, the hatred. It was…intoxicating. What was wrong in embracing it if it meant the enemies of the kingdom suffered for their insolence?

A small hand pressed against my chest. I looked down to see a clearly still scared Cadance looking up at me, but her brave and determined face struck me hard. My heart rate decreased slowly, and I put my hand over hers. Despite her having been imprisoned for a good long while, her hand felt soft and silky smooth. It was a bit too thin at the moment thanks to the malnutrition, but there was some hidden strength there. I squeezed the hand gently but firmly. “Cadance,” I whispered.

“Your Highness,” she replied.

I shook my head. “Blueblood,” I replied. “Call me Blueblood. All my friends do.”

Her smile was one of the most sincere and lovely I had ever seen. She intertwined her fingers with mine. “Mom always…she always told me I was full of love,” she said. “Do you think…?”

Somehow I got what she was hoping and I looked down at Crescent. Even she seemed to get the message. I heard a mental sigh. We shall not be able to speak to thee for some time if this happens, she replied. Channelling magic that is not ours will make us too weak to speak.

“It might be our best shot,” I replied.

I could almost feel her exasperation as the sword reached her magic into me once more. So be it, she replied.

Slowly, a combination of two different shades of blue magic began to swirl around the two of us. This magic felt different from the magic from before. Whereas Crescent’s magic was meant specifically for combat, the magic that came from Cadance’s anima felt calmer but with the same level of determination. My emotions calmed considerably, but it didn’t feel like I’d gotten any weaker. I looked down at Crescent, which I saw now was glowing with a bright pink light instead of the dark blue that had surrounded it earlier.

The swirling sphere of sky blue and light cornflower blue magic caught the two of us up in its grasp and we began to float above the battlefield. Everyone seemed to turn to gaze at us. I reached down and grabbed Cadance’s free hand, placing it on the hilt of the sword. She seemed hesitant at first, but then a fiercer determination spread across her face. I wrapped my free hand around that one and held the now brilliantly glowing pink sword aloft. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a translucent pink horn begin forming on Cadance’s forehead, but I was too focused on helping her to channel all of that magic within her for it to fully register.

The magic that she clearly inherited from her ancestor, Empress Amore.

With her anima beginning to open up and me to act as a simple channeling device, I helped her focus all of her magic into the sword. For the briefest of moments, it felt like we were as one. I saw her live in a pegasus family in the small floating city of Windshare, her two loving parents raising her properly and to show love. Their deaths, her imprisonment, and her meeting me.

And she saw snippets of my life as a human and as a pony in a single flash. Not only that, but she saw bits and pieces of Friendship is Magic. Even that didn’t stop her from pouring more of her magic into the sword through me, the conduit.

In an instant, a blast of pink magic exploded from the sword in a heart shaped wave, striking each combatant with precision. This wave was larger than the sonic loveboom she’d unintentionally created minutes earlier, and was much more powerful. The hatred and fury within everyone vanished entirely, if temporarily, as the spell took hold. In that moment, even I understood Cadance’s true magic. It wasn’t brainwashing like some bronies showed. It was, in fact, meant to try and show others a better path by briefly opening their hearts to love, which I felt should have been an element of harmony.

With that, the magic swirling around us vanished, and we began to fall. Cadance was unconscious and fell away from me but I grabbed her and held her close while a golden aura surrounded us. Aunt Celestia rushed over as we both landed safely thanks to her magic. “Are you alright??” she asked worriedly. I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. My hand pointed to Cadance’s forehead. My aunt looked where I was pointing and her eyes widened. “Sweet Harmony…”

There, on the patch where a cutie mark would appear, was a very familiar crystal heart shaped cutie mark, but that wasn’t what had caught her attention, because directly on Cadance’s forehead, was a brand new alicorn horn.