Tugging at my undead heartstrings

Tugging at my undead Heartstrings

By: Fimbulvinter

Chapter 6: A newborn vampyre in Princess Celestia’s Court

Octavia

Fast Eddie had come through for me. I now knew where my quarry were hiding. All that remained was to call for an extraction team and they were on their way now.

Disabling a vampony was easy enough if you knew how to do it. Stakes or bolts with a hypodermic tip loaded with colloidal silver. Didn’t kill them but left them in agony, unable to perform even the most basic of tasks until their bodies purged the silver. I personally never carried such a weapon – pure silver all the way for me. Why disable a monster only to kill it later when you could simply kill it now and be done with it?

Still orders were orders. I had to bring in at least one of them alive and talking. The princess had asked that I try to take them both in, but would understand if only one could be managed. While I may not get the pleasure of watching them die in front of me, I could at least watch as they squirmed in agony, the silver burning them from the inside. That was the part I like the best, watching them suffer. They were an unholy perversion of nature and should be stamped out whenever the chance arose. Taking pleasure in that couldn’t be wrong, could it?

The extraction team arrived in short order, and weapons were distributed. Nets, cages and silver hypo darts were provided, but I refused the latter. If one of them attacked, I was swinging to kill. Twilight Sparkle would just have to find another vampony to talk to.

Assuming that we were able to capture one or both of them, the cages we had built to transport them were a work of sadistic art. Silver chains kept the mares bound to a wooden board, should they escape that, the entire cage was built as a death trap. A quick release panel studded with wooden stakes hung from the ceiling. One flip of a switch and, Splat, Crushed vampony. I would be all too glad to flip that switch.

“Team leader ready,” One of the hit squad called out from down the street. I nodded and signalled for an incursion. All the members of the squad readied weapons and bust down the door that Fast Eddie had indicated. Shouts echoed out from the room, followed by two separate but equally loud screams. I strode in on my back legs, like a commander surveying the scene of a battle.

Inside the room, weighed down by silver netting, burns appearing anywhere the nets rubbed, the two vamponies I had been sent to capture writhed in agony. The smell of charred flesh rose to fill the room, in some ways it was an improvement over the rotting smells already there.

“Load them into the cages, take no chances, total incapacitation,” I ordered the ponies around me. They all nodded to me and proceeded to transfer the two screaming vamps into the transport caged.

I loved it when a plan comes together like this.

Twilight

The fact that Octavia had managed to capture both Lyra and Bon-Bon with no casualties was the talk of the entire organisation. They would be here by nightfall and I could really get my research underway. Studying in the archives had been fascinating but the problem was that there was almost no confirmed facts. Abilities brought up in The Vampire Menace I were contradicted by other claims in Legends of the Equestrian Dark. The only things that all the texts agreed on were things I already knew: That they were immortal, drank blood, and could not be seen in mirrors. All I could do now was to wait and try to think of questions to ask Lyra and Bon-Bon when they got here, assuming they would even talk to me at all. We used to be friends, surely that had to count for something, right?

Nightfall came not quickly enough and with it, the extraction team arrived, entering the castle through a number of secret entrances designed for just this kind of procedure.

I watched as two covered cages were wheeled into the main chamber and left alone at Celestia’s direction. Now it was my turn, time to learn what I could about for the longest time, I had thought to be nothing but legend.

Pulling back the cover over one of the cages I beheld a scene right out of a horror book. Bon-Bon was shackled to a board; silver manacles seared her directly down to the bone. Her neck, spine and all of her legs had been broken repeatedly, bone chips and fragments poking out through her skin. Despite all her injuries, she was still awake, her eyes tracking me, but not showing any sign of recognition. The only other movement was from her dislocated jaw, as she attempted to bare her fangs at me. One had been removed entirely, a gaping bloody hole where it used to be, the other one was chipped and broken.

Lyra’s cage was exactly the same, but she had also had her horn removed, a bleeding stump now all that remained. Burn marks and cuts littered her body. The pair looked like they had been tortured past the point at which they would have normally died, their undead nature keeping them awake through out their suffering. Octavia had clearly been very methodical in her disabling of the pair.

Octavia herself was still standing off to the side. I looked at her horrified at what she had done to these two, feeling vomit threaten to rise up in my throat. “Was all this really necessary?”

She looked at me, a sneer plastered all over her face. “All this and more. You haven’t spent any time out in the real world, hunting and tracking these things. The only way to keep them down is to hit them with silver, and break bones until they stop regenerating. Burn off their blood pool and they become weak, easy prey.”

I walked up to the cage, thrusting ethical concerns from my mind. I had a job to do, given to me by the princess herself; it would not do to waste time. Along with the cages, a box containing their personal effects had been brought. Inside was only a half dozen blood packs and a very small supply of bits.

Neither of the mares was in any shape to be able to talk right now. The only way I would be able to get information out of them would be to heal their wounds, which would also give me a chance to see first hand how their regeneration powers worked. If I could replicate that power myself, it would be the greatest advancement in medical science since ever.

“Bring me a full array of medical instruments, and some IV tubing,” I called out to the bouncy pegasus mare who had been assigned as my assistant for this project. She ran off and returned with an assortment of medical tools, and clear plastic piping.

I pulled out one of the blood packs and hooked the pipe to it, the other end I carefully inserted into Lyra’s mouth, taking care not to get to close. For all her injuries she still looked like she would take a bite out of me if I let her.

Blood began to flow down the piping and pooled in her mouth. For a moment nothing happened, then she suddenly began to swallow it as she realised what it was. Within moments, I could see her injuries begin to heal. Exposed bones reset themselves with no assistance, burn marks faded. Missing flesh simply grew out of the old surrounding tissues; even her horn began to regrow. It was truly a miracle of nature.

The blood pack ran dry, leaving Lyra still wounded but in far better shape than when she began. Her jaw had healed to the point that she could say a single word, “More.”

I hooked up another pack and watched again as she healed up, this time it was faster and cleaner. By the time the second pack emptied, Lyra appeared fully healed and alert again. She struggled against her bonds, the silver burning her skin again, before catching sight of me and freezing.

“Twilight? What are you doing here?” she asked me very carefully.” Honestly I wasn’t sure, but decided to tell the truth.

“Celestia had ordered me to research vamponies, so that we can understand more about them and what you have become. Can you tell me how you were turned into one? It would really help me here. You see, if I can learn how you do things like heal of fast, maybe I could replicate it for the good of all ponies.” Wrap it all up in a nice noble purpose; that would get her talking for sure.

Lyra on the other hoof had other ideas. “Why would I tell you anything? You’re working for the Silver Suns. Don’t deny it, I saw you the night Octavia killed DeVille. You want to know about us to make you a more efficient killer. Well I’m not telling you anythi…” She stopped midsentence when she caught sight of Bon-Bon in her cage, still in very poor shape.

“Oh, Goddess. Bon-Bon, what did they do to you?” Lyra breathed. Returning to me she spoke up again, “and you people call us monsters. When we feed, we don’t cause suffering. They even enjoy it most of the time. You and your kind are the monsters Twilight. How could you have joined them?”

Again I suppressed my ethical obligations. If it were up to me, I would have let them out, and we could talk like civilized ponies, but right now, keeping Bon-Bon in her current state was an advantage I could not waste. Didn’t make me feel any less dirty, though.

“Lyra, I don’t like to see you suffer, but I need to know about you. If you co-operate, then I can give Bon-Bon some blood and let her heal.”

Lyra hung her head in defeat; she knew I had the winning card in this hand. “Fine, what do you want to know?”

“Describe how you were turned in as much detail as you remember.”

Lyra recounted her tale to me, about how Octavia had shot her, something Octavia had failed to mention to me. About how DeVille had given her his blood and she had fallen asleep. When she awoke, she had fangs and a lust for mortal blood.

I took down notes regarding the transformation process. It seemed that merely being bitten wasn’t enough, unlike what several texts had indicated.

“Now give Bon-Bon blood like you promised” Lyra demanded, straining against her bonds again.

“In a moment, first I need something from you, I am sorry for this, but I need them for my research.” I levitated over a syringe and a scalpel to the cage. Jabbing the syringe into her flank, I drained out a large vial of blood, several mouthfuls at least, so that I could analyse it later. Also I cut out a chunk of her flesh, which was replaced almost instantly. There had to be some physiological aspect to how vamponies could remain alive after death, or how they regenerated so fast.

After I extracted her flesh and blood, I did as I said I would, and gave Bon-Bon a blood pack. Despite having the same amount of blood, and similar injuries, Bon-Bon healed significantly less than Lyra did, an affect of age perhaps. Lyra was an older vampony then Bon-Bon, did that make her stronger? So many things I could study.

I gave Bon-Bon another blood pack, again watching in fascination as her body repaired itself, somehow converting the liquid blood into pure energy to fuel its functions. She slowly returned to her senses, but seemed shocked that I was there, but not to release them. Clearly Lyra had not told her about me.

I left the pair in their cages, and retired to my lab to analyse the blood and necrotic flesh. The flesh turned out to be a bust, there was nothing different about it from normal dead flesh, but the blood was something else. The cellular structure of the blood had been radically changed, the cells having now been reconfigured to be unable to transport oxygen, but were moving something else, something I could not yet figure out: the life essence of a vampony. If I could replicate it, and transfer it to normal blood, maybe I could give regular ponies vampire abilities without the need for blood.

All through out my experiments, a voice kept niggling at the back of my head, telling me that some things cannot be studied from the outside; that if I wanted to truly understand the vampony, I had to become the vampony. It was the same voice that had convinced me to enchant by doll in order to manufacture a friendship problem for me to solve.

Such an idea was impossible; I had to maintain my objectivity. Plus being surrounded by a fanatical order dedicated to the destruction of vamponies didn’t help persuade me much.

Celestia came in shortly after my internal debate, asking what progress I had made. My notes on tissue regeneration seemed to interest her, but were also still woefully lacking in detail. I would just have to keep working on it.

When I realised that it was about 3 am, I decided to turn in for the remainder of the night. Lyra and Bon-Bon would still be there in the morning for me to question. Hopefully Bon-Bon would be more receptive to talking that Lyra was.

As I started to drift off to sleep, the voice came to me again. “Go on Twilight, take the blood, become a vampony. Think of all you could learn about them if you become one. Plus you would live forever, imagine all the research you could get done. Do it, Do it for science.” The voice was able to make a persuasive argument.

That was it, the last piece of convincing I needed. I knew now that I had to do this for science, and for Celestia. She would understand and protect me. After all this was her idea. If I was a vampony then I could experiment on myself and see how regeneration worked first hand. Think of all the data that would be gained. I may even be able to develop a cure, then all who were turned could become normal ponies again. Surely they would want that.

Ensuring that nopony was around, and that all the doors were locked, I grabbed the vial of Lyra’s blood I had extracted and looked at it in my hooves. From the outside, it looked just like any other ponies blood. But I knew this was special. Pulling out the stopper on top, I looked down at its contents.

‘For Science,’ I thought as I raised the vial to my lips…

Lyra

At first I wasn’t willing to believe it, but now there was no doubt. Twilight had gone over to the Suns fully. She was going to be no help to us. Bon-Bon and I were alone in a hostile stronghold, surrounded on all sides by ponies who wanted to kill us or watch us suffer, nopony knew we were there, and nopony was going to come looking for us. As much as I didn’t want to admit it to myself, and would never tell Bon-Bon, there didn’t seem to be any way out of this.

We both just simply lay there, hanging limply against our restraints. There was no point in resisting. Maybe one of the ponies would grow tired and just put us out of our misery.

The sounds of a scuffle and somepony hissing and spitting made me look up, breaking me out of my cycle of depression. The sounds grew nearer, and Princess Celestia burst through the doors, dragging along in her magic a raving and feral Twilight, who was lashing and lunging out at anything she could get within range. Celestia came to a stop directly outside our cages.

“Please, you have to help her.” Celestia indicated Twilight, who was still trying to lunge and bite her.

“What happened to her?” Bon-Bon asked.

“It seems she tried to turn herself. She drank the entire vial of your blood, Lyra.”

This was bad news. DeVille hadn’t told me much, but he had made sure to note that you must never try to turn a pony without draining their blood first. If you didn’t then they always would end up insane, the two competing forces of life and death eventually destroying their minds.

“Did she drain her own blood first?” I asked

Celestia shook her head. “No, she simply drank yours. Is there anything you two can do for her?”

The only way I knew of was to drain her fully, and restart the process properly. I told the princess as much. “So she would be a vampony, but would be alive and functional?” I nodded at that assessment.

Celestia took and held a deep breath, before looking down at the feral creature she once called her student. “Is there no other way?”

At this point, I had had enough. “I’m only 6 months old, still considered a baby in the vampony hierarchy. I don’t know much more about being a vampony than you do. Someone had to go and kill my maker before he could teach me.” I shot a dirty look over at Octavia. It was returned with intensity.

Celestia nodded sadly. “Then do it.”