Tugging at my undead heartstrings

Tugging at my undead heartstrings

By: Fimbulvinter

Chapter 7: I didn’t see that one coming

A/N: In response to several pieces of reader feedback, this chapter has undergone several significant re-writes aimed at expanding on some of the later plot points.

“Then do it”

At Celestia’s direction, Bon-Bon and I were released from our cages, though under heavy guard. Twilight had settled down slightly, but was watching us was an odd expression, the kind that I had seen DeVille wear when he was tracking animals.

“Put her in the cage, we need her restrained,” I called out. Celestia floated Twilight over to the cage where I had been restrained and in one motion, fastened Twilight to the straps. She snapped again, snarling at everything and nothing all at once.

“Bon-Bon, I will need help with the draining.” Bon-Bon came over and joined me in the cage. I whispered over to her, just loud enough so that only she could hear me “Very slow, no sudden movements. Whatever you do, don’t loose control, please don’t loose control.” She nodded back.

“Princess, call the guards back, we need some room. While I understand the theory involved, I have never actually done this before, and having weapons shoved in my face is not helping,” I said out loud.

Celestia motioned for all the guards to step back. Most of them did, the others simply lowered their weapons slightly.

I looked over at Bon-Bon. “Ready?” I asked her

“As I’m gonna be,” was her reply.

Moving very slowly, we both lowered our mouths to Twilight neck, trying to avoid her own snaps and bites before latching on and drawing her blood. From the first sip, I could taste that something was wrong with her blood. Most blood I had tasted was smooth; rich and serene. This blood tasted angry, like pure rage. Bon-Bon was struggling to keep her control, so I pulled her off.

Twilight slowly became placid, as her blood was drained. Soon she was almost still, and it was time to begin the next stage. I reached up and bit into my leg, welling some of my own life-force into my mouth then I moved down and allowed it to spill into her mouth. She swallowed and almost instantly locked up, becoming totally still. I figured that meant I had done it right, as it was how Bon-Bon had looked when she was turned.

Bon-Bon and I withdrew from the cage. “She can be untied, the process will take about 6 hours for the first stage, and upwards of 2 months to finish after that. Somepony need to either donate some blood, or send out for blood packs from Canterlot General. When she wakes she will be hungry.”

Celestia nodded and dispatched one of her guards.

She turned back to me. “And now for the matter of what to do with you two.”

If I had body heat anymore, my blood would have turned to ice at that comment.

“Normally, I would have had you disposed of, but given the situation here, I cannot do that in good conscience. You saved Twilight after she made a very stupid mistake; one that was entirely her own fault. I am going to make you a once in a lifetime offer of clemency on three conditions. One: no killings. Two: if you get caught feeding all deals are off. Three: when she wakes, you two will teach Twilight how to control herself.”

“Somehow I doubt we will get as good a deal anywhere else,” I said, shrugging. “Deal.”

Celestia and I shook hooves.

“You may return to your lives in Ponyville if you so decide. You can use the official secondment act. Say that you had been recruited for royal duty if anypony asks. Where ever you go, Twilight will need to follow until you feel she is ready to strike out on her own.”

We quickly struck down the deal, and settled in to wait until Twilight would rise.

During the time, Celestia asked us about our experiences as Vamponies.

“Well, aside from the whole kidnapping, torture and attempted assassinations, it hasn’t been all that bad,” I deadpanned back at her.

“Touché,” she countered.

“All we want now is to be left in peace, allowed to live as close to a normal life as we can. We will take and train Twilight, but after that I don’t want to hear from you again.”

Celestia held up her hoof. “I swear to myself, providing you keep to our agreement, you will not see us again, right Octavia?”

We all looked over to see Octavia skulking away from the room.

“Yes, Princess,” came the reply through clenched teeth. She didn’t look back.

The unicorn that had left returned with a small box of blood packs a short time later. Finally there was nothing to do but wait.

It didn’t take long after that. Twilight seemed to turn abnormally quick, maybe it was her talent for magic, maybe her harmony element, either way she had turned in almost half the time it took me or Bon-Bon.

“Oh, Ow, Ow, Ow. My head,” she moaned, not noticing her still growing fangs now starting to protrude from her gums; the speed at which she had turned meant that they were still about the size of her normal teeth. “What happened to me? I remember being in my lab, then blacking out.”

Celestia took a very stern tone with her, almost as a mother would when scolding a child. “What happened was that you made the last mistake of your life and tried to turn yourself into a vampony by drinking Lyra’s blood. What were you thinking?”

Twilight huddled up on the ground. “That’s right; I needed to understand how the vampony body worked. I thought that if I became one, I could learn its secrets myself, for the good of all ponies. Seems like it didn’t work though. Left me kinda thirsty.”

Celestia picked up a blood pack and tossed it to her student. “Here, drink this, see how it makes you feel.”

Twilight looked at the pack and back up at Celestia. “What, what’s this? You said it didn’t work.”

“No, you said it didn’t work. When you drank the blood, it caused some kind of imbalance, and you became feral and rabid. The only way we had to save you was for Lyra and Bon-Bon to drain and turn you properly. Congratulations Twilight, You are a vampony after all, just like you wanted.”

Twilight’s eyes widened and she instantly brought a hoof up to examine her teeth. Her fangs had finally begun to lengthen. “What happens now?” she asked.

“First, drink the pack, it will make you feel more stable” Twilight opened the pack, sniffing the contents. Eventually she sipped it and paused before swallowing the entire thing a bit faster. Within a few moments, colour flushed her cheeks, and her eyes flashed at me. I grinned, knowing exactly what had just happened. Twilight had gotten her first taste of vampony arousal.

Celestia continued unabated.

“Now, Twilight. I want you to know just how disappointed I am with you. I thought I had trained you better than this. I understand why you did what you did, but that does not make it in any way right. You are very lucky these two were able to save you at all. I am sending you back to Ponyville with Lyra and Bon-Bon. There you will learn everything they have to teach until they are confident you are in control of yourself. Then and only then can we see what may be done about you.”

Celestia ushered us out of the room, towards a waiting chariot. I used the ride back home to explain to Twilight the finer points of vampony nature as we understood it. She blushed as the mention of sex however. Even after her time in Ponyville she was still really just a sheltered little filly at heart. I also showed her how to cast the illusion spell for her fangs. They had finally grown out enough to be noticeable to others.

As the chariot descended into the town square, we all tensed up and hid our fangs away. Bon-Bon simply had to clamp her mouth shut and leave the talking to me. Needless to say the town was shocked. When Bon-Bon did not surface after the fire, everypony assumed her dead. Twilight stepped in and took over the conversations, claiming official secrets and royal duties.

Eventually the crowds dispersed as they found that we would not budge on our stories. When we had a moment to ourselves, Twilight insisted that we go out into the Everfree and visit the zebra witch, Zecora.

“If I know her, she will be able to tell what we are. She may be able to help us, plus it will be better to go to her, rather than have her find out here in the middle of town. At least in the forest we can contain the situation if things get out of control.”

We all followed the trails out to the forest; Bon-Bon gasping as she saw the charred wreck that was our home. When I stopped to think about it, only just over a week had actually passed since that night. It seemed like a life time ago now. Twilight took the moment to try using her magic. I had explained to her that adding in blood could make her spells much more powerful, but at a potential loss of control. Her first attempt at picking up a rock ended up the same way as mine – total obliteration.

“Imagine your magic like a tap. Dial it back until only the faintest trickle is coming through. Then try to pick up the rock again.”

Twilight did so, concentrating hard and she did manage to life a rock safely off the ground. “I did it,” she called, breaking her concentration over the rock. I watched as it flew off into the forest, a passage the unfortunately sent it directly through Bon-Bon’s forehead. Normally such a move should be fatal, but for us it was little more than an annoyance.

Blood oozed out of Bon-Bon’s new ventilation, and we could see right through to the other side oh her head for a moment until the wound closed over. Twilight watched in total fascination. She had seen us heal from injuries before but this was something else. Bon-Bon’s eyes glazed over for a moment as her body refocused on healing.
None of us had really tested exactly how far our ability to heal would take us. Cuts and broken bones were one thing. The ability to regenerate a lost limb, or extreme damage like a rock through the brain was another.

“Damn it Twi, that hurts,” she called out, coming out of her trance and rubbing the now healed spot.

“Oh, Goddess. I’m sorry Bon-Bon. I didn’t mean to,” Twilight gushed out.

“No lasting damage I guess. Let’s just forget about it. Next time point our rock the other way. Come on; let’s just get to this hut already.”

Twilight knew the way to the hut fairly well, and we reached it without incident. Tribal masks littered the ground around the hut, and the entire place gave off a strange off kilter vibe. If this was what she felt like, no wonder the town had rejected her for so long.

Twilight boldly knocked at the door. A muffled shout came from within.

“Coming, coming, my dears

Just sit back upon your rears.”

We all waited outside the door. Even if the door had been open, we could not have entered it, none of us had been invited. Soon the door opened and Zecora, Ponyville’s resident herbal master and witch doctor appeared in the entrance.

“Well, well. Do my eyes deceive?

Three young vamponies, I do believe.

Twilight my dear, don’t look so done

Being a vampony, I hear, can be lots of fun

But come in now, off that road

Please, you may enter my abode.”

The invitation cast, we were able to enter into Zecoras hut. Inside was a wide array of potion materials and ingredients, even one or two bottles of what I suspected to be various types of blood.

“Yes, we are vamponies now. How could you tell Zecora?” Twilight asked.

“Your eyes, all stained with lust

You will keep that under control, I trust”

We all nodded. “Twilight thinks that you may be able to help us somehow. None of us really known all that much about being a vampony. Is there anything you can tell or teach us?” I asked the zebra.

“There is much I can teach

Up on that shelf you must reach

For upon it there is a book

Well worth the time it takes to look.”

I pulled a book down from the top shelf, none of us quite trusting Twilight with magic just yet. At her power, she could level a city block if she wasn’t careful. The book was old, hoof bound and faded at the edges. The cover read ‘the true accounts of an Equestrian vampony’

“Inside that tome, its pages so weak

Is contained all the knowledge that you seek.

As for this one, for her talents to grow

I can teach her all that I know.”

Zecora pointed at Bon-Bon. If she could teach Bon-Bon how to wield her powers then that was great. As Unicorns, neither Twilight nor I could help her.

“Why are you always rhyming? Are you under some kind of curse?” Bon-Bon asked, ruining the moment through a lack of tact.

“No my dear, I labour not under a curse

I simply like to rhyme in verse”

“But what about words that don’t have rhymes, like orange?” I blurted out, unable to resist trying to trap her.

“Ah, my friend. To find the rhyme to that word orange

Simply ask that highland family, the clan McSporange.

Everypony laughed at that one. “Proper names don’t count,” I grumbled under my breath.

With that, we were soon able to enter into a routine. We showed Twilight how to hunt animals, and once she grew some what more stable, how to seduce a pony into going home with her. We didn’t kill them anymore; we didn’t have to. Twilight had powerful mind control magic that allowed her to make ponies forget everything that happened. She joined us in our bed on a few occasions after a successful feeding, but never really clicked with us.

Each week, we would go and meet with Zecora. Her special brand of magic was useful when teaching Bon-Bon. Within a few weeks she had mastered wall walking, developing a strange fondness for hanging from the ceiling for long periods. It relaxed her, she said. Twilight, ever the scientist, said something about blood pooling in her brain but I wasn’t really listening. When ever I tried it, using my magic to hold myself in place, it made me feel funny, and would always loose control over my magic shortly after.

After a few months, we pronounced her ready to return to Canterlot and that was the last we heard from her, until half a year later, when she returned with a most unexpected offer for us.

We had just returned from Zecora’s again. Bon-Bon had been practicing to develop her abilities as a Terrapath. By now she could move dirt as if in a wind, and cause a very weak tremor. Zecora assured us that such progress was normal for one as young as she was. With time, training and practise she would be able to wield the earth as an extra limb.

Twilight was waiting for us when we arrived back at our house. While we didn’t know why she was there, we invited her in out of courtesy.

“So what’s up, Twilight?” I asked, reaching into the fridge and pouring us all a glass of blood. Even as Vamponies we still had to follow etiquette and offer a drink. It was lucky that Twi had the same ‘tastes’ as us; there was precious little else in the fridge.

“I went back to the Silver Suns after you let me go. Celestia was right, I had been very foolish about this whole thing, but now that it has happened I wanted to make the best of it, and the Suns represented a chance to do some good. There have been several times in which only I was able to finish a mission, and the fangs make a great interrogation tool. Even the more experienced agents are having a hard time matching my abilities now, which brings me to the purpose of this visit. Celestia is wondering if you two would be interested in joining the organisation. We have had several members retire or be put on the injured list and need replacements. You could stay here in Ponyville; enough stuff comes in from the Everfree that it needs to me monitored.”

Bon-Bon was not overly keen on the idea, but I was intrigued. A chance to be the hero for once, plus it would be a challenge and keep us doing something.

“Come on, Bon-Bon. At least give it a go. We can always try it and then back out if it seems too hard on you, besides if we don’t then somepony who can die for good would have to. Do it for the families of those ponies. We can help to protect Equestria and spare ponies grief at the same time.”

Bon-Bon eventually warmed up to the idea, but made it clear to Twilight that she wasn’t doing it for the princess or for the Suns. She was doing it for me.

As it happened, we didn’t have to wait all that long before something requiring our attention came up. Unfortunately for us, it was a far worse experience than we could have possibly imagined.

Twilight, Bon-Bon and I were sitting in the library, rereading the book Zecora gave us, when into the tree house came the filly, Sweetie Belle, screaming something about blue murder. Twilight took charge and managed to calm her down slightly.

“Sweetie, what happened?”

The filly was still upset but choked out her tale. “I was coming home from a day of crusading when I saw Rarity serving a pretty earth pony in her shop. While I watched, I noticed that she seemed more intested in Rarity herself, not the dresses. She kept on looking at her, licking her lips and smiling this really creepy smile. When my sister turned her back to get a measuring tape, the pony hit her, hard on the back of her head. Rarity fell down and didn’t move. The earth pony grabbed her and ran out of the back door, moving faster than anypony I have ever seen, even Rainbow Dash.”

Twilight stroked the filly’s mane. “Shush, Sweetie. It will be alright. I promise that we will get your sister back. Can you take us to where it happened?” Sweetie nodded and led us back to her house.

On the way, I leant in close to Twilight and whispered “Should we get the rest of your friends?”

Twilight shook her head. “No time, and I think that you two would be a bit more useful if something really has gone wrong. Sweetie’s comment about this pony moving faster than Dash, sound familiar?”

Bon-Bon and I both nodded; it did sound a little too familiar.

Rarity’s boutique was a total mess when we arrived. Something had clearly happened here, clothes were strewn about, and the back door was ripped almost off its hinges. There was no sign of Rarity anywhere, but we were not totally lost.

Being a vampony comes with heightened senses. For all the perfume that Rarity liked to wear whenever she did herself up she may have well left us a trail of breadcrumbs to follow. Finding her would be the easy part. Dealing with whatever took her would not be so easy.

“We need to get rid of the kid, we can’t start following the trail if she can see us” I called over to Twilight. She nodded

“Sweetie, I need you to do something for me. Can you go and find Spike for me. Tell him to send a letter to the princess on my private letterhead. Tell him that we have a rogue, nothing more. He and the princess will understand.”

“Yes, Twi,” she said, streaking out, eager to do something to help her sister.

With Sweetie Belle gone, we could finally set off. We all took off at a gallop, breaking into supernatural speed once we left the sight of the town.

Rarity’s trail meandered a little before setting course for the Everfree. Inside, the perfume began to dissipate, being overpowered by the musty stale odours naturally present. Fortunately though, the passage of the mare could be seen by the disturbances to the plants, and a few hoof prints.

The new trail led us back to the one place that I had never wanted to go again – the ancient fortress of the pony sisters, death place of DeVille and now clearly given new life as a waypoint for any old vampony passing through this way.

Inside the fortress there were only a few places that could be used to hide a body away, so we checked out the closest one. We got lucky, or maybe somepony was expecting us.

Rarity was placed out on a dais, left alone almost like a sacrificial offering. Twilight rushed over to check her, while Bon-Bon and I fanned out to search for the kidnapper.

“Oh, no,” we heard Twilight breathe.

“What is it?” we called back.

“There is no pulse, no breathing. Her body is going cold. She can’t be dead, she just can’t. What am I going to tell Sweetie Belle?”

Without warning, a wave of earth rose up a slammed into us, knocking us all over, and tumbling Rarity’s body onto the ground. As the earth settled, a new pony, a bright green mare with a lavender mane could be seen standing in the middle of the room. No heartbeat or breathing could be heard from this new mare. Grinning at us, she revealed gleaming fangs. It seemed that our kidnapper was a vampony herself, something we had suspected.

“You will not take the white one. She will make an excellent offering to my lord and master. And when he finds out that I have eliminated the traitor to our blood, and the one who made her. You three claim to be vamponies, but you work for our mortal enemy.”

“Who are you? What do you want?” Twilight asked her.

She laughed. “Who I am does not matter. Who I work for does not matter. The only thing that matters to you is that I am older and stronger then you.”

With that she slammed down her front hooves into the ground, and two fingers of clay rose from between the cracks in the stone. One formed itself into a snake, long and coiled; the other one formed itself around the pony, creating a new body for her, larger, with longer legs and spines all along its flanks. It seemed our mystery pony was a powerful Terrapath, far more advanced than Bon-Bon was.

“Lyra, can you deal with the snake?” Twilight called off to me. I had an idea and nodded back to her.

“Bon-Bon, when I call for it, use your power to scatter the snake.”

“I’m not that good yet.” Bon-Bon was unsure of what I wanted

“Don’t worry, I trust you.” I pulled out the stopper on my magic and launched a blast directly at the clay snake, draining all of the moisture out of it, effectively turning it into dust.

“Now, hit it.” Bon-Bon focused through her hooves and I saw the snake break apart as an invisible wind slammed into it. Bon-Bon kept up, scattering the dust until none remained in the room.

We turned out attention to the unknown mare in her suit of earthen armour. Currently she was kicking the crap out of Twilight. She was faster than Twi, had more mass and was clearly a better fighter. I started to chip away at the clay suit with magic bolts, but they reformed almost as soon as they broke away. Bon-Bon decided for something a little bit different. She clambered up the walls of the fortress room, waiting until she was in position before allowing herself to fall away, directly onto the other mare, hooves crushing through skin, bone and clay all alike.

Within moments the mare began to reform herself, her body healing at a rate much faster than any of ours. I wasn’t sure how we were going to take this one down.

Twilight had a more direct approach to the whole situation, having recovered enough from her beating to stand and fight again. Tapping into her blood reserve she lifted the mare up and simply crushed her with the full force of her augmented magic, her normally purple aura changing to a dark red, as more and more blood energy was fed into the spell. Telekinetic forces slammed into the mare from all sides, her body twisting and cracking. Eventually only a tiny ball remained, clearly beyond any hope of recovery. Twilight dumped the ball into one of the holes made by the removal of the clay earth, dumping the remnants of the armour over the top of it, and sealing the entire area with a stasis spell. Nothing would be able to get in or out for a very long time.

“No pony kills my friends,” she said down to where the mares remains were now entombed, anger and grief beginning to over come her body.

“Uh, Twilight, you may want to see this,” I called out, checking on Rarity’s body. Her mouth was sporting a very distinctive pair of protrusions set into her upper jaw.

“It seems our trio is going to become a quartet,” Bon-Bon commented.

We waited until Rarity arose, predictably worrying about the dirt on her body over anything else. That changed as soon as she felt her new dentures.

“Twilight, Lyra, Bon-Bon, what is going, where are we? why do my teeth feel funny?”

She trailed off as she caught sight of our appearances. Blood splatter was on all our coats, and none of us had bothered to hide our fangs again.

We explained the score as best as we could to her. She took it fairly well for a pony who had just had her life turned upside down, perking up noticeably when Twilight pointed out she could remain on the cutting edge of fashion for the rest of eternity. She even took to hunting animals well, something none of us had expected of her.

Bon-Bon and I accepted the positions the Celestia offered us, with Rarity occasionally moonlighting for us every now and then. Every now and then we would be called off to fight some terrible monster or rogue vampony. Other than that it was mostly just trying how to decline dinner or lunch offers without seeming rude.

It was nice being able to drop the façade whenever Rarity or Twilight came around. Maintaining an air of normality was hard work, and whenever they dropped over, we could all just be vamponies.

I understood that Twilight did eventually find a cure for the Vampyre condition, but none of us felt any need to use it. Becoming vamponies was the single best thing that had ever happened to any of us. Apparently, Twilight was even allowed to feed off of Celestia once, the princess having become intrigued by the tales of pleasure that awaited willing donors.

I had Bon-Bon, a semi respectable job, and the knowledge that I would have it all for as long as I wanted.

Undeath was sweet.