inFamous: Bloody Equestria

Chapters

Arrival
Jail Time
The hunt
problems
As night falls
Explanations
Mary's plan
calm before the storm
Sprung trap
The siege
Shining armor's turning
Beginning of the end

Arrival

A portly man was holding a torch, a stone brazier with a bright flame at the top. He brought it down as vampires charged him, the flames of the torch were reflected in his dark shades. He swung the torch from side to side to ward them off. his black hair and sideburns glistened from the firelight. “Cole! A little help here?” he shouted urgently. Meanwhile behind the man another man, Cole, was fighting off other vampires that wore red coats, the coats were open, and wielded crossbows. “I’m a little busy here Zeke.” Cole answered before taking a crossbow bolt in the shoulder. Zeke walked backwards as the vampires closed in. A laugh echoed through the cavern they were in, a red cloud appeared from deeper within, Zeke turned to Cole and shouted, “Cole, Mary’s comin’!” Cole pulled his makeshift stake out of the vampire he had impaled. It turned to dust.

"You might be wondering how we got in this situation." Zeke spoke. He was in a bar in West Marais, speaking to a few people that were listening, "Well it all started when Cole Was bitten by a Vampire, she decided to let Cole live as a Vampire to use his power in her army but that is where she made the biggest mistake of her life, her undead life. She was a matchstick of a corpse that was hidden in a crypt beneath a church here in New Marais, Now Cole went to the church after people began screaming for help, some people think Cole is a bad guy... Ain't nothing farther from the truth. Back then if people were suffering he'd be there to lend a hand." Zeke took a drink of his beer, "It was cold down there in them catacombs beneath the city. First they were used for crypts and then for an underground railroad, then for some bootlegging; yeah they'd get used for pretty much everything." He took another drink.

"Thing is, folks who went down there kept disappearing. Cole went in anyway because that's what kind of guy he was. Now I wasn't there when he got bit but he told me that while he was down there he began seeing something strange, a pack of bats flying around and shadows appearing in lights before the bats flew by again, he didn't think nothing of it at the time but that was a mistake. The last person that was down there wasn't a human, it was one of them. Cole had been chained up and brought to Mary where those fangers had opened a vein in his neck and started dripping the blood into her corpse. Cole's a conduit. He's superhuman. And his blood, whew, it did the trick. Now his blood did the trick, it brought her back from the dead. After that she told him that he had a single night before he was hers. Forever." He sighed and asked for another beer, one of the people in the bar payed for it.

"Me and Cole we went searching for things to stop her and we found that Father Ignatius had made a weapon to fight Mary, the Barbed Cross and boy was that thing made! The core was made of sacred wood no joke, edged in silver from Solomon's temple, dipped in holy water from the Vatican and blessed by the big man himself. That thing was the ultimate blood sucker slayer." He opened the top and drank again, "Now we went looking for it and when we found it Cole chased Mary back into the crypt where we were now. We had gone down there to set up some bombs, seeing as every Vampire in New Marais followed Bloody Mary down there. Now that's how we got down there." he continued his story.

Cole watched Bloody Mary-a tall beautiful woman with flowing red hair, snow white skin, and she wore a red dress with a black bat necklace-materialized from the scarlet cloud. “We can be together forever Cole Macgrath.” she said, her hands began glowing and Cole felt himself getting drained of power coming with a massive headache. “Never, Bloody Mary!” he shouted back before charging her and ramming the sharp, jagged, wooden end of the coffin lid he had defaced into her chest. Bloody Mary screamed as it struck home, the Barbed Cross on the end of it weakening Mary. She turned back into the cloud and flew off, Cole drained a nearby generator to recharge himself. “Uh Cole... If it isn’t too much to ask for. Help!” Zeke shouted as he fought to stop a vampire from biting him.

“I got ya buddy!” Cole answered, shooting the vampire away with a bolt of lightning, it struck the water near the other vampires and electrocuted them, lighting continued to dance across the water for a short time after they fell into the water. Zeke stood up, “Thanks man.” he ran to Cole, “The charges are set Cole. Let’s get out of here.” he said Cole smiled and nodded.

Zeke throws the torch he was holding, which he used to light his way to set the bombs, to the floor behind him before jogging to the steps. He slowed to a stop when he saw sunlight entering the tunnel; “Oh shit Cole, the sun!” he says before turning back to his vampire friend. Cole turned around and held a hand up keep the sun from his eyes; his body emitted a
black smoke, as it burned his body. He fell to the floor, stood up and used his arm to cover his face as he approached the exit. “Hurry up, we get out of this hole and I’ll torch it!” Cole’s portly friend said from the entrance. Cole slowly walked past the open stone doors and forced himself to walk through the pain. “Ha, Ha, Ha, you feel it now? Oh your mine, vampire, forever.” The woman who had made him a vampire said, Bloody Mary. Cole began stumbling up the steps into the blinding white light the sun was giving off, he tried covering his face with his arms and turning away but nothing helped the pain he was going through. Zeke spoke to Cole from somewhere within the blinding light, “Follow my voice… C’mon man, I’ll see you through.”

Cole continued climbing the stairs and slowly everything at the top was coming into focus as dark smudges then as silhouettes. “C’mon man, that’s it!” Zeke continued. Cole could see Zeke clearly now and he heard Bloody Mary speaking again, “No! No!” she shouted as Zeke and Cole left the tunnel they were in; Cole was still fighting to stay standing as his flesh burned. Bloody Mary came out, crawling in her crimson dress; she held her hand out, reaching for Cole. Zeke looked at her, raised the detonator, and pressed it while she watched. A massive explosion sent the two flying, and collapsing the tunnel they had been inside, as well as destroying every vampire that was down there. Cole was blown farther than Zeke, he saw something strange not too far away, a decoration of a unicorn, and it was round with a half circle cut out for the eye. “What’s this?” He grabbed it and felt a strange sensation of being pulled, as well as being flattened, stretched, inflating, deflating, and finally being torn apart. He screamed the entire time with a single thought: This is worse than the sun!

“Whoo, we did it Cole! Cole?” Zeke called out, not hearing his friend he looked around before a thought dawned on him, “Oh no.” he fell to his knees, “You burned up. We were too late.” He then fell on his hands and started pounding the concrete with his fist, “Why did Cole have to burn! How could I let this happen!?” he shouted as tears came to his eyes. After a few minutes of beating the pavement, his hand was red and swollen; his glove was scratched and torn where it contacted the cement. He stood and looked around, "Maybe he's around here somewhere. Playing a trick on me!" he said hopefully. He continued to look but stopped when the sun began to set, "Maybe he went to help someone. I'll catch up with him later... I guess." he said as he began a mournful walk to the nearest bar, completely forgetting the walkies he and Cole had with them.

Cole woke up in an alley, “An alley? That is never a good sign.” He sighed and stood up, stretching and cracking his back. “Ah it feels good to be human.” He looks up at the sky and sees the moon. “Huh, did I sleep through the whole day?” he wondered before he looked at his surroundings and saw a single thing missing. “No power boxes.” He focused and sent out a small electrical pulse to detect the nearest power source. None, not even the smallest flashlight. “What kind of place is this? Am I in Amish country?” he said before he looked up, no power lines either, nothing that worked on electricity. He began climbing the largest building that was near, but stopped when he reached a window. He looked at himself, same yellow shirt, it was black on the shoulders and the sleeves that went to his biceps, same black pants, those stupid red eyes, the scar on his cheek, and the two holes on his neck, the veins were showing, making it seem like a massive injury.

“It didn't fucking work!” he shouted before breaking the glass and jumping away from the building to use his powers to reach the top, he had to admit that the Shadow storm was the only thing he’d miss. The first thing that hit him was that he was on a mountain; the second was that his hunger was growing. “No! I need to find something quickly, anything besides a civilian.” He said. He walked to the edge of the building and used his vampire sense to find anything with blood flowing through it, the world darkened around him all hearts and circulatory systems appeared within a skeletal system. He could feel there was blood in the home underneath his feet but he didn't want to hurt them. A few seconds went by and he caught a single lone being walking by, it had a strange skeleton. Cole stopped using the Vampire sense and looked over the edge of the building and saw a small horse, "Is that a horse? A city with horses, Amish country, doesn't surprise me.” he sighed and crouched on the ledge thinking, Well I guess horses have to do for now.

He jumped and fell fast, using his electrical powers to slow his descent; he didn't want to make his hunger grow. He walked up to the nearest pony and grabbed its neck, “Don’t worry buddy. This won’t hurt a bit.” The blue pony looked at him in shock and fear as Cole opened his mouth to reveal two teeth were longer and sharper than the others. His lower lip quivered and his jaw opened and closed a few times, he was getting more frightened as Cole’s mouth closed in.

When his fangs came into contact the pony screamed, “Help! Help me somepony!” Cole stopped when he heard the pony speak; it sounded male. Cole held it up with both hands. The pony cowered in his hands, both hooves up to protect his face, “P-please don’t kill me. I-I have a wife and two kids! One of them, my son, is part of the Royal guard! And the other, my daughter, is Celestia’s own student!” he managed to say, Cole could hear pride in his voice. Something else, he had a horn. He put the pony down, immediately the pony ran, well galloped, off shouting monster. “I can’t drink his blood, he’s got family. And a horn for some reason, what is it a Unicorn? Those can’t be real.” Cole said to himself.

He could feel his hunger beating him, through a headache, for not feeding it. “I’ll find something else.” He walked into an alley to look for stray dogs or cats or even a rat. "A small horse...They’re… Ponies... This place has talking ponies. I think I've gone off the deep end." he spoke to himself, "Zeke would get a kick out of this." He added before looking around, "Where the hell am I?" He shook the question off and continued his search to quench the hunger. As he scrounged and scavenged for prey he heard wings flapping and looked up. He didn’t see anything so he continued to search, “Come on a giant city like this and not a single rat!? Damn these guys… ponies are efficient.”

Cole stopped when he finally found a rat; it spotted him first and tried to run. “No you don’t.” Cole said before reaching out his arm, a red arc of lightning went out of his hand and hit the rat, it screeched as it fell unconscious. Cole walked up to the rat and picked it up, “Oh I hope I don’t get rabies for this.” He bit into it and drank the rat dry, it didn’t fill him up but it was
enough to calm the hunger for now. “Halt! In the name of Princess Luna you are under arrest.” A voice said from behind Cole. He turned to the voice, another pony though this one was dressed in dark blue armor, sporting bat wings along with fangs to complete the image. Cole gripped his makeshift amp and approached the pony, “You stupid bloodsuckers are everywhere aren't you?” he asked, the pony stood tall and repeated what he had said.

Cole drew the amp and the pony watched as red lightning arced around the makeshift weapon and Cole, “I’m not going to go to your master alright? But how about you tell her I said hi, in hell!” Cole charges the pony; it takes a step back as it sees his eyes streaked with the same red lightning.

“What are you!?” it asked as it flew up and away from Cole, he smiled and answered, “Your worst nightmare.” He used Shadow storm to reach the pony, it was shocked to see the human materialize before him with the weapon held high ready to impale the poor guard. “Die!” Cole shouted as he brought the amp down onto the guard’s chest. A strange dark blue aura stopped his amp just short of the guard's chest, it was darker than the guard’s armor, and it blasted Cole away onto a building, he bounced twice before coming to a stop near the edge. He looked up to see his amp still floating there in that blue aura, the Vampire pony was flying off.

Cole used his vampire sense so that he could follow the trail it left but noticed one thing; he could see veins going through the pony. He looked back at his amp and saw a full size horse there, it had wings and a long spiral horn, its mane was filled with stars and flowing-along with its tail-and it seemed angry. “HOW DAREST THOU ASSAULT MY GUARD THOU WRETCHED CREATURE!” it shouted loudly, extremely loudly.

Cole looked at it and saw it’s horn was glowing the same color, he thought that maybe if he could stun this horse he could take the amp and run off before anyone or thing found him. He held out his hand, the arm had red lightning streaking through it like snakes, “I don’t want to hurt you, but I need that.” Cole said, pointing to the amp with his other hand. She gave him a bemused look, “You shall not have any weapon and will be thrown in the dungeon immediately.” She said. Cole shot a lightning bolt at her, she flew aside quickly, dodging the attack, but he could see the shock on her face. A single bolt was all that was needed, the amp fell and Cole ran for it. He jumped off the building, reaching out to grab it. Once it was in his hand he felt his body freeze up as if he was made of stone, “What the hell?” he managed to say as he fell.

This is going to hurt he thought as the his vision was filled with the nearing concrete. He braced himself as much as he could, which was just closing his eyes, and waited for the concrete to embrace him and break a few bones but that never happened. He opened his eyes after a few seconds to see he was in the blue aura, The horse walked up beside him, “For assaulting royalty thou should be banished, though thou art too dangerous to be left alone. Therefore thou shalt be thrown in the dungeon to await thy punishment.” She announced before flying with Cole in tow. Great, just great, I used more power, made the hunger stronger and now I’m going to jail. Hopefully her dungeon has a rat infestation...never thought I’d say that. Cole thought as they approached a large, pristine, white, castle.

Jail Time

Cole sat in a dark, musty-and slightly damp-cell as he waited for something to crawl by, the hunger was growing. It seemed like every living thing was staying away from him, even the two guards stationed there each stood five feet from the cell, he couldn’t see them but he could sense their blood. As he thought about what they’d do to him a rat decided to stick its head into his cell, he smirked and shot it with a small bolt, the bolt still made a large flash. The guards came to investigate and caught Cole biting into the thing; the image would be burned into their minds forever. He heard them gag and saw them back away to reach their places; he didn’t want them to throw up so he tossed the dry rat into a corner of the cell and waited for another one. Soon after he heard one of the guards speak, “What a vile creature.”

Cole sighed, “Hey buddy I didn’t ask to be this way.” He spoke from within his cell.

“The prisoner shall not speak.” The guard stated firmly.

Cole groaned, “Okay, how about you tell that to my face?” he challenged. The was no response.

A few hours later Cole had caught several more rats and one of the two guards had lost his lunch, the other seemed close to it. From his cell Cole saw a light enter the dungeon and used his vampire sense to find out who it was. Two large horses, one’s circulatory system was familiar, the one who had brought him here, the other one had a longer system so she was taller than the former. He stopped using the Vampire sense when it began giving him a headache, he needed more blood. The two approached; the dark blue one and a larger white one, they both wore jewelry- the larger horse’s was golden with a sun adorning the necklace while the other’s was black, the necklace she wore had a moon adorning it. “Is this it sister?” the white one asked.

“Yes, this is the one.” The darker one said.

“You know I’m right here.” Cole commented from inside his cell, gaining their attention. The white one spoke with a calming tone, “My name is Celestia, Princess of Equestria and this is my younger sister Princess Luna.” Cole stayed in his spot at the back of the cell, only a silhouette to the horses, a silhouette with red eyes. “Where’s Equestria?” he asked taking a step closer.

“This land is called Equestria, you are here yet you don’t know of it, how come?” She asked him. He shook his head, “Look lady, I don’t know how I got here, where’s New Marais? I have a friend waiting for me there.”

Luna was about to yell at Cole for not using Celestia’s title but the older mare stopped her. “There is no New Marais here in Equestria.” Her eyes found a strange mound in the corner, “What is that there?” she asked him. He looked at the mound of rats with disgust, “Dead rats.” He answered. Celestia’s horn glowed and a ball of light appeared in the room to reveal everything, she was shocked by the two holes on the side of Cole’s neck and the veins around it.

Celestia looked at the rats and saw all of them had the same two holes somewhere on their
bodies. She used a spell to run a test on them, they all were missing their blood; they had
been drained dry. She turned to Cole, “You haven’t told us your name.” she stated, in a less soothing voice. “Cole MacGrath.” He answered.

“Cole MacGrath. Did you drink the blood of these rats?” she asked, hearing both of the guards gag upon asking. “Yeah I have to keep the hunger satisfied.” he answered.

“What hunger?” Celestia asked

“The hunger in all vampires lady.” He answered

“So you admit you are a vampony?” She asked

“Yeah I am, so what? I can’t fix it.” He said.

“Fix? So you weren’t one to begin with. There is one way…” She started

“Kill the vampire who turned you into one, done it and I’m still like this. It was even on the night Bloody Mary did this.” He retorted

She stopped another question after hearing this and thought something over before she spoke again, “I can’t have you harming my little ponies so you must stay in there until I can find a better place to keep you.” She said though Luna was obviously against this plan, “Sister he might still harm our subjects if he is released. He is a Vampony; we must leave him out to burn. He cannot harm our subjects then.” She said, eyeing him angrily.

“Is this for attacking you? I thought that guard was a Vampire. It wouldn’t have been the first time one hid as a civilian.” Cole commented, he put a hand on his head as it began throbbing, I need blood soon. He thought. “What dost thou mean by ‘hid as a civilian?’ and how can thou command lightning?” Luna asked him.

“Well that is a long story that I’d rather not get into. And I’ve killed my share of Vampires.” He answered, his headache was getting worse and every few blinks his vampire sense would activate then deactivate. He looked at the princesses, “I need blood before this gets out of hand.” He said, they took it as a threat, “Well thou cannot get out of that cell, even with thine electricity.” Luna said. Cole looked at them, “You don’t understand, I drink blood-not because I like to-but because I have to. If I don’t the hunger will take over and use me to slaughter everyone.” He was starting to get a little angry and it showed in his eyes as red lighting snaked across them.

Luna still distrusted him while her sister found sincerity in his words. “I must apologize, Cole MacGrath but we cannot allow you to harm our little ponies.” Celestia said. Cole stepped on a rat tail and kicked the pile before speaking, “It doesn’t have to be a pony, plus they have lives I wouldn’t mind taking their blood if they were just mindless animals but since they aren’t they are a last resort.” The princesses thought this over and couldn’t think of a single creature to offer, Luna didn’t want to offer and Celestia didn’t want to lose a life.

“What kind of magic can thou use?” Luna asked while Celestia thought. Cole looked at
her confused, “I don’t do magic tricks.” He told her. She was taken aback by this answer, “But
we witnessed thou using offensive magic against us!” she said.

“Well you saw it, she didn’t, plus that’s not magic it’s an ability I have. Why do you keep saying we and us when only you’ve seen me?” he asked, she leaned closer to the cell, her fury clear on her face, “It is proper to use the Royal ‘WE’ and…” she smirked before shattering his eardrums along with the other ponies’, save Celestia, “IT IS CUSTOMARY TO USE THIS MUCH VOLUME!” Cole covered his ears but to no avail, it still didn’t help the loud ringing of his ears.

Celestia gave her sister a ‘we-talked-about-this’ look, Luna grumbled and turned away from Cole. He was still regaining his hearing while Celestia spoke. He watched her mouth move but couldn’t hear anything over the ringing still in his ears. “I can’t hear you!” he shouted, motioning to his ears then to Luna, “I think she may have shattered my eardrums!” he continued to shout.

Celestia smiled and her horn glowed, Cole felt a warm presence around his ears, as if he was wearing ear muffs, and the ringing slowly died down. “Is that better?” she asked. Cole nodded, “Much better, thanks.” Celestia smiled, “Now then, tell me how did you get these abilities?” She asked.

“Well that’s kind of a long story…” he stopped as his head throbbed more, “And I don’t have time, I need blood and soon. It can be anything, it doesn’t matter: a cow, a cat, a dog, anything!” he spoke desperately, not wanting to hurt the sentient ponies. Celestia thought for a second, “Well there’s the Everfree Forest but only monsters live there.” She thought aloud. “That’s perfect.” He said as another hunger induced pain occurred and he used the shadow storm to pass through the bars, shocking all in the room.

“I can satisfy the hunger and you lose a predator. A win-win situation if you ask me. Now where is this forest?” he asked them. When he noticed their expressions he explained, “It’s one of the perks of being a Vampire, the only one if you ask me.” They nodded, wondering what else this ‘Vampire’ could do, and they escorted the conduit from the dark dungeon, one guard stayed back while the other followed them. The second guard stopped when his friend wasn’t following, “Let’s get out of here Swift Mind.” he said. Swift Mind smiled at his friend, “I have to go pick up something I dropped when... You know.” his partner nodded, remembering that Swift Mind left to empty his stomach, “Fine but hurry up.” Swift mind nodded and walked deeper into the dungeon then into a random cell, where he drew a symbol on the wall and used his magic to charge it.

A red portal grew from the symbol and a black shape entered the portal, “What is it Swift Mind?” the figure asked impatiently. The guard kneeled, “There is a strange creature in the castle.” He told the figure. “He’s a Vampire with, other, strange powers.” Swift Mind finished. The figure was silent for a moment, “Thank you for telling me Swift Mind. Keep a lookout for anything else.” It ordered. Swift bowed, “Of course, my Queen.” His eyes flashed green for a second before returning to their original brown, then to the spelled blue. He closed the portal and returned to his duties, leaving the symbol on the wall.

-------------------Changeling hive----------------------

A large black horse with buglike wings, a hole filled horn along with matching hole filled legs and mane. She smiled when the portal closed, her spy was working like a charm. She turned around to face her subjects, small black buglike ponies with holes in their wings and legs like their queen's. She looked over them then looked upwards to several cocoons, each had a pony inside, the nearest one had Swift Mind within. She had several spies scattered all across Equestria, from Canterlot to Appleoosa, she even had spies in Cloudsdale. She laughed before addressing her changelings, "My children!" she spoke but it sounded like there were two that spoke just out of sync with each other.

They buzzed and clicked in celebration, "Soon it will be time for us to invade Equestria, and this time we. Won't. Fail!" The changelings roared in anticipation. Chrysalis, queen of the changelings, left them and returned to her throne room. A voice spoke from the darkest corner of the room, "So 'Queen Chrysalis'. Have you thought of my offer?" the voice was soft, seducing, and silky. The red haired Bloody Mary walked out of the shadows, she was still in the same red dress as when she was nearly killed by the explosives, but she had survived and woke up in the center of the hive and had turned six Changelings into Vamponies and they each had taken ten in turn before they were held down to burn when the sun rose.

Chrysalis was wary of the Vampire, "What is your plan exactly?" the Changeling queen spoke. Mary approached Chrysalis with a confident smile and stride. "My plan is to help you conquer these ponies on the condition that I can change a few of them." her smile never faltered, "And I must have the creature your spy spoke of first." Chrysalis thought this over, weighing the pros, cons, and hidden meanings behind her request, "I accept, but you must promise your Vamponies will not hurt my Changelings." the cheese-legged leader said. Mary laughed, revealing her fangs, "I promise they shall not be harmed." Chrysalis nodded, glad to have that answer and such a powerful ally.

"Tell me what need do you have of this creature?" Chrysalis questioned her.

"Cole MacGrath. If I can bring him to our side you shall not fail in any endeavor. This will only work with him on our side. Now if you'll excuse me I must feed." Mary said before dispersing into a cloud of scarlet smoke and flying deeper into the castle, a screech echoed throughout the hive. Signaling that one of their own had been killed by Mary; all noise stopped abruptly as they mourned their fallen brethren. Chrysalis sat with a feeling that she made a horrible mistake. She shook the feeling off, She will help us harvest all the love of Equestria. she thought as another screech echoed out.

The hunt

The Princesses escorted Cole to a balcony, explaining Equestria on the way. “So wait, the whole planet is filled with mythical creatures… I’ve got to be dreaming. Ah!” he held his head as it throbbed again, practically telling him he’s awake. “And you’ve been trapped on the moon for a thousand years? How old do ponies here live?” Cole wondered.

Celestia laughed, “Ponies don’t live as long as Alicorns do.” She said. Cole rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, “A thousand years on the moon…” he chuckled, “I would’ve gone insane with boredom.” He turned to the dark Alicorn, “So what did you do the entire time?”

Luna blinked before answering, “I was one with the moon, but I wasn’t on it.” Cole gave her a bewildered look but shook it off, “Right… Magic.” He answered his own question before he spoke it. I still can’t get over that he thought as they looked over the land. Cole’s eyes zoned in on the forest, “Is that it?” he asked Celestia, pointing at the forest.

“Yes that is the Everfree forest.” She answered before she looked at the West horizon, “You must hurry. I must raise the sun soon.” She added. Cole sighed in irritation, “Of course.” he sighed, “I’ll be right back.” He jumped off the balcony and used his powers to glide across the sky, his arms held out to his sides a red glow emitting from his hands. He slowly floated down to the edge of the city, a few guards confronted him. He stood there, forcing himself to not drain them. He held his arms out after their third try to arrest him and smirked before he flew down to the edge of the forest; the hunger took over at that point.

All the bright colors were swallowed by his Vampire sense activating, the forest being covered in a blue glow, he could see all movement around him, from the smallest leaf moving to the the bushes shivering from something passing them. He also saw one more thing; circulatory systems of everything. They seemed to glow against the darker surroundings. Cole smiled evilly before charging into the forest, his arms making red flashes in the dark from his lightning streaking across, preparing to stun anything before he took its life essence.

Meanwhile a strange creature with the head of a chicken on a dragon-like body was clucking as it hopped about as most chickens tended to do. The bushes to its left rustled, it turned to stare down whatever was there before a bipedal creature ran through them, its arms covered in what looked like red snakes. The Cockatrice was shocked to see this thing but snapped out of it when he remembered the thing was charging at him. It activated its power, staring at the charging monster with crimson irises. Cole didn’t falter as he held out an arm and shot the Cockatrice, it fell to the floor, twitching as lightning streaked through it. He picked it up and bit into the jugular, past the feathers and rough lizard skin. It squawked in pain and struggled in Cole’s grasp, its struggles grew weaker and weaker until it stopped altogether. Cole threw the body off to the side, its blood still on his jaw, “I need more!” he said as the hunger controlled him into chasing after something with more blood.

A few hours later Cole had killed three Cockatri, a Manticore, and nearly killed a Hydra-that’s what it gets when it throws Cole into its pool. The hunger was satisfied as the vivid colors returned and Cole was in control of himself again. “Great, now I just have to get back.” he stated as he threw the last Cockatrice he drank into the bushes and wiped the drying blood off his chin. He heard a noise to his left and turned to see a pair of yellow eyes in the dark. He raised his right arm to threaten the creature. It seemed to glare daggers at Cole before dispersing into the darkness of the forest. He smirked and turned around, “Okay, the hunger will be gone for now but... Where am I?” he wondered as he looked around. The forest was similar in every direction, trees, bushes, brambles, and blue flowers. “Only one thing to do.” he said, looking for the highest tree. It didn’t take very long to find one, there was only one problem; the sun was rising and the tree was in the center of a clearing.

Cole stood in the shadows as the sunlight stretched across the clearing. This is going to hurt. The vampire thought as he ran to the large tree and climbed up, he was climbing on the shaded side of the tree to stop himself from burning. It didn’t take long to find the castle on the mountain. Cole hid in the shade of the tree again as the sunlight reached the top. He hopped off the limb he was on and landed hard, leaving a divot in the ground. He looked up at the beautiful blue sky and saw a figure behind a cloud in the distance. The cloud was moving, “Huh, so the pegasus do control the weather here. That’s interesting.” he commented and looked around again. “No use in staying here.” he said in his usual gruff tone. He braced himself and ran through the sunlight and into the shade of the forest, his body was smoking and he was wincing from the pain.

He didn’t want to go through the sun or to waste his control by flying there so he began walking, remembering which way he had to go to reach the castle. He noticed, as he walked, that all the animals-predator or otherwise-were avoiding him. He’d make eye contact with one and it would avert its eyes and run away. “What is here that makes the animals run in fear?” a voice said far from Cole, he turned to the sound and ignored it as he walked on. If they want to be in this dangerous forest that’s their own choice.he thought as he kept walking.

Meanwhile a zebra was watching a manticore and a Cockatrice run past her and deeper into the forest. “What is here that makes the animals run in fear?” she wondered aloud. She watched the bushes stop rustling before she returned to picking her herbs. Her ear twitched towards the sound of a twig snapping and crunching leaves. “Must I beware who goes there?” she asked herself and approached the noise. Cole heard the approaching noise and used his vampire sense to see the pony. He continued walking, not wanting to get lost in the dark. The zebra pushed through the foliage to see the human conduit walking away. She followed it to see where it was going.

Cole knew he was being followed but he soldiered on. He used his vampire sense to see the pony behind him and he noticed another skeleton that had no veins and it was crouched, ready to pounce. He turned on his heel and held out his right arm, the sudden movement shocking the pony-which he noticed was a zebra. He stood there with his arm outstretched, the lightning streaking through was menacing. He saw the wooden wolf hesitate before charging, “Move!” Cole shouted at the striped pony.

She did as he said, the wolf jumped behind her and Cole brought his hands next to his hips and sent them forward, releasing a red wall that sent the Timber wolf flying with a yelp. It hit a tree, a loud crack was heard before the wooden wolf ran away with its tail between its legs. Cole turned to the zebra sporting gold jewelry, “You should be more careful, these woods are dangerous.” he told her, she stared at him and the tree the Timber wolf hit in shock. Cole waved her away and turned around to leave; he didn’t stop when she began speaking, “Thank you for saving me but who might you be?” she rhymed.

“Don’t mention it. I’m Cole MacGrath.” he answered, still walking. She trotted to catch up to him and noticed his neck, “Is that a snake bite I see? I can help, just come with me.” she said, still rhyming, Cole stopped and looked over his shoulder, “It’s not a snake bite. Don’t worry about it... Why are you rhyming?” he asked her. She was still staring at his neck bite and the veins that were showing, “I am Zecora.” She introduced herself, Cole started walking again, “Look, I have to find a way up to Camelot before I fry, alright?” he said.

Zecora cocked an eyebrow and pressed Cole, “What do you mean fry? Is it because of the sky?” she asked as she continued to stare at the two holes on his neck. He didn’t answer but kept walking. She pressed him for answers but he kept up his monk-like silence. After a short while Zecora looked around, they had walked very far but hadn’t been attacked, “So it is you the animals fear, what are you doing here?” She asked, Cole sighed and stopped, “I don’t know how I got here now please leave me alone before SHIT!” Cole screamed, he had walked into a clearing as he was watching Zecora and was in direct sunlight.

He quickly dove back into the shade of the forest and sat down by a tree as his skin slowly stopped smoking. He turned to the stunned Zebra, she hesitantly approached, “Do my eyes decieve me? You are a Vampony!” she said. Cole turned away and rested against the tree, “I’m a Vampire, I tried fixing it and I killed Bloody Mary but it didn’t work. I’m still a fucking vampire!” he slammed his fist into a root, it cracked. Zecora flinched from the sound but approached Cole nonetheless, “You ended a life, that is sure to cause you strife.” she said sagely. Cole scoffed, “She deserved it for turning me into this.” he looked off to his left as he scowled. She put a hoof on his shoulder and he faced her, making her back away. He looked at her then smirked, “Zeke’s not going to believe this.” he shook his head and laughed. He explained who Zeke was to Zecora when she gave him a curious look.

She laughed when he described him as ‘a fat man who could get the job done.’ Cole stood up and stretched, “Well I’m not going to be able to go back with the sun out.” he commented. Zecora nodded, “While the sun is high, you cannot-even if you could fly.” she said. He chuckled and glared at a pair of eyes in the brush; it disappeared when his eyes streaked with lightning. “We should get out of here. Would it be okay if I stayed at your home until sundown?” Cole asked Zecora. She smiled and nodded, “It would be my pleasure Cole Macgrath. My home is just down this path.” she said as she led the way.

Author's Note

A bit of a shorter chapter but the next one'll be longer. I'm nearly finished with it, just have to spell check and proofread

problems

Cole sat in the small hut with Zecora. She was brewing up some stew for Cole and herself to enjoy. Cole’s stomach began to growl as his own hunger grew. “Hey Zecora, is the soup ready yet? I’m starving.” he said from his seat.
“This stew is not just for me and you.” she told him.
“Who else is it for?” Cole asked her. She turned away from her pot to add a few ingredients; berries, a few roots, and some green leaves. “A friend from Ponyville is coming here soon, we have until noon.” she said. Cole laid back and relaxed, his fingers interlocking behind his head as he thought of what the princesses had told him, ‘There is no New Marais here in Equestria.’ He was worried at what might happen while he’s gone. These unpleasant thoughts stayed with him until he fell asleep.

His dreams were filled with The Beast destroying New Marais, the civilians running from it as it slowly killed each and every one of them, including Zeke. The nightmare went on as every building was smashed and everything destroyed, as Cole witnessed this he began to get angry at himself for not being there to stop it. He woke up because he heard screaming and bolted upright. “What’s wrong?” he searched the small space and saw only a lavender unicorn that was staring at him in horror. He stood up, towering over her, and walked over, she backed up as he got closer. He looked around and couldn’t see Zecora; when he turned back to the unicorn her horn was glowing but he couldn’t see what she was carrying. She was trying to look brave but he could see she was scared, “What have you done with Zecora?!” she demanded. Cole walked closer to the unicorn and was about to say something but a yawn interrupted him, her pupils began to shrink when he yawned-revealing his fangs.

Cole scratched the back of his head, “I have no idea. Maybe she went out.” he said, stretching his arms. She tried to speak but couldn’t form the words; Cole took another step towards her and regretted it as she soon would. Her horn discharged, sending a blast of magic energy into Cole which sent him into Zecora’s pot. The contents drenched him; he started grunting as his body surged with lightning, the red bolts striking everything from the bottles on the shelves to the walls and the floor, scorching everything. The lightning swarmed, surrounding Twilight, she tried to avoid them, teleporting and moving as quickly as she could but there was too much to avoid completely. A single bolt struck her side and more did so after. Cole watched her fall to the floor and used what strength remained to walk past her and out of the hut; the lightning still streaming from his body had dried the stew and stopped.

He fell to his knees and looked up to see if he could get lucky by a thundercloud. The sky was crystal clear, he knew he could wait and he’d get better or he could take the life force straight out of something. He turned to Zecora’s hut and the passed out unicorn and shook his head to get that thought out of his mind. The bushes rustled and Cole raised his arm to fight; lowering it when Zecora walked through and dropped the flowers she was holding. “Cole MacGrath! Have you brought somepony’s wrath?!” she sounded as angry as she was concerned. Cole shook his head, “No... Well maybe, I’m not sure. A unicorn threw me into your stew. Water and I don’t mix.” He pointed his head in the direction of the hut, “She’s still in there.”

Zecora galloped into the hut and he heard her gasp, he knew why. There were large scorch marks in the hut and much of the glassware was broken and the contents spilled across the floor and an unconscious unicorn with burnt fur along her sides and flank. “What caused this? There is something amiss.” she brought her hoof along Twilight’s side; the unicorn mare flinched as she touched the burns. Zecora sighed in relief before walking out to speak with Cole; she could see that he was struggling to stay awake. She galloped to him and found no injuries on him, she was going to ask why but he interrupted her. “The Pegasus control the weather right?” she nodded, “Can you go find one and ask them to bring a cloud here? Please hurry.” he said. Zecora was going to deny him but she heard growling and saw several eyes in the brush. “Damn, I can’t hold them off for long.” Cole said as he raised his arm to defend himself. Zecora galloped as fast as she could through the forest.

Zecora galloped out of the forest and searched for the nearest Pegasus to help. It didn’t take her long to find Rainbow Dash, who was sleeping on a cloud. “Rainbow Dash!” She called up. Rainbow Dash just rolled over, snoring as she slept. Zecora said something in her native tongue before running off to find another Pegasus. She ran into town and asked for a Pegasus to help her by bringing a cloud to her home. She answered their questions that surfaced with “We have no time to chat. We may be too late for that.” All the Pegasi of Ponyville, sans Rainbow Dash, each grabbed a cloud and they followed Zecora, leaving the clouds above her home. They were going to go down but witnessed something they had never seen before. The clouds they bunched together all shot a bolt of lightning that collected together into a singular giant bolt and converged at a single point beneath the trees. The flash was seen for miles, turning the blue sky white.

Cole had a few scratches on him by the time Zecora had returned, he shot back a Timber wolf before throwing a grenade towards the glowing eyes the creatures were thrown away as it exploded in a shower of sparks. She told him that they had the clouds above the trees; he thanked her and told her to step back. She did as he said and her eyes widened as she saw the giant lightning bolt strike him. Once the bolt stopped Cole stood with his body undamaged by the bolt, it had closed up some of the wounds the animals had inflicted. He grinned as he ran towards them and used Shadow Storm to catch a Manticore and bit into its neck. Its eyes widened in horror and pain but they rolled back into its head as the last few drops of blood were drained.

Cole wiped his mouth dry and watched the eyes disperse from him as they had before. None had actually seen him use his powers aside from stunning them with lightning. He turned back to where Zecora stood and saw Pegasi surrounding her in fear, shaking as he approached. He cracked his neck and they shrunk in his presence, besides Zecora since she was stunned that he had been struck by a lightning bolt of that size and survived. When he was a few steps away from them he looked into the hut and saw Twilight with singed fur. He ran and jumped over the Pegasi and into the hut. He put his hands over the singed fur and used his Vampire sense to watch her heartbeat; it was normal or as normal as Zecora’s. He put his hands together, red lightning surrounded them and he brought them down on Twilight’s body, Zecora tried to stop him but his hands had connected.

As soon as he made contact he pulled his hands back. The lightning shot through her body, making her body spasm before her eyes opened and she sat up, rubbing her head with a hoof. She winced when she felt the burns on her side; she looked at them and saw the burns then she saw Zecora. “Zecora! You’re safe!” she shouted, a smile spreading across her face as she sighed in relief. Zecora approached as she stared angrily next to Twilight, “What did you do!? She did not need more burns from you!” she shouted. Twilight turned to see Cole standing there with a frown on his face, she backed away. “I was just helping.” he told her, crossing his arms. The Pegasi flew away to tell of the monster that nearly killed them.

“Help?” she started yelling in a different language. Cole looked at the floor and shook his head before raising it, “Look Zecora, do you think I haven’t done this before? I’ve done this plenty of times, sometimes because someone spilled their drink.” he told her, she was glaring at him. “I do not want you in my abode. Leave before you make my anger explode!” she shouted at him. Twilight was watching them shout at each other, looking from one to the other until she told him to leave. He didn’t say anything and just walked out; leaving Zecora and Twilight alone with the former looking over the latter’s wound. She put a salve that she had recently made on the wound to stop it from irritating before wrapping it up, “Does it hurt Twilight? Are you alright?” Zecora asked. Twilight responded with a smile and a nod, “I’m fine Zecora. But can you tell me what that thing that was in your house was?” she asked, looking at the door he had just been at.

Zecora looked into the forest, “That was Cole MacGrath. The creatures of the Everfree fear his wrath.” she said before walking over to her-now empty-shelf and sighed, “I must recover my herbs; you are welcome to stay until you feel superb.” Zecora stated before grabbing her saddlebags and walking to the door, “Hey Zecora, the last thing I remember is him falling into your soup and I remember seeing lightning coming from him. How did he do that?” Zecora looked off into the woods, “I don’t know what he can do, but stay away it’s best for you.” she left Twilight with that thought. Meanwhile Cole was watching from the top of a tree he had climbed, he was wondering if the unicorn was alright, he would’ve asked her but Zecora told him to leave and he decided it was best to ask when she left-since he had inadvertently destroyed all of her ingredients.

As night falls

A few minutes passed before Cole jumped down, using his static thrusters to slow his descent. He walked to the door frame and knocked before looking around for the striped mare. Twilight opened the door and she stepped back, her horn glowing in case he attacked. He held his hands up to show he didn’t mean any harm, she kept her horn ready. “Hey I just wanted to make sure you were okay, I didn’t mean to hurt you and I’m sorry that I did.” he apologized, she was still glaring at him. “What are you?” she asked him.

“Well I’m a Vampire.”

“I know that, but why did… That happen when you fell in the soup?”

“I didn’t fall in the soup you shot me into there! Water and I don’t mix very well.”

“Why does that happen? Does the Princess know about you?”

“There were two, which one? The blue one or the white one? Celestial and Moona right?” Cole scratched the back of his head.

“It’s Celestia and Luna. You’ve met them?”

“Yeah the blue one doesn’t like me much. The white one she... I don’t know, she does like me I think, or at least she’s good at hiding that she hates me.” Cole said. Twilight’s horn stopped glowing and she sat down, “Princess Celestia doesn’t hate anything.” she was still glaring at Cole. He was still outside the door and looked out towards the forest then to a space in the trees, “Well the sun isn’t going to go down soon. Damn it.” He looked back inside and Twilight was staring at him, she still seemed skeptical about his story. “Well I read a few books on Vamponies; they can’t enter a home unless they’re invited.” She smirked triumphantly, Cole laughed and shook his head as he crossed the home’s threshold and crouched in front of her and poking her nose. She pulled away and snorted, his eyes drifted to the bandages, then to her flank with the purple star. “Well Celestial.”

“Princess Celestia.”

“Whatever, she told me about those things... beauty marks.”

“A Cutie mark.”

“Yeah that, she said it shows a pony’s special talent. What’s yours?” he asked.

She looked at it then back to Cole, “Well my special talent is magic. What’s yours?”
“I don’t have one.” Cole said. “Unless, you call being a bloodsucker a talent…” He chuckled. “Well, good to know you’re fine.” Cole said. “I’m going to go see how Zecora’s doing. Bye… What’s your name?” He asked.

She blinked at him before answering, “I’m sorry Cole MacGrath, and my name is Twilight Sparkle.” Cole smiled, crouched, and ruffled her mane, “See’ya later Twinkle.” He stood up and left, hearing the unicorn yell after him, “It’s Twilight Sparkle!” He shook his head and used his Vampire sense to find the Zebra; it didn’t take long to find her deeper in the forest. Cole walked along, staring down all eyes he saw along the way. He came upon the rhyming Zebra as she plucked berries and herbs. He didn’t bother being quiet as he approached, snapping the occasional stick and rustling the occasional bush.
Zecora stayed focused on her work as she spoke, “Have you come to apologize?” He greeted her from behind. She continued to pick the ingredients to resupply what Cole had unintentionally destroyed. “That’s one reason.” He said, following her as she moved to acquire the next item. “I didn’t mean to break all your stuff, it was an accident and I didn’t mean to hurt her.”

“I did not mean for my anger to rise.” She apologized to him. He accepted her apology, “And her name is Twilight Sparkle.” the Zebra added. She began plucking red flowers with heart shaped petals. Cole asked what she was picking and why, “This is Hearts Desire. It is used to light one’s inner fire.” They moved on to the next ingredient.

“Well can I explain what happened?” Cole asked her. She nodded and he began. “Well as you know I took a little nap, had nightmares but that’s beside the point. I woke up to Sprinkles scream.” Zecora shook her head and corrected Cole on her name. He continued, “Yeah, Twilight, I saw she had entered and you were gone. She thought I had done something to you. I tried to tell her what happened but she stayed back and shot me with her magic.”

“Long story short, I flew into the pot and was drenched in the soup, I’m a conduit, and my abilities are electric related. Electricity and water don’t mix; I couldn’t control the lightning that was being released because of the soup.” He made his point by letting lightning flow through his arms, lighting up the surrounding area and scaring off a predator. Zecora began pulling roots from the ground. Nothing was said for a moment as she finished harvesting the roots. “When things went sour, what did you do with your power?” she asked him.

“You mean the Pulse Heal? It did as the name implies, it healed her.” Cole said

“Pulse Heal? That does not sound real.” She commented.

“It’s real. You saw me use it.” Cole said. Zecora remembered what he had done after she was unconscious on her scorched floor. “I don’t know exactly how it works, but I’ve used it to help plenty before.” This interested Zecora and she asked what had happened. He explained all the people that had gotten hurt, and the several ways they had-whether it was from the Militia, Reapers, Vampires, or an accidental bolt from him.

The sun was lower in the sky now but there were still several hours of daylight left before Cole could return to the city on the mountain.

Back at Zecora’s hut, Twilight was sitting in the bed Cole had been sleeping in earlier as she thought of what the Princesses wanted with a vampire. She continued to think of hundreds of reasons, many being thoughts that would never happen. One, for example, was that they wanted to use his power to control the Griffins and the Changelings. She stood up when she decided to ask Cole and left the safety of the hut to seek out the conduit.

She had no idea which way he had gone so she picked a direction at random and trotted off. Headed in the wrong direction, she continued on. She knew that she shouldn’t be judging others on appearances alone, like when she had first met Zecora, and she still didn’t trust Cole. She knew he could magically control lightning and was worried for the Princesses-though they could handle themselves-and for her friends. Thoughts of Cole rampaging through Ponyville and Canterlot began flowing through her mind like rapids, hundreds being hurt, drained, or turned into Vamponies. She wasn’t paying attention and slowed to a walk as her mind came up with the reasons Cole was evil for being a Vampire.

She was walking aimlessly in a single direction until growling snapped her away from her thoughts. Yellow eyes appeared from the darkness of the forest before her. Twilight took a step back and turned to run, there were more eyes waiting for her. She looked for an escape route but found none. Her horn began glowing as she focused for a teleportation spell; the only thing that happened was her horn glowing to illuminate the wooden muzzles of the approaching Wolves. Twilight was surrounded and without magic to help her. She did what seemed to be the logical solution.

She screamed.

Cole and Zecora were walking back to the hut. Twilight was gone. Zecora dropped her saddlebags and searched. Cole meanwhile activated his Vampire sense and focused on her blood. He saw as a trail, with a ghostly image of the Unicorn, left the hut and went along the path to the right. He didn’t tell Zecora but sprinted down the path. Zecora exited the hut to ask Cole to help her look for the missing unicorn but noticed there was not a single soul outside her home. That’s when she heard the faint scream from the distance.

Cole was sprinting faster, since he heard the scream, but didn’t want to use Shadow Storm to reach it faster because he was trying to stay under control. “Damn it Sparkles. Couldn’t you just have stayed in the hut?” he shouted. The trail kept going and so did Cole.

Twilight stood at the center of a pack of Timber wolves, and they were hungry. She was trying to use every spell she knows, succeeding in only making her horn glow bright. The wooden wolves slowly stalked their prey, knowing she couldn’t escape. One dove at the unicorn and she closed her eyes in hopes that it wouldn’t hurt too much, her life flashing before her eyes. A few seconds passed and she heard a cry of pain from a wolf. She chanced a look and saw Cole standing with his back to her. His right arm was bleeding and there laid a wolf with a broken neck at his feet. Cole looked at the other wolves; they gave each other a warning glance before they moved in at once to attack Cole. He blasted half of them away with the Kinetic blast while the others landed on him and began tearing into him. Twilight watched in horror before hiding behind a tree and covering her head, hoping it would end soon as tears streamed down her face.

Cole did something drastic, he dropped a grenade, and it exploded. The explosion sent the wolves off him but injured him in the process. Twilight was shaking in fear behind the tree as Cole watched the wolves surround him again. He prepared for their attack, they dove, he used Shadow storm to fly past them before turning around and firing a missile at them. It landed right beside them making them fly into the forest. They didn’t come back. They were gone. So he moved to tree and gently put his hand on Twilight’s shoulder and shook her, “They’re gone, stop crying.” She looked up at him and squeaked in fear at his appearance before cowering once again. He didn’t know it but he was still bleeding from a new bite to the other side of his neck along with a few on his biceps and forearms.

He was going to ask what was wrong but the adrenaline rush that kept him up was gone and the world was turning monochromatic again. “Not again.” He said as Zecora galloped into view. Cole was doing his best to stay standing as Zecora sat next to Twilight, she was unharmed but she was scared of the blood on Cole. “Thank you for your dedication, are you in need of medication?” she asked him. He shook his head and strained to speak, “No, I’ll be fine. Let’s just get Twilight here back to the hut.” He looked at her, she practically radiated fear and her eyes were still puffy from crying. “Are you hurt?” he asked her. She shook her head and Cole smiled, “Don’t worry. You’re safe.” He asked her if she could walk. She answered by shakily standing up. Cole turned to the forest, unknowing of his tattoos softly glowing blue. “They won’t bother us.” He said.
As they walked, Zecora stood to one side of Twilight and Cole on the other. Whenever she lost her balance they would ask if she needed help. After she had tripped, Cole decided to carry her. She lay against his chest with her chin resting on his shoulder, the one without the vampire bite. He held her up with his left hand and used his right hand to move aside branches. Before they reached Zecora’s hut Twilight spoke, “Thank you Cole.” He smiled and told her it was no problem. “… I’m sorry for hurting you earlier.” She apologized.

“I know you were just scared. It’s fine.”

“That is all in the past, there is no need to be crass.” Zecora said sagely.

Twilight fell asleep as they walked on. The only sound was the growling of a far off predator. Cole was behind Zecora when they arrived at her home, five other ponies stood there and watched as Zecora walked up with worried looks. “Zecora you’re still here! Thank Celestia. We saw the flash of light and came to see what happened since Twilight’s been gone for hours.” A voice spoke. The worried looks turned to fear after they spotted Cole, still filthy with dried blood and carrying a sleeping Twilight. Cole waved to them with his free hand and entered the hut to lay the unicorn down on Zecora’s spare bed. He turned around and watched as a cyan Pegasus flew at his head, he ducked the pony and dove forward to avoid a lasso from an orange pony sporting a Stetson. He rolled to his feet and had to roll away again because a pink pony was aiming a cannon at him, it fired confetti. A white unicorn was using her magic to throw rocks, Cole avoided those easily.

“We won’t let you get away with hurting Twilight!” The cyan Pegasus shouted. Cole avoided all attacks and had enough time to dive out the open door. The ponies surrounded him; Zecora was trying to calm them down, “Cole MacGrath is not to blame! Attacking him will bring you shame!” They ignored her and stomped the ground. Cole was still hurt and was looking around for anything. Lastly he looked up and saw a single cloud hadn’t been taken away. He let lightning flow through his arms and the cloud struck him with a lightning bolt, it was a whole lot smaller than earlier but it did the job and closed his wounds as well as burned away the dried blood. The four ponies that surrounded him gulped after seeing what he had done. They all knew a bolt like that would stop a pony’s heart but they watched as Cole stood there without as much as a scratch.

“Why are you attacking me?” he asked them scowling, revealing his pearly white fangs. They were speechless now, hearing Cole speak-they had not seeing his fangs. The cyan Pegasus snapped out of it first. “Because you hurt Twilight and nopony hurts my friend!” her voice quavered. The other three agreed with her. Cole knew he had seen one more pony and activated his Vampire sense, the pony was hiding in the bushes behind him. He turned to the bushes, “I didn’t do anything and you don’t have to hide.” The bushes eeped and shook softly. Zecora walked up besides Cole and stood with him, “Cole has done nothing to earn your spite. Please do not fight.” She said. Cole watched a yellow Pegasus walk out of the bushes and speed behind the orange pony in a blur.

They didn’t budge from their defensive positions. Cole looked at each of them in turn. The Pink one was aiming her blue cannon at Cole again. Her hoof was hovering over the button to fire it. Cole stood still and unmoving, staring at the orange sky. Night was nearly upon them. As they were about to say something, Twilight spoke from the doorway. “Leave him alone.” All eyes went to her, all relieved to see her unhurt though Cole could still see that she was still shaken. She walked out and stopped in front of the ponies. They ran to her and bombarded her with questions; she kept walking until she reached Cole’s side and turned to her friends then looked up at Cole, “I’m sorry for my friends attacking you Cole.” He waved her apology away smiling.

She returned her attention to her friends, “Girls. This is Cole and he hasn’t done anything besides save my life.” They gasped. The white unicorn spoke before the others, “What happened darling?”

“I was on my way to ask Cole a few questions. I was attacked by Timber wolves and Cole fought them off.” Twilight told them, they looked at Cole then back to her then looked everywhere else while nervously rubbing the backs of their heads or kicking the dirt sheepishly. He chuckled, “It was nothing Twilight Sprinkle.” He ruffled her mane, and she sighed, “My name is Twilight Sparkle not Sprinkle.”

The other five ponies walked up to the conduit to apologize. “We’re awfully sorry ‘bout attacking y’all… And thank ya for savin’ Twi Mr. Cole. Ah’m Applejack.” The orange one went first. Followed by the white unicorn, “Yes, we all feel horrid about that.” She gave his outfit a look over and put a hoof to her chin in thought, “That outfit looks absolutely ‘Heroic’ on you Mr. Cole. I am Rarity” She smiled. The Pink one was next and she started with a hug, “We’re so, so, so, so sorry Cole MacGrath. How about we throw you a party to make you feel better? I’m Pinkie Pie by the way!” Cole gave her a curious look, he hadn’t told her his last name yet she knew it. The cyan Pegasus was next, “Thanks and sorry.” She seemed angry with apologizing-well either apologizing or being wrong. The yellow Pegasus hesitantly walked over, hiding behind her mane.

She spoke but he couldn’t hear her. He crouched down to get closer, she flinched at the movement. “I’m not going to hurt you.” He told her. She turned her head, making it look like she was looking around her pink mane. “T-thank you Cole for saving our friend.” She looked up at him and her eyes widened before she flew up and looked at his neck, “Oh my goodness! What happened?! Where did you get these holes?” She flew closer to the bite, “These look like snake bites. Oh I’m going to have a word with that snake when I find him.” Cole laughed, flashing his teeth again. She saw his fangs and screamed before her wings stuck to her sides and she fell to the floor shaking like a leaf, “V-v-v-Vampony!” She shouted while pointing a hoof at him. The other ponies gasped and stared at him in horror. The yellow Pegasus was pulled back by a blue aura that matched Rarity’s glowing horn. They returned to their attacking positions, Pinkie pulled her cannon over and aimed at Cole.

He bent his knees and held his arms out to his sides as he entered his own fighting stance. Red lightning danced on his arms and in his eyes. Twilight teleported between them and shouted, “Enough!” She turned to her friends, “I know he’s a Vampony but he’s a nice pony err thing.” Cole stood again and she continued, “He didn’t bite me if you think he did. I thought he was going to hurt us when I met him but now I know better. Cole is a nice…” she looked at him. “Human. Well not anymore, I guess, everything considered.” He told her. She thanked him and continued, “He is a nice human and wouldn’t hurt anything that didn’t attack him first.” She quoted what he told her earlier. Cole stared at the darkening sky, “Well I should be getting back, I have to get my stuff back.” He said. Twilight turned to him, “What do you mean ‘get back’?”

“The Princesses have my stake and bag. I’d like to have those back. Where’s the castle?”

“We can take the train there from Ponyville if you’d like. It’s not too far away.” Twilight offered. Cole accepted. “Well See ‘ya later Zecora. Nice speaking to you.” Cole said as the seven of them walked away, Zecora waved, “Same to you Cole MacGrath remember to stay on the path!” she shouted after them then entered her home and began putting her freshly picked ingredients away. The ponies that followed Cole were looking at him with a mixture of fear and distrust, all besides Pinkie pie and Fluttershy, the yellow Pegasus.

Explanations

The walk out of the Everfree was quiet to say the least. Not a single word was spoken for the entire walk nor a single creature approached. For they all feared Cole, the conduit, the hero, the vampire. The moon was high and the sky was clear. The small town of Ponyville was seen not far from the forest. “Everypony should be asleep, but since you’re a Vampony we can’t wait for the train station to open in the morning.” Twilight spoke. Cole thought it over as they came closer to the town. “Maybe we can just borrow the train, unless the rails are electric.” Cole sent out an electric pulse to search for electrical sources, he found one large one and a smaller one. “The only electricity in Ponyville is in the Hospital.” Cole looked in the direction of the electricity and saw the hospital; it was obvious, big and white with a large red cross above the entrance.

“Why would it matter if the train had electric rails?” Rainbow Dash wondered.

“I could use the current to reach the mountain, Camelot.” He answered.

“It’s Canterlot, not Camelot Cole.” Twilight corrected him.

Silence ruled them over again as they walked through the dimly lit streets. No lights were on in any of the buildings that lined the streets, not one besides from a single home that had changing lights and the sound of a bass dropping could be heard from their distance. He knew that was the small power source without even checking. Cole could feel a pair of eyes burrowing into the back of his head; he could guess who it was.
In the small house that shook from the music blasting, a window on the second floor opened and a grey pony with a black mane, sporting a white collar and a pink bowtie, leaned out while covering her ears. The music became much louder due to the open window. She scowled at the inside of the home then looked out the window. Her eyes caught Cole and six residents of Ponyville walking the streets. She stared, unblinking, at Cole from the window.

They arrived at the train station. The friendship express was sitting there. “This sure is colorful. Then again, what would you expect from a ‘magical’ land filled with ponies.” Cole spoke aloud. A hoof slapped the back of his head and he turned to see Rainbow Dash hovering there, “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked threateningly. He chuckled; she grew angrier and flew closer to him, her muzzle pressing against his nose. “Do you want to fight? I’ll take you on right here, right now!” she backed away and put her hooves up and punched the air a few times. Cole smiled and raised his arm; it came to life with red lightning. “Do you really think so?” his eyes streaked with lightning. Rainbow gulped and landed, Cole lowered his arm.

They turned to the train as they tried to figure out what to do, Cole still offered to ‘borrow’ the train for the trip, it was denied. Behind them, just around the station’s corner, two mares hid as they watched Cole. The grey mare from the window and a white unicorn with violet tinged glasses and a lightning blue mane. They whispered to each other, “What is that thing?”

“I have no idea Octy.” The white unicorn said. She smiled, “But did you see his leg or whatever that is?” She turned to
Octy excitedly, “That was awesome!”

“Awesome is not the word I’d use Vinyl.”

Cole could hear them and used his Vampire sense to find them. He turned to the corner and didn’t see them but he knew
they were still there. “What’s wrong Cole? Is something there?” Twilight asked. He nodded and motioned for them to stay before using shadow storm to fly around the corner, both mares screamed as the bats flew past. They watched as the bat swarm stopped and Cole appeared with his arms crossed, his red eyes glowing in the gloom. The two held each other and stared up at him. “What are you doing?” They flinched and tried to make themselves as small as possible. The six ponies galloped next to Cole and the cowering ponies. “How did you do that Cole? I didn’t know you could do that!” Twilight asked.

“It’s the only perk for being a Vampire.” He scowled, “It makes the hunger grow though.” Twilight gave him a nervous look. “Don’t worry it’s not enough to make me lose control.” She sighed in relief and she turned to the mares that were still embracing. “Octavia, Vinyl! How are you two doing?” They looked at Twilight then at each other and pulled away blushing. Vinyl answered, her voice cracking, “We’re. Ahem. We’re fine Twilight. Just a little scares from… that.” She pointed a hoof at Cole. He held his hand out, “I’m Cole MacGrath.” The ponies stared at his outstretched hand. Cole crouched down and made a fist, “How’s this?” He asked. Vinyl hoof-bumped his fist with a smile, Octavia waved and smiled nervously.

“Hey Kale…”

“It’s Cole.”

“Cole, sorry, but was that lightshow part of being a vampire too?”

“No it’s not. That’s something I’d rather not get into.” He dismissed the question. Vinyl’s face fell.

“Oh… Alright bro… Um did you kill somepony?” she asked when the question entered her mind. Cole shook his head.

“No, well nearly but that was last night.” He stated before turning and walking back to the train. He looked back; the others were talking to Octavia and Vinyl so he hoped up to the door and opened it. The inside was filled with coal and a furnace with a lever next to it. Cole gripped the lever and pulled, the train’s locks clicked off.

Back in Canterlot Luna was going through Cole’s bag to see if there were any evil plans inside. All she found was a Walkie-talkie, the RFI, a blast core, a camera, and a map of New Marais. She dropped the bag and began examining Cole’s new amp/stake. Iron, silver, and wood was all it was made of. She scanned it with her magic and found the cross at the end opposite of the wood was filled with strange magic. It seemed to be a relic of some kind; she brought the Barbed Cross closer and touched it with her hoof. Nothing happened. She continued to examine the weapon until a loud noise filled the room, making her drop it. “Kzzzzzzz… Cole… Kzzzzzzz… You there buddy? Kzzzzzzz...” It was coming from Cole’s Walkie-talkie. Luna walked over to the item and watched as it continued to make noise, “Kzzzzzzz… Please… Up…”

She put the Walkie-talkie back in Cole’s bag and pulled out the steel sphere. There were very large spaces in the center that showed a glass cylinder with two small steel rods that left a space in the center. She couldn’t figure out what it was so she put it back and pulled out the glowing rock that was the blast core. She held it in front of her, feeling immense power in this rock. She reached her hoof out to touch this and a bolt struck her hoof and went up her leg and into her head, a second bolt struck her horn. Touching the blast core made her see New Marais and those that suffered there before Cole appeared to save them and left. It then showed her Empire City. A very large city that had similarities with Manehattan, everything seemed peaceful, calm, and quiet.

Then an explosion occurs in the center of the city, a white sphere expands, buildings collapse and break under the power of the bomb before the sphere envelopes the city. She’s blinded for a moment before she sees Cole rising from the very center of the explosion. His body coming alive with blue lightning; the vision ended with Cole’s infamous name. She dropped the rock and threw it in Cole’s bag before throwing the bag at a wall with her magic and trotting to wake her sister and their Guard Captain. The Walkie-Talkie continued to speak after she left; muffled by the bag it was inside, the voice on the other end losing its vigor.

Luna slammed open the door to her sister’s room, waking her up in the process. Celestia lay irritated in her bed, “Yes Lulu?” though she didn’t show it. Luna closed the door and told her about what she found, “Tia, we-I was looking through MacGrath’s saddlebag and I found a strange glowing rock. I touched it and it showed me what happened before he came here.”

“What did you see?”

“I saw him at the center of an explosion that destroyed half a city that reminds us-me of Manehattan.”

Celestia yawned, “I’m sure it’s not what you think.”

“We know what we saw Tia. He is evil.”

Celestia rose from her bed, “Please show me this ‘rock’ Luna.” Celestia donned her jewelry and stretched shortly before following Luna to the bag. The Walkie-talkie had stopped chattering seconds before they arrived. Celestia brought the bag over and opened it, she was intrigued by the RFI and the map but she used her magic to bring the Blast Core out. Luna told her to touch it. Celestia did, she tapped it with her hoof, the same thing that happened to Luna happened to her. She saw the explosion and Cole rise from the center. Then she saw televisions and news reports of a gang-the Reapers- that had accumulated strange powers and were taking over Empire City.
They also showed Cole’s picture.

The story with Cole said that he was the cause of all that had happened, and they dubbed him the Demon of Empire City. The core then showed her what he had done since then, saving people and doing everything he could while the city was against him. It then showed her New Marais and the things he had done, disarming blast shard bombs, stopping the Militia, and going out of his way to help people. The vision ended. Celestia put the rock back in his bag and left the bag where it was. “I’m sure he has an explanation. Let us bring him here. Please alert Shining armor.” Celestia said as her horn glowed brightly. Luna left to awaken the Captain.

Cole was watching the ponies as they calmed down. He was leaning against the train with his arms crossed over his chest, answering a few questions when they were asked. Suddenly he felt a warm presence wrap him as a golden aura surrounded him. The ponies turned to see a white flash then nothing. Twilight turned to her friends, “Girls, let’s take the balloon.” They hesitantly nodded and ran off to enter the large pink balloon’s brown basket. Rainbow dash and Fluttershy meanwhile gripped the rope in their teeth as they dragged the balloon towards Canterlot faster. Vinyl and Octavia were sitting in the basket; Vinyl had dragged Octavia along unwillingly.

Cole appeared with a white flash back in the throne room and immediately fell to his knees, his body was smoking. “What the hell was that?” he asked himself as he stood up to see Celestia and Luna. “How’d I get up here Celestia?” he asked.

“We know who thou art Demon of Empire City.” Luna said.

“Really? So you know what happened? About the Beast and everything?” he asked. Luna gave him a confused look, “I thought not.” He looked to Celestia, “How did you get this information?”

“Luna was looking through your bag and we found a glowing rock. It showed us the explosion in your home. It didn’t tell us
about any beast. And before I forget. Were you the cause of the flash in the Everfree forest?”

“Yeah that was me.”

“What happened?”

“Your student attacked me, Twilight was her name.” He said, “She got hurt but I didn’t hurt her intentionally.”

“What happened exactly?”

“Well I finished sustaining the hunger and found a Zebra, shortly after the sun was too high for me to reach this place.” He started. “I saved her from a few wooden wolves and took a nap in her home. When I woke up Twilight was staring at me in shock.” He chuckles, “She thought I hurt Zecora. I tried to explain but she shot me with some magic and I fell in some soup that Zecora was making. Electricity and water don’t mix. Being soaked by the soup, I couldn’t control my powers and bolts of lightning shot off me randomly. She got struck by a few of them; I got out of the hut before I did any more damage. I had Zecora bring a few clouds over her hut so I could heal myself with the lightning. That was the flash.”

“Twilight is fine I suppose?” Celestia asked, Cole confirmed. Luna’s horn glowed, gripping something out of Cole’s field of vision. “And what of the explosion in Empire City.”

“That’s how I found out I was a conduit. The explosion would’ve killed anyone else. Instead it awoke my powers. As for the bomb, I was given a letter telling me to pick up a gift in the center of the city. I opened the box and you know the rest.” He explained as he walked over to his bag and opened the bag to make sure everything was still there, it was. He took out the Blast Core and held it in his hand as he swung his bag over his shoulder and stuck his vampire killing amp on the bag. “So this thing showed you that?” They nodded, “Well this is residue from a similar explosion. It’ll increase my powers.” Cole said before pouring power into it, lightning began flowing off of him as he nearly finished absorbing the energy. Just then Luna blasted Cole back, making him drop the Blast Core. He recovered quickly; the blast core began floating in the Alicorn’s blue field as she brought it away from Cole.

Cole began walking towards them before his Walkie-talkie went off again. “Cole…” He stopped and pulled out the black box and pressed the button on the side, “Zeke? Zeke is that you?” the Talkie went silent before Zeke laughed, it glitched over the radio. “Man Cole… It’s good to… that… alive. You keep… out though.” He said. Cole made it out, “You’re cutting out too Zeke. Don’t worry I’m alive and still a bloodsucker.” The line went silent for a second. “Damn.” Was his only response. Cole looked back to the others and asked, “Hey could you use magic to fix this problem?”

“I don’t know what might happen.” Celestia said. Cole thanked her and tossed the box. It stopped in mid-air due to Celestia’s aura. She focused and let her magic flow into the box. Zeke wasn’t talking. The box glowed yellow before returning to its black color. She gave it back to Cole and he pressed the button, “Zeke. You still there?” Silence. Cole sighed.

“Um Cole, am I seeing shit or did this just turn yellow?” the box spoke.

Cole laughed, “Don’t worry about it buddy. I’ll tell you about what’s happened later.”

“Alright then. See ‘ya later Cole.” Cole clipped the box onto his bag and thanked the princess. He looked out the window and saw a balloon was landing. He saw a purple flash at the balloon then he felt cold water fall over him. His powers went haywire again, bolts shooting out and spreading across the water as well as scorching the white pillars and lighting the carpet on fire. Cole stepped out of the water that was on the ground and stood as the heat from the lightning dried him off. He looked around angrily, revealing his fangs. Two guards were on the floor with lightning still streaking across their armor. Cole lifted one up and set him down next to the other. His hands came to life and he brought them down, Celestia watched as a visible pulse shot away from his hands and hit the second guard. Both guards spasm violently before standing up.

Cole opened the large doors to the throne room; Twilight appeared with the same purple flash he had seen outside next to him. He smiled and turned to Shining armor, “See she’s perfectly fine.” He took a few steps towards Shining before grabbing his head in pain, a very familiar pain. “No. No!” he shouted, his head felt like it was being run over by a train. A silky feminine voice spoke, “Ha, ha, ha. You did. That’s why you aren’t under my control right now.” Twilight was asking him what was wrong; he could only hear Bloody Mary. “Well Cole, this time you will be mine and so will these ponies.” She laughed then his head stopped hurting. That’s when he heard Twilight. “Cole! Can you hear me?!” she was yelling.

He shook his head to clear his mind before answering, “Yeah, I’m fine.” She asked him what happened, “Turns out I didn’t kill Bloody Mary. She’s somewhere in this world.” He strode back and asked for the Blast Core. Luna didn’t give it to him, “Why dost thou need it?” she asked.

“I need all the power I can get if I want to take on Mary.” He said simply. Celestia asked Luna to give him the Core. She did as her elder ask and he told them to stand back. As he got ready to activate the Core Celestia asked him, “What are you going to do?”

He smiled, “I’m going vampire hunting.” He put power into the Core and grunted in pain as it began shocking him back. Once it had enough power it was absorbed into Cole’s body and his limbs shot out as lightning shot off his body, creating a wall of red streaks. The lightning lasted a second before it stopped and he collapsed.

Swift Mind had gone back into the dungeons to alert Chrysalis of what happened. He had reached it without problem and activated the spell. Chrysalis appeared before him, “What do you have to report?” she asked. He told her of what happened earlier and the powers he had seen Cole use, as told by the guards who were there. She thanked him for the information and he left. Chrysalis turned to Bloody Mary, “Ms. Mary, are you sure you can control Cole? He sounds very powerful.” Bloody Mary laughed and put her hand under Chrysalis’s muzzle, “Don’t worry about him. I can handle him.” She released Chrysalis, “He’s probably going to look for me, and I’m going to need a few children of my own to help.” Chrysalis hesitantly agreed. Bloody Mary smiled and left in her scarlet mist to turn a few Changelings. They screeched as she attacked. Chrysalis felt guilty for allowing this monster to live but she wanted revenge on the princesses.

An hour and a half later Cole woke from his sleep in a bed. He ignored this fact when he remembered where he was. He looked around; the room looked like a penthouse. He saw his bag on a nightstand and put it on after standing up. He left the room, it was still dark out and two guards were waiting for him. They guided him to a large ball room that was decorated for a party. “Cole you’re awake! Welcome to your Thank you for saving Twilight/Welcome to Equestria/Sorry for attacking you party!” Pinkie Pie said as she popped out from a chocolate fountain. He smiled, “Thanks Pinks.” She hugged him and apologized again before bouncing off to dunk her head in the chocolate fountain. He laughed and shook his head before walking up to the others that were seated around a table.

Mary's plan

Cole sat with the ponies at the table, chatting about New Marais and about Equestria. When he told them about the ‘ugly ass mole monsters’ Rainbow Dash responded the same way he and Zeke had, “Awesome.” One thing Rainbow Dash told Cole interested him, “Hold up a second. You can break the sound barrier by flying?” She smirked and rubbed a hoof on her chest smugly. “It’s no big deal. I do a Sonic Rain boom every morning.” She says before extending her wings.

“I don’t believe you.” He said.

“Oh, is that a challenge?”

Cole leaned in, “Yeah I guess it is.”

“What are the rules?” she asked him, a determined look on her face.

“If I win…”

“Which you won’t” she cut him off.

“If I win, you have to do anything I say for a week.”

“Okay. When I win you have to do whatever I say for a week.”

“Deal, I hope you like staying awake for the night.” He hoof bumped her and she instantly flew off, out the door and outside. Cole stood up and looked out the window. Rainbow dash flew up to the window and gestured for him to watch. He folded his arms and watched. The Pegasus flew away from the window a good distance and rose higher and higher, until she was a speck in the sky. That’s when she dove, Cole watched, keeping himself ready for a failure that would land the Pegasus a mess on the streets oblivious to the cone that formed around her. He was about to smash the window when Rainbow pulled up, a rainbow ring exploded from the epicenter as she was trailed by a rainbow. He laughed and grabbed his Talkie, “Hey Zeke.”

“What’s up Cole?”

“You’ll never believe what I just saw.”

Zeke laughs, “What? A rainbow colored unicorn that shits magic?” The mares winced at his words.

“Well you got the rainbow part right.”

“…”

“What?”

Cole chuckled, “I just saw a rainbow colored Pegasus break the sound barrier.”

“That’s impossible and not just because they don’t exist.”

“Well here they do.” The line stayed silent. “Okay let me tell you what’s happened since I woke up. Oh and also Bloody Mary’s still alive.” Cole went on to explain to Zeke what he had seen and been through, not skipping the part about trying to drink that unicorn’s blood and finding that he was Twilight’s dad. Zeke stayed silent the entire time. Cole hoof bumped Rainbow Dash when she came back in, “That was awesome.” He told her. She smirked and sat down as Zeke had found his voice again. “So… You’re in a land filled with little magic talking horses.”

“Ponies, we’re not horses.” Twilight corrected the man on the other end. He stayed silent for a while longer. “Cole. You better bring back some pictures.” Cole laughed and promised he would. “Alright I want to see this. It better not be a hallucination… Also Cole…” Zeke began, “Don’t get caught in a relationship with them, because that’s just weird.” Cole couldn’t help but laugh.

“That, you don’t have to worry about. See’ya later Zeke; and I won’t forget the pictures.”

“Alright, later Cole… Seriously though, if you’re just yankin’ my chain I’ll toss you in a pool.”

Cole laughed as the line went dead. “You don’t mind do you?” he asked them as he retrieved his camera. They didn’t mind so he began taking pictures. Rainbow dash and Fluttershy flying, Twilight and Rarity using magic, Applejack drinking cider, Pinkie being Pinkie, Vinyl and Octavia, and a second sonic Rain boom. He looked over the pictures and took a few more of Pinkie; one was of her playing ten instruments, and another had her eating an entire cake in a single bite. After taking that picture he thought to take a picture of Celestia and Luna to see how Zeke would react to them. He walked up to Twilight, “Hey Twilight.” She looked up at him. “I’m going to take a picture of the Princesses and I need some help finding them.” She smiled and they left the party to begin their trek to the Throne room.

Elsewhere, Luna stood on a tall tower with a telescope. She was using it to look over the city; some of the residents were acting strangely. They would look around and run faster every time they passed a shadow. Almost as if they were trying to find a place to hide. As she watched a few she noticed something familiar, a small swarm of bats flew past the ponies in a flash and they disappeared for a short time before exiting a dark alley to walk along as if nothing had happened. A feeling of dread grew in the pit of her stomach as the last of the ponies that was running became different. She continued to watch, not wanting to leave in case they needed her help.

Twilight and Cole came across the hall leading to the throne room. Ahead of them eight ponies stood at attention as a white unicorn, sporting purple armor edged in gold, saluted. They returned the gesture. “Shining Armor!” Twilight shouted before galloping to the white unicorn and holding him in a tight embrace. Cole smiled from behind with his arms folded. “Twiley, I didn’t know you were in the castle otherwise I would’ve been the first to greet you.” They stopped the embrace. “When did you arrive?” He asked her, before she answered he saw Cole standing there. The moonlight revealing his body and keeping his face in darkness, his red eyes making him seem more menacing. Shining armor pushed his sister behind him and charged his horn with magic, “Stay behind me. You! What in Celestia’s name are you?” Cole held up his hands, before he could answer one of the other guards’ spoke, “Isn’t that the Vampony Luna caught?” Shining stared daggers at Cole.

He took a step forward, “Hey buddy, I don’t want to fight.” He began. Shining fired a blast. Cole dove to the side to avoid it, rolling back onto his feet and holding his arm ahead of him. “Hey! I said I didn’t want to fight!” His arm came to life, shocking Shining though he didn’t show it.

“I will not allow you to harm anypony you Bloodsucker!” Shining fired another blast. Cole avoided it again and shot a bolt of his own. Shining put up a shield that took the blast, the spot glowed from the heat of the attack. Shining lowered his shield to fire another blast, Cole back flipped away to avoid it before firing his own blast. Twilight, meanwhile, was trying to stop Shining from attacking; he couldn’t hear her over his own focus on trying to keep her safe. Cole was only firing bolts, not his grenades or rockets, because he didn’t want to hurt the others that watched. His Vampire sense kicked in randomly, he turned it off as he rolled forward to dodge another blast.

From outside, the hall was flashed red and pink as each attack was fired. The sound wasn’t heard through the large, and very thick, doors that lead to the throne room. The guards were unsure of whether to help their captain or stay at their post. As they thought over what to do Shining and Cole’s attacks never ceased, one attacked right after the other. Twilight continued trying to persuade her brother to stop attacking. When she realized he wouldn’t listen she teleported between the fight, stopping both in their attack. She was staring down Shining armor, “Why are you attacking Cole?!” she shouted.

“He’s a Vampony, that’s why. He’s here to turn the princesses!” Shining replied.

“He isn’t here to hurt us! He was brought here by some force!”

“Did he tell you that? How do you know it’s not a lie?! He may just have hypnotized you!”

“I’m not hypnotized! He’s not a bad pony!”

“He’s still a Vampony!”

Cole watched with no amusement as the siblings fought. He lowered his arm and continued to stop his Vampire sense from activating. He felt the familiar tingle that either meant a vampire was nearby or one of Mary’s ‘teachings’. He ignored them and listened to them as they continued. “Twilight how do you know he’s good? What has he done to prove it?” The two were staring each other down.

“He saved my life! That’s what he did!” she shouted back. He was too shocked to speak. He looked from Twilight to Cole and back to Twilight for a few seconds before finding his voice, “What?”

“He saved me in the Everfree forest from Timber wolves Shining Armor.” He looked back at Cole as he walked beside Twilight and crouched to look Shining in the eyes. “My magic wasn’t working when they attacked. He showed up in time to save me.” Cole smiled and stood up, ruffling her mane.

“It was no problem Twilight.” He stood above them, the smile still on his face. Shining armor and Twilight spoke over what happened. After the explanation, and a few questions, Shining armor approached Cole and rubbed the back of his head nervously. “Um… Thanks Cole MacGrath for keeping my little sister safe. I. I really appreciate it.” He apologized.

“It was no problem Shining.” Something isn’t right here. Cole thought as his Vampire sense activated again. Shining apologized again and received the same answer. Twilight and Cole soon left Shining armor and entered the Throne room. Outside Shining went up to one of the guards, “Razor wing, when they leave the throne room, I want you to follow Cole and report back whatever you find.”

“Yes sir!” the guard saluted, Shining returned the gesture and walked away.

Inside the Throne room, Cole took a picture of Celestia and thanked her for letting him. “It is no problem Cole MacGrath. I’m sure Luna is in the highest balcony of the castle.” Cole thanked her for the information and walked out, his Vampire sense kicking in again. He decided to look around, surprised that of the eight guards, five of them had no visible circulation. He ignored them as Twilight led him away. Once he was sure they had enough distance from the vampires he turned to Twilight, “Twilight. I need you to go back to your friends.” He looks around, Razor wing hiding in the shadows above. She was going to ask him why but he interrupted her, “Don’t trust anyone, don’t follow anyone, just head back to your friends. I’ll tell you what’s going on later. Tell them the same thing.” He runs away before she could say anything. She trotted back to the Ballroom. Razor wing flew after Cole. He would’ve gone to tell Celestia but was worried that the Vampires would attack the others if he did so.

Shining armor was walking through the castle to check the other guards’ posts and came across Cole sprinting through the hall. He put on a smile and stopped the conduit, “Hello Cole MacGrath. What brings you to these parts?” Cole stops in front of Shining.

“You’re the captain of the Royal guard right?”

“Yes I am. Why?”

“Some of your guards are Vampires. You can’t trust anyone. Twilight’s safe and with her friends. I don’t know the rules of Vampirism in Equestria, but back home if you kill the lead Vampire, they all change back.”

“I knew you were evil!” Shining armor charged his horn.

“Look buddy. I’m after Bloody Mary. She’s the one who turned me, and probably did the same with your guards. I kill her, I’m human again and your guards aren’t vampires anymore. I need to warn the Princesses. Go tell Twilight and her friends to be careful and don’t trust any of your guards. They’re in the Ball room.” Cole ran off with that.

Razor wing landed in front of Shining armor and saluted. Shining told him to keep trailing Cole, Razor took off and Shining galloped to the Ball room as fast as his hooves would let him. Cole ran for an hour before he jumped out the nearest open window and went on to scale the castle’s walls, using his Vampire sense to find Luna faster. She was on the balcony of the highest tower. Cole climbed the tower in a few minutes and jumped onto the balcony. “Greetings, Cole MacGrath.” Luna spoke without turning away from the telescope as two more ponies were attacked by a mist. Cole had no idea how she knew he was there but didn’t question it. “Hey Princess, can I use that telescope for a second?” he asked her. She stepped aside and Cole looked through the eyepiece and turned the telescope to a barren area of rocks. He could sense Mary within its depths.

“Pray tell MacGrath, what brings thou to our tower?” Luna asked him. He told her what he told Shining armor. “What do thou plan on doing MacGrath?” she asked him. He told her, his plan was to run into Mary’s home and stab her in the chest with the Barbed Cross. “That is not a well thought out plan Cole. Thou hast time to think it through clearly now.”

“Why’s that?” Cole asked.

“The sun is rising.” She answered him while pointing at the east horizon, tinted orange by the sun’s rays.

“Damn it!” he turned to Luna, “Warn Celestia, I can’t. Don’t trust your guards aside from Shining. Always know where the other is at all times. Avoid the dark.” He left on that cheerful note and jumped from the balcony, using his static thrusters to slow his descent. Luna looked into the telescope and saw where Cole was looking. It was the Badlands, home of the Changelings.

He entered the same window he exited from and went immediately to the dungeon, since it had no windows. Once he was within the confines of an open cell he had a large pain in his head, Mary was contacting him. “Well Cole, I know you’ve seen my new children. But these ones are special. They’re a race known as ‘Changelings’ and they can shift forms; this allows them to be up and about during the day. They have a Queen and she thinks I’m going to help her take over the ponies.” Mary laughs, Cole was still holding his head as her voice gave him a migraine, “I’m thinking of draining her dry, maybe drinking her blood would give me the same ability. Once I take their queen and turn the rest, I’ll turn the rest of the world. Don’t worry; I’ll leave your friends and a few hundred more alive… To be harvested as food.” She laughs again and his headache subsides.

“I’m not letting that happen Mary.” He spoke to himself; he had no idea that Razor wing was right outside his cell. When Cole stopped speaking the Pegasus left to report to Shining armor. The sun was hovering on the edge of the horizon, bathing the land in Twilight. He found Shining was just leaving the room his sister was sleeping in; he escorted her and her friends to their quarters once the party had ended. “Captain Shining armor sir!” the guard saluted, Shining returned the gesture. The guard continued, “Cole MacGrath, has informed Princess Luna about the Vamponies and is planning on attacking their leader head on. He is currently awaiting the sun to lower before attacking single hoofed.” The guard finished. Shining dismissed him and trotted on down the hall. He had guessed Cole’s plan and knew he couldn’t do it alone.

Cole was sleeping in the cell and was woken up by Twilight, Applejack, and Pinkie. Rarity was standing outside the dungeon saying that it was too filthy to enter, Rainbow Dash was asleep, and Fluttershy was waiting with Rarity since it was too dark and scary to enter. They were asking him what he was going to do about the Vampires; he answered simply, “I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry.” When they asked if he had a plan on doing so, he didn’t answer. They asked him where the Vampire leader was and he stayed silent. Once they figured out that he wasn’t going to tell them they left. He went to sleep again to wait for the night.

Luna had told her sister of what Cole had told her and what he planned to do during her night. Celestia didn’t like the idea of Cole going alone to the Badlands to fight Bloody Mary, who may have either drained all the Changelings or turned them. Celestia didn’t want to see him or the Changelings hurt, even though they had attacked once before. Mainly they were more worried whether it would work or not. They didn’t want Vamponies to be roaming around yet they didn’t want to destroy their own subjects. They didn’t want to harm the Elements and they didn’t want him to go alone. The princesses sat on their thrones as they thought over what to do.

In the Everfree forest, Zecora was wondering about Cole. Whether he got there safely or not and she was wondering what other powers he had. While they spoke, before Twilight was attacked, he told her about the powers he had that were lost because he fell in the ocean and nearly died. She filled her pot with a special brew that revealed what had happened in Empire City. It then showed what could’ve happened. Cole becoming evil and turning the once proud city; into a wasteland which would never rise from how far it had fallen. A land where the strongest survived and none were stronger than him.

Her brew then showed what had happened in New Marais and what had happened since he arrived before showing the alternate, evil, version. She was shocked to see Cole turning Luna after a lucky shot. It then showed the two turning on Celestia, only to have the sun goddess raise the sun to stop them permanently. It would have worked if it wasn’t covered by the moon, blanketing the land in an unnatural crimson glow; the moon had turned blood red and Celestia was drained by Cole. He killed Luna shortly after with his stake through her heart.

The Elements tried attacking him and failed against his powers as he drained the life force from one of them to re-energize himself. He turned the five that weren’t killed into his own personal slaves. Twilight was the only one who hadn’t survived. All because she tried to protect her friends and avenge the princesses. Zecora wasn’t able to speak as she witnessed the horrors of what could have been and was relieved to know Cole’s hatred of being a Vampire stopped this event from happening. She knew he had a good heart and would protect his friends and all those that he could. Even at the cost of his life.

calm before the storm

As Cole waited for night the ponies stopped by several more times. Cole was speaking with Zeke about what’s been happening in New Marais. So far Zeke and the New Marais police force, along with several rebels, defended the citizens against the Militia with the help of Nix and Kuo. Cole hated not being there to help, he felt useless in Equestria. But now he had a mission: Find Mary and end her undead, bloodsucking life to repair the damage she’s done then find a way home to help New Marais from the monsters and the Militia. He was ready and prepared to kill Mary, even if he had to kill all of her turned to get to her.

While Zeke continued speaking with Cole, Shining armor was giving orders like any other day, his training keeping his face clear of the doubts he had about his soldiers and whether they were not just vampires but Changeling Vampires. Luna and Celestia always knew where the other was at all times as Cole asked of them. They would’ve let the sun lower earlier just to allow Cole time to undo the evil Bloody Mary had caused but lowering the sun once it had been raised would arouse suspicion in the ponies and many would suspect the return of Nightmare Moon. Because of that they had to wait until night rose, Cole warned that Mary would know he was on his way and might tell her children, though he called them by a different name which they didn’t want to repeat.

Twilight and her friends were paired together as they walked around Canterlot, Rarity with Fluttershy, Applejack with Rainbow Dash, and Twilight with Pinkie Pie. Rarity and Fluttershy went to browse the many dress shops, Applejack and Rainbow Dash went to watch a Wonderbolts performance, and Twilight and Pinkie were in the royal garden. Pinkie was staring at the statue of Discord with contempt, “Make it rain chocolate milk without any whipped cream, not even a single dollop!? How could you?” she said to the statue. Twilight shook her head as she read up on vampires thanks to a few books they had in the castle’s library, and the comic books Pinkie found at a store in town.

One was very interesting, ‘The tale of Bloody Marie.’ The comic showed the tale of a mare, named Heart Blossom, which had a very special admirer. What was special about him? He was a Vampony. One day she grew very ill and on her death bed he changed her to spare her of her death. Another stallion watched this, his name was Sacred Books, and followed them around for days until one night he finally had the chance to strike and impaled the Vampony with a stake. This would’ve cured Marie if it was done before the first full moon. He had stalled for too long; Marie was sent into a rage over her dead lover and went on a killing spree, searching for the stallion that had done this. He was always a step ahead of her and one day he had convinced the townspeople to help him capture her. Once night came they used Sacred as bait to trap Marie and tie her to a giant wooden stake where they waited until sunrise.

The six of them soon returned to the castle, where they received two letters, a reply letter from Zecora, they had sent her a letter earlier that day telling her of what Cole was planning, and one addressed to Cole. The reply letter told them to be careful and to make sure Cole does not go alone. That even with his strength and power he wouldn’t be able to take on a changeling army. Not unless he resorted to using his vampire powers against them. They delivered the letter to Cole personally, Rarity following, curious as to what the letter said. When they reached the wooden doors that led to the dungeon, the doors were blasted open and two guards flew out, both unconscious. From inside the dark room Cole stood, his lightning illuminating the dark. Twilight looked at Cole. He answered the question he knew she would ask, “One’s a bloodsucker, and the other’s a guard he roped into attacking me. There are seven more in here.”

Cole returned to his cell, the only light in the dark dungeion was from electric binds that held the guards in place, all looking terrified as they struggled to move. Twilight was looking at the shackles that held them to the stone floor. “How is this possible? There’s no electricity in stone.” She said. Cole sat down in his cell and shrugged, “Who knows. I just know it works.” He leaned back with his fingers locked behind his head. Twilight reached out a hoof to touch the red lightning that streaked over the guards’ hooves. A small spark shot into Twilight’s hoof making her pull her hoof back. Cole lay down; Twilight apologized to the guards before entering his cell and giving him Zecora’s letter. “What’s this?” Cole asked while taking the letter.

“It’s from Zecora, Cole.” Twilight answered, Rainbow Dash was watching the guards.

“That’s so awesome!” she commented.

“Thanks Twilight.” Cole said as he sat up and opened the letter and read it. The other ponies were expecting him to read aloud, he didn’t. His face retained its stone like features as he read on. He smiled and put the letter in his bag. Cole turned to the ponies’ expectant faces, he blinked, “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Well? What did it say?” Rainbow dash asked.

“Did you have to tell her what I was planning on doing?” he asked.

“Don’t change the subject.” She retorted.

“She just said not to go through with it, that even I don’t have the strength to do this.” He answered.

“She knows what she’s talking about darling. You can’t truly be thinking of venturing on alone.” Rarity said.

“Yeah, y’all can’t take on a whole army by yourself.” Applejack agreed. Cole sighed and looked at them.

“Do you want all your friends and loved ones to become vampires?” he asked them. They all shook their heads. “If I don’t do this now she’ll have a larger army, I stand some chance now; if that bloodsucking bitch gains a larger army I’ll have no chance at all.”

“Oh!” Twilight said when she remembered, “I just remembered that we have until the next full moon before the ponies can’t be changed back.” Cole smiled and thanked her, “The next full moon is in two days, and we can plan and strategize before we go in.” She said.

Cole laughed, “Thanks for that information Twilight but I have to take out Mary.” He held up his stake, the Barbed cross on the end glowing red, “This is the only thing that’ll kill her. And I’m the only one who can get close enough to use it.” He smiled at them when he saw their downcast faces, “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine, I’ve beat her once, I will do it again.” He said smirking confidently at the group.

“What is this?” Luna wondered aloud from outside of the dungeon. She walked through the open door and gazed upon the guards that were still struggling in their bindings, “Why are my sisters guards tied up?” She asked Cole, knowing the electricity was his doing. He motioned for Twilight to tell her. The unicorn cleared her throat.

“Princess Luna, one of these guards is a Vampony, the others are guards he brought to try and apprehend Cole.”

“Kill not apprehends. They don’t want me alive.” Cole corrected her.

“He wants to fight them on his own. We can’t let him do that, please princess tell him why that’s a dangerous idea.” Twilight pleaded with Luna. The alicorn never looked away from Cole, aside from looking at the still struggling guards.

“Cole, thou cannot truly wish to fight the Vamponies alone. Even with thy powers, thou cannot possibly stand a chance. We shall accompany thou on thy quest.” The princess said.

“Well Princess, if you want to help send a thunderstorm over the bloodsuckers’ home; that’s the best way you could help. We have two nights until the Vamponies are vampires permanently and I’m going tonight. Alone.” He put emphasis on alone. He stood by his decision stubbornly, they tried to make a compromise with him but he denied them all, wanting to keep as many ponies safe as possible.

Meanwhile, Zecora was gathering herbs for her potions and concoctions, knowing from the way Cole acted that he would stick to his decision and go to the Changeling hive alone. She prayed for his safety and that his plan succeeded. As she walked through the forest, she could feel the eyes of the creatures that lie hidden in the shadows on her. They seemed to be waiting for something or more likely someone, afraid that Cole would drain their blood or electrocute them. Though they feared her new friend she didn’t ignore them, they would likely attack her if she didn’t stay on the paths along her usual routes. They didn’t feel Cole’s presence anymore but they were cautious in case he was in hiding, waiting for one of them to lower their guard so he could strike.

The creatures that inhabited the forest weren’t the only ones watching the zebra; three pairs of green eyes were following the mare. They were told to capture this striped mare by orders of Bloody Mary. They were planning on how they would be able to do it, change shape to put her in a false sense of security then abduct her or just turn her into one of them. They smiled wickedly, white fangs appearing in the dark.

As the sun began to lower, Cole prepped himself with a short speech from Zeke, it was just as many words of encouragement as the guy could come up with, along with a few jokes he came up with, “Cole the Demon of Empire city then. Now: Cole the Caretaker of unicorns.” They were all as bad as that one, some were worse. The guards he had immobilized were taken away hours ago by the princess of the night and her royal guard, literal bat ponies. They wore dark blue armor, had slit pupils like a snakes eyes, fangs and bat wings. Cole couldn’t stop himself from laughing his ass off at the guards. They growled at him and one motioned to lower the spear, Cole responded by bringing his arms to life and grinning to reveal his own fangs. He saw the nervousness in their eyes and saw their heartbeats quicken though they looked unnerved.

Cole was about to leave the dungeon when Mary began speaking to him again and he held his head as it felt like it was split in half. “My, you’re actually going through with this aren’t you?” She laughed, “Well Cole, you will be mine and I’ll even let you keep your friends, they won’t mind. Not after you bite them.” She left his mind with another laugh. He walked out of the dungeon and was met by Shining armor, his guards, Luna, and Twilight.

“We’re here to help you Cole. You can’t go out there alone.” Shining said.

“Indeed, we shall assist on thy quest.” Luna agreed. Cole shook his head with a chuckle.

“I can do this alone. Plus you need to stay here and make sure the castle doesn’t get taken over by the vampires, if they decide to attack while I’m after Mary.” Cole told the guards he turned to Luna and Twilight, “I can manage on my own, I may not have magic but I can handle a fight. I need that storm, as soon as it’s set over their base, run and I’ll take care of the rest.” He walked past them before they could say anymore; he looked over his shoulder and used his Vampire sense to scan the guards they were all vampires. He pointed at them, “I’ll deal with you later.” His arm lit up they went into defense positions around Luna. He smirked, “Be careful of the guards.” He disappeared as a cloud of bats flew away, deeper into the castle and reformed Cole outside of the main entrance.

He placed his hands on the wooden door and pushed it open, revealing the castle grounds. From here he sprinted across the grounds and climbed up and over the gate, jumping down and continuing his run to the edge of the city on the mountain. His destination very far away he knew the fastest way there would be to fly he had no other choice, the ponies that were still walking the streets watched as Cole ran past, they started panicking. He ignored them and ran through the crowded, swarming, streets, hopping over obstacles and ponies until he reached the concrete safety rail and with a quick jump he cleared it and flew across the sky with shadow storm. The cloud of bats quickly spanned the distance from Canterlot to the Badlands though it completely drained Cole of his control. The world muted once again and his Vampire instincts kicked in, forcing him to search for the nearest creature with blood flowing through its veins.

He found the hive quickly.

Sprung trap

Cole ran towards the hive, it was a small city made of green iridescent looking stone filled with holes, small blood filled bodies, and several bloodless ones flew from hole to hole. Cole licked his fangs and walked towards the strange city. The entrance held two bug pony guards wearing black armor with holes in their bug wings and hooves. One was a vampire, the other was a regular changeling, and they bared their fangs to hiss at him. He smirked, used shadow storm to reach the Vampony, stabbing him in the chest with his stake. The bug was surprised for a second before it disintegrated, Cole felt himself regain control and he turned off his vampire sense. The other black bug pony watched with wide green eyes. Cole sent electricity to his eyes and he swore the pony was about to mess itself.

Cole let the pony stay there, cowering in fear of the conduit for literally beating his friend to dust. Cole didn’t know why but whenever he killed a vampire his bloodlust vanished and he was in control again, he didn’t mind it honestly. He preferred killing a vampire to draining a poor being of its life. He felt differently about vampires mostly because they were already dead.

He walked into the hive, not trying to be stealthy. Everything that was buzzing around stopped to view the strange creature in their home. He practically strutted to the largest building in the center; it resembled a castle but remained filled with holes like the other buildings. Several more bug ponies were guarding it; he stopped just short of the guards. They moved into defensive positions. Cole checked them; they were normal but behind them, inside the castle, were plenty more vampiric ponies.

He took a step forward and the guards lowered their helmed heads, curved horn glowing green. He raised his arm, instantly coming to life with red. The guards each shot out a green blast, Cole dove out of the way, and shot one guard with a loud bolt from his outstretched hand. It connected with the guard, spreading to the next guard and so on. They spasmed shortly before the lightning stopped, Cole sent another bolt through them and they collapsed. The changelings gathered began to close in on Cole, some beginning a dive from above.

Cole dove back, landing on his hands to avoid several flying changelings and pushed off to avoid more attacks. He started sending off shot after shot, making sure not to kill them. He was horribly outmatched but pressed on, making sure to avoid impaling the vampires when they got close enough. Cole’s attacks eventually turned into a gamble to see how long he could last before he was overtaken by the hundreds of swarming changelings. Turns out that it would’ve been about seven minutes, until they started turning into exact duplicates of Cole; complete with stake, backpack, and the exposed veins on his neck, he was facing an army of Coles along changelings. They expected him to examine one of them, but instead he threw a grenade into the crowd. They looked at the glowing ball of red light, until it split above them and stuck to a few clones. With five flashes they exploded, sending many of them, clone and otherwise, sprawling away.

He shot out a missile and it exploded, sending more of them flying. He shot changelings out of the air with a well-aimed shot. They fell to the floor and as Cole looked up, he found that there was not a single cloud in the sky and he was reaching his power’s limit.

Back in Canterlot the weather team was complaining about sending storm clouds to the badlands when they were needed in Stalliongrad for a heavy overnight rainstorm. Celestia was trying to reason with them, without telling them what Cole was doing there, in case it caused panic. “Princess Celestia, these clouds are needed elsewhere. We can’t take them to the Badlands; it’s not on the schedule!” The weather manager, Stormy skies argued.

“I know it is not on the schedule but they must be there as soon as possible. It’s a very important matter.” She answered.

“What’s so important about it that it can’t wait until the morning?” she asked. Celestia answered with, “It’s a secret matter.”

Celestia tried to reason with the pony, this was the longest she’s ever stayed awake. Luna was currently in the watch tower while she continued to convince her to send the storm to the badlands. She stubbornly declined.

Cole was fighting off his clones using as little power as he could, resorting to attacking them with his stake. Some of them laughed, suspecting he had lost his power only to have him shoot them with lightning. More were beginning to surround him, every time he dodged an attack, he would land in front of another one. He was running out of time and he knew it.

So did the changelings.

They swarmed him; he wasn’t able to fight them all off at once. In the confusion they took his stake, bag, and were able to stick his arms to his sides using a green substance that he couldn’t break out of. The changelings laughed. “Why have you woken your queen!?” a voice commanded. The batch of bug ponies that was there split down the center to reveal a larger changeling, this one with a mane, riddled with holes, and a small crown behind her horn. She smirked when she saw Cole, “Oh. You are a strange one.” She turned to one changeling; “Is this the one known as Cole MacGrath?” the changeling nodded. She laughed loudly and turned her attention back to Cole, “So the infamous Cole MacGrath. Mary has told us much about you.” She turned to the ones around him, “Bring him inside.” She commanded before turning around and walking away, three changelings started pushing and pulling Cole to make him move.

Mary smiled from the sidelines and watched as Cole was brought into the hive, “I wonder how my children are doing.” A few vampire changelings stay close to her, nuzzling her. She pets them and tells them to get ready for the new invasion. They flew off to tell the other vampire changelings while she followed Cole and his escort into the hive.

A short distance away, seven ponies and an alicorn walked towards the hive. They expected a few guards to be there waiting for them but there weren’t. Not a single changeling guard. They exchanged looks before venturing on into the changeling city. Each of them wearing a tight black ninja suit, except for Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, they were wearing the dangerous mission outfit and a spy outfit. Rarity was coming up with designs for a dangerous mission outfit for the rest of them in case they needed it. The hive was silent, not even the buzzing of their flimsy wings were heard, Twilight was surprised their hole filled wings would let them hover let alone fly.

As Cole was dragged along like a dog, his hands bound by a strange green substance. He knew he could easily break out with enough energy though he was saving his energy for when he would need it the most; not wanting to take the life of a changeling for his own needs even though several of them were dead already. He began to feel a small ache in the back of his head, he knew Mary was near. He looked around the room, searching for the telltale signs of the vampire. As if summoned by his thoughts; the crimson smoke she flew in manifested itself next to Cole.

Her lower body was still shrouded in the fog, keeping her above the floor. She lightly gripped his chin and smiled, “I told you Cole. You will be mine.” He jerked his head away. “And I will make you kill your friends starting with the lavender one.” She spoke directly into his mind, keeping it a secret from the other changelings. He stayed silent and she moved ahead to stand next to Chrysalis in the throne room. The changelings spread out along the walls of the room, a pair pushing Cole to face plant into the center of the room, before a pristine obsidian throne.

Chrysalis sat upon the throne, resting her muzzle on her hoof with a malicious smile. “So you are the powerful being known as Cole MacGrath…” She chuckles, her voice seeming to overlap itself, sounding as if two were speaking at once. She turns to Mary, “Are my children in place?”

“Of course, Queen Chrysalis.” The queen laughs.

“I hope you haven’t made any friends here. All of Equestria will become a feeding ground for my changelings.” Cole continues to glower at the two, standing up without the use of his arms. “Tell my army to attack.” Chrysalis commands Mary. Mary smirks and looks up, Cole follows her gaze and he stares at the several ponies hanging from the ceiling in cocoons. Mary spreads her arms.

“Time to feed my children!” the bodies within move and the break out of them, using shadow storm to drink the blood of any changeling. Chrysalis watches with wide eyes as this occurs.

“We had a deal! I bring you MacGrath and you help me take over Equestria!”

“My intention is to help you take over, but you will be under my control.” She moves to bite the queen. The changelings that were fighting instantly move in to help but are captured by the Vamponies. One manages to free Cole in the process. He gripped his stake and used Shadow streak to bypass the fight. He appeared before her and brought the stake down, a pony moved in its path and turned to dust. Mary turned to smoke and left with Chrysalis.

“Damn it!” Cole shouted. The vampires turned on him, the last changeling being drained dry. Cole’s eye streak red as his rage of knowing he played into Mary’s trap and essentially starting a vampiric take over and with the last of his electric powers he released all his rage on the Vamponies in the room. Lightning shot off of him, hitting one vampire and shooting into another one. A red chain of electricity connected each of them to one another and back to Cole at its center. When his energy depleted the ponies dropped, their bodies smoking slightly.

The group of seven ponies that came to help him arrived and stared at him and the bodies surrounding him. “What happened?” Twilight asked. Mary’s laugh echoed throughout the hive.

The siege

Cole looks at the ponies, “We need to go now, no questions.” He walks towards them, stopping to look at a changeling; he was alive and his heart was pounding against his chest, it sped up when Cole looked at him. The vampiric side of him wanted to drain him dry, make that annoying beating stop; but he didn’t. Cole looked away and kept walking. The bug pony’s heart slowed as he sighed in relief.

The ponies gave the room one last look; Luna noticed a few familiar faces as those of the guard or the noble ponies. They turned back to Cole and followed him out. Once they were outside more vampires were waiting for them. Cole looked at them angrily, grabbing his stake. Luna charged her horn with magic as did Twilight and Rarity, Pinkie pulled her cannon out of nowhere and Fluttershy hid behind them.

A single pony among the group stood out to the ponies, Shining Armor. He stood tall and proud before the assembled vampires, his eyes changed to the same red as Cole’s and the holes on his neck were still bleeding; they were fresh. He gave them a grin, revealing his fangs, “We can’t let you get in the way of Mary.” He charged his horn. Twilight took a step forward to say something but Cole’s stake stopped her.

“You can’t help him.” He said.

“But-“

“You can’t. We need to get to the castle. Rainbow Dash, go get me the biggest thundercloud you can.”

“I’m on it.” She saluted before shooting into the sky, leaving the rainbow streak. A few Pegasi followed her at a much slower pace.

“Don’t kill them, stall for time until Dash comes back with the cloud. And take those horses I mean ponies out of the sky.” Cole corrected himself. They nodded in acknowledgment. Twilight silently vowed that she would do everything she could to fix Shining armor and end this nightmare. “I’ll take Armor.” The conduit turned to the unicorn, what little lightning he generated now was sent entirely to the stake causing weak lightning to streak across it.

Shining chuckled, “Kill them.” The vampires charged and Cole waited as they closed in. Luna fired her magic at them, as did Twilight, the blasts finding their marks. Rarity punched them, promising to give herself a hooficure when this was over. Applejack turned and bucked them, sending the vampires soaring and into one another, Pinkie fired her confetti cannon and Fluttershy cowered behind them. Cole glanced at them as he fought; swinging the stake against several enemies, dodging shots from unicorns and attacking the Pegasi that flew at him.

Meanwhile Rainbow dash flew as fast as she could to get the nearest cloud, the vampires had trouble keeping up with her at their top speed. Mary knew, she smirked from where she was at the Castle courtyard and sent a message to destroy every storm cloud. The vampire Pegasi and Changelings at the weather factory obeyed and converted more ponies in front of the other workers. The factory went into a panic instantly; ponies were trying to escape their new fanged co-workers. The vamponies covered every exit, ponies screamed from the cloud building, many trying to fly out and get converted before they could reach a window. The screaming grew louder causing some Pegasi to become curious and went to investigate.

Chaos spread through Cloudsdale.

In the Everfree forest a few vamponies fed off the creatures before one stumbled across Zecora’s hut. He grew happy and sent Mary a message which she relayed to the others. Fresh pony blood. The zebra spotted him as more walked out of the bushes to join him, “Who are these ponies that venture so far into the Everfree?” she wondered aloud, eyes widening as more ponies arrived with Cockatrice in their jaws, hissing with delight, blood staining their muzzles. “Stop you Vamponies, for you shall not have me!” she shouted at them, galloping over to her potions and grabbing garlic.

----Changeling Hive----

Magic blasts flew across the battlefield along with confetti blasts; Cole was surprised Rarity was actually using her hooves with Applejack to fight off the vampires. The conduit himself took on the white unicorn alone, Shining told the other vampires to take care of the others. Cole was at a disadvantage this time due to being on ‘low battery’. Without his lightning he was forced to try getting in close to attack and having to dodge an attack, avoid a stray blast, or end up hitting a force field Shining put up. Cole was getting frustrated; deciding, yet again, that he has to wait for Rainbow to come back with the storm cloud if he wanted a chance at hitting the unicorn.

----Cloudsdale----

Rainbow dash flew through the weather factory as quickly as she could to search for a storm cloud big enough to help Cole, flying past a few vampony guards stationed around the interior. The vampires had done as they were told and destroyed every cloud the factory had and shut down the cloudmaker, many of them had left the building to turn more pegasi in the city. She stopped to rest for a second, “Buck! Why *pant* couldn’t they at least *pant* have left one cloud!?” She shouted in anger. A quick hiss from behind her cut her rest short and she took off again. She spoke to herself as she flew, “Okay Dash, remember when you worked for the factory…” She put her mind to it and remembered her first visit as a filly in flight camp; they were told how they made the clouds and several years later she was hired and was taught how to make thunderclouds. The opportunity made itself clear to her when she found a way to make clouds much bigger and she couldn't resist it. She had made a giant thundercloud as a prank and was kept away from the machine from then on, being put on the weather team for Ponyville where she soon became the manager. She remembered where the machine was. A smirk spread across her face as she barrel rolled away to avoid a vampire, it flew into the a pillar and slid down it. “Time to put that to use and make the biggest thundercloud Equestria has ever seen.” With renewed vigor she sped to the cloudmaker. The pegasi were catching up.

-----Everfree-----

Zecora was doing her best to keep the vampires at bay, using garlic cloves and her bamboo staff. The Vamponies were stunned by the garlic then knocked out of her hut by her staff. More crowded the hut and she did her best to keep them back; soon realizing that she would be trapped if she didn’t escape them and she knew it wasn’t any safer out in the open. She opted to take the first opening and gallop to Ponyville for safety and to warn them if they didn't already know. The vampires kept closing in on the hut and she kept fighting them off, staying vigilant for the opening she needed. Suddenly she hears a loud crack behind her and glances in time to see things falling from her back wall. They were trying to make a new entrance. Cracks were already forming, due to their enhanced strength, and she knew she had to hurry.

----Changeling hive----

They managed to take down many of the vampires, several of them tied up with confetti somehow and a few were just unconscious; either from Rarity and Applejack’s attacks, which left hoofprints on the vampires or from Twilight and Luna’s magic. They watched as Cole kept trying to get close enough to attack Shining. They wanted to help but knew the only thing they could do was wait for Dash to bring the cloud and keep the vampires that woke up or arrived stayed away from the conduit. Twilight grew worried about her multicolored friend. She was taking longer than the lavender unicorn had estimated, horrible thoughts flew through her mind of Rainbow getting turned, or drained entirely by the vampires. The other ponies watched as Cole continued trying to reach Shining, only to be deterred by a shield or diving aside to dodge a blast, Luna was firing at the flying pegasi vampires, knocking them unconscious and magically stopping their rapid descent to the hard ground as well. Twilight shook her head clear of any and all bad thoughts of what could have happened to Rainbow dash and charged her horn, as did Luna. Shining was laughing as he blasted Cole again, “You’re only stalling the inevitable MacGrath!”

“You need to snap out of it! She’s just using you!” Cole replied and Shining just laughed as a magic blast was shot at him, he used his magic to throw a changeling body into it. The changeling flew over his back from the hit but didn’t react. It was already dead, drained of blood by one of the many vampires. Twilight aimed her horn at him and he turned to her, “Twily! You wouldn’t attack your BBBFF would you?” he asked before putting up a shield to block Cole’s strike, which he saw through his peripheral vision. The conduit jumped away swearing while Twilight’s magic weakened slightly, Shining smirked before firing his own magic at her. Her eyes widened and she watched the blast close in; standing like a deer in headlights.

“Twilight!” the ponies shouted before Applejack pushed her away and took the blast; hitting the floor and skidding towards Luna. The alicorn stared at the orange pony in shock then turned to Shining, eyes glowing white from magic building up.

Shining smirked at her and blasted at Cole again to keep him at bay, “Luna you should really be getting back to the castle.” He put up a shield to finish, “Your dear sister is trying to fend off Mary and Chrysalis. From what my brethren tell me, Celestia won’t last much longer.” They all stare in shock and Luna looks to Cole.

“He’s right… That bitch just told me she plans to turn her. I can handle this, you go help Celestia.” He said and Luna scowled at Shining.

“Thou shall receive punishment when we return!” she threatened before teleporting away. Cole looked away for a second and was hit in the chest and fell onto his back. Looking down he saw the unicorn shadow streak to Twilight. She stared up at him, fear filling her eyes along with tears. He lifted her chin.

“You’ll be much safer with me and Mary when she rules Equestria.” He said, putting up a shield around them to keep Rarity and Pinkie out while Cole recovered. He smiled, revealing his fangs, the tips caked in dried blood.

“Shining please don’t do this! Fight Mary’s control, you know this is wrong.” Twilight pleaded. He chuckled darkly.

“Wrong?” he laughs, “All I know is that Mary wants you and your friends converted by me personally. Once she has the elements nothing will be able to stop her.” Pinkie was beating on the shield while Rarity was trying to wake Applejack. She was breathing though shallowly. Tears rolled down Twilight’s cheeks.

“I don’t know you anymore.” Her voice broke, “You’re not my brother… You're a monster.” It hurt him when she said that and she clearly saw the pain on his face.

“You’ll thank me soon enough.” He said before magically holding her hooves in place and tilting her head to get a clear view of her neck. Baring his fangs he brought his mouth to her jugular. The ponies watched in horror as Twilight's own brother was about to turn her into one of them.

Author's Note

Cliff hanger for you all, if you'd like I can reveal how Shining was turned in the next chapter or continue the story.

Shining armor's turning

“Princess Celestia, Cole has left.” A guard informed her. The white alicorn nodded and thanked him and asked somepony to message the weather manager to arrive as soon as possible. He saluted and galloped off to do as she said. Unbeknownst to her, the guards on either side of her throne were vampires. She couldn’t tell them apart, she was cautious though, making sure to know where Luna was at all times and her sister knew where she was. They trusted Cole, Celestia mainly because she could feel how much he hated being a vampire and wanted to return to normal. Beneath his hate she could see heroism and she was pleased to see that. Luna’s incursions inside his dreams, most interesting to say the least, showed that he wanted to return home soon to stop The Beast. Luna was shocked and went to Celestia immediately when she first saw the impression the Beast left on Cole.

She wasn’t very happy that Cole decided to go on his own. She just hoped that she could get the clouds he requested there. She would have gone with him but she had responsibilities to take care of. She spoke with her sister and the Elements; they unanimously agreed that Cole shouldn’t go alone. She wanted to send guards after him, Luna reminded her that they didn’t know which ones were vampires or not. She knew that would be a big risk, not just the fact that they were changelings; from what Cole told them, they were unwaveringly loyal to Mary and her alone. She told Luna and the Elements not to follow him; that they were needed in case things went wrong here in Canterlot. She suspected that Twilight and her friends wouldn’t listen nor would her dear sister. She hoped they would be safe and careful, especially since she couldn’t trust her own royal guard. She didn’t trust any of them but never showed it, and none suspected her of mistrusting them.

Outside the throne room Shining Armor was walking by on one of his usual rounds. He nodded to the guards at the door, they returned the gesture. He looked over his shoulder at them; he hated the fact that some of his guards were not only changelings but Vamponies as well. He’d been deceived by the queen of the changelings and didn’t like her subjects or children, he didn’t know what they were and he didn’t care. He would hold down every single guard he had to hunt down the impostors but he knew that wouldn’t work. From what Cole said, and from what he had read in many vampire novels when he was younger, they were much stronger and faster than him. Finding one would sic the others on him before he could bring up a shield spell. He walked past the guest rooms that were being used by his sister’s friends. He made sure guards weren’t posted there. He went to Twilight’s room and knocked before entering, “Twily I want to ask you some…thing.” He looked around, something was off.

The bookshelf was full and its contents weren’t stacked all over the floor. He galloped to each of the rooms her friends were in; they were all empty and untouched. The biggest surprise was in Pinkie’s room, a single note being carried by balloons was hovering in the center of the room. He walked over to it and stopped himself from opening it; he stepped to its side and opened it. Just as he expected, confetti shot out of the small card. He smirked, expecting something of that kind. What he didn’t expect was the balloons popping and coating the room in streamers. He used his magic to lift them off of him and clean up the room before reading the card.

Hiya! This is Pinkie Pie, I left with my friends and Princess Luna to help Cole beat those meany-mean, cheese legged changelings! We’ll be back soon!

P.S Don’t tell Shining Armor.

P.P.S If this is Shining Armor, I’m so so so sorry about this. Please don’t be angry with her or me, or any of us!

P.P.P.S If you want to help us look on the back.

He turned the card over and saw a map with a spot on the badlands circled. “So that’s where they are.” He shook his head and put the card down. “Just because he hates being a vampire doesn’t mean he’s a good guy…” he sighed just as a guard ran into the room, eyes widened in fear. “What’s wrong?” he asked the Pegasus.

“They’ve taken the elements and several guards into the dungeon! I just barely managed to get away.” He was shaking, clearly still in shock. The white unicorn nodded and told him to stay back while he went to fix this. He galloped past him and went towards the dungeon, ignorant of the guard following behind with a smirk. He used his magic to open the door before entering, four guards stood inside. The Pegasus came in behind him and closed the door. Shining Armor gathered magic into his horn and used it to light the dungeon as three of the guards ignited to reveal their true forms as changelings with red eyes and larger incisors. He scowled at them and looked at the other two guards, their eyes were red as well and they had grown fangs.

The captain of the guard scolded himself for falling into a trap so easily, his horn glowing brightly with offensive magic. The grating sound of rusted cell doors opening echoes through the place as more ponies walk out of the cells. They clearly want him, whether it was alive or dead didn’t matter right now. They all jumped at him at once, he put up a shield which they all collided into before he used a sleeping spell on them to subdue them. It knocked a few out, but more kept coming. He charged a knockout spell and blasted each one that got near him, backing into a cell so they’d have to go in one at a time, or so he thought. They shadow streaked their way in; he swore under his breath, something he overheard Cole say, as he blasted them as quickly as possible. Sending out magic bursts to keep them away, he was slowly getting tired as his headaches began returning.

“Having trouble Captain?” one guard snickered; coincidentally he was a lunar guard, so not much was different with him. “Getting more of those headaches? Shame the princess isn’t here to help you this time.” They all laughed, Shining Armor was starting to get angry and it showed as his eyes began giving off a strange mist. They continued laughing, “We’ll have fun turning your little sister as well. Mother Mary has plans for her and her friends.” He smirked triumphantly. That was a mistake. Shining Armor’s eyes widened and he glared at them, his magic seems to be bubbling and turning black, his eyes turning green at the same time. They stood their ground, the enhanced senses and strength of being a vampire aiding their bravery.

“Don’t you touch her!” he shouted before focusing on a spell to make his magic as bright as the sun. A changeling was on him with the distraction and sank it’s fangs into his neck. The spell stopped short, the anger and hate dispelled and exchanged with fear and regret; regret for not having been able to keep his temper down, for not having been able to protect his sister or Equestria. He started bucking the vampires, wanting to get the changeling off using the momentum but it held fast. There was no way he would let them drink his blood and survive. He felt his life slowly fade out, a voice entered his mind. It was a soothing voice like silk that made him feel calm. His fighting back faltered.

“Don’t worry about your family.” It said. “She’ll be safer with us, we’ll provide her with everything she’ll need and immortality so you can protect her like a good brother forever.” Strangely that seemed tempting. Never having to worry about dying and leaving his sister alone without him, “You will be able to live with your wife in eternal harmony.” A figure began forming in his mind. A tall slender woman with a fair, scarlet mane, and a beautiful crimson dress; he couldn’t help but smile at the image of beauty. “Now you will obey your new mistress. Go save your sister. Have her become one of us.” He nodded, his own eyes changing red as his mind succumbed to the vampires desires. “You will retain your title as captain of my new guard now go forth while we prepare for the uprising.”

“Yes, Mistress Mary.” He bowed to the figure that wasn’t even there. The changeling pulled away, licking its fangs to enjoy the taste of his blood. He stood up straight before looking over the others, “You heard her, get ready.” He pointed out several of them, “You all are coming with me. We’re going to get my sister.” They smiled and stepped aside to let him through. He walked proudly past them, quickly getting used to the enhanced senses. Feeling stronger, better, much more capable of keeping everypony safe with Mary. Together the group left the castle and had a small drink from guards to make sure they could get to the badlands before shadow streaking all the way there.

Beginning of the end

Author's Note

I'm not dead! Just in case that one person possibly thought I was.... anyway next chapter for you guys. One more chapter to go followed by the bonus alternate ending. This is

Beginning of the end

Cole sprinted to the shield and attacked it, the shield held fast. He kept trying to break through along with the other mares to no avail. They watched, helpless, as Shining Armor plunged his fangs into his sister’s neck. Her eyes widened in pain and fear, tears streamed down her cheeks, “BBBFF…” that was the last thing she said as he began turning her. Cole slammed a fist into the barrier.

“No!” He felt enraged by this. Mary would pay and he would fix this before returning to New Marais. He scowled at them and prepared his stake for when the captain lowered the shield. Twilight’s eyes began glowing white and he pulled his fangs out, leaving two small holes where his incisors had penetrated. He lowered the shield with a knowing smirk and braced himself, but as soon as he did, Cole acted. The conduit shot forward, ready to bring the stake down and put an end to Shining Armor. He stood there calmly, prepared for something, something Cole would find out the hard way. Twilight’s horn shone brightly before a massive surge of magic spread out, knocking Cole away along with the mares and the unconscious Vamponies. Her brother slid back slightly as a beam of violet magic shot up towards the sky as if announcing that the element of magic had been turned.

---------------------------------Everfree--------------------------------

The attack stopped as a violet light shone in the distance, they all turned towards it; giving Zecora the chance she needed to escape. She hit one of them with her staff, knocking him over, and jumped through the space. This movement caused the attention to return to her, “This situation is dire, out of the frying pan and into the fire.” She spoke and hit a changeling before turning tail and sprinting towards the town of Ponyville. It wasn’t much better there though. Vamponies were turning ponies left and right, from every age, gender and race. They were all running to the town hall but had a large space to gallop. Zecora tried to help some of them reach the town hall, using her staff to knock the Vamponies away when they’re too busy chasing one pony.

Her staff slowly gains hairline cracks as she scores hits on the Vamponies. She slowly ran towards the hall, she had helped only two ponies who weren’t already being changed. The three of them reached the hall and were ushered in as unicorns closed the double doors, earth ponies boarded up the lower windows and the door as Pegasi boarded up the upper windows. But not before one of them managed to see the mail mare fly towards the window, her crossed eyes were unmistakable as she missed the window entirely and hit the roof. The Pegasus winced at the loud sound and finished boarding up the window.

-------------------------Badlands-----------------------

When the magic stopped and the white left her eyes, they were noticeably darker but not red. Cole thought this was strange, he began hearing Mary’s voice as she gloated, “You can’t stop me Cole, you and this world will be mine. I’ll make sure you watch as she turns all of her friends as well.” She laughed and left his head, leaving a headache like always. He shook his head and looked at Twilight, she was looking over herself; her fur had somehow darkened in color from her normal lavender color. She opened her mouth and felt her new fangs before tensing up. Cole knew what was happening, Mary was speaking to her and there was nothing he could do now. He looked at the skyline for Rainbow Dash and only saw a large dark cloud begin to form in the distance before turning to the other mares.

They stared at Twilight in horror, though he could see a glint in Rarity’s eyes, she clearly had gotten an idea for something. Cole shadow streaked in front of the mares, his hunger building. Twilight stood as still as a statue, hopefully she was fighting Mary’s control. Shining armor laughed, “Feeling the hunger MacGrath? Maybe I’ll just have you feed off of them.” He smirked, “I can see it clear as day.”

“Shut it before I send this,” he hefted his stake, “through your heart.” The royal guard captain laughed, telling Cole that he couldn’t do that. “It wouldn’t be too hard.” Cole scowled.

“But if you kill me think of how badly you’ll hurt my dear sister Twilight here.” He nodded to the mare, “I won’t let you hurt her, so I can’t allow you to kill me. Even if you manage to she’ll be the one to take you to Mary.” He smirked, Cole stood his ground, quickly going over his options, kill him or let him live. The conduit scowled at shining and the stallion laughed. “I knew you couldn’t do it.” He mocked, firing a magic blast at Cole; he dove aside and rolled to his feet. Cole gripped his stake harder, his knuckles turning white. He quickly glanced around and saw a massive cloud forming in the distance.

“I don’t need to kill you.” He smirked. Shining armor was about to turn before Cole charged him; he put up a shield and mocked Cole for not being fast enough. Cole kept his smirk as Shining armor was informed about the current situation.

“The princesses can’t hold on much longer Cole. Just help us and fulfill your maker’s will. You little rainbow friend won’t be making it here with that cloud either.” He smirked, and so did Cole.

---------------------------- Weather factory-----------------------------------

Rainbow dash had overloaded the thundercloud machine and broke it, the massive cloud wasn’t going to be stopping anytime soon. She smiled and bucked a Vampony in the jaw; it recoiled from the hit, stunned for a few seconds which was long enough for Rainbow to get in another strong kick. More Vamponies came into the room with her and started surrounding her; she glanced around and saw some of them were trying to stop the cloud from growing anymore. She saw one fly towards her and she flew away, dodging the attack thanks to her quick reflexes and speed. They growled and hissed at her, shadow streaking up to her. She knew what they were doing and flew through a cloud wall to get outside, the Vamponies on her tail the entire time, slowly losing ground on her. She flew up to the edge of the cloud and tore a chunk out to fly it to Cole as the rest continued to grow. Too few Vamponies were present to aid in diminishing its ever growing size. They relayed this to the others to get more help, Shining armor’s eye twitched. “Idiots.” He muttered to himself. Keeping the shield up he looked over at the weather factory, a cloud with a rainbow trail was coming closer.

----------------------------Canterlot-----------------------------------

Celestia and Luna stood in the throne room, blasting the Vamponies and changelings. Some were guards; others were just their castle’s maids, cooks, and the citizens of Canterlot. They were having trouble fighting them back though; the Vamponies were trying to discourage the fighting by making them feel guilty for attacking them. “You were supposed to keep us safe! Now you’re attacking us!?” one shouted with a sly grin before being blasted.

“Why are you hurting us?” another spoke in a haunting voice before over exaggerating a scream as another blast hit him. The idea had come from Mary, a single Vampony informed her of how much the princesses cared for their citizens. She planned to use this to her advantage as she watched from the back; she could clearly see the pain the accusations caused them. The hesitation before each strike making her smile, their downfall was going to be soon. The only Vampony left in the changeling hive was Shining Armor; Chrysalis said that she could take care of Twilight on her own. Mary loved when plans came together so perfectly. She had sent the newly turned Wonderbolts after Rainbow dash; that would get her to stop at least, give them time to stop that cloud she’s carrying.

----------------------------Changeling hive----------------------------

Cole shot forward for a strike, again, Shining armor put up the shield in the nick of time. He panted, “Getting tired Cole?” the stallion taunted, still full of energy, the repeated use of the shield spell easily accomplished without much magic use. Cole glanced over at Twilight and looked back just in time to see Shining armor’s horn fire a blast. The conduit dove aside, the magic nicking his side. He couldn’t feel that spot anymore.

“So you’re trying to paralyze me?” Cole pressed a finger into his side, sending electricity through it, the circulating energy staying with him.

“Mary doesn’t want you dead.” He smirked and fired again as Cole noticed the streak of rainbow racing towards them and he returned the smirk. The white unicorn pointed off to the left, Cole glanced that way to see three storm clouds flying towards rainbow. “Give up now and help us, your brethren, Cole.” Cole just laughed.

“I’m going to have to take a rain check on that.” He streaked towards Twilight while the stallion was practically doing a monologue, he didn’t expect that. Cole raised the stake, the other ponies gasping in shock as Shining armor streaked forward to stop him.

“No!” he shouted as Cole turned and used the last of his power to put a detonation blast onto the armor and kick him away. He landed on his back, the swirling electricity stuck to his chest; he looked at it before Cole ran over and he stood up, bracing himself for whatever would happen. He expected some sort of electrocution and tried to disperse it as quickly as he could. Cole sprinted towards him and kicked him in the jaw, the captain raised onto his hind legs as the blast exploded, sending the pony one way and Cole into the air towards the streaks in hope of getting more power from the lightning streaked cloud trails. Shining armor lay in the dirt yards away from the others in a daze. The purple beam Twilight caused had ceased a several minutes ago though her eyes were still white, now with a light crimson.

Rainbow lay on the cloud to rest as she flapped; panting heavily and covered in sweat as she brought the cloud back, her friends now in view; ahead of her to the left she saw three familiar streaks of cloud and blue suited Pegasi. She smiled widely, “The Wonderbolts! Finally ponies that’ll help!” she exclaimed and flew towards them. She noticed right off the bat that something wasn’t right… Spitfire smiled; fangs. Rainbow’s ears fell while her anger at Mary grew, that bloodsucking bitch turned her heroes. She wasn’t going to let this go. They stopped her, Spitfire kept that smile.

“Hey Rainbow,” she started, “How would you like to be a Wonderbolt?” The rainbow maned mare’s jaw dropped as she sat on the thundercloud.

“Really?” she smiled widely, refraining from giving a loud fan girl squeal.

“You only have to destroy that cloud and help us fix your mistake.” She nodded to the massive cloud that was still growing. She looked over her shoulder then back. “Of course joining us means you gotta join us.” She flashed her fangs. Part of Rainbow wanted to, just to be a Wonderbolt. Shame for Mary, the element of loyalty could only be disloyal through chaos.

“Sorry but I have to decline, no matter how badly I want to join.” She said, and the three tights wearing Pegasi growled at her.

“We’ll make you then.” She shot forward just as Dash’s wings seized up painfully. She needed to rest her wings and was going to try hitting her idol just as the cloud she was sitting on went off. They both froze and looked down at Cole, being hit by a large thunderbolt; eyes closed he absorbed the power and smiled. Swinging an arm a streak of lightning hit Spitfire and pulled the conduit towards her, the lightning tether forced her wings to stay still as he brought up the stake.

“Don’t do it Cole!” Rainbow exclaimed and Cole tethered to another Pegasus and stood on Soarin’s back, shocking Fleet foot.

“Why?” he kept the stake on Soarin’s back, a strong push and the Pegasus would be gone.

“We have to save them not kill them. End the bloodsucker and they’ll be normal again.” She looked down at the falling ponies.

“They’ll be fine; being a vampire has its perks.” He answered as his added weight slowly lowered the remaining Wonderbolt, the clothed pony trying to keep them up, nervous about the stake at his back. He absorbed another bolt of lightning. “Now then let’s get back down there.” He shocked the Pegasus and hovered back down, Rainbow right behind him with the cloud. Shining armor stood back up and glared at the descending conduit. “Now we’re evenly matched.”