The luxurious carpets covering the sprawling hallways of Canterlot Castle muffled the clip-clop of the hooves of both Princess Luna and Twilight Sparkle, allowing the still silence of the night to go uninterrupted. As was to be expected of the lateness of the hour, the two mares where alone in the halls, and not a single other pony had been seen by either of them since they had left Vault 214 in the castle’s below-ground levels several minutes ago.
Conversation had been sparse, if not entirely non-existent. Only a few words had passed between them both, each of them perfectly content to brood over what little had already been said instead of trying to fruitlessly fill the silence with meaningless chatter. Indeed, the conversations had been brief, but the subjects that filled them were not the type to be taken lightly and merited such contemplation.
It was one thing to accuse somepony of killing, of taking another life, even if it wasn’t an intelligent one, but to accuse them of being some sort of monster? Not only that, but mean it as well, not just using it as a general insult towards a lack of morality and mercy, but honestly intend it in the most literal of senses? That was another thing entirely. Although… there wasn’t exactly any proof to the contrary, was there? There was the whole… incident… in the sunlight to think about as well. Twilight couldn’t suppress her shudder at the unpleasant and all-too-recent memory. On top of that, she still couldn’t quite recall anything about what happened the other night, and it did sound like something that The Will of the Eclipse might do…
Twilight shook her head violently, berating her foolishness and scoffing at her naivety for starting to think like that. After all, these were monsters she was talking about. Monsters! The kind of scary stories ponies would tell around a campfire or parents would tell their foals to keep them from getting into trouble. If she were to start believing that kind of stuff now, next thing she knew she would start believing every crazy pony on a street corner who claimed to have seen a giraffe or a rhinoceros even an armadillo. Scoffing again, she rolled her eyes at just how ridiculous that sounded.
Taking a moment away from her inner contemplations, Twilight looked up from the ground that had held monopoly on her gaze for a good while now and took in her surroundings, realizing something rather important. She had no idea where they were headed. She mentally face-hoofed at not having noticed such an obvious detail earlier. “Um, Princess?” She spoke up, breaking the long silence. “Where exactly are we going?”
“Actually, we art already there,” was the only reply she got from the princess as she stopped in front of a door that was still familiar to Twilight from her time spent at the palace.
“The infirmary? What are we doing here?” Twilight inquired, as she too stopped in front of the large door emblazoned with a red cross.
“There is a matter We must discuss with the good doctor,” Luna replied, opening the large wooden door with a light brush of her magic, walking through it and speaking over her shoulder, “We shan’t be long. Please, wait out here.”
Still somewhat upset over Luna’s accusations, Twilight huffed imperiously at the command. Regardless, she did as her princess asked, turning in place and sitting down on her haunches in an irritated manner. Luna could see the lingering resentment in her actions, and couldn’t help but cringe a little. Maybe it would have been best to break it to Twilight a little more slowly? With a sigh, Luna shut the door behind her, leaving the distraught unicorn alone in the hallway.
Twilight sat in the middle of the hallway, gazing down either of its ends, doing her best to wait patiently, despite her feelings of creeping anxiety. However, it wasn’t long before boredom began to creep up on her, filling her with a desire to move and forcing her to struggle to keep still and silently wish for Luna to hurry up. After several minutes, she was no longer able to contain herself and she rose to her hooves and began pacing in front of the door, her mind drifting through thoughts of her current predicament.
She was not a monster, she couldn’t be. There were no such things as monsters. Right? Twilight shook her head, trying to clear away her doubts. Of course there was no such thing as monsters. Whether she had been feeling a bit strange lately or not, that didn’t mean anything was wrong with her, and it certainly didn’t mean that she was a monster. But then again, there was that whole… incident… in the sunlight.
Twilight groaned exasperatedly. If only she could remember what The Will of the Eclipse had done! At least then she could perhaps piece together and deduce what was going on. Luna had already told her that she had failed to prevent them from succeeding, and that at least she believed. After all, she doubted that she would have forgotten what happened if everything had gone according to plan. So maybe the cultist ponies had caught her, and done something with her? Used her in one of their rituals perhaps? But that wouldn’t turn her into a monster… would it? Twilight stopped her pacing, standing still for a moment and biting her bottom lip. Why was this bothering her so much anyways?
With an irritated sigh, she shook her head and walked up to the infirmary door, suddenly rather impatient with Luna and raising her hoof to knock, when she heard faint voices from the other side of the door. Curiosity taking over, Twilight put her hoof back on the floor, instead pressing her ear against the door to try and hear the snippets of conversation on the other side of the thick wood more clearly.
“…can’t, I’d lose…license! This is highly… anyways. Besides, what… you possibly… it for?” the first voice seemed to say in an even yet obviously irritated way. Whatever was going on, they didn’t seem happy about it.
“… thou, Cross Stitch… only need it… important matters… mean… untoward. Please, just let … have it,” argued a second voice, easily identified as Princess Luna.
“… you sure?” replied the pony Twilight assumed was Cross Stitch, Canterlot Castle Infirmary’s chief of staff.
“We are,” Luna answered simply. There was sound like a sigh of acceptance, before a metallic tinkling noise was heard, along with the opening and closing of a door. “You have our thanks,” Luna said, before the sound of hooves on marble became pronounced and louder, and Twilight realized she was headed for the door.
Twilight managed to move away from the door just before it opened, striking a disinterested pose as Luna exited. The princess looked at raising a slight eyebrow but said nothing to indicate she had noticed Twilight eavesdropping. Turning around, she began to head down the hallway once more, calling over her shoulder “Come along, Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight did so, cantering slightly to keep pace with the princess’s longer legs. “Where are we going now, Princess?” Twilight inquired as they walked.
Luna turned her head to face her, not breaking stride as they turned a corner and she spoke, “Twilight, dost thou remember when last thou had a meal?”
Twilight grew silent as she thought back. From what she remembered of the other night, she had spent most of her time pouring over old tomes, trying to decipher the enigmatic goals of The Will of the Eclipse, and had most likely forgotten to eat as she usually did when she was absorbed in some project or another. And before that, she had skipped lunch in favor of running several errands around town, which would make breakfast that day her most recent meal. Strange, Twilight thought herself, furrowing her brow, I don’t really feel all that hungry.
When she told the princess that she hadn’t eaten for at least a day or two, Luna only smiled. “We assumed as much,” she said, “Which is why we are going to dining hall.”
*~-/^\-~*
Twilight wasn’t used to seeing the dining hall quite so empty. On the many occasions during which she had eaten within its walls, sitting in her special reserved seat next to Princess Celestia herself, the enormous mahogany table was utterly filled with all sorts of succulent greens and aromatic vegetables as light conversation from the countless nobles of Canterlot permeated the air. But then again, she wasn’t exactly used to eating around four thirty in the morning either.
Twilight and Luna sat across from each other at one end of the enormous hundred and fifty foot long table, neither of them saying a word as several of the castle’s servants brought in a late – or early, depending on one’s perspective – meal for the two mares. Several silver platters topped with all sorts of incredibly enticing looking and deliciously aromatic foods were placed before both of them, even as Luna did her best to look anywhere but into Twilight’s disgruntled gaze.
The final smartly dressed stallion shuffled out of the hall after setting a pair of crystal goblets and a large bottle of wine in the center of the table between them, bowing to them both as he shut the doorway behind himself. Twilight raised a questioning eyebrow at the alcoholic beverage, but Luna pretended not to notice as she took the two goblets and wine bottle in her magic, pouring a glass for both herself and Twilight, floating the second glass over to the unicorn and setting it next to her plate.
Deciding to pay it no more mind Twilight simply began to eat, ignoring the usual decorum that stated one was not to begin eating before the princess in her still simmering irritation. Wrapping several pieces of romaine lettuce and expertly cut tomatoes in her telekinetic field at once, she levitated them into her open mouth, taking the time to savor and enjoy the rich palate of flavors the royal chief always seemed to manage to extract from such simple dish with only a few added seasonings. She couldn’t help but smile slightly as the familiar taste and texture of ground peppers and parsley assailed her tongue, reminding her of some of the many times she had sat beside Princess Celestia and eaten this very dish. However, her smile quickly faltered as the nostalgic taste disappeared almost immediately, becoming bland and almost bitter in an instant. Scowling at the yet one more thing to irritate her, she took the salt shaker and added a rather generous helping to the dish in an attempt to both season it and perhaps help her mood.
As Twilight was busy smothering her food in slightly intoxicating substances, Luna ushered one of the hoof maidens attending to the room to her side with a small come hither gesture of her hoof. When she came near, Luna whispered into her ear, holding up a hoof to hide her lips. When she was finished, the hoof maiden gave a small curtsy and quickly left the room to complete whatever task she had been given. “And please, do not tarry!” Luna called after her as she passed through the massive double-door entrance.
Twilight looked up from her food to give the princess a questioning glare, but Luna simply averted her gaze, lifting her goblet of wine and taking a delicate sip. After several seconds of holding the glare and being summarily ignored, Twilight gave up and went back to angrily spearing bits of her food with miniature lances of condensed telekinesis and shoveling it into her mouth, hoping that the food would miraculously start to taste better.
Once Twilight’s gaze was no longer uncomfortably on her Luna began to eat as well, gingerly lifting the meal to her lips piece by piece and savoring its delectable succulence. Each bite was a masterfully mixed blend of herbs with a subtle hint of the perfect spices, all of it coming together to create a perfect blend of exquisite flavors the almost seemed impossible to have come from something as simple as a salad. A smile spread across her face as she enjoyed the dish in front of her. The palace chef did indeed live up to what was expected of one in his position if he could make a meal fit for a princess out of something so simple.
Quite in contrast to the pony sitting across from her, Twilight’s dining experience was instead becoming less and less pleasurable as it progressed. With a growing frown, she slowly realized the meal was getting even less delectable the more she ate. In all honesty it was rather perplexing. She’d had this very dish on several occasions before, and she had always loved it. There wasn’t anything wrong with the ingredients, she could distinctly make out the crisp and wet crunch of the lettuce, the soft and succulent taste of tomatoes, the myriad of peppers tingled on her tongue just like they always did, and everything else about the dish seemed to be the same as it always was as well. So why did it taste so… muted? The normal taste was there, sure, but it was so bland and thin, like it was buried under a much larger and tasteless substance. In fact it was almost bitter even, and a bit grainy, sort of like what she imagined ashes would taste like. With a sigh and an even deeper scowl, she reached out and took a rather hearty swig of wine from her crystal goblet, and almost tossed it against a wall in ever deeper irritation when she realized that the flavor even the wine seemed muted and bland.
Noticing Twilight’s distress and the look of anger that flashed across her face, Luna spoke up, “Twilight? What is wrong?”
After the last several hours of increasing irritation and mounting aggressiveness, Twilight finally snapped at the slightest provocation. “Everything!” she shouted loudly enough to make the princess cringe and throwing her hooves up in the air. “Everything is wrong!” she repeated loudly, starting to rant. “The whole situation is wrong! My hoof is wrong, my memory is wrong, you insulting me is wrong, I feel wrong, and even the bucking food is wrong!” she exclaimed, pounding on the table with a hoof in emphasis at her last statement. Panting slightly after her short rant, she grasped her wine glass in the glow of her magic, brought it against her lips, and upended it in a single motion, before becoming even angrier when the wrongness of the taste hit her tongue. This time however she really did becoming angry enough to hurl it against the far wall with a wordless screech of rage, where it shattered and fell to the floor in a tinkling shower of broken crystal. Both ponies stared at the spot on the wall where the goblet shattered for several seconds in utter silence, both of them a bit surprised she had actually done that. After a few tense moments however, Twilight collapsed in an exasperated heap, burying her face against the table and loosening a shuddering sigh. “Why won’t anything just make sense anymore?” she desperately and rhetorically asked, feeling strangely empty.
Princess Luna simply stared at Twilight with a somewhat guilty and piteous expression, letting the silence that filled the room after her outburst drag on for several minutes. She wished she could ease her pain, to say that everything was fine, that it was all going to go away and to take back what she had already said, but she couldn’t. Honesty was a virtue after all. She reached out with a hoof, stopping part way and biting her lip in indecision. She wanted to reach out and give her a comforting touch, give her a shoulder to lean on quite badly, but Twilight seemed to just want be alone. Sighing, she put her hoof back down and called over one of the servants after they had finished cleaning up the remnants of the broken goblet. “Would that thou could bring us another wine glass?” she asked with a bit of a pained smile. “T’would seem that one has broken.” The servant gave her an incredulous look, but never the less trotted off to comply. Luna turned back to Twilight, who was morosely pushing her salad around inside of its bowl, occasionally lifting a singular piece and ripping it several times and placing each piece in her mouth with a subdued grimace. Luna frowned as she watched the distraught unicorn for a few minutes before the servant returned with another goblet of crystal. With soft thanks, she took the glass and dismissed the servant.
Wrapping both the goblet and still mostly full bottle of wine in the indigo glow of her magic, she filled it part way before stopping. Looking at Twilight out of the corner of her eye and waiting until she wasn’t looking, Luna quickly and subtly pulled out a small white plastic bag from beneath her wing, topped of the glass with its contents, and stowed it away again, careful not to let the acrid scent of its contents permeate the air. Giving the glass a soft shake to make sure the two liquids mixed properly, she spoke. “Twilight? Thou felt that there was something wrong with the wine, correct?” she asked, eyeing the crystal glass with a downcast expression and avoiding Twilight’s scathing glare. “Well then, wouldst thou try this glass instead then?” she asked, holding the glass out to Twilight. “Perchance this one shall please thy palette better?”
Twilight stared harshly at the offending glass for several seconds before sighing deeply and shrugging her shoulders a universal gesture of ‘why not?’. It couldn’t be any worse than the last glass. Taking the goblet in her own telekinetic field, she floated it against her lips and took a small sip.
Immediately her eyes flew open, even as Luna’s stomach fell.
It wasn’t muted or bland like everything else she had thus far, far from it in fact. It was rich and powerful, bold almost to the point of being over-powering yet not quite, overall it was actually rather spicy, not unlike aged cinnamon, more robust instead, but also slightly sweet. It was utterly delectable, the best wine she had ever tasted. She was acutely aware of every drop of the ruby liquid as it poured down her throat, filling her body with heat and energy and a sense of power, it made her anxious and filled her with the need to move. The wine was amazing, it was perfect; she needed more, and she needed it now.
She tried to upend the goblet in one mighty gulp, but Luna placed a hoof against it and lowered it away from her lips before she could take more than a few sips. “Please,” she said, “do not drink it all at once.” She wore a small smile on her face, but even a passing glance could tell it was incredibly forced. “Perhaps it would not be remiss of thee to use it to season thy meal?” she offered.
Gasping at the sudden idea, Twilight poured almost half of her glass into her bowl before diving face first into the salad. She ate ravenously, relieved that the meal was finally not only palatable but actually enjoyable. Whilst she was preoccupied with greedily devouring her salad, she did not notice as the hoof maiden Luna had sent out at the beginning of the meal returned, carrying a large book and a silver hoof mirror. Princess Luna took the two items from her with a thank you, before dismissing both her and all of the other servants and attendants in the room.
They all left, shutting the doors behind them at about the same time Twilight looked up from her bowl, having already consumed the entire salad and even licking the bowl clean. Looking to the side, she found the wine again and finished off the amazing ruby liquid in a single long drink. Carefully, she set the empty crystal goblet on the table and sighed deeply in contentment. It didn’t last long however, as she almost immediately rose to her hooves and started pacing back and forth. “Sweet Celestia, Princess, just what kind of wine was that? That was amazing!”
The princess’s smile faltered a bit, but she answered without missing a beat. “It was the same wine as earlier, We simply added something that We believed thou might enjoy,” she replied, placing the thick tome the hoof maiden fetched for her on the table.
Even as excited as she was at the moment, Twilight’s natural love of books caused her to pause mid-step as she took in the books appearance. Wrapped around the edges was all sorts of gold and silver leaf, adorned and festooned with small red crystals and rubies in a seemingly random pattern, the spine was comprised of some strange sort of metal she didn’t recognize, fastened into hinges and inscribed with symbols she had no idea the meaning to. It was closed with a latch of the same sort of strange metal, shaped into a strange clockwork and festooned with more rubies and red crystals, as well as several more of the unusual symbols. Both the front and back cover were comprised of something that looked suspiciously like red dragon scales. But perhaps the most disturbing feature of all was what looked like dragon’s eye set in the center of the front cover, amidst an inverted pentagon of gold and silver with inlaid rubies. The eye swiveled in its socket, scanning the room before its gaze fell on the face of the princess. She held eye contact with it for several seconds without blinking. The inlaid eye closed once in recognition, the clockwork mechanisms in the latch activating and the strange book popped open, revealing aged and yellowing parchment.
“Um, Princess?” Twilight inquired, indicating the incredibly unusual tome with a hoof. “Just what is that?”
“This,” Luna answered, gently stroking her hoof once along the book’s spine, “is our Monster Manual.” The perfectly serious face she wore as she spoke only served to make Twilight even angrier.
“So you’re still saying I’m some kind of monster then?” Twilight nearly shouted as she resumed pacing.
“Would thou like to know what it is We put in thy drink?” Luna asked, changing the subject suddenly and she began flipping through the massive tome.
Caught off-guard by the sudden subject change, Twilight nearly stumbled, but none the less managed to stammer, “Y-yes please.”
With a deep sigh, scowl, and grimace, Luna placed the small, liquid-filled, un-marked white bag on the table. “What is it?” Twilight asked as she reached out with her magic to flip the bag over.
She immediately screamed almost as loud as she could and leapt away as if the bag had suddenly become possessed and transformed into a mass of writhing snakes. Heart hammering rapidly, she tried desperately to deny what she just saw. Gulping, she reached out again with her magic, only to confirm that she had indeed seen what she thought she saw.
Her magic was different.
Instead of the soft lavender glow that she had used her entire life enveloping the little white bag, a harsh crimson aura wreathed around it. Scared and with wide eyes, she turned to Luna for assurance. Without meeting her gaze, the lunar princess reached out and turned the little white bag over, revealing a small label that read: {Type = A neg}. This only frightened Twilight even further and she turned to Luna again, nearly hysterical and almost begging for her to take it back, to say it wasn’t true.
Luna only stared back with deep, saturating sympathy and empathy. Looking down at her tome, she read aloud the title of the chapter she had turned to. “Sangue Trinknia: The curse of the Vampony.”
Twilight stared Luna slack jawed. “No,” she said, her tone almost begging. “No, that can’t be right. I’m not a monster. Please tell me you’re joking. There’s no such thing as monsters. Right? Right!?” she demanded, hysterically.
Luna turned away, unable to meet Twilight’s eye. Instead, she levitated the enchanted silver hand mirror over to the panicking unicorn.
Twilight looked into its reflective surface, and immediately wished she hadn’t. Her eyes, usually so warm and cheerful, were cold and sharp, the pupils thin and slit, like a cat’s or a dragon’s. Like a predators. But that wasn’t the worst of it, not by a long shot. At the front of her muzzle, extending just past her lips, were two wickedly sharp and gleaming white fangs.
For the second time since Twilight had come to the castle after the night of her great failure, its halls echoed with the blood-curdling scream of a frightened mare.