//------------------------------// // Blood and Water // Story: The Supernumeraries // by KenSES64 //------------------------------// Blood and Water *Princess Filia Solis* It was another day, just like any other. I woke up, stretched a bit, brushed my mane, then after what seemed like not long enough, left of my bedroom and headed to the kitchen to get some breakfast. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do today. Not that I ever get to do much anyway thanks to Mom. “You should be happy that you can just relax. It keeps you looking young,” she tells me. I’m a bucking alicorn! I’m going to look young for friggin ever! Sorry, got into a small rant. Seriously though, ever since that whole “dimensional battle royale” thing with Seth and that other pony Razor not that long ago, it feels like Mom’s been going out of her way… even more so than usual, to make sure nothing happens to me. Not that I can blame her or anything after an incident like that, but seriously, come on!!!... “You saw who?!” I suddenly heard my auntie Luna shout from down the hallway as I reached the kitchen, interrupting my train of thought. “I don’t know, your majesty,” a male voice, probably one of the guards, responded to her. “All I know that she was a grey mare with a black mane.” Against my better judgement, as quietly as I could, I crept past the kitchen down the hallway until they were within earshot. “Was she a Vampony?” Luna frantically asked, sounding, somewhat worried. “Did she have bat-like wings?” “I don’t remember,” the guard responded. “I only saw her for a second, but she definitely had wings. They might have been bat wings, but I can’t say for certain.” After that there was long silence. The only thing I could hear was my auntie Luna breathing heavily. After a few moments she seemed to have calmed herself. “Thank you,” she said once she had collected herself. “If you see anything else, please inform us immediately. Now if you’ll excuse us, we need to speak to our sister.” “Yes, your majesty!” The guard responded to her before I heard the clanking of metal boots as he walked away. Thankfully he went the other way and not towards me. I couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief as I heard him walk away, only for my auntie Luna to turn the corner... and run right into me. “Oh, good morning, Filia,” she said with her usual level of composure. “Dost thou know where thine mother is?” she asked me. The fact that she still spoke in that old way kind of bothered me a little bit, but I never brought it up to her. “We are afraid that we desperately need to speak with her.” “Mom had to go to…” I quickly replied as I did my best to look like I was in deep thought. My auntie and my mom weren’t the only ones who could recover quickly from an awkward situation. “I think it was Appleloosa, though it could've been Dodge Junction. I think it had something to do with a dispute between the townsponies and a changeling living there.” “Ah yes, tis a shame that there are many who have become ignorant since the war,” Auntie Luna replied like she actually cared about that right now. If I hadn’t known any better, I probably would have believed that had. She didn’t say anything for several moments after that and just looked at me with a smile on her face. I didn’t say anything to her either. I really couldn’t come up with anything else to say. “Appologies, Filia,” auntie eventually said after a few moments. “If our sister is not here, then we are afraid that there are urgent matters that we must attend to. Have a good day.” With that, she walked right past me down the hall. I… I don’t know why, but even though I knew I shouldn’t, auntie would tell me not to, as would my mother, but I just knew that something wrong, and I couldn’t let it go. “Wait!” I called out after auntie Luna before she got too far, then quickly trotted over to catch her. “Auntie Luna…” It took me a few moments to find the words I wanted to say. In the end I decided to follow Applejack’s advice and be honest. “I… I heard you talking with that guard just now. What’s going on? I heard him say something about a Vampony. Is there something going on with the Lunar Guards?” At that, auntie Luna dropped whatever composure she had and just stared at me, her eyes wider than the biggest dinner plates we had. She looked at me for a while, just staring at me, not saying anything. Eventually, after what seemed like forever, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath and said, “We…. I suppose you deserve to know. Walk with me.” At that, she turned and continued down the hall, and I followed suit. Auntie Luna was silent for a long time before she finally spoke, “Tell me, what dost thou know of Count Fang?” “Count Fang?” I said, somewhat confused. “He was a Vampony who tried to turn my Mom into a Vampony to take over Equestria, but my father caught him and killed him. Its the story of how my parents fell in love. I know I asked Dad to tell me that story enough times as a filly.” Auntie Luna smiled and giggled a little bit at that, but she didn’t look at me. The whole way she seemed to find the floor in front of her hooves more interesting than me. “Yes, well… There…. There is one part of the tale that your father left out,” Aunt Luna explained. “What!?” “You see,” Auntie began. “In order to get closer to your mother. Count Fang seduced a young maiden here in the palace. After he was defeated, it was discovered that the maiden was pregnant with his child, and eventually, she had a little filly, which she named Victoria, a name not so common anymore. Not long after the filly was born, a group of vamponies still loyal to Count Fang came and took the infant Victoria from her crib. As she grew, the vamponies influence over her drove her to hate equestria for taking her father away.” The entire time, as she spoke, auntie never once looked at me. “The maiden that was her mother was, of course, heartbroken, and despite her significant magical abilities, as well as the magical abilities of the princess, she was unable to locate her daughter. In all that time she never found her. She was never able to tell her how much she loved her. How much she truly cared for her despite her vampony heritage. 16 years later, you were just a filly at the time, Victoria came back to Equestria seeking revenge on your father.” She paused for a long moment at that. “She never got her revenge, and your mother and I used the Elements of Harmony on her. As a result she was turned into a bat. Afterwards, she… she flew away was never seen or heard from again.” She stopped at that and looked towards the ground, her tale apparently finished. “But…” I said. I knew that couldn’t be all of it. There wouldn’t be a reason to talk about this now if there wasn’t. Auntie was silent for several moments before she spoke again. Again, she never looked at me. It was like she... “Last night... Last night one of the lunar guard reported a mysterious, grey mare resembling a vampony sneaking around the castle.” Okay, that… that was some serious “what the buck” right there. Count Fang had a daughter, a daughter who tried to kill my father (though given he killed her father I couldn’t exactly blame her for hating him), and now one of the lunar guards said he saw her… here… now… No, no that couldn’t have been possible. Even if she was a vampony, there was no way that she could still be alive. After all, that was… how long ago? I’ll admit in a heartbeat that I’m not an expert, but I’m pretty certain that even vamponies don’t live that long. I would have gone on, but the sound of my stomach growling broke my train of thought, as well as auntie Luna’s attention from the ceiling towards me as we both stopped walking. For some reason I felt slightly embarrassed. After a few more moments of silence, I just started laughing innocently to myself. What I was embarrassed? At that, auntie Luna just looked at me for a few moments, then brought a hoof up to her mouth. She then started giggling to herself as well, and after a second she wasn’t able to hold it back either. We both just stood there laughing for a few moments before I left her to her business and headed back to the kitchen to get some breakfast. -Later that night- After my talk with auntie Luna I spent most of my free time looking into some family history, though more specifically, about my father and Count Fang. Hey, just cause somepony can live to be a thousand years doesn’t mean they’re gonna remember all of it. Surprisingly, the story that auntie told me was, for all intents and purposes, true, and Count Fang did have a daughter named Victoria. Why nopony *cough* mom *cough* ever thought to bring this up with me when talking about my father was beyond me, though to be fair, I guess I never did ask. After all, it wasn’t necessarily part of the story of how my parents met. The odd part though, was that while all the texts I found said that Count Fang did have a daughter with a young maiden from the palace, nearly all of them neglected to mention just who said young maiden was, or how Count Fang successfully manage to seduce her in the first place. Poor mare. Falling in love with a monster like Count Fang only to find out that she was being used in order to get to my mom. That would have broken anypony’s heart, even mine. For some reason, that made me think of Seth and Rainbow Dash in that other universe, and how lucky she was to have him. The stallion practically worships her and the ground she walks on. He’d never, ever betray her, no matter what… And now thinking of them like that just made me start to feel a little jealous. Mom knows I haven’t had a coltfriend like that since…. well… ever…… OVER A THOUSAND FRIGGIN YEARS AND I STILL CAN’T FIND ONE DAMN COLTFRIEND!!! Personally, I blame my mom, though not too much….. somewhat….. okay a lot but give me a friggin break. One. Thousand. Friggin. Years……… Mother of mom I’m becoming just like Twilight Sparkle aren’t I? And now I’m all depressed…. … … … … CURSE YOU FRIENDS AND YOUR ABILITY TO HAVE INCREDIBLY SUCCESSFUL RELATIONSHIPS!!!!!!!!!!! WHY!? WHY!?!? WHY!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? “Hahahahahahahahahahhaaaaaaaaa…………..” the sound of somepony laughing broke me from my train of thought. It wasn’t a voice I recognized. “Who's there!?” I asked as I stopped walking, slightly creeped out. What, it was late at night, not all the lights were on, and to top it off, it was a bit cloudy outside. It was a bit creepy. That aside, there was no response. My first instinct was that it was Pinkie Pie play some kind of prank, as she was want to do, but I knew that couldn’t be true. Pinkie Pie was back in Ponyville with Twilight and the other element holders, probably throwing another party of some kind, and I knew 100% that there was nopony else in the palace who would do that sort of thing. Canterlot nobles were too stuck up like that. Even my mother and auntie, as much as they liked the joke around sometimes, wouldn’t play pranks like this, especially on me. “Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaa……” the laughter rang out again. Instinctively, I started looking around. I was in one of the palace hallways, so it wasn’t like there was anywhere to hide here. Yeah, there were doors lining both sides of the hallway, but they were all closed, and as far as I knew, locked, and even if somepony was hiding behind one of them, I wouldn’t have been able to hear their laughter that well, unless they were speaking to me telepathically, but since those kinds of spells are illegal, I doubted that. “Hahahahaha……” the laughter rang out again. The moment it hit my ears I quickly spun around, expecting somepony to sneak up on me and saw…. nothing. Nopony was behind me, just the empty hallway. I wasn’t about to be fooled that easily though, and kept my eyes forward and my ears sharp. If something was gonna happen, it wasn’t going to get past me. After just over a full minute of silence… nothing still happened. At that, I relaxed and let out a breath I didn’t even realize I had been holding in. Maybe I was just hearing things, or if somepony was playing some kind of prank on me, then I should probably just ignore it. I wasn’t in the mood for games anyway. So I turned back around, only to come face to face with a pair of yellow eyes. “Boo,” the pony in front of me said. The next thing I knew, something knocked me backwards with enough force to send me flying. I didn’t even see what happened. One moment I was standing still, and the next, something hit me and I was flying backwards. I flew straight backwards all the way down the hallway straight into the window overlooking the palace gardens at the very end. Thinking quickly, I unfurled my wings and with several strong flaps backwards, I stopped myself from crashing through the window just as I was about to hit it, only to look up above me and see a grey mare with a long, straight (if I a bit frazzled), black mane and tail holding a large battle axe above her head. Time practically slowed to a crawl for me as all I could focus on was the massive, purple, almost bat like, blade of the axe that she carried. How she was even able to lift it above her head without the aid of magic, much less fly with it, was some kind of miracle, the thing was massive. Its blade was larger than her head. As I watched it fall towards me, all manner of thoughts raced through my brain, but only one gave me the action that I needed. Quickly, I teleported away from her as her axe swung past where I was and embedded itself into the ground, shattering the marble floor upon impact. I then reappeared behind and slightly above her and magically spawned my own weapon, a claymore, and swung down on her just like she did me. Before I could even hit her however, with a single flap of her wings, she lifted herself off of the ground and moved to the right, pulling her massive axe out of the floor with her as she turned to face me. Time slowed to a crawl again for me as I watched her move, and thats when I noticed her wings, they weren’t normal, they were bat wings. I also saw her cutie mark, which looked exactly like the battle axe she was carrying. I kept my eyes on her, and after a moment, she had spun around enough so that I saw her face. The first thing I saw were her eyes, they were yellow, and her pupils were long and thin, like those of the lunar guard. The next thing I saw was her smile, her toothy smile. So toothy that she had two long, pronounced fangs in place of canines. If nothing else, that proved it. She was a vampony. Finally, the third thing I saw, was her face as whole. Her expression, she was… giddy… kind of like Pinkie Pie, only evil. Time immediately sped back up again the moment her hooves touched the floor, and she rushed at me with her battle axe already in mid swing. She was fast. Despite the massive battle axe that she was carrying, she was on me faster than I could react and swung her axe horizontally at me. As my own hooves touched the floor I leaned my head back as far as I could go, but I only barely managed to avoid it. I could practically feel it’s edge touching my neck. Less than a second after I was clear of that, I backed up, but she spun her battle axe around her neck and swung at me again. Quickly, I swung my sword and deflected her attack. She staggered for a moment at that, and I quickly swung upwards at her. However, right as my blade reached her, she quickly spun around to the left, seemingly around my sword and swung her battle axe down at me again. Mirroring her action, I stepped to the side and swung my sword again, only for her to block my attack with the staff portion of her axe and push my blade away. The two of us clashed blades several more times as she swung once more at me. Again I deflected her attacks, and she blocked mine. She wasn’t only fast, but she was tough. She really knew how to handle herself in a fight, something I’d rarely seen in other ponies. After a we clashed blades a few more times, we both swung at each other and locked blades. “Impressive,” she said to me with a smug grin. “I honestly didn’t expect you to have any fighting skills.” “Who are you?” I asked her. “Oh…” she replied as she pushed her face closer to mine. “I think you know.” Then, suddenly, she headbutted me, then punched me right in the stomach with one of her forehooves and knocked me back several feet. So that’s what hit me earlier. It took me a second to recover, but the moment I did I unfurled my wings again and dug my rear hooves into the ground to keep myself from flying back any farther. As I did, I summoned about two dozen icicles and threw them directly at her. Right as they reached them however, I saw her smile get even wider somehow. Then, with a quick flick of her hoof, she spun her giant axe around and deflected nearly all of them. Every single icicle I threw at her shattered upon impact as she spun her axe around again and again. I was… somewhat surprised to say the least to see her do that. Other than my father and a few top ranking members of the royal guard, I’ve never seen anypony block that many projectiles like that in one go, much less somepony with a giant battleaxe like her. As surprised as I was though, I didn’t let it get to me as I summoned two dozen more and threw them all at her again. Again, with another flick of her hooves, she blocked most of them. She wasn’t going to get me that easily though, as this time, six of the icicles I threw purposefully missed her, as one embedded itself into the ground just behind her, one into the wall just to her left, one in the wall to her right, just in between the windows, two more on the floor, and one just between her hooves. As I saw that happen, I quickly summoned a few more and threw them at her, which I knew she’d block. She just laughed to herself as she saw them coming, but I couldn’t help but smirk a bit myself as the walls and floor slowly began to freeze as ice slowly began to spread out from all of the icicle that missed her. In a few seconds she’d be frozen, and I could finish her off right there. As if she detected the sudden change in temperature, she looked down at the floor beneath her hooves, then back up at the icicles still coming towards her, and her eyes went wide. That was it, she was done. “S***!” She shouted as she unfurled her bat like wings and took off. Her hooves hadn’t yet frozen enough to keep her still, and she was able to lift herself off of the ground with little effort. While she was airborne, she, much to my amazement, quickly spun herself around and spun her axe around her in mid air as she either dodged or deflected all of the remaining icicles. As I saw this, I quickly swung my sword at her and created a powerful wind blade that spanned the whole corridor. Right as it reached her however, with the grace of some kind of airborne dancer, she flipped herself right over it. Then, her eyes locked on me as the expression on her face suddenly changed, she wasn’t having fun anymore. She suddenly screamed as she lifted her giant axe above her head, and threw it right right at me. “Well buck me,” I said to myself as I watched the axe fly towards me faster than any of the icicles I shot at her. Just before it hit me, with a little help from my wings I held up my sword and jumped backwards. The axe however, cut right through my sword like it was paper and embedded itself into the floor right where I stood. It cut through my sword… that was close.... I then looked back up at the bat pony to see her rushing me. Thinking quickly, I grabbed her axe with my magic and tried to lift it up and swing it at her. However, even with my magic, her axe was damn heavy. I couldn’t even make it budge an inch. As I kept trying to move the axe, I looked back up at her to see her right in front of me. I could practically see myself in her eyes. Before I could even react, she punched me right in the face and knocked my several feet backwards onto my back. Without even landing, she grabbed her axe with both her forehooves, flipped herself over, and took the axe from the floor like it didn’t weigh any more than a pebble. Seriously, how was she even able to lift that thing? I landed on my back and skidded down the corridor for a few feet before I finally stopped. When I looked back up, the only thing I could see was the batpony right above me, her axe held high above her head. She screamed at the top of her lungs as she brought the axe down on me. Instinctively, I put up a magical shield, but before she could even hit me, another magical shield suddenly formed itself around mine. This one indigo in color. The batpony’s axe hit the barrier, but couldn’t budge through it. After a second, she stopped trying and landed on the ground a few feet away from me. “That’s enough Victoria!” I heard a familiar voice shout, and both of us looked down the corridor adjacent from us to see auntie Luna standing there, her horn glowing as she kept the the barrier over me going. At the sight of her, the batpony just smiled again. I…. I couldn’t believe what I just heard. This….. this batpony that was trying to kill me… was Victoria? It made no sense. “Oh,” she said as she spun her giant axe around and held it at her side. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it Luna?” “Victoria…” Luna replied as she slowly walked towards her, but kept her horn glowing. The look on her face was… something I couldn’t place. It was almost as if she was sad. “Why?... Why are you here?” “Why!?” Victoria shouted at her angrily. The smile on her face gone. “Revenge! I just want revenge! Claymore killed my father, but he’s gone, I’m just settling for the next best thing! It’s only fair! Her life for my father’s!” “Victoria…” Luna said again as she kept moving closer to her. “This… This is…” “Wrong!?” Victoria finished her sentence. “Sure, sure it’s wrong, and I suppose killing my father wasn’t!?” “Victoria…” Luna said again, she was almost within reach of her. “Your father-” “Stay away from me!” She shouted as she held out her axe. “Just stay away…” The look on auntie Luna’s face… it was almost as if every word she said hurt her. “Your….” she tried to speak, but found it very difficult. “Your father was-” “Was what!?” Victoria interrupted her. “A monster!? It’s okay, just say. I’ve gotten used to hearing it after all these years. It doesn’t do anything for me anymore.” “I….” Luna tried to speak, but Victoria cut her off again. “Am I a monster too?” she then asked. She was biting grinding her teeth so hard she was practically drawing blood. “Is that why you abandoned me? Is that why-” “I looked for you!!!” Luna shouted as loud as she could, any louder, and it would have been the royal Canterlot voice. “I spent over a century scowering Equestria, the world, I turned over every rock, looked in every cave I could find, I even went to Tartarus. I-” “LIAR!!!” Victoria shouted before Luna could say anymore. “You never looked for me, and even if you did you certainly didn’t look hard enough! The vamponies told me everything. You probably knew where I was the whole time, but you never looked there did you!? You never even bothered to look in the vampony nest because you were so ashamed of what I was that you would have rather let them have me than admit to all of Equestria that your daughter was a monster just like her father!!!” At that, I saw it, Luna broke. She broke right there as a tear rolled down her face, followed by a second, and then a third. It… it was impossible… What Victoria said… If it were true, then the maiden that Count Fang seduced all those years ago was… “Vic-” Luna tried to speak between her tears. “SHUT UP!!!” Victoria shouted as she rushed at Luna and punched her square in the face and knocked her to the ground. Luna didn’t even fight back, she just fell, fell like the tears falling from her face. As she fell, her horn stopped glowing, and the magical barrier than was over me faded. Luna didn’t even try to get up, but before she could even move, Victoria put a hoof on her chest and held her to the ground, her axe already raised above her head. “JUST SHUT UP AND DIE!!!” Before she could do anything else, I quickly jumped back up to my hooves, summoned a single icicle, and threw it at her. The icicle hit Victoria right in her right hoof and embedded itself in her wrist so far that it was coming out the other side. Victoria screamed in pain as she dropped her axe and turned back to look towards me, but I was already on her. As fast as I could, flew at her, covered my right hoof with ice for good measure, and punched her square in the face just like she did auntie Luna. The force of the blow shattered the ice around my hoof and knocked Victoria off of Luna. She flew a few feet before she hit the ground and rolled for a little bit before stopping. She tried to stand, but the icicle in her hoof made it difficult for her. “You… You little bitch!” She shouted at me as she got back to her hooves, baring her teeth. “I’LL KILL YOU! I’LL KILL YOU!! I’LL KILL YOU!!!!” Then, at that, she spread her wings and flew right at me. As I saw her coming at me and auntie Luna, I thought back to all the research I did. Who Victoria was, the story of her and my father, Count Fang, everything, and I remembered one thing. There was one thing, my father didn’t think to use it, but there was one thing that vamponies hated. Instinctively, I charged my horn with as much magic as I could as a bright flash of light as bright as the sun came from my horn and filled the entire hallway. I didn’t see it, but I heard Victoria scream in pain as I knew the light hit her eyes. I kept the light going as long as I could, but it was a lot to work with, holding up a light as bright as the sun wasn’t as easy as one would think. Then, suddenly, I heard the sound of glass shattering, and I stopped. As the light died, I took a moment to catch my breath and look around the corridor. Neither Victoria, nor her giant axe were anywhere to be seen. Down the hall, at the very end leading into the adjacent corridor, I noticed that the window was shattered, as if somepony had jumped through it. Despite that every instinct I had told me to run after her, to catch her, to make her answer for what she tried to do, something else took hold, and I ran back to Auntie Luna. “Auntie Luna!” I said to her as I rushed over to her, but she didn’t respond. “Auntie Luna!” I shouted again, shaking her a little, still nothing. “Auntie Luna!!!” She wouldn’t respond, she wasn’t even twitching. She was out cold. “Guards!” I instinctively shouted. “Guards! Somepony! Anypony!!!” As I kept shouting, the realize of the situation slowly dawned over me. All that happened… Victoria… Luna, I… I couldn’t believe all of it, somepony… one of them was lying, but more importantly, regardless of who was telling the truth and who wasn’t, somepony was out there, somepony that wanted me dead, and was mere seconds away from achieving that goal, and to be completely honest, it scared me. I’m… I’m scared…. Mother help me.