Part 12: ...Leads to Hell
Relatively speaking, Ponyville is not that far away from Canterlot. There are many scenic roads and routes where a resident can even see the grand white castle shimmering on the mountainside. What makes transportation difficult between the two is the mountain range Canterlot is founded upon. It can take several hours of difficult hiking to reach the city there. Long enough that nobody would blame you for using the train, or rent a flying chariot, if they can’t fly there themselves.
So, it was especially important that Ponyville be kept under constant supervision by only the best of what Canterlot has to offer…
“Good grief, can this place get any creepier?” said Donut, a pink armored pegasus guard, holding a flashlight tight against himself with his wings. The shadows stretched longer away from the bright source of light. Above him, the skies were free to shine with Luna’s waning moon and vast display of twinkling stars.
“Well for one, there could actually be vampires around here.” said Cinnamon, a maroon-colored unicorn guard, as he shined his own light on a cardboard standup of a vampire caricature. “Though personally, the leftover decor of Nightmare Night make this place seem a bit cheesy.”
“There’s nothing cheesy about these monstrous chupacabras.” said Sarge, a deep red earth pony, with stripes on his armor showing his rank as a sergeant. “They rip ponies’ throats out like they were made of jello! Even though Celestia chased the whole lot of them out two nights ago, they could still be out here, hiding in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike! That’s why we need to be constantly vigilant for ANY sign of them!”
As if on cue, there was a purple flash of light inside one of the buildings, with the signature crackle and pop of a teleport spell.
“You mean for stuff like that?”
“Quiet!” hissed the sergeant, as his radio whined to life.
“Areveebee, this is home base, do you read? Over.” the radio blared.
“10-4, I read you home base, this is Sarge, go ahead.” said Sarge.
“Sarge, we’ve detected a teleport near your patrol. Can you confirm? Over.”
“Home base, we had brief visual contact of the teleport. Standby for further confirmation.” said Sarge, turning back towards his troops. “We don’t know if they know we’re here. Donut, go and open the door.”
Donut Frank (not to be confused with his mother’s father’s roommate’s old poker buddy’s nephew’s second-cousin’s son, Donut Joe,) slowly opened the door, which creaked loudly for everyone to hear. “Uh, hello? Anyone in here?” He called out as he waved a light into the dark room.
“What did I just say, private?!” the sergeant shouted out loud, “What do you think the chupacabra’s gonna do, say hello back?!”
“Don’t hurt me! It’s me, Twilight Sparkle!” Twilight cried out, and crept forward, trying to protect her squinting eyes from the bright rays of light as it flooded the room. Her eyes were blood-red with black veins reaching towards her purple irises. The light also revealed her bruises, and some cuts scabbed over with her black blood, and small burns all over her body. Her mane and tail was an utter mess, with her trademark light purple and pink highlights knotted against each other and her base dark purple hairs. “Oh thank goodness you guys are here, I need to get out of here, before they find me again! Hurry!”
“Wait, Twilight Sparkle?! What are you doing here?” Donut asked.
“To make a long story short, Bleeding Heart ‘rescued’ me, tried to convince me that I should join with him and destroy Equestria to make way for a new world, blah blah blah, I told him that he was crazy, he got angry, we fought, I lost, he tortured me, and then I escaped.”
“That sounds believable to me.” Sarge replied, “BUT, how do we know that you’re not a chupacabra imposter with a believable story huh?”
“Well, my favorite Daring Do book is- OW!” Twilight said, when Donut slapped her horn.
Nothing happened.
“...Or you could do that, I guess that works too.”
“It’s her, sir!” Donut called back.
“Home base, this is Sarge, do you copy? Over.” said Sarge into his radio.
“10-4 Sarge, this is home base. Over.”
“Home base, we have made contact, we found wolf with dentures. It’s the Tulip Special. Over.”
“Sarge, did you say you found the Tulip Special? Over.”
“Affirmative Home base, bringing her in for further confirmation. Sarge, out.” Sarge switched off the radio.
“‘the Tulip Special?’ Really?” Twilight said flatly. “So all the callouts are foodstuffs now? So was that supposed to be intentional because of those two,-” Twilight motioned towards Cinnamon and Donut, “-or just happy coincidence?”
“Yes!” said Sarge, “Anyway, even if you weren’t being chased by that Bloody Teat guy, Celestia would still want you back ASAP.”
“You mean Bleeding Heart.” Twilight corrected him.
“Right, right. We don’t have any of them flying chariots here right now, those are being used for inter-outpost patrols, so we’re gonna have to take the train.”
“Well anything is better than hiking up there.” Twilight replied.
When they arrived at the train station, Twilight’s nose scrunched up when she smelled a specific smell. “Is that garlic?” Twilight coughed.
“You can smell it from here, huh?” said Cinnamon, “There’s dozens of poles with garlic hanging off of them, all along the train tracks and surrounding Canterlot, and all the outposts surrounding the Everfree Forest. That way the vampires will be discouraged from attacking or getting around us, and if they do try to attack one of the patrols in between outposts, our guys will have something to tip the odds in their favor.”
“Interesting, so what if they’re flying? I’m pretty sure Bleeding has some Pegasi converted.” Twilight asked.
“Well, if you look over there, you can see all the search lights we have. We also have set up separate teams of pegasi to patrol the skies as well.” Donut pointed out.
“And unicorns?” Twilight asked again, “After all, Bleeding has learned a thing or two over the centuries. It’d be terrible if he completely bypassed everything when everyone put all this effort into everything.”
“Way ahead of you there, Twilight.” said Cinnamon, “You see that house over there? Well that house has unicorns that specialize in finding and tracking magic signatures. They knew you were here before we did! They’re also at the ready with flare spells incase we do find some hostile vampires.”
“In only one building? Seems vulnerable.” Twilight mused, smiling oddly.
“Well, we don’t have that many unicorns that specialize in those fields, so it’s safer for the unicorns to be grouped together rather than having them patrol with us incase a group of vampires tried to pick off patrol squads. Everyone else in there handles communications, both to the patrols and to other bases.” Donut explained.
“Alright, that’s enough you two,” said Sarge, “you can give Twilight the tour when we’re not in danger of a chupacabra attack.”
However, they started to hear faint screams above them. Up in the clear sky, there was cloud of figures flying and batting at each other. Several other guards aimed the search lights towards the sky where the fight was taking place.
“Vampires!” Twilight cried out, “They’re after me!!!”
“Earth ponies, come with me to get Twilight inside the train! Pegasi, engage the vampires! Unicorns, get those flares up, and give them suppressive fire!” ordered Sarge.
“Don’t worry Twilight Sparkle, you’re safe with us, we’ll protect you.” said one of the guards as the train started to bellow steam in preparation.
Twilight gave them an oddly bemused smirk, horn glowing as she said, “Really now? You’ll protect me?” A thunderous rumble, followed by several more screams were heard, alarmingly close now.
“What the...?! What’s going on, are we surrounded?!” Sarge barked.
“Sir, most of the unicorns have been incapacitated! The building collapsed and buried them right as they were about to send up the flares!” a guard said, as he pointed towards the scene.
Some guards tried to help unbury the unicorns, but a search light then swiveled around and shone in the guards’ faces, blinding them en mass.
“What the devil, they’re all over us, how could the chupacabras know where to strike?!” shouted Sarge as he fumbled around blind for a few precious seconds.
Twilight gave a mischievous giggle. “It helps that you give one of them the tour.’” Twilight said, smiling wide, eyes glowing red.
Much later, deep inside the keep of Canterlot Castle, the princesses, along with several high-ranking members of the Royal Guards and the Wonderbolts, and the Bearers of Harmony were all gathered around a large table covered mostly by a large detailed map of Equestria. Scattered across the map were various tokens, marking the various things such as the hastily assembled outposts or the like. The bathroom curtain (which was covered with cartoonish, smiling suns) hanging in between Celestia and Rainbow Dash did not lighten the mood.
“...We have received word that we have secured outposts around the other side of Everfree Forest, and thankfully found no evidence of any movement there. Reinforcements from all over Equestria will be here the next day.” Shining said, pointing at various places around Everfree Forest that were marked with some figurines. “While we do not have a solid figure on the size of Bleeding Heart’s army, we can safely assume that Bleeding himself is within the area, due to what Princess Celestia has told us about the vampires’ behavior in Ponyville.” Shining Armor said, making a circle around Everfree Forest.
“He can’t be too far behind his army. He needs to be somewhere nearby in order to control any members that he drafted against their will.” Luna added. “Since we don’t know how many had joined him willingly and without mental compulsion, there may yet be some vampires hiding elsewhere. However, there is a soft limit on how large his actual army is, lest they would have been discovered before now. While we have no reports of any sort of attack elsewhere like we’ve seen in Ponyville, we have all of Equestria in a state of emergency. All guards are to report any signs of vampires in the area immediately. However, Bleeding may realize his situation, and may attempt an escape. While any vampire managing an escape out into Equestria would be disastrous, Bleeding is the most liable to try to kill and convert as many as he can.”
“As an note to all of this, the Everfree Forest area is the only area so far that has any report of vampire activity at all.” said Spitfire, “This Bleeding Heart guy seems to be putting all his eggs in one basket. Either this guy isn’t very likeable at all, or he’s waiting for us to focus on where he is before he has his little pawns break everything when our backs’ turned.”
“I’d wager on the former.” said Celestia. “If he has a very limited number of free-thinking vampires, and greater number of mind-controlled slaves, a concentrated attack on a single town or city would be more effective than scattering them across Equestria. Even if said army is more of a mob. This was a concentrated attack on Ponyville specifically, but I still can’t figure out to what purpose. What are the details on the reports about the Everfree Forest?”
“Only one or two vampires moving out at a time, scouts we presume, since they did not seem to be focused on escaping the perimeter, all nearby Ponyville. They left as soon as they realized they were discovered too. As a precaution, we’ve sent word for more reinforcements to that outpost. They should arrive at dawn.” Shining replied.
“Anywhere else?”
“No other reports of movement, no.”
“Really? Just why is he so dead set on Ponyville? What can he gain from there…? Anyway, as for you six,” Celestia addressed the remaining Bearers of Harmony, plus Spike, “I want every one of you to pack your things, you’re leaving Canterlot as soon as possible. I have a train arranged for later this evening to take you all to temporarily live in Manehatten-”
“Wait, we’re leaving already? But we practically just got here.” Applejack questioned.
“Indeed,” Rarity nodded, “in fact, I haven’t unpacked most of my bags.”
“Good! Less work for you to pack them again.” Celestia replied, “I’m doing this because I want all of you as far away from Bleeding Heart and his army as you can. I don’t want to risk losing any more of you.”
“But what about me?” Rainbow Dash asked, “I’m immune to those punks now that I’m a vampire too. I can beat them easily! And if Twilight’s out there I could-”
“Especially not you. I’m going to be on the front, you would only be blinded and harmed unintentionally by me. Even if that wasn’t an issue, I also don’t want you switching sides because of your bloodlust. That reminds me, you’ll be housed separate from everyone else, and under supervision.”
“Hey, I can keep it under control.”
“Twilight certainly believed that as well.” Luna mused. Celestia shot a dirty glare at her. “Oh don’t you of all ponies give me that look, sister, I don’t recall you being optimistic with Twilight when you learned she was cursed. Given Rainbow’s prior behaviors I’d say she’s even more of a risk.”
Rainbow Dash opened up her mouth to say something in response, but finding nothing, she just flopped back into her chair with a pout.
“Wait a minute, you’re intending to fight all of them by yourself?” Applejack asked Princess Celestia.
“Well no, I’m not planning on going out there by myself, I’ll have the Wonderbolts and some of the Royal Guards with me, but yes I do plan on fighting if it should come to that.” said Celestia.
“But your Highness!” said Rarity, “If we are too valuable to risk losing to these monsters, shouldn’t that go for you as well?”
“She’s also our best defense against them we have,” Luna replied, “just her very appearance weakens them, and even with their enhanced abilities, it is not enough for them to go head-to-head with an alicorn.”
“Yeah, that part always kinda bugged me about these vampires; their greatest weakness is Princess Celestia, and yet you made them to fight her.” Applejack wondered out loud.
“And garlic;” Pinkie Pie added, “seriously, that just seems random.”
“No, I didn’t make vampires to fight Celestia, I made them to fight mortals like you.” Luna corrected, “Secondly, the the weakness to sunlight was intentional, because I wanted them to be drawn towards my night. Thirdly, I wanted the ‘pleasure’ of killing Celestia by myself. Besides, it’s not like they burst into flames in the sunlight or in her presence, that would be completely stupid. Though the garlic thing is just because I… have a deep seething hatred of them.”
“I thought you loved my garlic bread!” Princess Celestia said, heartbroken.
“Your Highnesses, urgent news!” a guard interrupted as he burst through the door, “The Ponyville outpost there had found Twilight Sparkle, but a group of vampires were spotted too! They’re being attacked right now!”
“Twilight?! Is she alright? What is she doing?”
“From the flares, it seems that she’s fleeing from the vampires right now. She’s en route via train, she will be here in less than an hour.” the guard replied.
“Oh thank goodness…” Celestia sighed, before continuing, “Has Bleeding been spotted among the vampires?”
“We do not know, but since they haven't responded to radio, and they're resorting to flares, their communications center must be compromised. They need immediate assistance.”
“And they shall receive it! Twilight is still in danger on that train while Ponyville is being attacked. Like what Luna has said before, Bleeding can’t be far off from his army. We cannot let the vampires escape into the rest of Equestria, it would be a massacre before the end of the week.” said Celestia, her wings flaring open. “Spitfire, Soarin, you two get the strike team, we leave the city in one minute. Shining Armor, I want you to gather the remaining guards to stay here and remain alert, watch the skies for any vampires that may try to fly past this city. Once Twilight arrives, I want all the Bearers in the safe room, with a full squad of guards to be guarding and escorting Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash at all times.” Celestia ordered. Spitfire and Soarin left the room quickly without a word.
“Do you think this could be a trap?” Shining asked.
“It could be several things. For example, it might only be a distraction and he’s sending me on a wild goose chase. Or this may actually be a concentrated effort to capture Twilight and escape out of the perimeter in one go. Either way, I can’t ignore it. But, if you encounter Bleeding, or any other vampires in Canterlot, send up a flare immediately, and cast the shield to protect it from other vampires that may try to enter.” said Princess Celestia, as she opened a window with her magic. She leaped out of it, and flew off into the night.
“You know, even though we’re supposed to be in the safe rooms and all that, could you pleeeeeeeeeeeeease let us go to the train station to see Twilight?” asked Pinkie Pie.
“No.” Shining flatly responded.
“Oh come on now, Shining, be a dear for us. Those safe rooms are dreadfully stuffy, why some of us might faint if we don’t get our fresh air.” said Rarity.
“Really? I thought they were actually pretty well vental- MMMFHP!!!” Spike spoke up before Rarity swiftly shushed him with a seat cushion.
“Alright, I’ll do this in the most polite, professional, and gentlecolt manner I can muster;” Shining said, before taking a deep breath and replying with, “I’m sorry my dearest, but no.”
“Shining, humor them just once, they’re simply worried sick about your sister, and I’m sure you are too.” said Luna.
“You of all ponies are agreeing to this?!” said Shining, staring in disbelief at Luna. Seeing that she was completely serious, he sighed and continued in a defeated tone, “Fine, they can go see Twilight-”
“Woo hoo!” shouted Rainbow Dash as she flew off, “Last one there’s a rotten egg!”
“Hold on there, Dash, this ain’t a proper race until somebody says go!” Applejack chased her, with the rest of the bearers following suit.
“-If you had an escort, and let me finish talking before you run out!” Shining shouted after them.
The Bearers of Harmony rushed out of the castle, making a beeline for the train station. “This really convenient, Twilight turning up when she did. At least now we don’t have to do plan ‘sneak out in the middle of the night and go and save Twilight’! Though now I don’t know what to do with all the Sleepy-bye Pies I made...” said Pinkie Pie.
“Really, that’s what we were calling it? Shoot, I thought it was plan ‘get ourselves killed in the most horrible and stupid way possible.’” said Applejack.
“Hey, just because you and Rarity disagree with the plan doesn’t make it stupid.” said Rainbow Dash.
“Well no, of course not, but what makes it stupid is drugging the guards, and make it so that the Princesses have no clue where we are or where we’re going.”
“Isn’t that the entire plan?” Fluttershy pointed out.
“Yea- No, no it is not, she deliberately left out the part where we find Twilight and we become friends again and then we kick what's-his-face’s...uh, face in.” said Rainbow Dash.
“And that assumes that Twilight wants to be friends with us again. The poor dear is probably scared to death of Celestia now, and/or has lots of guilt over what happened in Ponyville.” said Rarity.
“Well obviously she kinda resolved that, judging that she’s coming here on her own.” said Pinkie Pie.
“Hence the plan is now completely and utterly moot!”
“Exactly!... Oh wow, yeah now I’m starting to see why you two thought it was a dumb plan.”
Any further discussion on this plan was interrupted by the loud blow of the train whistle. “The train is here!” Pinkie exclaimed, when she suddenly jibblied and wibblied. “Huh, I’ve felt that feel exactly once before! I still have no idea what it means!”
“Oh I hope Twilight is alright…” said Fluttershy.
“I had thought that guard said it was gonna take less than an hour to get here, but it took us what, five to ten minutes to get all the way here from the castle?” said Applejack.
“Five minutes is less than an hour, what’s your problem?” said Rainbow Dash.
The train screeched up to the station. With a hiss of steam, it stopped at the platform they were waiting. The door opened up to reveal the prodigal Twilight Sparkle...
...at whom Rarity screamed. “What in the name of fashion happened to you? You look absolutely appalling!”
Twilight looked down at her body, seeing it covered in cuts and bruises, and her normally well-brushed mane and tail was an utter mess. “Well, that what happens when you run away from everyone.” Twilight said dryly.
“Do we need to get you anything? Maybe a bath, or a maybe something that you can eat?”
“I’m fine now that I’m with you girls.” Twilight replied.
“It’s so good to see you again, Twilight,” said Fluttershy, “we were all so worried about you, especially when Rainbow Dash told us about what happened in the forest.”
“Speaking of what happened in the forest, I thought your goose was cooked back there!” Twilight addressed towards Rainbow Dash.
“Well, it wasn’t the first time I caught on fire while I was flying.” Rainbow Dash replied, chuckling a little. “Though, I think you saved me back there… I’m… really sorry about me being a jerk to you for turning me into a vampire in the first place.”
“Hey, no need to apologize for that, Rainbow.” said Twilight. “What happened is wholly my fault. I... guess I was too worried about what Celestia would do… I still am actually.”
“Whoa, Twilight, Celestia isn’t going to kill you, you know that!” Rainbow Dash stated.
“She was more concerned about your safety. She’ll be glad to know that you’re alright.” Fluttershy spoke up.
“Hey, mind explaining to us about how you escaped from there anyway?” Applejack asked.
“After Bleeding Heart tricked me, he beat me up and started taunting, saying how he’s going to bring about a new era, put an end to the Princesses, no pony was going to stop him, blah blah, yadda yadda, etc. But he was too busy gloating and stroking his own ego about his plans to notice me preparing a teleport spell.”
“Wait, you mean you escaped while he was monologuing?!” Pinkie Pie said gleefully, “That is hilarious!”
“We’re glad that you’re safe from him at the moment.” said Rarity. “Princess Celestia has already told us about the arrangements for us to move out of here for the time being. You don’t need anything packed, do you? In the rush to get ourselves out of Ponyville, we couldn’t get much of anything out of your place.”
“No, I’ll do fine with a few books though.”
“A few books, Twilight?” Spike snarked.
“A dozen is a few!” Twilight defended herself.
“Glad to see that hasn’t changed.” Applejack laughed.
“We better get going then,” Fluttershy spoke up, “Princess Celestia wants us to be leaving Canterlot as soon as possible. She’s already arranged for us to leave later today. Maybe Luna can check to see if there’s still some room for you.”
“Twily! It’s so great to see you again…” Shining said, finally catching up to the group with a group of guards. However, the energy of finally seeing his sister after all what has happened dissipated quickly as he looked around. After a bit of an awkward pause, Shining spoke up again, “Twilight, what happened to the guards who were supposed to be escorting you?”
“What guards? Twilight was standing all by herself in the station.” said Rarity.
“Really now?” said Shining, giving both Rarity and Twilight an incredulous look.
“Yes I did.” Twilight said, “Is there a problem with that?”
Shining glared at her. “Several.” said Shining, before he slapped Twilight on her horn.
“Ow…” said Twilight as she rubbed her horn.
“What the hay was that about?” said Applejack.
“Standard procedure for testing for magical disguises.” said Twilight, who was still Twilight Sparkle in case you were worried. Though, you the reader probably know better than that. “You didn’t believe me?” she addressed Shining.
“No, no I didn’t.” Shining Armor said bluntly. “And for all we could know, the vampire who’s been chasing you could’ve been on board!”
“But there wasn’t any time! Vampires were trying to attack me at Ponyville, and the guards had to stay and keep them away!” said Twilight.
Shining sighed, “I’m sorry, it’s not your fault, Twilight, you could not have known all the procedures around here, and I suppose the situation did call for immediate action. But, from now on, you have to have an escort at all times, okay? Especially since those monsters were still giving you the chase. That goes for you too, Rainbow Dash. You all go back to the castle, I’ll see you there after I double-check the train for any stowaways.”
The Bearers walked back to the castle, now with most of the guards surrounding them.
“You still don’t believe Ms. Sparkle, Sir?” asked one of the guards that stayed behind as the Bearers left hearing range.
After a moment of looking up at the ceiling, deep in thought, Shining finally said, “It’s not that I don’t trust Twilight, since we all know for sure it’s her, but... I have no idea what it is, but something feels wrong about the whole thing. Celestia herself suspects that it’s a trap. Besides, like I said, there could easily be a stowaway on board, especially if there wasn’t any guards posted with her onboard.” The guards nodded as they exited out the booth. “Everyone split up and search a car, I’ll start at the caboose, and we’ll make our way towards each other. If you see a vampire, signal immediately.”
They separated and entered their respective carriages. Shining noted that the caboose was completely dark, no sign of the conductor inside. That alone made him nervous. “Gah, you’re just worried about Twily, is all. She’s fine-” Shining sighed to himself, but when he inhaled, he realized something else, that the air was putrid, like something had died. He took a step inside and felt something sticky on the floor. He lit up his horn to see the strange liquid, it seemed to be the source of the pungent and foul smell. Whatever it was, it seemed to be fresh. He noticed that the trail smeared on the floor was leading deeper inside the caboose. Taking a deep breath of fresh air from outside, he crept into the caboose, the soft purple light of his horn lighting up the carriage for him to see as he looked about. There were a few large cases, boxes, and bags inside the carriage, most filled with provisions for the outposts. He noticed a metal-covered hoof sticking out from behind a bag, hidden in the back corner.
Moving the bag with his magic, he saw not one body, but five bodies all stacked upon one another. Their faces were frozen in utter horror of what they had seen before they passed on, as blood oozed from bite wounds on their necks. Thanks to their distinctive armor, Shining recognized them immediately.
“Sarge?! Not only that, but his men too?! But Twilight said she went on the train alone… and that Sarge stayed at Ponyville...” Shining said quietly to himself. A horrifying thought came upon him; “Was the Twilight I saw at the station even Twilight Sparkle at all?” He shook his head, “No, I checked her, it was her… and yet… did she-” All further thoughts were interrupted when he heard a slight shifting in luggage behind him, and turned around to see something leap towards him with its fangs bared. Thankfully his reflexes were enough to cast a shield to repel his assailant, sending him flying out the door behind him, into the next train carriage.
“Hmph, so some of Celestia’s lap dogs do have teeth after all.” Bleeding Heart said, as he pulled himself up.
“As Captain of the Royal Guard, I order you to state your name, or you will be met with force!”
“Oh! The captain! You must be that dear brother Twilight told me so much about… my name is Bleeding Heart, your soon to be master. It would do you a lot of good to surrender to me right now, I have far more important things to attend to than spoiling my appetite.”
“We have control of the train, Bleeding, it should be you surrendering right-” Sounds of several brief struggles and screaming from the farther down the train interrupted Shining. “What?!”
“Oh no, please captain, do go on. I do enjoy baseless threats, they’re quite amusing.”
Shining did not need to be told that this was a bad situation. He changed his stance to make it seem he was about to strike out at Bleeding, before he tried to jump out of the carriage and onto the station.
Emphasis on tried, as just as he was about to jump up, three vampires pounced on him from behind, biting him on various places on the back of his neck and legs. “I told you it would be better for you to surrender, now just do yourself a favor and just relax and let the blessing take its course…”
“No! Not like this!” Shining frantically thought as he felt the vampires bite into his flesh over and over. If he could see in the dark carriage, he was sure that the room would be spinning right now. “I have get outside to warn the Princesses! I can’t give up to a monster like him!” This thought gave him a second wind, and he cast a shield on himself, repelling the vampires and Bleeding into the walls of the caboose, and broke into a run out the door. However, even that was not enough. He felt very nauseous as he opened the door, his vision blurring and doubling, as he misstepped and tumbled out of the caboose and onto the railroad.
“Record time.” Bleeding Heart smiled to himself as he calmly stepped off and lifted Shining with his magic and pulled him back inside the carriage.
“No! I can’t do anything!” Shining thought as he saw the station swirl around him. Even though he was easily lifted up by Bleeding Heart, his entire body felt heavy. It was hard to even keep his eyelids up. “Do something you meathead, Equestria needs you!!!” he urged himself. His horn gave pitiful sparks, and he let out nothing more than a ragged wheeze as he was taken back inside. The last thing Shining Armor saw and heard was being pulled towards Bleeding’s face as he chuckled, his horn glowing red.