//------------------------------// // Chapter 12 // Story: A New Life for Bloodthirst // by NgKQ //------------------------------// At tea break, Orion Galaxy led Bloodthirst the way to Moon Dancer’s house. “I guess you must be lucky to enjoy all those perks,” said Bloodthirst as they left the palace. “It depends on the situation actually,” Orion replied. “At certain conditions I’m actually not allowed to leave the palace grounds.” “I see about that…” They entered into one of Canterlot’s humble neighborhoods. Elsewhere, the ponies were talking and doing their daily activities. They stopped to greet Orion along the way. Soon they came to a sturdy house. It was well quiet. “Here we are,” said Orion. “We’re at Moon Dancer’s house.” “Can I knock the door?” “Sure, just be careful. They don’t really like rough visitors.” Very gently and quietly, Bloodthirst tapped the door three times. But there was no response. He tapped slightly harder. “I’m coming! Who’s that?” The voice of a mare called. They could hear hoofsteps approaching the entrance. As the door opened, it revealed a purplish-light ultramarine unicorn mare about Bloodthirst’s age, with maple red-striped hair, and had it tied to the top. “Uh, who are you?” she asked. “Err, well, I’m… are you… Moon Dancer?” he stammered nervously. “What?” “That’s not Moon Dancer. That’s her daughter, Star Dancer!” laughed Orion. “Prince Orion! There you are!” Star Dancer called. “Do you know who’s this?” “Star! Who’s that?” Before Orion could answer, the voice of a stallion called, and then he appeared. To Bloodthirst’s surprise, he looked almost like Star Dancer, but his hair was in dark magenta, lavender and purple, and he had purple eyes as opposed to Star’s golden yellow eyes. Their cutie marks were different, too. Star had three sparkling stars, while the stallion had three purple lightning bolts in parallel. “Nerdy, aren’t you supposed to be reading? Why are you following me here?” “Stop calling me Nerdy!” the stallion retorted. “We have a guest here, or what?” “It’s too bad that you’re a busypony,” Star teased, sticking out her tongue. “P-please, you two… don’t have to argue like that,” said Bloodthirst, who was nervous seeing two of the house’s occupants arguing. “If you two are siblings, you should love each other…” “Huh?” “How did you know that we are… siblings?” asked Star. “He’s new to our community,” explained Orion. “Bloodthirst, he’s Star’s twin brother, Thunder Arc. And you guys, this is Bloodthirst, the vampire pony.” The twins stared at him. “So, that’s him?” asked Star Dancer. “The vampire pony Prince Orion’s been talking about?” added Thunder Arc. “Y-yes, a-and I… I-” “He means no harm, guys,” Orion finished for him. “No harm? B-but…” said Thunder. “See? You’re always nervous like that. You deserved to be called Nerdy,” Star teased. “OH COME ON!” “Star Dancer, Thunder Arc, who’s at the door?” Another mare’s voice called, and appeared at the door. She was in yellow, and had her hair color similar to Thunder Arc’s. It was Moon Dancer. Moon Dancer showed only slight signs of age, yet she still had her kind and compassionate personality. “Oh, Orion!” she called. “You really did come. You’ve brought your little guest along, didn’t you?” “Yes, here he is!” he introduced. “Err, hi, Madam Moon Dancer,” Bloodthirst said embarrassingly. “You must be Bloodthirst, I guess?” Moon Dancer beamed. “I’ve heard about you from what my children talked with Orion.” “R-really?” “Orion must’ve told you already, didn’t he?” “Y-yes…” “He’s got a lot more to learn, Madam,” added Orion. “All he needs is just socializing so that he can learn more about the Magic of Friendship.” “Ooh, come in, come in!” she welcomed. “I have some nice treats while we can talk!” Once inside, everyone settled down. Bloodthirst was introduced to Moon Dancer’s husband Lightning. He was a handsome, light ultramarine stallion with golden hair. “So that’s you,” Lightning spoke. “I’ve heard of you from Dancy and my children. Prince Orion even tells me about the special case of yours.” “Uh, yeah,” said Bloodthirst. “But, how did you and Madam first meet?” “He happens to be a close friend of Prince Orion’s father,” explained Moon Dancer. “And he happened to marry Twilight, who was my old friend.” “Uncle Lightning knows me well,” said Orion. “As Dad’s close friend he gave me moral support. He worked with Dad in the Crystal Empire before, and after Mom and Dad married, he was transferred back to Canterlot. He was the one who offered good advice to me when I trained hard.” “I was indeed sad when I learnt that Flash perished,” said Lightning in a moody tone. “I remember those days since we were young, we used to hang out with each other. I was training with magic once, when I fell and broke my leg, he went to alert my parents. Just as I trained hard enough, and I got my cutie mark, I joined the royal forces with Flash. Those times we used to train with each other.” “I can indeed imagine how Twilight and the rest of her family must have felt when Flash died,” Moon Dancer continued. “I remember visiting Twilight in the hospital. Orion was there, he cried as he hugged me, saying how he missed his father.” “Madam Moon Dancer was really kind,” Orion said, with tears in his eyes. “Mom told me, she and many others offered financial support to our family.” “I see about that,” responded Bloodthirst. “Then how did Prince Orion get to know your children?” “Has Princess Melody Aurora told you on the time she began to study under Princess Celestia when she was five?” “Uh, I have, small ideas of it, I guess…” “Both Princess Melody and Prince Orion were enrolled in the School for Gifted Unicorns,” Moon Dancer continued her story. “Which was me and Twilight’s alma mater.” “I remember the first time I met Princess Melody and her brother,” reminisced Thunder Arc. “I was in my first year. I was having my book and walking and I didn’t look at where I was going, then I bumped onto some senior colts. They threatened and extorted me because they thought that all I could do was to read and do nothing else. That’s when Orion came. I remember he shouted, ‘What’s going on!?’ and he came to my direction. The bullies look like they were terrified to see somepony royal coming and ran away.” “I saw what happened, and I tried to find out what really happened,” Orion continued. “But then the colts all ran away like mice seeing a cat coming. I approached him. He didn’t look at all hurt, he was frightened. As I checked on him, he told me that he was on his way to the school library, but he couldn’t find his way, and was embarrassed if his sister would find out and laugh at him.” Bloodthirst glanced at Star Dancer. She was secretly giggling, and Thunder Arc seemed to feel annoyed as if sensing his sister mocking him. “I took him to the library, and once I entered, my sister was in there as well,” Orion continued. “She asked who he was, and we introduced with each other.” “I quickly got to know Melody and her brother,” said Thunder. “We talked a lot, and we exchanged our thoughts. I quickly got to know about palace life, and how Ponyville was like. What made me mind-blown was when we revealed who our mothers are, and they happen to be friends, too.” “Then it was time for him to return to Canterlot library so that he can find his mother. He expressed his fear that he might meet the bullies again, so we offered to escort him to there.” “When I saw him coming, with two foals along his side, I was rather surprised,” said Moon Dancer. “What made me surprised more that Thunder Arc told me that he’s the children of Twilight Sparkle!” “I was quite surprised, too,” said Star Dancer. “I thought he invited some eggheads here, but my mind was really blown when he told us their true identity.” “Hey, I told you already, they’re not eggheads,” moaned Thunder with disgust. “From that time on, they began to be one of my frequent customers,” Moon Dancer continued, ignoring them. “Whether it’s just a normal day after school, I would see them visit regularly, borrowing books to be read in the castle, or stay and talk with Thunder until the time I close the library to end business for the day. They would sometimes visit our house and we paid host to them.” “Do you actually miss Melody when she err, moved back to live in Ponyville?” Bloodthirst asked again. “We do, sometimes,” said Lightning. “When Melody told us on moving back to Ponyville soon, she did mention that she’ll miss us all, and promised to keep in touch with us. Sometimes, when we visit Ponyville to visit some of Dancy’s old friends, we still see Melody, hanging out with her friends in Ponyville.” “From her laughter, and her smiles, I can tell she’s already suited to her life in Ponyville,” added Moon Dancer. “She doesn’t seem to show any worry, from what I think, and what Twilight described to me.” “And from that time on, Orion didn’t really show up lately,” Thunder Arc resumed. “At first I don’t know why. Then Dad told me Orion was training to be a royal guard. He intended to follow his father’s hoofsteps. I felt proud of him, but at the same time I felt worried. I felt that he would overwork himself, and put up some stress on him. At some times I didn’t really meet him for an entire month.” “I just don’t have the time to visit Madam Moon Dancer and my family in Ponyville at that time,” Orion continued to relate. “Other than Uncle Shining Armor and his family visiting. I could only study in the castle library or in mine or Princess Celestia’s room. As my trainings get to be more and more harsh, there’s barely enough time for me to visit my family and friends.” He sighed as he said. “When we learnt that he nearly risked his life to save the princesses, we paid him a visit,” Moon Dancer said. “From that time he began to visit us more often again, and we’d see him in Ponyville, too.” “He was one good friend and senior I can remember,” said Thunder Arc. “And so was Melody. I’m always frustrated when I can’t even complete my homework. Luckily they would come and help me.” “One thing I want to know,” Bloodthirst asked. “Why do you two… like to quarrel with each other?” “Thunder’s a nerd and an egghead,” Star answered. “All he does every day is study and nothing else, and it’s really boring for me, and I hate mathematics by the way. Besides, he looks funny when he’s annoyed.” “Is that enough?” Thunder Arc snapped. “I’m not a stick-in-the-mud as you think!” “See? This makes me wanna call you Nerdy.” “Alright, enough!” commanded Moon Dancer. Instantly, the twins went quiet, with Thunder glaring at his mother fearfully. She went on, “I’m sorry about that, Bloodthirst. They’ve been arguing almost like that.” “But don’t you have any siblings?” Star asked him. “Do they love you?” “Uh, um, I…” “He doesn’t have any siblings,” Orion answered for him. “He was orphaned since he was ten, so he didn’t really experience much love from a true family.” There was silence. They could see Bloodthirst shedding tears quietly. Moon Dancer gently wiped his tears away. “I’m sorry to hear about your situation,” Moon Dancer said gently. “Are siblings a taboo subject for you?” “I-it’s not,” he sniffled. “It’s… it’s just that, when Orion said I was orphaned, all those sad memories… came into my mind…” “He was manipulated by his evil uncle into killing innocent beings,” Orion continued to explain. “Then he repented, and escaped to Ponyville, where he sought shelter at Rarity’s house, and they adopted him.” “That’s when my life began to change,” said Bloodthirst as he recovered. “Platinum Royale and her entire family and friends took care of me nicely, treating me as if I’m their little brother.” “I see,” responded Lightning. “You don’t have a true family, yet you are mature enough to understand that affection runs in families!” This made Star Dancer and Thunder Arc feel ashamed. They felt awful for arguing with each other, not realizing that some others have lost a part of their families in their lives. “One more thing,” Bloodthirst spoke. “Are you coming for Orion’s engagement ceremony?” “Of course I am,” smiled Moon Dancer. “To show my support to him, of course!” “Which reminds me, I think it’s time for us to return to the palace to help in the preparations,” Orion said, getting up. “I’ll see you at the party!” “Send my regards to your fiancée, old boy,” bade Lightning. Then he turned to Bloodthirst. “It was nice knowing you, kid.” “Do come and visit us again if you have time!” said Star Dancer. “Or we can probably drop by yours if we’re visiting Ponyville!” “I will. Thanks for your hospitality!” On their way back to the palace, Bloodthirst asked. “Does Lightning still work as a royal guard?” “Yes, he does, but not as often nowadays,” came the reply. “Older guards are usually given more time to rest because of their age.” Late that night, in one of the castle rooms… Bloodthirst lay down on his bed, remembering the conversation he had with Moon Dancer and her family. Chatting with them made him forgot about finding the history of his own clan’s past briefly, but it suddenly surfaced to his mind again. “I must find it… I must find my answers tomorrow…!” He slowly drifted to sleep. Soon his dream began as usual, on the flowery meadow he stood. He sat among the flowers, deep in thought when he heard a stallion’s voice. “What you’re thinking, sonny boy?” “Dad?” Instantly he straightened up, turned back to find a stallion that looked almost like him, except that his fur color was darker than his, and his hair was longer and in a different style. He ran towards him, hugging him with all his might, with tears of joy trickling down. “It’s been a while, Bloodthirst.” “I missed you so much, Dad!” he said. “I was expecting Mom, but it was you!” “Your mother told me that it’s time for me to see you,” his father told him. “You must be missing me so much after not meeting for eight years, and you really did.” “I really am missing. You know, just like Mom, there’s a lot of things I need to tell you…” “Well, what would you like to talk about? History of our own vampire pony kind?” “How did you know what I was thinking?” “I met a friend in the afterlife. He told me that he’s watching everyone from above, and he can see what everyone else is thinking.” “Really?” “Yes, he knows everypony well. Now, I’m going to tell you everything that holds the great histories and secrets of our clan…”