Creature of the Night

by RealBarenziah

Chapter 4

"I've been looking for you."

Twilight remembered herself as the initial awe of seeing the great stallion before her faded away. "Have you?" she said nonchalantly. He smiled at her, but did not respond. Instead he turned to the orange-maned mare that had led the two ponies to him. "Nightshade, you may go now."

Nightshade, the orange-mane pony, seemed surprised at the order. "but, my lord-"
"Thank you for bringing them, Shade," he said. "But you heard what I said. Go. Now."

Twilight caught the look of disappointment, maybe a bit of betrayal, that crossed the mare's face, but she quickly corrected it. She turned and left the hollow without another word, no doubt to wait outside until she was allowed in once again.

"What do you want with us?" Twilight demanded. "Who are you?"
The alicorn gazed down at her with a calm look on his face. "I am the first."
"The first?"
"The first. The beginning. The only vampire that was ever truly born a vampire. I am the father of my kind."

"You created all those monsters," Twilight replied. "You stripped them of their mortality, their nature, and replaced it with blood."
"Well said, my dear. Although I didn't sire all of them myself. I turn one, he or she turns another, and so on. If I was the only vampire that could create more, you've have a much bigger problem on your hoofs."

"Ponies you turn yourself are more powerful," Twilight guessed.
"Marginally so, but there is strength in numbers. You are quite clever."
"What's to be clever about? You're making it all rather obvious."
The alicorn laughed. It was a dark, beautiful chiming laugh that made Twilight's heart flutter for a second. "Except of course, the reason you're here," he said.

"You didn't tell me who you are," Twilight said.
"Yes I did."
"A name would be nice."
He smiled at her and said, "I am the Prince of Vampires, Talon."
"Why not a king?"
"The same reason Princess Celestia is not Queen."
"No mate."
"Precisely. Which brings us to the reason you're here."

Twilight's breath choked her, and her next words didn't leave her throat. It was Rarity who said, "Pardon me?"
"You're excused. Farewell," Talon replied. "...oh. That's not what you meant." He was playing games with them now.
Twilight said, "What do you want with me, Talon?"

"You," he said simply. For a moment there was silence. Twilight couldn't think of a reply. "I want to give you, and your friend, the gift of immortality. You see, Twilight, ever since Nightmare Moon was defeated I've been looking for the unicorn that had such power to do so. Now I have found you, I want you to join us."

"What-" Twilight found her voice again. "-to become-no. Not ever."
"You don't understand," His horn began to glow with silvery light. "What I'm offering you. What I could give you. The power," The light grew and blinded Twilight, and her vision of the clearing was replaced with visions. Visions of magical power beyond that of the combined power of the Elements of Harmony. "You're vampire blood, combined with your natural talent as a magician, would create a creature of infinite power," Twilight was unswayed by the visions of it, trying her best to pull away from it all, to no avail. Then an image of herself appeared. She saw a new Twilight standing there, a vampire Twilight. "And infinite grace."

She was beautiful. Her mane had an elegant wave to it and shined like moonlight. Her eyes were two shining rubies curtained by long black lashes. Before Twilight stood a pony that rivaled Rarity and all the Canterlot ponies in every aspect. She moved fluidly, like she was dancing, and her horn glowed with restless energy. "You'd be by my side," Twilight saw herself standing beside Talon, his wing curtaining her fondly. "Forever." Twilight felt two hard points press against her neck. She didn't pull away.

"Twilight!" Rarity cried angrily. She was suddenly torn away from Talon and the visions, but he did not pursue her. As Twilight's sight cleared she saw Rarity glaring at her, eyes glistening with oncoming tears.
"Twilight!" she said again. "That's enough. I don't understand what makes you so...so..."
"But Rarity," Twilight said quietly. "I'd be loved here."
"I love you! And so does Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy, and Applejack and Spike."
"But-"
"Shut! Up!" Rarity's eyes spilled over. "Why can't...How could you not understand?" Rarity's voice died down, and angry tears rolled silently down her cheeks. Twilight felt the first wave of shame roll through her, but she remembered the sight of Talon and her. She looked at him. He was just standing there, completely calm, waiting. She saw in his eyes, though, an anticipation that seemed to be eating at him. He was holding his breath.

Rarity knew Twilight had been thinking lowly of herself, but she never thought it was this bad. Rarity's eye suddenly caught a growing patch of light in the sky, and saw that the moon was beginning to emerge from the clouds. She suddenly remembered what Twilight had said before, and cried out to her, "Twilight, look!" she pointed to the sky. "'The full moon shows them for what they truly are,' remember?"
Twilight saw the full moon as it emerged from the inky night. It spilled its light over the trees, illuminating the branches and the grass. It fell on Talon and Twilight stepped back, unsure of what was to come.

But nothing happened. He moved his eyes from Twilight for the first time and looked to the tunnel behind them. Twilight followed his gaze and saw nothing but heard something faint begin to rise over the trees. It was snarls. Groans and hisses that sounded like they were coming from some large pack of hellish animals. Twilight shot towards the tunnel. Rarity followed, and they emerged on the other side to find the clearing was crawling with...things. They were nothing like the vampires they had seen before.

Their coats had almost disappeared completely, turning white and revealing sickly pale skin stretched tightly around the little bodies. Their ribs stuck out as if they had been starving for weeks. Their mane had mostly fallen out and lost almost all of its color. All of their teeth were jagged and sharp, not just the two canines. Most of all, their eyes were no longer divided into white, red, and black. The whole eye was consumed by an angry red and glowed with an evil aura. They no longer walked but crawled, even the leathery pegasi were rendered flightless. They crawled on the ground like parasites, snarling and hissing and clicking their jaws hungrily. Twilight looked to where Bonnie lay, but found that the creatures had abandoned her altogether. Her stomach turned when she saw one of the degraded vampires chomp down on a live squirrel, swallowing the head whole.

"We could do so much," Talon's voice said quietly. Twilight whipped around. He had appeared behind them without making a sound. He looked almost sad. "Together, Twilight, we could do so many things. We could rule over the night world. We could lift vampires out of the gutters of the planet and make them strong. Recreate them to be something more-"
"Talon." Twilight said. "No."

"You wouldn't be like this. This would never happen to you. You'd be something greater than these that crawl here."

Twilight approached Talon and stood right in front of him. She gazed right into his eyes. "I think you know what you are," she said. "You know what you've created. You know what you've done." Talon lifted his gaze to the hollow and looked at the creatures.

"They forget," he said. "They forget everything when it comes to this. They don't know who they are, where they came from, who their friends are. I have failed them." He looked back at Twilight. "We could fix them, you and I."
"No." She said. They stared at each other for a moment, as if Talon was waiting for her to change her mind. Finally all he could say was, "I see."

Twilight observed him a moment and said, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were heartbroken." He met her gaze, and is stony expression seemed to crack a bit. "How is that possible?" she asked.

He looked at her a moment and said, "You left your sarsaparilla bottle on the balcony."
An odd sort of smile crooked into the corner of Twilight's mouth. "You've been watching me, of course. Why else would that book have fallen just so? How else would you know what I'd want to see?"

He laughed quietly, but said nothing. He lowered his head and hovered over Twilight's. Hesitating for a moment, he rested his nose on her head. She didn't move or pull away.
He simply said, "Quite sad, isn't it?"
"Perhaps a bit," she replied. She felt his shallow breath weave through her hair when he sighed.
"I think it's time you left." He pulled away as Twilight and Rarity were suddenly encompassed in light, and soon all they could see was the glow. "She won't remember any of this," they heard through the noise of the spell. A powerful wind swirled around them, and they had to blink back the blindness.

Soon the light faded and the wind died. They opened their eyes and found themselves at the edge of the forest, Ponyville not too far from where they stood. Twilight looked down and saw what Talon had meant by not remembering. Bonnie lay before them, the wounds on her neck had healed and she slept soundly. Rarity leaned against Twilight fondly, as if to comfort her and ask her what she was thinking. Twilight smiled at her.

"Thank you Rarity. And I'm sorry."
"Well, you wouldn't have to apologize if you weren't so stupid back there," she said in her usual fashionista tone. "But seriously, you do understand, don't you?"
"I do. I love you, too Rarity. You're the best friend a pony could ask for."
"And don't worry about stallions," Rarity said encouragingly. "You're still so young, after all."
"We both are."

Rarity smiled at her, then glanced warily back at the forest. "What should we do about them?" she asked.
"Don't worry, Rarity. They won't be bothering us anymore."
"How can you be sure?"
"Talon knows what he's done. He knows what he created and he knows they can't be allowed to continue. Trust me, we won't see him again. Now, let's get Bonnie home. We'll need to think of something to tell her when she wakes up."

They turned away from the forest and together levitated Bonnie off the ground and began to walk back to town.
"Perhaps you can use that memory spell again, except create fake ones?"
Twilight thought for a moment. The two unicorns began discussing the possibility as the moon shone brightly above them, lighting the way home.