“Who’s first?”
Buck whimpered. The mare’s eyes snapped over to him.
“You’ll do.”
Before Vinyl could even blink, the mare had wrapped her hooves around the stallion’s barrel. With a single flap of her wings she propelled the both of them back the way she’d come in.
“Crap!” Stoney yelled.
“Stop the wagons!” Pack yelled. “All guards, take her down!”
He leapt off the back, Vinyl and Stoney following behind him. Barge was already out, along with several others. They were looking up.
Vinyl followed their lead. The mare was high in the sky already and gaining altitude, Buck’s screaming form clasped to her barrel.
Don’t just stand there! she shouted in their minds. Shoot her down!
“We’ll hit Buck!” Stoney shouted back.
A couple of crossbow bolts won’t kill him! A fall from much higher might!
“You heard her!” Pack yelled. “Get shooting!”
Dutifully, the guards raised their crossbows. A hail of bolts launched into the air, shot with the accuracy of creatures used to fighting in the dark.
Not one of them hit their target.
The mare rolled to the side, the flurry of shots missing her by just a hair. Spinning about, she began to dive, head-first towards the ground. Buck’s screaming began to grow louder.
“Keep shooting!” Pack yelled, but it was no good. The mare was just too nimble in the air, dodging and weaving between bolts as she continued her plummet.
When she was only a few meters off the ground, she let go.
Buck slammed into the ground. His body twitched once and then fell to the dirt.
The mare pulled up, now racing along the ground—straight for the group. Vinyl grit her teeth and rolled to the right, just as she barreled through them.
Not all of them were so fortunate. Two more guards were sent flying across the field, bouncing and rolling along the ground, knocked unconscious by the impact. The mare herself touched down, skidding to a stop. She looked back at them. She was grinning.
“So,” she said. “Do you want to surrender, or do I get to have more fun?”
“You picked the wrong caravan, lady!” Barge shouted, breaking into a charge. His massive frame barreled across the field towards the mare, but she showed no signs of flinching.
“Cool,” she said. “I was hoping you’d pick the second option.”
Quickly, he was upon her. He reared up, his massive hooves threatening to come down on her head.
The mare’s wings shot out. With one flap, she propelled herself sideways. Barge’s blow came down on empty air. He whipped his head to the side, but not fast enough; With a second flap, she sent herself flying towards him, rear legs hooves outstretched.
Crack.
He crumpled around her kick, toppled sideways and fell to the dirt. The mare landed on top of him, perching on his barrel.
He tried to stir. She kicked him in the head. He fell still.
“Well!?” she shouted, manic grin still plastered over her face. “Who’s next?”
“They don’t pay me enough for this!” one of the other guards yelled. He turned and ran, galloping back towards the road. Several of the other guards looked at each other, and one by one they followed the first guard’s lead.
“H-hey!” Pack yelled after them. “Get back here!” Only he and Stoney had remained behind.
Vinyl stepped up.
You two get out of here, she said.
“What!?” Stoney exclaimed.
“Vinyl, you can’t be serious—”
What, you really think you can handle that?
“You think you can?” Stoney said.
No, Vinyl said. I know I can. Go. Get to safety. I’ll come get you when I’m done.
She started walking towards the mare. The two stallions glanced at each other, and, reluctantly, headed off.
“Bag-fed cowards!” the mare was shouting, after the retreating guards. “You’re nothing but vermin!”
She turned to Vinyl. “So what’s your deal, huh?”
Vinyl said nothing. Instead, she broke out into a sprint.
“Ooh, feisty!” the mare said. “I like that.”
She took to the air and began to fly towards Vinyl. The two came closer, closer—
The mare folded her wings and dove. Vinyl was ready. She coiled her legs and leapt into the air, fangs bared. As the mare came closer, her horn burst into life, a matching glow wrapping around the pegasus’ neck.
“Hrrk!”
Vinyl whipped her head around, sending the mare careening into the ground. She herself landed on her hooves, dropping into a ready stance, muscles coiled. Hissing, she pounced towards the fallen mare, ready to strike.
But the mare was ready, too. As Vinyl came down on top of her, a hoof shot out, catching her in the chest. Vinyl curled around it, her own momentum ruining her as the wind was knocked out of her lungs.
She rolled off the mare’s kick, falling into the dirt. The mare herself wasted no time, hopping to her hooves and grabbing Vinyl around the throat. She leapt into the air and whirled around on her axis, spiking Vinyl back into the dirt.
The impact stunned Vinyl for a moment—but just for a moment. Slowly, she began to pick herself up.
“Huh…” the mare said. “You’re still awake.”
This doesn’t have to go this way, Vinyl said, standing. We can still work this out.
“And you’re pretty fast, too,” the mare continued, as if she hadn’t heard. “What’s with the telepathy, though? Cat got your tongue?”
Something like that, Vinyl said. You’re newblood, right? What’s your name?
She chuckled. “You know that already. I wrote it nice and big on the last caravan I hit.”
The Bloody Queen? Vinyl laughed, but there was no humor in it. That nickname’s a bit over the top, don’t you think?
“Oh, I don’t know,” she said. “I think it’s got a certain… historical charm to it.”
They circled each other like cats.
Why are you here? Vinyl asked, shouting across the field. Why are you attacking the blood caravans? You’re a vampire! This hurts you just as much as it hurts the rest of us!
The mare snorted. “Typical bag-feeder,” she spat. “I get my food from the source.”
You’ve been drinking from ponies!?
“Of course I have,” the mare replied. “I’m a vampire. It’s only natural. Haven’t you ever tried it?”
Vinyl said nothing.
“Thought so. Spineless vermin like you are the reason we’re stuck at the bottom of the food chain in the first place. You and your Société.”
The Société, Vinyl said, is the only reason we’re still here.
“The Société is the reason our entire species grovels at ponykind’s feet!” the mare snarled. “We’re the alpha predator! We should be ruling them like the cattle they are!”
You’ve lost it, Vinyl said.
“No,” the mare said. “I’m the only one who hasn’t!”
And she pounced.
I’ll skip over the next part.
“Why?” Bon Bon asked.
Because it’s the part where she tore my head off, Vinyl said. And let me tell you, decapitation? Not pretty. Let me keep some dignity.
When I woke up again, the sun was rising, and the wagons had been trashed. Every single crate had been smashed open, and every bag had been emptied. The guards that were still walking were running cleanup. They freaked out when they saw me. I think they thought I was dead.
“I would have thought you were, too.”
Anyway, Vinyl said. After that, I did some digging. Now that I knew she was drinking from the vein, all I had to do was follow the bodies.
“Why is it that every time you ask me to help you with something, it involves ponies dying?”
Comes with the territory.
Bon Bon sighed.
“Alright,” she said. “And what did you find?”
Windfall, Vinyl said. It’s an old village in the middle of the country. Over the past two months, there have been twenty disappearances in that village alone.
She frowned. Or at least, there were until a few weeks ago. No one’s heard anything from the village since right before the attacks began.
Bon Bon raised an eyebrow. “And nobody in your Société connected the dots?”
That’s the other thing I found out, Vinyl said. See, I knew by looking at her that she was a newblood, recently turned. Which meant that someone had been siring. And it turns out that someone is one of the council members.
“On the council?” Bon Bon said, raising an eyebrow. “Seriously?”
Yeah. Apparently, he got a little lonely. It’s how she knows where the caravans are going to be. She stole the locations of the strongholds from him.
Bon Bon’s eyebrow remained raised.
Bon Bon, this is hardly the worst or the most scandalous thing someone on the council has done. Besides, apparently she consented.
“Why do you even follow the council?”
I don’t, Vinyl said. But they’re the only thing keeping the rest of my kind from going back to the old ways, so I put up with them. Besides, he’s not going to stay on the council for long once this gets out.
Anyway, I paid him a little visit. Her real name is Amber Skies. She’s twenty-two, and he turned her three months ago.
“A three-month old vampire was able to do all that?”
A very lucky three-month old vampire, Vinyl said. Age doesn’t matter. The curse doesn’t hit everypony the same way.
“How do you mean?”
Well, everybody gets blood drinking and not aging, and usually some physical prowess, she said. But the extra strength? Speed? True immortality? Those are if you get lucky. And sometimes, ponies get really, really lucky.
“And the Queen got really, really lucky?”
Amber Skies Vinyl said, won the friggin’ lottery. Don’t call her a queen. She’s not the Queen of Blood.
“I thought you said there was no Queen?”
There isn’t, Vinyl snapped. Not now, not ever. Focus, Bon Bon.
“Alright,” Bon Bon said. “So you want me to help you take her out.”
Yes.
“Alright.”
She stood up.
“When do we start?”