//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 - Blood // Story: Blazing Life In Equestria // by CroisSunnyPlay //------------------------------// How long has it been? Minutes? Hours? I don't know. I was exhausted. But I kept running. Why? I was hearing hoofbeats on the ground after me. Sometime during my escape, they started chasing me. I can hear them shouting angrily at me to stop, so I kept to the denser parts of the forest just so the fliers couldn't get me from upwards. I'm scared. I didn't mean to. It's not my fault. I kept running. I want to stop. I cannot stop. I'm tired. If I stop I'm in trouble. I have to keep going. My body is aching. My cybernetics are somehow hurting. I tripped. I was falling. Why was I falling? My thoughts are all messed up. I saw something. A... Cliff? Was I running towards a cliff? My wings opened by themselves. It made me jerk up from the fall, slowing it, but I still hit the ground hard, landing painfully on my left wing and carving a small thrench because of the force. It hurts. My body hurts so much. I am tired. I am hungry. I am thirsty. My body refuses to move. My head feels heavy... I want to lie here and rest... My ear twitched. Someone was approaching. Moving my head with some difficulty, I could make out the form of somepony exiting the bushes. It was Fluttershy. "Oh my, a-are you okay? I know w-we have to bring you to the princesses, b-but maybe I could patch you up first... I-if you don't mind that- EEP!" She stepped on a sharp rock by accident, getting a cut. I wanted to ask if she was okay, but a delicious smell had filled my nose suddenly. My mouth watering, I could hear my belly demanding sustenance. Ignoring the pain I was feeling, as well as the red haze descending on my vision, I stood slowly. Fluttershy glanced at me stepped back as I unconsciously peeled my lips back to expose my fangs. Had I been in a more sound state of mind, I would notice them grow slightly longer. As it was, I was slowly losing myself to base instincts. There was only the smell, and the hunger. But what was in front of me could sate it. I want it. I need it. Not knowing what else to do, I just let myself go. I'll forever regret what I did in that moment. My body lunged forward faster than she could react, knocking both of us down to the ground. We rolled around for a moment, but I eventually came out on top. Fluttershy was under me with wide, frightened eyes as I hissed in her face, but that didn't matter at the moment. So, lifting my head, I shot down towards her neck. A scream could be heard through the forest at that moment, catching the attention of five other individuals and making them rush towards the location. My fangs easily penetrated the skin, and as the first drop of something hit my tongue, I started drinking eagerly. The taste of iron filled my mouth as I gulped down the life fluid, making the hunger slowly diminish. Fluttershy had stopped screaming after a moment, seemingly in shock of what was happening. I was about to stop, feeling I was finally full, when a purple beam blasted me off. Still being guided by my instincts, I flipped in midair and used my wings to catch myself, landing on top of a tree nearby and crouching, hissing threateningly. My ear twiched and I jumped down just in time for a rainbow blur to slam on the branch I was. My ear twitched again and I dashed to the side as I pair of orange hooves impacted the tree I was in front of, cracking the bark. I heard a bush rustling behind me and jumped into the air just as Pinkie flew past me, having tried to catch me by surprise from behind. A mix of a blue and purple aura suddenly held me in place on the air, and I looked to see the unicorns of the group with their horns alight. They sighed in relief, thinking they had finally caught me, but I was already tired of this song and dance. So, taking a deep breath, I opened my mouth and screeched loudly. I heard shouts of surprise and pain as I was let go. Looking at the downed and disoriented ponies holding their ears, I took a moment to glance at Fluttershy, who looked up at me frozen in fear. "In time you shall awaken to serve me, my loyal minion... Now rest, soon you shall become more than you are now." Her eyes turned red for a moment before closing as she passed out. {Third Person} Blaze observed the ponies glaring angrily at her through their pain before flying off, leaving them behind. It was a few minutes later when they all recovered to stand, that they started panicking over their passed out friend. Checking her pulse, Twilight let out a sigh of relief. "It's okay girls. She's alive, just passed out." The others let out their own sighs before Rainbow stomped one hoof angrily. "I knew that... Thing was trouble! It was brought by Discord after all! We should go after it and make it pay for what it did to Fluttershy!" "Simmer down, sally. Ah also want to knock some sense into 'er, but Ah reckon we should take Shy here to the hospital first." Applejack reasoned, getting mumbled agreements and an angry snort from her still conscious friends. "Most importantly though, we'll need a plan next time we confront her. I mean, she easily dodged Rainbow's and Applejack's attacks, avoided getting grabbed by Pinkie of all ponies, and managed to screech loud enough to break mine and Rarity's concentration after we caught her. She's not only agile, but she's intelligent and seems to have a certain awareness of what happens around her." Twilight said as she gently levitated the shy pegasus on AJ's back and they started to trek back to town. "I know! It's like she has her own Pinkie Sense!" Pinkie Pie said through the bandage on her muzzle, hopping along with them. Not even an almost broken muzzle seemed to dampen the party pony's cheerful mood. "By the way Pinkie, how's you muzzle doing?" "Oh, it will be fine! The doctor said that I was lucky it wasn't broken, since I got hit with metal apparently. I like to think that filly just didn't want to hurt me!" She finished with a giggle. "Hey, that's right. Why do y'all think she has those weird things on her forelegs? Made it seems it was made completely of metal." AJ asked her smart unicorn friend, but only got a sigh as Twilight looked down in contemplation. "I'm not sure. There are many possibilities as to that. From being a fashion choice to potential loss of limbs..." Her speculation made the group blanch a little. Sure, they currently weren't the best fans of the filly, but to probably have lost both forelegs at such a young age? As for Rarity, she almost fainted at the suggesting those garish things were a fashion choice. That was simply a crime, and should never be allowed to exist! After walking in silence after that last comment, they finally arrived back at town and Twilight turned to the others. "I'm going back to the library to send a message to the Princess informing what happened. Rarity and Applejack, you two take Fluttershy to the hospital and make sure she's fine. Rainbow Dash, I want you to find Discord, we have some questions to ask him." The group nodded and split off to do as they were ordered. None of them ever noticed the mark of a black lightning fading into existence on Fluttershy's neck. {Blaze's POV} I dry heaved, trying to make my body reject something it shouldn't even be able to ingest in the first place. I could still taste the iron of the blood on my tongue. And it tasted so good, which is what scared me the most. If I was really a vampire- vampony in this case- I would have problems in the near future. I can only be thankful that the sun doesn't seem to hurt me... But that was the last of my concerns right now. "I hurt Fluttershy... I drank her blood... I'm a monster..." These three sentences came out of my mouth again and again, in a seemingly endless loop. After I was far enough away from the mane six, the red haze slowly lifted from my vision. It was like slowly waking up from a dream, where things slowly faded back into focus for me. I could only remember bits and pieces of what happened back there, but the most horrifying thing I did was as clear as day. I had willingly hurt Fluttershy in one of the worst ways possible. I might just be the vilest creature under the sun right now... I started wandering around aimlessly through the forest. Predators always seemed to linger on the edge of my vision, but whenever I turned to them, they would simply recoil from view. The could smell how dangerous I was, and I was thankful for that small blessing. I don't know for how long I have been walking. With it being always dark inside the Everfree Forest, and my apparent night vision making me see clearly, I couldn't tell if it's still early in the day, of already late at night. The Forest itself seemed to be messing with my perception of time. I could even have been up all night for all I knew. In hindsight, maybe running into the Everfree to escape wasn't the best idea, but what's done is done, all I can do now is make the best of what I have, which is going to take a monumental effort, what with me currently feeling like shit. As I was walking around, the air seemed to get colder suddenly. As if all warmth was slowly draining from my body. I had a bad feeling on my gut, but it's not like I knew where I was to turn back, so I just took a deep breath and kept walking. Fog started rolling in from somewhere, causing me to lose sight of what was in front of me and making me occasionally bump into random trees. A few minutes of walking like this, I finally had enough and instinctively opened my wings, flapping them in the hopes of blowing the fog in front of me away. Much to my surprise, the fog slowly parted in front of me, revealing something that gave me pause. I don't know how and when, but right now, I was looking at a small village, visible through a gap between the trees. Walking closer, I looked around, finding a sign with a slightly faded text and read it aloud. "Welcome to Sunny Town."