//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: Pegazo Vampir Equinae // by Gecko //------------------------------// ”Get me Tic Tac.” Greasy said as he closed the window from which Rainbow Dash had just left.   Steadfast Shield grunted and went out the door to get the requested pony.   Greasy had seemed very calm during the rage of Rainbow Dash, but in fact he had been quite surprised. I have never seen one of her things so angry and strong… It’s going to be interesting to see how she develops. If I’m unlucky, she might just kill me, but I know she won’t win. She doesn’t even have control, silly, silly pony. He flicked the papers on his desk into a single pile and placed them in the out folder. He sighed and turned to the opening door.   In stepped a stallion. He was pretty small for a normal earth pony, but Greasy knew that his disadvantage in size was completely made up for the smarts of this colt. His coat was dark blue with eyes the color of silver. His mane couldn’t be seen due to the big cloak he always had around him… He has been valuable; I just hope he has any idea on what to do here…   “You called for me?” Tic Tac asked as he stepped inside, walking slowly towards one of the chairs in the room. He sat down quickly, making Greasy sigh. “Ahh, it’s about the vampony, is it not?” he asked while leaning back in his chair, giving off a small sense of security.   “Yes, this is about that pegasus. I was curious, you saw that display at the end, and I had to ask: what do you think caused that?” Greasy asked as he turned his chair to look out the window, down into the area Rainbow just had fought in. He could see the dead stallion being dragged away from the site. It wasn’t a pleasant sight, but Greasy had seen worse.   “I thought so, well, you see, I haven’t got a lot on her yet. Though, looking at the way she was fighting, I would say she’s pretty new and does not have a lot of knowledge of these things. Personally, I don’t think you should worry; she won’t be a problem, at least not for a very long time. Unless something unexpected happens, but what would that be? Nightmare Moon? Ha! Don’t be ridiculous, what possible way is there for a random pegasus to have connections to Princess Luna? She’s pretty much one of the most socially awkward ponies I have ever met. Though, that was a year ago, so she might have changed. I suppose she has, but I still think there is no need to worry.” he explained, yawning at the end of his explanation.   “You do seem rather calm about this, considering everything you have done for me; I won’t do anything about her. But if she gets in my way in any shape or form, she’s going to get the Hinzo guys on her.” This made Tic Tac raise an eyebrow. “Ah yes, them. I can’t afford to take chances with anypony interrupting out operations.”   “I do see what you mean.” He stood up from his chair. “I will go and look further into things and I will get back to you later, is that fine?” Tic Tac asked, smiling slightly.   “Yeah, you go do that, I have planning to do.” Greasy waved a hoof to the door and Tic went outside.   I can’t believe he fell for that; he really is gullible, which means that everything is going in my favor. Tic Tac thought as he made a soundless laugh while smiling.             “TWILIGHT!” Pinkie yelled as she slammed the door to the library open.   “WHAT!?” Twilight yelled back at her while staring at a bookcase, looking for something.   “It’s a doozy!” she exclaimed. Pinkie was shaking furiously while bouncing around the library.   “Doozy? Last time was me accepting your Pinkie sense… So what is it this time?” Twilight asked, not paying much attention while looking for a book.   “I have no idea; all I know is that it’s somewhere around Manehattan, but all our friends are in Ponyville right?” she asked, shaking so much that she crashed into a bookcase, making it fall on her, but she managed to escape just in the nick of time, leaving the bookcase on the ground.   Twilight froze as she heard everything that had just happened. She turned slowly towards the bouncing pony. “M-m-manehattan?” she uttered, afraid of what the Pinkie sense was indicating. Pinkie Pie nodded. “No…” Twilight took the bookcase that had fallen into her magic and made it stand normally again, all the books were splayed upon the floor. “Not good, not good at all.” Twilight muttered as she reached for ink, paper and a quill.   She quickly wrote a letter of worry to Celestia, rolled it together in a scroll and called for Spike. “SPIIIIKE! I NEED YOU TO SEND SOMETHING!” she called, all the while Pinkie was still shaking uncontrollably, but somehow managed to stay in one spot and look at Twilight. She stopped just as Spike walked downstairs.   Twilight gave him the letter, immediately sending it to the Princess. Pinkie saw that Twilight was charging her magic for something, so she decided to ask. “Twilight, what happened and what are you doing?” she asked as she walked towards Twilight, tilting her head to the side very slightly.   Twilight stopped, cancelling the spell she was charging. “Oh right, I never told you… Rainbow Dash kind of went to Manehattan, and that’s why I’m scared. I need to check, so I’m going to try to teleport myself there. Hopefully I will be able to manage, can’t say I have teleported that far before. I need to do it though; Rainbow needs my help. And with Rainbow’s current state of affairs, I had to send Celestia a letter, standard for a sentinel.” Twilight explained as she trotted around in a circle worryingly.   “Can I come?” Pinkie asked curiously.   Twilight looked at her with confusion. “I said I don’t even know if I can get myself there, so how are you supposed to come?”   “Oh, I forgot.” she giggled. “Just promise me one thing: bring her back safe, ok?” Pinkie asked with pleading eyes.   “I will.” Twilight said before she disappeared in a flash of light.             Celestia was sitting at a table with her sister, talking about things and drinking tea. This peaceful scene was interrupted by the appearance of a letter from Twilight Sparkle.   “What’s this?” Celestia said very curious about what this letter was about to say.   Luna looked at her sister, and the more Celestia read of the letter, the darker her expression got. “Sister, is there a problem?”   Celestia nodded, keeping her expression, and handed Luna the letter.   “Oh, I see… your expression almost told us. Would thee like us to help your student and the Element of Loyalty?” Luna asked, looking up from the letter.   “I suppose… this does call for immediate action. I’m not sure if Twilight can achieve that long of a teleport though. Would you be willing to find her and help her on the way?” Celestia asked, still a bit baffled by what the letter had told her. Pinkie sense... that does fit with Pinkie Pie. She thought to herself. And Twilight seems to believe it, so I guess I should too. She shook her head slightly and looked at Luna who had risen from her chair, staring out the window. Celestia herself stood up from her chair and walked to the side of her sister. “Go and help them.” the sun goddess simply said.   Luna nodded, and before Celestia knew it, her sister had disappeared. Good luck sister, I do hope you can help Rainbow Dash.             Twilight opened her eyes after arriving from her spell. What she saw was not pretty, exactly the opposite in fact. She was in the middle of a clearing; at least, it would have been if the tree’s in the vicinity hadn’t been cut in half. The damage to the tree’s wasn’t from a saw, but from what appeared to be a blunt force and hit the upper part of the tree, making them break in half, leaving logs scattered about everywhere. What happened here, and more importantly, where am I? Twilight asked herself as she trotted through the fallen trees. There were no sounds from animals or anything… What was that? Twilight thought as she felt a sudden gust of wind heading in her direction. She turned towards the source, but what she saw made her flinch.  It was Rainbow Dash, but something was off. She had a huge gash cutting right across her forehead with dried blood all around it. Rainbow’s eyes were not the new mix between colors, no, instead they were completely red. Blood red. They practically screamed hate. Twilight stumbled backwards into a tree, looking at the charging mare.   Twilight shook as Rainbow Dash closed the distance between them. Twilight closed her eyes, not wanting to look. And then the noise stopped. The sounds of the wind charging at her wasn’t there anymore. Twilight opened her eyes very slowly. What she saw made her shake even more. Twenty feet or so away from her stood the cyan pegasus. Tears were forming in Rainbow’s eyes as her eye-color turned back to her normal mix of crimson and rose.   Rainbow Dash stumbled forward, tears streaming down her face. “I-I-I-I’m sorry.” And then, she fainted, her head connecting with the ground.   “RAINBOW!” Twilight screamed as she started to charge towards her friend, tears flooding her eyes.   There was a flash of black as Twilight ran into something, knocking her back onto her flank and rolling to the side.   Twilight quickly turned back around to see what she had run into and she saw—   “Princess Luna?” Twilight asked in a very confused and surprised voice. The Princess looked at Twilight and nodded. Luna used her magic to help Twilight stand up from the shallow ditch she had found herself in.   “Verily. Twilight Sparkle, whatever happened here? We are concerned.” Princess Luna asked, gesturing at all the broken trees around them.   “Well you see… I teleported here—which I somehow managed—and found the entire forest had been mutilated. I started walking through the trees when I heard a sound, but when I looked towards the source, I found that Rainbow Dash was flying straight towards me. There was something in her eyes, I do not know what, but it was there. It did not mean well. It didn’t feel like something natural for Rainbow Dash because she looked horrifying. I thought I was done for, but then she stopped and turned back to normal before fainting. So I started running towards her, and then I ran into you.” Twilight explained, breathless upon finishing.   “I see.” the lunar Princess simply stated. She turned towards the limp body of Rainbow Dash. Luna stood there for a couple of seconds; for Twilight, they felt like hours. “If what you say is true, and we have no reason to doubt you Twilight Sparkle, then this is something we don’t have any knowledge over. We have never seen a vampony behaving in such a way.” The princess walked over to Rainbow Dash and nudged her with a hoof.   The lunar princess shot back almost immediately after she had touched Dash. She sighed and turned towards Twilight. “We think you should try to wake the element of loyalty.” Luna said as she grabbed Twilight in her magic field and levitated her towards Rainbow’s sleeping body.   Twilight touched Rainbow Dash and immediately felt a presence of…  something, she couldn’t pinpoint what.   So you are Twilight Sparkle? You have very colorful memories.   Twilight shot back as she heard the voice; it had startled her, coming from nowhere like that. When she heard nothing more of the voice, she decided to touch Rainbow Dash again.   Please don’t do that again, it kind of hurt me. It’s really tiring to communicate with something merely touching one of my children, and the fact that you have that stupendously useful vampony immunity does not exactly make it any easier.   Who are you… wait, I think I know who you are; you’re Clover the Clever aren’t you? The original vampony. Twilight pinpointed into her mind, hoping it would get to the spirit she was mentally linked to.   Clever girl, yes, I am in fact Clover the Clever, though, I do not go by that title any longer. The last time somepony called me that was before I passed. So congratulations, you figured it out. Before you ask, no, I won’t tell you anything about Star Swirl. I may have been his apprentice, but that does not mean I want to spill all of secrets. Now that introductions are over, can we get to business?   And what exactly is business? Twilight asked, rather curious of what Clover could tell her.   Business is that I know what happened to Rainbow Dash.   Tell me. Twilight stated rather harshly.   Calm down, Sparkle. I was going to, but you interrupted me, so no talking ok?   Fine…   Good. Now, Rainbow Dash got this way to something very rare in vampony genes, or actually, it hasn’t happened before due to one very specific fact. But I do not want to tell you that fact, what with it being personal and not important to the task ahead. You see, Rainbow Dash and I were walking through Manehattan. Rainbow was getting materials for certain things… when she got to her destination, the man in charge had put a telepathic field inhibitor around the house, making me unable to pinpoint exactly what had happened. All I know is that she got a huge gash across her forehead, which will probably leave a scar… The blood from her wound ran over her eyes, activating this state. I don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing, but I guess it could be both. It made her go into a sort of rage, this kind of rage makes you unable to control anything, it has the victim’s original task in mind and will do anything to complete the task. This did not go so well for Rainbow Dash… she did something that’s she’s going to be fussing about for a long time… she killed a pony, STOP! Before you say anything, it was not her fault. She could not control anything. If anything you should blame me, but I already know that you are blaming me, and rightly so. I don’t have a name for what happened; all I know is that her mind is a very big ball of confusion right now. I can see everything happening in her mind, but I can’t intercept or help her, and let me tell you, the things in here are not pretty. They would make you cower in fear, Sentinel. This pretty much leads to my point of telling you all this.   And what would that be? Twilight shot back directly after. And Rainbow killing a pony, that’s going to hurt for her, I can already see it…   Yes, she’s already suffering, but if you don’t help me with this, she probably won’t wake up, and that’s not due to physical damage, no, it’s will be from today’s traumatic events. What I want from you is to help her, I need you to enter her mind and fix it.   And how do you propose I do that? ‘Cause I am willing to do anything to help my friends.   Loyalty? Isn’t that Rainbow Dash’s element? No matter. I knew you would say yes; you have quite a few obvious tells, Twilight Sparkle. The only pony not seeing them is Rainbow Dash herself. And trust me when I say this, it would help her if you gave her the support, but I guess I can’t press it.   How… Ugh… I know, I know, I’m just afraid of how Rainbow will react, I mean, she isn’t exactly in the best of moods, what with the whole vampony thing and all… But I suppose that if we manage to fix her up, I might do it. Twilight sighed.   Yes, do that. Good. Now go and talk with Luna or something for awhile I need to gather a bit of energy, will probably only take a minute or two, but I still need them. Afterwards, we can get started on the part where you go into Rainbow’s mind, does that sound good?   I guess it does. Anything else? Twilight asked.   Not really… Oh wait, tell Luna that ‘The Mother’ says hi.   Ok then, bye for now. Twilight released her hoof from the body of Rainbow Dash and turned towards Luna who was standing there watching Twilight.   “Princess Luna, there has been developments in the situation; I was informed that I need to go into the mind of Rainbow Dash in order to help her. And apparently it doesn’t look pretty in there.” Twilight explained. The expression on the Princess face remained the same while she nodded.   “That is not good, but we have full confidence that the Element of Magic will be able to fix up a mental patient. Might we ask where you got all of this information?” The lunar Princess asked. “We will guard you and the Element of Loyalty while you correct the situation.” she hastily added.   “Thank you, Princess.” Twilight said with a bow. “I was talking to ‘The Mother’. She actually had a message for you, to tell you that ‘The Mother’ said hi.” The expression on Luna’s face turned to horror, and she looked away in shame of being afraid. Twilight chuckled at the sight, but she kept it down, lest Luna hear it.   Twilight turned towards Rainbow Dash’s body once again. She took a big breath and touched the body once more.   I see you are back. Tehe, Luna’s reaction is hilarious… ANYWAY! Are you ready for the transition? It might hurt slightly, but that’s nothing to what Rainbow is feeling, so one last time, are you ready?   Twilight only nodded.   Good, then lets begin.   Twilight heard the sound of magic starting, and she began feeling very tired. She collapsed on top of Rainbow Dash.   When Twilight reopened her eyes, all she could see was fire.