Pulling back, mouth soured by Khan’s blood mixed with Sureblood’s, Nightseer could barely think as the lycan fell fast asleep. A vampyre’s bite was damning to mortals, but for the large beast, it would simply put him into a long, deep sleep like any other sedative. However, even knowing she hadn’t brought any real harm to the young, unbelievable nocturnal, she felt as if she were about to cry. Things had been going so smoothly, almost incredibly so, and in a breath the lycan had turned it all around by killing potentially the strongest nocturnal to fight with them.
She was literally wrenched from her thoughts as one of the other nocturnals, Necrophos, suddenly tackled her to the ground. Surprised, she instantly misted herself into a black haze before soaring around his snapping jaws. Rematerializing beside Leper as the other lycan threw a werewolf off him, she bit the snarling beast before it could regain its balance, sending him straight to sleep. In a panic, she misted again, weaving between two other werewolves to rematerialize in front of the two babies, who had begun wailing at the sudden commotion. Planting herself in front of her child and Joint’s, she hissed as another vampyre approached, a stallion a little smaller than her.
Still not wanting to kill anypony, she easily dodged his attack and bucked him in the side, sending him to the ground. Leper had quickly overcome the other werewolf and vampyre that were attacking him, and it was only then that she saw Mantris calmly sitting where she had when chaos had broken out, a singular paw holding back the other two nocturnals Regaining control of her breathing, picking up Ebony with one hoof while using the other to carefully balance Amethyst on her lap, she tried to hush the babies while eyeing the mare. A slow smile was spreading, maniacal and terrifying as a soft giggle escaped her.
“Wow, that was exciting to watch,” she finally said, her cheshire grin gleaming in the waning moonlight. “Y’know, I was really worried they’d kill ya and then I’d only have the babies to help us fight that bastard Sombra. But you seem to be better fighters than us. Then again, you weren’t fighting all of us…”
“I don’t know why Khan did that, he doesn’t even talk or-”
“Eh, shut up before you sound even more stupid, marefriend,” the werewolf interrupted, standing up, her tail swishing slowly behind her. “The lycan was that one Sureblood let get away a few years back. Seems only fair the poor little pup got his lick in for being doomed to join us forever. Or you, I guess, since you’re the ones that found him. But he was unimportant anyways. We’ll just tell Halven he got what he damn well deserved and move on with it, eh?”
“I don’t think that…”
“Marefriend, you are terrible at negotiation,” Mantris laughed, pausing in her slow walking to put a hoof to her head. “Alright, since you can't seem to take a freebie for your life, I’m just gonna ignore you and talk to pretty hooves here.” With a flick of her tail, she suddenly was brushing up alongside a bristling Leper like a cat on the trunk of a tree. “Tell me, pretty hooves, do you think in exchange for not tryna rip your throats out and commit some unsavory acts of cannibalism on your children, you’d get me a word with Hemorrhage. I know he’s somewhere around here.”
“First, Nightseer’s the boss right now, and second, those aren’t my kids,” the young lycan stiffly informed the werewolf. Narrowing his eyes at Mantris, he growled, “Don’t think I won’t peel your jaws if you dare to even look at them the wrong way.”
“Mmm, so you’re in open season right now,” the mare hummed, sniffing at him as she circled him, coat still rubbing against his thick fur. “And have been for some time, I see.”
“Back off, leech,” Leper suddenly hissed, standing up and startling Mantris.
The mare took a step away from him as she began to cackle, questioning, “Hit a sore spot, did I? Or maybe sensitive is the right word…”
“I’ve been told how it feels to meet your second half,” the lycan spat, glaring at the prowling werewolf. “And it’s nowhere close to malice.”
“Doesn’t mean we can’t have fun,” Mantris pouted, though she stepped aside. Looking up at the moon, she stated, “Hemorrhage must raise you all to be half as smart as him. You’re really bad at making friends, pretty hooves.”
“Doesn’t help when one of them goes haywire and rips off the head of our only lycan,” a vampyre mare spat venomously.
“Oh shut it, whore, you only ever cared for the pleasure Sureblood gave you,” Mantris snapped, her playfulness turning to disdain in an instant. “If you had ever cared for that lycan, you wouldn’t have left his side. We’re not idiots! Nocturnals crave blood and adrenaline, and for vampyres like you, sex is the easy, disgusting way to have it.”
“Yet you were the one flirting with me,” Leper spat before Nightseer could intervene. Cringing at the young lycan’s boldness, she felt a blush rising in her cheeks.
“For fun, pretty hooves, not for an easy meal,” Mantris sighed, disappointed. “As you can see, I haven’t had the opportunity for some… fun in far too long. Not with covenmates like this, at least.”
“Um, yes, but more importantly than your search for entertainment,” Seer hurriedly intervened before the conversation could spiral further out of hoof. “What about the rather pressing matter of the lycan’s corpse? You seem aloof to his death, but I and Hemorrhage certainly hold it in great indignation that one of our own reacted as such, young and justified though he may be.”
“Bury him if you want,” the werewolf waved dismissively. “My concern is with your presently absent master. I was under the impression that he would be the one daringly leading the creatures of the night on their honorable charge against Sombra’s forces.”
“Unfortunately, he has been consumed by a much more urgent- but brief- matter concerning things you need not worry about,” the vampyre replied with as much confidence as she could muster. Seeing how volatile and violent the mare’s mood changes were was off-putting and put her in a rather uncomfortable spot for negotiation. With a forced expression of neutrality, she quickly added, “In the meantime, we should wait here and discuss something of what has occurred before you came here, since it’s a considerable amount of information you’d need debriefed on.”
“Very well, but realize something for me, would you marefriend,” Mantris sweetly said, before leaning in and hissing, “If your master decided to flake out on us, then it’ll be Tartarus when Halven hears about it.”
“If he had flaked,” Seer replied evenly, “he wouldn’t have sent his three youngest nocturnals and two babies, would he?”
“Hm, yes, you’re right,” Mantris answered, taking a step back. Her aggressiveness seemed to diminish as a genuinely thoughtful expression crossed her face. “I’ll believe you because you two seem too… smart to lie to us and to dumb to betray us.”
“Thanks,” the vampyre said hesitantly. “For the moment, I have no clue how long this procedure will take, but it can’t last the night. Now, concerning our problem child…”
“Let him sleep and punish him however,” Mantris once again dismissed, turning her back to the two conscious nocturnals. “We need to move to a better position away from where the sun will halve our numbers. Unless staying so close to the site of a slaughter is optimal…”
“So you did see it,” Leper noted, sounding almost ashamed.
“Oh, don’t be so flustered, pretty hooves,” the werewolf assured him over her shoulder. Seer looked away as the mare swayed her bushy tail seductively at the young lycan. She couldn’t hold back a smirk as Leper let out a defeated sigh, head downturned in disbelief at the mare’s brashness. “Your handiwork was quite… artistic. Though I’m guessing all of that magic damage was done by Hemorrhage, yes?”
“The old stallion certainly knows how to be dangerous when he needs to be,” Leper replied, altogether ignoring Mantris’ actions. “If you don’t care anything for Sureblood’s body, then I recommend we simply throw it into whatever fires still rage in the enemy’s camp. Quick, untraceable disposal.”
“You’d dare to-” was all the vampyre from before could say before Mantris’ paw slapped across her face, sending her to the ground in a daze.
“I’d dare to kill you too, you wretched little filly,” the werewolf screamed into her face, startling everyone with such ferocious hate. Instantly, both infants burst into wails as the stricken vampyre misted herself to escape the crazed werewolf’s glare. Hearing the young ones’ wails, Mantris suddenly stood upright, her head snapping to Ebony. Instinctively Seer’s grip on her baby tightened as the werewolf’s crazed stare moved between her and Ebony.
“Why did you bring children to a war,” she finally asked, her eyes narrowing slightly. “Shouldn’t you and whoever the other baby belongs to be back nestled in your little castle instead? You didn’t bring her on a bloodthirsty little venture to prepare her for a lifetime of death, mutilation, and devouring, did you?”
“Not everypony’s as crazy as you,” Leper growled fiercely, his voice dangerously low as he stepped in front of Mantris, dwarfing the werewolf in such a way that Seer could no longer see her. Leaning down so he could presumably leer over her, he snarled, “Most aren’t even half.”
“Then she’s here by mistake,” Mantris surmised, sounding unintimidated. After several seconds of silence, however, she softly added, “You do know how to be scary when you want to, pretty hooves. You have my scent. Whenever Hemorrhage is ready to talk with us, come find me. We’ll be finding somewhere vampyre-friendly.”
“That won’t be anywhere you are,” Leper growled.
For a moment, there was another tense pause, before at last Mantris let out a sad sigh as she quietly asked, “Why are you so chaste, pretty hooves?”
“Safety concerns,” the lycan replied as he turned his back on Mantris, his eyes briefly glancing at Seer. As the other nocturnals begrudgingly turned to leave, the vampyre couldn’t help but feel a sinking feeling of defeat. In a matter of minutes, their initially friendly negotiations had become teetering on the brink of violence. Or at least, broader violence, Seer corrected herself as she watched two of the other coven begin dragging away Sureblood’s corpse.
Frustrated, she pulled Ebony even tighter into her chest with one hoof, kissing her daughter on the forehead as at last she seemed to calm. Thankfully, Amethyst had silenced herself, though the reason why the infant filly had such control twisted Seer’s stomach. How the traumatizing infancy the filly was experiencing would affect her as she grew up was something that tore Seer’s heart up, both as a mother and mare. The fact that Joint had come to their coven was a miracle and relief, further heightened by the fact that Hemorrhage and the mare were destined to be together. She had full confidence in the mordigan both as a husband and father, so long as he got over his destructive selflessness and depression.
“C’mon, Seer, we should join the others in the cave,” Leper whispered hushly as he stepped beside her. “Sun’ll be up in less than an hour, and it’d be better for you to be stuck in a sizable cavern than under a few trees. I’ll start dragging Khan over if he won’t wake up.”
“Okay, give me Amethyst real quick, then,” she requested, sitting down so she could reach out a hoof to hold the little filly.
Leper carefully scooped the baby from the soft grass and passed her to Seer. Now holding both fillies, she misted herself, careful to keep the two carried on her so that no part of her would accidentally find its way into either of their mouths. Slowly, she began making her way towards where she knew the cavern was while balancing the two confused and fussy fillies. It only took a few minutes, but it felt much longer thanks to the stress of making sure both babies were in the safest, most comfortable position they could be in given their situation. In spite of that, Ebony began to fuss again and by the time they were going downhill towards the little stream that ran between steep hills, her soft squeals and hiccups were getting to Seer.
Rematerializing outside the narrow crevice into the cavern, the mare quickly began to hush her baby, though it was difficult with one hoof occupied by the other placid filly. Hopefully whatever transformation that was happening wouldn’t be interrupted by her arrival, lest she put herself, the children, or Joint in danger. In a matter of seconds, Argon slipped out of the cavern and took Amethyst from her, allowing her to finally comfort her daughter.
“Hey, what happened,” he questioned softly, resting his cheek on her head as he noticed her stress.
“Well, the other coven arrived, and it went well at first until suddenly Khan attacked and killed their lycan, Sureblood,” she muttered, tears of frustration suddenly stinging her eyes. Before she could control it, she was crying into her husband’s shoulder, frustration and fear releasing itself. Sobbing, she hissed, “They fought us and then calmed down but I think when they separated to find a dark spot they just left instead. I couldn't negotiate and Mantris kept threatening to eat our babies! I just couldn’t negotiate because I don’t know what to do or what I’m doing. I just made things go worse and only Leper kept us safe…”
“That’s not true at all,” Argon assured her, wrapping his free around her tightly.
“But I couldn’t stop things from getting worse, and they did,” she found herself sobbing.
“You stopped them from doing anything worse,” he pointed out, still nuzzling the top of her head. “What if you hadn’t been there to stop them and they had stumbled across us during Joint’s transformation? We would’ve had a different catastrophe on our paws, possibly several given how… problematic it’s been already.”
“What do you mean,” Seer asked sharply, snapped out of her grief by the panicked thought of something terrible happening to the young mother.
“Everypony’s fine but… well, Ailade may have drugged Hemorrhage so he wouldn’t be conscious for the worst of Joint’s transformation,” Argon sighed, glancing at the cave entrance. “She used some cyanide or something to knock him out cold. Joint’s gotten… more painful. It’ll be over soon, I hope. Poor mare.”
“Well… we may have an unconscious lycan on our hooves as well,” Seer sighed, rubbing her hoof slowly over Ebony’s stomach. It seemed that the combination of no longer moving and having her father around had worked at calming her, the filly’s eyes drifting close. In spite of the stress of the night, the vampyre found herself smiling as she added, “I bit him to send him unconscious lest he cause even more damage. Leper’s dragging him here as we speak.”
“It’s close to morning,” Argon suddenly noticed, his grip on her tightening slightly. “Come in quickly. Joint’s having a lull in her pain right now anyways, though trust me, don’t get too close.”
“It takes several minutes for the sun to rise, silly,” she protested with an eye roll, though she followed the guidance of her husband’s embrace. “We’re not in a rush.”
“I know, but I don’t want to risk it, my love,” he kindly told her. “It’d do well to keep quiet once we get inside, though, since Joint’s extremely sensitive and… no longer quite herself. She’s entering the final stages of transformation, I think, and has become much more beastly. For the most part she seems to have control, but it’s best we don’t do anything that might accidentally trigger a rampage from her, especially given none of us quite have the knowledge needed for a safe transformation of a mordigan.”
“Then why did you knock out Hemorrhage,” Seer questioned with a small smirk, her husband shaking his head in bewilderment.
“I don’t know, really, but I trust Ailade’s judgment,” he stated. “She thinks that if he witnesses Joint’s worst pains and greatest suffering, he’ll never be able to forgive himself. So, having us deal with it instead of him leaves him less damaged and us more experienced for any… what-if scenarios that may pop up. I don’t disagree, but there was probably a better way to do it…”
“Rather than inflaming his temper more than it already will be,” she giggled, the mischievousness of finally getting Hemorrhage the mare he deserved in such a tricky way getting to her.
Giving her a sideways smile, Argon leaned in and gave her a peck on the cheek, asking, “Are you really looking forward to Hemorrhage getting married for his sake, or just because you’ll have a mare more your age to talk with and a playmate for Ebony?”
“I’m not that young, Ari,” she brushed off with a smile. No, she was at least two hundred years old if she remembered correctly, with almost a hundred years between him and her. An unbelievable gap by normal standards, but hardly anytime at all considering the eternity they would spend together. “But I won’t lie, having another mare and filly in the house does tilt the odds in our favor. You?”
“I’m happy for Hemorrhage, but more so for Joint,” he answered softly, a distant expression crossing his face in a haunting way. “While as a spy in Sombra’s castle, I heard of the things he did to his slaves. The stallions were tortured or experimented on with his newest ideas for dark spells and considered lucky if they died. Otherwise, they would suffer further torture. The mare’s and fillies he captured- yes, he… used fillies too- were subject to all manner of abuse, and if they were unlucky enough to conceive from it, were often beaten into miscarriage. How Joint survived three years of that when she was so young and escaped with her and her child’s life isn’t just miraculous; it’s heroic.”
“Sweet Celestia,” Seer mumbled in utter shock. In the short time since the mare’s arrival at their castle, she had only been able to pick up tidbits of her life in the Crystal Empire, though now it sounded more like a living hell than any life.
“Yes, I… saw, heard, and learned some pretty terrible things in that place,” Argon spat bitterly, looking down at Amethyst, who lay quietly awake against his leg. He was undoubtedly having the same thoughts she had experienced earlier. “I will say, this brave little one deserves-”
A sudden, soul-wrenching scream from within the cavern suddenly escaped, sending the hair on Seer’s neck straight. The unnatural sound of both an equine wail and primal howl poisoned with pain made the vampyre shudder uncontrollably, knowing immediately how powerful the pain Joint must have begun experiencing to elicit that sound from her. With a silent glance at her husband, she rushed in after him to aid the mare in whatever way she could provide.