//------------------------------// // Beast in the Brig // Story: He's a Vampire // by Gormless Wheaton //------------------------------// Patch walked with his head held high, reveling in the deference all the sheep in the village gave him. None dared look him in the eye, and none dared to bar his path. Instead, they gave way and bowed, bringing almost the entire town to a halt as he traveled. He smiled. This was, of course, the expected response to the arrival of a Longhorn. However, he was not here to delight in the respect due to him. Cutting his way through the village, he arrived at the town hall. The few staffers present quickly shuffled out to grant him the privacy he and his host would need. Only one dared to remain, but this was just as unsurprising as the behavior of the rest of the sheep. As Patch loomed in the office door, he studied the offender closely. Gruff was standing in Briefs' office holding some muted debate with the newly assigned Mayor, but as if sensing the presence of his social better, he turned and made for the door with an expression of thinly veiled contempt. Before he could brush past Patch, the Longhorn shot his foreleg to the door frame. They shared a look of equaled annoyance as Patch weaved his sorcery and pulled back the shaggy wool on Gruff's head, looking closely at the two recently filed nubs hidden there. Shaking his head, Patch removed his leg and closed the door behind Gruff. "Thank you for coming on such short notice," Briefs said. "There's been a development." "Why does he do that?" Patch asked, glancing back at the door. "Cut his horns?" Briefs asked. "Yes. He should be in the mountain or Castle Ramstead with us," Patch snorted. "Instead, he chooses to dwell with the fodder. Why?" "He believes a great fall is coming to the Longhorns soon," Briefs said evenly, without derision or mirth. Patch finally looked him in the face. "Treachery?" He asked. Briefs laughed in response. "No, not at all. Just a lack of faith." Patch pondered his answer, pacing the floor. "What of that wife and son of his?" He asked still pacing. "If he needs some motivation, we could-" "The Master has considered them," Patch stopped in his tracks and cast a look of shock at the Mayor. "If and When the Master feels it necessary to our goals, they will be removed. Not before." Patch swallowed hard but nodded. "And on the topic of the Master, he has given me a new project to relay," Briefs explained with a smile that did nothing to ease Patch's nerves. "And how might we serve the Master?" He asked. "Those new creatures you conjured from another world," Briefs began. Patch stumbled with a gasp. "Yes, he is aware of your mistake born from haste. He will forgive it, but you must set aside a few of them." Patch breathed heavily. "Set aside..?" "Four or five will do, and they must not be awakened under any circumstance. Relocate them away from the rest," Briefs explained. Patch shook. "We.. Ah, we have three we've yet to awaken.. Haven't had a chance due to feeding the rest. Will that-" "Summon a fourth." "Captain Klavis, we've passed over central Trotsylvania," the navigator reported from his table on the quarterdeck. "Do you have an inclination where they're heading?" Klavis asked. The navigator scanned his maps and nodded slowly. "Possibly to Woollachia. It's a small nation, barely even a county," he reported. "It's gone unnoticed by His Excellence for that reason," Klavis grumbled and gazed through his spyglass. "Won't be unnoticed any longer. Sounds like an excellent excuse to present them for conquest," he said, observing the rogue airship miles ahead. There was an argument occurring on their deck. The helms-stallion and the mare who'd thwarted the Brothers were bickering, and the starboard harpoon gun was surrounded by pony guards debating the device itself. "Ha! Don't even know how to use our weapons," Klavis cried before turning to the helm and addressing the crew. "Six degrees north, northwest! Portside ready the harpoon!" Grunts and salutes answered as the crew moved to carry out his orders. The ship began to turn, angling itself according to the captain's will. Klavis continued to observe the runaways and laughed when he saw the helm stallion jump as their ship slipped into a thin fog. The fool actually slammed his hoof on the braking mechanism, to the horror of the mare. "Double-time!" Klavis commanded, putting his spyglass away. The harpoon gun squeaked and squealed into place as ammunition was dragged up through the hatch in the center of the deck. It didn't matter what happened now. That momentary brake ensured their doom. He drummed the railing with glee. "Do we need any more proof than this?" He called out. The crew halted with annoyance, recognizing Klavis was about to give a speech. "Fate has shown her favor yet again!" He stepped past the helm and descended the steps to the main deck. The soldiers stood at attention, already tuning him out and letting their eyes wander. "When our King sought to unify the Storm Isles and discovered the long lost art for Storm Magic?" He rhetorically asked. "Fate had chosen her champion." He paced down the line of soldiers, too wrapped up in his delusions to notice them mocking him as he passed. And he certainly didn't notice the Third Mate staring at the runaway ship. "Captain?" The Third Mate called. "Hush!" I dismissed, striding now with his eyes closed, lost in memories of past victories. "When the Rat Cartel finally destroyed itself and came under the sole control of Verko, a molerat already in our pocket? FATE!" Squeak, squeak, squeak "Captain?" The Third Mate called again, others in the crew noticing what he was drawing attention to. "Silence! I'm on a roll," Klavis yelled, whirling about and striding back down the line. "When the Adam and his brothers appeared and swore their power to the King? The power that finally let us overcome the United Cities? What could that be but fate?" Squeak, squeak, squeak "Captain?" The entire line was now shuddering and failing. Squeak, squeak, squeak "Stop with the harpoon! It's fine as is!" Klavis ordered. He punched the air with a confident fist. "Now, on the cusp of our greatest victory, even something as small and beneath notice as a few escaped slaves has been thwarted with barely a struggle! What could you call that-" Squeak, squeak, squeak Squeak, squeak, squeak Squeak, squeak, squeak That tore it. Klavis snapped his eyes open and whipped around to the harpoon crew. "I said-" His words died in his throat when he saw that his ship was encircled by a swarm of shrieking bats. As the little creatures circled, some latched onto the supports between the ship and its balloon, while others swept down under the ship before appearing on the opposite side and rejoining the swarm. There were so many that they produced the illusion of an angry, leering face staring down at Klavis as they swarmed. A face whose eyes were the only two points in the cloud that the sun's light was able to fully pierce. Then, just as suddenly as they'd appeared, they came squealing upon the ship itself, bursting down through the open cargo hatch with such force that the lamps inside were snuffed out. The swarm disappeared into the darkness. Klavis stood back to his full height, having hit the deck with the rest of the crew when the swarm descended, and slowly turned to gaze down into the dark. The entire crew silently stepped closer, peering down and sharing looks amongst themselves. Then, a scream roared up from deep in the dark that went quiet abruptly. "Who was stationed below deck?" Klavis demanded quietly. "Hugo at the engine and Ichben at the cloud machine, captain," the Third Mate replied just before a boom and a mechanical roar rang out in the open air from the port side. The entire ship lurched and then began to slow. Klavis tore his eyes from the abyss and rushed to the side the noise came from, joined by half the crew. They watched as half the engine fell smoking to the earth hundreds of feet below. "Close-quarter arms," Klavis ordered. The three-beast forward line advanced slowly, followed by Klavis and his two guards with crossbows and then a set of three soldiers with pikes resting on the shoulders of the middle line. Their formation's lamps provided the only light as they walked. They slipped down the steps from the second deck to the third, where the engines were, having to wave away a cloud of thin steam or smoke that wafted towards them. Slowly marching down the deck, they found the engine bay and Hugo. "By the Lights.." Klavis gasped. Hugo's helmet has been thoroughly crushed, with his head still inside. Klavis silently thanked the stars he'd selected the eight soldiers he did. The sight might've been too gruesome for some of the others, especially due to how well-lit the grisly display was. There was plenty of light through the hole where the engine and a large chunk of hull used to be. At least initially. Thunder boomed outside, and the light steadily faded as boiling storm clouds filled the air around the ship. Klavis whirled around. "The Cloud Machine!" The formation broke apart as they rushed to the second deck, where they fell back in line and carefully approached the door to the machine. The reinforced door lay dented in half. In the darkness of the cloud room, a heavy, wheezing noise came to greet him. "Ichben?" Klavis called, sighing when the soldier slowly stepped into the light of their lamps. But then the other creature emerged. The new pointy-eared creature had Ichben's trembling hand gently in its own while its other hand was resting on his back. The black-haired, bearded creature looked at Ichben as they slowly walked with an expression of desperate pity, like a nurse carefully escorting an elder to their bed. As they stepped from the room, Ichben's arm suddenly shot up and pointed at Klavis, the beast whimpering and yawping as he did so. The creature leading him stopped and slowly drew his pitying eyes to Klavis. Its eyes. Black, with red irises. And for just a moment, full of a deep, personal hatred. As it saw Klavis, its mouth fell open, and it breathed. The heavy wheezing filled the deck again. The creature patted Ichben on the back and released him to flee to the lower decks, taking slow, deliberate steps toward Klavis' formation. "Identify yourself," Klavis demanded as the front line raised their swords and the back line leveled their pikes. The creature stopped three feet from the formation. "Can you fix it?" It whispered, still breathing. "Excuse you?" Klavis growled. The creature reached into its shirt, causing the formation to brace, and pulled out a letter, tracing a line near the top with its finger. Its eyes never left Klavis. "You turned her to stone," it croaked loudly. "Can you fix it?" Klavis blinked and hardened his glare. "I understand. Do you mean the princesses? Is that why you're here?" He demanded. The creature nodded, still absent-mindedly tracing the letter. "The Storm King could release them if he so chose. But that's not going-" Its breathing stopped suddenly. Its eyes still had that desperate pity, but it smiled, and for the first time, its fang-filled maw was caught in the lamplight. The sight hit Klavis like a cannon shot. "By the Lights, you're-" "That's good!" The creature whimpered, slowly looking over the letter. "That's good.. Won't save you, but that's good!" It took a step closer. "FALL BACK!" Klavis shrieked, shoving his way through the back line. "HE'S ONE OF ADAM'S!" The formation stumbled over themselves as the revelation fell upon them like a tidal wave. As a result, they were too slow to act on it. Klavis dashed with all his might, pumping his legs against the deck till his feet hurt, and never once looked back. Instead, he only heard the screaming and the crunch of metal splitting and flesh bursting. The Storm King had prepared for this. "One of Adam's below decks!" Klavis cried as he burst up onto the top deck. Panic fell upon the crew, but those with more wits about them scrambled for the hidden compartments below the quarterdeck stairs. Where the ashwood spears and bolts were kept. "Form up!" Klavis called, loading a wooden bolt and snatching up a spear. The crew fell into line around the hatch and stairs. Crossbows at the front, spears over their shoulders, creating a half circle of death for whatever came up either path. The muffled noise of wood splintering came from below, followed immediately by a louder racket on the quarterdeck. They looked up and saw in a flash of lightning the helm and chain sailing off the ship. Then they saw him standing on the railing, even if only briefly in the flash of lightning. "She said not to waste my time on hatred," he said. Klavis raised his hand, and the crossbows aimed. "If I were a pettier man, I'd say something like 'but she's not here right now.'" "Shoot!" Klavis ordered, throwing his hand forward. Sixteen bolts went peeling up at the intruder. All of them stopped dead in the air, surrounded by a faint red light. The crew held their breath as the bolts slowly readjusted and pointed back at the ones who'd shot them. "But it can be reversed. So I don't have to hate you," he declared. "And I don't think she'd want me to anyway." The bolts fell to the ground in a clatter. The crew breathed again. "But she also mentioned a 'desire for justice,'" he paced the railing. His eyes fell on the crew. "So, here's the deal. Surrender and help me kick your Dumbass-in-Chief's teeth in. Or this goes very badly for you." The crew murmured with dread, and some charged up the stairs with their spears. Others began scrambling to reload their crossbows. "I tried! Can't win 'em all," He shrugged. The spearbeasts thrust at the spot he stood, striking only air as he vanished in a flash of crimson light. "What?" Klavis muttered. Then, there was an echoing metallic rattle that cut through the air. Looking at where it came from Klavis saw the red eyes of the creature in the air, completely enshrouded in the darkness of the storm. It threw something from itself, which fell onto the deck and coiled at Klavis' feet. It was the lower half of a torn support line to the balloon. Then he flew to the next on the line. "Stop him!" Klavis screamed, aiming at him. A gout of fire shot down onto the deck, spoiling his aim and setting his fur ablaze. The crew fell into a panic, hurling whatever was at hand at the intruder as he snapped the second and then the third cable. As the ship leaned heavily and the opposite cables began to groan, they now threw pleas for mercy. The noise of the last line breaking was his only reply. "What are we waiting on?!" Starlight cried. "It's pretty obvious your boss' plan was just to hold them up in that storm cloud!" "He told me through his Scrying Eye to wait for him to arrive and then wait for him to leave," Blueblood argued. "He said he wanted her to see we were safe." "Who?!" Starlight cried, grinding her teeth when Blueblood shrugged. Sunbeam gripped the side of the ship as she stared at the storm far behind them with wide terrified eyes. The monster's laughter in her head had been quiet ever since Peter's bats flew out. "Look, I get you're this guy's number one fan and all that," she said stepping from the railing to look at Blueblood. "And hey, when I was a filly, I was into all that black metal goth stuff, too." Blueblood raised an eyebrow. "But we need to be practical here! So let's-" "Hey look!" Sweetie Bell cried. Everypony on deck gasped as they watched the ship that had been pursuing them sink out of the cloud on its side, falling to the ground far, far below where it burst apart in an explosion of earth and wood. Sunbeam held a hoof to her mouth, as Starlight peered over the edge. "Hu.. wow," she whispered. "The feller mah sister met did that?" Applebloom asked as she and her friends looked at the ruin down below. "He.. He sure did," Sunbeam replied. The crowd looked up at the storm cloud just as the swarm of bats erupted out, screeching past them back to Woollachia. Starlight gawped at the sight and turned to Blueblood. Her expression fell when she saw his smug smile. "Just drive the dang boat.."