//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: Pegazo Vampir Equinae // by Gecko //------------------------------// ”There.” Twilight said happily as she finished helping Rarity with her morning chores. It had taken them quite the long time since Twilight isn’t usually so good at this. But, at least she managed, even if it took a long time.   “Why, thank you Twilight. I must be off now, I have already used up too much work time, see you soon.” Rarity exclaimed as she quickly exited the library to go off towards her shop and start making dresses.   “Well, at least she remembered to retract her fangs.” Twilight mumbled to herself as she stretched her muscles. They had become very tired due to her sitting down and doing, well, nothing much really…   Oh Celestia, that was exhausting. Holy moley, I’m tired now.   “Who’s there? Who’s that?” Twilight shouted worryingly.   Calm down, geez, this is tiresome… It’s me Clover, now, before you say anything, I am able to do this because I cast a spell on you while we were inside Rainbow Dash, call it a tracer or something… And uhmm… It made it possible for me to do what I’m doing now, and let me tell you, it used up A LOT of my magic.   Wait, Clover… So you can talk to me using telepathy now? I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing… Besides, what do you even want with me? Twilight asked, suspicious of what motives the spirit could possibly have.   Nah, I’m really just here to make you realize something. Do you remember while we were inside Rainbow Dash and the whole ‘Love’ business?   Yeah? Twilight said, now really worried about what would come next. She hoped it wouldn’t be something completely off the rocker.   Oh good. Well, first I want to say that I have an overhand, in a lot of different ways. You see, if you ever go against me in any way that I dislike, well, let’s just say that Dashie will have a bad time. But you probably already knew that. What I really wanted you to know is that it wasn’t entirely your choice to do what you did. I saw you in there and how you handled yourself and I must say that you are quite the adept thinker… Well anyway, normally if you were in your right mind, you wouldn’t have done what you did; I manipulated you into doing it. You didn’t notice it, and you shouldn’t have, ‘cause I didn’t really do anything visible, all I did was slightly changing your brainwaves, now, this takes power. I did it because I need an edge; it’s a good thing to have you know. Now, why am I telling you this? I really wanted you to know that whatever happens now, I have a much stronger hand than you.   You… MANIPULATED ME!? Well… Ok, I don’t know what to say, except for that fact that I dislike you doing it… And at the same time, you having an overhand seems completely useless right now, at least, it does to me.  But being prepared is always smart, I guess. I can’t say I’m too unhappy with how the whole Rainbow business is growing to be, I mean, that crush has been annoying me for some time… She trailed off as a very distinct sound could be heard.   BRZZT   “Oh no… Nonononononono” Twilight chanted as she quickly opened a cupboard to find a small rectangular rock.   What on Equestria is that supposed to be?   “This? This rock buzzing, it means Rainbow is in trouble… Already though? I knew something would happen but still… Ok, off I go!” Twilight shouted as she quickly enveloped herself in magic and teleported away.             “Horseapples.” Rainbow Dash said in a very flat way. “This, is gonna get ugly…”   She couldn’t have hit that statement more spot on than she did. As fast as the broadcast of Greasy’s voice ended, stallions and mares could be seen appearing from bushes. There was one specific stallion Rainbow recognized, it was Steadfast Shield, the giant stallion that never says anything.   He stood atop of a hill, not that high of a hill but it was still located higher up than the two of them. He silently stood there as ponies closed in on them slowly as Rainbow and Luna prepared for the inevitable battle that would come. Rainbow swore under her breath because she was annoyed at the fact that they just had to attack them when they were all out of energy, well Rainbow was, at least, she didn’t know about Luna, she was a Princess after all, you never knew with Alicorns. But, Rainbow could hear that the Princess was, in fact, breathing heavily, a common indicator of fatigue.   One of the mares jumped at Luna, but she simply flicked the mare away with her  tail as if it was made of some sort of metal, clearly hurting the mare. But in the act of counter attacking the mare, two stallions rammed into Luna’s sides, pushing her together.   CRACK!   A snapping sound could be heard and Luna yelled out in pain, but it didn’t seem to faze her, because she was back in action almost immediately, knocking the heads of the two stallions together, making them fall into unconsciousness.   Rainbow on the other hoof, was having quite the difficult time, for, you see, she had three mares and three stallions on her at the same time, making counter attacking almost impossible, because if she ducked away from an attack, another would hit her during the move. If she tried to attack, she was blocked by the ones she weren’t attacking, so she had no idea what to do to get out of this little trouble she had found herself in.   Frustrated, Rainbow hastily tried to channel power into her hooves, to, once again, create ice. The others seemed to prepare themselves for what was to come, the two who were pegasi cowardly flew up into the air and the two unicorns cast a shield spell around themselves. Ice started to cover Rainbow’s hooves before finally encasing them. She thrust her tow hooves into the ground, completely surprising the attackers. She started to push the ice further and as she did, she started to feel the earth around it as it slowly crept further into the ground, giving it frostbite. Rainbow smiled. She forced the ice to form at her will and it suddenly appeared at the hooves of the earthbound opponents. The ice itself crept up on their hooves, making them unable to move, they tried resisting the grip of the ice, but they were completely unable to do so. Before their pegasi companions could react, their entire bodies were incased in ice. Rainbow grunted in approval and released her own hooves from the grip of the ice, immediately taking to the sky.   The ponies she was now facing were wearing extremely scared expression, not caring about that fact, Rainbow charged at one of them, so fast that the mare she attacked had no possibility of dodging, what so ever. The stallion, still struck by fear slowly flew backwards, still looking at the scene in front of him. Rainbow Dash was wearing a really neutral expression, it was as if she wasn’t angry or frustrated, or she simply had a heart of cold, the stallion couldn’t quite point it out. Rainbow bashed the mare into the ground, making a large ‘thud’ noise when the body made contact with the ground. Turning towards the last stallion, Rainbow’s eye twitched. The stallion, who didn’t want to die, tried one last maneuver against the rainbow maned mare. He made a huge gulp and flew upwards into a layer of clouds, completely blocking him from Rainbow’s immediate sight.   Rainbow flew through the clouds and appeared on the other side; she didn’t see the stallion, at all. All the directions she looked, there was no stallion, just air and clouds. Determined to hunt him down, she calmed herself down and plunked herself down on the nearest cloud and decided to trick the stallion into thinking she was trying to nap on a cloud.   The stallion looked from his hiding spot and saw Rainbow lay down on the cloud. He was seriously wondering what had gone through the mare’s mind as he was pretty fast figured out the plan of the mare.  He had seen from the behavior and heard from his employer that the mare in question, Rainbow Dash, was not the most patient of ponies, so he knew that if he just stayed hidden for long enough, she would get annoyed and start thrashing around, making for the perfect opportunity to strike.   As he observed the mare, he started to hear something, and it made him angry, he could hear something from the mare, and it was snores, honest to Celestia, snores, she was sleeping. The stallion couldn’t believe what he was seeing and put his hooves over his ears, trying to reset his hearing. When he released, the nose returned and he finally understood that the mare, was, in fact, sleeping.   Determined he lifts off from his cloud and sped up towards the mare, speeding up as he closed up on the mare’s cloud.   When he was but ten feet away from the mare, her eyes peeked open and she made a smile and the stallion got angry at himself. “Peekabo.” Rainbow Dash said coldly as she hit the stallion in the muzzle, breaking his concentration, making him fall as he slowly became unconscious. Rainbow didn’t want to kill ponies, so she decided to save the guy, even if he had just tried to kill her. She picked him up and flew up above the cloud layer. She chose the nearest cloud and placed him down on it on his back. She picked his hoof up in her own and placed it over his heart, as to make him look dignified. Smiling, Rainbow flew down below the cloud layer once again.     A few minutes earlier…     As Rainbow Dash followed the stallion up into the clouds, Luna was still fighting against her opponents, not having the ice hooves, stunning all of the six was a hard task. She knew that they probably didn’t care what happened to her, since their orders were simply to catch Rainbow Dash. What surprised her though, was the fact that they even dared, she was Celestia’s sister after all and immortal Alicorn on top of that. What drove these ponies, she would never know, perhaps bits? No… That would be stooping too low… You never know though.   Luna took to the air, leaving four of her attackers on the ground; this would give her more leeway to go about incapacitating these ponies in a much more controlled way. The first of the pegasi charged at her aimlessly, which she easily avoided without problem. But as she did, something hit her in the back, she looked towards the origin of the pain and she found that the unicorns were shooting projectiles at her. She sighed in annoyance, but soon remembered that she still only had four ponies to go against at the moment. The pegasi who had just charged her whimsically turned around from his charge and his eye twitched slightly as he smiled. Confused, Luna charged right at him, hoping to surprise, but he continued to hover in place and smiling. Luna didn’t have time to think over her actions as she sped up even more. As she closed into him, something knocked her away from her target. She lost control and wavered around in the air before finally getting a grip of her wings once again. She looked at what had hit her this time and she found that the pegasi stallion was still hovering in the same exact location. She looked down and heard a thud. An earth pony just landed on the ground and looked up to her and smiled. She had jumped 30 feet! That’s in-equine! Baffled, Luna decided to finally finish everything. She had tried to be nice and do it the easy way, but they were annoying her to no end.   She flared her horn with magic and shot away two small shots of sonic sounds, deafening the ponies, making them hold over their ears, trying to hear something. But when they were unable to they all started to panic and Luna charged. She immediately knocked the pegasus who had just mocked her to the ground, making him unconscious within seconds of her touching him. Her next target was the pegasus mare who was flying a bit away from her. She quickly flared her horn and the pegasus started to sleep. Two down, four to go. She decided taking out the ‘easier’ targets would be a good plan so she decided to take care of the earth pony stallion next. He was big, but not Big Mac big. She used her magic to make him sink into the ground and put a sleeping spell on him too. Next target, the female unicorn. Her sonic spell was starting to wear off so she threw a rock at the face of the unicorn making her instantaneously fall unconscious.   Now… Wait, where did the last two go? Luna looked around furiously as she looked all around for the two ponies. But her search was interrupted as mockery against her person could be heard from a nearby bush. She attacked the bush it was coming from and there was nopony there! Suddenly, another voice started its mockery, which was soon followed by mockery coming from all directions Angry, Luna flared her horn once more, trying to locate the two ponies. And she found the two of them, a mare and stallion hiding in a bush, snickering for some reason. Not caring what they were having so much fun over, she quickly dove inside the bush and incapacitated the two of them, immediately knocking them out. She snorted at the bodies in defeat as she walked out towards the unconscious bodies and ponies encased in ice as she waited for the Rainbow maned mare to come back down from her escapade in the clouds with that stallion.   Her concentration was completely broken as she somehow got knocked straight into the air, making her really weak in the process. She looked down at what had hit her and she saw the same big stallion that had stood on the nearby hill just before. Luna moaned because she had forgotten such an important detail. Luna tried to use her wings, but they didn’t obey her command, no, nothing worked, she couldn’t move, her entire body had been  incapacitated, but she was still conscious, how was this possible? She tried to yell for help, but, it simply came out as a small gurgle of despair. She knew she wouldn’t die, that would be something extraordinary, since she couldn’t die, right?   Just as she was about to accept her turn into the unconsciousness when she would hit the ground, something happened, a flash. In the sky, over the clouds. Luna opened her eyes, and she saw her, Rainbow Dash was performing the Sonic Rainboom yet again and was flying straight towards her. Rainbow picked her up in a matter of seconds later. Dash mumbled something about Luna being safe which made the Princess smile in confidence as she silently moved towards self provoked unconsciousness. Rainbow nodded to herself and flew up in the clouds once again. She placed the Princess on one of the bigger clouds that wouldn’t disappear before she was finished.   Rainbow slowly descended towards the ground wearing a serious expression as she looked at the stone faced stallion who was staring straight back at her. She landed gracefully on the ground and their staring contest continued.   They simply stood there, staring at each other, not moving a single inch for several minutes.   But all changed when the big stallion attacked.   He rushed forwards towards the pegasus and struck her in the chest with a right hoof. Rainbow, unable to react in time, took the hit directly to her stomach.  Steadfast smiled slightly as he used the elbow of his left foreleg and hit her it the back, making her completely lose all air in her lungs and fall to the ground. He looked at her and sighed that she could be defeated so easily. He picked her up from the ground and placed her on his back. He rolled his eyes and started to walk off.   What he didn’t know was that Rainbow had tricked him. As he walked towards the nearby forest Rainbow opened her eyes and kicked him in the stomach and jumped off from his back. Rainbow Dash huffed in his direction as she jumped off his back collected energy in her hoof, once again making it ice. She used her hoof to hit him square in the face with ice, drawing forth a single drop of blood from his nose. This wasn’t enough since he was still standing. Rainbow prepared for another attack against his head, but as the hoof drew really close to his face, he reacted.   He took her hoof with his own and slammed it against her own face, stunning her for the moment. He took her back leg and threw her over his shoulder, impacting her with the ground. He did the same thing at least ten times and the he finally looked at the now completely bloodied mare, she was gone, not dead, but unconscious. He grunted in annoyance and placed her on his back as he walked towards the forest again.   FLASH!   A big flash was seen by Steadfast and he looked towards the location of the flash, he saw a lavender mare standing there, looking at him. He recognized the mare as Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic, and protégé of Celestia.  Her horn flared and its aura enveloped Rainbow Dash and levitated her off his back, his eyes twitched as he charged towards the lavender mare with a grunt. Her horn flared and she appeared behind him as he continued to charge, but as he noticed her disappearance, he immediately stopped and turned around to once again face her. They were just about to charge at each other when…   “Uhhmm… Excuse me? But what is going on here? Why are you two looking like you are about to fight? Why is that mare over there bleeding and why are there ponies encased in ice?” Twilight and Steadfast looked towards the voice, they found a meager looking colt, probably only in his early twenties. He had a coat of dark blue and his eyes were silver. His mane was a simple brown, something common in earth ponies Twilight noted. Besides him stood a red-orange unicorn with blue eyes and her mane followed the colt’s trend of being brown, but the mare’s mane reached to her should opposed to the colt she was standing next to. “Hello? I am asking here!”   “Uhmm… Well…” Twilight trailed off, not sure what to say, she was still surprised at the weird situation.   Steadfast took something up from his suddenly appearing saddlebag and held it between him and the newcomers. It spoke with a voice saying “Civilians, leave now. We don’t want civilians to die, bad for image.” Steadfast grunt in acceptance and ran off into the forest.   “Well, that was interesting.” Twilight commented, picking up Rainbow Dash with and magic and turning towards the two new ponies. “Thanks to you two as well, I guess, if you two hadn’t come when you did, I think things would have turned out very ugly indeed. I’m Twilight Sparkle and this is Rainbow Dash. She needs to get to the hospital, but it’s not immediate… Who are you two?” She asked the two of them.   The colt answered. “I am Colt Train, yeah, it’s a weird name, my parents were a weird couple. And this here, is my marefriend, Rose Lilly, she’s good with, well, flowers, I’m a good tactician… Not really the most useful talent in the world, but I always win at games… We are moving into the close town somewhere nearby, that’s why we were walking this way, and we always liked the scenic route. I think the town was called Ponyville.” He finished and Twilight made a slight smile.   “Yeah, Ponyville is great, hope you like it, it’s just down that path.” She motioned towards a path going out the area they were located in. “I need to get this pegasus into hospital now, and again, thanks for appearing out of nowhere.” She said before flashing away in a puff of magic.