Celestia, you may raise the sun, but that doesn’t mean we enjoy the morning that comes with it...
I must have had the same thought every morning. Though most ponies would worship the days they did not have to wake up to an alarm clock, I found the rising of the sun to be a terrible experience any day of the week. Celestia’s blessing to the world in my eyes was unbearable. However, waking up to something, or someone, tended to mellow my mood and this morning was no exception.
As I blinked opened my eyes, I took care not to disturb the sleeping mare on my chest. From this angle all I could see was her black mane. I could smell the faint scent of pine coming from her hair as I felt her gentle breathing.
As I looked upon her smiling, I felt the over-analytic voice in my head (I knew him as Query) begin to question how a mare such as her could be with me. I was an average stallion with a below average talent and a habit of questioning everything around me, where she would often travel to exotic places spreading her lovely music and didn’t seem to have a care in the world. How somepony in metalworking managed to even meet such a creative and beautiful mare is nothing less than a fairy tale.
Well... unless there’s a story about a drunken stallion bumping into his best friend’s old roommate and hitting on her terribly, than I have to admit calling it a fairy tale may be an exaggeration. Still, the fact that she had found my poor attempts at courting amusing enough to give me a chance is no less of a miracle than one you often find in stories told to children.
My questioning of my life’s blessings was interrupted by the source of my doubts. As she began to stir, she turned her head toward me so that I could see her gray coat. I felt my heart soar as her deep purple eyes blinked open.
“Good morning my little songbird.” Her only reply to my teasing was to raise a hoof and place it on my cheek in a sleep deprived attempt at hitting me.
“Hmm... I told you... not to call me that... metal head” she muttered. I had to admit, she was absolutely adorable when she was annoyed. “Wha... what time is it?”
I felt the familiar surge of magic as I willed her alarm clock to move within my field of vision. “It’s about 9:30.” This news managed to wake up my marefriend pretty quickly.
“Oh no! I’m going to be late!” I coughed a bit as she pushed off my body and ran to the bathroom. Before I could even ask what could get her to move so fast, she had closed the door and started the shower. For a moment I considered walking in on her as she cleaned herself, but I decided it was too early in the morning to be pushing her buttons so much.
I picked up the alarm clock from where I had dropped it and returned it to its nightstand. After about ten minutes of internal turmoil on if it was worth dragging my plot out of bed, I finally won against my lazy thoughts and got up. I heard the door to the bathroom open as I planted my hooves on the ground.
I turned to see my marefriend step out, and I won’t deny she looked pretty hot with a wet mane. “So what’s got your cello strings all knotted up Tavi?”
Octavia rolled her eyes at me but she smiled just the same.“I have a friendly meeting with Vinyl today and I told her I would be there by ten. Could you dry my mane?”
My horn glowed as I leaned my head toward her. I have no idea how she managed before meeting me, but since we had become a couple I had become her personal hairdryer. Thankfully my talent with metal also came with good control of heat and fire. Within a few moments, Octavia’s mane had been completely dried.
“Well, have fun and watch out for Vinyl. She has a tendency to get a little crazy.”
“Oh please, you have about as much control during your ‘outings’ as she does.” Seems it was my turn to be poked fun at. Vinyl and I had been drinking buddies for about as long as I could remember, and since alcohol has a tendency to poke holes in my memory there wasn’t much left to recall. What I could tell you based on what I did have was that when the two of us were out on the town, something interesting was bound to happen.
“Alright, I get it. You’re more responsible and mature and all-around better than I am.” I had learned early on in our relationship that arguing with Octavia is impossible. As I ended my string of compliments, she surprised me with a kiss on my cheek.
“Well I wouldn’t want to disagree with you.” Octavia said slyly. As she turned away I felt my eyes gravitate toward her flanks, her treble clef adorned plot swaying side to side as she walked out of the room. Once I was free of her spell, I decided it would be worth cleaning myself up and stepped into the bathroom.
I felt Query begin to question my relationship once again, only this time instead of indulging his curiosity I shut him up fast, banishing him from my thoughts.
* * *
Once I had decided I looked good enough to be seen by others (which just meant I had gotten rid of my bed head), I stepped out onto the streets of Ponyville. Before I could join the other denizens of the town though, I had to win my daily battle with sunlight. I struggled to keep my eyes open against my eternal enemy for about ten minutes before my eyes finally adjusted.
Although I had taken my sweet time waking up, it seems the rest of the town had managed much better than I and were already going about their business. I stood there for a moment and watched in a strange sense of amazement as ponies of many different colors trotted off to do their daily tasks. However, my examination of the scene was interrupted by my stomach’s desire for food.
“Oh hush you.” I told my stomach. I was already late enough for work as is. Unfortunately, my hunger was not going to be so easily quieted. It let loose a few more growls before I finally gave into its demands. After a few moments of thought, I decided the best place to shut it up would be the marketplace.
The street Octavia’s house sat on was nowhere near as busy as this. Market street was filled with vendors, each one selling something different. Groups of ponies ran from stand to stand as the shop owners barked out advertisements. The buildings on the street were also stores in which you could buy many different things, though the insides of them were no less crowded.
Despite my urgency to feed myself and get to work, my claustrophobia got the better of me. Instead of heading straight to the baker’s shop, I found myself walking slowly through the crowds, doing my best not to let myself get engulfed in the chaos. As I neared my destination, I let my guard down, but I quickly realized my mistake as a group of ponies swept over me.
Of course I took the sudden crowding like the stallion I was and simply waited for them to pass... with my hooves covering my eyes and ears... and I was lying on the ground. Hey, it was still the most manly cowering you have ever seen in your life!
Anyways, with the stampede of ponies finally gone, I darted to the doors of Sugercube Corner, thanking all four princesses of Equestria under my breath. I still can’t believe that crazy librarian is a princess now. I was lucky to find that the store was not very busy and had only one other customer at the moment.
Although I could tell Pinkie Pie was trying her best to make the hooded stallion’s visit to the shop as enjoyable as possible, he clearly wasn’t in the mood. HIs brown cloak hid everything about him except his body shape, even hiding the color of his coat which made him all the more strange. Suddenly he seemed to have enough of Pinkie Pie as he slammed both of his forehooves on the counter.
“Enough!” His voice sounded raspy as if he needed a drink of water. “Just get me my piece of bread so I can get out of here!” Oddly enough, Pinkie Pie calmed down and handed him his order in a brown paper bag. At a second glance, I realized she wasn’t calm, but that she was terrified of the stallion. Grunting in what I suppose was satisfaction, he grabbed the bag in his mouth. Our eyes locked as he turned to leave.
I could now see why Pinkie had been so scared of this guy. His stare felt cold and void of life yet no matter how much it pained me I could not look away. My instincts were screaming at me, warning me that if I looked away now, I would die. It felt like an hour had gone by before the strange stallion looked away and walked out the door.
As soon as I was free of his gaze I slumped to the floor. My mind began to pick up the pieces of my shattered thoughts, however my rehabilitation was soon interrupted by a pink hoof poking my head.
I looked up to see Pinkie Pie back to her smiling self. Query poked his head out of his home in my head as he tried to figure out how she had been able to piece herself back together so fast. Already having to deal with voices coming from my stomach, I sent him away with the argument all of Ponyville made in cases like this: Just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie.
“You doing alright there Bronze? That guy sure was scary. I couldn’t even get him to smile!”
Really? Out of everything about the guy you thought that was his scariest feature? I just sighed in response as I stood back up. My stomach quickly reminded me of what I had come here for.
“Oh, your tummy is hungry for a donut isn’t he? Don’t worry tummy, I’ve got what you want!” Pinkie Pie bounced behind the counter and began to shuffle around, making a lot more noise than seemed possible. I tried to look over the counter to see what all the fuss was about but before I could get a glimpse she had finished packing my order.
“Here you go! That will be one bit please.” Once I had paid for the food and it was safely floating next to me, I turned to ask about what had happened but she was gone. I glanced to the side to see the doors to the kitchen swinging shut.
Yep, just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie.
Once outside the bakery, I began to shove Query back behind his door as well as quiet the selfish pony that sat in my stomach. Once I was satisfied that both sides were silenced, I finally felt peaceful enough to head to work. Thankfully I was the only metal smith in town so I didn’t have to worry about a boss yelling at me for being late.
Seemed like today was a good day to be my own boss, as here comes my ultimate distraction walking down the street.
“Hey Vinyl! What are you doing here? I thought you and Tavy had something today?”
The blue maned unicorn smiled at me in response. “We did, that was over an hour ago. Don’t tell me you slept in even more than usual.” I looked through the window of Sugercube Corner to check the time. It’s eleven thirty?! How is that possible? I left Octavia’s at ten! The cold eyed stallion came to mind but Vinyl interrupted my thoughts.
“So Octy told me you guys got busy last night. How was it?” I will admit I blushed a bit at Vinyl’s questioning but it didn’t last long.
“Vinyl, this isn’t the first time we’ve slept together. I’m sure I’ve told you about the other times after a few ciders.”
“Oh it was more than a few! And I just wanted to make sure you hadn’t been lying about it. Some of things you say when you drink make you sound crazier than Pinkie Pie.” She had me there, but that was why she was my best friend. Only a real friend would know the drunken habits of the other, and this friendship was a two-way street.
“Pfft, like you’re any better! I still remember that night you were so drunk you decided it would be fun to ride on top of your turntables.”
“And it was!”
“Really? Was it fun when you slammed into the wall head first?”
She put a hoof to her chin. “Oh, I don’t remember that part. I guess that explains where the hole in my wall came from.” After a brief pause in the conversation, both of us began laughing at ourselves.
“Say Bronze, me and the rest of the gang are planning on spending the summer solstice getting crazy. You in?”
Oh right! I had totally forgotten that the solstice was tomorrow. There was something I had to do that day, what was it... Oh!
“Sorry Vinyl, but I’m hanging out with Tavy tomorrow. Maybe I’ll catch up later that night.” Though I could tell Vinyl was bummed I couldn’t make it, she still put a smile on. Vinyl had been almost the entire reason I had met Octavia in the first place so she knew more about our relationship than anypony else.
“That’s a bummer, but I understand.” Vinyl began to leave but glanced back. “You two have fun!” she called back in a tone that would make any sentence sound like a sexual slur.
As she walked into the crowd of the market, I managed to shake off the redness that had come to my cheeks. I felt bad for not being able to join her and the rest of my friends for a day of drunken fun, but I had made a promise to Octavia and I wasn’t about to break it. After another check of the time, I decided no more dilly-dallying and headed straight to work.
* * *
I moaned as I entered my home, my head throbbing with pain after a long day of work. Many ponies loved having reflective metal decorations on their houses’ for the summer solstice. Unfortunately that meant five times the work for me as ponies ran in to get what they needed.
My house was the same design as Octavia’s home only with a lot less furniture and things hanging on the walls. Now that I think about, my house was barren in comparison to her’s. I suppose that was my fault as I prefered only having what I needed. I also never took pictures, therefore leaving nothing to hang on the walls.
I walked into the kitchen and proceeded to fill a bag with ice using my hooves and then grabbed some hard cider from the fridge. Once I was comfortable on my couch, I pressed the ice against my head.
I should probably explain why my head was in pain and not my hooves. You see, I was experiencing what we unicorns call “magical backlash.” When a unicorn uses too much power, it puts a strain on our brain. In most cases, the repercussions of this were nothing more than a headache. However, there had been cases where somepony had used so much magic that they needed medical attention.
I began to take large swigs of cider, which in tandem with my ice pack began to lighten the drum beating in my head. Query had thankfully not taken advantage of my weakened state to make me question the world’s motives as he normally did. Thank Celestia I thought, but a quick glance at my clock made me double back on my praise. I mean Luna.
With my thoughts clear, I decided it would be worth looking back on my day. It didn’t take long for me to remember the cold stallion from Sugercube Corner. What was up with him? Not only had he been strangely dressed, but he managed to scare Pinkie Pie of all ponies. And that stare... had it really locked me in place for almost an hour? Those eyes... I’ve seen them somewhere...
As I finished the bottle of cider, I realized that my ice pack was now leaking water all over my head. Feeling much better, I threw the bag of melted ice as well as the empty bottle into the trash can using what little magic I could. After a long yawn, I decided that going to bed buzzed couldn’t hurt and headed upstairs.
As I entered my bedroom I found that I had left my covers on the floor. I picked it up in my mouth and was about to drape it over the bed when my jaw dropped at what I saw outside my window.
Standing on the roof of the house across the street was the silhouette of a pony, the light of the near-full moon behind him keeping his identity a mystery. But what surprised me about the pony was not their strange choice of where to stand.
His eyes. They’re the same from the bake shop!
His stare was just the same as it had been earlier that morning, only now they seemed to glow a deep red. Although I felt some fear, I did not feel paralyzed as I had before and this fact alone made me question if my drunken mind was playing tricks on me.
I rubbed my eyes with one of my hooves in an attempt to dispel the illusion before me, and as far as I could tell it worked. Damn drunken mirages! Gonna give me a heart attack. Shaking off my shock, I reached down once again to grab my blanket but stopped an inch away. Although I was both drunk and tired, I knew this time I was not imagining things. Someone was in my room.
The next thing I knew I was picking myself up off the floor. My heartbeat was echoing in my ears as I slowly stood up. My whole body felt stiff and sore, but a stinging in my neck was the only thing that was noteworthy of my condition. I rubbed that spot in an attempt to alleviate the pain as I tried to remember what was going on.
Looking around my room, I found my blanket still on the floor and the window wide open. Once I had fixed both of these things with a bit of magic, I realized that something was on my hoof. I took it off my neck to see red staining my normally copper-colored coat. This surprised me but after running into the bathroom to check in the mirror I calmed down. Although there was no wound in sight, there was a bit of blood mixed into my coat and mane.
Suddenly the urge to sleep hit me and I had no defense against it. Shrugging off the weird events, I walked back into the other room and collapsed in my bed.
* * *
I don’t have dreams when I sleep, or at the very least I can never remember them. So when I suddenly found myself standing on the moon, I didn’t really know what was going on. How would I know it’s the moon? Well, other than the entire landscape around me being gray rock and the planet floating above me, I suppose it was easy to assume based on the only companion I had.
Walking toward me was the Princess of the Night herself. I had never seen her in person, or at least I thought I hadn’t. Berry Punch had thrown a Nightmare Night party and I had already had my share of the punch by the time Princess Luna arrived. Remembering how I tended to act when drunk, I suddenly forgot the fact I was on the moon and became more worried with what I may have said to the princess that night.
As she stopped before me, I blurted out my thoughts about as quickly as I could say them. “Sorry if I said anything to offend you last Nightmare Night! I tend to drink a lot and my friends say that I can say some stupid things when I’m drunk and if I accidentally hit on you I can assure I didn’t mean anything by it, not that you're not beautiful or anything but I have a marefriend and-!”
As I took a moment to catch my breath, I realized that Princess Luna was snickering behind her hoof at my awkward apology. It was obvious she wasn’t trying to be rude, but I guess my making a complete fool of myself wasn’t helping. The only reaction I could muster with half a lung full of air was “Wha...?”
She put her hoof down and smiled at me. “Do not worry Bronze Ember. We are not here to punish you for anything you may have done while inebriated.” I sighed with relief. “As a matter of fact, we found your attempts at courting to be quite amusing last we were in Ponyville.” I sucked back in my sigh as I blushed. I couldn’t believe I had tried to get with the princess, though I had to admit she was quite a sexy looking mare...
I quickly shook these thoughts from my head as Luna continued in a serious tone. “We are afraid our appearing here in your dreams is more than just to speak of your nightly habits. We have come to warn you of a danger that is partially our fault.” My ears perked up as I heard this, but before she could explain, Query came back and began filling my head with a million irrelevant questions such as ‘why are we on the moon?’ and ‘if this is a dream, could I wish to see Luna in lingerie?’
Fuck Query
I growled in anger as I hit my head against the surface of the moon, trying to silence the annoying bastard once and for all. After a few repetitions, I glanced back up to see Princess Luna looking at me like I had gone insane. To be honest, I would have agreed with her at this point.
“If you are done bashing your head into the moon, we will continue.” I nodded, not wanting to look anymore ridiculous. “Now, where shall we begin...” She looked down at the moon in an expression that combined thinking and concern. Seeing her like this made me realize just how serious she was.
“We suppose the best place to start is at the beginning.” As she said this her horn glowed a dark blue. A series of tablets appeared around us, each showing events happening on them. I stared in awe at the moving pictures and would have taken longer to study them, but Princess Luna diverted my attention to a single tablet. She began to narrate as I watched.
“You know of the story of the Mare and the Moon and our involvement in the tale. What you do not hear about in books is what happened to our royal guard after we were sealed away. You see, they weren’t just any other ponies like my sister’s guards. They were.. vamponies.”
I had heard of the many stories of vamponies just as every other foal. They were ponies turned to monster by dark magic, preying on those who were once their kin for their blood. They were immortal and were supposed to be powerful in both body and magic, but despite all their strengths they were known for many weaknesses as well. The sun, garlic, and light magic were only a few things that came to my mind. However, I had never heard anything about Luna’s guard being vamponies, though I had to admit it explained a lot about their appearance.
“We- no, I- created the vampony race using a spell I crafted. Though having to drink blood to fuel their new powers was seen as immoral, Equestria was different back then and the positives outweighed the negatives. For a time, the vamponies were a great help despite my sister’s dislike for them and the dark magic that created them.
“However, as time went on I began to see some of my guard change. Though most remained loyal, a few tried to go rogue. Celestia... was quick to get rid of them and criticize my work.” She paused, remembering a bad memory.
“When I returned after a thousand years of being trapped here, Celestia told me that she had hunted down every last one of my vamponies and ordered me not to create anymore. I had never seen my sister so furious, so I accepted her terms out of fear for her safety as well as my own.”
Our eyes met as she turned her head. “But she was wrong. Vamponies still roamed Equestria.” I followed her gaze as she looked to another of the moving images. “Of this I’m sure. Three vamponies still live, having stayed hidden for all these years.”
Query managed to burst out and ask the princess a question. “You mean there is one more vampony besides the ones that pull your carriage?”
“Oh, those are not vamponies.” I looked at her confused, waiting for an explanation. Thankfully she took notice. “Those two are my sister’s royal guard disguised using magic. It was something she suggested to make me feel better.
“Although you were wrong about who they were, you were right about two vamponies being my guards. Two of the vamponies in Equestria are still loyal to me, but they stay in hiding for fear of my sister discovering them. The other has taken the destruction of his kind at Celestia’s hooves poorly and now seeks her death. Unfortunately he is beyond reasoning, and I fear what he might do to the denizens of our empire.”
I thought over everything that the princess had told me, absorbing the information as to not forget it. Though Query was having a field day with all this info, I had to admit that one of his questions was bugging me as well.
“This is interesting and all, but why are you telling me this?” Not once had I heard why I needed to know about the vamponies. Considering how Luna was hiding the survivors’ existence from her sister of all ponies, I found it odd that she was so forthcoming of the information. I suddenly regretted bringing it up though as her expression changed to one of sadness. I thought I could see tears forming in her eyes as she looked to me.
“The reason you need to know of this is because this disloyal vampony has influenced your life once again, and I fear there is no simple way to fix the damage he has done.” If I had not been worried before, I was definitely worried now. Query finally broke free of his chains and ran rampant through my head, filling it with questions I desperately needed answered.
“What do you mean? What has he done? Am I in trouble?” I continued spitting questions out until Luna put a calm hoof on my shoulder. This gesture served to shove Query back into his hole and make me sit down. She gave me moment before speaking again as if she knew of my inner voice.
“This night, as you slumber away in your bed, a new blood flows through your veins. This is vampony blood, and in a normal situation I would travel to your town and administer a counter spell to neutralize it before it advanced too far. But you are a rare case.
“You see, part of the spell I used to create vamponies is to give them the ability to make fledglings by transferring their blood. These fledglings were just like any other vampony, except that they had to do everything their master commanded. It seemed foolproof at first, but it brought up a new complication as I found some ponies immune systems were able to fight off the blood like a virus. Such an immunity could have been used by a doctor to create a vaccine and at the time I could not allow such a thing to exist. So I added to the spell a special effect.”
Princess Luna turned away from me, unable to tell me this information to my face. “Any pony who has been given vampony blood and has not absorbed it into his body after twenty-four hours will be killed as the blood turns to poison.”
And in that moment, I managed to answer one of life’s greatest questions: can you faint in a dream?
I didn’t stay down for long though as the princess shoved me with one of her hooves. Once I was conscious(or subconscious, I’m not really sure), I looked back on what she had said so far and realized something. “Princess, you said that this vampony has ‘influenced my life once again’ but I’m pretty sure I would remember seeing a blood sucking pony no matter how much alcohol I take in.”
“That is just it my little pony.” I wonder if Celestia copyrighted that? “This vampony is not something you forget while drinking, rather he is the reason you drink to forget.”
I thought about what she said for a few seconds before I widened my eyes in realization. I felt sorrow and rage fill every part of my being as things fell into place. I gritted my teeth and shuttered, trying my best to hold back the tidal wave of emotions that threatened to take hold of my actions.
“N-no... it... it can’t... he was...” Princess Luna only nodded in response, but it was answer enough to finally release my built up emotion. I began stomping the ground around me, swinging at everything I could except the princess. I threw my hooves at the floating tablets to find they were made of a glass-like material. When I was finally calm enough to realize my own actions, shards of rainbow-esque colors littered the surface of the moon.
Luna took the pause in my actions to walk up to me, her face full of concern. “I know this must hurt you, but I must tell you one last thing before I go. Because of your immunity to the blood, you have a choice to make. You can either allow the blood to do its work and kill you or...
“... or I can use the ritual to turn you into a vampony, which will save your life. If I do this though, you will need to disappear so that the one who tried to turn you does not return.” I couldn’t believe this. These were my options? Either become a monster and leave everything I love or death?
Before I could give Princess Luna my answer, the ground began to shift below me. I heard her voice echo as wind blew through my mane. “I will meet you at midnight near the edge of Ponyville. There you must decide to either leave your life behind or die the pony you are.”
I jumped out of my bed, sweat rolling down my face. I gasped for air as I looked around my room looking for an attacker that did not exist. Once I was calm I spoke out loud, trying to collect my thoughts, but the only thing that I managed to say to the shadows was a list of obscenities.