Prompt: *Challenge Prompt* Any Diamond Tiara story that includes the following: Diamond Tiara takes off her glasses, then picks up the object on her right. Someone screams.
Vamponies. They are the dreaded creatures of the night. The feared monsters that hunt in the dark for the blood of ponies. If you are lucky, they will settle for only a light meal, but for the most part these foul creatures whisk their victims away to their layer deep within the Everfree Castle, where they would never be seen again… At least not as they once were.
Every day, ponies would count heads in the town square to make sure nopony was missing, and then they would live their lives as best they could, never staying out too late. When the sun began to set, ponies would cover their houses with cloves of garlic and symbols in the shape of Princess Celestia’s cutie mark. And then, they would sleep in their beds with one eye open, praying that they and their loved ones would survive the night.
The common citizens lived as such. In the town of Ponyville, there also existed two groups: the Guardians and the Vanguards.
The Guardians would patrol the walls that surrounded the town and keep an eye out for suspicious shadows that shifted in the night. They would strike at anything that moved, often killing wandering stray cats or, on some occasions, injuring a member of their own team by mistake. It was a small price to pay for the safety of the townsponies, though.
The Vanguard had a much more important task: to vanquish the vamponies once and for all. Their job was to venture into the Everfree Forest and take the Everfree Castle by storm, though after their first raid, the most that they could ever do was set up base camps and alert the town to approaching vamponies. Even that brought about many causalities, and every day more and more ponies were out of Vanguard, either due to fear, or from being taken away.
One such member that was recently taken away was Alula, a brave young filly who, even through the worst of time, would smile and encourage her friends to laugh. Of all the ponies to be taken away by such fiends, she was the last pony who could deserve such a fate. At least that’s what her friends thought.
Diamond Tiara, a filly who despised vamponies ever since they took away her mother and left her father an emotional wreck, was furious that the Vanguard would give up on her so easily. “It’s too late,” they said. “There’s nothing we can do. Just accept it.”
“NO!”
With just that single word, Diamond Tiara removed her official Vanguard badge and stormed out of her boss’ office. With her, she took a couple of waterskins, a bag of garlic, a celestial broach, and a crossbow with five bolts in her quiver.
On her way to the Everfree Forest, Diamond Tiara ran into her friend Silver Spoon. Diamond Tiara was not smart, so the only way she felt that she could battle the vamponies was directly. Silver Spoon, however, was a genius. She provided support for Diamond Tiara and her group with strategically intelligence from the background.
Tonight, however, she was equipped with a suit of garlic and a dagger. “I’m going with you,” Silver Spoon said. “I’ve studied the schematics for the castle. You’ll get lost in there on your own.”
“It will be dangerous,” Diamond Tiara said. With a smile, she added, “And I wouldn’t want anypony else to have my back.”
Grabbing their black cloaks and putting them on, the two fillies proceed into the forest, running in order to reach the castle before sunset. Attack in the midst of the day was their best bet, as the vamponies would be asleep at this time.
However, if their presence was detected by the vamponies’ familiars, they would awaken, and in the safety of their castle, the vamponies need not fear the sun. For that reason, the two fillies had to slow down as they neared the castle, and approach quietly from the shadows.
Diamond Tiara put on her glasses as she approached the castle’s entrance. The special glasses for hunting vamponies would allow her to see a vampony’s weak spot – that is, the one spot that will kill a vampony if struck. Anywhere else would not work, and the weak spot varies from vampony to vampony. Silver Spoon’s glasses were customised to also have this function.
Nodding to each other, the two fillies entered the castle. Diamond Tiara crept passed the many coffins laying about the main hallway, most of which likely contained traps for foolish Vanguard raiders seeking to wipe out the vamponies on their own. The corpses of many ponies by some of these coffins confirmed possibly confirmed Diamond’s suspicions, but that’s not why she was here in the first place.
She was here for Alula.
“Her badge signal is that way,” Diamond said as she pointed down the corridor to her left. The badges of the Vanguard were fitted with a magic signal that could be traced with simple gemstones that can be found almost everywhere in Equestria. The purpose of this function was to make sure that the members of each Vanguard squad could always find each other in emergency situations, such as right now.
“Did you hear that?” Silver Spoon asked as she walked faster to catch up to her friend’s side.
“It was just the wind,” Diamond told her as the two turned down into the dark corridor. Silver Spoon ignited a small lighter to help the two see where they were going. A castle like this was sure to contain many traps, and the last thing that either of them wanted to accidentally trigger any-
Click!
The door opened suddenly beneath Silver Spoon. The scream alerted Diamond Tiara and she was barely able to turn around and grab Silver Spoon’s hoof in time.
“I can’t pull you up!” Diamond Tiara shouted. “You’re too heavy!”
“Let go!” Silver Spoon shouted. “They were sure to hear that! You have to let me go before they come to investigate!”
“I’m not leaving you!” Diamond told her.
“You have to! If we both get caught here, then-”
“I don’t care! You’re the one pony I can’t afford to lose!” Diamond felt herself slipping and closed her eyes and she put more force into her pulling. “Damnit… I’m not going to let go… no matter what!”
“Diamond…” Silver Spoon frowned as she saw the extent that her friend was going to to keep her safe. It was even at the cost of her own safety. She didn’t like it… yet at the same time, she knew that she would be doing the same had their positions been reversed.
Reaching down to her side, Silver Spoon grabbed the dagger strapped to her waist and brought it up to her hoof. “DON’T YOU DARE!” Diamond Tiara shouted, her eyes open again and seeing what the other filly was doing. “IF YOU DO WHAT YOU’RE THINKING, I’LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU!”
“Be quiet,” Silver Spoon said. “I just had an idea.” Silver Spoon brought the dagger down a bit, towards the buttons of her garlic-covered suit. With one hoof, unfastening the suit would be difficult, but with a dagger…
“Wait! If you lose the garlic, you’ll be defenceless!”
“I’ll have you, right?” Silver Spoon asked with a smile. Diamond Tiara hesitated for a moment before giving a nod. “Then I’ll be okay. And with this heavy suit gone, I might just be light enough for you to pull me up.”
“… W-Well hurry up, then! I don’t know how much longer I can hold on!”
With a quick breath, Silver Spoon brought the dagger to her chest and used it to cut open her suit, wincing as the tip of the blade lightly grazed her skin. When it reached the bottom, the suit fell off and down the pit.
As hypothesised, Silver Spoon suddenly became light enough for Diamond tiara to pull her up. As soon as the grey filly was out of the hole and back on solid ground, the two quickly embraced each other, glad that they were able to make it out with both of them alive.
“They’ll be here soon,” Silver Spoon reminded Diamond Tiara. “We should get a move-on.”
Diamond nodded. “Alula’s down this way,” she said, motioning her head further down the corridor. “Let’s go.”
The two proceeded with a lot more caution this time, taking extra care not to set off any more traps, and also looking out for any vamponies that may have been stirred from their slumber as a result of the noise they had produced earlier.
When the gem flashed in Diamond’s hooves, the two knew that they had reached their destination. Alula was trapped within a dusty chamber, perhaps an old storage closet or a pantry back in the day. Now, it was just a dark, foreboding room with candles circling around a single coffin.
The two fillies approached the coffin and gulped. The gem’s trail ended there. The two stared at the filthy coffin for a few long moments before Diamond Tiara reached a hoof towards it. She felt Silver Spoon’s hoof grabbing her other one and she pushed the lid aside.
Inside the coffin, Alula lay in a deep, peaceful slumber, two thin blood trails down her neck and a pair of fangs coming out of her mouth.
Silver Spoon put a hoof to her mouth and held back a sob, whilst Diamond Tiara grabbed a firm hold of Silver Spoon’s hoof and shook as she held back a series of curses.
“We were too late,” Silver Spoon whispered. Diamond Tiara nodded. “… What do we do now?”
Diamond Tiara was silent for a few seconds after that. Releasing Silver Spoon’s hoof, Diamond reached for her quiver and pulled out a bolt. “I won’t leave her like this.”
Silver Spoon had to remove her glasses to wipe the tears from her eyes. “I… I can’t watch…”
“That’s fine. In fact, I’d prefer you not see… Go wait outside. This will only take a second.”
With a reluctant nod, Silver Spoon rose to her hooves and slowly walked outside of the room, leaving Diamond Tiara and Alula alone.
Bringing a shaking hoof towards her glasses, Diamond Tiara studied Alula’s body and found her weak spot. It was a small spot just under her bellybutton. Diamond removed her glasses and reached for the crossbow set down to her right, picking it up and loading her bolt into it. She was stopped by a scream in the hallway.
“SILVER SPOON!”
Diamond Tiara rushed towards the hallway as fast as she could, slamming the door open and freezing as she found Silver Spoon hanging limp in the hold of a cloaked vampony feasting on her neck.
“N-NO!” Diamond Tiara immediately replaced her glasses and brought her loaded crossbow up. She found the weak spot of this vampony at its forehead. It was a clean shot, and Diamond Tiara took it. The vampony fell backwards onto the floor, releasing Silver Spoon, who fell forward into Diamond Tiara’s forelegs.
“Silver Spoon, no!” Diamond cried as she examined the bite marks on the side of the filly’s neck. “T-This can’t be happening… How could I have let this happened? I was supposed to protect you. Silver Spoon, I-”
“Diamond Tiara?” Silver Spoon stared up at the pink filly, her eyes fluttering and her breathing slow. “P-Please don’t cry, Diamond…”
“But Silver Spoon, I failed you. I let you…”
A silence hung between the two for a few seconds. “Diamond?” Silver Spoon asked as she slowly brought a hoof towards her friend’s face, wiping the tears that were streaming down her cheeks. “I feel cold… and it hurts so much… Will we… Will we make it out of here?”
“Silver…”
“Will we… hang out again… like before?” Tears welled from Silver Spoon’s eyes as her hoof fell limp, suddenly dropping to her side.
“… Of course we will,” Diamond Tiara said. With a sniff, she wiped her tears away and then reached down to Silver Spoon’s hoof, removing her glasses and placing her crossbow down in the process. “We’ll be together forever. You, me…” Diamond Tiara turned back to look into the room to her left, where an open coffin lay in the midst of some candles. “… And Alula…”
Diamond Tiara reached down and lifted Silver Spoon up, giving her a hug that seemed to last forever. “Diamond… I feel sleepy…”
“It’s okay, Silver Spoon,” Diamond Tiara said, pulling away and removing her cloak. “We’ll always be friends, and we’ll always be together.” Diamond Tiara threw her bag of garlic cloves to the side and placed her hooves onto her friend’s shoulders, keeping her still as she tilted her head to the side, exposing her neck to the drowsy filly. “No matter what…”