Book One; Chapter Ten
Arriving
Flash was up for the last leg of the journey. The ponies, of course, did not know it was the last leg until they heard the irritated grumbles of Maxii up front. Blueblood took little cat naps, not trusting his fellow ponies, Caramel quickly calculated how to escape and return home, and Simon was out like a light. The van came to a stop and the ponies heard car doors slam.
"Is this it, brother?" Maxii's voice was heard asking.
"This is where they've been stored for the event. Hurry up and get the pony. I need to prepare another space." There were heavy footsteps moving away from the van while there were lighter ones coming towards the back. Flash stared at the doors in horror at the realization that they would get caught. Blueblood tensed, ready for a fight. He would not let Maxii get away this time. The doors of the van opened and a very smug-looking Maxii gasped when she saw the extra ponies in back. Her eyes widened then narrowed. Blueblood took this chance to pull out his wooden knife and go into a fighting stance.
"How did... when did..." She shook her head and snarled. Kill now, questions later. Simon jumped out of his sleep and let out a girlish scream. He hid behind Caramel for protection. Caramel rolled his eyes.
"Yea, hide behind the guy who's tied up." he said. Simon only gripped Caramel harder. Flash gripped his gun, which was hidden in his coat. Maxii wrapped her hands around Blueblood's neck and squeezed. She wasn't quite hungry and all she wanted was to kill the one who had injured her and left her to be captured by her foolish friend. Blueblood kicked her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her, but gasped when she did not release her grip. The young vampire growled when Blueblood raised his arm, the one with the knife. She, of course, did not allow him to touch her with it. Flash raised his gun, seeing the two rolling around, trying to best each other. He cocked it and aimed. Caramel frowned.
"That won't kill her." he whispered. Flash shrugged.
"I don't kill." He fired the gun, hitting Maxii in the heart right when she was about to rip Blueblood's throat open. She went rigid and toppled sideways to the ground with a thump. Blueblood looked from her to Flash to Maxii to Flash again. He smiled and stood.
"Good aim, detective." There were footsteps heading in their direction. Everypony turned. Angel and West, Maxii's other brother, came around the van to see what was holding his siter up when he saw a male pony standing over her still breathing, but unconscious form. The pony had a wooden knife in his hand. The pegasus and two earth ponies in the van glanced at each other. Angel and West snarled and bared their fangs.
"Damn." Caramel sighed.
Maxii awoke in a familiar bed in a dusty room. She looked around and wrinkled her nose in disgust, it was her room. Her old room. She sat up and grunted from the pain in her chest. That damned pony and his stupid metal weapon! Didn't he know she could not die from such stupid toys!? A door opened and closed from behind the bed. With the way Maxii was angled, she had to turn around to face the one who'd walked in.
"West." Maxii said softly. West was one of her three older brothers, the second oldest to be exact. Angel was the oldest of all of them while her brother, Louis, was the third. Being only a year older than Maxii, he and Maxii were the closest. West, who was the complete opposite of Louis, pissed her off to no end and she wasn't in the mood for his nonsense.
"Nice to see you, sis. Where've you been, how have you been doing?" West asked in a jovial tone, knowing exactly where she was and what she was up to in the town.
"Why are you here?" West sat next to her on the bed.
"I can't just be here to say hello to my little sister?"
"No." Maxii growled. "I know you want something and it's probably something I'll say no to."
"I was just going to ask if I could have a test drive with your werewolf friend."
"No!" Maxii yelled in disgust and horror. "Why would you even ask me something like that?"
"Hey, she is totally hot and that look she gave me when I was flirting with her... oh, man, she'll be a fighter."
"She's my guest, West."
"Aw, c'mon, I'll be gentle. Forty bits says I make her scream my name." Maxii waved her arms in the air and gagged.
"Ew, West, that's my friend you're talking about!" She paused and smiled mischievously. "Forty bits? What about sixty?" West's face lit up and he clapped his hands in child-like giddiness.
"You're on."
Blueblood groaned and sat up on the hard cot. Wait. Hard cot? The unicorn looked around frantically to find that he was in a medium sized room filled with cots and almost every cot had a pony on it. There were prepubescents to teens to adults. The youngest looked no older than nine. The nine-year-old-looking pony was a raggedy unicorn with dirty blonde mane hair and who was wearing a purple dress. She looked around the room with a pitiful look and locked eyes with Blueblood. He narrowed his eyes but she didn't look away. She stared him down and stuck her tongue out. He bared his teeth and looked away. Caramel was untied in a corner, Flash was two cots from him, and Simon was on the cot right next to him. Blueblood stood and swayed momentarily before he hit the ground.
"Gah! My head!" he groaned. The raggedy unicorn stood up and approached him slowly. She placed a small hand on his head.
"Are you okay, mister?" she asked.
"Get off me, kid."
"I'm trying to be nice to you." The filly lit her horn and her aura surrounded Blueblood's head.
"What are you doing!?" he asked, resisting the urge to push the filly away. He knew she was probably trying to help but he was in a vampire den. There was no way he would feel relaxed about anything or anypony. The filly's aura stopped and he noticed that his head wasn't feeling lightheaded anymore and his energy returned.
"They cast spells to weaken you. They absolutely don't want you to escape."
"Well, I'd expect they wouldn't. How do you even know spherically what they do?"
"I'm a personal blood-slave. My master left me months ago and now I am here to be served for the banquet." Blueblood started to wake up the others. He heard the last part of what the little filly said and looked up at her, startled. Caramel gave her a horrified look, Simon nearly fainted from fright and Flash's eyes widened.
"Banquet!?" They all asked in unison. The filly nodded.
"Yes. All the most important Other Worlders will arrive tomorrow night. They are the guests of honor and we," the filly gestured to everypony in the room. "are the main course."
"Wait, I thought they were selling ponies as slaves or whatever." Simon said, starting to freak out.
"Their going to serve us as a meal..." Flash repeated. Blueblood cursed under his breath.
"When you say meal, you mean a cook n' serve type thing or an all-you-can-eat buffet?" Simon asked.
"We have to do something. We need to come up with a plan. Oh, I just hope we don't get served first." Caramel worried.
"What if they decide to turn us because our blood tastes good!?" Flash looked around nervously. His blood probably sweet from all the sugar and caffeine he'd been downing to stay up and do research and snoop around. The filly sighed and sat on Blueblood's cot.
"There won't be anypony left to be turned. It's an eat-until-your-full event. There's enough Other Worlders coming that there won't be any leftovers." The four stallions stared at the filly. Simon fell to his knees and screamed to the heavens,
"You have got to be kidding me!"