First of all I should be certain that my apperience is back to the way it is. Meeting the head researchers with an incomplete healing of my previously splitted head would be more than unplesant. "Charming, my head, is it back to normal?" She looked up to my head.
"Split parts are back together but it is still new, slightly red flesh." That should no problem in a few minutes. Now I have to deal with my new... thralls, as Charming said. I decided to start with the lone pegasus. Her coat was persian green. She had a beige mane with khaki stripes. I walked closer and sat beside her. She began to shake. I was about to ask her name but I couldn't. She was so beautifully crafted, it captured me. Such exquisite work of art. Something deep inside my mind was screaming at me, something about some researchers, but nothing could be more important than the masterpiece before my eyes.
Charming Star's POV
I lowered my head after answering his questions. I was sitting on the floor with Sharp Edge crying in my arms. I could feel the damage he did to me, my left eye was almost closed up and my lips were bleeding. I wasn't mad at him, or upset. Truth be told, I am not sure if I am feeling anything at all. My friends were killed, his friends were killed, they were fed upon. Am I angry? Am I sad? I didn't know, all I knew was that I had to protect others.
I was lost in thought, stroking Sharpy's mane when his weepy voice brought me back. "What is he doing?" I raised my head to see what Sharpy was talking about. I saw the monster sitting beside the pegasus girl. He was motionless, looking at the girl like he was in some kind of trance. I let Sharpy off my grasp and got on my hooves. Sharpy held my left front hoof. "Don't go near that thing, please." I gently pushed his hoof away.
"Don't worry, he won't hurt me." I tried to smile but I couldn't, not because I wasn't able to, it just didn't feel right to smile after all this.
I walked up to the monster and looked at him. His eyes were almost like... fascinated? Pegasus girl started to move away but monster raised his hand towards her. She sat back. "Please, take it away. I'm so scared." Her voice was trembling. Tears found their way down to her cheeks.
"It's okay. He will not attack unless provoked, don't attempt to harm him and I think he does't want you to move." She was still crying but she nodded. I got close to the monster and poked him. There was no response. "Can you hear me?" I poked him harder, it would hurt if he was a pony. There was still no answer.
"Why is he doing this?" Pegasus girl asked.
"I don't know. He looks like he is in a trance." I sat on the floor. "I guess we have to wait." Sharpy objected my idea.
"We can't wait. He said to the head researchers to come here in half an hour. We only have so much time. What if he stays like that... I don't know... Hours? Days?" He was right, we might not have the option to wait it out. "I know." Sharpy exclaimed. "Don't you see? This is an opportunity. He is weak! We can kill him!" I shook my head.
"No, I don't think we should do that. I don't think we can kill him. He is immortal." They looked at me with questioning eyes. "He told me that his kin is granted eternal life."
Sharpy was still determined about it. "If he bleeds, we can kill him." I looked at him wryly.
"Steel Hoof almost splitted his head in two. He shook it off and fought with five armed ponies, killed three of them. How do you suppose we kill him?"
"I have never seen anypony living without a head. I just need my sword." He got up to look for his sword but he couldn't find it. "Damn it! Grim must have taken those too." He took out a knife from his belt. "This will have to do then."
"No." I stopped him. "Sword might have worth the try, because one swing would do the job, but not knife. I don't know how deep he is in trance but if you start to cut his head off, he will wake up." He glared at me, he was angry.
"Why? Why are you protecting it?" His words shocked me. They reminded me of Silver Ore's, before I knocked her out. Is this how it looks like to everypony? Don't they see I just want them to be safe?
"What if you fail and he wakes up? Hmm? What then?" He looked like he could attack at any second. I moved between him and the monster. "Sharpy, give me the knife." He took a step towards me. "Sharpy please." I was ready to use the strength of the monster's blood. Please, don't make me do that. He took another step.
"Edge, please listen to her. She is right." Pegasus girl's voice stopped him.
"He killed them, Serene! How can you say that." Serene looked at him.
"Because you will fail and we will all die. If that happens, there will be nopony that knows there is a monster in here. There will be nopony to stop him." Sharpy looked unsure. "There will be other opportunities, real ones. We need to be patient." I remembered what monster told me. Do not let him think about it.
"Give me the knife." I pressed. "Come on give it to me!" He threw the knife on the floor. I rushed and took it, slipped it into one of my robe's pockets. He grunted with anger and punched a wall. "I know a way to kill him." They both looked at me with expectation. "I'm not sure but he told me that his kind cannot walk under the light of sun. It means they either die or somehow get disabled."
"He would never get out in the sun." Sharpy stated the obvious.
"No, of course not. Don't you ever listen? He told Grim that he spends the day sleeping. He said he will be sleeping in our laboratory."
"Good." Sharpy said eagerly. "We carry him outside and let the sun do its work." He looked like he had more to say but I interrupted him.
"We can discuss the details later, right now I should get ready for the head researchers."
"Why would they see you instead of him?" Serene asked.
"Monster said I am in charge when it's daytime. It means I have the same authority when he is not around. I will make up an excuse for him." Sharpy cleared his throat, catching my attention.
"You should find an excuse for your eye and lips too." He looked down, ashamed. He was right, it wasn't going to be easy either. Something came to my mind. Maybe I don't need an excuse afterall. Monster was healing himself so maybe I could do the same. I tried to redirect monster's blood to heal my wounds, I could feel it working. I feel so much better. I realized they were looking at me with... fear? It hit me that how it must have looked like.
"It's not what you think." They didn't seem to believe me.
"Then what is it, Charming?" Sharpy asked.
"I-" A knock on the door interrupted my explanation. They were here. Door knob turned, but the door was locked.
"Hello?" A feminine voice came behind the door. Another knock... I turned to Sharpy.
"Look, I don't have time to explain, okay? Just trust me and don't touch him." I started walking towards the door. "Coming!"
"Whatever you say, Charming." I heard Sharpy's voice. I took a one last look at them before closing the door that seperates my room from the other. I rushed to answer the knocking sound. I opened the door and immediately went out, forcing the head researchers to take a few steps away from me. I closed the door behind me and turned to them.
"You are the assistant girl, Charming Star, right? We are here to talk to the manager." Candle Light spoke. She had a kind and tuneful voice. "He was expecting us." Night Shade nodded beside her.
"I had no intend to come actually. However, Candle insisted that we should get to know the new authority." He spoke with a refined and disdainful tone of voice. "As if I have time for such errands, so I would like to keep this brief. Now please, if you could move aside..." He gestured me with his hoof. Candle Light pushed his hoof down, earning a glare.
"Please, forgive my brother's approach, but I'm afraid he is right. We must be back with our duties shortly." They are siblings? Not important right now.
"Yes, about that. Unfortunately he has a bad health condition in general and he got sick after the meeting." Candle Light looked concerned while Night Shade gave an annoyed look. "He sent his apologies for the inconvenience and said that he will meet you at your own laboratories later, if you wish, of course." Night Shade turned his back and started walking away.
"He doesn't need to come. I have more important things to do. Tell him I send my best wishes." He murmured some other things to himself. Candle Light looked like she was going to stop him, but she let out a sigh and turned back to me.
"I am really sorry to hear that. I hope he gets better soon. Is there anything that I could do to help? I have some knowledge in medicine." I shook my head.
"He said that it runs in the family and that there is no cure."
"I see." She thought a little before talking. "I should get going. If he gets better I would like to talk to him." She started walking away but turned back with curious eyes. "You were promoted to your position, right?" I nodded. "What were you doing before?"
"I was working at Matter Transmission Laboratory." This talk was getting dangerous. I could only hope that she doesn't ask more questions.
"Interesting that he immediately recuits someone else just after his arrival." Her voice had a frightening composure. She suddenly smiled. "Your lucky night I guess." I returned the smile as she walked away.
"Yeah." The moment she turned the corner, I hastely get back into the room where Serene and Sharpy were waiting for me. Monster was still stationary. I had to tell him that Candle Light has suspicions, but for that I first needed him to wake up. I knew he was not going to wake up with just poking. I rushed to her side.
"Charming?" I ignored Sharpy as I punched the monster's left eye, causing his head to turn sideways, but he turned to Serene again, unaffected. I felt Sharpy pulling me back.
"Stop Charming! What are you doing?" He was dragging me away. "You will get us killed."
"He needs to wake up, now!" I escaped Sharpy's grip and charged to the monster as fast as I can. I felt something inside me broke free, monster's blood burned inside me like it never did before. I was faster then ever. I mustered all the power I could find and landed a punch to monster's left cheek. Sound of fracturing bones accompanied my punch. I looked at the monster. He was sprawled on the floor, his head was looking upwards from his right shoulder with an impossible angle and his jaw appeared to be dislocated. There were several broken teeth on the ground. Serene and Sharpy gasped at the scene.
"Charming you- I- just-" Sharpy tried to talk.
A groan heard from the monster as his hand make their ways to his head. An audible series of cracks filled the room as he fixed his head's positioning. A drop of blood came down from his right eye. He sat right up, held his head still for a while, then put his chin back to its spot, he spat some more teeth. He turned to me.
"Holy hell, Charming! What was that?" He was flabbergasted.
"I had to wake you up. Candle Light, head researcher of the Bright Magic Department, she is suspecting us." He looked at me questioningly. "While you were in that trance, I sent them back, but she asked me what I was doing before being promoted. I think she might be heading to Matter Transmission Laboratory." He looked thoughtful for a moment.
"It's alright. Let her do what she wants. Grim tied all the loose ends. All she will find is going to be an empty room and missing ponies. If she asks, Mister Excellence wanted me to shut down your program so I fired them." He looked curious. "How could you broke my neck with a punch? Have you learned the usage of some dicipline?" He nodded. "You must have, but which one?" I hesitated but asked anyway.
"What is a dicipline?"
"Diciplines are powers possessed by my kind. Whichever one you just used, it allowed you to scatter me." A thought crawled into my mind. Am I becoming a monster like him? Did he lied to me?
"You said I wouldn't become a vampire." He laughed.
"You are not becoming a vampire, all you need to do is stop drinking my blood and you are good to go." He turned to Serene. "I was about to ask your name." She spoke, studdering.
"I-it's Serene S-stream." He started to stroke her mane, she was trembling. "P-please..."
"It's okay, I won't hurt you." He bit his wrist and raised it to Serene's eye level. "I want you to drink this." She looked at him, fearful and confused, but she was going to obey.
"No, don't!" Monster turned to Sharpy.
"Your insolence is starting to irritate me, Edge." He nearly snarled, causing Sharpy to step back. He was angry. For the first time since he got here he was angry. I knew it wasn't about Sharpy. He never cared about other's behavior against him. It was something else, something that I couldn't figure out. He turned back to Serene. "Drink, now." She darted without hesitation.
While watching her drink, I felt something, I felt jealous and betrayed. Why? Suddenly I realized that I couldn't feel the monster's blood inside me anymore. I felt so weak, helpless. I looked at Serene once again, drinking his blood. I looked down. A rage that I never knew it existed ovewhelmed me. I wanted to tear that pegasus into pieces. She took what is mine. No, I can't. I looked at the monster. He was looking at me, I couldn't read his face. He pulled his wrist out of Serene's mouth and motioned Sharpy to come closer. He complied, he was looking afraid for the first time. When the monster extended his arm, he showed little hesitation. I wanted to destroy him. If I kill them, I can have all of it. I wouldn't have to share. I didn't know why I think like this, but I knew I couldn't kill them. Monster retracted his arm and I saw Sharpy's eyes change. All his hatred and fear left its place to something else. I looked at Serene, she wasn't afraid anymore either. Then it dawned on me. His blood is messing with our minds. I realized he was looking at me. I looked up and our eyes met. "Say, Charming. Would you like some aswell?" Now that I understood what he was doing, I knew drinking his blood was even more dangerous. I must avoid it at all costs.
"Yes, p-please." But I didn't, I couldn't. I needed it, I wanted it. He extended his arm with a sinister smile and I drank, thirstly.