ARC 2: BALANCE OF POWER
(Part 3)
The days passed peacefully for Seras, even if the incoming menace of the Tartarus were bothering her; but she had her orders: make new friends, and it was surprisingly a good thing; even if her best friend was a crazy mare obsessed with humans Seras didn’t care.
Lyra could be crazy but she still was a very good friend who always cared about the ponies around her and a funny pony to be with (once you get use to the unstoppable chat about the humans).
By other side, Bon-Bon was a loving and caring mare who was Lyra’s counterpart; always listening and helping in everything she could. A little too quiet sometimes but still a trustable good friend.
Vinyl was another wild one; always energetic and in the mood to party, she always tried to convince the others to go see her shows even if they were too tired… until now. Since Seras slept during the day she had no problem in joining Vinyl to any party at any club. One time she even saved the DJ from a bunch of stalkers who attacked her; using only her presence. Now the white unicorn considered herself Seras’ second best friend.
And finally there was Vinyl’s marefriend, Octavia. At first Seras thought she was the typical snobbish aristocrat brat who only cared about herself; but it was a pleasing surprise to find out Octavia was everything but a snob. Even if she came from a wealthy family, Octavia was a shy and humble pony; whose main worries were about improving with her cello and taking care of her marefriend.
The four of them were a strange group but still Seras managed to get along and have fun; after all she was following orders, but also enjoying herself.
One night Fluttershy opened the door to a very excited Lyra, smiling from ear to ear.
“Evening Fluttershy! Is Seras home? Do you mind if she come with us? Tonight is our Anthropologist Club biweekly meeting and I would love to have a real human’s testimony!”
Fluttershy smiled, she was glad Seras were making new friends, even if it was with Lyra’s group, who didn’t’ get along with Fluttershy’s friends.
“Oh, hi Lyra. Please come in, Seras will be here any second now” said Fluttershy looking at the basement door.
As the Pegasus assured, the vampire arrived and smiled to Lyra.
“Evening Lyra, what brings you here?
Lyra pouted.
“Aw, don’t tell me you forget about our meeting”
Seras winked an eye to the minty unicorn.
“Just kidding Lyra, I was looking forward it. So… shall we go now?”
Lyra nodded excitedly and Seras bowed to Fluttershy.
“I’ll be going now, Fluttershy; unless you need me, of course”
Fluttershy sighed, this servant thing was getting annoying, but only managed to smile:
“Don’t worry about me Seras, I’ll be fine. Go ahead, have fun”
Seras bowed once again and followed Lyra, joining to Octavia, Vinyl and Bon-Bon.
“So, who else is in the anthropologist club?” Asked Seras.
“Just the five of us!” Said Lyra.
“Yeah, we all agreed to schedule two nights at month to allow Lyra to share her new discoveries about the mythical humans” explained Bon-Bon with a sigh. “It’s so much better than had to listen to every single discovery she just made; so instead of bothering us at two a.m. or interrupt something important with her new founds, Lyra agreed to save everything she learnt for this especial nights”
Lyra shrugged still smiling, but Vinyl and Octavia sighed tiredly; as always this was going to be a looooooooooong night.
Seras just chuckled.
“So all we do is to talk about humans the whole night?”
“No, we also have a few drinks” said Octavia. “We end up really drunk when the night ends, and I have to admit is kind of fun. With two weeks of preparations Lyra always manages to make things a little interesting after all”
“But tonight you’ll be the one who talks, Seras” said Lyra firmly. “I want to know how much of my research is correct!”
Seras sighed wishing she could have some alcohol too, but still she knew it was going to be a lovely evening. Quoting the Master, I cannot imagine a more perfect evening; heh-heh.
Finally they arrived at Lyra and Bon-Bon’s.
“We’re here!” Announced Lyra happily. “Everything is ready so please serve yourselves. We have wine, beer, rum, scotch, vodka… everything!”
Bon-Bon rolled her eyes, but made herself a margarita and another for Lyra. Octavia took a glass of wine and prepared a screwdriver for Vinyl. Now they were ready.
“So…” began Lyra. “As you know, most of the anthropologists determined that humans were omnivorous beings; even if the few corpses we found didn’t show any signs of sharp teeth or claws; necessary for the consumption of meat. Yeah, Seras have fangs but she’s a vampire, but now with her help we can finally demonstrate that humans were vegetarians like us. Now, Seras, do you want to say something?”
Seras nodded.
“Lyra, sorry for disappointing you but humans were indeed omnivorous. Yeah, we didn’t had claws or fangs or poison to fight; and that’s why we developed weapons; tools that allowed us to confront beasts twice as big as us, and even to exterminate a whole city as once. Now that I think about it, seeing how some people used their intellect was pretty frightening”
After a five minutes dead silence, Lyra asked: “Ehem… when you say weapons you mean spears and armors like the Royal Guard, right?”
Seras shook her head.
“No, I mean fire weapons. Yes, we began using armors, swords, spears… even war-hammers. But at some point we focused in projectiles and how to increase its’ precision and power. That’s why the latest military uniforms were made in order to improve mobility; like my clothes in my human form, that’s an example of combat clothing”
Lyra was in shock. It was for real? Fire weapons, that seemed so intriguing but frightening at the same time. Octavia took a sip from her wine.
“So that anthropologist from Maredrid was right. Congratulations for him”
“I don’t understand, I simply don’t understand” said Lyra trembling. “How could this mythical civilization be so… warlike and violent? This can’t be truth! If they were so powerful, then why did they extinguished?”
Seras opened a blood package and shrugged while drinking.
“Well, I’m not surprised. I was sleeping during that time so I can’t tell for sure, but I think humans just exterminated each other. Like you said, they were extremely warlike and violent”
Bon-Bon petted her marefriend’s head.
“Come on Lyra, you were wrong, so? Is not the first time and it won’t be the last. The sooner you accept it, the sooner you’ll let it go”
Lyra smiled.
“Yes, you’re right Bonnie. Is just that this is too shocking. But Seras, is it true then? Humans invented devastating weapons that they used to exterminate each other?”
Seras looked at the window. She had an idea but she doubted about it.
“Well, apparently my silent watcher is off-duty tonight so… would you like to come with me? I have something very interesting to show you”
“Silent watcher?” Asked Vinyl raising an eyebrow.
“Apparently the Royalty is worried about my demonic nature, even if I never gave them a reason to fear me. Anyway, your Princess of the Night have being watching me since I revealed myself”
“Okay, a little disturbing but anyway; what do you have to show us Seras?” Asked Lyra excitedly.
Seras smiled to her friends.
“So, you wanna come?” Said Seras.
The other mares shrugged but nodded happily; so Seras guided them through the Everfree Forest. They passed without being disturbed by the animals, since they all feared Seras; their instincts indicated them who the ultimate predator was.
And finally they arrived to the cave where Fluttershy found Seras.
Seras showed them the way to the bottom, still not believing how easily they trusted her.
“Here we are” announced Seras.
“But I don’t see anything” said Lyra using her horn as a flashlingt.
“Just wait” said Seras extending her hoof to press a hidden button.
A small tremor shook the cave when a door appeared out of nowhere; a very old elevator.
“This cave used to be Hellsing Organization Headquarters, a secret entity that fought the forces of evil. As I already told you, I used to be some kind of demon hunter; so what do you think?”
“Cool!” Said Vinyl examining the place.
“Come on in!” Invited Seras entering to the elevator. “I promise you won’t regret”
The mares followed Seras, knowing she was their friend and she would never hurt them. The elevator took them to the basement, and once Seras turned on the light they noticed they were in some kind of storage; full of some things that seemed like large and heavy tubes and boxes of boxes of something.
“Seras, what’s this?” Asked Lyra looking at the small silver objects that were in the nearest box.
Seras winked an eye.
“Welcome, to the Hellsing Organization weapons warehouse”
A minute astonished silence later:
“WHAT?”
Seras then took a couple of the large tubes, connected with some kind of metallic backpack and a belt full of the little silver objects from one of the boxes.
“This is my Harknonnen II; very powerful and portable, for vampires of course; a human could never manipulate a weapon like this”
“So you used all this?” Asked Octavia examining the Harkonnen I.
Seras showed them a small framed picture of her and the Wild Geese; smiling to the camera and showing their weapons; being the Harkonnen II the largest. Seras cleaned a small tear of blood she cried.
“Are you okay, Seras?” Asked Bon-Bon.
“Yes, just a little nostalgic. That’s one of the curses of being and undead, you have to see everyone who mean something to you pass away. And this guys, my friends, didn’t deserved to die like they did”
“What happened?” Asked Octavia concerned.
“Humans were bad fighting with monsters: they were weak, they were mortal, they were corruptible; body, mind and soul. They died cruelly murdered by a vampire I hated the most; Zorin”
They all felt Seras’ anger remembering that horrible night, the night her kindness died and became a true monster at least. Taking her human form and wearing her weapon, Seras laughed.
“She deserved to die, oh yeah; I had no mercy, killing her with my own hands. I refused to drink her blood, not even a drop. She deserved to disappear, to vanish from earth”
The ponies looked at Seras and hugged her.
“It’s okay Seras, bad things happens. But look at the bright side: they rest in peace now” said Bon-Bon. “And because you’re immortal, we’re friends now”
“That’s right!” Said Vinyl. “You’re a monster but a very cool one; if it weren’t for your powers, we would be Star Swirl’s slaves now!”
“Exactly, try to calm a little” said Octavia smiling.
“We’ll be always together” said Lyra. “Thank you so much for showing us this place, obviously very important to you and we’re honored you invited us”
Seras didn’t know how to react, but at the end she smiled feeling the warmness in her dead heart. That ponies meant a lot to her, they were her friends, her beloved friends. And she knew she meant a lot to them as well.
The magic of friendship was working.
“Thank you” said Seras finally. “Thank you very much”
The ponies nodded.
“Whenever you need us” said Bon-Bon.
Then, Lyra took a book from one of the shelves.
“Seras! What’s this?”
“Oh, that’s the Bible, the official book of human’s religion”
Lyra trembled excitedly and began to examine the book.
“Cool! Humans had their own God, excellent! I’ll be everypony’s envy at the next Anthro-Con! Seras, can I borrow it?”
“You can keep it” said Seras. “Just don’t read it out loud when I’m close; holly words literally deafen me”
Bon-Bon stared at the book.
“What? How old is that book? Over a million years? Why it haven’t destroyed yet?”
Seras smiled.
“It’s blessed, that’s why. The whole place is blessed by the human’s God; that’s why your Princesses didn’t found me until Fluttershy awoke me. The blessing makes this place a blind spot for them”
“Cool!” Said Vinyl. “Ey Seras, can you show us how do you use one of this weapons?”
“Of course, but be warned: I trust you enough to show you the place, but you’re not allowed to take any weapon outside. This things are very dangerous, even more in a hands of a pony who doesn’t know what it’s doing. Understood?”
The four mares nodded, so Seras showed them a small door at the side of the warehouse that lead to a target practice field.
“Are you ready?” Asked Seras.
The mares nodded, so Seras turned on a switch making appear a moving target; twenty five miles away. The target exploded in a thousand pieces.
“More targets!” Commanded Seras.
Vinyl activated the mechanism and Seras began to shoot until her Harkonnen II emptied.
“And that’s a human weapon” said Seras getting back to her pony form.
Her friends were astonished by Seras’ skill; they only saw explosions like that during the battle between Twilight and Tirek, and only because both of them had an impressive magic power. But what just happened in front of them was unbelievable since there was no magic involved; only human science.
“Wow, just wow” gulped Octavia. “I don’t know if the Princesses could survive at one of this”
“Alright, I think I agree” mumbled Lyra.
“Hmmm, you two better watch your tongue” said Bon-Bon. “Remember they’re immortal”
“The blessing of my God assures that nothing I shoot will ever back up again, but yeah, watch your tongue Octavia; I don’t think they like the idea of me having such things. Anyway, let’s get out of here”
The girls walked behind Seras commenting excitedly but not Lyra. Lyra was too concentrated reading the Bible (at least trying, since she didn’t know Latin) but she was also analyzing the weapons’ mechanism; perhaps, with her magic, she could operate one of those; and the idea was tempting her more and more.
Lyra promised not to take the weapons out of the warehouse, but she could enter and use the weapons whenever she wanted. Thanks to the human’s God Seras showed her the place. It would be great!