//------------------------------// // Act Eight: Final chapter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!/Epologue (Edit) // Story: Blood is Magic // by Crimson Rose //------------------------------// By the time the mares got to Fluttershy, they found her lying on the ground, her coat was white from blood lost, there were two deep holes on her neck. "Flutters!" RD flew over to the pegasis and lifted her head. "Speak to me, Fluttershy, speak!" Fluttershy weakly opened her eyes, gazing at the rainbow maned mare. "Dashy..." "I'm here buddy," "Tell Angel...I'm sorry for...taking his...carrots..." Fluttershy coughed. "Shut up," Rainbow croaked, holding her friend. Crimson and the others went over to her. Crimson took a deep whiff of Flutters before Rainbow Dash roughly kicks her away from Fluttershy, sending her sliding. "STAY AWAY!" Rainbow Dash snarled at Crimson. "Just stay the buck away from us!" Crimson shook her head and looked up at Rainbow: a cut was on her muzzle and her blood slightly dripped off of her. "Rainbow, look, I'm not the enemy. I didn't cause your friends to get hurt." She said, wiping her muzzle with her hoof. "I'm on our side." She tried to be calm but that wall was seriously about to crumble by that act of violence. "I'm sick and bucking tired of dealing with you bats! I wished we never got summoned to this place!" Rainbow snapped. "Dash, Calm down!" Spike comes over to her and tried to snap her out of the state of anger. "Crimson is trying to help, can't you see that?" "Stay out of this Spike," Dash growled at him, causing the baby drake to back off. "Calm down, please..." fluttershy whimpered weakly. "First Twilight gets turned into some creature and now she attacked Fluttershy. If you hadn't come up to us at the square, we could've avoid all that!" Dash ignored flutters and ranted at Crimson. "If I didn't stop you, all of you would end up dead!" Crimson hissed. "Don't point your hoof at me for something I was trying to protect you and your friends." "Please stop yelling!" Coral covered her ears, she was on the verge of tears. Spike went over to her and tried to calm her down. Dash got up and and got right at Crimson's face. "This is all your fault!" "Get out of my face, Dash." Crimson's voice darkened. "What can a pathetic three legged flightless bat -" She punched Crimson again. "Gonna do!?" Crimson's eyes glowed blood red again before lunging at Rainbow faster than she can react. The two opposite tumbled around a bit before Crimson pins Rainbow on her belly, a hoof full of her wings in both hooves and her good leg pushing hard on the center of her back. Dash cried out when the bat roughly pulled her wings, feeling like Crimson was going to pull them out of their sockets. She was helpless in this position. "Now..." Crimson hissed, taking deep breaths. "Will you stop with all of this nonsense and calm the buck down? If not?" She pressed her good hoof down on the cyan mare's back and tugged more of Rainbow's wings. "AHGH!" Rainbow cried out. Pain wrecked the mare's face as she tried to get the bat off of her, but she never realized how strong Crimson was until then, seeing how easily she got her pinned. It didn't stop her to try to buck her off. Crimson held her place on the black tile floor. "WELL?!" "Yes! Yes for buck sakes yes! I'll stop!" Rainbow cried out. "I'm sorry, I'm really am! Please let me go!" Crimson held on for a minute before letting the blue wings go and hopping off of Dash. She wiped the sweat off of her brow before looking at Rainbow Dash standing up. She flexed her sore wings, wincing at the pain the bat caused her. There were hoof prints where Crimson grabbed them. "I'm sorry for doing that," Crimson said, slowly breathing in and out, trying to control her primal bat instincts. "But you left me with no choice." Dash didn't say anything before going back to Fluttershy, making sure her friend was alright. Crimson walked slowly over to her. "Rainbow, there is nothing else I want to do but save your friend and stop the Count and countess from ever continuing their lust of my people. But in order to do both, you have to set aside whatever grudge you have on me and we work together. It's the only way for us to save the town and Twilight." She held out her red hoof at the pegasis. Dash looked softly at Crimson, looking at her hoof before looking back at Fluttershy. "Go save Twilight...she needs you." Fluttershy said before doozing off. Dash's magenta eyes looked at Crimson's light blue eyes before seeing that she still had her hoof out for Dash to shake. "Truce?" Dash looked at her own hoof before giving her a hoof bump. "Truce." Crimson smiled. "Fantastic," though in her accent, it sound like she said fangtastic. "So, what do we do?" Spike asked. "Both of you are staying here," Crimson said. "This fight is now getting way out of hoof. Dash and I will go through the maze. You two keep an eye on Fluttershy." "But-" "No buts," Rainbow said, standing up. "Crimson's right, you two will only get way. We'll get Twilight back, Spike," Before Spike could interject, Coral puts her claw on his shoulder. "We should listen. We'll be helping by making sure Fluttershy is well rested." Spike sighed in defeat. "Good luck guys, make sure you guys stay alive." Dash gave him a high hoof. "Don't worry about it, little buddy, we got it." Coral gave her mother a hug before letting her go. "Good luck mama." "Make sure you behave, love." Crimson said, stroking her daughter's yellow spikes on her head before looking at Rainbow. "Ready?" "Let's kick some flank." The two opposite flyers made their way to the rose maze. The two mares didn't spoke to each other for a long time. they realized something was wrong, the guards weren't patroling the grounds at all. Dash was the first to spoke. "Where in tartarus is everypony?" Crimson shrugged. She stopped walking, her ears picked something up just as they were next to a large window. "What is it?" Dash asked, seeing her acting weird. Crimson jolt her head to the window. The mares gazed outside and saw that there was a full on battle outside the castle grounds. All the villagers were fighting the guards to the death. The girls could easily spot Dark Fire, the stallion bat that helped them sneak inside the castle, leading the rebels. "Okay, I take back all I said about him," Dash grins. "That is smart. Things should be easy for us then." And it was, the girls made their way to the rose maze. A gate divided them and only the key Crimson has now possessed could open it and allow them access. "I flew everywhere outside of this castle, this garden wasn't here," Rainbow said, looking though the iron bars, seeing the black roses making walls of the maze. "It's enchanted from anypony flying outside of the castle perimeter." She said, holding the key in her mouth. She incerted it in the lock before the key itself was sucked in, leaving only the winged heart sticking out. It spun in a circle before the gate door swung open. Rainbow walked in and looked up. Her eyes widened when she saw how tall the walls were. They go beyond her eye sight, possibility too high for Rainbow to fly and go off to the other side. "I guess we have to go through the walls." Dash takes off into the air and made an attempt to go through the walls. Crimson quickly grabbed the mare's tail with her mouth and pulled her back. "Ow! What was that for?" "Watch," Crimson picks up a stick and threw it at the wall. The plants came to life, the vines slithered to the stick and wrapped itself around it, dragging it into the wall, the stick was buried within the rose walls. "If you touch the walls, it'll be your tomb." Rainbow gulped. "Uh, thanks for the head up." "I do know a way for us to get by. But we have to be fast." Crimson looks up at Dash. "How fast are you?" "Are you seriously asking me that, Egghead?" Dash grins. "Stand back." Dash did. Crimson puts her right hoof in front of the other. She took deep breaths before inhaling a large mount of air, arching her back a bit before stomping her hooves on the ground and letting out a screech. The screech was so loud and sonic, dash could see a black and purple shock wave hitting wall after wall, blasting a hole big enough for them to break through. "That was awesome!" Dash awed. "Hurry up!" Crimson was already running ahead of her. Dash looked up and saw that one of the holes were being closed up by the vines. Rainbow sped off, going through hole after hole, each closing off every time she passes through. About the fifth hole, Dash stops, seeing that the blast didn't reach here. "Okay, Crimson, that was amazing! Talk about a Sonic Screech!" She turned to look at her but frowns. "Uh, Crimson?" "Dash? where are you?" Crimson called out, she was behind wall number three. "Stay where you are, I'm gonna go at it again," "Okay! but hurry up, this place is creeping me out." A few seconds later, another Sonic Screech was performed, blasting more holes in the walls. Dash this time waited for Crimson before grabbing her hooves, lifting her in the air and she carried the bat mare through the holes. "I fly, you screech," The cyan pegasas grinned at the bat. Crimson shared her grin. "Mind those ears of yours," She said before screeching one more. Dash flew through each hole Crimson created, the vines were doing their best to seal up the holes before the mares made their way through it. after the umpteenth hole blasted hole, Dash's tail gets caught by the vine, dropping Crimson. "HELP!!!!!" Dash cried out as the vines dragged Rainbow into the wall. Parts of her tail were becoming engulfed by the roses. Dash tried to fly away but the vines wrapped themselves all over Dash's torso. "Crimson, help me!" "Hold on!" Crimson raced up to her. She couldn't used her screech or it'll hurt Dash. She had to do something else. Crimson let out a hiss when she raised both of her wings, using the long nails as knifes to slice the vines, cutting a large chunk of Rainbow's mane and tail at the process of setting her free. Once freed, the mares quickly backed away from the walls. Both mares layed breathless, especially Crimson, her body shook before falling into the ground. "Hey," Dash walks over to her, putting Crimson's left arm over her shoulders, using her wings to lift both of them. "I thought you can't use your wings." "I...cant." Crimson huffed. "T-they hurt...." Dash glanced at Crimson's back, noticing black veins pulsing all over. "Whoa....what's going on with your back?" Dash asked, actually worried about her. "Fighting a demon...rendered my wings useless for...flight." Crimson gasped for breath, she trembled as the veins grew. "Using it...what I just did...spreads poison..." "Poison?" "I've lived with the....poison for years. As long as I...don't use my wings...I'm fine....using it for anything else, then I'm in trouble." "I see..." Dash said softly, looking at her. "You risked your health to save me...even after I was being horrible to you." Crimson gently tapped Rainbow's head with her hoof. "What are friends for?" She smiled weakly before coughed. "I think we go through the maze the right way, as much as I love seeing that screech of yours in action." Rainbow smiled at her. Crimson was about to say something when they heard a loud monsterous screech from above. The mares looked up, they could barely see a large pony flying right above them. A deep dark purple monster. "Please don't tell me that it isn't Twilight flying over us?" Rainbow gulped. "I won't." Crimson said. The mares stood still for a moment before Twilight flew over them and went to the other side of the labyrinth. "I can track her now by smell, just get ready to turn a corner when I say so." Rainbow reposition Crimson to where she was on Dash's back, her red hooves tightly holding onto the cyan mare's shoulders. "You better hold on." With that, Dash takes off, carring the ex-veteran on her back. After a while, they finally came to the other side. Princess Luna was furiously trying to open the large brown door with her scythe, but there wasn't even a scratch on the surface. "Curses!" Luna huffed, stepping back before she passes out from exhaustion. "Princess? How did you end up here?" Dash asked. "I fell into a trap door. That door somehow ended up in the center of this Maze." Luna said before turning to look at the two mares. "Are you alright Crimson?" Crimson nods. "Yeah, I think so." She tapped on Rainbow's shoulder so she could get off of her. "Nothing I can't handle." Rainbow sighed. "Crimson has been carring this poison. It's been slowly killing her." "Rainbow!" Crimson hissed at the rainbow maned mare. "Let me see," Luna comes up to Crimson. The bat sighed melancholy before showing the princess her back. The black veins basically covered the majority of her back. As Luna took a look at her, her eyes drifted to her Cutie Mark. It was a simple blue shield but Luna sees something else, the shield itself was a bit fuzzy, like something else was there and this was covering it. Whatever it was, she could faintly see an outline of what looks like an amulet. One she only seen on one pony, but she hasn't seen it in centuries. "Well? Can you do something to fix her?" Rainbow asked, crossing her arms across her chest. Luna stared at Crimson's Cutie mark and then at the black veins. "She'll have to come to Canterlot, I know of this poison, she'll have to be treated or else." "If it means amputating my useless wings, I'm all for it." Crimson said, glancing at Luna, seeing the princess was looking somewhere else. Crimson moved her tail to cover one side of her flank. "Now, what's with the door?" "Yes..." Luna walked over to the door. "It's another blood seal. but this one is different than the one we came acrossed before. My blood doesn't work but the riddle remains the same." "Only the true Princess of the Night shall enter." Rainbow recites. "But, Luna, you're the princess of the night." "In Equestria, I am, but here, it seems the Transylmaneians have a different meaning of that title." Luna explain. She looked at crimson. "If I recall, when we first came to the previous lock, you tensed up. Why is that?" "I don't know what you are talking about," Crimson said, adverting her eyes from Luna's. "I think you do." "Can some pony please do something, we got a machine to destroy, a couple of ponies to stop and I don't know: SAVE TWILIGHT!" Rainbow snapped. "Crimson, if you can do something, do it, we're wasting time standing around." "Rainbow's right," Crimson said, getting in front of the mares, preparing her sonic screech once more before blasting the door clean off of it's hinges. That blast was more powerful than before 'cause Dash could see the guards running towards them to be only knocked unconcious and still kept going, the sonic wave, breaking a few walls before disappearing. "AWESOME!!!!" Rainbow laughed before the three mares took off down the building. "Be on the look out, Twilight isn't far from us." Crimson said, rubbing her muzzle as they ran. Going through countless doors and rooms, they finally came to the main room, the biggest room besides the ball room, in the chateau. Count Blackheart and Countess Zeldina were inside, they were about to share a tall glass of crimson nector. In the center of the room was this large machine, a table connected to it and a large tank of blood sitting idly. On the table was their transformed vampire Twilight. "HEY!" Rainbow Dash Flies in, swooping the tall red liquid filled goblet, threw it at a wall. The glass shattered, leaving the blood painted the wall. "You dare interupt us?!" The countess snarled. "For a couple of alicorns, you two are the worst rulers there have ever been." Luna snapped. "Um, guys...." Crimson called out, seeing the vampire Twilight waking up. "GUARDS!" Count Blackheart called out. A large group of bats in armor rushed in with weapons and such. "Kill them!" "Could've use some backup." Rainbow Dash said. "But we can take them." "Dash, can you handle the guards and Luna can you handle the royals?" Crimson asked as Vampire Twilight stood up, spreading her bat wings and screeched loudly, her red eyes staring at the mares. "What will you do, Crimson Rose?" Luna asked. "I'll handle batty here." Crimson said, glaring at Twilight. "Are you sure?" Rainbow dash asked. "Trust me." Crimson grinned. "Or is the greatest flyer in Equestria afraid to beat down a bunch of bats." "Okay, that's it!" Rainbow snarled, charging right into the bat guards. "Crimson Rose, you sure you can go against Twilight in her state?" Luna said before Zeldina shot Luna . Luna was able to dodged it and snarled. "Forget it!" since Luna can't use any of her normal magic, she goes into rage mode and raced over to Zeldina. Rainbow Dash began wailing at the bat guards. Using both her speed and her obnoxious tactics, she plumbled through the guards. "Take that, and that! Oh you want some more!" she back hoofed a guard and cackled, having fun. One of the bat unicorns shot right at Rainbow's butt. "EEP!" She cried then snarled. She dive bombs that unicorn, grabbing them by the horn and tail and just like what Pinkie did to Twilight with the changelings, Rainbow just starts using that bat as a machine gun and shot lasers at the bats. "That'll teach you stupid bats to shoot me. Do it again I dare ya, I triple dog dare you!" She snarled. "Get this blasted mare off of me!" the bat unicorn cried out as he was being used to shoot at his comrads. Crimson went off face to face with vampire Twilight. They circled around each other, keeping their eyes on each other, seeing if either pony would make the first move. Ignoring the pain of her back, Crimson used her sonic screech on Twilight. Twilight jumps out of the way and went up to the air. She screeched loudly and dived right towards Crimson, and that crimson bat was just standing there as Twilight, fangs out and everything, swoops down. Crimson grinned and stepped into the shadows. Twilight went to follow her but she ended up running into the walls. Vamp Twi snarled, rubbing her nose and looked around. Where could Crimson have disappeared to. Up in the rafters, Crimson was able to climb up the walls and up at the wooden beams. When she got up there, she let out a traditional bat screech to get her attention. "Hey you pathetic excuse for a bat pony, come and get me!" Crimson called out before jumping further up the rafters. Vamp Twi screamed before spreading her wings and took off. "What the buck are you doing!?" Dash called out to Crimson as she held a guard in a choke hold in her cyan hoofs. "Going bat shit." Crimson grinned. "Over here you bat wannabe! that's right, follow me!" Crimson and Twilight ended up disappearing up in the high ceiling. Luna was going up against both Count and Countess. She was almost at her limit because she was facing two dark magic users, but she wasn't going to give up. "You abused your athority as alicorns. We used to be such a great tribe, how did it come to this, two bats undeserving of being called themselves rulers of the night." Luna huffed. "And you, my dear, call yourself the princess of the night?" Zeldina laughed. "You may raise the moon and a keeper of dreams, but you have no idea what it means to truely understand the darkness, to really grasp the night?" Luna looked down and closed her blue eyes. "You might be right. I only learned what my old friend has told me. And she..." Luna opened her eyes, they were completely white. "She is your Queen!" Her horn started to spark a solid blue aura. Her first use of dark magic. It cloaked the room in total and complete darkness. "Whoa!" Rainbow shouted. "Who turn out the lights!?" Crimson still able to see in the pitch black, and apparently, so did vamp Twi. "C'mon c'mon c'mon." She told her self as she took off. when she got to one of the last rafters, just twenty feet, there was an opening of the clear night sky, the crescent moon was just barely peeking out. "Oh crud..." Her eyes widened when she heard Twilight ganging up on her. Crimson looked down to seeing Twilight and looked at her wings. She took deep breaths. She gritted her fangs. "That should be enough..." She spread her wings, ignoreing her pain, she jumped. When she did, her poisoned wings flapped. With each beat, the poison spreaded. It wasn't what worried Crimson, its not being able to go out in time. Her wings flapped as hard as they could towards the opening. Sweat just poured down her brow as she quickly flow up into the night sky. The crescent moonlight that barely engulfs her, but it was just enough. Crimson's light blue eyes were turned to solid black. it was like two lumps of coal replaced her beautiful eyes. She arched her back and shot her sonic screech at Twilight. This attack was more powerful that she usually did. Twilight screeched when she was hit. The magic energy from that attack was changing Twilight. What experiments Count Blackheart did to Twilight was being blasted away. Twilight was flown towards the ground unconcious. Crimson breath heavily. Her wings were fully consumed with poison. The tip of the wing began disappearing, along with the rest. From total exhaustion and the poison taking it's toll, Crimson's eyes rolled the back of her skull and she fell. It was midnight in the Everfree Forest, Coral was pushing her mother in a wheelchair. The past three weeks were really hard since they had to go to Canterlot. Crimson had that long waited operation, thanks to the Princess Luna. Crimson looked a lot better considering. she had a blanket covered her hindlegs as she was being pushed. She was just glad to be alive. After Luna had taken care of the count and countess, she was able to catch Twilight and Rainbow barely caught Crimson on time. Thanks to a few powerful bat unicorns, every pony was able to be teleported to Canterlot. Crimson owed everypony her life. "I'm so excited." Coral giggled, "Are we there yet?" "This should be the place." Crimson smiled. "You can stop pushing my little drake." Coral did. Crimson pushed herself off of the wheelchair, throwing the blanket away. Crimson had some few modifications: she had new metalic prostetic bat wings and a new right prostetic leg. "You ready for the test?" Crimson asked. "Go mama, go go! The moon is full, let it rip!" Coral cheered. Crimson closed her eyes and opened them. Her blue eyes were fully black. She did a running start before spreading her wings and took off into Luna's sapphire night sky. "Oh I missed this!" Crimson grinned as she did some impressive manuvers in the sky before heading straight at the moon. With each beat of her new wings, Crimson's body started to change. Her body began to grow to Celestia's height, her coat was silver, her mane was long glossy black with a purple streak, a long curved silver horn materialized on her forehead. Her cutiemark changed to an anke: The symbol of the Queen of the night. This was Crimson's true form. "My my dear, daughter." Crimson giggled as coral flew up to her and hugged her. "Mama pretty!" Coral giggled. "Now we can fly together." She giggled. "That we can." Crimson said as she desended. The further she gotten from the moon, the more she reverts to her smaller red bat self. The light of the moon revials her trueself. She didn't care, she was just happy to be able to fly once more. "Hello, princess." A familiar voice shot out of the dark. Crimson gasped and turned around. her eyes turning red when she realized who it was. "It's you..."