//------------------------------// // The showdown- part 1 // Story: Vampires, Punk Rock, and other Equestrian secrets // by Inkheart_tails //------------------------------// Scarlet surveyed her surroundings, inhaling the scents around her deeply as she hovered above the city in the vibrant sunset. She had been so close she could taste it, and her prey had been distracted, but it had suddenly teleported away. Stupid Unicorns. Her sense of smell was good, but she was capable of smelling blood, not magic trails It was a rather confusing situation to Scarlet. She knew her prey had been pursuing prey of its own, why had it stopped so suddenly? Excitable, cowardly piece of shit. What could have been any legitimate threat aside from her, who was unknown to her victim anyway? Prissy little thing had no resolve or dedication to her form of destruction. Unlike Scarlet. No damn time to grumble about it ,I guess. Scarlet thought to herself bitterly. The wind quickened a bit, and she sniffed the air once more in hopes of rediscovering the scent. There it was! It was distant, but at last detectable. Scarlet tilted her large ears in the direction of it, hoping to pick up some hint as to the mare’s current state as she flew in her direction. She hated hunting and flying by daylight, but luckily it was almost gone. A creature of the night and of instinct, it was hard for her to focus even with very little daylight. It was going to be a cold night. The cloud cover had been cleared away that morning, and even in summer the elevation made cloudless nights in Canterlot bitterly cold. Scarlet enjoyed the awakening sting, a glorious reminder that she was no longer in Sapphire’s mind-prison. As her bat wings tore through the air, they greedily devoured the sensation of the frigid air, so powerful without feathers to keep them warm. Every inch of her body was excited and hungry, and any pony who dared to look close enough could see it in Scarlet’s blazing eyes. She laughed wickedly out loud, not currently caring who gazed up with concern. Usually she liked to be discreet, but she felt so much more awake than ever before. She didn’t care this time. For the first time in what seemed like forever, she was going in for a kill. Scarlet landed gently outside of a homely guard residence, grinning with flashing fangs. This was the place! The Sandmare was just downstairs. Her hooves itched for impact with her enemy’s delicate bones, her teeth prepared to pierce tender flesh. Scarlet drooled a little, savoring the very anticipation of it, and then leapt forward and broke the door down. “Honey, I’m home!”, Scarlet called mockingly. She knew the mare she was hunting was too distracted to hear her, battling a pointless enemy in her dreams. What a pitiful fool, what a stupid little thing. The Sandmare currently had no fear-scent, but before she was dead Scarlet would change that. Hopefully, she had timed it well and would be the one to wake her. She slunk down the stairs quietly, low and catlike. Each step increased the rate of her heart and the burning desire in her bones. Every stair behind her was another closer to that perfect moment. Scarlet came upon the Sandmare at last, resting alongside a sleeping guard as her magical aura built. Darn, she’d been at it a while. But even the power she had built already did not discourage Scarlet. It was simply a pleasant challenge. With a delicate smile, Scarlet sprang for her prey, just as it awakened. However, she had slightly miscalculated, as her victim stood strong and glared confidently, prepared for the blow. As their eyes met, the house was set alight with a powerful burst of magic, visible more clearly in the fresh darkness of the night. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Luna ran through the dream plane now. Her wings had briefly given out under the force of a magical attack, and her exhaustion was wearing on her quickly. Her adversary had been teleporting through dreams over and over, becoming more mobile as her power increased. Luna shuddered even as she ran. How could this have happened so quickly? Luna wasn't even keeping track of whose dream they entered. The one they were in now was very loud, however. The ground shook with the force of a powerful rhythm, and a loud melody drowned out any hope of detecting the Sandmare by ear. She spotted a white unicorn dancing on a high spinning platform, singing her heart out. If this dream was the unicorn’s own creation, Luna would have smiled at the beauty of it, but it was simply part of her enemy’s trap. Luna continued scanning the area, finally spotting the Sandmare hiding behind a speaker as her waves of magic overtook the world of the dreams. The speaker was simply a clever disguise for the transmission of her magical energy, Luna suddenly realized. She blasted at the Sandmare with a beam of magic, and it hit the target precisely. Her enemy fell backwards, her body skidding across the ground. “You're pretty relentless, Luna” The Sandmare said, pulling herself up slowly as the crash backward had jolted her. “Unluckily for you, so am I. And I have the upper hoof already!” She got up and, in a cloud of stinging hot sand, vanished into the next dream. Luna pursued, unwavering as the Sandmare had pointed out. This time she caught her immediately on entry, and pinned her down. The mare below her squirmed and snarled, not yet having gotten her bearings in this new dream. But it didn't matter. She had a strong grip on many others; better yet, the Sandmare was nearly certain the princess had no idea, based on her persisting confidence. Luna prepared a blast that nearly missed as the Sandmare scrambled to her hooves, and it caught her on her retreating hind legs. Sandmare fell forward, but rose quickly in her determination, firing a blast at Luna in return. The magic was burning hot as it hit Luna in the shoulder, and she cried out sharply in pain. Her enemy smiled, now having a better advantage in this moment of weakness, and fled in search of the pony who owned this dream. Luna trailed her and, remembering her wings and testing to see if their power had returned, flew ahead. The dreamer had a large imagination, as the area was wide and spacious. A desert in the nighttime, surrounded by tall and sharp canyons, cragged dark silhouettes in the darkness of night. The Sandmare was in her element here in a way. She smiled to herself as her steady trot kicked up dust around her. This wouldn't be too hard at all. At last the two battling mares came upon the dreaming pony, matching pace and slamming into each other as they reached them. A sharp pain burned Luna’s ribs as the Sandmare’s horn collided with them, causing her body to jolt, and the Sandmare let out a shout as Luna’s rear hooves slammed her in the face. The two struggled for supremacy in an absurd pile for a moment before the Sandmare squeezed out. Luna tried to shout after her but only a squeak came out, causing her to wrap a hoof around her ribs as pain convulsed through her chest from the attempt. The Sandmare grinned and chuckled to herself, focusing on her target. As her magic flowed over the dreamer, their surroundings changed completely. The environment was still dark, but shifted from a desert to a deep and lush forest. The scent of pine flooded Luna’s nostrils and she heard the sound of a stream flowing nearby. Luna sat up slowly, shaking as she rose from the pain in her side. Undeterred, Luna charged at the Sandmare, only for her target to vanish. Tears had begun to flood from her eyes from her pain and increasing failure, but she nonetheless pursued the villain.- only to find she had left the dream realm. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inkheart and Rough Sketch were at a gateway to the underground, ready to board the elevator. Sketch had been quite skeptical of the existence of it, and was still wondering if this was simply a drawn out and poorly timed joke. How could something so huge and so strange be hidden here in Canterlot? Anypony on the surface that didn’t fit the prissy, classy status quo was given so much attention (the negative kind, of course) when on the surface- how could the capitol of the odd and unknown be just beneath it? How had it not slipped? Then again, the activities of the night guard had managed to remain under lock and key as well, and that was perhaps even more absurd seeing as there were often lives on the line. In the end, Sketch had decided that nobody would joke like this when they were so terrified and had followed Inkheart to the nearest gateway. But just as the elevator opened they saw the light, heard the screams. As the sun had set and Luna had battled the Sandmare in the dreams of the guard, Canterlot had been going to bed. The Sandmare had managed to gain quite a bit of power in the dreams before she had been tracked down, and now she could reach into the dreams of more than one pony at once. Her power was only growing now and, as the city lay down to rest, it was able to rise to a sharp peak from all the fresh dreams. More and more dreams had been added to the ones she now manipulated with her spell, and she could now be awake even while controlling them. Of course, when she awoke, she had turned her attention from Luna to her other attacker. She had blown the threat away with a powerful burst of magic as quickly as she could, but she knew it wasn’t over. Sketch and Inkheart exchanged a glance, their hearts both hammering hard with fear. What now? The two turned slowly from the elevator just as it rose to meet them, nearly too frightened to dare and look upon what had just occurred. However, they both knew that this slowness and fear could not last. Both pegasi unfurled their wings and stood tall and firm in preparation. Their gazes hardened into steely glares tempered with determination. This was their duty, and now the time to fight. Facing the unknown, Rough Sketch and Inkheart lifted their wings together and flew to confront the chaos. It was not too long of a flight before they came upon the scene, observing it with a silent grimness. Inkheart surveyed the surroundings carefully. There really weren’t many ponies out and about, and not much damage had been done yet, so it was easy to spot the source. And then there She was. There was the Sandmare, looking almost perfectly identical to her book illustration- only stronger, more confident, and maybe even taller? Something about the pony’s aura made her far more frightening in person, even from a distance. Sketch shuddered, and Inkheart guessed that he felt the same. That piercing gaze, the wicked grin…. There wasn’t much more time for thought or observation, as a blur of red appeared and clashed with the Sandmare. As if it were a cue for them to come onto the stage, Sketch and Inkheart descended afterward. They could only wonder briefly who the red pony was. Inkheart flapped her wings with all her might, struggling for the most speed she could muster. She had to pick up enough to be unstoppable, for her speed to protect her and her momentum to assist in her attack. Sketch banked left, less reliant on speed but more so on the distraction of multiple attackers- he would come in from the side, where his enemy least expected it and where the Sandmare would be unable to prepare herself. From the front, Scarlet had flown backward from her last attack, giving herself a brief respite from the assault to gather her thoughts. Wait- Who the hell were these ponies, descending upon HER prey? Oh, well. At least she knew that ponies like these wouldn’t rob her of her killing moment. They were just allowing her rest, and with her prey’s high power, she was grateful for this to a degree. Inkheart’s front hooves came down on the Sandmare, knocking her down as she had not anticipated the blow. The Sandmare got up and prepared to lunge at her new assailant, but was hit from the side by Sketch at that very moment. The Sandmare was thrown hard into a wall, collapsing with a dull thud. Inkheart charged towards the Sandmare, who barely had time to pull herself up and dodge. Inkheart turned as the Sandmare leapt out of the way and struck her hard in the face, knocking her down again. Sketch tackled the Sandmare at that moment as if on cue, holding her down for arrest. However, this hardly held the Sandmare back, and without even getting up she threw the two ponies backwards in return using her magic. Sketch righted himself in the air, catching Inkheart by grabbing her hooves just before she hit another wall. Sketch set down his partner carefully and then flew back for another attack. The Sandmare lifted herself up and caught Sketch in a magic beam. With a slight smile, the Sandmare altered the nature of the magic and it electrocuted her opponent. The Sandmare released her magical grip after a moment, and Rough Sketch fell to the ground. "Sketch!" Inkheart cried out, rushing to his side and glaring at the Sandmare. Inkheart looked over her companion carefully. If a pony as strong as him had been rendered useless so quickly, what chance did any of them stand? Sketch was motionless, his pelt dotted with singe marks from the hot electricity. The red blur returned just as sketch was thrown to the ground. Scarlet slammed into the Sandmare but this time held her strongly, bringing her along in her flight. As she flew, the Sandmare squirmed, kicked, and cut at her with swirling sand. “Release me!” The Sandmare demanded. “I didn't want to kill, but I'm warning you, I can-” “As you wish” Scarlet said, mischief seeping into her tone. With that, Scarlet stopped high in the air above a large park on the outskirts of the city and released the mare into the sky. Back where she had been left, Inkheart prodded carefully at Sketch, tears filling her eyes. "Please..... Wake up..."