Twilight did not want to be resting, but she'd been awake for over a week and had gone far enough past the limits of her vampiric endurance that it was beginning to be a struggle to keep her eyes open. Despite that, her mind was restless, and sleep evaded her. She tossed and turned on the little cot she had in the ancient barracks deep inside Canterlot's Old City, missing her bed fiercely. Celestia and Luna had insisted, however, due to Canterlot being far more centrally located than Ponyville. Settling in as comfortably as she could, she closed her eyes and thought about how things had changed.
The first two days in Canterlot had been a constant blur. She'd had to keep up her own physical training, teach her friends how to cope with their new urges and instincts, teach them about husks and necromancers, and drill them in basic combat. Through it all, Luna had been conspicuous in her absence, making Twilight the de-facto leader of the little force. Twilight was utterly certain this had been intentional. It was made rather difficult by the revelation that vampirism was most definitely not one size fits all. All of her friends had been changed in unique ways, confusing even Luna, and her Element had all but innocently whistled when she asked if they had interfered.
Rainbow was the hardest. She'd always been fast, but now she could practically teleport. Twilight had watched her dodge a stone Luna had thrown at a speed substantially greater than that of sound without particular effort. Her senses had been magnified to a borderline freakish degree as well, especially her hearing and eyesight. The only respite had been her choice of a weapon, some strange spear-like thing she called a ji. Being a bladed weapon, it was used differently than a staff, but it was similar enough that Twilight had at least understood the basic concepts she was trying to impart in training. She was perfectly suited for scouting and skirmishes, to be sure, but Twilight had no idea how to help Rainbow take advantage of her abilities beyond sparring.
Rarity at least had been simple enough. She'd quickly cottoned on to Luna's style of magic, and the veils and illusions she could weave were so perfect, only the Princesses knew for sure when she was around. In combat, she'd simply shown up one day with a pair of delicate, diamond-bladed daggers, an enchanted bow, and iron arrows tipped with yet more diamond. She was scarily precise with the application of both, even at long range. Twilight had seen Rarity aim at targets so far away they were barely visible, and she'd never seen her friend deliver anything less than a perfect bullseye. Rarity took an almost childish glee in taking on the role of a mysterious assassin, and Twilight was quite content to let her.
Applejack was the only one of her friends that could match Twilight in a fair fight, and it was entirely due to sheer brutal strength. She wore a set of thick, solid armour Luna had given to her, and she was all but invulnerable in it. Even out of it, the best blades Canterlot could offer, from small daggers to mighty claymores, shattered on her hide without drawing blood. For offense, she'd taken a hammer from the Royal Smithy, and Twilight had deeply regretted questioning a forge hammer's use as a weapon after Applejack had rather casually batted her out of the sparring arena with it. There had been profuse apologies over the broken ribs, but Twilight personally thought her friend had taken far too much satisfaction in the deed.
Pinkie was, as ever, a walking enigma. She wore no armour, and fought with a simple sabre, but considering her abilities before she'd been turned, it was nothing too far fetched. However, Twilight couldn't for the life of her decide if it was amazing or terrifying how Pinkie's Pinkie Sense had gone from brief snippets of soon-to-occur events to predicting the not-too-far future with impossible accuracy and unerringness.
Fluttershy, she had no such doubt about. The calm, shy, pegasus could bring Twilight to the edge of a panic attack with her dissonant serenity in the most extreme situations. She was learning the healing arts, but Twilight had the uncomfortable feeling that Fluttershy could just as easily watch a pony be dismembered as she could watch them be put back together, if she thought it was for the greater good. In a fight, she relied on a meteor hammer, a small weight on the end of a long silk rope. It was beautiful beyond words to see, but deadly efficient.
On top of that, Luna had taught them all the very basics of necromancy. Twilight had been rather discomfited to learn the emotional style of magic Luna favoured was essentially the same thing, except fueled by her innate power rather than the essence of her life. As for necromancy itself, Twilight found the power very nearly overwhelming, and using it almost made her pity the necromancers. Even with the protection of her vampiric nature, it was borderline addictive, and seemed to inherently drawn towards destruction and ruin. It was far, far easier to throw a bolt of deadly, midnight black fire than it was to conjure something useful. The power didn't quite feel evil, but it reeked of corruption and defilement, and it was deeply unsettling to smell the brimstone stench of what Luna called nightfire wafting down from her horn.
And, of course, there was more. There was always more. A constant frenzy of activity, frenetic and chaotic and mind-bendingly consistent. Even when everything else failed, her friends required almost constant supervision at first, to prevent them from lashing out at anything they perceived as a threat. Or an annoyance, really. Again, Rainbow was the worst. She'd always been hot-headed and arrogant, but Twilight knew that was all because of how insecure the pegasus really was. Now, Rainbow had no insecurities. She was better than the best, and she was all too aware of it. More than once, Twilight had found herself forced to personally step in and physically enforce a pecking order to keep violence from breaking out.
Frankly, she just thanked her lucky stars that she was still the single most dangerous fighter of the group. She hated how much she revelled in it, but it was necessary, and so she would endure as long as she was required to do so.
Worst had been when Celestia had insisted on displaying the newly fledged vampiric defenders of Equestria to calm the populace's fears...
Celestia was delivering a speech, likely about the Elements and their Bearer's achievements in the field of saving the nation, but Twilight was ignoring every word of fiery oratory and moment of dramatic silence. She was in a small fighting ring, well shielded but open for public viewing beneath the balcony Celestia was preaching from, and what was intended to be three sparring sessions had become a brawl. It had started with a strike that missed its intended target, and now Twilight was pressed just to keep bones, organs, and other important things both internal and intact.
She ducked under Fluttershy's shrieking meteor hammer while simultaneously nudging Rainbow's ji aside with a hoof and snatching one of Rarity's daggers out of her friends telekinetic grip and tossing away with her own magic. Then she struck out with her staff, bashing a few of Applejack's teeth out with one half of it and delivering a blow that would cripple one of Rainbow's wings for a few a minutes with the other. She followed this with a teleport that placed her directly in front of Rarity, and a vicious jab with both forehooves left the fashionista panting and nearly senseless in the dirt. Then Applejack's great forging hammer crashed into the back of her head, and for a moment the world went black.
As for the ponies attending Celestia's speech, they didn't quite know what to make of the display. Some were watching eagerly, excited by the prospect of warriors as ruthless and powerful as these fighting in their defence against a threat they'd never even known existed. Others were sickened, repulsed by what they saw as senseless brutality born from twisted, forbidden magic.
Twilight's eyes flicked open again before she even hit the ground, and she was angry. She let loose a massive blast of telekinetic force, a rapidly expanding dome of raw power that flattened her friends against the shield around the ring. Then she called the simple armour Luna had taught her to form from any shadow, even the faint one she cast in sunlight. Now clad head to hoof in darkness, she snapped her twin staves together and then drew it to her side, her stance openly challenging the other five. She would not tolerate the melee any longer, there would be a purpose to the fight now. Her friends would assault her with everything they had, she knew, and she was ready for it.
Rarity started the dance, a single diamond tipped arrow racing at Twilight's eye almost too quickly to see. Twilight reached out, tossed it into the sidereal dimension she used to teleport, then threw it back out into reality an inch in front of Applejack's chest. It didn't penetrate deeply, but the diamond was hard and sharp enough to drive an inch or so in and draw venomous curses from the earth pony. While her most dangerous opponent was occupied with removing the arrow, Twilight raced towards Rarity, intent on removing the archer from the fight entirely. The other unicorn gamely dropped her bow and drew the one dagger she had left, but Twilight contemptuously smacked it aside with her staff. Then Twilight opened her mouth, barred her fangs and made to drive them into Rarity's throat, but she was interrupted when a slender silk rope wrapped around her throat.
Fluttershy yanked hard on her meteor hammer, and Twilight felt her hooves leave the ground. She teleported away before her pegasus friend could throttle her unconscious, and as soon as she materialised she swung her stuff around her in a wide circle. She was rewarded with a jolt of impact and a grunt of pain from Pinkie, then she gone again. This time, she materialised in the air, suspending herself with her magic and surveying the little ring for a moment. She didn't even notice Rainbow leap thirty feet in the air behind and toss her ji out in front of her. Whirling around, the pegasus struck the weapon squarely on the end of with a rear hoof, and while the blade didn't penetrate Twilight's armour, it struck true at the base of her neck. Gasping in shock and losing hold of the spell the kept her aloft, Twilight crashed to the ground, landing poorly on one leg and collapsing.
She raised a shield as soon as she felt her leg falter, and was rewarded by the hollow boom of a hammer strike against the dome of solid magic. 'This is very bad,' she thought as she brought herself back to her hooves. 'If this keeps up they'll wear me down.'
She decided to remove Rainbow first. She couldn't match her friends speed, and even teleportation only granted her equal mobility in extremely short bursts. Still maintaining the shield, she found the pegasus, then teleported again, materialising directly behind Rainbow. The pegasus reacted instantly, whirling around and flashing an eager grin. A series of blows were traded so quickly that several ponies watching from the outside the ring blinked and missed them entirely, Twilight countering Rainbow's strange, barely-controlled style with ruthless efficiency and judicious application of greater skill and strength. Twilight ended it with a single brutal buck, catching the pegasus on the chin with a single hoof. Rainbow's neck wrenched back, snapped, and the pegasus fell, limp and useless. Knowing her friend would be unable to heal the damage in time to rejoin the fight, Twilight attempted to move on.
Instead, a sharp pain shot through one of her lungs as one of Rarity's diamond tipped arrows tore through her body, sinking so deeply only the fletching was visible. Letting out a pained, burbling hiss, Twilight grabbed the end of the arrow in her teeth and wrenched it out. She leveled a glare at Rarity, who wilted slightly as she prepared another arrow. Twilight charged, moving as fast as she was able, her staff levitating at her side.
Rarity loosed the arrow, and Twilight was saved by Pinkie Pie, who slashed the arrow out of the air at the precise moment Twilight tried to grab it with her magic. Thrown off balance when her telekinetic grip closed on nothing, Twilight nearly stumbled, and that was enough for Pinkie's blade to flash out and lick at her exposed eyes. Snarling, Twilight lashed out with raw bolts of force as she fought to clear the haze of incoherent rage from her mind. Pinkie, nimble as ever, dodged each one before she'd even launched them. Twilight's glare sharpened further, and the next blast of force was a wave, broad and tall enough that Pinkie was caught in it and tossed to the side, where she crumpled half-senseless.
A second arrow struck home, this one piercing her other lung. Gasping and stumbling, Twilight let out a feral scream in Rarity's direction and started tapping the more dangerous combat magic she'd learned. First, she shackled Rarity to the ground with a set of black iron chains. They wouldn't hold the unicorn long, but they didn't need to. Twilight prepared and aimed a spell that would utterly devastate her opponent, knocking her out of the fight in no uncertain terms. Just as she loosed it, however, Applejack dashed into the way.
Taking a hammer-blow of magic that would detonate a bunker like it was a stiff breeze, Applejack stood defiant and raised her hammer. Twilight cursed under her breath, she couldn't fight Applejack until they were the last two standing. The earth pony would require her full attention to disable. As a delaying tactic, she reached out with her magic and ignited her friend's mane and tail.
Ignoring Applejack's shrill cries, Twilight teleported to stand directly in front of Rarity. She was rewarded with nothing, Rarity had vanished. Twilight reared and stamped her hooves, throwing out a delicate little spell that launched dust into the air around her. Almost instantly, the dust settled back down on the ground. "You'll have to do better than that, darling," Rarity's voice came from nowhere.
"I can do that," Twilight answered, and then she whirled and lashed out with her staff, catching the invisible Rarity hard across the mouth. Dazed, Rarity stumbled, and Twilight completed her victory by raining down blows with her staff until Rarity meekly surrendered.
'That was a mistake,' she heard her Element whisper, and a moment later Fluttershy's meteor hammer struck home against her horn, nearly shattering it. Shrieking in agony, Twilight dropped her staff, and her armour shattered as her concentration was lost. She turned to face the source of her agony, she was struck twice more as Fluttershy wound and unwound the beautiful silk weapon around her body, all the while looking as if there was no place in the world she'd rather be. Twilight caught the third strike, wrapping the weighted end around her hoof, and with a titanic heave pulled the pegasus directly into her lowered horn. Not content merely to gore the pegasus, she hefted her staff again, and rapped Fluttershy sharply over the head three times, leaving the mare unconscious and bleeding.
Then she turned to her final opponent. Applejack had torn off her armour and stamped out her flaming hair, but she looked no less defiant than she had before. "Y'all nearly burned mah eyes out," the country pony drawled. "Reckon Ah don't care for that."
Twilight just smiled, not trusting herself to speak. Her body, numbed as it was by adrenaline and her vampiric nature, was a symphony of agony, and she doubted she could speak clearly with a damaged lung.
Applejack snorted. "Thought so." Then the earth pony charged, more a force of nature than anything pony.
Twilight carefully braced herself, physically and magically, and met the charge with a shoulder. It was a near thing, but she managed to avoid getting thrown off her hooves, and there the fight proper began.
Applejack savaged Twilight with headbutts for a moment, but Twilight ignored the thundering blows, focusing instead on maneuvering her staff into just the right place to drive into the back of Applejack's head on the backswing of another strike. The impact nearly cracked the magical staff, but it was barely sufficient to stun Applejack for a bare instant. Twilight latched onto that instant, and took the chance to draw upon her necromancy for the first time in the fight.
If she used her necromancy against her other friends, she was terrified it would be fatal. Applejack, she doubted she could kill if she tried. It was time to give the crowd a real show. Twilight's armour forged itself anew, this time radiating a fierce heat from the nightfire she'd wound around it. She split her staff again, coating one end of each half in more midnight flame. Then, she lowered her horn to Applejack's forehead, drew upon all her anger and pain and loathing, and unleashed a horrific torrent of pure, rampaging pain.
Applejack didn't scream. She grimaced, hissed, grasped Twilight's head in her hooves, and brought all of her terrible strength to bear, mindless of how Twilight's armour seared the forelimbs. This duel of endurance didn't last long, but when the two ponies broke apart, both of them had a shadow in their eyes. They paced circles around each other, cautious and aware of how they were separated by only a few short feet. They traded a few probing blows with their weapons, but no strikes landed. Applejack was unfamiliar with controlling her weapon through the necromantic telekinesis Luna had taught them, and so her blows were just clumsy and awkward enough for Twilight to meet them with half of her staff.
Twilight ended the stalemate with not fire or force, but her third favourite tool. Her horn flashed the dark, angry red of necromancy, and the earth beneath Applejack's hooves began to roil and buck, knocking the earth pony off balance. Then she delved into some of the more arcane of the dark arts, and she bound Applejack's mind with sorrow and misery, further distracting the mare.
Applejack bore it all with stoic resolve, not even frowning as she leapt for Twilight's throat with her fangs. Twilight interceded with a leg, accepting the harsh bite as the price she had to pay for an advantage, and then drove the superheated end of one of her staves into Applejack's right eye.
Applejack didn't scream. Instead, she thrashed her head around, snapping Twilight's limb like a twig before throwing the unicorn into the dirt. Twilight responded by wreathing Applejack in nightfire, turning her nose up at the stench but not relenting until she'd fought her way to standing on three hooves. She limped over to where Applejack thrashed on the ground, and with a cold, clinical calm maintained the heat until she was certain Applejack was defeated.
She hated reveling in violence, but she never felt weak anymore.
Twilight tossed in her cot again, regretting her decision to think about the past. In the heat of the moment, she'd felt powerful. After the fact, seeing Applejack grimace with every move until the burns healed and having to pour blood down Rainbow's throat to allow the pegasus to heal back to mobility, she'd felt sickened. It was always like that when she had to step in with her friends, she hated to hurt them, and she'd been burnt and stabbed and beaten enough to know exactly what every moment of it felt like from the wrong end.
"I sense we are about to repeat a conversation," came Luna's voice, and Twilight jolted out of bed to glare testily at the Lunar Diarch.
"Sneaking up on me when I'm grumpy? That's a low blow," Twilight accused.
"Nonsense," Luna replied with a smile that quickly faded. "I can feel your mind, little one. Do not hide your horror with humour. Speak to me."
Twilight sighed, knowing Luna had the patience to badger her for months if she didn't talk about it now. "I don't know why you're asking. You know what's bothering me."
Luna snorted. "I can feel your thoughts, Twilight. I cannot read them. I only know you are tormenting yourself without cause."
Something twinged harshly in Twilight's brain. "Without cause?" she hissed, stalking up and jabbing Luna lightly in the ribs. "I have got plenty of cause. If I'd done what I did to my friends a week ago, they'd all be dead!"
Luna's smile returned. "Ah. Now I see. Tell me, Twilight, do you resent me for teaching you as I did?"
Twilight blinked, the change in topic delivering a sharp blow to her anger. "Well, no, but what does that have to do with anything?"
"Why do you resent yourself for using my methods, then?" Luna asked, false curiosity in her voice. "They disobeyed your command to spar cleanly and calmly as a demonstration to the public. You taught them that disobeying you is foolish. You did no worse to them than I have done to you. I dare say I would do far worse, if you embarrassed me so badly in public."
Twilight chuckled, tight and harsh. "I'm not you. I'm not billions of years old. I can't rationalise it like you can."
Luna quirked an eyebrow as her smile faded into a soft, almost regretful expression. "Indeed, you are not me, Twilight. You have not seen a second for every year I have lived. For this, you should be infinitely grateful. Yet, you are very much like me. If nothing else, you were cursed with my temper." Luna's eyebrow dropped, and her face softened another shade. "Twilight Sparkle, how am I to make you realise how insufferably noble you are?" Twilight's left eye started twitching fiercely, but Luna raised a solemn hoof and continued. "Here you stand, having sacrificed everything you have ever known and loved to attempt to save a nation that will likely never thank you for it, and you are concerned that you inflicted minor damage to friends who willingly subjected themselves to discipline. If it weren't so endearing, it would be sickening."
Twilight sighed bitterly. "I felt powerful when I roasted Applejack. That's not right. I don't want to enjoy hurting ponies, Luna. That's not me."
"Truly?" Luna asked. "You have never enjoyed running rampant with your power? There was no satisfaction when you defeated Nightmare Moon, or imprisoned Discord?"
"Celebrating victory and sadism are not comparable," Twilight said in a flat voice.
"You are hardly a sadist, Twilight Sparkle," Luna assured her. "Yes, you burned your friend, because it was an expedient path to victory. You did so to end the battle, not to make her suffer."
"I could have found another way," Twilight pointed out.
Luna nodded, but stood. "I will not dispute that. I will leave you with a thought, however. An old phrase, long out of use. 'Demons run when a good mare goes to war.' I believe it applies to you. Consider it, learn its meaning, and perhaps it will bring you a measure of peace."
Twilight frowned as Luna walked away. "Hey," she called out, and the Princess stopped. "You forgot the rest. 'Night will fall and drown the sun, when a good mare goes to war.'"
Luna chuckled. "Perhaps not the wisest choice of words, but I was rather angry at the time." Then Luna left, and Twilight went back to her cot, cursing the inevitable sleepless night.