The Element of Willpower

by Redwolf15

Chapter Eight: What Goes Bump in the Night

Chapter Eight
What Goes Bump in the Night

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"What are they?" Asks Shining Armor.

"Flex," I ignore Shining Armor's question. "We need light, a lot of light. Captain, you and I are going to take the earth and unicorn ponies. I have never gone up against an opponent that can use magic out front, I'll need your help to counter their's with your own. Sharla, take the pegasi that fly out of reach, but if they stray too far from us don't chase them, we need to stay together."

"W-what do I do?" Shantze asks stepping out from behind his sister trying to put on a brave face.

"Go with Flex, he'll protect you. But if you really want to help, then call out to us if one of them sneaks up on us and we don't see him."

He nods his head, taking pride in his task I gave him.

"Wait!" Shining Armor says. "Maybe they aren't dangerous. Being Captain of the Canterlot Royal Guard, I have to believe that there is something wrong with them and they just need help."

"But being Captain also means it's your duty to protect the Royal Family's subjects. And if we don't stop these things, then they will attack other ponies."

He looks at me with hard eyes, but soon soften as he gives in. "You're right. Even I can tell that they are too far gone to help. Alright, leave the magic to me, I'll watch your backs."

I smile at him. Not because he will help me, not because I get to fight by his side. But because anyone would be lucky to have a friend like him.

Flex takes Shantze up high out of danger. The surroundings start to get a little brighter until it explodes with light. There are three of each type of ponies.

Damn, now don't they look ugly.

"Alright." I say taking a charging stance. "Let's go!" The three of us rush torwards them.

Shining Armor lets out a magic bolt and hits the closest earth pony, knocking it down. I jump on it and bring my sword into its chest. It dies instantly. But something was odd, when I pulled my sword out of it, there was such little blood.

A unicorn rushes up to me, head down ready to stab me with its horn. There was no time for me to dodge out of the way, I was going to get skewered. Then a shield appears in front of me, a clear, transparent shield. The unicorn crashes into it, getting its horn stuck.

"Good thing I'm here." Shining Armor is behind me, his horn glowing. He takes the shield down and I slice the unicorn's head off. I was expecting there to be quite a bit of blood, but there was barely any spewing out. What happened to these ponies' blood?

"Sis, behind you!" Shantze yells a warning to his older sister. A pegasus was bolting towards her through the air, wings tucked in to give it maximum speed. Judging by the weight of the pegasus, speed of velocity, and area of impact, that was going to be a very nasty hit. Unfortunately for the pegasus, he wasn't the one hitting.

Sharla quickly makes a 180 degree spin, her axe was like a part of her body and sliced the pegasus in half. I can only begin to describe how it looked. Have you ever seen those shows about a high school kids' life and the cafeteria's 'mystery meat' looks like ground glop drowned in a bottle of hot sauce and you're just revolted by it? Well eat the glop and be thankful for it because this was nothing like that.

Shining Armor was pinned down by an earth pony that was trying to bite his face off. He held a magic shield around them while another unicorn was trying to use it's own magic to break the shield. I would have helped him, but unfortunately the other unicorn and earth ponies were ganging up on me. And Sharla was busy dealing with the two pegasi in the sky.

The earth pony charges at me. I cut low and slice its front two legs off and finish it off by ramming my sword into its brain. "Look out!" That warning was for me. The unicorn charges just a few paces behind the other, I never noticed that. I leave my sword inside the earth pony and punch the other in its face, it was like punching a flabby leather sack. The thing was so weak that I knocked it unconscious.

I run up and tackle the unicorn to the ground that was trying to break Shining Armor's shield and ram my sword far up its gut. This gives Shining Armor his chance to get the pony off him with a magic bolt now that he doesn't have to concentrate on the shield. "Good thing I'm here." I repeat to him.

We look up to see how Sharla was doing. She looked like she was holding her own against the pegasi, or at least one of them. She was locked in a fray with one, while the other was hanging back, waiting for an opening. Then he sees it. "Sis!" She couldn't hear her brother.

"He's moving too close. I might hit her too." Shining Armor says, he's trying to narrow his vision for a better shot.

"Don't worry." I reach deep inside me, looking for that phoenix magic I hold. As I begin to swing my sword upwards it catches on fire and streak of flame flies through the sky, cutting the charging pegasus in half. It falls like a rock. Well actually, more like two rocks.

Sharla stops swinging her massive axe and extends a claw around the pony's neck, digging in. With one powerful tug, she rips the throat out. Now this one, he fell like a rock

"Well," Shining Armor says as Sharla flies down. "That was unexpected." Flex and Shantze fly down to us. Flex perches on my shoulder, still giving off a little light so we can see each other.

"What were they?" Asks Sharla as she embraces her little brother.

"I don't know. In all my years I've never heard of anything like this before." Shining Armor says. "If this is a sickness than I've never seen any symptoms like these before."

We hear a noise. The unicorn I punched before woke up and was running away. I forgot about that one. "Flex, after it!"

"No, wait!" Shining Armor stops Flex and fires a magic bolt at the unicorn. I could have sworn he hit it straight on, but the unicorn kept running, unfazed.

"Crap! You missed!" I said ready to blast it with fire.

"Nope, I let it go." He said with a smirk.

We all look at him with confused expressions. "What do you mean, you let it go?"

"That bolt was not meant to harm him, it was to track him." He points a hoof at the a trail of glowing hoof prints. "These nine were obviously following orders, whatever those orders were, they failed. I've been in the military for a while now and I know that whenever underlings succeed or fail a mission, there's always somepony to report to."

"So if we follow these tracks..." Sharla begins to catch on.

"Then we can hind out who or what sent them and why." Shining Armor finishes.

"Hang on. Let me inspect a corpse." I say walking up to the least mutilated one.

The body is already cold, far colder to have died a minute ago. And they stink. There is a little blood left, too little to sustain a body for long. There was no indication of the teeth and hooves being sharpened, they were naturally made. They're bodies are raggedy and weak, whoever sent them didn't expect them to come back. This was a suicide mission.

Then my fingers come over something on its neck. "Flex, come over here I need some light." Flex does so. I see what had me interested. There were two small indents in his neck with blood spots around it, and from the shades of the blood, it has bled several times from the same spot. Abd they don't look like they've been treated to. My heart starts pumping faster, I'm not afraid, I'm excited. It's a long shot, but I may be closer to figuring out a few things.

"Well Captain, as to who and why, I haven't the slightest idea." I say as I stand up letting my heart slow down. "But I may no what sent them."

"And what is it?" He asks hesitantly.

I turn my head to them, a wicked grin of excitement and fear plastered across my face. "A vampire!"

Comments

[sirraf]

Van Helsing: What we are dealing with here is... a VAMPIRE!
Dr. Seward: Vampire?
Jonathan Harker: Vampire? What are you saying?
Van Helsing: I'm saying, vampire!

[first hand account]

5682503 you beat me to it