Chapter 10 - Scarlet
Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle quickly ran down the stairs to find their company all standing in confusion in the living room.
"Crimson, what's going on?" Twilight asked.
"I do not know," he admitted. "This is not my magic."
A column of light surrounded each pony, and they all disappeared in a flash.
Rainbow Dash found herself in a dark room with multiple TV monitors and a couple of empty chairs. A TV station control room? That was odd. Each monitor featured one of the ponies that had been with her moments ago. Scootaloo shuddering in place in the dark hall of a castle. Crimson standing atop a snowy hill. Both Twilight Sparkle and Sweetie Belle stood in a forest though neither mare appeared aware of the other, as if they were at a notable distance, out of range from the other.
The sky blue vampire squinted and stared out into the room. "Alright, I don't know who you are, but I can tell you've got some strong magic. How about you show yourself and tell me what you want," she called out.
The lights to the room flickered on, and a small draconequis poofed himself into her view, hovering in front of her face.
Rainbow Dash blinked with curious interest. "Lord Discord?"
Discord grinned and bowed. "In the flesh."
At that, Rainbow sighed. So he was real. How odd. In her thousand years, she had never heard of him personally addressing other vampires she encountered. She just knew stories. In those, he tended to be elusive and cryptic, hardly the type to spell out his intentions plainly. "I don't suppose you plan on explaining all of this to me." She gestured at the monitors and their room.
The demon lord smiled at her again, gesturing as well. "It is a simple game. Find them, find me, and then you and I are going to have a talk. Oh, and you might want to hurry since each one is in danger. Except Crimson. I'm saving him for something special for you." Discord shook his tiny hands together with gleeful anticipation
At that, Rainbow smirked. "Not that I mind, sir, but why can't we just talk now?"
Discord shrugged. "I thought it would be more interesting this way. Make you earn it. You know. I've you seen you play with your food, so now I'm playing with you. Fair deal?"
"Fair deal," Rainbow replied, silently hoping that didn't mean she was dinner for him.
A door opened with a bright white light.
"Chop chop!" Discord ordered, clapping his hands together.
"See you on the other side," Rainbow Dash told him with a salute.
With that, she was off.
Scootaloo stared side to side within a dark hall at numerous metal-clad pony shapes. "Hello?" she called out with a small voice. "Rainbow Dash?"
No answer.
"Twilight? Sweetie Belle?" she asked with hope. She dare not seek out Crimson.
A hoofstep.
Scootaloo gasped and turned around.
A black alicorn with a starry ethereal mane stared back at her.
"Nightmare?" Scootaloo asked.
The dark mare smiled sincerely. "Yes."
The filly gulped. "What are you doing here? Where are my friends?"
"They'll be along," Nightmare said calmly. "As for me, I'm here to take care of a little problem we have with you."
Scootaloo looked at her in confusion. "What problem?"
"Your age," she replied simply. With that, she took Scootaloo into her telekinetic grip and bit the filly's neck with her fangs.
The small form whimpered, but instead of feeling her blood drained, it was the magic of the life pause spell that had been on her for nearly nine-hundred years.
Scootaloo's body ached as her body aged quickly. "S-stop," she begged.
Nightmare, surprisingly to her, obeyed.
When Scootaloo was set down, she found she looked full-grown. She stood tall and spread her feathered wings. She clutched at her head as some of her blurred memories molded into something more clear, somehow helping her mentally mature a bit. After that, she looked at her body and felt her hooves to her face. She had to be close to Rainbow's and Twilight's age when they were turned. Maybe Sweetie Belle too. Before she could ask anything more, Nightmare took shape into a dark blue mist and encircled Scootaloo several times over.
The orange pegasus felt her bones and muscles tighten, and two of her teeth sharpen. No! She was being turned right now too?! Without blood?
The mist completed its work, and Nightmare reshaped herself nearby. She stood close and put a hoof to Scootaloo's chin. "It was the best I could do for you under the circumstances," she confessed. "I could not grant you a childhood with her. That prospect has long since been lost. But this way...you can join her family."
Scootaloo began to cry, a mix of pain and gratitude. She fell forward into Nightmare's chest.
The dark alicorn stroked her back in comfort. "And now, I must fulfill my other duty," Nightmare warned. "Prepare to defend yourself."
With that, she disappeared into the shadows, but the armored pony shapes standing along the wall began to creak and move.
Scootaloo gasped. Flapping her wings, she flew upward and stared. One of them threw a spear her way, and Scootaloo dodged. The ceiling was low and space limited, so another simply trotted up and stabbed upward.
"Hey!" Rainbow's voice called out to them.
The orange pegasus gasped. "Rainbow Dash?"
There she stood, staring coldly at the others.
The armored beings paused to look at her.
Nightmare reshaped in the center. "It is a pleasure to see you so close, Rainbow Dash."
"Lady Nightmare," Rainbow replied with a respectful nod. "Am I to fight you for Discord's game?"
"Just my minions," Nightmare said, nodding at the armored beings. "Are you ready to continue?"
The sky blue pegasus nodded.
The armored beings began to march toward Rainbow instead of Scootaloo. The sky blue figure immediately barreled through the armored minions, knocking them down like bowling pins. For one of them, she pulled off its helmet, revealing a gray unicorn stallion. The vampire bit in, drinking his blood.
When another attacked her to disrupt the meal, Rainbow was thrown off balance, skidding several feet. The one she had bitten shook several times, dissipating into a gray wind.
Scootaloo's eyes widened, but she immediately followed suit, finding another minion to attack in the same manner. They tasted good even though she suspected mortal pony blood had to taste different.
Rainbow herself attacked her own attacker, and the two pegasi found themselves battling the small platoon of minions together.
One soldier successfully rammed a spear into Rainbow's chest.
"Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo cried.
"Eyes on the prize, Scoot," Rainbow told her. "I'm a vampire. It will heal on its own quickly enough."
The other pegasus nodded and threw herself back into the fray.
The wound did heal, and Rainbow grabbed a nearby helmet to bite in for some blood.
A few minutes later, and the room was cleared of the armored ponies.
Nightmare stood proud with a smile at her two progeny. "Well done."
With that, she faded into the shadows.
"You have a short time before the next phase, Rainbow Dash," her voice echoed across the hall.
Rainbow took a moment to catch her breath and look at Scootaloo's adult form. "She turned you into an adult vampire?" Rainbow asked with some confusion.
Scootaloo nodded. "She said I could not have a childhood with you, but like this, that I can join your family. At least, I assume she meant you. I think she was trying to help me."
Rainbow nodded in agreement at that idea. "Yeah, she and Discord are not completely destructive in their evil. They're manipulative like me. This is all to get me where they want me. For some reason."
"Is that bad?" Scootaloo asked worriedly.
Rainbow shrugged. "Depends on what they want but from the looks of things...not that bad. I mean, you're kinda still alive."
Scootaloo gulped and nodded.
A white light started to glow nearby.
"Time for me to go. See you later, Scoot," Rainbow said. And the light stole her away. Scootaloo herself flashed into an area surrounded by snow. A moment later, a block of ice shot up and froze her within it.
Sweetie Belle stood in place, gazing at the trees, trying to make sense of everything that happened. One moment, she was happy for her mistress getting her bat wings, then letting Rainbow and Twilight do whatever, then some eerie rumbling, and now this? The absurdity of it made her wonder if Discord himself was somehow involved. But she stopped herself short. If he were, she really had little idea what came next, given his chaotic nature.
Soon, she was granted a distraction from her pondering, as green vines rolled near, and suddenly, a very large plant mouth, akin to a Venus fly trap, took shape, clearly intending to eat her.
The young fledgling stared up at it in curiosity. Rainbow Dash had seemed so strong, and their hunt that morning had gone so well, the white-coated pony had a hard time believing this thing was a threat to her.
The plant shot a fireball at her, and Sweetie Belle felt properly threatened.
With a gasp, she dodged clear. She tried to push the plant back with her unicorn magic, which while enhanced with her new vampire status, was still not enough.
She heard a blast, and Twilight Sparkle herself leaped over to join her.
"Twilight!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed. "What's going on?"
"You got me," Twilight confessed. "All I know is this forest is out to kill us. Come on, that fire is starting to spread. That can definitely hurt vampires."
Sweetie Belle nodded, and the two began to sprint away.
A sudden flash of light, and Rainbow Dash plopped into the scene.
"Rainbow!" They both exclaimed.
"Sweet and Sparky," Rainbow said with a smirk.
Twilight gulped nervously. "Do you know what's happening?" She really hoped this wasn't one of the demon's schemes.
Rainbow smirked at her. "Yeah, I do." She grabbed Twilight and flung her back toward the flames.
"Rainbow!" Sweetie Belle said indignantly.
"Vengeance on Sparky. It's what I do," Rainbow said with an evil smile.
In response, the fire immediately subsided, leaving Twilight Sparkle unharmed.
"What…?" Twilight asked.
"So that's his play," Rainbow muttered analytically. He wouldn't really threaten Twilight. Not now. That was far too easy for a creature who wanted the purple unicorn to suffer.
"Who? Crimson?" Sweetie Belle wondered.
"No. Discord. He's playing with me. It's a game," Rainbow explained.
The large plant slithered like a snake to surround Rainbow Dash and Sweetie Belle, closing in on the white unicorn. It started to wrap itself tightly around her.
"Mistress?" Sweetie Belle asked nervously.
Rainbow Dash zipped back to Twilight and dangled her body in front of the hungry, menacing plant.
"She's older," Rainbow told it. "Trust me. Even though she doesn't drink pony blood, her age still makes her blood quite delicious. And she had some vampire blood earlier today as an exception. I had a taste not too long ago myself."
Twilight flushed red in embarrassment. "Y-yeah. I'm much more tasty."
The plant looked from its trapped prey up to the offered one, weighing the options.
Rainbow didn't wait though and threw Twilight right at its mouth.
The startled plant stumbled, releasing its tight hold onto Sweetie Belle. The white unicorn rolled onto the grass and looked up nervously.
Twilight Sparkle held the plant's open mouth in place with her four hooves, trying not to be eaten. "A little help here, Demon?" she said between a strained breath.
"Let it eat you," Rainbow suggested.
"Rainbow Dash-," Twilight started to snap back but upon further reflection, she took a deep breath and hopped off right into its mouth. She felt its tiny sharp teeth prick at her body, opening some cuts, but all told, Twilight knew her body to still be whole. There was no fire or burning either.
And that was all Twilight needed to make her next move.
Taking in a deep breath, she fired a blast of magic into the plant's throat.
Outside, the plant began to cough and choke until at last, Twilight broke through.
The wisteria unicorn wobbled her way out of a sticky green substance.
The plant itself suddenly burst into flames and withered into nothing in an instant. "Ouch! Hot!" Twilight said, clearing herself out of the way as quickly as she could. She looked up at Rainbow Dash. "Thanks, I guess."
"Just part of the game," Rainbow said casually, dusting off her forelimbs.
Discord himself flashed into the forest.
Twilight gasped and ran up to him. "Lord Discord," she said and bowed.
Uncertain, Sweetie Belle followed with a bow but said nothing.
Discord snapped his lion paw fingers together, putting each into a block of ice and then flashed them away. He looked over at Rainbow Dash with a silent smirk and faded into nothing.
The wind picked up, and suddenly a cold flurry of snow surrounded the pegasus vampire. The sky turned to a darker, more grayish blue, and Rainbow felt her body descend to a snow-covered ground.
She fluttered her wings and stared around her. No one else. Recalling that Crimson had been seen atop a hill, she trekked forward and upward.
The further up she went, the more the snow subsided. At first, it felt she landed in a blizzard. Now, the wind had mostly settled, and she could see him clearly, standing and waiting amidst a starry, night sky.
Rainbow Dash approached. As she did, at some distance stood three blocks of ice, each containing a familiar pony she had encountered within the game.
"Was this your plan all along?" Rainbow asked Crimson, staring at the blocks.
Crimson followed her gaze and could not hide his own surprise, having not even realized they were there with an audible gasp. He looked back at Rainbow Dash. "No," he confessed, "but I know Lord Discord's magic when I see it. I have stayed in place, waiting for his move, and it appears you are it."
Rainbow nodded. She looked around, waiting for the draconequis to show himself, but no such thing happened. She sighed in annoyance and lunged forward at her sire.
As expected, he held her in his magic. "You had to know that wouldn't work," Crimson said.
"In this game?" Rainbow asked with a wicked smile. "The rules are different. They must be tested."
Crimson eyed her thoughtfully but set her down.
The two stood in an extended silence.
"You know," Crimson began, "I couldn't help noticing you're not actually trying that hard to kill me."
Rainbow Dash raised an intrigued eyebrow at that accusation. While it wasn't wrong, she told her sire, "I would gladly drain you all the way right now. Just lean forward and don't stop me."
Crimson sighed. "Not quite what I meant. I believe that. And yet...there's just…" his voice trailed off.
He thought hard.
Another long silence.
Rainbow Dash stared at the distant three blocks, and Crimson stared at her staring at them. He couldn't have her go back. "It really was time when I had Twilight force off your control to grow into this form," he gestured at his fledgling. "You were five-hundred years old, Rainbow Dash. You needed to let go. Not many pegasi are turned into vampires, and even fewer survive to a thousand to see their bat wings."
Rainbow frowned and turned to face him. "There you go again. Thinking you're doing me a favor. When you know full well who I was and what I wanted."
"Rainbow Dash," Crimson said sternly.
"So I'm good at being a vicious monster, so what?" Rainbow asked in annoyance. "One wasn't enough for you with Twilight, huh?"
"No, Rainbow Dash, it wasn't. You two were inseparable. You still are. Even now with all your revenge on her, you won't leave her. You could just kill her and move on, but you don't. You may have fooled everyone else, even her, but I know you did it because if you do it this way…"
"Shutup…." she warned him with a threatening tone.
"If you do it this way, then if you ever crawl back from this, she'd still be there because you let her until you regained control. It was your best chance, wasn't it? That the two of you might somehow still be together as lovers again, if you just held on until someone fixed it for you."
"And so what if I did, huh?!" Rainbow yelled in a fury. "How can anyone fix it? My friends aren't coming back, and even if Discord himself resurrected them, what about everyone I killed after they died, huh? Is he going to resurrect them too? Will he erase their memories and their pain and mine, so we can all move on like it never happened? Is that who fixes it for me? Because my friends would die all over again if they knew what I became after I lost control."
With a pained expression, Crimson looked away from her, saying nothing.
"Is that my happy ending?" Rainbow asked bitterly. "To have half of my vampire life erased? The half I enjoyed because I gave into my bloodlust."
"I do not know such things," Crimson admitted. "But I know that you are suited to what I have made you."
"Yeah, I am," Rainbow agreed with a nod. "I'm enjoying being the evil murderous monster you wanted back then, alright. I am very good at it. I thrive on it. I relish in it. I'm all the things you ever wanted of me, but I haven't forgotten all the blood and pain and loss it took to get me here. And that you did it through the mare I loved more than anything!"
Crimson fumed. "I love you both, Rainbow. But I could never…"
"You could never have me the way you had Twilight because the only love I feel for you is the fact that you're my master, and I'm your fledgling. Oh, and this weird tongue thing I get when I'm annoyed or angry at you.
"I didn't go after you because...you aren't worth it. Good riddance. Simple as that. So long as you're away from me, that's perfectly fine."
Something dawned on the pegasus as she said those lines.
"And that hurts you more than it would if I did try to kill you."
"Is that why you haven't?" Crimson asked, and his blue eyes looked a little sad and frustrated that his precious fledgling would prefer indifference to feeling anything for him at all.
"There is no pain I could bestow upon you to make your death worthwhile," Rainbow said with vicious ire.
"Isn't there?" Discord's voice said through the wind until he materialized himself, standing tall and proud.
"Lord Discord," Crimson said with a bow. "I see you've finally revealed yourself."
"That I have. It would seem your little 'demon of vengeance' project is going quite well, so I figured I'd...help it along," Discord replied.
Rainbow stared up at him. "I really am turning into a demon?" She glanced over again to the blocks of ice holding Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Twilight Sparkle, lingering on her fledgling in particular. During her talk with Crimson, they had evidently been slowly inching their way toward the area.
"You already are a demon," Discord corrected her, holding his index claw up. "All vampires are. You're just...branching out. Maybe. That's why I'm here and made the game."
He followed her line of sight to the ice blocks.
"Ah yes. They are safe. I just wanted them restrained for our talk," Discord said.
Rainbow gave them one last look before meeting his gaze. "So, what, you convince me to branch out and then set them free or something?"
Discord shrugged. "It might go that way. Then again, it might not. I'm the Lord of Chaos, not Prophecy. Let's go back a bit. You know, I could do all of the things you just said about resurrecting your past friends. Returning you to that life. Undoing that which has been done. Erase it all. Give you not a completely clean slate since you had five-hundred years before that. But still...a fresh reboot. I could, in fact, grant that to you."
He hovered near the side of her face. "What do you say?"
Rainbow stared at him with cold, deep suspicion. "No," she said.
The demon lord kept smiling and slithered in the air away a bit to sit down on nothing. He drank some tea he poured for himself. "Why not?"
"You could do that, but you won't," Rainbow told him with certainty. "I'm not worth all that to you."
He kept smiling and set his tea cup down, magically whisking it away. "Good girl. You've passed the first test. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I wish to share my power with you, but I will not extend it so broadly."
"You have my interest," Rainbow informed him.
"I have a proposition for you," Discord said. "See, you've been busy the past thousand years, and I couldn't help noticing a lot of it was in the name of revenge."
"Well, Twilight Sparkle killed my friends, so-" Rainbow began to say.
"Tut tut. Not just that, although don't get me wrong, that is a big gold star on your record. Even before being turned, you acted out against this fellow, ready to attack and defend Twilight's honor. Then of course there's that first hundred years you spent trying to find guilty targets you didn't feel as bad about killing. A sort of indirect revenge for those they wronged.
"And during your four-hundred not-quite-as-evil years, when you did slip up, and you did slip up, it was still against the guilty."
Rainbow Dash heaved a heavy sigh. "Yes. And? Since when do you care about 'revenge'? Isn't that too...orderly or something for the Lord of Chaos? There's a set pattern."
"Oh, my dear, you are on a roll." A pair of dice appeared and rolled into a set of double ones.
Rainbow noticed, "Snake eyes."
"There actually is a pattern, even in chaos, to seek out the unexpected, the interesting, the thrilling. So, revenge actually fits in just fine. After all, you don't just kill your victims, Rainbow Dash. You play with them. Because if you didn't, well, that would just be too dull," Discord pointed out.
"Okay. You got me," Rainbow admitted with a shrug. "What of it?"
"How would you like to be an official demon of vengeance?" Discord inquired.
Rainbow's eyes darted up with interest and mild suspicion. "How is that different than being an unofficial one?" she wondered.
Discord grinned wickedly. "I thought you'd never ask." Reaching up into the night sky, he pulled down a scythe and threw it at her.
Rainbow Dash caught it, and felt her eyes light red when she felt its power in her grip.
"That's not just any scythe," Discord informed her. "It is very specifically attuned to a demon of vengeance. The strike must be vengeful or defensive. It is actually quite harmless if you tried to strike down an innocent, such as a child. Like your little friend over there if she still had a child form. That's one difference. With the upgrade, you can summon it in the exact manner you saw me do just now. As a vampire, it is useless. I have allowed you to feel its power as you would if you accept my offer."
Rainbow Dash tapped her hoof to her chin thoughtfully and glanced Crimson's way. "Does the strike hurt more than what I could do as a vampire?"
Discord smiled evilly, and flames lit up in the yellow sceleras of his eyes. "Yes."
With a quick swipe, Rainbow Dash hacked into Crimson, and her sire screamed in agony. "Aaaaah!"
"Huh...looks like it works," Rainbow commented.
Discord burst into wicked laughter.
The three blocks of ice slid forward to where Rainbow hovered.
The pegasus raised a curious eyebrow at that.
"Lord, please…" Crimson begged.
"Right, right," Discord said, snapping his talons and healing Crimson immediately.
The white unicorn stallion stood, recomposed himself, and dusted off his forelimbs. "Some warning would have been nice, Rainbow."
"You didn't give me any when you bit me the first time, Sire," Rainbow reminded him with a sharp tone. She switched her attention back to Discord. "So, it doesn't kill him?" she asked.
"You weren't trying to kill him. You were trying to make sure it hurt him a lot," Discord reminded her. "The intent in your strike matters. But don't try killing him just yet. You haven't agreed to the terms."
Rainbow nodded. "Which are?"
"I'll send you occasional requests in the name of revenge. You may choose to accept the ones you like," Discord said.
At that, Rainbow became contemplative. "What else?"
"Bat wings should be on when you wield the scythe and are on a mission. You know, to fit the 'demon' image properly. Red eyes. Eye slits."
"Eye slits?" she asked
"Snake eyes, right?" Discord said with an excited grin.
Rainbow's pupils turned into slits with ease, and she could sense that they did even though she couldn't see her own eyes. She blinked, and they returned to standard circles. "Right."
"And...to make it interesting...kill Twilight Sparkle," Discord said with an evil smile.
Rainbow Dash quickly flung the scythe back at him without hesitation. "Pass."
Crimson's eyes narrowed, quietly observing the three ice blocks, trying to calculate his next move. He recognized that at some point, the filly's body had altered.
"I could kill her myself," Discord warned Rainbow Dash.
"And?" Rainbow challenged, while glowering.
The draconequis shrugged. "And then you're free to accept my offer."
"The term was, 'kill Twilight Sparkle.' If I don't kill her, I have not met your term," Rainbow pointed out.
Discord tapped his claws thoughtfully to his chin. "You aren't wrong, but...I could amend the term. Accept my offer after I kill Twilight Sparkle. Since you're too much of a coward to do it."
Rainbow snickered. "Right. 'Coward'."
"You deny it?" Discord asked.
"Lord Discord, I like making Twilight's life hell. It's not a question of fear. I want her alive. Eternal revenge." She shrugged. "If I ever got my equinity back and she still has hers, maybe we'll skip off into the night together forever again."
"What if I swap it again?" Discord challenged. "Hers goes off; yours comes back on."
"You're the Lord of Chaos. You tell me," Rainbow challenged the draconequis again.
"Pain," Discord said seriously. "A lot of emotional pain."
Rainbow stared at him, her face revealing nothing.
Discord stroked his beard. "You want it back?"
Rainbow scoffed. "My equinity?"
The draconequis nodded.
"It kinda made things difficult," Rainbow said.
"That wasn't a 'no,'" he noticed.
"It's off right now. No, I don't want it. But the desire is in the equinity itself, isn't it?" Rainbow pointed out. "Which one is the real me? I know the original, and I know what I am. One version loves Twilight Sparkle. The other version hates her. I'm the version that hates her, so why would I want my love for her back? It's a pain, like you said."
"But?" Discord inquired.
"But I'm the fake," Rainbow said with a shrug. "This bloodthirsty power is in me and with me, but it's an invasion...it's not who I was without...you...and Nightmare…and him," she pointed at Crimson.
Discord blinked and nodded.
Rainbow sighed. "Do I want myself back? I loved her before I was turned into a vampire. Yeah, I do. So, here's my proposal. You let me kill Crimson with the greatest pain imaginable with the scythe."
"I object to that idea," Crimson interjected. A zipper formed over his mouth.
Rainbow and Discord otherwise ignored him. "Leave Twilight alone. She's mine to do with as I please. And...I'll be your demon. Equinity or not. You're the Lord of Chaos. You want to 'make it interesting,' so pick whichever one suits you for that. My main desires in this form are blood and revenge on Twilight."
A wispy bat-winged equine shape form appeared over Discord's shoulder.
"Equinity," Discord said with a serious expression.
Rainbow gasped and blinked. It had grown bat wings since she last saw it in full all those years ago, but it was the same wispy thing from her vision back then.
It floated over to her and reshaped into a potion, diving down into a bottle Discord created. "If you won't kill Twilight, you need it back. This needs to cost you something, and that will be pain."
Rainbow glanced up at him with serious red eyes and nodded. It sucked for the other side of her, but she, the one Twilight called "Demon Dash," would be gone. She sniffed it and inhaled. Soon, she downed the drink.
It did hurt. Her insides burned, and she screamed. She wailed. She cried. The screaming intensified so strongly that the ice blocks began to crack.
Crimson clutched at his head and grimaced, finding he could not move.
The ice fully shattered, and Twilight covered her ears. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo did as well.
The entire ground rumbled.
Twilight could see that the pain emitting from Rainbow, aside from the screaming, was actually taking a toll on Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. She cast magic from her own horn to shield them all, soaking in the pain on their behalf. It was like a massive weight on her back, but she endured.
Rainbow Dash screamed and screamed and screamed. She tore at her mane and seethed, gritting her teeth. Rivers of tears.
The wailing continued.
Wailing.
Screaming.
Tears.
Sobs.
All told, it was thirty minutes before the screaming and sobbing quieted.
During that time, Twilight slowly sensed the weight bearing down on her and the other two ponies lighten.
Rainbow sighed and breathed. She wiped her tears and sat up, taking in her surroundings. She glanced over at Discord. "Thank you," she uttered between her tears.
The demon lord tossed the scythe at her, which she caught. Discord watched her intently.
Crimson sneered and magically gripped all three of Rainbow's companions. "Maybe I can't use them to shield me from your strike, but I am still a threat. And your equinity…"
"...never meant I wouldn't enjoy killing you if the right opportunity came along," Rainbow said.
Crimson threw his hostages into the snow, but a rainbow blur whisked through, and somehow broke his magical grip.
They fell but softer than Crimson intended.
Crimson tried to use his magic to pull the scythe from Rainbow's grip, but it was useless. He tried to lift her body and realized he couldn't any longer. So, that was how she broke his hold on the others.
"Not bad," Rainbow commented as she realized the power the scythe gave her.
Her feathered wings switched to be bat-like. Her pupils narrowed into slits. She felt her tongue change as it often did around Crimson. Demonic power flowed in her veins, and it did remind her of when she lost her equinity centuries ago. Not identical but similar, she quietly considered to herself. In any case, it was time to act.
She swiped the scythe toward Crimson again, and he leaped clear. "I'm not going down that easily, Precious."
The demon smirked and said nothing. She wasn't really sure she was Rainbow Dash at the moment, but she could think about a name for this form later. All that mattered right now was to inflict pain and kill this unicorn in front of her in the name of revenge. She threw the scythe up into the air, and it disappeared.
Crimson seized his chance and tried to cast another hold on Rainbow's companions before a rainbow blur tackled him to the ground. Mounting him, Rainbow Dash grinned evilly and hungrily before she headbutted him. Dazed, he felt her sharp teeth chomp down on his horn. "No, Rainbow, don't!" he yelled.
Pain. It burned. What was she doing? She didn't bite it off, but after the burning, it went numb.
Crimson's eyes widened in horror. "No," he uttered.
"Relax, Ssire," Rainbow hissed. "If you ssurvive thiss, it'ss only temporary." She cackled. "If you ssurvive."
Crimson headbutted her back, and that succeeded in throwing her off him.
But then she disappeared.
The white unicorn stallion glanced around. He knew this play and immediately glanced behind him, then up.
Lightning sparked as the demon's hind legs slammed into his right side. She laughed with bombastic vigor.
The scythe reappeared in her grip, and she cut into his right forelimb. "Augh!" Crimson screamed in tremendous pain. Worse still, the new wound wouldn't heal on its own like cuts usually did on his body. "No!" he whispered. "Rainbow, stop! Please!" Crimson said.
The demon grinned at him. "Why should I do that, Ssire?"
"Stop trying to kill me!" he ordered.
She pointed the scythe at him with authority. "Overruled," she said and nodded in Discord's direction where the draconequis hovered in the air on a couch, eating popcorn as he observed the scene. He gave Crimson a friendly wave.
Crimson seethed and not really sure what other tools he had at his disposal, he tackled her to the ground and bit into her neck.
Given that she still held the scythe, this proved to be a bad decision as she pushed him off while holding its hilt, then sliced a gash into his left hind leg. He screamed again. Stinging, searing pain ripped through all his veins. "Stop it," he ordered again. "I'll do whatever you want, Rainbow, but please, stop it."
"I want you to die!" she said viciously and swiped down into the top of his head.
The scythe stayed in place, and no blood came out this time. No, it was much worse for a vampire since vampires thrive on blood. Instead, Crimson saw his body start to disintegrate. "What? No. Rainbowww…" he moaned as his voice faded away with his body.
Twilight, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle watched the whole thing in horror and ran up to the scene.
Discord snapped his talons and froze them in ice blocks again.
Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes and looked back up at Discord. Time for another talk apparently. "Satisfied, Master?"
Discord grinned. "Quite." He gave an enthralled clap at her performance.
"He is with you?" the demon asked.
Discord smiled down at her. A poof sounded, and a wine bottle appeared in the demon lord's hands. He shook it and began to pour the liquid into a materialized wine glass to match. It very much resembled blood, but Rainbow knew it wasn't that or wine either for that matter. Discord swished it in the glass a bit. "Care for a taste?" he asked.
"Is that him?" Rainbow asked in turn.
Discord shrugged. "Sort of. It is his power. Your...inheritance you might say." He extended his clawed arm close to her muzzle, holding the glass. "I have a new name for you if you accept."
"I like being Rainbow Dash, Master. I did just pour out my soul for it if you recall," Rainbow said.
"Of course," Discord agreed. "It's an addition, not a replacement. I do admit, it is related to...him, being his fledgling and slayer, but still, I think you might like it."
Rainbow looked at him with intrigue. "Well, what is it?"
He grinned wide. "Scarlet Strike."
Rainbow put a hoof to her chin in thought. "'Scarlet' for the red and 'Strike' for the kill?"
The demon lord nodded.
Rainbow blushed as she rolled her eyes and asked in a low voice. "My mane is still rainbow-colored instead of red though, right?"
"I am Discord, Lord of Chaos and All Demons. I can make it cotton candy pink if I like," Discord boasted.
"And?" Rainbow pressed, unfazed.
"And that means I'll grant you the power to make it red when you are Scarlet. You won't always be her, you see. Just when you serve a mission. Come now, is that so bad?" Discord asked.
"It isn't," Rainbow admitted.
"So, how about it?" Discord said, swishing the powerful liquid in the glass again.
"You can undo it all and bring him back whenever, even if I drink it, right?" Rainbow asked.
"Yes, but I can also flip your control on and off like a switch. As you yourself said, I could undo the last five-hundred years, wipe all memory of it, a full-scale reboot...and yet…" Discord remarked, bringing the power to his lips and drinking it.
"I will do no such thing." The blood-red liquid quickly refilled the glass. Then he shrugged. "Unless I change my mind and feel like it, of course."
Rainbow chuckled. "Of course."
Discord blew onto the glass so that it looked like thick white smoke blew out from the liquid, then levitated it over to Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow instinctively switched to her demon form and used her bat wings to grip the glass. "Bottom's up," she said nervously to the air and took in the drink.
The power spread through her veins, and this time it felt even more like when she lost control so long ago. She supposed that made sense. Her own vampire power originated from Crimson already after all.
The entirety of her visible eyes, sceleras, irises, and pupils turned into a bright scarlet red, her mane and tail followed. The color faded into her body, resetting her features to their usual form of a rainbow-maned pegasus with magenta eyes. She exhaled with a thrilled smile. "That's rather...delicious."
"I thought so too," Discord agreed.
His snapped his eagle claw talons again, and the three nearby ice blocks broke to release her companions.
"We'll be in touch," Discord told Rainbow Dash with a smirk.
Rainbow nodded and watched as he flashed himself away.
"Mistress, is everything okay?" Sweetie Belle asked timidly.
"Yeah, turns out we're all demons, but I got a bit of an upgrade into an official demon of vengeance," Rainbow informed her. "I even got a demon name: Scarlet Strike."
"Oh wow," Sweetie Belle uttered. "Congrats?" she asked with hesitance.
Rainbow shrugged. "Sure."
"Does this mean you don't actually have your control back?" Scootaloo wondered with a hint of fear.
"I've given myself to Discord," Rainbow confessed, "and so far as he is concerned, I should actually have it. That's what all the screaming was about earlier. I'm not giving up pony blood again though."
"Oh," Scootaloo replied, scratching at the back of her head. "So um...can I join your...family even though I'm not anyone's fledgling?"
Rainbow laughed and met Twilight's eyes. The wisteria unicorn nodded with a shy smile. "Sure, kid, sure," Rainbow said.
The two younger vampires cleared themselves away as Twilight drew in closer to speak with Rainbow Dash.
"So uh…." Twilight gulped. "Where do we stand with each other?"
"Well, I killed Sire Creep. What do you think of that?" Rainbow asked.
"I could only kinda see it and not hear it, but did you drink him?" Twilight asked with a touch of disgust and suspicion.
Rainbow chuckled. "His power. He wanted me to be his legacy, so Discord offered that as my inheritance. My master could actually bring him back whenever, just you know...don't count on it."
Twilight nodded and sighed. "I let him go...the way you did with me...so...um...I'm not happy about it, but I don't hate you. I get it."
"And you protected my friends. I'd say you have paid," Rainbow noted seriously. She held out a hoof and timidly, Twilight accepted it, finding herself embraced with a warmth she had not known since they were still mortal. "I won't apologize," Rainbow said through tears. "But I...I never thought I would live to have this moment with you."
Twilight stroked her backside. "Me neither," she said with tears in her eyes as well.
The two pulled away.
"So...are you two together again?" Scootaloo asked.
"For now," Rainbow replied. "Eternity is a long time, and change happens. I am a real demon of vengeance now."
Twilight sighed and wiped at her tears. "Yes. That."
Sweetie Belle surveyed their surroundings. "Where are we and how do we get back?"
"We're in some remote part of the Frozen North," Twilight informed them. "As for the second part, I don't know."
"Let me see if I can figure it out," Rainbow offered. She switched to her demon form and summoned her scythe. Then she struck its bottom tip into the ground. "Teleport home," she commanded it.
The four ponies flickered out from the snowy landscape and landed in the living room where Discord had first teleported them all away.
"Wow, cool!" Scootaloo declared.
"Way to go, Scarlet," Sweetie Belle said with a gentle punch to the demon's shoulder.
"Nice work," Twilight added.
Rainbow Dash blushed and grinned. "My pleasure," she said, tossing the scythe up into a void and resetting to her usual pegasus features. She was looking forward to her double life as a vampire with her recently transformed family and an official demon of vengeance.
~The End~
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You’re welcome and thank you! Great chapter and great story!
10558053
Thank you very much!
10558089
You’re welcome! Thank you!
10560326
rainbow dash against the world of vamponies
10561780
Got it, thank you.
good read, 10/10. didn't expect twidash to be here