Chapter 6
The smell of iron filled her nostrils as Twilight took a large mouthful of the liquid seeping her prey’s neck. The intoxicating taste of somepony new washed around her palette as it was coated in thick crimson fluid.
Twilight had promised herself that this feeding would be quick, more of a snack to tide her over then a proper meal. Spike stood a few feet away, watching the scene play out in a mixture of awe and disgust. Twilight made a mental note to keep an eye on him, lest his recent acts were an indicator of his more draconic attributes crawling to the surface. The prey let out another groan, louder this time, as Twilight shifted her weight, making it easier for her to bite down harder, while at the same time trying not to let the main artery bleed out too much. In an effort to keep the hotel room as clean as possible to try and not leave any evidence, Twilight was draining the pony carefully, not letting a single drop of blood past the barrier of her lips.
Twilight pulled her face away, a string of saliva briefly connecting her to the neck of the other pony. Quickly bringing her foreleg to her mouth and biting down, she started to rub her blood into the seeping gap of flesh. Her ears twitched at the sound of reconnecting tendons, blood vessels and muscles sliding together and healing. She bent down to lap up the meagre amount of blood that had managed to make its way onto the fur of the prey’s neck.
“I’m still in awe of the fact that your blood is a healing agent,” said Spike as he walked up to her and prodded the area on the mare’s head where he had torn out a chunk of her hair. The skin was visibly regrowing over the gash, with light fuzz the same colour as her mane starting to grow out of the new skin.
“I’ve been doing some thinking Spike,” said Twilight, getting off the floor and making her way over to the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.
“What about Twi?” Spike asked from the other side of the door. Twilight turned the knobs on the shower, trying to figure out how to word what she was about to say while she tried to change the water to her preferred temperature, fiddling with the knobs with her compulsive mind.
“It’s just that… We might have to do some terrible things before all of this is over. Even more terrible than simply kidnapping the odd pony to feed on,” she explained, stepping under the hot water and closing her eyes as the blood around her mouth was washed away and her mane was plastered against her body.
“I understand, and I think that I’m prepared to do whatever it takes.”
“Are you sure? Are you honestly ready to do whatever it takes to make me well again, regardless of the moral quandaries that are undoubtedly going to be involved?” Twilight told him, as images of her previous feeds flashed in front of her eyes.
“I’m not seeing the issue here,” replied Spike. Twilight went silent after he said that. She wasn’t certain that she could do all of the things she guessed she would have to do. Draining a pony’s blood was one thing, but Twilight could imagine far worse things she might have to do to achieve her goal.
When she got out of the shower, she discovered that the mare she had used was gone, replaced with a very content looking Spike that was looking through the mini-bar.
“Why are there never any sapphires in these things?” he grumbled, retrieving a small bag of peanuts instead.
“Spike, what happened to the prey- I mean pony?” she asked, her little slip of the tongue frightening her. Spike jumped up onto the freshly made bed and pointed to the closet next to Twilight. Upon opening it, she let out a sigh. Spike had apparently bound and gagged the light green pony and stuffed her into the closet. The Earth pony had regained consciousness and was struggling against the ropes. Twilight bent down and gripped the gag with her magic.
“Now I’m just going to take this gag off, and I need you to not scream. I promise that I’m not going to hurt you,” she said and the pony nodded, tears streaming down her face. She gently pulled it out of the mare’s mouth, giving her a sympathetic smile.
“Why did you do this to me?” she asked quietly, her voice croaky and weak.
“I’m very sorry. It’s hard to explain but… I’m sick, and so I had to feed on your blood to survive, but don’t worry, my own blood is slowly healing you,” Twilight explained, before realising that she was a little too cheerful.
“You had to what? F-feed on me? Am I going to get your sickness now?” she asked in a panicked tone. Twilight hesitated, Luna had told her that she wasn’t contagious, but she had also said that modern Vampires had evolved from her species so there had to have been some form of genetic transference.
“No, you will be fine.”
“So are you going to let me go?” asked the pony hopefully, as Twilight levitated a glass of water over to her and gave her a long drink.
“Eventually, but I wanted to talk to you. We are being hunted by somepony wants to kill me because of my sickness, so I desperately need you to keep this a secret,” said Twilight. The appalled expression that crossed the mare’s face gave Twilight the best indication of what was about to happen.
“Are you kidding me? I was beaten, kidnapped and had my blood drained by some... some vampire,” she shouted and Twilight could feel her fangs beginning to slide over her teeth. The light green mare resumed her struggle against the ropes as the gag was stuffed back into her mouth and the door slammed in her face.
“We’re leaving. The housekeeper can find her when she comes to clean,” said Twilight through a scowl. Spike nodded, before jumping onto Twilight’s back and grabbing onto her mane, resuming the façade of a seeing eye dragon but nevertheless hoping that the clerk they had dealt with that morning had gone home.
***
Luna’s white moon was already a quarter of the way across the sky when they finally exited the city gates of Maneflow Springs. Twilight was adamant that they headed straight for the next town, which was Remembrance city, located on the site of the first Griffin war. It was a city focussed on trading between Equestria and the Griffin Empire, which was the only reason that the Griffin embassy was located there rather than in Canterlot. Otherwise, it was simply an agricultural town, with many farms surrounding the inner city. In between both cities were flat plains, broken only by sparse groups of trees, some of which lined the track, but most were hiding the bank of the small river that lead from the mountain to the bay of Maneflow Springs.
Twilight’s ears were in constant motion, picking up sounds of the nocturnal animals in the surrounding area. A low growl, a rustle of leaves and the scratching of claws on dirt mixed with the constant sounds of varying heartbeats were starting to take their toll on her. The shiny white tips of her fangs were poking through the gums, ready to drop at the slightest provocation.
She was starting to get frustrated, wishing that everything would just go silent. Even the sound of Spike’s scales rubbing against her fur was beginning to grate on her and in a fit of anger; she bucked him off her back, Spike landing about five meters in front of her
“What the hay Twi!” he exclaimed, rubbing the arm that he landed on.
“Oh I’m sorry Spike, my heightened senses are starting to get to me,” she explained, blushing as the baby dragon glared at her.
“It’s okay Twi, I know you are going thro-“ he started, before a choking sound interrupted him. Twilight lit up her horn, casting a purple light over a small area. Spike had disappeared into the darkness and Twilight started to get worried when she could only barely hear his heartbeat, his strong dragon heart easily distinguishable amongst all of the others.
“Spike, where are you?” she called out as her new eyes pierced the void.
“He’s right here Twilight,” said a very familiar voice from behind her. Twilight’s fangs dropped as she whipped around to the source; Doctor Neuron. She paled when she saw the unconscious form of Spike held aloft by the grey unicorn’s magic. Her mouth went agape in shock when she saw his attire; for it was one she had seen many times growing up. It was the armour of a royal guard. His had been altered however, the armour being gleaming silver instead of the traditional gold, and in the centre of the breastplate was the Luna’s eye, an artefact usually bestowed only upon Luna’s personal guards.
“Neuron? How did you find us?” she asked, not shifting her eyes away from his. He smiled, letting out a sigh that Twilight could only describe as sad.
“Twilight… you’re the element of magic, you aren’t exactly difficult to track,” he explained, levitating Spike over to her and gently placing him on the ground. “I’m just sorry that I didn’t find you before you attacked another pony.”
“I had too, otherwise I might have died. Besides, I healed her afterwards,” she replied defensively as feelings of betrayal and fear started building up inside her.
“She might be alright now… But what happens when your disease starts to take her over?”
“It won’t. I’m not a regular vampire.”
“There’s only one kind of vampire I care about, and that’s a dead one,” he exclaimed through a scowl as he drew his silver dagger from its sheath. Twilight scowled, her ears dropping down to the side of her head as she bent down.
***
“I don’t want to fight you. I need to find a cure,” Twilight told him, hoping that he would change his mind and help her.
“You’re just fooling yourself; there is no cure,” Neuron replied, lunging at her with the blade poised in front of him like the tip of a scorpion’s tail as it got ready to strike. Twilight dodged it easily, countering with a punch to his side that physically lifted Neuron off the ground. He grunted with pain as his horn flashed, swinging the dagger across and heading straight for Twilight’s face. Seeing it coming, Twilight ducked, the enchanted silver blade grazed the tip of her horn, kicking up sparks. She then jumped as high as she could, her newfound strength making it higher then she expected, before bringing both of her fore hooves down on the top of his head, slamming it into the ground with a thud. Twilight took a few steps back, smiling with all the arrogance of Rainbow Dash. The combat training her brother Shining Armour had made her take was paying off.
“I’m ready for you this time. I won’t let you get the jump on me,” she gloated as Neuron lifted his head, revealing a broken and bloody nose. His lips curled into a smirk as he brought one of his hooves up and tenderly prodded his nose, before taking a deep breath and blowing some kind of powder in her direction. Upon contact with her skin, the powder burned like fire, causing Twilight to howl in pain as it dug into her skin.
“Powdered silver, so who’s ready for who?” he said arrogantly. Twilight growled, her eyes watering with a mixture of blood and tears as they tried desperately to get the foreign element out of her eyes.
“I think you mean who’s ready for WHOM,” she yelled, charging at the surprised unicorn and hitting him with all the force of a frenzied Minotaur. Neuron was thrown backwards, coming to a sudden stop as he impacted against a large tree. Twilight began to pour magic into her horn in an attempt to use a containment spell against him. All that was produced was a few magenta sparks, prompting a confused expression from Twilight.
“Oh Twi, I’m so sorry. All this time my blade had been gradually absorbing your magic and transferring it into me,” Neuron chuckled sarcastically. With that, his horn ignited, firing a beam of white energy that hit her square in the chest, forcing her back. The light was almost as painful at the silver and it took all of Twilight’s willpower to not only stay conscious, but also to hide her pain from the doctor.
‘I’m not going to be finished here,’ she promised.
***
Twilight’s hooves dug trenches into the dirt as she pushed against the white beam of Neuron’s magic. The fur on her forelegs and chest were beginning to smoulder as tears created dark trails down her face. She could feel the beam starting to lose its intensity as Neuron’s magical energy started to wane. Seeing her chance, Twilight took a cautious step forward, waiting to see if her adversary was bluffing. When it came apparent that he was in fact struggling to keep it up, Twilight smirked and started to walk toward him, keeping her eyes locked onto Neuron’s. Her fangs had descended to their fullest extent, making her a fearsome visage of rage and pain.
Neuron’s face was strained, eyes scrunched in a look of concentration as Twilight finally reached him, giving him a tap on the shoulder. Neuron’s eyes snapped open, looking up at Twilight in shock and deactivating the spell.
“W-what in Tartarus are you?” he asked exhaustedly, watching the shiny burns on Twilight’s forelegs and chest heal over.
“I’m just a sick pony trying to find a cure,” she told him, before lifting her hoof and punching him as hard as she could in the side of his head. He was instantly knocked out, a trail of blood splattering over the dirt from his mouth.
Twilight turned, taking a few steps away before her legs gave out from under her and she collapsed, crying out from the pain of the silver and the magic. Her body was trying to heal, but something was slowing down the process. She looked back at the unconscious doctor, and more specifically, at the blood flowing from his nose.
‘It would be so easy,’ she thought, running her tongue over the tips of her longest fangs. ’But I shouldn’t, he probably has silver in his blood or something.’
***
Twilight was lying to herself, rationalising away the truth that she just couldn’t bring herself to hurt him.
A quiet groan reached her ears and she painfully made her way over to Spike, who was just starting to recover from the Neuron’s assault. When he saw her, he leapt to his feet and ran to her, looking at his hand in surprise as it became covered in silver dust when he grabbed her.
“Neuron?” he asked, looking around as though he was expecting an attack.
“Knocked out over by that tree,” she explained through gritted teeth. “He covered me in silver dust and it just hurts so much.”
***
Spike scratched his head as he thought, looking around for something to use to clean it off. His eyes suddenly lit up as he formed an idea.
“Can you stand? I think I might be able to get rid of all the silver,” he asked and Twilight shook her head, shakily getting to her hooves. “I’m going to use my green fire and send it to somepony.” Trying not to react, Twilight stared at him for a moment, terrified at the thought of being engulfed in magical fire designed to send mail.
“Are you sure that’s going to work?”
“It should. I can’t send organic material, so if I use it on you it should only remove the silver, he told her and Twilight reluctantly nodded, closing her eyes to protect them. “To Rarity it goes…”
‘This has got to be my worst idea ever. Of all time,’ she thought as Spike took a deep breath and exhaled a blast of emerald fire that completely engulfed her.
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Great chapter, I always love a good fight
2305104
I think everyone loves a good fight scene in a story, and thank you.
nice chapter, i wonder whats going to happen to twi in the dragonfire though
2305326
Who knows, will Spike's plan work? Will Twi be rid of the agonizing pain of the silver? Tune in next time for the next instalment of "EQUINE VAMPIRIS' haha
Nice dark take on the whole vampony thing. I'm following another one that is more about the vampire blessings and less about the side effects. Nice to see one go back to the roots.
2305514
I'm ecstatic you are enjoying it. I'm curious, what's the name of the other story, sounds kind of interesting.
2305546
The Vampony Chronicles. By SteampunkBrony.
2305560
Thank you very much, I might check that out.
Woo! Fight chapter! I really, really want to see Twilight's growth as she absorbs the attributes of more ponies. For some reason, that whole trope has always been interesting to me, whether vampiric in nature or otherwise. Neuron's definitely one of the more interesting OCs I've seen lately. He's well characterized, and the kind of OC that I actually appreciate. He's done well, is what I'm saying. Story-wise, though, I would like nothing more than to see Twilight blast him back to his constituent atoms, because the only good paladin is a dead paladin, as far as I'm concerned.
As far as Twilight's character is going, you're pacing it well. She's going to have to adapt to her new self at some point, but I'm glad to see she's not just jumping off the slippery slope of character development. Spike showing some of his draconic nature makes a lot of sense, and it's not something you see very often. I'll admit to not expecting it, but I'll just as gladly admit to loving it. All in all, good chapter, was totally worth the wait, and I cannot wait for the next one.
2305914
Thank you for your analysis. I'm really happy you enjoyed it. And i hope to speed up the chapter rate soon enough.
2305918
Don't worry about the timetable too much. Yes, people want more, but it's better to wait a month and have a good chapter than to wait a week and have a bad one. Not that I can say much, considering the disaster that every fic attempt I've ever made has been.
Your chapters are well paced and interesting, very solidly written and enjoyable. Do as you're comfortable with.
2305964
I will, thanks for the words of encouragement.
This story is dark so far... but I do like it.
Spike feels somewhat off, but I do find it interesting the way he is treating this.
Curious how it will play out. And how long Neuron will keep trying to kill Twilight. Especially after she keeps refusing to kill him.
Good stuff sir! Looking forward to more.
2308268
Thanks very much. This was my first attempt at something dark.
2308284
Just don't forget to have the crisis of faith moment. Twilight and Spike have both already done some very questionable things.
Otherwise it is just Twilight going evil with no looking back.
2308297
Oh don't worry. I have some plans for Miss Sparkle. *Spoilers*
2309300
Okay, I see where you're coming from. But how about the fact that Luna must keep Celestia from finding out about Twilight's ailment. Why? Because Twi asked Luna, her FRIEND, for help.
The other thing is that this is a story about TWILIGHT dealing with a darkness inside her. Aside from Spike, who is becoming increasingly darker himself, she's alone. As the author, I wanted this to be a quest for redemption.
I understand that you don't like where the story is going, and I'm sorry, but I'm not going to change it. I just wish you would trust me to know where it needs to go.
Huuuuzaaah! Another chapter in this gritty series :)
2310591
That's right. But is it really all that gritty?
Yeah, Spike should have "hunted" for her in a more gentle way... he could have ordered a vegi-pizza delivery or something and tipped the delivery pony heavily... or do they not have enough money to do that sort of thing?
I hope she still qualifies as "organic" being undead and all. Then again I seem to remember her being fairly "alive". Still breathing and such.
2311677
Wow, I think you would make a much better vampire's assistant than Spike. As for the whole 'organic thing' Twi's still mortal, not undead at all, as a result of being the type of vampire she is.
great chapter! and why did you have to end there! moar!
(also, rarity is about to get a shocker)
one thing i find myself wishing for, is seeing twilight hunting, actually being like a predator (with a prey scared out of her/his wits), but that might cause her to attack a pegasus though, so there's probably gonna be a while before we see that.
your explanation of spike's actions was quite good by the way, that most certainly explains why he's suddenly like a small psychopath from time to time. now i find myself getting concerned about twilight's character, it's the same as with spike in the last chapter, but not nearly to the same extent, i feel like she's a little too okay with this, it's really nothing, but i just thought i should mention it.
2321331
Thank you, and as for the hunting scene; just keep an eye out in the next couple of chapters.
And I agree, Spike can be a complete nutter when he wants too.
Two things: 1) Spike should use his dragonfire to send away all of Neuron's tools and whatnot. 2) It would have been awesome could feed on pegasi instead of earth ponies because I think that means she could grow wings.
2413883
1) That's not a bad idea, I might use that.
2) Maybe... spoilers. But don't forget, if she feeds on all three races, she'll become utterly devoted to Discord.
2532113
Uh... I'm sorry? What do you mean?
But... wouldn't scrolls be organic? Being made of paper and all.
2571364 Perhaps he meant animate? As in nothing currently alive.