Am I a mare, or a monster?

by Rarity Belle

Chapter 8

Shiva released a deep sigh through her nostrils. Rayne was peacefully asleep in a coffin located outside of the throne room. Things have been going rather well for the both of them as well as their kind. But soon would everything come to a rough standstill.

The night was slowly turning back to the day. The moon kept rising under the shield, the wind moving slowly through the trees and open windows of the castle. The queen took a small opportunity to close her own eyes, to get some much desired rest herself. Her mind began to empty itself from everything that could be bothering with. Peaceful in- and exhales echoed through the room as she lost her grasp of reality and wanted to make the step into the realms of the dreams.

Her much desired rest was not granted as a purple mist made its way into through the forest, passed the shield and intruding into the throne room before revealing itself as the beast it was. Her hooves were clattering softly on the floor while her dragon like eyes glared through the windows into the deep night. “Perfect, just perfect... An everlasting night.” The black mare allowed her horn to charge up lightly. It tried to track down the caster of the spell that caused this wonderful event.

Not much later, the flow of energy that left the shield was tracked down to the mare sitting on the throne, sleeping deeply. “So you are its caster, hm?” The beast spoke before trotting over in a gentle pace. But as she took her last step, her hoof clattered loudly on the ground while she spoke commanding, “Wake up, foal.”

Slowly did the eyes of Shiva opened themselves. Then they shot open wide at the being that stood before her. “Who are you, and why are you here to begin with!” Shiva snarled to it.

“My name, is of no concern of you, but what I want is your spell, the one that created this magical shield of yours,” her mysterious visitor countered.

“Who told you about this place, who told you about all of this?” Shiva replied in anger. She stood up from her throne and walked down the steps. But as they met each other on ground level, the difference in height was still noticeable.

“Nopony told me, I have seen it through his eyes, of that weak excuse of a priest. His soul was delicious though, full with juicy information. Now, give me that spell!” the black mare answered.

“Out of my cold, dead, hooves.” Shiva spoke in a taunting tone towards the mysterious creature. Shiva would make certain that she would be the one that came out as the victor of it.

The beast erupted out in laughter. That was just returning with a sinister answer of her own, “How ironic, you are already dead... But alright, I can do that for you.”

Little did Shiva know where she got herself in. Fighting the being that was Nightmare Moon would only lead into her death. The magic of the queen was nearly nothing and the magic of the changed princess was nearly unlimited. The upcoming battle could only end in one way.

---

“Then so it shall be.” Even before she could finish the sentence, she was grabbed by the dark magic of Nightmare. She was tossed around the room like a ragdoll before being slapped against the wall. Shiva shook her head a couple times after the impact. She spread her wings and took off. She headed straight for the nightmare, pointing her horn to impale the creature. The plan failed by a single step aside. Yet the horn did manage to do some damage. For a scar ran over Nightmare’s side.

Nightmare released a loud roar in response. The games were over. With every bit of dark magic she had in her body was her horn charged up. It allowed itself to be coated in a deep blue aura. “Last chance, you pathetic foal. Either give me the tome for the spell, or die a true death.”

Having regained herself from her collision course, Shiva was hovering hooves away from Nightmare. She was watching it happen before her lips turned into a smirk. “Kill me and the spell dies with me! It’s a lose-lose to begin with,” she countered to the living nightmare.

“No, I always get what I want, always.”

“Hate to disappoint you, but not this time,” replied Shiva with an even deeper smirk.

Without a warning was the bolt of black magic shot into reality. Before Shiva could even react, did she got hit by it. She found herself on the way down to the ground while smoke came off of her. Nightmare on the other end just watched the events going before roaring darkly again.

The roar died down in the end. A deadly grin formed below her muzzle as the loud ‘thud’ took place on the ground, snapping the neck of Shiva. “Always,” she spoke before allowed herself to dissolve into the purple mist again. Soon afterward the mist just left the throne room under a terrifying howl, but not after having circled it a couple times to find the hiding soul of Shiva, but it was nowhere to be found.

---

All of the sudden there was one of the doors that flung open. Rayne ran up into the room and saw her love and queen lying there. She had been defeated by an unknown being. She rushed over and dropped herself next to her though only to discover she was still alive but bleeding ever so heavily. “No, no, no, no,” she spoke before allowing her fangs to appear.

While that unique sound filled the area, Shiva shivered a little as Rayne brought her hoof to her face. “N-No my mare,” were the words that could be heard from a place ever so close. “D-Don’t...”

“I have too, Shivy, f-for you to live on.” Before there was any interruption that could be taken place, Rayne bit in her own foreleg and pressed it against the mouth of Shiva. The gray earth pony forced her to drink the blood that left the wound. Doing so would have disastrous consequences for Rayne. She would die a true death while her mare would drain her from every bit of her blood.

The wounds began to heal while the strength returned slowly, but the price was heavily paid. She had drained Rayne from every drop of blood. Which in return caused her aging process to kick back in. Rayne let her go from the young mare she was, to and mare who was near the end of life. “T-Thanks, S-Shivy...” The final words to ever leave her mouth before her body slowly turned into nothing but dust and got carried away by the wind that was blowing through the room.

“I shall never, forget you my mare,” the dark blue vampony replied with a sad tone. Then a hatred began to boil in her. She wiped away the tears of sadness. Then a force that would lead her for the coming one thousand years, consumed most of her mind. Yet managed to keep her sanity.

Huffs of steam were allowed to leave through her nose as she crawled back on her throne. Having finally taken rest on it she began to mumble things in a language unknown to mortals, but her red eyes only filled themselves more with hatred. “Teloch vonvim agraa ors taba order avavago. Emna ol adrapan adna znrza oxex raclir!”

One day, sooner or later, she would get her revenge on Nightmare Moon by returning the favor of death. An eye for an eye and a fang for a fang.

---

Though with the rather unfortunate deaths of the leaders of either church, the two societies slowly crumbled into nothing more than dust. Some of the lycans returned to the deep forests and stayed there. They decided to hide themselves from the mortals that lived in the towns and settlements. They desired nothing more than peace and rest which they found in those haunted woods, living like the animals they were.

The vamponies on the other end, they hid themselves among the living. They created the many myths and legends about themselves in order to keep the suspicion low. Most of them lived as ponies of high class and status. But possibly the biggest gift was that they left the lycans alone as well. Neither group didn't wanted to continue the war that had cost them so many lives.

For many years they lived in harmony by just leaving each other alone. Of course there were some bloody incidents that could be linked to either or both of the groups. Incidents that happened both inside and out of towns. Whenever one of those events occurred, it scared the ponies so much that they created even more myths and rumors. Those myths and rumors would eventually turn into the ancient old but still well-known folklore many years later.

---

But for Shiva, things took a turn for the worst as she learned from the dreadful fact that the very being that nearly killed her and cost the life of her mare. The blood of many innocents was shed the night she learned it, only to be replaced with the still boiling hate and regret of her fault.

The winged vampiric unicorn stood before the stained glass window. She brought a cup filled with blood to her lips. Her crimson red eyes stared to the real moon. Her eyes simply were watching the ex-prison of the devil herself. The darkness of life was something not even she could have imaged to live through.

One thousand years had passed and her hate boiled up with each passing day. She became more merciless, ruthless and above all, she became a cruel mare. A millennium of boiling hate had broken heart took over her manners. A cloud of steam got released through the nostrils. The cup was brought down and set aside.

She was accompanied in the room was a young vampony. The stallion had a gray coat and was wearing the armor. The same armor used by the lunar guard in the metropolis of Canterlot. Her voice echoed through the throne room of the dark stone castle in a somewhat saddened manner as her true sanity got a hold on her mind again. “Leave me be, young blood. You have been here for enough of the night. The day shall guide you soon enough,” the queen spoke to him.

The stallion nodded to her. “Yes your highness,” he replied in a deep voice. But as he stood up, he made a deep and respectful bow. After that had he left the room as a whole. All in order to fly out into the night to Celestia knows where. But Shiva had an idea to where he would go and decided not to open a chase on him.

Instead, she stared back to the moon with a line of red appeared under her eyes. She knew that the creature of darkness has been obliterated by these equally as mythical elements of harmony. That only shattered her cold hard even more. The longer she stared upon it, the harder it became to hold her tears back. Soon enough there were the tears of blood which slowly ran down her cheeks.

“Never forget... Never forgotten... My mare, one day I will either join you, or find a way to get you back.”

Author's Note:

Translation: The fallen one of the moon of darkness, let her be governed by that which thunders! Herein I cast you down. Swear your obedience with vomiting and weeping!