> The Rise of Night
>  by FluffyDoom
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 1: The Full Moon Meeting.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Chapter One: The Full Moon Meeting.

“What do you mean, another attack has been made on Bat Cave? That place does not serve blood in the drinks!” An exasperated Astra said. Still, after four years, the stuffier nobles hounded her and Eclipse! “They are trying to give us a bad name, I swear, if I hear another noble say-”
“Don’t finish that sentence.” Heartsong advised. She and Paper Poet did all they could to maintain their friends reputation, but somedays they simply grew weary of everything they had to do before continuing with their own research.
“Fine.” Astra grumbled. 20 years old, and she represented a whole species! Vampyres to be exact.
Astra was a lovely looking mare who was only a bit taller than average. She had a short coat that was pure white, like a snow bunny, and a curly circular mane as dark as a shadowed heart. Her once blue innocent eyes had become red four years ago, and now they were annoyed and worried ones. On her flank sat a simple horn with a blood drop dripping from it, her cutiemark was a cause for confusion to many.
Once upon a time, Astra had been a Unicorn, but upon being announced to the masses, her horn had been shortened considerably, so it hid behind her mane, thoug it seemed to be growing back at a snail pace lately. It had been cut for a reason, even though it no longer could use Unicorn magick, Celestia did not want ponies thinking her an Alicorn. Upon her back lay two perfectly white leather wings, they came with her Vampirism.
The pony she had been talking with, Heartsong, was a colorful mare, unlike her boss and friend. She was of the opposite species, a Lycan who was created by accident when Silver Howl, originally known as Shimmer, clawed her.
Heartsong wanted to be famous once upon a time, and could have been if she had not fallen on hard times. Her cutie mark was a fiasco of blush colors, while the rest of her was a nice mixture of light green, and a strawberry colored mane. In her mane laid a simple pink streak. Her hair was long and well groomed, now tied back in a ponytail. Her eyes were a stunning light pink.
Her husband, Paper Poet, who was in the background trying to write a supportive paper for Astra, was a rather mild stallion despite his bright looks. He had a rusty orange coat and on his chest sat a sudden white spot, matching his white hooves. His hair was short and wild, but the same color and tone as the majority of his fur. He had a more girlish face than most guys, and on his flank was a piece of paper with a quill and ink pot. His eyes often betrayed how shy he was, as he often his them. Poonies who managed to see them, saw they were a spring time green.
Eclipse, the other pony who lived there was more of a mono colored mare, though her blues were different shades. She was about four inches taller than the average pony because of her status as alpha Lycan. Her fur was a dark navy blue, but the brushed mane on top of her head was a much lighter shade. It was long and curved around her neck and face unless she pushed it out of the way. Her silver eyes were pure and welcoming, friendly to nearly everypony she met. Her cutie mark was a red moon, for she used to be an astronomer.
“Being a noble is harder than everypony thinks.” Astra complained once more. “I wish some good news would happen upon my doorstep for once! Something random too, none of the Lycan or Vampyre stuff, considering there are no stray Lycans or Vampyres.”
“Yeah. It would be nice to take our minds off of it for a while.” Heartsong admitted. “None of us can go out without receiving strange glances. You think after four years they would get used to us?”
“If they could…” Astra snorted. “They can’t though, we stay pent up here, all the time. I wish Celestia would grant us that nighttime parade with Princess Luna! It would let all the ponies see we aren’t too bad.” Astra frowned. “She keeps saying no though, and I have no idea why! I wish to represent my species, yet she keeps pushing us in the dark, and insists we stay here, out of sight.”
“That is odd.” Song nodded. “You would think she would let us communicate with the outside world more often.”
They were going to continue when a pony interrupted them. Freezy Winds, the newest Vampyre.
Astra had no idea why, again, but Celestia had insisted on making the transformation processes as slow as possible, even delaying the time that they would arrive. So over the course of two years, the five ponies had arrived, and after staying three months, they were finally allowed to decide if they wished to stay and be turned, or leave for good.
Freezy was a light blue pony, but her socks slowly transcended into white coloration. Her short spiky mane was the same shade of blue as the rest of her bright-colored body, with spontaneous flecks of silver and grey. Like all Vampyres, she had signature red eyes that would either sparkle with blood-lust, or the knowledge that they would never see the light of day in the same way again. Once upon a time her special talent was creating snow-storms,, but her original powers had shrunk down to nothing more than creating a tiny cloud, and walking on clouds. On her flank a red snowflake stayed, though it used to be white.
Freezy had joined the small Vampyre group in hopes to learn more about them, but she also joined for what she hoped would be a ticket to fame too. She stated that part clearly, yet was accepted for her honesty and the fact Celestia felt she had a good heart. Having a good heart didn’t stop her from disobeying rules though.
“Astra, can’t we leave the lands tonight?” She winned, her normal high-pitched voice brought to an irritating level of squeakiness.
“No.” Astra stated coldly, still ticked off about her latest escape attempt. “You know the princess has set down stricter rules since I became a noble, she is fretting over little things, but I won’t begrudge her. Besides, we have the meeting tonight, and ponies have generously gifted us cupcakes.”
Freezy sighed. “That’s right. We have that boring Full Moon meeting.” Despite its name, it was actually set a night before the full moon. “Alright. Also, please tell G-string to stop drinking all the A+ blood! That is my favorite.” She walked off.
“Aye yiyi.” Astra rubbed the bridge of her nose. “So many requests from those five, you would expect them to be foals!”
Song shrugged. “Those five were picked because they wished to learn about Vampyres, and seemed most compatible to live in close quarters with you. Celestia figured you wouldn’t want to be alone.”
“She never warned me about the responsibility though, and now they all want out! I would totally say go for it, but Celestia is like, they shouldn’t.” Distressed, Astra sat down on the nearby plush couch. “I don’t know why the princess is being so controlling, I keep telling myself she is worried, but is she afraid for us, or the regular ponies?”
“You have asked that question a lot lately.” Poet finally spoke up from his lonely seat. Stiffly, the stallion got up. He winced as he set his hoof on the ground. “Cramp, too much writing.” He explained.
As they talked the moon rose higher into he sky, and soon the clocks in the house rung midnight.
Astra got up from her seat. “Thanks for listening to me.” She dipped her head. “I would love to repay the favor, but it would look bad if I was late to the meeting.” She walked away from them, her hooves clicking soundly on the ground.
She walked towards the back of the house and near a large oaken door. It guarded the room of their special meetings where they compared what they had learned. Not only that, in it was their emergency blood stores, hence why it was hidden from the normal pony. If their house was ever attacked by anything, they would need those emergency stores.
Along with it being a meeting place and holding their emergency blood, it stored all the information they had created. That in itself was priceless. Even if they could read the old scrolls from the Night Cave, not all scrolls were eligible. Some had been ruined by random animals, or other forces and other things were never written down, or they made copies of the more fragile scrolls. The knowledge alone made that room important, and all the ponies there agreed.
Holding herself high, and knowing she had to appear the every bit of leader she was not, Astra regally walked into the room. She gracefully walked to the head of the table as she felt the small audience of eyes lay on her. Praying she didn’t somehow trip, Astra made her way to her tall wooden seat and sat down.
The table was regular dark oak wood, oval shaped. She sat at the head in a wooden and metal chair, with a red cushion for her rump to sit on. Around her sat the five other Vampyres: Freezy Winds, Golden Locket, Pointed Shield, Ghast, and G-String.
Freezy was the blue Vampyre pony from before. On her right was G-String, a mainly black pony, with grey hooves. She had string instruments for a cutie mark. Pointed Shield used to be a royal guard member, but quite shortly after a scandalous incident he busted. It shocked the pony deeply, but his sound mind gave him a sporting chance at being a Vampyre, which he was now. He had an armoured hat for a cutie mark, hinting that his hobby was armor making since he left the regular protection unit. He had solid grey fur, and a slightly darker mane that held a hint of purple.
Ghast was the second youngest there, next to Freezy, and he had a white coat and purple mane. His mane was long and wavy, while dark bags lay under his eyes due to late nights of study about the supernatural. His cutie mark was a ghost. Golden Locket was the first pony to change. She had a sunnier look though, with golden, luscious, bouncy, locks, and a nice tan orange coat. On her rump a few darker orange spots sat, but that wasn’t her cutie mark, simply a coat coloration. Her cutie mark was a photo frame with an unclear, yet obviously well-aged photo. All in the room had red eyes, but only Ghast had a hungry look in his.
“Did you forget to drink, again?” Astra scolded him immediately as she sat down, losing some of her professional look.
He shifted his gaze downwards. “Maybe… Just, the books here are so amazing! I love copying them down from one scroll to another. You know I can’t drink and copy, it ends up sloppy.”
Astra flinched at the reminder that drinking pure pony blood, and changelings with high skills in shape-shifting, caused a drunken-like state to befall the Vampyre. Oddly enough, it was more potent when a highly skilled changeling let you drink, they had yet to find out why.
“Yes, you make a fair point, but you must remember to drink. Celestia has been more worried than a mother hen fretting over chicks. I fear what reaction she would have upon learning that someone is forgetting to drink his blood.” She chimmed.
G-String rolled her eyes. “Please drop the business-lady act, because honestly, it is a horrible one. You act more like, better-than-thou when doing it. Annoying the crap out of me is really your biggest achievement from it.”
Astra gave her a stern glare. “I need to practice at being professional. I am more relaxed around you at all times, except for this, because this is important! We have only so many hours of moonlight before the meeting is closed, and we wait another month before telling one another what big announcements have been made in the safety of this room.”
“Amazing, I agree with you, Astra, this room is incredibly important, and we decide big things in here.” Freezy said with all seriousness. “So I wish to propose a vote-”
Astra cut her off. “We aren’t there yet, and I already know your question. Please wait.” She grounded her teeth together. Honestly, some of those ponies could be more immature than her. “First order of business, Twilight wishes to visit us next month and observe our little get togethers. All who do not mind the Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle watching, say I.”
“I.” It was unanimous, she would be visiting in one moons time.
“Wonderful, now my friendly scientists, what have we discovered this past month?” Astra moved on, not missing a beat.
Ghast raised a hoof, then spoke in his high-pitched voice that was fairly soft. “I can retract my wings.” He went on to demonstrate.
With a grunt, purple and white wings slowly shrunk into his back, but the noises were sickening. It sounded like bones cracking, then being made into mushy paste and water. Astra held up a hoof for him to stop. “Is it as painful and sickening as it sounds?” She demanded.
He shook his head. “Not really. I was rereading some older scrolls about Vampyres going into to public without being spotted, and wondered how that could be. Our wings stick out, then I realized, the answer was our wings! So I did more research, and found out about them being able to do that.” He grinned proudly.
Astra nodded. “Somepony write that down as a too-learn ability.” She ordered before doing a little hoof motion for others to speak up.
Golden Locket proudly lifted her head. “Marcus came by again and we did some… Research.” She gave a sultry smile. “I think we might have found why Changeling blood is more potent than pony blood, even if it isn’t as filling.”
“Interesting…” Astra did not ask for the details of how she found out, but instead asked for the results.
“Yes, we think it has to do with magick. I realized that one day I had some Earth pony blood in the morning, but in the afternoon I had Unicorns blood, and felt far more dizzy on that!”
The Vampyres didn’t feel like making up new names for their nightly schedule, and instead kept the terms they would use for day. “Odd, I guess we can do a test on that. For one day, we will drink Earth pony blood, the next Unicorn, after that, Pegasi. Then we will kindly ask Marcus to give out two pints of blood. On the last day of research of blood drinking, three of us will drink one type of blood, and the other two will drink the changeling blood. Is anyone getting this?”
Pointed Shield raised a hoof. “I am writing for this meeting. Also, slow down with the talking please. These hooves aren’t as quick as they used to be, not if you don’t want them to be neat!”
She nodded mutely, then continued. “Who else has something to contribute? Because, if not, then we will be setting up schedules, and go over what we must learn, your progress, so on and so forth.”
G-String smirked. “I have good news for our friends here, namely those of us who relied on our regular pony powers once upon a time.” Freezy looked forward eagerly as G continued. “Ancient Vampyres had the same problem that we do today, and some even noticed that their cutie marks changed slightly.” She eyed Freezys flank with an odd look, one that Astra could only call lust and confidence mixed together. “Turns out, their powers simply became more attuned to their new bodies.
“For example, say some pony who was a Unicorn had lightning zap zap powers,” The youngest ponies giggled, “and became a Vampyre. Their lightning powers might change to where they can shock only a pony by touching them. Upon further research I have spotted many similar things.”
“Hoof cramp!” Pointed Shield said without hesitation. “Who else is up for writing?”
“I am.” Golden Locket said kindly as she took the quill and paper from him.
He nodded thanks, and a now slightly annoyed G continued. “As I was saying, I have found that Vampyres are very… Physical.” She paused before continuing. “We love touch, many of our powers, as we discover more and more, do with touch, feelings, and the mind. The Vampyres of old could never keep their distance for long. To end this tiny lecture, I think that many of our powers, if they were originally reliant on regular pony powers, could be transformed into our own special Vampyre ones.”
Astra nodded her head once more. “That is fascinating, thank you! G-String, if you don’t mind, I would like you to study more about Vampyres and emotions and Physical touch. Try to maybe find more examples like the one you gave us?” Also, maybe this will keep you out of trouble for a few days. She mentally added.
“Gladly.” G gave a grin that suggested obedience, though Astra, who had been perfecting her face-reading skills, swore she was hiding something.
Keeping her face cheery, she looked around. “We have made great progress, anything else?” No’s met her ears and she moved on. “Before we get to the suggestions, we should make some schedules for each of us, well, at least you all. I follow a slightly different schedule made specially for me, by Eclipse.” She had no idea what she would do without her steady Lycan friend.
As she let them sort it out on their own, she felt that if she took control of that too, they would get mad at her for micromanaging, she got up and stretched. Checking the elder clock on the wall, it took the shape of a simple square with a circle for its clockface. It ticked by, the small hand nearing one whole hour of the meeting already.
She trotted to the fridges and looked inside one. It held the delicious, and bloodspiked, cupcakes from SugarCube corner. SugarCube had been doing business with the Bat Cave since it opened. In all honesty, it wasn’t a fair trade in Astra’s opinion, but Pinkie had insisted in the only way she could.
Puppy dog faces, please please please’s, and lots of sugary treats. Eventually Astra gave in after the fifth, and again failed, cupcake bomb that was supposed to sprinkle her in frosting, but only made her mouth ache with the tiny, non deadly, explosion. So SugarCube Corner provided Bat Cave with delicious baked treats, word of mouth, and kind customers, while the Bat Cave gave them a special drink for more adult customers.
She walked around, keeping out of their business for about five minutes before checking up on G.
“So, how do you plan on fitting everything together?” She asked curiously.
G-String gave a cocky smile. “I am still working on the draft schedule, but I figure once I have it down, nopony will mind. I mean, how can they mind when it doesn’t interfere with them?”
“You still have to learn any new powers and socialize.” Astra chimmed.
An eye roll and a very annoyed, “Duh,” And Astra went off, not bothering anypony else for the same amount of time.
Going between the ponies, it took up about another hour of time as they shifted schedules around one anothers, set up times to train, and so on and so forth.
“Can we get to the suggestion time now?” Freezy complained loudly.
Asta sat down in her seat. “Yeah, lets get on it, oh, and cupcakes!” She let out a tiny giggle as she slid two cupcakes to each pony at the table. “The blood and frosting is mixed, so don’t worry about any of us becoming stupid.” She added.
Ghast gladly dug into his food right away, while Golden ate hers like a lady, and Pointed chomped his noisily. Freezy held off as she eagerly raised her hand.
“Freezy.” Astra kept the dread out of her voice.
“Outside, I want off this property! We will all be forever grateful to the Sun Princess for giving us this chance, but I am bored!” She snapped.
“Try to be mature about this.” Golden stated dryly, then added her bit to the conversation. “I do have to agree with her about this though, why don’t we try to contact Princess Luna instead?”
“Princess Luna has stated time and time again, we must go through the sun pony, if we want to socialize with her ponies.” Astra grumbled. “Luna has more sway with the bat ponies, also known as Lunar Pegasi.”
Pointed Shield swallowed his last bit of cupcake. “If we can’t greet the day ponies, then why not the lunar ones? I vote we at take a field trip to one of their towns!”
Astra nodded her head. “That is a great idea! I wonder why nopony has thought of it before now.”
Ghast answered. “We haven’t needed to talk about the Lunar Pegasi before now, but since they were brought up, I can’t see why we can’t ask Luna to go and visit them.”
“I will write the letter!” G-String offered.
“I will.” Astra said stoutly. “I know her better, and I do represent you guys.” She reminded them.
They agreed, and throughout the remainder of the meeting, which was another hour, they discussed everything they felt was important. Ideas were brought up, and they also socialized and shared a few laughs. By the end of it, Astra was leaving to write the letter.