> Blood is Magic > by Crimson Rose > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Act One > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Night lay across Equestria, all the ponies were resting through the night. Some were out for a lovely walk under Luna's night. Princess Twilight was up in her library, reading Celestia's diary that she took from the Castle of the Two Sister the last time she was there. "Ooh, Spike listen to this." The princess giggles. " Dear Diary, today was most exciting day than ever. Luna and I was flying through the Ever-free forest when I lost concentration and crashed into a tree. The tree was covered in sap so I had gotten my hair stuck. Luna tried to get me out but ended up getting stuck to the tree as well! Needless to say, we ended up with a new mane style! Oh gosh, I should go back to that castle to see if they had a picture." "Does *yawn* Princess Celestia know you have her secret diary?" Spike asked sleepy. Rubbing his tired eyes. Twilight blushes. She was about to speak when she felt something vibrating. She looked down at her cutie mark and saw it was glowing. She gasped softly. “Is that what I think it is?” Spike asked, looking at her flank. “Let’s go Spike.” Twilight said, getting up from her seat and ventured off. Her loyal assistant follows her. It didn’t take long for Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash to make it to the tree castle. The girls gathered around the friendship table. The map had risen up for them to see but the map was different: It was at a place unknown and their cutie marks was on this large black continent. “I got called from a Daring Do session for another Adventure? This is a good day!” Rainbow Dash shouted with anticipation. “It looks like the map wants us to go to a place far from Equestrian Borders.” Twilight said, studying the map. “A country overseas.” “That place looks….scary.” Fluttershy whispers. “Even the name sounds a bit scary.” Spike said. “The map wants you to go to this place call Transylmaneia.” He holds his Rarity plushy tightly. “I guess it’s another land of ponies, I don’t know.” Twilight said. “I never heard of it.” “I have!” Rainbow Dash squealed. She zooms out of the castle briefly before returning with a Daring Do book. “Daring Do had been there! I can’t believe we’re going where Daring went! It’s my favorite!” Fluttershy looks at the title. “Daring Do and the Vampiress’ Heart?” She read it out loud. There was Daring Do and some-pony in an authentic hooded cloak standing side to side, holding swords in their mouths like they were ready for a big battle. “I don’t even have that, where did you get it?” Twilight asked the mare in a jealously way. “I won a race for this baby.” Rainbow grinned before opening the book. “Daring Do was on her way back with the Ruby Ring of Destiny when her balloon had crashed. She find herself in a land of eternal darkness and rain. The residents were all bat ponies! She had to go to this little village for a ride home, but that village was in control of a mare who uses her enchanted voice to enslave the ponies there. With the help of the only pony who was not affected by the bat pony’s song and her daughter, they worked together to defeat the vampiress. After bringing the vampiress down, the mysterious mare helped Daring get another balloon and she took off! This is exciting!” Fluttershy was hiding behind her throne. “I think I’ll pass. Angel is sick and I need to take care of him.” “Oh come on Fluttershy! This is a territory that no pony has ever ventured! Well except Daring.” Rainbow egged her. “Hmm, there is no books in my library that talks more about Transylmaneia and their residents.” Twilight said indicates. “Luna has bat guards when she came to Ponyville a year ago. Maybe she knows. Spike,” The purple dragon took out a scroll and quill. He licks the tip and nods. “Ready.” “Dear Princess Luna, My deepest apologies, I know you are busy guarding your beautiful night. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and I are about to embark into unknown territory called Transylmaneia. With your help, we would appreciate it if you would give us some information before we go on our quest of Friendship. Sincerely, Princess Twilight Sparkle.” “And...done.” Spike said, finishing writing the letter. He rolled the scroll up and breathe fire at it, magically transporting it to the Princess of the Night. “Alright, now all we need to do is-” “I have received your letter, Twilight Sparkle.” The voice of the princess filled the room. Luna walked into the room. “Whoa, that was fast.” Dash said. “Faster than me.” she frowned. “I was dealing with Vinyl Scratch’s dream when I received your urgent message.” Luna said, sitting on Rarity’s throne. “Could you help us?” Twilight asked. “Boring,” Dash said. “If we want to know about those bats, we’ll go and deal with them.” Luna’s bright eyes glowed with anger when Dash commented them like that. Dash flinches and lands. “Those ponies are a separate race but they are much similar to us ponies here in Equestria. They have earth ponies and unicorns as well. However the unicorns there are masters of the dark arts.” Luna explains. Twilight’s ears lay flat. The last time she used black magic was in the Crystal Empire when she and Spike had to go through a door that shows them their darkest fears. It was one experience she never wanted to go through ever again. “It was an accident when I discovered Transylmaneia. Back then, it was a small country. Residents were at the maximum of one hundred. I had an argument with my dear sister and took off. I did not realize where I was going and got lost in a storm. The storm took me to that dark land. When I was awaken, I was surrounded by the bat ponies. I was in a land where other ponies relish in my glorious night. Those who walk under my stars. They knew who I was immediately and worshiped me. They made me feel like a true ruler. I wasn’t under my sister’s shadow. Some even call themselves Children of the Night. Calling me their Mother. I loved it back there.” Luna smiled in remembrance. “It was upsetting when I had to leave, however I promised that I shall return and unite Equestria and Transylmaneia. I had talked to Celestia about it. She had denied my idea and told me to not venture back. It was one of the reasons I have became Nightmare Moon.” “Princess Luna, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know.” Twilight apologized. “It is alright.” Luna said. “I apologize for not putting any more input. Maybe it is best if I were to come along with your quest. I still want to unite the ponies. I hope things do not change that much.” “More the merrier princess.” Rainbow Dash grins. “Thank you for coming along.” Fluttershy smiled. “We can travel in the traditional Canterlot Royal Boat. It is the only way to even grant access to Transylmaneia. It is a land of harsh weather in elements that Twilight and I cannot control.” Luna said. “We leave at once!” The girl took off to Canterlot and set sail to the land unknown. “Ooh!” Rainbow Dash moans. Her body was leaning over the port side. Her face was green. It was midday, day 3 on their voyage. “Are you alright, Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked Dash, walking up to her. “Flying I can handle, turbulence yes, falling from a thousand feet, no sweat, but…*groans* I want off of this crazy boat.” Dash pukes her breakfast. “I have a spell that can cure your sea sickness.” Twilight suggests. “And here you go Mr. Dolphin.” Fluttershy giggles, feeding a dolphin some fish. She was at the open water. “Oh you are such a cute little thing.” “Fluttershy!” Twilight calls her out. Fluttershy turns her head at the boat and turns to the dolphin. “You take care now.” she smiled before flying back to the boat. The girls’ boat was docked at the shores of Transylmaneia. The sky was gray, rain pummeled the mares constantly. A dark and eerie feeling swept across this new land. Fluttershy was already shaking in her hoofs. “Sweet Celestia, I am glad to be off of that boat!” Dash stretched, feeling better and overcome of her sea sickness. “I hate boats.” “Dash, those waves nearly killed us.” Twilight glared at her, kicking a crab that hung on her tail Luna looks around with a frown. “It looks like this place had changed over a thousand years. I feel a disturbance in the air. Let’s make haste.” The girls came towards a local urban village. Something was way off from the start: the streets was empty. Fear was everywhere, boards were on the windows. Not one creature was even out. Only rats run a muck. “This place isn’t so bad.” Spike said. “Kinda wet and rustic, reminds me of Ponyville.” “Where is every pony?” Twilight asked the group. “Something is wrong, terribly wrong.” Luna commented. “I cannot describe it, but this village….this was the village that had founded me.” “Hey, isn’t that a castle up there?” Spike said, pointing at building north of them on a frightening cliff overbearing the village. “Is it too late to turn back?” Fluttershy asked, slowly walking backwards towards to the boat. “We just got here,” Rainbow Dash protested. “The map brought us here, let’s see what’s the problem and solve it.” “Rainbow Dash is right, we must continue.” Luna said. The gang walked towards the town square. They came across a platform. where an elderly black male bat pony with silver hair was chained to the platform. “Preposterous!” Luna grew angry. She spread her wings and was about to fly towards the pony when somepony in a black hooded cloak ran towards them. “Hide!” It sounded like a mare’s voice. “What is going on?!” Luna shouted at the mare. “I’ll explain, Princess Luna, but please, you five must hide!” the pony shouts back. Twilight closes her eyes, her horn glowed. She used a spell to make the six invisible. “Don’t even move or the spell is broken.” She warns them. Two seconds after she said that, gates from the entrance of the village lifted up. A tempting mare marched in. It was a bat pony but she had no wings but a horn similar to King Sombra’s horn. She was using magic to hold a large curved sword. “MAKE WAY FOR THE COUNT AND COUNTESS!” the guard mare shouted. With that, a mare and a stallion walked side by side. Both dressed in the old times. “Reminds me of Rarity’s renaissance line.” Dash muttered. “Quiet, please,” the hooded mare whispered to her. “There is something different about those bat ponies.” Twilight whispered softly. “They have horns...and wings like us.” “Are they royalty?” Fluttershy asked. Luna hushed them before watching. The elegant mare flew over to the old bat and grimaced, getting a good look at him.“Blackheart, this one is too old, too weak. His blood is far too tainted for us to consume.” She looked at the Count who followed her to inspect with her. “I know the villagers here have much more offerings than him.” The Count said, violently kicks the old pony. Luna was horrified to see this kind of action. Was this the result of her not fulfilling her promise a thousand years ago? “We have to do something.” Dash growled. She couldn’t stand just standing there and watch. “If they see you, you are dead.” the mystery mare hissed at them. Fluttershy was covering her eyes. “Make them stop.” she spoke up. She was crying softly. “Zeldina, how about we take something to our little Blood Moon? An eye perhaps to add to her collection?” Count Blackheart asked his wife. “No,” She said bluntly. “Kill him.” “No…” Twilight whispered, she was losing concentration, her magic started to short out. The guard mare nods, taking her sword, she swung at the bat pony, his head was chopped off.and his body fell on the ground. “EVERY PONY LISTEN UP!!!!!” Count Blackheart shouts in the traditional loud voice. “WE SHALL RETURN AT HIGH NOON TOMORROW. IF YOU DO NOT GIVE US AN ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE, WE WILL KILL EVERY FOAL IN THIS PATHETIC VILLAGE.” “Let us go home my love,” Zeldina coos at her Count. “I just love how you give orders.” “We shall,” He chuckled darkly. Both spread their wings and took off to the sky, retreating back to their castle. The guard pony looked around before using a teleportation spell and teleported away. Luna raced over to the dead pony. She looked at him, filling anger boiling inside her. “Oh man...they killed him.” Dash gulps. She was terrified at this. Daring Do’s novel didn’t say anything about murderous counts and countess. Fluttershy was crying uncontrollably. “How could they do that? And I thought sacrifices were banned….” Twilight fell on her bum, looking back what the Count said. “I am terribly sorry for all this, strangers…” The cloaked mare said, apologizing. “I only wish we met in different circumstances.” Luna’s horn glowed, a scythe appeared, the blade in shape of a waning crescent. She charged at the mystery mare. She tackled her to the ground, putting the edge of the scythe up against her throat. “SPEAK! WHY WOULD YOU LET ONE OF YOUR OWN BE MURDERED IN A BARBARIC?! WHY!?!” “Princess Luna, let her go!” Twilight shouted, running up to her. “JUST STOP IT!!!” Fluttershy screamed. Luna looked down at the mare, who was being cut of oxygen. Her eyes were of Nightmare Moon. She held the weapon onto the bat pony’s neck for a few seconds before letting go of her. The mare rolled onto her stomach, coughing. “Y-you think I want this to happen?” She asked, pulling her hood down. Revealing to be a bat pony with crimson red coat, long and dark rainbow mane and tail with matching blue bow. Her eyes brightly blue. “I have been trying to stop this for two months….” "Why would they do this?" Twilight asked her. "I do not know, I have been trying to figure that out for myself. From what the other villagers told me, this whole sacrificing ordeal didn't start about two years ago. Since then, the bats here are terrorized of the Count and Countess." “I guess we came here to save these ponies and guide them out of the path of darkness." Luna said, looking up at the dark grey skies. "Who are you anyway?” Rainbow Dash asked her, glaring at the mare. The mare coughed. She looked and noticed in Dash’s saddlebag that there was a Daring Do book sticking out. “Last page.” She tells her. “Last paragraph..” Dash tilted her head before realizing what she meant. She grabs her book and flipped through the pages. She found what she was talking about and read out loud. “As Daring Do’s balloon took off, Daring turns to the mysterious mare on the ground. ‘What is your name? I never got it.’ She says. The mare finally pulls her hood, showing her true identity. Flashing Daring a smile with a clear view of her sharp, glistening fangs. ‘My name is Crimson Rose...and I hope-” “We’ll meet again.” Crimson Rose said, saying the last words that were said in the book. > Act two > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The girls looked at Crimson Rose, a bat pony who helped Daring escape the dark land. Rainbow’s jaw dropped when she said the last line in the book before she could finish before shaking her head in disbelief. “Yeah right! You probably have the same book and just used that pony’s name!” Rainbow said, not believing the mare. “That is my name, Rainbow Dash.” Crimson said, narrowing her bat eyes at her. “How do you know my name?” Dash looks at her with wide eyes. “I know all of your names,” Crimson shrugs before pointing a hoof at Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, Kindness,” she moves it to Twilight. “Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Magic,” She puts her hoof down. “Rainbow Dash, Loyalty….and a bit too cocky for my tastes.” “Hey!” Dash growls. “And of course, Princess Luna,” She bows to the princess of the night. “I do wish we could’ve met in other circumstances.” “What about me?” Spike asked, crossing his arms across his chest, narrowing his eyes at her. “What am I? Chopped Liver?” “Sir Spike, Princess Twilight’s assistant and the savor of the Crystal Empire.” Crimson said. “My daughter is a big fan of yours.” Spike grins, blushing deep red, holding his tail. “Oh really?” The bat mare nodded. “News of all of your achievement spread throughout my travels.” She turns to Fluttershy. She was crying still uncontrollably. “You five, follow me.” The mare said before walking off. The mares and the little drake looked at each other before shrugging before following the mare. “C’mon Flutters,” Dash pushes the yellow Pegasus in the direction. “Princess?” Twilight walked over to Luna, who was looking back with guilt and sadness for the bat who died for nothing. “I promise, your death will be avenged, my child.” Luna promised. “And this time...I will keep it.” before looking at Twilight. “We do not want to be left behind, come Twilight Sparkle.” She said before walking off. Twilight turned to the platform one more time before finally leaving with the others. The mare lead over to an old cidery. A sign hung over the door saying it’s closed. Crimson puts her hoof on the door and barely pushes it open. The door creakily opened, when it swung open, the door fell off of it’s hinges and fall to the ground, splitting in half. “I promise this village was in much better shape before those two started slaughtering every bat here.” Crimson said. Inside was pitch black. The gang could barely see a table flipped on it’s side and a broken cider bottle. Luna and Crimson moved inside, seeing the darkness while the others couldn’t. Twilight used magic to make her horn glow with brilliant white light. She tilts her head and moved it around as if it were a flashlight. It looked like the main floor was a little pub. “Wow...this place is a dump.” Dash commented, going inside and looked around. “I am so glad the owners of the Night Lounge did not hear you make that comment, Rainbow Dash.” Crimson said, glaring at her. “What’s that?!” Fluttershy shouted, pointing a shadow moving in the far wall. No pony has ever heard her be that loud since Iron Will’s treatment. “I got it!” Rainbow said to the rescue. She charged at the shadow figure. “Rainbow stop!” Crimson shouts before going after Rainbow. “Lets go girls,” Twilight said before she, Flutters and Luna ran after them. Going at it blind, Rainbow ending up crashing into a few walls, several tables, a head of a Chimera mounted on the wall. She even went through the several doors to capture the shadow figure. “Stop running!” Crimson ‘s voice rang in Rainbow’s ears but Dash didn’t stop. Filled with adrenaline and the scene of what happened filled her mind. She was angry and wants to release it. This chase and capturing the shadow was what the doctor ordered. Rainbow ganged up on the shadow and tackles it. They rolled around the ground in a rapid pace before the rainbow maned mare pinned the shadow, standing over it, breathing heavily, sweat dripping off of the cyan Pegasus. “Now I finally….huh?” Her head tilts when she got a good look at who she was pinning. Suddenly, Crimson charges in, shoving Rainbow off with great force, sending the Pegasus to the wall where she peeled off and hit the hard wooden floors with a bang. Rainbow groans, holding her head before meets a blood red gaze of Crimson. “Touch her again and I will kill you, Rainbow Dash.” There was something temptation about the look on the mare’s face. “Mama!” The shadow cries, hugging the bat’s leg. “Mama?” The other girls repeated what the shadow is. Twilight shines the light around the old storage room, they saw that the shadow was actually a little black dragon with yellow feathered wings and bright orange eyes. There was a wound on her arm from where RD tackled her. “Whoa...it’s another dragon….” Spike said, looking at her. “Oh you poor wittle thing,” Fluttershy said softly, snapping out of her scared trance and flew over to the baby dragon. “That mean stranger hurt me!” The black dragon cried loudly. The bat mare hugged the little dragon and glares at Rainbow. “If you would just stop when I said, you would’ve realize that this baby is my daughter.” she growled ferociously at her. “I didn’t know, okay I’m sorry,” Rainbow said, her ears went flat. She felt bad for tackling a kid. “Oh it’s okay little one.” Fluttershy said, petting the baby dragon. “Let’s get all fixed up and maybe we can get some ice cream.” The dragon turns to the mare and sniffled, rubbing her eyes. “With extra sprinkles?” “I never seen another baby dragon in a long time.” Luna said, inspecting the baby. “Same age as young Spike here. What is her name?” “He name is a Coral,” Crimson said, her eyes returning to normal. “I raised her since she was a little egg.” She smiled motherly. “So have I with Spike.” Twilight said, looking down at her assistant. “She’s your daughter?” Spike asked confused. “I thought ponies can’t lay eggs...can they?” He looked really confused. “I adopted her,” Crimson said. She then lowers herself to her daughter’s height. “Sweetie, how are the others?” “They’re fine...just shaking up from what that big meanie Count said.” Coral said as Fluttershy treated her wound. “Where are the others?” Luna asked, looking down upon the dragon. Coral looked at her mother before Crimson nods. “Over here.” she said, spreading her wings and took off flying towards a staircase that leads down. The girls followed their new dragon friend. Twilight had to drag Spike because he was just standing there and looking at Coral stupidly The baby dragon led the ponies to the cellar. Large barrels of cider stacked quite nicely along the walls. It was rustic and large area. The smell of fear stunk the air. “That is a lot of cider,” Luna commented, looking around. “I never knew any pony that could have this much stored.” “Well, Luna, it is a pub, they have to serve something,” Crimson said, going to one of the barrels. “Now..which one is it again? Coral?” she turns to her daughter to see if she knew. The dragon just shrugs indicating that she had no clue either. “No one is here...can I take one of them home?” Rainbow asked going near one a lushful look on her face and a sudden dry throat. She reached to a spout and turns it. But no cider was spilling all over the floor. “Hey! They’re empty!” After she said that, a loud click heard near here. “Huh?” A large piece of the tile just moved slightly five feet from the Pegasus. The girls walked over to tile. “Congratulations Dash, your love of drinking cider has a trap door.” Twilight said sarcastically before Crimson and Coral pushed the tile aside. Inside was a secret room, around twenty or thirty bat ponies crowded in fear. All bat, unicorn and earth ponies stuffed in this room. “It’s alright everyone.” Crimson said calmly to her fellow bats. “These strangers will help you.” “ARe you going to kill the Count and his wife?” a dark blue bat stallion asked. “There will not be any more blood shed.” Luna said, walking up to them. “I will make sure of that.” The bats gasped and bowed to the princess. “Now, the only way for us to stop the villains is if we go into the castle.” “Uh princess, you do realize that we can’t just waltz up to the front doors. Right?” Dash asked. “I know a way.” A dark brown unicorn bat pony with a quill and scroll cutie mark said, raising his hoof. The stallion used teleportation and appeared right in front of the mares. He shook his head, getting rid of the dizziness he was feeling. “I’ll never get used to that.” He said. “Well hello,” Rainbow said, gawking at him. “What’s your name?” She asked him. “Dark Fire” He said, telling them his name. “I used to be the Count’s personal assistant. I left before these sacrifices start.” “Dark Fire, you have a child,” Crimson said, stepping in. “If you leave. There might be a chance that you’ll not come back to him.” “I know..and it is a chance I shall take. The Count must be stopped.” He said, desire and determination. “This will not go without reward.” Luna said. “Show us the way.” Twilight said before looking at Spike and Fluttershy. “I need you two to stay here. Keep the others safe and try make their spirits up.” “Thank you!” Fluttershy squealed and was the first one to dive into the room. “I wanna come.” Coral said to her mother. “So do I.” Spike said. Twilight and Crimson said. “No!” in the exact same time in unison. “This mission is just too dangerous for children.” Crimson said. “Sorry darling but I’m putting my hoof down.” “I’ll take care of them.” Fluttershy said. Both dragons pout before walking towards the other bat ponies. “Lets go!” Rainbow said before flying out. The mares and the stallion ventured off to the castle. The gang followed Dark Fire towards a gated cemetery. Far from the direction of where the Count and Countess were. “What is the meaning of this, Dark fire? Why have we come here?” Luna asked. “Just beyond the cemetery, there’s a secret door in one of the mausoleums.It’ll lead to the underground catacombs. From there, we’ll emerge into the library.” “It’ll take too long, why can’t we just use the princesses’ teleportation magic.” Rainbow Dash suggested. “Dash is right, we need to end this quick.” Twilight said. “I wouldn’t.” Crimson said but Twilight tried to use her teleportation magic, but instead of teleporting, she made it rain kittens. A couple in fact hit Dash in the face. “Light magic doesn’t work properly here. You girls used up what proper magic at the the square” she turns to Dark Fire. “I see.” Twilight said, shaking the kittens off. The spell lasts about a few minutes before the rain stopped. “This is a land where black magic rule.” Luna said, looking at the lock. “I am afraid that I do not know any dark spells.” “Great, long way around.” Rainbow complained. “Dark fire,” Crimson nods at him. The unicorn walks up to the gate. He closed his eyes, a thick blue and green aura manifests off of his horn. He shot a beam from his horn at the lock of the gate. The gate responded to it and it broke off, the gate swung on it’s own. “Once more unto the breach,” Luna said as Dark Fire lead the girls inside. > Act Three > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The girls walked through the cemetery. Dark fire lead them through various lanes of grave markers. Most did not have a name indicating who's markers were. It was pretty sad. "So many ponies died from those two, You can't help but feel sorry about them." Twilight said, studying one small marker with a foal etched on the stone. "It never used to be this way." Dark Fire said, keeping his eyes forward. "There was a time this village was a pleasant village. The Count and Countess never really act like they did earlier. They were decent, kind." "Like what happened?" Rainbow Dash asked, flapping her wings softly, flying over them. "No bat knows." Crimson replied, hopping over a large rock. "I'd ask everyone in the village, none knew why those two comment such crime." "Even I don't know why they are doing this," The male bat said. "For whatever this reason is, we shall put a stop to this once and for all." Luna said, stomping her hoof on the ground. "Can we hurry up?" Dash asked. "You scared of the cemetery, Rainbow?" Twilight asked, looking up at her. "Pshhh! As if! It's just we're taking so long to get to this entrance. How can we trust this guy anyway?" "You know a better way of going to the Count's home without being halted?" Dark Fire asked, whipping his head around to glare at the Pegasus. "Well...no..." Rainbow shuts up, rolling her eyes as they followed the bat. They came across a cave with a gated entrance. The ponies looked at each other before looking at the lock. It was an unique lock, it had a small bowl on it with an inscription on the sides. "Only the true blood of the night shall pass." "What the heck that means?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking confused at the lock. "Maybe it is for me. I am the Princess of the Night." Luna said, walking towards the lock. She took one of her slipper off and brought it to her mouth. She bit down hard on her flesh, causing herself to bleed hard. She hovered the bloody hoof over the bowl. The blood dripped down to the bottom of the container. The others watched closely as her blood caused the bowl to glow crimson and the gate suddenly goes into the ground, opening the mouth of the cave. Crimson let out a breath of relief, like she didn't have to do it. "Well," Dark fire lit his horn up to cast a brilliant light, "Let us be off." He lead the girls in. Every pony slowly made their way inside the cave. Without Dark fire's light, Twilight and Rainbow Dash wouldn't be able to see where thy were going. As they walked, Twilight grabbed Dash's wing and pulled her down so she can whisper in her ear. "You need to apologize for hurting Crimson's daughter," She told the cyan mare. "She's angry at you still." "It was an accident, I didn't mean to tackle her. Maybe if her daughter didn't have black scales, I would see her and wouldn't have to attack her." Dash whispered back. "Whatever, Crimson right now is our friend, go apologize the right way." Twilight glared at her friend. "Alright alright, if looks can kill, I would be dead." Dash sighed, flying over to Crimson. "Hey Rosey." "Please don't call me that, I hate that nickname." Crimson said very cold, causing the Pegasus to flinch. "Sorry" she said. "But I just want to come by and say I'm sorry for hurting...Coral, right?" "She's a baby and you could've really harm her." Crimson mumbled. Dash tilted her head, she noticed something about Crimson's bat wings. They're scarred, holes were along the flesh, damaged beyond repair. "Can you even fly with those wings of yours?" She asked. "Rainbow!" Twilight hissed. Crimson turned her head to glare at the mare. "No I cannot. I lost my ability to fly while I was a Shadow Bolt." "SHADOW BOLT!?!" Dash froze in midair, crashing to the ground. Dark Fire and the others stopped walking to look at Dash. But more importantly, Dark Fire was looking at Crimson, jaw dropping before he kneeled to her. "M'lady, I had no idea you were one of Transyl-Maneia's greatest warriors!" He said in an apologetic tone. Crimson groaned. "Not again." She shook her head and looked at Dark Fire. "I didn't want you to know. I'm an ex-shadow bolt. I was discharged." "For what? Manipulating other ponies to turn their backs against their friends?" Dash growled at her, stand on her hoofs. "You do realize that was an illusion," Luna pointed out. "I don't care. That left a bad taste for them." Dash hissed that last part, pointing at Crimson. "For all we know, she can be working with those two!" Crimson snarled, her fangs flashing. "You don't know a damn thing about me, you better watch your mouth Rainbow." "THERE SHALL NOT BE ANY FIGHTING AMONG COMRADES!!!" Luna shouted, causing the ceiling to shake. The two opposite pegasi glared at each other. "Crimson, I'm sorry for Rainbow's behavior...but were you really a Shadow Bolt?" Twilight asked her calmly. Crimson snorted, shaking her head, calming herself down before answering. "Yes. I was. But I was discharged before I adopted Coral. My wings were not the reason for my leave. We wasted time, we have to get going." The ponies looked at each other before Dark Fire stood up and walked ahead, lighting their way. Dash snarled at Crimson as she flew to the back of the group. > Act Four > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The ponies ventured deep within the catacombs. Water leaked dripped from the ceilings and water splashed with each step they make. "If Rarity was here, we'd never make progress." Dash said, wiping her forehead, clearing the water from her head. "How far is it?" Twilight asked Dark Fire. "Not far....stop, we got company." The stallion said, stopping. The mares turned around. From Dark Fire's light, shadows moved towards them. Almost immediately, Dash recognized the shadow. "Fluttershy?" Sure enough, the Element of Kindness slowly walks in, blasts of fire came from the two baby dragons, one flame green and the other bright indigo, lighting the pegasus' way. "I'm so sorry...they really wanted to come." She whimpered. "Hi mama!" Coral cooed, waving her claws at Crimson. The crimson mare couldn't help but smile. "Baby girl, you are suppose to stay back." "I know mama, but I wanted to see you." Coral smiled. "Plus you need my wings." "Yeah, wings..." Spike muttered before meeting Twilight's death-defying glare. He spent a long time to know that when he's met with that glare, he's in trouble. "Are we sure we need children to accompany us?" Luna asked, looking at the baby dragons who disobeyed their guardians direct order. "It's too dangerous for both of them to be here, Fluttershy, why didn't you hold them back?" Twilight asked Fluttershy, who whimpered in fright. "I'm so sorry," Fluttershy whispered. "I didn't mean to." "They are fine. It's too late for either of them to turn back now." Crimson said as Coral climbed on her back, Spike did the same to Twilight, who felt tensed from having scales on her back once more. Dark Fire simply moved forward, leading the mares towards an opening. They came across a bridge that inclined toward what appears to be a bookshelf. "That's odd to have books in this place," Twilight said as the ponies who could fly flew uphill to the shelf. The two bat ponies walked towards the shelf and that's when Dark Fire frowned. "I did have forgotten which book it is to pull." He said. "We'll, let's just pull each book out and find that secret passage." Rainbow Dash said. When she touched the books, she was shocked and fell to the ground, her wings stiffened up so bad that she couldn't fly. "What the hay!?" Twilight and Luna tried to touch the books, it did the same thing to them and their wings stiffened as well. "It must be some sort of trap." Luna groans, her wings felt heavy, making it hard for her or her companions to move. "It must be new." Dark Fire said, examining the accursed, enchanted shelf, trying to avert his gawking eyes at their wings. "Last time I used it, I just have to solve the puzzle and it'll open." "Puzzle?" Coral cooed, hopping off of her mother's back and waddled her way to the shelf. "I love puzzles, can I solve it?" "But it'll hurt you, Coral," Fluttershy said. "We'll find another way inside." "I'm afraid, this is the only way in without being detected by the guards." Darkfire said. "Though they had updated their security." "If this trap works on ponies...maybe it doesn't work on dragons." Twilight said, her legs buckled from the extra weight of her wings. "Try it." Coral was happily oblige as she reached for the first book she saw. When she picked it up, it didn't harm her. She examined the book until she saw the spine. There was an imprint on it. Scanning at the others, the other books had some type of imprint, if putting them together, they form a picture and that can be the key. "Spike, can you help me." "Um okay," Spike said, hopping off of Twilight's back.He walked over to the dragoness and helped her out. "Okay, I think that goes here and here..." The two drakes began switching the books around. "No I think those two need to switch." Coral said, taking the two already placed books and switching them around. It took them a few minutes to finally complete puzzle: It was a mare with silver mane, white coat, red eyes, her horn was glowing brightly, leading the other bat ponies out of the darkness. Crimson grunted, looking at the picture before the mares under the trap's spell wore off and they furled their wings. "Never again I would touch any bookshelf." Rainbow grunts, flexing her wings. "Unless it's a Daring Do Book of course." "I've met that mare before." Crimson said. "Anywho, look." she points her hoof at the shelf as it swung open. "Okay, every pony, lets go in, but tread lightly, we're in enemy territory." The princess of the night said. Darkfire lead the mares in. The shelf door opened to a library. Twilight couldn't help but awed at the books. She goes near one of the shelves, pulling a book out of it's place and looked at the cover. "Dareka's Fallen angel: A tale of Wandering Shadows. This sound interesting." She smiled, tempting to opening the hard black covered book. "Please put that down," Fluttershy said. "You shouldn't be touching other ponies things before asking." "I have the entire trilogy," Crimson said. "I can lend you them if you want. It's a love novel." Twilight squealed in excitement before putting the book back in it's place. "I'll hold you to that." Luna looked around before gasping, taking aback on seeing a white stallion's head mounted on the wall. Fluttershy covered her eyes, pretending not to see anything. Dash flew towards the head. "Whoa, dude, this is like, creepy." "Who you callin' creepy?" the head suddenly spoke, opening his eyes...well..HE HAD NO EYES! Rainbow Dash, Twilight and Fluttershy let out a scream, running back to the closed entrance, trying to find a way out. Crimson, Coral and Dark Fire let out a chuckle, seeing that they were used to this sort of things. Dark Fire went towards it in a calm manner. "Please don't inform the Count and countess that we are in here." he asked of the head. "You here to kill em?" the head asked them, glaring at them. "We are here to put an end to their reign of terror." Luna said, looking at the Stallion. She didn't know if she should laugh or feel sorry for the poor soul. "You can try, ha! I tried that one and look at me! I'm a bucking head!" "We can see that,." Dash commented as the three fillies backed off of the closed entrance. "W-we'll make sure that doesn't happen to us." Spike chattered his teeth in fright, using Twilight's wing to hide himself. "Soon, youses are gonna be just like me," The head called out before closing his eyelids, going back asleep. "Can we please leave?" Fluttershy cried. "I don't want to do this anymore." Twilight puts a hoof on her shoulder, still shaken up from the talking decapitated head. "T-the map told us that we have to come here, I-if it means dealing with these two ponies, saving an entire town, we have to do it. We've dealt with worse things before." "But not when it involves k-killing." "Look, we'll make sure we don't kill the Count and Countess, we'll just beat some sense into them." Crimson sooths the yellow pegasus. "I promise." Fluttershy whimpered, shaken to death that she couldn't even move. Dash sighed annoyance before taking off towards the door out of the library as the other ponies tried to calm her friend down. Coral noticed it and snuck out to follow her. Spreading her golden feathers and took to the air. Dashie flew out of the library and came out to the Court Yard. It was fairly big, it had a dome over the place so Dash couldn't fly out into the skies. There was a fountain, the water stained red, dead wilting flowers. There was a tall building north of her and Rainbow was fired up. She was going to storm in, kick some serious butt, save the town, head back to the pub and have herself a nice tall glass of cider. "Should you wait for everyone else?" Coral flew behind her. "Should you go to your ma?" Dash glared at her. "I don't need some baby dragon slowing me down." Coral criss-crossed her arms, giving the mare a "Ya serious?" look. "At least I didn't have an automatic wingboner in front of a stallion from a book shelf." Dash blushed pure red, glaring at the baby. "That was a spell, not that I was-well he is-well-you know what, you need to leave." She went to grab the dragon and the dragoness easily side stepped her. "Look kid, I'm not playing any games here." Coral tapped her arm where the wound RD caused her to have was there. "You owe me, daymare." Dash grumbled cursed under her breath before sighing. "Just don't get in my way." "Fire power here, Crashie, I think I'm in front." Coral smirked before flying towards the tall building. Dash follows her, despite having to babysit a sassy smart-mouth dragon. When they got to the door, Coral reaches the knob with her fish tail and it opened. They went inside to see what appears to be a the main house. Dark and crimson roses bloomed inside and in the middle of the room. Dash heard a couple of batacorns trotting down the multiple hallways. Dash could easily take down the magic users, as long as she didn't get hit by their condensed magic. "What are you guys doing?" The Princess of Friendship zooms towards them, the others were not that far behind them. "We're in enemy territory and you guys wandered off." "Well I'm sorry if I want to get this friendship mission over with as fast as possible. This place, yes, I'll admit, is freaking me out." Dash exclaimed, flinging her arms in the air in exasperation. "You're going to get us caught." Coral whispered, peeking over the roses to see a few shadows walking towards them. "So am I, Dash, but flying off isn't going to solve it!" Twilight shouts back, not hearing the dragon's warning. "Better than to stand there and tending to a tree!" Dash quickly covered her muzzle the second she made that comment about Fluttershy. "I-i did-" "DUCK!!!!" Crimson's voice rang both of the mares as a dark purple and blue blast shot at them, clipping Rainbow in her arm but took Twilight by surprise as she was hit. She was flew to the wall and hit it with such force it knocked her out and slumped to the ground. "Twilight!!!" Fluttershy, Rainbow and Spike shouted, they ran towards her but Dark Fire teleported the three away as the guards, and the Count himself approached the princess of friendship. "Hmm, interesting specimen." The count said, using his magic to raise Twilight in the air. He tilted his head and licked his lips. "I bet she would taste delicious. I must experiment-" "Sir, you have a ball tonight, you won't have time to conduct your experiments." One of the guards commented. "Blast. Put her in my lab, make sure she doesn't escape. I'll tend to her later." He said, tossing her to one of the batacorns who caught her with their magic and whisked the princess away. "No..." Crimson said, couldn't believe what was happening. She looked up the princess of the night and saw pure anger going through the majesty. The count looked around, Coral was hiding in her shadows, thanking Luna that she had black scales and could make her spikes disappear. The count turns around and walked back to where he needed to go. > Act Five > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "THIS BUCKING SUCKS!!!!!" Dash screamed out, trying to break the door in the library. "DARK FIRE LET US OUT!!!!!!" "T-they took Twilight." Spike whimpered, his knees to his chest, hugging them, crying about what happened to Twilight. "Dashie, please calm down." Fluttershy whimpered as well. "I can't! That bucking Count took Twilight! We have to get her back!" Dash tries to break the door one more time, but this time, Crimson opened the door and Dash flies just above her head, hitting the fountain with her head, causing a crack to form on the stone. "You need to calm down if you want to rescue your friend." Crimson said, looking at the cyan pegasus with disbelief that she's going to help the village. "And just where were you, bat?" Rainbow Dash snarled getting up in Crimson's face. Crimson took her hoof and shoved her away. "Trying to make sure we don't have another Nightmare Moon incident." she said, looking at the clearly angered Luna, but she was calmed down to where she won't turn. Dark fire disappeared from the group so they were left alone. "Dark Fire teleported away as soon as Count Blackheart took Twilight. He had to get something he said. So for now we are on our own." "We don't even know where the count put her!" Rainbow Dash snapped. "We don't know our way around this place!" "W-why would the count take Twilight?" Fluttershy asked, choked up on her tears. "I don't know, but from what I heard, he loves to dissect things. Anyone who is unique and a rarity." Crimson said. "We must find Twilight Sparkle, that is our top priority." Luna said, putting her two bits in. "Then we'll bring the count and his countess down." "Princess Luna's right, now if I'm correct, we go to that meanie Count Blackheart's lab and get her out." Coral said before walking over to Spike and helped him up. "You need to shape up if we are going to rescue your guardian." "I-i'll try." Spike said, sniffling. "But where is that lab?" Rainbow growled, feeling like they were wasting time just squadling around. "In the tower," The shrunken head from before called out. "His lab is at the north west tower, you mares can fly up there." "Then let us make haste." Luna said, taking off. Spike got on fluttershy and they took off, Rainbow did also. Coral got above her mother, wrapping her tail around Crimson and lifting her up, flying off with her to the tower. As They flew, Crimson heard something and tugged on Coral. She too heard something before flying towards the noise. "What is she doing?" Luna asked curiously before flying after Crimson. Rainbow and Fluttershy looked at each other before flying after the bat mare. When Coral landed, putting her mother gently on the ground, she noticed something was moving. A faint smile fell on her face, it was a little filly batacorn. And she was dancing. "We must not get distracted, Crimson Rose." Luna sand, looking at her. "Put your maternal instincts aside and focus on the task." Crimson nods, breaking her gaze from the filly. "Of course princess, Coral?" "Yes, mama." coral said, wrappign her tail around Crimson and took off. When they got to the lab, they immediately spot Twilight. She was in some sort of cage and could barely lift her head. "I got her." Rainbow said, rushing towards her. "Rainbow no!" Twilight shouted at her, trying to get the cyan mare to stop but she couldn't. When Rainbow hit the cage, she was electrocuted. "The count boobytrapped it." Luna said. "Are you alright Twilight?" Spike asked Twilight, clearly worried sick about her and making sure he doesn't touch the cage. "I am." twilight lied. Crimson looked around the cage, when she found the lock, she frowned. "We need a key." "I bet blackheart has it." Rainbow dash growled, shaking the electricity off. "I'm fine." "How are we going to get it?" Fluttershy asked. "You mares couldn''t hear, but that alicorn filly from before talked about a ball that's tonight." Crimson said. "the Count may have the key on him." "Somepony may have to disguise herself and get close to the count and the key." Lina said. "But, who?" Twilight asked. Then six of the seven members looked at Crimson Rose at the same time. "Oh feathersticks." Crimson sighed > Act six > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Remind me why I have to go?" Crimson asked from the changing room. Many dresses to pick, all in assorted dark and gloomy looking colors. The colors and the fashion would be enough to have Rarity scream in terror. "You are a bat pony, the entire room would be filled with bat ponies." Luna said. "I cannot use my magic due to the fact that this country disruppted my magic." "That's specieisum-ow! Coral, be careful where you pull." "Sorry mama." Coral said. "I wish I could help." Fluttershy whimpered. "The bat has it undercover." Dash said, keeping a lookout for the guards. Crimson came out of the changing area. The dress was as blue as the sapphire skies. The fabric hugged her athletic curves, the black cape hid her unusable wings very well. Her mane and tail were in curls and her face was covered in an decorative mask. It looked extremely beautiful on her. "I looked ridiculous." She grumbled. "I think you look beautiful." Fluttershy smiled. "You look like you can be a Countess." "For Luna sakes, don't call me that, ever." Crimson said, walking up to Luna. "I still don't see why I have to go out? I'm not good dancing." She hissed. "The other bats will immediately spot us, since we are not clearly one of you." Luna said. "You are our best option." "You mean only option." Dash grumbled. She would kill to have payback with that Count but she'll have to wait. Saving Twilight was their primary objective. "Wish me luck." Crimson said as she trotted to the door. "Don't wait up." with that, she used her tail to close the door behind her. Something what Pinkie Pie would have done. "What's taking too long?" Dash asked, pacing around in the air as she awaited for Crimson. "I bet that stupid bat ratted us out." "She wouldn't do that." fluttershy said. "Crimson is our friend." "She's a Shadow Bolt! I bet she planned all of this!" Dash snarled. "Actually, I'm a retired Shadow Bolt." Crimson's voice snuck up behind Dash. Dash shrieked and turned around to face her. "Where did you come from!?" Dash snapped. "She came through this secret passage way." Twilight slowly walked behind Crimson. Her lavender coat was paler than usual. Her mane and tail was the same. She looked really sick. "TWILIGHT!" the other mares shouted in glee. Fluttershy and Spike gave her a big hug. "After I got the key, I went ahead with setting the princess free." Crimson said, using her fangs to tear the dress off of her. "I hate dresses with a firey passion. That damned bat of a count KISSED ME!" She shrieked as she tore the dress off. The ponies and Spike noticed something as soon as Crimson took her dress off. Especially her right hind leg. It was missing! Literally, there was no limb whatsoever. "My apologies, Crimson, I had no idea." Luna said. "If I knew you were incapacitated, I wouldn't have set you out there." Crimson looks at her missing limb and just shrugs. "Don't you pity me guys, I can handle myself, worry about Twilight there." She said as she walked over to Coral. "Are you alright?" "Yeah, I was worried about you." Her daughter said, giving her a hug. She wasn't affected by her mother's leg not being there. "Are you alright, Twilight?" Spike asked, hugging her tightly in his scaley arms. "I-I don't know." Twilight said. "the Count....did something to me...I can't explain it in any scientific way....but....it isn't good." "That's it, I'm killing me a bat." Dash snarled as she took off. "Dash, wait!" Both Twilight and Crimson shouted at her, trying to call her back but Dash was already gone. "We lost a lot of time as it is." Luna said, heading to the window. "This has to end, tonight!" Luna as well took off. The three remaining mares and the two baby dragons were all what's left. "So, what now?" Fluttershy asked as she helped Twilight to the bed and helped her lie down. "I-I overheard Count Blackheart talking about a machine...that drains the..blood from the bats here." Twilight huffed. Her mouth was dry and her throat hurts. Spike gave her some water. Having to lift her head and forced the water into her throat. "Thanks Spike." "He did mentioned that during our..."Crimson shivered. "Dance. H-h wanted to show me where it was. I said I heard a rumor of what they were doing and wanted to try." "So, looks like you-" "I'm not putting on a dress again." the bat cut off the yellow pegasi. "But...I think I know who can take us to the machine. their kid." "Blood Moon?" Spike asked, remembering what the count said earlier about their daughter. "Yeah, she was there when I danced with her father, hiding behind one of the pillars." Crimson said. "Let's go talk to her." Fluttershy said. "Shy, you stay here and keep an eye on the princess, I'll take the dragons." Crimson said. "Oh...okay." Fluttershy said softly. "I-I can walk." Twilight huffed, she was beginning to sweat and was extremely thirsty. "You are in no condition. You look worse than when I busted you out." Crimson said. "I'll take care of her, you two stay here." Coral climbed onto her mother's back. "How can you walk with three limbs?" Spike asked, walking over to her, hopping on her back as well. When he did, he blushed, realizing that he was extremely close to Coral. "I practiced." Crimson then nod at the princess and her friend before taking the drakes with her. > Act Seven > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crimson walked down the dark corridors of the castle that was over a cliff, underneath were raging waves crashing against the rocks. Thunder and lightning clashed outside. Spike's teeth chattered in fear as the bat mare carried him and Coral. "This place is very spooky." Spike said as they walked passed a statue of a pony in armor. The armor turned its head and looked straight at him. Spike yelps and grabs Coral out of fright. Coral blushed pure red, especially where his hand was. Crimson's mother senses were tingling and whipped Spike's back with her tail. "Claws to yourself, mister." Crimson snarled. Spike blushed and removed his hands from her. "Sorry." He mumbled. "It's okay to be scared." Coral said, looking back at him. "How are you not afraid?" Spike asked her. "Living in Transymaneia since I was born, I'm used to it." She said. "Oh..." Spike squirmed. A girl fearless....Crimson could tell that he liked her. No doubt the female drake knows too. "S-so, Crimson, how did you lose your wings and leg?" Spike asked, trying to keep his mind off of the creepy palace. "Mommy doesn't like talking about it." Coral said. "It's okay, love." Crimson said, making sure that there was no guards heading their way. "I don't mind telling him." Spike gets comfy on her back and listen for the story. "My squad had a stakeout of an a cult. Even though we are in a land of black magic, summonings are still outlawed." Crimson said. "I was going in my fifth year in the squad. We made our assult. Some of the bats got injured. We upperhooved them, but we were too late, the gates of Purgatory was opened." "What's the Purgatory?" Spike asked curiously. "I heard of Tartarus, but Purgatory? Is that a bat term?" "No. Purgatory is more than a prison, It's a place of unimaginable tortures happen. Tirek is the only monster in Tartarus, in Purgatory, demons from the Chasm are there. Starswirl the Bearded sealed off countless monsters. But only certain spells can summon one or more atrocities. What came out of Purgatory was a demon going by the name Xaphan rised from the pit. Not only killing my team but also killed it's followers, consuming their magic and flesh to grow stronger." Crimson shuddered in rememberence of that horrid night. "How did you stop it?" Spike asked, hugging his tail in fright of the story. "That i'm keeping to myself." Crimson said hiding behind of a corner to hide from a walking guard. "But not without losing my wings." "And your leg?" He whispered. "Some idiot bat-acorn shot me after missing their target practice." she shrugs that one off as they waited for the guard to walk past them. The mare trotted down a light flight of steps till they came to the young Countess Blood Moon's room. Coral hopped off of her mother's back and went over to the lock, using her claws, she picked the lock and opened the door. "Nice." Spike complemented. Coral smiled before they went in. The room looked like any ponies' worst nightmares, there were torturing devices of all sorts, the room smelt of blood, the decor was if Rarity seen it, she would scream in fright and passed out, along with Fluttershy. Spike looked like he was about to wet himself. "Do it and I'm drinking your blood with a straw." Crimson glared at him. "Y-you drink blood as well?" He gulped. staring down at the crimson pony whom he was riding on. "First time for everything." Crimson said, looking around the room. "How are you two not even scared of seeing all this?" Spike's teeth chattered as a frosty chill went up his green spikes. "We live here ya dummy." Coral said, going up to what appears to be an Iron Maiden. "Mama, I smell somepony in here." Crimson walked over to the tiny drake before reaching over to the coffin. Spike used his tail to hide his face from what was about to be revealed. When the bat opened the iron maiden, there was a small filly alicorn sleeping cozy in it. Her coat was a light gray color and her mane and tail were an aqua color, dressed in the authentic countess black dress. The spikes were just inches from the filly's head. "This must be BloodMoon." Crimson indicates. The bat filly snapped open her bright yellow and hissed at Crimson and pounced at her. Spike jumped out of the way as both bat ponies rolled around the wooden floors. "Mommy!" Coral screamed. The two bats rolled around the floor before the tiny bat alicorn was on top. She hissed at Crimson, opening her mouth and sank her fangs into one of Crimson's hooves. "Ah," Crimson winced when she felt the tiny teeth pierced her flesh. The dragons raced to her rescue but the grown bat wave them off. Crimson looked up at the filly, seeing that she was stuffing herself with Crimson's blood. Closer inspection, she could see that the filly was deprived of food and was starving. "Take as much as you need, my little vampire bat." Crimson said in her motherly voice, reaching over with her free hoof and stoke the filly's mane. "So, this girl is just hungry?" Spike asked, curiously watching the filly alicorn nurse on Crimson's blood. "Does every bat in this country drink blood!?" he asked disgusted. "Only a few. Those are what we call Vampire bats, it's a rare genetic trait." Crimson said as she lightly tugged the vampire bat off of her with her tail. "Now, now, I need that." she chuckled. "I know you...." the filly said, letting up of Crimson and wiping her meal off of her muzzle with her tiny hooves. "I saw daddy kissing you." Crimson chuckled. "I was wondering who was spying on me." she said, slowly standing up. It was a bit difficult with only three hooves but she did it. "Trust me, my little Countess, I do not have any feelings towards your daddy." The alicorn filly looked up at the bat and then turned to the dragons and smiled widely. "Dragons!" She rushed to Spike and clung to him. "I love love LOVE dragons! I love the stories, their pretty pretty scales and their love of gems! I want him and her!" She grabs Coral and hugged her as well. "Those two are with me," Crimson said, looking at her bitten hoof and shook it. "We came here on a mission. From I learned, your father has a machine locked up beyond the rose maze, but we need your key." Blood Moon removed herself from the drakes and glared at the ex-shadow bolt. "Are you going to kill mommy and daddy?" "We won't lie, they both harmed many bats and harmed one of our friends," Coral said. "They need to be stopped." Blood Moon thought about it for a moment before her horn had a solid shade of yellow aura engulfing it. It opened one of the drawers of a bone carved dresser. She pulled out a special key. the hilt of it was a heart with bat wings pertubing out from it's sides. The end looked like a spade. She floated over to Crimson. "Thanks," Crimson reached for it but the filly pulled it away. "I'll give you the key to the maze on two conditions." The countess said. "Name them." "One: I get to have one dance with dragon boy and second: you let me have another drink of your blood. It's tastey." She looked at the ground, patting her thin belly. "Deal." Crimson said with a grin. "I-I don't know how to dance." Spike yelped. "Listen Spike, Twilight's in danger, not to mention Dashy and probably Princess Luna. It's in your blood." Coral said, wrapping her yellow feathered wings around his shoulders, patting him. "Follow the Dragon Code, dude." "You know about that...?" He blushed. "Big fan of yours. You saved an entire empire from a scary shadow pony. You can do this." She leans in a bit with half-lidded eyes. "I believe in you." she gave his cheek a soft kiss. Spike turned pink, making all of his scales stand up. Giving him a boost of confidence he thought only Rarity could give him. Spike zips to Blood Moon and bowed all gentlecoltly. "Can I have this dance?" He extinded his claw at her. A rosy blush spread across the little filly's muzzle before taking her dress and bowed. "Why sir, I would love to dance." She grabbed his hand. Spike does his best to dance with the little bat pony. Crimson sees her precious daughter walking over to her with a sly grin. "What?" The dragoness asked giggling. "Coral...." Crimson stared at her with a stern look before wrapping her hooves around the drake's waist, pulling her close and rubbing her cheek with her daughters. "I'm so proud of you!" She giggled, congradualting her daughter. "I taught you well." The doors to Blood Moon's slammed open, every pony froze when they saw one of the Count's guards were in there. The dragons cling to their partners. Crimson nearly screamed but upon closer expection, she frowned. She could clearly see a chunk of rainbow sticking out of the helmet. "Now- hey!" Rainbow took the helmet off and snarled at Crimson. "How did you get up here?!" "We walked," Crimson said bluntly as the younglings relaxed. "I'd see you took their armor. Nice idea, except your mane was showing off." "Shut up." the cyan pegasis growled at the bat. "she with you?" Blood Moon asked. "Yep, and I think she's much tastier than me." Crimson egged the filly. "Say what?" Rainbow said with a confused look. Blood Moon smiled, flashing her fangs at her. "Don't even think about it." Rainbow glared at the bat. "Didn't want you anyway." she huffed. She trotted over to Crimson and hoofs her the key. "There is one more thing I should warn you, what experiments my daddy do to other ponies." The group hears the little bat alicorn, their eyes became saucers with each word that was spoken. "Twily!" Spike runs out. "Twilight? What about Fluttershy!?" Rainbow followed. Crimson and Coral 'How are you feeling?" Fluttershy asked Twilight, fluffying her pillow. "Hungry..." Twilight moaned. Her coat looked much sicker than before, her eyes were blood shot, her throat was killing her and her whole body hurt. "Oh okay," Fluttershy goes to her saddle bags, lift up the lids and dug through it with her muzzle. "I have some baby carrots and tomatos and lettas. I can make you a light salad." Twilight nod heavy. As Fluttershy made the salad, Twilight's violet eyes looked at the yellow mare's neck. Her ears flickered, hearing the sound of blood corsing through Flutter's veins. The more she looked at her friend, the more her eyes slowly turned red, her puples were like reptiles. This solid purple and green mist waved out of both of the alicorn's eyes. She could feel her canines were reaching to a point. "Ow..." Fluttershy softly yelp, putting her hoof in her mouth. she accidently cut herself on a carrot, one with a very point end. Seeing the red crimson nector oozing out of the flesh wound got the princess of friendship to sit up and slowly climbed out of the couch and slowly stalked the pony. With each step, one of Twilight's alicorn feathers would fall and landed on the ground. More and more of her feathers molted off of wings, in their place was a deep, deep purple vainy skin replaced it, along with long four long nails, connected the skin together to form wings of a bat. With each step, the purple and green mist engulfs the princess, after a moment, Twilight was taller, her lavender coat was a deep dark royal purple, her ears were pointed, her horn went from normal to a simple design, almost like a blade. "It'll be a little bit, I accidently cut myself." Fluttershy said, not even noticing Twilight's new form. "Thatssssss okay." Twilight hissed. She was literally in the pegasis' ear. Fluttershy gasped and turned around. All that little shy pegasis saw after that was nothing but total darkness... > Act Eight: Final chapter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!/Epologue (Edit) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- By the time the mares got to Fluttershy, they found her lying on the ground, her coat was white from blood lost, there were two deep holes on her neck. "Flutters!" RD flew over to the pegasis and lifted her head. "Speak to me, Fluttershy, speak!" Fluttershy weakly opened her eyes, gazing at the rainbow maned mare. "Dashy..." "I'm here buddy," "Tell Angel...I'm sorry for...taking his...carrots..." Fluttershy coughed. "Shut up," Rainbow croaked, holding her friend. Crimson and the others went over to her. Crimson took a deep whiff of Flutters before Rainbow Dash roughly kicks her away from Fluttershy, sending her sliding. "STAY AWAY!" Rainbow Dash snarled at Crimson. "Just stay the buck away from us!" Crimson shook her head and looked up at Rainbow: a cut was on her muzzle and her blood slightly dripped off of her. "Rainbow, look, I'm not the enemy. I didn't cause your friends to get hurt." She said, wiping her muzzle with her hoof. "I'm on our side." She tried to be calm but that wall was seriously about to crumble by that act of violence. "I'm sick and bucking tired of dealing with you bats! I wished we never got summoned to this place!" Rainbow snapped. "Dash, Calm down!" Spike comes over to her and tried to snap her out of the state of anger. "Crimson is trying to help, can't you see that?" "Stay out of this Spike," Dash growled at him, causing the baby drake to back off. "Calm down, please..." fluttershy whimpered weakly. "First Twilight gets turned into some creature and now she attacked Fluttershy. If you hadn't come up to us at the square, we could've avoid all that!" Dash ignored flutters and ranted at Crimson. "If I didn't stop you, all of you would end up dead!" Crimson hissed. "Don't point your hoof at me for something I was trying to protect you and your friends." "Please stop yelling!" Coral covered her ears, she was on the verge of tears. Spike went over to her and tried to calm her down. Dash got up and and got right at Crimson's face. "This is all your fault!" "Get out of my face, Dash." Crimson's voice darkened. "What can a pathetic three legged flightless bat -" She punched Crimson again. "Gonna do!?" Crimson's eyes glowed blood red again before lunging at Rainbow faster than she can react. The two opposite tumbled around a bit before Crimson pins Rainbow on her belly, a hoof full of her wings in both hooves and her good leg pushing hard on the center of her back. Dash cried out when the bat roughly pulled her wings, feeling like Crimson was going to pull them out of their sockets. She was helpless in this position. "Now..." Crimson hissed, taking deep breaths. "Will you stop with all of this nonsense and calm the buck down? If not?" She pressed her good hoof down on the cyan mare's back and tugged more of Rainbow's wings. "AHGH!" Rainbow cried out. Pain wrecked the mare's face as she tried to get the bat off of her, but she never realized how strong Crimson was until then, seeing how easily she got her pinned. It didn't stop her to try to buck her off. Crimson held her place on the black tile floor. "WELL?!" "Yes! Yes for buck sakes yes! I'll stop!" Rainbow cried out. "I'm sorry, I'm really am! Please let me go!" Crimson held on for a minute before letting the blue wings go and hopping off of Dash. She wiped the sweat off of her brow before looking at Rainbow Dash standing up. She flexed her sore wings, wincing at the pain the bat caused her. There were hoof prints where Crimson grabbed them. "I'm sorry for doing that," Crimson said, slowly breathing in and out, trying to control her primal bat instincts. "But you left me with no choice." Dash didn't say anything before going back to Fluttershy, making sure her friend was alright. Crimson walked slowly over to her. "Rainbow, there is nothing else I want to do but save your friend and stop the Count and countess from ever continuing their lust of my people. But in order to do both, you have to set aside whatever grudge you have on me and we work together. It's the only way for us to save the town and Twilight." She held out her red hoof at the pegasis. Dash looked softly at Crimson, looking at her hoof before looking back at Fluttershy. "Go save Twilight...she needs you." Fluttershy said before doozing off. Dash's magenta eyes looked at Crimson's light blue eyes before seeing that she still had her hoof out for Dash to shake. "Truce?" Dash looked at her own hoof before giving her a hoof bump. "Truce." Crimson smiled. "Fantastic," though in her accent, it sound like she said fangtastic. "So, what do we do?" Spike asked. "Both of you are staying here," Crimson said. "This fight is now getting way out of hoof. Dash and I will go through the maze. You two keep an eye on Fluttershy." "But-" "No buts," Rainbow said, standing up. "Crimson's right, you two will only get way. We'll get Twilight back, Spike," Before Spike could interject, Coral puts her claw on his shoulder. "We should listen. We'll be helping by making sure Fluttershy is well rested." Spike sighed in defeat. "Good luck guys, make sure you guys stay alive." Dash gave him a high hoof. "Don't worry about it, little buddy, we got it." Coral gave her mother a hug before letting her go. "Good luck mama." "Make sure you behave, love." Crimson said, stroking her daughter's yellow spikes on her head before looking at Rainbow. "Ready?" "Let's kick some flank." The two opposite flyers made their way to the rose maze. The two mares didn't spoke to each other for a long time. they realized something was wrong, the guards weren't patroling the grounds at all. Dash was the first to spoke. "Where in tartarus is everypony?" Crimson shrugged. She stopped walking, her ears picked something up just as they were next to a large window. "What is it?" Dash asked, seeing her acting weird. Crimson jolt her head to the window. The mares gazed outside and saw that there was a full on battle outside the castle grounds. All the villagers were fighting the guards to the death. The girls could easily spot Dark Fire, the stallion bat that helped them sneak inside the castle, leading the rebels. "Okay, I take back all I said about him," Dash grins. "That is smart. Things should be easy for us then." And it was, the girls made their way to the rose maze. A gate divided them and only the key Crimson has now possessed could open it and allow them access. "I flew everywhere outside of this castle, this garden wasn't here," Rainbow said, looking though the iron bars, seeing the black roses making walls of the maze. "It's enchanted from anypony flying outside of the castle perimeter." She said, holding the key in her mouth. She incerted it in the lock before the key itself was sucked in, leaving only the winged heart sticking out. It spun in a circle before the gate door swung open. Rainbow walked in and looked up. Her eyes widened when she saw how tall the walls were. They go beyond her eye sight, possibility too high for Rainbow to fly and go off to the other side. "I guess we have to go through the walls." Dash takes off into the air and made an attempt to go through the walls. Crimson quickly grabbed the mare's tail with her mouth and pulled her back. "Ow! What was that for?" "Watch," Crimson picks up a stick and threw it at the wall. The plants came to life, the vines slithered to the stick and wrapped itself around it, dragging it into the wall, the stick was buried within the rose walls. "If you touch the walls, it'll be your tomb." Rainbow gulped. "Uh, thanks for the head up." "I do know a way for us to get by. But we have to be fast." Crimson looks up at Dash. "How fast are you?" "Are you seriously asking me that, Egghead?" Dash grins. "Stand back." Dash did. Crimson puts her right hoof in front of the other. She took deep breaths before inhaling a large mount of air, arching her back a bit before stomping her hooves on the ground and letting out a screech. The screech was so loud and sonic, dash could see a black and purple shock wave hitting wall after wall, blasting a hole big enough for them to break through. "That was awesome!" Dash awed. "Hurry up!" Crimson was already running ahead of her. Dash looked up and saw that one of the holes were being closed up by the vines. Rainbow sped off, going through hole after hole, each closing off every time she passes through. About the fifth hole, Dash stops, seeing that the blast didn't reach here. "Okay, Crimson, that was amazing! Talk about a Sonic Screech!" She turned to look at her but frowns. "Uh, Crimson?" "Dash? where are you?" Crimson called out, she was behind wall number three. "Stay where you are, I'm gonna go at it again," "Okay! but hurry up, this place is creeping me out." A few seconds later, another Sonic Screech was performed, blasting more holes in the walls. Dash this time waited for Crimson before grabbing her hooves, lifting her in the air and she carried the bat mare through the holes. "I fly, you screech," The cyan pegasas grinned at the bat. Crimson shared her grin. "Mind those ears of yours," She said before screeching one more. Dash flew through each hole Crimson created, the vines were doing their best to seal up the holes before the mares made their way through it. after the umpteenth hole blasted hole, Dash's tail gets caught by the vine, dropping Crimson. "HELP!!!!!" Dash cried out as the vines dragged Rainbow into the wall. Parts of her tail were becoming engulfed by the roses. Dash tried to fly away but the vines wrapped themselves all over Dash's torso. "Crimson, help me!" "Hold on!" Crimson raced up to her. She couldn't used her screech or it'll hurt Dash. She had to do something else. Crimson let out a hiss when she raised both of her wings, using the long nails as knifes to slice the vines, cutting a large chunk of Rainbow's mane and tail at the process of setting her free. Once freed, the mares quickly backed away from the walls. Both mares layed breathless, especially Crimson, her body shook before falling into the ground. "Hey," Dash walks over to her, putting Crimson's left arm over her shoulders, using her wings to lift both of them. "I thought you can't use your wings." "I...cant." Crimson huffed. "T-they hurt...." Dash glanced at Crimson's back, noticing black veins pulsing all over. "Whoa....what's going on with your back?" Dash asked, actually worried about her. "Fighting a demon...rendered my wings useless for...flight." Crimson gasped for breath, she trembled as the veins grew. "Using it...what I just did...spreads poison..." "Poison?" "I've lived with the....poison for years. As long as I...don't use my wings...I'm fine....using it for anything else, then I'm in trouble." "I see..." Dash said softly, looking at her. "You risked your health to save me...even after I was being horrible to you." Crimson gently tapped Rainbow's head with her hoof. "What are friends for?" She smiled weakly before coughed. "I think we go through the maze the right way, as much as I love seeing that screech of yours in action." Rainbow smiled at her. Crimson was about to say something when they heard a loud monsterous screech from above. The mares looked up, they could barely see a large pony flying right above them. A deep dark purple monster. "Please don't tell me that it isn't Twilight flying over us?" Rainbow gulped. "I won't." Crimson said. The mares stood still for a moment before Twilight flew over them and went to the other side of the labyrinth. "I can track her now by smell, just get ready to turn a corner when I say so." Rainbow reposition Crimson to where she was on Dash's back, her red hooves tightly holding onto the cyan mare's shoulders. "You better hold on." With that, Dash takes off, carring the ex-veteran on her back. After a while, they finally came to the other side. Princess Luna was furiously trying to open the large brown door with her scythe, but there wasn't even a scratch on the surface. "Curses!" Luna huffed, stepping back before she passes out from exhaustion. "Princess? How did you end up here?" Dash asked. "I fell into a trap door. That door somehow ended up in the center of this Maze." Luna said before turning to look at the two mares. "Are you alright Crimson?" Crimson nods. "Yeah, I think so." She tapped on Rainbow's shoulder so she could get off of her. "Nothing I can't handle." Rainbow sighed. "Crimson has been carring this poison. It's been slowly killing her." "Rainbow!" Crimson hissed at the rainbow maned mare. "Let me see," Luna comes up to Crimson. The bat sighed melancholy before showing the princess her back. The black veins basically covered the majority of her back. As Luna took a look at her, her eyes drifted to her Cutie Mark. It was a simple blue shield but Luna sees something else, the shield itself was a bit fuzzy, like something else was there and this was covering it. Whatever it was, she could faintly see an outline of what looks like an amulet. One she only seen on one pony, but she hasn't seen it in centuries. "Well? Can you do something to fix her?" Rainbow asked, crossing her arms across her chest. Luna stared at Crimson's Cutie mark and then at the black veins. "She'll have to come to Canterlot, I know of this poison, she'll have to be treated or else." "If it means amputating my useless wings, I'm all for it." Crimson said, glancing at Luna, seeing the princess was looking somewhere else. Crimson moved her tail to cover one side of her flank. "Now, what's with the door?" "Yes..." Luna walked over to the door. "It's another blood seal. but this one is different than the one we came acrossed before. My blood doesn't work but the riddle remains the same." "Only the true Princess of the Night shall enter." Rainbow recites. "But, Luna, you're the princess of the night." "In Equestria, I am, but here, it seems the Transylmaneians have a different meaning of that title." Luna explain. She looked at crimson. "If I recall, when we first came to the previous lock, you tensed up. Why is that?" "I don't know what you are talking about," Crimson said, adverting her eyes from Luna's. "I think you do." "Can some pony please do something, we got a machine to destroy, a couple of ponies to stop and I don't know: SAVE TWILIGHT!" Rainbow snapped. "Crimson, if you can do something, do it, we're wasting time standing around." "Rainbow's right," Crimson said, getting in front of the mares, preparing her sonic screech once more before blasting the door clean off of it's hinges. That blast was more powerful than before 'cause Dash could see the guards running towards them to be only knocked unconcious and still kept going, the sonic wave, breaking a few walls before disappearing. "AWESOME!!!!" Rainbow laughed before the three mares took off down the building. "Be on the look out, Twilight isn't far from us." Crimson said, rubbing her muzzle as they ran. Going through countless doors and rooms, they finally came to the main room, the biggest room besides the ball room, in the chateau. Count Blackheart and Countess Zeldina were inside, they were about to share a tall glass of crimson nector. In the center of the room was this large machine, a table connected to it and a large tank of blood sitting idly. On the table was their transformed vampire Twilight. "HEY!" Rainbow Dash Flies in, swooping the tall red liquid filled goblet, threw it at a wall. The glass shattered, leaving the blood painted the wall. "You dare interupt us?!" The countess snarled. "For a couple of alicorns, you two are the worst rulers there have ever been." Luna snapped. "Um, guys...." Crimson called out, seeing the vampire Twilight waking up. "GUARDS!" Count Blackheart called out. A large group of bats in armor rushed in with weapons and such. "Kill them!" "Could've use some backup." Rainbow Dash said. "But we can take them." "Dash, can you handle the guards and Luna can you handle the royals?" Crimson asked as Vampire Twilight stood up, spreading her bat wings and screeched loudly, her red eyes staring at the mares. "What will you do, Crimson Rose?" Luna asked. "I'll handle batty here." Crimson said, glaring at Twilight. "Are you sure?" Rainbow dash asked. "Trust me." Crimson grinned. "Or is the greatest flyer in Equestria afraid to beat down a bunch of bats." "Okay, that's it!" Rainbow snarled, charging right into the bat guards. "Crimson Rose, you sure you can go against Twilight in her state?" Luna said before Zeldina shot Luna . Luna was able to dodged it and snarled. "Forget it!" since Luna can't use any of her normal magic, she goes into rage mode and raced over to Zeldina. Rainbow Dash began wailing at the bat guards. Using both her speed and her obnoxious tactics, she plumbled through the guards. "Take that, and that! Oh you want some more!" she back hoofed a guard and cackled, having fun. One of the bat unicorns shot right at Rainbow's butt. "EEP!" She cried then snarled. She dive bombs that unicorn, grabbing them by the horn and tail and just like what Pinkie did to Twilight with the changelings, Rainbow just starts using that bat as a machine gun and shot lasers at the bats. "That'll teach you stupid bats to shoot me. Do it again I dare ya, I triple dog dare you!" She snarled. "Get this blasted mare off of me!" the bat unicorn cried out as he was being used to shoot at his comrads. Crimson went off face to face with vampire Twilight. They circled around each other, keeping their eyes on each other, seeing if either pony would make the first move. Ignoring the pain of her back, Crimson used her sonic screech on Twilight. Twilight jumps out of the way and went up to the air. She screeched loudly and dived right towards Crimson, and that crimson bat was just standing there as Twilight, fangs out and everything, swoops down. Crimson grinned and stepped into the shadows. Twilight went to follow her but she ended up running into the walls. Vamp Twi snarled, rubbing her nose and looked around. Where could Crimson have disappeared to. Up in the rafters, Crimson was able to climb up the walls and up at the wooden beams. When she got up there, she let out a traditional bat screech to get her attention. "Hey you pathetic excuse for a bat pony, come and get me!" Crimson called out before jumping further up the rafters. Vamp Twi screamed before spreading her wings and took off. "What the buck are you doing!?" Dash called out to Crimson as she held a guard in a choke hold in her cyan hoofs. "Going bat shit." Crimson grinned. "Over here you bat wannabe! that's right, follow me!" Crimson and Twilight ended up disappearing up in the high ceiling. Luna was going up against both Count and Countess. She was almost at her limit because she was facing two dark magic users, but she wasn't going to give up. "You abused your athority as alicorns. We used to be such a great tribe, how did it come to this, two bats undeserving of being called themselves rulers of the night." Luna huffed. "And you, my dear, call yourself the princess of the night?" Zeldina laughed. "You may raise the moon and a keeper of dreams, but you have no idea what it means to truely understand the darkness, to really grasp the night?" Luna looked down and closed her blue eyes. "You might be right. I only learned what my old friend has told me. And she..." Luna opened her eyes, they were completely white. "She is your Queen!" Her horn started to spark a solid blue aura. Her first use of dark magic. It cloaked the room in total and complete darkness. "Whoa!" Rainbow shouted. "Who turn out the lights!?" Crimson still able to see in the pitch black, and apparently, so did vamp Twi. "C'mon c'mon c'mon." She told her self as she took off. when she got to one of the last rafters, just twenty feet, there was an opening of the clear night sky, the crescent moon was just barely peeking out. "Oh crud..." Her eyes widened when she heard Twilight ganging up on her. Crimson looked down to seeing Twilight and looked at her wings. She took deep breaths. She gritted her fangs. "That should be enough..." She spread her wings, ignoreing her pain, she jumped. When she did, her poisoned wings flapped. With each beat, the poison spreaded. It wasn't what worried Crimson, its not being able to go out in time. Her wings flapped as hard as they could towards the opening. Sweat just poured down her brow as she quickly flow up into the night sky. The crescent moonlight that barely engulfs her, but it was just enough. Crimson's light blue eyes were turned to solid black. it was like two lumps of coal replaced her beautiful eyes. She arched her back and shot her sonic screech at Twilight. This attack was more powerful that she usually did. Twilight screeched when she was hit. The magic energy from that attack was changing Twilight. What experiments Count Blackheart did to Twilight was being blasted away. Twilight was flown towards the ground unconcious. Crimson breath heavily. Her wings were fully consumed with poison. The tip of the wing began disappearing, along with the rest. From total exhaustion and the poison taking it's toll, Crimson's eyes rolled the back of her skull and she fell. It was midnight in the Everfree Forest, Coral was pushing her mother in a wheelchair. The past three weeks were really hard since they had to go to Canterlot. Crimson had that long waited operation, thanks to the Princess Luna. Crimson looked a lot better considering. she had a blanket covered her hindlegs as she was being pushed. She was just glad to be alive. After Luna had taken care of the count and countess, she was able to catch Twilight and Rainbow barely caught Crimson on time. Thanks to a few powerful bat unicorns, every pony was able to be teleported to Canterlot. Crimson owed everypony her life. "I'm so excited." Coral giggled, "Are we there yet?" "This should be the place." Crimson smiled. "You can stop pushing my little drake." Coral did. Crimson pushed herself off of the wheelchair, throwing the blanket away. Crimson had some few modifications: she had new metalic prostetic bat wings and a new right prostetic leg. "You ready for the test?" Crimson asked. "Go mama, go go! The moon is full, let it rip!" Coral cheered. Crimson closed her eyes and opened them. Her blue eyes were fully black. She did a running start before spreading her wings and took off into Luna's sapphire night sky. "Oh I missed this!" Crimson grinned as she did some impressive manuvers in the sky before heading straight at the moon. With each beat of her new wings, Crimson's body started to change. Her body began to grow to Celestia's height, her coat was silver, her mane was long glossy black with a purple streak, a long curved silver horn materialized on her forehead. Her cutiemark changed to an anke: The symbol of the Queen of the night. This was Crimson's true form. "My my dear, daughter." Crimson giggled as coral flew up to her and hugged her. "Mama pretty!" Coral giggled. "Now we can fly together." She giggled. "That we can." Crimson said as she desended. The further she gotten from the moon, the more she reverts to her smaller red bat self. The light of the moon revials her trueself. She didn't care, she was just happy to be able to fly once more. "Hello, princess." A familiar voice shot out of the dark. Crimson gasped and turned around. her eyes turning red when she realized who it was. "It's you..."