Another beautiful morning had arrived in Ponyville and things were going along rather normally. The foals were in school, the local vendors had set up their shops in the market and Twilight and her friends were in Sugarcube Corner. Like always they were eating their morning cupcakes when Twilight read the headline on "The Ponyville Express."
She said, "Get this girls, there's going to be a blood moon tonight!"
Applejack asked, "What the hay is a blood moon?"
Twilight excitedly replied, "It is a form of a lunar eclipse that happens when the moon is closer to the earth than normal. The moon is so deep in the earth's shadow that it looks like it is covered in blood."
Pinkie jumped on Twilight, "Oooh, oooh, we should have a blood moon party!"
Everypony began celebrating, except one. Fluttershy's eyes shrank as she nervosly asked, "The moon will be covered in blood?"
Twilight replied, "No, it won't be covered in blood. It will just look like it is."
Rainbow grabbed the paper as she saw something interesting. She said, "Oh and get this ladies, there is an old legend that whenever there is a blood moon, that vamponies come out and suck the blood of unsuspecting victims!"
Fluttershy shrieked and hid under the table while Rainbow began to laugh hysterically. Her friends glared at her and Rarity snapped, "Rainbow Dash, that is not funny. Look at how scared Fluttershy is."
Twilight added, "And besides, everypony knows that there are no such things as vamponies. They're nothing more than an old mares' tale meant to scare."
Rarity helped Fluttershy up and said, "It's ok darling, there's nothing to worry about."
Fluttershy replied, "I know but still, I don't want to take any chances."
Fluttershy flew out the door and headed home. Rainbow continued to laugh over Fluttershy's distress which did not sit well with her friends. Applejack snapped, "Rainbow, Ah know you find things like this funny but some ponies don't."
Rainbow began to rub her hooves together and got a mischievous look on her face as she muttered, "This is going to be too funny!"
Applejack got in her face and growled, "Don't you dare. Fluttershy is already scared enough."
Twilight added, "And besides Rainbow, don't you remember what happened when we all did that prank with the joke cookies? You didn't like that much now did you?"
Rarity grunted, "Yeah Rainbow, it wasn't fun being the victim now was it?"
Rainbow sighed, "Oh alright. She again began to snicker, I'll just have to find somepony made of tougher skin."
Before anypony else could say anything Rainbow flew out the door snickering to herself. The four remaining friends decided that they needed to try and prevent Rainbow from doing whatever prank she was planning.
Applejack sighed, "You know, Ah think we need to come up with some sort of plan to keep Rainbow with us tonight so she can't go scaring Fluttershy."
Pinkie suggested, "Well I think we should throw a blood moon party! If we have cake, ice cream and punch she'll be certain to come!"
Twilight added, "Yeah and then we can all watch it tonight from my balcony."
Rarity asked, "What if she won't come?"
Twilight got a determined look on her face and replied, "Oh we'll make her come, even if we have to hog tie her and drag her to my castle, she's watching this with us."
In her house Rainbow was going through her closet looking for an old costume of her's, one that she thought would be perfect for the prank she had planned for that night. It took her a while but she finally found what she was looking for, an old vampony costume she had ever since her first Nightmare Night as an adult. She began rubbing her hooves together and snickered, "Oh this is going to be sweet! Fluttershy is going to shriek so loud everypony will hear it!"
As the day progressed Rainbow decided that she would relax some before she had to clear the skies entirely so everypony would get a good look at the moon. Around 1600 Twilight flew up to Rainbow's house and pounded on the door, catching her on the way out. Twilight glared at her and said, "Rainbow, you are coming with me. We are having a watch party for the blood moon and the four of us are going to make sure you don't try anything."
Rainbow looked around the sky and replied, "Listen Twi, I would come with you right now but look at this sky, it is a complete mess. I need to clear away every single cloud so every pony will have a perfect view of the blood moon tonight."
As Rainbow took off Twilight took off along with her. She said, "I know you have to clear the sky but I'm coming with you. After we are finished with this, you are coming with me to the castle."
Rainbow threw her hooves up in the air and grunted, "Listen Twi, you should know that I wouldn't do anything to Fluttershy. I know she's scared and besides, like you guys said in the past, pranking Fluttershy is lazy."
Twilight shrugged her shoulders, "Oh alright but we'd still like you to join us for this."
Rainbow sighed, "I'll think about it."
Twilight replied, "There will be cake, punch and ice cream."
Despite her still not really wanting to go Rainbow decided she would placate her, "Oh alright Twilight, I'll come."
Twilight nodded and headed back towards her castle while Rainbow continued to clear the skies. She had a sadistic grin on her face as she realized that pulling this off would not be as hard as she first thought it would be. Once she finished clearing the skies she headed home and waited in anticipation as the sun lowered closer and closer to the horizon.
Finally Celestia began to lower the sun and Luna began to raise the moon. Rainbow had cleared the skies and it looked like it was going to be a spectacular night for viewing the moon. Right as the sun dipped completely below the horizon and the moon was completely above the horizon, everypony was up on Twilight's balcony, except one. Rainbow Dash had yet to show up and this frustrated the others.
Applejack looked off in the direction of Rainbow's house and asked, "I wonder what could be keeping her?"
Rarity grunted, "She better not be doing what I think she's going to do."
Pinkie laughed, "Come on everypony, she'll show up."
Twilight however was not so sure. She sighed, "Well I'm going to go see what's keeping her. Don't worry girls, I'll return with her, even if I have to carry her here with my magic."
Twilight flew off towards Rainbow's house and pounded on her door. Rainbow opened it to find a rather unhappy Twilight standing there. She asked, "Uh hi Twilight, what's up?"
Twilight replied, "Rainbow, I thought you were coming to our blood moon party."
Rainbow sighed, "Well uh...."
Twilight grabbed her in her aura and continued, "Well whether you like it or not, you're coming. I'm not about to let you go pull some prank on Fluttershy or anypony else for that matter."
During the trip Rainbow was rather quiet as she was not used to being held in somepony's aura. While it only took a few minutes, the trip seemed to take forever to Rainbow. Once they arrived Twilight gently set Rainbow down. The four glared at Rainbow which made her nervous. She said, "Look, I know you think I'm going to do some sort of prank but I'm not going to. You didn't have to bring me over here and foalsit me."
Twilight sighed, "Well with you we can't be too careful."
Pinkie added, "Yeah and besides, you'd miss all the treats!"
They headed in and grabbed some cake and punch before heading back out onto the balcony. When the moon first began to rise, it was not much in the earth's shadow so it looked like it normally would but as it began to rise higher into the sky, it began to turn red. Pinkie shouted, "Oooh, oooh, it's starting to turn red!"
Everypony began to cheer and narrowed their focus much more intently on the moon as the sky darkened further and the moon became redder and redder.
After an hour the sky had become sufficiently dark and the moon had become red enough that she believed the perfect time to go through with her prank had come. There was just one problem, getting past Twilight and her friends. While they were talking Rainbow began to squirm. Twilight asked, "Rainbow, are you ok?"
Rainbow replied, "Twilight, can I use your restroom. I really have to go."
Twilight replied, "Sure, you know where it is."
As Rainbow headed back into the castle she had a huge smile on her face. She knew which window she could exit through without being seen, the one in Twilight's bedroom. She opened the window just enough that she could creep out, close it back and fly off. She circled around the backside of the castle so that she would not be seen. When she returned home she headed straight to her closet where she had her vampony costume.
As she began to get dressed she couldn't help but laugh hysterically. She had always been one who liked pranks but despite that, as the time drew closer to when she wanted to do this, she began to have second thoughts. One part of her wanted to do this because blood moons are so rare that this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity but the other part of her wanted to not go through with it and return to Twilight's castle.
She looked at herself in the mirror in her costume and laughed, "Come on Rainbow, you can't pass this up! It's the only blood moon you'll ever see and besides, it's not like anypony's going to die over this!"
After convincing herself that nothing bad would come of this, she took off in the direction of Fluttershy's cottage, laughing over the fact that the prank she was about to pull would be epic.
In her cottage Fluttershy was hiding under her bed hoping that the night would come and go without anything scary happening. Despite her friends telling her that there were no such things as vamponies, she still felt that she needed to hide in case they did exist. For that night, she had things set up similar to how she would on Nightmare Night. She was hiding under her bed, most of her animals were under there with her while Harry was guarding the bed.
She gave her animals a smile and said, "Thank goodness you're all here to protect me on this awful night."
She began to read a story to them like she normally does on nights like this, a cheerful story that would hopefully prevent any negative energy from radiating from the cottage.
For quite some time everything seemed to be ok until Fluttershy began to get a bit of a headache, yet this was not a normal headache. Not only was her head pounding, her ears were hurting as well. She put her wings over her head and groaned, "Ugh, I don't feel so good."
Her animals tried to help her in any way that they could, her squirrels brought her some acorns but those did not seem to help. As time continued to progress her headache only became worse but something else began to happen as well. Her whole body began to change and her animals became nervous. Her wings were slowly changing into bat wings, her ears were changing, her eyes were turning red and she grew fangs. Shortly before her transformation was complete she hissed, "Run! Get out of here if you know what is good for you!"
At first her animals were confused as to why she would say such a thing but soon they knew the time to go had arrived as Fluttershy opened her mouth, bearing her fangs and let out a hiss. The animals, terrified, began rushing all over her cottage and in the case of Harry, broke the door down and fled for his life. One animal that would not make it out alive though was Angel. As he was about to make it out the door a heavy hoof slammed down on him and shortly thereafter he let out a squeak as a fang penetrated his body, killing him.
As Fluttershy flew out her door, she spit out the lifeless corpse of Angel and began to fly around, looking for more prey. She was soaring around hissing her animals' names, hoping to draw them out from where ever they were hiding but after seeing what she transformed into, they were going to hide as well as they could. With this being the case, Fluttershy decided to hide in the leaves of her cottage and wait for her prey to come to her.
Back at Rainbow's house she was fully dressed and ready to go. She opened her door, looked into the moon and then towards Fluttershy's cottage. She began to laugh, "Oh this is going to be too funny!"
She flew off towards Fluttershy's cottage ready to pull her prank. While she was flying across the sky, her friends saw what appeared to be the shadow of a bat. Applejack saw this and asked, "Did y'all see that?"
Pinkie asked in return, "See what?"
Applejack replied, "That shadow in the sky. It looked like a huge bat."
Twilight immediately had a feeling as to what was going on so she headed into the castle to find Rainbow. She searched all of the restrooms in her palace yet Rainbow was no where to be found. She screamed, "Rainbow Dash, when I get my hooves on you!"
She rushed back to the balcony in a rage. Her friends saw this and Rarity asked, "Twilight darling, what is wrong?"
Twilight yelled, "Rainbow lied to us! I don't know where she went but she isn't in the castle."
Applejack sighed, "Ah bet she went to scare Fluttershy."
Twilight snapped, "Well come on ladies, let's get going. If we hurry maybe we can get over there before she does."
The four headed down to the exit and rushed in the direction of Fluttershy's cottage. While they were all angry, Twilight was clearly the angriest. She just couldn't fathom that even after seeing how scared Fluttershy was that morning, that a so-called friend would want to terrify her.
At Fluttershy's cottage Rainbow had just arrived. She began to creep around the windows snickering quietly. She was peering through them until she reached the one that was in Fluttershy's bedroom. She figured that Fluttershy was likely under her bed and would likely shriek when she began the prank. In an evil voice she said, "Fluttershy, I want to suck your blood! I want to suck your blood!"
When Rainbow heard nothing she was shocked as she thought for sure she would get the yellow pegasus to shriek in terror. She began circling the cottage saying the same thing at each window until she reached the door. What she would see there would terrify her. She noticed that the door had been tore down but what bothered her more was what was down by her hooves, Angel's bloody, lifeless corpse.
"Aaah! What's going on?"
She rushed inside and shouted, "Fluttershy? Are you ok?"
She began searching the cottage, going from room to room trying to find Fluttershy. When she couldn't find her, she rushed out and began calling for her. Things became eerily quiet as Rainbow continued calling for her, hoping that she would come out from wherever she was hiding.
After a couple more minutes of looking around she heard some rustling coming from above her. She asked, "Hello, who's there?"
*HISS!*
Rainbow screamed in terror when she saw that Fluttershy had transformed into her Flutterbat form. As she tried to run away Fluttershy dove down towards her and knocked her to the ground. She opened her mouth, let out a loud hiss, sank her fangs into her neck and then clamped down on her. Rainbow was screaming in terror as Fluttershy was draining the blood from her.
Rainbow tried to struggle and did manage to get free for a moment but Fluttershy would not be denied. She again pounced on her prey, slammed her head into the ground and resumed sucking the blood from her until finally she breathed her last. Fluttershy was kneeling over her victim, sniffing to see if she was still breathing when she heard ponies approaching her. She crouched over her prey and began to growl.
Applejack saw this and asked, "What in the hay is that?"
Pinkie shrieked, "It's a vampony! Run for your lives!"
This caused Fluttershy to hiss and take to the sky. Her friends looked in terror as she looked down at them, licking her chops. Rarity was the first to say anything, "Run!"
They began to run away but it would do little good as Fluttershy was way too fast for them. She knocked Twilight down and bit into her neck, beginning to drain her of her blood. Unlike Rainbow Dash though, Twilight would have help. Her friends were able to wrestle the vampony off of her and using her wits, Rarity began firing energy at Fluttershy, chasing her into the forest.
Once it seemed as though the threat had passed, Twilight's friends gathered around her. Very weakly she asked, "Girls, what happened?"
Applejack replied, "Well you were attacked by Fluttershy."
Twilight looked down and saw two bite marks in the base of her neck. She asked, "What? How could I have been attacked by Fluttershy? She's not a vampony and even when she turned into a bat pony, she sucked juice from apples, not blood from ponies!"
Rarity replied, "Well darling, I think this blood moon may have done something to her." She began to cry as she continued, "And she killed Rainbow!"
Despite having very little energy, Twilight got up and they headed over to Rainbow's remains. As soon as they saw her remains they began to cry. Applejack, hoping for some sort of miracle, leaned down and felt for a pulse. Not only did she not feel a pulse, it felt as though every drop of her blood had been sucked dry. She wept, "Well ladies, she is indeed gone and we have an even bigger problem."
Pinkie cried, "What? What could be worse than this?"
Applejack replied, "Fluttershy drank every single drop of blood out of her and the fact that she went for Twilight shows that she's still hungry. We're going to have to be on the look out."
Rarity grabbed a hold of Applejack and yelled, "Let's get inside, quick! We never know where she might show up."
Everypony else agreed and they rushed into the castle, hoping that they could avoid becoming Fluttershy's next meal. They realized that they had to do something before she claimed the life of another victim.
Once they got into the castle Twilight headed immediately to the library where she would begin to do research. Since vamponies are thought to be nothing more than a legend she knew she couldn't just look in any old book, she would have to look in a book about legends. Once she found the book she was looking for she began to search through it hoping to see if there are any legends on how to stop vamponies.
As she was looking through the book she ran across the well known legend involving garlic keeping vamponies at bay. She sighed, "Well girls, if this old legend is correct, if we eat a lot of garlic and wear garlic around our neck we should be able to keep Fluttershy from attacking us."
Rarity replied, "Alright but where are we going to get all this garlic. The local shops don't carry much of it."
Twilight sighed, "That is true and I don't have any here in the castle. Spike ate the last of it a couple days ago and I simply don't like it."
Pinkie suggested, "Maybe we should head up to Canterlot and get some. I'm sure there is plenty of it up there that we could get."
Applejack said, "It sounds good to me, Ah'm ready whenever you are."
Twilight yawned, "Well I think we should wait until it is daylight. Since Fluttershy is a true vampony now, she won't be out and about in the day. She'll probably find a dark cave in the Everfree Forest to hide in."
Applejack replied, "Sounds like a plan then. Tomorrow morning we'll go to Canterlot and get some garlic."
For the rest of the night they stayed indoors despite the fact that this would be the only blood moon that they would see in their lifetimes. As the night progressed and dawn drew near, Twilight began to become more tired and a bit paranoid. As the moon reached the horizon and daylight would arrive soon, Twilight headed into an interior room and shut herself in.
Her friends followed and pounded on the door. Rarity asked, "Twilight darling, are you ok? Why are you locking yourself in a dark room?"
Twilight screamed, "I don't know. I just know I can't go outside right now. Just go!"
This caused her friends a great amount of concern and while she told them to go, they began to discuss this more in-depth. Applejack said, "Ah don't know what's going on but Ah'm worried about Twilight and why she's suddenly acting like this."
Rarity began to think and asked, "You don't think that bite from Fluttershy did something to her do you? You don't think Twilight is becoming a vampony too, do you?"
Applejack replied, "Well that would explain why she's locking herself up in a dark room right before sunrise. Ah think we're going to need more than just garlic in Canterlot, Ah think we're going to need to speak to Celestia."
Rarity suggested, "Well I think we need to get going. If that is the case, we need to see if there is something we can do before we have two vamponies prowling the night."
Her friends nodded and headed towards the train station realizing that the situation that was developing was much more serious than they first thought. Having one vampony is bad enough, but having two would be worse and each pony they bit but didn't kill, would create another one.
The sun had yet to rise when they headed to the train station so they were still leery about Fluttershy being out on the prowl. Luckily right as they got to the station the sun peeked above the horizon, which meant that she would likely be hiding in the dark and more importantly, that Celestia would be awake when they got to Canterlot.
The ride to Canterlot seemed agonizingly long for them but once they arrived, the very first place they rushed to was the castle. The guards knew who they were so it did not take them long to get to Celestia. When they got to the throne room they saw Celestia and Spike, who had been there for a few days, talking. They rushed up to Celestia who could see the panic in their faces.
Celestia asked, "Girls, what's wrong? You look terrified."
Spike noticed that Twilight and Rainbow was not with them. He asked, "Where's Twilight? Where's Rainbow? Where's Fluttershy? I thought they would be with you."
Applejack seemed to be the least panicky of the three so she said, "Princess Celestia, Spike, we have some bad news. Fluttershy has turned into a vampony and killed Rainbow and after that, she bit Twilight."
Rarity added, "And once it began to get light, Twilight began to get really nervous and then shut herself in an interior room."
Pinkie finished, "We think the blood moon had something to do with Fluttershy becoming a vampony."
Celestia asked, "What would cause Fluttershy to turn into a vampony and what would cause Twilight to hide right before dawn."
Spike remembered the events that happened when the spell Twilight cast on the vampire fruit bats backfired. He suggested, "I wonder if Fluttershy's transformation had to do with that spell so long ago and some lingering effect that the blood moon set off."
Celestia asked, "What are you talking about?"
Spike replied, "Well a couple years ago vampire fruit bats invaded Sweet Apple Acres so we had Twilight do a spell on the bats to get them to stop eating the apples while Fluttershy was using the stare on them."
Applejack added, "Unfortunately the spell backfired and caused Fluttershy to become a fruit craving vampony. Twilight was able to ultimately reverse the spell but I wonder if it completely worked because this blood moon caused her to become a true, bloodthirsty vampony."
Celestia asked, "I remember the incident involving the vampire fruit bats but why would she suddenly become a vampony?"
Spike added, "And how do you know she became a real vampony?"
Applejack replied, "Well the thing is, we found Rainbow dead right over by Fluttershy's cottage. We thought Rainbow was going to pull a prank on Fluttershy with the blood moon but when we got there, we found her laying there dead with two bite marks in her neck and she had been completely drained of her blood."
Pinkie added, 'Yeah and then Fluttershy was flying up in the sky and swooped down on us and bit Twilight."
Rarity finished, "Luckily we were able to rip Fluttershy off of her and I was able to chase her off with my magic or she would have been dead too."
Celestia asked, "And you said that Twilight has shut herself in a dark room in her castle?"
The three nodded in unison causing Celestia to sigh. She knew that this was likely a situation that would require a lot more than just her magic. She replied, "Well girls, we have a serious problem on our hooves. It sounds like the blood moon did cause Fluttershy to become a true vampony and with her biting Twilight, that has caused her to become one now too."
Spike asked, "So will they only be like this on blood moons or what?"
Celestia replied, "No. Both of them will now be on the hunt every single night for new victims."
The three along with Spike gasped in horror. Applejack asked, "Y-your Majesty, what are we going to do? Are we going to need to evacuate Ponyville?"
Celestia asked in return, "Rarity, you said you were able to chase Fluttershy into the forest with your magic, right?"
Rarity replied, "Yes your Majesty."
Celestia said, "Well I think that we should put unicorn guards down in Ponyville. If they see any vamponies flying around, they can fire energy at them to scare them away."
Pinkie did not like the idea of this. She asked, "You're not going to have them strike them with energy are you?"
Celestia replied, "No, they will just fire at them. If we can keep them out of Ponyville, everything should be fine."
Applejack said, "Well alright then, let's get some of the unicorn guard rounded up and get them down there!"
Celestia agreed and headed to talk to the unicorn guard. After hearing about the situation, they were nervous about going down there but knew not to disobey orders from Celestia so they caught the next train to Ponyville. All Celestia could do was hope for the best and hope that the unicorn guard could stop any further attacks.
After being briefed about the situation in Ponyville, some royal guards were dispatched to Ponyville while Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie remained in Canterlot. At first there seemed to be just silence until Applejack asked, "Your Majesty, I know you sent the guards down there to keep Fluttershy and Twilight from attacking other ponies, is there any kind of spell that could be cast upon them to turn them back to normal?"
Celestia replied, "There is but only my sister knows that magic. I know next to nothing about it so before we can even discuss this, we need to wait for her to wake up."
Rarity asked, "Couldn't we just wake her up now? This is an emergency after all."
Celestia replied, "I wish we could but waking my sister up during the day would not be a good idea. There have been times when she has been woken from her slumber and she was in a very bad mood. We will just have to wait until she wakes up on her own."
Several hours passed and finally the sun was dropping towards the horizon when Luna woke up and headed down to the throne room. While she was not surprised to see Spike with Celestia since he had been there for a few days, she was surprised to only see three of Twilight's friends, "Why are there only three of you here? Where are Twilight, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash?"
Applejack replied, "Well your Majesty, some really bad things happened last night."
Luna asked, "What bad happened last night?"
Applejack replied, "Well it involved the blood moon last night."
Luna sighed, "Oh and what was that?"
Applejack continued, "Well this may go quite a ways back." She took a breath before she continued, "You see, a couple years back when Fluttershy was using the stare on some vampire fruit bats while Twilight was casting a spell on them to make them stop sucking my apples dry, the spell backfired and caused Fluttershy to become a vampire fruit bat."
Rarity added, "Then she began to suck Applejack's crop dry until we lured her to a huge apple and used mirrors to get her attention so Twilight could cast the counter-spell."
Pinkie finished, "But we think that the spell may not have completely worked because she turned into a true vampony last night."
Luna asked, "That could be but where are Twilight and Rainbow?"
Applejack added, "Well last night Rainbow decided she was going to pull a prank on Fluttershy because of the legends of vamponies and go scare her but once she got over there, Fluttershy must have already gone through her transformation because we found Rainbow laying there dead with two fang punctures in her neck and she had been drained of every single drop of blood."
Rarity continued, "And then she bit Twilight. We had to wrestle Fluttershy off of her or she would have been dead as well."
Pinkie finished, "And right before the sun came up, Twilight locked herself in an interior room of her castle like she was hiding from the light."
Luna hung her head low realizing that they had a serious problem on their hooves. She sighed, "Well we have a serious problem on our hooves. Both Fluttershy and Twilight have become vamponies and casting the spell to get them back to normal is very difficult."
Rarity asked, "And what makes it so difficult?"
Luna replied, "This is a spell that I have never had to use but I do know it. To remove the vampony part of them I will have to stare at them directly in the eyes, up close, for thirty seconds and doing that with a vampony is next to impossible."
Celestia suggested, "Sister, you could always hold them in your aura while you do this."
Luna replied, "I could but this spell takes a lot of power and with me using power to hold them in my aura, it may not work."
Applejack said, "Well it's always worth a try."
Luna replied, "That is true and I'm not sure which one will be tougher to deal with. Fluttershy since she still had some vampony in her to start with or Twilight because of her magic."
Celestia suggested, "Sister, with her being a vampony she may not be able to access her magic and given that Fluttershy has already killed somepony, I have a feeling that she is going to be more aggressive."
Applejack added, "Or perhaps more cautious because I'm sure she still remembers what we did with those mirrors."
Luna replied, "That is true. Twilight may come right at us while Fluttershy will likely try to catch us off guard."
Celestia looked out the window and saw that it was time for them to do their royal duties. She said, "Sister, we need to do our royal duties and then figure out what to do next."
Luna replied, "Alright but after we do our duties, I think we should head to Ponyville before any more lives are lost."
Celestia said, "Alright, after we do our duties all of us shall head to Ponyville."
As they headed out to do their royal duties Spike and his remaining friends couldn't help but be concerned. Spike asked, "What will happen if Luna can't get the vampony out of them? What will we do?"
Rarity replied, "Oh don't worry Spike. Luna is tough and should be able to get them back to normal."
While Rarity and her friends were pretty certain that Luna would be able to restore their friends to normal, Spike was not so certain. While he knew that Luna was powerful, he also knew that getting a vampony to stay in one place for very long is almost impossible and knew that if Twilight still had access to her magic, that restoring her could be impossible.
Night had arrived in Ponyville and because of what had happened the prior night, most of the ponies were staying indoors hoping that they would not become the next victim of a vampony. The guards that Celestia had sent down there were walking around with their horns lit up, ready to strike in the event that either Twilight or Fluttershy were to try to attack them, or anypony else.
In her castle Twilight finally came out of the room she had been hiding in all day but with a different appearance. Like Fluttershy, she now bore fangs, her ears resembled those of a bat, she had bat wings and like with Fluttershy, her cutie mark had changed to to fit her new form. She headed up to her balcony to see if any prey was out and about. She saw several unicorn guards with their horns glowing and she was not amused. What angered her the most though was that a few were right at the base of her castle.
Twilight was not the only pony out on the prowl as Fluttershy was again hiding in the leaves atop her cottage. She too saw the guards and knew to avoid them but on the far end of town, further away from the guards, she saw two figures. The figures she saw were smaller than an average pony so she figured they must be either fillies or colts. She licked her chops and took flight, hoping to feast on not just one, but two ponies.
On the far end of town Snips and Snails were out looking for the vampony they had heard about. Despite being warned by everypony, including their parents, they decided to sneak out and see if they could see the vampony anyway.
Snips asked, "Hey Snails, what are we going to do if we was to get attacked by the vampony?"
Snails replied, "I'm trying not to think about it. If I don't think about it nothing will happen."
Snails excitedly said, "Oh yeah! If we don't think about it, we'll be fine!"
As the two were walking along rather carefree, they saw a shadow pass over them. Snips asked, "Hey Snails, did you see that?"
Snails replied, "Yeah but I'm not going to worry about it."
They saw the shadow again and heard something.
*HISS!*
The two looked up in horror to see Fluttershy, but as a vampony. Both colts screamed in horror and began to run back towards town, towards the guards but they could not outrun the hungry vampony.
Given that he was a bit more chubby and shorter, Snips could not run as fast and was quickly slammed to the ground. He heard another hiss before having his head slammed into the ground and being bitten. He was screaming, "Help! Help me Snails, help!"
Despite having got back to the edge of town, Snails rushed back to help his friend, determined to save his life. When he arrived Snips was still crying in agony, albeit more quietly. Snails jumped on top of her and began trying to pull her off of his dying friend but Fluttershy was far too strong for him as she easily threw him off of her.
As she continued to drain the blood from Snips, Snails' screams alerted one of the guards who immediately came rushing to the scene. When he arrived he found Snails crying in agony and saw a figure crouched over another colt. He lit up his horn and fired some energy towards Fluttershy but given her enhanced senses, she took to the sky before his energy could strike her.
She took to the sky and saw Snails and the guard down there, wondering which one to attack next given that she was still hungry. Suddenly an idea crossed her mind. She knew the guard posed a threat to her and was larger so she would act like she was going after Snails and hope that the guard would strike him, which would then give her the opportunity to feast on the guard.
She swooped down and knocked Snails to the ground, hissing and bearing her fangs. The guard lit up his horn, pointed it at her and readied to fire. As he fired, Fluttershy pulled Snails up and it wound up being Snails the guard struck, just as Fluttershy predicted. She then took to the sky as the guard headed to Snails to make sure he was ok.
The guard knelt over Snails who was badly burned by his energy. Snails was moaning in pain and all the guard could do was comfort him until he heard something.
*HISS!*
As Fluttershy again bore her fangs and swooped down, Snails yelled, "Look out!"
It was too late though as Fluttershy pounced on the guard and slammed his head into the ground, making him a bit woozy. Holding him down she sank her fangs into his neck and began to feed. Like he did with Snips, Snails jumped on Fluttershy and tried to rip her off the guard but again he was no match for the vampony as she easily kicked him off of her.
The guard's final screams did attract the rest of the guard and they came rushing towards him. Fluttershy saw them and began to take to the sky, carrying her victim with her. They began to fire at Fluttershy and one of them scored a hit on the guard while Fluttershy sped off back into the forest. The rest of the guard surrounded him but discovered that it was too late. Fluttershy had drank enough of his blood that he no longer drew breath. All they could do at this point was console a devastated Snails, provide one another comfort over the loss of their fellow guard and stay alert in the event Fluttershy was to return.
It had been dark in Ponyville for a couple hours when Celestia and the rest of her convoy arrived in Ponyville. The first place they headed was to the castle where everything was strangely quiet. They had expected to see at least a couple guards at the base of the castle but none were to be found. As they continued to walk around Ponyville nothing seemed to be right. Finally they saw the guards along with a smaller pony off on the far end of town so they headed towards them.
When they arrived they found Snails crying and the guards gathered together looking down solemnly. Celestia first walked up to Snails and asked, "What happened my little pony?"
Snails cried, "It's Snips your Majesty, he-he was killed by the vampony."
Celestia pulled the colt close and replied, "I'm sorry."
Luna saw the guards gathered together looking down and asked, "Guards, what happened. Did one of your own die too?"
A guard replied, "Yes Your Majesty. The same vampony that killed Snips killed one of our own as well."
Given that nopony had given a description of the vampony, Luna asked, "Guard, what did this vampony look like?"
He replied, "It was yellow with a pink mane and tail and I think it had three pink bats for a cutie mark."
Applejack heard this and said, "It was Fluttershy." She began to look around and nervously continued, "We're gonna have to be on the lookout in the event she is still hungry."
Rarity looked off towards the castle and added, "And we're going to have to watch out for Twilight, especially if she hasn't fed yet."
Celestia looked down at the two victims and said, "Guards, get these two to the morgue in the hospital so they can be prepared for burial." She looked at Luna and the other ponies and continued, "The rest of you, we need to be on the lookout for Twilight and Fluttershy."
Applejack asked, "Your Majesty, even if we do see them, how are we going to catch them so Luna can remove the vampony from them?"
Luna replied, "I will likely have to grab them with my aura and then remove the vampony from them."
While everypony knew that would be the best option, Luna had her doubts as to whether she would have enough strength to hold the vampony still and cast the proper spell at the same time.
While they were gathered together talking, a lavender vampony was watching from her balcony. She had watched Fluttershy make her kills earlier and realized that since Fluttershy was chased off and the other guards had headed to the hospital, that her time to feed had arrived. She also knew that she would have to use her wits given that Celestia and Luna were present but was confident she would get a meal.
While the five were talking about which one would be harder to catch and fix, they saw a shadow fly overhead. Rarity asked, "Hello, is anypony there?"
Again they saw a shadow fly overhead but looked up in horror when they saw Twilight bearing her fangs with her horn lit up. Pinkie screamed, "It's Twi-bat! Everypony run for your lives!"
Luna knew she was going to swoop down so she lit her horn up, readying herself to grab Twilight in her aura. Twilight saw this though and cast a protective bubble around herself.
*HISS!*
Once Twilight cast the protection spell she swooped down and went straight after the first pony she saw, Rarity. She pounced on Rarity and sank her fangs in, causing Rarity to scream out in pain. Celestia tried to grab Twilight with her aura and rip her off of the struggling unicorn but couldn't because of the strength of Twilight's spell. Celestia then jumped on Twilight and tried to rip her off but she just couldn't do it.
As Rarity continued to lay there screaming as Twilight fed on her, her friends were panicking and given that Celestia could not free Rarity from Twilight, Celestia yelled, "Sister, you've got to do something! Do your stare on her."
Luna replied, "Sister, she is enveloped in her own aura so there is no way I could even put a dent in it."
As Rarity's cries became quieter Luna and Celestia knew there was one last option. They would have to use their combined power to lift Twilight off of her. They both fired at Twilight but since she transformed into a vampony, her magic was much stronger and their energy just bounced off of her bubble. Finally Rarity went quiet and Twilight crouched more protectively over her, making sure to get every last drop of blood.
Pinkie began to cry uncontrollably and Applejack, who has always been good at keeping her moments of distress silent, charged toward Twilight crying, "You monster! How could you do this to Rarity?"
Twilight looked up, bore her fangs and took to the sky again circling the four wondering which one she should feed on next. She intensified her protection bubble and looked at the biggest target, Celestia. Luna saw this and shouted, "Sister, cast a protection bubble around yourself! She's coming for you!" She then looked at Applejack and Pinkie and continued, "Get over here by me, now!"
The two did as ordered and Luna quickly cast a bubble around the three but when Celestia lit up her horn to cast her own spell, Twilight's eyes began to glow a dark pink and she fired a powerful bolt of energy at Celestia, temporarily dispelling her magic. She pounced on Celestia and cast a larger protection bubble, to cover both her and Celestia. While her magic was temporarily disabled, Celestia was thrashing about in the bubble trying to shake Twilight off of her. While she was able to a couple of times, the confines of the bubble were just too small and finally Twilight was able to latch on to her and sank her fangs into Celestia's neck.
Luna saw this and quickly broke the bubble that surrounded her, Applejack and Pinkie and began to do her best to save her sister. She began firing powerful bolts of energy at Twilight's bubble but each time she did, it simply bounced off of it. As Celestia's thrashing began to become weaker and her cries became softer, Luna knew she had to do something that could be not only fatal to her, but Twilight and Celestia. She rammed her horn into the bubble and fired a powerful bolt of energy. It broke the bubble but sent her, Celestia and Twilight flying.
Very quickly Twilight recovered from hitting the ground and took to the sky again, speeding towards Celestia. Luna too was quick to recover and also sped towards Celestia. Luna would arrive first and mustering up all the power she could, she put up a protective bubble around her and her sister. While Twilight began to try to break that bubble, Luna would check on her sister.
Luna saw that Celestia was barely breathing and had a bad feeling Celestia may not survive. She pulled her close and cried, "Tia! Please be ok."
Celestia was very disoriented and barely knew what was going on. She thought it was Luna talking to her but was not sure given that Luna normally addresses her just as sister. She weakly asked, "Luna, is that you?"
Luna cried, "Yes Tia, it is me." She took a closer look at her sister and saw that not only were the fang marks very deep, that she had lost a lot of blood. She continued, "Tia, we have to get you to the hospital."
Celestia's breathing became more shallow as she replied, "Luna, do not worry about me. It is too late to save me. You need to protect Applejack, Pinkie and the rest of Equestria." She saw Twilight pounding against the bubble and continued, "And you need to remove the vampony from Twilight." As her breathing became more erratic she finished, "I see it Luna, I see the light."
Luna pulled her up and cried in agony, "NO, PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME TIA! NO, PLEASE NO!"
Celestia gave her one last smile, closed her eyes and breathed her last. Luna began to cry louder than she ever had in her life, "NO, PLEASE NO!" She broke her bubble which allowed Twilight a direct path to her but she would be quick to counter. She began firing powerful bolts of energy at Twilight, scaring her into the forest. She yelled, "CURSE YOU TWILIGHT SPARKLE, CURSE YOU!"
Applejack approached Luna and said, "I'm sorry your Majesty. Is there anything we can do for you?"
Luna screamed, "Just leave me be. I want one final moment with my sister."
While both Applejack and Pinkie wanted to console the princess, they realized that giving her her space as she requested would be the best thing to do. While they rushed to Sweet Apple Acres for cover, Luna levitated the remains of her sister to the hospital to be put in the morgue so that she could be prepared for burial. As she left the hospital Luna said to herself, "Don't worry big sister, I'll exact revenge for not just you, but for all of Equestria."
After leaving the hospital Luna took to the sky and flew back towards Canterlot. Inside of her she felt a great amount of sadness and despair. She felt as though it was her fault for Celestia dying and blamed herself for not being quicker or stronger. Along with the sadness and despair though, there was also a lot of anger, anger towards the vampony who killed her sister, Twilight Sparkle.
When she landed in Canterlot she was crying angrily which concerned the guards. One of them asked, "Princess Luna, what is wrong? Are yo ok?"
Another guard asked, "Where is Princess Celestia? Did she decide to stay in Ponyville?"
Luna cried, "Just leave me be. I don't feel like talking to anypony right now!"
The guards were very concerned over not just Luna's behavior, but also the fact that Celestia did not return home with her. Despite this though, they knew that with what Luna said, that it would be best to give her the space she desired.
The first place she headed to when she got home was the library. She figured that if she looked in there, she could perhaps find a way to lift the spell off of an Alicorn vampony. She headed to the back of the legendary creatures section and began to look. At first she was searching through all the books calmly but soon she became more frantic and angry as none of the books mentioned anything about Alicorn vamponies.
She screamed, "Ugh, why isn't there any information about Alicorn vamponies?"
Then it hit her. She realized that there wouldn't be any information because not only are vamponies only considered to be legendary rather actual creatures, that since Alicorns are so rare that nopony would have ever even thought such a vampony would exist so she would have to figure something out on her own.
She knew of the legend of killing a vampony involving driving a wooden stake through its heart. She then realized that she could not simply drive a wooden stake through Twilight's heart given the strength of her protection bubble. She sighed, "Ugh, how am I supposed to kill her if I can't even penetrate her bubble."
It soon hit her though. She realized that she would have two choices. She would either have to disable her magic using her own magic or she would have to get into a difficult physical fight and break off her horn. Either way though, she knew it would be difficult. She said to herself, "Well tomorrow night, I shall put an end to this. Tomorrow night will be the night I avenge my sister's death."
For the remainder of that night Luna was sad, angry and restless. Soon though it would come time for her to lower the moon and raise the sun. When this time arrived she again began to cry more loudly knowing that she would be responsible for handling both the sun and moon from now on.
After doing her royal duties, she headed to the dining hall for breakfast. Since she did not seem quite as distraught as she did last night, one of the guards decided to approach her. He asked, "Your Majesty, what happened last night? What happened to Princess Celestia?"
While Luna had absolutely no desire to talk with the guard, especially about this, she decided she would just tell him what happened so that they would stop asking her. She replied, "Last night my sister and I went to Ponyville to try and remove the vampony from Fluttershy and Twilight." She began to cry angrily, "And Twilight attacked and killed my sister."
The guard gasped, "What? Twilight killed Celestia? How could she kill Celestia?"
Luna was not impressed with this question but again decided to placate him and answer. She yelled, "She's a vampony with powerful magic. She pounced on her before she could put a protective bubble around Celestia and herself and drained enough blood from her that she couldn't survive."
The guard asked, "But what about you? Why didn't you stop her?"
The guard's words infuriated Luna. She stood tall, spread her wings wide and with her eyes glowing white she screamed, "How dare you accuse of us of not trying to stop her. We tried our hardest but her magic is stronger since she is a vampony." She then slammed her hoof into the floor and continued, "And by the time we were able to break her protection bubble, it was too late. Our sister was on the brink of death and we could not save her."
The guard said, "But...."
Luna screamed, "Just leave us alone before we do something we might regret!"
After finishing her conversation with the guard, Luna headed to her sleeping chambers knowing that she would need plenty of rest if she were to take on not just one, but two vamponies that night. As she laid down she said to herself, "I hope I can save Fluttershy tonight." Her voice became more angry as she continued, "But for killing my sister, I shall show Twilight no mercy. She will pay for her crimes."
During that day Luna did her best to get as much sleep as she could. She was not able to get much sleep and when she did get some sleep, she had daymares of the night before. All she could see during her times of slumber was Twilight killing Celestia and her not being able to do anything about it. When she finally woke up it was about an hour before she would need to lower the sun and raise the moon.
As she headed downstairs she couldn't help but glare at the guards. When they saw her looks of disapproval, they knew it would be best to simply remain quiet and give her her space. As she headed into the dining hall the chef was waiting for her arrival. The guards had told him about what kind of mood she was in and that it would be best if he said as little to her as possible. He asked, "Your favorite?"
Luna simply nodded and sat there alone waiting for her meal. At first she sat there continuing to question herself, thinking "What if?" in so many scenarios. Eventually she said to herself, "Stop it Luna, stop it! You did your best and you need to stay focused tonight!"
Once the chef arrived with her meal she was much more focused. After thanking the chef Luna began to eat her meal knowing that she had to have a full stomach that night and she had to be fully alert. After finishing her meal it was time for her to lower the sun and raise the moon. Like she was that morning, she was crying in agony. The part that was hardest for her though was lowering the sun as it made her feel like she was lowering her sister's legacy.
Once she finished her duties she said to herself, "Calm down Luna, calm down. You have to be alert and ready for tonight."
Eventually she calmed herself down sufficiently that she decided the time to take care of business had arrived and she flew off towards Ponyville. When she arrived the very first place she headed was Sweet Apple Acres. She figured that Applejack and Pinkie would be inside so she headed to the house and knocked on the door.
Applejack answered and said, "Hurry up and get inside your Majesty. I don't want you getting attacked."
Luna quickly headed inside and found a determined Pinkie and Applejack. She asked, "I take it you two are ready for tonight?"
Applejack replied, "Yeah but we're both nervous about how we're going to handle them. I don't think Fluttershy will be as difficult though since she doesn't have any magic."
Luna said, "That is true but still, getting her to stay still long enough that I can look straight into her eyes for thirty seconds will be next to impossible."
A thought crossed Pinkie's mind. She suggested, "Back when Fluttershy was a vampire fruit batpony, we were able to get her to stare at her reflection in a mirror for long enough so Twilight could reverse the spell."
Applejack added, "That's right. She could do the stare on herself long enough that you could stare at her long enough to free her."
Luna replied, "That is true. Now that we know how to handle Fluttershy, we need to discuss how we are going handle Twilight."
Both of them could tell that Luna was not unsure on this. Applejack asked, "From the way you're talking I'm guessing you already have plans on how you're going to do this?"
Luna replied, "I do. I realized that with as strong as that protection bubble of her's is, we are going to have to find a way to disable her magic."
Pinkie asked, "How are we going to do that?"
Luna replied, "Well I have two plans. One plan is for me to use a dispelling spell on her to prevent her from using magic for a while or I am going to have to get into a physical fight with her and shatter her horn. If I can do that, that will also disable her magic. Then it would just be a matter of holding her down to where I could cast the necessary spell."
Applejack asked, "Either way though, there is going to be a huge risk of one of us getting bit or maybe even killed."
Luna replied, "I know that Dear Applejack but we have no other choice. Sometimes we have to put ourselves in grave danger for the sake of everypony else."
Luna headed out the door and continued, "Well we better do this before either one of them has a chance to feed on anypony else."
Both Applejack and Pinkie followed Luna out the door ready to do this. While the two could tell that Luna was more than ready for this, they had no idea what Luna's true intentions were that night. She decided to keep it a secret because she knew that if she were to tell them of her plans for Twilight, that they would not aid her and she would have to do this alone.
After discussing their plans on how they would handle Fluttershy and Twilight, Luna, Pinkie and Applejack headed outside and went over by Twilight's castle, hoping that one, if not both of them would be present. After an hour of waiting, they had yet to see anything and this was very frustrating for them. Applejack asked, "Y'all don't think they know something is up and are avoiding us do you?"
Luna replied, "They could be. According to the legends, vamponies can sense when they are being pursued and will stay away if they sense it."
Pinkie asked, "Even Alicorn vamponies?"
Luna sighed, "The books in the library mention nothing of......" They saw a shadow pass overhead causing Luna to continue, "What was that?"
Applejack replied, "I think it was either Fluttershy or Twilight."
Luna said, "Well let's get ready then. Luna lit her horn up in the event she needed to cast a protection spell around herself for fire at one of them."
They saw the shadow overhead and saw Twilight. She bore her fangs and let out a hiss. She lit up her horn and fired at Luna, scoring a hit. The energy knocked Luna backwards but she would be quick to recover. She cast a protection spell around herself so Twilight decided she would go after Pinkie first.
She bolted towards Pinkie, pounced on her and immediately sank her fangs into her neck. Pinkie was screaming in agony but Applejack was not about to allow her friend to die. She jumped on Twilight and managed to rip her off of her. This infuriated Twilight. Her eyes began to shine a dark pink and she fired a bolt of energy at Applejack but all it did was knock her backwards. Twilight pounced on her, put a protection bubble around them and began to feed.
Despite Twilight beginning to drain her of her blood, Applejack was able to kick Twilight off of her but given that they were in a protection bubble, there would not be much room for her to maneuver. One thing that did help Applejack though was that since Twilight cast the protection bubble, she could not fire bolts of energy at her so this fight became purely physical.
At first, despite not being at full strength, Applejack was getting the best of Twilight. She was kicking her and easily avoiding any further bites. Eventually though Twilight would pounce on Applejack and as her friends watched in horror, Twilight would again begin to feed. This caused Luna to charge forward, ram her horn into the bubble and fire a bolt of energy to break it like she did when Twilight was feeding on Celestia and like with last time, while it did shatter the bubble, it also sent her, Twilight and Applejack flying.
Luna was the first to get up and rushed over to check on Applejack but it was too late as the loss of blood and injuries from hitting the ground so hard caused her to pass. Twilight soon got up and saw that all she had left was Luna and Pinkie. Luna saw her flying in and began to fire energy at her but missed each time. Twilight again cast a protection bubble spell and landed right over a much weaker Pinkie and began to feed again. She knew that she had better hurry and finish her off as Luna would again ram her horn into that bubble and break it.
Twilight saw Luna coming out of the corner of her eye and intensified the power of her spell but again Luna would be able to break it. The explosion of the bubble breaking sent them flying but Luna was able to get her bearings straight before hitting the ground and flew towards Twilight. Her eyes were shining white as she yelled, "You have killed many Twilight but you will not kill Pinkie!"
*HISS*
Twilight hissed and decided that since Pinkie likely would not last much longer, she would take to the sky and went after Luna. Once they met, rather than casting protection bubbles around one another, they began a physical fight. This would be difficult for Luna as she did not want to be bit but her adrenaline was flowing and she was the first to strike as she kicked Twilight out of the sky.
Luna swooped down and kicked Twilight in the head, causing her to lay there a bit woozy. Luna landed in front of Twilight and sternly said, "Your tyranny is over Twilight Sparkle. You have caused much suffering but tonight I shall put an end to that."
She grabbed Twilight in her aura and slammed her against the base of her castle. While Luna was getting the best of Twilight, another shadow flew by and a figure landed over by Pinkie. The figure began to sniff her seeing if there was still life in her.
When Pinkie looked up she saw it was Fluttershy. She pleaded, "Please Fluttershy, please don't kill me." She pointed her hoof over towards Twilight and continued, "It is Twilight, she is the one who is responsible for all of this."
Fluttershy paid no attention to her though as she had yet to feed and was hungry. She bore her fangs and sank them into Pinkie, draining what little blood remained in her. This would not go unnoticed though. Despite not having her bearings straight, Twilight saw this and took off skywards as she was not happy that somepony else would steal her meal.
She bore her fangs, hissed and sped town to take care of the pony who was feeding on her prey. Fluttershy could sense this though and she took off right before Twilight could pounce on her, causing Twilight to smash head first into Pinkie. She began sniffing her prey and would not be pleased when she detected no life coming from her. She bore her fangs and took off skyward, determined to take out the vampony who dared to finish her meal.
Luna watched in shock as the two vamponies began to fight in the sky as she did not think that one vampony would attack another. While she wanted to save Fluttershy and restore her to normal, she knew that both would have to be knocked out of the sky so she shot energy at them. Much to her dismay, both were very agile and she could not score a hit.
Both vamponies were hissing furiously at one another as their fight continued. Fluttershy knew that without magic she would have to get Twilight on the ground so she charged at her head first. She struck Twilight with so much force that she knocked her out of the sky. As soon as she saw Twilight hit the ground, Fluttershy swooped downwards but before she could land, she would be kicked to the ground by Twilight.
Twilight quickly got up and landed by a stunned Fluttershy and she immediately put a protection bubble around the two. She pinned Fluttershy down, bore her fangs and let out a loud hiss. She began to slowly lower her head down as she wanted to see the vampony who stole her meal cringe in fear. Just as her fangs were mere inches away from Fluttershy's neck, Fluttershy was able to wrestle out of her hold. She grabbed Twilight by the head and slammed it into the ground, causing her protection bubble to disappear.
Twilight was struggling but Fluttershy had mustered up every ounce of energy she had to hold her down. As Fluttershy began to lower her head to feed, Twilight lit up her horn and blasted Fluttershy off of her. Twilight sped over to where Fluttershy was laying and decided that rather than slowly lower her head that she would be quick about this so she slammed her head down and began to feed. Fluttershy was hissing in agony and was struggling to get loose. This would prove to be futile though as once Twilight began to feed, she began to grow in size and her rate of feeding increased.
When Luna saw this she said to herself, "Apparently when a vampony feeds on another vampony, it causes it to grow in size." She then saw Twilight stand up and realized that she had grown to be the same size as her. She figured that her already stronger magical powers had likely became even stronger. She continued, "How am I going to do this? Can I even do this?" She stood there analyzing her foe and realized that disabling her magic would be the only option.
It had a been a rough, terrifying and emotionally painful night as Luna had lost not only two of her close friends, but also the vampony that she believed she could free to Twilight Sparkle. She now found herself in a real dicey situation as Twilight Sparkle, after feeding on Fluttershy, had grown to be the same size as her and likely gained more power than she already had.
Luna wanted to try and get this done as quickly as possible so she lit up her horn and fired a bolt of energy at Twilight, striking her directly. Much to Luna's dismay, the bolt only knocked Twilight backwards a little bit. Twilight looked in Luna's direction and hissed, "You failed Luna! You failed your sister, you failed everypony that has been killed and now you shall fail all of Equestria!"
Luna was in shock. She did not imagine that by Twilight feeding on another vampony that she would gain the ability to speak. She sternly replied, "You may have claimed the lives of many of your fellow ponies but that stops tonight Twilight Sparkle."
Twilight's eyes began to shine a dark pink and she fired a powerful bolt of energy at Luna, knocking her to the ground. Twilight took flight and landed next to Luna. She hissed, "Oh and how are you going to stop me? I'm more powerful than you!" Her hiss became more of a laugh as she continued, "And you know the old saying, you can't do anything to a pony more powerful than you."
As badly as Luna wanted to launch a full out assault on Twilight, she knew she had to be careful that she did not get bit. She lit up her horn and began to size up her enemy, looking for any weakness that she might have. Twilight noticed that and was not amused. Rather than using magic to counter Luna's readiness to strike, she decided to launch herself at her instead. She charged directly at Luna and knocked her to the ground.
Luna looked up nervously to see Twilight standing over her, bearing her fangs. Luna was quick to get up and counter, knocking Twilight to the ground. She stood over Twilight and again in a stern voice replied, "Give it up Twilight. I'm putting an end to your reign of terror tonight."
Twilight began to mock her hissing back everything she said. She bore her fangs and charged straight towards Luna but she would be quick and muster every ounce of energy she had in her. She grabbed the powerful vampony in her aura and began to stare her down. While Luna's intention was to kill Twilight, she decided that maybe she could stare her down and remove the vampony from her instead.
Luna approached the vampony and despite being held in her aura, Twilight was thrashing about and was keeping her eyes closed. She could sense what Luna was trying to do and was not about to let her do it. Twilight was strong enough that eventually she was able to shatter Luna's aura and grabbed her in her own. She was flying in front of Luna laughing, hissing and bearing her fangs. While one part of Twilight wanted to just end it right there, another part of her wanted to cause Luna a great amount of physical pain.
Holding Luna in her aura, Twilight slammed Luna into the side of her castle, fracturing a couple bones in her wing. Luna let out a scream of agony and Twilight hissed, "Ha, you see, you can't stop me!" She got up in Luna's face and continued, "Just leave me alone, go back to Canterlot, let me feed on who I want and I might let you live!"
This was unacceptable in Luna's eyes. She dug deep and shattered Twilight's aura. She lowered her horn and fired a much more powerful bolt of energy at Twilight, knocking her flying. Twilight would be quick to recover though. She decided that the time to finish this had arrived. She took to the sky, looked down at her enemy and bore her fangs.
*HISS!*
She dove down towards Luna but she would be quick to react. She jumped out of the way causing Twilight to slam into the side of her castle face first. Luna couldn't help but snicker over Twilight's mistake but her laughter would not last long as Twilight recovered quickly and once again went after her. She pounced on her and readied herself to feed. Before she would sink her fangs into her victim she laughed, "Who would have imagined that the sole ruler of Equestria would be a vampony?" She licked her chops and continued, "And you, your royal lowness, will just be the start. After tonight, I'll feed on who I want, where I want, when I want!"
Luna decided she would turn the tables on the vampony. While she couldn't do any real damage, she reared her head forward and bit Twilight, causing her to lose her grip on Luna. Luna again grabbed her in her aura and slammed her into the side of her castle, getting a bit of revenge as Twilight's left wing suffered a few fractures. She let out a hiss of agony but a few fractured bones would not stop the vampony from going after what she wanted.
The two lit up their horns and began to fire at one another. Both were scoring hits on one another and putting enough energy into their magic that not only were they knocking each other backwards, they were leaving burn marks on one another. While everypony in town knew what had been going on and knew they should stay inside, the screams coming from the two had ponies stepping outside to watch the battle.
As their fight continued and they continued to slam one another into the ground and up against Twilight's castle, both began to get open wounds. While the stinging pain was bothering Luna a bit, it actually felt good to Twilight. After what seemed to be forever to both Luna and Twilight, they decided the time had come to stop fighting and finish this.
Twilight and Luna both took to the sky and lit up their horns, ready to grab the other in their aura and slam them to the ground. Luna fired first and had Twilight in her hold. She could see Twilight trying to break her aura so she slammed her head first into the side of her castle, causing her horn to be broken off at the base and causing her to become disoriented.
Luna let go of her and the stunned vampony plunged down to the ground. Luna landed next to her and saw her horn. She grabbed her horn, gave Twilight a scowl and plunged her horn straight into her heart. She continued to ram it into her yet to her dismay, Twilight would not die. Twilight continued to hiss and struggle until she was finally able to fire a bolt of energy to knock Luna backwards.
What Luna saw would horrify her, despite it being broken off, Twilight's horn had grown back. Not only had it grown back but it was bigger and longer than before. Twilight laughed, "You fool, you stupid fool!" Her laughter changed to a hissing sneer, "I would have thought you would know that trying to kill an Alicorn vampony with it's horn would only make it stronger."
Luna was shocked over learning this. She seriously began to question whether she would be able to do this or not. Then it hit her, she would have to impale Twilight with her horn and fire energy into her to kill her. Despite having fractured bones in one of her wings, Luna took to the sky as well as she could and said, "Don't count your chickens before they hatch Twilight. This isn't over yet."
Twilight took what she said as a challenge and despite having a fractured wing herself, she also took to the sky as well as she could. The two were again firing bolts of energy at one another but missing. Luna decided that a distraction was needed, a distraction that would allow her a direct path to take down her enemy.
She fired a bolt of energy at Twilight with just the right strength, not too weak that it wouldn't affect her and not one that would knock her from the sky. Once she fired the energy, she followed the bolt to where it struck Twilight. It caused Twilight to be stretched out vertically, giving Luna a direct path to her target. She charged forwards and before Twilight could recover, she rammed her horn straight into Twilight's heart.
The vampony began hissing in agony and struggling to get the horn out of her but Luna would make sure that didn't happen. Her eyes began to shine white and she fired the most powerful bolt of energy she had ever fired in her life straight into Twilight, blowing her to bits. Twilight would not be the only one harmed by this though. The power Luna put into this caused her to go flying and slam right into the side of Twilight's castle and plummet to the ground. One the way down she was screaming in agony as many of her bones had been broken but once she hit the ground, all that filled the air in Ponyville was silence, a deafening silence.
When everypony saw what happened, they rushed to the castle to find Twilight's body scattered all over the place and found Luna laying on the ground motionless. One pony bent down and felt for a pulse and found one. She yelled, "She's still alive, we need to get her to the hospital!"
Very quickly several unicorns arrived and began to levitate Luna to the hospital. Given the nature of her injuries, everypony knew that she would likely be have to be transferred to a larger hospital but figured that at least getting her some care there would be a start.
It was a rather quiet night at the hospital until Luna was brought in. Normally a patient being brought into the emergency room has a bit of a wait to be taken back but with Princess Luna that would not be the case. When they got her there, one of the ponies yelled, "Help! It's an emergency, Princess Luna is in bad shape!"
A couple nurses rushed out and immediately took Luna back. Given that Luna was barely conscious, one of the unicorns who helped get here there, Lyra, would go back with her. The nurse took a look at Luna and then Lyra. She asked, "Lyra, what happened? How did she get like this?"
Lyra replied, "Well she was in a fight with Twilight after she became a large vampony and from what I saw, she rammed her horn into her, blasted a lot of energy into her and blew her up. In the process she got slammed into the side of Twilight's castle and then plunged to the ground." She began to tear up a bit and continued, "And when we found her she wasn't moving and was barely breathing."
When the nurse heard her say that Luna was not moving, despite not having a doctor's order, she immediately took Luna back to take some x-rays. While it seemed to take forever, it was about fifteen minutes when Luna was brought back and accompanying the nurse was Dr. Whooves. He seemed to be in a very solemn mood and Lyra could sense it. She asked, "Doctor, what is wrong with her?"
*Whooves replied, "Well I'll have to wait until the radiologist reads these x-rays but I have a feeling that she likely broke most of the bones in her body." Luna's breathing began to become more erratic. Whooves continued, "Nurse, get some oxygen on her, get an IV running on her and get a heart monitor on her."
The nurse did as ordered and Lyra asked, "Doctor, so will she be staying here or will she have to go to a larger hospital?"
Whooves replied, "For now I want us to keep her here and monitor her condition. I'm not sure if she is in any shape to be transported anywhere. Even levitating her to the train station could cause undue shock to her body."
Lyra sighed, "Ok doctor, you know what is best."
Once the nurse had done what Whooves had requested, they left the room to check on other patients. Lyra couldn't help but shed a few tears seeing Luna like this. While she had only spoke to Luna a couple of times, she felt like she could relate with her more than Celestia, despite once being her teacher. She grabbed Luna's hoof to comfort her in the event she was a bit awake but this only caused her to scream in agony.
Lyra pulled her hooves back and said, "I'm sorry your Majesty. I didn't mean to hurt you."
Very softly Luna said, "It is ok. I know you meant me no harm." Soon Luna saw a bright light that nopony else could see. She continued, "I see the light Lyra, I see the li....."
Suddenly Luna went quiet and the heart monitor flat lined, causing an alarm to sound throughout the emergency department. Almost immediately Whooves and every nurse on duty that night flooded into the room. Whooves had read the x-rays and realized that the conventional way of reviving somepony whose heart had stopped would not work given that she had multiple broken ribs. He turned to Lyra and said, "Lyra, we need you."
Lyra asked, "Me? You need me?"
Whooves replied, "Yes, we need you. She has multiple broken ribs so we can not shock her back to life. We need you to use your magic to try to revive her."
Lyra began to cry, "But I don't know that kind of magic! I don't know revival magic!"
Whooves replied, "Lyra, I'm no unicorn but I do know that as long as you put love into your energy, you may be able to help."
Lyra rushed to Luna's side, lit her horn up and said, "Alright doctor, I'll do my best."
While Lyra began to release energy into Luna's body, Luna found herself traveling through a bright portal. When she arrived on the other side she found herself in a serene, peaceful place with rolling hills and temperate conditions. Almost immediately after arriving, she saw a familiar figure approaching her, her sister. Luna ran to her and said, "Tia!" She looked around and nervously asked, "Big sister, am I dead?"
Celestia shed a couple tears and replied, "Yes little sister, you have passed."
Luna became frantic. She asked, "But who will rule over Equestria now?"
Celestia sighed, "I'm not sure little sister. Cadence may have to leave her post in the Crystal Empire until somepony else can be found or as bad as it sounds, Prince Blueblood may have to take over."
Luna yelled, "No big sister! He would destroy Equestria!"
Celestia replied, "Luna, we are no longer in the earthly realm so what happens there is beyond our control."
They heard a voice say, "Not yet, Luna's time may not have come."
Luna looked in the direction the voice was coming from and saw another Alicorn, a larger one. This Alicorn, like Celestia, was solid white but had a flowing red mane and tail and had an ink jar and a quill for a cutie mark. Luna rushed to her and asked, "Goddess LaurFa, is it really you?"
LaurFa replied, "Yes Luna, it is me."
Celestia asked, "When you said that Luna's time may not have come, what do you mean?"
LaurFa opened up a portal showing what was going on in the hospital. There they saw Lyra releasing energy into Luna, trying to revive her. Celestia was shocked. She continued, "Wait a minute, that is one of my former students. Why is Lyra releasing energy into her?"
LaurFa replied, "Because Luna has many broken ribs and conventional methods can not be used to revive her."
Luna asked, "But she does not know that kind of magic. Why isn't a unicorn with medical magic knowledge doing that?"
LaurFa replied, "She may not know that kind of magic but all that matters is that her energy is filled with love. Knowledge alone won't revive a fallen pony, even love alone is much more effective."
Luna began to be sucked into the portal and fell back to the earthly realm. When she fell back into her body, her body jolted as Lyra gave a stronger burst of energy. The heart monitor again recorded a heart beat and everypony sighed in relief except for Lyra, who cried tears of joy. While Luna could not hear her, Lyra cried, "We so worried we had lost you your Majesty."
Whooves put his hoof on Lyra's shoulder and replied, "Well she is not out of the woods yet but I have a feeling that because of your energy, that she will survive." His voice became more solemn as he continued, "But her road to recovery is going to be a very long one. A large number of her bones have been broken but since you are the one who saved her, I think it would be best if you are by her side as often as possible."
Lyra replied, "Ok doctor, I will do my best to stay at her side as much as I can."
Whooves said, "Good. In a few days I believe she may be able to be transferred to the Crystal Empire."
Lyra asked, "Why the Crystal Empire?"
Whooves replied, "Because it has more love and light than the rest of Equestria combined. For now though, she needs as little stress as possible." He paused for a minute before continuing, "Lyra, when she is transferred to the empire, will you be able to go with her? I ask this because your presence alone will aid in her recovery significantly."
Lyra replied, "Of course I will. I will do anything to help the princess."
Whooves replied, "Good." He then said to the nurses, "We need to get her to ICU where she can receive the care that she needs at this time."
The nurses began to push her bed up to the intensive care unit, being followed by Lyra. Once they got her situated, Lyra grabbed a chair and sat by the slumbering princess. All she could do was hope that in the end that everything would be ok and that Luna would eventually be back in perfect health.
Princess Luna, who had a near death experience after her battle with Twilight Sparkle now lays in a coma. During this experience it was Lyra Heartstrings who revived her and has been advised to stay by her side so that she will perhaps recover more quickly. Part of her staying beside Luna involved traveling with her to the Crystal Empire for her recovery.
Three months had passed since her battle with Twilight and Luna still laid unconscious in a hospital in the Crystal Empire. While her body had healed for the most part, the psychological trauma of her battle caused her to remain in a coma. Not too long after her near death experiences her slumber was so deep that she would not even have dreams but as time passed and her sleep was not quite as deep, she began to dream. The earlier ones concerned the doctors as they were about her battle with Twilight and caused her to scream loudly and seemed to give her psychological stress. Eventually though they became much more peaceful and pleasant.
On a calm morning in the Crystal Empire the sun was shining in the window on Luna. By her side, as she had been for the past three months was Lyra. That morning Cadence had also decided to pay her a visit when she began to mumble a little bit. While Cadence thought she was maybe just having a dream, Lyra had a different feeling. She looked at Cadence and said, "Your Majesty, I have a feeling she might be waking up."
Cadence replied, "I'm not sure if she will wake up yet. I have a feeling that her brain will need a lot more rest."
As soon as she finished saying this Luna opened her eyes. She looked around and saw the two mares and then wondered why she was in a hospital bed. She asked, "Lyra, Cadence why am I in a hospital bed?"
Lyra asked, "Your Majesty, do you remember that night in Ponyville and your battle with Twilight?"
Luna shook her head and asked, "Battle with Twilight? Why would I have a battle with Twilight?"
Lyra realized that given the trauma of that night, that Luna may not remember much about it. She asked, "Your Majesty, what do you last remember?"
Luna replied, "The last thing I remember was going out with Applejack and Pinkie to find Fluttershy and Twilight because they had become vamponies and we had to stop them from killing anypony else."
Lyra asked, "Anything else?"
Luna laid there for a moment deep in thought. Lyra could tell Cadence was about to say something so she put her hoof up as a way of saying "don't say anything."
After a few minutes of silence Luna began to cry, "And Twilight killed Applejack and Pinkie! She killed Fluttershy too and that made her bigger, stronger and more powerful."
Lyra put her hoof around Luna and replied, "I know this is tough for you your Majesty but we need to know everything that you remember from that night."
Luna's crying only became stronger, "And then she came after me! We got into a horrible fight. It was either I killed her or she killed me!"
Luna's breathing again became more erratic and her heart beat became more erratic so Lyra knew she had to calm her down. She put her hoof around her and replied, "Your Majesty, you need to calm down. We don't want you to have a heart attack."
Luna laid there quietly until she felt that she could continue without getting so emotional, "Well I remember during that fight that I managed to break her horn off and began stabbing her with it. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't kill her and even worse, her horn grew back and she became even stronger."
Lyra asked, "What else?"
Luna sat there for a moment trying to remain calm before continuing, "I remember taking to the sky and her doing the same. I remember striking her with energy to stretch her out vertically and then I rammed my horn straight into her heart and fired an immense amount of energy into her, blowing her to bits."
Lyra asked, "Anything else?"
Luna continued, "And then I remember standing by a gurney watching the doctor's discuss how they would revive me" she began to smile as she continued, "then I remember seeing the light and being reunited with my sister." Luna paused for a minute and continued, "And then besides my sister, I saw Her. I saw LaurFa."
This caused both Lyra and Cadence's jaws to drop. While they did believe in a Creator, they never imagined that a pony would be able to meet LaurFa. Lyra asked, "And what did your interaction with Her go?"
Luna replied, "Well I remember asking her if I had passed and she let me know I did BUT she also said that my time in this world was not over yet." She reached her wing over to Lyra and continued, "And she showed me a vision of you trying to revive me." She sat up, pulled Lyra close to her and continued, "Thank you Dear Lyra. Thank you for saving my life."
Lyra was about to say something when Luna tried to get out of her bed. She tried to stand up but stumbled as the muscles in her legs had deteriorated significantly. This caused Luna to sigh in disgust causing Cadence to say, "Luna, you have been laying in bed for three months and you have lost a lot of leg muscle. Chances are you are going to need a lot of physical therapy to get your legs built back up to where you can walk."
Luna tried flapping her wings but was unable to get airborne. Lyra said, "And I have a feeling the same will be true with your wings."
Luna again sighed in disgust but then remembered something, her royal duties. She asked, "Cadence, Lyra, what has happened with Equestria without me raising and lowering the moon and sun? Has Equestria frozen over? Who has been handling the day to day affairs I usually handle?"
Cadence replied, "Well it was tough training them but some of the unicorn guard were able to learn to do it. It took a dozen of them to do it but they managed and Shining Armor headed to Canterlot to handle the government affairs."
Luna again tried to stand and was able to, just barely given that she was using her wing to hold on to the bed railing. She sighed, "Well that is good but I want to know something, when can I go home and take over my responsibilities?"
Lyra walked up to Luna, put her hoof around her and replied, "Once you get enough leg muscle built back up that you can walk without any trouble."
Cadence sighed, "It will depend on how fast you get your muscle built back up. I can talk to the doctor about getting your therapy started tomorrow...."
Luna interrupted, "No. I want to start it today. I want to hurry up, get this done and get home."
Cadence replied, "Well alright. I'll talk to the doctor in the physical therapy department and see if I can get you started today."
Luna sighed in disgust as Cadence walked out the door. She looked at Lyra and asked, "Lyra, you don't know any spells to restore muscle do you?"
Lyra replied, "I wish I did. I would go to the library and see if I could find one but everypony has said that since I revived you, that I need to stay by your side to aid in your healing."
Luna knew about the belief and realized that the best option was Lyra's presence and therapy, therapy that would likely be painful at first.
Two weeks had passed and Luna was still in the Crystal Empire. While she had been released from the hospital and was staying with Cadence, she was still in a hurry to get home and resume her normal routines. With Lyra by her side almost constantly, her healing process was moving along faster than it normally would but it still wasn't fast enough for Luna.
On a normal morning Luna woke up to find Lyra sitting by her bedside. Luna yawned and said, "Well Lyra, I think we should see if I can walk on my own yet."
Luna had been able to walk on her own for very short distances but most of her walking had been achieved while Lyra held on to her with her aura. Lyra replied, "Well we'll see but if you begin to fall, I'm grabbing a hold of you."
Luna began to get out of bed and stood tall before beginning to walk. While she was able to take a few steps on her own, very quickly she began to fall and Lyra had to grab her. Luna sighed, "Lyra, can we please see if we can go up to the library today? Can we see if Cadence has any healing books?"
Lyra replied, "Your Majesty....."
Luna interrupted, "Lyra, we have grown close enough now that I would prefer if you would just call me Luna. There is no need to be so formal with me anymore."
Lyra replied, "Luna, you can't walk more than just a few steps before you need my help. How are you supposed to get up an entire flight of stairs. Even with my help, that will be very hard on you."
Luna stuck out her bottom lip and begged, "Please."
Lyra replied, "Alright but there is no guarantee there is one and even if there is, there is no guarantee I'll be able to learn it as quickly as you would hope." Her stomach began to growl as she continued, "Well let's get some breakfast. I'm sure things will work better if both of us have full stomachs."
Luna nodded and they headed to the dining hall where they were greeted by Cadence. Something seemed different about Luna to Cadence. Given that she had been a bit depressed lately she had a slight smile on her face. Cadence asked, "Luna, what is up with the smile?"
Luna got a nervous look on her face as she worried that Cadence may suspect something is going on. Cadence cast her gaze at Lyra and asked, "Lyra, do you know why she is smiling a little bit?"
Lyra replied, "Honestly I don't. Maybe she is feeling better overall and that is why."
Cadence sighed, "Well I saw that you still have to aid her in walking so she hasn't gotten much better since she got out of the hospital."
Luna asked, "Cadence, I am just happy that Lyra is by my side."
Cadence knew she was just making an excuse to cover up her real reason. She asked, "Luna, what is your real reason for that smile?"
Luna replied, "Well after physical therapy today Lyra told me that she was going to help me get up to the library so I can do some reading. I just want to stimulate my brain a bit."
Cadence sighed, "Uh, huh. Well regarding going to the hospital, you may as well not bother because the physical therapist is out today so you'll have to find another way to get your exercise."
Lyra replied, "Don't worry your Majesty, I'll make sure that she works her muscles."
Cadence smiled, "Good, now let's eat some breakfast. I have a long day ahead of me."
When Luna heard Cadence say that she had a long day ahead of her, she was elated. She realized that this would be the perfect chance for Lyra to find a spell, learn it and cast it on her and not have Cadence know about it.
After breakfast Cadence headed to the throne room for a day full of meetings with dignitaries across Equestria while Luna and Lyra headed towards the library. The first thing they were greeted by was a long, steep staircase. Luna looked at it nervously and asked, "Well shall we?"
Lyra asked, "Are you sure you are going to make it? Even with me holding on to you it won't be easy."
Luna stood tall and replied, "Yes, I am certain. I want to be back to my old self as soon as possible."
Lyra said, "Well alright but don't get mad if there aren't any spells."
Luna nodded and began to try to ascend the staircase. Very quickly Lyra had to grab a hold of her and assist her the rest of the way. Once they got up the stairs they headed into the library. While it didn't seem overly large to Luna, it seemed enormous to Lyra. She gulped, "How am I going to find a healing spell in here? There must be at least 10,000 books in here!"
Luna replied, "Well if we can find the medical spells section, that should narrow it down."
Lyra agreed and they began to look through the massive library. While Luna had to brace herself up against the bookcases just to get around, Lyra was able to rule out certain areas of the library in a hurry. Finally after an hour of looking she found the medical section. She said, "Well I've found the medical section, now it is just a matter of finding a book on healing spells."
Lyra found the ladder used to get to the top shelf and began to look. Many of the books were rather thin so she had to pull books out one at a time to check the title. This was taking forever and while she was somewhat frustrated, Luna was growing impatient. "Lyra, have you found anything yet?"
Lyra replied, "Not yet. This could take a while so you may as well just relax."
Luna grunted in frustration but knew that what Lyra said was the truth. Finally after three hours Lyra found a healing spells book. She began to flip through the pages and it didn't take her long to find what she was looking for, a book on healing spells.
Luna saw her flipping through the pages and knew that it would be best to just let her look through them uninterrupted. After another hour Lyra found what she was looking for. "A-ha, here we go! Muscle restoration spells!"
Luna's ears shot up. She was so excited she reverted to speaking the way she did long ago, "Yes, soon we shall be healed! We shall find this most pleasant!"
Lyra replied, "Luna, I know you're happy but remember, I may not be able to just cast this the moment I read it."
Luna sighed, "Alright, I understand."
Lyra began to read through the spells and the first one she found was for a pony's leg.
"The pony's leg has become lame, Because of this her life has not been the same, For her muscle is weak, and she does not want to be meek, Now her leg shall be strong and her movements shall be long."
She began to stare at the book intently and focused on it deeply. Her eyes began to shine white and she saw images of mages long ago casting muscle spells on ponies who had lost most of the muscles in their legs. Once she returned to normal she said, "Well Luna, I'm going to have to do this one leg at a time but it should work."
Luna replied, "As long as I can walk good again, that is all that matters."
Lyra placed her horn against Luna's upper left leg. It began to glow and she recited,
"The pony's leg has become lame, Because of this her life has not been the same, For her muscle is weak, and she does not want to be meek, Now her leg shall be strong and her movements shall be long."
As Lyra's energy entered her leg, the muscle quickly returned. When Lyra saw this she was ecstatic. She then did the same to Luna's other legs. When she was done she said, "Well Luna, try walking around some. Let's see if it worked."
Luna began to not walk around, but gallop around in the library. She shouted, "Than you Lyra! Thank you!"
Lyra replied, "You're welcome. Now we just need to take care of your wings."
Lyra continued to look through the book until she found a spell for wings, which was fairly similar to the one for legs. She stared intently at the book and like before her eyes began to shine white and again she saw images of mages healing pegasi with very little muscle in their wings. Once her eyes stopped shining she headed to Luna, placed her horn against the base of her wing and recited,
"The pony's wing has become weak, It's use is what she seeks, the muscle's use is nearly done, and flight there certainly will be none, Now the wing shall be strong and her flights shall be long."
Lyra's energy shot into the wing and quickly the muscle returned. She walked around Luna and cast the spell on the other wing. Once she finished she said, "Well Luna, shall we see if you can fly again?"
Without answering Luna immediately began to fly around and cheer in glee. She realized that now she would be able to go home earlier than was anticipated and knew that she had Lyra to thank. She landed by Lyra, grabbed her and jubilantly cheered, "We than thee Dear Lyra! Thy healing magic hast healed us completely!"
Lyra replied, "Your welcome Luna." She then realized that Cadence may not be so happy with either one of them. She continued, "I know you're happy but I'm not sure what Cadence will think."
Luna replied, "Don't worry about her." She began to fly around holding Lyra cheering, "Let us go down to Cadence's throne room and tell her that we are going home. We are sure that she will be most happy to see that we have returned to normal."
As Luna flew them down towards the throne room, Lyra couldn't help but feel a sense of dread. While she was happy that she was able to get Luna healed, she had a bad feeling that Cadence was going to be enraged. All she could hope for was that Luna would be able to deescalate the situation if Cadence became too angry.
After Lyra cast the proper spells on Luna to heal her, the two headed down to the throne room. Luna was as happy as could be and Lyra was a bit nervous, wondering how Cadence would react to Luna's sudden recovery. When Luna flew into the throne room carrying Lyra, Cadence was waiting for the next dignitary to arrive. When she saw this, her draw dropped.
Luna was flying around cheering, "Cadence, we have been healed! Lyra healed us entirely!"
While Cadence was initially happy, it would not take long for her to scowl at Lyra, "Lyra Heartstrings, what did you do? Why all of a sudden can my aunt fly and run around like normal when she could barely walk this morning?"
Lyra began to respond when Luna interrupted, "She found a book on muscle restoration spells. She found a spell for my legs and wings, learned them and cast them!"
Cadence got up in Lyra's face and asked, "Lyra, why would you do this? Do you not know the ramifications of this?"
Lyra replied, "Well no. Luna wanted to get healed so quickly that she asked me to do this. I was against doing it but she begged me to do it and it looks like it worked."
Luna added, "So I don't see why you are so upset."
Cadence put her hoof up to her face and sighed, "Look Luna, I know you're happy but since Lyra did this, she is going to have to remain with you for who knows how long."
Luna asked, "Why does she have to stay by my side? With me being healed I thought I would be fine."
Lyra added, "And I thought I would be able to return to Ponyville."
Cadence sighed, "Look, I don't know a ton about this sort of stuff but I do know that at least until you would have healed normally on your own, Lyra will have to stay by your side. It is her energy that has revived you and her energy that has healed you more quickly than normal."
While Lyra wasn't exactly sure about what would happen if she returned to Ponyville, Luna had a feeling of what was going on. She asked, "So what you are saying is that if Lyra was to leave my side that her energy would dissipate and I would regress?"
Cadence replied, "And then some. Her healing energy is in you, it is basically a part of you." She cast her gaze at Lyra and continued, "Lyra, this is important. Because of everything you have done, you must stay by Luna's side."
Lyra had a nervous look on her face as she realized that because of the fact that she used her energy to heal Luna, that she would have to stay in Canterlot with Luna for quite some time. She asked, "So how long will I need to stay by her side?"
Cadence replied, "I am not sure but I am thinking that it would be best if you stay with her for a year at least."
Luna asked, "Why a year at least?"
Cadence replied, "Because that is probably how long it would have taken you to heal completely on your own." She again cast her gaze at Lyra and continued, "Lyra, are you willing to do this for Luna? Are you willing to stay by her side so she won't regress back to how she was before you healed her?"
While Lyra was hoping that she could return to her normal life in Ponyville, she wanted to do what would be best for Luna. She replied, "Yes your Majesty. I will stay by Luna's side for as long as she needs me there, regardless of how long that may be."
Luna grabbed Lyra and cheered, "We thank thee Dear Lyra. Now we may go home and we can resume our royal duties. We are most happy that things can return to normal."
Cadence added, "Well somewhat. Things will never be like they were prior to the blood moon."
Luna sighed, "I know, I am just happy that I will be able to resume my normal duties again." She looked at Lyra and continued, "And with you by my side, I know I will not suffer through everything I did before."
Lyra asked, "So Cadence, does this mean that Luna and I will be able to return to Canterlot now?"
Luna added, "I hope so because I do want to get home before it it time to lower the sun and raise the moon."
Cadence sighed, "I would like it if you would stay for one more night but I can't stop you from leaving now. It is up to you."
Luna replied, "I think it would be best if we returned to Canterlot. Like I said, I just want to resume my normal routine."
Cadence nodded, "Ok." She then realized what them returning to Canterlot would mean and she became much more cheerful. She continued, "Now you make sure Shining Armor gets back up here as soon as you get back. I miss him so much!"
Lyra replied, "And I'm sure he misses you too."
As Luna and Lyra exited the castle and headed towards the train station. Luna asked, "Lyra, are you ready for your new role?"
Lyra replied, "You bet I am."
Luna nodded and couldn't help but smile as they waited for the train home to arrive. She had been away from her duties for way too long and she just wanted to resume her old life, well as much as she could given she would be in charge of everything now.
As the two were riding home, Luna couldn't help but be excited. It had been months since she last raised her beloved moon and while Lyra was hoping she could resume her old life, she knew that she needed to stay by Luna's side to keep her healthy and strong. The trip home was quiet for the most part given that the train was pretty much empty.
It was late afternoon when the train pulled into Canterlot which brought Luna a great amount of joy as she arrived home early enough that she would be able to set the sun and raise the moon. As soon as they got off of the train a couple of guard ponies, both of which were shocked to see her, rushed to her. One of the guards said, "Princess Luna your Majesty, it is so good to see you again!"
The other guard added, "I thought you wouldn't be back for at least another couple months."
Luna replied, "Well I am back and healthy, that is all that matters." She paused for a minute before asking, "Guard, could you go and tell the unicorns that have been handling the moon and sun that I have returned?"
The guard replied, "Yes your Majesty."
The guards took off while Luna and Lyra headed to the castle and into the throne room. There they found a weary Shining Armor. He was starting to nod off. He started mumbling to himself as he was dreaming about the days of when he was in the academy so this gave Luna an idea. She shouted, "Attention! On your hooves soldier!"
Shining Armor quickly came to, "Wha-what? I'm at attention sir!"
Luna could help but break down laughing over his reaction. She replied, "At ease soldier." She then broke down laughing, "And you do know I'm not a sir, right?"
Shining asked, "Sorry about that.....wait a minute. You're home this soon? I thought you wouldn't be home for at least a couple more months."
Luna replied, "Well thanks to Lyra, I was healed much sooner than normal."
Shining asked, "Thanks to Lyra?"
Luna nudged Lyra and she replied, "Well I found a spell book on restoring muscles so Luna asked me to restore her muscles, which I obviously did."
Shining knew about how Lyra would have to stay by her side and asked, "You know Lyra, since you did this you will have to stay by Luna's side for quite some time despite her feeling good now, don't you?"
Lyra replied, "I know. I just wanted to see Luna happy again and she wanted me to heal her, so I did. I don't care how long I have to stay by her side, as long as she is healthy and happy, that is what matters to me."
Shining Armor was looking towards the door and asked, "So, how is Cadence doing? I really hope that I can see her soon."
This was what Luna was expecting, "Well Shining, Cadence wants to see you home again soon, probably as soon as possible. Since I have returned, I am resuming my duties immediately and Cadence is expecting you so I would suggest you head home." Shining had an unsure look on his face wondering if Luna would just be able to resume things in nothing flat and Luna saw this. She pointed her wing at the door and continued, "Now!"
Shining replied, "Alright, I'm glad to see you're feeling better." He cast his gaze towards Lyra and continued, "And you be sure and stay here with Luna, she needs you."
Lyra said, "I know she does and as long as I am needed, I'm not going anywhere."
Shining looked like he was going to say something when Luna began to laugh, "Now go soldier." She began to push him and ordered, "Now march! Hut, two, three, four, hut, two, three, four."
Shining knew this was the clue that he was to get going. Once he left the throne room Luna sat on her throne for the first time since that dreadful night so long ago. She sighed, "Well Lyra, while I am happy to be home, sitting on the throne is making me realize how truly different things are going to be."
Lyra replied, "It will be ok Luna. You know if you need to talk, you know I'll always be here."
Luna said, "I know and I am very grateful for that." Luna's stomach growled and she continued, "Well, it is time for supper. It will be nice to have supper from cooks that know exactly how I like things."
Lyra nodded and the two headed into the dining hall where Luna had her first meal at home in months. While their supper was enjoyable, what Luna found more enjoyable was when she was able to resume control over the celestial bodies. As Luna was doing her duties, Luna couldn't help but have a huge smile on her face. When she saw this, Lyra shed a few tears of joy. While she had never known Luna that well prior to the night that she saved her, she had grown close enough to her that she felt that she could truly call her her best friend.
After discussing their plans on how they would handle Fluttershy and Twilight, Luna, Pinkie and Applejack headed outside and went over by Twilight's castle, hoping that one, if not both of them would be present. After an hour of waiting, they had yet to see anything and this was very frustrating for them. Applejack asked, "Y'all don't think they know something is up and are avoiding us do you?"
Luna replied, "They could be. According to the legends, vamponies can sense when they are being pursued and will stay away if they sense it."
Pinkie asked, "Even Alicorn vamponies?"
Luna sighed, "The books in the library mention nothing of......" They saw a shadow pass overhead causing Luna to continue, "What was that?"
Applejack replied, "I think it was either Fluttershy or Twilight."
Luna said, "Well let's get ready then. Luna lit her horn up in the event she needed to cast a protection spell around herself for fire at one of them."
They saw the shadow overhead and saw Twilight. She bore her fangs and let out a hiss. She lit up her horn and fired at Luna, scoring a hit. The energy knocked Luna backwards but she would be quick to recover. She cast a protection spell around herself so Twilight decided she would go after Pinkie first.
She bolted towards Pinkie, pounced on her and immediately sank her fangs into her neck. Pinkie was screaming in agony but Applejack was not about to allow her friend to die. She jumped on Twilight and managed to rip her off of her. This infuriated Twilight. Her eyes began to shine a dark pink and she fired a bolt of energy at Applejack but all it did was knock her backwards. Twilight pounced on her, put a protection bubble around them and began to feed.
Despite Twilight beginning to drain her of her blood, Applejack was able to kick Twilight off of her but given that they were in a protection bubble, there would not be much room for her to maneuver. One thing that did help Applejack though was that since Twilight cast the protection bubble, she could not fire bolts of energy at her so this fight became purely physical.
At first, despite not being at full strength, Applejack was getting the best of Twilight. She was kicking her and easily avoiding any further bites. Eventually though Twilight would pounce on Applejack and as her friends watched in horror, Twilight would again begin to feed. This caused Luna to charge forward, ram her horn into the bubble and fire a bolt of energy to break it like she did when Twilight was feeding on Celestia and like with last time, while it did shatter the bubble, it also sent her, Twilight and Applejack flying.
Luna was the first to get up and rushed over to check on Applejack but it was too late as the loss of blood and injuries from hitting the ground so hard caused her to pass. Twilight soon got up and saw that all she had left was Luna and Pinkie. Luna saw her flying in and began to fire energy at her but missed each time. Twilight again cast a protection bubble spell and landed right over a much weaker Pinkie and began to feed again. She knew that she had better hurry and finish her off as Luna would again ram her horn into that bubble and break it.
Twilight saw Luna coming out of the corner of her eye and intensified the power of her spell but again Luna would be able to break it. The explosion of the bubble breaking sent them flying but Luna was able to get her bearings straight before hitting the ground and flew towards Twilight. Her eyes were shining white as she yelled, "You have killed many Twilight but you will not kill Pinkie!"
*HISS*
Twilight hissed and decided that since Pinkie likely would not last much longer, she would take to the sky and went after Luna. Once they met, rather than casting protection bubbles around one another, they began a physical fight. This would be difficult for Luna as she did not want to be bit but her adrenaline was flowing and she was the first to strike as she kicked Twilight out of the sky.
Luna swooped down and kicked Twilight in the head, causing her to lay there a bit woozy. Luna landed in front of Twilight and sternly said, "Your tyranny is over Twilight Sparkle. You have caused much suffering but tonight I shall put an end to that."
She grabbed Twilight in her aura and slammed her against the base of her castle. While Luna was getting the best of Twilight, another shadow flew by and a figure landed over by Pinkie. The figure began to sniff her seeing if there was still life in her.
When Pinkie looked up she saw it was Fluttershy. She pleaded, "Please Fluttershy, please don't kill me." She pointed her hoof over towards Twilight and continued, "It is Twilight, she is the one who is responsible for all of this."
Fluttershy paid no attention to her though as she had yet to feed and was hungry. She bore her fangs and sank them into Pinkie, draining what little blood remained in her. This would not go unnoticed though. Despite not having her bearings straight, Twilight saw this and took off skywards as she was not happy that somepony else would steal her meal.
She bore her fangs, hissed and sped town to take care of the pony who was feeding on her prey. Fluttershy could sense this though and she took off right before Twilight could pounce on her, causing Twilight to smash head first into Pinkie. She began sniffing her prey and would not be pleased when she detected no life coming from her. She bore her fangs and took off skyward, determined to take out the vampony who dared to finish her meal.
Luna watched in shock as the two vamponies began to fight in the sky as she did not think that one vampony would attack another. While she wanted to save Fluttershy and restore her to normal, she knew that both would have to be knocked out of the sky so she shot energy at them. Much to her dismay, both were very agile and she could not score a hit.
Both vamponies were flying around, trying to find any weakness in the other. Twilight was bound and determined to wipe out the one who finished her meal and Fluttershy was not about to fall prey to the Alicorn that sought her destruction.
Luna continued to fire bolts of energy at both vamponies but continued to miss them and this frustrated her greatly. She continued to watch them circling one another and then realized that if one knocked the other out of the sky and began to feed, that perhaps she could save both of them. When she saw what happened next she knew that she could test whether or not her plan would work.
Twilight lit her horn and readied to grab Fluttershy in her aura but her foe would be quick, very quick. Fluttershy charged at her head first and scored a direct hit in the chest. Twilight fell from the sky and when she saw this, Fluttershy would be quick to prevent her foe from wiping her out. She swooped down, landed on Twilight and began slamming her head into the ground, hoping to injure her enough that she wouldn't cause too many problems.
Once Fluttershy had slammed Twilight's head into the ground ten times, she quickly sank her fangs into Twilight's neck and began to feed. Luna knew that her time to act was coming soon, she knew that Fluttershy would be much easier to scare off and that she could not break any protection bubble. As Twilight's growls and hisses grew weaker, Luna knew the time to act had come. She sped towards Fluttershy and began firing bolts of energy at her and quickly scared her into the forest.
When Luna landed next to Twilight she immediately put a protection shield around them. She turned Twilight on her back and noticed that she was very weak. She wasn't nearing death yet but would if she didn't get medical attention soon but first the vampony would have to be removed from her. Luna got Twilight's attention and began to stare at her intently. Luna tried to go into the necessary trance but she just couldn't, she couldn't get her stare to be strong enough. It was at that moment that she would have to take a huge risk, she would have to lower the protection shield.
Luna lowered the protection shield and could only hope that Fluttershy would not return before she removed the vampony from Twilight. She again got Twilight's attention and began to stare intently, to the point where her eyes were shining a bright white and Twilight's eyes were froze open and locked onto hers.
Luna began to glow as the spell was working. She knew that at any moment Fluttershy could return and attack her but couldn't let that distract her, she knew that all her focus had to be on freeing Twilight. After thirty seconds of intense staring, a black bolt of energy fired out of Twilight's horn and she returned to normal. Once she had returned to normal Luna stopped her stare and hoped that it had worked.
Twilight shook her head and looked up at Luna. She weakly asked, "Princess Luna, is that you?"
Luna took a closer look and by the sound of her voice, she could tell that Twilight had been restored to her former self. She replied, "Yes it is me but....."
*HISS*
Luna looked up to see Fluttershy bearing her fangs. What would happen next would not only shock her but scare her. Fluttershy hissed, "Surrender her and I might let you live!"
Given that none of the vamponies had spoken before, it scared her that suddenly Fluttershy could. Luna truly wanted to try and remove the vampony from Fluttershy right there but knew that her first priority had to be getting Twilight to the hospital. She picked her up and began to speed towards the hospital but would be followed by Fluttershy.
Despite flying as fast as she could, Fluttershy had caught up with her and began swooping down trying to stop Luna from getting Twilight to safety. She continued to fly faster but Fluttershy continued to outpace her and right as she reached the hospital, Fluttershy swooped down and blocked the entrance. She gave Luna a scowl and hissed, "Surrender her or I'll kill both of you!"
Luna lit up her horn and yelled, "Never, you bit her once but you shall not bite her again!"
Fluttershy laughed, "Don't worry, this bite won't turn her into a vampony again." Her laugh became more manic as she continued, "This bite will kill her and unless you want to be my next meal, you'll surrender her!"
Luna flared up her horn and struck Fluttershy with energy, causing her to fly off but only long enough for Luna to get Twilight into the hospital. When Luna got her into the ER she yelled, "Help, somepony help! Twilight is suffering from blood loss, somepony help!"
Dr. Hooves and a couple of nurses immediately took her back and immediately began treatment on her. When it was obvious that she had lost a large amount of blood, Hooves ordered that she be given a sufficient amount of poly-HEME to restore sufficient blood flow to prevent organ damage and prevent her from dying.
The night had been terrifying for everypony and while Luna sat out in the waiting room, she could only hope that Twilight would wind up surviving but knew one thing. She knew that regardless of what happened to Twilight, that Fluttershy would have to be dealt with and hopefully she could remove the vampony from her before she killed anypony else.
Two hours had passed when Dr. Hooves came out into the waiting room, approached Luna and said, "Princess Luna your Majesty, you can come back and see Twilight."
Luna nodded and headed back to the room where they had Twilight. Twilight was looking better than she was earlier but she could still tell that Twilight was still not in good shape. Luna grabbed her hoof and said, "I'm sorry this happened Twilight. I feel bad that I couldn't get her off of you sooner."
Twilight replied, "It's alright Princess, you saved me and that is all that matters."
The two then heard a crash and then ponies running around in terror. Luna knew what had happened, she knew that Fluttershy must have gotten into the hospital. While she was expecting to hear somepony screaming in agony as they were being fed on, that was not the case. Luna then began to wonder perhaps if it wasn't something else entirely that was going on.
She would continue to think that until she heard hissing right outside the door. She flared her horn up and suggested, "Twilight, if you can, get behind something. She is out there and I know that she is going to come after you, she wants to finish her meal."
Twilight nodded and hid behind the bed that she was on while Luna stood guard, ready to strike. Both felt a sense of dread as they heard Fluttershy trying to kick the door down. Twilight knew that if she got in and Luna couldn't stop her, that she would not survive. Finally Fluttershy kicked the door down and had a look of hunger in her eyes. She hissed, "Surrender her and I'll let you live!"
Luna yelled, "No, I will not surrender her." She readied herself to strike and yelled, "Stand down and maybe I'll let YOU survive!"
Fluttershy did not take kindly to the comment and charged towards Luna. Luna fired a bolt of energy but would miss and very quickly Fluttershy pounced on her, sank her teeth into her neck and began to feed. Twilight jumped on Fluttershy and tried to pull her off but would wind up getting kicked to the other side of the room. Luna tried to grasp Fluttershy in her aura to remove her but by that point she had grown too weak to even grasp her.
As she continued to feed, something began to happen to Fluttershy. She felt magic begin to flow into her body, she felt herself begin to grow and a horn grew out of her head. When she finally finished Luna off, she had all of her magic flowing through her. She then turned to Twilight and hissed, "And now, I shall finish my meal!"
Twilight was still rather fatigued and worn out from her previous encounter with her but knew that trying to stop her would be better than merely surrendering to her. Twilight powered up her horn but would be unable to stop Fluttershy as she attacked her too quickly. Fluttershy sank her fangs into her neck and began to finish her off. As Twilight was getting weaker, her cries became quieter and right as Fluttershy finished her off, a unicorn doctor got to the room.
He yelled, "You have killed many but that stops here!"
Fluttershy hissed, "Ha, a lowly unicorn stop me? I think not!"
She pounced on him and immediately began to feed. As he was thrashing about and growing weaker he yelled, "We have to get a hold of Princess Cadence, maybe she can stop....."
The doctor then went quiet as Fluttershy finished him off. The rest of the personnel in the hospital that night were earth ponies and they knew that they wouldn't stand a chance. Fluttershy looked out the window and noticed that it was still dark. Given that Luna was no longer alive to move the celestial bodies, she knew that she would no longer have to worry about daylight, she knew that she could hunt and feed at will.
She then decided to leave the hospital and head north into the forest. She knew that they were wanting to get a hold of Cadence and realized that if she could take her out, that there may very well be nothing that could stop her. The first thing running through her mind though was getting some rest so she headed to the castle of the two sisters to rest up before going after Cadence.
Once Fluttershy got to the castle of the Two Sisters, she headed into the bottom most bowels of the place in the event that the Everfree Forest was immune to the magic that Celestia and Luna used to move the sun and moon. Even though she was in the bottom of the old castle, she could tell that it was indeed immune as it began to get a bit light. She quickly hid in a cavern to avoid any kind of light maybe striking her.
She then wrapped her tail around a beam in the ceiling and wrapped her wings around herself before going to sleep. As she hung there, she couldn't help but feel a sense of satisfaction that she had killed many ponies, including one that gave her much stronger powers than anypony else. Her thoughts would then turn to the Crystal Empire and three certain royal ponies that she could wipe out, one in particular that would give her powers beyond imagination.
After many hours of sleep, the vampony woke to notice that the light was fading so she left the castle and took flight to the north. She was unsure exactly how the day/night cycle worked in the Empire but figured that if it was dark in the arctic region outside of the Empire, that it would likely be dark inside the dome as well.
After having to hide in a cave for one night, Fluttershy finally reached the dome and when she crossed through, she saw a tiny bit of light coming from the western horizon and this pleased her. She knew that she would have more than enough time to hunt the royal family and if she was able to wipe them all, she would be able to feed on some of the crystal ponies as well.
That night there was a festival being held in the Empire and the royal family was out mingling with their subjects. Fluttershy licked her chops when she saw them. She then began to wonder which one she should go after first. She knew that Shining Armor was strong physically and likely had powerful magic but given that Cadence was an Alicorn, she set her sights on her first.
As she was flying over the festival, multiple ponies began looking up and wondering what was flying over them since there were no aerial creatures of that size in the Empire, just smaller birds. Finally Fluttershy saw Cadence talking with some other ponies and much to her delight, Shining Armor and Flurry Heart were clear over on the other side of the festival. She began to circle around the princess causing her to look up, "What was that?" she asked.
One of the crystal ponies looked up and asked, "Is that a pony/bat hybrid?"
Cadence looked closer and yelled up, "Fluttershy, is that you?"
Fluttershy let out a hiss before swooping down and knocking Cadence backwards. Immediately she sank her fangs into her and began to feed. She was crying out in pain while the crystal ponies were running away in a panic. This quickly got the attention of Shining Armor. He ran towards her and yelled, "Cadence!"
He would be horrified when he saw what was happening to his wife. He grasped Fluttershy in his aura and ripped her off of her. When he saw her though, he would be shocked to see that no longer was she a pegasus, he saw that she was an Alicorn vampony. While her new form did shock him, it did not lessen his anger or his desire to put her in her place. He began to shake her, "You will NOT kill my wife you vermin!"
Fluttershy shot a bolt of energy out of her horn and hissed, "Vermin? I'll show you vermin!"
She pounced on him and took him down before sinking her fangs into him and beginning to feed. Like Cadence, he was screaming in agony but unfortunately for him, his wife was too weak at this point to even get up, much less use magic to try and at least scare Fluttershy off. Another pony however would be close, Flurry Heart. She was not sure exactly what was happening to her father but she knew that the figure on top of him was causing him harm. She began to fire energy towards Fluttershy but much to her dismay, the vampony put up a protection bubble to make sure she finished her meal.
Once she had finished off Shining Armor, she decided that rather than going to finish off Cadence, that she would attack Flurry Heart. She knew that if she could feed on and kill her, that the magic that would be flowing through her would be immense, so immense that nopony would be able to stop her. She took to the sky and began to pursue the baby Alicorn.
Flurry was firing energy at Fluttershy but given her enhanced senses and agility, Flurry simply couldn't score a hit on her. Fluttershy would then begin firing energy at her as well but like her, Flurry was very agile and would move out of the way before being struck. As she laid there clinging to life, Cadence saw what was going on and said, "Come on Flurry, I know you can do this!"
Fluttershy finally struck her with a powerful bolt of energy, causing her to fall out of the sky. Flurry crashed right next to her mom and was screaming in agony as she had broke a few bones upon impacting the ground. Fluttershy had a sadistic grin on her face as she hissed, "Now to feed on the baby before finishing off the mama!"
Cadence tried to fire some magic at Fluttershy but simply couldn't get her horn to power up. Flurry let out a painful scream as Fluttershy sank her fangs into her and began to feed. As she was drinking the blood of the infant, she could feel immense amounts of magic flowing into her, magic that was making her stronger and stronger. Given her small size, it did not take long for her to fall to the vampony.
Fluttershy then knelt over Cadence and hissed, "And now to finish off the royal family!"
Cadence let out a scream as Fluttershy again began to feed on her. It would not be long until Cadence would fall silent. Fluttershy sniffed her to make sure that she no longer drew breath before doing the same with Flurry Heart and Shining Armor.
Once she confirmed that nopony in the royal family drew breath, she took flight and began to feed on the crystal ponies that had not hid in their homes. She felt on top of the world as she was able to kill pony after pony without even having to worry about a pony with magic trying to stop her. After she had fed on twenty crystal ponies, she saw that it was beginning to get light so she quickly took flight and went into the crystal castle.
She quickly got into an interior room where no light could reach her. She began to wonder if she might be able to wipe out the whole Empire or if she should return to Ponyville to feed on any unicorns that may still be in town. One thing she did notice is that the blood of the crystal ponies was sweet, very sweet. At that moment she decided that rather than heading home, she decided that she would remain in the empire and continue to feed on them until she wiped them all out.
In the realm of the deceased, Cadence, Shining Armor and Flurry Heart had just arrived. Everypony would be shocked and saddened to see them. Twilight was the first to approach them, "You too, Fluttershy killed you too?"
Cadence replied, "Yes she did. Her powers were already great but after she fed on Flurry Heart, she now has natural born Alicorn powers too." She became sadder and continued, "I am afraid now that she'll be able to feed on who she wants, when she wants."
Luna approached them and added, "And now, unless she decides to learn how to handle the celestial bodies, Equestria will freeze in an eternal darkness."
One pony would be listening though, LaurFa. She was not thrilled that Fluttershy took the lives of all the Alicorns and those of so many others. She approached them and brought up something she could do, "Well I could go down to earth and try and defeat her."
Everypony turned her way and Celestia asked, "Could you do that? Can you take on a physical form to defeat her?"
LaurFa replied, "Yes, I can. While she may be powerful, she would be no match against me. While I would normally never suggest doing this to anypony or any other creature, I could kill her for the crimes she has committed."
Everypony began to look among one another and most of them had unsure looks on their faces, with the exception of one. Luna asked, "If you do kill her, what will happen with her spirit."
LaurFa let out a sigh, "Well this is another thing I would never want to do but with her, I would have no other choice than to completely destroy her spirit." She saw looks of sadness form upon everypony and continued, "Even in spirit form, she would be in her vampony form and could very well feed on the spirits of us if I allowed her up here."
Twilight would suggest, "What about Tartarus? Rather than destroying her spirit, you could cast it in there."
LaurFa shook her head, "That wouldn't work Twilight. Tartarus was made to contain living villains. As a spirit, she would simply be able to pass straight through the doors and could find her way up here."
Rarity, despite Fluttershy having killed so many, did not want to see LaurFa kill her friend. She asked, "LaurFa, could you simply remove the vampony from her and let her live. I just feel like by killing her, that would make all of us no better than she is right now."
LaurFa gave her a smile, "You know Rarity, that would be another option." She turned to Twilight and continued, "While your spell on her ultimately didn't work, my powers far surpass that of anypony else so I think I could save her." She then turned to the crowd and said, "Raise your hooves if you want me to simply try and remove the vampony from her."
Everypony except one raised their hooves. She then continued, "Raise your hooves if you want me to kill her and destroy her spirit."
Luna would be the only one to raise her hoof and object to sparing her, "Everypony, how could you want her to be spared? She has killed so many and I honestly don't think the evil from her can be purged. I don't think anything short of death will stop her." She then raised another concern, "And what will happen if she was to feed on and kill you? What if she fed on you and got your powers?"
The very fact that anypony would suggest her being defeated did not sit well with her, "Princess Luna, I am a goddess, I can defeat her easily and if I have to, I'll just raise the sun and kill her that way. I won't leave it up too long and roast the Empire but if I can expose her to sunlight, it will do what it does to any type of vampire creature, it will kill them."
Cadence immediately spoke up when she brought up the Empire, "What, she is still in the Crystal Empire? If you leave the sun up for too long there, it will roast everypony! It isn't like the rest of Equestria, days and nights can not be any longer than they are supposed to be."
LaurFa threw her hooves up in the air, "Look, a little bit of heat will be a small price to pay to stop this." She raised her voice and added, "If I don't find one way or another to stop her, every single pony up there will be dead and you don't want that do you?"
Cadence sighed, "Well no. Maybe you could chase her into the castle and try to handle her in there."
LaurFa nodded, "I could." She then lit up her horn and continued, "Well everypony, wish me luck. I am a goddess but even this won't be easy for me."
Celestia would ask one final question, "Goddess LaurFa, I know you don't think she can feed on and kill you but still, what if she was to?"
LaurFa flared her horn up in anger and yelled, "Look, she can't kill me, ok."
LaurFa calmed down and then began the trip down to the Crystal Empire. While she was heading down to the earth, she began to wonder what would happen if Celestia and Luna were making good points. She began to wonder what would happen if Fluttershy caught her off guard and succeeded in killing her. As she neared the Empire, shivers began to run up and down her spine as she began to feel a sense of dread that Fluttershy may not be as easy to defeat as she thought.
Darkness was beginning to set in on the Empire and all was quiet. Once the sun was fully below the horizon, Fluttershy headed out onto the balcony to see if there was anypony out and about, anypony that she could turn into her next meal. Much to her displeasure, nopony at all was out and about. She noticed that many houses had their lights on and realized that if she wanted a meal that she would have to break in to get them.
"Pfft....they are nothing more than sparkly earth ponies. Getting in and eating them will be easy as pie."
As she readied herself to take flight towards a nearby house, she saw a bright light in the sky. She initially was unsure as to what it was but soon began to feel a sense of dread. She began to think that there was perhaps one thing that could defeat her and whatever that bright light was, that it could be that light. She would then become very nervous when she saw something that shouldn't be happening, dawn approaching. She wasn't sure why it was happening but knew that the approaching light likely had something to do with it.
She rushed into the palace but unlike she did earlier, she did not go into an interior room. She had heard about how one time Twilight used her magic to open a chasm into a dark abyss that existed when King Sombra ruled the Empire. She headed into the throne room and used her magic on the throne to reveal the passage. She knew that if whatever it was that she felt was hunting her saw it, that it would come down after her. Down there though, she felt like she would be most likely to be able to take it on.
LaurFa continued to search the palace, searching in every interior room that she could but was finding no trace of the vampony she sought. She knew that she couldn't be in a majority of the rooms as most of them had windows that would allow daylight to shine in and kill her. She then began to wonder about the throne room since it had no east facing windows. When she arrived, she saw the chasm and exclaimed, "That has to be it! She has to be down there!"
LaurFa began to walk down the stairs, unsure of what exactly to expect. She knew that she would likely be attacked but given the confined space that they would be in, she knew that the advantage would clearly be hers. She did not want to kill Fluttershy though, she wanted to go through with the wishes of most of the vampony's friends' wishes and try and remove the vampony before taking more drastic measures.
When she got to the bottom of the chasm, she saw Fluttershy there, with her horn glowing pink and a look of hunger in her eyes. She flared up her horn but rather than attacking, she decided she would address her instead, "Fluttershy, you have killed many, many ponies. You have more blood on your hooves than any soldier but I come to you on behalf of your friends, I have come here to save you."
Fluttershy was a bit suspicious of what the white Alicorn was hinting at but decided to humor her. She hissed, "Oh?"
LaurFa continued, "Yes. Princess Luna seems to think that I should just kill you but the others want me to try to save you." LaurFa then gave her a warm smile and added, "For your own good, let me spare you. Let me remove the vampony from you and you will be spared and face no punishment."
Fluttershy was having a hard time believing her but she then began to think that she could use this to her advantage. The Alicorn in front of her did look very tasty and figured that if she could get her to let her guard down, that she could feed on her. Fluttershy hissed, "Very well, you may remove the vampony from me."
LaurFa gave her another warm smile before staring straight into Fluttershy's eyes. Her horn gave a gentle glow as she readied herself to cast the proper spell. Fluttershy would keep a close eye on her though and once it appeared that she would be easy prey, she pounced. Fluttershy pounced on top of her, knocking her backwards. She then bore her fangs and sank them into LaurFa.
As she was feeding on her, she began to feel massive amounts of magic flowing into her body. The magic she was feeling was unlike what she got out of Luna and Twilight, it was something much stronger. She then felt a tingle as a special kind of magic flowed into her before she would be thrown. LaurFa gave her a glare and yelled, "So you have chosen the route of death."
Fluttershy blasted her with a powerful bolt of magic before flying up the chasm back to the throne room. She then cast the proper spell to hide the stairway into the chasm but would not be pleased when LaurFa burst through the floor. LaurFa knew that the time had come to take Fluttershy down and decided she would use sunlight to do so. She blasted a hole in the wall, revealing the outdoors. She began firing energy at the vampony and was able to chase her outside. Much to LaurFa's dismay, the sunlight was doing absolutely nothing to Fluttershy.
Fluttershy hissed, "You fool, you stupid fool! Once I drank some of your blood, I got some of your magic." She then fired a powerful bolt of magic at LaurFa and laughed, "And now you must die!"
The two began firing powerful bolts of energy at one another. Neither was paying attention where their energy was going and the homes of many crystal ponies were being destroyed. They all came out and began to yell at the two to stop it. Their yells would go unheard though as there was only one thing running through their minds, taking down their opponent.
Once the two got closer to the castle, Fluttershy unleashed multiple bolts of energy. One struck LaurFa and knocked her to the ground. The others hit the bottom of the palace and it began to collapse. LaurFa quickly got up and got out of the way so that her death would not come at the hands of a collapsing palace. When it finally collapsed, all of the crystal ponies began to shout angrily at the two, particularly Fluttershy since it was mostly her fault.
Again their yells would go unheard as they continued to focus on one another. Fluttershy would soon shoot LaurFa out of the sky and immediately landed on her and began to feed again. LaurFa's screams were more painful than before and the crystal ponies watched in horror as the white Alicorn became weaker and weaker. Finally she let out one final whimper before she breathed her last.
Fluttershy sniffed her to make sure that she was indeed dead but knew that LaurFa was no ordinary pony, she knew that simply sucking her dry may not be enough. She bit into her chest and began to tear her open. She did know that one thing needed to be done to make sure she was good and dead, her heart had to be removed. She continued to feast on her meat until she exposed the internal organs. She then took the heart and ripped it out of her body, causing the body to let out one final spasm.
She began to eat the heart and it was likely the tastiest thing she had ever eaten and once she finished the heart, she let out a triumphant hiss, "Now I can feed when I want, where I want and on who I want!"
She then licked her chops and immediately began to feed on the crystal ponies one by one. As she was feeding, she wondered whether she should perhaps only feed on one a day or simply kill them all in a matter of a couple of days before turning all of Equestria into one giant buffet. She got a smile on her face and hissed, "I'll eat them all quickly, I have a whole country to devour!"
