The Taken was the first to make it’s move, casually sidestepping clockwise. Surefire returned in kind with a meticulously closed, guarded stance moving counter. The two rotated around the half-illuminated light of the dropped torch, circling around the whimpering girl.
“And another falls for the foal’s cries, like a fly to a web!” The monster sneered.
“You find your sick little game amusing?”
“I find it amusing that after all this time, you still fall for the same old trappings. Compassion. kindness. The hope you all will not bend a knee to Mother Luna at the end of it all .... The classics. You hold on to these weaknesses as if they have value... as if they do anything other than hinder you.”
The Taken scoffed.
“Your most damning, betraying emotion of all is the fear. You’re all rank with it. How long did you honestly think you could hide your stench from us?”
“I’m not afraid of you.” Surefire muttered through the copper hammer’s handle.
“Now, now. This one doesn't need to be psychic to know that simply isn’t true.” The monster smiled with an all-knowing bastard grin. “You fools. Can you not see the gift of joining Mother Luna? There is no fear, no pain, no mortality. Just a million voices, singing in a single, beautiful harmony! Join us, won’t you? What every false prophet and corrupt politician ever slithered into your ear, Mother Luna gives freely.” The Taken hissed with green venom. “And Luna, - She - She Dvines us purpose, intertwines our souls into one, makes us whole! She - How can one explain music to the deaf? Imagine a dark heaven, where every soul shares the same form and function. Same purpose. Truly united in ways you'll never know. It'll be much, much less painlesss.”
“Sounds like a beautiful democracy, where everyone has a vast amount of individual freedom and choice. And ‘Mother’ Luna’s sound campaign of murder-the-inferior-heathens makes me very confident in her leadership. No, no. I’d rather fight to the bitter end, than give up my right to choose what that end will be.”
“You say it like we stole your way of life from you. When you, in fact, did that yourselves with your little war. No matter. I gave you your chance. If Luna can’t have you, your broken body will suffice. I’d like to know it’s name first, though. It calls itself...” The monster asked curiously, peering into his mind. “Ah, Surefire, It’s been far too long..” The monster said with a tone of familiarity. “But what is it doing here? Is it trapped, has it been locked away in these caves? It’s ... It’s in charge around here! My my, ponykind is desperate indeed!” The Taken made a series of hyena-like laughs. “How long does it think it can keep the charade up? Before they find out what it really is?”
“Enough.”
“Do you seek atonement? Is that what you're after? For what? For receiving such a Gift from Mother Luna for your tireless service to her? Your gift of vampirism? No matter what you do, You can never truly ‘be’ one of them. Your heart can never ‘beat’ like one of theirs. You will always be the monster, hunted by them. Why would something like you gave a damn about the very thing that hunts you like sport? Oaaah, It’s the guilt isn’t it? Guilt for having a hand in Nightmare Moon’s great purge. It’s the fact that I should be calling you ‘Sir’ that haunts you isn't it.”
Surefire came unhinged with a roar and wildly swung at the dark mass. The Taken took the opportunity to shrink back, grasped the hammer by the head and dragged him into the dark with the weapon.The Taken grabbed Surefire and slammed a fore hoof into his stomach repeatedly, breaking at least two false ribs with each strike. Surefire coughed up a lungs worth of blood, shifted his weight to reverse the hold and a with a throw sent the living shadow tumbling into the torch. As it entered the sphere of light it bubbled and broiled and screamed, It smashed out the torch with a hoof fearfully.
The red colt took the respite to recover the hammer. His eyes constrained into unnatural serpentine slits. Even bathed in the dark, he could see his enemy as clear as day.
“Did you think the dark was your ally alone? I was a creature of the night before you plague victims even drew breath! I was one of Luna’s Immortal Bodyguard while Celestia was still alive, Foal!"
“I know who you were. We all know who you were. You were the best of us, yet you renounced her. Why?!”
“She has gone insane!”
“She’s restoring sovereignty and order to a broken, ruthless world! Isn’t that what you want!?”
“Not like this! Not at this price!” Surefire frothed.
Surefire gritted his teeth and swung again. His hammer slammed into the stalagmite behind it.
“ Tsk, Tsk. Too slow.” The Taken Grinned.
Surefire took a headbutt to the skull, fracturing it. He exhales heavily and stumbles. The Taken casually walks over to the hammer.
“Just take a bite out of the girl, Vampire. She’ll die no matter how this plays out. Make defeating a war hero like yourself a little more challenging, at least . . .”
Surefire looks at the girl with a desperate hunger in his eyes.
“No!” he shouts.
The taken magically grabs the hammer and flings it down on the unicorn’s leg, shattering the bone apart. The pony cries out as he falls over in a heap. The Taken sets the hammer’s head on the cavern floor, and grabs Surefire’s mane with it’s teeth. With what could be described as gentle care, it puts his head underneath the hammer’s handle.
“I’ll ask you, one more time, since you knew Mother Luna personally. Come back. Come back to your Wife, Come back to your daughter. They are with us, they miss you.”
Surefires eyes lit white hot.
“ You lie. ”
“I’m Afraid not, they one with Luna now-”
The Taken gazed down at the broken colt and gave a look of disappointment. “ I expected more from a fabled commander, said to cut trough swaths of the Celestial Army like paper. Starved of blood, Magic-less, cut down by a few blows. Pathetic."
It pressed the hammer on the side of Surefire's head, guaranteeing a solid and clean blow. The Taken raised the hammer and arched back.
Surefire pulled out his final, desperate card to play. He grabbed the Taken's leg and concentrated hard.
With the lightning fast sputtering of an Incantation, The Taken and Surefire trade places with a teleportation spell. The Taken's smug face was caved in by a hammer now in Surefire's hooves. He let out a deep shout of pain from the pressure put on his broken leg and leans on the hammer as a crutch. Followed by nervous little gasps from his brush from death.
" I *ugh* may be horn-less, but I'm not magic-less." He said, looking at his hoof. "Not just yet."
He hobbled around some more on his bum leg, muttering over and over. He looked over at the corpse, He kept muttering to himself 'Don't need it, I don't- I don't need-' until his will gave out. His eyes rolled back in his head as he caves in.
Dropping down on his four knees, he starts consuming the dark oily substance the Taken consisted of, ripping it apart with his long vampiric canines. He tore at the corpse like a frenzied animal who had been devoid of prey for far too long. For every rip, slash, tear and bite, a wound on his his body healed a little more. He sat there in the dark, feasting away until there was nothing left but some gristle.
He looked up, long black strands of Taken running from his mouth, to see the little girl hyperventilating in the dark.
As he moved towards her, she recoiled.
"A-Are you one of the Monsters?" She asked with a twinge of fear. "Are you going to eat me?"
"Me? No. Well, yes. I'm a monster. But I'm a monster that scares the other monsters." He said in a calm tone. "And I'm certainly not going to eat you. I curbed that habit a long time ago."
Her breathing slowed into something a little more normal. "W-What happens now?"
"Now, I need some help. Can you help me help you get back to the fort?"
" I - I don't know if I can H-help. . . I can't even see . . ."
"You are a unicorn. Can you cast some light? That can help."
" I - I don't know any magic. . ."
" Don't know magic? " Surefire pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. " That's O.K." He said in an patronizing, overtly-positive tone. " You're going to get a crash course then! Magic is simple. Magic, If nothing, is a compromise. Ever heard the term equivalent exchange? Of course not. you're ten. It's transferring energy from one form to another. I - I need you to concentrate on something, A Memory or a feeling that made you feel happy and warm, a 'spark'. And I need you to think about this cave, maybe the local plants to sap energy from. the 'tinder'. I need you to concentrate like your life depends on it."
She scrunched up her face and she managed to create a weak flicker.
"Good! That's the principal. That magic can even make the monsters go away for a little while. As long as you're running from one or two . . ."
Surefire notices they are not alone. Two sets of White, ethereal pulpiless Taken eyes. "As long as there's one or two . . ."
Another four sets come from the black. "Not seven or eight . . . "
Another twenty, another forty, another hundred ethereal eyes. ". . . We're safe."
"I need you to help me." He said in a very grim tone. " The path back home is directly behind me. I need you to run home as fast as you can, as bright as you can. I need you to tell the Military captain a message: " Surefire says Nightmare Moon has found us. It's time to pack up and run. Defend the cave barracks. Buy everypony as much time as you can."
"T-That's alot, I don't think I can remember it all!"
"What do you want girl, a quill?" Surefire snapped. "Run!"
She nods and starts to head off when she notices Surefire isn't following her.
"Aren't you coming?" she asked.
" No. " he said, magically lifting the hammer, his vampiric powers restored. " I need to stay here and do my job, you need to do you yours, and the ponies uptop need to do theirs. Now go."
"But-"
"Go!" he shouted. He watched her leave, then turned to his audience. "Well? Wan't to prove to Mother Luna you're a badass? Want to put me on your trophy wall?" Bat-like Wings ripped out of his back, his canines grew exponentially, and his gold eyes menaced with cold, reptilian slits.
"Here I am."
Captian Surefire, -30 - 253
Author
Topic: My Little Descent into Madness [Succession List Open] (Read 9003 times)