Darkness swirled and flowed through my mind in a steady stream. Its calm embrace condensed into a void that seemed to wash away nearly all thought and feeling. Time soon became unknowable or even meaningless as I floated in this sea of nothing. But eventually something happened that seemed to beat back the silence if only for a moment. It was muffled and unintelligible as it were being yelled from a great distance away. I could not discern any of the words, but they seemed to be in some sort of frantic tone. And then when I faintly sensed my body move and jerk without me willing it so the muffled and frantic words increased in frequency.

This however was all that I knew before the darkness crept up on my mind again as I slipped back into nothingness. Time soon shifted by in an unknowable span before the noises returned. But instead this time there were no words. There was nothing but a quiet weeping coming from somewhere and a repetitive "beep" of some type. A beep that seemed to follow a pattern I should have known but could not remember. Like a fleeting thought it eluded me until the darkness of my mind returned once more.

Then like before I slipped away yet again only to return to my muffled senses. And again I was met with that same repeating beep. My thoughts eventually began to clear and condense until I realized it was following my heartbeat. Then just as if a switch had turned on, reality pulled at me like some sort of forceful jolt.

My eyes snapped wide open but I could see nothing but blurry imagines. Panic soon set in because I could not seem to breathe properly either. Something was covering my mouth. I fought with my barely responding body but I managed to pull some sort of tube away from my face before gasping for breath. But the long deep intakes of air only succeeded in forcing me into a coughing fit.

And so I coughed and choked for a few minutes before my vision began to clear. And it was then did I realize that I was wrapped from head to hoof in cloth bandages. Each one partially soaked with my own black blood. And it also looked as if somepony had attempted to remove some of them, perhaps to replace them, only to hastily put them back where they were. But this by far was the not the more unnerving of the sights.

No, the object that took that title was the strange collar that I wore. A collar that possessed two small tubes coming off of it that seemed to contain more of my blood for some reason. In understandable revulsion to this I was about to pull it off of me until I realized where the other ends of the tubes went, a matching collar on the limp body of Twilight.

Her breathing was shallow and I could barely sense her heartbeat. My only guess as to whoever did this did so in an effort to sustain me in some manner, or more likely sustain her. A hard knot formed in my stomach at this thought. I was obviously not able to recharge her death energy supply for who knows how long. And while I wanted to do so now I could not seem to muster the strength. I needed to feed and soon for both our sakes.

Luckily by sheer chance there were a few unopened blood cylinders to my left to which I could take advantage of. So with shaky forehooves I reached for them before draining two of said cylinders in quick succession. Then with partially renewed strength I was about to draw in death energy from the environment when something felt off.

It seemed the area was depleted of such energy and it puzzled me until I looked at the end of my bed. And there floated three black rotating crystals. The markings on them indicated that they each possessed a specialized absorption enchantment to harness death energy for some reason. But what was even more puzzling was that each crystal looked to be nearly at the limits of their storage. Black lightening threatened to escape every few seconds only to be drawn back in.

"Why would anypony setup absorption crystals around me in my obviously weakened state? It would seem quite counter-intuitive for my recovery would it not?" I questioned but could not fathom a valid answer. However, I did not have the time to ponder such a quandary as I needed a recharge. Or more precise, Twilight needed one. So without wasting another second I plucked one of the crystals out of the air and placed it on the bed in front of me.

A hard swallow soon followed in response to what I was about to do. I could not risk injecting so much energy into Twilight all at once. I would need something to act as a conduit and regulator to prevent overloading her body. And unfortunately there was only one resource I had at my disposal for such a task, my own body. Such a truly dreadful endeavor if there ever was one, but I had little other option. So with a deep sigh I placed my right forehoof on Twilight's chest and my left on the blackened crystal.

The effect of doing so was instantaneous. The crystal so overloaded with death energy more than easily relinquished it...all at once. An arc of black lightening raced up my foreleg and withered all the bandages on it along the way. It then fractured all along my body causing my muscles to lock up tight from sheer agony before forking down my other foreleg into Twilight.

Her eyes snapped open as if her unconscious mind knew what was about to happen before it did. And not even a second later a horrible squirming writhe overtook her as her mouth became locked in a silent scream. Then as quickly as it started the energy was cut off, the crystal's stored fury had been spent.

I collapsed back to the bed unable to do much else but struggle to breathe and blink every so often. My body's vampiric regeneration had jumped started and I could feel myself being mended. And soon parts of me I did not even know were injured had begun to painfully rebuild at a feverish pace.

In turn this nightmarish out of control regeneration continued for a solid twenty minutes before it ceased. And all throughout I believe I may have screamed just about every obscenity and curse my mind possessed. In fact I very well may have created new ones along the way with chaotic efficiency.

Ultimately I just laid there staring at the ceiling above my bed until Twilight let out a ragged cough. And at first I thought she had woken up given the nature of what I had done. But when she still remained unconscious I began to worry. Panic soon began to creep up in my mind but I managed to stifle it back enough to quickly place an ear on her chest. Then a few seconds later I let out a sigh of relief as I heard a strong heartbeat coming from her in addition to her stabilized breathing.

However this was not enough. She may have been in better shape than before, but her full recovery seemed to be hindered. No matter how much energy I pumped into her body, without fresh blood to accompany it she could easily slip back into danger once more. And while in a just world I would have let her siphon some blood off of me through the collar we wore, but this was not to be. For it seem that my little "stunt" I pulled as it were somehow fundamentally broke that solution.

I took a deep breath as I gazed at the tubes that ran between us. When once they were connected and flowed freely now they appeared to have been overloaded by the infusion of energy I let loose and crystallized. The blood inside them was scorched and rendered useless. So with a deep sigh I uncoupled the collars from our necks before I dragged Twilight onto my lap.

I then opened her mouth and said, "I do not have much to spare but I please take what you need. Please come back to me Twilight...please," before unwrapping my right foreleg. Afterwards I sucked in a quick breath as I pierced my flesh with her fangs. A small stream of my black blood flowed out of the twin wounds and into her mouth.

And for a few seconds nothing happened, but eventually her body began to respond. Her lips soon covered the wounds as she lapped at the blood. But when her fangs slowly drove in deeper I felt my own pointed tongue begin to lull out of my mouth as I got lost in the feeling. Her venom coursed through me and shattered what little will I had remaining. And while at first I was worried of losing too much in this embrace, now I cared very little. But just when my vision began to turn blurry I felt a hoof on the side of my face. A groan of displeasure soon followed from my lips as Twilight pulled her fangs out.

I then saw Twilight opened her eyes and looked up at me with a weak smile before she stated, "Don't ever do anything so stupid like that again. I don't know how many more times I can save you."

The effects of her venom had begun to fade before I replied with, "Given the circumstances...Princess...I believe we are about equal..."

She made a grimace in response to me calling her by her title. But before she could speak again I kissed her. A kiss that she began to lean up into further and further until she was on top of me in the bed. My heartbeat soon sped up and the strange device still next to me seemed to increase its frequency of beeps in reply. And in a odd and bizarre type of way it seemed to only intensify Twilight's efforts.

Each new act she committed on me only served to force that poor heartbeat monitor to work that much harder. And it increased more and more until with a mischievous smile Twilight lifted herself up and pushed me inside of her. That however was the "last straw" if you will before the device began to squeal in some sort of high pitched warning. We however did not care in the least. In fact in some distorted version of pleasure we both seemed to quicken our efforts partially to see just how far that machine could go before it malfunctioned.

Though much to our amusement this eventually brought about an interesting situation. For after not even a few minutes of the heartbeat monitor going more or less unhinged a pair of nurses burst into the room. They then started yelling something about cardiac arrest or some such before it dawned on them of what was happening. And with only a small amount of focus I had to spare it did not take much effort to see their faces go from panic to three different shades of bright red.

Neither uttered a singled word as one of them walked over and turned off the heartbeat monitor with a switch on the wall. Afterwards right as the device shutdown the other nurse stated in obvious desperation to remain professional, "Erm yes...as you were" before they promptly left. And while I admit these words would have been normally more valid if we had actually stopped our "activities" throughout all this. Which given the amount of stress we seemed to have possessed we surely did not.

Afterwards we laid on our backs attempting to catch our breath right before Twilight put her hooves over her face. What muffled words she spoke under them that I could understand were, "I can't believe we did that...those two nurses just came in and I just kept riding him. It even somehow made it better...what in Tartarus is wrong with me? Sweet Celestia the rumors are never going to stooooop uuugh."

I in turn looked around the room uncomfortably not stating a word in reply. For what was seemingly pleasurable not but a few minutes ago actually became rather embarrassing. I do know that hormones and stress can indeed get the better of one at times, but having a temporary audience seemed somewhat taboo. I mean I have heard stories of such things around the palace but I never believed I would be the one putting on the "show" as it were. Needless to say I eventually just resigned myself to stating, "Weeell that happened. I...erm...yes indeed...we should probably start moving yes? Surely the others will be interested to hear about our recovery."

Twilight just picked up a pillow and stuffed it over her face in reply. She then let out a long muffled groan before her equally muffled voice kept stating "The rumors are never going to stoooooooop...the girls are going to tease me fooooorevvverrrr..."

However after a few more minutes of awkwardness we finally got moving. We then finished off the blood cylinders the nurses seemed to have left us before we exited the room. Neither of us said a word to each other as we did this. Luckily though it did not take long before I found something to take our minds off what had happened. And by that I meant the strange signs that surrounded our room door and the hallways.

But what made this situation stranger was that they all stated the same message, "Quarantine! Dangerous energies ahead! Proceed with extreme caution!" And what made it more puzzling was that the entire hallway was also deserted. Even the rooms near us were all empty. What nurses we did see at the end of the hallway seemed to be avoiding this section like a plague outbreak had happened.

"Hmm do you have any insight on what this is all about?" I said as we began walking.

Twilight shook her head. "My head hurts too much to think. Everything is all fuzzy and scrambled," she said as she began holding a forehoof to her right temple.

I shook my head also trying to remember anything myself, but it seemed there was nothing of usefulness coming to mind. In turn with little else to go by I figured we should work our way towards the Lunar Wing and find the Night Court meeting room. Perhaps then we could find some answers to what had happened in our absence.

And while I would have liked to have a moment to think while we walked I began to notice something troubling. Every soldier or servant that we passed along our way looked to be in a state of demoralization. Most barely even lifted their heads when we passed by them. And while I have seen this place in rough times before in the past this gloom that settled in here was troubling. But I soon shook those thoughts out of my mind as I focused on the task at hoof. And besides, when we locate the princesses they surely would be able to illuminate what was happening.

In turn we sped up our pace and located the dominating obsidian doors of Luna's Night Court. However there was something strange about them in that one of them appeared to be a tad ajar. Usually when meetings of some sort were in session they were firmly shut. Probably to prevent prying eyes and ears I assume. But given that there appeared to be a discourse going on behind them it would indicate that indeed there was meeting. 'Maybe it is something informal,' I thought as I pushed the partially ajar door open fully.

This action however was immediately met with the thoroughly inebriated Luna slurring out, "Black Wing *hic* wake thyself *hic*. The servants have retrieved *hic* more spirits *hic* for us," But when she realized who had walked in, the bottle she was holding fell out of her hooves. She then blinked a few times before rubbing her eyes and added, "Well well well look who decided to shooOOOOowww *hic* their faces...please...please be real this time *hic*."

I did not know what I was looking at when we walked in. This room was generally was quite neat and organized. Not difficult given it just had several identical chairs, a dominating obsidian table, and a few light sources. But this time almost every chair was knocked over and only some of the light sources were actually lit. And to make matters worse was the air in here was so saturated with the scent of alcohol that I assumed it was about to reach the point of combustibility.

"What in Equestia is going on here?!" Me and Twilight seemed to state in near unison.

"WHO SAID THAT?!" Black Wing snapped up in her chair. She then wobbled a little bit before looking at me and Twilight. Her golden eyes appeared bloodshot and it seemed to take a few moments to register in her mind of what she was gazing at. Red tears then dripped down her face as said croaked out, "You...you two live? I...this cannot be real...with everything going wrong I never thought."

Then without warning she broke into sobs before Luna began holding her. Luna then took a ragged breath before slurring out, "Please...forgive *hic* Black Wing. She has not *hic* slept well in...hmmmm *hic* I do not recall when she truly had slept."

Twilight frowned and looked at me. I just glanced at her in return before pursing my lips. It seemed whatever happened here was not what one could call "good" news. But just before we were about to inquire further we heard somepony say something behind us.

"So...the rumors are true," the voice said before we saw Celestia walk into the room. And surprisingly she looked about as head strong and full of vitality as she usually did. Though this appeared to be little more than a facade. For when she fully walked in and closed the door behind her nearly every ounce of regalness she had possessed quickly drained out. Her eyes had bags upon bags and looked as if she had slept nearly as little as Black Wing and Luna. However what made it worse was when she sat down across the table from her sister. For as she did so she reached for the bottle next to Luna before sliding it to herself. She then put it to her lips and took several long draughts before placing it back down.

Twilight did not hesitate after Celestia did this. She had walked over and sat next to her before placing a wing over her back. Celestia soon did the same in kind to Twilight before tears began to well in her eyes. She then sniffed a few times before stating, "I'm sorry I should be giving you two the proper attention you deserve. We really thought you both would never wake up again and I nearly lost all hope. But here you two are looking better than us and for that I am grateful."

I soon took a seat at the table as I let her words sink in. I then began to scan to room again. Bottles were scattered all over the table. Most were empty or nearly so. Any food left appeared to be hastily consumed or not at all. And then upon looking further I realized that Black Hammer was with us too, but he had appeared to have fallen out of his chair. His current status seemed to be sleeping off whatever stupor he was in on the floor.

"How...how long have we been absent? And what happened to cause this much despair?" I questioned in a somber tone.

Luna however was the only one to respond to my inquiry. "You two have been *hic* absent for nearly a fortnight. Much has happened in that span *hic* and not a grand amount of it *hic* uplifting. For you see *hic* we all spent nearly all this time *hic* burying the dead with proper honors. Well *hic* what remained of them anyway. We had lost *hic* so many defeating the rogue vampires and lycans *hic* that we are on course to little more than a Pyrrhic victory *hic* after this is all over. In fact at our current standing *hic* we may not even achieve that," she said as she continued holding Black Wing.

"I...I did not realize things have gotten so dire," I commented, but just as I about to state something else Celestia began to speak again.

"'Dire' unfortunately is only the start. To clarify most of my solar channelers I had left had defected to that damned Solar Burn after the last battle. And to make matters worse our scouts have finally tracked where that little traitor has setup his base of operations," she said after taking another draught from her bottle.

"What?! We finally had discovered where he had been hiding all this time?! Why are we not knocking down his front door?!" I said almost shouting.

Celestia looked at Twilight and then back again at me before she slid the bottle she possessed across the table. She then kept sliding it until it rested within my reach. Afterwards she took a deep breath before stating, "Even if we had the soldiers to launch a full onslaught there's something you should know. Solar Burn holed himself up in the one place we thought he would never go back to. The very place where I dug you out of that a pile of rubble with my own two hooves...your old home."

Next Chapter: Chapter 48: Ending the Reign of a Sunlit Betrayer: Part 2 Estimated time remaining: 42 Minutes