Chapter 4

                                                                                        Dragon's Blood

                                  "You can teach somepony how to kill and when to kill but the second you give them the knife. Yep they fall on it."

                                                                                                                                                                     Pumpkin Cake

It was just after dawn when Flash Sentry, Moondancer, Spike, and Moondancer’s two Shades when they left Ravenhoof and made their way to Whiteraod near the Whitetail woods. Dustwind had left the night before to gather Flash Sentry’s forces and had agreed to meet them there. The sky was overcast and there was a chill in the air signifying winter was well in its way. Moondancer shivered as a cold breeze swept over her.

“A little chilly huh?” Flash said.

“Hate the cold,” grunted Monndancer sending a sideways glare the orange pegasus’ way.

Flash chuckled but kept his eyes forward. Ahead of them Spike walked flanked by the other two cloaked ponies. Flash then glanced at the annoyed mare, “So tell me how did you end up following him?”

She shrugged, “Fate.”

Flash gave her a confused look but she continued on. “I snuck into the caverns below Canterlot Castle to find gold and gems but I found something much more valuable.” Moondancer looked Flash right in the eyes. “I found the true heir to the throne.”

Flash stopped died in his tracks at that and gave her an incredulous look.

“You’re kidding right.”

Moondancer narrowed her eyes at him,” My family has served Celestia since before the Nightmare War and we remember what few do not that Celestia had no foals but she adopted Spike when he hatched and raised him as her own that makes him her heir.”

“So that’s the real reason behind him wanting House Moon and Stars torn down.”

Moondancer shook her head,” No political power is not Spike’s goal; he cares little for the throne. Even went so far as to deny his claim to it.”

Flash was about to respond when a horrid stench hit his muzzle. It was the smell of blood and death.  The others smelt it as well and they made their way toward it and what they were met with was a truly gruesome scene to say the least. To the right of the dirt road they were on was a supple train that looked as though it had been hit by a raid. The carriages were torn apart rendered unusable.

There were bodies strewn about many mangled beyond recognition. One body though was hanging on a tree nearby. It was a pegasus stallion his wings had been ripped off and he’d been gutted and hung by his own intestines.  Hahaha had been carved into his chest. His eyes were still open portraying the fear the pegasus must have been feeling when he died.

Spike blanched at the scene and took a step back in disgust. Flash and Moondancer though were unfazed by this though: Flash for his experience with battle and Moondancer for an entirely different reason.

“Looks like a Stormwing supply train,” Flash said examining one of the carriages,” I’d say it was hit by a raid but the supplies are still here untouched.”

Moondancer mover toward the strung up body and cut it loose. It hit the ground with a wet thud.

“That’s because this wasn’t a raid this was a massacre.”

“You’ve seen this before?” The orange pegasus sked.

“Yes this is the Cult of Laughter’s hoofwork.” Moondancer turned to the other two cloaked unicorns.” Set up a parameter and if you find anyone you know what to do.” The pair nodded and disappeared into the brush.

Moondancer glanced Spike’s way and noticed his disgust by the scene before them,” My lord are you alright?”

“I’ll be alright just give me a moment.”

“Surprising to see a dragon sick at the sight of blood.”

Spike glared at Flash Sentry,” There’s a big difference between hunting and this.” He said gesturing to the bodies around them.  

Flash Sentry rolled his eye and went up to the stallion Moondancer had cut down.

“Can’t be a day over eighteen; a colt really. May the gods guide him in the afterlife.”  Flash said closing the hoplite’s eyes.

“Didn’t take you for a religious pony.” Moondancer said with a smirk.

“Not really religious but it helps hoping there is something better to move onto when you’re starin’ death in the face on a regular basis.”

Just then the pair of unicorns Moondancer had sent out burst onto the road followed shortly by a  large worm carrying itself on a box. It walked on a tri off bladed legs and moved surprisingly quick considering it mode of locamotion.

It opened its grinning maw full of serrated teeth and snapped at one of the unicorns who barely dodged as his companion sent a dagger wrapped in a levitation spell speeding toward the abomination which it deflected with a claw. Moondancer sped toward the beast while Flash Sentry grabbed a nearby spear and took to the sky. Flash began to dive bomb the grinning worm as Moondancer and the cloaked unicorns began berating it with magic needles. Spike was about to rush in to help when his leg was grabbed. He turned to see one of the corpses, now sporting a malicious grin, had come to life. Spike unleashed a gout of toxic green flame from his maw effectively incinerating the body, turning to ash.

“Moondancer, Sentry the bodies are coming to life be careful,” the dragon roared beheading another corpse struggling to get up with a swipe of his claws. ‘Zombie ponies fucking called it’ the dragon thought with a smirk.

“Aid our lord I will take care of the bug,” Moondancer said as her subordinates nodded and went to dispatching the rising dead.

The fuchsia mare dodged to the right as she avoided the worm’s repeated swipes at her with its claws. “Flash there’s a cultist priest here somewhere find him I’ll handle this.”

Flash Sentry nodded and flew higher up and began scanning the trees for his target. Within seconds he found it a pony perched on a tree branch. The poor wretch never saw him coming as he skewered her with his spear and sent her tumbling to the ground with a sickening thud. The corpses immediately stopped moving and slumped to the ground.

Moondancer noticed this and chuckled, ‘Good time to end this.’

With that her horn began to glow with a crimson light as her eyes took on a more draconic quality. A ring of dark red flames surrounded her and the worm. The abomination had to move closer to the center of the circle to avoid the flames.  Moondancer bared her now serrated teeth and rushed the worm jumping high into the air with surprising strength and slammed her now extended hoofblade into one of the creature’s eyes. It screeched in pain and tried to shake off the mare but to no avail. Moondancer then slipped her blade between the dorsal plates on the back of its head killing it. She jumped to ground and dispelled the flames around. With a grunt she slumped to the ground and the other two unicorns galloped to their fallen leader.

“Master are you alright?” one said.

Between gasps Monndancer said,” I’ll be ok just need to rest a bit Puzzle Box.”

Flash Sentry slowly made his way to the exhausted mare completely speechless by what had just occurred. There was no way this petite mare had that kind of power naturally. In that moment she had reminded him of one of the everfree wraiths, mutated ponies with fierce taste for blood.

“What in Tartarus’ name was that?”

“That was our lords blessing.” Puzzle Box said without looking at the orange pegasus.

Spike walked up to the group. “Dragon blood has a unique effect on unicorn anatomy. Moondancer and her Shades have all been infused with my blood. Moondancer here was the first to go through the ritual.” Flash Sentry glared at Spike in disgust. “Believe it or not it was Moondancer’s idea to begin with.”

“Took a right bit of convincing if I recall correctly my lord,” Moondancer chucked lightly as she got to her hooves. “The blood of the dragon allows us to channel draconic rune magic and sharpens our senses. The only bad side effect is our emotions are hyper sensitive particularly anger but we’ve learned to control it through rigorous training.”

The idea to do so had come to her three years ago once reading up on a rumor that when dragons had a proper empire in olden times they would take on pony slaves who were forced to ingest their dragon master’s blood and it would change them, make them dragon-like. After a fair bit of research on the subject Moondancer had presented her idea to Spike who had disagreed from the get go but after some convincing (and a fair amount of begging which Moondancer denies) Spike agreed and began to create a spell that would allow him to infuse his blood into a pony. Moondancer was the first to go throught he ritual and it had been massively successful. Her senses matched his, her body had become more resilient, making her stronger faster, more agile. The biggest change though was she was able to tap into the magic that dwelled dragon runes. Spike then began to teach her how to control her new abilities and began to perform the ritual on other ponies that wished to partake in it though he lowered the amount of blood infused.

“Well I for one will certainly pass on that then.”

“You couldn’t if you wanted to the ritual is deadly to a pegasus kills them in a matter of minutes. As well earth ponies’ bodies fight off the infusion.” Spike said settling on his scaly haunches.

“So unicorns are the only one that can go through the ritual?” Flash asked glancing at the dragon with an inquiring look.

Spike nodded,” Overall most of the unicorns in House Brightflame have undergone the ritual and all were willing to do so.”

“And how many is that anyway?” the orange pegasus asked raising an eyebrow.

Spike smirked,” You’ll find out soon enough.” The dragon turned to Moondancer. “ Ready Moondancer?”

“Yes my lord.”

“Good lets go we’ve still got a lot of ground to cover.”

With that the group set off toward Whitroad Village.  

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