"VAMPIRE QUEEN CHRYSALIS"
By AlexanderGrey (https://pastebin.com/u/AlexanderGrey)

URL: https://pastebin.com/CZzQnkm8
Created on: Wednesday 24th of October 2018 04:24:01 AM CDT
Retrieved on: Saturday 31 of October 2020 07:54:18 PM UTC


Vampire Queen Chrysalis

Her backstory.
>The entirety of the history of this city is another story, but the story of the Vampire Queen of the Underground is a classic you can’t really tell to your kids.
>It’s always been the case that this city strived on strong, valiant people.
>Using both magic and technology to get ahead of everyone else on the global stage.
>But these people alienated those outside of their aristocracy, and ruled with their interest overseas instead of on their home blocks.
>High rise apartments keep them far above the ground level drama for almost all their lives.
>Some almost never see the streets.
>Many of these are the ones with the eyes and ears planted everywhere, and only rely on hear-say.
>And renegades use this to slip their operations through the cracks; they go underground.
>Under the streets, even under the subways.
>And this is where Chrysalis’s story is set.
>She was born in the underground, grew up in darkness half her life.
>Could only go to the surface at night to avoid the police and getting documented into the census, something those of the underground always avoid.
>It’s been proven and vehemently denied multiple times that the rulers up there are doing something to control everyone’s minds.
>It’s only a tiny bit of underhanded, state-enforced mind control, which is a tiny bit too much.
>The government with the power over everything except the air itself is corrupt, and the only way to beat it is to be more corrupt; beat them at their own game.
>There is a revolution stirring, and the paupers will overthrow the princes and princesses.
>And make way for a Queen, Chrysalis.
>She knew the dark better than most people her age, and she had a certain power since she was born; shapeshifting.
>Apparently somehow inherited a dormant genetic trait from some ancient monster that was said to survive by fusing with and absorbing living beings and taking their place by imitating their DNA and turning into them.
>But she only inherited the shapeshifting trait, although can still add new DNA code to her abilities the more she comes in contact with.
>Can’t absorb or fuse with anything.
>No matter what, she was dirt poor in her youth in a broken, crime-riddled society.
>She promptly ran away from a home that didn’t want her to begin with.
>They would have sold her into human trafficking if she stayed.
>Chrysalis was not about to be fed to a bunch of rapists and drug dealers in a prostitution ring like two of her older siblings were.
>She wants to dominate the world around her and get back at it for putting her in a place like this.
>She shapeshifts into anything that can run fast or fly away whenever someone tries to kidnap or arrest her.
>At least for a little while… then her wrath grows and her heart sours.
>The only previous way she could get food in this underground black market was to steal, and being undocumented on the surface didn’t help.
>Nowadays, in her adulthood, she mastered her abilities.
>Chrysalis can shapeshift into other people and roam the surface undetected and steal things so long as she gets new clothes to wear.
>The clothes don’t change with her, and often get torn apart or no longer fit properly enough to decently cover her in public.
>Especially if she transforms into a small creature to run away from incoming law enforcement and leave her clothes behind.
>Her unique DNA is surely in the federal archives from those clothes, if anything.
>They’re probably wondering what the hell she is, and if her magical power is immune to the one helping control everyone on the surface.
>Stealing food, money and other things for survival isn’t easy, but it works just enough of the times to keep Chrysalis alive another day.
>It’s a good thing the underground has never been unified, as the elites send in fully armored task forces into an underground network of massive tunnels as soon as they are discovered.
>If it was all connected, there would be almost nowhere for Chrysalis to run to when the heat is up.
>These armed officials are thorough and advanced, determined to reach a 0% crime rate among the non-aristocrats.
>Undergoing drug raids and similar missions that always result in at least a few casualties for the underground.
>Chrysalis is sick of being on the run, but bullets and things alike are the reason why she’s vulnerable despite having the ability to change her stature and form into anything between a ferret and a grizzly bear.
>Imitating an organism’s genetic makeup down to their very DNA wasn’t easy to learn how to do at all, let alone get the hang of.
>Living in the corrupt underbelly of a city wasn’t any different than that.
>Chrysalis almost died on numerous occasions, watched other people get killed, snooped around the background of criminal operations which she soon gradually became involved in.
>Chrysalis found it much easier to hang around the people who come out at night, because they were freaks like her.
>One or two of them also had powers, but not as prominent or useful as Chrysalis’s shapeshifting powers.
>Just some extra minor physical abilities, one of them could somehow see behind the back of his head.
>They’re not exactly friendly for the most part, but helpful as long as everyone’s on the same side and no one’s trying to fuck anyone, in more than one definition.
>Chrysalis doesn’t bother making herself look uglier, because she can change her stature to a muscular 7 foot amazon woman if someone throws themselves at her… then have to get a new set of clothes if she grows too far before changing back.
>The rest of her inner circle of cronies soon become scared of her, more so after her temper shifts from bad to worse.
>Famine strikes the projects hard; possibly deliberately caused by an attempt by the aristocracy to decrease the population they have to put up with.
>The underground tries to cope, but they rely pretty heavily on goods from the surface, stolen or not.
>Fighting one’s way out of the projects isn’t the best idea.
>Outside of there, where the more developed city is, the task forces are exponentially more abundant. Tens of thousands of boots on the ground.
>Extensively trained, well paid and fed, heavily equipped… it would be suicide.
>Chrysalis knows that life is short for people like her in places like this; it’s only a matter of time before she dies from something no matter how high up the chain she is.
>She’s lucky she even made it to her 30’s. This wouldn’t have been the case had it not for her shapeshifting abilities, that’s for sure.
>But Chrysalis becomes increasingly aggressive with her comrades, the chips are falling down. The alliance falling apart.
>But no one in the area wants to fuck with Chrysalis.
>Anyone who dared crossed her or onto her turf wound up slaughtered, even if they were good at begging.
>Especially if they were good at begging; Chrysalis left her heart behind long ago. Her patience has run out.
>Her former comrades -now practically slaves- fail to get her much food or supplies a lot of the times.
>They themselves are starving, and growing weak even as Chrysalis tries to feed them with a share of the food they helped her obtain.
>But it’s not enough, and the chips are down. Chrysalis needs to expand her territory.
>Get more people helping her and more unlucky people stepping on the wrong turf that got larger, and more resources to take from.
>And this all is what happens but only for a little bit.
>Other crime lords in the area react to this anything but nicely, and some of them have powers of their own, and they’re not so casual.
>Super speed, super strength, mind reading that kind of deal now. Big league.
>The hits on Chrysalis are piling up, the reward amount skyrocketing far into the millions.
>All she wants to do is survive, and all this shit is making it unimaginably harder.
>They don’t want Chrysalis eating up their market, eating up their revenue stream above and below ground, killing their people as she fights harder and harder to maintain.
>Paranoia is rampant due to her ability to change into anyone.
>Chaos in the poor areas is on the rise more than usual, and even the aristocracy notices this. Something’s stirring up the chicken coop, and it’s coming from under ground.
>The drug problem must be getting worse again.
>Chrysalis has to fight off wave after wave of thugs and hitmen already, most of whom have those pesky bullets.
>She’s on the run too much, starving like a vegan trapped in a meat closet.
>Resorts to eating other people, a thing that has already been present since the famine got worse.
>But she can do this with ease, turning into natural predators she learned to imitate from the city zoo and attacking unarmed meals.
>Now the fear of her went up even higher, but she can’t do much after her part of town or the underground is soon barren of neighbors.
>Has to travel further to eat, and has no time to do anything else. Chrysalis rules all the abandoned places where no one wants to go to even spray graffiti anymore.
>More and more people underground have to be armed, for two reasons.
>The threat of Chrysalis, and the thread of the aristocratic task forces coming in to wipe as many people out as they can before protests in the more peaceful streets start up.
>Chrysalis retreats to there sometimes.
>But can’t stay long, as she feels something setting in trying to take over her mind.
>And the homeless people at the few soup kitchens there are all become documented eventually too.
>There have been protests of the aristocratic government trying to get them killed as well.
>Chrysalis almost considers just giving up and becoming assimilating, with the change that they could spare her and turn her into a brainwashed member of their society.
>At least she won’t have to worry about being killed as much nowadays, or worse.
>And of course, she has a better chance of finding more tranquility at night.
>And now, just like she has done countless nights before in these trying times, Chrysalis wanders around some city blacks as an alley cat, having left her clothes in a place she’ll have to go back to to retrieve them.
>Thinking about the same old things once again.
>She does NOT want to eat out of the disgusting garbage, that would be the final phase of her downfall.
>Now the thirst for revenge rings in her mind, every single day, every single night.
>No, she doesn’t want to take any easy way out, not even suicide.
>The world fucked her, and now she needs to return the favor.
>One night, she’s wandering astray on some rooftops with those same constant sour feelings she’s been feeling for months now.
>Surely the underground has cooled down again since the last time she visited down there to help herself survive.
>She suddenly cries out; something bit her.
>It was a bat.
>Chrysalis angrily turns back into her human self only to realize she’s naked then turns back into the cat.
>But her wound stays, and the bat flies off.
>Enraged, Chrysalis turns into a hawk and chases after the bat to kill it.
>Follows it all the way across the water to some residential neighborhood.
>She’s never went out this far before, nothing prompted her to fly, swim or run this far for this long.
>There was always at least somewhere to go in the city, at least until recently.
>The bat lands on some really nice looking house’s balcony.
>A young lady dressed in all black immediately walks out onto it, with black lipstick, goth looking hair, all that jazz…
>”There you are! Where have you been?” She talks to the bat. “I’ve been looking all over for you!”
>Chrysalis is hanging out on the roof watching all this.
>The bat soon morphs into a naked man. “Sorry, I felt like strolling and got hungry.”
>”You didn’t bite any animals again, did you?”
>”Well, there was a cat on a roof…”
>The goth lady drops her jaw, momentarily revealing her abnormally long and sharp incisors. “What the hell is wrong with you? Do you wanna get sick again? You’re only supposed to take people’s blood! You could get rabies!”
>”Why do you think it matters if we contract rabies?!”
>”Whatever, just get dressed. We’re late.”
>It only takes Chrysalis a couple of seconds to figure this out: she got bitten by a vampire.
>In a world full of magic and mind control and all that, this doesn’t even come as a surprise to her, and she knows enough vampire literature to know that these things can live for thousands of years and only require human blood to survive.
>No dying of starvation, no dying of old age. Only need to kill people and spill their blood to drink it.
>Genetic tolerance to silver and sunlight as well because of Chrysalis’s ability to alter her DNA.
>And now… those pesky bullets won’t affect her no matter what they’re made of.
>She should have tried to make this happen years ago! Then again, she didn’t need to until now. Nor did she think about it until now.
>Regardless, everything has changed.
>At first she was just surviving with only unattempted aspirations to conquer floating around in her head.
>But now… she’s going to live for centuries… and centuries, and centuries and still stay young.
>It’s a golden ticket, a green light… just like the green glow in Chrysalis’s eyes as she bites the vampire lady’s head off as a massive bengal tiger that pounced into her bedroom as her vampire boyfriend was changing only to soon meet the same fate.
>Look at all the black goth clothes in that closet!
>Chrysalis finds that it suits her quite well.
>The time has come.
>Overpower the Underground.
>Grab the city by the balls.
>Time to fuck the world.
>…
>The seedy underworld unsuspectingly awaits as Chrysalis returns to it once more in her normal form, donning all-black clothes of their imminent doom.
>A messenger urgently approaches one of his crime lords. “Yo, we got some shit goin’ down!”
>”What’s up?”
>”It the shapeshifting bitch! She back!”
>The crime lord stands up with his fists clenched. “Real shit?”
>”She already got my crew! All of ‘em! She won’t fuckin’ die!”
>”The fuck happen?”
>”We were just maxing out on 8th street, and she came outta nowhere! Started frontin’ wit no gat or nothin’! We pulled our pieces on her and bucked like hell but she ain’t die! Took like five slugs to the dome and kept comin’ like the mothafuckin’ Terminator! It was like a damn nightmare!”
>”Shiiiiiit! How many got left?”
>”I fuckin told you, dawg! All of them! She’s some kinda vampire now and she got ‘em! I got away but she got errbody else!”
>The crime lord bites his lower lip.
>”Yo, we bouncin’ or what?” The messenger eyes the door.
>”Bouncin? The fuck?”
>”There ain’t no one left to back us up!”
>”I can call my guys down in 77th! They got more serious brass to bring!”
>”It don’t fuckin’ matter, yo! Bullets ain’t do jack shit to her no more! She ain’t even leak, I saw it! We gotta bounce!”
>”The fuck you mean she ain’t even leak?”
>”She a fucking vampire now, I swear! We gotta go, I’m tellin’ ya! We gotta fuckin’ bounce!”
>”We can’t up and leave the coke behind! The fuck you talkin’?”
>”We gotta!”
>”Motha…. FUCKA!” The crime boss slams his hands on the desk and struggles to come up with a plan.
>”She comin’! We gotta go now, cuz! We gotta fuckin split!”
>”Yo fuck that! Imma die ‘fore I let that bitch get my lye!”
>The messenger backs away with beads of sweat coating his forehead. “Maaaaan, fuck this shit! I’m out!”
>”You can’t just leave!”
>”Peace, dawg. I’m gone. She your problem now-ah!” The messenger feels a sharp claw dig into his abdomen after he opens the door.
>”SsssshhhhIT!” The crime lord jolts to his feet and reaches for his gun.
>”Am I late?” Chrysalis turns to face him, some intestines dangling from her fingers.
>The crime lord empties his clip into Chrysalis, expecting her to fall, not remembering what his fallen messenger told him.
>She stands there and watches his grill go from heated to defeated.
>”What, you gonna fire some more now?” Chrysalis stands in place with a wicked grin. “Go ahead. Do it.”
>[Clicking noises]
>”Oh, you’re out of ammo?” She condescendingly tilts her head. “Go ahead and reload, I’ll wait.”
>The empty semi-automatic firearm trembles in the crime lord’s hand.
>He stays on his feet, shook as all fuck.
>”What’s wrong? You nervous?” Chrysalis now slowly approaches him with bullet holes laced all over her body.
>”Y…yoooooooo, fuck this!” The crime lord tries to pull a fast one and book it around Chrysalis.
>Her hand catches him by the collar, he starts hollering and screaming.
>Wildly swinging his fists.
>Aiming for Chrysalis’s face.
>She morphs her mouth into a gaping set of dozens of sharp teeth, clamping down on one of the would-be landed blows.
>”AAAAHHHH! FUCK! FUCK! GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!” The crime lord cries out and tries to pull his hand out.
>Chrysalis only bites harder until the bones, ligaments and joints dislocate and the torn flesh separates completely.
>The thug falls back, screaming in agony on the floor.
>His hand is chewed up and swallowed, and Chrysalis makes herself grow a bit bigger to tower over him.
>Hungry for more, she begins to drool profusely.
>”You fucking BITCH!” The thug clumsily stands up in a blind rage and pulls out a switchblade with his only hand left.
>The knife undergoes one swipe, two jabs, three swings, floor.
>The thug doesn’t even bother picking it up, looking at his disemboweled comrade’s blood pooling around the switchblade’s handle.
>”I’m over here, bitch.” Chrysalis hisses at him.
>Her clawed hand grabs his face before he can look into her glowing eyes.
>…
>Word of Chrysalis’s return spreads throughout the underground.
>Word of her rampage sends people fleeing.
>One by one, the gangs and crime families are being wiped out.
>Chrysalis has apparently been using the whole “join me or die” method to amass a new personal army.
>It’s not long before people think to use flamethrowers on Chrysalis, despite them not being as abundant as regular guns.
>They know that fire can still kill Chrysalis whether she’s a vampire or shapeshifter or whatever; she’s immortal but still made of organic material no matter what DNA she has.
>She can still burn.
>Kill her with fire; that’s the objective.
>But her following has already gained enough traction to seize control of the trade routes, all of the tunnels in her area and even some of the city streets above on the surface.
>She’s protected by her own self-built hierarchy, really hard to locate or get to.
>It’s really out of control now, and the aristocrats are quick to notice.
>They send pretty much an entire army down this time.
>Hundreds and hundreds of task forces at once, armored trucks, some artillery… about a fourth of the armed population.
>This is big, and it catches the attention of the news 24/7, with a biased twist to it, of course.
>Keeping contact from the surface, getting calls that there is a great need for the use of fire for backup.
>Despite not knowing much of what’s going on down there in the coming weeks, they soon learn the severity of Chrysalis’s potency.
>The higher-ups behind desks at the top of the wealth/power food chain in the city throw their hands up in the air and decide they’ve had enough.
>Time to pull the remaining troops out and carpet bomb the entire underdeveloped side of the city. All of it.
>And the same for any tunnel they find or anywhere that looks like it has a tunnel.
>Surely they won’t lose /every single/ peasant that’s been shoveling the crap in their society. There should be /some/ left.
>The order is called in.
>Word of this massive incident is altered and skewed to not prompt troops or governments from outside of this city to come in and intervene.
>Lest all of the shady shit this aristocracy does ends up on the global headlines.
>It’s a good thing information can be so controlled around here, what with the slight mind control that keeps people loyal while staying themselves enough to avoid suspicion.
>Meanwhile, Chrysalis knows for a fact that fire can still kill her, and gets word that they’re planning to carpet bomb the whole place.
>After a little bit more failed negotiations and drama, Chrysalis finds her way to the city’s water supply as a last resort. It’s luckily mostly in a facility under the ground.
>Word of Chrysalis’s strategic move reaches the government officials.
>More complicated negotiations ensue.
>Word of the situation growing dire reaches the public, and people start to feel uneasy about all of this.
>Now it becomes clear to Chrysalis that she can’t attack the surface head on, nor can she stay in hiding for very long despite her possession of the city’s water supply.
>She’s labeled a terrorist (obviously) but the negotiations continue.
>It’s made very clear that Chrysalis wants to rule the entire underground under the city without anyone intervening.
>She only cares about herself now, got revenge on the entire underground and brought it to its knees at her service.
>She’s been gradually turning the people on her side into vampires as well as a form of initiation.
>Making sure they can’t leave to the surface, at least during the day.
>She still doesn’t carry on her shapeshifting traits to others through a bite, but the weight of the vampirism itself is still bore on their hole-punched shoulders.
>Chrysalis considers herself lucky that it somehow happens like this. A lucky shot in the dark she took.
>This is like something out of a dream, practically unimaginable.
>A shapeshifting vampire actually muscled her way into power in the underground network beneath the city and became a threat to their aristocratic government.
>Now she has an army, which is slowly converting to vampires as well.
>Every single one of them in danger of being flooded with a sea of fire.
>But they only represent about a third of the underground population; the other two thirds fled to where Chrysalis wasn’t.
>But they don’t dare go back to that side of the underground to challenge the new queen there.
>No matter what, Chrysalis is at the top of the wanted list now.
>Top of the wanted list and top of the power chain. Those two things tend to go hand-in-hand.
>After a couple more weeks, the negotiations end with all task forces pulling out underdeveloped side of the city and Chrysalis leaving the city’s water supply alone.
>She now legally has control of the entire underground as far as the sections of it that the aristocracy knows about go.
>There are other unknown sections of it, undiscovered sections of it, that are ignored… where many people have fled from Chrysalis.
>All Chrysalis wants to do is thrive, and that’s exactly what she’s going to do.
>She controls everything beneath the surface, even the territories where people fled to, to an extent.
>Her influence is certainly there, that’s for sure.
>Her influence made it to the surface, after all.
>Regardless, Chrysalis is happy to begin controlling everything in her Queendom she built.
>She and the government go their separate ways, adjusting to the new situation and with the civilians on the surface unable to stop questioning a thing or two.
>It’s known by everyone at least in the back of their heads that this isn’t the end of the conflicts.
>Chrysalis, the Vampire Queen of the Underground is an imminent menace no matter which way one looks at it.
>She now rules the seedy underworld of this massive city, maintaining her monopoly over the drug trade and all those sorts of things.
>The surface’s economy itself is starting to become slightly dependent on her, outside the water supply thing, of course.
>The queen turns megalomaniac over her domain, and indulges herself in every pleasure she can.
>On the surface, rumors of her death spread, intentionally.
>Keeping the heat down a bit on the surface.
>However, the crime situation in the poor parts of the city doesn’t get any better, and now, there’s a lot less the government can do about it.
>It starts taking its toll on areas further and further outside the original rundown area. And complaints are piling up.
>Piling up over already growing suspicion that things aren’t what they seem to the casually brainwashed, and the swamp only deepens as the rabbit hole expands further.
>This is the beginnings of Chrysalis, Vampire Queen of the Underground.
>Whether all of that was true or most of it was, that was her backstory.
>Stopping her isn’t going to be easy.
~
-Years later. MANY years-
>”Ah don’t think you should go as the Vampire Queen fer Halloween.” Suggests Applejack.
>”Well why not?!” Gripes Rainbow.
>”A lotta people actually believe in her being real, and she’s said to shapeshift and play with the mind of people while still acting like herself in disguise.”
>”That’s stupid! Chrysalis isn’t really real!”
>”Tell that to the die hard believers.” Replies Applejack. “S’pecially try to tell them that when yer all dressed up and role-playing as her. They ain’t take too kindly to that.”
>”How can they even believe such a stupid story? Vampires aren’t even real, right?”
>”Actually, they are.” Twilight joins in. “From my world where magic is normal, they have vampires and all sorts of other creatures. And with magic becoming more of a thing here, it wouldn’t surprise me if we got some solid evidence of vampires.”
>Rainbow Dash groans, sinking into her chair with the sloppily made costume drooping off of her street clothes.
>”You could still go as a regular vampire like a lot of other people do.” Rarity says to Rainbow Dash.
>”But that’s just it! A lot of people already do that! I want to really scare people this year!”
>”Well ah’m sure you’ll find a way to scare everyone just as good goin’ as something else this year. Surely there’s something else you can go as.”
>”Like what?”
>”You could go as a d-“ Applejack cuts herself off and glances at Sunset.
>Sunset sighs and waves her hand. “It’s okay, it’s okay. You could go as a demon, Rainbow. If anything, that’s something I’d want to avoid going as.”
>”Well if no one’s bothered by a demon when that actually happened, then why would they be bothered by a shapeshifting vampire queen that they don’t have and proof that exists?”
>”Ah dunno, Rainbow. I wish there was more I could say to ya, but ah just think you shouldn’t go as something people are that on edge about.”
>”BUT THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT! Going as something people are scared of.”
>Applejack lets out a deep breath. “Ah know you feel that way, but this one’s different. Here, the beliefs are genuine and there’s a really big deal made out of it.”
>”It’s like going to a church and telling everyone there that god isn’t real, and that when they die that’s it.” Says Sunset. “It’ll probably upset them more than scare them.”
>”Let’s uh, kinda avoid that whole discussion and go back to the matter at hand, here.” Swerves Applejack. “Maybe you can go as a zombie, Rainbow.”
>”But zombies are boring! They don’t even move fast, they just groan and creep around like it’s 7 in the morning and they just got up. Vampires are badass as hell, though. Especially when they’re queens of the underworld and can shapeshift and do all sorts of cool stuff.”
>”A group of zombies is terrifying.” Fluttershy adds her input.
>”Yeah, but there’s only one of me. And you girls are already going as other things, right?”
>”I think we all know who’s going as what except Pinkie.” Says Twilight. “I’ll ask her when I meet up with her after she’s done setting up the decorations.”
>”I wouldn’t mind going as a zombie this year.” Rarity points out. “My original plan was to go wearing ruined, undersized clothes that were washed incorrectly. I could repurpose them for torn zombie clothes.”
>”Ya already made those clothes torn enough, Rarity.” Applejack says to her. “And mostly at the chest and waist.” She adds with judging, lidded eyes.
>”I was being creative!”
>”To be honest, I wouldn’t really be scared of one or two zombies trying to eat me.” Admits Sunset, reminiscing on when she made that happen that one time. “They’re old and decaying, and I could probably take on two of them, maybe even three. There’d have to be at least ten of them surrounding me before I would start to panic.”
>”Yup, that’s the problem with zombies. If there aren’t a lot of them, they really aren’t scary. I could knock one out in one blow if I punched hard enough.” Says Rainbow Dash. “Then again, I could probably drop ten zombies surrounding me if I had a weapon.”
>”Yeah, uh, good luck with that.”
>”Hold on, what about the zombies from the recent horror movies?” Asks Fluttershy. “The ones that get turned from infection and aren’t decaying at all yet and can run really fast?”
>”Yeah!” Agrees Applejack. “You can go as one’a those!”
>”…How many horror movies have you watched recently, Fluttershy?” Asks Sunset.
>”Um… define recently.” Fluttershy blushes.
>Sunset smiles and shakes her head playfully.
>”How about this…” Twilight joins in again. “We can all go as infected zombies for Halloween, all seven of us. That’s scary, right?”
>All the girls chatter in agreement except for Rainbow Dash.
>”But I already worked hard making this costume! And I can use my pendant to zoom around like a supernatural being just like a super-vampire faster than any zombie could! It’s too perfect!”
>”You can be a super-zombie.” Says Applejack.
>”Yeah, there you go!” Agrees Sunset. “And you can keep the costume you made too. It’s win-win for everyone.”
>”It’s not the same, though.” Rainbow Dash crosses her arms.
>”Well do you think you’d understand more if you heard some of the stories these people so heavy-heartedly believe in?”
>”I guess.”
>The other girls look at eachother before Twilight speaks up. “Come on, I’m sure there’s a couple of books at the library that detail this sort of thing.”
>”…Fine, fine. Alright.” Rainbow Dash concedes. “But it better be some heavy stuff.”
>”Trust me, it’s pretty graphic sometimes.”
>Everyone exits the loitering area and heads to the library with RD griping and groaning about not getting to be what she wants to be for Halloween.
>And she whines all the way to the library.
>The group goes searching and searching like this is that typical scene from your usual horror movie where the main characters are researching the monster of the story in their local library.
>They finally find something, an average looking book with a faded name on the cover.
>Eager now, Sunset opens that ratty old cover and feels the book’s spine struggle to adjust to the prying of the cover.
>But she’s able to start reading the following story through the still legible text just fine:
==
>Who the hell are these bastards?
>The city has been in peril on and off over the last few centuries, yet still advancing technologically all throughout the eras.
>It’s a miracle that advancement even happened, especially with all the wars with other nations that happened.
>Now society is on a downfall.
>It’s just like in those apocalypse stories, except there is more the government is doing about it.
>They mostly pretend it’s not happening, controlling the damage, backpedaling desperately as they try to keep the revenue flowing in.
>”Hahaha everything’s fine! Keep going to work, the world isn’t ending! Don’t forget to pay your taxes!”
>Posters of pigs riddle the low streets, plastered all over the posts along the streets.
>And one of… these bastards we have now… grabs one and examines it.
>Eyes squinting, scrunching the slightly more solid scar on one eyelid.
>He stands six and a half feet tall, face gritty with stubble and skin murky with dirt and soot.
>He knows what’s really behind the desks.
>Will this year finally be the year revolution is finally allowed to happen before it’s too late?
>His memory of yesterday pops into his mind.
>Walking around in a giant metal suit, claws large and lumbering, hydraulic mechanics at work in a time that desperately calls for them.
>Flamethrowers attached to the damn thing just in case any vampires or any other creatures manage to, by some miracle on their end, tear through the multi-inch thick steel.
>The tests from yesterday went well, but this bastard doesn’t know yet if it will be enough.
>Enough for when he goes underground with his comrades, facing the greatest evil this city has ever known.
>His legs don’t shiver at the thought anymore; he’s gotten used to imagining himself dying a death only seen in nightmares.
>But somebody has to risk dying that death so everyone else can be spared from it in the future.
>He heads inside before the sun disappears over the horizon.
>Thinking about the possibility of things still somehow being okay outside of this hellish shithole of a ghetto neighborhood he lives in.
>Maybe a police force still exists outside of here.
>Maybe there are even grocery stores, like what that building across the street used to be a couple of decades ago.
>He fastens all of the locks on his doors and windows, as they are the substitute for his armor.
>And the noises outside start up as soon as it’s dark enough; it’s almost laughing, almost.
>The bastard can hear the energy radiating from these creatures as they crawl out from the sewers, the once-subway stations…
>Anything still out there that doesn’t know how to fight for its life at all costs will not see the sun rise.
>Shit gets bad around this time of year; the season of the witch.
>Or as some crimelords say… the season of the bitch.
>Her cronies emerge onto the streets for their ritual free-for-all.
>Everyone around here knows that she’s still alive, even if the “government” denies everything they say to them.
>The same government that said that the whole world has ended, but flies jets to other places in the world while the poor here can’t even leave the confinement of their district.
>No one trusts the men behind desks, they trust the people on their own side of that desk.
>Their own side of the stick, the short end. The burning end, the rusty end.
>The end that got dragged through shit for hundreds of years only t-
>Loud crashing noises startle the bastard.
>Something’s inside.
>Instinctively, the bastard heads for the nearest shotgun he can think of in less than two seconds.
>Pulls it from inside of the leg of the splintery kitchen table.
>Does not call out, as he knows this thing will appear before him no matter what, being able to sense him from a long distance.
>The lights flicker, the finger positions itself over the trigger.
>The urge to run is repressed, and footsteps can barely be heard approaching from the dark side of the apartment.
>The bastard locks onto target using where he heard the footsteps, and pulls the trigger.
>Blows the damn thing’s head apart.
>It falls to the floor with a thud, but keeps squirming and clawing at the open air.
>Immediately, the bastard checks all directions in case the intruder wasn’t alone.
>He has to report into the station immediately regarding what happened.
>Gets ready to report to home base, listening to the nearly headless body squirming around on the carpet still.
>He’s going to need fire or acid to kill this thing.
>Then report into with his fellow bastards with a hypothesis about where it came fro-
>The lights shut off completely.
>He clasps his shotgun upon a bone chilling growl welcoming him to dance in the dark with it.
>Never let your guard down.
>The bastard listens, picturing skulls and carnage in his head he doesn’t want to join.
>This one knows not to step until it’s too late for the bastard.
>Now is when he shivers; the home-made flamethrower is at the other side of the apartment.
>The first intruder starts flopping its body around again, making a great deal of distracting noise.
>Now no footsteps can be deciphered.
>Nothing left to do but back into a corner, rather be cornered than surrounded from all directions… less directions to shoot at.
>But the bastard feels a claw on his shoulder as he takes his own couple of steps back.
>He can’t turn around fast enough, and any god he worshipped shall turn away now before meeting him.
>…
~
-A Small Battle-
>The morning buzzer beckons all of the bastards to home base.
>It’s that time of the year again, when all of Chrysalis’s peoples come up looking for a good time for themselves.
>Cigars and gruff expressions everywhere.
>Bastards flood the room in their body armor aside the metal suits.
>Praying that the massive doors will keep them safe until they have to go back through them with weapons in hand.
>They start pumping iron, lifting dumbbells and pulling themselves up on bars in doorways.
>Every last one of these guys would be a problem to some part of the city if it weren’t for what’s banding them together.
>They have to fight for their own lives before thinking about taking eachother’s, and they need to fight together.
>This is the current situation.
>”Morning, Jackal.” One man nods his head at another.
>”Morning, Kangaroo.”
>”You sleep last night?”
>”I think so.”
>”Same here, bud.”
>They all soon stand attention to their commander.
>Giving the kind of pep talk they all know is just a load of crap to motivate them.
>Reminding everyone of what these motherfuckers did to their beautiful city, reminding them that the government doesn’t car about them.
>That if they wanted to be suicidal rogues as kids, then they’re in luck. And if they wanted happiness… well, they’ll have to keep on waiting and hope for the best.
>There is a war going on, and it’s exclusively in the inner city.
>No one wants to fight it, but everyone has to fight it.
>Days of light are not the present, and hopefully in the future.
>Hopefully these men with names of their own will make it to the end of the era they were so unlucky to be born into.
>Instead of it making it to the end of them.
>The sun must be coming up in a couple of minutes.
>Everyone needs to gear up, there’s a really important mission today.
>Metal arms clamp themselves over arms of flesh.
>The bolts tighten, and the whirring fills the room, smoke and steam filling the air.
>The last chance to crack your neck passes before your armor above your shoulders comes on; your helmet and neck armor.
>It’s a good thing they wouldn’t be scared enough to look behind themselves, they’re not able to with all of this on their bodies.
>But it saves their lives, keeping them from the need to turn their heads until they turn their whole bodies to face the targets.
>The suiting up session can only be so rushed with how complicated it is, but it’s finished and the flamethrowers are put in everyone’s hands.
>The machinery has to be warmed up, and fuel is conserved in the process.
>But everyone has to be outside at high noon.
>When their chances are best.
>Less talking, more action.
>Go straight to the doors and let them open.
>The commotion from the door definitely lured a few targets over, and they get into the sights of the bastards within the minute as they march out.
>They march out and get into a formation, evenly spaced out, in line.
>Silence pockets itself between the deep hissing of flames shooting out of the flamethrowers.
>It doesn’t matter if these are vampires or not, whatever the hell is coming at these guys, it will die with fire.
>No one’s going to take any chances, even if it is the middle of the day.
>If it breathes and is made of flesh, fire can take care of it. The sooner they’re gone, the better.
>The bastards have to go block by block no matter how high the casualties pile up.
>Boarded up windows don’t mind catching fire, don’t mind getting blown apart.
>It’s all about who might be inside. Those things could have been their protection.
>But a blind rage is needed for the bastards, as it will heighten the body count to where it needs to be.
>No one else is going to control this shitty situation, it’s up to these bastards.
>Adrenaline rushes, fire burns all in its path, and the armor is hard for claws to pierce.
>Knuckles turn white, but the screams of terror start up no matter what.
>The targets grow in numbers, and turn the bastards into targets themselves with those numbers.
>The radio calls can’t come in fast enough, but they’re all the bastards have, the ones left.
>Their objective is to kill as many as they can until they aren’t able to breathe or move. Kill until killed.
>Barrels of weapons following growls and roars, feet pattering against the concrete. The screams continuing.
>It’s midnight at noon.
>And judgement day for the fallen who are being introduced to gods to whom they pray.
>Half destroyed walls of brick can only hide some for so long, especially with everything happening so fast.
>The slow are taken down and taken apart. Eaten with their blood spilt onto the pavement to never be carried on to further offspring.
>It’s a miracle that both sides retreated instead of just one.
>Each one claiming victory despite the casualties.
>The living left to live another day, now more traumatic than the last batch of days they lived.
>It’s only going to get worse whenever the sun goes down, when it goes down earlier around this time of year.
>Chrysalis loves it when the times are like this.
>Gets into the spirit of the holiday in her own way as she plans a few ways to toy with the emotions of the city people outside of here.
>She doesn’t just care about physical damage, she wants to hit people in the heart, in the soul.
>Strike terror into their spirit, make them tremble even when they are rallying eachother wallowing in their pride.
>And they will let out battle cries more quietly from further away.
>Their precious lives will never see solitude, not even in the suburbs.
>Not even peace will feel peaceful.
>In comes the night of the witch.
~
==
>”Well, that was… interesting…” Sunset almost wants to back away from the book.
>But Twilight wants to go towards it.
>She has always loved to read, staying indoors on Friday and Saturday nights and reading a good book for hours on end until she gets tired and goes to sleep. Still does it to this day.
>And this book has stories she’s never heard about in the past; and she wants to know more about these stories now.
>The other girls make comments about the book as they watch Twilight walk it all the way up to the front desk, almost skipping with it in a state of bliss.
>But still being careful not to drop it or damage it.
>”Th-those stories aren’t actually real, right?” Flutters asks with her arms crossed. “It was just creative writing, right?”
>”There’s no real way to determine if there’s any truth behind it.” Applejack tells her. “But ah really don’t think there’s gonna be a war starting from all of this. Especially from stories about supernatural beings in some book people believe really strongly in because they’re afraid of death.”
>”…History begs to differ.” Sunset interjects.
>”Well regardless, we’ve never had any ‘vampire uprisings’ before. Surely we won’t have any now.” Rarity internally laughs nervously, mostly out of some gullibility in the face of the story.
>She got some pretty vivid imagery from that story.
>Meanwhile, Twilight finishes checking out the book, waves as she’s walking over to leave with her friends.
>”Isn’t this great? I found something new to read out of all of this.”
>”Yeah, well, I could toootally take on a bunch of zombies no matter what.” Rainbow Dash asserts, feeling more mentally ingrained into the idea of action now after hearing about some (allegedly) fictional battle. “And I’m still not convinced that we’d be scary enough to others as a bunch of zombies.”
>Applejack furrows her brow at Rainbow.
>”What? The story was kinda cheesy.”
>”That’s not the point, Rainbow Dash.” Rarity steps forward. “There are a lot of people out there who took these stories completely seriously. And someone dressing up like the worst thing in those stories would be… what’s the word…”
>”Awesome?” Rainbow Dash fills in the blank.
>”Uh, no?” Sunset responds. “It’s disrespectful, if anything.”
>”Aw come oooooon! I don’t wanna go as the lousy fricken’ zombie!” Rainbow Dash complains.
>”You won’t.” Applejack puts a hand on her shoulder. “You’re gonna go as A lousy frickin’ zombie. With the rest of us. We’re all gonna be lousy zombies together, as friend. And one of us is gonna be a super zombie that makes us a really scary and dangerous group a’ zombies.”
>”Are you telling me you’re already going to get into zombie costumes so I have to do it?”
>”Sure.” Rarity tells her. “You’ll love going as a zombie, I promise.”
>The idiotic back-and-forth conversation about zombies persists as Twilight starts to tell the other girls about a section of the book that apparently has a bunch of texts from ancient curse tablets in it.
>Meanwhile, back at her house, Pinkie Pie finishes up setting up the Halloween decorations.
>She’s excited to see her friends again, getting cobwebs to stick to the corners of the room, putting black and orange streamers all over the walls, setting up bowls of punch and whatnot.
>But something happens.
>Pinkie doesn’t know what, mostly through her happy attitude, that… something’s awry.
>It’s like she has a sense that is tingling… a Pinkie sense?
>It only asserts itself into her mind more and more as she figures her friends must be arriving any minute now, this time having planned to come visit her all at once before the party starts instead of just Twilight coming over.
>It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out: something wicked this way comes.