Fandom MLP - Age of Exploration (Discord Chat Available)

[Avedon]

Dreamweaver
Avedon caught the sounds in his throat, strangling them to silence there lest they disturb the air before the mare that he owed everything to. It was Luna's quiet moment of strength and happiness after being freed from Nightmare Moon that had shown him what he had always thought was impossible: That someone under Nightmare's shadow could find even a single moment of innocent joy like that. That they could stare to the future and feel whole. That she had managed to find a better way. It was what inspired Avedon to throw off his own chains.

She was the goddess he swore to follow unto death itself with no hesitation. The goddess that had relearned what friendship and normality was together alongside him until he followed her not out of duty, obligation, or religious zeal, but because she was truly someone he believed in. That he cared for deeply. He often said that only in death did duty end, and he believed that, but few realized he would die for Luna and Equestria not out of duty - but that they WERE his life. Especially now. It was the one thing he had truly been able to hold onto these last tumultuous years. For now.

"Ah- well...sometimes I like to practice my organizational skills. Throw everything down. Put them back in place. See how fast I can do it..."

The lie was half-hearted and ash in his mouth even before it slipped his lips. He tried to avoid looking at the alicorn before him but he did. His eyes were so different these many decades later. Once they burned like cold suns, with no heat or warmth but an unmistakable blaze. Now they were extinguished, hurt, quivering as they looked over Luna's star-strewn body as if the answers he sought were once against displayed on her face, here to save him from his darkest moment as they had so long ago. He did not find it. He felt ashamed. Ashamed as the word Champion hung in the air and weighed him down. A mantle he did not feel worthy of. A mantle he began to question if ever was.

"I'm tired Luna...but I can't rest..."
His voice cracked a bit, but he held himself from breaking. Luna had far more a right to be tired than him.

 

[Dreamweaver]

Avedon
If not for Avedon and Rarity, it was extremely likely that Luna would have killed herself after returning to Equestria. Sure, she had been glad after being freed from Nightmare Moon... who wouldn't be thrilled to be rid of that monstrous influence? But what came after were by far the worst years of her life. Constantly needing a translation spell to understand everypony around her, finding out her daughter was in Hell, possibly dead. Dealing with her shattered relationship to Celestia, which at the time felt hopeless...

If not for Avedon and Rarity, she would have killed herself. She never spoke about this, and of course on the outside she seemed stoic as ever. She was raised by a tribe who only cared for war, and even now after 2,700 years, their lessons and punishments still ruled her life. Always face forward, always appear strong, never back down, never surrender. Luna couldn't be anything but a warrior on the outside, even if she was dying on the inside.

She had cried in front of Avedon once, after the Griffon War. A war that she could have ended before it even began, if she was more brutal with her power. She cried over all of the fallen soldiers and all of the families that she had to look out over and know that it was her own fault any of them were in mourning. She had cried in front of Rarity several times, but that was a different relationship. She wasn't even sure Rarity understood how much she cared. She would have to tell her eventually, just to relieve herself of the burden. She didn't really want to carry it around... she knew mortals were fleeting and wanted everything to be in the open.

At the mention of rest, Luna just smiled. She was not one for comforting words, but physically she could comfort him. She hugged the stallion, letting her abnormally cold body be of some comfort to him, but her words were anything but comforting. "You and I, Avedon... ponies like us, we don't rest. If we rest, that's when things in the world start going wrong. If we start resting, who's going to fight to make a difference?"

 

[Avedon]

Dreamweaver
Luna would have only seen Avedon cry once before. It wasn't the many times he was on death's doors, or when he bore terrible wounds, or when he saw his most loyal soldiers and comrades-in-arms die. Those had hurt him physically or spiritually, but it wasn't until Nightfall was lying in the hospital as a foal she had seen his hope for a different kind of life torn from him, leaving not a warrior but just a broken father. A pony who had never known what a true father was like, but couldn't deny the love and instincts to nurture that tiny filly. It was only when Avedon had been on the verge of a death of his very soul that he had weeped. He was there again.

So it was she felt a single tear fall on her shoulder, the stallion gripping her tight as they began to fall free from his eyes. She was right. They were both warriors. Born that way. Trapped that way. Still, even if they had not been, souls like theirs likely would have chosen it on their own.
"You're right...We fight, and we strive, and we suffer. Sometimes we're applauded for it...Sometimes we're not. Neither really matter after a while. Do you know what I fear most Luna? Do you know what the ONLY thing I fear is?"
He'd tasted defeat, he'd tasted the death of his loved ones, he'd tasted many bitter flavors of life. There was only one horror left it could truly offer him:
"I'm so very afraid that I will become the thing that forces someone else to fight. To give up their rest. To have to make a difference in the world to keep it from going wrong."
He knew she of all ponies would understand that.
"I haven't been myself lately...or maybe I've been too much of myself. I don't know which is which anymore."

 

[Dreamweaver]

Avedon
That little admittance sent a shiver down Luna's spine. Yes, she knew what he meant. She knew far to much what he meant. To lose yourself and become the monster that the heroes fight... to have the tables totally turned on you. It was the single biggest regret in Luna's life currently. It still made her cry at night sometimes, when she remembered the faces of all the heroes who had attempted to put her down and inevitably been slaughtered by a foe they couldn't possibly match.

She just had to remind herself... she was not her demons. Nightmare Moon was something else entirely. Luna had come to grips with that, now it seemed like Avedon was needing to do the same thing. That did bring up one really interesting question though... what exactly was he coming to grips with? Why did he believe that he was going to turn into a monster? Luna couldn't sense the vampire lord inside of him, so she didn't quite understand.

"Avedon, are you saying that you don't fear me? I'm hurt." She replied with a little smile, pulling away from the hug to punch his shoulder lightly. Now onto the more serious topic.

"You're a good pony, Avedon; and you do good. There's nothing more you can strive for. You were raised under harsh circumstances, and have rose to save Equestria many times. So I ask you this; why do you believe that you'll become the thing heroes fight?"

 

[Avedon]

Dreamweaver
That got a little smile out of him as he pulled back from their hug and made a show of pretending to rub his "hurt" arm and looked at her.
"Oh yes your face is the stuff of nightmares Luna, utterly horrifying..."

The smile didn't last long, but even that little bit of their old banter helped anchor him in this moment, clear his thoughts from the wolves howling inside his mind. Trying to explain these strange thoughts, these callings.
"You know the call to battle. You're the greatest warrior I've ever known. I feel restless, like I'm constantly on the eve of a battle. The smell of blood in the air. The only thing warm and everything else frigid."
His eyes became fixed, enraptured at the thought as he began to explain it.
"Warriors live by their enemies. Hunters by the prey they pursue. I can't say it's not a feeling I've never had before. When I threw myself into madness and zealotry, when I felt a complete and overwhelming sense of purpose in a call to slaughter and conquest. It's ringing in my head again. This feeling of power, of drive. That there's something grand and great in the night about to happen. That I need to find it but I don't know what "it" is. I know I need it though. It feels like the moon, lost and alone in the night. Damned in the dark but blazing with a light that can't be extinguished. I know I-"
He catches himself and puts shaking hooves on his table, closing his eyes until they steady.
"...I know I'm beginning to think more like my father, like the cult that raised me. Made me what I was. What they wanted me to be. There was a look in my father's eyes when I killed him. I'll never understand it. His life's work burned around him, but he looked...like he was satisfied. I feel like there's another me about to tear out. Hungry, hateful, and I'm afraid it's stronger than I am."

 

[Avedon]

Cyan Hide
Equestria was being gripped by a heat-wave. A muggy, moist and suffocating heat-wave that kept the air so thick you felt you needed swimming lessons to get from one end of the street to the other. The oppressive haze left a deep feeling of lethargy settling down over the land. Only a few clouds drifted through the air, the Pegasus getting too exhausted to push them along that they more often ended up napping on them so shade was priceless to come by. In the day the din of the cicada's carried near and far on the hot-wind and the nights were set ablaze with the droning of mosquitoes and nearly enough fireflies to turn the dark to day.

It was in times like this that ponies crowded to the lakes, the rivers, the pools, and it was times like this that ships drifting down the great rivers were never short a supply of uncomfortable, lazy, and bored ponies. One such ship did, sailing the winding current out of the Everfree and beyond the Froggy Bottom Bog from somewhere in the south to Ponyville's square. “The River Queen” was it's name. Written in elaborate brass-plate on the side it's crew was on an odd-sight for little ponies. Crocodiles carrying musical instruments they began to play to trumpet their arrival and at their head, a great bulbous creature looking like a cross between a cat-fish and a frog with a squat body that still loomed larger than the average pony and then some, wearing a fine suit and the tiniest hat upon his otherwise massive and grinning head as he began to belt out his pitch.

It never fails to astound what ponies will do for promises and a song. He was a trader, a merchant, peddling the most amazing of items and gifts, all at a price that could so be conveniently loaned. His amazing wares were the buzz of Ponyville for the next week. After that payments became due. That's when some ponies found themselves disheveled and trudging into Caternlot, not even keeping the clothes on their back let alone their homes.

 

[Dreamweaver]

Avedon
"Anything is stronger than you are, Avedon. Look at your weak little mortal body!" Luna picked him up out of the chair and started playing puppet with his body! She enjoyed the banter and just like it helped him, it helped her too. Even since Nightmare Moon had been spotted again ten years ago in that black dragons lair, Luna had been freaking out.

What began as a simple nervous twitch had devolved into her barely even speaking to anypony anymore. She didn't dreamwalk at all, she pushed away everypony around her, and even her martial skills were beginning to suffer from how much she ignored her own well being. Luna didn't even go out at night anymore, out of fear of finding Nightmare Moon staring at her from a dark alleyway. It likely would have been best if Luna had never found out about it. She had the exact opposite reaction that Avedon had. While Avedon was trying to find Nightmare, Luna was doing everything she could to make sure Nightmare didn't find her!

Of course this still left one question. "When did these feelings develop? And why do you believe they are developing?"

 

[Cyan Hide]

Avedon

Wing Gambit was bored. Canterlot was quiet right now, nobody of any position of power or influence wanted anything to do with her, and it would take time to win their trust. She was banned from the Canterlot Library. There was only so many times you could take a walk in the gardens or through the promenade. So many times you could go to a fancy restaurant and order a meal for one. So many times you could play at being tour guide. She needed to do something. Something to speed along this period of unspoken exile. She needed freedom, and for that, she needed trust. She needed some good deeds under her belt, and some favour from the higher-ups.

When news of ponies from Ponyville arriving at Canterlot haggard and destitute, Wing grew curious, and this curiosity grew to almost an obsession. She sent a plea to her contacts in S.M.I.L.E asking if she could investigate this on their behalf, as it might have something to do with magical creatures and it wasn't as if she was helping them staying in the capital killing time. After a few pulled strings, Wing was on the train to Ponyville. Once she got there, she went about asking around for the cause. Was there any reason ponies were migrating so broke?

 

[Avedon]

Dreamweaver
It was hard to place a time on something that had been consuming him bit by bit for so long. In truth NONE of these feelings were entirely new. He had felt them all to varying degrees throughout his life. He remembered when they were at their lowest, and he remembered when he began to notice them more frequently. Not all at once in any dramatic fashion, but he had alot of time to himself on his long journeys. He tried to form those half-coherent thoughts into proper words, trying to pinpoint it.

"Well...usually at night...and I suppose since I last saw...Nightmare Moon? I'd dreaded that my whole life, what I'd do if I saw her. I felt...I felt I can never be free as long as she's around. When she can just...reach out and take me back again. It made me feel like the quiet life I had been trying to have was just a big lie. When I felt it was a lie it began to feel hollow, I felt hollow, even when I knew it wasn't a lie- it just..."
He touched his head with his hoof.
"It felt like seeing her...the old me woke up. Waiting somewhere..."

Cyan Hide
A whole corner block of Ponyville seemed to have completely changed since the last time she was here. The homes of the exile pony's near the river-front had been transformed into a glitzy little promenade of folded sheets over the air creating shade along the river front from the heat-ridden ponies. The River Queen was docked along the shore but it's planks open and filled with merchandise and tables for games. It seemed part-shop, part-casino. A few crocodiles lurked in the shade of basked in the water, ponies giving them a wide-berth. The smell of food was tantalizingly being waved over the town by fans held from sullen looking ponies, while others seemed to mind the shops. Ponies that bore the cutie-marks of farmers or construction-workers.

 

[Cyan Hide]

Avedon

Wing wondered over. That was definitely not there when she was a filly. Her chessmaster instincts were telling her that it had something to do with the migration. The food did smell good, and she'd buy some of her business allowed it. But for now she merely approached the River Queen, smiling and putting on the act of an oblivious Middle-Canterlot tourist. She would notice the sullen ponies and onlookers glancing at her with looks of scorn or pity. Yes, this was definitely the cause.

"Goodness, this looks like fun! What have we here?" she asked the ponies manning the stalls.

 

[Avedon]

Cyan Hide
It was a mare with beet-red hair and a lavender-coat. She looked to have been a farmer with her little vegetable cutie-mark. She was selling simple household trinkets, all at rather low prices. Many of them seemed useful and well-taken care of them, many of them had belonged to ponies in town until rather recently.
"O-oh!"
The mare snapped from her sullen look to a certain near desperation in great "friendly" grin!
"Welcome to Kroger's Market! See, Mr. Kroger set it up here in Ponyville because he couldn't keep everything he had on his ship! He uh, he let's alot of us lease these stores! For a fee. To pay back any other fees..."
She said rubbing the back of her head coyly.

 

[Cyan Hide]

Avedon

Wing took in everything she was seeing and hearing, but her facade didn't let up for a moment. She looked at the trinkets until she found some blue hair clips in the shape of doves. The symbol of peace. How apt. She gestured to them. "How many bits for those hairclips?"

Once she heard the price, whatever it was, she payed it. Now that her hooves were greased and her mouth was hopefully loosene, maybe this mare would spill some beans. Wing leaned forward, brow furrowing, voice getting quieter. "I'm sorry I can't help more with these fees you say you have. Fees plural. What's the story there? Maybe there is a way I can help?"

 

[Avedon]

Cyan Hide
"Oh nooo! Don't you worry about any fees! Nothing like that! Just keep on buying, from me preferably! Heheh, I just got- well as nice as my things are there are way more amazing items on the River Queen itself! You know...a-and they don't look like they cost much! Some bits, but even if you can't afford it you can still walk way with it by promising to pay in the future. It isn't even always bits. But...but-"
She seemed hesitant to tell Cozy. Afterall, she needed money and scaring away a customer might help Cozy, but it wouldn't help herself! Still it was hard for any pony to turn their back on somepony else.

 

[Cyan Hide]

Avedon

Now things were starting to come together. Still, she'd have to take a look herself to know for sure, and that had a real possibility of opening herself up to magical manipulation, but the worst that would happen is she'd incur a debt, and all she'd have to do is notify S.M.I.L.E that magic is being used to scam ponies and she could bring her debtor down with authority without worrying about asking forgiveness from Luna. If there was no magic, even better.

"On the River Queen itself, you say?!" the tourist asked, giddy from the prospect of getting cheap yet amazing tat. "And you don't even have to pay right away? Oooh, wait right here?"

These theatrics were for another reason. The pony would possibly try to stop her, and if so, Wing wanted to see what the crocodile's reactions would be. She started to cheerfully bounce towards the boat.

 

[Avedon]

Cyan Hide
The crocodiles reaction was: no reaction at all! They didn't seem to note her as anything else other than a normal pony. Ponies here seemed to be getting everything they wanted! Look at the Carrot-Farmer, with a fun little pair of shies that could effortlessly pick up the plants without her having to stoop down! There was a unicorn from Canterlot marveling at a shirt that changed in real-time to match to most current fashion invented. Other's seemed happy to gamble for items, only one winning it out of many while still more seemed to buy into chests that gave them things at random. Mayor Mare blindly scooted up across the deck of the ship, missing her glasses
"Um excuse me, can you point me to the exiIIIT!!!?" She took one step too far and fell overboard where a Crocdile fished her out and put her on land.

A bulbous frog-fish walked out to Cozy, twirling a pair of rimless and sleight glasses that had until recently been on the Mayor's muzzle around one fat finger.
"Well excuuuse me madame."
He spoke in a deep croak, oozing a certain southern-charm and sporting a grin large enough to swallow a pony whole.
"I hope my DEAR friend the Mayor - well, Mayre didn't cause you no fright. She's a good one that pony. You see her home right Jeffrey?"
He looked at the Crocodile who fished her out who made a grumpy hiss but "kindly" escored the Mayor back to town-hall.

 

[Cyan Hide]

Avedon

Wing was about to help the Mayor before thinking better of it and merely looking cornered and leaning over as if afraid to get wet. The chance was slim but if there were any chance of Mayor Mare recognizing her face or voice, it would blow everything with Kroger and word would spread that Cozy Glow was back. Her life would get significantly more difficult. She instead focused on Kroger.

"Goodness! I hope the Mayor will be okay! And don't worry about me, I'm not frightened at all! I just came down from Canterlot and I saw the stalls and the boat and I just had to come and check it out. The stalls are selling some nice things! But I got told that they're just the tip of the iceberg. Is that right?" she asked with the savvy grin of a cosmopolitan gossiper.

 

[Dreamweaver]

Avedon
"To be completely honest Avedon, you handled seeing her better than I would have." Luna said with a sad little smile on her face. "Even just the thought of seeing her... it's ruined me these last 10 years. My relationship is suffering, I never go out at night, I haven't dream-walked in years out of fear that maybe she will be waiting for me there..." Luna looked disgusted in herself right now. She would never tell anypony else this kind of this, not even Rarity. Avedon got to see a side of Luna that nobody besides Celestia did.

"I thought I was strong, but all it took was you saying 'I saw Nightmare Moon' to send me into a spiral. I'm so terrified that she will reappear and use me again. I still see the faces of all the heroes she slaughtered using my powers, whenever I sleep..."

But none of this conversation was helping either of them, and Luna was no closer to figuring out what was plaguing Avedon! "I could dream-walk again to try and help your nightmares, but there's only so much I can do. Can you explain to me, why these feelings are so bad? Some ponies just... have a bloodlust. What makes you think that you cannot control it?"

 

[Avedon]

Cyan Hide
The strange bog-beast chuckled and straightened up his collar. There was a gleam in those bulbous eyes. The kind that could look right through a person. What he saw, if he saw anything, his alien face didn't betray, nor did that wide toothy smile.
"H'well...I do reckon I have just about everything a pony could desire. Y'see missy, that's really what I sell here. It ain't objects to be dug up or hidden under the water."
He places a hand on her shoulder and walks with her to look out over the town, waving his hand over it.
"I don't sell nothing particular. What I sell is people's dreams! All at a bargain-price! They sure do love me round here...."
He waved some fat-fingers at some ponies by the water!

Dreamweaver
"Because-!"
He caught himself. Of course Avedon knew what "bloodlust" was like. He was a warrior to the truest extreme in his heart. He didn't just survive in carnage, he thrived there. The reasons for war were always secondary to the sheer enjoyment of the battles and the carnage themselves. Certainly he had shackled those dark-cravings to a more noble-cause, but this was different.
"Because it's not bloodLUST it's blood...THIRST! I keep imagining tearing into people with my teeth. The idea of blood so hot you can see the steam rise from it in the moonlight. Not the thrill of battle and the satisfaction of a kill, that is there and stronger too, but just the bitter tang of blood in the air enough to turn the midnight sky red. I feel the urge to zealously obey something dark-inside me that was reflected in Nightmare Moon's eyes when I saw her. I feel like an animal in a cage and I need to run rampant and free and I know if I do I will never, ever be back in control though...I feel like I am an animal. A predator. A monster."

 

[Dreamweaver]

Avedon
He was much the same as Luna, who also found her most enjoyable moments in the middle of a war. While she would never send Equestria to war for no reason, that didn't mean she didn't look for reasons to go to war. The only thing that stopped her from having the country constantly at war, was Celestia. Where Luna may see a perceived slight and wish to stamp the aggressors into the ground, Celestia balanced her out and kept things peaceful. Then likewise, when the time for action came, Luna made sure Equestria was swift and brutal in its attacks.

Luna's face remained passive as Avedon almost started yelling, but never quite got there. A thirst for blood was perfectly normal among vampire bat ponies, but not quite to the degree he was talking about. Then again, Luna had heard of vampire bats simply not feeding for a while and growing restless. So perhaps that was the issue and he had just not been paying attention to his needs?

"Well, many vampire bats feel a blood thirst if they go to long without feeding, Avedon. Have you been feeding yourself?"

 

[Avedon]

Dreamweaver
he scowled a bit at her. Of course he knew what it was like to drink some-blood. A quick boost in combat to heal some wounds and move on. It was never a thing he particularly had thought of before. Simply one minor tool in an entire arsenal of battle. There was never a thirst or a need. Avedon's will was nigh-unbreakable. It, above everything else about him - the magic, the swordsmanship, the strategical mind, the ability to lead...the one thing that had never once failed him, that had carried him through the very gates of death without pause, was his iron-clad will. Even when Nightmare Moon had attempted to take his mind in their last-encounter he had withstood it, albeit he doubted he could keep it back for the centuries that Luna herself had, it was still beyond what most mortals could ever hope to do.

That will was now but a candle guttering in a hurricane of hunger and primal needs. He was cold. His soul sought out the night. That lingering power of Nightmare, the essence of a dark divinity. He found that too here before him in Luna. Before he knew it, he felt a chill on his fangs as they bared themselves to the cold night air. He lunged, eyes widening in horror as he threw out his legs, attempting to stop himself, wrestling with the beast that only saw warm and divine blood so near him for a moment.

 

[Dreamweaver]

Avedon
Luna usually expected just about everything. It's how she had stayed alive for almost 3,000 years. But what she did not expect was for her chosen paladin, and best friend, to lunge at her. It not only confused the mare for the briefest of seconds, but it also was a massive breach in trust. Avedon was one of the few ponies she thought that she could let her guard down around, and he had proven to her that even her best friends couldn't be fully trusted! Not that it was his fault, but it definitely set off warning bells in Luna's head.

Avedon picked the wrong pony to lunge at. Even with him restraining himself, Luna couldn't tell that he was doing so. He simply lunged at her, so she did the most natural counter to that and lashed out with her hoof. She didn't put her full force into it, since he was still one of her best friends, but she didn't fully hold back either. The force would be more than enough to send him through his wooden desk and into the wall behind it as well. She didn't even bother saying anything and just scowled at him angrily, though there was a deep hurt under her eyes as well.

 

[Avedon]

Dreamweaver
Though he had maintained the will to keep himself from biting her he couldn't deny his body had moved towards it, and he fully deserved the backlash, being knocked back into the wall painfully through his desk, shards of wood in his side. He was horrified with himself, he couldn't recognize himself.
"...Luna I need to resign. I need to go...far away from people I-...I..."
His words trailed off as he stared down at himself, splinters of wood had torn parts of his body open, and pooling out from him was not blood, not anymore. It may have once been that with it's faint red-color, but a deep infusion of primordial nightmare and evil had left a disgusting sheen of oil-like darkness over it. It wasn't flowing like blood should, it was curling and moving on it's own, Avedon cried in pain as the veins on his injured half bulged out, pulsing into thick and dangerous extents that visibly writhed his body. His very blood puppeting him upwards as the parts of him that bled out began to retreat back inside him, closing the wound as they did. Avedon was a strong pony, but even he couldn't stop the screaming of both horror and agony as he felt his organs and veins pushed to the point of rupturing and then past it, simply healing as they burst and this...thing inside him tried to manually puppet his body forward.

 

[Dreamweaver]

Avedon
Luna was beginning to get an idea of what was happening here. Although she didn't personally create the first of the bat ponies, she watched from behind Nightmare's eyes as the primordial did so. She had seen the bat ponies, a creation that even impressed Luna with their strength. They were not gods, but they might just be the closest thing without having a bit or deity blood in them such as beings like Cadence or Twilight did. Luna was pretty sure that this was what she was seeing.

She had absolutely no idea what to do. She could kill Avedon, but that was a last resort only. Seeing his veins rupture and pulse honestly barely bothered the mare, who had seen far worse in her time. Her mind was trying to formulate some kind of response to this, and she settled on the most basic idea. She approached him and bent low, baring him her neck.

"Drink." She commanded sharply. She knew he couldn't possibly out drain her regeneration, and hoped that her divine blood would help at least hold off on the effects of what was happening here. She had heard divine blood had healing properties, but had never actually tested it before. She was just desperate to find some way to calm him down, because there was somepony that he needed to meet... and she couldn't take him there looking like this.

 

[Avedon]

Dreamweaver
She could see her friend's light behind the eyes of the beast that was trying to take him over. Avedon had fought this shadow off for 10-years but bearing it in silence for so long was more than what any soul could bare. Luna knew that well. No one was strong against their own demons. Avedon forced his way to the front, if he was to do this, even taking offered blood, he'd not let the animal be the one who took it. Every moment was a struggle as he drew closer to her, and felt his fangs slip into her divine flesh. The life of an immortal, the power of the night itself, it was naught but ashes in his mouth when it came at the feeling of having failed his friend. He drank though, and the beast inside that had sought Nightmare and power as the final step in taking control, instead found itself being drowned out at the cold taste of the moon's essence, as clear and pure as silver as it satiated his bloodlust without losing his control. Avedon stared up at her, shame, rage, and hatred all boiling together. Not at her. But at himself, and the call of the Nightmare.
"...What is happening Luna?"

 

[Dreamweaver]

Avedon
Luna's silvery blood, glittering like starlight and shining like the palest of moonlight, dripped down to the floor. She closed her eyes, and grimaced. A vampire bite could be pleasurable, but only under certain circumstances. Those who were charmed by the vampire often loved the feeling. Bat Lords could make it feel like ecstasy. Luna felt none of that. Her friend was not nearly powerful enough to charm her, nor could he make it feel good in any way. All she felt was his teeth sinking into her neck, and the pulsing of the blood that gushed from the wound with every hammering beat of her heart.

It was not a pleasant experience, but she had been through worse. When he pulled away the wound almost immediately closed, and her silvery blood was absorbed back into her body through the skin. Luna stared at him not with anger, hatred or fear; but rather with sadness and worry. "... I do not know, Avedon. You appear to be turning into a true vampire bat, but... that's not something your kind just does. Could anything have spurred this on that you can remember?"