Tracking a manticore through a city is easy, at least in theory. Just follow the screaming.
We race down the main street of the noble’s quarter, going against the tide of ponies fleeing from the monster. Little do they know that my fellow agents and I are monsters as well.
The moon's light shines down on us as a stallion stumbles past, blood dripping from his knee. Sweet, delicious, crimson blood. It is blood that keeps ponies alive, and blood which I am cursed to take from them. I always feel bad about it afterwards though. I may be a vampire, but I’m still a good mare, at least, I try to be.
A hoof to the side of the head makes me realise that I’ve stopped, drooling, in the middle of the street. Coral Current, the turquoise mare in front of me with a cresting wave on her flank, is calling my name.
“Vinyl! Vinyl! Come on, say something!”
“Something.”
She frowns at me. I smirk.
“When was the last time you fed?”
“Uh… A few days ago?”
She facehooves, then calls out to Savage Sky, the large, dark-gray pegasus stallion ahead of us, and the captain of our little group.
“Sky! Scratch needs to drink!.”
He glares at me, then beats his wings, lifting off the ground a little before he speaks.
“Take care of it. I’ll go ahead and act as a distraction until you two catch up.”
With that, he turns and flies away. Coral leads me to a nearby alleyway, just in case a straggler sees us. She holds up her right foreleg, and I groan. She frowns at me again.
“Mare up, Vinyl. We’ve got a manticore to catch.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know. I’m still getting used to the whole ‘being-a-vampire’ thing.”
I push my purple sunglasses up, and my blood-red eyes meet her sea-green ones. I hypnotise her a little, just to dull the pain, before extending my fangs and gently biting her leg, next to the silvery bracelet she wears above her fetlock. The bracelet is made of a magical metal called telenite, the main use of which is to hold spells. In Coral Current’s case, an illusion spell to hide her fish-like seapony tail and make it look like normal pony-hair, an orangey-pink colour to match her wavy mane. Savage Sky, being half-griffon, has one to hide his talons. Mine is a little different, the stored spell lessening my need for blood and suppressing several side-effects, like burning in the sunlight.
I take a few moments enjoying the sweet, slightly salty taste of Coral’s blood, before I let her go and release my spell with a satisfied sigh.
“Aww yeah, that feels better!”
She frowns at me for the third time in a few minutes while I bandage the bite-mark.
“Did you have enough?”
“Nah, but I’ll be fine. Besides, I didn’t want you passing out in the middle of a fight.”
“Just as long as you don’t either.”
“Chillax, girl. I said I’ll be fine. Now let’s go.”
We gallop through the streets, catching up with Captain Sky to see him going talon-to-paw with a manticore three times his size in the air above a park. A civilian, an orange unicorn stallion, gallops out of a nearby house and shouts something incoherent yet vaguely insulting at the manticore. A pale blue mare yells as she chases after him.
“Crossfire, you drunken fool! You’ll get yourself killed!”
Savage Sky glances at the newcomers, and the manticore takes the opportunity to slam a paw into the side of his head, knocking him out cold. I barely manage to catch him with my telekinesis before he hits the pond.
The manticore turns, roars, and dives towards the unicorn, who blasts a gout of flame from his horn. The beast ploughs right through it, singed but unfazed, and now it’s my turn to frown. Manticores are usually scared of fire.
My musing is interrupted by the monster tackling the stallion through the wall of his house. I wince at the sight, and summon my longsword with a magenta flash, preparing to go in after it.
The mare shrieks and rushes back inside, only to be impaled by the stinger in the monster’s tail. As I charge towards the house, I hear a filly scream, then a colt shout.
“STAY AWAY FROM MY SISTER!”
I can barely believe my eyes as the manticore is blasted out of the house by a torrent of silver and blue flames. I drop my sword, and my jaw. A quick glance to my right tells me that Coral’s mouth is wide open as well.
“Vinyl… what was that?”
“No idea. It looked pretty awesome though.”
The manticore roars in pain, and I realize its entire right side is still ablaze with that oddly-coloured fire, which has also spread to some of the nearby trees. Grabbing my longsword in my telekinetic grasp, I move to put the manticore out of it’s misery.
“Nice job, Vinyl. I’m going to see if I can put that weird fire out before it spreads too far. Check if Captain Sky and the civilians are okay.”
“Sure thing.”
I trot over to the captain, and check his pulse. It’s slow, but steady. His breathing is fine, so I decide to let him rest. Luna knows he needs it.
I walk through the manticore-sized hole in the wall and enter the house. The mare’s dead, no doubt about that. Even if the stinger had missed her heart, the venom would’ve gotten her anyway. The stallion is even deader, being little more than a smear under a pile of rubble.
A sobbing from the corner catches my attention, and I turn to see two young unicorns; a pale orange filly curled into a ball, and a blue colt standing over her with tears in his eyes. I call out to them.
“Hey! Are you kids okay?”
The colt looks up at me with his orange eyes and tries to say something, but all that comes out is a sob. I push my shades up. Talking to upset children is not my forte, but there are some upsides to being a vampire.
“It’s gonna be alright. Just look me in the eyes. That’s it. Now sleep.”
As they make eye contact, I hypnotise them. I’ll feel bad about it later, but I don’t want to deal with them freaking out. Coral and Princess Luna can handle it. I check to make sure nopony else is in the house, then lift the sleeping kids with telekinesis and carry them out through the hole in the wall.
Outside, the fire’s gotten worse. The whole park is ablaze with silver and blue, and none of Coral’s water magic seems to be able to douse it. I glance at the captain, but he’s still out. We need to get out of here.
I walk over to Coral and open my mouth to say something when the steady thump-thump-thump of wingbeats fills the air. Looking up, I see none other than Princess Luna herself flying towards us. Her horn glows and the strange flames vanish. She lands in front of Coral and I with a look of wonder on her face.
“Moonfire! It has been two centuries since We last had the pleasure of meeting somepony with the gift. Agent Scratch, surely ‘tis not thou that wields the lunar flame?”
“No, your highness. That honor belongs to this guy.”
I levitate the still-sleeping colt and his sister over, and notice that their cutie marks match. The filly has a blazing sun, red and gold to match her mane, while the colt has what I can only describe as a blazing moon, the same blue and silver as his own mane.
“They lost their parents to the manticore before we could stop it. I put them to sleep to calm them down.”
“Alas, ‘tis a terrible tragedy. Bring the children with you on your return, the colt may be of some use to Us, and to the Vigil.”
Coral frowns at that, and speaks up.
“Surely you don’t mean for him to actually join Midnight Vigil, do you? He’s just a kid.”
“We shall see, Agent Current. We know thou art used to working in a small group, but in ages past Vigil has had dozens of agents at a time. Now, We apologize, but the dawn nears, and We must away to Our chambers to lower the moon.”
With that, she flaps her wings and leaves. A groaning sound from behind me causes me to turn, and I notice that the captain is waking up. I walk over to him with a cheeky grin on my face.
“Hello, Captain. Have a nice nap?”
He scowls. The old stallion really needs a better sense of humour.
“No thanks to that idiot that distracted me. What happened to him?”
“Manticore got him, and his wife. The kids are safe, the colt’s got some fancy kind of fire magic I’ve never seen before. It looked pretty rocking though. Anyways, we better get back to base.”
“Well done, Agent Scratch. Your refusal to deal with your ‘condition’ in a timely manner orphaned two foals. Come on then.”
Savage Sky turns and walks away as I stand there, stunned. Realization sets in. Two ponies dead, and their kids orphaned, all because of me. I knew I needed blood yesterday and decided it could wait. Coral pats me on the shoulder.
“Hey, cheer up. He’s the one that got distracted, and what’s-his-name, Crossfire? He was dumb enough to go out there in the first place. It’s not your fault.”
I mutter something that might be a ‘thanks’, then follow after the captain.
A few blocks away, in alley behind Pony Joe’s doughnut shop, is an entrance to the maze of catacombs that lie beneath Canterlot. Our destination, deep within the caves, is a hidden door that leads to Luna’s most secret of secret agencies; Midnight Vigil.