Vampire
vamˌpī(ə)r
noun
In Equestrian mythology, a creature (most commonly a pony) afflicted with Nightmare's Curse shortly before death that rises from the grave to feast on the blood of the living. Held in reverence by the threstal tribes of the Frozen North for their connection to their deity.See also: Fable of the Night Princess, Mare in the Moon (Lunar topological pattern), Nightmare Moon (Equestrian mythology), Children of the Night (Equestrian mythology), Children of the Night (Modern-day terrorist organization)
Club Le Fangé
Haypacking District
Manehattan, Equestria
996 C. E.
Operation Daybreak
"Eve," Double Cross addressed his partner calmly despite the mounting tension in his chest. "Could ya please have yer friends light a few torches or somethin? Can't see worth a damn in this place. I've already banged a fetlock on what I hope was a piece a furniture."
"Are you still on that?" Evening Mist replied with a twinge of annoyance. So it was a little dark! They were inside a threstal roost. It wasn't like she went around complaining every time one of her diurnal compatriots clicked on a lamp. "Faustsakes, you're being even whinier than usual. Echolocate your way around if it's such an issue. Nopony here'll care, they're all up at this hour."
"Eve."
"Yes, D?"
"How long have ya known me?"
"Hmm... I want to say twelve years this summer?"
"Close 'nough. And fer all that time, have I or any other earth pony ever given ya the slightest hint that we can find our way around by bouncin' sound offa things?"
"Well no, but that doesn't necessarily mean you can't..."
"Eve."
"Fine. I'll get a stupid torch." Eve trotted off in a huff. "Deep down, I think I knew you couldn't. I just didn't want to believe that the Creator could've made tribes that unbearably boring." Double heard the clip-clop of her hooves as she trotted to some nearby point in the darkness, then the scraping of metal on stone as she pulled a torch from its wall scone. A second later gentle orange light flared. Double squinted as he took in his surroundings. A private nightclub, though one could hardly tell from first glance. Stone walls, low arched ceilings, and wrought-iron framework brought to mind the dungeons of Canterlot Castle, even though he knew they were on the ground floor of a commercial warehouse. Double supposed the owner had a taste for the classics.
"Happy now?"
"Better, thanks." Double replied. "Ya sure this was a good idea? Yer friends are all starin' at me like I'm their next meal." Sure enough, half a dozen sets of bright slitted eyes were staring at them from the shadows, the light from the torch giving them an eerie glow.
"Oh, them?" Eve waved away his concern with the flap of a wing. "They're eyeballing me, not you. It's been a couple years, and ponies around here love to gossip. Don't worry about anypony eating you either; despite the name, Uncle Sanguini and his capos are the only actual vamps in the vampire mob. Everypony else here is a threstal, they eat all the same stuff I do."
Double cocked an eyebrow at her.
"...Really? Are all earth ponies this racist?"
"Ya make jokes about eatin' ponies at least ten times a day."
"Yeah. Jokes."
"Well, it ain't like yer very chatty with personal details. Which is weird, cause the rest of the time gettin ya ta shut up is damn near impossible."
"Ugh." Eve groused. As she looked away in frustration, Double allowed himself a small, satisfied smile. He knew the difference between the pegasi's nocturnal cousins and the undead ponies sentenced by Nightmare Moon to eternally walk the earth, but playing dumb had allowed him to get a rare rise out of Eve. "Okay, okay! Fruit and bugs, mostly. I can drink blood, but anything bigger than a rat is stuffing myself. There! Mystery solved! Are you happy now!?"
"Very. Thank ya kindly."
"Just don't go spreading that around. I have a reputation to uphold amongst the Shadowbolts, after all."
"The Shadowbolts have a picture of yer face taped to a dartboard back at Canter Mount. Yer rep's a lost cause."
"...I hope Uncle Sanguey does eat you. You of all ponies deserve it."
"Ya might just get yer wish." Double grimaced. "All my past dealings with vamps are from behind the business end of a flamethrower. Can't imagine that'll make me too popular with th' boss."
"You'll be fiiine," Eve assured him. I hope, she thought before the words were even out of her mouth. Sanguini's brood, and the threstal colony they led, weren't openly hostile to most representatives of the crown, but then most government ponies don't have a history of foalnapping his kind to study like undead lab rats. Though Don Sanguini had agreed to this, hadn't he? He knew what Eve had been up to since she left. Crotchety old nag was nearly as well-connected as the Director. "They may be vamps, but they're also businesscolts."
"Mobsters."
"You say firefly, I say lightning bug."
Double held his tongue as the two trotted through the darkened building. They made their way into the club's back hallway, where they found the manager's office door blocked by two large threstals in pinstriped suits. "Hey check it," one nudged the other as Double and Eve approached. "Evie's back. Whadd're ya doin here, girl? Didn't you run off to kiss Celestia's horseshoes?"
"Yeah," the other sniggered. "Thought you were too high and mighty to slum it with us lowlifes. What gives?" They took a menacing step towards the two visitors. Double shifted his weight back reflexively, eyeballing the threats and subconsciously scanning the hallway for anything that could be used to his advantage, or, if necessary, an escape route. He had just settled on a spin-trip to topple the larger followed by a submission hold on the other when he noticed Eve wasn't rising to the goons' bait.
"Oh, I was showing my friend here around the city and I thought I'd pop by and say hello," she chirped happily. "It's been so long! Joey Fetlock, I haven't seen you in ages! I heard you finally made it through law school, congratulations! Your nana must be so proud of you!!"
The larger of the hired muscle shrank back, his facade of bravado shattered. "Eeeeeve, not in front of the daywalker!" He whined. "And I've told you a million times, when I'm on the job my name's not Joey, it's Duskshadow!"
"Suuure it is," Eve reassured Joey as his partner laughed silently. "The don's expecting us. Can we go in now?"
"Fine..."
"Thanks! It was great seeing you too, Lambent! How's the foal?"
The other bouncer quickly cleared his throat to hide his laughter at his partner. "Bright Star's teething, Miss Mist. Keeping Lucent and me up damn near all day."
"Ooh, rough!" Eve grimaced as she trotted through the doorway between the two. "Good luck, give Lucie my love!"
Double Cross quickly followed, blinking as he found himself examining the crime boss's inner sanctum. Don Sanguini's office looked so... mundane. A few more torches gently lit the soft wood paneling and expensive carpet. The don himself, a weathered old stallion who could be so somepony's kindly old grandpa if not for his albino coat and eerie crimson gaze, waved the two toward seats. "Evening Mist! Come in!" He smiled, leaning back in his high-backed chair and sipping a crystal tumbler of... something. "It's wonderful to see you again, child. Too long, too long! The boys didn't give you any trouble?"
"I can handle myself, Uncle S."
"Ha!" Sanguini erupted into a fit of laughter interspersed with hacking coughs. "Never doubted you for a second. I don't suppose you're here looking for work, eh? I need somepony to keep Joey in line. That lummox is always giving me a headache."
Eve smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I'm happy where I am."
"Ah, the good ones always leave too fast. It's killing me, let me tell you. Always shorthoofed on the labor side. Doesn't matter what I pay either, everypony's all about going legit these days. Wasn't like this back in the day. Nowhere else for us night owls to go, had to watch out for each other."
"Well... that's a good thing, right? We shouldn't have to hide forever, should we?"
"Nopony's happier than me, child, but even after all these centuries it's difficult to accept when my bats don't need me anymore. Had to happen eventually, I suppose." The don sipped from his tumbler slowly. "Heard from the family?"
"Nothing new," Eve replied. Her bubbly grin faded a little at the don's question. "Race traitor this, exile that. You know how parents are."
Sanguini sighed. "It's never easy. Leaving the northern flocks is difficult enough, but taking orders from Celestia herself... I apologize for the stubbornness of my brethren. You remember how difficult that life is from foalhood, yes? Those burdened with the Gift to lead the colonies in such harsh conditions tend to become, well, fixed in their ways." As he leaned forward in his chair, Double noted with mild surprise that the undead stallion was a pegasus, not a batpony. His wings were ragged and moulty, but distinctly feathered. I wonder who he was before. Somepony close to Nightmare Moon?
"It's not all bad." Eve stared down at the desktop. Her wings fluttered uncomfortably. "They, well, they let me leave. No pitchforks or torches. So there's that, right?"
Sanguini raised a bushy albino eyebrow. His 'niece' had a morbid sense of humor about her. "Know that you're always welcome here, pup. Just please keep business and family separate. I wouldn't put it past your superiors to try to stronghoof you into leading the ponies in black to my stoop if they felt so inclined. But," He turned to Double Cross, his familial expression cooling off considerably. "But that's not why we're here today, is it?"
Double Cross bit his tongue. This stallion's file dated back almost a thousand years, one of the oldest records in the OCS. A bitter retort could earn him a world of trouble here. "No, Mr. Sanguini, I ain't lookin' to start any trouble. Agent Brown, Ministry of Defense."
"A wise move, Agent... Brown."
"We're lookin fer some help locating a pony. One that's raised all sortsa hell fer the solar court and yer brood alike."
"Don't patronize me, pony." Sanguini eyed Double's tan coat with insult hewn into his weathered muzzle. "You are no member of Celestia's court. And 'Brown'... what kind of simpleton do you strike me for?"
Double sighed. "Sorry, standard procedure. I ain't got a clue why they bothered givin me a cover in the first place. And yes, as ya gathered already, we're settin' up a black op. The target a' which yer none too fond of." He dipped his head into a saddlebag and withdrew with a photograph clutched in his mouth. Sanguini took it without a word, examining it for a second before tossing it to the table. A familiar albino unicorn's cold gaze stared up at the trio.
"Ah yes, Harvest Moon. Unpleasant little whelp, that one. What has he done to anger Canterlot in such a way? To come knocking on my door is not an action your superiors take lightly."
"Terrorism, if ya want ta slap a label on it. He and that cult a' his killed a lot of our ponies out west."
"Those attacks near Las Pegasus. I remember," Sanguini nodded. Nopony at the table believed for a second he needed any sort of reminder. "Tell me, what do you know of him?"
"Always had a taste fer megalomania, but he was small time 'till last April. Preaches overthrowin Princess Celestia, bringin Nightmare Moon back, reign of neverending darkness, all sortsa wonderful fairytale endings. Finds followers among th' leather-winged and disenfranchised, glamours or brainwashes th' rest ta fill out his rosters. Puttin them ta work, too. He's killed a lot of our ponies, not countin the foalnappings, raids, dark magic rituals, et cetera. He's goin' straight down the villian checklist inna hurry." Double left out the suspicions that Harvest Moon wasn't acting alone. While Sanguini likely had some inkling of another hoof pulling the strings, why remove all doubt?
Sanguini nodded. "And now he's come to Manehattan."
"Where he's a problem fer everypony in th' city, includin any bats that don't dance ta his tune. It's how he works. He'll try ta sway yer more, ah, impressionable ponies inta joinin his flock, then he'll take out th' competition."
"Pony, If I could not protect my colony from the threats that crawl up from the underworld on what seems to be a weekly basis, I would have crumbled to dust long ago. No, I'm more concerned with his long term goals. Tell me, why is he doing this? All this mayhem, what purpose does it serve?"
Double shrugged. "Pony's crazy. Nutso. Coupla fruit loops short of a complete breakfast. All these supervillian types go power-mad, it's just a matter of time."
Sanguini gave Double a pointed look. "If only it were that simple. Harvest Moon is seven hundred years old. If he wanted to mindlessly destroy, there are easier ways to go about it. Instead, he waltzes up to the vamponies' sworn enemies and strikes them across the muzzle. He may be unhinged, but he's certainly not suicidal. So why do it?"
Double puzzled on that one. Psychology wasn't his forte, he was more comfortable in a hoof fight. His experience with Equestria's fourth tribe also came to a grand total of one pony who spent all her time either taunting him or making lewd comments.
Eve scrunched her muzzle, deep in thought about Sanguini's proposed questions. "It... it almost sounds like he's trying to spark a revolution. That's what he's always been about. But that's insane, I mean nopony in the colonies likes Princess Celestia, but they're not about to start a war just because some third-generation vampony tells them too... the flock elders would never... Unless..." Her eyes widened, her pupils narrowing to pencil-thin lines as the realization hit her like a brick. "Oh, Faust. He can't possibly think..."
"He does." Sanguini nodded gravely. "Everything I've seen and heard from my sources indicates he has found a way to free Nightmare Moon from her prison."
"What!?!?" Double jumped forward, slamming his hooves onto the don's desk. "Are ya completely off yer rocker!?"
"Agent Brown, I assure you I am not. Please settle down." Sanguini spoke calmly. Double reseated himself in his chair and took a breath.
"Sir, ya can't possibly think that what that maniac's preachin is anythin more than delusions of grandeur!"
"Oh, he most certainly is a delusional fool, but he may indeed be able to free her. I'm assuming the Director keeps you at least somewhat knowledgeable of the events of the Longest Night? That it's not simply a filly's tale made up to explain some unusual craters?"
"Yeah, I know the story! Th' unloved princess turned to a wicked mare of darkness, and Princess Celestia sealed her up in the moon fer all eternity blah blah blah. Doesn't explain how some two-bit necksucker's plannin on undoing the strongest magic in Equestria!?"
Sanguini growled at Double's slur, but the cowpony was too bewildered to notice.
"It is possible, Agent. Trust me, I was there when it happened, in Everfree Castle." That shut Double up quickly. He focused all his attention on the old hemovore. "Do you want to know the last thing she said to us? Before she fell to the dark magic that corrupted her? She asked why. Why her subjects hated her. Why they turned their backs on her when she laid bare her heart and soul for them every night. Neither I nor any other of her advisors had an answer for her. What were we supposed to say? 'No Princess, it's not that they hate you, they just don't care about you?' That her night was nothing to them except a signal to go to bed? She loved her subjects, Agent Brown. She sacrificed for us just as Celestia had, and they ignored her, they treated her with derision."
Neither Double nor Eve said a word. The old stallion was breathing heavily, hurt and angry at the old memory.
"Ponies don't turn evil in a vacuum, Agent. We're not Tartarans. She gave into despair because she felt she had nowhere else to turn. Even the name Nightmare Moon was a grief-stricken reaction to her loneliness. None of us ever thought it would catch on like it did," he chuckled weakly. "Celestia acted much the same. She banished her to the moon out of desperation, and while my kind love to think of Celestia as an unfeeling tyrant, the fact is she awaits the Princess of the Night's return much as we do."
What... It took Double a few seconds to process what he'd just heard. "How in th' hell could ya know that!?"
Sanguini let out another hacking laugh. "Privileges of age, child. I may not be on Celestia's Hearth's Warming card list, but our paths have crossed a few times in the last milennium."
"So why not release her? Or, buck it, just let Harvest do it? Can always stake him right after."
"To answer your first question, Celestia can't. She has no control over the seals that lock Nightmare Moon away, not anymore. She can only wait as they decay naturally. At the moment they are weak enough to be broken by powerful dark magic, but that is, for obvious reasons, not an option for the Princess of the Sun. As for your second... Eve? Any thoughts, pup?"
Eve frowned. "If Harvest is the one to bring her back... he'll have her ear. She's been locked away for centuries, she's probably still angry at, well, everypony. And if he does pull it off, every bat from here to the Yaket Range will see him as a hero... Nightmare Moon will have a ready-made army waiting for her."
"With Harvest at the forefront, which is exactly what he wants." Sanguini finished. "Any chance of reconciliation between Princesses gone. Which is where you come in," He pointed a moulted wing at Double. "Harvest Moon doesn't have the power to accomplish this on his own, and artifacts containing powerful dark magic are your agency's specialty. Joey... Duskshadow and Lambent will provide you with everything we know about Harvest and his followers."
"Thank ya, sir," Double replied. He and Eve rose from their chairs. Eve and Sanguini shared a brief hug as they prepared to leave.
"Uncle," Eve said hesitantly, "Once D and I find them... it won't be pretty. I'll do what I can to get our ponies to go easy on his flock of threstals, but no promises."
"I did not dodge the reaper for a thousand years just to see some thug born ten generations after my Princess's banishment warp her legacy for his own gain. Do what you must, child, and know that, should you need it, you will always have shelter here."
* * * * *
"That was... enlightening." Double mused to himself as the two trotted back through the darkness towards the club's exit.
"Yeah..." Eve trailed off absentmindedly. Double glanced at his colleague. Eve's face was partially hidden by the shadows cast from the flickering lantern, but the apprehension in her voice gave her away.
"Y'alright there, Eve? Ya haven't made fun of me once since we met w'yer uncle."
Eve didn't respond right away, leaving the two to walk in silence. "Uncle Sanguey was willing to sell out another colony to us... that's bad, D. Really bad. Threstals get along with each other about as well as we get along with day ponies, but we never turn in our own to outsiders. He's really scared of Harvest Moon."
Double shrugged. "So this jagoff's got a plan to end the world. So? We'll stop his plan in the nick a time, then put a stake through his heart. We always do. After all, ain't we the heroes?"
"Yeah..."
More silence.
"So, that stuff about yer family--"
"Another time, D."
"Oh, sure. Ain't a thing."
...
"Y'know., after we report back, I'm asking the doc fer a few days off to head back to Canterlot an see my kids. Higher ups're gonna need a week to process all this shit anyhow. Ya want ta come with?"
"Your ex won't mind??"
"Ya kidding? Ya'd be doin her a favor. She's been feelin all guilty bout dating again. Told her I don't mind, but still. Figure if I show up with a mare, it'll take a load off her haunches."
"So I'd be bait for your baby momma drama? How could I ever pass up such an exciting time?"
"Ha ha. Offer's open if ya want it."
...
"Thanks."
"No proble--" WHACK. "OH MOTHERBU---FER FAUSTSAKES, WILL SOMEPONY TURN THE DAMN LIGHTS ON??"