//------------------------------//
// Eine Kleine Nachtmajik 
// Story: A Little Night Magic 
// by Ironthread 
//------------------------------//

I’ll take from you
A tale or two
As lonely nights you… stumble through?

“It’s not bad,” said Luna, settling further into the pile of pillows she had decided to nest in that night.
“I don’t know, I’m not too sure where to go from there. I like the first verses more.” Dreamcatcher replied, waving his hoof and stepping back as the music stand he had been reading from turned to vapor and began to drift away. 
“We cannot say we approve of psyche and nightly,” Luna said, resting her head on her hooves, “but otherwise it is quite good.”
“Oh come now, I think that part’s not bad. You try rhyming psyche with something and making it feel natural. You’re just annoyed because Twilight got away with friends and end.”
“We suppose. Ah well, if it works, it works.” Luna turned back to the sterling silver dessert tray between them. “What are these little white things, by the way?”
“Macaroons. Try them, they’re quite good. I don’t think they had them in your time, we import a lot of the ingredients from down south, past the buffalo territories.”
As Luna chewed on one, then two, then three macaroons, Dreamcatcher reached up, pulled a notebook from nowhere, and began reviewing the notes within.
“You know, I wonder if there aren’t any other ponies who remember how the old magi did these things.”
At this, Luna perked up, suddenly remembering something. “Mfwe mwecaw-” - Luna stopped to swallow - “apologies. We recall that certain Night Mares would have dealings with other nocturnal beings. I am uncertain if they will be willing to share the information, but there are likely some of them still living who remember some of the old lullabies.”
“You said there haven’t been Night Mares since you were imprisoned in the moon. How could there be ponies still alive after a thousand years?”
“Oh, they are vampires, of course.”
At this point, Dreamcatcher heard a ringing in his ear.

***
“Vampires. Sure. And she never mentioned this before because....?”

***

It had been several nights since then. Mist seemed to glow softly from the light of the moon high overhead. A waxing crescent, it gave just enough light to make out gray details in the darkness. Dreamcatcher stood at the edge of a rooftop, looking out over ponyville, waiting. 
At the edge of his hearing, he heard a whisper of something move in the shadows. Softly, to himself, he hummed a haunting tune, and the night seemed to shimmer into light in his eyes. He looked around - in every house he could see the glimmer of ponies dreaming, and, on rare occasions, the subtle, duller light of minds still awake at this late hour. In the direction he thought he heard movement, however, he saw something strange - almost like the inverse of a dreaming mind, this shape seemed to suck in light rather than emit it, a void in his senses that unnerved and intrigued him. He dropped to the ground nearby. 
“Good evening.”
The figure shifted. “Heya, babe.”
“He, him, and his, please.” Dreamcatcher replied automatically.
“Oh, okay. Cool.” There was a pause. “So, uh… what’re you doing here?”
“Looking for someone like you, actually.”
“What, like, someone who stays up late? ‘Cause in that case I know an awesome club that-” she began, but Dreamcatcher cut her off.
“No. I am looking for a member of the Blood Moon Clan.”
There was silence as the figure seemed to take a moment to process this, and then:
“How do you know that name?”
“Notes from a researcher named Trail Blazer. They’re a little over a millennium old by now, but I figured immortals didn’t tend to change their traditions much.”
The figure stepped out of the shadows, finally revealing herself. Her coat was a pure white, but her hair was a mess of shades of electric blue and she wore gaudy purple sunglasses, even now in the middle of the night, likely to hide the unnaturally red irises many vampires possessed.
“And who are you?” She asked.
“My name is Dreamcatcher, and I am the first Night Mare in a thousand years.”
The vampire cocked her head, puzzled. “What do you mean, you’re a nightmare?”
Dreamcatcher sighed. “That’s not encouraging.”

***
The two were walking down yet another side street when Dreamcatcher spoke up again.
“You’ve really never heard of the Night Mares?”
“Look man, I don’t know a ton about the old culture. Never really appealed to me, ya know? I’m only about a century old, and I don’t tend to associate with the clans. You’re lucky I even remember where they’re based.”
“I didn’t get the sense that you were a traditionalist.”
“Hell yeah, man, I’m as non-traditional as it gets. DJ PON-3, coming to your local nightclub and all over the airwaves.”
“You’re a DJ? I’ve - oh, you’re the one who was in all the papers for that show with the cellist, right? I read that name as pone-three for the longest time before I realized what you meant.”
“Yeah, lotta people do that. I’m considering switching back to just Vinyl Scratch, it’s been long enough that almost nopony will connect the dots.”
“So, you’re a DJ by night, vampire by… also night? Where do you find the time?”
“Octavia lets me feed on her some of the time, and Fluttershy raises chickens for a reason - she’s not technically part of any clan so she lets anyone feed, provided they’re civil and never harm the animals permanently.”
“Fluttershy? I never would have guessed.”
“Yeah, she hides it well, but she’s got a vicious gaze - her friends call it “the stare.” she passes it off as a strange quirk, but it’s obviously vampire trance magic. Anyways, you still haven’t told me who you are. How’d you notice me? How’d you know I was a vampire? Have you been following me? Because if so, not cool, man.”
“No, you were just the first vampire I detected. Your dreaming is… different from everyone else’s, sort of, well, vampiric. It draws in thought instead of expelling it, if that makes any sense.”
“None at all. But whatever, you can explain later. We’re here.” She said, stopping in front of a nondescript door in the side of an alleyway. Leaning in, she whispered, “The feast of the Blood Moon begins at midnight.”
The door creaked slowly open, apparently on its own, to reveal a large, ornate foyer, of the type one would find in a tudor, or perhaps gothic, mansion.
“I certainly wasn’t expecting that.” Dreamcatcher commented.
“Yeah, they’re kinda tacky that way. Always trying to impress the guests.” She replied, before turning to enter. “C’mon in, we won’t bite.”
Dreamcatcher looked at her for a moment.
“Not much of a sense of humor, huh? Ah well. Hurry up!” Vinyl called, already inside.
The foyer was enormous, too large to fit realistically in the space that must have been afforded it based on the adjoining buildings. Two large staircases led up to the second floor on either side of the room, flanking a massive pair of doors emblazoned with a crescent moon made of red jade. A massive chandelier hung overhead. Two or perhaps three dozen candles shone their light through dangling crystals, scattering illumination throughout the room in a beautiful, if irregular, pattern.
“C’mon, you’re gonna want to talk to one of the elders. They were all around before Luna’s exile, they’ll know-”
“Dame Scratch.” Came a voice from behind them, formal and precise.
“Oh, buck.” Vinyl said.
“Here about another consort, I presume? You have not notified the council of any developments with-”
“I am nopony’s consort.” Replied Dreamcatcher, bile in his voice.
“Madame, if you are going to be troublesome, I will have to ask you to-”
Dreamcatcher whistled a piercing note, and the pony, clearly a butler of some sort given his dress and bearing, snapped to attention, immediately silent, his eyes fixed on a point perhaps a yard directly in front of him and his face fixed in a mask of terror.
“I am here on important business. I will be addressed as a stallion, and I will not be dismissed as some mare’s plaything. All this you could have learned easily if you had bothered to do your bucking job and greet visitors without deciding to be a stuck up prick about it. You will go to the council, you will tell them that a Night Mare is here to speak with them, and then you will not let me see you again. Is this understood?”
Still otherwise frozen, the butler nodded.
“Good.” Dreamcatcher said, before turning away and letting the butler loose to try and maintain balance on shaking legs. He gaped, openmouthed, at Dreamcatcher for a moment, before promptly running off.
“Whoa, dude, that was incredible! How did- what was- what did- why-” Vinyl’s stammering was interrupted.
“Is he gone?”
Vinyl looked around. “Yeah man, he bolted as soon as he could.”
“Good.” Dreamcatcher managed, and then collapsed.

***
“That was reckless.” Said Luna, taking a sip of herbal tea.
“Oh, but you should have seen the look on his face. Man, it sure is nice being a practitioner of an art so old nopony knows how to defend against it.”
“We would recommend caution nonetheless. You must not get complacent, and you must certainly be careful with the power you wield, lest it become feared once again, as it was in the wake of our exile.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m coming to in a moment, see you at dawn.”

***
“Vinyl?”
Dreamcatcher looked around - he had been carried, presumably by Vinyl, to a couch in what looked like a waiting room. There were no other ponies around.
“Dude! You’re up! Oh man, I was worried for a second. What happened?”
“I used my abilities to pull that pony’s darkest nightmare to the forefront of his mind and consume him in it. For that moment, I appeared to be the embodiment of the thing he most feared.”
“That is so metal.”
“It took a lot out of me, I’m afraid. Was I out long?”
“Nah, a butler hasn’t even come back yet. But man, was that awesome. Can I bring you along every time I come here? That jerk acts like that all the time with me.”
“I’m afraid that might not be-”	Dreamcatcher started, but a voice interjected in their conversation.
“Would the Night Mare and Dame Scratch please follow me to the council chambers?”
This was another butler, announcing this to the whole room despite it being empty save for the two ponies. This seemed to be a formality, done either because that was the norm among the vampires here or because this butler had already heard word of what happened to the other.
“But of course,” Dreamcatcher replied, working his way to his feet. “Dame Scratch?” He said, offering his forehoof to Vinyl jokingly.
“Hey, so you do have a sense of humor,” Vinyl replied, taking the proffered hoof and following the butler into the chamber beyond.