//------------------------------//
// Chapter 11: Ponyville Gothic 
// Story: Rainbow in the Dark 
// by Raeligath 
//------------------------------//

For most creatures, there is a sense of finality about the concept of midnight. While it does mark the end of the calendar day, it’s not as if there is some sudden jump in time. Twelve o’clock midnight becomes twelve-oh-one in the morning, just as twelve o’clock noon becomes twelve-oh-one in the afternoon. The world persists, regardless of who is around to perceive it.

Some children consider it a great accomplishment to stay awake past midnight. Most adults past a certain age and maturity consider the same to be a great failure. Teenagers, being caught in the middle of these, are more than capable of staying up later than they are technically supposed to only to resent the morning after. Some will do this willingly. Others have less of a say in the matter. The troubled minds of troubled youths can be rather detrimental to their sleep schedules.

In the wake of recent events, to say that Scootaloo’s mind was ‘troubled’ would have been quite the understatement.

She lay restless on the floor of the guest bedroom, tossing back and forth and forcing her eyes shut in the vain hope of getting some modicum of sleep. Her friends were already long gone, and had been since about ten. That was two and a half hours ago.

Scootaloo had managed to hit the snooze button on their midnight alarm three times so far. Her hoof was braced for a fourth. Everytime it had gone off, it triggered some visceral reaction in her. She told herself how stupid this idea of theirs had been, that they should just forget it and move on. 

Then, immediately after the noise had been shut off, she regretted it.

Using the light of the clock itself, she once more flipped open the old tome. She had used a corner of her blanket like a bookmark. This took her straight back to the section on vampirism, to the diagrams so hauntingly familiar.

Scootaloo began to read to herself from about where she had last left off. The passage read as follows:

“Common courtesy would have you believe that it is simply rude to harm guests in one’s own home or to harm the host when one is their guest. Much like their progenitor, however, vampires have no such qualms. While these creatures of the night may act with dignity and poise, it is only a matter of time before they make a move so as to harm you, your guests, or your property.

“Should you find yourself in the unfortunate situation in which one of these parasites has infiltrated your place of residence, your first priority should be to discreetly identify the creature without unduly alarming anypony else. There are a number of means by which one may do this, some more subtle than others.

“What is most important to keep in mind is that the vampiric physiology is quite different than that of a normal pony, despite appearances. Thanks to their feeding on the life essence of others, vampires’ bodies are able to recover from stress and injury with supernatural quickness. This has some interesting side effects that one might not immediately consider that could be used to your advantage.

“For example, should you notice anypony with unusually persistent stamina after dancing for several hours in one night, be on your guard. The same could be said for those who are strangely resilient after conspicuous consumption of cider, wine, or brandy. While these are not guaranteed indicators of a blood-sucking fiend, they can help narrow a list of suspects.

“Under no circumstances, however, should you approach a suspected vampire with violent intent. In addition to being discourteous (as stated above), this is likely a fruitless endeavor. 

“Vampires may be wounded much like their living brethren, but can heal from such wounds far beyond mortal capability. They likely would not feel a stern slap, or even wince from a strike from your average guard’s blade. Some say that even broken or severed limbs are merely temporary setbacks to the monsters. Clearly, you can see that there is no level of violence effective enough to slay a vampire that would be at all acceptable in polite company.”

Just before she turned the next page, Scootaloo did a double-take. 

“Broken...” she muttered in the dark room. Her eyes had become transfixed on the page, along with a few accompanying figures of pony legs and wings. She re-read the last few paragraphs over in her mind several times until the words had lost their meaning.

The pegasus filly was snapped out of her little trance when Apple Bloom shook her by the shoulders.

“Wake up, Scoot!” the earth pony hissed. “Didn’tcha hear the alarm goin’ off?”

“Huwha? Huh?”

There was a light scramble of hooves across the floorboards as Sweetie Belle darted past the two. The unicorn filly peeked out into the hall, only to breathe a sigh of relief shortly thereafter.

“Still asleep,” she said. “Probably don’t want to press our luck though.”

“What happened to alarm duty, Scootaloo?” Apple Bloom asked, scowling at her friend.

Scootaloo blinked her tired eyes. “Alarm… oh, right! I, uh, um…”

“Shh!” said Sweetie Belle, suddenly beside the others. Her horn glowed as she lifted one of their blankets over the group, casting a soft green light on the trio. “The last thing we want is for Rarity to wake up right now.”

“I think the last thing we want is to get ate by Rainbow,” Apple Bloom snarked.

“That won’t happen,” said Scootaloo, finally starting to snap out of her daze. She shut the book and pushed it aside, then hopped up to her hooves. 

Sweetie Belle frowned. “It definitely won’t happen if we don’t find her. Or if we get caught first.”

“So let’s not get caught,” Scoot countered. “C’mon, I’ll take the lead.”

“Are we just not gonna talk about you spacin’ out or whatever?” asked Apple Bloom. While her tone was almost mocking, her eyes betrayed a genuine concern.

“Less talky, more walky,” the pegasus hissed back. She then trotted off for the door without awaiting an answer or reply, slipping out silently into the shadows.

Apple Bloom gawked as she was left in the dust. “Uh, Sweetie Belle? Am I crazy, or is there somethin’ up with her?”

Sweetie smiled, albeit weakly, as she levitated saddlebags onto herself and Apple Bloom and turned towards the door herself. “She... probably just didn’t get any sleep. I mean, can you blame her?”

“I guess not.” Apple Bloom grunted as she stood and trotted after. “I’m just hopin’ she doesn’t wear herself out like its apple-buckin’ season…”



A swift shadow, barely visible against the night sky, set down upon one of the many rooftops of Ponyville. The sound of shifting roof shingles echoed through the vacant streets and back. Nopony seemed to notice, but then again there didn’t appear to be anypony around to care in the first place.

Rainbow scowled and squinted, scanning for any signs of movement or life. Seeing nothing, she crept up to the crest of the roof, perching like a hawk. 

— What are you doing?! Get down!! — 

The pegasus pony practically jumped out of her skin at the sudden telepathic shout. She caught herself mid-tumble with a few flaps of her wings, albeit barely. Clumsily, she fluttered back to the less-well-lit side of the building.

“Sorry, sorry,” she mumbled to herself and her blood-mother. “How am I supposed to find anypony like this? It looks downright abandoned out there…”

— Relax, child. Remember that you are a hunter of the night. When your prey does not come to you, you will have to go to them. — 

“Okay yeah, but like, how? Where?” Rainbow paused for a moment, then shook her head. “And for the love of Luna, please don’t call ponies ‘prey’! I don’t care if I’m about to, well, y’know… I know a lotta ponies and the last thing I wanna see them as is ‘food’.”

— Okay, fine. One step at a time. Think back to how you found your first true meal. The manticore, I believe it was. What did you do then? — 

The pony thought for a moment as she hovered in the air. “Well, I mean I can hear heartbeats. Still kinda gross, but I can deal. There was also something…”

— Perhaps something ‘iron’? Hm? — 

Rainbow blinked her predatory eyes. “Right. Smell. Pony, erm, smell…” She sighed, then took in a deep breath of evening air. 

Suddenly, her senses were overloaded. Whereas her previous hunts had involved the teasing scent of potential prey here and there, now she smelled a banquet all around her. The sensation clouded her mind, leaving her drifting and drooling without any awareness.

— Good, good… Now, child, use your heightened senses. Seek out your mark. Someone alone, someone unaware. Someone who no one would ever believe. Someone who, should mistakes be made, would not be missed. — 

A tiny voice in the back of Rainbow’s mind screamed in horror and protest. This was drowned out by a more primal impulse:

Hunger.



A few blocks down from the Carousel Boutique, three teenaged fillies found themselves in the midst of doing what was quite likely the dumbest thing they had ever done. This being after a lifetime of dumb ideas packed into the span of one shared adolescence, that was saying a lot.

If only the Crusaders’ earlier exploits had been so obviously unsettling as this.

Ponyville was bathed in a light yet eerie fog, cast golden beneath the street lights and silver beneath the moon. Shadows seemed to lurk at every street corner, only for a breeze to shift the mists and unveil there had been nothing there to begin with.

Scootaloo did her best to take advantage of this, darting between bushes and alleys and trash cans and anything else she could feasibly squeeze behind. Her friends were less nimble about it, but did their best to follow regardless. 

“Just have to get to Rainbow’s place,” Scoot told herself. “Get there, if she’s not still home, wait ‘til dawn. Either way…”

Apple Bloom squeezed up beside her friend. “Scoot, I-I don’t know about this… I’ve seen like three of those government spooks walkin’ about and, well… I really don’t wanna have a record, y’know?”

Sweetie Belle snickered to herself. “Oh please. I’m pretty sure there’s a warrant out for the Cutie Mark Crusaders somewhere.”

Scootaloo groaned, rolling her eyes at their antics. “For the last time, we’re not gonna get in trouble if we don’t get caught, okay?” she hissed at her friends. “Just… shush so we don’t get spotted!”

Before the other fillies could argue, the trio heard a crash around the corner, followed by ambiguous shouting. They crept up to the corner one by one to take a tentative look, though in the end, only Scootaloo was brave enough to risk being spotted.

A magenta mare stumbled back to her hooves amidst a tipped-over trash can and what were presumably its contents. She was rather unsteady on her hooves, but clearly aware that she had made a mistake of some kind. With a frown, she wiped a loose banana peel from her face, then hobbled for a spell until righting herself again. All this while, she had no idea she was being approached by another pony in a trenchcoat and, very strangely for this time of night, sunglasses.

“Ma’am!” the agent barked. “What are you doing out at this hour?! It’s well past curfew. Need I remind you of the current policy and consequences for breaking said curfew, per our most recent addendum?”

The mare whipped around, then back slightly to counter over-correction. “Wha?” she slurred. “Curfew, schmurfew, I’m just goin’ for a walk issall!”

The agent tensed up as the mare spoke. “Ma’am, have you been drinking? Answer honestly, please.”

“What? Me? N’aww.” The mare nickered. “I’m just tipsy on life, real peachy-keen here… wheee….”

Now, Scootaloo had seen drunk ponies before. It seemed ‘the sauce’ affected everyone differently. Some ponies were silly drunks, fun to be around. Others… not so much, but their bark was worse than their bite. If anypony got too sloshed to the point of alerting the authorities, usually it was for their own safety.

The young filly had never seen an officer of the law tackle a tipsy pony before, however.

“WhaoooAAAOH!” the mare yelped as she hit the dirt. The agent stood atop her, scanning over her face intently. He brought out a flashlight with a dash of unicorn sparkles and shone it in her eyes. She winced, covering her face with her hooves. “A’right, a’right! I had a few shots at a friend’s place! Calm down!”

The other pony didn’t budge, save to pass the light over the rest of her body. He ended up settling it back to her face, staring at her from behind opaque lenses. “Ma’am, this is going to sound strange, but I need to see your teeth.”

“What.”

“Your teeth, Ma’am. Please open your mouth.”

When she did not immediately comply, he attempted to lift her upper lip manually. This was met with a backhoof slap across the face.

“What are you doing?!” the mare snapped, obviously beginning to sober up. She thrashed about, forcing the other pony to back off. “Y’all come into our town, tell us what to do, an’ then have the nerve to… what, be an amateur dentist?!”

The agent brushed dirt from his coat as the other pony spoke. “No, Ma’am, but our reasons are classified.”

“I’ll classify you if you get anywhere near me again!” screamed the earth pony mare, practically nose-to-nose with the now-bewildered agent. What she didn’t notice was that she had ended her little tirade baring her teeth, something the agent was quick to take advantage of. 

“Noted,” he said after a quick examination. “Apologies for the inconvenience, Ma’am. Please allow me to escort you to your residence. I will have to issue a warning, but—”

“But what!?”

“But I believe I can pull some strings to keep you out of the jailhouse for tonight,” said the agent. 

The mare looked dumbfounded for a moment, before realization hit her. “Oh. Oh! Right, jail’s bad. I don’t like jail. I like home a lot better.”

The agent held out a hoof before them. “After you, Ma’am.”

She hesitated but for a moment, then clumsily trotted up the road, occasionally glancing back at her unwanted guest and mumbling something about government overreach, personal space, and needing to brush her teeth.

Scootaloo shivered as she stared after them. Apparently her jaw had dropped at some point, but she couldn’t remember exactly when that happened. 

It was Apple Bloom who broke the silence. “Did… did he say somethin’ about teeth?”

Scootaloo nodded.

“S-so,” said Sweetie Belle, quivering, “does that mean we were r-right?”

“I mean, if they’re not looking for a vampire pony, I’ll be pretty shocked,” mumbled Scootaloo. “Come on, we need to get to Rainbow Dash before any of the suits do.”

The pegasus filly began her way down the next alleyway, followed not long after by Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom, however, was suddenly much more hesitant.

“Come on, Apple Bloom!” whispered Scootaloo. “We don’t know when the next guard’ll come around!”

Apple Bloom shuddered, but otherwise remained frozen in place. “Okay, but… look,” she said. “To be honest, I thought this was gonna be a bunch of hogwash. But that was—”

“Real, yeah. Tell me about it,” said Scootaloo. “Trust me, I’m terrified. But we’re in a little deep now, don’tcha think?”

“Oh, you’re right, but I still hate it,” Apple Bloom groaned. 

Just as the earth pony filly began to cross the road, an odd gust passed through the patchy fog, sending it roiling in waves. The trio looked around for the source, but were met only with silent swirls. Once the fog had settled, Apple Bloom quickly darted the rest of the way across.

Something behind the earth pony filly caught Scootaloo’s eye. At first she thought it was another trick of the dancing lights, but then she made a startling realization:

There, ringed in pale moonlight, was a figure on the rooftops. A silhouette of a pony. One with unfeathered wings.



Out of many possible marks, so many choices, most were far from ideal to pursue. Many were clumped together, while others were in the light. Few were stirring at this hour, but even those asleep were in precarious locations. No, the kind of prey Rainbow was looking for would be isolated, out of sight and mind. 

Lucky for her, some ponies had a blatant disregard for the curfew. Not that anypony could have known such a creature was prowling the streets of their peaceful little town.

The predatory pegasus had found just such a mark. Now all she had to do was wait for her moment to strike.

“I see her,” she mouthed silently. Her eyes, unblinking and devoid of emotion, locked on the young mare below.

— Good. Now just wait; your moment will come. Follow her into the dark. — 

“Gotcha.”

As she watched, the unsuspecting pony below looked around warily. She trotted along the far edge of the street with tentative hoofsteps. Rainbow took off into a glide to match her pace.

So far on this night, she had evaded the patrolling agents, though they had been quite the thorn in her side. Not only were they stopping and checking anypony who so much as leaned their head outside, they weren’t even being quiet about it, thus alerting the neighbors. Now every time she caught sight of one of those trenchcoats, she would growl under her breath. 

But they were just annoying, not a real problem.

A real problem would have been a pony she was stalking becoming aware of said stalking. This would be quite unfortunate, as it would likely lead to a very noisy pony attracting a lot of unwanted attention. And yes, it would also mean a chase of some sort, but let’s be honest with ourselves; Rainbow Dash didn’t expect to be outpaced by anypony any time soon.

That said, the mare below apparently must have seen something. It was as if Rainbow Dash blinked, and then her mark had broken into a full sprint.

The pegasus wasted no time in flying after her.

“What the heck spooked her?” she breathlessly mused.

Though she expected an answer, or at least a snarky response, she heard nothing but the wind and the gallop below.

“Fae? Hello? Kinda need your help soon.”

Nothing.

“Great.” Rainbow shuddered. “Guess I’ll just have to stall or something…”

As the other mare reached an intersection, she stopped to look around at her choices. Rainbow swooped up and out of the lamplight before her prey could get a clean look, yet the pony on the ground remained transfixed on the road she had left behind.

“Wh-who’s there?” she asked, voice trembling.

There was something familiar about the voice, but Rainbow couldn’t quite place it. It was like a fleeting memory from days gone by, or perhaps just a voice she had heard in a dream. She shook her head, and the thought was gone.

As a breeze passed through her mane, the terrified young mare slowly backed away from the fog around her. “This isn’t funny!” she whimpered. “Please, I’m just trying to go home…”

In the distance, the slightest movement against the moonlight caught Rainbow’s attention. It was one of those damned agents! They turned the corner just a few blocks up ahead, and were coming straight for the scared young mare.

Then something clicked in Rainbow’s mind. She could pull this off, this ‘stunt’, but only if she acted right now.

The young filly gasped as a stronger gust of wind whipped up behind her. She frantically looked around, then tried to yell for help. When she did, she found a leathery wing covering her snout and a pair of glowing, reddish eyes staring her down.

“Shh,” said Rainbow Dash. “Don’t scream. Actually, you know what? Don’t even speak.”

The young mare entered a trance-like state upon hearing the command. Her body relaxed, and she sat back on her haunches. Rainbow removed her wing to find the other mare’s mouth stayed shut tight.

As the light of the nearby streetlamps reflected in the terrified yet helpless mare’s eyes, Rainbow felt a chill pass over her. It was as if she had been the one in a trance, and only now had she awoken.

“Wait, you’re…”

— Child, you are so close. Take her to a quiet place and you can finally feed upon- — 

“Fae?! Where were- ugh, nevermind. Look, I know this filly! I couldn’t possibly hurt her!”

— If you know her, then she likely knows you. If you feed now, her memories may blacken, much as yours did when you were first turned. — 

“B-but…”

— She’s seen too much! At this point, your only other option would be… well, you said you didn’t want to be a murderer, right? — 

The silhouette of the agent turned sharply to face them. They said something, though at this point Rainbow couldn’t make it out. Her ears were filled with telepathic shouting and the frantic heartbeat of the filly before her.

In a flash, Rainbow took hold of the young mare and swooped away into the night. The agent missed the two by mere feet, stomping their hoof in frustration as they lost sight of them against the inky dark.

Rainbow touched down near the edge of town, just beyond the edge of the light, and gently lay the young mare in the grass. She looked back at Rainbow with wide eyes full of tears and confusion.

Rainbow Dash sighed. “Welp… Fae’s got a point, kiddo. Trust me, I don’t wanna do this either, but…”

— The sooner you get this over with… — 

“Go to sleep, kid. It’ll all be over soon.”

The young mare’s eyes grew heavy before she slumped over, unconscious. Rainbow gulped as she brushed aside the other pony’s mane. She bared her fangs, shamefully wiping away a globule of drool, then approached.

“I’m… I’m so sorry for this,” she mumbled, her fangs grazing against pink coat, ”Diamond… whatever your name was...”



In another part of town entirely, the Crusaders ran full-tilt down the street. Their hoofsteps echoed around them, yet it was the deafening silence of their pursuer that gave them chills.

“Whadowedo? Whadowedo?!” Apple Bloom stammered. She was nearly neck-and-neck with Scootaloo, while Sweetie Belle lagged behind by a few paces.

Her pegasus friend kept her eyes glued on the road ahead, knowing tracking this creature was practically impossible. “Hide,” she said, “Somewhere lit. Somewhere solid.”

Apple Bloom’s eyes lit up. “Like the farmhouse?”

“Exactly! We need witnesses. That’ll keep her away, just like last time.”

They heard a sudden shriek from behind and skid to a stop. The fillies spun about to see a shrouded figure looming over them; Sweetie Belle was nowhere to be seen. The pony before them spread their dark, bat-like wings, dispersing the nearby fog in quite the dramatic fashion.

“Who’re you callin’ ‘her’?” he said with a fanged smirk. He took another step forward, revealing a swooshing, smoky mane, pallid coat, and eerie golden eyes.

Scootaloo shivered. “That’s not Rainbow…”

“Ain’t no Battacabra neither…”