Cheerilee opened her eyes. A circle of faces stared down at her—seven mares, one stallion, and a dragon. She recognized them all.
The schoolteacher tried to sit up. So many wood splinters were speared into her body that they cracked against each other and she fell back in pain. “Can anypony help?”
Twilight carefully began removing the shards with magic, doing her best not to hurt Cheerilee. Not that it mattered, she would heal, but it was the principle of the thing.
“That…that is the strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” muttered Tea.
Applejack threw him a look. “We’ve known her longer. Think how we feel.”
“It’s freaky,” agreed Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy carefully avoided looking at the blood, and even Pinkie had fallen silent. Golden ring and Cheese both stood back and said nothing. Spike had taken the initiative to make refreshments for everypony.
“Sorry to drag you into this,” said Cheerilee, looking at Tea. “What are you doing here, anyway?”
“I heard about all the disappearances around here and I was worried about you,” the stallion answered.
It was touching that Tea cared so much about her. It was too bad that the Princess would probably have to do a memory spell on him or something. Cheerilee looked around, wincing as another splinter came out. She asked, “Where’s Rarity?”
“She was attacked,” said Twilight. “She’s at the hospital right now.”
Cheerilee nodded, knowing how Rarity had been injured. It was still a question about whether she would be all right. The schoolteacher looked around the circle. “So…I suppose all of you have a lot of questions.”
“Well, our friend Cheese explained a lot of it,” said Pinkie. “So really, I have just one question. When I throw you a grand Welcome Back to Ponyville party, what kind of stuff should I prepare for food?”
Silence hung in the air for a moment. Cheerilee said, “Just do what you want. I’m sure everypony else will enjoy it.”
Pinkie squealed with excitement and pulled Fluttershy into a little dance that culminated with the pink pony dragging the other out the door. Rainbow Dash and Applejack watched the two of them leave before quietly making their own exits.
“It’s getting late,” observed Twilight, looking at Tea. “Why don’t you go find somewhere to sleep for the night?”
Cheerilee would have suggested the library couch, but she knew it had seen plenty of use and Twilight was probably tired of uninvited guests sleeping on it. Tea glanced around one last time, avoiding looking at the blood, and left the library.
The Princess dropped her disguise and cast a spell over the windows to keep anypony from looking in. “This evening could have gone better. We’ve got one injured Element of Harmony, a previously uninvolved civilian knows about our secret project, and there’s somepony out there that thinks it’s funny to throw vampires through library roofs.”
Had Luna’s tone been different, it might have been funny. Twilight paused from her work on Cheerilee. “What are we going to do, Princess?”
“We need a plan,” said Luna.
Twilight got up, grabbing a paper and quill. “Let me help you.”
The royal pony wavered for a moment. “I think I need to do this alone. It’s going to be dangerous.”
“That’s exactly why I want to help!” agued Twilight.
“Go look after Rarity,” Luna said. She spread her wings and disappeared through the hole in the roof.
“Stay here,” said Twilight to the two remaining ponies. “I’ll be back as soon as I make sure Rarity is fine.” She went out the door.
Cheerilee sat up. It felt like Twilight might not have completed her extraction work. Golden asked, “What happens now?”
The schoolteacher forced a laugh, hurting a little from the slivers of wood still buried under her skin. “I wish I knew. Nothing like this has ever happened since I started working for the Princess. It’s going to be interesting, to say the least.”
▼▼
Princess Luna banked into a turn, careful to keep her silhouette out of line with the moon. She had made a circle over Ponyville to check the perimeter and headed for the Everfree Forest.
The Princess beat her wings hard to gain speed, but was careful to keep the noise of her passage quiet. Her dark blue coat blended into the night sky. Twilight had informed her about what they had found in the forest. Luna kept a close watch, trying to pick out anything that looked strange. She measured the distance from the forest to the library with her eyes. It had taken powerful magic to throw Cheerilee that far.
The Princess skimmed low over the trees, making herself a harder target. It did not pay to take chances, especially in such a serious situation. She spotted the first pony not far into the woods. He looked…well, dead. As Luna flew on, more appeared. She had no idea how many there might be, but there were certainly dozens.
The indigo mare turned, lining up for another pass over the area. More and more figures moved among the trees. She worriedly upped her estimate to possibly a hundred or more, and delicately extended her senses, trying to pick up the magic that controlled them.
The first bolt of energy nearly decapitated her, slicing through the air past the mare's face. If Luna wasn’t moving so fast, it might have hit her. Jerked from her reconnaissance, the Princess took evasive action, quickly turning away.
Alert now, Luna avoided another jet of magic from the ground. It had come from roughly the same place as before. She concentrated, shifting her vision to another spectrum, one of the benefits of being the Princess of the Night. A warm body among the trees stood out from the dead ponies that shambled about.
Luna smiled grimly, preparing for the next attack. As it flashed out of the trees heading skywards, she magicked a hemispherical force field below her. The powerful spell reflected off the shield, sending it straight back the way it had come. An explosion shook the ground and several trees fell.
The force of the spell against her shield had knocked Luna upwards. She used the momentum to keep climbing, clearing the area.
▼▼
At the hospital, Rarity was finally awake. Princess Luna had stopped by and visited Twilight, leaving before the white unicorn was allowed to have visitors.
Rarity took the news that Twilight presented her with quite well. “So let me get this straight, vampire Cheerilee came crashing through a hole in your roof while her sidekick and a random stallion from Hoofshire were visiting. On top of that, Princess Luna thinks we’re about to be under some kind of attack from an undead army and is gathering all the fighting forces she can muster to start a preemptive assault tonight.”
“That’s it,” said Twilight.
The mare in the hospital bed frowned. “The doctors said I had a mild concussion and a fractured leg from being slammed into a wall, but other than that I'm unharmed. Otherwise, I would think my hallucinating mind was making this disaster up.”
“It’s pretty scary,” said Twilight. “The Element Bearers have to go out there, though. We won’t be a whole team because you need your rest, but we’ll be able to help somehow.”
There was a knock on the door and Spike stuck his head in. “Twilight, are you about ready to go?”
The purple mare got up. “I sure am. Spike, I want you to stay here with Rarity.”
The dragon and the white mare looked at each other. Rarity spoke. “Twilight, I think as much as we would both like to spend time together, Spike could do some good if he was with you.”
Spike nodded. “I guess she’s right, but I do want to stay with you, Rarity. It’s a shame you have to let your leg heal or you could come with us.”
“Just take care of her, okay?” said Twilight. She left.
Spike plopped down in a chair that groaned under his weight. He was about twice the size of most ponies, and in a few more years probably would not be able to fit indoors anymore. He said, “This sucks.”
“Watch your language.” Rarity smiled. “However, I feel the same way.”
Neither of them spoke for a moment until Spike looked up with a gleam in his eye. “I could carry you.”
“That sounds rather undignified,” said Rarity. She considered it. “However, nopony would dare comment because I have a dragon with me.”
The two of them shared a grin and Spike scooped the pony up from the bed, placing her on his shoulders. Rarity shouted a charge and they dashed off to catch up with Twilight.
Author note: I'm going to play with the story tags to fit what I have in mind a little better. The next chapter will be really long, considering we have something like ten good guys to keep track of. Oh, and remember that part about how Pinkie danced with Fluttershy out the door. It will be important for something I write a couple of months from now.