//------------------------------// // First Class Tour // Story: Fiends of Manehatten // by Skrive Flip //------------------------------// Manehatten Hospital With doctor Featherband apprehended, Lightning Pen tried to track down the route that Cheerilee had taken. It was clear that Featherband had either an accomplice, or was the accomplice himself, so it did not make much sense in questioning him where Emerald was. Pen had ordered him apprehended for interrogation. Pen´s morale was lowered as he followed what he could only call the trail of destruction created by Cheerilee, in from of ruined and opened doors. This was going to be expensive. When he reached the last door, He found the sign saying ‘sewer access’ and stopped there. The sewers of Manehatten was not just a maze, it was like an entirely separate world. It would be near impossible to follow her down there. “What are your orders Agent Pen?” a large gruff pegasus guard asked behind him, standing proudly and saluting. Pen turned his head a moment. “Firstly you can stop saluting; I’m just an agent, not a general,” he said, making the Guard a bit sheepishly pull his hoof down. “Secondly, you put out a memo to the rest of the Manehatten guard force. Tell them that another mare has been kidnapped… Look out for Emerald Song… Find her alive if possible.” He said, his voice heavy with both authority and low hopes. The guard saluted again before flapping his wings and heading off to do his task, leaving Pen behind. The red writer unicorn groaned a moment as he pulled his fedora down into his face, his horn almost poking a hole through it. This was not good. He had gotten separated from Agent Cheerilee, and he knew not what had become of her. Of course he trusted she could defend herself, but if the fiend also was a vampire, then she was on his territory, and it was possible she would perish down there. What should he do? The only thing he could do… Continue the investigation, hoping that the vampire agent turned up. Trying to track her down would be as big waste a time like hoof polish on a diamond dog. The writer pony headed back up into the hospital itself. The elevator brought him up to the lobby first, the place already filled with nurses who were walking around, whispering amongst each other as to why guards had been here. Though the whispers were killed the moment the door to the Manager´s office slammed open. The writer pony barely was allowed to turn his head before he heard the roaring voice of a positively huge earth pony yell at him. “What is the meaning of this madness!?! Guards in my hospital!? Arresting one of my doctors!?” the voice bellowed. He was a very large blue earth pony, his mane cut short and neatly combed back in order to not shed any fur in the preferably sterile environment. He was dressed in a white doctor´s jacket with a pair of pens neatly hanging from it’s his pocket. The jacket was cut nicely around the flank so that the Cutie mark was almost put on display, as to show that he knew what he was talking about. The cutie mark being a large red cross and clipboard. Pen did his best to look completely innocent. He stood there with a surprised look upon his face as the doctor marched up to him with a look of bloody murder in his eyes. “How should I know? Shouldn’t you ask the law officials?” Pen asked with an almost apologetic smile, though the doctor was not convinced any. “My nurses say that you lead those guards through MY hospital, and that YOU were the one who gave the order to arrest Featherband! How could you have that authority!?” he demanded to know. Pen mentally sighed. It was situations like these he would rather avoid. He turned and snapped his tail slightly at the doctor´s face arrogantly before calmly strolling towards the exit. “I don’t need to explain myself to you… You on the other hoof have got quite a few things to answer for… But that is not my place to say…” he said before sending a small smirk back at the doctor. “Though I would like to add that the guards might begin to investigate the hospital, so you should perhaps cover your losses, instead of throwing charges at ponies?” He asked, his smirk hitting the doctor like a metaphorical slap to the face. The large doctor was fuming, glaring at the coltish writer pony. But that pony was right, if he began throwing charges around right after he had failed to keep order at his hospital, then he would lose face amongst the board! They would think he was trying to scapegoat it onto someone random. “Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr You little… Freaky Queer…” he tried to find his worst words to describe his frustration, but was interrupted as a guard pony cleared his throat behind the doctor. He was only able to turn his head before he met the harsh stare of the pony. “Do we need to file you in for harassment of civilians as well beyond you losing your patients?” he asked harshly, covering Pen´s flank and allowing him to sneak relatively discretely out. Pen was not able to hear the rest of the conversation, but he was immediately deflated the moment he got out of sight and out of the hospital itself. Dear Celestia this was going to be awkward to explain later if he had to keep his cover. He had to be more careful. He shook his head a moment. ‘This isn’t the time to think of that… You need to somehow contact Cheerilee’. He thought to himself and sat down by the wall to the hospital, thinking over his options. ‘Ok, Cheerilee chased after the kidnapper in the sewers. Which means I can’t trace her. There is the possibility that she is dead, Uhm, I mean, fully dead. There is also the possibility that she found Emerald and they are on their way out, and Manehatten is saved… No no, Can’t assume that, that’s why you asked the Guards to search for Emerald right?’ his thoughts twisted themselves around in his mind as he was sitting there on his rump. He was forgetting everything around him and twisting his thoughts around to try and consider every. Single. Detail. And. Possibility. “Presume she is alive, yet lost… How should I act in the meantime? Should I call for backup from the Princess? Should I sit at home and wait? Should I wait here? How could she assume where I was? Would it be considered me abandoning her if I were to wait anywhere else? And on the same note, Would I be abandoning her by not following down the Sewers!? In fact, Since I am actually prancing back and forth here and considering my options in precious time while Cheerilee might be in serious trouble, could in fact be seen as me abandoning her! But I'm not going to-“ Pen was silenced as two things happened rather fast. One, His nostrils were invaded by a horrid stench. Something between rotting eggs and the smell of a bathroom in the most slummy bar he could think of. Two, he was grabbed by the face and turned by two rough mare hooves, forced to turn and stare into the wet face of Agent Cheerilee. “Just…. Shut…. Up….” She growled threateningly. Pen ran through a pallet of different emotions as he Saw Cheerilee, all sadly expressing themselves through exactly what he was just asked not to do. “Cheerilee! I thought you might be dead! What happened? No don’t answer that, did you find the kidnapper? No, don’t answer that either, you would have brought him here if you did, unless you had decided to kill him, but I will assume you are professional enough-“ He was finally silenced as he was slapped so hard that he could swear he felt his brain hammer against the inside of his skull with an audible thud. The young unicorn stared upon Cheerilee, holding his cheek which had actually gone blue from the strike as he finally realized her predicament. Not only did she stink, she was drenched head to hoof, her mane sticking to her face and there was actually pieces of sewer slime stuck amongst the once beautiful locks in her mane. She was positively fuming in a strange mixture of self-loathing and anger at everything else, she was actually gritting her teeth audibly in order to keep herself calm. Pen realized he was lucky she had not just ripped his head off right there. “Just… Tell Me… Did you arrest the doctor?” she asked firmly, wishing no more bull manure. The young unicorn nodded his head, his fedora actually flipping a bit back and forth putting emphasis on the nod. “Yes…. He is arrested and is being transported to the local guard post. We can interrogate him tomorrow,” Pen quickly reported, chronologically and precisely, sitting there stiff as a board. Cheerilee gave an artificial sigh and nodded. “Good….” she stated, before reaching a hoof up to move the wet mane out of her eyes. “Now… I need a shower…” she grumbled, not having any more patience that night. She had been stuck in a carriage for inequine amounts of time, and merely hours after she left it, she ended up getting a first hoof tour of the city´s sewer system. She either needed time to relax, or somepony to rip the throat out of. And the last was out of the question. Pen gave a quick nod, before he waved a hoof at a taxi carriage which was about to pass by the hospital. The carriage stopped, but the puller was at first unwilling to let them onboard. “She´ll stink up mah Carriage!” the earth pony carriage puller said, holding his snout covered a moment as Cheerilee came up to the carriage, his eyes narrowing at the mare. The red Unicorn smiled a bit with sudden inspiration before he walked up to the puller. “I’ll pay you a hundred bits now, and then three hundred when we get there, Then you can get your carriage cleaned.” He tried to reason with the earth pony. A light seemed to gleam in the puller´s eyes, the prospect of a large sum of bits was a good deal, which was what Cheerilee assumed was the reason the puller began smiling, but despite her horrible mood, she was not expecting his answer. “Wait… You´re Lightning Pen aren’t ya!?” He asked, his breath held in anticipation. Cheerilee sent the red unicorn a small glance, who just returned it with a slightly uncomfortable smile. “Uhm… Yes, That’s me, but Can we just-“ “Oh mah goodness!” the working class earth pony declared. “Ah didn’t believe mah own eyes fer a moment, but it really is ya! Forget about the extra bits! This one is on the house!” he said with quite a grin, beckoning both them to enter the carriage. The vampire teacher stood with her mouth a bit agape. Her anger had lulled slightly so she was in the mood to be genuinely interested in this. Pen on the other hoof, looked uncomfortable, he pulled at his fedora a moment as to cover himself slightly more, though it was hard due to his horn in the way. “Uhm… Thanks sir…” he said before just walking into the Carriage, a confused Cheerilee following behind, who closed the door and let them head off. The inside of the carriage was not the finest, not to be expected seeing as it was a cab, but it was still closed up enough to capture quite a bit of the smell, making Pen hold a hoof over his nose defensively. Cheerilee didn’t bother covering her nose anymore. It had gone completely numb after that trip through the sewers. The silence was broken by Cheerilee who crossed her hooves a moment. “So, what was that about?” she asked calmly, making Pen´s ears perk up a moment. “The puller recognized you…” She waited for an answer, tapping one of her hooves impatiently. The colt rubbed the back of his head a moment, looking down slightly. “Well, I don’t always work with… You know…” He didn’t mention the Agency as the carriage driver was still within possible earshot, so he held his tongue.  “In my free time… Or… well… Work time I guess… I’m a freelance author…” he spoke, shifting his flank slightly as to put a tiny bit of emphasis on his cutie mark. Cheerilee nodded her head in acknowledgement. The pen with the lightning streak writing in a book. It was rather fitting for an author, though she knew not to make assumptions judging by ponies cutie marks. She had met a pony or two who did; they thought she was a florist, and not a teacher. “So what do you write?” she asked calmly, part of her feeling stupid for just asking the colt about that, she shouldn’t get too friendly with someone she just met for a single mission. But the teacher in her was genuinely interested. Pen looked so young, if he had already made it, that would be rather impressive. The colt turned his head away a moment. “Oh uhm… I write… Fiction… Though I get inspired by the real world… You know, I go to the occasional dragon infested town, hear the accounts of ponies who have been kidnapped by Changelings, and so forth… Get material.” He then stiffened a moment and waved his hooves defensively. “I only use the material I’m allowed to! And I never divulge anypony´s names! That would be cruel!” he tried to reason himself in front of Cheerilee. He was clearly a bit more skittish seeing as Cheerilee had growled at him and actually smacked his face. The vampire teacher nodded her head a moment, calmly listening to the fumbling unicorn. “So how are your books received?” she asked with interest. Pen was actually not allowed to answer this one, instead the carriage driver answered, calling into the Carriage. “Are ya kidding? He has gotten two awards in Manehatten! He is one of The big Orange´s best authors in mah book!” He said, one could almost hear the grin upon the driver’s lips. Pen´s cheeks reddened and he looked down towards one of his hooves. “I’m not really that good… I just… Try to hoofle it…” he said with a bit of a low voice, which made Cheerilee perk up an eyebrow. Was he embarrassed about his work? But it seemed that he had fans, so he shouldn’t be… The teacher just gave a warm smile to the young writer. “I am sure you hoofle it very well…” she said, receding to look out the window as the Unicorn grew quiet. The rest of the trip back to the safehouse was spent in awkward silence, as Pen seemed to focus more upon his hooves than looking into the teacher´s eyes. Cheerilee blamed herself for his silence. After all, She knew colts that were still not completely self-confident in that age, so her snapping at him most likely made him feel bad. Sometimes being a teacher could give you insight, she was convinced. Finally reaching the address, they left the carriage, (though Pen staying a moment, insisting that he paid for having the carriage cleaned) and headed up the huge assortment of stairs, reaching the safehouse. Pen was the first one inside seeing as he was the one who had the key, and he rather quickly pointed over to a door on the far side of the large combined living room and kitchen. “The bathroom is the door on the left, feel free to take as much time as you want.” He said as he levitated his fedora up to its perch by the door. The vampire teacher wasted no time in getting to the bathroom, longing to get the stench out of her fur, and regain feeling in her nose. It had begun to feel less numb, and more as if it was about to fall off. She pushed open the door to the bathroom, and was actually a little taken aback by the sheer size of it. The apartment was really a penthouse in so many ways. The huge panorama windows back in the livingroom might have convinced her, but now looking upon the sheer size of the bathroom there was no longer space for doubt. It was about the size of Sugarcube Corner´s kitchen  and had not only a large walk-in shower, but also a huge jacuzzi in the corner with all sorts of ways to adjust it. ‘Just how many bits does that kid have?’ she mentally questioned, before opening the door to the shower. She placed herself inside, finding it so neat that it actually had more than one place for the water to exit. Waves and waves of water rushed over the mare as she stood in the middle of the shower, much needed relief washing over her as the water was turned on and she could almost just feel how the stench softened slightly. ‘Sweet Celestia I needed that…’ she said as she reached for the soap and began washing out every single hair upon her body, every part of fur and run her mane so thoroughly that it ended up completely straight and covering her eyes. As the soap was repeatedly soaked into her fur and washed away, she began to feel another great feeling come over her. The sense of smell. Her snout began working again as it felt much less numb, the lovely smell of the soap and realizing that the bathroom was actually rose scented. Wait, rose scented? Cheerilee raised an eyebrow beneath her wet mane and sniffed the air again. While the smell was a bit covered by the steam, she could smell the scent of roses. ‘Why does he have his bathroom smell like roses?’ she mused before she rubbed some more soap into her mane, just wishing to be sure she got out the last of the sewer stench out of her mane. Trying to ignore the strange question of why her colt partner had a constant rose scent in his bathroom, she tried to think back upon the issues more important. Emerald was gone… And she was only able to deduce that the pony kidnapping her was a white unicorn. She had thought him too brittle so she had not assumed that he was clever enough to buck her off the ledge. Cheerilee shut off the water, finally feeling confident that the smell was out, continuing on to grab a nearby towel and dry herself, while she was still thinking. ‘Somehow said unicorn was in contact with doctor Featherband in order to make him bring Emerald to the sewer entrance… Most likely they use the sewers as a transport system.’ She thought again, running the towel through her mane. While the towel did make her mane slightly unruly it was still very straight, blocking her vision. She reached up a hoof to move the mane out of her eyes and looked around for anything that could help her curl her mane again, but she could not see anything immediately. She shrugged, why should a colt have something like that after all, so she just opened the door to the bathroom slightly in order to call for Pen. “Pen! Can you get me my curling iron? It should be in my bag!” she said, her mane still obstructing her view slightly. Pen´s voice called back. “There is a Curling Iron in the left cupboard next to the mirror!” he called back, Cheerilee not seeing what he was working on. Raising an eyebrow, Cheerilee looked back inside and easily found the cupboard he was talking about, and true to his words, there was a curling iron there. It was a rather nice one as well. ‘Huh... Thats surprising...’ she mused, before moving on to curling her mane back into it usual fashion, making it much easier for her to see again. She returned to her thoughts. ‘So the Unicorn in the Sewer is somehow connected to all of this... he looked like vanity was a virtue, so it was very possible that he was a noble. That would mean we have to ask around more privileged circles.’ An artificial sigh escaped Cheerilee´s lips. While it was fun to act arrogant for the sake of a cover, it was something else to try and keep up the act in front of ponies who were truly arrogant. The acting arrogant did at least have a tad bit of self parody about it, which made Cheerilee inwardly smile, though when somepony actually was serious about their arrogance, it made her want to vomit the contents of her stomach. Speaking of that, Cheerilee´s gave off a small rumble, making the agent look down a moment. She was hungry... Or more precisely thirsty. A more true, artificial sigh escaped Cheerilee´s lips again as she looked herself in the mirror, smiling a moment as to show her fangs and letting her tongue run across the two pointy canines. ‘Seems like I will have to hunt tonight...’ she thought resignedly, quickly running her towel over her body to make sure that she had not missed any water stuck in her fur, and gave her mane a last curl, before placing the iron down. She forgot to think about why this was in a colts bathroom before she headed outside again, trotting into the living room. “Pen, I think I will need to get some sustinance tonight, so I will....Will...” she ended up dumbstruck as she found Pen staring upon a huge assortment of papers spread out all over the living room. There were photos, reports, his own notes, and curled up paper lying everywhere as if a small explosion had happened. The writer pony himself stared over all of these papers, running back and forth between paper and pictures, to some looking like a complete madpony. Cheerilee cleared her throat, which made his ears perk up, but he didn't look at her, instead he moved some more papers around, desperately trying to give them some sort of strange symmetry in this chaos. “What just happened?” Cheerilee asked with a voice one would suspect she used against students whom she had just caught in cheating. Pen didn't look at her. “I am trying to piece all of this together with my data already, and it just does not fit together...” he said, his voice annoyed, with the same fervor Cheerilee recognized when Twilight didn't have her library neat. That was something that just struck Cheerilee, this did look an awful lot like Twilight, if she had just figured out that five of her books were in the wrong place. The same form of obsessive face. Cheerilee knew all well and good not to mess with ponies with OCD if she wanted to stay sane, so she tried to just walk around the huge amount of papers. “Uhm... I'll just go out and get something... to sustain myself... You just keep on doing... What you´re doing...” she said, turning to the door, but she was barely able to trot another step forwards before Pen spoke up. “The agency has supplied me with enough blood to sustain you easily, its in the fridge...” he said, gesturing absently over to the kitchen and continued on to levitate five different pieces of paper around him, his crazed attempts at order out of his self created chaos seemed to fail. The vampire teacher unconsciously licked her lips a moment at the prospect of getting fed, but she really raised an eyebrow again. Did he have blood for her in the fridge? She questioned before moving over to check herself. Lo and behold, he was right. All she had to do was open the fridge and there it was. About half the fridge was normal pony food, Carrots, Lettuce, Hayfries, Haybacon all sorts of things, while the other half was neatly stacked and relatively sterile plastic bloodpacks with small valves for the easy accessibility of transfusion. Cheerilee picked out one of the bags, looking upon it in disbelief a moment before looking over to Pen, who was still running around in his OCD craze in the living room. She reached down and stuck the valve and straw in her mouth, turning the valve, letting the cold red plasma pour into her mouth. No matter how many times Cheerilee fed upon blood, it always tasted so sweet. It was just so... For lack of a better word... Bloody good. She´d get feelings like a mixture between a Pinkie Pie Sugar rush, and a deep buzz of the apple cider season. She really hated how she liked it but could not do anything about it now. She was damned to do this until the end of her days. Which could very well be till the end of the world. Cheerilee´s strange mixture of melancholic revery and blissful gaining of sustenance was broken as the bag was emptied, and she was left with a floppy plastic container. She looked up to ask Pen of where she should throw it out, but the unicorn was already ahead of her, even if he wasn't looking at her. “Just throw it in the can, nopony comes to check it anyhow.” he said, trying once again to look over a large amount of papers, before he in anger and OCDly frustration screamed and threw the papers aside. “WHY DOES THIS NOT MAKE ANY SENSE!?” he exclaimed as he threw himself backwards onto the floor, lying in the middle of the maelstrom of papers. The vampire teacher discarded the empty blood pack and walked over to Pen, careful to step over the papers and lowering herself as to Look more into the young colt´s eyes with her soft teacher demeanor. “How about you let the work rest until tomorrow and then perhaps it will make sense?” she asked calmly, knowing several foals who had not been able to see sense in their homework because they were too sleep deprived. Playing with other foals until far in the night is not really a great idea when you have an assignment to the next day. Pen stared up upon Cheerilee for a few brief moments, before he sighed in defeat. “Fine...” he conceded, his horn lighting up and most of the papers lifted all at once and slowly gathered themselves together. Cheerilee was a bit impressed with the fact that he could lift up all the papers. “You seem to know your fair bit of magic.” she commented offhoffedly. The young writer unicorn just gathered all the papers in one pile, gently tapping them against the table in order to make them symmetrical as he shook his head. “I just have enough training with Papers... Ask me to pick the same amount of furniture up, and you will get a lot of annoyed Feng Shuists”, he said before blinking a moment. “Oh right, you´ll need to get into your room...” he remembered before quickly trotting over to a door, opening it slightly. “This is the guest room, you are allowed to use it as however you well please... If you need anything, I am right beside you.” he added, gesturing to the next room. Cheerilee gave small nod and walked quickly over to pick up her bag, of which had just been placed inside, and went over to the room in question. “Thank you Pen... For everything I mean...” she muffled out, with the bag hanging from her muzzle, making the young writer just avert his face a moment. “Oh its alright... its my job...” he said before trying to turn away, but was stopped a moment. “And... sorry for that slap earlier... That was not fair of me...” She tried to diplomatically convey. A small thing piqued her interest, as she saw the unicorn´s face didn't change, nor did he try to look at her. “You don't need to apologize...” he almost whispered. “I deserved that one...” he just quickly added before opening the door to his own room. “Goodnight agent Cheerilee...” he said and disappeared inside the room. Cheerilee was left alone in the big appartment as the door clicked itself shut and the sound of a lock in place sealed the deal. Cheerilee frowned a moment, wondering just how deep an effect her slap had upon the young colt. ‘That was stupid of you Cheerilee’ she told herself before she headed inside the guest room, seeing that it was also relatively large, having a double bed and a large closet, but Cheerilee did not regard it any further. She placed her bag aside and threw herself onto the bed, letting rest creep up upon her as she rubbed both her temples. Her thoughts immediately fixated themselves upon Emerald, and those terrified eyes. Dear sweet Celestia she prayed that Emerald was alright... Somewhere in the depths of Manehatten: “Little one, Little one, Little one, do not fear instead think of what you hold dear. Little one Little one Little one, utter the name of your master, and he might be, merciful…” the voice cooed with malicious intent and deep pleasure rooted in uttering every syllable. Emerald Song gasped for air as her eyes shot open. Anesthetics almost never stopped instantly, but for Emerald, the fear and adrenaline was enough to kick out the remainders of haziness from her mind. She instantly tried to move, but was barely able to wiggle more than a few centimeters before the powerful yank of chains forced her back down again. Her eyes darted around in panic, trying desperately to decipher where she was. It took not long for her to realize she was the one place she never wanted to see again. Her blood felt like it was boiling and she desperately tried to slam her head back into the cruel bricks to which she was chained to, but she was barely able to get one weak knock done, before her face was grabbed firmly by two hooves, forcing her to look into the face of evil. And It grinned. “Oh no no no little mare… That’s very wrong… No need to punish yourself… What would I do then?” he asked in a small cooing fashion, before he roughly let go of her face and getting back onto his own hooves. Emerald shivered and her voice was shaking as she tried desperately to form pleads of mercy, but it all just turned into stutters and mumbles. The Fiend gave a small cruel giggle. “Oh Dear... Have nothing to say for yourself, little mare? My little song mare...” it cooed again as it leaned its face so close to Emerald, she desperately trying to avert its horrible red shining eyes. A small pout formed upon Its face. “Awww... Why are you so snubbish? I thought you wanted to be normal again... Not arrogant... Not... So... uptight...” the voice cooed again, but this time Emerald was in even more terror, as she felt a cold as a corpse hoof gently place itself upon her chest and slowly move upwards, more and more towards her throat. Emerald could not keep it in anymore, she was actively whimpering, tears already streaming down her face as she was hyperventilating again. All that just emotions the fiend was positively soaking up with a malicious grin. “You´re so pathetic little Emerald... You thought they liked you... You thought everything would be okay once you changed.... So weak...” the fiend´s voice so dark and cruel, succeeding in making Emerald sob even more, as she clenched her eyes shut, trying to shut out the world, just praying to Celestia that her misery may be taken away. But to no avail. A deep and terrified shiver went down her spine as she felt the cold and strange feeling of the Fiend´s tongue over her throat, it slowly dragging itself across such a sensitive area. Emerald´s face lit up in a mixture of terror and red blushing, and she knew why. It was that aura about the fiend. That... Terrifying... Inequine... Attracting aura... And that smooth voice... She knew everything about it was a lie, a cruel ruse to torture her. But she knew what it also did. Even as she was terrified, her head unconsciously moved itself to the side as to give him more access to her throat. A small chuckle escaped the Fiend as it let its tongue back and licked its own fangs. “Tell me my little mare... How was your trip outside? Was it worth it? Was it worth seeing the dark of the night before you got home to take the consequences of your actions...” it asked, so maliciously happy about the trapped mare and its ability to do what it wanted. But it was halted as the mare spoke. “I never was free... You Fiends are everywhere..................” She was just able to whisper out, her voice stuttering and she hoped she somehow could shut up. The Fiend stopped. It pulled its head back a moment and grabbed Emerald´s face with a hoof to glare into her eyes. “Fiends?... Plural?... How can you have seen more of my kind?” he sort of stated, yet asked. Had the earth pony mare not been in binds and or absolutely terrified, she would have questioned his change of demeanor, however she just nodded. “Y-Y-Yes... A mare... A teacher... Sh-She... Was like you...” She stutteringly admitted to her captor. The fiend stared into her eyes a moment before roughly letting go of her face and getting normally back upon his hooves. “That's impossible...” he added, taking a thoughtful face on a moment, before, like a lightning strike, his malicious face returned with that cruel grin of realization. “A vampire...” he just said. “The vampires survived... While we were destroyed?... Oh how lovely... Just.... So... Lovely” its voice became increasingly dark and filled with a sort of strange hate, but it then suddenly calmed itself and got into a more amused grin. He turned to Emerald again, its face turning almost pleasant and smiling a fake warm grin. “Tell me Emerald.... Tell me about this other Fiend... Maybe then I will consider revising your punishment a bit..."