//------------------------------// // The Storm // Story: The Legend of Spike: Dracula // by DiabloGuapo //------------------------------// “Come along little ones,” Fluttershy said to her animal friends as she ushered them into her cottage. Squirrels, chipmunks, birds, and other small animals hurried inside to take cover in the houses that the tenderhearted Pegasus built for them located throughout her home. “There’s a storm coming and I don’t want anyone to be caught out in the rain.” After the woodland critters were safe in her cottage, she went out back to make sure her chickens were secure. As she made her way to the coops, a sudden flash of lightning and the sound of thunder caught her by surprise and she gave a loud yelp and nearly fell over from fright. She looked in the direction the noise came from and saw that black clouds were coming in more violently than she expected. “Oh, I hope Rainbow Dash and the weather team will be alright,” she fretted as her long pink mane blew in the wind. After making sure her chickens would be safe, she hurried back inside her own home. Angel, her rabbit companion, hopped on her back and they both gave worried looks to each other as the storm continued to cover Ponyville. At Sweet Apple Acres, the Apple family was also battening down the hatches. Big Macintosh made sure the storm shutters were up and Applejack was rounding up the cows with her dog Winona. “Get a move on!” the farm pony called to the cattle as she herded them into the barn. “We ain’t got much time!” As the bovines entered the safety of the barn, Applejack glanced back over to the direction of the town. Normally, she would see to it that all the trees in Ponyville were clear of any large loose branches before any major storm. However, there was no warning this time. She put it on her mental checklist to give the Pegasi a piece of her mind afterwards about the unscheduled thunderstorm. At the storm front, said Pegasi were busy trying to break up the rogue storm. Like Applejack herding cattle, the weather team was trying to herd the clouds so that they can break them up. They were divided into teams so that a few Pegasi would break off pieces of the storm and bundle them up while a few others would buck them to make them dissipate. “Alright, keep it up!” Rainbow Dash shouted over the wind to her crew. “We can do this!” “But Rainbow Dash,” a dark gray Pegasus named Thunderlane called back to her. “It just keeps coming! It seems like for every cloud we bust, two more take its place!” “Suck it up, Thunderlane!” Rainbow Dash barked. “We have to keep at it! This storm has to run out eventually!” “But he’s right,” another Pegasus called back. “More clouds just keep on popping up!” “Come on, team! We can’t let this storm get the better of us!” the multicolored maned mare tried to motivate her crew. “Let’s do this!” “Yeah!” a burly white stallion cheered as the weather team doubled their efforts. At Sugarcube Corner, the sound of two upset foals could be heard. Pound Cake and his sister, Pumpkin Cake, were woken by the sound of thunder and started to cry up a storm of their own. Their parents, Cup Cake and Carrot Cake, held their children and tried to get them to calm down. Pinkie Pie was also trying to help her landlords by making funny faces in attempt to get the crying foals to stop and calm down. “Look at Pinkie. Look at the funny face,” the pink Earth Pony said as she made silly sounds and scrunched her face into all sorts of strange configurations that the Cakes didn’t know were possible. Sometimes they wondered if Pinkie was made out of rubber. There were a lot of things they wondered about Pinkie, but they were almost afraid to ask. Most of the time, when they would try to ask her they would only walk away with more questions. They, like most of Ponyville, decided to leave the matter alone and just let Pinkie Pie be Pinkie Pie. Despite Pinkie Pie’s efforts, the foals continued to wail. Taking drastic measures, Pinkie pulled out a bag of flour and held it over her head. She opened the bag and dumped the powdery substance over herself. After being covered with flour, Pinkie Pie was pure white and let out a sneeze that formed a little white cloud. The young Unicorn and Pegasus stopped crying and giggled at the pink pony’s antics. However, another crash of thunder caused the twins to resume their crying, much to the chagrin of the three adult earth ponies. Rarity and Spike were able to make it back to Carrousel Boutique before they got too wet from the rain. Well, at least Spike did. Any drop of rain on the white Unicorn’s tidy mane caused her to fret over it. As soon as she got inside, she ran to the nearest mirror to make sure she was still presentable. “Had I known it would rain, I would have brought an umbrella,” she said to Spike as she did little touch-ups to her mane. After a few moments, she was satisfied with how she looked and she stepped away from the mirror. “Other than that minor complaint, I had a wonderful time.” “Me too,” Spike agreed as the mare of his dreams smiled up at him. He couldn’t help but to smile back at her as they looked into each other’s eyes. They leaned in closer to each other and closed their eyes as their lips began to touch. “Rarity!” a voice called from upstairs. The couple quickly pulled away from each other in surprise as Sweetie Belle came down the stairs. “Sweetie Belle,” Rarity acknowledged her teenager sister in a forced tone that had a ton off annoyance being suppressed beneath it. “What are you doing here?” “Mom and Dad went out of town for a few days,” the young mare explained. Rarity, while happy to be able to spend time with her one and only sister, wished that her parents would give her some notification in advance before dropping her off at the boutique. “Very well,” Rarity sighed in acceptance and turned back to Spike with an apologetic smile. The mood being officially dead, it was time for Spike to head home. “Thank you again for the lovely evening.” “You’re welcome.” Spike and gave her a quick kiss and started to leave. “I’ll see you soon. Good night, Rarity. Sweetie Belle.” “Do be careful heading home,” she called after him as the dragon ran out into the storm. “Bye Spike,” Sweetie Belle waved after Spike. “So, what were you two up to?” The elder sister’s response was an annoyed groan. Back at the storm front, Rainbow Dash was still leading the charge against the wild weather. The wind was picking up and the rain began to sting from the intensity. Lightning would frequently crackle nearby and the Pegasi often had to dodge incoming bolts. However, she refused to be bested by a bunch of clouds! With a burst of energy, she put her all into her task. Cloud and after cloud, she fought her way through the storm. With one last kick, she finished her assault and wiped her brow as she paused to evaluate the situation. Her jaw dropped when she saw that they had hardly put a dent into the storm, much to her dismay. Rainbow Dash realized that Thunderlane was right; more clouds seemed to keep coming no matter how many the weather team busted. “This… this is impossible,” the blue mare stated as she hovered in the air in front of the black mass of clouds. “Rainbow Dash!” she heard a voice calling to her. She turned around and saw Twilight Sparkle flying up to her. “Twilight!” she called to the lavender Alicorn over the wind. “I don’t understand it! This storm doesn’t seem to end!” “Here! I have an idea!” Twilight’s horn glowed magenta as she summoned her magic to combat the out of control weather. Twilight used her magic to cast a spell that would dissolve the storm from its center. However, she felt something strange; the storm was resisting her spell! It was like she was wrestling another force over control over the storm. Twilight gritted her teeth and her horn flared with more magenta magic as she put more into her spell. As she did so, the opposing force met her challenge and also put more effort into resisting her. The princess strained to keep up with her invisible opponent, but felt her power being overwhelmed by the mysterious force. With a cry of alarm and exhaustion, Twilight Sparkle was nearly knocked out of the sky when the power of the unseen force flooded over her as she released her spell. “Twilight!” Rainbow Dash cried out in concern as she rushed to her weary friend’s side. “Are you okay?” “I-I’m fine,” Twilight panted as she reassured her friend. “I don’t understand it. It felt like there was something else behind that storm.” “What do you mean?” “It was like the storm had a mind of its own and was fighting back,” the Alicorn tried to explain. “What can we do Twilight?” Twilight looked from her friend back to the storm and said, “There’s nothing we can do.” “But…” Rainbow Dash started to argue, but stopped and also looked at the storm. “The best we can do it just wait it out.” “Ugh, I hate to lose to a stupid storm!” the Pegasus complained. “I know, but there’s nothing else we can do. The best thing you can do is go home to Scootaloo.” Rainbow Dash nodded in compliance and addressed her team. “I’m sorry guys, but we have to call it quits.” The exhausted, the weather ponies sighed in relief and headed home. Rainbow Dash took one last look over her shoulder at the rumbling dark clouds and frowned. Stop mocking me! Meanwhile, the ponies at the Ponyville train station were in a hurry to recover their luggage and to head home to seek shelter in their homes from the storm that seemed to follow their train to its destination. Renny Field was watching as a group of stallions unload her crates from the baggage car and onto a delivery cart. Nearby was All Aboard, who was sitting on the platform next to the engineer. The conductor held a hoof to his head and wearily wobbled side to side. “Hey, are you feeling alright?” the engineer asked his coworker. “You’re looking kind of pale.” “I don’t… What happened…” All Aboard mumbled in a daze. “Where am…” Before he could say anything else, the mustached conductor passed out and fell face first to floor. “Hey!” the engineer shouted in alarm. “Come on, wake up!” He tried shaking his unconscious friend, but All Aboard only muttered incoherently. A group of onlookers stepped forward to see if he needed assistance and helped the engineer place the conductor on his back and took him towards Ponyville Hospital. During the commotion, nopony noticed that Renny Field had left with her cart of crates. What they also didn’t notice was a black maned Unicorn leave the baggage car and walk off the platform into the rain. Unaffected by the weather, he stood on the street and observed his surroundings. He noted the dirt roads, the thatched roofed buildings, and the smaller size of the community. A village, he observed. Filled with simple minded peasants. He grinned, showing his two pointy canine teeth. Perfect. He vanished from sight and reappeared atop one of the thatched roofed house. Like a predator stalking his prey, he paced along the rooftop as he watched the ponies scurry about the streets as they ran to seek shelter. He patiently studied each one as they ran beneath him, evaluating his options. He looked back at the train station and thought it would be wiser to seek a more secluded location. His form blurred and in its place was a swarm of black bats. The swarm flew from the station headed another roof that was located towards the heart of the town. The bats merged into one and resumed the form of Dracula. Again, he watched the streets from his perch. Unfortunately for him, he only managed to catch a glimpse of a pony as they closed the door of their house behind them. After waiting to see if any other ponies might come down that particular street, the vampire’s form shifted again as he searched for another perch. This time, Dracula landed on top a building across from city hall. From there, he saw a tan Earth Pony mare with a gray mane exit the building and stand under the terrace. She wore glasses and a neckerchief. Dracula looked around to see if anypony was watching and crouched down on the roof like a large cat ready to pounce. Before the vampire could act, another pony carrying a flashlight and an umbrella walked outside to join her and then hurried away together. Frustrated, the creature once again vanished. Just on the outskirts of Ponyville, Cheerilee was just finishing locking up the schoolhouse. It had been quite a frustrating day for the dark magenta Earth Pony with a two-toned pink mane. Since she was the only school teacher in the only school in Ponyville, she had to teach all of the students of the small town. Even though she loved her students, a few of them seemed to make it their mission to make Cheerilee’s job hard for all of the years they were there. Almost every day, somepony would get into a fight with another student or cause some sort of accident. Today it was both. Cheerilee sighed and shook her head as she reflected on today’s misadventure. Snips and Snails had almost burnt down the schoolhouse during their science assignment of the day. She had given them very precise instructions on which chemicals they should not mix, but they forgot which ones to mix and decided to mix all the chemicals together. Needless to say it’s going to be a few weeks for their manes to grow back. It was innocent, but stupid, mistake. Unfortunately, it didn’t end there. Diamond Tiara, even though her attitude had improved over the years ever since the Cutie Mark Crusaders had befriended her, just had to make the mistake of laughing at them. The dimwitted young stallions’ embarrassment quickly became anger and they poured a container of chemicals on the violet and white mane of the affluent student. Thankfully, it was only bleach and her mane will only be a blinding bright white for a little while. Also thankfully, Cheerilee was able to catch Diamond Tiara as leaped at them and prevented her from ripping their heads off. She didn’t punish Diamond Tiara, having her mane bleached was punishment enough, so Cheerille sent the sniffling Diamond Tiara home and gave Snips and Snail detention. After detention, Cheerilee had a conference with both of the boys’ parents. After that meeting was over, Cheerilee remembered that she had a stack of assignments to grade. When the whole ordeal was finished, the sun had just set and a storm just rolled in. The school teacher made her way along the road to her home. Thankfully, she didn’t live too far away from the schoolhouse. She passed by a few stores that were on the way to her neighborhood. As she walked in front of an alleyway, she happened to notice a pair of glowing red eyes coming from the shadows. Her heart skipped a beat from fright thinking that there might be some sort of monster lurking in the darkened alley, but when she did a double take, she only saw a gray stallion smiling pleasantly at her. “Good evening,” the unicorn greeted warmly in a strange accent. “Oh… heh heh… Good evening to you too,” she chuckled, slightly embarrassed. Cheerilee felt silly for ever thinking she saw red eyes, for she could clearly see he had blue eyes. “Are you lost, sir? This isn’t the type of weather you want to be out and about in.” “The rain does not bother me in the slightest,” the stallion told her. “However, I have just arrived to your fair city and I do not know my way around.” “Maybe I can help you,” Cheerilee offered, trying to be courteous to the newcomer. After she had said those words, the unicorn smiled and stared into her green eyes with his icy blue eyes that seemed to glow. The mare was instantly transfixed by the sight of the glowing eyes and couldn’t help but to stare back into them. Her mind became hazy and she smiled with a dazed look on her face. “Yes, you can help me,” the dark stallion whispered to her in an insidious voice. He walked backwards into the darkness of the alleyway and Cheerilee followed him mindlessly into the shadows. Now that they were concealed in the shadows, the dark unicorn approached the mesmerized earth pony, staring into her eyes. Slowly, he tilted her head to the side, exposing her neck to him. He opened his mouth and she was dimly aware of the feel of his two fangs against her throat. She winced at the pain of the sharp teeth piercing her neck and quietly gasped, but soon forgot the pain as a wave of euphoria washed over her as she felt the sensation of blood being drain from her body. With each beat of her heart, more and more blood was siphoned away. She was becoming lightheaded and her knees wobbled. Her legs gave out and she fell to the ground of the alleyway unconscious. The creature standing over her smiled as he looked down at her sleeping form and then he vanished into the night.