//------------------------------// // The Crime Scene // Story: The Legend of Spike: Dracula // by DiabloGuapo //------------------------------// The next morning in Ponyville began with a scream of terror. A mob of ponies were gathered in the streets by a certain nightclub gawking at a horrific scene of carnage. An unfortunate mare had been trotting down the road when she came across the bodies of Count High N’Mighty and his associates. Along with the dead nobles, Vinyl Scratch was found unconscious at the crime scene. Since Ponyville was a small town, the word spread quickly and most of the towns’ citizens appeared to investigate within the hour. Twilight Sparkle, who was on her way to the schoolhouse to substitute for Cheerilee, was immediately notified. As a Princess of Equestria, it was her royal duty to resolve the situation. The Alicorn stood by the mayor as they looked at the dreadful scene. Nearly a dozen ponies, mostly unicorns, laid dead in puddles of their own blood with their throats torn out and multiple bites and slashes on the their bodies. What disturbed Twilight the most was the look of utter terror on the deceased’s faces. Their eyes were wide open and their mouths were agape in frozen screams. Whatever had happened was sudden and brutal. “I think I’m going to be sick...” the Mayor’s aide said weakly to herself as her face turned green. Twilight didn’t say anything because she had to maintain a strong face for the frightened citizens, but she did silently agree with the poor aide. “Officer,” Twilight addressed one the guards that had been called in to handle the situation. “Please usher the crowd away from the crime scene. We have important work to do and they don’t need to see this.” The white Pegasus in gold armor saluted and turned his attention to the crowd. Twilight looked over to the side and saw the doctor examining the body of the late Count High N’Mighty. “Doctor, do you know what could have done this?” The brown Unicorn stallion looked up and said, “So far, I can tell that this was done by a predatory animal of some sort. My initial thought would be a manticore, but they never come into civilization. Besides, I’m not an expert on wildlife.” “Thank you doctor,” Twilight said with a nod before heading over to Vinyl Scratch. The mare with the electric blue mane was sitting against the wall of the alley shaking with a shock blanket wrapped around her. On both sides of her were guards and they were asking her questions. However, she hadn’t spoken word since she woke up and saw the bodies surrounding her. “Miss Scratch, please tell us what you saw,” one of the guards urged her. The DJ remained silent and continued to tremble. Twilight noticed her sunglasses were on top her head and she gazed off into the distance with an empty stare. “Let me try,” the princess said to the questioning officers. Twilight Sparkle sat in front of the stunned mare and took her hoof in hers and gently spoke. “Vinyl.” At first, the Unicorn didn’t respond, but after her friend caressed her hoof, she slowly looked Twilight in the eye. “Vinyl, I need you to tell me what you remember.” Vinyl Scratch looked down at the ground and after a moment quietly said, “I don’t remember much.” “That’s okay, every little bit helps. Just tell us what you do remember,” the lavender Alicorn encouraged. “I remember finishing a song last night,” she slowly began. “I went to get a drink and I must have decided to get some fresh air because I somehow ended up outside. I don’t really remember leaving the club. Anyway, I ended up outside and I saw... them...” She stopped to shakily point to the dead bodies with her free hoof. “I guess I passed out because I don’t remember anything else until somepony found me this morning.” “Thank you Vinyl,” Twilight said as she patted her hoof. She turned to the guards and asked, “Could you escort Miss Scratch to her home?” The guards nodded and helped the witness to her hooves. “If you happen to remember anything else Vinyl, be sure to let me know.” As Twilight watched the guards walk Vinyl Scratch from the alley, the mayor approached her. “Your Highness,” the gray maned Earth Pony formally addressed Twilight. “I have been told that an investigation team has arrived.” “Thank you Miss Mayor.” Normally, she would have told Mayor Mare to not call her “Your Highness” or the like, but she ignored it due to the severity of the situation. She followed the mayor out of the alley and saw a group of ponies waiting for her. The leader was an olive Unicorn stallion with a brown mane and a magnifying glass cutie mark. Behind him were a pink Earth Pony mare with a mint green mane and another Unicorn stallion with a gray coat and a pale blue mane. “Princess Twilight, Mayor” the olive stallion greeted with a slight nod of the head. His associates followed his example and also nodded to the Alicorn. “I’m Clue Finder. This is Gum Shoe and Cold Case.” “Thank you for coming so quickly,” Mayor Mare thanked the investigator. “So what do we have here?” asked Clue Finder. “A supposed monster attack,” answered the mayor. “The doctor suggested a manticore, but wasn’t sure.” Hearing this, Clue Finder turned his head to Cold Case and gestured towards the dead bodies. Cold Case wordlessly acknowledged the order with a nod and went straight to work. “Where there any witnesses?” Gum Shoe asked as Cold Case inspected the wounds on the bodies. “Sort of. A DJ named Vinyl Scratch was found unconscious at the scene this morning,” Twilight explained. “Has she been taken into custody?” Gum Shoe eagerly questioned. “She could be a witness or even the perpetrator!” “Unless she’s secretly a wolfpony, I doubt she did it,” the mayor answered, dismissing the thought that a pony could do such a terrible thing. “You never know!” responded the excitable pink mare. “It could all be an elaborate ruse to cover what she did! You might even be in on it!” “Why, I’d never!” the spectacled mare shouted, insulted at the accusation. “Calm down, Gum Shoe,” ordered Clue Finder. “I doubt this is part of an elaborate cover up.” “But, remember the time...” Gum Shoe countered while pouting. “Yes, but that didn’t involve a manticore attack.” “It wasn’t a manticore,” Cold Case called from the alley. The group of ponies turned their attention to the gray stallion that was kneeling over Count High N’Mighty’s body. “Come here and I’ll show you.” Twilight and the mayor reluctantly followed the investigators to the grisly scene and stood around the corpse. “Take a look. This isn’t a manticore bite. One; the bite radius is too small. Two; manticores actually have multiple rows of teeth. As you can see, whatever made these only had one row.” “What else could have done this? Timberwolves?” the mayor asked. Cold Case shook his head and continued. “No. The bite pattern is different from a timberwolf’s,” he explained. “Also, there are usually splinters found in timberwolf bites. Does Ponyville have a history of monster attacks?” “No, of course not!” the mayor answered. “Well...” Twilight interjected. “I wouldn’t say that.” “Don’t forget about the parasprites!” Pinkie Pie reminded. Everypony quickly turned around in surprised at the sudden arrival of the pink party pony. They could see the other bearers of the Elements of Harmony walking up. “I’m sorry, this is a crime scene. You’ll have to leave,” a guard sternly barked as he blocked the girls’ way with outstretched wings. “It’s okay, they’re with me,” Twilight covered for her friends. “These are the Elements of Harmony. Besides, she’s right about the parasprites.” The guards cleared a path and the other five mares joined twilight. “Don’t forget about the giant timberwolf,” reminded Applejack. “Or Cerberus,” added Fluttershy. “Or the Ursa Minor,” Rarity also added. “Or Nightmare Moon,” Rainbow Dash added as well. “Alright, we get it,” the mayor said with exasperation. “Ponyville is disaster prone.” “Well, we can rule out all of those things,” Clue Finder remarked. “Most of them could eat a pony whole. No, whatever made these bites had to be about pony sized.” As the Elements looked at the bodies, each of them reacted differently. Pinkie’s mane nearly deflated. She had never seen anything as horrible as this. It was beyond her that something could be this mean. Fluttershy started crying and actually turned away as soon as she got a good look at the bodies. Rainbow Dash was secretly sick to her stomach and was struggling not to vomit all over the crime scene. Applejack simply covered her eyes with her hat to block out the awful sight. Rarity stood in stunned silence with her mouth agape as she looked down at N’Mighty’s mangled corpse. She remembered the encounter she had with this stuck up ponies yesterday and she remembered how angry Spike became when he had heard about it. “Remember; don’t do anything rash about what N’mighty said.” “Don’t worry. I won’t let it get to me.” Rarity quickly dispelled the thought. He said that he wouldn’t do anything, so that meant he couldn’t possible have done it, right? “To think, we were at this club last night,” Rainbow said to Pinkie. “I remember talking to them,” Pinkie said, remembering how rude they were. “Really?” Clue Finder said with sudden interest. “Do you remember what time it was?” “It was just before ten,” Pinkie recalled. “I noticed they were new in town and I walked over to say ‘hi’ to them.” “Anything else?” “Not really. They didn’t want to talk to me, so I left them alone.” “Did you happen to see them leave the club last night?” “No. Dashie and I left around midnight. Come to think of it, I remember there wasn’t a DJ when we left. Vinyl must have left the music on shuffle before she left.” “I remember that too,” the blue Pegasus chimed in. “About eleven, I went to request a song, but Vinyl wasn’t there.” “Hhmmm,” Twilight hummed as she thought. “She said she passed out from fright when she found the bodies when she took her break.” “That must mean the attack happened after ten and before eleven o’clock,” Clue Finder summarized. “Where where all of you at that time?” questioned Gum Shoe. Each pony thought about what they were doing that night. “Ah was already asleep by that time,” answered the farmpony. “Since Ah live on a farm, it’s early to bed and early to rise for me.” Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash could account for each other. They already explained that they were together having cider at that time inside the club. “I was about to turn in after feeding the nocturnal animals at my cottage by the forest,” Fluttershy reported. “Are you sure about the time?” Gum Shoe asked. “Oh yes. I always feed them before going to bed by eleven o’clock.” “And what was on the menu that night, hhmmm?” Gum Shoe asked with suspicion; get up in Fluttershy’s face. The shy Pegasus whimpered and shrank under the questioning look of the overzealous pink investigator. “I...I...I just feed them worms and stuff...” she stammered. “I take care of woodland critters.” “And a bear,” Pinkie Pie added on impulse. Rainbow Dash quickly elbowed Pinkie in the side to shut her up. “A bear you say?” Gum Shoe said with even more suspicion. “What do you feed him, hhmmm? A pony or two a day!?” “Harry would never!” Fluttershy exclaimed in the bear’s defense. “He only eats fish. Besides he was already asleep by then.” “Again, this was a pony sized creature,” Cold Case reminded. “Okay, but what else do you know?” Gum Shoe asked, still not trusting the yellow Pegasus. “Right before I went to bed, I saw three ponies heading into the Everfree forest hauling a cart.” “That peculiar,” commented Clue Finder. “We’ll have to look into that.” “I was heading back to the library just before ten with Spike... no.” Twilight stopped to think about it. “Spike had gone to see Rarity and wasn’t home until closer to eleven.” “That’s right,” Rarity confirmed. “He dropped by my house just before ten and we talked for a little bit.” “Who’s Spike?” Clue Finder asked the mares. “He’s my assistant,” Twilight explained. “He lives with me at the castle. Oh, here he comes now!” Everypony looked in the direction the lavender Alicorn was pointing and saw the purple dragon headed in their direction. The investigators’ eyes widened and their jaws slightly dropped in surprise. There was a dragon living in the middle of a populated area! “I just heard what happened,” Spike slighted panted, a sign that he had rushed over as soon as he found out about the attack. As the Elements of Harmony filled him in on the details, Clue Finder noticed the sharp claws on the dragon’s hands. Those could make gashes like that, Clue Finder thought. Cold Case starred at the fangs poking out of the dragon’s mouth. Those teeth are the right size and shape, Cold Case thought to himself, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. “Where were you between ten and eleven last night?” asked Gum Shoe. “I was at Carousel Boutique with Rarity and then I headed home to the castle,” Spike explained. He would have passed near here then, Gum Shoe excitedly thought to herself. “Thank you, that will be all for now,” Clue Finder announced. “If you have any more questions, be sure to let us know,” Twilight Sparkle told the investigation team. “In the meantime, Spike and I have a report to send to Princess Celestia. She needs to know what happened here.” “Certainly,” Clue Finder said with a strange smile as he watched the group walk out of the alley. Once they were gone, he turned to his team. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” “Oh yeah!” Gum Shoe eagerly agreed. “I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but the dragon is the prime suspect,” declared Cold Case. “I mean all of the signs point to him. The gashes and bite marks, only he could have made them.” “He would have been at the right place at the right time,” Gum Shoe pointed out. “All we need is a motive,” Clue Finder stated. “A motive?” the green maned mare asked in disbelief. “He’s a dragon! That’s your motive right there. He could have got hungry and decided to have a late night snack!” “Yes, but we should do a little more poking around first,” Clue Finder told them. “I want enough evidence to bring this dragon down. So we’ll do more interviews, especially with that Rarity. I bet we can dig up something more.” “What about the ponies that went into the Everfree Forest?” asked the gray unicorn. “That’s highly questionable to me.” “Right, we’ll send some guards in to check it out to be sure.” As they discussed their plans, they failed to notice the red Pegasus with a blond mane watching from the rooftops. ***** “Vlad... Vlad...” a familiar voice called from the darkness. An image materialized and Vlad Vanguard could see a figure standing on a balcony facing way from him. It was a black Alicorn with an ethereal mane like the night sky. She turned to face him with her teal draconic eyes. She smiled seductively at him and he approached her. As he drew closer to her, her black coat became a midnight blue and her eyes became like a normal pony’s. “Luna...” he whispered as he raised a hoof to touch her. As he reached out his hoof, she was pulled away from his reach. He ran to catch up with her, but she drew farther and farther away until she disappeared into the darkness. He then could see something shining from the point where she vanished; it was the moon. On its surface was the silhouette of the Princess of the Night. “Help me...” he heard a pleading voice echoing from the moon. Vlad wept, helpless to do anything. A blinding light radiated from behind him and he turned to see the brilliant white figure of his enemy before him with her accursed sun rising behind her. The Alicorn was arrayed in golden armor and her eyes blazed as the sun. They were suddenly surrounded by soldiers, both her Solar Guard and those of the Night Guard that remained loyal to him. “Vlad Vanguard!” the white Alicorn called over the battlefield to him in the Royal Canterlot voice. “Enough blood has been shed! End this pointless war!” “Never!” he shouted back in defiance before rushing at her while armed with a sword, spear, and magic. There was a flash of blinding light followed by searing agony and Vlad Vanguard howled in pain. Dracula awoke in his coffin. He moved the lid away and sat up to look out the window of the ruined castle. The sky was orange and he could see the last rays of the sun as it disappeared below the tree line. He felt something wet on his face and wiped it with a hoof. He looked at his hoof to see bloody tears staining it. “A dream... It was just a dream...” Dracula rose from his coffin and looked to the two zombies that stood on either side of it. The moaned as they always did and Dracula then looked towards the direction of Ponyville. He dissolved into shadows and left the castle. It wasn’t long until he appeared in Renny Field’s room where he found his thrall waiting for him. “What news do you have?” “As you predicted, an investigation team has arrived here in Ponyville,” she reported. “However, they believe it was the dragon that killed those ponies.” This caused the vampire to raise his brow in surprise. “You do not mean the one that the dressmaker is in love with?” “The same,” she confirmed. “How unfortunate,” he said to himself. “What else?” “Fluttershy told them that she’s saw you head into the forest, but took little notice to it. But, they do plan on sending some guards into the forest.” “The castle is well hidden,” Dracula said with little concern. “Besides, the sun loving fools are cowards. They will not venture far into the forest. Tell me more about the investigators.” “There were two unicorn stallions and an earth pony mare,” she reported. “Their names are Clue Finder, Cold Case, and Gum Shoe. They asked a lot of questions to the mayor and the princess...” “Princess?” Dracula interrupted, a twinge of panic briefly filling his dead heart. “Yes, Princess Twilight Sparkle. She was Princess Celestia’s...” “Do not say that name!” Dracula roared in fury. Renny Field cowered in fear before her enraged master. Seeing her fear, Dracula soften his expression. “Please, continue.” “S-She used to be her student and she was granted alicorn status a few years ago,” Renny cautiously told him. “She acts as regent over the Ponyville area.” “Where does she live?” Dracula asked as he let the information sink in. “The castle.” Without a word, Dracula vanished. This was a serious threat to his plan and he needed to eliminate it as soon as possible. In moments, he reappeared in front of Twilight's castle. Thankfully, the palace was still opened to the public. He opened the door and entered the tree castle. “Just a minute please!” a feminine voice called from up stairs. A second later, Twilight Sparkle was walking down the stairs to the throne room of the castle, but she didn’t see anypony there. “Hello? Is someone there? I could have sworn I heard the door open.” Unbeknownst to her, Dracula turned invisible and was observing her. She wasn’t nearly as tall and regal as the Royal Alicorn Sisters and her magical aura, though it was impressive, wasn’t as powerful. So, this is the Alicorn, Dracula thought, both amused and impressed at what he saw. She must be quite the mare to have ascended to Alicorn status. As he thought, he watched Twilight pace around the room. She didn’t know why, but she felt like a dark force was present. She passed by seven thrones surrounding a crest of a star burst on the floor. As soon as the undead stallion saw it, his eyes widen in terror. The power of the Elements of Harmony resided in the crest before him and he could feel their wholesome power radiating from it. Laughter, kindness, generosity, loyalty, honesty, and the magic of friendship filled the air and the vampire fled from them with revulsion. As soon as he left, Twilight immediately felt more at ease. She soon forgot about it and went back up stairs to finish her report.