Everything was quite during the small hours in the morning at Sugarcube Corner. Everything that is, except for Pinkie Pie, who was snoring in a comedic fashion. The pink party loving pony was snuggled up in her fluffy bed with her quilt that had balloon patterns sewed onto it. Her room was the cupcake shaped loft of the confectionery that resembled a giant gingerbread house. Just outside the sleeping mare’s window was a hovering shadowy mass. Red eyes glowed from the shapeless black fog and then it vanished. The living shadow reappeared inside the bedroom and it took the form of the undead Unicorn from Trotsylvania. He grinned, baring his sharp fang, as he stood beside the bed and looked down at the sleeping Pinkie Pie.
“Wah!” a wailing cry pierced the silence of the bakery. Mrs. Cake stirred as she was woken by the sound of her twin children crying from the other room.
“Carrot,” the blue Earth Pony mare with the swirly pink mane mumbled to her husband.
“Mmm,” the amber Earth Pony stallion grunted, barely acknowledging his wife.
“Carrot,” Cup Cake mumbled a little louder.
“Hmm?” he groggily responded, now paying attention to her somewhat.
“Missit urturn?” she asked, her words running together.
“Hmm?” he grunted, not understanding her jumbled words.
“Is it your turn?” she ask more slowly and with a little more force.
“It’s Pinkie’s...” he answered with a yawn.
“Oh... m’kay...” Cup Cake said as she tried to go back sleep. One of the good things about having a pony like Pinkie Pie living with them was that she was willing to help with the children. Even when Pound and Pumpkin were foals, Pinkie would take a turn and check on them when they cried in the middle of the night. Now that they were toddlers, they would only occasionally wake up from having scary dreams. However, this time the twins continued crying for a few minutes before the Cakes realized that their employee wasn’t going to take care of the problem. Mrs. Cake elbowed her husband and he grumpily groan as he got out of bed.
“Alright. Alright, I’m coming,” he said as he walked to the twins’ room. He opened the door and saw his son and daughter sitting up in their beds with their bed sheets pulled up to their chins as they screamed and cried.
“Daddy!” the twins cried together. Carrot Cake sat on Pumpkin’s bed and placed the little unicorn filly on his lap and Pound left his bed and hugged his father’s side.
“There there,” he hushed his frightened children. “Everything’s alright.”
“There was a monster outside!” Pumpkin cried.
“There’s no monster,” Carrot tried to reassure her.
“Yes there is!” she insisted.
“No there’s not,” he told her. “You were just having a nightmare.”
“There is a monster!” the Pegasus colt claimed. “I saw it too! It was all black and it had glowing red eyes and razor sharp teeth!”
“It flew by the window!” Pumpkin said as she pointed at the bedroom window. Carrot set his daughter back down on the bed and went to the window. He opened it and stuck his head out.
“See? There’s no monster out there,” he said as pulled his head back inside. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
Meanwhile, a dark creature had just pulled his fangs out of the neck of Pinkie Pie, leaving behind two red bite marks. The Element of Laughter was no longer snoring, but softly gasping and moaning.
Three down, three to go, Dracula thought to himself as he smiled with victory. His shape dissolved into an amorphous black shadow and phased through the wall the building. He flew past the window which Mr. Cake was standing by as he was telling his children that there was no monster. What Carrot Cake didn’t see, but his children totally saw, was the black mass passing right behind him. Pound and Pumpkin shrieked with terror and hid under the covers of Pumpkin’s bed.
As Dracula flew away he ran his tongue across his teeth, trying to analyze the flavor of Pinkie Pie’s blood. Since he hadn’t eaten mortal food in centuries, he became quite the connoisseur of ponies’ blood. The vampire had noticed that certain ponies had certain flavors. Normally, it was faint or just a hint of flavor. For example, Count High N’Mighty and his social climbing collection of nobles had the faint taste of wine and champagne, which was typical of the aristocrats. Applejack’s blood, appropriately, slightly tasted like apples. But this mare, her blood was something else. Instead of being a subtle hint of flavor, Pinkie Pie’s blood was definitely sweeter than other that he tasted before. It was as though the mare ate so much candy, pastries, cakes, and other confectioneries that Dracula swore that sugar ran through her veins.
Now, what to do about the other three? he asked himself, still licking his fangs. The one known as Rainbow Dash lives in a house, not a store. I will need to draw her out. Twilight Sparkle dwells in the castle, but it is protected by the Elements of Harmony. Again, I will need to draw her out. Rarity... I will save her for last.
*****
The next morning, Clue Finder, Cold Case, and Gum Shoe knocked on the door of Carousel Boutique.
“Coming!” the singsong voice of Rarity called from behind the door. In a moment, the door opened and the fashionista appeared at the door. “Oh, good morning, inspectors. I’m afraid the store isn’t opened yet. You will have to come back in a couple of hours.”
“We’re not here to shop, Miss Rarity,” Clue Finder explained. “We need to ask you a few questions.”
“I was about to meet up with the girls for breakfast at Sugarcube Corner,” Rarity told them. “And I don’t want to be late. So, if you will excuse.” She walked passed them and used her blue magic to close her door behind her. “Perhaps you could come by after I have opened the boutique. I’ll be more than happy to speak with you then.”
“Actually, it’s really important that we speak now,” Cold Case said as he block her path.
“I’m sorry, but you’ll just have to wait,” Rarity said as she tried to walk around the gray Unicorn, but was stopped by Gum Shoe.
“Listen, lady,” Gum Shoe said as she got up close to Rarity’s face. The white Unicorn was taken aback by how pushy the investigators were being and felt rather threatened. “Either you can talk to us now, or we can bring you in and make you talk to us there. Either way, you’re going to tell what you know.”
“Y-you can’t do that,” Rarity stammered as she nervously stepped back.
“No? Try me,” Gum Shoe challenged.
“Back down, Gum Shoe,” Clue Finder ordered. “I know your special talent is interrogation, but save it for the right time.” Gum Shoe grumbled, but she did as she was told and stood down. “I apologize, Miss Rarity, but we’re close to solving this case and we just need to ask you a few questions to help us wrap it up.”
“O-okay,” Rarity said, still shaken from Gum Shoe’s confrontation.
“We appreciate your cooperation,” Clue Finder told her. It was clear to Rarity that Clue Finder was the “good cop” to Gum Shoe’s “bad cop” in the classic “Good Cop Bad Cop” routine. “It won’t take long. We can even talk as we walk you to Sugarcube Corner.”
“Very well,” Rarity conceded, relaxing a bit. Clue Finder walked beside her as they walked down the road with Cold Case and Gum Shoe following them.
“So tell me,” the olive Unicorn began. “Where were you on the night of Count High N’Mighty’s murder from ten o’clock to eleven o’clock?”
“As I told you before, I was home at Carousel Boutique,” the violet maned mare answered.
“Oh, that’s right,” Clue Finder said as though he completely forgot, but in fact was leading up to the next question. “You were with the dragon... Spike, was it?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Rarity confirmed.
“And what exactly was he doing there?”
“We were just talking.”
“Just talking,” Clue Finder repeated. “Talking about what?”
“About how our days went.”
“And how did your days go?” Clue Finder urged. “What did you and Spike do that day?”
“Well, Spike went with Twilight to the hospital to check on Cheerilee,” Rarity recounted.
“Uh huh. Go on.”
“And I told him about the encounter I had with Count High N’Mighty earlier that day.”
“Oh! So you knew the Count,” Clue Finder said with interest.
“Unfortunately, yes I did,” Rarity muttered. “We had met a few years ago. He invited me to his estate in order to ‘get to know me better.’ But when I arrived at his mansion, I quickly discovered that his interest in me was, shall we say, less than honorable.”
“Please explain,” Clue Finder requested. “We need to know the details. It might be important.”
Rarity gave a less than thrilled moan with an accompanying eye roll, but said, “He wanted to seduce me. From the moment I had arrived, he was making crude remarks and suggestive comments. I slapped him and immediately boarded the next available train back to Ponyville.”
“So what happened at your store the other day?”
“He came by and was just as boorish as ever. His plan this time was to either seduce me or humiliate me if I didn’t take his offer.”
“How exactly did he try to humiliate you?”
“I told him that I was in a relationship with Spike and that I was happy, which he and his associates openly mocked.”
“I can’t imagine why,” Gum Shoe said under her breath, but Rarity didn’t hear her.
“So you told Spike all about this?” Clue Finder asked.
“Yes I did.” Rarity confirmed.
“And how did he react?” Clue Finder asked, hiding his excitement. She was so close to saying what he needed to hear. “Was he angry?”
“Of course he was angry,” Rarity told the investigator. “If somepony called your relationship with your special somepony an abomination, wouldn’t you be angry?”
“I certainly would,” he said with a satisfied smile. That’s it. We got our motive.
“I told him not to let it get to him and he promised not to do anything about it,” Rarity told the investigation team.
“Well, it looks like we’ve arrived at our destination,” Clue Finder announced, seeing the bakery come into sight. “See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“I suppose not,” Rarity admitted as she approached the door of Sugarcube Corner.
“Here, let me get that for you,” Clue Finder said as he opened the door for the fashionista.
“Thank you,” she said. She walked inside, followed by the three investigators, and saw her friends sitting around a table. Rarity walked up to Spike and gave him a kiss on the cheek, causing him to blush, and sat down beside the dragon. On Spike’s other side was Twilight Sparkle. Across from them were Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle.
“What took you so long, sis?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“You know better than anypony that I take my time to make sure that I look my best,” Rarity answered, closing her eyes and turning her nose up.
“Yeah, I know,” the younger mare said, rolling her eyes. “But where’s Apple Bloom and Applejack? I know they live out on Sweet Apple Acres, but they’re usually here way before Rarity.”
“And where is Pinkie Pie?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking over to the counter at Mrs. Cake. “Isn’t she up yet?”
“I don’t know,” she responded with a concerned look. “She should be already up and helping in the kitchen. Carrot?”
“Yes, dear?” Mr. Cake called from the back.
“Is Pinkie back there with you?”
“No, she isn’t. Kids, go up and see if she is awake,” he told the twins. The little Unicorn and Pegasus ran out of the kitchen and up the stairs.
At that moment, the door burst open, causing the bell to ring loudly, and Apple Bloom came in panting.
“Apple Bloom,” Mrs. Cake said, about to scold the yellow young mare for coming in so violently. “Don’t go bursting...”
“Twilight!” Apple Bloom shouted as she ran up to the Alicorn. “Come quick! It’s Applejack!”
“Calm down,” the princess tried to settle the panicked red maned Earth Pony down. “Tell us what happened”
“Big Macintosh found her in the orchard this mornin’! She wouldn’t wake up and she had marks on her neck!” she explained as her eyes filled with frightened tears. At this point, everypony was already on their hooves.
“Did he already take her to the hospital?” Twilight asked her urgently.
“Yes, and he sent me to find y’all!”
“Alright, let’s...” Twilight started to say but was interrupted by the sound of hooves running down the stairs.
“Mommy! Daddy!” the foals shouted.
“What is it?” Mrs. Cake asked, already on edge.
“Pinkie won’t wake up!”
In a flash, everypony was in Pinkie Pie’s bedroom, surrounding her bed. They saw that the pink mare was breathing softly and no matter what they did, she wouldn’t respond to them. Twilight pulled back the covers and they all gasped when they saw the marks on her neck.
“Quick, we got to get her to the hospital!” Twilight declared. Spike bent down and scooped the unconscious Pinkie Pie up in his arms and her limbs dangled limply to the side. Cradling his friend, Spike rush down stairs and out of the bakery, followed closely by the others. What they didn’t notice was that the three investigators had left long before they did.
Not long afterwards, five ponies lay in beds in a special observation room in Ponyville Hospital: All Aboard the train conductor, Cheerilee the school teacher, Fluttershy the Element of Kindness, Applejack the Element of Honest, and Pinkie Pie the Element of Laughter. Twilight, Spike, Rarity, Sweetie Belle, Rainbow Dash, and Scootaloo looked on as Granny Smith, Big Macintosh, and Apple Bloom surrounded Applejack and the Cake family stood by Pinkie Pie’s bed.
“They have the same symptoms as the others,” the doctor noted as he looked at his chart. “Perhaps this is the start of an epidemic. I fear it may be airborne.” However, Spike didn’t think so nor did some of his friends. It couldn’t be mere coincidence that all five of them had the same two marks on their necks. Though they may not want to believe it, they were all starting to wonder it; could there really be a vampire in Ponyville?
“Cheerilee,” Twilight asked the magenta Earth Pony, who had regained consciousness yesterday. “Do you remember anything about that night? The night of the storm?”
“No. I’m sorry,” Cheerilee said as she shook her head. “All I remember was that I was headed home after grading some papers and the wind and the rain were very strong. The next thing I know, I’m here waking up three days later.”
“Mr. Aboard,” Twilight addressed the stallion with the bushy mustache. “You were the first patient brought in. Do you remember what happened?”
“Not really,” he shrugged. “We were headed down from the Crystal Empire and the next thing I know, I’m being taken to the hospital and didn’t wake up until the other day.”
“This there anything else? Anything at all?” the lavender princess asked, desperate for information.
“No, noth... Wait,” the conductor paused as he suddenly recalled something. “I remember something about crates.”
“Crates?” Rainbow Dash repeated incredulously.
“Yes, and something about a passenger. I’m sorry, but I can’t seem to remember exactly what it was.” The group of friends looked to each other with looks of confusion and worry. Rainbow Dash started to head towards the window with a determined look on her face.
“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight Sparkle called after her multicolored maned friend. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going to headquarters,” the blue Pegasus announced. “I’m rounding up the other Wonderbolts and we’re gonna find who’s responsible for this and make them pay.”
“But we don’t even know what it is that’s doing this,” the Alicorn stated.
“Oh come on, Twilight!” Rainbow Dash said in exasperation as she held up her forelegs to emphasize her point. “Anypony can see what’s going on! It’s obvious that someone, or something, is taking out the Elements of Harmony and I’m gonna make sure that doesn’t happen!”
“You’re right,” Twilight admitted. “Just hurry and get back here quick. If you’re right, then you are a target also.” Rainbow Dash nodded and opened a window. In a blur of color, she took off and sped out of sight.
“What are we going to do now, Twilight?” Spiked asked. All eyes were on the princess. She thought to herself, and then came up with an idea. She went over to Fluttershy and gently roused her.
“Fluttershy?” Twilight whispered to her sleeping friend. The Pegasus’s eyes weakly fluttered and then barely opened.
“Twilight?” she tiredly whispered. “Is something wrong?”
“No, Fluttershy,” she told her not wanting to trouble her friend while she was in a delicate condition. “I just want to know about those ponies you saw heading into the Everfree Forest.”
“I didn’t get a good look at the first two,” she quietly told her. “But the third was a Unicorn. He was gray and he wore all black.”
“All black?” Rarity asked with recognition. Fluttershy feebly nodded her head.
“Anything else?” Twilight asked.
“His eyes,” Fluttershy said and her eyes grew wide with fear as she remembered. “They were the scariest eyes ever. They were such an icy blue that they seemed to chill me to my bones.”
“That sounds like that prince guy!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed.
“The one that defended Rarity’s honor from N’Mighty?” Spike asked.
“Yes, Prince Vlad,” Rarity confirmed. “Prince Vlad of Trotsylvania.” Something clicked in both Spike and Twilight Sparkle’s minds. There was something familiar about what the fashionista said, but they couldn’t quite remember what it was.
“Thank you, Fluttershy,” Twilight said soothingly to the yellow Pegasus. “You can go back to sleep now. Come on, Spike. We have research to do.”
Outside city hall, a crowd was gathering. On the platform were Clue Finder and his team of investigators. With them on the stand was the group of guards that had accompanied them on their assignment.
“Sir, we’ve searched the forest as much as we reasonably could, but we didn’t find any ponies,” one of the white Unicorns in golden armor reported. “Only a zebra that talks in rhyme.”
“Never mind that. We have more important things to take care of,” Clue Finder dismissed before turning to the crowd. “Citizens of Ponyville! A monster has been living in your midst!” The crowd gasped and murmured to each other at this revelation. “Yes, this town has been harboring a dragon!”
“You mean Spike?” an anonymous pony called out from the crowd. “He isn’t dangerous. He’s been living here since he was a baby dragon.”
“Yes, but what happens when they grow up?” Clue Finder countered. “They may be cute when they’re small, but they’re dangerous when they get big! As I understand it, he has already caused serious damage to your town! He almost destroyed it and he was still a baby!” The crowd all muttered in agreement as they remembered the incident during the dragon’s first birthday in Ponyville. “We also have evidence that he is the one behind of the murder of Count High N’Mighty and his associates! He is also the one who has been attacking ponies! His teeth match up with the marks on the bodies and he was at the scene of the crimes!” Again, the crowd gasped at the news. “Are you going to let this threat continue to live in your peaceful town!?”
“No!” the crowd answered.
“Are you going to let him attack another pony!?”
“No!”
“Are you going to defend your town!?”
“Yes!”
“Then follow me and let’s get that dragon!”