Applejack the Vampony Slayer

by Immanuel

Hidden things

Chapter 2: Hidden things

Creeping through the empty hallways of the dark school, Applejack paused and shivered at every new turn she took. Sights of shadows and silence brought up images of warmth and laughter from just a few hours earlier. It wasn't the first public building Applejack had had to check during the night, and the transformation from jolly to eerie should have been familiar. To have been part of the crowd acting safe, unconcerned, normal, however, made the foreboding emptiness extra upsetting. She ground her teeth together, flinching slightly at the sound.

It wasn't just the passing from light to dark. It was wrong in ways that had nothing to do with the subversion of normality. Having a school as a site of a vampony attack was... not right.

How would a vamp have found a victim here? Why would they bring one here?

Vamponies hunted in the night. There was no one in a school building at night. It was a high profile place. Foals played here! A corpse in a place like this brought attention. Vamponies didn't want attention. They killed their victims out of sight and left the bodies in hidden places. A young vampony wouldn't know to do that. They might reveal themselves accidentally because they didn't know how to be careful, but a young vampony wouldn't have destroyed the protection on the window. It would have shied away from the pain it caused and fled.

They were malicious. They liked to play with their food. They were twisted mockeries of pony dreams and desires. Would a particularly sadistic one relish in the fear and pain caused by the desecration of a foals' sanctuary?

The destroyed Sun visage in the window made her bit her lip. Pa told me the older, stronger ones can fight the Sun. But they were the wilier ones. She couldn't understand why one would flaunt its presence like this. Darn monster tries to send a message! Applejack snorted angrily, then shook her head. Nah, it's the school got me on edge. And the darn notebook! Suspicions and conspiracies...

It was here on the first school day! Applejack paused midstep and narrowed her eyes. Was it a message? If so, what did it say? Be frightened. You're not safe. That didn't sound like a message a vampony would send. They didn't want their food being wary, not until they had the poor pony cornered. Then they might gloat, terrorize, torture. This... this made it harder for them to lure anypony to their deaths. The ponies would be more subdued, more frightened for a time. Less likely to go outside at night, less likely to follow strangers.

Somepony or something is hunting the beasts, she remembered the journal. Could they have had part in this? A mortal could destroy the protection easily. Many did, in ignorance. Ancient floor plans, traditional decorations, these things went out of style. Fashion left ponies unprotected, their houses open to Dark.

The Sun on the window was no accident, though. It was the only blemish on the school building. It was a very specific damage, an easy-to-miss scratch in a place, where ponies were used to seeing something anyway. "Very precise locations, designed for maximum damage..."

Was a pony behind this? Applejack growled at the thought, and pushed it away. She tried to think like a vampony, finding a building that was only mostly protected. It would keep other vamponies away, let them feed in peace. Hunters like her wouldn't check such a place. It would make a good safehouse for a moderately cunning vampony.

She felt sick in the stomach at the thought of one of those monsters laying dormant somewhere in the school. Foals would be studying, playing, while the unholy creature 'slept' during the day, listening, taking in sounds and scents, planning for murder... She shifted the position of her stake in its holster. If it's a nest, it will come back here before dawn. She smiled grimly.

Was it just that? A sadistic vampony taken residence in the schoolhouse, enjoying the terror it inflicted on the young minds? Who had destroyed the protection on the window?

Applejack reached the biology lab. The sheriff had left a note on the door, forbidding entry because of investigation. It didn't match with the cheerful crayon pictures of animals pinned up at the wall beside it.

Applejack hesitated for a moment at the door, shrugged, and broke the lock. If'n I get the sheriff looking even more closely at this, he might dig up more clues. Just need to watch he don't get himself killed. Shining Armor. He was the sheriff's deputy. Appleseed had wanted to take a look at him. That brought Applejack's thoughts back to the journal and Appleseed's suspicions. They wouldn't compromise a school, would they?

It could be a trap for vamponies. It would lure them in. You would just need to stake a watch during the night. Every time a vampony moved in, you waited for the dawn and took it out. A school? No, that was too sick. Too risky. No sane pony would risk exposing foals to such monsters.

What about a warlock, then? Could they have set a ritual somewhere in the school, feeding on fear? Children's fear? Applejack shivered, feeling more ill by the moment. I need to get this done, before I start panicking. She checked the biology class, finding no more than she had expected. The body had been found in a samples closet, stuffed between the shelves. Applejack found no suspicious symbols or magicks inside. She shrugged. Better check the cellars, maybe something's hiding there. The rest of the night she would stake out in the school yard. Oh, ponyfeathers. I'm going to be knackered at school tomorrow.

* * *

"Movement!" The sharp hiss woke Twilight up. They had decided to take turns watching the school, and Diane had drawn the first watch.

"New girl?" she whispered.

"Negative. New contact. Alone." Diane paused. "It's heading for the compromised window," she said grimly in a low voice.

Twilight bit her lip. "She's still in there," she said after a short silence, her voice barely audible.

Diane nodded, eyes locked at the figure walking through the school yard. "Moving out," she said quietly, but firmly.

* * *

Big Macintosh lay on the roof of the Ponyville Hospital's Sun chapel, the highest building of the hospital complex, mostly hidden by a dark cloak. It was very useful, hiding his very visible red coat from sight, obscuring his form and also adding protection against the night's chill that was pronounced at his current height, even so early in the autumn. It was also quite snuggly.

Big Mac recited prayers in his mind, keeping himself barely awake in a meditative state, just above sleeping. Still, his ears perked at a faint sound of hooves on cobbles at a distance, and his eyes focused immediately at a figure, no, make that several figures, advancing towards the abnormally spacious morgue at a leisurely pace. His eyes narrowed and magnificent muscles tightened as he tensed for a pounce, more like a great cat than a pony.

"About time," he growled in a low murmur.

* * *

Applejack examined the space hidden behind a flimsy makeshift wall in the boiler room. It wasn't much larger than a pony in width, and could take her height, barely, standing on hind legs. Every inch of the walls were covered in pictures of smiling ponies. Schoolchildren. Many of the faces seemed vaguely familiar, some she recognized for sure as her new class mates. In about third of the pictures, a figure of a pony had been inked out. There were group pictures, pictures of friends playing or hugging, with one of the ponies replaced by utter black. They looked so young.

In a few pictures, she noticed a pony had been crossed over. A different pony every time, nine in total. One of the pictures was of a family. A mare, a stallion and two foals. One of the foals was inked out. The rest were crossed over.

"In Celestia's name..." Applejack whispered and shook her head. I guess I found the nest, then. She focused and concentrated on the inked out figure. In no picture were the friends of the figure older than twelve. Not much older than Applebloom, she thought grimly.

She noticed a picture with Rarity and Sweetie Belle in it as well. They didn't look any younger in the picture. A smaller figure in the background was inked out. Must be fairly recently vamponized, then. She figured the roguish looking colt that looked about eighteen was the most recent victim. I wonder what drew you to her, she pondered absentmindedly.

A faint 'clop' from the direction of the doorway stopped her breath.

Applejack melted into the shadows, fast and quiet.

* * *

A slight figure in a white dress flowed to the window with the scratched out Sun. It glanced around it, once, and smoothly jumped through, barely making a sound.

A moment later, two other figures arrived at the spot, almost as quietly. These ones were dressed in dark bodysuits and dark goggles. The pink one carried a flask in its mouth, a tuft of cotton peeking out from its neck, ready to be ignited.

Twilight and Diane paused at the window, nodded at each other, and jumped through.

* * *

Four vamponies stood in front of the morgue, still and quiet, all four staring at the door.

They never saw him coming.

* * *

As the figure in white paused at top of the stairs, a wooden stake snaked through the dark and embedded itself in a wall, having cut through the front of the dress and drawing a line of dark blood in the figure's chest.

"Gosh darn it!" it heard a voice in the dark say, before it hissed and turned to flee.

* * *

Diane and Twilight froze at the sound of a loud 'thud!' and a faint curse. They quickly pressed against a wall around a corner, avoiding just in time a fast, hissing figure speeding through the hallway. They saw it pause to throw a locked trophy display at something behind it.

The cabinet soared through the air in a short, destructive arc, a massive pile of polished wood and glass and cups and medals in all sizes made of brass or silver, ending at a mare in pursuit of the white-clad figure.

Applejack ducked under the flying display cabinet, touched it with her shoulders, and bounced after the figure, shrugging the heavy piece of furniture off her with no change to her momentum.

"Ha! Ah ain't got time to look at fancy pots, ya varmint!" she shouted while speeding after her target.

The cabinet broke against the entryway to the cellars with a deafening sound, spilling on the stairs the collected trophies of every intercity competition Ponyville Central had won in the past half century. The clatter continued for an eternity.

Diane and Twilight stared after the pair for a long while, before the pink mare dropped the flask in her mouth and whispered "Wow". Twilight nodded slowly.

* * *

A wooden crossbow bolt struck a vampony in the back, the shaft disappearing completely from sight. The vampony blinked dazedly before collapsing in a pile of dust. At the same moment three hundred pounds of prime stallion hit the backs of two other vamponies that had turned towards their fellow in surprise. A blade of a heavy battleaxe cut through the air, decapitating the third.

In a well-practiced motion, Big Mac reared back and simultaneously flipped both of the holsters in his forelegs, baring the stakes in them. They came down with unstoppable force.

The dust floated away in the faint night breeze, as Big Mac re-holstered a pair of stakes and nodded, as if in acknowledgment of proper execution.

Swapping his ax for the crossbow again, he walked to the morgue with slow, deliberate steps.

* * *

Applejack ran through the town in hot pursuit. Ooh, this feels so good. Her heart thumped and blood raced through her veins as she tore through the night, just a few steps behind her target. A lasso trailed behind her, readied for a quick throw with her strong neck muscles.

The slight figure ahead of her bounced towards a river and launched itself through the air, spreading its bat-like wings.

In the brief moment it took to beat its wings for the first time, the rope caught it around the barrel, and it was snapped back to the ground.

Applejack was on top of it in the same instant. She looked into the face of a young filly, ethereal in the moonlight, then spat as it gained the appearance of a beast with glowing red eyes. "No shame at all with y'all," she breathed, "taking a foal like that. To Tartarus with ya!" She swiftly staked the vampony through its chest and closed her eyes as it turned to dust. "Rest in peace, child. The princesses look after ya."

* * *

In a soft bed easily big enough for three fillies, Applebloom let out a small sigh as her sleeping form shifted slightly against the warm bodies of Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. A small smile played on her lips as she settled down again.

* * *

Applejack found Big Mac to the side of the town morgue, inspecting the ground. "Whatcha got there, Mac?" she asked softly.

"Sis," Big Mac greeted Applejack with a glance and a nod, before turning back to the ground. "Some vamps came here not too long ago. Ah'd say they were waiting for the lad to rise. Can't say ah know why. Took 'em out. Went in to greet the chap mahself, but he was gone already." He tapped the ground in front of him. "Ah reckon he was carried away by somepony, prolly while he was still stiffing."

Applejack peered at the hoofprints for a good while, before nodding. "Ah'd say ya got it right, unless they kept him shod, and he decided to take some poor soul with him when he left."

Big Mac hummed and shook his head. "The window's closed. Ah doubt a fresh vamp would have bothered."

Applejack nodded. "Yeah, guess not." She paused. "So, shall we?"

"Nope."

Applejack raised her brow. "Excuse me?"

"Already did. He was carried to that copse there," he pointed to a small grove of trees a small sprint away, "and dusted in the spot. Was tied to them trees, by the marks. Whoever did it was light and steady enough to not leave any more hoofprints."

Applejack frowned. "Ah'll be. Ah guess Uncle Appleseed was in the right, then. There's somepony or ponies in this town taking care of business on their own."

Big Mac hummed again. "Dangerous."

"Uncle seemed to think they knew what they were doing." She bit her lip. "What we don't know, is why they're doing it. Ah saw some things that could be bad, Mac. Real bad."

Big Mac turned to her with a questioning look. Applejack waved him away. "Ah'll tell ya all about it over a mug of hot cocoa, Mac. Let's get home for tonight. Ah need mah sleep."

The stallion remained standing for a moment, looking at the copse with narrowed eyes, before slowly turning away.