21st Century Vampire

by Peridork

Damn These Vampires

Author's Note:

Releasing a Halloween story on Thanksgiving, how timely of me.

"Hey, there Pippsqueaks, it's just Pipp Petals here with the regularly scheduled reminder that Zephyr Heights' Spooktacular is tomorrow and check it, we'll have it open to everypony, not just the normal pegasi display of costume talent, so get your costumes finito and be the most iconica pony in all the town. Signing off, its ya mare, Pipp." Pipp blew a kiss at her phone as she closed down her app and grinned at her sister. "How was that?"

Zipp rolled her eyes. "Great. Maybe a tad bit overkill, but it'll probably be fine." Zipp had grown accustomed to her little sister's attachment to her phone, her online fandom and all her little foibles. "Now can we get some flight practice in, sis, I mean you did say in one of your posts that you were 'totes gonna fly' and you are on the cusp of actually doing it."

Pipp sheepishly grinned. "Yeah, maybe I overdid the boast. But how should I have known how difficult it would be to fly? I mean, Zipp, I was lifted by wires to fake fly everywhere for years- flight still feels a bit odd."

Zipp sighed. "Yeah, yeah, you and like three quarters of Zephyr Heights, but you almost got it last time. Sure, you haven't picked it up as fast as Zoom, but at least you are almost Thunder's level of competency." The two pegasi guards were almost quasi family to the royals, the pair of pegasi had been training to become royal guards since they were little- Zipp sometimes forgot the whole royal decorum thing and once called Zoom a sister- which the blue pegasus had never let that slip up go. It didn't help that the two pegasi were almost too similar to Zipp and Pipp, Thunder was maybe not as fashion conscious as Pipp, but close enough and Zoom was a newly minted speed demon when it came to flight.

Zipp cupped her hooves and stared at the Heights, the tall spires of the town scraping the sky, the myriad different ads for so many different items blotting out the airspace at times, pegasi weaving up and down in the air as they tried to figure out how air currents worked- some took to the old ways much easier than others.

"Wonderful, I'm as good as Thunder." Pipp winked. "I mean in comparison to you, that's nothing."

"You're still mad I made you get up at five in the morning, aren't you?"

Pipp crossed her hooves together. "I told you to wake me up when you thought flying was the best, I didn't expect you to come barging in my room, pick me up and drag me outside at the crack of dawn. I mean that completely throws my beauty sleep out of whack and I'm trying to look my best here, not everypony can look as natural as you first thing in the morning." Pipp yawned and stretched out on the cloud that the pair had chosen as their flight spot. "So what now, I mean I know the ideas of flight, flap wings, blah, blah, blah. What's next?"

"This." Zipp lifted her sister, who had noticeably gained some weight since the last time she did this- though the last time she pranked her sister like this, they were eight. So, some years had passed, and time moved on enough to make this take more effort than she expected. Zipp kicked the cloud forcefully and the puffy cumulonimbus exploded in a fine mist. Zipp stayed in the air, simply flapping her wings like a natural.

Pipp dropped like a rock and let out a few unladylike screams and expletives that her older sister hadn't heard the pink princess say before. Zipp counted slowly to herself, timing out the freefall velocity, time it took to get to it, and height from sea level the pair had been at- the calculations running in tandem with the athletic mare stretching her flight muscles.

She gave her sister enough time to intuitively get how to fly- or at least she thought she did. Maybe her variable set was rather limited, or her sister was a special case that froze up in a high stress environment- and falling to her eventual doom might been seen as that kind of thing.

Sighing, Zipp sped down to her sister, feeling the zero gravity forces buffet her as she felt her cone of air envelop her- with training she expected to maybe one day break the sound barrier, maybe. Even without that feat, she was still the fastest flyer in the Heights. Zipp scooped her sister into her hooves and aimed for the castle.

---

"Mother, she pushed me off a cloud. Like who does that?"

Queen Haven looked up from her phone and stopped texting as Pipp continued explaining in detail what had happened. "It's a flight thing, dear, and your father definitely had a sense of humor like that. I can imagine like it was yesterday, he was proposing to me, and one thing led to another and there we were staring at each other imagining what flight would feel like. He actually tried to basejump off a bridge once or twice just to see what an approximation of flight was. The papers had a field day with that one, "Consort to the Queen jumps off Feather Bridge"- they thought we had a falling out and he was trying to, well you know, show his love for me in the most dramatic way possible."

Pipp was visibly conflicted, the slightly romantic tale of her parents would be such a nice moment to share with her fans, but the idea of her mother not exactly hearing what she was saying made her sigh and look away for a moment. "Yeah, that's nice. But Zipp dropped me off a cloud, it almost ruined my hair. Like look at it, it's going to take forever to fix and not be a fashion disaster." Pipp pointed at her purple mane, which was uncharacteristically messy, the careful drape of her manestyle ruined by it being blown every which way from the sudden rush of wind and near-death experience. "It's not very iconica of me to look like this."

Queen Haven sighed. She wasn't as tech savvy as Zephyrina, or as internet dependent as Pipp, but she definitely attempted to understand the new lingo of Zephyr Heights, at least functionally so as to not be a royal island in an ever-changing mix of words, but Pipp came up with so many odd turns of phrase that made her near impossible to make sense of. She had been trying to make this monstrosity of a word catch on. "Wonderful, now I've been running through the itinerary of tomorrow. Pipp, you have your little fan meeting followed by a concert, and Zephyrina, you have a trimmed down session of court. Can't have you slacking on your provisional future queen duties."

Zipp ran a hoof through her mane. She had tried and tried to have her mom call her by her nickname, everypony knew of Zipp Storm. She was a mainstay of Zephyr Heights- or at least notable with her mane. Zephyrina just sounded too formal and her friends in the lesser traveled sections of the Heights would ridicule her if they heard her actual name. "Yeah, I'll be there." She didn't really have a choice not to, she was often watched by one of the two pegasi guards that were currently standing silently in the corners of the room. She saw Zoom imperceptibly chuckle at Zipp.

"Good, can't have a repeat of last year, I mean seriously I understand teenage angst but you are in your twenties now Zipp, you can't just no show a formal royal event. Especially not this year. Zoom, please be a dear and follow her everywhere until our little soiree- Thunder you get to do the same with Pipp here, though I doubt she's much of a flight risk."

Zoom bowed her head and winked at Zipp. "I'll do my best, Your Majesty."

***

"I wish I was a royal guard sometimes. Or restart the Wonderbolts." Zipp sighed and looked in her cup of alcohol. "I mean it'd be easier than dealing with daily reminders that I'm going to be the next queen of Zephyr Heights." Zipp looked up and sighed. She already had issues with Royal Picture Day and sitting still, she couldn't imagine actually replacing her mom. It'd be sad at first, but her luck with every single royal appointment or duty were abject failures.

Zoom chuckled and sipped a glass of water- unlike Zipp, she was still on duty so she couldn't partake in a few beverages. Not that she was immune to alcohol's charms, just she had a few too many awkward moments when she did let loose. She didn't want to reenact the last time. She was still getting teasing comments from Thunder about her karaoke skills. "I mean you did make that Wonderbolt outfit for last year's Spooktacular." She shrugged. "Whatever. I mean deciding what you and your sister's first decrees would be: you'd make the Wonderbolts cool again, and she'd make her music into the royal procession march."

Zipp smiled, imagining an older Pipp totally doing something like that. "Nah, her first one would be making livestreams the only way she would do royal decrees. Cause she hates public speaking without her phone."

Zoom raised an eyebrow. "Really? I would never have guessed; she seems more natural than you."

Zipp's smile faltered for a moment. "Yeah, that's just because she has like five social media accounts. Let's see, ClipTrot, Fumble, Feedbag, Ponstagram, and Ponyfans. I don't even know what half of those are, but she's got them. She might even have dead or deactivated accounts I don't know about." Pipp would actually be so much better at being queen, it wasn't even funny. Zipp hated the spotlight and tried to ditch every possible duty she had to go flying or hide out in her room. Pipp loved attention, good, bad, really anything it seemed. Zipp bit her lip and grimaced, clenching her jaw in the process.

Zoom cocked her head at Zipp's uncharacteristic silence. Usually, the princess was a bit more talkative than this. Maybe she was just in her cups or there was some kind of issue weighing heavily on her mind. Either way the mood in the room had soured and it was now sort of uncomfortable to sit here and swirl her water around. Zoom turned towards the sporty friend and froze.

Zipp was completely staring off into space. Totally odd, but okay. Zoom was used to ponies doing that every once in a while- Thunder often zoned out thinking about the newest pair of shoes he could buy off his guard salary and the pegasus mare had to often corral his wants and needs into something less expensive. It was the other thing that unnerved her. Two lines of blood ran down her lips as the athletic pegasus bit into her lower lip deep enough to draw blood.

"Equestria to Zipp. Hello?" Zoom tried to play it cool and waved a hoof in front of the white pegasus. No response. She grimaced and carefully said a few words to herself, hoping that the next moment wouldn't cost her job. Zoom moved her hoof back and whacked Zipp on the muzzle, not hard enough to draw more blood, just enough to snap her out of whatever weird stuff this was.

Zipp howled in pain as she came to, looking back and forth for a moment as she tried to figure out what had hit her. "Ow. Ow. Ow, What was that for?"

Zoom nervously smiled and tried to shrug. "You zoned out there for a few minutes." She gently picked up a napkin from the bar and passed it to Zipp. "And your mouth is bleeding. Though that wasn't my fault."

Zipp scowled and tasted the faint taste of iron on her tongue and grimaced as she blotted the napkin red with her blood. "Great. Now my mom is gonna kill me for not looking my best tomorrow. Must have bit my tongue or something. You got some ice?"

Zoom nodded and scrounged around the bar's fridge, carefully fishing out a few ice cubes and passing them to Zipp.

Zipp graciously took them and popped them in her mouth, noticing that her teeth now felt odd to her as she ran her tongue over them. Maybe it was just her imagination. "Now where was I? Oh, I know. I'm at least better in one way to Pipp when it comes to Queenly Duties. I can actually do speeches and not have a mini freakout. Pipp without her phone is a complete disaster waiting to happen, and mom doesn't allow her to use it in public events. Something to do with the "royal image". Zipp shrugged. "Bummer either way. Pour me another drink and I might cheer up."

Zoom rolled her eyes- she was used to the moodiness that Zipp often devolved to while drunk. She was running a bet with Thunder based on when Zipp would finally snap and ask to be taken off the line of succession. He was thinking a few years, she was thinking a few more months. Sure, Zipp had played along so well, or well enough that Queen Haven could just write off Zipp's little truancy issue when it came towards royal events as a personality quirk, but Zoom was often Zipp's personal guard for events and she could read the mare like a worn-out book. "Yeah, you and every alcoholic say the same stuff. Just don't come crying to me when you wake up hungover for tomorrow's events."

Zipp flashed her a look and flashed her a few choice hoof movements.

***

Zipp groggily rolled out of bed, her movements slow and unfocused as she reacclimated to the morning light. She ran a hoof through her mouth, feeling a bit weird. Stupid alcohol, she shouldn't have drank so much, but she had and now she was hating herself. She heard Zoom's patronizing words and pushed them aside. "I just need to eat some carbs and drink some water cause I know mother would hate me rolling up with booze on my breath." Zipp trudged into the bathroom and turned on the light, the bright halogen bulbs blinding her for a moment.

She grimaced and turned to the mirror and stopped, quickly waving a hoof in front of her face just to make sure what was in the mirror was accurate. A decidedly batty version of Zipp, with prominent fangs and yellowish eyes waved back. She tried not to panic, trying to come up with any weird explanation as to why she looked more like a bat than a pegasus. Maybe this was a dream or a nightmare, or maybe she drank a bit too much and now she had brain damage. Something far more explainable than she magically turned into a bat. Like who does that?

She pinched herself and winced. Swearing, she rushed out to her bedroom and searched for her phone, quickly finding it by her nightstand. She bit her lip and tried collecting her thoughts. She had no recourse, she had to mention it to somepony, be it Zoom or Thunder or her sister. She couldn't just walk up to the Spootacular royal event like this, her mom would have a stroke.

She breathed out and opened up her texts, quickly tapping away a message to her sister and Zoom. She would have included Thunder in the group chat, but the stallion had a terrible case of 'accidentally spilling the beans' whenever he was asked anything, so keeping it to her sister and Zoom was prudent.

At least Pipp could sometimes understand that some things were meant to be semi-private.

***

Pipp carefully coiffed her mane and applied a bit of makeup with a few brushstrokes. She had her morning routine to a t, wake up, do a get ready with me stream on Ponyfans- while she would do it on Feedbag or ClipTrot, those platforms tended towards her younger demographic and Ponyfans let her do what she wanted, though she had to trawl through a lot of weird messages every day, she could be more real there. She was an adult, though her mother and Zipp sometimes saw that as not the case. Her rule of no swearing in public was a choice to

She heard a ding on her phone and glanced over, careful not to smudge or smear her makeup. She was a professional influencer and she dared not give the internet another fail moment. Zipp. Huh, not like she never got messages from her sister at this time of day, just the all caps high stress text was new.

"Sorry everypony, give me a minute, looks like a princess' work is never done." She quickly picked up her phone, glad that she had a camera for moments like this, the streamers that used one phone for everything were unwatchable to her. Who didn't have at least one extra phone for emergencies like when a pony texted her in the middle of a live, that's bad content creation right there.

She silently read the message from Zipp and sighed. Wonderful, not the worst thing ever, even if Zipp screaming through text was kind of painful to read. Whatever it was though, it had to be bad if she added Zoom in, that was never a good sign. This had gone from a Tier 3 emergency of 'Zipp wanting to play hooky again and not be pampered, which was the dumbest thing, who didn't love being pampered, to a Tier 2 or even Tier 1 emergency. Which was saying something cause those were at most a yearly occurrence- Zipp needing medical attention for a stunt or scientific accident.

Pipp breathed out and smiled. "Seems like we have a royal moment, and while I would love to bring you behind the veil of royal stuff and everything, cause you are totes the best, I got the 'do not pass' signal it seems. Might update you lot and the other Pipsqueaks on Feedbag or Fumble, but for now this is your favorite princess of pop signing off. See you all later and remember to show up tonight for the Spooktacular. It's only my favorite holiday cause I love being spooked. Peace." She grinned at the camera and carefully hit the stop recording button.

She had done one too many 'oh the camera's on' moments and had that little button memorized. She wouldn't dare cross her stream audiences, that was influencer suicide, the idea of her being shadowbanished on the net one day was her personal nightmare.

She stretched her wings and hopped off her chair. "Whatever it is, Zipp is going to have to owe me big time. I hate shortchanging my fans."

***

Zipp rocked back and forth in her bed, the sheets wrapping her completely. her tongue nervously poking her newly very sharp and pointy teeth and grimacing as she prodded a little too hard. She heard a few knocks at the door and she almost got up, remembered that she was currently indisposed due to the blankets and sighed. "Come in you two."

Zoom poked her head in and slid into the very trashed room. Pipp gingerly followed, her steps carefully stepping over piles of clothes and dresses, her tongue clicking as she stared at her sister's humble abode. "I knew this was bad by the text, but come on sis, you can't be serious. . ." she bent down and picked up a bag. "Really you'd just throw a Goodie bag like this on the floor? It's only like 13,000 bits and a totally iconic item for Spring? Like have you no shame?"

Zoom fished out her phone and mentally blocked out Pipp's continuing rant about the necessities of fashion. "So, you texted and I quote, "oh my god, I'm a scary bat thing and I want to crawl in a hole and die. Mom's gonna murder me or imprison me and I woke up and I don't know what to do." Zoom raised an eyebrow. "Her Majesty isn't going to do any of that, first of all, she's maybe not as hip to social media stuff as our little podcast devil here, but drastic measures like that would be. . .problematic. Plus, you weren't a 'bat thing' when you went to bed, you were just a rather clingy drunk. So like normal drunk you."

Pipp stopped her fashion rant. "Zipp. Mom told you to stop drinking. I mean come on, I don't partake in it cause I'd hate breaking my self curated image, but you barely post to your socials. . .though my Pippsqueaks love you. Like there's a whole very loud fanbase for you, a verifiable hurricane your Stormers show you." Pipp tapped a hoof. "Wait a minute, I think I have something here. A crossover podcast episode starring everyone's favorite princess, me of course, and second best princess, and future queen, that is you."

Zoom shrugged, used to Pipp and Thunder's inane babbling about social media stuff. Though his were usually worried ramblings on if he would miss the next drop for the newest pair of Breezies, some silly shoe brand he saw as the gold standard in quality. Thunder was weird, cute but weird. "Whatever, just take off your stupid Wonderbolts blanket so I can actually see the mess we have to deal with. Personally I think you just broke your nose and freaked out. I mean its spooky season and all that."

Zipp halfheartedly grumbled in her blanket fort. "Nah, I'm going to sit here and die. Rather do that."

Zoom facehoofed. "Zipp, so help me, I get it. Something went wrong and you are moping and all that junk, but if you honestly think I'll let you sit in here and rot away, you have another thing coming. Mostly cause of the whole 'being tasked by the Queen herself to keep you in line' and secondly cause I know you are just being dramatic in your own way. Sure, you don't vaguepost your feelings and eat an ungodly amount of dessert like your sister here-"

Pipp blushed. "Yeah, that's what most ponies would call a flaw. I took an internet quiz and it said that I was a critical mess of feelings and needed to find a good pony to have foals with. Weird cause I was trying to order food, not take a quiz that bared my deepest darkest feelings of crushing failure towards an uncaring algorithm. . ."

"-yeah, I told you to go to therapy. But you, Zipp, bottle up your feelings and hide out in your room. Like you are doing now. So I'm taking this-" Zoom gripped the blanket in her hooves and gripped hard onto it. "and pulling you out if its the last thing I do. Cause if you think your mom would be disappointed in you. the ponies that have to do courtly garbage every day probably want to have their stupid lives spiced up by you appearing." Zoom tugged and the blanket slipped to the floor.

Pipp gasped in shock and awe. "Oh my glitter, you're not a monster, you're totes adorbs."

Zipp blushed and fanned out her wings and the pair of ponies marveled at the leathery bat wings that reflexively flapped as she wanted to go run away and hide.

"Zipp, I'm so jelly, like this is awful. I'd die of shock if I woke up as a. . .batpony, or whatever and didn't take like a thousand pics for my fans. Like why did you get the cool random transformation and not me? I watch like every horror movie that comes out- from the slasher films to the spooky ghost stories, and becoming a vampire is so iconica. Like that's the plot of Queen of the Vampire Hordes. I even had a completely movie accurate costume last year and all that."

Zoom grinned at the fluffy batpony that was Zipp and shook her head. "Well guess you weren't completely wrong about the whole bat thing."

Zipp felt like she was going to die of embarrassment.

***

"Thunder, where in the world is my daughter and Zoom? I've been sitting here languishing as my hooficure and all the niceties I have to do to get ready for court are slowly deteriorating in waiting for Zephyrina yet again. I told her that it would be nice and simple, and here I am delaying my court for. . ." Haven paused to look at her phone. "a few minutes. I have ponies to see and mingle with. I mean I have that meeting with Bridlewood's representative. We are getting on with good terms and all that."

Thunder smiled, the open secret that Haven and that unicorn were rather close was so blatant that he didn't even have to read any of Her Majesty's texts. Zoom and Thunder were consummate professionals when it came to the private lives of the royals- and they didn't prod, even when Haven had accidentally dewdropped them too much information. "If I know my other guard well, she's coming here as quick as she can. She hates being tardy."

Haven sighed and leaned on her throne. "Yes, well at least that's one pony I can usually depend on."

Zipp slunk into the room with Zoom and Pipp following her, her silver horseshoes noticeably clinking as she stepped in the room. She hated wearing the mess of an outfit, it fit her oddly, the silver chestpiece with a stylized moon feeling like it was made for a completely different pony and reused or melted down and reformed so long ago that its original owner was long, long dead. Her mother had bequeathed it to her when she was little, and she had slowly grown accustomed to wearing it infrequently as a sign that she was the future queen. She just saw the small crown, chest piece, and horseshoes as a burden that she had to deal with. And unlike most years, she had the whole 'being a bat' thing to deal with.

"Sorry, mother, Pipp's idea for my costume took a rather long time."

Pipp had coached her sister rather well as they had walked from the royal apartments. As a master of makeup, social media, and fudging the truth, the pink princess had concocted a rather fun and interesting cover story. While they couldn't hide the whole vampire bat transformation, having a little white lie that it was Zipp's costume and not a whole existential crisis, it made her far better suited to showing up as a fluffy, sharp toothed menace.

Pipp curtseyed and smiled. "Well, I said the latex bat wings were going to take a while to mold and shape to your wings, but you got all defensive about your figure. Now be glad I used all day makeup and good contacts for the costume, so you don't have to worry as much about smearing and mess. Plus, then I don't have to bother with my crack team of makeup artistes." Pipp smirked as she saw Zipp roll her eyes."

"Quite nice costume, dear, rather fetching on you." Haven hummed to herself. Her daughters were not telling her everything and while she didn't want to cause a fuss about Zipp appearing as a batpony, for unlike Zipp's noticeably nervous self, Haven had heard tell of many, many stories of the Zephyr Heights royals having a lot of batpony relatives in the past. Her own grandmother had chalked it up to some old Equestrian match that had caused certain recessive traits like vampirism to be cast forward up the centuries and millennia, culminating in the current line.

Haven, as a young foal had been enthralled by the stories and had chalked them up to lost magic, her younger self incredibly sad that she could no longer see a batpony due to the loss of magic.

Due to decades of being the ruler of the Heights, she was rather used to hiding her true feelings on matters for the sake of decorum, but there was a small, very vocal part of her completely excited for this night's Spooktacular because this slight hitch was rather fun. And while certain parts of the social medias said that she was completely uncool, she was not going to ruin this excitement.

Because if Zipp had become one of these batponies, then a random number of her subjects would as well and that would make this coming Spooktacular the best one since her husband got locked in a haunted house and caused a raging inferno that the Heights still talked about in hushed tones. It did give her a reason to rebuild the business district though.

Haven smiled. She was going to have what the hip ponies might call 'a blast'. Or if she had to miss it for her prior egagement with Alphabittle, the social media fun would invariably bleed over to her and she would be tickled pink about it.

***

Zipp fidgeted as some random businesspony talked about how to connect Zephyr Heights' internet to the rest of Equestria. He had been warbling on about how to make it scalable and it was the most boring thing Zipp had ever heard. She glanced at Pipp, who was normally super into net stuff and even she looked glassy eyed and bored.

Haven blinked and graciously smiled as the presentation wound down and clapped her hooves together, careful not to seem too forward. "Thank you, Fancy Flight. I'll have you put your ideas with the steward, and they'll figure out how best to connect all of Equestria together. Good presentation." Haven rather liked killing the worst presenters with kindness- while it tended for their presentations to be the absolute worst, she could sneakily slide in some earplugs and get some nice her time. "We do have a schedule to keep and. . .let's see, the next one is the Spooktacular caterers. Oh this is my favorite part." She waved a hoof and the doors opened.

A whole smorgasbord of desserts baked and otherwise hit the three royals and everypony swooned as the decadent desserts were wheeled in, the creative designs of large spiders, bats, and pumpkins meticulously created out of fruit and sweets.

Zipp's mouth watered as the smell of apples and other fruits hit her, the new bat senses heightening the already decadent desserts into the stratosphere. Her leg tapped ever so slowly as she tried not to look like she was staring daggers at the bakers for wheeling in the biggest temptation ever.

"Well that looks rather divine. I have to say, Berry Tart, you and the other castle bakers outdo yourselves each and every year." Haven smiled and noticed Zipp's drooling face out of the corner of her eye. "So what is this rather impressive display?"

The baker bowed and turned, carefully pointing at the craftwork of the large spider centerpiece. "We have a fully edible piece here, like most of the other 'statues' here. This one is a spider made out of brioche dough and filled with raspberry jelly- a mix between a brioche flaky outside and a jelly filled donut. Don't ask how we made that work; it was a daunting task. But each eye of the spider is a chocolate truffle, and the webbing that it is surrounding it is spun sugar. This is but one of twenty large pastry sculptures, not to mention the normal output for candy-based treats, hoof pies, and candy apples for example. We had some rather stressful days of planning since you did invite visitors, but it was done and it was a learning experience for next time."

Haven nodded. "Well that's understandable, I mean it wasn't the plan for magic to return and us to reacclimate towards non-pegasi but it happened."

Berry Tart felt a chill down her spine as she looked up at the Queen. She noticed Zipp looking rather intently at the desserts, and she felt rather intimidated as she noticed the rather large fangs that protruded out of the princess's mouth. She wanted to leave and think it was just a prank but the whole costume that Zipp had looked way too convincing. "Y-yes, it did. Well I'll just leave you three be and get my team to fix the details for tonight." The pegasi baker gripped tightly onto the large cart, careful not to cause a pastry accident and booked it out of there as fast as she could.

Pipp nudged her sister. "Zipp, chill, like you just freaked out the baker. Calm your whole. . .all of that stuff." Pipp waved a hoof around her face to kind of give Zipp a major hint that she was looking far less fluffy and adorable and more 'rip out your throat and suck your blood' which Pipp was rather impressed by, but it wasn't the time or place to have a whole reenactment of Vampire's Kiss and Tell. Completely not the time. She was trying to have a nice Spooktacular, not a bloodbath. While that would be a fun time, she was trying to have the Spooktacular be generally family friendly even if she had plans to release some new music soon that skirted on the line of decency.

Zipp shook her head, her jaw cracking as she forced the large incisors back into place. It felt like she was shoving broken glass into her mouth. She grimaced in pain for a moment and sighed. "Sorry, just need something to eat. Fruit sounds good."

***

Misty looked up and up at the skyline, the massive Zephyr Heights skyscrapers intimidating her as she had no frame of reference on such tall and majestic buildings. The only thing she had in her memory was Opaline's spooky castle, which was totally magnificent because it was a cool castle and all, but a part of her thought it was dwarfed by these things.

Though she'd never tell Opaline that, that would cause so many issues.

The blue unicorn ran a hoof through her frizzy mane and sighed. She had spent a few days trying to get here and she was mostly lost, the winding streets and large open spaces freaking her out. Totally not nervous that Opaline was rather insistent to have her ruin this random party.

She fished out the flyer that a rather nice pegasus had given to her for free, no questions asked, no money required, and read through it. "Welcome to the new and improved Spooktacular, all ponies welcome. Bring your costume and have a blast as Zephyr Heights own popstar, Pipp Petals has a spooky concert." Misty raised an eyebrow at that. She had read Opaline's basic information about the five ponies she was supposed to destroy and all, but Pipp was written off as completely pointless and the total worst.

Misty didn't think Pipp was that bad if she had a whole singing career. Though maybe she was a bit jealous- Opaline said she had an annoying voice and all.

Her medallion shook, almost like the evil alicorn had felt Misty mention her in her thoughts. She opened the medallion and slid into the shadows. "Yes, Opaline, I'm here." She tried to bow, her heavy pack of things making her attempt fail, her hooves slightly stumbling on the cobblestones. "Sorry, sorry, I should have taken that off."

Opaline rolled her eyes, the mirrored medallion showing her disgust. "Whatever, Misty. Did you get to this Zephyr Heights?"

Misty nodded. "Oh yes, it's a totally wonderful place and I didn't want to call you, but I had this sweet called cotton candy and it was the best thing I ever had, all sweet and tasty. . ." Misty trailed off as she noticed Opaline's silence. "-oh oh yeah. Yeah, I did. Totally here."

"Good. Now ask around and ruin this party."

Misty cocked her head. "Yeah, I have one teensy tiny question, like just a simple one. Why? This has nothing to do with dragon fire, it's just a simple party."

Opaline facehoofed. "Because I don't just want dragon fire, Misty, I want to destroy this unity that has just given back all these ponies their magic. An alicorn such as I, should have all of the magic, not these plebeian dregs of ponies. It's my magic they stole from me."

Misty nodded. "Sure, but I thought Twilight Sparkle stole your magic."

Opaline narrowed her eyes. "Do your job and maybe after all this you can get your cutie mark." Opaline cut the connection to Misty's medallion and silence reigned for a moment.

"Score, now where is this castle I'm looking for. Says right here it's totally unmissable and yet I'm completely lost. Well, I could just ask around, I mean it's a party. How hard can it be, I'm a unicorn in a pegasi town, just act dumb and something is going to help me."

Comments

[Ri2]

Poor Misty.