Fiends of Manehatten

by Skrive Flip

Doctors can have issues

”Wh…Where am I?”

The obvious question.

The poor mare named Emerald had slowly opened up her eyes and tried to figure out her question before it was answered by Pen.

“Manehatten Hospital… you´re safe now…” he said reassuringly.

“S-Safe? N-no… noplace is safe… nothing is sacred…” she spoke, her voice low and terrified, the last addition to her sentence seeming out of place, something Cheerilee picked up on.

“What do you need to be safe from?” Cheerilee asked the mare, both her demeanor and her voice revealed her willingness to get down to business immediately.

“The…. fiend…” Emerald slowly spoke, almost in a whisper. “You´re never safe… just when you think it is gone, it appears…” she clenched the sheets in her hooves while pulling it against herself, almost as if creating a small protective wrapping.

“Fiend?” Pen asked, just to get his details straight. The poor mare nodded after a moment.

“Yes…. fiend…. it…” she huddled herself up even more, and began shaking. Her breathing slowly began to increase to a more fast-paced panic. “It will find you… just when you think you´re safe… you´re pulled back down…” she squeaked out, with tears forming in her eyes as she shook even further.

Pen did his best to scribble down the details, however he could not continue to write as the mare began to hyperventilate. He let his pad float down to the floor before walking over to her.

“Don’t worry, you´re safe, just take time to brea-“ he was not able to speak more before the mare snapped at him.

“I’M NOT SAFE! He is everywhere! He will get me! I will never get back! I will never get out!” she almost screamed in his face, actually grasping his cheeks with her hooves. The young writer pony was stuck in the surprisingly powerful grip of the mare, however was released again when Cheerilee grasped at her hooves and yanked them back, staring into the eyes of the mare.

“Calm down, miss,” she said perhaps a bit harshly, not helping Emerald’s breathing any, and she just began to squirm more, trying to be free.

“NO! Let me GO! I have to run! Keep running! Throw myself off a cliff!” she desperately screamed out, no doubt creating an echo down through the sealed department, Perhaps causing a security guard or two to drop their doughnuts in surprise.

It was truly a pathetic slight. The mare was flailing as much as she could, desperately wanting to end everything. Cheerile could see that. She was not joking or just exaggerating. She really wanted everything to end. All her darkness to be erased by the might of smashing into the ground after throwing herself off a cliff.

Pen tried this time to reach out for the poor Emerald Song.

“Please, Just calm down-“

“Don’t touch me!!” She screamed out, just able to slap the Unicorn´s hoof away, before trying with all her might to get her other hoof free from Cheerilee´s grasp.

Just the spectacle of this scared mare was enough to make a knot form within Cheerilee´s stomach. She was traumatized. And Cheerilee had spoken rather harshly to her. She was not helping the situation. And even if it turned out that she was just slow about her transformation, then Cheerilee should not be treating her like this. If Emerald would end up turning into a vampire, then she would hate Cheerilee, instead of her infecter.

This was the moment that Cheerilee noticed something. Like a small spark in the mare´s eyes. Not a real spark. Not a magical spark. But something else. At first, Cheerilee had difficulty putting down what it was, but she was aided by one special feeling.

Her heart was hurting.

It wasn’t much, but it just felt so familiar. That almost stabbing feeling of something going through your chest, yet you know you´re completely okay.

She was feeling sorry for Emerald. Feeling a mixture of pity and somehow guilt for her actions. And as this door opened, Cheerilee finally deciphered what was wrong with Emerald.

The mare´s shaking, her constant fear and her unwillingness to let anyone near her.

She was not just traumatized, she was reduced. Cheerilee began to look upon Emerald as less of a mare who was traumatized, and more of a foal who was scared of the monsters. She could almost see it before her. Emerald lying there curled up, shivering and fearing that the monsters would come and get her, And the others voices would not calm her.

“Emerald…” Cheerilee spoke softly, taking upon her teacher demeanor. She softly placed her hooves around the Mare´s shoulders and pulled her into a gentle, almost mother like embrace. “Tell me about yourself Emerald… tell me about your job.” She spoke softly.

Emerald Song was at first even more petrified. She shivered even harder as Cheerilee held her, and she squirmed within the embrace. She was squeaking and yelping out in hope of getting free from Cheerilee.

Now while vampires are basically dead, which made them cold walking corpses, In Cheerilee´s case, there was the luck of having a well-trained façade. She forced herself to produce an artificial heartbeat which was enough to ask make the blood in her body heat up slightly so that she didn’t feel deadly cold.

But it seemed her disguise was working at least. For Emerald slowly stopped squirming. She didn’t stop sobbing however. She was still so scared. Cheerilee could feel that little foal within her crying for a warm blanket and someone to hold her.

The lavender mare gently shushed Emerald. “So so so…” she softly spoke ,letting the mare leak out her tears into her shoulder. “Don’t think about the bad things… think of something nice. Tell me Emerald, where did you go to school?” Cheerilee asked, giving a small smile with her mouth closed, just to make sure she didn’t reveal her fangs.

Emerald kept her face buried deeply into Cheerilee´s shoulder while still sobbing for a few more seconds before she shakingly answered the question.

“C… Coltenhagen public school…” she admitted, which actually made Pen´s jaw drop slightly. Emerald was rather famous around Manehatten, though everyone assumed the beautiful earth pony performer had gotten a much better education.

Cheerilee gave another pleasant smile and gently stroked the foalish mare´s mane.

“Oh Coltenhagen… I teach there now actually. Perhaps you can remember old principal Hoofton?” She asked, lightening the tone of her voice and the subjects gradually.

Emerald gave a small nod in reply, while still having her face hidden into the Vampire´s shoulder.

“He… was…. also principal when I was there…,” she admitted, in between sobs. Cheerilee felt a bit of warmth within herself rise. Memories.

“He has grown into a bit of a gray haired pony…” She told Emerald, letting her calm herself and sink a bit. “Tell me, now how did you come to Manehatten?” she asked another question.

“I…. I always wanted to sing… I got my cutie mark when I was in Coltenhagen and just knew I always wanted to perform…” She almost whispered. Cheerilee looked down to see that Emerald’s cutie mark was a beautiful note together with a microphone. She really had a talent for singing. Though as she looked up she did also notice Pen sitting on a chair just opposite to them, scribbling into his notepad. Cheerilee stared daggers at the Colt, who met her stare with a bit of an embarrassed face.

‘Sorry’ He mouthed. ‘Force of habit’. He then placed down his notepad again and simply listened.

“I… came to Manehatten and tried my best… clubs and…” Emerald continued but sniffled a moment as she was finally letting her pressure into Cheerilee´s shoulder lighten slightly. “But the competition around here was tough…. they…. the Manehattenites were rather… uptight… so… I had to be as well…” She admitted, her voice much like a foal just admitting that they had stolen from the cookie jar. Cheerilee wasn’t surprised. Whatever had happened to her, it clearly had opened up and old foal mindset in her again. So Perhaps a defence mechanism after too much stress? Foalhood was after all for most foals the time of happiness.

“But you handled it, didn’t you?” Cheerilee asked Emerald with a warm smile, which the Mare answered with a small nod again.

“Y-yes… I … was able to find my inspiration… mainly thanks to….”” Once again, Emerald began tearing up again, She looked so guilt stricken and her shaking returned. “Thanks to my husband…” she began shaking again and actually this time was the one to clamper herself against Cheerilee. “Oh Sweet Celestia please let him be safeeeeee,” she cried out, forcing Cheerilee to realize that they were back to square one.

‘Oh this is not good’ She thought, trying to come up with a way to get Emerald back on track. She needed to calm her before she would be able to ask her some more dire questions…

“If I had not left him alone with that fiend!” she once again cried out loudly in pain and sadness. Cheerilee really wanted to take this slowly, but this opportunity will not reveal itself again if she did not take it.

“Emerald, tell me… who is that fiend? What does he look like?” she asked quickly. “You need to tell me now!” Cheerilee asserted herself.

This was the moment Emerald stared at her again, her pupils shrunk to about the size of pins before she ripped herself backwards, away from Cheerilee´s embrace and screamed once again.

“Fiend!!!” She just screamed again. “You´re one of them!!!” She just crawled even further and further back, actually falling off the bed and crashing to the floor with a loud and painful crash. Pen was barely able to react before the earth pony collided with the floor. “Get away from meeee~!” she exclaimed in desperation, before she crawled for dear life towards the nearest corner.

Cheerilee opened her mouth to try and calm her down, but that’s when she realized it. She let her tongue twirl around one of her fangs. She had rushed it too much. She had accidentally shown the poor mare one of her fangs while speaking. If she really was traumatized by a vampire, she wouldn’t just ignore it like other ponies did usually.

Ah ponyfeathers.

“Will you get away from the patient!?”

Pen and Cheerilee had barely been able to react before the room was almost flooded by nurses and they had a very angry looking pegasus doctor staring holes into them. Cheerilee composed herself first.

“Listen, we need to talk with her about-

“I do by the Sun and the Moon not care about what you need to talk with her about. She is traumatized, and now she is going into shock!” He spoke before moving past both Cheerilee and Pen. The nurses were many and of various kinds of ponies and of a variation of colours, all with cutie marks suggesting something within the medical practice. They did their best to restrain poor Emerald who was now fighting even more and screaming her lungs out.

The doctor glared back and both Cheerilee and Pen. “Both of you out, now!” He growled with his medical authority.

To Cheerilee the growl was much like the hiss of a tiny cat, so she didn’t even flinch, but Pen certainly took a step back. Sadly both Pen and Cheerilee knew that despite the agency having control over this part of the hospital, it was still the doctors who had the last word when it came to the patients. Unless they had found anything specifically supernatural about them. And like it or not, neither Cheerilee nor Pen had found anything like that.

“Okay, okay… no need to get angry.” Pen pointed out before trotting out of the door, Cheerilee right behind him, leaving the doctors and nurses to do their jobs.

The two made their way out of the room and into the hall, walking away from the room to give the doctor and his nurses their space.

Pen turned his head to Cheerilee.

“So what do you think?” he asked, still walking down the corridor with the vampire teacher right next to him. “Not much information we were able to get beyond that it was a ‘fiend’ who was after her.”

Cheerilee wasn’t happy about that fact, but kept her head cool.

“We know that she was bitten and it was a vampire. She recognized my fangs…” she added to the pile of info, making Pen mull over that as well.

“But if she had been bitten by a vampire, then she should have turned by now, right?” he asked, just to clear his fact. The schoolteacher stopped up a moment, her eyes falling to her hooves.

“Yes… she would…” she said, remembering how fast she had turned. She had barely gotten to realize what was happening to her before she felt the desire to drink. That inequine desire. She quickly perked her head up again however. “But this does not make much sense…” she just said out loud. “Something is just off… I can’t put my hoof on it…” she mused out loud.

The writer colt sat down upon his flank a moment, rubbing his chin. “I think we will need to come back tomorrow… I highly doubt that they would allow us near the patient again. Even an agent does not get much respect from the medical personnel here. They are firstly and foremost doctors and nurses after all…” he said before something almost flashed before his eyes. “Oh horse apples, I forgot my notepad.” he said before turning around to walk back towards the patient’s room.

Cheerilee sighed slightly and shook her head. Seems like she had not only gotten a young partner, but also an absent-minded one. She liked it less and less. She had to say something to Luna´s face when she got the chance. She calmly followed after the writer, walking back through the corridors towards the room.

But they were not prepared for what they found.

Pen´s jaw dropped almost like a stone, as his eyes darted all over the room, seeing only his notepad lie comfortably there on the patients table along with his quill, though the patients bed, and the patient were both gone. The only thing that was in there was a single earth pony nurse walking around and cleaning up.

Cheerilee´s eyes and mind hardened.

“Where´s the patient?” she asked, Her voice harsh and demanding at the nurse.

The earth pony first raised an eyebrow at Cheerilee.

“Didn’t the doctor tell you not-“

“Just answer her question! Or I will personally make sure you don’t ever work in Manehatten again!” Pen growled in threat against the nurse. Harsh perhaps, but both of them had a very bad feeling about this.

The nurse recoiled from the threat and growling, actually ending up shivering slightly.

“U-uhm… Doctor Featherband ordered her to be sedated due to her state of shock. He then decided to move her to another room.” The earth pony reluctantly said, a single drop of cold sweat running from her forehead. She was concerned about her job now. She ended up being concerned for her life however as Cheerilee hissed at her.

“Which room!?”

“U-Uh… uhm… H-H-h-he didn’t say! B-B-But he said a few floors down…”

Pen´s face lit up light a light bulb. “That’s outside the restricted area…. He is bringing her out in the open!” he exclaimed, barely able to let the words escape his mouth before Cheerilee sprinted past him.

The vampire had too bad a feeling about this. Perhaps she was overeating. Perhaps this could be a funny little anecdote for later, but for now, she would react like it was not.

She got to the checkpoint, barking orders at the guard to let her out of the zone. The guard recognized her, and opened the huge doors, letting her past. But Cheerilee was not completely done.

“Has a yellow pegasus doctor passed through here with a patient?!” she demanded to know. The guard was not happy about the harsh tone, that was clear, but he did comply with a nod.

“Yes I did… It was doctor Featherband. He works a few floors down… I was at first a bit confused what he did up here, but he usually had a good reason-“

“So you´re saying he didn’t have clearance!?” she asked in a growl before just continuing on without even waiting for the answer.

The corridors passed by Cheerilee like trees during the great running of the leaves race. She was thankful for the almost completely sterile environment, it made it much easier to track Emerald´s scent. (Though she was lucky it was recent. One thorough enough janitor and the trail would have been gone).

The scent was abruptly cut off as Cheerilee reached a service elevator, the small display above the doors declaring that was going down, actually already were at the second floor. Cheerilee looked around to find her options, quickly getting the location of a door with the sign ‘maintenance staircase’. Perfect.

A last look at the elevator revealed that the elevator had actually not stopped on either the ground, first, or second floor, but In the cellar. That could only be bad.

Cheerilee sprinted down maintenance staircase, her hooves clopping against the concrete causing actually rather loud echoes inside the hollow and empty shaft .

How did she know this was Emerald being in the cellar and not that she had been stopped off at an earlier floor?

Short answer, she didn’t, But it was a hell of a lot better to assume and act, than to sit back and wait for the mare to slip between her hooves

Finally reaching the end of the staircase, she slammed her shoulder into the door, almost ripping the hinges off, but clearly slamming it open at least with a loud crash. She had reached the cellar, and it was clear not many were using the place. The walls were not nearly as clean as they were up in the hospital wards, They were old and gray, made of that old concrete. This was designed for stability, not for looks.

The sound of hooves clopping not far off, snapped Cheerilee´s attention, and made her dash after the sound.

Turning a corner, she was met with the shocked face of the same doctor from before. Cheerilee didn’t give him a chance to say much, before she slammed him against the wall, pinning him by this throat, and hissingly asked “Where is Emerald?”

The pegasus doctor had gotten most of the air slammed out of him as he hit the wall, and the pinning hooves did not do wonders to preserve his oxygen supply either. But at least it got the point across that Cheerilee was in a hurry and was not going to wait for him to consider the possibilities. His hooves flailed, but one forehoof was flailing in a specific direction as if pointing.

Cheerilee saw the pointing and yanked her hooves back, making the doctor crash to the floor, gasping for air, rubbing his throat with a spare hoof.

“Thank you,” Cheerilee said, almost per reaction before she sprinted on in the direction she was pointed. She just had to find Emerald.

Getting to the end of the hall, she found another door, slamming through that was neither much of a challenge, but she was not done yet. For just the moment she slammed down the door, she saw someone disappear down another staircase. She had just seen a bit of a red tail getting out of view, and heard the clopping of hooves against the floor. Cheerilee gave pursuit, giving only a faint glance at the sign by the door.

‘Sewer access… just my luck… I will have to be fast.’ She thought, not slowing down for anything.

By the end of the staircase, she was assaulted with an odor that she had never hoped to experience, the smell of the city´s sewers burning into her sensitive nostrils, and she felt herself go almost numb in her nose.

‘Urghhh’ she thought, but had to soldier on. She heard the clopping of hooves again, and turned her head, just to see the shadow of someone flee away from her. She could see from the shadow that it was a unicorn carrying somepony else.

“Gotcha” she thought, for a fraction of a second sinking into her hooves, concentrating her powers into the tips of her hooves, before setting off in a sprint.

The stones passed by her like snow during an avalanche and she was catching up relatively quickly.

While the tunnels squirmed around and wriggled in different directions, she was finally met with the sight of something more straight ahead.

She could see an opening in front of her leading to a central point on the sewer system, a place where much of the water fell off an edge, into an even deeper layer of the sewers. There would most likely be quite a drop ahead, so she would have to slow down. But what was more important. She saw her enemy.

It was a white Unicorn Stallion. His mane and tail was deep red as quite the contrast to his white coat. He was carrying Emerald song over his back, her hooves sadly covering up for her kidnappers Cutie-Mark. He didn’t look too intimidating. One could almost call him feminine, actually. His hooves looked neat, and his coat shiny, his mane also, while still being a bit curly, was finely styled. Part of Cheerilee´s mind made her wonder of how brittle he might be. She might have to be careful. This could just be a lackey of the bigger fiend. She couldn’t know, the sewer was clogging up her nose. The last thing Cheerilee observed was that he didn’t look that much older than her assistant Pen, before he disappeared over the edge of the large sewer drop.

Cheerilee quickly judged the distance towards the drop, the relative slipperiness of the floor and her speed, calculating when she needed to slow down. Her hooves slid across the floor for a moment, slowing her momentum fittingly to let her reach the edge of the drop and turn in the right direction.

And get bucked in the face.

The sound of bone cracking from the hoof impact seemed to ricochet off of the walls, as the vampire schoolteacher was sent flying over the edge of the platform in the large circular room. She had nothing to hold on to besides her own hooves as she fell off of the platform, the forces of gravity forcing her down into the belly of the Manehatten sewer systems.

Back up on the platform stood the fiend and his prey. A grinning and giggling fiend.

“I hope you know how to swim m´dear!” He called out after the teacher vampire before she crashed mercilessly with the waters at the bottom, creating a splash that almost reached halfway up to the platform.

“Oh dear, quite the splash… If only I had somepony more to toss off the platform…” He chuckled, before looking back at the unconscious mare, resting upon his back, thankfully still there despite his buck.

“Now on to the little mare who ran away… Oh what does one do when somepony breaks the rules?” he asked menacingly, before disappearing into the maze of tunnels that was the Manehatten Sewer system.

His pursuer nowhere to be seen.

Back at the hospital:

Doctor Featherband had finally gotten enough of air into his lungs and confidence back into his hooves to rise up from the dirt and try to escape from the cellar. He had not expected to be ponyhandled like that twice on one day. He was still dizzy from that… whatever it was that unicorn had done to him in his office.

But one thing was painfully obvious to him, he would have to get out of here.

As quickly as his wings could carry him he headed for the elevator again, pressing the button to call for the box, hoping perhaps that crazy mare was the only one who had noticed. Perhaps he could just escape quickly before any investigation happened. He would have to get back to his office, and he could just blame it on his superiors! Those idiots always gave the wrong orders anyhow.

With the ding sound of the elevator reaching its destination, he had a confident smile and nodded to himself. Yes, that was going to be his plan. So with a happy face he walked into the elevator, Though slammed his face directly into the chest of a huge burly pegasus guard in gilded armor.

Recoiling back and rubbing his nose, his eyes grew open in horror, to see that there were in fact three guards inside the Elevator, and one red unicorn in a fedora.

“Going somewhere Featherband?” The unicorn asked with a smirk, before the guards quickly encircled the Doctor.

With no way out, and no possible chance of escape, explanation nor recourse, the doctor did all he could do.

His wings dropped along with all possible hope.

“Oh horse radishes…”