Seven friends work to keep Equestrian magic secret, but somethings will refuse to be kept hidden away.
On the day of the Friendship Games, the veil between two worlds is pierced. The magic of Equestria seeps through the barrier to permeate the world of humanity. Entities begin to come into existence. Lore and legend are gaining flesh, bone, and blood, yielding things both wondrous and horrible. Magic is powerful, but a limited resource. If the world at large discovers its existence, Equestria will become a target.
Thus, seven friends agree to keep the secret, but some things will not be hidden away.
Sunset Shimmer turned slowly, her eyes following the beam of her flashlight as it swept across the room. The public bathroom of a park at night was perhaps the last place she wanted to hear a voice asking her such a strange question, yet that was exactly where Sunset found herself.
While not in total disrepair, the five stalls of the woman’s restroom bore all the signs of a tight city budget. A few of the doors were missing their lock, and one was about to fall off its hinges. The paint and tiles of the bathroom were littered with scratches, names, numbers, and lewd gestures carved with a bevy of sharp tools. The mirror had a few long cracks, and one of the faucets leaked with a steady, rhythmic drip every few seconds. Then, of course, there was the smell. The sharp, undeniable odor of the business done and trapped within the windowless, under-ventilated space had almost floored Sunset when she first came in.
She, however, had muscled through it, and then heard those words. It was a whisper in her ear, strange and unnatural. The room was empty. She had checked every stall. Even she wasn’t supposed to be in there at such a late hour. The doors were normally locked after nightfall, but Sunset wasn’t the first to break in after dark, nor would she be the last. Unlike others, however, it wasn’t a driving call-of-nature or a peer-pressured-prank that placed her in the bathroom.
She had come to hear that exact question.
“Do you want red or blue paper?” The voice asked again.
Sunset tensed and spun quickly, having felt the warm puff of the spoken words on the back of her neck. She clenched her flashlight tighter and backed up until she was in the very corner of the room. Every stall door was open. She could see every approach, and with that reassurance, she acted. She raised a hand into her hair, touching something near her ear, and then she found her voice.
“Blue,” Sunset said, and a chill ran down her spine. She flicked her flashlight, checking each stall door and the cracked mirror. She was still alone. Nothing was drawing near, yet every sensation in her body was telling her that danger was looming closer. Suddenly, she felt a flick of wind on her hair, and cold, clammy hands grasped her throat. Sunset dropped her flashlight, reaching up to grab at the bony appendages, but it was already too late. They had encircled her neck and were beginning to squeeze.
She tried to kick and pull away from the wall, but her vision started to swim. Her lungs violently convulsed, trying to force air past the tight grip on her throat. She heard a hungry growl that carried undercurrents of a delighted laugh. The creature was committed; it would not let go until it had accomplished its task.
It was exactly what she wanted.
Reaching up, Sunset grabbed the wrists of her assailant. She held tight as a golden aura began to envelop her body. The amber gemstone studs in her ears glinted, and from deep within, Sunset felt the rising sensation of her own magic. The tender warmth started at her core and radiated out, like the comforting sensation of a hot beverage on a cold day. She tightened her hold on the wrists, while the hands themselves released their vice-like grip. Sunset gasped for a fresh breath of air, and her magical aura surged with fresh life.
With all the strength her arms could muster, Sunset pulled on the hands that had attempted to steal her life, yanking their owner out of the shadows. She flung it over her head and smashed it into the ground at her feet, giving her a good look at her attacker.
The monster looked like a clog of hair that had been yanked out of a shower drain. Its unnaturally narrow limbs were a conglomeration of filth, hair, and the occasional glinting piece of metal. The strange creature flailed to get back to its feet before turning to roar at Sunset, and from its hands extended several gnarled razor blades.
Sunset, however, did not cower in the face of the creature. Instead, she took a step forward, her own magical aura blazing. Her ears moved to the top of her head, becoming pointed, and her hair extended into a near ankle-length ponytail. The restroom was bathed in the light shining from her, and the monster began to back away as it roared in protest.
“And where do you think you’re going?” Sunset raised her hand, and her aura of magic extended from her fingertips towards the creature. It grabbed hold of the monster and, slowly but surely, pinned it down against the floor.
The beast’s body convulsed, twisted, and deformed. The refuse that comprised its body unwove, the human shape devolving into a writhing mass. It was not going down without a fight. One of the razor blades from its fingers flew at Sunset, and she had to dodge to the right to keep it from cutting her shoulder.
Sunset brought her free hand to her ear but did not take her eyes off the unraveling monster. “Anytime now.”
The bathroom door swung open and slammed against the interior wall. The boot responsible for kicking it was worn by Applejack, her usual school skirt replaced with a pair of durable blue jeans. She leapt into the air and stomped down on the monster. She had already ponied up, and her orange aura spread out from her feet to cover the creature, replacing Sunset’s own magic. “Boy, this one’s ugly enough to make a freight train take a dirt road. What’s the verdict?”
“Aggressive class three,” Sunset said, reaching through the neck of her shirt. “Drain and dispose.”
“Well, we thought as much when we heard about this one. That’s why we didn’t bring Fluttershy.” The creature managed to free one failing appendage and took a wild swipe at Applejack, but she promptly stomped down on it a second time, applying her magic with greater force. “Hey, keep them hands to yourself!”
Sunset finished fishing out a large, circular device. It was similar to the one that had started the whole situation they found themselves in, though improved in comparison to the original prototype. It was one of seven, and after pressing a few of the exterior buttons, Sunset cracked open the locket. The circuitry within came to life, and wisps of sickly-yellow energy began to flow from the creature. Its struggles grew weaker and its growls faded as the magic was drained away. Eventually, all that was left was a pile of mushy, wet hair, a mess Applejack swiftly stepped out of before covering her nose.
“Phew, hard to believe it was using some of that magic to make itself smell better. You think any is stuck to my boot?”
Sunset stepped gingerly around the pile of the creature’s remains, getting over beside Applejack. Her own pony power was fading, but before her magic fully receded, Sunset flicked her wrist. A portion of her magic leapt onto the creature’s remains and set them ablaze. The fire quickly covered and began consuming the remnants of the beast, leaving no trace and doing no damage to anything that had not been part of the monster. “Let’s just say, I wouldn’t go walking inside The Library without cleaning them off first.”
Applejack nodded as her magical aura began to dissipate. Her body returned to normal as the glow disappeared, receding into the orange gemstone studs she had in her ears. “I can hear Rarity’s voice already.” She opened her mouth, about to perform what Sunset knew would be a fairly accurate impersonation of Rarity.
Instead, both of them heard a piercing scream over the radios in their ears.
“Rarity!” Applejack bolted for the door, while Sunset followed a few steps behind. They raced across the park towards one of the other public bathrooms, Rarity’s screams blaring in their earpieces.
Sunset caught up to Applejack just as they reached the other bathroom. They put their shoulders forward and rammed their way through the door together, nearly unhinging it. Rarity was still screaming at the top of her lungs, the piercing sound now echoing through both their earpieces and the cramped bathroom. She was standing on top of a sink, hunched over and pressing her head and hands against the ceiling. She was unharmed, but she would not stop panicking as she stared at the creature below her.
It was a monster not unlike the one Sunset had just encountered. The majority of its body was comprised of the muck that could be pulled out of a stopped-up drain, but it was also clad in plastic water pipes, like a suit of armor. It also was showing no aggression towards Rarity. Instead, it was just licking at the floor, creating a slowly-expanding clean spot in the otherwise filthy tile and grout.
“Quick, Applejack, Sunset! Class three! Kill it! Kill it!” Rarity wailed as she shut her eyes tight.
“Yeah, that ain’t no class three,” Applejack deadpanned as she watched the thing go about its work. She bit her lip and made a sharp whistling sound, managing to draw the monster’s attention. It turned to look at them, a pair of lost wedding rings looking to represent its eyes, but did not relent from its gut-wrenching method of mopping the floor.
“I’ll go ahead and tag this one,” Applejack said before motioning to Rarity. “Why don’t you get her back to The Library?”
“Come on, Rarity.” Sunset chuckled a little as she tried to encourage her friend to come down from the sink. “It’s not going to hurt you.”
“You must be joking. It’s absolutely disgusting. Even being around it makes me feel like I need a bath.” Rarity dared to glance at the creature again and happened to witness it take a particularly long lick from the bathroom floor. She shivered and brought a hand to her mouth. It was hard to believe Rarity’s skin could become any paler than it naturally was, but she managed it. She scampered down from the sink and bolted for the door.
Sunset followed behind her at a leisurely pace, but stopped at the door to look back at Applejack. “Sure you wouldn’t have rather brought Fluttershy?”
Applejack drew out her own locket, hitting a few buttons on it to begin the tagging process. “As long as Rarity doesn’t barf, yes.”
~~~
“Ooo, I was right, the first one was an Aka Manto, and the second one sounds like an Akaname. Their close proximity to the city’s Japanese district is also further evidence that the cultural makeup of the neighboring area influences what types of creatures manifest,” Twilight said while Sunset held out her locket. Twilight snatched it and whisked it away to her computer, quickly inserting it into the docking station. A few taps on the keyboard, and a number of analysis programs began humming away.
“Thanks for the tip about answering with ‘blue,’ by the way.” Sunset removed the earpiece from her ear and the paired radio on her hip. She dropped them on an end table and flopped down on the neighboring couch, stretching out across its length. “I’d hate to have found out what answering red would have done with the nasty razor blades it had hidden in its fingers.” She glanced over at Twilight to continue the conversation, but could only smile as her friend was already lost deep in her work, the ever-relentless researcher in their little library group.
Their little base of operations had been named “The Library” by Princess Twilight. She claimed it was an inconspicuous codename, something that could be said openly in public without much concern. She had been wearing a rather large grin when she thought up the name, but no one had thought to ask her why it made her so happy. Still, no matter its name, the once modest storage space had been transformed to meet the needs of their situation, becoming a secret base, a research lab, and, for Sunset at least, a home.
Twilight’s workstation, a growing arsenal of human technology and pony lab equipment, dominated one corner of the room. A neighboring wall had also succumbed to Twilight’s need for workspace. A large corkboard had been hung, and it was now cluttered with pieces of paper and colorful pins that were strung together with lengths of yarn.
From that one side of the room, things became a homey but cramped apartment. A small communal area near the center of the room was occupied by a couch, a chair, a coffee table, and a television won in a radio trivia contest. Beyond that, on the wall opposite Twilight’s workstation, a quartet of twin-sized beds were crammed tightly together, and a kitchenette had been assembled around an old janitor sink. Three doors lined the exterior of the room. One led to a bathroom, and the other two led to stairs that could take them either outside or into the interior of the high school.
Perhaps they could have splurged a bit more, considering their operation was being funded by Equestria, but what they had received was more than enough to fulfill their needs.
Sunset heard a key in the lock and turned her head to look at the door as it swung open, revealing Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. They looked like they had been rolling in dirt and grass, but Rainbow Dash was twirling her locket on the edge of her finger. That was always a sign their mission had been successful.
“Hey, how did it go?” Sunset asked, although she felt she knew the answer.
“Class two.” Rainbow tossed her locket into the air, caught it, and held it out like a freshly-won award. “Nothing we couldn’t handle. Just a tree that decided it didn’t like having punks carving their names in it anymore. Though, we got there just in time to see this one idiot get whipped in the butt by the branches. You should have seen his face.”
“You couldn’t really blame it.” Fluttershy reached out and took the locket from Rainbow. She held it gently and even petted it a few times. “I doubt I’d be very happy if I had just been brought to life with magic and then someone carved their initials into me.”
“I doubt you’d be happy about that even if you hadn’t just come to life,” Sunset said as she watched Fluttershy carry the locket over to Twilight and set it down on the desk. Twilight managed a thank you and welcome back before refocusing on her work, the screen fluttering with numbers and graphs.
“What about you?” Rainbow Dash asked as she plopped down on the nearby chair. “Was it as bad as it sounded?”
Sunset brought her hand to her neck, remembering the sensation of the fingers that had choked her and the whispered questions in her ear. “Yeah, but we tripped over a class one at the same time. It was licking the bathroom floor clean, so we decided just to tag it and leave it alone for now. Though, hearing Rarity scream, you would have thought she was being murdered in some bad horror movie.”
Rainbow began to laugh at the thought of Rarity’s reaction, but that expression soon faded, being replaced by a new one. She stuck out her tongue, and her face contorted into a few different expressions of disgust before she shook her head firmly. “Well, I was going to eat something, but after that pleasant mental picture, I think I’m just going to catch some Z’s.”
“Sure, just remember to set the alarm so you aren’t late for class. Otherwise, I’ll get to wake you up my way.”
Rainbow Dash waved off Sunset’s concerns before she flopped down on one of the beds in the room. Fluttershy waited a moment, then stood up and took Rainbow’s place on the couch.
“So, I guess Pinkie Pie went home for the night?” Sunset asked.
Fluttershy nodded. “Yes, you know how her parents are. They get worried if she spends too many nights away from home.” Her hands fidgeted a little, as if searching for something they couldn’t find. They eventually grasped at the bottom of her skirt, twisting and wrinkling the fabric with their tight grip. They were all signs Sunset had become experienced at noticing.
“You skipped yesterday, didn’t you?” Sunset said, concern in her voice.
“No, it’s fine. I wasn’t even hungry.” Fluttershy turned away, trying to hide her face behind her hair as she stared down at her hands.
Sunset sighed and stood up. She took off her leather jacket and tossed it across the back of the couch leaving her in a short-sleeved, sky-blue top. She then plopped back down on the couch and said, “You know that isn’t how it works. Come on.”
Fluttershy turned her head further away and remained silent for a few seconds. Eventually, however, she nodded. Cautiously, as if she was trying to step on eggshells without breaking them, she moved from the chair to the couch. She began to pony up, her gentle, welcoming, yellow aura bubbling to the surface. Halfway through the transformation, the aura’s color shifted, changing to something comparable to a slurry of rotten vegetables. With it, Fluttershy’s complexion changed, her colors growing darker as her equine ears grew larger and more predatory.
Sunset felt a pair of soft hands raise her arm up. She knew what was coming, but it didn't bother her anymore. Except for the always squeamish Rarity, she and the others had become used to playing their part.
A whimper of pain came from Fluttershy. It was the final warning, the final step in what had become a practiced process. Sunset could hear Rainbow Dash turning over on her cot, and Twilight looked away from her computer for just a second before submerging herself back into her work.
As Sunset waited for the inevitable, her eyes wandered to a framed picture on the wall. It was all of them, standing together with their medals right after the Friendship Games. They didn’t know it then, but the veil between the two worlds took a lot of punishment that day. It weakened, and miniscule portals began to open and leak Equestrian magic into the human world. Myths and legends began to come to life, slowly drawing international media attention. As time went by, one fact became apparent: to keep Equestria’s existence a secret, they had to stem the tide of spirits, beasts, monsters, demons, and other entities being created by the leaking magic.
It had even been exciting at first, heading into the city at night to hunt the entities. More than once, Rarity tried to make them team uniforms.
But it couldn’t be friendship, picnics, and easy wins forever.
A sharp, familiar pain hit Sunset’s nerves. Her fist clenched briefly, but relaxed once the initial jolt had faded. She looked away, to distract herself and to give Fluttershy some semblance of privacy. She listened to the tapping of Twilight typing and focused her gaze on the corkboard with its numerous pins, notes, and lengths of yarn… anything to dull the sensation of the tears on her arm and mute the sound of Fluttershy’s whimpers.
The wound would heal by morning, and the physical pain would fade before she went to sleep. The guilt, however, always lingered with Sunset and drove her eyes to trace the paths of yarn on Twilight’s corkboard. The green pins were sealed portals. The orange ones were possible sightings. The blue were confirmed class ones and twos they needed to clean up, and though currently absent, the red pins marked suspected class threes.
Sunset’s eyes searched and followed the trails of yarn that connected the black pins. They were few and far between, but they marked clues to the vendetta Sunset and all her friends shared—the vendetta Sunset held most closely.
“We’ll get him, Fluttershy,” Sunset said. It was something she had repeated in this situation more than a dozen times before. She meant every word. Their only failed capture had left its mark on the group. It was a mark that wouldn’t go away until he had been drained of magic and burned from existence, and Sunset would do it. She would see the entity, codenamed “Dracula,” be reduced to nothing more than smoldering ash.
Otherwise, the kindest of her friends would never be freed of the torturous hunger for blood she had to endure every day.
The sharp beeping of the alarm roused Sunset from her dreams. She cracked open her eyes and fumbled with one hand to find her phone. After a few moments, she found the familiar shape of its plastic casing and pressed a button on one side of the device. The alarm went silent, and Sunset let her eyes slide back shut. She snuggled back into her pillow for just a few seconds, lingering in the warm embrace of the covers. Sleep hovered, clinging to her mind like the loose, yet still gripping tendrils of a jellyfish. But as the waking world beckoned her, she was forced to slip away and leave her dreams to drift and disappear into the aether of her memories.
Sunset opened her eyes again and looked across the room from her bed, the space bathed in colors by the multiple lights on Twilight’s computer that never turned off. The Library was their base of operations, but since the Friendship Games, it had also become her primary residence. Technically speaking, the space itself had already been that. Where Princess Twilight had made herself a bed of books in the school library for the few nights she spent in the human world, Sunset had picked someplace more secluded. Through odd jobs and the pawning of some jewels brought from Equestria, she had made the space livable and gotten the bare minimum of legal papers assembled to give herself a real identity in the human world.
However, in the wake of the Friendship Games, a nosey Pinkie Pie caused a domino effect of events to occur. In the end, her little hobo hideout was found out. Even the worst scolding she had received from Princess Celestia paled next to the lecture she received from Principal Celestia. The principals not only spoke of the numerous laws that were broken, but the dangers Sunset had posed to herself by living alone in a substandard capacity. She pointed out flaw after flaw, eventually making Sunset wonder how she had managed to survive nearly four years in the human world.
Until other arrangements could be made, Sunset was to stay with her friends, but those plans were put on hold when an old painting in the art room began spewing paint at students and berating their creative skills. That first incident exposed how weak the veil between the worlds had become. New holes were forming, and with each new hole came one or more entities. At the rate of new occurrences, it seemed inevitable that Equestria’s existence would be exposed.
In the interest of both Canterlot High and Equestria, Sunset used her book to arrange a meeting between worlds. Principal Celestia, Vice Principal Luna, and Dean Cadance crossed through the portal, the first humans to enter Equestria. Sunset and her friends never heard the details of what happened, and never heard how three grown women reacted to having hooves and being in a world of horses. They were only told the results once the principals and Dean Cadance returned.
That was how Sunset and her friends began their part time job and when The Library was established. Raw Equestrian gemstones, which grew in the kingdom’s magically-infused ground like potatoes, would provide the necessary finances. Principal Celestia arranged a buyer, a wealthy eccentric only known as Mr. Chord, whom she had become acquainted with over her career as principal of CHS. His history with the school hadn’t always been pleasant, but for now, he was their ally. He would accept the Equestrian jewels and pay appropriately for their worth.
With the more than generous funds, the school’s long-neglected storeroom was made into a livable space. It was only during the party, where they were celebrating the The Library’s completion, that her friends and the principals revealed that they wanted Sunset to consider it a new home. She had been bouncing between her friends’ homes in a never-ending string of sleep overs, but that night, they gave her the master key to The Library.
Those memories, conjured sometimes in the quiet mornings of The Library, always made Sunset smile. She hugged at the blankets of her bed. Her mattress sat on a somewhat elaborate wooden frame with drawers, unlike the simple metal frames of the other beds. After all, she need just a little storage space for her clothes and a few private possessions.
Perhaps The Library could be more lavish. They had a lot of funds coming from Equestria, but Principal Celestia was keeping a tight hold on the operation’s purse strings. In a way, Sunset was thankful for that. They had what they needed and a few creature comforts, creating a balanced environment that really felt like a home.
Two of her friends had stayed at The Library that night with Sunset. One was Twilight, who slept in a nearly perfect straight line beneath her covers, her arms on top of the blanket. Because of the long bus trip, and the many happy phone calls she had with her parents, Twilight had the freedom to stay at The Library more than anyone else. She’d work late into the night, researching possible anomalies and entities across the city. Spike even had his own basket, food bowl, and water bowl over near the computer.
Rainbow Dash was the last, having fallen asleep in her clothes from the night before. Like so many mornings, she proved to be a very active sleeper. Rainbow was sprawled out on the bed she had claimed, body half-covered with a blanket, while her head was partially covered with her pillow. In the past, Sunset had tried to replace her friend’s blanket. Being in a basement, The Library could get cold at night, even with Twilight’s computers constantly putting out heat. Rainbow, however, always kicked the blanket back off within a few minutes, and Sunset had taken on a policy of letting sleeping rainbows lie.
Finally feeling awake enough to leave the warm embrace of her bed, Sunset sat up and swung her feet over the side of her bed. She found a pair of fuzzy bird slippers, a gift from Fluttershy. They bore an uncanny resemblance to Philomena. Sunset had even wondered if this was some prank being pulled by Princess Celestia, but had decided not to push the issue and accepted the gift for what it was.
Rummaging quietly in a few of the drawers of her bed frame, she pulled out her normal exercise clothes and slipped into the bathroom. A few minutes later, she emerged in some Canterlot High branded track gear and running shoes. She moved to the door and smiled at the sight of her usual jogging partner.
“Morning, Spike,” Sunset said quietly. She put one hand on the door and the other on a leash that hung off a hook next to the door. “Ready to go?”
He mustered a small yawn, then nodded as he tilted his head to one side to expose his collar. “We going to the park today or to the river?”
Sunset cracked open The Library door, then kept it open with her heel as she bent down and attached the leash to Spike’s collar. They all knew the now much more intelligent canine was capable of walking without a leash, but the city had a strict leash law. Spike had already spent one night in the pound, and Twilight had to pay a fairly steep fine to get him out. Still, they had tried to make it as accommodating as they could for their pawed pal. The leash was extremely long and light, and to the girls’ joy, there wasn’t a need for a little plastic thing of bags.
Spike, after all, was now intelligent enough to figure out the toilet, though it had taken a few tries to master positioning himself on the seat without falling in.
“Just the park today,” Sunset said when she finally got the leash hooked onto the collar. “Not up for going all the way to the river after last night, so you’ll just have to chase the ducks tomorrow.”
Leash secured, Spike and Sunset slipped out the door, closing it silently behind them once Sunset double checked the pocket of her jacket for her keys. After that, she withdrew a pair of earbuds from one pocket, plugging the tip into her phone before inserting one earbud into her ear. She liked to listen to music, but at the same time, she wanted to be able to talk to Spike if they had something to talk about and no one else was around.
Workout playlist started, Sunset and Spike did a few stretches before heading out from The Library’s exterior door, which was on the back side of the school. They walked the first few blocks before finally breaking into a jog once they were warmed up. They reached a park near the school, a simple field with grass, trees, and a few playground toys in the center for the kids. The usual routine for the both of them was to do a few dozen laps around the park before heading back to get cleaned up for the day.
The weather was getting warmer. During springtime, the sun tended to rise just as the pair would be arriving at the park. Sunset had to put on a pair of orange-tinted shades to shield her eyes from the light, but she found herself smiling at the view as always. Nothing could compare to one of Celestia’s sunrises when the princess had a reason to really make it extravagant, but the human world’s physics driven solar cycle was nothing to sneeze at either. Each sunrise was unique in one way or the other, driven by the chaotic nature of physics and weather patterns.
That morning, on a gust of wind, Sunset’s nose picked up a smoky fragrance. It overwhelmed some of the less appealing smells of the city, and it made Sunset take notice of the redness of the horizon. There were some fires burning to the far east. If she remembered the news correctly, it was nothing dangerous. They were controlled burns, set by the government to help keep the forest-covered national park healthy. The sun had taken on a pinkish hue as it was climbing away from the horizon, and the smells were bringing a smile to Sunset’s face. The aroma on the wind was reminiscent of campfires and fragrant bushes.
Moments like this could make Sunset miss Equestria, but they also made her appreciate the wonders the human world had to offer.
She continued to stride along the park, shifting Spike’s leash to her wrist as she worked to roll up the sleeves of her track jacket. Part of it was to combat her rising internal temperature from the workout, but she also took the opportunity to scratch at a tender spot on her forearm. The wounds from Fluttershy’s feeding had healed for the most part. There was no visible mark anymore, but some of the lingering, deeper tissue damage made the spot a bit itchy. Still, Sunset fought the urge to scratch harder. She powered into the more intense part of her exercise routine, Spike following her lead as they picked up the pace.
She forced herself not to think of Fluttershy, letting her mind get lost in the beats. She didn’t want to have to deal with that ever-gnawing guilt until after breakfast, but something still bothered her. There was a pressure, an itch, a nagging sensation that wouldn’t leave her mind. She tried to focus on her music, even timing her strides to the beat, yet it was like something was actively pressing against her thoughts. She slowed to a stop at a corner of the park, pulled out her one earbud, and shook out her hair before looking across the park.
The morning was quiet. There were a few passing cars and singing birds, but otherwise, the suburbs were calm. She could even hear the music from her earbuds, though she never turned up the volume as high as some of her friends. She looked across the park, holding an earbud in each hand as she scanned her field of vision. The sensation was still there, and apparently, she wasn’t the only one that felt it. Spike was growling at her feet. She glanced down to see where he was looking, then followed his gaze. A somewhat familiar squirrel was staring at them from the tree like they were intruders in his domain.
“It’s been awhile since we’ve seen him,” Sunset said with a chuckle as she looked down at Spike. “I guess he must be feeling better.”
“Oh yeah, he is. That fuzzy psychopath threw a pinecone at me yesterday morning when Rainbow Dash and I were jogging.” Spike raised the volume of his voice, reverting to common barks. It was the closest he could get to shouting at the squirrel without everyone in the surrounding homes hearing a talking dog cursing out a squirrel. Sunset was always curious what Spike was saying in his native tongue, but decided not to intrude on his private war with the local wildlife.
Still, Sunset couldn’t help but chuckle to herself as she let Spike get the barking out of his system. It felt silly to be so paranoid when the thing stalking her and Spike was just a squirrel. She scratched at her forearm, then put her earbud back in as Spike replacing barking with a low growl. “Come on, why don’t we head back a little early?”
“Yeah, okay. No sense sticking around where we aren’t wanted,” he said, turning his nose up and away from the squirrel.
They resumed their run, doing one more lap around the park before crossing the street to begin the return trip to the school. They had to pause on one corner to allow a car to go by, and while they waited, Sunset glanced back over her shoulder at the park. The squirrel was gone, but the somewhat odd sensation lingered. It was weaker than before, but it was still there.
Sunset, however, brushed it off and began crossing the street with Spike once the car had gone by. She began to wonder, as she began to match the beat of her music once more, if all the hunting of strange, magical anomalies was making her paranoid.
~~~
Sunset had finished getting cleaned up for the day and was just slipping on her usual leather jacket as she walked up behind Twilight. “So, what’s the weather like?”
As usual, Twilight had rolled out of bed while Sunset was out on her jog and went straight to her cork board, beginning her morning routine of appraising the changes in the city’s magical climate. She was reviewing local news stories that had occurred overnight on a tablet computer. If anything stood out to her, it got printed on their semi-reliable, garage-sale inkjet printer and placed on the cork board with an appropriate colored pin.
It had become their morning weather report, a name that stuck after Pinkie Pie used it once.
“Not too bad.” Twilight picked a fresh piece of paper up from the printer and pinned it to the board with an orange pin. “Not a single mention from any of the usual sources from last night's operations, and nothing new is really popping up for the weekend either.”
“A weekend off? I won’t know what to do with myself.” Sunset turned and moved towards their compact but well-stocked kitchen, procuring a glass from the cupboards and filling it with some water.
Spike was also recovering from their jog, eating from his food bowl. That was one thing some of them were thankful for. Despite his increase in intelligence, Spike still liked dog food and doggy things. The only consideration they had to worry about in that regard was cleaning the bowls a little more often and getting a better brand than Twilight had been using.
“Not entirely off.” Twilight reached up and tapped on one of a few orange pins that were clustered together in one part of the cork board. “I got a message from Dean Cadance. She says the students at Crystal Prep have been making a fuss about some strange occurrences. Since she’s in on our little secret, she asked if I could take a look while I’m visiting my parents this weekend, since I’ll be in the area.”
“Who’s going with you?” Sunset asked as she returned, glass of water in hand. She took a sip as she stood next to Twilight and surveyed the maze of pins, yarn, and paper on the cork board. She was one of the few in their group that could kind of keep up with the connections Twilight was able to form.
Twilight snipped a length of red yarn from the box beneath the cork board, next to Spike’s bed. “Rarity. When I sent out the e-mail a few minutes ago, she replied back within seconds. I think she wants an excuse to go shopping in the downtown fashion district. I’m a little worried it might be a distraction from our work.”
“A distraction is sometimes a good thing, Twilight. I’m sure you two will have a lot of fun.” Sunset took a drink of water. “Besides, I bet Rarity will spend the rest of the day hinting that you two should have a sleep over. When you do finally cave to the pressure, that will mean you two will have the end of today and tomorrow morning to take care of whatever is going on. That leaves plenty of free time to go shopping with Rarity.”
Twilight chuckled a little and glanced away from the cork board for the first time since Sunset returned. “Yeah, I suppose. Though, if she sends pictures to you of some strange outfit she’s got me in, don’t share them with Rainbow Dash this time.”
Sunset finished off the glass of water, then playfully elbowed Twilight in the side before turning to take her glass back to the kitchen. “Now, you know that’s a promise I can’t keep.”
“Didn’t hurt to ask,” Twilight said, pressing one final pin into the board before stepping away and heading towards the kitchen herself. Sunset predicted Twilight’s move and set out a box of cereal and bowl for her bespectacled friend before refilling her glass of water in the sink. Sunset then glanced at the clock and saw school would be starting soon. It was the one part of the day when they had to put their entity hunting work on hold.
It also meant someone else had to be roused from her dreams.
As Twilight went about pouring milk over her cereal, Sunset made her way back to the beds. She had refilled her glass, but this time, the water wasn’t for drinking. It’s purpose was more puckish, one that had Sunset wearing a lopsided grin on her face. She dipped her fingertips into the water as she stood near the foot of bed where Rainbow was still sleeping away.
“How many do you think it will take this morning?”
“Four,” Twilight answered from their small kitchen table.
“I don’t know. She seems pretty dead to the world,” Sunset said as she brought her hand out of her glass of water. She then flicked her fingers, sending a few droplets of water across Rainbow. The first time she did it, Rainbow didn’t even flinch. The second time, she groaned a little and brought one hand to grab at the pillow on her face. Third time, she turned her back against the pesky droplets of water. Sunset chuckled a little, and then dipped her fingers into the glass for a fourth time before flicking her hand.
“Okay! I’m up!” Rainbow shouted through her pillow.
“Right again, Twilight.”
“You two are cruel and unusual,” Rainbow complained as she grabbed at her blanket and tried to cocoon herself against the attack of water droplets. “You could just shake my shoulder or something.”
Sunset turned back towards the kitchen. “I know, but we had a deal. We’d stop doing this to wake you up when you sleep in once Twilight guesses wrong. You wouldn’t want to stop her ever climbing record, would you? How many times is that now, Twilight?”
“I’m up to thirty-one,” Twilight said before placing a spoonful of cereal in her mouth.
“You’re so lucky I’m a person who understands what it means to set records.” Rainbow finally sat up in bed, her hair a glorious mishmash of colors. It was an awe-inspiring bedhead. “Otherwise, I would have so gotten back at you two jokesters by now.”
“Why, Rainbow Dash, we don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sunset said, feigning a emotionally-hurt look before placing her water glass in the sink and opening a cupboard. “Now, hurry up and get ready before we’re late for class. I was going to cook a few eggs for my breakfast. You want any?”
“Two over-easy,” Rainbow said as she pulled herself out of bed, stretched, and stumbled towards the bathroom door. “And this doesn’t make up for the water.”
“Of course it doesn’t,” Sunset said as she opened the fridge to acquire the carton of eggs.
~~~
4 May. -- I found that my landlord had got a letter from the Count, directing him to secure the best place on the coach for me; but on making inquiries as to details he seemed somewhat reticent, and pretended that he could not understand my German. This could not be true, because up to then he had understood it perfectly; at least, he answered my questions exactly as if he did. He and his wife, the old lady who had received me, looked at each other in a frightened sort of way. He mumbled out that the money had been sent in a letter, and that was all he knew. When I asked him if he knew Count Dracula, and could tell me anything of his castle, both he and his wife crossed themselves, and, saying that they knew nothing at all, simply refused to speak further. It was so near the time of starting that I had no time to ask anyone else, for it was all very mysterious and not by any means comforting.
This was, perhaps, the least appealing book report Sunset had ever been assigned. She slouched in her chair at the library, looking up at the ceiling as she struggled to find motivation to keep reading. It wasn’t that she didn’t like reading. She, Rainbow, and Twilight could have regular geek-out sessions about the latest Daring Do book or news. Their latest round of excited chatter had been over the subject of something they had learned from the pony world, that the author A.K. Yearling, in Equestria, was a true-to-life Daring Do and that the books were more memoir than fiction. They then went on to talk about whether something similar was possible in their world.
But, of course, Daring Do wasn’t a book you could pick up for an assignment in Mrs. Inkwell’s Classic Literature. They were looking at the true classics, things that had proven themselves against the test of time. The Iliad, The Odyssey, Frankenstein, Gulliver’s Travels, The Lord of Flies, and The Grapes of Wrath were but a few of the titles that Mrs. Inkwell had placed in her infamous fishbowl. Some teachers gave assignments. Others let students choose from lists. Mrs. Inkwell, however, liked to make it a bit theatrical and had everyone pull a book assignment at random from a big, glass fishbowl.
And on the list of possible assignments, there were many Sunset would have been eager to do, and only two she had dreaded. One was War and Peace. No one had ever gotten it in the class, but Mrs. Inkwell kept it on the list of possible assignments every year nonetheless. Perhaps it was just a scare tactic, or something to make students appreciate getting other novels that wouldn’t be as overwhelming. No one knew for sure, but once more, War and Peace remained absent from the list of randomly drawn books. But luck was being cruel to Sunset today, because when she withdrew her hand from the bowl, she found that she had drawn the other book that she would have rather avoided.
Dracula.
A few months ago, she would have loved being assigned Dracula. It was a classic of literature and helped defined the modern vampire mythos—a mythos that was perhaps degrading a little because of the vampires that held a side role in the werewolf-focused Pale Moon series. Sunset could not understand how that appealed to so many people. Rarity had gotten caught up in the frenzy as well. She practically devoured those novels and gladly claimed herself as part of Team Lance. But Dracula helped start it all, defining the modern strengths and limitations of the famed Count of Transylvania.
But now the story hit too close to home.
Glancing down at her backpack, Sunset reached in and rummaged around inside before pulling out a black folder. She opened it and thumbed through its contents.
Sunset skimmed the pages, rereading the notes she had all but memorized. Their Dracula was a class three aggressive magical manifestation that had taken the shape of a large vampire bat. It had a wingspan of six feet, and its central body measured a foot and a half in length. It disappeared as the sun rose, fading from existence like many of the entities they chased, but reformed every night with the setting of the sun.
It had no human form, and while it wasn’t smart enough to speak, write, or understand the philosophies of life, it knew how to hide, elude, and set traps. Yet, if that was all Dracula was, it would have been a class two at worse.
But Dracula liked to bite. Like a true vampire, it drank blood for its nourishment. It wasn’t particular about where its fangs found a home in its prey’s flesh. The hand, the leg, or the arm, any place with exposed flesh would do. They had tracked incidents of Dracula feeding all across the city on different animals and people. Once, it had even caused a stir at a blood bank.
Thankfully, no one else had been afflicted like Fluttershy yet.
“I know that folder.”
Flinching, Sunset slapped the folder shut and down onto the table before looking at the source of the voice. It was Principal Celestia, who had slipped up beside Sunset without her realizing.
“I thought I asked you not to bring out materials related to your extracurricular activities during school hours.”
“Sorry,” Sunset said, quickly stuffing the folder back into her backpack. “I just… something happened to make me think about it.”
“I imagine this is to blame,” Celestia said, reaching out and picking up the library copy of Dracula. “I assume this is for a class, and that you're not reading this just to torment yourself.”
“Mrs. Inkwell’s class, the second fishbowl book assignment.”
Celestia nodded and even put on a relieved smile as she offered the book back to Sunset. “I’m very happy to hear that. I know that you take a lot of personal responsibility for what happened that night, Sunset. At the same time, if you feel this is a bit too much for you, I could try speaking with Mrs. Inkwell. I’m sure we can come up with a valid argument as to why you should be allowed to read a different book for your assignment.”
Sunset took the book back and held it in both hands as she looked at the dust cover, which depicted a dark castle set against mountainous terrain. “No, it’s okay, I’ve never actually read it, and it might help us in the long run.” She paused and glanced around a moment, ensuring there was no one in earshot of their conversation. “Our Dracula does seem to follow some of the original mythos, even if it can’t turn into a human. I just wish I understood it better. Then maybe we’d be able to predict where it would show up next.”
“I don’t doubt that you girls will catch up with our little bat problem eventually.” Celestia pulled out a chair at the table, took a seat, and lowered her voice to keep their conversation private. It was a bit of an odd sight, to see the principal of the school just sitting down with a student in the library, but none of the other students in the library seemed to take notice. Or, if they did, they were doing their best to be respectful. “How is Fluttershy doing? Twilight assures me in her weekly reports that her condition is still stable, but I wouldn’t mind more insight.”
“Don’t you talk to her regularly?” Sunset asked.
Celestia nodded. “I do, but the most I can usually get out of her is that she’s doing fine.”
“That makes sense. I doubt I’d want to talk about it much if I was in Fluttershy’s position.” Sunset ran a hand through her hair and leaned an elbow on the table. “Twilight is right, we haven’t noticed any changes in her physical condition. She also hasn’t developed any new powers, and as far as we can tell, her natural magic is still stable.”
“And what about the rest of you?” Celestia asked. “Have any of you had trouble healing after giving Fluttershy what she needs?”
“Not yet, anyway.” Sunset pushed up the sleeve of her jacket, showing off her forearm even though there was no visible mark. “It was my turn last night, and it was completely healed before the first bell. We’re just lucky that getting better in touch with the magic of friendship inside us has given this enhanced healing. I don’t know what we would have done for Fluttershy otherwise.”
“It has proven particularly useful, especially since I don’t have to explain to any parents why their daughters are coming home with bumps, cuts, and bruises.” Celestia’s eyes wandered across the library, looking across some of the other students as they went about their work. “But how is Fluttershy doing emotionally? I’d personally like it if she could speak to the school counselor about this regularly, but the last time I brought it up, she said it was more important to keep the secret.”
“I think she’s getting used to it, a little, but she still doesn’t like it.” Sunset frowned, sinking into the table a little, as if partially deflating. “She still cries when she has to feed, and she’s still trying to skip days. She just hates the idea so much that she has to hurt us to keep herself alive, even though we’ve told her dozens of times that it's alright.”
“Please, keep reassuring her like that,” Celestia said as she stood from the table. “Even if it doesn’t seem to be getting through, I have no doubt that it’s helping Fluttershy deal with this difficult time in her life. Now, I’d better be off. Twilight’s probably already waiting in my office with this week’s report. Have you already copied it out for the princesses?”
“Did it over lunch, like usual.”
“Very good.” Celestia turned to leave, but looked back at Sunset as she walked away. “Come talk to me if you change your mind about speaking to Mrs. Inkwell. Though, the last time I had this talk with her about a student, that student ended up getting assigned War and Peace.”
“Thanks,” Sunset said, waving goodbye to Celestia before focusing back on the borrowed copy of Dracula. She chuckled and cracked it back open to the page she had been on. “Might as well stick with the book I have a chance of finishing before the assignment is due.”
~~~
“Am I doing this right? This number don’t look right to me.”
Sunset glanced up from her own homework and looked over at Applejack’s math assignment. She glanced over the handwritten work, following the flow of math in her head. She then turned her pencil around in her hand and pointed at a particular number. “This is supposed to be a three, not a two. You just copied it wrong.”
“Well, that makes me feel a mess better.” Applejack pressed the eraser of her pencil to the page, rubbing away the offending number and the equations that resulted from it. “Don’t know how I didn’t catch that myself.”
“It happens to all of us. Can you hand me that book to your right, though? I want to make a quote for my essay.”
Applejack obliged, passing over the red-covered book before the pair sank their heads back into their homework. It wasn’t long before they were interrupted again. The clink of a plate on the small coffee table drew their attention, making both of them look up to see Fluttershy setting down a couple of glasses of water as well.
“I guess that means you're done with your home economics assignment,” Applejack said as she smiled up at Fluttershy.
“I still have to bake the rest of them, but I think the recipe turned out well.”
Sunset cocked her eyebrow before reaching out and taking one of the cookies. They were lumpy and spongy, not at all what she would consider a regular cookie. She took a bite, and couldn’t help but smile. It was still warm from the oven, and the soft, spongy texture felt good on the tongue. Sunset could taste chocolate chips, but the main part of the cookie had a sweet flavor to it as well. But it wasn’t just sugar. “What kind of cookies are they?”
“Pineapple Chocolate Chip,” Fluttershy answered. “Everyone else already picked most of the regular recipes that were available for this assignment, but the teacher said that she’d never had a student get anything but an A with this cookie recipe. It’s pretty easy, actually.”
“Well, I wouldn’t have ever thought of putting pineapple in chocolate chip cookies or making them this spongy, but I can’t argue with the results. You’re bound to get an A with this, Fluttershy.” It was then Sunset noticed Applejack was eyeing her cookie, examining it like a math problem she couldn’t quite figure out.
“What, have something against pineapples?” Sunset asked with a chuckle.
“Nah, but look at my cookie. Is it just me, or does this one kind of look like Vice Principal Luna?”
Fluttershy and Sunset leaned in to examine the possibly principal-resembling cookie, but their senses were assaulted by a sharp, loud blare. The noise was coming from Twilight’s computer setup, and several screens were flashing red messages and exclamation points. Sunset vaulted over the coffee table and rushed to the computer. Fluttershy and Applejack were a few steps behind, Applejack stuffing the cookie into her mouth just to get her hands free.
“Twilight called in on the emergency number,” Sunset said, grabbing the computer’s mouse and sliding it across the screen. The emergency number was something they set up through a computer phone service, one that let you use your internet connection as a phone number. It was an internal 911, one the group could call if faced with a life or death emergency.
Moving the computer cursor over the answer icon, Sunset clicked the mouse. A window popped up with Twilight’s picture, a candid shot of her sleeping on The Library’s couch with Spike curled up on her chest like a cat. Though the profile picture was a scene of peace, the noises coming over the line were anything but. There was panting, the sound of running, and the whistle of air rushing by the microphone.
“Twilight? Twilight! Are you there?” Sunset shouted, picking up the headset microphone as she sat down. She moved the call window to one side of the screen and brought up another program on the computer. It was a cell phone location program, another service they had subscribed to as a means of patching together a safety system for their needs. The program had all of their cell phones listed. Sunset quickly tapped on Twilight’s entry in the list, and a spinning icon appeared in the program as it began trying to locate her phone.
“Twilight, say something,” Sunset nearly shouted into the headset microphone as she turned her attention back to the call.
“Sunset! I need backup. Class 3 aggressive. It’s—” A sharp bang of metal came over the call, making the three girls wince as Sunset reached to turn down the computer’s speakers. “Say again, Twilight.”
“Dracula!”
After that one word, the call from Twilight went silent, the speakers providing nothing more than a low level buzz until the software ended the call.
“Did she just say…?” Applejack asked, but the answer was written all over her friends’ faces. Fluttershy was clutching her arms around her chest, as if trying to shake off a nasty chill in the air. Sunset’s hands balled into fists, and she stood up from the chair as her eyes looked to the cell phone locator app. It had pulled up a map and placed a purple dot on it, representing Twilight’s phone. Though the street names were unfamiliar to the three girls, the picture brought up by the app wasn’t. The closest address the locator software was able to associate with Twilight’s position was Crystal Prep.
“Get your lockets and your gem studs,” Sunset said, slapping her palm against the surface of the desk. She turned away and began walking across the room towards her bed. “We’re leaving, now.”
“What about Pinkie and Rainbow?” Applejack asked.
“Call them, but we aren’t waiting. They’ll have to catch up,” Sunset said as she arrived at the foot of her bed and reached down to one of the lower drawers that were tucked beneath it. Sunset grabbed a small, black fabric bag from amongst her folded shirts before stepping over to the bathroom door. She slipped in, pulled the door shut behind her sharply, and quickly went to the sink.
It was only then she noticed the blood smeared on her left hand.
She had clenched her fists so tightly at the computer, her finger nails had broken the skin. She could only imagine the trail of blood she had left behind on Twilight’s desk and on the bathroom’s door handle. She thought about cleaning the blood before it stained, but Sunset shook her head.
“There’s no time to clean up the mess,” she told herself. She turned on the faucet, washed off the blood, and then gave it a spray of disinfectant before she tried applying a band-aid. But band-aids never really worked well on the palm of someone’s hand. She could tell already it wasn’t going to put for very long, especially when they’d likely be riding the school’s motocross cycles to get to Crystal Prep in time.
Luckily, they had more than enough medical supplies for something more traditional. She pulled a small bandage pad from a box, and then grabbed a roll of medical tape. A few moments later, she had the cut covered. She opened and closed her hand a few times, ensuring that the pad wasn’t going to wiggle loose. Satisfied, Sunset grabbed her black prep-kit and opened it on the bathroom counter.
The prep kit was just about the size of a medium, paperback book. To anyone else, it would seem like nothing more than a travel toiletry bag, plain in color with a zipper. But for her and her friends, these bags contained all the essential tools for the duty they had taken on. Unzipping the bag, Sunset began to remove items from the bag with practiced efficiency, ensuring each one was in their proper place. The fully charged, wireless ear piece went to her ear. With a tap of a button, it would pair up with her phone.
Next came the gem studs. They were magical artifacts straight from Equestria, a gift from Princess Celestia to help the group with their mission. The studs made it easier for them to access the magic of friendship within. While the magic was still largely unpredictable, the gem studs acted as a focusing point. It let them pony up at will for short periods of time, which let them access the magical talents they had developed in their enhanced forms.
After that, each girl’s prep kit varied. Some of her friends didn’t have more than those two things, and this led to some variances in the size of their bags. For Sunset, she didn’t need much additional space. In her bag there were two photographs printed at wallet size. One was a picture of her friends, which she took and placed in the right chest pocket of her coat. She hardly glanced at that one, but the second of the two pictures always made her pause.
It was a bit blurry, a picture captured in the haste of the moment. She had shouted at Twilight so much for taking pictures at the time, but in the end, she was thankful for it. It was a good motivator.
Tucking the second picture away, Sunset looked to the final item from the bag, something that she had never taken with her before. Sunset reached out, clicked open the wooden case, and touched the cold metal of the item inside. She drew her hand away, second guessing herself. She touched the outside of her coat, feeling the two pictures tucked away inside the interior pocket. Her brow furrowed, and her resolve hardened. Sunset took the wooden case and slipped it into the left chest pocket of her jacket, noting its reassuring but uncomfortable weight.
~~~
The hum of the motorcycle’s motor faded away from between Sunset’s legs. She reached her hands up to remove her helmet, and shook out her hair for a moment before looking at their destination. Crystal Prep looked just like it did in the pictures. The stately, dark-red bricks of the building’s walls met with the columns of crystal that stood at every corner. The clock above the main entrance showed the time, a few minutes past nine. Already, Sunset felt like it had taken them too long to arrive, even if taking the motorcycles had let them avoid some of the regular city traffic.
The engine of Applejack’s cycle, the other of the two motocross bikes from the Friendship Games, died with a flick of the key. She flicked up the visor of her helmet to take a look at the school as well. “Why is it that all schools look so darn uninviting at night?” She removed her helmet, hanging it off a handlebar before reaching to a pair of saddle bags that were on either side of her bike. One was specifically shaped to hold her hat, which she removed and placed back on her head. The three girls had forgone the normally fashionable skirts they wore at school. This was a dangerous situation, and despite Rarity’s frequent protests, dangerous situations called for pants and running shoes.
“Why couldn’t we have just taken a bus?” Fluttershy asked, her voice shaking a little as she got off the back of Sunset’s bike. She was visibly shaken and had to place a hand on the motorcycle as she clutched the other to her chest. “And did you have to go so fast?”
“We were only going five miles per hour over the speed limit, just as fast as everyone else on the highway,” Sunset said as she hung her helmet off her handlebar. She swung her leg back over the side of the bike, but kept a firm grip on the handlebars to ensure it stayed upright. They were still outside the gates of the school, though they were noticeably cracked open. She pushed the bike towards the gate, using a foot to kick it a little further open before continuing inside. “Now come on. We have to find Twilight and Rarity.”
“Aren't you even going to wonder why the gate’s open?” Applejack asked as she and Fluttershy followed Sunset through the gate and onto the school grounds.
“I’m sure Rarity and Twilight just left it open.” Sunset turned her bike to the left, getting it away from the gate and eventually coming to a stop in the teacher’s parking lot. She lowered the kickstand and leaned the bike against it gently.
“Sunset, you know they wouldn’t do that, especially if they’ve got a key. Don’t you think Dean Cadance would have given them a key?” Applejack got her bike parked next to Sunset’s, pulled the key from the ignition, and slipped it into her pocket. “Now, would you slow down for just a second? I know we're here to find our friends. I know the only reason you're so gung-ho is because Twilight mentioned Dracula, but that’s no reason to lose your head.”
“Why isn’t it?”
Applejack put up her hands defensively while Fluttershy hid a little behind her. “Because that’s the last thing any of us need right now. We go in there without thinking, we could just put Rarity, Twilight, and ourselves in danger. So just take a breath for me, Sunset, and believe me when I say that everything will work out.”
“You’re right,” she said, taking the recommended deep breath and running a hand through her hair. “Sorry, I just got myself worked up on the ride over here.” She took another steadying breath. “Thank you for saying something. I’m better now, but we still have to hurry. Let’s go try the front door, see if we can get in that way. Any alarm system should be off if Rarity and Twilight are still inside.”
“Now, that’s sounding like a good plan,” Applejack said as she and Fluttershy followed Sunset’s lead towards the front door. The school was completely quiet, a stark contrast to the sounds of panic they had heard over the phone. Sunset found the silence unsettling, and for a moment, fears of what they could find inside flashed in her mind. Would they discover Rarity and Twilight slumped in some corner, now bearing fangs like Fluttershy… or was something even worse waiting for them?
With a surge of her will, Sunset pushed those thoughts away as she, Applejack, and Fluttershy climbed the exterior steps of the school. They would find their friends, and then they would kick some magical-fueled entity butt. Tonight was the night they fixed their failure, Sunset was sure of it. She reached out for the handle of the front door and gripped it firmly before pulling. The door was unlocked, and it swung open easily and without a sound.
The girls moved inside the school, and behind them, the gates to Crystal Prep were nudged shut.
“Twilight? Rarity?” Sunset called cautiously into the dark school as she, Applejack, and Fluttershy slipped inside.
Lockers stood out from the walls, filling the gaps between classroom doors. Crystal accents and columns lined the hallways, furthering the distinguished school's aura of prestige. Two in-wall trophy cases in the foyer were filled to the brim, all from competitions that Canterlot High had also entered but never managed to win.
“Why aren’t the lights on?” Sunset asked as she dug out her phone. With the press of a button, the little light on the device came to life, shining a beam of illumination through the dark. “Anyone see a switch?”
“Yeah, I see one.” Applejack crossed the foyer and moved toward a small bank of three light switches. She reached out and flicked one, looking up at the ceiling to see if any of the lights came on. When nothing happened, she tried the second and the third switch the same way with no result. “Huh, you’d think a fancy prep school would be able to fix their wiring. Probably spent too much money buying all this fancy crystal.”
“That, or maybe someone switched off the breakers. I mean, shouldn’t there at least be a security light on or something?” Sunset raised the light from her phone and swept it across the ceiling. “At least, the lights don’t look broken. Remember that banshee we had to chase? It popped so many light bulbs when it screamed.”
“I was picking shards of glass out of my boots for days,” Applejack said as she tried the light switches in different combinations, seeing if one might finally trigger a light to come on somewhere.
“Shouldn’t we try calling Rarity and Twilight?” Fluttershy asked as she stayed close to Sunset, her eyes constantly scanning the foyer.
Giving up on the light switches, Applejack pulled out her phone and tapped on it a few times. She lifted a hand to her ear, undoubtedly listening to the ring through her wireless earpiece. After several seconds, she frowned before lowering her hand from her ear and focusing back on her phone. “Got Rarity’s voice mail. Let me try Twilight.”
Another few taps, and Applejack was once more listening to rings.
Sunset also listened, and this time, she heard something. It was faint, and if the school was anything else but totally silent, they wouldn’t have heard it. There was a melodic noise in the air, chiming and making toned beeps. Sunset pointed the flashlight of her phone in the direction she believed the sound was coming from. “You hear that?”
Fluttershy raised her head, even standing on her tiptoes as she turned her ear in the direction Sunset’s flashlight was pointing. “I do. Isn’t that Twilight’s ringtone?”
“Applejack, keep calling Twilight’s phone.” Sunset began to walk towards the noise, heading out of the foyer and into one of the connecting hallways. Her friends followed as Applejack kept calling Twilight’s number. Fluttershy brought out her phone and turned on its flashlight, doubling the group’s effective illumination.
While moving through the school, Sunset couldn’t help but feel like they were intruders. They were trespassing, but all of them had gotten over that little legal qualm. This was different—a vibe in the air, a sensation on her skin, and a tingle back of her neck. Sunset couldn’t pin it down precisely, but she didn’t like it. They knew there was a class three entity in the building, and normally, those things were territorial. Once someone was in its domain, the hunt began, especially if it was the Dracula entity.
The distinct lack of activity around them was causing the muscles in Sunset’s body to tense. She began shifting her gait to silence her footsteps and moved her phone’s light around more frequently, checking through the windows of classrooms and looking behind them.
As they progressed, the sound of Twilight’s phone grew louder and more defined. It would stop on occasion, when Applejack had to hang up and try calling it again, but it never failed to resume when the new call began. It was one of the ring tones built into the phone, something with a technological vibe. Though Rainbow often tried to convince Twilight to change the ringtone to something cooler, Sunset always found the melody a perfect match for Twilight’s personality.
“I think it’s in this classroom,” Sunset said, turning away from the hallway and approaching the door on her right. She checked the window first, but the blind was down. With a visual check impossible, Sunset grasped the door handle, turned it slowly, and cracked the door open just a sliver. The melody got notably louder, confirming that the ringtone was coming from inside. “Pony up, we don’t know what we’ll find in there.”
“Even me?” Fluttershy asked.
“Yes.” Sunset knew Fluttershy avoided using her magic now, but this wasn’t the time for kid gloves.
Sunset’s body became shrouded in her magic. She glanced back, seeing Applejack and Fluttershy had done the same. The glow coming off their three bodies tinted the hallway and caused the crystal decorations to glisten. They were ready. Sunset shut off her phone and slipped it into her pocket as her grip on the door handle tightened. She held up a hand, and with her fingers alone, she began counting down.
Three… two… one...
Sunset threw her shoulder into the door, causing it to swing fast and slam against the wall. She and Applejack rushed in, Fluttershy following in their wake. The entrance was loud, and Sunset had her hand up, ready to send her magic out against the first bat-winged entity she saw. Yet, there was no spirit looming over the desks like some demon lord. There was only Twilight, collapsed against the teacher's desk, her phone on the floor.
“Fluttershy, shut the door, guard it, and point your flashlight over here. Applejack, help me get her up off the floor and check for bite marks.” Sunset picked up Twilight’s phone and set it on the teacher’s desk before moving to her friend. Twilight did not have the same magic healing as the rest of them, but it looked like she’d managed to escape danger with just a few small scrapes.
“Is she okay?” Fluttershy asked, trying to crane her head to get a better look at Twilight without abandoning her post at the door.
“She’s breathing,” Applejack answered as she and Sunset managed to lift Twilight off the floor. It took some work, but they managed to get her seated in the chair behind the teacher’s desk. “Don’t look like she’s been bit, either. No marks in the usual places.” She used the back of her hand to gently tap Twilight on the cheek. “Come on, girl, wake up.”
Twilight stirred, groaning as her eyes slowly opened. She held up her hand to block the light from Fluttershy’s phone. Then, as if she’d sat on a tack, Twilight flinched and tried to leap to her feet. She flailed her arms, and her breathing became shallow, erratic, and rapid. She seemed intent on running, but only managed to keep her balance for a few seconds before she collapsed back into the chair.
“Easy, Twilight. You’re safe,” Sunset said, firmly gripping Twilight’s shoulder. She was keeping her friend held down and calm while offering a reassuring smile. “We got your emergency call and came as fast as we could. Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
Twilight brought a hand to her forehead and held it there for a few seconds as she looked to the floor. “I’m… I’m fine. Just a bit headed in the light. I mean, I’m just a little lightheaded.”
“What happened?”
Twilight looked up at Sunset and straightened her lopsided glasses. “Students at the school were reporting strange injuries, cuts on their arms and legs they couldn’t explain. Dean Cadance didn’t know any details, so to start our investigation, I asked Rarity and Spike to follow me to the nurse's office. There, we got more detailed information on the injuries. Several of the students had evenly-spaced pairs of puncture wounds on varying parts of their bodies. There were no really bad ones. Only one student had to get stitches, but her file said she couldn’t even remember how she got hurt. Rarity and I believed we had found Dracula. We were going to retreat and bring everyone here tomorrow, but then we ran into Dracula on our way out. He chased us, and that’s when I called.”
“What about after that?” Applejack asked. “Where’s Rarity and Spike?”
“We tried to hide in a classroom… I think it was this one,” Twilight said as she glanced around the rest of the room. She tried to stand up again, but only managed to lift herself out of the seat enough to point at a window at the far end of the room. “We tried to seal ourselves in here, so we could wait for backup, but Dracula came in through a window before we could close it. It knocked me into the desk. Last thing I remember after that was Rarity shouting and Spike barking.”
“They must have lured Dracula away from you.” Sunset looked around the classroom, noticing now that a few desks were out of place. “That means we still need to find Rarity and Spike. Twilight, do you have any idea where they would have gone?”
Twilight adjusted her glasses again before taking them off to examine them. The frame was bent, and she could only sigh and do her best to put them back on, even though they immediately slouched to an odd angle. “Maybe. I used to have a private room, a lab, where I could do my research. There’s only one way in, and it only has one small window. Spike might have led Rarity there. It’s on this floor.”
Sunset brushed back a bit of Twilight’s hair, confirming a suspicion. “You’re missing your earpiece, but I guess that’s a good thing. If your phone had been paired with it, we wouldn’t have heard it ringing.”
“Yay, lucky me,” Twilight grumbled.
“So, what now, Sunset?” Applejack asked.
“Our first priority should be getting Twilight someplace safe.” Sunset offered a hand to Twilight, pulling her out of the chair so she and Applejack could help her walk. “Let’s head to her old lab. If Rarity and Spike are there, then we’ll just head outside and wait for Pinkie and Rainbow. If not, then Applejack can stay there with Twilight, while Fluttershy and I search the school.”
“Wouldn’t it be better if I stayed with Twilight?” Fluttershy asked.
“We’ll want to barricade the lab, and Applejack’s the only one strong enough to move something heavy enough to block the door by herself. That and, if something happens, she’ll be able to escape with Twilight, even if she has to carry her.”
“I’m not a big fan of not going with you two, but I suppose we can’t drag Twilight with us in the shape she’s in.” Applejack motioned to Fluttershy, directing her to open the classroom door while she and Sunset started moving Twilight in that direction. “But y’all better promise me you’ll be safe.”
~~~
“Now, you two be careful. And if you need me, call, and I'll come running.”
Sunset nodded as she and Fluttershy looked back at the door to Twilight’s old lab. It was already being reclaimed by Crystal Prep, being turned into a storage closet for some old sports equipment that had been marked for donation. Still, some of the basic equipment remained, including a chair, which Twilight was sitting in to recover, two heavy desks, a lab table, a bookshelf, and some computer hardware. There was more than enough stuff for Applejack to blockade the door that thankfully opened inward.
“We will, and we’ll call if we run into anything. You do the same if Dracula tries to get in,” Sunset said before she and Fluttershy turned and began walking through the rest of the school. Behind them, they could hear the sounds of the door being closed and blocked, but they kept their eyes focused on the hallway. Both of them were using their phones as flashlights again, and Sunset had started to monitor her battery meter fairly closely.
They had some portable chargers for the longer hunts, but Twilight was usually the one that informed them if they needed the chargers or not. Still, the phone had started with a full charge and had only lost a few percentiles of energy. It would be all right, but finding a regular flashlight would help. They had some at The Library, like the charges, but in their haste to get to Crystal Prep, they had forgotten to grab anything beyond the absolute basics.
Sunset was starting to feel they had perhaps been relying too much on Twilight to layout their gear for each mission.
Still, before they even lost sight of the lab door, Sunset reached up and hit the button on her earpiece. It and her ear were back in the normal, human position after she, Fluttershy, and Applejack had powered down in the old lab. “Call Applejack,” she said to her phone, and after hearing a confirmation in her ear, the phone began to ring. It rang twice before someone picked up.
“If y’all already got in trouble, that’s a new record,” Applejack said, her voice coming over the head earpiece.
“Just making sure our phones are working,” Sunset said as she and Fluttershy continued to walk. The hallway they were in ran perpendicular to the ones that connected to the classrooms and was completely lined with lockers. “Twilight’s old lab is kind of tucked away, and I didn’t check how strong of a signal we got in there.”
“I don’t have all my bars, but you're coming through loud and clear on my end.”
Sunset and Fluttershy turned a corner, going back to the hallway where they had found Twilight. “Call us back once Twilight’s recovered a little more. She might be able to tell us other places Spike and Rarity might be hiding, or at the very least help us be more systematic with our search.”
“Will do. Anything else?”
Sunset shook her head, though she was entirely aware Applejack had no hope of seeing it. “No, that’s it. Over and out.”
“Over and out.”
With those last words from Applejack, the call ended and Sunset refocused her attention on the search. She and Fluttershy went back inside the classroom where they had found Twilight and took some time searching for clues to where Spike and Rarity might have gone. The classroom bore signs of the struggle, but nothing that told them where Rarity and Spike had gone.
With no leads, they returned to the foyer. They hadn’t even begun the search properly before Twilight’s ringtone had led them to her location, so this was where they had to start if they were going to be properly systematic. Being so close to the entrance made Sunset tap on her phone, stopping the flashlight mode for a few seconds as she typed out a text.
“Who are you talking to?” Fluttershy asked, still holding up her phone as a flashlight.
“Rainbow Dash. I’m seeing how much longer it’ll be before she and Pinkie get here.” Sunset pressed send on the brief message, then kept her phone in her hand as she looked at the different hallways that branched off from the foyer. “If they’re close enough, we may just wait here for them. Otherwise, I say we start with that hallway. Assuming my sense of direction is right, if we go that way and turn right, we should be back in the hallway with Twilight’s lab.”
Sunset’s phone chimed, indicating a text message had been received, and she quickly brought it up to read. “Thirty minutes. Had to take the bus. This is why we need three bikes.” Sunset read aloud before chuckling a little. “I have to admit, this is exactly the situation Rainbow Dash was talking about when she was trying to get Celestia to approve the purchase of another motocross bike.
“But, if they’re thirty minutes out, we should start looking around without them,” Sunset tapped on on her phone, turning its light back on and dimming the screen. She and Fluttershy then began walking down the hallway she had gestured towards earlier. “Maybe we should try calling Rarity again. She might pick up this time.”
“Maybe, but we don’t want to be running down your phone battery either in case you need it later,” Fluttershy said as the pair reached the end of the hall and made a turn.
Sunset could see the alcove where the door to Twilight’s old lab was located, and that confirmed her suspicion about the school’s layout. It wasn’t that different from Canterlot High’s. It had its own nuances, but it still had a very practical, rectangular design to the hallways.
“Oh, what if we called Spike?” Fluttershy asked.
“I don’t think Spike has a phone, Fluttershy.”
“No, but I have a dog whistle.” Fluttershy reached into the pocket of her pants, fishing around inside a little before pulling out a tiny, metal cylinder with a smile. “We might hear him barking if I blow on it, or he might realize we’re here.”
“It’s not a bad idea,” Sunset said with a nod, “but why do you have a dog whistle?”
“Oh, I always have one in case I come across a dog that’s been taught some bad habits or won’t stop barking. It lets me get their attention, so that I can help them calm down. Stress is bad, even for cute, little animals. I normally would have some bags of animal treats in my backpack or purse too, but I didn’t have time to prepare them before we had to leave.”
“Seriously, Fluttershy, if you don’t become a veterinarian after high school, I’ll be surprised.”
Fluttershy clasped the whistle in both hands, like it was a special wish that was trying to escape. “Do you really think so? I’ve always wanted to work with animals, and at the very least, I think I’d like to run my own shelter. But I’ve sometimes wondered about becoming a vet, or a zoologist, or a biologist that goes to study animals in their natural habitat.”
“All those things sound perfect for you, Fluttershy,” Sunset said with a smile before gesturing to the whistle. “Still, let’s refocus on finding our friends.”
Blushing a little at getting caught up in the moment, Fluttershy held the dog whistle daintily in one hand and brought it to her lips. She blew, and as expected, the whistle was utterly silent to human senses. Sunset listened carefully nonetheless, trying to pick up on any distant sound of barking or howling. Fluttershy ran out of air and had to take a deep breath before blowing on the whistle again.
And this time, something called back.
They heard barking, distant but undeniable. Sunset and Fluttershy turned their heads, scanning the hallway around them as their ears tried to pinpoint where the barking was coming from. Fluttershy was the first to zone in. She tilted her head up and pointed towards the ceiling. “It’s coming from above us.”
“They must be on the second floor.” Sunset began to jog, motioning for Fluttershy to follow. “Come on, I saw some stairs back this way.”
~~~
“I think the barking was coming from in here.”
The hinges were all but silent as Sunset cracked the door open, the only sound of their arrival being the click of the latch. The room beyond was not one Sunset could place, for it certainly wasn’t a fixture of the public school system. It was a room for students to pursue and develop their own interests in preparation for college, a more communal variation of Twilight’s lab space. There were multiple work stations. They varied in size and capacity, some suitable for only one student, while others could hold a small group, and each one was uniquely outfitted with materials and equipment suitable for a particular project.
One of the stations near the door was full of stone sculpting tools and a block of marble the size of a watermelon. The one next to it had multiple string instruments, all from the same family as the violin, with stacks of sheet music, bows, and bowstrings. Sunset even saw a dressmakers mannequin, currently holding up an incomplete ensemble of haute couture.
It was no surprise that Rarity was drawn to this room.
Spike’s barking had ceased and did not resume when Fluttershy blew on the dog whistle again, but the two of them agreed they were in the right place. The barking had been coming from this side of the school, and this particularly unique classroom capped the east end of the second floor.
Sunset, almost out of instinct, ponied up, drawing out her magic and holding out her hand, ready to cast out her magical aura. The magic of the human world, especially the magic of friendship, did not have the fine control of Equestrian magic, at least not without the aid of Twilight’s technological devices, but Sunset and her friends had each found a natural way to use their magical influence. For Sunset, it was a form of telekinesis. It would be considered a crude levitation spell by Equestrian standards, but useful nonetheless. She could grab things at a distance and pin them down, a skill she had put to good use dealing with the strange bathroom demon.
Fluttershy had talents as well when she ponied up. She gained superhuman senses, being able to see, hear, and smell like the best of animals. But ever since her bite and the perversion of her pony form, she rarely called on her magic, except for those moments when she needed to feed. Right now, Fluttershy was holding back. Sunset was okay with it for a little while, but if they couldn’t find Rarity, Spike, or the Dracula entity soon, then she’d press the issue. For the moment, however, she’d let Fluttershy stay in her comfort zone.
“Keep the light high,” Sunset said as she pocketed her phone, keeping both of her hands available for her magic. “And say something if you notice anything out of the ordinary.”
“Okay,” Fluttershy said, stretching her arm above her head to hold her phone and its light aloft. The pair stepped into the room, starting to move past the self-study stations. Neighboring the dressmaker project was a work station filled with numerous electronics and wires. Next to that, someone had chemistry sets and a pair of chalkboards littered with complex compounds. The variations went on and on, with most projects in very different fields of study.
Still, they saw no sign of Spike, and all the projects had been cleaned up and properly turned off for the weekend. Only a few had any lights on, and none of the equipment made any noise: no spinning fans, no hum of electricity. Only the pair’s breathing and footsteps disturbed the quiet of the room. The science projects, which had every right to have some lingering odors, smelt only of disinfectant and chemicals. Even the floor was probably clean enough to eat off of.
“Just how much do they charge for students to go here?” Sunset asked, baffled by how the school could afford to maintain itself at such extraordinary levels.
“Hey, Sunset, what do you think happened here?”
Sunset turned her head, following the beam of Fluttershy’s flashlight to a project station tucked into the far corner of the room. Sunset crossed the room and stepped into the project space, approaching the one lingering, wooden desk and running her fingers across the surface. There were scorch marks and notable grooves and gashes, the one piece of furniture in the room showing some true wear and tear. “Maybe this student’s project failed, and they had to leave whatever class this room is for. Or maybe this was where Twilight worked before getting her private lab?”
A rattle made the girls turn on their heels. Sunset’s magic flared, her body becoming shrouded in the orange aura, while Fluttershy flicked the light of her phone in the direction of the noise. It passed over a few other projects on the far side of the room: A project with numerous painting easels, a station with numerous aquariums filled with several tropical fish, and then one that looked almost like a miniature doctor’s office.
And it was in that project station the pair saw a dog carrier sitting on the examination table.
“Spike?” Fluttershy called, and something moved within the carrier. Sunset and Fluttershy broke into a run at the same time, quickly crossing the room and reaching the carrier. Sunset got there first, putting her hand on the carrier’s door and pulling it open. Fluttershy, arriving second, put her hands into the carrier, trying to find and extract Spike from inside.
But as Sunset watched, Fluttershy got a very confused look on her face, and she began to move her hands around oddly inside the carrier. “What’s wrong? Is he hurt?” Sunset asked, trying to tilt her head to look inside the carrier, though Fluttershy’s pink hair was blocking her view.
“I… I think I see him, but I don’t feel anything. My hands keep passing through him.” Fluttershy gasped and brought her hands to her mouth. “Do you think Dracula turned him into a ghost?”
“Dracula can’t do that. We’ve carefully documented what he can do, and he can’t do that,” Sunset said. She nudged Fluttershy on the shoulder, encouraging her friend to step to the side so she could get a better look. Fluttershy obliged, and Sunset knelt down in front of the open carrier door. Fluttershy’s description had been accurate. Looking into the carrier, she felt like she could see Spike inside… or perhaps at least a dog of some kind. Yet, when she reached inside to pull the canine out, she couldn’t grasp anything but air.
But Sunset did feel something.
“There’s… magic on the opening of the carrier.” She passed her hands in and out of the carrier, each time getting a better gauge of the sensation on her fingers. “There’s an energy barrier right on the edge of the little door. It feels like… sticking my hand through a bubble. I’d almost call it an illusion spell, but the only one that I know that can pull that off is Rarity.”
“Oh, and here I thought you weren’t going to figure it out.”
There was a sharp clip and snap against the floor. Fluttershy and Sunset turned to face it, Fluttershy’s light catching the tips of two black, high heeled boots that were striding towards them. Sunset felt an odd, ill-at-ease tension rising in her limp body as her jaw hung open in utter shock. At the same time, her brain was struggling to comprehend what she was seeing. Fluttershy was tensing up like a statue, both of her hands squeezing her phone and making the light visibly tremble.
It was Rarity, but not in any way the pair had seen her before. The sensible outfit she had left school in was replaced with something that would barely pass as a bikini. The material was all-red, but it was accented with gold bracelets on her arms which connected to long swaths of cape-like, black fabric that were tied together with the swimsuit on the back of Rarity’s neck. The outfit was oddly complemented by shin-length, black, high-heel boots. She strode with purpose, crossing her feet and with a sway in her hips. It was a walk Sunset and the others had only seen when Rarity was showing off an outfit on a fashion runway.
Then Rarity’s face came into the light, and Sunset’s blood ran cold in her veins. Rarity had ponied up, but it was wrong. Her equine ears were longer and shaped more like a predator’s, and her eyes burned blood-red. Finally, through her sneering smile, Sunset could see a pair of long, piercing fangs.
“Rarity… if this is a joke, it isn’t funny,” Fluttershy said, her voice shaking even more than her hands.
“What, don’t you like my new look?” Rarity asked. She batted at her hair as she always did, but her facial expression was not one Sunset had ever seen on her friend. It made her feel unsafe standing in the same room. Some part of her mind was screaming at her to call on her magic, to pin Rarity down, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
“Did… Dracula bite you?” Sunset asked. She took a step away from Rarity, backing into and stumbling against the veterinary table where the empty dog carrier was. “Rarity, you have to turn off your magic. You’ll feel better when you do.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, darling.” Rarity waved her hands a little and lifted off the ground as if she weighed nothing at all. The cape-like bits of fabric that connected her bracelets to her back flowed and flitted, like wings, and her smile grew more sinister as her lips rolled back to reveal more and more of her fangs. “Master wouldn’t like that.”
Sunset had but a split second to react, and thankfully, her instincts acted before her mind could catch up. She pulled the bandage off her hand from earlier, lifted her arms, and extended her magic into a barrier shape as Rarity’s polluted aura grew in intensity. The normally vibrant, purple color was dark and almost looked like poison enshrouding her body. There were also tiny bubbles of a sharp, neon-blue magic turning and flowing in Rarity’s magic, like her aura was boiling. She raised a few of her fingers, like trying to tip a balance scale out of alignment, and daggers manifested in the air around her. That was Rarity’s magical speciality, to conjure and manipulate magical constructs.
And with a smile and flick of her wrist, the volley of knives was thrown at Sunset’s magic.
Sunset felt the sting of the impact on her physical hands as the knives hit her magic. It was like getting peppered by small, sharp stones, but Sunset kept her barrier up through Rarity’s full assault. Even after just one barrage, Sunset felt like she had expended a significant portion of her internal magic. Rarity, however, was still smiling and floating, like she was a cloud in the sky without a care in the world.
“I applaud you for your good reflexes,” Rarity said, even clapping her hands together a few times as she took a sitting posture while still floating in the air. “But why don’t we stop this messy resistance and you two just come meet Master? It’s just a little prick, and then the world makes so much more sense.” Rarity moved some of her hair out of the way, showing Fluttershy and Sunset two notable holes on her neck. They oozed blood and glowed with a red aura all their own.
“So you’ve been bitten. Where’s Dracula?” Sunset snapped, though she maintained her misshapen barrier. “Tell me where he is. I’ll put him down, and that should release you and Fluttershy from his curse.”
“It’s not my place to disclose Master’s location without his permission, but I will take you to him. You just have to let me knock you out first, or put your heads in these lovely bags. I even made one for each of you.” Rarity gestured towards another part of the room, and from one of the fashion-based project stations, two fabric bags came into view. They looked more like fancy drawstring backpacks, each one colored and themed for either Fluttershy or Sunset. They were beautiful, but their design was marred in Sunset’s eyes by their malevolent purpose.
“Aren’t they darling?” Rarity asked. She grabbed the one meant for Sunset out of the air. “I only used the finest materials. Something light, airy, and gentle on the skin. But of course it has to be sturdy too, so I actually gave them two layers. There is a soft, silken interior with a more durable cotton exterior. All natural fibers, of course. You wouldn’t believe the amount of polyester that’s just laying around some of the projects in this room. Now, I’m not saying polyester doesn’t have its place, but I didn’t feel it was appropriate for my friends’ kidnapping head bags. So, would you like me to put yours on for you?”
“Not going to happen, Rarity.”
“How rude. I suppose now you’re going to tell me you don’t want the outfits I made either.” Rarity let the fabric bags drop to the ground as she swooped over to another side of the room and grabbed some outfits off a clothing rack. “I mean, how could you say no to these? They’re absolutely perfect for vampire maidens in fashion. Sunset, you’ll simply look fabulous in these leather pants with liner cuts, this ripped, white tank top, and all-black leather jacket. Oh, and Fluttershy, I have this lovely green, strapless dress for you. Though, if you two wish to have something more like mine, I think I can put something together. Don’t you think you’d look fabulous in this little number, emphasis on little?”
Sunset’s mind swung back from terror and anger to disbelief at the sight of the outfit. The pants and jacket were okay, but the tank top was so ripped, someone could easily see her bra through it. Her mind, however, couldn’t linger on that thought for long. She heard a thump beside her and turned to see Fluttershy had collapsed, her face bright-red in embarrassment. “Did you seriously just faint on me, Fluttershy!?” Sunset shouted.
“Poor dear never could bring herself to show off any of her midriff,” Rarity said, shaking her head like a knowing mother. “The few times we’ve all gone swimming together, she always wore her one piece suit. The color is wonderful, but the design is so modest, it borders on unflattering. But, with her out of the picture, that does mean I just have to deal with you, Sunset.” Rarity flicked her wrists again, another volley of magically-manifested knives forming in the air. “So, shall we have another go, or are you ready to admit defeat?”
Sunset began to lower her barrier, a gesture that drew Rarity in a little closer. Sunset placed one hand on the examination table beside her, a thumb resting on the empty dog carrier. She stayed like that for a moment, then shot a cold glare in Rarity’s direction. “The only thing I’m ready to admit is that, right now, you look like a tramp.”
Sunset swung her arm as her fingers tightened on the dog carrier, hurling the hunk of plastic and metal at Rarity. The carrier smacked Rarity’s head, and she crashed to the ground, her magical constructs disappearing before they could hit the floor. It created an opening, and Sunset seized the opportunity. She pointed her right hand at Rarity, sending out her magic to pin her friend against the ground, while her other hand worked to bring out her locket device.
“Tramp? Tramp!? Is it my fault that being a vampire does such wonderful things for your figure and complexion?” Rarity began to struggle against Sunset’s magic, managing to lift her body a little through sheer strength. “The all-blood diet is a wonderful thing, and I think that is why vampires have always been far more liberal with their ensembles. If I’m going to be designing fashion for creatures of the night, I’ve got to be up on the trends, and skin is in. Furthermore, what would we have done if you missed me and hit one of my lovely outfits? I might have been forced to start all over.”
“That really isn’t important right now,” Sunset said, frowning deeply as she opened her locket and pointed it at Rarity. Normally, the lockets were designed not to suck up their magic, but Twilight explained that hardwiring a limitation into the device posed a number of risks of its own. So, she included an override. By holding two buttons, the lockets could be forced to drain the magic from one of them, and that was exactly what Sunset was doing.
It would not hurt Rarity. In fact, at most, it would stun her for a little while. It also likely wouldn’t cure the curse. They had tried the same thing on Fluttershy more than once, and her vampirism always came back once her reserves of magic recovered. But disabling Rarity now would buy her time, so Sunset did her best to hold the locket out while containing Rarity’s growing protests.
“Sunset, this is unacceptable. I demand that you release me this instant!” Rarity got one hand free from Sunset’s magic and tried to conjure her knives once more.
Sunset had to take a few steps closer to exert her magic again and regain control. A few beads of sweat were starting to run down the sides of her face, and still, Rarity’s magic was slowly draining away.
As the process continued, Rarity’s protests became more feral. She began to growl and hiss, her pupils getting smaller. She tried biting at Sunset’s magical aura, knowing full well that damage to the magic was passed onto the human using it.
Sunset could feel two sharp pricks on her right hand and felt a resulting trickle of warm blood down her index finger. Still, she held Rarity down, and the magic continued to drain, a sphere of poisonous-purple energy spooling around in the center of the locket’s collection array.
Near the end, Rarity’s resistance grew weak. She began to fall asleep, exhausted from the energy being drained away, but she began smiling and chuckling to herself. She looked straight at Sunset, their eyes locking for the final moments of the draining process. “What you fail to realize is that this is Master’s domain. You cannot hope to escape, now that you’ve entered.”
With that, Rarity’s eyes slid shut, and her body went limp.
Sunset closed the locket and dropped to one knee as her own magical aura collapsed. Her pony ears returned to their normal human form, and her ponytail faded away as she panted to catch her breath. She felt like puking. Nausea was rising up, and it was a struggle to swallow it back down. Rarity was now bitten, and worse, she was showing some notably different symptoms.
She had to get Rarity back to the old lab and have Twilight examine her. They needed to try and diagnose why she was acting different than Fluttershy before they could make any further moves in the school against Dracula.
But first, she’d have to get Fluttershy to wake up.
“Really, it’s okay. You just got overwhelmed by everything that was happening.”
“I know, but it’s not going to happen again. I promise.”
Sunset shifted her shoulder, nodding her head but not entirely hearing what was being said. Fluttershy had been a broken record since she had woken up, apologizing profusely for what happened. Sunset couldn’t say it hadn’t been ill-timed, but she couldn’t hold it against Fluttershy either. It was a miracle that Fluttershy didn’t wear long dresses and long-sleeved shirts to school, but Rarity talking about putting her in what was basically a bikini while wearing one herself. Fluttershy would have either run from the room to find a place to hide or fainted.
At least with the latter, she didn’t need to try and figure out where Fluttershy had run off to.
They put Rarity in one of the half-finished dresses from one of the clothing-oriented stations, to cover up the skin she seemed so intent on showing off. Then, with Sunset and Fluttershy each taking an arm, they began carrying her back to the old lab. Hopefully, Twilight had recovered and would be able to provide insight into what was going on. That, or at least Applejack could hopefully tie Rarity up so she wouldn’t go rampaging around the school again.
But the fact that Rarity was in this state at all was what had Sunset so worried. She was on Rarity’s right side, and in the periphery of her vision, she could see the bite marks on Rarity’s neck. They sure looked like Dracula’s teeth marks, the traditional pair of holes, but Fluttershy’s bite had healed relatively quickly. Rarity’s just remained open and oozing, like they were afflicted with a nasty infection. Was this a sign Dracula was evolving? Did entities that were created by Equestria’s magic have that ability?
The thing that occupied Sunset’s mind the most, however, was Rarity’s behavior. Though Fluttershy was afflicted by the curse, she maintained her free will. From what they had seen, Rarity’s case was different. She could apparently still make choices about how she approached situations, but her goals were not her own. She was serving a master, but that didn’t fit Dracula’s profile either. Except for maybe Twilight, Sunset knew the Dracula entity better than anyone else. It wasn’t that smart, or at least, it had never demonstrated that level of intelligence. It was comparable to a dolphin or a really smart dog when they last encountered it. Was that perhaps the cause of the change? Because it got smarter, the curse itself became more intricate and advanced?
“Sunset?”
Fluttershy’s voice brought Sunset out of her thoughts. She had been walking on autopilot, trying to support her half of Rarity’s weight, while Fluttershy ended up taking the lead. They had already descended the stairs down to the first floor and were now within sight of the door to Twilight’s lab. “Sorry. I’m just tired after using so much magic.”
“Are you going to be okay?” Fluttershy asked.
“I just need to catch my breath.” She reached up and tapped her earpiece. Out of fear that Dracula or something else could jump them while they were carrying Rarity, Sunset had chosen to stay ponied up. It was perhaps not an efficient use of her remaining magic, since it took a trickle of energy to maintain the transformation. Still, without knowing if the Dracula entity was watching them, it was a cost she was willing to deal with.
Though, with her transformed ears, her wireless earpiece was left in an odd position.
They reached the exterior of the door when Sunset managed to hit the button. “Call Applejack.” In theory, they could have easily just knocked on the door, but she and Fluttershy had their hands full supporting Rarity’s unconscious form. There was also the issue that in a previous mission, a spirit with voice-mimicking abilities had them all second guessing themselves. Using their cellphones to make the call into the lab was an extra level of assurance that they were the real Sunset and Fluttershy.
The phone rang four times before someone picked up. It was uncommonly long, but for all Sunset knew, Applejack had just set her phone down and needed time to find it. “Hey, did you find Rarity and Spike?” Applejack asked, her voice coming both out of Sunset’s earpiece and from the far side of the door.
“We found Rarity, but not Spike. We’re already outside the lab, and we need you to let us in quickly. Rarity’s been bitten, and she attacked us in another part of the school. I had to drain her magic to knock her out.”
“Shoot, just hold on a second.”
Applejack ended the call, and after a few seconds, there were a few sounds of rumbling from behind the door. Once those sounds stopped, the locked clicked and the door opened. Applejack stepped into view and moved towards the trio. “How did she get bitten, and where did she get that dress?” Applejack turned around, bending down a little and gesturing with her hands for the others to put Rarity on her back.
“We don’t know about the bite, but the dress is a more modest choice we made for her.” Sunset helped Fluttershy place Rarity on AJ’s back. They got Rarity’s arms hung over AJ’s shoulders, and she then reached back and hooked her hands around Rarity’s leg. It was a bit of an awkward piggyback ride, considering the passenger was unconscious, but Applejack made it work and carried Rarity inside the lab.
The long, narrow storage closet turned lab seemed barely able to accommodate its simple furnishings, let alone five people. To the right of the door was Twilight’s primary desk and worktable. To the left was a second desk which stood underneath the sole window. It looked like there used to be a easy, assemble-it-yourself bookcase, but it had been taken apart to barricade the window.
Twilight had recovered and was sitting at her old computer, tapping and clicking away as different windows flashed on and off. She turned away from her work, looking concerned at Rarity before turning her attention to Fluttershy and Sunset. “I heard you from the other side of the door. Did she really attack you?”
“Yes, she was even using her magic.” Sunset showed her hands, which were pin pricked with numerous tiny scabs and other marks. “We’re lucky you thought to put a safety override into the lockets. With Fluttershy being… incapacitated, I wouldn’t have been able to defeat Rarity without it.”
Twilight held out a hand. “Let me see the locket. Maybe I can figure out what happened if I study Rarity’s magic.”
Sunset reached through the collar of her shirt, pulling the locket and its fabric loop over her head before dropping it in Twilight’s waiting palm. “Are you going to be able to do it without the equipment back at CHS?”
“This lab is where I made the first locket. Some of my tools are gone, since they’ve started cleaning out the space, but maybe I can macgyver something together.” Twilight turned back to the computer, rummaging through a few drawers of the desk. “I just want to take a quick peek at the magic, hopefully without causing any more rifts to open.”
“Sunset, you should take care of your hands,” Fluttershy said. She had taken some of the cardboard boxes in the room and assembled them together into a bed where Applejack was able to set down Rarity. Even if they had her outnumbered four to one, it was easier for everyone if Rarity stayed in dreamland.
Fluttershy had now turned her attention on Sunset, holding the first aid kit from Twilight’s backpack that was resting against a wall. Sunset smiled and held out her hands. They had yet to understand why magic in the human world seemed to inflict a toll on the user if it was struck by other magic. Twilight had a number of working theories, but none had substantial evidence to back it up.
“It’s not as bad as it looks. The bleeding has already stopped,” Sunset said while Fluttershy began to clean the injuries. She knew denying the basic care Fluttershy was offering would only make her friends worry. That and Sunset could tell this was helping Fluttershy feel useful to the group after her fainting spell in the fight with Rarity.
“There, that should help you feel better. I just wish there were some gloves you could wear. We don’t want you to get sick because you touched something with germs on it,” Fluttershy said as she returned the supplies to the first aid kit.
“There should be some gloves in my backpack,” Twilight said without looking away from her computer. “I have a box of surgical gloves, as well as a pair of black leather ones.”
“What are the black leather ones for?” Sunset asked as she began walking towards the backpack.
“Actually, they’re yours.” Twilight took a tool to the locket, trying to pry off a piece of metal covering some of the circuitry. “You lent them to me when you were trying to teach me how to ride a motorcycle for the M classification on my driver's license.”
Sunset nodded, remembering that day. Their attempts to teach Twilight ended up being a glorious failure, but the resulting escapades had been a source of a lot of fun, a lot of memories, and only a little bit of property damage. She hadn’t realized she had forgotten to ask for her gloves back, and thought she kept forgetting to grab them out of her locker in school.
Upon reaching the bag, Sunset knelt down, unzipped one of the flaps, and began rummaging around inside. It was full of all the things they would normally bring on a mission under Twilight’s advisement. There was a flashlight, which Sunset gladly took and tucked into an exterior pocket of her jacket. Her hands brushed against the lump that was in her left coat pocket, and she couldn’t help but glance over at her friends. So far, she hadn’t needed it, though if the Dracula entity kept biting her friends, the temptation to make use of it would only grow.
Refocusing on Twilight’s bag, Sunset resumed her search for the gloves. Yet, something was bothering her. It was something about Twilight’s backpack. She paused from her search just to look at the bag itself. It wasn’t overly damaged or roughed up, and there seemed to be nothing wrong with it. Yet, Sunset couldn’t help but stare at it for a few seconds, her mind grappled with trying to understand the bubbling paranoia that wouldn’t keep quiet. Then, it snapped into her head, like a fire igniting a pool of gasoline.
Why was Twilight’s bag here?
It hadn’t been in the room when they arrived, and she, Applejack, and Fluttershy hadn’t found it in the classroom where they discovered Twilight. Applejack wouldn’t have left Twilight alone to go get it, either, and they wouldn’t have gone out together without calling first. There was no reason for the bag to be in this room.
Sunset resumed her rummaging in the bag, if only to try and keep her own paranoias down. Still, as she unzipped a second pouch, she glanced over her shoulder. Twilight was at her computer, fiddling with the locket, Fluttershy was behind her, watching quietly, and Applejack was beside Fluttershy. They weren’t saying anything, just watching. Then, Applejack turned and took a single step. She was shifting her position, moving to behind Fluttershy like she was trying to get a better view of what was happening.
But Applejack hadn’t ever been that interested in the lockets or their inner workings before. The day Twilight had tried to explain to them how everything worked, Applejack had dozed off in her seat. Worse, no one seemed to be watching Rarity. She was still out, but Applejack should have been watching their friend like a hawk, asking questions about why Rarity was in a dress.
The touch of soft leather brought Sunset’s eyes back to the bag. She found the gloves, quickly slipped them on, and then continued rummaging for supplies. She found a spare travel charger and put it into her exterior right jacket pocket to keep her phone charged. She also found a folded brochure about Crystal Prep. With a quick peek inside, she saw it had a map of the school’s layout. It made sense. Though Twilight knew the school by heart, she used the map to check off rooms they had searched.
Glancing over her shoulder again, to make sure her friends were still huddled around Twilight’s computer, Sunset cracked open the map further and took notice of numerous notes that had been written on it. Rarity and Twilight had, according to the notes, started their search on the second floor. They had gone classroom by classroom, eventually reaching the personal projects room. That was when the X’s stopped.
And that didn’t make sense.
Sunset folded the map and tucked it away in her right interior coat pocket, next to her photographs, before resuming her rummaging. She unzipped another pouch, just to give the illusion she was looking.
Something was wrong. Twilight had said they had gone to the nurse's office to get more details on the injuries suffered by students, but the map showed they hadn’t gone anywhere near the nurse’s office. Also, they had found Twilight on the first floor, near the entrance. Why would she be in that classroom if something had happened on the second floor?
“Can’t you find them, Sunset?” Twilight asked.
“No, I can. They just must be at the bottom,” Sunset said as she continued to rummage in the bag just to make the appropriate sounds.
“They should be in the middle pocket. Let me help you.”
Sunset heard Twilight getting up from her chair, the rolling of the wheels an almost mockingly pedestrian sound to accompany the looming sense of danger that was crawling up her spine. She heard Twilight’s steps coming up behind her. She quickly took the gloves back off, held both with her right hand, and shoved it deep into the backpack. She’d be able to pull the gloves back out the moment Twilight was close. At the same time, Sunset’s left hand grabbed one of the backpack straps. It was heavy. Like the pet carrier, it would make a good bludgeon in a pinch.
The trick with the pet carrier had been a good one. They couldn’t know for sure if the barking had been real or not, but once they were in that room, it was a perfect place to spring a trap: a space large enough for Rarity’s style of magic with only one exit. She could have kept them pinned down until their magic was exhausted and they were easy prey.
Now, they were in Twilight’s old lab, a small, tight space with a single exit. That worked to the advantage of Applejack’s magic. Applejack’s magic was strongest through her feet. She could stomp and pin things down better than any of them, and her kicks could give a small wrecking ball a run for its money. Twilight didn’t have magic, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have thought up some trap. She also had her own locket. Just by cracking it open, she could incapacitate one of them while Applejack was fighting.
If those two, together, were going to spring a trap, doing it in such tight quarters would be ideal.
Sunset heard Twilight come to a stop beside her, and she pulled out the gloves on cue. “Here they are,” Sunset said as she stood up and turned to face Twilight. She smiled as she put them on. “Thanks for holding onto them.”
Twilight smiled, nodded, and turned to go back to her computer. “It was no trouble. Now, could you tell me a bit more about Rarity’s symptoms? How much do they differ from what we’ve seen from the Dracula entity before?”
“Well, her bite doesn’t seem to be healing,” Sunset said as she began walking back towards the computer, moving cautiously as if she was approaching a bear trap. Applejack was still standing behind Fluttershy and seemed to be leaning in more now that Twilight was resuming her work. Fluttershy was in the worst possible position to be in if Sunset’s paranoia was correct. “She also mentioned having a master. As Fluttershy can attest, even when she’s ponied up, she’s never called anyone master. Right, Fluttershy?”
“Well, only Master Nibbler. He’s this cute, little hamster that someone brought into the shelter the other day. He’s only there for the week, while the family is on vacation, but he takes the most adorable bites out of his food. Their little girl named him really well.”
Sunset chuckled and smiled. “He sounds adorable. Though, now that I think about it, Fluttershy, maybe we should try bandaging Rarity’s bite wound. Even if it doesn’t heal, it would be good to stop it from bleeding on things.”
“I’ll get right on that,” Fluttershy said, stepping away from the computer to get the first aid kit. That was back in Twilight’s bag as well, and Sunset waited a few seconds, to see if Applejack or Twilight would follow. But neither did. They remained focused on the locket, and Sunset began to doubt herself.
Was she just being too paranoid? Maybe Twilight, in her weakened state, had let Applejack leave the room to get her bag alone? Applejack could be stubborn, and if she thought it was important, she might have argued about going to get the bag until Twilight finally caved. It would have been especially true if the bag was close.
Sunset stepped up behind Twilight, starting to feel like maybe all this entity hunting was getting to her. She looked over Twilight’s shoulder, watching her fiddle with the locket. Paranoia shifted like angry coils in Sunset’s mind. Twilight could easily sabotage the locket device, and none of them would know until it was too late. Sunset forced her eyes to wander, trying to keep herself from thinking the worse of her friend. She glanced down, and her whole body tensed, like a cat that had just been cornered by a large, angry dog.
She saw it on Twilight’s back. It had been hidden when they entered the room, when Twilight was sitting with a proper posture in her computer chair, but now that she was leaning forward, focusing on the locket, the truth was visible. They had missed something earlier. When Dracula bit in the past, it was always on exposed skin—the hands, the neck, the arms. But the Dracula entity was full of surprises tonight, and Sunset saw two holes on the back of Twilight’s shirt of a familiar size that were stained with blood.
She had been bitten, and they had left Applejack alone with her.
There was a click, and Sunset’s eyes moved back to the locket. The lid had popped open, and the magic from inside was flowing out. Twilight wheeled back a little in her chair, bumping into Sunset. “Shoot, I tripped the release!” Those words were, perhaps, exactly what Twilight would have said if she made such a mistake, but Sunset doubted it was truly a mistake.
The corrupted, purple energy was flowing back to Rarity, and the electronics in the room were having a fit. The computer blue screened, the lights went out, and Sunset saw an orange glow behind her. Applejack was ponying up, but the color didn’t look right as it glowed against the walls. Was this all a trap? The lights came back on. Fluttershy was backing away, closing the first aid kit as she pressed herself against the other desk in Twilight’s small space.
But was she backing away from Rarity, or the sight of Applejack ponying up into a vampiric form?
Escape was her top priority. If Applejack and Twilight were enthralled by the Dracula entity, and it had set a trap for them, then she and Fluttershy had to escape. There was a chance she was still wrong, but right now, it seemed better to beg forgiveness about the mix up than to run the risk. For the moment, Sunset couldn’t help but assume that everyone in the room, except Fluttershy, was a threat.
A hand rested on Sunset’s shoulder, and she reacted like a coiled spring being released. In a single smooth gesture, she grabbed the arm belonging to the hand and rolled her body forward, throwing Applejack. She landed hard on top of Rarity, the boxes crumbling under their combined weight and the force of the impact.
“Sunset, what are you—?” Twilight began to ask, but Sunset grabbed the back of Twilight’s chair and shoved her into the desk. The blow should have knocked the air out of her lungs, but Sunset didn’t linger to make sure. She turned and looked at Fluttershy, who had watched the scene unfold in utter shock.
“Run!” Sunset shouted before bolting for the door. She feared Fluttershy might not move, that she might stay and try to figure out what happened, but thankfully, that wasn’t the case. Fluttershy hesitated only a moment, then began to run towards the door as well. Sunset grabbed the handle and pulled the door open. She let Fluttershy through first, then sprinted out into the hallways while slamming the door shut behind her.
“What is going on?” Fluttershy asked as they continued to sprint through the school.
“Twilight was bitten. She had the same bite that Rarity did, and I think she got Applejack too.”
~~~
Once there was sufficient distance between them and the old lab, Sunset turned hard and opened one of the classrooms. She hurried Fluttershy inside, keeping a panicked watch on the hallway they came from, before finally going into the classroom herself. Once inside, the curtain on the door window went down and a chair went up against the handle, blockading the way in and out of the room.
Only then did Sunset pause a moment to catch her breath.
“Okay, I think we lost them.”
Fluttershy nodded, wearing a weak smile that devolved into a bit lip as she held the first aid kit with both her hands. There were a few moments of silence between them before Fluttershy spoke. “Not that I’m doubting you, but are you sure they were bitten? They didn’t seem to be acting any different to me.”
“I saw the holes on Twilight’s back,” Sunset said as she double-checked the door, ensuring it was properly blocked. “That and Twilight’s bag wasn’t in the room when we left her and Applejack there to go looking for Rarity and Spike. Applejack wouldn’t have left Twilight alone, knowing there was danger around. So Twilight must have bit Applejack, then went to get the bag, and set a trap for us.”
“But… why would they need the bag for that?” Fluttershy asked.
“I don’t know. Probably to act as some sort of distraction,” Sunset said as she stepped away from the door and leaned against the nearby teacher’s desk. “Twilight would ask one of us to get something out of it, and while one of us was rummaging inside, they’d pounce on the other. Then it’d be two versus one, and they’d be able to overpower whoever was left. Applejack moved up behind you while I was looking for the gloves. If I hadn’t been glancing back so often, she may have already tried to bite you.”
“Sunset, Fluttershy? Where did you go?”
Sunset tensed, bringing a finger to her lips to shush Fluttershy before she crept up to the classroom door and peeked out of the lowered curtain. She saw Twilight round the corner. Sunset stepped away from the door, not taking her eyes off it, and came to a stop next to Fluttershy. She ponied up in preparation for the looming confrontation.
The steps in the hallway abruptly stopped, and they lost track of Twilight’s position. Sunset strained to listen more intently. The rush of air in and out of their lungs as they breathed stood out against the silence. The jingle of the zipper on her coat made Sunset tense. Fluttershy took a step, and the sound of her shoe against the floor felt like they were ringing a bell to announce where they were. Sunset still couldn’t hear anything from the hallway outside.
A sudden pounding on the door made Sunset and Fluttershy jump. “I know you're in there,” Twilight shouted. “My locket’s magic tracker spiked when you ponied up.”
“You’re not getting in here, Twilight!” Sunset shouted back at the door. “I saw your back. We know you're bitten.”
“I am not! My back doesn’t even hurt and—” There was a pause in Twilight’s words. It lasted a few agonizing seconds, then she knocked on the door again. “Sunset, let me in so we can talk about this. You can’t go anywhere unless you want to jump out a window, and if I really wanted to get in and had been bitten by Rarity, do you really think I’d be knocking?”
“She does make a point,” Fluttershy said quietly.
Sunset frowned, not liking the prospect of letting in the vampire they had just escaped. Still, she moved to the door. First, she raised the blinds, seeing Twilight standing outside the door. She looked left, right, up, and down, ensuring that Rarity and Applejack weren’t nearby. She then focused her gaze on Twilight. “You don’t come in until I say so. Get it?”
“Got it,” Twilight replied.
“Good.” Sunset grabbed the chair that was pinned against the door handle and pulled it away. She left it resting near the teacher’s desk before she backed up from the door a second time. Once she was next to Fluttershy again, she signalled Twilight. “Okay, you can come in.”
Twilight opened the door slowly, coming into the room with her hands up and her locket exposed on her neck. She took a few steps in, turned to face Sunset, but did not get within arm’s reach. “There, I did what you said. Can we talk?”
“If you're going to ask us to join you as vampires in service to your master, then sorry, the answer's no,” Sunset said with a slight snarl.
Twilight shook her head, gently lowering her hands. Sunset tensed, but Twilight didn’t seem to be reaching for a weapon or playing a trick. She winced as her hand touched the small of her back. “I didn’t notice the bite marks. They don’t hurt, and they’re not in one of Dracula’s common bite positions. The only thing I can think of is that the entity cornered me and Spike in that classroom. I don’t remember what happened in detail. It’s still a bit fuzzy, but I think I shielded Spike with my body. I faced my back to the Dracula entity, and that’s probably when he bit me. I don’t know what happened after that. I was unconscious when you, Fluttershy, and Applejack found me, after all.
“The only conclusion I can come to is that the entity tried to enthrall me, like it did with Rarity, and it failed. It’s probably because I don’t have magic. We’ve established before that the Dracula entity’s curse affected Fluttershy like it did because she had magic. That’s why none of his other victims have grown fangs and started thirsting for blood. I may very well be cursed, but because I can’t pony up, the curse can’t enact its full effects on me.”
“That’s one theory,” Sunset said. “The other is that you're lying to us to make us lower our guard. That way, Rarity and Applejack can swoop into the room and get us. I know something happened, Twilight.” She reached into her coat and pulled out the map. “You said you checked for information in the nurse's office, but I see your X’s on this map. You never got to the nurse's office.”
“We went to the nurse’s office before nightfall,” Twilight said. She was keeping her voice calm and reassuring. “I got the notes before Rarity and I went to dinner so I could read them while we got something to eat. We didn’t start doing the search or using the map until we came back after dark.”
“What about your bag? How did it magically appear in your old lab?”
Twilight blinked as her gaze wandered. She adjusted her glasses, pushing them back up against her nose in an everlasting struggle against gravity. “My backpack? Rarity and I both had our backpacks when we came here, but we decided to stow mine under my old work table in the lab in case something happened. After you found me and left me in the lab with Applejack, I told her to get my water bottle from it. She must have left it sitting against the wall instead of putting it back under the table.
Sunset’s eyes narrowed, and she lifted a hand to her head as her mind went over everything she thought she had seen. Had she made a mistake? No, she couldn’t have, but what if she did? What if finding Rarity like that, and if hunting Dracula, had made her too cautious? She didn’t want to see anyone else get cursed by Dracula, yet before they even got to the school, Rarity had been bitten. It was a worst case scenario. There was no reason to think Twilight had somehow avoided the curse, but the facts Twilight presented were true. They had yet to find a case of someone getting cursed unless they had preexisting magic.
“Fluttershy, let me see your locket,” Sunset said, holding out her hand. Fluttershy hesitated, but nodded her head. She shifted the first aid kit into one hand and used the other to take her locket off her neck. She gave it to Sunset, who promptly turned to face Twilight. “I’m going to try and drain you of magic. If you’ve really been cursed, you’ll have some magic in you. If this doesn’t work, then I’ll believe you.”
Twilight nodded. “That logic aligns with what we know about entities and this situation.” She held out her arms, completely lowering her guard. “Go ahead.”
Sunset put both hands on the locket, pressing the necessary buttons to trigger the safety override, then cracked it open and held it out. Seconds passed, and the device remained inactive. Sunset’s ears flattened, and her hand trembled a little as her grip on the locket device weakened. She had made a mistake. She closed the locket and passed it back to back to Fluttershy. “I’m… I’m so sorry. I just thought that…”
Sunset’s heart skipped a beat, and she rushed to the door to look out into the hallway. “You didn’t bring Applejack with you?”
“No, I ran after you as soon as I caught my breath. By the way, I think you bruised a rib.” Twilight gingerly touched her side, winced, and quickly pulled her hand away.
“Then that means you left her with Rarity, who was about to wake up because she got her magic back,” Sunset said as she looked back at Twilight. Twilight stared back at Sunset for a few seconds, and then her eyes widened as the realization hit her. Fluttershy made the connection as well, her hand rising to muffle an already quiet gasp.
The trio broke into sprints, running out of the classroom and down the hallways, back towards Twilight’s lab. Sunset was in the lead, powering ahead of the other two. She reached the intersection that led to the lab, and her shoes slid as she made the turn. She rushed through the open lab door, a few old papers fluttering because of the gust of wind she created.
“Applejack? Applejack!?” Sunset turned her head, looking to each corner of the room, but the room was vacant.
She was hit with a sinking feeling at the realization that Applejack and Rarity were gone.
“No…” Sunset turned and ran back out of the lab, blowing past Fluttershy and Twilight who had only just managed to catch up. She reached the intersection that connected the lab’s little alcove to the rest of the school and looked in each direction, trying to see or hear something. She brought a hand to her head, running her fingers through her hair as her breathing became more rapid. “Rarity got Applejack. Rarity got Applejack, and it’s all my fault!”
~~~
Sunset wordlessly followed Twilight as they retreated to the lab to figure out their next move. After helping to barricade the door with the second desk, she sat on top of that same desk and leaned her back against the door. The world was out of focus for her. She closed her eyes, unable to bring herself to look at the room.
Yet the sounds of the room denied Sunset the true seclusion she wanted. She could hear Twilight typing on the old, mechanical keyboard as her chair squeaked. Fluttershy’s footsteps drifted in volume as she paced the room, each of her steps accompanied by the rattle of the med kit. A few times, Fluttershy’s pacing brought her close. Each time, Sunset could hear her shy friend stop and linger within arms reach, but Fluttershy never said a word. She would just stand there for a few seconds, then the sound of her footsteps would begin again as she resumed her pacing.
Truthfully, Sunset didn’t want anyone to talk to her. She had made such a grave error, she didn’t even want to look at her friends at the moment. She hadn’t realized it at the time, but after finding out Rarity had been bitten, her paranoia had been on a hair trigger. All it had taken was one thing to set her mind off down the worst possible path, to a scenario where not just one but three more of her friends had been bitten by Dracula. It drove her to take action, and in the process, she ensured something close to her worst fear became reality.
Twilight stopped tapping at her keyboard. “Fluttershy, what’s the status on Rainbow and Pinkie?”
“Sunset texted them a while ago,” Fluttershy said. The rattling of the first aid kit continued during the first part of her words before stopping. “They were taking the bus here. I don’t remember when we texted them though.”
“Can you check when you sent those messages?”
Though her eyes were still shut, Sunset was almost certain Twilight was looking at her. She leaned forward before opening her eyes, ensuring her gaze was pointed to the floor. She then pulled out her phone and tapped on the screen a few times to bring up her text history. “It was twenty minutes ago.”
“That means they should be here in ten minutes, assuming the buses are running on schedule.” Twilight went back to typing on her computer. “Ideally, we need to try and leave this room and meet them outside the front gates. Does Applejack know you texted Rainbow and Pinkie? Does she know when they’re arriving?”
“No,” Fluttershy answered with a small shake of her head. “Applejack knows they’re coming, but we never got a chance to tell her when they’d get here.”
Twilight made a few clicks with her mouse. “Sunset, text Rainbow again, brief them on what’s happening, and get an update. Ask her what bus she’s on. I’m seeing some traffic reports about some accidents on the side streets involving a bus. With an updated ETA, we’ll hopefully have the advantage. Can I also have that map of the school back, please?”
“Sure.” Sunset reached into her jacket, pulled out the map, and held it out to Twilight. She couldn’t bring herself to stand, so she did her best to stretch her arm out as far as possible. Twilight had to lean over as well, but was able to get it. Sunset pulled her hand back and couldn’t help but reach into her coat. She felt the lump in her left coat pocket, her personal little secret. What was she thinking, bringing this to the school with her friends around?
What if she had decided to use it instead of running from the room? What if when she did use it, she was wrong, and she ended up hurting one of her friends? She was more of a danger to everyone else than Dracula was. She was so stupid to get it, even if Principal Celestia agreed with her proposal. At the very least, she should have told her friends by now, but did she really want to burden them with the knowledge?
She tried not to think about it, focusing back on her phone as she tapped out a message to Rainbow Dash.
“Okay, I think our best bet is the exit in the wrestling gym. Applejack and Rarity might be guarding the front doors, but they don’t know the school well enough to be aware of any other ways out. I say we get over there, get outside, and meet Pinkie and Rainbow at the front gates. With Sunset’s warning, they should wait for us outside. We can all meet up, ensure everyone understands the situation, and then come up with a new plan of attack.”
“I think this is a good idea,” Fluttershy said.
Twilight turned in her seat, smiling. “Great, because I need you to pony up.”
Fluttershy withered like a flower under the harsh sun. “You want me to pony up? But why?”
“When you use your magic, your senses become superhuman. You can see in the dark and have exceptionally sensitive hearing and smell. If we’re going to sneak out, we can’t risk using flashlights. That would give away our position. We also need to know if Rarity or Applejack are following us. If we want to get outside safely, without any more surprises, then we’re going to need your help.”
Normally, Sunset would have spoken up. Fluttershy didn’t like ponying up for a reason. It brought out the hunger, and the last thing they needed to do in this situation was stop so she could feed, especially when there were other vampires that might be drawn to the smell.
But Sunset couldn’t muster her voice to utter a single word in protest. Twilight’s plan was solid. Their priority was to get outside and get backup from Pinkie and Rainbow.
After the mess she created, it would take all of them to clean it up.
Fluttershy clenched the first aid kit to her chest like a teddy bear. She looked at Sunset, then back at Twilight, then down at her shoes. She made no move beyond that until Sunset’s phone jiggled, indicating a received text message. “It’s Rainbow,” Sunset said as she began to read aloud.
Some goons got on the bus to try and rob us. They didn’t have weapons, just toy guns I could tell were cheap plastic. Some burly construction guys on the bus jumped them when I shouted the guns were fake. They’re pretty cool. They were worried about us, but I told them we're fine. Pinkie Pie gave them cupcakes. Still trying to figure out where she was keeping them. Bus can’t move until the police come. Bus driver says they should arrive and be done taking our statements in thirty minutes. After that, the police will take us where we need to go. Pinkie and I will have them drop us off a few blocks away from the school at some random house. If they try to walk us in, we’ll run, I’ll pony up, and will fly away before they can figure out what happened.
“I”m not a big fan of them bringing police close to the school during all this,” Twilight said as Sunset finished reading. “On the other hand, it is the best option if they’re going to arrive here as soon as possible. Also, if they leave the scene of the crime before providing their statements, that will just make the police look for them. I’m going to guess they’ll be here in forty-five minutes, and that gives us plenty of time to get to the front gate without rushing. Have you told them about Rarity and Applejack?”
“I was just about to,” Sunset said, having already brought up the on-screen keyboard to tap out the message.
“Good. They’ll know not to come inside looking for us. Now, we just have to get out to the gate.” Twilight turned to look back at Fluttershy, who had hardly moved during the conversation.
Fluttershy tensed upon realizing Twilight’s gaze was back on her. For a few seconds, she didn’t say or do anything, but then sucked in a deep breath, held it, and nodded her head before holding out the first aid kit. Twilight took the kit, and with her hands free, Fluttershy began the process. She stood perfectly still in the center of the room, her head still pointed at the floor.
Though it was hard to see through her hair, Sunset caught a glimpse of Fluttershy’s gemstone studs glinting as her body was shrouded in her bright, sunshine-yellow glow. Yet, as per the new norm, that aura began to darken. Fluttershy arched her back, gasping a little like something had just kicked her in the spine. Her equine ears changed to be more batlike, and her fangs grew to length at the same speed her hair was growing. When her wings formed, they were not soft and feathery, but instead were webbed and leathery.
Fluttershy almost collapsed as the last throes of the transformation completed, shutting her eyes as she stumbled to the floor. Sunset and Twilight both began to get up to help her, but before they could lend a hand, Fluttershy began to stand. She brushed back the hair from her face and opened her eyes to reveal two piercing, red pupils. She took a few deep breaths, her hands moving with the motion of the air as it flowed in and out of her body.
“I… smell blood,” Fluttershy said, quivering a little. “I smell blood from Twilight, but it’s okay. I ate before I came. I’ll be okay.” She took another few deep breaths, then closed her eyes and began sniffing the air as her ears twisted and turned on the top of her head. “I hear… metal. Clicking metal, sliding metal, and fabric. I hear Rarity’s voice. She’s excited, but far away. She’s above us. I think… in that direction.” Fluttershy lifted a hand and pointed.
“I bet she’s gone back to the career development room,” Twilight said. “Isn’t that where you two found Rarity in the first place?”
Sunset nodded as she got up from the desk. This was no time to be moping, not when the three of them needed to get out. “Yeah, and I bet I know why she’s there. She made outfits for me and Fluttershy, for when the thing she calls master turns us into vampires. She’s probably making Applejack put on her customized outfit. That’s the thing I’ve noticed about this new variety of the curse. Even if she now serves a master, she’s still Rarity, and fashion is always at the front of her mind.”
“Then this is probably our best chance to get to the wrestling gym.” Twilight stood up from her desk chair and worked quickly. She gave the map back to Sunset and placed the first aid kit back in her backpack. She then slipped the bag on, adjusted the straps, and nudged her glasses back up against her face as she turned to look at Fluttershy and Sunset. “Let’s get that desk away from the door and get going.”
“I can still hear them. They’re arguing about poofy sleeves,” Fluttershy said, her head swiveling constantly as the trio made their way through the halls.
Sunset held the flashlight she had procured from Twilight’s bag, letting its more powerful beam light their way, while her phone stayed in her pocket. They had been moving at a cautious but brisk pace. The group paused at intersections to peak around the corners, and on straight sections of hallway, they would move as fast as they could while keeping their footfalls and movements quiet. Fluttershy was acting as their long-range alert system, to let them know if anything was moving towards them, or if Rarity and Applejack finished arguing and started to move.
“So, why the wrestling gym?” Sunset asked in a whisper as the group drew closer to their destination. “And what exactly is a wrestling gym?”
“While Crystal Prep’s regular gymnasium is housed in a secondary building on the grounds, the wrestling gym is inside the main school building.” Twilight shifted the backpack she was wearing, adjusting how the weight rested on her shoulders. “It’s a square shape, rather than a rectangle, and it’s where students practice fencing, judo, wrestling, and other combat sports. The wrestling gym has a door that leads outside. Normally, it's the fastest way to get to the regular gym, but right now, it may be the only exit that isn't guarded.”
Twilight motioned towards the door and reached to grab the door handle. “This is it.”
“What’s that on the door?” Sunset asked, raising her flashlight to better illuminate a white sign that had been hung on the door’s exterior. Sunset began to read it aloud. “Attention students: this gymnasium is being closed for the remainder of the school year for repairs and renovations. All athletic clubs that make use of this space are being moved outside. Contact your coaches for more information.”
Fluttershy raised a hand and pointed to the bottom-right corner of the sign. “Look, it’s been signed by Principal Cinch.”
Twilight adjusted her glasses as her eyes glanced over the sign. “But this doesn’t make any sense. Principal Cinch would never just close a gym during the school year, not if she could avoid it. I mean, I could understand the gym being closed for a few days if something happened that required repair, but she would never close it for a whole semester.” Twilight stared at the sign a few more seconds, then looked back at Fluttershy. “Do you detect anything inside?”
Fluttershy’s ears swiveled and she took a few steps forward, until her hands gently rested on the door. She sniffed around the door seam and pressed her head against the wood. “I hear fans, computer fans, and a low hum. It kind of sounds like a barber shop quartet, but mechanical. I smell some stale food and…” Fluttershy sniffed at the door seam again, then quickly looked back at Sunset and Twilight. “I smell Spike.”
That was all the motivation the girls needed. Twilight turned the door handle and pulled on the door, letting Fluttershy and Sunset move inside before following behind. Normally, Twilight would have ensured the door shut slowly and quietly. That precaution, however, was washed away by what the trio found inside the gym. Sunset couldn’t speak for the others, but she was shocked and amazed at what she saw, and didn’t even think about the door until it swung shut rather loudly behind them.
All three of them winced at the sound, and quickly turned their attention back to the gym, hoping they hadn’t alerted someone that was already inside. When they heard nothing moving or reacting to the sound of the door, they let their guard down a little and resumed being somewhat awestruck by what they had found.
Scientific equipment had been stacked and circled around the center of the gym. It was all brand new, top of the line, and Sunset was surprised Twilight wasn’t already drooling with envy. There was a rack of blade servers, whose lights flashed as they went about some unknown computational task. There were refrigeration units filled with dozens of test tubes containing liquids of different colors and opaqueness. There were tables and cabinets dedicated to just holding all the different kinds of measuring equipment, and three different chalkboards held numerous complicated formulas and calculations. The final piece to the ring of science was one desk that was cluttered with a computer monitor, keyboard, mouse, and numerous pieces of paper.
At the center of it all was a pair of large, metal towers to which blocky chunks of crescent-shaped metal had been mounted. These towers bordered a single, sparkling glimmer of light with a magical aura that floated just above the floor. Even though it was no larger than a golf ball, Sunset couldn’t help but feel her heart sink into her stomach at the sight of it. It was a portal to Equestria, and it was perhaps the largest they had ever seen since the events of the Friendship Games.
“I suppose this explains why Principal Cinch closed the gym,” Twilight said as she looked over the chalkboards. “The portal must have appeared here at Crystal Prep, and she seized the opportunity to study the magic of Equestria for herself. Or, at least, she called the people that could study and understand the magic for her. Even for Crystal Prep, some of this equipment looks expensive.”
“Do you think Dean Cadance knows about this?” Sunset asked as she moved up to the refrigeration unit, looking at some of the labels on the test tubes.
“No. After what nearly happened to me, something like this would have been on a need-to-know basis.” Twilight put her hands to the chalkboard, trying to find and trace some flow of logic amongst the formulas. “Principal Cinch must be keeping this a secret. It wouldn't be too hard, since Dean Cadance spends most of her time giving tours, helping seniors with college admissions, and recruiting new students to the school. Sometimes, she’s away from the school for weeks at a time. That, and… Dean Cadance may be a bit distracted.”
“Distracted by what?” Fluttershy asked as she kept sniffing around the different equipment.
“She’s… started dating my brother.”
“Well, while that’s nice for her and your brother, but it doesn’t exactly help us with our current situation.” Sunset moved from the refrigeration unit to the desk and rifled through some of the papers. They seemed mostly to be requisition orders for even more equipment or notes about power consumption. Everything that had been left out was very pedestrian, and the computer itself was locked. Whoever worked at the desk was good at keeping any real evidence of his or her actions out of plain sight. “Fluttershy, you said you smelled Spike. Where is he?”
“He was here recently, and something happened.” Fluttershy was sniffing around near the portal. “Right around here, his smell changes, but I can’t be sure why. It’s just… different, and I don’t think he went through the portal either.” Fluttershy drew closer to the tiny hole in reality, peeking through it to the other side. “Oh, look, what a cute dog. He has three heads.”
Sunset dropped the paper she had been looking at, turned, and leapt over the wires feeding the towers in the center of the room as she rushed to the portal. “Let me see,” Sunset said as she gently nudged Fluttershy out of the way and bent her head down so her eyes was level with the portal. “This is no good.”
“He does look pretty mean, but I’m sure the dog is a softy at heart… or would that be at his three hearts?” Fluttershy brought a hand to her chin to puzzle that thought.
“That’s no random dog. That’s Cerberus,” Sunset said as she continued to look through the hole. She titled her body and head to different angles, trying to see as much as she could.
“Do you mean the three-headed dog Cerberus from Greek mythology, the one that guards the gates of the underworld for Hades?” Twilight asked, joining her two friends beside the portal. “But he’s just a myth.”
“Pegasi and unicorns are just as mythological in this world, but we know exactly where to find thousands of them.” Sunset stood back up straight. “Maybe there have been other times when portals opened up between this world and Equestria, allowing them to intermingle, but that’s a mystery for another day. What I’m more concerned about is where the portal opened. It’s inside Tartarus, inside one of the prison cells.”
“That sounds bad,” Fluttershy said.
Sunset nodded her head. “Tartarus is Equestria’s version of a maximum-security federal prison. It’s where the worst of the worst are locked up so they can’t hurt Equestria or the rest of the world. The kind of magical villains that you’d read about in fantasy novels would cower like scared puppies compared to some of the things in there. You remember when Princess Twilight told us about Tirek? He was locked up in Tartarus.”
Fluttershy’s webbed wings wrapped around her shoulders, and she crossed her arms to touch them, hugging herself. “But the portal’s so small. Do you really think something could have come through?”
“Not unless they’ve figured out how to widen the hole,” Twilight gestured to the metal towers flanking the portal, “and judging by these devices, that’s exactly what they’re trying to do.” She stepped away for a moment, going to one of the cabinets on the perimeter of the lab space. She opened it up and took something from inside before returning to her friends.
“The squares on these two towers look like powerful, focused electromagnets to me, and these hooks I saw earlier are made of a metal that reacts strongly to magnetism.” Twilight held up the thing she had procured from the cabinet. It was a solid cylinder of metal that had been bent into a hook shape. “It’s a crude design, but if they put these hooks around the radius of the portal and turned on the magnets, it might be enough to stretch the hole wider. I could be wrong, but I doubt Principal Cinch would have called people here to close the portal or just to study it. Not after she saw what magic can do.”
Sunset growled and ponied up, her aura broiling with her anger. “That idiot. I bet she thinks she can control the magic and not get overwhelmed by it. That or Cinch thinks if whoever she brought here can figure out magic’s secrets, she can use it to improve the reputation of her precious prep school. Well, I am not going to let her toy with this portal any more.” Sunset reached out with her magic, and closed her fist around the portal. Small beams of light began to shine out from between her fingers, but she kept her hand closed tight.
It took several seconds, but when Sunset finally opened her hand again the portal was gone. She then dropped to a knee, the expenditure of magic leaving her feeling lightheaded. Twilight and Fluttershy moved up beside her, Fluttershy touching her shoulder, but she waved them off. “I’m okay.”
“You should really start conserving your magic,” Twilight said as Sunset climbed back to her feet. “If you run out, that puts us at a large disadvantage.”
“I know, I’ll try to let Fluttershy handle things from here on out.” Sunset glanced over at Fluttershy as she spoke, but Fluttershy wasn’t listening. Her head and ears were turned towards the rest of the school. “What is it?” Sunset couldn’t help but ask.
“Rarity and Applejack are on the move. I can hear Applejack’s boots, and… something else. Something clicking against the floor, but it’s not Rarity's heels. It’s getting louder.” Fluttershy took a step closer to the door that led back into the rest of the school. “They’re going downstairs and… they’re heading straight for us.”
Sunset clenched her fist and began jogging towards the far side of the room. “They, or their master, must have sensed that we closed the portal. We need to get outside, now.”
Fluttershy and Twilight nodded, running to catch up with Sunset as she moved towards the exit door, a bright, green sign glowing above the frame. Her hands found the press bar, and she shoved it and the door forward. The trio of them burst outside, but quickly slid to a stop. Sunset lifted an arm to cover Twilight, while Fluttershy let out an uncharacteristically aggressive hiss, like a cornered cat.
“Now where, darlings, do you think you’re going?”
Rarity hovered just above the ground outside the school, and behind her were easily a few hundred magic daggers. Each was pointed at the trio of girls and looked to be inching closer, as if eager to stab and cut. Rarity herself was frowning and gently shaking her head. “You know, you really shouldn’t have done that. You’ve made Master angry, and he’s just so unpleasant when he’s angry. I’m afraid, this time, I’m going to have to insist you come with us.”
Sunset’s magical aura flared as she prepared to fight with Rarity, but the trio heard doors on the far side of the wrestling gym open. They glanced back, and saw two figures coming in through the door. One was Applejack. Her eyes were now glowing red, and her ears were distinctly bat-like. Her outfit was different. She was still wearing her jeans and belt buckle from before, but her top had been replaced with a sleeveless, white, button-down shirt, a maroon vest, and a black tie. It was decidedly less revealing than Rarity’s outfit, and it made her seem that much more intimidating. The creature standing next to her, however, made Twilight and Fluttershy gasp.
It was a lumbering thing, a mountain of muscles with claws that glinted as it and Applejack drew closer. It walked slightly hunched over, as if it could start running on all fours at any moment. The head bore a long snout, filled with sharp, carnivorous teeth, and the creature’s body was covered in purple fur with a green underbelly.
It was Spike.
“What did you do to him?” Sunset snapped as she turned her head to glare at Rarity.
“Well, when Master found out that our Twilight didn’t have any magic, he was rather disappointed.” Rarity floated to the ground, landing gingerly on the grass while her knives moved in closer. “He expended all that effort to chase her down, and only succeeded in putting a few tiny holes in her back. But then he noticed our little Spikey Wikey, a magical talking dog. I didn’t get to see my Master close the deal after Spike ran to get Twilight help, but neither he nor I can complain about the results. He makes for a very strapping werewolf.”
“Don’t even think about fighting, Sunset,” Applejack said as she and Spike caught up with the group. “It’s basically three versus one, and you’ve been using a lot of magic tonight. Better to come along quietly.”
“Like Tartarus I will!” Sunset shouted. Her aura flared, and she lunged at Applejack. Her magically-enhanced punch, however, was abruptly cut off. With amazing speed, Spike caught Sunset in the air by her neck, his claws tightening around her throat. Sunset kicked and flailed. She tried to pull his fingers away from her throat, but they were like a vice. She couldn’t get them loose, and her lungs started to burn from a lack of oxygen.
“I promise, Sunset, everything will much better soon. The master just needs to give you a little nip,” Rarity said as she ensured Fluttershy and Twilight didn’t attempt to do anything heroic. “You’ll simply love your new outfit once the master makes you one of us.”
The world began to fall away. Sunset’s vision blurred, and her hearing became distorted. She tried to struggle with renewed effort. Passing out would surely mean she’d fall under the Master’s curse, just like her friends. She had to stop it, but with each passing second, she felt herself getting weaker, and her mind became further muddled. Her legs stopped kicking, and her hands fell to her side.
She looked to her friends one final time, formed the words of an apology with her lips, and then everything went black.
~~~
The Library was dark. The Library was never dark. Why was The Library dark?
Sunset sat up in her bed, her mind struggling to grasp how she had arrived there or what she had been doing before. All she knew was The Library was pitch black, something she had never seen before. Twilight’s computers had always been set up in the corner. The setup had grown and expanded over time, and there had always been something glowing all through the night, even in the beginning. All those lights were gone.
Sunset sat there, looking around, and was unable to tell when she blinked or which way she was facing. Her hands groped at the darkness, trying to get her bearings. She eventually found a piece of her bed frame, and her hands quickly moved to built-in drawers. She searched for her phone where she usually left it each night to charge. She felt the cable, but the phone itself was absent. She continued rummaging through the drawers for a flashlight, knowing she had tucked one beneath her clothes, yet it was gone as well. Was this a prank by Rainbow Dash, payback for all the mornings of flicked water?
Having no other options, Sunset opened the drawer with her prep-kit. She had to fumble around through her clothes for a few moments, but she found the kit and, from it, removed her gemstone studs. They were tiny, little things, but Equestria had been using them for a few centuries as medical tools. The gemstones, which could be mounted in earrings, necklaces, or other jewelry, tried to ensure the magic in a creature flowed freely. Some creatures only needed them for a short time while they recovered from an injury. Others wore them all the time, to overcome deficiencies in their natural ability to access and use their internal magic.
She and her friends were just lucky that the gemstones' properties worked just as well in the human world.
Sunset put in the studs, ponied up, and focused her magical aura into a sphere around her hand. It was not as effective as a flashlight or her cell phone, but Sunset was able to make out shapes in the darkness. She could see the three other beds near hers, all empty. No one had stayed at The Library with her that night, and it had to be night. It was too dark to be anything but night.
After finding her slippers and putting her feet in them, Sunset began to shuffle around the room. She went first to the kitchen, trying to find the emergency flashlight they kept in one of the drawers there. It was gone as well. She went to try and turn on Twilight’s computers, to use the monitors to light the room, but the hardware wouldn’t turn on. It was like a power outage, but that wouldn't explain why the flashlights they kept for that exact situation were missing as well.
There was a click and a spark, and Sunset turned away from the computers to look at The Library’s coffee table. The room now had a light of its own, and it was coming from an old lantern that was now sitting on the table. Sunset let her own magic disappear as she approached the lantern. It looked Equestrian in design. The handle and little control knob were made of soft wood, to be gentle on teeth. There was also a button. When Sunset pressed it, it caused a small gemstone inside the lantern to spark, to ignite the oil-fueled wick magically. The smell also reminded her of Equestria. The lantern seemed to be filled with Saddle Arabian lamp oil, which burned with a slight, calming fragrance. No oil in the human world burned as cleanly or pleasantly.
Sunset caught herself staring into the fire of the lantern, a peculiarly red flame. There were, of course, ways to tint the color of fire in Equestria. It was a level of rudimentary magic that was taught once a pony was old enough to be playing with fire without burning a house down. Sunset, however, couldn’t stop herself from staring at the fire, nor could she deny the tightness in her chest. Though it was safely contained within glass, Sunset felt like she actually feared the little, red flame.
Another glow began to illuminate the library, and Sunset turned her eyes to its source. Light was slipping through the seam in the door that led outside. It was pulsing and moving, like someone was standing on the far side of the door with a powerful flashlight. “Girls, is that you?” Sunset called out. She stepped away from the lantern, moved to the door, and grabbed the handle. The metal was unusually warm, but not enough to stop Sunset from opening the door.
There was fire and smoke. Sunset nearly choked as warm, polluted air assaulted her lungs. She brought the sleeve of her pajamas to her mouth. Breathing through the fabric, she ascended the half dozen steps that connected The Library to the back lawn of Canterlot High.
With each step, more of the school and the surrounding area was revealed. With each step, more of the decimation came into view. With each step, Sunset saw more and more of the fire.
The city was burning. The distant skyscrapers, the nearby homes, and everything in between was alight, engulfed by towering flames that reached to the sky, as if trying to burn away the stars in the heavens. Canterlot High appeared to be the only place spared, but the fire was drawing closer. It would burn the school, and Sunset Shimmer, just as it was consuming everything else.
Glass shattered, and instinctively, Sunset tried to protect herself. She dove forward as shards landed on the ground around her, though she didn’t feel a single piece strike her back. Then came the wind. It was loud and strong, howling into the night, as if in defiance of the fires. Daring to look back, Sunset saw that the wind was pouring from every blown out window of the school. It was like Canterlot High was trying to push the fire back, like it was trying to save itself.
The surrounding fires were deterred, but only briefly. The advance of the inferno resumed, the flames beginning to reach the school’s lawn. Cars in the parking lot exploded as their gas tanks ruptured. Metal equipment near the playing fields melted into the ground. The fire was burning so hot that nothing hoped to stand in its way. As long as there was fuel, the fire would draw ever closer to the school.
Sunset heard the clink of metal again and looked down at the door to The Library. The lantern was there, having moved under its own power. She felt like the fire within was looking at her, and she remembered something she had learned from Applejack, something her friend had to do when a fire started on their property.
Firing out was a technique used by firefighters to combat uncontrolled blazes. They would burn the fuel ahead of a wildfire, denying it that fuel and creating a natural barrier. With all the wind coming out of the school, Sunset could use the fire in the lantern to burn a ring around the school. And it was getting close. Sunset could feel the heat on her skin and through her pajamas.
Despite the looming danger, Sunset found herself hesitating. She climbed down the steps and picked up the lantern, but stopped there to stare at the red flame within. She was still scared of it. Did she really want to let it out? She knew what it could do. She could picture it, burning up everything she cared about, just like the wildfire that was consuming the city. For all she knew, she’d be trading one fire for another, but it was also her only hope. No amount of water would save the school, would save her home.
Sunset’s grip tightened on the lantern. She grabbed the base with both hands, raised it above her head, and then slammed it against the railing of the short staircase. The top broke off, exposing the fire within to the open air. Her plan was to run around the school, setting a ring of fire in the grass, but she didn’t have to take a single step. Freed from its prison, the red fire spouted into the air like an unleashed geyser. It leapt to the grass, and it began to burn.
The red fire surrounded the school and, fueled by the wind coming from the blown-out windows, grew and fanned out to meet the orange flames. Sunset climbed back to the top of the steps that lead down to The Library’s exterior entrance, looking out and watching as the red flames rushed towards the regular ones. Like two tidal waves, the fires crashed against one another with a force that shook the world, nearly knocking Sunset off her feet. They were stalemated for a moment, but then the red fire began to push back.
It was slow at first, but with each passing second, the red fire’s strength grew exponentially. In a matter of seconds, the orange fire had been pushed back, leaving behind only the black ashes of what it had burned. Sunset could see the red flames lingering on the horizon, like a warm glow that surrounded her. With the orange fire gone, it looked like the city was regenerating. The grass and trees were coming back to life. Cars and buildings were repairing themselves. Metal was unmelting and paint was unpeeling.
Sunset found herself smiling, and she looked down to the lantern. The original, red flame was there, but her fear of it had vanished. She welcomed it. It saved the world, a world that could now belong to her and her alone. Yes, first she would conquer the world of man. Then she would harness its technology against Equestria, and she would rule all.
That was when Sunset noticed her hands had become red claws.
~~~
Sunset woke, drawing in a deep, sharp breath as her body convulsed. She had been on her belly, but she promptly rolled onto her side and brought a hand to her face. It hadn’t become a claw, and the color was still right.
“Sunset, we were worried.”
Looking away from her hands, Sunset couldn’t help but smile at the sight of Fluttershy and Twilight. The three of them were in what looked to be a teachers lounge. She had been laying on a large, comfortable couch, while her two friends were sitting at a table. Beyond that, the room had some counter space with a small sink, a coffee pot, a microwave, a fridge, a two vending machines, one for drinks and the other for food.
“What happened?” Sunset asked as she sat up. Her body felt like lead, and everything was sore. Her jacket was missing, along with everything it contained. “I remember Rarity, Applejack, and Spike cornering us.”
Fluttershy got out of her seat, picked up an untouched glass of water on the table, and brought it over to Sunset. “There wasn’t much we could do after you passed out. They brought us here and locked us inside with Spike guarding the door while they took you somewhere. You weren’t gone long, but when they brought you back… you had been bitten.”
Sunset’s hands went for her neck, feeling for the bite marks, feeling for two gaping, oozing holes. She didn't feel any. She began patting down the rest of her body, trying to find where the bite was. She would have probably checked every square inch of her body if not for Fluttershy.
“It was on your neck, but it’s not there anymore,” she said as she held out the glass of water, encouraging Sunset to take it.
“You mean it healed?” Sunset asked before taking a sip from the water.
Twilight nodded. Numerous pieces of paper were spread on the table in front of her, each one littered with her notes and doodles. “I’d say it was miraculous if there weren’t so many unknown variables regarding your magic. Maybe it’s your true nature as a pony. Maybe because you’ve successfully been the focal point to the magic of friendship, this darker stuff can’t take hold. No matter the reason, the evidence remains the same. The bite was on your neck for an hour. During that time, we noted certain aspects of the transformation. You had fangs and red eyes. Then, you tossed and turned in your sleep for a few minutes. After that, the marks stopped bleeding, began to heal, and the other vampire traits began to reverse.”
Sunset brought a hand to her mouth, feeling her teeth. They did feel normal, maybe a little more pointed… no, that was just the fear talking. They were fine, but could she have fought off the curse? Her mind flashed back to her dream, but it was fading. She just remembered fire, a lot of fire. The rest was gone, but then Sunset’s mind hooked onto another word that Twilight had said: hour. “I’ve been asleep that…” Sunset’s vision swam, and her head felt light. She had to fall back to the couch, nearly spilling the water she was holding.
“Easy.” Fluttershy took a seat next to Sunset on the couch, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t push yourself.”
“But what about Rainbow and Pinkie Pie?” Sunset asked as she held her head with one hand, trying to get the room to stop spinning.
“They’re okay.” Twilight gestured to the window with the eraser end of her pencil before she went back to writing her notes. “Thankfully, the teachers lounge faces the front of the school. We saw them arrive, and they’ve been waiting at the gates.”
“You haven’t tried calling them?” Sunset asked.
Twilight didn’t raise her head from her work as she spoke. “We can’t. Applejack took our phones and my backpack away. She also searched the room herself, taking away anything we could have used to signal to Rainbow and Pinkie. It was really rather impressive. She’s gained some speed thanks to the vampire curse. She worked very quickly, and even took the lightbulbs out of the microwave and the fridge.”
“What about using magic or just shouting at them?”
“Applejack said that Spike is under strict orders. If he hears us shouting to our friends or sees the light of magic through the door window, he’s to restrain us further. That entails us being stuffed in a janitor's closet instead being left in here. That and I don’t think signalling them right now is our best strategy.”
Sunset shook her head, trying to banish away the last, lingering effects from being choked unconcious. She got up gingerly from the couch, receiving a little help from Fluttershy. Once she was steady on her feet, she took the three steps that separated her from the table. She sat in a chair on Twilight’s left, while Fluttershy sat in a chair opposite to Twilight.
“Why don’t we want to try to contact them?” Sunset asked.
“Right now, things have reached an equilibrium.” Twilight finally looked up from her papers and set down her pencil. “Rainbow and Pinkie Pie didn’t storm straight into the building. They’ve been waiting for us, but I don’t think they’ll wait forever. Rainbow’s too impatient for that. She’ll come in here eventually, but for the time being, she’s having a contest with Applejack and Rarity. Yes, I am sure that’s what’s she’s doing. A while ago she was shouting taunts at the school to try and get Applejack to come outside. The fact she’s turned this all into a contest of will in her head is probably to our benefit.
“But that doesn’t mean I think we should just sit in here,” Twilight said. “I’ve been poring over everything we know about the situation. One important fact you should know, Sunset, is that we confirmed this isn’t the Dracula entity.”
“How? Did you see it?” Sunset glanced back and forth between Fluttershy and Twilight, unsure who would divulge the details of this revelation.
“After they dropped you here, they took me to be bitten. Rarity put that bag she made over my head and Applejack carried me over her shoulder, so I lost my sense of direction. But their master is here, and when he went to bite my neck, I felt him hold my shoulders with his hands. The bite, however, started healing immediately, so he told Applejack to bring me back here.”
Sunset stared at Fluttershy for a few seconds, then her eyes widened and she looked to Twilight. “Hands and talking. Dracula doesn’t have hands, and he sure can’t talk. Our Dracula is just a screeching bat.”
“Exactly,” Twilight said with a nod of her head. “Based on what we’ve seen, my working theory is that we’ve got something from Equestria over here, our first official class four. A flesh and blood being that can make use of its magic despite crossing into this world. This whole situation, in fact, is furthering my theory that the portal in the Canterlot High statue has special enchantments on it. Things that ensure those traveling through it don’t disrupt the world they're going to. It changes ponies to humans, humans to ponies, and restrains magic while the new portals are entirely unrestricted.”
“That makes sense, but how does that help us right now?” Sunset asked.
“Every piece of information lets us plan our next step.” Twilight began picking up and passing around some of the notes she had written out. “Now, what we know so far is that this curse is very similar to the mythical Dracula. Blood sucking, fangs, red eyes, heightened abilities, and a darkened magical aura. The master’s curse adds, on top of that, some level of mind control.
“Since that is the only addition, I believe underlying curse abides by the same rules. Once the master is dealt with, and his magic influence is removed, our friends should revert to normal. It’s just like how Fluttershy didn’t show symptoms of her curse while Dracula was drained of magic.” Twilight picked up a piece of paper, one that looked to be a rudimentary comic book page.
Twilight pointed to the first panel, which showed the three of them. “At this time, we three appear to be immune. I’m immune because I have no magic for the curse to latch onto. Fluttershy, I believe, is immune because she’s already a vampire. This leads further credence to my theory that the base magic of the curse is the same, and that this new strain will abide by some of the same rules. Finally, there’s Sunset, who shows a strong resistance. The curse can take hold for a little while, but you recovered from it after an hour.”
“So, Plan A is to make Sunset our Trojan Horse.” Twilight began pointing to each cell of her little comic in turn. “Fluttershy, you're going to try to curse Sunset with vampirism again. Once you’re showing the symptoms, Sunset, we’ll have you try to leave the room. If Spike lets you go, then you should be able to do some recon. You can find out more about Master, find our supplies, and maybe answer some critical questions for me. If you can at least get one of our phones back before you recover from the curse, we can call Rainbow and Pinkie Pie. Then the five of us can figure out our next move.”
“But I’ve bitten Sunset lots of times and the curse has never spread,” Fluttershy said.
Twilight held up several additional pages, each depicting a different comic. “I know. I’ve got plans through the letter M if this one doesn’t work on that principle. Magic, however, seems to react to someone’s motivations. I used the magic of friendship because I wanted to learn about it and beat Canterlot High. That turned me into a raven-winged she-demon. Sunset understood the magic of friendship and wanted to save me. She became a light-winged sagely sorceress.
Twilight turned her head to focus on Fluttershy. “The only reason you haven’t passed the curse along is because you’ve never wanted to.”
“But how could I want to make my friends into vampires? It’s awful.” Fluttershy brought her hands to her shoulders, hugging herself. “I have to bite and hurt my friends on a daily basis, otherwise I starve, and if I smell any blood, it makes me hungry. I have to run past the nurse's office if someone is in there because they scraped a knee or cut their finger. And anytime we get a new animal at the shelter, it's scared of me. They eventually come around, but they’re… just so scared of me at first.”
“I… I didn’t know about that.” Twilight withered, taking the comic page with her plan A and shuffling it beneath some of the other plans.
“We’re sorry,” Sunset said. She got up from her chair, managing to stand on her own power as she went behind Fluttershy. She bent down and gave her a hug. “I’m sorry. I know this has been hard on you. You’re the kindest person I know, and someone so gentle shouldn’t endure this. But, right now, Applejack, Rarity, and Spike are in a worse state. They’re being controlled. We can’t leave them like this, can we?”
Fluttershy shook her head. “No. I know we can’t. I don’t want to see them like this anymore.”
Sunset released her hug and placed her hands on the back of Fluttershy’s chair as she stood up straight. She looked over Fluttershy’s head to focus on Twilight. “How does plan A compare to the others?”
“It’s far more likely to succeed, in my opinion.” Twilight pulled plan A back out from the pile. She turned it over in her hands, looking over her own doodles. “Everything else involves escaping through the window or subduing Spike before Rarity and Applejack can provide backup. And in either situation, the likelihood that Rainbow and Pinkie Pie will rush in to help us is high. They’ll either see us breaking the window or possibly hear the fight breaking out. And if they rush in, they could get caught and bitten. Then we’re at a numbers disadvantage.”
“Then I want to do plan A,” Sunset said, her voice firm and unwavering. “Even if I can’t heal from the curse a second time, as long as it will let us save our friends, I’ll do it.”
“But Sunset, I couldn’t… I can’t,” Fluttershy said as she stood up from her seat. She began backing away from her friends, shaking her head firmly. “I can’t make myself want to make you a vampire.”
“But do you want to help our friends?”
“Yes, of course. I’ll always want to help them if they're in trouble.”
“Then maybe that’s enough. I say we try.” Sunset took the seat Fluttershy had just vacated. With her jacket already gone, all that remained was her light-blue top, and that exposed more than enough of her neck. Sunset pushed some of her hair out of her way. Maybe she was acting a little too eager. It had been her plan that got Fluttershy bitten by Dracula, and there were days she wished she could take Fluttershy’s place. Still, at the moment that just made the choice easier. They had friends in danger, and this was probably their only chance.
Fluttershy stopped backing away, but she was shaking her head firmly. Again and again, she shook her head no, but Sunset just kept sitting in the chair, waiting. Fluttershy’s eyes began to water as she stopped shaking her head. A few tears began to run down her cheeks as she just stood there, then finally she gave a single, tiny nod. “Okay,” she said, her voice barely audible. She took a step towards Sunset.
The door to the room slammed opened.
“You know I can hear you, right?” Spike said, a deep growl rumbling beneath his words. Sunset and Twilight bolted up from their seats at the table, while Fluttershy quickly scrambled over to stand beside them. Spike stepped into the room, ears flat and claws beared. “Master said you could plan all you want. But now that you're actually trying to escape, I have to separate you.” He lumbered towards Fluttershy. “Now, you better come quietly. Don’t make me howl and call the others.”
He grabbed Fluttershy by the forearm, jerking her away. She yelped in pain, and something snapped in Sunset’s head. She ponied up in a flash, leapt up, and punched Spike in the jaw with her right fist. The magic-enhanced blow made him release Fluttershy and sent him sliding into the lounge’s fridge. The appliance’s door buckled a little under the force, but Spike wasn’t phased. He only growled and bared his fangs.
“Don’t make this difficult,” Spike said as he began lumbering towards Sunset. “Master didn’t say I couldn’t rough you up.”
“Give it your best shot.” Sunset said before she thrusted her hand forward. Her magical aura formed into a massive hand, which stretched out to smash Spike against the fridge again. But then her aura flickered. Her head felt light, her vision swam, and Sunset stumbled until she was able to grab hold of a chair. She was hitting the limits of her magic. She should have recovered some by now, but then again, her body might have burned away all the energy she had stored up to fight against the vampire curse.
“Aw, are you a little tired, Sunset?” Spike said. He pulled himself out of the impression he left in the fridge door. He then rushed forward, closing the gap between them in a few long steps before he backhanded Sunset. The blow hit her hard in the shoulder and sent her flying. She hit the wall of the teachers lounge, smashing into a tacky painting before falling onto the couch. “Maybe I just need to put you to bed again.”
Spike took another step towards Sunset, his claw already reaching for her neck when Twilight put herself between the two. She spread her arms and looked Spike square in the eye. “Stop, you're hurting her.”
“That’s the point. Those who defy Master must learn their lesson,” Spike said as he glared down Twilight. “Now, get out of my way.”
“Or what, are you going to hit me too? I know you won’t. The Spike I know would never hurt me, even if I could heal like the others. And I know that Spike is still in there.” Twilight did not break eye contact with Spike. “You're not a vampire. I don’t know how you became a werewolf, but I’d bet my entire Daring Do collection that it wasn’t because you were bitten. That doesn’t line up. That doesn’t make scientific or even magical sense. That means the master may just have you under some sort of mind control, mind control that I bet is weaker without the vampire curse to ground it. So come on, Spike. Snap out of it.”
Spike’s growl came from deep in his throat. He reached out and grabbed Twilight’s arm, starting to squeeze. “Maybe you’ll realize that I serve the master after I break your arm.”
Twilight struggled, her free hand trying to pry off Spike’s vice-like grip. “No, Spike, stop.” She winced as the pressure got more and more intense. “Spike, that hurts.”
Sunset tried to pick herself up off the couch, tried to call on her magic again, but it would not respond. She had powered down after being thrown, and now couldn’t even summon enough magic to sustain her ponified form. Twilight yelped in pain, and a tear rolled down her cheek. That was when Sunset saw it. There was a glint in Spike’s eye, a shift in his posture. His grip loosened.
That was when Fluttershy swooped in.
In full vampire pony form, Fluttershy flew in and placed herself right in front of Spike’s face. Her eyes locked with his, her red irises glowing intently. Spike became frozen, unable to move or look away from Fluttershy’s gaze.
Sunset got up from the couch and, while Spike was distracted, help Twilight get her arm out of his grip. Twilight would have a nasty bruise, but at least her bone was not broken.
“Hey, it actually worked,” Twilight said with a smile and a whimper as she touched the tender part of her arm.
“This was a plan?” Sunset said as she help Twilight to the couch.
“Plan D,” Twilight said with a chuckle. “Fluttershy has her stare. When she’s a normal human, it gets the attention of animals and makes them stop what they're doing. I theorized a while ago that her stare might be enhanced when she’s ponied up. Like a true vampire’s stare, I hypothesized it might have mind-controlling capabilities, commonly referred to as beguilement. Plan D was that I’d try to appeal to Spike as my friend. If it worked, Fluttershy was to swoop in and try to Stare him back to normal.”
“And Plan D wasn’t Plan A because…?” Sunset asked.
“Plan D was largely theoretical and a bit of a gamble. It would have been the first plan we’d considered in case you woke up a vampire under The Master’s control. I was hoping you’d recover.”
Sunset sighed through a smile. “I suppose I should thank you for your optimism.” She then looked up at Fluttershy and Spike. The pair continued to stare at one another for a few seconds before the glow in Fluttershy’s eyes faded. She then flew away from Spike, putting herself in a defensive position in front of Sunset and Twilight.
Spike blinked slowly once he was freed from the stare. His shoulders slumped, the aggressive tension leaving his body. He fell to his knees and clapped his hands to the floor. His head hung downward, and for a few seconds, he just stared at the floor. He then shivered, and a few drops of liquid fell to the floor. Sunset tensed, believing the liquid to be drool. That Spike’s mouth was now frothing as his rage and servitude to the master was returning.
But then he looked up, and he showed the three girls the tears coming from his eyes. He whimpered and tried to back away. His ears were flat and his tail was between his legs. Yet, before he could take more than a single step, Twilight forced herself up from the couch. She caught up to him, dropped to her knees, and hugged his head against her chest. Spike froze for a few seconds, but then brought up one of his arms to hug her back.
“I’m sorry, Twilight. I just…”
Twilight patted his head. “Shhh. It’s okay, Spike. It’s okay.”
“It really is incredible. It’s an exponential increase in body mass and dexterity. Approximately seven feet tall and roughly twenty-two inch shoulder width, and about an eight foot arm span. I wish I had my tape measure for accurate numbers, but this will have to do for now. Still, that means your arms are disproportionately large, but that likely helps if you choose to shift to running on all four limbs. The natural resting angle of your elbows and wrists seems to be designed for that as well. Tell me, what were you thinking before the transformation occurred near the portal? I could write off a dozen of my working theorems based on a first-paw experience.”
After a touching reunion, Twilight had reverted to her common practices of studying anything new she came across with a feverish intensity. She was taking pages upon pages of notes on Spike’s transformation, muttering to herself as she poked, prodded, and measured using a ruler she had found in the room. Spike was just smiling through it and trying not to look at the bruise developing on Twilight’s arm.
Sunset and Fluttershy were at the window, keeping an eye on Rainbow and Pinkie while also watching Twilight work. They had been mulling over what to do now that they had pulled Spike back to their side. “I still think we could just overwhelm Rarity and Applejack while we have the advantage and then focus all of our attention on The Master. They may have taken our lockets, but Rainbow and Pinkie still have theirs. We can drain our friends, get them someplace safe, and then take care of this thing.”
Fluttershy nodded, though her head was rocking at odd angles at the same time. “That does sound like a good plan, but I just don’t want to hurt them if we don’t have to. How would we even get to them?”
“Spike throws the table through the window, then he jumps down with Twilight and you fly me down. Simple as that,” Sunset said with a shrug.
“But what if The Master runs away once he realizes we’re coming after him?” Fluttershy asked. She looked out the window, where Rainbow was glaring at the school, while Pinkie Pie was drawing a complicated picture in the dirt with a stick. “What if he takes Rarity and Applejack with him? We shouldn’t cause a big scene until we really have to.”
“I suppose that is something we have to consider, but how long before they realize Spike’s broken free of the mind control?” She gestured towards Spike. Twilight was now measuring his claws, getting the distance from the tip of his claw to the base of his palm. “If Rarity, Applejack, or even the elusive Master came to check on him right now, they’d catch him in here and realize something is wrong. How does he even leave his post if he’s supposed to be guarding us?”
Fluttershy toyed with her hair for a moment. Her eyes wandered to the window, to Spike, to the couch, and then back to Sunset. Then her hands paused in her hair. She had a look of inspiration in her eyes, but then her cheeks flushed with a blush and she hid her face.
Sunset couldn’t help but cock an eyebrow at the odd display. “What is it?” she asked with a small chuckle.
“Oh, I was just remembering...” Fluttershy peeked out from between the strands of her hair. “You remember Rarity and her outfits? Well, do you think she’d want to make him an outfit? She probably didn’t think she’d need to, and she’d probably need his measurements. She was also the one that took our stuff while Spike stood guard and Applejack carried you to The Master.”
Sunset pondered the thought a moment as she looked over at Spike. Slowly, she began to nod her head and smiled. “Hey, Spike?”
“Yeah?” He asked as he kept his back uncomfortably straight, while Twilight was counting his vertebrae.
“What would you have to do to get Rarity’s attention?”
~~~
“Oh, Spikey Wikey, I can’t believe I didn’t think of making you a little something. You’ve got such a strapping figure now, it would just be a shame not to put you in something dapper yet masculine.” Rarity was twirling in the air as she led Spike into the classroom she had claimed as her own domain for the evening. “Still, we must be quick. Applejack can be such a sourpuss, and she’s only going to watch your post for so long. Now, we should start with some pants. Maybe some dark-colored blue jeans. Ooo, I remember seeing the perfect roll of denim over in the corner.”
Spike just nodded his head as he lumbered into the room, trying to remember everything he was told by Twilight and Sunset. They had guessed right, Rarity had returned to the career development room to continue exploiting its supply of fabric, thread, and sewing tools. He sniffed at the air, taking in all the smells that lingered. He knew a lot of them. Many of the subtle ones belonged to the familiar faces of Crystal Prep. His nose, however, was searching for either Twilight, Sunset, or Fluttershy’s scent. The trail, if he could follow it, might just lead him to where Rarity had left their stuff. The cell phones were the priority, but getting everything else back would be even better.
“Here, try these on.”
Spike tensed and turned just in time for a pair of jeans to smack him in the face. He brought up his meaty hands, grabbed the pants, and then held them at arm’s length. “Aren’t they a little long for me? And how did you make these already?”
Rarity chuckled as she swooped around Spike, a hand trailing across his muscular shoulders. “Magic is a wonderful thing when you can use it freely, Spikey Wikey. And don’t you worry about them fitting just yet. I want to see how they look on you first. I’ve never had to work with your kind of canine legs before, so you’ll have to forgive me for a little experimentation.”
Spike nodded, and lowered the pants down closer to his waist. He eyed them for a second, then cautiously tried to lift one leg. Normal people made it look easy enough. Put one leg through, then the other, and then pull them up to your waist. It seemed simple.
He extended his left foot out to try and get it all the way through the pant leg, but then felt himself tipping. With a resounding thud, he hit the floor, causing a few of the more fragile things around the room to fall and break.
“Are you okay?” Rarity asked as she hovered above Spike.
“Yeah, just never put on pants before.”
Rarity nodded, bringing her slightly closed hand to her chin. “Yes, I suppose it is something of an acquired skill. Perhaps we should start with shorts, though pants would be just so perfect. Look, some student is carving a bench out of redwood next to where I’m hanging my finished outfits. Try sitting down over there before putting the pants on.”
“Okay,” Spike said as he picked himself up off the floor. Rarity flitted back off to some of the sewing machines, which began running at the beckon of her magic as different lengths of fabric floated in the air. Spike couldn’t deny, it was rather impressive to see such an open and complex display of magic. It was like the vampire curse was bringing out their true potential as magic users. The curse was still evil, and their talents were being brought out for The Master’s benefit, but it was something of a nice preview.
Reaching the bench, Spike sat down and renewed his struggles against the pants. He took this opportunity to sniff at the air again, and this time, he picked up on something. He caught a whiff of Sunset. His nose twitched, and he pointed his muzzle in a few different directions, eventually zeroing in on Rarity’s clothing rack.
“So, you made all these outfits just tonight?” Spike asked. “They look great. Are they all for you?”
“Oh, no no no.” Rarity flitted back over to Spike, taking different hangers from the rack and holding them up in the air. “I’m preparing for Master’s glorious, vampire revolution. We’ll be his heralds, his diplomats, and of course, we’re going to need help. I’m planning outfits for all the best candidates. Anyone that’s been heavily exposed to magic is a candidate for early adoption. Oh, you should see what I’ve got planned for Rainbow and Twilight.”
Rarity’s hands found two outfits in particular. One was a purple dress with long, black leggings and a classic, vampire cape. The other was something that could define the term “little black dress,” something that would show off a lot of skin and had a small, red bead that would rest in the center of the wearer’s chest. Both dresses were accompanied with a matching pair of shoulder length gloves. “The purple one is obviously for Twilight, and don’t you think Rainbow will look stunning in black? It will contrast so well against her natural colors.”
“Sure. They’re great, though, don’t you think…”
“What is it, Spike?” Rarity asked. “If you have an honest critique of my work, then I insist you share it with me. It’s better for you to tell me than for me to be reprimanded by Master for my poor design choices.” She let go of the two outfits, leaving them floating in the air by magic as she moved right up to Spike. She put her hands on his chest and smiled as she looked directly into his eyes. “Surely you’d be willing to do that for cute little me, wouldn’t you, Spikey Wikey?”
Spike lifted a hand and scratched at the side of his head. He had seen this look on Rarity’s face before. She got it when she was reading her werewolf novels. He remembered hearing something about the Spike from Equestria having a crush on Rarity, but that was perhaps one place where the two of them differed mentally. After all, until a few hours ago, he was just a dog. His knowledge of what defined human beauty and fashion was almost nonexistent. Still, he had picked up a few things from his own memories and his months of proper sentience.
“Aren’t they just a bit revealing?”
Rarity playfully slapped at his chest as she floated back to the outfits. “Oh, Spike, vampires are eternally youthful and naturally beautiful. The common conventions of clothing perpetuated by humanity don’t apply to us. Besides, surely you don’t find my outfit too revealing, do you?”
“No, it’s perfect,” he answered, though his eyes were down at the floor, trying to push his legs through the jeans and avoid Rarity’s gaze at the same time. He eventually stood up, struggled with the zipper a moment, then worked to secure the button. When it was all done, he glanced up at Rarity and gestured towards the pants. “So, how do they look?”
“Too baggy, far too baggy” Rarity flicked her wrist, pushing the bench out of the way as some pins came flying from a nearby sewing station. “Need to take some fabric out near the bottom of the legs and around the rear. Hmmm, maybe we should just go with a pair of shorts. At least, I don’t have to worry about a big, fluffy tail. That’s the one part of you that stayed particularly small and cute.”
As Rarity became distracted in her work, Spike’s eyes flicked to the outfit rack. He reached out a paw, trying to make it look like he was just steadying himself as Rarity began to tug and pull at the pants and make adjustments with her pins. He glanced down at Rarity once more, then began using his long fingers to flick through the different outfits on the rack. It was a lot of dresses, but intermixed with them were some more uncommon outfits. The one that caught his attention was a pair of black pants with numerous horizontal cuts. It was paired with a white t-shirt, but most importantly, it shared a hanger with Sunset’s jacket and Sunset’s locket device.
Now, how would he get it out of the room?
“Ah, yes, this will work. Just one final thing I need to check.”
Spike suddenly felt himself held in Rarity’s magic, and he was abruptly turned upside down. The pants were removed, and Rarity smiled as she took them in her hands. “Yes, perfect. I’ll make some adjusts, and soon you’ll have jeans that will fit, flatter, and be easy to remove. Now, would you like a shirt to go with your pants? Personally, I think it would be a shame to hide that Adonis-like physique.”
Landing back on the floor, Spike glanced around for a moment to think of anything that might work: something challenging, and something that would give him pockets to carry stuff back with. He kept glancing at Sunset’s jacket, the black leather ensemble eventually driving him to one random thought. “Uh, how about something a biker might wear? I mean, I’ve always wanted to drive Rainbow or Sunset’s motorcycle. It looks like fun.”
“I do suppose you cut the proper figure, and there is something… alluring about the bad boy biker look.” Rarity did a lazy loop in the air, then smiled and practically dove into one of the sewing stations. “Yes, all we need then is a nice white t-shirt and leather jacket. Hold on, Spike. I know I saw some quality black leather around here someplace.”
“Take your time,” Spike called out to her as he quickly reached for Sunset’s jacket. He dug his claws into the pockets for a few seconds, grabbing what he could. He found her cell haphazardly shoved into a pocket with the keys for her motocross bike. They must have shoved everything they took from Sunset into her jacket. That likely meant everything they took from Twilight, and maybe Fluttershy’s things, were all in Twilight’s backpack, but he didn’t see the bag or notice Twilight’s scent in the room. Where was her backpack?
“Oh, there’s the leather!”
Spike flinched, nearly toppling the clothing rack as he glanced over his shoulder. With magic, Rarity wouldn’t need long to assemble the outfit now that she had found the materials. He had to work fast. He dug the phone and keys out of the jacket and then set them on the floor. Spike then did the same for the other pockets, creating a small pile of things on the floor before covering them in a random clipping of fabric. Finally, he reached and clasped the locket device in his right claw.
“Oh, this is perfect,” Rarity sang into the air.
Spike hid his right claw behind his back, working to try and tuck the locket device into a back pocket of the pants. He managed to get it stowed away just as Rarity came flying towards him, holding out the shirt and jacket.
“You will look so intimidating in this. Maybe we can talk Master into getting you a motorcycle of your own as well? We certainly can’t be carrying you around in a backpack anymore, now can we?”
“That sounds pretty cool,” Spike said with a nod and a thumbs up, his first thumbs up ever.
“Wonderful, now put that on while I try to find some sunglasses. Surely, there must be at least one pair in this room that will work in the short term.” Rarity was off again, and Spike breathed a sigh of relief before looking at the jacket and shirt that had been shoved into his hands. The shirt was just a plain, white t-shirt, but the jacket was going to be useful. It had plenty of pockets, more than enough for him to smuggle Sunset’s things back to the teachers lounge.
He set the jacket on the back of the redwood bench and sat down to put on the shirt.
He felt and heard the crunch of Sunset’s locket device between his rump and the wooden seat. He glanced at Rarity briefly, checking to see if she took notice of the noise, then he quickly stood up and reached his hand into his back pocket. He took out the device, which was now little more than a pile of snapped circuitry and dented metal.
~~~
Spike lumbered back through the halls of the school, his biker outfit completed to Rarity’s satisfaction: jeans, black leather jacket, white undershirt, and a belt with a large, silver-plated buckle. She had also found a matching set of sunglasses in someone’s desk, but Spike hung those on the collar of his shirt as he made his way back to his post. Each pocket on his jacket was zipped, so the numerous metal bits clinked with each step. That was, perhaps, the one part of the outfit Spike really liked.
The clinking and the zippers would hopefully stop Applejack from noticing all of the tools he had reclaimed from Sunset’s jacket.
The teachers lounge was up on the third floor, near several of the administrative parts of the building, so Spike quickly found himself at the school’s central staircase. He bent down on all fours to make the climb up, but then something tickled at his nose. He stopped and sniffed, waving his head around before eventually catching the smell again.
It smelled like Twilight.
As he tracked the smell, it didn’t go upstairs to the teachers lounge. No, it went down to the first floor. Spike’s ears flattened as he glanced back and forth between the pair of stairs. In theory, Applejack didn’t know Rarity had finished with him. He could press his luck and try to find Twilight’s backpack, but if they caught wind, then his whole spy game went up in smoke and they were in a lot of trouble. He also couldn’t go back and ask the girls, since returning meant resuming his post.
Worse, if he remembered correctly, The Master was on the first floor.
He sniffed again. The trail was warm. It would be easy enough for him to follow. If he didn’t lose it on his way down, it could lead him straight to Twilight’s backpack. All the extra supplies in there, including the two uncrushed locket devices, would really help out their situation. He bounced on his feet a little, like a fast swinging pendulum, as his mind flip-flopped between the two options.
Finally, he huffed, got down on all fours, and followed the scent down the steps to the first floor. He kept his nose on the trail, detecting every little change in the aromas and odors in the air. He made his way down the stairs and through the hallways, occasionally pausing to check his surroundings, until he came to a pair of double doors that almost every student in Crystal Prep passed through multiple times, even a recluse like Twilight.
It was the cafeteria, and it was also the only room he had truly wished to avoid on the first floor.
Nudging the door open, Spike poked his head inside and surveyed the room. Normally, the cafeteria was the one part of Crystal Prep that really resembled Canterlot High. There was a cafeteria line and there were supposed to be rows of rectangular tables, each capable of holding a few dozen students. The tables, however, had been shoved to the sides, clearing a rectangular space between four crystalline pillars that supported the ceiling and rooms above.
In the cleared floor space, several pieces of furniture from around the school had been arranged. The chair from Principal Cinch’s office and her desk were joined by furnishings pilfered from many other parts of the school. A bookcase, couch, rug, a mini-fridge, and other things came together to form The Master’s den.
The Master was seated in Cinch’s chair, which was turned away from the door to face the desk. All Spike could see of the vampiric creature was a spindly, clawed hand that fiddled with something. There was also a cage resting on the desk, in which were a few white mice. He recognized the mice, by sight and by the whiffs of their scent he could pick up in the air. They were classroom pets for the science department and were normally used in a few humane experiments like running mazes. He actually kind of liked them. They weren’t jerks like that squirrel in the park.
Looking away from The Master’s desk, Spike quickly scanned the room for Twilight’s bag. He caught sight of it, leaning against a pillar that bordered The Master’s den. He flattened his ears and had to fight a strong urge to whimper. It was entirely too close to The Master. One wrong step, and he’d be beguiled again, and the girls would be right back where they started. Only this time, he would know not to look into Fluttershy’s stare.
His resolve crumbling, Spike was debating on aborting and just getting back to the teachers lounge. He lifted a hand to back track, but then heard some panicked squeaking. He focused his eyes back on The Master’s chair and desk. The spindly hand had reached into and pulled one of the lab mice from the cage. It writhed and struggled in the grasp, but was unable to escape as it drew closer to The Master’s head. Spike’s keen ears picked up the particularly loud squeak as the mouse was bitten. He then watched as The Master held the mouse out in his hand. It still struggled to escape, but it was decidedly not becoming a vampire.
The Master’s other hand then came into view, and Spike felt a shiver crawl down his spine. The Master was holding Twilight’s locket device. He placed the previously bitten mouse back in the cage with the others, then cracked open the locket. The Master drained some of his own magic, a curling vapor that looked like the putrid smoke of a burning, industrial chemical. He took just a little before snapping the locket shut. He then reached for a fresh mouse, taking it out of the cage.
This time, he didn’t bite it. He just held it in his hand as he pressed a button on the side of the locket. The locket cracked open again, but this time, it was in observation mode. It didn’t drain any new magic, just ensured the magic it already had remained contained. Spike could see the small sphere of energy, a cold, dead color of blue, not unlike The Master’s natural skin tone.
After adjusting his grip on the locket device, The Master moved it towards the mouse, eventually touching the sphere of magic energy to his unwilling test subject. The magic was instantly absorbed, and the mouse panicked and squirmed, but was unable to stop the energy from flowing into its body. Then, without warning, the mouse went limp, as if it had simply died in The Master’s hand.
The Master dropped the mouse back into the cage with the others. At first, the few other mice moved in close, sniffing at their returning fellow. Then, without warning, they ran to the edges of the cage, trying to climb up the walls or dig their way out through the soft wood shavings that covered the cage’s base. They were scared, and Spike soon realized it was for good reason.
The mouse that had been infused with The Master’s magic began to move again. It stood up, making strange squeaking noises. Spike couldn’t see any real details from where he was, but the magic-infused mouse turned to look at The Master, then bowed its head. A low chuckle echoed against the halls of the cafeteria, and The Master’s hand gestured to one of the still healthy mice.
With only that small gesture, the magic-infused mouse attacked. It lunged at the other, jumping on its back and biting down. The two rolled and tumbled. Spike couldn’t see everything that was happening, but soon the squeals of fear and combat grew quiet. Then the two mice got back to their paws, turned, and both of them bowed to The Master.
Another chuckled emanated through the room, and The Master reached down into the cage to pick up one of the two mice. He began turning it over in his hand, examining it like a craftsman admiring his work. Yet, while The Master seemed pleased, Spike was trembling in fear. He couldn’t be sure. Twilight would probably want to hear every little detail, but at that moment, he feared he had seen something truly horrible.
The Master had just turned a regular, non-magical mouse into a vampire.
He needed to get back, but if the Master was going to use the locket devices, he couldn’t let him have both Twilight and Fluttershy’s. He really needed to get that backpack. The Master was still distracted by the mice and his experiment. Spike glanced around, then grabbed a garbage can from near the door. He pushed the door open, thankful that Crystal Prep kept all of their hinges well oiled and silent. He propped the door open with the garbage can, ensuring he could make a swift escape. He backed away from the door, taking off his jacket in the hallway so that the metal zippers wouldn’t draw The Master’s attention.
“Okay, okay, okay,” he thought to himself. He glanced up in the rough direction of where the teachers lounge was, and then managed a smile. “They are going to be so mad I did this.” Spike turned and went through the door, walking as swiftly as he could on his padded paws without making any sound. He kept his claws tensed, ensuring they didn’t click on the floor. He adjusted his gait to ensure his pants didn’t make a rubbing noise.
The squeaking of the mice in panic was helping to cover his movements. The Master had placed the one he was examining back into the cage, and was now having the two of them attack all the remaining ones.
Spike could only guess that The Master was enjoying the show, like someone watching a dog fight. It was sick and wrong, but he didn’t have time to focus on that. He reached for the backpack, and picked up in his hands, and began making his way back towards the door. He still wasn’t that good on walking on two legs, he could hear himself or the backpack making noise. But so far The Master still hadn’t noticed. He was almost to the door, he just had to…
“Spike, why are you away from your post?”
He froze, and quickly turned while keeping the backpack hidden behind his back. The Master had turned in his chair, revealing the form of their enemy, though it was not the same monstrosity Spike remember chasing him and Twilight through the halls.
He was a spindly, old man that looked like a stiff breeze might be able to blow him over. He had a particularly long nose, a bald head, and his ears were pointed. His face was round and ancient looking. He had wrinkles and scowl lines like someone in their nineties. He was wearing a nearly all-black, formal suit with red accents in the vest and a dark-red tie. In Spike’s eyes, he looked to be a mortician, one who had no qualms about putting people in the ground, living or dead. The only bright color on his body was his eyes, which were glowing red as they remained transfixed on him.
“Well?” The Master asked, his face hardly moving to form the word.
“Forgive me, Master,” Spike said, quickly dropping to one knee and bowing to the creature. He took the opportunity to drop the bag on the ground and shove it out the door. “I was summoned by Lady Rarity. She wanted to give me some clothing, and she asked Applejack to watch our captives in the interim.” He breathed, trying to steady the waver in his voice. He didn’t know how good The Master was at picking up on his white lies and half-truths. At least The Master couldn’t read minds—well, Spike was pretty sure he couldn’t.
Spike tried to stop thinking, just to be safe.
“She is entirely too focused on her outfits, but her talent for the craft cannot be denied, either.” The Master flicked at a few mouse hairs that had fallen onto the sleeve of his suit jacket. “That, however, does not explain your presence here. Why did you not return directly to your post?”
He swallowed, and kept his head bent down to the master. No eye contact. If eye contact had freed him from The Master’s enthrallment, it was probably how he got overwhelmed in the first place. He had to just keep staring at the floor. That and he had some itch of a forgotten memory, about something Applejack had told him. How, as a werewolf, he was not fit to look upon The Master unless given permission.
Still, he had to hope he could pass off this lie.
“Master, Lady Rarity asked that I come and seek your approval of her work. When I arrived, however, I saw you were busy at your desk and decided it was best to return to my post. But, Master, I must admit my... “ He paused a moment, sniffing a little at the air and catching a whiff. “I must admit my hunger got the better of me. I am a newly born werewolf, having grown from the size of a tiny pup. I left the noisier parts of my attire in the hallway so that I might sneak behind you to satisfy my desires. I beg your forgiveness, Master.”
Spike could hardly hear himself speaking with how loud his heartbeat was in his ears. He had ended the lie with a truth, but it had still been one heck of a lie. True, the kitchen was nearby, and he knew it was stocked full of meats. Crystal Prep served some really good food for lunch. He had gotten a few table scraps from Twilight on a rare occasion, and they were delicious. Sure, his kibble was good too, but table scraps were the best.
Spike tensed as he heard a gurgle and pop echo against the walls of the room. His stomach had just rumbled, loudly. Perhaps he was hungrier than he had realized.
He heard the chair squeak, and he glanced up just enough to see The Master’s feet. He had stood up and was now walking towards Spike. His steps were slow and purposeful, his footfalls echoing like the drums of a death march. Spike had to struggle against an ever rising urge to flee. If he fled, The Master would know something was up. At the same time, Spike knew he may have already been caught in his lie, and The Master was coming to kill or enthrall him. If that was the case, running to the girls was his best choice. But he couldn’t tell based on The Master’s feet alone. He wanted to look at The Master’s face, but knew even doing that would possibly be his undoing.
Spike felt a hand on his head and the sharp prick of The Master’s nails on his neck. The Master wasn’t even squeezing, but those razor-sharp claws were still drawing blood. “I pity you creatures who require the slaughtered meat of the dead. It is so barbaric. Your ferocity, however, makes you valuable to me. You are forgiven for the desires of your gut.”
The hand left Spike’s head, and he realized he hadn’t been breathing. He struggled not to gasp to replenish the oxygen in his lungs before speaking. “Thank you, Master.”
“However, you are not forgiven for your trespassing where you do not belong.”
Spike couldn’t have reacted, even if he wanted to. The Master’s foot smashed into his chest and sent him flying through the cafeteria doors to crash into the hallway. The force of the blow flattened him against the wall for a moment before gravity managed to pull him down. He crumbled to the floor, and for a few seconds, was dazed. He started to curl into a ball and tuck his tail, but he felt his knees hit something.
He forced open an eye and saw the bag. He grabbed it and held it to his chest, trying to hide it from The Master. He could hear his footsteps again, and for a moment, feared for his life. But then Spike’s ears noticed the steps were getting quieter. He dared a glance, and saw The Master was walking back to his chair, hands folded behind his back. Spike looked away again when The Master retook his seat, ensuring he did not draw the creature’s wrath again.
“Take your stolen food, return to your post, and never enter my den again unless you are accompanying a true child of the night. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself remaining forever as a wolf-skin rug on my floor.”
The Master turned back to his desk, and went back to his work as if he had just gotten up to close a window. Spike laid where he was, trying to catch his breath without gasping, and holding in his pained whimpers. The kick probably did not break any bones, but he didn’t doubt that he’d be dead if he had been kicked like that while he was still a regular dog. Still, he clutched the backpack tighter as he pulled himself off the floor as he grinned through the pain.
His mission had been successful.
~~~
Sunset sat on the couch, her mind trying to wrap its way around their ever worsening situation. Spike was successful. He got Twilight’s bag and most of its contents, but he had brought with him some very unsettling news. The Master was slowly becoming more human in appearance, and he was using their locket device to spread his curse to those without magic, who were previously immune. It was perhaps only a matter of time before Twilight became The Master’s first human test subject.
Twilight was feverishly trying to adjust some of her plans with the new information they had received. Fluttershy was perhaps the calmest of them, tending to the group’s wounds now that she had access to the first aid kit again. She gave Twilight some painkillers for her bruised arm and applied a heated compress to where Spike had been kicked. Spike himself had broken the glass on the lounge’s snack machine and was munching on whatever happened to look good.
Sunset fiddled with the things that Spike had managed to get back from her coat. She held her phone in one hand, waiting for Twilight to give the word before she called Rainbow. In the other, she held her two photographs and her wooden case. It felt strange to have it out and in plain view of her friends, but neither Fluttershy nor Twilight had asked about it. That alone was a blessing. She didn’t need to be explaining it to them now, and so it didn’t distract from the task at hand, she tried to slip it away quietly into her pocket.
The Master was either making himself look more human or was naturally adapting. If he was able to complete the process and hide amongst the billions of people inhabiting the planet, then he could use the locket device to build an army of vampires before they could ever hope to catch up.
The minutes were ticking by, and Twilight hadn’t said a word. She just continued to work feverishly at her dwindling supply of paper. The doodles were gone, and Twilight was now going into full equations and formulae, trying to calculate something. Maybe it was how fast The Master’s vampire army would spread if they didn’t stop him here. She couldn’t deny, it was tempting to try and go back to the portal and get Equestrian reinforcements. But doing that meant giving The Master time, and that was perhaps the last thing they wanted him to have.
“I hear someone coming.”
Every eye in the room turned to Spike, whose ears were pointed in the direction of the staircase. In a flash, he went out the door, threw the warm compress into a trash can, and returned to his proper post guarding the door. Fluttershy was hurriedly trying to pack and hide Twilight’s bag, and Sunset stuffed her hands and the things they held into her pant pockets. She then began to hear the clipping of boots as they grew louder and closer.
Applejack appeared at the door, scowling just as she had while she had been guarding them in Spike’s absence. “Twilight, you’re coming with me. Master wants to see you.”
Twilight stiffened, her hands clenched to her many papers like they might save her from what they knew was to come. She remained seated, and for a few seconds, she and Applejack just stared at one another.
Applejack’s brow furrowed, and she began walking towards Twilight. “That wasn’t a request. Get up before I sling you over my shoulder like a bag of flour.”
“But I’m not ready,” Twilight went back to her papers, feverishly trying to finish her work like she had to turn in a test. “I haven’t figured out—”
“None of your plans are going to work anyway, so put them down and come here.” Applejack grabbed the back of Twilight’s chair and pulled it away from the table.
Sunset glanced at Fluttershy. No time for well thought out plans now. If Twilight became a vampire, then The Master would have their smartest and most strategically-minded member at his disposal. She waited until Fluttershy was looking back at her, and then Sunset gestured to her chest. Fluttershy had reclaimed her locket device from Twilight’s bag. It was their only one left, but they had to make a move now.
They were about to stir up so much trouble.
“How did y’all get that bruise on your arm?” Applejack said as she pulled Twilight out of her seat and began guiding her to the door. “I won’t have Master getting mad at me because of something you did to yourself.” Applejack, however, only managed to get a few steps before she felt a tap on her shoulder. She looked back, and saw Sunset standing right behind her.
“Sorry, Applejack.” Sunset reared back her fist, ponying up as she did before punching Applejack square in the jaw. Applejack stumbled, releasing Twilight who promptly ran behind Sunset for cover. Applejack chuckled, brushing her chin with a fist before standing back up straight and eyeing Sunset.
“Not a bad punch,” Applejack said. “Your magic’s still on the weak side. You’re probably still tired, which is a shame, because I’m fresh as a daisy in springtime.” She brought her hands together, popping her knuckles. “Spike, get in here. Looks like we got to teach our friends a little something about being well-behaved captives.”
Spike lumbered through the door, glancing around nervously at the scene before him. He came up behind Applejack, but was looking straight at Sunset. She made a gesture with her eyes, looking first to him, then to Applejack, and then back to him.
“Yeah, he’s a big, old dog now,” Applejack said, only seeing Sunset’s flicking gaze. “You wouldn’t want to mess with him.”
Sunset cracked a smile. “Neither would you.”
Applejack’s face barely had time to shift into a look of confusion before Spike’s claw gripped her shoulder. She was picked up off the floor, kicking and hissing in reaction to the sudden betrayal. Spike then threw her down into the table, its legs shattering from the impact.
“Spike, get her arms!” Sunset shouted as she extended her aura, pressing it down on Applejack’s legs while she was still dazed. Spike followed only a moment behind, grabbing Applejack’s wrists and putting the whole weight of his body into keeping her pinned. It was just in time, too. Applejack began to struggle, tugging and pulling to free herself.
“You no-good, dirty, backstabbing, worthless, rotten, pieces of shit! Master is too good for you! When he hears about this, Rarity and I will get to drink you dry and leave your husks hanging in a tree. He was going to make you all vampires if you behaved, but now you’re just food.” She bared her fangs and hissed, trying to bring her head close enough to Spike’s claws to bite.
Sunset magic wavered, and she gritted her teeth before looking over at Fluttershy. "Hurry, before she gets free!"
Fluttershy nodded, quickly moving over by Sunset. “I’m sorry,” she said, quickly moving over and opening her locket device. It started draining Applejack’s magic. The process was slow, and every second it took, Sunset feared Rarity or The Master would come to investigate the commotion. Applejack continued to resist, struggle, and curse at them like a sailor.
Still, eventually her magic began to deplete, and her rage cooled. She bared her fangs and hissed to the last moment, but when the last drop of magic left, she passed out just as Rarity had.
Sunset released her magic, panting from the exertion as she wiped some sweat from her brow. Spike remained cautious, not releasing Applejack from his grip, even as she lay still. Fluttershy closed the locket and then held it to her chest as she glanced between Sunset and the others. “What do we do now?”
Sunset pulled out her phone, pressing a few buttons and then bringing it to her ear. She only had to wait for it to ring once before the person on the other end picked up. “Rainbow? Yes, it’s Sunset. We’re okay. Yes, I know we made you wait. We’ll explain everything soon.” She pointed to the window while looking at Spike, trying to give him instructions while still talking to Rainbow. “We’re coming outside. We’re going to break a window on the third floor on the front side of the building. Don’t come in the gate until you see us come out. We’ve subdued Applejack, and we’re bringing her with us.
“Keep safe, and if something happens, call the principals.”
Those were Sunset’s last words before she turned to run back into the school.
She, Fluttershy, Twilight, and Spike had met up with Rainbow and Pinkie at Crystal Prep’s front gates. Pinkie Pie freaked out, in a good way, about Spike, and Rainbow was angry about what happened to Applejack. Still, they took a few moments to discuss their next move, and the group split up once more.
Twilight, armed with Fluttershy’s locket device and protected by Spike, would keep Applejack drained of magic and out of the fight. That left Sunset, Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Pinkie to face The Master head on, and Sunset was liking their chances. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash represented one of their best fighting combinations, and Fluttershy would ensure The Master didn’t try to sneak away. Together, the four of them would bring The Master down.
Once more, Sunset pulled open the doors of Crystal Prep and led her friends inside. Rainbow circled the room, her feet never touching the ground. Pinkie and Fluttershy stayed close to Sunset. Fluttershy carried Pinkie’s locket device while Pinkie’s hands held tightly to the straps of her backpack.
They were not being overly stealthy. Rarity discovered their escape just a few minutes after it had happened. Fluttershy had caught a glimpse of her standing in the room, glaring down at them before running back into the school hallway. In all likelihood, she ran straight to The Master, ruining their element of surprise.
Still, after all the sneaking around, Sunset was ready to make some noise.
Fluttershy monitored the school with her enhanced senses as they made their way through the dark hallways. She hadn’t heard any of the exterior doors open nor had she heard any more windows break. Unless The Master had been utterly silent during his own escape, he was still in the building, and the best place to start looking was his den in the cafeteria.
When they reached the cafeteria, the doors were shut tight. Sunset called on her magic, getting ready to force them open, when Fluttershy touched her shoulder.
Fluttershy looked utterly terrified as a few words stumbled out of her mouth. “I… s-smell blood... Rarity’s blood.”
The doors were ripped off their hinges a moment later, and the four hunters ran into the cafeteria.
The Master himself was waiting for them, sitting in his chair as if patiently waiting for a cup of tea to arrive. He had his right, clawed hand up near his face, and he was licking it clean of lingering blood. At his feet, a pale, limp corpse lay in a crimson puddle.
“Rarity!” Sunset’s eyes lingered on her friend, then flicked up to The Master as her trembling hands balled into fists. “What did you do!?”
“I don’t tolerate failure.” The Master paused to lick a particularly long trail of blood off his claw. “She spent so long helping Spike with his outfit, yet she could not notice he was no longer under my control. I am displeased with Applejack as well, for allowing herself to be felled, but that situation would not have been created if the dog was still on his leash. So she had to be punished. Such a shame. She really was an excellent seamstress.”
“You monster!” Sunset shouted, the trembling in her fists spreading to her whole body. Her blood was boiling, and with each passing moment, the urge to lunge at The Master increased. She, however, had to hold herself back. Her paranoid rush to action earlier had gotten Applejack bitten, and they could not afford another mistake like that. She had to keep her head.
The scene before her was set up too perfectly. Rarity was positioned between them and The Master. There had to be a reason. Sunset just had to figure out why. Maybe he was trying to unsettle them and make them act rashly.
“So, shall I assume you came here to surrender yourselves, or are you just here to collect a corpse?”
A blur of blue moved past Sunset. Rainbow was on the attack, taking full advantage of her incredible, magic-fueled speed. Using her wings to propel herself forward, she was already rearing back a fist to punch The Master square in the face. Sunset tried to reach out and grab Rainbow by her foot, to hold her back from making a possibly dangerous mistake, but she was too fast.
That was when Rarity moved.
With a wicked smile blossoming onto her lips, Rarity opened her eyes and raised a hand as her magic aura pulsed to life. The whole situation had been a ruse, and Sunset couldn’t deny she would have fallen for it. Rarity looked dead, and there was enough blood on the floor to be convincing. Even if they had attacked The Master strategically, they would have turned their backs on Rarity’s corpse eventually.
Movement in the corner of her eye caught Sunset’s attention, and she glanced to her right. Pinkie Pie had one leg in the air and one arm sweeping across her body. She had thrown something, and Sunset quickly followed the line of Pinkie’s gaze in Rainbow’s direction. It was a water balloon, one that was now hitting the back of Rainbow’s head.
The sudden impact made Rainbow flinch, her flight path changing as she tumbled past The Master and the long lengths of fabric Rarity had summoned to ensnare her like a fly in a web.
Pinkie’s magic-enhanced sixth sense, and her water balloon, had saved them.
Before Sunset could cheer Pinkie’s actions, she had already reached into her backpack and withdrew a fresh water balloon, one of many that Sunset could see through the bag’s opening. Another expert pitch later, and the second water balloon slapped into and popped against The Master’s face. “That’s for making us think Rarity was dead, you big meanie!”
Rainbow circled around the edge of the room, getting back to her friends as she glared at Pinkie. “Why do you have water balloons, and why did you hit me?!”
“And how dare you insult Master!” Rarity said as she pulled herself up from the floor, trying to straighten her hair, despite the fact that it and her body were caked in blood. “Your childish games will not be tolerated Pinkie—”
Rarity’s rant was cut off as Pinkie tossed a balloon right in her face, the water causing Rarity to tense up. “Ah! That’s cold!”
“Huh, well, I guess holy water doesn’t work on them.” Pinkie Pie withdrew another balloon and turned it over in her hand. “I wonder if holy water becomes regular water when you put it in balloons.”
“Where did you even get that much holy water?” Rainbow asked as she gestured to Pinkie’s backpack.
“I know a guy,” Pinkie said with a shrug.
“Girls, can we do this later?” Sunset said through clenched teeth as her eyes remained focused on The Master, who had stood up from his seat. He withdrew a handkerchief from the inside of his suit, using it first to dry his face then to clean the blood from his claw. He then folded it, tucked it away, and placed his hands behind his back as he glared at Sunset and the others.
“I suppose I must give you credit for eluding our trap with such a strange water device,” The Master said as he stepped up beside Rarity. “Though, perhaps it was too much to hope that we could put an end to this in the most efficient manner possible. Thus, in the interest of time, how about we be diplomatic about this? Surely you can see how happy your friend is. Become vampires, serve me, and you’ll find yourselves enjoying—”
Another water balloon smacked into The Master’s face.
Sunset glanced to Pinkie and Rainbow, but seeing neither one of them had thrown the balloon, her eyes moved to Fluttershy. She wore a heavy scowl on her face. “We’d never want to become creatures that have to hurt other people just to survive.”
The Master lifted a claw to his face, removing a trailing shred of the popped water balloon from his nose and flicking it to the floor. He didn’t make an effort to dry his face with his handkerchief this time. Instead, he turned his back to them. “Very well, then unfortunately, I find you entirely too annoying. Rarity, get the door, kill them, and bring me their magic draining tools.”
“With pleasure, Master.” Rarity’s magic surged, and she conjured dozens of daggers with a flick of her wrist while The Master walked away. His footsteps were taking him towards a door at the far end of the room. It had been blocked by the cafeteria tables that had been shoved away to make room for The Master’s den, but Rarity’s magic was clearing the path.
“Where do you think you’re going!?” Sunset shouted. She tried to take a step to pursue The Master, but a dozen new daggers appeared directly in front of her. She shifted a glare to Rarity, who was grinning ear to ear as she summoned more and more daggers into the air. It was a writhing cloud which flowed and moved at but a flick of Rarity’s wrists. Some of the cloud broke off to protect The Master’s escape, while the rest loomed over Sunset and the others, a threatening storm of bloodthirsty blades.
“I’m sorry, darlings, but I’m afraid I must ask for your complete and undivided—!” Rarity’s whole body tensed, some of her daggers blinking out of existence, as she was smacked in the face by a water balloon. She opened her mouth again to continue her words, but another expert toss from Pinkie Pie cut Rarity off before she could mutter a single syllable. Rarity turned, trying to shield her face from the assault, but a loud shriek escaped her throat as a balloon popped right against her butt.
“What’s wrong, Rarity? You’re wearing a swimsuit, we thought you’d want to get wet,” Rainbow taunted, having been the one that scored the bullseye on Rarity’s behind. She grabbed two more balloons from Pinkie’s bag, and the pair of them began a steady volley of balloons. Each blow made Rarity tense, yelp, or curse, and each splash of water was making some of her conjured daggers disappear.
Rainbow took to the air with an armful of balloons, half of Pinkie’s remaining stock, and began playing the part of a bomber as she assaulted Rarity from above. Pinkie tossed one additional balloon, then smiled over at Fluttershy and Sunset as she pointed at the far door, which was now guarded by only a few lingering daggers. “You two go after that big meanie. We’ll catch up as soon as the water fight is done here.”
~~~
The Master had gotten a fair lead, but running at a full sprint, Fluttershy and Sunset were closing the gap. Fluttershy was leading the way, following The Master’s smell and the sound of his footsteps. He had followed the path that had been traveled once before that evening, eventually reaching the wrestling gym and heading out the exit located there. Once more, they were outside the school, the teacher’s parking lot stretched out before them and connecting to the school’s exterior basketball court.
The Master was on top of one of the hoops, balancing on the backboard which had bent a little under his weight. He was standing straight, his claws clasped behind his back. From his vantage point, The Master could see across the treetops to the city center in the distance. Skyscrapers were dotted with lights, while the freeways flowed with the trickle of traffic that occurred at such a late hour.
“You’d have to stand on a peak adjacent to Canterlot to get such a wondrous view, and yet even this city is not the finest in the world.” The Master glanced over his shoulder at Sunset and Fluttershy, his red eyes glowing in the dark of the night. “I find myself rather fond of this human world. A higher population, and your technology is to be applauded. It’s in many ways far more useful than the common magic of Equestria. The fact that your sun and moon move under their own power is to be commended as well.”
The Master turned to face them, still keeping his claws behind his back like he was a lecturer at some university. Sunset wanted to bring him down, but she didn’t want to start a fight now either. They just had to be sure he didn’t go anywhere. Pinkie and Rainbow would drain Rarity, then the four of them could bring down The Master together. It was a staring match, and The Master seemed keen to fill the silence.
“Not that there isn’t room for improvement, mind you. A strong vampire ruling class could do wonders to end the human conflict in the world. It was true in the other world, before those holier-than-thou Princesses decided to butt in. They couldn’t be happy simply cleaning up after Discord. Now, I find myself faced with a similar situation: a world of wild dogs that would rather run free and growl at my offerings, even when loyal servitude would guarantee peace and stability. And from the packs of mongrels rise two individuals who are slightly more troublesome than the others.”
With a slight flex of his ankle, The Master hopped down from the top of the hoop and descended to the teachers’ parking lot. “A vampire with loyalty to no lord, and a creature that can resist the curse all together. As isolated incidents, you can supply hope and rebellion. As the beginnings of new factions, you are the roots of a choking weed. I had hoped Rarity would kill you, but I suppose I should be grateful she is keeping the two others occupied. Those two have great potential as vampires. They alone could keep nations in check. I’d rather not kill them.
“You two, in comparison, will serve me best as worm food.” The Master drew out his hands, the joints of his claws popping as they grew in size, stretching the fabric of his suit sleeves to the ripping point. His ears lengthened, becoming more bat-like, and his fangs grew to peek out from between his lips. “So, as your final act, do try to make yourselves worth the effort.”
Sunset brought up her fists and spread her stance. This was the risk they took chasing him outside. He started walking towards them, each step of his shoes gritting ominously against the asphalt of the parking lot. The claws on each hand were the size of meat cleavers now, ready to rend flesh from bone.
“Stay behind me, Fluttershy,” Sunset said. Her aura expanded around her hands, trying to create a pair of magical fists to compete with The Master’s claws. Sunset’s magic flickered, but she gritted her teeth and forced it to stabilize. She just had to hold the line and keep The Master near the school building until Rainbow and Pinkie could come and help. That was all she had to do to save Rarity and Applejack.
The Master lunged once he was within striking distance, drawing back and swiping horizontally with his right claw. Sunset brought up her magic to block, having to brace against the blow with both hands. She was nearly knocked off her feet, but she felt something pushing against her back. Fluttershy had caught Sunset before she could lose her balance, and the pair of them worked together to counteract the force of The Master’s first attack.
Sunset turned her wrists, grabbing The Master’s claw with her aura. She turned and shifted her shoulder into a throw, bringing The Master up into the air before slamming him down against the pavement. The Master hit the ground back first, and his body left a few small impressions. He lay there for one moment, then his gaze flicked up to Sunset.
“You do realize this is a new suit.” The Master lifted his left claw across his body and dug its talons into Sunset’s magic. She screamed and pulled herself and Fluttershy away from The Master. She felt a warm wetness on the inside of her hands, still gloved from earlier. A few drops of blood began to drip out the back, but Sunset just drew in a sharp breath and clenched her fists tighter.
She just had to hold out.
Picking himself up off the ground, The Master paused a moment to dust some gravel off his suit before he turned to face Fluttershy and Sunset again. He cracked his neck, then lunged forward a second time. He swung with both claws, and the sharp talons threatened to clamp down on Sunset like the teeth of an alligator. She brought up her magic to defend herself, but felt a tug on her body as well. She was lifted skyward just in time to see The Master’s claws clap together just inches below her feet.
“Thanks, Fluttershy,” Sunset shouted, giving her winged friend a thumbs up before refocusing her gaze back on the ground. “We’ve definitely got the advantage as long as we stay airborne.”
“You would think that, wouldn’t you?” The Master’s eyes glowed brighter for a moment, and his body began to contort. The suit grew tighter against his skin, the fabric starting to rip at the seams. The back split open, and from the exposed vertebrae, a pair of wings quickly grew into existence. The Master stretched his wings once, then took off from the ground with a mighty flap.
“Move!” Sunset shouted.
Fluttershy flapped her own wings in an attempt to dodge, and Sunset brought up her magic to form a barrier. Both of their tactics failed to stop The Master. His claw pierced Sunset’s magic and caught Fluttershy’s wing. The leathery skin was split, and both of the girls yelped as gravity pulled them down. They had not gotten high off the ground, but the asphalt of the parking lot was hard and unforgiving.
Sunset struck the pavement, and every thought in her mind was shattered. Pain was the first sensation to return. Her shoulder and the side of her hip ached. Her head throbbed like it was the bell of a clock tower being struck relentlessly, and she tasted blood in her mouth. She tried to think, to form a thought strong enough to open her eyes. A dozen times her will crumbled under the pain before, finally, she was able to force her eyelids open.
The Master had landed, looking like some deformed monster that had been crammed into a nice suit. He drew his bloodied claw to his nose, sniffing it once before sneering. “Such a distasteful curse.” He lowered his hand and began walking, taking a few steps before coming to a stop over Fluttershy, her now shredded wing poking into the air as she moaned and shifted in pain.
Reaching down, The Master’s claw wrapped around Fluttershy’s chest and picked her up like a rag doll. He held her high, so her feet dangled off the ground, and glared at her like he was inspecting some piece of livestock. “Awaken and heed my words.” He squeezed, making Fluttershy cringe and struggle in his grip. Her eyes finally opened to meet his expectant gaze.
“Tell me the origin of your curse so that I might snuff it out.” The Master began squeezing again.
Fluttershy’s legs flailed uselessly, and her hands tried to push against his claws in a fruitless struggle against the vice-like pressure. “Dracula. It’s a bat called Dracula,” Fluttershy answered between gasps of breath as her chest was being crushed.
“I know no such vampire from Equestria, Tartarus, or any kingdoms of the other world. Tell me the truth.” The Master squeezed harder, and Fluttershy’s struggles became more frantic.
Sunset tried to reach out a hand, tried to call her magic, but it was all gone. She was spent, badly injured, and probably a stone’s throw away from death. Still, she clawed at the asphalt, trying to pull herself up, if only to distract The Master for a moment.
“I swear. I’m telling the truth.” Fluttershy began to cry, the pain overwhelming her. She flapped her one good wing, trying to pull herself free, but her struggles were growing weaker. She could not take a proper, deep breath, and with each moment, the crushing grip on her body tightened.
The Master cracked a smile. “Perhaps, but I want to kill you anyway.” A loud pop came from The Master’s hand, and it wasn’t a joint cracking. It was one of Fluttershy’s ribs breaking. Her face contorted into a silent scream, her lungs unable to provide the necessary force of air to make it audible.
“Stop it!” Sunset finally managed to claw herself into a sitting position. With a wound on her head bleeding as well as her gums, she glared down The Master. She supported her weight with one hand, while the other fumbled to pull something out of her pocket. “Leave her alone, or you’ll be sorry,” Sunset said before spitting the blood that had accumulated in her mouth.
The Master’s eyes lazily shifted over to her. “You know, that threat sounds terribly hollow from a pony.”
Sunset’s body tensed reactively, making her wince as a snap of pain stabbed at her nerves. She tried to form the words, to question how, but The Master read the look on her face before she could ask. “Yes, I know what you are. I could taste it on your blood. Threats from ponies carry as much weight as a feather on the wind. Now, do be patient. I’ll get to you shortly.” The Master turned his gaze to focus back on Fluttershy.
Sunset managed to free the item from her pocket. She should have, perhaps, been fishing for her cellphone. All she would have to do was dial the number. Then Spike and Twilight would come to help them, but it would be too late by then. The Master would have finished with Fluttershy. There was no time for anyone or anything else.
Her thumb rubbed the exterior of the wooden case, staining the finely-carved moon symbol on the exterior. With one hand, Sunset undid the latch and opened the lid. Inside, resting on a piece of blue, silken fabric was a bracelet studded with amber gemstones. Sunset pinched the bracelet between two fingers, keeping a hold of it as gravity pulled away the case and made it fall.
The sound of the case clattering against the ground drew The Master’s gaze back. “What trinket is that?”
“This little thing?” Sunset brought the bracelet to her teeth. She gripped it with her mouth for a moment, just long enough for her to slip her fingers through the opening. The bracelet fell past her wrist and came to a rest on her arm. “It was a gift someone gave me the first time we met. She had some wise words to tell me, the day she came over here. When faced with a wildfire, that seeks to burn all I care for, she prayed I would always have the water to douse it. But should the fire burn too hot, she said to remember there are other ways of fighting the blaze.”
The gemstones on the bracelet began to glow, and Sunset’s aura pulsed. Her legs gained renewed strength, and she managed to stumble into a standing position. She breathed a few times, a few curls of steam rolling off her breath. She then looked up at The Master as tiny flames of black and piercing-blue began to mix with her aura. “She told me that, once in a blue moon, I might need to—”
~~~
The gentle tapping at the door made Sunset glance up from her phone. She had been lounging on the couch in The Library, spending a calm Sunday morning in solitude. Her friends always came by sooner or later on weekends, but they never knocked. Sitting up, Sunset watched the door for a few seconds before the knocking came a second time. Maybe one of them had forgotten their key, or maybe they had their hands full. Standing up, Sunset moved to the door, flicked the lock, and cracked it open.
“Vice Principal Luna?”
“May I come in a moment?”
Sunset backed away from the door, letting Luna step into the room. It was rare to see her at the school on a Sunday. She and Celestia were devoted school administrators, but they still relished their days off. That, and Luna wasn’t wearing her normal pant suit. She was in a long, flowing dress that sparkled and glistened with each step. She also had a different posture. She was carrying herself taller, with her hands folded in front of her.
“I pictured this place to be somewhat larger, considering what Twilight has described to me.” Luna strode towards the computers, her eyes watching as some windows popped up and moved. Twilight was controlling the desktop remotely, likely cozied up with Spike on her lap back at her parent’s house.
“But haven’t you been down here before?” Sunset asked.
“I suppose my counterpart has, yes, but I haven’t.”
Sunset titled her head to one side, then took a step back as the realization hit her. “Princess Luna? You came through the mirror? Is there something wrong in Equestria?”
“At present, no,” Princess Luna said as she turned away from the computer. Sunset bowed her head, reacting on old instincts. Luna, however, stepped closer, put her hand on Sunset’s chin, and tilted her head back up. “But I suppose the same cannot be said of this world. Your last report to Princess Twilight indicated that Fluttershy’s condition has not improved since the incident.”
Sunset withered, but nodded her head. “We’re still keeping a close tab on things. She hasn’t gotten worse, but she’s not getting better, either. We still think defeating the Dracula entity will turn her back, but we haven’t had any solid leads yet. It’s gone into hiding.”
“I have faith that you and your friends will be able to track the entity down. This situation, however, has raised a concern, one I wish to address.” Princess Luna unfolded her hands and held out her right palm to Sunset, in which rested a wooden box that had been engraved with a fanciful crescent moon. “The magic of friendship is your greatest weapon, but it is fragile. If even one of your friends is absent or incapacitated, the power becomes inaccessible. In Equestria, there are other tools that can be employed should the magic of friendship ever fail.”
Luna extended her hand further, holding the wooden case closer to Sunset. “This world does not have such a safety net, and that is why I am here.”
Sunset hesitated for a moment, but then took the box, cracked it open and picked up the bracelet contained within. “It kind of looks like our gem studs.”
“They share a similar nature,” Luna said as she lowered her hands, letting Sunset inspect the bracelet. “It is meant to draw out a very specific variety of magic. It is a powerful magic, but it carries with it great dangers. Currently, there are only three creatures who could hope to activate this bracelet. Of those three, there are only two who could hope to recover from its use without outside intervention. Those two are you and I, Sunset Shimmer.”
The bracelet felt heavier in Sunset’s fingers. She returned it to its wood case, closed the lid, and clasped it tightly in her hand. “Why are we the only two that can use this safely?”
“When a creature wields great magic, part of that power always remains behind. That is why you and your friends have had the power to save this world twice, even after Twilight’s crown was returned to Equestria.” Luna raised a hand to touch her chest, right above her heart. “The Elements of Harmony, and similar powers, leave behind a small wellspring of their strength in those who are worthy. Even after my betrayal, some of that magic my sister and I once wielded together still remains.”
Luna’s hand clenched, tightening into a fist around the fabric of her dress. “For you and I, however, other embers of magic linger: magic we wielded not for the benefit of others, but for our own selfish gains. It is a magic that, if reignited, would seek to consume us, body and soul, once more.
“Like water and fire, we two have wielded and been marked by two great extremes of magic. Now, you face entities of unknown strength and number. Should the day come that you must rely on your strength alone to save your friends, I ask that you remember this bracelet and these words.”
Luna unclenched her first and reached out her hand to place it on Sunset’s shoulder. “When faced with a wildfire, that seeks to burn all you care for, I pray you always have the water to douse it. But should the fire burn too hot, remember that there are other ways of fighting the blaze. That, once in a blue moon, you may need to—”
~~~
“—fight fire with fire.”
The words were like a match being dropped into an ocean of oil. The small flicker of magic The Master had sensed when the girl put on the bracelet exploded. Flames poured out of her skin, forming a swirling shell of black and iridescent-blue. The Master couldn’t help but squint his eyes and raise his free claw to protect his face from the searing heat pouring out from the girl. A silhouette formed in the fire, then a blur of red came racing at him. He felt a punch land against his side. His grip on the defective, pink-haired vampire slipped, and he tumbled as he was launched skyward.
The Master spread his wings, and after a few moments, managed to orient himself upright. He brought a claw to his side, feeling his cracked ribs as he glared down at the ground. The girl, the one Rarity called Sunset Shimmer, had changed. Her skin was now a hellish-red, and her eyes looked like two black pools with piercing-blue irises. Her stature was taller, and from her back, leathery wings had sprouted. In some ways, it was like the vampiric curse, but it took the mutations to an extreme where they bordered on grotesque.
She was no elegant vampire. The girl had become a demon.
Sunset had caught Fluttershy when he dropped her and was now carefully setting her on the ground. She was barely conscious. She lifted a hand, and Sunset grasped it a moment before setting it back down. The demon then turned her attention back to him, baring her rows of carnivorous teeth.
“Come then, little pony, and show me the depths of your darkness.” With a single flap of his wings, The Master went into a dive, his claws extended and ready to shred into Sunset. She countered with magic, placing her hands together before launching a column of iridescent fire at him. The Master banked to dodge, but felt his suit singeing from the heat of just being near. His scowl deepened, and his body began to distort more as he drew in close.
The Master brought back his claw and swung it forward just as the magic in his own body released from one of its previous seals. The arm grew during the swing, becoming two feet longer as skin and muscle ripped through the sleeve of his suit jacket. The blow connected, and Sunset was swatted like a dead bird being batted around by a cat. She bounced once against the ground, but then managed to flip herself around and land on her feet. Her shoes ripped apart from the friction, revealing three-toed claws. Those talons dug into the parking lot, leaving long scratches as Sunset managed to bring herself to a stop.
With his suit ripping apart piece by piece, The Master grew to his true form, a six-foot titan of a bat. His legs were short and stubby in proportion to the rest of his body, while his wings were long and grand. He still had his arms, which would have dragged on the ground if he didn’t keep them bent up near his chest, but his face lost all its carefully-crafted human features. His nose grew flat, and his jaw extended into a short muzzle.
Now at his full strength, The Master lunged forward, taking to his wings as he flew but a few inches off the ground. A bloodthirsty hiss escaped his throat, and he held his claws forward, ready to lash out and slice Sunset to ribbons the moment he was close enough. She attempted a few more fire spells, but a flick of his wing was enough to dodge them. This power was new to her. She was wielding it like a child who had found her father’s sword. The hint of a smirk flicked onto his muzzle. Perhaps he could still salvage this situation. Maybe if he bit her now, the curse would take.
One of his claws extended, ready to snatch Sunset off the ground and carry her skyward, where he could bite her neck in peace. She had seen the futility of her fire spells and was bracing herself. It would be a pointless effort. He felt his claw touch one of her wings, and reactively, his hand clamped down. He banked, turned skyward, and felt the tug on his arm. He was airborne, and he glanced back to admire his prize.
He had picked Sunset up, but the talons on her feet had dug into the asphalt. A big chunk of the parking lot had come up with her. Sunset glanced down herself, to see what was pulling on her legs, but she then looked back up at him with a predator’s smile. She bent her legs backward, then flung them forward as she relaxed the muscles in her feet.
The hunk of asphalt flew at him, striking his chest like a boulder from a catapult. Air was forced from his lungs, and the distinctive crack of ribs breaking reached his ears. His hand released Sunset as he began to fall, but The Master did not make it to the ground. He felt sharp claws dig into his stubby legs followed by a shift in his momentum.
Sunset had grabbed him and then proceed to throw him like a bag of flour. He hurtled through the air, crashing through the metal pole he had been standing on earlier and snapping it off at the base. He then continued tumbling, crashing into the trees neighboring the school. The first tree he hit splintered at the trunk. The second was pulled up by its roots. It was only the third tree The Master hit that was able to absorb the last of his momentum and remain standing.
The Master fell to the ground and heaved, his wings and limbs struggling to grasp something solid and pull himself off his back. His mouth felt wet, and a familiar flavor began to dance on his tongue. It had been a long time since he had tasted his own blood. His tongue explored his mouth, searching for any missing teeth, as one of his stubby legs managed to grasp a fallen tree. He pulled himself up, starting to get back into a standing position, when he felt a surge of heat against his chest.
Sunset had cast a fire spell, and this time, he was in no position to avoid it.
Skin charred under the inferno, and The Master’s body involuntarily convulsed. He tried to turn away, to protect his chest from the fire, but that only let the flames spread farther. His side and shoulder burned, then his wings came under attack. The sensitive, thin flaps of skin that granted him flight split and crumbled to nothing but ash. He hissed, barely managing to gasp before pain forced him to cry out in agony once more.
The fire spell finally disappeared, leaving his burnt skin to crack, revealing the boiled, oozing flesh beneath. He clawed at the dirt and rolled in the grass, trying to find some relief to the pain. What was left of his wings knocked down branches, and his claws left their marks in the trunk of the nearest tree. He flopped over on his back, lungs gasping for breath as the taste of blood in his mouth grew.
Then he saw her, floating above him with the moon to her back. The she-demon’s eyes glowed with murderous intent, and in the palm of her hand, she held the tormenting fire that had left him in such a sorry state. He choked down a few more ragged breaths, then smiled and lifted his claw. “Exemplary… pony…” He coughed and spat blood to his side before looking back at her and wiping his cheek. “Fine… you win. Call your princesses. I’ll return to my cage.”
The she-demon didn’t offer a word in reply. She just held up her hand a little higher, the swirling flame she grasped growing more intense.
The Master’s gaze flicked back and forth between her and the fire. “E-enough! You’ve made your point. Take me back to Tartarus. You’ve won, and without using your precious Elements of Harmony. You can cut the act. You ponies never really kill your enemies in Equestria. You just lock us away until we’ve reformed.”
“But this isn’t Equestria, is it?” Sunset bared her teeth, floating in closer to The Master. He began to feel the heat from the fire in her hand, and she held it close. Her claws gripped the flame like it was a bird or a gentle butterfly, but he could feel his skin burning just from being in close proximity to the fire. “This is a different world with different rules and different ways of dealing with monsters.”
“But you’re a pony.” He reached out his claws, trying to grip at something to pull himself away. “You may live here, but you were born a pony. You’ve got a pony’s blood. Ponies don’t kill. You’re colorful marshmallows with pictures on your butts. Ponies don’t kill. Ponies don’t kill!”
“Must be the she-demon in me.”
The fire spell in Sunset’s grip grew, and The Master screamed.
~~~
Sunset stared down at the ash beneath her feet, a low growl escaping her throat. He was dead, burned to nothing by her own fire. His curse would be broken, and her friends would go back to normal. At least, most of her friends. The Dracula entity was still out there. She flicked her gaze skyward. How easy would it be to find him now? How easy would it be to burn the whole city, just to end his life?
She had the power. Sunset could feel it coursing through her veins. She had the power to do anything. She could stop all this mess about chasing entities. She could just burn the city down, and once it was ash, close all the little portals. None of her friends would ever get hurt again if she did that. In fact, maybe The Master had a good idea. With wars and differing countries, Equestria and her friends would always be in danger. With her power, she could rule and keep them safe. She could rule the nation, and be just like Celestia. She could be better than Celestia, and when she had this world under her command, she could take its armies to Equestria and—
A hand touched Sunset’s shoulder. She turned sharply, bringing up her hand to smite whoever had dared to interrupt her chain of thoughts. It was Fluttershy, still ponied up and looking horrible. Sunset froze, the rolling thoughts of world domination dying away as the flame in her palm withered and fizzled. She was able to see now, in the quiet after the combat, just how badly The Master had tried to crush her friend. Fluttershy’s arms were mostly bruises, and there were some other marks visible around her shirt’s neckline.
The sight of Fluttershy brought a calm to her. The rage she had felt seeing her friend get hurt withered and was replaced with a gentler sensation. It was like a comforting blanket, and it reminded her of the day of the Friendship Games, the day she had wielded the magic of friendship in its true form to help save Twilight. She began to power down, her body returning to normal as she began to lean on Fluttershy for support.
“It’s… done.” Sunset took a few steps to get away from the cremated remains of The Master before slumping down into the soft grass. “It’s all done. The Master is gone.”
“What happened? Are you alright?”
Those words hit Sunset’s ears and made her turn and look at Fluttershy. She then couldn’t help but chuckle. She brought a hand to her head, brushing some of her hair out of her face as the giggles began to overcome her. Fluttershy was bruised and battered, perhaps more so than any of them, and yet Fluttershy was concerned about everyone else.
“I’m okay,” Sunset said with a nod. “I know you probably have a dozen questions, but it’s all okay. I promise I’ll tell you tomorrow, but right now, let’s keep what happened between us.”
“Hey!”
Sunset and Fluttershy turned their heads. Twilight was running across the parking lot towards them. Spike was a few steps behind, carrying Applejack over his shoulder. They reached the edge of the forest and climbed over the trees as Twilight fired off her usual barrage of questions. “We saw some bright lights, and then Applejack turned back to normal. What happened? Were you fighting The Master? Where are Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash? How did you beat him by yourselves?”
“Oh, it wasn’t hard,” Sunset said before pointing at Fluttershy with her thumb. “I hardly had to do anything. Fluttershy was a real champ. She basically took The Master down all by herself. I just burnt his body once it was over.”
“I did?” Fluttershy said, glancing around before finally settling her gaze on Twilight. “Uh, yeah. I did.”
“How?”
“I… punched him.” Fluttershy gingerly raised her fist. Twilight, in turn, squinted and leaned toward Fluttershy, as if getting closer might help her uncover what really happened. It was a sight that made Sunset struggle not to laugh out loud.
As Twilight launched a police-quality interrogation at Fluttershy, Sunset leaned back, laying down on the soft grass and looking up into the sky. The lights of the city dimmed the stars, but a few were poking through that night. She raised her hand to the sky, turning it over slowly. It was just a nice, normal human appendage. The nails were perhaps a little longer than they were that morning, but at least she wasn’t sporting a proper claw at the end of her arm.
Her eyes drifted to the bracelet. Using her other hand, Sunset took it off and turned it over in her fingers. She lowered her hand, keeping a tight grasp on it. She’d have to see if the wooden case survived the fight. Hopefully, it had fared better than some of her other possessions. Her shoes were toast, and it was possible her favorite jacket was too. She was, in fact, probably lucky her jeans and shirt had been spared by the nature of the transformation magic. Still, Sunset felt a gentle smile on her lips as she looked up at the sky, her eyes lingering on the crescent moon.
Sunset silently mouthed the words “Thank you” to that moon, even if her gratitude was meant for the moon of another world and the princess that guided it across the sky.
Sunset squirmed in her seat, the awkward silence of the car itching at her skin. They had beaten The Master. Her friends were saved from the vampire curse. Yet, that didn’t mean they were out of the woods. Crystal Prep was a mess, and any real investigation into the matter would likely bring the police to Canterlot High. Twilight made the hard decision and called the principals, who arrived at the school in under thirty minutes, thanks to an absence of traffic and probably some excessive speeding.
Now, their group was split. Three of them were being taken back to Canterlot High by Principal Celestia. Sunset and Fluttershy were in the car so they could recover at The Library. Spike was hunched over in the back. He wasn’t injured, but a single picture of a werewolf at Crystal Prep, or anywhere in the city, would draw a lot of unwanted attention.
They were on the freeway now, zipping along in the utterly empty carpool lane, passing the few other cars that were out at such a late hour. Sunset glanced at the clock and winced as she saw it was nearing three. It was getting to the point where she needed to start thinking about it being the next morning instead of the previous night.
“I’m going to want a detailed report of what happened by the end of today,” Principal Celestia said, her words almost making Sunset wish the awkward silence had continued.
“Yes, ma’am,” Fluttershy and Sunset said.
“And it’s going to have the whole truth, right, Sunset?”
Sunset’s hand reached up and gripped her seatbelt. The principals knew about the bracelet. Princess Luna had gotten their permission first before even bringing it over from Equestria. They hadn’t been keen on the idea, for understandable reasons, but they had agreed with the princess’s logic. “Yes, ma’am,” Sunset said before she glanced over her shoulder and nodded to Fluttershy. It would be better if both of their reports were the entire truth.
“All right, I suppose that’s all I can ask at this point.” The serious tone in the principal’s voice lightened, and she took a moment to glance back at them before putting her eyes back on the road. “I’m glad you're all safe. The absolute last thing I want to do is have to go explain to someone’s parents that their daughter died fighting magic monsters. I’ve had that nightmare more than enough times to know there is no good way to go about it.”
“Yes, ma’am.” That time, all three of them answered, Spike adding his voice.
The principal sighed, pressed a button on the driver-side door, and cracked the windows. The cool morning air began to blow in as the car continued along the freeway. “I know what happened back there was none of your fault. You were doing your very best, and we can’t ask for more. We all knew that, someday, we might have to deal with an entity that would leave some collateral damage. This is a war, and sooner or later, something is going to get wrecked during the course of a battle.”
“But this is more than just one broken window.” Fluttershy put her hands on the back of Celestia’s seat and leaned forward, putting her head between the principal and Sunset. “Principal Cinch is going to call the police when she sees all the damage, and I don’t think Dean Cadance can cover for us.”
“That’s why the others are staying behind with Luna to try and clean things up as best they can, but I don’t think we have to worry about the police too much this time.” Principal Celestia’s words were encouraging, but Sunset noticed the frown trying to form on her face near the very end.
“Why?” Sunset couldn’t help but ask.
“Do you remember the lab equipment you found in the school? Crystal Prep may have a huge budget, but even they couldn’t afford that kind of hardware. That, and Principal Cinch would never be able to explain those budget items to the school’s parent committee. No, someone else paid for all that, and I doubt that someone will want police and reporters swarming the school.”
Spike leaned forward in his seat now too, his muzzle peeking over top of Sunset’s seat as his claws grasped at the sides. “That’s good, right?”
“It means any lingering damage will likely be blamed on faceless vandals.” Celestia’s hand found the turn signal, and they began to move across the freeway as their exit drew near. “But it means we will have to be more careful as well. Someone else is investigating the portals to Equestria. Someone with money to fund the research, the expertise to keep it covert, and the power to keep the local police from digging too deep.”
“You make it sound like it's some secret government agency,” Sunset said as the car exited the freeway. They could see Canterlot High over the off ramp guardrails, and to Sunset, it had never looked quite so inviting. She wanted nothing more than to just pass out in her bed.
“That may very well be one of the possibilities, but we won’t worry about it right now. I need to drop you off and then head back to Crystal Prep.” Celestia pressed gently on the brake, bringing the car to a stop at a red light at the end of the off-ramp. She took that opportunity to turn in her seat and look at her three passengers. “But in case it gets lost in the shuffle over the next few days, I do want to say this. I’m proud of how hard you all fought to save your friends. Though things got messy, you should still be happy that you were able to do that much.”
Sunset nodded her head, even letting herself smile a little. The rest of the car ride was passed with few words. Principal Celestia dropped them off, and they made their way to the Library. Sunset was the first through the door, and when she flipped on the light, she was never happier to see her bed. She stumbled forward towards it and flopped down, her head dropping against her pillow.
Briefly, her mind tried to grasp at the thought that her fatigue might have been caused by the bracelet. That thought, however, faded into nothingness as her eyes slid shut. Exhaustion overcame her, and Sunset passed into a dreamless, serene sleep.
~~~
Sunset slept like the dead until her senses were roused by the activity in The Library. Her ears heard quiet footsteps and hushed whispers. On top of that, her nose was teased by tantalizing smells which were too alluring to ignore. Sunset sat up, rubbing her eyes before looking down at the bed. She fumbled with her pants pocket, having fallen asleep in her clothes, and pulled out her phone. It was a few minutes past noon.
“Hey, look who’s awake just in time for brunch.”
Sunset glanced up from her phone, finally taking notice of the fact she was far from alone in the room. Fluttershy and Spike had been there when she went to sleep, but now the others had arrived at The Library. She also saw the source of the smell that was making her stomach rumble: a feast of a breakfast. Pancakes, eggs, toast, and a few gallons of orange juice were spread out on the kitchen table, laid out in a veritable buffet.
With the kitchen table occupied, the others were eating on the other side of the room. Spike, who was still a werewolf, was chowing down, sitting on the floor and using Twilight’s desk to hold his plates and glass of water. Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack were seated around the coffee table. Lastly, Pinkie Pie was in the kitchen, cooking what looked to be the last of the pancake batter.
“What are you all doing here?” Sunset asked as she looked across the room, not yet having the motivation to actually get out of bed.
“After we finished cleaning up at Crystal Prep, Principal Celestia brought us back here while Vice Principal Luna took Rarity and Twilight back into the city.” Applejack said as she picked up another bite of pancake on her fork. “We all had a long night, but you and Fluttershy had it the worst. So we decided to head back to our homes, get some sleep, then come cook a big old breakfast for everyone. That and we figured Spike probably wouldn’t want to be eating his kibble this morning.”
“Just for the record, I would have eaten my kibble,” Spike said, a few bits of egg stuck to his face since the only way he knew to eat was to put his face in it. “This is really good, though. Like, twice as good as my kibble.”
The girls shared a giggle as Fluttershy got up from her seat. “You stay in bed and rest a bit longer. I’ll make you a plate. What would you like to drink?”
Sunset felt it would be a little strange to be eating in bed while her friends were at the coffee table. Still, her motivation to move was minimal. Breakfast in bed sounded wonderful after the night they had. “Thanks. Don’t suppose there’s any coffee?”
“I went and got your favorite from the coffee shop,” Pinkie Pie said as she flicked the pan, tossing the last pancake into the air and catching it expertly. “It’s in the thermos on the table.”
“Hey, while you're up, Fluttershy, can you get me some more eggs?” Spike asked before he began licking his latest plate clean.
“Isn’t that going to be like your fourth serving?” Rainbow asked through a mouthful of pancake.
“He’s built like a linebacker, now. Wouldn’t be surprised if he’s got an appetite to match,” Applejack said before nudging Rainbow a little. “If anyone should be watching what they eat, it’s you.”
“Why’s that?” Rainbow asked with a scowl.
Applejack shrugged, though she had a playful grin on her face. “Because you want to fit in that little black dress, don’t you?”
Rainbow’s face turned red, and she pointed her fork at Applejack. “I wouldn’t be caught dead in that! Besides, Rarity was going to burn all those vampire clothes.”
“Yeah,” Applejack said with a nod as she picked up and bit into a piece of toast. “Unless, of course, I told her to save a few of the outfits. After all, mine wasn’t too bad once I ripped the poofy sleeves off, and Pinkie Pie’s was practically a Halloween costume. That one didn’t show any skin at all.”
“I know,” Pinkie Pie called from the kitchen as she deposited the last pancake with the rest in their makeshift buffet. “It was a perfect costume.” She then proceeded to stick her arms out in front of her and hop towards the sink using her ankles. “I’d love to be a Chinese hopping vampire this year.”
“Besides,” Applejack said as she picked up her glass of apple juice. “Don’t you think a certain vice-captain of the football team might like the dress?”
“W-what!? No! He wouldn’t, and I’m not wearing it!”
Sunset couldn’t help but cover her face in a feeble attempt to contain her laughter. Applejack’s teasing of Rainbow continued, but Sunset’s attention was drawn to Fluttershy. She was holding a perfectly plated meal. Three pancakes, a sensible serving of eggs, and two triangles of toast rested on the plate while she carried the thermos of coffee under her arm. Sunset reached out and put her hands on the plate. “Thanks, Fluttershy.”
“You’re welcome,” Fluttershy said with a smile. She took the thermos from under her arm and set it down on the bed. “Now, be careful not to spill. I think the last thing any of us want to do is make a trip to the laundromat.”
“Yeah, I can’t say I’d look forward to that,” Sunset said, though she did not reach for the thermos. Instead, her voice got low, quiet enough that only Fluttershy could hear it. “Have you told the others what really happened?”
Fluttershy gently shook her head. “It’s not my secret to tell.”
“And are you okay with knowing?”
Fluttershy didn’t answer quickly, her eyes wandering downward for a moment. She then turned and sat down on the edge of the bed. She unscrewed the lid of the thermos, turned it over, and began to pour some of the coffee into the cup-lid. “The Master might have killed me if you didn’t do what you did. How can I be mad about that?”
“Because it’s… you know…”
Fluttershy finished pouring the coffee and held out the cup-lid to Sunset. “It was scary. I was worried we had lost you, but you changed back. That’s what’s important.”
“Well, it helped that I had a friend nearby,” Sunset said as she took the cup of coffee. With both of her hands occupied, she shifted in the bed, getting her legs out from under the blanket. She got her feet on the ground, her feet finding her slippers. She stood up, stretching a little before looking back at Fluttershy. “Come on, I’d rather eat with everyone else.”
Fluttershy nodded, standing up and following Sunset back towards the coffee table. It was a little crowded with all of them clustered around the single, short, small table. Sunset ended up having to snag the pillow off her bed and use it as a cushion to sit on the floor. Still, she was smiling and happy. They hadn’t gotten Dracula, but last night had still been a win. The entity was stopped, and their friends were saved. As Principal Celestia said in the car, that was what mattered most.
Now they only had to figure out what to do with Spike.
~~~
“Celestia, my dear, to what do I owe the pleasure? Don’t tell me you already have a few new jewels I can add to my collection?”
Principal Celestia stepped through the front door to Mr. Chord’s manor as he held the door behind her. He was an older looking gentleman who liked to dress in very out of date styles. It was never the same style, but it was also nothing that came from any recent trend. That morning, he was in tan slacks, a white button down shirt, and a brown vest. He was wearing a red ascot, and one of the shirt’s sleeves was rolled up to his elbow. His hair was its usual unruly mixture of white and black, and he waggled his bushy eyebrows at her as he spoke. She could also see his mismatched, colorful socks clashing with his black shoes.
“We had an incident at Crystal Prep last night,” Celestia said as she turned to face him. The foyer to the mansion was perhaps the least chaotic room of the whole place. All the other rooms were choked with collectables from all over the world, both precious and mundane. Even from where she stood, Celestia could see his prized collection of pez dispensers sitting next to a set of Egyptian canopic jars in the neighboring room.
“An incident. My, doesn’t that sound ominous. Can I offer you some tea? Won’t take but a minute to boil some water.” Mr. Chord made a sweeping motion with both arms, gesturing to the kitchen.
Celestia raised her hand and shook her head. “No, I need to get back and talk with the princesses of Equestria. We’ve got a werewolf we have to try and hide now. Before that, however, I need to tell you something. While the girls took care of the entity at Crystal Prep, they found something else. There was a portal there, and lab equipment had been set up to study it. I looked at the equipment, David. It may be more advanced than I remember, but I’d never forget that design aesthetic. That means General Tirek is sniffing around.”
“You do know how to ruin a pleasant morning, Celestia,” David said as he let his arms flop to his side. He then sighed and brought his hand up to his face to stroke his gray goatee. “To think, all these years you and Luna have managed to stay under their radar after going rogue, and it’s a portal to another world that could blow your cover. Even I wouldn’t have taken that wager. Though, I am surprised your little troop of girls hasn’t started poking around.
“I mean, your counterparts in Equestria are powerful, eternally-youthful princesses,” David said, bringing his hand to his head and using his index finger to approximate a unicorn horn. “Compared to them, being just the principals of a high school does seem so mundane. Doesn’t it, Agent Sun?”
“It’s not just about me and Luna anymore,” Celestia said, trying to keep her tone pleasant, though there were some undertones of irritation. “We’re all in deep trouble if they get any closer to this. We need to know where they are so we can stay ahead of them.”
“Yes, yes. If there is one thing David Ichabod Samuel Chord is good at, it’s sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong. In fact, I had something I was going to send your way.” David moved to a small table in the foyer of his manor, on which was sitting a manilla envelope. He picked it up, turned, and then walked it back to Celestia. “I heard an interesting rumor about a new student Principal Cinch had procured from another prep school. I go to the country club with the husband of the other school’s principal. According to him, it’s all his darling wife is complaining about these days: her brightest student, offered a full-ride scholarship and some unknown amount of grant money to transfer. It was all because some project at Crystal Prep that had been abandoned when another student transferred out.”
Celestia took the folder, cracking it open and looking at the papers inside. There were numerous records of the student in question, but the picture clipped to the front made her body tense. She took it off the paper clip and held it closer to her face. “We had always wondered where she was, who she was.”
David nodded. “Yes, it seems Principal Cinch recruited her specifically because of the resemblance. She’s just as brilliant as well. Perhaps not as much as Twilight, but she’s much more hands-on. You should see the summer internships she’s taken. Though, I imagine if things have gone down at Crystal Prep, she may not be there anymore. General Tirek isn’t one to let valuable assets simply slip away, especially the smart ones.”
Celestia put the picture back in the folder, closed it, and tucked it under her arm. “Thank you, David. Please give me a call if you find out anything more.”
“Of course, Celestia. Please give the girls my best,” he said as he watched her turn and start walking back towards the door. “And maybe next time, we’ll actually enjoy a spot of tea before we start trying to outmaneuver a secret government organization. I have some lovely tea cakes as well, perfect for espionage or a board game luncheon.”
~~~
“So how did your family take the news?” Sunset asked as she and Twilight worked in The Library. They were sitting cross legged near the coffee table, working on a large piece of gridded paper. It was too big for anywhere else except the coffee table and the kitchen table, and they needed to keep the kitchen table clear for the dinner that was soon to arrive.
“Well, there was a lot of screaming at first.” Twilight adjusted the ruler she had laid out on the table before using it to draw a straight line on the paper. “Shining grabbed an umbrella as a weapon, while my father grabbed our coat rack. They’re still skeptical about all the crazy stuff Cadence and I told them, and they weren’t happy I was putting myself in danger. Cadence, however, really helped explain how important it was. That and we may have underplayed how long this has been happening.”
“So, you're not grounded?” Sunset asked as she jotted down some numbers on the other side of the page.
“Oh no, I’ve been grounded for the first time ever,” Twilight said with a hollow laugh. “I can’t stay here at night for about two weeks, and my parents are locking me out of my home lab in our garden shed at home. They say I can still help, if you girls really need it, but require that the principals have to call them first.”
“Think of it this way, it could have been worse,” Sunset said before hearing a key slipping into the lock of the door. She smiled and stood up from the floor, brushing out a few wrinkles in her skirt as the door to The Library opened.
“The food has arrived,” Spike said as he came through the door. In the days after the incident at Crystal Prep, they had gotten in contact with Equestria about Spike’s werewolf problem. It was a complicated puzzle to solve. They couldn’t simply drain or suppress his magic without putting his new, intelligent mind at risk. At the same time, keeping Spike locked in The Library like a prisoner was too cruel. Equestria’s brightest minds, including Princess Twilight, were working on a long term solution.
In the short term, they suggested some concealing clothing and provided an enchanted scarf.
Spike set down the bags of food on the kitchen before lifting a hand to the scarf. His entire body was hidden from head to toe, each article of clothing tailored by Rarity to obscure his lupine form. Sandals obscured his paws, and extra-baggy pants hid the unique shape of his legs. A hoodie covered most of his head and upper torso, and he wore gloves for his hands.
The final piece was the enchanted scarf that wrapped around his muzzle. It somehow managed to flatten and hide his long, canine snout. Sunset hadn’t figured out if it was a dimensional distortion charm or just an illusion spell, but there was no arguing with the results. With all that clothing, and as long as Spike only went out at night, he looked like a very tall, beefy person that had no tolerance for cold.
“Did the delivery driver give you any trouble?” Twilight asked as she drew a few final lines on the paper.
“Nah, he was cool,” Spike said as he pulled off his scarf, his muzzle reappearing out of the folds in the fabric. “He even asked if I was a famous football player or something. I told him I was more into bodybuilding, he took the money and the tip, and drove off.”
Sunset chuckled a little as she came up beside the kitchen table, drawn by the smell of the food they had ordered. After the Crystal Prep incident a few days ago, and Spike clearing out the kitchen in one evening, they had been enjoying some of the local area’s finest takeout until a proper grocery run could be made. “Well, I suppose that’s exactly what we hoped would happen. So, which bag is yours?”
Spike finished taking off his gloves, slipped them into his hoodie’s pockets, and then grabbed the heftier of the two bags. “These are mine. The two salads, Twilight’s enchilada, and your quesadilla are in the other one.” Spike took a few steps back into the kitchen, plopped down onto the floor, and began to rummage in his bag for his first taco.
“Come on, Twilight. You want to eat before Shining comes to pick you up, don’t you?” Sunset said as she began to set out their portion of the meal.
“Just a second… and… done.” Twilight tapped her pencil against the paper, dotting one final ‘i’ before smiling, standing up, and walking towards the table.
Spike opened his maw and ate half of his first taco in one bite. He chewed a few times, swallowed, then spoke as he prepared for another bite. “What have you two been working on anyway? Doesn’t look like your regular homework.”
Twilight sat down, set the foil-wrapped enchilada off to one side, and took the lid off her salad. “It’s some plans for a few renovations to The Library. The principals petitioned the princesses about it, and in the end, they all agreed we could use some more space, if only so you're more comfortable, Spike. Sunset and I were just roughing out an idea we had. It’s no proper blueprint, especially since I couldn’t get a copy of the school’s plans off the internet, but I think it’s a good starting point for any architect.”
“We might have made it too ambitious, but it’s probably better if we start big and work our way smaller based on the budget.” Sunset set her salad to one side to eat second and focused on the box in front of her. She cracked it open, smiling as the tantalizing aroma tickled her nose. She reached down a hand, taking the first piece of the quesadilla and lifting it to her mouth. Long strands of cheese stretched and snapped, and Sunset bit down. She smiled as the flavor danced on her tongue, but she couldn’t help but notice Twilight cringing from the other side of the table.
“What?” Sunset asked, covering her mouth a little since she was speaking through her food.
“N-nothing,” Twilight said, forcing her eyes down onto her salad.
Sunset found it odd, but she shrugged and took another bite of her quesadilla. As she chewed, her eyes wandered the room, trying to picture some of the changes she and Twilight were hoping to make to The Library. Their little operation would be expanding, but it would be for everyone’s benefit. There were still portals that needed to be sealed, and long as there were portals, new entities would come into existence.
They also hadn’t forgotten about Dracula, either. Applejack and Rarity reverting after The Master’s defeat had given everyone renewed hope that Fluttershy would be free of her own curse, if they could just find Dracula.
Sunset took another bite, smiling and nodding her head. She couldn’t know what the future would hold, or if she’d ever have to unleash the she-demon again. But she did know that, as long as she and her friends stayed together, they'd be able to succeed in their mission. They’d protect the human world and keep Equestria’s existence a secret.
After all, what could be worse than a prisoner of Tartarus coming through a portal?
