> Fiends of Manehatten
>  by Skrive Flip
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Rude Interruption
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The dark streets of Manehatten were as active as always, even in the middle of the night. Streetlamps illuminated the paths of the pedestrian ponies who were out and enjoying the night. There were no clouds tonight, and Luna had 	really put a lot of work into the beauty of her stars. 

Everything was just like any other night. Until she entered the street. 
The earth pony was beautifully green-coated and had a long streaked blonde mane that would turn the eyes of many a stallion on its own. However, that was not why everypony was turning their attention to her now. It was because of the blood. 

She was bleeding heavily from her throat, almost as if a bite  had been taken out of it. She was staggering into the street, her breath a mixture between gurgling and panting as she struggled to get the necessary oxygen to keep her systems functioning. A pair of stallions noticed the bleeding mare and quickly rushed to her side. 

“Miss! Are you all right?! Should we call a doctor?” one of them asked, making the mare turn towards him. She stared with strangely relaxed eyes for a few more moments, one could almost say she was relieved, giving the stallion time to see she had actually very pretty emerald coloured eyes. Her expression changed to surprise and fear as she saw somepony in the alley she had just left.   They had a pearly white coat and a grin smeared with blood, revealing fangs.
The bloody mare’s eyes grew three sizes.

“Fiend!” she screamed, pointing her hoof towards the alley, before collapsing onto the street. One of the stallions rushed to pick up the injured mare, while the other turned to see where she had been pointing at. There was nothing, just an empty alleyway. 

The stallion shook his head and helped his friend to pick up the poor mare, and the two headed for the hospital, making their way through the crowd of ponies that had gathered in the meantime, seeing so much blood around. 
Unbeknownst to them, the same white coated creature that had been in the alley was now watching from the rooftops. Its grin returned, and a sinister chuckle escaped it. 

“So… The poor little mare escaped… Interesting… This is going to be… fun”
And with that, It was gone. 




~~~~~ Coltenhagen, Denmare, Northern Equestria ~~~~~




“Ok everypony, for the next class I want you to prepare a small presentation of your favorite game, but try to stretch it beyond how to play it. I’ll see you all tomorrow.” 

The class all nodded in unison to their teacher before a roar of cheers and glee escaped the classroom. To be fair, most foals was gleeful when the class was over, no matter how great a teacher was. This was a tiny truth every teacher had to realize. 

Left behind in the classroom, the teacher was still by her desk, looking over her things, making sure she had what she needed to take home in her saddlebags. 

She was lavender colored, and many a stallion might add, a beautiful mare with large emerald eyes that seemed to say hello all by themselves.  Her mane was striped between a light and slightly darker pink all very well falling together with the unity of her coat. 

She was Miss Cheerilee. Teacher extraordinaire. 

But there was something more to her. Something she didn’t show to anyone she cared for. In fact, if you saw it, it was most likely in your last few seconds of living.  It was a secret she was willing to kill to keep. 

A secret, only one who would take a deep and long look at her teeth, would maybe begin to realize. 

The sound of a hoof knocking on the side of the door made Miss Cheerilee snap out of her mental checklisting and turn, noticing a blue coated earth pony mare. 

“Miss Cheerilee? The principal would like to see you,” the visitor said with a smile. 

“Oh, thanks Typo.” Cheerilee returned the smile and nodded before picking up her saddlebags and heading for the door. She put on a bit of a teasing smile. “By the way, aren’t you missing something?”

Typo looked confused for a moment until Cheerilee pointed a hoof up towards her mane. Typo reached upwards and felt nothing. Confused, she said, “What? There is nothing there?” 

Cheerilee just looked upon Typo with a smile, waiting patiently for the slightly slow mare to connect the dots. And much like an overdramatic actor, it lit up for the blue mare in a great gasp. “MY GLASSES!”

“Bingo” Cheerilee said, before trotting past her friend with a smile. “I think you better find them before you get back to your desk.” She said with a small chuckle. Typo smiled sheepishly. 

“I better do that! Thanks for mentioning it Cheerilee! No wonder why I mistook an eight for a five…” the blue mare mused before speeding off in the opposite direction Cheerilee was headed.

Cheerilee shook her head, but smiled. Oh, how wonderful some of these ponies were. She had not lived here for long, and yet all of them were acting as if she was a part of the community, even as far as to respect her privacy. She had seen a lot of Equestria, but Coltenhagen was a bit special. There was this silent unity among everypony, and yet they all knew when to give somepony her space.
Perhaps it was an effect of being so far up north or perhaps Cheerilee just felt like this because she was so far off from everything. She didn’t have to worry about anything. Well, almost.

She reached the Principal’s office and entered to find the Principal behind his desk with lots of files in front of him. He was an elderly unicorn with a short white mane. His coat was also graying a bit on the edges, though he was still proud to be able to have kept his core deep green. A pair of tiny spectacles were hanging upon his nose, making him look almost like an old psychiatrist.
As Cheerilee closed the door behind her, the Principal´s attention turned to her and a smile came upon his muzzle. 

“Ah, Miss Cheerilee! Good you came.” 
He said as he dropped the file he had in his hooves at the moment. Cheerilee smiled and bowed her head a moment. “I always come when you call, Principal Hoofton.” 

The elderly Principal smiled and grinned. “Oh Miss Cheerilee, simply Hoofton will do. You have after all been working with the school for several months now. You´re almost part of the family now.” 

Cheerilee lifted her head and smiled in return. “Of course Hooftoon, only if you call me Cheerilee though.”

The two shared a small laugh, before Hoofton got off his chair and walked around the desk. “I really want to thank you for all your hard work with the children here. Coltenhagen Foals can at times be a tad rebellious when things get boring, but you were able to handle them.”

“Oh, no need to thank me, Hoofton,” Cheerilee said, waving dismissively, as if to stop him, however he continued. 
“Which is why I thought I would grant your Request of a Leave of Absence,” said with a smile. 

This made Cheerilee freeze a moment. Leave of Absence? She had not requested any sort of thing. She was happy with her work, and her weekends actually had gotten boring lately. She didn’t need to get even more free time. 
But a sadder, darker part of Cheerilee´s mind that knew what this was about. A dark cloud made the light bend so that Cheerilee´s eyes were covered and masked the silent sadness as she realized it was time to leave again. 

Hoofton got quite annoyed and turned to open the window. “Who was that pegasus who placed that cloud!? The schedule said clear sky today!” 

Quickly a brown coated pegasus came flying by and caught the cloud, yelling back, “SORRY!”

Hoofton huffed a moment before looking back and shrugging his shoulders slightly. “The Denmarian Weather Patrol never seems to get things right… Oh well. I hope they won’t mess up on your vacation at least.” 

Cheerilee had put on a smiling face again and nodded. “Thank you Hoofton… I just need some time for some recreation,” she lied, before turning for the door. 

“I will be back before you know it,” Cheerilee said, trying to sound encouraging. If she wasn’t such a practiced liar, then she would not have convinced anyone. 

Hoofton smiled. “Of course! I will be looking forward to it Cheerilee… perhaps I can serve you a cup of tea once you get back!”

Cheerilee gave him a last smile and left the room, closing the door behind her. She didn’t want to run into anypony else today. She just wanted to go home. Or to be more precise., she HAD to go home…





XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX








Cheerilee’s apartment was on the roof top. Not many would call a ‘penthouse apartment’ but merely the apartment that was on top of the roof.  It had a view over the city, but the city was not impressive. It was full. Lots of ponies living in apartments and houses on top of the others. Of course there were impressive things to see, but they weren’t really to be seen from an apartment window, Like the Chifold Tower In Prance, or the Memorials in Stalliongrad. 
The inside of the apartment was dark, as Cheerilee had not bothered to turn on the lights as she came in.  The interior was just as unimpressive as the view, the furniture not really used to its full potential, seeing as Cheerilee´s daily life was not as normal as many other ponies´.

Sadly, Cheerilee did not have the time or the will to actually clean up right now, because there were much bigger trees to buck. She immediately headed for her office room, a place that she told her infrequent guests held her most private items. Everypony respected that, and did not question why she had both a normal lock and a padlock on the door. 
She had fished her keys out of the icebox (Yes, the icebox… who would look for them there?) and unlocked both locks to her room, before getting inside and locking the door from there. She took one deep, yet fake breath before exhaling all the air from her lungs, not really needing any of it. It was here in this private room that she didn’t have to put on a facade of normality for anypony.
She turned around to look around her messy office room. There were several newspaper clippings and files of old unsolved cases that the newspapers of Equestria wrote about. 
Sadly, for her, they weren’t unsolved at all. They described violence and bloodshed, murder and destruction. The papers described it as violence among small gangs, one-on-one encounters, insanity, or sometimes simply had no explanation.

Anyhow, Cheerilee had more important things to do than to reminisce about the past, so she walked over to her desk. She opened up one of the compartments and pulled out a small hoof mirror. To the causal observer this would be just a normal mirror, nothing of importance.

She placed the mirror upon the desk and stared upon it. “Cheerilee reporting for duty…” 

 The mirror lit up, magical energy surging through the air and confirming the caller. Finally once the confirmation was complete and the connection was established, a face appeared in the mirror. It was not Cheerilee´s face, but rather that of a very famous alicorn. Her mane was blue and shining as the starlit night, her eyes beautiful like the moon, yet her demeanor as hard and powerful as the darkness the night brought along. It was Princess Luna. 

“Ah, Cheerilee… we are glad that you decided to-“

“With all due respect your Majesty, booking me a vacation without my consent was very low…” Cheerilee spoke, a small amount of spite in her voice, her eyes clearly telling Luna how she felt.

Luna sighed a moment. 

“Thou must realize that we do only pull upon your expertise when we deem it absolutely necessary.  We hope we did not interrupt in anything important?” She asked.

‘Only my as-close-to-normal-life as I can get’ she wanted to say, but ended up just shaking her head.   Her life in Coltenhagen had gone undisturbed for a few months.  Cheerilee had known she wasn’t retired from Luna’s service, but was nice to dream for a while.

“No… you weren’t Interrupting…” she lied. The Princess caught on however.

“We apologize… but we need our vampire on this.” She spoke, her voice calm, yet sincere. 

Cheerilee felt what was almost a stroke of pain go through her chest. Why ,it was lovely to be the designated vampire of an undercover agency. Just lovely my flank. 

Yes, that was what Cheerilee was. A vampire, an undead creature doomed to lurk the earth, seeking out the blood of the living for sustenance. She had been so for several years now, and it was not pleasant. 

“What is the problem?” she asked, simply wanting to be briefed quickly.  If she was going to have to put her teaching on hold for a little while, then she might as well get started.

Luna noticed the vampire teacher´s annoyance. “A mare was found last night in the streets of Manehatten. She and her husband had been missing for several weeks before she just appeared out of an alleyway, with blood running down her neck and marks of abuse upon her body.” 

“Was she bitten?” Cheerilee asked for reassurance.  She had been changed after a single bite. If the victim was as well, this would make the situation much more troubling.  

Luna nodded after a moment. “She was, however we have an expert on the scene at the moment, and we believe it might not be a problem.”

“Not a problem? But if she was bitten, that means there is a rogue vampire on the loose, and he possibly has created more,” said Cheerilee, her eyes a bit more firm than before.

“That is the thing… we know the situation, but we want you to investigate further. If our fears are grounded, then it might not be enough to just send a few of Canterlot´s elite to take care of it… That is why we need YOU to go to Manehatten,” Luna explained.

Her calm demeanor didn’t change, even when Cheerilee argued back. “You still haven’t addressed the issue, Princess.” 

“You will be briefed about the specifics once you get there, we already have sent out a specialist. He will be acting as your cover and your guide once you get to Manehatten.”  Luna continued, not seemingly going to meet Cheerilee in debate at any point, which did infuriate the teacher a bit.

“Wait, I cant have somepony along for my missions! Secondly, when am I supposed to be In Manehatten?!” She asked, both confused and frustrated. Her consternation only grew as the Princess replied.

“In about 12 hours. Your carriage will be picking you up within the hour. Pack yourself light, you will have a place to sleep once you get there, and it will be a long carriage ride.” Luna spoke, one would have to be daft not to realize that she was heading towards the end of the conversation. 

“Wait, but I-“ Cheerilee was not able to say more before the magic faded from the mirror, which was its way of terminating the conversation. Cheerilee gave out a roar of frustration but stopped herself from bucking at the walls, not wanting to explain to the neighbors as to how she broke through solid concrete. 

“Sometimes… I hate you Princess…” Cheerilee said with a deep sigh, before sullenly leaving the room to begin packing her things.




This is part of the Vampire Cheerilee Series
> Welcome To Manehatten
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Manehatten Hosptial:


“Is she going to be ok?” A dark blue coated stallion with a hammer cutie mark asked. He was confronting an pegasus pony doctor. The doctor was yellow, with his mane cut short, and his cutie mark was a pair of pills.

The doctor shrugged slightly. “It is out of my hooves now. We are doing the best we can, and we would appreciate if you went home and let us do our work…” He tried to sound polite, despite his slightly rude message.

The blue stallion ´s face showed signs of anger, but instead of acting upon it,  he sullenly retreated himself out of the office they were in and closed the door behind him. The yellow doctor pegasus spread out his wings a moment, stretching them, and getting out the knots. Small clicks of bones getting back into position resounded and he gave out a loud sigh.

“I am not being paid near enough for this…” the doctor complained  to himself before walking around to his desk.

The office did not consist of much else than his desk and filing cabinets. Every time he had finished with a patient, he had to put it in the files in the correct order. Then later in the week he had to catalogue all the files to make sure nothing was missing.  It was all rather dull, yet also tiring. Especially when he got the night shifts.

A sharp and excruciatingly dragged out pain struck the poor pegasus´s head from within. He had been getting migraines a lot lately.

“Urgh… I’m not going to get through this shift…” He mumbled, before a thought struck him. He carefully walked over to his office door, peeking outside to make sure nopony was around to interrupt him. He then closed and made sure to lock the door, shutting off the lights and closing the blinds. He needed to be alone for this.

The pegasus awkwardly made his way to his desk again, looking down towards a special drawer for a moment that was locked with a key.

He stopped short, before he got the drawer fully open. The color drained from his face and his breath left his body. The drawer was already half open, but he could see that it was empty. 

“No…” he breathed. He slammed the drawer shut and opened another. Then frantically began digging through all his drawers. “No...no...NO!”

“Looking for… this?” a smooth trottingham voice asked. The pegasus froze again, this time in fear. He was about to face the speaker, but the second he turned his head the voice continued.

“Turn around and this will go public, m´dear,” the voice almost purred, despite its accent. Though something was strangely smooth about that voice. It was almost… alluring. Despite the fact that by now, the pegasus doctor had realized it came from a Stallion.

He swallowed hard and forced himself to face forwards. “Look just… let me have my flowers back an-“

"Ironic how a pony trained to cure pain and disease cannot even take care of his own health." The voice mused, before giving off an amused chuckle, which was in every way sadistic. The pegasus had cold sweat running down his brow.

“What do you want from me?!” The doctor asked a bit snappishly. The chuckle came again.

“My dear physician… I only need you to help me with a teeny tiny little thing… Do that, and nopony will ever hear how their, ‘beloved’ doctor, is eating opium poppies behind their backs…” the voice said, once again, the sadistic, yet self-satisfied tone and purring push upon the word ‘beloved’ made the doctor feel a shiver go down his spine.

Reluctantly, the doctor released a sigh and nodded. “What do you need me to do?”

The small bag of opium poppies landed on his desk, but a moment later, he was grabbed. One hoof held around his muzzle constricting his air supply, and the other was constricting him in general. He was pushed down upon the desk with an audible slam. He desperately tried to spread out his wings, but they didn’t seem to listen to his commands. It was like they were bound against  him.
With a small look upwards, spotted a small white light shining in the gloom of the office.  It made him realize his attacker was a unicorn. His wings must have been constricted by magic. He tried to reach up a hoof to attack the horn, but was only slammed more roughly into the desk as the voice purred again.

“Ohhh Such a bad little Boy. Do you always treat your partners this rough? I think we need to get to know each other better…” The doctor felt the coldness of the hooves constricting him, but also now of the coldness of the body behind him.
The unicorn behind him licked his lips. “You know, I think you´re rather fun… So just to help you out… I think I am going to give you something ‘much’ more relaxing than any drug you have ever tried…” the unicorn said, before revealing his pearly white fangs. He sank his teeth into the pegasus´s neck who could only struggle silently.

It was quiet after that.



Manehatten Streets:



Boring.

That was the best word to describe the carriage ride. Boring.

Coltenhagen was almost as far north as one could get, Unless one counted in Buckholm even further up north, but Cheerilee was happy enough with Coltenhagen for now. Buckholm was always an alternative.
Or perhaps she should try Stalliongrad. She had always liked cities with a historical significance. One of the greatest dance battles of World Party Two were played out there after all.
Perhaps she should just take a map over Scandineighvia and travel around to the major cities when she needed a change of scenery. That would at least be three times she could change address.

Once again, Cheerilee felt her mood dive a bit.

'Listen to yourself', she berated mentally. 'You're already assuming you have to leave Coltenhagen forever… it’s a Job in Manehatten. They won’t know anything.' She tried to comfort herself.

A bump on the road that made Cheerilee smack her head into the wall of the Carriage snapped her from her thoughts. It didn’t hurt, not really. At least not in what she had come to define as pain.  Physically, she could still feel it, but it was simply nothing compared to what she had experienced before. She didn’t really flinch when she hit her head beyond an arbitrary act she had gotten used to doing when in other ponies´ company. There was nopony around now, but that would be changing soon so she might as well get back into the act.

The act… like most of her life was by now…

Her thoughts were once again ripped away from her as she heard the gruff voice of the carriage puller speak. “We have arrived, Miss La Cheer.”

Cheerilee immediately changed her demeanor, putting firmness and a touch of arrogance in her eyes and voice. “That is Countess De La Cheer to you.” They were, after all, in Manehatten. If anything could be said truly about the Big apple, then it was that there certainly was a large demographic of arrogant ponies. Another one arriving would be no surprise.

The carriage puller did not know she could hear his tut, but then again, how would he be able to know? Normal ponies should not be able to hear things like that.

Cheerilee grasped her luggage, which was just one large green bag mainly containing clothes and bits, and stepped out of the carriage. She glanced skyward, relieved that the sun had set. Sunlight might not hurt, but it was more frustrating than when an entire class handed in their assignments late.

The lavender mare blinked a few times, taking in the sight before her. Manehatten, a city not just of slightly tall buildings like Coltenhagen, but a city of massive skyscrapers. Part of Cheerilee´s mind was actually questioning if sunlight ever reached the streets, as the massive buildings seemed almost like walls, encasing the ponies of the city inside. Another thing that caught her attention was the sheer amount of ponies in the streets. Even though she had stopped well inside the city at a private address, there still was a mind-boggling amount of ponies. And this was the night hours.

'Was this area just popular during this time of night?' She mentally questioned. Maybe there was some sort of Manehattenite celebration she didn’t know of.

“It is quite Impressive is it not?”

Cheerilee turned her head to see the one who had spoken. It was a unicorn stallion. Or actually, In Cheerilee´s head, she more saw him as a colt still. He didn’t look like he was even a week off from his graduation. The colt had a deep red coat, while his mane was a long, slightly messy blonde. A fedora resting on top of his head with space for his ears to peek up. His cutie mark a pen with a small lightning streak across the side that was writing in a large book.  It seemed that he was a quick writer.

The disguised teacher gave a small nod in reply. “Quite impressive Indeed.”

The Colt gave a small smile, before bowing his head in greeting. “Oh, how rude of me… it is an honor to meet you, Countess De La Cheer. I am Lightning Pen, and I shall be your guide through Manehatten.” His voice, while still having a small hint of adolescence, seemed to be mature enough.  He was not overplaying the act, and spoke as if addressing an actual countess. This made Cheerilee bow her head in return, however not as much as her guide.

“A pleasure to meet you, Mister Pen… Shall we get a move on then?” she asked, small part of her impatience digging in. Pen nodded.

“Of Course Countess, we should get to your accommodations first, so you can leave your luggage,” he said with a smile, before turning to the building behind him. “I Hope you do not mind stairs, For the place is on the top floor.”

'Nope… I like having a vantage point', Cheerilee thought, before just arrogantly shaking her head. Being in Public and being “Countess” could be tiring at times, but sometimes it was also quite fun.

The two headed inside the building. It was a lavishly furnished place, though it clearly was a very large apartment complex, consisting of dwelling of many sizes and shapes. From space enough for one bachelor, all the way to living quarters for a large family. The building had a lot of stairs, which was of course necessary for a building with lots of floors, but it was clear the building was up to par when it came to exit regulations. If this building caught fire, nopony would be trapped.  In Cheerilee’s line of work, things like that were important to her.

Finally they reached the top floor, finding very few doors, though most of them very adorned and clearly made of out expensively processed wood. One could almost argue that the wealth and class had increased along with the staircases.

Pen dug a key out from beneath his hat and opened the door. Cheerilee was not surprised to find the apartment beyond very large. It had a combined kitchen and living room, with large panorama windows to show a view of most of the city. Though this was hardly the tallest building in Manehatten, but the view was quite impressive.

Cheerilee was about to reach for her luggage again, which for a vampire had not really been a problem carrying up the stairs at all, when Pen picked it up himself and carried it inside for her.

He smiled almost gleeful confidence. “Welcome to my home, Agent Cheerilee. How about we get on with figuring out who or what is stalking Manehatten?”  



XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX




The hospital was just as huge as one would expect a facility in a city of millions would be. It was large, clean and effective. It needed to be in order to handle the rush of patients that could sometimes come, like during cider season.

Cheerilee followed behind pen, through the hospital halls and past several patients.
The entire place was tingling Cheerilee´s nose. A vampire could catch many more scents than normal ponies, and while the hospital staff did everything they could to keep everything sterilized, Cheerilee could still smell the tiny points they missed. It was just a mixture of a large amount of patients in for different ailments that was prodding at her with each passing step.

Finally they reached their destination. A section of the hospital that was cut off from any unauthorized access. Pen walked up to the guard and gave him a small badge, which the guard perused a moment before handing it back with a nod.

Pen had dressed himself up with a vest along with his fedora for this trip. He had a small notepad and his badge in the pockets of his vest, along with a pen in the band of his hat. Cheerilee would originally question why he would have these objects along, but she dismissed it for now. There were more important matters at the moment.

The guard pressed a few buttons in front of him, and two large sliding doors opened in front of Cheerilee and Pen, allowing them to walk inside.

The doors closed again the moment they had entered, shutting both them in and intruders out. Pen turned to Cheerilee. “We are allowed to speak more freely here. This section of the hospital is shut off specifically for Agency Cases.”

The two of them continued down the hall. The teacher gave a small nod. “I see…would you please like to brief me more in detail then? The Princess was quite lackluster on those.”

There was some frustration in her voice. Pen picked up on that and gave a small nod, as they stopped outside a door to a patient´s room. “The victim's name is Emerald Song Bags. She is a performer at the Manehatten theatre. She and her husband, Money Bags, disappeared a few weeks back after a performance. Nopony saw or heard anything of them. It was as if they had just disappeared off the surface of Equestria.”

Cheerilee looked upon Pen and took in every word he spoke. Her mind quickly checked if she had missed anything, and moved on with questions of her own. “But Miss Song Bags appeared in the streets yesterday night, yes?”

Pen gave a small nod. “Yes. Just as she and her husband had disappeared, she had seemingly just reappeared.”

He motioned to the door. Cheerilee nodded and opened it to the patient´s room, inside being just as clean and shining as most of the rest of the hospital. The difference was the fact that there were no windows in this room and the door was actually reinforced. Cheerilee and Pen walked inside, seeing the green coated mare, with her beautifully streaked blonde mane just lying there on the bed like any other patient would. There were bandages around her neck and a tired expression upon her face, even as she was sleeping. Dark bags under her eyes would suggest this was the first sleep she had gotten in a long time.

Pen found himself a chair and placed it in front of the bed, sitting down and using his magic to pull forth his pen and notepad. He then began to scribble a few things down, mumbling slightly.

“Tired Expression, bandages seem fine, breathing normal…” he mumbled. The last words made Cheerilee look over upon the downed Emerald Song with disbelief. While she could hear the mare breathe, she could not believe that she was. Not really.

The teacher walked over to the side of the bed, looking over the mare for any sort of… sign of transformation. But the more she searched, the less she found. Everything just seemed normal. And it unnerved Cheerilee.

“Incredible isn’t it?”

Pen´s voice made Cheerilee turn to face him with a confused, yet a bit of an angry face which he seemingly ignored.

“The wounds on her neck clearly speak of a bite… And I read the report from the doctors, the teeth marks were just the right size and shape. It should be a vampire bite, but she hasn’t turned. We might have unearthed something amazing!” he said with almost a gleeful smile upon his face before letting his pen write down a few more things. He stopped as Cheerilee spoke.

“You really are too happy about this. You are speaking of her as if she was some sort of pet you wished for Hearths warming eve.” This made Pen´s ears fall slightly, while they were still sticking out of the Fedora.

“Sorry… it is just… fascinating is all…” he tried to say defensively, but did realize his error.

“Besides, I don’t believe she is not going to turn… If it’s a real bite, then it’s only a matter of time… after all, You only found her yesterday?” Cheerilee asked the last for confirmation. When Pen nodded, she continued. “She could simply be going through her transformation very slowly….” The teacher trailed off in her theorization, but kept her focus upon the sleeping mare.

There was just something off about this. If Pen was right, then Emerald could not have been bitten by a vampire. It would just be impossible.

Cheerilee opened her mouth to say something, but then she heard something. A small sound of groaning and the rustling of sheets.

The mare was waking up.
	
	
	
	
> Doctors can have issues
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

”Wh…Where am I?”

The obvious question.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Please, Just calm down-“

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

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

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

Her heart was hurting.

It wasn’t much, but it just felt so familiar. That almost stabbing feeling of something going through your chest, yet you know you´re completely okay.
She was feeling sorry for Emerald. Feeling a mixture of pity and somehow guilt for her actions. And as this door opened, Cheerilee finally deciphered what was wrong with Emerald.
The mare´s shaking, her constant fear and her unwillingness to let anyone near her.
She was not just traumatized, she was reduced. Cheerilee began to look upon Emerald as less of a mare who was traumatized, and more of a foal who was scared of the monsters. She could almost see it before her. Emerald lying there curled up, shivering and fearing that the monsters would come and get her, And the others voices would not calm her.

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

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

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

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

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

Emerald kept her face buried deeply into Cheerilee´s shoulder while still sobbing for a few more seconds before she shakingly answered the question.
“C… Coltenhagen public school…” she admitted, which actually made Pen´s jaw drop slightly. Emerald was rather famous around Manehatten, though everyone assumed the beautiful earth pony performer had gotten a much better education.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Emerald, tell me… who is that fiend? What does he look like?” she asked quickly. “You need to tell me now!” Cheerilee asserted herself.
This was the moment Emerald stared at her again, her pupils shrunk to about the size of pins before she ripped herself backwards, away from Cheerilee´s embrace and screamed once again.

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

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

Ah ponyfeathers.

“Will you get away from the patient!?”  

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

“Listen, we need to talk with her about-

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

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

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

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

Pen turned his head to Cheerilee.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But they were not prepared for what they found.

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

Cheerilee´s eyes and mind hardened.

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

The earth pony first raised an eyebrow at Cheerilee.

“Didn’t the doctor tell you not-“

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

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

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

“Which room!?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The scent was abruptly cut off as Cheerilee reached a service elevator, the small display above the doors declaring that was going down, actually already were at the second floor. Cheerilee looked around to find her options, quickly getting the location of a door with the sign ‘maintenance staircase’. Perfect.
A last look at the elevator revealed that the elevator had actually not stopped on either the ground, first, or second floor, but In the cellar. That could only be bad.
Cheerilee sprinted down maintenance staircase, her hooves clopping against the concrete causing actually rather loud echoes inside the hollow and empty shaft .

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

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

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

The sound of hooves clopping not far off, snapped Cheerilee´s attention, and made her dash after the sound.
Turning a corner, she was met with the shocked face of the same doctor from before. Cheerilee didn’t give him a chance to say much, before she slammed him against the wall, pinning him by this throat, and hissingly asked “Where is Emerald?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The stones passed by her like snow during an avalanche and she was catching up relatively quickly.
While the tunnels squirmed around and wriggled in different directions, she was finally met with the sight of something more straight ahead.

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

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

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

And get bucked in the face.

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

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

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

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

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



	Back at the hospital:



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

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

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

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

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

“Going somewhere Featherband?” The unicorn asked with a smirk, before the guards quickly encircled the Doctor.
With no way out, and no possible chance of escape, explanation nor recourse, the doctor did all he could do.
His wings dropped along with all possible hope. 

“Oh horse radishes…”
> First Class Tour
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Manehatten Hospital


With doctor Featherband apprehended, Lightning Pen tried to track down the route that Cheerilee had taken. It was clear that Featherband had either an accomplice, or was the accomplice himself, so it did not make much sense in questioning him where Emerald was. Pen had ordered him apprehended for interrogation. 

Pen´s morale was lowered as he followed what he could only call the trail of destruction created by Cheerilee, in from of ruined and opened doors. This was going to be expensive. 

When he reached the last door, He found the sign saying ‘sewer access’ and stopped there. The sewers of Manehatten was not just a maze, it was like an entirely separate world. It would be near impossible to follow her down there. 

“What are your orders Agent Pen?” a large gruff pegasus guard asked behind him, standing proudly and saluting. 

Pen turned his head a moment.

“Firstly you can stop saluting; I’m just an agent, not a general,” he said, making the Guard a bit sheepishly pull his hoof down. “Secondly, you put out a memo to the rest of the Manehatten guard force. Tell them that another mare has been kidnapped… Look out for Emerald Song… Find her alive if possible.” He said, his voice heavy with both authority and low hopes. 

The guard saluted again before flapping his wings and heading off to do his task, leaving Pen behind. 

The red writer unicorn groaned a moment as he pulled his fedora down into his face, his horn almost poking a hole through it. This was not good. He had gotten separated from Agent Cheerilee, and he knew not what had become of her. Of course he trusted she could defend herself, but if the fiend also was a vampire, then she was on his territory, and it was possible she would perish down there. 

What should he do? The only thing he could do… Continue the investigation, hoping that the vampire agent turned up. Trying to track her down would be as big waste a time like hoof polish on a diamond dog.

The writer pony headed back up into the hospital itself. 

The elevator brought him up to the lobby first, the place already filled with nurses who were walking around, whispering amongst each other as to why guards had been here. Though the whispers were killed the moment the door to the Manager´s office slammed open. 

The writer pony barely was allowed to turn his head before he heard the roaring voice of a positively huge earth pony yell at him.

“What is the meaning of this madness!?! Guards in my hospital!? Arresting one of my doctors!?” the voice bellowed. 

He was a very large blue earth pony, his mane cut short and neatly combed back in order to not shed any fur in the preferably sterile environment. He was dressed in a white doctor´s jacket with a pair of pens neatly hanging from it’s his pocket. The jacket was cut nicely around the flank so that the Cutie mark was almost put on display, as to show that he knew what he was talking about. The cutie mark being a large red cross and clipboard. 

Pen did his best to look completely innocent. He stood there with a surprised look upon his face as the doctor marched up to him with a look of bloody murder in his eyes. 

“How should I know? Shouldn’t you ask the law officials?” Pen asked with an almost apologetic smile, though the doctor was not convinced any.

“My nurses say that you lead those guards through MY hospital, and that YOU were the one who gave the order to arrest Featherband! How could you have that authority!?” he demanded to know. Pen mentally sighed. It was situations like these he would rather avoid. He turned and snapped his tail slightly at the doctor´s face arrogantly before calmly strolling towards the exit. 

“I don’t need to explain myself to you… You on the other hoof have got quite a few things to answer for… But that is not my place to say…” he said before sending a small smirk back at the doctor. “Though I would like to add that the guards might begin to investigate the hospital, so you should perhaps cover your losses, instead of throwing charges at ponies?” He asked, his smirk hitting the doctor like a metaphorical slap to the face. The large doctor was fuming, glaring at the coltish writer pony. But that pony was right, if he began throwing charges around right after he had failed to keep order at his hospital, then he would lose face amongst the board! They would think he was trying to scapegoat it onto someone random. 

“Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr You little… Freaky Queer…” he tried to find his worst words to describe his frustration, but was interrupted as a guard pony cleared his throat behind the doctor. He was only able to turn his head before he met the harsh stare of the pony.

“Do we need to file you in for harassment of civilians as well beyond you losing your patients?” he asked harshly, covering Pen´s flank and allowing him to sneak relatively discretely out. 

Pen was not able to hear the rest of the conversation, but he was immediately deflated the moment he got out of sight and out of the hospital itself. 

Dear Celestia this was going to be awkward to explain later if he had to keep his cover. He had to be more careful.

He shook his head a moment. ‘This isn’t the time to think of that… You need to somehow contact Cheerilee’. He thought to himself and sat down by the wall to the hospital, thinking over his options. 

‘Ok, Cheerilee chased after the kidnapper in the sewers. Which means I can’t trace her. There is the possibility that she is dead, Uhm, I mean, fully dead. There is also the possibility that she found Emerald and they are on their way out, and Manehatten is saved… No no, Can’t assume that, that’s why you asked the Guards to search for Emerald right?’ his thoughts twisted themselves around in his mind as he was sitting there on his rump. He was forgetting everything around him and twisting his thoughts around to try and consider every. Single. Detail. And. Possibility. 

“Presume she is alive, yet lost… How should I act in the meantime? Should I call for backup from the Princess? Should I sit at home and wait? Should I wait here? How could she assume where I was? Would it be considered me abandoning her if I were to wait anywhere else? And on the same note, Would I be abandoning her by not following down the Sewers!? In fact, Since I am actually prancing back and forth here and considering my options in precious time while Cheerilee might be in serious trouble, could in fact be seen as me abandoning her! But I'm not going to-“

Pen was silenced as two things happened rather fast. One, His nostrils were invaded by a horrid stench. Something between rotting eggs and the smell of a bathroom in the most slummy bar he could think of. Two, he was grabbed by the face and turned by two rough mare hooves, forced to turn and stare into the wet face of Agent Cheerilee.

“Just…. Shut…. Up….” She growled threateningly. 

Pen ran through a pallet of different emotions as he Saw Cheerilee, all sadly expressing themselves through exactly what he was just asked not to do. 

“Cheerilee! I thought you might be dead! What happened? No don’t answer that, did you find the kidnapper? No, don’t answer that either, you would have brought him here if you did, unless you had decided to kill him, but I will assume you are professional enough-“ 

He was finally silenced as he was slapped so hard that he could swear he felt his brain hammer against the inside of his skull with an audible thud. The young unicorn stared upon Cheerilee, holding his cheek which had actually gone blue from the strike as he finally realized her predicament. 

Not only did she stink, she was drenched head to hoof, her mane sticking to her face and there was actually pieces of sewer slime stuck amongst the once beautiful locks in her mane. She was positively fuming in a strange mixture of self-loathing and anger at everything else, she was actually gritting her teeth audibly in order to keep herself calm. Pen realized he was lucky she had not just ripped his head off right there.

“Just… Tell Me… Did you arrest the doctor?” she asked firmly, wishing no more bull manure. The young unicorn nodded his head, his fedora actually flipping a bit back and forth putting emphasis on the nod. 

“Yes…. He is arrested and is being transported to the local guard post. We can interrogate him tomorrow,” Pen quickly reported, chronologically and precisely, sitting there stiff as a board. 

Cheerilee gave an artificial sigh and nodded.

“Good….” she stated, before reaching a hoof up to move the wet mane out of her eyes. “Now… I need a shower…” she grumbled, not having any more patience that night. She had been stuck in a carriage for inequine amounts of time, and merely hours after she left it, she ended up getting a first hoof tour of the city´s sewer system. She either needed time to relax, or somepony to rip the throat out of. And the last was out of the question. 

Pen gave a quick nod, before he waved a hoof at a taxi carriage which was about to pass by the hospital. The carriage stopped, but the puller was at first unwilling to let them onboard. 

“She´ll stink up mah Carriage!” the earth pony carriage puller said, holding his snout covered a moment as Cheerilee came up to the carriage, his eyes narrowing at the mare. 

The red Unicorn smiled a bit with sudden inspiration before he walked up to the puller. 

“I’ll pay you a hundred bits now, and then three hundred when we get there, Then you can get your carriage cleaned.” He tried to reason with the earth pony. A light seemed to gleam in the puller´s eyes, the prospect of a large sum of bits was a good deal, which was what Cheerilee assumed was the reason the puller began smiling, but despite her horrible mood, she was not expecting his answer.

“Wait… You´re Lightning Pen aren’t ya!?” He asked, his breath held in anticipation. Cheerilee sent the red unicorn a small glance, who just returned it with a slightly uncomfortable smile.

“Uhm… Yes, That’s me, but Can we just-“ 

“Oh mah goodness!” the working class earth pony declared. “Ah didn’t believe mah own eyes fer a moment, but it really is ya! Forget about the extra bits! This one is on the house!” he said with quite a grin, beckoning both them to enter the carriage. 

The vampire teacher stood with her mouth a bit agape. Her anger had lulled slightly so she was in the mood to be genuinely interested in this. Pen on the other hoof, looked uncomfortable, he pulled at his fedora a moment as to cover himself slightly more, though it was hard due to his horn in the way. 

“Uhm… Thanks sir…” he said before just walking into the Carriage, a confused Cheerilee following behind, who closed the door and let them head off. 

The inside of the carriage was not the finest, not to be expected seeing as it was a cab, but it was still closed up enough to capture quite a bit of the smell, making Pen hold a hoof over his nose defensively. Cheerilee didn’t bother covering her nose anymore. It had gone completely numb after that trip through the sewers. 

The silence was broken by Cheerilee who crossed her hooves a moment.

“So, what was that about?” she asked calmly, making Pen´s ears perk up a moment. “The puller recognized you…” She waited for an answer, tapping one of her hooves impatiently. The colt rubbed the back of his head a moment, looking down slightly.

“Well, I don’t always work with… You know…” He didn’t mention the Agency as the carriage driver was still within possible earshot, so he held his tongue.  “In my free time… Or… well… Work time I guess… I’m a freelance author…” he spoke, shifting his flank slightly as to put a tiny bit of emphasis on his cutie mark. 

Cheerilee nodded her head in acknowledgement. The pen with the lightning streak writing in a book. It was rather fitting for an author, though she knew not to make assumptions judging by ponies cutie marks. She had met a pony or two who did; they thought she was a florist, and not a teacher. 

“So what do you write?” she asked calmly, part of her feeling stupid for just asking the colt about that, she shouldn’t get too friendly with someone she just met for a single mission. But the teacher in her was genuinely interested. Pen looked so young, if he had already made it, that would be rather impressive.

The colt turned his head away a moment. 

“Oh uhm… I write… Fiction… Though I get inspired by the real world… You know, I go to the occasional dragon infested town, hear the accounts of ponies who have been kidnapped by Changelings, and so forth… Get material.” He then stiffened a moment and waved his hooves defensively. “I only use the material I’m allowed to! And I never divulge anypony´s names! That would be cruel!” he tried to reason himself in front of Cheerilee. He was clearly a bit more skittish seeing as Cheerilee had growled at him and actually smacked his face. 

The vampire teacher nodded her head a moment, calmly listening to the fumbling unicorn. 

“So how are your books received?” she asked with interest. Pen was actually not allowed to answer this one, instead the carriage driver answered, calling into the Carriage.

“Are ya kidding? He has gotten two awards in Manehatten! He is one of The big Orange´s best authors in mah book!” He said, one could almost hear the grin upon the driver’s lips. 

Pen´s cheeks reddened and he looked down towards one of his hooves.

“I’m not really that good… I just… Try to hoofle it…” he said with a bit of a low voice, which made Cheerilee perk up an eyebrow. Was he embarrassed about his work? But it seemed that he had fans, so he shouldn’t be… The teacher just gave a warm smile to the young writer. 

“I am sure you hoofle it very well…” she said, receding to look out the window as the Unicorn grew quiet. 

The rest of the trip back to the safehouse was spent in awkward silence, as Pen seemed to focus more upon his hooves than looking into the teacher´s eyes. Cheerilee blamed herself for his silence. After all, She knew colts that were still not completely self-confident in that age, so her snapping at him most likely made him feel bad. Sometimes being a teacher could give you insight, she was convinced. 

Finally reaching the address, they left the carriage, (though Pen staying a moment, insisting that he paid for having the carriage cleaned) and headed up the huge assortment of stairs, reaching the safehouse. 

Pen was the first one inside seeing as he was the one who had the key, and he rather quickly pointed over to a door on the far side of the large combined living room and kitchen. 

“The bathroom is the door on the left, feel free to take as much time as you want.” He said as he levitated his fedora up to its perch by the door. 

The vampire teacher wasted no time in getting to the bathroom, longing to get the stench out of her fur, and regain feeling in her nose. It had begun to feel less numb, and more as if it was about to fall off. 

She pushed open the door to the bathroom, and was actually a little taken aback by the sheer size of it. The apartment was really a penthouse in so many ways. The huge panorama windows back in the livingroom might have convinced her, but now looking upon the sheer size of the bathroom there was no longer space for doubt. It was about the size of Sugarcube Corner´s kitchen  and had not only a large walk-in shower, but also a huge jacuzzi in the corner with all sorts of ways to adjust it. 

‘Just how many bits does that kid have?’ she mentally questioned, before opening the door to the shower. She placed herself inside, finding it so neat that it actually had more than one place for the water to exit. 

Waves and waves of water rushed over the mare as she stood in the middle of the shower, much needed relief washing over her as the water was turned on and she could almost just feel how the stench softened slightly.

‘Sweet Celestia I needed that…’ she said as she reached for the soap and began washing out every single hair upon her body, every part of fur and run her mane so thoroughly that it ended up completely straight and covering her eyes. 

As the soap was repeatedly soaked into her fur and washed away, she began to feel another great feeling come over her. The sense of smell. Her snout began working again as it felt much less numb, the lovely smell of the soap and realizing that the bathroom was actually rose scented.

Wait, rose scented?

Cheerilee raised an eyebrow beneath her wet mane and sniffed the air again. While the smell was a bit covered by the steam, she could smell the scent of roses. 

‘Why does he have his bathroom smell like roses?’ she mused before she rubbed some more soap into her mane, just wishing to be sure she got out the last of the sewer stench out of her mane. 

Trying to ignore the strange question of why her colt partner had a constant rose scent in his bathroom, she tried to think back upon the issues more important.

Emerald was gone… And she was only able to deduce that the pony kidnapping her was a white unicorn. She had thought him too brittle so she had not assumed that he was clever enough to buck her off the ledge. 

Cheerilee shut off the water, finally feeling confident that the smell was out, continuing on to grab a nearby towel and dry herself, while she was still thinking. 

‘Somehow said unicorn was in contact with doctor Featherband in order to make him bring Emerald to the sewer entrance… Most likely they use the sewers as a transport system.’ She thought again, running the towel through her mane. While the towel did make her mane slightly unruly it was still very straight, blocking her vision. She reached up a hoof to move the mane out of her eyes and looked around for anything that could help her curl her mane again, but she could not see anything immediately. 

She shrugged, why should a colt have something like that after all, so she just opened the door to the bathroom slightly in order to call for Pen.

“Pen! Can you get me my curling iron? It should be in my bag!” she said, her mane still obstructing her view slightly. Pen´s voice called back.

“There is a Curling Iron in the left cupboard next to the mirror!” he called back, Cheerilee not seeing what he was working on.

Raising an eyebrow, Cheerilee looked back inside and easily found the cupboard he was talking about, and true to his words, there was a curling iron there. It was a rather nice one as well. 

‘Huh... Thats surprising...’ she mused, before moving on to curling her mane back into it usual fashion, making it much easier for her to see again. She returned to her thoughts. 

‘So the Unicorn in the Sewer is somehow connected to all of this... he looked like vanity was a virtue, so it was very possible that he was a noble. That would mean we have to ask around more privileged circles.’ An artificial sigh escaped Cheerilee´s lips. While it was fun to act arrogant for the sake of a cover, it was something else to try and keep up the act in front of ponies who were truly arrogant. The acting arrogant did at least have a tad bit of self parody about it, which made Cheerilee inwardly smile, though when somepony actually was serious about their arrogance, it made her want to vomit the contents of her stomach. 

Speaking of that, Cheerilee´s gave off a small rumble, making the agent look down a moment. 

She was hungry... Or more precisely thirsty. 

A more true, artificial sigh escaped Cheerilee´s lips again as she looked herself in the mirror, smiling a moment as to show her fangs and letting her tongue run across the two pointy canines. 

‘Seems like I will have to hunt tonight...’ she thought resignedly, quickly running her towel over her body to make sure that she had not missed any water stuck in her fur, and gave her mane a last curl, before placing the iron down. She forgot to think about why this was in a colts bathroom before she headed outside again, trotting into the living room. 

“Pen, I think I will need to get some sustinance tonight, so I will....Will...” she ended up dumbstruck as she found Pen staring upon a huge assortment of papers spread out all over the living room. There were photos, reports, his own notes, and curled up paper lying everywhere as if a small explosion had happened. The writer pony himself stared over all of these papers, running back and forth between paper and pictures, to some looking like a complete madpony. 

Cheerilee cleared her throat, which made his ears perk up, but he didn't look at her, instead he moved some more papers around, desperately trying to give them some sort of strange symmetry in this chaos. 

“What just happened?” Cheerilee asked with a voice one would suspect she used against students whom she had just caught in cheating. Pen didn't look at her. 

“I am trying to piece all of this together with my data already, and it just does not fit together...” he said, his voice annoyed, with the same fervor Cheerilee recognized when Twilight didn't have her library neat. That was something that just struck Cheerilee, this did look an awful lot like Twilight, if she had just figured out that five of her books were in the wrong place. The same form of obsessive face. 

Cheerilee knew all well and good not to mess with ponies with OCD if she wanted to stay sane, so she tried to just walk around the huge amount of papers. 

“Uhm... I'll just go out and get something... to sustain myself... You just keep on doing... What you´re doing...” she said, turning to the door, but she was barely able to trot another step forwards before Pen spoke up.

“The agency has supplied me with enough blood to sustain you easily, its in the fridge...” he said, gesturing absently over to the kitchen and continued on to levitate five different pieces of paper around him, his crazed attempts at order out of his self created chaos seemed to fail. 

The vampire teacher unconsciously licked her lips a moment at the prospect of getting fed, but she really raised an eyebrow again. Did he have blood for her in the fridge? She questioned before moving over to check herself.

Lo and behold, he was right. All she had to do was open the fridge and there it was. About half the fridge was normal pony food, Carrots, Lettuce, Hayfries, Haybacon all sorts of things, while the other half was neatly stacked and relatively sterile plastic bloodpacks with small valves for the easy accessibility of transfusion. 

Cheerilee picked out one of the bags, looking upon it in disbelief a moment before looking over to Pen, who was still running around in his OCD craze in the living room. She reached down and stuck the valve and straw in her mouth, turning the valve, letting the cold red plasma pour into her mouth.

No matter how many times Cheerilee fed upon blood, it always tasted so sweet. It was just so... For lack of a better word... Bloody good. She´d get feelings like a mixture between a Pinkie Pie Sugar rush, and a deep buzz of the apple cider season. She really hated how she liked it but could not do anything about it now. She was damned to do this until the end of her days. Which could very well be till the end of the world. 

Cheerilee´s strange mixture of melancholic revery and blissful gaining of sustenance was broken as the bag was emptied, and she was left with a floppy plastic container. She looked up to ask Pen of where she should throw it out, but the unicorn was already ahead of her, even if he wasn't looking at her. 

“Just throw it in the can, nopony comes to check it anyhow.” he said, trying once again to look over a large amount of papers, before he in anger and OCDly frustration screamed and threw the papers aside. “WHY DOES THIS NOT MAKE ANY SENSE!?” he exclaimed as he threw himself backwards onto the floor, lying in the middle of the maelstrom of papers. 

The vampire teacher discarded the empty blood pack and walked over to Pen, careful to step over the papers and lowering herself as to Look more into the young colt´s eyes with her soft teacher demeanor.

“How about you let the work rest until tomorrow and then perhaps it will make sense?” she asked calmly, knowing several foals who had not been able to see sense in their homework because they were too sleep deprived. Playing with other foals until far in the night is not really a great idea when you have an assignment to the next day. 

Pen stared up upon Cheerilee for a few brief moments, before he sighed in defeat.

“Fine...” he conceded, his horn lighting up and most of the papers lifted all at once and slowly gathered themselves together. Cheerilee was a bit impressed with the fact that he could lift up all the papers. 

“You seem to know your fair bit of magic.” she commented offhoffedly. 

The young writer unicorn just gathered all the papers in one pile, gently tapping them against the table in order to make them symmetrical as he shook his head. 

“I just have enough training with Papers... Ask me to pick the same amount of furniture up, and you will get a lot of annoyed Feng Shuists”, he said before blinking a moment.
“Oh right, you´ll need to get into your room...” he remembered before quickly trotting over to a door, opening it slightly. “This is the guest room, you are allowed to use it as however you well please... If you need anything, I am right beside you.” he added, gesturing to the next room.

Cheerilee gave small nod and walked quickly over to pick up her bag, of which had just been placed inside, and went over to the room in question.

“Thank you Pen... For everything I mean...” she muffled out, with the bag hanging from her muzzle, making the young writer just avert his face a moment. 

“Oh its alright... its my job...” he said before trying to turn away, but was stopped a moment.

“And... sorry for that slap earlier... That was not fair of me...” She tried to diplomatically convey. 

A small thing piqued her interest, as she saw the unicorn´s face didn't change, nor did he try to look at her.

“You don't need to apologize...” he almost whispered. “I deserved that one...” he just quickly added before opening the door to his own room. “Goodnight agent Cheerilee...” he said and disappeared inside the room. 

Cheerilee was left alone in the big appartment as the door clicked itself shut and the sound of a lock in place sealed the deal. Cheerilee frowned a moment, wondering just how deep an effect her slap had upon the young colt. 

‘That was stupid of you Cheerilee’ she told herself before she headed inside the guest room, seeing that it was also relatively large, having a double bed and a large closet, but Cheerilee did not regard it any further. She placed her bag aside and threw herself onto the bed, letting rest creep up upon her as she rubbed both her temples. 
Her thoughts immediately fixated themselves upon Emerald, and those terrified eyes.

Dear sweet Celestia she prayed that Emerald was alright...








Somewhere in the depths of Manehatten:



“Little one, Little one, Little one, do not fear

instead think of what you hold dear.
Little one Little one Little one,
utter the name of your master,
and he might be,

merciful…” the voice cooed with malicious intent and deep pleasure rooted in uttering every syllable.

Emerald Song gasped for air as her eyes shot open. Anesthetics almost never stopped instantly, but for Emerald, the fear and adrenaline was enough to kick out the remainders of haziness from her mind. She instantly tried to move, but was barely able to wiggle more than a few centimeters before the powerful yank of chains forced her back down again. 

Her eyes darted around in panic, trying desperately to decipher where she was. 
It took not long for her to realize she was the one place she never wanted to see again. Her blood felt like it was boiling and she desperately tried to slam her head back into the cruel bricks to which she was chained to, but she was barely able to get one weak knock done, before her face was grabbed firmly by two hooves, forcing her to look into the face of evil.

And It grinned. 

“Oh no no no little mare… That’s very wrong… No need to punish yourself… What would I do then?” he asked in a small cooing fashion, before he roughly let go of her face and getting back onto his own hooves. Emerald shivered and her voice was shaking as she tried desperately to form pleads of mercy, but it all just turned into stutters and mumbles.

The Fiend gave a small cruel giggle. 

“Oh Dear... Have nothing to say for yourself, little mare? My little song mare...” it cooed again as it leaned its face so close to Emerald, she desperately trying to avert its horrible red shining eyes. A small pout formed upon Its face. “Awww... Why are you so snubbish? I thought you wanted to be normal again... Not arrogant... Not... So... uptight...” the voice cooed again, but this time Emerald was in even more terror, as she felt a cold as a corpse hoof gently place itself upon her chest and slowly move upwards, more and more towards her throat. 

Emerald could not keep it in anymore, she was actively whimpering, tears already streaming down her face as she was hyperventilating again. 

All that just emotions the fiend was positively soaking up with a malicious grin. 

“You´re so pathetic little Emerald... You thought they liked you... You thought everything would be okay once you changed.... So weak...” the fiend´s voice so dark and cruel, succeeding in making Emerald sob even more, as she clenched her eyes shut, trying to shut out the world, just praying to Celestia that her misery may be taken away.

But to no avail. 

A deep and terrified shiver went down her spine as she felt the cold and strange feeling of the Fiend´s tongue over her throat, it slowly dragging itself across such a sensitive area. 

Emerald´s face lit up in a mixture of terror and red blushing, and she knew why. It was that aura about the fiend. That... Terrifying... Inequine... Attracting aura... And that smooth voice... She knew everything about it was a lie, a cruel ruse to torture her. But she knew what it also did. Even as she was terrified, her head unconsciously moved itself to the side as to give him more access to her throat. 

A small chuckle escaped the Fiend as it let its tongue back and licked its own fangs. 

“Tell me my little mare... How was your trip outside? Was it worth it? Was it worth seeing the dark of the night before you got home to take the consequences of your actions...” it asked, so maliciously happy about the trapped mare and its ability to do what it wanted. But it was halted as the mare spoke.

“I never was free... You Fiends are everywhere..................” She was just able to whisper out, her voice stuttering and she hoped she somehow could shut up. 

The Fiend stopped. It pulled its head back a moment and grabbed Emerald´s face with a hoof to glare into her eyes.

“Fiends?... Plural?... How can you have seen more of my kind?” he sort of stated, yet asked. 

Had the earth pony mare not been in binds and or absolutely terrified, she would have questioned his change of demeanor, however she just nodded.

“Y-Y-Yes... A mare... A teacher... Sh-She... Was like you...” She stutteringly admitted to her captor. 

The fiend stared into her eyes a moment before roughly letting go of her face and getting normally back upon his hooves. “That's impossible...” he added, taking a thoughtful face on a moment, before, like a lightning strike, his malicious face returned with that cruel grin of realization.

“A vampire...” he just said. “The vampires survived... While we were destroyed?... Oh how lovely... Just.... So... Lovely” its voice became increasingly dark and filled with a sort of strange hate, but it then suddenly calmed itself and got into a more amused grin. He turned to Emerald again, its face turning almost pleasant and smiling a fake warm grin. 

“Tell me Emerald.... Tell me about this other Fiend... Maybe then I will consider revising your punishment a bit..."
	
	
	

> Morning routine
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Manehatten Appartment


As Cheerilee woke up, the far reaching and once enticing scent of haybacon got caught in her once again sensitive nostrils. Groaning and shaking slightly in her stance, the vampire teacher rolled off of the bed, leaving behind a ruffled up sheet. Cheerilee didn’t feel completely rested. It had felt more like she had been taking a nap than a real night sleep. It was annoying, but a nap was still better than no sleep. While Cheerilee didn’t truly need sleep, it would still make her very grumpy if she didn’t get it. Also it conserved on her blood supply if she slept, as her undead body did not need to consume as much when idle.

Still, with that amount of blood she had seen in the fridge yesterday, she might not have to worry about it, Cheerilee liked sleep. It was comforting. It was normal.

Following the old familiar scent of haybacon, she made her way out of her bedroom, seeing the large combined living room and kitchen of the safehouse, with Pen standing behind the cooking stove. The unicorn was not wearing his fedora nor his shirt, but an apron and his mane combed back just so that nothing got in the food. He had just finished cooking the haybacon, and removed it from the frying pan, only to almost immediately pour some strange mix of eggs, milk, pepper and salt onto the pan. It was rather lucky for the unicorns who had enough focus to be able to use both their magic and their limbs at the same time. Cheerilee knew unicorns who, once they had learned magic, they almost completely lost their ability to handle everyday life. They kept questioning how earth ponies could go through life with only their teeth and their hooves and so on.

Closing the door behind herself, Cheerilee sat down at the table. She noticed Pen perk up and smile at her.

“Morning Cheerilee… Slept well?” he asked, letting the cooking simmer. The teacher groaned and leaned her head on the kitchen table, giving Pen enough information.

“That bad huh?” he asked, scratching the back of his head a moment, thinking of some way to apologize for what he perceived as his horrible housing, but the teacher was faster.

“It was my own fault… I used way too much time thinking… And I just need to get used to… Such a soft bed and with… space…” she commented, trying to give him a feasible excuse that did not involve him. He hadn’t done anything wrong, she had just been too worried. Cheerilee looked up at the coltish writer pony and noticed he had a small white bandage on his cheek, covering up the blue bruise she had given him the day before which was still haunting her.
He didn’t seem affected by it at all, though.

The writer unicorn gave a small nod, quickly checking on his cooking, before looking back up at Cheerilee as she continued.

“I just want to capture this Fiend and be home in my own bed… in my own apartment, and with my own privacy…” She grumbled slightly, not thinking much of the fact that she was in somepony else´s house.

‘Sweet Celestia I am out of training…’ she thought with a small frown, thinking she might have said something wrong to Pen again.

“If it would make you feel better, I can share with you everything I know in all those papers you saw yesterday. You might be able to make more sense of it than I can…” Pen mused a bit as he turned away from his cooking, opening a cupboard and bringing out some bread.

Cheerilee shrugged a moment.

“Maybe… I guess I could try…” she said, sending a small look over at what the unicorn was cooking. Pen gave a solemn nod before gesturing to the pan.

“Would you keep an eye on that for a moment then?” he asked before walking across the living room and into his own room. 

Cheerilee complied to his request, but she didn’t really need to, seeing as Pen was out of his room with the huge file of papers floating in front of him within the minute. The unicorn levitated the pile of papers over to the kitchen table, spreading out the papers into different piles and in a very orderly fashion placed the piles in a sort of pattern. Cheerilee observed his efficient movement of papers with interest, though she was much more interested in what was written on them.

Pen urged Cheerilee to come over, the teacher complying to get a much better view of what Pen had made upon the table. Everything was separated into different case papers. One pile for each victim. And each victim pile had a paper with the details of their disappearance. And every single pile was placed in some sort of large circle with a single piece of paper in the middle.

Except for Emerald´s file.

That pile was laying outside the circle, and Cheerilee could almost sense the infuriating effect it had upon the unicorn. That one pile of papers outside of his perfect system. One little pebble to ruin it all.

Pen took a deep breath a moment before placing a hoof on the table, next to one of the piles first.

“See Cheerilee, this is the collection of all the victims, where they disappeared, when they disappeared, and witness accounts.” Cheerilee could already hear how his voice felt slightly more firm, with a bit more confidence, which made Cheerilee inwardly smile. She looked down at the papers and scanned them for a bit.

“The disappearances started about half a year ago, when this unicorn,” he placed a hoof on top of the specific file. There was a picture of a blue-coated stallion with yellow eyes and a flowing white mane. “Disappeared without a trace… His name is Clear Brush. He was a freelance artist, very critically acclaimed and was on his way to receive an award for most original painting in the Manehatten area…. As you can assume, he never arrived…” Pen said in a serious voice and moved his hoof on to the next file bundle.

This time it was a mare, unicorn, orange coat with a puffy green mane and a more statuesque look in her eyes.

“Second disappearance was about two months later, when this mare, ‘Sweet Gold.’ Owner of the Manehatten city bank. She had earned a great amount of money both on the recession, and on fixing the recession by being clever and manipulating the bits. She was on her way to a celebratory party in her honor of not letting the City fall into disrepair… Again, she never arrived…” he said before placing his hoof on to the next pile.

Another blue-coated unicorn, though this was a mare, with a curly white and purple striped mane, she clearly had a hard time not smiling on her photo, and had quite a playful look in her sapphire green eyes.

“Third disappearance, only two weeks later… Sunset Spring, meteorologist for Equestria Round News. She was the local correspondant between the Manehattenite Weather patrol and the news stations. Very bubbly and quite a blast at parties, just don’t let her get near the cider…” he stopped a moment as he noticed Cheerilee looking at him with a quizzical look. “I got invited to a party where she was there once… She ended up making a dress out of lampshades and woke with a cider mug balanced on top of her head.” he added the last comment with a small reverential giggle. “One of the few parties I enjoyed, that one.” he just mused before quickly moving on. 

“She was supposed to arrange a party for the yearly ‘Weather team´s social’, where she had promised quite the blast publically... She even stole newspaper space to announce it. Don’t ask me how she was able to sneak in an article... Nopony honestly has any idea.” he quickly shook a hoof as to dismiss the issue that seemingly nopony had the answer to. 

“Anyhoof, as you can most likely imagine, She never got to arrange said party, her co-planner claims she just left her for two minutes to blow up some balloons, and when she came back, Sunset was gone.” he once again got his solemn tone in place and moved his hoof a fourth time. However this time, it was somepony whose name Cheerilee recognized.
‘Money Bags’
.He was a gray coated Unicorn with white curly hair which usually was associated with an old pony, but he didn’t look THAT old. He was in no way like Principle Hoofton from back in Coltenhagen. He just had the old colours, but not the real age to follow it. As Cheerilee Squinted her eyes a moment she wondered what Emerald saw in him. He actually looked slightly boring.

“Fourth disappearance, Money Bags, Manehattenite stockbroker, though he was mostly known for his charity events, and generous nature towards those less fortunate. He was supposed to go on to a charity with his wife, and his wife was the main performer for the event, which brings us directly to-”

“Emerald...” Cheerilee said ahead of her coltish partner. Both the agents´s eyes shifted over to the file which was lying outside the system, just poking out like a dragon in a foal nursery. Emerald’s beautifully streaked blonde mane and dark green coat was just standing in stark contrast to the background on the image in her file. She had such a sweet smile on the image, and didn’t seem like she had any worry in her world. It stung. Seeing her so happy compared to what Cheerilee had seen of her before. 

Pen frowned a moment, seeming like he almost could see the thoughts running through Cheerilee´s mind. He apprehensively placed a hoof on Cheerilee´s shoulder and smiled slightly.

“We´ll find her at some point...” he said before continuing, “Anyhow, she disappeared at exactly the same time as her husband, same place, same circumstances.” he calmly stated before looking a bit more firm and serious again. 

“Now... Cheerilee, I need your help here. I want you to De-Or-Confirm something for me here.” he said before slowly gesturing a hoof broadly over the table. “What do you see these ponies have in common?” 

Cheerilee sat back on her haunches a moment, her attentive eyes scanning over every single case file again, thinking of all the details she had gotten, and all the ideas she had. The cogs were turning in her head, trying to piece together a feasible thesis. 

“Hmmm they all had some kind of popular position... a Bank owner, a Broker, a Singer, an Artist, a Meteorologist.” she mused, just thinking aloud as she looked over the pictures of the different ponies. And then she looked at the shape that Pen had laid them out in. She began wondering again why he had laid them out like that. Her eyes scanned over the manes and coats and horns and-

And then it dinged. 

Pen quickly jumped up, “Oh, the eggtimer!” he said as he ran for his cooking again, which was thankfully only slightly burnt around the edges. The coltish writer skittishly picked the pan from the stove with his magic, his horn lighting up the room even further, which just filled together with Cheerilee´s mind even further. 

“Pen... All these victims apart from Emerald, are unicorns, they were kidnapped when they were alone with no evidence behind them. But Emerald Song is an earth pony, and she was kidnapped along with her husband, Money Bags, who was a unicorn.” Cheerilee stated loudly, and turned to see Pen´s reaction to her thesis. The coltish writer was standing and quickly lifting up his eggmix onto a piece of bread with some butter and prepared his brunch. He however lifted his head and nodded at Cheerilee. 

“That was what I thought, which was why I placed Emerald outside of the system, at the first three kidnappings, I thought perhaps it was some kind of... Magic draining creature, or somepony who had some kind of personal vendetta against unicorns.” he said, before floating his food onto a plate with his magic, and then quickly also got out a knife and fork, along with some salt as he walked to the table, quickly placing them down and sat down on the chair besides Cheerilee, placing a hoof over Emerald´s file.

“But as Emerald and Money Bags disappeared, My thesis broke down... Emerald was an earth pony, and not only that, she was someone whom Money Bags knew.” he stated as he levitated his kitchen utensils and began cutting a bit at his food while talking. “Then I thought that perhaps she was just unlucky to be at the same place as Money Bags, but then I remembered Sunset Spring had also been in the company of another pony, but she was completely fine...” he said as he finally groaned and rubbed one side of his head a moment.

“It just isn’t making sense to me!” he declared in frustration before sighing in defeat and taking a piece of his food. 

Cheerilee looked back at the files a bit, rubbing her chin again, a sudden thought striking her again.

“Pen, remember what Emerald said? That she was never safe and ‘just when you think its gone, it catches you again’?” she questioned, turning to face Pen again, who actually stopped his fork just an inch short of his muzzle as he heard Cheerilee´s words.

“‘Before it catches you again’...” he repeated, the wheels in his head turning and almost as a realization, he turned to Cheerilee. “Do you think he might be playing with her? Like some sort of strange cat and mouse game just with her? She after all was the only one who escaped...” he theorized, which made Cheerilee give a small nod of her head.

“Its a possibility... Perhaps she was lucky to escape as he was feeding on her.” She added to the thesis as the two ponies were trying their best to understand their enemy. 

“In the end though, We won’t know until we either find Emerald or the Fiend in question... We are still not sure what he looks like. Though I have a nagging feeling I might have met one of his lackeys...” Cheerilee said as she decided to instead sit on a chair, compared to her haunches. Pen looked over at her, a fork sticking out of his muzzle. 

“You have?... What did he look like?” he asked curiously as he levitated the fork out of his mouth. 

“He was white and had a red mane. Though I never got a look at his cutie mark, He did looked almost as brittle as you...” Cheerilee quickly looked apologetically at Pen. “No offence...” 

“None taken.” he quickly added, but mused over this information. “I think I could ask around a bit for a pony fitting that description... I have a few connections.” he mused, before just letting his kitchen utensils float down to his table before he almost jumped out of his chair.

“Well! We aren’t progressing by simply sitting here and talking about it! We got Featherband to interrogate, and he is our best bet for now!”

Cheerilee raised an eyebrow at the enthusiasm, but she appreciated it, and gave  a small smile.

“How about your papers and your dinner?” She asked, almost accusatory, however it was actually a question of curiosity. Pen just shook his head a moment. 

“I´ll eat later, and the papers ain’t going anywhere, the penthouse apartments are well known for good privacy.” he declared before opening the door. “Lets go, Countess De La Cheer, your humble assistant is very eager to get on with the agenda!” he said, once again enthusiastically, if however jokingly.

Cheerilee gave a small chuckle before following along on the joke and raised her head. 

“Let the Countess prepare herself first!” 

Cheerilee hadn’t had the time to actually spruce up and or get her morning shower, so it took a little longer than Pen had originally anticipated, but they got out of the safehouse and locked it tightly behind them, heading for the guard station via Carriage.  




Unknown Location within Manehatten. 




“Interesting predicament... Interesting indeed.” 

The Fiend was lying down on its back in the shadows of its hideaway, pondering on the information that had come from little Emerald Song. 

“This will demand my immediate attention...” It sighed, placing a hoof across its forehead, but below its horn. “Just when you think your schedule is set, you´ll have to change it...” he sighed dramatically, as the sound of the rattling of chains made it perk up its ears and smirk slightly. 

“Oh well... Might as well pack a bit more into the day’s schedule...” it purred before disappearing back into the shadows. 
 



Manehatten Guard Station
 


“I swear you have caught the wrong pony! I didn’t Do anything!!”

The exasperated look upon the superior guardspony was enough to tell that this had been just about the same song that he had jammered about the whole time they had interrogated Doctor Featherband. He was holding a steaming cup of coffee in his hoof as he just stood by the one-way glass which formed the outside of the interrogation room.  

Both Cheerilee and Pen saw the exasperation of the senior guardspony. Pen was the first to clear his throat.

“I dread to ask, but have you gotten anything out of him?” the coltish writer asked perhaps a bit timidly, as if fearing an outburst by the guardspony. The outburst didn’t come however. He just turned his tired face and shook his head.

“Nothing valuable whatsoever… It´s hard to make him squeal when he is convinced that no one can prove he did anything wrong.” The senior explained, rubbing one hoof against his temple before taking a sip of his coffee. Cheerilee´s focus was more into the interrogation room itself.

“Would you give me a go?” she asked, having had a not too shabby morning, so she had patience enough not to demand. The senior guardspony raised an eyebrow before looking at Pen again.

“Who is she specifically?” he asked, though not in a respectless manner. It was just for his own clarification.

“She is an Agent sent by Princess Luna herself… So she exceeds my authority.” Pen simply stated, which in turn caused the guardspony to nod and turn his head to Cheerilee.

“You don’t need to ask miss… This is your area after all. Just… Don’t be too rough.” He tried to reason with the agent. He had experienced more than one interrogation that had gone down a very unpleasant drain, and he didn’t want the same to happen again.

Cheerilee nodded in return.

“I promise…” She said before she walked ahead into the interrogation room.

The room was metallic, dull and efficient, only really containing the Mirror/looking glass, a table, and a pair of chairs. Nothing more was needed for the effects of the room and everything was recorded from the outside. As Cheerilee came inside, the yellow coated doctor Featherband tensed, immediately recognizing his attacker from the earlier day.

“W-w-What are you doing here!!?!?!”  he asked, instantly very nervous about his disposition. Cheerilee sat herself down on the chair opposite to Featherband, putting her forehooves together on the table and looked over at the doctor with a serious look.

“I’m here to ask you a few questions… we barely got to talk last time I saw you…” she said, her face and voice sounding  more like she was speaking to an old friend than a suspect, though that demeanor quickly changed as she got on with her first question. “Who did you give Emerald over to?”

The doctor visibly tensed even further, almost reflexively reaching  a hoof up to his own neck. 

“W-W-what are you talking about? Emerald escaped me in her crazed panic-“ he tried to reason with his own fake argument to save his flank, sadly it did not cover him from Cheerilee. The vampony teacher asserted her voice and sank her hooves slightly more onto the table.

“You know, I was the one who followed you yesterday... You can’t deny it here... I am all the proof an Equestrian court needs to put you in the spotlight... That would not be very pleasant would it now?” she asked, first her voice just sounding like that teacher that was giving a bad child a few more straws, before the dreaded detention might be used.

Featherband tried to look confident, but he wasn’t... No way. There was sweat seeping into his fur and some was running down his forehead as he had one of the worst poker faces Cheerilee could imagine. 

“B-B-But an Equestrian judge can’t convict anyone of something they haven’t commit-” 

“Did I fail to mention that if you don’t spit it out now, I am authorized to rip that foreleg back into place with much needed violence?” she asked with a perhaps slightly cruel smile, but it was needed now. She needed to be harsh and consider this pony a possible enemy of equestria. She rose from her chair and very, very slowly walked around the interrogation table, getting closer and closer to Featherband, who tensed even further with each passing millimeter she got closer. He was actively stammering now. 

“Y-Y-Y--Y-Y-Y-you can’t do that! Th-This is Equestria-” he barely squeaked out, not very stallionlike, but the question was his pride or his life. He had not been able to get another syllable out before Cheerilee made her way over to Featherband, and roughly grabbed him by his foreleg, and pushed his muzzle roughly into the table, not slamming, but just mashing it into the table. She had moved herself behind him gracefully and now held his right forehoof in a rather stressful position, where just the right amount of force could break the entire leg off, if one was determined enough (or had enough strength), while her body was pressing against the back of the doctor´s chair, as to pin him even further against the table. 

“I think you have much bigger problems than geography, Doctor Featherband... Like whether or not you want to continue to have four limbs.” she hissed into the doctor´s ear, not hiding her contempt for him, her hatred for him having some kind of connection with Poor Emerald´s disappearance.

Pain from both his muzzle and the stressed out foreleg was rushing through the doctor´s system and he was staring wide eyed back at Cheerilee with the best of his ability, Frightful tears in his eyes, and immediately squealed.

“P-P-Please stop! I didn’t Know! I swear I didn’t know anything! I don’t know where she is! He just said I had to do it-” 

“WHO said it?” Cheerilee growled as she pressed Featherband slightly more against the table, applying even further pressure that had an immediate reaction from the pegasus doctor, which desperately tried to flap his wings, However they had been strapped against his sides as a standard procedure when a pegasus was arrested. Like when under normal arrests, a unicorn would receive a magic suppressor upon their horn. 

Featherband tried to reply.

“I’m not lying!” he cried out in desperation. “He attacked me from behind in my office! He said if I didn’t do as he said, He would...” he bit into his lower lip, trying to keep the issue of the blackmail behind, but another sharp pain of his foreleg begin twisted just a smidget a very uncomfortable way, made him scream out in pain again. 

“He would what?!” Cheerilee demanded.

“He would reveal my opium flower addiction!” the doctor squealed in what could only be described as a sound of pure shame. He immediately covered up his eyes and face with his other foreleg, just wishing to sink into a tiny hole and completely disappear off of the surface of equestria. He was expecting the worst now. 

But nothing of what he had expected happened.

Cheerilee stood behind the pegasus doctor, staring at him with a new look in her eyes, one that was actually slightly sympathetic. 

The moment those words had escaped the doctor´s mouth, so many things just seemed to flow through Cheerilee´s mind. She stared at him, Her mind flickering with emotions. 

How... Could she not have considered that? she questioned mentally, before gently releasing the doctor´s foreleg, which immediately did the same as the other foreleg, covering up the Doctor´s face of shame and made him curl up even further. 

Cheerilee could swear she had also heard a few gasps from outside the interrogation room, but that was most likely just what she expected, interrogation rooms was usually almost soundproof except through speakers and microphones. 

“Featherband...” Cheerilee´s voice sounded, now turned into something much more soft. She was back to her softer teacher demeanor. 
“Don’t be ashamed... Tell me what happened...” she spoke kindly, actually asking nicely for the information she wanted, rather than demanding. 

Featherband didn’t want to answer, he would rather face a pack of timberwolves than answer that question. It was just so... Shaming. 

But he had already experienced just a smidgen of what the mare behind him could do, and didn’t want to go through it again. Also... It was out in the open now. At least five other ponies would have heard it beyond the walls of this interrogation room. Nothing more to do. 

He sniffled, and tried to stallion up, but he did not stop hiding his face, and his voice was crooked and weak.

“I was just walking into my office, after hoofling a patient from my department... I had the family on my flank who constantly wanted to know if she was going to be fine... I shooed them off and locked myself in my office as my migraines returned.” Featherband sniffled a moment again, rubbing and wiping his muzzle. “I have had head-splitting migraines for almost three years now, and it almost cost me my job once... B-B-but I found that natural growing opium poppies was great at mending it... I could even get through an entire shift without being grumpy.” he said with a small bit of hope before exhaling a deep sigh. 

“And then yesterday... My flowers were gone... I usually keep them locked up, but just yesterday somepony, somehow got their hooves on it. I thought I was done for! That I was going to be found out, that I would loose my job, my friends and-” 

“And then He came?” Cheerilee questioned, her voice asked softly, as she had actually sat herself down upon her haunches right besides the borderline crying doctor. 

Featherband simply gave a small nod.

“Yes... He... I never saw him... I just heard his voice... He said if I didn’t do as he asked of me, he would reveal me as an addict...” the poor pegasus bit his lower lip nervously. “I had to do it... And then when I agreed He grabbed me and stabbed some kind of... Really good stuff into my neck, I mean really good and I have tri-”

“Wait, He injected something in your neck?” Cheerilee´s attention suddenly perked to its fullest again and firmness. Featherband finally removed the hooves covering his eyes and looked at Cheerilee before giving a small nod. 

“Yes, He´d have to... I just know I felt some kind of pricking painful feeling on my neck, and all of a sudden I was in complete ecstasy.” Featherband said with a small shrug. 

Cheerilee stared upon Featherband, for a moment running the new facts through her mind, before she reached up a hoof gently to his shoulder a moment.

“Featherband, may I see your neck a moment?” she asked, the doctor visibly flinching back a moment as Cheerilee made her request, but the teacher followed up with, “I promise, I won’t hurt you... You have my word...” she said softly, yet sincerely. 

Featherband stared upon her for a few moments before finally giving in. It wasn’t like he had any choice anyhow, so he tilted his head aside to allow Cheerilee to see the entirety of his throat that had been attacked by that strange stallion.

Cheerilee peered closer, her hoof gently stroking over the supposed area of injection but she found nothing. As smooth skin beneath the fur just like any other place on the body she could see. It was as if nothing had happened. But a wound of injection would be visible, even a faint needle mark... 

A thought struck Cheerilee. While part of her said it was illogical due to the lack of entry wound, despite the doctor´s account, she still wanted to be sure. 

She looked up at Featherband again. “Say Featherband; what happened afterwards, after the high you felt?”

The pegasus doctor raised a small eyebrow at her question. “Well, I was given the command to bring Emerald down to the cellar, and then He disappeared-”

“How did you feel directly afterwards? Did you feel dizzy, did you faint?” She inquired for further details. Featherband brought a hoof to his muzzle a moment. 

“Well, I did feel very dizzy, and I actually passed out for about an hour... I was awoken by one of the nurses who knocked on the door to my office... I really still felt dizzy afterwards however.” he gave a solemn nod as to confirm whatever Cheerilee were thinking of. 

The vampire teacher gave a small bob of her head, taking her time to think over this new information before she rose back up to her hooves again.

“Thanks Featherband... For your cooperation.” she said calmly and headed for the door, leaving behind a dumbfounded doctor. 

“Wait, just like that?” he asked, rather surprised. “You´re not going to... twist my limbs further, or something equally malicious?” He asked curiously, making Cheerilee stop at the door. She looked back at Featherband and smiled softly.

“Featherband... I am not a torturer... I am a teacher...” She just said before leaving the room, Just allowing doctor Featherband´s jaw drop to the floor, practically slamming through it and the first two layers of bedrock. 

‘A teacher... Dear Celestia, I wouldn't want to hand in an assignment late to her class...’

Outside the interrogation room, Pen and the senior guardpony were still standing there, along with several others who were there for the security. Pen was relatively quick to get up to Cheerilee.

“Are you thinking what I am thinking?” he asked almost eagerly, but he kept the serious tone, knowing the situation. Cheerilee gave a small nod before reaching up a hoof to move some of her mane out of the way as it had gotten itself free after her rough handling of Featherband.

“He was attacked by the same Fiend that attacked Emerald, and drained of a bit of blood... I would bet my teaching degree, that if you were to check his blood supply, you would find him lacking of a significant amount...” she stated seriously, before sending a small look over at the one way looking glass, seeing Featherband still sitting inside his little room. 

Pen quickly nodded and levitated up his little notebook, flipping through the pages quickly. 

“That certainly would fit some of the notes...” he said, not elaborating further as there were other guards in the room, though the Senior guardpony raised an eyebrow, he knew not to mess with agency business. He had seen some messed up things in his life. He simply gave a small clearing of his throat. 

“We will take him over from here... We will make sure he will get to a rehabilitation centre, and get him off of his addiction... It will certainly also ease up his sentence if he was truly under the influence of blackmail...” he stated calmly before giving a bow of his head and leaving the two ponies alone to their notes. 

Cheerilee and Pen headed out of the interrogation room to get their space and privacy that the agency needed, before Pen continued up on his previous line. 

“If this Fiend can attack ponies, drain their blood and not turn them into vampires, then it might be the same one who attacked Featherband... Most likely the reason the wounds persisted on Emerald could be because of her escape... Perhaps she knocked him off, screaming?” the coltish writer theorized, as they walked towards the exit of the guards sation. Cheerilee nodded  in agreement with her younger partner. 

“That would seem like quite a feasible option, though it leaves us at a predicament. We still don’t know where the Fiend himself is or where he will strike next,” she stated sullenly. Pen could only agree, but he didn’t really want to, as it placed them right back at square one. 

 Cheerilee raised her head slightly and looked out onto the streets of Manehatten, the sun hanging high and annoying her sensitive eyes, yet the determination within her was much greater. 

“Pen, Let us Split up, You try and search your sources, and I shall try my luck on the streets. We will meet back at the safehouse at ten, if I am still not home by next morning, feel free to contact the Princess.”

The Coltish writer thought about the plan a moment before he nodded in agreement and smiled, liking that he now had most situations mentally covered.

“You got it.” 

And with that, they did.

 
	
	
	
> Dogs and Fiends
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Manehatten:

Every pony in Equestria knew Manehatten in one form or another. Some knew it for its great monuments, huge skyscrapers and the closeness of so many ponies and other creatures from all over Equestria and beyond. Certain writers knew it was the great melting pot, or salad bowl of cultures, which could mix between ponies, Zebras, Deer, and Buffalo. Almost anything you could think of with hooves (and a few without hooves) were able to live in this great city of progress.
Though what not that many knew was that the greatness of such a city did also leave a bit of a darker mark. Manehatten was filled with lots of rich ponies and the upper crust was only beaten by the even uppier and crustier Canterlot royalty.

And sometimes, those ponies found themselves in neighborhoods they would wish they had not walked into.

A married couple of nobleponies, dressed in their finest were walking down the street in such a neighborhood. The stallion was a black coated unicorn with a beautiful golden clock for a cutie mark, and a darkly blue combed-back mane. He kept a watchful eye around the area, a black top hat almost hovering above his head as he looked around. The mare was white coated with a wine glass cutie mark. Her mane was bleach blonde and tied up in a nice bun, with jewels 
embedded into it, though that was nothing compared to the jewels she was carrying around her neck. It was a huge deep blue sapphire, perhaps the size of a large stallion´s hoof, and it was so finely cut out that one could practically use it as a mirror. The necklace it was hanging in was also adorned with pearls from the deep seas.

So in other words, the two ponies were big walking targets. And they knew that.

“I told you we should have taken a left, Now look where you have gotten us!” The mare huffed and turned her head away.

The stallion sent a small angry glare back at his wife. “It was you who insisted that we could not wait for the carriage! I told you it was a shortcut, and it is! So stop complaining!” 

He grumbled as the two quickly but carefully walked along though the less than attractive neighborhood, getting a stare or two from the occasional passersby. Thankfully it was bright day and if anything happened, there were many a pony they could call for help. Even if they were only looked upon by an occasional passersby, there were really many ponies in the streets. But after a while of walking they got to a corner, which lead into an empty alleyway.

Despite how high the sun hung in the sky, there were still shadows creeping around the city of skyscrapers and this alley was one of those places. A cold chilling feeling came over both the upper class ponies as they walked through this shortcut. It was as if something was there, observing them.

And there was.

A pair of golden eyes, with long, thin pupils were staring upon the couple from the shadows created by the sun. Even Celestia´s beautiful life giving protector in the sky, created darkness in which the inequine could hide itself in. These two golden orbs just stared hungrily and trembling at the two ponies. A deep, dragged out breathing lowly hummed in the alleyway, which made the two ponies speed up slightly from a normal walk to a brisk trot. Even if the two did not know what was behind them, they knew it was not good. And they were right.

The two golden eyes slowly followed behind the ponies, hiding in the shadows, a small amount of the body that connected to those eyes were barely visible. Nopony was able to get a good look of it, before it was too late.

With a swift pounce, the creature jumped out from the shadows, and rammed into the two victims, sending them crashing into the alley wall. Shrills of fear and horror sounded from the two rich ponies, one could question who was shrilling the loudest of the two, but they were expecting the worst as they were knocked aside. Shaking their heads a moment, they clenched their eyes shut.

“Don’t kill me!” both of them almost automatically yelped out and huddled together as they were lying on the harsh ground, preparing for some sort of Celestia-only-knows monster to take their craven souls to Tartarus. However nothing happened. The stallion slowly peeked out from beneath his eyelids, seeing that the two… were… in fact, alone in the alleyway. There was nopony there. He looked around in confusion.

“What… was that about?” He asked, before he heard the sharp shrill of his wife´s voice almost deafening him. He reflexively rubbed his ear, before looking in frustration upon the mare. “WHAT?!”

“My JEWELS! OH CELESTIA MY JEWELS! THEY ARE GONE!” The upper class mare whined and cried, as, true to her words, All of her jewels were gone. Even the ones from her mane.

The stallion tried to comfort his wife, not seeing any trace of their valuables, not even the one that had been dropped near a manhole in the middle of the alley. The manhole cover quickly opened a bit and a gray paw grasped the gem and quickly closed up the cover again, escaping into the separate world beneath the streets.

 
Leaving the ponies and the upper world behind, the owner of the yellow eyes and the paw sprinted through the sewers. Running on two paws, while the other two grasped the booty stolen from above, the creature huffed and panted. A smug grin formed upon the creature’s gray muzzle, while its eyes adored the treasures it had stolen. The blue sapphire was almost so mesmerizing that one could forgive the creature for taking a wrong turn, or falling over. But it didn’t. The creature had taken this path so many times before. It knew where to go.

Only ten minutes of running through the complicated sewer tunnels passed, before the creature reached its destination. There was a large hole in the tunnel wall, the stones completely dug out from within, forming the entrance to a long and dark tunnel, that would lead to home. 

Quickly heading through the entrance, the creature sped up a bit, its breathing now really ragged and panted, its steamy breath almost forming fog in the tunnels, before the cold sewer tunnels were replaced with the warm feel of its tunnel home.

Reaching the end of the tunnel, a larger room came into view. It was crudely dug out, the walls still as rocky and ragged as they were the day they were dug out. It was very well lit however, by small oil lamps which had been affixed to the walls with unequal distance in between them. The lamps were sturdy, but they clearly weren’t placed by any professional interior decorator. There wasn’t any sign of professional flooring either. The only thing there was a small beaten path in the middle leading through to a few other tunnels.

The creature finally walked into the full light of the room, and caught the attention of several other similar looking gray creatures in the room. All of them gray furred, Having paws instead of hooves, and was wearing some kind of clothing, black sturdy jacket or even metal plating. This was a Diamond Dog hideout.

The thief that had just arrived was one of the smaller diamond dogs, though he had stuffed his pockets and paws with the stolen gems, and did not care for the extra weight he had to carry. He was grinning like a madpony and giggling as he finally dropped all what he had stolen in the middle of the room, generating excited and interested “Ooooee”-s from every other dog in the room.

The smaller diamond dog stood back proudly, allowing his kinsdogs to clamber over each other just to get a sight of the absolutely amazing gems.

“Wow Scruffy! This is the biggest sapphire I have seen in months!” one of the larger, iron plated dogs said in its huge, almost droning like voice. Yet even through the droning, Scruffy could hear and feel the adoration, which only made the smaller dog even more proud of itself.

“How did you get this?! Did some stupid pony drop dis?” another diamond dog asked, this one a slightly taller, but not armored. Scruffy dusted off his own shoulder and had a superior grin upon his doggy mussel.

“Ohh It was heavily guarded! But that was nothin’ for Scruffy!” the small diamond dog´s rough voice declared proudly.

“The gems were protected by…. Uhh…” he ran a paw through his fur a moment, trying to think of something feasible to improvise with.
“Ponies! Lots of Ponies!”  Scruffy declared with much determination, which made him only look more tryhardy. However Diamond dogs was never known for their deductive skills, so the other dog´s just stared in amazement upon their smaller kinsdog´s tale.
Scruffy grinned a moment before he lowered himself upon his paws. “There were hundreds of Ponies! With… Big spears!” Scruffy gesticulated, and got a few gasps from his adoring crowd.

“Y-Yea! They were being protected by so many ponies! But when they saw scruffy, They ran away! Just small scarey poneys, ehehehehe!” The smaller diamond dog fake gloated and tried to live the part of this much greater dog. It seemed to work as its fellow dogs began laughing along, it all becoming a sort of collective laughter of how dumb those ponies clearly were. However, as the dog´s laughter died down slightly, something was odd. Someone was still laughing. An almost hysteric laughter, which clearly did not belong to any dog in the pack.

Everydog´s faces turned in the same direction to the tunnel entrance where the sound came from.

There was a Pony, Unicorn. 

Its coat was completely white, shining almost, and its mane was a deep red. It leaned against the wall, laughing hysterically. 

Silence first fell over the dogs as the crazy pony didn’t seem like it wanted to stop laughing, however as it saw the dogs had stopped laughing, the pony whipped its eyes, even if there was nothing in them and waved its hoof at the dogs.
“Oh, please continue! This is the most hilarious thing I have heard in a thousand years... I had forgotten how funny you mutts are.” the pony said in between its laughter, which was slowly dying down, since its source of stimuli had gone silent. 

“GRAB THE PONY!” yelled one of the unarmored Diamond Dogs. 

The huge metal plated diamond dogs leapt from the group and lunged at the white pony. In any normal situation, this pony would have been doomed and captured within the minute. However, this was not a normal situation. The pony smirked and sank to its hooves to brace before it leapt at one of the armoured dogs. 

Even if it had metal plating to protect it from most enemies, the dog had the air pushed out of its lungs as the pony somehow managed to not only stop it mid leap, but actually send it flying backwards. The armored dog was too dazed to see what was going on, but its peers (which had not crashed into each other after their target had leapt ahead) stared on the spectacle in horror. 

The dog´s armour was completely bent in as if a huge boulder had twisted the metal in its molding stage, but everydog knew this was the act of this singular pony, who was now standing proudly, grinning wickedly on top of their kinsdog. 

The pony´s hoof lifted and came crashing down into the face of the poor armoured diamond dog, cracking its skull and ending its life within seconds. Blood splashed from the creature´s cracked skull and head, so much of it smearing over the white pony´s coat, however enough splashed around for it to freeze everydog in their step. Even the hardened guarddogs stared upon their kinsdog’s crushed skull in terror. How could a single pony have done that? In a single stomp as well? 

The pony was grinning maliciously as it simply lifted up its head to face the shivering bunch of creatures around it. 

“Now then... That´s no way to treat a guest,” the pony almost purred as it slowly stepped off of the dead diamond dog, slowly walking towards the unarmoured group of shivering creatures, who shuffled backwards until the stone walls behind them were pressed to their backsides. Scruffy was unlucky to be the small one who was pushed in front and stared in total terror of the pony in front of him. The white pony finally stood barely a few centimetres away from Scruffy.

“Now that we got that little... mess out of the way, I am in need of some assistance, brave little dog... You, after all, took care of so many ponies with spears, right?” the bloody pony spoke with a superior tone about it. 

Scruffy swallowed hard and tried to stammer out a response. “I-I-I was just kidding! I didn’t Really-” however the dog was silenced as the pony slowly lifted up its bloody hoof, making Scruffy huddle up in a ball of terror, expecting the hoof to come down and kill him, just like it killed the bigger dog. However the bloody hoof simply placed itself upon the dog´s shoulder, before the pony cooed gently. 

“Oh don’t worry about that, my little mutt... I just need a teensy tiny favour of you... and I am even going to give you... A little help.” 






Streets of Manehatten:





“Well that worked like a charm...” the teacher muttered sarcastically as she grumpily walked down the streets of Manehatten, Pen right behind her with a bit of a quizzical expression on his face. 

“You know just because we didn’t find the fiend does not mean it was useless... We at least disproved that the Oranges might have something directly to do with the kidnappings,” the coltish writer tried to point out with a small smile in an attempt to raise the mood. He was dismayed however to find that Cheerilee would have none of it. 

“Pen, I know you're trying to cheer me up, but every moment we waste, even longer do Emerald and all the other victims have to suffer under to whatever cruel schemes that that... Fiend or whatever has planned for them! I just can’t take it lightly!” She grumbled aloud, stopping a moment by a lamp post, rubbing one of her temples and leaning against said lamppost. The coltish writer nervously looked a bit to the side, trying to think of something to say to his superior to help cheer her up a bit, but his brain failed him. 

“I-I’m sorry...” he said, lowering his head a moment and looking at the paved roads. It was a frustrating situation. However, he was not allowed to look for long, before he felt a hoof lift up his head, ending up meeting Cheerilee´s sweet eyes in a slightly tense moment. 

“You really should stop apologizing so much Pen... You don’t have any power over the situation so you don’t have to take it upon your cape.” Her honest teacher demaenor once again breached forwards, making both her and Pen smile slightly. The writer took a deep breath before leaning in, and in appreciation, nuzzled his neck against Cheerilee´s neck.

“I know... Just... Thanks for being so patient with me...” he said sincerely, closing his eyes a moment as he just wished to show his true sincerity. Cheerilee was a tad bit surprised by the show of appreciation, but she gently returned the nuzzle as a gesture of kindness. 

“Don’t mention it,” she said with a small smile, thinking perhaps this night might not have been too bad in the end.
They had, after all, cut off one possibility as Pen had said. It wasn’t another lead lost, it was a possibility disproved, which would bring them a step closer to the truth. This could actually be a very positive thing. 

However Cheerilee´s night was just about to get a tad bit worse. She heard someone gasp, and then yell out.
“Cheerilee!!” the voice borderline shrieking, while at the same time having a sort of slurish feel about it. Now, being a vampire made sure that she usually could react faster than just about any pony, however Cheerilee had been so surprised that she could only slowly react as she felt not only Pen being pushed back, but then a foreleg being placed over her shoulders, and somepony pulling her firmly into a cheek to cheek nuzzle. Before Cheerilee saw who it was, she saw the hoof pulling her in. It was a purplish colour holding a bottle of wine. 

Wait...purpleish... wine.

Cheerilee was just able to sniff in the air before she turned her eyes, and she didn’t even need to see who it was before she knew the situation had just taken a turn down very bad avenue. 

She came eye to eye with an eerily similar pony to herself, however she was more purple in her coat while Cheerilee was more lavender. The mare´s mane was more messy and curly, while Cheerilee´s mane was curled up as her choice of style. The vampire teacher´s green eyes met with the magenta eyes of the uncanny similar mare. 

“Berry Punch!?” Cheerilee squeaked out the name of Ponyville´s most famous winemaker (connoisseur and drunk), as she was forcibly nuzzled by her old friend. 

“Yes its me, you silly filly!” Berry declared loudly and proudly. 

This... was not good. 

Cheerilee tried quickly to think of the situation she found herself in, but her old friend didn't give her the time to breathe (not that she needed it). 

“Where have you beeeen mare??!? We were all so worried when you moved away from Ponyvilleeee... I know its a little late, but Daaaaaaaammmn I didn't want you to goooooo~” Berry blabbered out in her drunken slurry. 

Cheerilee tried to, as gently as possible, release herself from the uncannily similar-looking old friend of hers. She gave off an overly nervous laugh and had a very bad pokerface due to the sudden breach of her usual professionalism. 

“Beeheherryyy.... Good to see you... Wh-what are you doing in Manehatten?” she asked, before sending a small pleading look over at Pen, who was standing dumbfounded in front of the two mares.

‘Get. Me. Out. Of. Here!’ She desperately and silently screamed, to the coltish writer, who only then began to realize the gravity of the situation. Vampires weren't supposed to meet up with old friends who did not know of their condition. It would only complicate things further. 

Pen Cleared his throat. “Excuse me, Ms. Berry, but-” 

“Hold your hooves there sweetheart, I got my eyes on you later, but let me put on the reins later, ehehehehe” Berry interrupted Pen and laughed rather slurrishly at the end, thinking she still had her own charm, convinced she had just shown herself as a brilliant ice queen. Though Pen just smiled awkwardly at the mare, who was still nuzzling his superior. 

Berry quickly continued as she still clung to Cheerilee. 

“I came here to Visit Pinchy´s dad, thinking perhaps we could hit it off againnnn, ehehehehe” she said, before taking a heavy swig of her wine bottle, which was rather awkward considering that meant she had to squish into Cheerilee´s face to reach the bottle. 

Cheerilee was slowly getting more and more annoyed, knowing that if her friend were allowed to walk around without restraint, she would continue to drink and be miserable. The news that Berry had met up with her daughter´s father told Cheerilee that easily. She couldn't just let her stumble around without anyone. The last time she did that, Ponyville needed to get a new fountain... Don't ask how, how somepony as Berry Punch could make that kind of damage was beyond her. Cheerilee smiled slightly sympathetically at Berry and tried to get through her drunken focus. “Berry... However it went with Pinch´s dad, I think you should get home by now-”

“Home!? I’m not going home yet! I got to taaalk to you, maare~” the drunk replied determined, tightening her strange hug like position. Cheerilee knew Berry was stubborn, so she had to figure some way of convincing her. Thankfully, Pen apparently had the same thought. 

“Excuse me Miss Berry, but Cheerilee can't talk right now, she has got a very important meeting to get to.” The coltish writer insisted before winking a moment at Cheerilee. She returned the wink and turned to Berry with an apologetic smile.

“I really wish I could stay Berry, but its really important-” 

“MORE IMPORTANT THAN MEEEE!?!” She yelled, in drunken confusion and complete lack of control over her vocal levels. 
”What happened to the proper teacher I used to knowwww?~” Berry asked as she leaned herself against Cheerilee, using her best puppydog eyes.

‘She died and turned into a vampire,’ Cheerilee thought in response but thankfully Pen was there to pull her out of the awkward situation again.

“Cheerilee has a very important meeting with some high standing Unicorns from Canterlot.” He then turned his head back and forth, as if the message was the most important to keep secret, before leaning in to Berry. “Just between the two of us, she is going to make it big… if Just she can get to the meeting, on time… Without any interruptions…” he insisted the last words to try and make it go through Berry´s drunken slurry.

Berry stared back at the coltish Writer with a puzzled face. One could almost see the cogs turning very very slowly inside of her head, as if the entire clockwork of her mind was only slowly starting. Finally it clicked and she went “Ooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….. I seeeee” she said a bit sadly.

Cheerilee felt bad for lying to her friend, but she was more trouble than she was worth right now, and she still needed to find this Fiend and Emerald. She decided to roll along with Pen´s plan.

“So, Pen, can you perhaps help Berry home to her apartment?” she asked, yet also sort of urged of her compatriot, who was quick to smile and nod. 

“Of course, Miss Cheerilee.” he said before walking over to nudge a bit at Berry Punch. “If she can remember the direction that is.” he said in a small challenging tone, of which Berry was quick to pick up on, despite her drunken disposition. 

“I will have you know! That NOTHING can make me forget where home is! Or my hotel! I got a talent for that!” she said with a proud grin, as she was beginning to wobble a bit more. Pen was able to just place himself where Cheerilee was before and allow the drunken mare to support against him. 

“I presumed your talent was wine production?” he replied in casual conversation, before sending back a wink at Cheerilee. The vampire teacher´s flank was figuratively covered, and she could make her way back to the safehouse without a certain mare from the past following her. 

Cheerilee smiled and mouthed at Pen ‘I owe you one’, before turning around to make her way off, just as Berry began to respond to Pen´s question in her full drunken slurry. 

“THAT IS ALSO MY TALENT! I am a conno... conner... connu... I am a genius!” Berry assured him, as she could not really pronounce connoisseur.  Pen simply smiled and nodded, while he began to walk forwards with Berry, doing his best to give Cheerilee the distance and help Berry to walk. Cheerilee had after all asked him to bring her home, so he would do that. 

Cheerilee and Pen could be thankful for the fact that Berry was drunk enough to be distracted easily. Or else she would most likely have seen through this oh so clever ruse. 

“So which way to the hotel?” Pen asked as the two slowly walked down the streets of Manehatten, Berry still holding a foreleg around Pen and weighing him down more than the unicorn was used to, but he bore with it. 

Berry took another swig from her bottle with the awkward movement that ended up squishing Pen a bit more, before answering. “That way! Just take that alley, its a shortcut.” 

The Coltish writer complied with the drunken mare´s directions, barely giving the alleyway a questioning look. Having lived in the city for quite a while, he was almost completely unphased by the darker alleys of the city. 

Perhaps a bit too unphased. 

The alley was relatively long, and a bit shifty as it had several smaller alleys that gave access to other parts of the city and other buildings, but none of the two ponies gave the scenery much, if any appraisal. The only ones who was being observed, were them. 

A pair of slim golden eyes were observing the two ponies from a slightly lifted ponyhole cover. The owner was staring intensely at the two, the eyes almost shivering with anticipation. 

They were there! They were getting closer! The target was just there! Just coming closer, and closer and closer and... wait.

How close were they getting? 

Turned out that the creature didn’t have the time to consider that before the two ponies ended up accidentally stepping on the ponyhole cover, thus smacking the creature in the face with several kilos of hard metal. The twang from the impact was loud enough to make the two ponies jump aside in smaller surprise. 

“The Tartarous was that?” asked Berry in confusion, as she looked at the ponyhole cover. They had both heard a loud twang and something falling into water, but only Pen had put two and two together to think that something had fallen down the ponyhole when they stepped on it. 

The colt gritted his teeth a moment as he said, “Excuse me,” to Berry, before just stepping over to the ponyhole, and satisfying his OCD by just shifting it a centimetre as to place it back into its spot, and turning it a moment to lock it safely. A loud clank sounded as it got into its place, but another twang made the two ponies jump back again, as they could see the ponyhole completely ripple as if something had hit it directly from below. 

Berry stared at the shivering metal a moment before observing, “I think that hurt somepony...” 

The coltish writer shrugged his shoulders a moment. “Might be a Diamond Dog... The local guard force have gotten a few mentions of robberies from those once in a while... Don’t worry about it, the city has designed the ponyholes after it. It would demand that somepony had forgotten to lock this, or if they were strong enough to brea-”

And before Pen was able to say anything more, as if summoned, The ponyhole cover was smashed upwards and sent flying several feet into the air, completely bent inwards, with locks and even parts of the concrete ripped along with it. Both ponies exclaimed in surprise and jumped backwards as the crazy display of strength happened before their very eyes, and out of the hole, a very big diamond dog wiggled its way out and into the alley. It was twice as tall as a normal pony and it stared down at them. 

Berry froze in fear instantaneously, while Pen lowered his horn defensively as the Diamond Dog was staring at him. 

However, before it was able to move any further, another Diamond Dog poked its head up of the ruined ponyhole, and growled at its kinsdog. 

“You IDIOT! Don’t focus on the unicorn pony, its the earth pony-Pony!” the smaller scruffier doggy barked in command. 

The larger dog complied, and turned around to look upon Berry, who only then snapped out of her frozen state. 

“W-Wha, you´re not looking for mehehehe!”  she said with the worst poker face smile her drunken state could summon while she slowly stepped backwards, only to feel the coldness of bricks press against her plot, hindering her escape. 

The larger diamond dog didn’t change its expression. It was simply stoic yet so... determined, as it almost lumbered towards Berry. It lifted up its large paw, as to prepare it to bring down and grab the defenceless earth pony. 

Until it felt the shock of a certain coltish unicorn, attempting to shoulder tackle the much larger dog. 

Despite Pen´s flimsy unicorn build of a body, he was able to throw the large dog off of its balance, and the creature actually toppled over, crashing into a few trash cans. 

Pen quickly shifted his focus to Berry Punch. “Run, Berry! Get out of here no-” 

Pen´s words were cut off, as the dog had risen from its fallen disposition, and grabbed his tail. With a mighty yank, the coltish writer was forced backwards and off his hooves. This would normally have been enough, but the dog was annoyed with the unicorn. So it did not simply just pull him back. Instead it swung him by his tail around, like he was a small lasso, before letting go, and sending the stallion crashing into the alley wall with a loud thump. But Berry could swear she also heard a crack. That made her wince. 

Pen bounced limply off of the ground as gravity finally took over, his fedora falling off of his head. The coltish unicorn winced as he finally began to come to, feeling pain throughout most of his system, and his a floating feeling, as if he was on a ship in a storm. He opened his eyes and slowly began to grasp his surroundings. 

The larger dog had grabbed Berry Punch, however she was seemingly unconscious, making Pen question how long he had been out, and the dog was crawling down into the broken ponyhole again at the behest of the smaller scruffy Diamond dog.

“Come on! Hurry,Hurry, Hurry Hurry! Don’t want to upset de Fiend-Pony!” the smaller dog snapped at the larger one, who complied by speeding up and quickly disappearing into the ponyhole. 

The words snapped Pen´s pained attention to the ponyhole, with the splashing sounds of paws, making their escape into the Manehatten sewer systems. 

‘The Fiend!’ Pen mentally gasped before with grinding teeth, forcing himself onto his hooves, feeling pain all over, still reeling from the shock of being swung into a wall. He especially winced a moment as he felt a specifically sharp pain back from his tail region. He could not move his tail without it sending a sharp jolt through him. 

Pausing a moment to keep his focus, Pen quickly ran over and lowered himself into the ponyhole. “Ok, tail dislocated... Can live with that... Cheerilee´s friend Berry being kidnapped by associates of the Fiend. Cannot live with that.” he thought aloud, just as his hooves landed in the sloppy sewer water and his nose was assaulted by that wretched stench. 

With a quick and slightly panicked disposition, Pen looked around and flicked his ears back and forth just to catch the sound of the dogs making their escape. Pen quickly focussed his magic into his horn to make a simple flashlight spell, and to his luck, he was just able to see the tails of the smaller dog from earlier, turn a corner, far into the sewer. 

“Oh no, you´re not getting away from me!” he thought in a mumble, before setting off in a gallop. While it was hard to make his way through the murky and icky sewer water, with a constant insistent pain in his tail, Pen´s stubbornness was enough to carry him along. He turned the corner to follow the dogs and quickly mentally checked down ‘Right’. 
Pen was in luck. The much larger dog was severely slowed by having to use one paw to hold on to Berry Punch, so once again, Pen was able to stay within sight. Though, due to the flashlight, they could also see him. And the scruffy dog was not happy.

“Hurry, you oaf!! A Unicorn-Pony is following us!” the dog hissed before turning down another pipeline. 

‘Left’. Pen remembered as he took the same turn, following after the dogs in the dark sewer systems. 
Pen had no idea where directly he was. But he knew which way to go. Just had to keep reminding himself the turns. 

‘Right, Left... Right Left Left... Right Left Left right... Right Left Left Right Left... Right Lef Left Right Left, Very straight, Down, Left.’ 

After what felt like an eternity, and long enough to make the not so athletic pony stop for a moment to heave for breath, but only receiving the wretched air of the sewers instead of the more pleasant city air; Pen was certain, he had found their hideout. 

It was clearly a crudely dug out diamond dog tunnel, while ugly and filthy with old sewer water and the stench of the numerous dogs having used it, it still was rather well kept considering. Pen carefully made his way inside the tunnel that he had seen the dogs disappear into, making sure to stop his flashlight spell before he placed a careful hoof against the tunnel wall and descended into the Diamond dog lair. 

‘Make sure to remember... Keep the wall... Careful.. Careful...’ he kept mentioning to himself silently as he knew there could be Diamond dogs just around every corner. Thankfully, the wretched stench of the sewers SHOULD cover his scent for at least a few minutes. 

Slowly making his way forwards, Pen could slowly begin to hear the growls and yells of Diamond dogs, much further into the tunnels, but it was hard to localize where specifically it was. Thankfully, Pen took the chance of dead reckoning and knowing he could remember the way back, and was successful. He saw the light of a much larger room begin to illuminate the tunnel of which he was in, and the voices of the dogs became much much more clear. 

“You Stupid, Stupid, Stupid Stoneskull! You allowed Scruffy to get stepped on! By a unicorn pony no less!” a small dog growled at the much larger creature in front of it. 

Pen quickly shifted off to the side of the tunnel entrance, hiding by a little side tunnel that would lead in some unknown direction, and listened in on the conversation. Though it turned out to be more of a rant, as the larger Diamond dog, still seemed to be completely stoic. 

“And den! You were so slow dat you almost revealed our hideaway! How dumb dumb dumb are you!? I am going to tell dat Fiend-Pony on you! And Evil-Fiend-Pony will not be pleased!” 

Pen peeked inside to see the reaction of the larger dog, to be less than... anything. It just stood there, soaking up all the ranting from its much smaller kinsdog. 

The smaller dog growled even more and jumped up and down in frustration. 

“Why must you me so stupid, Stupid, stupid!? You know if Evil-Fiend-Pony does not get, purple Earth-Pony-Pony, den we all end up like Biggus! Do you want to end up like him!?” the dog asked, as it peered at the much larger dog, who still didn’t even bat an eye. 

Pen was confused. How could that much larger dog be so... still? It looked unnatural. He slowly reached up to try and get the quill and noteblock out from beneath his fedora, only to realize that he had dropped it on street level. 

‘Ah Fudgenuggets... Have to remember this as well’ he thought before peering inside again. 

Just as he did, an average sized dog, dressed in a small black vest walked up behind the dog, that Pen designated as ‘Scruffy’. 

“Ah don’t think he think about it, Scruffy. He been just as blank since he licked da Evil-Fiend-Pony...” The second dog said, seriously, but also slightly terrified. 

‘Wait, licked the Fiend?’ 

Scruffy turned to the other dog with a frustrated look on his doggy face. He shook his paws a moment before grabbing his ears in frustration. “I knoooooouuuwwww! But he is just soo... Stupiddd! He don’t do what I say, And he is supposed to do what Scruffy says!” 

This however, prompted the other dog to scratch the top of his head and retort. “But... Isn’t he supposed to do what Evil-Fiend-Pony says, and not you?” 

Scruffy certainly got annoyed by this remark and began turning his anger towards his less sizeable kinsdog, while Pen retreated slightly backwards to review his thoughts.

‘So the larger dog has licked the Fiend, and somehow changed... Could this be some kind of power it has? Have we not been dealing with a vampire at all? Or is this perhaps one of the things this new strain of vampires can do? Wait.. has he changed the Dog into his sort of vampir- No, lets call it Blood Drainer for simplicity. So has this blood drainer somehow enslaved this diamond dog? Its higher functions seems to clearly be gone. That, or it has gotten much more control of them, as to not betray any emotions. Much like the Canterlot guards and- Wait a minute... Could he have taken these dogs as his guards?... That would certainly make sense. It’s a possible resource...’ 

Pen´s extremely long inner monologue was broken as he was snapped out of his thoughts when Scruffy began yelling. 
“Uuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrghhh Enough!! Just get the Earth Pony-Pony into the cells! The Evil-Fiend-Pony could be here any minute now, and Scruffy does not want to die!!” 

This made Pen freeze for just a second before he quickly peeked inside the room again, seeing the other dog scamper over to the much larger one, before all three of them turned to trudge over towards another tunnel, most likely leading to the cells. 

Pen gritted his teeth a moment as the dogs were just out of sight. “I hate to say this but... I have to get Cheerilee... I can’t do this without vampire backup...” he said before stepping backwards.

But then a very, very sharp pain indicated that he bumped into something. 
Pen´s tail had been dislocated, and dislocations can hurt like hell when you move them. Which was what just happened. Pen reflexively yelped out in pain and tried to jump forwards, and away from whatever was causing the pain.

But something had other plans. 

In a quick and rough move, hooves grasped around Pen and yanked him back into a tight ,cold grasp which quite bordered the line of embrace. However, one of the hooves had grasped around his snout and muzzle, constricting his air supply slightly, but mainly his ability to scream.

Which was exactly what he wanted to do, when he heard... and saw... the Fiend. 

“Sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... Wouldn't want the dogs to hear you, now would you?” 

The words traveled down Pen´s spine like a bar of ice. The voice was low, teasing and strangely alluring, and obviously male. 

Pen tried to wrestle himself free of the white pair of hooves that was constricting him, but the embrace only became tighter and tighter the more he struggled. And it meant his plot and tail began pressing more against the Fiend as well.

Small whimpers of pain escaped the coltish writer´s constricted mouth, as his dislocated tailbone was getting more and more unbearable. 

This made the Fiend giggle. 

“Oh my dear... Does your tail hurt?” the Fiend asked, slowly leaning its face forwards, revealing its shining red eyes and just as red hair in stark contrast to its white coat. Those eyes eagerly drank in Pen’s struggles. 

“My my... If your tail hurts so much, you might give yourself away...” the Fiend cooed slightly, as Pen suddenly felt the gentle, but none the less agonizingly painful, press of a hindquarter against his dislocated tail. It was just a slow, and gentle press, but it was enough to make Pen hiss and whimper again. 

The Fiend let out another giggle. 

“Can’t... Have you... Scream.. Now can we?” he asked before pressing harder against the dislocated bone, forcing out more whimpers of the weaker pony, but also bringing painful tears to Pen´s eyes. 

A slow, but satisfied, fake intake of breath sounded from the Fiend as he whispered into Pen´s ear.

“Ahhhhhhh That’s what I like to seeee...” he said before gently tracing his tongue across Pen´s neck, sending shivers down his spine and putting a light blush upon his face. Even though he was terrified, he was still embarrassed by this level of... Closeness... Which only intensified as the Fiend seemed to know his weak spot, pulling Pen just a little more backwards, and nipping a bit at the tip of his horn. 

The sudden, very intimate move, made Pen do something he certainly DID NOT want to telegraph to the fiend in this situation. 

He let slip a little spell. 

The coltish writer´s horn flickered slightly from magic, and the Pen´s face blushed furiously in terror and embarrassment. 

This was the moment that the Fiend moved down to his ears and whispered.

“Now... Tell me, my sexy little stallion, when can I meet this vampire of yours?” 





	
> Pon3 Spins
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Manehattan Safehouse:
 
With Cheerilee´s flank figuratively covered, the vampire teacher could calmly make her way back to the safehouse to sink into the couch and into her thoughts.

She was very thankful for Pen having stuck his neck out for her at that moment. Berry could be extremely clingy when she was drunk. Something that always was, if not entertaining, then heart warming. She could still remember those times back in Ponyville when Berry would show up half drunk to a Parent-Teacher conference, and yet STILL come off as the nervous one amongst the parents.

Cheerilee turned around on the couch and faced the fabric. Her train of thought was slowly moving into territory that she would not really want to go into: her past. 

It felt so close, and yet so far, considering it wasn’t really THAT many years since she had just been… average teacher Cheerilee.

She could still remember when the Smell of Sugarcube Corner´s kitchen caused her glee, not melancholy. When the smiles she had given to the children in her class were directly from her still beating heart.

All of that just felt so far away now.

Rubbing her head a moment, Cheerilee tried to steer her thoughts in a positive direction. There was still her job in Coltenhagen… She could at least teach for a few years there, and see those smiling foals grow into more mature young ponies. That was a slightly comforting thought.

“Yes… Just remember that…” she mumbled to herself before looking over at a nearby clock, affixed to the wall in the safehouse. It was just a bit past midnight.

Cheerilee slowly sat up in the couch to make sure that she had seen it correctly.

‘Huh… How far could Berry´s hotel be?’ she questioned a moment before walking over to the kitchen, opening up the fridge and deciding to help herself to a nice bag of cold blood, from sterilized bag.

Popping the straw in her mouth and turning the valve to release the cold red plasm, Cheerilee sat down on her hindquarters and released a sound of content. It was always such a buzz to get what she knew she always desired. Always craved for.

But before she truly felt like she had reached the utmost high, the bag was empty.

Cheerilee let go of the straw from her mouth, and instinctively licked around her fangs and lips, wanting to soak up every single last drop.

Lifting up the bag and confident that she had not missed anything, Cheerilee chucked the bag in the wastebin, along with the others she had been drinking at their visit.

Still frustrated with the length of time it took her coltish partner to bring her old friend to her hotel, Cheerilee came to the thought that she could perhaps reread a bit of Pen´s papers.

The large amount of files were still lying out in plain sight on the apartment dining table, along with Pen´s unfinished breakfast. Not paying the food much heed, Cheerilee sat down by the table and perused the papers.

Time passed easily by as the ticking of the clock began to be a more monotonous background noise. Cheerilee had found nothing new in the reading that could possibly aid with the spot they were at. All she could do was cross out the Oranges as possible suspects.

Pen had come to the idea that the Oranges had some connectivity, after some perusal of the enemies of the victims. Though it was rather obvious that the Oranges, and Money Bags, never had seen eye to eye. Their visit had concluded with both Cheerilee and Pen realizing they had neither the means nor the motive to somehow get in connection to a supernatural kidnapper.

Annoyed, Cheerilee headed off into the bathroom to take a shower, and relive her thoughts.

Just as cheerilee had gotten that last nice curl on her mane, she could hear the door opening. With certainly an amount of annoyance, yet also curiosity for why as Pen had taken so long to get back from the simple job of escorting a drunk pony back to their respective living space, Cheerilee walked out of the bathroom, already halfway into her sentence as she closed the bathroom door behind her.

“Ok, tell me, how long did she keep you with her speeches about the consistency of oat...meal?” 

It was not Pen who had entered. 

It was a unicorn guard. Specifically one of the guards that had helped with the detaining of Featherband. 

Cheerilee almost instantly turned more stoic and serious as the guard bowed his head a moment and addressed her; “Agent Cheerilee?” 

“Yes, that is me... is Pen suddenly sending the guards to bring messages? Did he get held up by Berry that much?” she asked, slightly unamused, but kept her professional stature. The guard however, looked... sad. Cheerilee picked up upon this easily and raised an eyebrow.

The unicorn guard cleared his throat and his horn lit up in a levitation spell.

“I think the situation is much worse than what you think...” he said, before the subject of his levitation spell floated in front of Cheerilee´s eyes: Pen´s fedora. 

“Wha- Where did you find this?” she asked in return, a horrible part of her intuition prodding at her worst fears, which were rather quickly... confirmed.

“We found this not far from a completely crashed Ponyhole in the inner city. It looked like a monster had breached the surface of the concrete like it was graham crackers... We at first suspected Diamond Dogs... but... Then we recieved this...” he guard slowly reiterated, before floating a small piece of paper over to Cheerilee. “Addressed to you”.

Quickly snatching the paper out of the levitation spell with her hoof, Cheerilee quickly read it aloud.

“Meet me at the ‘Pon3 Spins Nightclub’ at 3am, Come alone. I believe we have a few things to be discussed, Cheerilee.” 

At the bottom of the page, a small red rose was drawn in what Cheerilee could unmistakingly smell was blood. 
Cheerilee was staring daggers at the paper, the guard almost fearing that she would set it ablaze with her gaze alone. His fears was proven wrong though, as the same, hard, professional, and utterly terrifying gaze of the vampire teacher met with him. 

“Get me all information on the ‘Pon3 Spins Nightclub’, and send my orders on to your superior in exact detail.” she spoke, with a voice as cold as ice. 





‘PON3 SPINS Nightclub’ Manehattan; 2:50 Am




Come alone? 

By Discord’s beard no, she would not just come alone. 

The Fiend had really messed up this time, he had brought himself out into the open, even dictated where she could meet him. Even if it was an elaborate trap for her, she would simply have to trump it with an even bigger trap. 

The moment she had read the paper, she had ordered the guards to set up a perimeter around the nightclub, that only would be active the second the clock struck 3am. The guards would be in their civilian clothes, and would then move in to cut off all exits for the Fiend. She had perused the building plans back at the station and knew there was no sewer access in the building, and the exits were very easy to cover. Five guards on the roof, ten by each of the street accesses, and even more up to cut off any wild pedestrians that might step into the scene. The moment Cheerilee would find the fiend inside the Club, she would not be talking. Oh Celestia no, she would be breaking bones and tearing apart flesh. A small nibbling voice in the back of her head reminded her that she still needed him to tell her where Emerald, Pen, Berry, and all the other prisoners were, but she shushed it with saying to herself she would only tear his legs off and break off his horn. That should be enough. 

She was standing outside the Club now, in her usual sweet, fake teacher facade, with a pleasant smile to those ponies who were still walking in and out of the doors to the Club. 

It was a relatively large building, but most night clubs did need a certain size in order to accommodate all those ponies either drinking themselves into next week or dancing their hooves off.

She looked just like any other visitor to the club. It was rather popular as seemingly it was owned by the famous DJ PON3, giving the club its name, and thus, all sorts of ponies would be walking in and out all night. 

Perfect meeting place. 

She casually leaned up against the wall a moment, giving a small glance over at a pair of drunkards who were arguing with the bouncer, before lifting up a hoof calmly up to her mane to feel a small hair clip. 

It looked like a perfectly normal accessory, designed to keep hair out of the user´s eyes. But it was much more than that. It was a magically connected communicator. The Chief of the Guard had the other half. And if Cheerilee was to crush her clip, the other clip would light up, and signal for the guards to move in. A failsafe mechanism. 

Discretely, a gray pegasus, one of the guards in disguise, snuck up besides Cheerilee and whispered “Everypony in position, Agent Cheerilee, You are green to go, everypony is just waiting for you.” 

With a soft smile, which to the outsider looked like she was accepting some kind of flirting comment from a completely random stallion, followed by a small nod, signalled the guard off, before Cheerilee turned around, and walked into the club. 

The interior of the club was what one would come to expect from any modern Equestrian nightclub. A bar, A large dance floor, A turntable as the center of the attention, clear signs of the exit and fire escape. 

But the downside of everything being as expected, was also that the music was obnoxiously loud, it was all some sort of Electronic track with a bassline which actually was so powerful that it was meddling with Cheerilee´s fake heartbeat. For the second time in this city, Cheerilee was cursing her stronger senses, as not only had her nose gone numb the former day from a trip to the sewers, now her ears were throbbing from that overpowering bassline. 

‘Sweet Celestia, I am getting old...’ she actually thought to herself a moment as the music kept hammering at her ears, though music was to her a generous term. And the smell of the room was not much better either. It was this huge plethora of sweat, alcohol and sick. 

‘Of course the Fiend picks a place that hides his scent... But why then meet me in the open in the first place?’ she asked herself, as she was walking further and further inside the club. 

Standing well inside already, yet not onto the dance floor yet, already Cheerilee was mentally running over how she would pull the Fiend out of this club. Perhaps she would smack his muzzle into the bar, and drag him out by his tail. Or perhaps she would break a few of his legs to keep him from running. Perhaps breaking off his horn and stab it through his hoof would be good enough to keep him focussed. But sadly many of these ideas would bring too much attention of the other partiers. She would have to figure out some kind of discrete, yet visceral way of making that blood sucker squeal. Nothing would stop her from that.
“CHEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRILEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~” 

Or so she thought. 

With eyes for a moment as large as carriage wheels in surprise, Cheerilee was once again, for the second time that night alone, Pulled into a cheek to cheek nuzzle with the one and only, Berry Punch.

“BERRY!?!” Cheerilee exclaimed in a surprise that she should have gotten used to by now, but that’s the thing about surprises, It surprises you. 

Berry looked harrowed, her hair was all out of its place, even more than usual, and her breath actually drowned out most of the other smells in the club, with its texture of pure alcohol. 

The purple mare smiled for just a second as she grasped Cheerilee´s cheeks in her hooves.

“Yes its me silly~ And I got to tell you... I have had a Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazzzzzyyyyyyyyyyy night out, Guuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrll~ Ehehehehe~” she said before leaning more into Cheerilee, almost mashing her muzzle into Cheerilee´s in her drunken stupor, with that silly smile on her face. Cheerilee was not amused. 

“I should damned well say!!! I heard that you and Pen disappeared and feared the worst!” She growled at Berry, careful not to reveal her fangs. Berry was taken a little aback by Cheerilee´s sudden aggression, but she just kept smiling.

“Oh Yea, That, Yeaaaaaa There was a bunch of mean dogs who... picked me up and dragged me down to their little den, it was soooo cool~” she said, in retrospective fun, before attempting to get a more serious face on, though the alcohol prevented it from being fully genuine. “Uhm, sorry bout your date though... But It all turned out all right in the end!” She said with a grin of conviction, while pulling at Cheerlee, urging her to come along, up towards the bar. Cheerilee did follow along, but she was agast. And Angry. 

“Alright in the end!? What in the name of Tararus do you mean!? You just said you were kidnapped! How did you escape!? And what happened to Pen!?” 

Berry Punch just kept pushing Cheerilee towards the bar, but was getting a much more unamused look on her face, as if he was getting insulted by her constant insipid questions. 

“Well, I'll tell you if you will tell me why you lied to me, gurl!” she said with a huff. “Why´re you here, if you had to go to some important meetin?” she asked. They had almost gotten to the bar, before she sat down on her haunches and crossed her hooves. 

‘Dont... Rip... Off... Her... Head...’ Cheerilee kept telling herself, as the anger and confusion was bubbling within her. How in the wide world of Equestria Berry Punch had gotten herself free from a pack of Diamond Dogs, was beyond her. Where the hell was Pen, then?! And why had she gotten a message from the Fiend!? 

“Berry, you have no idea what you are in the middle of at the moment, just tell me how you got away, and where Pen is!” Cheerlee demanded to know in her most insistent voice. She was thankful now for the loud music, it made their heated conversation turn into something much more of the background than if she had been yelling in the middle of the streets. 

And yet, through all this noise, she heard one answer clearly, coming just to the right of her, up in the bar.  

“Perhaps it would be best... if I explain that to you, Miss Cheerilee.” 

Cheerilee turned her face to find the source of the voice, and for a moment everything just stopped.

It was him. That white unicorn from the sewers. That unicorn she had seen carrying Emerald away like she was some kind of downed prey that he would put away to devour later. That same almost shining white coat, which could easily make him be mistaken for one of the guards, if he was not so much more averagely sized. Those same hind legs that had bucked her in the face, and actually caused her skull to crack with a single strike. She remembered crawling desperately out of the sewers, blood seeping down the side of her face, before the wound and bone finally healed up.

That very same pony she had suspected all along was just sitting there casually on a bar stool, leaning on the bar and with a casual smile on his lips.

Cheerilee was not moving a single muscle, even as Berry reacted before her.

“Heyyyyyy there Angelllllll~ Sssssssho nice of you to help me with this... Cheerilee can be stubborn as a mule shometimes!” Berry huffed, before looking around herself a bit. “No offence to mules though...” 

The white unicorn gave a small chuckle as Berry quickly added the last comment, and quickly, and of course with quite an imbalance, sat herself on a barstool next to him. 

“Of course, Berry. No offence to them.” he replied. 

Berry was a bit wobbly on the chair, before she turned to Cheerilee with a bright grin. 

“Well, come here gurl! Share a drink with me. Angel here can explain a whole horse better than I can!” she said, without the least bit of shame in her voice. 

This was not good, Cheerilee knew this. Nothing was good right now. The evil unicorn was right there. All she had to do was smash his muzzle into the bar and start questioning him right there! But she would make a scene in public, and Berry would begin to ask questions. It was an avalanche waiting to happen. 

‘Ok, calm down, when Plan A fails, move to Plan B, if Plan B is out of reach, move on to Plan C, if you don’t have a Plan C, improvise!’ Cheerilee quickly told herself, before her face shifted back into an angry feature.  Staying calm didn’t mean staying nice.

“I certainly hope he can come up with a damned good explanation, Berry, or so help me I will somehow get back at you.” She scowled at her friend while calmly moving to take the barstool right next to Berry, still within a hoofsreach of that white unicorn. 

“Perhaps you could give her detention, Miss Cheerilee?” he said in a calm, sort of joking tone of voice, while sending Cheerilee a knowing look that she returned with a scowl that only was between the two of them, flying directly over the head of Berry. She instead was aghast at the unicorn´s suggestion.

“Don’t encourage her! She is a teacher, she does that on a regular basis!” Berry declared loudly, as she clumsily fumbled for her glass of cider, taking on some lighter liquor now that she was deeper in the buzz. 

Cheerilee wanted to snap at Berry about revealing her personal details, but instead just kept up her glare at the Unicorn.

“Well then, sir? Can you give me a damned good explanation for why one of my friends who was kidnapped earlier today suddenly appears in a bar?” Cheerilee asked.

The unicorn gave off a small amused chuckle before he calmly leaned himself more on the bar and looked over at Cheerilee past Berry.

“Well you see, Miss Cheerilee, I just so happen to work some odd jobs, and one of them was to investigate the sewers today. It is not a fancy job, but it is a job nonetheless.” He spoke with a small wave of his hoof dismissively. “Anyhoof, I was looking around for any odds and ends, when I found the dog´s lair, seeing them drag poor Miss Punch into their little den. I was worried about what they would do to her, so I quickly liberated her from the place.” His expression was casual, mirroring his tone of voice. 

“You should have seen him! I mean... Seriously, you should, I only saw when the dogs were running away with their tails between their legs because thats when I woke up, but REALLY! You should have seen him! I bet it would have been awesome!” Berry quickly chipped in with much confidence, even though her sentence only really put even more holes in the story than Swizz Cheese.  

Cheerilee knew he was lying through his teeth, and that there was many more details to this, but she could not call him out on it. Not as long as Berry was there. She gave a soft, yet the most fake smile she had done in such a long time.

“Oh, that is very fortunate... But what about Pen? The unicorn stallion with Berry?” she inquired further, peering over at the White Unicorn, with what looked like worried intrigue. 

The white unicorn casually shifted himself in his seat before answering. 

“Oh, the young stallion sadly got his tail dislocated by the beasts, so I sent him on to the hospital. Most likely why he might not have contacted you, Miss Cheerilee.” he said with a calm, yet superior smile. It was a sort of silent message towards Cheerilee. He didn’t just feel slightly superior, he was the one with the ultimate upper hoof in this situation. 

Cheerilee sent a momentary glare in retaliation which once again flew completely over the head of Berry, who was still fully convinced the conversation was nice and civil. 

“I see...” Cheerilee finally replied. Before the unicorn could make any sort of retort, Berry suddenly burst out giggling.

“Oh don’t worry about it Cheerilee! He´ll be back on his hooves by tomorrow... I think... Anyhoof, I don’t think you should hold your hopes up gurl, He seemed like a Pony on the other side of the barn, if you get what I mean.” she said, leaning over in Cheerilee, nudging at her and winking overtly, and overly signalling her meaning. 

For a split second, Cheerilee was distracted by the comment, but just gave an annoyed sigh.

“Yes Berry, I get what you mean... Now stop nudging me...” she said, as Berry had simply continued to nudge for much longer than necessary. 

Berry finally picked up on the suggestion and stopped the nudging, only to lean back on her chair and more onto the unicorn. 

“Aaaaaaaannnnyyyhoof, Cheerliee is a teacher, it’s her special talent, she has become more of a night pony, and used to enjoy long walks on the beach, is still single and has even a personal friendship with a ceeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaarrrrrrtain members of the elements of harmony~” Berry summed up in a slurry, which was supposed to sound like a sales pitch tone of voice, but just ended up sounding like a pony with its tail stuck in a door.

The white unicorn chuckled slightly at Berry´s antics, while Cheerilee was laughing in completely false way. 

“Beheheheryy... I told you so long ago to stop summing up my private life to perfect strangers...” she spoke in between grinding her teeth in frustration. 

Berry just huffed at the notion. “Oh, shush Cheerileeeee, you´re still young, and yet you haven’t been going out with anypony since that Big Mac inchident... And now I find you in town, nuzzling with somepony who most certainly is in the closet... You need some help, guuuuurlll!”

The white unicorn was looking upon the spectacle in sadistic amusement as Cheerilee was squirming within her small confined borders of not wanting to make a scene, yet still having to put up with her friend. Cheerilee ground her teeth again. “Listen, Berry-”

“HEY HEY HEY! WAZZUP EVERYPONEIGH!?” 

Suddenly, their conversation was broken by a voice that towered over the music speakers, not really bothering to turn down the volume on the music to speak through the microphone, effectively almost deafening several ponies in the bar. 
The group´s gazes shifted up towards the turntables where another white unicorn was now standing there with a microphone. This was a mare though, with a blue striped mane and sunglasses.

“ITS ME! The Ruler of Rock, the Mistress of Music, the Delightful Discjokey, DJ-PON3, And you know that I will always rock your hooves off!” The obnoxiously loud DJ announced through the speakers, gaining a wave of cheers from the dancing ponies. Though only gaining groans of pain from Cheerilee, and a flicker of pain from the unicorn near her at the bar. Satisfied with the response, the DJ continued.

“Now all you wonderful ponies have been out partying all night and rocking the foundation of Manehatten, But you seem to forget that with a great party, one also needs to get your throat wet, so just to give us all some more time to down multiple litres of cider, and knock our brains loose, Here is some music from a personal friend, and personal favourite of mine. It’s a bit calmer, but that will just be the contrast for later when we all are back to strength, Is everypony cool with that?” 

Surprisingly there was a seemingly unanimous agreement with the sentiment, and many ponies was beginning to shift from the dance floor and more up towards the bar. Cheerilee thought that finally perhaps her ears could get some rest, but no such luck. The voice continued just once more. 

“This number is much slower, so take your time to enjoy it. Maybe bring that Special Somepony out onto the dance floor for just a one on one, I know I am going to~” the DJ declared before lifting up her sunglasses and winking out into the audience, who seemed to all cheer the idea along, and most of the club was now shifting. Many of those from the bar and the corners were getting to the dance floor, and those formerly inhabiting the dance floor was heading for the bar, just as the music started. It was much softer than before, and actually more reminiscent of classical music.

Cheerilee gently rubbed her ears to just ease their throbbing. Supernatural hearing was just not helping the situation, though out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that Berry had gotten a huge beaming grin on her face. 

“What is it, Berry?” she with a slightly frustrated tone, knowing the mare would most likely speak up, even if she was silent. 

“Well, didn't you just hear what the DJ said? Get somepony out on the dance floor!” she said, her head sort of nudging towards the white unicorn. “Take Angel out for a Dance!” 

“What!?” Cheerilee asked, both her covering teacher facade and her underlying agent core agast. Get out on the dance floor with the damned Fiend?! How earthshatteringly...

brilliant did Berry have to be.

It just dawned before Cheerilee just as the unicorn that Berry had constantly been calling ‘Angel’, casually got off his chair and smiled.

“Well, Why Not, Miss Cheerilee? I believe that would be a perfect time to... Get some Quality time together.” he said calmly. Cheerilee knew what he meant. The dance floor was emptying, and Berry was going to stay at the bar. It was perfect. 

With a quick shift off of her chair, Cheerilee shrugged her shoulders slightly. 

“I... guess that would be nice...” she said, being good at acting uncertain, and even giving Berry a small worried glance, who only returned it with an enthusiastic nod, before walking out onto the dance floor, deep into the club with ‘Angel’ right besides her. 

Berry was wearing a grin the width of a barn door as she shifted a few seats at the bar, to get to the nearest drinking pony before the seats would be taken. 

“I, am the BEST shipper EVER!” she declared as she suddenly intruded on a gray earth pony in a pink bow tie. The gray mare looked for a moment in surprise and confusion, before Berry did a complete U-turn in her demeanor, as she suddenly broke down in sobs, yelling out in drunken frustration; “THEN WHY CAN'T I HANDLE MY OWN LOVE LI-HI-HI-HI-HI-HIIIIII-FE!?!?!?” and then ended face planting the bar. 

A few moments of awkward silence (under the music of course) stayed before the other mare awkwardly asked “Another round?”, and Berry lit up like a Hearth´s warming eve tree.

“Yes please!”

Back on the dance floor, Cheerilee had finally found what she was certain was a secluded spot, before turning around to face ‘Angel’ who seemed to take advantage of the secluded spot to calmly flick his mane back a bit, before smirking in return at Cheerilee. 

“I must say, your friend is quite an interesting pony.” he said, approaching up to a... Rather intimate distance between the two, their muzzles not far apart, yet Cheerilee did not flinch. She was dropping the teacher demeanor and glaring at him. 

“So she is... ‘Angel,’ tell me, is that what they call you before they move on to ‘Fiend’?” Cheerilee asked with a certain amount of venom in her voice. The Fiend just chuckled, though. 

“Both are right... In their own ways. I tend to keep to Angel when around the unsuspecting Roan...” the Fiend casually spoke as he took a step back, and gave a small bow, on the outside still making believe that the two were going to be pleasantly dancing. Cheerilee returned the bow.

“The Roan?” she asked with a small raised eyebrow. For a moment, a slightly surprised expression washed over the Fiend´s face, before he sighed.

“Oh yes, it has been so long since you vampires have seen any of us... I should only expect that you have degraded even further...” he mused, before walking closer to Cheerilee again, casually leaning in to the side of her neck, getting a close, intimate dance, yet the two both knew that the other could possibly kill the former. 

Cheerilee made a low sort of growl, before the Fiend continued.

“It is a term for the... mortal ponies...” he replied. 

“What are you... You aren’t an average vampire, that much I know, or else Emerald would have been another newborn.” Cheerilee growled at the Fiend, while the two were so slowly dancing back and forth, the music drowning out their conversation for any other pesky ears. 

The Fiend shook his head and let out small tsks. 

“A conversation usually contains answering questions on turn, Miss Cheerilee, you have for now only been asking me things, and I believe you´re getting rather intrusive.” He smirked, his voice just so sadistically confident, knowing that he could drag out the time as much as he wanted. 

Cheerilee snorted in return. “This isn't a conversation. I am questioning you... If I wanted a conversation, I would want to be sure that whatever is spoken, is true.” she said with a firm nod. The Fiend just giggled though.

“Oh really? Since when have you had a truthful conversation with your friends?” he inquired.  

Cheerilee was taken aback by the metaphorical slap to the face. She had not spoken with her friends truthfully for… years… And she didn't think that Luna counted as… a friend. 

Fiend slowly continued to slowly move in sync with Cheerilee. 

“Let this then be your first in a long time.” he spoke, gaining Cheerilee´s attention again. “An agreement of truth, between liars.” he offered, with a confident, if slightly suspicious smirk. Cheerilee took a few seconds to consider it, but she could not think of any reason why not. This was most likely the best she could get out of him. 

“Alright then… What is your question?” she asked. The Fiend turned his head to face Cheerilee and looked her in the eyes.

“Who is your elder?” 

Cheerilee blinked in confusion a moment at the question.

“My elder?” she repeated. The Fiend responded by sighing and giving a small facehoof.

“Sweet Allfather, you beasts have truly degenerated… Who was the vampire who turned you? Who was the one to teach you the rules of the night?” 

Cheerilee was slightly surprised how the Fiend seemed to be genuinely surprised and disconcerted. 

“I don't believe he could be described as my elder, but a pony named Valiant turned me… He didn't teach me anything, though.” she responded, not wishing to give him every detail. That was going to cost him questions. 

The Fiend gave off a low annoyed growl, but not at Cheerilee. He was looking aside before returning his gaze to the vampire mare. 

“I hope you have put him down for his lack of responsibility…” he replied before both of them made a small synchronized turn while the music shifted a bit. The one calm track was replaced by another one, again very cello filled. “Your turn, Cheerilee.” he stated, before smirking again, his annoyance having settled, and his confidence seemingly back. Cheerilee took mental note of this.

“What are you?  You both speak as if you´re something different, and you didn't turn Emerald into another vampire, even if you bit her. According to our data, that should not be possible…”  she slowly stated the last comment, before firmly glaring at the Fiend. “What, are, you?”. 

A moment's silence passed between the two, before the Fiend answered. 

“A remnant of the past… A stallion out of place… I am superior to you smaller beasts… I am a Kaynite.” he answered, his voice filled with pride, superiority, and darkness. He reveled in a sense of empowerment from the word Kaynite. 

Cheerilee froze. Kaynite. It sounded familiar, somehow, she was not certain how it just felt like it was nibbling at the back of her head. The Fiend smirked and leaned more forwards, pushing completely against Cheerilee, leaning in to her ear.

“Now you tell me Cheerilee, does that awaken something within you? Does that not wake a little nibbling feeling? A little sense of... inferiority?” he whispered sadistically. Power and gratification was hanging in his voice like a bad smell, and it actually made Cheerilee want to shiver. How could he know?

The Fiend retracted himself again and could not keep himself from letting out a satisfied, dark chuckle. 

“Oh no need to answer me that, little vampire. I know it… its in your nature. Its in your blood.”  he said, laying extra emphasis on the last word.

Cheerilee flinched as the Fiend now seemed so intrusive and his words gave away to so many new questions. But she had to make sure to ask the right ones. Biting into her lower lip a moment, she composed herself again. 

“Then tell me, what is a Kaynite? As far as I am concerned, you are just another undead bloodsucker like me,” Cheerilee retorted with a small amount of extra confidence which she had dug up. The Fiend looked like he was more amused than insulted by Cheerilee´s incursion. 

“Oh a Kaynite is a true nightdweller. One with grace, elegance, heritage, and power.” He smirked before waving a hoof dismissively a moment. “Vampires are like a disease. We are a true race.” His response held an air of dignity and confidence, before moving on to his question. “Tell me, how many have you had to kill in order to sate your hunger? How many Roan have suffered the loving embrace of the final death at your fangs?” he inquired with a low, almost purring voice. 

The questions were stinging Cheerilee like long, cold needles. He seemingly knew just what to ask to make her feel uncomfortable. Her fakely beating heart was sinking slowly with each question, the everlasting guilt trip slowly sinking over her mind, yet she kept on her facade of stoic glaring at the Fiend, even as they continued to dance.

“Was that an official question?” she growled in return of the Fiend, before making a small twirl move. The Fiend mirrored the twirl before giving off an amused huff.

“No, I just simply wished to see your reaction,” he spoke with amusement.

“Alright then, here is an official question. Why do you believe yourself so powerful? I still haven't seen anything that makes you Kaynites any better than a regular vampire,” she spat at him, trying to throw the ball into his curve, and keep the pressure on him. The retort was that same, amused giggle that he so sadistically enjoyed.

“My dear Cheerilee… Haven't you noticed already?... Oh of course you haven't… and that's exactly the point…” he purred his words lowly, before suddenly reaching his hooves out and grabbing Cheerilee into a tight, on the outside, dance like embrace, and whispered in her ears. “Why don't you, take another look?” He purred. 

Cheerilee was baffled as she felt the strength that was within the Fiend´s hooves, and especially the grip around her. It was as if it was ready to shatter her bones at any command. She was confused and squirmish a moment. Take a look at what!?

But thats when it dawned to her. She looked over his shoulder and finally was able to see his cutie mark. 

It was a red, twisted, thorny rose, wrapped around an unknown item, yet what she could see, was that the thorns were drawing blood. They were dripping. It was a bloody rose. 

Cheerilee´s eyes widened in realization.

“Why have I only seen that now?” she asked.

“Power, Cheerilee… With the right power, you can make yourself anything… Imposing, inspiring, terrifying… Or as you now see… simply… something you don't notice…” he grinned with sadistic glee, in both seeing, and feeling the puny vampire´s reaction. 

Cheerilee looked like she was completely blank for a moment. This was gradually turning out to be a bigger and bigger threat than she anticipated. She had to get him now. 

“And now for a very important question, Miss Cheerilee… Tell me, who do you work for?” 

The Fiend had gently begun to let go of her as to make the two look eye to eye. Cheerilee was slowly, and casually lifting her hoof up to try and reach for the hairclip. 

“Princess Luna,” Cheerilee said casually, and even with a confident smirk of her own, hoping that it would throw off this so called Kaynite. Letting him know just who he had begun to mess with. 

But just inches before she reached the clip, her hoof stopped. 

In an insanely swift motion, the Fiend had swung up his one hoof to block Cheerilee off from access to the clip.
Cheerilee looked back at the Fiend and realized that his formerly smirking and superior face… had turned to anger.

“You… work for Luna?” he almost hissed at her. It was almost a terrifying flip of a coin. 

“Yes… I do,” she replied with as much confidence as she could muster from the sudden surprise shift of demeanor. 
The Fiend´s gaze had turned almost feral, as his eyes also began to shine up in red anger for just a moment, before it all shifted back to a small smirk again. 

“Well then… that changes everything…” he said, before in just as swift a motion that had stopped Cheerilee from reaching the hair clip, he snatched it out of her mane with his magic, letting it levitate in between the two of them. “I must say, it was a pleasure to meet you, Miss Cheerilee, but if you want any further information about me or my kind, please refer your questions to your boss. Don't be surprised if she has you executed, then,” he said with a wickedly self confident grin. “And do tell her a little thing from me…” he said before taking a step backwards, and letting go of the hair clip from his magic. 

“What?” Cheerilee asked, in confusion. 

“That an Amour, does not take kindly, to breaking an oath.” he said before his hoof suddenly came crashing down upon the hairclip. 

Everything happened so fast after that. The doors crashed open, and the guards that Cheerilee had posted came flooding in, causing panic and confusion amongst the guests. Cheerilee only had a split second to look upon the Fiend before he smirked at her and sprinted through small crowd on the dance floor. He didn't care about the ponies in his path as they were just pushed aside, like it was some kind of rugby game. He was heading for the stage. 

Cheerilee remembered the building layout perfectly, and she knew there was an emergency staircase behind the stage, which could lead to both the street level, but also to the roof. 

The Fiend jumped from the dance floor to the stage, smashing into, and toppling over a pair of large speakers, which proceeded to smash into the turntable. The unicorn DJ almost screamed in some kind of mix of horror and anger, “MY TURNTABLE!!”.

The Fiend was completely nonchalant though, he just sprinted off behind the stage, with Cheerilee left to deal with the chaos behind him. 

Cheerilee set off in a sprint as well, following in the wake of the Fiend created chaos. Leaping from the dancefloor, she followed after him as fast as she could. Getting backstage, she saw the door to the backalley had already been crashed open from the outside, as her guards had been flowing in. But she also saw the Fiend. He didn't seem to care about the guards, as he simply dashed up the stairs, ignoring their yells, and demands of him keeping in place. Cheerilee sprinted after him, only turning her head to call back down to the guards “Its the Fiend! Follow me!” 

The guards got the command and followed as fast as they could, but that was like asking a regular pony to keep up with a speeding train, they did, inevitably lose ground on their supernatural target, simply by being slower. 

Cheerilee cursed under her breath, realizing that if she were to catch the fiend, she could not rely on those guards. But hopefully, those on the roof would be able to stop him. 

The stairs were a large square structure that kept going around and around, the railings in the middle to keep ponies from falling in. But Cheerilee knew she could not be careful with this. The Fiend was already halfway up the stairs, and she could not let him get away. She leapt up upon one of the railings, and set off with all her strength and speed, making the metal shiver from the sudden shock, and sent her self flying upwards, towards the next railing. She mirrored her former leap on the next piece of railing, and got even further up, much like what ponies had seen in those ninja films. However this was much less elegant, and much more urgent. 

Finally reaching the top of the stairs, she found the door already smashed open, yet from the inside and the outside world was revealing what could be described as an accursed brawl. 

Stepping out onto the rooftop, she did not at first see the Fiend, but the guards she had posted on the roof engaged in a desperate struggle with a pair of large diamond dogs. The guards had snuck spears along, but they seemed to be of little aid against the lumbering creatures who simply swept the weapons out of their hooves/magic/wings. The guards had done damage on the creatures though. While they still seemed to be fighting unwaveringly, large bruises and wounds were apparent on the dogs. One of the guards noticed Cheerilee and waved at her in the heat of battle.

“Agent Cheerilee! Help us!” He yelled, before suddenly getting smashed into the concrete roof by a large diamond dog paw. 

Cheerilee was too late to save that guard, she could hear the crack of his skull as his head collided with the concrete, but she knew that she could possibly stop all of this right now. But just out of the corner of her eye, she could see the Fiend was making his escape. Jumping from the Club building over to the fire escape staircase of the next one, heading up to a much higher roof, no doubt to get on to the next one. 

Cheerilee was torn. One of the guards was already dead, and they didn't seem to stand a chance against the two diamond dogs, but if she stopped now to help them, she would be letting the Fiend escape. This could possibly be her only chance to get him, and to save Emerald and Pen. 

For a split second, the crying face of Emerald flashed in her mind, and she took a snap decision. She would just have to see if she had made the right one later. 

Setting off in a sprint, she passed the guards, and the large dogs, before leaping over to the opposite building´s fire escape. 

A pang of guilt came over Cheerilee as her hooves clattered against the metal stairs, but she pushed the feeling aside, as she looked up, seeing the Fiend was still moving.

The screams and yells of the brawl below was slowly drowned out by the ringing of metal beneath her hooves as she sprinted up those stairs, constantly keeping her face looking upwards to see if the Fiend got off any earlier than the roof. 

Finally reaching the roof, she saw the Fiend was standing on the far edge of the, looking back over his shoulders, directly at Cheerilee. 

“You know, I was rather convinced you would stop to help your Pet Roan. Rather cold to just leave them to fight my subordinates,” he said with a smug grin. 

Cheerilee let out an almost feral growl, revealing her fangs in fury and anger. 

“Stop this now, Fiend. This ends here. I am taking you down!” she said, stepping threateningly forwards, aching to get all the pent up anger out in a good fight. 

The Fiend shook his head, though calmly stepped down from the edge of the roof. 

“Tsk Tsk tsk, Vampire. This is not going to be the last time we meet. You still have a traitor to visit…” he said with that same sort of smug grin that just made Cheerilee want to rip those lips straight off of his skull. 

“Come here you coward! Lets end this!” she yelled before lunging at the Fiend. 

To a normal pony, the fight would look completely impossible, as if the laws of physics and magic had been completely suspended. Cheerilee was insanely fast in her lunge, but the Fiend seemed to be just that bit faster as he sidestepped Cheerilee, making her slide forwards along the concrete for about a meter before she turned to try again. She was yelling in anger as she was jumping, yet only getting more and more angry as the Fiend seemed to be just able to dodge her. All the while he was wearing that same smug grin. 

“Listen, why do you not simply just surrender, you know in your blood, that I am superior.” he said, before taking a complete halt, looking at Cheerilee who was about to lunge at him again. “Why do you struggle against your blood born master?” he asked, before taking another casual sidestep. 

However, he did not not anticipate what happened next.

Cheerilee lunged at him, yes, but instead of aiming to tackle him, she had aimed herself in front of his hooves, so the moment he had sidestepped, she was still in front of him, with a smug smile of her own. 

“Because, this,” she said, before shifting her weight onto her front hooves, and putting all her strength into her hind legs, and made a mighty buck that could break the bones of a normal pony. 

Her bucking hooves smashed directly into the under the chin of the Fiend, who was flung backwards like a tossed over ragdoll. Cheerilee smirked as she heard the thud of flesh and bone hitting concrete. Turning around to look upon her handiwork, she saw that he was already getting up upon his hooves again, but he for once not had a smug grin on his face, but one of surprise. Also, a small amount of blood was gently dripping out of his mouth. The Fiend wiped it away with a hoof before looking upon it in the same sort of surprise. 

Cheerilee smirked and leapt at him again, this was a perfect chance to crush him like the beast he was. 

But now she was being the smug one. And smugness often goes hoof in hoof with hubris. 

Leaping for the Fiend to tackle him, and get into the perfect position to kill him, had left her exposed to something she had not thought of. A stand your ground counterattack. 

The Fiend glared at Cheerilee as she was barely a metre away from him, before he punched his hoof forwards, making it crash directly into Cheerilee´s abdomen, almost halting her like a piece of paper would be halted against a brick wall. 

Cheerilee could feel how several of her inner organs had actually burst from the collected energy of her lunge into, and the power of, the Fiend´s hoof. 

She collapsed off of his hoof and gasped reflexively for air, even as she didn't need it, before trying to get up again. She didn't get far however as the Fiend shifted his momentum on his hooves in order to let both gravity and energy work together in a mighty stomp down upon Cheerilee´s neck. 

Bones cracked beneath hoof, and blood rushed into Cheerilee´s throat as she gasped reflexively for air, and tried to calm her body and reflexes. Even as the Fiend was still keeping the pressure of his hoof down on her throat. 

“I must say, rather impressive of a simple vampire to draw blood from its better. Really, bravo, Miss Cheerilee, bravo.” his smug tone still shining through as his eyes had begun to light up in the red flare of blood lust. “I´d have rewarded you in the past… perhaps even considered putting a good word in to your true ruler.” he mused before pressing even harder down upon Cheerilee´s throat, making her writhe and gargle in pain. “But times are different now…” he lamented.

Cheerilee growled and gurgled up at the Fiend, her glare only meeting his smug eyes as she tried to reach her hooves up to push him down, but instead of getting the intended effect, the fiend simply stomped his other hoof down upon Cheerilee´s. Another crunch sounded as bone was shattered beneath the stomp, and making Cheerilee cry out in pain. 

Finally, the Fiend sighed and removed the weight from Cheerilee, and stepped off of the vampire. 
“Just stop following me… you will see me again soon… but you need to see somepony else first,” he said, before leaning his head down to Cheerilee´s, looking straight into her glaring eyes. 

“Now, please excuse me,” he said, just as he lifted up his hoof a last time, and stomped it directly into Cheerilee´s face.

Thats when everything went black.
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Rising Darkness
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Manehatten:

“...-eerilee! Agent Cheerilee, Can you hear me!?”
The voice penetrated the darkness of Cheerilee´s mind like a pickaxe striking through sedimentary rock, and at the same time summoned up all the collected pain that was still rushing through her body.

Groaning painfully, Cheerilee slowly opened her eyes, seeing that above her were several paramedics, and the superior guardspony from earlier this morning. The soldier breathed a sigh of relief.

“Oh good, you´re alive… Or… Aliveish… I thought certainly you were a goner there!” he spoke in his Manehattenite accent.

All the pain from the different wounds came back into sensory reality as Cheerilee opened her mouth to try and reply, but the almost burning pains came back to her, making her hiss out instead.

Cheerilee could slowly begin to feel and recognize her surroundings. She was still lying on top of the rooftop she had fought the Fiend on, but it was clearly hours later. The sun was slowly rising in the horizon, and her innards felt like they had healed up again. Several paramedics were gently wiping away the blood away from her downed body. She slowly lifted up her hoof which had been stamped upon earlier, It didn't look good. It looked rather healed up on the outside, but Cheerilee had a complete feel for most of the bones in her body. She could feel how it was incorrectly twisted and slightly off beneath the skin. 

One of the paramedics looked concerned upon Cheerilee and he gently gestured for her to lower her hoof. 

“Please rest, we will have to scan you back at the hospital. The anklebone looks slightly off.” the paramedic asserted.

Cheerilee slowly opened her mouth to try and reply, but as the air tried to escape her lungs, she could both feel and hear the gurgling of blood from her lungs. She reflexively began a fit of coughs, turning her head towards the ground and began to empty out all the remaining blood from her lungs. It was beyond uncomfortable as while a certain amount was still liquid, there was a lot which had clotted and stuck to the inside of her lungs. 

The ponies around her took a slight distance to her as she was, almost literally, coughing her lungs up. 
Cheerilee felt horrible, it was painful to just cough the remaining muck out of her lungs. She turned her head, while still heaving for breath to readjust her fake heartbeat and air needed for talking. 

“H-How… how long has I been out?” she croaked, as her throat had cracked slightly from all the coughing, but with her healing factor, it was quickly fixing itself. 

The superior guardspony calmly sat down upon his hindquarters. 

“Two hours.” he stated firmly. 

Cheerilee tried to pull herself up upon her hooves again, but two of the paramedics gently nudged at her to stay down. 

“Please wait till we get the stretcher up here.” one of the paramedics said, and almost as if summoned, another pair of ponies who clearly was from the Ambulance service came running with the item in question. 

Cheerilee grunted and held her wrongly healed hoof closely to her chest as the paramedics all clamoured around her and did their best to bring her onto the Stretcher. 

Just as the ponies was about to lift up the stretcher though, Cheerilee lifted a hoof.

“Wait…” She said, before looking over at the superior guardspony. “The Guards… On the rooftop…” she began with a serious face. The guardspony tried to dismiss the issue he knew was coming up.

“Its not important Agen-”

“Its important to me.” she asserted with an almost icy glare that made the guardspony freeze. “How many?” she asked, finishing her original question. 

After a few moments of uneasy silence, the guardspony sighed. 

“None of the guards stationed on the roof survived, and a few others were crippled by the diamond dogs before we finally were able to bring down the beasts…” he reported slowly, his face falling as he saw his words make the impact upon Cheerilee that it had. The Vampony teacher clenched her eyes shut and tugged her bad hoof closer to her chest. 

“Listen, you couldn't have d-” 

“Shut up…” Cheerilee cut the guard off, before her healthy hoof grasped around her other one. With a few quick feels, she then suddenly put a large amount of pressure upon the side of the hoof in what to a normal pony looked morbidly creepy. She twisted her hoof around in a loudly cracking adjusting of bones. She screamed again in pain as several healed up muscles snapped under the sudden force she applied to the wrongly healed hoof. The paramedics gasped in terror. 

“Stop that you cant just do that!” - “That could be causing irreversible damage” - “You need to get to the hospital” and similar words were escaping all the paramedics, but Cheerilee found herself ignoring them completely as she could finally feel her anklebone back in place. 

Cheerilee breathed through her teeth a moment before she sat up on the stretcher, still sore from last night’s fight, but determination was trumping pain.

“Filles and Gentlecolts, I thank you for your medical assistance, but I have no more need for your help.” she said in a slightly pained voice, before firmly gazing at the guardspony, who instantly tensed, like the abyss was suddenly staring at him. “And you, bring me an express coach, I need to be in canterlot within the next few hours,” she commanded before slowly getting up upon her hooves, though not leaning upon the now newly healing bones. 

Everypony around her was staring in a mixture of disbelief and surprise, but the guardspony was still a bit on the backhoof so to speak.

“W-Within a few hours? What are you going to do?” he asked in confusion. 

For the second time this morning, Cheerilee sent her stare upon the guard who froze, and counted his blessings. 

“I am going to find out everything about this Fiend. And to do that, I am going to hear the story, directly from the Alicorn´s mouth.” 





Unknown Location:



The first thing that Pen could feel was the merciless cold of concrete that had pressed itself against his fur for several hours by now. As his senses slowly came to him again, he clenched his eyes shut and slowly tried to move his limbs. His hooves felt heavy as they pressed against the concrete floor to slowly try and lift his head up from the unforgivable floor. 

Opening his eyes to finally look around, he found himself in what seemed to be a small concrete room, barely lit up from a small stream of light that emitted from the door. The door seemingly was designed with a small plexiglass window, while the rest of it seemed to be made out of steel. 

Pen groaned slightly as he tried to lift himself up to his hooves, but his body just seemed to ache, and just as he began to get to the altitude that heads normally reached on a day to day basis, everything began to swirl around him. He felt so unstable upon his own hooves, almost anemic. He stumbled to the side and caught himself with the cold concrete wall. 

“W-What in the sweet name of Celestia…” he slowly mumbled before looking down himself. His shirt was very disheveled and ruffled, but thankfully it seemed relatively unharmed. 

So did the rest of him. He felt groggy certainly, but other than that seemed alright.

He stretched his forelegs a moment, feeling nothing off, though as he began to stretch his hind legs, he began to feel a slight hissing pain. It clicked for him at the moment as he remembered his tail had been dislocated by that diamond dog.

In a sudden moment of realization, Pen whipped his head around to look at his tail to see that it was back in its socket. All nice and fitting, not only that, somepony had tied a small bandage around the root of his tail, tightening the hairs and lifting up his tail slightly but also restricting the movement of the tail. It was the way dislocated tails was treated in just the beginning phase, just to make sure that the recipient does not end up dislocating the limb again. Also in case any muscles had suffered strain, then they would get some time to heal up again. 

“Huh…” Pen lowly muttered, before looking back at the door again. 

“Ok… Let’s… Recollect…” he thought aloud, while taking in all the facts, and remembering the ordeal from yesterday. 

“So, I must assume that the Fiend has trapped me after…” he stopped a moment and blushed remembering the Fiend nipping at his horn, and his magic going off. He covered his face in his hooves. “Oh sweet Celestia this can only go bad…” he whispered to himself. 

Earth ponies had their usual, nervous dispositions in such situations. Pegasi had their ‘Pomf’ moments, and unicorns had slipspells. 

“Why did that happen?” he asked aloud, trying to make his curiosity and professionalism go above his embarrassment. 

“Of all times…” he lowly mumbled, before shaking his head firmly. He couldn't think about that now. Why he was in the predicament was not as important as getting out of it. 

Giving the room another perusal, Pen once again returned to the door with the glass window. He walked up to it and peeked out at what he could see outside his prison cell. There didn't seem to be anypony, or anydog for that matter. 

Not completely sure if it was the best way to proceed, Pen carefully pressed against the glass. He mused a moment how much force would be needed to smash through, before shrugging. Only one way to find out after all. He turned around and sank down into his forelegs, and made a buck backwards towards the door, hoping to hit the glass. 

He did, though only with one hoof, sadly not having coordinated his hind legs correctly, so one did crash through the glass, while the other made an audible twang against the metal floor, sending quite a shock through his body, and making him faceplant the floor. 

“Umph…” he lowly grunted as he imagined how awkward he was hanging from the door. 

His one hind leg was throbbing from the sudden shock, but he was thankful to not feel anything in his other hind leg, which signalled that he at least didn't cut himself on the glass. 

Awkwardly, he stretched his hind legs correctly and got himself onto all four hooves again. 

“Alright, that could have been done much more elegantly…” he mused before his horn lit up in the average telekinesis spell, unlocking the door from the outside now that there was nothing constraining him or his magic to the outside world. 

With a certain little smirk of his own, he strode outside the room and found himself in a long hallway of a sort. It looked like there was several rooms much like his own, however a quick peek inside a few, he found nopony inside. 

“Huh…” he said in slight confusion. 

If this place was somewhere that the Fiend had brought him to, would his other prisoners not be here as well? 

As if summoned from the aether, the sound of lumbering paws could be heard as something large was heading his way. 

Acting quickly (and trying to panic minimally), Pen set off in a sprint on the opposite direction. 

Pen had no frame of reference to where he was, so he had little to no way of figuring out where he was going either. He just took a quick turn by the end of the hallway and continued down another dark hallway. He presumed however that it was something underground. Which would explain the lack of light from outside sources beyond the occasional magical lantern. 

The echoing clatter of his hooves against the concrete suddenly seemed to be the only thing he could hear beyond his own breathing. Pen was perplexed, considering that he knew the Fiend had Diamond dogs to help him, they should have heard him. 

Pen slowed down and leaned against the wall for a moment as he began feeling slightly faint. He was panting actively already and his heart was racing. 

He looked around for any sort of door that perhaps could hide him. The hallway he had set down had been very door less, as compared to the other one he had been in. Though he did find a few. In urgency, Pen pulled at the doors, none of them budging an inch. 

“Celestia Damn it-” he cursed, while in the same movement, he slammed his shoulder against the door in frustration.

And the door gave absolutely no resistance. He fell forwards and smashed into the floor for the umpteenth time that day. Confused and momentarily dazed, he quickly clambered inside and closed the door behind him. With heavy breaths and a slightly wobbly vision, Pen looked back at the door and realized why the door had given in… It was a push door… Not a pull…

He facehoofed so hard that he could swear he heard an echo. 

“Right… Always like that…” he grumbled, before slowly getting back upon his hooves again, gently dusting off his still ruffled shirt a moment and turned to look into the room. 

He wished he hadn't. 

The room was a large concrete square filled with what he could only describe as Objects of torture. 

There were several chains connected into the wall, tables with the same kind of chains connected directly into the concrete, with one large one, dangling just above it. Besides the table was another smaller, hospital roller, which was filled with several different kinds of scalpels, and surgical tools. Everything was hidden in the dim lighting which only seemed to light up from the door. The entire room was reeking of what smelt like old blood, yet in the darkness, Pen could not see any. In fact, most of the corners of the room was so dark that he could forgive even Princess Celestia for not being able to illuminate them. 

Suddenly, a rustling sounded at the door. Pen panicked and instantly threw himself into one of the dark corners of the room and pressed himself against the wall, holding his breath and just staring ahead to  see who was going to enter. 

If he had not been holding his breath, he would be gasping. 

It was the Fiend, but he was carrying somepony over his back. A stallion with a white mane and blue coat. 

It was Clear Brush, the victim of half a year ago. 

He looked horrible. His coat looked dull, his mane almost looked like it was ready to pop off of the pony´s head due to excessive stress. Pen could not see it, but had the light been on he would have seen horrible signs of scarring and constant abuse. But he didn't need to see them to figure that out. 

For the Fiend just casually strolled inside, thankfully not looking in Pen´s corner, but instead walked over to the table in the middle and strapped down Clear Brush. He then lit up his horn and levitated the chain that hung into the ceiling, and clamped it around the captured unicorn's horn, the chain for a moment lighting up in smaller runes. 

A small, pained and absolutely pathetic whimper escaped the blue unicorn as he seemingly began to wake up, just as his captor had begun to giggle. 

“Rise and shine, Clear Brush, the sun is out, and I am certain it looks, Oh so fine.” The Fiend cooed, as it leaned its head down to face with Clear Brush. 

The blue unicorn whimpered again. 

“P-Please… N-Not me… P-Pleaaseee…” he was begging in a low, borderline crying voice. But the Fiend only grinned and lit up his horn in a levitation spell, which picked up one of the scalpels on the table. 

“Now now now, Clear Brush, You´re my oldest little plaything, and I think you should have the honour of being the preparation.” he spoke in and almost cheery voice. 

Pen was breathing so carefully through his nose as possible, praying that even his own heart rate would lower so much that he would be invisible. He knew that if he bolted for the door he would just be caught. So he prayed that the stench of blood was covering his scent. 

The Fiend gently levitated the scalpel up against Clear Brush´s cheek, and gently stroked the fine, non-sharp side of the metal piece against his roughed up fur and skin. Clear Brush was lowly whimpering now. 

“P-Pleaaaseee…” he kept on begging, but the Fiend gently covered his mouth with his hoof. 

“Mister Brush, don't be such a baby, we are just working on a little art piece.” he spoke in a condescending manner, while the scalpel floated up towards Clear Brush´s horn. “And we just need a bit of paint to start with.” he said with a grin, before in one quick motion, sank the scalpel down upon the unicorn´s skin and cut a fine line around the horn. Blood gushed from the small wound in the skin and the blue unicorn whimpered in pain, and tried to pull at the chains, yet nothing seemed to be able to help him.  

Pen bit into his own tongue, trying to focus on the pain he was causing himself instead of the horror in front of him.  

But there was one thing that caught his eye though. The moment the Fiend cut into the unicorn, the runes on the chain upon Clear Brush´s horn lit up just slightly. 

Something, left Clear Brush and went through the chain? 

The Fiend leaned up to Clear Brush´s horn and gently let his tongue run across the small wound he had created upon the unicorn´s forehead, lapping up any excess blood. Clear Brush was wincing at first, but somehow seemed to relax, even while there was still tears welling in the Stallion´s eyes. 

The Fiend then floated the scalpel down to one of Clear Brush´s hooves, it quickly slicing through a bit of the skin around the fetlock. He just seemed to revel in every movement and whimper of pain from Clear Brush. Once again, as Clear Brush was pained, the runes lit up on the chain, and something seemed to go through the metal links.

The wound was small, but it must have hit a minor artery, because the blood was gushing freely from the wound, seeping out upon the table and even beginning to drip off of the side. 

“Oh that should be enough.” The Fiend spoke in a cheery tone, as he actually dabbed his hoof in the growing pool of blood and then gently placed a hoof upon Clear Brush´s chest, making a small imprint from his own blood. 

The retching stench of blood was assaulting Pen´s nostrils, his heart hammering against his chest in fear as he was staring upon the Fiend as he casually drew his bloody hoof across Clear Brush´s restrained body. 
To top it off, the Fiend was humming. He was humming a light tune whilst drawing in blood. 

“The plight of an Artist,
You pour your heart and your soul, 
Keep working for days on end, 
Perfection, Is your goal.” 

The Fiend let the scalpel sink down into the Blue Unicorn´s chest and proceeded to seemingly draw a shape in the skin, all the while Clear Brush was crying out in pain. 

The Fiend stopped there, though. He pulled out the scalpel and looked upon his mutilated victim with a small dismayed frown. He sighed and sank himself down to the cut artery, and gently began to lick the wound. Pen didn't want to look, but his eyes were drawn to every move the Fiend made, knowing that every single disgusting piece of information could be so important. 

That’s also when he saw it. After the Fiend had licked up the wounded fetlock, he seemingly bit into his own lip, making it draw blood. The tiny wound closed up quickly, but not before he dripped a bit of his own blood directly onto the wounded fetlock. And like a miracle cure, the wound closed up again, with the same sort of Vampiric healing factor he had expected. 

‘Fascinating’, Pen thought, for a moment distracting himself with the scientific aspect of this, instead of the inequine display. 

The Fiend sighed slightly again, lifting himself back up so he could look at Clear Brush´s face more clearly. 

“The search for perfection is always so tedious, isn't it?... Mister Pen?” 

Pen´s heart stopped for half a second. 

The Fiend turned to face directly into the shadow that Pen had been hiding in for the whole time there, and smirked at the red unicorn. 

“Enjoying the display?” he asked wickedly. 

Pen could not hold it in anymore. He gasped for air, screamed in fright and bolted for the door. He swung the door open, only to be met by the sight of a large Diamond dog blocking off one of the corridors, so he fled in the other direction.
The diamond dog grunted a moment and prepared to give chase, but was stopped as the Fiend called. 

“Stay where you are… Guard the blue unicorn…” he commanded, while he walked out into the hallway with a malicious smirk and blood smeared coat. “I´ll take care of this myself…”

Pen just kept running, he didn't know where he was or where he was going, but he didn't care. He just had to get away. He took every turn he could, praying that somehow he could loose the Fiend in the strange maze of corridors he found himself in. He had never before been so terrified, in the few years of his service in the Agency, this was the first time he truly feared for his own life. Finally getting to some upwards going stairs, he thanked Faust, Celestia and Luna in advance for what he thought might be his salvation. 

He was wrong. 

As finally he got up the stairs, he found himself in a large, circular room, which had an eerie similarity to the torture chamber below. There were lots of different tools for extracting pain from a pony, along with lots of ways to restrain them, including a plethora of chains. A certain amount were connected in reasonable intervals along the circular wall. Four for each limb, one for the neck, and a last, Pen guessed, was for a unicorn´s horn, as they were smaller than the other ones, and all were connected to the ceiling. There was however also all sorts of medical supplies and sanitary items. 

Pen bolted across the room, avoiding all the… other items, he didn't even want to describe mentally, and tried to open a door that was on the opposite side of the room. He fiddled with the handle and kept trying to get it open, pulling and pushing, but it revealed itself to be securely bolted.

“No, no no no, please don't be locked.” he spoke aloud in panic, as if the door would react and neatly open itself for him. 

That was when he heard the giggle from behind him again. 

“Oh certainly, I am certain the door would love to sort out this misunderstanding, Just keep asking nicely, perhaps it will comply.” 

Pen turned around and stared in absolute terror upon the white unicorn who was standing on the far end of the room. While his manner was casual, his blood smeared coat did nothing to soothe Pen´s already strained nerves and hammering heart. He had nothing to resist with. He knew the Fiend could just crush him if he wanted to. 

The Fiend began to casually walk forwards towards him, but stopped as Pen seemingly began to slowly pace to the side. The Fiend could not help but giggle at the display. It was like a predator facing off with his cornered prey. 

Pen was the first to raise his voice of the two. 

“Well, that's the thing about doors, you can't rely on them!” He said in a slightly joking manner, having retreated to wit as his last defence from just breaking down and submitting. But the Fiend knew fear when he saw it, but it was still amusing to see the way this young stallion coped with that fear. 

“I find them rather reliable, Mister Pen, After all, you´re still here.” he said in a slightly musing tone, while pacing to the side, mirroring Pen´s walking. 

“T-That’s of course true… May I ask why you know my name?” Pen asked, quickly trying to switch the subject, whilst his eyes kept themselves transfixed upon the Fiend, waiting for him to pounce. 

The Fiend did not, however. He just gave a bemused smile. 

“I have my ways of gaining information Mister Pen. And any information about such a young, talented, and attractive pony as yourself, will not go past my nose,” he purred lightly. 

Pen tried to keep a straight face, but the Fiend´s words was really making him uncomfortable in so many ways. He´d have to shift the subject around somehow. 

“Well, You´re not too bad looking yourself, I´d perhaps have asked you out, if it wasn't for the whole, Malicious and Evil Fiend, thing…” he said, trying to pass it off as yet another comment, and not come off as the nervous wreck he was. The Fiend smirked and walked forwards, Making pen freeze a bit, as he knew he could not bolt to either side. 

“Why thank you Mister Pen, and I must admit, I do owe you another show of appreciation.” He said, before stopping in the middle of the room, at one of the rolling tables with a pair of items on it. 

Pen swallowed. “Thank me? What for?” 

“Why, for being the stone to start the avalanche.” he said with an almost appreciating smile. “If it wasn't for you, I most likely would just have been playing with my Toys for much longer than necessary. But thanks to you, I was able to get the attention of the pretender.” 

“T-The pretender? Y-You mean Celestia?” Pen asked, seeing that the Fiend was staying in the middle of the room, his magic seemingly fiddling with a few different items. 

The Fiend seemed bemused.

“How´s your tail?” he asked, not answering Pens question, but instead lifting up what Pen could only describe as a Gagball. 

Pen swallowed his spit a moment, giving his tail a small glance. 

“Uhm, Its, alright… its… Healing… I think… Why´d you bandage it up?” he asked curiously. The Fiend looked back at Pen.

“It was hurt, So I bandaged it up again…” 

“Oh… Well, Thanks I gu-”

“Besides, it does give a good view of your rather fine flank~” The Fiend emphasised, making Pen light up in a red embarasment, once again suddenly feeling very, VERY self conscious. Its bad enough to feel out of place at a party, but it didnt match up to being seemingly desired by a supernatural creature who could kill him in an instant. 

“W-well, thank you for that!” Pen tried to sound defiant, though he had no idea how to phrase his words, he was terrified, yet had to seem confident. His eyes shifted around to the room and he stepped forwards in a moment of inspiration. “But now that you have me here in your little play room,why not just spill the beans, Hmm?” he asked, pushing all his pretend confidence into his words, that actually seemed to make the Fiend raise an eyebrow slightly. “What is all of this!?” Pen asked, waving a hoof around, his eyes also shifting around the room. “What do you need all these chains for, What are they all connected… Toooooo…” his words gave up upon him as his eyes fell upon the item in the ceiling. 

The huge thing was brimming. Every single chain seemed to in some way also be connected up into the ceiling, and up onto the-

Suddenly the Fiend was there in front of Pen, and forcing him eye to eye.

“You want to know what this is? Alright, Its very simple… This is half my world… And your princess has the other half. And I want it back.” he growled slightly, before slamming Pen back into the wall, knocking the air out of the young unicorn. 

While he was dazed, the Fiend´s horn lit up, and the chains attached to the wall each seemingly came to life and clamped themselves around each limb of Pen´s, except for the horn chain, that one instead flowed over to the Fiend so he could place it gently into his own hoof, and stare upon Pen, who only then realized that he had gotten chained to the wall. In a panic he tried to rush forwards towards the Fiend but was stopped and yanked backwards like a dog on a leash. 

Once again, the Fiend laughed sadistically. He oh so enjoyed seeing them struggle. 

“And as I said, thanks to you, I have planted the seed of the usurper´s destruction…” he said, before looking upwards in a thoughtful moment. “Though I will perhaps need a much more direct way of contacting her…” He mused, before lifting up his hooves to open the horn chain and move it towards Pen´s horn. Pen obviously struggled to try and move his horn out of the way, but the Fiend just pushed him firmly against the wall, and then clamped the chain around the horn. “There we go~” he cooed, and then stood down upon all his four hooves again and looked into Pen´s eyes. “Now, there should be at least three hours until I will need to send any sort of reminder to the usurper, so we have lots of time to play~” the Fiend quipped happily, before leaning himself against Pen, who was slowly stopping to struggle as the Fiend´s close proximity was not only making it harder to move but also it was just, uncomfortably terrifying to feel his cold body pressed against his. 

He stared into the Fiend´s eyes, his own growing wide as the Fiend gently began to stroke a hoof down his chest, and down to a very… private… place. 

“You know, I always loved them younger~, You have so much more energy~” the Fiend purred. He leaned in and gently licked his tongue up the coltish pony´s neck, tasting the skin and fur again, and revelled in the feeling of his new toy, who in turn was gasping in terror, as his body began reacting. 

That feeling... Terrifying… Hot… and only going to lead to something horrid. 

‘P-Please Cheerilee… Save me…”  





Canterlot Castle:


The great imposing castle of the Equestrian capital was an architectural marvel, having been standing, and been renovated, for millennia, some of the stones within even older than the walls that surrounded it. 

Everypony who would be inside of it would always remember it, due to this imposing and awe inspiring display.  

Though of course it could get a bit dull and tedious if you yourself were a long living being like an alicorn. That was the case for Princess Luna. 
Even with all the changes that had happened to the castle for the entire millennia that she had been gone, it still felt the same. So now as she was sitting inside the great dining hall, which could take the breath away from most normal ponies and make interior decorators bite their hooves in the huge task it would be to make any sort of improvements on this seemingly perfect room, Luna was just using it like normal ponies would their dining room. 

Thus, dining in it. 

She was sitting on the one end of the table, having her breakfast, served and cooked by the great staff of course, with her sister Celestia on the far end, who was all fresh and talking, seeing as she had gotten a full night of sleep, only just woken up to raise sun, running her mouth on about interesting kinds of magic that Twilight Sparkle had rediscovered. 

Celestia was in no way decent by royal standards, as she had not bothered to brush her mane, and still had not gotten out of a pair of pyjamas she had taken on, mainly to tease Luna who said it was childish of her. 

Luna looked rather normal, since she was used to working on her beautiful nights, so much that such things as sleep began to become of so little importance to her that sometimes she could not remember when she last slept. The nights just sort of flowed together. 

It was while considering when she had slept last, that she was slowly zoning back into the celestial monologue.

“-and thanks to this sort of siphoning magic, all sorts of emotional energy would be able to be used as much more tangible magic. Its sort of like a changeling strategy, though while changelings perhaps could use a single victim, this would take a  large amount of donors, or the same donor for years at least-” She continued on, making Luna keep her focus more on her breakfast, though Celestia was finally beginning to realize that her sister was not listening. 

So she leaned her head slightly more forwards. 

“And after those long years, clowns would appear out of the sky, bringing with them dubstep canons and bring on the apocalypse…” she said, going off a completely ridiculous tangent, to confirm that Luna was indeed not listening, before the word apocalypse. That did snap her attention though. 

Celestia could not help but giggle lightly, that dignified and mature giggle he so often had done around Twilight Sparkle before.

“I’m sorry if I am boring you, little sister.” 

Luna rolled her eyes.

“Don't apologize, big sister. We simply have things to think about…” she spoke, still holding on to her royal we, it just having stuck for now. She levitated a napkin up to gently wipe her mouth, before rising from her large seat. “Please excuse us, sister.” 

Celestia tilted her head a moment, and frowned slightly, she didn't like when Luna just left her alone, but she respected her sister´s wish for either privacy or time to work. She sighed as the door closed and Luna had left her behind alone to finish her breakfast. 

“You really should be more social, Luna… I have always said that…” she lowly muttered, levitating her spoon to get into her food. 

However, her ears perked up the moment she caught the sound of commotion outside of the dining hall, hearing someone mutter about ‘You cannot go in there’, and ‘Halt’. The Celestial diarch turned her head to the door just as it was swung open to reveal a very, very grumpy looking Cheerilee. Along with a certain amount of Guards who were seemingly about to try and stop her again, but Celestia raised her voice.

“At ease, let Cheerilee pass,” she commanded at the guards, who followed their orders obediently with an “As you wish, your highness”. They walked out the door and closed it behind them, letting Celestia and Cheerilee be alone. Celestia smiled, despite Cheerilee´s grumpy exterior. 

“Greetings Cheerilee, It has been a long time since I have seen you at the castle. I presume you're looking for my sister?” she asked, her voice pleasant and dignified. Cheerilee took a deep breath through her nose, keeping as calm and stoic a face as possible.

“Yes, I am, Would you perhaps know where she is? I was told she was in here…” she said, getting straight to the issue, not even bothering greeting the Princess of the Day. Not many had the audacity to do so, which was why Celestia was mildly surprised, but it was more out of concern than anything else. 

“Yes, she just left a moment ago, Take the door there by the end of the room, and follow the hallway until you get to the tower stairs, up in the furthest tower is her room, that’s most likely where she will be…” Celestia answered calmly, before giving a more regal and firm glance down at Cheerilee. “Is something of the matter?” 

“Yes…” Cheerilee answered, already walking past the Princess. “Which is why I am going to talk to Luna directly…” she answered before she was already halfway out the door on the far end on the room. 

The door closed with a relatively loud slam, causing even some of the windows to shudder a moment. 

‘Whats eating at her?’ 
		
		
		
> Past Returns
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Canterlot, Present Day



Princess Luna´s room looked like something out of time and out of place. 

It was as dark as her own night, and yet at the same time illuminated enough as if her own moon was within the room itself. 
Its furnishing even seemed as dark and flowing as the night. Her bed was large and round with deep blue sheets, which presided just beside a door that lead to the balcony, so that she could raise and lower her night as she wanted. 
Even now with the sun hanging high, the room was dark.

It was just tranquil. 

But the universe, having something against tranquillity could always come up with a suitable excuse for breaking it. Either through the annoying buzzing of a bee, a message, an official occasion, Or in this case, a grumpy vampire agent who proceeded to promptly smack open the door with an audible crash. Had the doors not been as sturdy as they were, they would possibly have popped off their hinges. 

Princess Luna turned to face the door. 

“You know the door was unlocked?” she asked stoically. 

She was sitting in the middle of her room on a large soft pillow to replace the traditional chair, a scroll levitating in front of her as she looked upon the intruder. 

Cheerilee looked like she was ready to pounce the Princess at any moment, but the alicorn had enough self discipline to stay still.

“You have a few things to answer for, Luna,” Cheerilee said in a small growl as she walked inside, keeping a glaring eye contact with the ruler of the night. 

“Whatever do you mean, Cheerilee?” she replied calmly, letting the document float off to give Cheerilee her full attention. 

“I remember when you sent me out on this assignment in Manehatten, that you told me not to worry if your suspicions were correct… Well I would very much like to know what those suspicions were, because I met something more than worrisome. Its a damn problem,” she growled at  the diarch, causing the alicorn to raise an eyebrow. 

“What have you found?”

“Something called a Kaynite…” Cheerilee added. “And it told me specifically to speak with you… Now, I have never heard of anything called a Kaynite, and I doubt many others have either. So would you perchance know something about this?” she asked, her tone almost accusatory, while keeping a sort of sarcastic snark. 

The Princess gave a calm glaze over at Cheerilee, adjusting herself slightly on her pillow. 

“A Kaynite is an old variation of the blooddrinkers like yourself. They are barely a few stragglers alive, and an experienced vampire should easily be able to do the rest of them in, Which is why I sent you-” 

“So you KNEW It was going to be a Kaynite?” Cheerilee asked, her accusing voice cut through the room like a hot knife through butter. Had this not been Princess Luna, the mistress of the Pokerface, she would have flinched. 

“We knew the possibility, thus why we decided to send our best agent.” she spoke calmly. “We presume you´ve dealt with the situation, thus why you are here in our face, angry at our decision?” she asked calmly. Cheerilee gritted her teeth. 

“Well no, Your Majesty! I have in fact returned to report that both Emerald Song and your Agent Pen, have been captured by a Kaynite known as either ‘Angel’, or ‘Fiend’, and that he seems to have quite the grudge against you, since he made it VERY clear that you were a traitor…
So no, I haven't come here for a congratulatory pat on the shoulder, I have come here for honesty…”

The princess of the night froze for just a second, staring in disbelief upon her most trusted agent.

“Are… Are thou certain? Perchance you have misheard? That, it was not Angel or Fiend he named himself?” she asked, hoping utterly that she was right. Though Cheerilee just replied with a deadpanned look.

“Did you just ask if a vampire with heightened senses heard correctly, in a one on one conversation?”  

The princess winced almost at that question before shaking her head.

“Of course you heard correctly, apologies Cheerilee its just…” She averted her gaze. “It should not be. We are certain that… Said Kaynite is long dead…” She tried to reason. 

“Well so am I, but I still pack a mean punch…” Cheerilee commented, only gaining a slight look from Princess Luna, however Cheerilee made sure to press that moments advantage. “And this only confirms what has been said. You do know who it is.” 

“We only have a suspicion, Agent Cheerilee.” Luna stated. “After all, tis could just be another with a similar name.” she postulated. She was rather happy with that possibility and for a moment, found herself content in the belief that it was all a coincidence. Untill Cheerilee spoke again.

“ ‘An Amour Does not take Kindly To Breaking an Oath’” she repeated, finally seemingly cracking the Princess´s poker face completely as she seemed to wince slightly. “That is what he asked me to say… Now will you please, just tell me what is going on?” 

Luna looked down in thought before finally responding. 

“It… would seem that an old… Acquaintance of ours… has survived.” she admitted with much reluctance. She then let a small sigh escape her, looking up at Cheerilee. “Please, Take a Seat, we have a feeling that answering your questions might take a while…” 

Cheerilee was hesitant for just a moment, keeping up her angry stare at Princess Luna for just a few seconds further, before finally complying and taking a seat in the soft, almost bean bag like, cushion just opposite to the princess. 

The Princess observed Cheerilee as she sat down with a solemn expression, as she calmly braced herself for the parade of questions. 

“Now, One Question at the time, What would you like to know?” 

“Well firstly… How do you know this, Fiend or Angel, guy? He seems clearly to bear a grudge against you…” Cheerilee deduced. “And he stated that its been almost a thousand years since his kind was seen. So I will presume you have known him for a long time. Why is he only a problem now then?” she inquired. 

Luna lowered her head slightly at the questions, and gave a small sigh again. 

“Tis be a long Story…” 

“I have the Time, Though his victims might not. But you are the best lead I have, so I am going to sit here until I have understood every, single, detail about this monster…” Cheerilee asserted. 

Luna rose her head to look Cheerilee in the eyes for a few brief moments. 

“Very well then… It was A long time ago… Before… Before the time of Nightmares…”









The Castle of the Ancient Pony Sisters, 1020 years ago.
 






The moon hung high in the sky, and loomed over Equestria in its beautiful shine, that only seemed even more majestic in those days. Almost a thousand years before any of the future bearers of harmony had even seen the light of day, there was still a strong and united Equestria. A beautiful realm of joy, happiness, and Harmony.

Or at least, it was seen as such.

The land was still filled with the creatures of Magic and Myth, like Manticores, Dragons, Hydras and many a monster alike, and thus so many ponies saw the land outside Equestria as dangerous. And especially at night.

That was the detail that hurt her highness the most.

Princess Luna was standing on her balcony in The Sisters Castle, staring up upon her beautiful moon, doing her best not to let rich and warm tears roll down her beautiful star-kissed cheeks.

‘Why?’ she mentally questioned, her wings tightening slight around herself as she wished she could wrap herself in sheets and just cry her beautiful night away.

Nopony was enjoying it.

Nopony was out in her beautiful night and frolicking in the fields, or seeing the paths her starlight had now revealed to those who would look for them. Her effort, and her beautiful moon had done so much, yet nopony was noticing her effort. It made her feel… Useless.

And… Angry.

‘Why me?... Why will nopony love our night? Our beautiful creations of night, our compassionate moon and wonderful constellations of stars? Not even when we had spent almost all of our energy to bring a rain of shooting stars, had nopony told us it was beautiful… Nopony had stared in awe upon the sky. Everypony had simply stayed inside. And shunned our beautiful night’. 

Princess Luna´s reverie was interrupted by the knock on her door and the slightly muffled voice of one of her guards spoke.

“Requesting an audience, Your Highness.” The voice was sharp, and respectful, just as demanded of the guard.

Luna reached up a wing to quickly wipe off any tears there might have formed in her eyes before she called back in her (soon to be known as) Royal Canterlot voice. “Yes, what does thou want!?” she asked, perhaps a bit snappishly, but to be fair to her, she was depressed.

The door squeaked slightly as it just opened enough for her guard to just poke his head inside, being careful not to scratch the metal armour against the precious wood.

“Your sister is requesting that you get out of your chambers, and join her at the party.” The guard reported calmly yet firmly, doing his duty perfectly.

Princess Luna huffed a moment as she walked back into her room, the room rather large and filled with all her personal items, her dresser, her large circular double bed with veils to cover up when she was sleeping and lots and lots of soft pillows.

“Tell our sister, that we have duties to attend, we must take care of the Moon and its beauty while Our Little Ponies are sleeping and sheltering from the horrors of the night.” She added the last part with much of a sarcastic, yet snarky and dismissive tone.

The guard lowered his head a moment in acknowledgement of his Princess's orders, however he slowly lifted up his head again and cleared his throat.

“Uhm, your sister knew you would say that, so she ordered me to tell you, ‘To stop being so antisocial, you will never get any friends if you keep hiding in your room and being moping. Come down Luna, it will be fun’. ” The guard slowly reported, and quoted the Sun Princess´s message perfectly.

Luna sort of glared at the guard, but it was not really directed to her faithful guardspony. It was more to the sender of the message. Oh sweet heavens, her sister could be obnoxious. Luna sighed audibly and raised her hoof arrogantly.

“Tsk, so be it then… If our sister truly wishes for us to join such a useless and boring social event, we shall indulge her.” Luna said with much annoyance. “Tell our sister we will be right there.” Luna spoke calmly, the guard immediately carrying out the order and closing the door behind him, giving the princess of the night time to freshen herself up slightly.
 





The Sisters Castle, Down at the party.






If a certain future pink party pony would have seen how this party was, she would have instantly deflated and screamed in terror at the sheer dullness of it all. Luna didn’t even need to indulge everypony in the room with a glance before she could see that it was not going to be something she would enjoy. Everypony that was around were some kind of noble, or rich upper class pony, all of them talking about their things and how their oh so hard lives were getting just a tad bit worse.

The Princess of the night had dressed herself up in her usual royal outfit, her light blue shoes, which almost matched with her crown and her necklace, which symbolized her position of power in Equestria. Marking her as the one, true princess of the night. However she still found just about everypony in the audience to be overdressed. So many nice jewels and fine fabrics on display that Luna felt as if this was getting a visit from the royal tailor, twice, a second, without delay. It was almost nauseating.  

Maybe it was just her earlier bitterness that was still getting to her, but she didn’t like the ponies in the gathering. Not a single one.

“Luna! You came!” a voice sounded, which Luna quickly recognized as her sister´s. She turned her head and saw the Sun Princess Celestia standing at a snack table on the far side of the room, waving lightly at her with a bright smile. Her shiny flowing mane carefully combed to both be beautiful and practical, seeing as there was a cake table. Oh, Luna wanted to just slap her with her wings. Yes, definitely bitterness.

Slowly, Luna made her way over to her sister who was also dressed in her royal duds like herself.

“Yes, we did, dear sister, however you will have to forgive us, if we withhold our enthusiasm about this event. We have yet in all our years of controlling the moon found any of such social events to be of an entertaining nature.” She spoke, while still using the Royal We because there were still ponies nearby who could hear. She didn’t want them to get any idea that she had gotten soft or something of the like. However, Celestia had another idea. 

She grinned. “Oh hush Little sister. These gatherings are lovely, there are always some interesting ponies amongst those who come to our castle. Some of whom have come from very far away.” She said, before her eyes scanning over the crowd before pointing out a certain pony. “Look, there is Charlemane of Prance!” she said with a bit of excitement, as she looked upon the tall pale white coated earth pony. While he had a bit of a larger snout than his peers at the party, his tall and powerful stature made him look rather attractive to those around him. However Luna didn’t even give the Prench Monarch the benefit of indulging a single thought. Luna only glanced and then looked back at Celestia.

“Why how interesting, sister…” she said in cynical sarcasm. “As if we do not visit Prance often enough to know Charlemane. We played Chess with him last month.” She simply said dismissively and tried to walk along the snack table, and away from the patrons, but Celestia just put a foreleg around her sister´s neck and smiled, gesturing out into the crowd again.

“Just look around you Luna, you should socialize… Perhaps you could find some friends!” she said with much enthusiasm, which was in no way shared by Luna, who looked dead-panned out upon the gathering. Her bitterness still strong and lingering in her heart.

“If thou keep on repeating the same pestering sentence about Friendship, dear sister, we will proceed to take away all thine cake.” She said a bit dead-panned, before trying to sort of wrestle out of her sister´s foreleg. It was not as hard as Celestia removed it herself and gasped dramatically at her sister´s threat.

“Cruel Luna, how could you take away my cake? That, that’s just too evil!” she said jokingly, but frowned slightly as she saw Luna simply continue to walk. The Princess of the night didn’t even bother with answering, and it just left a disheartened Celestia behind. She quickly took upon her kind smile again, as another guest required her attention, though she kept one lingering look upon her sister, who seemed to disappear into the gathering.

Luna used just about all her grace and elegance to NOT speak with anypony at the party, at all. She walked through the crowd in order to escape from her pestering sister, but that only caused new problems as suddenly so many ponies wanted to talk to her. From Prance to Manehatten, Even an emissary from the Griffon Kingdom, all tried to get into pleasant conversation with the Princess of the night, however she ignored them and tried to head for a place of solitude. Or relative solitude at least.

She found herself a corner of the party where no ponies had placed themselves yet, and had made sure her pursuers were more distracted with each other, before she sat down upon her royal haunches in the corner and sighed.

‘Tia, why art thou doing this to us? Thou know we hate parties…’ she thought to herself, lowering her head in melancholic reverie.

Luna didn’t have any feeling of how the party was going on around her, she didn’t want to either. She just wanted the night to be finished so she could retreat to her bed sheets and curl up in her own little ball of misery. At least her own dreams were much more beautiful than reality.

“Excuse me, Your Royal highness.” A voice interrupted Luna´s reverie, which almost made her want to yell with the full form of her Royal Canterlot voice into whoever was interrupting her. It took a great deal of restraint not to, but even more as she raised her head, and heard the next comment. “But might I ask why your beautiful muzzle is plagued by such a sad frown?”

Luna finally got a look of who was speaking to her. It was a white unicorn stallion, perhaps only just beginning to qualify as such, his fur white with a great deep red mane, which was actually relatively long and hanging much freer than the usual nobility, who prided themselves with very clean and very flowing manes. However this stallion´s mane seemed a bit unruly, but in a sort of orderly way, which wasn’t as paradoxically as it sounded. He had a pair of soft blue eyes and a warm smile upon his muzzle that under normal circumstances perhaps would have spread a bit of warmth to Luna herself. However she was in no way in a mood to accept it. The pony was also dapperly dressed, wearing a shirt about as red as his hair, which had quite a few ruffles around forehooves, and just below the neck, which also happened to have a small red rose in it. Coincidentally, that was also the pony´s cutie mark. A sweet red rose standing proudly with its thorns not even seeming the least bit sharp.

Grumpily, Luna glared at the stallion.

“That is none of thine business! Would thou be as kind as to leave thine Princess alone to her thoughts!?” she asked with a tone that would make her guards cringe, and her servants run for the cupboard to hide, shivering in fear. The stallion however, seemed unaffected, as he just kept his soft smile.

“But your majesty, thou art the ruler of the night. The most beautiful pallet in all of Equestria. I cannot leave ye alone” he said in almost a solemn tone, inching his head closer as to inquire further. “And I cannot bear to see our beautiful princess sad.” He spoke, his tone sounding slightly sincere, but Luna had heard that kind of tone before. It might very well be sincere, but there was also another underlying subject.

“Be off with you, paramour! We will have none of what thou would offer!” She growled at him, trying to just avert her eyes and face as to get a sort of peace for herself. However, what she did not expect was that the stallion began to giggle a bit.

“Paramour? Have ye perhaps by coincidence met my father?” he asked, actually curious but smiling, as Luna returned his head to him, raising a small eyebrow.

“Art thou the son of Pa Amour?” she asked, remembering a stallion from a party like this, a few decades ago. A stallion named Pa Amour had openly tried to woo Princess Luna, however she was not the least bit interested in him. So many other mares were, but Luna had no care for dating or courtship. She expected said stallion to be an old charmer now, somepony who lived on their own, always having travelled around trying to get their next meeting, like Casanova. Which seemingly now was being proved as untrue as the stallion in front of her now nodded.

“The first-born son of the Amour, yes, that Is I, Your highness. Oh dear, is this the moment where I have to hear some story about my father´s attempted conquests? I will presume he failed miserably.” The young stallion asked with a small grin, which actually began to knock a bit against Luna´s shell. She kept herself from growling at him this time, as it seemingly was a fair question.

“Thine presumption is correct,” she simply said, rising up from her Haunches, still wanting to find a place where she could be alone. “Now thou must excuse us-“

“Your highness, I have a request.” The young stallion said in a purely sincere tone as he looked almost pleadingly upon the Princess of the night. This look made Luna inwardly sigh and wanted to just brush him off, however her conscience got the better of her.

“Speak, young Amour.” She said, perhaps a bit snappishly, but she at least heard him out.

“Could thou follow me out into the castle garden? I have something to show thee.” 

This request made the Princess of the night take a small step backwards in surprise. He wanted to show her something in her own garden? What kind of mockery was this? Was she assuming that she did not even know her own castle? Was he trying to use cheap tricks to woo her, like his father? All these sorts of accusatory questions flashed through her mind, but slowly the paranoia was subsiding. Perhaps it was a bit unfair to immediately suspect a young stallion who otherwise had been rather polite. Then the thought struck Luna that she could easily slip away back to her chambers if she was out in the castle gardens. And after all, dear sister said that she should mingle with the guests. A small smirk crept upon Luna´s face before she returned to her hard face, looking down upon the white stallion.

“Very well… Lead the way, young Amour.” She commanded, her voice lowered, yet still with a thick air of authority, as the alicorn royalty should have.

A grin flashed itself upon The young Amour´s face, as he bowed his head.

“As you wish Your Majesty,” he said before leading them both through the party. Despite Luna´s size and innate ability to draw eyes to her, they were able to make it out of the great party hall, and slowly made it into the gardens.

The castle gardens were huge, filled with almost every piece of beautiful fauna and flora that one could imagine. And the dark of the night only made the normally ominously large garden seem even more ominous, but also beautiful. Its shadows were slicked around in beautiful curves and the stars hanging above Equestria was giving the garden its perfect canvas to be upon, with blinking lights and shimmering shiny skies. All of this was only topped off by Luna´s own beautiful moon as it was hanging just above the castle at this time of the night, Illuminating the entirety of the garden, showing so many things that the sunlight would only have erased.

All of this made Luna´s heart sting a bit again. She had put so much effort into this… all this beauty… and all those ponies inside the party hall was just indulging themselves with games, conversation and frolicking in the light her sister gave from within
.
Luna just wanted to tear out that muscle in her chest and throw it to the ground so at least it would stop hurting, but she comforted herself with the fact that once she had indulged this little stallion in whatever he wished to show his Princess, she could sneak back into her own room, and at least appreciate her own night.

The stallion lead Luna out through the garden, walking for actually a few minutes with Luna before they reached the great Labyrinth. He began to walk inside, though the Princess stopped up a moment, raising an eyebrow.

“What in Equestria would thou want inside of the labyrinth?” she asked, with perhaps a bit of an accusatory tone. 

The red maned stallion looked back and just smiled softly at the Princess. “Trust me, Your Majesty! It is something thou would very much like to see.” He replied, his tone at least sounding sincere, so Luna could not do much other than mentally shrug and continue. If anything suspicious happened, she could after all simply fly out, and the stallion would be stuck. The cruel thought of leaving the stallion alone in the labyrinth, lost, actually made her giggle slightly, but she dismissed the thought for now. She could have pranks later.

The two continued through the labyrinth for a few more minutes, seemingly not getting anywhere, just taking turn, upon turn, upon turn, upon turn. Luna became slowly more and more infuriated, but finally the stallion stopped, just before a larger opening, giving a small smile.

“It’s just inside, Your highness.” He gestured into the opening.  

A final suspicious thought struck Luna, but she walked inside, seeing how the labyrinth opened itself to a large open area, with a few benches and a few more statues placed around, almost as a sort of centre for it all, but Luna knew it was not directly the centre, as that looked much different.

Standing inside the area, Luna felt a twinge of annoyance come over her.

“What are we supposed to see?” she asked with a rather demanding tone.

The Princess of the night wanted to have an answer promptly, if not immediately, but confusion came over her mind as she heard no answer. She then turned her head around to find that there was no stallion around. He was gone.

Anger bubbled and flared within the Princess of the night.

“Young Amour, show yourself! Your Princess commands it!!” she called out in great frustration, using the fullness of the Royal Canterlot voice, her eyes even lighting up in anger as she called out, the amount air being pushed away from the sound waves, shook the hedges down to their very roots. She demanded an answer!

But none came.

Not any from the stallion at least.

“P-P-Princess Luna!?” a mare´s voice said in a mixture of fear and surprise.

The Princess turned her head to the source of the voice to find something that perplexed her. A mare was standing there, however she looked almost like an inverted image of the Stallion from before. She was instead of red maned and white coated, completely white maned, and with a deep red coat. Her white mane was flowing freely, even as she was dressed up in a deep blue dress with small freckles along the edges. Luna noted how the dress was the same colour as her blue night sky and even there were small stars sewn beautifully into the fabric, some of it looking like a pair of her constellations.

The mare stared in amazement with her blue eyes that looked almost identical to the stallion´s and stammered.

“Y-Y-Your highness! I didn’t mean to sneak away from thine wonderful party, I just… Just…” She tried a moment to defend her position before something struck her and she bowed her head a moment. “Apologies your highness, but how come thou are out here in the gardens and not in the great hall?” she asked with great respect.

Luna stared a moment at the mare, the uncanny resemblance to the stallion from earlier, made her raise a small eyebrow.

“We were brought out here by a stallion who wished to show us something inside our gardens… Though we believe we might have been deceived,” Luna replied, with a much dark and authoritative voice. She was about to question why the mare was out here, but the mare ended up cutting ahead of her with a small gasp.

“A stallion? Did he look like me, but just with inverted colours?” she asked, looking pre-emptively embarrassed. As Luna replied with a nod, the mare flushed so that her cheeks suddenly looked more pink than deep red. “Oh sweet Moon, I am so sorry for his behaviour.” She skittishly tried to say, covering up her face with her hooves, looking as if she had done something wrong, and not the stallion. This made The princess of the night give the mare a quizzical look.

“Would ye kindly explain thyself?” She asked, a small hint of annoyance in her royal voice. The mare just kept blushing a bit as she looked around, almost as if searching for somepony.

“Angel, I swear if I find you I will tie you to the front door and force you to wear my clothes into town!” the mare called out into the darkness with embarrassed anger. Luna raised an eyebrow in confusion, but then the mare was answered by only a small giggle in the darkness, that Luna could not completely pinpoint where actually came from. 

The mare only got more frustrated and groaned, as she tip tapped on her hooves a moment. “Angeeelllllllll!” She called out in embarrassment and frustration, calling out, but inevitably failing in what she was trying. This was a rather crushing blow to her as she sort of collapsed in shame in front of Luna and hid her face in her hooves. “This is my entire fault, Your Majesty.” The mare´s muffled voice escaped her hooves.

The Princess of the night had been looking upon the display of the skittish mare and part of her had found It rather amusing.

“We presume thou know of this stallion who brought us here.” Luna said with a calm look over the mare, while still finding it amusing. Especially how quickly the mare was to respond with a nod.

“Yes your majesty.  I know him. Tis dear brother of mine. Angel Amour. I am Fond Amour, his sister. And it doth seem like that we have been tricked to the same location,” she said, a moment glaring out into the darkness again. “And if I get my hooves on dear brother of mine, I will ridicule him in front of Ma and Pa Amour as vengeance!” she hissed, but only got the same kind of giggle from the darkness, which made her growl in frustration and stamp on her hooves again. “And if dear brother of mine will not cease this incipient laughter, then I swear to Luna I will twist his ears into a fancy hat he can show around!” she growled out, again, though the threat was rather, childish.

This time… Luna could not hold it back. She actually let out a tiny giggle. It was sort of a fun little banter Fond seemed to have with her brother, who still was out of her grasp. The princess of the night slowly walked over besides Fond and looked at her a moment.

“Let us, help thee with that.” She said, before her horn lit up in her powerful magic. Before Fond was even able to question why her majesty´s horn was glowing, she got her answer in the form of a floating Angel Amour who was struggling to get himself out of the levitation magic. He looked a bit miffed as he was being floated out of the bush and over towards the two.

“Oh come now! That isn’t fair, Your Highness! How would thee like it if I were to carry thee around!?” he asked a bit childishly, crossing his forehooves as he was being levitated in front of his sister and his night´s monarch. Upside down, to top it off.

Fond´s face scrunched up slightly and she poked Angel in his chest. 

“You have got a lot of nerve Angel! You have not only tricked me, but you also had the audacity to pull her Majesty out of an event for one of your STUPID pranks!” she chastised him. 

Princess Luna glared at the white unicorn in her grip as to add to the pressure, however he suddenly seemed slightly offended. 

“Stupid prank? Well excuse me for letting Dear Sister of Mine meet with the Princess of the Night. Was it not you who said-” he was cut off by having a hoof shoved into his mouth for a moment by a glaring Fond. 

“Don’t say it!” she hissed at her brother. This however gained Luna´s curiosity, making her send a small look over at Fond. 

“Say what?” she asked, causing Fond to instantly blush and lose her focus, stammeringly trying to come up with some excuse. But Angel was quicker to get the hoof out of his mouth and grin up at the Princess. 

“Oh how I would love to meet the Princess of the Night. She is an artist beyond compare, a Goddess of all that his beautiful and mystical. Oh if only I could-” Angel mimicked in a mocking replica of his sister´s tone of voice, before once again getting a hoof from a now completely red flushed Fond shoved into his face again. 

“Dear Brother of Mine, I swear to everything magical and gracious that I will shove your mane down your throat if you utter as much as one more word!” 

Luna just stood there while the exchange of words and hooves took place, contemplating upon the words that was actually being spoken. 

“You… love my night?” she asked carefully, making the already completely red faced (Which was hard to see considering her already red coat) Fond, to stare nervously up at Princess Luna. 

“Uhm… I… I… I…” she stammered, only to once again have her sentence finished by Angel. 

“Love it? She is obsessed with it, I Swear your Majesty, If she could do with only three hours of sleep, she would fall the moment the sun rises, and only wake up when required by Ma and Pa.” he said with a great grin, still hanging upside down in Luna´s Levitation. “I say that Dear sister of mine is quite a fan of yours, your Majesty!” He said, gesturing as if nudging at the princess. 

“Angeeeeeeeeeeelll!!!” Fond squirmed and stamped her hooves on the ground in embarrassment. Angel just giggled.

“Oh you look so cute when you´re embarrassed, dear sister of mine.” he said through his giggles. “It really is the height of my day, or night, to see that embarrassed face of yours.” 

“Why are you doing this!?” Fond snapped back at Angel. “I don't go around embarrassing you when you fool around with the neighbours!” she tried to reason.

“Why thats because I love you, Sweet Sister of Mine. And there is no way you´d be able to embarrass me, I am an open book, and everypony at home knows who I am, but no one knows us here~” he rolled on his tongue, feeling rather superior in the situation, despite being hung upside down by the diarch of the night. He had a thoughtful expression for a moment. “You know you really should be thanking me about now,” he said with a slight tone of arrogance. 

“How very un-gentlecoltly of you.” 

Angel and Fond both turned their heads to look directly at Luna, who seemed to have, relaxed a bit, yet still keeping her regal air. She just seemed to have what, to Angel´s huge surprise, could only be described as an amused smirk. 

“She is thine sister, and you should be aiding her, and acting like a gentlecolt around her, and about her. Thine pranks are in ill taste and poor manners. You may have had good intentions, however they are no excuse to treat a Lady as such. And especially not breaking into Thine highness´s business.” she calmly chastised him. Fond nodded in agreement.

“Yea! You should be ashamed of yourself Angel!” she quickly jabbed at Angel.

Angel, who was beginning to feel more and more surrounded, tried to hold up his hooves in defence. “W-wait just a second here-” 

“And a prank of ill taste, deserves a punishment of equally, if not even further ill taste, don’t you agree Miss Amour?” Luna asked with a small knowing glance at the mare, as an underlying meaning came through her words, which Fond could only grin and agree with. 

“Oh yes, your Majesty.” Fond added, giving a small almost predatory gaze back at her brother, who suddenly had gotten a cold sweat down his face. 

“W-Wait! Y-You, what are you planning to do!?” 

Princess Luna calmly floated the white unicorn up to face her and stare straight into his eyes, before she replied with a smirk. 

“Oh whatever we want~”





~Interlude of darkness for effect~






Not so Long after, something completely broke the tone of the royal banquet, putting a stop to every conversation inside the great hall and bringing all eyes to the centre of the room. 

What had caused such a shift in tone?

Well in part, one thing had been that out of nowhere, in the middle of the feast, a white unicorn seemed to have been teleported into the middle of great banquet, falling comically onto the Banquet table, straight through one of the much larger pastry creations, known as Princess Celestia´s favourite cake, (which was about as large as herself), getting him stuck halfway through a sugary pastry. 

In other part, it was also that said stallion unicorn was wearing a rather tiny part of a mare´s dress, which seemed more to be the preparative corset. Beyond that his mane and tail was made into a rather unorthodox fashion, in the sense that it was completely filled with small pink bows. 

The final thing to put the cherry on the top of this bizarre and rather fun image making itself before the gathering, was the fact that as the stallion was half stuck through her majesty´s favourite pastry,  his eyes rolled around in its sockets in a rather derpy fashion, as he, out loud, spoke the words. 

“Why thank you for the banquet Your Majesty, but lay off the cake, five more bites and I would have been a rather decorative part of the upholstery about now.”

Even if the room itself was only getting filled with a few obscure giggles in the background amongst the shocked gathering of ponies, There was two ponies who was rolling around on the ground in laughter. Those two, were Princess Luna, and Fond Amour, who had witnessed the success of their little punishment prank from a window. 

“Oh sweheheheheeheheheeeeet moons, That was hilarious!” Fond was able to get out in between laughing. 

Princess Luna wiped a bit of water from her eye as she had been laughing too hard from the entire display. “W-We must admit, that was quite amusing!” she spoke aloud. 

The night diarch and the Amour daughter let their joy spill into the night and slowly began to gather their breaths, until they were just calmly looking up at the skies that Luna had created. 

“I must apologize for his behaviour again…” Fond spoke up first, gaining her a slightly surprised look from Luna. “I am sort of… in the end, responsible for you being brought out… He just tried to make me happy… always does that…” she mumbled the last, crossing her hooves and looking away. “He keeps saying I’m half his world…” 

“And that is bad?” Luna asked curiously, having dropped most of her Royal persona, just for the moment. 

Fond sighed.

“No… It’s just… I feel bad for receiving everything from him… He'd do anything for me… I’m pretty sure he´d have dodged the punishment somehow if I wasn’t also one to agree on it…” she considered aloud with a small sad and forced laugh at the end.
 
Luna was silent. She turned to look back inside the window, to see Angel Amour being once again floated about, but this time by her sister, Celestia, who seemed to be giggling quite a bit at the display of the cake smeared white stallion. 

It burned a bit inside of Luna´s chest, staring upon Celestia. She was still the centre of attention, and handling everything perfectly… She and her Sun. 

“I-I’m sorry… I took too much of your time, Your Majesty… Maybe… We will see each other again?” Fond asked sort of nervously. 

Luna didn’t look. She was staring at Celestia. Trying to figure out what she was feeling.

“Maybe we will…” Luna just conceded, not turning nor moving. 

Fond right behind her frowned slightly, seeing where she was staring at, and slowly stepped back. 

“Well then… Uhm… Goodbye… Your Majesty…” 







Today, Canterlot Castle:







“That… was the first time I met him… and his sister Fond.” 

For about a minute or so after Luna had finished speaking, Cheerilee was still trying to knit things together in her mind.

“So, you met him, or, them, when they were normal ponies?” she asked for clarification. 

Luna nodded.

“Yes, I did… I met them a few times more, only at social events like the one I first met them at, but I only got to know… a little… It wasn't until they were…” Luna hesitated a moment.

“Turned?” Cheerilee asked. Again, Luna nodded. 

“Yes, It was only after they were turned… And a long time after that, that I saw them again… Twenty Years to be exact… on my worst of nights.” Luna said, her eyes turning up towards her moon. “Upon the night that I turned to Nightmare moon… Angel and Fond came back… But as Kaynites.” she slowly reminisced. 

“And what have you then done to make the Fiend so angry? And what happened to Fond?” Cheerilee asked. 

“I believe… Failing my ambition to make eternal night… And for betraying the Amour´s and their army…. And...” Luna was hesitating to continue, and actually didn’t say anything further before Cheerilee had to interrupt.

“Their army?” 

Luna turned to face Cheerilee, who was more looking with much greater confusion. 

She replied with a small nod.

“Yes, The Amour´s had taken control of the Kaynites and swore allegiance to Nightmare Moon. For they wanted the same as… I…” 

“Wait just a second…” 

Cheerilee could not help but stop up Luna´s explanation, something was just not adding up for her. 

“You were saying that they had somehow, wrestled power over these… Kaynites in twenty years?! And all of them swore allegiance to you as Nightmare Moon?!” She asked in surprise, it almost sort of blowing part of her mind, as she remember having taught the old mare's tale of Nightmare Moon to numerous foals in school, but she had never imagined that behind the story was an army of vampire like creatures. 

Luna just floated a cup of tea up to her muzzle, which had grown cold over the long time of explanation. 

“That is what I am saying, yes… Circumstances was quite extraordinary back then…” she clarified, calmly floating her teacup down to the tray again. “The Kaynites themselves had been in quite a rough position prior to the death of the Amours.” 

“How bad a situation?” Cheerilee asked. 

“Well, I am not certain, but as much as I have been able to gather since then, Fond´s elder had used her and her brother to usurp a power position during some kind of crisis, that lead to many thousands of Kaynites killing each other over arguments of bloodlines and such. Beyond that… I never had a chance to ask…” Luna lowered her head by the end. 

“Because you were banished to the moon…” Cheerilee asked for confirmation. Luna cringed slightly at hearing those words, though she nodded.

“Yes… They had trusted me to defeat Celestia, and thus allow them to wreak havoc on the castle as they´d like themselves… Eternal night would be a new order for the night dwellers…” 

“But wait… one thing I don’t get, if there was this large group of Kaynites at your disposal, all out and ready to fight everyone in the castle, what happened to them?” Cheerilee asked in confusion. “Couldn't they just have fought their way out and then stayed covert?” 

Luna shook her head with a small frown. 

“Most of them didn’t even get the chance to fight… They were doomed the moment I was defeated, and Celestia raised the Sun…” she recalled calmly, with a heavy voice. This however caused Cheerilee to tilt her head in confusion.

“Why´s that?” Cheerilee inquired. 

“Because Kaynites cannot stand the sun. They burn if Celestia´s sunlight touches their skin.” Luna explained like it was nothing. 

Cheerilee´s jaw just dropped a moment.

“What?” 

“I said Kaynite-” 

“I heard what you said, Your Majesty but… I Just… How? Why? I know the sun is annoying, frustrating, even slightly detrimental for me, but… Do they actually burn?” Cheerilee asked in actual confusion and almost morbid curiosity. Could the Fiend be killed that easily? 

Luna waved her hoof slightly back and forth. 

“Sort of. It’s a slow, as I have been told, agonizingly painful process, as if you have been thrown into a fire, and you cannot die from the smoke. They'll only really die once they've burnt enough, but once the Sun touches them, it paralyses them in pain, and it takes a lot out of them to do much of anything,” she explained in a rather, morbid mental image. “Even the burns themselves are hard to treat for a Kaynite, compared to any other injury.”

Cheerilee stared at Luna while she got this weakness described. It was perfect, all she had to do was to get the Fiend out in the open and… 

Then a thought struck her. “Princess… If the sun killed many of the Kaynites during the uprising, then how did the Fiend survive?” 

“As far as we know,” Luna started. “Angel and Fond was deep within the castle at the time of my defeat, so the two hid away in the deepest reaches of the castle. As it became abandoned, they, or I believe Fond, decided that they would have to wait for Nightmare Moon´s return…” she slowly explained, with an aire of guilt hanging in her voice. “So they slept. For a thousand years.” 

“They slept?” Cheerilee asked in curious confusion. 

“Yes, Kaynites have been known for hiding away and sleeping in coffins, or similar pony sized boxes for ages. Its a skill they have had since the First Kaynite, Sugar Kayne, was cursed by Faust-” 

“Keep the history lessons a bit… Short for now, please Your Majesty.” Cheerilee tried to be polite in her request. “I´d much rather just get the details about you and the Fiend down. The more time we waste, the more time Pen, Emerald, and all the other ponies that the Fiend has captured stay in his clutches.” 

The mention of the victims of the Fiend made Luna turn her face away from Cheerilee, and into the darkness of her room. Despite it being still mid afternoon, Luna´s room was dark. 

“Forgive me Cheerilee, I guess its hard to keep focus…”

“I´ll consider it, If you would back up a moment here.” Cheerilee said, making Luna look back at her slightly confused. “You were saying some reasons that the Fiend might hate you, and you omitted adding anything after ‘and’... What is the last reason?” 

Luna´s mane, for a moment seemed to shift its flowing direction, almost as to cover up the Princess´s face. 

“That connects to your second question… What happened to Fond…” she slowly began to explain, which really piqued Cheerilee´s interest, making her lean forwards inquisitively and eyeing Luna. 

“Yes?” 

“She… and Angel… Woke up around the same time I escaped from the moon, but, they did not meet up with me before the Nightmare… was no longer.” Luna explained with a tint of guilt in her voice. “And they had no idea… So they… They felt that the Princess they had sworn to serve… had betrayed them… Fond did anyhoof…” she slowly explained. “She was furious… She… attacked me. And I didn’t want to just kill her. So I…” she hesitated for just a second. “I sealed her away in stone.” 

At that moment, Cheerilee blinked once, before getting a face of realization, that almost looked like she had found the meaning of life right there. 

“You sealed her in stone? You sealed the Fiend´s sister in Stone?” she asked for confirmation. 

“Yes.” Luna nodded. “It’s...not a spell I enjoy using. But it was the only solution I saw… The two were twisted. Many Kaynites are much more twisted images of their living lives, and I knew that if Fond was free to go, she would shift her energy onto rebuilding the Kaynites… and I could not let that happen.” 

“What of the Fiend then?” Cheerilee asked, almost sounding excited, as everything seemed to be coming together in her mind. 

“Well… He went into an equal fit of rage, demanding that I released his sister, but that’s when the sun came up… He tried to flee, but the last I saw of him, was him curling up in a screaming mess of… burnt kaynite.” Luna said, trying not to sound too morbid. 

Cheerilee took just a few seconds to put everything together, before rising up upon all of her hooves.

“His sister, Fond Amour, is she sealed nearby?” 

“Yes, she is, why do you ask?” she inquired. 

“Can I see her?” 

Luna looked upon Cheerilee with confusion. 

“I, guess you could. Though I do not understand why…” The princess said, slowly rising up upon her hooves as well. “We have to go out into the dungeons of the castle.” 

“The dungeons?” 

“The sealing spell does not completely isolate the prisoner from the world, they are semi awake, and can get affected by the elements. If I were to place her out in the sun she´d…” She bit her lower lip a moment. “I'd just rather not do that to her.” she finished, gaining an understanding nod from Cheerilee. 

“Alright then, shall we go?” She asked. 

“Yes, of course…” 

With that, the two headed out of the princess's room, and descended down into the darker parts of Canterlot castle.

There werent that many ponies outside of those that worked in the castle who actually KNEW there was a dungeon. Many a paranoid pony had suspected that there must have been dungeons that reached into the deepest reaches of Equestrian soil. But in reality it was not really that large, and there wasn't seemingly any prisoners. Not to the outside eye at least. 

The only way you could reach into the dungeons was via a long descent of circular stairs, leading into what looked much more like storage rooms. 

Cheerilee walked right beside Luna, who had simply gotten immediate access from her guards, without as much as blinking. 
The vampire teacher was rather intrigued by the new view of Canterlot Castle. It was like stepping into a little sub-dimension, where everything was darkened, only lit by magical lanterns and every room seemed to be filled with boxes labelled; “Do not open”.

Luna had been silent during most of the walk. She was staring ahead, not looking forwards to being down into the Canterlot dungeons. The less she saw of this, the better. And knowing who they were supposed to see, it was even more eating at her nerves. Everything was supposed to be sorted. She thought she had everything fixed… But now, apparently, her former servants came to bite her in the flank. 

Which only made her feel more awful over the situation with Cheerilee. She had after all lied to her. Even if she was just an agent, she did deserve to know everything about the situation. She thought she could just have her kill off any of the remaining Kaynites, and then everything would be much simpler. But in the process, she had ended up forgetting how much Cheerilee had done for her. Maybe Cheerilee saw it just as a job, but for Luna it was a duty that needed done, and Cheerilee was the most reliable agent she ever had.

A pang of guilt striking her royal heart again told her what to do. She at least deserved honesty. 

“Cheerilee… I… Wish to apologize… It was careless of me to send you on an assignment without giving you all the information…” Luna slowly said, her eyes falling to the floor in guilt. “I just want you to know I am really, really sorry.” 

After a minute of ominous silence between the two, Cheerilee finally replied.

“I forgive you… I know you mean it.” she conceded, with slight reluctance in her voice. 

“You know?” Luna asked in confusion. Cheerilee turned her head to face her. 

“You usually only speak in the ‘Royal We’, so whenever it breaks, I know something is up…” she said with a small whirly smile, her almost teacher like face returned for just a moment. It warmed Luna´s heart slightly, and lifted a bunch of weight off of her shoulders. 

“I… Thank you Cheerilee.” She said, before begrudgingly turning her face forwards, seeing a large door, locked with what seemed to be a royal seal. “We are here…” 

Cheerilee looked over the door a moment, guessing the seal was magic, her theory being almost immediately confirmed as Luna´s horn lit up along with the seal, and the doors slowly opening inwards. 

The large heavy doors creaked, and revealed an ominously dark room, filled with statues of different ponies and creatures arranged perfectly up in lines. 

Slowly walking inside, Cheerilee was seeing that there wasn't actually that many statues around in there, at least not if you´d consider this was prisoners sealed in stone over the last thousand years. There were less than a hundred, that she could count, and most of them either seemed to actually be reluctantly accepting of their stone fates, at least in their expression. 

There was one that stuck out though, and Cheerilee´s sneaky suspicion was yet again confirmed, as the princess and the teacher stopped in front of the statue. 

It was of a mare, that much was clear, exactly as Luna had described, and she looked curiously similar to the Fiend, though clearly with a more female build. 

It was the expression that stood out though. She was glaring daggers forwards, and her mouth was open, revealing a hissing and aggressive set of teeth with sharp fangs. 

Cheerilee ran her tongue over her own fangs in a little reflexive reaction, while her eyes looked over the statue in front of her. She was barely a few centimetres taller than her, and yet she could see this pony always tried to be bigger, fiercer, and more powerful than anypony else. Even in stone. 

“She has been down here for very long, both Celestia and I have made sure that the gates are magically locked and only to open to our magical essences, much like the stone sealing spells themselves. It assures that if we want to release anyone, its only us who can do it.” Luna explained while Cheerilee examined the statue. 

“I think I have it…” Cheerilee said with a small smile of realization. She turned to Luna with an air of confidence. “I think this was part of his plan… And we could be expecting a message-” 

“Your Majesty!” A voice resounded down the long corridor. 

“Speaking of Chaos.” Cheerilee commented, as both she and Luna turned to look out of the room and into the hallway, seeing one of Luna´s faithful guard, looking around for his ruler.

“We are down here, soldier, What do ye wish of us?” Luna asked, her Royal demeanour and bellowing voice returning.  

The guard stood at the outside of the room as he bowed before the Princess. 

“There is a Message for you, Your Majesty! It seems… Rather important.” he said, with a slight reluctance, as he picked the piece of paper from beneath his armour and offered it to the Princess. It was completely red, and smelt of dried blood. 

Cheerilee and the Princess exchanged glances. 

“I believe we can safely assume who it is from…” 
	
	
	
	
> The end of the Fiend
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Canterlot Castle:



"This is a bad idea"

Cheerilee´s deadpanned voice was to be expected. She and the Princess had closed off the prison and found an isolated place to discuss the Fiend´s message. 

It was just too suspicious. 

‘You still hold Dear Sister of Mine Imprisoned, 
And I have some ponies you want returned,
How about we simply exchange what we want and part ways? 
Come to the enclosed address, Princess Luna.  
Feel free to bring your pets along, I don’t care.
You have a day to comply, If you break the deal,
I will simply have to keep your little ponies for myself.’

It was signed off just like the note Cheerilee had received the night before, with a thorny rose drawn in blood. 

Luna had been considering the contents of the message ever since it had been read, and her thoughtful expression hadn't changed once. 

The two had not left the dungeon yet. The room they were in was separate, but not far from the ‘statuary’ as Cheerilee had considered calling it instead. A prison where all prisoners were encased in stone. Statuary was much more fitting. 

“That may be… But we do not have much of a choice,” Luna replied with a reluctant sigh. “Angel wants his sister back, and he is going to continue with different plans until one of them succeeds. If we can just catch him now, then we can stop him before he causes even more damage.” 

“But if the Fiend is this insane,-” Cheerilee raised her voice, concerned with Luna´s conclusion. “-Then reuniting him with his Kaynite sister would only double the problems.,” she asserted.  

“He is not going to be reunited.” Luna replied. “We are going to bring Fond along to make him drop his guard. And then I shall seal him away just like I did to Fond.”

Cheerilee looked up at Luna. “Can you do that? I hardly think he is going to keep still and just let you blast him into stone?” Cheerilee asked in a small amount of cynical assurance. 

Luna however just nodded. “Trust me on this, Cheerilee. He will if we bring Fond Along... He will have other things on his mind,” she finished, before walking out of the secluded room, opening the squeaky wooden door that had not seen much use in quite a while. She turned to the side, a pair of her Lunar Guards standing vigilantly outside the door, ensuring the Princess´s safety, and privacy with the matter. 

“Private Nightlight,” Luna spoke, her powerful voice shining through the echoey hall. “Pack up Prisoner #93, prepare her for transfer, and meet us out in the back of Canterlot castle with a carriage. You are to under no circumstance to mention your orders to any of the Solar Guards or to Princess Celestia. Is that understood?” she commanded, her eyes imposing the same authority her voice did. 

The Guard saluted his Princess as trained. “Understood, Your Majesty!” He quickly replied, like a good soldier. 

“Good, make it so,” Luna commanded,  allowing the two guards to get to their duty quickly. She then turned to see Cheerilee having walked up beside her. 

“We best get going, if we want to reach Manehatten in time and avoid talking to Celestia.” Luna explained almost dismissively, as if Cheerilee just needed to know it, but she had no say in the situation. 

Turning on her hooves and beginning to walk out of the dungeon, Cheerilee was left for a few seconds confused. “Hey, where are you going!?” she asked, before hurrying after the Princess. 

“I need to return to Celestia. I have to come up with an excuse for why I will not be home at the castle tonight.” Luna responded without looking back. 

Cheerilee caught up with Luna, jumping out in front of her and began walking backwards at the same pace of which Luna walked. “Whoa, whoa, what? You mean to tell me you're not going to tell her the situation?” Cheerilee asked in disbelief. 

“That’s what I am telling you.” Luna nodded in her dismissive reply.

“Why!?” Cheerilee asked loudly. “She is your sister, she must know of the situation as well, and if what you told me about Kaynites is true, then she would be able to help-”

“My sister must in no way know anything about the rescue operation tonight.” Luna asserted, sending a powerful glare down at Cheerilee. “I will not have anypony die tonight. The last of the Kaynites shall be locked away safely, and without any more bloodshed…” 

“Princess, do you really think the Fiend is just going to give in?” Cheerilee asked in disbelief, now awkwardly walking backwards up the stairs leading out of the old dusty dungeons.  

“I know he isn't. But I will make him. It’s my responsibility,” Luna said as the two reached the top of the staircase.

“What’s your responsibility?” 

Both Luna and Cheerilee stopped mid step and turned their heads to see none other than Princess Celestia standing there, tilting her head inquisitively. 

For just a second, Luna and Cheerilee exchanged glances, as if each was expecting the other to quickly come up with a reasonable alibi, until Luna spoke up.

“An inspection in Manehatten. Cheerilee here found an infestation of Diamond Dogs, and I´ve decided to take care of it personally.” Luna lied, her voice even and stoic as she confidently sidestepped Cheerilee without looking at Celestia. “Cheerilee and I will have it sorted out by the time you have to raise the sun again.”

Celestia looked in confusion upon Luna as she walked away from her. What had gotten into her? Why wasn't she making eye contact?

“Well, do you want me to come along-” 

“No, we will handle it well enough. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some preparations to make.” Luna interrupted Celestia and walked off, taking the turn down the hall towards her tower. She did her utmost to make sure to not allow Celestia to look her in the eyes. She knew when she lied. She could see it in her. 

Luna hated lying to her sister. It never felt good, but it was necessary, she would tell herself. 

“My sister doesn’t need any further worries than the problems of the day. Ruling Equestria is quite a hooffull. You understand, Cheerilee…” Luna spoke as she was certain the two had gotten out of earshot, and eyeshot of Celestia. Though she didn’t get Any response. “Cheerilee?” she asked, and looked over her shoulder, seeing that her best Agent wasn't there. 

“What in the-” 

“I’m here!” 

Cheerilee suddenly came trotting around the corner, catching up with Luna. 

“Did you tell Celestia anything?” 

“Yes, but I dodged the true answers.” Cheerilee responded with a small smile. 

“Are you sure?” Luna asked in clear skepticism, her eyes narrowing at Cheerilee. 

The vampire teacher just raised her head and smiled at her boss. “Absolutely,” she assured Luna, her smile staying a little too long.

Luna raised her eyebrow slightly, for a moment concerned if Cheerilee was truly sure, Her sister was a wily one when she wanted to be, but Cheerilee was Luna´s top agent. She sighed, reclining to the idea that she was right. She had promised her to trust her more after all. 

“That is good,” she said, turning away and walking ahead again. “I will take care of what duties I have now, we'll meet up once my guard has prepared us a carriage.” The Princess stopped just as she almost reached another corner. “Make sure to get some rest before tonight”. 

“Of course, Your Majesty.” Cheerilee bowed her head in reply, making sure to keep it bowed just long enough for Luna to leave before the two´s eyes would meet again. 

Now alone in the hall, Cheerilee released a breath she had not realized she had been holding. 

She really hated lying to Luna.





	The Fiend’s Lair :





The long known, yet never old, passionate sensation of his fangs piercing pony necks and blood gently sliding down his throat, still gave gentle shivers down his spine. Each single time he took someone´s blood to sustain himself, he was just reminded what a damn wonderful world he had been brought into.

Reluctantly, he let go of the pony´s throat, a small string of saliva was still clinging to one of his fangs as he pulled away from his victim of choice.

It was a gray unicorn with a curly white mane, the stockbroker known as ‘Money Bags’. The pony was restrained, gagged, and blindfolded. Yet he still was able to give off some so lovely whimpers, and twitches of resistance as its captor was no longer sharing in the ecstasy.

The Fiend giggled.

“I think you're ready for the crescendo, Little Bags…” he said, before shifting his eyes slightly, looking over to the corner.

In the corner he had placed Emerald Song Bags, restrained in the same fashion, but she was still able to see. In fact, she was forced to witness everything the Fiend had done to her husband. And it terrified her. Emerald was shivering, desperately averting and closing her eyes, however she could still hear everything that had gone on. The whispers, the cuts…

The Fiend grinned and stretched himself, clicking a few of his joints before he turned his head to the door.

“Mutt! Get in here!” he called out.

The door opened up and a large lumbering diamond dog walked inside, throwing itself at the hooves of the Fiend as soon as it had come in completely.

“Yes, Sire?” it asked in its deep scratchy voice. The Fiend stepped off of his victim and whipped his mane backwards slightly.

“Bring Mister Bags up into the main chamber, and prepare for the return of the Princess…” he spoke in a calm but commanding tone.

The diamond dog bowed its head again. “As you wish, sire.” the dog said, it was just about to comply with the order before the Fiend placed down its hoof in the way of the dog, stopping it in its track. The dog looked up into its sire´s eyes and froze, staring into the red eyes of its Kaynite sire.

“I hope you will remember to treat the Princess with respect when she arrives…” The Fiend said, his voice dark and intimidating for the huge beast. The dog shivered in fear, before nodding its head.

“Of course! All praise the Princess of the Night…” The dog quickly added, before looking up, to see if its sire was happy with the reply.

The Fiend was, and allowed the dog to comply with his first order. He sighed happily as he saw the unicorn stock broker get carried away.

“If only I had these mutts back then… They´re quite the helping hoof,” he mused, smiling as if it was the neighbor’s foals who had helped with the yard. He then poked his head out and called out. “Scruffy!” 

The name bounced off of the walls and echoed throughout the hall. It didn't take more than a few seconds before the scuttling of feet and the huffing breath of the smaller diamond dog came along, the dog almost tripping over its own feet as it tried to reach its master. 

Scruffy threw himself down before the Fiend.

“Y-Yes Sire Fiend Pony?” He nervously greeted. 

The Fiend smirked and gently lifted the smaller dog´s chin up as to look him in the eyes. 

“I am going to need a… messenger, who can wait and guide our guests.” 





	On the way to Manehatten:






The trip back to Manehatten was a bit shorter than expected, considering they were hauling a large pony sized box along with the carriage. 

They had opted not to take a royal carriage, as to not arouse suspicion. Luna insisted that the Fiend would stay by his side of the deal until the time he had stated, but Cheerilee did not think him above just robbing them blind. 

Then again, the Fiend would need Luna to release the prisoner, so he would need to wait for them anyhow. 

Cheerilee and Luna had used most of the trip, arguing about how to handle the situation, and the momentary silence between the two was more because of the living princess´s need of oxygen than anything else.

“Your Majesty, with all due respect, with what you have told me of Kaynites, I don’t believe we should even allow him to get within meters of the prisoner,” Cheerilee stated firmly. 

Luna shook her head. “He will not let his guard down unless he thinks he can have Fond back.” Luna asserted in return. “I will exchange her for the promise of the return of his prisoners, however, when he demands the spell to be lifted, I should be within the perfect distance to perform the sealing spell on him as well.” 

Cheerilee shook her head. “It’s not worth the risk. The Fiend has escaped me before, I don’t want to give him the chance to do so again.” 

“He won’t escape.” Luna asserted. “He won’t leave without Fond… Not again.” 

“Why would he not?”  Cheerilee asked.

“Fond is his sister, and his Sire. He has no reason to leave,” Luna responded

“Beyond saving his own life?” Cheerilee continued, sounding unconvinced.

Luna lowered her eyes for a moment. “If we just have Fond along, his obsession should help us distract him,” she asserted, as if wanting to end the discussion now. She averted her eyes from Cheerilee, hoping that the vampire would drop the discussion and simply trust that her plan would work. 

Cheerilee groaned in frustration, facehoofing hard, knowing exactly what Luna was hoping. 

“Your Majesty. I understand,” she insisted, though her frustration shining through her tone of voice. “But you have to understand, we can’t just go into this without any backup plan…” she continued, quickly lifting a hoof defensively as Luna looked back at her with a slight accusatory glare. “I am not saying that I don’t trust in your abilities, Luna! You know that. What I am saying is that this Fiend has bested me once before due to my arrogance. I don’t want it to happen again!” 

Luna stared for a few moments upon Cheerilee, taking in her concern and her thoughts. She wanted to simply tell Cheerilee to remember her spot. She was under Luna’s command after all. But remembering their conversation earlier, a small pang of guilt made her sigh in defeat.

“Then what would you suggest?” she offered. “There should be no way he could overpower an Alicorn, but, hypothetically, what would you do?” 

Cheerilee smirked for a moment as the Princess finally conceded, before she lowered her head down to pull up a bag she had brought along into the carriage. It made an audible thump as she placed it on the seat next to her. 

The Princess raised a small eyebrow as Cheerilee opened the bag and began pulling out its contents.

“If everything else fails, It will have to come down to the old fashioned way.” Cheerilee begun, first pulling out some rolls of electricians tape and a couple of stakes. Luna recognized the kit, they were used by most vampire hunters throughout history. Cheerilee then proceeded to strap on of the stakes along the cannon of her foreleg, being careful to fasten it correctly and firmly. “I am going in fully decked this time.” Cheerilee asserted, gnawing at the tape to rip it from the rest of the roll. “If the Fiend makes any kind of move towards you, I am going to tear his legs off of him.” 

Luna could not disagree with that plan. It was the most sound and most logical extra plan to have after all, though she did raise and inquisitive eyebrow again as Cheerilee pulled out a couple of flares, and proceeded to taping those to her gaskin. 

“Flares?” she asked in confusion. 

Cheerilee gave a rather confident smirk. “Just pop the head off of these things, and you have a flame in your hoof. Rather effective when fighting against anything undead,” she replied, as if Luna had been one of her students, inquisitive about some kind of random trivia. 

Luna opened her mouth to inquire if it wasn’t more detrimental for Cheerilee to have a source of fire upon her in the case of a fight, as it could easily be turned upon her, but instead she just shook her head.

“I… Will trust that you know what is best here, Cheerilee…” She eventually conceded, looking out of the window of the Carriage, not seeing Cheerilee´s expression visibly relax as she did not question the flares. Luna sighed slightly, beginning to hope that they could just arrive to the address and have everything be done with. Ever since Cheerilee had returned to her, reporting her failure and the loss of yet another pony, Luna´s thoughts had been haunting her. Ironic, considering she was the mistress of the night, ruler of dreams and nightmares, but even she could not keep her conscience from haunting her. 

Cheerilee, in the meantime, continued to strap the weapons to reasonably accessible areas of her legs, making sure that they did not restrict her movement too much. Her thoughts was also on the time ahead, along with all this preparation. She was feeling almost a little buzzing in her hooves as she imagined tearing the Fiend´s head from his shoulders, and stamping the thing into oblivion. Maybe even toying with him a bit before ending him. Would serve him right for all the things he had done to Emerald, and the things he was undoubtedly doing to Pen. Oh how she would take deep seeded pleasure in ending that beast´s unlife, ridding him of the world. She could just imagine his screams of mercy as she´d-

And then she just stopped. In the middle of thinking and in the middle of taping the last flare onto herself. Cheerilee stopped. 

She had an epiphany. And not a pleasant one. 

Was that the way the Fiend was thinking? She already could tell he was a sadist, but… Was that maybe the way he thought always? Enjoyment from others suffering, where he´d have rationalized it somehow? 

The idea continued to simmer in Cheerilee´s mind and it was slowly making her feel sick to her stomach.

Could she possibly ever turn into something like… him?

She shook her head. No. That couldn’t be true. She wasn’t a Monster. She wasn’t a Kaynite she…. She was just a regular vampire. 

A small shudder was sent up her spine. 

Since when was, ‘I am just a vampire’, a comforting thought?

“Luna…” Cheerilee´s voice barely above a whisper. “Would you do me a favour?” she asked, raising her eyes to meet with Luna´s who had just turned to face her in confusion. 

“Anything, Cheerilee. Simply ask, and I´ll see to it.” Luna assured. 

“Why?”

Luna blinked in confusion. Cheerilee suddenly had gone from focused and determined to, somber, maybe even… sad?

“Because you're my best Agent Cheerilee… and…” Luna took a deep breath, closing her eyes, before exhaling and letting a true sincere look go back to Cheerilee. “I know you do your best for those around you. You have a good heart, Cheerilee. Despite everything you have gone through, you're still determined to fight for the good of Equestria, even if you have seen some of the darkest parts of its underworld.” The Princess spoke in a sincere, somber tone. 

“Are you certain?” Cheerilee asked, her voice sharp and challenging. “What if I were to turn? What If I were to go insane? What If I-” 

“You won’t.” Luna cut off Cheerilee, both her voice and eyes like sharp knives that cut everything to a screeching halt. “I trust you, Cheerilee. You may not trust me after my…” She sighed. “averseness with the truth… But I trust you.” 

“But I am-” Cheerilee began, but was cut off by Luna again.

“But you're what? A vampire?” Luna asked, before scoffing. “I am The Nightmare who almost brought ruin to all of Equestria… Why would anypony trust me, Hmm?” Luna leaned forward to emphasise her point. 

Cheerilee was silent for a little while. She just stared at Luna, letting her words sink in and compile inside of her. 

“I guess you're right…” She conceded, but it wasn't really that uplifting. 

Luna frowned, sensing Cheerilee´s low spirits. 

“Cheerilee. You are doing what must be done. You are the one who are protecting Equestria from the things those who walk during the day doing even realize exists. You're a Hero.” Luna asserted.  

“A hero who constantly need to drink blood and Kill…” Cheerilee mumbled, turning her face away from Luna. 

The Princess opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off by the shaking of the carriage, as it landed on solid ground again. She pulled aside the blinds of the carriage and looked outside, it was well into the night by now, and darkness had fallen over the city. 

“We are here…” Luna stated, the carriage giving a small jolt as it came to a full stop. The Princess looked back at Cheerilee. Her best agent looked sadder than she had seen her in years. She could almost see her thoughts going on an introspective rampage. That was when she leaned forwards, taking one of Cheerilee´s hooves into a gentle embrace of both her royal hooves. Cheerilee´s attention was snapped to the Princess as she began to speak. “Cheerilee. You're a better Pony than you think. Just remember, You're actually thinking about this. You're thinking about your actions. I don't think The Fiend have ever done that.” 

Cheerilee stared into the Princess's eyes for what felt like an eternity, taking in her words and just the caring tone of her voice. It was… comforting. A word she hadn't expected to feel from her boss. Princess Luna was her boss wasn't she? Just her boss… She was just like any other agent-

She stopped that train of thought. Because she could hear who was saying that. It wasn't her idea. It was the Fiend´s. His words had still run through her head. ‘Traitor’ he had called her. She had betrayed him and Fond. But… That was the right choice. 

She knew it was the right decision. 

And with that thought, she suddenly threw herself forwards, embracing the ruler of the night tightly, to the great surprise of the Princess herself. 

“Thank You… Luna… I… Really appreciate it…” Cheerilee said in a slightly shaken voice. 

Mildly confused at first, Luna finally smiled and returned the embrace. 

“You´re Welcome, Cheerilee.” Luna whispered. 

The embrace was short lived, as the sound of somepony knocking against the carriage door pulled the two from their moment of understanding. 

“We are at the address, Your Highness.” Private Nightlight called into the Carriage. 

The two let go of each other, Luna turning to open the door of the Carriage.

“We Thank you, Private Nightlight. Bring along the Prisoner.” She ordered, the Young soldier quickly saluting his Princess and seeing to his orders. Luna turned to Cheerilee one more time with a soft smile. “You just take a moment to breathe. We won't leave without you.” 

Cheerilee could not help but give a little smile in return. “You wouldn't be able to outrun me, Princess.” She replied. 

The Princess replied with an amused grunt, before leaving the carriage and Cheerilee to finish her preparations. 

Cheerilee took a deep breath into her old dead lungs and closed her eyes. She placed a hoof upon one of the flares she had strapped to her legs. 

“This will be the last time I lie to You, Princess.” She tried to promise herself, Just in that moment, meaning this sincerely. 

A couple of minutes of preparation and awkward lugging of a pony Sized box passed by, and then everything was ready. 

Finally arriving at the address enclosed in the letter, Luna ordered her guards to slowly encircle the building. It was an old ruined warehouse, looking like it was up for demolition. 

Cheerilee, Luna and a couple of her Night Guards were the ones who walked inside, the guards carrying the pony sized box containing the prisoner. 

Nothing seemed off once they got inside. Just like the outside, it looked unremarkable. It was just empty and ready for demolition. 

Cheerilee wondered if perhaps the Fiend had just thrown them a random address, though dismissed the notion, thinking it wouldn't make any sense. ‘Why send a letter in the first place then?’

The question was answered as suddenly, a loud clanking announced something had been moved, and everyone turned to see a large flooring panel, about the size of a carriage, was slowly being lifted aside. As the floor panel was removed, it revealed a relatively small diamond dog, who was huffing and puffing with trying to remove the heavy panel. The dog looked around, giving a small yelp as it´s eyes settled upon Cheerilee and Luna.

“U-Uhm… Yous! alicorn pony and… earth pony-pony!” He addressed. “M-Mista… Fiend Pony-Pony wants Scruffy to show you two… The way… ALONE!” He did his best to convey with his shaky and scared voice. “Oh, and Uhm… Bring the… uh… Uh… Thing! Yes the Thing! Along with you!” he quickly added. 

Cheerilee and Luna exchanged a glance with each other. They each nodded, seeing the same opportunity. 

“Why of course, Scruffy was it?” Luna spoke, stepping forwards. “However, we cannot bring along the… ‘thing’, unless we have somepony to carry it. So we need to bring along some of my ‘Friends’” the Princess of night spoke, her air of regality only furthering the diamond dog´s fear. 

Scruffy swallowed a moment, before exclaiming loudly: “Fiend says Earth-Pony-Pony is strong enough to carry alone! Fiend specifically says only to bring Princess Pony and other Earth-Pony-Pony! And only if they have the Thing!” 

Cheerilee stood behind as Luna did the talking. But she could not help but eye up the small diamond dog. It really looked terrified, and it was clear to her that he was trying to follow his orders to the letter. He feared the repercussions. 

Luna spoke again. “Well, young Dog, we can only bring the Thing, if we bring along our Friends to carry the Thing… So it seems you better let us.” The princess calmly pressed, not even betraying the smirk that Cheerilee was sure she wanted to flash. 

The dog stared in a combination of internal panic and uncertainty upon the Princess. “B-But… I… The…” He then groaned. “Alright! Bring along other ponies! But makes sure to bring the thing!” 

Luna was happy with the result and nodded lightly. “Of course,” she said, then looked to her guards, signaling for them to follow her. 

Cheerilee sent a small look over at the dog that was still sticking halfway out of the floor. It ran its claws through its fur. 

“Da Fiend is gonna kill Scruffy…” he mumbled to himself, only Cheerilee´s sensitive ears catching it.  

‘Well, He certainly keeps his minions on a short leash’, Cheerilee mused.

“Right then! Follow Scruffy! Only Princess pony, earth-pony-pony, and ponies carrying the thing!” 

The group complied, Luna taking the lead into the hole in the ground, followed by the guards who were carrying the box, and Cheerilee taking the back guard duty. She would not be surprised if the Fiend had some kind of extra trap to just take back the prisoner from them. 

What they landed in as they got down through the floor showed itself to be a storage room, leading into the Manehatten sewer system again. 

This time, Cheerilee instinctively covered her nose most of the way, and kept walking on the sides of the tube. She didn’t want to smell like eight different flavors of disgusting again. The guards were of course not as picky, just following their orders and marching straight behind their Princess. 

Luna was almost completely unphased by the sewers. Or at least, that’s what she looked like. Princess Luna, Ruler of Night and Mistress of the Pokerface, was hard to shake. 

That said, Cheerilee was certain that those shoes was NOT going to be seen in public view again. More than likely they would be sent to the moon for the stench. 

The group followed calmly behind Scruffy, who didn’t have any trouble with navigating the dark tunnels of the sewer system no matter how far they got. 

Cheerilee was constantly keeping her eyes and ears out for any possibility of an ambush but found none. Instead she came to realize how the tunneling was getting narrower and narrower, and how the branching paths seemed to lessen as they continued to walk. The Manehatten sewer system was quite the maze, all with constant turns and possibilities of circling in on yourself. But now, they had been walking in only one direction with not even a single side path for a few minutes. 

Cheerilee took a few moments to think of the logic of the situation. If the Manehatten sewer system all went in labyrinthine directions, but they now were without branching paths, there were only a few possible places they could be in correlation to the surface, and the most logical would be-

“No… That can't possibly…” Cheerilee lowly stated in disbelief. 

Finally the group came to a halt. They were at what looked like an old vault door. Something you'd put in a bunker. Much like the ones that was made during World Party 2, to help ponies who had partied too hard, be shielded from the rampant party canons and flying pies. 

Cheerilee knew of a few of those having been built in Manehatten, This only furthering her thought.

“Noouu…” She repeated, hardly able to believe it herself. Luna and the guards were calm and stoic (Though the guards were betraying a few huffs of breaths and beads of sweat) as Scruffy made a few knocks upon the door in a special rhythm. 

Everyone waited as they heard a few knocks against the metal in retort to Scruffy, who responded with even more rhythmic knocking. Finally the door opened with loud metallic screeches as the bolts got removed, and the hinged grid against each other. The door was large, heavy and only just large enough to allow the box to wiggle through, thankfully. 

As the door opened, it revealed a much larger Diamond dog on the other side.

The much larger dog gave the group a small perusal, before looking down at Scruffy. 

The smaller dog huffed and raised its voice.

“Scruffy brings Thing for the Fiend! Move out of the way You lumbering rockhead!” 

A momentary stare of challenge was exchanged between the two dogs, before the much larger one stepped aside. “Master is waiting…” it just said. 

Luna nodded her head in acknowledgement, and sauntered inside. 

“Best not keep him waiting then,” she stated calmly, the guards right behind her, doing their best to move the box unscathed through just large enough door. Not being full time movers, they did clang it once or twice, but otherwise nothing happened. 

Cheerilee followed after the two, only stopping to take a peek over her shoulder, seeing the much larger dog close the door behind them all. 

“Now, follow Scruffy!” Scruffy once again spoke aloud, taking the lead. 

Inside, There was very long stretching hallways in soulless gray concrete. The walls was riddles with doors with tiny windows, creating perfect holding cells. 

While their original purpose might have been to contain ponies on too high sugar rushes, or for the protection of the introverts in the harsh days of the World Party, it was clear they had been taken into much darker use.

Even if the halls were seemingly clean, Cheerilee could smell it. Stale and dried out blood. Everywhere. It was as if it had been painted upon the walls itself, before then getting an extra coat of gray paint on top. 

Finally reaching the end of the journey, having gone down halls, and up a set of stairs, the group funneled into the large circular room of the Fiend´s sanctum. Scruffy was in first, with Luna right behind him, along with the Guards and Cheerilee.

Everyone walking into the room, their demeanors changed. Luna was barely able to keep her firm gaze, while her guards were horrified, freezing in place, allowing Cheerilee to walk past them and see what they all saw as well. 

It was a torture chamber. 

Those were the best words to describe the room.

Along the walls, with a perfectly equal distance between each, were the victims of all the cases chained to the wall, with one door on the far side, straight opposite of the entrance. 

Clear Brush, Sweet Gold, Sunset Spring, Money Bags. And on the opposite side of the room, she saw Pen chained to the wall as well. All the Ponies had chains around each of their limbs, and one specifically around the base of their horns. They were all gagged and blindfolded as well. 

The final victim, Emerald Song, was in the middle of the room. Right there with him. 

The middle of the room had several tables filled with surgical tools and other instruments Cheerilee truly wished she hadn't seen. 

The Fiend was holding Emerald Song in what seemed to some a passionate embrace, but Cheerilee recognized it as one of the many positions in which a vampire could extract blood from their victims. His fangs were buried deeply into her throat, and Emerald was left with nothing but a blank stare into the room, as she was at the mercy of a predator. 

As everyone finally was inside, the Fiend released his bite upon Emerald, throwing his head back in the ecstasy that it was for vampires to feed. (Clearly even ‘Kaynites’, felt the same kind of satisfaction from feeding).

He took a small reflexive breath in the enjoyment, before he leaned his head down again. No one could see it, but he again licked up the wound, cleaning it and closing it with his own blood, before just dropped Emerald onto the floor, letting her body flop weakly. He then turned around, still licking his fangs instinctively, seeing everyone who had entered, and his previous look of pure pleasure had turned into one of maniacal glee.  

“Why hellou there, Prrrinceesss…” He said, his tongue rolling on the word Princess, with a deep amount of spite in the utterance. His eyes then shifted to Cheerilee. “And hellou to you too, Cheerilee. I welcome you all to my… Sanctuary~” Once again, his focus shifted onto the two guards and the box they had brought along. Cheerilee noticed the tiniest bit of twitching from his lip, as it seemed to perk up in excitement. “I see you have… Agreed, to my demands.”

Cheerilee´s chest tightened and she grit her teeth in anger at the display before her. She wanted to just pounce onto the Fiend and tear out his throat right there. Her energy and anger was adding up, as she took in the room around her.  She also noticed that as the Fiend had begun speaking, Pen, on the other side of the room, while gagged and blinded, had begun struggling against his chains a bit more, trying to say something through the gag. 

The Fiend seemed to ignore it though.

Luna then stepped forward. 

“As long as you release your prisoners, you may have what you demand.” She spoke calmly, her self control being truly put on a test, as she kept her eyes upon the Fiend. 

When the conversation began, Cheerilee took her chance to look around. She saw that there was no other guard dogs in the room. That meant that possibly she could sneak around and get around to Pen. He was obviously trying to say something, and the others seemed much more, passive and or exhausted to actually be of any aid in the situation. The Fiend had really done a number on them all. 

She then took slowly a few steps aside as the Fiend replied to Luna. 

“Why of course, Your… ‘Majesty’...” he said with a small amount of venom in his voice. “Shall we, proceed? If you please?” He asked, inclining his head slightly towards the box the guards were still carrying. 

Luna nodded and turned to the guards. “Open the box.” 

Her guards snapped into action, doing as commanded, and cracked open the box. The walls of the box fell to the ground, and the statue prison of Fond Amour was revealed to the room. 

Cheerilee took a moment to study the small details about the Fiend during the exchange. It was especially interesting to see just, what an impact it had on him.

He almost visibly shaken as he was greeted with the sight of his Sister, even while locked away in stone, his eyes softened for just a moment. He took a quivering breath and closed his eyes again, exhaling, and steeling himself. He then was back into his superior smile. 

“I… see you are able to hold your word for once…” He said, his voice just shaking a bit at the start before it completely returned to his ‘normal’ arrogance. 

Cheerilee slowly stepped aside, checking to see if the Fiend was paying any attention to her. As far as she could see, he wasn’t. His eyes were transfixed between the statue and the Princess. Not even a single glance her way. She decided to continue and was slowly getting half the way over towards the restrained Pen, her eyes fixed upon the Fiend, with a burning glare.

Princess nodded in reply to the Fiend.

“Now, release the prisoners.” Luna demanded.

The Fiend tilted his head slightly. “I was under the impression that this was an exchange.” he said, putting his usual arrogant emphasis on ‘Exchange’. “You have to give me what I want, then I give you what you want. How else am I to trust you?” He smirked. 

Cheerilee continued, getting closer to Pen, seeing the Princess´s frustration. 

“Very well,” she resigned, as she had already planned.

Cheerilee still didn’t like the situation, but she continued her silent steps around, seeing the Princess´s horn lighting up, her personally lifting the statue from her side, and slowly levitating it into the center of the room. 

Just as the statue clanked down besides the Fiend, who still didn’t seem to have seen her, Cheerilee finally reached Pen. She first pushed his head aside, causing Pen to freeze momentarily as she undid the blindfold. 

As Pen was able to see again, and that the one turning his head was not the Fiend, but in fact Cheerilee, his eyes lit up, but not in relief as Cheerilee would have expected, but in panic. He got even louder at attempting to speak, before Cheerilee pressed a hoof against his mouth, doing her best to signify that they had to be quiet. 

Pen shook his head frantically.

Back in the middle of the room, The Fiend starred in a moment of bliss upon the statue now placed besides him. He lifted a shaky hoof up and placed it upon the cheek of the statute, for just a few seconds letting the realization sink in, before he turned his head to Luna. 

“Now, if you would kindly undo the lock on the spell. Release Dear Sister of Mine. Dear Sister Of Mine has been locked up for long enough don't you think?” He asked, taking some calm steps towards Luna, not even phased with him pressuring an alicorn. 

The exact arrogance that Luna counted on. She for once, got a small smirk on her face. “I don’t think so.”

Suddenly, her horn flared up in an immense concentration of magical energy. The Fiend stopped in shock, and Luna lowered her head, discharging the spell directly towards the Fiend. 

The huge burst of magical energy was beyond anything any singular pony could conjure up, the magical potential of the alicorn.

The Fiend´s horn lit up as well, trying to shield himself, but the Princess´s spell crashed through the shield like a bullet would go through a piece of plywood. Though the sudden raising, and destruction of a shielding spell caused the Fiend to be flung backwards, even as the spell hit him directly, he flopped backwards and landed besides the statue of Fond. 

As the spells had met, the room had been blinded for a moment, and Luna had calmly raised her head again, and walked forwards. 

The Fiend had flopped back onto the floor next to the Statue of Fond. He was groaning in pain after the sudden impact of the spell, and his limbs were twitching. 

“I am sorry, Angel.” Luna spoke, her voice hard and determined, despite the sincerity of her words. “But I cannot allow you to harm my subjects any further. Nor can I allow Fond to be freed.” 

The Fiend grunted in pain as he forced himself onto his knees at least, just being able to look up at the Princess of the night with a defiant stare. “So, you´re going to betray your word a Second time?” 

Cheerilee had turned to see what happened after the sound of the spell discharging, and was almost unable to believe what she was seeing. Luna was easily besting the Fiend, who had been pummeling Cheerilee into the ground just a few nights earlier. 

Luna showed no regret or remorse at the Fiend´s accusation. 

“My highest duty is to protect My Little Ponies, and to shield them from those who would seek shelter in my nightly domain. Including you,” she stated clearly.  

The Fiend was staring up at Luna, who was now barely two meters away from him, towering over him like the night itself. His face looked resigned, as if he was prepared to meet his fate. “So, there can be only one Princess of the Night, then?” he asked. 

Princess Luna lowered her head, her horn once again, slowly charging up her magic. It was time, she thought. She had him where she needed him, and now all there was to do was to do the spell. “I am sorry, Angel.” She said again. 

This was the moment Cheerilee felt another bump against her, she turned to see and hear Pen resist against his restraints again, seeming to want to say something. 

Thinking that it didn’t matter if the Fiend heard them now, Luna was about to lock him away after all, she reached her head behind Pen´s head as to undo the gag.

The Fiend reclined back. “Don’t be sorry, Luna…” 

Pen gasped the moment his mouth was freed, and then Screamed. “PRINCESS DON'T! ITS A TRAP!” 

But it was too late.

Luna closed her eyes and fired off the Sealing spell directly towards the Fiend, expecting it to strike him, and begin to seal up the Kaynite into stone. 

But that did not happen.

The moment the spell struck The Fiend, his horn lit up, and he fired magic straight up into the ceiling, into what looked like nothing, but which quickly showed itself to be much much more. 

The magic struck the stone, and the entire ceiling began to fade like a fata morgana, and revealed that the ceiling was just a bit further up, and that a gem about double the size of Princess Luna herself was suspended from the Ceiling. Latching out from it beyond the suspenders, were five exact chains, each leading down to each a different victim.

The gem lit up from the sudden surge of magical energy coursing through it, and all the chains suddenly lit up in magic as well. 

Cheerilee backed away reflexively as suddenly Pen began to writhe in pain. She saw the chain lit up in magic, and Pen wasn’t the only one who wanted to scream, he was the only one who could however. All the other victims were caught in their gags, but she could still hear it, their attempts to scream, their pain. 

Everything was happening so fast, even to Cheerilee. 

She had just been able to turn her head towards the Fiend as she saw the next step in the trap snap right before her eyes. 

The magic beam that was striking up into the Catalyst gem, suddenly shot down in one concentrated beam straight into Princess Luna. 

There was a blinding light as the spell collided with the alicorn, and Cheerilee was almost thrown backwards again in another burst of powerful magic that threw both her, the Lunar Guards and all the victims roughly against the wall. 

Cheerilee was taken by surprise, so the knock against the wall had dazed her slightly. Her head swayed a bit as she tried to get back on her hooves and get her bearings. She didn't like what she was able to hear though. 

She heard no more magic, and she heard the maniacal Laughter of the Fiend. 

“You are so predictable!” The Fiend announced before taking another round of his cackling. 

Cheerilee opened her eyes and the scene slowly dawned upon her. 

A magical force field was in place, in the shape of a Hexagram, each part of the outside having one victim, including the part where Cheerilee was, inside of it and then a central part in the middle. On the opposite side of them, Luna´s guards were slowly recovering, and in the middle of the room were The Fiend, And Luna. 

And that’s when she saw what had happened to Luna. 

The mighty alicorn was had fallen down, just about half of her body encapsulated in the same stone she had expected to use upon the Fiend. 

The Princess had also been dazed by the sudden return of the spell, but she was returning to her senses.

“Wh-Wha… What? How?!” The Princess stared in confusion down upon her hooves that had been encased in stone. She could feel them, but she could not move them. She raised her head as the Fiend began laughing once again, sitting back on his flank and holding his stomach. 

“Ohhh This is just so wonderful!~” he almost sang. 

Cheerilee growled in anger, and leapt forwards. She twirled quickly on her hooves and sent all her strength into bucking at the Shield, which just seemingly blinked at the disturbance. It was like bucking five tonnes of topaz, The only thing moving, was Cheerilee from the feedback, as she flopped forwards. 

The Fiend looked over his shoulder, seeing Cheerilee´s attempts at breaking the shield and only laughed further. 

“I do so love when everything works out as planned~” he announced before walking casually over to where Cheerilee continued to try and smash at the shield. She tried bucking, charging it, punching it, nothing was working. The Shield just flashed slightly each time she struck against it, and with each time it lit up, the chains did as well. 

The Fiend grinned as he was merely inches away from Cheerilee. “That’s right, just keep punching, Don’t you worry. You almost got it. Oh, just a little more.” He spoke in a very condescending tone, as if prompting a child to reach the cookie jar. 

Cheerilee was only getting more and more infuriated by the taunting. She reared back, baring her fangs in anger and with an almost warcry like outburst, she slammed her hooves into the shield again, making it bulge just a tiny bit, enough to make the Fiend actually jump back in surprise. 

“My my.” He commented, though clearly not happy with seeing the shield wavering a bit. But he was still confident. “Now you just stay out there and hammer at that all you want. The adults are going to have a little talk.” 

Cheerilee continued to growl as the Fiend just casually strolled over towards the downed alicorn who had also taken on a spiteful expression.

“How is this possible!?” Luna demanded to know, her voice still proud despite her disposition. 

The Fiend smirked. “Simple magics, Princess.” He said, rolling his tongue and leaning his head in for emphasis on the word Princess. “It’s like placing a mirror in front a light beam. All you need is a powerful enough mirror,” he said, raising his head up, allowing both his and Luna´s eyes to find the Catalyst gem in the ceiling. “And I have had years to charge this thing… Ever since you took Her away from me.” He gave a small sneer at the end of the sentence and glared down at Luna. 

The Princess looked back into his eyes, and for the first time that night, she could see those eyes she had remembered. That pure anger, rage, and blind hatred. 

“You know…” he said, stepping forwards again, bringing a hoof under her chin to keep her from looking away. “I could not care less about your betrayal…” He said, causing Luna´s eyes to open in surprise. “I could not care less about the lives of your precious little ponies. The only thing I want… is Dear Sister of Mine. So I will ask you one more time…” His voice grew increasingly darker. “Release her.”

Luna stared back at The Fiend. That anger, It was unbearable to look at. His eyes were shining red with a beastly rage. The rage that all the blood drinkers all had to fight with. The beast beneath their skin. 

“No,” she said softly. “I will not, Angel. And you know why. I know you do. Somewhere inside there, behind the beast, lies a pony who understands.” Luna spoke, her voice calm and comforting like the blanket of night itself. “I know you´re still there, Angel. You must understand.” 

For just a few seconds, The Fiend and Luna stared into each other´s eyes. Him looking into what once had been a source of comfort and awe, but now had grown into the purest object of hatred he had. She staring back into the eyes of the beast beneath. Staring at just that little flicker she could see. The flicker of a crying Angel. 

“I’m sorry.” 

The words fell from Angel´s mouth, rolled onto the floor and was immediately stamped on by The Fiend turning around.

“I understand this, Princess Luna. You have Dear Sister of Mine trapped in stone,” he declared, strolling over to tap gently against the statue. “However, there is a way of unlocking this spell, it just demands a key. A key that you have in the sense of being you,” he explained, beginning to actually sound calmer again. He sent a small look over at Cheerilee, who had stopped pounding against the shield, just holding her hooves onto it and looking around, trying to decipher a way to undo the spell. 

The Fiend looked back at Luna. “And much like normal locks, it is possible to create a fake key. All you need is a cast of the original key. Now creating such a cast demands a huge amount of magical energy. Lucky for me…” he said, finally getting his smirk back. “I have years of pain stored right above our heads, and more added each time our wonderful little pet vampire hammers at the Shield.” He said, turning to see Cheerilee stop, mid-buck, as she realized what he just said. 

She looked back around at the different victims, taking a specific notice of their excessive panting and his pained expression. 

The Fiend looked bemused before turning back to Luna. “I don’t need your cooperation, just your presence… Though I would have preferred if we just each got what we wanted and then parted ways…” he said with an overly dramatic sigh. “But alas. It seems you insist on betraying your words yet again.” He slowly stepped aside from the statue, sending a look over his shoulder to Cheerilee. “You'll see that one day she'll do the same to you. She'll lie to you. She'll betray your trust. She'll have you removed. You´re nothing to her.” He took a small pause. “You'd be better off-

“You're wrong.” 

The Fiend looked in surprise as Cheerilee glared back in defiance.

“Luna is my friend. And I trust her to do what is best for Equestria. And if I ever turned into a psychopath like you or your Sister, I'd want her to lock me away,” Cheerilee said, making eye contact with Luna. The two exchanged one clear look of respect. Luna bowed her head and smiled at Cheerilee, who returned the gesture. 

“Fine then…” 

Both their attention was taken by the Fiend speaking up again, who began to charge up his horn. 

“Let’s hope the magic of your friendship will somehow pull through in the end.” 

The Fiend unleashed a powerful beam of magic straight at the Catalyst Gem, which lit up once again, the winds of magic flourishing around inside as suddenly most of its reserves were being used, and shortly after another beam shot out from the gem and straight down upon the Princess. 

She threw her head back, screaming from the sudden influx of magic that felt like it was going through her very being, drawing something out of her, extracting it with force. 

Cheerilee grit her teeth as she saw the Princess in pain, and seeing no way of getting to the Fiend and stopping him.

“Buck!” she cursed and hammered her hoof down into the stone floor. If the Fiend had been telling the truth, she could not keep hitting the Shield, it would only aide him. 

‘What am I going to do!?’ she thought, the situation demanding a solution now, yet she could not think of one. 

“Cheerilee…” A voice rasped. 

Cheerilee turned around to see Pen was forcing himself to focus upon her, even with the chain lit up upon his horn. 

“The shield… The chain…” He panted, trying to form his words as clearly as possible for her. 

Thats when it clicked for Cheerilee. 

“Of course!” She said, running over to Pen, immediately trying to pull the chain off of his horn, but the moment she began wiggling it a bit, She felt a magical shock go through her body. She exclaimed in surprise and pain, and let go of the chain again. 
“No!” she growled in frustration. “It’s stuck. If I rip too much it will only charge the shield more-” 

“Exactly!” Pen confirmed, causing Cheerilee to raise an eyebrow. He could see her confusion and took a hissing breath through his teeth. “You need… to make a deficit of energy.” he squeaked. “Add more, then take it away quickly….Hsssss… Cause it to fl…fluctuate!” 

Cheerilee looked back at the Shield, and behind where Luna was still writhing under the Fiend´s spell. She tried to process the plan that Pen seemed to have.

“If the shield fluctuates, it means there will suddenly be a moment when the shield is weaker,” she spoke aloud, making sure that the two had the same plan. 

Pen twitched slightly, but then nodded. “Yes! You… You could smash through! Just hurry! You must make it fluctuate, somehow!” 

Cheerilee quickly looked around again. The shield was charged by the pain of all the victims and the residual energy from the gem, the gem was currently being used, so the victims was the most important. The chains was connected to each victim at the source of their magic, so somehow she would have to…

Cheerilee stopped. For just there, she stopped and looked down at Pen, to truly see the state he was in. 

He was slightly bruised, and there was the unmistakable smell of blood, sweat, tears and sex over him. He was chained to the wall, but still allowed enough line of chains to lay down and writhe around. Small amounts of tears had been forming in the corners of his eyes for a while, but right now he was looking up at Cheerilee. There was a small amount of determination in them. They were determined, and they were looking upon her in hope. Despite everything he had been through the last forty eight hours, He was trusting her to come up with a plan. 

She had. 

She stepped over Pen, and gently placed a hoof down upon his chin, turning his head as to position it just perfectly. 
“Pen,” she said, their eyes meeting, her own preemptive pained expression was not alleviated by the sudden realization Pen clearly got just those seconds too late. “I am so sorry.” 

And with those words, Cheerilee applied pressure down upon the young unicorn, keeping him from moving and then lifted up her spare hoof.

In a swift but strong motion, she brought down all her strength down upon just the base of the unicorn's horn. 

The crack just resounded inside of Cheerilee´s head with almost a sick glee in its own existence, wishing it could stay longer to torment Cheerilee, as she snapped the horn straight off the Pen´s skull. 

Pen´s eyes grew as wide as they could be, and it was as if he had to scream, but could not possibly reach the level he wanted, as the most sensitive part of him, the very thing that made him a unicorn, was broken off. 

In the same moment as this, immense amounts of pain rushed through the entirety of Pen´s system, and the momentary magical connection that still was between the horn and its owner, sent a sudden massive influx of energy up through the chain, striking directly into the gem, and out into the shield, which suddenly glowed immensely. 

The chain with the disembodied horn then just swung backwards, clanking against the wall, no longer connected to its source of energy, and the entire chain gave up its glow and its energy. 

And with that, the Shield attempted to stabilize itself, but suddenly going from having an abundance of energy, to suddenly having less than normal created too big a deficit, and it began to waver, it flickered. 

That was just the moment that Cheerilee needed. 

This was a moment she had to put her emotions aside, even as she leapt off of the poor pony she had just maimed. Now was the time to strike.

And strike she did. She leapt forwards, getting just enough ground to make the destined charge. 

She crashed her shoulder into the Shield, which this time didn't just bulge, it cracked under the sudden pressure from the vampire Cheerilee´s immense strength. 

Like smashing through a window, shards of magic was sent everywhere, and the entire bubble-like hexagram shield collapsed in on itself, all remaining energy reverting back into the catalyst gem. 

Cheerilee landed firmly upon all four of her hooves, and thankfully had just enough time to steel herself as the gem acted up again.
For as suddenly the shield had cracked, the energy that was being used by the Fiend in his spell, also suddenly began to flicker weirdly. The Fiend opened one of his eyes and watched in confusion.

“Wait, nooou!-” 
He didn't have the time to say more before suddenly the gem´s energy pulsed, throwing him off of his mental focus, and the entire spell suddenly flared up. The glow that was being pulled out from Luna flared as well, and the essence, magic and energy all suddenly spun around the magical system. From Luna to gem, from gem enhanced to Fiend, and back again. 

Another blinding light flashed along with what sounded almost like an explosion occurred. Cheerilee had steeled herself, and only averted her eyes from the flash, but held her ground against the magical pulse. She could hear the Fiend yell in surprise, and the magical pulse had even cracked some of the floor tiles and the walls themselves had pieces of debris fall off of them.

Cheerilee turned back to look upon the scene.

The entire room had been wrecked, whatever sort of stability the room seemed to have earlier, had suddenly been replaced by this unnerving feeling that everything was broken. Cracks were all over the wall and the floor in lightning like arches, and piles of wall and ceiling had fallen a couple of places. Luckily it hadn't hit anyone.

Anyone that Cheerilee cared for. 

Princess Luna was still stuck halfway in stone, and the victims were still stuck to the wall. Being able to hear everything again, it truly ate at Cheerilee to hear the pained whimpers and gasps of Pen lying behind her. She didn't want to turn around and see him. She would leave it to later. The unicorn was still awake… She had hoped the flash perhaps had knocked him out. At least then he would be at peace for a bit. 

But now she had her focus upon a couple of hooves sticking out from a smaller pile of debris. 

The Fiend was easy to recognize, even lying beneath the heavy debris, though his at first pained grunts turned into frustrated growls. 

“You… Little…”

The Fiend punched his hooves upwards, removing the debris on top of him, and sort of flopped upwards. 

“- Pea brained, blunt fanged, thin blooded-” The Fiend continued to come up with outdated slurs, when he felt something tug at his back. He tried to rise up again, but something was sticking him to the ground. He turned around and pulled at the aforementioned things. Only to stop the moment his newly formed pair of limbs were free. 

Cheerilee almost had the same sort of slack jawed expression as the Fiend had, at the revelation that the Fiend had gotten a pair of wings. 

“- Absolutely… Wonderful?” he said in amazement.

It was a pair of perfectly proportioned feathery pegasus wings. They looked like they had always been there, fitting together just perfectly with his back and the joints within. He flapped a few times, feeling the new muscles working. He looked genuinely as confused as Cheerilee for just a few seconds, before a grin crept upon his lips. 

“Well Well Well! Seems like the interrupted gave me… a little more than a key~” He said, looking back along with Cheerilee over at Luna. 

Luna looked exhausted, but she was still sporting everything, wings, cutie mark, horn everything. 

Cheerilee looked back as the Fiend got slowly onto his hooves, stretching his new appendages and flaring them up with glee. 

“I have gotten the key… or at least a fake enough edition of it… and now, a physical gift to Dear Sister of Mine.” He turned to face with the Statue of Fond Amour, which was still standing there like nothing had happened. He grinned and took slow steps, taking pleasure in every moment he got closer and closer to her. 
“Dear Sister of Mine,” he spoke. “You were taken from me a broken mare. I shall take you back, and turn you Into a Queen,” he finished, his voice almost quivering with its own anticipation, his own dead heart beginning to pound with glee at the possibility of seeing its Sire again. The Fiend´s horn slowly began to light up. All he had to do was unlock the stone and let her out. Nothing could ruin this moment, nothing could-

“With you, as her consort I presume?” A voice interrupted. 

The Fiend stopped dead in his tracks. He knew who said that. And he could just imagine the challenging face of Cheerilee standing behind him.

He turned around, finding not her challenging face, but an amused smirk placed upon her face, as she was within leaping distance of him, but just standing there for now. 

“What did you just say?” 

Cheerilee just calmly flicked her mane back arrogantly.

“That way you constantly describe her as ‘Dear sister of Mine’... It’s rather, forced is it not?” She asked, sounding like she was casually questioning an acquaintance, rather than a blood sucking creature, which was now slowly turning around, taking attention to her. “It sounds much more like that’s what you want people to think.” 

“Dear Sister of Mine and I have been together since before we were born.” He glared back at her, his air of confidence gone and replaced with anger. 

“Oh, of course you have. I heard, you're twins… But you really sound like you want more than just being ‘With’ her.” Cheerilee casually mused, keeping an eye on the fiend at all times. “Sounds much more like… an unhealthy obsession with an object of desire.” Cheerilee took upon an almost mockingly similar tone as the Fiend had, each time he had taunted her. 

“Of course I desire her! I wish Dear Sister Of Mine back! Nopony can have her!” He growled, suddenly being on the receiving end was grating at his nerves. 

“Nopony but you, you mean?” Cheerilee smirked in return. 

The Fiend growled in anger, his new wings flared, and his eyes began to have more of that angry Kaynite fire beneath them. The red colour beginning to flare. 

“Oh don’t give me that, little Fiend.” Cheerilee continued to keep the Fiend´s attention, calmly stepping around as to position herself in front of the second locked door. “It’s obvious you want her for yourself. It’s obvious you're much more interested in her than a broth-”

“Shut up!” The Fiend growled, his eyes flaring into a red shining glare, as he stepped forwards menacingly. Each step was heavy and almost the borderline of a stamp that cracked the floor tiles. 

“Oh dear me, seems like I struck a nerve.” Cheerilee giggled, aping the Fiend´s way of taunting. “And judging by how angry you are, something tells me this has been going on for very long. Tell me, how often do you think of crawling into bed with her and-” 

“SHUT UP!” he shrilled, The Fiend suddenly setting off in a leap, his wings flared up and his fangs bared. 

The leap was fast, but Cheerilee was prepared, as she jumped aside, allowing the Fiend to plow straight into the locked metal door behind her. A comical metal bong sounded as the Fiend smashed face first into the iron door, leaving him stunned form the sudden recoil of metal. 

The Fiend shook his head quickly, regaining his senses and turned around, just in time to face Cheerilee again, But not in time to stop her from grabbing his face.

Cheerilee took great enjoyment from quickly using her momentum to slam the Fiend´s head back into the door, using his head as a drumstick, and the door was the drum. 

As much as Cheerilee just wanted to continue to hammer the Fiend against the door for her own entertainment, and a good bit of karma, her hammering was interrupted, sadly not by the final cracking of The Fiend´s skull, but by the cracking of the metal door she was smashing him into. The vast amount of strength being stressed against the metal had made it bulge to the point of the door no longer being considered locked by any standards. 

That is not to say that the Fiend´s skull had not cracked, it had in fact, each time Cheerilee had used her vampiric strength to smash the back of the head against metal, but the same crack had just continuously healed. 

Cheerilee growled in frustration as she tried one final time to crush the Fiend´s skull against the metal door, but instead of the skull giving in, the door gave in, and the two of them were flung forwards, Cheerilee toppling onto the Fiend. 

The sudden loss of balance had disoriented Cheerilee for a second, which allowed the Fiend to finally summon his own strength.

“ARRRGH!” He roared as he kicked all four hooves against Cheerilee´s chest, flinging her backwards into his sanctuary again. 
Cheerilee flew backwards like a cat flung off a building, but luckily that analogy was even more fitting as the vampire teacher managed to land safely upon all four of her hooves, granted, stumbling a little on the sudden change. 

She readjusted herself, seeing the Fiend getting back upon his hooves, blood dripping from his mouth for a few seconds before he wiped it away and turned his fury back onto Cheerilee. His eyes were filled with anger and malice. Just as she had planned. 

“Luna! You stay put! I'll take care of this!” Cheerilee spoke at the same instant the Fiend leapt for her again. This time Cheerilee mirrored the leap, but broke it off, as so she slid just beneath the Fiend, and the two had exchanged places, allowing her near the exit. 

Luna who was still exhausted upon the floor after the Fiend´s spell, sent a small curious look over at Cheerilee. “Uhm… Sure…” she said. The Fiend growled again and charged after Cheerilee, who fled out the now open metal door, leaving Luna literally stuck with the other prisoners. She looked down at her hooves encased in stone. “It’s not as if I have much of a choice…” she commented snarkily despite her exhaustion. 


Through the door, Cheerilee was running as fast as she could. She was holding a good distance from the Fiend, who was ferociously following behind her. She could hear for every time her hooves clanked against the floor that four more were just within earshot, and accompanied by an almost constant growl of anger. She really seemed to have stirred the hornets nest. 

Only thing that put Cheerilee to a halt, was the revelation of a ladder, leading straight up through a concrete tunnel in the ceiling. 

She couldn't stop now, she knew she wasn't quite there yet. If her suspicions were correct, then this could be it. Then again, she could just be running around in a circle. 

She didn't have the time to think on it further, She didn't even look behind her, all she could do was head up the ladder. 

Thanks to her Vampiric strength, she took it in leaps, skipping quite a few steps, and was able to scale the long ladder and the tunnel. Only to be stopped by a metal hatch. 

Cheerilee caught a reflexive breath in her throat as she dared to look down. The Fiend wasn't there, but she could hear him, hear the galloping of his hooves and the distant growling yells he was throwing at her.

“STAND STILL SO I CAN TEAR YOUR TONGUE FROM YOUR MOUTH!” He yelled once, just as she came to a halt at the bottom of the ladder. He looked up, meeting with Cheerilee´s eyes and his features twisting into his sadistic glee. “There you Are!” He declared.

Cheerilee could feel her dead heart jumping as she desperately tried to turn the handle on the hatch door. She could just hear the Fiend begin to jump up the ladder, and knew that he would be there within seconds. 

A loud clank sounded as the hatch was unlocked, and Cheerilee threw herself up upon the edge of the tunnel, just hoping to get out in time. She was able to get most of herself out.

But just as she was about to pull her last hind leg out, she was tugged backwards. 

She turned to see the Fiend having grabbed onto her hind leg with both of his front hooves, and his newly formed wings were flaring up and out of the tunnel. He was grinning. 

“Got you!” He whispered.

“No you don't!” Cheerilee shot back, as she grabbed the edge of the hatch door and with full force slammed it straight back onto the Fiend´s face and hooves. 

Cheerilee could not help but smile as it had looked like a much more violent edition of ‘Whack-a-dog’ from some kind of arcade, except for this time she had just smashed an undead creature in the face with a reinforced steel hatch. 

She repeated the smash a couple of times, before finally the Fiend let go, and flopped a couple of steps down on the ladder, getting his legs strangely tangled up between the metal beams on the ladder. 

Cheerilee took the opportunity to quickly slam the hatch shut again, turning the circular handle to try and lock it again, but she knew she couldn't keep it there. Her eyes quickly scanned around to try and find anything she could use to bolt the hatch with, but found none. 

“Buck…” She conceded to saying, after taking the decision to grab a hold of the Stake she had tied around her foreleg, ripping it from the tape in a quick tear, and jabbed the thing in between the hatch handle mechanism. 
‘That should jam it for at least a few extra seconds’ She thought before getting up. She finally took a notice of that she was in some kind of old storage room, with an metal door seeming like the only way out. 

The sound of metal clanking against wood was enough to urge Cheerilee on to ignore the room further and just barge out the door. 

The now open door revealed the inside of a large metal structure, support beams and a large circular staircase leading upwards into the structure.

It was almost undoubtable where she was now… But she still couldnt believe it. 

“This… Is just too ridiculous…” She said as she set up the stairs. She was taking strong strides and almost small jumps for each, as she skipped steps to get as far ahead as possible. 

She looked over her shoulder as she heard the second sound of metal being smashed in, and a second later, the Fiend had rushed out of the door and was now at the foot of the staircase. He set off in just as quick a stride as Cheerilee, trying to catch up to her on the staircase. 

‘Looks like he still hadn't Quite understood that he just got wings...’ Cheerilee thought and was thankful for this. Anything that could give her an advantage was welcome. 

The two kept running up the stairs, the Fiend slowly inching closer and closer up the stairs towards his prey, but he was not able to get to her before she reached the top of the staircase. 

Rushing out of the doorway at the top of the stairs, Cheerilee came to a screeching halt, as a metal railing was thankfully stopping her from falling to her death. 

She reflexively grabbed the metal railing and looked down, seeing just how far down there was, Straight down to water. 

She looked ahead, seeing the bay of Manehatten, the lights of the Cityscape, brightening up the night, along with a rather large one, emanating from this very structure. 

Now she could see it all. She turned her head back, finally taking in the entire statue she had now gotten to the top of. The large torch held in the hoof of the mare standing atop of the platform. 

She was on the Statue of Manehatten. 

That took a few seconds to just truly sink in.

“The Statue… of Manehatten… I'm On… the Statue of Manehatten…” She repeated aloud. “The Statue… Of Manehatten…” This now, undeniable fact was circling in her head. The Fiend had somehow refurbished an old safe room into his sanctuary of torture and blood… Underneath the Statue of Manehatten. And it made her smile. In fact, it made her laugh. She held onto the railing as the laughter began to take complete hold over her system. This was just too ridiculous.  

It was ridiculous enough to keep her full on laughing, even when the Fiend reached the top of the staircase. His face turned from twisted anger, to one of frustrated confusion. 

“What Is so funny?!” He demanded to know. 

Cheerilee was still laughing. She held out a hoof to signal him to wait a moment. She then took a couple of deep breaths, trying to balance out everything again, before looking back at the Fiend. “A Hideout… Under a National Landmark? Seriously?” She asked, doing her best to strangle her laughter. 

The Fiend looked confused for a few more moments. He then walked out on the platform as well, looking out onto Manehatten before shrugging. “You Take what you can get…” he rationalized, turning to Cheerilee who was giggling incessantly. It was really rather grating. He rolled his eyes slightly, and took a polite step away from Cheerilee. “Can We get back to the point where I was about to rip out your throat?” He asked, with a slightly annoyed tone of voice. 

“Oh, Ehehehe, Of course… Give me a moment…” Cheerilee was still giggling slightly. She braced herself against the railing, taking a deep breath to stop the giggling. “Thank you…” She stated, as she stood off of the railing to face the Fiend.

“Dont Mention i-” The Fiend responded, but was interrupted by Cheerilee suddenly leaping forwards and socking him right in the jaw. He staggered backwards, before snapping his eyes back to Cheerilee, his anger returning in an instant. She made another swing for him, but he ducked under and kited around her. 

Cheerilee quickly spun around for another jab at the Fiend, but it didn't connect. Instead it was finally time for the Fiend to strike.

He ducked under her jab and swung under Cheerilee´s jaw, just powerful enough for her to flop backwards. She was saved by the railing however, hammering into it, instead of falling off of the statue. 

“We remind any and all tourists that the drop is extremely dangerous.” The Fiend said rather snarkily as he calmly strolled over towards Cheerilee. 

The mare shook her head, regaining her senses, just to look up, seeing the Fiend stand over her again. 

He tried to stamp onto Cheerilee, but she rolled aside and skidded back onto her hooves.

Cheerilee wiped a bit of blood from her muzzle, her chin healing up almost instantly again. The hit hadn't been that powerful, but she could still feel it. 

The two stared at each other for a few seconds, each trying to guess what the other would do, before the Fiend made another leap for Cheerilee.

She jumped aside, just getting out in time and letting the Fiend punch a bulge into the torch part of the statue. She saw a quick opportunity and punched him square in the jaw, sendinding him flopping back a few metres. 

He was equally as quickly onto his hooves again, making almost the same gesture of Cheerilee of wiping away a small amount of blood that had escaped his muzzle. The only difference was that he got angered. Cheerilee had been hurt a lot, but she wasn't just hurting him. She was hurting his pride. 

“Enough of this…” He stated firmly. 

Cheerilee stepped slightly aside, finding the perfect position to fight the Winged Kaynite in front of her. 

And in that instant, the Fiend leapt for her again, this time hoping to slam Cheerilee into the ground.

But Cheerilee was prepared. 

She flopped onto her back, holding all four of her hooves above her, and slammed all four of them into the Fiend just as he was about to slam into her from above. This put the Fiend to a stock still in mid air above her.

Now It was Cheerilee´s turn to smirk.

“‘I hope you know how to Swim M’Dear’” She mimicked his voice, before she arched herself further backwards, and flung him back over her head. And over the railing. 

He flew just over the railing, his newly formed wings only just clipping against the metal beams in a desperate attempt to save himself from the forces of gravity. 

Cheerilee hadn't been as satisfied and relieved in a good while since she saw the Fiend fall over the edge, and heard his roaring voice get further and further away from her. She let go of her breath, allowing herself to flop down on the floor. For just that moment, she had time to breathe and was sure she was safe, for at least a couple of minutes. A fall from the Statue of Manehatten should most certainly crack that skull of his a bit, and all she would need was to continue her plan. 

‘Now… Just need to get the flare...’ She thought, remembering her plan. She sat up and tried to rip off the flare from her leg. It resisted quite a bit, as she accidentally had fastened it a bit too well. 

“Come on you little…” She mumbled beneath her breath, reaching down to try and rip off the tape individually. She was just about halfway through ripping off the tape as she looked at the second flare on her other leg. That one didn't look as well bound together. She sighed at her own little mistake there. 

“Oh Well” She said, picking that and ripping it off of her leg, the ripping feeling from the tape quickly evaporating. 

Now holding the flare in her hooves, she smirked. With this, the plan would come to fruition. She only hoped that Celestia would keep her promise. 

Her train of thought was interrupted by the sudden swoosh of something flying through the air. 

She turned around, only just in time to feel the agonizingly painful and powerful kick to the face of a perfectly placed hind hoof, sending her crashing to the ground. As her skull stuck the floor, a Second crack resounded and she dropped the flare. She looked up in shaky panic as she saw the flare roll on the ground and right off of the edge of the statue. 

Her eyes flickered quickly back from the flare, and around to determine what had stuck her, even from her downed position. And there she saw him again. 

The Fiend was flying. 

“Did you forget I just got a Pair of Wings, M’Dear?~” He asked, letting out a fit of laughter following up, while he was floating just above the downed mare. 

Cheerilee was in agony. She could feel fluids leave her skull, and any attempts at retorting was reduced to a combination of gurgles and growls. While she felt dizzy, and had trouble coordinating her hooves, she was able to reach them up to her Jaw, feeling the broken bones and heavy dislocation she had just sustained. 

She glared up at the Fiend, who was only reveling in Cheerilee´s attempts at making some quick fixes upon herself. She took a deep breath and with agonizing cracks snapped her jaw back into its sockets, needing it there before the bones would heal again. In concern to her skull, she brought a shaky hoof up to just hold in any excess blood that might try to escape, while she slowly sat upwards. 

“How´s the Jaw?” The Fiend tauntingly asked. 

Cheerilee growled in return, He could have ended it, he knew it, she knew that he knew it, but that bastard just enjoyed breaking her bones too much. ‘Lucky for me… I guess’ She thought.

“Its…. Fine…” She hissed in return. 

“Well We can't have that~” The Fiend replied, beating his wings one extra powerful time as to gain him some more air, before he made another dive for Cheerilee. 

This time, she rolled out of the way, making the Fiend simply disengage and make a full circling around the torch of the statue. He was laughing all the while. “I Must say! I never thought having wings would be so Fun!” He called out from above, before swooping down a second time. 

Cheerilee threw herself forwards again, barely dodging the Fiend again, before getting back upon her hooves. She threw her head back and kept her eyes on him, baring her fangs and growling. He didn't pay that much mind, instead he flew around and made another swoop down for her. 

Cheerilee could feel the air being pushed aside as she narrowly escaped him yet another time by throwing herself for the floor again. 

As the Fiend made his turnaround, Cheerilee was desperately fumbling for her leg, she needed to get that Flare out. She couldn't afford to lose this one, she needed to do it now! 

She ripped off the flare and looked up. The Fiend was just about to swoop down upon her again, so she needed to pop the hood of the flare now. But she was barely able to get a hold of it with her teeth before the Fiend struck her. Instead of pouncing to crush her bones this time though, he grabbed her, holding her around her abdomen and ascended at a rapid speed.

Cheerilee fumbled with the flare, the thing hopping back and forth between her hooves just before she was able to catch it tightly to her chest. 

The Two continued to ascend, the Fiend keeping a tight hold around Cheerilee as they flew, his newly formed wings not even seeming slightly strained. 

The flight was just so fast, the lights beneath them were dimming and the cloud free night was soon mainly illuminated by the Moon, rather than the lights of the city. 

And then, it stopped. The flight came to a halt as the Fiend reached the height he wanted. The two were way above cloud level, but having no clouds that night you could see the entirety of Manehatten from there. 

The Fiend twirled Cheerilee around in his grasp, the two now being muzzle to muzzle, and staring each into each others eyes. The Fiend with superior glee, and Cheerilee with burning hatred. 

“Why Its such a lovely night here.” He taunted Cheerilee with a smirk. “Now… Any Last Words before I watch you drop?” 

Cheerilee in one swift motion lifted up her hooves and twisted the hood of the flare off,  the thing lighting up in a bright light between the two, causing the two´s heads to rear backwards in undead fear of fire for just a moment, but The Fiend kept a hold of her… and sadly… The Flare.

He lowered his head and grabbed the flare between his teeth, and quickly flung it aside.

The red flare dropped. Four eyes were following it as it just fell towards the unforgiving waters below. 

The Fiend gave a small chuckle. “Quite the Last Words.” He commented. 

“My last words!” Cheerilee quickly added, with suddenly a much more superior smile on her face. “Is… ‘Good Morning, Fiend Amour’.” 

The Fiend opened his mouth to respond, but then the trap shut. 

He could feel it. 

He turned his head towards the east and he saw it rise. 

Celestia had raised the Sun Earlier. 

It was as if someone had suddenly doused him in water and then dropped him in a bath filled with napalm. Within even a second, before he had been able to react to anything, he could feel his skin tense from the sudden pain and he could feel all of his muscles tense up from the sudden major input of pain. 

He let out a Shriek. He was in agony. And it was only about to get worse.

For the second his muscles tensed, he had not the appropriate grip upon Cheerilee, and his wings were exposed. 

The Purple Vampire mare took the opportunity that her plan had so perfectly given her, and grabbed for one of the Fiend´s wings. 

“Have a good Drop!” She was just able to yell, before she slammed her hoof down on the tensed wing, In one strike breaking the bone and then with all her might, Pulled. 

With the sudden strike, and the agonizing pain of the Sun beginning to take effect, the two dropped. Gravity took a hold of both of them, as they twirled around each other in the drop. This was mainly due to Cheerilee still holding on to the wing she just broke, but not for very long. Because in another quick motion, Cheerilee placed her back hooves against he Fiend´s body and pulled for all her might. With the bones broken, and the sudden muscle tensions and agony of the Sun beginning to literally burn the fur off of the Fiend, The flesh gave in. 

With a rip and a loud squelch, Cheerilee tore the wing straight off of the Fiend´s back, sending the two flying away from each other. Cheerilee with a hoof full of wing, and the Fiend falling and slowly beginning to ignite.  

To the confused ponies of Manehatten, the two were just two specs in the sky, both falling with incredible speed, but one of them, were lighting up. 

Cheerilee let go of the ripped off wing, seeing it burn up in a matter of seconds, being reduced to ash in the wind, while the Fiend on the other hand was still screaming in agony. His fur had been burnt to a crisp, and now his skin was slowly getting charred as if he was thrown directly into a fireplace. 

That was the last Cheerilee saw of the Fiend, because the two were falling quickly, and they were falling away from each other. Turning around in the air as to look down towards hopefully something soft she could land on, The last thing Cheerilee saw that waking morning was the unforgiving blue of the Manehatten bay. 

While Cheerilee crashed with the Manehatten bay, The Fiend had a different fate. 

Now Mono-winged, his crippled and charred body struck through the crown of the Statue of Manehatten, making a hole in the metal statue. His drop didn't stop, he continued to smash through the internal metal support beams. He cracked both the beams and his bones for each single he smashed into, his fall only slowing marginally for each and every metal beam that he cracked. Other beams cracked from the sudden snaps in the structures, more metal pipes and beams even falling before his broken body crashed into them, and clanging down onto the only thing that would stop his descent.

The floor. 

The Fiend did not see it. He couldn't even feel it anymore. He had an overload of sensory input. He could feel was the piercing of metal through his already charred body and the sudden and enormous force of his body impacting with the floor. He could feel the sudden snaps and cracks of several more bones within him and the snapping of flesh and cords. 

And then, Silence. 

There he laid. His senses overloaded, his limbs pained to the level of numbness, his mind only now gathering the full reality of what had happened. 

His head was leaking, none of his limbs was responding to anything anymore, and he knew what was stuck through him now. He could feel the coldness of the metal beam that he had landed on. It had impaled him through his burnt skin and was now keeping him riveted to the ground. 

He tried to  do something, anything, but nothing was responding. Nothing. Anything he tried, just heightened his sense of reality, and the return of the actual feeling of agony. 

But the most bitter pain that crept upon his mind was not his bones, not his charred body, not his now mono winged back. It was that he was here… Stuck… And dying.

There was no way around it. He could feel it. He couldn't heal this. No amount of Kaynite Strength he wanted to sacrifice, could save his life. He needed that strength, he needed that magic for Fond. She needed it… She was still there. 

But he couldn't get there… It was over.  

With the last of his strength, he opened his mouth, drawing in a small shaky breath. He didn't care about the pain of breathing, or the wheezing or shaking of his voice. 

He needed to say it. 

Gathering everything he had within him, one more drop of blood was spilled onto the ground that day, escaping as the last tear that Kaynite had and he spoke:

“S...Sorry…” 
	
	
	
> Epilogue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Manehatten Hospital:






Cheerilee had occasionally woken up in places where she couldn't remember how she got there. After having died, she had woken up in places like a sewer, the ocean floor, at the bottom of a pit, beneath an almost deadly pile of Sapphire Shores merchandise, and many other odd locations which always made her go ‘Huh...’ when she woke up. 
But this time, the ‘huh’ factor, came more over the actual normality of where she woke up.

In a hospital bed. 

It almost seemed too normal to actually be true. Like she would not be surprised if her next actual breath would be her waking up on the end of a spike or at the bottom of Manehatten bay or something. But that didn't happen. 

Opening her eyes, she just saw the peaceful white tiles of the hospital ceiling. Nothing out of the ordinary.

That was till she turned her head and saw Princess Luna resting in one of the guest chairs, reading some sort of health magazine. That was not ordinary. 

And finally, her senses returning to their regular superpowered state, she could feel a deep throbbing from within her head, feeling the intricate cracks that was still healing upon her head, beneath a couple of professionally placed bandages. 

“Well… that’s different…” Cheerilee commented weakly, her voice creaky from its long resting period. 

Hearing Cheerilee´s voice was enough to rouse Princess Luna from her reading. She floated the magazine away and walked over to the side of the hospital bed. 

“Good morning, Cheerilee, good to see you decided to stay with us.” The Princess said with a soft smile. 

Cheerilee groaned a bit as she slowly sat up in the hospital bed, but was able to make a reply. “Well the bay of Manehatten seemed so wonderful I almost decided to stay and become a Seavampony…” She spoke, though the intention of making a joking tone, only managed to sound tired. She turned to Luna, weakly lifting both of her hooves for emphasis. “Fear me, The Scourge of the Seas…” 

Princess Luna shook her head, but did give an amused scoff at the comment. “I best ask the doctors to come back, sounds like they didn't get all the seawater out of your skull.,” she rebutted. “Tell me, do you still have the taste of kelp in your mouth?”

The two shared a small chuckle, Cheerilee´s noticeably weaker than the Princess´s. She then took a small breath, glad for the sensation of actually breathing air, as opposed to the water she had expected to wake up to. 

“Now then…” Cheerilee began, rubbing one of her temples as she spoke. “Judging by the fact that you're not stone, and I'm not dead...er, I'm assuming that I got him?” 

Luna gave a small somber nod. “The Fiend has been secured, and his victims have been brought into intensive care in this very hospital.” 

Cheerilee felt an immense amount of relief from hearing those words. It was like Luna had literally pulled tonnes of weights off of her shoulders. (Which she had placed there in the first place, but that was a detail for another time). It was more relieving than any kind of vacation she had yet had to date. It was such a relief that she could not help but look away and pump her hoof just a little bit, whispering the word “Yes” to herself. 

“Yes, it is quite wonderful. And quite fortunate that my sister decided to break her promise to me and override my night, just as you needed it.” Princess Luna spoke, her voice rather calm, as if only stating facts.

Cheerilee froze slightly, she turned to meet Luna´s slightly accusatory look with an awkward smile. “Uhm… Right…” she began, realizing she had forgotten to think of a way to explain the situation to Luna. 

“And also rather lucky for Celestia to somehow arrive at the scene within a relatively short time, considering that she was supposed to be in Canterlot at the time we were in Manehatten.” Luna continued.

“Well you see-” Cheerilee tried to get a word in. 

“And that she already had roused the daily guard of Manehatten to spring into action the moment she raised the sun.” Luna was still speaking in exactly the same tone of voice with the same stare. 

“Might not have been the brightest-” Cheerilee tried to cut in with the right words to defend her position, but Luna would have none of it. 

“And adding to the luck of this very elaborate plan having somehow been laid out by only my sister, according to her.” Luna´s voice continued in its almost monotone level now. 

“Oh… Uhm, right it-” 

“That is until I questioned her and she gave into giving the information that some lucky individual had been telling her secrets behind my back.” Luna said, with an extra emphasis on the last words. 

“I was trying to-” 

“And given all of these facts, and all of this deception, made by somepony I personally considered my friend. Yet still that pony went behind my back, breaking all rules she had been given as a professional. Enough sensitive information that could possibly have her dismissed.” Luna raised her voice. 

This was getting bad. “Please Luna, I-” 

“It is quite lucky, that she was right to do so and I forgive her.” Luna finished. 

“Yes that’s luc- What?” Cheerilee just stopped. She looked upon Luna, who had sat down next to the hospital bed, her tall stature keeping her at eye level with Cheerilee. She smiled softly at the vampire before her. 

“Yes Cheerilee… I forgive you.” 

Cheerilee´s jaw was hanging heavily beneath her head as she had somehow just been scolded, threatened dismissal and forgiven within the same monologue. It just roused too many questions in her mind for her to pick one individually.

“But…” 

“But what?” Luna calmly asked, seeing the conflict going on for Cheerilee, and was quite amused by it. It was rare to see her top agent speechless. If only she had a camera. 

“But I… Lied to you. I went against the orders you gave me specifically! And-” 

“And nothing more…” Luna cut in. “You did your duty. You did what you needed to do to protect Manehatten and the ponies within it. And you were still able to defeat the Fiend, even after my plan went completely wrong. You weren't blinded by the same arrogance that I was.” 

Cheerilee could not believe what she was hearing. She had expected Luna to fire her, to reprimand her, to put her in ironic detention, something, anything! But… She forgave her? That easily? 

Luna rolled her eyes slightly, seeing Cheerilee´s confusion. “Let us just call the two of us Equal. I have lied to you, you lied to me, sounds Fair?” 

Though Cheerilee took a little more time than expected to come up with a response, she ended up nodding her head with a small smile. “I… Guess that's fair,” she conceded, feeling rather relieved again, almost as if one of the last weights were removed from her shoulders. Only to have the last one feel just as heavy as the others by the Princesses´s next words. 

“Besides…” Luna continued. “I don't believe I am the one you'll need to ask forgiveness of.” 

Cheerilee froze and bit her lip for a moment. She knew who Luna was talking about. “Pen…” She said aloud, mainly to herself.

The Princess gave a somber nod. 

Cheerilee looked softly upon Luna. “Is he here?” 

“Yes… Only a couple of rooms away.” Luna confirmed. Rising up upon her hooves and stepping back, she kept her eyes on Cheerilee. “If you'd like, we can see him now…” She offered. 

Cheerilee nodded, slowly shifting off of the hospital bed and getting back onto all four of her hooves. She stumbled slightly as she landed on the floor, her head still felt a bit heavy considering the amount of abuse she had taken. Luna waited patiently for Cheerilee to steel herself, before opening the door for her, letting the two get into the hospital hall. 

Just walking out, Cheerilee was quiet at first, she didn't want to think back to what she had done to the poor colt. Yet just the prospect of getting to meet him again just made the sound of his horn cracking resound through her mind. It was almost as if the sound itself had turned maniacal and wanting to linger forever. It was completely different to cause such damage to someone who had done nothing but try to help her, as opposed to some opponent. She had broken many bones and knocked off a few horns before, but there always was that sort of justification in the back of her head, Either they had started a fight or they had actively tried to kill somepony. In this case, she had simply taken the quick yet only solution she had been able to think of. 

Taking a small breath, she turned to Luna again. “How… How is he?” She asked with a slight uncertainty in her voice. 

The Princess looked ahead, not meeting with Cheerilee´s concern, which only increased the concern.  “The doctors are doing their best…” She simply responded. 

Cheerilee didn't like that response. It was too vague and too off putting, as if Luna was trying to take the brunt of the pain off of something. She sighed. “Please Luna, cant you-” 

“I'm sorry.” Luna cut off Cheerilee, but not sharply, just by simply raising her voice slightly and taking the steering of the conversation. “I think this is a thing best discussed with him, rather than hearing it from me.” The Princess asserted, just as they stopped by the door to one of the hospital rooms. 

Cheerilee stared blankly at the door for a bit. She almost didn't want to go in there. Ironically she now felt like a student who was about to face the consequences of her actions. The more lighthearted part of her mind just reminded her that maybe it wouldn't be so bad… But cynicism was still hanging like a fog across her mind. She decided to do the only thing she could do. 

Hope for the best, expect the worst. 

Slowly, she lifted up her hoof to gently open the door to the hospital room and entered. 

Inside, Pen was lying back in the hospital bed, his head propped up with a good amount of pillows and the elevation of the mattress. He had been resting as Cheerilee walked in the door. As the squeaky door announced her presence, he turned his head towards her. He was wearing the same kind of hospital gown as Cheerilee had been, and there was a sort of brace placed around the top of his head and his horn. It looked like a combination of a neckbrace and a cone you'd place on dogs to prevent them from scratching their stitches. It was something designed for unicorns who had lost their horns in accidents, as it was able to keep the horn back in place on the head, but due to the incredibly sensitive nature of the horn, preventive measures would be needed to be taken to prevent the owner from touching the aforementioned limb. 

Cheerilee tried her best to give a diplomatic smile, though it ended up looking more awkward than anything else. Seeing Pen in this position and knowing that she was the one who had placed him in it, was a bit of a hard topic to tip over. 

“Uhm… Hey…” she said, trying to mask the uncertainty in her voice. 

Pen looked back at Cheerilee. Seemingly emotionless. 

“Hey…” he replied weakly, before looking upwards towards the ceiling. 

‘Okay, he spoke to me, but avoided looking at me… One step forwards, two steps back’. Cheerilee thought. Awkwardly, she stepped over towards the hospital bed, as to get a more polite distance. She smacked her lips, trying to bide for a little time as she really wasn't sure what to say. What do you say to someone you maimed?

“So… How're you feeling?” A diplomatic approach. 

“Well I feel like my head has been split open, and despite the amount of painkillers I am on, I am not able to fall asleep, which means I only have my own thoughts to fight with, and they usually alternate between wanting to write something down… (Which I can't)… Or remember the last forty eight hours… How about you?” Pen responded slightly coldly.

‘Ouch’ Cheerilee thought, cringing slightly. That didn't bode well. 

“Uhm… I'm alright…” Cheerilee tried to start. She hoped to come up with something, some way of steering the subject as so that she would not come off as a huge knob. How does one really get to the subject of ‘Sorry for effectively severing one of your limbs. Not just any limb, but the limb that practically your kind of pony is named after’? 
Not like that most certainly. 

“Good…” Pen responded, his voice still weak and rather cold. 

Silence settled over the two again, Cheerilee trying her best to think of something to say, somehow to just cut up the silence and get things over with.

“I forgive you…” 

Cheerilee turned her face in surprise as those words once again surfaced, but by a different pony this time. “What!?” she asked in confusion. 

Pen slowly turned his head as much as he could (As the device restrained his movement slightly), and looked upon Cheerilee. “I forgive you…” He repeated. “I understand why you did it… I should have seen it coming… It was the better option.” He said, his voice weak with resignation. 

Cheerilee heard the words, but as opposed to the time when Luna had said them, these ones felt hollow, if not directly fake. She stared back at Pen, whose eyes looked tired and almost hopeless. He wasn't exaggerating when he said he couldn't fall asleep. A strong pang of guilt came straight back to Cheerilee, the same sting she remembered from the second she had taken the fateful decision.

“You don't really, do you?” Cheerilee asked, looking sympathetically back at Pen. The unicorn turned his head back away as she spoke. 

“I do…” he insisted, but didn't look at her. 

“I know you do, but you don't, do you?” She pressured. “You don't really want to forgive me for doing it…”

“Who would?” he cut in, while his voice still weak and snappy. “I understand why… I get it was the best option…” Pen averted his face, and even closed his eyes, trying to contain himself. “Everything has been sorted out…” 

“Except for you…” Cheerilee added, making the young Unicorn bite his lip in shame. She seemed to have hit the nail. 

“I have no right to complain… I am alive, and everyone has been saved. You did your best Cheerilee, and I couldn't ask for more.” Pen answered. It was not hard for Cheerilee to see what was going on. He was in the fight between content logic and understandable emotions. 

Cheerilee walked up closer to the hospital bed, settling herself right besides Pen. She placed her hoof upon Pen´s for a second before he quickly pulled it away, almost reflexively. 

“Don't touch me… Please…” he quickly jabbed, before he sighed, looking dejected. “I already forgave you…” Pen said, his voice more insistent this time. 

“No you haven't,” Cheerilee said knowingly, softly looking upon Pen, feeling slightly hurt that Pen didn't want her to even touch her. “You don’t need to, but be honest with me-”

“Can you please leave?” Pen cut off Cheerilee. “And tell Luna that I quit… She can have the safehouse back…” His voice was cold, almost resentful. 

Cheerilee froze for just a second. “Pen you can't-” 

“Cheerilee…” Pen finally turned his head slowly towards her, showing his tired, sad, almost pleading expression. “Please leave…” 

Those eyes stung more than a prison shank. It was almost as if they physically pushed Cheerilee backwards, though she knew that wasn't true. It was just how she felt. She bit her lip, trying to think of something to say that could possibly twist this around… But she couldn't. 

“Please…” Pen whispered, before turning his head away again. 

She couldn't just stay here all day silently hoping to come up with the right words. Reluctantly, and with a heavy heart, she complied. 

“Alright…” She weakly conceded before turning and walking out of the room.

Even as she was closing the door behind her, Cheerilee didn't want to leave. She knew she had wronged Pen, even if it was the best of the worst options, that still didn't change the fact that she had maimed someone who had been counting on her. She wanted things to be okay between them, she wanted to see Pen smile again as the last thing before she would leave.

Leave… Get back to Coltenhagen, back to the mediocrity and as close to regular as possible life that she had. 

She leaned back against the door, her hooves covering her face and sank to the floor with a deep sigh. 

Why did things always have to end on notes like these? Why did her duty always drag her to hurt ponies?

She shook her head for herself. No, it wasn't her duty, it was simply what she did. She could probably have done something else, something different that didn't involve hurting her… friends. 

Cheerilee stayed there for a couple of minutes, thoughts like these haunting her mind like gleeful little moths, circling around a lamp. 

“You should not blame yourself as much, Cheerilee.” 

Cheerilee looked up just as Luna placed a reassuring hoof upon her shoulder. 

“I know…” Cheerilee sighed, her eyes returning to her own hooves. “It’s just… Hard…” She admitted. 

About a minute passed and nothing was exchanged between the two. Cheerilee was silently collecting her emotions back to try and settle back to normal while Luna merely sat beside her. Her presence was rather comforting, sort of like a cold blanket on a warm summer night, something to ease you, someone to make you feel better. 

Then she smiled softly at Cheerilee. “Come with me, There´s something I'd like to show you.” 

Cheerilee nodded weakly, just following along on automatic, not giving the situation much thought, as she was still stuck on her conscience. It was annoying, frustrating, aggravating and comforting that at least she had it. 

The short walk made its halt clear, as Cheerilee absentmindedly bumped straight into Luna´s flank the moment the Princess stopped. Shaking her head after the momentary collision, Cheerilee looked up in confusion at Luna.

She had simply brought her to another set of rooms in the hospital, none of them seeming in any way special or significant beyond the number on the door. 

Seeing the confusion upon Cheerilee´s face, Luna gently tilted her head towards the door. “Go inside,” she insisted. 

Still not sure about where Luna was going with this, but Curious nonetheless, Cheerilee gently pushed the door of the room open just slightly and went inside. The hinges were completely silent on this one, both as she opened as she closed the door. Inside Cheerilee had a good view of the room. 

Inside, everything looked normal, nothing out of the ordinary till she saw who was in the hospital bed. Or beds, was this case. 

Two beds had been moved together, and in the newly created double bed, lay a pony couple intertwined in each other's embrace. And Cheerilee could personally recognize both of them. 

The stallion was gray, and with a white mane which tried its best to curl in a proper manner, but hours and hours of sleep and embracing had turned it into something more similar to a crow’s nest. His embrace was tight and affectionate around the mare in his hooves. She was green coated and her streaked blonde mane looked just as harrowed as the stallion holding her.

It was Money Bags and Emerald. The couple had been reunited again in the hospital. Cheerilee remembered only seeing Emerald distraught, sad or terrified.

However, their expressions were anything but. 

They laid there in each other's embraces, their shared heat comforting them more than any kind of protection could ever muster.  And even as Cheerilee could see Emerald´s cheeks were spotted from dried up tears, the gentle content smile she had, even in her sleep, told a completely different story. There was nothing more of that scared little mare hoping to end her life in the simple hope of ending the suffering as well. No more of the mare who had screamed in fear the second she had caught a glimpse of a fang. All of it had vaporized and left behind what seemed to be, at least a fragment of, the real Emerald Song. Happy and content in the hooves of her husband, and he in hers. 

Cheerilee stared at the two ponies for a good few minutes. She had been completely frozen in her stance, as her thoughts and her heart gently fluttered for her, and a small smile crept upon her lips. Even the mere sight of this made her spirits lift just that little step out of the pits her conscience had brought her into. And finally the thought also sank in.

‘I did this… I saved them… I did it.’ 

Still on her emotional high, Cheerilee took a few steps forward, but then stopped mid step. Another thought struck her. Specifically remembering Emerald´s reaction upon seeing her fangs the first time. 

As much as Cheerilee didn't want to admit it, Emerald could most likely remember her. 

Cheerilee lowered her hoof that was mid step, and took a few more seconds to look upon Emerald and her husband. A small smile crept upon her face as she looked at Emerald, in her sleep gently nuzzled more into her husband's chest, and he returned the nuzzle with care. 

“You take care of her now…” Cheerilee whispered softly, before turning around and walked silently out of the room, leaving the two sleeping ponies none the wiser of their savior´s visit. 

Cheerilee silently closed the door behind her, and leaned up against the wall again. But this time, her sigh was of relief. 

“Feeling better?” Princess Luna asked with a soft, but knowing smile. 

Cheerilee nodded and smiled softly in return. “Yes… A bit,” she admitted. 

“Good.” Luna said, smiling still at Cheerilee, as she slowly began to walk down the hall, stopping for just a moment to allow Cheerilee to come along and catch up. “I guess you can say then that your task has been completed. You can go back to teaching the Coltenhagen foals again.” 

“Yea, I guess so,” Cheerilee mused loudly. “Hoofton and Typo will no doubt be missing me by now. Coltenhagen foals are quite the mouthful,” she commented casually. 

Luna flashed a joking smirk. “More of a mouthful than defeating ancient evils?” 

Cheerilee chuckled slightly. “I'll take the modern evils over ancient evils any day. At least modern evils I can put in detention… And at least they speak consistent Equestrian most of the time.” 

“Ah yes, Scandineighvia, Quite a place…” Luna spoke in a knowing voice. She then tilted her head slightly in thought. “I don't believe I have been there since they stopped celebrating ‘Blót’...” Luna mused aloud. “Maybe I should take to visit the place.” 

“Need a tour guide?” Cheerilee asked with a knowing smirk. “Just so you know, there are no friend discounts.”  

Luna did her best to contain her giggle as they walked. “Very well. I guess that is what I have to suffer to experience the northern delights. Shall we get going then?” 

“Why not?” shrugged Cheerilee as the two were reaching the end of the restricted area. The same guard that had been stationed the day Emerald had been lost was sitting there, and he instantly stood more alert the moment he noticed the Princess and Cheerilee. 

Luna simply gave a small nod before the guard opened the seal for them.

As Cheerilee followed behind Luna, she could not help but feel a bit weighed down still. Almost everything had been solved, the victims were safe and the Fiend was gone… All she had to do now was leave Manehatten. Get back to her life, even maybe enjoy a bit of non work time with her friend. So why was there still something in her gut gnawing at her?

Everything had sort of just stopped for Cheerilee. There was still that loose end. That one loose end she just wanted to somehow tie up. 

And she could. And she would. 

“Cheerilee?” Luna asked, waving a hoof in front of her friend, who was shaken from her thoughts.

“Luna, can we push the tour for a little while?” Cheerilee requested. 

While at first rather perplexed, Luna went along. “For how long?” 

“I don’t know yet… I… might need a couple of days at least,” Cheerilee requested, looking very intent on getting on with whatever plan she had.

For just a few seconds, Luna looked at Cheerilee, seeing the determination in her eyes, and thinking of the possibilities of why Cheerilee would extend her stay in Manehatten. Then as it dawned on her, she could not contain a proud smile.

“Of course. Take all the time you need. I´ll be in Canterlot when you're done,” she assured. 

Cheerilee then just leapt forwards and hugged Luna. It was quick, it was tight, it was affectionate, and it was over before the guards pony at the station could blink twice and question his own sanity. 

“Thank you Luna, I owe you one.” 

With that, Cheerilee turned around, almost setting off into a run, only stopping for a second at the guard station. “Excuse me, do you have some paper and pencil?” 






Back in Pen´s room, the monotonous silence had stayed way beyond its welcome. The ceiling tiles had also ceased to be interesting ages ago, and there was only so much readjusting of your own comfort you could do before it began to become detrimental. The device strapped to his head and neck was uncomfortable, and only further seeking to highlight how frustrating and agonizing the entire situation was. He wanted to do something, to let something flow from his mind onto paper, do something anything. But he couldn't. His horn was barely back upon his head, and most likely he wouldn't be able to use magic normally for years, and this thing couldn't get off his head in at least a month, so writing with his mouth was out of the question. 

He sighed. Now that he had quit, He guessed he would have to do something else. And the only thing he really wanted to do he couldn't do. Wooptie freaking doo. 

He couldn’t help but feel a stinging tint of anger towards Cheerilee, even if he knew he shouldn't. She did her best… But her best had hurt him… Deeply. 

“Could be worse…” he mumbled for himself. 

His own cynical thoughts was interrupted however as Cheerilee came into his room again, tugging a saddlebag along. 

“Hey Pen,” she said, walking inside and casually sitting down on one of the guest chairs, next to his bed. 

Confused, he raised an eyebrow at her. “I thought I told you to leave?” He asked, suddenly uncertain if that had been some kind of lucid dream. Cheerilee just smiled and nodded however.

“You did, you also told me that you're in an immense amount of pain due to you wanting to use your magic again. And who can blame you, you just want to realize your talent after all.” She casually said, lifting the saddlebag up upon her lap while talking. 

Pen sent a small look down towards his own flank, the book that was in the process of being written still being there he knew, even hiding under the covers. He then looked back at Cheerilee, who continued to talk. 

“You see Pen, My talent is not, in fact, this kind of job. I am not the perfect agent. I am a teacher.” She said, shifting herself slightly in her seat, putting emphasis on the flowers of her cutie mark. “And it’s my talent, and my deepest wish to see my students, and my friends grow and smile,” she explained, opening the saddlebag and pulling out a full notebook and a pencil she immediately stuck into the side of her mouth. “So, no… I am not going to leave. Not as long as there is somepony I care about who need my help. Now, you mentioned something about wanting to write something down?” 

Pen stared upon Cheerilee in momentary confusion, then in surprise, then in confusion again. He could barely believe what she had said. She was just an Agent, wasn't she? Supposed to come, fix something and then leave again. But… now she was here to… help? 

“B-But…” He tried to reason. “It´ll be days, weeks possibly…” he said, certain that the simple time crunch would be enough to send Cheerilee away. Yet she simply smiled. 

“I guess you just best start talking and make the best of the time that you don’t have to write down a word yourself then.” Cheerilee casually declared, leaning slightly back in the guest Chair, smirking whilst still the pen was sticking out the corner of her mouth. “For now, Countess De La Cheer is at your service.” 

For a few seconds, the two were just staring at each other. Cheerilee calm and collected, Pen still collecting everything she had just said. 

Then slowly, a sheepish smile dawned on his face. 

“It’s not even that good of an idea-” 

“Let me be the judge of that,” Cheerilee stated with a knowing smile.

With that, Pen sighed in defeat, despite the smile now clinging to his face.

“Well then… The idea of the story is in this mythical land…..”