"Mama, I need to use the 'little filly's room'."
"Ok, Cheese, but no goofing around; we both know it's time for little fillies to be in bed."
"But Mama, can't I stay up with you and Papa?"
"Hurry along, my sweet little Cheese."
And so Cheese heads off to the 'little filliy's room'. "Mama always makes me go to bed so early, but i want to stay up and help them with... whatever they work on at night. They always seem so tired. It must be hard to make so much cheese. And besides, there are so many kinds of cheese. ..."
Screams can be heard from the cheese making ponies' house.
"That sounded like Mama screamin'." Cheese rushes back in to the house. "Mama, whatcha screamin' so loud 'bout."
No response. In fact the house seems to have an eerie silence about it. Cheese looks through the house to find her Mama and Papa.
She finds something that she doesn't recognize. She gets a sinking feeling in her gut as she looks these shapes over. They look like raisins. Pony shaped raisins; drained of all color. Before Cheese can make a sound over this new discovery she hears footsteps and hides for cover.
"You said there were three ponies here; A stallion, mare, AND a filly. Where is that filly? You know as well as I do that we need her most to finish our brother's initiation."
"I thought I heard something from this room." The mysterious ponies walk into the room with the two pony raisins. "Little filly. Little filly? Come out, we want to know what happened here."
Cheese tries her hardest not to make a peep.
"She isn't here. Come on, we need to clean up this mess here. If anypony asks we'll say we saw them wander into the forest last night." The two dark ponies throw the dried up raisins on their backs and disappear from the house.
Cheese goes to her parents room; she normally was never aloud into the room or it was locked, but tonight, she hoped was a bad dream and she could see their faces; cuddle into bed with them. That would make this all better.
The bed was cold and empty; save but one book that was at the foot of the bed. Cheese looked the book's cover over. It was well used; leather bound; seemingly old. As she opened and read its contents, it seemed to be a story book. The kind of scary story used to keep little fillies from wondering off alone at night; a story about vamponies.
The more she read through the book the less it looked to be a story and the more it looked to be a journal. She started to skim the pages. maybe something could ease her mind and explain what she had seen.
She learned many things about vamponies, but none of it calmed her. She started to cry as the fact of her parents being lost to vamponies sunk in.
There was only one thing she could think of at this moment. She needed to avenge her parents and stop the vamponies that did this to them.
She checked around the room. There was a stake hidden under the bed and a saddle bag atop the dresser. Cheese grabbed these things and the book and set off into the forest in search of the vamponies she had seen.
Rushing into the forest without any plan didn't work out as well as Cheese had first hoped. The forest was dense; no light shined through. Cheese couldn't tell if it was even night any more. She hadn't slept and it was starting to get to her. She found shelter under some tree roots and bushes and fell fast asleep.
Cheese awoke to the sounds of hoofsteps and chatter of some of the village ponies. "Those ponies said they were out here. Let's hope we find them before they get in to much trouble. I'm surprised they took lil' Cheese with them."
Cheese peeked out to see who was talking. It was the town sheriff; him and some of the other townsponies were looking for Cheese and her parents. Cheese came out of hiding. "Here I am."
"Oh, Cheese, thank goodness you're safe. Where are your parents?" a townspony asked.
"Vamponies attacked them and carried them away. I need to save them!"
"Vamponies? Don't be silly, little filly, there are no such things as 'vamponies'. Come on, let's get you home. Other ponies are also searching for your parents."
Although Cheese did not want to go home she had no choice but to follow the others back to her house. She knew should wasn't going to find the vamponies so easily in the woods and needed to do more reading.
She searched her house for anymore books on the matter. There wasn't much to find within the house; nothing more than she had found the night before. So she read the book she found more thoroughly. She gathered that there was a vampony cult somewhere in the woods and that her parents had been going out to find and stop them; even if they claimed it was to find a few rare ingredients for their cheese making. Her parents cutie marks never did seem like something to do with cheese anyways.
She would have liked to ask some of the townsponies about the matter, but all of them refused to hear anything about 'vampony nonsense'. The mayor might know more about the matter; she was a smart mare.
"Mayor, nopony will listen to me; I think we are all in danger of something called vampoies!"
"Oh, hello, Cheese. Hmm, vamponies? A filly shouldn't worry over such things; let the adults handle this matter. Go home."
"I was hoping if you knew anything about them. I want to protect myself if I see them again."
"You're to young too need to know these things. Just go home; let the adults handle it."
"But..."
"Now!"
The mare seemed very upset about something. Cheese left town hall. The mayor was hiding something and Cheese wanted to find out why.
That night Cheese broke into town hall to see what was wrong with the mayor. The hall looked so different at night. Cheese was sneaky and silent; peeking into any open doors and through any key hold. Was anypony even here?
She heard the familiar voice of the mayor. “You shouldn’t be here.” Cheese turned around to see the mayor, but the pony that was behind her speaking didn’t look like the mayor. Her eyes and horn glowed a dark shade of red.
The red glowing pony continued. “I told you to stay home; let the adults handle it. You just couldn’t let it go; you had to come snooping into my home. Now you have seen too much. I can’t just let you leave now can I? Granted, no pony believes in vamponies in this town; none of them would believe you.”
“Mayor, you’re a vampony!? Are you also one of the ones that killed my parents?”
“Well, I guess I will humor you before dinner; I do like playing with my food. Yes, I am a vampony, and I am going to have a sweet filly for dinner. No, I didn’t kill your parents; though I would have knowing that they were hunters.”
“Why doesn’t the town believe in vamponies?”
“Why should they? It isn’t any of their business and they know it; unlike some filly. I can’t wait any more; I need a taste.”
The mayor leaps at Cheese as Cheese screams. There is a flash of blinding light; then everything goes black. Cheese awakes to find the mayor laying on her. Both of them covered in blood. She escapes from under the mayor; seeing that the mayor was slain with a stake through the chest. Cheese checks to see if the mayor is truly dead and whether she had been bitten or not. Not bitten, but something other than blood was new to her coat; a cutie mark of a stake. She had slain the vampony mayor.
What to do now. The mayor was dead. Cheese was covered in blood. Nopony would believe her if she said the mayor was a vampony trying to kill her. The stake in the mayor’s chest was a dead giveaway of who did what; it had Cheese’s family logo on it. She was going to have to pull it out, maybe get rid of some of the evidence. Hoping her magic was strong enough she pulled with all her might. As it was removed the blood started to turn to smoke; once it was fully removed the body did the same. The mayor was no more than a small pile of ash now.
Swiping the ashes under a nearby rug, Cheese still knew she couldn’t stay around town and would have to leave. Cheese snuck back home and started packing things to leave. The stake and book took much of the saddlebag’s space, but she was able to pack some food and a blanket in it too. She said good bye to her house; then head out. The sun was just rising. She would follow the road to the next village and see if they knew anything of vamponies.
The young filly continued her journey to the next town. It was much farther than she had thought. The sun was setting and the sky was orange from what she could see through the trees. Just then a pair of hooded ponies emerged from the forest onto the path.
“Little one isn’t it late for you to be out alone?” the first one asked.
“Why are you here? Are you lost?”
“I’m not lost, I’m looking for somepony.” Cheese replied.
“Then perhaps you wouldn’t mind joining us for dinner. Tonight is a special night. We have gained a new brother and are having a feast to celebrate.” said the second hooded pony.
“NO! Ah, no, I, ah err, need to be headed back to town.”
“I insist; I’m sure the others would enjoy a dinner guest.”
Cheese didn’t trust these hooded ponies and started to try and sprint away; hoping the next town wasn’t much farther.
At that the hoods revealed a horn on each and they grabbed her. The first said to the filly “there isn’t a need to flee. You look tired and could use a good meal.” With that the two hooded unicorns cared Cheese into the woods.
Cheese was paralyzed by the magic, she couldn’t move nor speak. She could only hover and watch as she was cared to whatever fate waited for her.
They entered a strange camp. It almost didn’t look like one at all. Trees had been twisted to form shelters. Eerie mist covered the ground. There was a strange green fire; the flames looked as if made of tentacles. Hooded figures started to emerge from under the trees and gather around the three ponies.
“Brothers, sisters, we have found a scared filly tonight. Let us invite her to par take in tonight’s merriments.” With that the unicorns set down Cheese and took off their hoods.
Cheese wished to flee the place but knew she was surrounded; then she noticed something strange about the two unicorns that had brought her here. Their manes were growing plants out of them. Vines and leaves sprouting like wild growth. “Who are you? What is this place?”
“We are pony druids; this is our home.” said the first. “I am Maple Sap and my friend here is Tree Drop.” He said pointing to the second. “What is your name little one?”
“Cheese Cake.”
“Well Ms Cake, it is nice to meet you, and sorry for scaring you earlier; we don’t see many ponies this far out in the woods.” Maple said. “You said you were looking for somepony. We know the forest well and might be able to aid you. It will have to wait until tomorrow though; it is far too late to wander the forests and we were planning a feast. Please, stay and enjoy yourself for the night. You may even take shelter in one of our huts.”
Cheese was still unsure of these new ponies, but once the food was brought out she forgot all about whatever fear she had and only had eyes for the feast in front of her. She and the druids sat by the strange fire, which turned out to be warm glowing vines, and ate many fresh picked fruits. After she was full Tree Drop lead her to a tree hut with two green beds of moss and a small flicker from a fire vine.
“You and I will be bunking together, Cake. And don’t worry…” Tree Drop could still tell Cheese was still afraid of what could happen. “There is a barrier around this camp; no monsters can get us while we sleep.” With that the mare and the filly both took a bed of moss and lay down for the night.
Cheese awoke to find she was alone in the hut. She could smell somepony was making breakfast outside. She went out to discover that Tree Drop was cooking pancakes with blueberries.
“Oh, good; you’re awake. Everypony else has gone to their work. I am to watch and help you today. Hopefully we can get you home safe and quick.”
“I… I can’t go home. The townsponies hate me.”
“Nonsense, why would they hate you?”
“I did something bad. I killed somepony.”
“K-k-killed somepony? You?”
“The mayor; she was a vampony and attacked me, but the townsponies wouldn’t believe me if told them.”
“Well, you shouldn’t be killing ponies; what happened?”
Cheese retells the full story to Tree Drop; not leaving out any detail. Tree Drop looks a little saddened and lost.
“Hmm, well, I see what you are up to. If you want to hunt vamponies though, you are going to need more than luck to hurt one. We druids know little of the magic you will need to learn, but I do know of a village with somepony that can teach you the art of light magic. It is a long journey ahead of us though full of many dangers. First, let’s see if you have any ability to use your magic.”
The druid put the filly through trivial magic tests; pick up a rock, some twigs, bigger rocks. Cheese was bored from these tests so she showed the druid she understood how to pick things up by lifting Tree Drop above the trees then setting her back down.
“Well, you have good enough spell control it seems. I will teach you a spell that will help you hide from those that wish harm upon you.” Tree Drop cast the spell; covering herself in a ball of fog. As the fog fell and mixed with the other fog on the ground the druid explained “Enemies will not see this fog or anypony you let into it.”
Tree Drop and Cheese practiced the spell until sun down. The rest of the druids returned from their work: some with food, others with plants, and a few caring small woodland animals; the animals and plants both taken to some of the larger huts; while some of the druids started to cook supper for the night.
“I need to talk to some of the other druids; we will need supplies for the path ahead.” Tree Drop said as she wandered off to one of the huts.
Cheese went to find some supper. Supper that night consisted of a soup with tomatoes, potatoes, corn, and bits of other veggies; much more plain then the feast the night before. The filly took her bowl and sat by the fire vine pit. She drank it and listened to the stories the druids told each other; none of them really seemed to notice Cheese watching them.
Tree Drop sat down beside the filly; also with a bowl of soup. “The supplies are in order; we leave tomorrow morning. Are you ready, Cake?”
“Yes, of course!” Cheese had no idea what she had gotten herself into, but no way she could turn back now.
“Good, but first a little filly will need to be well rested for a journey of this length.”
After supper the two ponies went back to the hut they had slept in the night before. Tree Drop saw Cheese to bed then left the hut exclaiming something about needed to attend to some business before she could go to sleep.
Cheese was excited and nervous what was to come and couldn’t fall asleep at first. Finally her mind calmed and her eyes grew heavy as she drifted off into a deep slumber. She didn’t even stir when Tree Drop came in and lay in the bed next to her.
