Marissa Shadowmane enjoyed the beautiful starry night sky and the fresh air as she landed in Cloudsdale.
It was a shame that she had lost the ability to see her reflection, for she had been told by many (mostly her victims before she fed on them) that she was quite beautiful.
She had a white coat with a dark violet mane styled into what was now modernly known as an ‘emover’ as she understood it-with a streak of black running through both it and her tail.
Her other features however, were a side-effect of her ‘affliction’; blood red eyes, with fangs and wings reminiscent to those of the Bat Ponies who solely made up Princess Luna’s royal guard.
As usual she was wearing a red Gothic outfit with a gold brooch, something which she had become quite accustomed to as the ensemble felt quite appropriate for a mare of her position.
The Cutie Mark she had as a teenager had also been altered as it shifted from a needle and thread to a pair of fangs with a droplet of blood falling from each of them.
It was truly a shame that the Elements of Harmony had been utilized to ‘exorcise’ Nightmare Moon as she surely would have been sympathetic to their plight and could have used her powers to remove their reliance on blood for sustenance, while allowing them to retain the rest of their abilities.
Currently, she had just entered the inside of the cloud home of Rainbow Dash-the Element of Loyalty.
After a lifetime on feeding off of the blood of others, stealth had become second nature to her, however given Rainbow Dash’s rumored affinity for napping as well as being a heavy sleeper-didn’t seem as though waking her would be much of an issue.
She had learned from blunders in the past however, that it was far better to be safe than sorry as she treaded carefully to the Element bearer’s room.
Indeed she was fast asleep with snores the volume of which surprised Marissa as the house wasn’t shaking.
A quick scan of the room confirmed her suspicions upon entry; she was home alone and the only pet she seemed to possess was a tortoise withdrawn into its shell as it napped in its large terrarium.
Marissa then moved to the side of Dash’s bed, seeing the Pegasus’ head tilted to the side with her neck exposed, almost as if it were inviting her to bite into and drain the younger mare’s blood until she was nothing more than a withered husk.
But, that wasn’t the plan-Rainbow Dash was no good to them dead-she needed to bite her, but not feed upon her.
This was the reason she had ultimately decided to perform this urgent task herself, even after a century and a half of vampirism-she still had trouble with self-control on occasion, which was why she couldn’t trust her underlings to perform the task for her as they were merely children by comparison.
Carefully, she opened her maw before clamping down on Dash’s neck as her fangs punctured the soft flesh with expert precision before Rainbow Dash’s eyes shot open.
The Doctor and Twilight were both in the Golden Oaks library as he was sharing a few novels with her from other worlds which he had collected in his travels as the door flew open.
Rainbow Dash stumbled in before collapsing to the ground.
“RAINBOW DASH!” Twilight shouted worriedly as the two rushed towards her.
“We need to get her to the hospital!” she exclaimed in a panic once she realized that Dash was unconscious.
The Doctor meanwhile, took out his Sonic Screw driver as the blue node at the tip lit up and the device whirred to life-he ran it over her body, scanning for any abnormalities and stopped when he reached her neck.
There were two puncture wounds with thin lines of blood dripping from her neck.
“Twilight, get Spike.” He ordered.
“I’m here.” The baby dragon yawned as he descended the stairs while rubbing the grit for his eye.
“What’s everyone shouting about?”
“There’s no time to explain; send a letter to the others telling them to meet us here immediately and that it’s an emergency-Rainbow Dash is hurt.” The Doctor instructed.
Now wide awake, Spike ran towards Twilight’s writing desk to get a quill and parchment before he began scribbling furiously.
The Doctor then turned back to face Twilight.
“Help me get her upstairs; we’re going to need to strap her down to something.”
“WHAT!? Why?” she demanded, shocked.
“I’ll explain as much as I can as soon as everyone else gets here, but for now will you please just listen to me?” he shot back.
Reluctantly, the princess complied by levitating the unconscious Pegasus telekinetically through her magic and keeping her floating in front of and ever so slightly above her to risk injuring Rainbow Dash on the stairs before placing her on the bed.
“Now, I need you to keep her held down with your magic…” he then turned to Spike. “Tell Applejack to bring some rope with her.”
Once the others had arrived, they had Applejack bind her limbs to the bed posts with magically enforced ropes, courtesy of Twilight.
“Now, would y’all mind tellin’ us what in tarnation is goin’ on here?” Applejack demanded impatiently.
“Rainbow Dash was bit and I believe that it was caused by a vampire due to the nature of the puncture wounds on her neck.”
“Really?” Rarity asked skeptically. “Darling, you can’t be serious.”
“V-vampire?” Fluttershy stuttered timidly, releasing a nervous whine.
“I agree with Rarity,” Applejack replied. “Ah’ve seen some crazy things these past few years, but vampires seems like pushin’ it, Doc…”
“I’m concerned about Rainbow Dash, too.” Twilight added. “But, vampires, ghosts, and zombies are all fake-the stuff of nightmares used as stories to scare foals into behaving.”
“Like you, I also used to believe that.” He shot back. “But, that was before I wound up stranded in a universe filled with talking magical, pastel colored ponies.”
The Doctor then narrowed his gaze at Applejack.
“And don’t call me ‘Doc’.” He added. “Now, the reason I’ve called all of you here is because I’m going to track down whoever did this and retrieve a blood sample to manufacture a cure as I doubt they will cooperate with our attempts to cure Rainbow Dash-assuming that’s even within their power.”
“Then why are we here?” Applejack asked.
“You’re here because time is critical issue and I’m unsure of whether or not the antidote I could devise would be sufficient once she becomes a full-blood vampire and that could also increase her strength or weaken her self-control.”
“I’m afraid we’re still not following…” Rarity cut in.
“The rest of you need to be here for moral support to remind Rainbow Dash of who she really is before she loses herself to the bloodlust she will almost certainly experience and keep her bound so she will be unable to harm herself or anyone else.” He explained before heading towards the door.
“Now I really must be going; as I’ve stated before-time is a critical factor.”
The others looked back towards the unconscious Rainbow Dash to see Pinkie Pie standing above her and making ridiculous faces.
“Pinkie…um, what are you doing?” asked Rarity.
“Well, they always say laughter is the best medicine!” she proclaimed, proudly.
“She’s not even conscious…” Twilight muttered.
Rainbow Dash began to stir as her eyes slowly opened to reveal Pinkie Pie’s face just a few feet from her.
“Gah!”
“Pinkie, what are you doing in my house!?” she exclaimed. “And why does my neck hurt…and why am I tied to a bed?”
“Rainbow Dash…what is the last thing you remember before waking up here?” Twilight pressed as she came closer to the bed.
“I had this weird dream that someone broke into my house and bit my neck….why does my neck hurt?”
The other six exchanged uneasy glances before Applejack spoke up.
“Uh, that wasn’t a dream Sugarcube…”
“You were bitten by a vampire.” Pinkie added matter-of-factly.
“Alleged vampire.” Twilight insisted.
“So…why am I tied to a bed in Twilight’s library? Because if this is some kind of sex dream-it’s pretty weird.” Dash commented.
“The Doctor when to find whoever did this and see if they have some kind of cure,” Fluttershy whispered. “He told us to keep you tied to the bed until he cane back with a cure so you wouldn’t hurt yourself or anyone else-not that we think you would…”
The saliva sample The Doctor had taken with the Sonic Screwdriver from the bite marks in Rainbow Dash’s neck was being used as a homing beacon on her assailant’s current location.
He had discovered some time ago that in addition to effects on electronic devices, the Screwdriver could also affect magic-based materials in a similar manner.
The TARDIS materialized within a cavern of some sort.
Assuming that these creatures really were vampires or if at the very least shared major similarities to the mythical creatures.
The weakness to sunlight suggested hyper-sensitivity to ultra-violet rays, the fact that the moon’s glow were a reflection of the sun’s light when they were most active also implied that since the rays weren’t as direct made them more tolerable.
If that was indeed the case and the myths and legends regarding, the vampire has at least some factual basis then the portable black light that he had been saving from the incident in Venice would undoubtedly be more useful than entering their domain unarmed.
As he exited the TARDIS the first thing he noticed was that the cavern was actually much smaller on the inside as it was on the outside…it was odd to deal with normal things sometimes.
The TARDIS was parked in a manner which blocked the entrance, and the only exit as it appeared to be.
Before him was a long red carpet with a row of columns on either side leading up to a throne, all of which appeared to have been chiseled out of marble.
Sitting in the throne was Marissa with hind-legs cross and her chin resting on and the elbow of her foreleg resting on the side with the back of her hoof supporting her chin as she held a look of boredom on her face.
On either side of her were other mares with similar hair styles in dark colors.
The Doctor after a brief struggle, managed to grip his portable black light as the other vampiresses flew towards him before he managed to wave the light in front of them causing them to shrink back and hiss in a combination of rage and agony as smoke drifted from their burned flesh.
“What is a mare,” Marissa began apathetically. “but a miserable pile of secrets?”
“Okay,” The Doctor replied as he advanced on her. “I’m ninety-nine percent certain you stole that something…but, that’s beside the point-Hello, I’m The Doctor and you bit my friend-how do I make her better?”
“You think I’m afraid of you?” she smirked.
“I have a light here that projects Ultra Violet rays which says it doesn’t matter either way, now unless you don’t want to burn to ash, turn to stone, or whatever happens to you people when you come into direct contact with sunlight, I suggest you either give me the antidote or reverse it, now.”
“You know, I’ve heard a lot interesting things about you since you’re arrival in Equestria.” She countered. “And I sincerely doubt you are stupid enough to risking killing the one person who can change her back, knowing that in doing so you will condemn her to her vampiric fate.”
“What is this entire thing really about-why target Rainbow Dash?” he shot back. “I mean, sure she’s loyal, but she’s not much for taking the initiative unless it has to do with either napping or impressing the Wonderbolts.”
“Rainbow Dash was specifically targeted because she prefers to be airborne and is the only one of the Element’s bearers who lives secluded from the rest with less risk of interference from the others.” Marissa explained.
“So it was more of her being the most convenient target for this critical phase of our plan.”
“What are you talking about-what plan?” The Doctor pressed.
“For the majority of our existence we have been blessed with extraordinary abilities, however we have also been cursed with being unable to enjoy the sun or enjoy the daytime, we are also little more than glorified parasites-the Elements of Harmony have the power to change that.” She explained.
“So it boils down to terrorism; attack one of the Element Bearers so she and her friends will be forced to use the Elements to put an end to the curse.” The Doctor concluded.
“We couldn’t very well come to you for help.” Marissa countered.
“What is that supposed to mean?” he asked, taken aback.
“For someone who puts so much value on the lives of others, how would you react if we came up to you asking for your help while claiming to be vampires?” she retorted.
“I would ask for some form of proof, naturally.”
“And how would you expect us to do that without consuming the blood of another or sacrificing ourselves by walking into direct sunlight before your very eyes just to prove a point?”
“A blood sample,” The Doctor replied, matter-of-factly. “Since you’re whole body shares the same sensitivity to ultra-violet rays, a single drop of your blood would begin to sizzle under a black light, leaving you more or less unarmed.”
He kneeled down so that they were face to face.
“Come with me back to the TARDIS, let me take a blood sample and within an hour I should be able to synthesize an antidote for this so-called ‘curse’.”
“And if you’re wrong?”
“Then you can feed on me.”
“And what makes your blood any more valuable than anyone else’s I’ve fed on over the past two and half centuries?” she challenged.
“Well, for starters I’m part of a species the likes of which this world has never seen before and second; I have two hearts.”
Marissa licked her lips before a toothy grin, revealing her fangs spread across her face.
Spike and the girls were sitting around the library idly while Rarity manicured her hooves, Fluttershy was checking on Owlicious, Applejack was examining a mysterious hole that had formed on the inside of her Stetson, Pinkie was using the little filly’s room, and Twilight had remained at Rainbow Dash’s bedside the entire night.
Twilight’s eyes opened as a squishing sound reached her ears and she looked up to see the puncture wounds in Rainbow Dash’s neck closing, almost as if they were healing themselves.
The TARDIS materialized in the center of the library before The Doctor and Marissa walked out.
“Well, it worked on our end-what about this side?”
“What in the hay are y’all talkin’ about?” Applejack called down the stairs.
“I’ve cured Marissa’s vampirism-it took forty-five minutes-but, that’s because I’m a little rusty with practicing as an actual medical doctor.” He replied.
“The holes in Rainbow Dash’s neck disappeared!” Twilight exclaimed.
“Ah, good I’ll take that as a ‘yes’ then.” The Doctor continued as he came up the stairs before looking over at Dash. “Your neck may be tender for a while, but otherwise you should be back to normal.”
“You mean you actually discovered a cure for vampirism in under an hour?” Twilight asked, skeptically.
“I’m brilliant, remember?” he shot back. “Marissa, do you have something to say to Rainbow Dash?”
Marissa mumbled something.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that.” The Doctor commented, pressing a hoof against his ear.
“I’m sorry I tried to turn you into a vampire so you and your friends would be forced to use the Elements of Harmony to change us back to normal…” she muttered.
“Y’all did what, now!?” Applejack demanded.
“Untie me, so I can give her a hoof sandwich!” Dash snarled, struggling against her bonds.
The Doctor jumped between them.
“Yes, she made a mistake-but, everything is back to normal now and she’s never going to do it again.”
He then turned back to face her.
“I’ll convince Princess Celestia to allow you and your friends to stay within the palace until you girls can find proper living arrangements and jobs.” The Doctor added, leader her back into the TARDIS.
“Do you want to grab dinner sometime?” she asked.
“Sorry,” he replied. “But, I’m already in a committed relationship with someone-she makes muffins.”
