The Darkness Walks Among Us

Chapters

Prologue - First Blood
Chapter 1 - The Morning After
Chapter 2 - Calamity
Interlude - What Makes the Grass Grow?
Chapter 3 - Deep in Thought
Chapter 4 - The Hunt Begins
Chapter 5 - Lunch with a Side of the Truth
Interlude - Now its Personal
Chapter 6 - A Proper Burial
Chapter 7 - Showdown

Prologue - First Blood

The cool night air was alive with the muted sound of music. Pinkie Pie was throwing another of her famous parties at Sugarcube Corner and almost everypony in Ponyville was there. A pony in a black cloak stood on a building adjacent to Sugarcube Corner and watched the party with anticipation. Ponies were becoming rowdy and drunk on cider. Things were bound to go bad soon and that meant somepony was going to get thrown out.

Just then, a plum pony stumbled out the door yelling profanities back into the ever more chaotic party until the scatterbrained pink host slammed the door in her face. The drunkard walked off muttering under her breath about how it was only an accident and that pinkie was obviously too stupid to see that. The on looking cloaked pony smiled slightly at this new development. This pony, who the observer identified as Berry Punch, would never be able to protect herself from what the cloaked pony was about to do.

Berry stumbled through the streets of Ponyville, barely able to walk and constantly falling. Evidently she had had one too many glasses of cider. The observer smiled even bigger as it watched the intoxicated pony attempt to walk home. The cloaked onlooker began to move across roof tops growing ever closer to Berry Punch as the purple pony walked shakily into a small alley way that ran between two houses. This was the observer's chance. The cloaked pony dropped off the building's roof and into the alley, blocking the drunkard's path.

She looked quizzically at the newcomer but seemed unfazed by their sudden appearance. "You get thrown out too?" Berry asked. The cloaked pony didn't respond and merely smiled at the purple earth pony. Berry didn't seem to care however and continued talking to the observer. "We could have our own party! Then we could drink as much as we want and nopony would care! How's that sound?" Berry asked. The cloaked pony still didn't say anything and their smile grew even bigger, revealing long pointed fangs. Berry seemed scared now and she began shaking slightly. Berry Punch began to back away from the strange fanged pony but they quickly closed the distance between themselves and the intoxicated party pony. The strange pony stood only inches away from Berry Punch now, its fangs gleaming in the moonlight. "What do you want from me?" Berry squealed, her voiced filled with fear. The cloaked pony finally answered Berry. "Your blood," The Pony said, its voice sending chills down the drunkard's spine.

Before Berry could react, the Vampire pony had leaped forward pinning her to the ground. The creature bared its fangs and released a bloodcurdling hiss before finally sinking its teeth deep into the helpless pony's neck. Berry Punch screamed out in pain, her body writhing from her intense pain. After a few seconds, the party pony's body went limp and her screams went silent.

The vampire smiled widely at its latest kill, the metallic taste of her blood lingering on the creature's lips. The creature was not satisfied however. Piercing neck wounds do make a statement, but it was far too basic for the vampire's tastes. This murder needed a bit of artistic vision and the cloaked monster knew just what to do.

Chapter 1 - The Morning After

Lyra groaned as she pulled herself out of her bed. The mint green unicorn's head throbbed insistently as if somepony was repeatedly bashing her head in with a brick. It was her own fault however. Lyra had drunk far too much at Pinkie's party last night and she was paying the price. It was a good thing that Bon Bon hadn't drunk any cider or else the musician would have been waking up on the floor of Sugarcube Corner and not in her own bed.

Lyra walked sluggishly out of her bedroom and began down the narrow hallway that leads to the living space. She passed by the open door to Bon Bon's room, sunlight pouring in through the open window. The light burned Lyra's eyes and made her headache throb with greater intensity. The unicorn shrugged off the pain and continued along the hall. As she neared the end of the hallway, the faint smell of food began to hit Lyra's nose. It smelled delicious. Their smells made Lyra's stomach rumble loudly, reminding her that she hadn't eaten anything yet.

The Kitchen was alive with the delicious smells of breakfast. The green pony walked into the room, partially blinded by the sunlight which made her headache intensify again. When her vision returned to her, the first thing she saw was Bon Bon, bathed in sunlight, her cream coat appearing to glow in the heavenly light. It filled Lyra with joy to see her love again. Bon Bon meant the world to her and she did so much for Lyra while she did so little in return. The unicorn often thought her earth pony companion deserved better than what she could provide, and with her amazing candy making skills Bon Bon could easily get somepony better but the earth pony loved Lyra, no matter how little she did.

It took the hung-over unicorn a minute to realize that Bon Bon had said something to her and was awaiting her response. "What did you say?" Lyra asked. Bon Bon giggled a little at Lyra's inattentiveness before explaining, "I said, are you feeling OK? You had a lot to drink last night. You passed out even before I got you home!" Lyra felt a bit ashamed that she had let herself drink that much, she was trying to quit after all. Maybe she should stop going to these parties. "I'm fine," Lyra replied, "I have a bit of a headache, but I'll live."

Bon Bon seemed to accept that answer and the two ponies sat down to breakfast. The ponies chatted about last night's party, about how crazy it got and how Berry Punch got thrown out because she had utterly destroyed a large table in her drunken haze. Bon Bon told Lyra about what Lyra had done while she was drunk, which was not much different than when she was sober; she had danced, ranted about Celestia and the government, and drank large amounts of apple cider.

After they had both finished their breakfast, Lyra headed towards the door. "Where are you going?" Bon Bon asked, a bit of worry in her voice. "I'm going out to perform. Relax, I'll be fine. You've got nothing to worry about," Lyra comforted. The unicorn levitated her saddle bag, surrounding it in a field of green energy, and slung it across her back before heading out the door and into the Ponyville morning.

Lyra had walked for a few blocks before settling on a spot to sit down. She had chosen a long stretch of road leading to the Ponyville library, situated perfectly so that her music would drift into the center of town and be able to be heard by any egg-head who might be over on this side of town. The unicorn pulled open her bag and retrieved her pride, a golden lyre that her father had given her before she left Canterlot. Playing this instrument was all she was good at and it was the only thing besides Bon Bon that brought her any measure of happiness. The green musician settled down on her sidewalk and began to strum her lyre, losing herself in the music.

After only a few minutes Lyra heard the sound of approaching ponies. Today was going to be a good day, Lyra could feel it. She kicked open her saddle bag in case these passersby's wanted to give her a few bits. As the ponies approached however the unicorn recognized the pair. It was Bon Bon and her friend Carrot Top. Lyra hated Carrot Top with every fiber of her being, but she was forced to tolerate her because Carrot Top and Bon Bon had been friends all their lives. The Yellow carrot farmer had never like Lyra's drinking, partying, or the fact that she was a street musician. Carrot Top also never approved of the fact that Lyra loved Bon Bon. She thought that Bon Bon could get somepony far better than Lyra, somepony who could take care of her and provide for her. While she did echo Lyra's own doubts on the subject, it never felt good to have somepony say those things to your face.

The two mares ran towards Lyra at high speed with horrified expressions on their faces. Lyra smiled for a moment. It was good to see that smug, superior look wiped off Carrot Top's face for once, but her smile dissipated when she remembered Bon Bon had the same look of fear on her face. "Lyra, come quick there's something you need to see!" Bon Bon said hurriedly. Lyra was confused. What could be so important that Bon Bon dragged Carrot Top over to see her. "I'm sure whatever it is, it can wait until after lunch," Lyra said dismissively. Carrot Top shot Lyra a glare which Lyra only answered with a complicated series of notes on her lyre and a smug grin. "You don't get it, do you?" The angry farmer growled, "Berry Punch is dead."

The news hit Lyra like a slap to the face. The musician instantly stopped playing and floated her lyre back into her saddle bag. The unicorn had actually liked partying with Berry Punch. Even though she routinely drank way more cider than should be possible, Lyra always enjoyed the time she spent with the purple pony. "What happened to her?" Lyra asked after a few seconds. "If you come with us you'll see!" Carrot Top said knowingly. "We don't actually know what happened," Bon Bon explained, "Carrot found out about it just after you left and we were going to go see but I thought you might want to know too so I told her I wouldn't go without you and..." "I understand. You wanted me to come with you," Lyra interrupted. Bon Bon had the horrible habit of talking forever and never actually getting to the point. Lyra had learned to pick out the important parts of her long winded stories and was able to know what Bon Bon was talking about even before she told Lyra. The street musician lifted her bag back up onto her back and turned to her companions. "Let's get going then," She said optimistically.

Chapter 2 - Calamity

The trio of ponies arrived at Sugarcube Corner to find a crowd had formed just outside its doors. It seemed as if almost everypony in Ponyville had gathered to see for themselves what had become of Berry Punch. Lyra let out a long sigh. "We're never going to get to see what happened with everypony crowding her like that," the mint unicorn said despairingly. Bon Bon gave her friend an optimistic look. "Don't worry, We'll see eventually. They can't stand here all day!" Bon Bon comforted. "Why did you have to go and say that? Now they're going to stand there all day!" Lyra said sarcastically. The cream earth pony giggled slightly at Lyra's sarcasm while Carrot Top rolled her eyes in disapproval.

They sat outside sugar cube corner for hours, waiting for the crowd to dissipate. Lyra had brought out her lyre again and played soothing and sad songs to pass the time. Several ponies even came over and dropped a few bits into the musician's saddle bag.

While Lyra played, Bon Bon watched the crowd. Ponies came and went. They stared at the body for a while, which neither Bon Bon nor Carrot Top got a glimpse of, then went on their way. Two particularly interesting events occurred while the trio of ponies waited for a chance to see the only murder in Ponyville history. First, Berry's younger sister, Pina Colada, appeared on the scene wailing. Apparently the filly had only found out about her sister's death when she arrived on the scene herself. The grief ridden foal had lain her pink body down beside her sister's corpse and cried for what Bon Bon thought was hours, but turned out to be only a few minutes. Second, Royal guards from Canterlot came to Ponyville to inspect the crime scene. On their approach, Lyra quickly changed her song to the royal anthem and played her lyre much louder then usual. The guards seemed quite unamused with Lyra's performance but it was difficult to discern their emotions on the Armored pegasai's disciplined faces. The white stallions parted the crowd and inspected the body for a long time before coming to a consensus. They would allow the body to be buried in Ponyville and a proper investigator would be sent later this month.

Over the hours of the group's wait, their friends had arrived to observe the crime for themselves and had decided to wait with Lyra, Bon Bon, and Carrot Top. As the crowd around Berry Punch's body began to thin, Lyra looked over the small crowd that had formed around herself. There were now six ponies gathered including Lyra. Bon Bon and Carrot Top had long since stopped watching the boring crowd and had begun to exchange gossip on various ponies around Ponyville.

Sitting scarily close to Lyra was Ditzy Doo. The Grey pegasus was not what Lyra would describe as smart. Ditzy was quite clumsy and often times didn't understand social customs but she was amazing at her job. The cross-eyed filly was the best mail mare in all of Ponyville and, in Lyra's opinion, all of Equestria, though Ditzy Doo never liked it when Lyra bragged about her.

Sprawled out on the grass behind Lyra and Ditzy was the pale form of Vinyl Scratch. The white unicorn currently had a large pair of headphones wrapped around her ears and seemed incapable of hearing anything besides her blaring music. Lyra never quite understood the DJ pony. During her shows, Vinyl couldn't be more outgoing. She would party just as hard as the crowds she served, mabee even harder, but when she was home in Ponyville, the electric maned pony was very quiet and reserved. Perhaps her rowdiness was a part of her show or perhaps the unicorn used up all her energy during her all night raves and had none left for the rest of the day.

Finally there was Octavia. The brown earth pony had been pacing back and forth in front of the rest of the ponies almost since she got there. The cellist was a very impatient pony. She always wanted things to happen immediately and it seemed that waiting here for hours was the worst possible thing for her, but Octavia was far too polite to ever complain about it. Octavia had performed at many high class events in Canterlot and took great pride in her music. Often times the musician had tried to convince Lyra to come play with her for one of her high society events but Lyra had always rejected. It wasn't that Lyra didn't think she was good enough or that she didn't like Octavia, it was that Lyra didn't like playing for large crowds. It made her nervous and they made her think that everypony was judging her every move. Even crowded market streets unnerved Lyra which is why she often times played her lyre on back streets she knew nopony would go down.

The crowd was nearly gone now and only a few ponies remained around the body. Lyra heaved a sigh of relief. The only thing that had kept the street musician from freaking out was playing her lyre and hoping that everypony was too preoccupied with Berry's corpse to judge her.

The six ponies now approached the drunkard's body. The first thing that hit them was the stench. The body reeked of cider and maggots as the creatures had already began to consume the decaying corpse. Berry had been more than just killed though, she had been mutilated. The earth ponies body had been torn open, revealing her ribs. Her intestines were pulled out of her body and strewn across the ground around her. Among this carnage however was one more wound. This one was far smaller than the other but it seemed far more lethal; four puncture wounds in her neck which looked almost as if she had been bitten. It seemed almost as if the party ponies disembowelment was only to distract ponies so they wouldn't notice her neck wounds.

Carrot Top was the first among them to say something. "Who would do something like this?" the farmer wondered out loud. The look of pure terror on Vinyl's face showed that the disc jockey shared her concern. Octavia seemed unamused, as if somepony had just told her a particularly bad joke. "Well obviously there is a murderer in Ponyville," the cellist answered bluntly. It was entirely true of course, but nopony really wanted to hear the words said out loud. Ditzy began to shake slightly, evidently in just as much fear as vinyl. The grey pegasus floated over to the body and hovered next to it, her crossed eyes attempting to take in exactly what they were seeing. "What's going to happen now?" Ditzy Doo asked, her voice wavering. Bon Bon walked over to the mail mare and wrapped her fore hooves around her. "It'll be okay Ditzy," the cream earth pony soothed, "The royal guard will come and catch this criminal and everything will be back to normal." Vinyl's head snapped towards the soothing mare, the look of horror dancing across her red eyes. "Everything will be okay? How can everything be okay when there's a killer on the loose in Ponyville? Just look what they did to Berry! Whats to stop them from doing the exact same thing to one of us?" the pale pony ranted. "Calm down Vinyl!" Octavia commanded, "I agree with Bon Bon. The guards will be here in a few days and they'll find this murderer. Just relax and enjoy your life." Vinyl looked at Octavia as if she wanted to argue, but decided against it.

Through all of this panic Lyra couldn't help but fixate on Berry's wounds. Who would go to such great lengths to mutilate a body and put it in such a public place? Either this killer was insane or they had an agenda. Either way Berry Punch was only the start.

The one thing that kept nagging at the edge of Lyra's mind was her neck wounds. The musician knew she had heard of wounds like this somewhere before but the pieces didn't fit together.

One day when she had been playing in the same street she was earlier today, before all this had happened, Lyra had met Twilight Sparkle who apparently lived in the library. Twilight had invited Lyra into the library for a short meal which Lyra couldn't refuse. Times were much tougher back then and Lyra had only eaten if she was tipped particularly well. Lyra had sat in the library for a while chatting with the purple unicorn and eating a small lunch. When she finished her meal, Twilight did Lyra another favor, she gave her a book. Lyra had always wondered why a student of Princess Celestia like Twilight would ever give a homeless street performer like Lyra anything, let alone that expensive book. Though Lyra had quickly sold the book so she wouldn't starve, the mint pony had read a bit of the book first. It was a book on mythical creatures and Lyra actually enjoyed reading it. It was a shame to have to sell it but it would have been a bigger shame to die because she hadn't.

One creature in particular had stood out to Lyra: the Vampire. Vampires look exactly like normal ponies accept the don't act like normal ponies. They never age and they have to feed on the blood of other ponies to survive or else they become weak. If they don't feed, vampires may become sick or may begin to burn in the sun which is usually the reason they end up being caught. However, the one telltale sign there is a vampire in your town is that ponies would show up dead with bite marks in their neck. At the time Lyra had thought vampires were just a myth or a story to tell on nightmare night but now she saw they were very real and there was one in Ponyville.

Interlude - What Makes the Grass Grow?

The night was cold, unusually so. The vampire sat on a roof top overlooking Sugarcube corner, reminiscing about last night's kill and the chaos the day after. The thought brought a smile to the creature's lips. It was almost happy. Almost.

The cloaked pony turned around and looked out over the rest of Ponyville. There was business that needed to be done and it was personal. The vampire leaped from roof to roof, its hooves making almost no noise at all. Soon it arrived at its destination. The moon peaked out from behind it's veil of clouds, causing the monster's fangs to gleam and revealing it's sinister smile.

Just below, lay the home of Carrot Top, a pony whom the vampire was "friends" with. Truly the creature had no friends, only potential meals, but it was always good to have a cover story. Carrot Top was a popular pony with many friends and it would make a huge impact if she were to meet her untimely end.

Often times when she was stressed, Carrot Top would go out at night and walk through her garden. This garden was her life and it was calming just to stand in it. The orange mare walked through the long rows of carrots that dominated the fenced in space and began to reflect on the day she had just had.

She had planned on just spending the day with her best friend Bon Bon and since Lyra had been to one of Pinkie's parties the night before she was bound to be too hung over to do anything. After she had heard the news however, Carrot top was filled with fear. Why would anypony ever want to kill another pony? It just didn't make any sense! So she had gone to grab Bon Bon and inspect this body but Bon Bon had insisted that instead of going directly to the corpse, they should get Lyra as well. Carrot Top despised Lyra. Why her best friend would ever have fallen in love with a lazy, goof-for-nothing street musician like Lyra she would never understand.

Even long after she had witnessed the only murder in Ponyville history for herself, the farmer still couldn't believe it. Her friend Berry Punch had been mutilated and thrown out to rot where everypony could see it. Mabee this killer was just crazy. Mabee they just didn't understand what they were doing.

The earth pony let out a loud sigh. Even after her short walk around her garden she was still stressed. Mabee Vinyl was right and everypony should be scared. What if this killer was planning to kill somepony else? The orange pony tried to dismiss the grim thoughts but she just couldn't get them out of her head. Perhaps one more walk around the garden would do the trick.

The creature watched Carrot Top walk circles around her garden for a few minutes. The garden was surrounded by a small white fence that connected directly to the back of the mare's small house. The vampire had always wondered why ponies put fences around things. It would never protect them from any substantial threat and all they served to do was section off land and a simple wall could serve the same purpose. The house itself was far from extravagant. It was a modest one story home with stone walls and a simple thatched roof. Even in all the time the vampire had been Carrot Top's "friend", it had never visited her house nor had it ever been invited to it. It was quite obvious why.

After several long minutes of watching, The cloaked hunter decided it was time to strike. It hopped effortlessly and silently down from it's perch and began to walk towards its unsuspecting prey. After leaping over the pathetic fence, the monster moved towards Carrot Top, Who currently had her back to her hunter. Before the farmer even knew what was going on she was pinned to the ground by the immense strength of the vampire. She struggled in the dirt among the carrots which had been her joy all her life but to no avail. The monster had her trapped.

Staring up at the vampire, Carrot top couldn't see its shrouded face from under its hood. All she saw was the pair of gleaming fangs inside it's gruesome smile. "Why would you do this to me? What am I to you?" Carrot Top squealed, her voice uncharacteristically high. These questions only made the creature's smile grow even wider to a point where it looked as if it would rip off its face. A familiar voice escaped from the monster's hungry mouth, "I'm a friend." It took a split second for the orange earth pony to understand who her killer was. "Wait, You're..." She started but her sentence became a disgusting gurgle as the creature sunk its fangs deep into Carrot Top's neck.

The creature straightened itself and wiped the blood from it's sated lips. Suddenly, it heard a crack, like somepony had dropped a stone on the street coming from behind it. The hunter whipped around to find a witness staring it in the face. The mint green unicorn stared in pure anguish at the scene before her. The unicorn's eyes quickly flashed to the vampire and it seemed to realize what had just happened. This was very bad.

The vampire quickly leaped out of the garden and ran as fast as it could away from it's latest crime. It decided it's new message would have to wait until after this witness had left. The vampire wasn't worried however. It had all the time in the world.

Chapter 3 - Deep in Thought

Lyra walked solemnly through the front door of her, or rather Bon Bon's, house. Though she had stayed out for hours after seeing the corpse at Sugarcube corner playing sad songs on her lyre, the musician hadn't received any money. Now as night was beginning to fall, the mint unicorn thought it might be a good idea to call it a day and head home.

Walking in Lyra noticed the house was suspiciously quiet. Apparently Bon Bon had went to be early. Somehow Lyra found herself standing in the kitchen. Perhaps she thought Bon Bon might be here making her famous candy after such a harrowing day but there was no one here. She couldn't put her hoof on it, but it seemed like there was something different about the small room. After a few minutes of looking Lyra found a note left on the counter.

The note read, "Hey Lyra, I didn't know when you would be back so I left this note. It's been a long day for everypony and I thought I should just head off to bed because really there isn't much I could do around here that wouldn't remind me of Berry and It's just so sad and..." The note continued for the majority of the page, explaining her every thought in Bon Bon's usual fashion so Lyra skipped forward until she found something more important. "Anyways, I'll see you again in the morning. I made you some candy. It's in a bowl by the couch. Love, Bon Bon," The lengthy note concluded. It seemed that the cream earth pony was far more worried than she had let on earlier.

Lyra lifted the note with her magic and stowed it in her saddle bag which she still had slung over her back for reasons she couldn't really explain. The unicorn walked slowly into the adjacent living room. The room was a good deal larger than the other rooms in the house, but still quite small. It was barely large enough to hold the couch that dominated the room's center. Along the wall opposite the couch were two small wooden chairs which served as places for guests to sit if ever Bon Bon decided they needed to entertain guests. The only other piece of furniture in the room was a small wooden end table that sat next to the couch. Often times this table was filled with miscellaneous objects that may have found their way into their home. Today however, the stack of books Bon Bon had got from the library had been removed from the table and set in a neat pile on the floor. In their place was small bowl filled to the brim with small, chocolaty bonbons.

Lyra walked up and stood next to the small table and levitated up one of the delicacies. The mint unicorn rotated the bonbon slowly, inspecting the beautiful treat and the green magical aura that surrounded it. After a few seconds, Lyra popped the candy into her mouth. Instantly her mouth was flooded with the delicious taste of the chocolate treat. Before she knew it, the candy was already gone and Lyra was craving more. The mint mare silently cursed Bon Bon for creating such addicting treats.

She levitated several of the bonbons and sat down on the couch to enjoy them and reflect on the horrendous day she had experienced. Things had started off good enough. The musician had found a quiet side street to play her lyre on, far away from any crowds, and she had even received a small bit of money. Things just went down hill from there though. After Lyra and her friends had witnessed the disemboweled corpse of Berry Punch, everything became much worse. Vinyl had become extremely paranoid about the supposed murderer loose in Ponyville. The white unicorn had even been so scared that she refused to walk home alone so Lyra and Octavia had agreed to walk with the DJ.

During their walk, Octavia had attempted to calm Vinyl's mind by talking about the piece of music she was practicing for a concert in Canterlot next week. The cellist blathered on about how beautiful and soothing the song was but after a while it became obvious that Octavia was boring Vinyl out of her mind. Not liking the silence, Lyra tried to strike up a conversation with the electric maned unicorn about the previous night's party. This remark had sent Vinyl back into a wave of panic. Once again, the disk jockey was overrun with fear for her own life. Octavia once again attempted to diffuse the situation by explaining that the killing was probably just a random act by an insane pony and it would probably not happen again. Her words seemed to calm Vinyl a little but she was still scared stiff. The three musicians spent the rest of their walk in silence and as soon as Vinyl reached the safety of her own home, Lyra and Octavia parted ways.

Once she was on her own, Lyra decided to do the only thing that would calm her mind: she would play her lyre. The mint pony returned to the same spot she had sat down to play before the chaotic events of the day had started and began to play again. Nopony really walked by though and those who did didn't even pay attention to Lyra's strummings. After that she returned home and found herself exactly where she was now: sitting on her couch eating bonbons.

Lyra sighed heavily. Perhaps she should follow Bon Bon's example and get some sleep. She trudged to her bedroom, passing by the closed door that concealed Bon Bon's room. The unicorn entered her small cluttered room and was shocked to find it far messier than she thought it was. She probably hadn't noticed the clutter in her drunken haze this morning but now it seemed like the space was almost unlivable. Scattered all over the floor were pages of sheet music, old books, and articals of clothing that she never wore. Surprisingly her bed was entirely clean except for the messy covers from when she had woken up.

Lyra surveyed the mess and decided that it was a job for another day. The mare carefully picked her way through the junk that coated her floor until she reached the edge of her bed. Lyra carefully lifted her saddlebag off her flank and set it under the bed. She doubted she would get in any playing with all that had been happening lately and if Lyra's suspicions were correct, then it would only go down hill from here.

Lyra couldn't sleep. She had been lying in bed for hours staring blankly at the ceiling trying to make sense of Berry's murder. The mint mare was almost certain that Berry Punch hadn't simply been killed, she had been eaten. Not eaten in a regular sense like how a pony would eat hay, but eaten in the sense that she had been attacked to feed somepony. Not somepony in the regular sense either, this hunter was most defiantly not a pony. It was a vampire. Lyra couldn't tell anypony that though, they would think she was crazy!

The musician sat up abruptly. Sitting around was getting her nowhere and Lyra doubted she would be able to sleep with all this vampire stuff floating around her head. She climbed out of her bed and waded through the piles of junk to escape her room. Walking carefully so as not to wake Bon Bon, the unicorn walked down the hall and out to the living room. She just had to have another one of those bonbons. Lyra quickly grabbed one of the delectable treats and moved towards the front door. The unicorn gripped the door knob in her fore hoof and slowly began to turn it. The door made a loud creaking noise and Lyra cringed at the sound. The green unicorn stopped for a moment and listened to see it she had woken Bon Bon but no sound came from down the hall so she assumed her friend was still asleep.

As quietly as she could, Lyra slipped out the door and into the unusually cold night. The troubled musician had decided to take a walk to clear her mind and she had a feeling tonight's walk would be very relaxing. Lyra began to walk around the sleeping town, weaving her way around random side streets and looking around at the many darkened houses.

After about an hour of walking, Lyra decided to go to the park for a bit of rest. The park was far different at night than it was during the day. Normally there were foals running every which way around the large field and ponies would gather to chat or just hang out, but night brought out a whole new side of the place. The open area looked positively eerie. The shadow of the park's single tree loomed over a good majority of the field, causing the area to be far darker than it should be.

After only a few minutes of standing in the park, Lyra decided it was time to move on but something caught her eye. Something was sparkling at the base of the tree. Perhaps somepony had lost something. Lyra approached the object and found it to be a polished rock with a smile carved into it. Obviously it was created by some young filly since the smile was wobbly, the eyes misshapen, and the polish uneven. Even though this rock was so poorly made and obviously left here for a reason, holding made Lyra feel happy. It had even took Lyra's mind off the days events for a while and that was good in her book.

Standing in the open field of the park had begun to make Lyra lonely and since she knew she wouldn't be able to wake up Bon Bon to come walk with her, the mint pony decided to go for the next best thing: visiting Carrot Top. Even though the orange farmer hated Lyra with all her being, she would still make better company than Lyra's new smiling rock. Besides, Lyra knew she would be the only pony still up at this hour and it would be fun to give her such a horrible gift.

Lyra walked at a brisk pace towards Carrot Top's small home on the outskirts of town, all the while levitating her new companion beside her. As she neared Carrot Top's house however, Lyra began to think something was wrong. The green mare heard two ponies talking, one she identified as Carrot Top but the other she couldn't recognize. Carrot Top's words seemed panicked while Lyra heard the other pony speak only once, identifying itself as a friend of the farmer. Suddenly, the talking stopped. Lyra flew into a panic and she feared the worst. As quietly as she could, Lyra snuck up to Carrot Tops fence and peered over.

The scene before her was horrific. A pony wearing a long grey cloak was hunched over Carrot Top's limp body, its fangs submerged deep into the orange mare's neck. The vampire had attacked Carrot Top! As the creature rose, it reached it's hoof up to it's mouth and wiped the blood of Lyra's friend of it's cruel lips. The shock of the whole scene had caused Lyra's magical grip on the smiling rock to loosen and it fell, landing with a crack on the ground. The vampire whipped it's head around to find the source of the sound and it's lifeless white eyes met Lyra's yellow ones. The monster seemed surprised to see somepony and was confused on what to do. This only lasted a moment however, as the creature soon darted off, disappearing into the night.

Almost as quickly as the vampire had disappeared, Lyra had gone to Carrot Top's side. The musician sat cradling her friend's lifeless, bleeding corpse in her arms. Tears began to leak from Lyra's eyes as she saw this pony, who she really had never liked, dead in her arms. Lyra lay her old enemy down among the carrots which she so lovingly grew and walked away before the tears began again.

The vampire had made a big mistake. It had killed one of Lyra's friends and now she would do whatever it took to find that monster and end its pathetic, immortal existence. This just got personal.

Chapter 4 - The Hunt Begins

Light streamed in through the window, waking Lyra from her uneasy sleep. She had been drifting in and out of consciousness for the past few hours. The unicorn doubted she would ever be able to get another restful sleep since every time she closed her eyes, visions of vampires killing all her friends flooded her mind.

Lyra knew she had slept in extremely late since Bon Bon was nowhere to be found and she couldn't hear the commotion that was sure to have happened today when somepony found Carrot Top's corpse. The green musician trudged sleepily over to the couch and grabbed several bonbons, emptying the bowl as she did so, before heading out into the bright Ponyville afternoon.

When she exited her home, Lyra was immediately blinded by the sudden light of Celestia's sun. After recovering from her momentary blindness, the mint mare found herself face to face with the grey form of Octavia. The cellist's purple eyes scanned Lyra and seemed unimpressed with what they saw. "Long night?" Octavia asked. It took Lyra a moment to process what the earth pony had just said. After a few seconds of awkward silence she responded, "Yea, I couldn't sleep." Octavia looked at Lyra quizzically. "Really?" she said sarcastically. Evidently it was quite obvious that the unicorn hadn't slept well last night. "Why not?" Octavia asked in a more genuine tone. Lyra hesitated for a moment. Should she tell the cellist what happened? Why not, it couldn't hurt anything and perhaps Octavia could even help. After all, Octavia seemed to be affected the least by the recent killings.

"Have you heard about what happened to Carrot Top?" Lyra began. Octavia gave Lyra a look that seemed to say "of course I did" before sharply responding, "Yes, what about our friend's death?" Lyra hesitated again but forced herself to continue. "Well I saw who did it. Not really saw though, they were wearing a cloak and so I couldn't see their face but I know it was the same pony who killed Berry!" Lyra explained quickly. Octavia seemed genuinely surprised. Apparently she wasn't expecting anything like this to be causing Lyra's insomnia. After regaining her composure, the grey mare asked, "So what are you going to do about it? You must have some clue as to what to do." Lyra was quick to respond this time. She had a plan, and it was a good one. "I'm going to hunt this killer down and stop them. I though that mabee if I start with investigating Berry's murder, I might get some clues as to who this murderer is and where they might have gone," The unicorn elaborated. Octavia seemed quite unamused by Lyra's plan. She sighed heavily. "Alright then. If you want to try to solve all this yourself and not wait for the royal guard to handle it, then its fine by me. Just make sure to leave me out of it alright?" The earth pony said. Lyra nodded in agreement and said her goodbyes to the cellist before making her way to her first stop: Sugarcube corner.

Lyra stood in the spacious upper room of Sugarcube corner. Normally this room served as Pinkie Pie's home with the adjoining room as her bedroom, except the party pony had been "out with friends", as the Cakes had described it, for a few days now and the room hadn't been cleaned since before the party. Lyra fondly remembered the space as the hyperactive pink mare often held extravagant parties here.

The room sat directly above the storefront for the bakery and dominated the majority of the second floor. The room's center was open and had only a colorful rug which was stained by years of ponies spilling their drinks on it. This rug had always served as the dance floor, if the musician's memory served her which, frankly, she was surprised it did after all the cider she drank here. Against the far wall was a long row of tables that still contained the remnants of the night's food. Half eaten sweets littered the tables and the ground around them. A large, raised stage dominated another wall and often times this was where Vinyl Scratch had set up her turn tables, but at the moment the stage was empty. Scattered all around the room were half deflated balloons and tattered streamers hung pathetically from the ceiling. The unicorn smiled slightly. It had been a good night...

Lyra's head buzzed with the combined forces of three glasses of cider and the constant thumping of Vinyl's, or DJ PON-3 as she liked to be called onstage, electronic music. The intoxicated mare stumbled away from the tables, a forth drink clutched in her magical grip. Suddenly, somepony lay their hoof over Lyra's shoulder, steadying her swaying. Quickly, the mint pony turned to see who had touched her, but after seeing it was Bon Bon, she relaxed.

"How are you doing so far? Is the crowd too much for you?" Bon Bon said slowly and softly. She always tried not to say too much whenever Lyra was drunk. "I'm doin' good. I got a few ciders in me so it don't bother me none," Lyra said, her words slurring together. Bon Bon looked at her doubtfully. She looked at Lyra, the to the floating glass of cider, then back to Lyra. "I think you've had enough to drink tonight," The cream mare said flatly as she set her hoof on Lyra's glass. The drunk unicorn abruptly jerked the cider out from underneath her friend and shot her a scowl. "I can drink however much I want, you don' need to watch out for me," Lyra said self-righteously, after which she downed the entire glass within seconds. A deep shudder went through her body and the musician's sight began to cloud. Bon Bon sighed heavily and followed her intoxicated friend out onto the crowded dance floor.

Lyra stumbled about, her hooves unable to perform any of the dance moves she was attempting. Bon Bon stood opposite had and danced almost gracefully but Lyra was sure that was just because she was so drunk. The musician turned her attention up to DJ PON-3. The DJ loomed over the dance floor on a platform that seemed hundreds of feet tall. Her electric blue mane fell across her face as if she had just woken up and seemed to shine in the half light of the party. Concealing her red eyes were a pair of large purple sunglasses which reflected the crowded dance floor below her and across her face was a wide and uncharacteristic smile.

It was almost as if DJ PON-3 and Vinyl Scratch were two different ponies. The white mare before her was energetic and charismatic. She nodded her head with every beat and yelled out to the crowd between songs. Vinyl on the other hand was reclusive. She almost never left her house and she only went outside when Lyra or somepony else forced her out. Perhaps she had her fill of society at these parties.

A loud crash pulled Lyra out of her hazy thoughts. Her head whipped around to find the light purple form of Berry Punch collapsed in a pile of debris where a table had once stood. Scattered all around the stunned mare were cupcakes, obviously sent flying after her crash. How the hay did Berry end up there? The thought didn't stay in Lyra's intoxicated mind for long however as a large colt was now dragging Berry out of the wreckage and down the stairs. Strange. Things had been broken at Pinkie's parties before and nopony ever got thrown out. Perhaps there was more to the story than the green mare knew.

She shoved the thoughts out of her mind and stumbled over to the tables for another glass of cider. Upon reaching them, Lyra found a frantic Ditzy Doo scrambling to pick up the scattered cupcakes. Her grey wings flapped incessantly as she flew back and forth between the floor and a table that was still in tact. "What in Tartarus are you doing Ditzy?" Lyra asked, her words now even more slurred. Ditzy looked up sharply, her crossed yellow eyes meeting with Lyra's clouded yellow ones. The pegasai's brow wrinkled at her drunk friend's choice of words. "I'm cleaning! It's such a mess in here! There are cupcakes everywhere!" the mailmare replied quickly. Lyra laughed slightly. Sometimes Ditzy was so childish. "Ditzy, You know ya don't gotta clean this, right?" Lyra said, trying to hide the laughter in her voice. The grey mare surrendered without a fight. "I suppose your right," She said slowly, "I should probably be heading home now anyways. It's way past my bed time." Lyra laughed once again. "Alight then. See ya later Ditzy!" Lyra said, laughing heavily now.

The drunk mare turned her attention back to the table of drinks and grabbed a new glass of cider. She quickly downed it and trudged back to the dance floor to find Bon Bon. Before she even got half way there though, The mint unicorn fell flat on her face and everything went black.

Lyra walked slowly around the destroyed room, glancing at the scattered cupcakes which probably should have been picked up, the shattered remains of the table, and the stage DJ PON-3 had performed on which in reality was only a few feet high. How did all of this relate to the vampire? Was it at the party? It had to have been. How else would it have found out Berry was thrown out and would make for easy prey? Lyra had drank far too much for her own memory to have been of any use here. Perhaps Vinyl saw something she hadn't. She would need to be the next pony Lyra visited.

The green unicorn stood in front of the plain, two-story house. There was nothing special about the DJ's house as it looked like just about every other house in all of Ponyville. The walls were a light tan color with large, brown support beams running all across them. The roof was a simple thatched roof, as was common to almost every structure in the town and a portion of the second floor hung over the first floor, creating a small shaded area. Every time she came here, Lyra always found it hard to believe that the energetic disc jockey that she saw so often at parties, lived in such a modest home. Vinyl was easily on of the richest mares in Ponyville but she was too solitary for anypony to ever know that.

She approached the simple wooden door and knocked loudly. Lyra could almost hear the echo of her knock resonating through Vinyl's home. She waited for a few seconds, undeterred by the seemingly abandoned house. After a few minutes of waiting, the musician, grew impatient.

Lyra threw open the door and walked into the barren front room. It seemed that this room had originally contained some furniture as there were gaps in the blanket of dust in various shapes but anything that was, here was long gone. Why would Vinyl more all the furniture out of her house? Was she really that paranoid of the vampire that she would more out of Ponyville? There was only one way to find out.

The stairs creaked under the unicorn's hooves as she ascended to the second floor. Upon reaching the second floor, she found two doorways, one to the left and one to the right. Through the left doorway was yet another empty room, though this one didn't have any dust in it. It was as if the room had been used recently and the dust hadn't had any time to settle. To the right was an enormous pile of furniture which barred the way into the room. It was obvious where all the furniture had went. Vinyl was using it to create a safe room. She must have been really paranoid to do all this.

If the DJ was anywhere in Ponyville, she would be in that room, and Lyra had a plan to get in. She may have not been the most magically talented unicorn in Equestria, but the mint mare still knew a few spells. Lyra began to concentrate. She had never attempted this spell before, but it would have to work now. An intense green aura began to surround Lyra's horn. The musician strained as she tried to squeeze every last ounce of magic out of her body before finally casting the spell and releasing a bright flash of green. For a split second, the unicorn couldn't feel anything. It was almost as if her body had just disappeared and she was left floating in nothingness, but then Lyra felt her hooves slam into the floor. Her head throbbed worse than it had the morning she found Berry dead. Her body didn't feel right, as if it wasn't her own. The unicorn rose shakily to her feet and forced her eyes open.

It worked! Lyra found herself on the other side of the barrier in what appeared to be Vinyl's bedroom. All that remained in the room however was a rather large bed and a nightstand. The covers on the bed were messy, as if somepony had slept there recently, but there was something rather strange about the nightstand. It had a small, leather book sitting on it. The trespassing unicorn walked slowly up to the nightstand and tried to levitate the book but the attempt sent jolts of pain through her brain. Evidently the act of teleporting had taken more out of the green mare than she thought. She settled for lifting it the old fashion way, with hooves.

The book was just as plain as anything else in Vinyl's abandoned house. It had simple leather covers and a cloth spine. Upon opening it however, it became much stranger. Inscribed in neat handwriting on the inside cover were the words "Property of Vinyl Scratch" and at the bottom of the page was simply the word "Journal." Suddenly Lyra felt very bad. She was about to read her friends journal. This shouldn't be right, but she had to know what happened at the party. She looked to where the first page should be, but found that it had been torn out, in fact, every page of the journal had been torn out. Why would Vinyl need to tear the pages out of her journal and then leave it in a room barricaded off with all her furniture? More importantly, how had Vinyl even managed to make the barricade in the first place?

Lyra sighed heavily. If Vinyl Scratch couldn't tell her what happened, than mabee Ditzy could. Of course she couldn't tell Lyra what had happened at the party itself, but mabee Ditzy Doo could tell her what happened to Berry after she left.

Chapter 5 - Lunch with a Side of the Truth

It didn't take Lyra very long to find Ditzy, though in truth, she wasn't looking for the mailmare when Lyra found her. The musician had been walking all over Ponyville trying to catch Ditzy while she was still delivering the mail. After a bit of searching with no success, Lyra decided it was about time to take a break for lunch. After all, she had only eaten a few bonbons all day and while they were delicious, they defiantly were not filling.

By the time the unicorn arrived at the Ponyville cafe, her stomach was growling so loud that she was sure the people in Canterlot could hear it. As she walked through the scattered outdoor tables, Lyra began to hear something. At first she disregarded it, thinking she was just hearing things but sure enough, Lyra heard it again. The green mare turned in the direction of the sound and found Ditzy Doo and Octavia sitting at a table talking rather loudly over a small lunch. In reality, the pair wasn't actually talking very loudly, rather, everypony else was talking in hushed tones. Most likely they were talking about Carrot Top's recent untimely demise which her friends seemed oddly unfazed by.

Lyra walked up to her friends and caught a snippet of their conversation. "and it turned out the muffin was in my bag the whole time," Ditzy concluded. Evidently she had been recalling an interesting story involving a lost muffin of some sort which Octavia appeared quite unamused with. At Lyra's approach, the cellist seemed to brighten a bit. Perhaps she thought that a fellow musician would bring better conversation.

"Hello Lyra," Octavia said, "find anything interesting at Vinyl's house?" Lyra was ecstatic to share her strange discovery with her friends. "I sure did!" Lyra boasted to which Octavia rolled her eyes and Ditzy attempted to straighten her own. Lyra continued, "She moved all her furniture upstairs to block off her bedroom and when I teleported in there I found her journal. Guess what? It had all the pages torn out! How weird is that?" Ditzy seemed entirely confused as if this was the most mysterious thing in the world but Octavia seemed as if she had already figured it out. "You don't suppose Vinyl could have had a reason for sealing away her torn up journal. Perhaps Vinyl has something that she doesn't want anypony to know about," Octavia said flatly. "Wait a minute, your not saying that Vinyl killed Berry and Carrot, are you?" Lyra questioned. Ditzy's face was instantly filled with fear and her eyes, which she had worked so hard to focus, had reverted back to their original crossed state. "Carrot is dead?" the mail mare screamed out in horror. Octavia's head whipped towards the mint unicorn and she shot Lyra an evil look. "Lyra! Why would you say something like that! I took her out to lunch so she wouldn't find out about that! She was already terrified enough after Berry's death," the grey earth pony lectured. She turned back to the cross eyed pegasus beside her and began to hug her. Octavia rocked back and forth, humming soothing tunes all the while, and Ditzy slowly began to calm down.

Octavia released her grip on the cowering mare and turned back to Lyra. "Thanks a lot. Now she won't be able to sleep tonight," Octavia said viciously. Lyra looked at her friend quizzically. "What do you mean?" she asked. Octavia released a heavy sigh, as if explaining would be very long and difficult. "Last night at around two in the morning, Ditzy came to my house because she was too scared to be home alone. Since you just freaked her out again, you're going to take her home and let her sleep in your house tonight," the cellist explained.

Now it was Lyra's turn to let out a heavy sigh. At least she would be able to question Ditzy Doo in the comfort of her own home.

Bringing Ditzy home turned out to be more of a hassle than Lyra had expected. When the two had arrived, Bon Bon proceed to give Lyra a long winded lecture on how she shouldn't invite ponies to stay with them without clearing it with her first, the majority of which the musician had ignored. After a few minutes of arguing however, the mint unicorn succeeded in allowing the grey pegasus to stay in their home for the night. Though Ditzy wasn't particularly happy in having to sleep on the couch, the mail mare was very grateful the cream earth pony's hospitality.

After Ditzy settled in, Lyra decided she should do what she had found the grey mare for. "Hey Ditzy," Lyra asked, "Do you remember what happened at the party?" Ditzy looked at Lyra as if that was the most perplexing question in the world. "Yea," she replied, "but why do you want to know?" Lyra was stumped for a second. She couldn't tell Ditzy the truth or else she might get scared again and then the musician would never get to hear the story. She would have to think of something quick. "I was just curious. I was so drunk that I couldn't remember anything and I thought that you could tell me what happened," Lyra lied. Ditzy seemed to calm a bit at this and she cheerfully replied, "Oh okay then! It was a bad party, much worse than usual."

Ditzy Doo floated alone in a corner of the loud, crowded upper room of Sugarcube corner. She always hated parties. Ponies always got drunk and rowdy and things inevitably were broken. It just didn't seem like the right place for a mail mare like Ditzy to be hanging around, but her friends always came to these things so the pegasus had to come as well.

Vinyl's music thumped loudly as more and more ponies began to stream into the room. Most of them were ponies she didn't recognize but a few stood out: Carrot Top, Bon Bon, Lyra, and Berry Punch. Both Lyra and Berry headed straight for the tables that held the enormous amounts of cider on it. Both had their own reasons for drinking. Lyra drank because she couldn't stand being around so many ponies at once while Berry drank because she believed that she would be able to have more fun if she didn't care what she was doing. Both of them regularly drank all the cider at any given party.

As the night went on, ponies drank more and more and the party became more and more wild. It seemed that almost everypony was drunk or at least a bit tipsy and the effect was most profound on the stumbling mass of ponies that comprised the dance floor. Berry punch began to stumble over to the tables again for yet another drink. It seemed that the drunkard had drained almost half the supply of cider on her own and she was still drinking. When she arrived at the tables, Berry sloppily poured herself a new glass of the intoxicating liquid. As she was stumbling off however, Berry ran hear on into a large, brown colt. The unicorn stallion looked slightly agitated but no worse for wear. Berry however found herself on the floor laying in a pool of cider with a broken glass in her hoof.

The drunk immediately stood up and began yelling her head off. Of course because the music was so loud only the ponies who were very close to the scene could actually hear what was going on. Berry ranted for what seemed like an hour, but was probably only a few minutes, about how the colt should have watched where he was going and that he she be banished for being so mean. The brown unicorn could not have been more angry at that point. He lifted the intoxicated earth pony into the air with his magic and launched her across the room just to shut her up.

Berry collided with a table filled with cupcakes with a massive crash that was so loud that it drowned out the music for a split second. Everypony turned their heads to look at the pony who had not only destroyed a table full of perfectly good cupcakes, but had stopped the party, a massive sin at Pinkie Pie's parties.

None of that mattered to Ditzy however. The moment Berry collided with that table, her mission became clear. The pegasus flew over and began to pick up the scattered treats. She floated back and forth between the floor and an intact table, dropping off the already spoiled desserts. After mere moments of this however, Lyra showed up to get another drink and suggested that she should leave the cupcakes alone. Reluctantly, the mail mare agreed and decided that for once it would be a good idea for her just to leave the party and go home. This party had become too much for Ditzy to handle.

Lyra sighed heavily, Ditzy Doo's story hadn't told the unicorn anything important. It seemed that bringing the mailmare home with her was a terrible idea. Lyra looked across the small living room to see if Bon Bon shared her thoughts but it seemed that the cream earth pony had something bothering her.

"What's wrong?" Lyra asked. Bon Bon turned to look at the mint pony, her questioning eyes staring past Lyra. "Why would Berry start a fight like that? I mean I know she was drunk and everything but why would she do that? Doesn't everypony know that its a horrible idea to start fights at Pinkie Pie's parties? Its got to be some surefire way to get thrown out and..." Bon Bon thought out loud. Before the earth pony could even finish her excessively long thought, Lyra had an idea.

"Hold on a second Bon Bon," the musician began, "Why don't you just tell your whole story and we'll see what happens from there. Since Ditzy was kind enough to talk about the party, why don't you just start with the next day?" Bon Bon seemed thrilled at this new change of pace and she immediately dove into her tale.

Bon Bon found herself in a position she never thought she would: She was staring at the mutilated corpse of her friend, Berry Punch. It seemed to Bon Bon that somepony had really hated the purple drunkard or else they wouldn't have gone to such lengths to mutilate her in the first place. Why anypony would want to kill anypony was a mystery to the candy maker however. Nothing was so bad as to kill somepony over and defiantly not bad enough to do this to them. If somepony was doing this, there had to be something wrong with them and they would not stop here.

None of these sort of thoughts were running through the mare's thoughts at the moment however, all she was concerned with was the fact that there was a dead pony right in front of her! Before she even knew what was going on, everypony was going their separate way and Carrot Top was beckoning for her to follow.

Bon Bon rushed to catch up with her orange friend. Carrot Top seemed quite on edge after the scene but defiantly not quite petrified like Ditzy or paranoid like Vinyl. No, Carrot was just scared and she had every right to be. Its not like Bon Bon wasn't scared, it was just that she had to be strong for everypony around her who couldn't. So Carrot Top and Bon Bon walked home in relative silence only talking a small bit about anything that wasn't about Berry but everything seemed to come back to her, so the pair stopped after a while.

As the two began to leave the more normal areas town, things became a bit less tense. Out in the more rural area on the town's outskirts, things seemed far calmer and it was almost as if nopony out here even knew about the murder. When the two mares reached Carrot Top's humble home, Bon Bon began to hear a faint thumping noise. It was probably just her imagination but she swore she heard something. The cream earth pony turned to her orange companion and asked, "what's over that way?" Bon Bon gestured in the direction she heard the noise coming from. "Oh its just an old factory. Before this town was what it is today, Ponyville made some great cider out of that factory but once the apple family took over the cider market the factory closed down. Its abandoned now but I still hear noises from it every once in a while. You learn to ignore it," Carrot Top explained.

Bon Bon accepted that answer and she ignored the sound the entire way home. Back home, the cream pony suddenly felt extremely tired. She didn't realize how long it had taken her to walk to Carrot Top's house or how long her day had been. Bon Bon decided that Lyra could fend for herself and she went to her bedroom for a bit of well deserved rest.

Lyra was still stumped. Things just weren't making any sense and nopony seemed to want to tell the green unicorn anything. Lyra yawned loudly. She didn't realize how late it had become. She looked over to see that Ditzy was already sound asleep on the couch and Bon Bon was begging to nod off as they sat there. Perhaps Lyra should follow Ditzy's example. Perhaps things would be clearer in the morning.

Interlude - Now its Personal

The vampire walked slowly through the deserted streets of Ponyville. Everypony was asleep and the cloaked creature was far too on edge to be as cautious as it usually was. This unicorn, this Lyra, was hunting it now, and the vampire didn't like how close she was getting. This hunter would be on the vampire by daybreak tomorrow unless it did something to stop her. Suddenly, an idea popped into the bloodthirsty creature's mind. It was about time things got personal between the two hunters.

Lyra woke abruptly from her restless sleep. She hadn't had a restful night since berry died and it was beginning to take its toll on her. The musician sleepily crawled out of her bed, knowing full well that she would be able to get back to sleep. Lyra pulled her saddle bag out from underneath her bed and moved towards her bedroom door.

The door only opened about halfway before it came to an abrupt halt. Lyra looked around to see what was blocking the door and found that Ditzy Doo had decided to sleep on the floor outside her room. The green mare smiled as she looked at the sleeping pegasus. She looked so peaceful and at ease.

The mint unicorn stepped carefully out the half open door and closed it behind her, careful not to disturb the mailmare any more than she already had. She slipped quietly down the hallway, out into the living room and finally out the front door. A cool breeze met her face and she felt at peace. The unicorn slowly pulled her instrument from within her saddle bag and settled down on the ground with her back resting on the front door. The musician began to slowly strum her lyre, sending a soothing melody through the night sky.

The vampire hear the hunter before it saw her. The creature stood perched on a roof opposite the musician's home looking down at her. She was playing a beautiful and slow song on a lyre which was held in a field of green magical energy beside the unicorn. The mare herself sat on the ground with her back pressed against the front door. The pony's eyes were closed, soaking in the tune she was producing. The whole scene was pitiful to the vampire. Ponies should stop trying to brighten their dismal lives and should just accept their inevitable demise.

For a moment, the cloaked creature toyed with the idea of killing its foe right here, but it decided it would have a bit of fun with her first. The monster leaped across to the roof of the musician's home without a sound and disappeared behind the building.

Lyra sat there for who knows how long, relaxing and soaking in her slow tune. The night was turning out alright. Suddenly, a loud scream flung Lyra out of her relaxation and into a panic. She shoved her lyre back into her saddlebag and threw open the front door in one fluid motion. The unicorn galloped through the living room and into the hallway to find a gruesome scene.

Ditzy Doo lay splayed out on the floor in a pool of her own blood. Massive puncture woulds lay in her neck with blood still seeping out of them. The vampire was getting sloppy. It must know that Lyra was close to uncovering it. another shriek ripped Lyra away from the fresh corpse before her.

The musician's heart began to race. This couldn't be happening. The vampire couldn't be attacking her, not here, not now! Lyra flung the door to Bon Bon's room open and found the cloaked creature, fangs buried deep in Bon Bon's neck. The monster withdrew itself from the cream mare and turned its head towards Lyra. Its fangs dripped with her blood and its empty white eyes glowed in the darkness.

The creature began to laugh, quietly at first, but soon it grew to a roar that filled the room and soon it was all Lyra could hear. The monster's laugh filled her head and blotted out any thought. The mare just wanted it to attack her, end this horrid pain, both in her head and her heart. Lyra squeezed her eyes shut as the monster's grating laugh dug deep into every corner of her brain. The very sound was agonizing as she began to lose everything but the horrible sound.

Suddenly, the laughing stopped. Lyra peeled open her eyes to find the creature gone and Bon Bon still twitching on the floor. The mint unicorn rushed to the earth pony's side. holding the mare in her hooves just as she had done for Carrot Top. Bon Bon turned her head slowly to look at Lyra. She smiled slightly, and it was obvious that this small gesture took great effort for the dying pony.

"Lyra," Bon Bon began, her voice soft and weak, "I've always loved you, and I always will." Her blue eyes rolled back into her head and her body went limp. Lyra sat there for what seemed like an eternity, just holding Bon Bon's body in her arms before the tears began. This monster had taken Bon Bon, the love of her life, from her and now it would pay for what it had done.

Chapter 6 - A Proper Burial

Lyra knelt in a hole in the ground. Rain poured in all around her and made the digging slow and difficult. The mint unicorn thrust the shovel into the ground once again and hauled another pile of mud out of the growing hole. The vampire had crossed a line. It had taken Bon Bon from Lyra when the earth pony had done nothing to provoke it. Perhaps the creature had done it simply because she had witnessed the creature kill Ditzy, but far more likely was that it had done it just to get at Lyra, to convince her to stop hunting it.

The monster's actions had done just the opposite however. The musician was now more motivated than ever to find and kill this wretched creature before it did any more damage. Before any of that could happen though, Lyra had another more important job to attend to.

The green mare hauled herself out of the newly dug grave, her coat now sopping wet and covered in mud. Before her were two almost identical graves, each with a large stone headstone at their ends. Lyra had chosen the spot for her friends' graves very carefully. The unicorn had wanted them to be in a very public place so that everypony would remember their deaths. they lay in the middle of the park, beneath the single tree that had stood for ages.

Lyra admired her handiwork for a moment and almost found joy in the accomplishment but a voice from behind her snapped the mint unicorn back to solemn reality. "Its so sad what happened to them," Octavia said in almost a whisper. The grey earth pony stood a few feet behind Lyra, her cello grasped in one hoof, her bow in the other. "I'm glad you could come. I'm sure it would mean a lot to them," Lyra said, doing everything she could to keep from crying. The cellist nodded in silent agreement as she raised her bow to the strings and began to play a slow funeral march.

Time seemed to almost stand still as Lyra drew her own instrument and added her sorrow to the song. For a what seemed like an eternity, the two musicians payed their respects to the dead in the form of a long, sad song that echoed through the sleeping steets of Ponyville. After a few hours the song began to come to an end and, as if on cue, both ponies stopped playing all together and silence filled the air once more.

With only a solemn look between them, the two mourners set to work pushing the hastily made wooden coffins into their graves. As one and then the other fell into place, Lyra began to feel a new sense of sadness. She was leaving behind the greatest joy in her life, six feet underground in the middle of ponyville. The musician struggled in vain to hold back the stream of tears comming forth from her swolen yellow eyes. The mint unicorn pulled a single red rose out of her saddle bag and dropped it into Bon Bon's open grave. "I love you too Bon Bon," Lyra whispered, choking on her tears.

Lyra and Octavia set to work in silence, filling the graves of their friends. As the final shovelfuls of dirt fell on their companions the earth pony turned her purple eyes on Lyra. "What are you going to do now?" she asked flatly. Lyra turned her gaze towards the outskirts of town, to the place she knew the abandoned factory would be.

"I'm going to finish this," Lyra replied.

Chapter 7 - Showdown

Lyra stood on a grassy hill overlooking the abandoned factory as the rain poured down around her. A soft but constant thumping noise emanated from the building, confirming that Vinyl was inside. The mint unicorn stared blankly at the decrepit building. It was extremely tall, far taller than most building in Ponyville. The factory had bland grey walls and many windows that had long since lost their glass lined the upper part of the exterior. Strangely, the building's roof was flat which lead Lyra to believe that perhaps the factory no longer had a roof.

The musician sighed heavily. It was about time she stopped standing around in the rain and had a chat with the DJ. As she approached the decrepit building, the music became louder and Lyra recognized it as the same song that was playing at the party as Berry was being thrown out. The unicorn now stood directly in front of the large metal door to the factory. She placed each of her fore-hooves on one of the doors and, with a little help from her horn, threw them open.

The factory's interior was in far worse shape than its exterior. The glass from the windows had all fallen inward and the entire room was littered with chunks of window. Catwalks snaked their way around the upper areas of the large room, some broken and hanging precariously. Pipes of all sizes lay scattered around the room, most not even close to their original places on the walls or ceiling. To Lyra's surprise, the building did have a ceiling and it was flat. There were obvious problems with it though. There were holes in several places, which the rain had formed large puddles under, and most of the roof appeared to be unstable and about to fall down.

The most noticeable feature of the whole room however was the large, pristine turn table towards the back. Sitting behind it, was a white unicorn with electric blue hair, purple sunglasses were pulled down over her eyes and she was vigorously nodding her head to the beat of the music. Lyra cleared her throat loudly, attempting to get the other unicorn's attention, but there was no response. The green mare decided to go for a more drastic plan to get Vinyl's attention. Lyra lifted one of the currently spinning records off of the DJ's turn table and threw it across the room. The record colided with the stone wall and shattered instantly.

The electric-maned pony whipped her head towards Lyra, a look of shock in her face. "What did you do that for?" Vinyl screamed at the soaking wet unicorn. Lyra walked slowly across the room, leaving a trail of water as she went. "Why did you have to kill them Vinyl?" The mint unicorn retorted. The DJ pony looked taken aback. "What do you mean Lyra? I didn't kill anypony!" Vinyl said. The musician scowled at the defending unicorn. She was still trying to pretend she was innocent. "Don't play dumb with me!" Lyra shouted causing Vinyl to cower, "I know you killed them. I went to your house. I found your empty journal. I know your trying to escape this but you just had to..." Lyra started to choke up. She continued, "You had to come and kill Bon Bon last night! You just couldn't leave us alone, could you?"

Vinyl looked entirely scared by Lyra's outburst. She stepped out from behind her turn table and started to walk towards the crying mare. "I didn't do anything like that Lyra. I'm so sorry that Bon Bon died and I'm sorry I couldn't be there to help. I've just been too scared of this killer to even be in Ponyville. That's why I'm out here, to get away from it all until this blows over," The DJ explained as she stopped right in front of Lyra. The sobbing unicorn raised her eyes too look into the reflective sunglasses of her friend. Mabee she had made a mistake. Perhaps Vinyl wasn't the vampire after all, but then, who was?

Suddenly, a cloaked figure appeared behind Vinyl. The creature pulled the DJ's head back by her mane and sunk its fangs into her neck. Vinyl's hooves raked in vain at the vampire's head, attempting to save herself. The unicorn's glasses fell from her face, revealing red eyes filled with fear. A fear that one can only know when they are not yet ready to die. The vampire released her and she fell limp to the floor, her body crumpling in a heap.

The vampire licked the DJ's blood from her lips and smiled. "That is always so satisfying," it said, throwing back its hood and revealing a familiar face.

Octavia stood before her, clothed in a black cloak that covered her entire body. Her White eyes looked like empty pits compared to the purple eyes Lyra was used to. Her smile revealed her long bloody fangs, still dripping with Vinyl's blood. The green unicorn stared in awe at the pony who not hours before was her friend. "What did you do?" Lyra screamed at the grey earth pony.

The cellist gave Lyra a gruesome smile, as if she was enjoying her horror. "I fed on her, was that not obvious?" Octavia said mockingly, "I thought you knew what I was all along. After all, you were the only one to take notice of Berry's wounds." Lyra was shocked. She knew the vampire knew she was looking for it, but the musician had never expected that it knew that Lyra knew what it truly was. "Why would you do it Octavia? Why would you kill all of our friends?" Lyra said pleadingly. The vampire seemed to take pleasure in the mint unicorn's misery. She turned around and began to walk across the room as she addressed Lyra's question. "Its been my plan all along really," She elaborated, "I made friends, played nice with everypony in town, all so that nopony would ever suspect that it was me who killed them. When you were all finally dead and gone, I would be left, the heartbroken musician with nothing left for her in Ponyville. Then I could move on to the next town and do it all over again."

The vampire stopped on the far side of the room. She looked at Vinyl's turn table and chuckled. The cloaked pony turned around and slammed her rear hooves into the turn table's side, sending it flying across the room. It smashed into the wall with such a force that it shattered just as the record had. The unicorn stared in disbelief at the vampire's feat of strength. It was impossible that such a small pony could ever have done anything close to that, but then again, she was not a pony.

"So what are you even here for Lyra?" Octavia inquired, turning her white, soulless eyes on the unicorn. "Did you come here to seek closure? That I think I already gave you, didn't I? Or did you come for revenge? What did you expect to kill me with, your bare hooves? Whatever it is, it doesn't matter now because you won't live long enough to have to care," The vampire mocked.

It began to laugh, just the same as it had earlier in the night after it had killed Bon Bon. The laugh resonated through Lyra's mind as immense pain shot through her entire being. The green mare dropped to the floor clutching her hooves to her ears in an attempt to blot out the horrid sound. "What is this?" the musician screamed through her pain. For a solitary moment, the unicorn felt relief from her pain as the egotistical boasted, "Its something all vampires can do. It messes with the mind and weakens prey so they can't fight back." The pain quickly resumed and Lyra felt as if her mind were being torn in two. If this was all to weaken her, that meant that Octavia would soon make the mint pony her next meal. The musician's mind spun as she attempted to block out the laughter enough to be able to focus, but the pain was far too immense for her to bear.

Suddenly, all the pain stopped and she was thrust to the ground. When Lyra opened her eyes, she found the vampire's face mere inches from her own. Its breath was as cold as ice and its eyes seemed to look directly into the mint mare's soul. She struggled to get out from under the creature's grip, but it was too strong. Octavia chuckled slightly at her attempt. "Oh that's sweet," she mused, "you're still trying to avoid it. Don't worry, this will only hurt a lot!"

The panic set in. She was about to become a meal for this vampire unless she found something to get the creature off her and fast. Lyra scanned the room searching for something to use as a weapon. There were shards of glass everywhere, but they were too small to do any real damage. There were the wooden shards of the turn table, but they were too far away for Lyra to reach, even with magic. Finally, the mint mare spotted something only a few feet off to her right. It was a length of metal pipe about a foot and a half long and a few inches wide. It would work perfectly.

Lyra struggled to concentrate. Her horn began to glow faintly and the pipe lifted off the ground. It seemed her plan was too late however, as the vampire began to lunge in, fangs bared, ready for he kill. She was out of time. In a last ditch effort, the musician concentrated as hard as she could, launched the pipe in her general direction, and hoped for the best.

Suddenly, there was a massive crack of metal on bone as the pipe slammed directly into the side of the monster's head, sending it flying across the room. The green unicorn rose shakily to her feet and began to stumble towards the limp for of Octavia. Half way to the body, Lyra retrieved the metal pipe and held it aloft beside her with her magic. Just as the musician was approaching the vampire, it stood up and Lyra saw the bloody wound that dominated the left side of its head. The cellist turned its head towards the unicorn and it glared at her before leaping up to the catwalks above.

Lyra quickly looked around for some way she could get up and peruse the murder. After a few moments, she realized there was only one way she was going to get up there, and she didn't like it one bit. The mint mare began to concentrate, her horn glowing an intense green. Her mind strained to cast the spell as it was still weak after the torment it had suffered at the hands of the vampire's laughter. Finally, Lyra managed to complete her spell and she immediately disappeared. After her brief period of nothingness, the musician felt her hooves hit the cold metal of the catwalks and heard her pipe clang to the floor next to her. The mint unicorn lifted her pipe and walked slowly and shakily along the unstable platform.

Her head throbbed and it was difficult to see. Lyra whipped around but found nothing behind her. She could have sworn she heard something. Perhaps it was just her strained mind playing tricks on her. As she turned back around, the green mare found herself face to face with the vampire, its fangs bared, ready to kill her just as it had done to so many others. Lyra instinctively swung the pipe at the creature's head, but it was ready for her this time. It quickly jumped backwards a few feet, just far enough away so that she couldn't take a second swing. She wasn't just going to play defensive forever though. The musician ran forward and swung again at Octavia's head and again it jumped backwards. The two continued this little dance for a few moments before Lyra realized it was just messing with her. It knew it could win so it was toying with her.

The unicorn would need a new strategy, something that was sure to kill it. She looked around quickly between swings as the cellist continued to leap backwards. She saw it, her solution. All she had to do was get the vampire to go to it. Lyra continued to swing at the vampire's head as it continued to back away and soon it found itself with its back to a wall. The earth pony smiled its fanged smile and just as Lyra swung at it, the vampire leaped over her and landed behind the attacking unicorn. Lyra was expecting this however and she quickly swung around and smacked the rusty chain that held the catwalk to the ceiling with her weapon. The chain shattered under her assault and the platform beneath them groaned and began to lean heavily.

Octavia began to panic. It looked for somewhere to go since it knew this platform wouldn't last much longer. It leaped across to a separate catwalk a few feet away in an attepemt to escape its fate but as soon as it landed on its new platform, a large crack echoed through the factory. The catwalk beneath the vampire fell as the creature's sudden arrival shattered the old, rusted, and fragile chains that held it. The creature entered into a free fall and its screams were heard in Ponyville. The entire building was flooded with noise as chunks of catwalk and broken chain slammed into the wet floor.

The calamity wasn't over yet however, as Lyra's platform now shifted as the chains struggled to hold it up. The musician feared she would meet a similar fate to her prey if she didn't do something quick. The catwalk fell just as the unicorn once again disappeared. she slammed face first into the ground a few feet away from the pile of metal that used to be attached to the ceiling. She struggled to stand up and was barely able to do so. She was exhausted, both body and mind, but still she had one thing left to do so she stumbled over to the rubble.

Laying under a particularly large chunk of platform was Octavia, severely wounded and dying. The vampire's head wound had started bleeding again and its white eyes were starting to glaze over. The creature looked up at her killer and growled, "You won't get away with this. The Alpha will find you and he will kill you for what you have done!" Lyra stared into the vampire's soulless pits of eyes and replied, "Let your Alpha come." With that, the musician drove the pipe straight through the cellists head to ensure she died.

Lyra stood on a hill overlooking the factory. That place had too much pain for her, but there was nothing better for her in Ponyville. Octavia had taken everything from her. Killing its kind was all that was left to the mint unicorn now. Before she could even start though, she would need to train, to get ready to be the protector of pony-kind from vampires. The mare turned around and slipped her pipe into her saddle bag next to her lyre. She threw the hood of her new black cloak up over her head and walked back into Ponyville.