Corruption: Third Edition

Twilight woke up, and sat herself up. She immediately regretted this as she was hit with a wave of nausea, and a pounding headache.

“Ughhhh...” she groaned “Rarity… I feel awful…” she looked around, and saw she was in the second bedroom, and that the others were nowhere to be found.

Begrudgingly, she made her way to the kitchen, regretting moving with every step. Was this how a hangover felt? She couldn’t remember drinking that much, but- wait, come to think of it, her memories were pretty fuzzy from the dinner onwards. She vaguely remembered throwing up, and Rarity saying something about… something. Shrugging, Twi walked into the kitchen to find the three vampires eating breakfast, or maybe dinner? Eating pancakes, with a generous helping of syrup, in silence.

“Morning, dork. Sun’s gonna be up in a few.” said Rainbow Dash, yawning.

“What time is it...” mumbled Twilight, taking a seat, and giving herself a pancake.

“You’ve been out for hoooooours, TwiTwi!” said Pinkie cheerfully. “Rarity said you got super duper drunk on that sweet wine. I love sweet wine, but gosh, I never have that much!”

“Pinkie dear, you can’t metabolise alcohol, it wouldn’t matter how much you had.” said Rarity, tiredly.

“Uhm,” said Twilight “what’s up, everyone? You seem kinda on edge.”

The atmosphere in the room changed, as if everyone shrank away from Twilight at that. Twilight began to seriously worry.

“What’s wrong?” she queried.

“Twilight, darling…” Rarity began, grimacing “Do you know the mare that controls dangerous creatures?”

“Yeah, Fluttershy, I met her on the train here.” Twilight was puzzled “why do you ask?”

“Well…” Rarity said, slowly.

“Ugh, let’s just tell her already!” said Dash exasperatedly. “Twilight, the dreastalker got Thunderlane.”

Twilight went pale. There was a moment of silence as she processed this. How could Thunderlane be dead? He did normal boring things and led a normal boring life, how could he have- She had hated him, but she had also liked dancing with him, and- and-
Twilight started to sob.

Rarity stroked Twilight’s mane. “He didn’t deserve that…” she said. “Would you like to stay home today? Or would you like to work, to put your mind off it?”

“I… want to apologize to his friends… and then, maybe, I’ll….” Twilight paused “I don’t know Rarity. Why is death so hard?”

“Immortality would so suit you, dear.” came a soft reply. “Come on, you two, let’s go into town.”

Pinks and Dash nodded, and hugged Twilight before the three set off towards town.

When they came to the crossroads in town, the four paused. Twilight wondered again if it was even worth apologizing. She voiced her thoughts. “Rarity, do you think I should even apologize to his friends?”

Dash smirked, and Rarity slapped the pegasus on the back of the head, before replying “now, that isn’t quite my question to answer, is it my dear? Why would you want to not apologize?”

Twilight scrunched her eyes in thought. “Well, I certainly didn’t like his friends, and never had any ties to them. I just feel slightly obliged to comfort them, you know? Something about honoring the dead, maybe…”

Pinkie pounced at Twilight, hugging her tightly. “You’re an awesome person TwiTwi. You can honor him by remembering him! That’s what we do! He won’t care anymore, because he’s dead, but he still exists as a memory to you.” She pulled back, grinning “Unless you plan to forget him, you’re already giving him more honor than he could ask for- and, plus, when you become one of us, you’ll remember him for all eternity!”

Twilight was stunned at such wisdom coming from such an aloof mare. She pulled Pinkie back into the hug, to disapproving murmurs of the few passers-by. She felt tears well up inside anew, finally coming to terms with the fact of his death.

“Thank you, Pinkie,” she sobbed “That means a lot to me…” she turned to the others, continuing “I think I’m alright from here, girls. I’m going to work, and I kinda need some alone time to think about stuff.”

Rarity nodded, and blew a kiss at Twilight, before turning with the others and walking away. Dash turned around, and called out to Twilight “Don’t you go getting lost on the way home, dork!”

Twilight smiled in reply “I won’t, mom.”
“WOOOOT” cried Pinkie “Dashie got BURNED!”

The four mares parted, each content and a little happier than they had set out. Twilight went on autopilot, and walked her usual route to the shop, when she bumped into someone.

“Oops, I’m sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was-” she began, before looking at who she had collided with. “Fluttershy! I haven’t seen you in ages!”

The yellow pegasus smiled happily “Twilight, hey! I’m glad you remembered me. How are you? I heard you knew thunderlane…” she trailed off.

“Yeah…” Twi said, sadly “But I think I’m alright with it, as cold as that sounds?”

Fluttershy shook her head. “Not at all, lingering on what was will only cause pain, I find. Don’t you think? I mean, having seen the poor stallion in that state, I could hardly bare to hold on to the thought…”

Twilight’s interest was piqued. As she was vaguely aware of, Fluttershy was the only one in town that could’ve really identified the body as a dreadstalker attack. But the fact that such a seemingly delicate mare could be this cheery after seeing- well, Fluttershy had already described to her the graphic nature of a dreastalker’s killing. Slightly concerned, she asked “Are you ok, Fluttershy? You saw him dead?”

Fluttershy’s expression darkened. “I was the one that found him actually. You remember how I told you dreadstalkers kill?” Twilight nodded. “His ribs were ripped open, and the autopsy determined they were broken outwards. That, and the blood was drained from his body. Typical traits of a dreadstalker attack.” her expression became more dutiful, and her tone shifted to confidence. “I’m going to redouble my efforts to find it. As unfortunate as this death was, it confirms that the dreadstalker is still here.”

Twilight was baffled, but in awe of Fluttershy’s determination. “I’ll leave you to it then?”

Flutters smiled “Leave it to me!” she said with conviction, and started to walk away.

Twilight smiled to herself, and continued to walk to work. With someone as smart as Fluttershy on the case, she was sure that the dreadstalker would be found and dealt with in not time at all. It was slightly curious that Fluttershy was walking around at night, but it was getting close to dawn, and the poor mare had probably been up all night investigating the body. Thunderlane’s body, she corrected herself. Always remember him, and honor the life that he had. That was all she could really do, after all.

Before long, she was at the shop, and saw a panicked Applejack waiting outside, the usual boxes of apples in tow. What could have gotten her this worked up? Twilight wondered briefly before she was hit with a dark realization, the puzzle pieces becoming one in her mind. The drained blood. How AJ insisted there simply was no dreadstalker. How it was only seen at night, and killed violently and cruelly. The vampire serial killer; the melodious lady. She paled, and froze in place. She opened her mouth, as if to speak to Applejack, but thought better of it. She turned tail and bolted back the way she had come.

“Twilight!” called out the southern voice. “Wait! Ah need ta talk to ya!”

Twilight ignored her, and pushed herself to run onwards faster than she had ever thought she could. Her muscles screamed at her, and her lungs burned, but still she ran. She ran and ran and ran and-

And Twilight screeched to a halt outside her old apartment. Panting, she decided to take a breather in there. The dots connected, there was no way she could rest. Her mind raced through ways this killing could have, in fact, been a murder. Brute force? No, that wouldn’t explain the direction the ribs were broken. No, this left only…

“Magic!” Twilight exclaimed, and pulled a box over to herself with her magic, and lifted them all into the air around herself, looking for the right book. “No, no, no… maybe? ...no. AHA!”

The other books fell to the ground in a vaguely stack-shaped mess. “Here we go!” she said “Octus the mad’s journals on bones and their properties!” she chuckled to herself before adding “They never did find that crazy mare.”

She flipped to the index, until she found the appropriate section, ‘ribs’. Ignoring various potion uses, and recipes for foodstuffs, Twilight found what she was looking for, a table detailing the resistance of ribs against forces. “Male stallion, adult…” she mused “... roughly 220 megapascals.” While this was quite far out of the range of a normal unicorn’s telekinesis, there was still the wild-card factor of magic strength increasing with the age of the vampire… which she would do some research on when she became one herself.

At this thought she glowed. She was going to do this, and she loved the thought- to be with her friends and her marefriend, forever.

“Oh!” she said, in realization “I’ll just ask Rarity how much stronger she is!”

Running some numbers in her head, she packed away her books, and locked the door behind herself. It was time to do some bucking math.