The pony walked slowly down a dark street, her hooves softly clicking against the cobblestone. No pony was in sight, all the windows of the adjacent houses were pitch black, and the bleak avenue seemed to stretch on forever into the darkness. She walked for what seemed like hours in this fashion. Every once in a while, a sound caught her attention, but when she turned to look, she found nothing. The pony just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was following her.
Suddenly, a light, rivaling Celestia’s sun shone out in front of her. The light burned its way into her eyes and she screwed them tight to avoid this sudden pain. As the light shined on, she found herself confronted with an uncontrollable urge to open her eyes. The pony hated that idea. She knew if she did, the light would blind her and it almost felt that this light itself was threatening to burn her away into nothingness, but only if she looked at it.
Yet she couldn’t resist. The pony opened her eyes to find the light was entirely gone. In its place stood a shadow, its entire form seeming to waiver with the slightest breeze. What was this thing and where had the light gone? The shadow moved slowly towards the pony, seeming to leave behind a bit of itself with every step. As it neared, the world appeared to darken. Everything besides this entity faded out of existence. The buildings, the road, the sky, everything disappeared. All that was left was the pony, this shadow, and the darkness around them.
The shadow’s surface seemed to bubble, as if somepony was boiling water. It writhed and contorted as shapes began to arise from its surface. First, hooves began to drop out from underneath it, and then a back arched out of the darkness, like a cat stretching. Soon, most of a pony was kneeling on the darkness that was the ground. All of it was formed but the writhing mass of darkness that still formed where its head should be.
The monstrosity’s “head” quickly began to shift between many different forms. It became a young filly, then an old colt with a white mane, then a beautiful mare with a look of pure terror on her face. It continued to rapidly shift between these faces, each one bore a look similar to the mare’s, a look of pure horror. Suddenly the pony understood what the faces were. They were the last thing the ponies had experienced before their deaths and the look was always the same: fear.
All of a sudden, the writhing stopped. The darkness had settled on a blank face. The creature lacked features. No eyes, no mouth, no mane, nothing. The shadow pony stared directly into the real pony’s eyes and she could almost begin to make out her own reflection in its face. Before she could see anything clearly however, the creature turned around. A horrible grating, echoing voice seemed to escape from the essence of the shadow.
“I give my gift to you. Use it wisely,”
~~~
The pony’s eyes flew open. Thank Celestia it was only a dream. The pony attempted to stretch the stiffness out of her joints, but before she even extender her fore legs halfway, they collided with something hard. What was going on here? What could she have hit? Once again, she lifted her fore legs up and once again she came into contact with something.
She slowly moved her hooves across its abrasive surface. Suddenly, a splitting pain shot through her hoof. She retracted it back in front of her face so she would be able to see what happened in the small amount of light that existed in the cramped space. Upon inspection, she found a splinter protruding from her hoof. She raised the shard of wood to her mouth and used her teeth to rip it out of her hoof. The pony shook out her wounded hoof, accidentally hitting it on the low roof a few times.
Wait a second, low roof, cramped walls, minimal light, made of wood… She was in a coffin! Why was she buried? Was she dead? What would she do? Her mind whirled with questions but she forced herself to think. She could figure all this out after she escaped.
Once again, she raised her hoof to the roof of the coffin. Slowly, so as not to get another splinter, the pony began to move her fore hooves along the coarse, wooden surface. There had to be something here, this coffin most defiantly wasn’t perfect, especially considering the thin layer of dirt that coated almost the entirety of the box’s interior. Finally she hit something. The pony slid her hoof across it several times, just to make certain. It was a rather large crack in the coffin’s roof where the pressure from the dirt above had caused it to cave in slightly. Apparently whoever had buried her had truly thought she was dead and so they hadn’t bothered to build the box very well.
She would only get one shot at this, so she would have to make every second count. The pony inhaled deeply and prepared herself for what she was about to do. In one swift motion, she drove her fore hoof into the cracked section of the casket. Instantly the sound of shattering wood assaulted her ears as splinters of the broken coffin rained down into the interior. Dirt quickly seeped in to fill what little space she had and threatened to fill the whole casket in that single instant.
Then, suddenly, the dirt stopped flowing. The loose earth formed a large mound that now dominated half the casket. She turned her head towards the mound and studied it for a minute. It was obviously dirt, but it hadn’t sat for very long. Evidently she hadn’t been buried for more than a week or two at the most, perhaps only a few days.
The “dead” pony would have started digging her way out if not for one small problem: The inflow of dirt had trapped her entire fore leg up to her shoulder under a mound of earth. She violently thrashed her arm about under the pile, but only succeeded in getting even further stuck. It was obvious that she wouldn’t be able to use that hoof to get out. There had to be some other way.
~~~
The vampire stood before a newly buried grave. He always hated this job. Why the Alpha would want to waste his considerable talent on welcoming new blood was certainly beyond him. For what seemed like the hundredth time that night, the colt looked up at the moon. The bright orb hadn’t moved much since the last time he checked, but that didn’t surprise the vampire, considering how often he had checked.
He groaned loudly. This pony was taking forever to get up. Why was this vampire so important anyways? Of course every new vampire always got somepony to welcome them into their new life, but why did this particular pony warrant such a high ranking vampire to welcome them?
That obnoxious Shadowbolt had tried to explain it to him before her left, but the vampire hadn’t paid much attention. Apparently, a vampire had been killed, not that that was anything too extremely strange, but it was the way she had died that was so unusual. Strangely, Octavia, one of the Alpha’s more trusted vampires, was found dead with a massive hole in her head, almost as if someone had murdered her. The colt scoffed at the idea that somepony had gotten the jump on Octavia. She was devious and preferred to deeply infiltrate towns and befriend their natives before savagely killing them all.
The Alpha was thoroughly convinced it was murder though. He even went so far as to believe that there was somepony who was hunting vampires now and that they were just laying low at the moment. As far as he remembered, the Alpha thought that the pony in this grave would prove to be a valuable asset against this hunter.
Suddenly, a movement from the grave caught the vampire’s eye. A hoof shot out of the dirt, quickly followed be a second, each one grabbing onto the surface grass as if they were hanging off the edge of a cliff. Slowly but surely, a mare’s head rose from the grave, her mane filled with dirt, panting as if this was the most difficult thing she had ever done in her life. It took the mare a few seconds before she noticed the vampire staring at her. Her empty white eyes, the signature characteristic of a vampire, stared directly at him, as if he was a threat to her newly returned life. The colt smiled widely, baring his fangs in the process. He extended his fore leg out to her.
“Come with me,” the vampire said, “There is somepony who would very much like to meet you.”
Chapter 1 - The Best Night Ever
Lyra stared blankly at the empty seat opposite her. The musician sighed heavily. She kept imagining her sitting there, her perfect cream coat, her blue and pink mane. The thoughts only made Lyra even more depressed though, after all, Bon Bon would never be able to be here again.
The retched creature had taken the earth pony from Lyra. It burned her inside to know that one of her good friends had been waiting to kill her for years. It had been an entire year since that, she though. The unicorn should be over this by now, but it was no use. She just couldn't bring herself to forget.
Octavia had spurred on a change within the mint mare. Where before she was contempt to waste the days away playing her lyre, Lyra now found little joy in anything. Most things only seemed to remind her on Bon Bon. Just being in the home they used to share had been too much for the lonely unicorn. She had left the place of her shame, and journeyed to a place nopony would ever go.
~~~
It had seemed like ages since Lyra had stood in this room, though in truth it had only been a few days. She walked slowly through the ruined space, stepping over chunks of metal and glass. Soon she approached the large mass of metal that had once formed a catwalk. As the musician walked around the side of the pile, she found to limp body of a grey earth pony, her coat streaked with blood. She was completely buried beneath the mountain of metal and was far beyond any help.
Lyra walked up to the corpse and laid her hoof on its head. She looked down at the pony’s scarred head. She began to slide her hoof across the dead pony’s head as she quietly talked to herself,
“Hello again old friend.” Lyra began, “It’s been a while hasn't it? Things still going well with you? It isn't going so well for me. Bon Bon left me, you know, after you murdered her!” The green unicorn’s hoof came to a stop on a large rather large hole through the grey pony’s head.
“That doesn't really matter too much anymore, now does it Octavia?” Lyra growled, “You had to do it, didn't you? You couldn't have found somewhere else to feed, some other pony’s life to ruin? I won’t let this happen to anypony else, you mark my words vampire, I’ll hunt down and kill every last one of you and there’s nothing you or your Alpha can do about it!” Her voice had risen to a yell and her word echoed off the stone walls.
~~~
It had been about a year since that fateful day and Lyra had spent every day preparing for this moment. Her new life was before her and tonight would be her rebirth.
Her carriage rocked violently. The two colts who were pulling her along were obviously having trouble making their way up the last few feet. Suddenly her transport came to a halt. The musician steeled herself for what she knew was to come. The carriage door opened slowly and a large green unicorn stallion helped her down from her seat.
Lyra stared out across the scene before her. She could hardly believe she was here. The mint unicorn had spent all her life savings and sold every last thing her deceased friends owned just to get here, but oh was it worth it.
The grand castle of Canterlot greeted the musician as she trotted away from her ride. The gleaming spires rose up high into the night sky which was illuminated with brightly colored fireworks. Down at the gates, Lyra spotted a massive crowd of ponies, each of them dressed in various sorts of formal attire and all appearing to be of high social status. The musician had arrived a bit late so as to avoid a bit of the initial hype, but it seemed as though she wasn't missing much of it. Joyful singing drifted up to her as she saw the shapes of six ponies walk slowly through the gates of Canterlot's castle followed closely by the majority of the crowd.
It wouldn't do he any good to just stand around her any longer. Lyra began to walk slowly towards the beckoning gates. As she approached, the musician felt her heart begin to pound. It seemed as if everypony was staring at her. Was there something wrong with her? She quickly checked her blue-green mane, her simple white and gold dress, and even made sure she had every horseshoe on but found everything to be in order.
Still Lyra could help the fact that everypony was watching her, judging her every movement as if she didn't belong here. What if they knew what she had done? Had they branded her a murderer without her knowing? Questions flooded through her mind all while she felt the eyes of everypony burning into her mint green coat. What did they want from her?
The unicorn forced herself to relax. She flipped open her saddle bag and withdrew a small metal flask. Quickly, the musician levitated the flask up to her mouth and took a swig of its contents. The pony shuddered as the intoxicating liquid flowed into her body and calmed her mind. He fears were getting the best of her. She wouldn't let that happen again.
~~~
Lyra spent hours wandering the grounds, searching for the thing she knew would be here. A vampire. There was no way they could stay away from such a massive gathering. Something was bound to go wrong at some point and then they would have to opportune time to feast.
The hunter had searched for several hours before finally giving up and heading to the dining hall to relax. The hall, which normally would have been used for formal dinners, had been transformed into an area for music and dancing. Tables crowded every part of the room except for a sizable area in the center which had been cleared to make room for a dance floor.
Surprisingly, Lyra recognized somepony among the crowd. A friendly face in this throng of judgement. The pink mare was darting all across the room, treating the formal dance as if it was one of her own rowdy parties. Normally the intoxicated unicorn would have joined in with Pinkie's antics, but she decide to stay out this time. After all, she had far too much to do.
Lyra moved to the back of the room and proceeded to search the crowd in an attempt to find the vampire. Perhaps it was the uptight rich pony who was babbling about his exploits while his lackey pick-pocketed the pony he was talking to. Maybe it was the socially awkward mare who was attempting, unsuccessfully, to dance without a partner. Perhaps it was even the boastful blue Pegasus who was attempting to talk her way into the VIP section.
The hunter quickly dismissed most of the crowd, but one pony in particular piqued her interest. He was a sturdily built brown pegasus with well quaffed, bright orange mane which was mostly covered by a black top hat. The colt was twitching constantly, as if he was expecting something horrible to happen. He was constantly checking behind himself as if he believed he was being followed and he kept flashing random ponies hungry looks. This had to be the vampire. All Lyra had to do now was wait until he struck and she had all the time in the world to wait.
~~~
Lyra was awoken suddenly by a large crash to her left. The musician leaped up to find a massive stone column in pieces in the direction of the crash. Apparently Lyra ha dozed off waiting for the vampire to attack and the gala had gone to Tartarus while she was asleep.
Once again, Lyra scanned the now destroyed room in search of her target. Ponies were running every which way in an attempt to avoid the room's imminent destruction making it extremely difficult to locate a single pony in the madness.
After a few seconds of searching, the hunter located her prey, and just in time too. The vampire had a thin brown earth pony pinned to the ground on the dance floor and Lyra assumed he wasn't just making a move on the other colt. As the creature began to rear back for its attack, Lyra sprung into action. She quickly threw of her fancy dress to reveal a long black cloak that covered her entire form. The hunter swiftly drew her weapon of choice, a one foot length of metal piping, from her saddle bag and held it in her telekinetic grip beside her as she galloped towards the vampire.
As the pegasus lunged for its victim's neck, Lyra sent her pipe flying across the room towards the creature and activated her magic at the same time. The pipe slammed directly into the vampire's side, knocking it off the helpless colt just as Lyra appeared out of her teleportation. The hunter quickly pulled her weapon back to her and helped the would be victim back up to his hooves.
"You okay?" Lyra asked hastily.
"I'll be alright. Thank you for rescuing me, my name is..." The colt began, extending his hoof out to the hunter in greeting but before he could finish, the musician cut him off.
"There will be time for thank yous later, but for now, I still have a vampire to kill," the cloaked pony explained. The colt seemed to understand the severity of the situation. He nodded sharply before running off to leave Lyra to fight the vampire alone.
This was just the way she liked it. Hunter vs vampire, the epic duel. The vampire made the first move, leaping straight into the air and proceeding to hover there. Lyra frowned. This might be a bit of a problem.
The creatures eyes narrowed as if challenging Lyra to do something, but she refused to budge, instead assuming a combat stance. Once again, the brown pegasus entered into a sharp dive, heading straight for the hunter, its hat flying off in the process. The vampire beat its wings furiously in an attempt to gain more speed. The wind began to whistle around the hunter as the attacking colt neared. Just as the vampire was about to strike however, Lyra was consumed in a bright flash of green light. The monster slammed face first into the hard ground with a sickening crunch.
The green mare appeared a few feet away from the impact, her head swimming from the effort of casting her teleportation spell. She stumble over to the spot where she had been standing only moments before. The musician found a rather large crater, about twice the length of a pony and about half that amount deep. In the bottom of the impact zone lay the vampire. The creature looked strangely unharmed for such a high impact.
As the hunter was observing the crashed pegasus however, the creature began to straighten up. It stood up, its spine popping several times before returning to its original position. The colt lifted its head and turned it both left and right, causing it to crack a few time. The wounded vampire floated itself up until its eyes were level with the hunter's. the empty white voids that comprised its eyes looked directly into the unicorns yellow orbs. Its stare conveyed a hate unlike any Lyra had ever seen before.
The monster released a blood curdling hiss, baring its fangs, before leaping forward. The colt pinned her to the ground and its overpowering strength prevented her form struggling her way free. She had trained for this situation though. The mint mare threw her hind legs into the monster's chest and, with a little extra help form her horn, managed to throw the brown pegasus off her. It seemed surprised by this sudden attack. Lyra took the moment to react.
The hunter leaped forward at the vampire and swung her pipe towards the creature's head. The vampire quickly ducked, narrowly avoiding the strike. The colt was prepared to dodge another strike, but found the unicorn was no longer in front of it.
Once again Lyra reappeared from her teleportation, this time directly behind the pegasus. She swung her pipe again. This time the weapon found its mark, landing squarely in the side of the vampire's head. The monster was caught of guard and fell on its side. The musician quickly placed one of her fore hooves on the monster's chest and used her magic to hold the colt down, preventing its escape.
Lyra grinned at the sight of her helpless prey. She began to understand why Octavia had enjoyed this. She shook those thoughts out of her head. She couldn't think like that or else she risked becoming just as bad as the vampires themselves.
The hunter bent over so her face was mere inches from the helpless monster's. the creature's empty white eyes began to fill. Slowly a vibrant orange filled into the space until the pegasus almost looked normal. The brown colt looked sorrowfully at the mint mare, but Lyra felt no pity for it.
"The Alpha knew you would be here." The vampire croaked, its voice hoarse and quiet.
"Did he now?" Lyra mused. She was very skeptical that the vampire knew anything about her. After all, it's not like Octavia could have told him that Lyra had killed her.
"He wanted to say that he knows who you are and that he will be watching your progress with great interest," the orange maned pony said slowly. It seemed that just the effort of speaking the words hurt it immensely. How was that even possible? How could this Alpha, this one vampire, know who she was and if it did know, why didn't it just kill her? This was getting all so strange and just thinking about it was causing Lyra's head to spin.
For a moment the musician had almost forgotten about the squirming vampire beneath her hoof. It was probably staring to become cruel and unusual punishment to hold him like this.
"Well, this has been fun but I think it's time to part ways and I'm sorry but only one of us is going to make it out of here alive." Lyra concluded.
"I agree," the vampire said, a large grin growing on its face. Before Lyra even had a chance to react, the vampire had freed its wings and lifted off the ground, causing the hunter to be thrown back. Lyra quickly got back on her hooves and searched for the monster, but it was nowhere to be found. The unicorn looked frantically around but found no trace of the pegasus anywhere. In a fit of frustration, the hunter threw back her head and yelled,
"Quit running and show yourself!" Suddenly, she felt a cold breeze assaulting the back of her neck and sending chills down her spine.
"If you say so," a voice whispered from behind her. Just like that, it clicked for the hunter, and she was ready for what was coming next. The unicorn's horn began to glow as she concentrated intently on her next spell.
Her form disappeared and Lyra found herself floating in the familiar nothingness of teleportation. In less than a second, Lyra found her hooves hitting the stone floor of the gala again, her pipe ready for its duty. Greeting her the vampire its back to her in mid lunge, apparently still believing that the unicorn was standing in front of it. Lyra thrust her weapon forward with great force. The tube of metal flew through the air in a cloud of green magic, sending a slight whistle behind it before it found its mark. The pipe sunk deep into the back if the vampire's head. The creature immediately fell limp to the floor with a thud, its blood beginning to pool around it.
The hunter threw back her hood and looked at her kill. This was only the beginning. There were many more vampires who would need to die before Equestria would be safe. All that could wait for another day however. Right now, Lyra needed a drink.
~~~
The green mare walked slowly through the rotting wooden doors of her favorite bar in Canterlot. The place was a hole in the wall and everypony, even its elderly owner, knew it. It was almost a guarantee that the place would be empty on any given night and that's just how Lyra liked it. She couldn't handle big crowds.
The owner was almost never around and tonight was no exception. The weary musician sat atop a creaky bar stool and threw her saddle bag to the ground. The greeting that had become a tradition over the last few months drew out a young mare from the back room. As the door closed behind her, a loud bought of coughing could be heard. The forest green mare turned back to the door and cooed softly to the sick pony on the other side before approaching the bar,
The earth pony was distraught as usual, her black mane unkempt and her eyes glazed over with sleepiness.
"Still having troubles with your old man?" Lyra said, acknowledging the other mare's presence. The barkeeper nodded in silent agreement. The silent mare walked over to a large barrel with a spout jutting out of its front and turned to Lyra.
"Same thing as always?" She asked.
"Of course, Bright Brew," the hunter replied whimsically. The Brew family had owned this bar for years and in its hay day the place was filled every night. The place had gone downhill in the last few years though and now the green musician was the only regular.
Bright Brew carried a large tankard of apple cider over to the hunter and clunked the drink down on the bar in front of her. The frothy liquid slashed about in its cup, spilling a bit of the counter before coming to a rest again. Lyra levitated the drink up to her mouth and took a long drink. She suffered as the alcohol entered her system. This was more like it.
Satisfied with her drink for now, Lyra opened her saddle bag and pulled out her prized possession: a golden lyre. This object had been her joy and only companion for the last year. Playing it on the streets of Ponyville had allowed her to eat and now it funded her alcoholic antics.
The musician leaned back against the bar and began to slowly strum, filling the dreary incitement with joyous music. Lyra stopped her strumming only once in the next hour and that was only to take another swig of her cider.
The mare was so lost in her music that she didn't even notice the colt who had sat down next to her. The pony cleared his throat softly in an attempt to get the musician's attention. Lyra was quickly caught off guard. She nearly dropped her lyre, only catching it in her magical grip at the last second.
She turned her gaze to the pony who had gotten the jump on her. She was surprised to find that it was the same pony she had saved from the vampire earlier that night.
"What in Tartarus are you doing here?" Lyra asked, angry not only that he had almost caused her to drop her instrument, but that he had followed her to her favorite hideaway.
"I'm sorry if I've offended you somehow, but I just thought I should give you a proper thank you. After all, you did save my life earlier tonight," the colt responded politely. He was a very thin colt, it was obvious that he didn't enjoy any sort of exercise. Both his coat and mane were a brown color, though his mar was a slightly darker shade. Most peculiarly though was the fact that his mane stood straight up, almost like a mohawk, but not quite.
"Alright, lets hear your thank you then. I don't have all night you know," Lyra said dismissively.
"Judging by how lost you were in your music I thought you did, but I digress. My name is hooves, Dr. Hooves if you want to be formal. I am head of Chronometry at Canterlot university. I'd like to extend a personal thank you for saving my life. I am truly in your debt miss..." The professor trailed off, evidently looking for the name of his rescuer.
"Lyra, Lyra Heartstrings if you want to be formal," The hunter said mockingly. Hooves seemed unamused.
The barkeeper plopped a second drink on the counter for the doctor and withdrew to her father's bedside. Hooves looked quizzically at the drink for a few seconds, almost mesmerized by it.
"What, never seen cider before?" Lyra chuckled.
"No, I just don't drink," the doctor responded. Lyra gasped loudly.
"Don't drink! How can you not drink!" The hunter yelled at the upper-class colt. Hooves merely shot the unicorn a disapproving look. The unicorn shook off the insulting look before returning to the subject of the alcoholic substance before the earth pony.
"So if your not going to drink that, do you think I could...?" Lyra asked slowly. The professor pushed the tankard towards Lyra.
"Be my guest," he said. As Lyra began to chug the intoxicating liquid, Hooves began to inch away from the drunkard.
"So if you ever need anything in Canterlot, I'll bee happy to help," the earth pony said as he began to walk towards the door. Lyra slammed her empty drink into the counter and turned towards the retreating educator.
"Hey, before you leave, could I ask you a favor?" The drunk mare asked.
"Of course, what do you need?" Hooves responded.
"Could you do some research on vampires for me? I need to know everything I'm up against," Lyra explained.
"Sure. I'll have it to you in a few days, just stop by the university and I can..." The professor began, but the hunter cut him off.
"I won't be in Canterlot in a few days. I'm going to Manehattan tomorrow and I won't be back for a couple weeks. Could you just meet me here when I get back?" The hunter explained quickly.
"Absolutely, but how will I know your back?" The brown colt asked.
"You'll know," she said flatly. With the the colt nodded and walked out the door. Lyra turned back to her first drink. She lifted the tankard to her mouth and downed its contents. The unicorn slammed the glass down onto the bar and yelled,
"Hey Bright, another round!"
