Rarity pointed to a sewer cap. "We won't know until we find out, will we dear?" With a glowing horn she... discovered sewer caps were far heavier than they looked, and they already looked fairly substantial. "Darling, a... hand if you would..."

Bright scurried over, grabbing the glowing cap and heaving with all his might. The two of them working together slowly got it just a bit up, enough to shove it aside, allowing a sliver of light to penetrate those dark and gloomy depths.

Bright slapped his hands together, wiping off the dust. "Well, um... Now we go into the stink-hole?"

Rarity rolled her eyes. "Yes, unless another idea has come to you, dear?"

"Sadly not." Resigning himself to his fate, Bright jumped down, vanishing from sight instantly.

A muffled splash echoed up from the shadows below. "Woah didn't expect it to get deep so fast!" Bright's voice wavered slightly. "Um, floaty bat mode activate! Now would be an awesome time!"

Rarity sighed humorously. These subterranean excursions were clearly a bit outside her erstwhile familiar's comfort zone...though perhaps hers as well if she admitted regal sensibilities skeptical of sloshing through sewers. Still, such discovery required flexibility from even the most glamorous divas...

"Worry not, brave scout, Rarity never sends heroes unprepared into unsavory straits!" Her horn flashed elegantly crafting a gossamer platform of glittering gemstone gilding spiral stair-stepping into the obscure depths. She gingerly alighted upon the glowing platform. "I'll make sure we don't have to get ourselves too messy pursuing this little problem."

The chic glowing walkway manifested out from under Rarity's hooves, resources or pride no barrier to pursuing this strange magical disruption threatening chaos across her adopted nocturnal family. Dainty fashionista facade or no, fierce devotion to protecting Equestria's vulnerable creatures coursed Rarity's veins ever deeper than vampire might alone...

"Onward we venture then!" Horn glowing brightly with manifesting her walkway, Rarity cantered carefully downwards, calling gently to submerged shape thrashing ahead. "Take courage as night takes wing."

Bright looked up at his mistress walking over the mare. He spread his own vampiric wings and quickly darted up to join her. "I forgot I even had those."

Rarity shook her head as her familiar joined her. "You are new yet." She snorted with thought. "In the eyes of many of the other vampires, I am barely turned. An infant, in their words."

"Jerks." Bright crossed his arms, walking along with Rarity. "You're no baby, except maybe mine?"

Rarity tittered joyfully, leaning against Bright. "I'll accept that and only that use of the word, dear. Now, let's focus ourselves. We have a mystery before us!"

The sewers seemed unremarkable as sanitation devices went. They wound their way further and further into the maze of tunnels and passages, until Bright reached at his back, scratching at his wings. "That feels... funny." He spread them, but they felt limp. "I think we're getting closer."

Rarity frowned at the report. "On one hoof, good, on the other... I don't like it. Fortunately." She tapped the platform beneath them. "This is unicorn magic, which seems to be spared? For now at least."

Rarity frowned, perturbed at Bright's mention of discomfort and potential further destabilization of their hybrid enhancements amidst the oppressive gloom. What sinister forces flowed and festered beneath Equestria's gleaming facade preying so insidiously on the arcane?

Glancing warily about at the claustrophobic pipelines surrounding them, Rarity redoubled mystical luminosity from her spiraling crystal bridge stretching security into the abyssal unknown. "Seems only proper unicorn magic still works even this close..." She trailed off uncertainly, aged fears stirring.

"Yet delving deeper risks greater unravelling if this confounding effect increases!" Rarity turned suddenly to study anxious Bright, memory sparked by his eerie symptoms. "You said your wings faltered, yes?" She waited as Bright patted experimentally down his leather wings. Rarity exhaled in relief as all digits remained accounted following self-inspection.

"You appear to be intact... for now. Let's hurry before that changes, dear."

Magic and will fueling urgent steps, vampony and familiar pressed on through perilous drainage corridors. They slowed as the gloom gave way to glowing lines trailing every available surface.

"Neat." Bright reached out, only for Rarity to slap his hand. "Hey! It's neat though."

Rarity raised a brow. "Touching mysterious things is how you became what you are, dear. I happen to fancy your current build. But let's not tempt fate, shall we?"

She circled, examining the strange runes. "This certainly wasn't in the sewer plans. We've found part of the problem, at least."

Rarity traced delicate detection spells around the luminous symbols, analyzing resonances and fungal growths suggestive of their antiquity.

"These read like archival energy formulae..." Rarity's eyes widened in dawning realization. "Of course! Leylines weren't damaged but successfully tapped as new thaumic feeds!"

She gestured excitedly to the glyphs. "Some ambitious unicorns must be splicing modern spells into the city's natural currents for more casting capacity!"

Bright rubbed at his head. "Yep, lost me... I think I picked up 'some bad guy's stealing the magic.'"

Rarity cocked a brow at that. "Isn't that what I said, dear? Somepony's taking the magic, and using it for their own nefarious ends."

Bright slammed his fists together. "Okay, cool. So we smash these fancy runes and that'll end this case."

"Darling." She turned to him. "Don't be so hasty. These sewers are in use, to start. Luna really didn't want us assuming more debt in her name... So let's not... destroy wantonly."

Bright slumped. "Aw... So what's your plan? I don't see a jerk to punch here."

Rarity pursed her lips thoughtfully. Much as letting Bright gleefully smash strange infrastructural runes held a certain primal appeal, Luna had quite unambiguously advocated against wanton destruction unless absolutely required. And the glyphs themselves appeared more the ambitious end product than underlying cause...

Rarity paced further alongside the expansive luminous codex, searching for clues informing context and purpose. Perhaps a business endeavor seeking merely elevation through amplified arcana? Not all spellcrafters harbored crueler motives than convenience or acclaim...

Her ruminations scattered at a muffled clink behind them. Rarity whirled, magic flaring alongside predatory reflexes as she glimpsed faint shadows wavering beyond the reach of her light bridge’s anchoring illumination. Padding steps echoed softly off cold stone then silence...pregnant with potential menace.

Rarity addressed their hidden observer coolly, fangs glinting. “Our exploration unintentionally encroached upon your domain, good visitor, but no laws nor properties stand trespassed here.“ She extended polite tone like a duelist’s blade. “Might we converse cordially regarding yon runic conduits now fueling brave new world's up top?"

No response but shifting weight followed guarded offer of parley. Rarity sighed inwardly, whispering Bright to brace himself as magic gathered in her horn. Negotiation sadly ceded ground before self-defense again...thus stood their saturated lives of late! "Would that wisdom prevail where suspicion yet reigns...”

"You talk funny." Emerging into the light of the runes came a pony, or what one might assume might have once have been. Bent and bloated, their body looked like somepony had casually inflated some of their physique, but only bits at a time, leaving them deformed, and dreadful. "Back away."

Bright squinted at the new arrival. "You're not a unicorn."

"Smart." An earth pony, with no wings and no horn. They had to stand even with the muck of the sewer, not that it seemed to bother them. "Leave and I won't pound you into dust."

Rarity cocked a brow. "Darling, dear... seriously..." She gestured to the platform she and Bright stood on. "How do you even plan to make good those empty threats of yours? We're here to talk."

Bright laughed down at the aggressive thing below them. "We're way up here, you're way down there, sucker. So yeah, no fighting."

The stranger lashed out an arm, smashing into the wall with such force that the bricks splintered and the mighty tremble ran through the structure. A single brick landed atop Bright's head. "Ow!" He rubbed at the swelling lump. "Fine, sheesh... So you can fight from there."

Rarity waved her hooves placatingly. "Apologies for startling you, sir! I am Lady Rarity of Ponyville, this is my friend Bright." She gestured at the glowing glyphs. "We came to learn if your work here causes issues for citizens topside."

The bulky earth pony snorted. "My name's Brick. I tunnel expanding the city's magic veins. Your fancy towers don't build themselves." He cracked the wall with one stomp. "Yet my work's what muddles your nights? Ha!"

Rarity maintained her smile despite the outburst. "We intend no accusation, good Brick. Only seek understanding between surface and subterranean. Harmony requires open ears so all might thrive in shared lands yes? Perhaps together we soothe surprising symptoms."

She descends to floor level, smiling encouragingly as wary Brick rubs his chin. "Might we start by you elaborating your important role down here?"

Brick harrumphed but seemed to reconsider the strange diplomatic unicorn and her grinning companion. "Well it's like this see..." He clomped over to the intricate runes. "I craft the channels..."

Rarity nodded with a mhmm. "And what lovely channels they are, dear."

"Thanks." He squinted at her suspiciously. "You're not just saying that, are you?"

"Perish the thought! Why, I must admit, I'm wholly impressed." She gestured with a toss of her head at the runes. "I thought for certain this was the work of another unicorn. You have me at a loss."

"Pointheads..." Brick went to pick up the brick that had fallen on Bright. Without a word, he put it in the wall where his mighty punch had created an opening. "They don't know half as much as they think they do."

Bright advanced, arms crossed. "That's nice and all... But what you're doing is really sucking hard for us critters of the night." He spread his wings, or tried. It was like each was tired. "No fun, man!"

Brick stifled a derisive snort at Bright's pathetic attempt at intimidating posturing given his obviously flagging vampiric flourishes beneath the runes' unseen influence. Still, the freakish floppy-winged fellow's complaint gave the tunneler pause on principle alone.

"Sucking is it?" The earth pony builder swiveled a suspicious glare between the odd duo and glowing sigils hewn by generations of proud rear hoof heritage. "Well if nightcritters can't take what I dish out, guess I can throttle things back..."

He clomped over to examine Bright, curiosity eclipsing customary curtness. "Can't be laying out lop-eared tourists I reckon, bad for the ol' civic reputation. So what gives with the lightshow anyway?" He poked one dimmed wing membrane experimentally.

"City sent me to expand magic capacity for all them big steel towers upstairs, not put bites on the fangy fragiles here for Founder's Feast!" Brick tilted his head, tone softening further. "But if it's between you lot's lunacy and new loadstones, I'll manage either way."

He extended a hoof gruffly. "No reason to be enemies though. Ol' Brick's always fair to those find him first. You need zones to do your bat-business, I'll section off channels. We all give a little, everypony wins."

Rarity took the offered hoof gently. "That sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Though, regulations may make that tricky... But if problems continue, we can revisit this conversation."

Bright laughed nervously. "Rares, I love happy endings and all, but are your vampire buddies really going to be happy with this idea?"

Author's Note

Being nice wins the day, but is it really won? Will the vampires accept this compromise? It's a big ask... 19/29

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