Dashie the Vampony Slayer: Millennium of Darkness

Rainbow and Fluttershy fly through Ponydale Hills Cemetery and look down at the gravestones, which all have candles on top of them. Pony tradition dictates that the candles on the gravestones be lit at night, so that the ghosts of dead ponies can find their way back to their graves before dawn. The graveyard is silent, save for the flickering of lit-candles and the gentle beat of pegasus wings against the air. Fluttershy breaks the silence.

“I’m pretty sure you made the team, Dashie,” Fluttershy starts. “You pretty much beat every test that Coach Papermoon threw at you. I did terrible. I didn’t even beat Bridget, that pegasus with underdeveloped wings.”

Rainbow smiles encouragingly at her visually disillusioned friend. She dips down a bit to avoid an overhanging branch before addressing Fluttershy.

“I’m sorry I made you try out for the team, Fluttershy,” She apologizes. “I just thought it would be good for your self-esteem.”

Fluttershy nods in understanding. She beats her wings harder to keep up with Dashie’s smooth, but powerful flying.

“It’s okay Dashie, I know you meant well,” Fluttershy says. “I’m just not very good at flying.”

Rainbow nudges Fluttershy playfully, throwing her flight pattern off slightly. Fluttershy makes a mental note that Dashie is completely oblivious that she is struggling to keep up with her, but stays silent on the issue.

“What about that Scott Foalgrim pony?” Rainbow asks.

Fluttershy gives her a confused look.

“What about him?”

Dashie sighs and rolls her eyes.

“Oh come on,” She says. “You mean you didn’t see him checking you out at the tryouts?”

Fluttershy shakes her head.

“I’m sure he wasn’t,” Fluttershy bows her head. “I mean, there isn’t much to look at.”

Rainbow Dash narrows her eyes at the blushing pegasus.

“Don’t be so modest, Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash says, shaking her head. She looks around, casually searching for any of the undead. “Doesn’t seem to be many fangies about tonight.”

Fluttershy nods in agreement as she does her own check for vamponies.

“I think you scared them off after you killed the Lord of the Vamponies,” Fluttershy observes.

Spike looks up at the two pegasi from the ground and frowns at them.

“I hate to interrupt the wingding going on up there, but are you two just going to ignore me all night?” He grumbles, slightly offended at being ignored.

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash look down at the baby dragon, who has been running to keep up with his flying friends. They slow to a stop as Spike bends over to catch his breath.

“Oh, sorry Spike!” Fluttershy says, slightly embarrassed. “We just got caught up in our conversation. We didn’t mean to ignore you.”

“And who still uses wingding?” Rainbow asks critically.

Spike looks up at the cyan pegasus and shrugs.

“It seemed like the appropriate word for the moment,” He says. “And I have something to say about this Scott Foalgrim pony. From what I’ve heard of him, he’s nothing but trouble. I don’t approve.”

Spike folds his arms with a sense of finality.

“You think so?” Fluttershy asks and concerned look grows on her face.

Rainbow shakes her head.

“Don’t listen to him, Fluttershy,” She begins. “You should decide for yourself-”

Suddenly, she spies Doctor Whooves walking among the headstones and trails off. Fluttershy sees him as well and quickly turns to Spike.

“Come on Spike, let’s go patrol the other side of the cemetery,” Fluttershy suggests.

“Why, we just patrolled over there?” Spike asks, oblivious of the situation at hand.

Fluttershy flies down to ground level and begins pushing Spike away from the approaching Doctor. Spike digs his heels into the ground and growls at Fluttershy.

“What are you doing?”

“Come on Spike!” Fluttershy insists.

Spike finally connects the dots and lets out a short revelatory gasp. He thumps his spine-laced tail on the ground.

“Oh yeah, patrolling!” Spike realizes, nodding. “Patrolling is a good idea. I think that’s what we should do right now. Let’s go to elsewhere!”

Fluttershy and Spike flee, leaving Doctor Whooves and Rainbow Dash alone in the candle-lit graveyard. Rainbow lowers herself to the ground and her hooves land softly on the leaf-covered grass, crunching some of the dead leaves. Doctor Whooves trots slowly towards her.

“It’s nice to see you again, Rainbow,” Doctor Whooves says, bowing his head slightly as he does so as a sign of greeting.

Rainbow nods in agreement as she steps toward the only undead being in the cemetery.

“Good to see you too,” Rainbow replies, and then adds. “Doctor Mysterious.”

Doctor Whooves chuckles a little, but still manages to keep his signature awkward non-movement. Rainbow Dash notices this, but makes an attempt to ignore his social awkwardness.

“How have you been? Since you died I mean,” He asks softly, as though trying not to wake the dead.

Rainbow shrugs nonchalantly.

“Life as usual, but without the usual part,” She says. “There have been a lot less vamponies around since Homecoming.”

Doctor Whooves nods in agreement.

“You’re right. Most of them are gone,” He agrees. “But I’m not sure that’s exactly a good thing.”

Dashie trots over to a gravestone and leans up on it. Doctor Whooves follows her with his eyes.

“See there you go with the Doctor Mysterious act again,” Rainbow rebukes him playfully. “Would you like to share with the class?”

“I’m not sure yet, but I feel that something strange is on the horizon,” Doctor Whooves says.

“Something strange will be on the horizon the day you stop being cryptic,” Rainbow retorts.

The undead pegasus stays silent, almost as though stumped to think of a response. He nods after a moment in acknowledgment of her comment. Suddenly, he folds out his wings and turns from her. Rainbow starts towards him.

“Wait, where are you going?”

Doctor Whooves stops and turns his head back towards her.

“I have lurking to do,” He replies.

Rainbow frowns. She crosses her front hooves, dragging her hoof on the ground intentionally as she does so.

“Well, couldn’t you lurk around here? You wouldn’t want to leave a poor defenseless mare alone by herself in a cemetery at night, would you?” She looks at him with manipulatively pleading eyes and bats them at him.

Doctor Whooves smirks at her.

“You are something different, Slayer,” He chuckles.

“Is that a good or bad different,” Rainbow flirts.

Her flirtation sails completely over Doctor Whooves’ head like a poorly kicked soccer ball.

“I wouldn’t say it’s good or bad,” He replies emotionlessly.

Rainbow realizes that her attempts at flirtation are foiled. She frowns deeply.

“You don’t get out much do you, Doctor?” She says curtly.

“Not in the way you mean,” He replies.

Rainbow nods.

“I didn’t think so,” She says.

--DtVS--

Twilight and Mr. Macintosh are sitting at a small, two-pony table that is fancifully decorated with a red silk tablecloth and a dimmed candle. The rest of the restaurant is equally fancy. There are mini-chandeliers above each table, however, the restaurant is oddly dim, mostly to preserve an atmosphere of romance. Twilight smiles and starts the conversation.

“So, Big Macintosh, you grew up on an apple farm?” She begins.

Big Macintosh nods.

“Eeyup,” He affirms. “Sweet Apple Acres.”

“You know, I’ve read all about apple farms, but I’ve never actually been to one. What’s it like?” Twilight asks, leaning forward to seem fully engrossed in the burly stallion’s answer.

“Ewell, it’s hard work,” He explains. “It’s not jus’ apples, it’s worryin’ ‘bout critters eatin’ our apples before we can pick ‘em. One time, we had to ward off a swarm ‘a parasprites. Ate a quarter ‘a our harvest.”

Twilight gasps in horror.

“Parasprites? Those are nasty little creatures,” She agrees. “Back when I lived in Canterlot, Princess Celestia sent me-” She stops herself from revealing her connection to the Princess just in time. “I mean, sent some ponies to deal with an infestation in Fillydelphia.”

“That’s right,” Bic Macintosh says. “You’re a Canterlot pony, ain’t you?”

Twilight nods.

“What brings a fancy unicorn from Canterlot to a middle-of-nowhere town like Ponydale?” Big Macintosh asks.

Twilight fumbles for an excuse.

“I guess it was the air.”

Big Macintosh nods.

“I can see that,” He responds. “Don’t like the city air. Too stuffy.”

Twilight sighs, thankful that Big Macintosh bought her excuse, while also feeling a little guilty for lying to him. She opens her menu.

“Oh,” She exclaims in surprise. “They have hay-wrapped shrimp here.”

“One of my favorites,” Big Macintosh responds.

Everything is going well so far, Twilight thinks to herself. I mean, it’ll probably go well right up until the moment he finds out that I’m the Watcher of a Vampony Slayer. Dear Celestia, what have I gotten myself into?

--DtVS--

Princess Luna wakes up on the floor of a damp, torch-lit tunnel. Her head is blisteringly sore. She grabs it instinctively in a feeble attempt at making the pain go away. Her attempts fail, as expected. However, as she examines her hoof, she finds speckles of dried blood, most likely from her head.

“Wh-where are we?” Luna wonders out loud. “This doesn’t look like the moon at all.”

Suddenly, a hideous cackle echoes from farther down the dark tunnel. Luna looks around in scared confusion. She turns around in either direction to search for the source of the voice.

“Hello? Is anypony there?” the dark blue alicorn asks as she steps forward.

Suddenly, a dark voice responds her question; it’s voice rumbling down the tunnel like the echo of a pickaxe striking rock.

“Ah, you’ve finally awoken, fair Princess,” the voice says, strangely taunting.

“Wh-who are you?” Luna stutters.

“You don’t recognize me?” the voice bellows back, with a hint of disappointment. “What a pity.”

Suddenly, a mirror with a dark blue rim appears before the bewildered alicorn. Luna is taken aback for a moment, but then steps in front of it to find a black, helmet clad alicorn staring back at her. Luna stumbles back in shock, almost tripping over a jagged rock sticking up from the cave floor.

“Nightmare Moon?” She gasps.

In the mirror, Nightmare Moon grins in a mixture of malice and amusement. The black alicorn rears on her hind hooves and claps at the Princess.

“So, you do remember me,” She states, and then stops clapping.

“We remember that you’re a monster!” Luna spits.

Nightmare Moon laughs at her naivety.

“Oh, dear Princess, there is still so little about me that you understand,” Nightmare Moon says.

“We understand all that we need to know,” Luna retorts. “We understand that you are a thing of evil, and we don’t want you inside of us anymore!”

Nightmare Moon snarls at the defiant princess and smashes her front hooves on the ground threateningly.

“Well you’re stuck with me!” Nightmare Moon growls. “I am the devil inside of you, the evil you will never escape. I’ve controlled you for over a thousand years, don’t think that’s going to change any time soon.”