I stood outside of Golden Oak Library just as Princess Luna was raising the moon. My stake and Holy Water was hidden in my mane, at the ready in case I ran into trouble. Rainbow Dash was nowhere to be found, and I was starting to get nervous. What if she left? What if Fluttershy killed her? I wasn't sure how a vampire could kill a ghost, but what if?
Rainbow Dash faded into view, putting my fears to rest. I sighed as she tilted her head to the side, signaling me to follow her. I did, not asking any questions as to where we were going or what was happening. Neither of those things really mattered. Rainbow Dash stopped me outside of a wooden house, one that was fairly new. I didn't even know the pony who lived there yet. Rainbow pointed me at the open back door of the two story house, and I knew I was about to meet them. I grabbed my stake from my mane and stepped into the house, right into the kitchen. I could hear a television blaring from the next room, the living room.
"Ha!" laughed a loud mare from the living room. Apparently, whatever she was watching was hilarious.
"Wait!" said Dashie. "Nevermind! This isn't Fluttershy!"
"How do you know?" I asked.
"Fluttershy is never that loud."
"So? Maybe she's pretending." I suggested.
"For who?" asked Dashie. "She has no clue you're here, so why would she be faking?"
I stepped forward regardless, with my hoof on my ball of Holy Water. I twisted it open and dropped the lid to the floor with a clatter. The mare heard me and lowered her television, keeping her ears peeled for intruders. She must've thought she imagined it, because she returned her T.V. to the normal volume.
"I'm going to splash her with Holy Water." I said. "If it's Fluttershy, she'll start burning. If it's not, she'll be okay. That way, I can be sure."
Dash nodded, agreeing that it was a good plan. I exhaled deeply in preparation and jumped into the living room. I splashed Holy Water on the teal Earth Pony over and over, her only flinching coming from the surprise. She shouted and yelled, telling me to get out of her house and threats of calling the police. It seemed she was on the up and up.
"Okay, Pinkie, she's good." said Dashie. "Get out while you can."
I threw one last splash of Water, aiming for her eyes. She gripped her face in pain, yelling of how it burned. I jumped onto her and knocked her off of her couch, pinning her down with my hoof. She squirmed and thrashed, and it took all my strength to keep a hold on her. I brought down my stake, burying it into the mare's chest, spurting blood all over my chest. Some outside force pulled my stake from her chest and buried it in her stomach, then her neck, then her chest again. My hoof made it's way into her mouth, blocking off the screams. She convulsed one more time before growing still forever.
"Pinkie!" shouted Dashie angrily. "What are you doing?"
"It hurt her. It was Fluttershy, right?" I asked, knowing the answer. "It had to be."
"No! You threw it in her eyes, Pinkie. Holy Water is just salty tap water! Of course it burns her eyes!"
"I-I'm sorry." I said.
"Even if it was Shy, that was overkill!" scolded Rainbow. "Four times? The first stab was right in the heart!"
"Dash, we have to go." I warned. "Somepony had to hear her scream."
Rainbow Dash looked at me angrily, but nodded nonetheless. We left the house quickly, exiting the way we entered. We ran through Ponyville as I wiped the blood from my chest with a handkerchief I kept in my mane. I huffed and puffed, a combination of exhaustion and something else. I didn't realize it at the time, but I suppose it was excitement. Then, as we neared the center of town, me and Rainbow caught sight of something truly terrible. In the middle of the town, in a pool of her own blood, was Mayor Mare.
I approached the Mayor's body uneasily. I couldn't understand who would kill such a sweet, kind woman. Then, I took notice of her wounds. Two tiny little holes in the side of her neck, with blood dripping from them. Bite marks.
"Damn. We just missed her." said Rainbow Dash. "I don't think anypony has found the body yet."
"I have to go. Let's try again in the morning, okay?" I said. Rainbow Dash looked at me in confusion, but let me run home anyway. I strolled boldly into Sugar Cube Corner, smiling widely at the Cakes. They were so relieved to see me smiling again that they didn't even ask me where I was. I sat there in the shop talking and laughing with them for ten minutes before I decided to head upstairs for sleep. As I got to the stairs, Mr. Cake handed me a box of knives, new utensils we just ordered, and asked me to put them into storage for him. I nodded and brought them with me. I threw the wooden crate onto my bed, deciding to move it later. I had something much more important on my mind.
The bloody handkerchief. I pulled it from my mane and sniffed it. It didn't have much of an odor, but I knew that it had a taste. I looked over my shoulder and pressed my tongue against the bloody rag. The taste made me recoil in disgust, but I couldn't stop myself. I licked and licked, cleaning all of the blood. When the handkerchief was clean, and my stomach was filled with hot blood, I fell onto my bed, falling asleep nearly at once.
When I woke up in the morning, one of the knives from Mr. Cake was in my hand. It was a big, black handled kitchen knife, and it was wicked sharp. It was a miracle that I made it through the night without cutting myself. I turned the knife over in my hoof, then put it into my mane for later. Then, I ran downstairs, swallowed a quick breakfast, and took off for the Everfree Forest. I had one goal, and I wasn't even sure why I had it yet.
I wandered through the Forest, deeper than I'd ever gone. I walked past oak trees and pine trees and birch trees and spruce trees, dozens upon dozens, before I found the tree I was looking for. I took the kitchen knife from my mane and brought it down on the reddish bark of the rosewood tree. I gathered some outer bark, and a little of the inner wood, and stuffed it in my mane. I turned around and my heart stopped.
Wolves. Six wolves were circling me, panting a drooling beastily. The biggest one, the alpha, held something in it's mouth. A leg. A pony leg, the leg of the stallion I stabbed. The wolves must've gotten into Fluttershy's cottage and finished their meal. I froze up, preparing myself for my imminent death, when the alpha dropped the leg in front of me. He nudged it forward with his nose in offering.
"You want me to eat it?" I asked. Miraculously, they nodded, as if they could understand me. I shook my head and took a step. The wolves barked and snapped at me, demanding that I take a bite. I weighed my options carefully before I picked up the leg and took a big bite of the cold, red meat.
If blood was gross, this meat was unstomachable. It was terrible, yet I stripped off piece after piece of the deceased pony's flesh. I swallowed every bite against my own will. I felt like a drudge again. This time, I was a slave to myself. The pony flesh seemed to push itself into my mouth and, before I knew it, I had pulled all the meat off of the bones. I bit at the bone disappointedly, then shook myself silly. How could I want more? I shouldn't have been able to breath after that atrocity, but I wanted to continue.
The wolves left me alone after that. They seemed pleased that I had accepted their gift. It was probably their way of thanking me for the meal I supplied. I pulled a toothpick from my mane and dug a sliver of flesh from in between my teeth. I swallowed it and found myself on the outskirts of The Everfree Forest. Rainbow Dash was waiting for me, giving me a grumpy, dissatisfied scowl.
"Hey, Dashie." I said brightly.
"What were you doing in the Forest?" asked Rainbow.
"I was looking for Fluttershy."
"Why? When we started, I had to force you to look for Shy. Now you're going after her?"
"I'm just trying to get it over with." I said. "Have any leads?"
"None. You know, it's not exactly easy finding somepony who you've never seen before." said Rainbow.
"Let's check around some of the newer houses." I suggested. "Houses where new ponies moved in within the past six months."
Dash agreed and we set out through the streets of Ponyville. I stopped by town hall and picked up some residential records. They weren't hard to get my hooves on. Nopony seemed to be working properly, probably because of the mayor's death. I was sort of thankful Fluttershy killed the mayor when she did. It made my job easier.
"Where do you think we should try first?" asked Dashie. I scanned the papers, trying to pick an address. According to the records, a pegasus mare moved in a house down the street from Sugar Cube Corner, about three months ago.
"Let's try here. It's close to home." I said. We set off, passing Mr. Cake on the way. We arrived at the little wooden house, all of the windows closed, the door shut, no entrances of any sort.
"How do you think we should get in?" asked Dashie. I knocked on the door and waited. Soon enough, a tired looking purple pegasus opened the door. She could barely keep her eyes open and she kept looking around and squinting, probably searching for the glasses that were sitting atop her head.
"How may I help you?" she asked.
"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie! I didn't know you moved in!" I said, smiling widely. I stepped past the mare and strode into her house. For somepony who was living there for three months, she sure had a lot of boxes left to unpack. There were cardboard boxes and wooden crates lining the halls.
"Hey! You can't just walk in here!" she shouted.
"Do you need help moving in, bestest friend?" I asked.
"What? No. I'm moving out."
"Aww! How come? I was really looking forward to being friends!" I fake-complained.
"You should've shown up three months ago. Still, nothing you could say could make me stay here." said the mare. "I went to all of my friends in Cloudsdale, asking them where would be a nice place to settle down, and they all pointed me to Ponyville. Nopony thought to tell me that there's a psychopath on the loose!"
"Psychopath?" I asked.
"You don't get out much, do you? Six months ago, some serial killer murdered six ponies, made it look like they were a vampire. That was their schtick, their signature. Now, somepony went missing in the Everfree Forest, some mare was found stabbed four times, and the mayor herself was killed by the vampire-killer! If I were Celestia, I'd cut my losses and wipe Ponyville off the map."
"Ponyville isn't that dangerous." I said. "Especially not after I get rid of the vampire."
"The what? It's not really a vampire." said the mare. "Just some pony with a sick obsession. And what do you mean 'get rid of'?"
"Fluttershy, don't make this any harder than it has to be." I said.
"Fluttershy? Who the hay is that?"
"Yo! Pinks!" called Rainbow Dash. "Maybe we should beat it! It's the middle of the day, and somepony is going to notice the yelling. If you're arrested, Fluttershy is free to do what she wants."
"Okey-dokey! See you later, friend!" I said, hurrying out of the house. The mare shouted at me, telling me to stay out of her house and that Ponyville was a "shithole cesspool for psychopaths and barbarians". I disregarded her words, remembering the good Ponyville, the Ponyville with all of my friends. Now, my only friend was Rainbow Dash. And she would be leaving soon.
"That was a failure." said Dash. "Try the next house?"
"You go ahead. My stomach is hurting." I said, clutching my gut. Rainbow raised her eyebrow suspiciously.
"Really? I don't know how much I believe you." said Dashie skeptically. "Why's your stomach just hurting all of a sudden?"
"I dunno. Think about it, all I eat is cupcakes and ice cream." I said. "Or maybe it's just that time of the month."
"Pinkie, go home. I'll get you later, no excuses." sighed Rainbow. I nodded and we went our separate ways. I felt my hooves move, but I wasn't actually aware I was taking steps. I managed to wander into Sugar Cube Corner, almost right into Mrs. Cake. I asked her if I could use the wood-burning stove in the basement, to calm me down. I loved the smell, and she agreed I could, so long as I was careful. I nodded and retreated to Sugar Cube Corner's bottommost room, the basement that held the wood-burning stove. For some reason. I doubt even the Cakes knew how it got there. It didn't matter how it got where it was, just that it was there for me to use.
I threw in my rosewood from my mane, along with a bit of firewood, and lit the stove. Patiently I waited, taking in the smell of the swirling smoke. I hoped I'd have enough time to do this before Rainbow came back.
It took an hour for all of the wood to be burned to ash. When it was a fine, grey powder, I added another log of firewood and lit it again. Another hour passed and I was left with my twice-burned rosewood ash. The bane of a spectre. A ghostbuster, even.
I took up my ash and stowed it in the ball that used to hold my Holy Water. I used it all up the day before. That was okay. I didn't need it anyway.