Undisturbed by tide or current, the swamp water was surprisingly clear. Some scum grew along the surface, but Cheerilee had no problem with visibility. She glanced up, spotting the moon still shining faintly through the thickening fog. The light looked distorted from underwater. Her hooves squished noiselessly into the soft mud. It didn’t seem to have a lot of silt in it, and didn’t leave a trail of murky water behind her.

The swamp was composed of channels of water interspersed with islands and sections of relatively dry land, forming a maze-like area that was an ideal place for a hideout. The darkness of the night sky and constant fog helped with that.

However, it was also excellent territory to approach undetected. As long as she stayed underwater, Cheerilee was practically invisible. She’d filled her lungs with water, and that helped her stay on the bottom.

Not breathing was a very strange feeling. After spending her whole life getting into the habit, it was hard to break. It had been Twilight who informed Cheerilee that vampires were anaerobic. The teacher had no idea where the bookish pony had found that fact, but she had to admit that it was useful.

As she penetrated further into the swamp, the moon disappeared behind the thick mist. Cheerilee passed slowly by a pony who stood at the water’s edge. He seemed to be on watch. She left him. He was unimportant.

When Cheerilee first became a vampire, she was content to let her instincts take over when she had to kill something to survive. She didn’t want it to be her, the schoolteacher, that was spilling blood. At the same time, though, she didn’t like to be out of control of herself. What if some innocent pony was at the wrong place at the wrong time and her instincts said kill?

So, Cheerilee reluctantly began working in partnership with her vampiric nature. It handled the slaughter. She told it where and when.

At the moment, her bloodlust wanted to eliminate the guard pony. The teacher decided against it. There would be others. No point in risking an alarm so early in the mission.

In only a few minutes of underwater trotting, Cheerilee came upon the first of a few buildings that she expected to be there. A small boat was tied up to a makeshift pier. The mare maneuvered herself under the dock and raised her head barely above the water for a better look around.

Nearly invisible in the mist was another nearby building. If the map Shining Armor had showed her was correct, there should be a few more on the other side of it. This was the place Cheerilee would have to leave the water.

There was another pony standing a short distance away. The mare slipped beneath the water again and moved down the channel a short ways to get closer to her target. She slowly rose from the water, as quiet as the mist. Rearing up, Cheerilee jerked the guard’s head back and shredded his throat with a vicious bite. He dropped without a sound.

Cheerilee dragged the stallion backwards, her teeth still buried in his neck. After pulling the body beneath the surface of the water, she reemerged and stealthily made her way to the corner of the nearest building.

After pausing a moment to quietly shake the water from her coat, the schoolteacher scanned the group of buildings. There was not a pony in sight, but she knew it would be stupid to just walk right out into the open.

There was a sudden shout. Another guard had noticed his partner missing. Cheerilee ducked away to avoid being seen, but he must have heard the sound of her hooves. Other ponies in the area began to respond to the alarm. From the sound of their voices all around her, Cheerilee almost felt like she was being driven somewhere like a herd animal. What if that was exactly right?

The mare suddenly found out where the ponies were trying to get her to go. A thunderous roar filled the air. Cheerilee’s ears laid back involuntarily. It sounded big.

The small shed next to her was torn apart as a huge beast—a manticore!—leaped at Cheerilee. She ducked and just barely avoided its attack. The creature turned quickly, facing her. Its lion head and claws were offset by a wickedly curved scorpion tail. The rough fur on its body was black as night. Not that Cheerilee had seen many beasts like it, but she wondered if it had been specially bred to be such a color. That was a scary thought.

Cheerilee was aware of guard ponies running into the area, but that was a small problem compared to the manticore in front of her. The creature swiped at her with a paw full of sharp claws, barely missing as she ducked away.

A stallion ran up, trying to attack Cheerilee with a blade attached to his hoof. She saw the manticore readying its tail for an attack and bucked the guard in that direction. His momentum combined with the scorpion tail’s strike drove the stinger straight through the pony’s body.

Cheerilee kicked the end off the stinger where it stuck through the stallion’s back. Poison gushed out. She grabbed the sharp tip in her mouth, the vile fluid burning slightly. The manitcore was still trying to extract its tail from the other pony when the mare ran up and jabbed the beast in the paw with the end of its own stinger.

Roaring in pain, the creature jerked backwards, unable to put any weight on its wounded foot. Cheerilee jumped forward, going for its throat. The other front paw intercepted her, but she managed to get a hold of the manticore’s lower lip with her teeth.

The beast shook her wildly. Cheerilee felt her body flailing like a ragdoll. She managed to get her legs wrapped around the underside of the manticore’s neck and held on for dear life.

The giant brute tried to pull her off, but she bit at its paws. Cheerilee sank her teeth into anything she could reach. The manticore tried to crush her by dropping to the ground, but it gave the pony an opportunity to reposition her grip on its neck.

Pulling hard with her legs, Cheerilee felt something give. The bones in the manticore’s neck separated and it fell in a heap, its spinal cord ruined.

Cheerilee pulled herself out from under the creature’s limp form. Things had suddenly gone very quiet. She looked around. No other ponies were visible, save for the one that the manicore had inadvertently killed. Feeling a little thirsty, Cheerilee walked over to the pony. Surprisingly, the manticore venom made a pleasant spice.

When she was finished, Cheerilee had a look around the complex of buildings. She seemed to be all alone. Evidentially, the squad of guards wanted nothing to do with somepony who would willingly engage a manticore in combat.

Cheerilee stood for a moment on the shore. Further out into the swamp, the water deepened, leading to a fairly large section of open water. The heavy mist prevented getting a look at it. As she debated what to do next, the mare heard a faint creak from out of the fog. Pausing for a moment, she heard it again.

After pausing for a moment to expel the air from her lungs, Cheerilee slipped into the water.

The structure was not really a building and not really a boat. It looked to Cheerilee like some kind of isolated fortress, and perhaps that’s what it was. The thick fog prevented her from seeing all of it at once, but by swimming a few laps around she was able to get a sense of the configuration.

After that, it was just a simple matter to climb aboard. Cheerilee landed softly on the deck of a small platform where a boat was tied. She may not have been heard, but somepony definitely saw her.

The nearby door that led to the inside of the structure burst open and two ponies with blades fitted to their hooves attacked. Instead of jumping back into the water, Cheerilee stood her ground and got stabbed in the lower abdomen for her trouble. She crumpled to the deck, a pool of blood spreading out around her.

“Is she dead?” asked one of the guards hesitantly.

“Obviously,” retorted the other. “Look at all that blood she lost.”

Cheerilee chuckled. “No, that was just my dinner.” The knife wound in her stomach was in the running for the least serious injury she’d received in the past week. She pushed herself up.

The mare looked at the two guard ponies, who were wide-eyed with fear. “Now I’m hungry again.”

Neither of the stallions made it back through the door.

Cheerilee stepped inside, licking blood from her lips. Her eyes adjusted to the few lamps that lit the rooms and passageways. Regardless of whether she was in a building or aboard a boat, it would take a while to explore. Perhaps it had been designed as a labyrinth on purpose.

A staircase led to the upper levels. Cheerilee decided to try it. Halfway up, she encountered two doors. The locked one appeared to lead further upwards. Deciding not to try breaking it down until she was out of other options, Cheerilee took the second door.

It led back outside to a deck with a railing. Perhaps it was an observation platform or something. Cheerilee wondered what there could be to observe with the relentless fog and dark night.

The door slammed shut. The two Sabre Siblings showed themselves from where they had been hiding, invisible. Cheerilee mentally berated herself for not suspecting a trap.

The two unicorns circled, knives drawn and deadly serious expressions on their faces. Cheerilee looked back and forth between the stallion and the mare, trying to decide which of them would attack first.

As it turned out, both. A razor-sharp blade jabbed her in each side at the same time. Cheerilee gasped in pain and attempted to turn her wrath towards the stallion, which only let the mare press her attack. The two of them stayed to either side of Cheerilee, coordinating their movements perfectly.

Cheerilee suddenly turned and rushed the mare. She was almost there when the unicorn teleported away, stabbing her knife at the schoolteacher. Cheerilee spotted the movement out of the corner of her eye and caught the weapon out of the air, her teeth biting into the hilt. The unicorn tugged at the knife with magic, but Cheerilee wasn’t about to let go.

The female Sabre pony gritted her teeth and began to pull her knife back, reeling Cheerilee in like a winch. She may have been a vampire, but the earth pony weighed the same as always and her hooves slowly began to slide across the deck.

The stallion suddenly sent his blade shooting towards Cheerilee’s face. She jerked her head, and the two knives nicked each other, throwing sparks in the darkness. The pony’s knife came around for another attack.

Thinking quickly, Cheerilee let herself get pulled along with the weapon in her mouth, putting her off balance for just an instant. She quickly released the knife and used her momentum to roll forward, kicking her back hooves at the knife that was speeding towards her.

The powerful jolt sent the knife careening into the wall, where it stuck tightly. Cheerilee completed her roll and came up face to face with the stallion. Her teeth were clamped around his gullet before he could blink.

The pony struggled for a moment, but fell still. Cheerilee turned to face the unicorn mare, dragging her brother’s body over the deck.

The last Sabre faced Cheerilee. The teacher had never before seen such a look of pure hate. She dropped the stallion’s body and stared down her opponent, raising a hoof to beckon the unicorn forward. Bring it on.

The pony with the knife teleported away, and Cheerilee whirled around to find her closer than before. With another burst of magic, she jumped to another place. The earth pony knew that the maneuver was designed to confuse her, and couldn’t help but notice how the distance kept closing.

Cheerilee was startled by a flash right in front of her. The unicorn had appeared as close as she was going to get. Her knife drove deep into the lavender mare’s chest.

The teacher took a step backwards in shock. She had known an attack was coming, but had been unable to block it. With magic, the unicorn twisted the blade, forcing it deeper.

Cheerilee looked down at the weapon burrowing its way into her body. Am I going to let this murderer get the best of me?

She jerked the knife out with her teeth, turning the movement into a slashing attack that cut the unicorn from her chest to her chin. The pony dropped to the deck, a look of disbelief in her eyes as her life hemorrhaged away.

Cheerilee wished she had time to relax, but the fight had undoubtedly attracted attention. She quickly searched the two ponies, finding a ring of keys.

Instead of going through the locked door where other attackers might lie in wait, the mare decided to take a different route. She walked over to the knife stuck in the wall and delivered a kick to the pommel, driving it in further. It looked sturdy enough, so she used it as a step to climb up.

There appeared to be living areas for various ponies on the upper levels. Cheerilee went through them quickly, finding a few things that appeared to be related to the Royal Archives. A safe, which she had the key for, contained information that detailed plans, ponies involved, and other things. All of the things went into a watertight box that she found. Going outside, Cheerilee lowered it into the swamp on a length of rope.

That left everything else to search. Cheerilee was somewhat concerned that she’d encountered no other ponies aboard. Surely there had to be more?

Rounding a corner, the mare caught a glimpse of—was that a foal? It disappeared too quickly to be sure. Cheerilee ran in that direction. A light bobbed ahead of her, carried along by whoever it was that she pursued.

Through a twisting maze of spaces and hallways, Cheerilee finally caught up. The passage dead-ended in a room filled with weapons. Sharpened blades, blunt objects, and other arms lined the walls. Several barrels of gunpowder were also stored nearby. In the middle of it all was a small pony.

The fog must have lifted slightly, allowing the moon’s light to struggle through. In the faint illumination cast through the window, Cheerilee saw a tan filly with a fearful look on her face. The oil lamp she’d been carrying had been set on the floor.

“P-please don’t kill me,” the young pony stuttered. “I know what you are.”

“What are you doing here?” demanded Cheerilee. In response, the filly burst into tears.

Cheerilee’s special talent was dealing with children. It was her duty to make sure they didn’t cry. It hurt to think that she might have caused it.

Wait a moment, what was wrong with this? Just because Cheerilee didn’t often see bawling foals didn’t mean she couldn’t spot the different between real sadness and an act.

“Not convincing enough,” she said, glaring. “Who are you really?”

The sobbing slowly morphed into a laugh. The filly threw back her head and began to gain stature. Her coat changed colors. She was soon an exact duplicate of Photo Finish, complete with glasses.

“Does it matter who I am?” said the pony. “I can be anyone.” A few more disguises flickered past Cheerilee’s eyes, just to demonstrate.

“You have a lot to answer for,” growled the lavender mare. She started forward.

The pony shrank, her coat taking on a lighter color. Purple glasses appeared on her face, and a candy cane cutie mark showed up on her flank.

“You wouldn’t hurt me, would you Ms. Cheerilee?” asked Twist’s voice.

The teacher pulled up short. She had no idea who or what she might be facing. The innocent face tore at her heart, but there was something she was absolutely sure of. It was definitely not a foal.

Cheerilee kicked the lamp. It shattered against the wall, flaming oil dripping downwards towards the gunpowder…

In the next instant, Cheerilee had herself halfway out the window. That wasn’t good enough, however, and a thunderous detonation knocked her across the deck. She rolled over, trying to put out her burning coat before giving up and simply dropping into the water.

The mare surfaced, looking at the window she’d just escaped. It wasn’t there. The whole wall had been blown apart, and the entire room was engulfed in flames. Good riddance.

Working slowly due to her crispy skin, Cheerilee dove to retrieve the waterproof box. Maybe the true identity of the shapeshifter was in the documents somewhere. Had it been the real Photo Finish? A disguise as an eccentric photographer would have allowed the pony to collect information while not arousing too much suspicion. In the end, it didn't matter. Whatever their name had been, they were surely dead.

The teacher set off for shore, her charred hide slowly giving way to its usual lavender color as she swam. At the water's edge, she pulled herself out. Glancing back, she could see a faint orange glow of fire through the fog.

Cheerilee sighed and began the walk back to Trottingham. It had been a long day.