Tick…tock…tick…tock…

The clock in the waiting room of Mercy Unicorn Hospital of Ponydale seems to mock Fluttershy, Spike, and Twilight as they await word on Rainbow’s condition. Every second passes like a minute, and every minute passes like an eternity of suspense and uncertainty. They are the only three ponies in the waiting room, as Doctor Whooves had gone out to round up any stray vamponies who were still trying to carry out the Lord of the Vamponies’ work post-mortem.

Suddenly, the front double doors of the hospital swing open and Firefly rushes into the hospital. She gallops up to the front desk and addresses the mustard yellow earth pony behind the desk.

“Where’s my daughter?” Firefly demands, obviously in a state of stress and disarray.

The clerk pony looks up from a stack of papers to the upset mother. Most of the papers are either patient updates or information on the schedules of the doctors themselves. There are many unicorns employed at Mercy Unicorn Hospital of Ponydale, unfortunately none of those unicorns specialize in organization, so the clerk, when not dealing with concerned visitors, usually spent her time filing paperwork that the doctors casually threw on her desk. Because of this, the clerk pony practically knows where every file in the hospital is located.

“What’s her name?” the clerk asks nonchalantly.

“Dash, Rainbow Dash,” Firefly responds, too anxious about her daughter’s safety to have the patience for such formalities.

The mustard colored desk clerk searches through a stack of paperwork for a moment, before finding a file that reads “Dash, Rainbow.” She opens the file and peruses the singular page inside of it as though the file contains a hundred pages.

“Miss Dash is in surgery at the moment,” The clerk explains, barely looking up from her file. “You’ll have to wait over there in the designated waiting area with the others until she is out of surgery. We’ll call you if anything happens.”

Firefly gasps in horror.

“What do you mean ‘if anything happens’?” She demands.

“I’m sorry Mrs. Dash, but I’m going to have to ask you to take a seat until we have word on your daughter’s condition. Don’t worry, we have our best unicorn medics on the job,” The clerk says, finally looking up from her paperwork.

Firefly growls in disdain and storms to the designated waiting area. She takes the empty seat next to Fluttershy. A nursepony enters the hospital, trots through the waiting room and takes a left through the door into the hallway leading to patient’s rooms and the surgery ward. There is an uncomfortable silence in the waiting room for a moment, and then Fluttershy turns to Firefly.

“You’re Rainbow’s mom, aren’t you?” Fluttershy assumes. “If you don’t mind me asking, that is.”

“Yes, I am,” Firefly nods. “And who are you?”

Fluttershy bows her head slightly, almost as if embarrassed about being addressed by another pony.

“I’m Fluttershy,” She introduces herself softly. “I’m one of Rainbow’s friends.”

Spike, who is one seat over from Fluttershy, pokes his head out to introduce himself to Rainbow Dash’s mother. He waves to her.

“And I’m Spike,” He says. “Another one of Dashie’s friends.”

Firefly is slightly taken aback by the baby dragon, as she has never seen a dragon of any incarnation before. Despite being able to fly, dragons very rarely visited Cloudsdale, or any place in Equestria for that matter.

“You’re a…dragon?” Firefly asks, both amazed and somewhat suspicious.

Spike flexes his muscles.

“Yeah, I get that a lot,” He puffs in pride.

Fluttershy gently punches Spike in the arm.

“Ow!” Spike exclaims, more surprised than hurt.

Twilight looks up from her book to rebuke Spike.

“This is no time for jokes, Spike!” She says sternly.

Firefly turns her attention to the purple unicorn three seats over.

“And who are you?” She inquires, confused as to why an older pony is here to support her daughter.

Twilight hesitates for a moment.

“I’m the librarian at her school,” Twilight explains. “I was chaperoning the dance.”

Firefly accepts this excuse with a nod.

“Well I’m glad she’s making friends,” She concludes, and then adds after a pause. “So, Homecoming was attacked by whom exactly?”

“Disgruntled former teacher. Quite a sob story,” Spike lies. Secretly he is impressed by his own improvisational skills at the moment.

“A disgruntled teacher?” Firefly repeats.

“He was quite a disturbed pony,” Fluttershy adds.

“It’s scary that the school would hire such a disturbed pony,” Firefly comments.

Twilight shakes her head.

“There was no way we could have ever guessed that he was as troubled as he was,” She explains.

Suddenly, the doors leading to the rest of the hospital open and a nursepony, who is identified as “Nurse Loveheart” by a plastic nametag, trots out into the waiting room.

“Firefly Dash,” Nurse Loveheart calls out, looking around for the pony in question.

Firefly jumps up from her seat instantly.

“Yes?” She asks expectantly.

Loveheart motions her towards the doors she just came through. Firefly follows her through the doors into a long, flowery-stenciled hallway. The doctors insisted on stenciling the hallway with flowers to raise the patients’ spirits. Nurse Loveheart stops her a few yards into the hall, next to a patch of stenciled daffodils.

“What’s the matter?” Firefly demands. “How is Rainbow doing?”

Nurse Loveheart hesitates for a moment.

“There’s no easy way to say this, Mrs. Dash,” She begins.

Firefly’s heart sinks into her stomach.

“Wha-what are you saying?” She asks, even though she already knows the answer deep down.

“She’s gone. There wasn’t much we could do. Whatever stabbed her nicked the side of her heart. The internal bleeding-” Nurse Loveheart begins.

Firefly interrupts her with a disgusted wave of the hoof.

“I don’t want to hear all of that,” Firefly exclaims, tearing up. “But-but the surgery?”

Nurse Loveheart nods gravely.

“We had our best medical unicorns try to revive her, but she was too far gone,” Nurse Loveheart places a sympathetic hoof on Firefly’s shoulder, but she slaps it away and takes off through the waiting room and out of the hospital. She collapses onto a bench in front of the hospital and begins sobbing uncontrollably.

Seeing Firefly’s reaction to the news, the three ponies in the waiting room assume the worst. Fluttershy leans on Spike’s shoulder and breaks down in tears. Spike puts on a brave face, trying to suppress his grief, but a few salty tears manage to escape his eyes and roll down his face. Twilight bows her head, humbled at the loss of her Slayer.

Dr. Foaltree wheels the bed carrying Rainbow Dash’s lifeless body into the hospital morgue, which is located in the basement of the hospital. Mercy Unicorn Hospital was perhaps the largest building in Ponydale, with two stories above ground and a basement level. Not a single story was wasted, as ponies were always either getting hurt or dying mysteriously in Ponydale. It was one of those situations that ponies referred to in the saying “A blessing and a curse.” Dr. Foaltree knocks on the open door of the morgue in order to get the mortician’s attention. The rust colored earth pony turns towards the doctor. He frowns deeply as he spies the dead pegasus on the hospital bed.

“Another one?” The mortician asks, depressed.

Dr. Foaltree replies with a quick frown and wheels the body into the small, concrete room. He stops next to a metal table that is slightly taller than the hospital bed.

“Yep,” He says. “Sorry, Mort, you may have to stay a little late tonight.”

Mort examines Rainbow’s body. Most of her coat is stained in blood, but the spots of her coat that aren’t stained are paler than it has ever been, almost white with hints of blue. He sighs.

“She looks so young,” Mort observes.

“A tragedy, I know,” Dr. Foaltree nods in agreement.

“I have to go get some things from the supply closet upstairs. Want to come with me?” Mort offers.

“Anything to get away from these bodies,” He says, and then adds. “No offense.”

Mort waves the thought away.

“None taken,” He replies. “Death isn’t pleasant to work around even for me.”

The two ponies trot out of the morgue and head towards the supply closet. Moments after they are out of sight, a unicorn wearing a dark blue cloak sneaks into the morgue from the opposite direction that they left. The unicorn makes its way over to Rainbow’s body and examines her for a moment. The cloaked pony leans over her body and whispers into her dead ear.

“Your story isn’t over yet, Slayer.”

The unicorn’s horn begins glowing light grey and the pony lowers the glowing horn until it touches Rainbow’s wound. Suddenly, Rainbow sits up and gasps deeply, almost as if swallowing her life force back into her body. As she sits up, she barely catches a glimpse of her savior before the cloaked grey unicorn disappears with a pop!

Rainbow suddenly feels a wave of grogginess crash over like a tsunami. Her entire body immediately becomes sore as her nerves wake up from their eternal slumber. She looks down at her underside for her wound, but it has mysteriously disappeared. She surveys her surroundings. Body bags. A body cooler. Metal tables covered in black tarp. It takes her recently revived mind almost a minute to realize where she is. A morgue. Almost immediately after this thought, Mort and Dr. Foaltree return from the supply closet with various instruments in their coat pockets. They stop dead in their tracks as they see Rainbow sitting up in her deathbed. She looks at them in confusion.

“Was I dead?” Rainbow asks wearily.

Mort faints.

Firefly gallops over to the side of Rainbow’s bed and hugs her daughter tighter than she’s ever hugged anything in her life.

“Thank Celestia, it’s a miracle!” Firefly exclaims.

Dr. Foaltree nods in agreement.

“Miracle is right,” He says. “Nopony has ever come back after being dead for a whole hour.”

Suddenly, there is a loud tap at the window. Fluttershy, Spike, and Twilight are standing outside of her room, looking in on her excitedly. Rainbow smiles and waves back at them slowly. Dr. Foaltree marches towards the door of Rainbow’s room and pokes his head out into the hallway.

“Sorry, but only family is allowed in Miss Dash’s room at the moment,” He informs sternly.

However, Rainbow Dash shakes her head defiantly.

“Let them in,” She demands of the doctor.

Dr. Foaltree sighs and lets them inside. Fluttershy flies to Rainbow’s side almost as soon as the doctor allows them passage into the room.

“Oh, Rainbow, I’m so glad you’re okay!” Fluttershy exclaims, almost singing with joy.

Spike bounds to her side as well, equally excited.

“I knew you’d pull through, Dashie!” He says, grinning from ear to ear.

Twilight takes her place next to Spike and Fluttershy and puts her hooves up on the hospital bed.

“How are you feeling, Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asks softly.

Rainbow shrugs.

“Pretty good for waking up from an eternal nap,” She says nonchalantly.

Everypony in the room laughs. Even Twilight manages a chuckle. Fluttershy turns to Dr. Foaltree.

“Uhm, excuse me sir, but when will Rainbow be able to go home?” She asks.

“Well, we’re definitely going to keep her overnight to monitor her condition,” He explains. “But if everything goes smoothly, she could be out of here by tomorrow afternoon.”

“Mom, Dr. Foaltree, could you give me a few minutes alone with my friends?” Rainbow asks.

Firefly and Dr. Foaltree nod and exit the room. As soon as they are out of earshot, Rainbow turns to her friends.

“What happened at Sugarcube Corner after I died?” She asks expectantly, excited to be caught up on the current events of late.

“Fluttershy and I took you to the hospital, but Twilight stayed behind and put a memory spell on everypony to make them think that a disgruntled teacher attacked Homecoming,” Spike explains.

“What about Doctor Whooves?” Rainbow asks.

“He went out to round up any stray vamponies that didn’t leave town after your warning,” Twilight tells her. “What about you?”

“Yeah, how are you, you know-“ Fluttershy adds.

“I was brought back to life by a mysterious pony,” Rainbow replies. “Some sort of cloaked grey unicorn.”

Twilight shakes her head.

“That’s impossible,” She says. “Nopony could be powerful enough to bring a pony back from the dead after that long, let alone a Slayer!”

“I swear it’s true,” Rainbow insists. “Somepony brought me back to life. And I think the pony knew I’m a Slayer, too.”

They are all stumped.

“Well, we’re just glad that you’re alive and well,” Fluttershy concludes.

Spike and Twilight nod in agreement.

“Very,” Spike adds.

Dashie smiles. Suddenly, there is a knock on the door of her room. Everypony turns towards the door to find a white, purple maned unicorn with a saddlebag on her back slowly trotting into the room, almost in embarrassment.

“Rarity?” Rainbow asks in confusion.

Rarity smiles timidly.

“Hi, Rainbow,” She says.

“What are you doing here, Rarity?” Spike sneers.

Rarity trots gracefully over to the side of Rainbow’s hospital bed.

“I wanted to show you my gratitude for you saving my life, so I made something for you,” Rarity explains.

“I hope you made a heart for yourself while you were at it,” Spike snorts.

Rarity ignores Spike’s quip and pulls a perfectly folded black leather jacket out of her saddlebag. Rainbow is shocked.

“You made this for me?” She repeats, awestruck.

Rarity nods.

“I had to guess on most of the measurements, but it should fit,” She admits.

“Well…thank you!” Rainbow says.

“Don’t thank me, darling,” Rarity replies. “Try it on!”

Rainbow begins to stand up, but Twilight panics.

“What are you doing?” Twilight exclaims. “You’ve only just come back from the dead. You should let your body recover.”

Rainbow shakes her head.

“I’ll be fine, Twi,” She insists.

As she lands on her hooves, her legs begin to give way, but Rarity catches her.

“There you go, dear,” Rarity says as she helps ease Rainbow to her hooves. “Slow and steady now.”

After a few moments, Rainbow is standing on her own hooves without anypony’s help. Rarity hands her the leather jacket. Rainbow throws the jacket on her back and puts her front hooves through the arms of the jacket. She wiggles around in the jacket to ensure it fits her properly.

“Wow, it fits perfectly,” Rainbow observes. “Thanks Rarity!”

Rarity blushes.

“Oh, it was nothing,” Rarity insists. “Really.”

She turns to Spike and Fluttershy.

“I feel terrible about being so mean to you all,” Rarity admits guiltily.

Fluttershy smiles.

“Oh, it’s okay, Rarity,” She says. “We forgive you.”

Spike gives Rarity a suspicious glare.

“Consider yourself on probation,” He relents reluctantly.

Dashie laughs and climbs back into her hospital bed, wearing her new jacket.

“Look at that,” Rainbow comments. “Happy endings all around!”

The full moon shines brightly in the night sky. All is peaceful on the edge of Ponydale’s city limits. Suddenly, four stars in the sky seem to crash into the moon, causing it to shine even brighter for a moment, but the brightness fades almost as suddenly as it began.

Suddenly, a large black-coated mare materializes out of thin air onto the ground. The mare has stunningly majestic wings, which flap lazily at her side, and a long, spiraled horn with a point as sharp as a rapier. Her name is just as majestic, looking as though it had been stolen straight from the cloudless night sky and it has a magic aura around it, which could justify such an argument. She stumbles around for a moment, but finally manages to regain her balance. She adjusts her dark blue helmet and looks around to find a sign next to her that reads “Welcome to Ponydale!” She glances at her white crescent moon cutie mark, which sits upon her puple flank, and thinks for a moment. Then, a vicious grin forms on her lips.

“Ponydale, eh?” She muses to herself. “Seems like a decent enough place to start!”

The mysterious mare rears on her hind hooves and lets out a ghoulish cackle and the sky becomes dark with clouds. The clouds soon cover the moon from sight.

“Hear me, Ponydale, your Queen of the Night has returned to claim her rightful kingdom! Soon, all of Equestria will bow down to the power and majesty of Nightmare Moon!”

The End of Dashie the Vampony Slayer. Be sure to stay tuned for Dashie the Vampony Slayer: Millennium of Darkness, coming soon to FIMFiction.net!

Special thanks to Princess Luna on ZeldaUniverse for editing this story and whipping my grammar into shape. And an extra special thanks goes out to ~MatthewHouston on DeviantArt, who worked his flank off drawing up the cover art.

Finally, I do not own any of the characters in either My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this is written purely for fandom entertainment purposes and will never be used for profit uses. Just wanted to get that out of the way!