The sun was ready to rise, and Twilight was nearly ready to take to her bed for the day. She'd trained with Luna all that night, as she had most nights since her accident, and was sitting beside her bed and remembering some of the memorable moments she'd had over the past two months.
Luna was standing in the pale moonlight, the darkness flowing around her and leaving no doubt that this was her domain. Gone was the friendly Luna that had comforted her through her doubts that first long night, and standing in her place was Luna the Immortal, timeless, ageless, and utterly certain of her purpose. At the moment, that purpose was to help Twilight find her new home in the night.
“Look around you,” she said, her voice soft and subtle. “See the sacred shadow all around us, the welcoming darkness of the empty night. This is the unseen world that is now your home. The silence of the meadow, the peace of the cloudless sky, the stillness of the air, all of these things. How does that make you feel?”
“Afraid,” Twilight answered, her eyes flitting about at every tiny movement and sound.
“Why?”
“Most predators are nocturnal, and we're really close to the Everfree.”
“You are a predator now as well, are you not?” Luna pointed out. “A far more dangerous one than many of the creatues in the forest. You should not fear them.”
Twilight frowned. “I'm afraid of anything that wants to eat me, whether or not I should be doesn't really matter.”
“We will have to change that,” Luna muttered, her horn ignitng.
Twilight flinched at that memory. Luna had called shades of various creatures of the Everfree, imitations of life that were enslaved to her will, and forced Twilight to fight them until the sight of them no longer made her afraid. It had taken almost a week, and by the end, Twilight had needed a night off to recover from a myriad of injuries, mostly minor. It had been painful, but she couldn't deny the effectiveness of the method. That had been something Twilight very quickly realised about Luna, she was a firm believer in the importance of results, and to Tartarus with the consequences. It was annoying, but the speed of her progress both physically and magically was astounding, and so she made no complaints.
Sighing, Twilight delved back into her memories.
Twilight was exhausted. The sun was only an hour away, and Luna had mercilessly manipulated her for hours, her taunts drawing out her anger, her compliments drawing pride, and her stony silence drawing worry.
It was all for a purpose, of course. Luna had already taught Twilight how to feel, now she was teaching her how to harness those emotions and use them to direct her magic. Her anger was now fire and force, her pride and confidence could form the beginnings of a shield, and her worry was a cloak of living shadow, a veil far more subtle and complex than Twilight could have ever hoped to create through the rigid control of Celestia's magical theory.
Now, Luna was doing something far worse. She was barraging Twilight with a thousand mental images of every failure she'd suffered in the past and every horrible possibility for the future, dragging her down into the depths of despair. After a time that Twilight couldn't measure, well after she had moved past crying and curled up into a gently rocking ball on the ground, Luna broke the silence.
“Despair is sometimes called the most dangerous of emotions,” the Princess said, her voice a whisper. “A pony who truly believes they have nothing left to live for is capable of things no other pony would dream of doing. I have seen one such pony tear down cities in his grief. I watched another open her own throat to escape it. Countless times, I have seen such ponies go to fight against hopeless odds to give their friends a few moments more to escape. This is what despair can bring, Twilight Sparkle, so you must be wary of it.”
Luna gently lifted Twilight's face to the sky, which was lit by false dawn.
“However, that is not why despair makes a pony so dangerous. Despair invites hope, and hope is limitless.”
The sun crested the horizon, bathing the world in light and warmth, and with it came a wave of Celestia's magic, banishing hatred, fear, and worry for a short time so that her subjects might be able to wake in peace. As that magic washed over Twilight, she felt a spark inside of her that seemed to catch all of her negative emotions like tinder, turning them in a whirling maelstrom of energy that wanted to be set loose.
“With despair, you will throw yourself, at an army. With hope, you will win. Remember this and you will never die. Forget this, and you will die alone.”
Twilight smiled. That had felt like the longest night of her life, but after Luna had allowed her to use that power hope had granted her, it had turned into one of the best. There was a wild, unrestrained joy to it, something quite unlike anything any other magic she'd ever used, almost as if it was alive, something Celestia's teachings had taught her was impossible.
But then, Luna had given her a lesson about the impossible as well.
“Tell me, Twilight, what is impossible?” Luna asked.
“What?”
“I thought it was a simple enough question,” Luna said, smiling.
Twilight blushed, and after a moment answered. “It's impossible to break the speed of light.”
“Is it?” Luna asked. “Is there truly no way?”
“No,” Twilight said, confident. “It's the universal speed limit.”
“It appears, then, that you routinely do the impossible. How remarkable.”
“What?”
“Teleportation,” Luna explained. “You are one of the relative few capable of that feat. Surely you are aware that it allows you to cover distance instantaneously?”
“That's a loophole though,” Twilight pointed out. “I'm not actually moving through this dimension.”
“You leave here and arrive there. That is movement.”
“Well, yes, but-”
“There is effectively zero elapsed time, while light will take a measurable time to travel the same distance.”
“Yes-”
“How is that not travel beyond the speed of light?”
“...you are vastly irritating,” Twilight sighed.
“Indeed,” Luna replied. “What else would you term impossible?”
Twilight threw up her hooves. “Why bother? You'll tell me why it isn't.”
“Indeed. Why do you suppose that is?”
“You enjoy poking holes in my ego?” Twilight asked, her voice flat.
“That is hardly the only reason.”
“I'm lost,” Twilight said after a few moments. “Explain it to me.”
“Very well. The lesson is this; impossible is merely a word, not a reality. There may be consequences well beyond what you are willing to pay, but all things are possible, if you are both determined and willing to pay the proper price.”
“And now it's time for a practical example?”
“Of course.”
Twilight shook her head and crawled into bed. She still wasn't quite prepared to accept some of the things Luna had asked her to do that night, and so she decided it would be best for her sanity if she went to sleep. Almost as soon as she closed her eyes, she was dead to the world.
Twilight woke in a cold sweat with her muscles cramped and twitching, a thunderous headache, a pain in her jaws, and a horrible emptiness in her stomach. She rolled out of bed, landing on her side with a dull thud, before trying to stand and fumbling off the edge of the loft she used as a bedroom and landing hard on her back. She stayed there for a moment, winded, before Luna walked up her, concern plainly visible in her eyes.
“It is time, Twilight,” she said, her voice barely more than a whisper. “Come with me.”
The Princess helped Twilight of her hooves and, walked slowly out the library, keeping the confused and afraid mare beside her and draped with her wing until they reached the town limits of Ponyville.
“The hunger is upon you,” Luna explained when Twilight gave her a questioning stare. “I have delayed it as long as I dare. You will feed soon, or you risk losing yourself. I will not allow that to happen.”
Twilight's stomach sank, but she said nothing. Luna's horn flashed slightly brighter, and a moment later Twilight found herself staring down a prison hall “We are now in the Canterlot dungeons,” Luna said. “The ponies in this section deserve a worse fate than any the law can give them. They are the ones beyond redemption, unrepentant murderers and worse. Nopony but you and I know you are here. Speak to them. Hear their crimes. Use the magic I have taught you to ensure they speak truth. Find one who you honestly believe should no longer befoul the earth, and feed from them. Do not starve yourself for fear of harming them, you have gone without for too long to risk anything less than a full feeding. If you still hunger, choose another.”
Twilight shivered at the cold tone in Luna's voice.
“I will wait here. Return to me when it is done, and be forewarned that this is the last time you will be able to choose to forsake your new life. This is your last chance to turn away.”
Twilight hesitated a moment, then began to walk through the halls, forcing herself to hold her head high and doing her best to draw a little steel into her will. As she passed barred cells, prisoners called out to her, spouting insults, curses, and comments vulgar enough that she almost believed they truly were all damned. Then she passed a cell smaller than the rest, and the stallion inside was silent. She turned to look at him, and was faced with a rather large unicorn wearing a rusted iron ring around his horn.
“Who are you?” she asked.
The unicorn looked at her a moment. “Wrong question. Who are you?” he retorted, his voice rough and deep.
Twilight arched an eyebrow. “A pony who isn't the mood to play games. Do you have a name?”
“Does a pony need a name?' the unicorn pondered, “or does a name need a pony?”
“Why are you in here?” Twilight asked, shaking her head.
“Why are you out there?” The unicorn asked. “I can see it in your eyes. You're going to kill me. Or one of the others. It doesn't matter, really, we'll all die soon enough.”
Twilight rocked back a little, then, on impulse, put her curiosity about the unicorn into the front of her mind. ”Tell me why you are here,” she said, her voice pulsing with the silky smooth power of the night.
The unicorn's eyes glazed over slightly. “Dark magic,” he said, his voice quiet. “The darkest. I called a demon and traded a living ponies heart for power.”
Twilight took a smart step back from the cell. That explained the iron ring, it was an inhibitor. There would be runes carved on the inside that prevented him from gathering any magic. A demon's gift was nothing to take lightly, even in the bowels of the most secure prison in the country. She marked the unicorn as candidate number one in her mind and started to move on, then stopped and turned back.
”How did you know why I am here? she asked, still lacing her voice with power.
The unicorn smiled then, but it was a twisted thing on his face. “Anypony could see it. You look at me like food, and you've a scent of darkness about you. It's strange, though. Old. What are you?”
Twilight walked away without answering his question, not stopping until she found a cell with a diminutive pegasus chained inside, his wings weighted and a mask on his face. “Why are you here?” she asked.
The pegasus eyed her in silence, then licked his lips and started to whisper. She had to focus to hear him over the calls from the other cells, but eventually she could make out what he was saying.
“...the beautiful ones always tasted the best, yes, but it's been so long, so long since I've had a bite oh why are they bringing the beautiful ones here when I can't even have a bite...”
Twilight blinked, and averted her ears. She looked down the hall again, and a quick count told her there were at least a hundred cells. She doubted any of the occupants would be any more pleasant, so she walked back to Luna.
“You have been here not ten minutes,” Luna said as she drew near, “and you have have yet to feed. Why have you returned?”
“A question I've been meaning to ask.”
Luna nodded.
“How am I supposed to feed if I don't have fangs?” she asked, pointing her perfectly normal teeth with a hoof.
Luna tilted her head slightly. “ You have not earned them yet. Bite the pony you choose, they will come.”
“That easy?” Twilight asked.
“Yes. I apologise, I had thought you knew. Be prepared, it will hurt.”
Twilight turned to walk away, then stopped. “The unicorn that made a deal with a demon. How long has he been here?”
“Eleven years. It was his daughter's heart he offered, Twilight. She was eight weeks old.”
The unicorn's eye twitched, then she set back down the hall until she stood of the cell. ”You,” she said, ”come here.”
He looked like he wanted to resist, but with shaky steps he walked up to the bars. Twilight reached inside with her magic, grabbed onto his horn, and pulled his head far enough through the bars to reach his neck.
She stood there for a long while, staring down at his neck while his breath came in ragged gasps. Eventually, she asked him one more question.
”Why did you choose your daughter?
The stallion turned his head to look at her as best he could, obviously confused. “Why else would I have a foal?” he asked.
Twilight closed her eyes, then fast as lightning she latched her teeth onto his neck and bit down hard. She could feel him try to scream, which she thought should have disturbed her, but mostly she felt a sharp pain in her jaws, then she felt a jolt of pure electric pleasure race through her body as his blood hit her tongue. The prison was forgotten and the unicorns choked screams ignored as her conscious mind was driven back and she drifted away into the sensation of feeding, losing herself in shuddering waves of euphoric ecstasy.
All too soon, she felt the pleasure start to fade away, and with a start she realised her teeth were now stuck in the neck of a dead pony. She stretched her jaws wide enough to extract her fangs and looked hard at the pale, drained corpse, wondering what manner of revulsion she would feel.
She realised, after a moment, that all she felt was cold. She walked back down the hall, which was now silent as a grave, and without a word Luna teleported them both out of the prison.
Back in the clearing outside Ponyville where her training had taken place for the previous months, Twilight stood, licking her new fangs. Luna was standing a few feet away, waiting.
“I didn't feel anything,” Twilight said quietly. “After he died.”
“Was there something you expected to feel?” Luna asked.
“Shock,” Twilight answered. “Sadness. Horror. Something. It isn't right to just end a life and not feel something.”
“Do you believe you chose incorrectly?”
“Did I?” Twilight asked, her voice sober. “He was in prison, and dealing with demons is a life sentence. He couldn't have harmed anypony again.”
“That is incorrect,” Luna said, shaking her head. “He was unlikely to escape, and even less likely to find a way to remove his inhibitor ring, this is true, but he did not need his magic to be dangerous. A stallion with a mind like his can kill with words alone, and he has. Two guards. One committed suicide, another chose voluntary exile and died of dehydration in a desert far to the East, in the Zebrecian lands.”
Twilight blinked. “I never heard about any of that.”
“Few ponies have. Equestria is, normally, a peaceful land. My sister and I decided long ago that we would not disturb the normal folk with such black news if they were in no danger.”
Twilight eyed the alicorn a moment. “Then why wasn't he muzzled?”
Luna sighed bitterly. “Lawyers. Cruel and unusual punishment, they called it. An affront to justice, with no evidence to merit imposing such a harsh punishment. Suffice to say I was most unhappy with that decision. In ages past, we would have cut out his tongue and been done with it.”
That sort of statement might have made Twilight uncomfortable before she had grown used to Luna, but now she didn't react at all. “Do you honestly believe he would have done it again?”
Luna look directly into Twilight's eyes, her face serious. “Some ponies are broken,” she began. “They may appear normal, they may be perfectly polite and cordial, but they are nothing but twisted mockeries of good ponies like you and your friends. They are the invisible evil that permeates our entire society. To kill another gives them a thrill, Twilight. They enjoy the knowledge that a better pony than themselves is dead because of their actions. He was such a pony. He would have killed until he no longer drew breath. By ending his life, you have saved others. Perhaps many, perhaps only a few, but you have saved them nonetheless. You chose wisely. Dismiss your sorrow. There are few in this world that deserved such a fate more.”
“Should that make it better?”
“That is your decision,” Luna said. “No more of how you felt then. You have drank the blood of another, of your own free will, and in doing so you have sealed a pact with the night. How do you feel now?”
Twilight licked her fangs again. “Pointy.”
Luna laughed, a bright, happy, sound. “Humour. This is good. Come, let us take the remainder of the night for rest. I believe you have quite earned that luxury.”
When Twilight opened her eyes, she saw The Void. The Keeper, as always, stood in front of her, only this time he seemed more animated. She could see him breathe, and he swayed slightly, instead of his usual statuesque stillness. She bowed her head slightly in a polite gesture that, according to him, signified acknowledgement of a superior in both knowledge and power without necessarily indicating submission.
The Keeper smiled, a full smile, not just a twitch of the lips. “It always brings me pleasure to see one so young act so polite,” he said, and his lips moved, and his voice came from his mouth.
“That's different,” Twilight noted. “You're looking a lot more... lifelike. Real.”
“That is because I am,” The Keeper explained. “When you drank, you separated yourself further from light and life. My realm is now as much a home to you as The World That Is.”
“What?” Twilight asked, her voice flat.
The Keeper smiled again. “Before, there was a chance that you would deny yourself the power in the darkness. Now you have accepted it. Luna told you that you had joined a pact, did she not?” Twilight nodded, frowning. “This pact is an agreement between three, not two. You have sworn devotion to Luna and her night for the duration of your mortal life, and you have sworn your immortal soul to me.”
“Thank the stars that's not creepy or anything,” Twilight said. “Please tell me it's just symbolic.”
“Not entirely.”
Twilight's ear twitched. “Can you explain?” she asked after a moment.
“Of course. Do you understand the magical significance of a trinity?” The Keeper asked.
“Three points form an equilateral triangle, which is a very strong shape both physically and magically speaking. Commonly used to symbolise the three core attributes of magic; mind, matter, and energy,” Twilight recited from memory.
“Yes, however that is not why it is used here,” The Keeper said. “As there is a trinity of realms, so too is there a trinity of beings involved in this pact. Luna represents The World That Is To Come, as it was her will that imagined you and her power that created you. You represent The World That Is, as you exist between her and I, the mortal manifestation of Luna's might. I represent The Void, as your soul is destined to come to my realm, where it will become an instrument of my will. This trinity is then enchanted, and that enchantment is what has blessed you with vampirism.”
Twilight blinked. “Luna can enchant a metaphysical construct?” Twilight asked, stunned.
“As can Celestia. As can I.”
“How?” Twilight practically shouted. “The practical applications of that are-”
“Irrelevant,” The Keeper interrupted. “Only the Immortals have that power, and we do not use it lightly.”
“Aren't I immortal now too?” Twilight asked.
“You are an imitation,” The Keeper answered. “Though time and sickness are no longer your enemies, you are still inherently mortal, and always will be.”
Twilight sighed, watching her dreams of revolutionising the magical world drift away into the empty Void. “All right. Enough surprises and dashed hopes. You never bring me here without a reason, even if you just want to talk.”
“Ah, yes,” The Keeper said, “of course. I have two things I wish to tell you. Firstly, I wish to offer you congratulations on successfully completing your first trial. Many in the past have failed. It is good to know you have the strength to do what must be done.”
“Thanks,” Twilight began, “but I'd really rather not talk about that. Secondly?”
“When you wake, you must inform Luna that the Necromancers have returned, and they are preparing for war.”