When she woke up Sweetie immediately noticed two things. The first thing was the sharp headache, second was that she was laying on a soft surface. She opened her eyes just a little to find the room she was in was dimly lit by what she suspected was candle light judging from the orange glow and flickering shadows.
Memories of what happened surfaced in her mind. She remembered her confession of her actions and the sharp pain in her neck that followed. She reached back with a hoof and felt her neck where she had been hurt. She felt two small marks on her neck and realized that the pain had been fangs piercing her skin.
She couldn't feel any blood matting her coat and assumed Scootaloo had cleaned the area around the wound. Thankfully Rarity would have little to yell at her about. When she thought back to Rarity again her eyes bolted open. How long had she been out?
Now that she could see properly the young unicorn realized she was on Scootaloo's couch. Scootaloo must have put her there after she blacked out. Looking at the clock she realized she had been out for about an hour.
“Scoots... where are you?”
Scootaloo's response came quickly from the kitchen, “I'm right here.” Sweetie looked at the kitchen doorway as the red pegasus trotted into the room carrying a glass of water with magic, glowing eyes distinct in the dim light of the room's single candle. Sweetie was slightly jealous that her best friend overexerted herself by lifting a key mere days ago and now lifted books and drinks with little effort while she could barely light her horn.
Scootaloo set down the glass of water and sat down next to Sweetie, “Listen... I'm sorry about... you know.”
“No, it's okay, I deserved that anyway.”
Scootaloo motioned for Sweetie to drink the water she brought out with her before responding, “No Sweetie, you did some bad things, but you also felt guilt about it. Guilt means you know what you did was wrong and that can hurt more than fangs.”
Sweetie set down the now empty glass and hugged Scootaloo, “Thanks, that really meant a lot to me.” Scootaloo did the only thing she knew to do in this situation and returned the hug.
Once they let go of each other Sweetie stood up, feeling moderately dizzy from blood loss but otherwise okay.
“Wait,” Sweetie heard as she began walking towards the door, “Before you go, I think you might find these interesting.”
The white unicorn read the titles on the books she was given. One of them was 'A Beginners Guide to Magic' and the other was the copy of 'A Basic Guide to Dark Magic' that she found her friend reading when she arrived earlier.
After thanking Scootaloo again Sweetie left, careful not to damage the door which seemed even closer to breaking at any minute than it had been when she arrived.
As soon as Sweetie Belle left the vampony's home she immediately felt as if she was being watched. She had heard Rarity talk about how creepy the forest was but Sweetie never experienced this herself. The day before Sweetie had felt safe with her friends by her side and earlier that day she had been to overwhelmed by guilt to notice. Now that her conscience was clear and she was alone she felt as if the forest was watching her.
She broke into a quick trot looking around nervously. The trot soon turned into turned to a run as she reached the edge of the forest.
The rest of her journey home was less ominous than before now that Sweetie was out of the forest. Without the forest causing her to panic she slowed to a walk and then gave a certain topic more thought.
How does Scootaloo live in that place?