//------------------------------// // Crimson Nectar // Story: BloodLust // by The Mountaineer Brony //------------------------------// When the sun rose, accompanied by the pleasant chirping of birds, the pink-haired pony rolled out of bed. Testing her injured hoof, she found that a night of sleep had done it good, and it was now much less painful to walk upon. When she removed the bandages, which weren't stained with very much blood, she realized that the bite mark was hardly visible, mostly covered by her plush yellow fur. With a small smile and a nod of approval, she fluttered downstairs for breakfast. After about five minutes, and with help from her animal friends, Fluttershy had prepared herself a nice variety of foods, spread out across her kitchen table. She rubbed her hooves together in anticipation. "Alright little ones, let's dig in!" she said cheerfully. As the animals all began devouring their preferred breakfast treat, Fluttershy daintily sampled some oatmeal. But something didn't taste right. "Hmm" she thought. "Maybe it just needs more sweetening." Yet no matter how much butter or sugar she added, the oatmeal still tasted like dirt. "Well, that's odd." she said aloud. She reached for a teacup to cleanse her palate, yet the tea, too, was revolting. "Ech!" She spat it back into her china. Fluttershy became frantic, wondering if somehow all of her food had gone bad at once. She quickly grabbed the pitcher of milk on the table and proceeded to chug it, but could barely get started before retching. The whole thing tasted sour! When she bit into the toast, though it was golden-brown and buttery, it tasted blackened and burnt. A bead of sweat formed on her fair forehead. She flew up to her cabinet, reaching into the back for the bag of coffee beans that Rarity had gotten her on her last trip to Canterlot. Before her hoof could touch it, she remembered that she thought coffee tasted bad under normal circumstances, so this probably wouldn't help. Not far from it, though, she noticed a bright orange carrot, fresh and tempting. Swift as a Wonderbolt, she grabbed it up and took a bite. It tasted as though it had sat in the earth for millennia and had borne thousands of generations of weevils. Fluttershy shuddered at the taste, but thought that she needed something in her system. She forced herself to down the whole carrot, greens and all. "There!" she said, feeling accomplished. "That wasn't so bad, was it, Fluttershy?" Her petite stomach rumbled in response. Minutes later, she was throwing up in the sink. "This is ridiculous!" she said once Angel had cleaned her muzzle up. "Friends, I think I'm going to have to go out and eat. Surely something in Ponyville is palatable, right?" Fluttershy took a minute to prepare herself to face the world before fluttering out the door; just to take a chance, she sampled the green grass of her front lawn. It too, tasted as though it had been coated in garbage. She spat out the foliage and fluttered away towards town, the local deer shooting her confused looks. At Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie Pie was pleasantly perplexed by her friend's request. "You want... ALL the cakes?" "Um... yes. I'd like to sample everything you've got." As Fluttershy looked about the shop awkwardly to check for anypony's attention, Pinkie took advantage of her distraction to confront a chaotic inner monologue only she and Discord could possibly follow. "SHE WANTS ALL THE CAKES!" The pink party pony began serving up various colorful dishes posthaste, with the kind of hyperactive gymnastics that must counteract all the junk food she eats. Fluttershy took a single bite of each, trying her best to keep a straight face as she internally grimaced with each horrid flavor. The chocolate, the vanilla, the cinnamon, pumpkin spice, and mint... all they tasted like was dirt, mud, ash, emptiness, and disappointment, in no particular order. After Pinkie Pie had dished her up close to 100 cakes in just under three minutes, Fluttershy wiped her mouth with a napkin and stood to leave. "Aww, where ya goin', Fluttershy?" She asked, a look of disappointment beginning to creep in. "We've still got 1,256 more cakes to go!" "I'm sorry, Pinkie," said Fluttershy "but I think I'll have to take a rain check on the rest." The pink pony paused, perplexion pervading her profile. "Is it Number 1,257? Because I thought I hit the buttercream a liiiiiiittle too heavily on that one." The Pegasus shook her head. "No, Pinkie, it was... fine. I'm just, um... I'm full, that's all, so, uh... how about we continue this at a later date?" Pinkie Pie was busy digging into Number 1,257. "Sounds good to me!" she said through icing-covered lips. Fluttershy made a rush for the door, but on her way tripped over some toys the Cake Twins had left on the floor. Stumbling forward into the wooden door, it swung outward swiftly, but Fluttershy caught herself. After a moment, she noticed that the door had impacted something very solidly; this was followed by a loud "OW!" from the other side. Stepping outside and closing the door, Fluttershy found a blue, rainbow-maned Pegasus rubbing her nose. "Oh! Rainbow Dash, I am so very sorry! I-I-I tripped a-and fell into the door and..." Rainbow righted herself and patted Fluttershy's shoulder with a hoof. "Aw, it's okay, Fluttershy! Accidents happen, am I right?" "Yes, I suppose s--" Fluttershy started to speak, but cut herself off after noticing something. A fine trickle of red liquid was exiting the Pegasus' nostril. She must have smashed into the door hard enough to trigger a nosebleed. Fluttershy was captivated by this red droplet. So gently it caressed her nose, pulled downward by force of gravity into a bulging droplet leaving its scarlet trail down her cyan face. So radiantly did it glisten in the sunlight, each ray glinting off the liquid's tense surface putting Fluttershy deeper into her trance. It looked marvelous to her eyes; no wonder Rainbow was so energetic, so full of vim and vigor... she had the most succulent, crisp, resplendently red lifeblood flowing inside her. "Rainbow, you're... you're bleeding..." said Fluttershy softly, reaching her hoof forward to wipe the droplet away and present it to her. Rainbow Dash recoiled, putting her own hoof to her nose and retrieving a similar splatter. "Oh shoot, you're right!" she said with surprise. "I'd better see the doctor about this, huh?" She quickly put her head to the window of the door she'd impacted, calling inside to Pinkie Pie. "Hey Pinkie?! Can I come back later and pick up Scootaloo's birthday cake?" The pink pony behind the counter nodded and said something, though her mouthful of buttercream icing muffled whatever it was. "I'll see you around, Fluttershy." Rainbow Dash parted with a small smile and zoomed off into town. Meanwhile, Fluttershy still stood on the front stoop of the bakery, astounded by the ruby bead she held on her hoof. Rapt with morbid curiosity, something deep inside her told her that this, among all things, would be edible. Slowly, carefully, she put the drop of Rainbow's blood to her lips, sucking it in. Her eyes rolled back at the overwhelming taste. It was the best, most replenishing thing she'd supped all day. The rich taste of iron might as well have been saffron to her, so rare and so sublime was its bitterness. The crimson nectar of the gods tantalized her taste buds as it slowly worked its way into the back of her throat. Normally, blood reaching the stomach is a trigger to make one vomit, but just this small bit of fluid which her body now perceived as food was enough to keep her stomach from regurgitating the vile cakes she'd sampled earlier. It was in that moment she knew she had to have more. That night, Fluttershy lay in bed, still feeling satisfied from the single drop of blood she'd consumed earlier, but wishing she could've sucked at Rainbow's nose like a nursing foal. From the taste of her ichor, she could tell that Rainbow was quite healthy; fitting, seeing as she was a nationally-known hero and a professional athlete of sorts. She had to keep herself in prime condition. Fluttershy pondered this further: not only could she taste Rainbow Dash's health, she could see it, too. Her illustrious coat, those powerful wings, her strong, shapely legs attached to that body, petite, like her own, yet muscular... Fluttershy realized what she was feeling, but let herself feel it anyway. For many years, she'd suppressed what she felt for Rainbow Dash. Though the two had known each other since childhood and had always been close, she felt that letting her know that she wanted to be anything more than friends would jeopardize what they already had. And she certainly didn't want to sow the seeds of disharmony among the Council of Friendship, unbalancing them with two of its members starting a relationship. Still, she thought, perhaps keeping it a secret wouldn't hurt anypony… that is, assuming Rainbow wanted a relationship in the first place. She'd never been seen fawning over anypony but herself. "To be fair," Fluttershy thought "she does have the looks worth fawning over." The yellow Pegasus allowed herself to smile at that. Maybe, she began to wonder, there was a way she could satisfy both her thirst for blood and her newly reawakened hunger for Rainbow Dash... Fluttershy knew what she had to do. She dreamt about it all that night.