//------------------------------//
// A Silver Lining? 
// Story: BloodLust 
// by The Mountaineer Brony 
//------------------------------//

Fluttershy awoke the next day with a smile; with the sun shining brightly through her window and the pleasant night of sleep she'd had on a full stomach, she almost forgot that there was anything wrong with her. It wasn't until she went down to the bathroom and found the dried remnants of Rainbow's bloodletting that she was reminded of her grisly new appetite. Her stomach grumbled slightly, prodding her for sustenance. 

"Oh dear..." she muttered to Angel on her shoulder "I guess what I had last night didn't last as long as I'd hoped it would." Scratching her chin with her hoof, she looked towards the kitchen; her stomach growled more loudly this time, almost as if protesting any actual food. 

Fluttershy set Angel down gently on her couch, leaving him with a carrot. 

"You stay here, Angel. I'm going out for a little bit." The white rabbit looked at her sadly, but did as he was told. 





Fluttershy mulled about Ponyville nervously, looking for anyplace she could possibly sustain herself. If other ponies waved at her, she smiled with her lips tight together, fearful of revealing her newly acquired canines. Despite all of this, she tried her hardest to act normally; she met a few of her friends in town and exchanged pleasantries with them.

Applejack had tossed a free apple her way; she took it into an alley and practiced biting it, temporarily quelling her urge to sink her fangs into something. Rarity had invited her into the boutique to get her opinion on some new designs; when she wasn't looking, Fluttershy dug through her trash looking for scrap tissues that might hold blood from where she'd jabbed herself with a needle, though she found none. 

Eventually, Fluttershy decided to isolate herself, both to think and suppress her instincts. As she walked along the road, she occasionally passed other ponies, but she still felt as though she were cold and alone.

"I'm cold..." she thought "...that's an odd feeling." Indeed, the sun was shining brightly through a cloudless sky in the waning days of summer; she should've been at least pleasantly warm, if not a bit hot, but she didn't feel a thing, aside from a gentle breeze, which to her felt almost like frost. 

"Maybe I just need food, that's all." Fluttershy began anxiously scanning her surroundings for anything she might get blood from without much effort. 

Overhead, she saw Ocellus, Silverstream and Smolder leisurely flying about. "Oh no, not my own students..." she thought. 

Up ahead, she saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders laughing and playing while kicking around a ball. Surely they'd be easy to bring down; such small ponies wouldn't put up much of a fight. 

"Oh, I couldn't possibly!" Fluttershy gasped internally. "They're far too sweet and innocent!"

Startled out of thought by a resounding noise, Fluttershy turned to look behind her. The kindly yet clumsy cross-eyed Pegasus had conked her head into a shop's wooden sign. "Oh, now that's just low-hanging fruit!" Fluttershy internally scolded herself with a disgruntled face.

Fluttershy became increasingly nervous as her stomach got louder. Her head shot around, looking high and low for any potential meals before locking eyes upon a large, bright building: the hospital.

Quickly, she shook her head clean of such thoughts. "NO." Fluttershy forced herself to walk away, visibly shocked and ashamed. "Fluttershy, they'd send you to Tartarus for that!"





Having made her way back home, Fluttershy's  stomach had only grown louder. She rubbed her head with her wings, stopping to rest near the small stream by her home. It was then that she noticed one of her animal friends nearby, an otter, had caught a large fish and was dragging it ashore. Fluttershy licked her lips as her eyes bore into its glistening scales. 

"Um, excuse me, Mr. Otter," Fluttershy squeaked as she approached gently "do you think I could borrow that?"

The otter looked at her curiously.

She lowered her head, taking the fish's tail in her teeth. "I'll give it right back, I promise."

The otter wasn't happy with his meal being stolen. He clamped down on the fish's head and began pulling in the opposite direction. 

"Oh, come on now..." Fluttershy pouted "Let's not fight..."

Soon enough, though, she herself was getting angry as well. The two had soon entered into the fiercest game of tug-of-war that had ever been performed with a dead fish. Fluttershy's eyes were beginning to turn red, and she was snarling as loud as the otter was. 

Eventually, the fish couldn't withstand the tension any longer. The two combatants fell apart, each clutching one bloodied half of a fish in their jaws. Fluttershy quickly moved to lap up as much blood as possible while the otter fled with what remained of his catch. Piscine blood had a very salty flavor, but Fluttershy was just happy to be eating again.

"Hey Fluttershy, I think I---"

Fluttershy quickly snapped to attention, facing the direction of the voice. Fortunately, it was only Rainbow Dash, who bore a similar look of stunned silence upon seeing Fluttershy sitting on the ground, blue eyes peering out through a face splattered with scarlet blood.

"...Aaaaaas I was saying, I think I might have some ideas as to how we can fix you." Rainbow Dash picked up awkwardly from where she left off, pointing to the saddlebags she carried on her back.

"Oh... well... that's good." Fluttershy replied, smiling meekly through the embarrassing moment she'd been caught in. "Let's um, let's go inside, a-and I'll get cleaned up..."

Fluttershy washed the blood from her face as Rainbow opened her saddlebags, dumping a load of books onto the coffee table. "I went to Twilight's and borrowed every book I could find on vampires." She said, looking determined. "I told her that I wanted to get an early start on my Nightmare Night costume." She turned to regard Fluttershy as she approached. "I figure if we do some reading, we might stumble across a solution for your affliction."

Fluttershy shrugged. "I suppose that's as good as anything I could think of."

Dash immediately started flipping through books, with Fluttershy joining her on the couch. Sorting through the various hardcovers that Rainbow had brought, she came across one that piqued her curiosity. 

"Rainbow Dash, what exactly is Dusk?"

"It's some kind of sappy romance novel with a vampire in it." Rainbow replied. "And according to Twilight, not a very good one."

"Um, Rainbow... why would you think a romance novel would help cure me?"

Dash's cheeks flushed pink, her eyes growing wide as she peered up from behind a book. "I, uh..." 

Fluttershy's bashful smile only increased her friend's own embarrassment. Rainbow Dash stammered, unable to produce any meaningful response. All at once, Fluttershy decided to muster her bravery and ask one simple question.

"Rainbow Dash, do... do you like me?"

"Well of course I do, Fluttershy, you're like, my best friend..."

"No, I mean... d-do you have a crush on me?"

Rainbow hid down into her book, muttering something.

"What was that?" Fluttershy asked. 

"I'm not sure." said Rainbow Dash, only slightly louder. 

Fluttershy was getting a nervous lump in her throat, but the urge to get this off her chest compelled her to keep speaking.

"Well, I have a crush on you, you know? I think I always have."

"Uh huh."

She took a deep breath. "Well, um... I was hoping that maybe... after we get this cured... we could be... more than friends?"

Rainbow's reddened face rose up to meet hers. "So... that night... the way you were... kissing me... that wasn't just a trick? You really feel that way?"

Fluttershy nodded. "I think you're beautiful, Rainbow. You make me feel this way."

The Wonderbolt's rose-tinted face grew even brighter. She couldn't believe that she, her style, her body, actually made somepony feel that way. It was deeply flattering. 

"You know, Fluttershy, I..." Rainbow's voice trailed off into indistinct gravel among her self-consciousness. The two shared a meek smile. "I, well, I, um... I think that... um... maybe?" 

Fluttershy leaned forward, planting a sweet, innocent kiss on her lips and holding it there for a blissful eternity. It was simple, more of a peck or a nuzzle than an actual kiss, but it nearly made Rainbow pass out. Something about this mare made her feel weak and demure, and, if she were to be honest with herself, she'd say she actually liked that. Maybe it was because she was older than her, Rainbow being the youngest in the group, with Fluttershy second only to Applejack in seniority. Maybe it was because they both had exteriors that belied what they were capable of: just because Fluttershy seemed timid didn't mean she couldn't be strong, and just because Rainbow Dash seemed rough-and-tumble didn't mean she couldn't be tender, caring, or even downright insecure at times. She wasn't sure what it was, but whatever it was, she liked it.

If friendship was magic, this was something more.

As the yellow Pegasus broke off her kiss, Rainbow did her best to avoid shaking. 

"I'll give you some time to think on it, then." Fluttershy said sweetly. 

Rainbow Dash didn't need much more time to think on it. She was certainly in love, she just needed to figure out how to show it to Fluttershy. She knew that if she just tried to tell her, she probably wouldn't be able to talk straight; instead, she would show her through action. She absolutely had to cure Fluttershy now, and she wouldn't rest until her friend could rest in her embrace without wanting to exsanguinate her.

Rainbow cleared her throat, breaking the awkward silence. "So, let's see what we can do about your..." She paused to sound out a book's long word in her head "...vampirism."

After perusing the dusty old pages and coming upon a section listing various herbs that could be useful, Rainbow Dash leapt up from her seat with epiphany. 

"Fluttershy, I think I know somepony who might be able to help us!" Noticing the concerned look upon her face, Rainbow put her hooves on her shoulders. "I know you didn't want anypony to find out, but I really think this would be a smart idea." 

"Well... who?" Fluttershy asked.

"Zecora."