//------------------------------// // Chapter 12. Dark magic // Story: Final Corruption // by Epsilon-Delta //------------------------------// Twilight was in the forest again, alone with Rarity. Twilight sat in the middle of an abandoned, cracked street while Rarity watched just a few yards away. She could feel the draft, which she now knew to call the winds of dark magic, so easily now. She didn’t need to clear her mind or close her eyes to feel it anymore, she could just do it whenever she wanted. Walking through the forest she could feel which areas had more magic and which had less, just like she used to be able to do with light magic. It blew ever outward from the center of the forest, but built up in pockets, seeped into objects, filled the air, and blew around in smaller gusts. Ponyville, she now knew, was a basin of dark magic as well. Every object and pony had some amount of it stored in them. It would build up during the night, then burn away with the sun, but it never went away entirely. But more than just feel it, she could use it, weave it into spells, blow the wind in any direction she wanted. Twilight let the breeze run through her, then caught some of it and channeled it into the battery spell. Electricity began forming around her front hooves. But it was way too much! Twilight’s hooves were rumbling from all the lightning that was crackling around her. It lit up the whole area. Twilight couldn’t control it. “Crap! Rarity!” Twilight fell on her back, but she couldn’t get the electricity to die down. The wind kept blowing, feeding her spell. “What do I do what do I do?!” “You’re grabbing again,” warned Rarity. “Just let the magic drift.” “Drift away, drift away,” Twilight whispered to herself. She closed her eyes and tried to ignore the lightning swirling around her hooves. She tried to keep her mind on the spell but just let all the magic drift out of her grasp. Just let all of it drift away. Rarity wasn’t exactly lying when she called this ‘passive magic’. The way you used it was different from light magic. You just needed to let it flow through you, guide the winds rather than draw them in. Trying to use it like light magic just caused the spell to go out of control and explode. It started to work. The lightning started to die down. When Twilight got excited by this, it flared up again, but she got it under control a second time. Soon the battery spell was manageable again. Twilight slowly move her hooves over to the bottom of the light bulb she brought with her and put the barest effort into transferring the spell. The lightning stuck to the bottom of the light bulb. And it lit up! It actually worked! “I did it! On my first try!” Twilight jumped up and laughed. “I used to need two or three tries to get it back in Canterlot! And now I’m too good at it!” It was amazing! As a filly Twilight imagined what it would be like to live a thousand years ago at the height of Celestia’s reign when magic was nearly unlimited when you could cast any spell you could dream of. And now it was like Twilight was on the doorstep of that dream. In just one month, Twilight felt like she’d made more progress with dark magic than she had in her entire life with light magic. But she could only take so much each day, could only have short trials of her fillyhood dream. And she still wasn’t all the way there in terms of raw skill. The problem now wasn’t that spells were too hard to cast anymore, but that they were too easy. Twilight would overshoot and overpower all of them. “Are you a hundred percent sure I can’t do something that uses more magic?” Twilight turned excitedly to Rarity, emboldened by this success. “A more complex spell? I feel like that would solve my problem.” “If you try to teleport, you’re going to have a seizure.” Rarity knew exactly the spell Twilight was thinking of. "I spent an entire semester pretending to teleport!" Twilight mimed the motion. Anchor, cut, flow. Anchor, cut, flow. She'd done that for hours. "I'm a hundred percent confident I could get it on my first try." “The real problem is that your body is still barely able to handle dark magic, Twilight. I won’t let you cast anything more complex than this. And I still think casting simpler spells is better practice for you.” Dark magic did still feel dangerous and not just because the spells could get out of control. When she used too much of it, Twilight started to twitch uncontrollably and she’d never tried using a whole lot. She still wasn’t willing to do anything without Rarity’s permission or presence. Letting Twilight try this battery spell was already Rarity indulging Twilight. More normally they’d do things like complex levitation or basic elemental conjuring. Before she could move on, Rarity said, Twilight needed to kill her instinct to grab onto the magic and that would take a lot of practice. Rarity picked up a rock and threw it at one of the intact windows, shattering it. This was a common enough drill that Twilight knew what she wanted without having to ask. Twilight let the dark magic drift through her, trying not to draw any in, as she levitated all the pieces of broken glass back up into the window, piecing them back together as best she could. Once they were in place, she was supposed to heat them just enough for them to melt, then cool them back off quickly. It was a delicate process that could easily be overshot. When she first started, she could hardly keep from shattering the shards of glass in her grasp, flinging them off in random directions, using way too much heat, or else drawing too much dark magic into herself and needing to stop for the day. But this time it came out mostly okay. The window was a little distorted or blobby, but it wasn’t exploded or anything like that. They broke about five more windows over the next hour as Twilight continued to practice. Then Rarity declared that it was time to stop. “I think you’re at your limit for today,” said Rarity. “Oh come on!” Twilight put the top of her head under Rarity’s chin. “I feel fine! I can keep going. Just let me do one or two bigger spells? Even if I have a seizure it’s not that big a deal, right?” “Daw.” Rarity nuzzled the top of Twilight’s head. “Your enthusiasm makes all of this worth it. It’s so hard to say no to you. But think how bad I’d feel if I had to watch you have a seizure, hm? And besides.” Rarity pulled a ghost apple off a nearby tree. “You still need to take your medicine for today,” was what Rarity was calling it. She levitated the fruit in front of Twilight’s eyes. Twilight groaned as she looked at the ghost apple. Twilight went from fainting to being dizzy for a few hours and now it just made her a little fatigued, maybe a headache. The taste, though, still made Twilight wish she could be eating worms instead. “Can’t I just keep casting more spells to expose myself to dark magic?” Twilight asked. “It’s faster if you eat.” Rarity shook her head. “The more of these you eat the more spells you’ll be able to cast in a day. This is an important part of your training. If you want to get better, you need to be patient.” She knew Rarity was right. These fruits were the source of Twilight’s new abilities. Twilight braced herself, then bit into the fruit. It was easier than last time, it always was. But it still felt like she was eating a rotting apple. Twilight chewed and swallowed as fast as she could, fighting back the brief urge to puke she got whenever she swallowed some. Once it was down, Twilight took out her water bottle and drank the whole thing in one go, trying to wash the burning taste out of her mouth. She felt a sudden swell of exhaustion and needed to sit down for a minute. Twilight wasn’t going to be able to cast any spells after that. Meanwhile, Rarity watched her eat with far too much glee. All three of them got some weird enjoyment from watching Twilight eat fruit from the forest. She knew Pinkie would complain about missing today’s. Twilight wondered if she’d be able to understand once she changed. “You know.” Rarity sat down next to Twilight. “The longer I watch you, the more impressed I am with your talent. Even after three hundred years, I’ve never seen somepony able to use dark magic so well so early. And I’m not just saying that because I love you.” “Really?” Twilight knew she had some talent, it was her cutie mark. But she wasn’t sure if she believed that last part. “Yes.” Rarity stroked Twilight’s mane. “They made a horrible mistake by letting me take you for myself. I can already tell. You’re going to end up being one of our most powerful mages.” “I doubt I’ll be the best.” Twilight blushed. “But when we move to the Cavern Grove, they need mages, right? That’s an actual thing I can be?” Rarity nodded, even after having been asked that question fifty times. Twilight was constantly changing her mind about what the best part of this transformation was. Right now it was the fact that her shattered dream of becoming a mage was back in her sight. “You know, there’s a school of the dark arts very deep in the woods. I think in a few years you might be good enough to go there.” Rarity looked deep into the darkness of the woods and smiled. “I’m pretty sure now that you were the only pony in this town worth keeping, I might just go back with you in a few months. We could move to the town where that school is and live there for maybe fifty years or so before coming back. I find that's about how long it takes for everypony to forget about you." Twilight looked out into the forest, unsure how to feel about the idea. She did want to see the towns that the vampires lived in and read their books more than anything in the world. But her eight months in Ponyville was the best of her life. She didn’t want these nights to end. Even with another eight months left, she felt like her time here was ending already. “I’m still a little sore about the last school I went to,” said Twilight. “I understand. But I promise you it’s different,” Rarity said. “You don’t have to. There’s another town I’d rather live in if you’re not interested, though. So I’ll let you decide which we move to.” At least if Twilight didn’t age anymore there was no need to rush anything. She could observe that school for years before making a decision and nothing would be lost. “But hey.” Twilight tapped her hooves together and smiled wide. “If I can’t cast any more spells today, maybe I can watch you do some magic?” “My.” Rarity rolled her eyes. “Of all the spells I can cast, I wonder which one you want to see.” “Teleportation!” Twilight nodded. “Yes!” Twilight did count how many times Rarity did this for her. It was a hundred and twenty-seven so far, she’d watched Rarity teleport back and forth for an hour once, but Twilight still couldn’t get enough of it. It was too amazing! “Alright.” Rarity put her hoof on Twilight’s back. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to show you anyway. Let’s go.” Twilight already knew a little bit about teleporting with dark magic. It wasn’t too different from the way you did it with light magic and Twilight had spent hours pretending to do that. How far you could teleport depended was highly dependent on how the winds of dark magic flowed. Because it was generally always flowing out from the center, teleporting out of the forest was much easier than teleporting deeper into it. Rarity swirled the dark magic around, creating a tunnel that cut through the air and winds of dark magic. She then shot her own gust through it and cast the spell. Twilight felt herself get pulled forward with the wind at speeds too fast to even register. They simply vanished from one spot and appeared in another. They teleported! Twilight hardly believed it even though this must have been the hundredth time Rarity had teleported her somewhere. And one day she’d be able to teleport herself! And then do transformation magic! And then become a dark wizard! Twilight looked around. They were on the southern edge of South Ponyville now. Just a little past this was the lake that Twilight still wasn’t allowed on the other side of yet. “Couldn’t make it all the way.” Rarity started trotting down the street. “Did you know I grew up near here?” “I knew you lived in Ponyville, but-“ Twilight looked around at the ruined buildings. “I didn’t know you were from this side. It must be hard seeing your hometown torn up like this.” “I’m a creature of the forest now.” Rarity smiled, showing off her fangs. “The forest got me long before it got the town. This looks more appealing to me now. I like it better this way.” Twilight was becoming more familiar with the forest, but she hardly thought of it as ‘better’, at least not yet. But then, her opinion on the dark changed. Dark felt safe and the light felt scary now. She wondered how many things were going to change. There were still millions and millions of questions Twilight had, half of them unasked because even a month wasn’t enough time. “Right over here.” Rarity gestured to one of the largest trees Twilight had seen in the forest. “That’s where the library used to be. And right next to it was the textile mill I got stuck working in as a teenager. What was the name of that pony I used to work with there?” Rarity closed her eyes and tried to remember for a long time. That brought up one of her endless questions. While her nightmares about her family dying were fading, a new fear about them was replacing it. “Do you forget ponies?” Twilight asked. “If you haven’t seen somepony in hundreds of years, do you still remember anything about them?” Rarity stopped to think about it for a moment, taking the question rather seriously. “Depends,” she finally concluded. “I usually compare it to remembering what you had for dinner. Most of them you completely forget about unless somepony reminds you, but a few you remember forever. I think you know if you truly loved or hated a pony by whether you remember them.” Rarity motioned Twilight towards one of the broken houses. It was large and circular, looked like it'd once been quite large. Rarity must have always lived in affluence. "This is the house I grew up in." Rarity looked up at what was left of it. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen my sister, but I don’t think I’ll ever forget her. I still remember so many little things about her, the way her voice squeaked, how badly she wanted to get her cutie mark. One time, she tried making breakfast for me but the toast she was making somehow melted and I thought it was soup.” “How do you melt toast?” Twilight thought about it. “The various component would decompose or combust instead of melt.” “I never did figure out how she pulled that one-off. I suppose I’ll never know.” Rarity grew somber and silent for a moment but returned to a smile quickly. “But as for ponies I did forget. Do you remember Cloudchaser? Well I took her grandmother’s first kiss." “Wait! You made out with her grandma?!” “Supposedly.” Rarity shook her head. “I don’t remember that at all. I can’t remember what she looked like when she was younger or what her voice sounded like. Rainbow Dash assures me it happened when we came up here fifty years ago. I made her question herself and she asked to kiss me to see if she was straight or not." Cloudchaser’s grandmother s likely withered away by now if she was even still alive. But Twilight still couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy. She wished she’d thought of that idea. “Does that-?” Twilight took a step closer, blushing. “Does that kind of thing happen a lot?” “I do make a lot of mares question themselves.” Rarity beckoned Twilight closer and grabbed her in a hug when Twilight came. “I’m certain you couldn’t possibly relate to that.” “I can relate a little.” Twilight put her foreleg around Rarity and scooted closer, her muzzle just an inch from Rarity’s “Really, now?” Rarity put her hoof on the back of Twilight’s head and stroked her mane, ready to pull her closer. “Anything I can do to help with that?” “Maybe-“ Twilight couldn’t possibly look Rarity in the eyes right now. “Maybe we could check? The same way you did with her?” “Mm. A lot of mares gave me the first kiss for the same reason.” Rarity pressed her muzzle right against Twilight’s. “Pinkie and Dashie gave me theirs as well. Did you want to add yours to my collection?” Twilight absolutely did! This was it! This was seriously happening! Rarity kept her lips right against Twilight’s but waited for her to do the kissing. Twilight pressed her lips forward and gave Rarity a small peck on the lips and for a moment her heart stopped beating. Rarity kissed her back, gently, then gave her a second, bigger kiss. She put one hoof on Twilight’s withers and one on the back of her head and pulled her in close. Rarity gave Twilight a wide-open mouth kiss and some instinct took over Twilight. She opened her mouth to receive her next kiss and then she lost control and started kissing Rarity back uncontrollably. It felt so right and natural. Even the fangs weren’t as big a deal as Twilight thought they’d be. She could feel them, but they didn’t get in the way. Twilight didn’t think she’d ever felt this close to another pony before or this overwhelmed by affection. Rarity felt so much warmer and softer than ever before. Rarity felt strong but gentle. For a moment, Rarity was the entire world, and the world was perfect. Twilight eventually pulled away, but only because she was getting too worked up. “Okay. I’m gay!” Twilight bowed her head in defeat yet again. This time panting and blushing hard. Kissing another mare felt like the most right thing Twilight had ever done. There was no way she could deny that she was a lesbian after that. Rarity gave that smug little giggle she did every time she ‘beat’ Twilight on something. But Rarity’s smugness had slowly gone from being annoying to being the most endearing thing in the world. She felt attached to Rarity’s ego in a way now. “It’s an easy condition to live with." Rarity pulled Twilight back in and gave her one more soft kiss on the lips. "Maybe you should get a marefriend to help you treat it, hm?" Hearing Rarity say the word made Twilight’s heart throbbed. Was she hinting at something?! “H-hey!” Twilight forced the question out. “Do you like- do you want to you know, date me?" “Really now?” Rarity’s eyes opened a bit wider. “I honestly wasn’t expecting you to be the one to ask me on a date. Where are you taking me?” Wait! Twilight’s mind went into a panic. Did Twilight just ask her out on a date?! She didn’t mean it to come out like that! She was just trying to ask if Rarity like-liked her! But it wasn’t like Twilight didn’t want to go out on a date with Rarity. She’d totally fantasized about doing that kind of thing for months and months and- honestly thinking back on it Twilight had no idea how she didn’t realize she was gay sooner. It must have been all that social conditioning. There probably wouldn’t be a less awkward moment to initiate something like that! It was already out so maybe she could roll with this? But her taking Rarity on a date was an intimidating idea, felt almost backwards. She always imagined Rarity being the one taking her to some fancy place! But Twilight was a mare and the mare was the one who was supposed to pay for dates. Was it weird that Twilight imagined herself as being ‘the colt’ in the relationship? Was one of them supposed to be the colt? Twilight had zero frame of reference for this kind of relationship! Were there books about homosexual dating? There had to be! Somepony must have written about this and Twilight needed to find their book at all costs! Without that hypothetical book, she was completely lost. No! Rarity did have tons of romance novels, half of which were about lesbian couples! But why had Twilight been too much of a dork to read them?! Maybe they would have given her unreal expectations, but maybe- “I can see the wheels turning, but where are they going?” Rarity pouted at Twilight. “If you want to start dating ladies, you need to learn not to keep them waiting.” “I, uh-“ where could Twilight even take somepony? “The only place I can afford is The Cracker Shack! And you know, maybe that place is the opposite of romantic and I guess everything there would taste like ashes to you so you couldn’t eat anything and honestly ashes might be an improvement on what I'd taste but um-!” Twilight had read about dating in general. One of the fifteen purposes for dating outlined in her book was establishing yourself as a reliable mate to the other pony. Taking her to The Cracker Shack would demonstrate the exact opposite of that! Some hobos felt The Cracker Shack was beneath them! The sign said 'the driest food in Equestria' as if that was a good thing and the only reason to ever go there was if the bit you found on the sidewalk was 100% of your net worth. Why did Twilight’s mind jump to that place? “I need more time to prepare for this!” Twilight concluded. “I gotta research this first! I am asking you out, but like, in the future!” “You’re an adorable little pony!” Rarity gave her one last kiss on the lips, just a quick peck. “Don’t worry. I like going very slowly. You can do your reading first, but I do like the idea of you taking me somewhere romantic now.” “Right.” Twilight felt like she couldn’t relax just yet. Part of her brain still couldn’t believe this was happening. “But like- When I do ask you out! You’re gonna say yes?” “Well.” Rarity held Twilight at a distance with a slim frown. “Maybe there is something we should talk about before we get any more serious and start going on dates.” Twilight’s heart sank. She wasn’t even in a relationship yet and she was already having one of these ‘talks’. Hopefully, this wasn’t another vampire rule! “Is it bad?” Twilight asked, bracing for something horrible. “My relationship with Rainbow Dash," said Rarity. "I’m not going to be ‘cutting her off’ if that’s what you’re imagining. You know that? I do love her very dearly, in a certain way.” Twilight felt momentarily surprised that was what Rarity brought up. And then she wondered why she was surprised. She did want to go on a date with Rarity to be her… marefriend, even though the idea still felt weird. Seeing Rarity making out with another pony, knowing she slept in the same room with Dash, that sort of thing should be soul-crushing. She’d read books with ponies in similar circumstances and they went on and on about how crushed their souls were. But Twilight’s soul wasn’t crushed. Seeing her kiss the others just felt like a normal thing, like it was part of some bizarre culture she found herself in. “Honestly, I don’t think I am jealous of her,” said Twilight. “Though I have no idea why I’m not.” “Maybe I can make a guess?” Rarity suggested. “You have even less issue with me sleeping with Pinkie, or sleeping with her yourself, because you know none of us see it in that way. It’s a completely different relationship than what you want.” Twilight nodded. She slept with Pinkie all the time now, but it wasn’t nearly the same. “Well the relationship I have with Rainbow Dash isn’t the one you want to have with me, either. Maybe you don’t feel like you’re competing for the same thing. You want something less casual, a romantic sort of thing Rainbow Dash has no interest in.” “Maybe.” Twilight looked down at her hoof. “I don’t think I understand any of this! I don’t even know if I can understand normal relationships yet! Let alone- whatever I'm getting myself into. But I kind of always knew things would be weird if I ever like... got with you. And, maybe I was secretly thinking about getting with you for a while now.” “Well you have plenty of time to figure it out.” Rarity grabbed Twilight’s hoof and kissed it. “I know my lifestyle isn't exactly normal, but you're welcome to be part of my little family." “So-“ Twilight held Rarity at a distance. “So you would say yes! If I ask you out on a date?” "Twilight, the entire reason I came up here was for you." Rarity reached her hoof out towards Twilight. "I missed having a family after moving out from Fluttershy. I didn't know who I was looking for and I thought it'd take longer to find you, but now that I have you... of course I'll say yes." This was amazing! Twilight never thought of herself as the type to find love but maybe she actually would now! Of course, Twilight still had no idea what she was doing. She needed to research this! She needed to find books about dating and bizarre, deviant relationships. “Can we go back home now?” Twilight asked. “I just need to- to do some reading.” “I wonder what about.” Rarity put a hoof on Twilight’s withers and started making another tunnel in the dark magic. Because she was moving out of the forest, her magic blowing with instead of against the wind, Rarity was able to teleport much farther this time. They teleported several times the distance as last time, ending up close to the house. When exiting the forest, it was either Pinkie or Twilight’s job to go out and check to make sure nopony was around. She gave Rarity the okay and Rarity came back inside through the back door, still in her vampire form. As soon as Rarity went into her bedroom to ‘get changed’ Twilight ran upstairs to her library of banned books. There had to be something there. The others, Twilight now knew, could read with zero light but Twilight wasn’t on that level yet. She still needed a candle, but even just that was enough to make the room bright and warm, or the vampire equivalent at least. These books were properly organized now. Before there wasn’t even a nonfiction and fiction section but now it was all fully cataloged and arranged neatly by the stardecimal system. Having been the one to catalog everything, Twilight knew for a fact that there was no book here about dating advice, but Rarity did have exactly one hundred and eight romance novels and ten years' worth of Metro Mare Monthly, which might have something on the subject. Importantly, seventy of the romance novels were about lesbian romances and fifty-seven were about lesbian vampire romances specifically. Maybe if the public library and the vault didn’t have anything on the subject, this would be the best she’d get. Twilight took one of those books out. The title was ‘All Consuming Darkness’ and promised to be about a vampire who had to resist the urge to devour her mortal lover. She had read that these novels could give you unrealistic expectations about relationships. But at the same time, if these were Rarity’s books they would give her insight into what Rarity wanted and expected. And it would give her at least some kind of awareness of this kind of relationship. There were even a few pages with the corner turned to make a bookmark. This was one was like a gold mine! In the end, she settled on a stack of five books, for now, deciding to take them back to her bedroom where she could read them a little more secretly. Twilight trotted into her room and lied down on the bed to do some reading. It wasn’t the guest room now, but her room. Twilight hadn't slept at her house since she started transforming. She was in the process of very slowly moving in with the others, even before all that. She’d bring something over here, just to have it while she spent the night, then end up leaving it here forever. Slowly, all of her things migrated to Rarity’s house and now it was at the point it was more inconvenient to even go back home. Everything was here now. Her entire bookshelf and all of her books were neatly tucked away in the corner of her new bedroom. Even her old mementos were here now, even that box with her old photographs. Twilight felt whistful as she looked over at the dresser it was hidden inside of. Sometimes she wondered what she could possibly say to them if they could see her now. ‘Hi, Mom! I concluded that everything we believed was a lie! I dropped out of school, joined a gang, got a delinquent haircut, turned into a vampire, and now I’m gonna get a marefriend! Haha!” Could she have changed their minds? It was a cold comfort knowing she’d never have to have that conversation. “Twilight, I got bored!” Pinkie burst into the room, jumped onto Twilight’s bed, and climbed onto Twilight's back. This was an inevitable part of living here. Even still, this was more privacy than Twilight got back in her family’s studio apartment in Canterlot. Pinkie leaned around Twilight, trying to read her book. “Let me sleep in your room tonight! Oh! Are you reading a book about an explosion?!” “An explosion?” Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Am I reading an entire book about one single explosion?” “Maybe it’s a really big explosion?” Pinkie shrugged. “Well, no. I’m reading about vampires.” Twilight held up her romance book. She technically wasn’t lying. “The uh, fake vampires that is.” “Oh! Was there something you wanted to know about vampires?” Pinkie ducked down playfully, always eager to share her encyclopedic knowledge of vampires. “Well.” Twilight looked away. She didn’t want to say it, but she couldn’t hold back a massive smile from taking over her face. She was going to go on a date with Rarity! “You look a little too happy today.” Pinkie eyed Twilight suspiciously. “Are you up to something?” "No!" "Twilight, we're in a gang together! If you're doing illegal stuff you gotta let me in on it!" Pinkie sniffed around Twilight. Twilight still had no idea exactly how good Pinkie’s sense of smell was. But whatever Pinkie smelt made her smile wide. Could she really smell that Twilight kissed Rarity a moment ago? Twilight probably had Rarity’s scent on her a lot because the two of them hugged constantly, but did a kiss somehow have a distinct smell? Pinkie covered her mouth with a hoof and made a sinister giggle, trying to hold back even greater laughter. “What?” Twilight asked. “Nothing!” Pinkie turned away, fought back her laughter for another second, then began laughing hysterically. “Hey, come on!” “I didn’t say anything!” Pinkie started laughing hysterically again. But before Twilight could frown too deeply, Pinkie grabbed Twilight in a tight hug and rocked her back and forth slightly. “Daw! I wish I could have watched! I love friendship!” “Yeah. Friendship.” That's all it was in Pinkie's mind. Twilight wondered if she would ever end up kissing Pinkie. The idea of platonically making out with someone made even less sense to Twilight after what just happened with Rarity. But just a few months ago, Twilight didn’t think you could have a platonic hug, let alone cuddle with somepony or sleep in the same bed as them in a completely non-sexual way. Sometimes Twilight felt like she was already in the deepest imaginable darkness, but every time she got there she’d see something else just a little deeper. “Or whatever friendship alternative you normie weirdoes get up to!” Pinkie waved her hoof. “Oh! Does this mean you’re getting married now? Do you have kids?" “Do we have kids?! There’s a very long list of problems with that! In fact, I don’t even know how many problems there are with that! Can vampires even have kids?” “Technically! I’ve seen foals who were born as vampires, Twitwi. They’re just really stupid. You gotta wait like thirty years till they’re old enough to start reading. I know one filly, Scootaloo, who was born a vampire. She's 43 and doesn't have her cutie mark yet, still super short. Takes her forever to learn stuff.” “Really.” Twilight knew ponies took longer to develop than most species. Was it possible vampires needed even longer? “How long does it take a bat pony to reach adulthood?” “Oh, it takes like a hundred years! It’s way faster to reproduce by kidnapping. Once somepony becomes a fledgling they instantly reach adulthood! That’s a way faster way to get a bigger family.” Family. That was something Twilight never thought she’d find again. “You know,” said Twilight, “maybe you were right when you said daywalkers get everything backwards. They said you can’t find your way home once you’ve eaten that fruit, but I feel like I only found my way home after I ate it.” “Daw!” Pinkie hugged Twilight again. "I feel like you're home too, Twitwi!" For the first time in over a year, Twilight felt like she was home again.