“H-Hello?” Fluttershy’s voice was shaky, and she’d crouched into a defensive position.
Now that she was this close, she could finally make out the pony. He was young, or at least seemed to be. Not as young as, say, Applebloom, but not quite an adult. His cocky grin was filled with an immature mischief.
Nothing about him stuck out as particularly frightening. He had stark white fur and a messy golden mane, and while he did look like he was up to something, Fluttershy didn’t see any hints of malice behind his cool expression. He just seemed like an average, young pony.
His features seemed… Odd. He had the pointed ears and leathery wings she expected to see quite a bit around here, and she thought she saw fangs in his toothy smile, but his eyes were a vibrant, neon green, and he didn’t quite carry himself the same way as other vampires. Most notable were his wings, which were draped down over the gargoyle he was perched on top of. Even Dracula kept her wings neatly tucked to her side when she was idle, but this pony seemed utterly disinterested in doing so.
“Hiya,” he said. “You’re the heiress, yeah?”
“Um… I guess? I’m Fluttershy.” She stood back up to her full height and rubbed her legs together awkwardly.
“Uh-huh.”
Fluttershy watched him for a moment, waiting for him to continue talking, but he never did.
“So, uh, what’s your name?” Fluttershy was quickly calming down now that she saw who she was talking to.
“What’s it to you?”
“Huh?” Fluttershy blinked. “I was just being friendly…”
“Nah, I’m just toying with you. My friends call me Vale.” He flashed her a wide grin. “It’s short for Foggy Vale.”
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Vale,” Fluttershy said. “Was it you who was flying around with me up there?”
“Yup.” He decided to move and gave his wings a single heavy flap before gliding down beside Fluttershy. Then he sat on the rim of the fountain and, instead of tucking his wings away, wrapped them around his torso.
“You kind of scared me, you know.”
He laughed. “Yeah, I saw that! What’s your deal?”
Fluttershy frowned. “What do you mean?”
“You’re a vampire,” he said. “How can you run around like the whole world wants to eat you when you’re the one with the fangs?”
“Well, I haven’t been a vampire all that long. I’m not used to being… Strong.”
Vale scoffed. “So, not only are you the weakest vampire I’ve ever seen, but you’re also fresh blood? Geez, the old bat’s finally gone and lost it.”
“The old—” Fluttershy gasped. “You mean The Lady?”
He rolled his eyes. “Seriously? You’re next in line, if anyone’s allowed to ignore that stupid title it’s you.”
“It’s not stupid,” Fluttershy argued. “She’s done a lot for us, it’s earned.”
“Yeah, whatever.” Vale let out an exaggerated yawn. “Enough about her.”
“Okay…” Fluttershy walked over a sat with him on the rim of the fountain, even though being so close to it distracted her quite a bit. “Well, what are you doing here?”
“I live here.”
“Oh!” Fluttershy’s cheeks got hot with embarrassment. “I’m sorry, I just assumed that everypony in the castle worked for The Lady.”
“There’s a lot more than ponies here,” he said, “and the only reason anyone listens to her at all is cuz she owns the house. Some of the things here can’t exactly just find a new place to live.”
Fluttershy frowned. “Are they not happy under her?”
“How should I know? I’m not them.”
“Fair enough,” Fluttershy said. “I guess I’ll have to ask them directly.”
“I wouldn’t,” he told her. “The way you are now, you’d get eaten alive.”
“Oh, surely they can’t be all that bad if they still live here.”
“Uh-huh.” He shrugged. “Whatever. It’s your funeral.”
“You haven’t really explained why you live here, though. I mean, The Lady said I was the first new vampire in hundreds of years.”
“You are,” Vale said. “I’m not a bloodsucker.”
Fluttershy’s eyes went wide. “But—”
“My dad was,” Vale explained, “but that stuff only goes so far. Don’t you think there’d be a ton of vampires around if the ones who are left could have vampire kids?”
“So you’re just a bat?”
“Well gee, thanks. Just a bat.” He huffed. “Says the vampire who can’t even get to her bedroom.”
Fluttershy’s cheeks got hot again. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Yeah, whatever.” He huffed again, quieter this time. “Well, yeah, I’m mortal.”
Fluttershy tilted her head and looked him over curiously. “Huh… I had no idea that was even possible.”
“Is there anything you do know?”
“Not really…” Fluttershy pursed her lips.
Vale laughed under his breath. “At least you’re self aware. That’s more than I can say about my aunt half the time.”
“Your… Aunt?”
“Yeah, you know, Dracula? Big old bat who thinks she’s important? You’ve probably met her.”
Fluttershy’s mouth fell open. She had no idea what to say.
A moment later, Vale gave her a funny look. “You’re, uh… Dripping.”
Fluttershy came back to her senses and snapped her mouth shut, but not in time to stop the flow of blood from her tongue from tracing paths down her chin and neck and, finally, petering out at her chest. Without thinking, she tried to brush it off, but that just made her hoof come away red and sticky.
“You guys are so gross,” Vale said.
Fluttershy swallowed, then coughed to clear her throat. “I’m sorry, I forgot.”
“You forgot you were bleeding. From your tongue. Even though you’ve been talking this whole time?”
“I guess I just… Got used to it?” Fluttershy grinned awkwardly.
“Weirdo.” Vale yawned again. “Alright, I’m bored. I’m gonna go back to my room.”
“Wait!” Fluttershy stuck her hoof out to stop him. “Um, could you… Tell me how to get to my room?”
He sighed and rolled his eyes. “Seriously? You didn’t figure it out?”
“I have no idea what was happening! It just kept sending me back here.”
“Yeah, cuz it moves. The whole point is to make weak ponies like you get lost.”
“I never saw it move, though,” Fluttershy said.
“You wouldn’t,” Vale said.
Fluttershy frowned. “I’m sorry, I still don’t understand.”
Vale groaned. “It only moves if you can’t see it! Just keep your eye on the door and you’ll get there no problem.”
“It’s way too dark to see up there, though,” Fluttershy said.
“Gee, if only there was some way to fix that.” Impatiently, Vale stuck out a hoof and dipped it quickly into the fountain. Sparks jumped up at him, but he didn’t seem to react. Then, with a single sudden motion, he flicked the blood through the air at Fluttershy.
The blood felt ice cold when it splattered across Fluttershy’s face, staining it with dots of red. She flinched and shut her eyes, but doing so just made the smell more intense, and just like that she was powerless to ignore the fountain. When she finally pried her eyes back open, she was already looking down at her wavy, broken reflection.
“Have fun with that,” Vale said. Then he stood up, stretched out, and took off into the air.
“Mm-hm,” Fluttershy mumbled as he flew off.
Her reflection wasn’t covered in imagined blood this time. The bloody chin, the splatter across her face, the stains in her mane, it was all real. She wanted to believe the cracked, toothy grin was still in her head, but she wasn’t sure anymore.
She watched herself as, slowly, she reached up and wiped up the blood that had landed on her face. She lapped it up without ceremony, and in the reflection her eyes grew wide to match her crazed smile.
It wasn’t enough. It couldn’t have been enough. She needed more.
She tried to copy what Vale had done. As quickly as she could, she thrust her hoof into the pool and yanked it back out.
Electricity coursed into her, and her leg seized up just as it left the fountain. It was less painful, yes, but it still hurt, and her hoof was hardly damp. The blood she lapped up was so scant that the disappointment almost outweighed the elation it brought.
Whatever Vale had done, it was more complicated than just being fast. She needed to come up with her own approach.
After a moment of thought, she flew up to the mouth of the closest gargoyle and tried again, hoping that perhaps the electricity wouldn’t reach up this high.
She was wrong.
This time she’d risked a deeper plunge, and because of that the jolt made it far past her leg. It shot up through her body and into her wing, then jumped out to every feather and made the wing useless for just long enough to send her into freefall.
The world slowed down around her. She was plunging straight into the fountain and had to act fast.
She flapped her working wing, but that just sent her spinning, and in that spin her wing swiped straight through the stream of blood. It got drenched, and with that came an enormous jolt that jumped through every muscle in her body.
Precious moments passed her by as she fought to get control over herself.
The pool drew ever closer, and her descent was only speeding up.
Her eyes clenched tight in fear, and when her limbs were finally her own again, she kicked out blindly with all her might.
Her hooves met stone with a sharp crack, and then she was moving sideways.
She didn’t fly for long before gravity took hold once more and dragged her to the floor. She tumbled across it, crossing more than halfway across the room and leaving a trail of bloody wing-prints in her wake, ending in a long streak as she slid to her final resting place.
Everything ached. Unlike the sharp, momentary pain from the electricity, the dull pain from such a hard landing didn’t just go away. For a second, she wanted nothing more than to close her eyes and go to sleep.
Then the smell coming from her wing hit her, and she remembered that the attempt hadn’t been a total failure.
She pushed herself up with a groan and took a deep breath. Then she pulled her wing forward and, without any more hesitation, started to lick it clean.
As soon as she got a taste of it, the pain started to wash away. She coated her mouth in it, letting the taste linger as long as she could. As she did, she accidentally nicked her tongue with her fang again, and the instant rush she got as the wound filled with the incredible delicacy made her close her eyes and inhale sharply from the joy of it.
She was starting to piece together just how this all worked. How the incredible taste was tied less to her taste buds and more to the flood of power that coursed into her when it got into her bloodstream, and how that meant that the faster she could make that happen, the more incredible it would taste.
At the same time, as she drank and drank, she was beginning to forget her inhibitions. Every time she almost snagged herself on her teeth, she felt a pang of excitement growing behind the part of herself that stopped her.
She finished cleaning off the more accessible parts of her wing, but there was still a lot of blood to be had.
Fluttershy rolled onto her back and pulled the wing up onto her chest so she could reach it more easily. She wound up painting her chest and stomach red, but she didn’t care. She was too busy reveling in every feather she ran her tongue across.
Eventually, she couldn’t turn her head enough to reach any of the remaining blood, so she had to resort to scraping it off with a hoof. It worked, but it was slow and tedious. Every lick brought visions of the feast she could be having if she could only drink from the fountain, if she just—
A thought struck her.
Why did she care?
It would hurt, yes, but she’d already been shocked so much tonight, and all of that pain was already gone. Looking back now, it all felt like an easy trade. A lightning-quick jolt was nothing if it meant she could coat an entire leg in the glorious drink.
She was back beside the fountain before the thought finished.
It looked so tantalizing. So inviting. So easy. All she had to do was stick her leg in and pull it back out. She knew she could be flying back before the electricity reached her wings. In fact, she could probably even do two legs, or all four.
Or even…
Her eyes drifted up to the waterfalls of blood. They were all different sizes, and she’d mostly been paying attention to the one streaming from a gargoyle’s mouth, but the gargoyle with its chest open was gushing out far more. That cascade looked like it could easily hide Fluttershy.
She walked around to the back of the fountain to get a better look. From the new angle, she was sure of it. It was significantly wider than her, and there was plenty of room between it and the gargoyle to fit her wing.
The memory of plunging down towards her doom was fresh in her mind, but the idea of being drenched from head to tail in the sweet, thick nectar was even clearer.
She didn’t think on it for very long. She decided to act before she could change her mind, and so she took a few steps back before charging forward and spreading her wings.
She jumped when she was going as fast as possible, and flapped her wings to speed up even more.
Her mouth watered as the wall of red got closer and closer, and her mind was crackling with excitement.
She licked her lips, which, with her wounded tongue, only served to turn the fur around her mouth red.
Then she hit it, and immediately she was lost in a sea of blood.
Then, it hit her.
With how much electricity surged into her, she might as well have jumped into a lightning bolt. The worst pain from before was nothing compared to what she felt now. Her veins felt like they were boiling, and she could feel in excruciating detail as her heart tried in vain to beat against the current.
Worse than all of that, though, was that she knew it wasn’t over.
She’d only just barely gotten under the stream, and time was moving agonizingly slowly. Every inch brought another wave of shocks, and it was ages before the world became visible again. Even then, the rest of her body was still in the deluge. It was another eternity before she was fully out of the storm.
She was unconscious by the time she hit the ground.