Despite its rural location and heavy traditions, Ponyville was not immune to the march of time in Equestria’s capitalistic society. While plans for a mall or office building had been successfully shut down by the lobbying from the locals, big businesses could still find a way to weasel their way in to expand their franchises.
Thus, what was once your mom-and-pop fast food diner had since been bought and converted to yet another location in a massive, nation-wide chain.
Lately, this particular store had been far less profitable than executives might have hoped. While market analysts all the way in Manehattan would scramble for weeks to find a way to better appeal to the ‘local demographics’, those working at the location in question had no delusions as to why their dining room was gathering dust.
All this talk of missing ponies and curfews had put a damper on the town’s spirits. Most were staying home as much as possible. Those few that went out were looking purely for the essentials. Burgers, sadly, did not fall into this category.
Then the little bell above the front door rang as two teenaged fillies trotted in, the first potential customers of the shift.
“Yeesh, this place is a ghost town,” said Scootaloo, frowning at the empty booths along every wall. “Are you sure this is the place?”
“Pretty sure,” said Apple Bloom, though doubt crept into her voice.
Scootaloo huffed. “Are they even open? I mean, the door was unlocked, but—”
A cheery voice came from the kitchen, just behind the front counter. “Just a second,” said the familiar young mare.
“That’s a yep, and double-yep,” said Apple Bloom. “And you doubted me.”
“You doubted you,” the pegasus filly deadpanned.
Just then, Sweetie Belle herself trotted out from the back and took her place behind one of the front cash registers. She was adorned with a brightly colored apron over black, collared shirt, with a hat atop her head in the rough shape of an order of fries.
“Welcome to Neighburger,” she said in a practiced tone. “Home of the Neighburger. How can I hel— Oh! Hey, girls! What’s up?”
The other two fillies trotted closer to the counter. “Sweetie Belle, we need to talk,” said Scoot.
The unicorn blinked in surprise. “Oh, well… I mean, it's not exactly like we’re busy…”
“Are we alone?” asked Apple Bloom.
Again, Sweetie Belle was caught off guard. “Technically no,” she said, “but we’re running with a skeleton crew. It's just me and Mister Curly Fry here today.”
Scootaloo leaned up, looking intently over her friend’s shoulder. “Do you think he’d try to listen in?” she asked, her voice much more hushed now.
Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened. “Girls, you’re scaring me. What in Equestria is going on?”
“Shh!” Apple Bloom hissed. “We can’t let anypony else hear about this.”
“Why not?” Sweetie asked, now starting to quiet down herself.
A set of hobbling hoofsteps approached the girls from the kitchen. All three froze in place until the pony, some gangly looking stallion, moved past. Scootaloo breathed a small sigh of relief.
Sweetie Belle leaned in closer and whispered, “Okay, even if Mister Curly hears us, he’s not going to care. If he comes back around, just pretend you’re ordering something and he’ll move on. Trust me.”
Scoot and Apple Bloom exchanged a look, then a nod.
“Promise me this stays between the three of us, okay?” asked the pegasus.
“I promise, I promise,” said Sweetie. “Now what’s going on?”
The pair spent the next few minutes recounting Scootaloo’s story of the night before, from when she first bumped into Rainbow Dash and how weird she had been acting, to her narrow escape from the pony-turned-monster. Apple Bloom embellished a few details here and there, despite not being a first-hoof witness for most of the night, though Scootaloo didn’t bother to correct her. The effect of these exaggerations was plainly visible in Sweetie Belle’s expression over the course of the tale.
“Oh my gosh,” she whimpered. “W-we have to tell somepony. She could hurt someone!”
“No! That’s exactly what we’re not going to do!” growled her pegasus friend.
Sweetie Belle shuffled uneasily behind the counter. “You… you really think she’s in there somewhere? That Rainbow Dash could do all that and still be herself?”
“I was wonderin’ that myself,” said Apple Bloom. “Rainbow Dash loves you like a sister, Scoot. Why would she attack you?”
“Maybe her mind has been taken over by some dark spell,” said Sweetie Belle, “or maybe that was just some kind of doppleganger, like a changeling.”
“It was her.”
“How do you know that?” asked the unicorn filly.
Scoot groaned, rolling her eyes and flitting her wings. “Believe it or not, I’ve seen Rainbow Dash fly. Like a lot. Like a lot a lot. Every pegasus pony has their own little quirks while flying, just like every other pony walks a little different.” She sighed, slumping over onto crossed forehooves. “Even when I was running from her, I could just tell… only the real Rainbow would or could fly like that.”
Apple Bloom nickered. “Like a changeling couldn’t figure that out. That’s not proof of noth—”
“I believe you, Scootaloo,” Sweetie Belle said softly. “If there’s anypony who could tell a real from a fake Rainbow Dash, it’d be the president of her fan club.”
“Heh,” said Scoot, cracking a faint smile. “I guess I’m still a fan, alright. And that means I don’t want anything bad to happen to her…”
“What can we do?” asked Sweetie. “Like I’m willing to help, but there’s only so much three teenage fillies can accomplish.”
“First we’ve got to find her,” said Apple Bloom. “The Battacabra’s been hecklin’ our farm for years now and we’ve never caught it— erm, her.”
Sweetie Belle raised an eyebrow. “‘Battacabra’?” she asked, stifling a laugh. “Who came up with that name?”
Apple Bloom’s face flushed. “What, that silly thing? Uhh, think it was Sugar Belle, yeah, or maybe Big Mac…”
“In Apple Bloom’s defense,” said Scootaloo, earning her a scornful glare from the earth pony, “she had bat wings and sharp teeth. Pretty bat-ty.”
“Wait,” said the unicorn, “when you say ‘sharp teeth’, what exactly do you mean? Like all her teeth, or just a few?”
Scootaloo furrowed her brow, thinking back to the night before. “Uhh, just four I think. Two on top, two on bottom, long and pointy and I think curled a little. Kinda made me think of a dragon or a snake.”
Were it possible for a pony of Sweetie Belle’s complexion to get any paler, she would have just then. “Fangs, then… oh no.”
“You afraid of gettin’ bit?” asked Apple Bloom.
Sweetie shook her head. “No— well, yes, but probably not for the reasons you’re thinking.”
A gruff voice carried out from the kitchen, no doubt from Curly Fry. “Are you fillies gonna buy somethin’ already or just loiter all day?”
“Crap,” Sweetie whispered. She quickly hit a few buttons on the register, causing it to ring and extend the cash tray. “Two small fries, coming right up!” she shouted, making sure to turn just enough to project behind herself.
“We didn’t order any—”
Scootaloo stuffed a hoof in her earth pony friend’s mouth. “Thank you, Ma’am,” she also shouted, albeit more stiff in the delivery. “We will enjoy our meal. From here. Neighburger.”
Curly grumbled something else, but was too far away for the girls to hear.
Sweetie Belle bit her lip. “This is too risky,” she whispered, barely audible even to the ponies next to her. “Let’s meet up after my shift; I get off work at six, meet me at Rarity’s around then. I’ll explain everything there, then we can figure out what to do next.”
Her friends nodded, then turned to leave.
“Wait! Don’t leave without your fries!”
“Are we getting charged for this?” asked Apple Bloom.
Sweetie pouted. “Do you not have at least one bit between the two of you?”
Their awkward, penniless silence told her all she needed to know.
“Fine, I’ll cover it this time,” said Sweetie Belle with a huff. “But you owe me. Both of you.”
That night, just as the sun set beyond the horizon, a gust of wind blew through the trees of the Everfree like the chilled exhale of an ursa. Squirrels, rabbits, and other forest life scattered from the sudden motion. Even hardier creatures like timberwolves and chimeras tensed up from the disturbance, though most quickly returned to their nightly hunts.
A notable exception to this were the members of a small bask of cragodiles. As typical of these lithic crocodilians, they remained lurking at the surface of a muddy marsh deep in the forest, motionless and nearly indistinguishable from actual stone. To most creatures, this camouflage is as effective as it is deadly.
But cragodiles are still living, organic creatures. Therefore they have a pulse.
Suddenly, one of the bulls felt the slightest pressure upon its back. Its eye shot back for a glimpse at the poor creature about to become a free meal. Instead, its head was pulled back, eyes forced forward to face its own hunter.
“Don’t. Move,” Rainbow Dash hissed, glowing eyes locked with the creature’s.
As she expected, the cragodile fell limp, leaving her free to find a soft spot on the underside of its neck to sink her teeth into.
Rainbow shuddered as she felt her senses heighten and reflexes sharpen, fueled by this sweet nectar of blood. For a moment, she forgot why she was ever so hesitant to feed in the first place. If only a moment.
The vampire pony soon found herself surrounded by angry, snarling reptiles. They were none too happy that their bog had been so rudely intruded upon.
Rainbow Dash smirked, dropping the practically unconscious cragodile from her hooves. She returned their snarl with one of her own, baring her still-dripping fangs.
The creatures were even less amused by this show of defiance. One after another, they surged forth and snapped their jagged jaws at their prey. Rainbow deftly sidestepped each one in turn, feeling as if the world around her was in slow motion. She smugly batted away one of the beasts with a swift buck, spinning about with an entirely necessary flourish.
One cragodile whipped around while the pegasus had her back turned. Its sinuous tail knocked the wind right out of her and sent her crashing into the muck. She rolled back onto her hooves just in time to see the same creature bearing down on her with jaws open wide.
In spite of her enhanced durability, Rainbow Dash felt every tooth like a dagger, crushing her with the weight of a castle wall. She cried out, partly in pain, but also in anger. How dare this thing challenge her? She was so much more than a wild, dumb animal. She was the apex predator in this forest!
It was time she taught these animals their place.
She gritted her teeth and thrashed about from within the reptile’s grip. Despite her own bleeding, her strength refused to fail. If anything, she was finding more with each passing second.
The cragodile dragged her back into the muck, blinding her with sediment. The creature fought to keep its jaw clenched as it began to twirl underwater: the infamous crocodilian Death Spiral.
In spite of the disorienting forces, Rainbow kept fighting. She found purchase with one hoof, then another. With all her might, and moving against the spinning current, she bucked against the opposite end of the monster’s maw.
Vampire and beast burst up from the depths of the bog.
A sickening crack reverberated from the ripples. The creature’s jaw had been thoroughly dislocated. In shock, it lay motionless against the shore.
Rainbow landed silently beside the fallen beast. She then turned her eyes towards the remainder of the bask. “Anyone else?” she asked, unable to hide a dark sense of self-satisfaction.
The cragodiles collectively decided that they, unlike their fallen brethren, preferred to live. As such, they swiftly relocated to anywhere else they could find, far away from the fanged pony.
The pegasus pony sighed, leaning against a nearby tree for support. Already, she could feel the wounds from her struggles vanishing with each passing second. The rush of her feeding was finally beginning to wane as well. She figured the two were related, but didn’t feel like thinking about it too hard.
Right then, Rainbow was busy taking the moment to revel in the afterglow of her hunt.
“That was awesome. I think,” she said to herself. “It felt awesome. Could make an awesome story. Just…”
She glanced back at the two still reptiles on the murky shore behind her, her eyes filled with pity.
“I should feel worse about that. About… eugh, killing something. Why don’t I?”
— Why should you? —
Rainbow gasped. “Fae?! Where’d you come from? Where have you been?”
— Unfortunately, I’ve been busy with other matters. The Agency continues to be a thorn in our side. — Fae paused, chuckling to herself. — But you don’t want to hear about that. From what I hear, it sounds like somepony has been having herself a bit of fun this evening. —
“Fun? I mean…” Rainbow shrugged, rubbing the back of her neck. “I guess I did kind of like it. I don’t like that I liked it, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a little… ‘fun’?” Her last word stuck out as though it left a sour taste in her mouth.
— Rainbow Dash, there is no shame in embracing what you are. In fact, I’m proud of you. You laid low throughout the day as I requested, then went hunting all on your own. I daresay, I am impressed. —
The pegasus pony smiled at that. “Hey, I messed up yesterday. I owed you one.” Her smile slowly faded. “I just wish I could think of a way to make it up to the kid…”
— That does remind me, I… owe you an apology. Surprisingly, nothing has yet come of the filly knowing your little secret. Perhaps she is trustworthy after all. —
“Huh,” said Rainbow, raising an eyebrow. “Pretty cool, Scootaloo.”
— There are other matters which you may want to be aware of, but… there’s something you’re not saying, isn’t there? —
Rainbow lay down in a patch of grass, gazing longingly up at the moon above. “I’m fine,” she said. “Just fine. Nothing wrong.”
— I can read traces of your thoughts, child. Not enough for a clear picture, but enough to know your mind is restless. —
They waited in silence for a moment.
— Child, please. You’re a part of my family, and I wish to help. What’s on your mind? —
Rainbow Dash groaned, rolling over onto her back. “I’m messed up, okay? Like I keep doing messed up things. I know I should be stopping myself, but I don’t want to, and that’s really messed up. I’m glad Scootaloo didn’t rat me out— well, so far— but I thought about it and there were so many other, better ways I could have handled all that.” She let out a deep sigh. “I can’t think straight. There’s just so much all at once, more than I’ve ever had to deal with before. I’m worried next time I run into somepony I’ll be faster, or quicker to lash out, or—”
— You’re afraid of yourself. Of what you’ve become. —
“I… well…” Rainbow shivered, curling up into a ball against the forest floor. “I’m a monster. You can sugar-coat it all you want, but you turned me into a violent, murdering monster.”
Fae stayed silent for a minute before she spoke again. — What if I told you this is a symptom, one that can be cured? That this is… for lack of better term, ‘natural’ for a fledgling such as yourself? —
Rainbow’s ears perked up. “So I could… make it stop?”
— For a time, yes. But you may not want to hear what the cure is. —
“Eh, screw it. Lay it on me.”
— Mortal ponies’ blood. —
The pegasus pony’s eyes widened. “Well… you sure called that.” She bit her lip. “But, um, you can feed on a pony’s blood without hurt— well, killing them, right? Or turning them into one of us?”
— Yes, of course. If you know how. —
“And this’ll help me think normally again, right?”
— By drinking the lifeblood of a mortal pony, you will restore some of your own original essence. I once told you that you would eventually need to feast upon the blood of your fellow pony. I was not exaggerating then. Eventually, without the reminder of what you are at your core, the taste of what makes a pony a pony, your mind will slip and forget. You will cease to be a pony-turned-predator, and be only the predator inside. —
Rainbow Dash shivered once more, stifling a sob. She took a series of deeper breaths, each rising in intensity as she began to grit her teeth. This culminated in a quivering sigh and a raspy, sore utterance:
“Show me. Show me how to do it.”
— As you wish, my child... —
Back in Ponyville proper, the streets were quiet save for the soft yet deliberate clip-clop of the hooves of patrolling agents. The sun had barely set a half an hour prior, but already the town appeared deserted. The glow of street lamps coupled with identical silhouettes scattered here and there made for a perhaps unintentionally eerie sight.
From the second story of the Carousel Boutique, Scootaloo stared intermittently at the agents passing by and the night sky above. Behind her, Apple Bloom rolled about on the guest bed in a desperate plight against boredom.
“Sweetie Belle,” she whined, “come on already! How hard is it to find a book?”
Her friend called back from the next room over. “It’s a really old one with nothing special on the cover! If you want to come in here and help, be my guest!”
Apple Bloom thought on this for just a moment. “Nah, I’m good.”
Sweetie grumbled something unintelligible, presumably returning to her search.
“See anything, Scoot?” Apple Bloom asked, turning towards the pegasus.
Scootaloo shook her head. “I know she’s out there somewhere. She’s fast, though. And quiet. I’m almost more worried for the weird guys than for her.”
“You think they know about her?”
“I don’t know. I sure hope not.”
The door to the back room slammed open, causing Scootaloo and Apple Bloom to jump in unison. “Found it!” Sweetie Belle announced in a sing-song tone. A large, worn tome hovered behind her in magical grasp.
“What is that?” asked Apple Bloom. “Some prehistoric cookbook?”
As if to answer, the book flew towards the bed, slamming down onto one of the pillows and coming to a rest with its pages showing. Sweetie Belle followed suit, almost bouncing her friend off the side.
“Ahem,” the unicorn began, “‘Rules of Proper Formal Etiquette Under Her Majesty, Princess Celestia, Monarch of Equestria’.”
“Yeesh, that’s a mouthful,” grumbled Scootaloo, rolling her eyes.
Apple Bloom squinted at the pages before her. “Well that explains why Rarity had this lying around, but what’s this got to do with Rainbow Dash?”
Sweetie Belle sighed, turning her attention back to the aged book. She began rapidly flipping through pages with her magic, passing several diagrams of ballrooms, bowing ponies, and poofy dresses. “I used to read this book now and then when I spent the night at Rarity’s. At first, I thought it might be a way to impress her, but then I started finding some really weird stuff towards the back. I never told anypony about this because I thought they’d make fun of me for believing in it, but now…”
Her page-turning abruptly halted about eighty percent through, stopping on a page-long spread depicting something chillingly familiar.
It was a sketch of a pony with wicked fangs and bat-like wings.
Scootaloo’s eyes grew wide as the rest of her began to shudder. She read, in a harrowed voice, “‘Unwanted guests… sometimes your gatherings may be threatened by potential invaders or intruders, such as the insectoid changelings, tax collectors, or— o-or vampires’.”
“Wait, so you’re saying Rainbow Dash is a blood-suckin’ vampire?” said Apple Bloom, head tilted to the side. “That’s ridiculous! Vampires ain’t real.”
“That’s what I thought, too,” said Sweetie Belle. “But tell me that isn’t exactly what Scootaloo described.”
“Lemme see that book,” said the earth filly. She pulled the tome closer, scrutinizing every inch of the next few pages. “Somethin’, somethin’... ‘hide during the day, come out at night’… ‘transform in moonlight’? I thought that was some kinda wolf critter.”
“Well, Scootaloo did say Rainbow looked normal until sunset,” Sweetie chimed in.
“Yeah, but... “ Apple Bloom shook her head. “Let’s see, they got a list of powers here; ‘wicked fangs, silent flight and magic, super strong and fast’ … something about ‘hypnotic gaze’? Whatever the heck that is.”
Sweetie Belle furrowed her brow. “Sounds kind of like The Stare, like they can make you do things if you look them in the eye.”
Scootaloo, who up until this point had been beside her friends, leaned up against the bed, fell backwards with a thump. She was shaking all over, a sight that quickly alarmed her friends.
“Whoa there! You okay, Scoot?” asked Apple Bloom.
“That actually happened,” Scootaloo said in a cold sweat. “She looked me in the eyes and said, uh, something, and then everything started going foggy and I almost… I thought she was gonna bite me, and I panicked, and—”
“Slow down,” said Sweetie Belle. “You mean Rainbow even had this hypnosis power?!”
“I-I think…” The pegasus filly clutched her head. “That part was kind of a blur. I mean, I did kinda sorta headbutt her to get out of it.”
Apple Bloom snorted out a quick chuckle. “Wow, Scoot. And I thought I was bullheaded.”
Sweetie Belle clearly found this much less funny. “You headbutt a vampire. You threw your head closer to her and her fangs. Scootaloo, I’m sorry, but you’re kind of an idiot.”
“Hey, I had no idea she was a—”
The door to the hall opened with a flash of blue magic. Rarity stepped inside, scowling as she glanced around. “What in Equestria are you three doing up here?! All these slams and crashes and shouting? And after I so generously offered my guest suite. Hmph!”
Sweetie Belle’s ears fell back. “Sorry, Rarity! W-we’ll be good, I promise!”
Rarity let out a tired sigh. “Please, just don’t break anything. That’s all I ask.” As she turned to leave, she caught sight of Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, the earth pony helping the pegasus to her hooves. “Oh, by the way, it’s good to see you two again. It’s been far too long since the ol’ ‘Crusaders’ had a chance to hang out, I say.” With a smile and a wink, she left the three alone once more.
Scootaloo trotted back to the window, resting her head against it. “That was way too close,” she mumbled. “I can’t believe…”
“I can,” said Sweetie Belle. “If she is, well, one of these… somepony needs to help her.”
“Or we need to warn everypony about it,” Apple Bloom grumbled. “Vampires, like, eat ponies, right?”
“This just says they drink blood. Still could kill somepony though.”
“Rainbow wouldn’t do that,” Scootaloo said, eyes fixed on the dark sky above.
“If she’s a monster now, can you really—”
Sweetie Belle gave Apple Bloom a swift nudge. “What do you want us to do, Scootaloo? Rainbow Dash is basically your sister. We’ll help however we can.”
The pegasus filly thought long and hard over how to answer that. Sweetie was right before; they were just three teenage fillies going up against some mythical monster. Yet that monster used to be their friend, her own mentor. If there was any chance to get that back…
“Let’s start by tracking her down,” said Scoot finally. “I just want to talk to her. Let her know we care, and we want to help. That I’m not mad about last night. That I-I just want Rainbow back.”
Her voice cracked near the end. She wiped away the beginnings of tears from her cheek, hoping neither of the other fillies saw.
Apple Bloom sighed, shaking her head. “Oh, I’m probably gonna regret this, but… Cutie Mark Crusaders, Vampire Hunters? Just without the slayin’ part, of course.”
“As if we could if we tried,” Scootaloo snarked back.
“I think it’s a great idea,” said Sweetie Belle. She hopped off the bed, then held a hoof up. “Cutie Mark Crusaders, Vampire Hunters! Yeah!”
Snickering, Apple Bloom high-hoofed her. They both then turned to Scootaloo.
The pegasus filly rolled her eyes, in such a way that it felt like her whole body went into it, but nevertheless joined her friends. “Sweet Celestia, we were such dorks when we were kids.”
The reunited Crusaders all laughed at that.
“Okay, so I think I have a plan,” said Sweetie Belle as they let their hooves back down. “Rarity’s never gonna let us do this if she knows, so let’s just… wait. I’ll set an alarm for around midnight, make sure she’s out asleep, then we can go out hunting.”
“Think we should bring anything?” asked Apple Bloom.
Scootaloo answered before Sweetie could. “Just in case, I’ll read up on how to protect us from vampire stuff. I’m assuming stuff like garlic, sun sigils, wooden stakes, that sort of thing, but I’ll double-check before we go.”
“Might be some leftover garlic knots from breakfast the other day,” said Sweetie, “I’ll check the fridge when we head down for supper.”
“Find me a knife and some wood and I can try to whittle a stake or two,” Apple Bloom added. "Just in case, of course."
“Sounds like a plan,” said Scootaloo. “Crusaders, move out!”
With that, and a quick snap of a salute to each other, the fillies spread out to work on their various tasks. Sweetie Belle trotted downstairs to ask when they would be having dinner. Apple Bloom started digging around in the backroom where they found the book.
Scootaloo herself lay down on the bed. She smiled at first, but then that faltered as her eyes came across the drawings on the open pages.
Gulping down her unease, she picked up the old book and began to scan the text.
There were but a scant few clouds in the sky over Ponyville. Not that most could tell, given the darkness of night, but it was enough to hide what lurked above.
Rainbow Dash peeked over the edge of the nimbus she lay upon, down at the amber-lit silent village. Her heart, vampiric as it was, was still pounding in her chest. She attempted to drop from her perch several times, but each time caught herself at the last second.
“Come on, Rainbow,” she said to herself, “you can do this. You have to do this.”
— If it helps, child, remember that this is a remedy, not just a meal. —
“Right. I-I hurt one pony tonight, so I don’t hurt s-somepony else tomorrow.”
She took one last look at the moon above, mentally pleading for a certain alicorn’s forgiveness, then threw herself into the open air. Rainbow plummeted towards the town, listening for the telltale signs of life.
Her hunt had begun.