Pinkamena Diane Pie laid back in her train seat. They had gotten on the train to Canterlot (when Pinkie and Twilight came back from the Cake's, of course) directly from Fluttershy's house. Twilight Sparkle had sent a letter to Spike explaining everything, letting him take care of Fluttershy's animals while they were gone on the mission. They took a vote, and Pinkie Pie was the only one who didn't want the Cake twins to come along with them; they sat in the last seat, playing with each other. Nothing made sense to her now.
They had all packed saddlebags filled with items they felt they needed for the battle against Nightmare Moon.
Glancing at her friends, she noticed she was the only one not talking, while the others chatted away like nothing was wrong. Except for Rainbow Dash who still felt kind of awkward, of course.
Pinkie Pie glanced out of the window, staring into space. What her friends were saying echoed in her mind filled with thoughts and worries. What about the Cake twins? She didn't know exactly what they were...doing. But it all fit like puzzle pieces now: their super-hyper actions, their powers that seemed to last longer then a normal pony. Anything else fit there easily, but somehow, Pinkie didn't know what was happening. What would she do? What about her friends? She couldn't just surrender, could she? Vamponies were the source of all her problems now.
The pink pony glanced back at her friends. They were all...still happy. It disgusted her to see them joyfully talking away while they knew perfectly well that their 'Element of Laughter' was in pain.
"I'm making a new fashion line for each zodiac symbol..."
"There's a new Daring Do book, Rainbow, that I'm sure you'd love to read..."
"Ah'm planting some flowers in the garden ta attract attention from hungry customers..."
Twilight Sparkle froze, suddenly. "Wait, if we're going to defeat Nightmare Moon, don't we need the Elements of Harmony?"
Her words hung in the air, as everypony hesitated to answering except for the fashionista.
"Of course not, Twilight! We're powerful to defeat her ourselves. Don't ever doubt that," Rarity laughed.
Pinkie Pie smiled. "Well duh, of course I have the elements of harmony!" Pinkie pulled out the necklaces and the crown from her saddlebag, "I mean, what would we be without them?"
All of the Mane Six except for Rarity laughed. Pinkie could swear out of the corner of her eye she saw Rarity glare at her.
"Hey, guys, 'bout Nightmare Moon," Rainbow Dash finally spoke, "Is she...really evil? I mean, truly evil? We've known Luna personally, and she doesn't seem that evil to me."
Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes. "Vamponies of my type usually have split personalities. They're like, for example, two different ponies against....well...each other for control of that body. Nightmare Moon is the other side of Luna, and after a few years of building up her strength and healing herself, she's gotten enough power to finally convince Luna to let her free. So...um...yeah."
Rainbow Dash nodded slightly. "Oh. Okay."
Pinkie Pie giggled. "Now to get information out of you, Dashie!"
The cyan mare looked a little confused at Pinkie's statement.
"Your back story, silly!" Pinkie poked the rainbow-maned pegasus.
"Ow." Rainbow laughed, though didn't seem to happy to explain her filly hood.
"Alright."
It was stormy. Of course, in the place where little Rainbow Dash lived, it was always stormy.
Rainbow Dash hopped along the little cloud house. Suddenly, she felt a little familiar poke; turning, she saw her oldest brother, Chrome. He was the oldest of three, while she was the youngest.
Chrome had a silvery short mane, looking a lot like Rainbow's father, and the same emotionless black eyes. And acting like him, too; Chrome was cruel, bossy, and inconsiderate. And he loved to brag.
"Aw, little Dash, still missing her cutie mark. How sad." Chrome began to sarcastically cry, mocking the fact that Rainbow was a blank flank. Though he didn't mention that the rest of Rainbow's class didn't have a cutie mark yet, either.
"SHUT UP, Chrome!" The cyan filly shouted, "Or I'll tell mom!"
"Oh no, I'm so scared," Chrome laughed, "Mom isn't even home. She's never home. You're like mom; a weakling. Can't even fight. While dad is here to straighten you up. To be a REAL racer."
Rainbow gulped. She hated her dad. While her mom was nice in every way possible. Like her dad should be...
Her second-oldest sibling raced in. She was a lot like her mom, and had the same beauty both on the inside and out; Rainbow Dash smiled. Spectrum.
She had a rainbow mane, much like Rainbow Dash's, only flowing and wavy. Her eyes were a glistening gold, almost the opposite of the deep black pit that were Chrome's eyes.
"What's up, Spectrum?" Rainbow asked, knowing well that Chrome wouldn't fight when Spectrum was there.
"C'mon, mom's waiting for you outside to take you to Junior Speedster's flight camp!"
"Yeah!" Rainbow raced to the door, her heart pounding with delight. Junior Speedster's flight camp was the chance to get away from Chrome and her disgusting father.
"And...um...bye, Spectrum!" She awkwardly waved her hoof at the one sibling of hers who was nice to her.
"Bye, Rainbow!"
~~~
It was the BEST WEEK EVER! Rainbow Dash thought.
Rainbow laughed as she hopped into the house. She had taken a bus home from the flight camp since her mom or dad had been able to pick her up. She glanced happily at her flank.
"The first one to get my cutie mark in my CLASS! I'm on FIRE!"
Giggling, she hopped into the kitchen. A note lay there, which Rainbow read aloud:
"I'm out to do stuff with dad. From, Chrome."
Rainbow squealed with delight. Chrome was off her back, even though Rainbow wanted to rub in Chrome's face her new cutie mark she had earned earlier then Chrome got his.
At least she could spend time with mom and Spectrum. Hopping around, she didn't hear anything more silent then this. She wandered around, and couldn't find either of them anywhere.
"Moooom! Spppeeeectrrruuuum!"
Rainbow saw a little shadow in the room upstairs. She hopped over to the room, squeezing her eyes with delight to tell them everything.
"Mom! Spectrum! It had the best time at flight camp! I made lots of friends and I met a griffon! Aren't griffons so rare? Her name was Gilda! And there was this other pegasus named Fluttershy! She was so shy, but I defended her from a couple of meanies! And I got my cutie mark! And I made a Sonic Rainboom, even if it was only thought of as a myth! And--"
She wondered why her mother or Spectrum wasn't answering any of that.
"-Mom? Spectrum?"
Her eyes opened, but she regretted it. Every single ounce of happiness was drained from her in a second.
Her mother and Spectrum were dead. They laid on the floor, lifeless. Pools of blood were splashing all around as Rainbow Dash came closer to them. They were pale, and had bite marks on their necks. Bite marks...that had to belong to vamponies.
Myths...myths...myths always had to end up being real.
"No....no...mom...please...Spectrum...don't leave me here...all....alone..."
Tears came flowing out of her. Her hoof came to Spectrum and her mom, and began to shake their bodies wildly.
"MOM! SPECTRUM! WAKE UP NOW! WAKE UP! PLEASE! IT'S NOT FUNNY ANYMORE! IT'S NOT FUNNY! IT'S SICK! WAKE UP!"
She fell to the blood-stained ground, crying. Her salty tears dripped onto the ground and into the leaked blood.
She was scared. She needed help. She needed a friend...
And suddenly, she saw a...sign of some kind. The blood pools...made out a word...
Revenge.
Rainbow Dash soaked her tears into the train's chair when she had finished the story. Fluttershy had put her hoof on Rainbow, who pushed it away, making the shy pony squeal.
"I...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..." Fluttershy squealed.
Rainbow Dash shook her head. "It...it's not your fault....Fluttershy..."
Pinkie Pie gulped. "Did you ever think that...um...your oldest brother may be a vampony?"
Rainbow Dash laughed, choking slightly on her tears. "No, he spent too much time in the sun...he...he...he would've burned..."
Rarity snorted. "Rainbow, how many times do I have to tell you, they don't BURN. They just are really....um...sensitive to the sun."
Pinkie Pie smiled. "Rarity, how do you know this much about vamponies?"
"Books, Pinkie," Rarity laughed.
Pinkie Pie gulped, at the thought of that vampony book, revealing all of their secrets to the world.
And then she thought of something else.
Rarity raised an eyebrow. "Pinkie, it's not THAT surprising."
Pinkie shook her head. "It's not that, Rarity," The pink earth pony laughed, "It's...my family. I...I need to ask the conductor something..."
She rushed to the Conductor. Surely, they could afford to make another stop.
A stop...back to the past.