"Then what happened?" Scootaloo asked Twilight. "What kind of 'trouble' did she make?"
Twilight Sparkle sighed and continued the tale.
Mysterious deaths followed Twilight wherever she went. Towns-ponies met her with welcome and friendly smiles. In turn, Twilight was civil but not friendly. She was reclusive. Recovering from being drained took a toll on her. Add to that was the mental strain of understanding how high off the blood she had been for the many years that Rainbow put up with her. The lacking emotions and control had made her see things in distorted ways.
And now, without realizing what she had been doing, she had transferred that lack of control onto Rainbow instead. But they were different ponies, so Rainbow did not get high off blood the way Twilight did. She was a different sort of beast. A competitive beast. Someone whose highs came in the form of winning.
Rainbow Dash could easily mimic her old playful and assertive self. Twilight supposed those traits weren't really gone, even if they didn't stop Rainbow from killing whoever she felt like. It was more that she gained the traits of being sadistic and conniving too. Regardless, she knew how to charm the locals. Other ponies warmed up to her easily, more easily than they did Twilight. They did not know the pegasus the way Twilight did. They did not know that they had become pawns in Rainbow Dash's game.
When strings of mysterious deaths happened not long after the two newcomers came to town only days apart, the towns-ponies always suspected Twilight first.
The fact that Rainbow Dash left after Twilight was run out of town with pitchforks and torches didn't really matter. The deaths stopped when Twilight Sparkle was gone.
Sweetie Belle stared with her mouth hung agape, deep in thought.
"Well, that was a thing. Let's eat," Rainbow said and clapped her hooves together with firm enthusiasm. She lifted off into the air and made for the door.
"Wait," Sweetie Belle called out to her.
Rainbow paused. "What?" she asked in an exasperated voice.
"There must be a way to undo it, right? Get your control back," Sweetie Belle said hopefully.
Rainbow Dash smirked as her answer to that. "You say that like I miss it. I'll be back with your drink." She flew out of the room, leaving a stunned and contemplative Sweetie Belle.
The white unicorn didn't have much time to contemplate since her drink was actually an unconscious Apple Bloom. Rainbow Dash set her down on a chair facing the bed.
Sweetie Belle backed away on the bed toward the wall. She saw the door left ajar yet felt glued in place.
"Looks like I left enough for you," Rainbow noted as she sniffed her victim, pulling back the red mane to expose a yellow-coated neck. "Sparky's trying to nurse her back, but I think it's more fun this way. Revenge on her and turning you. Talk about a double win."
Sweetie Belle looked from the body to Rainbow Dash. "You can't make me," she challenged.
Rainbow smirked at her yet again, eyes flashing their malicious red, and then studied the unconscious pony carefully. "Really now...this beautiful neck...all mine for the taking…" She bit in gently, enough to make sure Sweetie Belle could see and smell the blood.
Sweetie Belle seemed to scramble in place, pawing at the wall like it would suddenly swallow her up to stop her from the awakening vampire urges.
Rainbow Dash paused and looked back at her. "There's enough room for two if you change your mind." She nodded her head toward the other side of Apple Bloom's neck.
Sweetie Belle froze in place. She stared at the pegasus sucking on the earth pony's neck. She felt left out, to be honest. And she felt like Apple Bloom belonged to her. Rainbow was...intruding. Stealing. No. Sharing. Sharing. The white unicorn slowly crept toward them. The thought of misleading Rainbow and making a break for it, to escape through that still open door, crossed her mind...but that beautiful neck. That tempting scent of blood. Those things stopped her.
Rainbow caught her glancing at the door and whisked over, closing it. "Better?"
Sweetie Belle nodded with almost quiet innocence and crept even closer to Apple Bloom. She licked her lips, and Rainbow could see the fangs had formed.
Rainbow returned to her spot and sucked in some of the dark red liquid.
Sweetie Belle hissed. She bit the other side of the neck, at last letting the blood fill her.
Rainbow pulled away with an evil smile to watch her fledgling complete the transformation.
Sweetie Belle drained Apple Bloom dry and looked over at Rainbow Dash. She wiped her mouth with a hoof and shuddered in place, gazing up to look at Rainbow with greedy light green eyes. "It's done," she said. "Almost." The light green flashed red.
Knowing exactly what she wanted, Rainbow Dash rushed over to kiss her, filling the young fledgling with the remains of the desired blood from Apple Bloom.
The young vampire didn't mind one bit and returned that kiss. She set aside her worries about Rainbow's control and simply accepted and loved the moment given to her. The worries returned when Rainbow pulled away. "Are you sure you don't have any control?" Sweetie Belle asked. "You turned me just now. How am I revenge on Twilight?"
"I can have fun how I like," Rainbow admitted with a casual shrug. "Plus, you're all kinds of trouble, believe me," she added with a wicked smile.
Sweetie Belle blushed and smiled too. She almost didn't want to try to help her...her…she paused in her train of thought. "Rainbow...what are you to me?"
"Well, the vampire who made me had me call him my 'sire' though he said sometimes 'master' was used. He figured I'd be more okay with 'sire,' which I was, so that's what we used. The girl form is 'dame,' but I don't care much for that word. So, master, sire, or mistress, is fine. Whatever you want. I'm not picky on the rest," Rainbow noted. "Okay, I guess 'mom' would be a bit too much and kinda icky."
Sweetie Belle giggled. "Mother Rainbow Dash."
"Yes. Icky," Rainbow made a disgusted face.
"Mistress Rainbow Dash?" the young vampire asked with a gleeful smile.
"It's alright," Rainbow said with mild approval.
"Okay. Do I call you that?" Sweetie asked.
"I'm not against it, but sticking with just 'Rainbow' is fine," Rainbow replied.
"What about Demon Dash?" Sweetie pressed. She returned to her line of thinking. She almost didn't want to help her mistress regain control, which she had been considering and hoping before drinking Apple Bloom's blood.
"Sure, go for it," Rainbow said with a shrug.
She really was indifferent to that one, Sweetie Belle realized. It didn't matter in the grand scheme against Twilight.
"What would you do if I went to Twilight to help her get your control back?" Sweetie Belle questioned.
Rainbow Dash approached the fledgling and met her eyes, studying Sweetie Belle with an intensity that made the white unicorn feel unnerved and small. "Maybe use you. Maybe kill you. Whatever I felt like. I won't forbid it as your mistress, but consider yourself warned."
"Right," Sweetie answered with an uneasy nod and uneasy smile. "Duly noted."
"How do we fix it? How do we get her back?" Scootaloo asked with desperation in her voice.
Twilight gently pulled Scootaloo in for a hug since Rainbow wasn't here to do it. "I don't know," Twilight answered honestly. "I've been trying to figure that out for five hundred years, but maybe...just maybe you're the pony she needs to see."
"I'm not," Scootaloo whined. "She talked to me, but I may as well have been some nice stranger she was talking to about the weather, the way she talked to me. She didn't hug me. She didn't hold me or console me. She didn't smile when she first saw me...she...she's not Rainbow Dash like this."
Twilight nodded in agreement. "You're right, she isn't. She's my demon. My Demon Dash."
Scootaloo stared up at Twilight, her light purple eyes glistening with a mix of worry and hope. "If you can turn 'face,' this demon version of her can too...right?"
Twilight sighed. "I don't know, but let's get you to the house and think about what to do."
Scootaloo nodded in agreement with that idea. She paused and looked at Twilight. "She won't try to kill me like you used to do, will she?"
Twilight cringed at that but answered honestly, "I don't know, but I'll do my best to protect you in her place."
The door suddenly opened much to Sweetie Belle's surprise, and she saw Twilight Sparkle immediately shove a filly out upon seeing Apple Bloom's dead body.
Sweetie herself had forgotten it was even there after her turning and with Rainbow's company. She wanted to ask if she was supposed to have feelings for her mistress the way she did now but decided it could wait. She could overhear, crystal clear, Twilight tell the filly to go to a room and wait while Twilight figured out what was going on.
The filly obeyed.
Twilight opened the door again and put on a brave face. "Rainbow, what is this?" She gestured over to Apple Bloom's body and the transformed Sweetie Belle.
Sweetie stepped behind Rainbow Dash.
"I thought it was obvious, but that's dinner," Rainbow pointed over to Apple Bloom, "and I thought you knew Sweetie Belle already."
"I do, but she's a vampire now, and she wasn't one yesterday," Twilight told her impatiently.
"Well, yeah, I turned her," Rainbow answered casually.
"Rainbow…" Twilight said, gathering her strength and taking on a lecturing, near maternal tone. "You haven't turned anyone for six-hundred years. Why would you make a fledgling as Demon Dash? You must know she won't last long with how bloodthirsty you are all the time."
"Not like how long the others lasted before you killed them, right?" Rainbow shot back. "And 'Demon Dash' is just the name you invented for me. I'm not really a demon." She blew her own bangs out of her face for a moment. "I think. Pretty sure."
Twilight let the weight of that hang in the air, then sink in since she deserved it. "Point taken." She looked over to Sweetie Belle. "You won't last long if you stay with her. She's a bloodthirsty demon. Consider that your warning."
Sweetie Belle glanced around the room uncertainly between the two elder vampires. Before the door shut again, she quickly asked, "Can we get her control back?"
Twilight Sparkle paused and looked over to Rainbow Dash "You actually told someone and didn't kill them completely? Is this progress?"
"Jealous?" Rainbow teased. "And yeah. But you know...I can kill her whenever. She knows. You know. You did just warn her after I did. Nearly the exact same words too. Adding in the 'bloodthirsty' for extra flair. I approve."
Twilight sighed heavily. She shook her head and didn't even look at Sweetie Belle as she answered, "Not easily." With that, she shut the door.
Despite their flippant talk of her life, Sweetie Belle relaxed but for a moment before the door opened again.
"Clean up this mess," Twilight commanded.
"Pass," Rainbow called out to her as the door shut again.
"Shouldn't we?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Ugh, I picked a goody four-shoes for a fledgling, didn't I?" Rainbow asked in mock disgust.
Sweetie Belle blushed. "Well, yeah…"
Rainbow flew in and touched Sweetie Belle's chin, forcing the unicorn to look up into her magenta eyes. "We could do something more fun first."
Sweetie Belle blushed again as warmth filled her cheeks. "Rainbow, I meant to ask you…"
The older vampire raised an intrigued eyebrow.
"Am I supposed to feel this longing for you?" Sweetie Belle asked hesitantly.
Rainbow smiled with a wicked gleam in her eyes. "Only if you longed for me before. You'll find you're rather sensitive to many things at first. The sights, the sounds, the smells, longings you denied yourself before now."
"Oh," Sweetie Belle uttered. She looked over at the dead Apple Bloom body. "Why don't I feel bad about that? I don't just mean the killing. I mean...the fact that it was Apple Bloom."
"A couple of reasons. One, she was secretly feeding off you, so she kinda deserved it. Revenge served up on a platter thanks to yours truly. You're welcome. And two. You're my only fledgling in this so-called 'demon' form, so I guess it does affect you on some level, inheriting some of my power," Rainbow explained.
"Wait, does that mean I don't have control either?" Sweetie Belle asked, panic evident in her voice.
"It's not all or nothing, Sweetie," Rainbow explained. "You're going to lack it in some areas just by nature of being a newborn vampire. Are you on my level? No. That takes time and blood and experience you don't have."
"Okay, Mistress," Sweetie replied. "I like that one. That or 'Rainbow'. You know, it feels right to describe you as 'Demon Dash,' yet not address you that way."
"Yeah, I can see that," Rainbow considered with an approving nod.
Sweetie Belle rushed over and planted another kiss on Rainbow's lips. "Why did you say you're not a real demon? The way you describe how it happened….it sounds like a real demon to me."
"Oh, are demons some secret expertise of yours?" Rainbow asked and returned the kiss.
"'Expertise' is stretching it," Sweetie Belle admitted as she nuzzled and pecked her mistress' cheek, mounting her as they reached the bed, "but I have studied on the subject."
Rainbow chuckled, again, returning the affection given her. "And?"
Sweetie stared into the two magenta eyes. Rainbow looked so completely serene in this moment. It was hard to believe she was the same uncaring killer that turned her only minutes ago. Charming and deadly. Sweetie Belle was surprised to find her vampire self found the combination alluring. Maybe her mortal pony self did too, and she was just finally ready to admit it in her head.
"And?" Rainbow asked again, snapping Sweetie Belle out of those thoughts..
The white unicorn continued, "And...well, you're not possessed, but it's like...your vampire power did something to you. You became something new. Something demonic. Although…" Sweetie Belle paused in her thoughts.
Rainbow nuzzled with her as she waited for the thought to form. "Although…" she echoed as she waited.
"Your appearance didn't change. Your eyes already turned red sometimes. A change in appearance is usually the signal scholars use to make the distinction," Sweetie said. "And you won't claim a new name for yourself either. Like you'll let others call you 'Demon Dash' but you said you still think of yourself as 'Rainbow' even though you went through such a big mental transformation."
"I like myself too much to give up my own name. Then have we solved the mystery?" Rainbow asked. "I'm just a vindictive killer and tormentor in vampire form."
Sweetie Belle smiled, and her own eyes flashed red. "Perhaps it is not all or nothing either. We could try asking a demon."
"Yeah, no. Do that on your own time. I don't actually care that much," Rainbow said.
Sweetie Belle giggled. "As you wish, Mistress." She leaned down about to kiss Rainbow again but stopped and looked over to the dead body.
Rainbow looked over as well. She smirked. Two sky blue forelimbs opened the door to the room and carelessly tossed a dead body into the hall, slamming the door shut. Inside the room, Rainbow Dash closed all the blinds to make the place as dark as possible. Two pairs of glowing red eyes continued their intimate exchange.