//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: Equine Vampiris 
// by The-rogue-shadow 
//------------------------------//

Twilight paled as she stared at the slender form of the deep blue pony that stood in front of her.

Princess Luna, the immortal Alicorn goddess of the moon and sister to Twilight’s mentor and ruler of Equestria. Twilight was paralysed with fear, still baring her teeth with a snarl plastered across her face. To her credit, Luna gave little reaction to Twilight’s state, her eyes widening before she looked at the ground.

“Oh. my apologies Twilight Sparkle, I was unaware of your… condition,” she said flatly, much to Twilight’s frustration. Her mind snapped back to reality and she concentrated on her teeth, cautiously sliding them back into her gums. 

“You aren’t scared?” she asked the Moon Princess, who only sighed in response.
“How am I meant to act toward somepony touched by Discord’s reward, especially if that pony is my friend?” Luna asked.
“Wait, go back, what do you mean ‘Discord’s reward?’” Twilight enquired and Luna gave her a quizzical look.
“I-I would have thought you were aware of your plight Twilight Sparkle.”
“I’m sorry princess, but I have no idea what is happening to me, nor how to stop it,” she explained.  

Luna remained stoic, as though contemplating something. An uncomfortable silence followed, but it was one that Twilight was used to. Since the incident on Nightmare Night, Twilight and Luna had been keeping in contact, either by mail, or in person during one of Twilight’s frequent trips to Canterlot or during a star gazing session in Ponyville. Luna’s difficulty with modern language made for very slow, deliberate conversation, which had a tendency to be often brutal in its honesty. But this particular silence seemed different, as though Luna was trying to hold something back.

“Luna, please. If you know anything that might help me, you must tell me,” Twilight pleaded and finally she relented.
“Twilight, back before my exile, before the nightmare, during the reign of Discord, there were some ponies who supported him. They were known as the ‘Priests of Discord.’ The leaders of these false priests or any pony who happened to please him were given his great reward. They were turned into beings of portable chaos, ponies who would hunt and feed on the life force of other ponies,”

“Vampires, like me.” 

“No, not like you. The vampires you know of are mere shadows of the perfect hunter that these ponies were. You are something so much more. You are of the race ‘Equine Vampiris.’” 
“And what does that mean exactly?” 

“It means that you cannot eat normal food, that you must drink the blood of ponies to survive. If you don’t, you will become like that of an animal, unable to control yourself around friends or family. You are stronger, faster than you used to be, but you are not immortal.”  

“But I thought vampires were ageless,” Spike interrupted and Luna facehooved, growing noticeably frustrated.
“She is not a Vampire Spike! She is something much worse,” snapped Luna. Twilight felt numb. To find out that she was something that had spread chaos throughout the whole of Equestria was terrifying. 

“Is there anything I can do to change back?” she asked quietly. Luna went quiet once more and it was all the answer Twilight needed. Tears filled her eyes as she collapsed onto the ground and started to cry loudly. Spike hugged her neck, but she shrugged him off, not wanting to be touched. Luna bent down to look her in the eyes, but recoiled slightly when she saw that Twilight’s fangs had dropped. 

“Twilight Sparkle, please listen to me. I do not know of any way for you to return to your previous form, but I may know of somepony who does,” she told her, trying to sound comforting. Twilight looked up with an expectant look on her face, which only looked weird in combination with her fangs. “Chrysalis, queen of the changelings.”

***

Twilight began to assault the dark coated Alicorn with questions about her new form, attempting to aggregate all of her millennia of knowledge into something that she could use. In her head, Twilight was compiling a biological profile of her species, as well as Vampires in general. 

Spike soon fell asleep as Luna tried her best to keep up with Twilight’s tirade of questions. Twilight had become an aggressive scientist, in the same what she had when researching the Pinkie sense, using the first available resource as though it were nothing but a well that she needed to drink dry.  

Twilight was doing whatever she could to keep calm, and her continual questions were a part of that. She was also trying to drown out the sound of the heartbeats from the various nocturnal creatures that had come to investigate the three strange creatures that were intruding on their territory. She was a bit terrified however, when she realised that she could not hear a heartbeat coming from Princess Luna, despite being only a few feet away. Luna had just finished describing the fact that that while small exposure to sunlight would only weaken her; a full day out in the sun would be fatal. 
“Luna, can I go talk to Celestia?” she asked sadly, already knowing the answer. 

“I’m afraid not Twilight, thou must remember that my sister has dominion over the sun itself, and its glorious light radiates from her. To be in her presence would be unbearably painful for you, and may even cause your demise,” she explained, her voice getting steadily shakier as she watched Twilight struggling to keep her tears at bay. 
“So… So if I can’t find a way to change back,” she started, hoping that Luna wouldn’t tell her the truth.

“Then you may never see Celestia again,” Luna said, looking at the ground as if she was ashamed with her response. Twilight just hung her head low, taking deep breaths to stop herself from breaking down and crying. Her fangs dropped once again and she shrugged Spike off her back, who awoke startled.
“Wha...? Twilight? What’s wrong?” he asked sleepily. 
“I am wrong.” she said through her teeth.
“No Twilight.”

“Yes Spike! I fed on ponies; I might have killed Colgate and as for Redheart… I didn’t want to stop with Redheart,” Twilight told them, and both Luna and Spike’s jaws dropped. The moon princess’s eyes darted around in their sockets, looking for anything to dispel the silence. Spike, however, stuck his arms to his sides and marched straight up to Twilight, grabbing her face and pulling it down level with his own. 

“Twilight! You are not a monster, you’re just sick. We just have to find the cure, and we WILL find it,” he told her, his reptilian eyes feeling as though they were piercing all of Twilight’s doubts and fear. Luna nodded her agreement and lit up her horn with magic, producing a map in a flash of white light. Handing it to Spike, Luna flared her wings and started to smile.
“He is right Twilight, you will be okay. I swear it. Take this map, use it to find Chrysalis, she may know how to reverse your change.”

“Thank you, but Luna, can you do me a favour and not tell Celestia about this? At least not until I’m sure that I can change back or not,” she asked, and Luna simply responded by nodding once. She turned to leave, bending her legs for take-off, before changing her mind and turning to face them both.

“Oh, and one more thing Twilight; If you can, try to resist your urge to feed on blood. Every time you do, not only are you at risk of killing them, but you will also take on the strengths of the species of pony you feed on,” she explained.
“What do you mean?” Twilight enquired, remembering her two previous feeds. 

“If you were to feed on a unicorn, you will absorb their magic, increasing your own ability. Earth ponies will make you physically stronger, to the point that the very ground will shake with your hoofsteps.”
“And what about pegasi?” 

“DO NOT TOUCH THE PEGASI!!” Luna boomed, using the traditional Canterlot voice. Her eyes flashed yellow and cat-like for a moment and Twilight could have sworn she saw lightning in the sky behind her.  Twilight’s mane was blown back and Spike was knocked off his feet by the force of her voice. Luna put her hoof to her mouth and blushed at the surprised looks on the faces of her two friends. “I am sorry about that, but please understand, if you feed on a Pegasus, then there will be no turning back. Discord wanted to make sure that the recipients of his reward would never betray him, so when he designed the first of your kind, he added the fact that the combination of all three blood types would create undying loyalty for him, because he knew that eventually, the urge to find new tastes would compel them to feed on any that crossed their path.” 
Twilight and Spike gave each other a fearful look that was also a silent promise to each other. Twilight to not feed on a Pegasus and Spike to help Twilight through her urges. 

“Thank you Princess, I will keep that in mind.”
“Good luck Twilight Sparkle. Please, come back intact,” said Luna, her voice full of concern and the barest hint of fear. Luna then bent her knees and stretched her wings, before rocketing into the sky with a gust of wind. 
“Well, let’s get started,” said Spike, opening the map while Twilight watched Luna fly back toward Canterlot. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, calming down enough that her fangs retreated back into the pink mass of her gums. 
‘Spike’s right, I WILL find a cure.” 

***

After a brief but thorough study of the map and with the ever brightening light of dawn swiftly approaching, they set out toward the supposed location of the changeling hive; the Equestrian badlands. 

The vast empty plains had been the site of the first griffin war six hundred years ago and bordered both the Griffin Empire and Equestria, with an expansive mountain range in between. Endless tunnels and catacombs wormed their way through the ageless mountains, and every pony that had ever set out to explore them had vanished. As a result of this and from sightings of changelings during the siege of the royal wedding, it was suspected that it was the three largest mountains that hid the changelings. 

Spike briefly thought about signalling the other elements of harmony, but Twilight disagreed, too scared of attacking her friends, even if Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash weren’t pegasi. 

With the trip to the badlands being a solid four days of walking,  they headed straight for the nearest town, looking to find a hotel or something similar for Twilight to stay in during the day. As well as a pony for her to sate her hunger for the trip ahead, as horrible as that thought was to both of them. They walked into the coastal town of Maneflow Springs as the sun began to rise, with Twilight almost immediately starting to feel weaker. Her walking pace slowed down and she had to close her eyes against the onslaught of light. Spike apparently noticed this, because he took a hold of a few parts of Twilight’s mane and started to lead her through the town in search of somewhere to stay. 

Twilight could hear the heartbeats of a few ponies around her, which she reasoned had to have been bakers and dockworkers at that time of morning. 

She was led up a set of wooden steps and through a door into what Twilight hoped was a hotel, bumping into what felt like a desk. 

“Hi there, I’m looking to get a room for me and my friend here,” said Spike, the barest hint of anxiety in his voice as Twilight’s heart rate started to increase and her mane became damp with sweat.
“And what are you supposed to be, a seeing eye dragon?” asked the pony sarcastically, Twilight, who was beginning to get frustrated due to the pain from the light mixed with the bad attitude of the clerk, stamped her hoof on the desk, making the stallion jump.

“Why yes, as a matter of fact, now if you would be so kind as to give me my key,” she snapped, feeling her teeth starting to descend. The clerk snorted in an arrogant manner and threw the keys at Spike, who stuck out his tongue and he turned Twilight away from the desk. 

As soon as they got up to the room, Spike locked the door and attempted to black the sunlight that was streaming through the window, using spare sheets and towels and whatever else was available to fill in the gaps made by the curtains. Twilight just made her way over to the bed and slumped down; exhausted from the drain the sun had caused her. Spike tapped her on the side, indicating that she could open her eyes. Once she did, she felt a strange sense of calm in the darkness. Spike sat down next to her and started stroking her mane in the same way he did whenever Twilight was having nightmares. She crawled under the covers and got ready to sleep, but as she began to drift off Spike whispered in her ear.
“Sleep now Twilight and I will sort everything out when you wake up.”

***

The muffled thudding sound that filled her ears was like twin explosions in the distance. It was a sound that used to give her comfort, that let her know that everything was alright, and was often a sound that she fell asleep to when curled up with her brother or her foalsitter. But now, however, that sound was associated with pain and violence, and the unending urge to feed. It was the sound of an organ convulsing as super thin membranes opened and shut in order to force hot red liquid life throughout a meaty shell. 

Twilight’s eyes snapped open and her fangs dropped to their full length with a click. Sitting up straight, Twilight saw the last thing that she ever expected to see; Spike, his hands covered in a mix of dried blood and hair. On the floor in front of him was a light green Earth pony whose face was covered in her own blood and a large chunk of her mane was missing. Twilight crawled out of bed and made her way over, her mouth opened in perpetual shock.
“SPIKE! What in the hay is this?” she yelled, her teeth giving her a lisp. Spike jumped, as though he had no idea she was there. 

“I found you something to eat,” he said proudly. Twilight swallowed the lump in her throat as she thought of biting into the ponies’ neck.
“But you attacked this pony.”
“Well, true. But what would you have had me do, just let you go out and hunt? Risk you getting a Pegasus?” he snapped and Twilight retracted, scowling because she knew he was right. 
“But still… when did you do this?”

“About an hour ago. As soon as the sun set, I managed to find a pub where lots of sailors hang out. This mare left with a stallion, but he turned out to be a creep and she left him. And just who was waiting with a shoulder to cry on?” 
“So you hit her over the head and dragged her here to be drained?” she asked, and Spike just nodded in agreement. Twilight looked at the blood on his hands and the smile on his face and couldn’t help but feel guilty that he had to do something so terrible for her sake. Despite this, she walked over to the pony and looked down at her. It was at that moment that the mare regained consciousness; her deep blue eyes were wide and terrified as they darted around, before focussing on Twilight.

“I’m sorry,” she said, diving onto the mare’s neck and breaking through the flesh of her neck to get at the warm liquid that was being held within.

‘I’m sorry.’