The sun slowly began to peak over the horizon as Twilight and Fluttershy scurried the last stretch between the forest and the small cottage they had left hours before, the sunlight much more deadly than it would have been for either of them only weeks earlier.
Twilight quickly closed the door behind them as they arrived, “That.... was close.” She said, giving a sigh of relief.
“Will Silver Wing be okay?” Fluttershy asked.
Twilight took a deep breath and walked towards the kitchen with a smile, “If she hasn't already made it back, she'll probably just find a place to hole up for the day. She's resourceful like that, don't worry.”
“You do realize we only just now got back, right.” Fluttershy pointed out, joining her friend and the table.
Twilight laughed, “Well, she was probably going well over half the speed of sound, while we decided to take a bit of a romantic walk through the forest.” She earned a cute blush at this comment, giving her even more reason to smile.
“She was... a lot nicer than I had expected.” Fluttershy said in a half dedicated attempt to change the topic.
“What did you expect?” Twilight asked.
Fluttershy's reply was nervous, “Cold, distant... evil, even a bit seductive.”
Twilight, for her part, smiled. She relocated herself to her friends side and held her close, “You keep forgetting that you're one of us now. We only want to help you, and we can't do that unless we're open and friendly.”
“I know,” Fluttershy said apprehensively, “I just don't want to end up like that... you know, evil.”
Twilight continued to smile as she replied with a disarming kindness, “You won't have to. If you want to, we can just finish teaching you how to feed yourself, and we can forget all this even happened for the next hundred years or so.”
Fluttershy stuttered, unable to form a reply “Its not that... I just...”
“Don't worry,” Twilight said, “If you don't want to quit, then don't give up on it. There's no reason to simply abandon
this, but if you want to, it's always an option. I'm more concerned about you, you seem a little worried.”
Fluttershy shrank a little bit, but meekly replied, “I'm scared... you make it sound like everypony just wants us dead.”
“Well... that's more bluntly than I would put it, but yes.” Twilight replied, “I think the reason we're so feared is because we gave them a reason to fear us. We hunted them for thousands of years, and as soon as they could kill us they began to hunt us down. It isn't so bad now that we've been reduced to hiding, but Celestia still knows we're out here and there's always a few families that kept vampire hunting as a tradition.”
“Is that why all the legends are so inaccurate, to protect us?” Fluttershy asked.
Twilight's response was a little uncertain as she said, “Well... not exactly. They do protect us against most vampire hunters, as well as the odd pony that somehow finds out the truth about one of us and try's to act on it, but Celestia isn't as foolish. She knows that most of the legends are untrue, and she's aware that we lurk out of sight. The biggest reason she keeps the legends around is because they protect ponies that would make the discovery and go after one of us. They would be quickly dissuaded because the pony they thought was a vampire had perfectly reasonable explanations for everything. In the event that one of us actually is compromised, we... prevent it from becoming a problem.”
“So we kill them?” Fluttershy asked coldly.
Twilight, once again, was uncertain whether or not to go on, but pressed on regardless, “Most of the time, although we do sometimes talk it out peacefully. It depends on whether or not we could convince them, and sometimes it still doesn't work. That's rare, mostly we kill outright, but if the pony is stable of mind and reasonable, we make an attempt. One less disappearance and one less live lost.”
Fluttershy looked over inquisitively from her side of the table, “That can't always work, you must miss one at some point.”
“It has happened before, but most times we pick up on it early. Nervous looks, sighs a relief when out of earshot, subtle signs that tell us who might have caught on, things an ordinary pony wouldn't notice. Then we let others know, and we keep watch on them, and we intervene when we have enough information to deem them a threat, or when they make a move against us.”
After that revelation, Fluttershy was strangely silent, and for several minutes nopony spoke. Only after the silence began to become unbearable, Twilight spoke up, “That's it, whats bothering you?”
“Nothing... I'm just a bit tired.”
Twilight, for her part wouldn't take that for an answer, “No, that might work on Rarity, but not me, now what's wrong?”
Twilight's sudden assertive push startled Fluttershy, finally pressing her to give up and simply tell all, “You told me that I wouldn't turn out like that, but now your telling me about how you kill anypony that knows something that they shouldn't, you're giving a lot of mixed messages.”
“We do what we need to do for survival, and you'll understand why soon, but for now you just have to learn. Once you know how to fend for yourself you can stop these lessons or keep learning. I want you to remember, you can live a mostly normal life if you want, you don't need to be a part of this.”
Fluttershy had nothing to say, so Twilight spoke up again, “I'm going to leave you here on your own for a while, alright.”
“How will you get anywhere? The sun already came up.”
“Well, do you remember that necklace you brought me, the one Rarity made with the diamond in the center?” Twilight asked, earning a responsive nod, “It contains a number of the protective enchantments and spells designed to disguise me and keep me safe when I was young. The most important is to protect me from sunlight. The necklace won't last long, the spells fade without a living host and the magic will corrupt and destroy the diamond over time. It helps give me time to get started on a new lifestyle and set in order anything I'll need for the future, but really it's just an overabundance of improvising to transfer the spells in a way they weren't designed for.”
Fluttershy nodded, confirming that she heard but didn't want to speak.
“I'll be back after lunch to feed the outdoor animals for you...”
“That wont be necessary, they'll come inside to eat if I ask nicely.” Fluttershy said, staring at the ground, still distracted.
“Well, aright, I'll be by after lunch to check on you. Just remember, don't open any of the curtains, don't go outside, if somepony comes by don't forget your disguise, go with the cover story I made up that you were sick, and try to do some reading while I'm gone. I'll be back to check on you later.” Twilight said quickly, rattling off a list of things she had considered might cause an incident.
She placed her necklace around her head, and after being certain that the effects held, she opened the door to leave, turning around one last time to say, “Oh, and think about this a bit, okay.”
She walked out the door, closing it behind her, leaving Fluttershy with the comfort of a dark room and a lot to think about.