"How...?" Fluttershy wondered, speaking so quietly only she could hear herself. "How did this happen?"
Angel put the mirror down and hopped right next to Fluttershy. Then, he reached towards her face and opened her mouth a little wider, since it was hanging slack with shock, and pointed to the small fangs in her mouth. She reached a hoof up and felt them as well. She got even more nervous as she pulled her hoof away to find two small spots of blood on it, exactly where she had been inspecting the fangs.
"Angel, how did this happen?" Fluttershy asked, starting to hyperventilate, "What's happening to me?" She covered her face with her hooves and began to cry, letting the tears run down her cheeks to collect at her chin before falling to the floor, taking traces of the blood on her face with them.
She then winced as something hit her head lightly. Looking up from her hooves she could see Angel sitting on the windowsill, pointing to somewhere in the distance. She got up and looked out the window with him, and saw where he was pointing. It was just barely poking above the line of the several buildings throughout Ponyville, but it stood out just the same. An oversized tree smack dab in the middle of town, also known as the home of their resident librarian and bookworm; Twilight Sparkle.
"You think I should talk to Twilight?" Fluttershy asked, looking at the small white bunny next to her questioningly.
He replied with a firm nod of his head, and started tapping the window repeatedly to tell her to hurry up.
"Oh, okay," she replied, starting for the door. "But I should clean my face off first."
"How long have these been there?" She asked, studying the fangs in Fluttershy's mouth as if that would tell her anything.
"I'm not sure," Fluttershy replied, "but I noticed them about two days after you cast that spell that turned me back to normal."
"Well," her purple friend said, shaking her streaked mane out of her face, "I'm not sure what to tell you, Fluttershy."
"Oh please, Twilight! You have to know something about this?" Fluttershy pleaded with her friend, grasping her shoulders firmly between her hooves.
"I'm sorry, Fluttershy. But I don't know what they could be. I suppose I could check some of my books about rare mutations but that's the best I can do," Twilight offered, taking Fluttershy's hooves off of her shoulders.
"Th-thank you, Twilight. Anything helps,"
Rainbow Dash reeled in her sleep, tossing and turning restlessly while the night dragged on and on like it was never going to end. She could barely get any rest without having to deal with horrible night terrors of monsters and demons that laughe as the life drained out of her eyes.
"Rainbow!"
She burst awake with a shriek of terror, fear controlling her actions rather than the warm embrace of her lover, who was worried sick about her. She continued to scan the room around them, pupils smaller than the tip of a needle despite the darkness of the night. Her breathing slowed as she slowly came back to the reality of the situation and saw the worried expression of her love, Applejack. She put a hoof to her temple as she shook the dream away.
Applejack couldn't take her eyes off of Dash, more afraid for her lover than a mother for her child.
"You alright, sug'?" she asked, her worrying eyes tracing Dash's features.
"I... I'm fine, AJ," Dash stuttered, "what makes you think something's wrong?"
"Rainbow, please don't lie to me," Applejack said, a single tear making it's way from one eye down her cheek. "Not at a time like this."
Rainbow Dash sighed and decided that her stubborn but worried companion wouldn't leave her alone until she spilled the beans about her nightmares. She sighed again and looked into Applejack's brilliant green eyes which shone in the moonlight like emeralds.
"I... I've been having nightmares," she spat out like it was a disgrace to her entire family name.
"Since when do you get nightmares?" Applejack asked.
"Since I was little," Rainbow replied. "But I haven't in years, and these are way worse than when I was a kid."
"How much worse?" Applejack asked, getting more and more concerned for Rainbow.
"Losing you, dying a slow and premature death at the hooves of monsters I can't even begin to describe, being sent to purgatory where I'm completely alone and unwanted... In that order..."
"And when did these start happening?"
"The night before these showed up," Rainbow said, pointing to the bite marks on her neck.
"Have you told anypony but me?" Applejack asked, tenderly rubbing her hoof over the bite marks on Dash's neck.
"What, and ruin my reputation? Not a chance," Rainbow said. "Besides, it's bad enough that you know."
"Why is it bad that I know?" AJ questioned, hurt that Rainbow would think that way.
"Because you wouldn't want somepony who cries herself to sleep over nightmares that nopony else knows about, only to put on a façade of bravado just so no one will find out!" Rainbow almost yelled, but managed to keep her voice down for fear of waking up the entire farmhouse.
"Rainbow, why would you think that?" Applejack had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep herself from crying. She hugged Rainbow tighter as the tears started flowing down her face, uncontrollable sobs making their way from her throat. "I'm not with you because of how tough you are," she began, "I'm not with you for how much better you are than everypony else, I'm with you because underneath all that, you are the loving, caring mare that I fell in love with all those months ago," she tried her best to regain composure and look Rainbow in the eyes. "And besides, we all know I'm way stronger than you."
"A hell of a lot more stubborn, too," Rainbow joked.
"Oh, c'mere sugar," Applejack said, pressing her lips against Dash's and pushing her down onto the bed.
Rainbow broke the kiss to look AJ in the eyes once more. "AJ, I can't believe you just said that."
"Said what? That whole speech about why I can't stand to be without you?" Applejack questioned.
"Yeah, that," Rainbow said.
"Well it's true. Always was, always will be," Applejack said firmly. She then drove Rainbow into another kiss, this one more ferocious than the last and practically shoved her tongue into Dash's mouth. She held their heads together until her lungs were begging for air before breaking the kiss with an audible smack.
"And I wouldn't have it any other way," she whispered into Rainbow's ear.
Rainbow slept soundly for the rest of the night, not a single nightmare to wake her up. Maybe it was Applejack's little pep talk, or maybe it was the fact that she had been able to tell somepony--especially somepony close--about her nightmares. Whatever it was, she didn't care. She could sleep and that's what mattered.
Her peace would disappear all too quickly, however, as waves of indescribable pain shot through her body and limbs, waking her up in an instant. She gasped for breath, writhing as the transformation took place. She rolled onto the floor, landing with a dull thud as she continued to gasp for air.
Then it stopped all at once. The pain was gone and she could breathe again. She looked around, and found that she could see extremely well despite it being the middle of the night. She inspected her body, nothing strange there, it was when she saw her wings, however, that told her something had definitely happened to her. They weren't feathery like before, instead they were leathery and had three long bones connected by a thin membrane of skin spread out next to her. Bat wings. She licked her lips, and her tongue made contact with two long fangs sprouting from the top of her mouth, while the rest of her teeth were sharp. Very sharp. She could also hear a lot more things than before, such as Applejack's heartbeat even though she was several feet away.
What the hell just happened to me...? she wondered. Can't let her see me like this.
She then crawled to the window, opening it just wide enough so that she could slip through, and flew off into the night.