Very few recently turned vampires would react calmly to the inevitable lesson on hunting and feeding themselves, yet Fluttershy seemed to set a new record for that reluctance.
While Fluttershy knew that it was only a matter of time before this was necessary, it became so much more frightening when Twilight told her they had reached that point of their lessons. Before, it was easy to simply pass it off before as something that would happen, and would happen regardless of her distaste for it, but when it actually came time she couldn't put off accepting it any longer. It was going to happen, and there was nothing she could do about it. Except of course, try to resist.
“Come on Fluttershy, it's time for you to learn how to feed, we can't put it off any longer or you'll starve.” Twilight said, trying to coax Fluttershy out her makeshift pillow fort again. Angel stood next to her the entire time, looking at her caretaker's fluffy fortress with a look of annoyance and disapproval.
“I don't want to come out.” Fluttershy replied, her red eyes flashing briefly as she peaked out of cover, but just as quickly they disappeared from sight again.
“Fluttershy, come on, you need to learn how to do it eventually, so why not now?” Twilight said, promptly ignoring Angel who was on the floor next to her, trying to communicate through crude gestures that this was never going to work.
Fluttershy remained quiet, desperately hoping that if she remained still and silent, Twilight might leave her alone. Subconsciously however, she knew from the start that it wouldn't be enough.
“I'm serious Fluttershy, come out of there, now.” Twilight said, quickly losing patience.
Fluttershy quietly peaked out again, only this time she stayed in eye contact with Twilight for a few seconds. Then, without breaking eye contact, Fluttershy said, “I don't want to.”
Twilight stepped closer to the fluffy fortress, and glaring at Fluttershy through the cracks in the wall she said, “I have had enough of this. This is going to happen, whether it happens under controlled circumstances or you starve yourself until you go on a rampage killing whoever you can reach doesn't matter, so which would you prefer?” By this point she was practically steaming, a sharp contrast to the calm and peaceful attitude she had only a few minutes prior. The sudden change was easily enough to put Fluttershy on edge.
Terrified, she muttered, “I don't want to hurt anypony.”
“Then why don't you come out and feed before you do” Twilight exclaimed, her anger fading, “Alright, I know you don't want to hurt anypony, so I'll make a suggestion. So we don't have to attack anypony or take blood from them forcefully, we can try to be diplomatic about it and look for somepony to volunteer, but if that fails we’re going to need to take a more aggressive approach, understood?”
Fluttershy finally gave in. Wordlessly, she pushed the walls of her unimposing fortress apart, causing the whole thing to collapse around her. As they walked out, Twilight listing ideas of places to find volunteers while they did, Angel was left to replace everything to where it was before rather than wait for Fluttershy to get back to do it herself and risk angering a vampire.
-----
Though it took a while, Twilight and Fluttershy finally managed to work out an agreement, and they now sat together on the train, moving steadily through the countryside. In the end and after much discussion, they decided on Manehatten. Though any city was much less friendly and civilized than a small town like Ponyville, Manehatten was without argument one of the best locations to hunt. The sheer number of ponies left an ample amount of prey to choose from while the city’s crime rates were lower than most. This gave them many ponies to search through for suitable prey, while the small amount of criminal activity that was present in any large city, even Manehatten, would cover most of the mistakes they could make, provided of course they were careful about where and when they made them.
In that respect, Canterlot would have been a better choice, but Twilight had chosen to stay out of sight of the royal sisters and somewhere where royal guards were not constantly present.
Fortunately, running from a small town to a big city at night meant that there weren’t many ponies on the train. Twilight and Fluttershy managed to slip into a car all by themselves near the back of the train, and after throwing up a few basic spells to ward off eavesdropping, they sat down together.
“So Fluttershy,” Twilight said, “After this is over you don’t need to continue the lessons anymore. I mean, you don’t have to if you don’t want to, but I have so much more to teach you. There are a lot of ancient arts and magic that vampires have preserved, and… sorry, what I’m trying to say is that you still have plenty to learn but this is all you need to live as much of a normal life as you can in your situation. I’d love to teach you… that is, if you want to.”
Fluttershy gave it a moment’s thought, silently looking out the window of the train as she contemplated what to say. Without letting her vision stray, she replied, “I don’t know, I’m still uncomfortable with all this. Maybe after a while, let me get used to being a vampire first, and then maybe we could consider it again.”
“That’s fine, I guess. You don't have to decide right away” Twilight replied, looking out at the fields passing them by, “So, how do you want to go about this, you know, once we reach Manehatten. We can’t just wait for somepony to volunteer.”
“I just want to find somepony willing to help us,” Fluttershy said, “Somepony who understands what they’re doing and doesn’t object to it.”
“So we’re just going to… ask?” Twilight inquired, facing Fluttershy with an odd expression.
Fluttershy looked to her and asked, “What would you do?”
“I don’t know, maybe find somepony on the outskirts of the city and catch them unaware. They never know what happened, and I get away without revealing myself.”
After those words Fluttershy was strangely quiet, not saying much for nearly an hour, thinking deeply about who the mare she had fallen in love with really was, and how that affected their relation now. Twilight had tried to kill her, turned her into a vampire, and expressed little to no regard for the strong morals Fluttershy previously admired. It seemed that now, Twilight was willing to hurt and kill to get what she needed.
What was perhaps worst however was that the love she held for her friends wasn’t as stable as Fluttershy had hoped. The false identity that Twilight wore hadn’t changed at all, but having the chance to see beneath it revealed that she was distant from them by a frightening degree. While nopony could deny that their relationship was real, in the end Twilight would see them as distant and different, and would be willing to move on if she needed to in order to protect herself, or to protect them from the danger that follows her.
Questions and concerns built inside Fluttershy the longer she simply sat there, watching the landscape pass them by, until finally she couldn’t hold it to herself anymore, and expressed every question and concern she could come up with in just a few words, “Twilight, are we… are vampires evil?”
Twilight looked up to her and smiled., “You know, that's a very good question. In the end, it's all a matter of perspective I guess.”
“What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked.
“In the past we've justified our actions by comparing them to the actions of a predator in the wild, and it's an accurate analogy, but the ponies ancient vampires preyed on called them monsters and demons, and that’s not wrong either.”
“What do you think?” Fluttershy asked quietly.
Twilight shifted and looked Fluttershy strait in the eye, “I think that vampires are evil, we hunt and kill ponies by instinct.” She smiled, “But I also thing that no matter how evil something is, what really matters is where it's heart is. We're coming out here, going to all this trouble to do this your way because you just want to be a good pony. You can't control what you are, but who you are is what really matters.”
“So I’m not evil?” Fluttershy asked.
“It’s your choice to make.” Twilight said as she looked back towards the window.
A few minutes later the hills next to the track ended, letting the passengers see the city of Manehatten.
Upon seeing their destination finally arriving, Twilight opened her saddlebags and pulled out two brown cloaks, and threw one over to Fluttershy.
“Here, put this on and keep yourself disguised while we're in the city. I don't want to take any chances so use an alternate appearance at all times. I don't want anypony to know that we were here, and I certainly don't want them to know what we were doing. As far as anypony knows, you and I never left Ponyville.”
Fluttershy took the cloak silently and put it on, and looked at Twilight who had already changed her appearance to that of a blue unicorn with a dark green mane, the cloak covering her cutie mark and obscuring it from view. She also messed up her mane a bit, a last minute change to make it more scruffy and disorganized, the last thing anypony would expect from Twilight Sparkle.
Fluttershy followed, thinking back to her training. Without the creativity and time to tailor something unique, she tried to think quickly of something that wouldn't attract attention. Simply using the first thing to come to mind, she changed herself to a bright orange pegasus with a purple mane. In Ponyville it might draw attention, but in Manehatten nopony would even turn a head about it. Her cutie mark, the one thing that could not be changed by vampiric magic, was covered by her cloak like Twilight's.
“Good,” Twilight said, looking over her, “We just need to make a few changes to your mane first, and we'll be ready to go.”
As the train pulled into the station, Twilight circled around Fluttershy, making minor adjustments to her mane and tail as she saw fit. For the most part it consisted of making a mess of it, undoing most of the grooming and making it more like Rainbow's. Coming to a problem with length, she turned to tying it together and applying illusion spells to make it appear shorter than it actually was. In the end, Fluttershy's Mane and tail were almost identical to Scootaloo's, only slightly shorter.
“There,” Twilight said proudly, “Does it feel uncomfortable in any way? I had to tie it to keep it from dragging along the ground, and so nopony notices the illusion.”
Fluttershy shook her head, though she did feel strange with her mane tied as it was.
Twilight smiled and said, “Alright then, just follow my lead, if you need to say anything whisper, I'll be able to hear you, and don't do anything until I signal you to.”
When Fluttershy had no objections, Twilight motioned her towards the door.
As they stepped out of the train and into the city, Fluttershy couldn't help but feel some excitement for the hunt ahead.
-----
The process was slow, and for the most part Fluttershy had nothing to do as her companion looked around carefully, judging ponies and moving on as they didn't meet whatever requirements the now blue unicorn set for them. Though they had only been looking a short time, Fluttershy grew bored of the cities many unique sights quickly.
Finally Twilight nudged her slightly. She pointed towards a pegasus mare walking through the city. She seemed to be taking the alleys as shortcuts through the streets. Twilight silently signaled Fluttershy to come up behind her before slipping out, leaving Fluttershy all alone.
With no further directions other than follow, she began to do as instructed, hoping Twilight knew what she was doing, though she worried this would go wrong somehow.
As she rounded the corner, Twilight did the same from the other side of the ally, revealing her plan to Fluttershy as their prey was cut off from her destination. The fear in her eyes grew as she looked back to see Fluttershy cutting off any retreat.
With nowhere else to go, she she raised her wings and prepared to fly. In response and much to Fluttershy's surprise, so did Twilight. Upon seeing her friend's leathery wings come up from underneath the cloak, she raised her own, just in time for her prey to turn around to see her. With no way out on the ground or in the air she stopped. For a few moments Fluttershy waited to see who would take the initiative and speak first.
Finally, cornered by two hooded ponies in an alley, the mare nervously asked, “What do you want from me?”
Without a word, she responded by removing her hood, earning a gasp of terror from the mare. While Twilight still appeared as a different pony, she had allowed her disguise to drop around her eyes and fangs, revealing her frightening true appearance. Fluttershy mimicked her actions, revealing her vampiric appearance and inducing even more fear into the mare. Thought the silence that followed lasted barely a few seconds, for all involved it seemed to stretch an eternity.
Finally breaking the tense silence, Twilight said, “Don't worry, we won't hurt you.” Despite Twilight's reassurances, the mare's fear was mostly unchanged. After giving her a moment of pause, Twilight asked, “Could you tell us you name?”
“Morning Daisy.” She replied, her voice shaking, showing her anxiety had not been diminished by the few moments of kindness and mercy she had been show.
“Please, don't hurt me, I have two fillies to take care of alone.” Morning Daisy said, making a desperate appeal to their emotion, hoping to earn their compassion. Her appeal was desperate, although Twilight was fairly certain she was being honest.
“We don't want to hurt you.” Twilight said, “Please, we really don’t want to hurt you. We're only here to ask for your help, and I promise we won't do anything without your consent.”
This got Morning Daisy's attention. Though she was still shaking in fear, she stood attentively, her mistrust strong but waning as so far she found no deceit in their words, and no reason to deceive. If they had intended to kill her, she would not be speaking with her, calmly reassuring her of their peaceful intent, nor would they be asking for her help rather than taking what they desired by force.
What most worried her now was what kind of help they wanted. Being vampires she had an strong idea of what might be asked of her, and with it came an underlying fear not unlike what she felt earlier.
“Please listen to us.” Twilight said, “I know you're frightened right now, but she needs blood. We wont kill you, and I promise we'll make this as easy and painless as possible, but you have to trust us.”
Morning Daisy turn and looked right at Fluttershy. Though Fluttershy shied away from the attention, Daisy was silently trying to piece together more about the silent mare, and what she saw made her even more sympathetic. She was shy, even to the point of being frightened, and she looked somewhat ashamed. As far as Daisy could tell, she was somepony who would rather starve than harm another to satisfy herself. The thought wandered to her that perhaps that's how she ended up in such a fragile condition in the first place.
With a final sigh she submitted, “Alright, I'll do it... just, please be gentle.”
Twilight smiled and beckoned Fluttershy over. Once she was ready, Fluttershy let instinct take over and guide her to where she needed to bite.
As soon as she did, Morning Daisy inhaled sharply. Twilight whispered to her, doing the best she could to keep her calm.
Fluttershy however was in a state of bliss, completely oblivious to the outside world. While Silver Wing had brought her blood before, it was diluted with water and caused her some degree of sickness as the changes that came with vampirism had not been completed yet, although according to Twilight consuming blood had accelerated them. Even then, it had tasted amazing and left her somewhat elated.
As soon as she tasted the first drop of pure blood she was overpowered by an experience unlike anything she had ever experienced. The sudden rush of energy and euphoria was stronger than when she had consumed the blood Silver had brought. Although in the beginning she was hesitant to even bite, by the time Twilight had nudged her indicating she had drank enough, she was reluctant to stop.
Hesitantly she pulled away, giving Twilight room to treat the wound. After cleaning it thoroughly and applying healing magic, the wound was no longer noticeable, nor was there any risk of the wound reopening and bleeding fatally.
Morning Daisy stood up, and after a few experimental steps, stumbled and leaned against the wall for support.
“Um, do you need any help?” Twilight asked.
Daisy pushed off of the wall and stumbled for a minute before regaining her balance, “No, I'm okay, I just needed a minute to catch my balance.” She took a few for steps and stumbled again, although she remained standing this time.
“You will be able to make it home, won't you?” Fluttershy asked, earning a brief but genuine smile from Daisy.”
“I'll be okay, it's not far from here.”
Twilight smiled, “Thank you, you helped a lot.”
Daisy turned around for a moment and said, “You know, you aren’t nearly as bad as I thought you would be. Most ponies think of vampires as monsters or demons, but you're a lot kinder than I expected.”
Twilight smiled, “Thanks, that means a lot to us, a lot mare than you know.”
“Well, if you don't mind, I would be interested in getting together again sometime, getting a chance to know each other better, maybe even becoming friends. That is, if your interested.” Daisy said.
Twilight looked at Fluttershy, silently asking her opinion. When she smiled and nodded, Twilight turned back to Morning Daisy and said, “I think we would both love a chance to make a new friend. We'll contact you sometime, arrange a casual get together. Oh, and don't worry about contact information, I can track you down on my own. Do you have an objection to any of that?”
It took her a moment to think it over, but she eventually shook her head.
“Great, I'll send you a letter a few days before the next time we visit Manehatten, I guess we'll try to get together then.” Twilight said, “ Also, I would recommend you don't mention what happened here to anypony...”
“Don't worry, I know how badly some ponies would react, nopony will hear it from me.”
“Well, if that's all, then we'll head back home, and let you do the same. Bye, I guess.” Twilight said, waving a hoof to send her off. She waved back as she stumble a bit, but managed to move well enough despite her disorientation.
When she had made it out of their sights, Twilight put her hood back up and said, “Come on, let's head home.”
With the night objective completed, they walked back to the train platform, weary from the night adventures but with a new friend and renewed confidence.
-----
The train ride back was relatively uneventful. They couldn’t find a compartment to themselves because there were more ponies this time, most of them getting off when the train arrived at Canterlot after dawn. Since they couldn't talk about much without giving away their nature or their identities they simply elected to remain silent for the trip.
Dawn broke around the time the train pulled into the Ponyville station. Twilight and Fluttershy left wearing their cloaks for protection and moved quickly, avoiding the central streets and sticking to the outer parts of town, despite nopony being in the streets at the time. Even taking a longer route, Fluttershy's home did not take long to reach.
As soon as they were indoors, away from the deadly morning light, they took off their cloaks while Twilight dispelled the illusions of Fluttershy's short mane and untied it wherever necessary. In the end it looked normal, only with the addition of looking like she had just got out of bed after a particularly rough night.
“Twilight, can we talk for a bit before you leave?” Fluttershy asked, giving her cloak back to Twilight.
Twilight smiled, “Of course, I was actually going to talk to you anyway, get some things out of the way.”
“Um, I... I kind of...” Fluttershy began, trailing off and hesitating to speak.
Twilight couldn't be certain what Fluttershy wanted to say, but her knowledge of the processes and stages newly turned vampires go through led her to a single conclusion, “Let me guess, ever since you fed you've been getting really strong cravings?”
Fluttershy nodded shamefully, “I'm worried that I cant control myself. Every time I look at somepony I just keep thinking about blood... I'm worried I might hurt somepony, or worse I might kill somepony...”
“Fluttershy,” Twilight said with no response.
“What if it's one of my friends, I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to Rarity, or Rainbow...”
Twilight interrupted Fluttershy's rant with a rough shake, “Fluttershy,” She said, “Calm down, this is normal. After feeding for the first time, vampires get a strong desire for more blood, and vampires who were turned have it much worse. It will get easier, it just takes time and a bit of self control.”
“But what if I can't control myself, what if I do hurt somepony.” Fluttershy asked, going into a state of fear again.
“If it's really that bad just excuse yourself and leave.”
Fluttershy looked at Twilight with hope in her eyes and asked, “Do you really think I can do it?”
With a smile, Twilight replied, “I know you can. You've already done so well, and I'm proud of you.”
“Also,” Twilight continued, “I wanted to apologize for how I've been acting towards you recently, I guess I let my guilt get the better of me. I pushed my responsibilities off on Silver Wing and I've been trying to avoid you because I couldn't stand the thought of us drifting apart because of what I had done.”
“But Twilight,” Fluttershy said, “You know we could never drift apart, after all we've been through together, and especially after all the times we've saved Equestria together.”
“You're right, I was being pretty stupid,” Twilight replied, “I suppose I was so worried about how this could separate us, I never had a chance to look at how it could bring us closer together. What do you say to trying again, for real this time?”
Fluttershy's smile at that moment could have rivaled even Pinkie Pie with it intensity as she leaped at Twilight, unintentionally knocking them both to the floor with her overzealous attempt at a hug.
They both laughed for awhile. Finally, after they had calmed down Fluttershy said, “Yes, I would love to.”
“Great!” Twilight said. Briefly, she considered asking Fluttershy what she thought of their relationship, and if she still loved Twilight, but her will faltered, “Well, I guess I'll get going. Mind if I stop by tonight.”
“Not at all, your always welcome here.” Fluttershy replied, waving to her friend as she put her cloak back on and stepped outside.
As they went their separate ways for the day, Twilight couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed that hadn't spoken up when she had the chance, and she resolved to do so later that evening.
-----
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I learned that no matter what happens, true friendship will always prevail, no matter the hardships it faces. Everypony makes mistakes, and sometimes somepony gets hurt because of those mistakes. Even though things might seem bad at the time, give your friends a chance, and they'll always be ready to forgive you no matter how bad your mistake was.
Sincerely, Twilight Sparkle
P.S. I haven't found any changelings in Ponyville yet. I'm going to keep searching, but if they were here they've likely left already.