The filly stared back at the mare she'd thought she'd knew. The fear in her eyes kept increasing to impossible lengths. What would you do if the pony that was once your protector turned into the thing; acted like the thing, that almost killed you?
Run. At least, that's what Scootaloo did. She ran. And she ran some more. She expected Rainbow Dash to chase after her. So she kept running, knowing that, no, thinking that the once noble vampire was behind her, nipping at her heels. And she ran away from the house, she ran away from the pony she had waited to find for 998 years...
Flashback 998 years ago........
Today was the day. Today was the day Rainbow Dash was leaving. Rainbow was the one who had protected her, and what would she do now that she was leaving, now that she was as good as gone? The small filly ground her teeth in frustration as she saw the house that Rainbow and Twilight had owned for 2 straight years. That house had held terror, and mischief. And all awful memories of torture and all the times Twilight had almost gotten her. Twilight. She said that name with fear and conviction. Twilight was the one that had tried to kill her, smash her skull into a thousand pieces without batting an eye.
Rainbow had always been her savior, and Rainbow had been her relief from the mean colts that prowled the streets in the dead of night. Scootaloo lived on the streets, as it was well known that she was an orphan. Everypony wanted to help, but nopony had the time, the room, or the money. And the ones that did were unwilling.
They thought that she might be scarred from living in the house with the two murderous mares, rumored to be cousins, with rumors flying around them like a class one hurricane.
They thought that she might be tainted from the time spent with the pegasus and the unicorn, as it was never possible to tell which one was the good one, and which one was bad. Because nopony who investigated made it out alive.
So as she watched Rainbow leave that day, fly out of her life probably forever, she made a promise to herself. As she watched Rainbow prepare for takeoff, to leave this town forever, she thought up a promise.
And as the rainbow-maned mare wrapped her hooves around her, she promised herself that she would find this one supernatural protector no matter how long, and be wrapped in her hooves again. She would be muzzled goodnight, and fed and loved by this pony. And she wouldn't stop until she was reunited with her.
She lived in a box, with pitying glances from all who surrounded her. She had never had a good role model. She had never had anypony tuck her in. She had never had anypony care for her, defend her as much as the pegasus had. And she hadn't even known her! Scootaloo wiped away a tear, about to drop down her cheek and disappear into the air in a short while, like her idol.
"Rainbow," she said softly, as she gazed up into those cerise eyes.
"Yeah squirt?", Rainbow said in return as she looked down, trying not to cry.
"I'll find you. I promise, one day I'll find you.", Scootaloo replied. And then she buried her face in Rainbow's chest and sobbed.
It wasn't fair. Why was it that the only thing that had ever made her feel right in this Celestia forsaken world had to be taken away from her?
Her, of all fillies! It could have been Prim Proper, the jewelmaker's daughter, but no, here the universe was, punishing her for something she hadn't done. What had she done? Tried to have a normal life, check. Tried to open up and be loved, check. And look where that had gotten her! Bawling into her one light in this world's chest? Check.
Sobs racked her spent body. Days of anxiety about this moment left her body in the form of tears, splattering on Rainbow's fur.
"I don't want you to leave," she whispered, her words muffled by Rainbow's fur.
"I know," Rainbow said softly. "I know squirt."
She looked up. Her idol was crying, surely she could cry too. So she showed her face, no longer ashamed because her idol was crying as well, and then they held each other in a tight hug, for as far as they both knew then, that could've been the last time they would see each other for the rest of eternity.
End of Flashback-----
'998 years of her trying to find me, wasted', Rainbow thought. "What have I let myself become?", she asked herself out loud.
She looked at the changeling in the form of Midnight. She had done too much to stop now. Sparky had to pay. Revenge above all else.
Scootaloo could wait. Midnight before all else. Then again, that was how it always was.
Twilight would put him before her. It made her so angry all of a sudden she couldn't even see straight.
She needed something to numb it. And she needed it now. Before she lost it. Before she blew her cover. But Scootaloo had already seen her. Then again, would she tell? 'No', she told herself, 'if she does I'll take care of her.'
Now Rainbow was pretty far gone. But not far gone enough to not slap herself for thinking about doing something that horrendous to her little filly. So she did. Slap herself, I mean.
Hitting again and again. Berating herself for letting it come to this, and then restarting the cycle.
After 15 minutes she was tired, and spent, and so forlorn with her own mind, that she could have hardly looked at herself in a mirror without breaking the glass of it into a million tiny shards.
"Why?", asked herself out loud.
"Why did I let myself become this."
But it was a statement, not a question. She knew the answer. It was because of Sparky.
"An eye for an eye," she grumbled to herself, in the backyard of the house she shared with Twilight.
Rainbow was a good pegasus, no matter how impulsive or dangerous, or lost and hardened she could become. Deep down, she had feelings, and she was good.
But her stubbornness, and hatred, built up by years of seeing everypony she cared for, tormented by Saint Sparkle? That was what was winning currently.
So she rode that emotion, all the way back inside the house, to wait until daybreak, for her plan to start. It wasn't just Midnight. Oh Celestia no, she had something much bigger planned. Something that would make Twilight crack. Something that would make the unicorn pay. Something dangerous.
----------------
'It can't be,' the little filly thought, rocking back and forth in the shadows of the alleyways.
"She can't have changed that much," she said to herself, trying to reason with herself.
Even the street urchins moved away from the little filly, she was that manic. But in her state of panic she didn't mind. No, she didn't mind, not one bit.
"I don't mind", she said to herself.
"Yes you do.", she said in a frantic tone, answering herself.
"No, I don't. It's not like the one pony I cared for totally turned into a psychopath!"
"Yes, she did," she deadpanned, attacking herself with contradicting words.
"No. She's still in there. Maybe I should go back, knock on the door.", she said to herself, rolling faster and faster, eyes darting back and forth as fast as the bullet trains in Cloppan.
Beads of sweat rolled down her mangy coat.
She opened her mouth, and streams of no came forth.
"No." She said.
"No," she said again, trying to stay calm.
"I can't go back there. She'll kill me."
"Little filly," an old mare that she hadn't noticed before said.
She regained her sanity, to say "what?"
"Little filly," the old mare said again, reaching for her.
"What?", she asked again.
The old mare reached for her again, trying to drag her into her old crony hooves.
"Have you got my rusty horseshoe?", she asked.
"No!", Scootaloo yelled. "Geez, leave me alone!"
---------------
Now Twilight couldn't sleep, hadn't been able to sleep. What if the little colt knew? Featherweight was his name, was it not? What if the news would be out by tomorrow?
Would the news even be out? What if she misinterpreted it? A long time ago, she used to have an assistant named Spike. He had always told her to not get to worked up, to clear her head before her mind was lost for the night. Sadly, the one night that she hadn't listened, was the night that she had lost it. The night that she had lost it, and by doing that, lost him.
She had lost a lot of friends.
It was time to be a better pony. She had been telling herself that the past 1000 years though, and only through 400 of them had she ever stayed through her promise.
So before she lost it, she decided to take a little walk to clear her head. Spike had always said that that had always worked. Back before she had gotten high and killed him. She swallowed. Yet another sure fire reason that Rainbow had lost it, and was out to get her.
She threw off the covers on her bed, that were covering her lithe form, and trotted out of bed. She clomped down the hall, and took one look at Octavia through her doorway, sleeping soundly, still holding on in her room, before leaving.
That was a mistake.
She clopped down the stairs, almost silently. She went out the front door, just like Rainbow knew she would. Twilight went out the back door in the morning, and the front door at night. That's how the pegasus was sure that the unicorn would be sure to see the carnage when she wanted her to see it.
And as she trotted away from the house she shared with Rainbow, she kept on thinking of all of the things she'd left for the pegasus back when she was reckless, and cunning, and conniving. And, (in fact), pretty evil.
She was ashamed of the pony she used to be, and if only she could make the pegasus feel her guilt; surely she wouldn't torture her so after she had felt the emotions that the unicorn had felt. Felt the regret and the sorrow. Felt all the self hatred that was manifesting in her gut again and again every time she thought about who she used to be.
She looked down at her hooves. They, like her, were in Equestria, just being controlled by everything. Everypony.
She felt bad for her hooves. She felt bad for herself.
She felt bad for everything.
Everypony.
Every mistake she had ever made.
Every pony she had ever made a mistake with.
She felt crappy.
So she kept trotting. She kept trotting and trotting. Because in her mind, the worse place her hooves could take her was a place she deserved to go to.
And she trotted right into a bad neighborhood.
Now, given her homely appearance, she didn't look very tough. Ironic, she could drain you in ten seconds flat.
"Ten seconds flat," she said to herself. 'Now where have I heard that?" But she got her answer when an image of Rainbow Dash popped into her head.
She groaned lowly.
---------------
Scootaloo scooted back up against the wall.
"You got my rusty horseshoe!", the strange old crone accused her, waving her hooves in the air.
All the other street urchins looked on as if this was normal. Some even laughed.
The old crone crept closer.
Scootaloo could smell the old mare's dusty, musty, stinky breath as she cornered her up against the wall.
'Where are you Rainbow Dash?', Scotaloo thought to herself as she shook, her little body racked by the stink of desperation on the old mare's coat.
"Give me my horseshoe!", the crone said, raising a hoof as if to slap her. Her eyes were aglow with something Scootaloo hadn't seen in years. Love, was it? Yes, that could be it. But what stung was that the love was not for her, it was for that rusty horseshoe.
--------------------
There was a commotion in one of the darker corners of the alleyway, and Twilight could recognize taunts and jeers, and the whine of a filly in terrible peril, praying for a savior.
As she looked closer, she could see two shadowy figures, surrounded by ranting crowds of street urchins all slumped up against the walls in pockets of darkness. The first aforementioned figure was raising her hoof as if about to strike the smaller figure, probably a filly.
And as the hoof came down, Twilight leaped toward the shadows...
--------------------
And as she was thinking about the love being not for her, the hoof came down, and was inches from her muzzle, when all of a sudden, another hoof stopped it, the hoof of a stranger, or could it be, Rainbow Dash?
But when the crone cried out in surprise, she was spared, not even a threatening bark. It was very peaceful of her savior.
It was very unlike the Rainbow Dash she had known. Until a whisper was heard, and the sound of bone snapping reverberated throughout the alley.
A quaint sentence was whispered into the dead pony's ear, "Somepony may have taken your rusty horseshoe, but that doesn't mean you can take Scootaloo's life. I tried to once, and it was wrong. Which means you have no excuse."
--------------------------
I had gotten over to the little corner just in time to get a good look at the offender and who I was saving.
It was Scootaloo. The little pony I had tried to kill once. It made me so mad, to be reminded of that, that I guess I kind've snapped.
And I might've taken it out on the old putrid mare, but she deserved it!
Trying to hurt a little filly like that for no reason but a rusty horseshoe? Really?
Then again, I was so much worse.
Back then, I was horrible.
-----------------------
But Rainbow had never tried to take my life!
And when my protector turned around, I saw that it was not who I'd hoped, who I'd ran away from recently. It was who I'd been running away from for centuries.
It was the unicorn mare with the navy blue mane, and the purple and pink streaks. This time, though, unlike all the other times, it wasn't stained with the coppery tone of blood.
And the angry look in her eyes wasn't directed at me for once, it was directed back at the dead mare.
And when she looked at me with a kind look in her eyes, I almost cried. Who knew that Twilight could be so protective. So generous with her abilities. So much like, like Rainbow Dash.
It made my filly heart flutter.
But when she looked at me, there was also sadness in her purple eyes. There was regret, and sorrow and words that she didn't have the strength to say.
I passed myself up against the wall, thinking that it must be a dream, Twilight was the bad one, and Rainbow was the good one. That's how it always was.
But when she came closer, and I expected to be touched harshly, I was instead initiated into a warm hug, despite her cold form. And an "I'm so sorry," was whispered from her mouth to my ear.
And then I cried for what must have been the thousandth time since I'd lost Rainbow. I'd since I'd lived in fear of Twilight, yet here she was, hugging me. The irony was painful.
---------------- Rainbow POV
"Well well well, what do we have here?", I said as I noticed Vincenza waking up.
She groaned, rubbing her hoof against her head.
"Feels like you just had a massive hangover, doesn't it?", I asked, rubbing my hooves together.
She sat up suddenly, but just fell back down from the sudden pain that came with darting upwards, mumbling, "Dam it."
"Hey, only nice words in the Sparkle household.", I said wryly, pouring myself a glass of Neighpolese wine.
She sat up slowly, managing her temples. Then all of a sudden, she panicked.
"Oh Celestia! We didn't?", she asked, trailing off, trusting me to know what she was implying.
"Yes.", I said, smirking.
Her face paled considerably.
"Geez, I'm just kidding. No, sadly, we did not."
She exhaled in relief. "Wait, what do you mean, sadly we did not?", she yelled, her face contorting that way it does when she's trying to look intimidating.
"I'm just saying I wouldn't have had a problem if we did," I mentioned, downing my glass.
Her face scrunched up like one of Fluttershy's bulldogs.
"Breakfast wine?", I offered.
She shook her head, making a very disapproving look at me.
"What? You're going to have to have some sort of routine, given that you'll unofficially live for eternity."
Her mouth opened, and then closed. Then opened and then closed. And then she glared and made some offensive words come out of her mouth.
"Ouch," I said, nursing my pretend wounds. "You sure you don't want any wine?", I asked again. "It helps dull the cravings."
She just stared at me like some Fluttershy would stare at somepony asking her to eat a quarter pound of meat.
"Let me put it in terms you'll understand.", I said slowly. "The more wine you drink, the more time you get to prepare for draining Octavia."
Her face turned purple, almost as if some invisible force was choking her. And then she reached toward my neck at an impressive speed, and tried to strangle me.
But I stopped her hoof halfway, effortlessly.
"Look on the bright side," I said, smirking. "At least once you're a vampire you'll be able to punch me without it feeling like a pesky mosquito."
She just growled, and I let go of her hoof.
"You're in the transition phase," I said, as she rubbed her hoof, glaring at me benevolently. "Drink Octavia's blood, and you're good. Changed for eternity, in fact. But don't drink it, and you die."
She cowered, disgusted by the choice she had to make.
"Personally, I'm hoping you avoid the latter. I mean I already fed you my blood, so all you need to do is kill Octavia, and you'll be immortal. Invincible. Dangerous.", I said, filling my wine glass back up.
"Alluring.", I said swishing the blood red wine around. "It's pretty new. But you'll learn to love it."
I looked up, glancing at the clock on the wall of the room we were in. "And will you look at that it's time to bring Octavia in.", I said with fake enthusiasm, downing my wine and setting the glass down with a loud bang.
"Unless you want breakfast wine."
--------------- Twilight POV
I held the filly as she sobbed into my coat, shaking and muttering about Rainbow Dash and how she'd changed and how nothing was right anymore.
----------------- Scootaloo POV
I sobbed into Twilight's fur as she held my tiny frame.
"There there," she said, soothing me with the same voice she'd once used to soothe her prey.
But this time it was for real. And it was directed at me.
------------- Rainbow POV
She didn't want breakfast wine. The pony didn't want breakfast wine.
What was she thinking?
It would dull cravings, it would make her susceptible to numb feelings so when she killed it wouldn't sting as much, and it would make her feel better.
Her loss. Breakfast wine is awesome.
And I whistled as I thought about breakfast wine, all the way to where Octavia lay, conked out on the chair, snoozing away, barely holding onto her life force. But she still had plenty of blood.
I licked my lips. So much blood. I could hear it rushing through her veins. It was so tantalizing. So delicious. So, so, mine. It would be easier to tempt Octavia if she could see what she was missing by not completing the transformation.
By the time I was done, she would live for the blood.
I picked Octavia up, and carried her to the room with Vincenza, where she was drinking gulp after gulp of breakfast wine.
I put Octavia down immediately, and took the glasses of wine out of her hooves.
"You're going to get sick.", I said, glaring at her.
"I thought vampires couldn't get sick," she said defiantly, sticking her muzzle up in the air like a stuck up prench mare.
"You're only halfway to being a vampire, which means you can still get sick.", I said with a tense, kind of worried tone to my voice.
"You sounded like you actually cared deeply for a second there.", she mumbled.
I rolled my eyes, and stole the wine from her desperate prying eyes.
"Look are you gonna murder Octavia or not?", I asked, raising an eyebrow.
She shrugged, not out of defiance, but out of terror and confusion. Actually, it was probably the first motive.
"Here," I said sighing. "I'll make it easier for you. Either you kill Octavia and complete your transformation, or I'll find a way to make you do it either way.", I stated, smirking.
"I love how subtle you are," she said sarcastically, groaning.
"I love how subtle I am too," I said, setting Octavia up closer to her.
"Can I have more wine?", she half whined, half asked.
"No," I said, glowering at her. "Look, just get to it, otherwise I'm going to make you."
"You wouldn't.", she said, gulping back a pained lump in her throat.
"Is that a challenge?", I asked, eyes flashing a shade of red.
"No," she said.
"Well too bad, so sad. I'm taking it," I said, pulling Octavia over to me.
Vincenza looked shocked that I was actually going to do it.
"See the special thing about ponies like Octavia is that they're vampires. And drinking the blood of a vampire is so much more filling than the blood of a regular mortal. It may even make you stronger than most.", I said, peeling back the curtain of hair that hung over Octavia's neck.
I leaned in close, feeling my fangs elongate, and brush the top of her perfect grey coat. "They smell so much better too.", I added. "Once you've tasted their blood, there's nothing else like it in the world."
I looked up at Vincenza's face. She had her eyes shut tight. Ah, she was probably at the part when she could hear every rush of blood in her desired prey's body. "You can hear it can't you, Vincenza?", I asked. "You can practically smell it," I continued, stroking Octavia's hair that hung across her face.
I buried my muzzle in the tender flesh of Octavia's neck. "In fact, if you're close enough, you really can smell it. The nice coppery taste filling your body with more lust then you care to admit. It'll make you crazy, and you'll do anything to get every last drop."
She shuddered, fighting the urge to feed, and I could see that her eyes were rolling up in her head.
I brought my face out from the folds of Octavia's perfect, tantalizing neck, and whispered in Vincenza's ear. "Open your eyes, I want you to see what happens next."
She did indeed open her eyes, to glimpse what was going on. But that did nothing to help her terrible cravings. Her whole body shook as she fought to not give into the ripe smell of Octavia's blood, and just drain her and be done with it.
Her eyes, stayed open, glued to mine, and my fangs were showing as I carefully carressed the skin covering Octavia's jugular.
She groaned in frustration.
I pulled Octavia's hair back. I sniffed at her neck, and then ripped a controlled stream of blood down it, licking at it, making sure that Vincenza saw all of it.
She was gripping the chair so hard, that her legs were turning white. And that's saying something, because she's already white.
I continued to sink my fangs into the wound, expanding the wound, making it bigger and bigger. I let bloody trails leisurely run down her grey neck.
"You have to feed," I said, pulling back Octavia's neck with an audible snap. My red eyes flashed at her, and blood dribbled down the corners of my mouth.
She began to let go of the chair, shuddering more profusely, but still holding back.
I disconnected from Octavia's neck, and smiled. "C'mon, there's room for two. She has a really pretty neck."
And then I moved onto the other side of Octavia's neck.
Taking special care to let the blood drop down her neck slowly and strategically, I continued to suck her blood, hearing Vincenza gasp.
'Give it a couple more seconds,' I said, watching the unicorn through half lidded eyes with intent.
I nuzzled Octavia's neck a couple of times too, just trying to get a feel for my target area.
I let the blood continue to cascade down my prey's neck, and looked up to see Vincenza barely holding onto the chair.
Good, it was working.
"Don't try to tempt me!", she yelled.
"Oh I don't have to try, Vincenza," I said, enunciating her name perfectly. "You'll give in yourself. Eventually. Having me going after your prey just awakens some instincts that will be activated soon enough. Soon enough for you to kill Octavia, and soon enough for the transformation to be complete."
Her face turned from an expression of blood lust, to an expression of shock, and then to one of pure fear.
"It'll also be soon enough for your equine instincts to be lost. You're going to end up helping me, whether you like it or not.", I said, smirking darkly.
She said, "no!", and grabbed the chair again.
"You can't make me.", she said, her voice shaky and trembling.
"I'm not making you do anything. You're the one still holding onto the chair. You could've ran out of here a long, long time ago. But you didn't. I think your new body is trying to tell you something." I said it all with a razor sharp truth that probably made her head hurt.
She trembled in huge waves, and then as I drank Octavia's blood, out of the corner of my eye, I saw her. She crept closer, her purple eyes taking on a nightmarish red hue.
She had given in to the bloodlust.
I smiled, thoughts already circulating in my mind about what I would do with Vincenza once she was turned.
I broke off from Octavia's neck. Looking at the pony crouched before me, and ready to attack for Octavia's blood, I smirked.
She should only be able to focus on the sound of the blood.
She was hesitating, though. Perhaps her vampiric and equine instincts were at war?
Either way her vampire side would win.
"Oh dear Vincenza, you seem to be having a struggle.", I said, gazing at her form, torn between natural and unnatural.
"Let's make it easier for you," I said, using my fangs to pierce a long winding trail of blood down the side of Octavia's body.
I let it drip.
She smelled the blood, I know she smelled the blood.
She practically felt the blood rushing into her mouth.
She could imagine how good it would taste to kill.
And in a split second, her eyes flashed red in a total eclipse of her usual purple eye color, she growled primally, and she leapt onto Octavia, tearing into her neck with the intensity of a killing machine.
"Like I said," I said, after she had drained Octavia, "I know its new, but you'll learn to love it."
And when she turned around and smiled, I could tell that she wasn't done yet. The blood that was on my lips was still beckoning her.
But she wasn't gonna get it without a proper chase first...
-------------------- Twilight POV
After a couple minutes of shooting the street urchins mean looks, and having the filly cry into my stomach, I decided to let her stay at the house I shared with Rainbow.
"What could possibly go wrong?", I asked myself, as I was walking along with Scootaloo.
"Who are you talking to?", she asked, looking up at me with those big filly eyes that I once wanted to rip out of her skull if I remembered correctly.
But no, that wouldn't happen ever again. I shuddered at the memory.
"Myself," I replied, nervously.
"That's not heathy you know?", she said, looking downward, expecting me to scold her, or snap or something like that.
But instead, I just said, "I know," and sighed, and we kept walking.
"But will she care? What will she do?", I asked myself again, making myself crazy with worry over what the vampire currently living in a house with me would do to Scootaloo.
"Is- is she, Rainbow Dash?", Scootaloo asked, eyes downcast, dreading the answer.
I took a deep breath, thought abut sugarcoating it. But it was far too late for sugarcoating. Way too late. The filly stopped being able to be sugercoated at that stupid party I threw 998 years ago.
I groaned.
"Does she want to hurt me?", Scootaloo asked, pulling me out of my thoughts. She looked up at me with big trusting yet worried eyes, and I just had to take a page out of Applejack's book. And tell the truth.
"Honestly, little filly? I have no clue.", I said, wishing I could reassure her. But looking down at her eyes that shone with tears unshed, I realized that I wanted to protect this filly. A lot.
"You know what? On second thought, if she does, I'll try my very best to protect you.", I said, meeting the worried filly's eyes with a measured and determined gaze.
"But it might not be enough," I said, looking away, and mumbling the last part at a volume where she couldn't hear me...
----------------------------- Scootaloo POV
As I met the unicorn's gaze, I couldn't help but wonder how she'd changed this much.
How she could be this good inside after having been so twisted for all the time that I'd known her?
I didn't know, but I wasn't complaining.
After all she was giving me an actual bed, rather than a dirty old mattress and a crusty old box.
She looked away, mumbled some thing, and I didn't think much of it.
But there was still one thing I had to know.
"Twilight?", I asked in a meek voice.
"Yes," she said, turning around, and looking at me with a knowing and encouraging stare, that spoke of patience through her eyes.
"Why is she like this?", I asked with a tremor to my voice. "Why have you changed? Why does she want to hurt ponies?"
Make that several things I had to know.
The questions came like lightning. Never ceasing, so many I wanted to ask.
"What happened to make her so hateful? So dark? What happened without me? Why isn't she here right now holding me?" My voice shook, threatening to crack.
My eyes had started to produce what seemed like thousands of tears with every word, my body that had been so spent before from the sobs, making up for the lost few peaceful quiet minutes.
"Where is she?", I asked, nervous.
"Why is she doing this?", I asked, my body collapsing into he ground like a saggy balloon.
"What is her problem? Can we fix it?", I said, looking up, and I must have been displaying serious levels of franticness in my eyes, because Twilight looked like she knew where this was going.
"How could you let her get away with this?", I said, suddenly filled with rage at her calm expression. She was acting as if there was nothing we could do, but there was so something we could do!
And finally, the last one. "Who did this to her?" I stared into her eyes, already knowing the answer.
I could see her answer in the way she shifted her weight, and clomped her hooves.
She looked at me, eyes full of guilt, and started to say something.
------------------------------- Rainbow POV
I raced through the house, Vincenza stumbling behind me. She had to get all the blood that was left, her new instincts wouldn't let her refuse to. If she didn't get all that was left, she couldn't become what she wanted to be. But that didn't mean that I had to let her get it easily.
"Come on Dash!", she shouted from behind me.
"Nope," I said, laughing playfully, zooming through the house at an even more fast pace.
"Aww," she said, whining, as she was left in the dust again.
I took off from the second story kitchen to the main floor, and darted down the stairs as fast as possible.
"Can I at least have more wine?", she asked, batting her eyes from the top of the stairs.
"I don't know, can you?", I asked, cocking an eyebrow.
When she realized what I was teasing her about, she clomped down the stairs, running at me. "This is not school and I'm not a filly and you can't lecture me about my grammar!", she yelled, charging me.
When I dodged, she asked, "Can I at least just get the last of the blood?", she said, in a whiny tone. "And slow down!", she yelled, as she prepared to charge.
"You mean, may I get the rest of the blood? And I can't slow down, I'm a vampire. Even when I was normal, I wasn't capable of slowing down.", I said, smirking as she barreled toward me again.
I dodged her again, and asked, "I thought you didn't wanna be a vampire?", with a look on my face that read of intrigue and suspicion.
"Well I wanna be one now!", she bellowed, and all of a sudden had me on the ground. Legs wrapped around my waist, and a triumphant look in her eyes, she had me in a position where my wings were on the ground.
I couldn't move without throwing her off and injuring her. And I didn't wanna do that. Well, not enough to actually do it.
She moved in closer. And closer, and her face was getting closer and closer to mine when all of a sudden the door swung open, and a hearty shriek was heard. She darted upward, turning to glare at who had interrupted her.
And I looked too.
And I wish I hadn't.
Because there in the doorway stood Saint Sparkle, (that's one cringe right there,) and Scootaloo. I still felt bad for what she saw me doing. (So, Scootaloo is cringe number two.)
I barely had enough time to mumble out an "oh crap," before Scootaloo's and Twilight's faces turned red at what they thought we were doing.
------------------------- Scootaloo POV
Well, that was a first, I told myself, as I saw my 1,000 year old maybe idol, mottled with blood, being straddled by DJ Pon-3.
"You know, sadly that is not the most disgusting thing I've seen today.", I said out loud, expecting a scolding from the mare standing next to me, but her face stayed red and she said nothing.
But I did get something from Rainbow. She sat up, pushed off Vinyl and laughed like she hadn't laughed in a million years. She also gave a weird smile.
"Yeah that was a good one squirt, but we gotta get going so...", and she let it hang on that, and zipped out of the room with DJ Pon-3.
--------------------- Twilight POV
My face was as red as one of the Apple family's relative's tomato gardens.
What was she doing? And in the entry hall too? Ugh. This was too much!
I'm pretty sure steam started coming out of my ears.
I guess that's when I started to walk away, to try to see where she had gone. This was useless, for all that I know, she might be on my bed by now.
In fact she probably was on my bed by now, doing some questionable things.
There was a voice coming from behind me, but I didn't care, I needed to find Rainbow. That was all that mattered at the moment.
The voice got louder, and I ignored it, vying for the appearance of Rainbow over addressing the voice behind me.
The voice got to an unbearable volume and I turned around and shouted. "What?", very loudly.
I'm pretty sure that my eyes flashed because the filly that owned the persistent voice was starting to gallop away.
And when she galloped away, it took me a second to process what was happening. "Wait!", I called out, trying to get her to stop. To just stop. To not see me as the monster I used to be.
------------------------ Rainbow POV
I had rushed down the halls, into Twilight's bedroom.
Then I had locked the door, and let go of the hoof I'd been using to pull Vincenza out of there as fast as possible.
Then I had seen all the blood that was in Octavia's body, that was smeared all over me.
Then I had seen all the blood on the floor.
"Man, Saint Sparkle is gonna kill us.", I said, grinning as I looked all over the room. Turns out Vincenza had thrown Octavia's bloodless corpse into one of Twilight's prized paintings. And it was a Poney one too. The one with the water lilies.
Oh well.
Then I looked around some more, and discovered that the room was now splattered with blood, making it a deep, richly enticing shade of red that only a real vampire could appreciate.
Saint Sparkle would obviously hate this; I whistled. It smelled better than the spring flower air freshener she always put in here.
I looked up at Vincenza, who was looking at me with a great lust in her eyes.
"Guess the chase is over," I tried, laughing a little bit as she trotted closer, shushing me.
"Stop talking, it makes it harder to get the blood on your lips.", she said, eyes flashing.
She came closer to my lips, and closer, and this time when she was a centimeter away, she paused, making sure that no purple unicorns or little orange fillies would barge in.
"In fact, it makes it harder to get the blood, everywhere.", she said, pulling me in.
It felt like an eternity, but really it was a couple of seconds, until she touched her lips to mine.
Bringing her tongue up to lick the blood off of my lips, she backed off, somewhat hesitant to continue her quest for blood.
But I made her inner conflict easier. "Looks like I'm just gonna have to make this easier for you as well, Vincenza," I said, my eyes no doubt dancing feverishly in the moonlight streaming through the window.
The window. My eyes flicked over to it. With too much light, we were sometimes hesitant to feed.
Maybe this was her case. And even if it wasn't, feeding in the dark was much more satisfying than feeding in the light. I guess it was just more comfortable?
I walked over, and closed the window, leaving no light left in the room.
As soon as there was no light, her red eyes lit up the dark, like a hellish, possessed nightlight.
I laughed at the prospect of it.
Then again, my eyes were probably burning mini-pits of hellfire right now too.
She listened for the slightest sound.
And as soon as she was sure that nopony was coming, she leapt on me. Tackling me onto the bed, she pressed her lips against mine. Sucking on them to get all the blood she could, she soon moved on to another part of my body. Like my neck. As she nipped at that, I sighed. I had forgotten how good it felt. She started biting at it, and I let her kiss it, whatever she had to do to just be turned. And when she moved on to even more unusual parts of my body, it was obvious that this wasn't just blood lust..
Oh Luna no. This was something more than just bloodlust. This was lust. When she crawled on top of me though, I had to ask.
"You're not just lusting for blood, are you?", I asked, tickling her ear when she leaned down, eyes glowing, to try to plant her kisses down my body.
"No, not anymore," she purred, slitting her eyes in what every vampire knew as the eternal bedroom eyes.
"Well okay then," I said.
------------------------ Scootaloo POV
I knew she hadn't changed. Why would she have changed? It didn't make any sense. I was almost to the door.
I wanted to get to that door more than anything in Equestria. But when she had told me about how Rainbow had lost control, what she had done...
I shuddered. She had seemed so sad, so guilty. And yet I had seen the look in her eyes. I was an inconvenience currently. And I would probably never be anything more.
So why was it so hard to run away for the hundredth time?
She was galloping behind me, I could hear her panting.
Then, all of a sudden, I was almost to the door, and my body was slowing down, when a bright flash attacked my eyes, and I found myself on the floor, thinking back to when Rainbow had lost it...
Flashback 600 years ago (Rainbow POV)...
There was blood on the floor, blood everywhere. I snorted in disgust as I flew into the living room of the tenth house we'd been in. We'd had to keep renting out new houses in the town to keep our presence from being connected with the recent string of deaths.
I dropped down to the floor, trotting into the feeding room, which was, ironically, not the dining room or the kitchen, rather, the living room. Ironic how many ponies died in the living room. I almost laughed. Almost.
But any chance I had of laughing was extinguished when I saw how many ponies were lifeless on the ground. There must have been about ten, easy. And I couldn't even tell who they were, they were so covered with blood. I wanted to get it. I shook myself out of the urge, focusing on finding Twi. My little psychopath.
"Twi.", I said, finding her, laying on the couch, in a bored pose like the Queen of Saddle Arabia. Blood framed her mouth, and she wore a contented smile, while her eyes were glazed over yet concentrated on something.
"Twi," I said, again, louder to make sure she heard me.
She focused her glassy eyes up at the ceiling. "Not now Rain, I'm focusing."
"Hey!", I said, trotting over and waving my hoof in front of her placid features.
She grumbled, but her eyes darted over and looked over at me. "Hi.", she said curtly, before returning her eyes to the ceiling.
"Whatever you're planning, I'm telling you in advance, stop planning it.", I said, rolling my eyes, and once again taking in the carnage that littered out living room floor.
She shrugged and stared, in a death glare at the wall. "They won't see it coming," she said, sighing, a disturbing smile gracing her features."
The tension in her eyes and the easiness of her smile unnerved me. This couldn't be good. She was on it again.
"Did you drink all of this blood?", I asked, sighing.
"Maybe, maybe not.", she said, smirking at the ceiling.
"What are you looking at?", I asked exasperatedly, laying down with her just to see what the buck could possibly be so Celestia damned interesting on the ceiling!
But to my surprise I saw it. She was on it. She was definitely on it.
"What the buck is wrong with you?", I yelled as soon as I saw what was on the ceiling.
I darted off the couch, gesturing to what she had done to the poor equine.
"How the Tartarus you come up with this is beyond me!", I said, bellowing. "You shrunk and killed a stallion then had him glued him to the ceiling!"
She nodded. "What the buck is wrong with you?", I asked again. And when she didn't answer for a couple of seconds, a pregnant pause could be heard in the dead room.
"Hello!", I yelled, waving a hoof in front of her face.
She flipped over, turning to face me. "You won't see it coming," she said.
Now I was pissed and curious. "Okay that's great.", I said, rolling my eyes yet again.
"Who is that anyway?", I asked, flying up to get a closer look.
"Soarin?", I asked, eyes graced with the presence of disbelief. His eyes eyes were graced with the touch of disbelief too. Imagine, being invited to tea with the town librarian, only to discover that she was a bloodthirsty monster.
And as soon as I turned around to face Twilight, my eyes were also graced with anger.
"What the Hell is wrong with you?", I asked, glaring at her with more heat than Celestia's precious sun.
"They never see it coming.", she said, getting off the couch. "You never see it coming." Her moves, smooth and practiced, she was an equine representation of death.
"You can't do this!", I said, shaking my head, as I tried to figure why she would do this.
"Come on Rain, why do you care about him so much? He's only a colt, a silly colt.", she said, moving toward me.
"He's MY silly colt!", I said, my voice cracking with emotion. My eyes peered at her from beneath my mane, accusing her, tormenting her with their gaze.
She was coming slower toward me now, her movements seeming less fluid and more shaky and forced.
She was not a representation of death, I realized, she was a representation, of dead souls. They were shaky, dark, and haunted, and moved as if being pushed or pulled by something, be it lust or need for control. No, not with vampires. Vampires didn't thrive on the need for control. The most dangerous vampires thrived on not being able to control. On controlling others instead.
"Why do you keep yourself so under control?", she asked me in a conniving, almost pitying voice.
"Because it's the right thing to do. I made her a promise. I made him a promise.", I said, my voice shaking as if possessed with 800 wing-power.
She just shrugged.
"Where is she?", I asked her, glaring her down. "Where is he?", I asked, becoming quite insulted when she didn't cower.
"You mean your parents?", she asked with a flat, lackluster tone.
"Yes!", I said, "don't tell me you did anything to them, too!"
She didn't seem to want to respond. But she was going to. Even if it took some special convincing.
I growled, and grabbed her neck with my hoof, forcing it against the wall. I pressed against it, enjoying the sounds she made when she struggled to bring air into her undead lungs. "This feels good. I like the fear in your eyes," I said, listening to the words she was trying to squeeze out. "So I would suggest telling me where they are, and what you have down with them before I find the vampire everypony's been looking for and bring her into town. Dead or alive." My eyes flashed red at this point. I was done with her, and she knew it.
She struggled to pry off my pressing hoof from her trachea but she couldn't. She began to gasp, trying to yank at my hoof, trying to breath.
But her eyes, they sparkled with enjoyment, because if I killed her I would have lost control.
I wouldn't let her win.
I couldn't let her win.
So I released my hoof and she fell down, clawing her neck with her hooves. "Now where are they?", I asked in a hardened, lackluster tone similar to hers.
When she just stared down, I yanked up her head, forcing her to look me in the eyes and tell me what she'd done with them.
"Where are they. What did you do with them.", I asked, but there was really nothing of a question about them, they were weirdly, in a way, just statements. Because I guess, somehow, I knew.
Somewhere along the lines, I knew that among the bodies on the floor, I would find my parents.
Somehow I knew what she had done with them.
Somewhere along the lines I knew, that when I saw how she'd disposed of everypony I'd cared about I'd lose it.
And she thought that it would be all one big bloody party when I lost control. That we'd plan together, that she'd always win, that she'd always be on top.
But deep down, she didn't have the knowledge that I had. See, I had a certain type of knowledge. I had knowledge of my own mind. How could she plan against me if she was too busy trying to find a way to survive?
And when I saw the bodies of my parents, I screamed.
"Why the Hell did you kill them?", I yelled, tears streaming down my face.
"Because they were keeping you under control.", she replied, coldly. Her eyes flashed a heated shade of red, and they danced with the fires of obvious attitude.
"And you killed him for the same reason?", I asked, staring at her straight in the eyes.
Somewhere in the verbal hale, I was gonna lose control.
Sorry mom and dad, I just have to.
I have to.
"I killed him because he was distracting you from your nature. He was making you mentally and emotionally weak. By depending on him for comfort you were losing critical-"
I cut her off. I cut her off hard.
"Critical what, Twi? Critical what?", I screamed. "Do explain why the only stallion who ever made me feel good, is bad!"
"He changed you.", she accused, staring at me flatly.
"He changed me for the better!", I yelled. "He helped me control it and so did they. And now they're gone. They're all gone!"
"If he had you, I couldn't.", she said, averting her eyes.
"You couldn't what, Twi? You couldn't what?", I asked, yelling my lungs dry.
"I couldn't have you!", she yelled back. Her eyes rocketed back up. "If he had you, I couldn't have had you." Her eyes were actually showing real emotion now. Shining, I looked at them and saw that they were full of tears. I almost felt sorry for her, almost. But then I remembered that she had slaughtered my family to get me to join her.
"Why did you want me to lose control?", I asked.
"So you could join me and Midnight!", she said, a note of urgency shining through in her frantic voice.
"What would we even do?", I asked, hysterical with all that she had done, and drunk on her decision.
"We would do whatever we wanted. Who would be able to stop us?", she asked, snarling with a ferocious leer in her words.
She wasn't crying anymore. Now she was angry, and desperate. Her eyes shone with greed and lust for power and the blood.
I flew up to the ceiling, trying to pinpoint the corpses of my parents. There they were, and the room was full of blood. So much blood.
In order to lose control, a vampire needed three things. One, lots of blood. Two, the desire to turn off all of their feelings in favor of bloodlust. And three, motivation. My fangs came out, and I ran my tongue over them, hoping maybe the pain from my punctured tongue would ease the pain from my punctured heart. Spoiler alert, it didn't.
The room was full of blood.
I didn't want to do whatever we wanted. I wanted to do whatever I wanted. And right now, I wanted to find my parents, and hold them before I lost control for good.
Spotting my mother's prismatic mane, I flew down to her, and picked up her light body, cradling her frame against my body.
I just wanted to feel this moment.
I just wanted this moment before I lost control.
Then I kissed her on the head one last time, and let a few tears dribble onto her pearls. She always loved her pearls. And now, she would never get to love her pearls again. Because she was dead. And she was dead because of Twi.
Then I trotted over the blood-ridden floor to my dad's dead body. I kissed him lightly on the cheek, and then sat there, in silence. I began to find it weird that Twi hadn't interrupted my silent vigil, when she cleared her throat.
"You will be joining me," she said, trotting over to me. Her eyes had calmed. But my eyes hadn't. They may have looked calm, but my eyes were the picture of a calm magenta ocean right before a storm.
And the storm was coming. I got up off of the ground, and stared at her in the eyes. I had lost it. Now I had lost control. I had let my emotions go, and I had no feeling for her left. And somehow it still managed to feel so good to think about how she would be when I was done with her.
"Actually," I said, "I don't believe I will."
Her eyes widened in surprise.
"Just because I've lost my control doesn't mean I would ever join you. Why would you assume that?", I asked, gathering my wits up again. My eyes flashed red, a darker shade then she'd probably ever seen.
"What's the matter Sparky? You look scared.", I said, developing a haughty smirk. I began to push my muzzle up against hers.
"One little problem with your plan. I'm gonna do whatever I want, and you're gonna try to stop me.", I said, grabbing her and pulling her in. Getting her into a position where she couldn't escape, I locked her legs behind her back, and pulled her neck back.
I tucked her hair behind her ear, and she struggled, but my grip was iron.
"You were right," I cooed in her ear, venomously. "I was fighting my true nature.", I said, my fangs grazing her ear. "I'm so grateful you got me to stop."
She shivered under my touch.
"You smell good.", I said. "Might be a little too much, though."
She stiffened. "Did you just insult my taste?", she asked.
I hesitated for a moment, then finally settled with an honest, "Yes."
She tried to stick her muzzle up the air haughtily, but since I already had her neck, she couldn't.
"Ah ah ah," I said. "Careful Sparky. We don't want this beautiful neck going to waste."
"Don't you dare," she mumbled.
"And how exactly do you plan on stopping me?", I asked, cocking an eyebrow, and smirking against her neck.
"I don't need to stop you. You're not going to do it. You're a good pegasus," she said, shakily.
"And you're not that smart today Sparky." Before she could respond, I had my fangs in her neck, drinking her in.
Her jugular had been ruptured right on point, and I drank her blood because I hadn't drained in months.
Her blood was the best thing I had ever drank. Drinking a friend's blood was special, but slowly making your enemy weaker is so much more satisfying.
"Stop me, Sparky. Stop me.", I whispered in her ear.
She struggled while I fed. "Oh wait, you can't, because you had me turn off my emotions," I said, faking sympathy.
I looked up, and she was staring at me in fear as I fed from her. Her whole body was trembling in terror and it was delicious.
She must have seen how dark my eyes were, because she trembled like a leaf. She gasped. "Shh," I said, "you're my prey now. And I don't intend on doing anything with you. I plan on doing everything against you."
I drank the rest of her blood, leaving her to deal with the immense pain that comes after being drained by another vampire. And I wasn't done. No, I wasn't even close to done. She would suffer. I would make sure of it. She would pay for killing my family. She would pay for tricking me. But above all, she would pay for challenging me.
And right before I left I whispered one last thing.
"Hey Sparky, I'll be back. Don't worry, I'll always be back."
And the last thing she saw was my saccharine eyes, flashing, before she passed out...
--------------------------- Twilight POV
She had fainted. The filly had actually fainted. I knew I shouldn't have told her, shouldn't have let her know all that had happened to make Rainbow this way. She probably viewed me as a monster.
Rushing over, I pressed a hoof to her heart. It was beating strongly, pumping blood healthily to all parts of her body. Her blood was healthy too. Nice, healthy blood. I inhaled, and closed my eyes.
When I opened them I jerked back because I had realized that my fangs were an inch away from her chest.
'What is wrong with me?', I thought as I scooted back away from the filly on my haunches.
-------------------- Rainbow POV
"Well I'll be damned," I said, glancing around at Twilight's room.
"You already are damned.", Vincenza mumbled as she nestled into the crook of my neck. The post-transformation haze. I loved the post-transformation haze. They were so quiet.
And cuddly...
Wait what?
Oh no. Oh no no no no no.
I am not falling for a newborn vampire. I am like a thousand years old, and she's the first one I've turned in a long time.
I don't love her, I love...
Him.
But he died a long time ago. He died the second Psycho-Twi stuck him to the ceiling, dead and shrunken.
He was gone before then, too. I wasn't going to turn him if he didn't want to be turned, and he would die. That was how it would end.
But he didn't die the way he should have.
I don't love her, I love...
Her.
But the mare I loved died a long time ago. She died the second Psycho-Twi crushed her slowly, from the inside. Until the mare I once loved was shrunken.
She was gone before then, too. She was going to be turned, he could feel it, and the real her would die. Of course I would always wonder. That's how it would end.
"She is gonna have a Hell of a time cleaning this up," Vincenza said, interrupting my own haze of thoughts.
I snorted, brought out of my stupor. "Heh, yeah she is!", I exclaimed, then nestled closer to Vincenza.
There was silence. I guess we were both just looking at the mess we had left in Twilight's room.
More silence.
And more silence.
And shattered silence, when Vinyl said, "I'm bored."
Wait, Vinyl? Apparently now I'm using her nickname!
I. Do. Not. Like. Vincenza.
I guess I stayed quiet for too long. Cause Vinyl decided to speak again.
"Will you finally stop calling me Vincenza?", she asked, huffily.
I thought about it, but I already knew my answer. I was already thinking of her as Vinyl not Vincenza, so...
"Yeah.", I said, and she lit up the dark room when she smiled.
"Thanks. It was creepy.", she said, pulling Twilight's covers over us.
"That's the point," I said.
-------------------------- Scootaloo POV
I blinked. Another bright flash appeared in front of my eyes.
---Flashback 500 years (Twilight POV)
In every town I'd been in, she'd been there not a few days after. One or two days later after I'd settled in, mysterious deaths would suddenly start happening. And everybody would blame the bogey-pony.
Since I was new and Rainbow was also new, but also a conniving, and social charmer, unlike me, they tended to see the weird recluse as a more likely murderer than the social flirt that was Rainbow Dash.
And every time I got ran out of town, I would always see her sitting off to the side casually, waving as they chased me away with pitchforks.
But then again, psychopaths always look normal.
And it happened again and again, and after several days, and she'd hunt me down, and make her moves.
It was all a game to her.
Revenge was a competition.
Maybe she could be more volatile than I was. Maybe not. But she proved she could be one summer evening during a lovely town meeting...
I was already slowly turning my emotions back on, and learning that good had to balance out the bad. One fact I had missed while on a very high amount of blood. It was ironic for me to miss anything factual like that when I was on the blood like I was then. Then again, intelligence of feelings and integrity doesn't come with the super-smart-brain-vampire-package.
It was so peaceful when the Head of the Town Council stood up to talk; the collar of his shirt fluttering in the light breeze. You could see the feeling in his sparkling, twinkling eyes when he talked. And as the Grandfatherly figure stood up to talk...
The sun was high in the sky, but the windows closed.
A string of words were intended to come from his mouth, but instead a mighty holler was heard.
And when everybody tried to get the lights, a loud snap was heard.
The power had been cut. I panicked. Oh yes, I panicked alright, the lights were off, the power had been cut, and there was only one pony I knew who would be gutsy and conniving enough to do this.
I heard a pony shriek about how the door was locked.
Celestia, she was being smart about this!
A chorus of loud snaps was heard from the room. A snap on the right, then a snap on the left. An agonized cry of course signaled each little one, and before too long, it felt as if there were only 20 ponies in the room with me.
A whispered plea of a middle-aged upperclass unicorn, then a snap.
The threatening language of a desperate stallion, then a snap.
The silence and mere squeak of a kid. Then the snap of their neck being broken like a twig.
I waited a little longer, and soon it felt as if only 15 were left.
I dropped down underneath a table, not wanting to face my demons.
My demon.
Saint Sparkle, Demon Dash.
Shouldn't be this way though...
--------End of flashback
----------Twilight POV
Thinking fast, I went out the back door, hoping to maybe get a bucket from outside, to fill it with water from the hose.
Clomping out the back door, I hummed to try to keep my sanity.
And as I trotted through the threshold, I caught a view of a sight that was quite repulsive. It was a sight repulsive enough to make me scream.
-------------------- Rainbow POV
As nice as it was, it was getting pretty tiring just laying with Vinyl.
But I hadn't gotten bored or tired in centuries, and I wasn't gonna start now.
So, I suggested that we see how Squirt was adjusting, and how Saint Sparkle was reacting.
As we left the bedroom, and clomped down the stairs, I couldn't help but wonder if she'd seen him yet.
------------------------ Scootaloo POV
The bright flash of light stopped when I heard a scream.
It sounded like Twilight.
Maybe Rainbow had done something to her!
But that didn't sound right. I mean, I wasn't used to it sounding right for Rainbow to do something like that.
But maybe she had.
Another scream sounded.
I followed the shrieks and wails outside, where I saw Twilight bawling, and shaking uncontrollably.
"Midnight," she mumbled, hiding her head inside her hooves. She was curled up in a fetal position, rocking and shivering.
"Twilight?", I said, trotting over and gently touching her on the foreleg.
She just cried harder, and gently pushed my hoof away from her frail form.
"Midnight," she screeched, pointing behind me.
-------------------- Twilight POV
"Just rock a little bit Twilight," I told myself.
"You'll be fine Twilight," I told myself.
"But I won't. Not without him. Not with him dead."
"Rocking makes everything better. Like I'm in a nice comfy chair, anywhere but here. Like I have a nice house with the pony I love.", I told myself.
I felt a hoof, touching my foreleg in silent reassurance.
But I didn't need silent reassurance.
I needed him to come back.
I needed him to come for his little China Doll.
"Come back, I'm still your China Doll," I said, the words blazing a trail in my mind when I closed my eyes.
And as tears blazed a trail down my cheeks, I gently pushed the hoof off of my limp, shaking form, and focused on holding onto my sanity.
"I'm still your little China Doll," I whispered, pushing the strands of hair that dangled in front of my face away forcefully. I yanked on them, pulling them harder and harder, until some came out.
Somepony was saying hey, over and over again, and trying to get a grip on my hoof.
I ignored them, preferring to dwell in my own pit of despair, that was quickly graduating into a pitiful whirlwind of deep depression.
When the heys got louder, I still ignored them, opting to continue to do the one thing that dulled the pain of losing Midnight.
And when a couple more heys were said, each increasing in volume, my hoof was finally grabbed.
And she wouldn't let go. I yanked and pulled away, but she had strength. She had too much strength.
I looked up, and it wasn't Scootaloo who was holding my hoof. It was Rainbow. She had this look in her cerise eyes like she had always had 600 years ago, like she was disappointed in me for letting myself get to this.
She stared into my eyes, and her silent chastisement burned a hole through my breakdown like an arrow perfectly piercing a bullseye.
My heart hiccuped. It had been so long. "I'm sorry," I croaked out.
And I blinked. But when I opened my eyes, I was looking at Scootaloo.
And Scootaloo didn't have a knowing stare, she didn't even have a silent scolding hidden in her pupils. In a way, I was strangely disappointed.
'Calm down,' the voice of Rainbow 600 years ago, said, echoing in my mind.
"Okay," I said aloud. And I must've sounded insane, because Scootaloo looked at me like I was a Hydra or something.
"I'm sorry," I said, apologizing to her. Scootaloo, I mean.
"It's okay. Let's get you inside," she said slowly.
"No," I said. "First I have to know something."
Her eyes looked back at mine, searching them for another brief loss of sanity, but they found nothing.
"Did you see her?", I asked slowly.
She didn't process it at first. But then she asked, "Did I see her doing what?", with a curious look.
"Did you see her kill Midnight?", I asked, with baited breath.
But when she started crying, it was my answer.
"Oh you did, didn't you?", I asked.
"Yes," she breathed, more than said, as she shook with sobs again that night.
"You know what?", I asked, rising up, and staring down at her with a motherly gaze.
"What?", she asked, sniffling.
"We're gonna go to bed.", I said, with a finality that rivaled Luna's Canterlot voice.
"What?", she asked, again, pouting, and looking up at me with puppy eyes.
But when I met her gaze, all she could say was "yes ma'am."
So we walked inside. I would deal with Midnight in the morning. For now, what mattered was getting her into bed.
We had a guest bedroom, though it wasn't used really, at all.
So she slept in there, and I got her settled in.
And as I walked out of the room, she called for me one last time, and said, "Promise you'll protect me?"
And as she looked at me with those eyes, I already knew what I had to do to get my Rainbow Dash back. Scootaloo was the one thing that was keeping her tethered to her equinity at the moment, and if I was correct, Rainbow would get her equinity back with an event involving the filly. Whether it was forced or not, Rainbow would save Scootaloo if she were faced with a choice of being her savior, or watching her die. And I planned on using that to my advantage.
As I looked back at Scootaloo, I couldn't bring myself to say yes, because if I needed to trade her life for Rainbow's equinity, I would. I would in a heartbeat. Don't get me wrong, Rainbow is a selfish, hazardous dick, but she's my selfish, dangerous asshole. I need her back. I thought a long time ago that I would need her gone, that her losing her equinity, her loyalty, would be beneficial, but I was living in a bloody, messed up nightmare world. A world that she hasn't left yet.
So I nodded.
And she looked back with those shiny eyes, and trusted me...
-------------------------------- Rainbow POV
She found Midnight.
She found Midnight and there was nothing. Nothing.
All I get is a little psychotic breakdown and that's it?
Let's just say that it was disappointing, and a way less grandeur turn out than expected.
But I've got an Ace up my sleeve. I've got Vinyl.
And she's got squirt. Yeah, cause she can play Squirt real well when it comes to actual fighting.
I mean, yeah, I guess she could use the kid as a shield. Or throw her off a building to help me regain my equinity and emotions, but it's not like Saint Sparkle is gonna do that.
I really hope Sparky finds her room soon...
--------------------------------- Scootaloo POV
As I lay in the guest room, I stared at the ceiling in the dark, thinking about what the two friends I already had in this town, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, would think. They each had a sister.
I wonder who their sisters were?
I heard another scream. Twilight was screaming again. Guess I'd better get used to it. In this household, I could already tell that quiet would be a rare and appreciated occurrence.
---------------------- Twilight POV
What did she do to my room?!
She just had to get the painting bloody?
Really?
It was the Poney one, too!
I would say that I would get her back for this, but I don't have the slightest clue how.
Or maybe I do?
I screamed. I couldn't help it.
It was too much.
First Midnight, then this?
Really Rainbow? Really?
"Is this the best ya got Rainbow?", I yelled in my hoarse voice.
I saw how muddled and dirty my sheets were, they were very bloody. Almost as if two ponies had been tossing and turning half the night. Together, roughly and, wait. Passionately? So I was right!
"Rainbow!", I yelled. "Get in here!"
"Yeah?", she asked, rolling her eyes as she poked her head through the door frame.
"What did you do with Vinyl?", I asked, choosing to ignore her attitude.
"We had sex," she said, casually, flying into the room.
"Ugh.", I said, moaning. "Wait," I said, "you had sex with someone who is like, 1,000 years younger than you? She's a minor. That's against the law!" I glared at Rainbow.
She rolled her eyes again, sighing at my ignorance, "Yeah, but according to modern law I'm only 20, the same age as Vinyl."
My mouth fell open and stayed in that position. For a minute at least.
"Shut your mouth Sparky," she said smirking. "It's rude to gawk. Plus," she added, "she'll be a couple hundred years old soon."
"You turned her?", I asked, incredulously.
"Yeah, and you're invited to the Birthday party. After all, mine were always so much fun," she said.
Of course one second, she was casually blowing her bangs out of her face, and the next she had me up against the wall in a choke hold.
"But you always had more fun then I did, didn't you Sparky?", she said, and I could smell Vinyl's blood on her breath as I was losing air.
She narrowed her eyes. "In fact, you always had more fun then me, Birthday party or not."
I struggled to breath, clawing at my throat.
"This feels good," she said, smirking. "I like the fear in your eyes."
And her eyes, they were burning. In the moonlight they cracked and sparkled like a bonfire in the night.
They were mesmerizing.
But in the worst way.
They pierced into me, making it hard to breath two different ways.
Looking past my front, to how scared I was, shaking because she had taken over my role from 400 years ago, and the tables had turned.
This time, she wasn't letting go.
But she still wasn't letting me win.
She could kill me and she knew it wouldn't give me any satisfaction, because I'd be on the ground, crumpled like a paper doll.
Her equinity was already lost, therefore if she killed me I won nothing. There was no strategy this time, no win-win mutual relationship.
Only her hard, burning eyes.
She searched me, as if peering into my soul for an emotion that her hard gaze seemed to think I should possess. And when no recognizable spark came, she relented.
She let go of me, letting me crumple to the ground alive,
"Did you find Midnight yet?", she asked, casually, almost as if this were an everyday occurrence. Rubbing the hoof she used to hold me up against the wall, she continued talking casually, "Apparently he's been dead for quite sometime now. Last night he was found, roaming the streets. Got roughed up and drained from messing with the wrong pack of Lycans. Then of course a close clan of vampires stepped in, and got their revenge on him. They say he was a real dick.", she said, putting extra emphasis on the word dick.
"But I don't know," she said, meeting my eyes as I looked up into her eyes, sparkling like red wine. "Was he a dick?", she asked me, plopping down on my chaise lounge. Smirking as she did.
I wanted to tell her to get off of my chair, but that would've just made things worse. So instead, I told her what I thought, whether she chose to slam me up against the wall for it or not. "No, no he wasn't. He was a good vampire. I know it's hard for you to see, but he was. He was a good stallion." I looked up at her with pure, shining faith, and she stared back with this look of, what-the-hell-did-he-do-to-you.
"Was he? Was he really?", she asked, quirking an eyebrow in that smart alek way that always made all the other vampires want to punch her in the teeth.
"Yes, yes he was," I said, looking sure, but not really sure of how I felt anymore.
And I thought back to what he had done, and wondered if Rainbow really was right...
-----------------Flashback 1000 years ago-------
It was a dark and stormy night, and the place he had told me to meet him in was fairly huge. It was a castle, actually, with huge turrets with flags, flapping in the violent wind, and tapestries decorating the very lavish interior.
Why he had me meet him here I did not know. It gave off an unsettling vibe, yet I was somehow intrigued.
Somehow fascinated, once he had not shown up, I began to look around. The architecture was breathtaking. Once you got used to the gothic feel, you could really admire the unique embellishments.
I climbed up many stairs, as I always seemed to do in castles. Even in the smaller ones, there always seemed to be so many stairs!
Whatever was the deal with all the stairs in a castle?
Following the harsh glow of the dim candles in their positions on the stairwell walls, I squinted to make out what I thought to be a note.
Turn Back, it said, and was scrawled in frighteningly messy handwriting that appeared to be written in blood. Of course, I was a pony of logic and science, and ponies of the two aforementioned things took no heed to notes that appeared to be written in blood. It simply wasn't logical.
So, I continued onward on my quest to understand this mysterious castle and it's probable ancient knowledge.
Trotting ever so stealthily up the stairs, I forgot that I could not actually trot stealthily up the stairs. There were various cracks in the hard stone I walked on to get up the stairs, and I was never a very active, or physical pony. As such, I was not as coordinated as I should have been.
Missing a step, I feel backwards, and I found myself toppling down the stairs.
I closed my eyes and whimpered.
This was it, I could feel the wind rushing toward the back of my head.
I was going to hit my head and die, just like my mom had always told me never to do.
I could remember the first time I was scolded for playing on the stairs. My mother was very gentle about it, but as I grew older, when I was 5 years old, she grew weary of my escapades on the long winding staircase in our three story house. The stairs were carpeted, of course they were carpeted.
But these stairs were stone. How many more seconds did I have before I died? It felt like I had been falling forever.
I could feel my ears lightly touch the ground first, flicking the cold, hard stone before I toppled and would die, my soul knocked into oblivion, with my body stuck here.
But all that the bare stone kissed, was my ears.
I was suspended, hanging in thin air.
Opening up an eye, I squealed momentarily from the shock of almost dying, while simultaneously yearning to know what had broken my fall.
I got my answer when I saw Midnight standing with a rather serious look on his face. As I looked around, I realized I was enveloped in a violent red aura, which was nonviolently holding me from my stony death.
I giggled nervously, my face taking on a hue similar to the ripest strawberry in Equestria. "Hi," I managed out shrilly.
"Hello, China Doll," he said, raising an eyebrow as he levitated me upright into a standing position.
I giggled nervously again as my hooves touched the ground.
"I'm sorry," I said, "I'm horribly clumsy today, I'm afraid."
He responded with, "You must know, my fair lady, that part of the reason why you're tripping might be because of the rather unbelievably frilly thing that the ponies of Celestia's royal court call a dress."
I looked down at the atrociously accessorized thing. Frowning, I analyzed all of the lace trim.
"Not to say that you don't look horribly alluring. It does look quite fetching on you, hugging your form in all the right places.", he said, smiling naughtily which sent my heart a flutter.
I blushed. "Midnight," I said, "you must stop." Remembering what my friends Prim and Proper always said, I took it upon myself to scold him for such a lascivious comment. "That is no way to treat a lady," I said, taking it upon myself to set a reasonable standard. Raising my nose, as if I could avoid the flood of his rather uncouth comments, I couldn't see how Prim and Proper did this. Not only did it strain your neck, but it also made you look quite stuck up.
I looked at him from over my muzzle that was still raised ridiculously high in the air.
He looked as if he was quite entranced by me.
His eyes followed my face, and then dropped from my face to my neck, and then dropped lower and lower until they stopped at my chest.
I pulled at the neck line to my layered dress uncomfortably, afraid he was not pleased with what he was seeing.
'But that's ridiculous,' I thought to myself. 'I am a perfectly attractive mare. I have good confidence in my image and body.' Nodding to myself, I pulled down the neck line.
He came closer, entranced by something on my body.
I watched as his eyes never left that one part of my body.
I had thought that it was my chest that he was staring at. It had never occurred to me, that Midnight hadn't ever even looked at my chest.
I didn't realize it yet, but he had been captivated by my neck the whole time.
He trotted almost soundlessly up the stairs.
I never dropped my head. Instead my mane was draped over my neck in a perfect wave, and with my head raised high, I was showcasing my neck for him to see.
Eyes still glued to that one part of my body, he stopped, hesitated, and then all of a sudden he was in front of me and on me.
"Twilight," he said, grabbing me and pulling me into him. My lips melded with his, him pushing his against mine so hard it was sure to leave a very unladylike bruise. But still, he persisted, grabbing the small of my back, and stealing my oxygen. It was ironic how he never even seemed to have to breath.
He kissed me till I was breathless as one of the housekeepers in Canterlot Castle on Celestia's Cake Day.
When we separated, it was like all of my air had been sucked away for several years. I gasped, panting, exerting a lot of energy to try to heave precious air into my lungs.
He was dashing, even with his piercing red eyes, and as I breathed a heavenly deep breath, he pulled me under again.
Pressing me up against the wall, he pressed his tongue against my lips in an uneven, desperate rhythm.
In the light, through partially closed eyes I could see his eyes. They always were red, an unusual shade of red, actually.
But now it appeared as if they were glowing.
But even though it was insane, my irrationally alert instincts were telling me to run far away from Midnight. I ignored them, in favor of my more logical thoughts.
Thoughts that told me that I liked the feeling.
I kept those thoughts, and imagined pressing the unsettling ones down my many frills and ruffles.
Not quite ready to let him in, I denied him satisfaction, not opening my lips.
I must have imagined it, but I'm pretty sure that he growled.
A roar of thunder sounded outside, and the candles flickered eerily.
I shivered, and he brought his soft lips to my ear.
"Are you scared m'lady?", he asked.
I whispered a soft "No," despite my frightened state.
I did not want him to stop.
He kept his lips by my ear, kissing at it, and nibbling at it, which he knew I enjoyed from all the starry nights we had spent looking up at the galaxies above us.
When he nibbled at it, though, it felt painful then heavenly. It felt as if he was nibbling at it with sharper teeth than usual, but I knew not of his true state.
Either way it was blissful.
When he let go of my ear, he brought his lips up to it yet again, whispering another little question.
"Why are you not scared, fair lady?", he asked, his breath tickling, my ear. It was like a frozen blizzard, his breath, and it chilled my ear.
I shivered again, and I might have been imagining it, but I'm pretty sure I heard a dark laugh.
"Because I have you to protect me," I said, opening my eyes, and looking at him puzzled.
He just smiled.
The candles flickered. Thunder rolled, and lightning flashed, and I shivered again.
The candles lit again, and as he asked another question, not that I would've known it at the time, but this was his last question, he stroked my neck with a hoof.
He nipped at my ear, and he was smiling like a cat getting his canary.
"And what if I'm the one you need protecting from fair lady?", he asked, his eyes dancing seductively in the dim light of the wildly blowing candles.
He smirked, and I was so sure that I could see something sharp in his mouth. His eyes, they seemed different too. Even more red, if that was possible.
He dragged his lips down the side of my face, planting tender kisses along my cheek, and my forehead.
Once he got closer to my neck, I felt something sharp protruding from his mouth, tearing down my neck.
I closed my eyes, gasping, shocked and somewhat aroused by the sudden change in affection.
He kissed my neck, sucking at it, nipping at it, and even grabbing it.
I gasped quite a deal to his methods. They were strange, but they worked.
I felt something sharp pierce my neck and draw blood.
"Midnight!", I gasped.
The thunder cracked, and the lightning flashed again. And the candles were blown out. This time, however, they did not reignite.
My eyes flew open, and I looked around the stairwell.
We were in fact, all alone. He could do whatever he wanted, and get away with it, and I couldn't stop him.
The lights were out, and the thought occurred to me, that perhaps the impossible was maybe a little bit possible.
"Am I hurting you, m'lady?", he asked.
I closed my eyes, sighing.
I felt two things pierce into my neck.
And as I screamed, I was sure I heard him laugh.
"What if I'm the thing that you need protecting from?", he asked, again.
And as I opened my eyes, I saw a faint red glow from below.
And as I seeked out the blood red glow, I saw Midnight, ask again, this time looking up at me with blood red eyes that shone in the dark.
"What if I'm the thing you need protecting from?"
And I tried to scream, but terror took the sound before I could make it. Tried to look away, but that just shocked and terrified me more, because there, in the glow of his eyes, was his entire face highlighted in the eerie color.
And, protruding from his mouth, was the last thing I wanted to see.
Fangs.
As I tried to stretch away, it just opened up my neck area more, and he looked at my cowering form, and gladly whispered one last question.
"Are you scared now?"
And with a flash of his blood red eyes, and a glint of fangs, he was feeding on me. He imbibed himself with my blood, although it was slow and painful for me.
He was on my neck, and his fangs were buried deep in my jugular.
Grabbing my struggling form, he kept a steel grip on my wiggling body.
I could scream now.
So scream I did. I screamed so much that my throat hurt.
He pushed me up against the wall, drinking from me rapidly, sucking my blood like a parasite. It was painful.
Once he detached himself, he bit me on my lips, drawing blood.
"I could've compelled you. But it's just so much more satisfying when you scream. It makes your blood that much more filling.", he whispered in my ear, blood dripping down my earlobe, and cascading down my face. He licked it off.
He kissed me, forcing himself upon me. Using me. But even after he turned me, even after hundreds of years, I'll still refuse to admit that Midnight is a dick.
Because I still remember the Midnight that nibbled my ear when we went stargazing....
-----End of Flashback------
"Hey, Sparky you okay?", Dash asked, knocking me out of my stupor.
"Yes, I'm fine Rainbow," I assured her, giving her a slight nod as a sign that I had heard her question and processed it.
"Good, that means I can still make you not okay," she said smiling. And before I could process what she meant by that, she left.
Before she fully exited, though, she turned around and winked, saying, "Good luck."
Before she left though, I just had to know something. "Rainbow!", I called to her disappearing figure, and when she turned around, I asked the one question I was afraid to know the answer to. "Where's Octavia?", I asked, and was answered with a smirk and a roll of her eyes.
"Vincenza had to feed on somepony to turn, and a vampire like Octavia, we'll, she was the very best option," Rainbow said, and looked me dead in the eyes as she said so.
"Of course," she continued. "Sometimes ponies like Octavia are just in the wrong place, at the wrong time, in the wrong unconscious state of mind."
And then she walked out.
And I was left in my room, wondering what else she could possibly do. She'd made me have a mental breakdown, trashed my room and made it smell very tempting, and then proceeded to brag about killing the vampire that turned me, while simultaneously being nonchalant about all of her other little surprises she had left for me. Wonderful. There was literally nothing else she could do. Oh wait, I forgot, to top it off, she went and made Vinyl kill off Octavia.
So, after several hours worth of cleanup in my room, I finally fell asleep on my only partially bloody sheets.
-------------------- Rinbow POV
As I trotted out of Twi's room, I took a glance back at her expression. She was horribly distraught. Sweet Luna, tears already Twi? You're too damned easy. It's time to find somepony else to incorporate into this tiny bit of mass destruction.
And I know just the person.
If I'm gonna torment the egghead, I'm gonna torment her the right way. Cause if I'm playing the game, I might as well play to win.
Where was Vinyl? I needed her for this to work.
Trotting up the stairs, I got to my bedroom and peeked inside. She was snoring very softly. I swear if it were anypony else, I would've waken them up, but there's something about Vinyl. I don't want to take this peace from her. As long as I'm in her life, she'll get very little peace.
So I take my head out of the doorway, and go to Scootaloo's room. For a second I linger outside of her door, not sure about what I'm about to do. But then I go inside. Braving the chance of my image of toughness crumbling, I gingerly fly in, hovering over the filly. Closing my eyes and not letting myself doubt, but first checking to see if she's awake, I lean down, and plant a gentle kiss on her forehead the way I used to.
"Good night Squirt," I whisper to her sleeping form. "I wish you didn't see me like this."
Then, with a small sigh, and a ginger beat of my wings, I glide out of the room, and land in the hallway, closing her door softly.
-------- Scootaloo POV
When I woke up in the room Twilight had me sleep in the night before, sunlight was streaming in through my window. I grinned happily, enjoying the feeling of the beaming rays on my face.
I could hear through my door, the sound of a blender. It sounded like somepony had stuffed a cat in the blender, but the appliance still seemed to work fine, despite the disturbing noises I heard coupled with it.
And through the thick wood of the door, I could smell the most wonderful thing, wafting up to my room.
'Wait, was this my room?', I asked myself. I mean, Twilight had given it to me to spend the night in. Was it mine?
Never mind, I could ponder that later, right now, all I could smell was the glorious scent of, ooh, eggs, and bacon? Woah, ponies eating pigs? Well, pigs tasted good, but Twilight would probably say that it was barbaric.
I threw off the blankets that were laying haphazardly on top of me, and fell out of bed.
If Sweetie Belle's big sister Rarity was here, she would have had a cow with just how, 'ungraceful' I was being. Then agin, stumbling out of bed while rubbing sleep from your bleary eyes and coming close to falling again from almost tripping on a rug isn't exactly a flawless wake up.
Grabbing the door handle with my hoof, I exited the room, and actually took a moment to look at my body. Saying some words a filly my age shouldn't know, I looked at the cracks in my hooves and flinched. I was covered with dirt, and I could really use a shower.
So I trotted downstairs, stumbling a bit on the steps, but I righted myself. Regaining my balance after half the flight, I trotted mostly awake completely down the rest of the way with no trouble.
Twilight was the one making the smoothie, and trying to smash several fruits uncut and unchopped into the blender. A foul looking mess decorated the inside of the appliance, and poor Twilight was having quite some trouble.
Grinding her teeth together, Sparkle was jamming as much fruit as possible into the blender, while simultaneously trying to write various scrolls.
"Good morning," I chirped, happily trotting into the kitchen.
"Hi," Twilight said, taking a break from the pounding of the fruits, and her furious scribbling.
Looking up, she wore a face of relief, as if she was happy I had made it through the night. But what could have happened to me?
The jingling of keys and a chorus of whistling started to come from the back room, and Twilight sighed, for she knew who it was.
"Rainbow Dash!", Twilight yelled.
"Yes," Rainbow said, popping her head into the kitchen. "Morning Scoots," she said, nodding to me.
"Where do you think you're going?", Twilight asked, glaring at her. "You know you have quite the mess here to clean up, correct?"
"Yeah, I know. Get off my case Sparky," Rainbow said, rolling her eyes. "And I got somewhere to be."
"So are you going to clean it up?", Twilight asked, miraculously completely disregarding the last part to Rainbow's response.
"Soon," Rainbow said waving a hoof.
"How soon?", Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Only about a hundred years," Rainbow said casually.
"No, we are not doing this again," Twilight huffed.
"You never cleaned up your messes anyway, back when you were a big drinker," Rainbow said, smirking.
I shivered, remembering when Twilight was a 'big drinker.'
Rainbow noticed and rolled her eyes. "Aw c'mon squirt, she's a saint now."
"Where do you have to be?", Twilight asked, trying to find a wormhole in Dash's story, but I knew she wouldn't. When Dash wanted to be smooth, Dash was smooth.
"Why do you wanna know, you jelly that I get to leave the house and you're stuck here?", Rainbow asked raising an eyebrow.
Hoof steps came from by the doorway, and then another head popped in, this head with electric blue hair, and a coat as white as porcelain. And her eyes, her eyes were already red. She was a unicorn, too.
"Hey, what's going on in here?", the head asked.
"Guys, this is Vinyl," Rainbow said, messing up the pony's hair.
"Hey," Vinyl said, growling playfully, and grabbed Rainbow's hoof.
"Help. I'm being attacked by a menacing vampire," Rainbow said sarcastically.
"Oh there's a menacing vampire in this room but it's definitely not her," Twilight retorted angrily.
"Oh, so we're gonna play that way, huh? Because I may be menacing, but I haven't broke your all time massacre record yet, have I?", Rainbow asked mockingly. "No I don't think I have," she continued, "maybe this'll be the town?" She smirked as she said it, knowing she was getting a rise out of the purple unicorn.
"Rainbow Dash," Twilight said with an element of warning in her tone.
"Fine, fine," Rainbow said, blowing a strand of hair out of her eyes, "But you did ask where I was going, so I better tell you before you explode."
I cracked a small smile.
Rainbow noticed out of the corner of her eye and I think she winked. But was that a friendly wink, or was she just trying to get me on her side?
"A mystery place," Rainbow said wiggling her eyebrows. "So we'll be going now," she finished casually.
Pulling their heads from out of the doorway, they both walked away, and I followed their hoof steps with my ears until I couldn't hear them any longer.
------------ Dash POV
As we drew away from the kitchen, back towards the back door, and got ready to leave, Vinyl pulled me along, wanting to get away from the house as soon as possible.
It was quite early morning, actually, about 5:00 AM.
The perfect time for feeding. Not to late that it would be suspicious. But early enough that not many ponies are out, so less chances of being caught, and if we're seen, less witnesses.
As soon as we were outside, though, she shrieked, and darted into the shade, motioning at her pelt. I looked, but wasn't too surprised.
"Beginner's Burn," I said, rolling my eyes.
"What?", she asked.
"It's sunburn," I explained, "but worse, because you get it every time you're in the sun for the first few months that you're a vampire."
"Well is there anything that can help it?", she asked, wincing at the pain that was probably blossoming across her body from the harsh rays of the sun.
"Sunscreen," I stated flatly.
She raised an eyebrow, laughed a little, and then said, "Oh, you're serious."
"Yep, I'm serious," I said, laughing a little. "Lemme go get the sunscreen," I said, and turned around to trot back inside.
"Okay," she said, "but hurry."
I popped open the door, and trotted back inside.
"Sunscreen," I mumbled to myself.
Finding it quickly, laying around on the table nearby, I picked it up and popped back open the door, trotting back outside and applying it to Vinyl.
She groaned as I applied it to her, not expecting for me to actually put it on her.
"Dash!", she exclaimed, after I had lightly slapped some on her nose.
I just laughed, and said, "Let's get going."
This time, when she stepped out into the sun, she just inhaled deeply and smiled.
"Better?", I asked, but I already knew the answer.
"Yeah," she said, popping on her shades.
"Let's go get something to eat," I said, casually flying low to the ground beside her.
She followed behind me, occasionally asking questions, like, "Where are we going?", and "Aren't we getting pretty far from civilization?", and "Isn't civilization where all the ponies are?"
"You'll see where we're going," I said casually, as we made our way toward the Everfree Forest.
"We're going to the Everfree Forest?", she asked.
I nodded confirmation.
"But aren't there seriously dangerous things in there?", she asked.
"What kind of seriously dangerous things?", I asked.
"Things that go bump in the night," she responded, but quickly realized her flaw in judgement.
"Vinyl, we are the things that go bump in the night," I said, smirking, "Besides, it's nice and dark in here. In some parts regular ponies can't see a thing. Which is wonderful for us. The darker it is, the better we are."
I continued to fly to the forest, and she still followed faithfully.
Once we had reached the edge of the forest, I asked her if she was ready.
"Now this is the perfect place to show you the ropes. Even if we fail to hunt successfully, or leave a loose end, our mess is easily cleaned up. The prey can't get away," I explained.
She nodded loosely, looking nervous.
"I know, the first real kill is always hard. You're just not used to it."
She gulped still though, not used to the prospect of being the hunter, and no longer being one of the hunted.
"Well, come on in," I said, disappearing into the foliage.
"There are always plenty of ponies trying to explore the Everfree. Trying to be brave. But there's a reason only a few ponies ever make it out alive."
"And why is that?", Vinyl asked.
"Because of me and all the other creatures in the forest," I replied.
She gulped again.
"Aw c'mon Vinyl, you can do it," I said, and with a hesitant step, she crossed into the forest.
"Good," I said.
And then I started walking again.
"Where are you going?", she asked.
"Wherever fresh blood is," I answered. "I can smell it."
She continued to follow me, just going where I went.
"Okay," I said, stopping at a point where I could hear a pony's blood.
Peeking out from where we were, it was hard to see the pony because of the leaves and foliage in front of our faces.
Standing serenely by a stream, about 20 paces away, stood a very important figure head in the town of Ponyville. And in all her glory, there she stood, greying hair, and luxuriously boring tan coat. It was Mayor Mare, the perfect pony to aid in a little piece of mass destruction.
Of course, she was wonderful for the plan, but Vinyl needed somepony she could really kill, not somepony I needed alive.
"We're moving on," I said, trotting silently away.
"What? Why?", Vinyl asked impatiently.
"Because she's crucial to the plan," I said, continuing to trot the other way, forcing Vinyl to submit to my direction.
"What plan?", Vinyl asked.
"The plan where I give Twilight the Grandaddy of all pain," I casually replied. And after walking for a couple more minutes in comfortable silence, I stopped and put my hoof up to my lips.
"Do you hear that?", I said, turning around and asking Vinyl.
"No," she said, shaking her head, confused.
"Okay," I said, walking over to her, "Close your eyes, and listen very closely."
Vinyl looked at me with distrust in her eyes, but I trotted over and wrapped my forelegs around her barrel.
She sighed.
"You're breathing heavily," I said, "slow your heart rate, and silence your mouth breathing. You need to learn to breath through your nose."
She glared at me, but closed her eyes and slowed her breathing, closing her mouth and taking in silent, long exhales of air soundlessly.
"Now what?", she whispered.
With my legs still wrapped around her barrel, I brought my lips up to her ear and whispered one word. "Listen," I said, my breath chilling her.
"What am I listening for?", she asked.
"You'll get it, just keep hearing the sounds around you," I said, confident that she could figure this out on her own.
After one peaceful minute, she whispered, "I can hear something."
I whispered, "Elaborate," and she did.
"It sounds like rushing water," she said, sighing pleasantly. "But it's not water," she said, sniffing the air. "It smells metallic, like a coin, but I know that I can drink it. So, my best least obvious guess would be an edible penny."
Rainbow silently sighed.
"I know it's blood though, jeez, I'm not stupid Dash," Vinyl joked, poking me in the ribs.
"Vinyl!", I said. "Don't be such a menacing vampire!", I teased.
She shushed me, and I was quiet for her sake.
After waiting a second, I spoke again, blowing on her ear first, though.
She neighed because of the ticklish sensation.
"So, you wanna try to track the scent?", I asked, blowing on her ear more while she squirmed.
"Dash!", she whined.
"Hey, it's not my fault that you're hopelessly ticklish," I added, whispering.
"Hey!", she shrieked.
"Careful," I said. "We don't want our food getting away, do we?"
"No," she said, after a second of contemplation.
"Can you tell me how many there are?", I asked.
"Yes," she said after a second, hesitantly.
Sniffing deeply, she made her assessment. "Two?", she guessed.
"Yes," I said. "Good job."
She exhaled, relieved that she was correct.
"Can you take us to them?", I asked her. "Of course you'd open up your eyes first," I added, reminding her that she would, in fact, need to pay attention to where she was stepping ; that she was powerful enough to see in the dark but not powerful enough to see through her own eyelids.
"Right," she said, giggling nervously and glancing around.
"C'mon Vinyl. Don't be nervous," I reminded her.
I could tell she was speaking through her teeth when she said, "I'm not, but you should be."
There were two ponies about eight hooves behind me, with cute little vampire hunter weapons, I knew that. One was big, and built like a workhorse, and the other was comically tiny, and scrawny. A little glance from behind me by Vinyl confirmed my suspicions. "They're right behind me aren't they," I whispered in her ear.
She slightly nodded to confirm her answer.
I thought for a minute, broken out of my trance by her shaky whispering, "They're right behind you, Rainbow. Only about 5 hooves away."
"I know Scratch I know," I cooed in her ear. "But it's okay, you know why?"
"Why?", she whispered.
"Do you want easy food or hard food?", I asked her.
"Easy," she squeaked.
"Okay, so I guess we won't drain these guys," I asked quietly.
"I don't know. Do you think we can take them?", she asked nervously.
"Scratch, we could take these guys in our sleep," I said breezily. "They have tasers. Tasers don't work on vampires, we're partially dead. We have no nervous system for them to shock. They clearly have no idea what they're doing."
"Two hooves away. And they're readying their tasers," Vinyl whisper yelled.
"Game on," I said, smirking. "Just follow my lead," I whispered.
-----------Vinyl POV
I watched as the two ponies raised their tasers behind us, and just as they were about to plunge them down onto our seemingly naive figures, Dash spun around, and punched them both in the gut. While they were reeling from that, she roundkicked one towards me.
"You know what to do Scratch," she yelled, and as she looked over at me, I could see that she expected me to do what I could.
Smiling, I looked at the pony's hunched figure. He looked dazed, albeit he looked to be very strong. But he couldn't probably fight very well in this state.
As he was getting up, I realized that he was the bigger one, and for a second I was worried. But then I looked over at Rainbow, and remembered that she wouldn't give me anything I couldn't handle.
As he rose to his full height once more, he ran at me, lowering his head, and got ready to ram me. 'Is he for real?', I asked myself. But I soon found out.
He was the bigger one, and even though I at first wondered why she would give me such a large, intimidating opponent, I soon figured out that what he lacked in speed, he made up for in strength. Which was bad for him, because vampires are stronger than mortals. Therefore, his normal advantage was useless in this fight. With my magical strength advantage, he was destined to lose.
As he got up from the second smack down, he grunted in pain. I could see that blood had begun to leak from his head. I licked my lips and could feel my fangs elongate.
I could hear it rushing again. My eyes zoomed in on the crack in his head that had begun to bleed. He raised his head, and I must've been a sinister sight, counting in my sunglasses-less face that featured no longer concealed piercing red eyes and sharp fangs.
He squeaked a little, and I laughed, finding amusement in the notion that a big stallion like him would be afraid of somepony so much smaller like me.
"Well, come at me Blood-Bitch," he snarled though, keeping his tough facade up, and raising his bloody head high into the sky.
The insult made my blood boil, and would make killing him even more satisfying.
I glimpsed his neck, and that was all it took. I could see his taser pitifully hid behind his back.
He was grinning like a sick, sick bastard, and that was it. I was so done.
"Game on," I said, cracking my neck and grinning.
To my satisfaction, this seemed to scare him a lot. Picture this, a maniacal twenty something vampire grinning at you evilly and cracking her neck with sickening sound effects to go with it all.
How would you feel?
So, with those last words, I rushed over, knocking the taser out of his hand as he tried to drive it into my neck.
Instead, I went for his neck, slamming him against the bloody tree, and sinking my fangs into his flesh. Using my magic to cast a paralysis spell so he couldn't move, I carved my initials into the skin of his neck. Blood Bitch. Ha, right. He was gonna see what a real blood bitch looked like if I could help it.
Burying my teeth deeper into his flesh, and listening to him whine while drinking from him was satisfying. Even more satisfying than the best track on the market at the hottest club in Equestria.
I removed my fangs and relished in the taste of his blood.
"Mommy," he squeaked.
He was not as strong as originally thought.
It was time to finish him. Plunging my teeth back in the bite mark, I pulled back his head to reveal more of his neck.
"Let me- let me go," he said, shuddering.
"No," I whispered, as I ripped a steady stream of blood down the other side of his neck.
He shivered again.
I sank my fangs into the other side of his neck, and dug around in the wound.
He gritted his teeth, trying not to yell.
Drinking his blood felt almost as good as drinking from Octavia.
I moaned. Drinking faster and faster, until his tense body was limp, I stopped only when he was dead.
Looking up, I noticed Rainbow leaning against the one of the trees, applauding me for my efforts.
"See, I told you, you knew what to do," she said smiling.
I got off my haunches, and trotted over to Rainbow, sick of sitting by the dead pony's body.
"Who were those ponies?", I asked, curious about why they had chosen to attack us.
"Those were vampire hunters," she said, "and they were hired to dispose of yours truly," she said, gesturing to herself.
"Who hired them?", I asked, fascinated as to who they were working for.
"Mayor Mare of course. She can't have a dangerous vampire running rampid in her town," Dash replied, giving me a toothy grin, "but she already does, and once she figures out that she can't stop me with her pitiful mortal forces, she'll try to control me with something too big for her to handle."
"What happens when she tries to control you with something too big for her to handle?", I asked, interested in what would happen to Ponyville's prominent figure head.
"Then she gets killed in an accident," Rainbow remarked casually.
I let my jaw drop at what Rainbow was implying.
Rainbow looked up, saw my shocked expression, and smirked.
"What?", she asked, "she'll end up killing herself anyway. It's not like she'll survive one fourth as long as she thinks she could. She doesn't even know that she's one of the very few normal equines in the town. Her ignorance and naivety will be her downfall. If I'm chosen to help her demise along it'll be secondary."
I closed my mouth.
And before I could stop myself, I opened back up my mouth and said, "I want in."
I slapped a hoof over my mouth as soon as I made the demand, wondering what in Equestria made me try to order around an 1,000 year old vampire.
"You've got spunk, I like it," she said, looking me over. "Yeah, sure, I'll let you in," she said casually.
When my only response that I gave her was very noticeable balking, she looked amused.
"What?", she asked, "you second guessing already, Scratch?"
Maybe it was all the blood. Maybe the blood made me bolder...
"Nah, Dash," I responded. "We can do this."
And she looked back at me with a sparkle in her eyes that I'd seen so many times before. When we would do something that could get us in trouble. When we were putting ourselves in a risky situation that somehow always turned out fine.
"We good then Scratch?", she asked, with a curious look on her face.
"What do you mean?", I asked, cocking my head to the side, and making her grin, thoroughly entertained by just the look on my face.
"I mean, are you good to hunt on your own?", she asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
"Yeah," I said, nodding like I was kind've a nimbus. "Yeah I'm great Dash."
"Okay, cause I got some stuff to take care of," she said, winking, before turning around and taking off in the other direction.
And I was left alone to hunt.
Rainbow POV--------------
I took off away from her, trusting her to find her own food, while I worked on finding the first cog in my plan.
Last time I checked she was standing right over here by the river...
And after flying a bit, I landed right where I was before. Peeking through the bushes, I caught sight of Mayor Mare staring at her reflection in the water, and mumbling about certain plans.
I heard a bit of information about a plan to keep supernatural creatures contained, but that was as much as I heard before I grew weary of collecting information from hearing her talk to herself.
Taking off from the ground, I silently flew to another point where I could pretend to trot absentmindedly into her view in a clearing and then approach her as if I had just got here.
Touching down softly, I gingerly trotted into a clearing where she could clearly see me. I made sure to make some casual noise, "accidentally" nudging a rock.
She looked up, and as a startled look flashed across her face, I glimpsed at her, feigning an are-you-okay-because-you-seem-way-too-paranoid look.
She responded with the visual equivalent of an elephant dying from asphyxiation.
I rolled my eyes, and started to trot over.
She averted her eyes, and trotted back.
I shot an are-you-kidding-me look, and she responded with a look that screamed, stranger-danger!-stranger-danger!
I started to trot quite a bit faster, and she started to canter.
I started to canter, and then she'd start to gallop.
This was never going to end. So I did the only thing I could, I chased her.
If I was gonna control this town, I was going to control it the right way, using the right people.
Starting with the Mayor.
After a couple seconds, I had caught up to her, though, and was standing expectantly in her line of sight.
She tried to get around, but I just blocked her. Eventually, after she still hadn't settled down, I slammed her against the tree, and was already perusing her neck.
"Tried playing nice with you," I said. "But it didn't work," I continued, "so here I am playing dirty."
"As your Mayor," she said, shaking, "I must ask you to leave me."
"Or what?", I growled, biting into her jugular.
She screamed, struggling feebly.
As the blood rushed down my throat, I could feel the high coming on. "What are you gonna do Mayor, burn my records at Town Hall?"
"Maybe," she blubbered.
I dug deeper into the wound, getting a shriek out of her.
"Stop! Just stop," she yelled. "I'll do anything!"
"Anything?", I asked, finally detaching from the wound.
And as I looked up to see her dull, frightened eyes, I realized that I really did have to keep her alive.
"Fine," I said, "you tell me what goes on in our great town, and I won't kill you."
And as she looked into my eyes, I could tell that she knew she had messed with the wrong vampire.
And as I pulled her in closer, activating compulsion, I whispered, "You will tell me everything. I want to know your plans for getting rid of all the supernatural creatures, and your true intentions when it comes to disposing of all of the unnatural equines. I want to know everything that anybody of authority is planning, and I want you to leave nothing out. You will call me and address me with respect, calling me Ms. Dash. There's this thing called professionalism, but I don't expect you to understand as fully as a real agent of government. You will report to me and tell nopony of our agreement or the circumstances and events surrounding it, is that clear Madame Mayor?"
And as her eyes flashed, I could tell that it had worked.
"Yes Ms. Dash," she said.
"Good," I said, straightening her tie, patting her perfectly coiffed mane, etc. "You might wanna cover up that bite mark," I said, averting eye contact for a second.
"Do I have to Ms. Dash?", she asked.
"Cover up the bite marks," I said, compelling her again.
"Yes Ms. Dash," she said, and pulled up her collar, after pausing for a moment, and asking, "There will be more?"
"Yes," I said, never breaking eye contact. "You are not allowed to speak of those either."
"Understood," she said.
And after taking one last look at her and deeming her good to go, I dismissed her, and went to see how successful Vinyl had been when it came to hunting.
------ Twilight POV
Dash had said she was going somewhere but wouldn't tell me where. This just reeked of suspicious activity. As I was thinking this, I accidentally dropped the scroll to plan a funeral for Octavia into the uncovered mess of fruit in the blender.
"Horseapples," I muttered, and my eyes shot up to see if Scootaloo had heard me.
"Whuh?", Scootaloo asked as she looked up from her food. Celestia, I could swear that that filly was just as lost in thought as I was.
"Nothing Scootaloo, just go back to eating," I said, but Scootaloo was way too engrossed in something on the floor to respond.
Come to think of it, it seemed like Scootaloo was comatose at times. She had only known reckless Rainbow for a day now, and I think it was taking a toll on her.
Celestia, I wished I could do something for the little filly to help her get her mind off of Rainbow.
Looking back down at the now fruity flavored funeral scroll, I sighed and levitated it out of the blender.
What was I gonna do?
Octavia's friends and family had to know that she had passed away. I didn't want them looking for someone who would never be found.
Unless they could just go through the grief on their own? Maybe I could just plant her bloodless body somewhere and wait for them to find it?
Celestia Twilight, don't be so brainless, I scolded myself.
Octavia's family deserves to know, and yet, I can't bring myself to tell them.
I can only picture the revelation.
Oh hey, by the way, your daughter's/ wife's/ mother's body was found in my house, because I have an old 1,000 year old vampire friend who kills for kicks. And she has a friend too, so that's why there are two teeth marks and not just one...
Because that would just end swimmingly.
Adding onto the stress of Octavia's departure and funeral ideas, I figured I might as well put Scootaloo in school.
Now that I was thinking about it, the last time I had seen Scootaloo until last night was 1,000 years ago. How did she survive?
What was Scootaloo?
Had Scootaloo been cursed, spellbound to stay this age, maybe?
Who was Scootaloo? I always knew her as an innocent filly, but she was probably more, and wise beyond her years.
I guess I might've zoned out, because when I woke up from my trance, I saw that Scootaloo was looking at me curiously, and when I looked down, I discovered that my scroll had plopped back down into my blender and the fruity mess of crap in it.
Ugh, I thought, cursing my weak levitation abilities when I was concerned with other matters.
-------------- Vinyl POV
It was my second kill, and I had dragged it out.
Yeah, I knew it was wrong.
Yeah, I knew it was bloody, give me a bucking break.
After that came my third kill, and then my fourth, and my fifth.
By the time Rainbow came for me, my muzzle was covered with blood, and I probably looked incredibly deranged.
"Aw, my little vamp is growing up," she said, looking me up and down.
"Shut up," I said, smiling, rolling my eyes playfully.
"Okay then," Rainbow said, "Fine, how about my little vamp is growing old?"
I pouted.
"Hey, why are you so upset? You'd still look just as attractive with grey hair," she said, and trotted over to look at what I'd done.
She whistled. "Correction," she said, "My little vamp is growing into a psycho. What is this, eight ponies dead? You have a serious problem with your bloodlust."
Her eyes bored into mine. "Not that it's bad. It's just unexpected."
Her mouth sailed up into another one of her smirks, and I knew I'd just surprised her again.
"We should work on your technique though. You're getting sloppy," she said, looking back down at the carnage that surrounded her.
I opened up my mouth, waiting for a stinging insult to fire back to her to come to me, but none came.
I internally cursed.
"But we can fix that," she said, staring back up at my face. Raising an eyebrow, she projected an expression that screamed this is gonna be fun. "Are you still hungry?"
I said, "I will never be full," and listened to what we were going to do.
----------Twilight POV
I mean how does someone survive for 1,000 years without having an unnatural life span like that of a vampire, werewolf, witch or shapeshifter? She's probably under a spell. Maybe she's cursed?
I couldn't stand this, so I had to ask.
"Scootaloo?", I said, grabbing her attention to me rather than the floor.
"Yeah Twilight?", she said looking up.
"How did you survive?", I asked, expecting a denial, or a close to my question, but instead she uttered one word out.
"Zecora," she said like it was no big deal, but it was a big deal.
I was very surprised that Zecora would do that for Scootaloo given who Scootaloo wanted to stay and meet again. Zecora was one witch that didn't get along with vampires, especially not Dash or I.
"What did Zecora do?", I asked, now consumed by questions.
"She gave me a life pause," Scootaloo said matter-of-factly.
"What is that?", I almost asked. But I knew what a life pause was. Why didn't I think of that before. Of course!
A Life Pause spell was a merely basic spell if one had the appropriate ingredients and qualifications. It was a spell where someone was allowed to live but pause their age, therefore never getting older. For example, if Scootaloo was 8 when we left, even after a thousand years she would still be 8, because the spell paused her age and her aging process. A set person that the client of the spell cared about deeply was required to end the spell. The spell would end when that certain person that the client loved and was searching for was found. The Life Pause spell was a spell designed for searching for immortal beings. However, the caster would have to know who the certain person was in order to cast it correctly. So what I was wondering was, why would Zecora cast the spell and help Scootaloo when she hated the person Scootaloo was trying to find?
At least, I assume the being Scootaloo was trying to find was Rainbow...
I must have been very deep in thought, because Scootaloo decided to ask me if I was constipated.
And then she proceeded to ask why I got constipated, which lead to me telling her I was in no way shape or form constipated, which lead to her rolling her eyes and smirking, and saying sure sarcastically.
Sometimes that filly is too much like Rainbow Dash.
----------- Rainbow POV
I drop Vinyl back off at my house, wait, now our house, and go to a place where I can bring back something good to eat. After I get my fill. What can I say? She had plenty. The least she can do is wait an hour.
Pony's Best Bar and Grill, oh, how I love thy name. Shall I count the ways? Good hunting, good food, good hard cider. Oh yes, I love it.
And if Vinyl hadn't gorged herself so much, she'd probably be here too.
I drifted in just minding my own business when out of the corner of my eye I saw none other than Rarity, the town flirt. And Rarity was of course drunk, again.
When a pony is drunk they're off and unobservant, a target that's off and unobservant is an easy one. And I don't want a fight, I just want a bite.
Rarity is the epitome of the drunken high class pony. Normally stuck up ponies are fun ponies when they're chock full of alcohol. Drunk ponies are fun, therefore Rarity is like the new flavor of the century, or something. Whatever the kids are saying nowadays.
"Another drink please," she said, setting her glass down on the table. I swear she was the only pony who ever drank wine at this place.
"Lady I think you've had enough-", the bartender started to say but was caught off by her lips.
"Mmmffff," he said, trying to talk but her lips blocked his words.
Grabbing his face, she pulled him in.
By the time she was done, he was starstruck and ready to offer her as many exotic wines as she wanted for free.
Trotting over, I plopped my keister into a stool by her and said, "Hello," with a smile. I recognized her, I didnt know if she recounted any memories of me, but she should've. She was Prim Proper. The jewelrymaker's daughter.
She turned around and said, "You look like trouble," with a cautious look on her face.
"Don't worry you can spank me if I'm bad," I said, ordering a hard cider.
"Darling I'd hate to break it to your surely very dirty mind, but I'm as straight as a board," she said smiling teasingly.
"Not anymore," I said, looking into her eyes and trying to compel her but nothing was happening.
"What the Hell?", I said, after she wasn't affected.
"What?", she asked, rolling her eyes. "Really, if you are going to use that type of ruffian language I'd suggest censoring it around ladies such as I."
"Why isn't it working?", I asked myself internally.
"Why isn't compelling me working?", she asked. "Is that what you're wondering?"
She must've not known, how could she have known what I was thinking, how could she have known what compelling was? How could she have known about compelling in the first place?
"You see this necklace I wear?", she asked me.
"Yeah," I said, acting bored, but very interested now, "What about it?"
She rolled her eyes at my suddenly appearing lack of interest.
"It's filled with enough magical concentrated garlic in a big enough enchanted dose that it could burn you if you touched it. It prevents compulsion and the touch of supernatural creatures that I don't want near me. That includes you.", she said batting her eyes tauntingly. "Don't even try to get with me. Like I said, I'm straight and already taken."
"Honey," a voice said from the doorway of the bar in a warm fatherly tone.
"Sweetie," Prim said in an excited tone.
The stallion that the voice had come from was none other than Blueblood, another somepony I had managed to aggravate a couple hundred years ago.
Blueblood was in short, an arrogant jerk. He had bit off more than he could chew, and I thought I had killed him but he was obviously back. Wonderful.
"Come here Man of the House!", Prim said, and I guess that was her nickname for him.
"Talk about Daddy issues," I mumbled under my breath.
As Blueblood made his way over here, he recognized me.
As soon as he was close enough to Prim, he started whispering, but my ears could hear what he was saying.
"That is the vampire that almost killed me," he whispered, glaring and gesturing toward me.
Prim asked him if he was sure, and lectured him about how rude it was to point at somepony.
I winked at him, and then made the beheading motion slicing my hoof beneath my neck. I then glared right back.
He flipped me off. I flipped him off twice.
He stuck out his tongue. I bared my fangs. He growled. I growled. And so on...
Until him and Prim turned around. I guess Prim recognized me then, because she wasted no time identifying me.
"Murderous Cousin?", she asked.
I face-hoofed, and she took that as an incentive to guess again.
"Scootaloo's adoptive mom?", she wagered, and I smacked my head down onto the bar.
"I'm Rainbow Dash. But most people call me Dick," I said with an artificial smile.
Prim's smile disappeared. Blueblood growled.
"Why do they call you Rainbow Dash?", Prim asked. "You don't have many colors on you."
"When you've lived for 1,000 years, your color tends to fade a little bit," I said.
"Ohhh," she said.
"Come Rarity let us go and leave this humbled peasant coven," Blueblood said.
Rarity? So it wasn't Prim Proper?
Okay then. So I take it Prim Proper is dead. Yet there's a pony who looks exactly like her named Rarity. Dually noted. Not creepy at all.
Another note to self. Blueblood is alive. Saint Sparkle is gonna like this even less than I do. This is just peachy.
Oh well, time to have some fun.
"Hey Rarity," I said as she was getting up. "Ever wonder why your 'Man if the House' talks so old fashioned?"
She turned around, eyes flashing full of curiosity. "Yes I am quite curious. Although I am getting the, how do you say, vibe, that you are not a truthful vampire."
"The only reason I tried to kill him was because he played a part in killing my boyfriend."
"Blueblood," she asked, her eyes piercing him now. "Is this true?"
Blueblood was pleading with me with his eyes, begging me not to reveal him. Pleading me not to expose him.
But Blueblood defiantly shook his head even though sweat was beginning to bead on his perfect porcelain forehead.
"In fact," I continued. "How many years ago was this?", I asked Blueblood. "Was it only a couple?"
He nodded his head vigorously, sweating like a pig on a pork farm. I got that analogy from AJ.
"You're right, this was only about, what, 1482?" My eyes glared at him demanding the truth. He shook his head.
"Nope nope nope nope nope," he said, his eyes darting back and forth.
"Blueblood," Rarity said. And only now could I see the tears gathering in her eyes like little pools of clear colored blood. "What are you?"
"Fair Rarity," he said, sweating as if on fire. "Please let me explain!" His voice shook. He actually cared about the mortal. Adorable. Stupid and meaningless, but adorable.
"Go ahead, tell her what you are Blueblood," I said, smirking lightly. "Tell her the secret you've been hiding."
Rarity looked between me and Blueblood with terror clearly visible in her face.
"What are you?", Rarity asked. And for a second I felt bad about their doomed relationship. Just a second.
But then I smiled. This dick killed Soarin. This is the least he deserves.
"I'm a vampire," he whispered, his mane falling front of his glassy eyes.
"Burn in Hell," Rarity said, her voice ragged and rough. Then with one last shudder, she left.
"How could you?", Blueblood asked.
"Easy. I told Rarity your secret. The end."
He looked up at me with burning hate from the pits of Tartarus in his eyes.
"You killed Soarin," I said, my eyes flashing a hellish red. "I'll be damned if I miss a second of making you suffer."
"You already are damned," he said, voice shaky and cracked.
"So are you," I whispered.
He glared at me with what I'm sure was all the hatred he could muster.
I forcefully pulled him in close, ripping him apart with my expression. "Let's get one thing straight. I don't know how you survived that stake I drove through your heart, but if you ever look down at me from your Luna-damned porcelain nose again I swear I will rip your heart out. Slowly and painfully. Don't forget, you damned me, so I'm gonna dam you."
I let go of him, carefully averted my eyes, and put on a false satisfied expression.
"We all clear?", I asked grinning.
He nodded, his expression now exactly similar to that of a pony who had just seen a ghost.
"Great," I said. "I'm gonna walk away now, just like this never happened."
And as I trotted away I could feel his gaze burning into my flank.
I smirked. As long as the bastard knew his place.
------- Vinyl POV
"It's about time!", I said, as Dash paraded in with several ponies in tow.
"Do you want party pony, posh downtown pony, or designer hick from the south?"
"I don't know," I said.
"Well the hick fashion designer, her name is Suri Polomare. High maintenance but very tasty. Then there's Berry Sweet, who's blood is ironically very sour. And last but not least we have Pinkie Pie, I believe," Dash said.
"Yeah I didn't even need to compel Pinkie Pie, she just came of her own free will," Dash said, clearly baffled. "Hey can you watch them?", she asked. "I have to go deliver some bad news to Saint Sparkle," she sad, her face darkening with a dangerous smirk.
"Is there a squirrel under this pot?", Pinkie asked, lifting it and tossing it around in the air, all while singing, "Mr. Squirrel is that you?"
I face-hooved. Maybe Dash should've compelled Pinkie.
----------Twilight POV
I was in my room reading, when Rainbow came trotting in.
"We need to talk," she said, smacking my romance novel out of my hooves.
"Hey," I said. "I was just about to find out if-"
"I don't care about Pony Princess Poofy or her husband Prince Shmoofy," Rainbow said with a deadpan tone.
I huffed.
Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Look, like I said before, we need to talk."
Normally her eyes would be full of amusement or mischievousness. But they were serious and focused. That was a warning sign.
"What happened?", I asked sighing.
"You knew Prim Proper, right?", she asked, snorting a heavy breath out of her nostrils.
"Yes I did," I said. "In fact, she helped me study to get into Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. We had so many sleepovers and-"
"Don't care Sparky," she said cutting me off.
"Hey!", I said protesting.
"Luna Dammit Twilight we are in danger!", she said, eyes wild and angry.
"What did you do?", I asked, eyes glancing ominously into hers.
"Prim Proper has a doppelgänger named Rarity!"
"So?", I asked.
"She knows about us!", she said urgently. "Anytime somepony could come knocking at our door."
"How could you tell her!", I yelled.
"Well ya see I kinda tried to compel her..." , Rainbow started to say then trailed off as she saw the death glare I was giving her.
But then she developed her cocky smirk back. "Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Blueblood is back in town as well."
My face paled.
"Don't worry I won't be worried. In fact why am I worried?", she asked. "If any pony comes knocking at our door I'll just kill them," she said, realization dawning on her face. "Yeah in fact that's exactly what I'll do. I'll just kill them."
"Problem solved," she said with a sick grin on her face, and walked out of my room leaving me to remain in my state of extreme shock. She was worried and then completely freaking calm. What the heck? Was this all part of her plan to get me to break down? I was so confused.
Celestia why must she be so complicated?
------------Rainbow POV
I made my way up to my room, where Vinyl was waiting with all the ponies. Suri Polomare was currently being sucked dry by Vinyl.
Which left Berry Sweet, or Pinkie Pie. Wait, no. On second thought, Berry Sweet was dead, too.
Which only left Pinkie Pie.
Pinkie was curled up in a corner, rocking back and forth. "I thought this was just a weird party," she said, tears streaking her cheeks.
"Are you gonna kill me?", she asked, fear ever-present in her baby blue eyes.
Yeah she needed to be compelled. Or maybe not. My more animalistic side screamed at me to just kill her and be done with it. But the small bit of equinity I had left lectured me about killing such an innocent pony.
I trotted over, tilted her head upwards, made eye contact, and compelled her not to be afraid.
Her crying stopped. The fear disappeared. The bubbly pony I had known before at the bar sprung back in her place.
"Are you gonna kill me?", she asked with those baby blue eyes and that genuine smile, but as a tear dripped from my eye, I knew what I had to do.
"You're not gonna move," I said lowly. She nodded.
I came up behind her pulled her mane back behind her ear, and......