Previous Chapters Next
Close
Pilot Part One4,734 words
Pilot Part Two8,101 words
Pilot Part Three8,107 words
Season One, Episode Two, Discovery 25,005 words

Pilot Part Three

Amassed in a swirling crowd of ponies, Vinyl weaved her way in and out of the tight knit frays, wondering if she could just do this all night long. Maybe then it would make it harder for Rainbow to find her...

Rainbow wiped blood off her mouth for the second time that night. 'Well,' she thought to herself, 'she kind of had it coming.' Getting off of Octavia's limp form, she cracked her neck. 'Time to find Vincenza.'...

There was a door to the right of the circle that lead to a crowded bar.

'Perfect,' Vinyl thought, 'maybe she won't find me there.'

Vinyl had so many questions. She hadn't even been able to ask them all, because she had been so excited to just escape from Rainbow. The notion was enticing, so enticing, that it had drive her to try to kill Rainbow. Perhaps it was her fault...

Looking down upon Octavia's limp form, Rainbow thought about where to put her. There was always the dumpsters, but that might make enough noise to alert someone of her presence. Then again, if someone came, she could just snap their neck. No problemo. Rainbow grinned.

So, picking Octavia up, Rainbow sped the long dead and drained vampire outside. Outside into an alleyway. Outside into the dumpster. Not sterile, but honestly more than Octavia deserved in her opinion. She dumped her in.

"So you're just going to leave her there?", a voice asked from the shadows. Red eyes flashed, a growl verbally illuminated the darkness.

"Oh, another problem, great.", Rainbow said, recognizing the voice. Spinning around, she faced the shadows.

Only to see a a lavender unicorn with a navy blue mane with pink and purple highlights step out of the dark.

"Saint Sparkle!", Rainbow greeted her with false enthusiasm. "To what do I owe the pleasure of meeting you on such a wonderful night in an extremely pleasant dingy alleyway."

"You owe me something but it's not pleasure!", Twilight said, grumbling.

"So you're the good vampire.", Rainbow said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "Yeah, I can see it, a good sense of morals, weakness because you refuse to drink pony blood."

"And you're the vampire that's been draining several ponies dry a night.", Twilight said, in stark contrast to Rainbow. Her words held no humor. Rainbow's words were spoken lightly, with dark humor.

"You know you could use a chill pill Sparky.", Rainbow said, smirking.

"Do not call me Sparky!", Twilight said, her voice reaching a dangerous tone.

"What, are ya gonna do something about it?", Rainbow asked dauntingly. "Or would you prefer Saint Sparkle?"

"Neither," Twilight said, serious as always.

"Well it's no fun if you don't pick one-", Rainbow started to say before Twilight tackled her. Well, tried to tackle her. In actuality, Twilight too was weak from only drinking animal blood to even lay a hoof on Rainbow, so ultimately, Twilight ended up grabbing thin air and crashing headfirst into the wall.

"Ouch," Rainbow said laughing. "That looks like it hurt. You know it wouldn't have if you would've just drank pony blood like the rest of the normal vampires."

Rainbow took a few moments to think of a good burn. "Now would Fluttershy think of you hurting all those poor little animals?"

Twilight grimaced. "Everything's a joke with you, isn't it Dash? But wherever you go, people die."

"Well, that's a given.", Rainbow said, bristling.

"You can't hurt these ponies, Rainbow."

"Well somebody's ballsy today. Not that female ponies have balls but you get what I mean, don't you?", Rainbow grinned as Twilight's blush threatened to turn her face into a tomato.

"Of course you do," Rainbow continued, "and you also got it when Midnight turned us, remember?"

Twilight set her jaw. "That's why you're acting like this, isn't it?"

"Does it matter?", Rainbow asked, brushing it off casually.

"You were really upset about that weren't you.", Twilight said somberly.

"You lead me right to him!", Rainbow yelled.

"I didn't know any better.", Twilight said, trying to stay calm amidst all the regrets in her head.

"Oh yes. Of course you didn't know better! Because you knew he was normal the second you gazed into his freaking eyes and saw that they were red!", Rainbow said, punching the brick wall and leaving an indent. She turned to look at Twilight, eyes swirling in a mixture of magenta and dark red.

"Okay, I'll admit to that.", Twilight said, then took a deep breath.

"And then you had the audacity to let him turn me too!", Rainbow said, walking over to the dumpster.

Continuing in an eerily calm voice, Rainbow carried on. "Rather than warning me, you let me wait, for an hour until I finally saw it, and by then it was too late, wasn't it? You saw it go down Sparky. You saw everything." Rainbow's eyes burned into Twilight's eyes, and for one second she saw a little glimmer of pain in them before it was flushed out by the rage.

"And then, after it was over, you told me to embrace it. Whatever the buck that meant. Oh I was turned into a bloodsucking night parasite, whoopee!", Rainbow said sarcastically.

"Well let me tell you something Sparky, when you were first turned, you embraced the night to its fullest. Oh yeah, you went all out! 10 ponies a night. I mean I get that you were inexperienced, but wow, could you drink! And then to make it even better, you tried to coerce me into it. I mean, it was already new, it was already creepy. But hey, you made it work somehow. I guess. I mean you've grown into a very impressionable 1000 something vampire. Good for you."

Twilight struggled to get up.

"I had a future, but now, since I've taken your advice, I've found a new future.", Rainbow said smiling.

Then all of a sudden, Rainbow was nose to nose with Twilight. "Making you pay", Rainbow finished. And with a solid smirk, she threw Twilight across the alley to smash into a wall.

Twilight groaned.

"Until next time Sparky.", was called out behind Rainbow as she strolled away.

'Now, to find Vincenza.'...

In her haste, Rainbow had forgotten about Octavia. Luckily for her, she could still be saved. But she would have to be saved a different way than most. Nevertheless, Twilight picked herself off the ground where she had fallen, and started to hobble towards the dumpster. Picking Octavia up, she walked home with her in her arms, ready to nurse the earth pony back to health.

Making her way through the crowd, Vinyl tried to keep her beating heart at bay. Now since she wasn't by Rainbow, she could think more clearly. She'd must've been wandering in the crowd for a half hour. Rainbow should have found her by now. Unless she wanted to make her anxious... Vinyl shook her head. It had already happened once, it wouldn't happen again. Making her way calmly to the door on the right in the bustling circle, she trotted at a brisk pace, much unlike her pursuer. And she failed to notice the onlooker staring at her neck.

Rainbow casually strolled through the streets, looking for Vincenza. Keeping her eyes peeled for her while walking with a purpose, was no daunting task, but she did get some curious looks, no doubt encouraged by her clopping rather than hovering. If only the ponies could hear what she heard. Then they would stare. And probably run away screaming. 'Where are you Vincenza?', she thought. 'I've got all night and the rest of eternity, I'll wait you out.'

Pushing through the hubbub, Vinyl trotted at a fast pace, and reached the handle of the door. It glistened like silver. And was flecked with red. From afar she could not see the sign, and by then it was too late. She had not realized just how isolated the door was from the rest of the ponies, and missed the loud boisterous chatter. Yes, she was isolated, and had not seen the sign. Those were her two first mistakes. Her second was listening to the voice that called to her from the shadows, and her third was screaming when the mysterious stranger pulled her into the darkness...

'Where are you?', Rainbow wondered again. But her hearing picked up a scream. A scream that had no doubt came from the white unicorn. Despite her ill intent, Rainbow was troubled by the idea of someone hurting Vincenza, and so she took off flying toward the haunting sound, leaving a rainbow trail in her wake, because no matter how threatening and dangerous or dark she was, she was still a pony in Ponyville, and little ponies like her with rainbow manes, and pretty blue pelts left little rainbow trails.

"You should not touch this door.", the voice said in a rough, unintelligible drawl, while holding onto her foreleg. The pressure of the stranger's grip combined with the low menacing tone elicited a yelp from the pony, as she tried to break free.

"Would you stop fighting?", the voice asked, clearly a stallion.

Vinyl tried to see who he was, and of course his eyes flashed.

"Well of course, another vampire. That's just great.", Vinyl verbally bit back impulsively.

The stallion was clearly not used to this type of attitude, but nonetheless handled the situation with grace.

"You will not address me that way", he said, greatly offended by Vinyl's aptitude for brashness.

"Yeah? Whatever, vampire.", Vinyl said, cursing her situation, to tired of being pursued by evil blood sucking parasites to even care that she was probably about to die.

Actually, yeah, at least this way she would die and not be turned.

"I am not a vampire!", he said, stomping his hoof. "I am clearly a shapeshifter. Changeling if you may. I most certainly do not feed on blood."

"But your eyes flashed,", Vinyl asked, choosing to argue, even though she had clearly learned nothing last time; that arguing with a supernatural creature must be the stupidest thing possible.

"My eyes flashed green, not red. And I don't even feed on anything. Changelings used to feed on love, but we've evolved. And you would know the difference if you stopped and took time to listen rather than being so impulsive all the time.", he muttered, after huffing at the unicorn's inferiority. "In fact, you're rather a lot like my friend, what was her name again?" The so-called shapeshifter rubbed his chin.

Vinyl had a hunch. And it wasn't a good one. "Her name wasn't by chance, Rainbow Dash, was it?", Vinyl asked, afraid to hear the answer.

"Yes, yes it was.", the shapeshifter said, smiling in the darkness.

"And, how do you know her exactly?", Vinyl asked, half anticipating, half dreading the answer.

"Well, we met a couple years ago I believe. She knew me when I was merely 20 years old.", he said, with a thoughtful tone to his voice one would only get if they were really thinking about what they were saying.

"And how old are you now?", Vinyl asked, trying to lighten the quite literally dark mood.

"About 80, why do you ask young mare?"

"I have a name ya know.", she said impatiently. "And," she added, "just trying to make time pass before my doom gets here."

But the stallion didn't have time to process that before a voice appeared in the calm darkness.

"Heard my name", they said through the darkness.

And with a light tone, the shapeshifter addressed the speaker. "Ah, it's been a long time."

"Yes. Yes it has.", Rainbow replied back, keeping her patience intact, if only to talk to an old friend.

"How are you doing?", the shapeshifter asked, sounding as if he was genuinely curious as to what Rainbow had been up to.

"You know, revenge on Saint Sparkle, making sure I get my fill."

"That doesn't sound like you.", the shapeshifter said, surprise hinting in his voice.

"Well it's me now. If you'd be so nice as to hand Vincenza over to me, please.", Rainbow said, being very courteous, even if venom secretly laced her facade of kindness.

The shapeshifter went to hand Vincenza over, but stopped trying when he realized that the pony was shaking. And her comment about doom earlier definitely helped in his decision.

"I don't think she would Iike to go with you.", the shapeshifter said.

"Well she's been running for too long, she has to."

"I don't think she should."

Rainbow, with her special vision, could see the worry lines painted on his face, reluctance between doing the right thing, and pleasing an old friend.

"That's not your decision.", she said finally, breaking from her observation of the shapeshifter.

"And it's not your decision either."

Vinyl was still held within the stallion's steel grip, and was getting more frantic though. She could feel him loosening his grip bit by bit though, hesitant to hand her over to her doom.

"I'm going to get her either way", Rainbow said, her words projected with deadly accuracy, aimed right at the stallion's choice.

It hit. "I'm sorry.", he said, unnerved by Rainbow's drastic change in tone.

"Don't be.", she said, her eyes flashing red.

"I'll do better next time", he tried, a hopeful tint to his words.

"See, that would be great ", Rainbow said, perfectly casual, even though she was about to bring forth the words that would condemn him to his ever nearing suspicion. "If there was a next time."

And with that, she rushed forward, ready to take what she had heard screaming. And lo and behold, what she had been ready to take, had disappeared into the night...

"You are going to be the third pony tonight.", Rainbow muttered.

The stallion would have asked what she had meant by that, but the answer was unbelievably clear when she dropped into a hunting stance. He was going to be the third thing tonight, that was killed.

"I don't want to fight you", he had tried to reason.

"Well I want to fight you", she had snarled back.

He had sighed, but before he had said another word, she had sprung, and was on top of him, tearing into his flesh, draining him dry embarrassingly fast.

He transformed into a lion, clawing at her fur, causing cringe inducing gashes, but it all just healed. He silently damned her healing abilities, and promised that he would win this. So he transformed into a bird. And he tried to fly away. And he succeeded. Almost. He was caught after just a few seconds up, forgetting that she could fly as well, and could track him, as the blood droplets were found laying on the dirty ground as well as the coppery scent of his demise. It was wretchedly hopeless, but he had made himself a promise. And he never broke promises.

Ever.

And so he fought and he turned into a Saddle Arabia elephant. But he couldn't shake her. It just gave her more space to latch on. And he eventually couldn't think with all his blood almost gone. So he just turned into one last time thing. And that was a pony that had a coat as black as pure darkness, and a mane and tail as red as blood spilled at midnight.

And had Rainbow seen what he was, she would have mutilated him. For he had turned into the instrument of her demise, the cause of her hatred for, quote, 'Saint Sparkle.' He had turned into Midnight...

And that was his silent taunt as she drained him. When he died as the sun was rising, Rainbow looked at the last thing he had turned into, and she silently screamed. Her mind racked with unfelt sobs and emotions. She did indeed mutilate him, and she even got a wonderful, horrible idea. Wouldn't it be terrible if Sparky thought Midnight had died? It would of course put off Vincenza for a while, but she could afford to put the D.J on chance. She would get her eventually. She had all night and all of eternity...
-----------------------
Hobbling away into the night with Octavia on her back, Twilight's mind spin. How could she be so daft! Of course Dash would've been able to dodge her! I mean, she could heal abnormally fast, like all other vampires, but she had heard what Rainbow had said just as much as you had, reader.

"I'm not going to be able to heal fast enough to defend anybody from Rainbow.", she said to herself.

She processed that for a minute. Then she kicked a loose pebble. It bounced away, and she cursed.

Then she cursed again for cursing.

"Flappy Lips!", she said to herself as she made her way home.

"Who am I kidding?", she continued. "I haven't been able to defend anybody against Rainbow so far anyway! An injury is just an excuse to get beat again."

She continued to stumble, and mumble incoherently to herself in little burst of self aggravation, until she noticed that she was grinding her teeth.

"Calm down," she said, to nopony but herself.

"It's okay," she said to nopony but herself.

And then she stopped for a second and did a breathing exercise that her brother's wife had taught her. Cadance. Yes, her brother's wife had a nice name.

And a nice neck, her vampiric thoughts included, barging in.

No no no, she told herself. I won't feed on Cadance. I refuse to feed on Cadance.

I will never go so far as to feed on Cadance.

And so she continued her jaunty walk, mumbling to herself and sometimes the pony on her back, even though the pony couldn't hear her.

"What do you think she'll end up doing?", Twilight asked the unconscious cellist on her back. Normally the unicorn would be galloping full speed back to her house, but in her state she quite simply couldn't. Nonetheless, she kept at an admirably intense pace.

"I mean, she could do anything and nopony will be able to stop her!", unless I drank pony blood again. Twilight said the last part of that sentence in her head, for if Octavia were to wake up on her back would would she say about being taken away by a pony who drank ponies?

"But what about what happened last time?", she asked herself, her thoughts frazzling her mind.

---------Flashback to about 1000 years ago

It was a rainy, gloomy day outside. Mist surrounded the house that the stallion was in. Galloping in, running toward the light in the one room. The light, the one candle that burned in that room was his one chance to escape her, the thing that had followed him. It and started out fine, in fact it had started out as a nice quaint birthday party.

He had entered the house when she had beckoned for him to. She had looked homely. A purple unicorn with a little penchant for reading books and organizing couldn't hurt anypony could she? If your answer is yes, you're wrong.

He should've pulled her out into the sunlight, made the bright beams dry out her skin nice and painfully. But instead, he went inside to her.

"Welcome," she said with a cheery tone of voice. "Please enjoy yourself." She flashed him a smile. A seemingly genuine, non-predatory smile.

He followed the sounds of the party to a homey, comfy room lined with tables full of refreshments and food.

The carpet was blood red, but he had jus thought of it as regular carpet. He had not thought of it as once off white carpet now dyed with the blood of ponies.

The walls were covered in paintings with red splotches on them. And he had just thought of it as merely an addition to the warm colored color scheme, but he was wrong. He was so wrong. I mean, it's not like they were splattered with ponies' life juice or anything...

The room was abuzz, and darker, faded ponies mingled with lighter, more colorful ponies alike. He had never seen such ponies as the darker faded ones. Their manes looked as if faded by age, and their coats looked as if they had grown darker year by year, but they all looked perfectly fine. They all looked smart, fit, and ready for anything.

He made himself at home amongst the throngs of guests. He chatted for a bit, moved on to the next group. After an hour, though, the apparent special guest of honor hadn't showed up. It was very unlike Rainbow to be late for a party. Especially her party. The ponies in the room wondered feverishly, where was that prismatic wonder to be found?

But in a short time before the ponies exploded with curiosity, the door opened, and Twilight walked in.

She made her way to the right side of the room, through the masses of ponies, , until she was standing on a podium in the right corner of the room, then tapped the speaker attached to it, and cleared her throat.

The ponies quieted down, knowing that whatever the hostess had to say, that it would probably answer their questions.

"I guess you're all wondering about a lot of stuff right now.", she said, and tapped her hoof on the podium.

The ponies at attention all nodded, their necks bobbing up and down, all looking so delicious. Twilight licked her lips.

They would taste good, so good.

But with all the blood Twilight had been collecting, she was at peak intellectual performance, and she refused to deviate from her perfect plan. Of course, if this plan didn't work, she had plan B. She Ben had a plan Z!

Imagine how much more powerful she could be with all these ponies' blood.

She stopped thinking about it to prevent her eyes from turning red.

"As you ponies probably didn't know, this is in fact a surprise party. It's why the guest of honor isn't here yet. In fact, she doesn't even know! So I need you to hide and stay quiet. She'll be here in exactly one minute."

Then, she flashed one last smile, and flashed off the podium to teleport behind a plant.

All the guests hid, and silently waited for the pony they were celebrating to walk through the door.

They were all very excited, but for different reasons.

The darker, faded ponies were excited because they were starving, and the lighter more colorful ponies were excited to please a friend!

58 seconds, they said silently, scrambling for places.

47, they counted internally.

30 now, they thought, stretching.

23, they kept track of it, leaping to better hiding places.

Until they got to ten.

And then they got to five.

5, they thought, and heard the knob turning to the room.

Fortunately for Twillight, they were all to much anticipating the coming event to wonder how she knew when Rainbow was going to walk in the room.

4, they thought, seeing a hoof step through the door.

3, they tracked, seeing a body enter the room.

2, they counted with baited breath, as she fumbled and flipped on the light switch, and 1, they thought, exhaling as she turned on the light, and they shouted "Surprise!"

Rainbow recoiled in shock, but once she saw the Happy Birthday Rainbow Dash sign, she smiled anyway. It was a fake smile, but the longer she dragged this out the less ponies had to die. She knew from experience. She silently cursed Twilight.

She had pulled this in all the other towns since they had been together. She had said it was Rainbow's birthday to lure them all here, and then invited all of her vampires over for dinner. An added bonus was that each time she could try repeatedly to convince Rainbow to give in to the blood lust. But guess, what it would never work. And each time, ponies died.

She said a fake "Wow, thanks guys!", as if she were in shock and then took a quick count of all the ponies here. Fifty in total. Thirty colorful, fifty dull. The dull were vampires, the colored were normal ponies.

"You shouldn't have Twilight.", Rainbow said, narrowing her eyes, and plastering a happy expression across her face that looked entirely real to everypony but Twilight.

Twilight knew she was faking.

"Well at least there's plenty to eat," Twilight said cheerily. "Unless of course you're not hungry?" The last sentence of course had another meaning that Rainbow picked up on rather quickly.

"Why don't we eat outside?", Rainbow said, "It's such a lovely day. And surely you wouldn't object to the birthday mare." She knew, of course, that Twilight's coat still hadn't gotten used to the sun after several months as a vampire. She knew that. And that was her plan.

Twilight grimaced for a second, but remained calm. "No thank you. Rainbow, if you would like to do that, feel free, but I'm going to eat inside, where it's nice and cool."

Twilight had passed the first obstacle. But would she pass the second?

"We could stay in the shade!", Rainbow said, giving Twilight her best, please-do-this-for-me-puppy-dog-face-especially-since-you're-going-to-eat-all-of-my-guests face.

Twilight seemed to hesitate.

"Who here wants to eat with Sparky?", Rainbow asked peppily.

Most of the ponies in the room raised their hooves.

"C'mon Sparky, it'll be fun. Just like old times. But don't eat to much, you might get a stomach ache."

Twilight rolled her eyes at the meaning behind Rainbow's words, but managed to make it look playful in front of the guests.

"All right Birthday mare, you win.", Twilight said jokingly, as they both moved toward the food line.

But when nopony else was looking, they gave each other death glares.

Twilight's was filled with the promise of death, and a hint of insanity, and Rainbow's was filled with a saint like quality of I'm-going-to-do-my-best-to-protect-these-ponies-from-you.

When they had both almost physically burned the other's eyeballs out, they stopped, and moved forward in line.

But when they made it outside with all the guests, it wasn't what Rainbow had expected. The guests were sitting down, chatting idly, and peacefully, but the sky...

Unfortunately, Rainbow's plan was flawed, and it turned out that Twilight would only have to use her first plan, because in the hour that they had spent waiting for Rainbow, the sun had set. No more sun, no more burns. No more burning, no more limits for killing. No more limits for killing, and no place is safe for the unfortunate normal equines at the party.

The vampires would have no boundaries, and no area would the average ponies ever be safe from the vampires. No area.

Rainbow gulped and trained around to see Twilight staring at her with a maniacal, almost dream-like intensity. "Ready for dinner?", she asked.

Rainbow shook her head curtly, her undead heart pounding in her chest.

"Don't do it Sparky.", she whispered, narrowing her eyes. "Or I'll-"

"-You'll what?", Twilight cut in smirking, "you'll defend all these helpless ponies?"

"Yes. I will.", Rainbow said, pushing her muzzle up against Twilight's muzzle.

"We'll see," she said, and then turned around, waving the little bell that had caused the deaths of many ponies in many towns.

She rang it three times.

The duller ponies looked up from their food that they didn't really have an appetite for.

Their eyes flashed. A chorus of screams echoed across the lawn, as ponies young and old alike ran for their lives from their 'friends.'

Twilight laughed darkly. "Will you defend them now?", she asked, turning around, cackling as she watched the scene unfold.

"I'll try," Rainbow said, preparing to fly in and do what she could.

"Wrong answer," Twilight said rolling her eyes, and with a twisted grin, she pulled a pony that was hiding behind the tree with her magic in between them.

She was merely a filly. She was orange, with purplish pink hair, and big pink eyes. She looked up at Rainbow with fear.

"Stop it Twilight, this is sick. Leave the kid alone.", Rainbow said, narrowing her eyes. And they glowed red until they hurt Twilight to look at.

"You want me to leave her? Fine then. I'm sure somepony will come pick her up eventually", Twilight said with a sick grin, raising her up in the air, and preparing to drop her.

And drop her she did, but she dropped her right into the arms of Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow dived onto the ground, and slid below, catching the filly, and flying back to an upright position.

"She is a filly! She doesn't deserve this! And she certainly doesn't deserve you!", Rainbow shouted.

Twilight rolled her eyes.

"Hey listen Sparky!", Rainbow said shouting, a little bit of her future darker self showing in those magenta eyes, "you may be smarter, but I'm faster and stronger. I know that without pony blood I'm not as good as I could be, but I'm still good enough to protect her."

Rainbow hovered victoriously, clutching the orange fur ball in her forelegs. "Leave this filly alone!"

For a moment, Twilight could see through her drainer instincts, and really see what she had done to the little mare huddled in Rainbow's legs, scared for her life. She also backed away from the rainbow haired mare, because she was right, she really was more powerful physically.

But she did have an advantage.

"You won't do anything with that little fuzzball in your possession. You're to noble to risk her life for damaging mine.", Twilight said triumphantly.

"You say that as if it's a bad thing," Rainbow said, shaking her head, then looking down at the scared creature in her possession, and flashing up into the night sky with her signature trail behind her, and a little equine in her legs.

------------------Back to the present

"No." Twilight said to herself. "It's out of the question. Never, never ever again."

She hadn't realize it, but by the time she had finished with her guilt flashback, she was standing, and staring blankly at the door to her house.

-------------

The next day, Rainbow whistled as she went through town.

Whispers surrounded her moving form. She could hear them all of course; with her vampiric abilities strengthening her abilities that had once been satisfactory before, she could hear every word that they were saying. And then some.

"Dash is back in town.", they whispered.

"She looks so much like a pony I once knew," Zecora mumbled.

"I swear I knew somepony who looked exactly like her 30 years ago. But that can't be, right? How could she have stayed alive?", a pony that Dash remembered as Cheerilee whispered.

"Hey? Hello?", a young colt who she thought was named Featherweight said as he ran up to her.

"Yes," she replied, patiently.

"Can I just ask you some questions?", Featherweight asked, the adorable gap in his teeth moving as he talked.

"Why not?", she asked agreeably, figuratively of course. Because unless they weren't about what she thought, and Vincenza had in fact blabbed rumors, she was safe. But just to be sure...

"Really? Yay!", he shouted enthusiastically.

"Uh huh," she said absentmindedly as she noticed Vincenza making her way through the hordes.

"So, ready to get started?", he asked, practically bouncing on his hooves like Pinkie Pie.

"Sure squirt," she said, hesitantly sitting down on the bench he had taken a seat on already, and getting into a comfortable position, before announcing, "Ask away."

"Is it true that you've been around for about 1,000 years?", he asked, quill poised to write her answer down, eyes staring at the paper.

Her mouth feel open in blind shock. Had Vincenza really told him? If so how many people had she told? She closed her mouth when he looked up from his notebook, waiting for an answer.

"What do you mean by that?", she asked, trying not to look at him too suspiciously.

"I mean, is it true that your family name, the Dashs, have been around for several hundred years?"

"Well of course," she said, regaining her composure. "We Dashs last a long time. No matter what ponies do, they can't seem to get rid of us." She smirked, in her usual cocky manner, and waved at Vincenza as she stared at her.

"So why did you come back to Ponyville?", Featherweight asked, looking up at her with those questioning eyes.

"I came back because I wanted to. It's my life anyway, I'll do what I want.", she said, shrugging nonchalantly, as she looked at Vincenza who was still staring at her out of the corner of her eye.

"Right," Featherweight said trailing off. "That was vague.", he said, writing it down.

"Sorry, I'm just a little distracted.", she said, apologizing sheepishly.

"Anyway," Featherweight said, continuing. "Is it true that you're related to Twilight Sparkle?", he said, the quill poised perfectly above the next sheet of notebook paper.

"Ya know, I actually have no idea.", she said.

"Uh huh," Featherweight said dejectedly, dropping the quill and notebook.

"Ugh," Rainbow said, mentally berating herself for being so distracted.

"What?", Featherweight said impatiently.

"Maybe Twilight can answer your questions. She was always good with history."

At this suggestion, Featherweight's face lit up.

"And if you want something really juicy, you could really just ask her what her family has done the past few hundred years. Of course, you could just ask her in the weird way you asked me in. In fact, she responds especially well if you ask if she's been around for about a thousand years.", Rainbow continued. Featherweight was confused, but a scoop was a scoop.

So he headed over to Twilight's place.

And Rainbow had a nice long stare match with Vincenza from across the street, just playing innocent until she could get her in an alley or something...
-------------------------------
Rainbow was staring at her weirdly because she was staring at Rainbow weirdly. 'Was it a dream?', she asked herself.

The last thing she remembered was stumbling into her bed that night, and feeling the dried blood on her neck. Then she had drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

Unless the uneasy sleep was in fact the night she had had with the pegasus? Either way it was confusing. She had to talk with Rainbow about it. But something in the gaze they held each other at told the other to stay away. On purpose or not, they both communicated that message to the other. She was a confrontational pony normally, but this? This was too much. Nevertheless, she was about to walk across the street to meet her, when she broke her gaze, and when she looked again, Rainbow was nowhere to be found...

---------------------------

The colt was on her doorstep and had just asked her a very personal question. Keep in mind that Twilight had been sleep depraved, worrying about Dash's plans as much as was equinely possible, and Twilight was not of sound mind. No, not at all.

But nonetheless, she had seen him through the peephole, and just to be polite, had let him in. Conveniently forgetting about the other discomforts she was exposing him to. *Cough*, morning breath, *cough*.

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?", she asked, trying not to let her eye twitch too much.

Featherweight sighed, today was not his day. "I said, is it true that you've been around 1,000 years?"

Twilight's eyes widened, and she started saying "Nonononononononono!" She looked quite frazzled, so Featherweight shut the door quietly, and walked away slowly, so as not to startle the pony who's sanity was slowly crumbling away...

Featherweight was not having a successful day.

---------------------------------

Vinyl continued to stand by the side of the street, scanning for Rainbow.

At last, after five minutes, she gave up, and was about to leave when she felt a light tap on her shoulder.

It was Rainbow.

Vinyl squeaked.

"Woah!", Rainbow said, "didn't mean to scare you, just wanted to get your attention.", she said backing up.

"Dash, we need to talk about what happened last night.", Vinyl said, meeting Rainbow's reluctant gaze.

"Oh right.", Rainbow said, wincing.

Vinyl was puzzled. If it were real, she would've thought that Dash would have tackled her in rage by now, or her eyes would've turned red, or she would've yelled out a solid no. But none of that happened.

"Hey listen," Rainbow said grinning, and embarrassed. "I'm sorry for leaving you in that alleyway." She averted her eyes.

"Oh, that's what this is about?", Vinyl asked. "Cause for a second there I thought that you were-", she said, cutting herself off. "And they were-", she said again, before giving up completely. "Nevermind," she exclaimed, frustrated.

"Okay," Rainbow said, giving her a you're-crazy-but-I'm-still-your-friend-so-I'll-play-along-look. "Wanna go get lunch?", she asked.

Vinyl hesitated.

"C'mon, Scratch, we need to talk this out!", Rainbow said, putting her hooves on the D.J's shoulders and shaking her.

Well at least she wasn't calling her Vincenza.

"Okay," Vinyl said, finally relenting.

Rainbow started to walk away.

Vinyl cleared her throat.

"Well why are ya just standing there?", Rainbow asked, a joke evident in her tone, turning around.

Vinyl shrugged in confusion.

"C'mon," Rainbow said. "We're going to Sugarcube Corner, we're going to talk through this, and we're going to get last night sorted out! Oh, and I'm paying."

Vinyl just gawked.

"Well are ya just gonna stay there?", Rainbow asked, smirking.

----------------------------

The place Rainbow had taken her to was Berry Punch's Bar and Grill. And it was their lucky day, because they were being served by the manager herself.

"Oh Rainbow Dash!", Berry called out in a drunken stupor, as she stumbled over to their table.

"Berry," Rainbow said with a good natured tone, and a clap to Berry's back.

"Oof!", Berry stumbled, then righted herself. "What can I start you gals off with?", she asked with a little tipsy note in her voice, and both forelegs on the table to keep from falling drunkenly on the floor.

"Could you give us some time to order?", Rainbow asked, raising an eyebrow. "We just got here, ya drunken mare."

"Of course," Berry said lightly and then stumbled away, mumbling to herself, as every drunken mare should. Not.

Rainbow shook her head as Berry ambled away, pecking at the ground with her hooves. As if she were walking on clouds. Which she was not. But who is to say whether she knew that or not?

"So what's going on with ya?", Rainbow asked Vinyl, as she squirmed in her seat, trying to get comfortable.

"It's good. Everything's fine.", Vinyl replied, looking troubled.

"For the last time, I am so sorry that I left you in that alleyway. You must be so scared right now. Ooh. You must've been so scared then. Did they get you? What happened to your neck?" Rainbow pelted her with questions. When she noticed that Vinyl looked overwhelmed, she stopped and apologized. "Sorry.", she said sheepishly.

"So what are you getting?", Vinyl asked, eager to change the subject.

"Oh, I'm actually not that that hungry.", Rainbow said, stifling a yawn.

Vinyl saw this as her chance, "Are you thirsty?", she asked.

"Yeah, why?", Rainbow asked coolly.

Vinyl gulped, "nothing!", she said nervously.

"No, what is up with you?", Rainbow asked, peering at her intensely. She could swear that she saw a flash of red but that was crazy, wasn't it?

"Are you hungry?", Rainbow asked, looking at her weird, as if she were the crazy one.

"Yeah- no- I don't know!", Vinyl said, freaking out.

"Scratch, you are clearly not okay," Rainbow said reaching over and touching Vinyl's hoof lightly.

"I can't do this. This is just too weird!", Vinyl exclaimed, and ran out of the bar.

Rainbow got up and chased after her.

"Wait, Scratch!", Rainbow yelled as she ran, terrified, out of the doors of the safety of the loud clanging silverware, and blaring music.

It was just too risky. She didn't wanna take that chance, in fact, she didn't even wanna know. She didn't care. At least that's what she thought. But she would've been safe that night if she would've just stayed with the blaring music and clanging silverware.

Vinyl kept running, and Rainbow flew after her.

"Scratch!", Rainbow called out from behind her, she was gaining.

Vinyl kept pushing herself. Run, she told herself, run as if your life depends on it, because it does.

"C'mon Scratch, would ya just let me explain?", Rainbow yelled as she pretended to be winded from the pursuit on hoof.

"Nope!", Vinyl said, panicking extensively. "Nope nope nope nope nope!"

"You sound like Big Mac," Rainbow huffed.

"No, I don't.", Vincenza yelled back. Sweating from the exertion of the race on hoof, she was beginning to break down.

She didn't know how much more of this she could take.

"Vinyl! Just stop running!", Rainbow said, starting to fly after Vincenza.

"No, no I won't!", Vincenza yelled back. Her legs were burning, but she knew what could have been real, what Rainbow could be, and she wasn't willing to sacrifice her personal safety for her physical wellbeing.

Vincenza ran, and ran. And she ran some more, until she just couldn't go anymore. But her mind was just, just screaming "No! No! Run! Run!"

It was fight or flight, and the muscles she had gained spinning beats didn't nearly match up to the athlete's strength Rainbow had.

Rainbow was getting sick of this. She was going to take care of Midnight's corpse first, but this was stupid and she was impatient.

"Vincenza!", she shouted. "Vincenza Scratch. You want the answer to your questions? Well here's that one answer is that you seem to be so scared of finding! Last night happened. And I'm going to get you."

Luckily for Rainbow, nobody had heard her death threat except for her target, because Vincenza had a habit of picking alleyways rather than open, safe, and busy streets.

Vincenza had her answer. She was screaming in her head, and her voice was getting hoarse. "It was real", she mumbled to herself. "It was real."

But wait, she wasn't just screaming in her head, she was screaming in real life. She was really screaming.

She squealed, and picked up the pace, only to come to a dead end.

"Don't worry, I'll make it easy for you," a menacing voice said from the only exit. A dark shadow, with glowing impenetrable blood red eyes, staring at her soul.

And then, in a flash, Rainbow Dash was on her, latched onto her neck, feeling the blood rush into her mouth, and in a blind frenzy, she grabbed Vinyl's neck in a tighter position, and turned her around. Rainbow unattached from the wound just long enough to run her tongue over it. It made Vincenza shiver, and Rainbow laughed.

"It'll all be over soon, don't worry Vincenza.", Rainbow said, looking at her in the eyes. "You'll be done before long. Any last words?"

Vinyl just made an "Mmph" sound.

"Didn't think so.", Rainbow said, pressing Vinyl up against the wall into an even tighter position.

Rainbow bent her neck back, and let her fangs pierce so deep into her jugular that she was surprised Vincenza didn't shriek.

It was rather impressive how Vinyl could keep her emotions so silent.

If Rainbow were in her position, she would've kicked the vampire several times by now.

When Vincenza had almost been completely drained, when she was on the precipice of disaster, Rainbow forced open the pony's mouth to force feed her some of her own blood. Once Rainbow was sure that Vincenza had taken in enough, she tilted her head upward so that the blood rushed down her throat.

Then she headed home, Vinyl in tow.

Meanwhile at the house Rainbow and Twilight shared, Twilight was in a deep restless sleep.

Rainbow layed Vinyl down in her bedroom, on the bed, beside her, but headed outside to do something first.

She walked around the house, unlocked the cellar door, and took out the shapeshifter that had last transformed into Midnight. She took one look at his mangled form, and decided that that would be enough to freak out Twilight. Then she got a stake, and a nail, and found a nice part of the house where Twilight would surely see her mangled 'love interest'.

'Oh yeah,' Rainbow thought, 'this'll work.'

So she set to work nailing in the corpse, so it looked purposely like he was murdered. Then she jutted the stake through his heart for extra effect. And when she was done, she looked at her work with a satisfied smirk. This would have Saint Sparkle screaming for days.

At least she was satisfied, until she's heard the whimper of a filly behind her, who was orange, with purplish pink hair, and looked at her with fear in her eyes...

Author's Note:

If you haven't guessed who the new character is after you've read this chapter by now, I'm going to throw a fit!