Darkness Rising

by SkyHighFlyer

Chapter 4, Not a Cold, Dark World

Twilight fell to the floor and moaned. She hadn't been here for even a week and already the animals hated her. She could hardly blame them, after all, Fluttershy fell asleep and wouldn't wake up, while she began taking over her jobs. Despite that, Twilight expected them to behave better. After all, these sort of things didn't give them the right to throw food at her when she wasn't looking, or make huge messes for her to clean up later.

It had been nearly five days since Twilight had left Fluttershy's house last, and things had been looking up for her. She would still look in on her friend, sometimes sitting next to her and telling Fluttershy all about her day. Sometimes she couldn't hold back a tear or two, but she no longer brooded over her mistakes like she used to, it just wasn't good for her.

Twilight slowly got to her feet. She felt like visiting Fluttershy, but when she got to her friend's room, she found something mostly unexpected.

Fluttershy was awake.

Their eyes locked, and both felt overwhelming emotions. Twilight felt guilt, guilt she had managed to suppress for nearly a week. Fluttershy felt fear.

Fluttershy was afraid of a lot of things, but this was unique. This was the kind of fear that a pony feels when they don't see a way out of a situation. The fear that they were going to die.

The same fear that she felt no less than a week ago.

Twilight levitated off her guardian, and set it on the small nightstand next to Fluttershy, unintentionally causing Fluttershy even more fear as she reverted to her natural appearance once more.

Slowly, Twilight began to step towards her friend. For Twilight, each step was agonizingly slow, but for Fluttershy, it was dreadfully quick, each step Twilight took bringing death just a bit closer.

Fluttershy silently prayed for a quick and painless death as Twilight stood over her, not even wondering why she hadn't died last time.

Twilight began to cry when she saw the terror in the innocent mare's eyes. Unlike last time, when Fluttershy was scared and desperate, she now laid there with a sad acceptance, knowing she was going to die and that she couldn't change it.

Without words or looks she begged Twilight to kill her as fast as possible. What happened next though, was the last thing she expected.

Twilight pulled her into a hug, sobbing into her neck. At first Fluttershy let herself relax, hoping that wherever she went next would be just as wonderful as her time here was, but then began to think that maybe something else was going on, and
that maybe Twilight wasn't going to hurt her.

After several minutes of crying, Fluttershy's fear had all but left her completely, instead being replaced by the motherly caring part of her as she slowly hugged Twilight back.

“Fluttershy... I'm so sorry, I... I didn't mean to. I never meant t-to turn y-y-you into a vampire... please... f-forgive me.” Twilight said through her tears.

Fluttershy radiated calm, but she knew that Twilight had no reason to lie to her, and that if she really was a vampire now, her life was about to become much different. Despite the fact that she was truly terrified about the possibility that she may have become a monster, she knew Twilight needed her, and that she needed Twilight.

“Shhhhh, it’s okay, I forgive you… I’ll always forgive you.” She said soothingly to Twilight, trying to calm Twilight down enough to ask the questions that she needed answered.

Twilight pulled away enough to look Fluttershy in the eye to the best of her ability, hardly able to bear seeing her friend after what she did. Although her guilt did its best to stop her, she looked straight at Fluttershy and asked, “How can you j-just forgive me like that, I mean I turned you, you should hate me right now.”

“A little, but you’re taking it harder than me right now, and besides, I know you’ll help me through this, right?” Fluttershy said to the lavender unicorn in front of her, managing to coax a smile out of her friend despite their emotions.

Twilight smiled and pulled Fluttershy close, “Don’t worry Fluttershy, I’ll do my best to help you through this, I promise.”

They both stayed like that for a long time, neither of them wanting to break the silence of this golden moment, but Twilight eventually spoke up, “So… do you… maybe… want to talk about this?”

Fluttershy lied down on the bed, and Twilight took a sitting position by her feet.

Fluttershy yawned, and finally asked the first question on her mind, “Twilight, is it scary, being… different?” she couldn’t bring herself to say the word.

“Well… it’s probably going to be a bit scary at first, but you just need to learn that you’re the same mare at heart. You’ll always be the kindest pony I know, just a little change in the way you think, a few changes to your diet, and a bit of natural magic, plenty more… but let’s not talk about that right now.

Fluttershy knew she was trying to put something off as long as possible, and she was willing to leave it at that, knowing it was probably going to be a bit disturbing. Not ready to end the conversation quite yet, Fluttershy asked another question, “You said something about natural magic, what’s that mean?”

Twilight smiled, “Well, pardon me for sound a bit like Rainbow Dash, but that’s probably one of the coolest parts. Vampires have their own form of unique magic, very difficult, if not impossible to reproduce with unicorn, pegasus, or earth pony magic, or even a combination of two or more.”

“Like turning into bats?” Fluttershy asked inquisitively, almost exited at the possibility of becoming an animal herself.

Twilight giggled, “Not quite, that’s just a myth, albeit a popular one. What I’m talking about is the ability to do things such as change your appearance, or track somepony by their blood. It’s a bit like changeling magic, a whole range of abilities and spells only available to a single race.”

Fluttershy looked at Twilight strangely and asked, “Well, how does it work?”

Twilight sighed, “Some abilities, like changing your appearance, are completely natural and just take a bit of practice. However, there are also certain patterns and forces that can be carefully woven together to create something that can only be described as spells.”

Fluttershy paused for a moment, contemplating the next question she would ask. She was now no longer afraid of Twilight, and displayed a rich curiosity instead. After a moment of delicate thinking, she asked the next question on her mind, “What about my… you know… new diet?”

Twilight, in all honesty, was mostly surprised when Fluttershy asked that question. She had been expecting Fluttershy to put it off as long as possible. Even if Fluttershy wasn’t trying to, Twilight wanted to keep her closest friend happy for as long as possible, even if it meant not telling her important information until absolutely necessary. After gathering a response, Twilight said, “Fluttershy, listen, I won’t deny that this is important, and that we’ll need to have this talk soon, but please, can we just not talk about this now… just… not now.”

“But…” Fluttershy began, being promptly cut off by Twilight before she could really relay her question.

“I know you're curious, this is a big change in your life, but there are a lot of new things you need to know about that you won't like, especially for somepony like you.”

Fluttershy tried to speak again but was cut off almost as soon as she could start, “Fluttershy, listen, if you just let it go for a little, I'll take you hunting when the time comes, but please, let's just not talk about it right now.”

Fluttershy finally calmed down after a bit, the effects of her turning catching up to her and making her tired. Twilight stood and was about to say goodnight when Fluttershy’s hoof touched her. With pleading eyes she said, “Please… if it’s no problem, could you sleep next to me tonight… I don’t want to be alone.”

Twilight looked down on her friend, and she smiled. She smiled for the first time in many days and was more than willing to oblige. She politely climbed in next to Fluttershy, eliciting a creak from the old bed, unused to holding more than the young pegasus and a few animals at a time.

Fluttershy finally began to doze off with Twilight at her side, sleepily pulling her into a gentle embrace, and Twilight began to stroke her mane as she began to speak the final words before Fluttershy drifted off into a calm slumber, “You know, you mean a lot to me. You’re just like the sister I never had, a mare that can understand me, comfort me. Somepony I can trust to be by my side for anything.”

“Fluttershy… I love you.”

Author's Note:

Yes, I know this took a while, but life been hard. I promise to keep up a bit more in the future.

Comments

[Cakebomb]

Ah hem: Awesome fanfiction. Even better than Vampony! I can only say one thing i dislike about this: NEEDS MORE CHAPTERS. DO IT. NAOWWWWWWWWWWW.

[Izarra Kiania]

What you wrote:

“Fluttershy… I love you.”

What I read:

“Fluttershy… I love you.”

And then we banged.

I love my Winning-fier script.

[Prysmkitsune]

*sighs and drops this one off the list after this chapter* you had a cool idea but you wasted it
if you just wanted to write a shylight fic you didnt need the vampony thing its an afterthought and obviously so at that in this, you just included it to 'try' and might i ad you failed at that to distract from what this really is, a cheap shipfic *sighs and grumbles going off to find something else to read*