That night was perfect for a prowling predator. Luna’s gleaming moon and her shimmering stars were hidden behind the clouds, cloaking the town in near-perfect darkness. The wind was lively, rustling the leaves on the trees of Sweet Apple Acre’s orchards and covering any subtle noises like, say, the creaking of a floorboard or click of a lock. It was a witching hour to end all others, and a creature of the night could ask for no better. It was the sort of night that horror stories were made of.
If only the creature of the night on the prowl that evening were more confident, intimidating, fiendish, and less… Fluttershy.
The butter yellow pegasus crept up to the front door of the Apple Family home, dressed in her black stealth hoody suit… mostly because of the autumn chill. If she had any cold resistance when she turned into a juice sucking bat creature, she didn’t keep it with the fangs. Or the thirst.
She ran her tongue along her teeth, feeling the points of her new fangs again. The sharpness sent a little shiver through her as she dug the key out of her hoody. Applejack had left it with Fluttershy to house sit once, but she kept forgetting to return it. Whether it was providence divine or devilish, she didn’t want to think about it. Her gaze locked on the keyhole, the only thing standing between her and a nice, big, juicy bite of…
Fluttershy squeaked and rapidly shook her head. What am I thinking? she thought, somewhat answering her own question. I shouldn’t be doing this; I shouldn’t have even considered it. I should just go…
A timberwolf howl from the forest that sounded entirely too close changed her mind right back. She bit back a yelp and jammed the key into the lock, rushing in and stealthily slamming the door.
Panting heavily and fighting to bring her panic back down, she slid down the door and onto the floor. Well… I’m in, she thought with a nervous frown. She screwed her eyes tight, the thirst welling up in her mouth again. She licked her lips, her tongue tingling and craving, her throat feeling cracked and arid as the Badlands.
After a very dry swallow, she got on all fours and looked around. She was in the living room; no Apple ponies there, nothing of interest. There were the stairs, the den, the kitchen…
The kitchen. And on the kitchen table sat one lone, defenseless apple.
Her dry mouth watered a little bit before she shook her head. One last time. I’m going to try one more time, she promised herself as she snuck up to the fruit, as if it were going to notice her and run.
It didn’t. She skulked up to her juicy prey, took it in her hooves, and sank her teeth into it. The recovered pegapire sucked it dry, the delicious juice running over her tingling tongue and leaving the helpless apple a withered, lumpy husk.
The thirst was still there. It wasn’t quenched in the least.
Fluttershy’s face twisted into an angry scowl, trying with all her might not to scream in frustration. D…d…drat! was the worst curse she could muster up even in her own mind. I’m still incredibly thirsty, but apples aren’t helping anymore!
She allowed herself a little groan as she tossed the apple she’d so victimized into the trash. Maybe I really should go to Twilight and ask for help… The thirst spiked again, Fluttershy screwing her eyes shut in pain. No, no! This is all her fault anyway. If she messes up again, who knows what I’ll turn into?
Her eyes snapped to the stairwell. Only one option left.
The butter colored vampony crept up the stairs, putting her hooves down only on the far sides of each platform. There was much less creaking that way. Half a lifetime of caring for animals and having to go downstairs for a snack without waking any of them up had taught her the finer points of stealth.
She lied low when she arrived on the second floor, whatever instincts she might have as a predator kicking in. Four possible bedrooms, more than four doors. Not a problem. Her ears perked up and zeroed in on which rooms emanated the sound of ponies breathing.
Fluttershy crept up to the one closest to her, peeking into the keyhole. Inside was Big Mac, fast asleep and cuddling some sort of… doll. Raggedy, ugly looking thing, too. Not even I sleep with my toys anymore, Fluttershy giggled to herself silently. She passed him by; surprising the likes of Big Mac and getting even an accidental kick… yeah, she wasn’t about to risk a broken everything.
She moved on to the next door and peeked in. All she could see was the white-haired bun of Granny Smith peeking out from the covers, her false teeth in a glass of water beside her bed. Fluttershy gagged a little and looked away, her appetite almost ruined. Almost. Not enough. She passed her by; the old mare’s blood was probably thin and gross.
She snuck up to the next door. Inside was Apple Bloom, her covers not exactly fully covering her. Must toss and turn in her sleep. The little filly shivered, and Fluttershy found herself having to struggle against her motherly instincts to break in and tuck Apple Bloom in properly. Gritting her teeth and letting out a small whine, she pulled away. She passed her by as well, because feeding on a foal… just… no.
Fluttershy’s eyes rested on the last door. Only one source of breathing left. She took a deep breath herself before moving forward. Her legs quivered from sheer anticipation and thirst, trying with all her might to restrain herself from rushing in. An agonizing eternity of starvation later, she was before the door where her target had to be, and peeked into the keyhole.
Just as she expected and hoped, she saw the blonde tail of Applejack hanging out from under the covers inside, the cowpony’s trademark hat hanging on the wall.
The quivering went from up her legs to her entire body as she turned the doorknob. She tried her best to make her muscles go still, but the thirst was making her fangs ache and her body was having none of that “restraint” nonsense. She snuck forward as best she could, her ears drinking in the gentle breathing of her sleeping prey-to-be.
She found herself at Applejack’s bedside, the farm mare wrapped in her sheets like a hot meal wrapped in tinfoil. Licking her lips, she gently eased the covers off of her friend, exposing her body to both the cold and Fluttershy’s gaze.
The vampire looked Applejack up and down, drinking in every inch and detail. The mare was laying on her side, mouth open and a bit of drool dripping out of the corner. It was almost cute, in a slightly squicky way. Even cuter was her mane, which had already come down with a bad case of bedhead, the blonde mass of hair taking gravity and good looks only as light suggestions. Her chest was gently rising and falling, a little shiver going through her as she flicked her tail.
Now, where to sink my fangs in? Fluttershy thought, smacking her lips and trembling with glee. Her eyes frantically swept up and down her friend’s body, as if the answer were spelled in her fur. Neck? No, that might kill her. She’s my friend, and if she’s going to forgive me for this, she has to be alive. The back has too many nerve endings that might get severed. I doubt a leg would have much blood in it. Belly has too many vital organs.
A little trickle of moonlight seeped in through the window, drawing Fluttershy’s eyes to Applejack’s cutie mark. A simple, elegant, delicious looking trio of crimson red apples, printed by fate itself onto a gorgeous set of thick, muscular hips that rippled with power from years of apple bucking.
Without a second thought, or even a first one, Fluttershy opened her jaws wide and sank her fangs right into Applejack’s flank. A happy moan escaped her throat as she sucked, a coppery yet sweet and sugary taste washing over her tongue and fangs. The texture was divine and plump and soft despite the toughness of the muscle underneath. Her thirst vanished after only two swallows, her quivering in desperation replaced by quivering in pleasure, leaving her to just enjoy her drink, basking in the taste on her tongue and feeling against her fangs and lips.
Her demented euphoria lasted for maybe five seconds, and ended with a hoof to her stomach. She skidded across the floor by her rump and bumped into the wall.
“Wh-what in the hay are you doing?!” she heard Applejack say as she came down from her trance.
“Wh-what?” was all she managed to slur out, instinctively licking her lips for the last drops of blood. She blinked as she swallowed the last few dregs, eyes wide in terror and her cheeks red in embarrassment. “Did, did I just-”
“Did what?! Because it’s looking like you bit my butt to me!” Applejack cut in, looking over the two fresh puncture holes in her hip.
Fluttershy drooled a little at the sight, but rapidly shook her head. “W-well… I guess I did, but-”
“But what?!” Applejack cut in again, a mix of confusion and anger on her face. “Oh, I know what, you bit it! I’m leakin' like a busted cider barrel! Who even does something like that?!”
Fluttershy shrank back, trying to hide in the hood of her stealth suit like a turtle. “I-I’m really s-”
“Why are you in that ridiculous sneaking getup, anyway? You didn’t even take the bunny ears off!” the cowpony yelled.
“Sis, is everythin' okay?” came Apple Bloom’s voice from the hall.
Applejack and Fluttershy both froze, turning to the wide open door. I forgot to close it! Fluttershy scolded herself, mentally facehoofing. Applejack quickly pulled her covers over her rear half as Apple Bloom rounded the corner and looked inside.
“You’re making an awful racket, AJ, and- Oh, hi Fluttershy! What’re you doing here?” she asked with an oblivious smile. Her brow furrowed as she looked at the scene more closely. “And why’re you in my sister’s room dressed like a bunny?”
“Go back to bed, Apple Bloom, everything’s fine,” Applejack said firmly.
“Is this one of those things where you tell me that I’ll know when I’m older?” Apple Bloom asked her sister, Fluttershy’s face growing red hot.
“You, bed, now, or I’m giving you some of Big Mac’s chores tomorrow!” Applejack barked with a glare.
“Y-yes ma’am!” Apple Bloom yelped, speeding off to her room and slamming her door.
Applejack sighed in relief and climbed out of bed. She walked over to the door and shut it, a little pang going through Fluttershy with each drop of juice that fell wastefully to the floor. “Good thing she hasn’t figured out yet I would never be that cruel,” Applejack chuckled tiredly.
“Y-yeah, guess that’s good,” Fluttershy agreed quietly as she screamed internally.
“So,” Applejack started, sitting down on the floor, “I’m kinda still bleedin’, and I’m honestly kinda feeling faint. Could you maybe get some bandages out of the bathroom and patch me up? Last door down the hall. Gonna trust you not to bite me again.”
“Of c-course!” Fluttershy stammered, rushing out of the room. It wasn’t until she was rummaging through their first aid kit that it occurred to her that she had no idea how to treat a vampire bite. Horsefeathers, I’ll just wing it! she thought before rushing back.
Applejack was looking over her bed with a scrunched nose, turning over the sheets and covers. “Well, these are gonna need to be washed in some heavy-duty stuff right away.”
“Getting bandages on your flank is more important,” Fluttershy said. “Lay down.”
Applejack shook her head and started gathering her sheets. “Nah, I can wait a few minu-”
“I said lay down!” Fluttershy snarled, teeth bared and fire in her eyes, the momma bear in her flaring up.
Applejack stared at her in shock for a few seconds before stammering out, “O-okay,” and obeying, laying upright on her stomach.
“Good,” Fluttershy chirped. “On your side though, hind leg up. Need to bind it around your thigh properly.”
Applejack looked at her with a raised brow, cheeks a bit red. “I don’t think I’m gonna do something like that after you-”
“If you want to get better, you will!” Fluttershy snapped.
It barely took a second for Applejack to flop on her side and lift her leg straight up, eyes wide in primal fear.
Fluttershy looked into her friend’s eyes and sighed. “Sorry. A lot of my patients are a lot more growly and bitey when they’re in pain. Sometimes have to show them who’s boss, even if I don’t mean it.”
“N-no, I understand; tough love and all that. Sometimes have to show some with Apple Bloom,” AJ admitted, fear abating somewhat.
“I saw,” Fluttershy giggled, taking a roll of bandaging and wrapping it around Applejack’s thigh, liberally applying antibiotic gel. The cowpony looked away with a bright blush while Fluttershy tried to keep her gaze in respectful places.
After a minute of binding the wound, Applejack finally spoke up. “So… you gonna tell me why you snuck into my house in a bunny outfit and bit my rear?”
Fluttershy cringed inwardly. “Um… I’m guessing you wouldn’t believe me if I said ‘Discord did it’?”
“I’m not really gonna believe that, no,” she said flatly. “Look, I know you’re not normally like this, so something must be up. Just spill the beans, sugarcube.”
“I-I, well… that is to say, um…” Fluttershy swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “Twilight’s counter spell only… somewhat worked. I still have my vampire bat fangs, and even though I don’t want apples anymore, I’m still really, really thirsty. It’s been driving me crazy, and in my desperation, I may have, sort of...” She gulped. “Come to the conclusion that maybe an apple pony would do the trick,” she admitted, voice getting softer and softer with each word.
“Really? That seemed sensible?” Applejack asked, giving her an odd look.
“Mmhmm,” Fluttershy nodded meekly, binding the bandages tight.
“Wow, you really were desperate,” Applejack said, eyes going a bit wide. “Did it… did it at least work?”
“Well… yes. I’m not thirsty anymore,” Fluttershy admitted with a small smile. She blushed and added, “Um, you can put your leg down now…”
Applejack lowered her leg with a nervous little chuckle. “Right, sorry. Um… you know, if you were in that much of a bind, you could’ve just asked.”
Fluttershy lowered her gaze to the floor and shuffled. “I know I should’ve, but… but what if you said no? I don’t think I could’ve taken another day of my throat feeling like it was full of sand!”
“Fluttershy, we’re friends,” Applejack assured. “And friends have always got each other’s backs when they’re in trouble, right?”
She looked up to see Applejack smiling at her, and she couldn’t help but smile back. “R…right. Unless they’re doing something stupid about their problems like you did about the bats… n-no offense.”
“None taken; I fully admit you were right about that one,” Applejack said with a wave of her foreleg. “Just promise me you’ll see Twilight about this little blood-sucking thing, okay?”
“Ok-kay,” Fluttershy fibbed. No way I’m going to let her mess me up even more. “What can I do to make this up to you, though?”
Applejack shook her head. “You don’t have to do anything. Nobody really got hurt.”
“You got hurt, Applejack. I should do something!” Fluttershy fretted. “Want me to work in the fields? Tend to the barn? Maybe help more with the bat sanctuary? Run errands for you?”
“No, Fluttershy, it’s fine, really,” the cowpony insisted.
“Um… maybe get you a present?” Fluttershy tried, completely ignoring her friend. “A gift card? A new hat? Take you out to dinner? Just… something! I mean, I already ruined that gorgeous, juicy flank of yours, and I-” The pegasus squeaked and bit her lip, face heating up like dragon’s breath. Did I really just say that?
“Um, sugarcube… are you coming onto me?” she asked, brow furrowed.
Fluttershy cleared her throat and looked away. “W-well, um, I wouldn’t exactly call it-”
“‘Cause if you wanted a date, you could’ve also asked for that,” Applejack said off-handedly.
Fluttershy blinked, staring blankly at Applejack. “C-come again?”
“You. Me. A date,” Applejack said slowly, looking her square in the eye with a barely-hidden smile. “Let’s call an apple an apple, why don’t we? You offered to take me out to dinner, and that sounds like a gay old time to me. I think that'd more than make up for tonight, don't you?”
“I… u-uh… erm… but…” Fluttershy shook her head and squeaked, “O-okay.”
“You’re payin’ though, since this is your fault,” Applejack chuckled. “Meet me here tomorrow at seven sharp, and we’ll call it even.” She climbed out of bed with a little grunt and extended her foreleg. “Deal?”
Fluttershy looked from the offered leg, to Applejack, then back again. Is this really happening? This isn’t really happening. I must be dreaming. Dates are not things that happen to me. She bit her lip, hard, her fangs digging painfully into her own skin. Okay, this isn’t a dream. Why couldn’t this be a dream?! This is the last way I’d ever want to land a date! Fluttershy swallowed down her panic and extended her own leg, shaking Applejack’s. “D-deal.”
“Good,” she nodded. “I’ll have decided where we’re goin’ by the time you get here.” A big, loud, but somehow still cute yawn forced its way out of Applejack’s mouth. “I should really get to bed and sleep off this butt bite,” she said, cocking her hip a little and looking at the already reddening bandages. “And you should get out of here before anyone else wakes up.”
“Yeah, okay,” Fluttershy nodded, hiding a bit behind her mane as she trotted through the door. “Again… sorry.”
“Just show up tomorrow and it’ll all be fine,” Applejack said, following close behind her. “As long as you don’t bite me again, anyway.”
“I-I won’t, promise!” Fluttershy said, turning around in the hall to look at her friend.
Applejack chuckled, a strangely smug grin spreading across her muzzle. “Good. I’m not a big fan of teeth, myself. But if things go well tomorrow, I think I might show you my favorite rope trick…”
With a parting wink, the cowpony shut the door, leaving Fluttershy in the hall with a head that felt like it was about to pop. Her muscles completely froze, right down to her eyes, transfixed on the spot where Applejack had winked at her, though her jaw was slack. As her thoughts raced to places of hedonism and debauchery, her nose started bleeding. The vampire was too stupefied to even take the smallest lick.
The next thing she knew, the door had opened again, morning light streaming out of Applejack’s window and the cowpony striding out with a big yawn. “Well, better get to- F-Fluttershy?!” She hopped back right before she ran into the frozen pegasus, looking her over. “What’re you…? Are you okay? You look like you saw a ghost! And why is your nose bleeding? And why’s your face so darn red?”
Not a word out of Fluttershy, or even a single twitch.
Applejack reached forward and gave the most tentative of pokes to Fluttershy’s side. The pegasus flopped over, completely stiff.
Applejack sighed and facehoofed, dragging her hoof down her face. “This is gonna be a long day…”
“…and then she yelled at me to go to bed, like I did somethin’ wrong for checkin’ up on her!” Apple Bloom finished, confusion from the night before still fresh. Her two friends were gathered around her desk, looking no less perplexed than she was. “And this morning, her right flank was covered in bloody bandages, and Fluttershy ate breakfast with us!”
“Where do you think she got those?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Couldn’t have been Fluttershy. She’d never hurt anybody!”
“Well, you said that Fluttershy was in a bunny suit, right? Maybe they got hurt playing some sort of game? It definitely sounds like a sleepover,” Scootaloo suggested.
Apple Bloom hummed in thought. “Maybe; I mean, there was a lot of racket going on in AJ’s room before I checked in. What kind of game would you need a bunny suit for, though, let alone one you can play indoors? It isn’t zap apple season yet, so it can’t be for that.”
“Beats me,” Scootaloo shrugged.
“Only other thing I can think of is a fight, and Fluttershy would never get that rough,” Sweetie said.
“Applejack did mention this morning that she was going out to dinner with Fluttershy tonight. Fluttershy’s payin’, to make up for whatever happened last night,” Apple Bloom recalled. “She seemed really happy about it, though, so that can’t be it. And they seemed really friendly with each other at the breakfast table, though a little… awkward, I guess.”
“Was there anything else weird going on?” Sweetie pressed, brow furrowed.
Apple Bloom hummed in thought and pawed at the bandaid on her ear. “Well, AJ bit a tad harder than normal when she nipped my ear all playful like, like she usually does. Even starting bleeding a little. Coulda sworn that her teeth felt a bit sharp, but it was probably just in my head.”
“Probably nothing,” Sweetie nodded.
Scootaloo groaned and shook her head. “None of this makes sense. Like, at all! What in the world would Fluttershy and your sister be doing in the middle of the night with a bunny suit that’d cause so much noise and hurt her hip so bad?”
Miss Cheerilee cleared her throat rather loudly, causing the three to look up. The smile on her muzzle looked rather uneasy, and her cheeks were a strange shade of red. “Class is about to start, girls. Get to your seats!”
“Yes, ma’am,” Sweetie and Scootaloo parroted before trotting to their desks. Apple Bloom huffed and laid her chin in her hoof, brow furrowed in deep thought.
Cheerilee sighed as she took her own seat at the head of the class, muttering under her breath, “Even the village wallflower is getting more than me now…”
