Like many little fillies her age, Rarity was always afraid of the dark when she was growing up. She often asked for her night light to be turned on and her parents to check her closet and bed for monsters. The night was always scary with strange sounds, creepy shadows, and the occasional nightmare you had due to Princess Luna being trapped in the moon at the time. When she got older, Rarity started to feel less afraid of the dark, and even found some wonder in it thanks to the stars and mysterious aura that was the inspiration for more than a few designs.

She never thought she would be afraid of the dark like she was today. Ever since the murders started, Rarity kept all her doors and windows locked while keeping the lights on. She even invested in a learning a ward spell or two just in case from Twilight. She went to bed every morning, praying Faust to keep her safe and woke up thanking Faust every morning for it. Thankfully, her sister was with her parents outside of Ponyville, and safe from whatever dangers were happening in their town although they were coming by to visit for a bit before leaving again. Apparently, her sister missed her and wanted to see her.

Rarity liked to think she a brave pony; not as brave as Applejack or Rainbow Dash, but decent enough. She had faced many evil being in her short life since meeting Twilight Sparkle. All those times, she had been fearful of her life, but each time nopony came out worse for wear except maybe the villains. Now? They were dealing with something that had no heart or soul. Something that was able to take lives, even little ones, with ease. Rarity didn’t know if it was a vampire, like Dinky kept saying, or a pony, like Twilight believed, but either way this beast was a monster.

Resting in her bathtub, Rarity stared at the ceiling as the bubbles began to work their magic on her coat. She had to work extra hard to make up for all the days she didn’t work after Fluttershy’s death. Not all her clients were understanding, and she had to work twice as hard just to make up what she owed. Seriously, see if I cry tears if any of your loved ones pass away, she bitterly thought. She really wished Fluttershy was here right now. Even if she would be terrified and hysterical, Fluttershy’s soothing empathy and kindness was what she really needed right now.

It still felt wrong that there was only five of them instead of six.

Feeling she had bathed enough, Rarity slowly got out of her bathtub and drained the water while summoning a towel with her magic. Drying herself off, she summoned her robe and went to go brush her teeth when she felt a strange chill go through her spine. She paused for a moment and looked around, trying to sense if there was anypony there. “Oh, left the window open. Silly me,” replied Rarity, giving a short laugh as she went to the other end and closed it.

After finishing up in the restroom, she made her way to her bed and tried to find Opal so she could wish her goodnight. “Opal? Opal, darling?” asked Rarity, looking for her favorite cat. She tried checking her luxurious cat sized bed, but found not a single hair. “Hmm, maybe using her litterbox downstairs.”

Shrugging her shoulders, Rarity turned the lights off and began to make her way into her queen sized bed with velvet curtains and sheets. With a small sigh, she rested her head against her pillow and got her sleep mask on. Before she shut her eyes, she realized she didn’t pray to Faust, but decided against it due to feeling tired.

When she closed her eyes, Rarity’s ears perek upon hearing what sounded like her door opening, but assumed it was just Opal coming back in. She began to doze off when she began to feel something get on top of her and naturally assumed it was her cat. However, the moment she felt hooves, she instantly tore off her mask only to gasp as all the breath in her lungs left her.

Before she could scream, she stared into those glowing red eyes that nearly scared her soul out of her body… and suddenly felt relaxed. The red was so… calm… and relaxing. She felt a strange heat slowly entering inside of her, one of both warm and pleasure. She let the gazer of those luscious eyes undress her rope both slowly, and carefully. Rarity felt sweat slowly begin to drip from her brow. It was like she was being exposed to the world despite running around naked without clothing all the time.

By the time her robe was on the floor, that burning fire had found itself all the way between her loins. A gasp escaped her lips as her new master slowly placed a hoof between her legs, touching her most sacred place as if knowing her desires. She moaned and flopped out her tongue as it was slowly rubbed from edge to edge. Her ears flat as roadkill and her eyes closed in pleasure. Already she was slowly getting wet as the figure stopped, much to her whimpering disappointment.

That was soon forgiven the moment her master’s lips pressed against hers and took her breath away. Rarity had been with plenty of stallions, and the occasional mare or two, but this was nothing compared to any of them. She let her new master crawl on top of her, slowly pressing her weight against Rarity’s own body; their coats becoming one. Rarity slowly lifted her forehooves to touch the lower back of her kisser before slowly moving down to the soft cheeks on her master’s rump. She slowly rubbed them as if they were precious gems while her new master opened her lips and pressed her teeth against Rarity’s jaw. There was a brief pinch of pain, but was soon replaced with a subtle touch of ease as blood dripped from her mouth down to her cheeks.

Rarity didn’t know what this was, but she was feeling her heart racing and wanted more. Her master then moved towards her neck as both their lower lips touch and Rarity screamed both in pain and pleasure as both ends pressed forward.

***

Spike tried his best to focus on the comic that he had in front of him, but the constant talk between Twilight and the guards was getting too much for him to handle. So without a single sentence, he walked out of the treehouse and made his way down the streets of Ponyville, trying to find a place to read his comic in peace. There weren’t many ponies out on the street, even the markets were only half filled. Spike didn’t say this often, but Ponyville was more of a home to him then Canterlot ever was.

It wasn’t that he didn’t love Canterlot, but it wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows for him. Being a dragon, he wasn’t exactly treated the best with most either just treating him suspiciously or trying to suck up to him due to being Twilight’s charge (The worst was when they assumed he was her pet). He once tried to go to school on his own, but with a lot of fillies and colts making fun of him, he settled being schooled by Celestia and Twilight instead. Still, there were good memories he had like with Twilight’s early friends, Princess Celestia, Pony Joe, Twilight’s Family, Princess Celestia and her guards and so forth.

Yet in Ponyville, everypony just accepted him as one of their own. They didn’t see a dragon, they saw Spike.

It hurt to see his town turning into a state of fear and panic, but with all the deaths that had been occurring it wasn’t a complete surprise. Twilight even offered to send him to her parents for his protection, but Spike refused. He wasn’t leaving Twilight or his friends. Not now, not ever.

He continued onward until he stopped at the most beautiful house in the world that was home to the most beautiful pony in the world. Spike had been worried about Rarity ever since Fluttershy died. She had been working herself to death and the stress of what was happening had forced the poor mare into a horrible state. Combined with her helping her sister deal with what she saw and the fact that there was a murderer of all things in her town? Rarity could use as much toothpaste as she liked, but Spike’s nose could pick up the booze in her breath easily.

Thinking he should give her a check up, Spike walked up to the door and knocked on it, only to find it open at the slightest touch. A really bad feeling came to Spike as he entered the home. “Rarity? You in here? It’s me! Spike!”

He paused, hoping to hear from her, but there was nothing.

“Hello?” He walked around a bit more, hoping to hear or see something. “Did she go out?”

“Meow!”

“Woah!” shouted Spike, nearly jumping off his feet when he saw Opal rushing towards him. “Geez, don’t scare me like that cat.” To his surprise, Opal was grabbing his tail and began pulling it as if she was encouraging him to follow her. “Do you want me to follow you?”

She continued to pull until Spike got the message and began to follow the cat. They went up the stairs and stopped at Rarity’s bedroom. The look in the cat’s eyes made Spike pause. Opal rarely ever showed such fear in her eyes. Usually it was indifference or anger.

Gulping, Spike opened the door only to feel the comic slip from his claw. On the floor, gasping for breath, was Rarity covered in sweat with blood dripping out of her nose and mouth.

***

When Rainbow Dash had started begging for a distraction from all the madness that was going on because of the murders this wasn’t what she had in mind. She looked around the waiting room where all her friends, Rarity’s family, and Scootaloo, who was comforted a crying Sweetie Belle. Sweetie and her family, who had just returned for a visit only to learn of this incident, were the only ones visibly crying while the rest of them were too drained to do it. Even Pinkie Pie, despite her hair now being fully down ever since Nightmare Night, wasn’t crying and just hiding behind her mane.

Memories of that awful day went through Dash’s mind as she did her best not to think about it. Losing Fluttershy was hard enough, but if she lost another friend to... whatever this disease was...

Faust, I’ll give you whatever you want. I’ll stop trying to be a Wonderbolt even. I’ll even become a sister for your church! Just please don’t let Rarity die!

Twilight spared no expense. She demanded the best doctor in the hospital treat Rarity this time and check for everything. Anything physical, biological, mental, magical and otherwise. She even teleported to Canterlot and got Doctor Gold Heart from Canterlot despite the trip being draining. For hours, the entire group waited in silence with their companions only being fear and tears.

“Twilight... she’s going to be okay, right?” asked Spike for the sixteenth time that night.

“She will be... she will be...” replied Twilight, muttering the same words also the sixteenth time.

Rainbow Dash wanted to believe that, and tried to keep such a positive thought in her head. Fluttershy didn’t start coughing blood until the day she died and that was long after she started getting sick. There was time to find a cure by that logic, but Spike had found Rarity already in a pool of her own blood and she overheard the doctors saying she was suffering from severe blood loss. Meaning, there was a good chance she was going to die today.

They stood by waiting for a bit longer until a golden maned unicorn with a red coat exited the emergency room with Nurse Redheart behind him. Everypony stood up and waited as Doctor Gold Heart, wiping sweat from his forehead with a tissue, took a deep breath. “She’s stable for now...”

A sigh of relief was heard from every mouth in the area, but Applejack then asked, “I feel a ‘but’ comin’ along there, doc.”

“We have her on life support, and she’s very very weak in both breathing and heartbeat. She’s lost a large amount of blood as well, if it wasn’t for the fact we had her in transfusion so soon we would have lost her,” replied Doctor Gold Heart, shaking his head. “I’ve been in medicine for over forty years and I’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s like something... something inside of Rarity is rejecting all her organs... I suspect it to be magical.”

“But we did magic scans when Fluttershy was sick when she got this... disease. How did you come to that conclusion?” asked Twilight.

“Well, with Fluttershy, the magical scans were based on her wings, mind, hooves, and lungs. Each of them an important part of a pegasi’s magical structure. However, I decided to try a full magic scan during the operation. I discovered something in Rarity’s blood.”

“So it’s a blood disease?” asked Rarity’s father.

“Possibly. It’s like her blood cells are changing... or more like to say dying and coming back to life again. I’ve never seen such a thing before,” replied Doctor Gold Heart, scratching his chin. “At first, I assumed that she caught this from touching Fluttershy’s blood, but none of you have been affected at all and she started coughing blood around the same time. I did notice one thing that might explain it...”

Taking out a picture, he showed the group Rarity’s neck... with two puncture holes in it. In an instant, everypony’s mind turned to what Dinky said about a vampire. Nopony said anything at first. Then Pinkie said, “Is that... a bite mark?”

“Looks like it. It could also be an injection mark too, but it’s unlikely. Maybe she was bit by an animal carrying some unknown disease recently?” asked Doctor Gold Heart.

“She was fine all day yesterday,” replied Applejack, shaking her head. “Ah saw her come into market and didn’t have a bite mark like that on her neck.”

“Maybe it was Opal?” asked Twilight. “I’ll have some guards bring her to be examined.”

“What if it was a vamp-” Spike was stopped by Twilight who gave him a glare. “Never mind.”

“I’ll see if we can get a swap of saliva from the bite mark as well as examine her blood. Maybe we can find a way to cure her. I also want to get blood samples from all of you in case you might show signs of this disease happening too,” replied Doctor Gold Heart. “I’ll let you know if anything changes.”

“Doctor, is my daughter going to be alright?” asked Rarity’s mother, deciding to ask the one question that was on all their minds.

Doctor Gold Heart was quiet for a moment before answering. “I don’t know.”

***

“Why did you silence me, Twilight?” asked Spike as he and Twilight walked down the halls of the hospital. They had just taken their blood samples and were now heading home. “I was just going to suggest...”

“You were going to suggest that Rarity was bitten by a vampire,” replied Twilight, rolling her eyes. “Spike, there are no such thing as vampires. Or werewolves. Or zombies. Or any of that stuff. It’s all superstition.”

“What if it’s not?!” cried out Spike, stopping in place as Twilight glanced at him. “Look, Twilight. I get that you don’t believe in that stuff, but that doesn’t rule out the possibility of it being true! Look what’s been happening! Look at all these deaths and all these strange things happening?! We’ve tried science, and logic, and nothing’s been solved, the only answer we have is a witness who saw everything that happened, but you and everyone are just dismissing it because it sounded ludicrous, but so far it seems like the most likely thing happening!”

“Spike, if vampires were real, Princess Celestia would have told me a long time ago,” replied Twilight, sighing. “She’s been around for over a thousand years. Princess Luna too. If there were such creatures I would have been told, especially since I’m a princess now.” She walked over to Spike and pressed her hoof against his cheek. “Listen, I know like blaming a vampire Fluttershy might seem like an easy thing to believe, but there is no proof of it. We’re going to get to the bottom of this, both Rarity’s condition and the murderers. I think the reason you’re assuming this vampire theory is because Rarity’s life is in danger and you want some answers. I do too, but we have to think rational about this and not lose our heads in a moment of panic.”

Spike looked up at his big sister figure and let out a grumble. “I just... I feel like there is something we're missing, Twilight.... I mean first Roseluck had her throat ripped out and she had the same bite marks if I remember reading your notes and then-”

“Wait a minutes,” replied Twilight, eyes widening. “What did you say?”

“Huh, oh yeah, I read in your report that Roseluck had the same bite marks as Rarity does. Doesn’t it seem a little odd?” asked Spike.

Twilight was silent for a moment. Before Spike had a chance to ask what was wrong, he suddenly found himself teleported back to the treehouse. Fighting the sudden daze of what happened, he was about to ask Twilight what was wrong before she rushed to her desk and started putting out files.

Twilight took out reports and started rushing through them, levitating a few while discarding some on the desk. Which left Spike to grumble about cleaning them up. Finally, Twilight stopped as she stare at the ones in front of her with wide eyes. “They all have them...”

“Who?” asked Spike.

“Roseluck. Pokey. Diamond Tiara. Rumble. They all had them too...” replied Twilight “They all had the same marks on their necks... she didn’t...”

“Who didn’t?” asked Spike as Twilight turned to face him.

“Fluttershy...”

***

Nurse Redheart hated days like these. Days when ponies you knew personally were going to die and there was nothing you could do about it. Redheart had gone to school with Rarity when they were younger, despite not really being close friends she did hang out with them once and awhile. She always envied how beautiful Rarity looked and often asked for advice on how to look nice for dates. Of course, she saw less and less of Rarity when she became a full time nurse except on days when she or her sister had to have checkups.

Still, in a town where everypony pretty much knew everypony, you saw each other in a somewhat close manner, especially when you worked in the only hospital in town. It hurt Nurse Redheart to think that so many ponies she knew were gone, especially the children.

Doctor Gold Heart had done his best, but the truth was he didn’t think Rarity was going to pull through. All they could do was make her passing as comfortable as possible. Redheart thought it was wrong to not let her family and friends say goodbye, but she obeyed his judgement.

She didn’t pray that Rarity would recover. She lost her faith years ago in this business, accepting reality that prayers did nothing. She still felt a little guilty about it, having been raised since birth to believe in Faust, but when Rarity’s lifeline went dead at 12:32AM it only furthered her believe that there was no kind goddess in this universe.

She stood there, watching them disconnect her from the machines and placed her hooves over her chest before covering her with the white sheet of her bed. The morticians would come in half and hour to claim the body and do a full examination of it. Nurse Redheart did her best to hide her tears, but couldn’t help it. Another Element of Harmony was gone from this damn illness. She could barely stand going through the loss of Fluttershy. Hay, the whole town was still depressed about that. This was only going to make matters worse.

Doctor Gold Heart said something, but Nurse Redheart only pretended to listen. She just nodded and let the other ponies leave. Left alone with the body, Nurse Redheart slowly made her way to the corpse and lifted the sheet off to see the pale and peaceful expression Rarity held in death.

She didn’t know how Twilight and her friends were going to take it. Not to mention Rarity’s family. Nurse Redheart tearfully pressed her forehead against her cold cheek. “At least your suffering has ended…”

That was when she felt the body move. A second later, she watched in both fascination and horror as Rarity’s body slowly lifted itself from the bed. Choking on air, Nurse Redheart slapped herself to see if this was real and upon seeing Rarity’s body sitting up as straight as an arrow, she quickly realized that she was alive. “Doctor! Doctor! Get in here! She’s alive!” shouted Nurse Redheart with joy before training kicked in and she placed her hooves on Rarity. “Rarity! Listen, I need you to relax. Open your eyes and look at me.”

Rarity slowly did so before turning her gaze on Nurse Redheart who suddenly froze as she saw a set of pure red slitted eyes that gazed into her very soul. Redheart’s heart suddenly began to be faster and faster as all instincts inside her head screamed for her to run away. She felt a trickle of urine escape her bladder as she tried to say something but in an instant Rarity showed her sharp teeth and was upon her like a predator.

She screamed and begged for her to stop. Between these cries she felt her throat ripped open as her life flashed through her eyes while painted with her own blood.

She heard the door open and other voices cry out, letting Rarity forgo her current meal and seek the new prey. Losing the ability to talk, Nurse Redheart could only cry as her vision got darker, her ears picking up new screams of pain, shock, and dying. Death soon claimed her as she shut her eyes for the final time and found herself in a void of nothing. No pain. No feeling. Pure nothing.

Then a warm light. A shining light from above that she was slowly going towards without her control. It embraced her and she embraced it with joy that she didn’t know she had. She welcomed the light and she welcomed her death.

Author's Note

sorry for the long update. All artwork done by JamesCorck