The Red Dawn

by SPark

Rating: teen
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Adventure, Princess Celestia
Length: 12801

Twilight Sparkle finds the Romaneian Lord Bela charming, but first impressions can be misleading... (A story inspired by Carmilla, Dracula, and other classic vampire tales.)

When Princess Celestia asks Twilight to make an official, royal visit to Romaneia, Twilight dreads the inevitable succession of dry, boring diplomatic events. The charming Lord Bela soon wins her over, but Twilight is about to discover that all is not as it seems in Bela's apparently peaceful castle. (A story inspired by Carmilla, Dracula, and other classic vampire tales.)

Written for the BadassTwilight = Total Domination Twilight's Nightmare Halloween contest.

(Spoilers in comments.)

Published 2014-10-21 00:00:09 UTC
Last updated 2014-10-21 00:00:09 UTC

The Red Dawn

Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Equestria and currently the official envoy to Romaneia on behalf of Her Royal Highness Celestia Sol Invictus, lifted the glass of wine in her magic and raised it in a toast. "To Lord Bela, the most charming of hosts."

The stallion in question, a tall unicorn of middle years with a grey mane, a pale cream coat, and striking green eyes, lifted his own glass and clinked it delicately against Twilight's. "And to Twilight Sparkle, the most lovely envoy these halls have ever seen," he returned, his lightly accented voice deep and melodic. The other Romaneians seated at the long table that ran the length of the hall raised their glasses as well, joining in the toast and filling the hall with a chorus of "To Lord Bela, to Twilight Sparkle!"

The wine was smooth and subtle—all of its sharp edges had been worn away by many, many years in a good cellar. Lord Bela smiled at Twilight over the deep red liquid in his glass, and Twilight smiled back, slightly flushed from her drink. When Princess Celestia had first approached her about visiting Romaneia, she had been reluctant to go. She hated the endless rounds of dry, formal events that came with an official diplomatic mission. She had not even been at the estate a single day, however, and she was already re-thinking her position on diplomatic visits. She had been welcomed personally by Lord Bela, given a tour of his beautiful castle—filled with fascinating tidbits from its centuries-long history—treated to a fantastic meal, and now she was having one of the best wines she'd ever tasted.

It didn't hurt that Lord Bela was quite a handsome gentlecolt. He'd been flattering and charming her since she had arrived, and the attention had been… gratifying. When she eventually put her empty glass down, he said, "If you're ready to retire, I would be happy to escort you to your chambers." Gesturing out at the table, where ponies were still eating and chatting merrily, he added, "The festivities will continue quite late here, but you have traveled far, so I understand if you wish to rest."

"That sounds delightful. Thank you," she said, giving him a smile that was much less reserved than her usual diplomatic attempt to mimic Celestia.

"Then follow me, if you would," he said as he rose from his seat. He led Twilight out of the banquet hall, shutting the door behind them. The thick wood closed with a hollow booming sound, cutting off the revelry behind it so thoroughly that the other ponies might as well have vanished in that instant. The night was suddenly still and serene, the only sound that of Lord Bela's hooves on the tiled floor. Twilight followed him, adding her own clip-clop to the stillness. Her hooves seemed louder than his, and she wondered how he could walk so softly. Perhaps it was just the acoustics echoing her own hoofsteps back to her somehow.

Moonlight filtered in through a few narrow window that lined the corridor high above Twilight's head. Bela had told her earlier that they were arrow slits, and the platforms that allowed archers to sit in front of them and fire arrows at enemies outside the walls were still intact, though there had not been a war here for nearly a century.

By moonlight, the rooms that had looked rich and lavish now seemed dreary and dead. The silver light washed out all the colors, as though centuries had faded them. Deep shadows erased and obscured details, and provided places where something might linger unseen. Twilight felt a chill run down her spine, and quickened her pace to walk a little closer to Lord Bela. The rich cape that fell from his shoulders over his flanks was still blood red, even in the moonlight. It hid his cutie mark completely. Twilight found herself wondering what Lord Bela's special talent was. It probably had something to do with being charming, she decided.

"Here you are." Lord Bela swung open a large, iron-bound door to reveal a luxurious suite of rooms beyond.

"Thank you, Lord Bela," said Twilight as she stepped up next to him and looked into the room.

Lord Bela reached out and lifted one of her hooves to his lips, bowing over it and kissing it lightly. "Please, just call me Bela, my dear. Now that formal occasions are over for the night, I see no reason to stand on titles."

Twilight blushed faintly at the kiss. "Well, ah, call me Twilight, then."

"It would be my pleasure." Bela kissed her hoof again, then let it fall. "And please, do not hesitate to call me if you need anything during the night. But as I am certain that you are quite tired, I will leave you to rest. Goodnight, Twilight."

"Thank you," said Twilight, stepping into the room.

Bela bowed, then turned and vanished down the dark corridor. Twilight slowly shut the door, then looked around the rooms. She was currently standing in a parlor or sitting room, decorated in blood red silk and dark, aged brass. A door beyond it proved to lead to a bedroom, where two more doors led in turn to a balcony that overlooked the castle below—surely a modern addition, since it would hardly be secure during a siege—and to a tiled bathing chamber. This she also found to be quite modern when she inspected it, though there were no mirrors. Twilight decided that they must be difficult to get, so far away from modern civilization.

Back inside the bedroom she found her traveling trunk already set neatly at the foot of the bed. She immediately opened it and took out a paper and quill, which were stored handily at the top. She scrawled a quick letter.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I have arrived safely. I was given a tour of the castle by Lord Bela himself, attended what seemed to be an informal dinner, and am now retiring to bed. Thus far Lord Bela seems to be entirely cordial, so I have high hopes for the future diplomatic relationship I am here to establish. I will write you again tomorrow to report on my further progress.

Yours,

Princess Twilight Sparkle

She always felt a bit odd, signing her name without "your faithful student", but she and Celestia were technically equals now. Twilight was still feeling her way through exactly what that meant. There was a part of her that rather missed being Celestia's student. Having a powerful alicorn princess to guide and watch over you was comforting. On the other hoof, being a powerful alicorn princess had its benefits, and there was a quite different part of Twilight that had started having its own ideas about what a relationship between equals might look like. With a shrug, she dismissed those thoughts and sent the letter. Without Spike, it took a considerable amount of magic to bridge the distance between Romaneia and Equestria, and Twilight knew this wouldn’t be the last time she wished Spike had been free to come along on this trip. That accomplished, she gave in to exhaustion and climbed into the tall, velvet-draped, four-posted bed that stood in the center of the room, using the little set of steps provided to do so. The last light of the setting sun was streaming in from the balcony, and Twilight had the thought that she should draw the drapes, but didn't even manage to gather any magic before she slipped away into the darkness of sleep.

Twilight walked through the castle halls. The moonlit black and silver of the echoing midnight corridors faded into and out of the warmer colors of Celestia's palace where Twilight had spent so much of her life. She caught a glimpse of Celestia ahead of her, her mane and tail almost glowing in the darkness. Twilight quickened her steps, but when she reached the spot where she’d seen Celestia, she had somehow faded away.

Twilight kept walking, her hooves clopping hollowly on the stone floors. Again she saw Celestia, a pale shape in the gloom, and again she hastened after her, and again she found nothing there when she arrived.

Suddenly she was sitting at the dining table again. Bela was on her left, and Celestia was on her right. The table was crowded with ponies, as it had been before, but they were all skeletal. Strips of mummified flesh clung to them, and their clothing hung in moth-eaten tatters. They lifted empty glasses and pretended to eat from empty plates.

Turning to Celestia for reassurance about this macabre spectacle, Twilight recoiled in horror. Celestia was a skeleton too, her mane and tail still flowing around her, but her body all bones, wrapped tightly in the papery remnants of her flesh.

Twilight turned to Bela, expecting that he too would be skeletal, but he seemed as whole and handsome as he had always been. He lifted his glass. "To death," he said, "both mine and yours," and downed the red liquid within. The green glow of his magic surrounded another cup, which he held out to Twilight. "Drink," he said.

Twilight backed away from him, shaking her head. "I won't drink to death," she said.

"You will," he replied, his smile growing wider. He held the cup out, and Twilight found herself taking it and putting it to her lips.

She woke suddenly, lying in the bed, the drapes still gaping open, letting the moonlight filter in around her. She watched it shimmer, feeling strangely calm. Her heart should have been pounding and her body soaked with sweat after such a nightmare, but she felt at peace, drifting in a pleasant lassitude. Perhaps she was still dreaming.

A shadow moved on the drapes as something on the balcony obscured the moonlight. It stepped into view through the gap in the drapes, and Twilight was unsurprised to see Lord Bela standing there. His cape had been discarded, letting Twilight glimpse his cutie mark. She thought for a moment that it was a narrow crescent moon, but almost immediately realized that it was an eclipse sigil, a black circle blocking out all but a sliver of the golden circle behind it.

He walked over to stand beside the bed. Even in the moonlight, his eyes were still vivid. They seemed to glow as they stared into Twilight's. "Be at ease, fair alicorn. You are safe within my power," he said gently. Twilight had the oddly disconnected thought that this ought to alarm her, but there was no tightness in her chest, no racing heart, no shortness of breath. Her body didn't quite seem to be her own. She should surely have been panicking by now, trying to decide what to do in such a strange situation, but all she did was lie there passively as the stallion climbed into the bed. He lay beside her, still atop the covers, but close enough that she could feel his body against hers.

Surely she should be moving away from him, declaring something about the inappropriateness of all this, or… or something. Surely she shouldn't be allowing Bela to lean closer and nuzzle at her cheek. Surely she would not simply allow him to caress her mane.

She definitely would not lift her hooves and embrace him! Yet that was what her body was doing, holding him as he slid his muzzle along her cheek and down the side of her neck.

This must be a dream, she decided. It didn't make any sense otherwise. But didn't one gain the ability to control a dream, on realizing that it wasn't real? Twilight tried to will this to change, to will the stallion now nipping lightly at her neck to go, disappear, vanish like the bad dream he surely was. He remained stubbornly real, and Twilight shivered—the closest she had been able to come to a voluntary motion since Lord Bela had appeared. Her heart was finally starting to beat faster, but she didn't know if it was with fear or with something else. She was panting, trying to struggle, and yet when Bela nipped harder at her neck, a low moan escaped her. What was happening to her? His teeth felt strangely sharp, and that was strangely exciting.

Bela suddenly bit down, hard, and Twilight let out a shocked cry. Pain raced through her, startling and far too real. She tried to struggle again, and managed to take her hooves from around his neck, but she couldn't fight free of whatever it was that held her. The pain continued; Bela was latched on to her neck, sucking at it. She finally gathered her wits enough to understand what was happening. He was a vampire. No mere fruit bat gone wrong, but a true vampire—a blood drinker. The stories must be true, including the tales where such beings held a hypnotic power over their victims.

Twilight gritted her teeth. She was not going to let him get away with this! She fought to gather magic and fling him away with that, if she could not do it physically. The magic wouldn't come either, and Twilight wanted to scream with frustration.

Finally Bela lifted his head. His lips were stained red as he smiled down at her. Twilight glared up at him helplessly. He chuckled and climbed from the bed. Looking at her, he licked his lips. "Your blood was as sweet as I had imagined, princess. I think I chose well when I decided to lure an alicorn here. I will not need to feed for quite some time."

Still glaring, Twilight noticed that Bela's mane and tail were now jet black, and he looked more like a pony in his late twenties than the middle-aged stallion he had seemed at first. "Still, alicorns are powerful creatures, and I am not a fool. So, let us make certain that you will not be causing me any trouble." He fixed his eyes on her, his gaze intense. Twilight blinked and tried to look away, to no avail. The green of his eyes grew to fill her world, and she distantly heard his voice say, "Sleep now, my sweet little princess. Sleep the day through, and wake with the moon. Sleep until the night makes you mine."

The green grew further, overwhelming everything, until even Twilight herself went away, and she knew no more.

Twilight woke once more, feeling as exhausted as if she had never slept. She dragged the curtains on the bed aside, peering out into a room that was lit with a dim, reddish light. She wanted to believe that everything had been a dream, and this was the light of dawn after nothing worse than a night made sleepless by nightmare, but she knew better. It was sunset, and Lord Bela would no doubt be returning within moments.

Indeed, no sooner had that thought crossed her mind than a dark shadow on the balcony drew her eye. It was a small fluttering form, a bat, too far for her to identify the species, but she felt bitterly certain that it was the vampire. It grew suddenly, the dark shape swelling to a blot of shadow, which dissolved like mist to reveal Lord Bela's pale coat.

Despite her exhaustion, Twilight climbed swiftly out of bed. She was not going to just lie there this time. Her horn glowed as she gathered her power, ready to pick up the vampire and break his neck, but before she could do so, he spoke sharply.

"Be still!"

Twilight found herself frozen in place, as if her hooves were glued to the floor. Her magic was gone as if she had never gathered it. She glared at Lord Bela, her ears going flat.

"Good evening," said the vampire, smiling broadly, and showing the pointed fangs at the corners of his mouth.

"There's nothing good about it," snapped Twilight, glad that she could at least speak, and then angry all over again that she should be glad of something so basic.

Bela chuckled. "Perhaps not from your point of view, but this evening is one of the finest I can recall. Surpassed, I think, only by last night, when I first tasted your blood."

"I suppose you've come to suck it again."

"Oh no. I have merely come to make certain you do nothing foolish. I would not take your blood again so soon. You will turn soon enough, and I would rather not hasten the process along." Twilight's blood sudden ran cold. Turn? But Lord Bela was still speaking. "You will stay in this room. I will see to it that you're taken care of, my dear, but you will not set foot outside of it, nor will you be casting any spells at all." His eyes drilled into hers, though Twilight tried to look away, but it was too late, she was caught. Perhaps she had been caught before. She felt that unnatural calm steal over her, and found herself nodding in agreement.

"Yes, Bela," her lips said, without her approval.

"Very good," he replied. Then he turned away from her, and turned again, into a bat, and was gone into the deepening night.

Twilight spit a curse after him, glad to have her own mouth obey her, and absolutely enraged that she should need to be glad of any such thing. Her ears still flat back with anger, she spun around and ran to the door. She was going to leave, right now. Yet when she reached the door, she found her hoof would not lift to the latch. "I am not going to meekly stay here, oh no," she told the stubbornly shut door grimly. She started pacing. She needed to think. What did she know about vampires? She'd read enough books about them, but the recent records all spoke of them as mythical, and older stories were woefully inconsistent. Still, she could compile a good enough list of possible vampire facts, including weaknesses.

She went to pick up a pen in her magic, but failed. Twilight was not normally a user of profanity, but she cursed again all the same. Nothing else seemed quite appropriate in the face of recent events.

"Okay, Twilight, you'll just have to make a mental list, that's all. Or mouth write." She contemplated the thought of her mouth-writing and shuddered. No, it would have to be the mental list. For a moment she wished Spike were here to take dictation for her, rather than serving as a temporary assistant at Rarity's boutique during an accidental over-booking. Twilight had almost delayed this visit in order to bring him along, but in the end Spike's pleading to be left behind had convinced her to let him stay. Now, though, she rather missed having him with her. Though perhaps it was for the best that Spike hadn't come. Sun knows what the vampire would have done to him. He was better off safe in Equestria.

"I'd be better off safe in Equestria too," she muttered. She heaved a sigh, then resumed her pacing, while trying to think of everything she'd ever known about vampires. They drank blood, that was the basic thesis, confirmed by her own first-hoof experience. She could also confirm that they used some type of powerful hypnosis, and could turn into bats. She had not confirmed that they had died and come back to life, but that was so central to all the stories she'd read that she deemed it likely. The stories also all said that the sun was a weakness for them, and she thought that that was likely as well. She could dismiss, however, the notion that they crumbled to dust when touched by sunlight. It had been broad daylight when Bela had greeted her at the castle gates. He had no doubt used the tour and dinner to delay her until after sundown, when his powers would let him have his way with her, so sunlight must in some way counter or weaken them, but it was not fatal.

What would be fatal? The stories claimed a variety of weaknesses for vampires. They could not cross running water. They could not enter a dwelling without an invitation. They were driven off by the scent of garlic, or by wild rose twigs, or by hawthorn branches. She had access to none of those, but they weren't fatal anyway. They could be driven off, and in some stories killed, by solar symbols as well. Some stories claimed that was because they were holy, and lunar symbols would work too. Twilight could possibly construct some kind of solar or lunar symbol, but without further data she didn't know how effective they would be.

A wooden stake was also supposed to kill a vampire, and that sounded much more likely. If she'd had her magic, any number of bits of furniture in the room could be turned into one quite easily. She mentally filed away the notion of doing so by hoof for later revisit. Other possible methods included beheading, which seemed rather unlikely, a silver sword, which was unlikely as well, or fire, which might be possible if Bela ever lit a candle, but which was also risky, given that she herself was not exactly immune to fire. Since vampires were said to see in the dark, candles might never turn up, though.

Vampires were also said to be forced to stop and count the grains if one spilled a quantity of rice or wheat in front of them. They were also said to hate mirrors, or to fail to be reflected in them. That might be useful. The lack of mirrors in the bathing room seemed to suggest the vampire had some reason to eschew them, but she carried a small hoof mirror with her. She took a moment to pull it out and look at herself. She looked as bad as she felt—pale and drawn, with dark shadows under her eyes. The two puncture marks on her neck were red and seemed slightly inflamed. Twilight prodded them with a hoof and winced; they were quite sore.

She set the mirror aside as possibly useful, and tried to think what other bits of vampire lore she could summon to mind that might help, but the rest of her knowledge was about how to tell if somepony was a vampire—easy, she thought to herself, it's the one that just bit you and sucked your blood! —or ways that somepony could become a vampire, which she didn't want to think about at all. No, she was not going to think about ponies turning into vampires. She was going to think about how to kill vampires, and since several of the stories said that a vampire's victims were freed of its influence when it died, she didn't need to think about turning. She just needed to kill Bela.

The stake seemed the most promising of all the things she had listed. She surveyed the furniture in her room. Ash, hawthorn, or oak were supposed to be the best woods for the job, according to at least one book she'd read. She had no idea, however, how to tell what wood a chair was made of. Shrugging, she bucked the chair as hard as she could. It splintered with a satisfying crash. A few more kicks reduced it to a pile of broken pieces, several of which were quite sharp and pointy without need for further work. Twilight grinned and selected those that seemed the most lethal, setting them against the wall near the balcony door, where they wouldn't be visible from the balcony itself. She shoved the rest of the pieces underneath the bed, and hoped that Bela wouldn't notice the chair was missing.

Having done all she could to defend herself, Twilight walked out onto the balcony. She stood there, looking up at the stars. She spread her wings, willing herself to take off, but stayed standing on the balcony.

With a sigh, she turned and went back inside. Bela's hypnotic commands seemed complete. She would not be walking out the door, nor would she be flying away. She was going to get out of here, though, no matter what it took.

The next night, Twilight once more woke at sundown. She still felt tired, though not quite as exhausted as she had felt the night before, but she wasted no time lying in bed. She leaped out of the bed and half ran, half flew across the room to her little pile of wooden shards. Picking up the largest and sharpest of them, she crouched against the wall, out of sight from the balcony.

With her heart pounding, she waited for the vampire to arrive.

Moments later she heard a soft footfall on the balcony. Her heart jumped. More steps sounded as Lord Bela walked into the room. Twilight saw him from behind, his head scanning, and jumped, improvised stake in hoof, before he could spot her.

The wooden spike sank into his side with a sickeningly wet thud. She'd hit the right spot—just above and behind the elbow of his foreleg, where the heart lay beneath his ribcage, Twilight knew her anatomy well enough to know where to aim—but the stake hadn't gone in very deep. Bela let out a shriek and spun, yanking the stake from Twilight's grip. She had a momentary flash of regret for how much she'd always relied on magic. Maybe if she'd done more by hoof, her grip would have been stronger, or she could have driven it deeper.

Still, she wasn't ready to give up yet. She leaped back, crouching in front of the wall, groping behind her for a second stake, but Bela snarled, "Be still!" at her and she froze, save for the heaving of her chest and the pounding of her pulse.

Bela's horn glowed with green light and he pulled the stake from his side with a wince. "You were very unwise to try that," he snarled at her, his fangs bared. "I was not going to feed again so soon, but now I will replace every drop of blood that you have spilled with your own." He stalked forward as he spoke, looming over Twilight. His magic grabbed her, yanking her to her hooves. Twilight tried to fight, but she still couldn't move.

He dragged her close and bit down on her neck without any further preliminaries. Twilight yelped and flinched, throwing her whole being into somehow getting away from him. With the pain of his bite providing tangible motivation, she managed to lift one front hoof from the ground. She continued to struggle against his compulsion and his magic as he fed from her, but could get no further. She tried to kick him with her one free hoof, but all that did was make him grasp that in his magic as well.

Finally she gave up, standing still as he completed his feeding. There was nothing she could do. When his magic released her she slumped to the floor. She felt tears gathering in her eyes, though she tried to fight them off. But she could no more stop herself from crying than she had been able to stop Bela from biting her.

"Look at me," he commanded coldly, and Twilight lifted her head involuntarily. Her eyes met his, purple to green.

"You will never again try to harm me. You will not even think of trying to harm me." Bela's voice was flat and harsh, his eyes intense. They bored into hers, seeming to grow until they filled the whole world and she was drowning in a sea of green.

"You are mine. Your blood runs in my veins. You will do what I command, and nothing else. Accept that. You are mine now, and will be mine forever, to your grave and beyond."

The green ebbed away until Twilight was once more aware of her self and her surroundings. Bela turned and left, going through the door this time rather than via the balcony. Behind him, Twilight curled up on the floor and trembled, tears trickling down her cheeks. She was starting to fear that he was right, and that she would be trapped here forever.

On the sixth night of her captivity, Twilight woke as always to the ruddy light of sunset. She squinted against the glow, which stung her eyes perhaps more than it should have. She no longer felt like death warmed over; in fact, other than the sensitivity to light she'd begun to experience, she felt fairly hale and healthy. Bela had been providing her with food enough, and had not bitten her again since the second time.

Still, she chafed at her captivity. She spent a great deal of time thinking about ways to escape, or ways to get rid of Bela. His order to never even think of harming him appeared to have little force—Twilight thought about that a great deal, and was starting to take far too much pleasure in imagining horrible fates for the vampire. His hold on her body was apparently stronger than his hold on her mind, however, and she could never manage to act on those desires.

If she could only be free of his compulsion for a few seconds, she knew she could take care of him. If nothing else, she knew a very good mind-warding spell. It just didn't work when you were already compromised—it had to be put in place ahead of time. Just ten seconds, maybe less, and she could be warded, shielded, and have his flank kicked all the way back to Equestria. Unfortunately, getting those few seconds was easier said than done.

"Next time I go on a diplomatic mission, I am warding my mind ahead of time," she muttered to herself. Then, pushing aside that familiar, frustrating line of thought, she climbed out of bed and set about her "day", such as it was. First, she picked up her hoof mirror, to check the double set of puncture wounds on her neck. Yesterday the first pair had been more or less healed, but the second had still been a bit raw. She peered in the mirror, but it seemed oddly unclear. She polished it against her coat and peered again, but there still seemed to be a film or haze of some kind over her. Or... She frowned and peered closer at the tiny circle, her stomach sinking as a horrible suspicion floated through her mind. She turned, putting the last of the fading sunlight coming in through the balcony behind her, and held up the mirror again.

She could see the sunset through her.

"Oh sun and moon, no," she whispered. Her reflection was vanishing. Her knees went weak and she almost collapsed to the floor, but she straightened them determinedly. She was not going to fall over and cry. She was not! She started to pace, trying to think. "Okay, Twilight, this is bad, but you've been in worse situations, right? You've dealt with gods and demons and pretty much everything else; you can deal with vampires. You can deal with... turning into one. Right? Right. Just... right. There has to be a way around this. I haven't died yet, I can't be undead. That means there’s a way to cure it. There has to be!"

Twilight paced some more. She had worn halfway through the rich rug next to the bed over the past few days, but she didn't really care.

She ran her tongue over her teeth and shuddered. She was certain that two of them were a little longer and sharper than they had been. She ran through all of her much-rehearsed vampire lore, but couldn't remember anything about how to cure vampirism. There were a lot of myths about what created vampires, and myths about how to kill one and make certain it wouldn't rise again, but none about how to stop the process of turning into one once it had begun. The closest she could think of were the stories about doing things like putting a coin in a corpse's mouth or writing a prayer to Celestia and burying it with them to prevent someone who had died from rising as a vampire, but that would require her to be dead, first. A last resort, to be sure.

She paced her way through the night, pausing only when Bela brought her something to eat. She found the food tasted flat and bland. She wasn't truly that hungry. Was that a symptom of her coming change too? She forced the alfalfa salad and mashed turnips down anyway. She wasn't going to give up on living. Yet when the first burning rays of dawn forced her to draw the drapes on the bed and retreat into slumber, she had come up with no suggestions for halting her transformation, nor for destroying Bela.

Her sleep should have been restless and full of nightmares, but it was instead black and complete. She was dead to the world once the sun finished rising.

"Twilight." The voice was faint, distant, and hauntingly familiar. Twilight wanted to run towards it, but she felt as if weights were holding her down. Hot, burning weights made of sunlight.

"Twilight," called the voice again. Twilight's eyes fluttered and she struggled towards wakefulness.

"Twilight!" This time it was an urgent command, and with the voice came a sensation, a burning, prickling discomfort and a shaking at her shoulder. Twilight groaned, and finally managed to open her eyes just a sliver. Then they flew open all the way in delighted shock as she saw Celestia standing over her, the other alicorn's form so bright that Twilight immediately squinted her dazzled eyes half-shut.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight practically leaped from the bed to hug her mentor. But as she flung her forelegs around Celestia's neck, pain shocked through her. Touching Celestia caused a burning sensation, not quite as intense as a real fire, but something like the feeling of hot peppers on the tongue, or the prick of a nettle, stinging and uncomfortable. Twilight dropped her embrace and spat out a string of every single curse word she could think of. After everything that had happened, Celestia had come to her rescue, and Twilight couldn't even hug her!

Celestia gave her a somewhat bemused look. "Needed to get some frustration out of your system, I take it?" she said.

Twilight sighed. "I wish it were only that."

"What happened?" asked Celestia. "When you didn't write the second day I was a bit concerned; Twilight Sparkle is always punctual, but things do happen, so I put it aside. When you didn't write the third day I was truly worried. On the fourth day I decided that I had better make certain all was well, and since I could hardly send my guard into something that might well have disabled an alicorn, I chose to come myself." She favored looked around the room, shaking her head. "My worries were compounded when I arrived and found the castle seemingly deserted. Yet then I discovered you here, sleeping in apparent comfort."

Twilight snorted. "Apparent is all it is. I've been held prisoner here by Lord Bela. Turns out he is a vampire. I always thought they were mythical. But I guess not. He has some kind of hypnotic power over me."

Celestia's eyes went immediately to Twilight's neck, and she frowned when she saw the marks there. "That is a very bad sign," said Celestia slowly.

Twilight heaved a sigh. "I know. He's bitten me twice, he said my blood lets him control me. And also I'm turning into a vampire. I don't suppose you know of any cures?"

Celestia blinked. "You seem quite calm about this."

"Yeah, well, I've had nothing else to do but think about it, so I've gotten more used to the idea than I might like."

"There may, perhaps, be a cure," said Celestia. "Though I hesitate to make any promises. I know only a little about vampires. They are elusive creatures, and I had thought them all extinct some centuries ago. But come. There are better places to discuss this than here. I could find no sign of Lord Bela anywhere in the castle, but I don't doubt that he has a hidden crypt somewhere nearby, and it would be better for us both if we were well away from here by sundown."

Celestia went to the balcony, with Twilight following. The bright daylight shining down all around made Twilight's eyes hurt and her head ache. She had to squint to keep from being blinded. Celestia spread her wings and leaped into the air. Twilight spread her own, but still couldn't follow Celestia. She muttered another curse under her breath. She was normally not much inclined to swear, but if this kept up, she was going to be as foul-mouthed as any sailor.

"Celestia! I can't follow!"

Celestia landed, perching delicately on the balcony's railing like some kind of giant, beautiful bird. "What is preventing you?"

"Some kind of hypnotic compulsion. He ordered me to not leave the room, and I haven't been able to so much as open the door since."

"I see." Celestia's eyes went unfocused, she was obviously thinking hard. Then she looked at Twilight again, her expression a little bit uncertain. "I think I can remove the compulsion, but..."

"But?"

"It will hurt. I will be more or less burning it out of you with sunfire. The sun is the best remedy to a vampire's powers, but if you're already turning it will certainly hurt, and it may do you some actual physical harm."

"Well I'm not going to just stay here! Do what you have to do," said Twilight.

Celestia nodded. "I'm sorry that I don't know a better way."

"Just do it. So long as I survive, it'll be worth it to finally be free of that sun-damned creature and his green eyes."

Celestia nodded again, and her horn lit with a golden glow. Twilight braced herself. Golden light swept over her. For just an instant it was faint, a warmth just like sunlight should be with only a hint of prickling along her coat, but that immediately grew stronger, swelling into a stinging burn that went from her fur all the way to the core of her, as if every inch of her, inside and out, was being stung by wasps or whipped with nettles. She cried out and went to her knees. Yet the sensation passed almost as swiftly as it had come. Twilight was left panting and shivering, yet somehow feeling lighter. She rose slowly. She had bitten her lip, and was suddenly aware of the taste of blood, which tasted far too good, and of the fact that her teeth were definitely too sharp. She shuddered, but pushed that aside and spread her wings. A moment later she was in the air, her heart lifting. She was free!

"Thank you, Celestia. Thank you so much!"

Celestia smiled. "I am only sorry that I had to hurt you to help you. But come, I want to be as far from here as we can get before the sun sets."

Twilight sobered a bit and nodded. Celestia wheeled in the air and set off to the west, towards Equestria. Twilight followed her, settling into place just behind and to one side of her, in Celestia's slipstream where flying would be easiest.

They flew as swiftly as they could for hours. Twilight offered to take the lead, knowing that Celestia must have flown long and hard to reach her so swiftly, but Celestia insisted on keeping her place in the little formation, and Twilight couldn't muster enough energy to argue. The sun beat down on her like a hammer on an anvil, pounding her with ferocious light and heat. She found she was glad that all she had to do was follow Celestia; it was hard to even think. The light seemed to drain her, sucking the life from her as surely as Bela had.

Every reminder of Bela made a flash of anger go through Twilight, but she was too tired to stay angry. She spent most of the day dazzled and dazed, trailing after her former mentor as helplessly as she had when she'd been a filly, following her through the palace halls.

Finally, the sun touched the horizon and Celestia spiraled down towards the forest below. It was a wild wood, here outside of Equestria, but it looked ordinary enough. Twilight would have happily landed in the Everfree itself at this point; she was certainly willing to land in a non-magical forest. She stumbled to a landing in a small clearing and stood there, dazed, trying to think what she should be doing.

"I'll set up a bit of a camp," said Celestia. "Why don't you graze a little?"

"Okay," said Twilight. Right, food. She still wasn't hungry, which was worrying, but grazing seemed like a good idea. She cropped the grass steadily, taking time to pick out the most tender shoots, looking for something that would kindle the appetite that she was missing.

As the sun sank lower and the light faded, Twilight felt herself perking up. She considered suggesting that they fly on, but a single glance at Celestia headed off that idea. The white alicorn looked exhausted, as though she had flown straight here without sleeping. Which, now that Twilight thought about it, was probably the case. Given the distance, and when she said she had left...

"There, nearly done," said Celestia. She was standing beside a small firepit she'd built from gathered stones, with a pile of dead branches beside it. Twilight could see the dim glow of a warding circle around her, and nodded approvingly. She'd been broken free of Bela's influence. The ward would hopefully keep him from establishing it again. Twilight trotted over and sat down beside the firepit, inside the circle.

She used her magic to place a few sticks in the pit, relishing the ability to do so, and lit them the same way. Celestia sat down beside her and looked at the flames as they slowly grew. After a long silence she finally asked, "How are you feeling?"

"Pretty good, actually." Twilight shrugged. "After sundown, I feel much better."

"Unfortunately that's also a bad sign."

"There are probably worse ones... My reflection started to vanish last night, and I seem to have fangs now."

"Ah. Yes, it is very far along."

"So... how much longer do I have?"

Celestia sighed. "I am not completely certain, sadly. From what little I know, you may be as far progressed as you can be until you die. You no doubt have little appetite."

"Yeah, everything tastes bland, and I'm not hungry at all."

Celestia nodded. "If you do not force yourself to eat, you will waste away until you perish. If the vampire also feeds heavily from you, this will happen swiftly, otherwise it may take months. Only when you die will the transformation be complete."

"What about a cure? You said there might be one?"

"Yes. I have heard it said that a vampire's victim turns because of the bond of blood between them. If the vampire is slain before the turning is complete, the victim will be freed."

"I see."

"Yet my experience with vampires is limited. I have interacted with a few, but I have never seen the process of turning, so I am not certain. I would prefer to return to Canterlot and study it further before doing anything rash."

Twilight snorted. "I would kind of like to go back right now and kick Bela's skull in. But you're probably right, we should know more before acting. Are there any rare books on vampirism you know of?"

"Are you telling me," said Celestia with a wink and a smile, "that there are books in Canterlot you might not have read yet?

Twilight giggled. "Contrary to popular belief, I have not read every book that has ever been written."

"I am shocked!" said Celestia. She leaned a little closer and whispered conspiratorially, "I promise I won't tell anypony."

Twilight giggled again, feeling cheered by Celestia’s attempt at humor, but she also noticed a faint prickling. Apparently having Celestia even lean close was uncomfortable. She heaved a sigh and shifted away from the other princess. Celestia tilted her head, raising one eyebrow in silent inquiry. "Sorry," said Twilight. "Just... you're prickly."

"Prickly?"

"Yeah. I think it's because you are kind of intrinsically a sun symbol, and sun symbols and vampires don't mix."

"Ah. I had forgotten about that. I knew solar magic was painful for vampires, but yes, my mere presence can be as well. I am sorry, Twilight."

Twilight shrugged. "It's not exactly your fault. I just... I don't know." She glanced over at Celestia. "It will be hard, to not be able to touch you."

"We'll find a cure, one way or another," said Celestia gently.

"I hope so," said Twilight.

"I need to sleep. You should rest as well. We'll carry on at sunrise. I know it would be easier for you to travel at night, but I'd like you to be within wards after dark."

Twilight nodded. "That seems like a wise precaution."

Celestia yawned and settled herself on the grass, curling up to tuck her head under her wing. Twilight tried to get comfortable too, also putting a wing over her head, though not as gracefully as Celestia could. She wasn't truly tired, though. She felt very much awake.

For several hours she rolled and tossed, trying to rest. Eventually she gave up and just stared into the dying embers of the fire. Their shifting glow was soothing, and though she still did not sleep, she found herself feeling relaxed, her eyes going unfocused.

Twilight.

Twilight blinked slowly. Had she seen a pair of green eyes looking out at her from the fire? That should have meant something, but she couldn't quite think what.

Twilight, return to me.

"Yes," murmured Twilight softly. The voice was compelling, alluring.

Come, Twilight. Come to me now.

Twilight rose and began walking towards the voice, her eyes still unfocused. She stumbled over a grassy tussock, but didn't notice, she just kept walking.

Yes, Twilight. Come here. Return to your master, Twilight...

"Twilight!"

Twilight snapped awake. She was on her feet, for some reason, and Princess Celestia was standing in front of her, looking concerned. Twilight blinked, suddenly very confused. She was no longer next to the fire pit, she was standing near the edge of a large meadow, which she'd never seen before. The horizon was light with a predawn glow that stung her eyes.

"What happened?" she said, puzzled.

"You were sleepwalking. When I woke up you were gone, but you'd left a trail, at least at first, and once I discovered that you were walking in a straight line, finding you was simple enough. You went nearly five miles though."

Twilight sighed. "No need to ask what direction I was going in, I take it."

"Back to the castle, straight as an arrow," said Celestia.

"So what do we do now? If wards can't keep Bela out at night, I guess we'll have to travel at night, and camp during the day? Or what?"

Celestia shook her head, her mouth set in a hard line. "We are going to give Bela what he wants and go back to the castle. If he was willing to let you go, I was willing to let him be, assuming it didn't become necessary to slay him in order to cure you. I do not kill lightly. But now he has dug his own grave, and I shall be happy to help him into it. If we fly swiftly, we can be there with several hours of sunlight remaining."

Twilight nodded grimly. She was not going to argue for Bela's life. "Let's go, then," was all she said.

They both spread their wings and took off into the lightening sky, aimed directly at the castle many miles away. Twilight knew they were flying directly towards it, for a strange tug within her pulled her along, urging her, even awake, to do Bela's bidding and come to him.

She gritted her teeth, all too aware of the now obvious fangs there. I'll come, she told him silently, but you aren't going to like what happens to you when I arrive, vampire.

"It's deserted," said Twilight, puzzled.

"Yes. It was completely empty, save for yourself, when I was here before."

"Weird. When I first arrived it was full of ponies. There were dozens of them at the dinner."

"Illusions, no doubt," said Celestia. "Vampire unicorns are said to be skilled at such."

"He didn't seem to be casting... but then I suppose that could have been an illusion too. I wonder if that’s possible?" Twilight filed that thought away for later. Hiding one's horn-glow while casting could be a useful skill...

Celestia chuckled softly at Twilight's thoughtful expression. "Ever the student, hmm?"

Twilight smiled. "I guess so. But never mind that. The other ponies don't matter even if they're real, right now we just need to find Bela." The pull that had drawn here on had faded as the sun rose over the horizon and was now entirely gone, so she had no easy path to finding the vampire.

"He will probably be underground. I did not know he was a vampire before I rescued you, so I searched only the upper portions of the castle. We must find the cellars, or the crypts."

Twilight nodded. "I know where the chapel is, I guess that tour he gave me will prove useful. The crypts will be there. And the cellars will be under the kitchen, which is off the dining hall."

"Cellars first, I think," said Celestia.

Twilight nodded and led the way through the echoing, empty halls. All the finery she'd seen on her tour was now dusty and decaying. Cobwebs hung in thick sheets on everything, and what wasn't covered in them was growing mold, or simply falling apart. It was eerie, walking through a place that she had seen so bright and full of life, and finding it instead full of death and decay. Her own hoofprints, with Bela's larger prints beside them, were sometimes visible in the thick dust, as though no living pony save herself had walked here in centuries. She shivered, but pressed on.

The dining hall was as decrepit as the rest of the castle. The long table running down the center of it had a place cleared where Twilight had sat, but the rest of it was covered in the remains of an ancient feast, which had rotted away almost to nothing, leaving mostly the dishes behind. Even the place where Bela had sat was covered in moldering decay. But of course his meal must have been an illusion too, for vampires did not eat normal food in any of the tales Twilight knew.

The kitchen led from the dining room, and from there the stairs down to the cellar were easy to find. Both Celestia and Twilight lit their horns as they descended. "I may need to use the sun's power, if we encounter him below ground," whispered Celestia as they walked. "It will probably cause you pain, for which I apologize in advance, but even during the day he may have some power in darkness."

Twilight merely nodded and continued walking. The cellars were as full of the moldering remnants of the castle's former life as the dining hall had been. Barrels that had once held food now held fungus and dust. A rack of wine bottles was still intact, each of them covered in dust half an inch thick. Twilight noticed a spot where the lack of dust indicated that a bottle had been recently removed and shivered.

They pressed deeper, exploring every nook and cranny, searching for any sign of the vampire's daily resting place. They found nothing. The sun was beginning to sink lower. It was still well above the horizon, but they had only a few hours left when they arrived at the chapel. The stained-glass windows were all shattered, only fragments of blue and silver remained to hint that this had once been a lunar chapel. They spent nearly an hour searching, but found no sign of crypts. Finally, with the sun nearly brushing the horizon, and the castle interior already shrouded in shadow, they gave up.

"We'll have to search more tomorrow," said Twilight.

"More likely he will find us tonight. He will try to call you again."

"Yes. I have at least one plan to prevent it, though. Which I should put in place now." Twilight concentrated, building the complicated spell carefully but swiftly. She had helped her brother, Shining Armor, develop it. Shield spells were his specialty, but though this spell created a familiar magenta bubble around Twilight when cast, the bubble didn't stay there. It shrank down, vanishing into her head. She could feel a faint tingle as the magic wrapped around her mind. They had developed it to protect him against changeling mind control, should Chrysalis ever return. It would hopefully serve as well to guard her from vampire hypnosis. The only problem was that it required conscious attention to maintain. If she fell asleep, the spell would break.

She and Celestia retired to the forest outside the castle's walls. They made a simple camp together in silence, and once again Celestia warded it, though Twilight wasn't sure why she bothered.

They grazed together in the fading light. Once the sun had set, Twilight again lit the fire, and they sat in silence in front of it for some time.

Eventually Twilight said, "I need to stay awake."

"Yes. I will try to stay awake with you. Though I must admit that it has been a long and not particularly restful week. And I neglected to bring any tea with me. I have been missing it." She yawned, as if to prove her point.

Twilight smiled wryly. "I wish missing tea were the worst of our problems."

"Indeed."

"Why don't you nap now, I'm pretty awake, and I can wake you to help keep me up when I start getting tired."

Celestia hesitated, then nodded. "I suppose that is the best plan. Though I dislike leaving you alone so close to the vampire."

"I'll be fine. You look like you could use some rest, though."

Celestia looked as worn as Twilight had ever seen her. There were huge, dark shadows under her eyes, and her mane and tail flowed slowly, as if lacking the energy to move. Her coat was dull with sweat and dust, her wings were obviously in need of a good preening. She'd looked better when only newly returned from banishment after Nightmare Moon's attack. Twilight wanted to hug her, and reassure her, which was a strange sensation for her. Normally she wanted to get reassurance from Celestia, but... she was no longer Celestia's student. They were equals now. And given the sorrow in Celestia's eyes, and the furrow of worry on her brow, she thought her former mentor could use a hug. Tears stung Twilight's eyes at the thought that she couldn't hug Celestia. If things went badly, she never would again.

Unable to take the thought, Twilight suddenly flung her hooves around Celestia's neck and hugged her anyway. The burning sensation was painful, but it wasn't unbearable. Celestia stiffened, then hugged Twilight back briefly before moving away from the embrace. "Twilight... I can stay up if I need to," she said.

"No, sleep, please. You need it, and I'm quite awake for now." She gave Celestia a somewhat bitter smile. "It's night, after all."

"Very well. Please wake me the moment you begin to tire," said Celestia.

"I will," promised Twilight. She got to her feet as Celestia closed her eyes and curled up in the grass. Twilight began to pace, walking the perimeter of Celestia's warding circle. That lasted even after Celestia began delicately snoring. Twilight considered ways to make the shield spell she was holding over her mind last even while asleep. Shield spells and warding spells were related in some ways, and entirely different in others. She paced in a steady circle, trampling down the grass as she went, and was soon entirely lost in her thoughts. Making spells permanent was difficult; that was one reason why Equestria didn't rely more on magical devices. But then, she wouldn't need to make the spell permanent, it would just have to last though one night, and she could renew it in the morning. She turned the puzzle over in her mind thoughtfully, the rest of the world fading away completely as she thought. Her steps slowed, until she was barely ambling along. Her eyes were half-closed, not even seeing the grass in front of her.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, a dim current of something like alarm surfaced briefly. Wasn't there something else she should be worrying about? But it was soothed away by a half-heard voice. There is no cause for alarm. Nothing is wrong, all is well. The voice was dim and distant. She had almost blocked it out entirely. But the brain—and thus the mind—required blood to function, the same blood that bound her to Bela, and so even through her shield, the smallest, gentlest whisper slipped in, slowly, gradually lulling her, until at last she stopped walking entirely and let her head nod, having fallen asleep on her feet.

Twilight walked once more through the castle's halls, while moonlight filtered down all around her. Something walked behind her. She could hear its hoofsteps, but she did not turn and look back. Around her, ponies went about their lives, just as she had seen them when she first arrived here, yet each of them was dead; their bodies rotting, their faces bare skulls, their skin torn from their flesh in bloody streamers or stretching tightly over their dry bones.

Twilight saw Celestia walking towards her, and for a moment she shied away. She did not want to see the regal princess reduced to skin and bones once again. Yet as Celestia came closer, Twilight saw that she was whole, her skin unmarred by rot. Indeed Twilight found she could hear Celestia's heartbeat, the sound echoing in the empty halls.

The other ponies vanished as though they had never been, leaving Twilight standing alone with Celestia.

Or not alone. From behind her, a voice said, "Drink from the cup I have given you, my thrall."

Twilight turned to see Bela standing there, grinning a sharp-fanged grin. She looked for the cup he spoke of, but he held no such implement.

"The cup is there before you, Twilight," he said. She turned back obediently, but only saw Celestia. A shiver of horror went through her. "Yes," said Bela. "Drink of her."

Twilight shook her head. "No."

"You are mine, you must."

Twilight shook her head, but found herself stepping forward. Celestia only smiled at her serenely. Twilight moved slowly, one hoof at a time, but she could not stop herself. She lifted her head, her muzzle touching Celestia's neck. The touch burned, and she felt a strange shock go through her. The world wavered around her.

"Go on," said Bela.

Twilight bit down, her lips burning, but the blood that welled into her mouth didn't burn. It was warm, and slightly metallic, and tasted better than anything she had ever tasted before. She closed her eyes and drank deeply, taking her fill of it, all her horror and reluctance washed away by the compelling heat of it. She heard Bela laughing behind her, and slowly became aware of the dew-drenched grass beneath her, the burning pain of Celestia's body touching hers as she crouched over the sleeping alicorn, and the laughter that was no longer an echoing dream sound, but real. She was awake, and this was real, she was drinking Celestia's blood.

She tried to pull back and flee, but she couldn't move. Her shield was gone, and Bela's power held her helpless once more. She continued to drink, her mind struggling, but her body taking the blood in eagerly. It tasted so good...

Her heart jumped when she felt Celestia stir under her. If Celestia woke, she could surely deal with Bela! Twilight heard a low groan, felt Celestia move again. But it was a feeble twitch, hardly a motion at all, and Twilight also heard the steady throb of her pulse slowing, and felt the regular movement of her chest slow as well. She wanted to weep, or scream, or do something, anything, but keep drinking. She was killing Celestia and she couldn't stop.

Suddenly she was flung backward in a blaze of golden light. Pain shot through her, but it was a familiar pain. It was the same strange inner burning that she'd felt before, when Celestia had burned Bela's influence from her. She heard a screech, and knew that the solar blast had caught Bela too. She hoped that it was over, that he was dead, but she didn't believe that she could be so lucky. He wouldn't die that easily.

Even as she tumbled, she was casting, putting up her mental shield again. With the shield in place, she scrambled to her feet, her eyes darting about, looking for Bela, and also looking hopefully to Celestia.

The white alicorn lay still, and Twilight's heart jumped into her throat. Was Celestia dead? Had that blast been her last effort? But no, she saw Celestia's barrel move faintly. She was not dead, not yet at least.

"Moon curse you both!" hissed a low voice, no longer quite so charming.

Twilight spun to see Bela getting to his feet behind her. She flattened her ears and glared at him. "You."

He glared right back, his fangs glinting in the moonlight. "Yes, me. Your master, thrall. Cease your resistance, and your life will be much easier."

Twilight snarled back at him, showing her own fangs. "I will not quit resisting. Not until you are dead, you fool."

"Fool? You are the fool. This pointless disobedience will accomplish nothing. You must sleep again, and then you will be mine."

Twilight stood a little straighter, her horn beginning to glow. She flexed her wings, summoning a magic that was not just a unicorn's power. "Yes, fool. You decided to capture me, to turn me, and to make me harm the one I love most in all the world. You did everything possible to ensure that I hate you enough to kill you." Twilight's horn blazed brighter.

Bela's horn began to glow as well, with a green-black glow. "You cannot kill one who is already dead."

"We'll see about that," said Twilight flatly, and shot a blast of pure power from her horn at Bela. He vanished an instant before it hit. Twilight saw him dissolve into mist, then reform a short distance away, while the bolt streaked past him to more or less obliterate a tree behind him. He fired a bolt back at her. She spun a shield out of thin air in the time it took for the bolt to cross the few yards between them and blocked it, then immediately fired another bolt at Bela. He once again vanished just before it struck. Twilight scowled and made a mental note to impart more momentum to the next one. But Bela did not immediately appear again. Twilight kept her horn charged, her magic ready, and turned slowly, her eyes scanning the clearing. She paused again to make certain that Celestia was still breathing, and that was when she heard the rustle of hooves hitting grass behind her. She spun, just in time for her head to run directly into Bela's hind hooves as he bucked out at her.

She let out a shocked cry, her head snapping around hard. She had taken the full force of his hooves plus the momentum of her own turn into them, and it was too much. She felt something crunch in her neck, and her whole body seemed to go numb. She dropped limply to lie on the ground, the world fading away around her. She couldn't feel anything, couldn't tell if she was breathing, couldn't hear the sound of her own heartbeat. Her vision began to gray out. She clung to consciousness stubbornly, trying to blink the encroaching darkness from her vision. If she blacked out, she would lose the spell protecting her mind.

Twilight knew that this was probably irrational. She seemed to be dying, losing the spell was the least of her problems. Yet she couldn't give it up. She would not admit defeat. So she hung on, even as blackness overwhelmed her utterly and everything else vanished but that one tiny spark of magic.

Twilight clung to that spark of magic as she hung in a featureless void, and after some unknowable time, the world began to filter back to her. She felt a weird energy wash over her, a kind of magic unlike any she'd known. It reminded her a little of some of Luna's darker workings, and a bit of when she'd handled black crystal magic when opposing Sombra, but mostly it was unlike anything else.

Her eyes snapped open.

She looked up. Bela was standing nearby, staring down at her with rage and incredulity written on his face. She reached out to the dark power that still flowed over her, pulling it in. It flooded her with strength. Something cracked faintly in her neck, and suddenly she could feel again.

Twilight rose, her horn crackling with power; the black of this new thing, the white of alicorn magic and the magenta of her natural power mingled together, crawling in bolts like lightning around her whole body.

"You died! How can you still be shielded from me?" Bela snarled, his black and green magic gathering again.

Twilight laughed. "I am the Alicorn of Friendship, vampire. And friendship. Is. Magic!" The bolt that shot out from her horn was too fast for the eye to follow. It enveloped Bela completely in a bubble of sizzling tricolor magic. He dissolved again, but the bubble contained the dark mist that he had become. He solidified, then turned into a wolf, which Twilight had not expected, but it had no effect whatsoever on her magic; the bubble continued to hold him. The wolf snarled and snapped, but Twilight only laughed again and reached out another tendril of magic to grasp the branch of a nearby tree and snap it off. Bela changed next into a bat, fluttering and throwing himself against the walls of the bubble, but still could find no escape.

Finally he returned to his pony form. "You can't kill me. Vampires are immortal," he said. "Cease this useless conflict and submit."

"I will never submit to you. If vampires are truly immortal, then making me immortal was the most foolish thing you've ever done. I will hound you until the end of time, if you truly cannot die. But I've read a lot of books about your kind, vampire, and I am pretty sure you can."

With that, Twilight thrust the impromptu stake she had been making through the bubble of magic and into Bela's side, just above the elbow of his foreleg, exactly where his heart was. The stake went so far in that the near end was flat against his side, and the far end came out the other side, the tip covered in dark blood.

Bela's eyes went wide with shock. He gasped out something wordless, unbelieving, and angry, then went to his knees. Twilight kept the bubble of magic around him, watching intently. He toppled over, and his eyes, those compelling green eyes, went flat and lifeless.

He was dead, truly dead, at last.

Epilogue

The late morning sun was warm and pleasant on Twilight's back, though it still made her eyes sting more than a little as she stood in the open, beside a dusty road. A list floated in front of her, and she meticulously checked off the last item on it. "Buried at a crossroads, check," she said, then rolled the paper up and tucked it under her wing.

"Satisfied now?" asked Celestia as Twilight turned towards her. Her smile was amused, though there was a tinge of sorrow to it.

Twilight nodded firmly. "I've done absolutely everything from every myth and story I know about how to keep a vampire from rising. Well, except the bit about feeding his ashes to his friends and family, I think I might skip that one even if I knew he had any. Whoever came up with that needs to get some therapy; that's just not right."

Celestia chuckled, and Twilight smiled as well, but it was a thin, pale smile. She didn't really feel like smiling. And anyway, smiling too broadly would show her fangs. She should probably get in the habit of keeping them hidden. The last of her smile vanished at that thought. She had died before Bela, so there could be no cure—she was a vampire, and a vampire she would stay. She looked over at Celestia. "So... what do we do now?"

Celestia looked to the west, where Equestria lay far beyond the horizon, and sighed softly. "Go home and get on with our lives. What else can we do?"

Twilight echoed her sigh. "I suppose so. I guess it could be worse. I just..." She looked over at Celestia again. "I'll miss being able to hug you. I know that I'm not your student anymore, and that we're just... friends, I guess. It'll be difficult, but it's not as though we're lovers or something." Twilight found herself blushing at that thought, and part of her wondered how blushing even worked, now that she was undead.

Celestia's cheeks were flushed with pink too, and she replied, "No, we're not lovers. And yet..." She sighed and looked away from Twilight. "Sometimes you don't know what you're missing until it's gone. I... I would miss your hugs a great deal. I think we are, or could be, something more than 'just' friends."

Twilight felt her blush growing stronger. Her ears went back in annoyance, though, as Celestia finished speaking. "This is already hard enough, not being able to touch you without pain. I don't think you should dangle 'more than just friends' in front of me just as it's become impossible," she said, aware that she was perhaps being harsher than necessary, but her emotions were too frayed for her to come up with calculated, diplomatic replies.

Celestia unfolded and refolded her wings, looking uncharacteristically uncertain and nervous. She shifted a few times, opening her mouth, then shutting it again. Twilight scowled irritably. She knew that Celestia was no doubt frayed and frazzled too, and Twilight wasn't sure they should even be talking about this right now. They should probably fly home, rest, recover, figure out how Twilight would manage her everyday responsibilities now, and get everything settled before discussing their feelings for each other. Yet she found words hovering on the tip of her tongue all the same, and finally, when Celestia continued to be silent, she spoke. She might as well get the pain over with right now. "Look, Celestia... I suppose it's easy enough for me to admit that I like you. I always have. Sometime since I became an alicorn, my schoolfilly crush on you has turned into the admiration of an equal. Up until just now, I would have jumped at the chance to be with you. I guess I should have before this, because that chance is over, so please, please, don't pretend it isn't. I could barely stand to touch you before I finished turning, I'm sure it's even worse now. We can't hug, we can't kiss, we can't be lovers. So whatever it is you're going to say, just say it, and then we can move forward and get on with our lives."

Celestia looked at her, and Twilight was startled to see tears gathering in her violet eyes. "I shouldn't do this," said Celestia almost under her breath. "Sun damn me, I know I shouldn't, but I'm going to." Then the light seemed to drain out of her. The subtle pearlescence of her coat, that had persisted even beneath the dust and grime that covered her, faded. The colors of her mane drained away, and it dropped to hang limp like ordinary hair, colored a light, somewhat bedraggled pink. Even her cutie mark seemed duller, less like the real sun and more a simple image, and she shrank—still taller than Twilight, but far shorter than she had been mere moments ago.

Even as Twilight gaped at her, Celestia flung herself at Twilight, wrapping her hooves around her and pressing her muzzle to Twilight's in a fervent kiss. Twilight stiffened, expecting pain, but none came. Confusion ran in circles in the back of her mind, but the rest of her didn't care, she put her hooves around Celestia and kissed back with matching passion.

When they finally broke apart, they were both flushed, and Celestia was panting a bit, but Twilight was still not breathing at all. Though she drew a breath to ask, "How? What?" somewhat incoherently.

"I put down the sun's power. For this moment, at least, I am no longer Celestia Sol Invictus, I am merely Celestia. I can't do it for long; the sun is capricious, and I do not want her to go out of her course. But for you, Twilight, I could do nothing else."

"Thank you," said Twilight, everything that had happened boiling up in her suddenly, her eyes tearing, her hooves tight around Celestia, her body trembling as she pressed close. Celestia spread her wings and folded them around Twilight, enveloping her in soft, white feathers. "Thank you so much," repeated Twilight. "You are wonderful, amazing, beautiful... everything that's good. I love you."

"I love you too," said Celestia gently, wonderingly,. "I had almost thought I'd forgotten how, but I do."

They stood there, together, for a moment that was both long and could never be long enough. At length Twilight pulled back with a deep sigh. "I can hear your heartbeat..."

"That bothers you?" said Celestia gently.

"A little. I nearly killed you. I worry, a bit, about needing to drink blood. I'm not hungry now, but I'm sure I will be soon. What will I do then?"

"I am harder to kill than that, my dear Twilight. I haven't lived over a thousand years by being fragile." Celestia's smile was amused, but tender. "Don't fear for me. As for what to do, you have many friends who will no doubt be willing to donate on occasion, and some arrangement can probably be worked out with a blood bank if needed. You'll manage. You're Twilight Sparkle. You were my best student, and you are still perhaps the finest mind in Equestria. I have complete confidence in you, now as always."

"Thank you," said Twilight again, softly.

"Now I'm afraid I must take up the sun again before she wanders." Celestia stepped back from Twilight. A golden glow gathered around her, and when it faded she was her usual self again, towering over Twilight, her mane and tail flowing in an unseen breeze, her coat gleaming beneath its cover of dirt. "I'll speak with Luna, when we get home, about some kind of arrangement, so I can have time off to be with you."

Twilight smiled. "Home. I like the sound of that."

"So do I. Let's go home, Twilight."

She spread her wings, and Twilight spread hers too. Together, they flew into a clear, blue sky; towards Equestria, home, and whatever might come.

Author's Note

I couldn't resist putting a touch of Twilestia into this story. I blame Jordanis. (And I also have to thank him for his thorough editing, without which this would have been a much poorer story.)

I am considering updating this a bit, as some people seem to have missed the subtle hints at the TwiLestia ship early on in the story and thought it came out of nowhere. A little too subtle, I guess.

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