Twi Am Legend

Chapters

Prologue: Birth of a Legend
Chapter 1: A Day in the Life
Chapter 2: The Exodus of Twilight Sparkle
Chapter 3: O Brave New World

Prologue: Birth of a Legend

How did it begin? That is the question always asked. When was the moment that the story was set in motion? Where was the beginning of it all?

In this case, like so many questions, this has more than one answer. The world of the story began on a sunny summer evening, in Canterlot castle. It was just about time to lower the sun, and Princess Celestia was mostly alone.

Mostly.

There were three with her, including her faithful student Twilight Sparkle, who had come to ask Celestia about an obscure facet of unicorn history, which Celestia was well versed in. The filly was happily skipping along, anticipating Celestia's answer. They were usually interesting. Celestia could make even the most boring things fascinating, although Twilight's own obsession with learning didn't hurt matters.

And that's when It happened. No one was expecting it, not any of Equestria, not the fillies with Celestia, and certainly not Celestia herself. It happened suddenly, and no one could react until it was over.

Suddenly, Princess Celestia was consumed in a ball of fire, which enveloped her and the three she was with. It vanished as quickly as it came, and Celestia vanished with it. It left behind three unchanged fillies and a very changed Equestria.

And this is where the world began, with the disappearance of Princess Celestia in that mysterious fireball. This permanently changed the world and allowed our story to begin. But this was not when the story truly began. That happened later. To find out what it is, we shall follow Twilight:

When Twilight Sparkle saw that her mentor was gone, she screamed and ran away in panic. She ran through the castle to the throne room, not noticing her surroundings, not noticing anything but her horror, thinking nothing but “She's gone- she's gone- she's gone!”. She arrived at the entrance to the throne room, and there she found ponies, nobility, mostly, waiting for Celestia's return from her walk.

She stopped and half panted, half sobbed to them “Celestia's gone! Disappeared!”

She then looked up to see that they hadn't seemed to have listened to her. If the had, they'd have been panicking, but they weren't panicking. They were intensely staring at Twilight Sparkle. Twilight began to feel nervous under their gaze, and slowly backed away.

That's when the ponies in the throne room lunged for her.

Twilight ran for it again, and they gave chase. Desperation lent the filly endurance, and a knowledge of the back ways to where she was going allowed her to keep ahead of them. She ran through the dusky streets, returning to her house, where she'd find Spike, her precious doll Ms. Smartypants, and her parents, although her brother was out of town on royal guard business.

She skidded through alleys, dashed across streets, and hid in shadows whenever she could. She hoped that she had lost the horde of ponies chasing her, but she never once looked behind her to make sure. That was against the whole philosophy of running away, as she had been taught by a particularly unlucky unicorn wizard (or wizzard, as he wasn't too good at spelling) in Celestia's court.

When she found her house, she rushed in and locked the doors behind her. She then slid to the ground in exhaustion.

Once she'd got her breath back, she walked into the kitchen and called out: “Mom? Dad? You here?”

Her worry intensified with each second that they were absent. Finally, her mother and father walked into the room. They stared intensely at their daughter, but appeared not to recognize her.

And then, they attacked. Twilight screamed again as she dodged her mother, and then her father. She ran under them and telekinetically opened the knife drawer and drew out a very big knife to defend herself. She was scared. Her parents were not acting like they were supposed to. They were her parents. They loved her. Why were they attacking her?

Twilight's father nearly biting on to Twilight's leg spurred the filly into action. She swiped at her father with the knife, leaving a bloody gash on the stallion's chest. He didn't seem to feel it, though, and it closed quickly. Twilight gasped in horror, and managed to escape from her father temporarily by running under him. She skidded towards the living room, and brandished the knife, causing a few more wounds that didn't mean much of anything.

It was then that Twilight made the panicky decision that the situation called for drastic measures. She drew the knife out so that it was directly to the side of her parents' necks, and then used all her telekinetic strength to move it very quickly to the other side of the room. Backed by the sheer force of speed, the knife sliced cleanly through the necks of Twilight's mother, and then her father.

They toppled to the ground. Their heads toppled to the ground, independently of their bodies.

And Twilight Sparkle stood there, in shock, telekinetically holding the bloody remains of the knife that she had used to kill them. Her magical strength expended, she dropped what had once been the knife. It clattered to the ground. Twilight slid to the floor.

There was blood... so much blood... blood pooling on the floor where they had fallen... blood on the knife... blood on Twilight Sparkle.

“Twilight? What's happening?”

Spike's voice cut through the deathly silence. The baby dragon walked down the stairs and into the living room, where he saw the bloody scene. He froze, mouth open in shock.

And it was then that Twilight Sparkle, overwhelmed by everything that had happened to her, everything that she'd done, began to cry.

And it is there that our story begins, with a filly who had just killed her parents. A filly thrust into a dangerous world. A filly defending herself. She is our protagonist. But she wasn't, before. When she used that knife to kill her parents, something changed, and she became a different Twilight than she was. And so the story has begun.

Author's Note

And so it begins, turning inside-out the 'Twilight Sparkle is a vampire' story, with a story in which she's the only one not a vampire.

Chapter 1: A Day in the Life

The day dawned, years later. The sun rose, but, as had been usual for a while now, its light fell on no one.

Well, almost no one.

It fell on a unicorn mare, sleeping peacefully in her temporary safe house, snuggled up to a small cloth doll. The mare had lived for years in the shell of Canterlot, ever since that fateful day where all but three had turned into vampires. She was a mare who had once been the personal student to Princess Celestia, until Celestia had vanished. She was a mare who had that day killed her parents after they attacked her.

She was Twilight Sparkle, all grown up.

Twilight slept on, tired out by a night of excitement. It was late in the morning (or perhaps early in the afternoon) when she finally woke up. She yawned, stretched, got out of bed, leaving her Miss Smartypants doll on the bed, and called to her assistant and only friend:

“Spike!”

There was no answer. Twilight sighed. Spike was even less of a morning person than Twilight. She trotted over to the basket that the baby dragon slept in, and picked him up in her magical aura. She shook him gently. Nothing. She shook him a bit harder. Spike jerked awake and looked around the room in panic, reflexively expecting vampires to be there and attacking.

Twilight gently set him down. “Come on, Spike. It's already late. Food run today. You know that.”

Spike gave her a Look and sighed.

“Okay, Twilight, don't get your tail in a bunch. I'll hold down the fort.”

Twilight smiled at him and said: “Okay. Time to break out the checklist.”

She magically grabbed off a counter a piece of paper with a list of what she needed to do to get ready to go outside. She then proceeded to get ready, checking the paper to make sure she hadn't missed anything on the list. Twilight liked checklists. They allowed her to order her life, and reminded her of things she otherwise might have forgotten. Twilight didn't like the chance of her forgetting something.

She put on the saddlebags she'd use for the food/books.

“Saddlebags, check.”

She strapped on several (sheathed) knives that she'd spent years magically enhancing to be suited for the use she put them to.

“Okay... knives, check.”

She then took four sharpened stakes and strapped them to her legs.

“Stakes, check.”

She then got a collection of throwing stars that looked like Celestia's cutie mark.

“Sun Shuriken, check.”

She covered it all with a brown cloak.

“Cloak, check.”

She took another checklist from the same counter.

“Checklist for the stuff I'm going to do while I'm out, check.”

She rolled up the first checklist, put it back, and walked towards the door. She stopped when Spike called out to her:

“Uh, Twilight, don't you think you're forgetting something?”

Twilight turned back to the little dragon. She whipped the checklist back out, scrolling through it to find out what she might have forgotten. She found it, and giggled in embarrassment.

“Oh... right! Breakfast!”

Twilight walked into the kitchen of the house that she and Spike had commandeered (It wasn't like the previous owners would be missing it-they'd been turned into vampires like the rest of Canterlot). Spike watched her go and facepalmed. It wasn't that Twilight was absent-minded, it's just that when it got to stuff she thought was important (like killing vampires and going on that library run she wanted to do after she got food), all other stuff became trivial.

Like eating, for instance.

Twilight called out from the kitchen: “Spike! I have rubies for you!”

Spike couldn't get in there fast enough. “Coming, Twilight!” he called out, and went to breakfast with her.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

It was a factor of how weird Twilight's life had become that she had killed a pony when she went out to get food, and didn't even consider it worth cleaning up the floor.

She had gone to the closest food store that still had stock, which was still a good few miles away. Twilight had emptied out many of the stores in Canterlot, and time had done a number on much of the stuff that remained. It was about time for Twilight to move on. She had decided on a place out in the country, where food was actually grown. A city whose infrastructure had completely died was not the best place to hole up. Cities depended on the country.

But, for now, some food remained, and Twilight went to stock up. She had a rather uneventful trip, as vampires didn't come out during the day. Sometimes she found some hiding in the shadows, and indeed, often she hunted them during the day, but not this day. When she got there, however, was a different story.

When she got to the store, Twilight crossed the item 'get to food store' off her list, magically opened the door, and walked inside.

The first thing she was aware of was an intense stare, which made her very uncomfortable. All the stares she had gotten since she was a filly and still Princess Celestia's student had been when a vampire was about to attack. On reflex Twilight took out one of her Sun Shuriken and magically hurled it at the vampire.

She wasn't aiming very well, and missed, but the vampire hissed and recoiled anyway. The symbol of Celestia's cutie mark was anathema to them, and they always ran from it. Twilight retrieved the shuriken, split the creature's head open lengthwise, and chopped its gray matter into pieces. The creature crumpled to the floor, dead. Extensive brain damage, .r.e victim can no longer be said to have anything resembling a brain, was one of the few reliable ways to drop a vampire. They healed from most wounds, unless they were too big (hence stakes), or if the weapon was enchanted in some way to keep the wound open, like Twilight's knives were.

Twilight removed her shuriken from the vampire and used a simple cleaning spell to shine it up again. She didn't bother to clean up the vampire's corpse. She'd already decided that she wouldn't be coming back. There was no real reason. Most of the food had gone bad due to too long alone, gotten spoiled by the vampires, or been taken by Twilight herself before. She stuffed the remaining good food (she estimated enough for a few days) into one of her saddlebags, checked off “get food” from her list, and went on her way.

She had a new destination in mind.

Twilight cantered up the streets of Canterlot, pausing a couple of times to chase and kill some vampires. She'd put in time for that on the checklist, so it was A-okay in her book, and she knew that cleaning spell (actually, she'd invented it. She'd had too many situations she'd needed it in), so her weapons didn't stay bloody after she'd done her work.

Despite the distractions and sidetracks, she knew where she was going, and she headed there directly. She was going towards Celestia's castle, and she let nothing stand in her way, for more than a few minutes at least.

She reached the great doors of Canterlot Castle. They were in poor repair. Once, they had been so clean they gleamed, the image of Celestia's cutie mark emblazoned on them shining the brightest of all, a majestic reminder of the power Princess Celestia wielded. Now, their hinges had rusted over, and they were dull with age.

Standing by those dusty, faded doors, Twilight flashed back to a time when she was young, when she'd looked up to those gleaming, majestic doors, full of hope for the test she was about to take, the test that would see if she was worthy of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. It had turned out better than she could imagine, and she had gained Spike and became Celestia's personal student.

But all that was in the past. The past before the Event happened. It was a happier time, sure, but all it did was sadden Twilight by reminding her of how much she had lost when Celestia had disappeared. Her mentor, her ordinary life, her parents- Twilight winced and shied away from continuing that thought. It was too painful. Twilight focused her magical energy on instead getting the doors open. It was hard work, as the hinges had been rusted shut, but Twilight was able to pull it open, though not without much effort, and walked into the palace.

It was a very good thing the palace was an airy place. Twilight hadn't really been there since Celestia had vanished and she had ran out, chased by most of the court, and she hadn't had a chance to do much about the vampire population.

Twilight cantered through the palace, single-mindedly focused on her goal. She thought of nothing but remembering the route that she hadn't walked in at least a decade, although Twilight hadn't kept good track of time after the Event. Which is why she was ambushed in a rather dark corridor by a vampire.

She heard a hiss, and barely manage to dodge to the side when the creature (which appeared to be a pegasus, although Twilight couldn't see much at all in the dim light) attacked, and it bucked her to the wall. She hit the wall right-foreleg first and slid down, barely able to think from the pain.

Even with that fogging her mind, Twilight managed to pull out a stake and use it to parry the vampire's strikes. She pushed the creature against the opposing wall and thrust the stake through its heart. Twilight retracted and cleaned her stake, while the vampire crumpled to the floor. Twilight put the stake back in its holster and saw to her injury, at least as much as she could. When she had confirmed that she would be mostly okay, she continued on her way, hobbling from the pain.

Finally, she reached her destination, a door on the west side of the palace. She paused to check that item off her list, and then gazed at it. It was small, and far less majestic than the great doors to the palace, but no less faded, and with hinges no less rusted. Twilight telekinetically grabbed the door, and pushed with all her magical might to get it to swing open. It indeed took a lot of her might- it had been over a decade since that door had been opened. But Twilight finally wrenched it open, and walked into the room beyond.

The room behind the old door was like an apartment, with a central living space and a connected bedroom. It was still bright and airy, and the colors everywhere were faded from long exposure to the sun. There were potted plants by the window, but they'd long since died, as no one had been there to water them. It was very dusty, and every step made Twilight want to sneeze more. A staircase wound up one side to a second level.

Twilight had only seen the place a few times before, and that when she was only a filly. But she knew where it was. It was her quarters as Princess Celestia's personal student. She'd been only a few days from moving into them when Princess Celestia vanished. In her haste to run away, to leave behind all traces of her old life, Twilight had not returned.

As she stood there, an older and wiser mare, she wondered about what might have been, had the Event not occurred. In What Might Have Been, she was still Princess Celestia's student. She was in the library upstairs, eagerly studying for a test Celestia had set her. She still had no social life, but it was by choice. She hadn't had almost everyone she knew turn into mindless vampires. She had full access to the library, and she mostly stayed there, sometimes reading outside in the shade of the trees on a nice day.

That Twilight Sparkle was a happier mare, but she did not exist. She had vanished from possibility after the Event, and had truly ceased to exist when she killed her vampirized parents. Twilight Sparkle as she was now did exist, and it was no use dwelling on dreams and forgetting to live. The Twilight of now had a life to live for, even if it was a crude facsimile of a normal one, constructed by a student out of bad materials.

Done philosophizing, Twilight walked up the stairs to the library. It was just as she had left it, all those years ago, if even more dusty than downstairs. Finally, the dust became too much for her and she sneezed.

“AH-CHOO!”

That, of course, just stirred up more dust, and sent Twilight into a sneezing fit. Eventually she covered her nose and the sneezes died down, and the dust settled once more. Twilight shook her head to clear it, and looked around her library once more.

There were books. That was the most important thing to Twilight. There were books on everything, from science to magical theory to mythology to architecture. It was Twilight Sparkle's idea of a smaller version of Pony Heaven. She smiled happily at the thought of all those books, and immediately got down to work reading them. She was looking for a spell that would help her out in her situation, like summoning sunlight, stakes, or making plants grow really quickly so that she didn't have to rely on food from before the Event, but she was happy to divert her attention to any spell that caught her fancy, including the one that summoned mustaches.

“Spike will love that one,” she thought, and giggled a little at the image of Spike with a mustache.

She made a note of several books that she wanted to read later, if she was ever to return (not likely), and read on. She read far later than she expected, and gasped when she looked up at the one glass wall of her library and saw how low the sun was.

“Oh, ponyfeathers!” she thought.

She needed to get back, fast, before the sun set. The vampires all came out when the sun set. Twilight grabbed the book she was about to read, stuffed it into her saddlebag to read for later, and left the library in a hurry, although she was careful to close the door to her apartments behind her.

She ran out of the castle, ignoring the stabs of pain from her leg, and back to the safe house as dusk slowly fell. She made it just as the last rays of the sunlight disappeared over the horizon. She dashed inside, telekinetically bolted the door behind her, and slid to the floor, her breath coming in gasps. She then locked the food and books in a place of safety, and carefully put her checklist where it was supposed to be. Spike approached, holding a stake of his own.

“Good, you're back in time,” he said, relieved.

Twilight nodded at him. “Are you ready?”

Spike replied: “Ready as you are.”

As if on cue, that's when the hissing started. Twilight unsheathed her stakes. It was nighttime. The time when the vampires were strong.

Time for her and Spike to fight for their lives.

An impact made the door shudder. It was a sturdy door, but doors are only meant to take so much abuse, and by the second hit, that door had reached its limit, again (by now, Twilight was pretty good at repairing doors). It shattered, and Twilight Sparkle swiftly shoved her stake into the vampire who'd done it. She then telekinetically threw the corpse back onto the crowd of vampires behind the door, and cleared them for a few seconds, but only a few.

A vampire leaped at Twilight, and nearly got a chunk out of her neck before she staked it. Another vampire lunged in, and Twilight threw a Sun Shuriken into the vampire's heart. Then another came, and Twilight was hard-pressed to avoid it. She decapitated the vampire with a knife. She was getting bloody, but she didn't care. She fired a magical bolt from her horn, frying the next vampire to come in. She flashed a Sun Shuriken around the crowd of vampires, dispersing them, for the moment.

A pawing sound came from the windows that Spike had boarded over earlier that day, and soon enough those planks gave way, and a vampire lunged at Spike, who quickly and efficiently skewered it with his stake. He blew his fire-breath, which had the odd magical ability to transport things, at the next vampire, whose head found itself on a one-way trip to Princess Celestia's room, that being the place he was best at sending things to. Twilight joined him fighting by the window, and between them they had quickly cleared most of the initial crowd of vampires who had smelled the scent of non-vampire pony and were attracted to the house.

Time for a breather. Twilight relaxed temporarily, closing her eyes and taking a catnap while Spike kept watch. The next few vampires that came, he dealt with himself. Then, he woke her up to deal with the vampires for a while, while he caught forty winks. This was their routine, how they managed to stay up all night and fight vampires most of that time, although it had taken a lot of trial and error (Both Twilight and Spike still had the scars) to get it right. And so it continued, until it came time for what Twilight called the Midnight Crowd.

The hissing became louder than ever, and both Twilight and Spike needed to be awake to deal with this. A vampire lunged at Twilight's leg, barely missing, and got her spine sliced clean through at the neck. Spike dealt with two vampires at once, one with his magic fire and one with his stake. Twilight Sparkle staked four vampires at once, and then used her Sun Shuriken to carve through others behind them.

A cloud of dust was beginning to be kicked up from the dusted vampire corpses, making Twilight's eyes water and nose itch. But that was no big deal to her. It's amazing what isn't a big deal when viewed in the context of fighting for your life and the sanctity of your soul.

It took a while and many vampire corpses, but eventually the Midnight Crowd slackened off. Spike took up the vigil while Twilight rested, and then they switched off, and on again, until Twilight raised her eyes to the sky to see the first rays of dawn peeking over the forest. The vampires sent up a screeching cry and dispersed, attempting to get to places of safety and darkness before the sun fully rose.

Twilight cleaned herself, Spike, and their weapons with the spell, and then took off her battle regalia. She was exhausted, and the weapons weighed heavily on her. Spike yawned, and she mumbled “G'night” to him, and then walked to her bedroom, flopped into bed, and snuggled up to Miss Smartypants. She was asleep before she could see if Spike had done the same.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

The day dawned. The sun rose, and as per usual, its light fell on no one. Well, almost no one. It fell on a unicorn mare, sleeping peacefully in her safe(ish) house. She was a mare who'd carved out a life for herself in the ruins of Canterlot, a mare who'd managed to live despite there not being much to live on.

What she lived on was about to run out, though, and so she had decided that she would go out to the countryside somewhere. To places where she didn't depend on what little the stores had been preserved for food. To a place very different than what she knew.

What she didn't know was how thoroughly her life would change. She didn't know the significance of the time, and she didn't know the significance of the place. Blissfully ignorant, she slept on, the change waiting for her in the town she had chosen.

In Ponyville.

Author's Note

Any constructive criticism is welcome. I'll edit the story accordingly.

Chapter 2: The Exodus of Twilight Sparkle

Twilight Sparkle woke up earlier than usual the next day. She stretched, yawned, enjoyed the sunlight on her face, and wondered what it was that was special about this day.

Oh, yes, that was it- This was the day she left Canterlot.

The excitement of that woke her up fully. She got up, stretched again, grabbed her Miss Smartypants doll, and cheerfully walked over to where she'd stashed the food and books. She opened it up, took them out, and then grabbed a few large saddlebags with which to pack it all in.

She packed the food as tight as she could. She didn't want to have to leave any of the books she'd chosen to take with her behind. Fortunately, she didn't have to. All of them (The book she'd taken from the library yesterday, a book on trains, one of her favorite sci-fi stories, and a book on wilderness survival), fit. She then stuffed in Miss Smartypants, a small knife (just in case), and then her paper, ink, quills, and checklist materials. She then unrolled and studied the checklist that she'd made up for her activities of that day.

Item one was 'Wake up Spike'.

Twilight got up and moved to go do this, but it was proven unnecessary when Spike walked into the room, having gotten up of his own accord. Twilight smiled and crossed that item off the list. She asked her friend:

“Did you have a good morning's sleep?”

Spike answered: “Yup! Got some rubies before we go?”

Rubies were Spike's favorite food.

“Not so fast, Spike. Breakfast is item three on the checklist. Packing's number two. Pack first, then rubies.”

Spike walked over to Twilight and looked first at the list, and then at Twilight's already-packed bags.

“Oh, I see,” he said, with no small amount of sarcasm, “so that's why you packed your stuff before coming to wake me up.”

Twilight noticed the discrepancy, and was a bit embarrassed by it.

“Oh...” she said, “Um, that was just a mistake, okay?”

Spike shrugged his shoulders and packed his stuff. His pack was simpler than Twilight's, consisting of a few short novels that he read for fun, the gems that he ate, and his stake. There was a bit too much for the bag he used, but that was okay, as those would be that day's breakfast. Unfortunately, there were no rubies, as he discovered when he went to open the gemstone cupboard, so he settled for emeralds. Twilight crossed 'Pack things' off her checklist. She carefully wrangled some hay out of the stash she had packed, and, as she did so, reflected on the benefits of eating before packing away the food one was supposed to eat.

Oh well, that was an issue for the next checklist dealing with that sort of thing.

She and Spike ate quickly, as both were eager to get going to the train that was going to carry them to Ponyville, a small town on the edge of the Everfree Forest (see, this is why Twilight had a book about trains).

Twilight strapped on her portable armory and put on her cloak, Spike got his stake, they both got their packs (although Twilight needed to partially support hers with telekinesis), and, after checking to see that they hadn't forgotten anything, the pair walked out the door, leaving behind them their old safe house, now with nothing much special in it, and a wrecked door and windows to show for its habitation by Twilight and Spike.

As Twilight walked out, she put her forehoof down wrong, and a sharp stab of pain shot through it.

“OW!”

Spike asked, concerned: “What is it, Twi? Did you hurt your leg again?”

Twilight grit her teeth against the pain and replied: “Vampire attack yesterday while I was going to … my library. It's worse than I thought- I must have really hit that wall in a bad way. Still, I think it only hurts when I stand on it wrong. I'll be fine. I just need to be a bit more careful. Now let's get going. I want to get that train moving before dark.”

Spike nodded in response, and they resumed their journey to the train station, with Twilight stepping carefully, so as to avoid hurting her leg further. It was worse than she usually got- she must have been losing her touch. Usually she didn't allow vampires to hurt her that much. She had heard the legends about them transforming ponies/draining them dry with a bite, and although she hadn't yet had confirmation, she wasn't going to let them chomp on her and see.

The pair did indeed get to the station of the Friendship Express before the sun neared the horizon. A train was in the station, which didn't surprise Twilight. What did surprise her was just how well-maintained it seemed. There was no rust anywhere, it was completely clean, and seemed to be in perfect working order, although she couldn't see the inside through the completely covered windows. How odd, for something that had stayed in a city full of mindless vampires for ten years.

Twilight wanted to investigate further, but she had stuff to do. She couldn't stay longer in Canterlot, so it was probably a bad idea to postpone leaving. Once she'd settled into life in Ponyville, then perhaps she could look further into it. But not now.

She opened the door to the first car. As were most train doors, it was not designed to be opened from the outside, but Twilight Sparkle managed to wrench it open and step in, with Spike following her. It was then that she got a nasty surprise.

The train was full of vampires.

The vampires seemed as stunned to see Twilight as Twilight was to see them. There was a surprised stand-off for a few seconds, and then Twilight got her knives, stakes, and shuriken out.

It was a bloodbath. Twilight had the element of surprise, and soon vampire corpses littered the floor, and Twilight herself was quite covered in vampire blood, yet again. She was only mildly annoyed by this. It had happened many, many times before, and she'd learned a cleaning spell early on in her vampire-hunting career.

Twilight pulled her stake from the second-to-last vampire, and turned towards the last in the car, an earth pony with a dark pink coat and a curly yellow mane. As she did so, she stepped wrong on her hurt leg.

“Auugh!”

Twilight fell to the ground, and on seeing her distracted and vulnerable, the vampire wildly lunged for her, only to be impaled by a thrown stake. She gave a strangled gurgle, and had enough time to see Spike, the thrower of the stake, before she died.

Twilight carefully got up, wincing.

“Thanks, Spike,” she said, “I don't know what I'd do without you.”

Spike told her seriously: “Your leg had better heal soon, if the pain is going to be doing this to you. I'm not always going to be in a position to save you.”

Twilight nodded wearily.

“Yeah... I know. Now go retrieve your stake and let's go see what we can do to get this train moving. Chapter two of my book deals with that, so let's get into the stoking room. If we're lucky, there won't be any vampires in there.”

The pair weren't lucky, but weren't very unlucky either. There was only one vampire in the stoking room. He wore a uniform, which was surprisingly not tatters, even though it would have had to have been put on over ten years ago. He was facing away from Twilight, but turned when she opened the door- just in time for her to shove a stake through his heart.

With him taken care of, Twilight cast the spell to clean up herself and her weapons. Blood was inconvenient if allowed to dry on one's coat, even if it did crumble to ash after a while, and it wasn't good form to not clean one's weapons.

She took out the book she needed, and studied it, telekinetically flipping the pages to the one she wanted. It was Twilight's opinion that all the knowledge that could ever be needed could be found in the pages of books, if one just looked hard enough. In all her time in Canterlot, she had not often been proven wrong. This book in particular had taken a lot of searching to find, but it had what she needed.

Twilight found the right page, smiled, and got to work. This was the hard part, because while Twilight was an expert at finding information she was not always the best at putting it into practice. This was the first time she had handled a train, and so even with the book, she was liable to make mistakes, and she knew that very well.

She decided to check and see what had already been done first. This turned out to be a good idea. The train turned out to be in great condition, and ready to run. Twilight barely needed to do anything to get ready. This surprised her. How could this be so? Why would the train be in tip-top condition after a decade of disuse? Was there a spell in place to keep it like it was?

Twilight decided that that had probably been the case. It was the only explanation, and it made some sense (although why on Equis would a railroad company of all things suddenly decide to put preservation spells on their trains just in case they would be suddenly abandoned?).

Of course, there was one other option that would make sense of nearly everything. Most ponies examining that situation would quickly close in on it, but not Twilight Sparkle. Twilight didn't think of the other option. She subconsciously pushed all thought of it away, because if she went down that path, she might find it logical. And if it was logical, it might be true.

And if it were true, then she would have done terrible things. If that were true, then she would be a murderer. If that were true, then everything she had done was her responsibility. There would be no excuses. Everything since that first night was entirely her fault, and that, Twilight couldn't face. There was too much pain, still not completely assuaged even after ten years.

With that dangerous point safely ignored, Twilight proceeded on with her life. She studied her book, and got busy following its instructions. She called out to Spike:

“Spike, will you come over here, please?”

Spike obliged, and Twilight discussed with him his role in getting the train moving. They spent a while planning for what they'd do, how to escape the train if it was suddenly derailed (Twilight bemoaned the fact that she didn't quite have that teleportation spell down right), and all other ways that they would make up for the fact that they would never have been allowed anywhere near the controls of a train had there been anyone left to stop them.

Which was, as they were about to prove, for several very, very good reasons.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Well, that could have gone better,” said Spike, as he and Twilight looked back at what had once been their ride to Ponyville.

It had done its job, certainly, but the problem was that it would not be doing any other jobs, at least not without a dedicated mechanic (and perhaps a talented wizard) having a go at it first. Still, it had done what Twilight and Spike had needed it to do, and it wasn't as if they had any other uses for it (or at least, none that they could think of at the moment).

At least, Spike hoped, it had convinced Twilight to never again attempt to drive a train of vampires with nothing more than a book and one assistant. It had certainly convinced him. He knew perfectly well what his nightmares would look like for the next couple of weeks.

Twilight was the first to look away, to check out their immediate vicinity. It was a bright and clear night, with a waxing moon shining over it. The stars twinkled in the night sky, and a soft breeze blew. It was a wonderful early summer night, all was calm, and all was bright. For anyone else, it would be beautiful, something to just look at all night long. It would be a experience that would not be easily forgotten. The night was just so peaceful.

Twilight Sparkle was edgy. They had made rather good time, all things (especially their poor driving skills, the few vampires she missed, and her lack of knowledge on what kept a train working like it should) considered, but night was still night. She listened around for the tell-tale hissing, and looked hard for pony bodies. She saw nothing, but she heard hooves coming up from behind her her. She jumped and immediately sent a knife hurtling towards the source of the noise, only turning around once the knife was well on its way.

The blade got stuck in the armor of the Royal Guard that had been trotting up behind her. It would have clattered off, if it wasn't for Twilight's enchantments. Twilight mentally cursed. She didn't fight Royal Guards too often, and they were her least favorite opponents. They wore armor that could stop even Twilight's knives, and they were better fighters than your average vampire, probably from the training they did when they were still alive.

They still weren't invincible. Twilight yanked her knife out of the armor, wincing at the horrific noise it made, and attacked the guard with it. He recoiled from her strike, and the knife swished through air instead of neck. Twilight deftly turned it around and stabbed at him, only for the blade to stick in his helmet.

That armor was such an annoyance. She probably could take it out with one of her magic bolts, but vampires were resistant to direct use of magic (pony magic only-Spike's dragonfire was unaffected), and so calling forth a bolt powerful enough to harm them (and also get through Royal Guard armor, which was usually enchanted to resist magic) took a lot of juice. Twilight was normally more than capable of providing such power (and indeed supercharged her bolts as a matter of habit), but she had used up a lot of her magic energy during the train trip, holding the Express together and otherwise correcting her mistakes (She was pretty sure trains were never meant to fly).

So, she just had her knives, stakes, and Sun Shuriken against the vampire. Fortunately, she was very good with them. As the Royal guard moved swiftly to flank her, she quickly opened her pouch of Sun Shuriken and flashed one at the vampire. He recoiled silently. She sent it flying towards him, and he managed to duck in time. It missed, but that was no matter, she'd got what she attacked for: a distraction. She wedged the knife in the small space between his helmet and his neck, and popped it off. The guard didn't let that stop him, and he rushed at supernatural speed towards Twilight. She barely managed to dodge him, and in the process she stumbled on her injured leg and fell, twisting it painfully and gaining a good few bruises from rocks on the ground.

The Royal Guard lifted a hoof and brought it down on what would have been Twilight's forehead, had Twilight not blocked him with the knife, and snuck another one under the Guard's chest and plunged it upward into his heart. He immediately went limp. Twilight picked herself up from the ground, cradling her injured limb. She really needed to do something about it. She yanked her knife out of the dead Guard and cleaned it off.

She looked around to see if there was anything she missed, and saw that Spike had taken care of another Royal Guard. After she had determined that he was quite all right (his scales were very good protection), she noticed that he was quite dusty after his ordeal in the train. She then looked at herself. She was in similarly bad condition. Her cloak was quite stiff with coal, and her coat had turned a dirty gray.

Well, now she had priorities. Her horn glowed as she cast her cleaning-up spell on both herself and Spike. It was a good thing that coal dust was a good deal like vampire ash. She'd had experience cleaning up the latter.

Once she and her assistant had been magically dusted off, Twilight felt much happier. She had always been a clean mare. Yes, she got spattered with blood and ash on a regular basis, but she always cleaned up. She didn't feel quite right when she was all bloody (at least, when she noticed). It was all in a day's work, sure, but any kind of work has its downsides, and the irritation of often being covered in blood was what happened when you did what Twilight did for a living. Once she was cleaned up, Twilight relaxed.

Her relaxation turned into annoyance when she looked down at her knives. The one that had done the lion's share of the work against the guard was bent and blunted (darn Guard armor enchantments! She hadn't expected them to be so strong), and the other one was also in bad condition- it was one of her oldest knives and was in need of serious repair. Twilight wondered why she had grabbed that one of the two she'd managed to save of her collection (the ride had not been easy on any of her stuff- she'd just barely managed to save her packs by stuffing them into a relatively protected corner). She quickly dismissed it as one of those errors you make when distracted in the heat of the moment.

She sighed in resignation, carefully hid both knives, picked herself up, beckoned to Spike, and set off, careful of her injured leg. She was quiet, and so was Spike. It had been a long day/night, and full of much more panic and adrenaline than most days were, even by Twilight's standards (this was a result of the train ride, and entirely Twilight's fault).

At this point, the peace of the night, the soft breeze, her early wake-up, and adrenaline exhaustion really started to show. She was tired. But she must not sleep. It was still night out, and the vampires were still about. Usually, that's what she took turns with Spike for, but he was just as tired as she was, now. It's amazing what the aftermath of an afternoon of total panic can do to you.

She walked for a while, always careful to skirt the edges of town. She wasn't ready for a confrontation yet. She didn't think she could kill the whole town, as tired as she was. So she walked around, and she finally settled down some distance away from a small cottage on a hill, which she thought would make a good safe house. She just needed to wait until daytime, at which point she could more safely search the house for vampires.

She hid herself underneath a bush, and Spike crawled in with her, too exhausted to speak. He curled up and nodded off fairly fast. Twilight let him. It had been a very long day, and Spike had more than carried his weight (especially since he was so much lighter than Twilight).

But Twilight herself mustn't sleep. She had to keep vigil. The grass was soft underneath her, and almost as cozy as a bed. But she had to keep watch. The night was comfortably warm. If she went to sleep, a vampire could get her. The breeze blew softly. Spike was counting on her. The darkness pressed softly around her, like a blanket. Sleep would be trouble. Her eyes felt heavy... No! She mustn't sleep! She had to wait until dawn. Then she could rest...

Twilight Sparkle dropped off to sleep, a deep sleep from which she would not awaken for a while.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Twilight would not awaken when a baby bunny bounced behind that very bush. She slept straight through the creature snuggling up to her. She didn't hear a pony voice calling out for that very bunny.

Twilight did not awaken when a yellow pegasus followed the bunny to where Twilight slept, which was unknown to Twilight a favored hiding spot for the younger animals living around there. When the pegasus discovered Twilight and gasped in surprise, she gave no response. Twilight didn't know it when the pony gently dragged her up the hill and into the cottage. When the little pegasus tucked Twilight in to a real, soft bed, Twilight did not seem to notice. When the pony left again, returned with Spike, and tucked him in next to Twilight, nothing seemed to change.

But for the first time in years, Twilight Sparkle dreamed a happy dream about playing with her older brother and her babysitter/best friend Cadance, and then coming back to her mother tucking her in and reading her a bedtime story, and her father cuddling her and rocking her to sleep. There were no vampires, no knives, no blood, no pain stabbing directly at her heart. There was just a little filly and the ponies who loved her the most in the world.

Chapter 3: O Brave New World

Twilight Sparkle woke up in softness, and still tired. She mumbled something unintelligible, and turned over. When she did, she felt a small, somewhat hard form in bed with her. She grumbled a vague statement to the point of how putting rocks in beds was a bad idea, and then opened her eyes. It was very dark out, but Twilight knew how to fix that. She channeled power through her horn, and it lit up, illuminating what looked like a bedroom. There were windows, but they had been completely covered up and no light shone through them.

Twilight looked at the sleeping form next to her, which turned out to be Spike. She cooed at how cute he looked asleep, and then a thought wormed its way through her groggy brain:

“Hey... wait a second, didn't I go to sleep under a bush outside?”

At that point, Twilight realized that something was very wrong, and it woke her up like a bucket of ice water to the face. She let out a short yelp of surprise, and then intensified the glow from her horn, and looking at her surroundings. She was in quite a nice little room, neat, cozy, and not the least bit dusty. There was a candle and some matches (the kind designed for earth ponies and pegasi) beside the bed. Her pack was on the floor by the opposite wall. It didn't appear to have been disturbed, although her Sun Shuriken were missing. She telekinetically opened up the pack, wiggled out the knife she'd put there just in case, and floated it back towards her. She took it out of its sheath and studied it critically. It appeared to retain its edge, and Twilight knew that the enchantments on it had not been disturbed. It would do its job until she could regain her other ones.

She then turned back to Spike, and gently shook him to wake him up. It didn't really work. Spike sleepily waved his arm above him to signal that he wanted a little more nap time, and then went back to sleep, having accidentally bopped Twilight on the nose. Twilight sighed, shook her head, and then noticed the sound of the door opening.

She jumped in surprise, whirled around, and sent the knife hurtling on its way, as she usually did when she was taken by surprise.

The knife missed. It swished through the air and embedded itself in the wall behind the door. The pony who it had been aimed at (roughly), had gasped and stumbled back the instant the instant she saw Twilight holding the knife, which had probably saved her. She was now cowering and trembling by the wall.

Twilight was confused. That wasn't how vampires acted. They were mindless, heedless of danger (if they had any sense of self-preservation at all, she would have had many unbothered years back in Canterlot). No matter how well-armed she was, they would hiss and rush at her.

But this one wasn't doing that. It appeared to be frozen in fear, and as Twilight got nearer, the pink-maned yellow pegasus whimpered:

“Pl-pl-please don't hurt me!”

This was even more confusing. Vampires didn't talk. She decided to see this thing through. She told the pegasus:

“I'm not going to hurt you. You just startled me.”

The vampire didn't look at all convinced. Smart mare. Twilight decided to give another gesture of confidence- she yanked the knife out of where it had stuck and tossed it down the hall. She then asked the mare:

“Are you the one who brought me up here?”

The pony silently nodded.

That meant that she had been at this pony's mercy for what was probably hours (Twilight knew she shouldn't have fallen asleep!) and yet nothing had happened. Had this happened back in Canterlot, Twilight would be taking a ride on the express that only went one way.

Just what in Tartarus was going on here? What was she missing? She asked the pony:

“What's your name?”

The reply was too soft to hear. Twilight told her: “Speak up, please. I couldn't hear you.”

The mare's reply was only marginally louder, but Twilight could make out: “F-Fluttershy.”

Twilight was about to ask her something, but she was interrupted by yet another pony, this one a blue pegasus with a rainbow mane, and a candle-holder (complete with lit candle) held in her mouth. She placed the candle-holder on the floor, and glared at Twilight. She asked:

“And just what do you think you're doing?”

Twilight quickly backpedaled. She didn't want a fight until she could figure out what was going on, and that pegasus looked like she would attempt to beat the crap out of Twilight if anything untoward happened, and Twilight didn't want to vaporize anyone who could be friendly.

Indeed, she didn't really want to vaporize anyone at all. Despite Twilight's best efforts to ignore it and concentrate on the issue at hand, a thought was worming its way into Twilight's mind:

“What if all the vampires I killed in Canterlot were sentient too?”

She tried not to show it, but she was beginning to panic.

“I'm not a murderer! Not a murderer, not a murderer, not a murderer...”

While Twilight was thus distracted, Fluttershy answered: “I found her sleeping under a bush. She looked kinda bad, and her leg was really hurt. I took her in and put her in the spare bed. She was sleeping until recently. I was just going to check on her.”

Twilight was still in the process of panicking, with memories of her past kills, now in a far worse light than simple survival, flashing before her eyes, when the blue pegasus (Twilight's useless-detail-oriented side noted that the color was more like cyan) noticed her and asked:

“So, Purple Pony, where are you from?”

Twilight told herself: “Question. Focus on the question. Leave the rest for later.”

She then told the blue pony: “Actually, I'm lavender, and I'm from Canterlot. I've lived there my whole life.”

The blue pegasus gave Twilight a strange look. She said: “Um, you couldn't have.”

Okay, that was confusing. “What do you mean, I couldn't have?”

After all, she had done it. How hard could it be?

… Well, for a vampire at least.

“No! It's not like that! I'm not a murderer!”

The blue pegasus sighed in exasperation and told her: “Okay, Lavender Unicorn, the thingy that turned all ponies into vampires drove all the ponies from Canterlot insane. They're pretty much mindless now. So, if you lived all your life in Canterlot, then you wouldn't be here talking to us. You'd be hissing and wandering aimlessly.”

“I'm not a murderer. Not a murderer. Not a … wait, I'm not?”

Twilight was taken aback. Canterlot vampires were non-sentient? Then she hadn't been killing ponies! She wasn't a murderer! Of course, now she had to explain to the blue pegasus why she hadn't been caught by the Event, but that was comparatively small potatoes. She could lie easily. Twilight could handle being a liar. She couldn't handle being a murderer.

“I wasn't in town when the Event happened. I was... out with my brother.”

Of course, what had actually happened was that Shining Armor had been out of town without her. A ray of hope entered Twilight's mind after she reminded herself of Shining- he had been outside Canterlot. He wouldn't have been caught! She would still have her B.B.B.F.F!

Assuming, of course, she could get word to him that she was still alive. But again, small potatoes. Where there's life, there's hope. And now Twilight knew that she and her brother were both alive. That was good.

For the first time in ten years, Twilight Sparkle felt that her life was looking up.

Of course, she had gotten used to her life in Canterlot, and she had even managed to forget about her lost Big Brother Best Friend Forever. But it had never really changed. There were small happinesses, and small pains, but most of all, it had been routine. Wake up, procure food, hunt vampires, read in any spare time, defend that day's safe house from vampires all night. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Now, though, her life was going through big changes. She could have her big brother back. She could have friends.

It was rather ironic for Twilight Sparkle of all ponies to be saying that, but ten years starved of any pony companionship had changed her. It was all well and good to say 'The fate of Equestria does not depend on my making friends” when you had parents who were always there for you, a brother you played with whenever you both had time, and a mentor who was always ready for some lighthearted pranks.

Tartarus, when Twilight Sparkle had had all of these things, she had been rather an antisocial stick-in-the-mud, disregarding much of what they could give her in favor of studying.

She hadn't known what she'd been missing. Ten years with only one other living being for companionship had taught her the true value of ponies. She'd often reflected on how ironic it was, that she had only started really appreciating other ponies as ponies at a time when she was stabbing everypony she met to death on general principles.

And now she had a chance to change. A chance to leave the blood and ashes of Canterlot behind her. A brave new world was before her, and she was going to run towards it at top speed (which, because she'd gotten a lot of practice, was actually pretty fast). She could live in peace and actual society. Perhaps Ponyville had a library she could frequent.

The blue pony reached out and tapped Twilight on the shoulder, startling her. The pegasus asked:

“Earth to Stranger?”

When she was sure she had Twilight's full attention, the pony continued: “What's your name, and why are you here?”

Well, she probably couldn't tell that pony the complete story. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, and well, I couldn't stay in Canterlot after... well, that. I've moved around a lot. Here is just the most recent place.”

Fluttershy seemed shocked. She said:

“But wait... that was about ten years ago.”

Twilight nodded.

“And you've been homeless ever since then.”

That earned another nod. Twilight explained: “The knife was for self-protection. There's a lot of nasty things roaming wild in Canterlot and the surrounding area, and some of them like to give ponyflesh a try. That's also why I threw the knife- I was already on edge because of the different surroundings and you startled me. It was entirely reflexive, and I'm really sorry.”

This was only partially a lie. There were indeed wild and dangerous animals and magical creatures, and she had met some, but they were a relatively rare occurrence, and most had learned to fear her after a while. Her day-to-day enemies were Canterlot vampires.

The yellow pegasus gasped softly.

“Oh,”

The blue pegasus looked at her askance.

“Um, Fluttershy?” she aksed, “Wasn't this the pony who looked like she was threatening you a moment ago?”

Before Fluttershy could reply, Twilight defended herself:

“I didn't mean it. Fluttershy just scared me. I'm sorry about it already.”

Fluttershy told the other pony: “She's been alone since she was a filly, Rainbow Dash. She deserves a little kindness. Also, Dash, if she does turn out to be hostile, I trust that you can protect me.”

Twilight thought that that line was quite heartwarming, and it increased her will to not harm Fluttershy The blue pegasus, who was apparently named Rainbow Dash, didn't look like she was convinced, but she said:

“Okay. I'll stand by you, Fluttershy. But, Twilight Sparkle, if you ever do anything to hurt her, you'll be in the hospital before you can say 'to the moon'.”

Twilight nodded. If it came to that, she was pretty sure that Rainbow Dash couldn't hurt her that badly before Twilight could kill Dash. But it wouldn't come to that. Twilight would make sure of it. She wouldn't be a murderer. She wouldn't. Ever. She didn't kill ponies. Sure, she defended herself, and sure she killed Canterlot vampires, but those were different.

They had to be.

Rainbow Dash appeared to be moderately satisfied by Twilight's nod. At least, she relaxed a little, and yawned. She grumbled:

“Ahh, I'm tired. We really shouldn't be up this time of day. Fluttershy, you don't mind if I stay on the couch, do you?”

Fluttershy replied: “I don't mind at all. I have some spare blankets that I can give to you, if you want them.”

Rainbow shook her head and said: “Nah. It's too near the solstice. It's hot enough already without adding blankets to the problem.”

Fluttershy replied: “Ah. Okay, then.”

She turned to Twilight, an almost apologetic look in her eyes, and told Twilight: “I'll be going to bed too. My room is just down the hall to your right- wake me up if you need anything. The bathroom is the next door on your left.”

She gave an adorably shy smile, and then turned away and left for bed. Rainbow Dash, too, retreated, leaving Twilight alone with her thoughts once again. After the companionship, for the first time in ten years, it felt strange to be alone. Twilight thought that it was strange that she thought it strange, after she had been so often alone growing up. Things were changing.

Twilight returned to her own room, mind still working on accepting that situation. A stirring from under the covers reminded her of someone who she'd forgotten about in the whirl of new information that was her conversation with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash: Spike.

Her erstwhile companion for her time in Canterlot and her most trusted assistant/confidant/friend (and in fact her only assistant, confidant, and friend). Someone who'd stood by her side for all of that time, and killed vampires alongside her.

He deserved to know this, but how to tell him? Should she just drop the bomb on him, or should she be more tactful? How could she be more tactful? After 10 years with only one companion, tact was pretty much a foreign language to Twilight.

He quickened her decision by stirring on his own and getting up. Once the last residue of sleep had been cleared from his brain, he too noticed what Twilight had: This was not the bed that he had gone to sleep in. He, like Twilight, immediately sprung to full wakefulness. Spike noticed that Twilight was already up and asked her:

“Twilight... what happened? How'd we get here?”

Oh well, so much for whatever half-baked plans she'd managed to formulate. Time to wing it. She told her dragon companion:

“Um... a vampire found us and brought us up here.”

Spike gave her one of his patented are-you-quite-sure-you-haven't-been-hitting-the-funny-mushrooms-again looks (Twilight was never going to live that one time down. She really was grateful she had Spike as a companion, and never more than then, but why oh why couldn't he just let that incident fade?). That was the expected reaction. Had Twilight been in his place, she would have done just that. So, if she was in Spike's place, what would convince her that she had been wrong and that some vampires were actually good?

Twilight considered what to say, and eventually said: “Well, how else would we get here? Also, if I had been the one to take us here, don't you think that I'd have brought my knives and Sun Shuriken?”

Spike considered what she said. His expression was thoughtful. Twilight decided to press her advantage. She continued:

“I was as surprised as you are now, once I figured it out. I mean, what kind of vampire would just move me to a nicer bed when I'd given them a perfect opportunity to get to me? I got my emergency knife from my pack, and when I was surprised by someone, I reflexively threw the knife at whoever it was.”

Here, Twilight paused for a moment, to see if Spike was taking the whole story in. When it was clear that he was, she continued:

“When my mind caught up to what I'd done, I noticed that the knife had embedded itself into the wall, right above a yellow pegasus with a long pink mane who was cowering in fear. I thought that that was strange, since vampires aren't smart enough to understand fear.”

Twilight paused again, this time to catch her breath. Spike was obviously interested. This story was fantastic and unbelievable, but Twilight and Spike were friends and companions of ten years. They didn't lie to each other, and Spike was pretty sure that Twilight wouldn't want to start right then. Well, he hoped she wouldn't, at least. When Twilight had her breath back, she continued:

“I was even more confused when she begged me not to harm her, because vampires don't talk. I decided to talk this through, and threw the knife away. I asked her for her name, and it took a few tries before I could hear her response. She was whispering it, because she was scared. A vampire, scared. I was confused, and I was going to inquire further, and then another vampire showed up. She threatened me, but the first vampire- whose name is Fluttershy, by the way- spoke up to defend me. She wanted the other vampire, Rainbow Dash, to give me an extra chance. I think she pitied me, because I told her that I had lived alone in Canterlot- except for you, of course.”

Spike took it all in, and asked the obvious question: “So these vampires are sentient?”

Twilight nodded.

Spike continued that train of thought with the same question Twilight had asked herself: “Does that mean that the Canterlot vampires were also sentient?”

Twilight swiftly answered: “No! No they aren't. They were driven mindless by the Event. It's okay. We weren't really killing anypony. We weren't at all.”

Spike hid his skepticism of that response. Twilight needed to be able to calm down. She didn't need any questions about her mental state. Spike reminded himself that, while he had been a young dragon and remembered very little of the Event, Twilight had been older and remembered too much.

Twilight continued:

“Anyway, we've got a chance for a normal life now, so let's play it safe. Fluttershy seems very nice, and she's letting me stay here for the moment.”

Twilight unconsciously tensed, waiting for Spike's all-important response to their new situation. She had accepted it, but she didn't know what he might think, and she didn't want to live a new life without Spike.

Spike considered Twilight's words, and what they implied. He really had no idea how this was to work out. It was a situation he had never been in before. Twilight had, but Spike had his doubts about her mental stability. Spike considered the dilemma for a bit before deciding that the pros of their new situations outweighed the cons, and that he could stop Twilight if she went off on a murdering spree.

Spike hoped that that wouldn't be necessary, of course. One of the largest draws of their new situation was the potential for rest, both of the body and of the mind, and if all went well, then perhaps both he and Twilight could relax, and push the parts of themselves geared for violence out of the fore, and find peace.

With the decision made, Spike nodded to show his understanding and his implicit consent to the new change in their lifestyle. Twilight relaxed, and smiled happily. Everything was going according to the new plan. There was just one more step in it that they could do immediately. Twilight told Spike:

“Well, we're going to need a little more sleep if we're going to keep a vampire schedule, so let's go to bed for a little more.”

Spike nodded, and with that matter settled, Twilight turned back to the bed and snuggled in, with Spike climbing in after her and making himself comfortable on the other side of the bed. Spike went to sleep quickly, but it took a while for Twilight, with her mind occupied as it was with all the new possibilities of this new world. She spent quite a lot of time staring at the candle beside her bed and dwelling on the kindness of the pony who put it there before she finally managed to calm herself enough to go to sleep.

Author's Note

I'm not quite happy with this chapter, so expect small edits from time to time. Also, if any reviewer has suggestions on how to improve the story, I'll be more than happy to listen.