Chapters “Alright Scootaloo, whats so important that you had to tell us?” Sweetie asked impatiently, obviously disliking the effort put into keeping this a secret.
“Alright, but you have to swear that you wont tell anypony , got it.” The two other heads nodded, their expressions saying that they just wanted to know whatever secret Scootaloo was keeping from them, “Well, here goes, I'm... I'm a vampony.
Sweetie Belle failed not to laugh, thinking this was a joke, meanwhile Applebloom asked, “Whats a vampony?”
Scootaloo decided to focus her attention on the laughing unicorn first, “I'm not kidding, look.” with that, Scootaloo pulled up her lip, exposing her fangs, which were still growing in.
That got Sweetie's attention, causing her to hide behind Applebloom desperately, knowing that the clubhouse door was locked to prevent anypony from wandering in.
“Ah still don't see whats so big 'bout some fangs.” the red maned earth pony said in an unconcerned way.
“Applebloom, did you even pay attention in school last Tuesday, because if you did, you would see why Sweeties hiding behind you.”
Applebloom was a little disappointed in her friends memory, “Tha' was the day Diamond Tiara slipped that sleepin' potion in mah drink.”
“Hehe right, well, besides the fangs, do I seem any different.”
Applebloom looked over her friend, “Nope.”
Scootaloo walked closer the the cowering unicorn behind Applebloom, causing her to shake even harder, “See Sweetie, I'm still the same, so can we please step past this.”
Sweetie began to calm down, and said, “OK, but try anything funny, and I'm telling everypony in town, got it!”
Scootaloo whispered, “OK.” At this,Sweetie realized she had been yelling, and quickly apologized.
“Right, well, are we all ready for the Cutie Mark Crusaders sleepover tonight.” Asked Scootaloo.
Both heads nodded in unison, Applebloom obviously not understanding what had just happened, and Sweetie muttering something about coffee.
What happened next surprised the all three crusades equally. Scootaloo looked at the ceiling, and focused on the key hidden in the rafters. To her surprise, the key actually moved, something she had only managed to do with small pebbles only the day before. The others simply gaped at a non-unicorn moving a key slowly to the door, then proceeding to unlock it. Afterward, Scootaloo nearly passed out from exerting herself to much.
When the vampony had managed to catch her breath, Applebloom wasted no time, “How'd you do that. Ah mean, at first, Ah thought it was Sweetie, but she couldn' do that, she didn' even know the key was there.
“Anypony can do magic. It just isn't something you would know. It's a thing vamponies kept secret, but I still got some books on it. Unicorn can just do it better because of their horns.
“Can ya teach me?” Applebloom asked with an exited voice, one that she only used when she really wanted something.
“Sure, we can start tonight if you want.” Replied the Pegasus filly.
“Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes...” She trailed off, and all three crusaders broke into laughter, reminded of the aftermath of Twilight's cutie mark story.
After several moments of laughter, the crusaders started walking to Carousel Boutique. Sweetie Belle had been extra careful to stay out of her sisters way so they would get to stay there this time, rather than being forced to somewhere else. On the way, Scootaloo picked up pebbles with her mouth, not wanting to overexert herself again, and placed them in her saddlebags. Once she felt they had a reasonably good amount for Applebloom to practice on, she started a conversation.
“So Sweetie, what was that about coffee earlier.”
“I'm not sleeping tonight, not if your going to be there.”
Scootaloo sighed at Sweeties remark, but thought it was reasonable enough, considering that Cheerilee's lesson on vamponies was so far off, Scootaloo had to restrain herself from correcting her every sentence, “Sweetie, the lesson on Tuesday was all wrong. Besides, I'm still... uh... blooming if you want to call it that. My coats gonna get darker, my eyes will change, and I'll develop a bit of a problem with sunlight.”
Sweetie responded as they began to walk into Ponyville, “How did this even happen to you, and what are some things wrong about the lesson?”
“Well, I'm a pureblood vampony by birth, and the lesson was all wrong except for the more obvious things. First, most of the myths are false, just something to frighten foals into being good. I can enter homes without permission, cross running water, and stuff like that. The only things that are true is that I need blood to survive, and that I wont show up in mirrors on pictures. Oh, and the vampirism only transfers is if my blood gets in contact with an open wound on the other pony. Sunlight wont kill me, but it will hurt my eyes and give me sunburn, but that will heal in a few minutes. Plus, light magic is devastating in any forms, and healing magic won't have any affect. But dark magic won't have any negative effects if used against me, and there are some healing spells that exist in that field.”
“That explains why your never there during picture day, but what I want to know is, why would you need healing magic in the first place?” Sweetie asked, obviously less concerned about the fact that her best friend wasn't even a pony than she was earlier.
“Light magic will disrupt my natural healing process, and the magic in any form, or anything enchanted with it burns me, a lot.”
“Sooooo, if I were to make my horn light up, that would hurt you?” Sweetie asked in a half concerned, half threatening way.
“No, what I mean by light magic is stuff like holy magic, magic that gathers power from sunlight and stuff like that.”
“Oh” Sweetie said as they walked up to Carousel Boutique, disappointed that the best magic she could summon was not something that would drive Scootaloo away if she chose to attack.
Sweetie stopped in front of the door, “Wait, lets see if vamponies really can go inside houses without permission.” Scootaloo responded by opening the door, walking inside, and motioning he others to come in.
Once everypony was inside, Sweetie found a note that said Rarity was shopping, and offered to cook dinner while Scootaloo started magic lessons with Applebloom, deliberately ignoring the part of the note that said for Sweetie NOT to cook dinner. So, while the white unicorn began cooking the other two ponies began working in the next room.
“So,just so you know, magic isn't easy, but if you try, you'll get it.” Scootaloo said, getting the rocks she collected out of her saddlebags, “Now, I want you to focus on the rock, then concentrate on moving it, like this.” Scootaloo move one of the rocks towards herself.
Applebloom focused on the rock and willed it to move forward. When that didn't work, she tried harder, this time concentrating on using her eyes to channel the magic. This time, the rock, and her eyes, glowed slightly, and although the rock only glowed, Scootaloo started clapping.
But just glowing wasn't enough for Applebloom, and she tried harder, ignoring the dizziness that it was causing, and the rock moved towards her slightly before she fainted.
When she woke up, the others were sitting around her, eating toast, which Sweetie managed to at least make edible this time.
“Oh, good, you finally up.” Sweetie said with a smile on her face.
“What happened?” Applebloom asked.
Scootaloo responded, “Well, you moved the rock a little bit, but that made you pass out. Just keep practicing, and I'm sure you'll get it, but, if you start feeling dizzy, stop, OK.
Applebloom just nodded, “What time is it?”
Rarity walked in and said, “Time for you three to get to bed.”
Once they had finished their toast, the three fillies went upstairs and got in their sleeping bags. Applebloom fell asleep almost as soon as she laid down, although Scootaloo, being a vampony, had trouble sleeping at night, her body electing to sleep through the day, simply got out a book and started reading. This made Sweetie, who had somehow managed to smuggle a lot of coffee upstairs with her, very suspicious, “Aren’t you going to sleep Scoots?”
“Nah, I’m a vampony, I’m supposed to sleep during the day, and I usually do.”
“Aren’t I going to get any sleep tonight?” Sweetie asked nopony in particular. At this Scootaloo replied, “You can sleep all you want, I’m not going to stop you.”
“No, but you will bite me.”
At this remark, Scootaloo looked up from her book. Putting it down, she looked into Sweetie Belle’s eyes, causing her to become paralyzed, “Do you really think I would feed on one of my best friends without permission. What do you take me for?” Scootaloo just lay down, and as soon as they broke eye contact, Sweetie started to fall asleep, feeling reassured. When Scootaloo was sure she was asleep, she went back to her book, for was going be a long night.
Applebloom woke up the next morning to find Scootaloo sleeping, an open book lying on top of her like a blanket. Applebloom failed not to giggle at the adorable scene, which caused Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle to stir. Scootaloo was obviously not a deep sleeper.
When Sweetie got up, she immediately began glaring at Scootaloo, “What did you do to me last night?”
When Scootaloo opened her eyes, they were a shade of crimson, not very much unlike blood. Scootaloo covered her eyes as soon as she opened them, “Close the curtains, the sunlight is blinding me.” Applebloom obliged, and close the curtains while Scootaloo started to explain.
“Well... you seemed kinda uncomfortable last night, so I helped you fall asleep.”
Sweetie looked at Scootaloo with a nervous spark in her eye, but Scootaloo was to busy testing her new senses to notice, that is until Sweetie asked, “Do you know how long it's gonna be before you need to feed?”
Scootaloo, with her improved senses, could almost hear her friend shaking, “Well, I'm not gonna lie to you, vamponies change kinda fast, so... I'm probably going to need to feed today.”
Sweetie was unnaturally calm, especially considering her past reactions, yet in her mind, she was already preparing to act out a plan she made the previous night.
When Scootaloo was asleep again, and Applebloom was trying at the rocks again, she made her move. Using a carefully hidden knife, Sweetie walked over to Scootaloo.
Applebloom looked up in time to see the event, but not fast enough to stop it. Scootaloo's throat had been slit already.
“Sweetie, what have you just done?”
“I just saved a lot of lives, something you don't understand.” Sweetie replied, looking coldly at Applebloom.
What neither of them realized was that Scootaloo was still alive. The wound had already healed, and before they could react, Scootaloo was on top of Sweetie. Their eyes met, and in that moment, she realized something.
Scootaloo was VERY angry.
“Why? I thought you were my friend!”
Sweetie went over her choices, and none of them would work. She couldn't try to kill Scootaloo because her knife was still on the other side of the room, and she knew she couldn't talk her way out of this situation. Finally she settled on just accepting whatever fate brought her way, “I just wanted to do the right thing... I thought I was doing the right thing.”
Scootaloo put more pressure on Sweetie's chest, “No, friends don't slit each others throats. Why, why can't you just accept what I am? I know I'm not a pony, and I know you don't think of me the same anymore because of what I am, but that doesn't mean I'm evil. Vamponies were nearly wiped out by ponies over the past thousand years, so all I know about life was what I learned from ponies. I'm still looking for the hunter who killed my parents, but that's a completely personal goal, so does that make me some kind of monster? I've never hurt a pony that didn't deserve it.” Scootaloo let up some of the pressure before continuing, here face slowly edging towards Sweetie, “Regardless, I can't just let this slide.”
Applebloom watched the whole thing, and now, seeing Sweetie crying like she was, Scootaloo edging closer to her neck with her fangs out, she knew she had to do something, “Wait, don't hurt Sweetie, Ah wanna take her place.”
Scootaloo looked at her for a second, “You sure about this?”
“Ah'm positive.
Scootaloo walked to Applebloom, and when she was close enough, Applebloom could feel her breath on her neck. Then it struck. In a gentle, slow way, the fangs pierced her skin.
Scootaloo didn't take much, but she found the that taste made it hard to stop. Her blood tasted like juice from an apple, an apple that was just blossoming. Not only that, but Scootaloo could taste love, as if every drop carried the love that made an apple bloom upon its tree.
Despite the amazing sensations, she let go after a moment. She was just a filly, so she didn't need much, and she didn't want any harm to come to Applebloom. She assumed from the flavor that different ponies blood would taste differently, as Applebloom's blood definitely tasted like a blooming apple.
When she left her state of intense thought, she saw Sweetie looking at her, her face housing a smile. At first, Scootaloo thought she had come up with another plan, but on closer inspection, her smile was a happy one. It screamed pride and excitement, and so did Applebloom's.
“What?” Scootaloo asked.
“Your cutie mark!” Sweetie answered. Scootaloo looked behind her to find the image of a single drop of blood painted on her flank. At first she thought she was hallucinating, for she had been searching for her mark for ages. But upon further examination, this mark had proven to be real. It made sense, she was a vampony after all.
But she felt a twinge of guilt. She had been searching for her talent for ages, but to be the first of the Cutie Mark Crusaders... it just didn't feel right, “I... I'm sorry. I know you must be jealous.”
Applebloom looked towards her with a smile, “Course not, Ah mean, sure ya got yer mark first, but you'll always be a crusader.”
Sweetie joined in, “Yeah, once a crusader, always a crusader, right.”
“Well, this might have just been the most eventful five minutes of my life, but, if you will excuse me, I need to have a talk with Sweetie Belle about killing her friends and stealing knives and coffee.” said a voice from the doorway. The three fillies froze... Rarity had seen the whole thing.
It had been 3 days since the Cutie Mark Crusaders sleepover and the 3 fillies had grown even closer together. A little jealousy was expected, but they all knew one of them would have to get their cutie mark first. After Scootaloo get her cutie mark, they had been expecting the group to separate somewhat. However, Scootaloo still joined in on crusades, which although less dangerous, still had some aspect of Scootaloo's recklessness attached to them.
Rarity was still reluctant to allow her sister to go out with a vampony, but agreed to allow it as long as Applebloom was with them.
Perhaps it was the failures of the crusades bringing them closer together. When Scootaloo's coat darkened, they decided to try to get coat dyeing cutie marks. Like always this turned into an utter disaster very quickly. At first it appeared that the dye had changed the pegasus filly back to her original color, but her coat began changing colors rapidly. It had taken Twilight 4 hours to confirm that this was the effect of the poison joke they used in the dye.
After the third day, Scootaloo was finally cured, though it did take a bit of explanation to explain why Scootaloo's coat was red and her mane black. Applebloom and Sweetie tried hard to think of a quick explanation but Scootaloo beat them to it explaining that these were her natural colors and she had been dyeing herself. Fortunately for them Twilight believed the story, and assumed the hesitation was due to embarrassment.
“How did you come up with that?” Sweetie asked as they left the library.
Scootaloo thought for a moment, “Well, it wasn't really hard. I mean, these are my natural colors, and the dye part just came to me.”
Sweetie Belle put on the thoughtful expression an adult would get before being asked a very awkward question, until finally she asked, “Scoots, where do you live?”
Scootaloo froze upon hearing the question she hoped would never be asked, “Um... so... wonderful weather were having.
Applebloom looked at her, “Really, where do ya live.”
Scootaloo sighed. She was cornered, “I guess I have no choice, follow me.”
She led them towards Fluttershy's cottage, but turned left just before getting there. This led them into the Everfree Forest. A little while inwards, they stopped, “Well, this is my place, like it?”
Sweetie and Applebloom looked at the old house. The wood was chipping away in many places and the paint was long gone. The door was barely staying on its hinges.
“Well, you coming in or not?” Scootaloo asked impatiently.
Applebloom walked up to the door, but Sweetie where she was and asked, “What about your parents?” She was obviously scared. Sure, she might be able to handle Scootaloo, but she was obviously terrified at the thought of meeting adult vamponies.
Much to Scootaloo's surprise, Applebloom answered that question, “Her parents are dead.”
“How'd you know that?” Both Sweetie and Scootaloo asked in unison, Scootaloo in a voice of surprise and Sweetie in a voice of curiosity.
“Sleepover.” Applebloom answered as they went inside.
The inside of the house was a lot more homely than the outside. The walls where still painted and most of the objects were intact. While the interior of the house was intact, it was no less of a disaster zone than Pinkie's room. Books littered the living room, most of them having fallen off a broken bookshelf. The kitchen was a little better off, but not much. At least the owner had taken the time to wash the dishes, not that she used them very often anyway.
Scootaloo gestured for the others to come with her. She led them upstairs and into her room. What they found there made them almost regret the fact that they had normal families. Books that had been read so many times that the binding was broken littered most of the floor. A deck of solitaire cards was laid across a table, a few cards littering the floor. Overall, this was the room of the filly who had lived alone her entire life.
Sweetie Belle walked up to Scootaloo and pulled her into a hug. This surprised Applebloom, for the past several days Sweetie refused to be close to Scootaloo.
Scootaloo didn't return the hug. She merely looked at the floor, tears dripping from her eyes. For once she had been reminded of how truly alone she was... but she wasn't alone anymore. She finally had friends who accepted her for what she truly was.
“Thanks... thanks so much.” Scootaloo said, finally returning the hug.
Sweetie Belle laid awake on her bed, thinking about the events that had occurred that day. She had felt compelled to ask Scootaloo to live with her but decided against it, after all Rarity would never agree to let a vampony live in the same household.
As she remembered the condition the house was in when they arrived, Battered and rotting in the Everfree forest, she partially regretted not asking Scootaloo and telling Rarity to go buck it if she was opposed to the idea.
Thinking back to her actions over the past week, she began to feel worse. Putting poison joke in the dye seemed like a brilliant solution at first, although Sweetie failed to take into account the randomness of the magical plant's effects. Instead of a harming effect as intended it merely made Scootaloo change colors all the time. Fortunately for Sweetie Scootaloo wasn't reading the book so she could pretend it was an accident that occurred while picking out ingredients.
She cried when she remembered the multiple poisons she gave her oldest friend. She knew she would certainly have lost both of her friends if Scootaloo noticed. Fortunately she didn't notice, although she did specify to use less spicy ingredients next time.
Tears flowed freely as the young unicorn realized the monster she had become. She would kill her closest friend without even giver her a chance to prove she wasn't evil. She started to consider herself a demon not worthy of living with ponies anymore. A voice in the back of her head told her she was wrong and that she was still a pony, that she could still redeem herself, but she ignored that.
Sweetie Belle got out of bed after nearly an hour of arguing with herself. She had finally silenced the part of her mind that told her she was still a pony and could still redeem herself for her actions.
She walked over to the mirror and looked her reflection in the eyes. Then for the first time in what felt like ages she smiled. She smiled despite the fact that she was slowly losing any sense of the things that made her a pony.
=
During class the next morning Applebloom was the only one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders that was capable of paying attention to the lesson about plants of the Everfree forest. Sweetie's conscience returned during breakfast and she couldn't think with her actions weighing on her.
Meanwhile Scootaloo was starving. She hadn't fed since the sleepover, and even then she only took what she needed. That amount would only last a few days at most if she avoided physical labor.
“What's up with you?” Applebloom asked her friends at Recess.
Before Sweetie could speak up Scootaloo answered, “I haven't fed since the sleepover and its starting to get to me. What about you Sweetie?”
Sweetie sighed, “Do you think I'm a monster?”
Applebloom was about to speak but once again Scootaloo answered first, “Sweets, if you were a monster you wouldn't be my best friend. Trust me when I say I've thought similar things about myself for obvious reasons.” The bell rang signaling the end of recess, “Tell you what, how about you stop by my place later and we can talk about this, okay.” Sweetie nodded as they reentered the school building.
The rest of school passed with very little incident apart from Sweetie Belle's guilty feeling at the mention of poison joke.
She arrived at Scootaloo's house later after changing her mind several times about whether she would actually even go. She walked in without knocking first assuming nopony would mind. After all Scootaloo did live alone.
She found Scootaloo sitting on the couch using magic to hold up the book she was reading titled 'A Basic Guide to Dark Magic'. She was so focused on the book that she didn't even notice Sweetie standing in front of her until she cleared her voice causing Scootaloo to drop the book and fall off the couch she was sitting on.
“Sweetie... how long have you been standing there?” Scootaloo asked with hints of surprise and a bit of anger in her voice.
“Sorry, I probably should have knocked first.” Sweetie said in response, blushing a little bit.
“It’s cool, the door probably would have broken off anyway.”
“So… um…” Sweetie said gesturing towards the book lying on the ground after Scootaloo dropped it, silently asking about it.
Scootaloo picked up the book and began looking for her place, “It’s actually pretty interesting. There’s lots of stuff in here I bet even Twilight doesn’t know, but enough about that, I wanted to talk to you. Sweetie Belle, you’re not a monster. A lot of ponies would consider me a monster if they knew what I was, so why would you think something like that?”
Sweetie sighed, “That poison joke in the dye wasn’t an accident when we were collecting ingredients, I put it in there on purpose.”
“Why would you do that?”
Sweetie looked up at her best friend, “The same reason I tried to poison you.”
The only thing Sweetie felt as she passed out was a pair of sharp objects piercing the skin on her neck.
When she woke up Sweetie immediately noticed two things. The first thing was the sharp headache, second was that she was laying on a soft surface. She opened her eyes just a little to find the room she was in was dimly lit by what she suspected was candle light judging from the orange glow and flickering shadows.
Memories of what happened surfaced in her mind. She remembered her confession of her actions and the sharp pain in her neck that followed. She reached back with a hoof and felt her neck where she had been hurt. She felt two small marks on her neck and realized that the pain had been fangs piercing her skin.
She couldn't feel any blood matting her coat and assumed Scootaloo had cleaned the area around the wound. Thankfully Rarity would have little to yell at her about. When she thought back to Rarity again her eyes bolted open. How long had she been out?
Now that she could see properly the young unicorn realized she was on Scootaloo's couch. Scootaloo must have put her there after she blacked out. Looking at the clock she realized she had been out for about an hour.
“Scoots... where are you?”
Scootaloo's response came quickly from the kitchen, “I'm right here.” Sweetie looked at the kitchen doorway as the red pegasus trotted into the room carrying a glass of water with magic, glowing eyes distinct in the dim light of the room's single candle. Sweetie was slightly jealous that her best friend overexerted herself by lifting a key mere days ago and now lifted books and drinks with little effort while she could barely light her horn.
Scootaloo set down the glass of water and sat down next to Sweetie, “Listen... I'm sorry about... you know.”
“No, it's okay, I deserved that anyway.”
Scootaloo motioned for Sweetie to drink the water she brought out with her before responding, “No Sweetie, you did some bad things, but you also felt guilt about it. Guilt means you know what you did was wrong and that can hurt more than fangs.”
Sweetie set down the now empty glass and hugged Scootaloo, “Thanks, that really meant a lot to me.” Scootaloo did the only thing she knew to do in this situation and returned the hug.
Once they let go of each other Sweetie stood up, feeling moderately dizzy from blood loss but otherwise okay.
“Wait,” Sweetie heard as she began walking towards the door, “Before you go, I think you might find these interesting.”
The white unicorn read the titles on the books she was given. One of them was 'A Beginners Guide to Magic' and the other was the copy of 'A Basic Guide to Dark Magic' that she found her friend reading when she arrived earlier.
After thanking Scootaloo again Sweetie left, careful not to damage the door which seemed even closer to breaking at any minute than it had been when she arrived.
As soon as Sweetie Belle left the vampony's home she immediately felt as if she was being watched. She had heard Rarity talk about how creepy the forest was but Sweetie never experienced this herself. The day before Sweetie had felt safe with her friends by her side and earlier that day she had been to overwhelmed by guilt to notice. Now that her conscience was clear and she was alone she felt as if the forest was watching her.
She broke into a quick trot looking around nervously. The trot soon turned into turned to a run as she reached the edge of the forest.
The rest of her journey home was less ominous than before now that Sweetie was out of the forest. Without the forest causing her to panic she slowed to a walk and then gave a certain topic more thought.
How does Scootaloo live in that place?