Sunny woke after entirely not enough sleep. She was named aptly not only for her disposition, but also because she had never learned the fine art of sleeping in. The room was dark as pitch and she reached out with a hoof at what she knew was there. Mademoiselle. A vampony. The tilt of the mattress under her had given her lover away.

Memories came to the mare, of what they had done the previous night… well, early morning. She couldn't help herself, she yawned and almost reached to pull back the blinds. "Can't do that, can I?"

Maddie stirred not one bit, it was odd to the unicorn, the mare seemed… well, dead. She wasn't dead, though. She remembered just how alive the other mare had been, of what she had said. "I don't know why, but I feel safe with you." Sliding from her bed, Sunny Days leaned in and kissed the vampony on the cheek.

She got to her little kitchen and the memory of that amazing breakfast came to her. "Must have been distracted." Sunny grabbed an oat bar from the pantry and began to munch on it. A knock came at her front door, a rather official knock. "Coming!"

Sunny barely got to the door when the knock came again. Opening her front door, the unicorn stared at the two guards standing before her, bright uniforms making her squints. "What's going on?"

"We are hunting for the monster. Is it just you here?" One of the guard looked into her living room, trying to squint into the darkened interior.

"J-Just me…" Sunny was suddenly scared. Maddie hadn't done the awful things she had heard of, but that wouldn't stop the guard from taking her if they found her. Or worse, opening the curtains.

"Is there something wrong?" The voice came from behind the guards, a black shape trying to squeeze between the two imposing unicorns. "Why are you so anxious? My name is Kicks." The changeling lifted a hoof.

Lifting her own to give the friendly drone a clop of return, Sunny smiled a little. "Sorry Kicks, it has been a crazy few weeks. I-"

"Oh! You were the first one they attacked!" Kicks bonked himself on the forehead. "Of course you are still nervous, who wouldn't be. Do you mind if we look around? I… don't want to alarm you, but they could be hiding and, well, if there is a vampony here, I will find it!"

Now actual terror filled Sunny. "P-P-P-Please… I am alone, I don't need…"

Kicks realized he could sense something, very faintly, it was love. "There is somepony here, they are so weak." When he said that the two big unicorns started to push inwards, one trying to shove Sunny to the side, to protect her.

"No!" Sunny stomped her hoof and focused. She had never employed this much magic in her life but she bolted for the bedroom and put up a forcefield bubble around herself and Maddie. "Go away, leave us alone! She didn't do anything!"

Following the distraught mare to the bedroom, Kicks stopped dead. "It's here!"

"I can open the curtains, you know." Gel stared at the mare inside her bubble. He was bluffing, the myths about vamponies was that they burned in sunlight, and Sunny was trapped in the bubble with the monster. "Sunny, just relax, let me help, whatever they did to you we can make it better."

"I don't want you to 'make it better'," Sunny felt tears start to burn on her cheeks. Her chest burnt too, between feeding Maddie early in the morning, and maintaining magic half the day, she was pushing herself hard. "She isn't a bad pony!"

"Vamponies," Gel sat at the foot of the bed, "lie, they twist your thoughts. It-"

"She. Her name is Mademoiselle." Sunny looked down at the mare, she was still trapped in whatever place vampony's minds go when it is day. "I am not going to let you kill her. She didn't do it!"

"Sunny?" Gel reached out a hoof, stopping just before touching the bubble of force. "Sunny, look up at me," the drone waited for her to look up, "what happened?"

It was the first conversation that didn't involve her defending Maddie, Sunny practically jumped on it. "The first time, I… I couldn't get over it. I rethought everything that happened. She didn't hurt me, she was just doing what she had to."

"She attacked you, Sunny." Gel watched the mare's face, saw it close up a little. "Sorry, continue."

"The breakfast was pretty good… no, it was spectacular." Sunny smiled in memory. "So I searched. I asked around, and it was by stupid luck that I found her… mostly."

Bubbles of force could stop a lot of things, but what Gel felt from the mare wasn't something it could stop. "You love her." It wasn't a question, Gel inhaled deeply. "I have to capture her, then."

"And if you capture her, and the real killer attacks again, you will know it wasn't her!" Sunny saw a tiny sliver of hope and the mare's heart grabbed at it. "You won't hurt her?"

"I am a prince." Gel puffed his barrel out a little. "You have my word that, until I am very certain that she is guilty… that isn't going to work, is it?" Sunny shook her head. "A month then?"

Nodding her head, Sunny lifted her hoof up to the side of the bubble. "You will realize it isn't her!"

Gel lifted his hoof, pressing it gently to the side of the bubble. Touching the bubble caused the spell to need more power and, just as Gel thought would happen, Sunny passed out. But for just a moment, their hooves touched. "Me and my stupid heart." Gel leaned in over the bed and flowed. He wrapped around the vampony, sealing over her body, completely. He would normally feel a pony struggling to breathe, but this time, there was nothing. Shifting and reaching off the bed, the stallion stood up. "Come in."

Three princesses and a knight almost had a fight as to who could get into the house first. "Where is it?" Shining looked around, spotting Sunny on the bed. "Ah ha! So she was the vampony?" Rose magic cast the curtains open, the sun streaming in.

Sunny startled awake at the bright light. "Maddie!" she screamed and looked around in shock, tears pouring from her eyes.

Gel reached out a hoof, offering it to the mare. "Sunny, Sunny calm down, I have her, safe and in the dark." The orange eyes of the mare locked on his own. She was breathing heavily. "I made you a promise, Sunny." Gel waited for her to calm down a little, finally she gave his hoof a little clop with her own.

"You really have her safe? Where?" Sunny looked at her princesses but her attention was instantly back on Gel. "Are you sure? Who is with her?"

Cadance's eyes narrowed at the exchange. She shot a look at Gel that could have sliced steel. "I am sure if Prince Gel has promised you she is safe, she is definitely safe. Sunny, we need to have a talk."

Sunny's attention was pulled to the alicorn. "I love her…" She sobbed a little more. "I know she didn't do those things, you have to believe me!"

"Please, Sunny, come with us then and we will make everything work out." Cadance reached forward with a wing to the smaller mare. Sunny, reluctantly, stepped forward. As that wing pulled her in close, Sunny gave Gel one more glare.

Nuzzles whined. "But why are you using the machine, I am right here, and thirsty!" He stared angrily at the machine and contemplated, just for a moment, giving it a kick.

"We are doing something special, you will see. Isn't Fluttershy coming over to see you today?" Sweetie was laying back, eyes almost closed as she felt her milk being drained.

Lyra returned from dealing with a customer. "Oh, no, she said she had to meet somepony… why are you looking at me like-" Lyra didn't get any more words out, the purple flower planted over her nose set her mind into a spiral, spinning and winding down as Nuzzles giggled in delight.

"Nuzzles! Leave Lyra alone… well, you might as well drink from her now, ugh I am going to have to run the store." Sweetie had found that she really missed Muffins now, really, really missed her.

The sounds of gentle suckling were heard, as Nuzzles had his head under Lyra's back leg. Sweetie watched his tail wag rapidly and admitted to herself that it was so cute she almost forgave him.

Lyra sprawled, her mind taking a little holiday. She looked down her body at the creature squirmed under her back leg, his snouts suckling at her udder. She smiled a bit wider and leaned back again. Everything felt so right.

Daring relaxed on the cloud. She had a pen out, the latest page of her manuscript balanced before her as she scrawled her words down. Somepony had to look after her 'number one fan's house, and it was nice to get away, live on cloud nine, so to speak.

Her snout moved and worked, the pen soon running dry and needing to be reinked. Dipping the thing into her inkwell, she pumped the little handle on it and watched as it sucked up ink to fill its little reservoir.

A pegasus came winging in. Dark of fur, he looked about as handsome as a stallion could be. "Hi there." Normally disliking being interrupted, Daring didn't mind when it was a cute stallion. "Can I help you with anything?"

Cloud blinked at the mare, it looked a little like Dash, well, if you completely ignored her color and the fact she was clearly writing a book. "Uh, is Rainbow Dash in? She sort of abandoned us…"

"Maybe I can help?" Daring set her pen and paper down, letting it settle on her little board she used for writing. "My name is-" Daring Do froze a moment - if she told him her actual name, they might recognize it, and worse still if she said she was A. K. Yearling - "Frosty." The name had come to her out of nowhere. "Uh, Frosty Dash. I am Rainbow's cousin!"

Trotting up to the mare, Cloud lifted a hoof to offer a clop. "Cloud Chaser, pleased to meet ya." She didn't disappoint, lifting her hoof to give his a very solid clop. "I don't suppose she said where she was going?"

"Let's see if I get this right…" Daring cleared her throat and attempted her best Rainbow Dash voice. "Me and Muffins are going to get married, it will be awesome! Can you look after my house while we are gone? Awesome!" She coughed and cleared her voice. "And all I saw after that was a streak of rainbow light and I was alone…"

"Sounds just like her." Cloud recognized something and it hit him. "Oh, uh, I guess I should head home now, Spike and Stormy."

Daring realized the stallion was trying to get an out. "Uh, two ponies? Look I came on a bit strong." Not vocally, she amended mentally, but her body language had certainly made inquiries. "What is there to do in this town?"

Cloud stopped before flying off. "Well, tonight there is a party at the castle, usual thing… if you are looking for company there will be plenty there." He gave a mental sigh of relief. "Or, if you don't mind things inside you… not that I mean… err…" Cloud blushed hot, he looked around. "There is this tree, you eat its seeds and they grow inside you and-"

"There's a corpse canopy here?" Daring's head shot up and all thoughts of amorousness fled. "And nopony has killed the thing? That's terrible!"

"Whoa, slow down. The tree is harmless. A pony made friends with it and it promised to only sprout its seeds when the pony carrying them… is gone." Cloud shook his head. "Or something like that. Please, talk to Vinyl and Octavia if you want to know about it."

It sounded odd. Daring had seen such plants before, they generally lured ponies to them with beautiful songs and then had them eat the fruit and… "I think I will… sounds like the most outrageous plot for a story." And it certainly did, or at least an idea for one. "Where can I find these ponies?"

"At the party tonight." Cloud gestured with a wingtip down and at an angle, toward the castle below. "Just come around when you hear the loud music."

Author's Note

Main plot advances, will Sunny regret trusting a prince?

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