A Visitor From Beyond

There stood Ben, dazed after the loud scream, laying on the floor. Twilight laid in her bed, breathing heavily, and Dash fell out of her bed in surprise, and was now tangled up in the blankets. After a few moments, Ben stood up and surveyed the area, his ears ringing from the loud noise. Rainbow Dash squirmed out from under the blankets and said in a half-asleep, slurred voice: "What's the big idea screaming in the middle of the night? You trying to wake up the town?"

Twilight looked up at Dash and responded with a loud tone: "Rainbow, Ben just tried to kill me!"

Dash snapped out of her drowsiness right quick as those words entered her ears. She then turned to Ben with a concerned face. "Why would you do that?" She asked.

Unable to speak, Ben could only studder in dismay. "I... I..."

After a few moments, the sounds of a door opening was heard downstairs, and hoofsteps could be heard coming up the stairs. Before anyone knew it, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy came through the door. "What happened?" They all asked in near unison, except for Pinkie Pie. She asked with an excited face: "Are you guys having a party?" before hopping in place. She was soon stopped by Rarity with a firm backhoof to the face.

"B... Ben tried to k... k... kill me in my sleep!" Twilight shouted, still breathing heavily.

The other five ponies gasped in shock before turning on Ben with angry faces, slowly approaching. Ben started to back away in response, the look of fear in his eyes. "I knew we shouldn't 've trusted him. He's a monster!" Applejack said to the others.

"Yeah, let's get him!" Rarity added.

The group continued to close in on him... all except for Pinkie Pie. She just stood there with a surprised face a few seconds after the others started to approach. "BEN'S A VAMPIRE! RUN FOR YOUR LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVES!" She finally shouted before running out of the room.

The group gasped in shock, and Twilight perked up in the background. "A vampire..." the lavender pony said to herself. "Girls, wait!"

Ben took this moment of confusion as an opportunity to escape. He turned around and jumped through the window at full speed. Thinking that jumping out of a second-story window was a good idea at the time, he instantly regretted it. He tumbled through the air before landing on the ground with a thump. Ben grunted as the force of the impact surged inside of him. His left leg absorbed some of the impact, but was broken in the process. His right arm was also riddled with glass. Ben moaned as he tried to get up with his working arm. Standing was rather painful, and the blood from his glass-riddled arm was dripping onto the floor. After a moment, he heard the door open, and then a voice. "Look over there, I'll check over here."

Ben decided at that moment to book it. He searched for a place to flee, but found only the open expanse of the town. The lack of hiding places, coupled with his wounds and being outnumbered would surely lead to his demise. Hoofsteps grew louder, and the young mage started to look around again, only faster and in a panic. He had to move fast, and only one place would serve as a viable hiding spot - the Everfree Forest. Perfect, Ben thought. He limped off in that direction, blood dripping from his arm onto the floor. Ben looked down at the blood trail he was leaving and frowned. Damnit. They'll surely follow it. Well, I have no choice. Patching it up would take too long, he continued to think to himself.

After a few mintues of limping and looking out for any followers, Ben reached the Everfree Forest. "Now, to find a place to lay low for... well... ever, I suppose." Ben said to himself in a hushed tone.

The dark, eerie forest casted its gloom over him as he limped along, leaving a blood trail from his disabled arm. A shelter was his objective, preferably a cave. Twilight and her friends would most likely hunt him down the first chance they got, or worse, they would contact Celestia and she'd send the royal guard after him. Oh, how he knew how that felt, running from guards for touching a cup. If either of the scenarios played out, he would definitely be killed without much of a fight. After what seemed like hours of limping around, Ben found a cave that could be used as a shelter and went inside.

"Alright, now to take care of my arm." Ben said to himself as he sat down on a rock.

The cave he was in smelt damp and felt cold and eerie. Any moment, something could jump out and maul him to death, and he'd be unable to defend himself in his weakened condition. He had lost a considerable amount of blood as he escaped, and he was feeling woozy. Slowly, he began to pull the shards of glass out of his arm, moaning in pain as each piece came out. One by one, they fell to the floor and landed in a pool of blood. Ben was tempted to lick it up, hoping it would sate his need, but knew it was futile. He could not sustain himself on blood of the undead, let alone himself. As the final shard of glass fell to the floor, he held his good hand to his head to ease the disorientation caused by the major blood loss. Looking for a viable bandage, he found a large leaf growing from a tree outside, plucked it, wrapped it around his wounds, and tied it to his arm with some leather strips he had in his satchel. As he finished, a torrential downpour began outside. "Good. That will wash away the blood. Well, might as well go to sleep." Ben said to himself as he laid down on the floor to do just that. Before he closed his eyes, he reached into his satchel and pulled out the amulet he made for Rarity. he held in front of him and gazed at it for a few seconds. In those seconds, a tear fell from his eye and landed beside him...

Twilight paced around the room, occasionally taking flight, searching for a book on Equestrian history. Dash and the others went out to hunt Ben down, so she had the house to herself. All of her books so far proved futile. None of the history texts provided information on vampires, and she owned some pretty dated history texts. It's like the whole situation was... erased from history. Several times Twilight started to nod off before jerking herself awake, occasionally finding a trace of drool on the side of her mouth. After hours of searching and nearly collapsing from exhaustion, the lavender pony discovered a book given to her by Luna that documents history right before she was banished to the moon. Skimming through pages, Twilight was shocked when she found the segment on how Luna created vampires and how Celestia abolished them in the "Year of the Sun." She looked up with a feeling of regret and woe, like she had just unknowingly killed someone, only not swift and painless. It was slow, drawn out, and agonizing. She felt even more awful knowing that she possibly did just that. "My word... What have I done?" Twilight asked herself, tears welling up in her eyes. "Ben was only trying to sustain himself, and I acted like he was was a killer. Now my friends are *sniff* hunting him down. He could be dead by now, and it's all my fault."

Twilight ran up to her room and buried herself in her blanket, sobbing.

...Ben awoke with a snort as he suddenly heard voices off in the distance. He climbed to his feet, forgetting about his injured leg, and held back screams of agony as pain surged within his damaged appendage. He limped over to a nearby rock and hid, listening to the voices. "Maybe he went this way," he heard one say. "The blood trail led off in this direction before it started raining."

"I doubt it. I don't think he'd be that stupid, dear. He could've went that way." He heard another say.

"Do you two always disagree?" A third chimed in. The sound of the heavy rain suppressed the voices just enough so that he could hear them, but couldn't distinguish them.

"Fine. We'll look over there." The first voice answered.

Ben let out a sigh of relief as he heard the hoofsteps fade. He sat back down, leaning against the wall, and noticed the amulet on the floor. Using his remaining energy, he pulled the amulet over to him with telekinesis and set it in his satchel. The combined effort of trekking, blood loss, and being awakened by ponies looking for him left Ben exhausted. "If someone, er, somepony, planned on attacking me, now would be the time." he whispered to himself. He looked out at the rain, still coming down immensely, before closing his eyes, heavy with weariness, and drifted off to sleep.

Morning came sooner than he had hoped. Ben stood up, careful not to disturb his leg this time, and limped over to the cave opening to look outside. The rain must've stopped a little before sunrise, as the ground and vegetation were still soaked, drips of water falling from the latter. The damp smell of the morning forest creeped into Ben's nose as he took in a breath of air. After a while of organizing his thoughts, he had a sudden realization - this damp cave would have to be his permanent home. Why would he return to town? They'd most likely kill him after what he did. Ben was no fool, but he still hated the idea of being "banished" to the forest for the rest of his days, which was technically forever since he was immortal. That was the perk of being a vampire, after all. He limped around the cave, eventually succumbing to the effects of cabin fever. Nothing to do, nothing to accomplish except to not die, and that was the easy part. Ben thought of what he could do. Read? Nah, he has already read all of the books in his collection. Write? Nope. Wasn't very good at that. About all he could do in his injured state was sit down and think. Before he did that, though, he grabbed a sharp rock and etched a tally mark on the wall.

Days passed. Days of solitude. Days of loneliness. Days of fear. Days became weeks. The very thought that one day the ponies would find him kept Ben on edge. With nothing to do, he just kept limping around the cave in circles, occasionally sitting down for idle thought. Over time, he slowly began to lose it. being stuck in a bleak, damp cave for weeks with nobody to talk to will do that to you. He'd occasionally hear things that weren't there, or see things in the darkness. His ever-growing lust for blood didn't help things either. Eventually, going outside wasn't an option. Ben would just sit in a corner, periodically talking to himself, then pace around the room, think about various things, sit back down, sleep, and repeat. The tally marks on the wall grew in numbers, eventually becoming abstract drawings and cryptic messages that made no sense. The makeshift bandage over his arm was soaked in blood. Fortunately, being undead, he didn't need to worry about food, but by now those were the least of his troubles. It's a sad sight, seeing someone who's trapped by his own fears.

One afternoon, while watching the cave entrance, Ben perked up when he saw a familiar purple shape land outside. it was Twilight. Ben grew worried at the sight of her, contemplating how she'd kill him. Sword? Spear? Axe? Console Commands? Who knows. As she approached, he noticed that she wasn't armed or had a threatening demeanor. "T...Twilight?" Ben asked, still nervous.

"Hello, Ben." She responded, smiling.

"H... How did you... find me here?"

"I was spying on the others as they hunted you down every so often and when they passed by here I was suspicious of the cave, so the next day I flew out here."

By now Ben had calmed down enough to stop studdering. "How long has it been since... you know...?"

"Oh, about three weeks." The lavender pony responded, still smiling.

Ben wiped his forehead before looking down at a puddle of water on the floor. His reflection showed the effects of weeks of isolation. "Well, now that that's sorted out... just make it quick, will ya?" Ben closed his eyes and prepared for his impending doom.

"Erm... What are you talking about?" Twilight asked, quizzically.

"You're... not here to kill me?" Ben asked, opening his eyes.

"Of course not. I'm here because I know about your... condition... and how I'd like you to come back to Ponyville with me.

Ben's expression changed to reflect his surprise. "What? I can't go back there. They'll kill me!"

"No they won't. I sorted things out with everyone. You'll be just fine."

Ben took a moment to think about the situation before reaching out, grabbing Twilight and pulling her into a hug. "Oh, thank you, Twilight! It's been so lonely in here, I can't wait to go back!" He exclaimed, tears running down his cheeks.

Twilight returned the hug. "My pleasure." She said. "Oh, and one more thing."

Ben set Twilight down and rubbed his eyes to dry the tears. "What is it?"

Twilight leaned her head to one side, smiling. "Go ahead."

Ben had trouble understanding what she was doing that for before realizing that it was so he could feed on her. "Ah... I see. Thanks."

Ben moved in without hesitation and bit Twilight on the neck, sucking blood to nourish himself. After consuming a larger amount then he should've, he released his fangs and wiped his mouth. "Thanks, Twi. Now I feel much better."

Twilight was feeling woozy after all the blood loss. "No problem... Aye, I need to sit down..."

Ben pulled Twilight into another hug, laughing.

"Luna, get in here right now!"