The sun beat down on Twilight’s umbrella, the road radiating heat. Since becoming a vampire such things have stopped bothering her, but the faster she gets out of this the less likelihood of a repeat of what happened in the town square.

She needs to readjust her umbrella’s enchantments to automatically return without a command. She hadn’t anticipated just how painful that was going to be.

Nightmare designed her curse well, if they only saw one vampire burning in the sun in such agony, the rest would fall in line. Works as a great deterrent, and a failsafe to stop them from going to Celestia.

Spike rode on her back, Dragons were sedentary by nature, and while she initially refused his request, she conceded that he had a point that it’s what an average pony would do.

She only had one final item on her itinerary left, and then she could get out of this sun and get to her blood bag.

Now that she thought of it, the flavor of those bags was nothing like feeding on actual ponies, and she wasn’t looking forward to it nearly as much. Perhaps she should start drinking blood the more ‘natural’ way.

It would also let her get used to the power of her vampiric instincts. A repeat of what happened to dash is the last thing she needs.

The sound of chirping floats toward her and she looked up. A pegasus was conducting a group of birds to sing a song.

“Oh my, stop please everyone.” The pegasus flew up to a bluebird and seemed to be giving it a soft talking too. The bird nodded and they reset for another run. Twilight listened to it for a little bit more. It was much more in tune that last time. After a few more moments she cleared her throat which caused the birds to scatter, Twilight watched them go with a frown.

She figured they were used to ponies since they were comfortable with the pegasus being that close. “I’m here to make sure that preparations are underway. I didn’t mean to scare them away. You are Fluttershy correct?”

The yellow pegasus stares at my face for a long moment, not really answering the question.

Twilight tries again. “I’m Twilight Sparkle.” Is there something she’s doing wrong? The yellow mare says something, and even with Twilight’s enhanced hearing, it’s not easy to make out.

It was mostly a mumble anyway. A fluttering sound greets Twilight's ears and she looks behind Fluttershy. “Oh, it looks like your birds are back. Keep up the good work.” Twilight turns to leave and Spike approaches holding a scroll in his hand.

“A baby dragon!?” Twilight was rudely knocked away, the mare has surprising strength. “He’s so cuuuute!”

Huh, seems she can speak up. That was in doubt before.

Spike gets a big smile on his face, looking over at Twilight as she rises from the ground, using magic to get the dust out of her coat.

Spike and the mare strike up a conversation.

That was the last thing on her itinerary. Turning back Twilight begins heading back to the temporary housing Celestia provided.

The conversation droned on in the background as Twilight approached a wooden door set in a large tree. She can hear the sound of lots of heartbeats from inside.

Interesting, I guess this town is more well-read than I assumed from reports.

She opened the door only to find the library dark. Streamers hanging from the roof and tables scattered about. A normal pony wouldn’t have been able to perceive them. Was this a precursor to an attack?

She enters the room, the eyes of many ponies watching her.

What are they doing? Twilight was sure this wasn’t normal pony behavior, they usually are opposed to hiding in the shadows. Perhaps they ar-

“Surprise!” the light kick on and the dark streamers reveal their bright colors, confetti raining down from above.

Oh.

“Surprise!” Pinkamena is in front of her. “I’m pinkie pie, and I made this party just for you! Were you surprised? Were ya? Were ya? Huh huh huh?”

Ah, her cover. Right. Twilight begins walking through the crowd of ponies, many of which she saw in the town square.

Twilight eventually manages to break away from the party and retire above in the sleeping quarters. She’s got a lot of work to finish.

But first some chores.

First, she inspected her umbrella once again, making sure it wasn’t much worse for wear, when she finished the inspection, she reworked the enchantments to have it return to her even without a command. It will be able to float above her for a few minutes before she’d need to give it more magic, this should be quite sufficient.

Second, she got to work on paperwork for the mass memory wipes in the town square earlier. Detailing what happened. She approved a few transfer requests and declined a resignation. Seems somepony liked Trixie and didn’t want her memories to be wiped. This request was late in arriving, the pony in question already being memory wiped.

She leaves a note in her file that this pony is at risk of treason.

Third, time for some experiments. Looking inward she began analyzing herself.

Even now she could feel that the blood she’s obtained from the element bearers. (many of whom were downstairs, including dash who seems to have recovered quickly.) moving through her system. It seemed stronger than the usual blood she had inside her.

That odd feeling in her chest appears again, Twilight holding her hoof over where her heart still rested.

What is this? Some form of magic? It’s seeming to hamper her decision-making processes. Possibly mind-affecting? It was strongest right after feeding from Dash, and to a lesser extent Rarity.

Come to think of it, she felt a bit better after she saw dash having fun at the party downstairs. And the odd feeling with Rarity went away after making that promise.

Twilight begins taking notes, writing down her experiences after feeding on ponies. Remembering the promise she got to work on requesting an audience with Cadence.

Without a larger sample size, it was hard to tell if feeding from anypony would have the same effects.

Time for another experiment. She checked the time and found that it’s close to midnight. Maybe thirty minutes from showtime.

Grabbing a small bag of blood from a hidden storage container behind the nightstand she takes a small sip.

She almost spits it out at the taste.

Or, more accurately the lack of taste. Memories of the two times she fed today play through her mind, and before she realizes it she’s accidentally finished the bag.

That was supposed to last the whole trip, half now, half before she returns to Canterlot.

She put the now empty blood bag away, taking a seat at a writing desk She gets back to writing down what happened to her that day and begins a rough draft on her plan to remove Pinkamena’s conflict of interest when she returns to Canterlot.

For some reason she lingers on the paperwork, she doesn’t finish it with her usual speed.

Something’s slowing her down.

After coming up empty of reasons for this to occur she checks the time, glancing up to the moon in time to see four stars fly behind the stellar body and the face she’s been seeing for centuries fade from the surface.

Showtime. Twilight makes her way downstairs, the party’s still in full swing, and she joins the procession of ponies to the town hall.

The ponies are excited as they wait for their princess. The fanfare began to play and the curtains open to...nothing.

Somepony goes to check and speaks out. “She’s gone!”

Laughter filled the room as a trail of blue sparkles swirl into the room, forming into a large black alicorn.

Now for the confrontation. Waiting for the right moment in the monologue for the Nightmare to ask ‘Do you not remember who I am?”

“You’re Nightmare Moon.” Draconic eyes flit toward Twilight and she feels her body freeze in place.

This was not part of the plan.

“And what do we have here? An ally? An enemy?” Swooping down toward Twilight Nightmare gave her a look over. “Oh my, a vampire. I would have figured my sister destroyed all of you by now. Tell me, vampire, why are you here?”

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, the prepared lines stopping in her throat. Instead of following the scripted lie she said. “I’ve been sent by Celestia to gather the elements of harmony and purge you of dark magic.”

Twilight blinked for a moment. What was that?

“Oh dear, my sister still underestimates me after all these years. Seems she couldn’t even find an Original to turn you. Such a low-level pawn.” Darkness gathers in her horn, a black aura forming and the alicorn touching her horn to Twilights.

Twilight’s mind went blank, only returning a moment later when her body began to convulse and collapse. “Oh my, and you’ve even fed on some of the bearers. Naughty naughty. That much magic is...difficult to control. Come, we’ve got much to do before you’re a suitable pawn.

And with that, She dissolved into blue mist, taking Twilight with her.

Amidst the stunned ponies in the audience, a voice rang out. “Code Equinox! All EIS operatives are to begin memory alteration.” All eyes turned to see Pinkie, standing in the middle of the room a deadly serious expression on her face. Applejack walked up and gave her a cross look. “What’s that supposed ta mean?” Her next question was stopped dead when everypony was hit by a paralysis spell.” Pinkie turned to Spike. “Send a letter to Celestia, code Equinox. Ask for orders. Spike nodded, his gaze flickering to a frozen Rarity for a moment before complying.

A pair of male unicorns seem to materialize next to pinkie, their horns flashing a reddish color as they worked on wiping all relevant memories, working from the edges of the frozen crowd inward.

Pinkie nods to them. “Mr. Black, Mr. White.” two unicorns nod in greeting but don’t speak when a flash of green fire lights up the room and a scroll forms in front of Pinkie.

She opened it quickly, breaking the seal and reading it at a glance. The two stallions are now focusing on 4 ponies in the center of the room when Pinkie raises a hoof. “Hold, new orders. Those four are to remain, wipe the rest.” She gets a nod from them and Spike moves next to her. “What do we do?” his eyes are still mostly on the frozen white unicorn in the center of the room.

Pinkie looks a bit sad for a moment, ponies beginning to collapse to the ground as sleep spells were cast upon them. “Celestia has authorized a full explanation. Our new orders are to retrieve Twilight and break whatever spell she’s under. Though that may be difficult, The Nightmare did invent the vampire curse. It makes sense that she would have worked in some way to enforce their loyalty.”

A blur of blue moves in front of Pinkie, a pair of magenta eyes glaring daggers at Pinkie. “This is poor form for a prank, you have ten seconds-” Pinkie cut her off.

“Starting from the top I’m… I’m an agent of Celestia sent to watch everypony in this town…”

Far away, deep in the Everfree forest a black alicorn slowly walks around a bound Twilight Sparkle. “You’ve got such a resilient mind.” She shook her head. “No matter. I have just the thing for that.” The dark alicorn brought her hoof up to her mouth, biting down on it with her fanged teeth until a few beads of blood began to pool. Using her horn she forces Twilight’s mouth open, holding the hoof over the bound vampires' open maw.

“You may have tasted some of the new element bearers, but that doesn’t hold a candle to my blood.” As a few drops land on Twilight’s tongue, her mind went blank. Her body spasming as it begins to undergo changes, her bones breaking and growing back stronger, her coat changed to a darker color, closer to black. Twilight’s fangs grew longer, curving noticeably over her lip, a second pair rose from her lower jaw as well.

She’s not felt pain like this since her first change...or even her brief exposure to sunlight paled in comparison.

The sound of Twilight’s voice echoed from the castle, her scream so loud it tore her throat apart only for it to heal and be torn again. After several agonizing minutes, the pain left her, her mental faculties slowly returning.

“There there young one. Your voice is quite delightful you know.” Twilight could only stare at her with one red eye as she slowly took stock of her body.

“And there you go again, not reacting in haste or anger, simply turning inward to analyze what’s happening. You found the solution to being unable to lie in record time. I take it you suffer from some form of sociopathy, this makes you an ideal servant, even if your type is difficult to manage." At twilight's surprised expression she waved a hoof dismissively. "I’ve seen the signs before. No doubt my sister has been making great use of you.”

The sound of Nightmares hooves on the paved stones echoed about the room for a few moments. “Now that you’ve had time to think, what are your thoughts?”

Twilight continues to observe, deciding not to answer.

Except this time her mouth opened. “My body feels lighter, from a few tests my bones themselves seem to be somewhat stronger, considering I wasn’t all that powerful before I’d say that my strength has increased a few orders of magnitude. Subtle testing of my strength yielded no results on the binding holding me in place. Probably designed to restrain one such as me. I’ve yet to determine if my magic has also been amplified as lighting up my horn could provoke an attack.”

Twilight’s eyes widened slightly in shock.

“Ah, you thought the same trick would work twice. I’m afraid the more power I bestow upon my children, the more control they relinquish. Can’t have my most powerful servants plotting behind my back can I?” Her sardonic laughter echoed about the room, the withered tapestries hanging from the ceiling doing little to absorb the sound.

“The more I learn the more genius this curse is, I’ve learned a considerable amount today alone.”

“Have you now? Let me guess, you feel odd. Weird sensations in the pit of your stomach, almost like an ache.”

Twilight looks at Nightmare incredulously.

“I know what you’re going through, but it wouldn’t be smart to put all my cards on the table. Now my servant.” Nightmare leans down, her face inches from Twilights.

“It’s time for you to tell me what my sister has been up to these past few centuries.”

For a full second Twilight resisted, but eventually, the curse forced her to begin talking…

~~~~~

Harmony doctrine Section 5a. In regards to operatives.

Harmony is the duty of all. We require everypony to abide by the tenets of Harmony. The Disharmonic are not ponies. They are barriers set against us.

Report everything. You are Harmony’s eyes and ears in Equestria. Without you we will lose to chaos once more.

May you live in Harmony evermore.

The Tenants of Harmony.

1. Live in Harmony. Help thy ponies.
2. Nopony is to seek more than they need. Greed leads to poverty, and poverty leads to Disharmonic thoughts on how to escape. Classes need to exist, but they do not need to seek to raise somepony above another. Nopony is greater or lesser than any others. All are required for Harmony to remain.
3. The nobility is exempt from some Tenants of Harmony.**
4. Disharmonic are not ponies. They are not like you. Feel nothing for performing your duties.
5. Always stay observant. A moment's inattention can lead to somepony becoming Disharmonic.
6. Do not worry about Erasing. All workers in section 1 2 & 3 will never be Erased. When your contract is up, you’ll be placed in a loving home with your memories wiped. At the end of your service, you have a wonderful life of Harmony to look forward too.
7. All orders of Celestia Supercede orders from Twilight unless it regards Breaking.
8. War is sometimes an inevitable evil. All staff is required to assist in wartime.
9. Freeing Disharmonic beings will result in being Erased. This rule supersedes tenant 6.
10. During the Erase procedure, only Twilight and the Princesses* shall keep their memories.

* Princesses includes Celestia, and not Cadance. This list will be updated after the results of Operation Nightmare.

**The nobility are exempt from Tenents, 1, 2, 5, 7 and 8

Author's Note

I ended this chapter a bit earlier than I normally would. I've decided to open up a Q&A to the readers of this story.

Simply ask a question in the comments about something you wish to know, and I'll post it in the next chapter. I won't give spoilers, but anything twilight knows about the inner workings of Section Three are on the table. For those who want a better explanation of why I'm doing this read the relevant blog post here I'm eager to know what questions are burning in your minds!