Nocturnals

13 years ago

The morning sun shining through the trees woke up the lonely earthpony. She stood up, stretched, and looked around to see where she was, but couldn't recognize anything. Her neck stung a little bit, but it was only a weak sting, nowhere strong enough to be called painful, so she ignored it.

Since she didn't want to walk towards the rising sun, she turned westward l instead.

Eventually, night came again. She continued to walk for a few more hours and then climbed up a tree to sleep.

The sun was already almost at its highest point when the mare woke up again. She climbed out of the tree. The sting was still there, but she didn’t even notice it anymore.

What she did notice was that sunlight was now uncomfortable for her even if it just shone on her back, so she paid attention to always stay in the shadows of the trees as she went on.

Other ponies would take in the scenery around themselves, but she didn't care about that. Or about what might run through the undergrowth around her. Or where she was going. She was generally uninterested in anything right now.

She managed to stay awake even longer today, going on all the way until sunrise. Something in the back of her mind told her that the rising sun shouldn’t make her even more tired, but she didn’t know why she should care, and just climbed into another tree to sleep.

Most of the day was already over when she woke up.

The sting had almost disappeared, but now her jaws were hurting, and when the sun started to set, she also got a headache. Both grew stronger and stronger as the sun disappeared behind the horizon. The mare felt like her head was going to explode.

And as soon as the last ray of light had vanished, it stopped.

The mare exhaled. Never in her life had she perceived her surroundings this clearly.

She could see further and hear more. She felt that her muscles had become stronger as well, but she didn't have time to take it all in. At the edge of her vision, a shape appeared.

Something furry and hopping.

Something with red, glowing lines running across its body.

Something she had to sink her teeth into.

Would she still have been able to form thoughts, that would have filled all of them. This irresistible desire to sink her teeth into the creature's throat. She didn't care about its name, or what she could expect to happen from fulfilling her desire.

She began to stalk over to it, her hoofsteps not even audible to herself, let alone her prey.

Once she was close enough, she leapt forward, catching it in her fangs, and began to drink the red liquid coming out of it. She lifted her head to the sky to make it come out faster, spilling quite a lot of it all over her face and throat. With every gulp, her mind became clearer.

This… This thing—oh, this tastes so good—it's called… Rabbit…

She narrowed her eyes. Why is it stopping? I want more… more… Blood! That's what it's called! I want more blood!

She shook the now completely limp rabbit, trying to get a few more drops out of it when a female voice appeared behind her. “Hey, can I have the rest?”

She turned around, and saw a creature somewhere between a wolf and a pony, with a duffle bag on her back. She still had the rabbit in her mouth, so all she could say was, “Whaf?"

“You know, the meat? I don't think that you'll want to eat it yourself, right, Rotkehlchen?”

It's already empty, so why not, the newfound vampire thought. She walked over to the werewolf and dropped it in front of her. The werewolf thanked her and quickly devoured her meal.

Once she was done, she sighed from contentment, then turned to the vampire and said, “Shite, where are my manners? I forgot to introduce myself, didn’t I?” She held out her paw towards the vampire. “I’m Dagny.”

The vampire hesitated for a moment before shaking her paw. “Hi, Dagny, it's nice to meet you.”

“So, what's your name?” Dagny asked after a moment of silence.

Panic rose in the vampire. What's my name?! I… I don't know… How can you not know your own name?!

Dagny noticed her distress and said, “Hey, if you don't want to tell me your real name, that's ok, I get it. You probably have people to protect, and I'm just a random werewolf roaming the White Tail forest. But it'd be good if I could at least call you by a nickname. Unless you want me to just call you lass all the time.”

The vampire thought about it. “You called me Rotkehlchen earlier, didn't you? What does it mean?”

“Oh, it's a kind of bird. I think it's called Robin in Equestrian. But literally, it means 'cute red throat' and, well…”

The vampire put a hoof on her throat and then held it out so she could look at it. Covered in blood. What a waste. She licked the blood off her hoof and then said, “Well, I'd say it's a good name, Rotkehlchen. I don't think that I'll ever use my other name again, actually. I just became a vampire, anyway, so new life, new name, right?”

“Ah, then it’s probably best to bring you to the next Noctris hideout,” Dagny said. “They’ll tell you what you need to know. The closest one should be in Applewood.”

“That’s quite a bit away from here,” Rotkehlchen said.

“True,” Dagny admitted. “But that gives us a chance to hunt along the way. What do you say? I get the meat, you the blood.”

“Sounds like a deal.”

Dagny grinned and started to walk away, Rotkehlchen closely following behind.

After a few minutes, Rotkehlchen said, “Um, Dagny?”

“Yes, Rotkehlchen?”

“Can you teach me how to hunt?”

For the next few hours, Dagny taught Rotkehlchen how to build a few simple traps and how to track and stalk prey. In the end, Rotkehlchen managed to take down a boar all by herself.

Rotkehlchen drank herself full and then lied down while Dagny ate.

The sun was rising again just as they finished their meal. Dagny cringed when she saw the first rays of sunlight shining through the trees. “Oh, I hate when that happens…”

Rotkehlchen wanted to ask what she meant, but got her answer as soon as the sunlight directly hit Dagny, forcing her into her pony form. She groaned, opened her duffle bag, took out a suit and put it on. “I have no cutie mark, and that’d be too conspicuous. Also… the suit’s made from special fabric. Don’t ask me how, but not even the strongest pony in Equestria could buck a hole into it. Helps me cope with being clawless.” She closed the bag and tried to take another bite from the boar, but could only barely get anything out of it. “Lupa, how I hate this weak body...”

Rotkehlchen stood up and nuzzled Dagny’s cheek, gently pushing her out of the way. Then she used her fangs to rip out a chunk of meat, turned to Dagny, and put it in her mouth. “Don’t worry,” she told the surprised looking Dagny, “I’m strong enough for both of us.”

They soon arrived at the edge of the forest, standing on a hill overlooking Applewood. Dagny turned to Rotkehlchen. “Um, you probably should go pony as well.”

“And how?”

Dagny facehoofed. “Right, I forgot. You’re new to this…” She took a scarf and sunglasses out of her bag and gave them to Rotkehlchen. “Here, put that on. You’ll blend right in.”

After some confusion, they found the way to the hideout.

“Down there?” Rotkehlchen asked, looking at the sewer hole in front of them.

“Yeah.” Dagny heaved the lid out of the way. “After you.”

Rotkehlchen climbed down, followed by Dagny, who put the lid back into place behind them. As soon as the sun was blocked out, Dagny returned to her true form. “Ah, finally…”

I don’t know what I expected to find behind a secret door in a sewer, Rotkehlchen thought after entering the hideout, but definitely not a clean hotel lobby.

The receptionist behind the front desk gave them a welcoming grin, revealing her fangs. Rotkehlchen moved closer to Dagny, practically bumping into her.

“Hi, how may I help you?” the receptionist said.

Dagny waited a moment for Rotkehlchen to answer, but when she didn’t, said, “Hi, Fluffy-Ears here’s a newby vampire. Can you, you know… teach her the basics?”

“Of course!” The receptionist walked around the counter and up to them. “I think we should start with a tour of the hideout.” She turned to Dagny. “You can leave, if you want. She’ll be in good hooves.”

Rotkehlchen pressed herself more into Dagny’s fur.

Dagny looked at her, then back at the receptionist. “I think I’d like to join the tour as well.”

Hideouts like this one served many purposes. Mainly, they were just safe spaces nocturnals could go to to find a place to stay while they traveled through Equestria, but they were also responsible for supplying the vampires in their area with blood if they didn’t own a bloodstone themselves. If possible, they’d also provide meat for the occasional werewolf, but that wasn’t as much of a priority, since werewolves could survive on the same diet as a pony.

Most hideouts also possessed a potions lab for vampire cure in case of accidental biting, and a metal workshop for any gear traveling nocturnals would have to repair. They also provided quarters to Silver Eyes if one came into the region, and had the responsibility of making sure that no vampire in their city revealed their existence to Equestria.

The receptionist told all that and more detailed information to Rotkehlchen, but unfortunately, she was too tired to remember any of it.

After a while, she just asked her guide for a place to sleep.

“Of course,” she replied, “coffin or bed?”

“What?” Rotkehlchen asked.

“Some vampires prefer to sleep in a coffin,” the receptionist explained, “others want a bed. So, which one shall it be?”

“I think a bed would be quite nice.”

Dagny walked Rotkehlchen to her room, which looked like any other hotel room, with the exception of the absence of windows.

“Alright,” she said, “I guess I’ll go then. Was nice to meet you. Sleep well.” She turned to leave the room, but Rotkehlchen grabbed her paw, causing her to stop and turn back around.

“Could you—” Rotkehlchen hesitated “—could you please stay? I don’t know, but something is making me nervous in here, and I’d feel safer if you were around.”

“Well, I guess I could use a nap as well,” Dagny said with a smile.

“Oh. Oh, thank you, I really appreciate that.” Rotkehlchen looked at the one pony bed in the room. “Um, how do we…”

Dagny walked to the side of the bed, turned around in circles a few times, and lied down on the ground, curled up into a ball, her nose tucked under her tail.

“Awww,” Rotkehlchen said out loud, “You’re adorable like that.”

“Thank you. Now go to sleep.”

After waking up, another vampire taught Rotkehlchen how to switch between her vampire and her pony form, how much blood she should drink, and how to use her stare.

Meanwhile, Dagny traded the pelts from her hunting trip and restocked her supplies. She was about to leave the hideout again when she heard Rotkehlchen shouting her name from behind her. She ran towards Dagny, now looking just like a normal pony, with her mane styled to cover up her bite marks and with a saddlebag on her back. She stopped in front of her, fixating her turquoise eyes on a point between Dagny’s eyes so she wouldn’t accidentally stare her, and asked, “So, where do we go next?”

Dagny and Rotkehlchen traveled through the forests of Equestria, refining their hunting skills and only rarely returning to pony settlements or nocturnal hideouts in the following five years.

They grew closer over time, so when Rotkehlchen decided to apply the skills she had developed traveling with Dagny to working as a bounty hunter for Noctris, always wearing a red bandana and steel claws on her front hooves, they decided to still meet every few months for a hunting trip with just the two of them, even if it meant letting their current prey escape.

It was at the end of one of those dates that Rotkehlchen asked, “How does marriage work for werewolves?”

“Well,” Dagny had said, flustered, “It’s rather simple. The proposal is the same as with ponies, but the ceremony is different. We don’t need fancy rings or an official to marry each other. Instead, you go on a hunt together. Traditionally, it has to be a predator, though. A manticore, or a hydra, or a chupacabra. It’s supposed to put your relationship through a real stress test. If you can work together and take down something like that, you’ll get through everything together. Then you’ll make two necklaces out of the trophies of the predator as tokens of your union.”

Rotkehlchen gave Dagny a kiss. Then she said, “I love you, and I want to make it official.” She kneeled down before Dagny, took her right paw into her hooves, looked her into her hazelnut brown eyes and asked, “Will you marry me?”

Rotkehlchen jumped backwards to escape the chupacabra’s teeth. Then she summoned her wings, leaped forward and slashed it across the face with the steel claws she wore on her front hooves, adding another row of cuts to the growing collection all over its body.

Then Dagny jumped forward herself. She bit down on its other front leg and crushed its bone, causing it to swat her away. Dagny rolled over the ground and immediately got back up again.

The chupacabra tried to limp away, but the long fight and the blood loss finally took its toll, and it just collapsed after a few meters. Rotkehlchen and Dagny walked up to it, both of them also with their fair share of injuries. Rotkehlchen reached it first and decided to put it out of its misery.

Taking such a big creature apart took a long time, but neither of them wanted anything go to waste. But the thing they were interested in the most were its fangs. They took out two of them, cleaned them, and made necklaces out of them.

Dagny put the one she made around Rotkehlchen’s neck. “You are the love of my life, you gave me a purpose when I was aimless, and as long as you want me to be on your side, in rest or on the hunt, I will be there for you.”

Then Rotkehlchen put hers on Dagny. “I might not remember my life from before I met you, but I swear that I will never forget my love for you, and as long as you want me by your side, I will be there for you.”

Eight years later, Rotkehlchen was sitting at a bar in Manehattan, waiting for Dagny. She was sipping from a wooden mug of cider. Dagny’s late again. She looked at the clock. No, I’m just early. Last job was a pushover. At least the cider is good. Would be better with a bit of blood, though.

She took another sip when a tall pegasus with an aquamarine coat took the seat beside her. She ignored him at first, but could feel him staring at her, so she turned to him and coldly asked, “What?”

“Hey, little carrot,” he said, trying to be seductive but only succeeding making her want to groan. “Can I get you something to drink?”

Rotkehlchen lifted her mug off the counter, waving it around to make the cider splash audibly, and said, “I’m good.”

“I meant something a little bit stronger than that,” he said with a grin.

Lupa, give me the strength to not rip his throat out. Rotkehlchen rolled her eyes. “If you think that you can drink me under the table, you’re wrong, colt.”

“Now, now, little thing,” he backpedaled, “I think we just had a bad start.” He offered her his hoof. “I’m Zephyr. What’s your name?”

“Uninterested,” Rotkehlchen said, drinking a big gulp of cider.

“I really don’t know why you won’t give me a chance,” Zephyr said. “I’m really a nice stallion once you get to know me.”

“If you’re such a nice stallion,” Rotkehlchen said, setting her mug down and turning to look him in the face, “then leave me alone.”

“Come on, at least give me a chance,” he said, entitled. “I’m a great mane stylist, you know? I could do wonders with your mane.”

He reached out with his wing to brush her mane away and accidentally touched her neck.

Her bite marks, to be exact.

Rotkehlchen gave off a high pitched shriek and swung her mug around, not even noticing what she was doing, hitting him in the face and throwing him off his chair.

A small trail of blood was coming out of his nose, but Rotkehlchen would have rather died of thirst than drink his blood.

He took a few breaths before saying, “What is wrong with you!?”

Rotkehlchen allowed her stare to flash up for just a moment while she said, “Fuck! Off!” But that was enough to cause Zephyr to scramble back to his hooves and run out of the bar.

A few minutes later, Dagny arrived. She noticed that something was wrong, and after Rotkehlchen had told her about what had happened, she growled and said, “If I would have been here, he would have lost a wing.”

“I know,” Rotkehlchen said, nuzzling her cheek, “you’re my big bad wolf, after all. But let’s go somewhere more private so we can talk.”

“Good idea,” Dagny said. They started to walk out of the bar. “I met one of Coloratura’s old friends today when Lun… Lulu talked to me, but I’ll have to tell you about that bit later. Anyway, this old friend turned out to be the element of honesty, Applejack.”

“Applejack…” Why do I feel like I know that name? She tried to remember it, and thought that she had almost found the memory, but wasn’t able to pin it down. I probably just read it in a newspaper or something. “That’s a nice name.”