Nocturnals

Maud’s guest examined the small, red rock laying on the table in front if them. “The color seems right, but does it work?”

“Of course,” Maud said, “I would never sell a forged bloodstone. But if you want to test it—” Maud went to the lake in her cave, filled a mug with water, and returned to the table “—go ahead, test it.”

The guest, a green unicorn with a violet tail and mane, dropped the stone in the mug with her magic, and almost instantaneously the water changed to a red color. She took the mug and sipped. It really tasted like blood. “I’m sorry I ever doubted you, Maud. The stone works perfectly! You really have the best ones in central Equestria. Who thought that the pony I met in a cave collecting rocks would one day be a bloodstone merchant? So, how much do I owe you for it?”

“Nothing. Viola, without you, I wouldn’t even know that bloodstones exist, and I wouldn’t be a vampire either. See it as a ‘thank you’.”

“No, I have to thank you! You could have sold that stone for a lot of bits. But I won’t argue with you. I was lucky I arrived here before sunrise, my old bloodstone was stolen a while ago and I already got withdrawal symptoms. The sun would have hurt like Tartarus. But now—” she emptied the mug in one go “—that won’t be a problem anymore.”

“You should still be cautious. There are a lot of rumors about us ever since Celestia was attacked, and the news about supposed vampire attacks everywhere don’t help either. Even the citizens of Ponyville are a little bit paranoid now.”

Viola waved her hoof around. “They will get over it, they always do. Besides, the good thing is, they can only imagine us as evil, blood sucking monsters. I’ll just hide my teeth when I’m shopping in Ponyville and nopony would even imagine that I’m a vampire.”

“If you’re going to Ponyville,” Maud asked while Viola was preparing to leave, “could you do me a favor?”

“Of course! What can I do for you?”

Maud opened a drawer, took an envelope out and showed it to Viola. “Bring that to Octavia’s house. It’s the two-colored one south of the market. Should be impossible to miss.”

Noon

Maud was on her way to meet Pinkie in Ponyville when she heard somepony say, “The horror, the horror!”

Maud followed the voice and when she came closer to its source, recognized it as Rose’s one. She, Daisy and Lily layed on the ground in the middle of the street. Maud approached them and said, “What’s the problem? Did something eat your flowers again?”

“A vampire!” Rose exclaimed.

“Here in Ponyville!” Rose added.

“That way! It went that way!” Lily pointed towards town square.

Maud lost no time and started sprinting. The only vampire that could have been found was Viola, and with the already heated situation, there was no telling what the ponies would do to her. She had to find her before a tragedy happened. Maud ran as fast as she could. She reached a crossroad. She had no idea if she had to turn left or right. She thought about her options. She couldn’t afford to take the wrong way, but using her vampiric senses could easily reveal her vampirism as well, and that would help nopony either. But time was running out, and if she came too late, it wouldn’t matter if she made it at all.

Maud was close to using her supernatural abilities, when she heard hooves galloping from the left. Cherilee was running over a road a few meters away. Maud sighed in relief and started to sprint again. When she reached the road Cherilee was on, Maud jumped on the house to her right and from there to the left to get around the corner faster. The roads were empty after that, but luckily her Maud-sense was telling her where to go now. Right turn, two hundred meters forward, now left, then right again…

Finally, she found Viola, back to a wall and surrounded by a crowd of ponies. They all stayed a few meters away from the teeth-baring and hissing vampire, but all glared at her with anger and fear in their eyes.

“Leave her alone!” Maud shouted at the crowd. She pushed a few ponies away to make way to the center. She placed herself in front of Viola, who stopped hissing. “She is innocent!”

The ponies in the crowd looked at each other doubtfully. The surprised gasp went through the ranks when Octavia joined Maud. “I know that we are all worried because of the revelation that vampires exist, but we shouldn’t act carelessly. We can’t know if she committed any crimes, and we certainly shouldn’t harm her just because she is a vampire.”

With two ponies facing the crowd to defend a vampire, one of them a respected citizen of Ponyville and the other the sister of the Element of Laughter, they hesitated. They both had a point.

“But what if”—Bon Bon went to the front of the crowd—“the vampire put a spell or something on them? I saw her snooping around Octavia’s home earlier.”

Octavia said, “She was just bringing me a letter form Maud and had trouble finding the right house, that’s all.”

“And not a crime,” Maud added.

Bonbon looked around the crowd and said, “So she visited both Maud and Octavia, and both of them are defending her now. Am I the only one that finds that suspicious?”

A agreeing mumbling went through the crowd.

“She didn’t put a spell on us,” Maud insisted.

“Then why are you defending that monster?” somepony from the crowd asked.

“Because she is no monster,” said Octavia, “She’s a vampire, but that doesn’t make her any more or less of a monster than everypony else. But if you truly think every vampire is a monster that deserves to die, then you can kill us with her.”

And with that, she revealed her vampire side. Her two canines became visible, her eyes got a little bit redder. After Maud noticed what Octavia did, she followed her example.

The crowd stepped back a few steps upon this revelation. Octavia stepped forward in return, keeping the distance between them. “You all know me, I would never harm a fly, and the same goes for Maud and Viola here. It is really so hard to believe that we aren’t a threat?”

The ponies in the crowd started talking. Octavia tried to find familiar faces. There was Lyra Heartstrings, who was looking from Octavia to Bon Bon and back. Brass was standing in the back, but her expression was hard to read. Frederick was further to the right and looked concerned, while Pharish, standing in the left wing of the crowd, seemed angry. Octavia didn’t relish the thought of having to explain to her colleagues why she didn’t tell them about her identity, but a white mare making her way towards the centre and pushing ponies to the side the way she always did in clubs, drew her attention away.

Vinyl stepped out of the crowd to join Octavias side with a smile on her face. “My marefriend is a vampire, so what? She said it herself, she’s still the same Tavi we all know, right? Why shouldn’t we give her the benefit of the doubt? I mean, if she would really want to drink our blood or, I don’t know, turn us all into vampires, I would know it. She had enough chances to bite me, but she never did—” Vinyl turned to Octavia “—you didn’t, right?”

Octavia said frustrated, “No, I never bit you, nor would I ever even think about doing so. ”

Vinyl grinned. “You would never bite me? But I clearly remember that one night when…”

“Vinyl! If you say what I think you intend to say”— she put a hoof to her forehead—“I won’t make music with you for three months.”

“What kind of music?” Vinyl asked.

“Both.” Octavia glared at Vinyl.

“Ok, you won. I’m just gonna stand beside you. If you trust her, that’s good for me.” She placed herself between Octavia and Maud, shielding Viola from view.

Octavia leaned over to Vinyl and whispered, “Thank you.”

“You would have done the same for me,” Vinyl answered, “So, what's your plan?”

“Hoping that they trust us enough to not lynch us…”

“Honestly, you’ve had better plans.” Vinyl took a step towards the crowd and announced, “If anypony wants to harm them, they have to go through me first!”

“And through me!” Parish walked over to the others to face the crowd. He briefly turned around to Octavia and said, “You will have to explain this to us later!”

Octavia wondered who he meant with ‘us’, but then Frederick Horseshoepin and Beauty Brass joined them as well. Her whole ensemble came to her aid.

With Octavia’s ensemble as backup, Vinyl said boldly, “So, are you gonna let us go, or do I need to demonstrate to you what happens to guests who don’t know when to leave the club?”

“That won’t be necessary,” a familiar voice said from behind the crowd. They all turned around to see Princess Twilight, followed by two royal and two lunar guards. “Everypony can go now, we will take care of that.” The crowd started to break apart as more and more ponies left.

When only the small group around Viola and Twilight with the guards were left, Maud said, “Hello, Twilight. It’s a relief to see you.”

“It’s good to see you too, Maud,” Twilight replied, “I’m just happy that you were able to handle the situation. Now, why don’t we go to the castle so you can tell us what happened here. I bet it’s a really interesting story.”

“As prisoners?” Viola asked. She stepped closer to Twilight, and the royal guards blocked her way with their spears.

“No!” Twilight said. She pushed the spears away with her wings, signifying her guards to step away. “As friends! I promise that I just want to talk. It’s an invitation, nothing more. If you prefer, I can escort you out of Ponyville instead.”

“Well, if that's so,” Viola said with a friendly smile, “I happily accept your invitation, Princess Sparkle.”

Castle of Friendship, Library

Maud, Octavia and Viola explained to Twilight what happened.

“...so yeah, I guess carrying around a bottle full of blood wasn’t the best idea,” Viola said to nopony specific.

“No, it certainly was not,” Octavia said.

Maud added, “I told you to be cautious.”

“You mean, water that you turned into blood with that magical stone, right?” Twilight had a lot to process.

“Of course,” Viola said, “I would never…”

The door swung open and Pinkie stormed in. “Maud! Is it true that you are a vampire? Why did you never tell me?”

“Yes, it’s true. And it’s not like you ever asked.”

“But you should have told me? Or is there a rule against it? Did you want to protect me? Or did you…”

Pinkie continued asking questions faster than anypony could answer or understand.

Viola looked to Twilight and Octavia, “Should... Should we help her, or…”

Twilight sighed, “No, not necessary, she’s Maud’s sister and always like that.”

“And here I thought Maud was exaggerating when she told me about her…How long will she do that?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Twilight said.

“Pinkie...” Maud tried to get her sister to stop, but Pinkie continued rambling questions.

“Pinkie.”

“Pinkie! One question at a time.” Maud looked Pinkie directly in the eyes, which took a lot of effort with her bouncing around.

“Okie doki loki! So, what to ask first… Oh, I know! How long have you been keeping that secret?”

“Ten years.”

“And how did you become a vampire?”

“I asked Viola to bite me.”

“Why would you do that?”

“The strength and the ability to see in darkness is helpful for finding and identifying stones.”

Twilight turned to Maud and said, “Wait, that’s it? You let her turn you into a vampire because of that?”

Maud looked at Twilight. “If turning yourself into a vampire would have helped you study the magic of friendship, would you have hesitated?”

She had to think about that for a moment. “No, I suppose not… I see your point.” Twilight turned to Octavia and Viola. “But didn’t you both say vampires only bite in self-defence?”

Viola said, “Well, either in self-defence or if somepony really wants to be like us. And I can understand why ponies would want that. Magic, strength, a long life, almost no ageing… and as long as you have access to a bloodstone, there’s no real catch.”

“And what if you don’t have one of those stones?” Twilight asked.

“That would mean no blood unless we attack ponies,” Viola explained, “we can survive a few weeks without blood, but, apart from the problem that not drinking blood makes us thirsty, just like if you would get hungry if you wouldn't eat, the longer we don’t drink, the more the sun hurts us. So even though we could survive weeks, it would just takes days until we can’t go into the sun without getting burned. After a week or so, it would be so bad that we receive third degree burns from the tiniest ray of sunlight.”

“Good thing you have them then!” Pinkie thought a moment about her next question. “How did you meet her?

“I was in a cave looking for rocks,” Maud said, “when she showed up, running away from a cave spider.”

Everypony’s eyes turned to Viola.

“Giant cave spider. They are a real hazard when traveling underground,” Viola snickered, “Must have been a funny image. Me, running like Tartarus, that eight-eyed monster-spider behind me. And she saved my live!”

“I just caused a cave in.”

“With Bolder! You just had to throw a little stone to do it! Name one other pony in Equestria that would have known where exactly to throw your little friend to block the tunnel.”

Maud hesitated before she said, “I can’t.”

“Thought so. Anyway, after that we grouped up to explore the caves some more, we stumbled upon a bloodstone, I explained what it does and what I am, and she asked if I could turn her into a vampire.”