Erstwhile in Equestria, where ponies ruled the land and doors were meant to be pushed in or out through the use of hooves, a four-legged Rarity went out to check her mailbox.

The mailbox acquired a blue glow as Rarity opened with the magic in her horn, levitating out the papers and shuffling through them with hasty contempt, as much of it was junk mail.

“Bill, bill, bill, junk, spam, junk, junk, spam,” Rarity muttered, until she reached the last paper in the pile. Her eyes lit up at the eye-catching black envelope with a rose crest seal.

“Hello,” Rarity brought the envelope towards her snout for close inspection, tossing the other mail onto the ground in a messy pile uncharacteristic of her. “What’s this?”

She unfurled the top of the envelope and pulled out a letter written in white ink on black vellum.

Dearest Rarity,

I’ve heard of your considerable acumen with clothing from a close associate of mine. I am in need of a new dress for an upcoming formal occasion I mean to host at my castle. I would be delighted to have you join me in my castle for some time in order for you to work on a dress for me. Unfortunately, I must ask you to come to me, as I have medical conditions that prevent me from traveling for long lengths of time, such as that required for me to reach Ponyville.

My own servants are on vacation, so you may wish to bring a friend with you to carry your bags. In fact, I highly encourage it.

I await your prompt reply.

Faithfully yours,

Baroness Crimson Veil,

The name was written in loopy cursive Rarity couldn’t make out, pretty though it was. She squinted at it for several minutes, even turned the paper upside down, but eventually she was able to decipher it.

Below it was another line.

PS: It’s rude to keep someone waiting!

Rarity squealed, rearing up into the air and kicking out her hooves. “Oh, goodness, I’m so excited! Working on a dress for a foreign baroness! This could be a wonderful opportunity to expand my brand! Make her dress, mingle with her guests, maybe drop a line or two about how I’d be happy to make one just like it … oh, it’s perfect! Oh, but who am I going to get to come with me?” She tapped her chin with her hoof. “Rainbow Dash is off at the Academy for training exercises, Fluttershy’s too skittish to go on a long trip, and she’d probably miss her animals before too long, Pinkie Pie is … no, just, no. Twilight might be able to help with her magic, but I think she’s working on something for Celestia …. that leaves ...”

Rarity sighed heavily to herself.

“Applejack.”

She blinked and glared into the direction of Sweet Apple Acres, already tired just thinking about it.

Applejack’s earth pony strength would be a boon for carrying Rarity’s luggage – which Rarity would have a lot of – but she wouldn’t be much use in socializing. In fact, she’d probably be a liability, questioning why the baroness didn’t just come to Ponyville, or ask one of her friends to send and run the errand for her, or why she even needed a new dress in the first place if it was just going to be for one single party.

The nuances of the fashion world were utterly lost on her.

Still, Rarity supposed, if she wanted to reach the castle grounds in a timely fashion, she would need someone who could help with the heavy lifting, and the letter did encourage her to take a plus one.

She sighed again and steeled herself. “Now, now, Rarity. You are an adult. Applejack is an adult. There’s no reason you can’t settle this between you two responsibility, and maturely, even if it’s going to take so much convincing to get that stubborn mule head of hers to help her on your ‘frou frou’ errand and she’s going to question you and this lovely Baroness Crimson the whole time you’re there. I can already hear it now ...” her eye twitched as she envisioned all the uncouth words Applejack would have for both her and the Baroness.

Rarity hung her head and began the long, slow walk to Sweet Apple Acres for her reckoning.

“Sure,” Applejack said when Rarity finished recounting her tale.

“Now, Applejack, darling, I know this may not be the first on the list of things you want to do, but as your friend, shouldn’t you be willing to lend me a helping hoof – wait, what did you say?” Rarity blinked, twitching her ears as her brain finally processed Applejack’s response over her own yammering and yakking away.

“Sure,” Applejack said.

“… that’s it? ‘Sure’? No arguing? No fighting? No criticizing how me and Baroness Crimson are conducting our business?”

“Rarity, we’ve known each for years now,” Applejack said. “If I thought there was a thing I could say to make your change your mind about this, don’t you think I’d have said it by now?”

“Well, perhaps.”

“Have I ever been one to try and spare your poofy frou-frou feelings?”

“Well, no, not really, but -”

“And let’s be honest here,” Applejack raised her hoof. “Even did I have a surefire argument as to why y’all shouldn’t go to this here castle, you wouldn’t listen to me anyways, would ya? You’d go on right ahead, with or without me, and then I’d need to rush over there to come and baul you out of whatever trouble you got yourself in because I wasn’t there to stop you or pull your wagon out of a mud slick. At least this way, it saves us time before I have to haul your keister out from under a falling tree. That you probably cut down yourself without looking where you cutting because you were trying to get some spider silk from the top.”

Rarity blubbered and babbled incoherently, embarrassment surging through her cheeks.

“Am I wrong?” Applejack asked with a point-of-fact tone.

“No, but-”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Applejack adjusted the Stetson on her head. “Let’s get a move on. Come on, cowpoke.” She poked Rarity lightly on the haunch as she walked past her.

“Daylight’s wasting. We’ve got a long trip ahead of us, don’t we?”

Rarity sighed, unable to believe she’d been outwitted, and followed Applejack out the door.

They made it most of the way to the Baroness’s castle without incident, despite the old forest they had to travel through. Crimson was kind enough to include a map in the letter, and according to the map, they should find her house on a hill not too long after they exited the woods.

Applejack carted the wagon, hitched up to her haunches, while Rarity led them, using the light cast by her horn to read the map in the shade of the forest, where the trees blocked out light.

Applejack looked around their surroundings and did not like what she saw. “Pardon me for saying so, Rarity, but something don’t feel right about this.”

“Oh?” Rarity asked. Without ever looking away from the map, she lifted her hoof up high to avoid tripping on a mess of rocks and fallen branches. This was far from the adversarial, accusing, criticizing tone she expected from Applejack. She sounded concerned, an odd thing for a pony as experienced with woods as an Apple family member.

“The trees,” Applejack said. “Something ain’t about the trees. They’re all gray bark with black leaves. Black leaves! Who ever heard of a tree with black leaves?”

“Maybe they’re magical trees,” Rarity said.

“Really? Magical? That’s the explanation you’re gonna go with?” Applejack asked, glaring at Rarity from behind.

“I don’t know why you’re complaining. You have magical events on your farm all the time. Is it really so unbelievable another pony might have the same thing with the woods that grow near their farm?”

“Yeah, but that’s different!”

“How?” Rarity whined, her patience fed up. “How is it any different, any different at all, from your Zap Apples, they can only be harvested at a specific time of year under unforgivingly exact conditions, or the vampire fruit bats that you have to ward off your farm every autumn? How is any different from any of those things?”

“I, uh, well ...” Applejack stammered. Rarity smirked to herself, knowing she’d won this argument. She knew from experience Applejack was going to drag it out for a few more sentences, but eventually she’d peter out and let the subject drop. Rarity already splashed water on most of the fire; all that was left for the kindlings to snuff out.

“It just is, and this place gives me the creeps, that’s all!” Applejack insisted. The fury in her words and compellingness of her argument were sharply undercut when she stepped right into the same mess of twig and rock Rarity deftly evaded a moment ago. Applejack lost her balance, but she planted her hoof into the ground and remained steady enough to keep the wagon from falling over.

“Hmm,” Rarity smiled, her victory firmly established by Applejack’s mishap. That a farm pony should have trouble in the woods while a ‘frou-frou’ type like Rarity maneuver it unscathed was more than enough to wipe out any lingering trace of argument left in Applejack’s lungs.

Howling traveled across the wind from overhead.

“Timberwolves?” Applejack asked.

“Maybe,” Rarity said. “At any rate, perhaps I should concede your argument up to a point. Why don’t we hurry out of here?”

“Fine by me.”

Rarity and Applejack picked up the pace, trotting briskly until they were free of the woods and clear of any timberwolves. They emerged from the forest out onto a bright shiny pasture that the sunlight embraced with arms opened wider than it did in Ponyville.

“There, just up ahead.” Rarity pointed to the castle, folding up the map and putting it away in her saddlebag.

The castle was a light stony gray, with black walls surrounding it, presumably meant for defence back during a time when warfare was a total constant reality of day to day life with no breaks or stops in between days. The gate was made of iron bars and tipped with spikes, and along the walls ran statues or mangled, grotesque creatures that seemed to be combinations of a lion, a wolf, and a bat.

“Here are we!” Rarity announced, chipper as a chipmunk once they had reached the gate. She saw the statues and recoiled, raising her hoof to block her vision. “What are those?”

“Gargoyles,” Applejack said. “My mom and Granny Smith used to tell me stories about them. They say you can use them to ward off evil with their frightful gazes … or good, if you know how to tinker with them just right.”

“I prefer to think of myself as a neutral character, thank you very much, so they should have no effect on moi,” Rarity bounced one of her curls and whipped her mane around to demonstrate her confidence.

“Yeah, neutral, until somebody insults one of your dresses. Then you’re evil all the way.”

Rarity glared while Applejack chuckled.

“Disregarding that. We should make our presence known and introduce ourselves to our host. If not simply for the sake of good manners, then to get out of this dreadful sun.” She kept her hoof to her face, squinting in the direction of the sun, though careful not to look directly at it.

“Hello?” Rarity called. “It’s me, Rarity! I’m here to take your measurements, like you mentioned in your letter?”

There was no reply.

“Anybody home?” Rarity called again.

“Rarity, maybe we should turn around and go back. I don’t like the look of the place. The feel of the place. There’s something wrong here, I can feel it in the soil. I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s something. Besides… maybe we have the wrong address?”

The uneasy smile Applejack had on her face as she said this was no match for the skeptical glare Rarity had on her’s.

“No, no, I’m certain this is the place, I’m quite sure of it.” Rarity got out the map and the letter and compared to the two, and everything was by all appearances in order. “Besides, do you mean to tell me you have magical earth pony detection powers that can sense when the earth itself is … tainted?”

“Something like that, yeah.” Applejack stomped her hoof into the ground. “Like I said, don’t know what it is … but I know there’s something with this here place. Maybe it’s too wet. Or too dry.” She squatted, and pressed her nose to the ground, taking a sniff of the soil. She recoiled at once. “Ugh. Smells awful too.”

“Regardless,” Rarity said, “feel free to turn around if you want. If you do, make sure to leave my bags. But I have no intention of leaving until I’ve established with relationships with my client, or have confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are not here.”

Rarity inspected the gate while for some reason her choice of words – shadow, doubt – made Applejack go jelly-kneed, her legs wobbling, struggling to carry her weight now when they had no issue holding her and the combined weight of Rarity’s heavy traveling wagon before.

“Yeah,” Applejack said. She gulped and reasserted control over herself, standing tall. “Well, somebody’s got to make sure y’all don’t get yourself hurt. Because I know, I just know, as soon as I so much as think about turning around, you’re gonna go and get yourself eaten by one of them there gargoyles.”

“Highly unlikely,” Rarity said. “As if I would allow myself to be eaten by a creature so grotesque. No, no, if I’m going to be eaten, it’s going to be a beautiful cannibalistic merpony, or a voluptuous snake creature. Perhaps even an eight-legged spider pony.”

“Rarity, that is not as reassuring as you might have thought it was.”

Rarity poked the gate. At her lightest touch, it gave way and swung open with a loud metallic creak. She looked at Applejack, nonplussed, then turned and headed inside the courtyard before Applejack could raise up another one of her surprisingly scaredy-cat suggestions to turn back.

“Shouldn’t we at least for someone to acknowledge us?” Applejack asked, reluctantly following Rarity up the trail. “At least wait for them to shout that they know we’re here?”

“Pish-posh, Applejack,” Rarity said. “The best way to verify as to whether or not the lady of the house is in is to knock directly on the door and leave no trace of doubt.”

Rarity arrived at the described door and knocked on it. Applejack was struck by the huge awning hung over the door, casting the porch and the area around in total shadow, even on a sunny day like this one.

“Hello?” Rarity called. “Darlings, it’s Rarity! I’m here to take your measurements for your dress?”

“Maybe we should head back,” Applejack suggested when there was no answer.

“Maybe,” Rarity replied, agreeable to the idea for the first time. Perhaps she was out and they’d have to try again another day. But right as soon as she moved to step away from the door, a voice called.

“Coming, coming!” a dainty, feminine voice said. The door creaked open, and a lovely mare stood in the entrance to greet them. She had pale gray skin, red eyes, and wore a simple, but refined black dress with lace around the chest. On her neck hung a brooch with a red gem.

“Darlings!” the lady said to them, raising her hooves as if for a hug. “I’m so glad you could make it. I was beginning to worry you wouldn’t! Was the map I drew for you okay? Did you have any problems getting here?”

“No, no problems getting here,” Rarity said. “Although we did hear howling in the woods.”

“We think it might be timberwolves,” Applejack said. “Y’all will wanna watch out for them if you have to go into the forest.”

“The wolves? Oh, pish-posh, they won’t harm anybody. They wouldn’t hurt a fly, much less me. Not if they know what’s good for them.” She winked.

At first, Applejack was struck by the similarities she had to Rarity. Her word choice. Her demeanor. The way she did her hair. But before she could comment on it, she could feel an ache of protest coming from her overworked haunched. She moved to step inside the house so she could be relieved of her burden.

“Um, excuse me,” Crimson said, “what do you think you’re doing?”

“I thought I was going inside the house so I could take my legs out of this wagon! It’s heavy and starting to hurt.”

Crimson shook her head. “No, no.” She looked to Rarity. “Honestly, didn’t anyone ever teach her her manners?”

“I have it on good authority that her parents did, but left a few, mm, little gaps, which I have done my best to mend. Unfortunately, she never listens to me.” Rarity pursed her lips.

“Will somepony please explain to me what is going on here?” Applejack asked.

“Applejack, I’m surprised at you,” Rarity said. “You think a farm pony would a little more about good old hospitality. You don’t just barge into a pony’s home without asking, even if you are there by invitation!” She bowed to the Baroness. “Baroness, may we please have the delight of entering your abode?”

“You may,” Crimson looked very pleased by Rarity’s performance as she stepped aside to grant them entry. Rarity entered first.

Crimson glanced over at Applejack. “You could do well to learn a little more from your friend’s example.” She turned and went back into the house.

Applejack snorted. “You could do with a hoof right up your pretentious-”

“Language!” Crimson called out, sticking her hoof out the door. “In my house, we do not mutter vulgar asides. If you have a problem with someone, you express it politely. To their face. To do anything else would be – well, it would just be rude!”

Applejack rolled her eyes and sighed, but she held back her tongue so she could have the benefit of going inside and getting the wagon’s weight removed from her aching haunches.

Once she got inside, she unstrapped the wagon and exhaled in relief. “Oh, I feel so much better now that I’m not carting all of Rarity’s dead weight on my back.”

“Dead?” Rarity let her appal show by bracing her leg across her chest. “Darling, all of those boxes contain precious materials that I need for my work! Why, you couldn’t even begin to comprehend the monetary value of some of those things!”

Applejack glared. She looked at the wagon, picked out a box, and opened it, showing shampoos and soaps inside. “These are things ya need for your work?”

“I have delicate skin that must be tended to carefully,” Rarity bounced a hair curl as if to demonstrate the needs of maintaining her beauty. “If I’m going to be staying here for a few days, I’m going to need to do my moisturizing regime.”

“You don’t need to worry about that,” Crimson said. “I have plenty of soaps and oils for you to use at your leisure during your stay. And for you too, Applejack, should you want to use them.’

“I’ll pass,” Applejack said. “If it gets the dirt off from working the soil around the farm, it’s soap enough for me.”

Crimson chuckled. “Ah, I do admire your practicality. Though I do also hope you will indulge yourself in a hot bath while you are here. I’ll have my servant Hoofgor take your things to your rooms.”

“I thought you said all your servants were on vacation?” Rarity asked, brow raised.

“Did I?” Crimson cupped her chin. “Oh, that’s right. Silly me, I seem to have forgotten. I swear, some days, I think I’d lose my head if it weren’t attached! I’ll leave you two to get acquainted with my abode. Feel free to roam about the house. You’re free to go wherever you like, with one condition; don’t go into any locked doors.” She glared at them and said this with deadly seriousness Rarity thought Crimson was going to light their heads on fire with her gaze alone.

It’s certainly an effective method of making sure guests behave! Rarity thought.

“But other than that little quibble, you’re free to go.” Crimson turned around and left the room.

“Much obliged, Baroness!” Rarity turned to explore, then her eyes popped when she remembered a small detail. “Oh, but wait! I haven’t taken your measurements yet! I can’t get started on your dress until I know your measurements!”

“Oh, yes, that,” Crimson mumbled.

“You know,” Applejack said, “the entire reason we’re here?” She affixed a suspicious glare onto the Baroness Crimson, but Crimson retaliated with a glare of her own, leading to a staring contest which Applejack lost. She didn’t want to stare into those red eyes for too long. Something about them seemed off, and Applejack didn’t like how looking straight into them made her feel. It made her woozy.

“As it stands, I’ve had a very long day setting up for the party, and I would much like to retire to my study for the door. You may take my measurements and we’ll get started on the peculiars of my dress tomorrow.”

“As you wish,” Rarity said, bowing. She turned away from Baroness Crimson, but turned back again a second time, a question on her lips. “Oh, but one last thing-”

But Crimson was gone. Disappeared as if she’d never been in the room to begin with. They didn’t hear so much as a door creak, or the scuffle of hooves.

“Drat, I was going to ask her directions to the ladies’ room,” Rarity said. She looked to Applejack.

“Since we’re alone, Applejack,” Rarity said, “why don’t you tell me your opinion on our hostess, Applejack?”

“She’s a little creepy, and she’s definitely keeping something from us, but I don’t think we’re in any real danger from her … yet,” Applejack heaved her emphasis on the last word.

“Maybe she’s just a very private pony,” Rarity said. “I mean, you don’t make your castle somewhere this far our in the middle of seemingly nowhere if you’re a social butterfly,”

“Yeah, I guess not.” Applejack’s eyes feel on the rafter. “Rarity?”

“Yes, darling?”

“Didn’t she say in her letter she was setting up for a party?”

“I believe so, yes. Why?”

Applejack pointed at the corners between the walls and the ceiling. “If she is setting up for a big party with her hoity-toity friends, shouldn’t there be some more decorations around?”

Rarity glanced at the corners as if considering Applejack’s question, then shook her head to dimis it. “Not every party is a Pinkie party, darling. They don’t all have to have streamers and balloons and banners strewn about the place. Sometimes friends just want to have an intimate get-together. Yes, it’s not a party, it’s an intimate get-together. Besides, look at the size of this place! Would you want to have to be the one to clean up all the decorations after the party was over?”

“I guess not. I still say there’s something up somewhere. Maybe it ain’t the Baroness, maybe it ain’t the timberwolves, but there’s definitely something.”

“Applejack, you think there’s ‘something up’ with ponies who don’t like apples.”

“There is something up with ponies who don’t like apples! Who doesn’t like apples? Apples are delicious!”

“And if I were to tell you that I don’t like apples, and that every time I consumed apples or something apple related, it was to make you happy, would you suspect me of being some sort of horrible demon in disguise?” Rarity tilted her head with a bored, tired look.

“Well … ye-… maybe!”

“Or perhaps if they have an allergy to apples?” Rarity asked.

“Blasphemy!” Applejack said, waving her hoof as if to ward off evil spirits. “Apples are pure and good and innocent! Nopony should have an allergy to them.”

Rarity massaged her temples with her hooves. “Never mind. I’m going to go find my bedroom and rest. I want to sleep off this headache that I have all of a sudden.”

“Headache? Really? Rarity, is something wrong?” Applejack moved to Rarity with her concern.

“I’m fine. I just seem to have overtaxed my brain arguing with somepony. Something about the undeniable purity of apples even in the face of reasonable objections.” Rarity shot Applejack a glare, and Applejack rolled her eyes.

Rarity walked off to find her room, muttering and wondering to herself.

Silly Applejack, Rarity thought. I wonder if I could give her a bruised, rotten apple filled with worms, and she’d tell me it was still better than a fresh strawberry.

Rarity found her room without much difficulty, despite the size of the castle. It was adequately setup, with a made bed, a mint on the pillow, a wardrobe, a closet to hang her clothes and a trunk to stash her work materials and personal effects.

Rarity giggled with delight. “Oh ho! It’s nice to see somepony appreciates the value of a proper setup for a room, unlike some ponies...” she glared off to the side, imagining Applejack was there next to her.

There is one thing I do find odd, though, Rarity thought. She went up to the wardrobe and ran her hooves over it. It was actually a vanity, but it didn’t have a mirror attached.

Rarity was about to shrug it off and dismiss it as simply being a foreign model of vanity she wasn’t familiar with, perhaps one from Germaney or Saddle Arabia, where for some reason they didn’t include mirrors in their vanities, but then she noticed two shaved-down posts with a sprinkling of sawdust around their base. A less meticulous pony with less eye for detail would have missed it – Applejack would have missed it, but she found it. It almost seemed as if the mirror was, for whatever reason, deliberately sawed off.

“That’s silly!” Rarity said. “You’re being silly, Rarity. You’re starting to sound like Applejack. It’s Applejack’s job to be the paranoid and suspicious one. You’re supposed to be the articulate and beautiful one who the monster falls love in with and tries to abduct after being charmed by your way with words, and then Applejack busts in to rescue you while saying I told you so, swinging in on a rope, and then you throw yourself in the way and tell Applejack it’s all just a big mistake and explain the monster is just lonely, that’s all.”

Rarity paused.

“I have let my imagination get away from me. I really should get some sleep.”

Does that make Applejack a monster hunter like Van Hoofsing? Rarity idly wondered as she tucked herself in the covers.

Rarity got comfortable and drifted off to sleep. She dreamed of Applejack in a suave leather outfit with a red scarf and a red cape, swinging through the window on a chandelier chair to save Rarity from – from something. The exact nature and details of the monster didn’t matter. They were irrelevant to the story, the story of Applejack rescuing her and the two of them falling in love after they escaped from the clutches of the monster and the confines of the haunted mansion.

Goodness, Rarity thought in her dream as she and Applejack rode on a wagon back to Ponyville, I’m almost starting to think I have a little crush on her!

As her dream self giggled, much to Dream Applejack’s confusion, a huge shadow fell over the both of them. A horrible shriek came from overhead.

They looked up and gasped. A gigantic bat was flying straight at them, heading right for their wagon. It must have followed them from the mansion.

Applejack climbed up to the top of the wagon. She reached into her saddlebag and produced a whip. She held the handle of the whip with her teeth and cracked it through the air to warn the bat to back off before messing with her.

The monstrous bat was not deterred. It opened its jaws, showing its huge fangs half as large as a pony’s whole body, and the excess of saliva dripping from it.

Applejack glared at the bat. She cracked her whip at the bat, but missed, her whip swaying uselessly in the air in front of the bat’s chest.

“What?” Applejack said. Rarity gasped.

Applejack spat the whip out. “How did that happen? I never miss!”

It was true. In Rarity’s dream, Applejack, the famed adventure and monster hunter, never missed a shot with her whip once she had her target.

“Darn thing must be broken.” Applejack spread the whip out onto the roof of the wagon to inspect it.

“Applejack, look out!” Rarity shouted.

“Huh?” Applejack looked at Rarity, instead of where she needed to look – at the bat. The bat caught her unawares, easily snatching her in its talon and lifting her up into the air.

“Back, you vile beast! Back, I say!” Applejack said, pointing her hoof at the bat. “Don’t you know you’re dealing with Applejack Van Hoofsing, famed monster hunter extraordin-”

But the bat neither knew nor cared who it was dealing with. It quickly set about its deadly task, using its talons to rip Applejack apart like shredded chicken for dinner, bringing her towards its jaw so it could bite off a chunk of her flesh.

Rarity had to look away, cowering in the wagon seat, covering her face with her hooves. She couldn’t handle it. She ought to have been screaming her head off, the high-pitched wail typical of damsel women in horror movies, but her throat wouldn’t make the sound. She couldn’t bring herself to speak, much less scream. She couldn’t block out the sound of Applejack’s guts being rent and torn from her bones, or the gushing of her blood as it spilled out.

Rarity heard an awful shriek. She looked behind her, and Applejack – what was left of her – was gone. The bat was still pursuing her with bloodied jaws and claws, not content with just the one meal.

Rarity whipped the reins of her carriage to make it go faster. The stallions pulling the carriage sped up and ran fast as they could.

The bat grabbed the carriage in its talons, lifting it up. The reins stretched and snapped. The carriage pullers, frightened, took off galloping.

“Get back here, you cowards!” Rarity shouted. “Save me! Somepony save me!”

The bat reared its legs back and hurled the carriage. It smashed against the ground, shattering into a million pieces of splinters.

Rarity panted and huffed. She tried to crawl away, but the shadow of the bat fell over her.

“No, no,” Rarity turned around and raised her hoof. She saw the bat’s face staring down at her with its horrible red eyes. “I’m too pretty to go out like this!”

There was a shout, and another figure, a pony, flew in from nowhere and jumped kick the giant bat in the face, knocking out its teeth. It was pushed off to the side away.

Rarity closed her eyes, waiting for the end to come, her teeth chattering as she shook in fear.

“Hey,” Baroness Crimson’s voice said. “Hey, Rarity.”

“Huh?”

“Shh. Shh.” Crimson took Rarity’s off and rubbed it up and down. “It’s all right. I saved you from the big bat monster.“

“Oh, thank you, thank you!” Rarity took Crimson’s hoof and kissed it. “I don’t know how I can
ever thank you enough for this!”

“Don’t you worry about it,” Crimson said. “After all, I know.,” she said with a smirk.

“Applejack,” Rarity remembered. “What about Applejack?” Is she-”

“Gone, I’m afraid,” Crimson said. “But that’s no reason to worry. We can always bring her back. We can always bring any of them back.” Her red eyes glowed a sharp pink color. “But there is a slight cost. I’m going to need you to do something for me.”

“Anything!” Rarity said. She fell to her knees, putting her hooves together. “Anything to get my friend back.”

“I was hoping you might say that,” Crimson said. “Get down on the ground for me.”

“O … kay?” Rarity complied, not sure how this was supposed to help.

“Pull down on your collar,” Crimson said, walking over to the side of her.

Rarity followed as instructed.

“Now, let me in.”

“Let you in? You just saved my life, of course you can come in. Wait, what do you mean by-”

Crimson bit down hard on Rarity’s neck. Rarity felt an orgasmic pleasure surge through her. She moaned, kicking her legs up and down as Crimson gave her a hickey. One that probably wouldn’t go away for some time.

Rarity kicked and shook, her breath getting deep, heavy, strained. She felt like she was losing weight. That was some sort of inferior, boneless, gelatinous creature, and that this was a longstanding problem that Crimson was about to fix for her. Oh, it felt so good. She was so heavy, but now Crimson was taking the weight away, Crimson was making her lighter than air, light enough to walk on sunshine, light enough to carry herself on the wind. And the pleasure.

The pleasure was so strange yet so desirable, an odd mix of physical stimulus and mental pleasure. It was like her mind was about to explode in on herself, and then she and Crimson could be together and she wouldn’t have to worry about her pesky thoughts and -

And then Rarity woke up.

Rarity jumped upright in her head, breath heavy, her heart pounding like a jackhammer in her chest. She crossed her hooves over her chest as she tried to calm down.

“Just a dream,” Rarity fiddled with her hooves. “That’s all it was, Rarity. Just a very bad dream. Yes … a bad dream.”

Yet no matter how many times she repeated it to herself, Rarity couldn’t quite convince herself of it. It seemed obviously a dream at first, but towards the end, it felt far too vivid.

Far too real for her comfort.

Rarity wanted to know the time, ideally to learn it was morning and she could go justify not going back to sleep at all for several hours, but there were no clocks in the room, or any windows for her to be able to tell the position of the sun. Or the moon, as it may be.

“Perhaps I’ll go for a walk regardless,” Rarity tossed her sheet covers off and headed out of the bedroom. The click the lock made seemed to be one of the loudest sounds she had ever heard. “Maybe Crimson will be up at this hour and we can talk about her dress. Anything to get my mind off that ...” she shuddered just thinking about it. “That horrid nightmare.”

She stepped out into the halls. It was dark, but she couldn’t tell if it was because it was night out or there were no lights on.

“Hello?” Rarity called, her voice echoing through the hall. “Is anypony up? I understand if you’re still asleep, but I could really use somepony to talk to! I just had the most awful dream and can’t sleep … I don’t want to go back to bed. Hello?”

"Hello?" Rarity called again. The eerie silence that answered her did nothing to comfort her riled-up nerves.

"Rarity?"

Rarity yelped and flailed, raising her hooves in front of her to protect herself from whatever threat it might been. However, it was only Baroness Crimson, holding up a three-pronged candle for light.

"What are you doing up at this time of night?" Baroness Crimson asked with concern.

"Oh, nothing, nothing, it's just ... I had a tiny wee bit of a bad dream, and I can't bring myself to go back to bed."

"That must have been some bad dream!"

"Yes, quite." Rarity blinked. "What are you doing up at this time of night?"

"It's my own house. Can't a lady walk around her home without being interrogated?"

"I suppose so," Rarity. "Pardon my rudeness. It's just that ..."

"Just that what?"

Rarity looked away.

"Tell me, Rarity, just that what?" Crimson asked, moving towards Rarity, the lights of the candles flickering around her face.

"It's just that my friend Applejack thinks you're keeping something from us," Rarity said, admitting to it. "That you have some sort of secret you don't want us to find out about."

"What if I was?" Crimson asked, eyes narrow. "What if I did have a secret I didn't want you two finding out about? Don't you two have any secrets you keep from each other?"

"No!"

Crimson looked like she did not believe this for one second.

"Well, perhaps there's a few things we don't know about each other, but we've been very good friends for some time, and if there's something we didn't want to tell the other about ourselves, I'm sure they would understand we weren't comfortable with it."

"Right, exactly," Crimson said. "So would you begrudge a little old lady like me her secrets?"

"No, no, no, of course not!" Rarity insisted. "I imagine a fine lady who lives to your ripe old must have acquired plenty of secrets over the years. It's just ..."

"'Just'?"

"Just that we think one of those secrets might that you're, I don't know, a vampire or something!"

"A vampire?" Crimson said, amused. "Me? You think so?"

"You must admit, the pale skin, black clothing, red eyes, old mansion far away from most major towns, and bat wings don't help with that conclusion."

Baroness Crimson chuckled. "If if I was a vampire, wouldn't I avoid sunlight? Not just sunlight, but fire as well?" She gestured with her candles, the flames performing a swaying dance as she did.

"I suppose so," Rarity said.

"Tell you what," Crimson placed a hoof on Rarity's shoulder, "why don't you walk with me for awhile? At least until we find something to make you forget about your nightmare?"

"Yes!" Rarity nodded eagerly. "Why don't we do exactly like that? Lead the way, Baroness." She bowed.

Crimson chuckled. "There's no need to be so formal."

"No? But weren't you taking Applejack to task for her lack of manners earlier?"

"That was during the day, when I have to be much more careful about the rules of etiquette I'm seen to follow, lest some of my ... less altruistic friends see my lapse and start ... gossiping. You're a savvy pony, aren't you, Rarity? Do you understand where I'm coming from?"

"Yes, I believe I do," Rarity said. "Keeping up appearances is a must for distinguished ladies like ourselves, after all."

"Right, exactly. Besides, even though you've only been here a day, I already feel very ... familiar with you, so I hope you don't begrudge me granting you the privilege of being slightly less formal around me."

"Begrudge you?" Rarity laughed, waving her hoof around. "Why in Equestria would someone in their right mind would begrudge you for giving them permission to be less formal?"

Outwardly, Rarity was laughing, but inward, she was still shaking and shivering from the nightmare. She recalled how Crimson appeared to rescue her, but not until after the monster
finished dismembering Applejack.

Rarity hoped that wasn't a sign of things to come, a portent. She hoped it was just a bad dream brought about by sleeping in an unfamiliar place after a long time spent on the road. She'd hate for something to happen to Applejack and hurt her.

Worse yet, she'd hate for Applejack to be right. The stream of "I told you so" that would flow from Applejack's mouth would never dry out.

Still, something about the way Crimson said the word 'familiar' put a chill down her spine.

"So, how long have you been living here in this mansion?" Rarity asked as she followed Baroness Crimson through the hallway, the candlelight that fell on the walls their only source of light.

"For some time," Crimson said. "My family has lived in this castle for generations. I am the latest heir, and the longest-lived. I've tended to this castle and ensure its continued smooth operation during my time here. With the help of my servants, of course."

"Fascinating," Rarity said. "You said longest-lived? You don't seem all that old. Did something happen to your other family members? Are you prone to a particular disease?"

"Something like that, yes," Crimson muttered. "Myself in particular, I've been living with my disease for a very long time."

"Oh my. That sounds horrible."

"You get used to it. Find ways around it."

"What is it?"

Crimson stopped in her tracks. "I'm sorry?"

"Your disease. What is it? What disease do you and your family have? I'm sorry, perhaps I shouldn't be asking a question that's so personal." Rarity scuffed a hoof on the carpet.

"Ah, yes, I see. No, no, it's quite fine to ask. It varies. Sometimes our conditions skip a generation from one to the next. As for me, I have a blood condition."

"Like diabetes?" Rarity asked while turning her head to look at a painting. She couldn't make out the details in the corridor, but it appeared to be one of Crimson herself.

"Yes, like diabetes, I suppose," Crimson said. "I have to maintain a very particular diet, or I will grow ..." she seemed to about to say one word, then swapped it at the last second for a different one. "Fat."

Rarity chuckled.

"What is it now?"

"Sorry, it's just ... it almost makes it sound you really are a vampire!"

"I thought we already had this discussion," Crimson said irritably.

"Right, right, I'm sorry, I won't bring it up again. Oh! Say, darling, I just had a marvelous idea!"

"Oh? What idea would that be?"

"Since I'm up, and you're up, why don't we go ahead and get started on your dress?" Rarity clapped her hooves. "Oh, it'll be perfect. Just you, me, my measuring tape and fabric, without that stinky old Applejack to disturb us and rain on our parade!"

"Yes, why don't we?" Baroness Crimson said with an easy smile.

"Wait right here," Rarity said. "I'll be right back with my materials."

"You do that."

Rarity raced off to her room, fetched everything she needed out of her trunk, then returned to where she left Crimson, who had a neutral expression on her face.

"Now hold still," Rarity said. "This may tickle at first, but it's very important you don't move or the measurements will be off. Stay absolutely still." Rarity levitated her measuring tape and wound it around Crimon's back and torso. Crimson made no reaction.

"Oh, silly me, what am I thinking?" Rarity slapped herself on the side of her head. "Darling, I'm going to have to ask you to undress for me. If I measure you while you're in that, I'm going to add an extra half-inch that will ruin the dress! Darling?"

Crimson did not reply.

"Baroness? Yoo-hoo? Baroness Crimson? Anypony home?" She knocked on Baroness Crimson's head without getting a response. She felt cold to the touch, as if she'd been put into an ice chest recently.

"Oh no," Rarity said. "She's not - oh, please don't be dead, please don't be-"

Rarity closed her eyes. When she opened them, Baroness Crimson was gone without a trace, as was the light she and her candles provided. Not even her clothes remained. The measuring tape lay on the floor. Rarity could feel it wrapped around her ankles.

"What?" Rarity blinked again several times. "I must be seeing things."

She heard a noise. A clatter of some kind, followed by a whoosh from a sliding panel.

She looked around and there was an open door in the hallway. An orange light was coming from it, and it showed there was a strip of cloth resting in front of the door that matched Crimson’s dress.

"Crimson?" Rarity called. "Crimson! Are you in there? Are you okay?"

Rarity went up to the door and felt compelled go inside. It lead to a series of stairs.

It's a bad idea, a voice in her head spoke to her. Applejack's right. There's something not kosher about your lady friend or this castle.

But, another voice said, don't you want to look? To check? To know that she's okay? Better yet, don't you want to know what's down there? Aren't you curious?

Hey, who are you?

Scram, Tiny. I'm encouraging over here.

"Yes," Rarity said slowly, as if in a trance. "I want go down there. I want to check. I want to see and I want to know."

With a stilted movement as if her body was a marionette on strings, Rarity went down the first step. She continued going down the steps, almost feeling as if she wasn't entirely walking down on her own. As if someone was pushing her body and doing it for her.

The staircase was a spiral one, and the orange light was coming off from torches on the wall, hoisted by metal brackets. The staircase and the walls around it were unusual compared to the rest of the castle. The rest of the castle was obviously built, but these steps looked to be carved out of stone from a cave that dug deep down.

The room filled Rarity with unease, yet she pressed on, driven by a need to know, to confirm what was down here, either her worst suspicions or solid irrefutable evidence that Baroness Crimson was a perfectly normal aristocrat, thank you, one who just happened to live out in the country, and there was nothing to worry about, no thanks to you, Applejack.

Every step eroded her hope of finding evidence for the second conclusion.

At long last, after going down several stairs, Rarity reached the bottom. It lead to another room, one with an empty doorway and no light inside, though it seemed to be built rather carved like the stairs leading up to.

Rarity felt around for a light switch. She found one, and gasped at what it revealed.

All around the room were mirrors piled on top of mirrors, all of difference sizes and shapes. Hand mirrors, bathroom mirrors, the mirror from the vanity. Some of them were cracked. Others were in pristine condition. But all of them stacked with the same careless abandon, no matter how valuable they might have been, as if the person who tossed them here held contempt for their very existence without being able to bring themselves to destroy them completely.

"So," Baroness Crimson' spoke behind Rarity, spooking Rarity witless as Crimson came down the stairs. "You found my secret stash."

“You have so many mirrors down here,” Rarity said. “Why is that, Crimson?”

“I keep a collection,” Crimson said as she walked down the steps. “Some ponies collect stamps. I collect mirrors. I just love the design that goes into them. The way their reflective surfaces work … it’s like looking into another reality, don’t you think? Another version of yourself. The mirror ...” She raised a hoof towards one mirror set inside a blue diamond case. “The mirror shows much, doesn’t it? They say a reflection reveals your true self.”

“So I’ve heard,” Rarity said, rolling her eyes before looking at her reflection in the mirror that was removed from the vanity in her guest room. “I must admit, that sort of philosophic meandering is more Twilight’s forte. Me, I much prefer to live in the room of the material, and what I know I can feel.”

“Really?” Crimson said. She walked up to Rarity and stood in front of the mirror. Rarity didn’t notice the lack of Crimson’s reflection. “And what do you feel, Rarity?”

“I feel … beautiful,” Rarity said. She bounced one of her curls.

“You do?” Crimson said, slinking up closer to Rarity. “Tell me more. Tell me all about it.” She wrapped her forelegs around Rarity’s neck. “Tell me all about how beautiful you feel.”
“I feel … very beautiful,” Rarity said. Her eyelids blinked slowly, and she didn’t realize she’d fallen under the mirror’s spell. “I feel gorgeous. Like my beauty could last forever ...” she whipped her hair around.

“And it can last forever, can’t it?” Crimson said.

“No,” Rarity said, becoming depressed at the cruel reminder of reality. “One day, I will grow old, and my beauty will fade. Try as I might to fight it, it will happen. There’s only so much that wrinkle cream and eyeliner can do for you, and I will one day pass the point where any makeup is any help to me whatsoever.”

“What if – just hear me out now, Rarity, for I have a crazy idea, what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if your beauty didn’t have to fade?”

“That’s not possible,” Rarity said, her eyes still stuck on the mirror. “Everything fades. Everything ages, fades, wilts and rots away.”

“Not us,” Crimson whispered. “Not if we don’t want it to. There is a way, Rarity. I can show you the way … but you have to agree to join me.”

“Yes,” Rarity said, infatuated with her reflection in the mirror. This was how she wanted to look.
This is how she always wanted to look,no matter if she got as old as Granny Smith, or even Celestia. This appearance she had, right now, in this mirror … this was how she wanted to be remembered as looking.

“Will you join me?” Crimson breathed, sensually rubbing her hoof around Rarity’s neck.
Rarity blinked again, feeling as if she was already in a deep sleep and this was just another dream, although one much more pleasant than her previous nightmare.

“Yes. Yes, I’ll join you.”

“Excellent.”

A red mist filled the room. The mist spread and grew, covering up the room, turning a darker color until it seemed to Rarity as if the room was filled with blood-red water. It was too thin and transparent to be blood.

“Pull down your collar for me,” Crimson whispered. “Pull down your collar, Rarity.”

Rarity tried to lift her hoof. It was a slow and heavy movement, like she was wading through molasses. She put her hoof down, instead opting to use her unicorn magic to pry apart the collar of her nightgown, ripping it without a care in the world – so unlike her normal self, who objected to any violence done to any fabric, no matter how unfashionable.

Rarity groaned. She became of aware of just how heavy she was really was. How every part of her body was filled with blood. Pulsing, coursing, pumping, disgusting blood running through her veins. She could feel the weight of each and every individual blood cell. It was like her body was filled up with chains.

“Ugh.”

Rarity groaned and sank to the floor, splaying out her legs.

Crimson run a hoof over Rarity’s flank, rubbing it to appreciate Rarity’s body and her meal.

“I’m so glad you came,” Crimson whispered. “I don’t know what I would have done without you if you hadn’t. I’ve been so lonely … so hungry these last few months. Normally, I have my servants collect something for me, but as I said, they’re on vacation … I think a few of them don’t intend to come back. I think that they think they know who and what I am. But they’ll come back. They’ll always come back. Because they don’t know what I am, not really, or they wouldn’t have bothered to try this charade of running away. Because deep down, they know … I am their mistress. Rarity. Who am I, what am I, to you?”

“My mistress,” Rarity answered. By the old gods of Equestria, she wished Crimson would just get it over with. She felt so full, so thick, like a pastry filled to the brim with strawberry jam. It wasn’t right. Her neck was cold and sensitive. Frigid, senseless. She needed Crimson to bite her. She needed Crimson to strike and sink her teeth into her neck, pierce it to the bone, and drink deeply of the rare wine beneath her skin. Only then would Rarity feel again. Only then would Rarity feel alive again.

“Are you ready, my sweet?”

“Oh yes,” Rarity moaned. “I’m so ready, mistress. I’ve been ready for the last five minutes.”

“I just wanted to make sure before I did anything … drastic,” Crimson said, curling her lips into a smile and showing her sharp fangs. A tiny spec of blood dripped from one of her canines. She had fed recently.

“Wait,” Rarity said, her eyes going wide. “What about Applejack? We can’t just leave her here in the castle, all alone. How is she going to get back to Ponyville?”

“What makes you think she wants to get back to Ponyville?”

“She loves her family. And her farm. She’d die before she abandoned either of them.”

Crimson chuckled. “And so she shall. Trust me, Rarity.” Crimson stroked Rarity’s mane. “I have it on good authority that as much as she loves those things, she loves you more.”

“Applejack … loves … me?” Rarity asked, confused. That didn’t make any sense. Applejack had shown no romantic interest in, well, anypony, as far as Rarity knew. Much less one of her closest friends. She possessed all the subtlety of a mallet to the forehead; if she was attracted to, let alone in love with Rarity, she’d have shown it before now.

“Oh yes, yes,” Crimson said. “Deeply in love with you, for oh so very long. She’s never said anything about it, of course, because she has a reputation to uphold, just like you do. But she wants you, Rarity. She needs you. And you need her. And you two shall have each other if I have anything to say about it. And I do. Look.”

Crimson grabbed the scruff of Rarity’s neck and hefted her up. Rarity’s eyes drifted over to the mirror in front of her, the one from the vanity in the guest room.

In it, she saw herself the way she was in her nightmare, and the way Applejack was. They were standing together, next to each other. Applejack reached out a leg and hooked it around Rarity’s neck. She looked to Rarity with a smile, and it struck Rarity how they were in this reflection.

They weren’t just close. They weren’t just friends. They were lovers.

Her reflection turned to Applejack, and they kissed.

“That could be you,” Crimson said. “That could be you two, together. I’m sure it would be easy to convince Applejack to join us once you’re on board.”

“Yes,” Rarity nodded. Somewhere in some dimmed, dulled part of her mind, she recognized the dream imagery in her mirror and realized that the entire sequence, from beginning to end, was something Crimson had put her in her head, so she would wake up in fright and be easy to seduce, charm, and lead astray.

But that was a blunted realization meant more for some future Rarity who was awake and alert to digest it.

This present Rarity was drowsy, sleepy, hypnotized, and utterly in Crimson’s thrall. All she wanted was to let her blood out for Crimson to drink, and then to swoop down and drag Applejack into her arms and sweep Applejack off her hooves. The three of them. Together. It sounded so lovely Rarity couldn’t stop thinking about the idea. It made her smile.

“Let’s do a little fixup to that, shall we?” Crimson said. The image in the mirrored wavered and flickered. When it cleared up, Crimson was standing between Rarity and Applejack, and they were nuzzling and cuddling each other, Rarity and Applejack’s noses pressed against Name’s cheeks. “There. Doesn’t that look better? Doesn’t that look like what we should be?”

“Yes,” Rarity said. “Yes, it does! It looks exactly how we should be!”

"Let's get down to it, shall we?" Crimson said. "No more teasing, no more foreplay or dragging it out ... just ..."

Crimson exhaled sharply. She bit down into Rarity's neck, blood splattering from Rarity's veins as she punctured into the pale white flesh that awaited her.

Rarity's blood pooled on the floor beneath her. Despite that in theory, this should be something horrible that Rarity hated and objected to, something that should make her feel pain, it felt ... wonderful.

That heavy feeling, that feeling like molasses she'd been dealing with and fighting since Crimson locked eyes with her, began to go away. Her limbs went number, yet, they felt more alive than they had been for the last several ... it felt like years, even though she knew she'd only been here for a few minutes. Half an hour at the most.

It felt so good, so relieving. Rarity moaned, blinking her eyes. She was slipping further and further away into darkness. Into ... something.

"Oh ... darling," Rarity mumbled, trying to get out a more complete sentence and found she couldn't. She just ... couldn't. She felt her pooling blood piled up beneath her neck, making it cool and wet and slick.

A voice in the back of her head told her this has been planned. She'd been tricked and trapped and lured her, and Baroness Crimson never needed a new dress for her at all. It was all just a ploy to get her here.

Ooh, but she didn't care. She felt wonderful. She felt like her mind was orgasming on a higher plane of existence than her body could sustain. If this was what it felt like to have a vampire drain her blood, she would happily let Crimson drain her dry over and over again.

Rarity blinked again, her eyelids moving slowly. She glanced up at the mirror. Whatever fear she might have still had dissipated as she saw the image of her, Applejack, and Crimson living together, standing next to each other, loving each other, being a wonderful polyamorous trio, she and Applejack the lovely, dedicated servants of Crimson, their mistress of the night.

Rarity blinked again. And again. Until she closed her eyes and was unable to open them again. She didn't mind. She was ready to let the darkness take her.

Crimson thumped her back hoof, experiencing an orgasmic joy of her own. She felt like her cunt was winking, even though it had been years since any fluid passed through her body. Such was a benefit of being a vampire; dry orgasms during the bloodletting. Granted, she couldn't make her partners drink her cum like she sometimes liked to do when she was alive, but the tradeoff was there was never any cleanup. A fair trade.

Well, no cleanup except for the blood that sometimes spilled out of her prey.

"Goodness, what a mess," Crimson reflected, seeing the pool of blood that formed around Rarity's body during their little session.

"Worth it, though," Crimson wiped her mouth with her sleeve. "Your blood was exquisite, Rarity. Do you eat a lot of iron in your diet? I can't remember the last time I ate this well."

Crimson paced around the room. "It really was only good luck and circumstance that led to become aware of you in the first place. I mean, can you imagine my surprise when I'm just going for somewhere to hunt for prey when I get a vision of my other self? The one on the other side of the mirror? The odd ... monkey versions of ourselves with fingers? Oh, you must know about them. I'm sure Twilight Sparkle told you all about them during her trip over there. Anyway, my counterpart contacted me and told me everything her Twilight and Trixie knew about you, the mirror, and your friends. Naturally, she didn't fancy the idea of a powerful magic user like Princess Twilight coming through the mirror and helping her friends to rescue her new thralls from her, so we agreed to come up with a distraction. We know her weakness and her strength is her friends, so I invited you here to get you away. Divide and conquer, I believe is the term. I couldn't believe my luck when you didn't just show up by yourself, but with another one of Twilight's friends! Oh yes, we're going to be having fun tonight, you and me ..."

Crimson spun around and saw Rarity's sleeping body.

"Oh, yes, that's right," Crimson said, "perhaps you might appreciate my evil gloating more if you were, you know, awake to hear it." She walked over to Rarity, pressed a hoof on Rarity's neck, and whispered into her ear. "Rise."

Rarity's eyes snapped open, her diamond blue eyes replaced with ruby red irises, and her purple mane became pale. She got to her feet with remarkable ease for a recently risen vampire.

"Now," Crimson said, "I believe you expressed the desire to include Applejack in our little soiree?"

"Yes," Rarity said. "She and the others will join us very soon."

Author's Note

Special thanks to Trepphacs for suggesting "Crimson Veil" as the vampire's name. I had, like, no idea what to call her before that.

And as always, a shout out to my Patrons:

Trepphacs
LazyReader19
Facinus
Thehock1
MyMaskofShame
Captain Croisandwich