The Things We Fear

What's happening to me? Is this just some kind of wierd dream? I hope so... Maybe it is! Maybe I'll wake up in a few minutes, back on that cloud-

"Umm... Rainbow?" A soft voice spoke up, pulling Rainbow Dash out of her thoughts. She turned toward the pink-maned pegasus walking next to her, making sure to keep her face shadowed under the cloak she was wearing.

"Yeah, Shy'?"

"Well, um... What exactly happened? On that cloud, I mean? I-If you don't mind me asking." Fluttershy asked, looking down at the ground nervously.

Rainbow thought back to the cloud. The memory of the figure came to mind once again. The dark shape, the red eyes, the awkward question, the force on her neck... "You wouldn't believe me if I told you..."

Fluttershy's eyebrows furrowed "Rainbow, you just woke up from being dead with a thirst for blood and sharp teeth... I'm pretty open to explanations right now." Fluttershy stared at her friend, a look of concern on her face. What could be so outlandish that it beat waking up from the dead?

Rainbow sighed, considering how completely unbelievable her story was. Fluttershy would never buy it. She probably thought this was just a bad joke on Rainbow's part, anyway. "Fine." She said at last. "If you insist..." She hesitated before continuing. "I was on a cloud, bored out of my mind, when this guy landed on me... He was stronger than anything I've ever seen. I punched him and he didn't even budge! Didn't even respond to it. He started saying 'He liked a fighter'... I thought he was going to rape me! Then..." She hesitated for a moment, deciding to leave the awkward question out of her story, "I think he bit me. Started drinking my blood..." Rainbow finished, looking over to her now wide-eyed friend. She'd blown it. Fluttershy was going to think that Dash thought she was stupid, feeding her that pile of horseapples... Rainbow sighed, looking up. There was apparently a scheduled storm today. Pegasi could be seen moving clouds in front of the sun, casting a shadow on the entire area. Rainbow lowered her hood, looking over to Fluttershy. "Well, it's obvious you don't believe me... Granted it's pretty far-fetched."

Ponyville began to make itself visible on the horizion. Rainbow could see that several of the town's flags had been lowered to half of their normal position, and the streets seemed solemn and quiet. Another confirmation that this wasn't just a big practical joke...

Fluttershy sighed, "Let's get to Twilight. I'm sure she'll have something in her library abo-"

She was interrupted by a pink and black blur crashing into Rainbow Dash, pinning her to the ground. "D-Dashie?" A familiar voice squeaked.

"Ow..." Rainbow Dash groaned, opening her eyes, coming face-to-face with a certain pink party pony wearing a black dress, her hair uncharacteristically flat. "Pinkie? I-" She was interrupted once again as Pinkie Pie began bouncing on top of her, her hair jumping up and returning to it's normal state with a life of it's own.

"Ohmigosh, it is you! But why are you wearing that cloak, and what's with your teeth, and why does your breath smell like blood? Blood isn't very healthy, you know. It can make you sick. And how did you come back from being dead? Ooh, ooh! Let me guess! Did you... Drink a potion? Become a zombie? Go to the Netherworld and win a bet against the Grim Reaper in return for your soul? That's always my favorite, or did you-"

"Pinkie!" The party pony stopped her ramble, looking down at the pony she'd been bouncing on.

"Yes, Dashie?"

"Uh... Could you get off of me? We're trying to get to Twilight's place, and uh..." Pinkie got off of Dash, allowing her to stand.

"Sorry Dashie, I'm just so excited that you're not dead! That means we can have parties, and play games, and drink, and make deals with Death, and..." Soon, Pinkie was back to bouncing again.

Rainbow flipped her hood up again, for once not wanting to attract attention. "Let's get to Twi's place." She said, moving down the road toward Ponyville.

"And sail, though I don't even have a ship. We can buy one! And then we can..."

*****

Fluttershy slowly approached the door to the hollowed out tree Twilight Sparkle lived in. Raising a hoof, she tapped against the wooden door.

"Coming!" A voice rang from inside, followed by footsteps. The door opened, a familiar purple and green dragon behind it. "Sorry, but with the funera- Oh, Fluttershy!" He exclaimed, looking toward the pink pony next to her. "And Pinkie... What are you guys doing here? The funeral isn't for another hour... And Twilight... Well..." His voice trailed off as he looked behind him towards the upper floor of the treehouse. The small purple and green dragon turned back, his eyes coming upon the cloaked figure. "And who are you?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Let's just go inside... We'll explain everything in there." Fluttershy said, walking indoors. Rainbow followed her in, looking around the library. Piles of books involving resurrection filled the room, notes sprawled all over the library floor. A product of Twilight's "If there's a problem, there's a solution" attitude.From the sobbing upstairs, it was obvious that she hadn't found this solution yet.

"So what's this about, guys? I think Twilight wants to be left alone for now..." Spike said, looking up toward the upper floor of the tree once again. "Since Rainbow... You know..." He sighed, "She hasn't been herself."

"Well, uh... You might want to call her down here..." Rainbow Dash finally spoke, lowering her hood.

Spike's jaw dropped. "R-Rainbow? W-What? B-B-But you, you were..." The dragon stuttered, completely speechless.

"Rainbow?" Another voice said, now from the base of the stairs. Nobody had noticed that the sobbing from upstairs had stopped some time ago. The cyan pegasus turned, only to be met with a lavender hoof across the face. "Y-You..." Twilight Sparkle choked, bringing her hoof across the rainbow-maned pegasus' face once again.

"Twilight, I..." Yet another hoof across the face silenced her. "Twi, this isn't what you thin-"

"Then what is it? People can't come back to life, Rainbow. I've spent the last three days figuring that out. So how did you?"

"Um... Twilight, do you have anything in your library on strange diseases?" Fluttershy said before Rainbow could reply.

Twilight turned to her, a confused look on her face. "Y-Yes... Why?" She replied through sobs.

"Well, um... Rainbow Dash was dead... I confirmed that myself... Is there some kind of rare disease that could cause the illusion of death?"

"Ah' don't know of any disease that makes a pony stupid enough to fake her own death!" Another voice spoke from the door, carrying a familiar drawl. "What in tarnation we're you thinkin', Rainbow? You been causin' pain and misery to everypony, and for what? So you can 'Come back from the dead' and get all kinds of attention?" By now Applejack was face-to-face with Rainbow, staring her dead in the eyes. She snorted, turning away from the Rainbow-maned pegasus.

"Quite. A pony faking her own death for attention obviously has very little taste, so I do hope you're sick, and weren't this stupid all along." Rarity said, turning her head from Rainbow and raising her nose.

"I don't know any more about what's going on than you do. I woke up, and now everypony's saying I'm dead..." Rainbow said, rubbing the side of her face where Twilight had slapped her.

Twilight let out a sigh, contemplating for a moment. Rainbow was brash, sure, but would she fake her own death for attention? Maybe...

"Rainbow... If I find out this was a trick..."

"It's not, Twi... I promise." Rainbow said, trying to assure her friend that she wasn't cruel enough to cause such pain for attention.

Twilight gave a snort of acknowlegement, "Give me symptoms..." She said, levitating a quill and parchment in front of her.

"Well, uh... I suddenly have fangs and a taste for blood..." Rainbow said, smiling and putting her new, sharp members on display. Twilight walked over, examining the two teeth.

"Hm... They seem to be attached. This is strange... And you said you suddenly have a thirst for blood?" The lavender unicorn began to write. "Anything else?"

"Well, uh... The sun causes me to see strange things... Like some kind of dark, twisted other-world or something." Rainbow explained, looking at Twilight, who was now levitating several books around herself and flipping through them, looking for a disease to match the symptoms. Finally, she closed them, giving Rainbow a stern look.

"There's nothing even remotely close to what you're saying, Rainbow. Honestly, this is low, even for you. I don't know how you have those teeth stuck in there, but-" She was interrupted by a small green dragon carrying a rather large open book.

"Found something!" He said, smiling proudly. Twilight levitated the book out of his hands, looking over the page he'd selected before sighing.

"A curse, Spike? We've had this discussion before." She said, reading over the page anyway. "Curses are complete falsehoods made up to scare fillies and ponies who are superstitious. Nothing more." She said, closing the book definitively.

"What about the Lunar Guard? They seem to match those symptoms pretty well."

Twilight thought about this. The Lunar Guard did seem very strange... Along with being nocturnal, they didn't look like normal ponies, with their glowing, yellow eyes and sharp teeth. She had always just assumed that this was for show, rather than a result of something deeper. The night was, after all, the classic time for anything 'scary'.

"Fine..." She said at last, opening the book to the page Spike had shown her. "Vampirism..." The purple-maned unicorn read to herself, going silent for a moment before reading aloud, "Vampirism is contracted when a pony is bitten and drained of blood by an already existing vampire, this rule does not apply to... Ghouls? Hm..." She went silent again, reading to herself for a moment before finally letting out a small giggle.

"What?" Rainbow looked at her friend, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, nothing... But weren't you bragging to me a few weeks ago about how you bucked some stallion after a Wonderbolts show in Las Pegasus?" She said, a slight smirk now on her face.

Rainbow's eyes widened. "I-I did. What about it?"

"Really? Because this suggests differently." She said. Rainbow felt her face redden as Twilight began reading aloud. "A Ghoul is created when a defloured individual contracts vampirism. As opposed to Dracul and Draculina, Ghouls have no free will of their own, and are zompony-like in appearance." She turned to Applejack, stifling a laugh. "Say, Applejack, does Dash here seem like a zompony to you?"

"Nope. But there is another thing I reckon she is..." The orange earth pony said, a smile crossing her lips. Rainbow looked to each of her friends, each one either grinning or stifling a laugh, all except for Fluttershy, who simply blushed and hid behind her mane.

Pinkie began laughing hysterically, pointing at Dash "D-Dashie is a vir-" She interrupted herself with laughter, unable to control herself,

"It's okay, Dashie." Pinkie spoke through her laughter "I know plenty of stallions that'll be happy to help you out! We can have a party!" By now, the pink pony was rolling on the floor, holding her stomach in a bout of uncontrollable laughter.

Horseapples...