Moonlit Eternity

Chapter 7

Twilight Sparkle awoke from her long night's sleep with an enormous yawn, stretching extravagantly and blinking a few times. After a full day of next to no sleep, a good night's rest is exactly what the mare needed. She looked over at Spike, who was still fast asleep, most likely dreaming of Rarity in some way, shape or form. He mumbled something under his breath, unintelligible to the purple unicorn. Twilight just laughed quietly and got out of her bed. She walked to her kitchen and began to prepare her normal breakfast of hay pops and milk. She didn't usually put much effort into the most important meal of the day. She sat down at her table and looked upon her book of healing spells that she was reading the previous day. She was temped to open it again, become enraptured in the splendor of magic and it's properties. She picked it up and studied the cover. It was a unicorn, seemingly raising a pegasus from the dead or some heinous injury. Healing spells went far in all situations, particularly for minor fractures that did not need to be set. Rainbow Dash flashed across Twilight's mind, remembering one of many trips to the hospital for another failed stunt. Then, straight after that, she remembered that Steel Anvil and Rainbow Dash had a date the previous day in Canterlot. She had no problems believing that they had had a great time. The chemistry between the two was undeniable. Twilight finished her hay pops and moved back up the stairs. She went into her bathroom, took a shower and brushed her teeth. After she had freshened up considerably, she went into her bedroom and lightly nudged Spike.

"Spike." She said soothingly and quietly. "I'm going to the market. You want to come?" Spike mumbled again and pulled his covers back over himself and shook his head a negative. "Well, do you want anything?" Spike snorted. Twilight sighed as she turned to leave her library. She half expected Steel Anvil to be standing there with another request for her. It's not as if the mare didn't like doing things for the stallion, she tried to help anybody whenever she could. She was purely just hoping for a good, long, lazy do-nothing day. She walked out of her library, through the streets of Ponyville. The sun shining brightly with a few, sparse clouds peppering the ascended blue. She waved to Lyra Heartstrings and Bon-Bon. Lyra waved happily back at her. Bon-bon just looked at her and blinked a few times. Lyra noticed this and elbowed her companion in the ribs. Bon-bon waved quickly and they continued on their way. Twilight moved into the market to see Applejack and Applebloom at their apple stand, typically set up weekly.

"Howdy do, Twilight!" Applejack greeted happily.

"Hey, Twilight." Applebloom said.

"Hey, Applejack, Applebloom." She responded. "How's business today?"

"It's alright, Ah guess." Applejack said. "We've sold 'bout a quarter of the apples we brought. Usually we sell at least half by this time'a day."

"Well, I'll take ten apples. That ought to help, don't you think?" Twilight said with a smile.

"Yep." Applejack said happily. "Thank ya kindly. And of course, you get the usual discount."

"What discount?" Twilight asked.

"Well, only the discount for bein' one of the best dern mares I know!" The farm pony responded. Twilight giggled.

"Come on, Applejack. Give me full price. I want to pay what I really owe."

"No can do, Twilight." Applejack said to her. Twilight knew that once Applejack set her mind to something, nothing would ever change it. The purple mare nodded and took the bag of apples and put it in her saddlebag. She moved on from store to store, getting anything that she and Spike might need. She saw a Police officer standing at the street corner, watching over the market. After she had gotten everything she needed to get, she moved to leave the market, waving goodbye to Applejack, who had a small line forming in front of her stand. She passed a pair of stallions talking to each other outside a store. As she passed, she heard-

"Yeah, they just found the guy, all broken and-" She moved on, her curiosity nearly getting the better of her, but she kept walking all the same. She went down the street leading to her library as she layed her eyes upon her yellow pegasus friend, Fluttershy. She seemed to be breating heavily and looking over her shoulder more than often. An extremely worried look plastered on her face. Twilight approached her.

"Hi, Fluttershy. What are you up to?" Twilight asked.

"Oh...n-nothing...I just...you know..." She said, still quite shy.

"No, I don't know, Fluttershy." Twilight said, trying to coax Fluttershy out of her fear.

"I was shopping for some carrots for Angel's lunch and, well...um...it turns out that there...was a murder on the outskirts of town last night." Fluttershy said, nearly collapsing onto the ground and covering her eyes. Twilight's jaw dropped in suprise as her eyes widened.

"Oh, no!" Twilight said. "A murder? Who?"

"Well, um...I don't really know for sure, but I think I heard that he was a criminal who mugged defenseless mares before he went to prison. He was released two days ago for good behavior." Fluttershy said.

"Well, better somepony like him than somepony like us." Twilight said to her friend reassuringly. Fluttershy smiled at the unicorn. "What are the police doing?" Asked Twilight.

"The police have been posted at the head of every street in shifts to keep the town under surveilance. And they're looking at all of the different evidence that was on the crime scene. So, I think I'll just go back to my cabin now." Fluttershy said. "Angel must be angry. I haven't fed him today and he's probably very hungry.

"Okay, Fluttershy." Twilight said. "Be safe." Fluttershy looked at the purple mare, smiled warmly and nodded as she left. Twilight then moved down the street that led to her library and opened the door to find Spike eating hay pops in the dining room, barely awake and looking more tired than a foal who hadn't gotten all of her sleep. Spike looked at his friend.

"Hey Twilight." Spike said to her. "Where were you?"

"The market. I told you." Twilight said to him.

"Didn't hear it.You must not have been speaking very loud. And I was asleep too." He responded. Twilight had begun to put the groceries inside their pantry, organizing the products one by one, making them as perfect as they could have been. Spike looked at Twilight's book on the table.

"Are you gonna finish that book today?" Spike asked Twilight, who turned and looked at the book for a moment.She thought about it steadily for a while before she smiled at Spike.

"No." She said to the baby dragon. "How about we relax today, instead?"

_____

Rainbow Dash's eyes fluttered open as she nuzzled into Steel Anvil's chest. She yawned and looked up at him, him smilling down at her.

"Good morning." He said to her. She smiled back at him and kissed him on the cheek.

"Morning." She responded. "You know, aside from me nearly being murdered by a psychopathic theif and finding out that you have to survive on the blood of other living things to survive, yesterday was awesome." He laughed and nodded his head. He looked to be wide awake at this point. "Didn't you sleep last night?" Steel shook his head.

"I don't sleep." He responded. Rainbow frowned at this.

"Well then, how do you rest?" She asked him.

"I don't. It's part of this curse." He said. "But, I'll tell you what. When you were sleeping on my chest last night, I was the most at peace I have been in a long, long time." Rainbow chuckled.

"Laaaaammee...." She said, long and drawn out before kissing him. "Sweet, but laaaaammmeee." Steel smiled at her and pulled her into his arms.

"So, do you want some breakfast?" He said. "I was going to have to work at the forge today, but I figure I can take the day off." Rainbow nodded.

"That sounds really good." She responded. "Do you have a shower here?" He nodded and pointed his hoof down the incredibly small hallway.

"It's on your first right. It's not much, but it'll get the job done. There's shampoo in there as well." He said.

"Alright." She responded, kissing his cheek again. "I'll be back in a few minutes." She left for the bathroom and closed the door behind her. Steel sighed heavily. She was fantastic. She had found out the previous night that he was basically a monster that had to live off of the blood of other living things to survive. True, he had told her that he didn't ever hurt anything doing this, the mere concept in and of itself was savage and disturbing. Despite all of this, she had stayed with him. Anyone else would have kept trying to run, screaming into the night, but not Rainbow. No, Rainbow was strong, brave and she knew what she wanted. She was the element of Loyalty, after all. He sat up in his bed, looking around his room, marveling at how incredibly dull it was. There wasn't anything there to make it look even a smidge better. He never really needed those things, but it still would have been good to have. Steel was always getting by on things that he needed.
He never really ever got the things he wanted. That, however, wasn't technically true. He looked back at the bathroom as Rainbow came out. She was shivering, drying herself off with a small towel.

"That water might as well be ice." She said to him.

"You know, you could have waited five minutes for it to warm up." He said. Rainbow shrugged.

"Ehh, you know waiting's not my style." She said.

"Alright, it's my turn in the shower now. Be back in a jiffy." He said. Rainbow chuckled.

"In a jiffy?" She said. "Wow." Steel shook his head.

"Fine, a few minutes. Is that okay for you?" He said to her. She laughed.

"Just go get your shower." She said to him, still chuckling a little.

_____

After a nice, delicious breakfast at Cafe du Mane, Rainbow and Steel went to the local park and sat under a tree. Steel sat back, and watched the foals playing in the field. Tag, by the looks of it. Rainbow sat down next to him and looked at him worriedly.

"Are you okay?" She asked him.

"Me? Oh, I'm fine, why?" He responded.

"Well, it's sunny out...and you're a-"

"It only damages me physically if I expend any kind of energy. Other than that, it's just very, very bright." He said. As he looked on into the field, he said- "Rainbow, can I ask you something?"

"Sure." She said. "Fire away."

"I, uh...I'm still a vampire. I can't die, unless I'm killed." He said. "How is this going to work between the two of us?" These words struck a chord in Rainbow Dash. She thought for a moment.

"Is there a cure?" Rainbow said. "If vampirism is a condition, there could be a cure."

"I have heard rumors from other vampires I've met, but I've never seen any concrete evidence of one." He responded. "Couldn't we just continue living on? Like this never happened?"

"We could, but regardless of anything that will happen, we'll still be having to live in secret, and really, what kind of life is that?" She said. Steel felt hard-pressed to agree.

"So, what do you propose we do?" He asked her.

"I think we should investigate a cure." She said

"I already told you, I looked for a cure for a while. There's rumors, but nothing for sure." He said to her.

"No, you don't understand. If there's a cure anywhere, it will be in a book somewhere in Twilight's library." She responded.

"So, you want to go to Twilight's library, tell her about my vampirism, potentially ruining our chances to be together, all just to try to find a cure that in all likelihood probably doesn't exist? I mean, we have no idea what she'd do if she found out." He said to her. She nodded slowly, firm in what she thought they should do. Steel thought for a moment and nodded.

"Okay, let's go." He said. They both stood and walked toward the library, preparing for what could either go very well, or very badly. They walked though the streets of Ponyville, observing the daytime activities of all the other ponies. Rainbow pushed her body against Steel's as a public display of the affection she held for him. They walked until they came to the marketplace. They passed Applejack's apple stand to see Applebloom and Scootaloo sitting in front of the orange mare with pleading looks on their faces.

"Oh, come on, sis! Please? Me, Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell were gonna go try to get our cutie marks again today!" The filly said.

"No. Absolutely not. Now Ah've spoken my peace about it an' Ah don't wanna hear another word about it." Applejack responded sternly to her younger sister.

"Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo suddenly said. "With a stallion?"

"Why d'ya seem so surprised, squirt?" Rainbow said, ruffling Scootaloo's purple mane.

"You just don't look like the type to be all sappy." Scootaloo said.

"I'm Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo! I'm full of surprises!" Rainbow said to the filly, who beamed with admiration. "Besides...it's cool to be different."

"So awesome..." She said. Rainbow laughed. Applejack turned and marveled at the couple in front of her.

"Well I'll be tarred and feathered! Ya finally grew a backbone and asked him, Rainbow!" The orange mare said to them.

"Can it, work pony. He asked me." Rainbow said to her as they did a small hoof bump. Applejack looked to Steel for confirmation. He nodded, smiling at her.

"Well, whaddya know...Ah'm glad to see that you two finally got together." Applejack said genuinely with a warm smile. Rainbow returned the smile.

"Thanks, AJ. I appreciate it." Rainbow responded. Applejack tossed an apple to them. Rainbow caught it.

"On the house for the new couple!" Rainbow smiled.

"Thanks so much, Applejack. This is awesome." Rainbow said turning to leave. She turned back around quickly. "Oh yeah, have you seen Twilight today?"

"Sure have. Just bought some apples from me 'bout five minutes ago. You could probably still catch 'er if ya hurry." Applejack responded. "By the way, have you two heard the news?"

"What news?" Rainbow said. Applejack's voice dropped down to a whisper as she, Rainbow and Steel all leaned in closer.

"Last night, there was a murder on the outskirts of Ponyville. Supposedly some criminal." Steel coughed into his hoof heavily for a few seconds and then shrugged.

"Aw, that's weird. But I haven't heard anything." Rainbow said. She could have been a con artist. "Thanks, AJ!" Rainbow said as she turned to leave.

"See ya, Applejack." Steel said.

"Bye y'all!" Applejack said as she went back to tending her apples. As she waved to the couple, her hoof hit the top of the small, fancy-looking pyramid of apples she had made on the stand, knocking it over completely.

"Aw, ponyfeathers!"

_____

Twilight Sparkle was almost done cleaning the dishes when she heard a knock at her door. She put down the plate she was washing and went to the door. She opened it to find Rainbow Dash and Steel Anvil.

"Hey, Twilight!" Rainbow said happily.

"Hey, you guys." She said. "What's up?"

"You wanna hang out? Me and Steel just got done with breakfast and figured that it'd be cool to stop by for a chat." Rainbow said.

"Yeah, maybe I can get that book I asked about." Steel added. Twilight looked at them for a second, then smiled widely at the thought of two of her friends coming over just to say 'hi' and to have a conversation.

"Absolutely!" Twilight said happily, mentally stopping herself from jumping up and down with excitement. "Come on in!" She opened the door wider for the two of them and walked inside. Spike saw that Steel and Rainbow were here and smiled.

"Rainbow? Steel? What're you guys doing here?" He said.

"Just came to say 'hey'." Steel said. "You still reading that dragon book?" Spike nodded at him.

"Yeah...I didn't finish it. I read about half and looked at all of the pictures. Not one of those dragons looked anything like me." He said, drooping slightly.

"You know what that means, right, buddy?" Steel said. Spike shook his head. "It means you're a rare breed of dragon. For a book that's all about dragons to not have a picture of a dragon like you? Sounds like dragons like you haven't been seen before. Heck, you could be the first!" Spike smiled.

"I never thought of that!" Spike said. "Thanks, Steel!" He turned and walked into his room, but not before speaking to Rainbow Dash. "Hey, Rainbow. You don't come here very much."

"Whaaat..." Rainbow said. "A mare can't stop by and say 'Hey' to her friends these days?"

"I guess so." Spike said. "It was good to see you guys. I think I'm gonna take a nap. Bye!" He said as he went to the bedroom that he and Twilight slept in. Twilight returned to the kitchen and set down three cups of hot cider onto the table.

"So, guys..what have you been up to?" Twilight said giddily and with a smile. "You never stop by Rainbow, except to get the newest Daring Do book."

"Actually, Twi," Rainbow said to Twilight, her voice dropping slightly. "There is something we came here for." Twilight frowned, half in sadness and half in annoyance.

'Of course...' Twilight thought to herself. 'Nopony ever just stops by the library to see little ol' Twilight, do they?'

"Okay..." The purple mare said, still frowning. "What did you need?"

"Well, it's actually more like something I need." Steel said. "If it's not too much trouble." Twilight nodded.

"Go on ahead...what is it?" She said.

"Before we get into that, I would like to tell you something." Steel said. Twilight nodded. "Now, I know that this sounds crazy, but...I'm a vampire." Twilight smirked.

"Are you?" Twilight said. "You're a vampire? You're a creature that survives on the blood of other creatures?" Steel frowned.

"I told you it was going to sound crazy..." Steel said.

"Sounds like a joke." Twilight said, matter-of-factly.

"No, Twilight..." Rainbow said. "I've seen it for myself." Twilight chuckled.

"Oh, now I know it's a joke!" Twilight started. "You're in a relationship with Rainbow Dash, the biggest prankster in Ponyville next to Pinkie Pie, and you expect me to believe this?"

"Remember back when we were all at Steel's welcoming party?" Rainbow said to her. "Have you ever seen anypony beat Big Macintosh in a hoof wrestle?"

"Granted, but there had to be somepony out there who could." Twilight said.

"Well, what about that time when Steel, Applejack and I were in a race? Remember? Now, you'd think that somepony with such physical strength and endurance would be able to run a race on a cool Fall day without fainting, right?" Rainbow said.

"Everypony get's tired, Rainbow." Twilight retorted.

"You really think that Steel and I have been spending the last two months planning a prank on you?" Rainbow said in pure disbelief.

"With your track record of pranks, Rainbow, yes. Yes I do." Twilight said. "I've seen you in the sunlight, Steel. If you're a vampire, why didn't you burn or disintegrate?"

"Vampires can survive in the sunlight." Steel explained. It just completely saps their energy and makes them exremely weak."

"Uh huh, sure." Twilight said. "If you're a vampire, you must have superpony strength, right?" Steel nodded. "Then pick up that bookcase over there." She gestured to the largest bookcase in her library, completely filled with books. Steel sighed and moved over to it. He stood on his hind legs and put his front two hooves under the case. With a small amount of effort, he lifted the bookcase over his head. Twilight's eyes widened and her jaw dropped. That bookcase must have been over half a ton easily. Rainbow smirked to herself and narrowed her eyes smugly.

"Told ya s-" She was interrupted by a zap of magic from Twilight's horn that connected with Steel's midsection. He cried out in pain and flew into a wall, slamming into it hard and dropping the bookcase in the process. Books went everywhere as Steel curled up on the ground, clutching his midsection, breathing slowly and heavily.

"Please..." He said. "Stop, Twilight...or I'll- AH!" He yelled as he was hit by another blast of magic.

"Twilight, stop!" Rainbow yelled. "You don't know what you're doing! He doesn't wanna hu-"

"Oh, yes I do!" Twilight said. "I'm detaining a monster to be taken to Princess Celestia!" Rainbow looked at Steel, who was still on the ground. His muscles began to grow and morph, Twilight noticed this. Steel opened his eyes and they were starting to turn red...very red.

"Oh, no..." Rainbow flew up to Steel's side extremely quickly. "Steel...look at me...look into my eyes! Calm down." Steel was breathing very heavily and straining to keep the beast down.

"Rainbow!" Twilight said, holding her spell in for when the Pegasus would move. "What are you doing?"

"Just shut up for a minute, Twilight!" Rainbow yelled at the purple mare. "Steel, calm down. Calm down. Listen to my voice." Rainbow made her voice as soothing as possible. Finally, she slammed her lips against Steel's, kissing him deeply. His eyes widened slightly as they faded back to their original color. Twilight witnessed this and felt nothing but sheer suprise. Rainbow disconnected from the kiss. She looked down at him worriedly.

"Are you okay?" She asked him. Steel nodded.

"Yeah...I'm alright. Thanks." He responded.

"Rainbow, I'm-" Twilight started.

"No!" Rainbow yelled loudly, suprising her friend and scaring her slightly. "Why didn't you listen to me when I was trying to tell you that he doesn't want to hurt us?! He's been in Ponyville for two entire months! Don't you think that if he wanted to hurt any of us, he would have by now?! He doesn't even drink ponies' blood! He goes into the Everfree forest at night and feeds on sleeping animals, who most of the time, don't even wake up!" Rainbow paused for a moment, seething as she breathed heavily. "You know what? We came here looking for a cure and we thought that you could help us. Guess we were wrong!" Tears began to well up in Twilight's eyes.

"Rainbow, please. I really thought-"

"Well maybe you oughta think less!" Rainbow continued to yell.

"That's enough!" Came an incredibly stern reply from Steel Anvil behind them. He had recovered from the magical assault he had just suffered. "It was your idea to come here, Rainbow." He said as he walked toward them. "What would you expect her to do, Rainbow? She had just found out that one of her friends is a blood-drinking monster. What would you have done?" Rainbow looked to the ground for a second and then at her friend. Twilight was wiping a tear from her cheek as a result of Rainbow's angry assault of words.

"I'm sorry, Twilight...I didn't mean to scream at you..." Rainbow said genuinely.

"No, Rainbow. I'm sorry...I should have listened to you..." Twilight looked at Steel."And Steel...I'm so sorry for attacking you. I've heard the legends, about how ponies have been murdered mysteriously and.... I just wasn't thinking like I usually do. If you wanted to hurt us, you would have by now."

"I don't blame you in the slightest." Steel said kindly. "If our roles were reversed, I would have done the same." Twilight smiled and wiped her eyes again.

"What's going on down here?!" Spike yelled, running down the suitcase.

"Oh, you know, Spike..." Steel said, thinking for a moment. "Stray Phoenix flew in through the window...we're pretty lucky it didn't burn anything."

"Amen to that." Spike said. "Alright. I'm going back to bed." When the baby dragon had left, Twilight immediately went to work, looking through each bookcase, using her magic to view two books at at time. She eventually found one book. On the cover it read- "Sanguis o Vita"

"The Blood of Life." Twilight said, putting the book down on the table in front of them. "I read it Nightmare Night before last. It's all about vampires and the legends surrounding them. Now, everypony thinks that vampires are only myth. I used to, until today. I don't exactly remember reading about a cure in here, but it talks about the origin of vampires, if I remember right. And perhaps if we read the origin, we'll know where to start looking for a cure." She said, viewing the table of contents and quickly turning the pages. Steel and Rainbow came up on either side of her as she looked in the book. "Aha! It says here that the first ever vampire originated from..." Twilight stopped as her eyes grew wide. She just stared at the book. Rainbow looked at her, worried. Steel waved a hoof in front of her face.

"Twilight...what did the first vampire ever originate from?" Rainbow asked. Twilight looked at Rainbow and gulped.

"Discord..."

Obligatory End-Of-Chapter Author's Note: Oh, yeah, baby. That happened. I wanted to include discord in a way because:

1: I love Discord.
2: He's a great antagonist. (Though he won't be the main antagonist.)
3: I f*ckin' love Discord.

I'd appreciate a comment on what you guys think! Cheers!