Years ago, during the time of the sun, Ponyville had been a peaceful town of happy ponies going about their daily lives. That all changed when their beloved Princess disappeared, slain by her sister Nightmare Moon, who bestowed upon the realm an eternal nightmare by releasing dark creatures of the night.
The Ponyville Applejack was searching through was no longer that peaceful town. The night sky hung wearily over the abandoned ruin, only broken up by the soft glow of Applejack’s gas lantern. Homes with boarded-up windows lined the street; the white finish on most of their walls was peeled and broken from years of neglect, revealing the cold and ugly brick underneath. Shop fronts were empty, having been looted long ago, but their open signs still hung over most of them in an almost mocking fashion. The bodies of the former residents littered the street, most reduced to skeletal remains, although occasionally she would pass a fresh body reeking with the stench of death and staring at her with cold, lifeless eyes, a warning to those who dare to search these ruins. Applejack considered them the lucky ones; at least they had the pleasure of dying rather than being forcefully reanimated into the vile monsters that caused this chaos.
But despite the rot and decay, Applejack still found it beautiful, just in a different way. Nature was allowed to grow and thrive; the grass that once got cut down was left to its own devices, growing up to be halfway the length of her boot. Families of rodents roamed the streets: rabits, raccons, mice, and sometimes rats. Occasionally she would spot a larger animal, such as a deer feeding on the grass, although most of the larger critters seemed to have shied away from the town. Probably for the very reason she was entering it.
Applejack turned the street corner and walked out into a large, open intersection. The intersection had multiple worn-down buildings all encircling a singular structure in the middle. A stocky hollowed-out tree house with a large carved and faded wood sign hanging over its doorway, ‘The Golden Oak Library’. The building looked surprisingly intact compared to the rest of the town; there was no rotted wood or broken branches. Besides the boarded-up windows it looked pretty much the same as it did when she was just a filly. Which made sense, considering somepony, or rather, something, has been living in it uninvited.
Applejack reached into her saddle bag and pulled out the reference picture she had been given. It was a black and white photograph of the building in front of her cut out from a pre-Lunar newspaper. The pony who gave it to her drew a large red circle around the building and a note beside it: ‘Vampire lives here’. There were only small bits of the original text that were not cut off, but Applejack was able to figure out from it that it was originally an employment advertisement, mostly from the faded help wanted on the left corner of the image. Applejack quietly wondered to herself if the job was ever taken; from her memory before moving to Manehattan, this library was eternally unstaffed.
Applejack concluded that It didn’t matter anyway. She folded the paper and stuffed it back into her saddle bag, which she hid under her black coat. She then fixed her hat and checked the area by her flank with a hoof; she felt something large and heavy hanging next to her Apple cutie mark. She let out a reassured breath and gave the thing a pat, before trotting slowly towards the building.
She stopped right in front of the red door. A small, polite part of her was tempted to knock, but she ignored it. She raised her hoof to the door handle and tried to twist, but it did not budge; the door was locked.
Applejack took a couple of steps back from the door and scanned around for any ground-floor window to sneak in through that was not boarded-up, but unfortunately, she found none. She sighed to herself "Guess I'll have to go in loud." She whispered to herself under her breath “Here’s hoping this vamp pony ain’t too feisty.” Applejack placed her lantern’s handle in her mouth and keeled slightly to give her body a running start. She took one last deep breath and made a silent prayer to Celestia before using her legs to spring forward and enter the sprint, bolting right at the doorway.
The weight of her body crashing into the door brought the whole thing down, slamming onto the interior floor and breaking in two. She was immediately hit with a wall of stench flooding out, piercing her nostrils, causing her to grimace. Her eyes quickly darted around, looking for any signs of sudden movement. It was hard to see anything, as the darkness of the room consumed most of the lantern’s light, but when she squinted hard enough, she could make out the library's interior. It was cluttered; books were spilled loosely across the floor, most turned over backward; the wooden floor was dotted with streaks of blood; and there were even a couple of blood-drained dead rats with sunken eyes laid casually about.
Her ears twitched when she heard a small squeak on the other side of the room. It sounded like a small animal, maybe a bunny or a rat. She looked to her left towards the source of the sound and used the lantern to guide herself towards it, keeping her ears high and focused for any sound of an attacker.
She stopped right around the place where she heard the sound and looked to her left and right. But found nothing. She heard the squeak again, this time right under her. She tilted her head downward, right towards the sound’s source. On the floor was a squirming rat bleeding from two large puncture holes on its side; next to it was an open book and a half-burnt candle, with a wavy cloud of smoke still rising from it.
Her ear twitched again when she heard a single drop fall to the floor. She turned to her left and right, looking for the source of the sound. Another drop hit the floor, this time right in front of her. Her eyes locked onto the source of the second drip; it was the book. A dark red droplet had landed on it from above and was spreading itself on the page. It could have only come from one place. Applejack rolled her head upwards towards the ceiling. A third drop fell, this time splattering on her face and slowly crawling down her fur. She swallowed a lump in her throat, "Hiya there fella" Just outside of her lantern’s glow, there was a pair of red bat-like eyes staring back at her.
Applejack dropped the lantern to the floor, and with one swift leg motion, she drew the metal from her black coat, a large six-shot revolver ordained with symbols of the sun and a name engraved on it ‘Big Mac.’ She aimed Big Mac at the ceiling, and pulled the trigger. The blast illuminated the entire room, and the gun violently kicked back in Applejack’s hoof. The vampire jumped out of the way at an unnatural speed, and instead of meeting its target, the shot punched a large hole in the wooden ceiling, turning it into a thousand small wooden splinters which showered the room.
Her lantern sitting on the floor suddenly went out, plunging the entire room into almost complete darkness, besides the moonlight flowing in from the open door.
Applejack turned her head widely around the room. The air shifted and thrashed around her; the vampire was flying around the room at extreme speeds, looking for the optimal time to strike. Applejack’s eyes locked onto a dark figure in the center of the room, and pressed on the trigger. The room was illuminated again, revealing the bullet smashing into a wooden horse head in the middle of the room, shattering it.
Her fight and flight senses were kicking in; her eyes were becoming watery, and the smell of gunpowder was overpowering her nostrils. In the corner of her eye, she saw its red eyes again. She swiveled her hoof towards it and pressed the trigger again. The bullet smashed a bookshelf, blowing the books on it into paper shreds.
Applejack froze, suppressing the panic trying to override her system. The entire room went silent. Her ears jumped back up to attention, looking for any slight disturbance in the atmosphere. When she found none, a part of her calmed down a little bit, thinking that the vampire might have just run away, possibly escaping through the doorway.
That thought disappeared when she heard a plank creak right behind her. Her heart almost leapt out of her chest. Before she could turn to face her foe, the vampire struck. It jumped onto her back and forced her to the floor with its weight, throwing the revolver out of her hoof. It opened its mouth wide and lurched its head towards her neck. A single bite would paralyze her, leaving her completely vulnerable to the vampire’s will. It would either kill her or corrupt her into the very monster she hunted. She was not going to let that happen.
Applejack threw her foreleg backward, intercepting the vampire’s path. The vampire's fangs bit into the hard keratin of her hooves, almost breaking them. It lurched its head back and let out an aggressive hiss, giving Applejack enough time to roll around and shove it off with both hooves. Her Earth Pony was enough to throw the vampire off her and onto the oak floor, disorienting it just long enough for Applejack to crawl to her revolver on the floor.
The vampire let out a beastly snarl. It jumped back to its feet and leapt for another attack. Unfortunately for it, Applejack had just enough time to grab her revolver with her hoof, lift it towards her attacker, and pull the trigger.
With one deafening bang, the room was illuminated again, briefly revealing the vampire's close-up form to Applejack. Her eyes widened; she didn’t know from where, but she recognized this vamp pony. The vampire was a former pegasus mare with cyan fur, a vibrant rainbow-colored mane, and a faded cutie mark of a rainbow-colored thunder striking out of a cloud.
"AGH!" It screamed out in pain and then collapsed to the floor, making a loud thud an hooves length in front of her.
Applejack dropped the weapon to the floor and collapsed onto her back. Adrenaline continued to pump freely in her veins as she panted on the floor. She raised her hoof to her neck, checking if there was any blood or bite mark while keeping her eyes locked on the familiar vamp pony. She let out a relieved sigh when she found none.
In the darkness, Applejack could see blood slowly pooling around the vampire as it squirmed on the floor, letting out groans of pain and anguish.
Applejack took a deep breath to calm her nerves and reached for her revolver. She should have just put a bullet in its head and forgotten about this incident; after all, that is what she was paid to do.
She didn’t do that.
Applejack used her free foreleg to grab the lantern and turn the dial up, relighting the room with its warm glow.
The vampire had fallen onto its back; a pool of blackish-red corrupted blood was flowing out of its right leg, causing it to grow pale from blood loss. It kept its head up, staring right at Applejack. Its once vicious red eyes have been reduced to pinpricks as it looked at her with an utterly terrified expression.
Applejack knew the pony in front of her; she just couldn’t remember where. It was the strangest feeling; there was a warmth when she saw her, the same warmth you would feel when reuniting with a close friend, yet she couldn’t pinpoint a singular memory with them. To her knowledge, this is the first time they've ever met. A name suddenly came to the forefront of her mind, a name that she had never spoken before but felt just right. "Rainbow Dash?"
The vampire’s face shifted into an expression of perplexity; the terror was flushed away into confusion. "That-... thats my name…"
Applejack stood up, grabbed the revolver from the floor, and approached Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash rolled over and tried to scramble away with her healthy hooves, but it was too late. Applejack raised the gun to her head, but instead of pulling the trigger, she thrusted the handle’s butt into the back of her head with all of her earth pony strength.
Rainbow Dash fell limp to the floor.
Applejack reached into her saddle bag and grabbed a tunicate and a rope. She is going to have a lot of questions for this vamp pony in the morning.
Author's Note
Hey, I finally wrote something.
What inspired this fic? Another fic!
Shout out to Evernight: Link I recommend going to read it. I found it via the Lost Narrator's narration of it on her channel, which can be found here: Another Link
Anyhow, thank you for reading this till the end, I hope you enjoyed it :D. Hopefully, I will conjure enough motivation to turn this into a series.
Also, I am 100% open to criticism, so please let me know my mistakes, cause that's how I improve as a writer. 
The first thing Rainbow Dash felt when she slipped out of unconsciousness was a throbbing headache, followed by a numbing pain in her leg. Vampires may have enhanced healing capacity, but a bullet wound will still take a while to recover from. When she shifted her leg, she felt a clothy material wrapped tightly around the right leg; she assumed it was a bandage.
She tried to stretch her leg out further, but it was blocked by a rough material bundled around her body, digging into her skin and completely stifling any movement. She lifted her eyelids and looked down at her body. Her heart rate shot up when she saw the twisting fibers of rope coiled around her body, constricting her like a snake.
Pegasi instinctually unfurl their wings when they feel endangered. In the olden days, pegasi nearly always lived in the clouds high up in the sky. Back then, a pegasi wing being restricted more often than not was a death sentence. Thus, pegasi are genetically wired to avoid having their wings forced shut at all costs.
Even if Rainbow Dash was no longer a pegasus, the natural instincts of a pegasus still kicked in. She violently tossed and turned on the cold oak floor, desperately trying to escape from the ropes' grips in order to open her wings. Her insent groans increased in volume, followed by beastly vampiric growls and snarls.
"The more you struggle, the tighter I'll get." Rainbow Dash’s red eyes shot up to the source of the familiar voice. Sitting on a table half-way across the Golden Oak library was the hunter who tied up Rainbow Dash in the first place, Applejack. Rainbow Dash shrilly hissed at her.
Applejack frowned. "Now that ain’t no way to greet a guest, Dash."
"You weren't invited!" Rainbow growled back. She lowered her head back to her chest, extended her fangs, and tried to nibble at the rope. But immediately stopped when she heard a metal click echo from half-way across the room. She looked up and saw Applejack aiming her cold steel revolver at her. Her red eyes compressed to silts, as she stared directly down the weapon's grooved barrel.
Applejack’s semi-sarcastic frown morphed into a dead serious scowl; she had her sights aimed directly between Rainbow’s eyes. "I wouldn’t try that either..." Rainbow Dash’s fangs retracted as she gulped a lump in her throat. Applejack smiled and lowered her weapon, "Thank You."
"How do you know my name, Applejack?" The name slipped so naturally out of Rainbow Dash’s mouth, she didn’t even notice it.
Applejack was temporarily taken aback by her name being so suddenly conjured by the vampire. But she soon readjusted herself and put back on her calm demeanor. She reached into the saddle bag sitting next to her on the table and scrambled her hoof in it for a bit before finally producing a tobacco pipe and a match box. She rested the pipe on the table next to her, and used both hooves to light one match from the box. "I’d ask you the same thing."
Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened, only now registering the feeling of familiarity she felt towards Applejack, even if she was her captor. "How do I know… your name?"
Applejack hovered the match's dancing flames over the pipe's bowel, setting it alight. "You see, this freaky shit is why we are here, having this discussion. So let's start with some questions, partner."
Rainbow Dash used the little wiggle room she had to lift herself from the lying position and stay up on her base. She was going to at least keep some of her dignity by sitting up in defiance, rather than being humiliated by laying down on the cold oak floor and taking it.
Applejack used two hooves to push herself off of the creaky table and onto the floor. She trotted across the room towards Rainbow Dash, dodging a couple of Dash’s bloodied snacks that were laid casually about. "How about’ we start with the fact you can talk." Applejack stopped about a foot away from her. She inhaled the tobacco from the pipe, and blew out the secondhand smoke into Rainbow’s face. Rainbow’s lungs were assaulted by the clear clouds of smoke, causing her to reflexively cough, as the mist stung at her lungs. "If all of the dead critters in here were the only thing you've been drinking, you'd have gone feral a long time ago." Applejack leaned closer to coughing Rainbow Dash, to the point where Rainbow felt her angry hot breath on her face. "The fact you ain’t could only mean one thing." Applejack’s voice lowered into an angry snarl. "You’ve been drinking pony blood."
"I-... I-..." A bead of sweat dripped down Rainbow’s face; her heart felt like it was going to blow out of her body. She had no idea how to properly respond to the earth pony’s accusation. She was scared to respond; all she really wanted to do was freeze.
"You better tell me the truth, or else." Applejack tapped the piece of metal hidden under her black cape while staring her down with an icy glare.
Rainbow Dash trembled in place before finally mustering up the will to respond in a shaky voice, "I-... I have, just travelers, I didn’t kill anyone."
"Turn any of em’?" Applejack placed her hoof on the weapon at her side.
"No! Why would I? It would just create more competition." Rainbow Dash squeaked in response.
Applejack lifted the revolver from her coat and yelled, "I know for a fact that there ain’t enough travelers in these parts to prevent a vampire from going feral unless y’ been killin’ em."
"I haven't, I swear!" Rainbow Dash felt a tear form in her eye and crawl down her face, staining and curling the fur around it.
"Tell me the truth!" Applejack whipped the revolver out and pointed it at Rainbow Dash’s chest.
Rainbow couldn't take it anymore. She forced her eyes closed and yelled out the truth, "It's a filly!"
"A filly?" Applejack raised a brow in confusion, lowering the weapon slightly.
Tears of terror were flowing down Rainbow’s face as she fearfully shivered on the floor, "I-... I have been looking after a filly who- who lives in town. They give me a little bit of blood- every week or so."
"You’ve been supplementing your diet with fucking filly blood!" Applejack felt the urge to raise her hoof and smack Dash directly in the face, or just buck her in the chest with two hooves. She did neither. The rage was quickly washed away when the crying and terrified pegasus collapsed to the floor and curled up into a fetal position in the best way she could while tied up.
Rainbow Dash was shaking in place, letting out sniffles, as tears mixed with sweat rolled down her face. Her heart was pounding, and her fear made her forget nearly all of her vampiric instincts. Her red eyes even faded slightly, revealing the magenta hidden underneath.
Applejack’s anger was replaced with a new emotion, guilt. Did she really have to terrify her friend- a pony, so much?
She sighed and took a couple of steps back, "Sorry Dash."
"I-... I wish I didn’t have to-... I never bit them-... or took the blood out anyway forcefully."
Applejack backed up to the table and plopped herself on it. She inhaled another large puff of tobacco from the pipe, letting the calmness it provided seep into her system. She hung her head low and refused any eye contact with Rainbow Dash.
The room fell silent, only broken up by the occupational chirp of a bird outside or one of Rainbow’s sniffles.
They remained in this silence for minutes, until finally Applejack broke the silence. "Y’know where they are?"
Rainbow Dash nodded.
"Where?"
Rainbow Dash gestured her head upward.
"There’s been a filly in this house this whole time?"
Rainbow Dash looked shamefully to the floor and nodded in defeat. "I-... I’ve been taking care of her…"
Applejack took the burning pipe out of her mouth and placed it on the table next to her. "Can you call her down here?"
Rainbow Dash’s glance darted back to the ceiling and then to Applejack, the pony who not so long ago tried to kill her. Rainbow Dash stared at her with pleading eyes and said, "Promise not to hurt her."
"I promise," Applejack said blankly.
Rainbow Dash took a deep breath in before she called out with the loudest voice she could muster. Which was a weak shout, "Scoots!"
There was a small stir on the floor above them, followed by a couple of low creaks matching the rhythm of steps. At the top of the stairwell, a young, feminine voice called out in response. "Dash, are you okay?"
"I’m fine, Squirt, just a little bruised."
Applejack holstered her weapon and gazed towards the top of the stairs. At the pinnacle of the stairway was a small pegasus filly with orange fur and an unkept light purple mane. Her eyes were wide and full of fear; she was visibly shivering slightly and only barely sticking her head out of the hallway next to the stairs.
Rainbow Dash frowned when she saw her little sister too afraid to even go down the steps. "It's okay, squirt; they are after me, not you."
Scootaloo looked between her tied-up sister and the vampire hunter standing on the table in the middle of the room. She glared at Applejack with a scowl before looking away and running down the stairs towards Rainbow, small streaks of tears flowing down her eyes. She particularly jumped on top of Dash, engulfing her in one massive hug. "I was so worried this bad pony killed you!"
Rainbow Dash felt the natural urge to pat Scootaloo on the back to comfort her, but she was unable to do so due to her tied hooves, so she did the next best thing, nuzzling Scootaloo with her muzzle. "It's okay… shes not a bad pony; this is just-... one big misunderstanding."
Rainbow Dash was a vampire; that was reason enough to be distrustful in Applejack's eyes, but clearly this vampire was different. She was taking care of a foal and avoiding killing other ponies. She didn’t know if she could believe her entirely, but that spark of recognition she felt every time she looked at Dash made her seem trustworthy. Applejack thought about how Rainbow was probably on the edge of going feral; that small bit of filly blood was just enough to prevent her from losing her rationality, which explains her growls and snarls.
Most vampires she hunted had gone feral long ago, while the ones who didn't were usually sadistic pony hunters. It has been a long while since she met a vampire she might be willing to have a conversation with, and a part of her even wanted to call it a friend.
That term shook her to her core. Friend. Did she really consider this blood sucker her friend? How could she? Yet it felt right; the word Rainbow Dash slipped out of her mouth so naturally that it was like she had uttered the phrase thousands of times already. Despite the fact that logically trusting this vampire may seem like a bad idea, her gut was singing a different tune. The duality of it was wracking Applejack’s brain.
Applejack lifted herself back up and approached the duo on the floor.
Scootaloo looked at the approaching Applejack and bared her teeth at her, "Stay away." Applejack ignored the filly and instead looked down towards Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash felt overwhelmed by the figure standing over her. Applejack stared down at her with a flat expression, but the clear position of power Applejack held over her made the neutrality feel threatening.
Which made the next thing Applejack said all that much more unexpected.
"Can I trust you?"
Rainbow Dash blinked. She opened her mouth to say something but then shut it again; her entire brain simply froze, completely and utterly confused by the seemingly sudden change of mood.
They stood in silence again for a moment before Rainbow Dash shook herself out of the trance and thought about what Applejack asked.
Could she trust her? If Applejack let her go, would she use the opportunity to get rid of a future potential threat, somepony who tried to kill her, somepony who tied her up, somepony who knows where she lives and could have come back and killed her if they ever changed their mind. But again, she hasn't killed her yet. "Jack-... why haven't you killed me yet?"
"Because I know you, Dash. I mean, for fuck's sake, I am even calling you by a nickname Rainbow. I don’t know why or how this freaky shit is happening; all I know is that it is." Applejack pursed her mouth and took in a deep breath. "And I know you feel it too."
Rainbow Dash curled her lips. Applejack was right. She didn’t know why or from where, but she felt like she could trust this pony; it felt like that scuffle was only one hiccup in a long relationship with Applejack, even if she had no memories of it. Rainbow Dash opened her mouth and asked. "Can I trust you?"
Applejack drew her revolver out of her coat, causing Rainbow’s heart to skip a beat, but instead of using it, she cracked open the cylinder with a quick hoof movement and pointed the gun upwards. The bullets slipped out of their tight restraints and clanked on the oak floor. "Yes you can."
Rainbow Dash smiled, "Then you can trust me."
Applejack reached into her coat again, searching around for a knifed object. She thought about how much of an unnecessary risk she was taking right now; was she really going to free this vampire on a hunch, on merely a feeling? Logically, this was a stupid decision, but sometimes loyalty and honesty surpass logic restraints. Even if it was against her training, even if it was against logic, she was going to trust this vampire.
Applejack produced her trusty dagger from her coat and placed it in her mouth. She then approached Rainbow Dash.
Scootaloo held onto Rainbow Dash protectively, still glaring at Applejack, beckoning her to stay away from her sister.
Rainbow Dash noticed this and gave her a reassuring nuzzle, "Squirt, it's okay. We can trust her."
Scootaloo looked at Rainbow Dash with a look of disbelief. "But Rainbow, she-"
"Just trust me."
Scootaloo frowned and looked between the two ponies. She hopped off of Rainbow Dash and gave Applejack the room she needed to cut the rope.
Applejack walked right up to Rainbow Dash, dug the knife under the rope, and thrusted it forward, cutting apart all of the fibers, before taking a couple of steps back and dropping it to the floor.
Rainbow Dash now had the advantage, even with her busted leg. With her superior vampiric strength and the ability to fly, she would be able to eventually overpower an unarmed Earth Pony. But instead of succumbing to her vampiric urges, she simply said, "Thank you."
Applejack held out a hoof for Rainbow Dash, "You think you can still walk?"
Rainbow Dash looked down at her bandaged right back hoof. It didn’t feel as bad as it did earlier. The shot was not as bad as it seemed; it mostly grazed past the bone and didn’t tear through any major muscle. That did not change the fact that it still did a lot of damage to her leg; it would be a while before she could walk without feeling any pain. "Not well, but I can always fly." Rainbow Dash took Applejack’s hoof and allowed the hunter to help her up.
Applejack pulled Rainbow to her feet. Rainbow Dash felt a stark pain temporarily shoot up in her leg when it hit the floor. She let out a groan and stammered a little bit, but luckily she was still able to get her bearings and not fall over.
"You okay, Rainbow?" Applejack asked when she noticed her visibly groan.
"I-... am," Rainbow Dash, looked back up at Applejack, and felt a new, unexpected urge grow within her. Rainbow Dash lifted a hoof to Applejack’s shoulder and pulled her into herself.
Applejack was taken by surprise. For a second, she panicked, thinking that Rainbow Dash had betrayed her, but those feelings quickly melted away when she felt the warm embrace of Rainbow’s hooves wrap around her.
Applejack felt Rainbow’s warm breath merely inches from her neck, but the concern that it would normally bring felt distant. It felt like hugging an old friend after a long time apart; the warmth of the embrace and the rubbing of their fur were no longer a sign of danger but rather a type of intimacy she hadn’t felt for a long time. Applejack closed her eyes and allowed herself to be consumed entirely by the moment. She relaxed and banished all other worries, only focusing on the warm feeling she felt in her stomach. It all just felt so right.
They remained like this for what felt like minutes, until the silence was suddenly cut off by Scootaloo’s shooken voice, "Your- you're-."
Applejack opened her eyes and saw Scootaloo staring at them with an agape jaw. Or rather, their flanks.
"Your cutie marks. They're glowing!"
