A Midnight Bite

It’s close to midnight in the moonlit woods of Camp Everfree; the only sounds heard are nocturnal chirps of animals and wind whistling through the trees.

“Aaah!”

That is until Sunset Shimmer screams her way through the forest, scrambling away from a violet blur zipping along the canopy, looking back every so often. She runs, and runs, and runs until she finds an abandoned cabin, left to rot away in the lonely dark. Left with no choice, she swings the door open and locks herself inside.

After running for what felt like hours, she leans against the door, panting heavily. Her breathing pace lessens, but she knows it’s not over yet. When a knock is heard from the door, Sunset Shimmer backs away from it and into the darkness. “Sunset? It’s just meee~” Twilight Sparkle’s voice called out in a strangely-ominous attitude.

“Get away from me, you’re sick!” Sunset Shimmer shouted back.

“Is that any way to treat a friend?” Twilight Sparkle responded, uncharacteristically sarcastic.

“If they’ve lost their marbles and chased me for what felt like fifty miles? Yeah, absolutely!” Sunset Shimmer shouted.

“C’mon, just step outside, and we can talk this out.” Twilight Sparkle suggested.

“I’ll stay inside if I have to!” Sunset Shimmer refused. “Rainbow Dash and Flash will find me, and they’ll make sure to fix you!”

“Speaking of help, the rest of us are here to see you.” Twilight Sparkle smugly retorted.

“What?!” Sunset Shimmer yelped as she steps back and bumps into something… or someone. She turns around to see four pairs of red eyes beaming through the darkness, staring right at her. “No… not you too!”

The eyes jump out at her, hissing at dark figures pile on her. Her scream echoes from the cabin and throughout the forest before falling into silence.

Elsewhere in the forest, Flash Sentry aimlessly walks through the darkness, cautiously looking up and down surrounding brush, grumbling to himself. “Where are they? I know they’re around—" he suddenly trips and falls over. As he picks himself up, he finds a purple camera in the grass, with his personal sticker stuck on the grip. “There you are!” Flash Sentry takes it and wipes dirt off, slinging the strap around his neck. “Was wondering where you were, Lil Flash.”

“Man, we really are lost, aren’t we?” he said to… himself? “I lost the camera stuff, phone’s dead so I don’t know what time it is, I have no idea where everyone are… but at least you’re here to keep me company.” Flash Sentry spoke to the camera’s display. “What’re you worried about? Nobody is here to see us talking.” Flash Sentry told his camera, as if it responded itself. Then, he hears a light chuckle echoing throughout the trees, startling him. “Hello…?”

“Hey~” A familiar, soft voice whispered from behind Flash Sentry.

“Yah!” He jumps in surprise, turning around and pointing his camera at the source. From the underbrush’s darkness, Sunset Shimmer emerges, wearing her usual confident smile, but there was something about her that didn’t look right, like the slightly-ruffled hair and paler complexion, and even her bright cyan eyes shone much brighter under moonlight.

“What’re you doing here, Flash? All alone in the forest?” Sunset Shimmer asked Flash Sentry in an uncharacteristically sultry tone, strutting closer to Flash Sentry. “Looking for something? Someone, maybe?” she asked with a mischievous smirk.

“I was, uh… looking for stuff, my camera stuff.” Flash Sentry answered sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.

“C’mon, follow me back to Camp Everfree. We’re all waiting for you there.” Sunset Shimmer beckoned him closer.

Flash Sentry starts to follow, when the camera unlatches from its strap and falls on his foot with great weight. “Yeow!” Flash Sentry yelped as he clutches his foot before picking up the camera. “What was that for?” he groaned at the camera, hushing his volume. “What are you talking about? She’s—"

“C’mon, we don’t wanna stay in the dark too long, do we?” Sunset Shimmer hurried Flash Sentry, glancing over her shoulder.

“When we get back, I have some choice words for you.” Flash Sentry scolded his camera before following Sunset Shimmer.

They trod through the fallen leaves of the dark forest, Flash Sentry silently following behind Sunset Shimmer, nervously twitching for some reason. “Boy, it felt like yesterday we arrived at Camp Everfree, and I already got lost in the forest.” Flash Sentry awkwardly muttered.

“It was yesterday.” Sunset Shimmer stated the obvious.

“Yeah, yeah, yesterday…” Flash Sentry muttered weirdly.

He continues following Sunset Shimmer, but there was a feeling of her not being… herself, a feeling that Flash Sentry couldn’t possibly ignore, but has. Desperation for safety? Trust in a familiar face? A combination of both? This young man has no idea what he’s getting into.

After an unnaturally quiet walk, absent of animal noises, not even the buzz of flying insects, or critters breaking twigs under their paws, they encounter a lone cabin in the middle of the woods. “Why don’t we rest here for the night and come back to the camp tomorrow morning?” Sunset Shimmer suggested.

“It is better to stay in one place when you’re lost so others can find you. Maybe by sunrise, Gloriosa will have already found us.” Flash Sentry agreed as he opens the door, and is met by a dry, musty odour. “Yeesh. Well, we don’t have much to complain, do we?” he enters the cabin before Sunset Shimmer; her lips curling into a devilish smile nobody has seen in a long time.

Flash Sentry finds the cabin’s interior like at Camp Everfree, although dustier and dilapidated. “Must be part of the old camp. It’s so far from the main camp.” He tries to switch on the lights, but Sunset Shimmer suddenly catches his wrist before he could even touch it.

“Don’t wanna take our chances, Flash. Place as old as this, wiring must be faulty.” Sunset Shimmer warned him, the glint of a smug smile piercing through the dark.

Flash Sentry shakes his arm as he tries to get her hand off. “Ow, not so hard, Sunset.”

“Sorry.” Sunset Shimmer releases Flash Sentry, leaving him to rub his wrist. “Just wanted to make sure you stay in one piece.”

Flash Sentry looks at his hand, finding shallow cuts on the underside of his wrist, evidently from Sunset Shimmer’s nails. “So much for that. You scratched me.”

“A scratch?” Sunset Shimmer repeated, her tone intrigued, like an opportunity falling into her lap. “May I see?”

“It’s not that serious. I can just…” Flash Sentry shook his head when Sunset Shimmer went ahead and takes his arm.

She turns the wrist’s scratched side to her face, staring at what little blood droplets leak from broken vessels, caressing the length of his forearm from elbow to fingers. What Flash Sentry couldn’t see through the darkness is Sunset Shimmer’s face, as if she was famished and hadn’t a bite to eat.

“Sunset…?” Flash Sentry called to his friend. “Everything okay?”

Sunset Shimmer looks up to Flash Sentry’s face, closing her mouth before her tongue could slip out. “Um, should patch this up. I have a pack of band-aids you can use.” She takes from her shorts a small box of band-aids and applies a little patch to the cut. “All better, you big baby?”

“Heh, yeah. All better.” Flash Sentry chuckled at her jab before yawning.

As his eyes close for a brief moment, Sunset Shimmer turns away and raises a finger to her lips; a single drop of his blood resting upon the tip. She delightfully licks it onto her tongue, indulging in what could be considered a sample. Craving for more, she glances Flash Sentry almost dozed off, then to a derelict bed, surrounded by other crumbled beds. “Let’s call it a night. Looks like there’s one good bed. Guess we’ll be sharing.”

“Sharing? No, you can take it, I’ll have the floor. We’re supposed to be roughing it, anyway.” Flash Sentry humbly declined.

“I insist.” Sunset Shimmer gestures to the vacant mattress.

“Alright, but be careful, I roll a lot when I sleep.” Flash Sentry shrugs before taking a step, when his camera strap accidentally unclasps and it falls on his foot again. “Ow!” he yelped before angrily taking the camera to his face, away from Sunset Shimmer. “What’s up with you?!” he whispered to the camera. “Sunset? She’s fine, she helped me just now, didn’t she?” he then places the camera on the nightstand against the bed’s headboard. “Heh, sorry. Old straps tend to do that.”

Sunset Shimmer giggles at this strange scene. “Oh, you.”

“Heh… eheh…” Flash Sentry stammered before getting into bed first. He lies on his back, feeling the scratchy, worn sheets beneath him; rough as burlap. As he stares at the dark ceiling, he swears he sees shapes rustling in obscure corners.

As his eyelids flutter lazily, Sunset Shimmer climbs right on top of him. He stares up at Sunset Shimmer’s cyan eyes as she straddles over his body, a smile barely visible. “A boy and a girl… alone in a cabin… what will they do?”

“Um, Sunset, I thought we’re going to sleep.” Flash Sentry gulped nervously, flustered by this sudden act. At this moment, a thought did dawn on him. Why is she acting this way now? He just thought she was just being playful earlier like a friend would, but why is she locking eyes with him the way she is now? Even when they dated, were never this close.

“Can’t I have just a bit of fun?” Sunset Shimmer snickered as she comes closer to his face, as if pulling closer for a kiss.

“S-Sunset? This isn’t funny!” Flash Sentry tries to pull away, but felt otherwise the more he looks into Sunset Shimmer’s eyes, like his body wants to stay, but all he wants to do is push her away and insist they’re just friends. Flash Sentry again looks up, and sees an arrangement of blood-red irises beaming through the dark, confirming his earlier suspicions of something above. “W-wha…?”

As Flash Sentry is distracted by the red glares above, Sunset Shimmer attempts to take a bite out of him, opening her mouth wide, unsheathing sharp incisors ready to cut into his jugular.

Still oblivious to Sunset Shimmer’s intent, Flash Sentry at least sensed the danger from above, spurring him to grab his camera and roll both of them off the bed, just in time for a shadowy figure to drop from the rafters and crush the bed on landing. As he composes himself, his eyes adjust to the darkness to see standing where the bed was is Twilight Sparkle; blood-red irises reflecting through her cracked glasses, hair frazzled and undid from her bun. “Twilight…?”

“Hey, Flash…” Twilight Sparkle called to him; her tone not soft like a meek geek, but husky and beckoning. She takes her glasses and tosses them aside, seeing him clearly even in the darkness. “Don’t you know it’s late to be out in the Everfree Forest?

“Twilight… what are you doing here? What’s with your eyes?” Flash Sentry backs away from her, then recoils when four more figures drop from the ceiling. As they rise, Flash Sentry can immediately recognize them.

Fluttershy stood before him; her hair unkempt, eyes red as blood, and smiling deviously. “We did say we were going to see each other again soon.” She said while running her hands through her flowing hair.

Parting her deflated, curtain-like hair, Pinkie Pie reveals an eye redder than any sundae-topping cherry and a demented smile wide as the moon’s crescent. “Heeey~ Heard you and Sunset were here, so I thought I’d drop by!” despite that, her humour is still there.

Applejack looked the most scuffed; clothes covered in blood-lined claw gashes from her Stetson to her jean shorts, like she got out a fight, but under her crimson eyes she wears a smirk like everything’s fine. “Looks ta me yer a lil lost, cowboy.” Applejack mad-dogged him, flicking her hat’s shredded brim.

Rarity is fabulous as ever, her hair glistening even through the darkness, undercut by her sharp ruby stare. “Oh, what a wonderful game you made, Flash. Too bad it’s all over, especially for you.” She snickered with haughtiness like a noble obsessed with furs.

Flash Sentry inches further and further from them, definitely now recognizing something is wrong. “Girls… w-what’s going on?”

“Aww… he must be hysterical after all that running.” Fluttershy mockingly cooed at him.

“Don’t you remember us chasin’ ya fer an hour?” Applejack reminded him, still leaning as close towards him as possible.

Flash Sentry backs away until he bumps into Sunset Shimmer, who pinches his chin and forcibly turns his head to look at her. She gives him a flirtatious smile with a cyan gaze that bleeds into red as bright as her hair. “We’re vampires, sweetie. We’re what you’ve been running from.”

“Your eyes—” Flash Sentry muttered before she puts him in a headlock and throws him onto the floor flat on his back.

“You’ve been running for such a long time. I insist you rest.” Sunset Shimmer mocked him as she comes closer to his ear. “Forever.” She opens wide, unsheathing her sharp fangs from her lips.

Flash Sentry whimpers helplessly at the monster wearing his friend’s skin, who’s suddenly pulled away by Twilight Sparkle. When he thinks to get up, Rarity and Pinkie Pie step on his forearms, pinning him down. “W-wait! I seriously don’t under—” Flash Sentry panicked before Applejack shoves a honeycrisp in his mouth.

“Quiet, piggy.”

“What do you think you’re doing?” Twilight Sparkle commanded Sunset Shimmer her with an intense stare.

“I found him first. I should be the one to suck him dry!”

“You think that gives you the right?” Twilight Sparkle scolds her. “It was your job to lure him by my command!”

“I thought we agreed I’d have dibs!” Pinkie Pie argued.

“I didn’t see us shake on it.” Applejack retorted. “If anyone’s gonna take a bite outta that Adam’s apple, it’s me!”

“Adam’s apple… I swear, things never change…” Rarity grumbled from the apple pun, intended or not.

“Girls, we’re all friends here, and friends share.” Twilight Sparkle interjected to compose everyone, still the most rational person even as a vampire. “There’s more than enough vessels in a human body to accommodate six of us at once.” She walks over to Flash Sentry and straddles his body, getting jealous looks from Sunset Shimmer. Flash Sentry’s face flushes as she runs her finger along his chest, going up until she reaches his neck. “One can take his jugular…” from his neck, she slides her hands down to firmly grip his shoulders. “The subclavical arteries in his shoulders should be wide enough to fit two, maybe three of us.” from there, she runs her hands to feel the pulses in his forearm. “And his radial arteries, such precious vessels…”

Gagged, Flash Sentry could say nothing, but the tears running down the sides of his head said everything he could.

“What are you crying for? Don’t think I forgot your advances yesterday. Don’t you want this?” Twilight Sparkle teases him, hovering her clawed finger over his nose. “I’m not like that princess you worship so much…” she leans in closer. “I’m better… faster… stronger…”

Flash Sentry thrashes while Pinkie Pie and Rarity still have a hold on him, shaking his head left and right to dislodge the apple in his mouth. “Twilight, don’t do this!”

Twilight Sparkle shushes him, placing her finger on his lips. “I’m not Twilight Sparkle anymore. I am Midnight Sparkle, reborn anew.” She declared proudly, her irises pulsing with malice.

Her words brings back awful memories of the Friendship Games, fearing once more his world will be torn asunder by the dark ambitions of a power-crazed witch. “Lil Flash, help me!” he shouts desperately at the top of his lungs.

As if voice-activated, his camera’s flash flips open and unleashes a blast of white light, blinding everyone in the room. When the fuzz of whites and greys burned into their retinas fade away, Pinkie Pie and Rarity were first to discover Flash Sentry has disappeared from their feet and catch a glimpse of him escaping through the door. “Con-sarn!” Applejack growls as she throws her hat down.

Sunset Shimmer rubs her eyes, opening to reveal they’re back to their natural cyan. “F-Flash?” she stuttered before Midnight Sparkle slaps her, shifting her irises back to vampiric red.

“What are you doing standing around for? After him!” Midnight Sparkle commanded her horde before dashing out the door.

Following after her, the vampires glide out the doors as blurs faster than the eye can see, ready to tear the forest apart in search of their quarry.

Flash Sentry dashes through the forest as fast as his legs can take him, weaving past and skipping over roots and bushes. He runs farther and farther until he can’t, leaning against a tree to catch his breath. After a moment of inhaling cool night air, he slams his fist into the trunk out of some internal frustration. “Why…?” he mutters as tears run down his face and he falls to his knees. He takes off his camera and puts it on a rock before curling into a ball.

“Vampires? How did this happen? How could this happen?!” Flash Sentry cried, upset seeing his friends corrupted beyond measure. “And why… did they to do that to me? Playing with me like…”

He turns to his camera. “No, I’m not alright. This was supposed to be a nice stroll, and it turned into… hunting season.” He puts his back against the tree and takes his camera, pointing its lens to his face. “They’re just… sick, that’s all. They wouldn’t do this. Never.” He assured, still shaking from the assault fresh in his mind. “Whatever made them into vampires, a curse or virus, that’s what…”

Then, he hears a branch snap, and Flash Sentry immediately hangs his camera and goes on the defensive. He looks around the darkness for the potential source, picking up a branch from the ground. “D-don’t come any closer!” he shouts into the empty forest. He scans the area until a pair of dim cerise irises peers back at him from the dark. “N-no! Get away from me!” Flash Sentry panicked as the eyes march closer, its figure slowly brushing past the bushes.

Although rattled from the traumatic capture, Flash Sentry gathers what confidence was left and swings at the supposed vampire, who easily dodges the branch and charges at Flash Sentry, pinning him to a tree with her forearm. “You’re not taking my blood, you hear me?!” he defiantly screamed at his attacker, plenty scared, but brave even more.

“Flash, I’m not a vampire!” a familiar, scratchy voice insisted before a flashlight below illuminates their face: Rainbow Dash.

“Rainbow Dash? Where’ve you been?” Flash Sentry questioned as she lets go and points her light at him.

“I was gonna ask you the same thing! We split up after Rarity ambushed us. I thought they got you!” Rainbow Dash explained, sounding tired and worried. Then, she presents him a silver camera case with his sticker decorating the topside. “Also, I found this. Thought you dropped it.”

“My camera stuff!” Flash Sentry grabs the case and opens it, finding lenses, batteries, flashes, and a wireless power bank embedded in the foam, which he places his phone to charge.

“Funny, I never took you for a camera guy.” Rainbow Dash commented.

“Rainbow, what happened to the girls? Why are they vampires?” Flash Sentry asked.

“Uh, did you hit your head? You already asked me.” Rainbow Dash re-iterated, confused at his question. “I’m as clueless as you. We all got lost looking for Twilight, and most of the Rainbooms turned into vampires!”

“Oh, yeah… I forgot…” Flash Sentry scratched his head, although truthfully, he has no idea what she’s talking about.

Rainbow Dash flashes their surroundings, scanning for movement. “Hey… where’s Sunset?” she questioned worriedly.

Flash Sentry freezes in the middle of taking inventory, remembering what she almost did to him. “I’m sorry… they got her, too. They made her lure me into their trap.” He explained, saddened to even explain.

“Then it’s us two left.” Rainbow Dash sighed before picking herself up. “Hey, no time to waste, we gotta get outta this forest and warn the camp! It’s cursed, I tell you!”

“Can’t you use your Geode and dash us out?” Flash Sentry suggested.

“Geode? What Geode?” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow, unaware of such an object. “Hey, now that I got a better look at you…” she shines the light directly at Flash Sentry, noticing his street attire. “I thought you left your jacket at home.”

Then, they hear a great crack and splinter, and turn to see a massive tree falling towards Flash Sentry. Rainbow Dash grabs him and they roll out of the way before the trunk hits the ground. “Where ya, sugarcube? I’m hankerin’ fer some neck!” Applejack’s voice echoes through the forest.

“That’s Applejack! Run!” Flash Sentry picks up his case and runs behind Rainbow Dash.

Together, they sprint through the night, guided only by Rainbow Dash’s flashlight, catching glimpses of red eyes attached to fast shapes gliding across the treeline covering them. Rainbow Dash, true to her athletic nature, sprints as fast as a cheetah and outrunning the vampires, but Flash Sentry lagged behind even slower than when he escaped the cabin.

“Flash, lose the case!”

“I can’t!” Flash Sentry shouted back. “It’s too important to lose!”

“You can replace a camera, it’s just equipment!”

“Not this one!” Flash Sentry was suddenly sideswiped by Pinkie Pie from above, firmly pressing him against the ground, staring with a hungry smile, ready to devour him whole if necessary.

“Don’t take this personally, this’ll all be over in a flash!” Pinkie Pie giggled maniacally, raising her right claw to slit his throat.

“Poor choice of words!” Flash Sentry exclaimed before snapping a pic, unleashing a blinding flash that gives him enough time to crawl away.

Just when Pinkie Pie recovers from the flash, eyes briefly blinking back to her natural blue, Rainbow Dash bashes her cold with Flash Sentry’s camera case. “Sorry, Pinkie.”

“Let’s go!” Flash Sentry yelled to Rainbow Dash before running ahead.

Rainbow Dash easily catches up to Flash Sentry and hands back his case, this time keeping pace with him. “Maybe you were right. That camera did come in handy.”

“Rainbow, there’s more to Lil Flash than meets the eye.” Flash Sentry pats his camera below his chin.

“Lil Flash? That is so you!” Rainbow Dash chuckled back.

As they run, they notice the red eyes no longer follow them, filling them with relief. Soon, they encounter a small cave, and flash a light to suss out any potential threats within. “Let’s lay low here.” Flash Sentry advised as he enters the cave and sits himself on a rock.

Rainbow Dash follows behind, spreading her legs across the cave floor. “Y’know, I was game to come to camp, but I didn’t expect to be game for vampires.” Rainbow Dash cracked a joke, lightening the situation.

“We need to get you outta here and back to camp.” Flash Sentry said as he opens his case again.

“Me? What about you?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I’ll distract them.” Flash Sentry responded confidently.

“Nuh-uh, I ain’t letting you outta my sight again!” Rainbow Dash insisted, standing tall before him.

“Rainbow, this isn’t the time to be stubborn and call it brave. If I know how this’ll pan out, it’s with you saving the day. Not me.”

Rainbow Dash crosses her arms, hesitant to leave behind a friend, looking outside and fearing the invisible threat. “Grrr… fine. What’s the plan?”

“Don’t you worry about the plan. Like Gloriosa Daisy says,” Flash Sentry takes a larger flash unit from the case and attaches it to his camera. “I got this.”

The women of the night prowl the moonlit forest, leaping great bounds from branch to branch. While most kept watch from above, Applejack and Rarity patrol the undergrowth together. “Gah, I can’t take it no more!” Applejack growled, as does her stomach. “I haven’t got a drop since y’all turned me! If that boy don’t show, I’m gunna—"

“Oh hush, Applejack.” Rarity rolls her eyes. “You wanted to rough it, here we are hunting.”

“That’s the ol’ me. New me ain’t got patience fer chasin’ men.”

“Heh.” Rarity giggled. “Still sounds like old you as well.” Then, she stops Applejack and turns her towards herself.

“Whaddya doin’?” Applejack questioned Rarity, taken aback.

“Now that I have a better look at you, you look just awful.” Rarity commented on Applejack’s state of dress; her shirt nearly sloughing off her chest.

“An’ who’s fault might that be?” Applejack scowled at her.

“Yes, perhaps I was too forceful. You were always a fighter.” Rarity giggled before reaching for Applejack’s hair. “There’s one thing I can help with, though.” Rarity takes from her pocket a brush to straighten Applejack’s ruined locks back into fine strands. She takes bunches of hair and folds them over one another into a neat braid, repeating again on the opposite side, topping them off by tying the ends with red hairbands. “There, doesn’t that look better?”

Applejack lifts her left braid, stroking its length. “Um, thanks, sugarcube.” Applejack muttered shyly.

“Just because we’re creatures of the night doesn’t mean you have to look like a creature.” Rarity teased by pulling Applejack’s hat over her eyes.

“Aw, stop it, you!” Applejack giggled alongside Rarity.

Suddenly, a camera flash hits their eyes, and they turn to see Flash Sentry yard’s-length away from them, lowering his camera from his eyes. “Aw, did I ruin the moment?”

“Ya sure did, hun.” Smirking to reveal a single sharpened fang, Applejack steps forward. “Why don’t ya make this easier fer us an’ come along quietly?”

“It would make prep that much simpler.” Rarity added.

“Gotta catch me first!” Flash Sentry barked back with a condescending laugh as he vaults into the forest.

Rarity and Applejack follow him to the brush he disappeared into, tearing it apart with their claws, only to find no trace of him.

“Hey!” Flash Sentry yelled from behind. The vampire duo turns around to see Flash Sentry standing just where they were. “You’re going the wrong way!” he shouted back before disappearing into the trees.

“How’n tha—?" Applejack scratches her head as Rarity visibly becomes frustrated.

“Oh, he’ll regret that!” Rarity sprints ahead towards Flash Sentry, Applejack following behind.

Elsewhere in the forest, Fluttershy roams the canopy alone in search of her mark, mumbling something to herself. “What a waste. We should’ve fed on Sunset. She’s nothing but another mouth to feed.” She growled to herself. “When I get my hands on her, I’ll—”

“You’ll what?” a voice asked from behind, and when Fluttershy turns around her eyes meet a bright flash. Rubbing her eyes again, she sees Flash Sentry straddling a branch, cracking a smile as he looks at his camera display. “Huh, look at that. I got a nice candid shot.” He turns the camera to her, showing a surprisingly beautiful photo of Fluttershy in the middle of turning around; the bottom half of her face hidden by her flowing hair and red eyes half-closed.

“Why don’t you come here so I can get a better look?” Fluttershy curls her finger, enticing Flash Sentry.

“Nah, I’ll just email you later.” Flash Sentry shrugged before attempting to jump off.

Before he could escape, Fluttershy’s supernatural reflexes allowed her to tackle him onto the ground. Unfortunately, she finds herself instead face-planted into the grass with Flash Sentry nowhere in sight. “What?! I had him!”

“Had who?”

She turns around and sees Flash Sentry sitting on a tall rock with the same smug look, tossing an insincere wave. “You were just here!”

“You must be seeing things. I was here the entire time.”

Growling deep, Fluttershy throws at him a hateful gaze. “You’re awfully chipper for someone who’s about to be slaughtered!” She menacingly approached Flash Sentry, who’s not bothered in the slightest.

“Catch!” Flash Sentry’s voice echoes before a pebble hits the back of Fluttershy’s head.

“What?!” Fluttershy roared at the direction the rock came from before whipping her neck at the rock where Flash Sentry sat, finding him gone. Rage escalating, she kicks the rock into gravel with a single swing, then leaps up to return to the canopy.

After she leaves, Flash Sentry emerges from behind a tree, smiling coldly while re-checking his camera roll, chuckling at every shot. “Can’t wait to see the looks on their faces when this is all over.”

“I smell someone stealing my shtick!” Pinkie Pie’s voice screamed through the trees before a she swoops down from above and tackles Flash Sentry. By some miracle, she actually caught him off-guard, slamming his face into the dirt over and over. “Nobody appears outta nowhere but me, got it?!” she psychotically screams into his face; painted with an annoyed scowl.

Flash Sentry coughs a piece of dirt. “You the fun police now?” he smiles, taunting her with every glint from his enamel.

Pinkie Pie picks up Flash Sentry and drags him to a brook, dunking his head into water. “How’d you like that, Flash?! Still wanna run your mouth?” she giggled while pushing his head further down. “I can’t believe we ever had trouble with you the most, and here you are getting dipped like salsa!” Pinkie Pie enjoys every second of this torture, cackling between breaths. Soon, Flash Sentry’s thrashing slows down until after some twitching, he finally stops. Thinking it’s all over, Pinkie Pie’s smile widens more than ever before, and lets out a cackle that’d make a hyena blush.

“Whew! Glad I’m not that guy.”

Pinkie Pie’s smile shrinks to a frown, turning around to see Flash Sentry snapping a picture of her for only a split-second before blinding her with a flash. “What?” Pinkie Pie rubs her eyes after the flash, and when she opens, she discovers his supposed corpse removed from the brook, nor the one who snapped her. “Grrr!” out of sheer stress, she grabs two straight locks and pulls them as hard as she can, tearing them off their roots. “I’m gonna eviscerate you, Flash Sentry!” screaming into the night, she escapes into the canopy where she roosted.

Overlooking the entire forest, Flash Sentry stands at the edge of a great cliff, watching the girls dart in and out of the trees, engaging in a wild goose chase of his making, sighing like he enjoyed the confusion he conjured. “What a night…”

“It has, hasn’t it?” a soft voice whispers into his ear.

With nary a reaction save for a raised eyebrow, Flash Sentry turns around and finds violet light shimmering from above, and looks up to see Midnight Sparkle hanging upside-down from a branch like a bat; hair hanging down and filtering the moonlight into this hauntingly beautiful light display. She jumps off and lands with the grace of a cat, shooting a mean stare at him. “And here’s the woman of the hour.”

“I don’t know how you’re doing it, but you’re making us all look like fools.” Midnight Sparkle growls as she approaches Flash Sentry. They circle one another until Flash Sentry reaches the trees behind him, calmly ducking behind it. Twilight Sparkle thrusts her claws into the tree, penetrating all the way through, but only sap drenches her fingers.

“Like this?” Flash Sentry spoke, this time leaning against an adjacent tree; hands resting at the back of his head.

“I can’t smell you, I can’t hear your heartbeat, by all means you’re invisible… yet here you are.” Midnight Sparkle scowls, flicking sap off her fingers. “What have you done to yourself?”

“What do you want me to say? I died of shock and I’m haunting you as a ghost?” Flash Sentry sarcastically huffed.

“And that silver tongue… when did you get it?”

“When’d you get yours?” Flash Sentry threw her question back.

Annoyed at his insolence, Midnight Sparkle dashes at him with the speed of a freight train, intending to dig her nails into his stomach, but he once more disappeared. Another flash goes off behind her, and expectedly finds Flash Sentry just a metre away. “Huh, could’ve came out better.” He shows Twilight Sparkle an unflattering photo of her turning around, obscured by motion blur.

Enraged at the sight of the image, Midnight Sparkle grits her teeth. But then, she picks up something, signs of life from the smell of blood and the beat of a heart. It didn’t come from the cold figure before her, but behind the trees overlooking the cliff. Knowing who’s behind there, she kicks through the tree before her and tears the trunk off its roots, wielding it like a massive bat.

Unlike before, Flash Sentry is taken aback by her display of strength, looking to the tree clutch behind him with fear. “No, no, no!”

Midnight Sparkle winds back the massive pine and throws it at Flash Sentry, who braces himself to catch it, but the trunk crashes through him, felling the clutch he tried to guard.

Twilight Sparkle walks to the splintered tree and sees Flash Sentry trapped under fallen branches, hysterical as he tries pulling his legs out. He looks up at the approaching danger; pupils shrinking at the sight of Midnight Sparkle’s dark silhouette lit by a condescending red glare.

“Aw, where’s that smug attitude you had before, Flash?” Midnight Sparkle snickers at the pathetic sight. “Aren’t you going to disappear like one of Trixie’s cheap tricks?”

Flash Sentry reaches for the camera, but finds it fell off him after being hit, and after a few quick turns, could barely make out the shine of its sticker in a bush far from him.

Midnight Sparkle then places her hand on his chest, feeling an actual heartbeat. “Oh? Your heart’s beating itself out of your ribcage, not like the still coldness you had before.” She takes a deep, invasive whiff of Flash Sentry, the smell exciting her. “You’re very, very real.”

“Twilight, snap out of it! I don’t know what happened to you, but you’re not like this!” Flash Sentry pleaded before Midnight Sparkle grabs his collar, pulling him closer to her face.

“For the last time do not call me Twilight…” she demanded, looking sternly into his eyes. “I… am… Midnight.” She opens wide, baring her fangs to his neck.

Flash Sentry shuts his eyes, not wanting to be a witness to what’s next, when a yellow blur pulls Midnight Sparkle away from him. He opens his eyes, and sees standing proudly above him Sunset Shimmer; hair flowing in the cold night. “Sunset!”

With her unnatural strength, she lifts the tree off Flash Sentry’s legs and gets him to his feet.

“I knew there was some of you left!

Without warning, Sunset Shimmer pushes him onto the trunk, grabbing his shoulders to pin him down. “Flash…please be my thrall.” She asked of him desperately.

“Your what?!”

“My blood-sworn servant. With you under my command, the others won’t dare touch you.” Sunset Shimmer bites her lip hard, drawing deep dark blood. “Just drink my blood, and you’re mine forever!”

Flash Sentry is once more put in a very uncomfortable situation as she leans in to kiss him with bloodied lips. He pulls his head further and further away, but it all seemed inevitable when Midnight Sparkle returns to pull Sunset Shimmer off him, throwing her towards the cliff’s edge.

“You dare defy me, Sunset?!”

“I do, mistress.” Sunset Shimmer sarcastically confirmed, wiping her blood off her lips. “Even before the idea was in your head, I wanted Flash Sentry for myself. Take anyone from the camp, I just want him!” she demanded, her ferocity matching that of her superior’s.

“He’s a piece of meat like everyone else!” Midnight Sparkle dismissed her claim.

Flash Sentry was frozen at this sight, then turns to his discarded camera and case to the side, silently rolling towards it.

It was then the rest of the girls gather as Midnight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer, encircling the latter around the edge. “Where is he?!” Applejack roared.

“I’ve had it to here! I don’t want his blood. I want him dead!” Pinkie Pie screeched.

“We have bigger things to deal with, girls.” Midnight Sparkle informed them, pointing at Sunset Shimmer. “Sunset here doesn’t wanna share.”

“Well, we can’t have that, can we?” Rarity extends her claws, ready to deal well-waited punishment.

“I’ll be happy to cut off some dead weight.” Fluttershy sharpens hers, as well.

“Hey, the gang’s all here!” Flash Sentry yelled from above. They look up and find him balanced upon the very top of a pine tree, crossing his arms and looking down on them as they did to him.

Midnight Sparkle focuses her senses on him, realizing it’s not the timid boy she almost had in her grasp, but the cold shell that bothered them throughout the night. “How…?”

“I would get a group photo, but my battery’s dead.” From his pocket, he waves a camera battery. “I’m gonna head back to get another charge. Could you keep this for me?” with a firm grip, he crushes it before tossing it down.

The vampires look at the battery lying on the grass leaking purple fluid, and jolt back when it expands and glows a deep purple. “Take cover!” Applejack tackles Rarity away before it blows up. The explosion wasn’t so large as to harm the vampires, but was enough to collapse the cliff they stood upon, causing a landslide sending everyone standing down a tremendous drop.

Back at the cave, Rainbow Dash sat alone curled into a ball, accompanied only by the sound of water droplets from stalagmites hitting the cold floor. After memorising its sound pattern, she hears footsteps and quickly stands up. If it’s a vampire, she’s doomed, but ready to tackle them head-on. She shines her flashlight at the approaching figure, and it’s none other than Flash Sentry. “Oh, it’s just you.” She sighs relieved. “Did… you lead them away?”

“Sure did, but it won’t last. Go back to camp before they show up again.” Flash Sentry advised.

“Wait, you mentioned Geodes. What are they for?” Rainbow Dash questioned.

Suddenly, Midnight Sparkle glides into the cave and tackles Flash Sentry to the floor. “So, this is where you two have been!”

“Rainbow, run!” Flash Sentry yelled to her, and without another word, she sprints right out of there.

“I’ll get her soon enough. But you?” Midnight Sparkle lifts Flash Sentry by his shirt. “You’ve made yourself quite the white whale! I should gut you now!”

Before he could do anything, Midnight Sparkle carries Flash Sentry high into the sky with the speed of a hawk. She gains altitude in seconds, levitating below the clouds while holding up a barely-conscious Flash Sentry. “Too bad the whiplash didn’t kill you. That’d be a mercy, wouldn’t it?”

Flash Sentry could barely breathe at this height, but that didn’t seem like a problem for Midnight Sparkle. “You… fly… of… course…” were the words he could barely gather with little oxygen.

“What are you going to do? Flash me again, you fall to your death. Give up, I drop you, and you still fall.” Midnight Sparkle taunted him with hopeless choices. “There’s no ending where you’ll survive, so might as well give yourself to me.”

Flash Sentry looks down at the pine forest below, his vision steadily fading. “There… is… one…” Playing his final card, he smacks Midnight Sparkle with his case, making her let go and unlatching the case wide open.

As Flash Sentry descends, he reaches for his case where his phone goes flying out. His effort is impeded by Midnight Sparkle gunning for him, dropping towards him like a missile. “Flaaash!”

“On it!” Flash Sentry points his camera, blinding Midnight Sparkle with a strobe. With that giving him time, Flash Sentry grabs his phone and puts it to his ear. “Get me outta here, Twi!” By his command, a rift below him tears open, revealing a chromatic vortex that swallows him and his equipment before demanifesting, leaving the blind Midnight Sparkle to crash into the forest.

She lies still, her eyes back to her natural violet before bleeding back to red, and she rises from the ground. Filled with rage, she huffs and puffs after her experience with Flash Sentry’s tricks, but simmers down, slowing her breath. “What a wonderful game we played… but next time, I’ll be the one to set the board, one you’ll surely lose.” She smiles for herself, confident in her victory the next time they meet.

Far from Midnight Sparkle’s crash landing, Rainbow Dash continues running back to camp “Flash, where are you?!”

“Rainbow Dash! I’m here!” unexpectedly, Flash Sentry emerges from the shadows, wearing his camp shirt and panting tiredly. “Oh, oh, thank goodness you’re safe.”

Rainbow Dash immediately notices his change of clothes, remembering this was what he was wearing before they met again. “Flash, where’s your jacket?”

“Rainbow, that’s not important. Camp’s a mile this way!” Flash Sentry hurried her forward.

Following Flash Sentry, Rainbow Dash was further confused of their meeting earlier. If that wasn’t this Flash Sentry, who was it?

After Flash Sentry and Rainbow Dash’s escape, the vampires were left without a victim, still hungering for blood. “You should’ve taken out Flash right there!” Fluttershy scolded Sunset Shimmer, shoving her from behind. “Because of you, we’re still hungry!”

“Me? You were brooding instead of finding more campers to feed!” Sunset Shimmer argued.

“Who are we going to eat now?!” Pinkie Pie growled.

“I told y’all we should’ve fed on the camp! That’s a bona-fide buffet if I’d ever saw one!” Applejack stomped her foot.

“Applejack, have some class.” Rarity rolls her eyes as she leans against a tree; arms crossed. “We may be hungry, but we’re not wolves. Imagine the mess after a massacre like that.”

“A massacre… oooh…” Pinkie Pie visibly drooled at the thought of painting the log cabins red.

“Patience, girls.” Twilight Sparkle emerged from the canopy with a proud smile. “Despite Sunset’s blunder, there’s always a lost lamb running around these woods, and we’ll be the ones to trap it!”

Interrupting them is a new noise to the silent night: a haunting, yet beautiful harmonica melody, instilling sadness and longing, coming closer and closer before a man emerges from the darkness of the forest. From his silhouette, they discern the brim of a fedora covering his face, and the silver glint of a harmonica.

“Who’s there?” Rarity called out.

The figure puts away his harmonica and speaks. “Just a traveller, looking for my friend.” He explained simply, his tone haughty, yet humble. “He’s about my height, wears a black suit and a purple waistcoat. Seen him?”

Thinking he was a mere lost soul; the vampires decide to take him as a victim, draining the bloodlust of red from their eyes. “Come with us, maybe we can find him together.” Sunset Shimmer suggested, enticing the man with the appearance of helpless teens.

“Thank you. This world needs more kind people like you.” The man bowed gratefully.

“Follow us. Camp’s this way.” Applejack thumbed to some random direction, having no intention to lead this man anywhere but their dinner plate. The vampires lead the man away from whatever real help he could find, and he follows them like the lost dog he is. With their backs to him, the vampires smile in anticipation for their long-awaited feast. As he follows behind, the man lifts his head to look at the girls ahead; eyes shining as ultra-bright Orbs.

Elsewhere in a sterile, expansive room lined floor-to-ceiling with metal plating, housing an advanced horseshoe-shaped archway, the rift manifests within the arch for Flash Sentry and his equipment to tumble out, covered in leaves and dirt. With a clank, his face falls flat on the floor plating. “Ow.” He groaned as he rolls over. “Guh… I should’ve stretched before hopping in.” As his eyes adjust to the light, he sees a familiar yellow-and-red figure standing beyond the blur.

“Flash, you good?”

Flash Sentry’s eyes widen in surprise before he leaps up onto a kneeling position. “Sunset! Please don’t take my blood!”

His vision reconciles with the lighting, seeing before him Sunset Shimmer in her usual sleeveless leather jacket and orange T-shirt, puzzled at his reaction. “Flash, it’s just me. What happened?”

“Yes, please do tell.” A proud voice chirped as Twilight Sparkle and Spike approaches them, dressed in her lab coat whilst holding a tablet. “Your reaction was much different then after emerging from the last few trials.”

“Must be some crazy universe. Is this the one where I’m a real boy?” Spike asked Flash Sentry, tail wagging in anticipation.

“Oh… sorry. Still hopped up on adrenaline after that trip.” Flash Sentry chuckled as he dusts the leaves off his jacket and jeans. “The Bridge took us to Camp Everfree a couple years ago, a night into our trip. Well, not actually at the camp, but further into the forest, and then—”

“We were attacked by your counterparts, who were apparently vampires for some reason!” From the camera around his neck, a digital-processed facsimile of Flash Sentry’s voice summarized, its sarcastic tone matching his when he played hide-and-seek with the vampires.

“Yeah, that.” Flash Sentry looked away shamefully.

“Vampires? Are you hurt? Did they bite you?” Sunset Shimmer asked in concern, putting her arms on his shoulders.

“If so, we need to quarantine you.” Twilight Sparkle continued, approaching with sterile gloves.

“No, I’m fine. Rainbow Dash saved me just in time. Although I dunno what happened to her after you extracted me. Hope she’s alright…” Flash Sentry assured before shuddering, thinking back at the experience. “The things the vampire yous did to me… holding me down against my will, arguing who gets to suck my blood, dividing me like…” as he explains, his amber skin is dotted with goosebumps.

“I have all the evidence here. Wanna see?” his camera asked everyone, excited to show off. “We distracted them with the holo-Flashes. Really, you gotta see these photos! The looks on their faces when I show up when they least expect it is hilarious!”

Sunset Shimmer hugged Flash Sentry tight. “I’m so sorry you went through that, Flash. You know we won’t ever do that to you.” She assured him with care like a mother’s.

“Vampires aside, this is our first discovery of a universe running on a time delay! A whole three years slow from ours!” Twilight Sparkle commented excitedly as she enters notes onto her tablet, entering the brief descriptor of “Vampire Outbreak” onto a list of found universes. Among others listed are “Equestria,” “Sunset Can Swear,” “I’m Left-Handed,” and “We’re Guys Here.”

“I hope other Rainbow Dash can handle that vampire situation. We should probably check back on this universe before it’s too late.” Spike added.

“Delving into random universes to put on the record wasn’t what I had in mind for a post-grad gig.” Flash Sentry sighed dizzily. “Look, I just fell from about five-thousand feet, so I’m going home to rest. Take care of Lil Flash for me.” He puts his case and camera beside Spike before walking into a set of sliding glass doors behind them, spraying decontaminating mist on egress.

“Flash, wait up. I’ll drive you back.” Sunset Shimmer followed after him, leaving the room, too.

“See you Monday!” the camera called to Flash Sentry, contrasting his queasy state with his own excitement.

“Think that’s enough of a test-drive?” Spike asked Twilight Sparkle.

“I believe so.” Twilight Sparkle nodded affirmatively. “From trials, we’re shifting into full operation.” On her tablet, she opens a messaging app and group calls The Rainbooms. “Girls, do I have an adventure for you!”

THE END