“I can see why you’re the guardian here.” Twilight said as the three of us took seats in the main hall once more, which was more like an oversized living area. Schnitter giggled and her scythe appeared again, though a grindstone appeared in her right hand and she started sharpening the thing as we talked. It wa silents, but still kind of intimidating.

“Oh now you’re just showing off.” I said, rolling my eyes. She just chuckled darkly and focused on maintaining her weapon. Since it wasn’t made out of the dark magic mine and Twilight’s were, it needed to be maintained. It got silent for a little while, except for the grinding, so I decided to broach a rather recent subject.

“So, Twilight, how did my blood taste?” I asked. Twilight gained a strange expression, somewhere between thinking and embarrassment, and Schnitter stopped her grinding dead to start laughing.

“Hm... A-A bit like... kinda... I don’t really know how to put it into words... I mean it has that metallic taste that blood always had, but the rest of it... I dunno.” She replied. The first time drinking blood is always like this for vampires, I can only imagine how it was for her not being one.

“What about her lips when you kissed a bunch?” Schnitter asked. I shot her a glare, to which she just laughed again. Twilight’s embarrassment was in full force now as she looked at the ground, I just chuckled and put my arm over her shoulder where she sat next to me on the couch.

“I couldn’t really tell... Both times there was blood in our mouths...” She squeaked out. That made me laugh and Schnitter laugh harder.

“We can experiment with that later...” I started in a low voice only Twilight could hear. “But for now we should head back, I imagine it’s about 2am and we still have a rat’s nest to exterminate.” I continued, standing up. Twilight stood up as well and Schnitter adopted a pouty face.

“Ahw, so soon? If they give you trouble just summon me up, I got enough of my strength back to create a physical form in other dimensions again.” She said, finishing her work of sharpening the blade. She proceeded to pull out a cloth to polish the metal and the wood handle.

“Hm, I might just summon you up to watch the show.” I said with a chuckle. She gave a thumbs up as we left. We reached the destroyed bridge once more and I sensed the ambient magic of a blood portal, a portal created with the blood of someone to find that someone. So that’s how they found me, they must have found my blood on the ground. I used a quick spell to track where it came out and saw nothing there, they were smart and moved away from their camp to do it.

“Alright, Twilight. You saw what I did to open the Midnight Bridge, your turn.” I said, nodding my head towards one of the support stones. Twilight nodded and a single sharp crystal finger of her gauntlets appeared for her to open up a cut on her palm. She smeared it on the rock, flinching a bit as the rough surface rubbed her cut skin, but the blood was absorbed into the stone just like mine did.

“You’ll get used to it.” I said with a smile, the bridge was building itself perfectly. She was a natural at it. I looked and saw the cut had already healed, though I was surprised when she cautiously licked her palm.

“So that’s what my blood tastes like... I guess I can’t blame you for losing control before even more.” She giggled. That was very surprising, though. I’ve never seen a human enjoy the taste of blood, not even their own. We walked over the bridge and we were back in the Everfree. I motioned towards a direction, where I could feel a faint dark magical signature, and started walking.

She surprised me again with a question.

“Luna, what’s it like being a vampire?” She asked me. I almost stumbled over, my step faltering. I looked at her for a few moments, trying to put it into words. Only a few things came to mind.

“A balance of strength and power mixed with pain and suffering with endless loneliness.” I answered softly. She adopted a thinking pose as we continued and it was a few minutes before she spoke again.

“Pain and suffering I can handle, and if I have you and Schnitter and Celestia then Loneliness can’t last forever...” She said. Her voice was soft but confident. I stopped and looked at her. She looked me dead in the eye and I knew she was serious.

“Why do you want to be a vampire?” I asked.

“Because I want to help bring Equestria back to how it was, to help the good vampires be seen as more than monsters... and... and I don’t want to have to leave you and Celestia in a few decades...” She explained. I sighed... I had originally planned to do this, but as I got to know her better I didn’t want to put her through that. She didn’t need to do it, she was already doing enough by letting me feed on her.

“You can do most of that as is, Twilight, and just because time won’t touch you doesn’t mean you’ll still be here in even a year’s time. People hunt vampires, vampires hunt vampires and you’ll be seen as a monster and a threat to almost everyone in the nation.” I explained, trying to dissuade her. She stepped towards me and hugged me before talking softly into my ear.

“I know all of that, but there’s a lot more than just fixing the nation that I’ll be getting out of this. Among other reasons, I’ll be able to research vampires directly since I would be one, and I love you. I honestly think I do, and I want to know what you’ve gone through for so long.” She said, almost in a whisper.

I sighed and put her at arm’s length before shaking my head and pulling her back into an embrace.

“Not right now, I’m going to give you the rest of the night to think about it. Think about it in your dreams when we go to sleep. Watch what a Vampire does.” I said, using my magic to move a few branches and shrubs out of the way to reveal light of a camp fire. I let her go and let my cloak and scythe manifest, then I launched into the air silently, though I noticed something strange. My wings were no longer bat-like, they had simply turned black. I liked it.

I let myself fall and land gracefully in the middle of the camp. There were bandits everywhere, blood spattered the ground near where animals were being slaughtered for food and where a few people were in cages. I had landed inside of the large campfire, but it did not burn me. It just added to the effect.

“Fledglings... You rape, kill, pillage and destroy whatever life you can find and yet you are still sane. Your life force is forfeit, and I am the one who will take it from you.” I said with a spell that would make everyone in the camp hear it.

These ones were obviously even better than the ones who assaulted the Midnight Castle, and I think they were expecting something because in an instant I had about four dozen different arrows and weapons riddling my body. Their weapons must have been enchanting with blood magic, though, because they went through my cloak as if it were normal silk. My blood spattered everywhere and flowed almost freely down my body.

The one, who I assumed was the leader, stepped up to me with a grin. There was real power about him, though, not like the leaders of the smaller groups. He tried to look up at my face, but it was hidden in the shadows of the cloak. They all turned away and I found it hilarious that they thought they could have killed me so easily.

So I started laughing. It was just a little dark chuckle, but they heard it.

The leader pulled my hood back to find me grinning like a mad man with blood spattered all over my face, running down from an arrow in my left eye.

“What the fu-” He started, but I didn’t let him finish. I had pulled the arrow out of my eye, actually pulling it out of my head, and with a giggle I had shoved it in his. In a flurry of motion I barely controlled I pulled each individual weapon or arrow out of my body and sent it back to its owner in a lethal manner.

In the end there were only a few people left standing, and they were frozen in fear. I picked up my scythe, which had fallen to the ground, and quickly disposed of the rest of them. All of the blood and life force from every single one of them flowed into the blade of my scythe in one go before I let it disappear. I turned back to where Twilight was and walked up to her, who looked like she was ready to start crying.

“Oh come on, did you really think I would die that easily?” I asked, blinking rapidly as my eye slowly reappeared in my skull and all of my wounds healed in an instant. She just embraced me and laughed uncertainly.

“No, I suppose not... That was kind of scary though, does consuming the life force of others let you take fatal damage and still live?” She asked. That was actually spot on.

“Exactly. Now, think on it long and hard tonight.” I said. She nodded and we started walking again in silence.

I dreamed a strange dream again, though it wasn’t exactly as strange as others had been. Maybe I was just getting used to them or something...

Twilight and I were flying side by side in silence. We were flying over Canterlot, where there were spells and arrows flying up at us like mad. It seemed like we didn’t even really notice them as we swooped down and landed, the arrows bouncing off of our armor and cloak and the spells being absorbed into them.

We said nothing, we didn’t even react as we just walked towards the Palace. A few others clad in armor similar, but not as impressive, to Twilight’s fell into step behind us and a few Night Guards as well. We all let our vampiric features show. Occasionally a feral vampire would charge at us, hissing, or even a sane one and either Twilight or I, or even one of the many with us, cut it down without a second thought.

The arrows stopped falling, the mages were exhausted and a particularly pristine white figure was waiting for us in front of the palace doors. Celestia was wearing golden gilded armor and she had a very ornate claymore sticking into the ground next to her. She picked it up and shouldered it, walking towards us.

It was Me with my cloak of shadows and scythe with an aura of death, and her angelic presence and glorified look. We met, our weapons clanging on the ground, in an embrace. The vampires following us Cheered, while the people attacking us gave off a wave of confused sounds.

And then I woke up. I like that dream.

Author's Notes:

I'm running out of witty dance themed chapter names lol, but I'll manage. I plan on ending this in the next 5 or so chapters, lest I risk losing the drive for it.
Also, for Celestia, imagine Kayle from league of legends but slightly like ornate and flashy and more practical.