Twilight woke up.

Sort of. She groggily rolled out of bed around noon. Noon! Waking up this late- is was like some kind of crime, something only the laziest of ponies would do. Twilight had never slept in this late before and intended to never let it happen again.

She felt terrible on a physical level, too. Her head pounded, the light from outside stung her eyes, she felt thirsty for some reason and despite sleeping until the middle of the day, she was still tired.

'What was wrong with eating candy and staying up all night? Huh? What's wrong with it? What's wrong with it?'

Those mares had asked her that all all night long and here was the answer. It felt good at the time, but made you sick the next day. If she ever saw those three again she'd be sure to point this out, and seeing them again was a big if.

Vampires or not, Twilight vowed never to do that again. Fun as it was, it wasn't worth this. She silently decided that she wouldn't be meeting up with them for another all-night candy party, certainly not in a graveyard.

Twilight shambled out of bed and opened the curtains, blinding herself. She staggered backwards into her bed, wincing. Thank Celestia she didn't have work today, that job at the Pony/11 wouldn't start for a few more days yet. She needed to get up eventually, though, needed to do something, build some momentum or at least stay tired enough to go to sleep at a more reasonable hour tonight.

But what? It's not like Twilight had anything to do, not if she wasn't going to go meet those three. There was no school right now, nopony to talk to, all of her books were still in boxes and she'd read all of them besides.

She opened one of her eyes slightly and noticed the book about vampires Applejack had given her. There was one book she hadn't read, at least. Theoretically, she could also go to the library today, get a card and take out a new book, but she was far too tired today to go with that.

Twilight pulled the book over with her magic and opened it up. She yawned and rubbed her eyes until the page stopped being blurry.

If you're reading this, then you've most likely met a vampire already. Have you recently ran into an exceptionally beautiful pony, one who rarely goes out at day and at night their eyes seem to glow, who eats nothing but candy, who's commands everyone, including yourself, seem compelled to follow?

This pony may be a vampire and you may be in danger.

Below are several chapters organized by subject filled with vital information you'll need to survive. But above all else remember these three things– never invite one into your home, never accept what they tempt you with and never trust them.

She could understand why Applejack would assume Rarity was a vampire, if she seriously believed this. Rarity, at least, matched that description perfectly. Though really only that last part gave Twilight any pause. Rarity's charm seemed almost unnatural, she was just so pretty that you almost hoped she'd tell you to do something, just so you could do what she told you to.

If that didn't make any sense, it was because it didn't. Yet Twilight had experienced that feeling firsthand. Sitting next to Rarity, it gave her such a strange emotion. She tried to remember that warm feeling of safety and comfort Rarity gave to her, but couldn’t quite summon them up. She remembered how beautiful Rarity's face and eyes were– that much was burned into Twilight's memories. And then there was the way Rarity seemed so in charge, even the way she walked was-

Gah! And now she was daydreaming about that mare? Twilight shook her head and tried to regain her senses.

It was certainly strange, something Twilight had never encountered before, but vampires would be even stranger. Running into something unusual that you couldn't explain didn't give you license to assume even more fantastical explanations for it. Applejack was just bad at logic.

Twilight read on.

Vampires are manipulative, vicious and deceptive. They will hypnotize you into adoring them and giving them whatever they want. They will, if you are most unlucky, try to turn you into one of them.

Vampires cannot create others of their own kind as easily as other books would have you believe. It is a process that takes months rather than minutes and can easily be undone up to the last moment. If you are to become a vampire you will need to want it, the vampires will need to make you want to be corrupted to your very core. For this reason, the vampire will need the consent of the one they seek to transform and they will manipulate you to that end.

They prey on ponies who think they have nothing left to lose, 'strays' who could be easily tempted with promises of a better life. They are cunning and will start slow. Just a minor gift, just a small step towards corruption, just try binging on candy one time, cursing one time, staying up all night one time, and you'll be given attention, love and gifts in return – that's how they get you!

It will creep up on you, but you'll soon realize you've given in to the corruption, become as perverse as your corruptors.

This too sounded vaguely familiar. Those three had certainly been coaxing her into doing lots of small things which were bad, but not immoral. It was even the exact same list the book gave! All of this was pretty coincidental.

Nah! It was still silly, Twilight decided. What was this book even advising her to do? Not do something completely evil if Rarity suggested it? Twilight was pretty sure she'd be able to draw the line at doing something actually immoral.

Besides, them suggesting she do slightly suspect things didn't mean they were vampires or even evil. All it meant was that they were slightly suspect.

But take note! As convinced as you may be now that there's nothing wrong with your new lifestyle, as far as you've fallen, you still do not understand the real danger you face. Vampires are manipulative, but they are also deceptive, remember this.

They seek to transform you not for your own good, but for theirs. When a pony is turned they become the mindless slave of the vampire who turned them. You will lose all control over your own body and your sire will constantly, painfully drain your life force from you.

You may think your corruption is worth the pleasure you'll get in return, but it is not. All you'll get is slavery, not love or luxury. Your fate will be being trapped inside your own body, burning on the inside, forever. The vampire will deny this, but do not trust them!

That was certainly a disturbing image, but Twilight felt this part didn't apply to her. Twilight didn't want to 'give in to corruption' or become a vampire or anything like that. She wasn't even planning on going out to party again.

Before Twilight could read any more, there was a knock at her door. Twilight's ears twitched. She had no idea who that could be. Applejack? If she was back already then that mare was too persistent for her own good.

Twilight opened the door to see a stallion she'd never seen before. He was wearing a shirt, looking very professional. Then Twilight started to remember what happened last night in her manic craze. She wasn't about to get busted for ding-dong-ditch, was she?!

“Miss Sparkle?” the pony asked. Twilight nodded. “I'm here about your house back in Canterlot.”

That was a relief.

“Oh! Did it sell?” Twilight asked eagerly. She honestly didn't expect this so soon. Her parents had the house nearly paid off before they died, meaning Twilight would get a very good amount of money from the sale, money she needed right now.

“I'm afraid not,” said the pony. “Actually we were doing the inspection of the home-”

“-oh. I-it passed, right?”

“Not nearly,” said the pony with a flat frown. “I'm afraid we found dengu mold growing under some of the floorboards. That is a very serious matter.”

“It- it is?” Twilight asked. She had never heard of that particular mold before, but knew mold could be a big problem for house. “How much would it cost to get rid of the stuff?”

The pony flicked through his papers for a moment longer. It was like he was trying to torture her or something! But how much could it seriously cost? Bleaching the house, even tearing up the floorboards wouldn't be more than ten or twenty thousand bits, right? Even if it was a hundred thousand, Twilight could still live with that! She'd still make just enough from the house to survive.

“Dengu mold is an endangered species protected under current environmental laws,” said the pony. “'Getting rid of it', as you put it, would be a felony. Your house has been condemned.”

“Wait! My insurance will cover it, right?” Twilight asked desperately.

“No insurance covers dengu mold,” said the pony. He took out another paper and gave it to Twilight. “Here.”

He finally handed her a piece of paper. Twilight eyed it over frantically. Something about money. Something about 25,000 bits. Oh no. Oh no!

“A bill?! F-for what?!”

“The inspection, a fine for endangering the mold, a bill for the cost of your blighted property, and various other charges,” said the pony.

“But I can't afford to pay this!”

“Well it's not too bad.” The stallion handed over another piece of paper. “The endangered species compensation fund is paying you out approximately twenty-five thousand bits. It more or less cancels that out.”

“What?! So they're fining me and compensating for the exact same thing?! What kind of sense does that make?”

“Not much,” said the stallion, “but you know how politics are. I'm sorry I couldn't give you better news.”

He gave her a card, tipped his hat and left.

Twilight just stood there for a moment, stunned. She swayed just a little bit, any stray breeze could have knocked her over. Then her mind came back online and she rushed inside to do math, to try and find some way to deal with this.

She looked over her bills, the amount she inherited and the amount she expected to make, running the numbers in her head over and over again. There was no way. No way at all! Twilight would have to drop out of school and get a second job if she wanted to survive. It was either that or be homeless.

But then if she never finished high school she'd never get into college.

Everything fell like dominoes. She'd never get to be a great mage, would she? It was gone, her dream was dead now! She'd be flipping burgers for the rest of her life and that was it! All of that hard studying, all of her knowledge and intelligence, none of it would amount to anything.

It wasn't fair. Why did things only ever seem to get worse? Just one good thing, that was all Twilight wanted!

She was going to have to sell all her books too, wasn't she? Twilight still had a large library of books, but it was the last thing of value, in both cost and how much she loved it, that Twilight had. Everything else had already been sold off. Just the thought of giving that up was enough to make her tear up a second time, but food and shelter were more important.

No! Someday she'd get a good job and be able to buy them back, she assured herself. Maybe she could work her way up to manager or something! Until then there'd always be the public library, that was a thing.

Yeah! Yeah maybe this wasn't so bad. Twilight told herself that again and again, but it didn't help too much. The important thing was that there was nothing she could do about this until tomorrow. Tomorrow she could go to the library and research until she found something she could do, or something, some statistic, to comfort her!

For now she just had to relax. She could either spend all night in a cold sweat or relax and the latter was the logical choice. So why couldn't she do it? Twilight looked at the clock. It was already seven, she'd been budgeting for hours and now she was so exhausted.

Maybe sleep would be the best idea. Twilight went to bed and buried her face in the pillows. She closed her eyes, but her mind kept racing with worries about the future. And so she tossed and turned for what felt like hours, but, when she finally opened her eyes, only turned out to not even be a half hour.

She couldn't sleep right now. Twilight really, really didn't want to be alone. She desperately wished there was somepony she could run to for advice, or even just to talk to, but there was nopony left now.

At least she had her books. Yeah, that was right! Books were just as good as friends. She wasn't going to sell them tonight.

Twilight rushed over to her remaining books and grabbed the one about vampires, opening it to some random page.

Vampires are most typically

Would Twilight have to sell her books? How would she even live without them? No, no she'd been over this a million times already. She just had to read for now!

most typically found in two

But what would happen if she got thrown on the streets? Would she have to live in a box? Where did homeless ponies even find boxes? Maybe she could go to a homeless shelter but she didn't really know where one was or how those worked. Did you just walk up to random ponies saying 'hey I'm homeless now, so-'

No, no, no! Twilight went back to reading.

Vampires are most typically found in two types of groups, either a small number of mares living together or-

Twilight read that but didn't really get it. She read it two more times but her mind kept wandering away. She couldn't even get through a single sentence of this! Her books had failed her!

Twilight checked the clock. It was eight. Not even eight if Twilight was going to be honest. All that worrying and not even a half hour was gone! This was going to be a long, long night.

Twilight looked out into the night. It was almost night anyway, that time when the sky was still purple. Not even night yet. Twilight sighed.

Though come to think of it, wasn't it around now that those girls had wanted to meet with her? Twilight's ears twitched at that thought. She did have someone she could go to, didn't she?

Well, probably not for financial advice, of course, but she did have somepony she could at least talk to in general! Maybe her books couldn't distract her from her impending doom, but if anything could it was them.

But then Twilight reminded herself that she regretted it the last time. Those ponies would want her to stay up all night again, eating candy, drinking coffee, cursing and doing Celestia knew what. And the next morning she'd once again be-

Actually forget it! Twilight was going to stay up all night, sick with worry, anyway! She'd be exhausted the next morning no matter what she did. She might as well go over there. At least then the night wouldn't be a complete waste, at least she'd have a real chance of distracting herself, at least she wouldn't be alone.

Twilight threw a few things into a saddle bag and trotted out into the night.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

It was dark now, the kind of dark that made you think of all the horrible things that could be standing behind you. Right now there was a legitimate chance said thing was a dreadstalker. Yes, Twilight remembered that! Oh, how she remembered that. It'd be nice if she'd remembered it before going outside, alone at night, or even if she didn't remember it at all, but now?

So Twilight was moving at a brisk canter. She'd be relatively safe in town, at least, but she wanted to get to the others as soon as she could. A dreadstalker would almost never attack a group of ponies.

It wasn't too long until the graveyard was in sight and Twilight was moving around, looking for the entrance. The whole thing was surrounded by a high gate. It was an old graveyard too, possibly older than Ponyville itself. Twilight could tell just by glancing at it.

Specifically, she could tell this from a prevalence of an old style of gravestones and tombs, ones that short, spiked polls on the top and vines purposely running up them and over the grave. It was a motif that had become unpopular a few hundred years ago, making it easy to date them between three and hour hundred years ago.

There were, of course, more modern looking tombs sunk into the ground, but they were interspersed with the more ancient, vine-covered so that looking left to right the graveyard smoothly transitioned from being drowned in vines to having none at all.

The large gate before Twilight was vineless and new. As soon as she came up to it, Dash landed on the top of the gate and looked down at Twilight. Dash looked briefly shocked to see Twilight before laughing.

Twilight would take anyone right now! Her mood lightened a little just from seeing another pony. Twilight waved up at Dash.

“Hey!”

“You actually came?” Dash pumped her hoof down at Twilight, one of those long-distance bro-hoof deals. “Nice! I knew you'd be tough enough to show up, but Rares thought you'd crash so bad after last night you'd never want to hang with us again. I'll admit she's usually right about this stuff, but not this time! Come on in, Twi!”

While remaining on top of one of the gate doors, Dash pushed the other side open for Twilight with a swift kick. Twilight looked at the now open path into the dark graveyard. Rarity had actually predicted Twilight's reaction perfectly. Either Twilight was the most predictable pony in the world or Rarity was just insanely good with ponies.

That was probably a better explanation than the vampire theory, she just knew how to handle ponies. Or maybe manipulate them. That thought brought another important issue back to Twilight's mind.

“Hey, Rainbow Dash?” Twilight looked up at her. “Pinkie is here, right? I wanted to ask her about her family.”

Dash jumped off the gate and landed in front of Twilight, her wings spread defensively. She was fast! To be honest Twilight had never really known any pegasi so she didn't know how normal that was.

“Whoa, whoa! Why do you want to bring that up?” Dash gave Twilight a stern look, but quickly lightened her expression and stance and shook her head a little. “Guess I can't blame you for not knowing, but that's kind of a bad topic for Pinks. Think you could maybe not kill the mood by bringing that up?”

Twilight couldn't help but be suspicious over Dash not wanting her to ask about it. Was Applejack right?

“It's just that Applejack said you convinced Pinkie to run away from her family,” said Twilight. “If that's true, then it's not right. That's like something a cult would do.”

Dash groaned, rubbing her hoof against her face.

“First of all,” said Dash, “Pinkie ran away from home before she met us. She'd been living on the streets for months when we first met. Me and the boss found her in a dumpster looking for food. Nopony else bothered to help her. Her parents never even went looking for her. Know why?”

Dash took off her sunglasses and moved forward, forcing Twilight to take a step back, glaring into her eyes.

“It's cause they were horrible ponies. They,” Dash started but hesitated, loosing Twilight's gaze for a moment, “they did things. If Pinks had stayed on the streets she would have been better off there. Let's just leave it at that. If giving her a place to stay was a crap thing to do then yeah, the boss is a total bucking jerk. Otherwise, Appledork doesn't know what she's talking about.”

Twilight's ears fell flat against her head. That did change the tone of the story completely.

“Sorry,” said Twilight. “I'm sorry. I just-”

“Eh! It's alright.” Dash put her sunglasses on and smiled at her. “Like I said, you didn't know. We're cool. Just don't bring this up when Pinks is around.”

Twilight nodded.

“And we're not a cult or anything like that,” said Dash. “The boss just has a bit of a soft spot for strays is all. You know, kind of like you.”

Dash tried to give Twilight a light jab on her chest, but Twilight staggered back at the threat of being touched. What was with these ponies and physical contact? Who did that? And yet Dash rolled her eyes like Twilight was the one acting weird.

“R-right.” Twilight cleared her throat. “Maybe I should have been more skeptical of Applejack. She was saying some pretty crazy stuff, like that you three were all vampires.”

Twilight chuckled and so did Dash.

“She told you we're vampires?” Dash asked with a toothy grin. “Well I guess even Applejack has to be right about something, right?”

Twilight blinked.

“W-wait! Are you saying you're really-” Twilight began. Dash snickered. “Oh, right. Joking.”

Dash stepped aside for Twilight and opened one of her wings, inviting Twilight into the graveyard. Twilight took a deep breath and stepped inside.

They walked deep into the graveyard, towards where the older graves stood, until they were surrounded by stones covered in large vines. Finally, they reached a section where a number of small, square tombs rose above the ground.

Here, Twilight found Pinkie and Rarity waiting. Rarity was sitting with her back to one of the tombs, reading some kind of orange pamphlet. Whatever it was, Rarity had a small stack of them next to her. Meanwhile, Pinkie was lying on her back, keeping a small ball in the air by kicking it with each of her four legs in turn.

As soon as Twilight approached, Pinkie kicked the ball forward instead of up, sending it flying towards Rarity's face.

“Twitwi's here!” Pinkie exclaimed and shot up to her feet.

Meanwhile, the ball hit Rarity hard in the face. She was completely unfazed by this though, simply blinking and casually looking up with her eyes. When she saw Twilight, she gave a sly smile, put the pamphlet down and strode over to her.

“Twilight, darling,” said Rarity, coming uncomfortably close to Twilight, “I'm absolutely thrilled you showed up. To be honest, though, I wasn't expecting it.”

Rarity and her gorgeous blue eyes were inches in front of Twilight's face now. Rarity's charm sank its fangs straight into Twilight's heart, making it beat rapidly. A moment ago she was hoping they wouldn't be weird and get close to her this time, but now that Rarity was right next to her, Twilight found herself desperately trying to think of a way to get Rarity to pat her on the head again.

“I knew you'd come!” Pinkie ran after the ball and picked it back up. “And that means you lost your bet, Rara! Ha!”

Pinkie threw the ball at Rarity again, who effortlessly caught it in one hoof and threw it back at Pinkie. Twilight wondered how hard the ball was, as it was able to bowl Pinkie over when Rarity threw it. Then again, Pinkie started laughing right after so maybe she only pretended to be knocked down.

“I do have to say, I'm so rarely wrong about ponies that I get a bit worried when I make a mistake. Why did you come back to us, Twilight?” Rarity was staring deep into Twilight's eyes. “I realize I'm too beautiful for my own good sometimes, Twilight. Did you just fall for my charms, Twilight? Maybe you spent all day unable to think about anything but me, Twilight? Did you see my perfect body every time you blinked, Twilight? Were you dying for me to pay attention to you again, Twilight? Is that why you came here, Twilight?”

Twilight was unable to even blink while Rarity talked, she just kept staring into those deep, deep eyes, hanging on Rarity's every word. She thought to herself that Rarity was saying her name far too often, but felt her ears twitch every time she heard Rarity say it. It's weirdness took back seat to something else, a need to answer.

“N-no,” Twilight felt the words slip out of her mouth without the hesitation she normally had when talking to Rarity. “I didn't have you stuck in my head all day.”

“Interesting!” Rarity pulled away from Twilight, trotting a few steps away from her. Her smile was different now, a bit wider. “Very interesting.”

Pinkie nodded excitedly at Rarity.

“Hm! Then why did you decide to come to us a second time?” Rarity asked. “Why come to the 'bad' ponies instead of the ones who are 'normal' and act exactly like you? I set you up to be friends with Thunderlane, Bonbon and all them. Or do you want something more? I did say I'd give you anything you wanted. So what is it?”

Twilight felt a little chill when Rarity offered her 'more'. It made her remember that book. She also was suddenly back to her normal self, unable to answer right away.

“Er. I was just having a bad night,” Twilight admitted. “I didn't want to be alone and I figured, you know, you three were the only ponies I know who stay up this late.”

“Bad night?” Pinkie threw the ball aside and got on her feet. “What happened, Twitwi?”

Twilight blinked. Pinkie was looking at her with a pretty serious look of concern. She was a little taken aback by the sudden interest.

“I don't really want to think about it right now.” Twilight shook her head. “But I can stay with you three tonight, right? I mean, hang out and all that. You did invite me!”

Twilight turned back to Rarity, who gave a little frown, thinking over Twilight's answer.

“Well you're certainly welcome to come to us whenever you want.” Rarity's mouth flipped back to its typical grin. “It's just important to me that ponies only come to me because it's what they truly want. It's a bit hard to explain to anyone who isn't me, though.”

“She's just trying to keep from losing our bet,” said Dash. “You hear that, Rares? You better pay up later!”

Rarity gave something that sounded like a scoff and strode over to Dash. Faster than Twilight could see Rarity snatched Dash up with one of her forelegs and gave Dash what looked like a crushing hug. Dash struggled against Rarity's grip but wasn't able to pry her loose.

Then Rarity whispered something in Dash's ear that made Dash blush heavily and stop struggling. A second later she was nuzzling Dash and then Dash was nuzzling back and-

-and did they really have to do this in public? This was getting awkward.

Twilight took a few small steps until she was next to Pinkie, who was looking at the two of them with a warm smile, like it wasn't totally gross.

“H-hey, Pinkie! How come no one else is here, by the way?” Twilight looked around to make sure she didn't miss anypony. “I guess I just assumed you'd have more ponies around.”

“Usually it's just the three of us,” said Pinkie. “It's super fun to have lots of other ponies around but daywalkers are- well they're okay in small doses! Dashie says we gotta be careful around them so we don’t catch 'terminal lameness'. Like polio, I guess.”

“And why are we in a graveyard?” Twilight asked. “You know this is a weird place to be, right?”

“Well we're weird ponies! And you know what?” Pinkie leaned in like she was going to whisper, but just shouted instead. “Being weird is awesome! I wish I started sooner.”

“I did warn you.” Rarity came trotting back, Rainbow Dash in tow. Thankfully they seemed to be done. “But there are wonderful things you can find in places like this, if you care to look.”

She moved over to the doors of a crypt and grabbed the vines with her magic, pulling them to the side. Rarity fumbled about with her magic a little more and just like that, the door was opened. Twilight didn't see anything but black on the other side.

“A tomb?” Twilight asked. “You wanted to show me a tomb? That's not exactly what I call awesome”

“It's through the crypt, not in it,” said Dash.

“And it is super, amazingly awesome!” Pinkie assured her.

“But we can't just go in there,” said Twilight. “I recognize from the architecture that this is an Elementalist tomb. In their religion its forbidden for the living to enter the resting place of the dead. Only dead ponies and elementals are supposed to see the inside of these tombs, so going in there is a really big taboo.”

“Well I am impressed with your knowledge, Twilight.” Rarity turned away from the crypt and came within reach of Twilight. For a second Twilight's heart stopped beating as she hoped for another head pat. Sadly, it didn't come. “But tell me, are you an Elementalist? Do you believe in the elementals? That the dead can see? That Therazane will drag us into the earth if we behold that which is meant for the dead alone? That's the real reason entering these tombs are forbidden, you know, for fear of Therazane. Elementalists don't fear these tombs out of some misguided respect, but because they truly believe the elementals will get them. Do you?”

“Well, no,” said Twilight. “I don't believe in any of those things, I'm a Celestian and all that. But, I mean, well it's still disrespectful to the dead, right? Whoever's buried there believed that stuff, and I'm sure their families would want us to respect that, so um...”

Twilight couldn't quite finish that argument. It was frustrating that she was so good at argumentation when written down, but couldn't articulate it so well in actual conversation.

“The dead won't care what we do,” said Rarity, “and as for any relatives they may have, I can personally guarantee you they don't mind us visiting. Besides, I hardly see how we're the disrespectful ones. What's more disrespectful, leaving the dead to their dust, to be forgotten completely, or to visit their memories?”

“Well, I mean,” Twilight said, scratching her head, trying hard to think of a logical counter to that.

“Well what?” Rarity her smile got more vibrant as she watched Twilight try to mull it over.

“I guess it just feels wrong,” said Twilight, “even if I can't say exactly why. Shouldn't I, you know, go with that?”

“Should you?” Rarity gave her a smile and a wink before heading inside the tomb.

That was another thing about Rarity Twilight just noticed – when she went somewhere you wanted to follow. She took a subconscious step towards her, her hesitation suddenly replaced with a magnetic pull towards Rarity and the crypt. Twilight approached the doors and looked at the blackness inside. There was a steep staircase right after the door, leading deep underground. A feeling of dread came over Twilight for obvious reasons, breaking that magnetic feeling as fast as it had come.

“Come on Twitwi! There's so many great things you'll never see if you stay up here!” Pinkie moved up behind Twilight and started pushing her forward with the top of her head. “Come on come on come on!”

“Are there going to be dead bodies all over the place?” Twilight dug her hooves in, slowing her movement to a halt. “I mean, there are dead bodies down there. Won't it be a festering pit of rotting corpses?”

“Nope!” Pinkie said without the slightest care before giving up on pushing Twilight and bouncing past her and down the stairs. “Join us, Twilight! Being one of us is great!”

Well, that much was good.

“It's your choice.” Dash walked past Twilight. “But if you came here you might as well go all the way. You won't ever regret following us.”

And that's how Twilight ended up alone in a graveyard, staring into an open tomb. Should she go? The other option was staying up here alone. Somehow, that would be even worse. Twilight took a deep breath and went down the stairs.

She worried for a moment that she'd be blind down there, but already she could see a light at the bottom of the stairs, a bright red glow that flickered like it was coming from a fire. Twilight followed it until she was in the crypt itself. Inside was nothing like she thought it'd be, wasn't even dark like the entrance was.

Far from a festering pit of rotting corpses, this place was beautiful. It was a hallway with six stone coffins lining each of the walls and a bed of stone in the center of it all. The coffins were gilded with gold and the walls and columns between them were covered in gems. Everything had intricate, detailed designs carved into them, swirling patterns and carvings of ponies with eyes socketed with gems.

Money looming on the back of her mind, Twilight wondered how anyone could have just buried so many valuable gems.

“I knew these tombs were ornate,” said Twilight, still taking it all in, “but this is much more than what I imagined. This family must have been amazingly wealthy.”

“Fairly wealthy,” Rarity corrected her, “but not as much as you'd think. This is the tomb of the Gemstone family. This one-”

Rarity trotted over to one of the coffins, one with an image of a filly carved into it. She ran her hoof down the side of the stone face and closed her eyes.

“This was a filly name Sweetie Belle,” she said. “Just after getting her cutie mark, she got an incurable disease and died tragically, at such a young age. Her family was devastated. Her father coped with the loss by focusing his attention on building this ornate tomb or her.”

Rarity very slowly trotted over to the next coffin, running her hoof along the waving, swirling patterns along the wall as she went, tracing the patterns in the gilded stone.

“The whole family were renowned for their artistic talents, you know,” said Rarity. “The father bought the finest stone and most brilliant gems to fill this place, spending more money than he could really afford, spending days and days down here carving this out, making it perfect– his final, beautiful gift for his lost daughter.”

She finally stopped in front of a second coffin. From the design on the front it looked like it probably belonged to a mare.

“Does that sound like a sweet gesture?” Rarity glanced back at Twilight. “Well not everyone thought so, apparently. Sweetie Belle's mother was also crushed and her husband spent all his time down here, away from her, focusing on the dead rather than the living. Maybe he could have helped her through it otherwise, or maybe it was always hopeless, but-”

Rarity ran her hoof along the coffin in front of her, lovingly, sorrowfully. Twilight almost got the impression that Rarity had known the pony inside, though of course this was impossible, seeing as they died hundreds of years ago.

Unless Rarity was a vampire, said a little voice in Twilight's head, but she dismissed it right away.

“-here they are,” said Rarity, not taking her eyes off the coffin. “A tragedy, some bad decisions, love makes us do stupid things, Twilight. Not just good, stupid things, either.”

Rarity let out a sorrowful sigh.

“You know,” Twilight said to Dash, “this is actually kind of depressing.”

“This isn't what we came here for,” said Dash. “Rares doesn't always get this whishy washy when we pass through here.”

Dash moved over to Rarity and put a hoof on her back.

“You gonna need a minute?” she asked.

“Of course not.” Rarity turned back to Dash , a sad smile on her face. She closed her eyes and nuzzled Dash's mane softly. “I would never make the same mistake these ponies did. Pinkie?”

“Right,” said Pinkie.

She bounced her way over to the far corner of the tomb and began pushing a stone slab that was on the ground.

“Rara brought us here a couple times just to look at the statues.” Pinkie had managed to dislodge the slab by this point, and was now taking bricks out of the wall behind it. “I was so incredibly bored one time that I started poking around and poking around until I noticed-”

A small collection of bricks were next to Pinkie now, and a hole in the wall was in front of her. It was a small, cavernous tunnel, only about half of it above the foundation, leading into the darkness.

Pinkie smiled and gestured to the tunnel before crawling into it.

“We're going spelunking?” Twilight asked. “But that's really, really dangerous! Did you know there are 52 ways that cave diving can kill you? Because there are!”

“We've already explored this cavern,” Rarity assured her. “It's stable and there's a place to turn around up ahead. We've even put support and lighting up in the main area.”

“And the place at the end is awesome,” Dash said. “Bit of a drop at the end of the tunnel, but you'll be fine.”

Twilight bit her lip and looked at the tunnel. This still sounded like a bad idea. In fact, the ideas they were giving her were getting progressively worse, from uncomfortable to disrespectful to outright dangerous.

“I don't know,” said Twilight, backing away a little. “It's okay if I say no, right?”

Dash rolled her eyes.

“Look, Twi,” said Dash. “We were right about the party and playing pranks and coming down here. And going into the cave is a great idea too!”

Rarity raised a hoof, which was enough to silence Dash.

“Of course you can say no. Everypony has their choices to make,” she said to Twilight, then turned back to Dash. “We've done enough convincing. I want to see if she'll follow on her own now.”

Rarity crawled into the tunnel next. Dash gave Twilight one last glance before following.

“Trust us, Twi,” Dash said, just before crawling into the hole herself.

Twilight secretly wished they had stayed to convince her, or even told her she had no choice. Sure, the latter would have been rude, but now Twilight found herself conflicted. Being brave had worked out for her so far, but surely there was a limit to what one should shrug off their fear to do.

Twilight started trotting back and forth, wanting to both follow and leave at the same time. She stopped herself much quicker this time, though. This conflict was just going to keep her alone and from seeing new things, wasn't it? Besides, they assured her this was safe and they'd done it before.

Twilight took a deep breath and crawled into the tunnel. Once you had gotten past the entrance, it actually wasn't too cramped, Twilight could easily stand but she had to duck her head. It was tight enough that turning around would be a bit tough, but they said there was a bigger area just ahead.

So with her head bowed and her horn glowing, Twilight trotted down the tunnel. Soon enough she came to the drop Dash had mentioned, which was actually two drops, one to a ledge then one to something that looked to be a much larger area, some light already glowing from within.

“Is it really safe to drop down there?” Twilight called out. The drop did look to be from almost the height of a second story window.

“Do it all the time,” said Dash. “You'll be fine.”

Twilight hung looking over the ledge for a moment, running some calculations in her head... Maybe it would be safe after all.

Twilight leaned forward and fell onto the ledge, front feet first. She landed a bit hard, but it didn't hurt. It wasn't so bad, actually. She made the second jump much faster and landed in a surprisingly warm section of cave with a large pool of water in front of her.

Rarity shot a spell straight upwards. Twilight followed that ball of blue magic with her eyes. Just now she realized that the roof of this place was actually a massive ruby, with several smaller, but still large, rubies littering the ceiling and to a lesser extent the sides of the walls.

Rarity's blue magic light up the gem, causing it to glow along side her sphere of magic. The red from the rubies and the blue from Rarity's magic mixed to fill the cavern with an otherworldly purple glow. The cut of the gems caused the light to cascade a bit, stopping in some places and breaking into pure red or blue in others.

“This really is pretty,” said Twilight. She wasn't sure if it was better than the gilded tomb had been, but it was at least as beautiful. “To think something like this would be buried so deep- Is this what you wanted to show me?”

“Nope!” Pinkie exclaimed. “That's not even the good part! The good part is the hot spring.”

Hot spring? Twilight moved over to the water and put her hoof over it. Sure enough, it was warm, a bit more than a bathtub. A little bit forward was a heavy trickle of bubbles, some of which made it all the way to her. It was almost like a natural Jacuzzi.

“A hot spring?” Twilight asked, more out of surprise than anything else. “But that's impossible. Ponyville isn't anywhere near a volcano, and if it was wouldn't there be more?”

“Not from a volcano,” said Rarity. She pointed to the ceiling. “Pay closer attention. These aren't rubies, they're fire stones.”

Twilight did study them more carefully and blushed at the realization that Rarity was right. Twilight did know her gemstones mind you, it was just that it had been dark before and Twilight had been a bit distracted. She wouldn't have made this mistake otherwise!

“And nopony knows about this place but us!” Pinkie moved past Twilight excitedly and jumped into the hot water, reclining against a stone. “Come on in, it's great! Oh! But don't go over to where those bubble are or you'll die a fiery death!”

Twilight looked at Pinkie, then back to Rarity.

“But wouldn't this water be stagnant?” Twilight looked around the edges of the cave to see where this pool of water could be coming from, but couldn't find a source. “Well, actually I guess the bubble might help, but we're near a graveyard! It could be contaminated!”

“Purification spell.” Rarity bent her head over the water and her her glowed. The water followed suit briefly, then the blue light among it died down. “You said you study magic, yes? I'm sure you know that one.”

“Well yes,” said Twilight. It was an advanced spell, but not too advanced. Twilight knew it, but you certainly wouldn't expect anyone who hadn't studied magic to. “I'm just a little surprised you do. Did you study magic?”

“You could certainly say that,” said Rarity. “I dare say I'm very well versed in magic.”

“Really?!” Twilight's eyes sparkled. She had just found another pony her age that was into magic! All of Rarity's weirdness was suddenly forgotten, this was great! “What kind of magic do you study? Enchantment? Illusions? Kinetics? Transformation?”

“I've read up on all of the major branches, and minor ones. I can't think of a type of magic that hasn't caught my interest at some point.”

“Me too! I can't get enough of magic! I know over a hundred spells and try to learn a new one regularly.”

“That's a lot for your age.” Rarity circled around Twilight, looking her over once more. “You are a very clever little pony aren't you?”

That was the sort of thing that would sound condescending from any other pony on the entire planet, but when Rarity said that, it made Twilight blush. Her instinct was to freeze whenever Rarity circled her like this.

That blush was interrupted by a splashing sound and some warm water hitting Twilight. Pinkie had just jumped into the springs like it was a pool.

“Come on in!” Pinkie dipped under the water, then came back out, spitting some water up like a fountain, which Twilight was fairly certain wasn't a standard hot spring activity.

Dash was beckoning her too, already having gone in while Twilight wasn’t looking. Twilight looked down at the water and poked at it. It wasn't too warm. The stone near the edge had clearly been carved into at some point, given the one side was a smooth wall. Then she turned to Rarity who just smiled at her.

“Well?” Rarity smiled.

“Come on!” Pinkie fell onto her back and started swimming around. “Join us, Twitwi.”

“Stop saying that, Pinkie!” Twilight took a break from poking the water to give Pinkie a stern look. “It sounds creepy!”

Twilight braced herself and moved into the water. It wasn't bad. It felt great actually. Twilight let out the most exhausted sounding groaned she'd ever heard and sat down, leaning her back against the stone wall. The warmth melted away all the tension in Twilight's muscles.

She let out a much more contented sigh and relaxed. She was glad she came here. This was way better than having a panic attack.

“Nice, hm?” Rarity leaned over the edge of the spring towards Twilight, but didn't touch the water herself. “I bet you didn't know being 'corrupted' felt so nice. Maybe you should let me twist you a little bit more?”

“I dunno if sitting in a hot spring is very corrupt.”

“Indulgence of any kind is frowned upon in society. A sad fact, if you ask me.”

“And you're trying to corrupt me?” Twilight sank into the water a little more. She knew Rarity was just teasing her, but still.

“Most ponies wouldn't have followed us down this far,” said Rarity, “not nearly. I think if you're here then maybe you want to be 'corrupted'.”

“Followed you down?” Twilight thought about that for a moment. Through a graveyard, to a crypt and now here. “Oh sweet Celestia! This cave is a metaphor for my moral descent isn't it? I don't want to be corrupted!”

Twilight stood up straight, lifting most of herself out of the water.

“There are no metaphors in real life.” said Rarity.

“And even if there were, we're the ones with a hot tub!” Pinkie declared splashing the water a little. “How can somepony with a hot tub be evil? Hmm?”

“That's nonsensical but interesting,” said Twilight, leaning over to look at her dim reflection in the pool, “what is the hot spring supposed to represent? I guess my reflection is kind of blurry. Like, the pleasure of the hot spring is blurring my character? Does that make sense?”

Twilight looked up Pinkie who gave an enthusiastic nod. Rarity looked less amused.

“What did I just say?” Rarity put her hoof on Twilight, just slightly above the base of her tail, and pressed down gently.

Twilight tensed up and resisted for a second, but slowly gave way to Rarity and sat back down in the water. The warmth came back, relaxing her.

“There!” Rarity sounded so chipper “That's better.”

Twilight liked that, but she didn't want to admit it. She just blushed and tried not to make a sound.

The blushing only got worse when Rarity sat down right behind her and began fussing with her mane. Rarity looked it over, then flipped it around with her magic, then put one hoof on Twilight's back and another on her head, poking around Twilight's mane in a manner that reminded Twilight of an ape picking bugs out of another's fur.

This was a clear violation of personal space. Most ponies would be outraged by this. Twilight knew she should tell Rarity to stop, but she really like the feeling of her hooves poking against her. And the other two were just splashing eachother, acting like it was no big deal.

Somehow this was normal here.

So Twilight just let it happen, pretending it was normal like the others did. Just sitting here, completely silent felt awkward, though. Twilight tried to think of something to talk about.

“So uh, how did you know about that family?” Twilight asked. “The ones in the tomb upstairs I mean.”

“There's a plaque on the side, dear,” said Rarity. “Why do you ask?”

“No reason.” Twilight let herself sink into the water a little. Darn it! She should have asked about magic or something.

“Applejack's been feeding her those vampire stories,” said Rainbow Dash.

“Oh? Are you worried about that?” Rarity let go of Twilight's hair and leaned around Twilight to look at her from the side. “Even if we were vampires I'm sure you'd be fine. We like you, Twilight. So would it even matter if we were?”

“Yes. Cause then you'd be killing ponies and drinking their blood. Vampires are evil.”

“Oh I'm sure if I was a vampire I'd be clever enough to not have to kill anypony,” said Rarity. “I hardly think a vampire has to be evil, either. In fact, I think it'd be better than being a normal pony. Wouldn't you want to be a vampire, if you could?”

“Um. No? Why would I want to be a vampire?”

“Well you'd get to live forever,” said Dash.

“And they're supposed to have eternal beauty and unnatural charm,” said Rarity.

“And vampires never get sick or tired!” Pinkie declared. “They never have to go to work or school and can play all day!”

“I don't think that last one is a thing,” said Twilight. “But what, are you huge fans of vampires or something?”

“We are very much fans of this stuff,” said Rarity. “It is interesting to think about, isn't it? Would you really turn down an offer for all of that?”

“Yes,” said Twilight. “Vampires have to kill ponies every day and die instantly in the sun.”

“And who's idea was that, huh?” Dash asked. “Maybe vampires just lose their powers in sunlight. Maybe they're like fruit bats instead of the blood-sucking ones and just need lots of sugar to live. Unless you actually met one, how would you know?”

“Well if you're just making up your own vampire rules then sure,” said Twilight. “But they're supposed to be drink blood and-”

“-that's not the interesting question here.” Rarity waved the objections away with her hoof. “The interesting question is if you'd like to live forever. Would eternal youth be worth never going out in the sunlight again? Or at least being outcasted by society.”

“Well of course I wouldn't,” said Twilight. “Living forever would be horrible.”

They were going to ask her why, Twilight knew it.

“Because,” Twilight added quickly, struggling to find the reason why. Again, she knew it was the right answer, but struggled to think of why. Rarity smiled. “Because then, um. You'd have to watch all of your friends and family grow old and die.”

“Wrong!” Pinkie pointed at Twilight.

“Think you got that backwards, Twi,” said Dash. “Watching your friends grow old and die is something you have to do now, it's something every normal pony has to deal with. But if you were a vampire-”

“-and all of your friends were vampires,” Rarity continued, “who also never aged, then you wouldn't have to do that, would you?”

The other three had moved a good deal closer to Twilight and had surrounded her. Twilight glanced back and forth between them.

“Okay, now you're really giving me the impression that you're vampires who are trying to turn me,” said Twilight. “I mean, I don't believe in vampires, but if you were-”

“-we wouldn't hurt you,” said Rarity.

“I know,” said Twilight. You'd think being alone with them in the perfect place to hide a body would be unnerving, but Twilight actually felt more secure here than back home. “But you'd tell me, right?”

“Oh, I don't know about that.” Rarity gave a teasing smile. “It'd depend. Maybe it would be dangerous to tell ponies who don't want to join me themselves.”

“But you'd join us, right?” Pinkie lurched forward. “If we were vampires, I mean. Wouldn't it be awesome to all be vampires together?”

“No.” Twilight pulled away from her a little. “I just said I wouldn't want to be immortal.”

“And gave a bad reason,” Dash said.

“There are other reasons,” said Twilight. “I'd get bored of everything eventually, when the sun explodes I'd be floating through space, eventually years would seem like seconds, I'd be sucking up resources and deny new life the chance to take my place. Eternal youth would be selfish.”

Twilight nodded. There. Those were all good reasons.

“You mean except when Celestia does it,” said Rarity.

Twilight's confidence shattered just like that.

“Th-that's different!” She managed to stutter out.

Rarity just chuckled and sat down behind Twilight once again.

“Ah! Now I know!” Rarity pulled Twilight's bangs all the way back. “The perfect mane style for you. Something spiky, like Rainbow Dash's but more of an up do.”

Twilight looked skeptically at Dash's hair, then back at Rarity.

“But I'm a unicorn,” said Twilight, “and that sounds like a pegasus' haircut.”

“I know.” Rarity winked. “That's precisely one of the reasons it would look so bold on you.”

“But you can't-”

“You can do your mane any way you want,” said Rarity.

“I know I could technically get any mane cut I wanted,” said Twilight, “but there are some things you're just not supposed to do! Earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi all have very specific ways they're supposed to wear their manes and deviating from that would be – well it'd be going against society!”

“Buck society!” Dash spit off to the side. “And buck Celestia too! What right do they have to tell you what you can do?”

Twilight gasped at Dash's flippant attitude about this. Did she really just blaspheme Celestia? Twilight had never heard anyone say something bad about the princess before! She was pretty sure you could get fined for that! Even go to jail if it was bad enough.

“Oh come on!” Dash let her self float on her back and drifted deeper into the water. “You seriously think Celestia's right about everything? And that society is too? They have all kinds of stupid crap they force on you! You honestly think the system is fair?”

Now, Twilight would normally have lectured Dash about this, and she opened her mouth to, but had to stop talking. She remembered what had just happened to her just a few minutes ago. She was about to defend how fair the society that had basically ruined her life moments ago for the sake of some mold was.

Twilight couldn't muster the will to disagree with Dash and had no choice but to shut her mouth and look off into the distance. Maybe it was a little unfair sometimes.

With only her eyes above the water, Pinkie drifted over towards Twilight till she was an inch away and looked up at Twilight with her eyes.

“You suuuure there's nothing you want to tell us?” Pinkie asked. “You look kind of like there is.”

Twilight bit her lip, unsure if she wanted to say it.

“Okay.” Twilight bowed her head and sighed. “It turns out I'm not getting any money for my parents house and now I got a huge bill instead. I honestly don't know how I'm going to keep all my bills paid till I'm done with high school, let alone get through college.”

“Well I'm not sure of the specifics,” said Rarity, “but it may be worth it to challenge whatever caused you to lose the house. As for debts– those can be deferred or renegotiated. If you're really going broke most ponies will settle for something instead of getting nothing.”

“Wha?” Twilight didn't see that one coming. They really could give her financial advice? “Well, maybe, but I don't really know how to do any of that.”

“I'm very good with managing money,” said Rarity. “If you're willing to show me all the papers, I can show you what to do.”

“R-really?” Twilight thought about protesting, at least to be polite, but she really needed help right now. “I mean, if you can help me at all that'd be great! Thank you so much!”

Turned out coming here was a good idea!

“Thank you. I-I really.” Twilight's eyes started watering. It really was so unfair, all of it! She tried not to cry. “It's just so much! Was my family dying and having to move here not enough?! Everything is just so terrible right now! I just-!”

Twilight lurched forward and sobbed, trying so hard not to cry. She didn't want to break down in front of everypony, but it was so hard to keep the tears back.

“Ah. Poor Twitwi.” Pinkie popped out from under the water completely. “You know what you need? A hug!”

Pinkie smiled widely and held her forelegs out wide, offering to receive Twilight. Twilight was shocked by this suggestion. Her eyes widened in horror as she stumbled backwards, falling out of the water entirely. How could Pinkie just ask that?

“You can't hug somepony in public!” Twilight gasped.

“Says who?” Dash asked.

“I'm pretty sure like 99% of ponies would think that's inappropriate!”

“Yeah, maybe they do, but 99% of ponies are stupid. Sides, it's not like a secret underground chamber is 'public', Twi.” Dash swept her hoof across the very secluded location.

“Well yeah, but-”

“Have you really never been hugged before?” Pinkie frowned at her. “Poor Twilight! I know what that's like!”

Twilight had been hugged before of course, by her parents. She got hugged by them once a year, on a holiday where it was traditional to hug your foals. Even then it was quick and awkward, something you did to get it over with and shuddered at the thought of. That was how normal ponies hugged. Well, either that or in a very dark room with your spouse, never to mention said hug again.

“Yeah,” said Twilight. “Only with my immediate family, though! I know you three hug each other all the time, but frankly I think it's wrong! You can't hug anypony but your family and even that's pushing it.”

“But we're friends now!” Pinkie just opened her hooves wider. “And friends are just as good as family! Better, I'd say!”

“Friends?”

Twilight had never actually had any friends before. No real friends, anyway, nopony that she'd go and have play dates with and all that.

“Are we friends?” Twilight asked.

Pinkie nodded. Twilight found herself shifting in place a little. Actual, honest-to-Celstia friends?

“Heh. I know what the real problem is.” Dash snickered. “You'd rather hug Rarity, right?”

Twilight bit down hard on nothing! Why were they so good at silencing her?!

Dash just laugh hysterically.

“Hahaha! You're too easy, Twi!”

“Is that it?” Rarity asked playfully. “Do you want me to hug you and make it all better?”

Rarity got out of the water and sauntered over to Twilight. Twilight's mind instantly screamed 'yes'. It was just so wrong, but Twilight really wanted to grab onto Rarity for support. Something deep down told her to, something she knew she was supposed to resist.

“There's nothing wrong with it, dear,” said Rarity. “It wouldn't be tempting if there was no good in it. Go ahead and just say yes.”

Twilight swallowed hard, looking into those beautiful eyes.

“Y-yes,” the words drifted out of Twilight's mouth.

That was all Rarity needed. She gave Twilight an almost seductive look and came even closer, much closer than before even. Rarity wrapped her forelegs around Twilight and the two of them were pressed together.

Twilight had never done anything this crazy before. Her body stiffened up, becoming stone.

“Relax,” Rarity whispered in her ear.

Rarity rubbed her hoof gently down Twilight's back and made hushing noises. Twilight felt Rarity's heart beating against her chest, something she didn't remember ever feeling in another hug before. She could feel so much strength behind Rarity's grasp, but it was a gentle at the same time. Twilight felt... safe.

Twilight let her shoulders drop just a little.

“There you go.” Rarity nuzzled her forehead. “I bet you feel a lot better now.”

Slowly, bit by bit, Rarity rubbed all the tension out of the hug. This wasn't at all like the other hugs Twilight ever had before. It was just so warm and soft. Maybe the fact that Rarity didn't see it as wrong let Twilight relax as well.

Twilight was drooping into Rarity now, burying her face into Rarity's chest. She felt safe from the world for a moment, everything outside vanished. All that cruelty, Twilight felt like she could hide from it.

“I-it's just not fair!” Twilight sobbed into Rarity's fur.

“No, it isn't.” Rarity gently patted Twilight on the back. “But I'll try to be.”

Twilight sniffed. Rarity just seemed to strong and amazing right then.

“Can I ask why you like me?” Twilight ask. “You could hang out with anypony you want, why a loser like me?”

“Why do I like you?” Rarity asked. “Well maybe I just like corrupting innocent ponies like you, just as Applejack said. Or maybe...”

Rarity stroked Twilight's mane and brought her muzzle up against Twilight's.

“Maybe I see something wonderful in you,” said Rarity, “something ponies very rarely have, a certain cleverness, a certain love and curiosity. I think perhaps you're one of those few, few ponies who can come to realize that what she calls corrupt is better than what she calls good.”

“Are you saying corruption is better than goodness?” Twilight pulled away a little.

“Pay more attention, darling.” Rarity patted Twilight on the cheek and pulled away herself.

As soon as Rarity pulled back, Pinkie moved in and glomped onto Twilight from the side.

“If you weren't like that you'd never know the joy of hugging a friend!” Pinkie declare. “And you wouldn't get to eat all that candy or play any of those games! You thought all those things were bad just yesterday, didn't you?”

“Maybe,” said Twilight. “Maybe. I think I'd like it all more if my life wasn't in tatters. Distractions are nice, but that's all they are.”

“I still don't think you understand how good I am. Tomorrow will be a better day for you, darling,” said Rarity, smiling in the light of the fire stones “In fact, I'm certain of it.”

__________________________________________________________________________________

It was noon and once again Twilight was still in bed. She had somehow managed to fall asleep, though not until six in the morning. Much more of this and those three would successfully turn Twilight nocturnal.

Twilight pushed herself out of bed, rubbing the sleepy out of her eyes. Sleeping through the morning and waking up at noon made you hate the sun. The crash wasn't nearly as bad this time, maybe because she had less candy or maybe because she didn't stay up for twenty-four hours straight yesterday. Celestia knew.

The main problem with waking up at noon now was that Twilight was starting work tomorrow and wouldn't be able to sleep from six in the morning till two in the afternoon anymore. As always her friends has a solution to this as well – stay up all night, go to work and then go to sleep. She started work at six in the morning, so she could sleep from two in the afternoon till ten at night and never have to see the sun again.

Just like Luna intended.

Twilight looked at her tired face in the mirror. They really were trying to turn her into a vampire, literally or not. And Twilight was tempted to try it, too. She was so exhausted in so many ways she could probably sleep till after dark. Rarity said she could come over tonight to help with finances if Twilight was still awake...

And then there was a knock at her door. Twilight banged her head against the bathroom sink and moaned. It felt like ages since she'd opened the door to anything other than bad news and really, should she expect this to be any different? Life was just a series of horrible things happening, it seemed. Literally the only good thing in her life right now was the delinquent candy vampires, and even they were sketchy.

Oh how she wished it was one of her new friends, but Twilight knew they slept all day. Twilight braced herself and threw open the door.

Fluttershy was standing on the other side, a basket covered in a blanket in her mouth. Today Twilight learned that Fluttershy did indeed carry stuffed animals with her everywhere. There was a large fox on her head and two more on her back, near the base of each wing. She gave a muffled 'hello' through the basket handle before setting it down and giving Twilight a warm smile.

Twilight had honestly forgotten Fluttershy even existed. Had that seriously only been two days ago? It felt like an eternity.

“Fluttershy!” Twilight was relieved to see her. She was pretty sure that basket didn't have any bad news in it, and at this point an obsession with stuffed animals had become a welcome sort of insanity. “How are you doing?”

“Oh, I'm always doing wonderfully.” Fluttershy put the basket down to talk. “I brought you a few things, just some fruit. You don't mind right.”

“Of course not,” said Twilight. “I would love the company, actually.”

Fluttershy came inside and set the basket down on the table. That fruit would be coming in handy. Twilight needed to save every bit she could now. She pulled the blanket off and it was actually a very expensive looking gift basket. It had a spread of all sorts of fruits as well as chocolates and cheeses.

“Oh, wow! Thanks. This is really nice of you.”

“I, uh, did have something else to say.” Fluttershy carefully placed her fox plushies nearby, as if they were guests at the table too. Then her expression became rather serious for someone who had just set her stuffed animals up for tea. “It's about the dreadstalker. It, uh, got another pony, the night you and me got to Ponyville.”

And then Fluttershy grew quiet for a moment, lowering her head. So it was bad news after all. Twilight felt bad for whoever died, but this new was hardly as crushing as yesterdays. Really, it didn't affect her at all. She already knew there was a monster on the loose.

“And the reason that's important is because he was in his house, in the middle of town when it happened.” Fluttershy opened her eyes again. “That means it isn't a normal dreadstalker, since they wouldn't typically go into town at all. And then add to the fact that I'm having so much trouble finding it... normally I would have already brought it back south by now!”

Twilight's ears perked at that news. This sounded much more pressing on a personal level.

“And, uh, how worried should we be about this?” that seemed like the most important question here.

“Not too much more than you were,” said Fluttershy. “It's mostly just that it's going to take a lot longer to find this animal than normal and that you aren't necessarily safe in town at night, not alone anyway.

“Yeah. I'm not really an expert like you, but it coming up this far north and wading through ponies and streetlights, it sounds like it's sick even to me.” Twilight folded her forelegs and thought about it. “Why are you having so much trouble finding it, though? Shouldn't it be easier to find if its sick or something?”

“The only explanation I have for this is that its got some kind of dark magic implanted in it- that's something that hurts animals a lot and something they don't get better from.” Fluttershy made a small, slight whimpering noise. “That means that I may have to... you know, put it down.”

She looked pretty shaken up about that, too. Fluttershy was probably one of the few ponies in the world compassionate enough to care about the dreadstalker. Twilight almost thought she'd cry for a second, but Fluttershy pulled herself together rather quickly

“But that's besides the point! I'm supposed to hand out these pamphlets. They're about dreadstalkers.” Fluttershy pulled out an orange pamphlet and put it on the table. “Since it might be a while till we catch it, it'd probably be good that everypony knew more about them. You know, to stay safe. Oh! And normally I put these in the mailbox, so I thought I'd just bring in your mail, too.”

Fluttershy put a few letters on the table and gave Twilight one of those squeak-smiles. That was kind of weird, but then Fluttershy was kind of weird.

Twilight noticed the letter on top had red stripes on it and the word 'URGENT'. She also saw that it was labeled as an insurance notice. Her heart sank when she saw that and snatched it off the table with her magic, forgetting Fluttershy was there for a moment.

“You don't mind if I-” Twilight looked back up at Fluttershy.

Fluttershy nodded and Twilight tore the letter open. Her eyes tore though the contents as fast as possible to get to the important part.

It had a check for fifty thousand bits in it!

Was this for real?

“Is it bad?” Fluttershy must have noticed Twilight's stunned expression.

“It says it's for my parent's life insurance.” Twilight was still reading the letter over. “It's fifty thousand bits! But I didn't think they had life insurance. That lawyer guy said they didn't.”

She took a moment to study it more carefully.

“Clear Living Insurance?” Twilight eyed the letter suspiciously. “I don't think I've ever heard of them before. You don't think this is a scam do you?”

“I actually have insurance with those ponies,” said Fluttershy, “Clear Living Insurance, I mean. I know the company is real at least.”

That much was reassuring. Maybe Twilight was just getting a bit paranoid after all bad luck. Maybe she was jumping straight to the worst case scenario. The letter did look legit and it was entirely possible Twilight had just missed something about her parent's insurance. Celestia knew she was young and didn't know a lot about this stuff.

She combed over it several times for any sign to the contrary, but slowly she began to let herself relax and accept that this thing might just be for real. Twilight couldn't stop a smile from creeping onto her face.

“This is-” Twilight held the note against her chest and smiled, tears in her eyes. “This is exactly what I needed! Now I won't have to get a second job and I can go to school and buy books again! Oh! Thank you so much mom and dad!”

Twilight balled up in excitement, then gave a leap into the air. She was so excited she started to jump around the room, listing off all the horrible things that wouldn't happen to her. Everything was going to be great now! Somewhere in her excitement she remembered Fluttershy was there and that she was making a rather ignoble display in front of her.

“Oh! I'm sorry.” Twilight froze in place and

“It's okay with me,” said Fluttershy. “I'm just happy you're not going to starve and, uh, all those other things.”

“Yeah.” Twilight plopped back down on the floor, a little exhausted. Excited as she was, she had just woken up. “Of course, I still need to have the bank look over it to be completely sure it's real. But if it is, I really think things are going to work out!”

“Oh, and speaking of things working out, did you make any friends like I suggested?” Fluttershy smiled at Twilight expectantly, like she was asking about her colt friend or something, way to optimistic about getting a positive answer. “Hm?”

Had Twilight made any friends? Those three flashed into her mind immediately, as did the crazy nights she shared with them and most of all the fact Pinkie had called her a friend.

“Well I kind of met these three ponies.” Twilight rubbed the back of her head. “I dunno if we're 'friends' though. I mean, we hung out and I've never done that before, but I'm not sure if we're friends.”

“I think that's good enough to call them your friends.”

“Maybe, but- It's just they're kind of strange.” Twilight looked down at her tea. She was less certain of that than Fluttershy. “They listen to loud music and stay up all night eating candy and they curse and hug each other and... well lots of weird stuff.”

“They aren't pressuring you into doing anything you don't want to, are they?” Fluttershy asked. “Do you want me to talk to them?”

Twilight found the idea of Fluttershy going up against those three to be even more of a mismatch than her going against the dreadstalker. Fluttershy was nice, but – well actually that was exactly why she probably wouldn't be able to stand up to them.

That did raise a good point, though. These ponies were exactly the type those educational films warned about– the kind that use peer pressure. Were they pushing Twilight into all of this deviant behavior She thought about everything they'd done so far.

“Well, no,” Twilight concluded, somewhat reluctantly. “Really, it's almost the opposite with them. They're constantly saying everything's my choice and I can leave whenever I want. ”

“Do you like doing, um, whatever it is you do with them?” Fluttershy asked.

Twilight frowned to herself. That was exactly what she didn't know the answer to.

“It's fun,” Twilight admitted, “but I don't think it's what– well most ponies wouldn't approve of it.”

“Don't tell too many other ponies about this.” Fluttershy looked around, then leaned forward and spoke to Twilight like she was sharing a secret. “I actually have a huge stuffed animal collection. Most ponies think it's really strange for a mare my age to have those and for a long time I used to keep it a secret. I'd run around and hide all of them every time somepony would come over. But eventually I decided it was best to just be myself.”

“I can kind of understand that,” said Twilight, “but I don't know if what they're into is what I really want to be doing.”

“I don't see any harm in finding out,” said Fluttershy.

Twilight yawned. She was tired. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad an idea to give those three a chance. Yeah. Twilight decided to go back to sleep for a few hours once Fluttershy left... until night came.