No! She's innocent! I'm leaving before you try to tempt me further!

     Hastily, you start to gallop down the stairs. You don't care that you're making noise, you just wanna get-

     Smack!

     You're knocked snout-first down the staircase onto the hard floor below. Sweet Luna; did that little pony do that? That hurt!

     Smack!

     Right in the snout! You take a few steps back instinctively. Looking in all directions, you use your night vision in a desperate attempt to find your assailant.

     Movement, right th-

     Smack!

     Ow! Right there! Get it!

     You lunge forward without thinking and snap your jaws in the direction that you think the pony is. Instead of catching a hunk of flesh, you unexpectantly bite...air. This pony must be f-

     Smack!

     CHOMP!

     You almost miss, but with a second attack you get a little bit of flesh!

     ...wait...you bit something small. Maybe it's her ear or something?

     Definitely not; ears don't squeak like rabbits.

     You bit a small, bright white rabbit in its paw. It rolls on the ground in pain. Speechless, your mind races to come to a peaceful solution. You didn't want to hurt anything, you were about to leave anyw-

     "Aaaaaiiiii!" the pony screams as she scampers to her injured pet rabbit.

     You step back reflexively, "I-I, um, well"

     "What did you DO to him!?" she sobs frantically as the paw-wound swells to an unnatural size.

     The rabbit squeals louder, signifying that the pain has increased drastically.

     Your eyes widen in surprise, "Get away from him! It's not safe!"

     "Wh-what!?" she looks up at you with wide, glossy eyes.

     The rabbit is going to change into a vamp- er, a vam...bunny soon. You could leave her here with it...no, no that wouldn't be right. This is your fault, you can't leave her for death.

     Grabbing her, you wrestle her a safe distance away from the rapidly changing rabbit, "We have to get you out of here, now! It'll kill you!"

     Panicking, she flails wildly in a desperate attempt to get to her dearest friend...but to no avail. You know better than to let her do that.

     She watches in horror as her pet changes into something entirely different.

     The rabbit shakes wildly, gasping for air in a desperate but futile attempt to breathe. Its hair grows slightly and puffs out a bit, giving it a larger appearance. Its long ears sleek back and unnecessarily large fangs sprout from its mouth. Once its gruesome transformation is complete, it slowly rises, breathing heavily and menacingly, staring at you both with glowing red eyes.

     It's no longer just a rabbit.

     The pony's eyes widen, "Angel, what-"

     "That's not your Angel anymore," you respond hastily, "at least he won't be for the next few hours...he'll be a mindless killer"

     You turn to her hastily, "I will do all that I can to protect your animals, I swear! Right now, you have to send for help. Find anypony in town who might know how to deal with-"

     "GRAAAH!" the vambunny snarls sickeningly as it lunges for the two of you.

     You kick it back and shove the pegasus pony away, "Run! Run, I'll try to contain him!"

     She starts to gallop away, but the bunny effortlessly ricochets off of a wall from the blow and lunges once again toward the timid mare. Before he can reach her, however, you block it with your hoof.

     You cry out in pain as the creature's fangs sink deeply into your flesh. Seizing the opportunity, the creature jumps from your leg onto the mare.

     The rabbit's jaws near her neck, when suddenly the vambunny is tackled off of the mare. The creature that fights for her bares its teeth and snaps at the rabbit, but the undead animal effortlessly kicks it off with its newfound strength. Looking up, the rabbit gets a clear look at its assailant.

     A snarling dog looks angrily into the eyes of the vambunny. Behind it, all of the pony's various pets angrily start to come after the rabbit.

     The dog lunges again, but the undead creature rips its throat out, leaving its limp body on the ground behind it. It turns around and notices the pegasus mare running away, and prepares to jump, only to be tackled back to the ground by you. In a whirl of hooves and paws, the two of you exchange blows.

     The creature suddenly changes into a rat and slinks out of your grasp. You leap after it, but fail to catch it as it changes into a bat and takes to the skies outside the cottage. Not good.

     Diving into the air, you yourself change into a bat as well. Years of flying experience overwhelm the vambunny, and you quickly catch up to it. Grabbing onto it, the two of you duke it out in the air above the cottage for a while before you get a good grip and change back to pony form. Your sheer weight brings the both of you plummeting to the ground.

     You pin it down on the ground harshly. It cycles through its three forms, hissing, snarling, and snapping occasionally, but to no avail. The creature is pinned down and unable to move.

     "I am so sorry...so very sorry" you apologize to the creature.

     You know it can't hear you; when animals first become vampires they're nothing but savage, bloodthirsty wrecks. It takes them a while before-

     "Get away from him!" you hear an angry voice call out from behind you.

     Ignoring the command itself, but thankful that help was sought out, you anxiously look over your shoulder to see who the pegasus got. A unicorn...she got a single unicorn...

     You faceho- Oh, no wait, you can't take your hooves off of the rabid vambunny. You mentally facehoof; this is JUST like ponies. Spare their lives once and regret it forever.

     "I'm not gonna warn you again" she growls and readies her horn.

     Just let the creature free...it will deal with them.

     Oh, deeefinitely you think back to the Ominous voice sarcastically.

     Listen to me, you MUST do it. You WILL do it. I shall arise again and when I do, you will be sorry unless you do EXACTLY AS I SAY.

     Shaking your head quickly it get it out of your mind, you yell over your shoulder to the angry unicorn, "If I let him go he'll kill you both! Do you have any spells that can knock him out!?"

     She blinks, not expecting you to be so nonaggressive, but cooperates, "Uh, I can use a spell to put him to sleep"

     "For how long?" you yell back, not effortlessly holding the angry creature down.

     She thinks for a moment, then responds, "About 12 hours"

     You nod confidently, "Should be good, let her rip!"

     Reluctantly, the unicorn mare trots over to the two of you and readies her spell.

     "Here goes..." she mutters, unsure of herself in the face of an angry vambunny.

     A magenta light shoots from her horn into the rabbit below you.

     Instantly, its body goes limp, it stops making noise, and its tiny head falls back onto the grass slowly. The rabbit is incapacitated.

     "Phew,"-you wipe the sweat from your brow-"that was cl-"

     Magical light and then...nothing. Are you dead? Did she kill you? That's hardly fair; you've only been a vampony for like five hours or so...or was it six? Oh well, it doesn't matter, you didn't really do anything wrong so you probably won't get punished...oh, wait, you're waking up, you're not dead. Good for you.

     Your eyelids slowly raise, and vision slowly returns to you, however blurry at first.

     Oh...my aching head...you groan to yourself softly.

     "...t...re...d..." you hear mumbling.

     You shake your head and listen again, focusing more this time.

     A muffled sigh, then, "I d...my...ttle pony"

     Senses fully restored you look up. It's daytime. Curse the day. The unexpected flow of light makes you feel extremely uncomfortable. It doesn't help that you're laying on a hard, wooden floor, either. Oh, wait, you heard voices earlier, didn't you?

     You look up, noticing a small basket overflowing with blankets and warm cloth of every kind. Gathered around it are six ponies and...oh dear...

     Standing regally, yet slightly hunched over to look at the basket, is the regal Princess Celestia.

     Her sparkling white coat flawlessly matches her light rainbow mane. A few assorted pieces of gold jewelry and gems adorn some of her features to show her status, and she's just TEEMING with the essence of magic. A creature of the night's worst nightmare.

     "You mean...we don't know anything about vamponies?" the yellow pegasus from before squeaks sadly, apparently on the verge of tears.

     Both the purple unicorn shakes her head, sighing, "Very little is known of vamponies...they rarely tell anything about themselves to regular ponies"

     The pegasus lets a few tears drip into the basket, "Th-then he could be...dead..."

     You sigh and roll your eyes. Sheesh, these ponies are so melodramatic. I mean, sure, they don't live forever like you do, but that means that they should celebrate the time they have to LIVE, not indulge in over-fascination with the dead. Crazy mortals.

     Looking down at your hooves, you notice that a chain is attached to one of your back legs. Facehoofing, you wonder if they REALLY thought this through. You quickly change into a rat, crawl away, then change back again.

     Walking toward the basket, you break the silence of the unanswered question, "He's not dead. Well, technically he is, but not really..."

     The six mortal ponies gasp and take a few steps back and stare at you, wide-eyed.

     Celestia only frowns at you and raises an eyebrow, "Sleep well, did we?"

     "I see I'm not the only one," you roll your eyes and walk toward the basket nonchalantly, "how long has he been out?"

     "Both of you about twelve hours" she replies, not taking her eyes off of you lest you attack one of her precious subjects.

     You look at him for a moment, see his lack of breath, then nod, "He's going to be just fine"

     "And just how do YOU know that!?" a rainbow-maned pony challenges, "What are you, some sort of doctor!?"

     Ignoring her comment, you look up at Celestia, "You know, vamponies would be willing to tell you more about themselves if you weren't so rude all the time...no, I'm not a doctor, rainbow pony, but this is what happens to all vampire animals"

     All of the ponies raise an eyebrow at you, hinting that you need to explain further, "When vamponies bite other ponies and don't kill them by sucking all or most of their blood, they change into a vampony in a few minutes. With animals, they lose all resemblance of their former selves for a few hours and turn into savages. Once that is complete, they go into a coma for a few days where they stop breathing entirely. Many ponies bury their pets, thinking that they caught rabies and that they're now dead, only for them to dig themselves up and come back to their owners.

     "Your 'Angel' still had a few hours left of time to be a beast, but since your unicorn friend put him to sleep, he slept through the rest of his aggression and skipped right to 'the great sleep' as it's informally referred to...after a few days, he will be back. He won't want anything to do with carrots, but he will need some fresh blood to sustain him. Comas take a lot of energy, you know, and being such a small animal he will be ESPECIALLY hungry"

     After a moment or two of silence, you speak again, "By the way...why exactly did you knock me out, Unicorn lady?"

     The purple mare smiles sheepishly at your glare, "Honestly? After I save your sorry flanks"

     "It was your fault in the first place" Celestia adds defensively.

     You open your mouth to argue, but...nothing comes out. She's right.

     Sighing, you turn to her, "...touche. Yes, it's true, this is my fault...but, to be fair, I could have left you for dead if I was truly 'evil'"

     "Now wait just a cotton-pickin' minute," the orange earth pony speaks up, "why exactly were ya in her house in the first place?"

     After noticing that all eyes are on you, you sigh, then wave a hoof dismissively, "Alright, you caught me, I was staking out the house because I sensed a LOT of blood. I wasn't going to kill her or anything...well...actually..."

     You trail off, remembering the Ominous voice...then quickly shake your head, trying to forget the thought.

     "Well? Actually?" the princess raises an eyebrow.

     Oh buck, you forgot that they were still in the room for a moment there...

     "Er, nothing" you lie, avoiding eye contact.

     The princess gets down to your level and looks you square in the eyes, "Listen, I deal with lying politicians all day every day, and I have for the past few thousand years. I know an obvious liar when I see one"

     "Well..."-you take a deep breath-"...I heard a strange voice in my head last night when I looked upon the yellow one over there. It kept telling me to kill her, but I didn't. I had to run out of the house to stop myself, though, and that was when I was attacked by that rabbit...I wasn't thinking, so I instinctively lunged at him a few times and, well, the rest is history, I suppose"

     "...a strange voice?" Celestia questions curiously.

     "Deep and rumbling," you answer, "a smooth tone that sounded similar to thunder"

     Celestia thinks for a moment before looking at you deeply, "...I see"

     Lingering for a moment in thought, she opens her mouth to say something, but shuts it as she continues to stare at you. Silence engulfs the group once again.

     Rainbow laughs, "Maybe he's just crazy"

     "Probably," you sigh, "but that won't be a valid explanation for long...the ominous voice said that it will 'rise again'"

     Celestia went white as a sheet. Well, whiter than white as a sheet, considering that she's already white...you know what I mean.

     "Did it give any details as to when?" she whispers softly, evident fear in her voice.

     You shrug, "Not really...but if I was to guess, I'd say 'probably soon'"

     Celestia shook her head quickly and started to walk out of the cottage, "I will get back to you all on this later, right now I must talk to my sister"

     "Wh-what!? Wait! Princess! What about-"-the door quickly slams in Twilight's face-"...the vampony..."

     Her blood runs cold and she turns to you slowly, before proceeding to walk toward you cautiously.

     "Listen, um...what was your name again?" she asks hesitantly, as if it is forbidden knowledge.

     "Uh...does #3, 046, 735 count?" you shrug, amused slightly at the inside joke.

     She rubs the back of her neck, "Not really...but I guess we could call you...um..."

     The pink mare gasps, finally speaking after remaining silent during the depressing conversation, "We could call him NUMBY!"

     Slightly insulted, you turn back to the purple one, "I think just 'you' will do, thanks"

     She rolls her eyes, "Alright...You...since the princess forgot to do anything about you, I guess you're staying here in Ponyville..."

     Sighing, you turn back to the yellow pegasus, "Look, considering this is mostly my fault, I think it would be best if I stayed and helped with...er...your Angel friend..."

     Fluttershy is silent, not even acknowledging the conversation as she stares solemnly at her beloved friend.

     "On second though," you quickly turn back to Twilight, "maybe I should do something less...tempting. Are there any jobs in Ponyville that I can do?"

     "Can you bake?" the pink mare offers hopefully.

     You shrug, "Probably not"

     "PERFECT!" she leaps into the air enthusiastically, "You can start today!"

     Turning to the purple one for an explanation, you raise a single eyebrow silently. She giggles and waves a hoof dismissively.

     "My name's Pinkie Pie!" she announces happily, "But you can call me Pinkie Pie! Nice to meet you, You!"

     You shake her hoof, "Likewise. Where and what will I be baking, Pinkie Pie?"

     "Cupcakes and Sugarcube Corner!" she almost explodes with energy, "No, wait, Sugarcube Corner and cupcakes! You don't work at cupcakes and bake Sugarcube corner! That's silly, you silly!"

     "Are you always like this?" you raise an eyebrow.

     The purple one chuckles, "You get used to it. My name is Twilight Sparkle! This is Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity"

     After a round of polite/uncomfortable greetings, all of the ponies quickly make excuses as to why they have to leave.

     "I, uh, have to go buck some apples! Eeyup, I'm a little behind today so-" you stop listening.

     It isn't their fault that they don't want to hang around an undead rabbit and a psychotic killer, they're only ponies. They expected you to be taken to jail by Celestia, anyway.

     Before they leave, however, the Ominous voice returns.

     Kill them all, now, while they're in a convenient location to strike.

     I do not serve you, whoever you are, Strange voice you think back to it bitterly.

     You serve me more than you know

     Your narrow your mental gaze, And what exactly do you mean by-

     "Hey! You! Wake up!" you hear loudly.

     Blinking, you refocus your vision to your surroundings and notice that everypony is gone, save for Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.

     You missed your chance. They could have all been gone forever, but you blew it. Next time you get such an opportunity, you WILL listen to me. Is that understood?

     Understood, but not accepted. Now leave me alone you almost growl.

     "Huh? What's going on?" you shake your head and look to Pinkie.

     She smiles, "Phew! I thought that you went asleep with your eyes open! C'mon, I have to introduce you to the Cakes!"