Tia

This was it... The purest moment. A moment of truth. The truth of what she was. Her very nature. Her purpose itself. Her fangs sank deep into the stallion's flesh, her jaws clamped perfectly around his throat. A mastered technique of a seasoned hunter. It cut his air, slowed his breathing. His heart. The blood slowed in his veins. She could hear it. Every pulse in his body reverberated painfully through her fangs. Rain poured around them, and thunder drowned out his cries for help. "End him. Bleed him." The whispers goaded her. Her fangs sunk deeper. "Feed, Karliah...it is your nature...." "No, it isn't," A softer voice whispered, "You are better than this, Karliah. You are..." Too late. Her jaws tightened down on the stallion's throat, crushing the airway. He struggled briefly. Then went limp, twitching only two times. He was still in a matter of seconds. Blood gushed from his throat, and Karliah drank deeply, savoring the liquid nectar. Liquid nectar? The thought jolted Karliah from her feeding trance, and she choked out, dropping the stallion mid-feed. Karliah spat the remaining blood in her mouth to the ground, wiping her face obsessively to remove the blood from herself. She stood shaking, too stunned by herself and what she had felt. She had felt such pleasure. Bliss that she could only experience this way. It had made her feel alive. Energized. And yet...as she looked down, she saw only the body at her hooves. His lifeless eyes stared at nothing. Blood pooled around his throat, the rain washing it away down the stream. It cleansed her too. Or so it seemed. She was innocent. She had never been here, and even now, she fled to the shadows, knowing that only in one hour's time, there would be someone to discover what she had done. "Blood is power, Karliah! Never forget!" "No! I didn't mean to- Leave me alone!" Karliah cried, burning tears blinding her as the wind whipped past her. "Accept! Accept!" The whispers hissed. "Never!" She snarled back, and she slowed herself down, shaking her head violently. "No!" She hissed, "I am better than this! That was a mistake!" She panted, though breathing was futile, as it gave her no relief. Her lungs didn't register the air. They were hollow and empty. Karliah's head dropped, and she sobbed. "I am not a monster. I swear...." Tears streamed down her cheeks..how could it be possible that though her heart could not beat, she could still cry? The thought was removed from her head, as the scent of blood wafted on a warm breeze, wreathing itself around her. "Accept who you are...Karliah. A mistress of shadow. A huntress of the night. Blood is your purpose. Your only way..." "I can't..." The stallion's face flashed in her mind. And then another face, this time, a mare. Then another. And another. Until they her memories rested on one. A young colt who had been playing out after dark. She remembered him so vividly. It was he who haunted her the most... She remembered that night. It had just rained. The moon was out brightly, and the puddles in the street gleamed with a hallowed beckoning. It was a beautiful scene, one that Karliah had admired before.... Karliah saw him in her memories. She had still been a young vampire, but she had grown confident in herself, in the level of control she had thought she possessed. He had stopped upon seeing her. He showed no sign of fear, or worry. He had greeted her brightly. Friendly. Had asked her to play and splash in the puddles. And she did. It was a moment of pure joy. Of such wonderful, childish glee. It was a moment that Karliah held precious, and bittersweet next to her unbeating heart. The colt tripped. He scraped his knee, and blood welled from his wound. It had been shallow, superficial...but the sweetest scent Karliah had ever smelled had reached her, and she had reached him in only the span of a second since he had fallen. There was a split moment before she bore down on him. The look of shock and terror. Something had changed in her. Something that didn't frighten him before, was the last horrible thing he had seen before she sank her fangs deep into his throat. Every part of her mind screamed at herself to release him. That he was too young... But oh the taste of such youthful, untainted blood! It was clean and not riddled with drugs, alcohol or toxins the way the adults often tasted. It was truly rare to find a clean stallion, or mare. But this foal had it. And as she drained him, the color was soon gone from his small blue face, and she craved only more of that rare delicacy. She didn't care when his body dropped to the ground and she licked her lips and fangs obsessively. Her brain was sending signals back and forth like wildfire, every nerve in her sparking to life. She felt so alive. So powerful! And then she had looked back down, and her reality crashed in on all of the euphoria that she had just felt. Sobered instantly, Karliah's gaze locked in with the foal's dead one. He looked betrayed, hurt, scared. He looked lonely too. His parents would not see him in the morning. Why had he snuck out to play? Had he stayed inside, he would never have met her. Horrified by herself, Karliah threw up the precious blood she had just consumed. Retching and heaving, she turned away from the poor foal. What had she done?! Once the blood was ejected from her stomach, Karliah had stood there, trembling and wanting to run from what she had done. Just like she was doing now to the stallion she had left in the street. But she had gone back for the foal. He deserved better than to be left in the street, alone at night. So she had gone back, and put him back in his bed, tucked him in, and whispered a heartbroken apology as she fled his bedroom window and into the shadows. His face haunted her the most, even after so much time. Sometimes, after it rained at night, she swore she could hear his joyous laughter, hear him splashing in the puddles behind her as she walked by them, careful not to make a ripple in even one. But when she looked, he was never there. She had let her guard down, foolishly believing she had control of her nature when she encountered him. She was stupid. She never had full control of it. Even now. The stallion's crushed throat had been proof of that. Karliah knew she would never have control of herself. Only few were lucky to survive a night's encounter with her. Why? Why couldn't she get a grip? What was so hard about holding back, even just a little? "Your mortal shell was your limitation, Karliah...now you are free do whatever it is that makes you happy.." The voices whispered, and she hated them. "Not killing for a change would be nice," she spat. "What predator leaves their prey alive when they feed from it?" The voices asked, taunting her. "I-I don't know! A vampire should know how to keep their victims alive!" Karliah snapped. "Why is it then, that you do not know?" The voices inquired, curious by her response. "I..." Karliah thought frantically. She had met other vampires. Wild ones, vampires who preferred living off of the blood of wild animals over ponies, and sophisticated ones, who could feed and leave every victim of theirs alive, and even have them come back for more. A thrall. And then the feral ones. The ones that fed at will, and cared not for the consequences of their actions. Had she not cared for the foal, or for her actions, she would have easily fallen into the state of ferality that ruled the common vampire's senses and reasoning. And then it clicked. "Most vampires live in Clans. They learn from the ones before them," Karliah whispered. "They gain the experience and teachings needed to function as a vampire in an environment that they must hunt in. How not to kill, lest they get caught, or to not harm someone that was not part of their diet.." "What kind of vampire are you, Karliah?" "I..I don't know yet. But I am not a vampire without remorse, or guilt. I feed on the innocent, I often kill." Her voice quivered for a moment, and she growled, forcing the grief from her chest. "But I do not want to. I am a vampire with no Clan. All that I must learn, I must learn alone, for the Clans do not accept outsiders..." "You are forgetting something, Karliah," The voices cooed, and Karliah tensed. "What am I forgetting?" She asked coldly. "You were reborn into this life, from the very Clan that rules the nights of Las Pegasus...." "No," Karliah snarled, "They are not my Clan.." "They can teach you all you need to know..." "They are monstrous!" She protested. "Any more monstrous than killing a child, Karliah?" The voices sneered, and Karliah felt as though she had been punched in the gut. Karliah felt a rush of anger, of hatred for herself. "What they did to me..." She weakly argued, but the voices grew venomous. "You were all grown up. Your life would have gone nowhere, and you were nothing. They saw potential in you that none had ever seen before, and offered you a chance to be more than what you could have ever been. You refused. They do not offer such gifts freely, Karliah. And they do not like being denied. But what of that colt? You did not offer him anything. You stole from him a life that was happy, loved and safe. The things that you did not have in your old life. Did you get jealous, Karliah?" The voices seemed to grow shrill, taunting her, jeering at her, and Karliah buckled, throwing herself to the ground and covering her ears, trying to drown out the horrible sounds, sobbing relentlessly. "Ma'am?" Karliah jolted to her senses as a voice broke through the voices. She lifted her head, one red eye staring up at the stallion and widening in horror. It was the stallion she had killed. He was gazing down at her, his expression unreadable. "Y-yes?" She croaked. Her head felt hollow; The voices were gone. They had left her in silence. "Next time, could you please ask before you get frisky like that?" He rubbed his neck and grimaced. "Normally I don't mind it, but from complete strangers? Heh, if I didn't know any better, I'd have thought you were gonna kill me!" Karliah blinked, dumbfounded. "Wh-But I..I thought..." "Eh," The stallion shrugged and chuckled. The sound was ragged and hoarse. "Wasn't sure if you were trying to or not, so I played dead. Then ya let go and ran off. Figured you were spooked by it, so after I sat up and rested, I came to see if you were okay." He offered a hoof to her, and Karliah took it slowly. He helped her to her hooves, and she quickly snatched her hoof back, averting her gaze to stare at the ground. "I-I'm really sorry..I thought...I didn't know.." Karliah mumbled helplessly, and the stallion chuckled again, "It's no worries, really! I know how ponies get with Nightmare Night around the corner! Ain't my first rodeo with a 'werewolf' ya know?" He chortled, and Karliah stared at him. Then she looked down at herself. And just like that, she started laughing too, it was just so ridiculous. He had no clue of what she was. He, to Karliah's astonishment, had chalked it up to some prank gone wrong due to the coming holiday. And he thought her costume was a werewolf! "Come on, Miss." The stallion finished his chuckling, "After so many tears, I figure you might be thirsty. I can show ya to a dive bar not too far from here." He offered her with a warm smile, and Karliah found herself smiling back. "Very," She said in response to his comment of her thirst. More than he could know. It was insatiable. Unrelenting. But maybe, just maybe... she could in fact, learn to control her dark nature. She had a small smile as she walked with him back towards town. The rain lifted, and puddles were strewn about. For the first time since that haunting night, Karliah splashed in them, feeling the presence of the colt wreath around her and play with her, his laughter joining hers. The stallion who she had spared due to his quick thinking and forgiving nature, watched her for a moment before joining in, and the three laughed and played until the moon began to sink behind the distant hills, thoughts of any kind of drink gone from their minds. Eventually, the night began to give way to dawn, and the stallion had to retire to bed. He never saw her again. But the stallion's forgiveness had left an impression on Karliah. She was no monster. That night, he had set her free of her guilt and her grief. feelings she had carried for too long. She disappeared into the shadows of the Everfree Forest as the sun rose up on that fateful day, banishing the storm clouds that had washed away the blood on the street, and on her coat. For once, she was not running from her shame as she looked back one last time and smiled. And then she was gone.