Love Bites

chapter 19: you will love me until you resent me

chapter photo creds: @tcn1205
title from "i know it won't work" by gracie abrams

a/n: angst continues but we live for the drama!
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December 1967

When Applejack was young, she never thought she'd leave her small town in Georgia. She never thought she'd move to the big city, and she definitely never thought she'd ever travel to a different country.

London is a dreary place. It's gloomy and cold and Applejack already hates it. Unfortunately, it's the place she's been sent on behalf of the Order to track down a suspicious group of vampires that somehow became involved in underground crime. Applejack gets down to business on her first night there, deciding to scout from the top of a building to have a clearer view of the surrounding areas.

An hour passes before anyone shows up, and Applejack stills, continuing to keep her eyes peeled. The building she's scouting from is two stories tall, and the individuals down below are cloaked and speaking in hushed voices, so Applejack can only make out a few phrases. She hears words like "transports," and "arrivals," but Applejack is so focused on trying to hear more that she nearly fails to clock the second group of individuals approaching from the other end of the alleyway.

The voices only become quieter, and Applejack is about to risk making her way down when the first group of vampires– the dangerous glint of their eyes and the flash of fangs give them away instantly– take the hoods of their cloaks down. Any other hunter would have immediately started committing to memory the faces and characteristics of these vampires, but Applejack only freezes and focuses on one of them.

Because standing among the group of vampires is Rarity. She looks both the same and completely different. Her hair is a stark, deep shade of purple, and she holds herself in a way unlike anything Applejack has ever seen. She seems much more stoic and formidable, something that scares and impresses Applejack at the same time.

Her surprise at seeing Rarity in person after so long nearly distracts her from the fact that Rarity being here means that she is involved in whatever crime syndicate Applejack has been sent here to investigate.

She eventually gives up on trying to listen in to the inaudible conversation and instead waits for the group members to disperse. Thankfully, Rarity heads in a different direction as the rest of her group, and Applejack quickly heads down the stairs of the building to follow her. She's tracked vampires before. She knows how to keep her distance and stay out of their range of hearing, but Rarity was never an average vampire. After several minutes of trailing the other woman, Applejack suddenly loses track of her.

She doesn't have the chance to get her bearings straight before a force comes out of nowhere, knocking her to the ground. Another body pins her there with tremendous strength, and Applejack's hand immediately scrambles for the stake at her side. It isn't until she looks directly up that she realizes that it's Rarity above her.

Rarity's face shifts from annoyance to recognition in the span of a few seconds, immediately climbing off of her. Her eyes are still wide and she looks at Applejack as if she's seen a ghost. "You have to go. You're not supposed to be here."

"What, no hello?" Applejack asks, pushing down the hurt feeling in her chest. She gets up and brushes herself off. "And better question, why are you here?"

Rarity grabs her wrist and tugs Applejack further into a shadowed corner. "This place is crawling with vampires. You'd be outnumbered if they found you."

"You didn't answer my question," Applejack presses. "Are you– are you working with them?"

"God no." Rarity's face twists into an expression of disgust. "But they think I am. And you're compromising that right now."