Love the Costume, Vinyl!

by SkyLovesPie

II. New Beginnings

I woke up on the ground with very little memory of what had happened. I vaguely remembered the pub and the ten bits (I would have to find that stallion later, and he'd better pay up). I got to my hooves, and stared at the ground. Dried blood was crusted onto the cobblestones of the street. My blood. It was dawn... but of what day? It couldn't be more than a day after the drunken dare, right? I hadn't the faintest idea.

My hunter was nowhere to be found. As the sun rose, I felt my skin becoming uncomfortably warm, then sizzling, like being fried alive. I dashed into the nearest abandoned house, burns forming under my coat. It was in the darkened building that I saw the faint red glow on the walls when I examined the peeling wallpaper. My mind flashed back to the stallion who had bit me, and my hoof automatically raised to where the bite should have been. But it wasn't there, no bump, not even in the slightest. Confused, I decided to explore this old house a bit more. Since I couldn't go outside, I would stay inside. Perhaps I would find a jacket and hat to wear and see if that helped. First, I looked through what appeared to be the kitchen. An old stove remained, along with several cabinets filled with assorted jars of various spices. I could pick out the individual aromas of each seasoning. Rosemary, Thyme, and... Ugh, Garlic. It smelled very bad.

I decided that was enough of the kitchen, time to move on to another room. As I wandered aimlessly through the living room, I saw dolls and various foal's toys.

"What happened here?" I wondered aloud as I came to the fireplace, where several bricks had been torn out of the walls and scorched all over. A tattered Hearthswarming Eve's stocking still hung above the fireplace, covered in ashes. Suddenly, a small gray mouse scurried out of a hole in the wooden wall surrounding the fireplace. It paused to stare at me, and then squeaked before it ran away.

--

I fastforwarded my story because it wasn't very exciting, so now we are outside in the darkness.

As my hooves clip-clopped on the old stone roads, I saw all the ponies in this part of town go inside as the sun went down. A small filly with a pale pink mane turned to look at me as I passed. She looked upwards to my face, and with a shriek, ran indoors. I walked past the old graveyard where I had drizzled wine on the graves. The jug that had contained the red liquid was still lying on the ground. As I walked down the street, I remembered how my hunter had been able to move impossibly fast. I checked that nopony was watching, then galloped as fast as I possibly could. I made it to the end of five blocks in five seconds, and I still wasn't tired. That was when I saw him. In the dark, he stood out like a fire amidst endless black. With a white mane, goldenrod coat, and blue eyes, he was the most recognizable thing on the street. On his flank was a moon, surrounded by stars.

Unaware of what I was doing, I crouched, preparing to spring. In the cold air, I smelled something so delicious that I decided it could not be natural. It was a combined flavor of honeysuckle, roses, orange blossoms, and a hint of freesia, plus others I couldn't identify. I sniffed the air again, and I found it's source- the pony right in front of me. This time, the tables were turned. I was hunting him.

I looked up at his face, and he wore one of shock.

"Who are you?" he asked, his shaky voice mirroring his expression.

"Melody Song. You?" I questioned as I slowly got out of my predatory position.

"Moonlight. Were you about to attack me?"

"Maybe." I said, embarrassed. I waited for the rush of blood to my cheeks, but it never came. As I looked up at him after thoroughly examining a crack in the road, he wore an orange tone on his face, signaling that he found it just as awkward as me.

"So, uh, can I buy you a drink or something?" he said after a long silence.

"I guess that would be okay..." my voice trailed off as I winced at how song-like my voice was now. After the incident with the graveyard, I had noticed minute changes in the way I did things, or how I looked. Unfortunately, when I looked in a broken mirror shard on the ground floor of the abandoned house I had explored, the was no reflection, which led me to the conclusion that all the myths about vampire ponies (commonly called vamponies) were true.

As we walked off to a pub that I had never heard of before, I noticed that my hoofsteps were quieter, and that I felt much more graceful than I ever had been in my first life. As we walked into the old wooden structure that couldn't possibly have passed a safety inspection in its history, Moonlight quietly asked me what I wanted.

"I'll let you pick, since I like most wines," I whispered back to him as we sat down at a table in the back. He ordered a sweet red dessert wine from a portly old stallion with a bright blue coat and an eye patch, and then he stared at me for a long minute.

"What are you doing?" I finally asked.

"Admiring your beauty," he said, blushing again. I tried to look as surprised as I felt. However, I still couldn't blush, which I hoped didn't make him think I was self-centered or anything.

"Oh," I squeaked. As soon as the wine came, he poured me a glass, then himself.

"So where are you from?" he inquired as I took a sip.

"I'm from Northern Manehatten. I've never been this far east before."

"What's it like up there?"

"The northern half is a lot busier than this. My parents own a music store up there, which is why I still live there."

"I'd like to visit Las Pegasus, but I've barely got ten bits to my name, let alone the hundred or so needed to get out there..." he half-whispered dreamily, lost in thought.

"I want to go to Canterlot, if I can escape from my horrible fate of a music store," We laughed in harmony, maybe for different reasons, but still the same, wonderful sound escaped from our mouths.

"Well, since your home sounds far away, you could, um," he stuttered, blushing for the third time that evening. "stay at my place."

"Er, sure," I mumbled awkwardly.

Author's Note:

Welp, that's the end of another chapter. I know I said this in the comments already, but I really would love to hear any ideas you might have. What do you think is going to happen? This is Sky, signing off.

Comments

[SkyLovesPie]

Looking for an editor, PM me if you're interested. I know that my grammar is not by any means, perfect, and I would like some help correcting that, along with spelling, etc.