//------------------------------// // Reality // Story: Once Bitten // by Damaged //------------------------------// Memories of countless nights huddled in her soft bed, after a late show, had Vinyl relaxed. But her bed wasn't soft today, it felt a lot more like stone than the feather-filled mattress she normally slept on. She opened her eyes, slowly since she couldn't feel her glasses on her face, and tried to look around her bedroom. "Our little surprise is awake." The harsh voice reminded Vinyl of a recent event, possibly the night before. Her brain latched on to the memory of the strange, pony-like creatures, just as her eyes adjusted to the darkness to reveal it. "I wonder if this one remembers everything? Tell me what you remember, pony." Vinyl blinked a few times, feeling almost sublimely relaxed. She gave a slow sigh, the sensation was not unlike some of the substances the less moral ponies sold at her shows. She had tried some, of course, to judge their effects. "Got off tha train." Her voice was a little slurred, but what startled her was that she was just telling them what happened. The confusion didn't last long, she was too relaxed. "Walkin' home and saw Shining Armor." She sighed, she would be able to weave in small lies of omission, so long as they didn't ask for too much detail. "What did you do? Before taking the train?" She couldn't help but smile, all the joy of making her music poured back through her. "I performed in Canterlot, I made music." She felt oddly good, something about whatever drug they had given her was making her more high for having given in. 'Buck, this is some kind of conditioning drug.' It was Shining Armor's training that let Vinyl know, she hated that she knew how effective such things could be, despite attempting to resist them. "Very well, pony. And when you saw me, how did that make you feel?" "Scared. I panicked and reached for… for…" Vinyl didn't want to admit she knew how to fight, for fear it might lead to more questions. "I reached for a rock." Vinyl's eyes had adjusted enough now to see three more shapes nearby. Yellow. Orange. White. "What'd you do to 'em?" Shining Armor's values were every bit as strong as Vinyl's on this, she struggled to get up, to move over to the fillies. Something was wrong with her legs. Vinyl felt them moving, but it all moved wrong. "What did you do to me?" Finally, giving up on walking, Vinyl crawled over to the three fillies. Seeing them brought back a memory. She noticed the dark stain on Scootaloo's side, it wasn't oozing blood, but there was definitely a wound there. The culmination of the night came back to Vinyl, of something biting and crawling into her, of feeling it moving inside and then— "What Is inside me?" Her voice was soft, barely a whimper. "You got lucky." The creature walked around, so that it was on the other side of the three fillies, from Vinyl. "We were only going to take these three, but we had a spare egg, and you seemed alone." "What is inside me?" Vinyl looked up at the odd creature, looked into its odd, blue eyes. She begged it on every level of her being. "Please? Is it… is it going to hurt them?" "Of course not. We want healthy, happy drones." The creature smiled, showing off more of its teeth than just the two prominent fangs. "Our larva will grow inside you—" Vinyl whimpered at the initial description, her worst fears growing in strength. "And it will change you, slowly, into one of us. A changeling. Won't that be nice?" "Changeling?" Vinyl's worst fears were smashed, but worse than the fact that it told her it would be changing her body, was that its question made her feel happy about it, warm and light-headed. "It…" Vinyl tried to fight the sensation, but she knew when a drug was manipulating the mind directly, it was impossible to avoid the effect. Part of her wanted to say yes. "It… it will." The warm flow of ecstasy flooded her brain. "Good pony. I am Chitter. You will follow me when I direct you, it will feel nice to follow me." The changeling kept smiling. "We need to move fast, don't want to get caught outside the hive with you changing all the way." 'What are you training us for?' The words struggled to come out. Vinyl fought her soaring mind to think what she needed to. "What… what is the training… for?" She leaned in and gently nuzzled Scootaloo near the wound, inspecting it. "Leave her be, she will wake soon. And I am training you for our Queen." Chitter's wings chirped a little as he rubbed them together. "You will love her, we all do." Vinyl's attention was on each of the fillies, checking them over. 'Don't think about a queen, laying lots of eggs. Don't think about loving her or that damn drug will make it good.' Scootaloo had the wound in her side, and Apple Bloom in her neck. "Sweetie Belle? You didn't have one for her?" She looked up to the chatty changeling. "She was smart. Opened her little mouth wide and let the grub in. Less pain that way." Chitter was watching Vinyl checking the fillies. "Are they going to… going to be trained?" As quick as the thought to fight the changeling came, it slipped from Vinyl's mind. She struggled to bring on the frame of mind needed to fight, but it was a losing battle. "Where are we going?" The question popped into her head, even as she felt one of the fillies move a little. "To the hive, for training. Stand up, walk around." The command was irresistible, Vinyl's mind was making up all kinds of reasons for why standing up and moving was a good idea. In the end, she knew that the drug was doing its thing. 'If I don't get up, my brain will take it as punishment and only make this worse.' She began to stir, moving her legs under her and putting weight on them one at a time. Taking a deep breath, Vinyl waited for her legs to stop wobbling before moving one, slowly. "So this thing will turn me into one of you?" Vinyl worked her legs, her brain really wanting to walk, giving her little spikes of happiness with each step. When Apple Bloom started to stir, however, Vinyl moved too quickly and fell in a heap beside the filly. "Wha' 'appen'?" Apple Bloom looked around, coming face-to-face with Vinyl. "V-V-Vampony!" "I'm not—" Vinyl's words were cut off by a pair of shrieks, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle both hearing the word "vampony," seeing Vinyl, and letting loose. "Be quiet." Chitter's voice cut through the two fillies' screams like a hot knife through butter. "Good, now, tell me what you each know." "Ah was buckin' apples wif muh sister." Apple Bloom shook her head, then instantly regretted it. "Then Ah went with you guys, to… Ah can't remember anymore, what happened?" She tried to get up and fell back into a slump. "I was about to start practicing with Rainbow Dash and…" Scootaloo looked down, her ears folding back. "I don't remember what happened." "Me too. I was just… I don't even remember where I was, I left you guys and it is all blank!" Sweetie Belle started to shake. Vinyl's heart almost broke, she reached out and pulled all three fillies into a hug. "It'll be okay." 'I hate lying' "You'll see, we will be back in Ponyville in no time." 'At least I am better at it as Vinyl.' "No you won't. You will all be turned into changelings, and join the hive." Chitter's words only encouraged the three fillies to hug Vinyl back. "All of you, get on your hooves and start walking around, tonight we have a lot of ground to cover." "Come on, I can help." Vinyl was still shaky on her hooves, but helped the fillies, one by one, to stand. 'I don't know what is worse now, feeling rewarded for doing what they tell me, or knowing the fillies are too.' "What is that other pony?" Sweetie Belle gestured at the changeling, as it walked from the cave toward the entrance. "It reminds me of something…" "Shh, just focus on standing up." Vinyl was desperate to stop the fillies poking at those memories. "You'll see, once we can all walk right, I'll buck that changeling and we can run away." "Ah know things are getting confusing when I want to trust the vampony." Apple Bloom took a step, wobbled a little, then took another. "What is that changedling going to do with us?" She started taking more, smiling wide when she did. Rubbing her forehead with a hoof, Vinyl shook her head. "I'm not a vampony." "You sure look like one." Scootaloo was more focused on buzzing her wings, everything felt wrong about her body, but despite wanting to just lay down until it got better, she found herself needing to move around. "Huh?" Vinyl caught Sweetie Belle in her magic, when the filly's leg started to falter. "Careful, just stand still until you are sure you can move." She helped the filly back up. Sweetie looked up at the similarly colored unicorn. "Uh, thanks. I have never been helped by a vampony before, but I just can't stop trying to move. What is happening?" 'You have to tell them, Vinyl. You have to.' "They drugged us, whatever they are using it… it makes us want to do what they say." 'Chicken.' Vinyl sighed at her own dilemma. "And I am not a vampony." "I… I read one of Rarity's books once, the start of it. There was a vampony in that. He seemed nice, but then when he got too hungry he…" Sweetie Belle blushed. "Rarity took her book off me before I could find out. You seem like a nice vampony, though." "I don't even have the wings!" Vinyl was a little slow in realizing what the fillies were getting at, but finally she did. "Look, I have had a good-sized meal…" "We knew it!" All three Crusaders exclaimed and giggled. Vinyl didn't care if they called her a vampony all day long, it was their fantasy, and it kept them distracted from the real situation. She started walking, as unable to fully resist the command from the changeling as the fillies were. "How are you doing, Sweetie Belle?" Sweetie's legs kept wobbling, she gave a little sigh. "They just don't want to work." When the filly took a step, the leg holding all her weight buckled, slumping her down into Vinyl's magical grip. "I never thought a vampony would help me. What do you drink?" "Wubs." Vinyl ruffled the filly's mane. "If you can't walk, I can carry you." She helped Sweetie back up to her hooves, guided her into trying more steps. "What are 'wubs'?" Scootaloo was the first to crack, she had to know, and even in the face of a potentially vicious vampony, she asked. "Are they like apple cider?" "Oh! OH!" Apple Bloom bounced in place. "My Applejack and Granny make the best cider, I bet you would drink all you could of their wubs." "Yeah, cider." Vinyl gave a sigh of relief as Sweetie finally got an unassisted step. "There you go, keep working at it." "You aren't all walking yet?" Chitter's voice cut in on the four ponies' conversation, all four turned to look at him. "Okay, forget it, just follow me, and don't run off." He turned and started marching out of the cave. "Are you alright, Sweetie?" Vinyl's heart-strings were firmly tugged, and as the filly tried to follow the changeling, had to catch her as she fell. "You get to ride a vampony, today." She lifted the filly up and set her on her own back. The weight was not insignificant, and while she had been walking fine on her own, Vinyl's hooves now stumbled a little with Sweetie in place. "How are you other two doing?" Scootaloo was wobbling, but walking. She looked up at her friend, riding on Vinyl's back. "It'll be alright, Sweetie Belle, I am sure you can walk properly with a bit more practice. The chaffling should have given you just a little more time." "Changeling!" Chitter's ears had swung around, picked up the filly's comment. "And we don't have time to waste, you will move now." Apple Bloom did what any filly would do, when faced with such a creature. She blew a raspberry. "You don't frighten us!" Her voice was steady, she was the rock for her friends. But even so, all four of them were soon out in the light, walking passively behind the changeling.