This is NOT how you wanted to spend your Monday.
With every bit of effort you can muster, you push Bright Night’s puckered lips just out of range of your face by your trembling arms.
She blinks hazily and frowns. “Anon? What’s wrong? I just want to…” Bright stops in the middle of her sentence and giggles like a little girl hearing a dirty joke. “…suck on you.”
Did she really just say that? She can’t mean what you think she means, can she? Of all the fucking things…
“Yeah, I get that!” you force between gritted teeth as you struggle to unlatch the overly affectionate pony from yourself. “Thing is, I’m pretty sure this isn’t professional!”
The doctor blows a raspberry with her tongue. “Maaaaaybe. But rules and things like that were made to be broken. Why else would they be there?”
This is NOT Bright. This is not her at all. What in the world happened?
“Noooow,” she presses her softly furred body back up to you and puts her muzzle in the crook of your neck, right by Umbra’s bite mark. ”Let’s get back to what we were doing~” she finishes in a voice that sends countless shameful thoughts running through your head.
“Let’s not,” you shoot back.
Faster than you thought you could, you twist around on the hospital bed and break Bright’s grip on you, leaving the vampony alone on the bed and blinking in confusion.
Now for the door.
Before you can even get one step in, a translucent band of pink wraps around your wrist and tugs back sharply, sending you to the tile floor with a loud “Oof!”
Bright’s smirking face appears in your vision as her hooves land on your shoulders, blocking your view of the ceiling. “Have a nice trip?”
You scowl. Why can’t this stuff ever be easy? “You are one cheeky cunt.”
If anything, her smirk widens. Her fangs are especially pronounced in the low light, making you sweat. “Care to find out for yourself?” she asks.
“Let me think. No.”
Your hand shoots up and flicks her right on the tip of her horn, making the doctor yelp and recoil.
The instant that she is up and off of you, you roll to your hands and knees and jump towards the door, only for something to crash into your back, sending you face first into the very solid door and leaving your back at a funny angle.
“Nice try~” Bright whispers right in your ear as she sniffs at Umbra’s bite mark again.
Again, you twist around, but Bright anticipated the move, leaving you on the ground with her smirking triumphantly above you. “Hmhm! I think I win…” she says, slowly smiling and showing off her sharp fangs again.
Fuck!
Your hand flails around, blindly groping for something, anything to get this bat-shit insane mare off of you! It hits the cupboard under the sink, which you open and grab the first thing that your fingers can latch around.
Bright slowly lowers herself, resting her soft body on your shirtless torso as her head descends to your neck.
Oh god. The temptation to give up…
“Sorry doc, but not today…”
Then you bash her in the head with a bedpan with a resounding BANG.
She shoots to her hooves so fast that you don’t see her move and stiffens, her razor-sharp teeth bared for all to see. For a terrifying moment, you think she’s going to maul you to death for daring to strike her, then the medic’s ears droop as she falls to the side like a stringless puppet. Bright hits the tiled floor with a muted ’thud’, her limbs splayed out in unconsciousness as her pink eyes roll behind her eyelids.
…
“…Holy shit…” you whisper to yourself, as if anything louder would rouse the bloodthirsty medic. You steady your heaving chest and raise yourself to a sitting position, careful to avoid touching Bright. For a moment, you simply sit and catch your breath as you try to puzzle out the situation with no avail.
Bright is one of the most kind and gentle ponies you’ve ever met. The only one to rival to the vampony medic is the Element of Kindness when you briefly met her last. What the actual fuck made her freak out like that? And what was with…
A hand comes up to your lips, where you brush your fingers cross your lips.
Your ears burn as the vivid and very recent memory of the vampony’s lips on your comes to mind. You’re not really into ponies…So why did that kiss feel so good?
A pained groan from the floor beside you makes you almost jump out of your skin. Blinking almost drunkedly, she looks around with confusion plastered on her face until her bright, slitted eyes land upon you.
Please don’t be in vampire mode.
“Anon?” she asks with some hesitation. “Hmhm…what happened? And why does my head hurt?” she remarks while rubbing the growing spot just behind her ear.
Oh man… Just how are you going to explain this? ‘Hey, I’ve got no idea why, but you totally tried to get in my pants while trying to suck on parts of my body. No big.’ Yeah, that would go over real well.
“Um…” you begin awkwardly, “I’ve got no idea why, but you totally tried to get in my pants while trying to suck on parts of my body.”
Nice one, dumbass.
Bright blinks incredulously and tilts her head, as if you were slow in the head. “Anon? Are you fe—”
She stops abruptly, frowning for some reason that you can’t discern. A second later, the vampony takes a deep whiff of the air. Her hooves fly to cover her nose with no warning as her face blushes so red that you can see it through her fur.
“A-anon?” she forces out in a stutter, “have y-you had any contact with Major Umbra recently?”
What? How could this situation possibly be related to Umbra?
“Yyyyeeessss?” you slowly answer.
“How r-recent?”
“Yesterday morning, before bed…”
Bright’s red face turns a shaded darker.
“Nothing sexual happened! Promise!” you blurt out after realizing just how your previous statement could be taken.
The conversation lapses into silence with you awkwardly looking at the floor. Bright, meanwhile, looks everywhere but your eyes with her nose still covered. She doesn’t seem too out of it. Maybe her playing dumb was just a way to back out of her botched plan to feed on you.
Damn it all. Ever since Luna let the secret fly, you’ve been getting unsettling looks from every guard you’ve met. Then Umbra told you that some would make attempts on you.
You should have believed her.
You look back down at Bright Night, who still refuses to meet your eyes. How could she do something like this?
The tiniest bit of anger begins to bubble and grow within your chest. You trusted this pony, and look at where it got you. There is no way in hell that she is getting out of this.
Finally, after almost five minutes of nothing said, the pink-eyed vampony clears her throat. “Anon?” she asks, getting your attention. She carefully pulls her hoof from her nose as her face turns to one of remorse. “I… I apologize for that horribly unsightly behavior. It was a severe lapse of control on my part and I should not have done that… Are you injured?”
The small spark of anger in you dies the instant she looks back to you. Ears laid back, shoulders slumped, and eyes shining with unshed tears. No matter how hard you try, the negative emotions that were building up in you simply won’t come back. You should be mad. Livid even, but the only thing you can find is exasperation.
You sigh and pinch the bridge of your nose with a thumb and forefinger. Damn these ponies for being so adorable. “No… I’m fine, Bright. Nothing I can’t just walk off.”
You move your hand and stared down at her with a frown. “But what the actual hell happened back there? You were taking my pulse then you tried to jump me. What made you go berserk like that? Or did you have that planned all along?”
The harsh accusation makes her wince before she recovers and replies. “No no! I would never premeditate something so nefarious! I don’t think I could do such a thing, even if it was for an enemy of the crown. It goes against my oaths as a medic!”
“Then why did you flip out?”
The medic bites her lip and looks away. “That mark…” she starts, “the one on your shoulder. Am I correct in assuming that the major gave that to you?”
Your hand absently hovers up to the crook of your neck and rubs at the still-sore bite mark. Why does it feel hot?
“I’ll let you take a guess at that.”
She nods absently to herself and looks around the room nervously before looking back to you. ”You need to keep that mark clean at all times. It’s still technically an open wound, and as such… it still… it still has the scent of your blood on it.”
You narrow your eyes at her. “And what does that have to do with your freak out?”
She blinks in confusion. “Hmhm? Don’t you remember? Vamponies have very sharp senses. It would be no trouble for any old vampony passerby to catch a whiff and grow hungry. My proximity to you must have… made it severe. ”
Well, at least she answered part of your question. That still doesn’t explain why she kissed you and was so… giggly. Just as you open your mouth to ask, her horn glows with magic and sends your shirt back over your head the wrong way.
As you go to twist the shirt back around the right way, Bright starts to speak again.
“Now, I believe we gone over our allotted time. Once more, I want to offer my sincerest apologies for everything. If I could go back and change it all, I would in a heartbeat.”
“Hold on, you didn’t answ—”
“Remember, keep that wound clean and I urge you to use caution around the castle until this whole mess begins to blow over. Trust me, it may seem like it won’t, b—“
“Would you let me finish my damn sentence!?” you yell as you finally poke your head to the right hole on your shirt.
“—ut I’m sure that it will,” she hastily says over you. “Goodbyeandbesuretosayhellotothemajorforme!”
“Wa—“
Her horn lights up brighter than you’ve ever seen, then the entire room seems to… scrunch in rights onto a point in the center of your chest, leaving nothing but a black void. An instant later, the room shoots back out, taking the form of your bedroom and leaving you right on the edge of your bed.
“—it…”
She really just teleported you. All the way from the infirmary.
You sigh and hold your head in your hands. What in the world are you going to do?
“Fuck!”
___________________________________________________________________________________
“Really?” you recite for the tenth time to the reflection in your bathroom near as you look at the seemingly inflamed mark on your neck.
Even if your current trust in her is shaky, you still carefully washed the circle of tooth marks as Bright told you to. After which, you inspected the supposed source of your problems.
It looks like Umbra really dug into you this time. Rather than the pair of shallow punctures there usually is, you have bright red ring on your neck consisting of what seems to be a full-mouth bite. In other words, all of her teeth sank into you, even the dull ones. The spots where her fangs would be are especially pronounced. If it weren’t for the mild healing properties of vampony saliva, then this would be far worse than what you’ve already got. Hell, she might have bitten off an entire chunk of your flesh!
Unfortunately, you were too exhausted the morning prior to resist the vampony’s harsh treatment. Who knew that exercising with vampires was so trying?
You scowl. She’s getting an ass kicking for being so rough.
You pull the collar of your shirt back up over the red mark as several knocks sound at your bedroom door.
“It’s open!”
The nearly silent sound of the door opening inward echoes throughout the room and into the bathroom, where you still stand in front of the mirror.
”Anon? You here?” Umbra’s unmistakable voice calls out. Speak of the devil and she shall appear.
With a scowl settling onto your face, you walk out into the bedroom and stand with your arms crossed as a fully armored Umbra steps through the doorway.
She leisurely trots in and shuts the door behind her with a gentle kick before seating herself on the carpeted floor. With one deft motion, her armor and helmet are discarded and laid into a messy pile by the door. Finally, her gold eyes look up to your face with a wide grin right beneath them, only for that grin to disappear when she sees the ugly look on your face.
“Something wrong?” she grouses with a raised eyebrow. “You shouldn’t twist your face up like that. It might stick.”
“I think I’ve got bigger problems to be worrying about,” you grumble irritably. “Like how you tore up my neck and how it apparently smells like blood.” You punctuate your statement by pulling down the collar of your shirt and showing off the wound in question, making Umbra take in a hissing breath through her teeth.
You let your shirt go and recross your arms.
“You know what happened while you were gone?” you ask, making her lower her head and shake it. “I was almost mauled, but not by just anyone. Oh no, I almost got tore up by Bright Night, of all ponies. She was pretty devastated afterward. According to her, the smell that this thing is giving off is going to get me a lot of unpleasant attention.”
You obviously omit Bright’s almost drunken and very affectionate demeanor during the episode. No need to go and give everyone the wrong idea…
Umbra’s head shoots up from where it was hung low as her ears point up straight as arrows. She stares at you with shock and confusion and her face as her jaw drops.
“I-I don’t know… what to… I didn’t…”
The major stops and takes a deep breath, seemingly trying to compose herself and think of a reply. After a tense moment, she looks back up at you with conflict in her slitted eyes. “Anon… I never knew that would happen. I know I said that you should be careful from now on, but I didn’t really think that anypony would ACTUALLY act on their urges…”
She looks away towards the window, which shows the nightlife in the city just getting into full swing. Despite the upbeat imagery, her face melts into deep melancholy. Without looking back to you, Umbra pulls her eyes from the sight. “I did it again… I was shortsighted and you, the one I’m supposed to protect, paid the price for it…” A full body shudder runs down her length. “I’m sorry…” Umbra mutters so quietly that you almost didn’t hear her.
You just look down at her with your face not shifting in the slightest.
For once, your anger doesn’t turn into guilt for lashing out, but rather boils down to equal amounts of exhaustion and exasperation. It doesn’t seem to matter what you do anymore, because it’s all just going to get more complicated than it needs to be.
You sigh and slowly drag a hand down your face.
“Look,” you start, getting Umbra’s attention, “I’m not going to say that I’m not upset, because we both know that would be a lie.”
She winces under your flat stare.
“…But that doesn’t mean I’m unwilling to put this aside for now. It’s something we can discuss later when there’s less of a chance of everyone getting worked up. Get what I’m saying?”
She blinks, then looks up at you with eyes glimmering in appreciation as her smile comes back. “I’d like that…”
You nod, and now that the heavy stuff is out of the way for now, you walk back toward your bed and sit on the edge.
Umbra doesn’t even need a prompt, as she crosses the whole room in a single bound and lands gently next to you before settling onto her stomach.
“So what’s new with you? Or better yet, how did that whole promotion thing for the other officer go?”
Umbra hums to herself in thought. “It went well, I guess. This new girl has been rising through the ranks at a steady pace. That’s pretty rare, considering that she was willfully turned.”
Willfully turned? Does that mean what you think it means?
Seeing the question in your eyes, Umbra takes the initiative. “She wasn’t born a vampony, but rather a normal pegasus who wished to become one of us. If I remember right, then she is a young descendant of Captain Smiles,” she says as she idly leans her chilled body into your side.
Despite how drained you are, you can’t help but feel your eyes widen.
“She’s RELATED to that monster?” you remark more to yourself than Umbra. “Yeesh, at least we know she’s got good genes going for her.”
Umbra frowns when you call Smiles a monster, but silently lets it slide. “I wouldn’t chalk it up to just that, as she’s pretty young, meaning her connection to Captain Smiles is pretty distant. She’s only around thirty years old, if her pre-transformation looks are anything to go by.”
“And you’re okay with someone like that taking your old reigns?”
Umbra slides her head from its place against you up to gaze at your curious face. “I’m not sure how humans run their militaries and whatnot, but in the Lunar Guard, we base positions and rewards based on personal achievement. She did well in the evaluation and seemed eager to take over the company, even if it means a giant hike in her responsibilities.”
Huh. Whatever floats her boat, you guess. How a foreign military runs itself is not something you really should be questioning. One more thing…
“Well?” you ask with a raised eyebrow.
“Well what?”
“Who is this new mare in charge of the 663rd?”
“Oh!” Umbra exclaims. “Why didn’t you ask before?”
“Because that would just be too easy.”
The vampony lets out a snort and lightly jabs you in the thigh. “Stallions… Anyway, Orchid is her name, and she’s a pending second lieutenant as of tonight.”
Her name seems familiar for the oddest reason, but you can’t seem to place a face with it. It’s tickling you at the back of your mind and it’s probably going to bug you until you remember.
“Name’s familiar, but not much else.”
“It’s not a big deal, she’s not one to stand out much. Lighter than normal coat, pegasus, medium length pale pink mane. Ringing any bells?”
Close, but no cigar.
You shake your head, making Umbra continue. “Voice just a bit higher than mine with a Manehattan accent?”
Almost…
“Kinda, but still not remembering that well.”
“Ah! Her most distinguishing feature is her emerald green eyes. You can spot them from anywhere!”
For a reason you can’t fathom, a foreboding shiver runs down your spine at the exclamation.