Chapter ten
I looked up at Rainbow in surprise. How did she find me? I’ve been lost out here for who knows how long- Actually, it’s still dark out, so it couldn’t have been more than several hours… Anyway, not important.
“Let’s go! What are you waiting for?” Dash seemed impatient, and for good reason. I must have been standing here for a while without answering.
“I can’t.” I finally said, lowering my gaze to the ground. The purple flowers that were everywhere seemed really interesting at that point. Silence came from Rainbow. Apparently that wasn’t the answer she expected.
“What do you mean, ‘you can’t’? Why the hay not?!” Dash flew down in front of me, but stayed in the air.
“I’m sorry. I can’t go back.”
“Equestria to Hot Head! You haven’t answered the question!”
“I’m just going to hurt someone again,” I muttered.
“What are you talking about? You haven’t hurt anypony!” Dash was working herself up.
“It happened twice at home, and again here. I’m not letting it happen again.” I lifted my head and fixed Dash with a determined gaze. “I’m staying here.”
“What happened? What is ‘it’?” The agitation in her voice had left. I couldn’t tell what it had been replaced with.
“I can’t do it anymore,” a soft voice said.
“Wha-what? You’re not…” I trailed off, not wanting to even say the words, but she said them for me.
“Yes, I’m serious. I’m sorry. Normally I believe in second chances, but that was too much.”
“But Michelle…”
I remember her shoes. My head slumped down, tears threatening to run off my face and join the light rain. Her blue tennis shoes were framed by the tears in my eyes.
“Goodbye.”
And she left. The love in my life of 4 years left, just like that. Gone. I don’t remember how long I stood on that sidewalk, or how many people I was in the way of, sobbing.
Eventually I must have come to my senses and returned to my apartment. The only thing I remember of the next week was getting fired. The next few years were miserable, lonely, eons. My days consisted of wake up, look for a job, go home, cry myself to sleep. That kind of schedule isn’t life, but it was what I had. Until I met the girl who patched my heart.
I was working, flipping burgers. I had been for several months at that point. A new recruit, Genine, had been hired, and that day was her first day. I hadn’t paid her much mind. It was the same way I had treated most people during that depression. None of my coworkers seemed to mind. Our interactions were purely for business reasons, and that was acceptable for us. This one day, as I was debating whether a semi-burnt patty was okay to give to a customer, and why I should care, something broke into my thoughts by crashing into me, almost knocking me over. I looked down to what I had caught by reflex, and the most beautiful thing I had seen in years looked back at me, a small apologetic smile on her face. She was my first friend in a long time.
That lasted for two weeks before we got together. We went steady for two years. She was the light that protected from the dark life I once had. One day, we were eating lunch together at a sandwich place, having a good time, then she walked in. Michelle immediately swaggered over to our table, leaning on me and putting an arm around my shoulder.
“Oh, hey babe! How have you been?” she asked me. I tried my best to ignore her.
“Uh, who is this?” Genine gave Michelle a cautious glance.
I sighed. “She’s my-”
“I’m his girlfriend.”
“What?!” Genine and I exclaimed.
“Come here, cutie.” Michelle turned my head up with a soft hand and the next thing I knew, I was consumed by a kiss. It lasted a while; I was too stunned to do anything. My face was burning with embarrassment when she let me go. Genine looked shocked and betrayed.
“Genine, this isn’t-”
“Don’t give me that ‘this isn’t what it looks like’ bullshit. I’m done here.” I could only watch as Genine left.
Michelle laughed and sat down in the now unoccupied seat. “That was easy.”
“Why?”
“Pardon?”
“You heard me. Why?” I stared daggers into her eyes.
“I still haven’t forgiven you.”
“That was years ago! How have you not gotten over that? You know what? No.” I stood up from the table. “Fuck you. I have an upset girlfriend to comfort.”
I hurried outside, but Genine was nowhere in sight. I looked for an hour, repeatedly trying her cell phone, and getting nothing. I never saw her again.
Turns out that she had gotten a job offer in another state and quit her job the day before that diner incident. She had been planning on telling me during lunch that day and offering for me to go with her.
This kind of thing happened with most of the friends I had made. I’d do something stupid and end up losing their friendship. All but Matt. Matt’s stubborn nature made him determined to keep me as a friend, and he did.
“Other than Matt, I hurt everyone I got close to. It’s going to happen to you girls sooner or later. If I just stay in this forest, I can’t hurt anyone.” I bowed my head again and started to turn away, thinking that everything had been said on the matter. A sharp slap to the face told me otherwise; it felt more like a punch than a slap with that hoof.
“Are you fucking kidding me? That’s the reason you wandered in here? I swear to fucking Luna, you have got to be the most idiotic, self-degrading, pessimistic, lovable nitwit I’ve met!” Rainbow raged.
I blinked. “What was that last part?”
She answered me by tackling me to the ground, hovering above me. “Buck up! Come on, let’s get back to Ponyville.”
“No. Were you even listening? I’m not-”
“FOR THE LOVE OF CELESTIA, I’M TIRED OF YOUR SHIT! COME ON ALREADY!” Dash grabbed me and sped off above the trees.
“Dash, let me go!”
“I’m taking you back for your own good!”
“Dash,” I said quietly, just loud enough to be heard over the passing air. “If you don’t put me down right now, you are not going to be-” I cut myself off when I caught sight of something over her shoulder.
The full moon.
-----
“And that’s all I remember.”
I was sitting at a table in Sugarcube Corner, my head in my hooves, nursing what I could guess was akin to a hangover: a splitting headache and no memories of the past several hours. Sitting across from me were Vinyl and Octavia.
I had woken up, chained in their basement. Apparently it had been done “for my own good.” Vinyl had eventually come downstairs and let me free. She explained that she had talked to the Elements and had wanted to have a talk at Sugarcube corner over lunch.
It wasn’t lunch yet, and the rest of the mares hadn’t shown up yet. Octavia had explained that she and Vinyl had wanted to talk to me alone first.
Vinyl dragged her hooves down her face, sighing. “Oooh, boy.” She looked at Octavia. “Any advice?”
“Unfortunately, no. I do not remember anything from my first time, either, Vinyl.”
“Good,” Vinyl’s voice dripped with sarcasm as she rolled her eyes. They couldn’t be seen behind her glasses, but her over-exaggerated movement told all it needed to. “Look, Hot Head… ugh, what a terrible name.” An audible clunk sounded as Octavia’s hoof connected with the back of Vinyl’s head. “Seriously! It isn’t a good name!”
“Vinyl!” Octavia started to chide her marefriend, but I cut her off.
“Isn’t there someone around here named Filthy Rich?”
“Well, yeah, but that’s actually…you know, something good to be,” Vinyl answered.
“True. I would rather be known as rich instead of for having a short fuse,” Octavia put in.
I groaned. “Was there something important you two wanted to talk about or did you just call me here to make fun of my name?”
Vinyl grinned. “Hey, at least he lives up to it!” Another smack from Octavia rewarded her. “Worth it.” Her grin faded a bit though. “But yeah, we have to tell you about something.”
There comes a time in most guys lives when he has two hot girls in his life and they come up to him with a proposition. (Yeah, you guys know what I’m talkin’ about.) So it’s only a natural reaction when I looked up with an eager look in my eye.
“Look…we’re going to be blunt here.”
“Yeah?”
“We don’t want you to freak out when we tell you this.”
“Okay!”
Octavia peered at me from across the table. “You seem quite eager all of a sudden.”
“Well, yeah. I was trying to guess what you were getting at, but I guess it depends on what you were actually going to tell me.”
Vinyl hesitated for a moment, and Octavia looked like she was about to say something, but bit the words back. I raised an eyebrow.
“What were you expecting us to say?” Octavia asked.
“Uh, well. Um. I thought maybe you were going to offer a, uh… a threesome.”
A moment of silence passed as they digested that. Vinyl broke out in laughter, falling out of her chair. Octavia had the decency to blush and try to hide her face. I felt my face grow hot, and lowered it to my arms on the table again. I feel so stupid…
Octavia and I waited until Vinyl composed herself enough to get back in her chair. “See Octy? It’s not just me!” Thock. “Worth it!” She leaned closer to me on the table. “To be honest, I was going to wait a week or two before asking you about it.”
“Vinyl!” Octavia huffed.
“What? I was going to talk to you about it first.”
“Seriously, Vinyl, can you go for five minutes without thinking about sex?”
“Sure. When I’m in the studio.”
As entertaining as this was to watch, I felt the need to cut in. “So what was it that you were going to tell me?”
Vinyl looked back at me. “Oh, we were going to tell you that you’re a lycan.”
I didn’t notice the thock of Octavia’s hoof on Vinyl’s head, or the ensuing “Watch it, you’re going to give me brain damage!” Werewolf.
Oh, good! Let’s just pile on to how much of a monster I am! Why me? Why do the gods like fucking with me so much? Am I really that special? Why-
“Woah, dude, calm down!” Vinyl started to shake me, alarm plastered on the areas of her face that weren’t covered by sunglasses. “It’s not that bad!”
“Wha-what? Not that bad? How could this possibly-” I could feel anger swelling. Vinyl cut me off.
“Octavia’s a werewolf too!”
I looked at Octavia, who looked visibly scared. She calmed down as I felt my mane do the same. “Where’s the camera?”
“Camera?”
“This is a prank. Where’s the hidden camera?” I sat back in my chair, crossing my arms.
Vinyl sighed. “This isn’t a prank. You’re both werewolves. I’m a vampire.”
I laughed. “You can’t be serious!”
She and Octavia both deadpanned me. “No… you can’t be serious. I’ve seen you outside during the day, Vinyl!”
“What, you think I’d sparkle or some shit? Direct sunlight makes me uncomfortable. I burn easily. Didn’t you also see the hoodie I was wearing?”
She was right. She had been wearing a hoodie that day. Damn.
Octavia put her hoof over mine on the table. “Hot Head, I know this is difficult. It’s not the end of the world. You can learn to control it, but with your short temper it’s going to take some work. Vinyl and I can help-”
“Rainbow.” I remembered.
“I’m sorry?”
“What happened to Rainbow?”
Vinyl rubbed the back of her head. “Well, uh, you mauled her.”
“What?!”
“Yeah. You’ve been out for three days. She was actually discharged from the hospital this morning. Thank Celestia for healing magic, right?”
I looked at Octavia, horrified at what I had done. She gave me a sympathetic smile. “I killed a rabbit on my first night. I was distraught for weeks.”
“You were drunk,” Vinyl put in.
“A rabbit isn’t a pony!”
“Well yeah, but you didn’t kill her either.” Vinyl pointed out.
“This is terrible! I-I-”
“Hey, hey. Don’t freak out about it. She’s coming with the rest of the Elements to lunch here. She can-”
“She’s coming here?! Nope, I gotta get outta here before she gets here!” I leaped from my seat, bolting towards the door when Vinyl caught me in her telekinesis and brought me back to the butt cushion I had been at before.
“I know this may be hard to believe,” Octavia said as Vinyl held me in place. “But think back. Did you get bitten lately?”
Caught in a jet engine, perpetually set on fire by a chaotic god, slammed into the ground multiple times at varying velocities, punched in the face by Rainbow Dash, got in a fight with a dragon, survived a rockslide…
“Nope.”
Vinyl did a double-take. “Wha-what? You had to have been. That’s the only way lycanthropy transfers!”
“What’s done is done, regardless of how it happened,” Octavia said.
I groaned, looking down at my hooves. I wondered for a moment how they would look as paws as I felt Vinyl’s magic release me.
Vinyl started to say something else, but stopped as the door opened. I turned around, having been facing with my back towards the door before, and shrank as six familiar ponies walked through the door. Well, one limped. I felt very uncomfortable as they entered Sugarcube Corner, suddenly physically as well as emotionally.
Vinyl waved them over, catching Twilight’s eye. “Hey guys. I’m glad you could make it!”
I watched Rainbow make her way over to a chair and slump into it, never meeting her gaze as Twilight replied, “I’d never miss a lunch with good friends.”
As greetings and small talk were exchanged, Rainbow and I were looking over each other. Whenever one of us caught the other staring, we both looked away. Rainbow had a cast on two of her legs, and one of her wings was wrapped in bandages. She was wearing a sportscoat, covering her torso. One ear had a piece torn out of it. She had her mane in a different style too; she had the left half of her face covered. I didn’t even realize that her mane was that long. On the other side of the spectrum, I was unscathed.
I couldn’t help but get lost in my thoughts as to what she thought of me. It’s not every day that your friend loses control and tries to kill you. I became more and more uncomfortable, both physically and mentally, the longer we sat there. My entire body bristled; it felt almost like that ‘pins-and-needles’ feeling that you get when you lay on a limb for too long. I had never felt this way before, and I couldn’t figure out what was causing it. That bothered me.
Applejack brought me back to the conversation. “Hey! Earth to pegasus!” she said, waving her hoof in front of my face.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“We were talkin’ about ya. Wanted your input.” At least she was blunt.
“I spaced out. Sorry.”
“Oh, it’s quite alright, dear. We were talking about a couple of nights ago,” Rarity informed me from across the table. Rainbow, sitting next to her, looked away at the floor.
“Oh.” I tried to keep the downer tone out of my voice. “You wanted my side of the story?” I met seven nodding heads, excluding Rainbow’s, but her ears twitched regardless. Damn it. “Well, I already told these two, but I’ll tell it again,” I tilted my head towards the two musical ponies on my left.
“...and that’s the end of what I remember.” I finished.
Silence met the end of my tale. Twilight, Applejack and Fluttershy looked at me with wide eyes and dropped jaws. Pinkie Pie, for once, looked deep in thought. I wondered if I should be worried about that. Rarity looked ready to faint. The one eye I could see of Rainbow’s showed sympathy, but she tried not to show it. I felt disgusted with myself, an unsettling feeling in my stomach.
“Hey, this is supposed to be lunch, right? Can we get some food?” I asked, trying to temporarily change the subject and get a reaction out of Rainbow, who I know jumps any chance of food. She was the only one who didn’t react to the mention of food.
Pinkie volunteered to get us our foodstuffs, even though she wasn't on her shift. She made quick work of it, coming back after not even five minutes.
“Here you go!” she said cheerfully as she set down a tray with her head.
I dug in quickly, hoping to settle the feeling of dread in my stomach. I knew a confrontation was coming, sooner or later. I really didn’t want it to happen any time soon. Knowing my life, though, luck would have it come sooner than what I would have liked.
“Twilight,” Octavia asked, “did you bring the flowers I requested?”
“Oh! Yes, they’re here in my saddlebags. Did you want them?”
“Yes, give them to Vinyl,” the grey pony answered, scootching away from her white marefriend. Giving her a skeptical look, I started to do the same as two flowers floated across the table, switching from a violet aura to a light blue one.
“No, Hot Head, you come here,” Vinyl said, taking the flowers in hoof as Octavia sat across from her, in between Twilight and Applejack.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” I said, slowly making my way over to her.
Vinyl looked over the group. “I’m sure you all have your theories about what’s going on, right?” She met reactions ranging from unsure expressions to nods. “Can I ask all of you to swear to secrecy as to what you’re about to hear?” This time she met unanimous affirmatives. “Good. Alright then. I’m sure you have all heard of vampires.”
Most of the ponies nodded again, but Twilight didn’t. “They aren’t real. Just a myth.”
Vinyl raised an eyebrow at her. “Just like werewolves, right?”
“Ye-” Twilight bit back the word with an uncertain expression on her face. “Up until a few nights ago, we thought that was true as well. But what do you know about them, Scratch?”
Vinyl laughed. “I know a great deal more than you do, Sparkle. And there’s a reason for that.” She raised her glasses, unveiling her blood red eyes. She also opened her mouth, her fangs sliding out.
Reactions were immediate. Fluttershy shrieked and cowered; Applejack stood up in a defensive stance; Rarity actually fainted; Pinkie shrieked along with Fluttershy, a smile on her face; and Twilight sat calmly. Rainbow hadn’t moved, but fear showed in her eye. I had never seen that expression from Rainbow before.
Octavia grabbed Applejack and shoved her back down. Twilight grabbed Fluttershy and Pinkie in her magic before they could bolt. Vinyl hadn’t moved. “If I had wanted to cause you harm, I would have done it before now.”
Applejack looked up from her place under Octavia’s hoof. “What kinda monster are you? And get offa me!” She shoved up against the other earth pony, who let her up warily.
“Isn’t it obvious, Applejack?” Twilight hadn’t moved her gaze from Vinyl’s eyes. “What was she just talking to us about?”
“Uh,-”
“It was a rhetorical question,” Vinyl stared back challengingly at Twilight. “Vampire.”
A couple of ponies tried to deny or further understand her with questions like mine earlier. I sat next to Vinyl, still a little shocked from her display. The flowers in her hoof still bothered me.
“So what does this have to do with him?” Rainbow spoke up for the first time. The words rang harshly in my ears.
“I was getting to that,” Vinyl put her fangs away and slid her glasses back on. The tension in the room fell a bit. “To answer your question, Rarity: No, Octavia isn’t a vampire. She’s a lycan.”
“A what-now?” Applejack asked, tilting her head. Fluttershy froze.
Vinyl put down the flowers on the floor, putting herself in between them and me. “A lycan. It’s a long story…”
“Wow. That was quite the story,” Twilight remarked after Vinyl and Octavia had finished. She turned to her yellow friend. “And you knew about this?”
“Eep! Um, no. I had just treated the bite. I went upstairs after that; I swear I didn’t see anything!”
“Doesn’t matter anyway,” Vinyl stopped the irrelevant interrogation. “Anyway, that brings me to these.” She placed the flowers back on the table.
The closer and more ‘in-sight’ those damn flowers got, the more uncomfortable I became. Octavia was shifting in her seat as well, her eye twitching occasionally.
“This,” Vinyl continued, holding up a stem with many purple bells hanging off of it. “is wolfsbane. We’ll come back to it. This,” she switched the plant for the other one: a stem with a single white trumpet-shaped bloom on the end. “is commonly known as a moonflower.”
She slid the purple wolfsbane in front of me, scootching it as close as possible to me. It smelled terrible. She stood, slowly pacing around me as she levitated the flower in front of her face. “Funny plant, this. Do you know what a moonflower does?”
I didn’t hear the words. I started to breathe faster, shaking in my seat. My eye twitched. I had been trying to be the least bothersome at the table, considering what I had apparently done before. That was why I had sat for hours, skin bristling, without complaining or leaving. It was getting harder and harder to do as Vinyl continued.
“You know, I can make this flower… disappear.” Vinyl tossed the wolfsbane to Octavia and shoved the moonflower in my mouth. “Moonflowers have the effect of immediately turning a lycan or werewolf into his or her wolf form.” Vinyl casually leaned on the table as I hunched over in pain.
Transforming was not a pleasant experience. My skin itched as more hair grew. My gums bled as sharp teeth pushed their way out. My hooves broke, bones cracked as paws formed. My left eye burned. A heat ran through my wings so great that it felt like they were being disintegrated. After what seemed like a very long time, but was probably a couple of minutes at most, the pain faded away.
I felt different. I stood up and whirled on Vinyl, who was smiling like she expected something. I grabbed her chest and pulled her towards me so we were face to face, growling at her. “What did you do to me?”
I noticed nothing else made a sound other than the multiple heartbeats of the ponies in the store. After a moment, Vinyl laughed. She actually laughed. In my face. For some reason, that enraged me more than anything that had happened here before. I spun around and threw her over my shoulder, sending her crashing through the back wall. Several gasps sounded behind me, along with a shriek and a quiet “Woah…”
After the rubble settled and the dust cleared, I stalked over to Vinyl as she sat up. “You know Octy, now would be a good time for that wolfsbane!”
The next thing I knew, another bitter flower had appeared in my mouth. Everything fell out of focus as I reverted. The adrenaline rush and strength I had as a wolf faded, leaving me feeling exhausted like I had just finished an intense workout. I groaned as I stumbled a bit.
Vinyl matched my groan. “Ugh, you wouldn’t happen to have an ice pack handy, would you Pinks?”
Pinkie bounced out of the room in her usual manner. Vinyl and I made our way back to our seats at the table while she was gone. As I sat down, the Elements scootched closer to each other and away from me. Vinyl and Octavia sat next to me. I layed my head on my arms on the tabletop.
I felt a hoof pat my back. “Are you ok, Hot Head? I know the flowers aren’t the most pleasant way to change.” Octavia’s voice was full of sympathetic concern.
“My head hurts.”
“Your head hurts?” Vinyl exclaimed. “Look at that wall!”
I looked over my shoulder. The wall had a large, Vinyl-sized hole in it. Boxes could be seen stacked through the gaping void. As I watched, a broken horizontal support beam snapped and fell to the floor. I let out a half-groan, half-whine and let my forehead fall onto the table with a loud thunk. Ouch.
Pinkie came bouncing back with the ice pack on her head and passed it off to Vinyl. Applejack looked up at Pinkie as she took her seat again. “Now how can y’all be so nonchalant about alla this?”
Pinkie looked at Applejack and blinked once. “I had a hunch.”
The mares started talking about implications or something. I tuned them out and almost fell asleep. “There you are! I’ve been looking all over for you!”
Bronze?
“What happened? You went into that forest and we lost connection. I’ve been searching for days!”
It’s a long story…
...And then I threw her into the wall.
“Nice!”
Bronze had laid down next to the table during my story.
I feel like shit.
“I can’t really say that I’m all that surprised.”
Why can’t I have a normal day here?
“Murphy’s Law?”
Every day, bro. There was a moment of silence. Haven’t I been out for three days?
“Yeah. Been worried sick.”
So wasn’t it three days that I’ve been out of that forest? How did you not find me sooner?
Bronze shrugged. “Couldn’t make contact. I was in that forest for half the time, and the other half you were still asleep.”
Bronze?
“What’s up?”
Can you just kill me now before these ponies do?
“Nope.”
We chatted for a while longer before Applejack brought me back to the rest of the group.
“Well, as fun as this has been,” she said, pushing herself up from the table, “Ah’ve still got chores ta do on the farm. Thanks for lunch, Pinkie. Ah’ll see y’all around.”
The rest of the Elements made excuses about having things to do or needing some time to digest the news, all except for Rainbow Dash.
“No, wait! Guys, don’t leave me here with-” Dash cut herself off, hoof still outstretched to where the door closed on the last of her friends. The look of true terror on her face was like a solid blow to the stomach.
I gave the musical ponies a sidelong glance before shooting her a sheepish grin. “So, uh, I guess we have some talking to do, huh?”