//------------------------------// // The Friends // Story: Dinner at Ravenloft // by Meep the Changeling //------------------------------// Octavia Melody - 12th of Solar Dusk ‘03 EoH - Noon I was unconscious for the rest of the weekend. I woke up an hour before we had to leave, and that entire hour was spent with Vinyl’s father doing tests. Apparently I was perfectly healthy for a vampire. While I could still eat meat like a werewolf, and my hunting mode took the form of my previous wolf form, all other traces of that curse had been removed. While I was sad I wouldn’t get to fly, at least I was truly a person again. The only thing to do now as to go home and practice my new abilities with Vi. Well, I also needed to work through controlling my new… urges. I had expected wanting to drink blood. I had not expected the more… seductive urges. I now understood Vinyl a lot better, and maybe felt just a touch bad for all the times I turned down her propositions. “Okay, does everypony have everything?” Vi asked in her normal speaking volume. Ow! Why was everything so loud? “Yep!” Lyra said with a smile. She was about twenty feet away. I could see the little lines and bits of food on her teeth. That was just unsettling. Cole nodded and gave Meep a playful elbow. “I made sure she didn’t forget to pack herself.” Huh, even with vampire vision Cole’s smile was perfect. I rubbed a temple with my hoof. Everything was too loud! “You doing okay Octy?” Vinyl asked with a frown. “Is everything always this loud to you?” I asked. “Huh? Oh, I’m sure you'll get used to it soon.” She laughed. Bon-bon shook her head and walked forwards into the middle of our group. “Okay, so two things. First, why the buck are we not all getting bit? It’s apparently nothing but perks!” Vi sighed and shook her head. “Look, I’ll turn you later if you want me too. But not now. It’s going to take about three months to get Octy totally in control of herself. I live with her, so I can do that. If you want to be a vampire, cool! But you will need to either wait till I can focus on teaching you or stay here for a few months so you don't accidentally kill somepony in a blood lust.” Cole nodded to herself, “That sounds like a good reason. Lyra, is that a good reason?” “Yes. Very good.” Lyra commented. “Thank you Lyra.” Cole finished. I had to smile at their little back and forth antics. It was good to know they accepted my decision. Or well, had completely expected Vi would turn me at any rate. Bonnie nodded in agreement. “Okay, that answers that. So next thing. Meep was a changeling the entire time, Vi is a vampire, and Octavia was a freaking werewolf!” “What are you saying?” I asked curiously. “I’m saying that It’s pretty damn clear that we all have something we are hiding from each other. Why don’t we all come clean right now and get it all over with?” Bon-bon asked. Then she bit her lip nervously, gulped, I heard her heartbeat speed up, and she announced. “I’ll go first.” “What?” Meep, Vinyl, and I exclaimed together. “I didn’t actually go to college to get a business license.” Bon-bon admitted. Lyra rolled her eyes. “Seriously? That’s the big secr- Wait where were you going all the time then?” She asked giving Bon-bon and causing glare. "You were visiting a human version of me went you!?" Bon-bon rolled her eyes. “I was working for the Special Homeland Intelligence and Espionage Logistics Department, as a part of a special team called M.A.T.” There was a half second of silence before Meep muttered, “They need a shorter name for that.” “They’re working on it.” Bonnie added. “So um… I was kinda hunting monsters and tracking people who might be summoning or controlling them. I always wondered why we were told there were no vampires or werewolves. Guess I know now. “They retired me when a mission went bad. Remember that time I was it the hospital Lyra? Yeah that. After that my cover was compromised… That’s why I really wanted to move to Ponyville. Kinda had the mob after me. I don’t anymore, and it’s completely safe now… But, I used to be a Special Agent.” Lyra blinked twice. “Really?” “Yes.” Bon-bon answered. “You’re not making that up because you want to look cool since your friends are supernatural creatures or shape shifters?” Lyra demanded. “No. And if you don’t believe me I can prove it. We could stop in Canterlot and I could get us a tour of the Special Forces barracks.” Bonbon offered. “No, I believe you.” Lyra sighed. “I’m just pissed because now I have to tell everypony my thing or everypony will just find out in some convoluted way in a few months!” Seriously? Were none of us just normal ponies? I shook my head, “Okay, so what is it?” “You know the conspiracy theorists I keep in touch with?” Lyra started, “Well we’re actually an Equestria wide organization dedicated to finding the truth behind everything. Like, literally everything. We’re called B.A.R.D.-” Bon-bon gasped, “The Brotherhood of Adventurers, Rogues, and Detectives actually exists?” “Yep! It’s not just a foals club or some college pony thing. It’s a real organization, and we actually do have a hidden library of lore. I’m head of the Ponyville chapter. Most of my um… shenanigans, are from when I’ve been working to uncover things. Currently we're investigating the Everfree forest to try to find out what’s really causing it to fall to chaos. Humans are my pet project for the B.A.R.D.” Lyra finished. “Okay.” Vinyl said slowly starting to point to everypony in turn starting with herself, “So, Vampire, changeling, former werewolf now a vampire, spy, adventurer…” She stopped with her hoof pointed at Colegate. Everypony turned to look at the blue mare, wondering what she might have been hiding from us this whole time. Colegate shuffled her hooves nervously, bit her lip in worry, gulped and announced, “I… was adopted!” Everypony facehooved in unison. “Nothing else?” Meep asked. “Were you like, the daughter of Faust or something? Sent to Equis to bring better dentistry to us mortals?” “Nope!” Cole laughed. “Just adopted. But since everypony else shared a deep secret… I um… I slowly doctored Meep’s photos of her Twinkleshine form to be more attractive over five years. That way when she made sure she was keeping up the disguise she was implementing the changes I made. Originally her flanks were more squared, and her nose didn’t have that little heart shaped patch of slightly darker fur between the nostrils… I um… mostly wanted to see if you would notice the changes.” Everypony cracked up into laughter. After five minutes of laughing, once the tears were cleared out of our eyes, it was clear our friendship had survived the weekend and was far stronger for it. Vi got up, shook her head and said, “Right then my changeling, former werewolf now a vampire, spy, adventurer, and normal unicorn friends, let’s go home before our collective weirdness has Cole mutate into an alien or something.” “Yeah!” Lyra laughed, “With my luck she’s actually a transformed human and just doesn't know it.” “Oh, you are so not going to start spying on me to test that theory!” Cole objected. Yep, everything was back to normal for us. Which apparently was one sixth of our collective group. “Lyra, you can administer crackpot science on the train. Let’s get going.” I chuckled. "Ponyfeatuers!" Meep shouted suddenly, making me flinch. "I almost forgot!" "Forgot what?" VI asked in confusion. "Octavia!" Meep beamed a mischievous smile at me. "The count wanted you to know that when Vinyl was a filly she called her dad-" "Don you dare!" Vi shouted pointing her hoof threateningly. "Daddypookins." Meep finished. Vi groaned and held her hoof in her hands as everypony giggled. Myself included. "Ha!" the Count's voice echoed from somewhere in the castle. "Thanks for that Meep!" "Thank you for a wonderful weekend Daddypookins-in-law!" I called, making Vi give me a betrayed look. I smiled, leanded over and gave her a loving kiss. "Don't worry hon, you're still the coolest mare I know." I picked up my bags, marveled at how light they felt to me now, and headed for the cart, whistling happily. ~~~~~ End ~~~~~