Gabriela, the Batpony

by Betty_Starlight

Chapter 15: Where We Belong

The neatly rolled tan joint sat in Gabriela’s mouth between her two fangs as the red disposable lighter flew in from her lower right side and ignited to spark a flame. She moves her head forward towards the lighter to burn the end and frowns as she inhales the warm smoke into her throat and feels it go down into her lungs.

Dusk Shine gulps from her place on the matching red chair across from the couch Gabriela sits at. “I uh, don’t wanna go…”

The cherry glows as Gabriela exhales smoke out the right side of her mouth, opposite to her fang before saying, “I know, and I don’t want you to go, either…” somberly out the other side of her mouth… She then purses her lips once more to take her second hit and the end begins to shine once more…

Dusk can only shake her head before widening her greenish-yellow slitted eyes and saying, “So uh, what are you trying to say?”

Gabriela narrows her eyes and exhales smoke out the left side of her mouth. The joint soon glows blue and flies to the ashtray, on the polished wood coffee table in front of her and taps on the side to take off the end ashes and then, it flies to Dusk across the room to her front, where it turns around so the burning end is away from her, and then promptly into her lips, which close and purse around the other side… Gabriela then looks at Dusk, sighs, and says, “I’m saying it’s okay, Dusk Shine… For you to be here, I mean… With me…” She smiles her fanged grin at the other batpony, “The truth is, with you, I’ve been happier than I ever have been for a long time!”

Dusk takes the joint out of her mouth with the cleft of her right forehoof, exhales smoke just above Gabriela, and looks down to her, before stammering out, “Well um, should I get my shit, or?”

Gabriela squeaks out suddenly, “Well, not now silly!”

Dusk giggles and says, “I meant tonight! You know, since I don’t work? I don’t really have a lot of shit! I could be done inside two hours! My dealer has a cart I can borrow…”

Gabriela continues, “I mean, the sun’s about to come up and uh, oh right!” before smiling at a giggling punk rock batpony, who’s now taking a second drag from the joint with her right forehoof. Dusk soon raises her forehoof to signal while holding a hit in her lungs and Gabriela causes it to glow blue before flying out of the other batpony’s hoof and towards her. It turns around in front of her, and glides into her awaiting lips. She narrows her eyes as she purses her lips around her fangs to take another drag and makes the cherry glow as her eyes narrow in smoking bliss.

Dusk exhales smoke above the two batponies before looking back down, gulping, and mumbling, “So uh, I should probably tell Nightshade?”

Gabriela causes the glowing joint to fly from her lips into the ashtray on the table in front of her, before moving the cherry back and forth on the surface to snuff it out. She then moves the glowing joint to the side of the tray, before looking to the right of Dusk, exhaling a cloud of smoke, and then back at her and saying, “Well, the way you were talking, it sounds like she wouldn’t know the difference anyway?” before frowning.

Dusk shakes her head and looks back at Gabriela, “Probably not, no? She’ll probably just shrug and wish me luck? Uh so are we actually gonna uh, move in together, or?”

Gabriela starts and shakes her head before looking at the other pony, “I uh, think so? Wasn’t that what we were just talking about?”

Dusk shakes her head again, “Uh, right! I uh,” she continues robotically, “love you and wish to live with you and be with you and uh, stuff…” before smiling widely at Gabriela.

Gabriela smiles and giggles at Dusk, “You’re cute when you’re nervous!”

Dusk starts and widens her eyes, “I’m not nervous! You’re nervous!”

“No U!”

The two batponies snicker while Gabriela makes the glowing joint float in the air, ignites it with the red lighter, and then it bobs and floats towards Dusk, across the room.

Dusk snags the joint in mid-air with the cleft of her right forehoof and smiles back at Gabriela, “So, Gabs! I guess we’re going to sleep together again, after this?”

Gabriela shakes her head, “Well, the sun’s coming up now and you’d have trouble, getting back home?”

Dusk leans forward towards Gabriela and smiles her fanged grin, “Because you don’t like snuggling and sleeping with me at all, right?” before bringing the half-joint to her lips for another drag.

Gabriela widens her eyes. “No! Maybe! Shut up!” She shakes her head and leans forward, “I mean, why would you think that Dusk? Whatever would give you that impression?” and smiles widely…

Dusk narrows her eyes and exhales a small puff of smoke between the two ponies as she giggles, “You’re cute when you’re in denial!”

Gabriela shakes her head slightly and stares back with blue slitted eyes, “I’m not in denial! You’re in, uh, hey!”

Dusk chuckles more.

Gabriela narrows her eyes, “You’re a jerk!”

“You’re a cutie!”

“Shut up!”

“No U!”

Dusk brings her forehoof to her mouth for her second drag.

Gabriela narrows her eyes, and sighs…

<*****>

Gabriela and Dusk trot west to head towards the fruit processing plant on that side of town. Gabriela looks at Dusk trotting on her left and says to her as her spikes bob with each pace, “So, you wanna live with me, now?”

Dusk looks over at her and smiles, “No, I wanna go back to being by myself, without my awesome marefriend who likes to be held and loved, because I certainly don’t like snuggling her or bucking her regularly!”

Gabriela narrows her eyes at the other batpony, “I take it, that’s a yes?”

Dusk Shine starts and stares back at Gabriela before rolling her eyes, “No, it’s a no! What do you think?”

Gabriela scrunches her mouth and narrows her eyes, “I just wanna be absolutely sure that this is what you want to do, jerk!”

Dusk sighs and looks down, “I’m sorry Gabs!” she looks back up, “I guess I get sarcastic when I’m nervous?”

The two ponies trot through the empty Ponyville streets with the night sky overhead, cloudy, and starless tonight. They both notice the lights of the plant coming up in the distance, past the edge of town.

Gabriela just trots that direction, wordlessly, with her blue slitted eyes focused forward.

Finally, Dusk looks back to her right and asks, “Are you okay, Gabs?”

Gabriela doesn’t avert her gaze from her front, “I-I think so?”

Dusk narrows her eyes and frowns, “You seem tense?”

“I” Gabriela shakes her head before staring forward blankly, “I got a lot on my mind, okay?”

Dusk stops trotting and Gabriela does the same. She turns her body right to face the unicorn and looks at her while she reciprocates, “Wanna talk about it?”

Gabriela starts and looks at Dusk seriously, “Because it's all a façade, okay? It's all crap! No Dusk Shine, let me tell you how this goes... We move in together and have a relationship or whatever, and it's all great, right? And then, as time goes on, you change into something awful! And then, I have to make a choice! I have to either accept life with whatever horrible piece of equine garbage I've shacked up with or go my separate way and start over! And I really just don't see the point anymore!" She then shuts her eyes and flinches to the left, expecting the worst…

“Gabriela!” Dusk exclaims.

Gabriela continues to hold her cringing position with her eyes shut and head off to the side.

“Gabriela!!!!” Dusk shouts louder.

Gabriela timidly opens her right eye underneath a lock of violet hair, to see a spikey maned batpony with a concerned look in her greenish-yellow eyes staring back at her and fluffy ears perked her direction.

“Do you honestly think that you’re the only pony in Equestria to have several bad relationships?”

Gabriela starts as the lock of hair falls to her side and she straightens her gaze at the other pony, “Um, n-no? Probably not?”

“Okay! Follow-up question!” Dusk says before nodding her head, so her spikes go up and down with her crown. “Do you believe that just straight up, giving up on love is a beneficial or healthy alternative?”

“Um,” Gabriela looks down before back up at Dusk, “well, I just never saw the point? I mean, why bother going after something that doesn't exist, right?”

Dusk takes two paces towards Gabriela, so her face is merely inches away as she stares on with a blank expression in her yellowish-green slitted eyes and a bright cheerful smile on her fanged mouth.

“Uh, what are you so happy about all of a sudden?” Gabriela asks with a shocked look in her wide-open blue eyes.

“Because what I’m about to do, apparently doesn’t happen!” Dusk says before moving her head closer to Gabriela to kiss her passionately on the lips! Dusk disengages her lips from the other pony a moment later and stares deep into her soft blue eyes, “I know this is a big change baby and I know it’s scary… But you need to know that I’m right here, okay?” before smiling pleasantly at her and leaning her head slightly to the left, “I love you, Gabriela!”

Gabriela scrunches her nose and narrows her eyes as she somberly says, “You’re a jerk, you know that?”

Dusk giggles and nuzzles Gabriela’s nose gently with hers, “But I’m your jerk! He he!”

<*****>

The two batponies trot into the punch-clock room in the plant. It’s 10 feet long and 5 feet wide with one door leading outside to the rear of the factory and the other leading into the hallway, with the breakroom on the other side. The hallway door is open, while the back exit is not. Gabriela stares at Dusk Shine from the left of the punch-clock towards the hallway, on the left side of the room, and smiles, “Well, I guess this is where we part ways?”

“Right!” Dusk says before nodding again. She leans closer to Gabriela, “Give me your key so I can go get my shit! I can have pizza and” she says lower, “something to smoke waiting for us!” she normalizes her voice, “I’ll be back later to walk you home…”

Gabriela smiles, “That would be really nice, Dusk Shine!”

Dusk leans her head a few inches to nuzzle Gabriela, “Of course! I love you baby!” and smiles her fanged grin back.

Suddenly, Gabriela hears happy chirping and squeaking coming from behind her, across the hall in the breakroom. Her eyes go skyward as she thinks about her coworkers.

<*****>

Gabriela scrunches her brow as she stares down at the conveyer belt to do her quality-control job. She quickly glances to the right to magically lift an emaciated looking red apple with brown growth on it and causes it to float and glow into the waste bin on her left as she looks down that direction. She immediately shakes her head and affixes her eyes to the belt once more to do her job, but she can’t help letting her mind drift as she feels aloof about a lot of things right now. She sighs while continuing to watch the apples pass by, from the left on the belt to the drop-off on the right leading into the factory, same as usual… But this wasn’t the same because she knew that somepony would be waiting on her later…

She hears the plant whistle blow and starts as she looks up at the clock on the wall, just beyond the belt. She widens her eyes, “One AM finally! Geez, could this day go by any slower!”

<*****>

Gabriela sits at her usual spot, in the corner of the breakroom, opposite the door on the other corner. She looks down at the brown paper sack she packed two apples in and causes it to glow open and both red apples magically float down to the table with a blue glow, side by side. The one on the right glows blue and floats to Gabriela’s mouth, that she opens to sink her fangs into the juicy morsel. It soon withers in front of her face before the husk floats back down to the table and she sighs.

She then hears a familiar squeak behind her, “Uh, hey Gabriela!”

Gabriela looks to her back left from her chair and sees the light blue form of one of her coworkers, Stargazer standing there with his black mane that curves back around his shoulders and dark leathery wings at his sides. He looks up at her, “Is it okay if I sit here?”

She looks into his grayish-blue eyes skeptically and frowns, “Uh, sure! Free country, right?”

Stargazer smiles, “So I’m told!” before staring forward and trotting over to scoot into the chair on Gabriela’s left. He looks over at her and smiles again, “So, you and Dusk Shine are a thing, now?”

Gabriela sighs while looking back at him, “Yes, apparently! She didn’t know what she wanted from me at first, and we ended up shacking up together! She’s moving into my place right now…”

He nods and chitters, “Well, it’s good that you found somepony, Gabriela! I mean, you’re always alone and by yourself! Sometimes, we wonder if you’re okay…”

Gabriela narrows her eyes, “Wait, we wonder? Why would any of you be worried about me?”

Stargazer gets his own brown paper bag out of his right saddlebag and sets it onto the table before him with his mouth. He stares back at Gabriela, “Well uh, like I said! You’re always alone! You don’t really seem to associate with anypony?”

“And? Maybe I just like being by myself!”

Stargazer gets a red apple from his bag with his forehooves, “All the time, though?”

Gabriela narrows her eyes and says at a slightly higher volume, “Dusk Shine said the same thing!”

Stargazer brings his apple to his mouth with his forehooves and sinks his fangs into it, before sucking to make it shrivel up. He then sets the husk down on the table, before looking over at her, “Well, if more than one pony is saying it…”

Gabriela cuts him off, “Then there’s clearly mass delusion! Something in the water, maybe?”

Stargazer widens his eyes and squeaks confusedly, “W-what?”

Gabriela snickers softly, “Uh, sorry! Uh, natural defenses, I guess?”

Stargazer’s fanged mouth narrows, “Uh, sure!” He shakes his head, “I was gonna say, you and Dusk are a cute couple!”

Gabriela leans to Stargazer and narrows her eyes, “What exactly are they saying, anyway?”

Stargazer gulps and widens his eyes, “Uh, just that you’re with Dusk Shine now and you seem happy!” He leans to her, “I mean, we only know what we see! We saw you two loving each other earlier and it was just the sweetest thing ever!”

Gabriela sticks out her forked tongue, “ACK!”

Stargazer giggles, “Yeah, quite a trip, huh?”

“W-what do you mean?” Gabriela asks while widening her blue-slitted eyes.

Stargazer chuckles slightly, “I mean, one day, you’re alone and by yourself, same as always! The next day, you’re waking up next to the most special pony ever!” he shakes his head, “But I want you to know that I wish you the best Gabriela! I truly hope you and Dusk Shine make it!”

“Uh, thanks Stargazer!” Gabriela can only chirp at this point.

<*****>

Gabriela is trotting from the plant into the punch-clock room, where she turns left and floats her timecard into the slot with a blue glow and then, uses her horn to make the lever go down to punch on her time. It flies back to her left saddlebag, and she turns right just in time to see the door to the outside open there and a spiky maned batpony with a leather harness waits for her, smiling.

She quickly trots up to Dusk Shine, “Hey baby!” before nuzzling her affectionately while grinning. Suddenly, she hears some happy squeaks behind her from the breakroom, just beyond the corridor and she rolls her blue slitted eyes, before affixing them to the other pony and smiling again.

Dusk smiles and nuzzles back, “Hey sweetie! I’m moved in now and I got pizza and uh, other stuff!”

Gabriela nods, “Right on!”

Dusk frowns, “I hope you don’t mind, but your walls were kinda bare and so, I put up some posters! I put up my Foalsprings poster, my Fallout Colt poster, and Battery Triad poster!”

Gabriela smiles, “That’s fine sweetie! I’m guessing we’ll be listening to punk rock sometimes, when we’re uh, doing stuff?”

Dusk giggles, “Yeah, sometimes! Now come on! Pizza isn’t gonna eat itself!”

<*****>

Gabriela trots to the right of Dusk as both batponies head east, further into town. The sky is clear, and they both see the sun peaking out just over the trees on the horizon. She looks left and says, “So, how was moving?”

Dusk smiles back to her right, “Not hard! Like I told you, I don’t really have a lot of shit! Finding smoke was more of a hassle really, but I got us Fillydelphia Window Bud!”

Gabriela smiles, “Awesome!” she frowns, “Uh, I never smoked that stuff before?”

“Oh, you’ll love it sweetie! It’s more concentrated than a lot of the herb you see, and you shouldn’t need much!”

Gabriela snickers, “I don’t know? I got tomorrow off, my love is now living with me, and there’s pizza, cuddles, and probably sex!” she leans towards Dusk and widens her eyes, “I think I have a good reason to smoke!”

Dusk snickers, “Yay! Time to hang out with my favorite stoner batpony!” she composes herself, “So, how was your night, baby?”

Gabriela goes normalizes her neck, “Oh, it was fine! I had a lot of time to think while I was working, and lunch was okay…”

Dusk frowns, “What did you think about?”

Gabriela blinks and smiles, “I thought about how lucky I am to have you in my life and how great you are!”

Dusk frowns, “Now, I know THAT’S bullshit!”

Gabriela shakes her head and widens her eyes, “Okay, fine! I was thinking about how this is gonna be a big change for me! I mean…” she narrows her eyes, “Do you know how long it’s been for me?”

Dusk giggles, “Yeah, years or whatever! Sure! But” she looks at Gabriela intently, “you still want to do this, right?”

Gabriela frowns, “Kinda late now, right?”

Dusk frowns back, “Not necessarily? I mean, I could go back to Nightshade’s and snooze on the couch, before heading back to your place to get my shit tonight? Uh, if you want out now, that is?”

Gabriela shakes her head before smiling and lowering her head slightly, “N-no Dusk!” she sighs and looks deep into the other batpony’s eyes, “I uh, I want you to live with me…”

Dusk widens her eyes, “You’re sure?”

Gabriela regularizes her eyes, smiles and nods her head, “Yes Dusk! I’m ready now!”

Dusk smiles, “Alright sweetie!” she looks back as both batponies trot towards the rising sun, “Well, it’s almost time to turn left and go to our new home together…”

(To be continued?)

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

unicorn batpony

Does this mean she's a pseudoalicorn?

[Betty_Starlight]

11111591
Not exactly? I wanted her to be "different", but not overpowered. And so, she doesn't have leathery wings the way most batponies do, but a curved horn and night magic. That's why they're walking home in the final chapter, you see! Gabriela can't fly!