Break your Fate

Chapter 5

Luna didn't joke when she said she could invite Vivid Night.

I facehoof mentally.

We're standing in the private dining room of Princess Luna. A elegant room with expensive interior. Chairs, tables and cupboards made of heavy cherrywood.

Luna had left right after taking us here, saying she would go talk to the chef so they would send the food into the dining room instead of Luna's study.

This was almost 20 minutes ago.

"What takes them so loooong?" Meteor whined, resting her head on the table. "I'm sooooo hungry!"

Vivid giggled.

"I don't know." She looked at me, a weak smile on her face. "Maybe they can't make Crescent's food and that's why they take so long."

I shake my head.

"Don't joke around about that." My stomach grumbles. "The first time I ate here, I asked them to serve me 'Outlands'. Which they couldn't."

Vivid raises a brow, a quizzical expression on her face.

"Outlands are a special fungi which grows in the southern badlands and eastern swamps." I explain. "They are a speciality and very rare."

"How do you know them?" Vivid asks.

I tap my chin. "About... four years ago I think, mom, dad, aunt Twilight and me, we were on vacation. And mom had told us about all the super special food that was at the borders. Apparently she was there years ago during a journey. Well, long story short, she told us about it and it's really good, even though it's really expensive."

"Really expensive?" Vivid raises a brow.

"I think we payed like 50 bits per dish."

"50 bits!?" She gasps. "That's outrageous!"

"It is, but the dishes are gigantic and the drinks are free." I answer.

"And why couldn't they serve it here?"

I shrug. "Didn't get a explanation. They just said 'sorry we can't' and that was that."

"Interesting."

"What about you?" I ask Vivid.

"Hmm?"

"You want... what was it? Drakri?" I raise a brow. "What is that?"

"Oh." She smiles. "It's a fruitsalad. Originally made with dragon fruit, kiwi, oranges, several other fruits and... well, not so appetizing ingredients."

"What do you mean?

"Well Drakri is mostly known by bat ponies. And that has a reason."

"What's the reason?"

Vivid eyes wander down to Meteor, who had still her head resting on the table, slowly walking around the table she sits down next to me, inching even closer to whisper into my ear.

"Drakri is a omnivorous dish." Her soft voice on my ear, I shudder. "Blood is by far the most normal ingredient." She retreats. "Drakri also exists in not bat-pony restaurants but there it's mostly vegetarian. Which I hope they serve here."

"So bat ponies are..." I look at Meteor. "Omnivores?"

She nods. "The legends of "Vampire ponies" and all that junk, they really happened. But they weren't some cursed entities who lost their souls in a trade with some demons, or got bitten by a vampire bat. They were just bat ponies who... preferred the taste of blood and flesh over fruits and grass."

"Sorry, no offense but... gross." I answer.

To my surprise Vivid smiles. "You are a earth pony. Of ourse it's hard for you to understand. But don't worry. There are very, very few bat ponies who actually follow the old ways of our omnivore ancestors. Nowadays almost all eat fruits and grass."

A question starts to rise in my mind, a question I shouldn't ask but it burns in me.

"Have you ever... you know... followed the old way?"

She looks at me, a hard glare in her eyes. She looks like I insulted her.

'Which you did, you idiot!' I facehoof mentally. 'Good job, Crescent. Ruin your friendship with the most beautiful pony by being a total douche. 10/10.'

"Why do you want to know?" She asks, still the hard glare in her eyes.

"Just interested I think." I lie.

She continous to look at me with those eyes, but only for a moment. After a minute she sighs.

"Yeah I did." She states.

'Now I'm curious.' I slap myself mentally. 'Don't ask her about details! You idiot.'

"Sorry I asked." I slowly say, looking into her eyes. "Shouldn't have done that. I guess I was just curious."

"It's fine." She answers. "I just-"

"Oh I'm sooo hungry!" Meteor looks up to us. "Why do they take so long?" She whines.

The door opens with a loud crack.

We gasp, Meteor escapes a shriek.

On the floor between the wings of the door was a pony. A solar guard.

"Crescent?" Meteor whimpers.

"Quiet." I hush my sister, walking closer to the guard.

While getting closer I notice the big red gashes over his body, most of them around his neck. They look like clawmarks. I walk even closer, looking down at the guard. I raise a hoof and lower it on his neck, searching for a pulse.

There was none. He was dead.

"Crescent?" Vivid asks from behind me, my sister in a bear hug. I turn around and shake my head.

"Nothing." I answer. I turn back around and look out, searching for whatever might have killed the guard.

"Give her back." Something whispers.

"Cres-" I raise a hoof to hush Vivid.

"I hear something."

"Give her back to me." Again this whisper.

I take a step outside the door, looking through the hallway, noticing that all the torches are off.

"Give her back to me." The whisper got closer.

"Give her back to me." I can hear soft steps. Too soft to be from hooves.

"Give her back to me." Something moves in the dark.

It comes closer.

And closer.

And closer.

"GIVE HER BACK!!!" The creatures cries and leaps out of the darkness at me.

"Gah!" I fall back on my haunches, shielding my head with my hooves.

"No!" A voice screams. A voice I know. The voice just sounded like...

"Mom?" I lower my hooves.

The monster was gone.

"Mom?" I shout in the darkness.